20260307 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.24.30

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 3.24.30

svīyaṁ vākyam ṛtaṁ kartum
avatīrṇo ’si me gṛhe
cikīrṣur bhagavān jñānaṁ
bhaktānāṁ māna-vardhanaḥ

Translation: Kardama Muni said: You, my dear Lord, who are always increasing the honor of Your devotees, have descended in my home just to fulfill Your word and disseminate the process of real knowledge.

Purport: When the Lord appeared before Kardama Muni after his mature yoga practice, He promised that He would become Kardama’s son. He descended as the son of Kardama Muni in order to fulfill that promise. Another purpose of His appearance is cikīrṣur bhagavān jñānam, to distribute knowledge. Therefore He is called bhaktānāṁ māna-vardhanaḥ, “He who increases the honor of His devotees.” By distributing Sāṅkhya He would increase the honor of the devotees; therefore Sāṅkhya philosophy is not dry mental speculation. Sāṅkhya philosophy means devotional service. How could the honor of the devotees be increased unless Sāṅkhya were meant for devotional service? Devotees are not interested in speculative knowledge; therefore the Sāṅkhya enunciated by Kapila Muni is meant to establish one firmly in devotional service. Real knowledge and real liberation is to surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead and engage in devotional service.

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Jayapatākā Swami: This is a very nice verse! Kardama Muni is addressing the Supreme Lord. He said that You had promised that You would take birth as my son and now you have kept Your word and appeared as such. So, this way, after doing many austerities, and having the vision of the Lord, finally the Lord has appeared in his home. So, one thing is mentioned here, always the Lord likes to increase the honor of His devotees. The devotees want to increase the honor of the Supreme Lord. But Bhagavān wants to increase the honor of His devotees! So this way the competition is going on. The devotee desires to increase the honor of Bhagavān and Bhagavān desires to increase the honor of His devotee! So, that is a very interesting point!

The other thing was that, see, Kardama Muni was a gṛhastha. So gṛhasthas, they can have children. The brahmacārīs, vānaprasthas and sannyāsīs cannot have children! So, our Safari group went to see the birthplace of Śrīnivāsa Ācārya. And the father of Śrīnivāsa Ācārya told his wife that I have a desire to have a son. She immediately replied, “Let us go and ask Lord Caitanya.” They reached Jagannātha Purī and before they could say anything, Lord Caitanya said that, “There is a brāhmaṇa couple coming to see Me and are eager to have a son.” He also said that they should go back to Bengal and that their son will be a very nice devotee! Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu predicted that their son would become a spokesperson for the philosophy of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu!

So, Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying in 1973 in London that all his gṛhastha devotees, they should have ācāryas as children because we are in need a lot of ācāryas. And he said that his Gurudeva was an ācārya. And Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and his wife were his parents. So, having an ācārya or the Lord as your son is not an accident. This is something that husband and wife pray to the Deities, do special tapasya. Like in Jagannātha Purī, it says if you take fish it is considered vegetarian food! So when they asked Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura about this, then he asked, so by taking vegetarian food do you get love of Godhead? So, we don’t take fish although there is no sin, but we want to get love for Godhead. So, maybe the gṛhasthas they have relations there is no sin, but actually to get love of Godhead, we have to do a little more.

Now, many of our devotees, they are preaching in different situations. As a result many people are brought to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So, that is why we desire that by preaching this way, we should expand the movement of Lord Caitanya.

Now, there were two Kapilas – one Kapila Muni the Personality of Godhead. And the other Kapila was giving his speculative knowledge. So, we are not interested in speculative knowledge. We want to have the pure knowledge which ends in devotional service. So, this is very important. Now, Kardama Muni, he is existing in a time when he is at a much higher level, and he lives for many yugas! We are in Kali-yuga, we only live a short time. Maximum we live for a hundred years, but the life insurance agents make a plan for 60 or 70 years maximum. Śrīla Prabhupāda was present for 82 years. We don’t know how long we will be staying in this body. So, the materialists, they want to somehow extend their period in the body. But, they do not think about the loving service of the Lord. Because we are in Kali-yuga we should try to follow the process awarded by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. We should follow the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, etc. and study all these scriptures nicely.

Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying how he wanted the people who had second initiation, they should have the Bhakti-śāstrī degree. In Māyāpur, there is the Māyāpur Institute where easily the Bhakti-śāstrī degree can be got. I hope that all the devotees would get their second initiation. The sixth mantra of the Gāyatrī, is the 18 syllable Gopāla mantra. And it is opined in many scriptures that this mantra is very powerful! All of you are devoid or bereft of this if you have not got second initiation. You are deprived, you are deprived, you are deprived! I don’t want to see anyone deprived! His Grace Atula Kṛṣṇa dāsa is here from the Māyāpur Institute. Please study all these books of Śrīla Prabhupāda and get the degrees!

Kardama Muni was so fortunate that he got the Supreme Lord as His son. So with Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy, we have become Vaiṣṇavas and Vaiṣṇavīs. So it is important that we take advantage of this mercy and spread the movement of Lord Caitanya. Maybe in Satya, Tretā and Dvāpara people lived a long time and the situation was that by varṇāśrama-dharma, life after life they could rise up. In Kali-yuga now we don’t know what the future holds! Śrīla Prabhupāda said that we do not belong to any caste but we are Vaiṣṇavas or Vaiṣṇavīs. So, following that we try to engage in Kṛṣṇa’s service. That is the primary goal of varṇāśrama, Hari-toṣaṇam - pleasure of Lord Hari.

