Live From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!
Date: March 1st, 2011
Topic: Dhruva Maharaja Goes Back To Godhead
Verse: 4. 12. 24
Speaker: HH Devamrta Swami
tasyakhila-jagad-dhatur
avam devasya sarnginah
parsadav iha sampraptau
netum tvam bhagavat-padam
TRANSLATION: We are representatives of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the creator of the whole universe, who carries in His hand the bow named Sarnga. We have been specifically deputed to take you to the spiritual world.
PURPORT: In Bhagavad-gita the Lord says that simply by knowing His transcendental pastimes (whether within this material world or in the spiritual world), anyone who understands factually who He is, how He appears and how He acts can be immediately fit for transfer to the spiritual world. This principle stated in the Bhagavad-gita operated in the case of King Dhruva. Throughout his life he tried to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead by austerity and penances. Now, the mature result was that Dhruva Maharaja became fit to be carried to the spiritual world, accompanied by the confidential associates of the Lord. [End of Srila Prabhupada's purport to SB 4.12.24]
HH Devamrta Swami: In this section of Srimad Bhagavatam we are again presented with the transcendental system and how it interacts with the material world. We see the transformation of Dhruva Maharaja. In spite of an inferior motivation due to his superior service he attains the supreme destination. We also are understanding a situation that is sort of a death when Dhruva Maharaj as a result of his following the instructions of Narada Muni attained the darsan of The Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The Lord touched His conch shell to the head of Dhruva. In that way Dhruva became free from all material contamination and was able to offer choice prayers to the Lord. You may remember how the Lord took effort to persuade Dhruva, "Don't worry that you first approached Me with material desires. You are a child. You have childish ambitions to have the greatest kingdom. I am not holding this against you." Just see how the Supreme Personality of Godhead is so sensitive in interpersonal relationships.
In some religious theologies it is stated, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." That is true. It is the beginning of wisdom but it is not the end of wisdom. First we must accept the supreme authority of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. We become aware of His system for maintaining this material world, His system for instructing living entities how they can reform but once we acknowledge the authority of the Lord there is no need to continue fearing.
The example often given is that who fears the police? Ideally speaking no one fears police except criminals. Law abiding citizens are very happy to see the police in their neighborhood. In fact they complain if there is not enough presence of the police but it is the criminals who become fearful and disturbed by police presence. Similarly when we advance beyond our criminal activities of material existence then we are happy to accept the authority of the Supreme Lord and we can begin to progress towards love of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So again even though the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom it is not the end of wisdom.
Dhruva Maharaja in his going to the spiritual world is showing what is the end of all wisdom. He received the service from the Lord to rule for thirty six thousand years in opulence. That opulence was because the Lord trusted him. "You service will not be compromised by opulence." Although usually the sastra explains that the Lord does not like to give His pure devotees opulence because they can become swayed by it but in the case of Dhruva,which is considered a special case something else was in operation.
He also received a benediction that his senses would not grow old. In looking at Dhruva Maharaj's understanding of his sensory situation at the time of his attaining darsan of the Supreme Lord we can take note of his self analysis. He presented himself to the Lord that, "Basically I realized now that was asleep. All my senses were asleep." Under the influence of may we consider our material activities performed in material existence to be vibrant, meaningful and very important. We consider our senses to be reliable instruments for interacting with reality but Dhruva is telling us something different. He presents himself as being asleep, all his senses were asleep but upon attaining the darsan of the Supreme Personality of Godhead he now is awakened.
After ruling in this world for thirty six thousand years with undiminished strength and sensory capacity it is time for him to go back to Godhead. Actually this is like a death but because his spiritual acumen is so powerful death becomes overshadowed. He is leaving behind his body, which was free of all material contamination and he is transforming into a spiritual body. As he approaches the Vaikuntha aircraft his body becomes a golden hue indicating that it is no longer material. It is no longer the iron rod in the fire that acts like fire. His body is now going to become like fire. It is going to become spiritual. Although previously his body was fully engaged in the Lord's service now he is going a step further in his spiritual development.
