Srimad Bhagavad Katha Day 1

Srimad Bhagavad Katha Day 1
Pune Hadapsar
December 25th 2022

The desire is to continuously sing, I dint know if you feel the same way or not. What I will now speak will be similar to a song. Hari Hari. Lord Krishna has spoken the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Bhagavad uvaca.
It says that the supreme lord spoke, but what is the name of the book? Bhagavad Gita. Even though it is mentioning that the lord spoke, the book is called Bhagavad Gita which means the song of God.

In this way, the words and things spoken in relation to the supreme lord is also Gita, a song. The lord has said ‘yatra gayanti mad bhaktah tatra tisthami narada.’

naham tisthami vaikunthe
yoginam hrdayesu va
tatra tisthami narada
yatra gayanti mad bhaktah
(Srimad Bhagavatam 4.21.41 purport)

Translation
“I am not in Vaiku??ha nor in the hearts of the yog?s. I remain where My devotees engage in glorifying My activities.” It is to be understood that the Supreme Personality of Godhead does not leave the company of His devotees

I have not welcomed you yet properly, but you have all been officially welcomed as I was doing kirtan. In Maharashtra those who sing kirtan are called kirtankar’s. They do not only sing, they speak as well but regardless they are called kirtankar’s. So on my behalf and on behalf of all the devotees I give you all a great welcome. I am indebted to you and I praise you all. By this what I mean to say is that I am very pleased that you are not spending this time in some shoppers mall somewhere.

There are so many places you could be, you did not go to Goa and instead you have reached here where the Hare Krishna festival is about to begin! Bhagavatam katha is also going to begin now and so I’m sure you all must have understood this to be most important and that is why I am calling you all very intelligent. Or rather the lord gave you this intelligence as he is the one who says dadami buddhi yogam tam yena mam upayanti te.

tesham satata yuktanam bhajatam priti purvakam
dadami Buddha yogam tam yena mam upayanti te
(Bhagavad Gita 10.10)

Translation
To those whose minds are always united with Me in loving devotion, I give the divine knowledge by which they can attain Me

He says that he gives one intelligence so they can use that intelligence in which way? ‘Mam upatyanti te, so that they may come towards me. For this reason i give one intelligence.’ The lord gave you all the right intelligence otherwise sometimes what happens is vinash kale viparit buddhi, one’s intelligence becomes destructive. Here this is not the case because here it is not vinash, it is vikash which will happen, enlightenment. The lord is about to become manifest here.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

This is sung, spoken and it is also heard.
Sravanam kirtanam visnoh smaranam pada sevanam.

sravanam kirtanam visnoh
smaranam pada sevanam
arcanam vandanam dasyam
sakhyam atma nivedanam
(Srimad Bhagavatam 7.5.23)

Translation
Hearing and chanting about the transcendental holy name, form, qualities, paraphernalia and pastimes of Lord Vi??u, remembering them, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering the Lord respectful worship with sixteen types of paraphernalia, offering prayers to the Lord, becoming His servant, considering the Lord one’s best friend, and surrendering everything unto Him (in other words, serving Him with the body, mind and words) — these nine processes are accepted as pure devotional service.

Sravan is hearing and kirtan which is singing- what happens when these are performed? Visnu smaranam or Krishna smaranam or else Rama or Panduranga smaranam. By performing chanting and hearing one remembers the supreme lord and wherever there is kirtan and where there is talk of Krishna, the lord says that he appears in that place.

The four kumaras where performing Bhagavad Katha. Bhagavad katha Mahotsava ki jai! This was taking place in Haridwar and in this katha Bhakti Devi and her two sons, do you know their names? Jyana, knowledge and the second one is Vairagya, renunciation. These two are the sons of Bhajti Devi and this history is quite complicated. This important katha was arranged for Bhakti Devi and her two sons Jyana and Vairagya.

Narada Muni had arranged this all himself and the katha was going on with the four kumaras leading in Haridwar on the banks of the Ganges. Hari Hari. Jyana and Vairagya along with Bhakti Devi herself were born in Dravida Desh- i am going back in history now. Bhakti Devi and her two sons were bought up and kept in Maharashtra and this history is narrated in the padma purana.

But when Bhakti Devi alomg with Jnana and Vairagya reached the province of Gujarat, they became old and sick. With much difficulty – no offence to any Gujarati’s who may be present here, all glories to Gujarat and Maharashtra. Actually all glories to Bharata. So everyone has been glorified, and so when these three reached Vrindavan, this in the place where Bhakti itself is dancing.

So here Bhakti Devi stayed and therefore her health became better but Jnana and Vairagya were still very sick. So what to do? Narada Muni wrote a prescription which was to listen to Bhagavad Katha. ‘If they listen to Bhagavad katha they will become better.’ So there is Bhagavad Katha happening for this reason and the four kumaras are there to do this, headed by Sanaka and Sanatana and others.

They are performing katha, om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. This is the way to start discourses on Bhagavatam and we did the same here just now by saying ‘om namo bhagavate vasudevaya.’ I was about to say that this type of katha – vasudeve bhagavati bhakti yogah prayojitah.

vasudeve bhagavati
bhakti yogah prayojitah
janayaty asu vairagyam
jnanam yad brahma darsanam
(Srimad Bhagavatam 3.32.23)

Translation
Engagement in Krsna consciousness and application of devotional service unto Krsna make it possible to advance in knowledge and detachment, as well as in self-realization

By hearing discourses on Bhagavatam, Bhakti Devi, well just to listen to Bhagavatam is performance of devotional service. It is one of the nine forms of Bhakti which you will have heard of. This is what Prahlad Maharaja describes in the seventh canto. ‘My son, what have you learnt at school? You have come just now on vacation from Gurukula, on Christmas vacation, so what have you learnt?’ Prahlad Maharaja answered,

sravanam kirtanam visnoh
smaranam pada sevanam
arcanam vandanam dasyam
sakhyam atma nivedanam
(Srimad Bhagavatam 7.5.23)

‘Oh father, I have learnt these nine forms of devotional service. Then what happened? Okay I wont speak on those matters today but my point was to show that hearing and speaking on the subject of the Bhagavatam is devotional service and by performing this kind of devotional service, the four kumara’s were teaching the path of bhakti and they were themselves performing bhakti in this way.

