Part 1 – Marginal Bhagavad Dharma talks __ Chaitanya Charan

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Develop a heart rich with love for you and share that richness with everyone.
Hare Krishna. So today we are continuing and concluding the last verse in the Bhagavatam, in the song that is about reaching the Bhagavatam by Srila Prabhupada. So what I will do today is first we will do a brief overview of what is being discussed and then we will do a summary.
It will be the last section. So here we have Srila Prabhupada on the coast of America contemplating how he is going to carry out the instruction of his spiritual master. So the way we will do it is we will go linearly looking at one verse and see what is the theme over there.
So every stanza has two verses. If you consider one A and B and two A and two B. So Boro Krupa Koile Krishna, Adham Eravati. So generally any prayer for it to be deep, heart bent, authentic needs to begin with gratitude.
Yes, there are many things which are wrong in our life. But if you are focussing only on what is wrong, then we are going wrong because we are not really seeing God’s hand in our life. The first prayer is about mercy.
And what is the mercy? Boro Krupa Koile Krishna, Adham Eravati. So that mercy is that Prabhupada has the although he has no facility, but still he has the opportunity to share Krishna Bhakti. He has somehow come to America.
And then one B is about. Let’s make it this way. It’s easier to understand.
So let’s go down linearly. So one B is about acceptance. Ki lagiya anilo hitha koro e begati.
Now that you have brought me here, do as you desire. So there is. So for a devotee, there is this understanding Krishna has done.
Krishna has been very kind to me and whatever Krishna wants to do with me, I accept it. So acceptance is that whatever you want, my Lord. Whatever you want to do, I am ready to accept it.
So in Bhakti, there are two distinct aspects. There is acceptance of God’s will and then acceptance of the responsibility to do God’s will. So what is happening around us, we see as God’s will and we accept it.
But what we are meant to do for that, we accept the responsibility. The third line is, Prabhupada says I’ll accept Krishna as your Lord, whatever happens, whatever you want to do. But I also accept my responsibility.
Aache kichu kar je tabe ei anumane. That you must have some purpose for me bringing you here. Aache kichu kar je tabe ei.
This is the theme of purpose. That wherever we are, whatever situation we are in, it is not random. We don’t live in a chaotic or a cruel universe.
We live in a guided universe. So that is here. Aache kichu kar je tabe ei anumane.
So Prabhupada is expressing curiosity. He’s not talking about certainties. He’s making an inference over here.
Anumane. That there must be some purpose that you have. Let’s recite each of these lines together as we move forward.
So nahe keno anibena ei ugrasthane. Can you repeat? Nahe keno anibena ei ugrasthane. So Prabhupada is saying that you must have some purpose for me.
How am I concluding that? Otherwise, why would you bring me here to this terrible place? So why is he calling this a terrible place? It’s a God whose sacred place. So from the perspective of Prabhupada, he has come from the capital of devotion, capital of bhakti to the capital of maya. So why would Krishna give him that? Nahe keno anibena.
So it’s almost like a negative inference. That if the universe is not moving chaotically and we are at a very strange place, Krishna must have some. Nahe keno anibena ei ugrasthane.
So faith can come from many ways, from the positive and from the negative. If we are at a wonderful place in life, then yes, Krishna has given us the facility to serve. If we are at a dreadful place in life, Krishna must have some purpose.
Otherwise, why would he put his devotee in a dreadful place? There must be some purpose you have brought me here. So faith comes from seeing how wonderful things in our life are. Faith can also come by seeing if we are in a dreadful place.
Krishna, you must have some purpose over here. Rajasthamogunerasabaiyachan. So, I can recite it.
Rajasthamogunerasabaiyachan. So there, 3A, what is Prabhupada talking about here? That he is analysing the problem. So Prabhupada is seeing the problem not in cultural terms, not in linguistic terms, not in national terms, not in age terms.
Oh, I am so different from these people. I have never been here. How can I tolerate these people? Prabhupada is seeing the problem as cultural.
He is seeing from Shastrachakshu. He is seeing that the problem is that people are covered by the mode of ignorance. And then what is the effect of the problem? The effect of the problem is that Vasudeva Katharu Chinahe Se Prasanna.
So what he is saying is the effect is that they will have no taste or joy in Krishna Katha. Prabhupada’s vision is so spiritual. He is not saying they will not be able to understand or listen to Krishna Katha because, oh, Krishna is a Hindu God and they are Christians or they are atheists.
He is saying that it is the modes of passion and ignorance because of which they are not able to understand. So now Prabhupada talks about Krishna. Earlier he has talked about mercy.
There the mercy is more in terms of gratitude. Krishna, you have done this for me. And now he is talking about the idea of causeless mercy that Krishna.
So because this this is the problem, I cannot solve the problem. So what I can’t, you can. That is devotee may see a huge problem.
I can’t deal with this problem. So there he is focussing on Krishna’s omnipotence. Omnipotence is Krishna can do everything.
So here Prabhupada is also saying. So generally, often when you talk about miracles, the miraculous say Krishna lifted the Govardhan Hill or we may have the Christian tradition, God parted the sea or Jesus multiplied one loaf of bread and made it into many. So there are many miracles.
So God’s omnipotence can be seen through external changes, dramatic, miraculous external changes. That is nice. But Prabhupada is focussing on internal change.
He’s saying that I don’t want that you part the sea or lift the hill for me. What I want is what I know you can do is you can change the hearts of people who have no taste for Krishna. For Krishna, you can grant them the taste.
