20060427 Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 11.7.11-12

(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 April 27, 2006 – in Balarāmadeśa. The lecture begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.7.11.

Translation by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda’s followers: One who has transcended material good and has he got translation here? Malayalam translation. Okay. Bangla bosan. And everyone. Nobody knows Malayalam here. They know English. Who knows English? Raise your hand. Raise your left hand. What language you know? Make some space. No need for Malayalings. Maybe one or two.

I don’t know.

One or two. Even one or two. We want them. They’re translating. Yeah. Malayalam translated. Anyone who needs. Śrīmad Bhāgavatam for the people. One who has transcended material good and evil automatically acts in accordance with religious injunctions and avoids forbidden activities. The self realized soul does this spontaneously like an innocent child. Are you all innocent children? Very good. And not because he is thinking in terms of material good and evil. Very interesting verse. One who has developed transcendental knowledge never acts whimsically. Śrīla Rūpa Goswami describes two stages of devotional service. Sadhana bhakti and Ragnuga bhakti. Raghanuga Bhakti is the stage of spontaneous love of Godhead, whereas Sadhana Bhakti means the conscientious practice of the regulated principles of devotional service. In most cases, one who is now enjoying transcendental consciousness has rigidly practiced the rules and regulations of devotional service.

Thus, through the previous practice, one spontaneously avoids sinful life and acts in accordance with the standards of ordinary piety. This does not mean that a self realized soul is consciously avoiding sin and pursuing piety. Rather, due to his self realized nature, he spontaneously engages in the most exalted spiritual activities. Such as an innocent child may spontaneously exhibit good qualities such as kindness. How many of your children are kind? You don’t beat up your brothers. Kindness. What do we got here? Tolerance. You’re tolerant when your mother doesn’t give you candies and so on. The spiritual platform is called Sudha Sattva or purified goodness, to distinguish it from the material mode of goodness which is always to some extent polluted by the lower modes of passion and ignorance.

Thus, if a man is in material goodness appears to be most pious in the eyes of the world, we can only imagine the spotless character of a self realized soul in purified spiritual goodness. Therefore, it is said in the RD Bhgavatam 5.18.12 Yasyasti Bhakti Bhagavatyakinshana Savargunaistat sama Sat sara sura haidersati Dhavatobahi. If one is a pure devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, he  will automatically exhibit all the exalted qualities of the Devas. Such manifestation of purity is spontaneous as explained in this verse. Navi padyeta vaipuna. One who is the kind well wisher of all living beings, who is peaceful and firmly fixed in knowledge and realization, sees me, said Kṛṣṇa, within all things. Such a person never again falls down into the cycle of birth and death. How is everyone? Are you well? Everyone is blissful. You have been having nice association with our Bhakti.

Bis Ramba Madhav Swami Maharaj. He’s been giving you nice instructions. Nice association. Let’s give him a big Haribo. Kṛṣṇa tells us here. About someone who is transcendent good and evil. It’s a very interesting topic. In this material world, there’s things that we consider good and things we consider evil. Good. What’s going on down here? Give the verses back. Okay. You don’t eat the verses. What is good? Give me some example, kids. Yes. What is something good? Helping others. Chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa. No, that’s more than good. There’s three levels. Good, Bad Good Evil and super good. Transcendental good. Sudha Sattva Spiritually good. If you help others materially, then you get material good Karma. If you help others Kṛṣṇa consciously in the name of Kṛṣṇa, then you get Ka’s blessings. If you steal from others or hurt others, that’s the evil, right?

You get what? Bad karma. Pop. Now in the Bhāgavatam there’s famous personalities. Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa who was at the Ranti Dev who was in the hole? Maharashtra Rantidev was the one giving away the cows. Who was the one that got in the hole? In the. Oh, Ranti is the food. What’s the name of the king that was in a lizard form? Roga niruga maharaj. Nuruga. Kṛṣṇa found this. He was lizard, right? Chris? In a well in a Kua on the coupon. And Kṛṣṇa saved him. And by Kṛṣṇa’s blessing he came back to the human form. So Kṛṣṇa asks, how is it you got this form as a lizard? You know what is a lizard? It’s like a snake with legs. Eats usually insects. Depends how big a lizard. So the king Nuruga, he said that he was giving away charity. Is giving charity good?

Is it good? How many say giving charity is good? Why you don’t say it’s good? What’s wrong with Anything wrong with charity? Is it good? All agree it’s good. Is it transcendental?

Correct. Charity is transcendental.

