20071230 Bhagavad-gītā 10.9

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on December 30th,2007 in Melbourne, Australia. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā 10.9.

oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Verse 9

mac-cittā mad-gata-prāṇā
bodhayantaḥ parasparam 
kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ 
tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca

Jayapatākā Swami: This is Sanskrit words, the poetry that was spoken by Kṛṣṇa 5000 years ago. I’ll give the translation after. (śloka repetition)

mac-cittā mad-gata-prāṇā 
bodhayantaḥ parasparam 
kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ 
tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca

Welcome to come in. Take your shoes off, please. Someone help them.

Translation: The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me… (this is the translation, this is what the Sanskrit verse, Sanskrit is the language, that’s what that verse means) The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another and conversing about Me.

Purport: (by his divine grace A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda. This verse was translated by Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda. He is the founding spiritual master of ISKCON and he also wrote a commentary called the 'Purport' because he doesn’t want to just give his own ideas, but rather he is explaining the ideas that are naturally there in the verse.

(His purport is…): Pure devotees, whose characteristics are mentioned here, engage themselves fully in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Their minds cannot be diverted from the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Their talks are solely on the transcendental subjects. The symptoms of the pure devotees are described in this verse specifically. Devotees of the Supreme Lord are twenty-four hours daily engaged in glorifying the qualities and pastimes of the Supreme Lord. Their hearts and souls are constantly submerged in Kṛṣṇa, and they take pleasure in discussing Him with other devotees.

In the preliminary stage of devotional service they relish the transcendental pleasure from the service itself, and in the mature stage they are actually situated in love of God. Once situated in that transcendental position, they can relish the highest perfection which is exhibited by the Lord in His abode. Lord Caitanya likens transcendental devotional service to the sowing of a seed in the heart of the living entity. There are innumerable living entities traveling throughout the different planets of the universe, and out of them there are a few who are fortunate enough to meet a pure devotee and get the chance to understand devotional service. This devotional service is just like a seed, and if it is sown in the heart of a living entity, and if he goes on hearing and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, that seed fructifies, just as the seed of a tree fructifies with regular watering. The spiritual plant of devotional service gradually grows and grows until it penetrates the covering of the material universe and enters into the brahma-jyotir effulgence in the spiritual sky.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, there’s the material universe. There’s a whole spiritual sky which is covered with spiritual light. But here we have sunlight and then moonlight and then the spiritual world, they have spiritual light, which is called brahma-jyoti or the effulgence of… spiritual effulgence. So that doesn’t… it’s actually even here, it’s visible, but we don’t see it because it’s a covering of material energy that blocks it from our vision. Just like clouds block some of the rays from our vision, but we can still get a sunburn. We can still get affected by… UV gets through. So something’s getting through, but we’re not able to see it. Liberated souls can see that effulgence even in the material world. But as conditioned souls, we can’t see it because we’re covered by the cloud of material energy. But when we do our devotional service, probably explaining that the plant grows and grows and penetrates that cloud covering.

Just like when you fly in an airplane, everything looks covered with clouds. When you go up a certain height, then you can see that above there’s the sun, there’s clouds. But they’re down and we’re up and it’s a clear open sky. So wouldn’t it be nice to get beyond this material covering and get to the open, clear light where the free spirit can be? How many would like to be in the area where the spirit can be completely free. Hari bol! Anybody?

(everyone raises hands)

Okay, just checking if I am in the right place. So we’re reading Prabhupāda‘s purport here. Just so in case somebody getting lost here, it’s pretty technical. This is really high stuff. High technical. We can get higher than this too. But I mean, this is pretty… anybody here for the first time? Anybody new? Okay, one here. two, three, four. You here the first time? You’ve been here before? Okay, therefore we got about four first time visitors. Let’s give them a big welcome. A big haribol.

Jayapatākā Swami: Haribol!

Jayapatākā Swami: Haribol!

Jayapatākā Swami: Haribol!

