20030611 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.8.56

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The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on June 11, 2003 – in London, UK. The lecture begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.8.56.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.8.56

śrī-viṣṇu-pārṣadā ūcuḥ
adyaitad dhari-nara-rūpam adbhutaṁ te
dṛṣṭaṁ naḥ śaraṇada sarva-loka-śarma
so 'yaṁ te vidhikara īśa vipra-śaptas
tasyedaṁ nidhanam anugrahāya vidmaḥ

Translation by His Divine Grace Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda: The associates of Lord Viṣṇu in Vaikuṇṭha offered this prayer: O Lord, our supreme giver of shelter, today we have seen Your wonderful form as Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, meant for the good fortune of all the world. O Lord, we can understand that Hiraṇyakaśipu was the same Jaya who engaged in Your service but was cursed by brāhmaṇas and who thus received the body of a demon. We understand that his having now been killed is Your special mercy upon him.

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: Hiraṇyakaśipu's coming to this earth and acting as the Lord's enemy was prearranged. Jaya and Vijaya were cursed by the brāhmaṇas Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana and Sanat-kumāra because Jaya and Vijaya checked these four Kumāras. The Lord accepted this cursing of His servants and agreed that they would have to go to the material world and would then return to Vaikuṇṭha after serving the term of the curse. Jaya and Vijaya were very much perturbed, but the Lord advised them to act as enemies, for then they would return after three births; otherwise, ordinarily, they would have to take seven births. With this authority, Jaya and Vijaya acted as the Lord's enemies, and now that these two were dead, all the Viṣṇudūtas understood that the Lord's killing of Hiraṇyakaśipu was special mercy bestowed upon them.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Seventh Canto, Eighth Chapter, of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled "Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva Slays the King of the Demons."

Translation with repetition: The associates of Lord Viṣṇu in Vaikuṇṭha offered this prayer: O Lord, our supreme giver of shelter, today we have seen Your wonderful form as Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, meant for the good fortune of all the world. O Lord, we can understand that Hiraṇyakaśipu was the same Jaya who engaged in Your service but was cursed by brāhmaṇas and who thus received the body of a demon. We understand that his having now been killed is Your special mercy upon him.

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Jayapatākā Swami: Hare Kṛṣṇa. These beautiful prayers offered by the heads of different planets and today by the associates of Lord Vishnu. So how Everyone has a personal relationship with the Lord according to their relationship. They were all expressing their obeisances, their appreciation of the Lord, reminding the Lord of their eternal relationship with him as his servant.

And they’re also lamenting that their devotional service had been interrupted because this demon forced them to do their His Beckham call. The Hiranyakashipu made the Yakshas carry His palanquin, made the Gandharvas sing and dance for him. Vishnu worship was banned. Hiranyakashipu worship was allowed. Not only allowed, it was compulsory. You had to love him or he would kill you. So he wasn’t really loved. But most people didn’t want to get killed. Then they had to put on a good show. Of course, probably there were some loyal people that appreciated all the material gifts he gave them.

Right?

Even big demons have some following. See in the world when some dictator overthrown or something. But there’s a few fanatical followers. So when Hiranya Kashipu was liberated by Narasiṁhadev, there are also some demons who attacked Narasingadeva afterwards. And they also got the mercy. Anyone who leaves this world thinking of Kṛṣṇa, then they go back to Godhead. So if you’re killed by Kṛṣṇa, it’s most likely you will be thinking about Him. But because they’re envious of Kṛṣṇa, therefore they go to the impersonal aspect of the Brahma Jyoti of the spiritual world. In other words, the Brahma Jyoti in this case with Jai Vijayat they had the curse of three births as a demon. They wanted to get back quick. So they took that option. And therefore they were. Killed three times by the Lord.

