Krishna demonstrates prevailing definition of success – and transcends it
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
Today morning we are discussing from the 10th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, the chapter where it describes how Krishna marries five among his primary eight queens and later how he marries 1600 queens, one goal will be described later. So today I will focus on theme of how Krishna demonstrates the prevailing definitions of success and Krishna transcends those definitions also. So two things, how Krishna when he manifests his leela, in that leela he demonstrates how he is successful according to the prevailing culture's definition of success and then further how he transcends that definition and demonstrates the culture independent universal definition of success.
So two things, so the point is in every culture there is a particular definition of success and people in general mould their lives according to that particular culture's definition of success. So for example if in India, if we have students, most students their definition of success is I have to become an engineer or I have to become a doctor and most students their desires, their aspirations are shaped according to that definition of success. Or if somebody is working then, now most people may want to become, wanting to become wealthy is something which is a natural human aspiration, which is always there.
But according to a particular culture, certain things may be seen as demonstrations of wealth. So for example, if in the past there was a king who was very wealthy, the king would build a magnificent temple for the lord and we will see sometimes there are, in South India there are some temples, Tanjore temple, many generations the kings have been building the temples. What is the idea? Because that was the definition of success.
How does a king show his wealth? By using it for the service of the lord. So that was a pious definition of success. The point is that all of us consciously or subconsciously our behaviour is shaped according to our culture's definition of success.
And in one sense, we could say purification means changing our definition of success. It's not just changing our lifestyle, it's not just changing our philosophical outlook. We may accept that I am not the body, I am the soul.
But if I still accept, if I still hold on to a bodily definition of success, instead of adopting a spiritual definition of success, then there will always be, then I will be internally sabotaging my bhakti. Rather my definition of success at a bodily or materialistic level will always shake and choke my spiritual progress. Because what I am externally doing and what I am internally desiring, they are two different things.
So in one sense purification means that we change our definition of success. So we accept that becoming famous, becoming wealthy, becoming powerful in this world, it's not that a devotee has to give it all up. A devotee doesn't think that this is the definition of success.
You have to understand that there is something higher which is the definition of success and while pursuing that, if I get this also, it's fine. But this will not be my primary pursuit. So, this bhagavatam verse, it, you could say, shatters even the pious definition of success that is there at its time.
The normal definition of success is the four purusharthas. You should do dharma so that one will get artha. One gets artha so that one can get kama.
And after one has adequately satiated one's kama, then one can pursue moksha. So this is the progression. Dharma, artha, kama and moksha.
Now moksha is also called as apavarga. So what the bhagavatam is doing is, it is sort of removing these two. Dharmasi apavargasya.
So dharma is not for artha or kama, dharma is for apavarga. Dharmasi apavargasya na artha arthaaya apakalpita. If that is not yet clear, still it says also that it is not for artha, specifically.
If somehow one gets artha, what should that artha be used for? That artha should also be used for the ultimate goal of life. And then, that means, the artha should not be just used for financial accumulation and for becoming just very wealthy and famous in this world. The next verse is, then it comes to kama.
Kama, normally we have desire for gratifying our senses. So it says kamasya na indriya pritir. Kama should not be used for satisfying the senses.
That is what normal kama is associated with. Labho jivetayavata, live as per fulfilling one's needs and jivasya tattvajijnasa. So kama, the desire which we have should be used for tattvajijnasa.
It's not that we have to give up desire, but we use the desire for inquiring about spiritual truth. So Prabhupada writes in the purport of this verse that, a devotee is so overwhelmed by the task of researching the absolute truth that the devotee has no time for superficial material desires. So jivasya tattvajijnasa na artha yash chyeha karmabhi.
So again the same word, na artha. Now artha has multiple meanings. Artha means wealth, artha means purpose and artha means meaning.
Now we have meaning, iska artha kya hai? And we have wealth, artha, finance. And then it also has purpose, purush artha. What is the purpose of life? So here, the na artha, kamasya na indriya pritir, labho jivetayavata, jivasya tattvajijnasa na artha yash chyeha karmabhi.
Whatever karma we do, it should not have any other purpose. So the bhagavatam here is telling us, not that we reject the other definitions of success, but that we direct all these definitions towards the supreme definition, apavarga. So dharma, artha and kama, all of them should be directed towards apavarga.
All of them should be used for seeking liberation from material existence and attaining Krishna's abode where there will be eternal happiness that can be got. So now when Krishna comes in this world, if we see, within his Vrindavan pastimes, he is not really demonstrating any definition of success. He is just simply delighting in his pastimes.
