PRAHLAD acronym – 7 glories qualities of Prahlad Maharaj

Sunday feast lecture at Radha Gopinath Mandir on 21-2-16

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Today we will be discussing about one of the most well-known among the Mahajanas, who is actually a Balajana. He is a Mahajan, but he is most famous for the activities that he did as a small child, and that is Prahlad Maharaj. So, I will discuss this topic in terms of an acronym centred on the name of Prahlad Maharaj, P-R-A-H-L-A-D.
So, I will discuss some qualities about Prahlad Maharaj, which deal with various aspects of serious practise of spiritual life, especially when we are living in the material world. Prahlad Maharaj, the word Prahlad itself is related with the word Laad and Laad is the word related with Laadini Shakti. Laadini is that which gives happiness to Krishna.
So, Laadini karaye Krishna ananda aswadan, Laadini dwara Krishna kare bhakter aposhyan. So, the Laadini Shakti does two things. One, it is Krishna s energy, just like different energies serve different purposes.
For example, electricity serves the purpose of lighting a room when it is channelled through a bulb or a tube light or say petroleum, it serves a particular purpose. When it is channelled through the ignition engine of a vehicle, it brings about motion. So, different energies serve different purposes.
So, the Laadini Shakti, it serves two purposes. One is that it grants Krishna pleasure. So, Krishna is self-satisfied, but in the reciprocation of love, he gets greater satisfaction.
And Laadini Shakti provides that satisfaction to Krishna. And now we may think, does that mean that Krishna is enjoying on his own and I am suffering over here in this world? No, Krishna s joy is reciprocal. Laadini dwara Krishna kare bhakter aposhyan.
Laadini also nourishes, Laadini Shakti nourishes the devotees. Here we are talking about nourishment, not in terms of physical nourishment. Physical nourishment is done by Maha Vishnu through his Purusha expansions, the Garbhodaksha Vishnu, Chirudaksha Vishnu.
They arrange for the management of the universe by which our physical necessities are provided for. But our deepest need is actually the need for happiness. And happiness comes most fulfillingly through the reciprocation of love.
So, often there is a great craving for things that we want. So, we want things, maybe I want a new dress, a new car, a new house. Now, usually we want these things so that by having those things, people will appreciate us more, people will love us more.
So, we want things not because those things in themselves can give us happiness. We want things by which we hope that our reciprocation with others will become more meaningful, more fulfilling. Unfortunately, this works out both positively and negatively.
Now, when we get the attractive things of the world, yes, people are attracted to us. However, they are attracted to us not for who we are, but for what we have. So, they are attracted to the things which we have, not to us as persons.
And that is why when we equate the search for happiness with the search for things, that is how the media defines happiness, purchase this, get this, enjoy this. When we equate the search for happiness with the search for things, then we set ourselves up for anxiety and misery. Why anxiety? Because even if we get those things, they will not stay with us.
They may go away anytime. And that is why there is anxiety. And eventually, when they do go away, there is misery.
Or even if they do not go away, if someone else gets something better than what we have, then also it causes misery. So, Prahlad, the word P, I am discussing as a part of the acronym Prahlad. Prahlad Maharaj was characterised by purity, purity.
His pure desire means he desired the Supreme Lord alone and nothing apart from the Supreme Lord. So, I was talking about the name Prahlad and Ladini Shakti. So, Ladini Shakti provides us, it nourishes us.
How does it nourish us? By satisfying our longing for love and the happiness thereof. So, Ladini Shakti connects us with Krishna and in the connection with Krishna, we get the supreme happiness. Krishna loves us, not for what we have.
Krishna, if he were loving us for what we have, then he would not have offered so much favour to Sudama Brahm, who offered him just something, some chilt rice. And Krishna says, In 9.26, he says that I am ready to accept even little fruit, flower, leaf or water, if it is offered with devotion. So, Krishna loves us not for what we have.
Actually, his love runs even deeper. He does not even love us for who we are. Now, what does that mean? Now, from the point of spiritual purity, there is, if we look at ourselves honestly at our heart, we may find much that is not exactly lovable.
So, Krishna loves us not because of who we are. Krishna loves us because of who he is. Krishna loves us because of who he is.
He is the supremely benevolent parent of all living beings. And yes, parents naturally want their children to become responsible, to become successful, to become filled with good qualities. That is a natural aspiration.
But whatever happens, parents still love their children. Sometimes parents may disown a child, but Krishna never disowns anyone. So, Krishna loves everyone for who he is, not for who they are.
His love is unconditional. Of course, his love is unconditional does not mean that we can experience his love at any time. See, the word condition has two meanings.
One meaning of condition is that, okay, this is my condition, that means it is like a term. In this condition, we will provide you this, we will pay you this much amount conditional to you are providing these goods by this time. So, condition means it is a certain obligation that needs to be fulfilled.
There is a term. So, that is one meaning of the word condition. The word condition also has another meaning, which is state.
So, if somebody is very sick, then that person may say, no, I am not in the condition to travel right now. That condition is not in terms of terms. It is more in terms of state of being.
So, Krishna’s love is unconditional in the sense that there are no terms. He loves us always. But it is conditional in the sense of state.
That means, if we, if our heart is not in the right receptive state, we cannot experience his love. Just like the sun overhead gives light to everyone. But if I close my eyes, I cannot see the sun, I cannot feel his light.
So, this is not the conditionality of the sun. It is my condition. Or in philosophical terms, you could say it is my conditioning.
So, Krishna loves us always. But if our hearts are turned away from Krishna to other things, then it is like our eyes are closed to the sun. Because of that misdirected state of our heart, we cannot perceive his love for us.
So, it is something like the parents may provide a lot of things for their children, but the child has some desire for a particular toy. And if the parents do not provide that toy, the child says, no, you do not love me. And there is so much evidence around to show that the parents do love the child.
But when our hearts are caught with particular material things, we evaluate all of reality in terms of whether that particular desire is fulfilled or not. And when that desire is not fulfilled, it is not that Krishna is not loving us, but we are not able to perceive his love. So, Prahlad Maharaj, his name Prahlad indicates that he experienced great spiritual happiness, love.
Ladini Shakti manifested lavishly through him, enabling him to experience great happiness and transforming him into a channel through whom much spiritual happiness could be experienced by others also. And what was his purity? I look at this from two perspectives, the same analysis. Normally, when we say somebody has great affection or great love, great purity.
So, Prahlad Maharaj, the purity is often seen in terms of what is it that one is tempted with. You know, if somebody is in poverty and that person is starving, it is sad that person is starving, but that starving because of poverty does not give one the benefit of fasting. You see, fasting is a voluntarily chosen austerity that one does even when one has the facility to eat.
If I do not have anything to eat and I say I am fasting now, well, okay, but that is not exactly doing austerity. So, what was it that Prahlad Maharaj was tempted with? Prahlad Maharaj was the son of the person who at that time was the ruler, not just of the world, but practically of most of the universe. And as his son, he would have inherited it all.
And the way the situations were at that time, Hiranyakashipu had subjugated even the great universal controllers and no one seemed to be on the horizon who might be able to challenge his power. At that time, just by standing up to Hiranyakashipu, Prahlad Maharaj basically forfeited his claim to the kingdom. He was ready to do that for the Lord’s sake.
And not only that, even after he stood the test of faith and eventually Narsimhadev appeared and delivered Prahlad Maharaj from the fear of Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyakashipu and he delivered Hiranyakashipu also from his own demoniac mind. At that time, when Narsimhadev asked Prahlad Maharaj, what do you want? So Prahlad Maharaj says, the only thing I want is that I shouldn’t want anything more. He says, Oh Lord, if you want to give me anything, just give me this one thing that I may not desire anything material, anything apart from your Lord.
Let the desire, such a desire go away from my heart. That is my aspiration. So this is the remarkable purity of Prahlad Maharaj by which he was able to endear himself to the Lord.
And what happened? The Lord said that he gave him the full kingdom eventually. Actually, if you see in the hierarchy at that time, primogeniture was the norm. Primogeniture means, if a patriarch has many sons, the eldest son usually becomes the successor.
Now, Prahlad was not the eldest son. But still, Lord Narsimhadev made him the next king and even Prahlad said, I don’t want to become the king. Why? Because the Lord said, if you are pure hearted, then you will be able to rule without ever becoming exploited, without ever doing anything for your selfish interests.
Now, while we discuss about these qualities, we will also discuss briefly about what these qualities mean for us. In spiritual life, there are the stars and there are the stairs. The stars refer to the qualities that the great devotees that we see in scripture, they exhibit the qualities at such a lofty level that often we may feel, yes, this is good to admire, but this cannot be emulated at all.
So, that is the stars. But scripture offers not just the stars, scripture also offers us stairs. Stairs means the small, small, small steps that we take.
