Tag: SB 2.9.42

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.9.41 & 42TODAY (2/3/22):

• Lord Brahmā, being the creator of all living beings in the universe, is originally the father of several well-known sons, like Dakṣa, the catuḥ-sanas, and Nārada.
• Devarṣi Nārada inherited from his father Brahmā devotional service, whereas Dakṣa inherited from his father fruitive work, and Sanaka, Sanātana, etc., inherited from their father information about jñāna-kāṇḍa, or transcendental knowledge.
• But out of them all, Nārada is described here as the most beloved son of Brahmā because of good behavior, obedience, meekness and readiness to render service unto the father.
• And Nārada is famous as the greatest of all sages because of his being the greatest of all devotees.
• Nārada is the spiritual master of many famous devotees of the Lord. He is the spiritual master of Prahlāda, Dhruva and Vyāsa, down to the forest animal hunter Kirāta. His only business is to turn everyone to the transcendental loving service of the Lord.
• Therefore all these features of Nārada make him the dearmost son of his father, and all this is due to Nārada’s being a first-class devotee of the Lord.
• The devotees are always anxious to know more and more about the Supreme Lord, the master of all energies.
• It is the duty of everyone to ask about the unlimited Lord from the spiritual master in the disciplic succession of Brahmā, which descends from Nārada to Vyāsa, from Vyāsa to Śukadeva and so on.
• Letter to Upendra (May 25,1970) – there is no other greater mantra than Hare Krsna. Srila Bhaktivinode says, “When I chant Radha Krsna or Hare Krsna all my dangers are gone immediately.” So which other mantra can be more effective than Hare Krsna.
• So far responsibility is concerned, there is an action in Bhaktirasamrta Sindhu to be executed by the devotee which is called Krsna arthe akhila cesta which means to take all kinds of responsibilities for Krsna’s sake. Sometimes I also think that let me go back to Vrndavana, in that peaceful situation, to live without any responsibilities; still, in this old age, I take the responsibility of managing our quite a big Institution now, and I have to reply so many letters from different centers to give them instruction. As an old man I can take relief from this work immediately, but for Krsna’s sake I am pulling on even though there is sometimes personal inconveniences. So let us act in that way all together for Krsna’s sake
• Letter to Hayagriva (22nd May, 1970) – So Krsna Consciousness Movement is meant for defying both classes of men; namely the karmis and the jnanis or yogis. That is our mission. Now among our students those who are advanced should take up this matter more seriously, and the Movement which you have started may not be stopped for want of adequate preachers—that is my request to you all.
• “First-class devotional service is known by one’s tendency to be fully engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, serving the Lord favorably.” The purport is that one may also be in Kṛṣṇa consciousness unfavorably, but that cannot be counted as pure devotional service.
• Pure devotional service should be free from the desire for any material benefit or for sense gratification, as these desires are cultivated through fruitive activities and philosophical speculation.
•  This devotional service is a sort of cultivation. It is not simply inaction for people who like to be inactive or devote their time to silent meditation.
• As soon as we say “cultivation,” we must refer to activity. Without activity, consciousness alone cannot help us.
• All activities may be divided into two classes: one class may be for achieving a certain goal, and the other may be for avoiding some unfavorable circumstance. In Sanskrit, these activities are called pravṛtti and nivṛtti – positive and negative action
• A Kṛṣṇa conscious person engages his words in preaching the glories of the Lord. This is called kīrtana. And by his mind a Kṛṣṇa conscious person always thinks of the activities of the Lord – as He is speaking on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra or engaging in His various pastimes in Vṛndāvana with His devotees. In this way one can always think of the activities and pastimes of the Lord. This is the mental culture of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
• This cultivation of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not material.Any activities done in devotional service, or in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, are directly under the control of the spiritual energy. In other words, energy is a sort of strength, and this strength can be spiritualized by the mercy of both the bona fide spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa.
• To one who is serious about spiritual life Kṛṣṇa gives the intelligence to come in contact with a bona fide spiritual master, and then by the grace of the spiritual master one becomes advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In this way the whole jurisdiction of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is directly under the spiritual energy – Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual master.
  

SB 2.9.41 TRANSLATION:

Nārada, the most dear of the inheritor sons of Brahmā, always ready to serve his father, strictly follows the instructions of his father by his mannerly behavior, meekness and sense control.

