Just Hear about Krishna

(Part -2)

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev.

This is the continued humble attempt at transcribing a lecture delivered by HDG Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in September 2008 at Singapore on the verse SB 3.29.11-12.

mad-guna-shruti-maatrenaa / mayi sarva-guhaashaye
mano-gatir avichinnaa / yathaa gangaambhaso 'mbudhau
lakshanam bhakti-yogasya / nirgunasya hy udaahrtam
ahaituky avyavahitaa / yaa bhaktih purushottame

"The manifestation of unadulterated devotional service is exhibited, when one's mind is at once attracted to hearing the transcendental name and qualities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is residing in everyone's heart. Just as the water of the Ganges flows naturally down towards the ocean, such devotional ecstasy, uninterrupted by any material condition, flows towards the Supreme Lord."

In the first posting we heard Guru Maharaj emphasizing on the power of chanting the Mahamantra and Sanskrit slokas from Srimad Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam and how they benefit us, both materially and spiritually.(Gurudev leads in chanting the Mahamantra)

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

"This remedy is working anywhere and everywhere. Whenever you feel down, please chant and chant loudly and if you don’t feel alright, then dance in your own room please. Do these things and without any expense you will be enlivened. This ismad-guna-shruti-maatrena, lovingly you chant. This is breathing. Breathing and Sanskrit pronunciations are non-different from Krishna, these vibrations are Krishna. We are completely in ignorant attitudes. We think that we are studying Srimad Bhagavatam, Krishna is somewhere else. No, He is here, right here. In material world, the goal of existence and the process are different. Suppose you want to be a doctor, then going to the college is not becoming a doctor. The goal is different from the process. But in Krishna consciousness, anything we have connected to Krishna, the goal and the process is same. Our goal is to attain to Him, always remember Him and the process also is going to be the same thing. Being Absolute is His nature, He does not differentiate. Everything regarding Him is the same. You worship Him, it is the same, you clean the temple, cleaning is also same, equal to worshipping. You cook for Him, it is same. You chant His names, it is same. You study about Him, it is same. So please, it is so convenient. Try to devote your time to these things and I guarantee you that whatever ailment you have, at least till the time, you will forget. Till you are doing these activities, you will have no trouble at all. Everything becomes alright. We are speaking about Him, we are remembering Him, our mind is always engaged in Him. We are shruti-maatrena, we are hearing, mad-guna, “My glorification”, He says. And then, sarva-guhaashaye, I am situated in everyone’s heart. So He reciprocates. There is reciprocation and that is why we crowd around these places. (Gurudev says) Anyway, my goal is to have nice prasadam, I don’t know about you. (Gurudev then laughs).

Prabhupada captured the whole world through the prasadam plate. You know these people, big big sannyasis at the moment and gurus, they were working in the offices. And during lunch hour (they used to call), “Prabhupada, we are coming for lunch. You cook nice samosas please, keep ready.” And Prabhupada will cook samosas, keep ready. They will come, they eat and and go away. And Prabhupada will have to clean everything. When they joined, they thought that what they have done, always they are ringing Prabhupada to prepare this and prepare that. So they went to Prabhupada and said, “Prabhupada, please excuse us. We troubled you so much.” He said, “I did not have anything. I had only prasadam with me. And because I fed you, you are my slaves now.” (Gurudev laughs) Please, does not matter, you take prasadam but chant, read, hear. Till that time you have to hear, because prasadam will be ready after two hours. So till that time you have to open your ears and we have to pour, unfortunately, this medicine and it works, you know. mad-guna-shruti-maatrena, only by this, by hearing, the perfection is attained. Only by seeing Him, perfection is attained. It is so very easy.

mad-guna-shruti-maatrenaa, mayi sarva-guhaashaye, mano-gatir..our situation of the mind, He says, mano gatih, the path of the mind, avicchinna, unbroken. It should completely, always flow towards Him. And it is very easy but because of our laziness, we are not taking advantage of this.

Please avoid MR S L MUD and MUD is the surname in the western world. He is known as MR MUD and his initials are S.L. So there are five letters, isn’t it? S, L, MUD, M, U, D. And these are the symptoms of kali yuga. S means short-lived, L means lazy, short-lived, lazy and being lazy, you are always misguided M and U, you are unfortunate and these all together i.e. short-lived, lazy, misguided and unfortunate, these all four things give you the last letter, D, always disturbed. Don’t try to be S L MUD. You drive away this S L MUD from your life. And we definitely associate with S L MUD and you start smoking and drinking he he he…(Guru Maharaj imitates the sound). This, he he hu hu club must stop. Enough of these clubs we had.

So we have to come to this, mad-guna-shruti-maatrenaa. Our bhakti must flow towards purushottama. Purusha, the actual meaning of purusha is enjoyer and He is the supreme enjoyer, we know. Even if we try, we cannot enjoy without Him. With Him, we can enjoy. And purusha uttama again, this is the quality of purusha. He is the supreme enjoyer and as soon as you remember Him, he becomes uttama. ‘Ut’ means out. ‘Ut’ and out is very near, you know, in English also ‘Ut’ is out and ‘tama’ means mode of darkness. He forces you to come out of the darkness, that is Purushottama. So, our bhakti must be flowing towards Him always,avyavahita, unbroken towards Purushottama. That is the meaning. (Gurudev asks a devotee to lead in reading the word-to-word equivalents)

maatrena– just. Just is very important. maatrena means just. Just what you have to do? In three words, He gives you ocean of knowledge. ‘maa’, He (Krishna) says, ‘mad’, mine, not anybody else’s. ananya cetaaha satatam. Just now we saw, is it 9.22?ananyaas cintayanto maam, ye janaaha paryupaasate, teshaam…..ananya cetaaha. ‘ananya’, nobody else. ‘anya’ means else and ‘an’ means no, nobody else but Krishna. That is the meaning. mad – ananyaas cintayanto maam. Those who only think about Me. ananyaas cintayanto maam, ye janaaha paryupaasate. They intensely pray to Me. How nice Bhagavad Gita is,ananya cetaaha - undeviated attention, ye janaaha- those living entities, paryupaasate – intensively pray to Me, teshaam nityaabhiyuktaanaam – those continuously engaged in My devotional service, I give them what they lack and I preserve what they have.

This is mad-guna-shruti-maatrenaa, “Just hear about Me” This is the medicine for all our miseries. I don’t know how to insist and how to explain the importance of this but everybody of us is full of problems upto the neck and no other remedy works. This remedy works."

Krishna willing, I shall post the remaining part of this nectarean lecture in a subsequent e-mail.

Thank you very much.

Your servant in the service of Srila Gurudeva,

Syayam Prakash Krishna Das,
Singapore,

Chant,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna

Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama

Hare Hare

and be happy.