Srimad Bhavagavatham Class By HH HariVilas Maharaj

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SB 3.2.14 – 15 Notes – 5/23/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 3.2.14 & 15:

  • Devotees have no hankerings for material possessions and no hankerings for spiritual salvation. They are situated in the transcendental loving service of the Lord as a matter of duty, and they do not mind where they are or how they have to act.
  • They want only to serve the Lord anywhere in the material or spiritual worlds that the Lord desires, and the Lord is always specifically compassionate towards such devotees.
  • As electricity is generated by friction of matter anywhere and everywhere, the Lord, being all-pervading, appears because of the friction of devotees and nondevotees.
  • He appeared, just like electricity, when there was friction between Kaṁsa and Vasudeva and Ugrasena. 
  • One who works in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is servant to all, he is very dear to everyone. And because everyone is satisfied by his work, he is pure in consciousness. 
  • Because his mind is always fixed on Kṛṣṇa, there is no chance of his being deviated from Kṛṣṇa. Nor is there a chance that he will engage his senses in matters other than the service of the Lord.
  • Therefore, his senses are controlled. A man of controlled senses cannot be offensive to anyone.
  • Arjuna, while fighting on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, was not really fighting at all; he was simply carrying out the orders of Kṛṣṇa in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Such a person is never entangled in the reactions of work.
  • A leader must be peaceful, self-controlled austere, pure, tolerant, honest, wise learned and religious. Only those who are trained up in the Ultimate Goal of human life, they can lead—because human life is meant for going back to Godhead.
  • When my Guru Maharaja was present even big, big scholars were afraid to talk with His beginning students. My Guru Maharaja was called “Living Encyclopedia”, he could talk with anyone on any subject. He was so learned—so we should be like that as far as possible. No compromise—Ramakrishna, avataras, yogis, everyone was enemy to Guru Maharaja—he never compromised. 
  • Some God-brothers complained that this preaching was chopping technique and it would not be successful. But we have seen that those who criticized, they fell down. 
  • For my part I have taken up the policy of my Guru Maharaja—no compromise. All these so called scholars, scientists, philosophers who do not accept Krsna are nothing more than rascals, fools lowest of mankind etc..

SB 3.2.14  TRANSLATION:

The damsels of Vraja, after pastimes of laughter, humor and exchanges of glances, were anguished when Kṛṣṇa left them. They used to follow Him with their eyes, and thus they sat down with stunned intelligence and could not finish their household duties.

SB 3.2.15 TRANSLATION:
The Personality of Godhead, the all-compassionate controller of both the spiritual and material creations, is unborn, but when there is friction between His peaceful devotees and persons who are in the material modes of nature, He takes birth just like fire, accompanied by the mahat-tattva.

In His boyhood at Vṛndāvana, Lord Kṛṣṇa was notorious as a teasing friend in transcendental love to all the girls His age. His love for them was so intense that there is no comparison to that ecstasy, and the damsels of Vraja were so much attached to Him that their affection excelled that of the great demigods like Brahmā and Śiva. Lord Kṛṣṇa finally admitted His defeat before the transcendental affection of the gopīs and declared that He was unable to repay them for their unalloyed affection. Although the gopīs were seemingly anguished by the Lord’s teasing behavior, when Kṛṣṇa would leave them they could not tolerate the separation and used to follow Him with their eyes and minds. They were so stunned by the situation that they could not finish their household duties. No one could excel Him even in the dealing of love exchanged between boys and girls. It is said in the revealed scriptures that Lord Kṛṣṇa personally never goes beyond the boundary of Vṛndāvana. He remains there eternally because of the transcendental love of the inhabitants. Thus even though He is not visible at present, He is not away from Vṛndāvana for a moment.

SB 3.2.15

The Personality of Godhead, the all-compassionate controller of both the spiritual and material creations, is unborn, but when there is friction between His peaceful devotees and persons who are in the material modes of nature, He takes birth just like fire, accompanied by the mahat-tattva.

The devotees of the Lord are by nature peaceful because they have no material hankering. A liberated soul has no hankering, and therefore he has no lamentation. One who wants to possess also laments when he loses his possession. Devotees have no hankerings for material possessions and no hankerings for spiritual salvation. They are situated in the transcendental loving service of the Lord as a matter of duty, and they do not mind where they are or how they have to act. Karmīs, jñānīs and yogīs all hanker to possess some material or spiritual assets. Karmīs want material possessions, jñānīs and yogīs want spiritual possessions, but devotees do not want any material or spiritual assets. They want only to serve the Lord anywhere in the material or spiritual worlds that the Lord desires, and the Lord is always specifically compassionate towards such devotees.

The karmīs, jñānīs and yogīs have their particular mentalities in the modes of nature, and therefore they are called itara or nondevotees. These itaras, including even the yogīs, sometimes harass the devotees of the Lord. Durvāsā Muni, a great yogī, harassed Mahārāja Ambarīṣa because the latter was a great devotee of the Lord. And the great karmī and jñānī Hiraṇyakaśipu even harassed his own Vaiṣṇava son, Prahlāda Mahārāja. There are many instances of such harassment of the peaceful devotees of the Lord by the itaras. When such friction takes place, the Lord, out of His great compassion towards His pure devotees, appears in person, accompanied by His plenary portions controlling the mahat-tattva.

The Lord is everywhere, in both the material and spiritual domains, and He appears for the sake of His devotees when there is friction between His devotee and the nondevotee. As electricity is generated by friction of matter anywhere and everywhere, the Lord, being all-pervading, appears because of the friction of devotees and nondevotees. When Lord Kṛṣṇa appears on a mission, all His plenary portions accompany Him. When He appeared as the son of Vasudeva, there were differences of opinion about His incarnation. Some said, “He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” Some said, “He is an incarnation of Nārāyaṇa,” and others said, “He is the incarnation of Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu.” But actually He is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead — kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam — and Nārāyaṇa, the puruṣas and all other incarnations accompany Him to function as different parts of His pastimes. Mahad-aṁśa-yuktaḥ indicates that He is accompanied by the puruṣas, who create the mahat-tanva. It is confirmed in the Vedic hymns, mahāntaṁ vibhum ātmānam.

Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared, just like electricity, when there was friction between Kaṁsa and Vasudeva and Ugrasena. Vasudeva and Ugrasena were the Lord’s devotees, and Kaṁsa, a representative of the karmīs and jñānīs, was a nondevotee. Kṛṣṇa, as He is, is compared to the sun. He first appeared from the ocean of the womb of Devakī, and gradually He satisfied the inhabitants of the places surrounding Mathurā, just as the sun enlivens the lotus flower in the morning. After gradually rising to the meridian of Dvārakā, the Lord set like the sun, placing everything in darkness, as described by Uddhava.

Lord is the protector of the devotees.. 

Pure devotee – No hankering, satisfied by the dint of devotional service, only interested in pleasing Guru and Krsna..

Desire and hankering is different

Hankering – strong desire cannot get it out of the mind.. 

A liberated soul has no hankering and no lamentation..

People who are always complaining have very strong hankerings.. 

Proverb – Dance floor is not even and hence could not dance well 

Do the good and leave in the ocean.. The GOd will see

Keep Chanting when there is confusion when in maya -so the cloud of confusion goes away!!!

Example – 

  • Business man always complaining
  • Couple goes and sees Bhakti Sidhhanta Saraswati thakur and the woman asks to talk in private.. He refused.. 
  • Maharaj in french and a woman talked to him in private and blamed him.. And wanted to blacken his reputation..

– To avoid the he said and she said.. Never meet a person in opposite sex in private..

– If you know that you have not done anything wrong then there is nothing to be intimidated about.. 

BG 5.7

One who works in devotion, who is a pure soul, and who controls his mind and senses is dear to everyone, and everyone is dear to him. Though always working, such a man is never entangled.

One who is on the path of liberation by Kṛṣṇa consciousness is very dear to every living being, and every living being is dear to him. This is due to his Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Such a person cannot think of any living being as separate from Kṛṣṇa, just as the leaves and branches of a tree are not separate from the tree. He knows very well that by pouring water on the root of the tree, the water will be distributed to all the leaves and branches, or by supplying food to the stomach, the energy is automatically distributed throughout the body. Because one who works in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is servant to all, he is very dear to everyone. And because everyone is satisfied by his work, he is pure in consciousness. Because he is pure in consciousness, his mind is completely controlled. And because his mind is controlled, his senses are also controlled. Because his mind is always fixed on Kṛṣṇa, there is no chance of his being deviated from Kṛṣṇa. Nor is there a chance that he will engage his senses in matters other than the service of the Lord. He does not like to hear anything except topics relating to Kṛṣṇa; he does not like to eat anything which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa; and he does not wish to go anywhere if Kṛṣṇa is not involved. Therefore, his senses are controlled. A man of controlled senses cannot be offensive to anyone. One may ask, “Why then was Arjuna offensive (in battle) to others? Wasn’t he in Kṛṣṇa consciousness?” Arjuna was only superficially offensive because (as has already been explained in the Second Chapter) all the assembled persons on the battlefield would continue to live individually, as the soul cannot be slain. So, spiritually, no one was killed on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra. Only their dresses were changed by the order of Kṛṣṇa, who was personally present. Therefore Arjuna, while fighting on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, was not really fighting at all; he was simply carrying out the orders of Kṛṣṇa in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Such a person is never entangled in the reactions of work.

Letter to: Karandhara Dated: July 27 1973 Bhaktivedanta Manor

Vedic knowledge is definite. Take for example Padma Purāṇa, there it is said there are 8,400,000 species of life: two million trees, one million insects, four hundred thousand humans. Nowhere do we find about so and so many, but exactly the number is given. Or we see the description of Kali yuga, and we are experiencing it. “People of this age will keep big bundles of hair and thus think themselves very beautiful.” So this is going on. “For want of bathing the population of this age will appear like Pisacas”—hippies. Everything is given in Vedas exactly. Why should we go to such men for knowledge? They pose themselves as big leaders, philosophers. But we have to accept our leader according to the standard symptoms—or qualifications. The standard text book for civilized administration is Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. A leader must be peaceful, self-controlled austere, pure, tolerant, honest, wise learned and religious. Not like your President Nixon—a rogue and thief—such men cannot do any good to society, only those who are trained up in the Ultimate Goal of human life, they can lead—because human life is meant for going back to Godhead. Therefore our society is serving the whole world by supplying the missing part for perfect advancement of human civilization, we are supplying the head. Although all parts, such as legs are necessary, the whole thing is useful only when there is a head. So, everything is already there but it is now mixed up, we want to bring the whole world in to order by giving the right directions to all classes of men. Right direction means, to deliver the instructions of Krishna, and because Krishna is perfect, if you present this knowledge anywhere it will automatically defeat all the existing concocted hodge-podge ideas congesting the feeble brains of so-called scientist, philosophers or anyone.

When my Guru Maharaja was present even big, big scholars were afraid to talk with His beginning students. My Guru Maharaja was called “Living Encyclopedia”, he could talk with anyone on any subject. He was so learned—so we should be like that as far as possible. No compromise—Ramakrishna, avataras, yogis, everyone was enemy to Guru Maharaja—he never compromised. Some God-brothers complained that this preaching was chopping technique and it would not be successful. But we have seen that those who criticized, they fell down. For my part I have taken up the policy of my Guru Maharaja—no compromise. All these so called scholars, scientists, philosophers who do not accept Krsna are nothing more than rascals, fools lowest of mankind etc..

So you go on with your work, it is very encouraging to me. Thank you.

Ex: Gandhi and freedom fighters protested in front of the gaudiya math.. BST was there.. 

No compromise – Bhakti Vikas Swami.. He does not give a second initiation to everyone.. He wrote a book about women.. They scrutinized and did not find any of his own opinion and he simply repeated SP .. 

BVS – is lion preacher and no compromise..

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SB 3.2.9 & 10 Notes – 5/18/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 3.2.9 & 10 TODAY (5/18/22)

  • In the Vedas it is said that the Supreme Lord or the Paramātmā cannot be understood simply by the strength of one’s erudition or power of mental speculation. He can be known only by one who has the mercy of the Lord.
  • The Yādavas were all exceptionally learned and experienced, but in spite of their knowing the Lord as the one who lives in everyone’s heart, they could not understand that He is the original Personality of Godhead. This lack of knowledge was not due to their insufficient erudition; it was due to their misfortune
  • In Vṛndāvana, the Lord was not even known as the Paramātmā because the residents of Vṛndāvana were pure unconventional devotees of the Lord and could think of Him only as their object of love. They did not know that He is the Personality of Godhead.
  • The Yadus, accepted Lord Kṛṣṇa as the Supersoul incarnated in their family, and not more than that.
  • The illusory energy acts very powerfully on them because in spite of their elevated mundane education, such persons are faithless and are infected by the mentality of atheism. 
  • They are always very eager to establish that Lord Kṛṣṇa was an ordinary man who was killed by a hunter due to His many impious acts in plotting to kill the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra and Jarāsandha, the demoniac kings of the earth. Such persons have no faith in the statement of the Bhagavad-gītā that the Lord is unaffected by the reactions of work:
  • All these blasphemies do not touch the heart of the devotees of the Lord because they know perfectly well what is what. Their intelligence regarding the Lord is never disturbed. But those who are disturbed by the statements of the asuras are also condemned. 
  • BG 4.14 – There is no work that affects Me; nor do I aspire for the fruits of action. One who understands this truth about Me also does not become entangled in the fruitive reactions of work.
  • BG 7.7 – O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.
  • BG 14.26 – One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.

SB 3.2.9 TRANSLATION:

The Yadus were all experienced devotees, learned and expert in psychic study. Over and above this, they were always with the Lord in all kinds of relaxations, and still they were only able to know Him as the one Supreme who dwells everywhere.SB 3.2.10 TRANSLATION:
Under no circumstances can the words of persons bewildered by the illusory energy of the Lord deviate the intelligence of those who are completely surrendered souls.