And then the fourth time they took appearance in Lord Chaitanya’s pastimes and they went back to Vaikuṇṭha. So somehow this Vishta Parshana took it as a special mercy. Killing the demon meant okay, this was speeding up his return to the spiritual world. It’s amazing actually how powerful the Brahmins are. That the Brahmanas that they could curse the gatekeepers of Vaikuṇṭha and the curse was accepted by the Lord. So this Brahmanas very powerful. There’s a verse in the Bhāgavatam explains that if you see the power structure in the universe, you take a human being as one. You know, for like we compare the pound in 1970 to the pound in 2003. And what’s your buying power? Take it that human being is one for comparison’s sake. Then the ghost actually 10 times more powerful than humans. Yakshas are 10 times more than them.

Then Gandharvas are 10 times more then Chinnaras. It gives one after another. Everyone is 10 more than the next. Go up so many levels. Then you get to the demons and they’re 10 times more than all the lesser celestial beings. But then the devas, they’re 10 times more than the demons. And Indra, who is the king of the Devas, he’s a hundred times more than other Devas because he’s the king. But the Brahma, compared to Indra, he’s a thousand times more than Indra. Then the Lord says, but actually a Brāhmaṇa, because I respect the Brahmanas, I also respect them, I worship them. So who can put that calculation on their power, even more powerful than Brahman. So a human being is very insignificant in the whole universal scale of things and arrangement. But if a human being becomes Brāhmaṇa, then they become so significant.

Śrīla Prabhupāda he wanted to make Brahmanas Brāhmaṇa Vaishnavas, To be able to do wonderful services for the Lord. Someone told me a couple of days ago how now people are more interested in mystical powers. Maybe the Matrix movie may be getting people, but. The Brahmanas, they automatically have so many mystical potencies, Jairādhā, londanishvaraki. But the real power of the Brahmanas is that the Lord accepts them. There are yogis who do tapasyas and they gain mystical powers. But then that also can be a kind of deviation. They can misuse those powers or they can become attached to the material world. Because what a mystical power is only an expansion of the normal material faculties we have.

So.

In order to get the mercy of the Lord, if one engages in the devotional service and becomes then qualified as a Brāhmaṇa and a Vaishnava, then there’s really nothing. There’s no limit to what they can do. If the Lord is pleased with them. If the Lord wants to, he can work through them unlimitedly. Or mystic yogis, because they’re doing it by their own efforts. There’s always a limit to their power. But if a devotee is empowered by the Lord, then the Lord’s full power, as much as he wants to give them, can go through that. So you can’t really limit it. So here at this occasion of the liberation of Hiranyakashiphu, even residents from the Vaikuṇṭha Lokha were also there accompanying the Lord. Lord of Vaikuṇṭha has come and the standard is how to please The Lord.

The Lord’s pleased that everything is a success, Sang Siddhin Haritoshinam. So here in the Shinga Day, they’re all offering prayers. They all want to please. They all want to get forgiveness for having served this demon. They didn’t have any choice. It was serve or die. And others may not know who he was with his associates of Vaikuṇṭha because they didn’t have to serve the demon. They were out of this material world. They’re appreciating how what happened was also an assurance by the Lord. He protects his devotees in one way or another. So from this point of view, they are saying that, well, this is a type of protection. Lord’s bringing back his devotees back to Vaikuṇṭha. One of the interesting things about Harani Kashipu is the very few people who can get everything they want. He got everything he wanted, and he wanted everything.

He was the single most powerful person in the entire universe. Visible person, material person. He didn’t mess around with Lord Brahma, but he had Brahma’s blessing. And he everybody below Brahma, he was controlling them. He had mystic powers, had everything. He wanted unlimited sense gratification. But he still wasn’t satisfied. But if someone like that can’t be satisfied, he wants to hope for other people. And Prahlad summed it up, it’s because he was a servant of his senses that the way of being happy by serving the senses is hopeless. The way we really get happy when we serve Kṛṣṇa, We live in a material world. Obviously you’re going to have suffering and enjoyment. There’s going to be some sense gratification also. Can’t avoid that. But the devotees, they do everything in such a way that Kṛṣṇa is pleased.