VERY SIGNIFICATNT VERSE

Why would a guru with many disciples consider this one disciple as the most dear ? We should ask that question. Every disciple is the inheritor of the guru’s knowledge and behavior.. 

• always ready to serve
• strictly follows the instructions
• mannerly behavior, meekness and sense control.

All the talent and ability to do things comes from the Krsna and the mercy of spiritual master. .. 

Example – King looked for an extremely honest person who had no self interest.. He found a poor man.. He invited him to become the number one advisor of the king. The rest of them became very upset.. As time went on all the other advisors kept on finding faults with that poor man.. This poor man refused to live in the kings place.. He was given a small room whenever he came to the palace. All the advisors decided to steal things valuable ones kept in that room. King eventually believed it.. They broke the door and ran inside the room.. There was nothing in the room – chair, old chappals,, he was sitting on the floor ..and kept looking at chappals …  every one was surprised.. He was looking at them to remind him where he came from.. King was sorry for his mistake and arrested everyone else who lied to him.. 

SB 2.9.42

Nārada very much pleased his father and desired to know all about the energies of Viṣṇu, the master of all energies, for Nārada was the greatest of all sages and greatest of all devotees, O King.

Lord Brahmā, being the creator of all living beings in the universe, is originally the father of several well-known sons, like Dakṣa, the catuḥ-sanas, and Nārada. In three departments of human knowledge disseminated by the Vedas, namely fruitive work (karma-kāṇḍa), transcendental knowledge (jñāna-kāṇḍa) and devotional service (upāsanā-kāṇḍa), Devarṣi Nārada inherited from his father Brahmā devotional service, whereas Dakṣa inherited from his father fruitive work, and Sanaka, Sanātana, etc., inherited from their father information about jñāna-kāṇḍa, or transcendental knowledge. But out of them all, Nārada is described here as the most beloved son of Brahmā because of good behavior, obedience, meekness and readiness to render service unto the father. And Nārada is famous as the greatest of all sages because of his being the greatest of all devotees. 

Three things which will make a disciple most appreciated by a guru – 

1. Good behavior
   1. Even in the worst situation.. One will not descend to low class behavior. Because they have complete faith that Krsna will protect them. 
2. Meekness
3. Sense control 

Anukulyena Krsnaanusilanam… 

• No material desires, only desire to please Krsna and guru..
• Not attracted to mayavadi philosophy – even a bit 
• Non interested in fruitive activities 
  • DISCIPLE_Gurudev I love you.. I can no longer live with my family. I want to be at your lotus feet and serve until last minute.. GURU _ If you want to serve me go back to your family and serve them… I am asking you to do something but you are refusing to do.. He gets an offer arranged by gurudev to get a lucrative job,… he no longer wanted to go back to godhead..
  • Navyogendra maharaj – lady – won Canadian lottery 30 m dollars, give all money to you if you marry me.. Even if you offer me 30 billion I will not accept. NO MATERIAL DESIRE.. Simply want to serve SP, Krsna and help everyone to become KC.. 

Unworthy words, unworthy thoughts undermines the purity of our mind – confuses teh intelligence of the devotee..

• Anukulyena – Favorable  – Guru asks water disciple gives lemonade.. 
• Krsnanusilanam  – everything we do is a cultivation of service in relationship to Krsna.. 

Nārada is the spiritual master of many famous devotees of the Lord. He is the spiritual master of Prahlāda, Dhruva and Vyāsa, down to the forest animal hunter Kirāta. His only business is to turn everyone to the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Therefore all these features of Nārada make him the dearmost son of his father, and all this is due to Nārada’s being a first-class devotee of the Lord. The devotees are always anxious to know more and more about the Supreme Lord, the master of all energies. As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (10.9):

mac-cittā mad-gata-prāṇā

bodhayantaḥ parasparam

kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ

tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca

The Supreme Lord is unlimited, and His energies are also unlimited. No one can know them completely. Brahmājī, being the greatest living entity within this universe and being directly instructed by the Lord, must know more than anyone within this universe, although such knowledge may not be complete. Thus it is the duty of everyone to ask about the unlimited Lord from the spiritual master in the disciplic succession of Brahmā, which descends from Nārada to Vyāsa, from Vyāsa to Śukadeva and so on.

