20021230 Bhagavad-gītā 7.26

(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 December 30, 2002 – in Gold Cost, Australia. The lecture begins with a reading from the Bhagavad-gītā 7.26.

Oh vasty. Sometimes Krishna looks in the mirror and he gets amazed at how beautiful he is. The one who appreciates most Krishna beauty is Radharani. So in this material world, we’re born into delusion, duality.

We are conditioned to like things or dislike things. Disliking says here, hate. I like this, I hate this. Sometimes you hear people say, oh, I love ice cream, I hate spinach, I love spinach, I hate tomato juice or something, whatever. So according to how we condition, we have certain likes and hates. Those things can change. That’s all according to the conditioning we have. Just like somebody can be a meat eater, but they can become a vegetarian. Somebody can be very attached to eating onions. And later they can also give it up. Maybe they don’t like tomato juice. Later they may like it. If they spend time with people who like it, then they may change their taste. So these dualities, they’re not permanent, they’re due to our conditioning. But they’re what are influencing us and dictating what we do. That’s why it’s called illusion.

We think this is the reality,.

But.

It’s actually a kind of illusion that’s put over our consciousness. We’re motivated because I like this, I hate this. And we think that’s reality, but it’s an illusion. So then we get freed from that illusion and realize that there’s a higher standard. And this way we get fixed. In Ka’s service. Those who want liberation, they serve Kṛṣṇa when they’re fully absorbed in Krishna service. I said they’re at the level of Brahman. That means they’re in the transcendental level. They’re not producing any more karma. Everything we do in the material world produces karma. When we do it for a material reason, if we do it for ourselves, maybe in the mortal passion, we do it for the help of humanity, some bigger extended purpose. Maybe in the mode of goodness. If we do it for no good reason, all just insanity. All just anger, madness.

Just like there’s some people riding around shooting people. In America, there were those two snipers for about a month. They closed down the whole Washington area. Why? They were shooting people they don’t even seem to know themselves. So there’s terrorism and so many crazy things. So some of the things not with any valid reason to start with some kind of craziness. So that’s in the mode of ignorance. But devotional service, which is meant for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa, which is according to Ka’s instructions, doesn’t produce karmas. It is transcendental as Krishna is transcendental to the material world. Things which are done for him also don’t produce material reactions. So everything we do pious in the material world produces a good karma that goes in our good karma bank account.

And everything we do that’s hurting other people, hurting our own bodies, some destructive things that goes in our bad karma account. Some people think that if they do lots of good karma, that  will cross out to bad karma. If they build lots of hospitals, then all the bad things they did  will be counteracted. But doesn’t work that way. It’s two separate accounts. So someone gets good work done for others, they get good karmas. That means they get money, they get fame, they get health, they may get a good birth education. So you may find that there’s someone who is very wealthy because of good karma, but at the same time, because he did bad karmic activities, he’s also maybe having legal problems, marriage problems, health problems. The two karmas, the two accounts, it goes side by side.

If someone only is doing pious activity and hardly any bad karma for the past hundred births, then he would have very little material problems. But usually people are doing both. And karma has come even from up to 100 births back. So it’s very hard to predict what’s going to happen. The seventh chapter, Bhagavad Gita is a very powerful chapter. It gives some knowledge of the absolute, which is always something very powerful. Once Parvati, the goddess of the material nature, she was asking Shiva, who is the original masculine feature of the supreme Lord in this material world, what were the glories of the seventh chapter, Bhagavad Gita. So Lord Shiva explained one history. Once there was one businessman and he was very busy making money. He was so busy making money, but he didn’t.

He was so rich that even kings were coming to see him to get maybe some donations for their public works and things already big politicians were seeing. So he was thinking he was writing on the top of the world, this very rich, very famous person. But he hardly did any. He gave political donations and from that he made more money, got some breaks for some investment or something. But he didn’t really do anything spiritual and very just the charity he gave was all motivated charity. Nothing was from the heart. So in this way he had four children and he became very powerful. One time he was traveling and all of a sudden he got a heart attack. He was bit by a snake. I read he was bit by a snake. Anyway, something happened and they couldn’t save him. He was out Traveling.

He was far away from any health facility, and all of a sudden he left. So he had buried most of his money in some hidden place. As he was very miserly and very attached to his money those days, he didn’t trust the banks. So he just put the money in the ground somewhere. And then he moved forward a little bit as other people were commencing.

And.