Jayapatākā Swami: I hope some of our devotees take a special care to be especially friendly with them. Guide them, you know, where to go for the feast afterwards so they don’t get lost afterwards. There’s this magic word they say, ‘mahā-prasāda is served!’. That’s the Indian word for feast. And everyone that’s been here knows mahā-prasāda means feast. So they run out the door. But for someone never been here, don’t know what mahā-prasāda means, then they just wonder *Poof!* ‘Where’d everybody go!?’ And they’re standing… once I found someone standing and so I am here for the first time. I think they’d be at the back of the line. So probably put them in the front of the line. Make it easy for them. Don’t guide them through. Actually in Chowpatty, Radhanath Swami’s temple, i heard that when they have new visitors, they give them a gift pack. They have a whole gift pack and a welcoming program. That’s another topic. They’re pretty organized.

Okay, so now this creepeṛ… We are watering our plant here. We’re chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. And then... (actually, there’s some open gaps here. We can kind of move in because there’s new people going to be coming all along and it will be harder for them to walk through all of you. Thanks a lot, appreciate your…) So we’re chanting and we’re like a gardener who’s watering our plant. This plant is actually our devotional service, which is our bhakti-yoga development is growing as we are watering the plant. And so now that plant has grown and crossed through the cloud of material nature, got into the free light of the spiritual world and it’s going on, it’s continuing to grow up. Let’s see where it goes.

Purport (continued…): In the spiritual sky also that plant grows more and more until it reaches the highest planet, which is called Goloka Vṛndāvana, the supreme planet of Kṛṣṇa. Ultimately, the plant takes shelter under the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa and rests there.

Jayapatākā Swami: So this is like a creeper. It gets the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, wraps around Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet. Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet are said to be the ultimate shelter for the devotees. By getting his lotus feet… we call lotus feet because they’re not like ordinary feet. We got stinky feet, ordinary feet or good smelling feet. But Kṛṣṇa’s feet are something very special because Kṛṣṇa’s body is not different. His feet or his hand, everything has got all the potency. He can see from his feet, he can speak from his hand if he wants to. He has a spiritual body. We can’t limit it to anything that we have. But of course, normally he probably speak from his mouth just to make it easy for us to relate with it. But otherwise he can do anything with any of his senses. So his feet can give us full shelter, they can give us full blessings. So normally the lotus feet give us blessings. That’s where devotees focus on because that tends to be a little humble on our part. We look to the feet, so then you get more blessings. So this is what’s happening. We take shelters. Plant takes a shelter of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa and rests there.

Purport (continued…): Gradually, as a plant grows fruits and flowers, that plant of devotional service also produces fruits, and the watering process in the form of chanting and hearing goes on.

Jayapatākā Swami: So we keep watering and then the flowers come out, flowers turn into little fruits. So all these are different levels of devotional service. The flowers are considered to be the ecstatic love of Godhead. There’s different levels of devotional service. So one of the levels, the highest level we reach normally in the material world before we get full realization, is called ecstatic love or bhāva. When we have that kind of ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa, then when we chant Kṛṣṇa’s names, tears of love can flow from our eyes. (Welcome to come in. There’s no admission. It’s okay to come in. Maybe somebody at the door could help the people come in so I don’t have to interrupt the class. Somebody’s looking around. What I do, where I go?)

So where were we? That love of Godhead, bhāva. Ecstatic love of Godhead. Our hairs may stand on end… ecstatic love of God is to have hair standing on end, voice sometimes get choked up with emotion. Different kind of… eight, they call aṣṭa-sāttvika-bhāva. It is a technical Sanskrit word, it means eight ecstatic symptoms of love. And these are the highest happiness. Profound, deep loving emotion for God that anyone can feel in this material world. More than any other kind of happiness.