Those who are covered by the bones of passion, ignorance, you can lift them above those bones. So here Prabhupada is talking about. He is expressing a question.
How is it possible? While he’s saying Krishna can do it. Still, we can say Krishna can do everything. Say we want to build a multimillion dollar temple.
And Krishna can do anything. Well, yeah, Krishna can do anything. But how is Krishna going to do it? Is it that there is one big donor who will come and donate all the Lakshmi? Or is it that hundreds of people will come in small, small amounts? Or is it that the land we have purchased as temple property, where we dig and we find a hidden treasure over there? You may say Krishna can do anything.
But still, as human beings, you wonder how? So there is a sense of wonder how Krishna will act. So in the initial Prabhupada’s Krishna book, as well as in his purports, Prabhupada uses the word wonderful. Wonderful Krishna is the chapter title for when Krishna lifts Govardhan Hill.
And after that, the Vajvasis are wondering how did Krishna do something like this? So how Krishna will act? That is, there is a sense of wonder over here. Eta Krupa Koro Prabhu Kori Nijabasha So here, this is the mercy. I don’t know how you are going to do it.
I wonder how you will do it. This is what I ask you to do. Eta Krupa Koro.
Have this mercy, you know. And Kori Nijabasha. So bring all of them under your control.
Now, here control doesn’t refer to domination. Control refers to transformation. Like say, in Kashmir, there was a lot of anti-India sentiment.
India can just send its army and kill all Kashmiris and repopulate them with army. That is not the solution. It is not that we dominate or eliminate.
It is that we transform. Do you think being a terrorist is going to be a bad future for you? When you work with us, there will be a bad future for you. So the idea is that, so he is now making a specific request.
This is the mercy. Eta Krupa Koro. What is the specific request? Eta Krupa.
This Krupa. This mercy. What is it? Kori Nijabasha.
That Nijabasha here, you captivate them. In English, there are two words, capture and captivate. So capture is more like physical restraint.
When somebody is kidnapped or somebody is forcibly taken, say the Hamas has captured several Israelis and Americans who were in Israel at that time. So that’s capture. Now captivate refers more to attract.
You bring somebody under control, but it is not so much by physical force as by attraction. When Prabhupada is using the word control, Kori Nijabasha, it is you captivate. Once Prabhupada was asked, how did you transform everybody? How did you spread Krishna Consciousness all over the world? How did you inspire the stoners to become devotees? And Prabhupada replied, Krishna is all attracting.
I just presented Krishna, he attracted it. So this is not to downplay what Prabhupada himself did. He was remarkably resourceful.
But that’s the broad mood of Hila Prabhupada. Tomara Ichchai Sab Hoey Maya Basha So now from a philosophical perspective, the statement might seem a little complicated. That is it literally it means Krishna it is by your desire that everybody has come under mine.
Now, is it Krishna’s desire that people come under my own? Krishna is the well-wisher of everyone. Krishna does not want anyone to come under my own. So here desire the word sometimes words are translated from one language to another.
They sometimes are difficult to translate. So sometimes there are there are concepts which you understood and sometimes they are non-translatable. So here it is more of sanction.
Not desire. So there is a divine sanction. That means Krishna, without your permission, nothing can happen.
Upadrashta Anumantach, you are the overseer, you are the pervader. So Tomara Ichchai Sab Hoey Maya Basha. So it is that Maya also works under your energy, under your control.
And therefore, when Maya captivates someone, it is not that that person is going out of your control. That person is still under your control. So it is like the universe is like a university.
And in the university, there is there is a multiple choice exam. So sometimes people ask if God is good, God wants us to do good things. And why are the good options so few? And why are the bad options so many? The answer is that’s how it is in any multiple choice exam.
So in the multiple choice exam, there are four wrong answers, one right answer. And all the wrong answers are also given by the teacher. The student cannot check any option that is not given by the teacher.
So even if you say none of the above, none of the above is also one of the options given by the teacher. So there is no way anybody can go outside what the teacher is doing. So but just because the teacher has given all the options, does not mean that the teacher is responsible for the wrong choices.
So Tomara Icchai Sab Hoi Maya version is Krishna. Actually, it is under your controllership that people come under Maya. And it cannot happen without your Maya, without your controllership.
So Tomara Icchai Sab Hoi Maya version is Krishna. So now that if it is within your control to put people into illusion, it is also within your control to get people out of illusion. Now, of course, Sridhar Prabhupada’s focus here is on Krishna.
It is not on people. The people are there, but his focus is not on people right now. He is not focussing on who are Americans, which age group am I going to go to, which educational level group am I going to go to, which income bracket people am I going to address.
Prabhupada is not thinking about all those things. So when we are focussing on a particular factor, we may emphasise that factor. And that’s what is the right thing to do.
If a doctor is thinking about this medicine is very effective. People are infected, people are suffering, people are dying. This medicine is very effective.
Now there can always be people whose immune system is so weak that medicine will not work for them. There can also be people with some pre-existing conditions for whom that particular medicine may be contraindicative. So all those things are possible.
So when one factor is emphasised, that does not mean no other factor is relevant. So yes, Krishna wants people to come back, to come to him. And the people also should choose to come to him.
So here it is divine attraction. Krishna, you can put people into illusion. So divine attraction, you could say divine illusion.