Right now right here I am performing devotional service, kirtan bhakti and all of you are devotees and you are performing devotional service by listening. What sort of devotional service are you all preform in? Sravana, listening. I am doing kirtan, speaking on Krishna lila and you are all listening, sravanam. Sukadeva Goswami was performing kirtan and kimg Parikshit was doing what? Sravanam, listening.

So by performing this devotional service of sravanam kirtanam smaranam and so on, you can see that these are so important. Although there are nine types of devotional service, the most important are this hearing by which the process of devotional service is begun. The first three items are sravanam kirtanam and visnu smaranam. Remembering Vishnu is there also. Like Tukaram Maharaja once said

gita bhagwat kariti shravan, akhand chintan vithobache

Translation
Saint Tukaram is praising pious persons, Where there is unceasing reading of Bhagavad-Gita, Bhagavat and contemplation of Lord Vitthal
(Tukaram Gatha Abhanga 4)

Do you understand Marathi? How many of you understand Marathi! Ninety percent of the audience, Hari! Okay back to Hindi, Tukaram Maharaja said whoever listens to bhagavatam, what will happen? Akhand chintan vithobache, one will be able to always remember lord Vitthal. So sravanam kirtanam visnoh smaranam, this is what Jnana and Vairagya also did by listening to bhagavad katha and the. They became devotees and they also started to constantly remember the supreme lord, so if in this way one is remembering the supreme lord there is no any other thing which one needs to do. Hari Hari.

So in this bhagavatam discourse which the four kumaras were reciting, then towards the end, kirtan began. And do you know? You may be knowing but I don’t know if you or not, I cant ask you all individually. You must all be thinking ‘what are you asking if we know or not, first tell us.’ So what happened is that the supreme lord himself appeared! Not only the lord appeared but Prahlad Maharaja appeared also and he was playing kartals.

Indra was also there and he was playing the Mridanga and Sukadeva Goswami was reciting bhagavatam. The lord appeared with so many of his associates along with kirtan there started some dancing and Jnana and Vairagya who had been taken from Vrindavan to Haridwar on an Ambulance, upon hearing the kirtan they both jumped up and started to dance They were dancing!

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

So the hope and prayer is that we all who may be weak in devotion and in knowledge and renunciation, may we have this strength towards the end. Well no, why towards the end? From the very beginning may we get strength by getting a potion to perform bhakti. What does the world do? It exploits us and we get exhausted but listening to bhagavatam and recitation of bhagavad and kirtan, darshan and yatra and even prashad or Pandharpur yatra and taking bath in river chandrabhaga, all these things we become revived.

The world is ready to destruct us in one sense, but coming to here bhagavatam is protecting us from the dangers of this material world. Bhaktivedanta swami Srila Prabhupada ki jai! When Srila Prabhupada went to the west to preach the process of devotional service, he turned the killers of the cow into protectors of the cow. Hari Hari. He also turned the demons who are not only in America but they are all over the world, he turned those animal like demons into proper human beings.

He asked them to chant Hare Krishna Mahamantra in kirtan and in Japa, he fed them prashadam and this is the very thing we are going to do for the next few days. I forgot to mention one thing. There in Haridwar when kirtan and dancing going were going on and the lord was present there, do you know what happened? Again I am asking you all questions (laughter). All the devotees and practitioners you could say, why not? They all appealed to the lord, ‘oh lord, in the future whenever your katha takes place, will you come to Hadapsar, bhosle medain ground or something when there is katha taking place there also?’

The lord said ‘yes so be it. That is what shall happen.’ So here there will be closeness to the lord, sanidhya- what a word sanidhya, closeness. And then after this it became a sort of ritual for the lord to be present when katha was happening. Yatra gayanti mad-bhaktah.

naham tisthami vaikunthe
yoginam hrdayesu va
tatra tisthami narada
yatra gayanti mad bhaktah

Translation
I am not in Vaikuntha nor in the hearts of the yogis. I remain where My devotees engage in glorifying My activities.”

Whenever the devotees get together and sing of the lord’s glories, whenever they sing and dance, tatra tisthami, ‘I go there and that becomes my address. It could be that you may not find me in Vaikuntha or in the hearts of the Yogi’s who are mediating in me for thousands of years. I will not give such yogi’s my darshan and I also wont be found in Vaikuntha but wherever my devotees are speaking my glories, I will be found.

Hare Krishna, Haribol. Thank you, Radha Sharad Bihari ki jai. So the lord has said in the gita just now just before the Ekadasi that went, the Ekadasi before that on Mokshada Ekadasi in the month of December. There it was said by Dhritarashtra

dharma ksetre kuru ksetre
samaveta yuyutsavah
mamakah pandavas caiva
kim akurvata sanjaya
(Bhagavad Gita 1.1)

Translation
Dhritarashtra said: O Sanjay, after gathering on the holy field of Kurukshetra, and desiring to fight, what did my sons and the sons of Pandu do?