A small pastoral village which is on the periphery, Vrindavan was not politically at all significant. That's why when Shishupal came to attack, he passed by Vrindavan but did not even bother to come to Vrindavan. Because the political center at that time was Mathura and Krishna was in Mathura.
So Krishna stayed in Vrindavan where he demonstrated his pastimes and then, so he is, as I said, Krishna demonstrates the prevailing definitions of success and he transcends them. So the transcending aspect where there is simply the reciprocation of love, that he demonstrates in Vrindavan. And in Vrindavan, even when he sometimes demonstrates some valorous feat such as killing of demons, it is not really done in a Kshatriya spirit of exhibiting strength.
It is just in a playful way. Akrora while remembering, while telling Akrora, while remembering how Krishna kills the demons, he says, भालक्रीदनकम् इवा, भालक्रीदनकम्. It's just like a play.
Krishna is just, some demon comes in the form of a horse, he just puts his fist in his mouth and finishes off. It's all very playful. But when Krishna comes to Mathura and then later on when he comes to Dwarka, then he starts demonstrating life as a Kshatriya.
And as a Kshatriya, he demonstrates success in various ways. He demonstrates how he personifies the prevailing culture's definition of success in various ways. So one of the ways of course is that he fights some of the tyrannical rulers of his times and he defeats them like he defeats Shishupala, he defeats Dantavakra and so many others.
Jarasandha he defeats. Kamsa, of course, himself he defeats. So like that, one is in that martial spirit, he defeats the demoniac rulers and he demonstrates how he personifies the prevailing definition of success.
And the idea is, Krishna has come to this world to attract people. In general, if you see in the broad mainstream Hindu society, among the most famous shlokas of the Bhagavad Gita is, apart from Karmanyeva Adhikaraste, Sambhavami Yugayuga, where Krishna comes again and again to demonstrate, to establish dharma. Now Prabhupada would also quote this verse, but Prabhupada would quote much more Janmakarmachame Devyam.
So 4.7, 8 and 9, because the focus of 4.7 and 8 is this world. Krishna comes to establish order in this world. But purpose of 4.9 is otherworldly.
Purpose of 4.9 is that Janmakarmachame Devyam evam yobiti tattvata tektvadeham punar janma naiti mam eti swarjuna. Krishna comes and demonstrates his wonderful appearance and activities, so as to attract us back to him. So the purpose of spiritual life, the purpose of spiritual life is to make spiritual life the purpose of our life.
The purpose of spiritual life is not to act as a shock absorber for our material life. You know, there is so much stress, so much anxiety, so I will chant Hare Krishna little bit and that will help you to deal with that stress and tension of my life. Yes, that is a by-product of the practice of spiritual life.
But the purpose of spiritual life is to make spiritual life the purpose of our life. We want to attain the spiritual level of existence and that is what Krishna comes to give. So Krishna comes to attract people to him.
But how will he attract people? People are normally going to be attracted to something which demonstrates the prevailing definition of success. So, for example, in today's world, if somebody becomes a brahmachari or a sannyasi, say 500 years ago when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took sannyas, taking sannyas was very, you could say, glamorous in that definition of success. The word glamorous has a negative connotation nowadays.
But it was, the point was, it was what was attention catching. So, this is, Krishna demonstrated the definition of success in his time. Krishna had appeared in the Kshatriya dynasty and as a Kshatriya, he demonstrated the definition of success by acting as the Moh, by demonstrating how he was the best Kshatriya, how he could defeat even the most formidable warriors of his times.
And here, he is demonstrating one more aspect of Kshatriya life. The Bhagavatam, in one sense, accepts the prevailing dharmarthakama definition of success, dharmarthakama moksha and it transcends that definition. So, there is this, if you see, the Mahabharata, that is primarily focusing on the dharmarthakama moksha definition of success, whereas the Bhagavatam focuses directly on the moksha or the paramoksha, that is, Premapumarthoman, that definition of success.
And that's why the same incidents are told from different focuses. So, for example, when, now not only does Krishna demonstrate the definition of success, I'll explain this briefly, then I'll go to Krishna's devotees. So, here, we see that if we look at the otherworldly definition of success, you know, this world is temporary, life is temporary, you have to go beyond this world, and why bother so much about possessing this, acquiring this, doing this, doing that.
We could have the otherworldly definition of success, where we completely minimize and deride and dismiss this world. But, the Bhagavatam doesn't necessarily accept this. It accepts that, but it transcends that.
