Guru Maharaja’s Transcribed Janmastami Morning Lecture Ujjain 2010Transcription : Archana DasiEditing : Ramananda Raya DasaOkay, that is some austerity that you perform for Krishna’s pleasure. When you perform some austerity then Krishna becomes pleased and you derive some benefit. And what is the spiritual benefit ? The spiritual benefit is that Krishna becomes pleased and you make spiritual advancement.I am very happy that you all came and I hope that you are enjoying your stay here. Are you enjoying your stay here ?(Public) : Yes.Okay. So, Janamstami is a very special day for us. Today is the day when Krishna appeared. Although Krishna is Aja, Krishna is unborn, still Krishna appears. Sometimes He appears directly from Vaikuntha and sometimes He takes birth as a human being. Like His Krishna pastimes is like human pastimes. He took birth. Does Krishna need to take birth? Then why does Krishna take birth? Because some devotees want to have Krishna as his or her child. Whatever a devotee wants, Krishna fulfils his devotees desire. If a devotee wants Krishna as his son, then Krishna says: “Okay, I will become your son.” If a devotee wants Krishna to be his friend, Krishna says: “Okay, I will become your friend”. And sometimes Krishna even becomes His devotee’s servant. Like with Arjuna, to be his chariot driver, means a servant, chauffeur. You have a driver? A driver drives the car. Now, what is the position of the driver? The driver is like a servant. So now, a chariot is like a car and the driver is like a servant. So Krishna became Arjuna’s servant. Not that the devotee wants Krishna to become his servant, but Krishna wants to do that. That is the reciprocation. When Krishna sees that the devotee is doing so much for Him, then Krishna begins to wonder what He would do for His devotee. And in this way Krishna responds. This is how wonderful the Supreme Personality of Godhead is. Can you expect a very rich man to become your servant? Can you expect that the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh will become your servant? Can you expect that? Can you expect that the Prime Minister of India becomes your servant? Because they are so big that you cannot expect them to become your servant. Now, Krishna, He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the Supreme Creator, He is the Supreme Proprietor, He is the Supreme Maintainer. Can you imagine how impossible it is that Krishna becomes your servant? But Krishna becomes. That is how Krishna reciprocates.So that is Krishna’s unique character. Although He is the Supreme, but He does not mind to do something for his devotee. No matter how menial it is. Like you know Krishna’s dealing with Sudhama vipra ? Sudhama and Krishna were friends. Then, after their education, Krishna went back to Mathura. And He was the prince there. And then from Mathura He went to Dvaraka. Sudhama was a brahmin. So brahmins are generally poor people. Those days brahmins did not indulge in wealth. Usually, they would not make any effort to acquire wealth. So, Sudhama was leading a very humble life. Then one day, his wife told him. Why don’t you go to Krishna. He is the prince. You talk so much about Him. If you go to Him, then maybe you can get wealth from Him. Because we may generally want some material facilities. Sudhama went to meet with Krishna. Not that Sudhama wanted to ask for wealth from Krishna. But he thought it is such a wonderful opportunity to go and meet with Krishna. So he took advantage of this opportunity and he went to Dvaraka. When he went to Dvaraka, he saw Krishna’s opulence. It was unimaginable. But when he met Krishna, what did Krishna do? Krishna made him sit on the throne. And He washed his feet. Krishna washed his feet. This is how Krishna reciprocates with His devotees. That is why the most important business in life is to become a devotee of Krishna. Devotee of Krishna means to develop love for Krishna. You develop your love for Krishna. Now, is it difficult to develop love? Don’t we love somebody? Don’t we want to love somebody? Like say for example, how do you feel towards your father? How many of you feel love for your father? How many of you feel love for your mother? How many of you feel love for your friend? How many of you have a pet? Does anyone of you have a dog at home? How many of you have a dog at home? How do you feel about your dog? How many of you have a cat at home? No one. How many of you have cows at home? Do you feel any love for the cow? So it is natural that we feel love for someone who is close to us. Now, tell me, will it be difficult to develop love for Krishna? Is it difficult to love somebody? No. So, will it be difficult to love Krishna? How many of you think it will be easy to love Krishna? Now, to love, what is the criterion? Like, say for example, let’s take the case of a friend. There was a time when you got to know him. Did you feel love for him before you knew him? Think of your friend. How many of you have a friend. At least one friend. So, you think of your friend. Did you always feel that way about him? No. First you met him. And when you met him, then what happened? You got to know each other and then you started to have dealings with each other. Did the friendship develop right