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Live From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!
Date: February 17th, 2011
Topic: Dhruva Maharaj Goes Back to Godhead
Verse: SB 4.12.12
Speaker: HH Romapada Swami
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tam evam sila-sampannam
brahmanyam dina-vatsalam
goptaram dharma-setunam
menire pitaram prajah

TRANSLATION: Dhruva Maharaja was endowed with all godly qualities; he was very respectful to the devotees of the Supreme Lord and very kind to the poor and innocent, and he protected religious principles. With all these
qualifications, he was considered to be the direct father of all the citizens.

PURPORT: The personal qualities of Dhruva Maharaja described herein are the exemplary qualities of a saintly king. Not only a king but also the leaders of a modern democratic or impersonal government must be qualified with all
these godly characteristics. Then the citizens of the state can be happy. It is clearly stated here that the citizens thought of Dhruva Maharaja as their father; as a child, depending on his able father, is completely satisfied, so the citizens of the state, being protected by the state or the king, should remain satisfied in every respect. At the present moment, however, there is no guarantee by the government of even the primary necessities of life in the state, namely, the protection of the lives and property of the citizens.

One word is very significant in this connection: brahmanyam. Dhruva Maharaja was very devoted to the brahmanas, who engage in the study of the Vedas and thereby know the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They are always busy
propagating Krsna consciousness. The state should be very respectful to societies that distribute God consciousness all over the world, but, unfortunately, at the present moment there is no state or government support given to such movements. As for good qualities, it is very difficult to find anyone in state administration with any good qualities. The administrators simply sit in their administrative posts and say no to every request, as if they were paid to say no to the citizens.

Another word, dina-vatsalam, is very significant also. The state head should be very kind to the innocent. Unfortunately, in this age the state agents and the presidents draw good salaries from the state, and they pose
themselves as very pious, but they allow the running of slaughterhouses, where innocent animals are killed. If we try to compare the godly qualities of Dhruva Maharaja to the qualities of modern statesmen, we can see that there is no actual comparison. Dhruva Maharaja was present in the Satya-yuga, as will be clear from the next verses. He was the ideal king in Satya-yuga. The government administration in the present age (Kali-yuga) is bereft of all godly qualities. Considering all these points, the people today have no alternative but to take to Krsna consciousness for protection of religion, life and property. [End of Srila Prabhupada's purport to SB 4.12.13]

HH Romapada Swami: In this section of verses before, the chapter is entitled 'Dhruva Maharaj Goes Back to Godhead'. So this is before he goes back to Godhead. This is after he achieves spiritual perfection. And the thirty-six thousands of years that he was ruling as a king indicates Satya-yuga. Otherwise that is not possible.

It is describing how he ruled. In Visvanatha Cakravati Thakura's commentary he is singing that Dhruva Maharaj is showing by example the proper execution of duties as karma-yoga and then later he leaves those duties and does
jnana-yoga. Actually he is transcendental to either karma-yoga or jnana-yoga or any other sadhana. He is on the perfectional platform. That was demonstrated way back when he was just a small boy. So this is the context.

When he was just a small boy he achieved spiritual perfection. He went from sakama to niskama bhakti, to suddha bhakti just like the description of Prahlad Maharaj where he is being touched by the lotus hand or paw of Lord
Nrsimhadev. It is explained that this is a portion of the display of mercy that even the Goddess of fortune herself had never experienced. Inconceivable for her! But Prahlad Maharaj was a recipient of such mercy. Dhruva Maharaj similarly, the incarnation of the Personality of Godhead, Lord Visnu touching his forehead, allowing him to recite such beautiful prayers.

In those prayers it is said that he is a king there. He wasn't in the sadhana stage, he was in that perfectional stage. In the discussion of Ramananda Raya were Lord Caitanya is asking him to identify the sadhya sadhana, the goal of life and the means to achieve it. When Caitanya Mahaprabhu hears some of our most famous verse, our favorite verse of Bhagavad-gita, He says external. 

