Prayers of Prahlada Maharaj (Narasimha Chaturdashi Bhagavatam)

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Sudhevaya Pranam Sri Nithyanandam Ch. 7 Ch.
10 Ch. entitled Prahlad the Vestiment of Exalted Devotees We have the verse here. This is the conclusion of the prayers that Prahlad Naray offers the second time to Lord Narasimha.
In 9th chapter first set of prayers was offered. Then Lord Narasimha Dev speaks something and in 10th chapter again Prahlad Narad speaks something. So this is the conclusion of his prayers.
This is a prayer offering obeisances. But this does not mean that the devotee loses his position as a servant. A pure servant of the Lord, although as opulent as the Lord, is still meant to offer respectful obeisances to the Lord in service.
Prahlad Maharaj was engaged in pacifying the Lord and therefore he did not consider himself equal to the Lord. He defined his position as a servant and offered respectful obeisances to Narasimha Dev. Are the verses visible sir? Are they visible behind you? Om Namah Shivaya Nithyanandeshwara Shivaya Jnananjani Shalakaya Shakshwaro Nithyanandeshwara Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna I have been very privileged to be amongst all of you after a long time and seek the blessings of all of you, especially all the Srimi Vaishnavas here, that I can speak something about the glories of Lord Narasimha Dev.
So I will be speaking this in two main parts. First I will speak about the position of the Prahlad Maharaj Narasimha Dev pastime within the overall flow of the Srimad Bhagavatam. And then I will focus on the 9th and 10th chapter of the 7th Canto, Prayers by Prahlad Maharaj.
And we will see how many of the prayers we can cover. In the evening I will take the full pastime. The Srimad Bhagavatam is practically the only book in world scriptures and even world literature in general, which talks about how a person should face death.
So even if we look at the other Puranas, the Srimad Bhagavatam is distinctive because it focusses on transcending the world and the message that the Srimad Bhagavatam gives ultimately is that love is the highest reality. Everything in this world will perish, but love alone will survive. Of course, before that the Srimad Bhagavatam tells us to redefine our understanding of what is love.
But it helps us understand how when the person who was the most influential and powerful in the world suddenly in one moment lost everything and still he gained greater than everything. He gained the Supreme Lord who is the source of everything. That is the starting point of the Srimad Bhagavatam.
The cursing and the subsequent being blessed of Parikshit Maharaj. And essentially all the stories that are there in the Srimad Bhagavatam have this theme of how love when it is directed to the Supreme Lord triumphs over all adversities. And actually as the Srimad Bhagavatam progresses, we have the most unlikeliest of lovers.
What do you mean by unlikeliest of lovers? The Lord comes in a most extraordinary form and the devotee is often quite extraordinary. And after, for example, now here if we look at it, the Lord is a ferocious half man, half law and foe. And the devotee is just a tender five-year-old boy.
And if we look at it just before the scandal, the normal understanding is that Krishna says that there are two kinds of living beings, the divine and the demoniac. And the demoniac go downwards, the divine go upwards. So, in the hierarchy, the demoniac are lower, the divine are higher.
But the Bhagavatam turns this hierarchy upside down. It says that actually the conventional hierarchy is superseded by the power of bhakti. So, if somebody has bhakti, then the person may be born in a demoniac family, but he is far greater than somebody who is born in a divine or a demigod family.
And if you look at the 6th, 7th and 8th cantos, we look at the heroes of these three cantos. There are multiple heroes, but we have Rudrasura in the 6th canto, Prahlad in the 7th canto and Bali Maharaj in the 8th canto. And all three of them are demons.
All three of them are demons. So, what is the Bhagavatam actually doing? We start off from our material conception of love between man and woman. And Bhagavatam takes us all around and all kinds of heroes, Rudrasura it is described, if we read his appearance, he looks like the antithesis of a devotee.
Oh yes, he is very ferocious, frightening. In fact, the name Rudrasura means Rudra who covers all of space. And he is trampling the enemies under his feet, he is tossing them aside.
And as he looks so ferocious, suddenly he speaks the tenderest of emotions. अजातपक्षेवमातरंघगा तन्यम्यतावप्सतरक्षुदार्था प्रियंप्यैवविषितंविषन्ना वनौर्विन्दाक्षदिद्रुक्षतेत्वाम् He is telling, look at the three metaphors that he is giving. अजातपक्षेवमातरंघगा This is a bird who has not yet developed his wings.
Such a bird cannot live on itself because it does not have any way to get food. So he is longing for the mother bird to come and give food. So if you visualise this, such a tender conception.
And think of this coming from the mouth of a ferocious demon. The sight of whom is making his enemies fall unconscious. The Bhagavatam tells us that no matter how a person looks externally, underneath is there a heart that longs for love.
And that heart is the essence of the person. So he is telling अजातपक्षेवमातरंघगा Just as a small bird which has not yet developed its wings, longs for his mother to come. The second is equally tender.
Just as a cow longs for his mother cow so that he can get milk. And then from coming from nature, from the birds to the cows, now he comes to this प्रियं प्रियाइवा विषितं मिशंद just as a lover longs for the return of the beloved. विषितं विषितं मिशंद My dear love, I long to see you, I long to serve you.
So here there is this ferocious looking demon and he has such a tender heart. And then there is this next canto. Here there is such a small boy, practically speaking.
He is just a small boy, we would not expect much philosophy, much wisdom, just playfulness. But he is expressing the profoundness of philosophy. And he says, Sushant in Amarkar, I am helpless, Krishna graha grahit aatma, actually my heart is attracted by Krishna, I cannot help it.
And here, so actually speaking in the Vitrasur pastime, Krishna doesn’t make a direct appearance. Krishna is only in the heart of Vitrasur. Of course, that is not only, that is a lot, to have the Lord present in the heart.
But he is not making his manifest appearance over there. But here, if we see, Prahlad is a tender boy, but the Lord is so ferocious. He is describing the form of the Lord, he is telling, everybody is running away in fear.
But, so why is everybody running away in fear? Again the same poem, irrespective of how anyone appears, underneath there is a heart that loves and longs for love. And that appearance applies even to the Supreme Lord, when he comes. So, he is telling, my dear Lord, what is your appearance? He actually describes a ferocious appearance and he says, I am not afraid.
Because he is able to see to the heart of the Lord. Extremely horrible, Bhayaanakasya. So, actually this form of Ugra Narasimha that we are seeing, this is not yet manifesting the full anger.
The anger is there in the heart, but Ugra Narasimha means the Lord is just coming out of the pillar. When he jumps out of the pillar, then his anger gets expressed, both in his face as well as in the actions. So, he says, what is that? Jivvaharka Bhrukuti, Jivvah.
So, his tongue is moving like a sword, as if it is going to slash him. Arka Bhrukuti Rabasod Dhamstra. So, eyes are burning like the sun.
And his eyes were so ferocious that the luminous object in the sky appeared to be pale in comparison. The sun’s effulgence was nothing. Bhrukuti Rabasod Dhamstra.
Bhrukuti is frowning. Somebody looks fear that is bad enough, but he is frowning that is frightening. So, Bhrukuti is frowning angrily.
Rabasod Dhamstra. And on top of that he has his ferocious teeth coming out. And as if that were not enough, Antahasraja is wearing a garland.
And what is the garland? His intestines. Can you imagine? This is something which people would think, is this a monster from a horror movie? But actually, something entirely transcendental. So, Bhagavatam forces us to revise our conceptions of what is religion, what is love and what is the Lord most important.
So, Antahasraja is having a garland of intestine of Hiranyakasipu. Chakjakeshara Shankukarnan. Chakjakeshara, his hair is actually filled with the drops of blood from the body of Hiranyakasipu.
Shankukarnan and his hair was all erect. That is also a sign of fearlessness. And then he is roaring so fiercely.
Nirhadbheet Digibhadar Bhinna Khagra. He is just, just by hearing the roar that is emanating from his throat, the elephants are fleeing away in fear. Normally the elephants are attracted.
Who is a lion who wants to challenge us? But here, there is no challenge only. They just flee away. Harbin Nakhagrat and those who come in front of him, just hurry away.
It is not even using the word nails. Nakhagrat. Just by the tip of the nails, they are enough.
He is ripping everyone apart. So, this is actually the Supreme Lord. And then, if you think about it, what is the similarity between this Lord and the Lord we have? So, this is the same person, but entirely different.
The Gopis, when they are attracted to Krishna, they feel that Krishna is so tender that actually even the softest parts of their body will hurt him. So, the same Lord who here we see is Chukum Jeveno So, if you look at the contrast, there the Lord is roaring in anger and here that same Lord is playing a flute. Chukum Jeveno, the Bhagavatam describes, as He is attracting the devotees to Him.
That same Lord who has got ferocious eyes, which are making the illumination of the sun seem insignificant, here actually the Lord has Padmapatra Vishalakshmi. He has lotus-like eyes. Now, Narasimhadeva is not described as having lotus-like eyes.
His eyes are compared to the sun because they are the torches which penetrate into the hearts of the enemies, striking terror over them just by their sight. So, then if we see, what is the overall appearance? If we see Krishna’s ears, they are not Shankukarna. They are not.
Generally, actually in the Shyam Shastra, it is described how the features of a person determine, can give an indication of what the character of a person is. So, if the hair are very straight and erect, then that indicates the person is also very strict. So, actually speaking, Krishna is the embodiment of tenderness and softness.
And it is the same Lord. So, before we come to Krishna, we have in the 9th canto, what do we have? We have Bali Maharaj. So, Vritrasura was the king who lost his life, but he gained Krishna.
Prahlad, who had Krishna, and for the sake of Krishna, he nearly lost his life. But here, Bali Maharaj, he had everything, and then Krishna comes as a brahmachari. So, here if we see, there Prahlad is a small boy, but here Bali Maharaj becomes like a small boy, a small brahmachari.
Sorry, yeah, Vamande becomes like a small brahmachari. And he comes, and what does he do? Actually, a brahmana is supposed to be very upright and honest, and here a brahmana comes and steals everything. Oh, and what is Bali Maharaj’s reaction? He says, my dear Lord, nobody can be as merciful as you.
And Bali Maharaj’s reaction is so extraordinary. He says, my dear Lord, I only tried to offer obeisances to you. And just by trying to offer obeisances to you, you have blessed me so profusely.
What is the blessing? The Lord became his doorkeeper, the Lord became his eternal associate. So, after charting such extraordinary experiences and instances of love, the Bhagavatam returns to a setting which is entirely human-like, and entirely not human-like. That is, the love of Krishna and the devotees.
So, what is the Bhagavatam doing? It’s not for nothing that Srila Prabhupada tells us that we should not read the 10th canto before completing the 9 cantos. The 9 cantos help us understand that the love of Krishna and the devotee exists in an entirely different dimension. And then when we come to the love of Krishna and the devotees, even if it appears very similar to ours, very similar to mundane, it is not.
And the Bhagavatam prefaces this also with a very significant verse. Right in the 10th canto, 29th chapter, when it starts, योगमायामुपाश्रितः That Supreme Lord took shelter of Yogamaya. Now, the previous 9 cantos have described how everything else is ashrit and the Supreme Lord is ashraya.
Shukadeva Goswami tells us that something extraordinary is happening over here, that the ashraya of all is becoming ashrita of something. And what is it becoming ashrita of? योगमायामुपाश्रितः Now, the word Yogamaya, if we do not know the Gaudiya Vaishna philosophy of there being an internal energy of the Lord, the word Yogamaya is very peculiar. It is in English called as oxymoron.
Oxymoron means a word which has two opposite meanings within one. If I say somebody is an intelligent idiot. What does it mean? How can somebody be intelligent than be an idiot? Or somebody is a courageous coward.
How can somebody be courageous and cowardly? So actually, Yogamaya, if you see, the purpose of yoga is to come out of maya. Isn’t it? Maya is that which makes us forget Krishna. And yoga is that which helps us to reconnect with Krishna.
So, the word Yogamaya, if somebody is not familiar with Gaudiya Vaishna sadhana, it sort of intellectually psychs out a person. What is this? What is Yogamaya? So basically, the Bhagavatam is prefacing its highest revelation. What the Padma Purana calls as the smile on the face of Krishna.
