sri rama navami - Blog - ISKCON Desire Tree | IDT2024-03-29T01:00:36Zhttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/sri+rama+navamiSri Rama Navami by Giriraj Swamihttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/sri-rama-navami-by-giriraj-swami-12023-03-30T11:18:53.000Z2023-03-30T11:18:53.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11009836662,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="500" alt="11009836662?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></p>
<p>Sri Rama-navami<br /> A Talk by Giriraj Swami<br /> April 6, 2001<br /> Ojai, California</p>
<p>The original Personality of Godhead is Krishna, and He manifests Himself in different forms. One such manifestation is Lord Ramachandra. When Krishna appeared in His original form He acted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whereas when He appeared as Rama He acted as the ideal king. In fact, the pastimes of Lord Rama display ideals in many ways. Lord Rama appeared as the son of King Dasaratha, and Dasaratha acted as the ideal father and king. Rama acted as the ideal son and later, after He was coronated, as the ideal ruler. Rama’s brother Laksmana acted as the ideal brother, and Rama’s wife, Sita, acted as the ideal wife. Because Lord Rama acted as the ideal human, He is called maryadha-purusottama. He followed the same types of rules and regulations that we as human beings are meant to follow, whereas Krishna, acting as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, followed no rules or regulations; at least He was not obliged to follow any rules or regulations, because He was manifesting Himself as the Supreme Enjoyer and showing us how we can enjoy pastimes with Him. Therefore Krishna is called lila-purusottama.</p>
<p>The pastimes of Lord Rama are elaborately described in books called the Ramayana. Beyond the other Ramayanas, learned scholars and authorities have determined that Srimad-Bhagavatam is the supreme evidence within the Vedic literatures. Srimad-Bhagavatam describes various incarnations of Krishna, including the incarnation of Lord Rama, and so we shall read a few words about Lord Rama as He is described in Srimad-Bhagavatam.</p>
<p>Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto Two, Chapter Seven: “Scheduled Incarnations.”</p>
<p>TEXT 23</p>
<p>asmat-prasada-sumukhah kalaya kalesa<br /> iksvaku-vamsa avatirya guror nidese<br /> tisthan vanam sa-dayitanuja avivesa<br /> yasmin virudhya dasa-kandhara artim arcchat</p>
<p>TRANSLATION</p>
<p>Due to His causeless mercy upon all living entities within the universe, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, along with His plenary extensions, appeared in the family of Maharaja Iksvaku as the Lord of His internal potency, Sita. Under the order of His father, Maharaja Dasaratha, He entered the forest and lived there for several years with His wife and younger brother. Ravana, who was very materially powerful, with ten heads on his shoulders, committed a great offense against Him and was thus ultimately vanquished.</p>
<p>PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada</p>
<p>Lord Rama is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and His brothers, namely Bharata, Laksmana, and Satrughna, are His plenary expansions. All four brothers are visnu-tattva and were never ordinary human beings. Originally, Lord Ramacandra is the incarnation of Vasudeva, Laksmana is the incarnation of Sankarsana, Bharata is the incarnation of Pradyumna, and Satrughna is the incarnation of Aniruddha, expansions of the Personality of Godhead. Laksmiji Sita is the internal potency of the Lord and is neither an ordinary woman nor the external potency incarnation of Durga. Durga is the external potency of the Lord, and she is associated with Lord Siva.</p>
<p>As stated in the Bhagavad-gita (4.7), the Lord appears when there are discrepancies in the discharge of factual religion. Lord Ramacandra also appeared under the same circumstances, accompanied by His brothers, who are expansions of the Lord’s internal potency, and by Laksmiji Sitadevi.</p>
<p>Lord Ramacandra was ordered by His father, Maharaja Dasaratha, to leave home for the forest under awkward circumstances, and the Lord, as the ideal son of His father, carried out the order, even on the occasion of His being declared the king of Ayodhya. One of His younger brothers, Laksmanaji, desired to go with Him, and so also His eternal wife, Sitaji. The Lord agreed to both of them, and all together they entered the Dandakaranya Forest, to live there for fourteen years. During their stay in the forest, there was some quarrel between Ramachandra and Ravana, and Ravana kidnapped the Lord’s wife, Sita. The quarrel ended in the vanquishing of the greatly powerful Ravana, along with all his kingdom and family.</p>
<p>Sita is Laksmiji, or the goddess of fortune, but she is never to be enjoyed by any living being. She is meant to be worshiped by the living being along with her husband, Sri Ramacandra. A materialistic man like Ravana does not understand this great truth, but on the contrary he wants to snatch Sitadevi from the custody of Rama and thus incurs great miseries. The materialists, who are after opulence and material prosperity, may take lessons from the Ramayana that the policy of exploiting the nature of the Lord without acknowledging the supremacy of the Lord is the policy of Ravana. Ravana was very advanced materially, so much so that he turned his kingdom, Lanka, into pure gold, or full material wealth. But because he did not recognize the supremacy of Lord Ramacandra and defied Him by stealing His wife, Sita, Ravana was killed, and all his opulence and power were destroyed.</p>
<p>Lord Ramacandra is a full incarnation with six opulences in full, and therefore He is mentioned in this verse as kalesah, or master of all opulence.</p>
<p>LECTURE by Giriraj Swami</p>
<p>Lord Ramachandra was the eldest son of Maharaja Dasaratha, and He was loved by all of the citizens in the state. According to the Vedic system, when one reaches a certain age he retires from worldly duties and responsibilities and devotes himself fully to God consciousness, or Krishna consciousness. Maharaja Dasaratha wanted to retire as king and install his son, Ramachandra, as his successor. But on the eve of Rama’s coronation, because of some past events, Maharaja Dasaratha was obliged to ask Him to go into the forest in exile, to fulfill a promise the king had made. And Lord Ramachandra, as the ideal son, immediately accepted His father’s order without hesitation or lamentation. Everyone in the kingdom loved Rama so much that they wanted to accompany Him into the forest, but Lord Rama told them, “No, if you all come into the forest with me, what will happen to the kingdom? You all must remain in Ayodhya.” Rama’s brother Laksmana, however, was so attached to Him that he couldn’t bear being separated from the Lord, and the Lord agreed that he could come with Him. Similarly, the Lord’s wife, Sita, wanted to follow her husband into the forest and serve Him in His difficult position, and Lord Rama agreed for her to accompany Him. Then, while they were in the forest, a very powerful demon, Ravana, kidnapped Sita and abducted her to his kingdom, Lanka.</p>
<p>When we hear such stories we may wonder, “Are these stories real or mythological? Are they stories made up to entertain people and illustrate some moral principles and then frighten people to be good according to some moral standard?” We take the events described in the Ramayana or the Bhagavatam as factual. We read that Ravana had ten heads. Someone may challenge, “How could someone have ten heads? How can anyone expect us to believe that someone had ten heads? It is obviously a myth or an allegory that has some message or meaning, but not a literal record of historical fact.” The fact is that we are very limited in our experience and in our comprehension, and we cannot judge everything by our own limited experience or by what appeals to our limited intelligence. People now are quite reduced in intelligence, physical strength, and other powers compared with people in previous ages. Thus our conception of what is possible and what is impossible is very limited, according to our experience. But in previous ages, people were more powerful and often developed mystic powers.</p>
<p>Some of us may have heard of yogis in India who have mystic powers. Such powers are relatively rare now, but in previous ages they were more common. Srila Prabhupada told us about yogis living as recently as the last century, during the British rule, who were known to the people and to the government. He mentioned one yogi who used to sit naked in meditation. The British authorities arrested him for indecent exposure and put him in jail, but by his mystic powers he reduced himself in size to become smaller than the keyhole to the jail cell, and he escaped. The next thing the authorities knew, he was sitting naked in the street again, so they arrested him again and put him in jail, and again by his mystic powers he shrunk and came out again. After three or four such incidents, the authorities gave up. They decided they couldn’t contain him, and so they left him in peace—naked.</p>
<p>When, during his conquests, Alexander the Great came to the precincts of India, the first person he saw was a yogi in meditation in the heat of the sun. The yogi was just sitting there, completely undisturbed, and Alexander was greatly impressed. He was so impressed that he said to the yogi, “I am Alexander the Great, the emperor of the world. I am ready to give you whatever you desire. You may ask of me whatever you like.” The yogi simply replied, “Can you kindly move aside? You are getting in the way of the sun.” Later, Alexander sent a message to his men: “The people here are very special. Don’t mess with them.”</p>
<p>So, at one time people had great control over their minds and senses, and they had mystic powers. Such powers were meant to be used for spiritual elevation, but sometimes it happened that persons with selfish motives acquired such powers and used them for demonic purposes. Of course, people now are generally not so pious, but we can understand in principle that a rich man should use his money for the good of others, for charitable purposes. Still, a rich man can also use his money for evil purposes. In the same way, a powerful person can use mystic powers for the good of others or at the expense of others.</p>
<p>Ravana used his powers for evil purposes, and in the end he was chastised by Lord Rama, and ultimately he and his entire dynasty were vanquished—even though they were materially so powerful. Thus, from the story of the Ramayana we can learn that however powerful we may be materially, if we use our power against the Lord, in the end we will be vanquished.</p>
<p>Of course, one may argue that in the end everyone is vanquished, everyone dies. And true, everyone in the material world does die—but there are differences. When a devotee dies, he is promoted to the spiritual realm, but when a demon dies, he is punished in hellish conditions. Also, a devotee brings all auspiciousness to his family and friends, whereas a demon can bring ruination. Here, Ravana and all of his associates—as well as their kingdom—were destroyed because of their offense against Mother Sita and Lord Rama. We should be careful not to commit offenses against the Lord or His devotees. Although indirectly Ravana offended Lord Rama, more directly he offended Sita. He kidnapped Sitadevi. And because she was dear to the Lord, the Lord was all the more aggrieved. The devotees of the Lord are actually more dear to the Lord than the Lord is to Himself, and therefore an offense to the devotee is taken more seriously by the Lord than an offense against the Lord Himself.</p>
<p>Another lesson here is that the energy of the Lord is meant to be used in the service of the Lord and that if we try to take the Lord’s energy and use it for our personal gratification or self-aggrandizement, in the end we will suffer. Of course, it is a technical science—the expansions of the Lord and of the Lord’s energy. The Lord’s energy is originally spiritual, and when it remains connected with the Lord directly, it remains spiritual. But when the Lord’s energy is separated from the Lord and instead of being connected to the Lord in service is misused by people for personal gratification, it becomes the material energy, or separated energy. Whatever we see—all the basic elements of the material world, such as solids, liquids, and gases—are actually expansions of the Lord’s energy. Thus, they are the Lord’s property and are meant to be used for the Lord’s purposes. If we try to take the Lord’s property and use it for our own purposes against the Lord’s desire, we are committing an offense against the Lord and have to suffer the consequences.</p>