Now, if we just stick to the, only the otherworldly definition of success, that the purpose of life is to get out of this life, get out of this world. If you consider that as the only purpose of life, then, the whole thing that is happening over here, for example, a swayamvara, now, you would say that it is such a colossal waste of time. Now, imagine in today's society, if all the heads of the state, all over the countries, you know, if they say the Indian head of the state, the Pakistani head of state, American head of state, they would all go to some country just to contest to get a princess in marriage.
You know, we would consider, what is such a waste of time? You are living on the public exchequer and you have to do, you have to serve the public. You are just frivolously wasting your time like this. Of course, not everyone would necessarily think like that, but when we are focusing on one particular definition of success, if we focus on the otherworldly definition of success, then this activity may seem to be a complete waste of time.
But, the Bhagavatam demonstrates the otherworldly definition of success on the foundation of this worldly definition of success. That means, it takes kings. And then kings, in general, are those people who have achieved the things that most people in the world aspire to achieve.
In this world, people want wealth, as Krishna says, bhogaishvarya pasaktanam. So, bhoga and aishwarya is what people want in this world. And kings are those who have achieved bhoga and aishwarya.
And the Bhagavatam takes those as its exemplars, as the people who demonstrate its teachings, and it shows how these kings, who have achieved everything that the people in the world aspire for, they seek some higher achievement. So, what it does is, it takes this worldly definition of success as a foundation, and then elevates people, this is not enough. This is wrong, but this is not enough.
We have to achieve something more. That's why Krishna uses the word for such kings, he uses the word Rajarushi. Now, evam parampara praptam imam rajarishayo vidhu.
He uses 4.3, says the word Rajarushi. Now, most translators of the Gita translate Rajarushi in the same sequence, Raj is king and Rushi is sage. So, royal sages.
Rajarushi. Prabhupada translates that, he says, Rishiraj. He makes it, reverses it and says, saintly kings.
So, now, if you go back from the English to the Sanskrit, saintly kings Sanskrit would be Rishiraj, not Rajarushi. But the point is that the translation reveals the emphasis of the translator. So, Prabhupada emphasizes, so royal sage, the Rajarushi, that emphasis, when you say in any particular, royal sage, that emphasis, they are like sages.
Prabhupada emphasizes, they are the kings, they are in this world. So, saintly kings. So, the point is that these are the people who have achieved the message of dharma.
He is talking about Rajarushi parampara, where the kings are given the knowledge and by getting the spiritual knowledge, the Rajarushi represents the marriage of the outer ruler and the inner seer. The outer ruler is the Raja, the inner seer is the Rushi. So, when the outer ruler and the inner seer are joined together in one person, then that person can actually do good to the world.
Because if there is only an outer ruler without the inner seer, then that person will only keep pursuing outer things. And that person, that ruler, as well as his subjects will descend into just materialism. But if there is only the inner seer, then that person will not want to do anything outside in the world.
And that person will not be able to change the world in any positive way. So, Srila Prabhupada also said, we want brahmanas with the mood of kshatriyas. Brahmanas are those who are like inner seers.
So, kshatriyas are those who are outer rulers. So, if we have to change, if we have to make a positive contribution to the world, there has to be this combination of both. So, the Bhagavatam takes the example of kings who have already achieved the success that most people aspire for.
And then it demonstrates how those kings aspire for something more. So similarly, when Krishna descends in a kshatriya dynasty, he demonstrates that definition of success. So, the swayamvar is not a frivolous contest, because what happens, the kshatriyas are individuals who are meant to use their physical strength, their martial skills in the service of the state.
And while using, that means they have to fight against aggressors, they have to defend against aggressors. And while doing that, they have to acquire certain skills. Now, when they acquire the skills, being a ruler is not just a matter of being doing performance, it is also of establishing faith.
So, the people in general, if they are to have faith in their king, then they have to see how glorious our king is, how glorious our rulers are. And that's why, in the Mahabharata, after the Pandavas complete their training, then Dronacharya, in consultation with Bhishma, arranges for a martial exhibition to demonstrate the skills of both the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The idea is that, after Bhishma Pitamaha, there has been a crisis of power in the Kuru dynasty.
The two successive dynasties, there has been no strong ruler. There was a strong ruler, but not a persistent ruler. A strong ruler who ruled for a long time.
So, Bhishma did not take up the rule. So, there was Shantanu Maharaj, who was the ruler. After that, Bhishma did not choose, then there was Chitravirya and Chitrangada were there.
But neither of them lived for long. And then Pandu also ruled, but did not rule for long. And Dhritarashtra was blind.
