KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.3.21
- The common man, who is expected to become at least a third-class devotee, is advised herein to visit the temple of the Lord and bow down before the Deity, even though he may be a very rich man or even a king with a silk turban or crown.
- The Lord is the Lord of everyone, including the great kings and emperors, and men who are rich in the estimation of mundane people must therefore make it a point to visit the temple of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and regularly bow down before the Deity.
- The Lord in the temple in the worshipable form is never to be considered to be made of stone or wood, for the Lord in His arcā incarnation as the Deity in the temple shows immense favor to the fallen souls by His auspicious presence.
- By the hearing process, this realization of the presence of the Lord in the temple is made possible. Hearing by all classes of devotees from the authentic sources like Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is essential.
- A foolish, puffed-up man defies the science of God and says that God has no meaning for him, but when he is in the grip of God’s law and is caught by some disease like cerebral thrombosis, that godless man sinks into the ocean of nescience by the weight of his material acquisition
- Advancement of material science without God consciousness is a heavy load on the head of human society, and so one must take heed of this great warning.
- The common man, if he has no time to worship the Lord, may at least engage his hands for a few seconds in washing or sweeping the Lord’s temple.
- Mahārāja Pratāparudra, the greatly powerful king of Orissa, was always very busy with heavy state responsibilities, yet he made it a point to sweep the temple of Lord Jagannātha at Purī once a year during the festival of the Lord.
- The idea is that however important a man one may be he must accept the supremacy of the Supreme Lord. This God consciousness will help a man even in his material prosperity.
- Mahārāja Pratāparudra’s subordination before Lord Jagannātha made him a powerful king, so much so that even the great Pathan in his time could not enter into Orissa on account of the powerful Mahārāja Pratāparudra.
- And at last Mahārāja Pratāparudra was graced by Lord Śrī Caitanya on the very grounds of his acceptance of subordination to the Lord of the universe. So even though a rich man’s wife has glittering bangles made of gold on her hands, she must engage herself in rendering service to the Lord
- SB 2.3. 20 – One who has not listened to the messages about the prowess and marvelous acts of the Personality of Godhead and has not sung or chanted loudly the worthy songs about the Lord is to be considered to possess earholes like the holes of snakes and a tongue like the tongue of a frog.
- SB 2.1.3 – The lifetime of such an envious householder is passed at night either in sleeping or in sex indulgence, and in the daytime either in making money or maintaining family members.
- SB 2.1.4 – Persons devoid of ātma-tattva do not inquire into the problems of life, being too attached to the fallible soldiers like the body, children and wife. Although sufficiently experienced, they still do not see their inevitable destruction.
- Bhakti Vinoda Thakur writes a song eko kalichela… a pseudo Vaiṣṇava with tilaka on his nose and kaṇṭhī beads around his neck. Such a pseudo-Vaiṣṇava associates with money and women and is jealous of successful Vaiṣṇavas.
- Although passing for a Vaiṣṇava, his only business is earning money in the dress of a Vaiṣṇava. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, therefore, says that such a pseudo-Vaiṣṇava is not a Vaiṣṇava at all but a disciple of Kali-Yuga.
SB 2.3.21 TRANSLATION:
The upper portion of the body, though crowned with a silk turban, is only a heavy burden if not bowed down before the Personality of Godhead who can award mukti [freedom]. And the hands, though decorated with glittering bangles, are like those of a dead man if not engaged in the service of the Personality of Godhead Hari.
CLASS NOTES:
COMMON MAN IS EXPECTED TO TO VISIT THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD AND BOW DOWN BEFORE THE DEITY
The common man, who is expected to become at least a third-class devotee, is advised herein to visit the temple of the Lord and bow down before the Deity, even though he may be a very rich man or even a king with a silk turban or crown. The Lord is the Lord of everyone, including the great kings and emperors, and men who are rich in the estimation of mundane people must therefore make it a point to visit the temple of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and regularly bow down before the Deity.
THE REALIZATION OF THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD IN THE TEMPLE IS MADE POSSIBLE BY HEARING
The Lord in the temple in the worshipable form is never to be considered to be made of stone or wood, for the Lord in His arcā incarnation as the Deity in the temple shows immense favor to the fallen souls by His auspicious presence. By the hearing process, as mentioned hereinbefore, this realization of the presence of the Lord in the temple is made possible. Hearing by all classes of devotees from the authentic sources like Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is essential.
THE COMMON MAN WHO IS PUFFED UP WITH HIS MATERIAL POSITION AND DOES NOT BOW DOWN BEFORE THE DEITY OF THE LORD IN THE TEMPLE,
or who defies temple worship without any knowledge of the science, (Science of Krsna) must know that his so-called turban or crown will only succeed in further drowning him in the water of the ocean of material existence. A drowning man with a heavy weight on his head is sure to go down more swiftly than those who have no heavy weight. A foolish, puffed-up man defies the science of God and says that God has no meaning for him, but when he is in the grip of God’s law and is caught by some disease like cerebral thrombosis, that godless man sinks into the ocean of nescience by the weight of his material acquisition. Advancement of material science without God consciousness is a heavy load on the head of human society, and so one must take heed of this great warning.