We don't see this as death because we are focused on Dhruva's glories. We are focused on Dhruva's being invited by the representatives of the Supreme Personality of Godhead to board the Vaikuntha craft and go to Vaikuntha. But just to let us know how things operate in the complete picture of the spiritual, material realities death does show up and Dhruva is not afraid of death personified. For a materialist death is the most frightening experience and here, death personified is coming to meet Dhruva but instead Dhruva utilizes even death in the lord's service by stepping on the head of death to climb up into the Vaikuntha aircraft. This is a Vaisnava, utilizing everything in the service of the Lord. Of course death recognizing that this devotee is not in my jurisdiction offers obeisances providing that convenient stepping stone so to speak for Dhruva Maharaj.
The circumstances of death and a devotee can often be a little puzzling. That is why when death personified approaches Dhruva Srila Prabhupada gives us some in depth understanding that the death of a devotee and the death of a non devotee are never the same. Internally they are completely different experiences although externally they look the same. Because of Dhruva's spiritual stature we don't so much pay attention to death showing up. We don't consider that his death is death. We just see how his body becomes spiritual and he boards the Vaikuntha aircraft. Any death of a devotee is not the same experience as conventually understood.
In preceding days we heard discussion about the great devotee Jayananda Prabhu and how he wanted to leave this world before Srila Prabhupada left the vision of this world. Just after his passing Srila Prabhupada wrote him a letter and expressed feelings of separation, expressed gratitude, expressed hope and also Srila Prabhupada gave a lesson in the next life options of a devotee if the devotee finishes his business, if a devotee doesn't finish his business. But first we can note in this letter that was published in the 'Back to Godhead Magazine' in 1976.
Srila Prabhupada expressed his feelings of separation from his disciple showing that the guru and disciple relationship is not just some kind of formality or ritual. The depths of reciprocation become more and more visible as the relationship matures. Based on teamwork in serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead the guru and disciple develop a firm bond of friendship, the sastras say, but the friendship is not like mundane friendship or casual relationship. It is friendship based on being friendly to the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
So Srila Prabhupada expressed, "I am feeling great separation from you."Then he recited a bit of the devotional service done by Jayananda Prabhu. "You gave me five thousand dollars for printing in the early days of Iskcon." Obviously Srila Prabhupada was very touched by that. And then he expressed his hope. "I hope that you went to Krishna's association." Still it is the job of the acarya to instruct his disciples.
So for the benefit of his disciples Prabhupada explained the various options, "I hope you went back to Godhead but if you have the slightest tinge of material desire then here is what's happened, you have gone to the heavenly planets where you will enjoy unsurpassable material enjoyment for thousands of years. In the heavenly planets after enjoying for such thousands of years you can go back to Godhead."
We see in the Bhagavatam that there is a system presented for going back to Godhead via the heavenly planets. Then Prabhupada explains another option,"If that doesn't work in terms of your going back to Godhead, if you don't go back to Godhead from the heavenly planets then you come back down to earth and then you take birth in a big yogis family or a big brahmanas family and then you get the chance to go back to Godhead again."
In this way we can see the whole cosmological system. We see the universe in both the middle and upper planetary systems as a chance for going back to Godhead. That is the purpose of the universe to reform. Then Srila Prabhupada added his confirmation, "But because you were hearing Krishna kirtana I am sure you went back to Godhead." And he explained that anyone who understands Krishna,
janma karma ca me divyam, evam yo vetti tattvatah [Bg 4.9]
At the time of relinquishing this body they won't take another body. Jayananda Prabhu when he left this world he had devotees screaming the holy names in both ears. [Haribol] he had a tape recorder that he would always keep with him that would play - back then in the seventies they had these tape cassettes that were endless, that they would just repeat over and over again. He didn't have to rewind.
So he had one of those tapes in the tape recorder and he would just play the Hare Krishna mantra of Prabhupada chanting, constantly. In his final moments he kept trying to press that tape recorder to his ear. Then the devotees saw that he was leaving and because they read in the Srimad Bhagavatam that at the time of death gradually the sense of hearing will go so one devotee got on each ear and started screaming the holy name into his ear. In that way he left this world.
