English
21st July 2019
Chanting, hearing, remembering has to be simultaneously
Today is Sunday, we have less devotees chanting today.
I’m not supposed to be chanting today or I am supposed to be taking rest or giving rest to chanting, it’s not the right thing to do. But who will tell them they’re not there on the conference to listen to me? You could tell them, you could find out who is missing, who doesn’t chant on Sundays. May be they are your neighbours, your friends, your colleagues, your god-brothers, god-sisters are not chanting. Some of them are not chanting on Sundays. Of-course many, many of them are not chanting on this conference. Some of them are not chanting on Sundays on this conference. Anyway, if you could do something. ‘bodhayanta parasparam’ that could be appreciated.
Chanting, hearing, remembering all this has to be done simultaneously. Sravanam of course, you have to utter the holy name of the Lord. You have to hear as you utter the holy name and you have to remember the person that you are calling or you will be reminded of that person who you are calling. So, these activities have to happen instantly and simultaneously. Sravanam kirtanam visnoh smaranam. These three activities happen instantly, simultaneously in one stroke. So that’s our goal. That’s the homework that we are supposed to be doing during the chanting of the holy names of the Lord.
That is not easy task. You should do like this or like that. So, there are all sorts of obstacles and stumbling blocks and of course, the mind is always meddling. It comes in between you and your chanting, you and your Lord, you and your hearing the holy name.
mana eva manusyanam karanam bandha-moksayoh (BG 6.5)
Manais the one. Mind is the one that does become the cause of either your bandha-moksayoh. The bondage is caused by mind and moksa, theliberation is also caused by mind.
So, samah, damah, tapah, saucam. The Lord has given instructions to the whole world and society that they should work on this samah, damah. These are the qualities of the Brahmana, Brahmin. The Lord is describing that he begins the samahand damah. Control, mind-control and sense-control. Making mind peaceful and making senses also peaceful. Samah, damah. So, unless the mind is peaceful and satisfied we cannot proceed with our life of devotion, life of jnana, concentration, focus or meditation. Those become impossible if samah, damahthis mind-control, sense-control is not there.
So, anyway we don’t want to talk this stuff, this subject this morning. So, I am thinking of talking about some other topics. Just, we have been talking about this every now and then. Preparation for the sense-control, the mind-control is not something that you work on only when chanting the holy name of the Lord. But, all day long or all night long, you have to work on the mind. Controlling the mind, purifying the mind, taming the mind. This is on-going process, and this is the process, this is ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaḿ, cleansing the mirror of consciousness and the part of the cleansing is cleansing the mind also. cetanah antah karan includes our subtle body, the mind. So, this ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaḿ we have to work on, meaning we’re talking about the mind, work on the mind, purify the mind. So, this is on-going task, we cannot get serious about cleansing the mind or ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaḿ only while chanting the holy name of the Lord.
In other times, we let the mind just go off or do whatever mind likes to do or go here and there. So, we have to watch our mind all the time, keep an eye on our mind, and then like this we can have our intelligence. That is why we also have been saying that the chanting. Well, Bhagavatam said this, the chanting is done by yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyairyajanti hi su-medhasaḥ the intelligent person in fact, well only intelligent person could perform the sankirtan yajnaor japa yajna. So, with the use of intelligence, we control, we endeavour to control the mind and when the mind is under control, the mind is peaceful then that’s a favourable mind’s condition to chant the holy name or listen to the holy name of the Lord, remember Lord as we chant.
I just wanted to talk more about the episode or the scene that we talked about yesterday that Lord is on the planet for 125 years. The demi-gods have arrived in Dwarka to thank Lord and they are also proposing that You need not continue to be here in this world. Lord, You may return to His, Your own abode now.
Let’s visualise the scene here that Lord is seated in Dwarka as Dwarkadhish, so He must be sitting on very huge, opulent asana, throne in Dwarka but the demi-gods and demi-goddesses they’re up there in the sky, all those millions of demi-gods are up in the sky. There are three-hundred thirty million, 33 crores let’s say, three-hundred thirty million demi-gods and goddesses. Considering that they all have assembled, so you can imagine huge big number of them up there in the sky and from there itself, pranamya, they’re offering their obeisances and they have, they’re offering their prayers and praise also from being up there in the sky. That’s a nice scene to remember or think about. Our Lord is seated in Dwarka on a throne and demi-gods are maintaining their position there, they don’t even touch the ground. They could float in the sky, they could make themselves lighter than the lightest, the different siddhis. So, either they’re still seated on their different vehicles, Hamsa(swan) for Brahma, and Shiva on the back of Nandi, like that each one of them have their vahana. Either they are still seated on the vahana or they’re off their vahana and from there, they are dealing with the Lord, seeing the Lord, talking to the Lord, offering their obeisances to the Lord; Dwarkadhish. Sri Krishna ki jai!
And of course, these kinds of scenes this is not the first time ever they see Him like this but demi-gods have been approaching, coming to the Lord again and again. Beginning with the very first appeal that they made to the Lord for Lord’s appearance, they had appeared. That was while Lord was on Svetadvipa that time they approached. Then when Lord was in the womb of Mother Devaki, they had come up there in the vayumandal above Mathura and they had offered Garbha-stuti, they offered their prayers to the Lord while Lord was in the womb of Devaki. That Garbha-stutiis very famous in the beginning of tenth canto of Bhagavatam and like that throughout the tenth canto of Bhagavatam, we feel the presence of Demi-gods especially whenever some demon was killed. For sure Shukadeva Goswami described how demigods were there showering flowers and other kinds of demigods Gandharvasare singing and Apsaras were dancing and they’re beating different drums, like this and that. So, this was very common scene that they would come to watch the pastimes of the Lord when a demon was killed and they’re expressing their jubilation.
Because of these demon’s presence on the earth, the earth was feeling burdened and that’s why they had approached. “Lord please You appear and do something. kill these demons”. And so, when Lord was complying with their request, appeals for the demons for getting killed left and right and every time that happened, demigods appeared on the scene and expressing their joy; “Jai! Jai!” and they were offering praise and flowers and singing and dancing. So, these scenes were quite common throughout Krishna’s pastimes. For this was not the first time ever they had come to Dwaraka to see the Lord. They were always around and coming and witnessing the Lord’s pastimes.
As they are here now in Dwaraka, or they have not landed there, in the sky and they’ve offered their prayers and praise. One of the items, they’re talking of the Lord’s appearance as Vamanadeva. And later on, He took three steps and Lord was a vaman(dwarf). He increased in size and He became taller and taller and taller and He covered the entire universe with the second step. Of course, the first step was on the earth, the second step He covered the entire universe. And when He did so, took the second step, His Lotus Feet touched the covering of the universe, not only touched but struck and the shell of the universe covering got damaged or punctured and the water of the causal Ocean (Karanodak) which emanates from the body of Maha-Visnhu started leaking into the universe and that made the Ganges appearance into this world.
pada-nakha-nira-janita-jana-pavana
kesava dhrita-vamana-rupa jaya jagadisa hare.( Śrī Daśāvatāra)
That water now that had entered the universe was washing the Lotus Feet of Vamana, who was no more Vamana, He was Trivikrama, three steps. So, the Lotus feet they’re being washed and ‘tuzya carani chya ganga’ now, water was flowing, coming down into the universe again as Lord’s Lotus feet had gone up covering the universe. Now the water that has washed the Lotus feet of the Lord was coming down as Ganga.
Hare Krishna
