20030114 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.21.35

(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 January 14, 2003 – in London, UK. The lecture begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.21.35.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.21.35

pradhāna-kālāśaya-dharma-saṅgrahe
śarīra eṣa pratipadya cetanām
kriyā-phalatvena vibhur vibhāvyate
yathānalo dāruṣu tad-guṇātmakaḥ

Translation by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada: The supreme personality of Godhead is all pervading, but he is also manifested in different types of bodies which arise from a combination of material nature, time, desires and occupational duties. Thus different types of consciousness develop just as fire which is always basically the same blazes in different ways according to the shape and dimension of Firewood Purport by R.L.A. Prabhupada the supreme personality of Godhead constantly lives with the individual soul as Paramtma. The individual soul has awareness in accord with his material body, but he attains by virtue of Prakriti which he attains by virtue of Prakriti or material nature. The material ingredients are activated by the force of time and thus the three material modes of nature are manifested.

According to his association with the three modes of nature, the living entity develops a particular type of body in animal life. The material mode of ignorance is so prominent that there is very little chance of realizing the Paramatma who is also present within the heart of the animal. But in the human form of life, because of developed consciousness, one can be transferred from ignorance and passion to goodness by the results of his activities. Kriyaphalatvana A human being is therefore advised to associate with spiritually advanced personalities the Vedas chandhaga, chandaka, upanishad 1, 2, 12 give the direction of Tadhvyagyanatam Sagurum Eva Vigacita. In order to reach the perfections of life or to understand the real constitutional position of the living entity, one must approach the spiritual master Gurum Eva Bhig Chit. One must. It is not optional.

It is imperative that one approach the spiritual master, for by such association one proportionally develops his consciousness toward the supreme personality of Godhood. The highest perfection of such consciousness is called Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. According to the body given by Prakriti or nature, one’s consciousness is present. According to the development of consciousness, one’s activities are performed and according to the purity of such activities one realizes the supreme personality of Godhead who is present in everyone’s heart. The example given herein is very appropriate. Fire is always the same, but according to the size of the fuel or burning wood, the fire appears to be straight, curved, big, small, etc. According to the development of consciousness, God realization is present in the human form of life.

It is recommended therefore that one undergo the different types of penances and austerities described in the Bhagavad Gita, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Dhyana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. Like a staircase, yoga has different steps for reaching the topmost floor and according to one’s position upon the staircase, he is understood to be situated in Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Dhyana Yoga or Bhakti Yoga. Bhakti of course. Bhakti Yoga is the topmost step on the staircase of realization of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In other words, according to one’s development in consciousness, one realizes his spiritual identity. And thus, when one’s existential position is purified fully, he becomes situated. He becomes situated in Brahmananda which is ultimately unlimited.

Therefore, the Sankirtan movement contributed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead as Lord Chaitanya is the direct and easiest process for coming to the purest form of consciousness, Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, the platform on which the Supreme Personality is fully realized. Directions for performing different types of Yajnas are especially arranged for the highest realization of the Supreme Lord as confirmed in Bhagavad Gita by the Lord Himself. Jata Mampadyante Tamasta Tai Baba Bhajam yaham Bhagavad Gita 411 the Supreme Personality of Godhead is realized according to that proportion of one’s surrender. Full surrender, however, occurs when a man is perfectly in knowledge. Bhuram Janmanam Ante Gyanavan Maam Prabhupada Bhagavad Gita 7.19 Translation purport Tukanto 4:21 Text 35 we will repeat the verse again by repetition. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is all pervading.

But he is also manifested in different types of bodies which arise from a combination, a material nature, time, desires and occupational duties. Thus different types of consciousness develop. Just as a fire which is always basically the same blazes in different ways according to the shape and dimension of firewood. Prithu Maharaj is instructing his citizens on how they should be Kṛṣṇa conscious. He’s telling everyone to dedicate all their activities for the pleasure of the Supreme Personality and Godhead. He’s also explaining how the Lord is everywhere. He’s all pervasive. He’s in everyone’s body. His body is how they are manifested according to the various factors. Material nature, time, desires, occupational duties. The fruits of one’s activities are obtained in the form of a particular body. Whatever body you have now, that’s the fruit of your activities up to now.