In the Vedas it is said that the Supreme Lord or the Paramātmā cannot be understood simply by the strength of one’s erudition or power of mental speculation: nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo na medhayā na bahunā śrutena (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.23). He can be known only by one who has the mercy of the Lord. The Yādavas were all exceptionally learned and experienced, but in spite of their knowing the Lord as the one who lives in everyone’s heart, they could not understand that He is the original Personality of Godhead. This lack of knowledge was not due to their insufficient erudition; it was due to their misfortune. In Vṛndāvana, however, the Lord was not even known as the Paramātmā because the residents of Vṛndāvana were pure unconventional devotees of the Lord and could think of Him only as their object of love. They did not know that He is the Personality of Godhead. The Yadus, or the residents of Dvārakā, however, could know Lord Kṛṣṇa as Vāsudeva, or the Supersoul living everywhere, but not as the Supreme Lord. As scholars of the Vedas, they verified the Vedic hymns: eko devaḥ . . . sarva-bhūtādhivāsaḥ . . . , antaryāmī . . . and vṛṣṇīnāṁ para-devatā. . . . The Yadus, therefore, accepted Lord Kṛṣṇa as the Supersoul incarnated in their family, and not more than that.

SB 3.2.10 

Under no circumstances can the words of persons bewildered by the illusory energy of the Lord deviate the intelligence of those who are completely surrendered souls.

Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead according to all the evidences of the Vedas. He is accepted by all ācāryas, including Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya. But when He was present in the world, different classes of men accepted Him differently, and therefore their calculations of the Lord were also different. Generally, persons who had faith in the revealed scriptures accepted the Lord as He is, and all of them merged into great bereavement when the Lord disappeared from the world. In the First Canto we have already discussed the lamentation of Arjuna and Yudhiṣṭhira, to whom the disappearance of Lord Kṛṣṇa was almost intolerable up to the end of their lives.

The Yādavas were only partially cognizant of the Lord, but they are also glorious because they had the opportunity to associate with the Lord, who acted as the head of their family, and they also rendered the Lord intimate service. The Yādavas and other devotees of the Lord are different from those who wrongly calculated Him to be an ordinary human personality. Such persons are certainly bewildered by the illusory energy. They are hellish and are envious of the Supreme Lord. The illusory energy acts very powerfully on them because in spite of their elevated mundane education, such persons are faithless and are infected by the mentality of atheism. They are always very eager to establish that Lord Kṛṣṇa was an ordinary man who was killed by a hunter due to His many impious acts in plotting to kill the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra and Jarāsandha, the demoniac kings of the earth. Such persons have no faith in the statement of the Bhagavad-gītā that the Lord is unaffected by the reactions of work: na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti. According to the atheistic point of view, Lord Kṛṣṇa’s family, the Yadu dynasty, was vanquished due to being cursed by the brāhmaṇas for the sins committed by Kṛṣṇa in killing the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, etc. All these blasphemies do not touch the heart of the devotees of the Lord because they know perfectly well what is what. Their intelligence regarding the Lord is never disturbed. But those who are disturbed by the statements of the asuras are also condemned. That is what Uddhava meant in this verse.

The proof that someone is infected by demoniac philosophy and mundane  knowledge is that they do not engage in devotional service enthusiastically. 

The pure devotees do understand that Krsna is the supreme personality of Godhead..they only are interested in the shyam sundar Vrindavan Krsna.. 

Better than the demons is the ones who understand BJ, Paramatma,…. 

Sri Vaishnavas believe that Narayana is the source of everything and think that Krsna is the paramatma.. If they are envious of Krsna they will fall down.. But if they are attached to Narayana and not envious of Krsna then that is ok.. 

BG 4.14 

There is no work that affects Me; nor do I aspire for the fruits of action. One who understands this truth about Me also does not become entangled in the fruitive reactions of work.

As there are constitutional laws in the material world stating that the king can do no wrong, or that the king is not subject to the state laws, similarly the Lord, although He is the creator of this material world, is not affected by the activities of the material world. He creates and remains aloof from the creation, whereas the living entities are entangled in the fruitive results of material activities because of their propensity for lording it over material resources. The proprietor of an establishment is not responsible for the right and wrong activities of the workers, but the workers are themselves responsible. The living entities are engaged in their respective activities of sense gratification, and these activities are not ordained by the Lord. For advancement of sense gratification, the living entities are engaged in the work of this world, and they aspire to heavenly happiness after death. The Lord, being full in Himself, has no attraction for so-called heavenly happiness. The heavenly demigods are only His engaged servants. The proprietor never desires the low-grade happiness such as the workers may desire. He is aloof from the material actions and reactions. For example, the rains are not responsible for different types of vegetation that appear on the earth, although without such rains there is no possibility of vegetative growth. Vedic smṛti confirms this fact as follows:

“In the material creations, the Lord is only the supreme cause. The immediate cause is material nature, by which the cosmic manifestation is made visible.” The created beings are of many varieties, such as the demigods, human beings and lower animals, and all of them are subject to the reactions of their past good or bad activities. The Lord only gives them the proper facilities for such activities and the regulations of the modes of nature, but He is never responsible for their past and present activities. In the Vedānta-sūtra (2.1.34) it is confirmed, vaiṣamya-nairghṛṇye na sāpekṣatvāt: the Lord is never partial to any living entity. The living entity is responsible for his own acts. The Lord only gives him facilities, through the agency of material nature, the external energy. Anyone who is fully conversant with all the intricacies of this law of karma, or fruitive activities, does not become affected by the results of his activities. In other words, the person who understands this transcendental nature of the Lord is an experienced man in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and thus he is never subjected to the laws of karma. One who does not know the transcendental nature of the Lord and who thinks that the activities of the Lord are aimed at fruitive results, as are the activities of the ordinary living entities, certainly becomes entangled himself in fruitive reactions. But one who knows the Supreme Truth is a liberated soul fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

We cannot get anything without the help of Krsna.. 

If you are sincerely dedicated and pray then Lord will help you to fulfill your desire to Serve Him.. 

A couple driving in a truck whole of NA…..Prabhu- I have been to almost all temples in North America – only temple which gives free prasadam.. 

SP said Prasadam should never be sold. ..

Lady came who is a hindu who is visiting her children here came to temple by bus.. Sub people said we know that Iskcon temple gives lot of free food.. 

Distribution of prasadam is very important.. 

SP says you are getting free food from the government you need to distribute to the public freely.. Free distribution of prasadam.. We should have this moral responsibility of distributing the prasadam.. 

BG 14.26 

One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.

BG 7.7

O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.

VOCAB – Apparent.. 

VOCAB  – Mules – one who carries illegal good across the borders..

We do not know what real education is.. We follow the crowd.. Brains twisted in wrong directions.. 

If you know Krsna is the supreme personality of Godhead.. Then you engage with all your heart in serving Krsna.. If one is busy in mundane education and other material engagements and have no time for service.. Then they are not KC.. if someone has half the time for service then they are on the path.. They are dovetailing and it should be under the guidance of the spiritual masters.. Go for a parikrama.. Instead of disneyland for vacation..

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SB 3.2.7 Notes – 5/17/22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6R25l2rMBQ&t=3448s

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 3.2.7:

  • The comparison of Kṛṣṇa to the sun is very appropriate. As soon as the sun sets, darkness automatically appears. But the darkness experienced by the common man does not affect the sun itself either at the time of sunrise or of sunset. 
  • As the sun appears in the morning and gradually rises to the meridian and then again sets in one hemisphere while simultaneously rising in the other, so Lord Kṛṣṇa’s disappearance in one universe and the beginning of His different pastimes in another take place simultaneously. 
  • As soon as one pastime is finished here, it is manifested in another universe. And thus His nitya-līlā, or eternal pastimes, are going on without ending. 
  • As the sunrise takes place once in twenty-four hours, similarly the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa take place in a universe once in a daytime of Brahmā, the account of which is given in the Bhagavad-gītā as 4,300,000,000 solar years. 
  • But wherever the Lord is present, all His different pastimes as described in the revealed scriptures take place at regular intervals.
  • One who has actually tasted spiritual life, his unwanted things of life would at once diminish.
  • Our material life begins by a knot in the heart. What is that knot? That is sex desire. This is the knot. A man is hankering after a woman, and a woman is hankering after a man. This attachment is the beginning of material life. 
  • Therefore, according to Vedic civilization, the first teaching to a student is to give him lesson how to become brahmacārī. How not to become attached in sex life, that is called brahmacārī. 
  • Abstaining from sex life, it requires tapasya. It is not so easy thing. At the present moment, the students are, what to speak of tapasya, they are given all kinds of luxuries. So how there will be brahmacārī? It is not possible. 
  • But if one takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, by practice one comes to the point of giving up all these unwanted things.
  • We are now in hazy conclusion what is our position. We do not know what is God, what I am, what is our relationship. Everyone is speculating.
  • So when one actually becomes free from the knot, or the knot is cut off, the attachment for material desire is cut off, at that time he can understand what is his position.
  • Therefore two things must go on in parallel line. One side, a person should cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and another side, he should try to give up all the unwanted things. That will help him. You cannot continue both the things. 
  • That is the way of treatment. Not that whatever you like, you can eat; whatever you like, you can do; at the same time you become spiritually advanced. This is all nonsense.

SB 3.2.7 TRANSLATION:

Śrī Uddhava said: My dear Vidura, the sun of the world, Lord Kṛṣṇa, has set, and our house has now been swallowed by the great snake of time. What can I say to you about our welfare?

The disappearance of the Kṛṣṇa sun may be explained as follows, according to the commentary of Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. Vidura was struck with great sorrow when he got the hint of the annihilation of the great Yadu dynasty as well as of his own family, the Kuru dynasty. Uddhava could understand the grief of Vidura, and therefore he first of all wanted to sympathize with him by saying that after the sunset everyone is in darkness. Since the entire world was merged in the darkness of grief, neither Vidura nor Uddhava nor anyone else could be happy. Uddhava was as much aggrieved as Vidura, and there was nothing further to be said about their welfare.

The comparison of Kṛṣṇa to the sun is very appropriate. As soon as the sun sets, darkness automatically appears. But the darkness experienced by the common man does not affect the sun itself either at the time of sunrise or of sunset. Lord Kṛṣṇa’s appearance and disappearance are exactly like that of the sun. He appears and disappears in innumerable universes, and as long as He is present in a particular universe there is all transcendental light in that universe, but the universe from which He passes away is put into darkness. His pastimes, however, are everlasting. The Lord is always present in some universe, just as the sun is present in either the Eastern or the Western Hemisphere. The sun is always present either in India or in America, but when the sun is present in India, the American land is in darkness, and when the sun is present in America, the Indian hemisphere is in darkness.

As the sun appears in the morning and gradually rises to the meridian and then again sets in one hemisphere while simultaneously rising in the other, so Lord Kṛṣṇa’s disappearance in one universe and the beginning of His different pastimes in another take place simultaneously. As soon as one pastime is finished here, it is manifested in another universe. And thus His nitya-līlā, or eternal pastimes, are going on without ending. As the sunrise takes place once in twenty-four hours, similarly the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa take place in a universe once in a daytime of Brahmā, the account of which is given in the Bhagavad-gītā as 4,300,000,000 solar years. But wherever the Lord is present, all His different pastimes as described in the revealed scriptures take place at regular intervals.

As at sunset the snakes become powerful, thieves are encouraged, ghosts become active, the lotus becomes disfigured and the cakravākī laments, so with the disappearance of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the atheists feel enlivened, and the devotees become sorry.

Krishna’s pats times are Nitya lila – eternal 

Even in the darkness.. The devotee never forgets Krsna and becomes even more attached to Krsna due to separation.they feel sad that Krsna left them and become even more active…. But non-devotees forget Him .. Devotees see Krsna in the deity .. everything is arranged for us by acharyas to remember Krishna.. 

Feeling of separation – painful.. Love in separation. Vipralambha bhava.. 

People who stay up late at night are attacked by negative personalities.. 

The normal way of life is as soon as sunsets they would sleep.. 

To be able to take rest early in the evening and do sadhana in the brahma muhurta .. 

SB 3.2.6 

The conditional changes of the living entity are explained in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta in the instructions given to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī by Lord Śrī Caitanya: “The living entities all over the universes are enjoying the effects of the respective fruitive results of their own work, life after life. Out of all of them, some may be influenced by the association of pure devotees and thus get the chance to execute devotional service by attainment of taste. This taste is the seed of devotional service, and one who is fortunate enough to have received such a seed is advised to sow it in the core of his heart. As one cultivates a seed by pouring water to fructify it, the seed of devotional service sown in the heart of the devotee may be cultured by pouring water in the form of hearing and chanting of the holy name and pastimes of the Lord. The creeper of devotional service, so nourished, gradually grows, and the devotee, acting as a gardener, goes on pouring the water of constant hearing and chanting. The creeper of devotional service gradually grows so high that it passes through the entire material universe and enters into the spiritual sky, growing still higher and higher until it reaches the planet Goloka Vṛndāvana. The devotee-gardener is in touch with the abode of the Lord even from the material plane by dint of performing devotional service to the Lord simply by hearing and chanting. As a creeper takes shelter of another, stronger tree, similarly the creeper of devotional service, nourished by the devotee, takes shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord and thus becomes fixed. When the creeper is fixed, then the fruit of the creeper comes into existence, and the gardener who nourished it is able to enjoy this fruit of love, and his life becomes successful.” That Uddhava attained this stage is evident from his dealings. He could simultaneously reach the supreme planet and still appear in this world.

Brahmanda bramhita kona.. Bhagyavan.. It is very rare to see pure devotees.. If one associates with such devotees one advances in KC.. 

