20170815 Janmāṣṭamī Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Class

20170815 His. Holiness. Jayapatākā Swami gave a Jahnmastami S.B. class in Māyāpur.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ

paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande

paramānanda-mādhavam

Śrī Caitanya Iswaram 

Hari Oṁ Tat Sat.

SB 10.2.16

bhagavān api viśvātmā

 bhaktānām abhayaṅkaraḥ

āviveśāṁśa-bhāgena

 mana ānakadundubheḥ

Translation: 

Thus the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the Supersoul of all living entities and who vanquishes all the fear of His devotees, entered the mind of Vāsudeva in full opulence.

Purport: 

The word viśvātmā refers to one who is situated in everyone’s heart (īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe ’rjuna tiṣṭhati). Another meaning of viśvātmā is “the only lovable object for everyone.” Because of forgetfulness of this object, people are suffering in this material world, but if one fortunately revives his old consciousness of loving Kṛṣṇa and connects with Viśvātmā, one becomes perfect. The Lord is described in the Third Canto (3.2.15) as follows: parāvareśo mahad-aṁśa-yukto hy ajo ’pi jāto bhagavān. Although unborn, the Lord, the master of everything, appears like a born child by entering the mind of a devotee. The Lord is already there within the mind, and consequently it is not astonishing for Him to appear as if born from a devotee’s body. The word āviveśa signifies that the Lord appeared within the mind of Vāsudeva. There was no need for a discharge of semen. That is the opinion of Śrīpāda Śrīdhara Svāmī and Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. In the Vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī, Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī says that consciousness was awakened within the mind of Vāsudeva. Śrīla Vīrarāghava Ācārya also says that Vāsudeva was one of the demigods and that within his mind the Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared as an awakening of consciousness.

Gurumahārājā: Krishna says in the Gita, janma karma ca me divyam, that my birth and activities are transcendental, and those who know the transcendental nature of my birth and activities do not take birth again, and they come back to Me.

Krishna consciousness means to know about Krishna. So, to take initiation, there is a rule, that one should study from the Bhagavad-gita and the Srimad Bhagavatam. This study is not just before initiation, but also after, because Krishna is unlimited, but we can know something about Him. Maybe not everything but something, and that knowledge about Krishna gives us complete bliss. So, Vaishnavas are those who know about Krishna, but if people say that I don’t have time to learn about Krishna, then in what way are they becoming Vaishnavas?

Janma karma ca divyam .... It is of extreme importance for us to know how Krishna's birth and activities are fully transcendental. So these verse tells us how His appearance is transcendental. Krishna's appearance doesn’t happen in the way that a normal child takes birth. Krishna resides in the heart of Vasudeva. He manifests Himself in a brilliant way. In such a way that even Kamsa and great people could see the activities of Vasudeva. They couldn’t look at Vasudeva. He was too brilliant. So then He transferred from the mind to the heart of Devaki. His birth is completely transcendental, and then immediately after His birth He was taken to Vraja. There in Vraja many, many pure devotees were desirous of serving Him. He killed many demons.

He made everyone happy by lifting the Govardhan mountain. The more we know about Krishna, the more we experience bliss. So it is the desire of all Vaishnavas to discuss the story of Krishna, His qualities and His pastimes.

So to meditate upon the Lord is the goal of all yoga processes, but the jnana yogis meditate upon the formless brahman. Asthanga yogis meditate upon the paramatma. Bhakti yogis meditate upon the supreme personality of Godhead, Bhagavan. This is not fiction, not mythology. This is the true, the real work and qualities of the Lord. The more you discuss about the Lord, the more ecstatic you become.

On Janmasthami, Prabhupāda used to have us read the Krishna book from morning to night. So like this different devotees took turns to read from Krishna book for twenty minutes, thirty minutes. So like this there was sacrifice the whole day. On one side there was the worship going, and on the other side there was the reading from the 10th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam and Krishna book. So, like this different things go on at the same time. So we can know about Krishna's birth, but if we learn very well about His birth, then at the time of death we can go back to Krishna. So it is very important to know Krishna's birth and activities. And devotees discuss about the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, about the form of Krishna, His beauty.

So there is no difference between Krishna's form and Krishna, whereas for us there is a difference between us, the soul and our bodies. Sometimes we get a male body, sometimes we get a female body, sometimes we are born in human bodies, sometimes we are born in animal bodies, sometimes as demigods, sometimes as demons. In this way we traverse through the fourteen planets.

There are eighteen thousand verses in Srimad Bhagavatam. Prabhupada said that the Bhagavatam which the demigods have, have much more than eighteen thousand verses.

How many slokas can you remember? At the end of the ninth canto, in two slokas all of Kṛṣṇa’s līlās have been discussed. Parikshit Mahārāja was saying, I was waiting, I left all my food, I left water. He said, by hearing this pastimes of the Lord I am having absolutely no problems, but I wanted to know about Krishna's pastimes from His birth all the way upto His leaving this planet.

My grandfather Arjuna got through the Kurukshetra war. Great, great generals like Bhismadev very easily passed through with Krishna's mercy. So I want to know how it happened. He was the grandson of Arjuna. He saw Krishna in the womb of His mother. His grandmother was Subhadra Devi. How great was Parikshit Maharāj. He wanted to know how Kṛṣṇa did all of His pastimes. It is of utmost importance that we have deep desire to read about this pastimes.

The activities of Krishna are transcendental. If we read about the pastimes of Krishna with being on the material platform, that is an offence. Krishna does not experience any results of His activities. He is completely independent, and whatever He does He does out of His own sweet will.

Whenever He wants He can come, and He can go. He comes to attract us, and to establish the religious principles. 

Prabhupada used to say that as children we want to taste the sweet first. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu will first give us the sweet taste, and then we will get us attracted, so that we can safeguard this bliss and keep it for the future, then He tells us the rules. In the other Yuga’s He tells the rules first. So, therefore in the Kali Yuga we have many advantages. So we will chant the holy names and then we can understand the transcendental nature of Krishna's birth and activities.

Krishna, by one action achieves many variegated results. He became the son of Vasudeva and Devaki, due to the reason that he promised that He would be their sons in three different births, but immediately after His birth He went to Vrindavana. He had His pastimes with the residents of Vraja, and the death of many demons occurred. Then Krishna killed Kamsa, then He stayed in Mathura, Dwaraka. And then He showed us what all is to be done as a grihastha. So by His appearance on this planet many results were achieved.

Are there any questions?

Question: How can we remember the Lord at the time of death, and how can we due to our remembrance get a suitable birth in our next life?

Gurumaharaja: The Acharya’s pray, if I do not have the right to go to Krishna, then let me take birth as a devotee in the house of devotees. Therefore Prabhupada used to say that the childen who used to come have all been sent by Krishna, and they are the Vaikuntha kids.

The Srila Prabhupada used to say that Krishna helps His devotees. This is Bhakti Yoga and through this process one completely surrenders himself to Krishna. So in this way to remember Krishna at the time of death, Krishna Himself helps you to do that.

Question: Lord Krishna appears to annihilate the miscreants and to establish the religious principles in this world. In the similar way Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu also appears, I have read in the Caitanya Caritramrita. The sloka is pāṣaṇḍī saṁhārite mora ei avatar, pāṣaṇḍī saṁhārite bhakti karimu prachara.  So, would you please explain about how Lord Caitanya annihilated miscreants and then he spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Gurumaharaja: Today is Janmasthami. Today is the appearance day of Lord Krishna. So why are you asking about Krishna's Gauranga avatar? So I was saying that Kṛṣṇa comes as Gauranga and He makes everything easy for us. And He tells us to help people remember Kṛṣṇa, and tell people the message of Kṛṣṇa. So by doing that we can get spiritual advancement and Lord Caitanya gives us first Krishna bhakti, Krishna prema, Krishna consciousness. But to sustain this there are various rules. If we kill animals, eat meat, then we will disrupt our spiritual advancement.

So, first we taste the sweet flavour of bhakti. That’s by the mercy of Lord Kṛṣṇa, but we lose it because of breaking the principles. So gradually we want to keep that transcendental bliss. So we start following the principles. 

In other ages before you get the bliss you have to follow the rules. If you follow the rules and chant Hare Krishna, then very quickly you can advance.

Hari