20080508 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.4.8

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on May 8, 2008 in Balarāmadeśa. The lecture beings with the reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam canto two, chapter four, text eight.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.4.8.

nūnaṁ bhagavato brahman
harer adbhuta-karmaṇaḥ
durvibhāvyam ivābhāti
kavibhiś cāpi ceṣṭitam

Translation: O learned brāhmaṇa, the transcendental activities of the Lord are all wonderful, and they appear inconceivable because even great endeavors by many learned scholars have still proved insufficient for understanding them.

Purport: The acts of the Supreme Lord, in the creation of just this one universe, appear inconceivably wonderful. And there are innumerable universes, and all of them aggregated together are known as the created material world. And this part of His creation is only a fractional portion of the complete creation. The material world stands as a part only (ekāṁśena sthito jagat). Supposing that the material world is a display of one part of His energy, the remaining three parts consist of the vaikuṇṭha-jagat or spiritual world described in the Bhagavad-gītā as mad-dhāma or sanātana-dhāma, or the eternal world. We have marked in the previous verse that He creates and again winds up the creation. This action is applicable only in the material world because the other, greater part of His creation, namely the Vaikuṇṭha world, is neither created nor annihilated; otherwise the Vaikuṇṭha-dhāma would not have been called eternal. The Lord exists with His dhāma, or in other words with His eternal name, qualities, pastimes, entourage and personality, which are all a display of His different energies and expansions. The Lord is called anādi, or having no creator, and ādi, or the origin of all. We think in our own imperfect way that the Lord is also created, but the Vedānta informs us that He is not created. Rather, everything else is created by Him (nārāyaṇaḥ paro ’vyaktāt). Therefore, for the common man these are all very wonderful matters for consideration. Even for great scholars they are inconceivable, and thus such scholars present theories contradictory to one another. Even for the insignificant part of His creation, this particular universe, they have no complete information as to how far this limited space extends, or how many stars and planets are there, or the different conditions of those innumerable planets. Modern scientists have insufficient knowledge of all this. Some of them assert that there are one hundred million planets scattered all over space. In a news release from Moscow dated 2/21/60, the following piece of knowledge was relayed:

“Russia is well-known professor of astronomy Boris Vorontsov-Veliaminov said that there must be an infinite number of planets in the universe inhabited by beings endowed with reason.

“It could be that life similar to that on earth flourishes on such planets.

“Doctor of Chemistry Nikolai Zhirov, covering the problem of atmosphere on other planets, pointed out that the organism of a Martian, for instance, could very well adapt itself to normal existence with a low body temperature.

“He said that he felt that the gaseous composition of Martian atmosphere was quite suitable to sustain life of beings which have become adapted to it.”

This adaptability of an organism to different varieties of planets is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā as vibhūti-bhinnam; i.e., each and every one of the innumerable planets within the universe is endowed with a particular type of atmosphere, and the living beings there are more perfectly advanced in science and psychology because of a better atmosphere. Vibhūti means “specific powers,” and bhinnam means “variegated.” Scientists who are attempting to explore outer space and are trying to reach other planets by mechanical arrangements must know for certain that organisms adapted to the atmosphere of earth cannot exist in the atmospheres of other planets (Easy Journey to Other Planets). One has to prepare himself, therefore, to be transferred to a different planet after being relieved of the present body, as it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.25):

yānti deva-vratā devān
pitṝn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ
bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā
yānti mad-yājino ’pi mām

“Those who worship the demigods will take birth among the demigods, those who worship ghosts and spirits will take birth among such beings, and those who worship Me will live with Me.”

Mahārāja Parīkṣit’s statement regarding the workings of the creative energy of the Lord discloses that he knew everything of the process of creation. Why then did he ask Śukadeva Gosvāmī for such information? Mahārāja Parīkṣit, being a great emperor, a descendant of the Pāṇḍavas and a great devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, was quite able to know considerably about the creation of the world, but that much knowledge was not sufficient. He said therefore that even greatly learned scholars fail to know about that, even after great effort. The Lord is unlimited, and His activities are also unfathomed. With a limited source of knowledge and with imperfect senses, any living being, up to the standard of Brahmājī, the highest perfect living being within the universe, can never imagine knowing about the unlimited. We can know something of the unlimited when it is explained by the unlimited, as has been done by the Lord Himself in the unique statements of the Bhagavad-gītā, and it can also be known to some extent from realized souls like Śukadeva Gosvāmī, who learned it from Vyāsadeva, a disciple of Nārada, and thus the perfect knowledge can descend by the chain of disciplic succession only, and not by any form of experimental knowledge, old or modern.