Letter to: Upendra Dated: May 25, 1970

https://vedabase.io/en/library/letters/letter-to-upendra

My Dear Upendra,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 15th May, 1970.

I know you are sincere servant of Krsna, so sometimes we may do something which is not very congenial, but Krsna is so kind that one who is engaged in His transcendental loving service is corrected immediately from within as Krsna is sitting within everyone’s heart. So you have gone there with a great responsibility on behalf of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and try to convince people about the importance of Krsna Consciousness, that will make everything nice and in order.

You have asked some specific mantra; there is no other greater mantra than Hare Krsna. Srila Bhaktivinode says, “When I chant Radha Krsna or Hare Krsna all my dangers are gone immediately.” So which other mantra can be more effective than Hare Krsna.

So far responsibility is concerned, there is an action in Bhaktirasamrta Sindhu to be executed by the devotee which is called Krsna arthe akhila cesta which means to take all kinds of responsibilities for Krsna’s sake. Sometimes I also think that let me go back to Vrndavana, in that peaceful situation, to live without any responsibilities; still, in this old age, I take the responsibility of managing our quite a big Institution now, and I have to reply so many letters from different centers to give them instruction. As an old man I can take relief from this work immediately, but for Krsna’s sake I am pulling on even though there is sometimes personal inconveniences. So let us act in that way all together for Krsna’s sake.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Letter to Maharaj – When Krsna gives you more responsibility in Krsna service you must take it up and never give up. 

Letter to Hayagriva: Dated 22nd May 1970

My Dear Hayagriva,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 16th May, 1970. I am very glad you are coming here by the 6th of June next, and it will be a great opportunity to discuss at that time about New Vrndavana, and other affairs.

Your remark on the student demonstration is quite appropriate. Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura said that materialistic knowledge is another expansion of the influence of Maya. The result of material education is that the living entity forgets his own identification and takes to the business of a particular type of body which is given to him by the grace of Maya. The Vedic education means one has to understand his real identity as brahman or the spirit soul. Unfortunately the modern educational system is so defective that everyone is educated to accept this body as self. At the present moment they have no clear idea of identification, so much so that even a person who is partially advanced about the importance of the soul does also improperly identify himself with the Supreme Brahma.

So Krsna Consciousness Movement is meant for defying both classes of men; namely the karmis and the jnanis or yogis. That is our mission. Now among our students those who are advanced should take up this matter more seriously, and the Movement which you have started may not be stopped for want of adequate preachers—that is my request to you all.

Inorder to be an adequate preacher – you need to 

• hear BG and SB everyday from genuine devotees
• Keep it in your mind
• Learning something new , important and inspirational to take up pure devotional service with no material motive.. Only motive is to please guru and Krsna..

BHAKTI – The art of eternal love – 

https://vedabase.io/en/library/bhakti/6/

The authorized descriptions of bhakti, or devotional service, following in the footsteps of previous ācāryas, can be summarized in the following statement by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī: “First-class devotional service is known by one’s tendency to be fully engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, serving the Lord favorably.” The purport is that one may also be in Kṛṣṇa consciousness unfavorably, but that cannot be counted as pure devotional service. Pure devotional service should be free from the desire for any material benefit or for sense gratification, as these desires are cultivated through fruitive activities and philosophical speculation. Generally, people are engaged in different activities to get some material profit, while most philosophers are engaged in proposing transcendental realization through volumes of word jugglery and speculation. Pure devotional service must always be free from such fruitive activities and philosophical speculations. One has to learn Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or pure devotional service, from the authorities by spontaneous loving service.

This devotional service is a sort of cultivation. It is not simply inaction for people who like to be inactive or devote their time to silent meditation. There are many different methods for people who want this, but cultivation of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is different. The particular word used by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in this connection is anuśīlana, or cultivation by following the predecessor teachers (ācāryas). As soon as we say “cultivation,” we must refer to activity. Without activity, consciousness alone cannot help us. All activities may be divided into two classes: one class may be for achieving a certain goal, and the other may be for avoiding some unfavorable circumstance. In Sanskrit, these activities are called pravṛtti and nivṛtti – positive and negative action. There are many examples of negative action. For instance, a diseased person has to be cautious and take medicine in order to avoid making his illness worse.

