Nectar on

Chaturshloki Bhagavatam - 2/4

(Compiled from notes on lectures of H. H. Mahavishnu Goswami)

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Mathajis,

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

This mail is in continuation of the series - "Gurudev Nectar on Chaturshloki Bhagavatam" based on transcription of class given by our beloved spiritual master HDG Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Malaysia on 19th March 1992 in Kaula Lumpur Malaysia.

'Have you heard about blacksmith bellows ? In India we have seen many times. It takes the air and pumps out the air and by that air, the fire is put to blaze. And in that fire, the iron is heated and then he makes the iron shapes. We are also like the blacksmith bellows. Bellows also take the air in and pushes out. We are also just like blacksith bellows without Krishna consciousness. Our lungs take air in and breathe out just like the bellows. Our lungs don't have any value, until we take Krishna's names with every breath.

In Hathayoga, the number of breaths are nicely explained. In one minute, we breathe in and breathe out 15 times. So in 1 hr tell me how many times we breathe ? 15 multiplied by 60 minutes. So 900 times. In 24 hrs 21600 times. The shastras io ansist that we should utter Krishna's name for every breath. So it comes to around 25 rounds. Prabhupada has told us 16 rounds. Which also we are not doing - or doing half-heartedly sometimes. This is our defect. And this means our life is without the Lord. If our life is without the Lord, then it doesn't mean anything. It is just a scratch. As I told you, this building has a special meaning, because the Lord is here. Tomorrow Jagannath leaves, the building will be completely dead. No body will look to the building. When He goes to some other building, people will look at that building. That is how building has value, because He is there. In relation to the Lord, everything has a value and without the relation to the Lord, nothing has value. This is very nicely described in this second verse. Please remember this. Now we move on to the third seed verse. Come on sing.

yathaa mahaanti bhutaani / bhuteshuccaavaceshv anu
pravishtaany apravishtaani / tathaa teshu na teshv aham

O Brahma, please know that the universal elements enter into the cosmos and at the same time do not enter into the cosmos; similarly, I Myself also exist within everything created, and at the same time I am outside of everything.

(Gurudev recites the verse, word-to-word equivalents followed by the translation and all the devotees repeat after him.). This principle in our philosophy is known as "acintya bedabeda tattva". It is gift of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Acintya means inconceivable. We don't see the Lord here. But we know 'ena sarvam idam tatatm'. He is all pervading. For pervading nature, He stays everywhere and for stay there is a word in Sanskrit. It is the root word - vasa - Vasameans to stay. na ham vasaami vaikunthe - He says. vasaami means - I do not stay. Vasa is the root word in Sanskrit. When the word comes in front of us in Sanskrit language, we have to remember, it has different 9 forms. The root word has 3 persons - 1st person is we who is speaking - For me, we use "I". That is first person. The hearer - "you" is second person. Then the person about whom we are talking, who is currently not present here. That is third person -like "they". So there are three persons - first (talker), second (hearer), third. And for each of these persons, there are 3 numbers. singular, dual - for two also there is separate form in Sanskrit and for plural - many. For example, take this word vasa - kriyaapad - that is verb. Vasa has a first person. First person has 3 forms. Vasaami - Vasaami means "I don't stay". Krishna says vasaami. Vasaava, vasaama, vasasi vasatha, vasathi and this way it runs it 9 forms and the beauty of these forms is only 1 form is used and many times, only 1 word is used and as soon as you see one word, you should be able to recognise and that is why you should know the preliminary Sanskrit grammar. We don't want to be pandits. But very preliminary items we should know. We had a very nice course in Mayapur last year you know ? It was a great trouble really, because Sanskrit grammar as it is, is very dry and it takes long long time, to get into our brain. So I was really perplexed you know and we had only 24 hours or 24 periods for discussion. It was impossible to squeeze the whole thing into 24 lectures you know. But somehow or the other Krishna helped me to connect these verse with the grammatical rules and it was so very interesting that in the end it became a very nice interesting discussion of our philosophy and we were able to remember the grammatical rules very naturally. So this is how with the Lord everything is meaningful and without the Lord everything is a flop.'

Krishna willing, we shall continue to hear more nectar from Gurudev, in the forthcoming mails.

Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Sudarshana devi dasi.

Chant,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna

Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama

Hare Hare

and be happy.