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja [Bg 18.66]

External!

brahma-bhutah prasannatma, na socati na kanksati [Bg 18.54]

yat karosi yad asnasi,yaj juhosi dadasi yat [Bg 9.27]

External! The previous verses show the internal position of the Dhruva Maharaj. The internal position of Dhruva Maharaj is after Lord Visnu left he was torn with these two conflicting emotions - in complete ecstasy, in complete devastation. The ecstasy was that he saw the Personality of Godhead face-to face. His whole body was in this state of ecstasy. He was exhibiting such symptoms of ecstasy that he couldn't speak until the Lord helped him by touching him with the conch.

So we can see beautiful words, beautiful prayers! And then the Lord after giving him residence in Dhruvaloka, after he rules the kingdom of Uttanapada for thirty-six thousand years then he could go to that place and then the Lord left. And when the Lord left he was sobbing, "I could have gone with the Lord instead of the stupid material desire that said, 'I want a kingdom. I want a big kingdom.' And because of that material desire the Lord is now making the arrangement that I rule this kingdom. I could have gone with Him. I just couldn't have the proper desire."

He was not just embarrassed. He was ashamed. What did he do? He gathered himself up and went back to the palace. And when he came back to the palace Uttanapada was i Although Narada had come to somehow pacify him, he was somehow sustaining his life. Imagine if your six or seven year old son just left home because he felt abandoned by you. So Narada came and said, "Don't worry. Your son is going to achieve spiritual perfection and when he comes back you will become purified by his association." In fact that is what happened.

Uttanapada became so inspired by the association of his uttama bhakta son that he left the kingdom and he followed Dhruva's footsteps. He went to the forest and tried to find Visnu instead of the happiness with his co-wives.Dhruva ruled.

And in the immediate previous section his battle with the Yaksas and Svayambhuva Manu coming and pacifying Dhruva that, "You have done your duty. All these Yaksas you defeated. You were trying to destroy the whole
population of Yaksas. The whole population of Yaksas couldn't kill your brother. You defended the honor of your brother. Now stop." And that is the grandfather. Just at the word although he was very unique, because he is an
uttama adhikari and he got carried away. But just one word from Svayambhuva Manu he was steady. And because the Yaksas are worshippers of Kuvera, Kuvera was very pleased. Kuvera came and expressed his pleasure, Your
submissiveness to Svayambhuva Manu, your consciousness is so fixed upon the Personality of Godhead, you pleased me very much. I would like to offer you some benediction."

What is this, a demigod offering a pure devotee a benediction? What benediction did he want? One benediction is that please let my dedication be undeviatingly fixed on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So how can a demigod give that benediction? He actually can't. He has to give him. But the clue is that although Kuvera had expressed his pleasure with Dhruva, Dhruva wanted to make sure that there was no lingering aparadha because when there is aparadha that blocks ones capacity. It is one of the anarthas, one of the clouds that don't commit one to become absorbed in unalloyed devotion to the Personality of Godhead. He was seeking that forgiveness but he did not say that. He said, "Please benedict me with the capacity to remain always fixed on the Personality of Godhead." So Kuvera to the core excused him from that mistake.  Each one of those proper applications of api cet su-duracaro [Bg 9.30] It was not directly anger but sadhur eva sa mantavyah [Bg 9.30] Such a person, Dhuva Maharaj should be considered saintly. Krishna considers him saintly. We should consider that the Bhagavatam considers him an uttama adhikari vaisnava. So now he is king. And for some period of time, not just externally but internally he is fixed in Krishna consciousness but he is given a service that says, "You be king for thirty-six thousand years."

So the way that we are presented the verse is how we do sadhana but the position of Dhruva is that he is at the perfectional stage exhibiting that this is how you can practice. He is exhibiting qualities just as the first line of the verse indicates, tam evam sila-sampannam.