When people try to get happy with so many things, I don’t have to elaborate that, but people do things just for an adrenaline rush. On a roller coaster think they’ll get a little bit, a minute… about a few seconds of happy. But this just puts all that to shame. That is nothing, you know. That’s just so superficial. All these different things that people do to get happy. THIS, is touching the soul. THIS, is very deep, profound spiritual ecstasy which brings you in direct communion with the Supreme Spirit. This is an eternal habit. Once you taste that, then everything else is brought into perspective. You realize how you’ve been wasting your life just going after very superficial things. But the real happiness we’re looking for is this ecstatic love and that ecstatic love isn’t the end of everything. That’s the flower but that’s something… someone could even achieve that in weeks or months, days! Usually takes years or many lifetimes but one can get it very quickly. Where to get the fruit? That could take longer, could take a little longer. You have to keep watering the plant. The fruit is pure love and that love brings with it a total realization of the absolute truth.

Lord Caitanya describes about this ecstatic love in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. He says in his prayer ‘rādhā-kṛṣṇa’ bolo bolo bolo re sobāi’, you know that prayer? It’s a little song, it’s a very common song. It has a chorus after every verse — ‘rādhā-kṛṣṇa’ bolo bolo bolo re sobāi’. Everybody chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, same thing. So he says (singing), kṛṣṇa bolbe jabe, pulak ha'be jhorbe āṅkhi, boli tāi

kṛṣṇa bolbe jabe, pulak ha'be jhorbe āṅkhi, boli tāi 
'rādhā-kṛṣṇa' bol bol bolo re sobāi

? 'rādhā-kṛṣṇa' bol bol bolo re sobāi

So when you chant Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, when you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, when you chant the name of Kṛṣṇa, pulak ha'be. Your hairs will stand on end, jhorbe āṅkhi — your eyes will be flowing with tears of love. kṛṣṇa bolbe jabe, pulak ha'be, jhorbe āṅkhi, boli tāi. So for like this he chants in ecstasy. Lord Caitanya. I experienced some of that, maybe just a drop, the very first day I chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa, first day! Somebody gave me a pair of beads and told me,“You go out and chant.” Because I used to do yoga, haṭha-yoga. So I went in my padmāsana, I sat in the park, put my padmāsana, looked at a tree and I chanted for six hours nonstop. If you’re going to do something, do it serious. Somebody asked me today that it’s supposed to go deep into the chanting, dive deep like in the ocean. So for 6 hours I just chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa from morning till night. Then it’s getting a little dark. It’s not safe in the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco in the night, so many people come out, crazy people, robbers and things.

So then I went back, and I… during that chanting I was feeling so many different things which I shouldn’t talk about, but some touching on these areas. The very first day. This is the most powerful meditation I’ve ever experienced. I’ve been doing the silent meditation, looking at candles, looking at maṇḍalas, doing so many things. Little peace of mind, little buzz. But this was like an (intense gesture) avalanche. It was like a tsunami of spiritual happiness. And I was just overwhelmed. I came back and then this devotee is waiting for me. “Excuse me, do you still have those beads I gave you?” I said, “Yes.” “I am sorry, but I actually gave you the beads that the founder, the master chants on. Can I have those back? I shouldn’t have given those. I made a mistake.” Wasn’t the same the next day. (laughter) Quite… took me a little while to work up again. But that was a big boost. So Prabhupāda gave me some mercy there.

But definitely in the chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare you get these profound experiences because… we’ll explain but let me finish Prabhupāda’s purport here. So this is called watering the plant. But definitely, if you try to go deep in this chanting and follow this process as given in this verse, you will experience everything that’s being predicted here in its due course.

Purport: (continued…) Gradually, as a plant grows fruits and flowers, that plant of devotional service also produces fruits, and the watering process in the form of chanting and hearing goes on. This plant of devotional service is fully described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta (That’s another book.) (Madhya-līlā (that’s a section of the book), Chapter Nineteen). (There are three sections. Ādi, Madhya and Antya. This is the middle section, Chapter 19. Shouldn’t be too hard to find. We got it there in the bookshelf; you can get a more detailed explanation.) It is explained there that when the complete plant takes shelter under the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, one becomes fully absorbed in love of God; then he cannot live even for a moment without being in contact with the Supreme Lord, just as a fish cannot live without water. In such a state, the devotee actually attains the transcendental qualities in contact with the Supreme Lord.

