Gurumaharaj spoke on Srimad Bhagavatam, 3.21.28. Following is the summery of
his class.
Chapter 21: Conversation Between Manu and Kardama Muni
samahitam• te hr•dayam•
yatreman parivatsaran
sa tvam• brahman nr•pa-vadhuh•
kamam asu bhajis•yati
TRANSLATION
That princess, O holy sage, will be just the type you have been thinking of in
your heart for all these long years. She will soon be yours and will serve you
to your heart's content.
PURPORT
The Lord awards all benedictions according to the heart's desire of a devotee,
so the Lord informed Kardama Muni, "The girl who is coming to be married with
you is a princess, the daughter of Emperor Svayambhuva, and so just suitable
for your purpose." Only by God's grace can one get a nice wife just as he
desires. Similarly, it is only by God's grace that a girl gets a husband
suitable to her heart. Thus it is said that if we pray to the Supreme Lord in
every transaction of our material existence, everything will be done very
nicely and just suitable to our heart's desire. In other words, in all
circumstances we must take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and
depend completely on His decision. Man proposes, God disposes. The fulfillment
of desires, therefore, should be entrusted to the Supreme Personality of
Godhead; that is the nicest solution. Kardama Muni desired only a wife, but
because he was a devotee of the Lord, the Lord selected a
wife for him who was the Emperor's daughter, a princess. Thus Kardama Muni got
a wife beyond his expectation. If we depend on the choice of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, we will receive benedictions in greater opulence than
we desire.
It is also significantly noted here that Kardama Muni was a brahman•a, whereas
Emperor Svayambhuva was a ks•atriya. Therefore, intercaste marriage was current
even in those days. The system was that a brahman•a could marry the daughter of
a ks•atriya, but a ks•atriya could not marry the daughter of a brahman•a. We
have evidences from the history of the Vedic age that Sukracarya offered his
daughter to Maharaja Yayati, but the King had to refuse to marry the daughter
of a brahman•a; only with the special permission of the brahman•a could they
marry. Intercaste marriage, therefore, was not prohibited in the olden days,
many millions of years ago, but there was a regular system of social behavior.
SUMMERY OF THE EXPALNATION BY HH. BHAKTI CHARU SWAMI GURUMAHARAJ
The vedic scriptures gives two types of instructions. First one is pertaining
to our existence in material nature and the second one is about the attachment
to spiritual nature. For that there are two dharmas, the dharma of body and the
dharma of soul. The dharma of the body means the needs of the body should be
fulfilled but for that we have to act in certain way that is permitted by the
vedas.
Here we see that Kardama muni was a mendicant. Brahmanas spend their time in
the cultivation of their krsna consciousness, staying in a solitary place,
studying vedas, etc. So Kardama muni was involved in that but at the same time,
he was contemplating on getting married, being absorb in that thought, he was
thinking of woman, that also from long time of many years. But here we see that
because he is devotee and is surrendered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
the Lord knew his desire and fulfilled it. The Lord arranged for him to get
married to the daughter of Manu.
Svayambhu Manu is Barhma’s son, and the father of mankind. The word manava is
originated from Manu. Manu got married to Satrupa and all the human beings are
his decedents. Manu and Satrupa had 3 daughters, Akuti, Prasuti and Devahuti.
So Devahuti, the youngest daughter was offered to Kardama muni.
Here we should note that Kardama muni’s contemplation on a woman is not like of
an ordinary man. The Lord has to appear as his son, so the arrangements made to
be done. Also Devahuti was the youngest daughter of Manu. Daughters are very
dear to father, and youngest daughter is most dear to the father. But we see
that Manu decided to offer his daughter to Kardama muni, who was simply a
mendicant, living with no opulence. Lord Brahma suggested Manu about Kardama
muni, and Manu although very attached to Devahuti, did not protest. And
Devahuti also did not questioned, “My dear father, why are you getting me
married to someone who doesn’t have a house”. It’s not the Kardama muni could
not have a house, but he was a mendicant. One voluntarily rejects all material
comforts for spiritual advancement. And the whole purpose is for the appearance
of the Lord. So the Lord selected Kardama muni as His father and Devahuti as
His mother.
