Bhagavatam study 27 – 1.6.32-38 – Krishnas glories fulfill our search for pleasure

Next talk.
Thank you. in the interaction that leads to the manifestation of the Srimad Bhagavatam Narad Muni has spoken about the glories of glorifying the supreme and then he described he described how he came to realise and relish those glories and in that connection he told his own story of how he as a servant’s son got to hear the glories of the lord from travelling mendicant saints and how he also took shelter of those glories when life slapped him with the adversity of taking away his only caretaker relative, his mother and he turned towards the supreme caretaker the supreme lord by absorbing himself in his glories after going in another direction and navigating through various dangers for the lord appeared before him and then disappeared but kept for him a fervent desire that burnt away all his impurities and how that desire took him not just kept him in an enlightened state not just going from one body to another but also while going through the process of cosmic annihilation that happens at the end of the day of yama and then how he now travels everywhere relishing the glories and sharing the glories of the lord that is what is being described here so this was devadattam imam vinaam devadattam that the lord has given me this vinaam imam vinaam this vinaam swara brahma vibhushitam one of the most potent ways in which the lord is glorified is through music so for the sake of music there are various musical instruments and malaguni’s characteristic instrument is the vina he travels with the vina and plays the vina and charms the hearts of the people with both the sound music from the vina and the songs which he is playing and singing along with the vina so swara brahma vibhushitam music itself can be very pleasing but when swara brahma vibhushitam when the musical natures the musical compositions are actually manifesting the supreme or talking about the absolute truth their brahma vibhushitam then they are especially potent they can actually transform in a way transform hearts and lives in a way that no other sound vibration can transform brahma vibhushitam and then he says further that as he travels like this murchitva harikatham he speaks the pastime of lord harim and gaya manam cha ramyam gaya manam singing harikatha cha ramyam I travel around so yasadev is hearing from his spiritual master and you can just imagine what ecstasy he must be feeling at hearing about the ecstatic supreme achievement of his spiritual mentor spiritual master and here this description of how narada himself relishes the lord’s glories is his prelude to his instructing vyasa to similarly relish and share the lord’s glories so yasadev will be told by narada muni that just as narada muni travels far and wide to share the lord’s glories and his parvati travels are manifested throughout the pages of the bhagavatam wherein he elevates people he elevates a small child like dhruva who is just 5 years old and he elevates even a child who is not yet born prahlad who instructs while he is still in the womb of his mother and he elevates those who are caught in piety such as bhagavad ashwas who have a pious father who wants his sons to go on the path of material piety not towards dedicated spirituality or the trichini barisha kings like him who are caught in material karma kanda and he elevates very sinful people like murugari and valdhyavali who become great saints by the benediction of narada so narada muni is pervading the entire corpus of the vedic literature and his dharma and mahabharata especially his puranas permanently there in every canto of the bhagavatam he bestows his mercy everywhere so Vyasa is being told what narada does by travelling Vyasa dev should do by writing that is share the lord’s glories for the benefit of the whole world text 33 text 33 text 33 text 33 text 33 when i sing his glory supreme lord when i sing his glory Priyaśrava tīrtha pādaha So, the Lord whose feet are the source of purity, of auspiciousness, of holiness, so the Lord who makes everything holy, tīrtha pādaha, Priyaśravaḥ, one who is very pleased, whose glories are very pleasing to hear, Priyaśravaḥ, His name is, glories are very pleasing to hear, āhūta eva me śīgraṁ. So, when I call out to the Lord, āhūta me śīgraṁ, immediately, darshanam yāti cetasi, He reveals Himself to me, He gives me His darshan.
