19920503 Bhagavad-gītā 3.9

(Disclaimer: The following is a machine-generated transcript and may contain errors or inaccuracies. It will be reviewed and verified against the original audio soon.)

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on May 3, 1992 – in Denver, USA. The lecture begins with a reading from Bhagavad-gītā 3.9.

Chapter 3 text 19. Translation Work done as sacrifice for Vishnu has to be performed, otherwise work causes bondage in this material world. Therefore, O son of Kunti, perform your prescribed duties for his satisfaction and in that way you will always remain free from bondage. Purport since one has to work even for the simple maintenance of the body, the prescribed duties for a particular social position and quality are so made that purpose can be fulfilled. Yajna means Lord Vishnu or sacrificial performances. All sacrificial performances also are meant for the satisfaction of Lord Vishnu. The Vedas enjoin Yajna Vaye Vishnu. In other words, the same purpose is served whether one performs prescribed or directly serves Lord Vishnu. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is therefore performance of Yajna or sacrifice as it is prescribed in this verse. The Varnashramasik institution also aims at satisfying Lord Vishnu.

Varnashra Macha Rata Purushena Parapurman Nana Vishnu Aradvya Dev Sanskrit Verses From Vishnu Purāṇa 388 Therefore one has to work for the satisfaction of Vishnu. Any other work done in this material world will be a cause of bondage. For both good and evil work have their reactions and any reaction binds the performer. Therefore one has to work in Kṛṣṇa consciousness to satisfy Kṛṣṇa or Vishnu. And while performing such activities one is in a liberated stage. This is the great art of doing work. And in the beginning this process requires very expert guidance. One should therefore act very diligently under the expert guidance of a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa or under the direct instruction of Lord Kṛṣṇa himself, under whom Arjuna had the opportunity to work. Nothing should be performed for sense gratification, but everything should be done for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa.

This practice will not only save one from the reaction of work, but also gradually elevate one to transcendental loving service of the Lord, which alone can raise one to the kingdom of God. Thus in the Bhaktivedanta chant translation purport to text 9 rather verse 3, chapter 3 of the Bhagavad Gītā as it is Karma Yoga. The verse was work done as a sacrifice for Vishnu has to be performed, otherwise work causes bondage in this material world. Therefore, O son of Kunti, perform your described duties for his satisfaction and in that way you will always remain free from bondage. Vishnu is a name in Sanskrit for the supreme Lord. Vishnu is the supreme father of all living entities. Vishnu is one of Kṛṣṇa’s names, one of his expansions.

So in this verse it explains the science of how to be free from the Bondage of the material world. Interesting point. Someone may think, well, how are we bound? I am free in this material world. But we should analyze what is the actual nature of our freedom? To what extent are we free. In this room? How many of the people present would like to be happy all of the time? How many of you sometimes experience anxiety, stress, unhappiness, anytime in your life?

So.

From there we can see that we are not completely in control of things, that our life is basically being swept along certain currents of time. And without asking for it, sometimes we become very happy. Even we may work for it, or it may come almost automatically. Similarly, without asking for it, we may be put in some very great distress. We may have an accident or a disease, or a dear one may hurt us through words or acts in various ways. We can be put into suffering by our own body and mind, by others, by even natural causes. Riots, hurricanes, cyclones, tornadoes, earthquakes, so on. So why does one person get born blind? Why does somebody get put into natural catastrophe? Why is somebody caused to suffer according to Vedas?

According to the ancient Indian books of wisdom, the revealed scripture handed down through the Vedic tradition, india, there is a law of karma. This was also accepted by Lord Buddha. It’s obliquely. It’s also mentioned in a sense, not so explicitly, but in the Bible it also says, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. As you sow, so shall you ye reap. Of course, that may be interpreted in different ways, but we could see that also as a reference to karma. But in the Vedas, it’s very explicitly explained that for every activity we do, there’s a reaction. And since we are the eternal living force in the body, and this body is a temporary shelter for the living force, before we had this body, there was a previous birth, previous body.