That maya is also daivi, it also works under Krishna’s energy. So divine attraction is that Krishna, Krishna doesn’t force anyone to turn towards him. But Krishna, Krishna prompts and provides.
Prompts means from within, Krishna says, give me something more in life, something more meaningful, something more valuable. Krishna prompts and Krishna provides. Internally, Krishna prompts, look for something more.
And externally, Krishna provides. What does Krishna do? Krishna says that. Krishna provides.
Maybe they meet a devotee, they see a book somewhere, they hear an online talk. And that’s how they start. So Krishna, and you can bring people out of illusion, that means.
Krishna, you can provide the facilities, you can provide the inspiration. And by that, you can bring everyone out of illusion. Tab ichcha hoye jati tadera udhaar.
So tab ichcha hoye. Therefore, here when we say, when it is your desire that people be delivered. Well, Krishna always desires that people be delivered.
So when tab ichcha hoye jati, jati means if or when, more of when. When you desire that people be delivered. So what does it mean? Here it is Krishna is always going to desire that.
But when people particularly turn toward Krishna and take steps towards Krishna, it is Krishna who makes arrangements so that they can keep moving towards him. So it is here Prabhupada is expressing divine dependence. Krishna, it is that the idea of when over here.
When will it happen? That is significant. Because Srila Prabhupada has had a lifelong wait, lifelong endeavour. The first volume of Srila Prabhupada’s biography, Nila Amrit is called as a lifetime in preparation.
Now, yes, it was a lifetime in preparation, but it was also a lifetime of lack of success. Prabhupada was trying and nothing happened. So he is saying that when we are trying and trying and nothing is happening and logically things should be happening, we are doing all that we can.
So at that time you need to understand that it is when Krishna wants it will happen. Just because I have the ability, just because I have what it takes to succeed doesn’t mean necessarily I’ll succeed. So Prabhupada is in one sense expressing Krishna when you want it will happen.
bhuji be nishchaita be katha se toma So now parallelly with dependence there is confidence. Confidence that Krishna’s message will be understandable. That somebody may think that oh this is in Sanskrit, this was written thousands of years ago.
So many stories seem fantastic to today’s people. People are so materialistic today. How will they even think about anything, any kind of self-restraint that is required for spiritual growth? But the point is Krishna’s message will be understandable.
Will be understood. That is how exactly it will happen. Prabhupada is not focussing on that.
He is focussing more on that it will happen. bhagvatera katha se tabhavatar So here Prabhupada is emphasising the avatar is the idea is one who descends from above to below. One who comes from one domain to another domain.
So here Krishna, Prabhupada is saying that the avatar is with him. Now who is the avatar with him? That it is the bhagvatam. Physically Prabhupada is carrying the bhagvatam volumes.
And Prabhupada is not going to America primarily to start beauty worship. Although we say Prabhupada has built 100 temples and that is remarkable. There is a lot of them, no doubt.
At the same time Prabhupada did not go there primarily to build temples. Prabhupada went there to share the message of the bhagvatam. And for Prabhupada the temple was meant to be a place where bhagvatam can be shared.
The temple is a cultural centre, it’s a prayer centre, worship centre, but it’s primarily a educational centre. So avatar is with him. So Prabhupada is saying that bhagvat katha, that bhagvat is actually Krishna.
In that sense Krishna is with him. And what will this Krishna do? Dheera haiya shunne jadi kaane baar baar. That if somebody hears Krishna repeatedly, repeatedly somebody hears, then that person will become sober.
Sober means that person in the context of this prayer, it means they will become free from the modes of passion and ignorance. So the avatar is with him. And what is the avatar? In fact, the potency of the avatar is that the lower modes can be removed.
So when we study the bhagvatam, it is we often focus on intellectually understanding the concepts. We focus on how much new information or insight is there in a particular class. If the class develops, delivers humour or not.
So all those things, yes, they matter. But what matters even more is that when we are studying the bhagvatam, we are coming. And Om apavitra apavitrova sarvavastham gatopiva yah smareta pundalikaksham bhaya vyandhara shri shri Vishnu, shri Vishnu, shri Vishnu.
That contact with Krishna itself will purify us. Now after that Prabhupada quotes a series of Sanskrit verses. And those verses primarily are reiterating the point of how by hearing the bhagvatam, somebody can be purified.
By hearing the bhagvatam, how a person becomes dhira, dhira haya shunyate. How does that happen? That is what is described in this particular verse, series of verses. And if you paraphrase the verses, Prabhupada starts with, that if we hear about Krishna, that then by shunyatam saratha krishna, this is self-punya, but rudhya antah sthojya badrani.
Impurity is in our heart to be destroyed. And how does it destroy? It is Krishna who himself destroys. Because Krishna is the well-wisher of those who are satam, those who are trying to pursue the eternal.
And then what happens, nashta prayeshu bhadreshu nityam bhagavateet. Just by the service of hearing the bhagvatam regularly, nashta prayeshu bhadreshu, you will become free from a badrani. Bhagvatya uttama shloki.
That uttama shloka bhagwan, bhaktir bhavati naishtakim. Two things will happen, detachment from the material and attachment to the spiritual. How does this happen? Again, Prabhupada has said, people are covered by the modes of passion and ignorance.
Radha rajas tamo bhava, kama lobha rishi, kshetai te naam tam, sattvi prasidhi. The modes of passion and ignorance go away. The torment in our heart is there.
