20260117 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.23.40-41

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

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.23.40

vaiśrambhake surasane
nandane puṣpabhadrake
mānase caitrarathye ca
sa reme rāmayā rataḥ

Translation: Satisfied by his wife, he enjoyed in that aerial mansion not only on Mount Meru but in different gardens known as Vaiśrambhaka, Surasana, Nandana, Puṣpabhadraka and Caitrarathya, and by the Mānasa-sarovara Lake.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.23.41

bhrājiṣṇunā vimānena
kāma-gena mahīyasā
vaimānikān atyaśeta
caraḻ lokān yathānilaḥ

Translation: He traveled in that way through the various planets, as the air passes uncontrolled in every direction. Coursing through the air in that great and splendid aerial mansion, which could fly at his will, he surpassed even the demigods.

Purport: The planets occupied by the demigods are restricted to their own orbits, but Kardama Muni, by his yogic power, could travel all over the different directions of the universe without restriction. The living entities who are within the universe are called conditioned souls; that is, they are not free to move everywhere. We are inhabitants of this earthly globe; we cannot move freely to other planets. In the modern age, man is trying to go to other planets, but so far he has been unsuccessful. It is not possible to travel to any other planets because by the laws of nature even the demigods cannot move from one planet to another. But Kardama Muni, by his yogic power, could surpass the strength of the demigods and travel in space in all directions. The comparison here is very suitable. The words yathā anilaḥ indicate that as the air is free to move anywhere without restriction, so Kardama Muni unrestrictedly traveled in all directions of the universe.

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Jayapatākā Swami: So, now I have finished seven days of my fourteen days’ therapy. Until then I have to be in this kind of isolated situation. Now we can learn many nice things from these verses. One thing is that Kardama Muni, he was a very strict brahmacārī. Of course, he was at the time of Svāyambhuva Manu and Devahūti was the princess, daughter of Svāyambhuva Manu. So, she wanted to marry Kardama Muni because he was a great yogī. For that reason Svāyambhuva Muni took his daughter to Kardama Muni. And Svāvambhuva Muni knew that Kardama Muni wanted to enter into householder life. So Kardama Muni wanted to experience what was material happiness. So this is a very legitimate course of action. And after his marriage he was a very renounced gṛhastha also. And Devahūti performed various austerities and penances. So then, since he was meditating for a long time, he obtained mystic powers. So he had his wife bathe in the Bindu Sarovara, and many Gandharva maidens made her bathe and massaged her. So, Devahūti had regained her previous beauty. So then, Kardama Muni, he and his wife enjoyed the material happiness in his aerial mansion. And that was said to be better than that of the devas. So, he went to various gardens all over the universe. Then eventually he produced children. And his idea was that after enjoying gṛhastha life, he would take sannyāsa. But his special quality was that he was always Kṛṣṇa conscious, he was always in control of his ātmā, he was self-realized and he was Kṛṣṇa conscious. So, I won’t talk about the future, you are going to hear about it later.

Now, we are in a different situation, we are in Kali-yuga. Our day to day life span is less than even a hundred years – maybe seventy years or so, I don’t know. Life insurance companies they calculate how many years people live. So one should understand this principle of how to become a Vaiṣṇava or Vaiṣṇavī. Daiva-varnāśrama is not exactly the way people think. Say that, a housewife, she cooks, but she offers the food to Kṛṣṇa, she does ārati, she read Bhagavad-gītā, chants japa, cleans the house, and does all normal household duties. Then she does Harināma kīrtana, and distributes books. She comes to the temple and greets the Deities and worships Śrīla Prabhupāda and her spiritual master. So she is a Vaiṣṇavī, she is not a woman! Now if a lady just follows the varṣāśrama system and does her housework, just serves the husband, she may take another birth, a higher birth maybe as a man, or something. But Kṛṣṇa, He described in the 18^th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna, don’t fight as a kṣatriya, fight for Me! If a kṣatriya dies in a battle, he goes to heaven. And if he wins, he gets a kingdom. But Arjuna, he was fighting for Kṛṣṇa, so he would go back to the spiritual world. So it can be anyone whether a person is a farmer, vaiśya, śūdra, if he is doing it for Kṛṣṇa, he will go back to the spiritual world. We therefore have to keep our consciousness that we are doing it for guru and Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Prabhupāda used to tell us that his guru Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura was by his side all the time! So, there may be so many problems with the modern situation in Kali-yuga. Gender equality, various things. Now, we cannot reverse all those things. And we don’t want to reestablish the caste system. We want that everybody becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious. I have a disciple in America who is a dentist. And she was recognized as the best dentist in her state! The best! The very best! So the traditional varṇāśrama people would say, no, she is just a cook, this is not her interest. I mean, some people are, it is hard to be Kṛṣṇa conscious, that is what we want them to really be, Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying how his guru is always by his side. For the past few days I have been thinking like that! And I feel great bliss by this! So I want that all the devotees think this way that I am acting for Kṛṣṇa, I am working for Kṛṣṇa, I am working for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa and my spiritual master, if I do this my life will be successful! We are trying to do this but we may be doing it mechanically without thinking. And if you actually, consciously offer your every action to Kṛṣṇa, then you are bhakti-yogīs and bhakti-yoginīs. So, we can preach to everyone that whatever they are, people may have different desires, different ideas, but they can all be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Like in the 18^th chapter verse 65:

man-manā bhava mad-bhakto
mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru
mām evaiṣyasi satyaṁ te
pratijāne priyo ’si me

Translation: Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.

So, we are not trying to promote brahminical culture, kṣatriya culture, vaiśya culture, we are trying to promote Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In the verse 66, Kṛṣṇa says:

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

Translation: Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.

So, in the varṇāśrama-dharma, the kṣatriya-dharma, whatever dharma is there abandon all, and just surrender to Kṛṣṇa. That is the real daiva-varṇāśrama. Whatever we do, we will do for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa, for the pleasure of our spiritual master. Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying that someone is born in a certain caste, brāhmaṇa or particular thing, but if they have a desire to perform a different kind of activity, like in this modern world we have even the head of a nation, head of a state, a lady. Some are prime minister, chief minister, etc. I go to different hospitals and there are many lady doctors there. So the point is that some of our ladies are Chartered Accountants and they make two lakhs a month! So, we just want them to be Kṛṣṇa conscious. I am just giving ladies as an example. And men or women, we want everyone to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and be Kṛṣṇa conscious, think about Kṛṣṇa, do their service, do their activities for Kṛṣṇa.

Kardama Muni was a great yogī in Satya-yuga or so but he was always Kṛṣṇa conscious. And he became the father of viṣṇu-avatāra, Kapiladeva.

I wanted to hear about the Gaṅgā-sāgara mela where it is situated, but I was not able to hear about it. So, may be this is not stressed enough, but I have read that Kardama Muni he was always keeping his mind on Kṛṣṇa. Here Śrīla Prabhupāda has given the example of Kardama Muni and Devahūti and has compared it to the way the disciple should serve the spiritual master, as Devahūti served Kardama Muni. So Kardama Muni, he wanted to experience the material life, so that his renunciation would be complete. And we were seeing some of our advanced, elderly, Vaiṣṇavas they are falling into māyā because they have not experienced material enjoyment. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, he was a real strict, naiṣṭhika-brahmacārī, complete celibate. But if some devotee is feeling I missed something then it is better to follow the normal process of brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura did not do that because he directly entered into renounced order of life from his brahmacarya life. So if someone wants to be like that, he should be very fixed up and being a brahmacārī should not look back, and if you are thinking otherwise then experience life and then renounce. So, Śrīla Prabhupāda said that everybody has the right to engage in devotional service to Kṛṣṇa.

So we need to endeavor for this. So we want to see what quality of work someone would like to do and they should do that for Kṛṣṇa. I have a disciple who is a businessman, he said he wanted to leave everything and become a pūjārī! So that he can go back to Godhead. I told him, that if you do business and if you do it as a vaiśya for Kṛṣṇa, you can also go back to Godhead. He said that we have a lot of projects – TOVP and many other projects in Māyāpur where a lot of money is required, so he wants to make some money for Kṛṣṇa. So whatever one does, if they do that for Kṛṣṇa, that is the success! One may have billions of dollars, but what is the use if it is not for Kṛṣṇa, and he will have to take birth again and again in this material world. So we want to make everyone Kṛṣṇa conscious. We don’t care what they are doing, but they should do it for Kṛṣṇa! Thank you!

Pañcajanya dāsa has a program to do Vaiṣṇava-sevā. Śrīla Prabhupāda told me once:

“Once in Māyāpur Śrīla Prabhupāda told us that the devotees in the Gauḍīya Maṭha are experts at taking care of devotees and guests, but we are not yet so expert. And he said, “You should take nice care of devotees and guests, feed them nice prasādam, give them personal attention, ask them how they are doing and what they need . . . - Jayapatākā Swami.”

Anyone who would like to help in this Vaiṣṇava-sevā care, they can contact Pañcajanya dāsa, he has different program sevās. Or someone can do some physical sevā. Now the GBC AGM and festival is coming up. So we should deal with our people, our visitors, our guests, and our leaders in a very nice way. Haribol!