Understand and Preach
(Compiled from notes on lectures of H. H. Mahavishnu Goswami)
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Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Mathajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
Below mail is a partial transcription of Bhagavatam class given by our beloved spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj Gurudev on verses from second chapter of Seventh Canto, in Sydney on 2nd April 97. Our heartfelt thanks to our godbrother HG Ananthavijay Prabhuji from Minneapolis for sharing this transcription with us.
After singing 'jaya radha-madhava' and then the pranams mantras, Maharaj says, 'So we are continuing seventh canto chapter two - "Hiranyakashipu king of the demons" and we are looking to two verses today, twenty five and twenty six. om namo bhagavate vaasudevaaya (thrice—devotees respond) (chants word by word with devotees repeating) -(SB -7.2.25-26)
esha aatma-viparyaaso / hy alinge linga-bhaavanaa
esha priyaapriyair yogo / viyogah karma-samsrtih
sambhavaś ca vinaashash ca / shokash ca vividhah smrtah
avivekas ca cintaa ca / vivekaasmrtir eva ca
esha priyaapriyair yogo / viyogah karma-samsrtih
sambhavaś ca vinaashash ca / shokash ca vividhah smrtah
avivekas ca cintaa ca / vivekaasmrtir eva ca
(starts playing karataals and sings verse with devotees responding— thrice)…(devotees recite)…he matajis, please…(leads chanting of synonyms) (during chanting of synonyms) This aatma-viparyaaso word should be nicely remembered because we are all bewildered in one way or the other...Translation by Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada ki Jai. Please repeat after me. “In his bewildered state, the living entity, accepting the body and mind to be the self, considers some people to be his kinsmen and others to be outsiders. Because of this misconception, he suffers. Indeed, the accumulation of such concocted material ideas is the cause of suffering… (Maharaj stops and repeats the sentence)…and so-called happiness in the material world. The conditioned soul thus situated must take birth in different species and work in various types of consciousness, thus creating new bodies. This continued material life is called samsaara. Birth, death, lamentation, foolishness and anxiety are due to such material considerations. Thus we sometimes come to a proper understanding and sometimes fall again to a wrong conception of life.”
It’s a beautiful translation. We go on the next verse as there is no purport in this verse but these verses speak for themselves. We’ll discuss in the course of this discussion. Let us go to the another verse you know. (sings verse)
atraapy udaaharanteemam / itihaasam puraatanam
yamasya preta-bandhūnaam / samvaadaḿ taḿ nibodhata
yamasya preta-bandhūnaam / samvaadaḿ taḿ nibodhata
Please repeat. (leads chanting of synonyms) Translation by Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada ki Jai. Please repeat after me…In this regard, an example is given from an old history. This involves a discourse between Yamaraja and the friends of a dead person. Please hear it attentively. Purport by Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada ki Jai.. “The words itihaasam puraatanam mean “an old history.” The Puranas are not chronologically recorded, but the incidents mentioned in the Puranas are actual histories of bygone ages. Srimad Bhagavatam is the Maha-Purana, the essence of all the Puranas. The Mayavadi scholars do not accept the Puranas, but Srila Madhvacarya and all other authorities accept them as the authoritative histories of the world.” (sings prema-dhvani) In the first two verses we saw that because of the bodily consciousness, how horrible result we have to experience. In the second verse, there is a short purport. Srila Prabhupada describes that, so far Hiranyakashipu was giving the philosophy. In the first very beginning verse, we have remembered very nicely. [break] One line we remembered yesterday. Remember? Forgot within a day ? Yes, You know Sanskrit. Yes, one line we remembered. Daivena [break] Its very very important line you know. You should remember. Daivena ekatra neeyataam. Neeyataam means ‘come together’. Daivena. We all living entities come together. This is philosophy he is presenting. And then in order to substantiate the philosophy, he gives the example now. That is how we should enliven our instructions, our preaching to others you know. That is our way; that you should present the philosophy to the best of your understanding and then solidify that knowledge by instructing others. When you preach, you have to understand more isn’t it? Unless you understand, what are you going to preach about? This is very nice philosophy he has given, thatBhutaanaam iha samvaasah. Bhutaanaam means all the living entities. Iha - In this material world. Samvaasah means come together. They come together. Prapaayaam iva suvrate. “Mother”, he says, as the people come together in a restaurant and get apart, the same way, these bhutaanaam, these all living entities come together by the supreme arrangement. The supreme arrangement is that the crowd is hungry at the lunch hour. And so they are forced to come together in one place because of the hunger. Daivena ekatra. And hunger is Krishna’s way you know.
aham vaishvaanaro bhutvaa / praaninaam deham aashritah
praanaapaana- samaayuktah / pacaamy annam catur-vidham
praanaapaana- samaayuktah / pacaamy annam catur-vidham
He says in Bhagavad-Gita verse 15.14. Krishna Himself says - aham vaishvaanaro. I am the digestive fire, you know. But as soon the mid-day approaches.. .Because our hunger travels with the sun, so twelve o’clock, one o’clock, we are very hungry. But we have completely destroyed our health by following the modern civilization and we called it modern. When we are very hungry, we are chewing some sandwiches here and there maybe something. And in the evening when you come back home, your hunger is completely gone and plate of prasaadam is full. This is not the way. Vedic way is that we should have something solid in the afternoon. In the evening, doesn’t matter. If you get you take something. Otherwise if you don’t get, don’t worry in the evening. As soon as the sun sets our hunger is completely gone. And this is the way the living entities, by the natural urges, they come together. This is the urge of hunger. And there so many other urges by which the living entities come together. And he very nicely explains that Daivena ekatra neeyatam. You understand this neeyatam. They are combined together forcefully. In one family you’re in one group. Now we are in the temple. We are a few living entities. Don’t be unnecessarily in cuckoo’s land you know. We are forced to come here by the circumstances. It is not that voluntarily we have come. No! The more I know you, the more I feel that you are forced to be here. You can’t do without this place. That is the thing. That is daivena ekatra neeyatam. This is a philosophy he presents first.
And then he says unneeyataam -then you get separated. And how? sva-karmabhih. According to our own karmas, we get separated also. We are here at the moment, but everytime this crowd goes on changing. Wherever we go, it is very difficult to see the places. So the thing is, he presents this philosophy. Then he insists, in the second verse then, in his instruction, that our soul is completely different from the body. Then he gives some examples to substantiate this philosophy. And now he has given us, in today’s verse, the disastrous result of identifying ourselves with the body. It is a greatest disaster in the life. And we don’t come to the terms with the idea that we are separated from our bodies. We may speak, you know, so much. Or we may read so much. But the idea is not really come in terms with our own condition. As soon as we leave this Bhagavatam class, we are identifying ourselves our own bodies, you know. And we are very proud of it that "I am this, I am this, I am this". This is mine, you know. aham mameti sad-bhavam dehadau mohajam tyajet. (Bhag. 7.7.20) As soon as you know that the soul is completely separate, its nature is spiritual, and it can never mix with the material body… [break] It may stay in the material body for such a long time but even then it has to go. If it would have not been spiritual nature, then it would have been impossible for the soul to accept another body. Then it would have stuck to this body only. But it’s not like that. And this is how he explains these things.'
Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Sudarshana devi dasi.
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.
Comments
Hari Bol!!!
Thank you for sharing this with us!