We only get taste in the association of devotees.. 

The water of fertilization is hearing and chanting.. 

Krishna is never absent for a devotee.. His past times are eternal.. 

In kali yuga.. Many are not KC you have a chance to preach everyday.. 

FAVA BEANS, Jerusalem artichoke for Diabetes, Cow urine for liver problems

SB 1.2.21 Date: Nov. 1 1972 Location: Vṛndāvana

Translation = “Thus the knots of the heart and all misgivings are cut to pieces. The chain of fruitive actions, karma, is terminated when one sees the self as master.”

Prabhupāda:

bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś

chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ

kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi

dṛṣṭa evātmanīśvare

[SB 1.2.21]

This is complete liberated stage. In the previous verse it has been spoken, bhagavat-tattva-vijñānaṁ mukta-saṅgasya jāyate [SB 1.2.20]. The science of God, bhagavat-tattva, the science of Absolute Truth, becomes manifest to the liberated soul. We find sometimes that one man is posing to have very much advance in spiritual understanding, or a great devotee, but mukta-saṅga…, he’s not mukta-saṅga; he cannot give up smoking bīḍī. You see?

These are the small tests. One who has actually tasted spiritual life, his unwanted things of life would at once diminish. There is no need. Anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. Anartha. Anartha, things which are not wanted, which has no meaning. So mukta-saṅga means no material attachment. That is mukta-saṅga. When one is actually liberated, these are the signs.

Bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiḥ. Our material life begins by a knot in the heart. What is that knot? That is sex desire. This is the knot. A man is hankering after a woman, and a woman is hankering after a man. This attachment is the beginning of material life. Everyone, not only human society. In animal society, in bird society, in beast society you’ll find this sex attachment. This is the hṛdaya-granthiḥ, beginning.

Therefore, according to Vedic civilization, the first teaching to a student is to give him lesson how to become brahmacārī. How not to become attached in sex life, that is called brahmacārī. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa [SB 6.1.13]. Tapasā, to become brahmacārī, to become…, abstaining from sex life, it requires tapasya. It is not so easy thing. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa damena śamena. One has to practice how to control the mind, how to control the senses. This is brahmacarya. Tapasya. It requires tapasya.

At the present moment, the students are, what to speak of tapasya, they are given all kinds of luxuries. So how there will be brahmacārī? It is not possible. Especially in the Western countries, the boys and girls, they are educated in one place, co-education, and they live in the same building, and there are so many things. You know better than me.

So there is no brahmacārī. There is no brahmacarya. That means the knot in the heart, sex desire, is more and more increased. It is not decreased. But if one takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, by practice one comes to the point of giving up all these unwanted things. Chidyante, bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiḥ [SB 1.2.21]. I have several times explained to you that this knot of the heart is the sex desire. Puṁsaḥ striyā mithunī-bhāvam [SB 5.5.8]. Sex desire, mithunī-bhāvam etam.

Tayor hṛdaya-granthim. And when they’re actually united, that knot becomes more and more tight. But if one takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then gradually, bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiḥ, that knot, sex desire… That is the test whether one’s sex desire has diminished. That is the test. Bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiḥ.

Bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ. Saṁśayāḥ [SB 1.2.21]. We are now in hazy conclusion what is our position. We do not know. We do not know what is God, what I am, what is our relationship. Everyone is speculating. There are…, therefore, there are so many parties = the jñānī party, the yogī party, the karmī party, generally. And within each and every party there are hundreds and thousands of parties. So when one actually becomes free from the knot, or the knot is cut off, the attachment for material desire is cut off, at that time he can understand what is his position. What is his position.

Therefore two things must go on in parallel line. One side, a person should cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and another side, he should try to give up all the unwanted things. That will help him. You cannot continue both the things. Just like when a person is diseased, he’s given medicine. At the same times, he has to act = not to take this, not to take that. That is the way of treatment. Not that whatever you like, you can eat; whatever you like, you can do; at the same times you become spiritually advanced. This is all nonsense.

Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa [SB 6.1.13]. One has to practice tapasya. Tapa. Tapa means a little inconvenience, voluntarily accepting inconvenience. Just like brahmacārī lies down on the floor. A sannyāsī also, they follow the same practice as far as possible. Taking bath three…, thrice daily, and so many rules and regulation are there. But at the present age, it is not possible to follow all the rules and regulation, but at least everyone who is interested in advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness must rise early in the morning, before four, and take his bath and become cleansed, perform maṅgala-ārātrika and study.

BG 18.1 

Arjuna said: O mighty-armed one, I wish to understand the purpose of renunciation [tyāga] and of the renounced order of life [sannyāsa], O killer of the Keśī demon, master of the senses.

Actually the Bhagavad-gītā is finished in seventeen chapters. The Eighteenth Chapter is a supplementary summarization of the topics discussed before. In every chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Kṛṣṇa stresses that devotional service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate goal of life. This same point is summarized in the Eighteenth Chapter as the most confidential path of knowledge. In the first six chapters, stress was given to devotional service: yoginām api sarveṣām … “Of all yogīs or transcendentalists, one who always thinks of Me within himself is best.” In the next six chapters, pure devotional service and its nature and activity were discussed. In the third six chapters, knowledge, renunciation, the activities of material nature and transcendental nature, and devotional service were described. It was concluded that all acts should be performed in conjunction with the Supreme Lord, represented by the words oṁ tat sat, which indicate Viṣṇu, the Supreme Person. The third part of Bhagavad-gītā has shown that devotional service, and nothing else, is the ultimate purpose of life. This has been established by citing past ācāryas and the Brahma-sūtra, the Vedānta-sūtra. Certain impersonalists consider themselves to have a monopoly on the knowledge of Vedānta-sūtra, but actually the Vedānta-sūtra is meant for understanding devotional service, for the Lord Himself is the composer of the Vedānta-sūtra, and He is its knower. That is described in the Fifteenth Chapter. In every scripture, every Veda, devotional service is the objective. That is explained in Bhagavad-gītā.

As in the Second Chapter a synopsis of the whole subject matter was described, in the Eighteenth Chapter also the summary of all instruction is given. The purpose of life is indicated to be renunciation and attainment of the transcendental position above the three material modes of nature. Arjuna wants to clarify the two distinct subject matters of Bhagavad-gītā, namely renunciation (tyāga) and the renounced order of life (sannyāsa). Thus he is asking the meaning of these two words.

Two words used in this verse to address the Supreme Lord – Hṛṣīkeśa and Keśi-niṣūdana – are significant. Hṛṣīkeśa is Kṛṣṇa, the master of all senses, who can always help us attain mental serenity. Arjuna requests Him to summarize everything in such a way that he can remain equipoised. Yet he has some doubts, and doubts are always compared to demons. He therefore addresses Kṛṣṇa as Keśi-niṣūdana. Keśī was a most formidable demon who was killed by the Lord; now Arjuna is expecting Kṛṣṇa to kill the demon of doubt.

Real Vocation in life.. 

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SB 3.2.6 Notes – 5/16/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 3.2.6:

  • When Uddhava was fully absorbed in the transcendental ecstasy of love of God, he actually forgot all about the external world
  • The pure devotee lives constantly in the abode of the Supreme Lord, even in the present body, which apparently belongs to this world.
  •  Even though a pure devotee is present on this mortal planet, he is here in relation to the Lord for engagement in transcendental loving service, and not for any material cause.
  • The living entities all over the universes are enjoying the effects of the respective fruitive results of their own work, life after life. Out of all of them, some may be influenced by the association of pure devotees and thus get the chance to execute devotional service by attainment of taste.
  • This taste is the seed of devotional service, and one who is fortunate enough to have received such a seed is advised to sow it in the core of his heart. As one cultivates a seed by pouring water to fructify it, the seed of devotional service sown in the heart of the devotee may be cultured by pouring water in the form of hearing and chanting of the holy name and pastimes of the Lord.
  • The creeper of devotional service, so nourished, gradually grows, and the devotee, acting as a gardener, goes on pouring the water of constant hearing and chanting.
  • The creeper of devotional service gradually grows so high that it passes through the entire material universe and enters into the spiritual sky, growing still higher and higher until it reaches the planet Goloka Vṛndāvana.
  • The devotee-gardener is in touch with the abode of the Lord even from the material plane by dint of performing devotional service to the Lord simply by hearing and chanting.
  • As a creeper takes shelter of another, stronger tree, similarly the creeper of devotional service, nourished by the devotee, takes shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord and thus becomes fixed. When the creeper is fixed, then the fruit of the creeper comes into existence, and the gardener who nourished it is able to enjoy this fruit of love, and his life becomes successful.

SB 3.2.6 – 5/16/22

The great devotee Uddhava soon came back from the abode of the Lord to the human plane, and wiping his eyes, he awakened his reminiscence of the past and spoke to Vidura in a pleasing mood.

When Uddhava was fully absorbed in the transcendental ecstasy of love of God, he actually forgot all about the external world. The pure devotee lives constantly in the abode of the Supreme Lord, even in the present body, which apparently belongs to this world. The pure devotee is not exactly on the bodily plane, since he is absorbed in the transcendental thought of the Supreme. When Uddhava wanted to speak to Vidura, he came down from the abode of the Lord, Dvārakā, to the material plane of human beings. Even though a pure devotee is present on this mortal planet, he is here in relation to the Lord for engagement in transcendental loving service, and not for any material cause. A living entity can live either on the material plane or in the transcendental abode of the Lord, in accordance with his existential condition. The conditional changes of the living entity are explained in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta in the instructions given to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī by Lord Śrī Caitanya: “The living entities all over the universes are enjoying the effects of the respective fruitive results of their own work, life after life. Out of all of them, some may be influenced by the association of pure devotees and thus get the chance to execute devotional service by attainment of taste. This taste is the seed of devotional service, and one who is fortunate enough to have received such a seed is advised to sow it in the core of his heart. As one cultivates a seed by pouring water to fructify it, the seed of devotional service sown in the heart of the devotee may be cultured by pouring water in the form of hearing and chanting of the holy name and pastimes of the Lord. The creeper of devotional service, so nourished, gradually grows, and the devotee, acting as a gardener, goes on pouring the water of constant hearing and chanting. The creeper of devotional service gradually grows so high that it passes through the entire material universe and enters into the spiritual sky, growing still higher and higher until it reaches the planet Goloka Vṛndāvana. The devotee-gardener is in touch with the abode of the Lord even from the material plane by dint of performing devotional service to the Lord simply by hearing and chanting. As a creeper takes shelter of another, stronger tree, similarly the creeper of devotional service, nourished by the devotee, takes shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord and thus becomes fixed. When the creeper is fixed, then the fruit of the creeper comes into existence, and the gardener who nourished it is able to enjoy this fruit of love, and his life becomes successful.” That Uddhava attained this stage is evident from his dealings. He could simultaneously reach the supreme planet and still appear in this world.

  • If one is completely absorbed in the transcendence of the lord, one forgets about the external world
  • Inorder to preach one must come to the level of Madhyama Adhikari.. Inorder to preach in an effective way of communicating to others about Krsna.. 
  • Madhyama Adhikari – Sees devotees makes friendships, sees innocent people kind to them, sees the scientists and demons – avoids unless they want to ask a questions
  • If one is uttama adhikari – sees everyone as the pure devotee of the lord..
  • We just chanted Hare Krsna yesterday.. Last night instead of the Kavach mantras.. 
  • Chanting the holy name is the yuga dharma. 
  • Regularly hearing BG, SB and CC
  • Way to culture the seed of bhakti is hearing and chanting. 
  • Existential condition – based on the experiences.. 
  • VOCAB – purge – eliminating
  • We need to purge the material desires and replace them with the spiritual desires
  • Example- Chauffer Ram Das .. Limousine.. Company.. Would drive SP always.. That is dovetailing.. The Driving capacity is used in serving and pleasing SP
  • By attainment of the taste.. 

BG 2.59 

Though the embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.

Unless one is transcendentally situated, it is not possible to cease from sense enjoyment. The process of restriction from sense enjoyment by rules and regulations is something like restricting a diseased person from certain types of eatables. The patient, however, neither likes such restrictions nor loses his taste for eatables. Similarly, sense restriction by some spiritual process like aṣṭāṅga-yoga, in the matter of yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna, etc., is recommended for less intelligent persons who have no better knowledge. But one who has tasted the beauty of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa, in the course of his advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, no longer has a taste for dead, material things. Therefore, restrictions are there for the less intelligent neophytes in the spiritual advancement of life, but such restrictions are only good until one actually has a taste for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When one is actually Kṛṣṇa conscious, he automatically loses his taste for pale things.

Color and taste is very important.. 

Signature things  – Joy of Chanting and dancing, Sweet rice, Hari Pizza, Goodness cookies, Iskcon bullets, Burrito Sankirtan, Flowers from the garlands,

Art school – sreshta teach Madhubani art in the temple

SP gave the garland and asked to give all the flowers from it to everyone.. 

All offered garlands, used incense sticks, any paraphernalia .. we should collect them.

In the church.. Pls forgive us we are sinners

 But devotees become ecstatic.. Washing dishes.. They get ecstatic. 