Srila Prabhupada ended his letter to the departed soul, Jayananda by saying, at least it cause me to think, "Krishna has done you a great favor by ending your life in that diseased body." From a material point of view we think if Krishna is going to do me a favor He should heal my body [Laughter] so I could live longer. Who wants to leave this world prematurely? Jayananda was thirty eight. Krishna should hear my prayer, heal my body and let me live a few more years but Prabhupada is giving us a different way of looking at the situation.
Krishna did him a favor by riding him of a problematic material body. Then he concluded by saying, "Krishna is giving you a place in His service. I thank you very much." In this way we see what is normally the greatest disaster, from the material point of view - to give up the material body, instead, just like we see in the case of Dhruva Maharaja, it is the greatest victory.
When we read accounts in Bhagavatam we are presented with so much cosmological information that it can be mind boggling. We hear how Dhruva Maharaja in going back to Vaikuntha he could see all the higher planets what to speak of what we are dealing with in terms of the representatives of the Supreme Personality of Godhead coming to escort Dhruva to his special planet.
Srimad-Bhagavatam has always been a problem for mundane scholars. From the first time that they laid eyes on it during the days of early British colonialism in India they had a problem with Srimad-Bhagavatam because of what they considered stupendous or just totally out of the ordinary, beyond material conception. Even the information given about the material world in the Bhagavatam was so contrary that many British scholars considered Bhagavatam to be very primitive. It had to be primitive because its concepts were so defying.
Therefore they started giving most of their attention to the study of the four Vedas and arbitrarily made a decision that the Bhagavatam and other Puranas were something very recent. One of the foremost Purana experts in western scholarship was very honest and said, "One reason why the Puranas have such a bad name and no one pays much attention to them is because they are too vast and they require too much work from scholars." He said, "Most of your life will be spent trying to devise some methodology of approaching the Puranas, to analyze it what to speak of trying to make sense of it. Therefore the Puranas including Srimad Bhagavatam were considered some type of lower status."
Even in the history of India, even to this day you have a group, various groups but particularly the Arya-samaj who consider that the Bhagavatam and other Puranas are inferior texts and that Hindus should focus on the four Vedas. This is a political calculation done at the beginning of the twentieth century by various Hindu leaders that if you want to unite all the Hindus you got a problem with Bhagavatam. Out there it is just too mind-boggling. Better to look for Vedic texts that are more sedate and more conducive for material consciousness. So even in this way amongst Hindus in India what to speak of amongst western scholars Srimad-Bhagavatam got a bad name.
As followers of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu who instructed us before you are liberated read Srimad-Bhagavatam and after you are liberated go on reading Srimad-Bhagavatam. We don't run away from the Mayavadi presentation of Bhagavatam. In fact Bhagavatam will lead the way into a new understanding of the universe, new for western society in that Bhagavatam is not geocentric. It is not an earth focused sastra. It presents the vision of life everywhere in the universe what to speak of pure spiritual existence beyond the universe.
As we get deeper into the twenty first century more and more the topic of 'Is there Life on Other Planets?' the question is becoming more and more i There is fear - political fear, religious fear. Polls have shown that the majority of people in western countries, North America, Europe accept that there is life on other planets and they feel that particularly the US Government is covering up. Government leaders have come right out and said this. Former defense minister of Canada recently has said, "I know it is all true. In my capacity as defense minister of Canada I have talked to top American military leaders. It is all true. Things are being covered up. Why don't they just come out with it?" The former defense minister of the UK has asked, "Why doesn't the American military come clean? Top generals in France have also said the same thing.
The question is what is the fear? You can see sort of the same mentality manifested when persons read Srimad Bhagavatam from a mundane point of view. If this is true everything about our life is true. Not only spiritually, materially too! Some say this is the reason why some major governments are holding back on information. They don't want the people to become disturbed. They don't want everything we know about life today to be fractured. There has to be stability and understanding for continued economic development and weapons manufacture. And even that disturbsiis a very threat to human development. But if we leave aside the world of government reactions to extra terrestrial life you got something even probably more monumental to deal with and that is religions that took their birth in the near east, synergic religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. They are extraordinarily earth bound, geocentric.
Some religious leaders are saying that the greatest challenge to Islam, Christianity and Judaism will be how their religions handle life on other planets. What if there are some other people on another planet that turn out to be the chosen people of God. How does Jesus Christ's crucifixion and his offering atonement for people on earth how does that apply to residents of other planets?