<p>But we have become accustomed to stealing the Lord’s property and using it for ourselves. According to Vedic literatures, we, as spiritual parts of the supreme spirit whole, exist eternally, but we have been transmigrating from one body to another since time immemorial. During the process of transmigration within the material world, we have developed the habit of trying to exploit the material nature for our own gratification. And the result is that we are forced to continue within the material world, within the cycle of birth and death, and to suffer not only the repetition of birth and death but so many other miseries. The way to become free from the cycle of birth and death is to come into harmony with the Lord and the Lord’s nature, rather than to remain in opposition to the Lord and His nature. But because we have been conditioned in material nature since time immemorial, we have a very deep-rooted habit of wanting to exploit the material nature and enjoy her. That perverted mentality or perverse habit can be rectified by chanting, especially by chanting the holy names of God. In the present age of Kali the chanting of the holy names of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra—Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare—is especially recommended.</p>
<p>Krishna consciousness is not sectarian. God has various names in different languages and cultures, and all the names of the Lord are as good as the others. Similarly, all of the forms of the Lord are as good as the others. Therefore, if someone is attached to a name of God in another scripture, he or she can chant Jesus, Jesus or Allah, Allah—or another name of the Lord. And if one is not attached to the chanting of any other name, he or she can chant Hare Krishna, and that will purify the heart of material contamination and bring out the original, pure love of Krishna. Then naturally when our pure love for God is manifest, we won’t do anything against the purpose of the Lord but will act in complete harmony with the Lord. This is one of the lessons to be learned from the story of Lord Ramachandra.</p>
<p>Hare Krishna.</p>
<p>Are there any questions or comments?</p>
<p>Devotee: Yes. I have two questions, and they might be related. First, you were talking about accepting stories as literal, but do we also accept that there is a symbolic dimension to them? And second, What is the actual internal position of Ravana? He is coming into contact with so much pure energy—Sita, who is the internal potency, and Rama—so it doesn’t seem like he would be just any old evil person.</p>
<p>Giriraj Swami: The first question is whether the histories, which we accept as factual, also have a symbolic dimension. I don’t know if “symbolic” would be the best word in most cases. One could say that Ravana “symbolizes” evil and that Rama “symbolizes” good and that the story tells us that good triumphs over evil, but to put it in these terms may minimize the reality of Rama as the Supreme Personality of Godhead or even of Ravana as a historical person. Therefore we might prefer not to say that the stories are symbolic. Rather, we would prefer to say that the stories are factual but that they illustrate certain fundamental principles and that we can benefit from reading and studying and hearing and discussing those principles.</p>
<p>For example, a child might put his or her hand into a fire and get burned. So, we can learn from that example that if you touch fire you will be burned, but we wouldn’t want to say that the fire symbolizes something or that the child symbolizes something, because they are both real. But yes, we can learn from the example of the child that if we put our hand into fire we will get burned. And in the same way, we can learn from the example of Ravana that if we come into opposition to the Lord we will be vanquished—and so many other lessons can be derived from the histories of the Lord and the devotees and demons recorded in the scriptures.</p>
<p>There is one section in Srimad-Bhagavatam that is allegorical, and that brings us to another point: the Vedic scriptures instruct us to study the Vedic knowledge under the guidance of guru. In our case, we study under Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada has told us that several chapters in the Fourth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam are allegorical but that the rest of the histories are factual. The other histories are not just symbolic or metaphorical, and to say that they are is to destroy the reality that the scriptures describe. Still, you might have another point of view.</p>
<p>Devotee: No, I was just curious because, for example, I had heard—and I don’t know how authentic this is—but I had heard that in the Bhagavatam where Krishna is killing the various demons, each demon represents a certain anartha such as lust or greed. I heard that, and that is why I wanted to ask if there’s a symbolic dimension—not in place of the literal, but in addition—thus serving two purposes at once. But I understand your answer.</p>
<p>Giriraj Swami: An advanced devotee could perceive the historical persons in the historical accounts as representative of a general type or even of a principle. Actually, I just had a talk with a friend from the Jewish tradition. She said in relation to the festival of Passover (which is to take place soon) that before Passover adherent Jews take all the grains out of their houses. They consider that sin has entered into the grains and that by taking the grains out of the house they are purifying the house of sin and bad qualities. One of the bad qualities is pride, and according to one commentary on the Bible, the Pharaoh—not that I would say that the Pharaoh did not exist as a historical person—but the Pharaoh is considered to be the symbol of pride, because when Moses came to him on behalf of the Lord, the Pharaoh said, “Who is this God that I am meant to listen to? I listen to no one. Everyone listens to me.” According to that commentary, each of the ten plagues that were sent upon the Pharaoh—again, not that they didn’t exist, if we accept the version in the Bible—represents a specific counteraction to a specific evil or ill. And I think that sincere followers in any tradition, when they reach a certain stage of spiritual consciousness, are able to see deeper meanings in things than others are able to see. Someone who is more spiritually advanced and realized can see more deeply into the words of the scriptures and the events described there and come out with meanings that may not be apparent from the descriptions but are very real. They are discovered for us by deeply realized souls who apply themselves to the scriptures.</p>
<p>Regarding the question about Ravana, according to Srimad-Bhagavatam Ravana was not just an ordinary person but was an associate of the Lord who was cursed to become such a powerful demon that the Lord Himself would come and fight with him. The Lord has all the propensities of other living beings, being their origin. So just as we like to wrestle for pleasure sometimes, the Lord also sometimes likes to fight. But who will fight with the Lord? Only some competent servitor of the Lord can do so. Thus, by the Lord’s arrangement, a great devotee came to play the part of Ravana and fight with the Lord. Still, when that devotee took birth as a demon, he actually thought and felt and acted like a demon.</p>
<p>As far as Ravana’s coming into contact with Sita, according to scripture, because the original Sitadevi is completely spiritual, she could never be touched by a demon. She could never even be seen by a demon. So what Ravana kidnapped was not the original Sita but an illusory expansion of Sita called maya-sita. When he kidnapped the maya Sita, the original Sita was kept hidden in the earth. Then, after Ravana was killed and Sita was liberated, the original Sita came back.</p>
<p>Srila Prabhupada has explained that if someone just wants to chant Hare Krishna, he or she can achieve complete perfection just by chanting, but that if one wants to study the science of Godhead, there are volumes and volumes of books. So if one wants, if one has that inquisitive type of intelligence, he or she can just go deeper and deeper into the books. It is like an ocean without limit—the information that we can get about the Lord from the Vedic literature.</p>
<p>Morther Urvasi, you are wise. Please say something to encourage and enlighten us.</p>
<p>Urvasi dasi: I can say something about chanting Hare Krishna. You mentioned that chanting Hare Krishna purifies the heart of material contamination. So, I was thinking of the example that Srila Prabhupada gave, that if we go under a tree that has blackbirds sitting in it and we clap our hands, the birds will automatically fly away. Srila Prabhupada, our teacher, gave the example that when we chant Hare Krishna, it chases away the blackbirds in the heart, and lust and greed and pride—these things peel away, like the layers of an onion. They peel away from the heart. The more we really enter into the mood of chanting as a meditation and a prayer to the Lord to purify our hearts and make us more childlike in our love and devotion to God—the more we can enter into that mood—the greater the effect it has on us. So chanting Hare Krishna, as Giriraj Swami said, is really all we need. It is a complete process. But at the same time it is also very nice to understand the philosophy of Krishna consciousness, so that we can talk to others about it as well, and teach it. But chanting Hare Krishna will bring so much joy into our lives because it will connect us with our real selves. We know that we are spiritual beings and that we are covered by these different bodies, just as our bodies are covered by the clothes that we wear, and chanting Hare Krishna will awaken the true happiness and bliss that are inherent to our true self, our spiritual nature.</p>
<p>Giriraj Swami: Wonderful.</p>
<p>Thank you very much.</p>
<p>Hare Krishna.<br /> <br /> <strong>Source:</strong> <a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=85319">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=85319</a></p></div>The Personality of Lord Rama by Giriraj Swamihttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/the-personality-of-lord-rama-by-giriraj-swami2023-03-30T05:30:00.000Z2023-03-30T05:30:00.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10326367291,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10326367291?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="350" /></p>
<p>Today, in observance of Sri Rama-navami, we shall read a verse from Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Seven: “Scheduled Incarnations.”</p>
<p>TEXT 24</p>
<p>yasma adad udadhir udha-bhayanga-vepo<br /> margam sapady ari-puram haravad didhaksoh<br /> dure suhrn-mathita-rosa-susona-drstya<br /> tatapyamana-makaroraga-nakra-cakrah</p>
<p>TRANSLATION</p>
<p>The Personality of Godhead Ramacandra, being aggrieved for His distant intimate friend [Sita], glanced over the city of the enemy Ravana with red-hot eyes like those of Hara [who wanted to burn the kingdom of heaven]. The great ocean, trembling in fear,<br /> gave Him His way because its family members, the aquatics like the sharks, snakes, and crocodiles, were being burnt by the heat of the angry red-hot eyes of the Lord.</p>
<p>PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada</p>
<p>The Personality of Godhead has every sentiment of a sentient being, like all other living beings, because He is the chief and original living entity, the supreme source of all other living beings. He is the nitya, or the chief eternal amongst<br /> all other eternals. He is the chief one, and all others are the dependent many. The many eternals are supported by the one eternal, and thus both the eternals are qualitatively one. Due to such oneness, both the eternals constitutionally have a complete<br /> range of sentiments, but the difference is that the sentiments of the chief eternal are different in quantity from the sentiments of the dependent eternals. When Ramacandra was angry and showed His red-hot eyes, the whole ocean became heated with<br /> that energy, so much so that the aquatics within the great ocean felt the heat, and the personified ocean trembled in fear and offered the Lord an easy path for reaching the enemy’s city. The impersonalists will see havoc in this red-hot sentiment<br /> of the Lord because they want to see negation in perfection. Because the Lord is absolute, the impersonalists imagine that in the Absolute the sentiment of anger, which resembles mundane sentiments, must be conspicuous by absence. Due to a poor fund<br /> of knowledge, they do not realize that the sentiment of the Absolute Person is transcendental to all mundane concepts of quality and quantity. Had Lord Ramacandra’s sentiment been of mundane origin, how could it disturb the whole ocean and its inhabitants?<br /> Can any mundane red-hot eye generate heat in the great ocean? These are factors to be distinguished in terms of the personal and impersonal conceptions of the Absolute Truth. As it is said in the beginning of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the Absolute<br /> Truth is the source of everything, so the Absolute Person cannot be devoid of the sentiments that are reflected in the temporary mundane world. Rather, the different sentiments found in the Absolute, either in anger or in mercy, have the same qualitative<br /> influence, or, in other words, there is no mundane difference of value because these sentiments are all on the absolute plane. Such sentiments are definitely not absent in the Absolute, as the impersonalists think, making their mundane estimation<br /> of the transcendental world.</p>
<p>COMMENT by Giriraj Swami</p>