Krishna said so many things whilst speaking the Gita but one of those was

mach chitta mad gata prana
bodhayantah parasparam kathayantash cha mam nityam
tushyanti cha ramanti cha
(Bhagavad Gita 10.9)

Translation
With their minds fixed on Me and their lives surrendered to Me, My devotees remain ever content in Me. They derive great satisfaction and bliss in enlightening one another about Me and in conversing about My glories

Giving a introduction of their devotees, the lord says, ‘what do my devotees do? Mach chitta, their minds are always on me and what else? Mad gata prana, their lives are for me, fully surrendered to me. And bodhayantah parasparam, they enlighten each other with talks about me. Kathayantash cha mam nityam – they are always having katha and then? Tushyanti, they are satisfied by doing this and raman they delight in such things.’

These are the expectations of the supreme lord of us devotees, and you are souls, this is an obvious fact that does not need to be asked. The soul is the devotee of the supreme lord and you are all souls, yes or no? Some people did not understand my question, or otherwise they are thinking ‘oh oh, who am I?’ We are all spirit souls and the soul is an eternal servant of the supreme lord. Some people are beginning to understand this, but most people here have forgotten this.

Maya makes them forget and confuses one, but basically we are spirit souls meaning the eternal servant of the supreme lord.

mamaivansho jiva loke jiva bhutah sanatanah manah shashthanindriyani prakriti sthani karshati
(Bhagavad Gita 15.7)

Translation
The embodied souls in this material world are My eternal fragmental parts. But bound by material nature, they are struggling with the six senses including the mind

I am a devotee and you all are also devotees so what are we going to do? Bodhayantah parasparam, we are going to enlighten one another with talks of Krishna, we will remember the lord Hari Hari. I was thinking, what is the job of the spirit soul? It is not material activities and gross entertainment. This is not an entertainment program, it is an enlightenment program. It is for the soul, not for the material mind.

om sarve bhavantu sukhinah
sarve santu niramayah
sarve bhadrani pasyantu
ma kascid duhkha bhagbhavet
om santih santih santih
(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad)

Translation
Let all be happy, let all be free from debilitation, let all see goodness, let there be no victims of sorrow

This is a vedic prayer which is of high thinking, that let everyone be happy. How should everyone be? Happy. This is a prayer also and it is a good gesture as well. From this point also we see that this festival and mahotsava has been arranged so that everybody may be happy. To give the soul happiness and to be able to play, for the soul’s satisfaction and for the peace of the soul this has been organised. Who here wants peace? Okay then you are in the right place at the right time.

For peace for yourselves and for the whole world, for the soul this festival has been started and anyway only the supreme lord and his devotion service can give us this satisfaction. Then we will be able to attain the lord. Have you thought about the fact that one should try to attain the lord? Hari Hari.

Yachi dehi yachi dola, this is what we say in Marathi and it means that yachi deha, in this very body we must attain the lord. With divine eyes we should desire to take darshan of the lord and at the end our goal is to go back home back to godhead! We have to go to the place where Tukaram Maharaja has gone, back to our village. Where are you from? Pune-kar or Sangli-kar, Kasigau-kar, in Maharashtra there is a lot of this kar kar.

I once asked a manwhat his name was and he replied ‘karmarkar.’ Did you hear? Maybe you are thinking that this is a hreat name. Kar means? Then Mar then kar, Karmarkar. Then I told him that you are not the only Karmarkar, we are all Karmarkar. So the lord is very merciful, he is karuna sindhu, an ocean of mercy. This is a good thing, that he is so merciful but what is he along side this mercy? He is dina bandhu, whatbis he? Dina bandhu, we are deen, poor and our bandhu, friend is the supreme lord.

That is why he is so merciful towards us and by his merciful nature he does so much for us and one of those things he does is

paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma-samsthapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge
(Bhagavad Gita 4.8)

Translation
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.

The lord again and again and again does what? He comes into this material world. Try to understand and listen, if the lord had never come to this world or this universe and if he stayed in his spiritual abode always, then how would we know if there is a god or not? We wouldn’t even know this word ‘god.’ ‘Is there a god or not? If there is a god then what does he look like and what does he do and what pastimes does he perform and where does he perform them?

Is it at Vrindavan or Pandharpur or here or there?’ We would have no answers to these questions if the supreme lord kept busy in his own pastimes in the spiritual world. We would be here in this material world forever, in this place which is also a prison house. You will all not like to hear this, but in one sense we are all prisoners and when a prisoner is sent to prison, what is the first thing they do? They give him the prison uniform and they give him a number also, like 420 or whatever.

In this universe we are all fallen souls and we are shackled in this prison house. We have been told to wear the prison uniform and how many types of uniform are there? Eight million four hundred thousand and these are called the different material bodies. These are the uniforms and this human form of life is also one of those prison uniforms but it is a very difficult one to attain.

So if the lord had not come here, how would we have any information about him? And take it that even if he came, just like lord Krishna came and stayed on the planer earth for one hundred and twenty five years and then he went back to his own abode. But if there was nothing mentioned about his coming, if there was no talk about him, if there were no books written about his pastimes, no sastra like bhagavad gita, vedanta sutra, puranas, mahabharata, and so many other puranas and then bhagavatam, all glories to srimad bhagavatam!

