20211003 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.11.28

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on October 3rd, 2021 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.11.28.

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

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya!
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya!
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya!

Jayapatākā Swami: So it is interesting to know how Kṛṣṇa reciprocated with all the people who came to greet Him. From the exalted brāhmaṇas to the lowly people, everyone was greeted by Kṛṣṇa, in an appropriate way. When the Lord entered His father’s house, Vasudeva and Devakī, but Vasudeva had 18 wives. All the wives, although they were step-mothers, they treated Kṛṣṇa equally. And Kṛṣṇa bowed down with His head to all of them. In Bhagavad-gītā, He says whatever a great man does, other people naturally follow. So Kṛṣṇa was teaching by His example. That in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta Lord Caitanya said, āpani ācāri dharma. In this way Lord Caitanya was teaching that one should teach others by one’s own example. So although Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He acted in a responsible way to teach others. We see that in the avatāras of Kṛṣṇa, He treats His parents with respect. In the pastime of Lord Rāmacandra, His father wished that He be exiled for 14 years and He accepted that.

I accepted Śrīla Prabhupāda as my guru-pitā, When I told my father I had taken up bhakti-yoga, he said, “You leave that and immediately come home, or I will send you to the American army to die in Vietnam.” Just my father, not my mother. So I asked Śrīla Prabhupāda, “What should I do?” Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “It would be better that you join Kṛṣṇa’s army.” So I have been in Kṛṣṇa’s army for the past 53 years. Anyway, we can see how nice Kṛṣṇa was acting with all His mothers.

We are reading how Mother Yaśodā, she told Kṛṣṇa, how can I live without seeing You? Although Kṛṣṇa was technically the son of Devakī, He grew up in the family of Yaśodā and Nanda Mahārāja. Lord Kṛṣṇa’s childhood pastimes were enjoyed by Yaśodā and Nanda Mahārāja. A very unusual situation. Although, Kṛṣṇa, He is the Original Person, He has no mother, no father, but in different līlās, different pastimes, He takes someone as His mother or father. Recently, we had the Vāmana Dvādaśī. And Vāmanadeva became the son of Aditi and Kaśyapa Muni. Kapila Muni, He became the son of Devahūti and Kardama Muni. So, these mothers and fathers were able to be the parents of the Supreme Lord.

But mother Sunīti, the mother of Dhruva Mahārāja, she became the mother of a great devotee. And when Dhruva Mahārāja went to Vaikuṇṭha loka, the spiritual world, at that time he noticed that his mother Sunīti had gone in a plane, ahead of him. I see that many Kṛṣṇa conscious families, they are praying to the Deities that they can have a pure devotee as their son. And Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote in a letter that all of these children, they have been sent by Kṛṣṇa. They are the Vaikuṇṭha kids. And the mother and father, they should take care of their children.

King Uttānapāda, he became very morose thinking that Dhruva had died. Nārada Muni came and told him that, “Dhruva is protected by the Lord Himself, and he will not have any problems.” So the mother, we see in these cases, has a very exalted position. So we would hope that all our devotee ladies can also have Kṛṣṇa conscious children. One man, he told me that all his children are non-devotees. And he said that, “Because of this I am very, very sad.” So, it is not very easy to make a devotee. We should take the advantage to treat the children with affection. We see that the step-mothers of Kṛṣṇa, they treated Him with great affection, they hugged Him. So, they were so fortunate, they could be mothers of Kṛṣṇa. We know that there are five principle rasas. Śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya and mādhurya. So neutral, servant, friend, parent, lover wife. So Devakī and other mothers, they are in the vātsalya-rasa. They were thinking of Kṛṣṇa’s welfare as a mother. So in this way, in any way possible, one should be in a relationship with Kṛṣṇa with great affection and love. So Kṛṣṇa was so kind that during His pastimes, He had many different devotees, in different relationships. So, normally these Vraja-vāsīs, Mathurā-vāsīs, Dvārakā-vāsīs, they had the opportunity.

But Lord Caitanya, by His mercy, everyone gets the opportunity. He is giving out the mercy of pure love of Kṛṣṇa, freely. If they are attracted by Lord Caitanya, they may be in mādhurya-rasa. If they are attracted to Lord Nityānanda, then they might be in vātsalya-rasa. If they are very attracted to Advaita Ācārya, they may be in friendly rasa. If they are very attracted to Śrīvāsa, they may be in dāsya-rasa. Anyway, this is hard to say. Sometimes, Śrīla Prabhupāda would say that oh, if you are attracted to the six Gosvāmīs, you may be in mādhurya-rasa. But that remains to be seen. But the thing is that by the mercy of Lord Caitanya, we can serve Lord Kṛṣṇa in the mood of separation, which can arouse pure love of God within our hearts.

We are just reading the pastime of Kṛṣṇa going to the wrestling arena of Kaṁsa. Everybody saw Kṛṣṇa according to their own personal relationship. Kaṁsa saw Kṛṣṇa as death personified. The cowherd men saw Kṛṣṇa Balarāma as one of them. Devakī Vasudeva thought their son had come. The general people thought this is not fair, these are young boys and are fighting with wrestlers, this is like featherweight versus heavyweight! They were booing at Kaṁsa, “How he had arranged such an unfair match.” But the yogīs, they saw Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Foolish people, they thought that this is Viśvarūpa or even worse. The wrestlers saw Kṛṣṇa Balarāma as lightning bolts. Everybody saw Kṛṣṇa according to their own realization. So it was very interesting. People say, I don’t believe in God, I won’t believe unless you show me. But when the Lord was present, people saw Him according to their own different visions. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it says we should put the salve of oil of bhakti in our eyes. Then we can see Kṛṣṇa appropriately. So, the way the gopīs saw Kṛṣṇa, the way the Vraja-vāsīs saw Kṛṣṇa, it was different than others. Lord Caitanya is blessing everybody that we may be able to see with eyes tinged with devotion. So, by Lord Caitanya’s mercy, we can chant the name of Kṛṣṇa, we can achieve Kṛṣṇa in this life. Everybody is trying to satisfy their material senses. But the devotee is completely different, the devotee tries to satisfy the transcendental senses of Kṛṣṇa. So, may all the devotees remain in Kṛṣṇa’s service for 24 hours a day.

In Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Vyāsa-pūjā, we saw a drama of youths of Chennai. So, there were two Yamadūtas and one boy was playing the role of Yamaraja. The Yamadūtas were complaining to Yamaraja. We are ready to take them to hell, but they are chanting the holy names. The other Yamadūta said, they have Deities in their house. The other Yamadūta said, they have Gītā, Bhāgavatam in their house. How shall we bring them? If we get another job, that would be better. So, if we can see that our devotees are saved from the Yamadūtas, that would be very good. In one family all the people, the mother, children took initiation. But the father, he was against. And he was diagnosed with fourth stage cancer. This is a true story. He saw two men with big fangs and hairy bodies, walk through the wall. He said, “No, no, no, no! Not me! Not me! Then they disappeared.” The man called his wife, “Read me Bhagavad-gītā, give me neck beads, give me japa-mālā.” “What we couldn’t do in so many years, the Yamadūtas did in one minute! In one minute he was a devotee!” So, we want to save all the people from the Yamadūtas. We want that everybody can taste the sweetness of devotional service to Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. And then, if you can get this mercy, then you could be part of this pastime of Kṛṣṇa in Vraja-dhāma, Mathurā or Dvārakā.

So this human life became fortunate after Lord Caitanya. So this is the special mercy of Lord Caitanya.