The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is also full of such narrations about the relationship between the Supreme Lord and His devotees; therefore the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is very dear to the devotees, (that’s another book, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. I know there’s a lot of Sanskrit words. It’s the book which is the history about different incarnations of Kṛṣṇa, different incarnations of Viṣṇu. Viṣṇu is a form of Kṛṣṇa in the material world. And as it says here, it’s very dear to the devotees.) In the Bhāgavatam itself, (12.13.18) it states, (I am going to quote a verse now. Don’t get lost because it’s a Sanskrit verse. I know you won’t understand a word.) Śrīmad-bhāgavataṁ purāṇam amalaṁ yad vaiṣṇavānāṁ priyam. In this narration there is nothing about material activities, economic development, sense gratification or liberation. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the only narration in which the transcendental nature of the Supreme Lord and His devotees is fully described. Thus the realized souls in Kṛṣṇa consciousness take continual pleasure in hearing such transcendental literatures, just as a young boy and girl take pleasure in association.

Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta translation and purport to the 10th chapter ninth verse of Bhagavad-gītā as it is.

Jayapatākā Swami: So here this verse which is saying… this is the history, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. We’re getting a lot of different things covered here. You could speak for a few hours on this, but we only got about twenty minutes max maybe before your feast starts. This Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, as I said, it’s a history. Simply telling about transcendental activities, transcendental people, people from different times in this universe who have spiritually… are fully developed. Who have achieved… showed how they achieved their development, how they achieved their God realization. It’s a very interesting book. Every morning we read this book about 7:30? What time? 7:30 to 8:30. So in case you’re free any morning, don’t live too far away, come in the morning and catch the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class. If you’re not able to come, you can get tapes of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and while you’re taking… your bathing or cooking or whatever you do, you can also play it and listen. Or you can get a whole set and keep in your house and you can read the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam little bit by little bit and dip into the nectar. And this way, it says actually this book is so sacred that it’s the literary incarnation of Kṛṣṇa.

It just talks about Kṛṣṇa and his different incarnations. So that to keep the book in your house, angels and devas from the heavenly planets they come down every day, visit your house and pay their obeisances to the book. When they make their rounds, they’ll have to stop at that house that, “He has a Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.” or “She has (Bhāgavatam) in the house.” So if you want angels and devas and saintly personalities to visit your house (you won’t see them maybe but…) you can just have a Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there. But better if you read it also. (laughter) So there we go. So we completed this verse. This verse is an amazing verse. This is so amazing. It talked about pure devotees who are always thinking about Kṛṣṇa, talking about Kṛṣṇa, deriving satisfaction and bliss, enlightening one another. So one thing is that why this is so is because by nature we are all spiritual.

Earlier in the Bhagavad-gītā, it explains that we have a physical body. And the physical body is inhabited by a subtle body, an astral body, psychic, whatever you want to… intellectual, it’s a subtle body. But that the real living force which is in the body… we’re all alive, we are not just a bunch of chemicals. Some scientists did a study that we are worth about $2.20 of chemicals. So many sulfur and chloride and few things. A little bit of mercury is in there somewhere. If you melt this all down, put a refinery that takes all the value from the human body, you get about $2.20. I guess that’s not a very good business. That’s not who we are. That’s a very superficial covering. Just like some of you today are wearing t shirts, some are wearing polos, somebody wearing saris. I am not going to walk up to Mr. polo, Mr. t-shirt, Mr. white shirt. That’s not who you are. You’re the person inside. Similarly, the bodies that you’re here in; somebody may have an Indian body or a Śrī Lankan body, or Asian or Australian or European or whatever kind of body you might have, that’s your covering. And you are the living force in the body that makes the body alive. So the living force is something that we generally neglect. When there’s a car accident, and say your brother is in the car, and he’s driving a $50,000 car, maybe Mercedes Benz or something. So when the car crash happens, you may be following behind. Are you going to rush to save the car or save your brother?