He went to Yamalok. And there he said, you’re so attached to your money so you can become. A snake and guard your money so nobody else can get it. So there he was, a very venomous serpent, living in a hole by the treasure he had buried, guarding, and in case anybody would come, he would bite them. Couldn’t get the money. So he was living like that for a while. But after a while, he got kind of bored living in a hole, being a snake. And he started to reflect on his previous life and thought, maybe I blew it and I really wasted my life. I am sitting here as a snake, guarding this money. Why didn’t I use my money for some good purpose? And I wouldn’t be in this predicament. What is the use of sitting here guarding the money?

I can’t spend it as a snake. So then he was like this. Somehow he could remember his previous life. So then he came in the dream of his four sons and told each of them, I am your father. And now I have taken birth as a snake because I buried all my money and I am guarding the money. But it’s a hellish existence. And I want you to save me from this hellish existence. All the brothers woke up. They’re all startled. What an amazing dream. I had a dream last night. Really? I had the same dream. And he asked, I had the same dream too. So when they all realized they all had the same dream, then they took it serious. That must be true.

So one of the brothers, the older brother, he was just like, really loved his father, was very emotional and just got all shook up. My father became a snake.

It’s horrible.

He’s just like, you know, crying. It was nothing practical, just like emotional sentiment. The next brother, he thought that. I would like to get all the money myself, how to get the money? But he didn’t really know much. Then the third brother, he thought, well, let’s try to figure out what we could do for to help our father. But he really didn’t know what to do. But at least he had an intention to do something. Help the father. It was just like emotion. The fourth brother, the youngest, he was very Clever. And he thought, I think I know where my father must have buried the money. He put on a big show. Yeah, let’s do something for our father. Let’s think about it. And then tomorrow we come back and. And try to figure out something.

He went back and told his wife, let’s bring a shovel and hoe and everything. I think I know where the money is buried. Told her what’s happening. So they went in the night. He saw once his father going somewhere. Kind of suspected this was the place. So then he started digging. As soon as he was digging, out came this snake. What do you want,.

Dad?

They came here to help you. Liar. What are you doing with a hoe and a shovel? You came to take that wealth. You want to do the same thing I did. And you want to become a snake in your next life too. No, no. Tell us what we should do to help you. We didn’t know how to find you, so we had to dig for you. Please don’t bite me. I love you. If you really want to help me, then on the anniversary of my death, you bring a devotee who’s normally chanting the seventh chapter Bhagavad Gita. Have them chant the seventh chapter Bhagavad Gita and offer the results to me. If you do this, I will be freed from this curse. Ordinary things, they want charity and a few little pujas to Devas. That’s not going to work. Bhagavad Gita, seventh chapter. Very powerful.

This is the only thing that can save me. So the brother went back, told the other brothers what’s happening. And so they all arranged for the ceremony to be held on the death anniversary. Thank God, a devotee to seventh chapter Bhagavad Gita. And so on. Then he offered that result to the departed soul of the father. No sooner did he do that, the father was liberated from his snake body and he appeared in a subtle form and came back to the four brothers. Spiritually liberated form. And somehow he took the wealth and he divided it amongst the four of them. Each one got 1/4. But he told them, please use your money apart from what you maintenance. Use it for Krishna conscious God conscious activities. Don’t use it like I did. Just for name, fame and sense gratification. End up being a snake.

And then right. Finally saw the Vishtadutas come and take him back to Garibu. So the four brothers, they had a discussion after that. It was like such a shocking thing to see their father liberated. Go back to the whole thing. So they decided, okay, we’re not gonna misuse this money. And all of them used their money very carefully and performed many good activities with the wealth. Wish one of those brothers should help us here develop. Move over to him. So like that. So this Bhagavad Gita seventh chapter is famous because it can liberate people. If someone regularly chants, it  will liberate them from all reactions and all sinful, bad, karmic reactions. So very auspicious verse to read. I miss special day. We’re doing our Nugardhan annual festival. Every daily has usually annual festival.

Or.

Maybe several annual festivals. So this is annual festival, Rath Yatra festivals they have here at Nugol Verdam. Devotees gather from various places from many distant countries. We have here guests from Malaysia, from different countries, Argentina, all the countries that people visit from England. So young and old. And on this occasion. So we do various different kinds of activities. So we sing bhajans, we have some type of recreational activities. Sometimes, sometimes go to the ocean. We also have fire yagya. So yagya means sacrifice. Actually there’s different kinds of sacrifice. Something that’s dedicated for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa is a sacrifice. So reading Bhagavad Gita can be a sacrifice of knowledge. Fire sacrifice is where a particular kind of sacrifice where we invoke Kṛṣṇa in a fire and we offer ghee and grains to Krishna in the form of the fire.

