English
Date – 11thApril 2024
Speaker- Vedant Chaitanya Prabhu
Theme- Teachings from the Prayers of Queen Kunti
Hare Krishna! Today we will discuss about one verse from the Queen Kunti's prayers. When Lord Krishna wanted to go back to Dwarka after Mahabharat war, Queen Kunti offered very nice prayers. With devotion she requested Lord Krishna not to go. Lord was on the chariot, was ready to leave. That time Queen Kunti started her prayers. And these prayers are so beautiful that the Lord who was going to leave, came down from the chariot. And then for many months He stayed with the Pandavas and Kunti and then left for Dwarka. So, we will discuss these beautiful prayers which even stopped Lord Krishna from going. We will discuss one verse from these prayers.
tvayi me ’nanya-viṣayā
matirmadhu-pate ’sakṛt
ratimudvahatādaddhā
gaṅgevaughamudanvati
Translation
O Lord of Madhu, as the Ganges forever flows to the sea without hindrance, let my attraction be constantly drawn unto You without being diverted to anyone else. [SB.1.8.42]
In this, Queen Kunti is praying tvayi me, in You, ananyavisaya, matirmadhu-pate ’sakṛt, in You, Oh Lord Madhupate, my mati should be fixed. Ananya visaya, without any hindrance my intelligence should be fixed on You. Just as river Ganga flows towards Ocean without any hindrance, similarly I also want that the thoughts of my mind should flow only towards You. ratimudvahatādaddhā, my ratim, attraction should always flow towards You. Like this Queen Kunti is praying.
In this, we can see two things; one is, it is said ananyata, and second is how the devotee's attraction and devotion should flow towards the Lord without any hindrance. So, we will talk about ananyata and continuation, ’sakṛt, how our attraction should flow towards the Lord without any hindrance.
Sub-theme: ananyata, unalloyed devotion
First of all,SrilaPrabhupad gives emphasis on ananyata in the purport. Ananyata, an-anyatha, our mind should not go towards other subjects and should go only towards Lord Sri Krishna. Because when our mind goes here and there, then our intelligence gets distracted.
vyavasāyātmikābuddhir
ekeha kuru-nandana
bahu-śākhāhyanantāś ca
buddhayo ’vyavasāyinām
Translation
Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched. [BG.2.41]
In this verse it is said that when there is resolute intelligence then the person's full focus remains only at Lord Sri Krishna, but when the person is not having resolute intelligence, then his intelligence gets divided and his concentration gets divided.And when our concentration is divided then it cannot fix on Lord Krishna. While chanting or doing other devotional activities we get many other thoughts, because our intelligence is divided. Here Queen Kunti wants to tell that, 'Lord, my intelligence is also divided like that, but I want that my intelligence should be fixed on you completely. My rati, attraction should be only at You. Only this is my prayer.' Like this a devotee should pray to the Lord, because without the help of the Lord it is very difficult to fix our mind completely at the Lord. Because there are so many distractions, so many aviation that person's intelligence gets distracted.
Sub-theme: Develop Krsna centred relations
SrilaPrabhupada gives one beautiful thing in the purport, he writes very practical thing, ‘when we are living in the family, then it is natural to have affection for the family members.’ It is natural to have vatsalya bhava. And Prabhupad writes here that it is very natural to have such relations with the family members. We cannot negate it, because it is the sign of life. If person is alive then it is kind obvious to have affection for someone. It is very natural and cannot be negated. But where is the problem? This affection many times divides our thoughts. Our intelligence gets divided. But here Prabhupad says that we cannot even negate it. So, when we cannot negate it and when it is affecting our intelligence, then how can we do devotion? One side Prabhupad is saying that we cannot negate it and other side he is saying that it divides our intelligence. Many kinds of thoughts about many persons are coming in my mind, then how can I do bhakti? What is the solution? Problem comes when we love someone individually, seeing that person as an individual.