<p>The Vedanta-sutra begins with the aphorism janmady asya yatah: “The Absolute Truth is that from which everything emanates.” Srimad-Bhagavatam begins with the same words and explains that the Absolute Truth, the origin of everything,<br /> is a person—the Supreme Person, Krishna (krsnas tu bhagavan svayam). He is the origin of everything spiritual and material, and in the Bhagavad-gita He confirms, “I am the origin of everything. From me everything emanates.”</p>
<p>aham sarvasya prabhavo<br /> mattah sarvam pravartate<br /> iti matva bhajante mam<br /> budha bhava-samanvitah</p>
<p>“I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.” (Gita 10.8) Further, He says, aham adir hi devanam:<br /> “I am the source of the devas.” (Gita 10.2) Srila Prabhupada explains that the three primal devas, or gods, are Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh and that Krishna is the origin of them all—even of Vishnu.</p>
<p>Srimad-Bhagavatam describes the Absolute Truth in detail. It lists twenty-six incarnations of Godhead and states, ete camsa-kalah pumsah krsnas tu bhagavan svayam: “All of these incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of<br /> the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Sri Krsna is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead.” (SB 1.3.28) As such, Krishna includes all of the other incarnations, including the incarnation of Lord Ramachandra. Thus we need not worship<br /> Lord Ramachandra separately. By worshiping Krishna, we automatically worship Lord Rama simultaneously.</p>
<p>Krishna, being the origin of everything and everyone, is also the origin of us, the living entities. So whatever qualities we have must also exist in Krishna—originally. We have individuality, so Krishna must too. We have form, and so<br /> must Krishna. We have thinking and feeling and willing, so Krishna must too. And we have activities, so Krishna must too. Krishna, the Absolute Truth, has everything that we have plus more—and in greater quantity.</p>
<p>In the specific incarnation of Rama, the Lord acts as the ideal human being—the ideal son, ideal brother, ideal husband, ideal king. The Ramayana, the history of Lord Rama, is filled with the exemplary behavior of the Lord and His associates,<br /> and they all show ideal examples. Sita shows the ideal of a chaste wife, Laksmana and Bharata of faithful brothers. The Ramayana is full of ideal examples that we are meant to follow—ideal father, ideal son, ideal brother, ideal husband,<br /> ideal wife, ideal servant, ideal ruler, and so on.</p>
<p>Lord Rama, who is ideal in every respect, still became angry—and aggrieved. Both are mentioned here. He became aggrieved because of separation from Sita, and He became angry at Ravana. Such sentiments as grief and anger exist<br /> in the Absolute Truth, in particular here in the person of the incarnation of Godhead, who shows the ideal in all respects. So we living entities also have such sentiments—even in perfection, after liberation. Of course, our experience in the material<br /> world is with conditioned souls, so what we have experienced of grief or anger is largely mundane. But we should not think that the Lord’s sentiments are mundane or that the Lord, being beyond material sentiment, is devoid of all sentiments. The impersonalists<br /> think, “We, conditioned souls, have anger and sorrow, so how can the Lord, who is liberated and pure, have anger or sorrow? In fact, He cannot have anything—no name, no form, no qualities, no activities, no relationships with others or sentiments<br /> and emotions—nothing.” They want to make everything zero. Thus statements such as “the red-hot burning eyes of Ramachandra” cause havoc for the impersonalists.</p>
<p>As conditioned souls, we all tend toward impersonalism. Every conditioned soul has two conditioned tendencies: one toward sense gratification and the other toward impersonalism. So we carry impersonal conceptions with us even when we come to devotional<br /> service, and our impersonal conceptions may influence us to deal in impersonal ways even though we know in theory that we all are eternal persons and that Krishna is the supreme eternal person. Still, in practice we may tend to act in impersonal ways,<br /> because we may still have impersonal ideas that devotees should not feel sorrow or anger—or any “negative” emotion. And we may try to avoid responsibility for how our behavior affects other devotees by saying, “Prabhu, why are you getting upset? You<br /> shouldn’t get upset.” Although there may be truth to the notion that under certain circumstances a devotee should not become upset, we also should not act in such a way as to upset the prabhu. “Prabhu” means “master.” We are meant to see<br /> each other as masters and ourselves as servants. So we shouldn’t say, “Now, Prabhu, don’t get upset.” One wouldn’t tell one’s master not to get upset. Rather, we should say, “Oh, I am so sorry, my dear master. I am sorry that I made a mistake. I am<br /> sorry that I upset you. Please forgive me. Please rectify me.” That is the meaning of seeing others as prabhu.</p>
<p>The same pastimes that are described here in brief, in three verses in the Second Canto, are elaborated upon in the Ninth Canto in two full chapters. The entire Ramayana is summarized in the tenth and eleventh chapters of the Ninth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam.<br /> And there Sukadeva Gosvami elaborates on these two points: the Lord’s being aggrieved in separation from Sita, and the Lord’s becoming angry.</p>
<p>In relation to Rama’s separation from Sita, who had been kidnapped by the great demon Ravana, externally the Lord was lamenting. The Bhagavatam says that the Lord showed by His personal example the condition of a man who is attached to women—that<br /> is the material side of attachment. But the situation of Lord Rama is spiritual, beyond material conditions. The Lord and His pleasure potency—whether Sita-Rama or Radha-Krishna—are not of the material world. They are completely spiritual, and their<br /> activities are within the internal energy. The separation of the Lord from His consort is an activity of the Lord’s pleasure potency (hladini-sakti) and serves to increase their transcendental bliss. So although externally the Lord appears<br /> to lament in separation from His devotee or His devotees appear to lament in separation from Him, internally they experience transcendental bliss and actually relish the feelings of separation (vipralambha) as the highest ecstasy.</p>
<p>Once, when Rama was wandering through the forest searching for Sita and lamenting, Parvati, Lord Shiva’s consort, saw Him but did not recognize Him. She thought that He was an ordinary man in grief. She told her husband and guru, Lord Shiva, what she<br /> had seen, and he replied, “That was no ordinary man. That was the Personality of Godhead Ramachandra.” But Shiva could detect that she had some doubt in her mind, so he warned her, “Do not try to test Him. He is the Personality of Godhead, Lord Rama.”<br /> Still, she wasn’t convinced. She harbored some doubt within her heart.</p>
<p>So, Parvati disguised herself as Sita and went out to trick this man. She appeared before Lord Rama looking exactly like Sita. In effect, she was saying, “Here I am, Your beloved Sita.” But Lord Rama did not even see her; He ignored her, as if she didn’t<br /> exist, and continued searching for Sita. But from her side, wherever Parvati looked, she saw Rama, because He had expanded Himself into so many forms that wherever she looked she saw the Personality of Godhead Ramachandra.</p>
<p>Parvati realized that her husband was right. She had made a mistake, but she didn’t want to admit it. So she left the area, reassumed her original features, and returned to her husband—and didn’t say anything about what had happened. But Lord Shiva knew,<br /> so he asked, “Did you see anything unusual in the forest?” She replied, “No, not in particular.” So he became angry—not just because she had disobeyed him, but because she had not told him the truth. And he was ready to burn her to ashes.</p>
<p>So, Lord Ramachandra is the Personality of Godhead. He is not an ordinary person, although He appeared to lament like one. And Lord Shiva, a pure devotee beyond the modes of material nature, became angry, as was appropriate.</p>
<p>Returning to the pastimes of Lord Ramachandra as described in Srimad-Bhagavatam: After searching for Sita in the forest and being unable to find her, He ultimately learned that she had been kidnapped by Ravana and carried to his capital of Lanka.<br /> So Lord Rama made His way to the southern tip of India, to the Indian Ocean, and there glanced over the golden city of Lanka, angry that Ravana had kidnapped Sita and thus insulted the Raghu dynasty.</p>
<p>The ocean, in a sense, created an impediment to Rama and His army reaching Lanka, but the anger in His eyes created so much heat that the aquatics in the ocean were burning and the ocean was trembling. So, the ocean personified came before the Lord and<br /> offered to give Him way—to not impede His travel. Commenting on this incident as described in the Ninth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Srila Prabhupada raises the question of why suffering is necessary. In the Bhagavad-gita Krishna<br /> says, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja/ aham tvam sarva-papebhyo moksayisyami ma sucah: one who surrenders to Me is relieved of all sinful reactions. So from where does the surrendered devotee’s suffering come? Just by chanting<br /> the holy name of the Lord once, like Ajamila, in namabhasa, without offense, one is freed from the reactions to more sins than one is able to commit. From where, then, does the suffering of a devotee come?</p>
<p>Srila Prabhupada explains that sometimes people become so covered by material attachments and illusion that they cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His purpose. He gives the example that an animal is supposed to understand the indications<br /> of the master and that if he doesn’t, the master may have to beat him until he does. When the ocean personified came before Lord Rama and apologized for not having given Him way earlier, she referred to herself as jada-dhiyah, “dull-minded,”<br /> or “possessing intelligence like that of an animal.” Srila Prabhupada remarks that sometimes an animal, to understand the purpose of a man, has to be beaten, and that similarly, people whose intelligence is dull like an animal’s sometimes have to<br /> be punished so that they can come to their senses and understand, “This is our master. He wants our service. This is what He wants us to do.” “Therefore,” Srila Prabhupada concludes, “punishment by the Lord through material nature is necessary in<br /> human society, for without it men forget the supremacy of the Lord due to their dull, blunt intelligence.” (SB 9.10.14 purport)</p>
<p>Eventually Rama and His army crossed the ocean to Lanka, and ultimately Rama killed Ravana, as described so beautifully in the next verse and translation:</p>
<p>TEXT 25</p>
<p>vaksah-sthala-sparsa-rugna-mahendra-vaha-<br /> dantair vidambita-kakubjusa udha-hasam<br /> sadyo ’subhih saha vinesyati dara-hartur<br /> visphurjitair dhanusa uccarato ’dhisainye</p>
<p>TRANSLATION</p>
<p>When Ravana was engaged in the battle, the trunk of the elephant which carried the king of heaven, Indra, broke in pieces, having collided with the chest of Ravana, and the scattered broken parts illuminated all directions. Ravana therefore felt proud<br /> of his prowess and began to loiter in the midst of the fighting soldiers, thinking himself the conqueror of all directions. But his laughter, overtaken by joy, along with his very air of life, suddenly ceased with the tingling sound of the bow of<br /> Ramacandra, the Personality of Godhead.</p>
<p>COMMENT (continued)</p>
<p>The culmination of Ravana’s kidnapping Sita and taking her to Lanka was that Ramachandra killed him and freed Sita. And for us, there is a great lesson to be learned. Sita is the Lord’s energy, the Lord’s property, and if we try to take the Lord’s energy,<br /> His property, for our own purposes, for our own enjoyment, we will lose everything and we will be destroyed. In other words, the mentality of enjoying the Lord’s energy or using the Lord’s property for one’s own purposes is demonic. And if we persist,<br /> we may be destroyed like Ravana and his dynasty, and our property may be devastated and lost. Even as devotees, we may have some vestiges of this demonic mentality—the desire to take the Lord’s place and enjoy His property—and so we pray to Lord Rama<br /> and to Laksmana, who have so kindly appeared in Kali-yuga as Gaura-Nitai, to destroy our sinful mentality.</p>
<p>After defeating Ravana and his armies, Lord Rama found Sita, who had been kept captive in a forest of asoka trees. She had become thin, being aggrieved because of separation from Him. And naturally, she was delighted to see her eternal Lord and<br /> master. But according to strict Vedic custom, a lady who spends the night outside of her home is considered to be tainted. In the orthodox Hindu system, the girls do not spend the night out of their homes. They stay first under the care of their fathers;<br /> after marriage, under the care of their husbands; and after their husbands pass away, under the care of their grown sons. So, Lord Rama refused to accept Sita. Naturally, she was heartbroken, but He refused to accept her, because she had spent the<br /> night outside and thus her position was unknown. Finally, it was concluded that Sita’s chastity would be tested. She would be placed in a fire. If she survived the fire, it meant she was pure. And if she was burned in the fire, it meant that she had<br /> not remained chaste.</p>
