20210130 Srimad Bhagavatam 1.6.18 class by HIs Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaja, Sridhama Mayapur, India

 

*20210130 JAYAPATĀKĀ SWAMI GURU MAHARAJ, ŚRĪMAD BHĀGAVATAM, 1.6.18, ŚRĪ MĀYĀPUR DHAM, INDIA

 

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam

 hariḥ oṁ tat sat

 

Oṁ Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya

Oṁ Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya

Oṁ Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya

 

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 1.6.18:

 

ūpaṁ bhagavato yat tan

manaḥ-kāntaṁ śucāpaham

apaśyan sahasottasthe

vaiklavyād durmanā iva

Translation

 

The transcendental form of the Lord, as it is, satisfies the mind’s desire and at once erases all mental incongruities. Upon losing that form, I suddenly got up, being perturbed, as is usual when one loses that which is desirable.

 

Purport

 

That the Lord is not formless is experienced by Nārada Muni. But His form is completely different from all forms of our material experience. For the whole duration of our life we go on seeing different forms in the material world, but none of them is just apt to satisfy the mind, nor can any one of them vanish all perturbance of the mind. These are the special features of the transcendental form of the Lord, and one who has once seen that form is not satisfied with anything else; no form in the material world can any longer satisfy the seer. That the Lord is formless or impersonal means that He has nothing like a material form and is not like any material personality.

As spiritual beings, having eternal relations with that transcendental form of the Lord, we are, life after life, searching after that form of the Lord, and we are not satisfied by any other form of material appeasement. Nārada Muni got a glimpse of this, but having not seen it again he became perturbed and stood up all of a sudden to search it out. What we desire life after life was obtained by Nārada Muni, and losing sight of Him again was certainly a great shock for him.*

 

Guru maharaj: Nārada muni is explaining his personal experience to Vyāsadeva. Very important that we understand that this is not kind of mythology, this is his personal realization. He saw the Lord and he was immediately satisfied. But when the Lord suddenly disappeared then he became very much aggrieved. Immediately, he stood up. Where is that Lord I saw? So, we should understand that we are trying to search for this Personality of Godhead throughout our entire lifetime. But Nārada muni is telling Vyāsadeva, we can understand how special is the form of the Lord. We see many things in the material world. But this kind of effect of mental anxiety, relief if we get satisfied, we don’t experience that. We are somehow satisfied. So this is what we are hankering for.

 