Second Nama apradha is to consider Lord Shiva or Brahma's name equal to or greater than the name of Lord Krishna. So here two things are given. It is offence to consider them separate than the Lord, and also to consider them equal to the Lord.They are completely dependent on the Lord. Whatever power they exhibit is coming from the Lord only. All potencies belong to the Lord only and with the help of that potency they could do their activities. Otherwise they themselves do not have any potency. They get power from the Lord. When we approach Demigods with this understanding, then it is not considered as an offence, because it is not separate intelligence. Similarly, when we deal with our family members, if we will consider them separate from the Lord, independent, and if we will try to have connection with them independently, then this will be wrong and because of that there will be lots of distractions in our mind. And this will be a big problem in our bhakti. But if we will think those relations, just as we consider demigods not independent from the Lord, then with that understanding when we will have connections with them, relation with them, then this will be Krishna centred relations. Krishna centred relations will never be any hindrance, rather, they will be encouragement in our devotion. Same way when we will have such connections with family members, then those will be Krishna centred relations and they will not become the cause of our distractions. How can we make Krishna centred relations? When we will not consider them independent from Krishna and we will not make independent relations with them, but will make those relations through Krishna then those will be Krishna centred relations. Because of Lord Krishna only we have relation with them.
When one girl gets married with a boy, although that girl is not having any relation with the family members of that boy, but as soon as that girl gets married with that boy then because of him, she gets connected with all family members of that boy. Although she is not having direct connection with them, all that connection is through the husband. As that person is father or mother of the husband, the girl is having relation with him or her. Similarly, if that person is brother or sister of the husband then the girl is having relation with them. So, all these relations are through the husband; centre is husband. Similarly, when we develop relation with Sri Krsna and we keep relation with others keeping Krsna as centre, considering them as the parts and parcels is Sri Krsna, then it is Krsnacentred relation. Then we can see everyone with equal vision as everyone is part and parcel of Sri Krishna. Therefore, when with this understanding we keep relation with the people, as they are parts and parcels of Sri Krishna and therefore they are dear to Him, that's why they are dear to me. Because he is dear to the Lord, that's why he is dear to me. When with this understanding we have relation, then that will be Krishna centred relation. Such relations will never bound us in this material world. Because every time we will keep in mind to have Krishna in the centre. Same thing here SrilaPrabhupad is saying. He is talking about such Krishna centred relations. Relationship should be dependent on Krishna and not independent. If we can develop such understanding and such relations then we will have fixed connection with Krishna and those relations will never become hindrance in bhakti.Because you will give preference only to the words of Lord Sri Krishna.
We can see from the example of Arjuna. In the beginning, he was seeing his relation with Bhisma, Drona etc. independently and that's why he was not able to follow the orders of the Lord. He was not following the rules of Bhakti because he was seeing himself in the material relations with them. Therefore, even after telling by the Lord, he was not having capability to follow those order. He was having material affection, material love, which was independent or separate from the Lord. But at the end of Bhagavad Gita we can see that Arjuna was able to follow the order of the Lord, because he brought the Lord in the centre. Hence his relations did not become hindrance for him. He was able to follow his Dharma, duty, as he kept Krishna in the centre of everything. Such ananyata one should have.
Sub-theme: Continuation in Bhakti because of simplicity
And second is, ratimudvahatādaddhā, and matirmadhu-pate ’sakṛt,my intelligence, my attraction should continue to flow towards You, just as Ganga flows continuously towards Ocean. River Ganga don't know from how long, from how many yugas is flowing towards the ocean continuously. Her goal is Ocean. Though she originates from Himalayas, through many mountains and many valleys, she is continuously flowing towards ocean and will keep on flowing. Just like that oh Lord Sri Krishna, I want my intelligence, my attraction should flow towards You; that means my thoughts should only flow towards You. So here comes one question. What is there in Ganga which makes her flow continuously towards ocean? Which is that special quality? Although big-big mountains come in the way of Ganga, yet she finds the way around the mountain to move ahead and she doesn't stop.
Sometimes huge rocks come in her way and she just flows over those rocks. Sometimes tree comes in the way and sometimes valley comes in the way, yet in the valley she finds her way. Like this, whatever comes in her way, she continuous to flow towards ocean. How she can find her way even though so many obstacles come in between? What is the reason? The reason is, her saralata, liquidity. If she is not having liquidity, then there won't be the flow. Because of her liquidity she can find her way to flow towards ocean. Similarly, if we want our attractionshould flowtowards the Lord, then we have to develop saralta, simplicity in us. So, one who is fixed like this, he finds his way to perform bhakti, no matters how many obstacles come in his way. He never says that so big obstacle has come in my life, so I cannot perform bhakti. Bhakti cannot stop in any case, just like Ganga cannot stop flowing. One who is having simplicity will never give any excuse that such and such problem is there in my life and that's why I couldn't do bhakti. I am compromising Bhakti because of this problem. As this problem will end, I will start doing Bhakti again. Such kind of thoughts never come in his mind. Whatever happens, he keeps on performing bhakti, because he is having simplicity. Sometimes one has to go by side and sometimes through the problem and even sometimes crossing over the problem. So anyhow he has to achieve the goal, the ocean. And for us the ocean is lotus feet of Lord Sri Krishna.Lord is ocean of mercy and that's why His lotus feet are our ultimate destination.