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: Today is the day when Lord Jagannātha is covered with candana and He is taken in procession to the Narendra-sarovara in Jagannātha Purī. There He is put on a boat and taken around the lake. Many people put little floating dīpas, dīpikās on the lake.

This festival goes on for many days and in Māyāpur goes on for a week. We take Rādhā Mādhava on the lake and we worship the Deity there, their Naūkā-vīlāsa. Remembering this festival, one day during the Gaura-pūrṇimā festival, we also take the Rādhā Mādhava on the lake, Prabhupāda-sarovara, this is very auspicious. In your altar you also have the viṣṇu-tattvas with candana on their head. In Māyāpur, the Rādhā Mādhava Deity, the Mādhava Deity is completely covered from head to foot with candana takes about two bucketfuls. The hundreds of devotees and all the children are busy making candana to cover the Lord’s body. Here the children also like to make candana. You know what you have to do? You have to rub it on a stone again and again until the candana paste comes. Put some water on the stone and up the wood, get a paste and the pūjārīs put that.

Sometimes they put the blue paste so Mādhava looks blue. Sometimes they do not put any color at all, He looks golden. Also, Nṛsiṁhadeva is covered with the candana, Nṛsiṁhadeva, the candana is not taken off until Nṛsiṁha-caturdaśī but with Kṛṣṇa they take off the candana every day and put on fresh. So, it is a very beautiful time to be in Māyāpur. If you go to the www.mayapur.com, maybe you can see that the Deity is covered with candana. [Aside: Did anyone check today? Aravindākṣa Govinda dāsa said, he saw it today] If you have broad-band or internet connection, you can check but by now it will be closed tomorrow for one week, they put a full then after that they put just on the forehead, then the small Deity puts full. It is a big yajña to put so much candana.

In the Caitanya-bhāgavata, there is a pastime that this time one year, the devotees of Bengal, they walked down to Jagannātha Purī to stay with Lord Caitanya for Candana-yātrā as well as for the Jagannātha Ratha-yātrā. So, as they were approaching Jagannātha Purī, they hear the sound [ringing of cymbals and śrī-khols is resounded in imitation of the original music],

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

Then they saw Lord Caitanya and all the associates that were in Orissa. They came forward. And then there was a Jagannātha [Deity procession]. Then some devotees said to Lord Caitanya, “There are the devotees from Bengal.” Then Lord Caitanya deviated and went over to the devotees in Bengal. They offered their obeisances to Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya picked up Lord Nityānanda and embraced Him. Was embracing some devotees, blessing others. Different devotees were greeting each other with embraces, with obeisances. The ladies, the wives of the associates. Many had also walked to go to Jagannātha Purī. It says that when they were seeing Lord Caitanya, tears of love were pouring down their eyes because they were in a female body. They could not touch Lord Caitanya’s lotus feet. But in their heart, they touched His feet and took the dhūlī on their head. To show that how all the associates of Lord Caitanya, men and women were all filled with kṛṣṇa-prema. Caitanya Mahāprabhu-pārṣada-vṛnda ki jaya! This is a causeless mercy, this is all these things happened around this time, the Candana-yātrā.

It says that Lord Caitanya and Nityānanda and associates, they were bathing after the festival with Lord Jagannātha. The daytime they went there and bathed in the Narendra-sarovara and it is said that Advaita, that He was very old. He is already must be 75 or 80, very senior Vaiṣṇava was 50 years old, when Lord Caitanya came, He was splashing Nityānanda like a child. Nityānanda was splashing Him, and They were having water sports. How many of you like water sports? They were having this just like the cowherd boys in Vṛndāvana were bathing in the Yamunā. Similarly, they were bathing in this Narendra-sarovara. Remembering the pastimes of the cowherd boys. So, like this, many interesting things happened.

How many of you have been to Jagannātha Purī? How many saw the Narendra-sarovara? There is a few very important bodies of water in Jagannātha Purī. Every year at the end of the, after the Dāmodara month. We go and have a parikramā led by Bhakti Puruṣottama Swami. We go to Narendra-sarovara, we go to Indradyumna-sarovara by the Guṇḍicā Temple where all the holy rivers were brought there by Indradyumna Mahārāja. And also, they see Mārkaṇḍeya-sarovara, Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi sarovara where his father had worshipped Lord Śiva and Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi got the blessing by Śiva to live for many days of Brahmā.