<p>So, Sita was placed in the fire, and she emerged unscathed. But there are some secret facts, which we can learn by the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Once, when Lord Chaitanya was traveling in South India, near Madurai, He was invited for lunch by<br /> a learned brahman who was a rama-bhakta, a devotee of Rama. After taking His bath in the river, Lord Chaitanya went to the brahman’s house to have lunch, but the food was not ready, because the brahman had not cooked. Finally, late in the<br /> afternoon, Lord Chaitanya took His lunch, but the brahman fasted.</p>
<p>“What is the matter?” Mahaprabhu asked. “You seem so worried. Why are you so morose?” The brahman replied, “Hearing that Mother Sita, the mother of the universe and the supreme goddess of fortune, has been touched by the demon Ravana, I am so distressed<br /> that I prefer not to live.” Lord Chaitanya appreciated the brahman’s mood of devotion, but He assured him that Ravana could never touch Sita. “Sita has a spiritual form full of bliss, and material senses cannot even see her, what to speak of touch<br /> her,” He explained. “What Ravana kidnapped was not actually Sita but an illusory material form of Sita [maya-sita].”</p>
<p>Lord Chaitanya continued His travels in South India, and at a temple in Ramesvara He heard a reading from the Kurma Purana about Sita’s chastity. That scripture says that when Ravana came to kidnap her, she took shelter of Agni, the fire-god,<br /> who covered her original form and provided an illusory representation of her, which Ravana took. So the original Sita was never abducted by Ravana—only the maya-sita. And when Rama killed Ravana and Sita was released and brought before the<br /> fire, Agni made the illusory form disappear and delivered the real form of Sita to Lord Ramachandra. Thus the original Sitadevi was reunited with her eternal Lord and master, Ramachandra.</p>
<p>There is a lesson for us here, which is, as Srila Prabhupada often said, that the same thing that is material when used for sense gratification becomes spiritual when engaged in the service of the Lord—and vice versa. Take, for example, rice. If someone<br /> prepares rice to eat for sense gratification, it is material—and sinful. But the same rice, when prepared for Krishna and offered to Him with love and devotion, becomes spiritual and releases one from all sins. As stated in the Bhagavad-gita (3.13):</p>
<p>yajna-sistasinah santo<br /> mucyante sarva-kilbisaih<br /> bhunjate te tv agham papa<br /> ye pacanty atma-karanat</p>
<p>“The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food which is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.” When one eats even vegetarian food prepared for one’s<br /> own bodily nourishment, one is eating lumps of sin. And when one eats the same ingredients prepared and offered in love to Krishna—krsna-prasada—one becomes purified and liberated from all sins. The same item can act either materially or<br /> spiritually depending on how it is used, in what consciousness. So we should be careful to use whatever facility we receive by the grace of the Lord exclusively for the Lord’s service and not for sense gratification.</p>
<p>Once, a gentleman who had recently wedded came before Srila Gaurakisora dasa Babaji Maharaja. When Babaji Maharaja heard about the man’s marriage, he remarked, “It is good that Sambu Babu has married. Now every day he should personally cook for Krishna,<br /> offer the food, and serve the prasada to his wife. If he thinks of her more or less as his worshipable guru—not someone to be enjoyed or exploited by him—he will benefit. Everything that exists is Krishna’s property, meant for Krishna’s<br /> enjoyment, and should be used for Krishna’s service. Sambu should not think of his wife as his servant. Rather, he should respect her as Krishna’s servant.” So, whatever it may be, we should see the person or the object as Krishna’s property, meant<br /> to be engaged in Krishna’s service. Then we can move in the world without becoming entangled. But as soon as we think, “Oh, here is something nice for me to enjoy,” we may be entangled. That demonic mentality of wanting to enjoy apart from the Lord<br /> may become prominent, and then we may require some special mercy to free ourselves from that contamination. Krishna may take from us the object of our material attachment and remove that obstacle to our spiritual progress (yasyaham anugrhnami harisye tad-dhanam sanaih).</p>
<p>We have many lessons to learn from the pastimes of Lord Ramachandra, but in relation to today’s verse in particular, Srila Prabhupada is pointing out the most fundamental of all lessons: that the Personality of Godhead is a person with all of the sentiments<br /> of a person and that we too are persons, eternally. Even in the liberated stage we have such sentiments, and we should respect them. We do not necessarily reject “negative” emotions that arise within us as being material, because they may in fact<br /> be spiritual. Even a “negative” emotion engaged in Krishna’s service is spiritual, and a so-called noble sentiment outside of Krishna consciousness is material.</p>
<p>‘dvaite’ bhadrabhadra-jnana, saba—‘manodharma’<br /> ‘ei bhala, ei manda’,—ei saba ‘bhrama’</p>
<p>“In the material world, conceptions of good and bad are all mental speculations. Therefore, saying ‘This is good’ and ‘This is bad’ is all a mistake.” (Cc Antya 4.176) In other words, nothing is really good or bad. If it is favorable to Krishna’s<br /> service, it is real—and good. Otherwise, it is illusory.</p>
<p>Unlike Mayavadis, we do not reject sentiments—“Oh, you should not get angry.” In fact, Mayavadis themselves sometimes get angry, but they try to conceal it—“Oh, we can’t get angry.” Actually, sometimes it is our duty to get angry. Once, a young American<br /> who happened to attend the first Delhi pandal became so inspired by Srila Prabhupada and the devotees that he came to meet Prabhupada after the program. In a heartfelt display of eloquence, he expressed his appreciation to Srila Prabhupada:<br /> “If the world could just become Krishna conscious, there could be peace and happiness. People would learn to love each other and give up their hatred and anger.” Srila Prabhupada replied, “Anger? Is there something wrong with anger? Did someone tell<br /> you that anger is wrong?” The young man didn’t know what to say. Then Srila Prabhupada explained, “Krishna spoke the whole Bhagavad-gita just to make Arjuna angry. He wanted to convince Arjuna to fight and kill the enemy, and how can you<br /> fight and kill unless you are angry? He spoke the whole Bhagavad-gita just to make Arjuna angry.” So, anger, when used in the service of the Lord, is spiritual.</p>
<p>After Ravana kidnapped Sita, Rama sent Hanuman to Lanka to find her. Eventually Hanuman did, in the asoka grove, but he was soon apprehended by Ravana’s soldiers. To punish and humiliate him, they set fire to his tail. But Hanuman was no ordinary<br /> monkey. He was a great devotee, powerful as a demigod, and he went on a rampage through the whole of Lanka, setting it ablaze. That’s how furious he was. And so we see that anger can also be used in the service of the Lord, as demonstrated by Hanuman<br /> and Arjuna.</p>
<p>Even lust can be dovetailed in the service of the Lord. The Bhagavad-gita (3.37) says,</p>
<p>kama esa krodha esa<br /> rajo-guna-samudbhavah<br /> mahasano maha-papma<br /> viddhy enam iha vairinam</p>
<p>“Lust is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath; it is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world.” Srila Prabhupada explains in his purport to this verse that when a living entity comes in contact with the<br /> material creation, his eternal love for Krishna is transformed into lust, in association with the mode of passion. And lust, when frustrated, turns into wrath, which is a manifestation of the mode of ignorance. But lust and anger, which exist originally<br /> in the Lord, the Absolute Truth, dovetailed in the service of the Lord can help the living entity revive his original Krishna consciousness. Srila Prabhupada explains, “If, therefore, lust is transformed into love for the Supreme, or transformed into<br /> Krsna consciousness—or, in other words, desiring everything for Krsna—then both lust and wrath can be spiritualized. Hanuman, the great servitor of Lord Rama, exhibited his wrath by burning the golden city of Ravana, but by doing so he became the<br /> greatest devotee of the Lord. Here also, in Bhagavad-gita, the Lord induces Arjuna to engage his wrath upon his enemies for the satisfaction of the Lord. Therefore, lust and wrath, when they are employed in Krsna consciousness, become our<br /> friends instead of our enemies.”</p>
<p>Anything and everything can be used in the service of the Lord, and that is the basic principle of Krishna consciousness.</p>
<p>anasaktasya visayan<br /> yatharham upayunjatah<br /> nirbandhah krsna-sambandhe<br /> yuktam vairagyam ucyate</p>
<p>prapancikataya buddhya<br /> hari-sambandhi-vastunah<br /> mumuksubhih parityago<br /> vairagyam phalgu kathyate</p>
<p>“When one is not attached to anything but at the same time accepts anything in relation to Krsna, one is rightly situated above possessiveness. On the other hand, one who rejects everything without knowledge of its relationship to Krsna is not as complete<br /> in his renunciation.” (Brs 1.2.255–6)</p>
<p>Because spiritual sentiments and activities can resemble mundane ones, we can easily misunderstand the Lord or His pure devotees. We may think that such transcendental sentiments are mundane, or that the Lord and His pure devotees have no such sentiments.<br /> Thus one may develop an artificial view of the Lord and His devotees.</p>
<p>From our experience with Srila Prabhupada, we know that, like the Lord, a pure devotee has the full range of emotions—but all in relation to Krishna. And a pure devotee may temporarily become angry or distressed, according to the situation. Sometimes<br /> Prabhupada became discouraged—or encouraged—by what others said and did. He was fixed in his relationship with Krishna and in his service to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his guru maharaja—they were the center of his life—but with temporary changes<br /> of circumstances related to Krishna’s service, he could display temporary changes of emotion.</p>
<p>As soon as we finally got the Juhu land in ISKCON’s name, Srila Prabhupada wanted to start raising funds to build the temple for Krishna, Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari. He said to his friend Dr. C. P. Patel, “Now we want to begin the collection for the construction.”<br /> And Dr. Patel replied, “People won’t give.” Srila Prabhupada countered, “Bombay is such a rich city that if the people of Bombay wanted, they could give the entire amount in one day.” And Dr. Patel replied, “They don’t want. You have to bring the<br /> money from America.” Prabhupada responded, “I could bring the money from America, but then what is your credit?” Dr. Patel began, “Prabhupada, I don’t want to discourage you . . .” And Srila Prabhupada interjected, “But you are discouraging<br /> me.” So, Prabhupada could become discouraged.</p>
<p>Similarly, he could become encouraged. Once, Srila Prabhupada called me into his room to discuss book distribution in India, and at the end he said, “Seeing you all so enthusiastic to distribute books, I become enthusiastic.” Being a relatively new devotee,<br /> I thought, “Srila Prabhupada is always in transcendental bliss. How can our enthusiasm increase his enthusiasm?” In time, I began to overcome my impersonal conceptions and to realize that, like Krishna, liberated souls are always persons, with the<br /> full range of emotions, and can be encouraged or discouraged. So, when we deal with devotees, we should always be careful—and considerate.</p>
<p>Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was considerate. Every year, Sivananda Sena would lead the devotees from Bengal to Jagannatha Puri for Ratha-yatra, and it was a major effort. The party, which numbered two or three hundred, went by foot, and he arranged prasada and accommodations for them and sometimes boats to take them across rivers. One day when the party was being checked by a toll collector, the other devotees went ahead while Sivananda Sena remained behind to pay the taxes. Because no one else could<br /> arrange for their accommodations, the devotees waited beneath a tree. Meanwhile, Nityananda Prabhu, who was with the party that year, became very hungry and upset. And when Sivananda finally arrived, Nityananda stood up and kicked him severely. Of<br /> course, Sivananda accepted the kicking as the greatest blessing. After bringing Nityananda Prabhu to His residence, he told Him, “The dust of Your lotus feet is not attainable even by Lord Brahma, yet Your lotus feet have touched my wretched body.<br /> Today my birth, my family, and my activities have all become successful.” But Sivananda’s nephew, who was only a boy, felt offended and left the group. On his own, he traveled to Jagannatha Puri to meet Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.</p>