Devotees: Brother.

So obviously, human life is worth a lot. You can’t put a price on it. Why? Because human life is a life that we can actually spiritually fully develop. The most valuable thing we have is ourself, our spiritual self. Some people feel… okay. Some people discuss it in the different perspectives on religion. “I am so and so, and I have a soul.” You ARE the soul. The Vedic position is you ARE the soul. You have a gross body. You have a visible external body. You have a subtle astral body. You are the living force. You are the soul. And what was being discussed in this verse today is about the development of yourself. How many of you would like to develop? (everybody raises hands) Okay, very good! (devotees chuckle) So this verse is about how we can develop as individuals. We can do it together. We can help each other. That’s what says that these devotees, the process of yoga we follow, which is called bhakti-yoga. Let’s see if the word was used here in the verse. Well, not exactly, but mac-cittā – they think of me, mad-gata-prāṇā – their lives are oriented around me, bodhayantaḥ parasparam – they share their realizations, kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ – they talk about me eternally, tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca (little Sanskrit I know but not so much). Basically they’re very happy (tuṣyanti), fully satisfied (ramanti), they’re in bliss. When we talk about the Supreme Self… we’re all the individual selves, we’re are all coming from the Supreme Self. So when we talk about the Supreme Self, we individually develop. We start to understand our position in the universe, our position in relation with God, our position in relation with each other. And we spiritually by… the more we talk about the Supreme Self, we get some of his qualities, we get some of his energy. Force. Everything comes to us. It’s a very easy transfer. Just by discussing. You are sitting here today, you’re discussing, you’re hearing. So it says hearing and speaking. So I am doing the speaking today, but we’ll give you a chance to ask some questions. But you’re hearing. Hearing is part of the process. I wouldn’t be here speaking if you weren’t here listening. So it’s a cooperation. And I hope you’re feeling bliss also.

Devotee: Yes! Okay, great! So as we go deeper into things, because Kṛṣṇa…. His pastimes are very interesting, His different incarnations. Like when we were traveling earlier this year, we went on a… what do you call it? A Safari. Every year I take 150, 200. This year we had 215 devotees to different parts of the Indian, South Indian subcontinent. Sometimes we go to Nepal. The Himalayas. Sometimes we go on the boats on the Ganges. Sometimes we went to Vṛndāvana. Sometimes we went up the Ganges to Rishikesh and Haridwar and Deva-prayāga… different holy placs. We went even whitewater rafting down the Ganges. It was voluntary, at your own risk. The younger ones did it. I don’t know how they talked me into it, but yeah. (laughter)

So then this last year, we went to South India. And so next year we’re planning to go to Bangladesh. Right now, it happens to be very peaceful there. Under kind of a caretaker government has made everything pretty peaceful. We’re just doing the final feasibility studies. But if that doesn’t work out, we’ll go up into the mountains, into the Himalayas somewhere. But we’ll see. Right now, it looks like Bangladesh. But anyway, so this year we went to South India. How many here are from South India? We have a lot of South Indian devotees here working as doctors, as engineers and different important tasks here in Australia. So went to all the four states: Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. These are the four states in the south of India. And there’s 108 very special temples designated by the Alwars, great saints of the Śrī Sampradāya. And those are called divya-deśas.