The Padma Purana compares the 12 cantos to the body of Krishna. The 10th canto is the face. And the Rasa Panchadhyaya is like the smile of Krishna.
It prefaces the description of the smile of Krishna by telling us something extraordinary for which, to understand which, we have to put behind all our preconceptions. So, we were practising yoga to come out of maya but here there is Yogamaya. What is this Yogamaya? So, normally, maya makes us forget Krishna.
And yoga is meant to remind us of Krishna. But Yogamaya, it connects us with Krishna and it disconnects us with Krishna. It does both.
How? It connects us with the person Krishna and it disconnects us with the God Krishna. The gopis are not aware that Krishna is God. So, Yogamaya is that energy which makes us Krishna conscious but not God conscious.
We are conscious of Krishna but not conscious of God because we are not conscious that Krishna is God. So, especially this is evident in the gopis’ pastimes come primarily in 3 sections in the 10th canto. We’ll come back to 7th canto.
But that is the culmination and then gradually I will discuss as we are going through Tuladh Maharaj’s prayers how the culmination of the Bhagavatam is being hinted in Tuladh Maharaj’s prayers also. The gopis’ pastimes come in 3 places in the 10th canto. One is 29-33, then there is 46-47 is Uddhava Sandesh and then 82-83 in the 10th canto chapter they talk about Kurukshetra Punar Milani.
So, at that time when Krishna meets the gopis once again Krishna tells the gopis that I have been in so much agony because of separation from you. But what can I do? It is the will of providence and everybody is moved by providence and all of us are helpless puppets. Now Krishna is providence.
But the gopis are Krishna conscious not God conscious. So, the gopis don’t think Krishna you are providence, it is your will that has separated us. Except Krishna it is the will of providence.
So, actually what the Bhagavatam illustrates is love that exists only for the sake of love not for the sake of Godhood. The gopis love Krishna not because he is God but because he is such a lovable person. And here we will see the same spirit coming up in Tuladh Maharaj’s prayers that normally people approach God because God will give them something in return.
And when such an attitude is there the awareness that God is very great and very wonderful very powerful and most importantly very wealthy that is very much there in the awareness of the person. But here we see Prahlad Maharaj for God’s sake he gives up everything he refuses to become the heir of the property of the whole universe that he was as the son of Virendra Krishna. So, far from God giving him anything because of his devotion to God he risks losing everything.
And on top of that he risks losing his own life. And even after all that the Lord comes and says, I am very pleased with you Prahlad, please ask for something. He says, I am not a businessman my dear Lord why should I ask you for money? So, actually the Bhagavatam talks about the purity of that love.
Now, if you see the Lord is so pleased with Prahlad Maharaj he says, please ask something and they discuss beautiful conversations that they have in Prahlad’s nursery. Finally, Prahlad asks for what? He says, please deliver my father. But here still, although Prahlad Maharaj’s love is extraordinary still, Prahlad Maharaj’s bhakti does not evoke the response that the Gopi’s bhakti evokes from Krishna.
And Krishna doesn’t tell the Gopis, ask for some benediction. What does he say? I cannot offer you anything. I cannot repay you.
So, here God is still in the position of God and he is saying, I will offer you benedictions, please ask something. Prahlad’s devotion is so great that I won’t want to ask you. But actually, the Gopi’s devotion is so great and it conquers Krishna’s heart so completely that Krishna feels not to speak of giving any benediction.
See, actually there are different levels of interaction. Benediction means that person actually doesn’t deserve it we give it as a favour to that person. That’s the meaning of blessing or mercy.
So, Krishna is telling, I will give benediction to Prahlad. Then below this benedictory relationship is a business relationship. You give something, I’ll give something back.
And below that is a loan, where I take something and I don’t give it back. So, Krishna is telling, I have taken your love and I can’t repay your love. So, actually the relationship between the Krishna and the Gopi is the antithesis of the normal relationship between the devotee and the Lord.
In the sense that the devotee normally says to the Lord, My dear Lord, you have done so much for me, I can’t repay you. Krishna is telling the Gopis, You have done so much for me, I can’t repay you. So, it is something very extraordinary.
And the Bhagavatam is taking us towards that conclusion. That incredible demonstration of the pinnacle of love. That is what the Bhagavatam is going to display in the 10th Canto.
It prepares our heart and our head for that supreme message of love, pastime of love being demonstrated here in the Prahlad Mara, 7th Canto. And in the 7th Canto, the pastime of Prahlad Mara starts in the 1st Chapter and Lord Narasimhadev appears in the 8th Chapter and he kills Hiranyakashipu. And in the 9th Chapter, Prahlad Mara is about to offer prayers.
So, when Prahlad Mara is about to offer prayers, at that time, we know the background that all the other demigods, they offer prayers. How it is? Prahlad Mara’s prayers go for 43 verses. But all the other demigods’ prayers are only 1, 2 or 3 verses.
Why is that? Actually, they are also eloquent enough to offer long prayers. But what they see is, just like if somebody is very angry and you try to pacify him, and you see that he is not getting pacified, then we just beat a hasty retreat. So, it is like that.
I don’t want to be a blaster of that anger. So, all the demigods give it a try. You know, starting from Brahma, Shiva, the Gandharvas, the Kinnaras, the Manus, all of them give it a try.
They try to offer prayers. When they offer 1 verse, 2 verse, they see that the Lord’s anger is not going away. We don’t want to be in His attention.
Because He is so angry. So, we just beat a hasty retreat. And then, it is described that Brahmaji requests Lakshmi Devi to come.
And Lakshmi Devi says, I have never seen my Lord like this. In fact, what she says is, Is this really my Lord? I don’t know. So, actually, Vishwanath Chakravarthy, half way through his purport, describes that Narsimhadeva appears in every Kalpa.
And Lakshmi Devi was there in the previous Kalpas. And Narsimhadeva is there eternally in the spiritual world. And Lakshmi Devi is eternal consort.
But the power of Yoga Maya covers even Lakshmi Devi. Although Lakshmi Devi is herself Yoga Maya in one sense. But for enhancing the Rasa, Lakshmi Devi is covered by Yoga Maya.
And what happens is, she feels, I have never seen my Lord like this. So, every pastime has a particular purpose. And the focus of the Narsimha Leela is to reveal the exaltedness of the Bhakti of Prahlad Maharaj.
And that is why, all the Devatas and even Lakshmi Devi take a sort of backward role. And even Prahlad Maharaj’s Guru, Narad Muni, takes a backward role. So, it’s interesting that normally the disciple speaks the pastimes of the spiritual master.
My spiritual master does like this, my spiritual master does like that. But here, the spiritual master is speaking the pastime of the disciple. Isn’t it? We know what is the conversation.
Yudhisthira Maharaj is asking Narad Muni, how is it that Shishupal, when he died, when he was blaspheming Krishna, how is it that leprosy did not befall his face? How is it that his tongue did not break apart when he was blaspheming Krishna? And while explaining how Jaya and Vijaya were cursed, what is Narad Muni doing? Narad Muni is describing the pastimes of his disciple. And Narad Muni is so humble, within the pastime he is also describing, actually Hiranyakashipu was so powerful, that even I had to offer obeisance to him. So, Narad Muni himself is telling that.
So, actually when there is the intoxication of love, then there is no question of mundane honour or mundane dishonour. So, Narad Muni is not thinking, I am a saint, what will Yudhisthira think of me, if I tell him that I was bowing down to Hiranyakashipu? He is just, that one focus, what is that? Revealed to the world the glory of the bhakti of Prahlad Maharaj. So, of course, Prahlad Maharaj is always very conscious of the glory of his spiritual master.
But here, Narad Muni is describing in a way that singularly demonstrates the extraordinary loftiness of the bhakti of Prahlad Maharaj. Then Prahlad Maharaj goes forward. As soon as Lord Narasimhadev sees Prahlad Maharaj, he becomes pacified.
Not just pacified, he becomes delighted. Now, that is as radical a transformation of emotion as can happen. If somebody is angry, the person just cools down and will be happy.
Somebody is angry at one moment, next moment he will start smiling broadly. How did that happen? So, actually that is the power of the bhakti of Prahlad Maharaj and the emotion of love that is evoked when Prahlad Maharaj appears in front of the Lord. So, now we know that Narasimhadev was angry because Prahlad Maharaj was in danger.
So, Harinakashipu came with a sword to kill Prahlad Maharaj. And Narasimhadev was so angry. You dare to hurt my devotee? The devotee is so precious, not only for the Lord, but even for the demigods.
Now, we see that when Jadbharat was being threatened, what happened was, from the witty form, Kali erupted. And she killed all the bandits who were about to kill Jadbharat. So, even the demigods know how beloved a devotee is for the Lord.
And even they want to protect. So, how much will be the love of the Lord? The Lord is so angry. And now, Harinakashipu is dead.
Why is the Lord still angry? The demigods are actually offering prayers till the Lord stays angry. Why is that? The Lord is angry, not just with Harinakashipu, but also with the demigods. When my devotee was being tortured and threatened to be killed, why did you neither protect nor protest? You did not come to protect him, nor did you protest.
You just passively watched. And now you are offering prayers. What is your love for him? So, Lord Narasimhadev’s love is so great.
Suppose, if a father loves one particular son very much, then what happens? If that son is in danger, and the other brothers don’t go to help that son, then what happens is, the father is angry not only with whoever is threatening that son, but all the other brothers also. Why did you not protect him? So, it is like that. So, Lord Narasimhadev is angry with the devatas also.
And then finally, when Prahlad Maharaj comes, when Prahlad Maharaj pacifies the Lord, at that time, the Lord becomes not only pacified, but delighted. And Prahlad Maharaj offers obeisances in front of Lord Narasimhadev. And then, Lord Narasimhadev places his hand on Prahlad Maharaj.
He places his hand on Prahlad Maharaj. Then he scribes, and all material contamination went away. Now, Prahlad Maharaj had no material contamination.
If he had any material contamination, then he would not have been able to resist the temptations and threats of his father. So, actually, what happens is, the sparsha of the Lord made the devotion overflow out of him. And what was the contamination? There was no contamination.
Whatever little contamination might have been there, because of his being born in a demoniac family, that also went away entirely. And then Prahlad Maharaj starts offering prayers. Now, normally speaking, in the material world, emotions are obstacles to perception.
For example, if I’m observing something, and if I’m very unhappy or I’m very angry, then I can’t think properly, I can’t see properly. Emotions are obstacles to perception. But in bhakti, when it comes to Krishna, emotions, far from being the obstacles to perception, emotions are the pathways to perception.
Emotions are the way by which we perceive. Why? Because there are two different kinds of objects. There are analytical objects and there are aesthetic objects.
If I have a mathematical diagram, if I’m observing that, then emotions are of no use for me. I’ll just put aside all my emotions and think, what is this? That’s an object to be analysed. But if there is a beautiful painting, or say an artistic rose, if that rose, that aesthetic object, does not evoke any emotions, then there is no appreciation of the aesthetics.
If I start analysing a beautiful rose, then I am not an artist, I become a botanist. Isn’t it? So, there are objects to be analysed, and there are objects to be relished. Analytical objects and aesthetic objects.
So, the Bhagavatam reveals the absolute truth, not as an analytical object, but as an aesthetic object. That’s why, what does it say in 1.1.3? पिपत्य भागवतम् रसमालयं मुहरवो भाविका विभावुक्तु So, you become a rasika and drink the rasika. So, it is not saying analysis.
The analysis has already been done in Vedanta Sutra. And Vyasdeva has found the analysis not satisfying. So, now he is not going to do any analysis.
Now he is going to relish. And while relishing, as icing on the cake, there might be some analysis. But the primary mode of connecting with the Bhagavatam is through the heart, not through the head.
And whenever there are aesthetic objects, if there are no emotions, then there is no appreciation. If there is a beautiful painting, the painting doesn’t evoke any emotions, then there is no appreciation. So, actually, when it comes to Krishna, if we want to appreciate Krishna, His beauty, His glory, then there has to be emotions.