<p>When the boy reached Mahaprabhu’s residence, Lord Chaitanya’s servant told him to remove his coat and shirt, because the rule is that when one comes before the Deity one must remove such garments. But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, “Don’t disturb him. He<br /> has come in a distressed state of mind. Let him do as he pleases.” Lord Chaitanya considered the person’s emotional state, the person’s psychology. And when someone is in a distressed state, you don’t disturb him. Rather, you try to help him, to pacify<br /> him, and then talk of other things.</p>
<p>Once, Srila Prabhupada told Tejiyas Prabhu, then the temple president in Delhi, that the problem with his disciples was that they didn’t understand common psychology. We may want to give someone some instruction, but we may have to wait until they are<br /> ready to hear. We may have to pacify them first, and then they may be more open to what we have to say. We may have to wait for the right time. It is the speaker’s responsibility to present his message in such a way that his audience will appreciate<br /> and accept it. If our audience becomes discouraged—or inimical—we should feel responsible. We should think how we can improve and perhaps act to rectify the situation—by the grace of the Lord and the devotees.</p>
<p>Hare Krishna.</p>
<p>Narottamananda dasa: Thank you for the wonderful class, Maharaja. I read the Valmiki Ramayana produced by Bhakti Vikasa Maharaja. In that account, after Rama returns to His capital, Ayodhya, with Sita, He hears the slanderous (that is the word<br /> the book uses) statements of some of the residents, such as “How has Rama accepted Sita back when she sat on the lap of a raksasa? How has Rama accepted Sita back after she lived in the house of that villain for over a year?” And Rama, the<br /> representative of the Iksvaku dynasty, became disturbed and asked His brother Laksmana to leave her in the forest near Valmiki Rsi’s ashram. Actually, Sita herself had a desire to visit the sages along the bank of the river, so on the plea of satisfying<br /> that request, Laksmana took her there, explained the situation to her, and left her there, near Valmiki’s ashram. Earlier, Rama had inquired in His court, “What are the citizens saying about us? Without knowing what they are saying, we can never improve<br /> ourselves.” Rama had made that point. He insisted, and finally His ministers came out with these criticisms from the residents of Ayodhya.</p>
<p>Then an incredible pastime took place, when Valmiki brought Sita back to Ayodhya to establish her purity before the citizens. He proclaimed, “I have performed austerities for sixty thousand years, and I state that if this woman is in any way unchaste,<br /> let all the results of my austerities be taken from me.” Then Rama asked Sita to show her purity. And she declared, “If the residents of Ayodhya don’t accept me, then at least, if I have been chaste to You, let my mother, Bhumidevi, the earth-goddess,<br /> take me back.” Then a huge earthquake took place and a crevice opened and from within the earth Goddess Bhumi came out on a golden throne surrounded by celestial snakes (nagas). She announced to all that Sita was chaste and that she would<br /> accept her. Tearfully, she embraced Sita and took Sita with her; they vanished into the earth, and the earth closed. And Rama fell off His throne, crying and lamenting in separation from Sita. Thereafter, Rama made a golden deity of Sita, which He<br /> kept by His side. And so it was established that Sita was perfect in every respect.</p>
<p>So, how are we to view the residents of Ayodhya in that position? Personally, I have a lot of harsh feelings when I see that even after Sita showed her purity in that test of fire, they criticized Rama for taking her back.</p>
<p>Giriraj Swami: That was a very moving narration. I don’t know if I can speak after that.</p>
<p>There are different perspectives. When one accepts a position of leadership, he or she does so with the intention to help the people, even those who are ignorant and offensive. And so the leader may adjust his or her behavior. Sita was pure and Rama was<br /> pure, but when He found that some of the residents were finding fault with Him, He sent her away. He didn’t want people to criticize Him—not because He minded the criticism personally, but because to rule effectively and guide the population, He had<br /> to have their complete support and faith. Still, where this incident is described in the Ninth Canto, Srila Prabhupada refers to those critics as rascals. He says that Lord Ramachandra, fearing such rascals, abandoned His wife, Sitadevi.</p>
<p>We find that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also adjusted His behavior when He was criticized. When a senior sannyasi criticized Him for eating too much, He reduced His eating by half. All the devotees became upset; as it was, the Lord accepted so many austerities.<br /> But because the sannyasi was a godbrother of His spiritual master, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu respected him as a superior and said of him, “He is concerned about My sannyasa principles. He doesn’t want Me to overeat.” But the devotees were distressed<br /> and could hardly wait for the sannyasi to leave town. And when finally he did leave, they felt as if a great burden had fallen from their heads. Then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu accepted prasada as usual.</p>
<p>Sometimes someone in a high position will make an adjustment for a rascal—but not always. It depends on the issue and the context. Even in relation to that offensive sannyasi, Ramachandra Puri, it was said of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, kabhu ramacandra-purira haya bhrtya-praya/ kabhu tare nahi mane, dekhe trna-praya:<br /> “Sometimes He accepted Ramacandra Puri as His master and considered Himself a servant, and sometimes, not caring for him, He would see him as being just like a straw.” (Cc Antya 8.94) Sometimes Srila Prabhupada didn’t compromise, and sometimes<br /> Lord Chaitanya didn’t either—but sometimes they did.</p>
<p>In India, Srila Prabhupada would be open to visitors every afternoon for one or two hours. Anyone could come and see him. But in his later years, Prabhupada’s health wasn’t that good, and he often complained that he wanted to translate more.<br /> In Juhu once, he even cited the example of Aurobindo, who would give darshan just once a year, from his balcony. And Prabhupada said that he wished he could do that. “Otherwise,” he said, “people just come and waste my time. They ask, ‘Swamiji, how<br /> is your health?’ Everyone can see that my health is not good.” So he proposed that he should do as Aurobindo did, give audience only once a year. And the devotees, of course, were ready to facilitate whatever Prabhupada wanted. But finally Prabhupada<br /> concluded, “No, because if I don’t meet people, they will think, ‘Oh, Swamiji is a big man now. He has no time for us. He has become puffed up.’ Maybe when the new complex is ready, I can do that—not now.” So, he continued, until the very end—until<br /> his illness prevented him—to have open darshan every afternoon.</p>
<p>In practical matters he could compromise—he could make adjustments for the sake of the fallen souls—but on certain matters of principle, certain matters of philosophy, there was no compromise. When it came to his main mission, he often quoted, “The dogs<br /> may bark, but the caravan will pass.” “We don’t care,” he said, “We will go on. Let the dogs bark.” But to please someone—to avoid offending someone—he could adjust. For example, after the first Delhi pandal, one of the main organizers invited Srila<br /> Prabhupada to her home for a program. She had done a lot of service and really wanted to help. She invited many prominent people to the program, and after the kirtan in her garden, Prabhupada and the devotees went in the house to take prasada.<br /> Now, one of the preparations had onions in it. And Malati dasi, wanting to save Srila Prabhupada, warned him, “Prabhupada, this preparation has onions in it. We can’t take this.” But Prabhupada didn’t want to offend the host, so he ate it. Malati<br /> said, “Prabhupada, there are onions in this.” And Prabhupada replied, “No, there are no onions in this.” There were, but he didn’t want to discourage his host. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings. So, in some ways we may compromise, to encourage and<br /> elevate people, but in other ways we don’t compromise. And we have to be intelligent enough to be able to distinguish between principles that we must maintain and less important details that we can adjust.</p>
<p>Devotee: Maharaja, can we see the residents of Ayodhya as being instruments in the pastime that Lord Ramachandra displayed? Can they be seen as parts of the Lord’s whole pastime, in which everyone was meant to take part?</p>
<p>Giriraj Swami: We can always see a higher arrangement, but we cannot assume that they were impelled by yogamaya to find fault. For example, in special cases some demons in the Lord’s pastimes were actually the Lord’s eternal associates, but in<br /> other cases they were just demons. Rupa Gosvami explains that Sisupala and Dantavraka in one appearance were Jaya and Vijaya, eternal associates of the Lord, but in other appearances of the Lord they were just demons. We can’t say that all the residents<br /> of Ayodhya were necessarily eternal associates who were being guided by yogamaya, but we can certainly say that they were fortunate, because, as citizens of Ayodhya, they got to see the Lord. And in the end they all were liberated by the<br /> Lord’s grace. So, we can also see a higher arrangement.</p>
<p>Narottamananda dasa: After Sita exhibited that pastime of entering into the earth, the demigods from heaven showered flowers from above and praised her, and all the people present, even those whose minds had been confused and who had been blasphemous,<br /> began to praise Sita and Rama again and again. It was glorious. But Rama Himself, seeing this and being separated from Sita, was devastated.</p>
<p>Giriraj Swami: In the end, Lord Rama delivered all the residents of Ayodhya. Srimad-Bhagavatam explains,</p>
<p>tata urdhvam brahmacaryam<br /> dharyann ajuhot prabhuh<br /> trayodasabda-sahasram<br /> agnihotram akhanditam</p>
<p>“After Mother Sita entered the earth, Lord Ramacandra observed complete celibacy and performed an uninterrupted Agnihotra-yajna for thirteen thousand years.</p>
<p>smaratam hrdi vinyasya<br /> viddham dandaka-kantakaih<br /> sva-pada-pallavam rama<br /> atma-jyotir agat tatah</p>
<p>“After completing the sacrifice, Lord Ramacandra, whose lotus feet were sometimes pierced by thorns when He lived in Dandakaranya, placed those lotus feet in the hearts of those who always think of Him. Then He entered His own abode, the Vaikuntha planet<br /> beyond the brahmajyoti.</p>
<p>sa yaih sprsto ’bhidrsto va<br /> samvisto ’nugato ’pi va<br /> kosalas te yayuh sthanam<br /> yatra gacchanti yoginah</p>
<p>“Lord Ramacandra returned to His abode, to which bhakti-yogis are promoted. This is the place to which all the inhabitants of Ayodhya went after they served the Lord in His manifest pastimes by offering Him obeisances, touching His lotus feet, fully observing Him as a fatherlike king, sitting or lying down with Him like equals, or even just accompanying Him.” (SB 9.11.18–19, 22)</p>
<p>Thank you very much. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.</p>
<p>Sri Sri Radha-Kalachandji ki jaya!<br /> Sri Sri Sita-Rama-Laksmana-Hanuman ki jaya!<br /> Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai ki jaya!<br /> Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!<br /> Nitai-gaura-premanande hari-haribol!</p>
<p>[A talk by Giriraj Swami on Sri Rama-navami, April 6, 2006, Dallas]</p>
<div><strong>Source: </strong><a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=85320">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=85320</a></div>
<div> </div></div>Sri Rama Navami by Giriraj Swamihttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/sri-rama-navami-by-giriraj-swami2021-04-21T09:28:10.000Z2021-04-21T09:28:10.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8818242484,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="8818242484?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="350" /></p>
<p>We read from Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Seven: “Scheduled Incarnations.”</p>
<p>TEXT 23</p>
<p>asmat-prasada-sumukhah kalaya kalesa<br /> iksvaku-vamsa avatirya guror nidese<br /> tisthan vanam sa-dayitanuja avivesa<br /> yasmin virudhya dasa-kandhara artim arcchat</p>
<p>TRANSLATION</p>
<p>Due to His causeless mercy upon all living entities within the universe, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, along with His plenary extensions, appeared in the family of Maharaja Iksvaku as the Lord of His internal potency, Sita. Under the order of His father, Maharaja Dasaratha, He entered the forest and lived there for considerable years with His wife and younger brother. Ravana, who was very materially powerful, with ten heads on his shoulders, committed a great offense against Him and was thus ultimately vanquished.</p>