That’s the very special difference about the devotees. And we do that when Kṛṣṇa is pleased. And automatically we become pleased because we’re not. We’re higher than the seventh sense. These are dhow material elements. It’s a kind of a virtual reality. The whole sensual experience, like being in a dream. Sometimes we dream we’re suffering. Someone might be dreaming. And there’s a story about how someone wanted a kalpa bricksha, desire tree. Whatever you want, you could get. So in the desire tree, then you say, well, so If I want 10 kilos of gold, hundred kilos of gold, suddenly appearing. Whatever he wanted. Basket of fully ripe mangoes, nice basket of lychees, a truck of lychees, anything he wanted, it’d just come. They said, well, this is dangerous. What if I would think that A tiger would come, and suddenly a tiger came and ate him.

So that’s not how it works. Desire trees are there to give us whatever we need to serve the Lord. Otherwise you get whatever you think about, whatever you want. You want some crazy thing, pretty soon you get finished, right? So it’s dangerous. Instead, what the desire trees do is say you want to offer nice baskets and mangoes for Randareshwara. On one tree, you can get all the fruits. Okay, you have your shopping list, right? Today that one devotee told me, you can’t beat your class. I do the boga run. You have desired tree, you want to do the Bhagavān. They just give you a list, right? Rice, dal, fruits, vegetables. Because everything is used for Kṛṣṇa. So that it doesn’t become entangling, we get entangled. Of course, people don’t like to hear about that. There’s two kinds of devotees.

There’s the Sakam devotees and the Niskam voice. The Sakham devotees are the devotees who worship the Lord. They’re respectful to the Lord, but they focus as they want the material happiness. They want the illusion to provide them a really nice illusion where they really experience all nice things in this illusion. And they don’t want to be put into the illusion of suffering. They want to put into the illusion of enjoyment. Where the devotees, they don’t desire their niskam. They don’t desire things materially. They want to do everything to please Kṛṣṇa. And sometimes, though, because of the nature of this material world, they’re given some happiness. They’re given some sense gratification. But then they don’t get intoxicated by that. They don’t get infatuated by that and think, okay, now I am happy. I don’t need to serve Kṛṣṇa anymore. This can’t tolerate the happiness.

Go on with their devotional service. I mean, once I wrote Śrīla Prabhupāda because he gave me the service that I should stay in Māyāpur and develop Māyāpur and live there in the holy dam. And I was feeling guilty. I said, this is such sense gratification. It’s so wonderful here. All the beautiful, the Ganges and the wonderful devotees and living in the holy Dharma. I was so happy. So I was feeling guilty that maybe it’s like bad to feel happy, which was, you know, like to do some, like some kind of tough stuff, you know. But this was like, so nice. He said, no, sometimes a guru may order you to do something which you like to do. You don’t have to like artificially reject it just to, you know, like, some people take whips and beat themselves or something.

You don’t have to, like, just take it as the mercy. Or sometimes you might have to do something for the guru which you don’t particularly like. But that doesn’t mean we give up doing it. Like Prabhupāda said, india, where it’s, like, very hot in the summer season still, the housewives, they cook for their family. It’s their duty, their dharma. Or in the winter, even though it’s very cold, but sometimes people still take a bath in the winter. Bajaris bathe in the winter too, right? Even though it’s cold out. So it’s part of being here. So we accept the good and the bad to come. Or sometimes there’s suffering. Sometimes you do good in a marathon and they read your name out and you a little bit of recognition there.

Sometimes maybe the ashram leader gets on your case because you didn’t clean up after yourself. And come on, why get on my case? I was number four in the marathon. Doesn’t work that way, right? You. You got to take the fame and the infamy and the praise and the chastisement and all you can not get. Of course, it’s nice to get appreciated sometimes, but there should be more of that. But sometimes we have to also be told other things. If we’re making mistakes in our spiritual life or for putting ourselves at a greater risk that we should be reminded, that’s also mercy. So in this situation, being here in the material, where the. This kind of devotee, they just stay focused on doing devotional service. Sometimes it may be very easy to do. Sometimes it may be a little bit tougher to do.