After this body will continue to live, it will take more births, our reincarnation will continue. So the karmas build up. And according to very complex law of karma, we have to suffer and enjoy for the previous karmas we performed. And that may be for many births previously, those karmas may reaction may come on us now. And whatever we’re doing now is producing more karmas in the future, so we can gradually elevate ourselves if we very dedicatedly perform good karmas. But that doesn’t mean that all of a sudden a bad karma from the past, its reaction may come and affect us. So it’s very difficult situation. There’s a story once about a man who was very tired. He was practically starving. He was so tired and Hungry that he finally got to the side of a river and there was a temple there.

And so he leaned against one of the pillars, just like we have these pillars here. He was leaning one of these round pillars, was a bit bigger than that. Quite a big pillar, maybe almost 2ft in diameter, a foot and a half a little bigger than that. He was just leaning and he was just gathering his strength for the next move. Just so happened that some very pious man came out of the temple with a bag of puffed rice. And he wanted to give someone in charity and that day, in memory of his departed father. And he saw, here is this very hungry person. And he said, here, let me give you some food. So the man is leaning around, you know, leaning on the column. So he stretched his hands and said, okay, give me. The man said, take.

Come out from the column and I will give you. He said, no, it’s okay. Just give me like that. So he put the pot mice in his hand and he walked out. Then a tired man started to think, how do I eat? And he’s trying to get to it. And unfortunately, he couldn’t stretch his hand off. He leaves go. He’s holding all that puffed rice. It will all fall down. So he can’t let go. Neither can he eat it. So he’s in this very precarious situation, very critical. This is the nature of material existence, is that there’s so many things we want. But at the same time, we are not able to actually achieve them as we would like to. And especially if we want to get real, permanent happiness. Then we have to take a different viewpoint in life.

We have to see life from the spiritual perspective. We have to actually let go of our dependence on material happiness and fully absorb ourselves in spiritual happiness. And so that person was like in that predicament. Now he can’t let go. So he’s stuck. And that’s what happens to many people. They would really like to get permanent happiness. They would like the spiritual happiness. At the same time, they’re tight. Not that they’re physically. They’re tight just by that attachment. Let go, I am going to lose something. They’re afraid they’re going to lose something if they actually absorb themselves in spiritual practices. So but here from this verse, we can understand that we have to work for the Lord. We have to work for Vishnu, for Kṛṣṇa, if we want to be free from the reactions to karma. If we work for Kṛṣṇa, then we become liberated.

Then we can actually experience the natural happiness of the soul. This is. No picture of Chaitanya. Lord Chaitanya is dancing here the our far left altar. He was here 500 years ago india. I live in his birthplace at Śrī Māyāpur Dham. And Chaitanya Mahāprabhu he came with this explicit purpose in this age of materialism. Before people in the previous ages would live very close to nature. And nature would provide all the things that man needed. Their psychic power was developed, their mental power. All the faculties of human life were very much developed. In fact, People tended not to quarrel with each other. That was in prejudice or hatred in the previous age. According to the Vedas. However, when this age began 5,000 years ago. This is called the Iron Age of Kali. Then so many deficiencies started to come in.

And it became very difficult to advance spiritually. People did not have the tendency of doing very great sacrifice or austerity. So Lord Chaitanya came to give a very simple but effective process. To absorb our consciousness. The principle is the same, but the process is very simple. Principle the same. We work for Kṛṣṇa. Working means we do activities which are centered around Kṛṣṇa. So Lord Chaitanya came and he spread this message. That anybody can absorb themselves in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. By chanting the names of Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa.

Kṛṣṇa.

And. He requested all of his followers to go door to door and request everyone to chant. When someone’s not chanting. They can lead their life in such a way that Kṛṣṇa is pleased with their work, with their activities. There’s an art to doing that, as is mentioned in this verse. That one needs to learn from a spiritual master. How to work for Kṛṣṇa. How to act in such a way that the activity is going to Kṛṣṇa. Just like if somebody is working for the police or for the army. If they are properly carrying out their legal duties without excess. Under the order of their authorities. Then they are not responsible under the law. Even if they have to shoot a criminal, they’re not guilty of murder. Of course, if they do it excessively, then they’re responsible.