So, when there is a crisis of confidence in the ruler, then there can be unruliness that happens. So, the Pandavas demonstrated their skills and the Mahabharata describes how all the subjects, they were jubilant. So, just as the martial exhibition is one arena, where the Kshatriyas demonstrate their skills.
Krishna says, yukta-ahara-viharasya, yukta-cheshta-karmasu. Now, yukta-viharasya, vihara means play. Now, we may think that, isn't playing a frivolous activity? Why does Krishna say that you should do yukta, regulated? You should give it all up.
But the point is that the Vedic culture was so inclusive that even play was included within constructive activity. So, for example, today if we have sports, the skills in sports don't help people in any way in other fields of life. Isn't it? Somebody is a very good cricketer, that is not going to help that person in the normal performance of his duty.
Just playing cricket becomes his duty. On the other hand, Kshatriya, for example, here there is bullfighting. Bullfighting is even today quite a popular sport.
In India, it is played sometimes in villages. But in America, bullfighting is a very prized sport and there are bullfighting championships which are held. Of course, in that bullfighting championship, what they do is, a person has to ride a bull.
So, the person is something like on top of a, just like in a swimming pool, there is a high platform from which you jump down. So, there are these wild bulls which are kept in enclosures and then the wild bull charges out and the person has to jump down from above and just get on top of the bull and hold on to the bull without any reins, without any saddle, without anything to hold on to. And the bull is wild and the bull tries to knock off the person.
And the person now, the bulls are not animals meant for riding and without a saddle or without a rein, it is practically impossible to hold on. So, the whole championship is that people can actually ride the bull only for a few seconds. So, it will be 5 seconds, 8 seconds, 10 seconds.
So, the whole championship is who can ride the bull for the maximum amount of time. And that maximum amount of time is just a matter of few seconds. So, now the point is, today we live in a culture where bulls are not really used as draught animals for riding or for moving around anywhere.
So, the bullfighting or bull riding is a sport that is entirely divorced from the mainstream activity of life. Whereas, Kshatriyas, even when there is Swayamvar, the idea is that they have to demonstrate skills which are vital for the performance of their Kshatriya duties. So, when Arjuna is to shoot an arrow, now it is a very difficult target which he has to shoot.
But the idea is, a Kshatriya who is that competent is a Kshatriya who has taken his Kshatriya duty seriously. And that is how he has acquired that level of competence. And we see Arjuna also, we know how seriously he took his Kshatriya duty, that even at night he would be practicing his archery.
So, in and of itself, archery has got nothing spiritual with it. Archery can be practiced by people who are entirely materialistic. It can be practiced by people who are spiritual.
But Arjuna knew this is my duty and he took it so seriously that all day and all night he would be practicing. And that is how he could hit even targets which were invisible. So, Arjuna demonstrates success according to the prevailing definition of success.
That is, a Kshatriya has to be a valorous warrior, a competent, a supremely skilled warrior, a consummate warrior. And similarly, Krishna is demonstrating that he was a consummate warrior. So, now when Kshatriyas are fighting in wars, in the heat of the war, sometimes they may be, their chariot may be knocked off, their horses may be knocked off and they may be off on the ground.
And they have to fight against enemies who are, as Arjuna says that when he was fighting on the, He remembers in the 15th chapter after Krishna has departed, he is remembering what has happened and telling Yudhishthira Maharaj. So, he says that on the 13th day when he was going to, of the war, when he had to go inside, penetrate the Kaurava army to reach Jayadrath. So, at that time his horses got exhausted and Krishna told that your horses need some rest, they need some water, they need some food.
So, then Arjuna got on the chariot and then he says, Vaham is the Vahan, my horses, they were exhausted. So, I was without a Ratha and my opponents were Rathi. And I was on the ground and yet I was able to check them.
That was the mercy the Lord demonstrated. So, for a charioteer, for a warrior to be able to fight with the bare hands against wild animals is an important Kshatriya skill when a Kshatriya is going in the heat of the war. So, this particular competition or if you see the various competitions that are there which are set up in the Swayamvar, they are not just frivolous activities, they are meant to demonstrate Kshatriya's competence in the skills that they are likely to need in the heat of the war.
So, in that way, the Krida, the sports is not rejected but it is not made into a separate obsession in of itself. It is connected with the mainstream beauty of one's life. And Krishna demonstrates success in this definition.
So, what he does is, these bulls whom nobody has been able to tame, Krishna tames them and he tames them single-handedly. And of course, he tames them single-handedly but in the sense that he is always alone. But always alone, he manifests in, as it is said over here, seven different forms.