Caitanya Mahaprabhu  similarly or in the stage or something that we can relate to more, because we are not on the perfectional stage, how do we perform our worldly duties while always remaining fixed in Krishna consciousness or how do we practice that. There is a very nice instruction that Caitanya Mahaprabhu is giving to Raghunath dasa Goswami. Before he became Goswami he was Raghunath Majumadara. He was the son of Govardhan Majumadhara. They were two brothers, Hiranya, the older brother and Govardhan, the younger brother and Raghunath was the son. And of these two,this is directly described in Caitanya-caritamrta, their income was 1200000 rupees per year. I don't even know if they had rupees that time but that is what Prabhupada writes in the purport.

When Prabhupada first came to America it was seven dollars to a rupee. Then it quickly became fourteen and so on. So Prabhupada said multiply by one hundred and that is their wealth. Whatever it is, they were fabulously wealthy, amongst the wealthiest of all families in all of India. And they were not miserly. They were Vaisnavas and they were very liberal in giving charity. Just as it is cited about Dhruva he was so charitable that practically he would empty his treasury and then because he was so spiritually qualified his treasury would fill and he would empty it again.

The Majumadara's would maintain all of the brahmanas and Vaisnavas in their whole area. So they were very popular and they were respected. But they were not just high and respected. It is described that the place where they came from was Krishnapura and wasn't so far from Navadvip and they had relationship with Jagannath Misra and they practically worshipped Jagannath Misra. Jaganath Misra, Lord Caitanya's father was so qualified amongst all the Vaisnavas in Navadvip. He was so qualified and respected by everyone. So even from distant places this Majumadar family worshipped him.

Caitanya-caritamrta sas that Jagannath Misra was so Vaisnava-like that he treated them just like friends. They were worshipping him and he was treating them as friends.  They would go and serve Advaita Acarya in Santipura, because he was such an elevated Vaisnava and he was very pleased with the Majumadars, so much so that when Caitanya Mahaprabhu was making His pilgrimage to India, He made a little detour first through Bengal and after
going through Divya nagara so many hundreds and thousands of people came. It was too much so he went to hide in Navadvip, in Kulinagram. There He stayed in the house of Madhava dasa. 

And for seven days thousands and thousands of people will gather aroundiThen he went to Santipur and stayed there for ten days. While He was in Santipura raghunath came to know that Lord Caitanya was there, very close to their
family. So he pleaded with his father, "Please let me go there. I don't know  if I would be able to maintain my life." He was so eager for Lord Caitanya's association. So with some reservation and like ten gaurds, Raghunatha was

allowed to go. 

For seven days Raghunath was receiving the remnants of lord Caitanya's prasadam. It was arranged by Advaita Acarya or him to have the mahaprasad from the hand of Advaita Acarya. How fortunate! He did not say anything but in his mind he was praying for Lord Caitanya, "Somehow please deliver me from the clutches of material existence and allow me to be in Your association." He didn't say that but Lord Caitanya knew his mind.

So Lord Caitanya spoke very instructive words which were very appropriate for this situation what Dhruva Maharaj was facing. Three things: "be patient; go back home; don't be a crazy fellow. In due course of time you will cross the ocean of material existence." Then He gave him this internal, external instruction. "Don't be a show-bottle devotee or a false renunciate. For now enjoy the material world, external world in a fitting way but don't
be attached to it. So within your heart remain faithful. Externally behave like an ordinary man. By doing like that very soon Krishna will deliver you. 

He will provide you with the means. He will be clear with the means for you to escape that circumstance." Very instructive! Because my appearance as a i sannyasi many questions that people ask are the 'how to' questions. Here is the 'how to' answer. In executing the duties of life it seems by so doing it is very entangling, very time consuming and one becomes attached. Just like Priyavrata, coming later, very soon in the Bhagavatam. Priyavrata, when the lineage of kings from Uttanapada was broken, there was no qualified king to carry on the line, Svayambhuva Manu went to Uttanapada's elder brother, Priyavrata and requested Priyavrata, "My dear son please become the emperor of the material world." And he did not want to say, "No I don't want to do that." But he did not want to do that because his understanding was that by so doing I will become attached.