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SB 3.2.3 Notes – 5/11/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 3.2.3:

  • Transcendental service to the Lord is not mundane. The service attitude of the devotee gradually increases and never becomes slackened.
  • Uddhava undoubtedly became old, but that does not mean that his spirit became old. His service attitude matured on the transcendental plane, and therefore as soon as he was questioned by Vidura about Lord Kṛṣṇa, he at once remembered his Lord by reference to the context and forgot himself on the physical plane. That is the sign of pure devotional service to the Lord.
  • In the transcendental service there is no satiation, and therefore there is no retirement. Service on the bodily plane dwindles as the body grows older, but the spirit is never old, and therefore on the spiritual plane the service is never tiresome.
  • So long as there is any trace of mundane desire in one’s heart, it is the object of worship of Māyādevī (Durgā) who has to be worshiped by such a person; nevertheless the fulfillment of one’s heart’s desire results from the worship of the object of worship of Māyādevī, and not from the worship of Māyādevī herself.
  • [SB 2.3.10] Though other gods, as distinct manifestations of the Supreme Lord, are bestowers of sundry specific boons, yet a sensible person should worship the all powerful Supreme Lord, giver of all good, with unalloyed devotion, without worshiping those mundane gift-giving deities.
  • True devotion is unalloyed devotional activity free from all mundane desire.
  • BS 5.61 – Abandoning all meritorious performances serve Me with faith. The realization will correspond to the nature of one’s faith. The people of the world act ceaselessly in pursuance of some ideal. By meditating on Me by means of those deeds one will obtain devotion characterized by love in the shape of the supreme service.
  • The more transparent the faith, the greater the degree of realization.
  • The Supreme Lord says, “This world subsists by the constant performance of certain activities. Fill all these activities with meditation of Me. This will destroy the quality that makes those activities appear as acts done by you. They will then be of the nature of My service (bhakti).
  • And when these activities are managed to be performed in this way that is conducive to our endeavor for attainment of bhakti they are called jñāna-bhakta-yoga, i.e., the subsidiary devotional practices. But only those activities that are characterized by the principle of pure worship are called bhakti proper.
  • My meditation is practiced in every act when bhakti proper is practiced in due time while performing the subsidiary devotional activities in one’s intercourse with the ungodly people of this world. In such position, a jīva does not become apathetic to Godhead even by performing those worldly activities. This constitutes the practice of looking inwards, i.e., turning towards one’s real self,

SB 3.2.3 TRANSLATION:

Uddhava thus served the Lord continually from childhood, and in his old age that attitude of service never slackened. As soon as he was asked about the message of the Lord, he at once remembered all about Him.

Transcendental service to the Lord is not mundane. The service attitude of the devotee gradually increases and never becomes slackened. Generally, in old age a person is allowed retirement from mundane service. But in the transcendental service of the Lord there is no retirement at all; on the contrary, the service attitude increases more and more with the progress of age. In the transcendental service there is no satiation, and therefore there is no retirement. Materially, when a man becomes tired by rendering service in his physical body, he is allowed retirement, but in the transcendental service there is no feeling of fatigue because it is spiritual service and is not on the bodily plane. Service on the bodily plane dwindles as the body grows older, but the spirit is never old, and therefore on the spiritual plane the service is never tiresome.

Uddhava undoubtedly became old, but that does not mean that his spirit became old. His service attitude matured on the transcendental plane, and therefore as soon as he was questioned by Vidura about Lord Kṛṣṇa, he at once remembered his Lord by reference to the context and forgot himself on the physical plane. That is the sign of pure devotional service to the Lord, as will be explained later on (lakṣaṇaṁ bhakti-yogasya, etc.) in Lord Kapila’s instructions to His mother, Devahūti.

Concept – there is no vacation in KC. Speak about Krsna, Cook for Krsna, Sankirtan…. 

What is KC And what are my needs 

My needs – selfish..what is needed for me my wishes.. Not related to Krsna.. If we continue like this we will not experience the unending bliss in transcendental service.. 

BS 5.24 

Then the goddess of learning Sarasvatī, the divine consort of the Supreme Lord, said thus to Brahmā who saw nothing but gloom in all directions, “O Brahmā, this mantra, viz., klīṁ kṛṣṇāya govindāya gopī-jana-vallabhāya svāhā, will assuredly fulfill your heart’s desire.”

The mantra, consisting of the eighteen divine letters prefixed by the kāma-bīja, is alone superexcellent. It has a twofold aspect. One aspect is that it tends to make the pure soul run after all-attractive Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Lord of Gokula and the divine milkmaids. This is the acme of the spiritual tendency of jīvas. When the devotee is free from all sorts of mundane desires and willing to serve the Lord he attains the fruition of his heart’s desire, viz., the love of Kṛṣṇa. But in the case of the devotee who is not of unmixed aptitude this superexcellent mantra fulfills his heart’s desire also. The transcendental kāma-bīja is inherent in the divine logos located in Goloka; and the kāma-bīja pervertedly reflected in the worldly affairs satisfies all sorts of desires of this mundane world.

This mantra will fulfill your desire

He was born with desires – He wants to be a controller, creator, manager.. 

2 types of desire – desire for sense gratification, desire to please Krsna.. 

If you desire Sense gratification – that will be fulfilled…

If you desire for Krsna – that will be fulfilled.. 

BS 5.26

Brahmā, being desirous of satisfying Govinda, practiced the cultural acts for Kṛṣṇa in Goloka, Lord of Śvetadvīpa, for a long time. His meditation ran thus, “There exists a divine lotus of a thousand petals, augmented by millions of filaments, in the transcendental land of Goloka. On its whorl, there exists a great divine throne on which is seated Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the form of eternal effulgence of transcendental bliss, playing on His divine flute resonant with the divine sound, with His lotus mouth. He is worshiped by His amorous milkmaids with their respective subjective portions and extensions and also by His external energy [who stays outside] embodying all mundane qualities.”

Although the object of meditation is fully transcendental, yet owing to her nature which is permeated with the quality of active mundane hankering, Māyā, the nonspiritual potency of Kṛṣṇa, embodying the principles of mixed sattva, rajas, and tamas, in the forms of Durgā, and other nonspiritual powers, meditated on the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa as the object of their worship. So long as there is any trace of mundane desire in one’s heart, it is the object of worship of Māyādevī (Durgā) who has to be worshiped by such a person; nevertheless the fulfillment of one’s heart’s desire results from the worship of the object of worship of Māyādevī, and not from the worship of Māyādevī herself. This is in accordance with the śloka, akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhiḥ / tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena yajeta puruṣaṁ param [SB 2.3.10]. The meaning of this śloka of the Bhāgavatam is that though other gods, as distinct manifestations of the Supreme Lord, are bestowers of sundry specific boons, yet a sensible person should worship the all powerful Supreme Lord, giver of all good, with unalloyed devotion, without worshiping those mundane gift-giving deities. Accordingly, Brahmā meditated upon Kṛṣṇa in Goloka, the object of the worship, from a distance, of Māyādevī. True devotion is unalloyed devotional activity free from all mundane desire. The devotion of Brahmā, etc., is not unmixed devotion. But there is a stage of unmixed predilection even in devotion for the attainment of one’s selfish desire. This has been fully described in the concluding five ślokas of this work. That is the easiest method of divine service, prior to the attainment of self-realization, by fallen souls.

As long as we have mixed desires we are actually following the Mayadevi and not Krsna.

BS 5.61

Abandoning all meritorious performances serve Me with faith. The realization will correspond to the nature of one’s faith. The people of the world act ceaselessly in pursuance of some ideal. By meditating on Me by means of those deeds one will obtain devotion characterized by love in the shape of the supreme service.

Your position in KC is measured by your Faith in Krsna.

Example- Devotee in Chowpaty. He was a businessman. He was with SP and did not take initiation.. As he wanted to find weakness of SP..  

The function characterized by unalloyed devotion is the real function of all individual souls (jīvas). All other varieties of function are activities of the external cases. These exoteric and esoteric dharmas (functions) are manifold, e.g., nondifferential knowledge of the Brahman aiming at extinction of individuality. the aṣṭāṅga-yoga-dharma having as its goal attainment of the state of exclusive existence (kaivalya), atheistical fruitive ritualism aiming at material enjoyment, jñāna-yoga-dharma seeking to combine knowledge with fruitive activity and the practice of the function of barren asceticism. Getting rid of all these, serve Me by pure devotion rooted in faith. Exclusive faith in Me is trust. Faith in the form of trust by the process of gradual purification tends to become a constant engagement (niṣṭhā), an object of liking (ruci), of attachment (āsakti) and a real sentiment (bhāva). The more transparent the faith, the greater the degree of realization. If you ask-How will the preservation and conduct of worldly affairs be feasible if one is continuously engaged in the endeavor for the realization of bhakti? What also will be the nature of the endeavor for the realization of bhakti when the body will perish consequent on the cessation of the function of the body and of society?

SP had complete faith in his Guru’s instructions and KRsna and he thus comes to the US in such old age in spite of all odds he continues to preach until his last moments of life..

In order to strike at the root of this misgiving the Supreme Lord says, “This world subsists by the constant performance of certain activities. Fill all these activities with meditation of Me. This will destroy the quality that makes those activities appear as acts done by you. They will then be of the nature of My service (bhakti).

“Mankind live by the threefold activities of body, mind and society. Eating, seating, walking, resting, sleeping, cleansing the body. covering the body. etc., are the various bodily activities; thinking, recollecting, retaining an impression, becoming aware of an entity. feeling pleasure and pain, etc., are the mental feats; marrying, practicing reciprocal relationship between the king and subject, practicing brotherhood, attending at sacrificial meetings, offering oblations, digging wells, tanks, etc., for the benefit of the people, maintaining one’s relations, practicing hospitality. observing proper civic conduct, showing due respect to others are the various social activities. When these acts are performed for one’s selfish enjoyment, they are called karma-kāṇḍa; when the desire for attainment of freedom from activity by knowledge underlies these actions, they are termed jñāna-yoga or karma-yoga. And when these activities are managed to be performed in this way that is conducive to our endeavor for attainment of bhakti they are called jñāna-bhakta-yoga, i.e., the subsidiary devotional practices. But only those activities that are characterized by the principle of pure worship are called bhakti proper. My meditation is practiced in every act when bhakti proper is practiced in due time while performing the subsidiary devotional activities in one’s intercourse with the ungodly people of this world. In such position, a jīva does not become apathetic to Godhead even by performing those worldly activities. This constitutes the practice of looking inwards, i.e., turning towards one’s real self, vide Īśopaniṣad-

īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ

yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat

tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā

mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam

[Īśo mantra 1]

The commentator says in regards to this, tena īśa-tyaktena visṛṣṭena. The real significance being that if whatever is accepted be received as favor vouchsafed by the Supreme Lord, the worldly activity will cease to be such and will turn into service of Godhead (bhakti). So Īśāvāsya says kurvann eveha karmāṇi… karma lipyate nare.

If the worldly acts are performed in the above manner one does not get entangled in karma even in hundreds of years of worldly life. The meaning of these two mantras from the jñāna point of view is renouncement of the fruits of one’s worldly actions; but from the bhakti point of view they mean the attainment of Kṛṣṇa’s favor (prasādam) by their transfer to His account. In this method, which is the path of arcana, you should do your duties of the world by the meditation of worshiping Godhead thereby. Brahmā cherishes the desire for creation in his heart. If that creative desire is practiced by conjoining the same with the meditation of obeying therein the command of the Supreme Lord, then it will be a subsidiary spiritual function (gauṇa-dharma) being helpful for the growth of the disposition for the service of the Divinity by reason of its characteristic of seeking the protection of Godhead. It was certainly proper to instruct Brahmā in this manner. There is no occasion for such instruction in the case of a jīva in whom the spontaneous aversion for entities other than Kṛṣṇa manifests itself on his attainment of the substantive entity of spiritual devotion (bhāva).

Meditating on Krishna or mind focused on Krsna in every activity we do is key for us to be KC.. even when we are working in this material world.. 

Bhagavad-gītā 2.1-11 Johannesburg October 17 1975 – Looking inwards

Although he was forced to fight by the opposite party who were very near, thick and thin people, and he had to kill them, so it was not very satisfactory to him. Therefore he flatly denied to fight: “Kṛṣṇa, I am not going to fight.” He left his weapon, and then Kṛṣṇa was surprised that “My friend, Arjuna, he is denying to fight in My presence.”

So Sa�jaya, the private secretary of Mahārāja Dhṛtarāṣṭra, he was relaying the message which was going on in the battle of Kurukṣetra by higher process. Nowadays we have got experience of the television, but the another process, antar-dṛṣṭi, that is also television. You can see the reflection of external activities within your heart, and you can explain. So Sa�jaya, the private secretary of Mahārāja Dhṛtarāṣṭra, he explained that Arjuna was denying to fight. So,

Internal network – see and hear things from far away.. Paramatma is in the heart

BG 3.17-20 New York

Practically, in the battlefield of Mahābhārata this Bhagavad-gītā was spoken. And it is… You will be surprised. In those days television was in the heart, television. This, I mean to say, battlefield of Kurukṣetra was television in the heart of Sañjaya. Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the father of one party, Duryodhana, and his secretary, Sañjaya, were sitting in the room, and they were discussing what happened after this. Just like you get television or radio message in the football ground what is going on by sound and picture, so the same thing was being reflected in his heart and he was in the room. He was explaining the activities of the battlefield.

BG 4.39

A faithful man who is dedicated to transcendental knowledge and who subdues his senses is eligible to achieve such knowledge, and having achieved it he quickly attains the supreme spiritual peace.

One is called a faithful man who thinks that simply by acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness he can attain the highest perfection. This faith is attained by the discharge of devotional service and by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, which cleanses one’s heart of all material dirt. Over and above this, one should control the senses. A person who is faithful to Kṛṣṇa and who controls the senses can easily attain perfection in the knowledge of Kṛṣṇa consciousness without delay.

BG 4.40

But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain God consciousness; they fall down. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next.