Sub-theme: Our mind is the only obstacle in the performance of Bhakti
So, in the performance of bhakti, simplicity makes things easier. The more one is simple, the more he will progress in bhakti. In the 4thcanto, in Dhruva Maharaja's incident, SrilaPrabhupad says in the purport that, Bhakti is very simple yet difficult. One who is simple, for him Bhakti is very simple, very easy, but one who is complicated, for him Bhakti is complicated. In this world no-one and nothing is having capability to stop Bhakti. There is no difference between Bhakti and the Lord.Is there any energy in this world which can stop the Lord? Just as there is no energy which can stop the Lord, similarly there is no such situation which can stop us from performing Bhakti, devotional service for the Lord. No matter how strong is Maya, yet she is not having potential to stop us from performing Bhakti. Just because we areholding Maya, we are stopping from performing Bhakti. There is no other reason. We do not want to perform and that's why we are stopping. So, if there is anything which is obstacle in our Bhakti, then that is our mind. Other than our mind there is no other obstacle in Bhakti. Therefore, we should not give any excuse of the situations. We should not say that because of this condition, I am not able to perform Bhakti. We should say, if my Bhakti is getting compromised, then that is just because of my mind. I am not able to control my mind. There is no other reason. Ofcourse, no one is having that strength, mind is not having strength, but the thing is, Lord never force anyone. He never forces anyone like, 'do My bhakti'. Just think over it, doesn't Lord want us to perform bhakti? Lord wants us to perform bhakti. And from His side He is always ready to help us if we want to perform Bhakti. He can turn over the whole world if we want to perform bhakti. But the problem is we do not want to perform bhakti. Then SrilaPrabhupad says in Krsna book, ‘the only reason we do not go back to Godhead is, we do not desire to go back.’ Though we say daily that love of Godhead is the ultimate goal of our life, but the fact is, we do not desire so. We say like this and preach so, but the problem is we do not desire for it.
It is same like that story of Kailash. When time comes, when someone says Lord is calling you, we say, 'first let my son get the job. Just now he has finished his studies.Narad Muni will come and ask him, 'dear son do you want to go now?' 'Yes, one day I have to go, but just now my son got a job. Let him first settle in the job and get married. Then I will come. My goal is to come there only. I will definitely come there. Just it is matter of two-three years. Within two-three years he will get married then I will come.' Then after two three years he will say, 'just now my son had a child. My son goes to office, his wife also goes to office and there is no one to look after the baby. So, I have to stay at least till the baby grows. After five-six years when he will start going to school, then I will come.' So, like that, so many excuses. Say clearly that I do not have desire to go. Excuse means there is no desire.
Sub-theme: How to remove the rust from our mind?
The person should own the responsibility. Unless and until the person accepts that it is my mistake, it is the mistake of my mind, until the person does not accept this, he cannot progress in bhakti. That's why honesty is the best policy. Accept it. When you will accept it, then you can do something, you can pray to the Lord that, 'Oh Lord, my ratim, attraction towards You is not developing. Please have mercy upon me, so that my attraction towards You should increase.' This is also one of the prayers while doing chanting. Hey Krishna mat chittamakarsaya, my mind should get attracted towards You. Like this we should pray, so that our mind will get attracted towards the Lord. Though Lord is all attractive, but such rust is there on the mind that it should get attracted towards the Lord, but it is not happening.Therefore, we should pray to the Lord to remove this rust. We should pray to the devotees, 'please remove this rust which is on my mind, so that I can get attracted towards the Lord.' Therefore, we should chant not only the name of the Lord, but also the names of the devotees, like chanting the names of great acaryas.