The fire is like the mouth of Kṛṣṇa, the flames of the tongue. This used to be the method of sacrifice performed in Treta Yuga that time. Brahmanas were so expert with Vedic mantras that by chanting different mantras they could actually produce things right from the fire. Mystical things would come out of the fire. We’re not performing that type of yajna. We’re performing what’s known as a vai vahoma. It’s a home just for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa. It’s a sacrifice for the pleasure of Krishna. And Krishna is acting as a witness to the bowels and to the ceremony performed in Satya Yuga. The sacrifice was sitting and meditating for long periods of time. And in Dharpa Yuga was worshipping the deities very elaborately. In this age of coming was the sacrifice. Hari Nam Sankhyatam.

The congregational chanting of the holy names of Kṛṣṇa, especially recommended as a 16 word mantra. Hare Krishna, Hare Kṛṣṇa Krishna Kṛṣṇa Rama Hare. This. We worship deities. Deities are a type of incarnation of Kṛṣṇa. They said nobody can know Kṛṣṇa because he is beyond the range of our senses. But in order to facilitate the devotees to serve him, he had given a system in the Vedas where you can create an image made in his likeness. And you can request Krishna to be present, a priest, an initiated priest, or a guru, or a chariot. They can request Kṛṣṇa to be present. To do that kind of ceremony, you have to have received certain special mantras in the chain of disciplinic succession. So those mantras are known as Vedic mantras and Pancharatriki mantras.

So those mantras are needed to perform this kind of fire yogya as well as to worship, install deities or to install deities. That’s the ceremony we’re performing today. These are two members of the congregation in Brisbane. In Kṛṣṇa Consciousness like Grihastras, people who live in practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness from their home as well as people who live in a temple. Both can be ordained to perform these priestly activities. They have to go through examinations, pass your exams. And. Practice for a number of a period of time. Show their steadiness and then they can get this initiation. We have got different levels of initiation. We have a first initiation where people take about a chance, 16 rosaries or 16 rounds of beads and to practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And then someone after doing that for a number, a year or more.

In this case, when you took first initiation, how long ago? 98, Four years ago. They all passed their examination. You’re recommending them. So then one can get the second initiation. The second initiation has seven mantras we give which are spoken in the ear of the initiate and they are not spoken out loud. They are chanted mentally. They help to control the mind. Confirmed. They help to control the mind. They also bring the disciple and the spiritual master class closer together. It’s fired up and. It also puts one on a kind of fast track for spiritual life. So it means that whatever one does, they consider their health a little more responsible so they can advance quicker. If they are careless, then they can reactions can pile on them also quicker prophets. You don’t need this initiation to get back to Godhead.

But if someone takes it and they are careful, then it can be very useful. It’s not absolutely essential to take it. So he personally told me. Shil Prabhupada told me it could be a little lenient for the first initiation, but for the second it should be more strict. Indicating also the spiritual master has to take heavier reactions. If a second initiated, his disciple is not acting properly. Can you purify yourself and get ready to install the fire while I give them the mantra. And we like Lucy. For us, men and women can be ministers. They can perform different priestly activities. It’s something very progressive. And we’re very happy that the devotees of the congregation are also taking up this kind of responsibility sometimes.

And many temples maybe they’re busy with their daily work, but one time in a week they may come and help with the deity worship in the temple. On festival days they may perform different kinds of priests activities or sometime they perform, they learn how to do samskaras. There’s a lot of different samskaras. I don’t know if we have any candidates here for samskaras and Samsung. In some festivals, like in South Africa, I performed something like nine families had samskars. Pregnant ladies. First three months Bhumsavana, fourth, sixth or eighth month of pregnancy, Sri Manta Nayana. Then just before giving birth, so Shanta. Then six months after six or eight for boys, five or seven for girls. First greens Annaprasana. Then around three to five years old.

First writing when they’re going to go to school, write the names of Krishna on a rice with a tulsi twig or on a chalk with a chalkboard. So we had lined up so many pregnant ladies and mothers and babies. We performed on a stage in front of about 10,000 people. And the Dhumna Mirage that asked me to do that. So we had a big to show. We wanted to show that for us families are very important. And all the ceremonies that are involving the purification of children and uplifting of the families are also important ceremonies for us. I don’t know here if you have any other samskara candidates, but sometimes we do those things also. In fact, for the Srimadhya Nayana one of the things required is a porcupine quilt which I have three porcupine quills with me.