Associating with devotees who have strong faith will make your faith stronge

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SB 3.1.45 Notes – 5/9/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 3.1.45:

  • Whenever there is any trouble in the administration of the innumerable planets in different universes, the rulers pray for an appearance, and the Lord appears.
  • He also appears for the sake of His pure unalloyed devotees. 
  • The surrendered rulers and the pure devotees are always strictly under the control of the Lord, and they are never disobedient to the desires of the Lord. The Lord is therefore always attentive to them.
  • The purpose of pilgrimages is to remember the Lord constantly, and therefore the Lord is known as tīrtha-kīrti.
  • Chanting the glories of the Lord invokes the personal presence of the Lord. Any time or anywhere pure devotees meet and chant the glories of the Lord, the Lord is present without any doubt. 
  • It is said by the Lord Himself that He always stays where His pure devotees chant His glories.
  • Rupanuga – “how the simpler faith of a real Christian, that is not so advanced in knowledge of the Supreme Person, differs in ecstasy or the end result of God-consciousness,”
  • Srila Prabhupada –  There is no ecstasy in such simple faith; there cannot be any ecstasy. The Christian faith as it is now exhibited, they have simply a faint idea of God as order-supplier.
  • We want ecstasy, it does not matter one feels it in Christian church or in other church. But, one who feels ecstasy in Krishna Consciousness or God-consciousness, he finishes his ecstasy in material enjoyment—that is the test.
  • This ecstasy doesn’t depend on the intelligence or non-intelligence; it is spontaneous response, without any cause. If one is fortunate to have such ecstasy, it is to be understood that his life is successful. We do not advocate any sectarian religion. We are concerned to invoke our dormant love for God.
  • Rupanuga –  “if in the Vaikunthas ecstatic love between Lord Narayana and His devotees and Lord Krishna Consciousness and His devotees on Krishna Loka is qualitatively the same, then what is the advantage of following the path of Krishna Consciousness, whose philosophy austerity is difficult to understand?”
  • Srila Prabhupada – So Krishna Consciousness includes Vaikuntha consciousness, but Vaikuntha consciousness does not include Krishna Consciousness. 
  • Those who are strictly following the rules and regulations of Vaisnava activities, they are promoted to Vaikuntha lokas. But those who have developed a spontaneous love for Krishna, they are promoted to the Krishna Loka.
  • The living example for much spontaneous love are exhibited by the Gopis and inhabitants of Vrindaban. We can learn this from Srimad-Bhagavatam how much they love Krishna spontaneously.

SB 3.1.45 – TRANSLATION

O my friend, please, therefore, chant the glories of the Lord, who is meant to be glorified in the places of pilgrimage. He is unborn, and yet He appears by His causeless mercy upon the surrendered rulers of all parts of the universe. Only for their interest did He appear in the family of His unalloyed devotees the Yadus.

There are innumerable rulers all over the universe in different varieties of planets: the sun-god in the sun planet, the moon-god in the moon planet, Indra in the heavenly planet, Vāyu, Varuṇa, and those in the Brahmaloka planet, where Lord Brahmā is living. All are obedient servants of the Lord. Whenever there is any trouble in the administration of the innumerable planets in different universes, the rulers pray for an appearance, and the Lord appears. The Bhāgavatam (1.3.28) has already confirmed this in the following verse:

ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ

kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam

indrāri-vyākulaṁ lokaṁ

mṛḍayanti yuge yuge

In every millennium, whenever there is any trouble for the obedient rulers, the Lord appears. He also appears for the sake of His pure unalloyed devotees. The surrendered rulers and the pure devotees are always strictly under the control of the Lord, and they are never disobedient to the desires of the Lord. The Lord is therefore always attentive to them.

The purpose of pilgrimages is to remember the Lord constantly, and therefore the Lord is known as tīrtha-kīrti. The purpose of going to a place of pilgrimage is to get the chance to glorify the Lord. Even today, although times have changed, there are still pilgrimage sites in India. For example, in Mathurā and Vṛndāvana, where we had a chance to stay, people are awake from early in the morning at 4 A.M. up until nighttime and are constantly engaged, some way or other, in chanting the holy glories of the Lord. The beauty of such a pilgrimage site is that automatically one remembers the holy glories of the Lord. His name, fame, quality, form, pastimes and entourage are all identical to the Lord, and therefore chanting the glories of the Lord invokes the personal presence of the Lord. Any time or anywhere pure devotees meet and chant the glories of the Lord, the Lord is present without any doubt. It is said by the Lord Himself that He always stays where His pure devotees chant His glories.

Ultimate instruction of Vidura – Chant the glories of the lord. 

BG and SB are specifically meant for the rulers of the lord. They have lot of control over the masses of the world. If the rulers take it up.. Then there will be very fast progres of KC.. One time one ruler Ashoka became buddhist overnight  and almost most of the country became buddhists.. Eventually Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya and Caitanya MahaPrabhu came and the sanatana dharma came back.. 

MOST IMP Verses which prove that Krsna as the Supreme personality of Godhead.. 

BG 10.8  Aham sarvasya prabhavo.. 

BG Eta ca indrastu svayam… 

Others – 

BG 8th chapter

BS – isvara parama Krsna.. 

We should learn atleast those 3 verses and use them when anyone questions the divinity of Krsna…. 

For anyone desiring to have a personal relationship with Krsna.. Law of material nature.. 

If we do not surrender to Krsna then we are violating the law.. 

Letter to: Rupanuga Dated: July 3 1968 Location: Montreal

Regarding your questions, “how the simpler faith of a real Christian, that is not so advanced in knowledge of the Supreme Person, differs in ecstasy or the end result of God-consciousness,” (1) and persons “a devotee who has experienced some ecstasy in the company of Christians suggests that if there be no quantitative or qualitative difference between the two forms of Kirtana, then the simpler philosophy of Christianity has the advantage, and that our philosophy is for the intelligent class of men, true, but of what advantage is such intelligence if the end is the same?” (2) There is no ecstasy in such simple faith; there cannot be any ecstasy. The Christian faith as it is now exhibited, they have simply a faint idea of God as order-supplier. Certainly God is the Origin, Source of all supplies, and either God-conscious persons or demons, everybody is enjoying the general supplies made by God. It is just like a rich father maintains all kinds of children; some of them may be a highly qualified, some of them are rascals. The father does not mind whether a child is rascal or qualified, but out of his love for all of them he supplies the essentials for the children. Out of such many children, if someone of them feels grateful to the father, and thus develops love for the father, as it is expected, his position is better than the other children. And the father is also endeared to such a devoted child. Similarly, God is equal to everyone, but one who developed love of Godhead, and has practically employed oneself in the service of the Lord, he is in real touch and favor of the Lord. That is the difference. (2) We want ecstasy, it does not matter one feels it in Christian church or in other church. But, one who feels ecstasy in Krishna Consciousness or God-consciousness, he finishes his ecstasy in material enjoyment—that is the test. One cannot say he is feeling enjoyment—that is the test. One cannot say he is feeling ecstasy in some company, and at the same time, he is trying to take advantage of material sense gratification. This is not possible. This ecstasy doesn’t depend on the intelligence or non-intelligence; it is spontaneous response, without any cause. If one is fortunate to have such ecstasy, it is to be understood that his life is successful. We do not advocate any sectarian religion. We are concerned to invoke our dormant love for God. Any method that helps us in reaching such platform is welcome, but we find practically that by chanting Hare Krishna, many students have come to the platform of ecstasy. But we have hardly found anyone to come to that stage simply by following the religious rituals; that is the difference. So, Krishna Consciousness is meant for the most intelligent class of men.

Speaking in tongues

Focus of prayer is on the order supplier – asking for material support ,  

saint in armenia writing poems asking about forgiveness – extremely renounced and always thinking of Jesus.. There is no ecstasy in it.. 

As we advance in KC we reduce material needs.. Dancing, singing.. 

In KC there is no material cause for the ecstasy.. 

Your question, “if in the Vaikunthas ecstatic love between Lord Narayana and His devotees and Lord Krishna Consciousness and His devotees on Krishna Loka is qualitatively the same, then what is the advantage of following the path of Krishna Consciousness, whose philosophy austerity is difficult to understand?” Krishna Consciousness philosophy includes the whole Vaisnava philosophy. When we speak Krishna, the very Word means, Rama, Nrsimha, Varaha, and all other similar expansions and incarnations. So Krishna Consciousness includes Vaikuntha consciousness, but Vaikuntha consciousness does not include Krishna Consciousness. Those who are strictly following the rules and regulations of Vaisnava activities, they are promoted to Vaikuntha lokas. But those who have developed a spontaneous love for Krishna, they are promoted to the Krishna Loka. Therefore, although Krishna Consciousness includes Vaikuntha consciousness, pure Krishna Consciousness is spontaneous love for Krishna without any regulative principles. The idea can be explained that a young boy or a young girl are spontaneously attracted, without following any regulative principles previously. When one develops such spontaneous love for God, that is called pure Krishna Consciousness. In our conditioned life, we have forgotten our relationship with God, but by regulative principles, we can make alert the inert activities. Just like a rheumatic crippled man is gradually elevated by some bodily exercises. Similarly, the regulative principles are to make us habituated to our dormant service attitude, but when that is mature, it becomes spontaneous, and that is pure Krishna Consciousness. And such highly elevated Consciousness makes one eligible to enter into the Krishna Loka. The living example for much spontaneous love are exhibited by the Gopis and inhabitants of Vrindaban. We can learn this from Srimad-Bhagavatam how much they love Krishna spontaneously.

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Mayavadis & Bonafide Impersonalists Notes – 5/8/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON ARE MAYAVADIS WHO MERGE INTO BRAHMAN SAME AS BONAFIDE IMPERSONALISTS – 5/8/22:

  • In the Brahmajyoti the spirit souls on account of their impersonal views are devoid of a body, exactly like here in Maya there are ghosts who are devoid of any gross bodies.
  • The ghost being devoid of a body, he suffers terribly because he is unable to satisfy his senses. The spirit souls in the Brahmajyoti, although they have no desire for sense gratification, still they feel inconvenience like the ghost, and they fall down again in the Maya’s atmosphere and develop a material body.
  • In the Bhagavat therefore it is said that persons who are impersonalists and do not develop the dormant devotional attitude, their intelligence is not pure, because for want of a spiritual body, they come down again to the material world.
  • In the Bhagavad-gita it is clearly said by the Lord that the only way of not coming back to the material world is to be promoted to the spiritual planets. For the impersonalists there is no such assurance of not falling down in the whole Vedic literature.
  • The conclusion is that without developing the spiritual body and without being situated on one of the spiritual planets, the so-called liberation is also illusion, or it is not complete.
  • A spirit soul who falls down from the Brahmajyoti to the Kingdom of Maya may have a chance of associating with a pure devotee, and then he may be elevated to the spiritual planets of Vaikuntha or to Goloka Vrindaban.
  • From the Brahmajyoti there is no direct promotion to the spiritual planets, and it is clearly stated in the Bhagavatam that such souls fall down: patanty adha.
  • Existence in the impersonal brahma is also within the category of non-Krsna consciousness. Those who are in the brahman effulgence they are also in the fallen condition, so there is no question of falling down from a fallen condition. When fall takes place, it means falling down from the non-fallen condition.
  • The non-fallen condition is Krsna consciousness. So long one can maintain pure Krsna consciousness he is not fallen down. As soon as he becomes out of Krsna consciousness immediately he is fallen down. It does not matter where a living entity stays.
  • Usually anyone who has developed his relationship with Krsna does not fall down in any circumstance, but because the independence is always there, the soul may fall down from any position or any relationship by misusing his independence.
  • But his relationship with Krsna is never lost, simply it is forgotten by the influence of Maya, so it may be regained or revived by the process of hearing the Holy Name of Krsna and then the devotee engages himself in the service of the Lord which is his original or constitutional position.
  • The relationship of the living entity with Krsna is eternal as both Krsna and the living entity are eternal; the process is one of revival only, nothing new.

Letter to: Rupanuga July 24 1969 Los Angeles

Regarding your question, “what is the difference between the spirit souls comprising the Brahmajyoti and the spirit souls here in Maya?”, in the Brahmajyoti the spirit souls on account of their impersonal views are devoid of a body, exactly like here in Maya there are ghosts who are devoid of any gross bodies. The ghost being devoid of a body, he suffers terribly because he is unable to satisfy his senses. The spirit souls in the Brahmajyoti, although they have no desire for sense gratification, still they feel inconvenience like the ghost, and they fall down again in the Maya’s atmosphere and develop a material body. In the Bhagavat therefore it is said that persons who are impersonalists and do not develop the dormant devotional attitude, their intelligence is not pure, because for want of a spiritual body, they come down again to the material world. In the Bhagavad-gita it is clearly said by the Lord that the only way of not coming back to the material world is to be promoted to the spiritual planets. For the impersonalists there is no such assurance of not falling down in the whole Vedic literature. The conclusion is that without developing the spiritual body and without being situated on one of the spiritual planets, the so-called liberation is also illusion, or it is not complete. A spirit soul who falls down from the Brahmajyoti to the Kingdom of Maya may have a chance of associating with a pure devotee, and then he may be elevated to the spiritual planets of Vaikuntha or to Goloka Vrindaban. From the Brahmajyoti there is no direct promotion to the spiritual planets, and it is clearly stated in the Bhagavatam that such souls fall down: patanty adha.

BG 8.15 

After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogīs in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.

BG 8.16 

From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kuntī, never takes birth again.

BG 15.6 

That supreme abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by fire or electricity. Those who reach it never return to this material world.

Whether one achieves BJ by following Mayavadi philosophy or impersonalism. They say everything is false then their philosophy is also false as it belongs to the material world.. 

Genuine impersonalist does not claim that there is no goloka no vaikunta.. They say that they dont know.. They dont make false statements they stick to what they know.. 

As long as they come in contact with pure devotee and if they follow instructions they become devotees.. 

Genuine impersonalists  – Sukhdev Goswami, Kumaras,.. Brahman realized.. 

Kumaras when they reached Vaikunta they smelled the aroma of tulsi leaves at the feet of the lord they got liberated. 