Society is going in the wrong direction.. Towards destruction..
Science – a systematically organized body of knowledge on a particular subject.
What can be more systematically organized body of knowledge than BG & SB. Everywhere in the purports Srila Prabhupada mentions, science of God, Science of Krsna. Krsna Consciousness is a science…
(BG 7.2) COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE CAN BE ACHIEVED ONLY BY THE DEVOTEE OF THE LORD IN DISCIPLIC SUCCESSION DIRECTLY FROM THE LORD.
I shall now declare unto you in full this knowledge, both phenomenal and numinous. This being known, nothing further shall remain for you to know.
Complete knowledge includes knowledge of the phenomenal world, the spirit behind it, and the source of both of them. This is transcendental knowledge. The Lord wants to explain the above-mentioned system of knowledge because Arjuna is Kṛṣṇa’s confidential devotee and friend. In the beginning of the Fourth Chapter this explanation was given by the Lord, and it is again confirmed here: complete knowledge can be achieved only by the devotee of the Lord in disciplic succession directly from the Lord. Therefore one should be intelligent enough to know the source of all knowledge, who is the cause of all causes and the only object for meditation in all types of yoga practice. When the cause of all causes becomes known, then everything knowable becomes known, and nothing remains unknown. The Vedas (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.1.3) say, kasminn u bhagavo vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavatīti.
Material knowledge is a piece meal and does not give a full picture and therefore people remain incomplete. How inane it is to remain devoid of Krsna Consciousness… Now we see the reason why there are pandemics in this world. Most people are engaging in activities which dissipates the ojas… Sex activities, Always watching TV, all celebrities are demons…
Great warning – beware of the so called great men in material world – all of them are low class people…
(SB 2.3.21)
THE COMMON MAN, IF HE HAS NO TIME TO WORSHIP THE LORD, MAY AT LEAST ENGAGE HIS HANDS FOR A FEW SECONDS IN WASHING OR SWEEPING THE LORD’S TEMPLE.
Mahārāja Pratāparudra, the greatly powerful king of Orissa, was always very busy with heavy state responsibilities, yet he made it a point to sweep the temple of Lord Jagannātha at Purī once a year during the festival of the Lord.
Accepting the supremacy of the lord is very important to be taught from childhood,,,we should not waste time on these mundane so called idle men in the society who are low class sense gratifiers. One should therefore focus on SB and BG and learn the science of the LOrd.
THE IDEA IS THAT HOWEVER IMPORTANT A MAN ONE MAY BE HE MUST ACCEPT THE SUPREMACY OF THE SUPREME LORD. THIS GOD CONSCIOUSNESS WILL HELP A MAN EVEN IN HIS MATERIAL PROSPERITY. Mahārāja Pratāparudra’s subordination before Lord Jagannātha made him a powerful king, so much so that even the great Pathan in his time could not enter into Orissa on account of the powerful Mahārāja Pratāparudra. And at last Mahārāja Pratāparudra was graced by Lord Śrī Caitanya on the very grounds of his acceptance of subordination to the Lord of the universe. So even though a rich man’s wife has glittering bangles made of gold on her hands, she must engage herself in rendering service to the Lord
In addition to hearing, deity worship and offering obeisances to deity is very important.
In this purport Srila Prabhupada makes very strong statement of hearing regularly..
(SB 1.2.16) AFFINITY FOR HEARING IS GAINED BY SERVING PURE DEVOTEES
śuśrūṣoḥ śraddadhānasya
vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ
syān mahat-sevayā viprāḥ
puṇya-tīrtha-niṣevaṇāt
O twice-born sages, by serving those devotees who are completely freed from all vice, great service is done. By such service, one gains affinity for hearing the messages of Vāsudeva.
In the Bhagavad-gītā (Sixteenth Chapter) a vivid description of the asuras is given in which it is said that the asuras are put into lower and lower states of ignorance life after life and so sink to the lower animal forms and have no information of the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead.
LORD’S LIBERATED SERVITORS
These asuras are gradually rectified to God consciousness by the mercy of the Lord’s liberated servitors in different countries according to the supreme will. Such devotees of God are very confidential associates of the Lord, and when they come to save human society from the dangers of godlessness, they are known as the powerful incarnations of the Lord, as sons of the Lord, as servants of the Lord or as associates of the Lord. But none of them falsely claim to be God themselves. This is a blasphemy declared by the asuras, and the demoniac followers of such asuras also accept pretenders as God or His incarnation. In the revealed scriptures there is definite information of the incarnation of God. No one should be accepted as God or an incarnation of God unless he is confirmed by the revealed scriptures.