When is charity transcendental? When you give to Kṛṣṇa or in Kṛṣṇa or you’re giving away Kṛṣṇa Prasad or something connected to Kṛṣṇa. So he was a rich king. He wanted to get lots of Punya. So he was giving every Brahmina a hundred cows. Say, here’s a Brahmin. Here you a brāhmaṇa. Hey, 100 cows. Now you’re a Brahmina. You got hundred cows. You get. Everyone is giving hundred. But one of the cows from this one went back into the corral, the fencing. And he gave again the same cow to you, to the next Brahmin. So you had 99 and you had 100. No, somehow he only got 100 because his one went back and that was given again to him. He said, wait, I am missing my cow. I want my cow. The one Brahmin claimed. Somehow that cow was given twice.

He offered the first Brahmin. I will give you 100 cows for that one. No, no. Why should I take another cow? It’s a prestige issue. It’s my cow. I want my cow. I will give you. Look at a thousand cows. 10,000 Cows. You give me million cows. I want only that cow. Then the other Brahmin, he said, why am I lesser than him? Why should I give my cow? You gave it to me. I am not giving it. You give him that cow. I will give you 100 cow. I am not a greedy man. I don’t need more cows. Why should. I don’t want 100. I don’t want one cow. I want this cow. So both were very dissatisfied. Why he’s managing giving away that cow. She was cursed. You become a lizard. What kind of donor are you? Giving away the cow twice.

And there he was as a lizard in a well, eating insects with the frogs. Emperor Great Emperor Maharaj Samrat became lizard because of little mistake in giving charity. So this punyard pious activity, good activity, is dangerous in many ways because it still binds us to the material world. There was once a rich landlord. He gave charity to one cobbler living near his house. The cobbler never paid back the donation, the loan, whatever. The rich man died because he gave a charity to the poor man. The poor man was indebted to him. So therefore he took Bert as the son of the poor man. So the poor man could pay him back. He owed him something. He got money from him. How to pay back that debt? If you’re the son. Parents spend money on their children. How many of you are parents?

Raise your hand. Who are parents? You spend money on your children. So one kind of child is called debtor child. In a previous life you have a debt with that person. They come as your child just to get back their money. They’re always asking from their parents, give me, give me the suputra. Good child always want to serve the parents. Serve Kṛṣṇa help every time. Be very pious to all the spiritual activities that suputra. Then the debtor putra. Give me, give me. They don’t want to give anything to their family. They want to take. These are all suputras and putris, right? All giving. Then that son of the cobbler who previously was a rich man. He never trained his own children to be kind. So when he went as the son of the cobbler to his house, his son was now the landlord.

He went and fixed the shoes of his son in the previous life. He asked for some money for fixing. Who are you to ask money for me? My father gave you so much money. You never paid him back. Your father never paid him back. Then he beat with a shoe the cobbler’s son who was actually his own father from the previous birth. Such is the loss of karma. So doing good things brings good karma but also brings karmic entanglement in the material world. Doing bad things, sinful things, of course we know that brings direct sinful reactions, suffering. And even good karma brings suffering. Everything in this material world brings suffering. But when one serves Kṛṣṇa, That does not produce material karmas. That gives us spiritual freedom. That’s called Sudha Sattva. Transcendental goodness, pure goodness. And the credit is called sukriti.

We get credit in Kṛṣṇa’s book for having served him. Kṛṣṇa never forgets our service. So here it’s talking about someone who’s very advanced. He’s a self realized person. He may not. Even think about what he is doing. But automatically he  will be doing something for a very exalted reason. Because he does everything to please Kṛṣṇa. There was one Godbrother, Ramanujacharya. His name was Govinda Das. Everybody was always complaining about him. So many rumors, so many talks. They couldn’t understand. Because there’s one kind of devotee who does things by rules. So they simply follow the rules. They are not yet at the level. They do everything to please Kṛṣṇa naturally. So they follow guidelines called rules. That’s recommended. But if somebody goes even beyond that to where they are naturally always thinking how to Please Kṛṣṇa.

Then they can do things automatically even without the rules. But sometimes it’s not understood by others. One time. Gohin Nadas was grabbing a cobra by the neck and sticking his finger inside the mouth of the cobra. And the cobra went. Choking. People said, just see, he’s torturing the poor cobra. Would you stick your finger in the mouth of a cobra? If it bites you will die. Very dangerous. So Ramanuja went and asked him, why are you sticking your finger in the mouth of the cobra? The cobra swallowed a lemon. It’s stuck in the throat. I am trying to get it out. Poor thing is choking. So everyone’s criticizing that. He seems to be torturing the cobra. He’s actually trying to save the cobra. Risking his own life. Putting his finger in the throat. Like that. Govind Madhyas who is very special devotee, cannot imitate.