And normally a stair may go to a first floor, second floor, 10th floor, 50th floor, but no floor goes, no stair usually goes up to the stars directly. But that is the glory of bhakti that we just take small, small steps towards Krishna and every step that we take, Krishna expands the height of that step after we take it. So that we realise that, oh, we have risen so much.
If we look back at our lives before we started practising bhakti, maybe 5 years ago, 10 years ago, even the basic regulative principles may have seemed impossible to follow at that time. But gradually bhakti gives us a higher taste and we are able to follow them. So, purity is a state and purification is a process.
Purification is the process that will lead to the state of purity. And purification is something which is very much within our power. They say when people are climbing up a mountain or say people are cycling up a big mountain, at that time, often many cyclists, if they are cycling up a mountain in the evening or the night, at that time they cycle longer higher up than when they are cycling in the daytime.
Why is that? Because in the daytime, they constantly keep looking up and say, this mountain is so big, it is so big, it is so big. And that discourages them. That discourages them.
Better I will never get to the top of the mountain. Let me quit here only. But when we can’t see all the way up, okay, let me paddle a little bit more, little bit more, little bit more, little bit more.
Just keep taking steps, small, small, small, small, small steps, and eventually finally go a long, long distance up. So, faith actually means taking one step forward, even when we can’t see the whole way ahead. Just take one step forward.
It’s not necessary that we have to see the whole way ahead. Just take one step forward, one step forward, one step forward. Similarly, in our day to day lives, we can, as a practical activity, choose the pure instead of the impure.
The world presents us with so many allurements. And we turn away from them, we turn our heart towards Krishna, turn our eyes towards Krishna, turn our senses towards Krishna. And by these small, small choices, they may seem to be small choices.
But when Krishna sees them, Krishna notices them, he appreciates them. And he brings big transformations within us. So, purity is first an intellectual choice.
It’s intellectual choice. With our intelligence, I understand this is pure, this is impure. And therefore, I choose the pure.
So, now, even when we choose the pure like this, at that time, still the mind is attracted to that thing. I should do this, I should do this, I should do that. But if we choose the pure using our intelligence, evam buddhe param buddha samsthabya atmanam atmanah, jahe shatrum maha bhava kamarupam durasatam.
In 3.43, the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says, evam buddhe. In this way, with intelligence, param buddha, sit here, situate yourself on the transcendental platform. And samsthabya atmanam atmanah, situate yourself on the spiritual platform.
So, when we do this, Krishna appreciates it. And Krishna gradually purifies our mind. Purifying our mind means, after some time, we don’t find that particular activity, that particular impure thing, as very attractive, as very relishing.
So, when the mind accepts the impure to be impure, we become pure. When the mind accepts the impure to be impure, at that time, we become pure. Because once the mind accepts it is impure, it is the mind which is pushing us, do this, enjoy this, get this, go there.
But when the mind accepts that it is impure, then we will become pure. So, this happens gradually when we start with the intelligence. And with the intelligence, we choose the pure.
Jiva Goswami in the Bhakti Samdharma states that for the siddha bhakta, for the devotee who has become purified and perfected, it is priti that keeps the devotee on the spiritual platform. Priti is prayer, is love for Krishna. But for the sadhaka, it is buddhi that keeps one on the spiritual platform.
For the sadhaka, that spontaneous attraction to Krishna is not there. But it is buddhi, it is intelligence that keeps one on the spiritual platform. So, this is the purity of Prahlad Maharaj, that he was able to resist the world’s temptations.
And by meditating on his example, we can also make the small choices of the pure instead of the impure. The second is, we are discussing Prahlad Ekranand. So, R is respectful.
Now, one of the problems when we become pure is that we start disrespecting those who are impure. You are so full, you are so sinful, you are so this, you are so that. As well as Radhanath Maharaj says in one lecture that if you are fasting on Ekadashi and you are seeing who all is eating hot on Ekadashi, then your body is fasting, but your ego is feasting.
Your ego is feasting. So, actually, when we strive for purity, that naturally can make us feel this person has no control over the senses, so attached, so lusty, so greedy, so this, so that. This judgmentality actually alienates people.
So, we see Prahlad Maharaj was so pure hearted, but he was always respectful. Even to his father was his tormentor. Tat sadhu manye asuravarya dehinam.
He is respecting, he is approaching his father, he is saying asuravarya. Asuravarya is the best of the demons. Now, is the best, now we may wonder, is calling somebody best of the demons, is it a respect or is it an insult? But actually, the demons, they have their own sense of honour and within that to be called as the best of the demons, that is for them an honour.
When the Mahabharata, when Ashwatthama was fighting with Ghatotkach, now Ashwatthama was fighting with various warriors and he was slaughtering them. So, Ghatotkach was the son of Bhima and Ghatotkach came and challenged him and he told Ashwatthama that, why are you preying on powerless warriors? If you have courage, fight with someone who has the power to crush you. So, at that time Ashwatthama derisively put his bow down and he said, oh Ghatotkach, just go away.
You are Bhima’s son, so you are like a son to me also. I don’t want to kill myself. Go away before I lose my temper with you.
So, Ghatotkach became furious. He said, how dare you dismiss me like this? He says, I am as powerful as the king of the Rakshasas, Ravana. Now, interesting, he is comparing his power with Ravana’s power.
Now, Ghatotkach, one of the differences between the Ramayana and the Mahabharata is, in the Ramayana, the heroes and villains are more or less genealogical. The heroes are humans, Manavas and villains are Rakshasas. Of course, there also there is a blurring of lines because Vibhishan comes over to the side of Rama.
But more or less, the lines of virtue and vice are genealogical. But in the Mahabharata, it is the same genealogy. Kauravas and Pandavas are from the same dynasty.
And significantly Rakshasas are on both sides. Now, Ghatotkach is the son of Bhima and he is a Rakshasa. He has his own division of Rakshasa warriors who are fighting for the Pandavas.
And there is a demon named Alambush. Alambush was the brother of Baka, not the Baka whom Krishna killed, the Baka whom Bhima killed. So, he had wanted to take revenge against Bhima and that’s why he had decided to fight against Bhima, that is on the Kauravas’ side.
So, they were on both sides. But the point here is that although Ravana was vicious, still Ravana was considered to be a very formidable warrior. And Ghatotkach, who was virtuous, still he said, my power will be like that, like the power of Ravana.
So, that means within the Rakshasa dynasty also, there is a sense of honour. And for Tatsadhumanyi Asuravarya Deghina, you are the greatest of the Asuras. So, Asura refers both to a genealogy and a mentality.
That means there is a particular race of Asuras and there is also a mentality of the demoniac. So, within the mentality of the demoniac, Asura mentality, that can be present in the species that is Asuras, but there are also other demoniac beings like there are Daityas, there are Dhanavas, there are Rakshasas, all these are various demoniac species. So, he is saying Asuravarya, he is respecting Hiranyakashyapu.
So, we may not respect a particular person’s opinions. We may disagree with a particular person’s positions on certain issues, but that does not mean we have to disrespect that person. So, Prahlad Maharaj did not agree with Hiranyakashyapu’s godlessness.
It was not just godless, he was actually anti-god. Godlessness means no god. Anti-god means you are aggressively against God.
So, there are atheists and there are anti-theists. Atheists are those who do not believe in God, anti-theists are those who actively campaign against God. So, Hiranyakashyapu was not just an atheist, he was an anti-theist.
He was aggressive, his mission in life was to kill Vishnu. So, even with such a situation, Prahlad Maharaj was respectful. So, now, it is a conditioned tendency to equate people with their opinions or equate people with their beliefs.
And yes, it is true that our beliefs do comprise a significant part of who we are. So, Krishna says in the 17th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, sattvānūrūpā sarvasya śraddhābhūdhiḥ parampurāṇavaḥ śraddhāmayoyam puruṣaḥ yo ye śraddhasa evasaḥ He says, we are made of our faith. śraddhāmayoyam puruṣoḥ.
We say ānandamaya, that means somebody is made up full of ānanda, chindamaya, the ātmā is chindamaya, that means ātmā is filled with chetana. So, like that, Krishna says, we are śraddhāmayoyam puruṣaḥ. We are actually made of our faith.
Yo ye śraddhasa evasaḥ. And as a person’s faith is, accordingly that person will become. So, our faith does define us in a large way, but at the same time, our faith can change.
Somebody can be an atheist and that person can become a devotee. So, we shouldn’t reduce people to their opinions or even to their faiths, even to their beliefs. They are always souls who are eternally parts of Krishna.
And respecting them for what they are spiritually creates a basic foundation for further discussion. If we come off as disrespectful, derisive, judgemental, then people are put off at that time. People are alienated and then whatever we speak, that doesn’t register in their mind.
Because when people sense that I am basically being disrespected here, at that time, their ego goes into a defensive. And once their ego goes into a defensive, nothing can penetrate. Nothing can penetrate actually.
So, whatever we try to discuss with them, whatever we try to argue with them, they are just, as I said, a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. So, once a person has clamped down, at that time, even if we give the best of reasoning, that doesn’t work. And we see in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, when he interacted, two of his most significant victories were with Prakashananda Saraswati and Saurabham Bhattacharya.
And all these cases, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu started off very respectfully. Now, what did he do? Even with Keshav Kashmiri also, all three times Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had tremendous scholarly victories. In all three occasions, now Keshav Kashmiri was just a material scholar.
Of course, he was scholarly in the Vedic scriptures, but not in the spiritual side of Vedic scriptures. He was not a devotee. He was scholarly in logic and memorisation of scripture.
So, what did Chaitanya Mahaprabhu do? At that time, it was Dimai Pandit, when he came in, when he saw Keshav Kashmiri, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was himself, he is addressing his students. Now, when a person is teaching, at that time, all other people are looking at the person and they are hearing from a teacher, it can be very titillating for the ego. Say, I am teaching all these people.
But when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was giving his own class and Keshav Kashmiri came over there, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu immediately relinquished. He said, you please come and sit and settle and please speak something in the praise of Mother Ganga. So, that itself touched Keshav Kashmiri.
And then what happened? Then when he spoke, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appreciated his scholarship also. But then later on, basically after that, basic respect was given. Then when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu pointed out the faults in his scholarship, he was a little more amenable to it.
Same way with Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, what did Chaitanya Mahaprabhu do? He heard from him. He told Sarvabhauma that you are like my father and you instructed me in Vedanta. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, mayavada bhaashe sunne le, hole sarvanash.
But he himself heard mayavada bhaashe for seven days. Now, what does this mean? This means that there are philosophical principles which are important which have to be applied. But they have to be applied according to time and place circumstances.
You know, if somebody is a mayavadi and we tell him on his face that he is a mayavadi, by hearing his speech, I will be destroyed. We are destroying whatever spiritual prospects that person has. So, we have to be sensitive in whatever we do.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu heard from him for seven days. Similarly, when he went to Prakashan Saraswati in Varanasi, what did he do at that time? You know, all the sannyasis were sitting on a high pedestal and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sat at the place where everyone was washing their feet. And he said, oh, sannyasi mahasaya, please come and sit with us.
He says, no, no, you are all exalted sannyasis. Let me sit here only. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu shows by his example that we need to respect others.
Respecting others becomes difficult when we equate people with their opinions. We can disagree with people without becoming disrespectful to them. In the 18th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about two different kinds of people.
So, some people say that yajna, dana, tapa, karma, na tyajyam iti cha pare. So, some people say that yajna, dana, tapa, karma, this should be given up. Yajna, dana, tapa, karma prahur manishina, tyajyam dosham iti teke.
Some people say that these ritualistic activities, yajna, dana, tapa, which are to be done, they should be given up. And others say that they should not be given up. Because they purify even the pavanani manishina.
They purify even those who are controlled their mind. But Krishna says, na nishchitam sunumetatra. I will speak definitely what is the truth.
And then Krishna says, actually yajna, dana, tapa should not be given up. It should be done in a mood of detachment. But significantly here, Krishna says that even those who say that yajna, dana, tapa should be given up, he calls them as manishina.
He is referring to those whom he will refute later. He is calling them respectfully as manishina, as wise people. So, there are two different things.
There is disagreement and there is disrespect. There can be disagreement without disrespect. So, bhakti does not mean that we have to agree with everyone.
Certainly, we cannot agree because many people may have open nature, scripturally opposite. But just because we don’t disagree, we don’t agree with someone, that doesn’t mean that we have to be disrespectful to them. So, that is an art which as sadhakas, if we are to present scripture in a way that is appealing to people, we have to learn that.
That we can disagree, but without being disrespectful. So, this requires essentially the capacity to separate people from their opinions. So, rather than saying, if somebody speaks something, rather than saying, you are wrong, we can say, no, this argument has these problems.
This argument has these problems. So, we separate the person from that argument and point out the problems with that argument. So, that way we can be respectful.
As Prahlad Maharaj, he was respectful even to Hiranyakashipu. Even when he was opposing Hiranyakashipu, still he was respectful to him. Then PRA, A is affection.
So, he was affectionate to everyone, especially towards his co-students when he was in the Gurukul of Shanda and Amarkar. At that time, Prahlad was doing his own thing. All the other children were playing.
Prahlad said, no, why waste time in frivolous activities like playing? But he was affectionate to them. He was kind to them. And they were also not living with closed eyes.
The first time when Hiranyakashipu summoned Prahlad and Prahlad said that, actually the best thing I have learned is that one should devote oneself to Vishnu. So, at that time, this actually happened back and forth several times. And eventually, Hiranyakashipu got so angry that he decided to have Prahlad murdered.
He tried various means and none of them succeeded. And finally, Shanda and Amarkar said, you know, he is just a child, his opinions will change. Let us take him back to the Gurukul.
So, at that time when they came back to the Gurukul, now the other children in the Gurukul heard about this. Although demons are demoniac, but even among demons, nobody kills their own child. It is very rare.
And that to a five-year-old child. So, at that time, when they heard that Hiranyakashipu had tried to kill Prahlad, now his co-students, they all knew how powerful Hiranyakashipu was. And they were also curious.
How did you survive? What power did you have? And then Prahlad, how he is, if you look at his speech, the seventh canto describes the past times of Prahlad Maharaj. So, ninth chapter in the seventh canto is Prahlad Maharaj’s prayers to Narasimhadev. The eighth chapter is appearance of Narasimhadev and his killing of Hiranyakashipu.
So, the sixth, seventh, eighth chapters, more or less, especially seventh and eighth chapters describe the instruction that Prahlad gives to his schoolmates. And there, Prahlad is very kind, very gentle, very affectionate. And Narad Muni also says, Prahlad, one of his qualities was that he was respectful to his elders and he was affectionate to everyone else.
So, that affection, adveshta sarva-bhutana maitra karuna evachara, that one of the qualities Krishna says of the devotees is that they are affectionate to all. They are not envious friends of everyone. Actually, you know, when someone is kind and affectionate to us, at that time to be kind and affectionate to them is easy.
But when somebody is harsh to us, at that time to remain kind to them, that requires quite a challenge. But it’s interesting in the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, when Parikshit Maharaj is going around the kingdom in 16th, 17th chapter, this is described, and there is this Kali personified as a Kshatriya in a dark black garb. He is beating the bull and the cow is crying.
So, at that time, now Parikshit, there is a question-answer session over there which seems very peculiar. So, at that time, Parikshit Maharaj asked the cow and the bull. He asked the bull especially, what is the cause of your suffering? Now, this question itself is, can’t you see this shudra, this person is beating me? And normally when we ask this question, what does this bull reply? He says, the cause of suffering is very difficult to determine.
Some people say it is past karma. Some people say it is destiny. Some people say it is chance.
Some people say it is the movement of the stars. In this way, different people have different opinions. And to ascertain what the cause of suffering is, is very difficult.
And now when he speaks this, again, is he not pointing out? He is beating me. He doesn’t say that. Then after that, what does Parikshit Maharaj say? He says bravo.
He says, you by not pointing fingers to your attacker, you have protected yourself from the same materialistic mentality that characterises your attacker. I am paraphrasing him. But here what he says is that if we see things only at the material level of reality, then how are we different from materialists? Last year, I was in Melbourne.
So, there was an anonymous question-answer session after one of the programmes. So, one devotee asked a question. The question was that, we are told that we should cooperate with devotees.
But there is one devotee who told me that he doesn’t like me. He doesn’t like me. And whenever I try to work with him, I don’t know if it was gender neutral, whether it was him or her, whoever it was, that they make my life miserable.
So, what should I do? And if they are here right now, what would you like to tell them? So, I replied that for a devotee, any relationship is not just a relationship with that person. It is also a relationship with Krishna. That means we relate with others not just based on how they are relating with us.
We relate with them based on what will please Krishna. To give a mundane example for this, suppose there is a cloth shop. And there is a person who stands at the stall and shows the various clothes to the customers.
And there is an owner who sits at the cash counter. Now, this attendant that is there in the stall, some person may come and say, I want to see this, I want to see this. And I will say, see this cloth, see this cloth, see this cloth.
And they may see 50 cloths and not choose even one. Now, the attendant may get irritated and say, you wasted so much of my time. I did not do any sins.
Now, that is a normal tendency. It’s possible. But if the attendant remembers that my salary is not coming from the customer.
My salary is coming from the owner. And the owner will be observing and appreciating if I stay courteous, even towards irritable customers. So, if the owner is going to appreciate that, then the interaction with the customer is not just based on how the customer is behaving.
It is based on what will please the owner. Similarly, for us as devotees, we interact with others, not just based on how they are behaving, but based on how, what will please Krishna. This, of course, does not mean that if others are exploiting us, others are walking over us, others are routinely disrespecting us, we tolerate it all the time.
It just means that our behaviour is a function of our principles. Not their actions. As a matter of principle, if a relationship will abuse you, we may choose to keep a greater distance in that relationship.
That is fine. But we don’t just react to the way they behave. So, Prahlad Maharaj was affectionate.
He was not judgemental, thinking that, oh, these are demons. They are demons’ children. No.
He said, no, they are not demons’ children. They are actually souls. And as souls, let me deal with them in a sensitive way.
Let me deal with them in an affectionate way. And Prahlad actually won the hearts of all his friends. They all started taking up the process of bhakti.
This is extraordinary. Usually, it is easy to preach to people with whom we are not living. Because we can just give classes and go away.
But when we have to live with people, then people observe, okay, you can speak all these things, but how much do you live those things? And when we have to live with people, then they see our conditionings, our problems, our limitations. And if even amidst that, we can attract people, then attracting one person through our life is actually a far more transformational attraction than attracting many people through our speech. Our speech is not to be downplayed, because philosophy is also important in helping people understand what we are doing and why we are doing it.
But Prahlad was living among these other, it was a gurukul, so he was living with them, and he attracted them. So that was his affection to them. And through that affection, he attracted them.
So P-R-A-H-L-A-D. So, H is happiness. Now, happiness is always a by-product.
It is never a product. What that means is, if we go out chasing for happiness, we will never get happiness. We might get some pleasure, but the pleasure will last for some time, after that it will end.
Now, real deep fulfilling happiness comes when we absorb ourselves in something higher than the pursuit of happiness. In our own life, you see, if we are deeply absorbed in something, those are the most fulfilling moments of our life. So, happiness is a by-product.
It is a by-product of absorption in something higher than the search for happiness. So, we all naturally want to be happy. And now we may say, I am practising bhakti, why are we practising bhakti? So that we will become happy.
Now, if we are practising bhakti, so that we will become happy, we will become spiritually happy, then does that mean that our bhakti is not pure? It is. It is selfish, because we are looking for happiness. Yes, it may not be purely selfless right now, but there is a process of purification.
So, this means there are two different things here, that the nature of Krishna prema is such that it automatically makes one happy. And the devotees, especially at an exalted stage, they love Krishna not to become happy. They love Krishna just to serve and please Krishna.
But in the process of loving Krishna, they automatically get happiness. So, initially in our practise of bhakti, happiness may be our motive. Oh, the pleasures of this world, they only end in this.
So, therefore, I will turn towards Krishna. That is fine in the initial stage. But as we become purified, we love Krishna because he is so lovely, because we want to love him, please serve him and please him.
And by that, happiness comes as an automatic result. So, we see that the gopis in Vrindavan, what are they ready to do? They are just to relieve Krishna of a little headache. Now, headache is not something like a heart attack.
It’s a small thing. It’s not a very big pain. If somebody has got some big problem, which is life threatening, we may say that, okay, I will give my liver or I’ll give my kidney or whatever.
It’s a big sacrifice. But somebody says, I have a headache. Somebody says, I’ve got a headache.
Can you donate your liver to me? What is this? Headache tolerated, it will say. But Krishna, he just has a little headache and what are the gopis ready to do? The gopis, when they are told that, you know, it is only the dust on the feet of his devotees that will relieve Krishna of headache, they are ready to give the dust on their feet. And Narada Maharaj tells them that, you will go to hell if the dust of your feet touches Krishna’s head.
Krishna is a supreme worshipper deity. It’s an offence to Krishna. So, the gopis say, we know.
And we don’t mind going to hell for all of eternity. You can relieve Krishna of headache, even for a few weeks. That is the selflessness of their love.
They are not concerned about their happiness. But just in their absorption, Krishna, whether it be because of the anxiety that Krishna is having a headache, or whether it is because of the ecstasy, the thrill that Krishna is coming to meet us, whichever way it is, absorption, Krishna brings happiness. So, as sadhakas, when we practise bhakti, we can, at our stage, remember that the happiness in Krishna bhakti is like an ocean.
The happiness in material existence, whatever happiness it is there, it is at the basilical drop. There is pleasure, but it is a very unsatisfying pleasure. It is a pleasure, but it doesn’t satisfy us.
It makes us dissatisfied. Because what happens when we engage in sense gratification, there is a little pleasure. But we want more and more pleasure.
And as we engage in sense gratification, the capacity of the senses to enjoy decreases. Because the senses have limited capacity to enjoy. If I want to eat and enjoy, the capacity of my stomach is limited.
And as we enjoy more and more, the capacity to enjoy decreases. On the other hand, because we are getting a little pleasure, the desire to enjoy increases. So, what happens as we engage more and more in sense gratification, the capacity to enjoy is decreasing, the desire is increasing.
And at the end, what we get is frustration. And people stop sense gratification, not because they are satisfied, now I had the enjoyment. They stop because the body’s capacity to enjoy is exhausted.
Because they can’t enjoy anymore. That’s when they stop. So, the happiness that we get in sense pleasure, it is actually temporary.
It is not as Prahlad Maharaj says, it is tucham. So, it is not very great. So, now Prahlad Maharaj, one of the most beautiful verses in the praise to Narasimhadev, Narasimhadev is asking, please ask for some benediction.
And Prahlad says, So, he says, my dear Lord, what happiness can I ask for? What benediction can I ask for? Shruti Sukha. Shruti Sukha means, everybody is talking about this. And this is so wonderful, this is so wonderful, this is so wonderful.
So, now everybody is glamorising the pleasure. Shruti Sukha. But when we try to engage in the pleasure, it is like a mirage.
When we get it, it disappears. It’s no longer there. And somebody will say, okay, I may not have got the pleasure till now, but I have a young, healthy body.
In future, I will enjoy. This body, what is it? It is It is a breeding place for unlimited diseases. It has so many ways the body can go wrong and it can cut off our capacity to enjoy.
And then he says, But still, even after knowing this, the Vidwan, the wise people also are not able to give up this pleasure. Why? He says, it burns like fire, but it is, there is a drop of honey, which is intoxicating. And that drop of honey is such that it makes us feel, I just want it more and more and more.
So, Prahlada Maharaj later says, what is this? What is this condition? So, My dear Lord, in glorifying You, I am experiencing So, because I am absorbing, glorifying You and I am relishing such happiness in that glorification, that I don’t consider going out of this material existence also as a problem. So, here, how do we get tempted? Sometimes we think of Maya simply as illusion. See, Maya is illusion, but Maya is not just illusion.
Maya is also the energy that causes illusion. If we think of Maya only as illusion, we may think that if I just become intelligent enough, then I will get over the illusion. But Krishna says, this is my Maya.
So, Maya is not just illusion, Maya is Krishna’s energy which causes illusion. And he says, this is Daivi, it is a divine energy. So, if we try to have a battle of wits with Maya, sometimes you say sports like chess is a battle of wits.
So, we try to play a chess match, say if somebody tries, an ordinary chess player tries to play a match with Vishwanathan Anand, he will be outclassed completely. So, it is not an equal match. So, if we think of Maya only as illusion, then we will think, if I just become intelligent enough to see beyond the illusion, I will go over Maya.
But Maya is not just illusion, Maya is the energy that creates illusion. Therefore, even if we go over one illusion, another illusion will come, another illusion will come, another illusion will come. And the solution is for overcoming illusion is not just becoming intelligent enough to see through illusion, it is to connect with Krishna.
The Bhagavata Maya is defined as to see anything as separate from Krishna, that is Maya. So, when we are able to connect everything with Krishna, when we become Krishna conscious, at that time, we will go beyond Maya. Because the purpose of Maya is not to tempt us and to cause us fall.
The purpose of Maya is to make us take shelter of Krishna. So, if say we become free from lust, if we become free from greed, if we become free from anger, and we become proud, yes, see I am so pure, then we are proudly in Maya. So, the purpose of Maya is actually to make us take shelter of Krishna.
And just like if there is this glass, now if I decide that I want to remove, make this glass completely empty, I want to make this glass completely simply no air also, only vacuum, I have to remove all the air from this glass. Now, removing all the air from the glass is very difficult. Even if I succeed in removing it, just a little shaking of the position, immediately air will rush in.
But if I want to remove the air from the glass, and I focus not on removing the air, but fill the glass with water, air will automatically go out. So, like that, as long as our focus is on overcoming illusion, we will stay in illusion. Because our focus itself is an illusion.
Our purpose itself is rock. Illusion is not an end in itself. Overcoming illusion is also not an end in itself.
But if we fill our consciousness with Krishna, then as a by-product, illusion will be overcome. And that is what Prahlad Maharaj is doing. Tvadveerya Gayan Mahamruta Magna Chittaha He is saying, my dear Lord, I am glorifying you, I am absorbing, glorifying you, I relish so much that I don’t, I am not worried about material existence.
When we practise Bhakti, suppose a person is lost in a desert and is going towards, after being lost in a desert for a long time, after chasing many mirages, after that, finally that person has now come to an oasis. So, Hari Sarasivigaya Piyate Yojana Yogam Bhava Maru Parikhinnaha Kleshamad Gita Jami Kula Shekhar Maharaj says that Bhava Maru Parikhinnaha, material existence is like a desert. Parikhinnaha, I have become dejected in this desert.
And now finally I have come to Lord Hari. Hari Sarasi, Lord Hari is like a lake. Vigaya Piyate Yojana Yogam.
I will dive deep into this lake and drink from this lake. What is the water of this lake? It is the glories of Lord Hari. So, suppose somebody is just approaching an oasis which is filled with crystal clear, sweet, cool water after being lost in a desert for a long time.
And at that time, that person just turns around and looks. Oh, there is a mirage over there. Maybe there is more water there than here.
And just a few steps away from the oasis, the person turns and goes away again to the mirage. That would be tragic. But we often do like that.
We are so close to Krishna, but we are, you know, we are supposed to be moving towards Krishna, but our eyes are towards Maya. We are looking elsewhere. So, because of that, we don’t move towards Krishna.
We don’t relish the sweetness of Krishna. So, why does this happen? Because of the propaganda of materialistic culture, we feel that we are missing so much. You are missing so much, you are missing so much, you are missing this, you are missing that, you are missing that.
Actually, the only thing we are missing is misery. Because there is a little pleasure, but before that, after that, there is a lot of misery in the whole thing. But what happens, this whole complex, you are missing so much, you are missing so much, you are missing so much, that’s what makes us miss the real happiness of Krishna consciousness.
So, Prahlad Maharaj is saying, so normally, even when we practise bhakti, the mind is there at the back nagging, hey, you are missing so much, you are losing so much, you are losing so much. But Prahlad Maharaj is saying that when he looks at the materialist, rather than he feeling that, oh, I am missing so much, he feels they are missing so much, that I am enjoying so much over here and they are missing so much. And therefore, rather than I doing what they are doing, I want them to do what I am doing, so that they can release this happiness.
So, that is the extent of happiness that maya sukhaya bharma duhata vimudha, this is that they actually, mudha is a fool, vimudha is a empowered fool. Empowered fool means that person has a tremendous amount of energy to do a lot of things. But the goal that the person is pursuing is actually illusory.
So, he says, yes, people are working very hard to get material pleasures, but unfortunately, they are misdirected and therefore, I lament for them. I don’t lament for myself, I lament for them. So, the more we associate with devotees who are relishing Krishna Bhakti, the more that conviction within us will deepen that yes, this is where real happiness is.
And the more when that conviction deepens, the more we will not be shaken by the temptations of the world. Now, whoever we associate with, those people’s conviction comes over to us sooner or later. So, if we associate with materialistic propaganda, which is eat this, buy this, possess this, wear this, we will enjoy, then we will start believing that.
Now, I am not saying any of these things are wrong. We need material things for living. And the problem is not getting material things.
The problem is not even pursuing material things. As long as we are living in the material world, we need material things. The problem is thinking that the pursuit of material things will make us happy.
We need to pursue material things and if we have talents to achieve in material life, there is nothing wrong. It is good in fact. We will be doing justice to whatever talents Krishna has given us.
But we understand that it is not that these material achievements will make me happy. It is my connection with Krishna that will make me happy. So, Balar Maharaj, because he was so absorbed in Krishna, he could actually resist all the allurements of his father’s huge prosperous kingdom.
And L is learning. L is learning. So, Balar Maharaj was just five years old.
Now, there are what is called as prodigies. Prodigies means small children who know far more than what their age level is. They may be just five years old and they know multiplication tables of something of the age of 15 or 16 or something like that.
They are very brilliant. So, Balar Maharaj is a spiritual prodigy. Spiritual prodigy means that he has such spiritual knowledge.
Actually, in one sense, the existence of prodigies is one of the strongest evidences that we are not simply products of our genes. Now, the reductionistic materialist worldview holds that we are just material creatures and whatever our personalities, whatever our characters are, whoever we are, that is just a product of our genes. Yes, our genes shape our behaviour, but they do not determine our behaviour.
There is something called as monozygotic twins. Monozygotic twins means that both the twins have come from the same zygote, the same zygote expanded into two. That means the twins are basically entirely genetically identical.
And still, they are having different behaviours, they are different personalities. So, where does the personality come from? In this case, their genes are same, their parents are same, their upbringing is same, and yet they are different. So, this difference is because there is a non-material side to our personality.
Similarly, if you look at the lives of many prodigies, now somebody might be a phenomenal painter. And you look, their father, their grandfather, their great grandfather, nobody was a painter actually. How did they get such So, that has not come from their genes.
That has come from the samskaras, the impressions in the mind, which they had got in some earlier life. So, Prahlad, he was so spiritually learned that when Niharanya Kashyapu had the materialistic idea of God, the God is spiritual being. But what is the materialistic idea of God? Of course, many different people have different materialistic ideas about God.
But one materialistic idea of God is that God is just another being who is more powerful than us. So, for example, some atheists argue that if Ram built a bridge across the ocean, now which engineering college did he go to learn? How did he build this bridge? Well, this question, it reveals that one doesn’t understand the ABC about God. You know, God is the source of all the knowledge, including all the engineering knowledge in all the engineering colleges.
So, he is not only the source of all the knowledge, he is also the source of the laws that are studied by that knowledge. That means when Lord Ram causes the bridge to float, gravity will cause the water to go down, the stones to sink. So, how are they floating? Actually, you know, the Lord is not subject to gravity because he is the source of gravity.
Because he is the source of gravity, so as per his desire, he can cause the rules to act and he can suspend the rules also. So, when he suspend the rules, that is what we call as miracles. So, the point is, if you think of God as just another being who is a little more powerful than us, then that means there is a hierarchy of beings, say there is a mayor for a city, there is a chief minister for a country and there is a prime minister for the, sorry, there is a chief minister for state and the prime minister for country.
So, like that there are people with bigger and bigger jurisdictions. And then you see the person who has the biggest jurisdiction is God. That is at one level true, but at another level, it is a completely different thing.
Because all these people who are having progressively bigger and bigger jurisdictions, they are all having material bodies. They are people who are essentially spiritual, but they have material bodies occupying certain material posts. Whereas Krishna is not just the highest being, he exists in a different category entirely.
He is a supreme being, he has a spiritual form and having a spiritual form, he is not in this hierarchy of beings. He is completely outside the hierarchy, he is the basis of that hierarchy. That is why when Hiranyakashipu asked Prahlad that when time and time again Hiranyakashipu attempts to either discipline Prahlad or to destroy Prahlad, all of them are thwarted.
Then Hiranyakashipu decided that now I have to take matters into my own hands. Initially, Hiranyakashipu, although he is a demon and he has no conscience, but still he has his own level of conscience. He thinks that this son has become a traitor, but I do not want to kill him.
How can I kill my own son? How can I kill someone who is a part of my own flesh? That is why he orders the other demons to kill him. And when that attempt fails, at that time, he listens to Shalini and Amarka and says, let us take him back to the Guru. But Shalini and Amarka, they come back and say, we thought that we will cure him, but he has spoiled all our other students also.
We cannot keep him in. So, at that time, Hiranyakashipu decides, I will take the matters in my own hands. And he decides, if he has to be killed, I will kill him myself.
Nobody else can kill him. But before that, he decides, let me do a fact-finding mission. He asks the whole universe, all the great Devatas, if I just raise my eyebrows, they start trembling in fear.
And here I am shouting and you are not trembling at all. He says, by whose power are you so audacious? So, now Hiranyakashipu is thinking, I know there is Brahma, but Brahma is on my side. So, who is on his side? By whose power are you so audacious? He says, maybe if I can find that person, I will kill that person, then he will cover down to me.
See, actually, Hiranyakashipu, Prahlad was no serious threat to him. Prahlad was not going to start a political coup against him and take over the power. But Hiranyakashipu, the ego becomes so hungry for honour, that there will be 100 people respecting me, but eyes go to the one person who is not respected.
So, if I think I am a very big preacher, and then I enter a room and everybody offers obeisance, and my eyes don’t see who is offering obeisance, and my eyes see who is not offering obeisance. So, that is the perverted mentality of the ego. So, actually, Prahlad was not a threat to Hiranyakashipu at all.
But for Hiranyakashipu, how dare somebody not bow down to me? How dare somebody not worship me? He just couldn’t tolerate that. So, if whoever is giving power to Prahlad, if I can find that person, I can destroy that person, then Prahlad will bow down to me. So, that’s why he asked, who is the source of your power? And Prahlad did not answer at his level.
He could have said, Vishnu is the source of my power. But he didn’t want just to give the answer. He wanted to, if possible, elevate the consciousness of his father.
And he said that actually, the source of my power is also the source of your power. And is also the source of the power of Brahma who has given you your power. He is the source of the power of all living beings.
So, now somebody may say, don’t talk back. Don’t be a smart alec. Don’t be so smart.
But Prahlad was not just being smart. Prahlad was actually trying to educate his father. And that’s why the next verse after this, what he says is that actually you have no enemy except your own uncontrolled and misguided mind.
Except your own uncontrolled misguided mind, which is making you see the Lord who is the friend of all living beings, you are seeing him as your enemy. So, just conquer this inner enemy and you will be happy in life. So, Prahlad, we see that although he is a small boy, he has a profound understanding of both the conception of God and also the mentality of his father.
And within the capacity he has, he is trying to help his father. So, God is not just the best of all beings. He is the basis of all being.
He is the basis of all being. Nothing can exist without God. Whoever has any power, that power comes from God.
And this is Prahlad Maharaj’s learning. And his schoolmates ask him, where did you learn all this? So, he said, I learned this from Narada Muni. I said, where? We never saw Narada Muni here.
He says, Dad, I learned it when I was in my mother’s womb. So, Narada Muni instructed Kayadu and Prahlad heard. So, actually spiritual learning cannot have any material limitation.
When we study Shastra, when we understand Shastra, we may forget the facts. But the principle of attraction to Krishna will remain. And the principle of attraction to Krishna will manifest again.
So, we see sometimes if a person does something, if a sadhaka does something wrong, so usually we say that if we have done little bhakti, if we have taken prasad once, we will not fall from a human body to a sub-human body. But Bhagavatam does give an example of Bharat Maharaj falling into a deer’s body or we have even Maharaj falling into an elephant’s body. So, how does this happen? Yes, in extraordinary situations, if a sage curses or if one becomes very attached to something, it may happen.
But in these cases, although they got a deer or an elephant’s body, they did not get deer or elephant consciousness. Their consciousness was not just human, actually it was more than human. They were very spiritually inclined.
So, our material, the human body is ultimately a facility for practising spiritual life. And that facility may go away, but the propensity for spiritual life, if you have cultivated it, that will always remain with us. So, everything that we hear in Shastra, so it is not necessary that Narada Muni spoke exactly the same things that Prahlad was speaking later.
No, Narada Muni spoke certain things, Prahlad understood them, internalised them and spoke in his own words. So, this is the knowledge that will always stay with us. Whatever little we are learning, we are learning, learning, and we are moving closer and closer to Krishna.
So, knowledge about Krishna is not Jnana. Knowledge about Krishna is Bhakti. Now, when we say sometimes, if you cultivate too much Jnana, you become a Jnani.
No, there is a Jiva Goswami in the Shantarbhas, talks about the difference between the Jnana of the Jnanis and the Jnana of the Bhaktas. There are many differences, but one main point, I will focus here, that the Jnana of the Jnanis focusses on the oneness of the Atma and Brahman. Yes, I am Atma, Brahma, Aham Brahmasmi, Sarvam Kalmavidam Brahma.
So, these sort of Mahavakyas from the Upanishads that impersonalists focus on, and their knowledge, when we think that we are one with the absolute truth, then that actually starves our Bhakti. That takes away our inclination for Bhakti. But the Bhakti Jnana is the Jnana which, yes, at one level, it tells us we are spiritual beings, we are not material beings.
But the essence of Bhakti Jnana is the glorification of Krishna. And that glorification of Krishna increases our attraction to Him. So, this way, this Jnana is not particular to Bhakti, it is unequal to Bhakti.
The more we hear about Krishna, the more we become attracted to Him. So, that brings us to the next point, A is Attraction. So, learning is one thing.
The knowledge about Krishna is not just for pooling. You know, pooling of knowledge means you pool cash into a bank account, or you pool water into a container. Knowledge is not just for pooling, it is for pulling.
The knowledge which we have, it should pull us towards Krishna. So, aham sarvasya prabho mattah sarva-pravartate iti mattva bhajante ma mudha-bhava-samandita Krishna says in the Sattva Shloka Bhagavad Gita, the first verse 10.8, that when people understand my supreme position, that I am the source of everything, that learning, what should it do? Iti mattva, when we understand it, bhajante ma, we start worshipping Krishna. How worshipping Krishna? Mudha, we become wise.
And what is the result of that wisdom? Bhava-samandita. The more knowledge we get about Krishna, the more our devotion becomes wholehearted. The more knowledge we get about Krishna, when we don’t have much knowledge about Krishna, we may have some devotion, but that is half-hearted devotion.
Yes, Krishna is attractive, nice person. Now, many times, if we are born up, brought up in a culture where there is some Krishna Bhakti, then we are attracted to Krishna. So, we hear some pastimes of Krishna and we laugh and we cry.
And there is some TV serial going on. We are watching Krishna’s pastimes and the Gopis have left Krishna in Vrindavan. Krishna has left the Gopis in Vrindavan.
And the Gopis are in agony. And Krishna is also in agony. And we all start, yay, so much separation to Krishna.
And that programme gets over and some other programme starts. There is a hero and a heroine. They are separated and the heroine is crying.
And we start crying over there also. So, what happens at this level, the attraction to Krishna, it is there anyway, but it is a cultural attraction. It is not a spiritual attraction.
A cultural attraction means, just because Krishna is a part of our cultural landscape, so we are attracted to him. Spiritual attraction to Krishna means, When we become attracted to Krishna, that gives us It gives us experience of higher spiritual art of the Supreme Lord. Anubhav is experience.
Para is one who is transcendental. Isha is the Supreme Lord. So, bhakti is the process that gives us experience of Krishna.
And what is the result of this experience? We are no longer attracted to other things. That does not mean that we become uncaring or artificial in terms of other things, but we are not infatuated by other things. So, bhakti, so, you know, this is, these two, this verse in the 11th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, it is a very important verse, which describes the inner and outer symptom of bhakti.
Inner symptom means, how do we know that we are developing bhakti or not? We experience Krishna. We experience a deep fulfilment. Sometimes people may ask, how do you even know that God exists? You are chanting Hare Krishna, you are devoting yourself to Krishna, how do you even know God exists? Actually, we are right now in a preliminary state of bhakti.
So, it is, our consciousness is not yet spiritually awakened. So, we can’t experience Krishna right now. Directly.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t experience him at all. Now, suppose, say, it is winter, it is very cold, and a small baby, when the babies are very small, at that time, their whole conception of life is simply eating. Whole of existence is potential food.
Whatever they get, they put it in their mouth and see. And that is how they experience things. So, at that time, even when the baby is drinking milk from the mother’s breast, the baby initially, at least in the first few days, the baby does not even understand that there is a person who is my mother, and she loves me, and she is providing me milk.
Because that intelligence has not yet developed at that time. It is simply waking, sleeping, again waking, crying, eating, again sleeping. So, that consciousness is not yet developed.
So, suppose a baby is sleeping. And slowly, the baby understands, this is my mother, and slowly that awareness is growing. Say, baby is sleeping at night, and it is cold.
And at that time, the mother sees, oh, my baby is shivering. The mother comes in, puts a blanket on the baby. Now, the baby is not woken up at that time.
But still, even in that sleepy state, the baby feels the comfort of the blanket, the warmth of the blanket. And just the warmth, at a subconscious level, that warmth assures the baby. Yeah, there is someone here.
My mother is there. Mother cares for me. Now, as the baby grows up, the baby will appreciate, oh, my mother put the blanket on me at night.
And maybe when she wakes up, she will thank the mother for putting the blanket. But at that stage, the warmth of the blanket is the experience of the mother’s love for the baby. The mother doesn’t directly, even the baby’s mother says, I love you.
The baby doesn’t have the intellectual level to understand what it means. So it’s just some noise for the baby. But what is the comfort that he experiences at that time? So that comfort, the warmth of the blanket is the experience in terms of the baby’s level of understanding that my mother loves me.
Similarly, we are right now in the spiritual infant stage. So we cannot perceive Krishna directly. We cannot experience Krishna directly.
But when we remember Krishna, when we strive to become Krishna conscious, absorbing ourselves in his remembrance, at that time, Krishna, through his remembrance, puts a comforting blanket on our consciousness. And we experience a mysterious relief, a mysterious reassurance, a mysterious calming of the heart, a cooling of the head. We experience inner security.
And that we should see with Jnana Chakshu that at my level of experience, this is the experience of Krishna’s love. This is how I can experience Krishna’s love. So Krishna says, Prateksha Vagamam Dharmyam In 9.2, he says that that is practically experienceable.
So as we grow up spiritually, our spiritual cognition, just as we have physical eyes, the soul also has eyes. And those eyes will open. That will take time.
So when the soul’s eyes open, at that time, we’ll pursue Krishna directly. But till then, the relief and the strength that we experience, the relief, the security, the strength that we experience in the remembrance of Krishna, that is, at our level, Krishna’s expression of his love for us. So the So when we experience Krishna, we want more and more of that experience.
We don’t care. We don’t. We become detached from other things.
So when we practise bhakti, when we get this experience of the comfort and the relief, the security that comes from the remembrance of Krishna, we should know that this is bhakti. It’s actually I’m experiencing Krishna over here. And similarly, there are many spiritual teachers who can speak big, big things.
But how do we know that they’re experiencing Krishna? We can look for Viraktiranya Trucha. If they’re detached from other things, that means they’re actually experiencing Krishna. And to the extent we become detached from other things, that also is an indication that we are experiencing Krishna.
So this is the attraction to Krishna, which Prahlad Maharaj had spontaneously. For him, he says, the people around him ask, why are you so defiant? Why are you creating trouble for yourself by becoming devoted to Krishna? He says, I’m not creating trouble for anyone. It’s just attraction to Vishnu is natural for me.
Just like a magnet is naturally attracted to, sorry, I am naturally attracted to magnet. Similarly, I am naturally attracted. I can’t do anything about it.
This is spontaneous attraction to Krishna. Right now, we have spontaneous attraction to things other than Krishna. But there is a process of redirection.
So rather than this, the bhakti is not so much rejection as redirection. Bhakti is not about rejection, but it is redirection. Redirection means, as this is related with the previous point of learning, you know, as long as we think of the world as separate from Krishna, then we have this vision that I have to give up the world to go towards Krishna.
But when we understand that, यद्यत् विद्रूति मत् सत्वं श्रिमदूर्जितमेववा तत्तदेवाव वच्चत्वं मम्देजौम्चतंभव that whatever is attractive in this world, Krishna says in 10.41 in the Bhagavad Gita, that whatever is attractive, that is a spark of my all attractiveness. So rather than thinking, oh, this is so beautiful, this is so wonderful, I have to renounce it. So think, this is so beautiful, this is so wonderful.
And this is manifesting just a spark of Krishna’s splendour. So how much more attractive is Krishna? So if we truly understand the philosophy of Krishna consciousness, then the world, rather being a distractor from Krishna, will become a pointer to Krishna. The world is a distractor from Krishna when we think, oh, I have to give up the world to go towards Krishna.
But when we understand that the attractive things in this world are actually manifesting Krishna’s attractiveness, and this is a spark attraction, this is that Krishna is the full attraction, how much attraction there will be. So the things of this world point us towards Krishna and it will move onwards towards Krishna. So rather than rejecting or suppressing our attractions, whatever we have presently, we can redirect them towards Krishna.
And this redirection brings us to the last point, Prahlad, D is determination. So Prahlad, he exhibits such determination that at that time, when there was the whole kingdom of Hiranyakashipu, there was no one else who was a devotee. Generally, even when we are living in materialistic society, if everybody else, if we are surrounded by people who are not devotees, we feel a little irritated, we feel a little insecure.
But then we can come into an association of devotees, we can call someone, we can go to a temple, we can go to a programme, and then we get a sense of community over there. But imagine if we are in a country where there are no devotees at all. Imagine we are the only devotee in that country.
Then and imagine that country is that country or we are in such a place where there is no internet connection, no phone connection. So you cannot connect with anyone. It is very, very alienating at that time.
So Prahlad was in such a situation. Now it was even worse for him. What was it? It is one thing, okay, we may go, somebody may go to China, somebody go to South Korea or wherever, you know, where there is very difficult to practise bhakti.
But we at least know, okay, I can always come back to India, I can always come back to Radha Gopinath Lotus Feet, and there will be so many devotees and I will participate over there. I will practise bhakti over there. But suppose you come to know that, you know, there is no Radha Gopinath temple only.
Something has happened, there is no temple at all. What am I doing practising bhakti? You may think like this. So Prahlad Maharaj, that was the situation, that he was alone practising bhakti and Hiranyakashipur boast.
And you know, the devatas are bowing down to me. Even Narada Muni is bowing down to me. And Narada Muni is the guru of Prahlad.
So normally, we get inspiration from our spiritual masters. And we get inspiration from our spiritual guides. But for Prahlad Maharaj, you could have seen, you know, maybe Narada Muni was speaking big, big philosophy, but when danger came, he did bhakti.
So I’ll also give up bhakti. So Narada Muni, actually how it works is that in the Lord is performing a particular pastime. It is not that Narada Muni had given up bhakti.
But when the Lord is performing a particular pastime, every pastime is done to glorify a particular devotee. And the other characters, they understand the Lord’s intent. And they act accordingly.
So for example, somebody may ask that when Draupadi was being disrobed, how could Bhishma remain silent? How could even Yudhishthira gamble Draupadi? You know, there are various levels of understanding in this. But the point is that they all acted in particular ways so that Draupadi’s devotion and her character could be demonstrated to the world. So like that, it is not that Yudhishthira is a bad person for having gambled away his wife.
There is a lot orchestrated into that. Similarly, Narada Muni is not a bad person. He was not a coward or something that he bore down to Hiranyakashipu.
But this whole pastime is directed towards the glorification of Prahlad. But Prahlad didn’t know at that time, oh, all this is for my glorification. He could have thought even Narada Muni has given up the practise of bhakti.
Why should I practise? But he continued practising. That was his determination. Now, there is this whole complex about determination.
Sometimes people think that some people have determination, some people don’t have determination. It’s not like that. You know, all of us have determination.
Krishna talks about determination in three modes. And he says in the 18th chapter when he talks about determination in the mode of English. He says, ये या शोपनं भयं शोकं विषादं मदमेवचन विमुञ्चति तुरमेधा दृति सापार्थ तामसी ये.
So he says in 18.36 that those people who are caught in daydream, ये या शोपनं भयं शोकं विषादं मदमेवचन तुरमेधा दृति सापार्थ तुरमेधा दृति सापार्थ they were always very fearful. भयं शोकं was always very gloomy. विषादं, those who were always with a small face.
मदमेवचन, those who drink a lot. Now, we would say, these are all people who don’t have determination. But Krishna says, they also have determination.
How is that? Actually, any of these behaviours, always being gloomy, always being resentful, being addicted to something, maybe drinking a lot, all these cause trouble to people around us and they cause trouble to us also. If a person is drinking a lot, the health is getting affected, the finances are getting affected, the relationships are getting affected, the career is getting affected. And we may focus normally on saying, don’t you have any determination? Just give it up.
But actually, rather than putting it that way, you can say, you have so much determination that although you are losing your health, you are losing your money, you are losing your job, you are losing your family, still you are holding on to it. So, we all have determination. It’s just that our determination is misdirected.
So, our addictions, our attachments, they also reveal our capacity for determination. So, nobody can say, I don’t have determination. We all have determination.
It just needs to be redirected. So, rather than, sometimes people say that, hey, I just can’t chant. So, sit down and concentrate on the holy name constantly.
It’s not possible. We say, don’t worry, just meditate. But I worry for meditation.
As soon as I start chanting, I start worrying about this, I start worrying about that, I start worrying about that. And I can’t meditate. I don’t think I have the capacity to meditate.
No. Do you have the capacity to worry? Worrying does not require any capacity. Worrying is actual.
No. But what do we do when we worry? Actually, when we worry, we are at one place, but our mind takes us to some other place. And that is what is meditation.
We are at one place, but we want our mind to go to some other place. So, if we have the capacity to worry, then we have the capacity to meditate also. So, all that we need is redirection.
So, determination, rather than thinking of something which I have or don’t have, we can see which of my activities show determination. Sometimes you say, no, I don’t have determination at all. Even neither good things I do for long nor bad things I do for long.
Actually, that is determination in the mode of passion. That means you have determination to keep trying new things. So, we all have determination.
And all that we need to do is redirect it to our discussion. So, how do we redirect it? You know, just like, to give another example of this what I mean by, we all have determination. Suppose, sometimes in a movie, we may see that a hero and a villain are fighting.
And then the hero pushes, the villain pushes the hero down a big mountain cliff. And the hero is holding on to the edge of the mountain cliff with his fingers. And then the villain starts stamping on the fingers.
Now, when the villain starts stamping on the fingers, the natural tendency is to save oneself from the pain and let go. But if you let go, you’ll fall and die. So, if at that time also one holds on, then that requires a lot of determination.
So, like that, whatever attachments we have, you know, when we are attached to something, the world stamps on us. Because of our attachments, we suffer. But what happens? We still hold on to those attachments.
So, we all have determination. But what we need to do is, we can find out, okay, these are the things which I am attracted to in the world. And we find this is a circle of bhakti.
Now, if we think that bhakti means giving up everything that I am attracted to and going towards this circle where, what is bhakti? What is connected with Krishna? When giving up this circle and going to this circle, if we think of that as bhakti, we will feel it is impossible. But these circles are not non-intersecting. The circle of what we are attracted to and the circle of what will attract us to Krishna, there is an intersection in that circle.
And we have to find out what lies in that intersection for us. So, for some of us, it may be kirtans. For some of us, yes, I cannot hear classes for very long.
But kirtans, I can just hear for a long, long time. I like to dance and sing in kirtans. Fine.
That is what gives us strength. Now, in this, all of us are individuals. And we have to individually find out what lies in this intersection for us.
One problem that comes is, even when we are with other devotees, we think that we have to become like other devotees entirely. But it is not like that. We are individuals.
So, for example, when I take darshan of deities, I always feel that I should recite some verses. When I recite the verses, I contemplate those verses, then I see, oh, this is the same lord who is being described in the verses, then I feel more connection with the lord. Then I told some devotees, you know, I love reciting verses.
Then I said, you also try it. And one devotee came and told me that, you know, if I try, if I think of reciting verses, remembering that verses gives me so much tension that whatever bhakti is there, goes away. So, we should not think that to become a serious devotee, we have to become xerox copies of serious devotees.
What will make us serious in bhakti will vary from person to person. Often, when we feel that we lack determination, we are comparing ourselves with someone whose circle of intersection is different from ours. That means somebody may be very dedicated to the study of scripture.
And we feel, hey, this is too intellectual for me. We all should study scripture. But how much we study, it will vary from person to person.
So, we need to find out. That’s why Rupa Goswami says in Bhakti Samhita, we need not just sadhu-sangha, we need Sajatiya Aashaya Bhagavad Bhakti Samhita. Sajatiya Aashaya means like-minded devotee association.
Like-minded doesn’t mean that we have to make our mind like theirs. Like-minded means we have to find out those devotees whose interests are similar to ours. Yes, we have to make our mind like theirs in the sense that we also have to develop our attraction towards Krishna.
In the principle that we all have to become attracted to Krishna, that’s common principle. But the specifics of how we will be attracted to Krishna, that will vary from person to person. So, we can find what is it that lies in this circle for us.
The circle of what we are attracted to and what is within the purview of Krishna Bhakti. And then we focus on that. So, it may be kirtans, it may be service to the deities, it may be distribution, it may be studying philosophy, it may be doing different kinds of services, whatever it may be.
And we do that one thing with determination. And because we like something, if we are doing something which we like, determination in that is not very difficult. It’s relatively easier.
And actually, this is the principle of Varanashram. Now, Varanashram is not about dividing people into different varanas. That is alright.
But that is, the purpose of that is to help people serve Krishna according to their nature. So, similarly, we can find out what is it that we are attracted to and see how that attraction can be connected with Krishna. And then we move onwards in our bhakti towards Krishna.
So, Prahlad Maharaj exhibited enormous determination. We can also, in our own small way, take small steps in determination. And determination will grow as we keep exercising.
Just like muscles grow when we exercise, similarly determination grows when we exercise. And as we keep increasing the determination, by practically engaging it, we will move closer and closer to Krishna. And later on, as our attraction to Krishna increases, we will not need determination to be attracted to him.
Rather, the connection with Krishna will become natural. Actually, Prabhupada, when he went to America, he needed determination to keep preaching Krishna bhakti. But as far as his own bhakti was concerned, he did not need any determination.
He was naturally attracted to Krishna. Wherever he was, he was always thinking about Krishna. And he used determination for sharing Krishna bhakti with everyone.
And that same determination, if especially we associate with devotees and serve devotees, by their mercy, also our determination increases a lot. The determination is different from devotion. Devotion is a spontaneous attraction to Krishna.
But determination enables us to follow the process that increases our devotion. So, by the mercy of devotees, we get devotion. And by the mercy of devotees, we get the determination by which we can get devotion.
So, I will summarise. I talked about Prahlad Maharaj written in the background, P-R-A-H-L-A-D. P is purity.
Talked about how Prahlad Maharaj was ready to resist the allurements of the whole kingdom just so that he could be devoted to Krishna. And in respect to this quality, there are the stars and there are the stairs. So, purification is the process which we can follow.
And by that purity will come. The more we choose purity intellectually, Krishna expands the size of the steps. And we feel ourselves rising higher and higher.
And then when our mind accepts the impure to be impure, we become pure. So, R is respectful. So, we need to separate people from their opinions, from their beliefs.
Seeing them as parts of Krishna, we respect them for their spiritual essence, irrespective of what they are. We can disagree with people without becoming disagreeable, without becoming disrespectful to people. And that’s what we see Chaitanya Mahaprabhu especially did in all his interactions.
He attained intellectual maturity with Prakashan Saraswati, Sarovar Bhattacharya and Keshav Kashmir. And Krishna loves us not just for what we have or who we are. He loves us because of who he is.
And if we get connected with Krishna, we focus on what people are right now. We focus on who they are essentially. And we learn to love them.
Then P-R-A-A was affection. So, Prahlad Maharaj was very affectionate and gentle with his schoolmates. And that affection was because he did not have a judgemental attitude.
Thinking that they are a follower or anything like that. He saw them as, by behaving properly with them, I am serving Krishna. We discussed the example of an attendant in a cloth shop with an irritable customer.
The attendant’s behaviour is not determined by the customer’s behaviour. But the attendant’s behaviour is determined by what will please the owner. So, Krishna is in our heart.
He observes how we are behaving with people. And if we behave in a way that pleases Krishna, then we can be affectionate. Even when people are rude or people are irritating.
This does not mean that we let people trample us. It just means that our behaviour is a function of our principles. Not others’ actions.
Then H was happiness. So, we discussed how the material happiness is like a drop of water. Or it’s like a mirage.
Whereas spiritual happiness is like an ocean. So, when we engage in material gratification, the desire increases. But the capacity to enjoy increases.
So, at the end, we are left with frustration. We stop, not because we are so happy, but because we have lost the capacity to enjoy anymore. So, Maya allures us by making us feel we are missing so much.
But if we keep our eyes on Krishna, Prahlad Maharaj is feeling not that I am missing so much, others are missing so much. Because they are not getting the happiness of Krishna consciousness. So, Maya is not just illusion.
Maya is the energy which causes illusion. So, our focus is not just that we want to become so intelligent that we can see through all illusions. Rather, we want to become devoted to Krishna.
When we are connected with Krishna and devoted to Krishna, we experience spiritual happiness. And then the allure of material pleasures doesn’t drag us anymore. Just like if a glass is filled with water, the air automatically comes out.
Then L was learning. So, Prahlad Maharaj was so learned that he understood philosophically what is the nature of God. God is not just the greatest of all beings.
God is not just the best of all beings. He is the basis of all beings. God exists in a completely different category.
And there is no material limitation to spiritual learning. So, he could learn in the womb. And what we learn, even in our future life, even if we don’t get a human body in the future life, that learning will stay with us.
Then A was attraction. So, we discussed about how spiritual knowledge is not just for pulling. It is for pulling.
Pulling our heart towards Krishna. And bhakti, pareshanubhav, viraktiranyatraja. So, there can be cultural attraction, cultural knowledge about Krishna, with some cultural attraction to Krishna.
But then we treat Krishna just as another entertainment character. But then there is spiritual attraction to Krishna. When that attraction is there, then we are no longer attracted to material things.
So, this attraction to Krishna is something which develops as we keep practising bhakti and keep associating with devotees who are attracted to Krishna. And that, this attraction led to, last D was determination. So, Prahlad was attracted to Krishna like an iron filing is attracted to a magnet.
And that’s why for him, determination did not seem like a great austerity. It was spontaneous. So, even when no one in the whole kingdom was practising bhakti, even his own spiritual masters seemed to have given up practising bhakti, still he continued practising bhakti.
So, for us, we shouldn’t think that I don’t have determination. We all have determination. It is just misdirected determination.
Our addictions, our attachments reflect our capacity for determination. Our worries reflect our capacity to meditate. What we need to do is redirect them.
So, if we understand Krishna conscious philosophy properly, rather than seeing temptations as disconnected from Krishna, as disconnecting us from Krishna, we see temptations not as distractors from Krishna, but as pointers to Krishna. So, whatever is attracting us to Krishna, we can find out, this is a circle of what attracts me, and this is a circle of what are those activities in bhakti. We find out where they intersect.
And that requires some individual introspection. And we find that out, and then within that we become determined. And from that one activity, as we get a taste for Krishna, as we become purified, then we will become determined in other activities also.
And we will march onwards towards Krishna. So, thank you very much. Nibbarala Maharaj.
Just have a few minutes, questions. So, there are…