Although Kardama muni got married but he is still involved in the meditation of
Supreme Personality of Godhead, he doesn’t have any external consciousness; he
practically forgot that he has a wife. Devahuti also, she is a daughter of a
king but she lives alone in the middle of the forest. It is said that the
princess did not even touch the ground with her feet. In Ramayana, it is
described that when Sita devi decided to go with Lord Rama in the forest, she
has to walk bare feet, but prior to that she lived in such a luxury life that
she did not touched the ground with her feet. So Devahuti was a princess, but
here in her husband’s house, she is living such an austere life. Her hair
became matted and her body became very thin due to her complete neglect of her
body, no proper arrangements of food. But one day, Kardama muni noticed, “she
became emaciated, she is just covering her body with tree bark, she is a
daughter of a king and for my sake she
has gone under such a severe austerity, so I must reward her”.
Then Kardam muni created a planet with hundred and thousands of servant,
palaces, etc. and that planet could move in space. He asked her where she wants
to go and she told heavenly planets, so they went there, like this they
traveled. So this is the power of a brahmana, although living in a forest he
has all the powers. On one hand is total renunciation and on the other hand
such an opulence. An exalted personality voluntarily accepts the life of
hardships, they are so advanced that they don’t have any attachment to material
comforts. But here we see when Kardama muni decided to reward Devahuti, what an
opulence he created. Kardama muni then had 9 daughters and 1 son from Devahuti.
And the son was Kapil dev, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Kapil dev also
at some point decided to leave his house, and before that he instructed his
mother on Sankya philosophy. There are 6 branches of philosophy, purva mimansa
or karma mimansa, nyaya, vaisesika,
sankya, yoga and uttar mimansa. So Kapil muni instructed His mother on sankya
philosophy but from His description we see that His instructions were about
pure devotion.
There are many ways to understand the absolute but surrender is the mail aspect
of all the procedures, and the ultimate consideration of vedas is krsna
consciousness. For example, there are different staircases leading to the roof
in all the sides, east-west-north-south but you have to take the right
staircase leading to the roof. You can’t take a staircase which is not leading
to the roof. And right staircase means studying under a qualified teacher.
Qualified teacher means one who is a devotee. Students may be in any class but
teacher must be expert to teach all classes. “jei krsna tattva vetta sei guru
hoe”. So Srila Prabhupada pointed out that are many different processes, few
prominent are, performing sacrifice, performing meditation, performing astanga
yoga, performing austerity, etc., whatever the process may be the goal is to
understand krsna consciousness. Similarly there are different branches of
philosophy but when we go though that it
gradually leads to krsna consciousness. Like according to purva mimansa, as we
act accordingly we get the results. If we act in nice way, result will be nice
and if we act in wrong way result will be bad. Punya (right actions) will lead
to enjoyment and pap (wrong actions) will lead to sufferings. So after enjoying
like this for long and long time one understands that there is no unrestricted
enjoyment in this material life. Even a king suffers. Nobody can avoid the
three fold miseries, i.e., adhiatimika klesha, adhibhutika klesha and
adhidaivik klesha. And then the question comes, why I am suffering? This leads
to Nyaya philosophy, the logic. Then one understands that the body is the means
for suffering and we are in a place of suffering. Then one thinks that why we
are suffering here? Like this one come to yoga philosophy and the last stage of
yoga is Samadhi where one sees the Supersoul in his heart. And then comes the
uttar mimansa, where one
surrenders to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Similarly, the teacher will bring the students on the highest consideration.
From class 1, class 2; one gradually comes to the level where he gets school
leaving certificate, then he come to college, then university. So like this the
teacher prepares the student to come to the ultimate stage of education. The
ultimate understanding is pure devotional service. There is no need to think
that it’s voluntary suffering, it’s only pure enjoyment. If our desires are at
right track then our desires will be fulfilled.
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