So as were traveling around, each divya-deśa has a deity, a temple with a deity in it and gave some pastime about the deity, or some pastime happened there and later the devotee asked the Lord to be present as the deity and he manifests the deity. Like one of the most famous, well… one of the most famous, maybe the top three in South India, is the temple of Śrīranganātha. I’ve been there many times. Six years ago, we took another group who happened to be there, when after three, four months, they had fixed up the whole temple and they’re opening it for the first time. And we took all the devotees to this door called the Vaikuṇṭha doorway. Vaikuṇṭha-dvāra. You take them through that door, it’s only open on certain days in the year, one day in Vaikuṇṭha Ekādaśī and some other rare occasions. And I personally took them, two batches. So I went through twice. Side benefits, there are perks of the work. But everybody went through. So that means they’re all going to go back to Godhead. (applause) This very beautiful deity lying down, of Kṛṣṇa and Ananta-śeṣa. And then we found that the history of this deity. I knew the history that the deity was with Lord Rāmacandra, and Rāmacandra gave the deity to vibhīṣaṇa to take back to Śrī Lanka. Śrī Lanka was going to get the blessing of having Lord Ranganātha there. But on the way between, Gaṇeśa and the sages,they did a little fast trick and somehow Vibhīṣaṇa let Lord Ranganātha down in the island of Śrīraṅgam which was in the middle of the Kāveri River, and therefore he didn’t move from there. But then he was pushed to position. He’s always looking at Lanka to give his blessings to Lanka. So they get the blessings. I heard that.

But then this time, we actually bought… we had a book because we had to see how many divya-deśas we covered. When went to about 30, couldn’t get all 108 with such a big group. So when we looked, they found out that actually the ancient, even before… how did Rāma get that deity? That Brahma, the original personality in the universe, who was given birth by Viṣṇu; he wanted to worship a deity of Kṛṣṇa. So he prayed to Kṛṣṇa to get a deity. And from the spiritual ocean there in the upper areas, the Kṣīrodakaśāyī ocean, this deity came out. And this deity was worshipped in Satyaloka, in that top planet of the universe… a planet where people live so long that we can’t even calculate on the calculator… so long. It’ll go off the number screen. You don’t have enough digits unless you have a special scientific one.

So that deity was there and he was gradually handed down, gone to the Sun God, came to Manu. Sun God came to Ikṣvāku. Ikṣvāku was the sūrya-vamṣa, the royal dynasty coming from the Sun on which Lord Rāma appeared and then gradually handed down till Rāma got it. So wow, that’s a pretty old deity, to come from another planet. From the highest planet. Self-manifested, nobody carved it. Very beautiful deity.

If you like to come around, we go the day after the Gaura-pūrṇimā. We go to Māyāpur for Gaura-pūrṇimā festival. It’s usually sometime in the early March or in the end of February. Then we go for three weeks. You can go one week, two weeks or three weeks. We go for three weeks. Touring around and visiting different holy places. Kind of a Discovery Channel life. You’re there, but a spiritual association. We also do some preaching. We let other people know about our society’s work in different parts of the world with drama, dancing and different things.

But apart from that anyway, just to say that there’s so much to discuss, so much to hear about. Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes is so interesting that the whole day we spend going around visiting these different historical sites talking about things that Kṛṣṇa did there 5000 years ago, Rāma did there millions of years ago. It is so interesting. Then taking some holy dip in the Kāveri River or in the ocean at Rāmeśvaram or something. Or the Tāmraparṇī or having the darśana of the deity in Thiruvananthapuram that is Padmanābha jī, or in Udupi in Karnataka the Kṛṣṇa deity, or in Andhra we have our own temples. We have we go to Tirupati of course. We go to Siṁhācalam and Vizag and different places.

So there’s so much, so many temples, so many pastimes. There’s one deity in Andhra Pradesh called Pānanarasiṁha. You pour an offering of gur, of molasses and water in his mouth and he drinks the swirls around of it and he spits it out and puts it back in your conchshell and gives you the remnant. You can drink that. How many like to have a taste of that?

Devotees: Hari-bol!!

Supreme Lord Remnants. It’s all optional of course. But we drink it. It’s great. So it’s called caraṇāmṛta. So like that, there’s so much to discuss about and so many books here. That light, that’s a mini library there. Just in case you come here, want to sit down one day, pick up a book and read in the temple, you’re welcome to read. Please put the book back after you’re finished.

If you want to get a book to take home with you, they also… where’s that available? Upstairs is a shop.

When you read about… that’s another way discussing. Maybe you can read about Kṛṣṇa or you can discuss with your husband, with your child. Read the Kṛṣṇa books. Great stories about Kṛṣṇa to read, to put your children to bed at night and all this kind of spiritual discussion is watering that creeper of your devotional service.