So, here, Narada, initially, he got darshan of the Lord in his earlier life, and then he lost that darshan, and then he had to do sadhana, severe sadhana, with determination and hope, and now, it is that, whenever he sings the Lord’s glories, the Lord has become manifest before him, and the Lord becomes accessible to him, such is the exalted state of devotion that Narada has attained. Now, we chant Krishna’s glories, and sometimes we feel an elevating presence, and sometimes we don’t feel any presence at all. Sometimes, we chant and we wonder, oh, when will this, when will this end, so that I can get on with other things in life? But, that’s because our bhakti is not very strong, our desire for Krishna is not very fervent, and, viyathā māṁ prapadyante, Krishna says, as all people surrender unto me, tāṁs utthai pavajā mehaṁ, right? Reciprocate and reward accordingly.
So, when someone’s desire is not very strong, then Krishna does not really appear over there, at least not so much. Krishna manifests as much as is our desire. So, Narguni sings the Lord’s glories with such devotion, such intense desire that the Lord immediately manifests over there.
And, we too can, by meditating on Narguni’s glories, meditating on how the Lord is located in such devotion, we too can infuse our practise of bhakti with devotion and thus attract the Lord’s presence. And, the Lord will, if we keep practising bhakti and striving to remember Him, He will surely appear and He will attract our hearts too. So, wherever the Lord’s glories are being recited, that is where the Lord manifests.
When the devotees glorify the Lord, that is where the Lord becomes manifest. His presence becomes accessible to us. Otherwise, His presence is not accessible.
So, Narguni is making the Lord’s presence accessible and relishable. He is accessing and relishing it Himself and He is making it accessible and relishable for others also. Text 34 Some beautiful words from the Bhagavatam now.
It is, this verse gives the essential and enduring message of the Bhagavatam. What is that message? एतध्यातूरचित्तानाम् आतूरचित्तानाम् Consciousness is आतूर. Now, this आतूर is eager, but that is eager, in this world, people’s consciousness is not eager for Krishna.
The consciousness is eager for मात्रास्परशेच्छयामुभू। मात्रास्परशेच्छयामुभू। For the desire for contact with the sense objects. मुहू, and again and again, more and more people are craving for sense gratification, sense pleasure over here. And when people are craving thus for sense pleasure भवसिन्दु लवो धृष्टो भवसिन्दु, this desire which puts them, makes them suffer and drown in the ocean of material existence.
And to come out of that, लवो धृष्टो लवो धृष्टो, I see, what is the love of the boat? हरिचर्या अनुवर्णनम् Haricharya, the glory of Lord Hari, अनुवर्णनम् The description of the Lord’s glories. Now we wonder what is the connection between these two. That I am craving for sense gratification and if I hear Krishna’s glories, how is that a solution? Actually, we are looking not for sense gratification, we are looking essentially for pleasure.
And the propaganda of the world and the preconceptions of the mind based on previous experiences have made us believe that the search for pleasure means the search for sensual pleasure, search for worldly pleasure. And because of that, the search for pleasure is something which is innate to us as conscious beings, आनन्मयो अभ्यासात, we innately search for pleasure. So we need to understand the difference between we shouldn’t let the search for pleasure be reduced to the search for sensual pleasure.
If we equate the two, then we will feel that spiritual life is not just irrelevant, but actually it is depriving us because in the practise of spiritual life we often regulate much sensual pleasure. So we may feel deprived, but when we understand that it is the Supreme who is who is the essential object of our desire, we long for Krishna, we long for experiencing Krishna, connecting with Krishna, loving Krishna and relishing His love for us. To the extent we understand this, to the extent we feel inspired to redirect determinately our search for pleasure from the sense objects to Krishna and the sense objects do offer some pleasure but that is just like a draw whereas Krishna offers a pleasure that is like an unlimited ocean.
