20030509 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.5.5

(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 9, 2003 – in Śrī Māyāpur, India. The lecture begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.5.5.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.5.5

śrī-prahlāda uvāca
tat sādhu manye 'sura-varya dehināṁ
sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt
hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpaṁ
vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta

Translation: [A-side: Where is Bengali class today?] Prahlāda Mahārāja replied: O best of the asuras, King of the demons, as far as I have learned from my spiritual master, any person who has accepted a temporary body and temporary household life is certainly embarrassed by anxiety because of having fallen in a dark well where there is no water but only suffering. One should give up this position and go to the forest [vana]. More clearly, one should go to Vṛndāvana, where only Kṛṣṇa consciousness is prevalent, and should thus take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Bhagavān Śrī Hari!

Purport: Hiraṇyakaśipu thought that Prahlāda, being nothing but a small boy with no actual experience, might reply with something pleasing but nothing practical. Prahlāda Mahārāja, however, being an exalted devotee, had acquired all the qualities of education.

yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā

sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ

harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā

manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ

"One who has unflinching devotional faith in Kṛṣṇa consistently manifests all the good qualities of Kṛṣṇa and the demigods. However, he who has no devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead has no good qualifications because he is engaged by mental concoction in material existence, which is the external feature of the Lord." (SB 5.18.12) So-called educated philosophers and scientists who are simply on the mental platform cannot distinguish between what is actually sat, eternal, and what is asat, temporary. The Vedic injunction is asato mā sad gamaya: everyone should give up the platform of temporary existence and approach the eternal platform. The soul is eternal, and topics concerning the eternal soul are actually knowledge. Elsewhere it is said, apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām: [SB 2.1.2] those who are attached to the bodily conception of life and who thus stick to life as a gṛhastha, or householder, on the platform of material sense enjoyment, cannot see the welfare of the eternal soul. Prahlāda Mahārāja confirmed this by saying that if one wants success in life, he should immediately understand from the right sources what his self-interest is and how he should mold his life in spiritual consciousness. One should understand himself to be part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa and thus completely take shelter of His lotus feet for guaranteed spiritual success. Everyone in the material world is in the bodily conception, struggling hard for existence, life after life. Prahlāda Mahārāja therefore recommended that to stop this material condition of repeated birth and death, one should go to the forest (vana).

In the varṇāśrama system, one first becomes a brahmacārī, then a gṛhastha, a vānaprastha and finally a sannyāsī. Going to the forest means accepting vānaprastha life, which is between gṛhastha life and sannyāsa. As confirmed in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa (3.8.9), varṇāśramācāravatā puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān viṣṇur ārādhyate: [Cc. Madhya 8.58] by accepting the institution of varṇa and āśrama, one can very easily elevate himself to the platform of worshiping Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Otherwise, if one remains in the bodily conception, one must rot within this material world, and his life will be a failure. Society must have divisions of brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya and śūdra, and for spiritual advancement one must gradually develop as a brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsī. Prahlāda Mahārāja recommended that his father accept vānaprastha life because as a gṛhastha he was becoming increasingly demoniac due to bodily attachment. Prahlāda recommended to his father that accepting vānaprastha life would be better than going deeper and deeper into gṛham andha-kūpam, the blind well of life as a gṛhastha. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we therefore invite all the elderly persons of the world to come to Vṛndāvana and stay there in retired life, making advancement in spiritual consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

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

Thus ends verse 5 text, chapter rather 5, canto 7 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the matter of, “Prahlāda, the saintly son of Hiranyakaśipu” - translation and purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda.

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: So Prahlāda, He told things as they are. He tells it like it is.