"To become an emperor then I will have to have a queen and I will also have to have a family. And for one who comes in to contact with the opposite sex and money if is very easy to become attached and I do not want to become attached." On the other hand here is Raghunath dasa Goswami who is renunciation personified and here Lord Caitanya is saying to him, "Go back. Go perform your duty externally."

So this is the clue. Externally as required to properly carry out whatever needs to be done, do that in a very responsible way be. Internally be very faithful and do not become attached. Don't allow yourself or your mind to
become attached but perform all of your duties in a very responsible way. In due course of time Krishna will help you cross the ocean of material existence. It's cultivation. In the course of doing that, same as the verse Lord Caitanya accepted,

jnane prayasam udapasya namanta eva [Madhya 8.67]

You stay sthane sthitah sruti-gatam tanu-van-manobhir [Madhya 8.67]

You stay in your position and hear the topics of the Personality of Godhead through the proper sources and don't involve yourself in endeavoring for knowledge and mental speculation. But that is on the jnana-yoga side and on
the material side there is the appearance of this world perform your duties without attachment, preach the message of Bhagava-gita. This is such a nice example or two nice expressions 'how to' live.

Dhruva Maharaj is not on the external platform. He is doing his duties and dedicating them to the Supreme Personality of Godhead but his mind is completely fixed. The Bhagavatam is so great in that it gives us such close,
intimate examples of consciousness and heart both external and internal of the perfected devotees.

Similarly Ambarish Maharaj's opulence was surpassing that of the heavenly realm and he didn't care about it all. In that he did not care about it at all it is described that he did not value it more than a pebble or small stone. Imagine if after class we walk out and we see a small stone on the courtyard. How exciting is that? Who is ever going to pay any attention? He didn't consider his enormous treasury any more significant than that. Totally insignificant! And yet he used it fully as the previous verses about Dhruva described. He engaged the brahmanas in the performances of yajnas and he gave in charity to the brahmanas and to all of the citizens he was distributing all of the fruits of piety because that was the platform on which they were on. But yet internally he was completely absorbed.

Just like again the example of Ambarish Maharaj, it is described there was a drought in his kingdom and Ambarish was so pious that when he heard that there was a drought what did he do? He engaged the brahmanas who were very expert in yajna in performing yajna while he was in the temple worshipping the Krishna deity because he was Krishna bhakta. He was engaging the citizens in his kingdom appropriate to their position and according to the faith of the citizens who can accept whatever they can accept but his consciousness did not stray one fraction from, sa vai manah krsna-padaravindayor [SB 9.4.18] Externally doing duties as they are to be done, as appropriate for the circumstance and time and so forth and internally fully absorbed in thought of Krishna.

This is Dhruva Maharaj's example. In the verse it describes that the first statement is that he was decorated with all good qualities, tam evam sila-sampannam. In the twelfth chapter of Bhagavad-gita Krishna describes the position of worshipping Him in the personal feature versus the impersonal feature. One who worships the personal feature he becomes fixed in qualities, that is to say, Krishna decorates His devotees with good qualities.

There are twenty six qualities of a devotee mentioned in out scripture and of those twenty six qualities one is svarup laksana and the others are tatasya laksana - principle characteristics and marginal. And the marginal
follow the principle. And the principleone - krsnaika-saranam is something that pleases Krishna that Krishna then begins to decorate His devotees with nice qualities. And when Krishna sees the devotee come before Him with nice
qualities He is very pleased. He decorates the devotee with nice qualities. From where else we are going to get good qualities? They come from Krishna. He decorates His devotees with good qualities.

