Jagannatha Ashtakam 8 – The end of all desires except the desire to serve is the end of material existence

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.
Jagannatha Ashtakam, verse 8. Haratam samsaram, rutataram asaram surapate, haratam paapanam vittim, aparam yadavapate. Aho dinanathe, nithicharano nishchitamidam, Jagannatha Swami, Nayanapatha Gami bhavattume. Here is a fervent, desperate call to the Lord to bestow His mercy and remove all distractions to single-pointed devotion.
In the sixth verse, the culmination of the Athyatra and momentous experience of supreme ecstasy of union is described when Krishna and Radham meet and they embrace each other. And the intense longing for Krishna that comes when one experiences even a fraction of a drop of that ecstasy of supreme love that is expressed in the seventh verse. I don’t want anything else.
I don’t want wealth or kingdom or essential enjoyment. I want only You, my Lord. But then, after making this prayer, one knows that actually we get these feelings of ecstasy, of intense longing for Krishna when we are practicing sadhana bhakti.
Often it’s a struggle with our mind. There are ups and downs. Sometimes we feel good.
Sometimes we feel terrible. Sometimes we feel okay. So this mind goes on in sine waves.
And sometimes when we get intense experiences of ecstasy, maybe during kirtans, during yatras, or even during studying shastra and understanding some point, at that time we feel, Krishna, this experience is so enriching, so fulfilling. I just don’t want anything else. And we all have, at some time or the other, got such experiences.
But unfortunately, those experiences are like the peaks and the peaks last, the crest lasts for a short time and then after that again our consciousness goes down. And then here, and again often we fall back to our own distracted, sometimes anti-devotional ways. So, what do we do? So here the intense prayer is, my dear Lord, I do not want to fall back again.
Just end my material existence, my dear Lord. Haratvam samsaram. Samsara, the cycle of birth and death.
Haratvam samsaram. Dhritaram, it’s extremely difficult. There are difficulties just for surviving in this world.
And then even when we practice bhakti, again there are difficulties in the practice of bhakti also. Dhritaram. And as far as the material existence is concerned, Asaram.
Ultimately, what does one get out of this material existence? Whatever we strive and slave and crave for, ultimately everything is lost at the time of death. Nothing except our karma and our bhakti will go from one life to another. So what we strive for, what this material world allures us with, it becomes Asaram.
It becomes actually useless. And it’s not that it’s useless at the time of death. Now also, as long as it’s disconnected from Krishna, it’s useless.
Just like a zero is useless without a connection with the one. So Asaram. So surapate.
My dear Lord, you are the… There are many suras, many devtas, they can give blessings in this world, but they cannot give blessings of liberation from this world. You are surapate, and you can give that liberation, my dear Lord. So I beg you, please, end my material existence.
I want to become single-pointed in your devotion, but so many distractions keep coming. And again I come back, again I get distracted. And this has happened so many times.
I don’t want it anymore. So please, end. End my material existence.
Now, why do we stay on material existence? Because of our past karma. Because we ourselves have done bad karma, the reactions to which we have to endure. And more importantly, we ourselves have desires, which we need to deal with.
As long as your desire is to enjoy in this world, we have to stay in this world. So haratam papanam vittin aparam ya dhavapate. So surapate, that is in the previous verse, that surapate, you are the Lord of the gods, the gods that are far above us, but you are above them.
You are beyond this material existence, and you can give what they can’t give. But that Lord who is transcendental is so merciful that He has descended in this world. That Lord who resides above the level of the devatas also, He has descended to this level in this world in the Yadu dynasty as Krishna.
So He has become Yadavapate. So, my dear Lord, now you have so mercifully come here. Haratam papanam vittin.
There are so many sins in my heart. It’s like an ocean. Aparam.
It’s an unsurpassable ocean. We have that ocean, again in two terms. One is the oceanic quantity of sinful reactions that we are going to get for all the misdeeds that we have done.
And also the oceanic quantity of the sinful desires that we still have. We sometimes try to deal with those desires. We are trying to swim our way through these desires.
But it’s extremely difficult. And it’s named Ahaparam. So, the ocean of material existence is the ocean of karmic reactions, is the ocean of desires.
The storms that are there in this ocean of material existence they come from two sources. One is that the storms come in the form of calamities which are triggered without our doing anything. And the other is storms which are triggered by our own choosing desires that are calamitous.
Desires that are disastrous. So, either way, there is this… this world is such a place of distraction and danger. So, my dear Lord, You take me across it.
You take me across it. So, the Bhagavatam expands on this vision and says that Lord Lotus Feet are like a boat. And actually when we get into this boat, the whole ocean shrinks to the size of a puddle of a calf’s… created by a calf’s footprint.
Tiny size. We can easily scale over it. So, here is praying, My dear Lord, have mercy on me.
Aho dinanath hai. Oh, You are Dinanath. You are… Now, of course, the Lord is Jagannath.
He is the Lord of the Universe. But then what is the significance of using Dinanath over here? He is the Lord of the Universe but not everyone acknowledges Him as the Lord of the Universe. And not everyone asks Him for His supreme blessings.
And because people don’t ask Him for His blessings, He does not give that to them. But when we humble ourselves in front of Him, Dinanath… My dear Lord, I am Dina. I am helpless.
And You are my Nath. You are my Master. Dinanath hai nithicharano.
Nithicharano means it is Your Lotus Feet that I aspire for. These Lotus Feet will become the boat which will take me across material existence. Nishchitamitam.
Certainly it will take me across. Definitely. No doubt about it.