at the first meeting? So, it needed some time to get to know each other. And when you got to know each other, then you started to feel some attraction. And that attraction led to this friendship. And now that you have your friendship with him, how do you feel about it? Does it happen that some day you do not meet you feel very depressed? How many of you meet your friend every day? You meet your friend every day? How many of you meet your friend at least once a week? And if you don’t see him, how do you feel? So, the point is, if we develop our relationship, then we want to be with him. The desire to be with him is love. Isn’t it? What is love? Love is the desire to be with that person, to become close to that person. So in this way we develop our relationship. Now, with most of us, did we feel the love for Krishna always or it developed at some point? Like how many of you developed your love for Krishna after you got to know Him? Please raise your hand. Like first you have to get to know him. How did you get to know Krishna? Or did you fall in love with Krishna just like that? How many of you had your love for Krishna all along? Okay… How many of you developed your love for Krishna after you got to know Him? How many of you got to know Him by hearing about Him from somebody. And how many of you got to know Krishna by reading Prabhupada’s books? Okay… This is how there are different ways that we become attracted to Krishna. Isn’t it? Like by hearing about Krishna, or reading about Krishna, especially reading is very important. When we hear about Krishna, we may not recognize, we may not register it so deeply. But when we read, the descriptions about Krishna are so vivid that we can relate to that description and we can appreciate Krishna’s qualities. Therefore, please read Srila Prabhupada’s books. You will notice, the more you read, the more you will develop your attachment to Krishna. It is also important to read various books like Mahabharata. We read Bhagavad-Gita, but Bhagavad-Gita is a part of Mahabharata. And Bhagavad-Gita is very concise and philosophical. But when you read Mahabharata you will notice Krishna’s dealings with the devotees and what the character of the devotees is. The Pandavas, they are so great. Why are they so great? oHow Because they are devotees of Krishna. How many of you read Mahabharata here? How many of you know about Mahabharata? Okay. How many of you know the basic story of Mahabharata? In Mahabharata there are two sets of people. The Kauravas and the Pandavas. The Kauravas, how many of you want to be like the Kauravas ?How many of you want to be like Duryodhana ? No one. But how many of you like to be like Arjuna ? How many of you wanted to be like Arjuna ? Why you want to become like Arjuna ? Because Arjuna is good. Why you don’t want to become like Duryodhana ? Because Duryodhana was bad. So you want to become good.Don’t you ? Isn’t it natural to become good ? And the ultimate goodness of Arjuna is, he is a devotee of Krishna. The same thing with Yudhistira Maharaja, Bhima, Nakula and Sahadeva. And also Draupadi, Subhadra. Although Subhadra has not been described so much in Mahabharata, but Draupadi has been very distinctly described. And Draupadi what do you find ? Draupadi is also such a great devotee of Krishna. Draupadi was very dear to Krishna because Draupadi was the wife of the Pandavas. And that is how Draupadi became so attached to Krishna. And whenever she was in difficulty, she would look for Krishna, she would appeal to Krishna. Like you know when Dushasana was trying to disrobe Draupadi, then what did Draupadi do ? Draupadi depended upon Krishna. Although she was wearing one piece of cloth and Dushasana was trying to pull that cloth, to strip her naked in front of everybody, then what did Draupadi do ? Draupadi prayed to Krishna and Krishna immediately came. Although no one could see Him, but He came. And He started to supply unlimited saris to Draupadi. Dushasana was pulling but he could not end. Eventually he became tired. He became tired of pulling saris. There was a mountain of sari. So this is how Krishna protects His devotees. Now is it just a story ? Is Mahabharata just a story ? How many of you think that Mahabharata is just a story or a fairy tale ? Or how many of you think that Mahabharata is a fact or reality ? Yes, Mahabharata is history. In history you read about great personalities, in history you read about king Ashoka, right ? Is it a story or is it real ? In history you read about Akhbar, in history you read about Saijaha. In history you read about Chandragupta. Is Chandragupta read in history course ? Also he is there in history course. Candragupta and Vikram Aditya, also in history? So these are, although long time ago, but they were real persons. Like for example Vikram Aditya was from this place, Ujjain, it was his capital. If you came a few thousand years ago, you would be able to see Vikram Aditya, you would be able to see Kalidas, you would be able to see all these great personalities, they were real. Similarly if we could go five thousand years back, then we could see the Pandavas. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Now, although we are not able to see them, but at least we can read about their glorious activities. And by reading about their glorious activities, we get to know our heritage. This is our past, isn’t it? Mahabharata is actually our heritage and when we read and appreciate Mahabharata we become aware of our glorious past. They are all our ancestors, Pandavas are our ancestors. Don’t you feel proud to have such illustrious ancestors ? And then, what is the greatness of the Pandavas, they are devotees of Krishna. Pandavas also did not meet Krishna right after their birth. Pandavas had to wait for some time before they could meet Krishna. But as soon as they met with Krishna, their attraction became very strong. Specially Arjuna and Krishna. Because they were of the same age. Bhima and Yudhistira Maharaja were older than Krishna. And Nakula and Sahadeva were younger than Krishna. Arjuna and Krishna were of the same age and friendship develops with people of the same age. Don’t you see that your cousin, you may have many cousins, but the one of the same age you are more close to, more intimate with him. So that is what happened between Arjuna and Krishna, they immediately became very close friends. Now of course Arjuna could develop his relationship with Krishna through some family relationship. But you can also develop a relationship although you may not have a family relationship. This freedom to develop a relationship with Krishna is available to everyone. But we don’t jump straight to friendship. Where we start from? We start from servitorship. First on our part we want to become a servant of Krishna. Like when you think of say the Prime Minister of India. Do you think of him as your friend ? You think of him as the Prime Minister, a very big person. But if some day the Prime Minister of India tells you that he wants to be your friend, then you can become his friend. Similarly, we start off with servitorship and then if Krishna wants to become our friend, Krishna wants to give us friend, then yes, that is possible. But Krishna Himself also is saying, that He is the dearmost Friend of every living entity. Suhridam sarva bhutanam. How, but Krishna is taking care of us in all respects. He is taking care of us, just like a friend. And when we read about Mahabharata then we see how Krishna takes care of every living entity, as we mentioned with Draupadi. Did Krishna take care of her? If you become a devotee of Krishna, will Krishna take care of you? Yes? Krishna will take care of you. Krishna takes care so wonderfully. Like for example, one anecdote from Mahabharata. Once Durvasha Muni went to the palace of Duryodhana. He came to the palace of Draupadi. You know Durvasha muni ? What Durvasha muni is famous for ?Durvasha Muni is famous for his anger. He becomes angry very quickly and he curses also. So, Durvasha came to Hastinapura with ten thousand disciples. And he became the guest of the Kauravas. And Duryodhana took care of him very nicely. He knew about Durvasha Munis anger, so he was afraid of Durvasha Muni. So he made it a point to just take care of Durvasha Muni very nicely. And Durvasha Muni is also very tricky at times. Like all of a sudden, he would wake up at midnight and say : “I am hungry, give me the food.” And if you can’t produce the food right away, he will curse you. So, in this way, Durvasha was testing Duryodhana and finally Durvasha was very pleased with Duryodhana. And he asked Duryodhana, I am very pleased with you, ask for any benediction. In one way Durvasha Muni gives curse and he also gives benediction very quickly. So he said that “I want to give you some benediction, what benediction you want?” Duryodhana, all the time, he wanted to harm the Pandavas. He thought that this is a good opportunity to harm the Pandavas. Because Durvasha Munis demand is so high and the Pandavas means are so little, they are staying in the forest. So, Durvasha Muni will get angry with them and he will curse them. And by Durvashas curse so many people had difficulties, you know that? When Duryodhana told that “please, go to the Pandavas.” When Durvasha Muni told Duryodhana that he wanted to give him a benediction, Duryodhana told him :”the Pandavas, Yudhistira Maharaja and his brothers are staying in the forest, so I want you to visit them. And please visit them in the afternoon, when all of them have eaten. Even Draupadi had eaten.” Now, Draupadi had a copper pot, given by the sun-god. And the condition was, that copper pot, when she cooked, it would supply unlimited food. Whatever she cooked, you take it, it will become filled again. You take more, it will become filled again. So endlessly, it will supply. So there were many brahmanas also travelling with Yudhistira Maharaja and the Pandavas when they were staying in the forest. So, Yudhistira in this way, was able to feed all these brahmanas. But after Draupadi ate, she was the last one to take her food. After she ate, this pot will not produce anymore food for that day. So that’s why Duryodhana told Durvasha to go there late in the day, when everybody has eaten. And he thought that he will go there with ten thousand disciples, they won’t be able to feed them and he will curse the Pandavas. So Durvasha, according to Duryodhana’s request came there. And Yudhistira Maharaja, the Pandavas, the other four