So like a child is innocent. A small child. I don’t know. A small child. They naturally do things. If they have a good nature, they do things nicely. These self realized souls. They naturally do things. Thinking how to please Kṛṣṇa. How to help the living entities. Someone may be like went during the tsunami relief. Some devotees were distributing prasadam from Tirunelveli. They took prasad nearby to Konya Kumari. First day they distributed prasad. Everyone took their leg. But most of those people are not Hindus. There’s some other religion. Then the nearby leaders of the Aristar. They’re eating the Hare Kṛṣṇa prasadam. Somehow they didn’t like it. So they told the people, look, they went there. Then they started to distribute relief. Giving the people fish and other things. So next they said no, we don’t want your vegetarian food. We’re getting nice non veg.

So in the eyes of the people, they are very charitable. They’re giving them nice non veg meals costs more. We are giving prasadam which is transcendental. The prasadam  will save them from so many karmas. So what people do in the material world. May be considered very pious, very charitable but maybe even very sinful. From the scriptural point of view, Someone who is really good. Now everything is Kali Yuga. People don’t know also what is good and what is evil. Some evil things they think are good. Some good things they think are not good. In the west at least maybe india people still have an idea about what is good and what is evil. But a devotee is something very special. So we all want to become Vaishnavas, right? How many of you want to become a Vaishnava? You Want to transcend.

Lord Caitanyan Chaitanya Cherdamidha. He said Eh Bhalu e mando ESAB mone Brahmo. This is good, this is bad. That’s all concoction of the mind. In the material world. What we think is good, what we think is bad. Material mundane. Morality. Has nothing to do with transcendental science. We need to know what  will please Kṛṣṇa. The devotee does everything to please Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. So that’s why they are considered as transcendental elevated moralists. Transcendentally moral. They have the higher standard. Before Lord Chaitanya appeared in this world, people were very religious. But they were not Kṛṣṇa conscious. They were worshipping Devas. They were performing weddings. They spent a lot of money for their daughter’s marriage to compete with the other rich people. Other people would spend a lot of money for their daughter marriage. So he had no more daughter to marry.

So then he performed marriage between Shiva Pārvatī Mūrti and someone else. He thought I had to do something better than this one. So he married one dog, male dog and female dog. Then some next one I will do cat, Biral and Birali cat and male cat, female cat. Sometimes they marry trees. This Banyan tree and Aswat tree. The different things. So Lord Caitanya’s followers were seeing that people are doing all this showing off that we’re very religious but nothing according to Shastra. What does Shastra say to many cats and dogs? Does it say they are just showing off to have some festival, spend some money, feed people. They want to be known as very religious. So there was a superficial religion without what’s the real purpose of religion? Sang Siddhi Hari Toshanam. We should satisfy the Lord. All perfection is there when Hari is satisfied.

So the self realized soul. He is completely fixed on pleasing Kṛṣṇa. With his thoughts, words and deeds. So that Lord Kṛṣṇa here is mentioning to Udava the good qualities of the pure devotees. Both Sadhana bhaktas follow the rules and regulations as well as their purpose is also to please Kṛṣṇa. But they do so through following their rules. The Raganuga spontaneous devotees do it naturally. So we want to all act in such a way. Kṛṣṇa  will be pleased. That’s our goal. Material piety. I do something pious, okay, I am protected by my piety. But that protection is limited. The devotee simply depends on Ka’s mercy. And he does everything to please Kṛṣṇa. Hare kṛṣṇa. So thank you all for serving Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is the merciful. Kṛṣṇa says we should be well wisher of all living Entities peaceful, fixed in knowledge. Transcendental realization.

We have this consciousness seeing Kṛṣṇa everywhere. But naturally we’re not going to do things. It’s like harming other living entities. Why should we harm the animals? Why should we eat or kill animal when we know Kṛṣṇa is in the animal? They will suffer pain. We don’t need to do so. There’s enough vegetables, fruits, milk products. We don’t need to kill any animals. And cause them suffering. Anyone has a question?

Everybody here. Some propagation is going on. Some propagation is going on.

Propagation of plants.

Propagation by other sides. Our people are also influencing that. Can you throw some light on that?

Madhav Seva is Madhav Seva.

Madhav Seva is Madhav Seva.

No. Madhav Seva is Madhav Seva. You serve Mahava and all the people are served. You put water on the root of the plant and all the plant is served. Service should be done in such a way that people are spiritually uplifted. If you serve people, what if you. What type of service? Handing out cigarettes to everyone, giving them cancer is that service? Kṛṣṇa said, Yada Dāsī, everything you do, everything you give away, everything should be done as Madhya Pranam. Should be done in my name, as a charity to me. So it depends how the charity is done. We do all charity in the name of Kṛṣṇa. If you don’t, then you’re karmically bound. That’s why when we distribute prasadam, we give prasadam. It’s offered to Kṛṣṇa. It’s transcendental. You understand? There’s a difference. We don’t want to do Karma.

We don’t want to do good karma. We don’t want to do bad karma. We want to do devotional service. That’s what Kṛṣṇa recommends in the Bhagavad Gītā. That’s what’s recommended here.