Mayavadis dont believe even in the spiritual body, they think they are some kind of light..

Impersonalists they go from Brahman to Material world to Vaikunta planets when in contact with guru who is a pure devotee.. There are lot of diff between both.. 

Letter to: Jagadisa Feb. 27 1970 Los Angeles

Regarding your questions concerning the spirit souls falling into Maya’s influence, it is not that those who have developed a passive relationship with Krsna are more likely to fall into nescient activities. Usually anyone who has developed his relationship with Krsna does not fall down in any circumstance, but because the independence is always there, the soul may fall down from any position or any relationship by misusing his independence. But his relationship with Krsna is never lost, simply it is forgotten by the influence of Maya, so it may be regained or revived by the process of hearing the Holy Name of Krsna and then the devotee engages himself in the service of the Lord which is his original or constitutional position. The relationship of the living entity with Krsna is eternal as both Krsna and the living entity are eternal; the process is one of revival only, nothing new.

Letter to: Rayarama Dec. 2 1968 Los Angeles

The answer to your question about the marginal energy is that the jiva soul is always called marginal energy whether he is in the spiritual world or in the material world. There are instances where marginal energy jiva souls have fallen from the spiritual world, just like Jaya and Vijaya. So the potency to fall under the influence of the lower energy is always there. And thus the individual jiva soul is called as Krishna’s marginal energy.

Letter to Harer nama Dec. 21 1968 Los Angeles

Your second question about falling down from the brahma-jyotir is answered that it is not that one must fall down, but that they generally fall down. There is a verse in Srimad-Bhagavatam, 10th canto, 2nd chapter, verse 26, which says: “My Dear Lotus Eyed Personality of Godhead, persons who are very proud of becoming one with the brahma effulgence and thereby consider that they have become liberated are factually in a contaminated consciousness on account of the absence of devotional service unto You. Such persons may rise to a high level of spiritual understanding as far as the impersonal brahma-jyotir but on account of the lack of devotional service unto You, they generally fall down again into material contamination.” 

The final question which was asked by Tosana about the validity of the story of the sparrow and the ocean, you should know that everything that is found in these scriptures is factual. There is nothing allegory. But you must not depend upon your own limited experience. What happens in different corners of the Lord’s Creation no one can say. But we can hear from the authentic Vedic sources such as the Puranas. This story of the sparrow is found in the Puranas.

Letter to: Jagadisa April 25 1970 Los Angeles

Regarding your questions about how and from where did the conditioned souls fall, your first question if someone has a relationship with Lord Krsna on Krsnaloka, does he ever fall down? The souls are endowed with minute independence as part of their nature and this minute independence may be utilized rightly or wrongly at any time, so there is always the chance of falling down by misuse of one’s independence. But those who are firmly fixed up in devotional service to Krsna are making proper use of their independence and so they do not fall down.

Regarding your second question, have the conditioned souls ever seen Krsna? Were they with the Lord before being conditioned by the desire to lord it over material nature? Yes, the conditioned souls are parts and parcels of the Lord and thus they were with Krsna before being conditioned. Just as the child must have seen his father because the father places the child in the womb of the mother, similarly each soul has seen Krsna or the Supreme Father. But at that time the conditioned souls are resting in the condition called susupti which is exactly deep sleep without dream, or anesthetized state, therefore they do not remember being with Krsna when they wake up in the material world and become engaged in material affairs. I hope this will satisfy your questions.

Letter to: Revatinandana June 13 1970 Los Angeles

The next question, about the living entities falling down in this material world are not from the impersonal brahman. Existence in the impersonal brahma is also within the category of non-Krsna consciousness. Those who are in the brahman effulgence they are also in the fallen condition, so there is no question of falling down from a fallen condition. When fall takes place, it means falling down from the non-fallen condition.

The non-fallen condition is Krsna consciousness. So long one can maintain pure Krsna consciousness he is not fallen down. As soon as he becomes out of Krsna consciousness immediately he is fallen down. It does not matter where a living entity stays. In the material world also there are different stages of living conditions, and to remain in the brahman effulgence is also another phase of that fallen condition. Just like in the Bhagavad-gita it is stated that conditioned souls by their pious activities are elevated to the higher planetary system, but as soon as the stock of pious activities is finished he again comes down on the earthly planet. Similarly those who are elevated beyond the planetary system to the brahma effulgence, they are also prone to fall down as much as a living entity from the higher planetary system.

As such those who are thinking that they are liberated by being situated in brahman effulgence are described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam as impurely intelligent. In other words, they are actually not liberated, and because they are not actually liberated they again come down to the material world as much as a living entity elevated to the higher planetary system comes down to this earthly planet. So we do not accept anyone elevated to the brahman effulgence as actually liberated.

Letter to: Jagadisa July 9 1970 Los Angeles

Regarding your several questions: Where are the spirit souls coming from that are taking microbe bodies? It is not a matter of any particular body. These spirit souls and all spirit souls are coming from Vaikuntha, but in these material worlds they are taking various grades of bodies according to their material activities. There is no “new” soul. “New” and “old” are due to this material body, but the soul is never born and never dies, so if there is no birth how there can be new soul?

Your second question: Is there any particular reason why some spirit souls become directed toward Krsna Consciousness in the first place? How does one get on the progressive path of elevation to Krsna Consciousness? The answer is that it is by the mercy of the Lord that one comes in contact with a Spiritual Master Who can revive the dormant Krsna consciousness of the conditioned soul. Krsna is always merciful and He comes Himself, He leaves behind Him instruction like the Bhagavad-gita, etc. and He sends His representative, the Spiritual Master. In this way the merciful propaganda is going on.

Every individual soul has got the discriminating power, so those who are pious they take advantage of this opportunity of the mercy of the Lord. But both pious and impious souls are being convinced by this Krsna consciousness movement. The human being is supposed to be intelligent more than the animals, so the intelligent persons or pious persons are coming in contact with Krsna consciousness.

Regarding your questions with reference to B.G. III,5, and the Vedic hymn quoted in the purport to B.g. 14.15 and the statement “. . . when the living entity is bewildered in his desires, the Lord allows him to fulfill those desires . . .” You have quoted, “The Lord engages the living entity in pious activities so he may be elevated. The Lord engages him in impious activities so he may go to hell . . .” So that is also originally the individual soul’s desire and as Supersoul the Lord is giving everyone the opportunity to go to heaven or to hell or to Vaikuntha if he so desires. For those who are hankering after material opportunities the Lord as Supersoul is giving them the opportunities to enjoy the material nature and the facility is being supplied by the material nature.

Similarly, a living entity who is desiring for spiritual upliftment, the Lord is giving him the opportunity of the Vedic literatures and the Spiritual Master. But His advice to all living entities is to give up all nonsense and everything else and surrender unto Him. The living entity by accepting one kind of opportunity is going to hell and by accepting the other kinds of opportunities he is going back to home, back to Godhead. So both opportunities are offered by the Lord. Therefore indirectly you can say that one is being sent to hell and one is being sent to the spiritual world by the Lord—but He is simply supplying the opportunities to everyone as he desires. The intelligent person therefore does not desire anything—he simply surrenders unto the Lord or he desires to serve the Lord and that is his greatest opportunity.

Desires evolve by association.. 

Sheeple 

Beckoning Krsna – pls help me serve you

BG 2.50 

A man engaged in devotional service rids himself of both good and bad reactions even in this life. Therefore strive for yoga, which is the art of all work.

“Man proposes and God disposes.” That is the sum and substance. But as a pure devotee of the Lord you should not propose—simply accept His proposal and surrender unto Him. So far the conditioned soul is concerned the same opportunities are there, but if he does not take advantage of the opportunity to elevate himself to Krsna Consciousness and chooses to misuse his independence for taking the opportunity to enjoy some material happiness, then he will remain conditioned as the Lord will allow him to fulfill those desires. The opportunity is always there, just as we are offering so many ways to become Krsna Conscious, but if you don’t take the opportunity what can I do. That is purposeful negligence of duty. The example may be given of a man who is sleeping. If he is actually sleeping, he may be wakened by various means, but there is no doubt that he must wake up. However, if a man is pretending to be asleep there is no way at all to rouse him up.

How to get those thoughts (material desires, fear, anxiety)  out of our mind – is by constantly asking questions.. To pure devotees and getting answers from SP texts. 

We all are born in ignorance.. Therefore if you look at panoramic view – real activity should be only Krsna Consciousness. Everything else is a complete waste of time..

Gradually with dovetailing slowly the material desires will reduce..

Tendency to be attracted to maya we get trapped.. Unwittingly.. 

Persona – identity.. 

If you are in BrahmaJyothi then you will not have a body you are like a spark of light. 

Revatīnandana: That’s right. So the, the, the constitutional nature of the entities that naturally form brahmajyoti is the same as the constitutional nature of the jīvātmās that are forming the living entities?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Is comparison a small spiritual spark, that’s all. We are spark.

Revatīnandana: Am I…

Prabhupāda: So long he does not develop a body…

Revatīnandana: Yes.

Prabhupāda: …that body is also the same. So it remains as spiritual spark. But because it is spirit, it cannot remain in that impersonal stage.

Śyāmasundara: Hmm.

Prabhupāda: He wants to enjoy.

Revatīnandana: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So, so long he is forgotten, he develops a body which is called matter.

Śyāmasundara: Or else he develops a spiritual body? One or the other?

Prabhupāda: Yes. No. That he is spirit, spiritual identity, already.

Śyāmasundara: Oh.

Prabhupāda: But as you are developing material body, similarly, you can develop spiritual body

Revatīnandana: You know you.., you very clearly explained to me once in a letter that if the, the spirit soul then goes into the brahmajyoti, he is considered still fallen…

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Revatīnandana: …still fallen. That means the whole brahmajyoti is composed of fallen souls. You see my question? If, if I go there, I am a jīva soul, and I go to the brahmajyoti, I am still fallen.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Revatīnandana: That means all jīva souls there are also fallen souls. That follows?

BS 5.16 

Again when in course of the progressive evolution of mundane creation each universe is manifested, then in the principle of Śambhu, born of the space between the two eyebrows of Viṣṇu, there appears the manifestation of the personality of Rudra; yet under all circumstances Śambhu fully enshrines the mundane egotistic principle. The innumerable jīvas as spiritual particles emanating from the oversoul in the form of pencils of rays of effulgence, have no relation with the mundane world when they come to know themselves to be the eternal servants of the Supreme Lord. They are then incorporated into the realm of Vaikuṇṭha. But when they desire to lord it over Māyā, forgetting their real identity. the egotistic principle Śambhu entering into their entities makes them identify themselves as separated enjoyers of mundane entities. Hence Śambhu is the primary principle of the egotistic mundane universe and of perverted egotism in jīvas that identifies itself with their limited material bodies.

BG 13.3

O scion of Bharata, you should understand that I am also the knower in all bodies, and to understand this body and its knower is called knowledge. That is My opinion.

BS 5.35

Kṛṣṇa is the highest of all entities. In Him is an entity which is termed cit (spiritual) which is distinct from the principle of limitation. By His inconceivable power, He can at will create numberless universes. All the mundane universes owe their origin to the transformation of His external potency. Again His abode is beyond human conception; since all worlds, limited and spiritual (cit) exist in Him and He resides simultaneously in His fullness and entirety in all the atoms in all the worlds. All-pervasiveness is only a localized aspect of the majesty of Kṛṣṇa, the Lord of all. Though He is all-pervasive yet in His existence everywhere in a medium shape consists His spiritual Lordship beyond human conception. This argument favors the doctrine of simultaneous inconceivable distinction and nondistinction, and knocks down the contaminating Māyāvāda and other allied doctrines.

Everything depends on Association.. 

Letter to Mr. Taber June 9 1967 New York

A spirit soul is not impersonal, and because he is a person he has the latent desire for sense gratification; but in the material condition he does not know how to enjoy; therefore one should purify the senses being free of all material designation. In conditioned stage we are designated souls like “American,” “Indian,” “dog,” “demigod,” etc., but in pure consciousness or Krishna Consciousness, we are part and parcel of the Supreme Brahman. By Brahman realization, as you may have read in Bhagavad-gita: brahma-bhutah prasannatma na socati na kanksati [Bg. 18.54]. So in our pure stage when we understand that we are eternal servants of Krishna there is no more distress. Therefore the devotee prays: “My Lord, when shall I be freed from all material desires and be completely engaged in your transcendental loving service. At the present moment I am forlorn and nobody is my master. When shall I have You as my Supreme Master; then shall I joyfully wander over the whole universe knowing that You are my master.” Please therefore try to be in Krishna Consciousness and there will be no distress. Gradually as you realize this, you will experience it also; but the process is the same, both at the beginning and at the end.

BG 12.20

In other words, as long as one does not have the chance to associate with a pure devotee, the impersonal conception may be beneficial.