THE SERVANTS OF GOD URGE PEOPLE TO BECOME DEVOTEES OF THE LORD. THEY NEVER TOLERATE BEING CALLED GOD.
The servants of God are to be respected as God by the devotees who actually want to go back to Godhead. Such servants of God are called mahātmās, or tīrthas, and they preach according to particular time and place. The servants of God urge people to become devotees of the Lord. They never tolerate being called God. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was God Himself according to the indication of the revealed scriptures, but He played the part of a devotee. People who knew Him to be God addressed Him as God, but He used to block His ears with His hands and chant the name of Lord Viṣṇu. He strongly protested against being called God, although undoubtedly He was God Himself. The Lord behaves so to warn us against unscrupulous men who take pleasure in being addressed as God.
THE SERVANTS OF GOD COME TO PROPAGATE GOD CONSCIOUSNESS, AND INTELLIGENT PEOPLE SHOULD COOPERATE WITH THEM IN EVERY RESPECT.
By serving the servant of God, one can please God more than by directly serving the Lord. The Lord is more pleased when He sees that His servants are properly respected because such servants risk everything for the service of the Lord and so are very dear to the Lord. The Lord declares in the Bhagavad-gītā (18.69) that no one is dearer to Him than one who risks everything to preach His glory. By serving the servants of the Lord, one gradually gets the quality of such servants, and thus one becomes qualified to hear the glories of God. The eagerness to hear about God is the first qualification of a devotee eligible for entering the kingdom of God.
Hearing and repeating is the most important process. Simply book learning is not sufficient in liberating from cycle of birth an death…
Amazing purport – SB 1.2.16 ….
SB 2.3.20 – One who has not listened to the messages about the prowess and marvelous acts of the Personality of Godhead and has not sung or chanted loudly the worthy songs about the Lord is to be considered to possess earholes like the holes of snakes and a tongue like the tongue of a frog.
There is an important verse in padma purana which emphasizes the importance of the deity worship and offering obeisances…
Kabir makes a statement – patar… is actually criticizing deity worship. Sikhs put Kabir in their Granth Sahib… Muslims reject him…
Being devoid of genuine devotional service is such a big mistake..
SB 2.1.3
nidrayā hriyate naktaṁ
vyavāyena ca vā vayaḥ
divā cārthehayā rājan
kuṭumba-bharaṇena vā
The lifetime of such an envious householder is passed at night either in sleeping or in sex indulgence, and in the daytime either in making money or maintaining family members.
Description of devotees who do not engage in deity worship or any kind of devotional service…
SB 2.1.4
dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv
ātma-sainyeṣv asatsv api
teṣāṁ pramatto nidhanaṁ
paśyann api na paśyati
Persons devoid of ātma-tattva do not inquire into the problems of life, being too attached to the fallible soldiers like the body, children and wife. Although sufficiently experienced, they still do not see their inevitable destruction.
BHAKTI VINODA THAKUR WRITES EKO KALICHELA… PSEUDO DEVOTEE
a pseudo Vaiṣṇava with tilaka on his nose and kaṇṭhī beads around his neck. Such a pseudo Vaiṣṇava associates with money and women and is jealous of successful Vaiṣṇavas. Although passing for a Vaiṣṇava, his only business is earning money in the dress of a Vaiṣṇava. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura therefore says that such a pseudo Vaiṣṇava is not a Vaiṣṇava at all but a disciple of Kali-yug
eo to’ eka kalir cela
matha neda kapni para, tilak nake, galay mala
(2)
dekhte vaisnaver mata, asalo sakta kajer bela
sahaja-bhajan korchena mamu,
sańge lo’ye parer bala
(3)
sakhi-bhave bhajchena ta’re, nije ho’ye nanda-lala
krsna-daser kathar chale maha-janake dicchena sala
(4)
nava-rasika apane mani’ khacchena abar mana-kola
baul bole dohai, o bhai, dura koro e lila-khela
(1) Here is just another disciple of Kali-yuga. He keeps his head shaved, wears a loincloth, tilak on his nose and tulasi beads around his neck.
(2) By looks he appears to be a Vaisnava, but in actuality his conduct is that of a sakta, one who worships the principle of material energy in order to enjoy her. He engages in sahaja-bhajan(so-called “natural worship”), but does so by posing as “uncle” to the children of others, and then stealthily taking the illicit association of their daughters.
(3) Accepting these young girls as sakhis (Radha’s gopi friends), he fancies himself to be the Son of Nanda. By the deceptive lecturing about how everyone should become Krsna-dasa (the servant of himself as “Krsna”), this disciple of Kali-yuga thus hurls a sharp spear at the true devotees of the Lord.
(4) Giving artificial recognition to nava-rasika (the nine relishers), he thus eats and enjoys the bananas of his own mental fabrications. Chand Baul says, “O my dear brothers! Desist from this bogus imitation of the Lord’s amorous sports.”