And greater the emotions, greater the appreciation. That’s why, if we look at Srimad Bhagavatam, many of the highest revelations of Krishna’s beauty and Krishna’s glory come not in the mode of dispassionate analysis, but in the prayers of the devotees to the Lord. When the devotees are offering prayers, at that time, actually, the most intimate and heart-rending picture of Krishna is revealed.
And this happens most explicitly in 10.31, in the Gopi Gita. The Gopis, the whole 10th Canto is devoted to Krishna, the person Krishna, Bhagavan Sri Krishna. But the most intimate and attractive picture of Krishna is depicted in a chapter where Krishna is not present at all.
Krishna is not present, He is not doing any action. He is doing all the action in the heart of His devotee. And that action that is happening in the heart of His devotee is being expressed as the prayers of the devotees.
So, actually speaking, we may see the prayers as very abstract and philosophical. Some of us may find the Vaishnava songs, which are given by our Vaishnava Acharyas, seem to be more devotional. They seem to contain more devotion and they evoke more devotion in our hearts.
But actually, even the Bhagavatam prayers are permeated with devotion. Often we don’t appreciate that because Sanskrit language and all, they are actually clothed in the language of philosophy. They are emotions clothed, dressed in the language of philosophy.
And we just see the dress and we don’t see the essence. That’s why sometimes we get intimidated. These prayers are so difficult, so philosophical.
So, let us now look at some of the prayers of Prahlad Maharaj. So, Prahlad Maharaj offers 43 prayers in the 9th chapter. Then again, he offers 9 prayers in the 10th chapter.
And then again, he offers 3 prayers, in the 2nd to 10th verses of the 10th chapter. And then 15th, 16th, 17th verses of the 10th chapter, he offers a prayer. That is where he requests Lord Darsimhadev, please deliver my father.
And then Darsimhadev gives him instructions. So, Krishna has spoken Bhagavad Gita. There is no Darsimhadev philosophical instruction.
Darsimhadev is not in the mood of philosophy. He is in the mood of action over there. But still, he speaks some philosophy too, of how a devotee should be and how a devotee should live in the world.
So, that comes after the 10th, 11th to 14th verses. And then 18th to 24th verses. In the 10th chapter, Darsimhadev describes how a devotee should be.
In one sense, he is telling, not Prahlad Maharaj, you should be like this. He says, you are already like this. And everybody should aspire to become like this.
So, I have some of the verses here. That is why we have this projector. We will recite some of the verses and we will discuss.
This is the starting phrase. It starts from 8 and it goes on to 15. So, we will look at the overall flow of prayers and we will just recite a few of them.
So, I have both the Devanagari and English. So, whatever you prefer, you can use. So, So, Prahlad Maharaj starts his prayer with extraordinary humility.
See, actually, Prahlad Maharaj, although he may be a demon, born in a demoniac family, and demons are also considered Kshatriyas. Devatas are also considered Kshatriyas. But, if like say, there is a, try to visualise the situation, if there is a Swayamvar or something like that, all other contestants have failed.
And then one particular contestant comes and succeeds. Now, obviously, the feeling is, I am better than all of you. I have succeeded.
So, this is not exactly a Swayamvar, but it’s similar. So, everybody else has failed and Prahlad Maharaj alone has succeeded. And how does he start? He starts not with his glory, he starts with his own disqualification.
All these people, Brahma and other Devatas, and the Munis and Siddhas, they all offer prayers to Him, I tell you. And what were the nature of the prayers? First of all, he talks about them and he talks about what they spoke. They are all situated in a mode of goodness.
And then he will contrast himself with them. And what they spoke was a flow of words glorifying Him. Vishwanath Chaturthi Prabhu says that actually, the words that they spoke were like a Ganga.
Clear, pure, delicious. You were not worshipped, you were not satisfied by that. So many of them offered before.
Then how was it possible for me to satisfy you, my dear Lord? I was born in a demoniac family. How can I satisfy you? So actually, material life means that we parade our qualifications. And especially if we are in a competitive world where everybody has to, if they want to get a job, they have to give their own CV.
And the CV is basically expanding one’s glory as much as possible. Isn’t it? One tries to do the most aggressive and attractive portrayal of oneself and one’s accomplishments. But that doesn’t attract Krishna.
What attracts Krishna is actually awareness of our shortcomings. Not that we focus on our shortcomings and we become conscious of our shortcomings. We be conscious of Krishna.
But when we are aware of whatever our shortcomings are, then that humility attracts Krishna. But it’s not that Krishna doesn’t, it’s not that Krishna, Krishna has some, some aversion to people knowing about their own glories. Point is, when we think about our own glories, our thoughts become dominated by ourselves.
So it’s a devotee, Krishna has given some strength to a devotee. A devotee is aware of that. But he doesn’t let that dominate his thoughts.
If we have some talents, we have to use them in Krishna’s terms and we have to be aware of them. But that doesn’t dominate the person’s thoughts. And especially when we are approaching the Lord, when we are aware of our deficiencies, we feel a sense of negligency, a sense of incompleteness.
And that sense of incompleteness allows the Lord to enter into our heart. When we are thinking of our strengths and qualifications, then that fills our heart and we think that I can help others. And we think, I don’t need really Krishna.
So Prahlad Maharaj is saying that, So first he says, I am not Krishna. Actually, the whole purpose of Prahlad Maharaj’s prayers is to glorify Krishna. And when we see the last prayer that will come, what does he say? He says that, My dear Lord, please give happiness to everyone.
That is the 50th prayer. The whole mood of a devotee is to, not even if he is glorious, he doesn’t think that I am glorious. He thinks that the path is glorious.
He is glorious. And so that is how the thought flow will go. So actually I am unqualified.
And then the next verse, what is the theme? The same theme of the Bhagavatam as what I said earlier. Bhakti inverts the normal hierarchies. So first thing he will say is that, My dear Lord, what is the possibility for me to satisfy you? I am not a sattva guna.
I am born in a low family. And he says, My dear Lord, you are not satisfied with anything except bhakti. So actually I am reciting in a particular way.
If you can also recite in that way, that will be relatively nice. So he says, he gives a long list of material qualifications. I think dhana, abhijan, rupa, tapah, chutaujas, all these things cannot satisfy me, my dear Lord.
Wealth cannot satisfy you. Learning cannot satisfy you. Austerity cannot satisfy you.
And what satisfies you? Bhakti. Satisfied only by bhakti. Nothing else.
And he gives the example of Gajayuthapaya, that of Gajendra. Now Gajendra is going to come in the 8th century. How is Prahlad speaking about himself in the 10th century? Actually these pastimes are happening in every era.
And Prahlad Maharaj knows about these pastimes. So he is speaking about it. And then, now, he goes on, he addresses this contrast further in an even more dramatic way, in the next verse.
He says, the absence of bhakti, the next verse, the theme is what? The absence of bhakti makes the qualified unqualified. And the presence of bhakti makes the unqualified qualified. This is a famous verse.
And this verse was used even by Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur in his debate about Ramayana and Dasharatha. Prabhupada quotes, the purport of this verse is one of the most beautiful purports in this section, Dasharatha Prabhupada. Vipraadmishadgunayotadaravindanabha Aadaravindavimukhaswapachamvarishtam Manyetadarpitmanovachinehitarthah Pranam punatisakulam nathubhurimanah Sanskrit is such a beautiful language that sometimes the sound of the words gives the idea of the meaning.
Bhurimanah Bhurimanah means arrogant person. So, actually, he says if a brahmana is proud, then brahmana becomes lower than a dog either. The brahmana is averse to Krishna.
And Prabhupada talks about how, he says about one of my disciples when his mother was about to die at her last moment, she enquired about Krishna. She talked about Krishna. And by remembering Krishna thus, she attained an auspicious destination.
So, he gives an example of how a devotee delivers his dependence also. And as well as Giriraj Maharaj is currently writing a book. He is writing two books in fact about death.
One book is about to be published called Many Many Moons. So, Prabhupada said that ekashchandrastamohanti na jatarah sahasrasha So, only, even if I get one moon, one moon better than many stars. Prabhupada said at one time, Krishna is so kind, that I would have been satisfied with one moon but he has given me many many moons.
So, in this book, Giriraj Maharaj has compiled the past and the stories of all the devotees, several of the leading devotees who left their bodies in Krishna consciousness. Very beautiful book. And our second book he is writing.
His first book will be published soon. In fact, it is already published in America. So, when Maharaj comes to India, he will bring the book with him.
So, I had the fortune of editing both the books. So, in the second book, he is talking about death and dying within the Vedic traditions. And in that, he describes about how, this one has now set up a hospice, Bhaktivanta Hospice in Vrindavan, where devotees can leave their bodies in Vraja, in Krishna consciousness and describes how many people actually left their bodies in Vraja.
Very exemplary. So, actually we can see devotees are being delivered in the association with devotees and devotees are, there are even stories of devotees’ relatives coming there and leaving their bodies in extraordinary consciousness. So, the fact of Krishna consciousness goes beyond all institutional upheavals.
There may be ups and downs wherever we are at the material level. But the principle of Krishna consciousness remains an underlying reality. And whoever remembers Krishna, Krishna delivers that person.
So, now somebody may think that, Oh Lord, you are satisfied by bhakti and if a low-born person has bhakti, he is great. Then is Prahlad thinking that I have bhakti? To think I have bhakti, isn’t that also a sign of pride? Let us see what is Prahlad Maharaj means. So, before that, he takes another angle.
We will talk about bhakti a little later. What he says is, So, if you are my dear Lord, if you are not satisfied by austerity, you are not satisfied by knowledge and you are satisfied only by bhakti. And what does bhakti involve? Bhakti involves glorifying you.
So, if bhakti involves glorifying you, that would mean, are you an egomaniac? Do you want everyone to glorify you? No, no. There is one western scholar who studied the Bhagavad Gita. He said, Krishna, I have never seen such an arrogant conception of God.
He said, I am the best of everything. Actually, 10th chapter, 41st, 42nd verse, what does Krishna say? Actually, he says, I am the king among animals, I am the king among the gods, this, this, and then he says, this is just a glimpse, Arjuna. So, it’s like saying, you know, if we ask somebody, please introduce yourself.
That person gives the introduction for 45 minutes. And then he says, this is just a glimpse. You may say, what arrogance is this? So, Krishna says, this is only a glimpse.
And what is the general principle? General principle is, whatever is beautiful gets its beauty from me. This is too much, isn’t it? So, how is it possible that God can be bragging about his glory? Shouldn’t God be a bit humble? So, actually speaking, if we look at the setting of the Bhagavad Gita, we will see God taking the most extraordinarily humble position. What is he? He’s a charioteer.
So, if actions speak louder than words, look at the actions of Krishna. Isn’t it? What are the actions showing? That he’s a servant of his devotee. And what kind of servant? Just a charioteer.
Charioteer is like a chauffeur. And then on top of that, actually Krishna expresses humility in another way in the Bhagavad Gita. What does he do? Krishna also realises that.
Krishna is also a person. As a person, he doesn’t like to speak his glories too much. So, that’s why in several places, Krishna refers to himself in the third person.
Third person means, for example, in 18.61, Krishna is saying that Supreme Lord is directing the wandering of all living beings. Ishvara Sarva Bhurthana. Rudresha Arjuna 62.
Then 18.62, he says, sameeva sharanam raksha sarva bhavena bharata tat prasada tadam shanti sthanam prapsasi shashvatam He says, surrender unto that Lord. And if you surrender to that Lord, you will get the supreme peace and the ultimate destination. So, Krishna refers to himself in the third person.
This is one way of expressing humility. How does that express humility? When the devotees wanted to make a palace of gold in Vrindavan, in New Vrindavan. So, they said, Prabhupada, we want to make a palace for you.
He says, there is no need for a palace for me. Then, the devotees were disappointed. They wanted to offer their services to Prabhupada.
When they went back and said, Prabhupada, we want to make a palace for the spiritual master. Prabhupada said, make it. So, now, is this hypocrisy? It is not hypocrisy.