So, that’s the purport today. Tomorrow morning at the time of the Bhāgavatam class, I think we’ll be having initiation. And you’re welcome to come then. Anybody has a question now, just up for one or two short questions, then I’ll release you for the feast

Yes, sir. What’s your name? Ankur.

Question: Mahārāja, you told that Lord Kṛṣṇa has a spiritual body. Does Lord Caitanya also have a spiritual body ?

Jayapatākā Swami: Well, Lord Caitanya came in Kali-yuga. He has a spiritual body. But he showed to the people like… they would see some material body. When Kṛṣṇa comes, his body may look very beautiful and never see them. But you don’t see his original spiritual body. Exactly. Because to see that, you need to awaken your spiritual senses. That happens when your creeper grows up to the edge and out of the material universe and takes shelter of Kṛṣṇa. Then you get the vision. You develop your spiritual body.

Right now it’s dormant. It’s like a little seed. And in a seed form, you’re the living force in every body. Because you don’t need your spiritual body unless you’re going to interchange activities with Kṛṣṇa. As you go on hearing about Kṛṣṇa and you develop a desire that I want to serve Kṛṣṇa, I want to be with Kṛṣṇa, then you develop your spiritual body. And then Lord Caitanya had a spiritual body. But when Kṛṣṇa comes to his pastime, he shows Himself in some visible form. It’s not the same thing that the devotees see when he’s in the spiritual world. It’ll be even more beautiful, more brilliant. But even when you see Kṛṣṇa like that, there’s nobody in the planet that was more beautiful, more charismatic. Kṛṣṇa. Charismatic. Probably comes from the word Kṛṣṇa. Very charismatic. Most charismatic.

One last question. Yes?

Devotee: In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it says Yamarāja comes at the time of death to take the body to punish according to the sins . If that is true, how the law of karma acts on repeated births on transmigrating soul?

Jayapatākā Swami: Well, Yama, for those souls who have done a lot of misdeeds, bad karmas, he sends his policemen called Yamadūtas, messengers of the King of death. They come and they drag us out of our gross body. Drag.. the ātmā is inside the subtle body. Take us to him. He kind of gives us a little review of what we did wrong, this life, what we’re going to get as a result for that, what our next birth will be. And then he sends us on to the next birth. You see? So there’s a bit of a judicial process there.

Now, if you are wearing this kind of tilaka, this kaṇṭhīs and tilaka can chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, then you’re directly under Kṛṣṇa’s protection. And the Yamadūtas… just like the dog catchers don’t go for the dogs with the collars. Where’s your collar? You got it?

Devotee: Yeah, I need more. (laughter) 

So if you put on a Kṛṣṇa collar and you say, “I am surrendering to you Kṛṣṇa, I want to be under your care. I don’t want to see Yamarāja or Yamadutas like that. I want you to be under your care and I’ll be serving you. Whatever I can do, gradually.” So then when they see that tulasī-mālās, then they got the hands-off order. In a few cases, they didn’t know about the order and they tried to arrest the devotee at the time of death.

But usually the Viṣṇudūtas come to take them back to Godhead.

And some places that describes in the Purāṇas, there was a fight between the messengers of death and the messengers of light, of liberation, of Viṣṇu. And there’s no question about who won. The Viṣṇudūtas won. And the Yamadūtas were sadly beaten. Then they were scolded by their master that he didn’t know. “You’re not supposed to go after Viṣṇu devotees because they’re under His protection. We just deal with the people who are liars, cheaters and non-devotees and people who are hurting other people, hurting themselves causelessly.” People that are doing good things, like discussing God together, like this verse, those people that follow this verse, they get an immunization, they’ll get another chance. It’s your choice, of course, what you want to discuss about. How many would like to discuss about Kṛṣṇa be under his protection?

(everyone raises hands) That’s pretty good. Thank you very much!

Verified by: Bhakta Aruneśa (JPSA)
Śrī Māyāpur, India