So the torment is for two reasons. Oh, this went wrong, this went wrong, this went wrong, this went wrong. That is the lamenting because of tamo bhava.
And there is the craving, the hankering. Oh, when will this work? When will this work? When will this work? So basically, when will this work out and why did that not work out? Those two things torment our heart. But by Krishna’s mercy, those two go, yes, that didn’t work out, this may not have worked out.
But through it all, Krishna’s plan is still working. When the focus shifts to Krishna, then the hankering and lamenting, that goes away. And then we become prasidhati.
When we come to sattva, that’s where we become peaceful, we become cheerful. At that time, prasanna manaso, with that cheerful disposition, when we get involved in bhakti. Right now, we are sitting here, we wake up early, by the time the class comes, they call it two, three hours we have spent, four, five hours we have spent, we are already a bit tired.
We may not be very joyfully disposed when we are here. Because the more of passion, I have to do so many things in the day, the more of ignorance, oh, I’m already tired, those come upon us. And then therefore, we cannot relish the bhakti.
In sattva, evam prasanna manaso, with a cheerful disposition, bhagvat bhakti omgata. We engage in bhakti and that’s when bhagvat tattva-vijnanam mukta-saṅgasya jāyate. We become free from attachment, we become free from illusion.
And then, vidyate hṛdaya-grantis vidyante sarva-saṁśreha. Everything that is inauspicious in the heart, hṛdaya-grantis, the attachments go away. Generally on the spiritual path, there are two main obstacles.
There are desires and there are doubts. So desires, they pull us toward the world and doubts block us from going towards Krishna. Desires come from the mind, doubts come from the intelligence.
So both go away. Vidyate hṛdaya-grantis vidyante sarva-saṁśreha. Both go away.
And then, what happens at that particular time? Shiyate cāsitarvāni dṛṣṭa evātmanīśvaya. That’s the time when all materially motivated actions stop. Because we see that ātman within us, Lord is there.
We don’t have to chase after material things, we don’t have to chase after futile things to come to Krishna. So, you can repeat after me this. Rajas-tamoha-tetāpe-pāyi-benistā.
So what was spoken in the scripture, Prabhupāda is talking in his prayer. So the lower modes will be removed. That’s the point.
You have the potency to do that. At that time, what people will get is true freedom. Everybody wants to have freedom.
Everybody wants freedom. But there are two kinds of freedom. There is freedom from and there is freedom for.
Now most people think of freedom for. I want to eat what I want. I want to enjoy with whoever I want.
I want to watch whatever I want. Whatever I want. Most people think of freedom in terms of for.
And that’s OK. That’s one form of freedom. But much more important is the freedom from.
When I say I want freedom to eat whatever I want. The problem with that is that we get attached. We may even get addicted to food.
So in that way, we think I want to be free for my desires. But what we actually need is we want to be free from our desires. Most of our desires get us into trouble.
The freedom that the Bhagavatam gives us, there are many unworthy desires inside us. Desires that may be strong, but the desires are wrong. What do you mean they are wrong? They don’t really lead to anything worthwhile.
So our desires, just because they are strong, doesn’t mean that they can’t be wrong. They are strong and yet they are wrong. So we become free from those desires.
That is the freedom that Bhakti gives us. We get freedom. So how does the freedom come? It is inner release.
The abhadra, the anarthas that are there in the heart, they go away. The heart becomes free. Most people, when they talk about freedom, India’s freedom struggle is all about political freedom.
And that’s important. But what we are bound by, there is this greatest restriction to our freedom doesn’t come at a political level. It comes at a psychological level.
Psychological level, we are bound by our emotions and our desires. They impel us to go in particular directions. That’s what needs to be removed.
How is this going to happen, my dear Lord? So this is the blessing. The blessing, somehow make them understand your world of laws. The blessing he is singing, this is the blessing.
Somehow make them understand. This theme of somehow is very common in the Vedic tradition. We have yena, kena, prakarena, manha, krishna in nature.
Somehow the other fix the manha and krishna. Somehow the other means that utility is the principle. It has to be done.
The effect is important. Somehow we have to get to that level. When Prabhupada went to America, the temples he built were not according to particular Vastu constructs.
But the point was first things first. Mahakutam, we start first things and gradually we move to other things. So somehow start off delivering the message of Krishna.
Somehow start with what is to be done. And eventually other things will follow. So Krishna, somehow make this happen.
Shudra me di nahi na kono shakti nahi. So Prabhupada is expressing his humility, his inadequacy. So you can call it humility.
He is telling about it. I can’t do it, my Lord. So he’s expressing his inadequacy.
Now, many times in life we will feel that I am not big enough, good enough, smart enough for the task. So we can either focus on our inadequacy. Or we can focus on God’s adequacy.
Yes, I can’t do it, but God can do it. So what we focus on is important for us. If we focus on our inadequacy, we will never get the confidence to move ahead.
If we focus on Krishna’s adequacy, it is possible for us. So Prabhupada is going to say that now, Krishna, I can’t do it. Doesn’t mean I’ll do nothing.
Just because I don’t think I can make people understand. That doesn’t mean I will not try my part. So I will do what I can.
We humans, even when we can’t do something, what we can do, we have to show. It is our endeavour. Our endeavour is necessary, but not sufficient condition.
So now Krishna can do anything without our endeavour also. That is true. But when we want Krishna to do something through us, if I don’t do anything, Krishna will still get his will done, but Krishna will do it through someone else.