So this material world, sometimes what you’re trying to explain, we get Heavenly body Kavishvara uttaiya kabhen naraka Dubai. Sometimes we get a hellish body. Danda jana raja jana nadir chubbhaya Satan. Right here is the earth planet. So going up and down. And according to the karmas, our desires, our occupational duties and material nature, we get a particular body having in this samsara wheel. Somehow we’re here in the human form of life. And that’s something very special because the human form of life holds the key to get out of the cycle of birth and death, to re establish our relationship with the supreme personality of God, Prithu Maharaj. It’s interesting because he’s having this ishtagostha, you can say, or this kind of a talk with his subjects. In those days, the king was considered almost like a father for the people.

Like in his preaching he’s saying, you know, if you follow strictly the rules and regulations of Bhakti yoga, it’s good for you in your future and it’s good for your king. After he leaves this world, he gets to go to a good location. In those days, people care. Obviously every age, people care about themselves. In those days, they even care about their king. You see the pyramids and things like that. People built those because they had some kind of respect or faith for their king. According to history, that’s what it said. The king has these big projects, religious or social or whatever, gets everybody fired up to do it. So. But in this case, you have a king that actually cares about his citizens and he is telling them how they should all take shelter. Our supreme personality of God, hidden.

They shouldn’t get bewildered by the different kinds of bodies that are existing in this world. This is just a manifestation of these different variables. Time, desire, occupational duties, material nature. Accordingly, you have all different kinds of consciousness. Rather than getting preoccupied with those differences, rather how to establish, how to do everything as a service for the Lord to get out of this. Bondage. Earlier he also explained that he requested the demigods to encourage the people in their spiritual activities. So those who are sponsoring or guiding the doer and those who are supporting all get the same result at the end of life. So it means that we’re preaching here. Those who are supporting us, our patrons and our different supporters, they also share, they get equal results.

We have our Sankirtan devotees and preachers and Pujaris who are doing the temple services all the time. And of course they get the result. And those who are guiding them and devas, gurus, sannyasis, preachers, they’re also sharing. So everybody gets these three categories, get the benefit. So preachers also request the devas who please cooperate. Sometimes dava cooperate. In one case, Yati Maharaj, he actually convinced his entire kingdom to Chand Hare Kṛṣṇa Sahib. Vaishnav Guru explained to him that if everybody worships Krishna, then your whole kingdom  will become free from karmas and everyone  will start to develop their spiritual consciousness. This wasn’t Satya Yuga. This is mentioned in the Padma Purana. More like other chapters about Yati Maharaj. We have a number of them in the Bhagavad Puran, but there’s a few more in the Padma Purana.

So Yati Maharaj, he got everybody chanting and worshipping Krishna. He told all the demigod worship all the Deva worship all the other. He said, everything has to be the to Krishna. And then you offer everyone else worship. As a Vaishnava or whatever. Krishna put him in the primary position. So exactly what we want to achieve, he could do it. He was the emperor of the world. And he didn’t do it just by some edict. Okay, Everybody has to do it, otherwise you’re going to punish yourself. He did it very systematically by sponsoring preachers to go and spread the message all over the world. He sponsored the Brahmanas. It’s like if you had some of the richest people in the world here realized that actually Kṛṣṇa Consciousness is what could save the world. And they just gave unlimited finance. Here’s $500 billion. Okay, now do.