The king of Suverna Vihāra he received the Gaurāṅga mantra from Nārada muni. He started chanting Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Every day he used to chant this name of Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gauuuuuranga! Gauuuuuranga! And then suddenly Gaurāṅga appeared to him. And he immediately felt completely satisfied. He offered his obeisances. After paying obeisances, he got up and saw, the Lord was gone! He tried more to get Him back! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! But the Lord did not come again. Then the Lord spoke to him, you are not ready to receive Me now. But just to give you special mercy, I appeared to you. And you will be My associate in the Kali yuga, as Budhimanta Khān. So we know that Budhimanta Khān he arranged and paid for the wedding of Lord Gaurāṅga. At that time, other associates also said we want to contribute to that. Budhimanta Khān said, I don’t want to organize the wedding for an ordinary brāhmaṇa. I want to get Him married like a prince. So Budhimanta Khān was the chief tax collector in Navadvīpa. And so he arranged a wonderful procession. From Jagannātha Miśra’s house to the venue of the wedding. So he arranged first, the tax collectors were there with ancient rifles. And one after another there were different parts of the procession. There were brāhmaṇas chanting Vedic mantras, there were children dancing crazy, one after another, different kinds of participants. Music, and the Lord was coming in a palanquin. So the ladies are normally very shy, but they became excited to see Lord Gaurāṅga. They all started shouting, come, come Nimāi’s wedding is going on! Wear your silk sarees, wear your kajal, quick, hurry up! Lord Caitanya was looking so wonderful! He was wearing a very fine silk cloth. His eyes were like lotus eyes, going back to His ears. And it was a huge procession, I cannot remember all the participants. And so in this way, the whole Navadvīpa was flooded with Gaura prema. So Budhimanta Khān arranged all this. And he arranged all of this and all those who came to see Gaurangadeva became very anxious to see Gaurangadeva. Lord Nityānanda was saying this pastime to Jīva Gosvāmī on Navadvīpa parikrama, and also Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura was there. When Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura, heard this pastime of Nārada muni, he became unconscious.  That place Lord Caitanya and all His associates appeared there. We go there every year on Navadvīpa parikrama. This is in Godrumadvīpa. Also when Lord Caitanya took sannyāsa, He stayed for 18 days in Jagannātha Purī. Then He went to South India. As He was going, what pastimes He did not show in Navadvīpa, in Navadvīpa He did not covert the smārta brāhmaṇas. When He went to South India, He was chanting and dancing, laughing, and crying. Everybody the Lord met, he embraced. That way, He granted them bhakti-śakti, the power of devotion. They began to take up the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. They became ecstatic. And people who saw them, they also began to chant. This way through the guru paramparā, disciplic succession, this saṅkīrtana expanded. And He did this throughout South India. In whosoever’s house He stayed He would say, āmāra agya guru hoiyā, tāra ei desh – He requested   them to chant the names of Kṛṣṇa, and said, that on My order become spiritual master and deliver this land. Yāre dekho tāre kāho, Kṛṣṇa upadeśa. There are two types of instructions of Kṛṣṇa. Bhagavad-gītā is Lord Kṛṣṇa’s words emanating from His lotus mouth, and Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is topics about Kṛṣṇa. Both are topics about Lord Kṛṣṇa. Like this, some people wanted to leave their family and join him. But Lord Caitanya forbade them. He said, stay in your house and tell people Kṛṣṇa upadeśa. And Śrīla Prabhupāda in his purport he said, stay as a medical practitioner, lawyer, a businessman, whatever are, they can become an ācārya, and preach the message of Kṛṣṇa.  Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted that all his disciples and grand disciples should become guru. But to do that, one has to become learned, in different subject matters of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He wanted his followers to be qualified. One time he wrote that those who will inherit the Bhaktivedanta title, they can initiate in the future. Bhaktivedanta means they know the 12 cantos of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. They should have good realization of all 12 cantos of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Since then after that, he wrote the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. So devotees should know the Caitanya-caritmrta, they should know the glories of that too. And they should also know the life and teachings of Śrīla Prabhupāda. In English there is the Līlāmṛta. I heard that in Bengali even now there is no translation yet. So, that is available in Hindi and other languages, but not in Bengali. People should know about our Founder Ācārya, what his life was. Śrīla Prabhupāda in one lecture mentioned in 1975 in Māyāpur Gaura Pūrṇimā festival, say we have ten thousand ācāryas, then we could have hundred thousand. Then one million, then one million to ten million! There will be no shortage of ācāryas. I think that Śrīla Prabhupāda said, make this organization. So I will propose this to the GBC Body. But in the meantime, I think the devotees should become serious and read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. Being a guru is not difficult, Śrīla Prabhupāda said one has to just repeat what the previous ācāryas said. That is why if he does not read Śrīla Prabhupāda books, how will he repeat? Śrīla Prabhupāda said, we should not give a bad interpretation. We have to give the proper message. He said, like a parrot. Then he said, no, not exactly like a parrot, the parrot does not understand what he is repeating. But you have to understand it. Otherwise how will you explain it? If they ask questions, you have to answer them, you have to explain to them. So we need such devotees who are fixed up and can give the right message. Śrīla Prabhupāda said they should be mature. So like that we need to have millions of ācāryas, to repeat this message. Nārada muni, he saw Kṛṣṇa and he felt simultaneously satisfied and losing Kṛṣṇa’s sight, he felt anxiety. So we hope that all the devotees get this blessing of Kṛṣṇa. And this way, they will get the darśana of Kṛṣṇa.

 

It is already 9.12. Any questions? Two questions and will end the class.

 

By the mercy of the deities, the help of my medical team, the devotees’ prayers, you must have heard that I am negative of the corona virus.  But I am still very weak and I am trying. What are the questions?

 

Question: Why Nārada muni had to wait for all his life to perfect his life?

 

Guru maharaj: What is one life. Kṛṣṇa gave him special mercy and appeared to him. That way we hope that Kṛṣṇa will give us mercy. Even though we may not be qualified. But Kṛṣṇa is so merciful, He said He gave mercy to Nārada muni, when he was a bhakta. So, like that we hope for the mercy of the Lord.

 

Question: We understand that we have to start Śrīmad Bhāgavatam after Bhagavad-gītā. We read Caitanya-caritāmṛta in parallel to Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Can we continue it that way?

 

Guru maharaj: No harm.

 

Question: Bengali: How I can devote my mind and consciousness in the service at the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa, in happiness and distress?

 

Guru maharaj: You can do this by following the Śikṣāṣṭakam, keep the third verse in mind. He said that be humble like a blade of grass and more tolerant than a tree, and give respect to everyone and not expect any respect in return.  Like this one can naturally tolerate all kinds of praise and criticism.

 

So class is officially over. I am taking a 2-minute break. I will give darśana, to devotees, in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh.

 

 

 

 

 

Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari devī dāsī

30 January 2021