Sometimes it may be very sensually pleasing to do it, and sometimes it may be a little difficult to do. As much as possible, they try to stay fully absorbed in their devotional service, and then gradually they get a taste of devotional service, and that’s much greater, inconceivably and unlimitedly more greater and satisfying than any material experience. So you hope that the devotees all quickly develop the taste for devotional service and the attachment for it and ultimately the ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa. Then it’s very easy. Then other things looks very bland compared to that. Initially, when one hasn’t developed the taste, then it seems like, oh, this is austere, because there’s not as much sense gratification as I’d like to have. And this is okay, because I can take the austerity of, like, today’s Economy. So devotees are fasting, you know, bit difficult.

But usually devotees don’t complain too much about the dwarasic regulation. You have to feast on dwarasi so that one’s a little easier for most people. The problem with fasting and feasting, it’s all part of our devotional service. Sometimes we fast, sometimes and we feast. So this way we learn to become fixed in all different circumstances. Because we need to like. It’s like a training kind of building up your resistance. Because at the time of death that’s like the final examination. Generally speaking, it’s pretty lousy. It’s pretty tough if you’re dying of old age. The mucus gets caught in your throat, you’re choking up and can’t hear properly. Maybe there’s so much pain in the body. So that time it’s not so easy to remember Kṛṣṇa. But you have to be able to remember Kṛṣṇa.

So remembering Kṛṣṇa, when we’re going through some difficulty, that’s like helping us, preparing us that the ultimate difficulty of leaving this body, we will be able to remember Kṛṣṇa. Remembering Kṛṣṇa, even when we’re having good times, it’s pretty easy sometimes. Many people are able to remember Kṛṣṇa when they’re difficult. I mean the pious people. But remembering Kṛṣṇa when you’re materially happy, that’s sometimes difficult. Because then people think, well, I will surrender a little later. Right now it’s going okay. So the devotees, we have to become so much attached to Kṛṣṇa that we’re going to remember him all the time. Just like Bhakti Thakur prayed. Offering. There’s some things we take to be ours. Like our house, our mind, our body. My mind, my house, my body. I am offering everything at your lotus feet.

Lord Kṛṣṇa Nanda Kishore, son of Nanda Maharaj in while living Jeevanate Moroni while dying be prade when I am in danger, some Pune when I am in success. It’s like there’s a story told by. Siddhānta Sara Sati Takur that the Devas have been fighting the demons. And generally they are successful. They are having a really hard time. They prayed to Vishnu to please help us. And then Vishnu gave them some special blessing. And they were successful in their military campaign against the demons. But after the war was over, they were praising each other. Indra, you are a great general. You know, you’re a great warrior. You’re a celebrity king. With our great general Skanda, everything was successful, no? But Bhaiuradev, you’re really a great fighter. Oh Agni. You’re a super guy. You know, everybody’s praises each other.

And Vishnu said, you know, they’re all praying a little while ago for help. That time I gave them the help. Now nobody remembers, you know, that it was my blessing. And then they’re all like really proud of their great powers. So then he thought, let me just teach them a little lesson. Where does their power come from? So he took the form of a yogī and he was meditating there. And Indra saw this yogī with so much. Who is that? So listen, you probably heard this story before told Bayu Dev, go over and check him out. Find out who he is. So then Bayu came over and Vishnu in the form of the yogī was like meditating with his eyes closed. So while Bayou is standing in front, he opens his eyes and before he can stand he says, who are you?

So then Bayu says, I am Bayou Dev. Bayou Dave. What power do you have? Well, I have the power to blow. Like I am going to move air. Really? You can blow things. I mean you can. You see this little piece of straw here, Symbolized by this flower petal here. Let’s put it right here. Can you make it move? So then Mayo Dave said, move a straw? Give me a break. So then he said, no problem. So then he started. And so much wind was coming like hurricanes. Trees are falling over. But that little straw didn’t move. Turned really red, you know, turned around, walked off. So Indra said, so who was that? Oh, I forgot to ask. You forgot that? What did I just say over the one job I gave you? You know you didn’t. What is wrong with you?