What do you have to do? Central London, you know, whole huge, gigantic temples or Prashant, whatever, sky’s the limit. You got unlimited funding. Here’s the emperor of the planet. He says, go for it. We’re going to make this planet Kṛṣṇa Conscious. He’s got all the money, all the infrastructure, everything. I mean, what could be a better arrangement? So what happens when that kind of arrangement is there? So under his reign, because everybody was Kṛṣṇa Conscious, nobody grew old, nobody died anymore, nobody. It was Satya Yuga. We had to grow old to die. So turbulent, the whole situation, that people die for all kinds of reasons. But in Satayuga, there were no car crashes. And there was all these kinds of. Of AIDS and different things. It was just very systematic anyway and there. Because everybody was Krishna conscious. So nobody died. Virtually nobody died.

And nobody grew old. So the entire planet was just remaining like that. The next generation came finally, like three generations. He had the grandfather, the son and daughter, and the grandchildren. And they all looked young for three generations. He succeeded. You can imagine in Satya Yuga how long people live. So the whole universe was amazed. But you think that the devas would support this? This is really far away. This is great. But somehow the particular Indra at that time he was on some kind of controlling mood. And when he was touring around the universe he went to the Patal Loka and the Yamadutas really got on his case like labor. What’s wrong with your government? Look, nobody’s dying anymore. What’s our purpose? What are we supposed to do? We’re just sitting here, nothing to do. Nobody dies. We can’t torture anybody.

We can’t burn them. Nobody. I mean, what’s going on here? This is ridiculous. What kind of Indra are you? This Yatis has completely overruled you. And then somehow it got Indra going and he said yeah, this is not right. So then he made a big campaign how to stop your Yati Maharaj. That’s a whole other story. In this case he had the devas even against the Yati Maharaj. And it’s quite an interesting history because when Indra he just sent call Cupid. The normal thing they always do. Okay, Cupid, okay, I want you to get this Yati Maharaj. This is too much. We have to break his tapasi here. So Cupid went, but he said Yati Maharaj was in love with his wife and he was regulated. Every day is the whole regulated program.

Chanting Worship of Kṛṣṇa wasn’t like some kind of secluded Yogi, often someplace just meditating sends some upstarts with some magical ankle bells that break their meditation and they give a whole song and dance. It wasn’t like he was really well protected. He was insulated. And Cupid went back and told Kamadeva went back and told Indra, you know, well, it’s not an easy project. I don’t know how to get there. He’s pretty well protected, you know, he’s got everything. Well, you know, showed kind of how a well situated grihasta is safer than a mystic yogi. Especially the Kṛṣṇa conscious. So you know, the Indra flipped out and told Kama, I don’t care what it takes, you do it. You probably heard this pastime before, right? So it wasn’t an easy thing.

Then Cupid, he had to come up, he had to be really creative how to get the Yati Maharaj to fall down. How to get at least some little deviation get at me. And so they figured the only way I can get it in is somehow if I implicate him with some kind of a Vaishnava apparat or a Krishna apparat. So this is going to take years and years to pull this one off. So then he got on a whole. He said, I told Indra, okay, I can do it, but I need a team. I need Apsaras. I meet Devon. I need a whole team of celestial beings who are  willing to dedicate many years on Earth planet for this project. We have to infiltrate the Earth planet. So then it’s quite an amazing thing. Extraterrestrial infiltration.

All the tabloids, this is a big topic now. You always see extraterrestrial topic coming up. It actually happened, but maybe not in the way they were conceiving of it. So then the Kamadeva and his group of Devas, they took human form and they started a drama troupe. If you get a bunch of extraterrestrials coming to the Poland party, you better be sure that what their motives are. Of course, nobody knows the extra trash. So they started a drama party and they started performing Krishna Leela. And so the king, he was really on top of everything. So immediately his intelligence told him, there’s some drama troupe performing Krishna Leela. So he says, so then immediately he sends his M15, his special spies. So check it out. See whether what they’re spreading is born of.