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SB 3.1.44 Notes – 5/7/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 3.1.44:

  • SB 2.6.40-41: The Personality of Godhead is pure, being free from all contaminations of material tinges. He is the Absolute Truth and the embodiment of full and perfect knowledge. He is all-pervading, without beginning or end, and without rival. O Nārada, O great sage, the great thinkers can know Him when completely freed from all material hankerings and when sheltered under undisturbed conditions of the senses. Otherwise, by untenable arguments, all is distorted, and the Lord disappears from our sight.
  • His birth does not, like that of the living entities, take place under the influence of material nature and the bondage of the reactions of past deeds. 
  • His works and activities are independent pastimes and are not subject to the reactions of material nature. 
  • The law of karma enacted by the Supreme Lord for the living entities cannot be applicable to Him, nor has the Lord any desire to improve Himself by activities like those of ordinary living beings.
  • One who can come to the conclusion of the Lord’s transcendence can become a devotee of the Lord and can at once be free from all reactions of past deeds. The Lord minimizes or nullifies the reactionary influence of the devotee’s past deeds.
  • The Lord always acts in favor of the devotees, and therefore ordinary men who are fruitive actors or seekers of salvation may be attracted to the Lord when He acts as protector of the devotees.
  •  The secondary purpose of His appearance is to annihilate the upstart asuras and to stop the nonsense of atheistic propaganda by less intelligent persons. By the Lord’s causeless mercy, the asuras who are killed personally by the Personality of Godhead get salvation. 
  • The meaningful appearance of the Lord is always distinct from ordinary birth. Even the pure devotees have no connection with the material body, and certainly the Lord, who appears as He is, in His sac-cid-ānanda form, is not limited by a material form.
  • Letter to Tamala Krishna – You write to say that you do not know what is my desire, but my desire is an open secret. I simply want all over the Western countries people may take this simple formula of chanting, dancing and eating Krishna Prasadam, and being happy. I am simply surprised that they should not accept this simple formula and be happy themselves. 
  • My only desire is that all people become happy and prosperous in Krishna Consciousness. My predecessors, Vaisnavas, they were so generous that they felt very much afflicted for the suffering of the human society. Sri Rupa Goswami tried to elevate them to real path of happiness by introducing this Govinda Ganamrta, the Nectarine of the Songs of Govinda. That will make them happy.

SB 3.1.44 TRANSLATION:

The appearance of the Lord is manifested for the annihilation of the upstarts. His activities are transcendental and are enacted for the understanding of all persons. Otherwise, since the Lord is transcendental to all material modes, what purpose could He serve by coming to earth?

Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Brahma-saṁhitā 5.1): the form of the Lord is eternal, blissful and all-satisfying. His so-called birth is therefore an appearance only, like the birth of the sun on the horizon. His birth does not, like that of the living entities, take place under the influence of material nature and the bondage of the reactions of past deeds. His works and activities are independent pastimes and are not subject to the reactions of material nature. In Bhagavad-gītā (4.14) it is said:

na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti

na me karma-phale spṛhā

iti māṁ yo ’bhijānāti

karmabhir na sa badhyate

The law of karma enacted by the Supreme Lord for the living entities cannot be applicable to Him, nor has the Lord any desire to improve Himself by activities like those of ordinary living beings. Ordinary living beings work for the improvement of their conditional lives. But the Lord is already full of all opulence, all strength, all fame, all beauty, all knowledge and all renunciation. Why should He desire improvement? No one can excel Him in any opulence, and therefore the desire for improvement is absolutely useless for Him. One should always discriminate between the activities of the Lord and those of ordinary living beings. Thus one may come to the right conclusion regarding the Lord’s transcendental position. One who can come to the conclusion of the Lord’s transcendence can become a devotee of the Lord and can at once be free from all reactions of past deeds. It is said, karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājām: the Lord minimizes or nullifies the reactionary influence of the devotee’s past deeds. (Brahma-saṁhitā 5.54)

The activities of the Lord are to be accepted and relished by all living entities. His activities are to attract the ordinary man towards the Lord. The Lord always acts in favor of the devotees, and therefore ordinary men who are fruitive actors or seekers of salvation may be attracted to the Lord when He acts as protector of the devotees. The fruitive actors can attain their goals by devotional service, and the salvationists can also attain their goal in life by devotional service to the Lord. The devotees do not want the fruitive results of their work, nor do they want any kind of salvation. They relish the glorious superhuman activities of the Lord, such as His lifting Govardhana Hill and His killing the demon Pūtanā in infancy. His activities are enacted to attract all kinds of men — karmīs, jñānīs and bhaktas. Because He is transcendental to all laws of karma, there is no possibility of His accepting a form of māyā as is forced on the ordinary living entities who are bound by the actions and reactions of their own deeds.

The secondary purpose of His appearance is to annihilate the upstart asuras and to stop the nonsense of atheistic propaganda by less intelligent persons. By the Lord’s causeless mercy, the asuras who are killed personally by the Personality of Godhead get salvation. The meaningful appearance of the Lord is always distinct from ordinary birth. Even the pure devotees have no connection with the material body, and certainly the Lord, who appears as He is, in His sac-cid-ānanda form, is not limited by a material form.

Only the pure devotee actually gets protection from Krsna

Everyone gets maintenance from Krsna even the demons, but only pure devotees get personal protection

SB 2.6.40-41 (All about Krsna’s unique qualities)

The Personality of Godhead is pure, being free from all contaminations of material tinges. He is the Absolute Truth and the embodiment of full and perfect knowledge. He is all-pervading, without beginning or end, and without rival. O Nārada, O great sage, the great thinkers can know Him when completely freed from all material hankerings and when sheltered under undisturbed conditions of the senses. Otherwise, by untenable arguments, all is distorted, and the Lord disappears from our sight.

Vocab – untenable – no real substance

Vocab – Locus standi – no secure position 

Vocab – Hankering – always thinking of possessing something 

Vocab – Interpolation – insertion of something into another thing of some other nature

Vocab – Taunting – remark made to provoke someone.. 

Vocab – Aptitude – talent

Vocab – Glib – fluent and voluble, insincere and shallow.. lacking depth and substance

Here is an estimation of the Lord apart from His transcendental activities in the temporary, material creations. Māyāvāda philosophy tries to designate the Lord as contaminated by a material body when He accepts forms of incarnation. This sort of interpolation is completely denied herein by the explanation that the Lord’s position is pure and unalloyed in all circumstances. According to Māyāvāda philosophy, the spirit soul, when covered by nescience, is designated as jīva, but when freed from such ignorance or nescience he merges in the impersonal existence of the Absolute Truth. But here it is said that the Lord is eternally the symbol of full and perfect knowledge. This is His speciality: perpetual freedom from all material contaminations. This distinguishes the Lord from the individual, common living entities who have the aptitude for being subordinated by nescience and thus becoming materially designated. In the Vedas it is said that the Lord is vijñānam ānandam, full of bliss and knowledge. The conditioned souls are never to be compared to Him because such individual souls have the tendency to become contaminated. Although after liberation the living entity can become one with the same quality of existence as the Lord, his very tendency to become contaminated, which the Lord never has, makes the individual living entity different from the Lord. In the Vedas it is said, śuddham apāpa-viddham: the individual ātmā becomes polluted by sin, but the Lord is never contaminated by sins. The Lord is compared to the powerful sun. The sun is never contaminated by anything infectious because it is so powerful. On the contrary, infected things are sterilized by the rays of the sun. Similarly, the Lord is never contaminated by sins; on the contrary, the sinful living entities become sterilized by contact with the Lord. This means that the Lord is also all-pervading like the sun, and as such, the word pratyak is used in this verse. Nothing is excluded from the expansions of the Lord’s potency. The Lord is within everything, and He is all-covering also, without being disturbed by the activities of the individual souls. He is therefore infinite, and the living entities are infinitesimal. In the Vedas it is said that only the Lord alone exists, and all others’ existences depend on Him. He is the generating reservoir for everyone’s existential capacity; He is the Supreme Truth of all other categorical truths. He is the source of everyone’s opulence, and therefore no one can equal Him in opulence. Being full of all opulences, namely wealth, fame, strength, beauty, knowledge and renunciation, certainly He is the Supreme Person. And because He is a person, He has many personal qualities, although He is transcendental to the material modes. We have already discussed the statement itthaṁ-bhūta-guṇo hariḥ (Bhāg. 1.7.10). His transcendental qualities are so attractive that even the liberated souls (ātmārāmas) are also attracted by them. Although possessed of all personal qualities, He is nevertheless omnipotent. Therefore, personally He has nothing to do, for everything is being carried out by His omnipotent energies. This is confirmed by the Vedic mantras: parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. This suggests His specific spiritual form, which can never be experienced by the material senses. He can be seen only when the senses are purified by devotional service (yam evaiṣa vṛṇute tena labhyaḥ). As such, there are basic differences between the Lord and the living entities, in so many respects. No one can be compared to the Lord, as the Vedas declare (ekam evādvitīyaṁ brahma, dvaitād vai bhayaṁ bhavati). The Lord has no competitor, and He has nothing to fear from any other being, nor can anyone be equal to Him. Although He is the root of all other beings, there are basic differences between Him and other beings. Otherwise there would have been no necessity for the statement in the previous verse that no one can know Him one-hundred-percent as He is (na yaṁ vidanti tattvena). That no one can fully understand Him is explained also in this verse, but the qualification for understanding to some degree is mentioned here. Only the praśāntas, or the unalloyed devotees of the Lord, can know Him to a greater extent. The reason is that the devotees have no demands in their lives but to be obedient servants of the Lord, while all others, namely the empiric philosophers, the mystics and the fruitive workers, all basically have some demand, and as such, they cannot be pacified. The fruitive worker wants reward for his work, the mystic wants some perfection of life, and the empiric philosopher wants to merge in the existence of the Lord. Somehow or other, as long as there is a demand for sense satisfaction, there is no chance for pacification; on the contrary, by unnecessary dry speculative arguments, the whole matter becomes distorted, and thus the Lord moves still further away from our understanding. The dry speculators, however, because of their following the principles of austerity and penance, can have knowledge of the impersonal features of the Lord to some extent, but there is no chance of their understanding His ultimate form as Govinda because only the amalātmanas, or the completely sinless persons, can accept pure devotional service to the Lord, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.28):

yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ

janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām

te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā

bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ

Unless one is trained in BG and SB one cannot understand the things as they are.. One continues to thrive by believing lies.. One will not be able to think critically.. 

Eating, sleeping, mating and defending – against principles.. Per principles.. 

Natural attraction to nonsense

Understand maya and its actions, Krishna and his uniqueness, process of how to go back to Godhead, Culture,.. 

Letter to Tamala Krishna

You write to say that you do not know what is my desire, but my desire is an open secret. I simply want all over the Western countries people may take this simple formula of chanting, dancing and eating Krishna Prasadam, and being happy. I am simply surprised that they should not accept this simple formula and be happy themselves. My only desire is that all people become happy and prosperous in Krishna Consciousness. My predecessors, Vaisnavas, they were so generous that they felt very much afflicted for the suffering of the human society. Sri Rupa Goswami tried to elevate them to real path of happiness by introducing this Govinda Ganamrta, the Nectarine of the Songs of Govinda. That will make them happy.

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SB 3.1.43 Notes – 5/6/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 3.1.43:

  • There were many other kings on earth who had become very proud of three kinds of possessions — wealth, education and followers — and they were constantly agitating the earth by movements of military strength. 
  • The Lord was just waiting to get them together on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra and kill them all at one time, just to make a shortcut in His killing mission. 
  • Godless kings or heads of state, when puffed up by advancement of material wealth, education and increase of population, always make a show of military strength and give trouble to the innocent. 
  • When Lord Kṛṣṇa was personally present, there were many such kings all over the world, and He thus arranged for the Battle of Kurukṣetra. 
  • In His manifestation of viśva-rūpa, the Lord expressed His mission of killing as follows: “I have willingly descended to the earth in My capacity of inexorable Time in order to decrease the unwanted population. I shall finish all those who have assembled here except you, the Pāṇḍavas. This killing does not wait for you to take part in it. It is already arranged: all will be killed by Me. If you want to become famous as the hero of the battlefield and thus enjoy the booty of war, then, O Savyasācī, just become the immediate cause of this killing and thus take the credit. I have already killed all the great warriors — Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Jayadratha, Karṇa and many other great generals. Do not worry. Fight the battle and be famous as a great hero.” (Bg. 11.32-34)
  • The Lord always wants to see His devotee as the hero of some episode which He Himself performs. He wanted to see His devotee and friend Arjuna as the hero of the Battle of Kurukṣetra, and thus He waited for all the miscreants of the world to assemble. That, and nothing else, is the explanation of His waiting.
  • BG 4.7 – Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion—at that time I descend Myself.
  • BG 4.8 – In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.

SB 3.1.43 TRANSLATION:

Despite His being the Lord and being always willing to relieve the distress of sufferers, He [Kṛṣṇa] refrained from killing the Kurus, although they committed all sorts of sins and although He saw other kings constantly agitating the earth by their strong military movements carried out under the dictation of three kinds of false pride.

As declared in Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord appears in the mortal world to execute His much-needed mission of killing the miscreants and giving protection to the suffering faithful. In spite of that mission, Lord Kṛṣṇa tolerated the insult to Draupadī by the Kurus and the injustices perpetrated against the Pāṇḍavas, as well as insults to Himself. The question may be raised, “Why did He tolerate such injustices and insults in His presence? Why did He not chastise the Kurus immediately?” When Draupadī was insulted in the assembly by the Kurus by their attempt to see her naked in the presence of all, the Lord protected Draupadī by supplying an unlimited length of clothing. But He did not chastise the insulting party immediately. This silence of the Lord did not mean, however, that He excused the offenses of the Kurus. There were many other kings on earth who had become very proud of three kinds of possessions — wealth, education and followers — and they were constantly agitating the earth by movements of military strength. The Lord was just waiting to get them together on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra and kill them all at one time, just to make a shortcut in His killing mission. Godless kings or heads of state, when puffed up by advancement of material wealth, education and increase of population, always make a show of military strength and give trouble to the innocent. When Lord Kṛṣṇa was personally present, there were many such kings all over the world, and He thus arranged for the Battle of Kurukṣetra. In His manifestation of viśva-rūpa, the Lord expressed His mission of killing as follows: “I have willingly descended to the earth in My capacity of inexorable Time in order to decrease the unwanted population. I shall finish all those who have assembled here except you, the Pāṇḍavas. This killing does not wait for you to take part in it. It is already arranged: all will be killed by Me. If you want to become famous as the hero of the battlefield and thus enjoy the booty of war, then, O Savyasācī, just become the immediate cause of this killing and thus take the credit. I have already killed all the great warriors — Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Jayadratha, Karṇa and many other great generals. Do not worry. Fight the battle and be famous as a great hero.” (Bg. 11.32-34)

The Lord always wants to see His devotee as the hero of some episode which He Himself performs. He wanted to see His devotee and friend Arjuna as the hero of the Battle of Kurukṣetra, and thus He waited for all the miscreants of the world to assemble. That, and nothing else, is the explanation of His waiting.