<p>PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada</p>
<p>Lord Rama is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and His brothers, namely Bharata, Laksmana, and Satrughna, are His plenary expansions. All four brothers are visnu-tattva and were never ordinary human beings. There are many unscrupulous and ignorant commentators on Ramayana who present the younger brothers of Lord Ramacandra as ordinary living entities. But here in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the most authentic scripture on the science of Godhead, it is clearly stated that His brothers were His plenary expansions. Originally Lord Ramacandra is the incarnation of Vasudeva, Laksmana is the incarnation of Sankarsana, Bharata is the incarnation of Pradyumna, and Satrughna is the incarnation of Aniruddha, expansions of the Personality of Godhead. Laksmiji Sita is the internal potency of the Lord and is neither an ordinary woman nor the external potency incarnation of Durga. Durga is the external potency of the Lord, and she is associated with Lord Siva.</p>
<p>As stated in the Bhagavad-gita (4.7), the Lord appears when there are discrepancies in the discharge of factual religion. Lord Ramacandra also appeared under the same circumstances, accompanied by His brothers, who are expansions of the Lord’s internal potency, and by Laksmiji Sitadevi.</p>
<p>Lord Ramacandra was ordered by His father, Maharaja Dasaratha, to leave home for the forest under awkward circumstances, and the Lord, as the ideal son of His father, carried out the order, even on the occasion of His being declared the king of Ayodhya. One of His younger brothers, Laksmanaji, desired to go with Him, and so also His eternal wife, Sitaji, desired to go with Him. The Lord agreed to both of them, and all together they entered the Dandakaranya Forest, to live there for fourteen years. During their stay in the forest, there was some quarrel between Ramacandra and Ravana, and the latter kidnapped the Lord’s wife, Sita. The quarrel ended in the vanquishing of the greatly powerful Ravana, along with all his kingdom and family.</p>
<p>Sita is Laksmiji, or the goddess of fortune, but she is never to be enjoyed by any living being. She is meant for being worshiped by the living being along with her husband, Sri Ramacandra. A materialistic man like Ravana does not understand this great truth, but on the contrary he wants to snatch Sitadevi from the custody of Rama and thus incurs great miseries. The materialists, who are after opulence and material prosperity, may take lessons from the Ramayana that the policy of exploiting the nature of the Lord without acknowledging the supremacy of the Supreme Lord is the policy of Ravana. Ravana was very advanced materially, so much so that he turned his kingdom, Lanka, into pure gold, or full material wealth. But because he did not recognize the supremacy of Lord Ramacandra and defied Him by stealing His wife, Sita, Ravana was killed, and all his opulence and power were destroyed.</p>
<p>Lord Ramacandra is a full incarnation with six opulences in full, and He is therefore mentioned in this verse as kalesah, or master of all opulence.</p>
<p>COMMENT by Giriraj Swami</p>
<p>Srimad-Bhagavatam is the supreme scripture, or book of knowledge, in the science of God. It explains the Absolute Truth in detail. The Vedanta-sutra says, janmady asya yatah, that the Absolute Truth is that from which everything emanates, and Srimad-Bhagavatam begins with the same words—janmady asya yatah—and proceeds to explain that the Absolute Truth is a person, the Supreme Person, Krishna. Krishna expands Himself into various plenary portions and portions of plenary portions, and the Bhagavatam, after listing so many incarnations of Godhead, says, krsnas tu bhagavan svayam, that all of the abovementioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord but that Lord Krishna is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead.</p>
<p>So, Lord Rama is an expansion of Krishna. There are so many expansions of Krishna mentioned in Srimad-Bhagavatam, but Rama is an expansion of Vasudeva, who is an expansion of Krishna. Laksmana is an expansion of Balarama, who is the first expansion of Krishna. Bharata and Satrughna are also direct expansions in the category of visnu-tattva. They are all God but manifest in different forms. Sri Brahma-samhita gives the example that from one candle you can light a second, from the second you can light a third, from the third you can light a fourth, and so on. All the flames are the same fire, and all have the same strength, but still, there is one original candle, and that is Krishna. Still, Rama, Laksmana, Bharata, and Satrughna are all God. They are all the same as Krishna, but they descend into the world for different pastimes. The verse says, avatirya. Avatara means “one who descends.” They descend from the spiritual world into the material world out of mercy—prasada—for the conditioned souls, to deliver the conditioned souls from the quagmire of material existence.</p>
<p>All of us here, from Lord Brahma to the insignificant ant, have somehow or other fallen into the material world and thus are forced to suffer. We are being attacked at every moment by some sort of misery, big or small, gross or subtle. Certain major sufferings, major miseries, afflict all of us, and they are mentioned in the Bhagavad-gita: janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi—birth, death, old age, and disease. None of us wants these miseries, but they are forced upon us. Once we come into the material world and accept a material body, we are forced to suffer repeated birth, disease, old age, and death—and rebirth.</p>
<p>As explained in the Vedic literature, the purpose of life is to become free from this repetition of birth and death. And the way to become free is to become God conscious, Krishna conscious. In the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krishna says, yam yam vapi smaran bhavam, that in whatever state one leaves one’s physical body, one attains the same state in the next life.</p>
<p>yam yam vapi smaran bhavam<br /> tyajaty ante kalevaram<br /> tam tam evaiti kaunteya<br /> sada tad-bhava-bhavitah</p>
<p>“Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kunti, that state he will attain without fail.” (Gita 8.6) The Bhagavad-gita further states that if one thinks of Krishna at the time of death, one will go to Krishna—back home, back to Godhead.</p>
<p>anta-kale ca mam eva<br /> smaran muktva kalevaram<br /> yah prayati sa mad-bhavam<br /> yati nasty atra samsayah</p>
<p>“And whoever, at the end of his life, quits his body remembering Me alone at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.” (Gita 8.5)</p>
<p>The Lord descends into the material world to show us who He is. Everyone speculates about God. They know that God is the oldest, so sometimes they imagine that He must be an old man with a beard and gray hair. They know that God is the ruler of the universe, so they imagine that He must sit on a throne. Therefore God Himself descends into the material world to show us who He is, and He does so in His original form as Krishna as well as in the form of Lord Ramachandra, who has the same, full potency as Krishna. Thus Ramachandra is described here as kalesa; He is full in all opulence. The Lord displays His pastimes to attract the fallen, conditioned souls to Him to engage in His service. The pastimes of Krishna and those of Rama are very attractive.</p>
<p>The history of Lord Rama, summarized in Srimad-Bhagavatam and elaborated on in the Ramayana (in particular, we accept the authoritative version of the Ramayana by Valmiki), has existed for thousands of years, and people still read it, hear it, recite it, and stage dramatic performances of it. It is ever fresh, as the Lord is ever fresh. We never tire of hearing pastimes of the Lord. The ordinary news of the conditioned souls is not so attractive or fresh. Once, when a newspaper reporter from The New York Times came to meet Srila Prabhupada, Prabhupada held up the Bhagavad-gita (it could just as well have been Srimad-Bhagavatam) and said, “Every day your employer prints so many newspapers. Especially on Sunday, the paper is so big that one can hardly carry it. But after reading it an hour, people throw it away. Here is the Bhagavad-gita. People keep it and read it for a lifetime, and in this way it has been read for the past five thousand years.” And the newspaper reporter acknowledged the truth of what Srila Prabhupada had said.</p>
<p>So, these descriptions of the pastimes of the Lord are ever fresh. We relish them year after year. We relish them day after day, moment by moment. The pastimes of Lord Ramachandra and Lord Krishna can be discussed eternally, and to cover even the basic history would take many days and hours, so in the limited time we have today we can’t really discuss them in detail. But I will comment on this one point that is mentioned in the verse, that the great demon Ravana, who was very materially powerful, kidnapped Sita and that in the end he was killed by Lord Ramachandra and his entire dynasty and opulence were destroyed.</p>
<p>Sita is the energy of the Lord. In fact, everything we see is the energy of the Lord. In the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krishna says that He has two energies—the spiritual energy, which includes the living entities, and the material energy, which we experience as earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and ego.</p>
<p>bhumir apo ’nalo vayuh<br /> kham mano buddhir eva ca<br /> ahankara itiyam me<br /> bhinna prakrtir astadha</p>
<p>“Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and false ego—all together these eight constitute My separated material energies.</p>
<p>apareyam itas tv anyam<br /> prakrtim viddhi me param<br /> jiva-bhutam maha-baho<br /> yayedam dharyate jagat</p>
<p>“Besides these, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature.” (Gita 7.4–5)</p>
<p>Basically, whatever we see is the energy of the Lord—either the material energy or a combination of the material and spiritual energies. The Lord Himself is fully spiritual (sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah). But until our senses are completely purified and spiritualized, we cannot see Him in His original form. What we can see is the Lord’s energy, which is His property and is meant to be engaged in His service. If you go into someone’s house, whatever is there is meant for the pleasure of the proprietor of the house. Of course, if the proprietor is a devotee, he knows that Krishna is the true proprietor and that therefore everything is meant for His pleasure. But in any case, you can’t take the property for yourself or use it for yourself—at least not without permission.</p>
<p>Sita is the internal potency of the Lord, His pleasure potency, and Ravana made the grave mistake of coveting her, lusting after her, to the extent that he abducted her, which was a great insult to not only her chastity but also the dynasty of Lord Ramachandra.</p>
<p>It is a long story, but ultimately Lord Rama, who on the order of His father was in exile in the forest, gathered together a band of monkeys and bears, and they marched on Lanka armed basically with trees and boulders; they didn’t have any other weapons. Ravana had a massive army with very sophisticated weapons. When Rama and His forces reached the southern tip of India, they had to cross the ocean to reach Lanka. And at that stage Rama glanced over Lanka with red-hot angry eyes, as described in the next verse:</p>
<p>yasma adad udadhir udha-bhayanga-vepo<br /> margam sapady ari-puram haravad didhaksoh<br /> dure suhrn-mathita-rosa-susona-drstya<br /> tatapyamana-makaroraga-nakra-cakrah</p>
<p>“The Personality of Godhead Ramacandra, being aggrieved for His distant intimate friend [Sita], glanced over the city of the enemy Ravana with red-hot eyes like those of Hara [who wanted to burn the kingdom of heaven]. The great ocean, trembling in fear, gave Him His way because its family members, the aquatics like the sharks, snakes, and crocodiles, were being burnt by the heat of the angry red-hot eyes of the Lord.” (SB 2.7.24)</p>
<p>There at the ocean a small incident took place that is very instructive in terms of bhakti. After Rama cast His glance, the ocean personified came before the Lord and said, “You may use my water as You like. Indeed, You may cross it and go to the abode of Ravana, who is a great source of disturbance. Please go kill him and regain Your wife, Sita. Please construct a bridge over my waters and spread Your transcendental fame.” So Lord Rama’s soldiers, chanting Rama’s name, started to hurl into the ocean great stones, all of which floated, and thus they constructed a bridge over which Rama and His army could pass.</p>
<p>There at the shore a small squirrel was putting little grains of sand in the ocean, to contribute to the effort, and Hanuman, the mighty servant of Rama, chastised the squirrel, “What are you accomplishing with your little grains of sand? Can’t you see that I am throwing these huge boulders? Get out of my way.” And the squirrel replied, “But I want to serve Lord Rama too.” Lord Rama overheard this exchange and rebuked Hanuman: “This squirrel wants to serve Me, just like you. And he is serving to his capacity, just as you are. So in My eyes you both are the same. And besides, I am the one who is making all the boulders float. Ultimately, I am the one who is doing everything.”</p>
