20040401 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 9.4.68 | Vyāsa-pūjā Morning Lecture

Following is the class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Māhārāja on April 1st, 2004, in Śrī Dhāmā Māyāpur, India. The class begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Ninth Canto, Chapter Fourth, Verse Sixty-Eight.

oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yenatasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya, kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin, iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve, gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te
kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ

he kṛṣṇa karuṇā-sindho, dīna-bandho jagat-pate
gopeśa gopikā-kānta, rādhā-kānta namo ’stu te

tapta-kāñcana-gaurāṅgi, rādhe vṛndāvaneśvari
vṛṣabhānu-sute devi, praṇamāmi hari-priye

vāñchā-kalpa-tarubhyaś ca, kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca
patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo, vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare
hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ, paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande, śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavaṁ, śrī-caitanya-īśvaram
hariḥ oṁ, tat sat

Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 9.4.68/ Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 1.62

sādhavo hṛdayaṁ mahyaṁ
sādhūnāṁ hṛdayaṁ tv aham
mad-anyat te na jānanti
nāhaṁ tebhyo manāg api

Translation: “Saints are My heart, and only I am their hearts. They do not know anyone but Me, and therefore I do not recognize anyone besides them as Mine.”

Purport: This verse appears in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (9.4.68) in connection with a misunderstanding between Durvāsā Muni and Mahārāja Ambarīṣa. As a result of this misunderstanding, Durvāsā Muni tried to kill the king, when the Sudarśana cakra, the celebrated weapon of Godhead, appeared on the scene for the devoted king is protection. When the Sudarśana cakra attacked Durvāsā Muni, he fled in fear of the weapon and sought shelter from all the great demigods in heaven. Not one of them was able to protect him, and therefore Durvāsā Muni prayed to Lord Viṣṇu for forgiveness. Lord Viṣṇu advised him, however, that if he wanted forgiveness he had to get it from Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, not from Him. In this context Lord Viṣṇu spoke this verse.

The Lord, being full and free from problems, can wholeheartedly care for His devotees. His concern is how to elevate and protect all those who have taken shelter at His feet. The same responsibility is also entrusted to the spiritual master. The bona fide spiritual master’s concern is how the devotees who have surrendered to him as a representative of the Lord may make progress in devotional service. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is always mindful of the devotees who fully engage in cultivating knowledge of Him, having taken shelter at His lotus feet.

Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta Swami Translation and Purport.

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: This is a purport from the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. It is a different purport in the Bhāgavatam, but I am using it. This quote, but it is quoted in Caitanya-caritāmṛta. This is from Ādi-līlā, First Chapter, Sixty-second verse, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Ninth Canto, Fourth Chapter, Text Sixty-eight. This verse, especially we chose it today because the Lord, it states that He wholeheartedly cares for His devotees. The Lord is free from all problems. If somebody has a problem, it is difficult for them to fully take care because they take care of their problem first, then they take care of other people’s problems. But since Lord Kṛṣṇa has no problems, He can take care of everybody else’s problems.

Also, since He is unlimited, He can do that unlimitedly. But here in this verse it also, Prabhupāda explains in the purport, the same responsibility is also entrusted to the spiritual master. The spiritual master is also trying to care for the devotees. Especially he wants to see how the devotees can progress in devotional service. Those devotees that have surrendered to the spiritual master as a representative of the Lord, then he is personally responsible and concerned that they make progress. We saw that His Divine Grace Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, he was always concerned about how his followers would advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, how they would get back to Kṛṣṇa.

So, he made different programs, like the daily temple program, like different devotional services. He wrote his books. he built Māyāpur, Vṛndāvana dhāmas, temples, and so many other things, all considering what is needed for his disciples, his followers, who are taking shelter of him, to get back to Kṛṣṇa. He instituted the guru-paramparā system – continued it, ordering his followers to also be gurus and take on the responsibility on his behalf.

Sometimes we would see Prabhupāda crying for a disciple who was misplaced, misdirected. Even we heard that in New York in nineteen sixty-seven there was a bhakta, kind of a visitor, who would come to the temple frequently. So, he was known as like a Bhakta Herry or Steven, I forgot his name, any something, in New York City, I forget. And somehow, because he was still not fully practicing, he became depressed because of some intoxication or something. For some reason, he stopped coming and the devotees heard that he could not give up his bad habits. He was feeling frustrated. He wanted to be a devotee. But then, somehow, he committed suicide in his frustration. Prabhupāda one day asked, “Where is this bhakta? Bhakta Herry?”

He said, “Well, I have not seen him for so many days.” They told him what happened. He said, actually, Prabhupāda said, “Just pray for him.” And he prayed, “Kṛṣṇa, where is this Bhakta Herry now? Where is he going? We wander in the forest. We beat our head against the trees and the rocks. Where is our dear Bhakta Herry? Please have mercy on him that he can take birth in a family of the devotees.” Prabhupāda was crying for this visitor, not taking any change. He just came a few times. Prabhupāda said, “We failed. We failed this devotee because somehow, we could not get him fully into devotional service. Kṛṣṇa sent him to us and we failed.” So, that is how compassionate Śrīla Prabhupāda was. Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya!