If these sastras had not been written, if they were not here then also we would have no clue about the lord coming here and the pastimes he performed. We would have no information about his coming or his leaving. There would be no temples and there would be no information where the lord had his pastimes, nobody would know about Vrindavan or Pandharpura or bhagavad gita.

sarva dharman parityajya mam ekam sharanam vraja aham tvam sarva papebhyo mokshayishyami ma shuchah
(bhagavad gita 18.66)

Translation
Abandon all varieties of dharmas and simply surrender unto Me alone. I shall liberate you from all sinful reactions; do not fear

We would not have known what the lord says here about just surrendering unto him and we wouldnt know that the lord says

patram pushpam phalam toyam yo me bhaktya prayachchhati tadaham bhaktyupahritam ashnami prayatatmanah
(bhagavad gita 9.26)

Translation
If one offers to Me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or even water, I delightfully partake of that item offered with love by My devotee in pure consciousness

The lord has said what to offer his but if we didn’t read this and know this then we would eat mutton-am chicken-am, this would be going on perpetually. That is why it is a good thing that the lord came here, he is most welcome. Su swagatam Krishna Su swagatam Krishna, welcome Sri Krishna.

maya mugdha jivera nahi svatah krsna jnana
jivere krpaya kaila krsna veda purana
(caitanya caritamrita madhya 20.122)

Translation
The conditioned soul cannot revive his Krsna consciousness by his own effort. But out of causeless mercy, Lord K???a compiled the Vedic literature and its supplements, the Puranas

Again sastra says, we have become illusioned in this material world. Maya mughda, they are illusioned and in that state they have no knowledge of their own selves, maya mugdha jivera nahi svatah – they have no knowledge of themselves or Krishna. Then what did Krishna do? He took mercy on all of us, kaila krsna veda purana. The lord took mercy on all of us, and arranged the vedas and sastras, this is the lord’s greatest mercy upon us.

So not only did the Lord appear five thousand years ago, but along with him Vyasadeva also appeared. Srila Vyasadeva is the one who compiled all the veda’s and sastra’s, in this way he expanded the lord’s pastimes through many books and sastras. That is why he is called Vyas which means expander. So this is a story about a certain and Badrika ashram dham ki jai! So it was morning time and in Badrika ashram there is river Saraswati.

There you can take darshan of mother Saraswati, you cannot take darshan of Saraswati further down but there you can take darshan. Srila Vyasadeva was sitting on the banks of the river Saraswati and who else was to appear chanting and singing ’Narayana Narayana.’ Just by my saying this you must know who I an speaking about. Narada Muni appeared on the scene, the one who gives Narayana -Narada.

Narada Muni is Srila Vyasadeva’s spiritual master and actually he is the spiritual master of the whole world. Narada Muni is also the spiritual master of Valmiki and also of Prahlad Maharaja. And Dhruva Maharaja’s spiritual master is? Narada Muni, so like that on and on. Jai Narada. So he reached there as he is Srila Vyasadeva’s spiritual master and Srila Vyasadeva’s was looking very upset, angry and downtrodden.

Narada Muni had not thought that he would see Vyasadeva looking like this because he is a Muni and is atmarama, he wants to see everyone happy and peaceful. So he was thinking, ‘why is my disciple looking so upset?’ When he asked ‘why are you not happy? You have written so many books of sastra, so why are you feeling and looking like this?’ So Vyasadeva replied ‘there is no job satisfaction.’

You all say this, no? ‘whatever I did, and all those books I wrote, there are so many, but I am not satisfied. Maybe whatever I wrote has some mistake or some shortcomings.’ Because he understood that he was feeling like this due to his not having done something, maybe he had missed something. Then he said to Narada Muni, ‘here these are all the books I have written. Please check yourself and check these writings, review my books, the sastra’s and you please tell me what shortcomings are there.’

Just as Narada Muni looked inside the books, he immediately replied, ‘Oh yes yes! I understand.’

yatha dharmadayas cartha
muni varyanukirtitah
na tatha vasudevasya
mahima hy anuvarnitah
(srimad bhagavatam 1.5.9)

Translation
Although, great sage, you have very broadly described the four principles beginning with religious performances, you have not described the glories of the Supreme Personality, Vasudev

Gradually we understand the greatness of bhagavatam which is the best of all scriptures. Mattah paratara?m nanyat kinchid asti

mattah paratara?m nanyat kinchid asti dhananjaya mayi sarvam idam protam sutre mani gana iva
(Bhagavad gita 7.7)

Translation
There is nothing higher than Myself, O Arjun. Everything rests in Me, as beads strung on a thread

The lord says that there is not even another incarnation that it like him so in the same way, there is no sastra that compares to bhagavatam. Narada Muni therefore said ‘vasudevasya mahima hy anuvarnitah. You have spoken much about religion, economic development, sense gratification and liberation which are the four goals of human life. We say karma kanda jnana kanda kevala visera bhanda. For a Vaisnava, the karma kanda and jnana kanda sections of the Vedas are unnecessary. Indeed, a real Vaisnava takes these sections as a poison pot – visera bhanda

You have written so much about liberation and material enjoyment but where have have mentioned nothing about the glories of Vasudeva or Krishna or Rama amongst all these? Where are the pastimes and the descriptions of the lord’s qualities? Srila Vyasadeva understood and finally he wrote another scripture which was srimad bhagavatam jai! What is in the bhagavatam? Harih sarvatra giyate.

vede ramayane caiva purane bharate tatha
adav ante ca madhye ca harih sarvatra giyate
(Caitanya cmCaritamrita 1.7.131)

In the Vedic literature, including the Ramayana, Puranas and Mahabharata, from the very beginning (?dau) to the end (ante ca), as well as within the middle (madhye ca), only Hari, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is explained

So harih sarvatra giyate. Hari Hari, Gaura Hari or Vasudeva Hari. The lord says in the Bhagavad gita

bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahatma su durlabhah
(Bhagavad gita 7.19)

Translation
After many births of spiritual practice, one who is endowed with knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be all that is. Such a great soul is indeed very rare

We see in this how Vasudeva is everything. Vasudeva Vasudeva Vasudeva Hari! In Pandharpura there is constant chanting like this.

