Question: I have heard in Srila Prabhupada’s lecture that if a devotee could not be able to remember Krsna at the time of death, Krsna can deliver that devotee. But in case of Jada Bharata, he took birth as a deer and undergone three lifetimes to reach Krsna. How can I understand maharaj about this?

Jayapataka Swami: You see at the time of death Bharata remembered the deer. The deer was licking his face and he was thinking, ‘oh, who is going to take care of my pet? My poor deer! Mother’s dead and she is depending on me.’ So he was thinking about the deer at the time of death. He was not thinking about Krsna. Because he was a devotee, even when he took birth as a deer, he could remember his previous life. He could remember how he was the emperor of the entire world! How the whole world was depending on him! And he renounced everything and went to the forest to be Krsna conscious. Instead he fell, he became very attached to his baby deer and he was thinking about the deer at the time of death. So then he realized how foolish he was. So, being a deer, remembering his previous life, he was determined in his next life he would not be attached to anything. He would be only attached to Krsna. So even with his parents he wouldn’t speak. So they thought he was deaf and dumb. They sent him to the field to scare away the crows and other birds. A living scarecrow! The emperor at that time, what is his name, King Rahugana, he went by and one of his porters carrying the palanquin, had stepped over a thorn. And so he was limping and the king was being rocked. Then he saw this healthy Jada Bharata in the field and said, ‘carry the palanquin.’ But Jada Bharata, he was careful to step on any ant. So the palanquin was still rocking and the king said, ‘you fatso! Dodo! What are you doing? Why are you not stepping right?’ Then Jada Bharata said, ‘well, I am not skinny, I am not fat, ha! Ha! I am not the body! Ha!’ So then the king thought, wait a minute, this guy is speaking like a pandit! So he said, ‘stop, stop, get down.’ So he got down and he bowed down to Jada Bharata and said, ‘who are you?’ So then the two had a discussion and Jada Bharata was speaking Krsna consciousness to the king. So then the king accepted him as his guru. So he became the raja guru for the emperor of the entire world, and then he went back to Godhead. So this planet is known as Bharata Varsa because the history of Bharata Maharaj taking three births was so amazing that it became known in the higher planets and this planet became known as planet of Bharata, Bharata Varsa. Haribol!
22-JULY-2019 CHENNAI, INDIA