I was thinking that Śrīla Prabhupāda has sent me a number of devotees. I am supposed to care for them. And the past few years I was doing as I was feeling since 1997 and as a Prabhupāda disciple, my concern, it should not be only whatever my individual responsibilities are, but I had to also seek for the whole ISKCON, to some degree, welfare, especially as a GBC, as a senior disciple. So, then for many years, since then, maybe since 1997, I stepped up a program for trying to care for any devotees that came.

But then in the meantime, there were many other disciples who took shelter of me, surrendered to me. Their feelings are like that I am not taking enough care for them. And that was this last Janmāṣṭamī, Prabhupāda’s Vyāsa-pūjā, I thought, I have to start to balance things – my services to Māyāpur, to India, to my zone, to my disciples, and to all the devotees that were otherwise depending on me or looking to me for any help. So, I realized that Prabhupāda had given a practical system for caring for devotees.

In those days, all the devotees, most of them lived in the temples. So, the temple presidents and temple leaders and the few sannyāsīs and GBCs, they were mainly taking care of the devotees on behalf of Prabhupāda. And then if there was an emergency, you could always write a snail mail to Prabhupāda. In those days, there was no e-mail. And then eventually he would get a reply after a few weeks or months. Whenever Prabhupāda visited, and sometimes people would see him if there was an emergency, a few devotees, they would follow wherever Prabhupāda was, chasing around, which he did not always appreciate, but it was another way.

So, I think we are trying also that all the devotees that are either in a temple, or they are in a Nāma-haṭṭa, or a Bhakti-vṛkṣa, or a Counselor group, or they are helped by senior devotees. Otherwise, you can imagine, if everybody came to me one time and said, “I want a Question-and-Answer (session).” Like, yesterday somebody made a big thing, “I have to see the guru, I have had this question for one year, it is vitally important, stop everything.” (So, I said,) “Okay”, then he wanted to know, you know, some question about his brāhmaṇa thread. But you could have found out from any senior devotee, any other senior brāhmaṇa.

But if time permits me, it is okay, I do not mind answering any question, but we will have a Question-Answer session tomorrow afternoon. But also, it was not a personal, highly personal question, maybe other people have the same question about their brāhmaṇa thread, I do not know. It was a funny question. But, how to, you know, actually I was thinking that I really need the help from disciples, and my godbrothers, and all the devotees. From the godbrothers and all the older devotees, I am also there to help them, whatever they need. But I need their help also, to help care for all these devotees who have taken shelter. Spread around a little bit the mercy. And from the older disciples, that they also guide the younger disciples.

Sometimes there is special opportunities when they get, like those who come on Safari, we have a lot of personal association. Sometimes, even sometimes those who travel with me, it is not always, sometimes it is so intense that they do not get so much time even to ask the question because travelling might be very intense. Sometimes Māyāpur is a difficult place, during Gaura-Pūrṇimā, we ask for help from all over India, all over the world. So, then I have to tell them, “They have come from a long distance, I have to see them”, the rest of the year – the Māyāpur devotees at Nṛsiṁha-caturdaśī and Rādhāṣṭamī and Bhīṣma-pañcaka, Kārtika, there are not so many outsider devotees. So, the locals get more of my time.

But, I think this year I would like to give the maximum. Because a lot of the local devotees here have not seen me personally. So, that is going to require also a lot of help and patience. Then I was thinking that, now we are starting the big temple, and I have to do more hands-on management with the big temple – designing or some fine-tuning of that, also making the exhibits. So, whenever you do something hands-on, that means you do not have time for other things. You have to just focus.

And then, a couple of years ago in India, they decided all the zonal secretaries have to be more hands-on, check the temples, spend more time in each temple. That is good for the devotees in those temples. But it also means sometimes when I am there, we have to talk about management. It is not like all the time it would be just for the disciples. So, this is a big challenge. We want to take care. As I said, it is the responsibility also of the spiritual master to take care. But Kṛṣṇa can expand Himself into unlimited forms. Where a guru is just . . . a yogī only can make ten forms, but I am still only one. So, it is going to require a lot of help from everybody, how to give association and help.

You know, sometimes devotees send e-mails. Sometimes I get two hundred e-mails in one day. It would take me three days to answer them. So, e-mail has become also like an impossible situation. And then people say, “I did not get an answer from my e-mail, so my guru does not love me.” Which is not the case, it is just I do not know how to deal with all this information. We have been working at it for a few years. We still do not have a formula. If anybody has any ideas.

I have been answering all my e-mails myself. Only getting help for drafting. Not a single e-mail is replied by a disciple in my name. Unless they get an e-mail themselves or some general thing where they write it. We can see it is them who is writing. But maybe that is not possible to do. Because just to sort through all the e-mails and figure out what is relevant, what is not relevant. Some people write to me, “Dear Jayapatākā Swami, when is Gaura-Pūrṇimā?” So, then, if I have to answer all those letters, let me know that someone who really has a crisis, “Gurudeva, I am ready to jump out the window. I need this.” So, how to sort out and see which is the essential ones.

I may have to have everything go through a secretary first. So far it has not been like that. I do not see all the e-mails either. So, in the modern day, we have these modern expectations and modern situations. And I will be spending more time in Māyāpur than how they . . . I was thinking somehow, we can set up on some web page and have worldwide iṣṭagoṣṭhīs where people can ask questions and answer on the internet. That may be one way. Use the modern technology. I heard they have such kind of user groups where at one time a few hundred people are online. Maybe that is . . . I have some schedule. I just wanted devotees to know that in spite of all these practical obstacles, I still care for them... (audio abruptly ends)