So his father was very upset to hear these words of the enemy. Anything about Hari, about Varnashram, about austerities for religious development. Water. Here’s where it all begins. Prahlāda and his father. His father is totally dedicated to sense gratification. His name Hiranya Kashipu. Hiranya means gold. Kashipu means soft bed is dedicated to sense gratification. And his son is telling him to renounce. Renounce. Become austere. Control your senses. You’re living like a frog in a well. It wasn’t what his father was expecting to hear. This is the first. So now he just thinks somehow my son was poisoned by some Vaishnavas. Guard the Gurukul. Make sure none of these Vaishnavas can enter and contaminate Prahlāda. Special security force all around the school. Shoot on site orders if any Vaishnav come. T lock Wak bhai. Finish. What do you think you’re doing here?

You’re trying to pollute the guru coolies, make them devotees. Not in Hiranyakashi’s Pugurukul. But he didn’t know that Prahlāda is the one who’s preaching. And he’s inside the Gurukul having kirtans, having bhajans, having lectures and classes. Here. This very strong instruction, good instruction for the Brahmacharis. Of course. Our Kṛṣṇa conscious Bihastas who are busy enchanting and serving and doing devotional service. They’re not in the same situation as the Griyamedis who are just after Sanskritification. They are special respectable adhikaris. They have adhikari to serve Kṛṣṇa. Still, The secret is to be more attached to Kṛṣṇa and not so much attached to the material comforts but someone to serve Kṛṣṇa. They decide which way which ashram they’re going to be stronger. As a Brahmachari or as bana Prasti. It’s very important that devotees be in the position which is advantageous for them to fight against.

Māyā Ranya Khatsipu. He’s not making any effort to control his senses. He thinks that sense gratification is the goal of life. If you want to be happy, then serve your senses. This is Hiranyakashipu’s secret of success. Prahlāda. Because he was not serving Iranian Kashyaku’s senses became one of the enemy. And Hiranika Sipu got converted into a child abuser. Because he couldn’t control his child’s desire to be a devotee of the Lord. He started torture his son. Everything everyone is supposed to do their life to please Kṛṣṇa. The demons, they are Godas. They want to give their senses gratification. That’s what this material outlook of life. Trains us up. Modern world. There was a picture yesterday in the newspaper. They asked President of the United States when was the happiest moment of his presidency. What was that moment that gave him more happiness?

He said he caught a big fish in his farm. Three kilo fish. That was his happiest moment. This is the leader of the free world. Happy fishing. The fish was not happy, I am sure. So his happiness was the suffering of some other entity. But his worst, saddest moment was when the Twin towers got bombed. So many people were destroyed. Sad moment. Most people, they don’t have this idea even I think in the west it’s not at all considered that people should renounce when they get old. Here it’s an important thing in this verse. Probably the single most ashram that’s being given more credit is Vanaprasth. Do you have any Vanaprastis here? Mahāprabhu Das Gaurav Bonachari Mana Prast is either Vrindabanacherry or Gora Bonachari. Like you say Grihaste Das Adhikari. And Vanaprasti is a Bonachari lives in the forest. Vanachari Vrindavana frost.

So Goraban means Lord Chaitanya’s forest or Vrindavan Kṛṣṇa’s forest. What did you say? Bombay Chari. He’s making joke. Someone may physically live in Bombay, but their heart may be in Vrindavan. You see the T shirts. I lost my heart in Vrindavan. You have seen that we need in the future, when the children grow up at our grihastas, they can get back into more focused service. Of course, even our grihastas while they are grihastas and taking care of family. And they should also be doing devotional service. That’s very important. Maybe they don’t have all the time in the world. Because they have some time. Lot of time has to go for the family things. Take care of the children, working, raising money, making money. But some time should be given. Just like our Bhakti rickshaw devotees in the Middle East. They’re working.

They work seven in the morning till one and then they get a one till four break. Outside it’s 45 degrees and they get to go home and take lunch or sit and take lunch or sleep for a few hours. And then they work again from 4 till 7. Then they go home. Then they do bhakti rickshaw preaching. After all that work, that’s once or twice a week or even sometimes more, they go out and they do programs, outreach programs, study programs, Bhakti rickshaw programs, counselor groups. In temples they can make the garlands, cooking, serving so much in Māyāpur, so many services Prehastas can do. Also student books on the weekend or anytime. Take tours, tour guides, become a tour guide. Take people around, show them Prabhupāda’s rule. Show them the goshela, show them different things. Prabhupāda Samadhi. A lot of outstation guests come.

Help with the Deani worship, help with the sewing. I Can’t remember all the services, but in the weekend you can go and distribute prasad at the Sulab or the Food for Life. I was distributing prasad and BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation photographed me giving prasad. How it was put all over the world. Many people said they saw me. So. But there’s limit. But sometime we should try to give how many hours we can give every week. Help with the management. Serve on Māyāpur Sevak Council Community, was it mcs. Māyāpur Community. Sevaks do some kind of service for the community so we can build up all their grihastas. They’re busy making money. Help us to make some ways that devotees can make money so they don’t have to go out back to the West.

They can do some work here and maintain their family, spend more time with the family together. Then Prabhupāda personally told me that he wanted to have a bana Prastha ashram. He said there would be two kinds. One would be more like simple quarters where people would. They wouldn’t have to pay very much or even would be free, maybe sponsored. But then if they left, they wouldn’t. The room wouldn’t stay for them. It was just that they could stay there while they were there. It’s like a dormitory hostel. But if someone wanted to in those days, he thought 50,000 rupees. No, I don’t know how much it would be. I think more. Much more things were. You know how much it cost us to build the Lotus Building? 600,000 Rupees. Now if you were to build it would cost. I don’t know. Christ.

Six lakhs it cost us in 1973. That time dollars were 7.5 rupees per dollar. Now it’s 46, 44. It’s a different yuga. Petrol was rupees 16 when I came to India. Petrol was 60 paisa a liter in 1970. And soon after they raised it to 160. Big protest. Things were cheaper. So. That. Yeah, what happened? I got all. Yeah, two kinds. So the 50,000 was the price in those days. The other kind, the 50,000 kind, which I don’t know how many  will be now, they get their own apartment and they can have it for their whole life. Stay there with their wife as Rana Prastis and they can lock it up and go and visit their children around India or something. Come back when they pass away. Then there will be money kept in a fixed deposit and the interest  will go to maintain them.

So even if they got sick in their old age, then the ashram would take care of them would also be like a hospice all these visions Prabhupāda had you ever heard of that?

He was thinking about it so the hospice aspect and would be for both but if they wanted to lock up the room and keep it then it was for their lifetime they could do that they like donating almost you know half the price of owning a half or whatever cost price or something and then once they left their body then that would go back to the ashram and someone else could staying but so long they are lying they could stay the prophet he wanted like this There’s a lot of retired a lot of government officers, businessmen and mainly you know service holders they get a pension when they retire they are very qualified people accountants, managers Prabhupāda was thinking it would be good to get that kind of people here so Prabhupāda he was.

Thinking that Māyāpur would be a place also for Vanaprasthas he told me also for Grihastas all the Ashram for Sanyasis and Brahmacharis too But he said that Vihastas should have their own area and Brahmachari should have their area so the Brahmachari area should be away from the Prehasta area should be far enough that they can’t hear the crying of babies he said that’s why we have taken the renounced order so we don’t have to hear any more crying babies. Prabhupāda was very frank.

Today is Mohinī Eqadasi and Dhudhisthir Maharaj asks Kṛṣṇa himself what is the meaning what’s the glories of this ecdyssey so this Ekodasi falls on the bright half of the moon lunar cycle of the holy month of Baishaka the Madusalam month so it’s a very special month Just before Narasinga chapter does said this Mohinī Akadasi is so powerful it can destroy all the sins Give very big blessings to tell the story once of the pastime the history that endowed There was a city by the side of the Saraswati river there in that city there was a rich Vaishya and his name was Dhanapal and he was a very pious man he would give out charity he would plant trees by the road he was doing Yagyas a very pious person always doing different religious activities he had four children, four sons don’t know if he had any daughters we had four sons Sumana, Dhruti Man Medavi Sukriti.