Actually, when Prabhupada is thinking of the spiritual master, he is not thinking of himself as the spiritual master. He is thinking of his spiritual master. And he is thinking that the spiritual master is a force that deserves respect.
Then, Prabhupada allowed them to make it. So, Prabhupada, he has shown that, actually, he has made it for the spiritual master. Who is the spiritual master? It is you only.
But, that difference, that reference is third person. Prabhupada accepts the loving offering, but at the same time, expresses his devotion, expresses his humility also. So, like that, Krishna doesn’t want to say, come and surrender to me.
So, he says, Surrender to that Supreme Lord. But then, after this, what happens? Krishna tells Arjuna in 18.63, Now, Arjuna, you decide what you want to do. निम्रिश्येथदशेशे यथेच्यसितथा कुरू Now, think and decide what you want to do.
And at this point, Arjuna gets lost in thought. Because, imagine, suppose a big philosophical conversation is going on. And, you know, there is no indication, if you look backward, that Krishna is not giving, like, you know, when the Bhagavad, if you have a Bhagavatam lecture going on, we know, that okay, at this time, it is going to get over.
So, we are mentally prepared that it is going to get over after 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. But Arjuna has no mental preparation like that. The conversation is just going on and on and on.
And suddenly, now, imagine the Bhagavatam class is going on. Now, you decide what you should do. What happened? Suddenly, you know, from all this philosophical contemplation, onus comes on action.
So, Arjuna comes back from this abstract philosophical conception to the reality that is in the battlefield and has to decide what to do. So, Arjuna gets lost in thought. You know, what should I do? This was said in the 2nd chapter, that was in the 5th chapter, that was in the 7th chapter, that was in the 9th chapter.
And now, Krishna said, surrender to that. How do you surrender to that Lord? Where is He? What to do? So, when Krishna sees that Arjuna is lost in thought, then, Krishna’s compassion happens. So, in 18.63, He is telling, He says, I have given you knowledge more confidential than earlier.
Then, He says in 18.64, now, I will give you the most confidential knowledge. जुनुमे परमंवचः इश्टो सिमे दुडमिति ततो वक्षामि तेहितं सर्वभुजितमं Most confidential knowledge I will speak to you. जुनुमे परमंवचः Supreme words.
And what is that? इश्टो सिमे दुडमिति इश्ट, इश्ट means dear. दुडम, very strongly. So, Krishna is saying, what is the most confidential message? You are strongly loved by me.
दुडम means determined. I am determined to love you. We are determined to forget Krishna.
And Krishna is determined to love us. तो वक्षामि तेहितं Therefore, for your benefit, I speak. And then, Krishna is unambiguous.
He will make those two verses, अन्मनावाव and सर्वधर्मावाव So, when we see Krishna speaking about himself, there are three issues over there. There is reality, there is humility and there is clarity. So, the reality is that Krishna is the source of the beauty of everyone.
The reality is that Krishna is the source of the greatness of everyone. Just like Prahlad Maharaj told, केरेंदे कशिवा Strength of my power, the strength of your power is all the Lord Vishnu. So actually, if there was anything that could have incensed Heerande Kashipa, that was this.
For Heerande Kashipa, it was intolerable the very idea that there is somebody whose strength is competitive to mine. If there is a wealthy person and he thinks that I am the wealthiest person in the world. Somebody else is wealthier than me.
Who is that person? As it is for him to hear that there is somebody who is my competitor is bad enough. But then if you tell the wealthy person actually he is not only wealthier than you, even your wealth belongs to him only. What? That’s intolerable.
So Heerande Kashipa gets so angry. त्वाम ईश्वरम् मदपरो कम हरामी He says, you say that there is an Ishwara who is other than me? Where is that? Now I will cut off your head. Let us see if he comes.
So for Prahlad Maharaj, it is just an objective fact. But that objective fact is beyond all tolerable limit for Heerande Kashipa. You are not only saying there is a person who is equal to me but my strength comes from him.
How dare you? He is enraged. So when Krishna is saying this actually the fact is the source of the strength of everyone is Krishna. And we may not feel it that way but actually when we get a disease when we get some disability then we realise what happened to my strength? I was just not able to do anything.
Cricket is a popular sport in India and cricket it happens that players are sometimes in form and sometimes out of form. Now no batsman ever wants to be out of form. And certain batsmen will be you are such a great batsman.
There is a batsman who is called the God of cricket. But then what happens is that God of cricket goes out of form sometimes. Isn’t it? And then he realises actually I am not God.
Isn’t it? So person may have talent but the talent is not one’s own. And the proof is that we do not always have control on the talent. No matter how good our talent is we don’t always have control on our talent.
Sometimes things just work out, sometimes things don’t work out. And the more people derive joy from their talent the more is the agony when their talent doesn’t seem to be in their control. When a batsman who is very popular he goes out of form there is no agony greater than that for him.
Because there he was dominating all the bowlers and here some new rookie comes up and clean bowls him. It’s a total humiliation for the person. So it’s the modern so that is the modern equivalent of varanatha trichyati.
For a person who is honoured dishonour is worse than death. So anyway the point is it’s a reality it’s a reality that everybody’s qualities come from Krishna. So first point is the reality.
But still when there is see Krishna differentiates between amanitvam and adamvitvam. He talks about 13th chapter, he talks about knowledge, 8 words. So amanitvam means humility.
Humility means when we have good qualities but still we don’t speak about it. And dambha is arrogance. What it means? We don’t have good qualities we pretend we have them.
That is even worse. But anyway the point is a humble person will not speak about his glories even if they are true. So we would normally expect even God to be humble, isn’t it? Even if it is the reality that you are God, why brag about it? Why speak about it? So the first issue is humility, first is reality, second is humility.
But third is the issue in question in the Bhagavad Gita. That is clarity. So the whole purpose of the Bhagavad Gita is to tell us where we should direct our love.
If Arjuna, if you direct your love to your kingdom, to your relatives, what will happen? You will suffer because they are temporary at the level of the body and you are temporary at the level of the body. The whole purpose of the Bhagavad Gita is to tell us to redirect our love towards Krishna. Krishna is nice but there are so many lovable things in this world also.
Saint Krishna tells us no. Whatever attracts your love in this world, its lovability comes from me. And that lovability is only a spark.
Whereas I am the complete whole. Therefore don’t be attracted to that spark. Be attracted to me.
So Krishna’s purpose in telling about himself is not to just brag his glory. It is to benefit us. Because only when we love the right person will we get happiness.
Otherwise our love will become the cause of our suffering. And Krishna wants to remove all misconceptions that misdirect our love. And so he says that everything beautiful comes from me.
Similarly here, Bhagavad Gita clarifies. Actually when a devotee is glorifying the Lord, it’s like a communion. Communion means? It’s a very intimate union with communication.
Communion is a blend of two words. Communication and union. So it’s a religious term that is used in the Christian tradition that is very prevalent of something called Samadhi.
A deep absorption. So there is the prayers of the Bhagavad Gita are examples of communion. The devotee is united intimately with the Lord in the heart.
But there is a communication that is going on that is made available to us to get a glimpse of what is actually happening in the heart. So what does he immediately thinks? If we say Krishna is only Bhakta Vatsa, that means Krishna only if somebody flatters him, he becomes happy. Otherwise whatever qualities you have, Krishna doesn’t care.
What kind of God is this? Only if you flatter him, he becomes happy. So immediately he clarifies what is the nature of love. … … … … … So he says, my dear Lord, actually speaking, you are Purna.
Sometimes, if we do something glorious, then somehow in material life, everything that we do just aggravates our misery. If we do something wonderful, then actually we feel Apurna till somebody comes and glorifies us. Isn’t it? And if we have done something wonderful, that Apurna becomes all the more.
Somebody should look in their eyes. It goes from as simple as something, if we wear a new dress, then we want to say, somebody should tell me, your dress is new. If nobody does that, we start thinking, what happened to your eyes? Can’t you see? So, in material life, everybody feels Apurna.
But he says, my dear Lord, people want their own glorification because they feel incomplete. My dear Lord, you don’t need any glorification from anyone because you are Purna. You are Purna.
… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … And the example by actually the praises of the uneducated or uninformed people can mislead us. Bhagavatham talks about it, he says that one ignorant person glorifies another ignorant person, you are so great. What is that? Camel and a crow meet each other.
Camel and a camel and ass meet each other and then they start teaching each other. So, you know, both of them are glorifying each other. Yeah, so the point is that, you know, ignorant people if they offer praise, sometimes that is just mutual flattery.
And Krishna is poor and he does not want that. So he says actually, if people offer you praises, they are avidushas And you don’t even have to accept the praise. So, in the Lalit Madhav, it described that, Lalit Madhav is a very beautiful book of Krishna’s pastimes written by Rupa Goswami.
And there he depicts the 10th Canto pastimes in a very dramatic way. So, there he says that all these kings are imprisoned by Jarasandh and Krishna goes and rescues them. So, at that time the kings offer praises.
So, at that time the kings say, we have offered praises to you in the past. But now when we see you, we understand that actually all your praises to you were insults. Because he says, it’s like somebody is the emperor of the world and we glorify him as a landlord for a few acres of land.
Somebody is the emperor, we glorify him as a landlord, that’s actually an insult. So, we realise that you are so glorious that whatever praises we have offered, they are actually insults to you. Because it’s just so inadequate in describing the glory of the Lord.
So, he says, when a sadhaka comes and offers praises to you, those praises are so inadequate. What can sadhaka understand your glory? So, he says, actually, as I said, that if at all somebody wants satisfaction through glorification, and somebody who knows the subject, and then he tells, this was really good, I give satisfaction. So, if first of all, you are purna, you don’t need any satisfaction.
But if at all you need any satisfaction, now what satisfaction can an uninformed person’s glorification give you? So, when an uninformed person glorifies you, what is it? He says, karunobhrinite. You accept it out of karuna for him. Why? Because when that person glorifies you, he becomes purified.
Why? Because at least he is thinking of you, and he is trying to use his black faculties to glorify you. So, and then he gives, dachchaatmane patimuktasya thaamukhashree. So, he gives the example of a mirror and a reflection.
So, he says that if you try to go decorate the reflection in a mirror, nothing happens. You decorate the real person, then the reflection gets decorated. So, he is telling that actually, my dear Lord, if somebody glorifies you, it is like decorating the original person.
Then that person gets benefited. There is a real person, there is a reflection. So, we are all parts and parcels of Krishna.
And Krishna is the Supreme Lord. So, if we try to glorify ourselves, if we try to speak our own glory, there are two big problems. First is we do not have too many glories.
And second is that our glories do not stay with us for too long. So, what happens is, if we have to glorify ourselves, after some time, it literally becomes punah punash charvita charvanana. You know, I did this, I did that, I did this, I did that.
So, there is one mode of hearing called autobiographical hearing. Autobiographical hearing means you tell somebody, you know, I went to this place. Yeah, I also went to that place and I did that, I did that, I did that.
And whatever the person hears, he starts speaking his own story. And the hearer thinks this is the 677th time I am hearing this. So, if we just start speaking our own glory, it becomes sickening after some time.
It may not be sickening for us, it has become sickening for others. But when we describe Krishna’s glories, Krishna reveals newer and newer asatas. So, it is actually when we glorify Krishna, we become more satisfied than when we glorify ourselves.
That is why it benefits us. And now Prahlad Maharaj yesterday, so what is a very beautiful flow. First he said, I am unfulfilled, I am low born, how can I satisfy you? Actually you are satisfied by bhakti.
He says, if there is bhakti, then even a low born is great. But now he says, actually I do not have bhakti. But you are satisfied because people who offer prayers get purified.
Therefore, he says now, I will offer prayer to you because it will purify you. So, he is not even claiming that I have bhakti. He is simply saying that actually attempting to activity of bhakti will purify me.
So, therefore, I am trying to glorify. So, puyet means one becomes purified. Ye nahi, by this.
What? Anuvarnitena, by speaking about you, and becomes purified. And tasma daham, therefore, I will vigataviklam, I give up all my doubt, I give up all my hesitation. So, actually when Radhman’s verse says, kim ka ushtu mar hai te? He is saying, how can I glorify you? So, he is saying, I am hesitant to speak any glories of you, so I can’t satisfy you.