krsnaya vasudevaya
devaki nandanaya ca
nanda gopa kumaraya
govindaya namo namah
(srimad bhagavatam 1.8.21)

Translation
Let me therefore offer my respectful obeisances unto the Lord, who has become the son of Vasudeva, the pleasure of Devaki, the boy of Nanda and the other cowherd men of Vrndavana, and the enlivener of the cows and the senses

That book is full of Vasudeva and that is why it is said in bhagavatam

nigama kalpa taror galitam phalam
suka mukhad amrta drava samyutam
pibata bhagavatam rasam alayam
muhur aho rasika bhuvi bhavukah
(srimad bhagavatam 1.1.3)

Translation
O expert and thoughtful men, relish Srimad Bhagavatam, the mature fruit of the desire tree of Vedic literatures. It emanated from the lips of Sri Sukadeva Gosvami. Therefore this fruit has become even more tasteful, although its nectarean juice was already relishable for all, including liberated souls.

The glories of the bhagavatam are written in the bhagavatam itself in the srimad bhagavatam mangalacharan at the very beginning. It is in the first canto of the first chapter slokas one, two and three. Nigama kalpa taror galitam phalam, all the sastras including the vedas, puranas vedanta sutra, Mahabharata and the seventeen puranas, what are these? You may take it that these are all a big tree which has been made up of all these books.

What do we wait to get from a tree? There are leaves on the tree and branches, very nice. We also very much welcome the flowers of the tree but what else is left as yet? The fruit of the tree, so in the same way all the other books are their pages parts and it could be there are fruits of these books also but the srimad bhagavatam is galitam phalam. It is not only a fruit or an unripened fruit, it is galitam- it is so ripe it may fall from the tree at any moment very soon.

Then what is written further? Suka mukhad amrta drava samyutam. Sukadeva Goswami ki jai! Sukadeva Goswami has tasted this fruit of bhagavatam and he has therefore made it maha prashad. By doing so, it has become ever sweeter. You may all know but in the village when the mango season arrives, there are many mango trees around my house. So in the mango season we would climb these trees and we would go from one tree to another and we would look at each mango.

We would not pick every mango but we would look for which type of mango? We would look for that mango which a parrot or some other bird may have pecked and eaten a little bit. When you look at these specific fruits, you can see that from the inside they are very juicy and red. They are not unripe and so we would pick these mangoes and we would sit right there and eat them. Have any of you done like this or experienced this? Anyone here from the village give your introduction.

‘He is a villager a villager!’ All glories to the youths! All glories to the farmers, actually a devotee can be a youth or he can be a farmer also. So the goal is to become a devotee and to do that one may take any path of occupational. One must drink the rasa, the juice of the srimad bhagavatam. At one time in the golden age, I think Brahma was involved and he was weighing all the books of scripture on a scale. There he saw that the scale in which srimad bhagavatam had been put was the heaviest.

He saw so many other so called heavier books were hanging on high, not heavy at all although they were so many pages more, so much heavier. There were the vedas and puranas and this and that. King of all books srimad bhagavad ki jai! Sukadeva Goswami was just about to begin his narration of srimad Bhagavatam when the gods headed by Indra arrived. Chandra the moon god arrived also along with many other demigods and they bought along with then the nectar called Kumbha from the Kumbha Mela.

They spoke to Sukadeva Goswami and said ‘oh Maharaja we have bought this nectar. Will you give this nectar to King Parikshit so that he will be able to live forever. And in exchange of this you may read srimad bhagavatam to us or let us drink the nectar of bhagavatam. When Sukadeva Goswami heard their appeal he shouted ‘get out! You are committing a great offence. How can you compare this nectar which can give one immortality or strength to srimad bhagavatam?

This bhagavatam is the means to attain Krishna and his eternal abode so how can you compare this nectar of Kumbha Mela to the nectar if srimad bhagavatam? You are making the greatest offence!’ So the demigods also were not fortunate enough to taste the nectar of srimad bhagavatam. In this srimad bhagavatam it is said dharmah projjhita kaitavo ’tra paramo nirmatsaranam satam
vedyam vastavam atra vastu sivadam and so on.

dharmah projjhita kaitavo ’tra paramo nirmatsaranam satam
vedyam vastavam atra vastu sivadam tapa trayonmulanam
srimad bhagavate maha muni krte ki? va parair isvarah
sadyo hrdy avarudhyate ’tra krtibhih susrusubhis tat ksanat
(srimad bhagavatam 1.1.2)

Translation
Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhagavata Pur??a propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful Bhagavatam, compiled by the great sage Vy?sadeva [in his maturity], is sufficient in itself for God realization. What is the need of any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bh?gavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart.

So here it is said dharmah projjhita kaitavo, religious activities are covered by fruitive intention of religion, economic development, sense gratification and liberation. It is karma kanda, fruitive activity – karma kanda jnana kanda kevala visera bhanda. For a Vaisnava, the karma kanda and jnana kanda sections of the Vedas are unnecessary.