It is said in Manahsiksa that while walking on this material platform, there are six kinds of thieves standing on the way, like lust, anger, greed, illusion, pride and envy. These six kinds of thieves can attack you anytime when you are walking on the material platform. And can snatch from you all of your wealth, peace and everything. This can happen anytime. So how can we save ourselves from such thieves? For that, Raghunath Das Goswami says, at such situations who will protect us, guide us? The pure devotees of the Lord! Just as, when there is thief, we shout, 'help help', similarly when these six thieves attack us, we should chant the names of pure devotees, like SrilaPrabhupada, Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Maharaj, Vishvanath Chakravarty Thakur, BaladevVidyabhusan, Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami, etc. We should call out devotees' names. Raghunath Goswami has given this solution. When we will call them, all thieves will run away hiding their tails. Then there won't be lust, anger, greed, etc. Because these thieves are afraid of pure devotees like Rupa Goswami, Sanatan Goswami, etc. But first we have to call these devotees. They will come only when we will call them. Therefore, we can chant the names of Acharya when we cannot chat Holy names properly.
sei dui prabhurakaricaraṇavandana
yāṅhā ha-itevighna-nāśaabhīṣṭa-pūraṇa
Translation-
Let us therefore worship the holy feet of these two Lords. Thus one can be rid of all difficulties on the path of self-realization. [CC Adi 1.103]
Pray to the six Goswamis, all those distractions coming in the path of my chanting the holy name, in my attraction towards the Lord should be destroyed by your mercy. You please come and stand here. We should request like this to the acaryas. Ramanujacarya says, chanting the names of the devotees is more powerful than chanting the name of the Lord. It gives instant result. Therefore,Bhakti SiddhantaSaraswati Maharaj used to glorify the holy name in between his chanting. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna KrishnaKrishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama RamaRama Hare Hare. While chanting like this, in between sometimes he used to recite
harernāmaharernāma
harernāmaivakevalam
kalaunāstyevanāstyeva
nāstyevagatiranyathā
Translation
In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy, the only means of deliverance is the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way. [ CC Madhya 6.242]
So, Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Thakur used to glorify the holy name while chanting, similarly we can chant the names of pure devotees while chanting. We can chant the names of acaryas, like Ramanujacarya, Madhvacarya, CaitanyaMahaprabhu. We do chant the mantra of CaitanyaMahaprabhu. Acaryas have energy, potency, by which they can encourage us, protect us from distractions while chanting.
I will stop here and take questions.
Sub-theme: Questions and answers
Ananta SesaPrabhu - Hare Krishna Prabhuji, very inspiring lecture. I want to say something. As I hear and talk on Queen Kunti prayers, I give another angle view. Queen Kunti talks about continuous chanting of the holy name, by giving example of continuous flowing of Ganga. Another angle which I have heard is, for the continuous flow one should mould himself in the situation. You are talking about simplicity. So is there any reference to give example of this simplicity?
Answer- This is moulding only. If the person is simple then only he can mould himself. If the person is very stubborn, then he can never mould himself. Only simple person can mould himself. I told whatever I understood.
BrajavilasiniMataji - Hare Krishna Prabhuji, dandavatpranam. Today I have to guide someone, as my Shiksha Guru has asked me. That devotee Mataji is giving many excuses. So today's lecture was very inspiring for me, but I am not able to understand simplicity. What simplicity we should have so that we can overcome the obstacles coming on the way. Many times, seniors create obstacles. So how can we handle situation, overcome the situation by simplicity, because it needs intelligence to deal with seniors, so that they should not get hurt. I feel that we need intelligence more. How simplicity can work here?
Answer- See Mataji, Bhakti SiddhantaSaraswati Thakur said that simplicity is the quality of Vaishnava. By NatureVaisnava is simple. As he breaks one by one all the knots which were there in the heart, he becomes more and more simple.And as he is becoming simple, that means he is becoming Vaisnava. To become simple means person will not think complicatedly. Once one devotee was telling me, 'Prabhuji, I became so much complicated that if someone is laughing, I start thinking that he is laughing at me.' So even though someone is laughing normally, person will have ten different thoughts about his laughing. So much complicated we have become, that if the person is laughing, what is wrong in the laughing, but we think ten different reasons for his laughing. So if the person is simple then if it is anything other than bhakti, he will not take it seriously. He will let it go. But at the same place if it is related to bhakti, then he will take it very seriously. We do not have the principal of 'let go', so we make the things complicated and not simple. If someone says something, then we keep that grudge for years after years in our mind, and we always have envy for that person. So this is not the sign of simple person. Simple person will let it go and will move ahead, because that is creating obstacle in his bhakti. Only by staying with the person who have simplicity, one can understand what is the simplicity, and only such person who have simplicity, can have continuous attraction for the Lord. Otherwise ten types of thoughts will keep occupying our mind.