Jiva Goswami in his Bhagavad Sandarbha mentions, he especially takes the incident of Narada Muni going to Dwarka and seeing Krishna in a different palaces. And he makes a very significant point. If you just read the Bhagavatam, we say that Krishna was simultaneously there at different places.
But Jiva Goswami goes into Sanskrit of the verses and he analyses that actually, when Narada Muni goes to the different places, different palaces, actually it is at different times. So, for example, when he goes to one palace, it is the morning, another palace it is the afternoon, another palace it is the evening, another palace it is night, another palace it is early morning. So, and Krishna is doing corresponding activities.
And it is not that Narada Muni, you know, he has to walk slowly, step by step from one palace to another palace. That is why it takes morning. By the time he goes from one palace to next palace, it takes from morning to afternoon.
No, Jiva Goswami explains that actually Narada Muni just flies. He has this siddhi by which he can just, wherever he desires, he gets there. But, so what he says that Krishna can simultaneously not only be at different places, he can simultaneously be there at different times also.
Now, how that is possible? He can simultaneously be there in morning and he can simultaneously be there in afternoon and he can simultaneously be there in evening. Now, hour, morning, afternoon, evening at the same time happening? So, the point is that in modern physics, time is considered to be just one more dimension. Like we have space, we have length, breadth, width and then we have time.
Einstein proposed that time is the fourth dimension in the space time continuum. But the Bhagavatam does not have this conception of time. It says, Bhagavatam says that time is the energy of the Lord.
Kunti Maharani says in 1.8.28, manye tvam kaalam ishaanam, I consider you to be time. So, what does it mean when she says that Krishna is time? Time is not just a feature of material existence. Time predates material existence.
Time is what activates material existence. Krishna injects kaala in Shakti and that's how material nature gets activated. So, we may have a particular conception of time according to our experience.
But Krishna manifests himself as time and because he manifests himself as time, he can manifest himself in different times at the same time. And he can manifest himself at different times in the same time. And if we can't understand it, that means we understand that we can't understand.
Actually, Krishna's infinitude is so much that to say that I don't know and to say I can't know, they are two different things. I don't know is acknowledgement, is admission of ignorance. I can't know is a statement of knowledge.
Where the finite confronts the infinite and then the finite recognizes that as compared to the infinite, I am forever limited. So, when scripture gives us something which is not comprehensible by our material logic, it's not that we don't know, it's that we can't know. And we can't know is a statement of knowledge.
And that's why we see, and Krishna speaks in the Bhagavad Gita 9.5. First he says, 9.4 he says, मै आतातमिदम् सर्वं जगदाव भ्यक्तमूर्ति नमत्स्थानि सर्वभूतानि नचाहं तेश्ववस्तिता मत्स्थानि सर्वभूतानि All living beings are situated in me. And then he says, नचा मत्स्थानि भूतानि Immediately he contradicts himself. 9.4c he is saying in the mood of a celebration.
जगदाव भ्यक्तमूर्ति नमत्स्थानि सर्वभूतानि नचाहं तेश्ववस्तिता मत्स्थानि सर्वभूतानि नचाहं तेश्वस्तिता Just see how wonderful is my Aishwarya, my Yoga Aishwarya. You know, if we have spoken something confusing, for example, I speak one statement and I speak something opposite, that's probably because of confusion. Then I'll try to water it away.
No, no, no, it's just a confusion. Don't pay much attention to it. But if I speak to contradictory things and then I say, just pay more attention to this, just see how wonderful this is.
You know, you say, what is this wonderful? This is simply dreadful. But Krishna is not speaking a contradiction because of confusion. Krishna is speaking a contradiction because that contradiction is a celebration of his inconceivable nature.
So, the point which I am making here is that Krishna, he demonstrates the existing definition of success, that he can tame these wild bulls and he expands and he demonstrates his divinity. He shows seven different forms simultaneously and he demonstrates accordingly how he is supreme. So, Krishna, he fights so ferociously that that king, Jarasandham, no one was able to defeat, he defeats him seventeen times.
So, he demonstrates the existing definition of success and yet on the eighteenth occasion he just runs away from there. And that is also another way of celebrating Krishna's success. He is celebrated as Ranachaur.
So, the one who leaves on the battle because he demonstrates that at times when he has something more important to do, he doesn't care for the prevailing definition of success. So, there is this dynamism that a devotee, just as the Lord does it, the devotee also does it. Devotee demonstrates the existing definition of success and the devotee transcends that definition also.
In the Mahabharata, when Yudhisthira Maharaj performs the Rajasuya Yajna, the purpose for the performance of Rajasuya Yajna that is given is he wants to demonstrate the glory of Krishna by exemplifying the glory of Krishna's devotees. So, those who are devoted to Krishna, they are so glorious that they can become the emperors of the world and then he offers the Agra Puja to Krishna. Now, if you look at the Mahabharata, the Mahabharata is not focusing directly on Paradharma.
So, in the Mahabharata, the purpose for Yudhisthira Maharaj's performance of Rajasuya Yajna is different. It said that, now the incidents are parallel, that Narada Muni, after the Pandavas have been established in Indraprastha, Narada Muni comes to their palace and the Pandavas, Yudhisthira Maharaj has got an extraordinary Sabha, which is built with Maya, Maya Danav and then Yudhisthira asks Narada Muni, please tell me about the various Sabhas that are there in the various parts of the universe. So, tell me about Indra's Sabha, tell me about Brahma's Sabha and while he tells about various Sabhas, many pages of the Mahabharata describe this, then he describes the Sabha of Yamaraj and while he is describing the Sabha of Yamaraj, he says that your father Pandu was there in Yama's abode.
Now, we have to understand that Yama's abode or rather Yamaraj's kingdom is different from the, from Narakloka. Now Yamaraj is a Devata and he has his own kingdom where he lives with his associates and then he has a job, just like in the prison wardens, house is not the prison. So, even to go to Yama's abode requires Punya.
To go to Narak does not require Punya, that requires Papa. But Yama's abode, to become Yamaraj's associate, that requires Punya. So, he says that because Maharaj Pandu died in a slightly unfortunate way, he was not able to attain Swarga.
So, Narad Muni says that I have come with a message from your father, your father has said that if you perform Rajasuya Yagya, then he will be elevated from Yama's abode to Swarga. And when Maharaj Yudhishthira hears this, then he says yes, I should do this. And then he performs the Rajasuya Yagya.
So, the idea is what? The same activity is there, but within the Mahabharata, in the Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha definition of success, the attainment of Swarga is considered to be a very elevated achievement. And so, within that definition of success, Maharaj Yudhishthira demonstrates not only that how he will achieve Swarga, but how he strives to even get his father to achieve Swarga. So, the same activity can be done at one level of success and it can also be done at another level of success.
So, at one level is that he is doing Rajasuya Yagya to get his father to attain Swarga, at another level he is doing Rajasuya Yagya to get, to glorify Krishna. So, both run in parallel, they don't have to run necessarily in contradiction. So, I will take one more example of the Lord demonstrating the existing definition of success and then we will conclude with something about our practical life, what it applies to us.
So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, when He appears, at that time, we have to see what was His particular purpose. He has not come as a Kshatriya king to establish Kshatriya power in the world. And He has come to demonstrate Harinama Sankirtana and He comes in a Brahmana family.
So, now if you see, the whole Chaitanya Bhagwat and Chaitanya Charita Amrit are oriented according to that definition of success. That means what? That when Chaitanya Bhagwat talks about how degraded the people were. It says that, oh, the people were doing demigod worship, people were doing this worship, that worship and that is the definition of degradation in the Chaitanya Charita Amrit.
That people were doing demigod worship, He says, oh, how degraded people were, that people were studying Bhagavatam but they were not coming to the conclusion of Bhakti in Bhagavatam. Today, if we hear somebody speaking, studying Bhagavatam, we say, very good, you are studying Bhagavatam at least. So, what happens is, we may say that at that time there was so much degradation.
There were Muslims ruling the world and Muslims were not just ruling India, they were ruling Bengal also, the very place where Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared. But the Chaitanya Bhagwat and Chaitanya Charita Amrit don't go into that at all. It's just there, it's in the background that the Muslims are there and they will come and sometimes intervene.
But its definition of success is given or rather what is defined as degradation is defined according to the definition of success that the Lord is going to demonstrate. So, what is the Lord going to demonstrate? How Chaitanya Mahaprabhu primarily comes to demonstrate, how we have to rise from aparadharma to paradharma. How we have to rise from aparadharma to paradharma.
So people are practicing aparadharma, people are studying the Vedas, but they are not really focusing on the conclusion of the Vedas. If you look at the Krishna Sandarbha, the whole Sandarbha is focusing on how Krishna is the highest manifestation of Vishnu. And actually it seems that Jiva Goswami is putting down Vishnu and establishing Krishna as supreme.
Now, if today people don't even believe in the existence of God, what to speak of Vishnu or Krishna? Isn't it? So that particular, now we may wonder what is there so much need to have one full book talking, demonstrating Krishna, supremacy or Vishnu. But the point is, the Lord comes at a particular time to demonstrate a particular definition of success. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has come to demonstrate the highest paradharma, that is, prema-pumarthoma, pure love for Krishna in the mood of the Vrajagopis.
And the whole Chaitanya Amrit, Chaitanya Bhagwat and the work of the Gaudiya Acharyas, at least those who were his contemporaries and those who were his immediate successors, that is oriented around that definition of success. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, now if you see, there is the grahastha definition of success and there is the sannyasi definition of success. Now, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu demonstrates the supremacy of bhakti from both the definitions of success.
Now, for a brahmana at that time, for a brahmana grahastha, the greatest success was to become a great scholar. Nadia, Navdeep was filled with scholars and among them to become the greatest scholar at the age of 14. And not just among them, at the age of 14, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu defeated the person who was considered the greatest scholar in the whole country, Keshav Kashmiri.
So, when he did this, what did he do? That whatever the people in general considered as the definition of success, he demonstrated the pinnacle of that and then he showed, but this is not the real thing. What is the real thing? Bhakti is the real thing. And he gave it up, krishnanamon matta krishnatattva adhyapaka, nama sankirtana yuga dharma pravartaka.
So, he gave up his scholarship to krishnatattva adhyapaka. He became, krishnanamon matta, he became intoxicated with love for Krishna and he established krishnatattva as the supreme and in this way he inaugurated Harinama Sankirtana. So, in the first half of his life, in the first 24 years of life, he demonstrated this trajectory.
How from the grahastha definition of success, the culmination is to be absorbed in Harinama Sankirtana. And then when he took sannyas, he took sannyas from Advaita Sampradaya. Now, why would he have to do that? Because sannyas from the Advaita Sampradaya was considered to be the most prestigious thing at that time.
It was considered to be the greatest success. So, for a person to be a sannyasi itself was glorious, but for a person to be a sannyasi in the Advaita Sampradaya was extraordinarily glorious. Just like, as I said, in today's definition of success, you know, to be an engineer would be considered successful.
But even among engineers, if somebody is an engineer from IIT, that's a huge definition of success. So, like that, the Advaita Sampradaya had tremendous prestige and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took sannyas in that Sampradaya. But then while being a sannyasi in that Sampradaya, he demonstrated that higher than that is Harinama Sankirtana.
Higher than doing Vedantic analysis is Harinama Sankirtana. Now, it's important that he did not reject Vedantic analysis. He demonstrated that the culmination of Vedantic analysis is Harinama Sankirtana.
And this he demonstrated through his defeat of Sarvam Bhattacharya, who was a great Vedantic scholar, and through his defeat of Prakashanan Saraswati, who was also a great Vedantic scholar. So, if you see, Prabhupada says that Varanasi is the Vrindavan of the Mayavadis. The word Vrindavan is for the Vaishnavas, Varanasi is for the Mayavadis.
So, it's like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu going to Varanasi and defeating the Mayavadis in Varanasi. It's like India going to Pakistan and defeating Pakistan in a cricket match in Pakistan. You know, it's many times more than that.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had gone all alone and Prakashana Saraswati thought, this is Advaitic sannyasi, but why is he not doing the Advaitic duty of chanting, of studying Vedanta? Why is he dancing and dancing? He is a sentimentalist. But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he chanted and danced, but then he showed how this chanting and dancing is the culmination of Vedantic analysis. So, when Prakashana Saraswati and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had this discussion, then Prakashana Saraswati, after hearing of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, understood what is Prakash, what is Ananda and what is And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu demonstrated success according to the existing definition of success.
He showed that, you know, if you think Vedantic analysis is great, he can do that also. But then he demonstrated that above all that is the chanting and dancing of the holy names and that's how Kashiwasi Sannyasi Uddhari Parapremadata. Kashiwasi Sannyasi Uddhari.
He delivered the sannyasis of Kashi and what did he do? Parapremadata. He gave them transcendental love. So now, in this way, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, we have to see his mission in terms of what he came to demonstrate.
Srila Prabhupada gives us a definition of success that is corresponding to our situation. And that's why, if you see Chaitanya Charitambu, sometimes there are purports to verses where Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is in ecstasy and he is lamenting or he is lamenting in the mood of Radharani's separation from Krishna. Where is Krishna? Where is Krishna? And Prabhupada in the purport writing, Prabhupada writes that actually the way to enter into Radha Krishna Bhakti is by preaching Krishna Consciousness all over the world.
So what happens is that Prabhupada has made that definition of success and bhakti accessible to us. So for us to become just absorbed in Krishna's pastimes, it's not all that easy. We can do it sometimes.
But we need practical engagements according to the culture we are born in, according to the training we have got. So Srila Prabhupada's expertise was that, although he had devotees, even western devotees had no idea of renunciation, he got them to become brahmacharis, sannyasis or even if they became grahasthas, they were very devoted. But then he gave them services which were compatible with their definitions of success.
Now for these young people, it was quite adventurous to go to a country where you have no one to know and you go there and share Krishna's mission. So what Prabhupada did was that he, they were young, they had the spirit of adventure and he doted their spirit of adventure in Krishna's service. So the idea is that we can't impose one definition of success on everyone.
We have to, the transcendental definition of success is universal for everyone. But how people will pursue that transcendental definition of success, that will vary according to time and circumstances. So Prabhupada told George Harrison that you don't have to give up your music.
Use that music in Krishna's service. This is the part that we hear. But the important part we don't hear is that actually there is a biography of George Harrison which is written by Yogeshwar Prabhu, Here Comes the Sun.
And that is described that after George Harrison started, all his songs he started singing spiritually. He started having Krishna in that. And then his popularity plummeted down.
So people would come to hear pop music from him and he would tell them chant Hare Krishna. And people started booing him and critics started criticizing him and the other Beatles were also very unhappy with him. What are you doing all this? So at that time he came to Prabhupada and he said Prabhupada I am feeling as if for every one person I am bringing to Krishna, I am sending ten people away from Krishna.
So you can imagine suppose there is a India Pakistan cricket match and there is some champion cricket player. Now he gets out for a zero and then in the press interview after that, whether I got out on zero doesn't matter, chanting Hare Krishna is very important. Now that will be terrible anti-preaching.
He is telling people to chant Hare Krishna, but if he is a cricketer, he has to be successful in his field and then he can talk about this. It's not that unsuccessful people can't talk, but if somebody is going to take a visible position in society and is going to talk, then he has to, we have to be intelligible to people and being intelligible to people means that we have to present things in a way that is, that to some extent at least agrees according to their definition of success and then we can expand their definition of success. So then Prabhupada told George Harrison, use your intelligence.
He says use your intelligence and present songs about Krishna accordingly. So afterwards, basically what he would do is, he would write 8-10 songs and within that one song would be about Krishna. Then again his career came up again.
So the point is that a devotee, especially those who are trying to reach out to people, they have to accommodate existing definitions of success and then elevate people above that. And in that way, we can attract people towards bhakti in a way that does not require them to reject everything that they believe, but rather to elevate them from their existing level of understanding. So sometimes if you don't have an understanding of what is people's definition of success and we speak, it's like people have a certain circle of interest and we are speaking something and there is no intersection only in those two circles.
So people feel there is no relevance to what you are speaking about. So the whole idea is the Bhagavatam demonstrates, or rather it demonstrates first the intersection of the existing definition of success, dharmartha, kama, moksha. This is the existing dharmartha, kama, moksha and then the Bhagavatam demonstrates its own definition of success according to Prema Pumaratho Maha, but it demonstrates the intersection and takes people from this definition to the highest definition of success.
And the same has to be done according to time, place, circumstance in every situation. So the devotee, when it started, it is primarily a temple-based movement. So for most devotees, the definition of success was that you just get a book, read the book and become a devotee, join the temple and that's over.
That is the success. But if we are going to have a larger impact in society, we have to have both definitions of success, not just devotees drop everything and join the temple, but devotees also go out in the world and become exemplary, not just in terms of being exemplary devotees, but also in terms of this existing definition of success and by that we attract people towards Krishna. So these parallel strands are there, that we demonstrate the transcendental definition of success and at the same time, we also demonstrate success according to the existing definition of success.
And we see Prabhupada, when he was asked, how are your disciples characterized? What are the characteristics of your disciples? He said, my disciples are perfect gentlemen. So what does this mean? He doesn't say that my disciples are always chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. Yes, that is also one definition of success, but that definition of success is not intelligible to people.
So when we are talking with people, they have to say, what does he say? My disciples are perfect gentlemen, perfect ladies, that means that they are well cultured, they are well behaved, they are the kind of people which people would like to be with, which people would appreciate, admire and want to emulate. So this is the dynamic tension that is there, that Krishna demonstrates this worldly definition of success and then he also transcends and demonstrates the transcendental definition of success. And devotees also demonstrate both in their own way according to their capacity.
Thank you very much.