Those who are cultivating spiritual life and executing devotional service are always engaged in activity. Such activity can be performed with the body or with the mind. Thinking, feeling, and willing are all activities of the mind, and when we will to do something, the activity comes to be manifest by the gross bodily senses. Thus, in our mental activities we should always try to think of Kṛṣṇa and try to plan how to please Him, following in the footsteps of the great ācāryas and the personal spiritual master. There are activities of the body, activities of the mind, and activities of speech. A Kṛṣṇa conscious person engages his words in preaching the glories of the Lord. This is called kīrtana. And by his mind a Kṛṣṇa conscious person always thinks of the activities of the Lord – as He is speaking on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra or engaging in His various pastimes in Vṛndāvana with His devotees. In this way one can always think of the activities and pastimes of the Lord. This is the mental culture of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Similarly, we can offer many services with our bodily activities. But all such activities must be in relationship with Kṛṣṇa. This relationship is established by connecting oneself with the bona fide spiritual master, who is the direct representative of Kṛṣṇa in disciplic succession. Therefore, the execution of Kṛṣṇa conscious activities with the body should be directed by the spiritual master and then performed with faith. The connection with the spiritual master is called initiation. From the date of initiation by the spiritual master, the connection between Kṛṣṇa and a person cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness is established. Without initiation by a bona fide spiritual master, the actual connection with Kṛṣṇa consciousness is never performed.

This cultivation of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not material. The Lord has three general energies – namely, the external energy, the internal energy, and the marginal energy. The living entities are called marginal energy, and the material cosmic manifestation is the action of the external, or material, energy. Then there is the spiritual world, which is a manifestation of the internal energy. The living entities, who are called marginal energy, perform material activities when acting under the inferior, external energy. And when they engage in activities under the internal, spiritual energy, their activities are called Kṛṣṇa conscious. This means that those who are great souls or great devotees do not act under the spell of the material energy, but act instead under the protection of the spiritual energy. Any activities done in devotional service, or in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, are directly under the control of the spiritual energy. In other words, energy is a sort of strength, and this strength can be spiritualized by the mercy of both the bona fide spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa.

In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, Lord Caitanya states that it is a fortunate person who comes in contact with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of Kṛṣṇa. To one who is serious about spiritual life Kṛṣṇa gives the intelligence to come in contact with a bona fide spiritual master, and then by the grace of the spiritual master one becomes advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In this way the whole jurisdiction of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is directly under the spiritual energy – Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual master.

What is not clearly understood by us is diff between karma yoga and bhakti yoga.. 

Karma yoga – still there is material desire 

Bhakti yoga – there is no material desire.. 

Definition – of pure dev service – 

• No material desires, only desire to please Krsna and guru..
• Not attracted to mayavadi philosophy – even a bit. Learn about it from SP texts. They will not listen to mayavadis to understand them..explained in proper context about the deviation from Krsna C
• Non interested in fruitive activities 
  • Karma yogi – has a desire in fruitve activity but they still want to follow KC. Theye are still contaminated by the desire.. Eventually if they have siksha and diksha gurus they will overcome that desire and stay under the umbrella of pure bhakti.. Even Brahma had the desire to dominate the whole universe.. Because he follows Krsna’s instructions and follows tapa for many many years and pleases Krsna and gets the knowledge.. 

We are aiming for pure devotional service.. 

Are most of the devotee Grihastas karma yogis? 

If you accept Dev service that is bhakti yoga. But you are not doing it 24 hours a day.. But eventually if you have a bonafide guru, he will say it is ok now but eventually it is not ok.. The real goal is pure devotional service… no attraction to liberation, fruitive activities, mayavadi philosophy.. Always meditate on Krsna’s transcendental past times.. You have to have a taset for it and that taste is developed with regular hearing.. 

Fruitive activity – business.. You will have to give us business you might not be able to give up now.. But eventually you have to if you want the real goal of PDS. That is what SP did he had a business, wife and children, his wife was not favorable, when the right time came he left them all.. If your wife is favorable you need not leave both of you can become sannyasis and serve.. 

Karma yogi – the most dev service they do is they do Satynarayana puja and take prasadam then they get what they want… they recommend to do it once a month.. But the problem is they do not make any spiritual advancement.. The priest who is doing it is for money.. They will not tell them the truth.. Therefore they are stuck.. Although engaged in something that is vedic but it is not pure..