So Narada Muni is telling us over here that for all those people who are craving for sense pleasure the way to relief is the discussion of the Lord’s glories essentially we all look for we means all conditioned living beings we all look for sense pleasure in some typical ways, food, sex and certain other sense objects which create a conducive environment by which we can maximise these pleasures so we have various senses we have the eyes, we have the ears we have the nose, the tongue, the skin and we want gratification for all these senses now matra sparshe chayam again and again there is some pleasure which we get by indulging in this gratification but that pleasure is flickering we get a little bit and then it’s over and then we want again more and we can’t get more at that time so then we try for something else and then something else and in that way we get caught at the material level of reality pursuing a pleasure that never stays for long with us so we stay for long in pursuing a pleasure that never stays for long thus we stay for long, how long? for many many lifetimes lifetime after lifetime we keep chasing after the pleasure but the pleasure never stays for long it is actually there for a few moments as the senses come in contact with sense objects then the sensory capacity to enjoy gets exhausted and then the pleasure also ends over there but we stay on and on but if we want a pleasure that stays for long that pleasure is the pleasure of bhakti and that comes when we hear the glories of the lord the more we hear the glories of the lord the more we feel enlivened by those glories the more we feel attracted to Krishna because Krishna is a reservoir of unlimited happiness the more we stay absorbed in him the more we move closer to him and eventually attain him for a life of eternal joy text 35 yamadhibheri yoga pathai kamalobhato muhom mukunda sevaya yadvat tatham madham nashamsamyati yamadhibheri yoga pathai yamadhibheri yamadhibheri in the previous verse it is bhakti the means for liberation it is the boat for coming out of material existence now what about other processes he says yamadhibheri yoga pathai on the path of yoga one may follow yam yama the rules and regulations of yoga kamalobhato muhom yes it is true that lust and greed these material desires they do get controlled and can curb them but mukunda sevaya yadvat but when we serve mukunda what happens tathamadham nashamsamyati but actually the way the atma tathatmadham the way the atma is satisfied by harisevaya nothing can offer that the bhagavatam acknowledges the utility of other paths as the yoga pathai says yes the desires can be controlled by the path of yoga but not fully the kind of contentment the kind of fulfilment that comes through harisevaya that will not come through anything else that will come only by absorption in the lord and it is this absorption that narada is relishing that narada is indicating that you are feeling discontent because you have not absorbed yourself in the glory of the lord you have not written about those glories that is the reason for your discontent and yes other verses have put in but none of them can satisfy the way mukunda sevaya can satisfy therefore absorb yourself in the mukunda sevaya of writing the glory of mukunda sevaya that is the subtext that is the underlying message here sarvam tad idam akhyatam yat prishtoham tvayanagha janma karma rahasyam me bhavatas chaatma toshanam sarvam tad idam akhyatam so all this akhyatam i have spoken yat prishtoham tvayanagha whatever what you had asked i have spoken that tvayan to you anagha you are free from sin janma karma rahasyam me the confidential nature of my birth and actions rahasyam me bhavatas chaatma toshanam bhavatas for you this will be helpful in aatma toshanam for your personal satisfaction also so a disciple wants to know more and more about the spiritual master and similarly narada is telling yes i have told you as you have asked and its not just that narada wants to tell his glories yes it is from the point of view of this world how narada is a sage who travels everywhere as per his will with no restriction it is amazing, it is mystifying he appears and disappears without being under the control of anyone it is amazing and mystifying so armani is unravelling the mystery of how it all came to be and it is not just that armani wants to talk about himself and his glories he is talking about himself as an example of the liberating and fulfilling potency of devotion and the underlying message for rasade is that if you also become absorbed in the lord’s glories haricharya if you also become absorbed in the lord’s glories you will also experience atma toshram so this narrative will help you also to find atma toshram and you will enable others those who if you write about the glories of the sultan will enable others also to find atma toshram they will also be able to relish more and more the glories of the lord and as the instructions of bhagavatam started that by his glory by the practise of bhakti the atma becomes satisfied atma toshram so a similar theme has been talked about here also that the soul becomes satisfied by the composition of the lord’s glories atma toshram text 37 suta vacha evam sambhashya bhagavan