In the UK in the Anglican Church a survey was taken and ninety five percent of the Bishops agreed that life on other planets is a possibility and if it turns out to be true Christianity and its doctrines have to be heavily modified. Some scientists come straight out and say it that the coup of extraterrestrial life means the death of Christianity as we know it. It call into question too many basic fundamentals or lacks of metaphysical understanding. What is the status of people on other planets? How will they be saved if they seem to be outside the jurisdiction of the mercy of the son of God just because they are not on a planet where the mercy of the crucifixion holds forth?
Certainly Srimad-Bhagavatam, Caitanya-caritamrta, Bhagavad-gita are not phased off by any revelation by life on other planets. We are not dealing with geocentric texts and we are not dealing with a geocentric Krishna consciousness movement. Krishna dasa Kaviraj Goswami explains that Krishna delivered everyone in the universe by coming as Lord Caitanya and mostly that was done by direct contact.
So things during Caitanya lila were happening on different levels. You know how when Lord Caitanya was in Jagannath Puri every year for the most part the residents of Navadwip would come to see Him there. Beyond that though persons from all over India would come to see Lord Caitanya but beyond that residents of planets throughout the universe would disguise themselves as human beings and come and see Lord Caitanya and in that way predominantly by direct contact Lord Caitanya, His sankirtana movement affected the whole universe. For the small number of those who did not have a chance to directly contact Lord Caitanya He empowered pure devotees by manifesting in them such a great presence of Himself that people recognized the Lord Caitanya is present in this devotee and they got the same benefit in that way.
Another way of course was by His avirbhava manifestation, showing up in special places such as in Saci Mata's home temple, wherever Nityananda Prabhu danced, during kirtan at Srivas Thakur's house and when Raghava Pandit will offer food. So in this way we certainly are not restricted to an earthly understanding of bhakti. We are not restricted to an earthly understanding to a scope of Srimad-Bhagavatam or the Krishna consciousness movement.
Let us consider Dhruva Maharaja's selfish motives, how he started out. Because of the brilliant arrangement of Narada Muni, Dhruva's selfish desires were channeled in such a way that he became purified to the point that he could see the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Upon Dhruva's going back to Godhead, Narada Muni will express his appreciation showing the gratitude that the spiritual father feels for the spiritual progress of his son.
Srila Prabhupada once gave a very brilliantly transcendental definition of management. Usually we think management means dollars and cents and logistics. Srila Prabhupada explained that management means to create a desire to be Krishna conscious in people who have no desire. That is management. So this is what Narada Muni did. He got hold of that drive of Dhruva to have a better kingdom than anyone in his family had and that meant not just better than Uttanapada, his father. It also meant better than Manu, his grandfather and better than Brahma, his great grandfather.
Narada Muni captured that selfish spirit and converted it into service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Dhruva to his extraordinary credit took the instructions, as you now, of Narada Muni and Narada Muni will celebrate that fact as Dhruva is going back to Godhead. Because of Narada Muni's expertise someone who had ferocious material desires ends up a different way - so much so that when Dhruva saw the Personality of Godhead he lamented,"What a fool I was!" Never the less as we said the Lord assures Dhruva. "I am not taking seriously your childish ambitions." It was the service of Dhruva and his dedication to the instructions of his spiritual master that totally changed the situation and therefore the Lord overlooked his motives.
Material life means selfish motives. Krishna conscious management means how to take something that is originally selfish and change it to something pure. We find in one purport in Caitanya-caritamrta the statement that this Krishna conscious movement is meant to attract all kinds of persons, not simply those who are free of material desires but it is also meant to attract persons with all kinds of material desires. By their association with devotees they change.
There are other examples in Bhagavatam about selfish motives being utilized skillfully. They are managed expertly. Kasyapa Muni had to deal with this situation on two occasions from two of his wives. First we read that he had to deal with Diti, the mother of the demons, the daityas. She was extremely angry with Indra. She blamed Indra for Lord Varaha and Lord Nrsimhadev's killing of her sons. She was quite fortunate in that she didn't blame the Lord but someone had to get her wrath. [Laughter] You may be able to sympathize with her. She lost two sons.
