19941025 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.27.12

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on October 25^th 1994 at Murāri Sevaka Farm, in Mulberry Tennessee. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 3^rd canto, chapter 27, verse 12.

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.27.12

yathā jala-stha ābhāsaḥ
sthala-sthenāvadṛśyate
svābhāsena tathā sūryo
jala-sthena divi sthitaḥ

Translation: The presence of the Supreme Lord can be realized just as the sun is realized first as a reflection on water, and again as a second reflection on the wall of a room, although the sun itself is situated in the sky.

Purport (by His Divine Grace Śrīla Prabhupāda): The example given herewith is perfect. The sun is situated in the sky, far, far away from the surface of the earth, but its reflection can be seen in a pot of water in the corner of a room. The room is dark, and the sun is far away in the sky, but the sun’s reflection on the water illuminates the darkness of the room. A pure devotee can realize the presence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in everything by the reflection of His energy. In the Viṣṇu-Purāṇa it is stated that as the presence of fire is understood by heat and light, so the Supreme Personality of Godhead, although one without a second, is perceived everywhere by the diffusion of His different energies. It is confirmed in the Īśopaniṣad that the presence of the Lord is perceived everywhere by the liberated soul, just as the sunshine and the reflection can be perceived everywhere although the sun is situated far away from the surface of the earth globe.

Thus end this translation and purport text 12, chapter 27, canto 3 of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam In the matter of ‘Understanding Material Nature’.

Oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: Yesterday we had the sun shining in the room. Now here we have the sun shining in the room on a bowl of water, and then from the bowl of water reflects, and the image goes on the wall. You must have seen that how some time you know, the room of mirrors. In India it’s very common. In some ancient temples they have a room of mirrors, where the deities inside, you can see hundreds of images of the Deities. The light in the wall being reflected again and again and again, back and forth. Keeps on being reflected. So the sun, being reflected off of something, then again it’s going on the wall, and then we can see the wall. So whether you see the sun directly, whether you see the sunlight of the sun, whether you see the reflection of the sunlight on some other situation, on some wall or something, it’s all evidence of the existence of the sun. This is how we can understand the presence of the Sun. So this is given as an example. We can understand the presence of the Supreme Lord. Because of the various energies, the various reflections of the energies, the various results of the energy and so on. Just like if you see a child, then that’s evidence there must be mother and father. And then they must have had mother and father. Then who was the original mother and father? Modern science is saying your original mother and father; we were evolved from some animal. But according to the Vedas this is not a fact. The human beings are actually brought to this planet from another planet by Manu, and propagated. And in this way, Manu is coming also from another planet, and eventually everything is coming from Lord Brahmā. So from one Lord, the whole universe is populated. Brahmā is coming from Viṣṇu. 

*some side conversation*

So then Lord Brahmā, he comes from Lord Viṣṇu. So for the devotees, everything they see Kṛṣṇa’s energy. It’s like the scientists, everything they see, they try to think, “Oh this proves the missing link”, or, “This proves the Big Bang theory.” Sadāpūta Prabhu he explains how they actually do selective acceptance of evidence, because they are so thoroughly programed to try to prove their theory, that if any evidence comes which doesn’t fit into their theory, they just say “Well this must be… this must have come from another level or something.” They are finding modern man even millions and millions of years ago. There was modern man side by side with this other kind of aboriginal people. If you ever see the picture of the people at Papua New Guinea, some of the tribal people, they are looking exactly like… I don’t know the technical difference, but they look quite prehistoric in terms of their features and everything. Of course we have temples there, and they are preaching to these people, and they are chanting. So, they can be Kṛṣṇa conscious too. They are just different kinds of human beings, and to say one’s evolved from the other, this is Darwin’s theory. But it is not supported by the Vedas. Already seeds are given by Kṛṣṇa. Didn’t have to evolve. At this time, at this stage in creation, Kṛṣṇa already has his seeds for the different species of life, eight million four hundred thousand species, and He simply has to give those the seeds to Brahmā, and He can produce any one of those creatures.

So, the point of discussion today is how we can recognize the presence of God in everything. This is very important, to recognize the Kṛṣṇa is present everywhere. Prahlāda Maharājā, he was five years old, and he had that faith that Kṛṣṇa was present everywhere. So when his father said, “Is He present inside this column?”