When the devotees see that Krishna is very pleased then they become fully satisfied and when they are fully satisfied the mind doesn't dwell on other things. They are protected by this one thing, their exclusive shelter and devotion to Krishna.

So the verse says that Dhruva had all godly qualities. He manifested three of them. He was brahmanya. Just like we say, namo brahmanya devaya. He had quality of Krishna. He is very kind i very respectful to the brahmanas. He
was very affectionate to the brahmanas. As described here he engaged them. As described her he obeyed them and being liberal he gave in charity to thebrahmanas. He saw to their protection and to their well being. And because
they were protected and in a state of well being the whole country was benefitted by the proper execution of those religious duties that the brahmanas were doing. Everyone was prosperous and everyone was very happy.

Those who are innocent persons, a great personality, because somebody is small or in worldliness insignificant they do not make such a distinction. This is some innocent person. They are very kind to them, just naturally so.
It is part of the character of a Vaisnava. And when that character of a Vaisnava is missing there is not just a ... Krishna will decorate one with those qualities. (I shall share and anecdote in this regard shortly.) Particularly those who are sannyasis or on that path of life, more particularly preaching, it is little difficult as a sannyasi because
everyone wants to serve you, carry this or help you with that. You can't do anything because people want serve and it is difficult but after some time it becomes like a service to accept a person who wants to do this and a person who wants to do that. It is a service unto the society to take that position, in the service of the society.

So I was recently travelling in America going to the North American Temple President and GBC meeting in Dallas towards the end of January. The flight on the way back goes from Houston to Dallas with this i So the Dallas airport is; I don't know who designed it but it is like so far apart. There is terminal A; B; C and D. So there was arrival over here and departure over there. If you had to get from departure to arrival it would take about half an hour. They had a slide which was broken. So I didn't know what to do so I went to one of the guys with these little bob-carts. I asked him where is gate C-26. He said, "Oh it is way down. You have to walk." I said, "Do I?" He said, "Okay, hop on."

He went to some other place to get people onto the elevators and he had handicap people for terminal B and then off to terminal C. When we got to the end we were there on time. They were just getting ready to board and I was thinking, Wow!"I said to the man, "You do this for a living? You just like help people make their flights. I am not even disabled. This is like a disable vehicle and you showed compassion on me. Thank you very much.

I didn't get it right away. He reached in his pocket. That is like a signal, "I want money." That is how; I don't know how it worksithey get a tip. That is what they call it in America. I didn't give him any. Then I was getting onto the plane and then somehow the Supersoul reminded me like, "Hello!" This man isn't a Vaisnava. He is a worker and his livelihood, his family his everything depended on the tip. I told him, "Thank you very much." He did not want a 'thank you very much.' He wanted a tip. He had his family.

It wasn't devotional service. I was in this very difficult spot because I was supposed to be on this plane departing. I went to go back and find him. I don't even know if he is there. They would take the bag off the plane. I asked them and they said, "I am sorry we can't take your bag off the plane because of security reasons." I was thinking how do I contact this man and give him something. It is very personal. I am just sharing this with you that we have worldly duties.

Besides serving the Vaisnavas and so on there is a littleiBhurijana was sharing this with me about Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, that in Vrindavan at Radhakund they were doing circumambulation around Radha-kund and there are these persons with a little begging bowls and he was with some industrialists from Delhi and they were sort of just passing by the persons who are receiving contributions. And they just walked and so Bhaktisiddhanta stopped and said that, "Do you think that now because you are Vaisnavas you have passed beyond the karma kandha rituals of helping. It is actually the duty of a grhasta, as a Vaisnava grhasta to help those who are poor." Dina vatsala. Of course we have to be discriminating unto who but the principle that we have duties to abide and duties to the world. Ideally to deliver people the message of Krishna consciousness and suddha bhakti, not just helping this poor person and that poor person. 