If I want to be an instrument of Krishna’s will, then I have to endeavour. After my endeavouring, it’s up to Krishna whether he will do something or not. But I have to do my part.
So Prabhupada is here expressing submission. So I will do my part. So sometimes what happens? When I do my part, I demand, I insist.
You must do this, Krishna. Krishna, I have done so much. Why are you not doing anything at all? So devotion means that we have the desire to serve Krishna.
But submission means there are no demands from Krishna. Sometimes devotees don’t just give a demand from Krishna. They give an ultimatum to Krishna.
Krishna, if you don’t do this, I’ll stop serving you. I’ll stop chanting. I’ll stop practising bhakti.
Better you do this. So we can’t threaten Krishna. Bhakti Sahanth Thakur would say that we cannot gatecrash our way into the kingdom of God.
We are going to force our way there. So Akhila Jagat Guru Bachana Seyama. So Krishna’s benevolence, that Krishna is the well-wisher of everyone, Krishna is the teacher of everyone, that you, and he says you can help everyone learn.
I may not know how to teach them, but you can help everyone learn. So suppose we have to teach something to a person from a very different background. We may not know how to communicate with them.
But if somebody has been there and somebody has been doing their teaching, then what happens is, oh, I can talk with them. I can learn from them. You can do it.
Akhila Jagat Guru means you can do everything, my dear Lord. Alankrita koribara kshamata tomar. So here is God’s capacity.
Prabhupada is talking about Krishna. You can purify their hearts, but you can empower me also. That here Prabhupada talks about the empowerment.
The empowerment he is seeking is not that he will be able to change his form, he will be able to do something magical by which people will be astounded, oh, this Swami is so great. And then by understanding how this Swami is so great, people will surrender. No, the empowerment he is talking about is, make my words understanding that what we seek is also important.
Make my words understandable. He is not saying no mystic powers or something like that. Prabhupada’s goal was not to impress people.
It was to, it is not to, it was to transform people. Prabhupada’s focus on empowerment was not to be impressive. It was to be effective.
Impressive is people get dazzled. So it’s good to be dazzled at times. But what is required is to be transformed, to be inspired, to take up the process that will transform us.
So as I said, Prabhupada is not asking some miraculous kind of importance. And then, Taba Krupahale mora katha shuddha bhe. He is saying you can make my words understandable.
Prabhupada is focussing on the idea of purity. Now he is saying that purity is not just, often we think of purity means what? Purity means, you know, we say no to maya, we say no to temptations. And that’s important.
But purity is not so much disconnection from the impure as it is connection with the pure. Purity comes not just by, yes, there are so many impure pleasures in the world. And disconnection from the impure is important, no doubt.
Without that, we will not be able to move forward. But what is more important is connection with the pure. There are many, there are sometimes people who may be godless.
They may also be regulating, living regulated lives. They may be vegetarians. They may be sexually abstinent or regulated.
They may not be too much seeking wealth. That’s OK. That’s possible.
Are they pure? In one sense, we can say they are not impure. But real purity is not just the absence of lust and anger. It is the connection with Krishna.
So he’s saying that if you make my words understandable, you can make me, make my Katha pure. Shuniya Sabar Shoka Dukha Jai Guruji mein. Here Prabhupada is talking about his purpose.
What is his purpose? It is not that I want followers. It’s not that I want to be famous. It is not that I want to prove my God is the greatest God.
Other gods are all false. That’s not Prabhupada’s purpose. It is to free others, free everyone from distress.
So Prabhupada’s purpose was very selfless and compassionate. It’s to free everyone from distress. And then we discussed this verse yesterday.
Aniya Chojati Prabhu Amare Na Chaate. So Amare Na Chaate. So here in 14a, Prabhupada is talking about how he is going, in one sense, going cycling back.
He’s saying if this is your purpose. So there is a theme of I accept, accept your purpose, accept your will. And he starts the dance metaphor over here.
That if you have brought me here to dance, then Nachao Nachao Prabhu Nachao Se Mate. So I accept your will. So he says, please make me an instrument.
Not only that, I accept your will. Make me an instrument. Use me.
Act through me. So make me an instrument. Sometimes when the word make me an instrument is used.
Sometimes the idea becomes that it’s seen sometimes as are we just being reduced to a tool like a. Say a farmer may use a plough to deal with the land or a wood cutter may use a axe to cut the tree. When you say make me an instrument, it is not the emphasis. There is not dehumanisation or that we lose our humanity.
We lose our individuality, just become a mere machine. That is not the theme over there. The theme is harmonisation.
Just as an instrument by itself. When a woodcutter is trying to cut a tree, it is not that the axe is. I don’t want to cut this tree.
I want to cut that tree. So the axe will slip out of the master’s hand and go somewhere else. There’s this harmonisation over there.
So the puppet example is what we discussed over here. So every example has a particular emphasis that we discussed. The puppet is Prabhupada is saying I am.
We were talking about yesterday about availability. I am here for you. If I am fully here for you, my Lord, whatever you want.
We discuss how in Bhakti availability is more important than ability. Ability is important. Availability is more important.
Now we come to the last shansa which we will discuss now. But let’s go come to the summary. Bhakti nai, Veda nai, naam e khoop dharo.
So he’s saying that I actually don’t have bhakti, I don’t have any knowledge of Vedas. But naam e khoop dharo. Now the word dharo, now it’s cognate of the word dharo.