<p>This is a very instructive point. The qualification to engage in devotional service is simply one’s sincere desire. One’s material qualifications don’t matter. The Lord does not require anyone’s service; He just wants to see our mood of devotion. If one has the sincere desire to serve, that’s enough. Whether one is an insignificant ant or spider or squirrel—or a great monkey like Hanuman, or a powerful human being, or Lord Brahma himself—what the Lord sees is the living entity’s sincere desire to serve. That is what He considers—whether we are sincerely serving to our full capacity—however great or small that capacity may be. It is said that the Lord sees not what we give but what we hold back. If a poor man can afford only ten dollars and he gives ten dollars, the Lord will see that he has given to his capacity. And if a rich man can afford ten million but gives ten thousand, the Lord will see, “Oh, he gave Me ten thousand, but he is keeping 9,990,000 for himself.”</p>
<p>The essence of bhakti is the desire to serve the Lord fully, to one’s capacity, and the opposite of bhakti is the desire to exploit the Lord or the Lord’s energy, as exemplified by Ravana. He didn’t want to serve the Lord. He wanted to steal the Lord’s energy, to enjoy the Lord’s property, in opposition to the Lord, in defiance of the Lord, and that is demonic.</p>
<p>Sita, the Lord’s energy, is Laksmi, who is associated with wealth, opulence, good fortune. Generally, conditioned souls, who are materialistic, want Laksmi—they want to engage Laksmi in their service. But Laksmi is meant to be engaged in the service of her husband, the Lord, Narayana. As devotees, we worship the Lord and His energy together as the complete whole—as Radha-Krishna, Sita-Rama, Laksmi-Narayana, Laksmi-Nrsimha—and that satisfies both the Lord and us. But if we, like Ravana, try to enjoy the Lord’s energy independent of the Lord, we will never be satisfied, and in the end we will be vanquished and all that we have will be lost.</p>
<p>The pastimes of the Lord are not mythological stories. They are factual—recorded in authentic books such as the Ramayana and Srimad-Bhagavatam—not imaginary or merely symbolic. Although there are lessons to be learned from the pastimes, the persons and events are real. Rama is real, Sita is real, Laksmana is real, Hanuman is real, Ravana is real, Lanka is real—they are all real. And we can learn from these historical accounts. In ordinary affairs, people say that the only thing we learn from history is that people learn nothing from history—and that may be true in material society, where people don’t learn. But in the association of devotees we can learn and improve. By hearing the pastimes of the Lord, we can learn that the Lord’s energy is meant to be engaged in the Lord’s service. We can learn from the example of Hanuman, who jumped over the ocean to Lanka to find Sita and discovered her in an asoka grove. His purpose was not to exploit her, enjoy her, or keep her for himself. His purpose was to find her for the sake of Rama, so that she could be reunited with Him to serve and please Him. The Lord’s energy is meant to be engaged in the Lord’s service.</p>
<p>Once, a devotee told me that Srila Prabhupada had said that all of our service here in the material world is meant to bring Radha and Krishna together in the spiritual world. I wasn’t sure about that statement, so I asked Srila Prabhupada, and he replied that materialists are like Ravana and that they have kidnapped Sita, or Laksmi. And that we, as devotees, act as Hanuman to get Laksmi back from Ravana and return her to Rama, or Narayana, by engaging the materialists’ money in the service of the Lord. Of course, Rama is an expansion of Krishna, and Sita, or Laksmi, is an expansion of Radha. Transcendentally, accepting money from the materialists and engaging it in the Lord’s service is reuniting Radha and Krishna.</p>
<p>Especially in Kali-yuga, everyone has these two tendencies—to serve the Lord and engage the Lord’s energy in the Lord’s service, and to exploit and try to possess the Lord’s energy and enjoy it for ourselves. The process of bhakti-yoga is meant to purify the consciousness, so that the Ravana-like tendency to exploit and enjoy slackens and the devotional tendency to serve becomes more prominent. And the way to purify our hearts, especially in the present age of Kali, is to chant the holy names of the Lord.</p>
<p>The Personality of Godhead appears in different ages. As Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita (4.8),</p>
<p>paritranaya sadhunam<br /> vinasaya ca duskrtam<br /> dharma-samsthapanarthaya<br /> sambhavami yuge yuge</p>
<p>“To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium.” He says,cparitranaya sadhunam: to deliver the devotees, vinasaya ca duskrtam: to destroy the miscreants, and dharma-samsthapanarthaya: to establish the principles of religion, sambhavami yuge yuge: I appear in every millennium. Yuge yuge means “in every age, or millennium.” In Treta-yuga He appeared as Lord Rama, some two million years ago. In Dvapara-yuga He appeared as Lord Krishna, some five thousand years ago. And yuge yuge suggests that He also appears in Kali-yuga; in Kali-yuga He appeared as Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.</p>
<p>krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam<br /> sangopangastra-parsadam<br /> yajnaih sankirtana-prayair<br /> yajanti hi su-medhasah</p>
<p>“In the age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the names of Krsna. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Krsna Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons, and confidential companions.” (SB 11.5.32) Krsna-varnam means that He is in the same category as Krishna, which means that He is Krishna—because no one else can be in the same category as Krishna other than Krishna—and is always singing the glories of Krishna. Still, tvisakrsnam: His color is not blackish like Krishna’s in Dvapara-yuga; as described in sastra, it is golden. Sangopangastra-parsadam: He is accompanied by His associates. Every incarnation descends with eternal associates—Rama with Sita, Laksmana, Bharata, Satrughna, and others; Krishna with Nanda, Yasoda, Balarama, Radharani, and others; and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu with Nityananda Prabhu and others. Yajnaih sankirtana-prayair: in Kali-yuga intelligent people (su-medhasah), people who have good intelligence, will worship (yajanti) the Lord by sankirtana-yajna, by the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. And that is the method by which the heart is cleansed (ceto-darpana-marjanam), the demonic mentality of Ravana is vanquished, and the devotional mood of Sita, Laksmana, Bharata, Satrughna, Hanuman, and others—even the squirrel—is manifest.</p>
<p>nitya-siddha krsna-prema ‘sadhya’ kabhu naya<br /> sravanadi-suddha-citte karaye udaya</p>
<p>“Pure love for Krsna is eternally established in the hearts of the living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, this love naturally awakens.” (Cc Madhya 22.107) Nitya-siddha krsna-prema—pure love of Godhead exists eternally within the heart. ‘Sadhya’ kabhu naya—it is not to be gotten from any other source. Sravanadi-suddha-citte—by hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord our consciousness is purified, and karaye udaya—that eternal love is awakened.</p>
<p>This is our goal. By hearing the pastimes of Rama, the pastimes of Krishna, our love for Them awakens. When we chant the maha-mantra—Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare—our love for Radha-Krishna, Sita-Rama, and Gaura-Nitai is awakened. That is Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy.</p>
<p>Two full chapters in the Ninth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam are devoted to summarizing the Ramayana. Srila Prabhupada remarks that everyone wants Rama-rajya, the ideal kingdom that existed during the reign of Lord Ramachandra. Lord Rama cared for the citizens exactly like a father, and the citizens, accepting Him as their father, loved and obeyed Him. Although He became king during Treta-yuga, because of His good government the age was like Satya-yuga and everyone was fully religious and happy. Srila Prabhupada states that the same conditions can be evoked now by the chanting of the Lord’s holy names, which have been made available to us by Lord Chaitanya—by Lord Ramachandra, who has so kindly appeared in the present age as Chaitanya-chandra.</p>
<p>“If people take to this sankirtana movement of chanting Hare Krsna, Hare Rama, they will certainly be freed from the contamination of Kali-yuga, and the people of this age will be happy, as people were in Satya-yuga, the golden age. Anyone, anywhere, can easily take to this Hare Krsna movement; one need only chant the Hare Krsna maha-mantra, observe the rules and regulations, and stay free from the contamination of sinful life. Even if one is sinful and cannot give up sinful life immediately, if he chants the Hare Krsna maha-mantra with devotion and faith he will certainly be freed from all sinful activities, and his life will be successful. Param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam. This is the blessing of Lord Ramacandra, who has appeared in this age of Kali as Lord Gaurasundara.” (SB 9.10.51 purport)</p>
<p>We should take advantage of the mercy of the Lord. Out of His causeless mercy upon all living entities (asmat-prasada), He appears in every age (yuge yuge)—as Rama, as Krishna, and in the present age as Krishna Chaitanya. And we should take advantage of the special mercy that They give us in the form of the sankirtana movement, which teaches people to engage in the chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra and in the entire process of devotional service (bhakti-yoga). Lord Krishna gave the preliminary instructions in the science of God, the science of bhakti-yoga, in the Bhagavad-gita; Lord Chaitanya and His followers, especially the Six Gosvamis, explained the science elaborately; and Srila Prabhupada has presented it to us in a way that we can very easily follow, to cleanse our hearts and awaken our love for God. But those little Ravana-like demons in our hearts keep telling us, “You can enjoy. Why should Krishna have all the fun?” Of course, we want to enjoy—that is natural. The Absolute Truth, Krishna, is by nature full of pleasure (ananda-mayo ’bhyasat), and we, as His parts and parcels, are also meant for pleasure. But we cannot enjoy real, eternal pleasure based on these dead bodies, these bags of blood and stool and other such things. We, as spirit souls, can enjoy true pleasure, ananda, on the spiritual platform, in relationship to the Supreme Soul, in the spiritual energy, in the spiritual world.</p>
<p>The Lord doesn’t want us to suffer. He wants us to be happy, but He knows that we can be truly happy only in relation to Him. Therefore He comes—as the ideal king as Lord Rama, in His original form as Krishna, and most recently in His devotional form as Krishna Chaitanya—to show us the way. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu with Nityananda Prabhu came especially to give us this method of chanting Hare Krishna and dancing, hearing the pastimes of the Lord (krsna-katha), worshipping the Deity, and taking krsna-prasada. And this method is kevala ananda-kanda: simply joyful—just chanting, dancing, hearing about Krishna and His incarnations, and taking prasada.</p>
<p>So we should take advantage of this wonderful opportunity that has been given to us by Lord Rama, who has appeared as Lord Gaurasundara, and which has been presented to us in the most pleasant and accessible way by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. Even the smallest effort—by anyone—can bring the greatest result, as demonstrated in the pastimes of Lord Ramachandra. He engaged even monkeys and other creatures of the forest in His service, and in the end He took all the residents of Ayodhya back home, back to Godhead.</p>
<p>na janma nunam mahato na saubhagam<br /> na van na buddhir nakrtis tosa-hetuh<br /> tair yad visrstan api no vanaukasas<br /> cakara sakhye bata laksmanagrajah</p>
<p>[Sri Hanuman says:] “One cannot establish a friendship with the Supreme Lord Ramacandra on the basis of material qualities such as one’s birth in an aristocratic family, one’s personal beauty, one’s eloquence, one’s sharp intelligence, or one’s superior race or nation. None of these qualifications is actually a prerequisite for friendship with Lord Sri Ramacandra. Otherwise how is it possible that although we uncivilized inhabitants of the forest have not taken noble births, although we have no physical beauty, and although we cannot speak like gentlemen, Lord Ramacandra has nevertheless accepted us as friends?</p>
<p>suro ’suro vapy atha vanaro narah<br /> sarvatmana yah sukrtajnam uttamam<br /> bhajeta ramam manujakrtim harim<br /> ya uttaran anayat kosalan divam iti</p>
