Utilizing fame in Krishna_s service_SB 1_12_5

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you very much.
Yashascha Tridivam Gatam Yashascha Tridivam Gatam Shambhala Pradamodho Swamisi Namine Namaste Saraswati Deve Gauravani Pracharine Nirvishesha Shunyavadi Pashchatya Desha Tharine Namo Mahavadanyaya Vishnaya Vishnaya Vishnachaitanya Namine Gauratishe Namaha Hey Krishna Karuna Sindho Dina Bandho Jagatpate Gopesh Gopika Kanta Radha Kanta Namostute Tapta Kanchana Gaurangi Radhe Vrindavaneshwari Vrishabhanu Sute Devi Pranamami Hari Priya Vancha Kalpa Kriya Kriya Kriya Kriya Kriya Kriya Kriya Kriya Kriya Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Sri Radha Kunj Bihari Bhagwan Ki Sri Gaur Nithai Bhagwan Ki Chandan Yatra Ki Sri Vithal Rukmani Bhagwan Ki I seek the blessings of all the devotees especially His Grace Radhe Shyam Prabhu so that I can speak something worthwhile for the purification of my own filthy heart Here, So, the extraordinary fame of Maharaja Yudhishthira is being discussed. How it had spread even to the higher planetary systems. So in today’s class we will try to discuss how fame comes in the life of a devotee and how a devotee tries to deal with it.
And we will see how Maharaja Yudhishthira sets an ideal example for us. Now, our Gaudiya Vaishnavacharyas, I think it is Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami, he explains that Krishna is the only enjoyer and the only source of enjoyment. Very interesting.
He says, the only enjoyer and the only source of enjoyment. And to the extent the soul accepts Krishna as the only enjoyer, to that extent Krishna becomes the only source of enjoyment for that devotee. In fact all other sources of enjoyment are maya, coming from maya, they are illusion, as Prahlad Maharaj calls them, maya sukha, they don’t bring happiness, they actually bring misery.
Now at our stage, because we have not yet accepted Krishna as the enjoyer, we also have the enjoy mentality, so Krishna consciousness doesn’t appear to be such a great source of enjoyment for us. But still the fact is that Krishna is the only enjoyer and when Maharaja Yudhishthira has wholeheartedly accepted Krishna as the only enjoyer, then we will see how Krishna has become the source of such great enjoyment for Maharaja Yudhishthira. Fame is something which the people of this world are mad for, they are ready to die for it.
But they don’t get the fame and even if they get it, it is finished very soon by the time a person dies. Actually by the time a person struggles hard to make it top in the world and becomes famous, more than half of his life is over. And then he has to struggle to maintain his fame and eventually he loses it.
But a devotee who accepts Krishna as the supreme enjoyer for him, Krishna becomes the supreme, the only source of enjoyment for him and such great, when Krishna wants to give enjoyment, he can give unlimited enjoyment to his devotee. So everything that a moralistic person will hanker for, wealth, beautiful wife, very aristocratic relatives, sovereignty over the whole world and so much that even the heavenly planet residents were wanting the association of Yudhishthira Maharaj and were waiting for him to come to the heavenly planets. So that is, for a pure devotee, the Lord gives him everything material also.
He becomes the source of enjoyment for the devotee. At our stage, when we are practising sadhakas, once there was one devotee, Jananivas Prasad who told his pastime, I forgot the name of that devotee, he was a very good kirtan singer. And Prabhupada once appreciated him, your kirtan is so nice.
So he told Prabhupada, he confessed his heart, he said, Prabhupada, I sometimes feel proud. And Prabhupada very nonchalantly said, what’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with that? So Jananivas Prabhu was explaining that this pastime can be misunderstood, that philosophy But the point is, in the heart of the souls, there is the desire to do something glorious and to be glorified by others. There is pride within the heart.
So what Prabhupada was saying is, better do something glorious in Krishna’s service. And by doing something glorious in Krishna’s service, that pride will become purified. Otherwise, if we don’t do something glorious for Krishna, we will want to do something glorious in the eyes of materialistic people.
And that will drag us down. And that was the glory of Vedic culture, that in Vedic culture, virtue was glorified. And so, if somebody wanted to become glorious, he would have to become virtuous.
And that becoming virtuous would also be good for his spiritual advancement. Unlike that, we see in modern society, virtue is not, maybe there is some namesake glorification of virtue. But actually, it is sinfulness that is glorified.
Basically, glamour means lust, the sexual appeal of a person that is just called as glamour. Or just, the greed of a person is called as ambition. So all this, in modern society, if we see the movies, which are what, the ideal for most people, they glorify violence, sin.
And that’s why, that has become the standard in modern society. And so, if somebody wants to become great in the eyes of materialistic persons, he has to become greatly sinful. And then he becomes, he is able to satisfy that pride.
Of course, the pride can never be satisfied. But the Vedic culture was arranged in such a way that even if somebody wants to be proud, he has to do something virtuous. So, Vedic culture engaged even in the false ego in devotional service.
The false ego is a very great obstacle, but at least in the start, the false ego can be engaged in devotional service. Just like now, we have the sadhana card system. What is that? Isn’t it? We all have that desire.
Many of us were toppers and we want to get good marks. So now, the system is there by which we can get good marks in devotional service. Isn’t it? So, that is actually something which is very good because it makes us diligently follow the principles of devotional service.
Unlike that in modern society, we see here, Prabhupada talks about the attempts to barge from the other planets. That actually is considered to be the greatest triumph and pride of modern human society. That modern man has landed on the moon.
Now, of course, Prabhupada very strongly said that they didn’t go to the moon. But that, breaking the laws of God, just like Ravana, he wanted to build a staircase and to ascend to the heavenly planets. So, modern man is building a technological staircase.
He is using spacecrafts to go to the higher planets and that is considered very glorious. So in the Brahmanda Purana, one of the names of Lord Narasimhadev, very interesting, it is described. You can repeat this verse after me.
sarva-mantraika-rupasya sarva-yantra-vidhara-maha sarva-tantra-atma-kavyakta suvyakta-bhakta-vatsalaha So, it is described, sarva-mantraika-rupasya, that all the mantras are the form of the divine one Supreme Lord. That one Supreme Lord is manifested in the many many mantras, like the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra, Narasimha Mantra, Narasimha Aarti we say. And then, the next name is sarva-yantra-vidhara-maha.
So vidhara-maha means destroy. So destroyer of all machines. That is one of the names of Lord Narasimhadev.
So there, the translator explained that machines refers to demoniac arrangements. As we know, when there is Krishna, when Mayadana offered yantra-vidhya to Arjuna, Krishna forwarded him, don’t take it, because this is the demoniac art. So sarva-yantra-vidhara-maha, the Lord, whatever arrangements, either the Lord will destroy the machines or through the mechanical arrangements, people try to become happy.
Those attempts to become happy will be destroyed. So, Srila Prabhupada in general said that, Sadaputra Prabhu has classified Prabhupada’s statements about the moon landing into three categories. Majority of the statements Prabhupada says that, they just didn’t go out of the planet earth.
They just, and there are many modern movies and other things coming up, which substantiate this point, that they didn’t go to the moon. Now, of course, India has launched this Operation Chandrayaan, they want to go to the moon, and following in the ignorant footsteps of America. But so, that’s one thing that Prabhupada said, they didn’t go out of the planet earth only, and there is one human layer out of which they cannot go.
Occasionally Prabhupada said that, even if they went out of the planet, they didn’t go to the moon. They were diverted by the demigods to some other planet. And they thought that they reached the moon.
So, actually, according to our Vedic cosmology, when there is Chandra Granth, we say that Rahu and Ketu devour it. So basically, at certain points in the orbit of the moon, the Rahu and Ketu are also planets, and they are dark planets. Dark planet means they don’t reflect sunlight.
So we can’t see those planets. So at certain points in their orbits, the position of the moon and the position of Rahu and Ketu coincide. So because of that, what happens is, we call it as Chandra Granth, it’s a lunar eclipse.
So Prabhupada says that they may have gone to this Rahu. They may have diverted to the Rahu and they thought they went to the moon. And very few, one or two statements Prabhupada says, they might have gone to the moon, but they didn’t access the moon.
So here, he gives an example that somebody comes in the Sahara desert in India, in this world. And he looks around and says, there are no people living in the Sahara desert, and he goes back and says, there is no life on the earth. So of course, it’s a simplistic example.
And Sairaputra explains the principle that, just as when the demigods come to this planet, they are higher dimensional creatures, they are higher dimensional beings, and so we cannot perceive them with our eyes. Similarly, even if somehow by some mechanical arrangements, by some spacecraft, we go to the planet, the celestial body that we see in the sky called moon, we cannot access the higher dimensional realm called the moon, Chandraloka. A simple example, just like if we draw a map of India.
Now on the map of India, say Pune is at one place and Mumbai is at another place. Now the map is a two dimensional representation of the three dimensional reality of the topography, of the surface of the planet. Now it is representative, but because it is lower dimensional, the reality is three dimensional, whereas the map is a two dimensional representation.
So now if I move my finger from Pune to Mumbai, have I reached Mumbai? I can say on the map I have reached, but actually I have not experienced anything about Mumbai. There are so many people living, so much crowd, so much heat, and there are wonderful temples, Chowpatty, Juhu, we don’t experience anything in that. So similarly we human beings by our body and mind are restricted to three dimensional space.
And so even if in this three dimensional space we travel out and reach the three dimensional representation of the Chandraloka, which we see as the moon, we will not access the higher dimensional reality there. So even if they went to the moon, which most likely they didn’t, as Prabhupada very strongly says, they didn’t access the moon. And that’s why Prabhupada would say, life comes from life, there is a title, the billion dollar dust heap.
We spent billions of dollars and went there and what did we get? Some dust. And not only that, after getting the dust also what did the scientists say? We are surprised that the dust on the moon is similar to the dust on the earth. Then what was the benefit of going there? But because in Kali Yuga, wise is glorified.
So this breaking the laws of God and as they say conquering space, of course, they didn’t conquer space, illusion conquered them and they think that they have conquered space. But this is what is considered glorious. But in Vedic culture, to be virtuous was considered glorious.
And that is the start of devotional service. Everybody wants to do something good, something that will be appreciated and praised by others. And in Vedic culture, if somebody engages in devotional service, in transcendental practises, then that is encouraged and appreciated.
That’s why Shri Prabhupada said, what’s wrong with that? However, that is the beginning. So when we move forward in devotional service, at that time, we have to become more careful. In the Chaitanya Charita Amrit, Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu describes about the growth of Bhakti as the growth of the Bhaktilata beach.
He says, so in our heart, the spiritual master has planted the Bhaktilata beach, but from our own past karma, there is also the kama-karma beach. So we have to check which beach are we watering. Now we may water the wrong beach and starve the desired beach.
And if that happens, then, say the desire for sense gratification, the desire for fame, if they choke our desire to serve Krishna, then that same thing can become the cause of our undoing. That’s why once Shri Prabhupada was asking his disciples, so what is the qualification needed to advance in devotional service? So generally, Prabhupada writes in his purport, sincerity. So the devotees said, sincerity.
Prabhupada said, yes, sincerity and intelligence. He says, of course, if we are sincere, Krishna adadami buddhi yogam tam, He will give intelligence. But still, we need intelligence in applying the principles of devotional service.
So especially to engage the things of this world in Krishna’s service, we have to be very cautious. Bhaktivikas Maharaj writes in the Brahmacharya and Krishna Consciousness that as devotees we are expected to practise yukta-vairagya, but he says there cannot be any yukta-vairagya unless there is vairagya first. So there has to be detachment.
If the detachment is not there, then in the name of yukta-vairagya, only the yukta will remain. And then yukta will turn into bhukta. We will start sense gratification.
So we have to be careful about that. And the scriptures, they talk about how Krishna is merciful, but at the same time, they also caution us about how Maya is merciless. Maya, she sees a small weakness in a sadhaka and she just attacks that.
A small desire to enjoy is there and Maya just fans and fuels that and then that can destroy the devotional creeper. We see, Jada Bharat, Bharat Maharaj, he was so detached that he left home to renounce the world. He renounced all the opulences that people of this world are mad for, but then he developed one compassionate attachment to a deer and what was the result? To take two more births in the material existence.
So Maya is in that sense very cruel. She says, of course, that is her service to Krishna. In the Bhagavatam, Maya is described as Vaishnavi, Janamohini.
So she is Vaishnavi. But as a Vaishnavi, what is her service? Janamohini. To delude all the living entities.
So only the pure living entities she allows to move forward. And as a devotee, she is very pakka in her service to the Lord. So when the Mahabharata war was going on, at that time, Arjuna took the vow after the unfortunate death of Abhimanyu that next day I will kill Jayadratha or I will enter into the fire.
And then with Krishna as a charioteer, Arjuna was just marading through the Kaurava army and anybody who came in front of him, Krishna, Arjuna was just destroying them. And at that time, Duryodhana became panicky and he told Dronacharya, who was his commander at that time, he says, Arjuna is destroying our forces just as a farmer cuts off paddy. You are our commander, please do something to save us.
So Drona became very grave and he said, the Pandavas have planned their strategy very well. Now while Arjuna has penetrated into our ranks, all the other Pandava generals are attacking our other Kaurava generals and so no other general is free. He says, I along with Karna and Ashwatthama have to stand next to Jayadratha because soon Arjuna will reach Jayadratha and we have to protect him.
So then Drona smiled and he says, I can see only one general who can stop Arjuna at this time. So Drona says, who is that? He says, you my dear child. Drona became shocked.
He said, oh Acharya! He folded his hands. He said, it may be possible for me to stop Indra in his tracks, but I cannot possibly counter Arjuna and certainly not Arjuna who is enraged by the death of his son. So Dronacharya smiled.
He said, I know that, but I have some special plan for you. And then he told him, I have got a special armour, an armour that has been given to be my father. I think it is Gautam Rishi and that cannot be pierced by any weapon and I will put that armour on you.
And with this armour, you can stop anybody in the world, what to speak of Arjuna. So Duryodhana became very happy and then Drona chanted the mantras. It was not a physical armour.
He chanted the mantras and the armour was put on him. It was a mantra armour and Duryodhana charged off and he came right in front of Arjuna and Krishna who were moving forward. So Arjuna was surprised to see Duryodhana standing so fearlessly in front of him and Krishna also, of course, realised that, oh, this son of Dhritarashtra appears to be bent on his own death.
He is standing so fearlessly and Duryodhana challenged Arjuna, he said, oh Arjuna, you have shown your heroics against lesser warriors. If you have courage, fight with me and I will destroy your pride and your life today. So then Arjuna started shooting arrows at him and all the arrows that were shot, they were just deflected.
They just appeared to hit him but they didn’t hurt him and Duryodhana laughed and he said, keep trying your strength, oh Arjuna, and when you are exhausted, I will show you my strength and Krishna said, oh Arjuna, what is wrong? This is a crucial moment. This is not the time to lose. So Arjuna started thinking and then he realised by the grace of Krishna, he said, oh, Drona has put this armour on him and he said, with this armour, he is undefeatable.
But still, oh Krishna, by your grace, just see how I will defeat him. And then Arjuna knew that this armour covered the whole body, except for one part, that was the tip of the fingers because he has to pick up arrows and shoot. There has to be some flexibility in the fingers but the armour was not covering there.
So Arjuna just took careful aim and Duryodhana was fearless, shoot, shoot, then I will kill you. And Arjuna took careful aim and shot arrows and ten arrows into the ten fingers of Duryodhana and they went straight into his body and Duryodhana started dropping his bow and started jumping and screaming and then when Drona, I think Kripa realised what had happened, Kripa immediately came there and challenged Arjuna and Duryodhana fled. So the point here is that, in a war, when there is a confrontation between the enemies, the enemies are ruthless.
If they see any slight weakness, it is that weakness that is completely focused upon. So Arjuna found that small weakness in Duryodhana’s armour and focused on that. So Arjuna is a devotee and similarly Mayadevi is also a devotee.
And when she sees even a slightest weakness in a devotee, she focusses on that weakness. Whatever that weakness, she creates temptations in that devotee’s life by which he becomes slowly more and more vulnerable. So even when a devotee is engaged in devotional service, sincerely practising Krishna’s message and preaching Krishna’s message, even at that time, one has to be very careful about what is happening in one’s consciousness.
So if pride, lust, anger, greed, they start increasing, then we may be doing devotional service but still maya is weakening us from within. So there is a real life story of one doctor in Kenya, his name was Dr. Kent. So he was a very reputed doctor and Kenya, as many of you know, is a poor country.
So there was one very terrible epidemic disease that was destroying thousands of people in Kenya and this doctor was qualified to treat that disease. So he went into that area where there was an epidemic and he started a hospital there and started saving many, many hundreds of people and he became a national hero by that. That disease spreads by contact with blood.
So if a person who has that disease, say some blood falls off and that blood comes in contact with another person, then he gets infected. So he, just by his inspiration, many other people came and joined and they were doing tremendous service, they were saving so many people’s lives. So at one time, sometimes when this disease becomes very advanced, the patient becomes mad.
So one time, one such patient started going mad, started shouting and screaming and the nurses were trying to control him, but they couldn’t. So it was late at night. So they went and woke up this doctor and the doctor in his haste, he just came hastily and he forgot to put on his mask and his gloves and he went and he pacified that patient and saved him.
But in the process, he got infected and within three months, he died of the same disease which he was trying to save others from. So material nature is cruel. She is merciless, not just in biological terms, but also in the terms in which we are trying to purify ourselves of anarthas.
If maya sees some weakness, if there is some carelessness, then maya is very cruel and she capitalises on that carelessness. Of course, we see the other side, Krishna is merciful and Krishna will give that devotee many chances to come back to his lotus feet. But still, the point remains that a devotee has to be very careful while practising devotional service.
So Shri Prabhupada, another time was asked, Prabhupada, what is the most important qualification to go back home, back to Godhead? So Prabhupada replied, be convinced that this world is a place of misery and want to get out of this. So that actually is very basic philosophy, 7.14, Dukkhalayamashashvatam, so 8.14. But that conviction has to be, sometimes when, as we advance in devotional service, we start getting abilities, we start getting fame, we start getting many other things. So often we start thinking that this world is itself an enjoyable place, nice place.
So that core conviction is that this world is Dukkhalayam and that we have to get out of it. Then, with that conviction, we will always be cautious. And of course, our preaching means we are helping others also to get out of this world.
But still, we have to be, make sure, as Prabhupada says, to save others is my mission, but a more important mission, he says, one letter is to save you. Prabhupada says, in one disciple, in one letter to his disciple, he is saying, to save others is certainly my mission, but a more important mission is to save you. So actually, we see this cruelty of material nature in many places.
Actually when we go, if somebody goes by air flights, I had heard this in lecture, but first time I went, I saw that, they announced that if there is an emergency, say there is some oxygen shortage or something, at that time oxygen masks drop with this attached cylinder. And then the announcement is that if there is an emergency and the oxygen masks drop, then first fasten it on yourself before fastening it on your child. Why? Because oxygen is so crucial for us that a few moments delay, then we try to fasten it on our child and we are neither able to save him nor ourselves.
So that’s why we see material nature is very cruel and we have to be very careful in interacting with material nature. So, as we practise devotional service, Krishna, he empowers, he blesses his devotees with many abilities, which also bring fame. It is inevitable.
In fact, in devotional service, we say, if we just stay for a few years, we become senior and we are respected. And if we do a little service, we are glorified. Actually, in material life, for someone to be respected and glorified takes many, many years to come to that position.
But Krishna gives all this to his devotee and it is the devotee’s sincerity and intelligence to be very careful in not being infatuated by this. So what happens is when we are practising devotional service, we may get a little fame and then that gives us some taste which is not spiritual and we may want it more and more and more and then we start hankering for it more and more and then devotional service starts becoming tasteless. So here, we see Yudhishthira Maharaj, although he had so much fame, but what was his consciousness? We see earlier only, he had just become the world emperor.
But it’s so amazing. Vishnu’s psychology is very difficult for us conditioned souls to understand. Here he has just become victorious, he has conquered the whole kingdom and now he is about to be enthroned as the king.
And what is he thinking? He is thinking, why cause so much bloodshed? It’s so amazing how a devotee can think like this. We see Prahlad Maharaj also. He was the hero in the whole Narsinha Leela.
In the Narsinha Purana, it is described how Prahlad Maharaj, he faced so many dangers. When he was put into fire, he said, Shri Radha Kunj Bihari Bhagwan ki, Shri Gaonitai Bhagwan ki, So, Prahlad Maharaj, Narsinha, sorry, Hiranyakashipu, he tried to get venomous serpents from Nagaloka to kill Prahlad Maharaj. And they were so venomous, that what to speak of biting, just by the wind coming from their body, people would die.
Kalia was one sample. So, those venomous serpents came and they bit Prahlad Maharaj with their fangs. And what happened? Their fangs broke into pieces.
And there where he got celestial elephants to crush Prahlad Maharaj. And the elephants, two elephants came, they caught Prahlad and they pierced him with his tusks. And the tusks broke apart.
And Prahlad Maharaj was unaffected. They tried to drown him in the ocean. And Prahlad Maharaj just floated and the ocean overflowed.
They tried to put him in fire. And Prahlad Maharaj just stayed peacefully over there. And finally Hiranyakashipu got so angry.
He said, How is it that all these things are not able to kill you? So, Prahlad Maharaj was so cool, he said, You are saying that how can all these kill me? He said, How can snake kill me? Snake is my father’s bed. You are trying to drown me in ocean, but the ocean is my grandfather. You are trying to give me poison, but the poison is my maternal uncle.
You are trying to… So, basically I think all of us understood. You are trying to… One more thing. So, what is the poison? In the Amrit Manthan was done at that time, Lakshmi Devi was born and along with that poison was born.
So, poison he is saying is my maternal uncle. The Bhagavatam describes that at that time when Lord Shiva drank the poison, some poison spilled off. And that poison was drunk by the snakes and serpents.
And that’s how they became poisonous. So, for Prahlad Maharaj, Sarva Krishna Maya Jagat. You are trying to kill me with snakes.
My father’s bed. Lord Vishnu lies on Anantashesh. You are trying to drown me in the ocean, but that is my grandfather.
So, he was so Krishna conscious that he was unaffected by all this. And then, when Lord Narasimhadev came in front of him, he delivered Hiranyakashipu. And what did Prahlad Maharaj say? At that time, Lord has appeared personally for him, but what is he thinking? He is thinking, oh, I am born in a sinful family.
So, I remember once, when Chandramouli Maharaj was giving class, and I was doing the service of translating. So, one time, when some question was asked, Chandramouli Maharaj forgot that there is somebody translating. So, then he went on speaking for 25-30 minutes.
And then, he realised that translation is to be done. Then, I tried to do translation. And then after that, next morning, Vrindavan Prabhu was there.
And he was telling, he was appreciating that he was remembering so much. So, it’s very good. So, then I just told, it’s all Krishna’s mercy.
And then, what he replied, I remember till now. He said, if you remember this, that is Krishna’s greater mercy. So, ability, as we advance in devotional service, we get abilities.
So, ability is the first instalment of Krishna’s mercy. But, humility is the second and much more greater instalment, much more important instalment of Krishna’s mercy. Krishna gives us abilities initially, so that we become steady, become happy in devotional service.
But, later on, we have to also develop humility. And if we get that humility, then we can become steady in devotional service. And we see, Chandan Yatra festival is there, Madhavendra Puri, he was so afraid of fame.
When he came to know that, all the people in Ramuna are knowing that Gopinath stole the kheer from him, he fled from that place. But, there it is described in Chaitanya Chaitanya Tama, that fame follows a devotee, even if the devotee doesn’t want it. In fact, not only did fame follow, but fame went ahead of him.
And this fame had reached Puri even before he reached Puri. And then, of course, he saw that this was the Lord’s arrangement, and he used that fame to procure the Chandan and have it transported back to Vrindavan. Of course, the Lord arranged that.
And he applied to Ramuna, Kheer Chaur Gopinath. Similarly, we see Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada, he was, in one sense, he appeared quite proud.
But at heart, he was very humble. He used the fame that he had got in Krishna’s service. When he came back to India, it was such a glamorous thing that here is an Indian Swami with foreign disciples.
And at one time, one satsang programme was organised, big, like Bhagavad Sapta sort of big programme was organised in Jaipur. So, two Mataji disciples of Prabhupada, they had gone to Jaipur to have darshan. And there, the Jaipur residents, when they saw that these Matajis have such devotion, they were very surprised.
And then they talked with them and they said, what can we do for you? And they said, please get Prabhupada here. And then they arranged a big Pandal programme. So at that time, they did the pamphlets, and when Prabhupada came there, Prabhupada saw the pamphlet.
He said, Bhaktivedanta Swami with his foreign disciples. Prabhupada got very angry. He said, why have you written foreign disciples? You should write American and European disciples.
Now it may appear, because America and Europe are like the spiritual world for Indians. So Prabhupada wanted specifically. So it may appear that Prabhupada is, you know, he is wanting his own glorification.
But Prabhupada was very humble at his heart. For preaching to the masses, he always took the leading position, because that was how he was engaging the fame. And he often said, there are so many foreign, I don’t have to speak much, he would many times in lectures say.
You can see how these foreigners have become devotees. So he was in one sense proud of his disciples. One disciple, Prabhupada wrote a letter.
He said, my chest swells in joy to have disciples like you. My chest swells in pride to have disciples like you. So was Prabhupada proud? We see he was always very respectful in his dealings with his God brothers.
Especially those who were not envious of him. When the land, like we had this Bhumi Poojan, when the Bhumi Poojan of the Mayapur temple was to take place. At that time, they had assembled and it was just like a wasteland.
There was nothing there. And the devotees had arranged one chair for Prabhupada to sit. And they were all sitting on the ground.
And then Prabhupada’s God brothers came. And Prabhupada said, bring chairs. And there were no chairs anywhere.
And then I think it was Bhavan Maharaj who told, Prabhupada, there are no chairs here. So Prabhupada said, no, we cannot start the programme. And then they delayed the programme for one hour.
The devotees went all the way from there to Nadia, to Navadweep. And they got chairs. And after that Prabhupada started the programme.
So we see Prabhupada was so respectful to his God brothers. So for the sake of preaching, he took a very aggressive position. Which may be mistaken as pride.
But he was very respectful. At one time, some of his God brothers, they criticised him saying, why are you using the title Prabhupada? That is the title of our spiritual master. So when they came to meet him, Prabhupada showed him his own letterhead.
And on his letterhead, it was Bhaktivedanta Swami. So Prabhupada told them that, you know, it is my disciples who have given this name Prabhupada to me. I have not taken this name.
You see, my own personal, Prabhupada would not sign any of his letters as Prabhupada. He said, it is your ever-revolutionary, Bhaktivedanta Swami. So Prabhupada was at the core very humble.
And that is how he could take the fame and he could use it in Krishna’s service as Maharaja Yudhishthira did. This is him with Maharaja Yudhishthira. As soon as his service got over, Krishna left the planet.
He also left the world and left his kingdom and renounced the world. So we have to pray to Krishna that we can properly practise devotional service and not get misled by all these anarthas, not what are the wrong bijas. So it is described, there, I’ll conclude with this point, in Chaitanya Charita Amrit, he says, when the bijas are growing, so the other weeds that are growing along with the Bhakti Lada beach, both look identical.
They look very, very similar. And for the sadhaka himself to identify which is the right way is very difficult. And this is where the role of the spiritual master or the spiritual preceptor comes into the picture.
So it is only he can tell the sadhaka that this is the Kama-Karma beach or this is the Bhakti Lada beach and which to water and which to starve. So it is said that on the path of devotional service, Maya is like a thief who has come to plunder the wealth of our devotion. But the Vaishnavas are like the guards.
They protect the wealth of devotion. So we have to take shelter of the Vaishnavas, their guidance, their instruction. That’s why Vandomui Savadhanamate.
You always be very alert in following the instructions. And then we can advance steadily in devotional service. And as it is said here that Maharaj Yudhishthira, the heavenly pads, the residents were eager to have him.
He ultimately, according to Karmakaranda version, he went to heaven but ultimately he went back to the spiritual world. So I’ll quickly summarise. The first point was how Krishna is the only enjoyer and the only source of enjoyment.
The devotee accepts Krishna as the only enjoyer. Now Krishna gives him unlimited enjoyment as he did to Maharaj Yudhishthira. So at the start of spiritual life, it is, Vedic culture arranges, it engages the false ego in devotional service.
We are given some abilities and we are appreciated and glorified for engaging those abilities in Krishna’s service. But as we advance, we have to discriminate which beach am I watering. Just as Krishna is merciful, Maya is merciless.
If a devotee is not careful, so we discussed three examples of Maya’s mercilessness. One is Bharat Maharaj. The other was the doctor.
And the third was the baby. Baby and parents on the flight. And of course, the story of Mahabharata.
War means you find the weak points of the enemy. So same applies with Maya also. And then, how an advanced devotee can even use fame in Krishna’s service.
As did Madhavendra Puri and Srila Prabhupada. So thank you very much. Srila Prabhupada ki Pranthara Srimad Bhagavatam ki Mithai Gaur Premanand Hare Krishna