brothers, they were taking rest after having taken lunch. Draupadi has already finished her eating, the pot was empty. So he just arrived with ten thousand disciples. Yudhistira Maharaja was in anxiety but still the guest has come. But still it is the custom that you have to honour the guest. And such a guest as Durvasha Muni, such an exalted sage. So Yudhistira Maharaja said, “please go and take your bath and come back, we will make arrangements for you.” But then Yudhistira Maharaja found out that Draupadi has finished eating. So now the pot is empty. So what to do ? Draupadi also was in great difficulty, what to do ?So then, Draupadi called, prayed to Krishna. Krishna, you are our only hope. You are our only shelter. Specially at the time of difficulties we can’t take shelter of anyone but you. And Krishna immediately came. Upon hearing Draupadi’s prayer, Krishna immediately came. And Draupadi told what happened to Krishna. “Durvasa came with ten thousand disciples and the pot is empty, there is no food left and in the middle of the forest, they don’t know how to arrange for prasadam. So Krishna said, “I am also feeling hungry, give Me something. So, Draupadi said, “Krishna, there is nothing left.” The pot is completely empty. So Krishna said : “Bring the pot.” And Krishna saw, at the rim of the pot, there was one grain of rice and a little vegetable sticking. Krishna just took that and He said, “I am so satisfied. And when Krishna is satisfied, the whole world is satisfied. So Durvasha and his followers they also, all of a sudden felt as if they have eaten up to their neck. There is no more food that they can swallow. And Durvasha was surprised. He said, “I am also feeling the same way.” They said, “We are all feeling the same.” Now, Yudhistira Maharaja must have made such arrangement, so what to do? And in the mean time, Krishna told Yudhistira Maharaja, that “you just go and ask him to come to take his prasadam”. So Bhima immediately went. But when Bhima went to the river, the Ganges, where Durvasha with his disciples were meant to take bath, he found that no one is there. And some other rishis were there. So he asked, “what happened ?” He said, well we heard, they were talking among themselves, they said :” We are so full, we can’t even take one more bite of food. And Yudhistira Maharaja made such nice arrangements for us. And if we go and we can’t honor his arrangement, then will feel bad. And Durvasha said, yes, once I had an experience with Ambarisa Maharaja. The devotees of the Lord, when they become displeased, you are in real trouble. So, better not go back, let’s start running. And saying that, they all ran away from there. So this is how Krishna helps His devotee, saves His devotee, rescues His devotee from a difficult situation. So, is it worthwhile to become a devotee of Krishna ? Yes. So you all become very good devotees of Krishna. How many of you (students group from Bhopal) are chanting Hare Krishna ? Very good, practically all of you are chanting. This maha-mantra is Krishna Himself. In the age of Kali, how does Krishna appear, what is Krishna’s incarnation? Do you know, in the four different yugas, Krishna has four different incarnations. In different times Krishna incarnates.. In the age of Kali, Krishna incarnates, do you know how Krishna incarnates in the age of Kali ? One is in the form of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, another incarnation is the end of the age of Kali, that is Kalki-avatar. And another incarnation in the age of Kali, is the Holy Name. This Holy Name is Krishna in the form of sound. Like one incarnation of Krishna is Ganga, in the form of water. One incarnation of Krishna is Deities, in the form of earth. Earth, water, fire.. Another incarnation of Krishna is fire, sacrifice, the sacrificial fire. Another incarnation of Krishna in the form of sound, that is Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. So when you chant, this is Krishna Himself. If it is difficult to understand that this maha-mantra, this sound vibration is Krishna, then at least you can consider that Krishna instructed us to chant Hare Krishna in this age. Krishna came as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Krishna instructed us to chant the Holy Name. It is also the instructions of the scriptures : “Harer Nama, Harer Nama, Harer Nama Eva Kevalam Kalau Nasty Eva Nasty Eva Nasty Eva Gatir Anyatha” So, these instructions are there in the scriptures. So, that means Krishna is instructing us to chant the Holy Name. So, when Krishna sees that you are chanting the Holy Name, how will Krishna feel ? Won’t He be pleased ? So, that is the benefit of chanting Hare Krishna. Krishna is seeing that you are chanting and is Krishna omnipresent? Is Krishna present everywhere ? So, although you are chanting in this room, Krishna is seeing you ? And when Krishna is seeing that you are chanting, He will be pleased. So, please chant Hare Krishna with full faith. That this is the yuga-dharma. This is the way to receive Krishna’s mercy. This is the way to make spiritual advancement. So please chant the Hare Krishna mantra and become a very good devotee. Thank you all very much. Hare Krishna.
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