We sometimes think to have a fire sacrifice to reach the heavenly planets a d we follow different instructions to attain fruitive results but the bhagavatam calls this kind of religion a cheating religion. The spirit soul is being cheated although that soul is a paramahamsa, enlightened and pure with no envy. The bhagavatam is different because we have become so called great Hindu’s and we perform these great fruitive sacrifices which is why the supreme lord was compelled to say ‘surrender everything to me.’ We need to give up this Kaitav dharma

krsna bhakta niskama, ataeva ‘santa’
bhukti mukti siddhi kam? – sakali ‘asanta’
(Caitanya Caritamrita madhya 19.149)

Translation
Because a devotee of Lord Krsna is desireless, he is peaceful. Fruitive workers desire material enjoyment, jnanis desire liberation, and yog?s desire material opulence; therefore they are all lusty and cannot be peaceful

Those who are performers of fruitive activities are never peaceful due to their unlimited but a devotee of Krishna is desireless and that is why is is always peaceful. Bedyam vastavam atra vastu sivada? tapa trayonmulanam
srimad bhagavate maha muni krte

dharmah projjhita kaitavo ’tra paramo nirmatsaranam satam
vedyam vastavam atra vastu sivada? tapa trayonmulanam
srimad bhagavate maha muni krte kim va parair isvarah
sadyo hrdy avarudhyate ’tra krtibhih susrusubhis tat ksanat
(srimad bhagavatam 1.1.2)

Translation
Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhagavata Purana propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful Bhagavatam, compiled by the great sage Vy?sadeva [in his maturity], is sufficient in itself for God realization. What is the need of any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhagavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart.

When the bhagavatam can be gotten by any person, what is the need of any other scripture? This question has been raised. Isvarah sadyo hrdy avarudhyate, just by hearing this greatest scripture srimad bhagavatam what happens? The lord of the heart who is Parameshwar Krishna, he quickly appears and begins to stay in the heart of the practitioner. Krtibhih susrusubhis tat ksanat, he appears at that very moment.

The lord stayed on this planet for one hundred and twenty five years and then he was preparing to leave this place and this became known to Uddhava. Krishna says to Uddhava ‘Udhav mohi Braj bisrat nahi, oh Uddhava I cannot forget Braja.’ Uddhava is a very important personality and he got the news that the lord is not getting ready to go back to his own abode. So Uddhava told the lord, ‘me too. I will go back with you also, take me as well.’

But the lord said ‘no no, you stay because you are still needed here to complete an important mission.’ Again Uddhava protested, ‘no no, I want to go with you.’ At the end lord Krishna said ‘okay okay, I will stay also. How? I will stay in the form of srimad bhagavatam in this world.’ Haribol!

krsna sva dhamopagate
dharma jnanadibhih saha
kalau nasta drsam esa
puranarko ‘dhunoditah
(srimad bhagavatam 1.3.43)

Translation
This Bhagavata Purana is as brilliant as the sun, and it has arisen just after the departure of Lord Krsna to His own abode, accompanied by religion, knowledge, etc. Persons who have lost their vision due to the dense darkness of ignorance in the age of Kali shall get light from this Purana

So the Lord, simultaneously went back to his own abode, and stayed back on the earth planet in the form of srimad bhagavatam. On the very day the lord left, that same day Kali entered, you may note this. Then what happened? Kalau nasta drsam esa, this Kali took the vision of the people and he destroyed their intelligence. They became blind due to lust, which is one of the six enemies of the living entity.

Kama (desire), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), Mada (arrogance), moha (infatuation), and matsarya (jealousy). All these enemies make us blind and that is what Kali did and so to give light and to restore our vision, so we may see properly, the lord appeared in the form of the king of all scriptures, srimad bhagavatam! Kalau nasta drsam esa puranarko ‘dhunoditah. This puranarko means the sun.

Just like it is said ‘as brilliant as the sun.’ The lord is not compared to just one sun but to koti, millions of suns and they are all the supreme personality of godhead. There is one shabda brahma and the other is para brahma. The shabda brahma is srimad bhagavatam and para brahma is Sri Krishna’s own form. Just like Arjuna said param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan.

param brahma param dhama
pavitram paramam bhavan
purusam sasvatam divyam
adi devam ajam vibhum
(bhagavad gita 10.12)

Translation
Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all-pervading beauty. All the great sages such as Narada, Asita, Devala, and Vyasa proclaim this of You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.

Arjuna told the supreme lord on the battlefield of kuruksetra, ‘you are param brahma the supreme truth.’ The lord has unlimited forms but it is said in the bhagavatam that the main forms are two in number. One is the shabda brahma and the other para brahma. The shabda brahma is the bhagavad gita or srimad bhagavatam. By the help of the shabda brahma we can attain the darshan of the supreme lord in his actual form.

This bhagavatam shows one the supreme lord and in the vedanta sutra it is said that the source of our knowledge is the sastras, the shabda brahma. They are also called sastra caksus, what are the sastras? They are our eyes or glasses. We cannot presently see corrective because of the lust and anger which is covering our vision m, so we must open the srimad bhagavatam and start reading. Otherwise one can also listen to bhagavatam but to read is also sravanam, listening.

So we will be able to see the supreme lord himself through the eyes of sastras. ‘At the moment I cannot see so clearly but aaaahh now I can see!’ So like that to read bhagavad gita and to listen to bhagavatam is very important. That is when we will understand and find out who we actually are and who the supreme lord is, and so on. This is very important, the number one. Srila Prabhupada used to say ‘that one is important. We earned this much and we got this and we have that.’

But this is all zero but if you put the number one in the beginning of all the zeros then all those zeros have value. One zero will become ten and two zeros will become one hundred. If there aren’t more zeros then it becomes a hundred thousand, million, billion, trillion. As long as there is a number one in front and if there is no one in front then one zero, two zeros or a thousand zeros together. A big zero and that is exactly what happens to everything we earn. Hari Hari.