narada vasavi sutam a mantra binam ranayan yajau yadruchiko munihi so evam sambhashya after speaking this way bhagwan narada so that’s why narada muni is referred to as bhagwan he is a very great soul vasavi sutam vasavi sutam so vasavi was another name of satyavati so vasavi sutam is satyavati that is Vyasadev so in this way narada muni spoke to Vyasadev and then a mantra binam ranayan a mantra so usually we use the word a mantra as any a mantra invitation so invitation can be to come but basically invitation is a is a ritual or a gesture of interaction between two people at the start of a meeting so similarly something similar at the end of the meeting when we are about to take leave that is also called as it can also be referred to as a mantra so here it is referred to as a mantra binam ranayan so he he took his leave at binam ranayan so it was not just a heretical thing that oh i am absorbed in the lord’s glories narada muni immediately as he was about to leave he started vibrating the lord’s glories once again binam ranayan and he departed wherever will he you know however his heart inspired him based on the lord’s inspiration of how and where he was to share the lord’s glories accordingly he went in that direction the sage left so our heart’s desires are often whimsical but that does not mean that our heart does not have a longing for the lord and if we purify ourselves we find that below all the longings that are there in this world there is the longing for the lord which is distorted and distributed in various peripheral longings, superficial longings so the more we cultivate a longing for the lord the more the longings longings for various other things will subside and we will be able to become more and more fixed and absorbed in devotion text 38 aho devarshir dhanyo yam yat krutim shanagan dhanvanah gayan madhyan idam tantrya ramayatya aturam jagat aho aho is a word used to express appreciation, amazement glorification aho devarshir dhanyo yam dhanya it is auspicious, glorious successful let there be all glory and success for this great devarshi for this ayam devarshi for devarshi narada yat krutim shanag yat krutim shanagan dhanvanah shanagan dhanvanah dhanvanah is the bow is named as shanagan shanagan dhanvanah is one who possesses the bow named shanagan that is lord hari lord krishna so his glories are always vibrated by naraduni gayan madhyan idam tantrya gayan he delights he sings them and madhyan he becomes intoxicated by them tantrya with this instrument ramayatya aturam jagat ramayatya in this way he is he enlivens aturam jagat the word atura was used earlier to talk about how the world is atura for sense objects atur jita naam matras parse ichchayam the world is craving for sense pleasure but naraduni dissipates their craving and their misery the misery that is created by that craving by vibrating the lord’s glory so indirectly by this concluding verse of this chapter suta goswami is actually saying that let all people be relieved from misery he is saying that let there be success for that great sage who by vibrating the lord’s glories with this instrument frees people from their misery just like if a doctor is going to a area where there is an epidemic then in that area we say let there be success for the doctor that means what? let patients be cured let people become free from the suffering of the disease let there be well being for the people so when devotees try to absorb themselves in the lord’s glories that is not self centred the more we absorb ourselves in krishna’s glories the more we will be free from self centred desires and the more we are free from self centred desires the more we set an example by our words by our actions of how others too can become free from self centred desires from sensual desires which actually cheat us in our search for happiness and thus by absorption in krishna and by sharing the joy of absorption in krishna through our words and through our example we can enable the world to also relish that absorption and thus become free from the misery of the affliction of sensual desires so it is this which is the desire that animates the devotees it is this that inspired Shri Prabhupada to travel all across the globe at an advanced stage the desire that the lord’s glories be broadcast and thus people become free from the affliction of sensual desire it was that desire this compassionate desire that kept Shri Prabhupada awake writing so many books speaking so many classes Shri Prabhupada we have almost 6,000 more than 5,000 6,000 recordings he practically gave a class not just one class we consider he was there for 11-12 years with us and especially with active preaching and that’s where we have most of his audios so if you count it it’s almost like Prabhupada was giving 2 classes per day apart from meeting so many people apart from managing apart from writing his books it is that it was this compassion to share the lord’s glories and thereby free people from misery that was animating Shri Prabhupada and by receiving the benediction of the Bhagavatam that comes from the Bhagavatas like Shri Prabhupada like Vyasji, like Narada Muni we too can become free from the affliction of sensual desire through absorption in the supreme thank you