Now dharo means what? Fear. So what is fear? Is it talking about fear over here? Is Prabhupada afraid of the holy name? No, obviously not. And the holy name is not something to be afraid of.
But the word dharo is used over here in the sense that there is great power over here. So there is the greatness of power. Suppose somebody has, somebody is fighting a war and they have nuclear weapons.
Now, are they afraid of the nuclear weapons? Yeah, because they are afraid that they may go off any day. And if they go off on our side, they can destroy us. But the idea is that is when you talk about the great power, it can lead to fear that can paralyse.
Oh, what if this happens? What if that happens? But that’s not the point. Prabhupada is not paralysed. He’s not afraid.
It can lead to awe. Awe is a sense of wow, how spectacular this is. If we decide to go to Rishikesh and come and see the Himalayas, turn around the road and just see the majestic side of the Himalayas, that awesome side will energise us.
Oh, I want to go closer and I want to see this. What is this? How extraordinary, how majestic, how huge, how attractive, how sublime. So that awe is what leads to, it energises us.
It doesn’t paralyse, it energises. So that is the theme. Nāme kubadaro.
Bhaktivedanta nāma ebesārtha koro. Bhaktivedanta nāma ebesārtha koro. So he had been given by his godbrothers the name Bhaktivedanta.
So for Prabhupada, this is not just a casual pursuit. This is his very life’s meaning. This is very life’s purpose.
For some people, OK, I’m now retired. I don’t have any job. I don’t have any family obligations.
So I’ll read the Bhagavad Gita. OK, that’s nice. At least we are reading the Bhagavad Gita.
But for us, Krishna, that’s like treating Krishna like a spare wheel while driving. It’s a backup plan is there. For a devotee, God is not a spare wheel.
He’s the steering wheel. Steering wheel is where Krishna is. The steering wheel directs the whole car.
It is not just there somewhere in the corner, which we turn to when we need it. So he’s saying that this, the very name I have been given, the very identity that I have, this is what it is meant for, to share your message. For Prabhupada, his visual master instruction was the essence of this life.
That is what he’s trying to fulfil. So let’s sing the last text. So here, I’ll talk briefly about the concept of humility.
See, sometime, I was in America, and a devotee asked me, he’s a western person, he’s just new to bhakti, he said that, you know, this, when these great saints say that I have no bhakti, I have no knowledge, I have no devotion, so it just seems to be like they’re lying. It just seems, this humility actually seems to be dishonesty. So, why are they speaking something which is just not true? If Prabhupada did not have any knowledge of Vedas, if you look at his books, he has such an extensive knowledge of scripture.
If you look at his devotion, that was what took him all the way to America. So it is clearly that what he is saying is not true. Or is it? So I told him that when we look at the statements, statements, we always need to be seeing context.
One of the fundamental principles for understanding anything, you have to look at any content in context. So the point is, for many of us, our context, for us, our context is normally a human context. Human context means what? Oh, I’m not strong enough.
Oh, I’m not strong. I have no strength. I have no intelligence.
I have no power. Now, human context means what? We are comparing ourselves with others. And if somebody says, I have no money, and you say, you are being so humble.
Well, I really don’t have any money. Oh, you are really being so humble. What basically we are saying is, if you use it like that, your humility is dishonesty.
You actually have money, but you’re acting as if you don’t have any money. You’re just speaking like that. No, that’s not the point.
Yes, that person may have more money than other people. And in that case, when we say something, I have no money, there’s a particular reference point to that. For us, when we compare with others, when we say, I have no intelligence, when we say, I have no intelligence, but I come first in my class.
What we mean is, like what we are giving with one hand, we’re taking with the other hand. This is just humility, but no, actually, I’m very intelligent. Oh, you know, I can’t see any key.
But wherever I go, devotees ask me to meet them. So this kind of statement might seem like dishonesty. And we ourselves might qualify if somebody speaks a statement like this.
Oh, you’re being so humble. So we often equate humility, not so much with dishonesty, but we think humility requires speaking what is dishonest, speaking what is untrue. Dishonesty refers to something which is intentional.
Generally, nobody is accidentally dishonest. Generally dishonesty is intentional. But then humility can at least seem like untruth.
Now, why does untruth is spoken? Whatever it is. We don’t analyse that. So is humility requiring us to speak untruth? No, not really.
Statements are used in for the great saints. For the acharyas, they are used in a divine context. Divine context, not a human context, that means their focus is not seeing themselves in comparison to others.
Their focus is seeing themselves in comparison with Krishna or in reference to Krishna. See, a cycle, a bicycle may move at a particular pace. A bullock cart may move at a particular pace.
A bike may move at a particular pace. An aeroplane may move at a particular pace. And we can say an aeroplane definitely moves much faster than a bullock cart.
No doubt about that. But the point is, if we are in the plane, and especially if you’re sitting right next to the wing of the window seat and next to the wing, you’ll see the wing is there and then the sky and the clouds are there. And from there, if you see, actually, the car, the plane seems to be moving very slowly.
It’s changing. If we are very high up, we can’t even see the ground below. So as compared to the clouds, the plane seems to be moving very slowly.
But when the plane starts descending, then the cloud may still be there around us. And if you look at the cloud, you’ll see that it’s moving so slowly. And if you look down, you’ll see there are just homes that are visiting by, fields that are just racing by.