In her mind as expressed in the Bhagavatam she is thinking, "Only when Indra is killed can my mind rest in peace." This is the epitome of materialism. Only when some material objective is achieved will my mind be peaceful. She wanted Indra dead. She considered that Indra just to preserve his temporary material body, even though he's the king of heaven, still his body is material. Just to preserve that temporary body he had manipulated such a great offense as to have her sons killed by Visnu.
Therefore figuring Indra as the culprit, the one who is behind the whole scene, she wanted Indra dead. So she came up with a plan. She began to serve Kasyapa Muni so gorgeously, so submissively, so sweetly. In this way the Bhagavatam says she captured his mind and brought it under her control - by this artificial behavior. Artificial behavior because she had a nefarious plan!
Kasyapa Muni fell for it hook, line and sinker! And you can read several verses in the Bhagavatam in which he begins to express to her. "You have served your husband who is the source of the demigods; you have served your husband the representative of the Supreme Lord, any benediction you like will be yours. I am so pleased by you." He was ivery profusely and then when he asked her, "What benediction do you want?" She flaws it, "I want Indra dead." [Laughter] "I want a son who will kill Indra."
Instantly Kasyapa Muni's jubilation turns to the greatest lamentation, "What have I done?!! Indra doesn't deserve to die. I can't be an instrument in Indra's death." Then he begins to condemn himself. "I lost control of my senses. I was not acting in a way in which I could give proper spiritual guidance. It is my fault." So what to do? He then showed some brilliant manageriall skills. He takes advantage of Diti's selfish drive for her to become purified. "Here's a way you can kill Indra. You have to follow these practices for one year."
He gives a whole list of do not do this; do not do that in such a way that all these negatives back her to the door of bhakti. And he tells her to worship the cows, the brahmanas and the Supreme Lord. "If you do this process perfectly for one year you will have a son who can kill Indra. If there is a slightest slip up you get a son who is Indra's friend." Just see how he is correcting the situation. As proper guru for his wife he is channeling her desires in a way that something else will happen.
So she is very happy to hear this and she assures him, "Just tell me what I have to do. There will be no problem. I am going to do everything perfectly. I want Indra dead. [Laughter] Thank you so much for giving me this Vaisnava process so that Indra will die. The sastra describes she duly became pregnant by Kasyapa. She can't kill Indra but as a woman she can have a child who can kill Indra. So she duly became pregnant and Indra knew what was going on. He also had selfish desires. Self preservation is the first principle of existence. So what did Indra do? He came to serve his pregnant aunt as a menial servant, waiting on her hand and foot.
The Bhagavatam describes that just like a hunter of a deer covers himself with the deer skin to mix with the deer and achieve his goal Indra did the same thing. He was just waiting and watching, "As soon as she makes a slip up in her sadhana then I have the opening to terminate her pregnancy." So he was waiting and watching but she does everything flawlessly and Indra is becoming in complete anxiety, "How can I save my skin?" But as the time and the year and her vrata was going on Diti became weak and she slipped up. She went to sleep without washing her hands after eating and that was a deviation from the vow.
Indra then took advantage for his own purposes. He was able to enter her womb and he cut the embryo into seven pieces and then these seven pieces to another seven pieces but the children didn't die. Forty nine Maruts took birth and they expressed to Indra, "What are you doing. We are your friends." Then Indra had the realization, "These are actually my friends.What do I have to fear from them?" Then Diti after delivering the forty nine sons when she expected only one son - A mother of forty nine sons! [Laughter] She was very happy because of that. Then she saw all these forty nine sons were friends of Indra she didn't mind. Why didn't she mind?
She had become purified by Kasyapa Muni's instructions. She had become a Vaisnava which was Kasyapa Muni's intent. She confessed to Indra, she became straightforward. "I just want a son who would kill you." And then Indra, because she was straightforward he decided to be straightforward. "Well you know," [Laughter] (That was putting the cards on the table.) "I was rendering you menial service but I have to confess I wasn't exactly selfless. I had a particular motivation" So they both came clean and both had become purified. Diti had become purified because of following Kasyapa's instructions. She forgot about her desire to have a son to kill Indra. And Indra became purified also because he was serving Diti who was practicing Vaisnava sadhana and because Indra although serving her with his own motivation he also became purified.
