20241019 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.10.5

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

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

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.10.5

tad vilokyābja-sambhūto
vāyunā yad-adhiṣṭhitaḥ
padmam ambhaś ca tat-kāla-
kṛta-vīryeṇa kampitam

Translation: Thereafter Brahmā saw that both the lotus on which he was situated and the water on which the lotus was growing were trembling due to a strong, violent wind.

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: The material world is called illusory because it is a place of forgetfulness of the transcendental service of the Lord. Thus one engaged in the Lord’s devotional service in the material world may sometimes be very much disturbed by awkward circumstances. There is a declaration of war between the two parties, the illusory energy and the devotee, and sometimes the weak devotees fall victim to the onslaught of the powerful illusory energy. Lord Brahmā, however, was sufficiently strong, by the causeless mercy of the Lord, and he could not be victimized by the material energy, although it gave him cause for anxiety when it managed to totter the existence of his position.

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: So I came down by the stairway carried by a few devotees. So, Brahmā was shaken by the strong winds of the illusory energy. My lift doesn’t work! So, Brahmā’s lotus and water was shaking. My lift doesn’t work! They said the rats in the building have been eating the wires. In devotional service in this material world we always face some difficulties. In Māyāpur, sometimes we have floods. And there are many problems from various illusory energies. In caitanya-līlā there are some examples. When Lord Caitanya was going to Nīlācala, along the way there were various toll collectors, they were collecting money. So, Lord Caitanya was a sannyāsī, so He got by! But He went up a few hundred meters and waited. But the others were not sannyāsīs. The toll collectors would not let them go by unless they give them money. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he went by ship over the ocean and it was very turbulent. So in this way, he suffered many problems. So while in the material world, we should not think why these problems are happening. That is part of the illusory energy. So we are trying to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness in spite of the various problems given by the illusory energy. This way Śrīla Prabhupāda faced many problems to bring Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya to us. So, by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, he crossed over all these difficulties. And Śrīla Prabhupāda prayed when he had faced so many difficulties as he travelled over the ocean. So in the same way, Śrīla Prabhupāda prayed and he had a vision that Kṛṣṇa was taking him across the ocean. Like this, Śrīla Prabhupāda came to the Americas where there was a lot of illusory energy obstacles.

So we should not let the material illusions make us forget Lord Kṛṣṇa. So, in the material world we have to expect that there are going to be some problems. That is the nature of this material world. And we want to see that we all go back to Godhead! If we want to stay here then we worship different demigods like Durgā, please make my material life very pleasant! So, we are at war! Between devotees and the illusory energy! But here, in Māyāpur, in Navadvīpa Dhāma, it is like in Sīmantadvīpa, when Lord Caitanya appeared to Pārvatī, He asked her, “What do you want?” She said, “I heard You are giving out love of Kṛṣṇa! I don’t get association with the pure devotees. They call me, ‘the witch māyā’, they don’t want to associate with me!” Then Lord Caitanya told her that, “You are My ardha-śakti, you are not different from Rādhārāṇī! So, here in Navadvīpa Dhāma you can realize your non difference from Rādhārāṇī.” So if you are put in some awkward position by the illusory energy, just pray for the mercy of Pañca-tattva. Prahlāda Mahārāja, he was put in a lot of difficulties by his father. But he tolerated all the difficulties and at last got the darśana of Lord Narasiṁhadeva!

So we are put in various awkward positions. But we have to continue with our service of preaching. So this verse gives us an example how Lord Brahmā, he also had to face awkward situations. So, we are very small, Brahmā is very big. But Lord Caitanya, Pañca-tattva, They help us! We should not think that because of these problems we cannot preach. And these tests make us more dear to Pañca-tattva, to Kṛṣṇa. Now we have so many nice devotees here! When I came here there were 5 or 6 devotees! Now there are so many! So, we should be very fixed in our devotional service. Hari-dhvani! Ulu-dhvani! See the women can do two things – they can do ulu-dhvani and hari-dhvani, but the men can only do one – hari-dhvani!

Now is our Dāmodara-māsa and we can offer lamp to the Deities. And twelve months of the year we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa every day! So, here in Navadvīpa, there are nine islands. Every island is linked with devotional service in bhakti-yoga. So there are nine services. And this is known as Navadvīpa, nine islands. So, Rādhārāṇī made the Navadvīpa so that we can practice the nine practices of bhakti-yoga. Whether man, woman, child, doesn’t matter, everyone can practice bhakti-yoga. So, there are many different yogas. And we are practicing bhakti-yoga. India has promoted the Yoga day. Mainly the people do aṣṭāṅga-yoga or jñāna-yoga. We do bhakti-yoga. Everyone in Māyāpur should be active in bhakti-yoga. In bhakti-yoga you can advance very quickly. But you have to endeavor. So some of the bhakti-yoga practices can be done here in the temple easily. Some of the bhakti-yoga practices can also be done at home! But here in the temple we can do the arcana of the Deities, we can hear the classes, and we can chant in kīrtana. So some things you can also do in your home. Śrīla Prabhupāda had mentioned how people can practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness in their home. But when there is the temple then we have the facilities to do many services there.

So in two years we are told by Braja-vilāsa Prabhu that we will move the Deities to the TOVP! So this temple is cleaned by the Central Division. So he said they will continue to do that, I will give a paper on what they will do in the TOVP. The Pañca-tattva, and Deities we have the Pūjārī department division, they will also continue their sevā in the TOVP. So everyone will get a chance to do some service for the Deities in TOVP. And even Jīvanātha Prabhu has a saṅkīrtana party, what is the name? It is called the ‘Electric Kīrtana’. ‘Jīva Jāgo!’ So I asked him, “How many kīrtana parties could we have?” And he said, “We easily have three.” His kīrtana party stays by the TOVP Donation office. We could have at least according to him, two more kīrtana parties! We can also have a special kīrtana party of our gṛhasthas! By chanting, there is ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, our consciousness is cleaned! Like this, we hear how so many different prasāda outlets are there. We can see lot of books being distributed. And how many people came yesterday? 35,788 people!! We see the temples in the West, maybe small amount of people. On Sundays, they get more. So you have so much opportunity, you had 35,788 yesterday and today it would be more! Someone told me how they asked some devotees for service and he said, “I am busy, I have service!” Other temples people are lazy! But in our ISKCON temples everyone is busy! But we should have some devotees who preach to the visitors. Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted us to the be United Nations of the Spiritual World!

Are there any questions?

Question: Thank you for the nice class. You said we need to be fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. How can we increase our determination and be fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, Māyāpur, every day is more than a Sunday in the West! And niṣṭha-bhakti means that we have to be tolerant of all the illusory energy obstacles. Māyā can give some really difficult troubles. So we have to be fixed, we are going to serve, no matter what! So in this way, we will be in niṣṭhā.

So every Saturday, I meet the devotees in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore, Australasia countries, we have darśana. All the devotees who came from Bangladesh, and different parts of the world, I offer my blessings.

Kṛṣṇe matir astu!