They do unauthorized harm, then they’re responsible like anyone else. So in the Shastras it also said. If someone works in moderation according to the advice or to the guidance given by Kṛṣṇa. Then he’s free from the reactions to that work. Because Kṛṣṇa himself is transcendental to this material world. So in this way Lord Chagna, he, Everyone he met. He instructed them to take up this chanting.

Sa.

He actually was Kṛṣṇa himself. But he didn’t reveal himself to anyone. Kṛṣṇa came down in disguise as his own devotee. So that he could teach by example. Teaching by example is better than by precept, by teachings. Someone may say so many things, but if they don’t practice what they preach, the word is very difficult to accept. So Lord Chaitanya, Kṛṣṇa himself wanted to personally come and show how to be a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. So to do that he couldn’t tell anybody he was Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise it wouldn’t be very tactful. So. Lord Caitanya, when he was even a child, He would get everyone to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa around him. When he was a small baby, he would cry and cry. And he brought the doctor and the doctor checked and said there’s nothing wrong that we can see. We don’t know why he’s crying.

You keep on crying. Finally one relative started to chant. Haribo, Hare Bol, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kishna, Hare, Hare Ram, Hari, Ram, Ram, Hare. And Lord Chaitanya. He would stop crying. He’s smiling and oh, he’s better now. Then the lady stopped chanting, started walking away. Ram started crying again. Then she came back. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then immediately he was smiling again. Soon as they would stop crying. So in this way they had to keep around the clock chanting going on. So even as a baby he got everyone to chant this way. He was inducing everyone to chant the holy names. There’s many wonderful pastimes. I don’t know, it takes too much time to explain. There was one very interesting pastime where there was one traveling mendicant or okay, mendicant means like a traveling, you know, sage, a Brahmin priest.

And he was carrying his own personal deities of Kṛṣṇa. And he took a vow that he would never eat before he gave food to his deity. So when he came to the house where Lord Caitanya was living as a child, he brought his deity with him. And Jagannath Miśra, the father of Lord Caitanya, requested to please offer some. You stay here and we will give you all the ingredients you cook offering for your deity of Kṛṣṇa. So this is a sample, one kind of sacrifice. Sacrifice of worshipping a deity. So that Brāhmaṇa cooked a very nice feast and brought it to offer to his deity. He went in meditation and in his meditation the Brahmanas we’re giving Brāhmaṇa initiation today. They learned some secret mantras and silent meditations. So some of these mantras are to bring Kṛṣṇa to come and eat.

When it’s time to make an offering, we have to meditate that we’re not his body or pure spirit soul. And by meditation within Kṛṣṇa and he will come and accept the offering. So he was doing this and praying Kṛṣṇa come. Then he opened his eyes and he saw Lord Caitanya came and was eating the meal. But he didn’t see Kṛṣṇa. He just saw Lord Caitanya, a small boy. So he thought that this boy has ruined my offering. Because he did before Kṛṣṇa had. He didn’t know this was Kṛṣṇa himself.

So he said, oh no, no. My deity is offering. This child has spoiled it.

Then Jagannath misses Said what? And he ran after his lady Nimāi. Nimāi’s another name for Lord Chaitanya. Wanted to beat him to Spain him. The Brahmin saw.

No, no.

He jumped up and grabbed Jagannath. Minister, please don’t harm this child.

He’s an innocent child.

He doesn’t know anything. Doesn’t matter that he ate the offering. I can offer some fruits and simple offering to the deity. Doesn’t matter. Don’t hurt this child. He’s an innocent child. There’s no right and wrong. Just two, three years old. So Jagannath. Mister, stop. But he said, no, please. We will be ready. Unhappy. If you just take fruits and roots and things like that. Please, one more time. Prepare the offering. We will clean everything up again. You can just cook one more time and offer it to your deity. You will be very happy. We won’t be happy. Just take some fruit. Soybean. And again they clean the whole kitchen. Set up everything else for the new offering. Everything. The food that you’re given, before we can taste it, Kṛṣṇa has to taste it. That’s the system of sacrifice. It’s for Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure.

So when the people cook, they shouldn’t taste anything. They should cook everything in love for Kṛṣṇa and then offer to Kṛṣṇa through this mystic process of deity worship known as Pancharatra niledanam. Then that offering of love is given as a holy sacrament or as a wonderful love feast to everyone. And Kṛṣṇa, spiritual energy. God’s energy is permeated in the food. You take it will give you more than a good taste. It will also bring up your spirits spiritually. So but because here the offering was eaten, they again started all over again to make a new offering. So again he cooked everything. This time the mother had taken the lady’s. This time what did he do? Aha. Yes. He had hidden inside a room running from his father. So he looked and he saw he was just sleeping in the room.

So he said okay, no problem. So again he brought out the offering. He Went in meditation and he called Kṛṣṇa, come and take the offering. Immediately out of nowhere, this baby, Lord Caitanya came and started eating the offering again. It’s calling me. I am coming and eating. Where’s the problem? And then he opened his eyes.

No, no, not again.

Then Jagannath Mirth said, oh no. This time he picked up his stick and Lord Chaitan running under the table.

Boom.

You know. Then the Brahmin jumped up.

No, no, don’t do it. Don’t beat the child. Please, please. The innocent child.

Can you be the food stick and blow down?

So.

Again he saved Lord Caitanya from getting the stick. But this time he insisted, no more cooking. I just offered some fruits, some nuts, berries, anything. So Jagannath Mr. He was sitting with his hand on his head. He was very frustrated. Here’s this priest, this Brāhmaṇa visiting my house. I can’t even give him a meal. How on point. What karma. I am suffering such bad karma. I can’t receive a guest and properly feed him. In India, receiving a guest is very important. This is one of the most important duties of a householder to serve the guest. The guest is considered like a representative of the Lord Narayan, the Lord himself. So you should receive a guest so nicely. That was the previous custom india. Still they follow.

When I travel around India, even we go to any house, the people automatically ask you to take a seat, give you a glass of water or some sweet words, or ask how they can help. They’re very hospitable, especially in the villages. Even here in North America you find that when you drive around in the country, people tend to wave at you as you go by saying hello. Different places are more. Even in Colorado, I went in the park here in Denver, everybody says good morning. Go to New York. They don’t saying anything. Here they say good morning. So again, hospitable. So he was very frustrated because he couldn’t serve his guest. He was sitting there. Then his elder son, who was incarnation of Sankarshan Balaram, he came back from school. He’s about 14 or so, 12 or 13, 14.

And when the brahminant saw, I said, who is this boy? He’s like very bright face, very beautiful features. And he said, this is the most wonderful boy I ever seen. Who was the lucky parents of such a wonderful child. And it was the elder brother of boy Chaitanya. So he came, heard the whole thing. What happened immediately came and said, my dear sir, we are so honored that you have Blessed our house. A wandering menu. A great saintly person. And you are so renounced. You are taking fruit and berries in the forest and living in an austere lifestyle. Renounced lifestyle. And you have come to our poor household where we are very attached. We are very attached to things like serving our guests and these material.

Joy.

In their life to be able to serve this rare singly guest who has come in their house. So when he was said so sweetly by Visaroo he said all right.

Haririwa. Hariwa.

Then they all ran, cleaned up the kitchen again. Everyone chucking up Mr. Garab. They all came, cleaned the kitchen and everything was prepared. And again he cooked. By the time he finished, it was about midnight. Everybody was asleep. They had taken one chicken and this time to the next house around 7 o’ clock at night. And then the lady said, why are you doing this? You are a Brahmin boy. You’re not supposed to steal. You’re taking. Being a Brahmin boy, how can you take his offering? And baby Chaitanya he said I am not a Brahmin. I am a coward boy. For coward boys it’s alright to take these things. What?

You coward.

What is this child talking about so much? Little baby just saying some foolish things. Kṛṣṇa was a coward boy. So Lord Caitanya was revealing to them in a soundless way who he was. But they couldn’t understand what it really meant. He would cover himself with his mystic powers. No one could see that he was actually Kṛṣṇa. So finally, when the Brahmin had finished his offering, the preparation of his offering this time he looked around. Any children? All clear. Put the offering in front of his deity of Kṛṣṇa. Then he went into meditation again and he prayed. Kṛṣṇa, please come. Come and take this off me. Then as he was about to say the mantras, you know. Then he opened his eyes. And then he saw there was Lord Shaytan.

No, no. Why.

Stare? Why this was happening? And then Lord said, why you keep calling me so I am coming, I am calling Kṛṣṇa.

(Side B of the Cassette)

And the Brāhmaṇa, he said, this is my worshipful deity. This is the supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa. The person whom I am worshiping day and night every day. He’s actually personally appeared before me. And he just, you know, immediately he fell on the ground and he jumped up and he fell down again. He jumped. He was so ecstatic, he didn’t know what to say. Hare Kṛṣṇa, dad. He was beyond himself so much. He was like overwhelmed with transcendental ecstasy. His hairs were standing on, his voice was choked. Tears were coming out of his eyes. He was feeling the highest ecstasy of meeting face to face with Kṛṣṇa himself. Then Lord Kṛṣṇa, Lord Caitanya touched his head and he became calm. And he said that in my previous avatar as Kṛṣṇa, you came to the house of Nanda Niya Soda.

When I came as Ramachanda, you came to the house of Dasarat. Every time you’re coming. And this pastime was going on. This is a special Leela where I do with you every time I come. This is like his eternal service to the Lord. Come and offer in the house wherever the Lord comes and then get the offering spoiled. And the parents never think that their son is God. So but now nobody knows. Of course, other avatars, they knew or they kind of knew that it was Kṛṣṇa. But this avatar was top secret. Nobody was allowed to know that Lord Chaitanya was Kṛṣṇa. So he said, you can’t tell anyone who I am. Only you know. Very few people know. If you tell, you cannot stay in this world. I will remove you. You take your next reincarnation fast, automatic.

So then he took his form again as Lord Caitanya said, you can stay here, but don’t tell anyone. You can see the past times. Then he went off, went into and took rest. So the Brahmin here was the offering where the Lord had personally taken a little bit of the rice. A little. The poor, everything was eaten. So he was so happy, just took it and said, haribol. He was rubbing it on his arms. The Lord is coming. He starts screaming, you know, Haribol, Haribo. Glories, glories. And everybody in the house woke up, ran out, said, here guys covered with rice and d. They said, wow, you really must have been hungry. So happy. He’s like rubbing and he’s looking at everyone and they say, everything is all right. He can’t say a word. I say, what happened?

So he tells, He just started eating. So like this, Lord Chaitanya came down to satisfy so many devotees and to engage him in the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare. So although in this age it’s very difficult to perform these rituals because we can perform them at the same time. The Bodhis chair Hare Kṛṣṇa. So we want to keep the Vedic culture alive. India is the home of Vedic culture in this world. But Vedic culture used to be all over the world, the whole world. Just like recently in Mexico, they found deities of Kṛṣṇa in South America and Africa. All over the world they’re finding deities according to the Mahabharata, one of the ancient scriptures india. At one time this entire planet was under Vedic kings and the Sanskrit was spoken everywhere and under India was the center of the world.

Now when they find these discoveries, modern anthropologists, I don’t know what they think, but they send it like ignored or something. But we find all over the world they’re fighting these deities. How they get there’s no answer given. And all right, this is doesn’t fit into our theory. So ostrich theory, put your head in the sand doesn’t exist. But it’s true. They found, in fact, the Aztec language is very similar, I believe, to Kannada in South India. There are many words in different languages that come from Sanskrit. So we believe that according to the Vedic tradition, that the Vedic culture was the original culture. And it’s a culture that’s existing all over the universe, even on our planets. So we want to keep the culture alive. Everything we do should be authorized by the Vedas.

So for simple practice of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you don’t have to no many rituals, it’s not essential. You can just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. If you want to offer your food to Kṛṣṇa, you can do that through chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa or you can offer through the guru. Once you accept the guru that you can offer through the guru, he gives to his guru. This way it goes out to Kṛṣṇa, who’s the original guru. What one wants to do like a fire sacrifice for a wedding or for some ceremony, you want to worship these installed deities. Then there are some more esoteric meditations, mantras and techniques that one can learn to do that one has to be chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa for a number of years to be able to maintain that standard of purity.

So our previous crya, Śrīla Bhakti, Siddhānta, Saraswati Thakur Prabhupāda, our guru’s guru, he instituted this procedure of giving the Brāhmaṇa initiation to non to anyone who was qualified through vaiava initiation. And he supported this through the Vedas. There are many scriptural references to this that a real Brāhmaṇa is Someone who lives in the mode of goodness. And so today we’re having the second initiation, which will also include upanaya for the male as well as the Brāhmaṇa and Panchartic initiation, both. So the basic idea, Brahma means the spirit. To be a Brāhmaṇa means to understand I am not the body, I am a spirit, soul and a part spiritual, part of God. My quality and God’s quality is the same. But I am very small and he is unlimited. He is so great.

But quality wise, I should not act as a body, I shouldn’t act like animal. A human being is basically, without going through these purifications is someone who’s identifying as a human being. And I am this body, I am this skin, this flesh, this bone. And Brāhmaṇa needs to know that I am not this body, I am this living force in the body. I am this divine force, the spark of life that’s in the body. I am a part of God, a spirit, small part of God. And therefore this body is rather a machine which is a vehicle for the spirit. And I should use the body, maintain it, but use it also for the service of the Lord. And thus the person can be liberated even while living in this world. He can be freed from karma. So it’s like a postgraduate level of spirituality.

It’s what we all want to practice in the end, to come up to that liberated state. So the actual initiation means a birth, it’s the beginning of that. Of course, it’s a training period under the spiritual master Guru. One has to train to act in that way. As Prabhupāda said, it’s an art. One may make a few mistakes. It’s expected it will take some time to perfect it. We hope that members of the congregation, actually Govinda Charan, who is taking the second initiation, he’s a businessman from South India who’s been here in the temple for eight months helping out. But he’s been initiated for over three years in South India, in Mysore. He’s connected with our Bengalur temple where I am the GDC there and some disciples. And someone can also take initiation even if they’re not living in the temple. But they should.

You see, his house is a temple. In his house he has a deity of Kṛṣṇa. He offers all of his food to his deity of Kṛṣṇa. And his whole family is a vegetarian. And they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. He chants Hare Kṛṣṇa. I was just there a month ago for a big festival in Mysore and we stayed at his house. It was very nice. So this is what we want. It’s like we have a big temple here. It’s not possible I think for everyone to have this bigger temple in their home. But you can have like smaller deities or a small picture in your home and you can have a temple and you can also be a Brāhmaṇa or you can be initiated in the house.

And like Gobinda Charan said, he’s very happy now he will be serving directly in the temple while he’s here in America. And his family was very instrumental in arranging a very big festival called Rafiatra in mysore. And about 100,000 people attended that festival. So whether one is living in the temple all the time or makes their house into a temple and serves the temple where he’s also regularly contributing from his business to Kṛṣṇa conscious projects. So this is basically another way of being twice born, actually acting in a spiritual way. If we do it properly, then we won’t get karma like water off a duck’s back. The karmas will go off us and not stick to us. Or like all the lotus things, they won’t stick. So anyway, that’s a brief introduction out of the snow. We will go into the ceremony.

Before we have another small ceremony which we should probably do first so that you should do it first. You ready? Yeah. Other ceremonies. Today there’s another ceremony from another married couple who have a child, baby girl who’s six months old. When the children are five to eight months old, they have to take their first grave. So at that time it’s customary to give mahapushanam to the child, give the holy person.