Mrtyuh sarva haras caham. What does the lord say? I come in the form of death which is also my form.

mrtyuh sarva haras caham
udbhavas ca bhavisyatam
kirtih srir vak ca narinam
smrtir medha dhrtih ksama
(bhagavad gita 10.34)

Translation
I am all devouring death, and I am the generating principle of all that is yet to be. Among women I am fame, fortune, fine speech, memory, intelligence, steadfastness and patience

Whatever we earn will all be lost, a big zero, but whatever zeros are used in the service of the lord

yat karosi yad asnasi
yaj juhosi dadasi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya
tat kurusva mad-arpanam
(bhagavad 9.27)

Translation
O son of Kunti, all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer and give away, as well as all austerities that you may perform, should be done as an offering unto Me

Lord Krishna officially left for his own abode and this happened not so long ago and upon preparing to leave, the lord told Arjuna ‘take all my queens from Dwarka to Hastinapura and look after them and see to their needs.’ Arjuna did just this but then they end up in Mathura. King Parikshit had become not only a King but the emperor of the whole world and he was known as the emperor of the whole earth planet. He was rolling the whole earth planet and his capital city was Hastinapura and the whole planet was called Bharata.

Mahabharata literally means the history of Greater India. Now it has become only India but at one time it was Bharata, Mahabharata. King Parikshit became the emperor and his capital was Hastinapura and in Mathura Vajranabha who was the great grandson of the supreme lord Krishna. So the lord’s queens are taken to Vrindavan and Vajranabha is taking care of them all. They are all his own Grandmothers and all these queens of more than sixteen thousand in number are looking for Krishna in Vrindavan.

He cannot be found anywhere and they are missing him so they are suffering in the fire of separation from Krishna. So at one tome King Parikshit went to Mathura to meet Vajranabha and he asked him, ‘how are the queens?’ Vajranabha replied that they were not very happy because they are missing Krishna. They wanted to meet Krishna, perform pastimes with the lord and have interactions with him. They also wanted to serve the lord but he was not to be found anywhere by them.

In the skanda purana the glories of srimad bhagavatam have been explained in five chapters. Firstly there is this bhagavad mahatmya, glories if bhagavatam in the padma purana and secondly it is there in the skanda purana. I am trying to speak in connection to this. So the queens had been advised to go with King Pariksit and Vajranabha and they were told, ‘do one thing, go to Kusum Sarovar and perform kirtan there.

The queens were on the banks of kusum Sarovar performing kirtan so you all do the same now. So as kirtan was going on they had already been told what would happen. Shandilya Rishi and Mother Yamuna had told them to go on the banks of the Kusum sarovara where Uddhava will now come on the scene. On the banks of kusum sarovara, the trees and leaves, the branches of the trees and the grass is Uddhava in these different forms.

He is staying there because he has a great hope that when the Gopi’s will go past this place to go and get flowers to make a garland for Krishna, ‘then may the dust from the gopi’s feet fall upon my head so I may be liberated.’ In this hope Uddhava is staying there and so when he heard the queens perform kirtan, he appeared in his own form. And wherever Uddhava appears, there is an uttsava, festival.

What happens in a Hare Krishna uttsava? It makes one more enthusiastic and makes us eager and excited. So Uddhava appeared and he is about to seak bhagavad katha to who? Who is in the audience? The sixteen thousand queens of the lord are sitting there as are King Parikshit and Vajranabha.

So in the beginning Uddhava says ‘King Parikshit please leave. You cannot stay here.’ ‘Why?’ ‘You have to maintain law and order and we are going to have a very long katha here.’ So King Parikshit asked, ‘what will become of me? I will become bereft of listening to the glories of Sri Krishna.’ Uddhava replied ‘no no, it is not so, especially for you there will be arrangement for recitation of srimad bhagavatam and Srila Sukadeva Goswami himself recite bhagavatam to you on the banks of the Ganges! It is not your turn yet, your turn will come.’

Then Uddhava started, ‘om namo bhagavate vasudevaya.’

kada drakshyami nandasya balakam nipamdlakam
palakam sarva sattvanam lasattilaka bhadlakam

Translation
When will my eyes see the wonderful form of the Supreme Bhagavan Shri
Krishna, who appeared on this earth as the son of Nanda? He is adorned with a
flower garland around his neck and the holy tilak mark on his forehead; he is the protector of virtuous people

The queens were already becoming impatient to see the lord and so Uddhava went and he was going to give them darshan of the lord. How will he give them darshan? By speaking to them Krishna katha and then with the help of shabda brahma, the form of the lord bhagavatam they got darshan if the para brahma, the supreme lord in his self same form. Just go away I don’t want you and in that way they will re establish their relationship with the lord.

That is what was going to happen and in this way this katha continued for an entire one month and everyone was engrossed in hearing talks of bhagavatam. Nobody was suddenly leaving in the middle of the katha, nor was anybody sleeping during the talk or looking at their mobile phone. Katha was continuing for one month and so what started happening was that some of the queens are now leaving because they started to see their lord Krishna.

They are joining Krishna in whatever pastimes they are in and they will begin their service to the supreme lord once
again, whatever service that may be in accordance to what their specific relationship with the lord may be. They are slowly entering those pastimes and gradually the sixteen thousand one hundred queens have left to go to the lord and enter into the lord’s pastimes.

One thousand have left, and another thousand and another thousand and then all sixteen thousand. At the end only Uddhava and Vajranabha are left there and so by the end of these seven days you all will also become ready to leave, this should be the hope and we must pray like this to attain the lord. We are actually always seeing the lord, having his darshan and today also you had the lord’s darshan. Yes or no?

Who here is feeling that it is starting to happen even slightly, how about you Mataji’s? The darshan becomes more and more clear as we listen to the katha. Ceto darpana marjanam

ceto darpana marjanam bhava maha davagni nirvapanam sreyah kairava candrika vitaranam vidya vadhu jivanam anandambudhi vardhanam prati padam purnamrtasvadanam sarvatma snapanam paramvijayate sri krsna sankirtanam
(Siksastakam 1)

Translation
Glory to the sri-krsna-sankirtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years and extinguishes the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death. This sankirtana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of all transcendental knowledge. It increases the ocean of transcendental bliss, and it enables us to fully taste the nectar for which we are always anxious

There must be cleansing of the mirror. Just like if you have a mirror but it is very dusty then we will not be able to see our own faces. But as soon as you remove that dust we can see ourselves again so un the same way our consciousness is cleansed by our listening to Krishna katha. The dust which is laying in our heart will be cleansed and then our mind and consciousness become purified.