Well, it’s hard to explain. But listen, Agnita, you go find out who is that. Who is that yogī there? How can he just pop up in our planet? We don’t even know who he is. Come on, find out who he is. So then again, Vishnu is a yogī. He had his eyes closed, meditating. Who are you? I am Agni Dev. My dear Brāhmaṇa Agni Dev. What power you have? Oh, I have the power to burn. You can burn things. See this little straw here? Can you burn that? I want to see your power burn a straw. She don’t want me to burn something. No, no, you just burn the straw. I hate you. All around it, the stone is melting everything. But the straw remains fresh and untouched. He was really burning himself out. But nothing happened to the straw. So he was fried out.

And he turned around and walked back and so interesting. So who was that yogī? Who was the yogī? You mean you didn’t find out who the yogī was? No, I couldn’t find that out. What is wrong with you, Davis? You’re not like you used to be. Come on, what’s wrong with you? So then Anderson, I gotta go find out myself. This is too much. I mean, Bayou did. He couldn’t find out who the yogī was. Come on. Okay, the king himself has to do it. Then he goes over, you know, to find out the yogī is gone. Meanwhile, Apsarai, the famous Apsara. Urmila. Urmila. Urvasi. Urvasi. Urvasi. She was flying by and then said, urvasi. There was that Yogī here a little while ago. I mean, you know who that yogī was? You don’t know? You don’t know that yogī was Vishnu.

You’re all very proud of all your Deva power. He was standing right in front of you and you couldn’t figure out who he was. And you became really ashamed. So the devotees should always remember that any success they achieve, it’s all by mercy of Guru and Kṛṣṇa. Devotee takes the very humble. Sometimes they suffer, they take it well. I really deserve to suffer a lot more. I committed so many bad karmas in the past. I did so many offenses that I should really be getting a super smash. But instead I just got like a kicked my foot and broke my leg or something. One time Prabhupāda cut his finger. One drop of blood came. Then he said that I should have had my head cut off. But instead just one drop of blood. Kṛṣṇa too. So we need to train up our minds.

So somehow these Vishnu Duttas, these Vishnu Parshanas, I guess for them it’s kind of demoralizing. One of the Vishnu Parshas gets cursed to be a demon. But they’re taking it also that somehow this is some special mercy. Lord was killed in Jaya’s incarnation. And so he’s going to quickly come back. So if JV J can commit an offence to a Brahman and they can become demon, then if we commit offenses to Brahmanas and Vaishnavas, what’s the hope for us, right? Lord Chaitanya said to be very careful against offenses. Afim says he called it the mad elephant. I don’t know if you have ever seen a mad elephant. I know our Mahout gets our elephant just to appear mad. And that’s enough to get everybody running when they start roaring. But an actual mad elephant, so the male elephants, they go into.

They have some kind of. I forget what they call it. Some liquid comes from their eyes and the males get really passionate and they go like mad. Sometimes they kill their mahouts and they really can’t be controlled. They just have to chain them down. It’s like totally out of it. So if you get a mad elephant, they just. They just. They go into some garden and just pull out the trees and stomp on everything. Is that what happens to our spiritual creeper if we offend our Vaishnavas, our spiritual creeper in the garden of our heart that we’re tenderly watering with Hare Ka?

Everything gradually it’s growing, grows that the creeper can grow across to the 14 planetary system, up to the Brahmaloka, then beyond the Kailash to the border of the material and spiritual world, past the Piroja river into the spiritual world, beyond the Brahma Jyoti, beyond the Vaikuṇṭha Lokas, beyond Daijodaya, up to Golok Vrindava and take shelter of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, that spiritual creeper that can grow and achieve all these perfections while its roots are here in the material world. It. It grows up to the spiritual world and takes shelter. Rādhākṛṣṇa. But one really heavy, serious vaiavaparada. And it’s like letting the wild elephant loose and just tramples on our creeper or uproots it. Rejecting a bona fide guru. Different kinds of really heavy offenses in there that set one back really far. So you had to be very careful. I mean, it wasn’t so heavy.