Understand who krishna is and how does things – will liberate us.. 

When devotee does something wrong – result is right away

Non devotee does something wrong and the result is not right away which is bewildering.. 

Varna Shankara – Too much of unwanted population.. God arranges a war and people get killed.. 

BG 1.40 

When irreligion is prominent in the family, O Kṛṣṇa, the women of the family become polluted, and from the degradation of womanhood, O descendant of Vṛṣṇi, comes unwanted progeny.

Good population in human society is the basic principle for peace, prosperity and spiritual progress in life. The varṇāśrama religion’s principles were so designed that the good population would prevail in society for the general spiritual progress of state and community. Such population depends on the chastity and faithfulness of its womanhood. As children are very prone to be misled, women are similarly very prone to degradation. Therefore, both children and women require protection by the elder members of the family. By being engaged in various religious practices, women will not be misled into adultery. According to Cāṇakya Paṇḍita, women are generally not very intelligent and therefore not trustworthy. So the different family traditions of religious activities should always engage them, and thus their chastity and devotion will give birth to a good population eligible for participating in the varṇāśrama system. On the failure of such varṇāśrama-dharma, naturally the women become free to act and mix with men, and thus adultery is indulged in at the risk of unwanted population. Irresponsible men also provoke adultery in society, and thus unwanted children flood the human race at the risk of war and pestilence.

BG 1.41 – Varna Shankara

An increase of unwanted population certainly causes hellish life both for the family and for those who destroy the family tradition. The ancestors of such corrupt families fall down, because the performances for offering them food and water are entirely stopped.

Vocab – Sabre Rattling – Display of the military for a threat.. 

Vocab – Booty – Spoils of the war 

BG 4.7 

Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion—at that time I descend Myself.

BG 4.8 

In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.

People suffer when they blatantly engage in sinful activities.. Illicit sex leading to abortions – killing of feaotus.. 

Why did Krsna delay punishing Dhritarastra, Duryodhana, Karna, Sakuni and others.. ?

To make Arjuna the hero.. And be glorified 

Do not waste your time in this life.. Learn about Krsna and how we can come close and close to Krsna.. 

LIFE COACHES

Look how wealthy – life coaches become – life coach business has been going on.. 

Health, wealth and happiness.. – they take principles from BG and add their own stuff and teach them how to be healthy, wealthy and happy.. 

Devotees becoming life coaches.. 

We should follow the example of SP . 

SP blasted feminism, 

Are we doing the same by doing Ananda Mela, Goodness cookies – Phalena parachite – Judge from the results.. Even the life coaching devotees – we can only judge from their results.. 

We have to follow the steps of the Saints – Mahajana yena gata sapanta.. 

We do not imitate the saints.. 

Krishna Quiz – SP stopped 

Kids Contest – SP stopped 

Professional music concerts – SP stopped  he said just chant Hare Krsna.. 

Stick to the basics – Sankirtan, Prasadam distribution

Deviations – Pujas for material benefits has to be stopped-

Follow regulations of KC to be protected by Krsna..

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SB 3.1.37-38 Notes – 5/3/2022

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 3.1.37:

  • Vidura knew the strength of Bhīma. Whenever Bhīma was on the battlefield, his steps on the path and the wonderful playing of his club were unbearable for the enemy.
  • Powerful Bhīma did not take steps against the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra for a long time.
  • Vidura’s inquiry was whether he had yet released his anger, which was like that of a suffering cobra. When a cobra releases its venom after long-cherished anger, its victim cannot survive.
  • When the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra tried to disrobe Draupadī in the assembly of the Kurus, Bhīṣma and Droṇa were silent, and for such negligence of duty they should be killed.
  • Kṛṣṇa showed His universal form to Arjuna just to show him that these people were already killed for their unlawful action. That scene was shown to Arjuna because devotees are always peaceful and they cannot perform such horrible actions. 
  • Monist philosophers like Śaṅkarācārya and his followers want to establish that God and the living entity are one, and instead of worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead they present themselves as God. 
  • Such persons do not accept the philosophies of the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas, which are known as śuddhādvaita (purified monism), śuddha-dvaita (purified dualism), viśiṣṭādvaita (specific monism), dvaitādvaita (monism and dualism) and acintya-bhedābheda (inconceivable oneness and difference).
  • Māyāvādīs do not discuss these philosophies, for they are firmly convinced of their own philosophy of kevalādvaita, exclusive monism. 
  • Accepting this system of philosophy as the pure understanding of the Vedānta-sūtra, they believe that Kṛṣṇa has a body made of material elements and that the activities of loving service to Kṛṣṇa are sentimentality. 
  • They are known as Māyāvādīs because according to their opinion Kṛṣṇa has a body made of māyā and the loving service of the Lord executed by devotees is also māyā. They consider such devotional service to be an aspect of fruitive activities (karma-kāṇḍa). 
  • According to their view, bhakti consists of mental speculation or sometimes meditation. This is the difference between the Māyāvādī and Vaiṣṇava philosophies.

SB 3.1.37 TRANSLATION:

[Please tell me] whether the unconquerable Bhīma, who is like a cobra, has released his long-cherished anger upon the sinners? The field of battle could not tolerate even the wonderful playing of his club when he stepped on the path.

SB 3.1.38 TRANSLATION:

[Please tell me] whether Arjuna, whose bow bears the name Gāṇḍīva and who is always famous amongst the chariot warriors for vanquishing his enemies, is doing well. He once satisfied Lord Śiva by covering him with arrows when Śiva came as an unidentified false hunter.

Vidura knew the strength of Bhīma. Whenever Bhīma was on the battlefield, his steps on the path and the wonderful playing of his club were unbearable for the enemy. Powerful Bhīma did not take steps against the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra for a long time. Vidura’s inquiry was whether he had yet released his anger, which was like that of a suffering cobra. When a cobra releases its venom after long-cherished anger, its victim cannot survive.

Revealing verse .. 

Previously when Draupadi was disrobed in the assembly of august hall.. It was the worst kind of insult for pandavas.. No boday said anything.. Pandavas hands were tied.. They lost their wife in the gambling as shakuni was cheating… Bhima was ready to kill Karna and shakuni..but Yudhistra forbade him to do that. The reason pandavas were able to prevail in all the travails.. Is because they referred to the elder brother and did not break the ranks… bunch of sticks cannot be broken.. One stick can be broken.. Respecting superior authorities is very imp.. We are living in Kali yuga.. Karmis and even in devotees they want to argue.. You cannot cooperate if someone is doing sinful 

Is yudhistra doing the right think by not protecting Draupadi.. But out of his respect for his Father like man Dhritarashtra.. (There are diff etiquettes in the vedic tradition.. The god brothers should be respected the same way as the guru.. ) We see that there is restraint of Bhima and Arjuna .. both of them were ready to kill Shakuni and Karna.. 

Bhima held back from his anger.. 

Bhishma was sinful for not acting when Draupadi was disrobed. .. if you are on the wrong side you will be tainted.. With the sin

BG 11.49

​​You have been perturbed and bewildered by seeing this horrible feature of Mine. Now let it be finished. My devotee, be free again from all disturbances. With a peaceful mind you can now see the form you desire.

In the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā Arjuna was worried about killing Bhīṣma and Droṇa, his worshipful grandfather and master. But Kṛṣṇa said that he need not be afraid of killing his grandfather. When the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra tried to disrobe Draupadī in the assembly of the Kurus, Bhīṣma and Droṇa were silent, and for such negligence of duty they should be killed. Kṛṣṇa showed His universal form to Arjuna just to show him that these people were already killed for their unlawful action. That scene was shown to Arjuna because devotees are always peaceful and they cannot perform such horrible actions. The purpose of the revelation of the universal form was shown; now Arjuna wanted to see the four-armed form, and Kṛṣṇa showed him. A devotee is not much interested in the universal form, for it does not enable one to reciprocate loving feelings. Either a devotee wants to offer his respectful worshipful feelings, or he wants to see the two-handed Kṛṣṇa form so that he can reciprocate in loving service with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Bhishma & Drona are Good guys but were duty bound and were on the wrong side.. 

Duty bound – forced to do something wrong.. 

Telling the truth oath – Sage.. who did tapasya and tells truth to dacoits and becomes the cause of death of people… he goes to hell.. 

We have to be very careful about what vows we take.. 

Telling the truth oath by Yudhisthira – Aswathama elephant is dead — Yudhistra did not lie as per krsna’s instruction .. because of that he had to go to hell for a few moments.. 

Bhishma was on the bed of arrows. .. he waited like that till the end of the battle of kurukshetra.. He did not speak the truth until he became the bones.. Until the flesh that was formed due to eating the food from Krsna.. He was duty bound.. Very difficult situation.. Dharma sankatha.. Whenever you are in doubt ask guru.. 

All questions have been answered. 

SB 3.1.38

[Please tell me] whether Arjuna, whose bow bears the name Gāṇḍīva and who is always famous amongst the chariot warriors for vanquishing his enemies, is doing well. He once satisfied Lord Śiva by covering him with arrows when Śiva came as an unidentified false hunter.

Lord Śiva tested Arjuna’s strength by picking a quarrel with him over a hunted boar. He confronted Arjuna in the false dress of a hunter, and Arjuna covered him with arrows until Lord Śiva was satisfied with Arjuna’s fighting. He offered Arjuna the Pāśupati weapon and blessed him. Here Vidura inquired about the great warrior’s well-being.

So we see that Arjuna – Unparalleled brave and expert fighter.. He only fights for legitimate reasons… 

CC ADI 7.101

“Dear Sir, there is no objection to Your being a great devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Everyone is satisfied with this. But why do You avoid discussion on the Vedānta-sūtra? What is the fault in it?”

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura comments in this connection, “Māyāvādī sannyāsīs accept that the commentary by Śrī Śaṅkarācārya known as Śārīraka-bhāṣya gives the real meaning of the Vedanta-sūtra. In other words, Māyāvādī sannyāsīs accept the meanings expressed in the explanations of the Vedānta-sūtra by Śaṅkarācārya, which are based on monism. Thus they explain the Vedānta-sūtra, the Upaniṣads and all such Vedic literatures in their own impersonal way.” The great Māyāvādī sannyāsī Sadānanda Yogīndra has written a book known as Vedānta-sāra, in which he writes, vedānto nāma upaniṣat-pramāṇam. tad-upakārīṇi śārīraka-sūtrādīni ca. According to Sadānanda Yogīndra, the Vedānta-sūtra and Upaniṣads, as presented by Śrī Śaṅkarācārya in his Śārīraka-bhāṣya commentary, are the only sources of Vedic evidence. Actually, however, Vedānta refers to the essence of Vedic knowledge, and it is not a fact that there is nothing more than Śaṅkarācārya’s Śārīraka-bhāṣya. There are other Vedānta commentaries, written by Vaiṣṇava ācāryas, none of whom follow Śrī Śaṅkarācārya or accept the imaginative commentary of his school. Their commentaries are based on the philosophy of duality. Monist philosophers like Śaṅkarācārya and his followers want to establish that God and the living entity are one, and instead of worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead they present themselves as God. They want to be worshiped as God by others. Such persons do not accept the philosophies of the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas, which are known as śuddhādvaita (purified monism), śuddha-dvaita (purified dualism), viśiṣṭādvaita (specific monism)(Ramanujacharya), dvaitādvaita (monism and dualism) (Nimbarka)  and acintya-bhedābheda (inconceivable oneness and difference) (Chaitanya MahaPrabhu). Māyāvādīs do not discuss these philosophies, for they are firmly convinced of their own philosophy of kevalādvaita, exclusive monism. Accepting this system of philosophy as the pure understanding of the Vedānta-sūtra, they believe that Kṛṣṇa has a body made of material elements and that the activities of loving service to Kṛṣṇa are sentimentality. They are known as Māyāvādīs because according to their opinion Kṛṣṇa has a body made of māyā and the loving service of the Lord executed by devotees is also māyā. They consider such devotional service to be an aspect of fruitive activities (karma-kāṇḍa). According to their view, bhakti consists of mental speculation or sometimes meditation. This is the difference between the Māyāvādī and Vaiṣṇava philosophies.

CC ADI 7.114

“Śaṅkarācārya, who is an incarnation of Lord Śiva, is faultless because he is a servant carrying out the orders of the Lord. But those who follow his Māyāvādī philosophy are doomed. They will lose all their advancement in spiritual knowledge.

Māyāvādī philosophers are very proud of exhibiting their Vedānta knowledge through grammatical jugglery, but in the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa certifies that they are māyayāpahṛta-jñāna, bereft of real knowledge due to māyā. Māyā has two potencies with which to execute her two functions — the prakṣepātmikā-śakti, the power to throw the living entity into the ocean of material existence, and āvaraṇātmikā-śakti, the power to cover the knowledge of the living entity. The function of the the āvaraṇātmikā-śakti is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā by the word māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ. (BG 7.15)

Why the daivī-māyā, or illusory energy of Kṛṣṇa, takes away the knowledge of the Māyāvādī philosophers is also explained in the Bhagavad-gīta by the use of the words āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ, which refer to a person who does not agree to the existence of the Lord. 

If you learn all these – Immediately you will detect this is a mayavadi.. 

Why are there diff commentaries in Vaishnava sampradayas if they all know that Krsna is supreme. They all accept Krsna as the supreme.. The founders of those sampradayas wrote those commentaries to instruct or teach their disciples..