Then he says, my dear lord, you don’t need satisfaction, you are self-satisfied. When we glorify you, it is for our purification. Therefore, I give up all doubts about whether I will be able to satisfy you or not.
For my purification, I will glorify you. Vigataviklam ishwarasya, I give up all my doubts and speak your glories, speak your glories. So, Shri Prabhupada writes in the Chaitanya Charita Amrita purport about when Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami is talking about how he is writing in this book, Chaitanya Charita Amrita.
In those purports, Shri Prabhupada talks extensively about how when a person is glorifying Krishna, what should be the consciousness of that person. So, he says that actually, one should not think that one is going to give some great talk or going to compose a great literature. One should think my goal is simply purification.
And that goal, when one does this, then Krishna will also be glorified and we will also be purified. So, Tukaram Maharaj gives a beautiful analogy. He says that, my dear lord, you are so great that I cannot glorify you.
But, he says, there are many great saints who have glorified you in the past. So, he says that, this is a swan can walk very gracefully. A swan walks very gracefully and there are other birds who cannot walk gracefully.
But just because the other birds cannot walk gracefully, that does not mean that they do not have a right to walk. He says, similarly, my dear lord, I cannot glorify you much. But that does not mean I do not have a right to walk.
According to my capacity, I will glorify you. So, that was what Shri Prabhupada talks. We should not think that sometimes we feel I am not qualified to preach.
It is good to feel I am not qualified, but it is not good to not preach. Because there is so much need for Krishna’s message to go. And Shri Prabhupada tells his disciples, your qualification is your desire.
If you have the desire to preach, everything else will follow. Of course, we need to take blessings of Sri Vaishnavas. But, whenever we try to speak to Krishna’s saint, Krishna argues his message.
Krishna says, I am following you. Actually, when we preach, it is not for the benefit of the world. It is for first and foremost our purification.
Other people get benefited, that is one thing. So, I give up all hesitation. I give up all hesitation.
I glorify you for yourself. So, we have a writer’s club. So, this verse is like one of our theme verses.
We do not think that we are great writers when we are writing. We are writing for our purification. I give up all my doubts and I start glorifying you.
Then he goes forward. So, I will not go over all the verses because they are a little long. I will just go over some of them.
So, then he says, Sarve Yami Vidhikaras Tava Satya Dham. He says, actually my dear lord, all these devatas are in the mode of goodness. So, again he goes to the glorification of the devatas and he says, you came for what? To protect them.
This is the height of humility. Sometimes, humility appears to be the antithesis of reality. Sometimes a devotee seems to speak in a way as if it is entirely false.
Bhaktivinoda Thakur is saying, Amara Jeevan Sada Paapai Rathe. And here is a person who just when there was a slight trace of dishonesty in a job, he had a big family but he resigned from the job because he said, I cannot have anything to do with him more. Here is a person who was ready to risk his own life and the rest of his own family members because there was a fake godman whom he was trying to expose and that godman was using his mystic powers to threaten and kill his family members.
So, there was no trace of paapai rathe. What is he saying? Amara Jeevan Sada Paapai Rathe. So, Bhaktivinoda Thakur, Vishwanath Chandra Thakur describes that prema is like an ocean and in the ocean of prema, various waves keep coming up and down.
And these waves as they move up and down, they shape a devotee’s perception. And when a devotee is filled with prema for Krishna, his consciousness is fixed not on Krishna, not on himself but on Krishna. And even when the devotee is very pure, when he compares his purity with Krishna’s purity, he is actually very simple.
Therefore, it means Amara Jeevan Sada Paapai Rathe. That means, actually I am so simple. We may be pure, but as compared to Krishna, therefore, a devotee is not speaking lies or just artificially being humble for the sake of being humble.
Actually, the devotee is Krishna conscious and his consciousness, how exalted Krishna is, so naturally one feels, what is my status? So, he is telling over here, my dear lord, actually you came for what? You came to protect the demigods. Shemaya bhutaya uttama sukhaaya chaasya. Shemaya bhutaya.
He says, shemam means logat shemam vaham me ham gaya. Shemaya, for the protection. And then, uttama sukhaaya, you came to do the ultimate happiness to everyone.
And very beautiful, that’s why they were so fierce. But what he is saying, vikriditam bhagavato ruchiravatarai. Ruchir means very relishable, very beautiful.
So, vikriditam, you are doing kridam, my dear lord. What is this, you know, putting a garland around yourself, that is what a kridam, very ferocious. But he is saying it all from the perspective of love.
Vikriditam bhagavato ruchiravatarai. Actually, such a relishable avatar, this is my dear lord. So, Vishwanath Chakradakul describes that, actually, if you look at Prahlad Maharaj’s earlier description, there is 7.5, 7.6. There, it is govinda bhitani me krishna drahagrihitatma.
So, the primary, there are several references to krishna. So, he says that, actually, Prahlad Maharaj was attracted to krishna. But when Narasimhadev came and delivered him, all his love got transferred to Narasimhadev.
So, he says, this is how, sometimes, some of us have this very ultra, ultra premature doubt. You know, if I am worshipping krishna and my swaroop is with lord Ram in ayodhya, what will happen to me? That is so premature. It is like, you know that story that a mother and a father once had a debate.
Should my son become an engineer or a doctor? And the debate became so fierce that they finally went to the court. And the judge said, why do you have to come here? Just ask the child what he wants to do. The child said, we can’t do that.
Why? He is not yet born. So, this is like that. You are worrying whether my swaroop is in ayodhya or goloka or vaikuntha or whatever.
We are just struggling to chant 16 rounds right now. But anyway, here, here, Acharya has given answer that even if we are worshipping krishna right now, and if it happens that our eternal swaroopa is with lord Ram, once our material conditioning falls off and our natural spiritual attraction gets evoked, then we will automatically gravitate towards lord Ram. So, you know, in the Chaitanya Charita Amrit and Lord Chaitanya, the instructor Sanatana Goswami, he says that actually the shantaras is the lowest of all the rasas.
And shantaras has two characteristics. Shantaras is like the foundation. In a bhakti, like a building, building has to have a foundation.
So, from shantaras, everything moves forward. So, shantaras has two characteristics. And what is that? First characteristic is complete detachment from matter.
And second characteristic is complete attachment to Krishna. So, right now when our foundation is not ready and we are thinking about the superstructure, it is not required. But anyway, the answer is here that even if we are attracted to a particular form of the lord, when our swaroopa, when it comes that our pararoopa starts dissolving, our material identity starts going away, then naturally our original identity, according to that, we will get attracted to a particular form of the lord.
So, he is the first goal of Prahlad Maharaj, first apprehension he had was, can I offer prayers? But now he remembers, he is thinking Brahmaji has told me, there is a particular mission that I am on. What is that mission? I have to pacify the anger. So, lord has already become pacified, but he feels that I have to fulfil what Brahmaji has told me.
So, therefore, he says, my dear lord, you came to deliver all the devagas. Now, this demon, the Hiranyakashipu is killed. So, please become peaceful.
That is the next step. So, he says that actually all the demigods are happy because this demon is killed and there is a famous one, Modet sadhur pibishchik sarpa hathna. That means sadhu is pleased when serpent is killed.
And then this is a very beautiful line, you can repeat this, last line of that. Rupam narsimha vibhayaya janah smaranthi. So, he says, rupam narsimha, this form of lord Narsimhadev, janah, people, smaranthi, they will remember.
For what purpose? Vibhayaya, for becoming free from fear. So, he says, my dear lord, incarnation in which you appeared was so fierce, so ferocious, that in future, just by thinking of this form, all the demons will become terror-strick. And they will not dare to do any demonic activities.
So, therefore, my dear lord, you have removed the threat of the demons completely now. And the demigods are happy, the demons are dead. Please give up your enemies.
Please become peaceful. So, that is his request. Rupam narsimha, this form we can remember.
For what? Vibhayaya janah smaranthi. We can remember this lord, form of the lord to become free from fear. Then he describes this verse earlier, naham vibhemdev, I am not afraid of you, my dear lord, although this form is so frightful.
Then he describes what is it that I am afraid of. So, he describes it very graphically. Trasto snyaham krupana vatsala dhuso ghrah, samsara chakra kadhanath ghrastham pranitah, baddha svakarma bhirya uchitam te angri moolam, pritah pavarga sharanam vayase kadhanoon.
So, Trasto, I am Trasto, I am very troubled. I am very beautifully troubled. Krishna is known to be bhakta vatsala.
But remember, what is the thought flow going on? Raj Maharaj is not claiming to be bhakta. So, he is saying, I am a krupana. You are so kind, you are krupana vatsala.
So, you are not just bhakta vatsala, you are a krupana vatsala. Even for the pollen, you are loving. So, Trasto snyaham krupana vatsala dhuso ghrah is very intolerable for the medium.
What is intolerable? Samsara chakra kadhanath ghrastham pranitah. This samsara chakra is intolerable for the medium. Actually, Prabhupada writes in the 10th canto, in the third chapter parpot, then he says that Devaki actually represents bhakti and Kamsa represents fear of material existence.
So, when a devotee is fearful of material existence, he just says Kamsa killed who? The Ashtagarbha. And the Ashtagarbha represent lust, anger, greed, envy, pride and illusion. So, he says like that.
So, we think of it. Krupana there is an analogy. Devaki is bhakti.
Kamsa is fear of material existence. And the Garbha, the children are lust, anger, greed, envy, pride and illusion. So, he says that actually, when we try to develop bhakti, the first thing that comes out of our consciousness is all these things, lust, anger, greed, envy, pride and illusion.
And if we, by philosophical knowledge, have cultivated fear of material existence, most of us have desire for material existence. At least we do not have desire for material existence. We have desire for material enjoyment.
But if we have cultivated fear for material existence, then what happens? Just as Kamsa killed the Ashtagarbha, then fear of material existence kills lust, anger, greed, envy, pride and illusion in our consciousness. So, when that happens, then the Guru manifests in the heart, Balramji and then Krishna manifests. So, Prahlad Maharaj is manifesting that over there.
Prasthos. Beautiful of materialism. Samsara Chakra Kadana Grasatam Praneetam.
I am fallen in this, bound in this. And what does he say over there? Bhaddha. Then Lord may say, actually, ultimately everything that happens to you is under the sanction of the Lord.
So, have I thrown you here? Bhaddhasvakarma. He says, I am bound by my own karma. Later on, in the 10th chapter, he will talk about how Bhaktalakshana Jijnasura, to demonstrate the characteristics of your pure devotee, you have sent me to this world.
But here, in the waves of the ocean of Prema, the wave of humility is manifesting in the heart of Prahlad. And therefore, he is not thinking of how I have descended from the spiritual world. That is, of course, a reality, but it is a distant reality.
He is thinking of the immediate reality. Immediate reality is that I am born and living among demoniac people. So, therefore, he is thinking that Bhaddhasvakarma, with my own karma, I have fallen over here.
And Ushitam says, my dear Lord, what do I want to do? Your local street, I want to come back. When, O Lord, will you call me back to your local street? So, here, Prahlad Maharaj, this is the indirect way. He is not asking anything from the Lord.
He says, my dear Lord, I long for you. When will you call me back to your local street? Your local street is a shelter of liberation. I want to come back to there.
Then, this is the only place where Prahlad Maharaj directly expresses a desire. Other places, he is actually expressing glorification. Few other places, he requests, and Lord is engaged in bhakti.
Then, the Lord Narasimhadev says, Prahlad, what is this? Now, you are the prince, and now all the other demons are killed, so you have to become the king. And in this material world, you can become the king that you can enjoy. So, Lord is testing Prahlad Maharaj.
So, Prahlad Maharaj replies, he says, no, my dear Lord, this is a good book. Very nice verse. You can repeat this.
It is a very important verse. So, there are five verses in Prahlad Maharaj s prayers which sort of dissect material existence. Now, material existence comes in various masks, and the masks look very attractive.