Drishtabhuti the first four sons were also very pious, obedient and good. But the youngest son, Drishtabuli was a very materialistic boy, very sinful. He loved to enjoy illicit sex, gambling, intoxication and meat eating. Although his whole family was vegetarian. Whole family followed the four principles. He would relish breaking all of them. He was a big sinner. He’d go out with prostitutes at night. His father was so angry with him. You’re making bad name for my family. What  will people think? So he banned him from the house. So he had some gold and ornaments sold his gold chain, went around with prostitutes long as he could sell his jewelry. Finally had no more jewelry to sell, no more money. Then they chastised him. What this? You’re not giving us any more gifts. You’re a bum of a rich family.

We don’t like you anymore because you’re not giving us what we want. Money, material life. You have to suffer different ways. So he was suffering then he didn’t know what to do. He stole. He stole. Such a rich man’s son. He’s doing petty theft. The police catch him. They bind his feet. They beat him. But they pull their punches a little bit. They beat him pretty good. But they don’t leave him in the jail. Because anyway he’s a rich man’s son. They tell him, get out of here, leave this town. Otherwise we will really get you. So he ran into the forest. But he has no food what to eat. So he makes a bow and arrow. And he hunts piggies, rats, birds, all kinds of animals. And he’s eating the flesh even on every day. That’s all.

He just his well fallen guy Drishtaburi became totally Adrishta Buddhi Brushtrapuri. So Drishta Buddhi. Then he got more and more into sinful activities. He’s suffering like enemy. He’s practically starving. Eating roots and leaves from the forest. Somehow he had a little. Maybe with his father’s house. He attended some Harinam or something. A little sukriti that was there in his credit. And led him to the ashram of a great Rishi. He went to this great Rishi’s ashram. And the Rishi’s cloth was hanging to dry on the clothesline. Just the cloth touched him. Just by touching the cloth of that Rishi, he was freed from so many countless sins. He had a slight change of heart. He went to the Rishi, said what can I do? I am suffering so much. I want to reform myself.

Now I see that this material sense gratification leads one to suffering and suffering. What can I do? I am totally addicted. He said, well, you can get freed from all your sins by observing Mohinī Ekādaśī, Mohinī Kadasiki. Now it’s just coming up. So he advised them how to fast on a Mohinī Akadasi. By observing Mohiniya Qadasi and performing some devotional service on the holy day he got freed from so much all this. More or less all his sins sin. So today is this Mohinī Kadasi. Kṛṣṇa said that this was also told by Lord Ram to Bishishta Muni. Ram was asked by Bishishta Muni about this Ekādaśī and got a similar instruction. So today is a very good day to observe Ekodasi. How many are observing Ekodasi today? Very good. Those who are not observing. Ask your friends how to observe. Nothing. It’s very simple.

Just don’t eat any rice, wheat, cereals, grains. Take the for our guests we have two messages. Take the Ekada C mess and you will be blessed. Today is a holy day. We’re here. Prahlāda Maharaj. Told the truth to his father. Father got angry. See what happens. Wonder how we’re going to move forward. He’s picking up good verses. Yeah. The words of the enemy give complete protection to this guru pool. So he  will not be influenced by Vaishnavas who may go there in disguise. So that’s. That’s Iran. Yahashipu was. His enemies were the worshippers of Vishnu. Normally the Vaishnavas are protected by sustainable society. The pious king, the Kshatriyas they would protect the Vaishnavas. But under demonic rule the Vaishnavas become the hunted, the criminals, Worshippers of the Lord.

There are some countries in the world where the devotees are prohibited from openly preaching demonic influence is there. There’s places where they’re bulldozing the devotees houses. You’re supposed to write letters. If anybody knows Russian, they can phone up to Kazakhstan. Talk to the president. Tell him that he should start bulldozing the devotees houses. He have the phone numbers if anyone wants. So many places in the world. Very difficult. So we need the mercy now of Lord Narasiṁhadev. Let us invoke his mercy.