As grhastas in particular how do we interact with the world without being entangled? Just like it is shown here that the proper discrimination and the quality is built upon krsnaika saranam. It is built upon Krishna consciousness and our Krishna consciousness is built upon hearing and chanting and receiving the mercy of Krishna through that process of hearing and chanting. We should always be ready in whatever position to fine tune executing our duties of life, certainly among the Vaisnavas and within the world.

I felt terrible! Like when you are going to become a human being tuned into this person has a need. Help this person. He has a need. Have some prasadam. Give some prasadam or something. It is important. Krishna consciousness. It is not inconsequential. The Vaisnava behavior is part of our Krishna consciousness.

Goptaram dharma-setunam - he was the protector. The surrendered soul is always feeling protected by Krishna. And the king or the i or a person who is taking charge of others has to give protection to religious principles. It is part of Krishna consciousness. Not just an external thing. It is part of your absorption in Radha and Krishna, protecting of religious principles particularly ior for one who is in a position of giving protection to others. Because those qualities were there, because Krishna consciousness was there the citizens felt completely protected. They felt like he is there original father. He was protecting. They were feeling protected. Religious activities were being protected but most importantly for him he was absorbed in Krishna all the time.

There was no sticking. There was no misfire. No opportunity lost to carry out his duties as an ideal king. We will end there Hare Krishna. Srila Prabhupada Ki.Jai!

Suresvara Prabhu: In a little role play Maharaj, say I am your disciple and I just heard you give class and I want to say to you Maharaj, [Sanskrit] you shouldn't have felt bad after that incident in the airport because that person, the Bhagavata says that you have given your life to Krishna and you are serving Krishna so nicely. There is no need for you to have any other obligations.

HH Romapada Swami: That is right.

HG Suresvara Prabhu: Don't feel bad Maharaj.

HH Romapada Swami: No obligation. So what you say that it is not an obligation a debt to be repaid that is like you know, that is material? You are correct my dear disciple. [Laughter.] But it is part of our Krishna consciousness but it is part of our Krishna consciousness. Just like Bhaktisiddhanta said to his grhasta disciples. It is part of your Vaisnava duty. Not material duty so that you can get free from the sin of neglecting duty or so that you can prosper by proper performance of duty. Those are material. This is transcendental. We have to act in the society in a transcendental way. And there are different situations of life that call for transcendental action.

HG Janmastami Prabhu: In that regard that you had with the bob-cart isn't  there also a principle called loka vicara?  If you were dressed in Vaisnava clothes and you don't give them money then that creates an unfavorable impression for him making it difficult for him to advance further? 

HH Romapada Swami: Yes I was thinking that this gentleman will probably
never be iVaisnava i [Laughter.] Is that your point?

HG Janmastami Prabhu: Yah! [Laughter.] i

HH Romapada Swami: i besides the higher purpose is our duty to Krishnai

HG Janmastami Prabhu: We already have a bad reputation in the airports from book distributioni.another question that I had is that we understand that if we give ourselves heart and souls to following the order of the spiritual
master, pushing on his mission, sometimes devotees tend to see that as part of their internal meditation.

HH Romapada Swami: Yes. Of course!

HG Janmastami Prabhu: and there are external duties to go with that.

HH Romapada Swami: Yes. That's the point.

HG Janmastami Prabhu: It seems that there is a tendency to be attached like, "This is my service. This is an important pastime of this service, some of its external features." So I question who has that discrimination?

HH Romapada Swami: Krishna.

HG Janmastami Prabhu: For sure. One last question Maharaj: In the studies that we have done of the verse, sthane sthitah sruti-gatam tanu-van-manobhir [Madhya 8.67] this dedication to hearing and chanting, making this one's main activity in life sometimes that is included in one's external responsibilities. So that seems to be i

HH Romapada Swami: There are priorities. And if which is of the higher priority is done while you are practicing something which is of the lower priority it is not a transgression. Now how do we know that we have our priorities straight? If we follow guidance from those who are qualified. We close class because of time. You are not getting another chance to question because you have had three.  Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai!