20210605 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.52

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on June 5th, 2021 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India.

The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.8.52.

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

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapataka Swami: So Yudhiṣṭhira mahārāja he felt very guilty for all the people who died in the battle of Kurukṣetra. So this example was given like you cannot purify muddy water with mud, and if there is a container contaminated by wine, you cannot clean it with wine. If you say, you think that wine is a liquid so we may as well clean it with wine. That is not possible. If you have some pure water, then you can wash it out. In the milk, if you put one drop of wine it makes the whole milk contaminated. So like that, Yudhistira mahārāja was thinking if I do Gomedha or Aśvamedha that will not get rid of the karma of having so many people killed. And Kṛṣṇa could not convince him. And Kṛṣṇa wanted that Bhīṣmadeva would convince him. Kṛṣṇa likes to glorify His devotees. He could have personally destroyed all the people in the Kurukṣetra war, but He got carried it out through Arjuna. Because He wanted Arjuna to get all the glories. So, in that way, even He cannot convince Yudhistira, but Bhīṣma can. That is because Kṛṣṇa wants His devotee to be glorified. That was Dvāpara-yuga and worship of deity in the temple was the sacrifice. In the Tretā-yuga the sacrifice was fire sacrifice. In Satya-yuga it was meditation. In this Kali yuga, the recommended process is congregational chanting of the holy names of Kṛṣṇa.

There are five types of sin which you cannot avoid. You walk on the street, you may step on some little bugs or ants. When we travel in a car on the path so many little bugs and ins and living entities die is practically uncountable. And then when you light a fire, you kill some animals, small insects. And then when you breathe you kill microbes. And when you drink water, some microorganisms are killed. We touch with some Ganges water and since they throw dirty things in the Ganges, we found that a sample of Ganges water had 60,000 microorganisms. And there was some salmonella, one or two, but the Ganges water has a way of purifying itself. This way, half the microbes and other contaminations would get purified, more or less. So that means from one day to 6 days, it would be 30,000. Next day 15,000. After ten days, less than a hundred. And according to the World Health Organization, less than 100 a day is safe water. So that means even pure water we are killing a little less than 100 microorganisms. So like this, there are a variety, five kinds of things which you kill – some microbes etc. The Jain sādhus they wear a thing over their mouths. Then they have some cotton broom and they sweep the road before them so that they don’t kill any microorganism. That way they try to avoid any bad karma. They don’t eat any roots because if you dig up roots, you have to kill some worms. So we know that our secretary when we used to travel by air, would order Jain food, and this does not have onion or garlic. So these five kinds of unavoidable sins, to counteract them, it is prescribed that we should do yajña. But that is a long way off, because human beings are opening up slaughter houses to kill animals for eating. Wine drinking, intoxication, is very common. In the West people don’t bother to get married. And they made a law in South America that if man and woman stay together for more than 2 years then the woman will get the status of the wife and will get all the rights of the wife automatically. In the Bhagavad-gītā 18th chapter 5th or 6th verse Śrīla Prabhupāda explains how he participates in the vivāha-yajña. Although he said, it is not a normal procedure for a sannyāsī. But just to make the wedding auspicious and promote it, he would participate. So this is in the 5th verse of the 18th chapter he explains this. So he did many things in order to promote the proper Vedic standards.

Now, in the whole world, we are suffering the pandemic of this COVID-19. Because people are doing so much bad karma. So one day they find some cure then the virus mutates and the cure doesn’t work. In Brazil, Rio de Janerio they are going to have the Copa Americana, the football game. Some people are calling it as death mela, of football! Because people will go and get this corona virus and die. Anyway, what is necessary is that people should chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Lord Caitanya had instructed that in this age we should chant the holy names of the Lord. We should chant the holy name and we should stop doing the sinful things. That is the real solution. So people should take up this chanting, worldwide. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that even if they don’t have faith in the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, then chant any bona fide name of God. The Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is in Sanskrit. Sanskrit is the mother of all languages. So, in the Bṛhan Nāradīya Purāṇa it says harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam. kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā So there is no other way, no other way, no other way! Not karma, not jñāna, not yoga. Simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa! Somehow we should promote this around the world. Because we are forgetting the Lord, therefore we are suffering. If we always remember the Lord, this will be the real solution. So what to speak of doing these yajñas for the agyāta pāpa, unknown sins. We are doing openly sinful activities. Opening slaughter houses, drinking wine, illicit sex, gambling, these are all gross sinful activities.

Our devotees avoid these things. They experience great joy in dancing and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. And they do the supreme sacrifice. They eat kṛṣṇa-prasāda. It is a very easy system. So if you meet someone and ask, how was your vacation? Oh, I was singing, dancing, feasting! They would say, oh you had a good vacation! This is our process or method of self-realization, so what is the problem? When I go visiting after this class to Australia, and Bangladesh, Malaysia, we see so many feasts! Prasāda – opulent prasāda. So our process is quite easy to perform. But it is very effective. So that is why we hope that everyone will chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and remain happy.

Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja, he was feeling very guilty and frustrated. So many people died in the Kurukṣetra war. He thought that it was his fault. Bhīṣma deva taught him some spiritual science and he felt lighter. ow many animals are dying every day! Unnecessarily people are killing animals. Just to satisfy their tongue. Some meat eater said, their family, that for generations, for centuries they have been eating meat, and they will not stop this. And then they wonder why we have the pandemic. So, if we chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa, chant the name of God, then we can see a great change in the world. This was Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s program. This was also Śrīla Prabhupāda’s program. Now, we hope that all the devotees will nicely study Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books attentively, and spread this message in their respective areas. Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted that each of his disciples should expand this movement around the world. He said that he had say ten thousand disciples and each of his disciples should have at least ten thousand. So, we have a long way to go! Now, Śrīla Prabhupāda disciples are gradually leaving, grand disciples have to take up the responsibility, which is the paramparā system. which is the paramparā system. So, like that, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s vision was different that he wanted to have people should spread the message.

I am very grateful for the devotees who are helping me to carry out Śrīla Prabhupāda’s orders. That ten thousand big books and hundred thousand small books every month. But more than that if the devotees, they read the book I will be happy! Lord Caitanya instructed bolo-kṛṣṇa bhaja-kṛṣṇa karo-kṛṣṇa-śikṣā. Chant the holy names of Kṛṣṇa, worship Lord Kṛṣṇa and study the teachings of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Teachings of Bhagavad-gītā, by Kṛṣṇa. And Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is about Kṛṣṇa. Both are Kṛṣṇa’s teachings. That is Sanskrit grammar. Kṛṣṇa-śikṣā is of two kinds – Kṛṣṇa’s instructions and Kṛṣṇa’s descriptions. So we hope that all the devotees will take up the mission and help to spread it wherever they are.