So in the end everyone forgot their enmity and Indra took the forty nine Maruts with him to the heavenly planets. The forty nine sons of Diti instead of becoming demons because Diti is the mother of demons, they became demigods. In this way because of skilful management although there were extremely selfish motivations something else happened.
Then the other wife of Kasyapa, Aditi, the mother of the demigods, she was lamenting at one point that the demons have chased her sons including Indra from the heavenly planets. She was missing her sons and in such extreme lamentation she appealed to Kasyapa Muni, "Can you do something so that I can be with my sons again? Can you do something so that my sons will come back?" First Kasyapa Muni expressed that this was the power of sneha bada, bondage due to affection.
It is amazing how we think we are the body. But then he gave her a process for using that selfish motivation, benign selfish motivation and in that way the supreme good resulted by Aditi following the payo vrata, a particular vrata that Kasyapa gave her. She got the darsan of the Supreme Lord who agreed to become her son. He appeared as Lord Vamana. Lord Vamana achieved the purpose of returning the demigods to the heavenly planets by taking the universe back from Bali Maharaja.
In this way we can see skilful management at work and we should not feel that my life is hopeless because how will we ever render meaningful service to the Lord because of tinges of material desire. When Srila Prabhupada wrote to Jayananda, "If you have the slightest tinge of material desire you didn't go back to Godhead, you went to the heavenly planets." What's the hope for us? But because you were hearing krsna-kirtan I know you went back to Godhead.
Our management centers upon hearing krsna-kirtana which purifies selfish motivation and allows...in this age of kali and you can go back to Godhead in one lifetime. Are there any questions?
Prabhu: Hare Krishna Maharaja, thank you for your wonderful presentation. Earlier in the class you were speaking about, you were saying you service would not be compromised by opulence and the Lord usually doesn't like to give opulence because one can be swayed by such opulence. So my question is what are the dynamics by which one can be swayed by opulence and how can a devotee safe guard against this?
HH Devamrta Swami: Simply by remembering that everything belongs to Krishna, using everything in Krishna's service and don't have connections with things that are not engaged in Krishna's service. Usually Prabhupada explains in one purport in this section of Druva Maharaja's Krishna like to take away the opulence of pure devotees. In describing about himself Prabhupada said,"I know all about this." yasyaham anugrhnami, harisye tad-dhanam sanaih [SB 10.88.8] Lord Hari takes away all the impediments to pure devotion and He gives the ecstatic devotion. We may be fearful about the taking away part but the giving part is the greatest benediction, giving that pure devotion.
Prabhupada once explained that, "There was no doubt about my executing the order of my Guru Maharaja to spread Krishna consciousness in the west. I took that from the very beginning as my heart and soul but I wanted to do that as a rich man. I thought no one would be impressed by a poor mendicant from India but if I have wealth then the world will listen." His plan was to become wealthy and in that way carry out the order of his Guru Maharaja. And he said that so strologers had analyzed that he was meant to become one of the richest men in India's history. He said, "I wanted to do it as a rich man. Krishna wanted me to do it as a poor man." So he said, "We had an argument. [Laughter] We had an argument and Krishna won. Go to the US as a penniless beggar."
Prabhu: A very brief and simple question, Maharaj. I understood and I appreciate the point you made that many of the western religions tend to be very earth bound. Geocentric is the word you used a couple of times but just for a clarification, cosmologically I understand that the Vedic paradigm, the Puranic paradigm is also geocentric. We are on Jambudvip which is on the centre of Bhumandala. Could you clarify that?
HH Devamrta Swami: Geocentric means earth is the only place that anything is happening. In fact only human beings have souls and there is no concept of life on other planets and how that relates to salvation. There is no concept of how life on other planets gets the mercy of the Lord. That is what I meant. Therefore that is why we recognize that the reality of life on other planets will cause severe doctrinal problems and therefore ninety five percent of the Bishops of the Anglican Church have agreed that will be the case. So I think we are getting late. Thank you very much! Hare Krishna.
[Applause]
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