Like I don’t want any sahajas and any kind of deviation in my kingdom, everyone has to be Kṛṣṇa Conscious. See, it was like such. Can you imagine? The government is completely seeing the whole planet. Okay, in this particular city that there’s a drama going on. Whether it’s Krishna consciousness. Check it out. Nothing that’s not Krishna conscious is allowed in his empire. So then Budkama Deva is real careful. They performed very Kṛṣṇa Conscious dramas. Everything according to the books. So the report came back. No, it’s quite bonafide. It’s okay. So it’s like they performed and they were performing these dramas. And finally, after many years of performing the drama, somehow they got the opportunity that they could perform for the king. The royal seal used to be the biggest thing. So then they performed for the king. And in a very bona fide way.

Everything, Pakka, all the Leelas. So then, because he was really tense, watching every move, everything. But everything was all right. So finally they became recognized like the royal drama troupe. Any big function they perform, everyone’s bona fide, common day of God, their confidence, of course, he didn’t look like some big drama director. So after a while, you know, then the king, everyone became like their guards were Down. They’re not. Suspecting anything anymore. It’s a bona fide drama troupe. It’s for many times nothing to suspect. This is a group of extraterrestrials who have from higher planets have come here simply to trap the king in the operate. And they have been working on it for years together beyond any kind of imagination. This was Kamina Dev’s plan. It’s the only thing he could come up with. So then he finally said okay, he got it.

He got his confidence. This is the time going to move now. Call this trip together. Okay, time for plan B. Now we go into mode B. We’re gonna. So he said this has to be timed perfectly. In the middle of the drama we’re going to commit Krishna aparadha. We’re going to deviate from the script and do something which is offensive to Kṛṣṇa at that moment. Because everybody who is watching that apparat, they’re all going to be guilty of a kaaparat. And for that moment, because of the implicated apparat the protection of Kṛṣṇa  will be removed from them. Now King Iati being a pure devotee, like great devotee, he’s going to immediately pray to Krishna forgiveness. Then he’s going to try to kill us.

So then we go into A, B, C. So immediately as soon as you commit to Abu Rat, I am going to be on the side. I am going to hit him with every lust arrow I got. At this time I want to apsara. At the same time I want you to like expose yourself to the king. So hopefully this time no protection, lust arrow exposure. You’re going to put a dirty thought like a lusty thoughts in a communist mind. Then as soon as that happens still he’s going to get hold of himself and he’s going to kill us. So you got to immediately after this we got to escape from this place as quickly as we can. But we will have shooken him up. We will penetrate him. We will have gotten some kind of. We will see what happens. Something  will happen.

This is all the planning to come up with. So then it’s like the thing is like mission impossible. We got it all completely worked out, okay, that particular distant cue. Then they do some kind of Krishna. I don’t know exactly, it doesn’t say what it was. But it’s something Krishna read to King Aghast. He’s in shock. Just at that moment he gets whammied with the arrows. And at that time the absara she does something, an exposure of some sort. And Then for just one second the king just thinks like a lusty thought for the first time apart from all his, you know, within his wife or something. First time a thought comes immediately he starts to age because you know, imagine he’s like to men like three generations this starts to age a little bit because of it.

He drives it out of his mind, prays to Krishna then he goes after. By this time they’re already gone. They just as soon as this happened they split. But like demoralizing. Everyone can see the king got old. Anyway, the story goes on. So anyway, here Prithu he wanted to have the support of the devas also he wanted everybody’s support for what he’s doing. So we hope that we have the support now of the Devas of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. If we could have the support of the governments that would be super. If we could have the support of the very wealthy people that would be great. We’re struggling with whatever kind of support we have. And eventually somehow Ka’s plan, Lord Chaitanyamya’s plan  will be there. That Prativite, Ache, Jato, Nagaradi, Gram, Savarta, Prachardi, Tehoibi, Mornam.

Every town and village this metric  will spread exactly how it’s going to happen. Nobody can say exactly what Krishna’s plan is. I read in a newspaper just a couple days, I scan over travel. It says that right now it seems as indications that the poles may switch. That the North Pole and South Pole may switch. Because the way that the people are taking all the hydrocarbons from the earth and the way that things are going on. There’s some holes in the magnetic field and some scientists, who knows what they’re writing up but they say some theory that this may switch the poles. And when this happens it’s going to create some kind of. While it’s happening there will be a whole different kind of a situation. It doesn’t like switch overnight. It may take a year to switch or something.

I don’t know, some period of time. During that time all the satellites fall from the sky. The ozone layer goes crazy. And because it’s held together by this magnetic field mass people die because of cancer exposure because of the intense radiation of the sun. So many things happen with the poles. That kind of thing happens. Maybe that shakes people up to become Kṛṣṇa conscious too. Of course they don’t really. This is just one few scientists got a new spin on everything. That we never know what’s on going to happen. Whether it’s a world War. What’s Krishna’s plan? Or whether it happens naturally and organically, just by our preaching. We do our duty, we go forward with what we’re supposed to do. And ultimately, whatever Krishna’s plan is, we try to be sensitive and do that as opportunities come up to preach.

Now, here what Prithu, he’s advising his citizens. Basically, not all the people is democracy. So we have to advise the citizens. He’s advising citizens. You should all take advantage of your human form of life. You should dedicate all your activities to the supreme personality of Godhead. And Prabhupada explains that part of that is associated with saintly people that accept a spiritual master. Tavigyana Artem Sagurum Eva Biga Chet. I remember hearing Prabhupada lecture when he used the word guru Viga Chet. I don’t know Sanskrit so well, but apparently the ending Chet that means like must be. It’s not like an optional thing. So he repeated that again. Eva Bigat Chet. You have to have spiritual master, not optional. So here he also, in his purport, he said the same thing. Guru Bhigache. One must. Must is in parentheses, like, not parentheses, italics for emphasis.

One must. It is not optional. It is imperative that one approach a spiritual master. For by such association, one proportionally develops his conscience toward the supreme personality of Godhead. That’s kind of what’s missing in the whole world state where there’s no guru. One guru guided the Yayati Maharaj and he made the whole world Kṛṣṇa conscious. Prita Maharaj. He also had his gurus. He had the four kumaras he had apart from his regular guru. He had the Shiksha gurus. Four kumaras came down and Gaia. So he had all kinds of spiritual support, spiritual guidance. He’s also now passing that on to his citizens. And Prabhupada explains. So it’s imperative that people have a spiritual master in Kṛṣṇa conscious movement.

We’re going to need so many spiritual masters in the future to guide all the 6 billion people that are going to need spiritual masters here around the world. So all of you have to become qualified in the future to take up spiritual masterhood and guide other people. Of course, to be a spiritual master, first you have to serve a spiritual master and learn from him. So it develops like this as the Guru Parampara system. In this way one develops Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is our system. Prabhupada. The way he explains that like the different yogas are kind of rungs on a ladder. Karma Yoga, Gyana Yoga, Dhyana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga. It’s like a staircase. So Bhakti Yoga is the top. Most step Prabhupada used to exam would take a lift. You don’t have to walk up, you don’t have to go through each staircase.

You can take the lift. Like here’s when you arrive in Heathrow, then you have the option of going up the staircase, escalator even right store they have a lift. You can go in the lift, go right up to the top. So the Bhakti Yoga offers you the lift. Of course, someone could systematically go through all the yogas and eventually end up in Bhakti Yoga. Or you can directly get into Bhakti Yoga lift and go straight. So because we’re in Kali Yuga, we have very little time. The other yogas are not very practical for this day and age. They’re there. Some people are trying to practice whatever limited benefits they get. But Bhakti Yoga is not recommended for everyone. So we have our task ahead of us. It wouldn’t take so much if just one person really became convinced to support Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

You could really make a lot of difference very quickly. But even apart from that kind of special kipa coming down, if we just systematically go on gradually, it also  will have its effect. And that  will convince someone that actually this is working, this is changing people, this is making a better situation. Once you get governmental or public bigger support, then obviously you can increase what you’re doing. So Prabhupada always side by side. He was trying to get some support from those social leaders, religious leaders, government leaders and from the business community. He would always meet these big people and try to get their support. So one hand we’re all trying to gather. There’s a group of our devotees that cultivate people and try to get their support.