For such a ceremony it is needed, very rare, hard to get. You don’t get it right. It says in the Heavenly Planets, the mother of Indra, she uses a porcupine quill in her hair as a hairpin. So that apparently protects pregnant women that can put it in her hair from all kinds of subtle influences. So it’s recommended to do this ceremony. So many of our householders, they don’t know about these ceremonies, they don’t perform them. But it’s actually recommended in Vedic culture to do 10 ceremonies. For brahmacharis there’s a little austerity begging that’s kind of their Dharma. And for Grihastha is charity and sacrifices. Samskaras, all the different samskaras Dasam samskara from marriage to Rabudant samskara and all the things I mentioned before, those kind of ceremonies are what vrihastas do.

And Baki Tirthamraj we’re discussing about it, he says that he uses those ceremonies as an opportunity for the whole community to get together like a social event. Everybody dresses up, celebrate the family function samskara, a particular devotee celebrating the future birth of a new member of our community.

So.

That’s one type of activity that the grihasta priests can also learn how to do. All these samskaras. The samskaras I oversaw the first time in my life this year in month of April, I participated, not kind of oversaw the mundan cutting the hair of the child. Sometimes they leave the children’s hair grow for three years and then they cut it ceremoniously. And Barbara was really expert because he knew how to handle distracted the child at the hair before the child knew what was happening. This whole ceremony, putting that hair and cow down, different things, all these have some kind of significance for the welfare of the children and the family. We don’t normally do fire sacrifices as a regular sacrifice for. But we do them on these samskaras. And it’s for weddings and for initiations and such ceremonies.

Sometimes a gurukul or a community might do Sandhya vandanam and do fire yagya at the sunrise and sunset. But that’s pretty rare otherwise normally only done on occasion. We want to keep the Vedic culture alive, so we keep a little part of all the different sacrifices. Of course, deity worship is quite active. But previously you’d see like they’d worship deities, they’d just ring bells, bing, bing. And there would be. But now we sing while we do the deity worship and the chanting helps us to find focus our consciousness. Otherwise you go in some traditional temples india, everybody’s ringing bells, but it’s not as beautiful or not as easy to concentrate as when you actually have people singing mantras and chanting along with the deity worship.

So for us, what’s important, the most important thing is deity worship, excuse me, is the chanting of the holy names. So with the chanting of the holy names, everything else we do when we do this sacrifice, we have some devotees reading from scripture, chanting some soft kirtan chanting of the holy name. Makes everything auspicious in this age. So we don’t. Everything we do, whether it’s even our meditation, is chanting of the holy names. Our fire yagya we have chanting our deity worship, we have chanting. Of course, when we’re chanting. So for us, chanting is the most important in this particular day and age. But we want to keep the other aspects of our culture alive. We have rath yaptras, we have fire yagyas, we have many.

So we hope that devotees also learn to appreciate the different beauty and cultural spiritual aspects of the heritage and tradition. Prabhupada wanted us to be able to preserve this culture. Even here in the west, people don’t have so much ancient culture to refer to someone say culture is a whole different meaning 1 or 200 years. This is a culture that’s millionairo. It’s going on since time immemorial. These kind of sacrifices are performed even on other planets, other dimensions. So we preserve. So while we’re doing this Yogya, some Yogyamin sacrifice. While we do this, some of you who want you can also participate. We’d like you to wash your hands. Others can be chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Those who want to throw the grains in the fire, tell them to bring some tilak. Put tilak on their forehead, making their body into a temple.

And then they can. I am going to ask my assistant here, Ekha Natha Gaurav does to install a Vaishnava fire. And you can also perform. You have some Akshav here. Forgot to ask for it. The rice with the turmeric. Just chant the monk here. Meantime you two can come out. Pay your basins is here. And you have a robin tip.

Out.

I shouldn’t get him now where he would like to fight. Who like to be the Guinness?

Sam.

It.

Lakshmi sah. I am sham. Sam. Rama. Sam. Ohiram jatay. Sam. Sa. Ashakrash.

Karma.

Masayam. Sam. Ram.

Sa.

Yeah. Krishna karuna. Saitan.

Sam.

Santish santi.

So now they he’s got his jagya pavitra, his Brahmin thread. And they received their mantras. Now they’re consummated with the yagya in front of the sacred deities. Guru Dhanshila. So what we do a yagya. Everybody wash your hands. Put sprinkle of water on your hands. Say shave it through and sip it a little bit and wash it.