The masks, somebody is a very ferocious person, but he wears a very attractive mask. Whatever it is, he must be a nice person. So, like that, material existence comes masked into us.
So, the Acharya’s insights in the Vaishnava’s prayers are like the swords which unmask material existence. They are analysing and unmasking material existence. There are five prayers in Prahlad Maharaj s prayers which totally unmask material existence.
So, this is the first prayer. So, he says, my dear Lord, in this world, things are always changing. And there are two possibilities.
We get what we want or we do not get what we want. So, there is Priya and Apriya and there is Viyog and Sanyog. So, if there is Viyog means separation, Sanyog means contact.
So, if what we want, we get it. That means there is Priya and Sanyog. We want something and that happens and we feel happy.
And if there is something which we do not want and we can avoid it, that also we feel happy. But he says, my dear Lord, what happens in this world? Most of the time we get what we do not want and we do not get what we want. So, therefore, So, everybody is lamenting in this world.
Why? Because even if people get a lot of things, still the mind will always want more. Mind will always want more. Therefore, everybody is burning in the fire of lamentation.
And if somebody is able to solve a problem, the solution becomes a bigger problem. Now, how can we see that? So, actually, this sort of prayers make our intelligence fit. Ravapad writes that by analysing the philosophy from different directions, we can strengthen our intelligence.
So, we have to make our intelligence fit. So, what is fit? Fit is an acronym, F-I-T. It is futility, insubstantiality and temporality.
So, these are the three possibilities when we try to enjoy our senses. When we get into material enjoyment, there are three things that can happen. And there are only these three things that can happen.
Nothing else can happen. So, what is it? Let us take a straightforward example. And we can go into bigger examples.
Suppose we have a big feast today. And the feast, say there is a favourite item that we like. Say we like malpoo.
It is malpoo. So, what happens is our anticipation rises. And actually, people in material life, they call it anticipation.
But it is not anticipation, it is torment. Why? Because we are just craving. When, when, I will get it.
So, as soon as the thought of a particular desirable sense object comes in the mind, till the time we get it, we are restless, we are restless. And Krishna says, this is actually the fire. Dushpure naanalindu chai, burns like fire.
Now, interestingly, if you look at it in the last, even materialistic people know that it burns. In movies, they have songs like, sawan jo aag lagaye. So, they also know it is a fire.
But they think that enjoyment will extinguish the fire. But actually, the enjoyment is the fuel for the fire. It will not extinguish, it will make it further.
But the point is, even materialistic people know it is a fire. It is a torment in them. So, what happens? So, imagine we have a desire that I want to get something delicious to eat, something which I like.
So, right from the moment I start, you went, went, went, went. And then actually the feast you served in that item is not there only. And what happens? Everything becomes futile.
So, say a boy thinks I want to love this girl. And then he goes and proposes to her. He gets a slap.
You know, all the bubble, all the balloon that is there, one blow and it’s burst completely. So, the first possibility is we fantasise about something, but we do not get it only. What is the second possibility? Fantasise about it and we get it.
So, we think that there will be a nice malpua for me to eat. And then the malpua comes along. And then we eat it.
And we find the sugar in it is less. Then what happens? Insubstantiality. It does not live up to our expectations.
It does not live up to our expectations. So, suppose a boy proposes to a girl and then the girl agrees. But what happens is, you know, our mind is on imagination overdrive all the time.
And especially when some sense object casts a fancy, then the mind becomes hyperactive. And it is not the problem of any particular person. What our mind imagines, no person in the material world can ever be like that.
So, that is why what happens is, when a relationship starts, it is like first if the relationship does not materialise only like the balloon is there, in one moment it bursts. When the second, slowly the air starts going out of the balloon. It is like that.
That means what happens is, we have imagined something very wonderful. And it is not necessarily the problem of any particular person. It is just that our heart is ultimately longing for the love of Krishna.
And when we try to make another person as a substitute for Krishna, it is not the problem of that person. No person can be substituted for Krishna. So, it is our own mistake that we are thinking, we are imagining that somebody will be substituted for Krishna.
So, what happens is, we find out that the enjoyment is insubstantial. It does not live up to our expectations. We thought it was so wonderful.
But actually, it turns out to be an anti-climax. It is an anti-climax. Just when the climax comes, suppose somebody just climbs up on Mount Everest and is about to hoist his flag over there.
And he finds there is no ground, there is a valley and he is just going down over there. So, it is like that in material life. We climb up the summit and we find at the summit, there is a valley, there is no summit only.
So, it is like that. We find that we get the enjoyment, but it does not live up to our expectations. That is insubstantial.
That is the second possible. Somebody may say, no, no, no, this has to happen, but I will get the enjoyment. So, I get the malpua and it is delicious also.
It is delicious also. But then, third thing comes, that is temporal. It is temporary.
How much can I eat? I get one, I get two, then I ask. I have one more. Servings are limited.
And anyway, if we go, we wait for some priest, everything is unlimited. Even if everything is unlimited, what happens is our stomach is limited. So, ultimately it is temporary.
We cannot eat as much as we want. Actually, even when people have unlimited facility for sense gratification, when people give up sense gratification, it is not because they are satisfied, it is because their bodily capacity is exhausted. When people give up sense gratification, it is not because sense gratification satisfied them.
It is because the bodily capacity to enjoy is diminished. So, sense gratification actually never satisfies us. So, Prabhupada gives a very insightful example.
You know, Purulath Maharaj will later on compare the sense gratification to scratching an itch. So, Prabhupada says, when we scratch an itch, we may get some relief. But we stop scratching not because the boil has gone away, but because the boil has become so bad that we cannot scratch it.
Actually, the scratching provides the opposite of relief. So, what happens is, versus if the scratching were meant to give relief, then you would just get complete relief from scratching. But we cannot get complete relief and we stop scratching because that relief turns to create the problem worse.
So, even when people get material enjoyment, sometimes especially in India, where at least there is some social convention, social norms that are there, there are some restrictions on gratification. So, some people feel I go to the west, no restriction, I can just enjoy. But nobody can just enjoy because the body’s capacity is limited.
And when people stop enjoying, it is not because they are satisfied, it is because their bodily capacity is exhausted. And that is why the sense gratification, you know what other possibility is there. I imagine enjoyment, I do not get it only.
I imagine enjoyment, I get it, but it is not what my imagination seeks to do, makes it out to me. When I imagine the enjoyment, it is good, but then my capacity is exhausted. So, in the material world, even if somebody will form a satisfactory relationship, how long is the relationship going to last? It is going to end.
And the more a person, when the nature of material things is, the more we get shelter in a material thing, the more we become shelterless when that material thing goes away. So, the more we get relief and protection and satisfaction in the relationship, apart from Krishna, the more will be our devastation when the relationship is disrupted. And it will be surely disrupted.
So, of course, if you spiritualise that relationship with Hare Krishna, that is different. The point is, these are the only three possibilities that are there. So, in all three possibilities, the ultimate result is frustration, futility, insubstantiality and temporality.
So, I do not get it, it is futile, I get it, it does not live up to my expectation, that is insubstantial. I get it, it lives up to my expectations, but my capacity is temporary, everything in the material world is temporary, I get frustrated. Therefore, shokam nishadahaiyamanah, everybody is burning in the fire of material existence.
Everybody is burning in the fire of material existence. And he says, dukkha, the same point, when the enjoyment comes and then the enjoyment goes, the frustration is far greater. That is why he is saying, dukkha ushadam tat api dukkham atadyaham.
That actually, if there is the ushadi for dukkha, then that becomes an even greater problem. Then, the Lord may say, okay, if you do not want any material benediction, then you can ask for liberation. Baba says, what are you doing, I do not want liberation.
That is the next one. So, what he says is, my dear Lord, I will perform your bhakti and I will attain back my lotus feet. So, durgaani te paadu yugaalaya ham se sangaha.
He says, my dear Lord, I will cross over this whole material existence and come back to you, come back to you, forever at your lotus feet. And then he goes for, and there is a famous verses are there, how nobody in this world is a protector. The father is not, the parents are not the protector of the child, the doctors are not protectors of the patients, the ship is not the protector of the person who is drowning.
Why? Because all these protectors sometimes work, sometimes do not work. And that, why they work, it is only if in our karmic destiny it is to work, they will work, otherwise they will not work. They have a, as long as, my dear Lord, you are neglecting such a person, he cannot be protected.
So, now, Lord Maharaj goes into a philosophical text, which we will skip. What he is doing is, he is saying that, my dear Lord, so, actually this whole material existence is under your control, and you are non-different from material existence. But, although you are non-different from material existence, in this material existence, let us forget feminism.
Therefore, I do not want to be in this material existence. Then he moves forward, then he comes back, he says that, in this material existence, I saw that my father had achieved more than anyone else can ever achieve. What was his power that even the demigods used to be frightened, he would just raise the eyebrow, they would get frightened.
But, what did I see you? I saw that in one moment you destroyed everything. And therefore, I know there is only one thing that is valuable in this world. And that is what I ask you from you.
What is that one thing? He describes this in this verse. It is a long verse, but he says, शालात्मनोपयमानिज़भृत्तेपारशुम् I want the service of your devotees. So, he is thinking that, look at the contrast.
Pralad Maharaj was a helpless five-year-old boy who had nothing. And Hiranyakashipu was the monarch of the universe who had everything. But in one moment, everything that Hiranyakashipu had, God was lost.
This is what I was reading. So, what did I have? Still, Pralad Maharaj is not thinking I am a devotee. What did I have? He said, I had the blessings of Narada Muni.
Therefore, I have understood the only thing of value in material existence is the association of devotees, the service of devotees, the blessing of devotees. Therefore, what do I want? शालात्मनोपयमानिज़भृत्तेपारशुम् I want to be associated with your devotees. That is the only thing of value in material existence, everything else is valueless.
I know the nature of all आशीष, अस्माद, अहंत, भुताम, आशीषोर्ति. I know all these about you. I do not want any of these things.
I want only the service of your devotees. And then there is the second word which analyses material existence. It is a very powerful analysis.
कुत्राशिषाश्रितिस्तुखम्रुगत्रिष्णिरूपाव वेदं कलेवरमशेषरुजाम्विरोहाव निर्विद्यते नतु जनोय दपीति विद्वाव कामा नलं अदुलवै शामयं दुरापै So, again the Lord says, so you can have my devotees associated and you can have opponents also. See, the ideal Lord, what is the use of any material benediction? कुत्राशिषाश्रितिस्तुखम्रुगत्रिष्णिरूपाव What benediction can I ask you for? Why? He gives two characteristics of material enjoyment. शुत्तिषुख and मुरुगत्रिष्णिरूपाव.
शुत्तिषुख means, we hear about it and we see it, but when we experience it, it is not there. So, mirage we see, but when we go there, actually there is no water over there. So, it is like a मुरुगत्रिष्णिरूपाव and it is like a शुत्तिषुखम्रुगत्रिष्णिरूपाव.
Why शुत्तिषुख? Especially if we live in association of materialistic people, that everybody is talking about material enjoyment. So, we keep hearing about it constantly. So, this शुत्ति is different from the श्रावण that we do in the association of devotees.
This is what we do in material association. So, he says, materialism, we hear about material enjoyment, we see material enjoyment, but when we experience it, it is not there. So, why not? We have such a healthy body.
We can enjoy. What is this body? वेदं कलेवरं अशेष रुजां विरोह He says, this कलेवर is what? अशेष, रुजा, रुजा is disease. अशेष is unlimited.
विरोह is the breeding place. This is the breeding place of unlimited diseases. What can one enjoy with this body? This body can be overcome by disease at any moment.
So, sometimes people think, no, this philosophy is very pessimistic. What is this? Why are you so negative? Why do you look at only the miseries of material existence? There is misery, there is happiness also. कभी कुषी, कभी गम.
We’ll say like that. But actually, is it like that? Let’s analyse objectively. How can we analyse objectively? All our material enjoyment is based on our body.
So, now let us look at our body’s capacity to enjoy and capacity to suffer. So, if you understand this, you will dive deep into Krishna consciousness. Why? Because it is objectively analysed.
So, this is D.I.V. I have an article on my website on this. So, D.I.V. is acronym, which compares the body’s capacity to enjoy and body’s capacity to give suffering. So, D is duration.
Let’s think objectively. There is no need to be philosophical in terms of having faith in chance. So, just be logical and objective.
Duration. For how much duration can the body give enjoyment? If we eat, maybe for a few minutes, then other forms of sensitivity and few minutes. So, the body can give enjoyment for a few minutes, as far as duration is concerned.
But how much duration can the body give suffering? That is for years. Some people get back pain and just go on for years and years. Sometimes people get a cancer.
For months and months, the only way they can stop from screaming is by taking painkillers or taking anaesthetics. So, if you look at it objectively, is there any pleasure that can make one cry out with ecstasy for months and months at the bodily level? Nothing like that. So, objectively, if we see, the duration for which the body gives pleasure is very tiny.
And the duration for which the body gives youth pain can be huge. Of course, we hope that nobody gets that kind of pain. But the potentiality we are seeing.
So, we can say that potentially we may not get even any happiness also. But potentiality, if we see, the body’s capacity to give pain is much more. And even if somebody does not get any disease, actually the period of enjoyment is only the youth primarily.
As we start getting older, the enjoyment becomes lesser and lesser, and the problems become more and more. And youth is only a small part of one’s life. There is middle age, there is old age, and the enjoyment is actually not there.
Even then, there are no diseases. So, from the duration point of view, the time for which the body gives enjoyment is very little. The time for which the body gives suffering is far less.
Then, I is intensity. So, ashesh rujam viroha, that is the word we are elaborating on. Unlimited diseasability.
If you look at intensity, that if somebody is, Pranab Maharaj gives this example, that is, if somebody is sitting on a very, lying down on a very soft bed, being massaged by very soft hands, you may feel almost exhilarating sense of comfort and enjoyment. And at that time, somebody comes and pricks a pig. So, the whole body is experiencing softness and comfort.
But one micrometre of the body experiences pain. And what happens, that intensity of pain supersedes the intensity of the pleasure everywhere else. So, sometimes we may be eating a delicious sweet.
So, this realisation I have. Yeah. So, we may be eating a delicious sweet, but the sweet is pervading the whole tongue.
And at that time, the tongue gets caught in between the teeth. So, one tiny part of the tongue is caught between the teeth, but the intensity of that pain makes the sweet non-existent over there. So, if you look at the intensity, the body is actually sensitised much more for pain than for pleasure.
Look at the intensity of the body, capacity for experiencing pleasure is much, much lesser. And its intensity with which we can experience pain is far greater. Then the third is, V is variety.
Now, if we think, what are the variety of the ways in which the body can give us pleasure and what are the variety of the ways in which the body can give us pain. If I think of this little finger, how can this little finger really give me pleasure? And I rub it against some senses, maybe something in my nose, I pull it out. Practically, there is very little.
But you can think of how many ways in which this little finger can give pain. From the least harmless, sometimes while cutting the nail, I cut too much and a little part gets exposed and something gets rubbed against something or it can get cut, the finger can get cut, finger can get burnt, finger can get caught in the door sometimes, the finger can get stretched out and something falls on it. So, if you see, there are so many ways in which every part of the body can give us pain.
And the number of ways in which the part of the body can give us pleasure is very little. If you see our teeth, the only way they can practically give us pleasure is by chewing and eating. They are required in speaking, we cannot say that teeth are giving me pleasure.
The whole voice box is involved. But even the teeth can give so many pains that there is a whole branch of medicine called dentistry required to deal with the pain. So, think about any part of the body, there is so many variety of ways in which it can give us pain.
The eyes, the only way they can give us pleasure when we see something beautiful. And what are the ways? Some particle may go inside the eye, some disease may come up, some cataract may happen, sometimes secretion fluid comes out and then it contaminates the eyes, so many ways. And I want to speak of somebody hits the eye, terrible.
So, there are so many ways, the variety of ways in which the body can give us pleasure is far less than the variety of ways in which the body can give pain. Actually, that another way of understanding this is, if you look at the variety, in general, the variety of ways we can have sense pleasure, it is limited. But if you look at the number of diseases that are there, they are practically ashesh-rujam, they are unlimited.
The estimates of doctors vary, but what doctors say is that approximately there are 40,000 diseases that are known today. And out of them only 4000 are curable. All the other diseases, the doctor will tell you I have got this disease, suffer now.
You got this, suffer now. Of course, some people, what is a disease and what comprises a cure of a disease, these are also debated issues. Of course, what is not debated is the patient is having pain.
So, the point is, objectively speaking, the body is much more suited for suffering, a variety of ways. And the last is extent. Extent means, if you look at the body, what all parts of the body can give us pleasure? It is primarily the five senses.
Is there any way my kidney can give me pleasure? Is there any way it can give me pain? Lot of ways. Kidney stone is just one common disease, so many other diseases. And what to speak of my lungs and my medulla oblongata and my rectum and my small intestine and my large intestine.
So, you know, there are so every single part of the body can give us pain. Whereas, the part of the body that can give us pleasure are so limited. So, it is a simple objective analysis, duration, intensity, variety and extent, that the body gives much more misery than pleasure.
So, actually, it is not just equivalent pleasure and pain. Material life gives us insignificant happiness and significant suffering. It is insignificant happiness and significant suffering.
And therefore, if one understands this, one will turn away. But it is very difficult to turn away. Even a wise person knows it, he is Vidwan, still he cannot give it up.
Why? Kamanallam Madhulavaysham Yantrape. This is Madhulavay, there is a drop of nectar that is intoxicating and at little pleasure hooks the person completely. And brahman, although it is very difficult to get, it is very difficult to give up also.
Therefore, a person stays caught in materialism. Now, he is, now he comes to this very devotional section. So, he is given this analysis and he has thought that, my dear lord, I want the association of your devotees.
In the material life, whatever one gets, it is filled with misery. So, basically, what he is doing, he is sort of giving us a picture of the two life charts. The life chart of material prosperity, material advancement and the life chart of devotional advancement.
So, he says, what are the life, the life chart of material progress was followed by his father, Pranayakashipu. As what happened, in one moment, everything was lost. And now it is, what happened to me? And he describes, my dear lord, what kind of mercy have you given me? There are most beautiful verses in this.
So, he is thinking, my dear lord, what did I get just now? You placed your hand on my head. She received Padmakara Prasada, you put your hand on my head. And what is this? He says, this is such extraordinary mercy.
I was born in more modes. And actually, I was not born as a Sura. I am born as Asura Kula.
What mercy have you given me, my dear lord? What is that mercy? He says, Actually, you did not give this to Brahmaji, you did not give it to me. Or Shiva, you did not give it to even your own sons of Lakshmi Devi. That mercy you have given me.
He says, my dear lord, I cannot understand. What is the qualification that you see in me? Then from here on, he starts, what is the qualification you see in my life? My dear lord, it is my connection with you. It is because of this that mercy is extraordinary mercy.
Therefore, all that I ask you for is the association with your devotees. So, if we look at it, in material life, there is a lot of endeavour and little pleasure. And if we honestly compare the amount of endeavour that we do in material life and the amount of endeavour that we do in spiritual life, we will often find that we endeavour much more in material life than we endeavour in spiritual life.
But even with our little endeavour in spiritual life, we get some results. We get some spiritual happiness. So, we go to this, if in my material life I am putting so much effort, why should Krishna deserve anything less than what my material boss is getting? What my material life is getting? Why should Krishna deserve anything less? So, if we put in the kind of effort that we are putting in material life, in Krishna consciousness, the returns will be phenomenal.
Because Krishna, although he says, ye thamaam prapadyante, as all people suddenly went to me, I record the reciprocate. But actually, Krishna’s reciprocation is not in quantitative terms. We may do this much and do so much more.
It is not equal in quantity. It is far, far greater in quantity. He says, I have always bestowed your mercy on me.
So, Krishna is always in our heart. He is ever willing, ever waiting, ever working. He is ever willing.
When will this soul transform? Whenever. Imagine if we go and befriend some person. Say, if we are very wealthy and there is a pauper somewhere.
And then we tell that pauper, I will make you my friend. And the pauper says, I do not need your friendship. Do you feel insulted? I am offering you my friendship.
You are a pauper. I am a millionaire. You are rejecting my friendship.
So, actually, it is like that with Krishna multiplied many, many more times. Now, Krishna is telling, come. I want to love you.
Let us have a relationship. And Krishna says no. But Krishna never gets insulted.
Krishna is ever willing, ever waiting, and ever working. He does not go away from our heart. No matter what happens, no matter what we do.
You know, that verse in the Bhagavad Gita, Our Acharyas give elaborate analysis of that. But one of the points that our Acharyas make, right from Shridhar Swami downwards, Bhaktivinoda Thakur, they say, there is nothing that we can do that can stop Krishna from loving us. There is nothing that we can ever do that can stop Krishna from loving us.
That is how utterly unconditional Krishna’s love is for us. If we cannot experience Krishna’s love, it is because we have covered our, we have misdirected our consciousness. But Krishna’s love for us is such that we can never stop Krishna from loving us.
And Shridhar Narayan says, my dear Lord, what was my part of your mission? So, the next few verses, he glorifies his spiritual master. And then he talked about, he first says, my dear Lord, actually, you are not partial. Are you partial? You are not partial.
There is, the Sevan Rupam Udayon Paravartam, there is no partiality in you. Everything is Sevan Rupam, as per service. Somebody renders service, you reciprocate.
So, Prabhupada was asked, do you love all your disciples equally? Prabhupada said, yes. But if somebody comes forward to render service, I reciprocate. So, Krishna, naturally, if somebody takes more responsibility, Prabhupada will reciprocate more.
So, this whole chapter, this whole section starts with, in the 6th canto, 25th chapter, actually, Indra is favoured by the Lord of Aranya. And Parikshit Maharaj asks, Krishna should be impartial. Why is he partial like this? And then he describes this whole narrative.
So, the whole question, is Krishna partial or is he impartial? Krishna says, somehow I am impartial. So, Krishna, is he partial or is he impartial? He is impartially partial. So, what does it mean? How can somebody be impartially partial? That means, Krishna is definitely partial to his devotees.
There is no doubt about it. Krishna will go out of his way to help his devotees. So, then he is partial.
And how is he impartial? He impartially allows everyone to become his devotee. So, that is how he is impartially partial. He is partial to his devotees, but he is completely impartial about letting everyone become his devotee.
That is why he is impartially partial. So, that impartial partiality is illustrated by how, actually, Krishna is more pleased, Narasimhadev is more pleased with a person born in a demoniac family, Prahlad, when he is pleased with, who? Devatas over here. Actually, it is entirely according to service.
If anybody is making spiritual advancement, Krishna is not having any favourites. That person is rendering service, that is why that person is making spiritual advancement. Actually, this is very important for us to, as devotees, Krishna does not have any favourites, in the sense that Krishna does not necessarily favour one person over another.
Krishna already gives mercy to everyone. So, as a devotee, now this analogy, Vishwachandra Prabhu gives, and Shri Vaishnavami also gives in the Sammohams of Bhuteshi Parpur. But, where Chakravarti Path says, this analogy, here the analogy is of Surutaror.
Surutaror is of a Kalpataru. Kalpataru, whatever you ask, you will get from that. Whatever we ask, you will get from that.
So, actually, Krishna is like a Kalpataru and the Krishna consciousness movement is also like a Kalpataru. What does that mean? What we come for, we will get. Sometimes, some devotees, they read some news somewhere on the internet and they think, oh, is this controversy going on? Is this controversy going on? What is happening in Krishna consciousness movement? It’s actually, what you want, you will get.
If you want controversy, you will get more controversy than anywhere else in the world. …If you want power, you will get power. If you want money, you will get money.
If you want to commit offences, you can commit more offences than anywhere else. If you want wealth, you will get wealth. If you want Krishna, you will get Krishna also.
So, Surutaror, what we want, Krishna will give us. What we want, Krishna Conscious Movement will also give us. It’s like that.
Actually, anything in the material world will always be embroiled with controversy. It’s inevitable for the nature of material world. But, the point is, beyond the controversy, something much more is available in Krishna Consciousness.
That is Krishna Himself. So, there in the purport, please complete in a few minutes. You won’t be able to go over all the verses.
But, in that purport of Samoham Sarvabhuteshu, he says, Vishwanath Chatterjee says that there is Surataro. So, this analogy of Krishna being like a desire tree is not proper. Although, Prahlad Maharaj used that analogy over there.
Sridhar Swami used that analogy in that purport of 9.29. He says, the Surataro analogy is good enough to describe Krishna’s relationship with materialistic people. And, whatever you ask from them, they give you. This is how the desire tree will give.
But, he says, a desire tree doesn’t become attached to somebody who comes to that desire tree. A desire tree doesn’t become the enemy of somebody whom it is attached to. Krishna, you become attached to your devotees.
Krishna, you become the enemy of your devotee’s enemies. Therefore, Krishna, you are not a Kalpataru. This Kalpataru analogy is useless to describe you.
Kalpataru analogy describes only your relationship with materialistic people. For describing your relationship with your devotee, what is the analogy? This is actually, your relationship with your devotees is so intense, that there is no analogy to describe that relationship. You are the be-all and end-all of your devotees.
Nothing to describe that relationship at all. So, like this, Krishnadevaraya Maharaj goes on and offers this point of how much Krishna loves his devotees. So, Chakravarti Pada elaborates in the conclusion of Buddha Vita in the 11th canto.
So, there, Krishna describes, when concluding the message, he says, that who is the most intelligent person? He says, He says, who is the most intelligent person? He says, It can just… Now, we have so many plans and dreams for our life, but one bug or one bang can finish our whole life. It’s one bug or one bang. He says, And he says that Krishna is this perishable, flimsy material existence, and one life in that, if somebody offers to you, or rather Krishna is saying, if somebody offers this to me, and he gets eternal life in return, that person is the most intelligent person.
Then, Krishna Chakravarti takes the role of Uddhava, then goes in the mind of Uddhava, and he says, Krishna, isn’t this cheating? Somebody is offering so little to you, if you offer one rupee, and that person gives one crore rupees in return. This is not a bargain. This is cheating.
This is daylight robbery, you may say. So, Krishna, how is it that the devotee offers so little to you? Isn’t the devotee cheating you? So, Krishna replies, Krishna says, I love to be cheated by my devotees. I love to be cheated by my devotees.
And then, Krishna gets angry. And he says, do you think I have a business relationship with my devotee? That I am seeing how much the devotee gives me, and then I will measure and decide how much I will give to my devotee. He says, my relationship with my devotee is based on love.
And actually, when the devotee offers something to me, that, I don’t need that. That devotee is offering something to me, actually opens the heart of that devotee for me to offer something to him. Till the devotee doesn’t offer something to me, his heart is closed.
And therefore, what I want to offer, I cannot give to him. So, therefore, he says that, I am longing to offer all my blessings to my devotee. And the devotee just has to open his heart to receive it.
So, when we are rendering some service, actually we are not offering something to Krishna, we are just opening our heart so that Krishna can flood our heart with it. So, therefore, he says, that this is the nature of the relationship between Krishna and devotee. So, Markandeya Rishi, he talks about the same thing further.
You know, Ramanacharya, in his commentary to 7.18 in the Bhagavad Gita, udhara sarva evaite jnanitva atmaiva me matam He is talking about four kinds of people who surrender to him. And he says, all of them are udhara. They are all very udhara.
Now, Prabhupada Saheb is broad-minded. The word udhara means generous. Now, Ramanacharya, in his Gita Bhashya, analyses very beautifully.
Why does he use the word udhara over here? Udhara means charitable. So, actually, Krishna is the supreme charity giver. How can Krishna call his devotee as charitable? So, actually, Ramacharya gives such a beautiful explanation.
He says, Krishna controls everything in the material world except one thing. And that is our heart. He controls everything in the world except our heart.
But Krishna longs and hungers and thirsts for our heart’s love. And therefore, because Krishna is longing for our heart’s love, if somebody offers that heart’s love, even in a contaminated way, even with a material desire, somebody goes to Krishna, Krishna is hungry for that love and Krishna feels grateful to that person. You are offering your love to me, how charitable you are.
So, this is Krishna. Actually, everything that he has given us is his. But when we offer our love to him, Krishna thinks, oh, you are so charitable.
So, Markandeya Rishi says, Krishna, what is your relationship with your devotees? He says, first, you give your mercy to your devotees, that’s how the devotee starts practising devotional service. Then when the devotee starts practising devotional service, you give that devotee ecstasy. And when the devotee gets ecstasy and he starts crying tears in ecstasy, you become happy.
How advanced is my devotee? How much my devotee loves me? How extraordinary is your relationship? Actually, you are doing everything. You are giving the opportunity for devotional service. You are giving the taste in devotional service.
You are giving the inspiration to render devotional service. You are giving the happiness in devotional service. And then you feel grateful when somebody renders devotional service.
He says, where can be another master like this? So, this is Krishna. This Krishna has come as Lord Narasimhadeva. And Lord Maharaj, his heart is filled with realisations like this and many, many more.
And when he sees the Lord’s love, he says, what are all these material benedictions? He says, I don’t want any of them at all. So, later on, his prayers go on. And he shifts from thinking about himself to thinking about everybody else.
And he thinks, my dear Lord, by bhakti, I was delivered. But what about the rest of the world? So, I desire that you please give bhakti to the rest of the world also. And then he says, Krishna, so first the Lord is telling me, you take material benedictions.
He says, no, no, I don’t want material benedictions because they are miserable. They will keep me tied up in material existence. Then the Lord says, okay, you take prema and come back to me.
So, he also has said, I want to come back to you. But then he says, no, my dear Lord, how can I come back to you alone? How can I come back to you alone when everybody else is suffering in the material existence? So, my dear Lord, what I want is that you give bhakti to everyone. And make me an instrument so that I can give bhakti to everyone also.
So, that becomes his heart’s desire. Please give bhakti to everyone. And that’s how he concludes this set of prayers in this chapter.
I will quickly do the work of the remaining things. Then Narasimha Dev says, I am very pleased with you Prahlad. Please ask for something.
And then Prahlad Maharaj says, my dear Lord, why are you tempting me like this? He says, Maya was tempting me and to save myself from Maya, I came to you. If you tempt me, where will I go? If you tempt me, where will I go? To save myself from temptation, I came to you. Then Prahlad Maharaj asks, do you think I am tempting you? No, my dear Lord, you are not tempting me.
I am not going to offend you. Actually, you know, you want to demonstrate the characteristics of your devotee to the world. And that’s why you are actually doing this.
So, therefore, you are doing this. And then Prahlad Maharaj says, my dear Lord, actually, you simply want to glorify your devotee. But I am not doing that.
And I don’t want anything from you because a real servant doesn’t want anything from the master. And then, this is the verse which we concluded with. So, again, last time the Prahlad Maharaj’s conclusion was, my dear Lord, please give bhakti to everyone.
This time the Lord is saying, please take something. He says, please accept my obeisance. That is what all I want from you.
The Lord says, please take something, Prahlad Maharaj. And then Prahlad Maharaj says, yes, please deliver my father. And he says, Prahlad, three saptams ka poota.
He says, what to speak of you, three generations are delivered. Don’t bother about it. And then the Lord tells him that you please don’t.
And then Prahlad Maharaj says, you please rule the Krishna dynasty. My dear Lord, what offence did I do like this that you are making me the king? Lord Narasimha says, it is not an offence. This is a reward.
The first year I said, my dear Lord, please ask for something. So, Prahlad says, yes, my dear Lord, if you really want me to ask for something, I’ll ask for something. So, Narasimha Dev is so happy.
Please ask for something. So, then Prahlad Maharaj says, this is the first time. Second time he asks for Hiranyakashipu’s deliverance.
He says, please ask for something. He says, yes, my dear Lord. I want to ask, but there will be nothing to ask in my heart.
So, Lord Narasimha Dev is so happy. So, Krishna never gets frustrated. But Krishna is frustrated here.
Because he wants to do something for the devotee. The devotee is not ready to let him do anything. Then he says, please deliver Narasimha Dev.
So, please deliver Hiranyakashipu. He says, he has already delivered. But for your sake, yes, it will be completely delivered.
I assure you about that. And then he says, please rule while remembering me. If you keep remembering me and keep ruling, then not only will you never become contaminated, but you will bless the whole world.
And then he says, then you will rule. He says, how long will I have to rule? I want to come back to you. So, Lord says, only for one manvantar.
One manvantar for Ladakhs. So, this is actually yaanisha sarva bhoota rao. The Lord wants to bless, but the devotee is thinking every blessing to be a burden.
One manvantar I will have to stay away from you. Then, as a service to the Lord, he accepts this. And finally, when Prahlad Maharaj is installed, so Lord Narasimhadev is there for his installation.
And then he actually, right in front of Prahlad Maharaj only, a small boy is there. Lord Narasimhadev glorifies Prahlad and chastises Brahmaji also. He says, why do you give troublesome benedictions like this to people? Don’t give benedictions like this.
And then Lord Narasimhadev disappears. Then Lord Narasimhadev disappears. At that time, Lord Narasimhadev comes back.
Lord Narasimhadev says, Mr. Maharaj, that actually, Prahlad Maharaj is the greatest of all devotees. And actually, these small days, Lord Narasimhadev never once says, Prahlad is my disciple. He says that, I instructed.
I instructed. And he also makes it clear, Chakravarti Padme makes it clear that Lord Narasimhadev, Lord Narasimhadev was performing austerity for thousands of years. So, his wife, she felt that, I don’t want to deliver my child as long as my husband is away.
Therefore, Narad Muni gives her a benediction that as long as your husband is away, your child will not be delivered. So, Hiranyakashipu does austerity for thousands of years. All that time, for thousands of years, Prahlad is hearing Krishna Katha from Narad Muni.
So, Narad Muni has spoken to him. There’s a lot of service he has done. And Hiranyakashipu, thousands of years of tapasya, it ends after just 5 years.
At the age of 5, Prahlad defies him. He tries to attack Prahlad and he is killed. So, that is how, you know, significant trouble, insignificant happiness.
That’s how it is in material existence. But, just as Prahlad doesn’t take any credit. He doesn’t think, I am a great devotee.
Narad Muni doesn’t take any credit. My disciple. I did so much for him.
Finally, when he ends his austerity, he says, what is the benediction? He says, two benedictions. First is, that anybody who hears and glorifies Prahlad Maharaj, that person will develop love following the teachings of Prahlad Maharaj. And then that person will soon come back.
This is the actual ultimate blessing we can get. This, this, fast times give us a glimpse of Krishna’s love for the, all of us, Krishna’s love for the world. We will recite one prayer to Lord Narasimhadev.
That will conclude this class. This is the prayer. We will recite this prayer at the beginning.
This, this prayer which we will recite, is from the Narasimha Kabbaji. It describes the beauty of Lord Narasimhadev. So, we have, Radharani described as Tatt Kanchina Gaurana.
So, Prahlad Maharaj described Narasimhadev in terms of Tatt Kanchina. Very beautiful thing. Described in the form of the Lord.
Tatt Kanchina Sankasham Peeta Nirmala Vasasam. So, he says, you are wearing a effulgent yellow garment, just like the sun. And Indiradi Surama Unnishtam.
So, all these Devatas are there, but you are far beyond them. And Suranmani Ki Ditti Bhi. Actually, effulgent.
So, you see in this prayer also, he primarily focusses on glorifying Lord Narasimhadev. His beauty. So, here he is revealing, honestly, it is not ferocious, it is beautiful.
Let us repeat this verse and then conclude. Tatt Kanchina Sankasham Peeta Nirmala Vasasam. Indiradi Surama Unnishtam.
Suranmani Ki Ditti Bhi. Prasinde Bhagwan Ki. Shri Narasimhadev Ji Mahamahotsav Ki.
Prahlad Maharaj Ki. Shri Prabhupada Ki. Gaur Bhakt Nanda Ki.