<p>“Therefore, whether one is a demigod or a demon, a man or a creature other than man, such as a beast or bird, everyone should worship Lord Ramacandra, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who appears on this earth just like a human being. There is no need of great austerities or penances to worship the Lord, for He accepts even a small service offered by His devotee. Thus He is satisfied, and as soon as He is satisfied, the devotee is successful. Indeed, Lord Sri Ramacandra brought all the devotees of Ayodhya back home, back to Godhead.” (SB 5.19.7–8)</p>
<p>Thank you very much.</p>
<p>Guest: I have heard that Lord Rama is green. Do you know anything about how can someone be green?</p>
<p>Giriraj Swami: The Lord’s body is spiritual—sac-cid-ananda-vigraha. Although the scriptures describe the Lord and the spiritual world in terms that correspond to our experience in this world, the reality of the Lord is different from anything we have ever experienced here. Lord Rama is greenish, but His complexion is not a material green as we see in this world but a spiritual hue from which the material color green comes.</p>
<p>Madhusudana dasa: Lord Rama is described as being the color of freshly sprouted grass.</p>
<p>Devotee: How long does it take for a soul to be transferred to another body?</p>
<p>Giriraj Swami: As soon as the next body is ready, one leaves the present body, just as when one’s next step is secure, one gives up the last one.</p>
<p>vrajams tisthan padaikena<br /> yathaivaikena gacchati<br /> yatha trna-jalaukaivam<br /> dehi karma-gatim gatah</p>
<p>“Just as a person traveling on the road rests one foot on the ground and then lifts the other, or as a worm on a vegetable transfers itself to one leaf and then gives up the previous one, the conditioned soul takes shelter of another body and then gives up the one he had before.” (SB 10.1.40)</p>
<p>Devotee: So it varies between each body?</p>
<p>Giriraj Swami: When the next body is ready, one leaves the present body, but depending on the type of body, one may take less or more time to be born. The period of gestation may vary. For example, in the case of a human being, after the soul is placed in the womb of the mother through the semen of the father, it takes nine or ten months for the embryo to grow and develop to the stage when the entity is ready to come out of the womb and be viable. That period will vary according to the species.</p>
<p>Of course, our actual goal is to become free from the repetition of birth and death. And the main process by which we can attain liberation, especially in the present age of Kali, is to chant the holy names:</p>
<p>kaler dosa-nidhe rajann<br /> asti hy eko mahan gunah<br /> kirtanad eva krsnasya<br /> mukta-sangah param vrajet</p>
<p>“My dear king, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still one good quality about this age: simply by chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom.” (SB 12.3.51)</p>
<p>As mentioned, the chanting cleanses the dirty things from the mirror of the mind, or heart:</p>
<p>ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-maha-davagni-nirvapanam<br /> sreyah-kairava-candrika-vitaranam vidya-vadhu-jivanam<br /> anandambudhi-vardhanam prati-padam purnamrtasvadanam<br /> sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam</p>
<p>“Let there be all victory for the chanting of the holy name of Lord Krsna, which can cleanse the mirror of the heart and stop the miseries of the blazing fire of material existence. That chanting is the waxing moon that spreads the white lotus of good fortune for all living entities. It is the life and soul of all education. The chanting of the holy name of Krsna expands the blissful ocean of transcendental life. It gives a cooling effect to everyone and enables one to taste full nectar at every step.” (Siksastaka 1)</p>
<p>The first of the dirty things within the heart is false identification with the body. That is the first misconception; we think, “I am this body, and everything in relation to this body is mine—to enjoy.” And whatever we do that follows from the premise that “I am the body” takes us further and further from the goal. Srila Prabhupada gave the example that if in a mathematical problem you make a mistake in the first step, even if you perform all the other steps perfectly, you will likely get further and further from the solution—because you made a mistake in the first step. So if from the beginning you think you are the body—given that in fact you are not the body but are the soul—then even if you do everything thereafter perfectly for the sake of the body, you will get further and further away from the actual goal. So we have to understand from the beginning that we are not the body, that we are the soul within the body, and that to act for the benefit of the soul is in our real self-interest.</p>
<p>Everyone wants his self-interest—that is natural—but people don’t know what their real self-interest is. Unless they know what their real self is, how can they know their real self-interest? Na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum: they do not know that their real interest is to serve Vishnu, or Krishna, and go back home, back to Godhead.</p>
<p>na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum<br /> durasaya ye bahir-artha-maninah<br /> andha yathandhair upaniyamanas<br /> te ’pisa-tantryam uru-damni baddhah</p>
<p>“Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or guru a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Visnu. As blind men guided by another blind man miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially attached men led by another materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labor, which are made of very strong cords, and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suffering the threefold miseries.” (SB 7.5.31)</p>
<p>There is no harm in wanting to pursue one’s self-interest, but we should know what our real self is. The first instruction of the Bhagavad-gita is that we are not this body but are the soul within the body. And our spiritual life proceeds from that understanding.</p>
<p>After we gain theoretical knowledge, we must realize the knowledge, and by faithfully chanting the holy names we can actually realize that we are not these bodies but are eternal spirit souls, eternal servants of Krishna. First we hear. For example, we hear in theory that rasagullas are sweet, and we want to try one. And when we actually taste one, our knowledge becomes realized. Then we know the sweetness of a rasagulla by practical experience, and we want others to experience that taste. So, by chanting with attention, one can actually realize that he is not this body but is the soul within the body, and one can taste the sweetness of Lord Krishna’s holy name. Thus, Srila Rupa Gosvami, who actually realized the sweet nectar of the holy name, could write,</p>
<p>tunde tandavini ratim vitanute tundavali-labdhaye<br /> karna-kroda-kadambini ghatayate karnarbudebhyah sprham<br /> cetah-prangana-sangini vijayate sarvendriyanam krtim<br /> no jane janita kiyadbhir amrtaih krsneti varna-dvayi</p>
<p>“I do not know how much nectar the two syllables ‘Krs-na’ have produced. When the holy name of Krsna is chanted, it appears to dance within the mouth. We then desire many, many mouths. When that name enters the holes of the ears, we desire many millions of ears. And when the holy name dances in the courtyard of the heart, it conquers the activities of the mind, and therefore all the senses become inert.” (Vidagdha-madhava 1.15)</p>
<p>But first we have to realize that we are not this body, that the body is just a machine that the soul inhabits for some time.</p>
<p>Chanting is a serious practice, although the process is easy. As Srila Prabhupada said, “Chanting is easy, but the determination to chant is not so easy.” Anyone can say “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare,” but the determination to chant a prescribed number of rounds daily and to be attentive while chanting—to actually hear every word and every syllable—requires some effort. But if we can do that, we can realize that we are not these bodies but are actually parts and parcels of Krishna, eternal servants of Krishna. Then we will act exclusively for the pleasure of Krishna, and that will be our pleasure—our greatest pleasure—and satisfaction.</p>
<p>sa vai pumsam paro dharmo<br /> yato bhaktir adhoksaje<br /> ahaituky apratihata<br /> yayatma suprasidati</p>
<p>“The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self.” (SB 1.2.6)</p>
<p>The natural function of the part is to serve the whole. Srila Prabhupada gave the example that the hand is part and parcel of the body, so the natural function of the hand is to serve the body, to serve the stomach. If there is a nice rasagulla (we are talking so much about rasagullas; I hope they have some!) and the hand thinks, “Why should I feed the stomach? I will enjoy myself,” and then tries to absorb the rasagulla directly, to enjoy the rasagulla separately, it can’t. The hand is not meant to enjoy apart from the stomach. But if the hand feeds the stomach, then the hand and all the other parts of the body are naturally nourished and satisfied. In the same way, if we try to enjoy independent of Krishna, we can’t. We are not meant for that. We are part of Him and are meant to serve Him. And if we do serve Him, then all of Krishna’s other parts and parcels are satisfied. And if we want to enjoy independent of Krishna, we can try—that is what is going on in the world today: everyone is trying to enjoy independent of Krishna. But they are not successful. They are never satisfied. They always want something more, something new, something better—they are never satisfied. We can be happy and satisfied only when we serve Krishna with love, for His pleasure.</p>
<p>Devotee: People seem to do that very happily—go through the ups and downs of never being satisfied and then forging back into looking for satisfaction without Krishna. They seem to do it happily.</p>
<p>Giriraj Swami: Yes, ordinary people keep doing it over and over again. Punah punas carvita-carvananam: chewing the chewed again and again. You get a piece of sugarcane and chew it to get the juice out. After chewing it and getting all the juice out, you throw it away. If you come back and start to chew it again, you can chew it, but there is no juice in it, nothing to be gotten. Ordinary conditioned souls, in the bodily concept of life, try to squeeze some pleasure out of the body, and after getting whatever little pleasure they can, keep trying to get more and more out of it. But they are never satisfied.</p>
<p>matir na krsne paratah svato va<br /> mitho ’bhipadyeta grha-vratanam<br /> adanta-gobhir visatam tamisram<br /> punah punas carvita-carvananam</p>
<p>“Because of their uncontrolled senses, persons too addicted to materialistic life make progress toward hellish conditions and repeatedly chew that which has already been chewed. Their inclinations toward Krsna are never aroused, either by the instructions of others, by their own efforts, or by a combination of both.” (SB 7.5.30)</p>
<p>Then what is the way out? Krishna consciousness, realized by the mercy of pure devotees.</p>
<p>naisam matis tavad urukramanghrim<br /> sprsaty anarthapagamo yad-arthah<br /> mahiyasam pada-rajo-’bhisekam<br /> niskincananam na vrnita yavat</p>
<p>“Unless they smear upon their bodies the dust of the lotus feet of a Vaisnava completely freed from material contamination, persons very much inclined toward materialistic life cannot be attached to the lotus feet of the Lord, who is glorified for His uncommon activities. Only by becoming Krsna conscious and taking shelter at the lotus feet of the Lord in this way can one be freed from material contamination.” (SB 7.5.32)</p>
<p>Such pure devotees, following the scriptures and previous authorities, induce us to chant the holy names of the Lord.</p>
<p>harer nama harer nama<br /> harer namaiva kevalam<br /> kalau nasty eva nasty eva<br /> nasty eva gatir anyatha</p>
<p>“In this Age of Kali there is no other means, no other means, no other means for self-realization than chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name of Lord Hari.” (Brhan-naradiya Purana 38.126)</p>
<p>A vivid example is Valmiki Muni himself. He was a robber and murderer. He would plunder innocent people on the road, kill them, and take everything. But by chance he happened to associate with the great devotee Narada Muni, who requested him to chant the holy name of Rama. Valmiki refused: “I am a murderer—what have I to do with chanting God’s name?” But then Narada asked him to meditate on the meaning of death by repeating the word mara, which means “death.” Valmiki agreed, and by repeating mara, mara, mara, mara he came in effect to chant Rama, Rama, Rama, Rama. Living in a previous age, he was able to meditate on the holy name of Rama for many thousands of years, and when he was liberated he wrote the Ramayana. By the power of the holy name, his heart became purified, and he became a great devotee and rishi (seer), empowered to glorify and personally serve the Lord. So anyone, even the greatest sinner, can become the greatest devotee of the Lord by serving the instructions of a pure Vaishnava and chanting the holy name of the Lord.</p>
<p>Sri Sri Sita-Rama-Laksmana-Hanuman ki jaya!</p>
<p>[A talk by Giriraj Swami on Rama-navami, April 14, 2008, San Diego]<br /> <br /> <strong>Source:</strong> <a href="https://girirajswami.com/blog/?p=17100">https://girirajswami.com/blog/?p=17100</a></p></div>