When you look down, you see the plane is actually moving very fast. So is the plane moving slowly or is the plane moving rapidly? And the clouds are so big, the sky is so big, that in the skies, if you look from the reference of the sky, even this gently moving, the rapidly moving plane seems to just move gently. So when a devotee sees that Krishna has given me so much, Krishna has blessed me in so many ways.
And after Krishna has blessed me in so many ways, what have I done to deserve it? What do I have? So if Krishna loves me so much, what love do I have in comparison? Krishna, there is so much to know about Krishna. What do I know about Krishna? Like somebody may say, oh, I don’t know the ocean. So if I say I don’t know the ocean.
Now, I don’t know the ocean. Two people may make such a statement. One person is a person who has never even seen an ocean.
The person has never lived on the coast, has never seen the ocean. I don’t know the ocean. Other person might be a regular swimmer, regular scuba driver, not just swimming, regular swimming and diving might be there.
Deep diving might also be there. But the more they swim, the more they dive, what they understand is the ocean is so big and I am so small that what do I know about the ocean? So when both people say I don’t know the ocean, they are actually saying the same statement, but the meaning is very different. So when somebody says I don’t know the ocean, if they are comparing themselves with other people, somebody might be an oceanographer, they study the ocean as a profession itself, they know a lot about the ocean.
But still, if actually they compare what they know about the ocean, how vast is the ocean and how much more is there to know in the ocean, their statement makes sense. It’s not that they are lying. It’s not that they are being dishonest.
So humility comes not just by making false statements about ourselves, while we know and others know the statement is not true. It’s not humility. Humility comes by changing our reference point to Krishna.
When our reference point is Krishna, then what happens is that we are able to more things, we are able to actually feel humble. Somebody may be six feet tall. Everybody is five, five hundred feet tall.
Somebody may be seven feet tall. Definitely taller than others. But if a seven, seven feet tall person comes across the Vishwaroop of Krishna and the Vishwaroop is naantam na madhyam na punah sthavah, namaskusham daivopi intaropiyat, from the earth it goes to the sky.
There is no beginning, no end. I am so small. You are seven feet tall.
How can you be so small? So then they are saying I am so small that is not comparing themselves, not in the reference of other human beings. It is in the reference to the Vishwaroop. So it is in that sense, humility is talked about.
So it is not dishonesty. It is just a different reference point. So let us sing this line once again and then we will go to the next line.
Just once first line and then three times the next line. So here that Prabhupada in one sense is, Prabhupada had a very deep sense of what you could say word consciousness. Prabhupada sometimes takes one word from scripture and he puts that the same word is there in this verse also.
This word means this. The entire class is based on one word which means that word. Prabhupada will sometimes not even quote a full verse.
Just quote one line and he will quote one word from that line and emphasise that word. So Vedanta vaakye shushadha ramanidha. The vaakya, the word of scriptures, one can find great joy in that.
So Prabhupada is dwelling on the words over here. Bhaktivedanta is the name that is given. So bhakti nai veda naisis.
I don’t have any other bhakti or veda but Bhaktivedanta, the name that I have been given will be sarthakuru. So Prabhupada would always sign his personal letters as AC Bhaktivedanta Swamiji. He personally never used the title Prabhupada for himself.
Others used it for him. And some of his godbrothers were very unhappy because Prabhupada was a title used for his spiritual master. And they felt that you are thinking that you are equally a spiritual master.
You are usurping your spiritual master by taking the same title as Prabhupada. But Prabhupada did not choose that title for himself. Prabhupada said this spiritual master is not just referred to as Guruji or Swamiji.
He said he is referred to some respectable title. Prabhupada says Bhaktipada, Vishnupada, Prabhupada. Like that Prabhupada gets three, four different names.
And the devotee said can we call you Prabhupada? Prabhupada said okay. So when Prabhupada accepted that title as his devotees, as his disciples had given him, Prabhupada himself always referred to himself as AC Bhaktivedanta Swamiji. So when Prabhupada, his godbrothers were criticising him, in Mayapur once they all had, several of them had come to meet him.
How can you take the title that Prabhupada is our spiritual master? The first point is Prabhupada said that. Prabhupada actually took out his own letterhead and said how he signs it. He said it is AC Bhaktivedanta Swamiji.
And Prabhupada also made the point other places that it is not an exclusive title. It is not a title that is applied only to Bhaktivedanta Swamiji. Sometimes it is called Rupa Goswami Prabhupada.
Sometimes it is called Sanatana Goswami Prabhupada. So it is a title for a person who is very devoted, who is always, Prabhupada has both meanings that one who is always at the feet of the Prabhu or one at whose feet there are many Prabhus. It has both meanings.
But it is not an exclusive title for only one person. But the point here is that he is focussing on the name Bhaktivedanta. At this particular point, the name Prabhupada is not even merged.
So he is in Bhaktivedanta naam. You make this name successful, make me meaningful. So what does it mean? See, we all have an identity.
And now. Often our identity defines our activity. And our activity determines our destiny.
So, for example, if I think of myself primarily as an Indian, then that identity will lead me to think that, OK, I should work for India. I should make India great. I think of myself primarily as an engineer.
Then I think, OK, I need to understand everything from an engineering perspective. I need to learn more about engineering. If I think of myself as a brahmachari, then I may think, OK, what are the brahmachari principles? What are the brahmachari rules? I have to stay a far distance away from them.
I may think of myself as a as a spiritual teacher. Then what does that mean? Oh, that means wherever there’s an opportunity to speak about Krishna, I should go there and speak about Krishna. I may think of myself as a sadhaka.
My identity is my identity is a sadhaka. That means I need to do sadhana. So for all of us, based on our identity, we choose our activities.
And based on the activity, we have our destiny. So for many of us, what practise of bhakti needs to lead to a change of identity? That our new identity needs to permeate into the core of our being. Sometimes people ask that.
There is no reference to say in the Mahabharata or the Ramayana that diksha led to the change of any leaves. Parikshit was born as Parikshit. There’s no change of his name after diksha.
There’s no reference to Ram’s name being changed. There’s no reference to Arjuna’s name being changed. So why should I change my name at the time of diksha? So the idea is that yes, in the Vedic scriptures, there’s no reference to changing of name at the time of initiation.
There’s not much reference in general initiation itself specifically. But the point is that as Kaliva started progressing and our material people started identifying with the materials, some material identity, whatever it may be particularly, it’s not too much. So the acharyas, they started having diksha as a formal ceremony.
And in the diksha, a namakaran also happens. The idea is that diksha is like a new birth. And when there is a new birth, there is the understanding that if we have a new birth, then let’s begin with having a new name.
So Prabhupada is considering the name that is now his spiritual master. When he gave initiation to him, he did not change his name. His name was Abhay.
He became Abhay Charan, Arvind Das. So he would mostly be called as Abhay Babu. Many times after diksha, the name is too long.
Most people don’t refer to the person by that full name. So Radheshyam Prabhu once wrote an email to me. We were talking about American preaching.
There are several American devotees in that. So Radheshyam Prabhu wrote D.R.C.C. And one American devotee wrote to me that please tell Radheshyam Prabhu in America never use the word C.C. For Americans, C.C.P is the Chinese Communist Party. So now what happens is that we all, the name is very long.
We try to shorten it. So Abhay Charan Arvind is quite a long name. So most people would refer to him as Abhay Babu.
So now later on Prabhupada was given the title Bhaktivedanta Swami by his godbrothers because of what he was trying to do. In Bhakti Sansthapura’s times, he would give a lot of titles to his disciples. Prabhupada decided not to go in that direction.
And he felt that that was a part of the thing that led to a lot of ego and a lot of conflicts. So for some time in his corner also various gurus had titles, but then his corner was completely gone off. There were no titles for him now.
But the thing is that Prabhupada is focussing that I have been given this name. Now a name is not just an honour. A name is also a responsibility.
And Prabhupada is focussing not so much on the honour, oh I am such a great person, I am called Bhaktivedanta Swami. He is thinking that this name which I get, the name can be seen as an honour, but much more than that it is a responsibility. So if somebody say is made the overall coordinator of a youth centre, somebody is made the commander of a temple.
The word commander sounds very impressive. You see the commander of a temple or somebody becomes the president of a temple. So then say I am the president.
That is an honour when somebody is doing that. But more than the honour it is a responsibility. I went to Canberra and I was coordinating with the devotees.
The person who came to receive me was actually the temple commander. I said Prabhu, you are the temple commander, you could have sent somebody. He says I am the temple commander and the only person I can command the temple is me.
In the west they have not many devotees. Most of the devotees are grand stars. So they have their jobs.
So he said that the temple, in the day time I am the only person there. So the point is that sometimes there may be a designation and we may think it is a very honourable designation, but actually what it is about is responsibility. We have to make sure that things happen.
So Bhagavan is saying that I have been given the title Bhaktivedanta. So I have to make sure that I live true to this title. And living true to this title means that I need to actually manifest some bhakti, manifest some veda by which these western people can understand Krishna’s message, can become attracted to Krishna, can become devotees.
So Bhaktivedanta Nama Sarthakkaro. Sarthakkaro means my dear lord you speak through me in a way that vedic knowledge is manifested, that bhakti is manifested and through that people will be attracted. There is also a tradition in most Vaishnava poetry, I mean most bhakti poetry, that the poet or the composer in the last line writes their name in some way.
Now that might seem, some people think why do I have to put your name over there. It might seem to be like an ego. Everybody should know my name.
And then in future you sing the song, you sing the name of the poet also in the song. We have, say for example, Gaura Aarati in which Bhaktivedanta Beke, Gaura Aarati, or we have many songs in which at the end the name of the poet comes. But the point is the name of the author or the name of the composer, that is written not so much that others sing that name.
It is because it’s a personal offering to Krishna. It is that bhakti is very much a personal offering. We are all persons and one person has made this offering to Krishna.
It is not so that others sing their name. You sing about Krishna, but remember, last time you should sing about me also. That is not the point over there.
These songs were not composed primarily with the idea that others would sing those songs. Prabhupada wrote this song just for pouring his heart out to Krishna. And whether anybody would ever read it also, we don’t know.
At least Prabhupada didn’t know. Prabhupada was not worrying about that at all. Prabhupada was focussing, just pouring out his heart and he was following the tradition in which the poet makes the poetic composition, that personal offering but both by mentioning their name at the end.
So let’s sing the last stanza once again. bhakti vedanta mede sarthaka karo Thank you very much. Is there any question or comment? Thank you very much.
Sri Prabhupada ki. Jai. Sri Krishna Bhagwan ki.
Jai. Gaur Bhakta Vrinda ki. Jai.
Gaur Vrinda ki. Hari Hari bol. Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna. So this is the last session.