Then.

When we say the word swaha, that’s when we throw a few grains, middle finger and thumb and throw it into the fire. The just like you have to get between the goal to get within this square here. Whichever greens fall within the square here, they count. Goals or whatever you want to call them. They count spiritual whatever Falls outside. Also today I’d like everyone if they could kindly make a little prayer. I just got information that. One of my disciples, an elderly lady today she left her body and.

A.

Mother of many devotees. She’s a mother of three different devotees. Her name is Achintya Rupa Dasi. If everybody can make a prayer that she can kindly Krishna can take her back to his spiritual abode if possible. If he’s not agreeable to do that, she can remain always in his service. Yeah, they did. So ordinary fire was ignited and now priestess invoked special spiritual fire. There’s 18 different kinds of fires. So using mantra the spiritual fire was invoked and now is being worshipped with Aarti Deepa Puspa Pass the flowers to the devotees.

Sa. That’s.

Hare Krishna. It is called Vaishnava home. We are offering to our Guru Parampara and El. You can repeat word by word.

Omirandasya.

Samir.

Swam swam.

Swami sa.

Om vishnu pattayam krishna prestayami. Namaste koravani. No more Gorambha. Namo bhakti sachi. Gora abir bhumesh tvam nirdha sajanapriya vaishnava sarva boma sri jagannathaya swah. Krishna. Krishna. Gora. Pacha tatva atmakam krishnam bhakta rupa. Krishna karura sindhu dina bandu. Jayatam sarato bangalore bandarvaswajo radha madana mohano. Brinda aranya kalpa jumadaha seemat ragnagara simhasana. Radha siddha govinda devo meshtalivi savior mano swami swaha swahil gopinatha siestana swahili devi. Swah. Jaya. Adi gora bhaktam brinda swaha waha jaishikisha chaitanya nanda shi. Sarigora bhakta brinda swah. Swahi keshta hari krishna keshta kesha hari ari rama rama hari hari. Swaha.

Swaha. Don’t take off the ground. Take off the plate.

Swaha.

All right. Hold your banana and your folded hands and stand up. Everybody can stand up for the final oblation. They po.

Nam.

Sa.

La. Sa.

Pornam. Pornamudaya Pornamudi.

Sam.

Put the bananas.

Sakishina hari hari rama ramoramohari krishna hari krishna. Rama ra. Sam.

Rama rama.

Hari ramo hari ramoram. Hari kishina hare kishina kishakish.

Sa.

Sam rama. Rama harik. Hare krishna hare krishna krishna hare. Samara.

Sam.

Rama rama hare.

Krishna.

Krishna krishna hare hare. Hare krishna hare krishna krishna hare.

Hare.

Krishna krishna. Krishna hari krishna. Krishna krishna.

It.

It’s. O glorious.

O glorious. So I’d like to ask all the buddies to proceed across to the tent now. And the second part of the jaguar  will be performed. We will honor the Lord’s prasadam.

Sa.

I would like to thank Garuda Prabhu.

And his team for cooking the Mahafis Gauda. Stand up. He’s not here. Okay, we’d like to add some volunteers to serve up, please. Volunteer to serve up. If you serve out, you get free prashadam. Volunteers to serve out. Volunteers, please. See? Go call and sing. Hang on. Before you start, before you start you get more volunteers. Otherwise one guy is not going to be me. Prana is pretty powerful, but you know it’s going to grow another couple of arms. We need some more volatiles to serve up, please. Can we have more volontes to serve up, please?

It.

Are you serving another? We need more volunteers to serve out. We don’t want to make Rama and Swami wait.

Quick volunteers,.

How many more you need? How many buckets you got? How many preps and how many have you got? We need five more volunteers. Five more?

No, no.

There’s not enough.

5, 6 Devotees to serve 30 preps in 2 lot.

Three.

Five more. Five more.

Sam, If I am doing what I need to do as far as helping her get anywhere else just so she can come to the festival or no. Well, I don’t go down in the van with you guys.

We have a place here and we have full estimating to go. Do you want to go with someone? He goes at 9 o’ clock in the morning.

Find someone else. The festival that’s.

But I can be concerned with. About doing the. With the ra. So if you want to come for ra, it’s not coming for.

It’s just, you know, I don’t have a position. You know, every year I come in a car. I don’t have a car, so. So come with the Broke.