Who were these four guys trying to come in there? Vaikunta. Hey, wait a minute. Show me your ID or something. Stop. Then you cursed them. It wasn’t so heavy. Of course. Later the Kumaras felt really bad because they cursed one of the Lord’s devotees. They also begged forgiveness. Later the curse still stayed in place. You had to be careful. Fences are really dangerous. Chaitanya Mahāprabhu and here like everyone’s offering prayers to Nishingadev. But he’s very unapproachable here. I mean Nasingadev is like so angry at that time. But they’re offering prayers that really nobody can get close. So finally the next chapter is entitled. Prahlad pacifies Lord Nishinga Day with prayers. His. He’s really the only one that can come close to Nishinga.

And that’s something which is very special about Māyāpur Dam is that when Nishinga Dev came to Māyāpur Dham it was a place we visited. How many have been there? How many want to go Sometimes. Love you. So there it says, after Lord Narasingadeva had liberated Hiranya Kashiput, he was flying over the earth and then he saw Navadvidam. So he remembered that this is my holy place, this is my eternal abode. So then he landed there and all the devas built houses on little hillocks called polis. And they took the form of like villagers. And they were just Brāhmaṇa villagers. And they were worshipping the Lord and cooking for him and serving him and doing all kinds of personal service. So there Lord Narasingadeva became very approachable. That’s special because Māyāpur Dhamma is the Odarya Dham. It’s the Dham of mercy.

So there even Shinga Day becomes very approachable. This Lord Caitanya’s special mercy makes everything very approachable for us in Kali Yuga work. Now, this demonic influence, you don’t have the big Hirani Kashiva forcing everyone to act like demons. But people think it’s fun or funny, you know, do bad karmas. Some sign that was advertised. I don’t know what it’s advertised. The seven sins or something. That’s a kind of a guidebook on what you should do, right? So I don’t know what it’s advertising. People like that, they don’t know what to do with their lives. So instead of going back to Godhead, now they’re trying to imitate demons. We’re trying to show them that the real happiness is actually being Kṛṣṇa conscious. So what’s important? I remember one time Prabhupāda ordered one disciple. I order you to be happy.

Śrī Prabhupāda wants all of you to be happy. So many times he said, chant and be happy. So this is an order from Rupha Instruction, you all must become happy. How many would like to follow that instruction? And he said, you become happy and then you make others happy. So it’s a pretty happy process. Hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare. So in Narmayapura Narasingadeva Chhatra Dāsī, we also observed that with a very big festival with the Sudarshan Homa that has thousands of ovulations in the fire and a couple different homas. Glorious Nishinga Day. That Nishinga Day There they also share some of the leelas. The Shinga Day of a gave one lady who was going blind, gave her back her eyesight. So many interactions with the devotees. It’s very merciful. It’s quite a wonderful plus the normal Shastric classes.

So that’s the end of the Chandan Yātrā. We pray that we cover the Lord with Sandalwood for 21 days and then we take off the sample. It’s really dry. Then it’s going to be really dry. So then we bathe them with essential oils. There’s eight medicinal oils in a base of sesame seed oil. So I have the bottle I gave to our temple president. I also have here some of that whale two we can put on your forehead, smell it and get to help remove your obstacles. So you can do a really nice Sankirtan, a nice service and Deedi Russian. Hope it helps everybody. If you need another dose later, you can just see mud. While we’re giving this out because we’re always in a time bind here if anybody has a question.

Otherwise I will be down in a restaurant and if anyone wants to see me, you can come and have a private or group interview as long as it doesn’t interfere in your service. Nice. Nice dressing. Nice guy. Okay,.

Right after we finish here, Jaipur Dakumarsh is going to go down to the restaurant. Please make it easy for him by not trying to come and talk to him here. If you want to talk to him, anybody wants to talk to him, you can go to the restaurant. There’s plenty of space, plenty of time. But not here because it holds up our serving breakfast prasāda. I realize a lot of people are fasting today, but some devotees are taking prasāda, especially those who are going out on book distribution. So please help us facilitate this. As soon as we break up here, just make a nice clear path so Maharish can go out of this room and down to the restaurant. Sankatan’s course from yesterday in Śrī Rādhā Lemnesware’s transcendental song.