BrajavilaciniMataji:-Prabhuji, sometimes our family members come at home and when I do morning worship and all, like blowing conch and ringing bell, so even though they are elders, at this age they say, 'we do not do show off our Bhakti like you are doing.' Therefore, till they were here I stopped doing all this, as they are elder and respectful for me. So will this be considered as simplicity? When they left, I started it again. But during that time, I prayed to the Lord, 'You are the one who is doing everything. You are making me listen all this, because you do not want this. Therefore, I am stopping this until they are here. Till that time,You have to tolerate me.' So is this okay?
Answer- It depends on the intensity of the situation. If we will take example of Arjuna, if Arjuna is thinking that to please Dronacharya and Bhisma, I should not throw arrow at them, then there will not be war. But Arjuna thought, I have to please Lord Sri Krishna and therefore I have to fight. So we have to be ready for everything for the pleasure of Krishna.
PadmamaliPrabhu - Hare Krishna Prabhuji, just to add to the query of BrajavilasiniMataji, Mataji if you will see the example of Haridas Thakur, when he was told not to enter in Jagannath temple, he argued or accepted it?
Mataji- Accepted it.
PadmamaliPrabhu - So, sometimes we have to accept the situation. If someone is getting disturbed because of our Bhakti, then it is not Bhakti. Because Bhakti is pleasing to Krishna and everybody.We have to be very accommodative and compromising. And as you was asking about simplicity, so I just want to comment to Vedanta Chaitanya Prabhu, that if we want to deal with someone, then for that we will need simplicity more than intelligence. I will just give one small example, small child is simple or intelligent.
Mataji- simple!
Prabhuji- yes. If simplicity is there then things become simple. If we will try to deal with lots of intelligence, of course it is required, but more than intelligence we need simplicity.
Mataji- Prabhuji, I just used intelligence if I should do or not in the situation..
Prabhuji- yes that is simplicity.
Mitravrnda Rani Mataji- Prabhu ji I have two kids. As you said we should just do bhakti of Lord Krishna, then I have this responsibility of my kids, so how can I manage, balance bhakti while doing my responsibility?
Answer- see, Prabhupada never said to stop it. Prabhupada said, in the family it is natural to have affection for the family members, to have motherly love for the kids. He says, it is the symptom of life to have affection for others. So to have affection, love is not wrong, but if it is independent of Lord Krishna then it is wrong. Krishna should be in the centre. If there is no paternal affection, then why the father is motivated to do the job? He will say, you do whatever you want and I will do whatever I want. Mother also, why she will do cooking and everything, if she is not having love for the kids? If there is no love then the whole family will be broken. But Prabhupad is saying, there should be love, but it should be Krishna centred.
Amit Prabhuji - Prabhuji you was telling about liquidity and simplicity, and PadmamaliPrabhualso talked about simplicity.In material world while dealing with the people with that kind of simplicity and dignity and all, but when we talk about the spiritual world and spiritual growth and all, in that how can we define simplicity and what is that? This is the first question. And my second question is how we should deal with pure devotees? And what is the easy way to get connected with pure devotees through prayers?
Answer - so, the first question is, what is simplicity in spiritual world. Simplicity in Krishna consciousness is to simply to accept that spiritual master is not normal person and to accept his instructions as life and soul. This is simplicity in the spiritual world. To ignore spiritual master's instructions or to change his words is complexity. Second question was how do we pray to the Acaryasin a simple way. The simple way is only this, as our Acaryas themselves have showed how to deal with vaisnavas.How to pray to the Vaishnava Acharyas, with the bhajan. So we should learn the Vaisnavabhajanas and prayers with devotion. Like, in the bhajan gurudevakrpabindudiya, and oheVaisnava Thakur, very beautiful emotions, feelings are given, how we have to approach and pray to the VaisnavaAcaryas. Similarly in hariharayenamahkrishnayadavayanamah, aIso it is given how to approach the vaisnavas. So, like this various bhajanas, ayi bara karuna karo, all of these bhajanas are the best examples how we should approach the previous Acharya in proper mood.
Ananta SesaPrabhuji - Hare Krishna it is request to Vedanta Chaitanya Prabhu to take one session only on this one topic 'simplicity' and how to practically apply it, and demonstrate it. Prabhuji is personified simplicity. You can give in more details. We have heard importance of simplicity, but we want to know more, what are the symptoms and how we can understand that this person is simple and how to develop that in us. Thank you very much. As there was question of one Mataji, so there is difference between affection and attachment. There should be affection but not attachment, which will make us compromise our Krishna consciousness. King Bharat got attached with deer and forgot his spiritual duties. So attachment takes us from the platform of affection, love to the platform of bondage. Thank you