So, by the mercy of Lord Caitanya, the Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa says that there will be a ten thousand years Golden Age. One time, there was this devotee who would distribute books behind the Iron Curtain that time. And Śrīla Prabhupāda said all the devotees should give him their blessings. And we said, “When you are there Śrīla Prabhupāda, and give your blessings, what is the use of our blessings?! What is the value of our prayers?” But Śrīla Prabhupāda said that, “All of you are devotees, if you all desire, Kṛṣṇa will listen to you!” In this śloka it says bhaktānāṁ māna-vardhanaḥ – He increases the honor of His devotees. According to this verse you should all pray that the ten thousand year Golden Age begins right away! We don’t want to delay any further! We cannot do anything ourselves, but Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, if He desires, He can do anything! So, in this world there are wars, different problems going on. But we want the Golden Age start immediately so that all the people become devotees of Kṛṣṇa! Who wants that? So please pray that!

harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā
[Cc. Ādi 17.21]

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare!

So, Kardama Muni was a gṛhastha - he was a brahmacārī, then he became a gṛhastha. Then he had the Supreme Personality of Godhead as his son. And then he took sannyāsa. So, his wife, Kapiladeva’s mother, she got the blessings to bring up his child. Anyway, these are very interesting, very nice instructions. Whatever our āśrama is, we want to do our activities to please Kṛṣṇa. And in Kali-yuga it is not possible to just press the reset button! And expect that some kind of Vedic age would be established! Whatever the people are doing, whatever they are at, try to make them by Lord Caitanya’s mercy, devotees. This way, we can establish the Golden Age!

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare!

In all the Vedic literatures it says that the only hope in Kali-yuga is Harināma. So, like that, we want everybody to take shelter of the holy name. This is by the mercy of Lord Caitanya, that He came down with His associates. And He in this way, established the saṅkīrtana dharma, congregational chanting of the holy name.

Any questions?

Question: You mentioned that devotees should read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. One of our distributors said that he had a doubt. We were told by Śrīla Prabhupāda  that we should read the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and then Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Now we are pushing devotees to read Caitanya-caritāmṛta when they have not yet finished reading the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Are we committing any offence doing this?

Jayapatākā Swami: I don’t think it is an offence. So like if you bite an apple it tastes sweet wherever you bite it from. If someone reads the Caitanya-caritāmṛta and they get inspired, it is nice! But ideally, to get the full benefit from the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, they should also read Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Maybe after reading Caitanya-caritāmṛta, they would be inspired to go back and read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam! Now, how much can they understand without reading the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but Śrīla Prabhupāda, he gave us the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, so naturally it is auspicious! Sometimes, people get Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but they haven’t read Bhagavad-gītā. So, that happens!

Rāmeśvara Prabhu:  I wanted to add one thought also adding something to your thoughts is not what I mean. Your thoughts are from Kṛṣṇa! I wanted to add a thought about a conversation that I had personally with Śrīla Prabhupāda about what Mahārāja gave a class on -  the ten thousand year Golden Age. The difference between for example, my chanting and Jayapatākā Mahārāja is very great, but I wanted to talk about Śrīla Prabhupāda’s japa. Every single word in every single page of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books is Śrīla Prabhupāda’s chanting from Kṛṣṇaloka! And he said that his guru, and he declared that the greatest mṛdaṅga, greatest kīrtana is in the form of the bṛhad-mṛdaṅga, the printing press, printing books, greatest of all the mṛdaṅgas! So from Śrīla Prabhupāda’s absolute pure chanting in every word of his books and the bṛhad-mṛdaṅga of printing them, this releases a spiritual potency into the atmosphere of this whole planet, it completely surcharges and spiritualizes the earth’s atmosphere. So what Śrīla Prabhupāda said to me is that if we continue and keep increasing mass book distribution, mass, mass book distribution, the whole atmosphere of the earth changes and within a few short years, hundred years, whatever, this will usher in the  purest of this ten thousand year Golden Age! Śrīla Prabhupāda’s transcendental book distribution ki jaya! And the greatest leader of book distribution in the world is sitting right in front of us, His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja! Greatest leader of book distribution! Every day do you listen to the scores, if you don’t listen  you don’t even understand what Śrīla Prabhupāda’s heart is about! Every day the scores begin with what Mahārāja has distributed – no other leader in ISKCON does what he does for book distribution! And I have some expertise to be able to certify this!

Jayapatākā Swami: Many times Śrīla Prabhupāda mentioned, my books will be the law books for the next ten thousand years! But what is the meaning of that? We know how the Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa is predicting that we will have a ten thousand year Golden Age. So, when Śrīla Prabhupāda said his books would be the law books for the next ten thousand years, what is the secret meaning? So, we thank Rāmeśvara Prabhu for his stressing on the importance of the book distribution. And he was saying that I may have been very fortunate to have a lot of association with Śrīla Prabhupāda, but everyone, every one of you can have intimate association with Śrīla Prabhupāda! As Rāmeśvara Prabhu said, when you read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books, you are directly associating with Śrīla Prabhupāda from the spiritual world! So, I have to end here, but we would like to encourage all the devotees to read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. Who is committed to reading Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books? Thank you very much!