Then there’s the other who are doing the direct missionary activities on the other side, just meeting the people. General Prashant distribution book distribution. It was a very systematic program. We have only been in this active for 35 years now, 37 years, I guess since Prabhupada went to the west in 1965. So it’s not a very long time considering that Krishna Kant Consciousness has reached all parts of the world, almost most of the majority pace of the world. And now we need in every place to expand and reach out to all the people, to make it available literally in every town and village to have our extensions of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is leelas are still going on. This is an extended aspect of his pastime. His pastimes are still going on because he predicted this my womb was going to spread everywhere.

So this is the extension. It’s still going on. We’re all having the opportunity of participating in Rojita on his pastimes. I mean devas are coming from the higher planets to participate in the pastimes. Previously some were coming down to disturb the pastimes. We read Caitanya Leela how like Brihaspati, the guru of the Devas he came down to Saravam Bhattacharya, Parvat Muni came. Of course Narada Muni was directly all this. The gurus of the devas, many of them were directly participating. Other devas also were coming down, took appearance in Navadvit and Nadi or Bengal Gormandobhoomi and they were also helping when Krishna was personally present and the devas, he brought them all down into the Yadav dynasty. So Prabhupada mentioned that in his movement there were some devotees that actually came even from Satya Loka. He never identified exactly who is who.

I don’t think anybody here is going to tell us or you know, which planet they came from even if they knew. But that’s the kind of, you know, right now this is a universal project that sometimes my. Forget it in the day to day kind of challenges that we face. But going through these challenges is the test where Krishna sees that, okay, he’s really sincere about trying to carry all this message. Jejataman Prabhupadyan Teitang Sataya Vibha Bhujam Yaham. The word Caitanya sees that these devotees are committed to following their guru, committed to following Srila Prabhupada carrying out his instruction. He’s my representative and he reciprocates. And we have seen this kind of reciprocation, miraculous things happening sometimes. So when we can generate that type of unity and enthusiasm and cooperation then amazing things start to happen.

So I just like to encourage everybody to take the mercy of Lord Chaitanya and follow Rla Prabhupada and his representatives very enthusiastically and in this way very systematically dealing with the different challenges as they come up and chili we’re going to. I see more and more positive changes in the world. It seems daunting when you see the amount of tamas that has taken over the world and rajas. But as Prabhupada said, we have to be prepared for every eventuality even if there is some Kind of a holocaust. If there is some kind of a crisis then the devotees have to be level headed and together enough to be able to provide a guidance for people that this is what’s needed in society. Other things are not working. This is what’s going to work by just sticking to.

Because we know where we’re going, we know where the planet should go and that has its effect. So how it’s going to break through or which way it’s to going to happen, that’s in Krishna’s hands. We just go on doing our humble duty, our humble service and leave the results finally to Krishna. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare. I think we have time for one question. It’s not too complicated. I just wondered if you could give some direction, Not exactly tabloids, more conservative purpose I would say I avoid the tabloids, Times, Telegraph, Financial, some direction about that because it seems like nowadays, you know, with the kind of like say hysteria or something about war or is how necessary it might be for devotees to be informed about what is actually taking place by looking over. Oh I think nobody.

There’s a huge buildup of forces in the Middle east and anything could happen. I think that’s paper just report now another 15,000 soldiers have gone over and they have 150,000 built up in five weeks. They can attack if they want to. The UK government says well it won’t do anything unless we get the UN mandate. And some people speculate that they may not do it. They may not wait to make this follow America, who knows, you know those kind of things. I mean what if there’s a war? People are going to definitely be affected by it just like they were affected by 9, 11 and actually for a while Kṛṣṇa conscious people the devotees were doing Harinan in New York and they were really appreciative. They said this is wonderful. They appreciated that the devotees are doing Harinan.

When people are in a crisis they become a little more open to Krishnas. So when those windows open that’s when you all have to be ready. Thank you for the class.