He said, “Of course. He is present everywhere.”

His father, he thought this is humbug. This is ridiculous. This is impossible. My son is just propagating this kind of speculation. Smashes the column and goes to kill his son, but then of course Nṛsiṁhadeva, “RAWRRR!”. Making a sound that shakes the entire universe. Now these are things which actually happen. This happened already in another planet, in another time, in another sphere. But these are important histories to understand how the Lord is present everywhere. Then anyway, so Lord reciprocates with his devotees. There is the story, Jayadeva was writing his poem, Gīta-govinda. He was writing how Kṛṣṇa had humbled Himself before Rādhārāṇī. Then He was feeling, ‘Maybe this is true, but I shouldn’t say that’, and although he thought of the verse, he didn’t write it down. Instead he decided to go out and take a bath in the river. So he told his wife he’s going off. Then, after a little while, he came back.

“Oh you’re back so quick?”

He said, “Yes, I have to write down something.” Wrote something and then left. Then after a while again the husband came back.

“What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“You just came back!”

“I didn’t come back.”

“Oh you just came back! You wrote something down.”

“I was bathing. I didn’t t come back.” He went and he saw that in the book, the thing he was hesitating to write about Kṛṣṇa had been written in. So then he knew that it was Kṛṣṇa who took his form, came in and wrote it. So sometimes if Kṛṣṇa wants, He can appear any way. He was in the heart of Jayadeva. He knows everything he is writing, everything he is thinking. Jayadeva was hesitating to write this, so Kṛṣṇa felt within Himself, “No, I should write it.” Even I had one school teacher, one guru actually, a disciple of a guru, who maybe fifty years ago, he was going everyday giving classes. One day there was like some very important worship of Kṛṣṇa for some holy day. He said, “How can I do it? I have to go to work, give the classes”, or something. But then he said, “No, it’s more important…  It’s important to be on both sides, but let me do my Kṛṣṇa’s service.” So, he did his Kṛṣṇa’s service, and he went to school in the afternoon. He said, “I want to apologize for not being here in the morning.”

“What you mean? You been joking with me? You were here in the morning!”

“I was here!?”

“Yes. You gave class in the morning.”

But he know he wasn’t there! So then after that, he was lying and then he said, “Okay, Kṛṣṇa’s gotta cover me in school.” (laughter) This person, completely he dedicated his life to serve Kṛṣṇa after that.

There is an interesting story how this is king of Viṣṇupura, or was it the descendant of the king of Viṣṇupura was Birhambir, who was the disciple of Śrīnivāsa Acārya, and they are being attacked by some marauding plunderers from Mahārāṣṭra who had been cocking over parts of Bengal. And they had… they always persecute the brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas. They didn’t care for anybody. They just steal from them. So, all the brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas had to migrate to kingdoms where the kings are powerful, and where they could be protected from this marauder, whose name was Bhāskara Paṇḍita. So, this Bhāskara Paṇḍita had attacked the king of Viṣṇupura several time, but he was always repelled. This one time the king said that, “For one day we will not fight. We will simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Everyone in the kingdom will simply chant.” So everyone was chanting the whole night, and the marauder thought, “Well, these foolish people. They’re just chanting, so I’m gonna wipe them off.” He came to attack while everybody was chanting, and then all of a sudden, the King had this—*boom, boom, boom!*—this cannon went off, almost like a machine gun. “What is that sound? It’s like fifty cannons!” You know cannon? Big guns.

The king said, “Who is fighting? I ordered no one should fight! Go out and see what’s happening.”

Messenger came back and said that, “All the robbers are dead, massacred! Ten thousand soldiers wiped out. Bhāskara Paṇḍita killed.” 

“Who did it?”

“Well, your majesty, we find this is difficult to believe but everyone says it was done by the Deity! The Deity came out and had one cannon under each arm. The cannons were just going off, and just wiped out the entire army of this plunderer.” Then they went to the temple, and the Deity room was filled with the smell of gun powder! Two cannons smoking, left in the field there. So they kept one of the cannons where the people come up and touch it, circumambulate. Archaeologists are saying… recently they did some excavation, they found coins from Mahārāṣṭra. He was like a renegade King he just came, and conquered, and established his own system. And they found coins that showed that in the battlefield, there were coins, there were relics. Showed there was a big battle there. Whatever He wants, He can do anything. You’ve read of Sākṣi-gopāla walking from Vṛndāvana. Fighting Deity.

And for the devotees, they don’t have any difficulty to understand that the Lord is all-pervasive. They can see everything as Kṛṣṇa’s expansion, as Kṛṣṇa’s energy. That’s confirmed by Īśopaniṣad, confirmed by Viṣṇu Purāṇa, confirmed by all the Vedas. The sun maybe millions of miles away, but we know the sun is there by so many reflections. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa may be situated in Goloka Vṛndāvana, but you could see He is present also everywhere through his expansions and energies. In this saṅkīrtana, we preach. So Kṛṣṇa sends people, different kinds of people. Sometime some people who are very ripe for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, who are very grateful. So while a devotee starts to see it’s more than a coincidence how Kṛṣṇa’s sending different people. I remember one time I was going to Thailand via Calcutta, and then there was some problem and I lost my reservation. Anyway they got me on the flight, and just turned out that I was sitting in our row, and I am sitting in the aisle seat. And I look over. Right next to me there is some young man sitting. He has got neck beads. I said, “Hare Kṛṣṇa?”

He said, “Hare Kṛṣṇa Maharājā!”

“So you’re a devotee!” Somehow they have been blooping. He just ran away from Vṛndāvana, or Bombay or something like that and he was just going off to rot in the material world. So I preached to him. He didn’t bloop. So many things like that. If Kṛṣṇa is in control, then Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna, “You just be the instrument – nimitta mātreṇa (Bg. 11.13)” Simply be the instrument. I’ve already fought the battle. If we have that understanding, how Lord Caitanya, He has predicted the whole battle. The saṅkīrtana movement is going to be spread. We should surrender ourselves, we should allow ourselves to be an instrument. A lot of time, we have false ego and limited intelligence. We blockade ourselves, or we somehow or another inhibit our free ability to be an instrument in Kṛṣṇa’s hand. Even Lord’s personal vision of what service they can do.Like Śrīla Prabhupāda, he said, “I want to finish the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. So although probably only two or three books a year were coming out, he got everything geared up, and somehow he translated and published all the seventeen volumes of Caitanya-caritāmṛta in two months! And people don’t know that. Two months! So in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, rather than, “I can’t”, we have to be in the mood of, “I’ll try”, “Can do”, and the attitude, “Let me try best I can, depend on Kṛṣṇa’s mercy.” Now if we are able to do it, you don’t think that, ‘See I am very great. I could do it!’, because we think it’s Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. We don’t feel indispensable, because Kṛṣṇa can arrange. At the same time, the devotee always feels that Kṛṣṇa, the Deity, is depending on me. If I don’t do the ārati, the Deity won’t be served. Of course, if we leave the world, or if we leave somehow or other, Kṛṣṇa may arrange. That’s another thing. But still, out of love, just like a parent feels obliged to care for the children. If we have that type of consciousness to care for Kṛṣṇa, its very spiritually uplifting and beneficial. Kṛṣṇa reciprocates, “Oh this devotee is caring for Me. So I’ll care for the devotee.” And the story I told earlier. Govinda Ghoṣa Deity was saying—after his son died—Deity was saying, “You’re not taking care of me so nicely!” 

“Well I am in anxiety. My son was going to do śrāddha ceremony after he died.” Children are supposed to perform the death anniversary of their parents. Perform a special worship for the departed soul. “So now my son left and who’s going to perform that ceremony? I am such a fallen person.”

Then Deity said, “You just concentrate on your service to Me, and I will do the ceremony for you and your son.” So, every year the Deity does that ceremony for his devotees! The death anniversary. Hundreds of thousands of people attend.

(Jaya Śrī Śrī Nitāi-Gauracandra!)

They take up service to the Deity in that mood that Deities are depending on me, not in a mundane sense, but in a loving sense. “I have to do this service to Kṛṣṇa. Offer the best things to Kṛṣṇa. The best. The best smell. The best fruit. Whatever we can get. Prabhupāda said the best is what you can grow yourself. It’s very good. Because outside things all are polluted with so much karmas, and now they spraying so much things on in fruits. If you can grow something it’s much better. If you can’t, then the best you can get. Fortunately, we have enough here to offer the cows. Otherwise outside they are putting so many hormones and antibiotics and things in the milk. Definitely nice to be able to directly offer milk. You don’t need the pasteurize it. This also gives good intelligence for spiritual life, if we have fresh cow milk, not pasteurized, contaminated. Helps us to understand spiritual subject matter that easier. Has some special ingredients in whole fresh milk. This way we try to offer the best worship we can to the Deity. If because of some constraint… but still, even Sanātana Gosvāmī, he was worshipping his Deity, and he was every day offering capātis. So the Deity would sometimes complain that, “You are not giving any salt. Can I ask for salt in my capāti?”

And he said, “I am a sannyāsī, where do I get salt here in the forest? Don’t create some kind of complication.”

“Little salt you could give! Unsalted capāti? Really tough.” (laughter)

“Don’t create complication you know. Whatever you give me. I’m not going to go out of my way and get you some salt. Because then I will not be able to do other service for you. I have to write, I have to do other things.”

So then Lord Kṛṣṇa, He brings one merchant. He comes with a whole boat of salt! Not only does He gives salt, but He sees the light from Sanātana Gosvāmī. There is some kind of storm or something. And then he gets so happy that he decides to build a big temple for Rādhā-Govinda. So Rādhā-Govinda gets salt and temple, both. So Sanātana Gosvāmī, because he was living like that, in a very awkward and simple way. But he would do his worship everyday.

Rāghava Paṇḍita was living in his house, and he would go and he would get the best coconuts and the best fruits. He would go ten miles away. Those days, he would walk ten miles just to get a better coconut! If that tree was more sweet than his tree, that coconut is best one. Five miles away there was a better tree, so he’d go and get the coconuts from there. So that they have a personal relationship with the Deity. So, devotees see Kṛṣṇa everywhere. At the same time they worship their Deities, knowing that Kṛṣṇa is directly present as the Deity form. Liberated souls can see Kṛṣṇa everywhere. Someone not so liberated to worship Kṛṣṇa everywhere, they can worship also the Deity form. Those who are liberated, they also worship the Deity form. But then they see the Lord’s presence in a much more direct manner. At the same time they also know that Kṛṣṇa is present everywhere. So, we are seeing this reflection. That also means it’s gonna be reflected on our senses. We are the ātmā, and we are seeing that reflection in the senses. We are seeing the presence of this energy. So that reflection into our consciousness, we can also then accept the presence of the Lord. Vedas are telling that everything is coming from original source - janmādy asya yataḥ. (Vs. 1.1.2) So you see all these by-products. This is all proof of the original source. So, the devotees sees it like that, and this makes actual perfect sense. But the modern, mundane, atheistic scientists; there are two kinds of scientists. Like more spiritual, more God conscious scientists and there is atheistic scientists. The atheistic scientist, everything they see, they are trying, “Aha! This proves that there is no ultimate truth! Everything happens by accident.” So Prabhupāda said even if things came from a big bang, who lit the fuse? Who made the made the bang? So Kṛṣṇa said that, “Before this creation I existed, then I created.” So by His will, the chain reaction began. The bang is His will. “Let there be.” It’s like opening the curtain of the stage. *Gurudeva mimics curtain opening music* But before this material creation, Kṛṣṇa already existed. There was no Brahmā, there was no Śiva manifested, but Nārāyaṇa was there, Kṛṣṇa was there. He manifests, then there is Brahmā, there is Śiva, there is so many universes, so many living entities. At the end, they’ll wind everything up in the mahā-pralaya, and that time everything will enter into the body of Nārāyaṇa again. There will be no Brahmā, no Śiva, no material universe. This has been going on countless times. Nobody could understand this, except those who get the information from Nārāyaṇa. How else can you know? Nārāyaṇa was the only one there. He is only one that can tell you that He was there, and this is how things happen.

So therefore, the Vedas are claiming that we should get our knowledge by inductive system, by descending knowledge. We are getting the knowledge from Kṛṣṇa. It has been handed down by disciplic succession. This is a flawless way of getting knowledge, there is no doubt. If you have someone who really knows, and tells you, then there is no doubt. The deductive way, there is always a certain factor of doubt. Just like you read in the newspaper. They’ll say, “Alright, there’s a new medicine. We tested one hundred and eleven people, and nobody got sick. Then we tested ten thousand people and nobody got sick.” So it seems like it’s alright. Of course you never know that after ten years, actually they found out ‘No, theres a side effect. We didn’t really see. It takes ten years to come out. You take this medicine, and after ten years you start losing your eyesight, or your hearing goes down, or your bladder starts to… whatever, you know. So this is every doctor’s system. You take some evidence, and from that you try to deduct a conclusion. But you’re never hundred percent sure, because you’ve only seen so many, and you are only studying for so much time, and you are only looking at certain results. Does it cause cancer? Out of these ten thousand people did anyone get cancer or not? Nobody got cancer? Maybe it doesn’t cause cancer. It might cause something else, might destroy your liver. How many things can they test? They test as many things as they can, but whether it’s really harmless, that’s another question.

So sometimes they use this example of the epistemology of how they understand things. That, an example of the deductive systems. Say scientists, they study that there are swans. They see in Europe there is a thousand swans, and all the swans are white. So, they deduct that  swans are white. But then, someone goes to Australia. There they find there is such a thing as a Black Swan. Then the whole theory that swans are white is no longer valid. European swans maybe white, but Australian swans are black. You did not know that did you? Now you know something. So the way that deductive knowledge works, its never hundred percent sure. Just one exception throws off the whole rule. If you say that okay human beings are all evolved, and this is the way it happened, then you find one archaeological order, fossil record, of a modern human being from millions and millions of years ago. Then that tells away the whole theory. That’s what they don’t wanna accept, “I must be wrong”, because then their whole theory… because their deduction is not… So actually you never know conclusively anything. It’s always a substantiated theory. Upto what we know, it holds. So in this way, the knowledge is going.

Now in Vedas, we use so many examples of things we can see. That that observable reality is one of the truths, one of the ways of getting knowledge, but it is considered a fallible way. To the extent that it is valid, it can be used. But if you want to know where did this universe come from, what existed before this universe was created, obviously thats beyond our ability to deduct. You can just speculate. There is no way you can say, because by definition, if the universe didn’t exist, then what information you get from the universe, how will that tell you what existed before? You cant tell anything. So therefore, the only way to conclusively know anything, is by the inductive system, by the descending acknowledge from Kṛṣṇa. When we talk to people, many times people say to us, “This is what you believe.” What they really mean is, ‘Well this is your speculation. I have my speculation. You have your speculation. Everyone can think whatever they want. It’s not that we speculates what we think. This is whats been handed down from Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, it’s a  totally different category of knowledge. It not just some belief or speculation, but it’s a very conclusive way of gaining knowledge. The most conclusive way. The absolute conclusive way. So, we want to know Kṛṣṇas existence, He’s saying this whole energy is a symptom of my existence. It’s evidence. This all manifested from Me. So anytime we see anything, we can be reminded that, ‘This is Kṛṣṇa’s energy.’ That’s how the liberated souls, they see Kṛṣṇa everywhere. Caitanya-caritāmṛta says that they see Kṛṣṇa everywhere they look. So they can see Kṛṣṇa directly see Kṛṣṇa directly, or indirectly through His energy.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Any question?

Devotee: What is blooping?

Blooping! (laughter) When you drop something in the water, what is the sound it makes? Bloop! Right? If the devotee is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is considered is above the ocean of birth and death. But if they leave…

(Jaya Nitāi-Gauracandra ki jaya!)

…if they leave and go back into the material karmic activities, then that’s kind of a slang. Bloop, they went back into the ocean of birth and death. Like bloop, sinking again. We want to stay above the ocean of birth and death. Not bloop back into to the cycle reincarnation. That we can do by chanting…

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

…and by serving Kṛṣṇa. Is that okay?

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

کُنْ فَیَکون