Krishna will then be seen and this was the exact result of the katha that Uddhava Ji was reciting. Sooner or later it can be said, we must all become purified and come to this stage. Krishna Kahnaiya lal ki jai. Another thing is that we must beware, be cautious or careful about something, we will speak about this before we end today’s class. There is one more important thing which is in the padma purana in regards to bhagavad mahatmya and that is in regards to Gokarna.

Gokarna recited katha for his brother Dhundukhari and when the katha was coming to an end, Gokarna and of course everyone else must have seen it too, an plavne came. It was a small plane in which one or just a few passengers would be able to sit. It landed there and the air hosts on that plane – bear in mind they were hosts, there were no hostesses, they were the messengers of lord Vishnu, the Vishnudutas.

Those Visnuduta’s, ‘you! Not you, just you.’ They pointed to Dhundhulari to come forward and board the plane and he came forward, boarded the plane and sat down with his seat belt fastened and phew. The plane was just about to fly off when Gokarna said to Visnuduta’s ‘hey, wait a minute! What is happening here? Thousands of people listened to the katha but you are taking only one person back to Vaikunthaloka. What was the fault of the others sitting here and what was their offence?’

At the time the Visnuduta’s replied that everyone had listened to the katha but what did the rest of the people not do? They did not take it in their mind and they did not contemplate and and they did not remember or meditate on that katha. This is what one must do after katha is over, not that ‘oh the talk is over so bye. We shall meet tomorrow to start again.’ No, there should be contemplation in between the katha and we can speak about what we have heard, which is kirtan.

You can do this upon reaching home after the katha and if for whatever reason others were not able to come to the katha then you can recite to them, again this is kirtan. Forget hi and hello and chanted Hare Krishna and you can talk on the phone or online, on zoom but you can address them and recite katha to them. You can enlighten them about Krishna which is bodhayantah parasparam and if you do not do these things and of you cannot do these things then there is a saying in Marathi that there are so many gold merchants and shops and what do they do with the gold sometimes?

In one ear it goes in and it comes out of the other ear. But it shouldn’t be this way, it must reach the heart through the ears because the soul is in the heart. We all live in the heart and that is also where the supersoul lives, right next to the living entity which is us. So the ear is a material thing, that is not where the katha should be going and staying. The goal is to reach the soul and so one must contemplate and take these things into one’s mind and one list also have faith.

How much faith do we put into listening to these transcendental topics? Shraddhavanllabhate jnanam, a faithful person achieves divine knowledge and Krishna says in bhagavad gita sanshayatma vinashyati a skeptical person without faith falls down.

ajnash chashraddadhanash cha sanshayatma vina?hyati nayam loko ’sti na paro na sukham sanshayatmana?
(bhagavad gita 4.40)

Translation
But persons who possess neither faith nor knowledge, and who are of a doubting nature, suffer a downfall. For the skeptical souls, there is no happiness either in this world or the next

Krishna says, when there is a doubt, they are doubting all the time, then what happens? Vinashyati, he falls down. The Visnuduta’s are explaining what the others did not do, ‘but he did it, this Dhundhukari did the right thing! With full faith he listened and took that in his mind and he was fully concentrating as he listened to the katha.’ Many other things been said in this connection which you should also all take with you now at the end if this katha. Let this katha become your property, your possession.

Just like the actual wealth of our country is the sastra’s, the books of the vedas and puranas and srimad bhagavatam and Bhagavad gita. This is the real wealth of our country and anyway I had said this in many different ways and gave different examples. When Srila Prabhupada was once in London, he was asked by one journalist, ‘Swamiji, why have you come to our country?’ Then Prabhupada answered, ‘well you also came to India, so the situation is equal. But no, because you came to exploit our country. Your people thought oh this is valuable and so is this. In this way you kept exploiting the Indian people and all it’s wealth.

You even stole the diamonds and especially the Kohinoor diamond which is now in some museum in London. You stole many spices and silk and this and that but at the time of doing all of this, you forgot to take the actual wealth of our country. So you have asked me why I have come here so I would like to tell you that I have come to give you a home delivery of our real wealth which you forgot to bring with you.’ Shouts of Haribol!

When asked what is such wealth could be that they themselves could not recognise, Prabhupada told them, the Bhagavd gita and srimad bhagavatam and the knowledge of the vedas and puranas. This is the actual wealth of our country. Like that there are many items that were left by the British which are the real wealth of our country. The culture of India, Bharat India and not the so called culture of modern India is not the culture of Bharat India.

A man was giving his introduction once, and he said ‘I’m not Indian, I am Bharatia. There is a lot hidden in this comment amd in being a Bharatia because being Indian means that one is not following his own culture. So Srila Prabhupada said that he had come there to make a home delivery of the actual Indian culture, of ancient India. The most valuable of this is the lord’s holy names, golokera prema dhana, hari nama sankirtana.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

This is the wealth and that is why Srila Prabhupada always used to say ‘chant Hare Krishna and be happy.’ To be happy one must be wealthy, but what is that wealth which will make us happy? The knowledge of the sastras is the true wealth and this will make us actually happy and we will become civilised. The modern civilisation is not civilisation. Hari Hari. Okay

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

Thank you for your presence here and for giving your valuable time in the service of Krishna. In return, Krishna is going to give you so much for the time you have invested here. Hare Krishna.