So, please, my dear Lord, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. So, what is the mercy that is being asked for? That mercy is remove all distractions from my path.
Jagannath is Swami. Nayanapada Gam. Bhavad Dume.
So, let, my Lord, You appear on the path of my eyes. So, actually, attraction to Krishna is the greatest blessing. And attraction to Krishna comes when there is recollection of Krishna.
Recollection of Krishna is not just by withdrawing from this world. So, it is also from seeing Krishna in this world. So, when we… How can we see Krishna in this world? In order, we are walking on the streets and suddenly we will start seeing Krishna everywhere.
That is a very advanced stage of devotion. That will take time. But, we can do two things.
First is, whenever there are occasions, when there is a direct and intense manifestation of Krishna available to us, we immerse ourselves in that. For example, when there are festivals, when there are classes, when there is abundant, fulfilled opportunity to remember Krishna, we immerse ourselves in that. And through that, we get memories.
Cherishable, relishable memories. And we carry them in our heart. And if those memories are there in our heart from the directly devotional opportunities that we have got and that we have used, then, even when we are not in devotional settings, at that time, these memories will bubble up in our heart.
And they will come up to the surface of our consciousness and they will make us Krishna conscious even in those times. So, at that time, we can try to consciously connect things with Krishna if subconsciously the connection is not happening. So, when we are pulling the card of Jagannath, at that time, he is there in front of our eyes, in the pathway of our eyes.
But, you be in the pathway of my eyes constantly. That means, no matter what I see, let me remember, my dear Lord, this is your energy, meant for your service. Please let me see you everywhere.
See the opportunity to serve you everywhere. So, actually, my dear Lord, you please appear on the pathway of my eyes. That is actually a prayer for pure devotion at the level of being in material existence.
Because, we are going to be in material existence and here we have to see material things. But, my dear Lord, let me see you everywhere. May you appear on the pathway of my eyes wherever my eyes have to go in this world.
Of course, we don’t deliberately look at the sense objects and think that we will see Krishna over there. No, we will see the power of maya like Markandeya Rishi saw and we got bewildered. So, we don’t challenge Krishna by going into mayic situations deliberately.
But, wherever our service requires, wherever our duty necessitates, we go this prayer. My dear Lord, you please manifest. So, our inner resolution will engender the outer vision.
We have a resolution internally that Krishna, I want to serve you. Serving you is the most meaningful, the most fulfilling. In fact, the only worthwhile thing that I can do.
Of course, serving you can be done in many different ways but that’s the thing that I want to do. And, what do we do from there? From there, we move forward and that inner resolution will lead to outer vision. We will be able to see in the external world also.
Krishna, there are opportunities. Serving you constantly. This prayer is not necessarily a prayer for death.
No, is it, end my samsara, Krishna. End my material desires. Is it saying that, Krishna, let me die right now? Sometimes, the intense feeling of devotion and the feeling of separation from Krishna can be so much that a devotee may feel, yes, let me die and by dying, I’ll return back to Krishna and reunite with him.
But a devotee also doesn’t impose one’s own desire on Krishna. So, he’s ready to serve Krishna here or in the next world or if the next world is Krishna’s world directly, then Krishna’s world. A devotee is focused on service.
But here, the prayer is, my dear Lord, please remove the distractions from my path and let me serve you, Lord. Give me that mercy by which I’ll be able to serve you constantly. Let me serve you constantly.
This is also actually a prayer in the mood of Radharani because Radharani was in such separation from Krishna that she just felt life was impossible. The Vedanta Madhava describes how when Srimati Radharani was in separation from Krishna, even when she would lie on a flower bed, her body would be burning so much in separation that the blossoming flowers would become scalded and withered within just a moment of contact with her body. So, such was the fever of separation from Krishna.
And she said that actually, the moment Krishna left this body, left this Vraja, this body became incapable of living. The prana cannot stay in the body. But the prana is like a cage, is like an animal trapped in a cage that is burning.
It’s burning, burning, burning. But Krishna’s promise that I will return, that promise is like the lock on the bolt of the cage. So, the cage is burning and the animal that is there inside wants to flee.
But because the cage is locked, animal can’t flee. Oh, Radharani is saying that. In separation from Krishna, there is like a fire that is burning me and my body is on fire.
It’s impossible for me to live here. I just want to die, but I cannot die because Krishna has said that I will come back. And if I come, if He comes back, I have to be there to serve Him.
My existence is for His pleasure. And He is coming and I want to serve Him at that time. And that’s why, no matter how much suffering is there, I continue to live in this body.
So, this is not a prayer for ending of material existence. It is a prayer for the end of the material, distracting aspect of material existence. Krishna, let me focus on You.
Let me love You. And in that way, let me live with You. So, the Jagannath Ashtakam ends with the Phalashruti.
Jagannath Ashtakam, Punyam. Yapatet prayatah shuchi. Sarva-papa-vidhatma.
Vishnu-lokam sagacchati. Jagannath Ashtakam is Punya. It’s a very pious song.
Yapatet prayatah shuchi. That shuchi, that clean, self-controlled person who recites this, gradually, sarva-papa-vidhatma. The person will become free from all sins and ultimately, Vishnu-lokam sagacchati, will attain the abode.
So, it is by this recitation, there is the opportunity for meditation. And if you really meditate on the glory of the sublime love between Krishna and His topmost devotees, then that meditation is profoundly transformational. It will redirect our heart from the soul to Krishna and thereby, it will ultimately take us back to Him.
Shri Jagannath Bhagavan ki jai. Shri Jagannath Radhyatra ki jai. Shri Jagannath Ashtakam ki jai.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.