From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!
From: BCEC (Bhaktivedanta College of Education and Culture)
Date: February 23, 2009
Verse: Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.24.10
Speaker: HH Jayapataka Swami
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bhagavantam param brahma sattvenamsena satru-han
tattva-sankhyana-vijnaptyai jatam vidvan ajah svarat
TRANSLATION: Maitreya continued: O killer of the enemy, the unborn Lord
Brahma, who is almost independent in acquiring knowledge, could understand
that a portion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in His quality of pure
existence, had appeared in the womb of Devahuti just to explain the complete
state of knowledge known as sankhya-yoga.
PURPORT: In Bhagavad-gita, Fifteenth Chapter, it is stated that the Lord
Himself is the compiler of Vedanta-sutra, and He is the perfect knower of
Vedanta-sutra. Similarly, the Sankhya philosophy is compiled by the Supreme
Personality of Godhead in His appearance as Kapila. There is an imitation
Kapila who has a Sankhya philosophical system, but Kapila the incarnation of
God is different from that Kapila. Kapila the son of Kardama Muni, in His
system of Sankhya philosophy, very explicitly explained not only the
material world but also the spiritual world. Brahma could understand this
fact because he is svarat, almost independent in receiving knowledge. He is
called svarat because he did not go to any school or college to learn but
learned everything from within. Because Brahma is the first living creature
within this universe, he had no teacher; his teacher was the Supreme
Personality of Godhead Himself, who is seated in the heart of every living
creature. Brahma acquired knowledge directly from the Supreme Lord within
the heart; therefore he is sometimes called svarat and aja.
Another important point is stated here. Sattvenamsena: when the Supreme
Personality of Godhead appears, He brings with Him all His paraphernalia of
Vaikuntha; therefore His name, His form, His quality, His paraphernalia and
His entourage all belong to the transcendental world. Real goodness is in
the transcendental world. Here in the material world, the quality of
goodness is not pure. Goodness may exist, but there must also be some tinges
of passion and ignorance. In the spiritual world the unalloyed quality of
goodness prevails; there the quality of goodness is called suddha-sattva,
pure goodness. Another name for suddha-sattva is vasudeva because God is
born from Vasudeva. Another meaning is that when one is purely situated in
the qualities of goodness, he can understand the form, name, quality,
paraphernalia and entourage of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The word
amsena also indicates that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna,
appeared as Kapiladeva in a portion of His portion. God expands either as
kala or as amsa. Amsa means "direct expansion," and kala means "expansion of
the expansion." There is no difference between the expansion, the expansion
of the expansion, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead directly, as there
is no difference between one candle and another -- but still the candle from
which the others are lit is called the original. Krsna, therefore, is called
the Parabrahman, or the ultimate Godhead and cause of all causes. (End of
Srila Prabhupada's purport.)
HH Jayapataka Swami: Hare Krishna. I still have little difficulty in
speaking so do you want me to have it repeated? (Audience says NO!) How
many want a repetition?
So this verse tells how Lord Brahma realized that Kapila Muni was an
expansion of the Lord when He was present in the womb of Devahuti. Kapila is
an expansion of an expansion a kalah. That means that He does not manifest
all of the qualities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He manifests
some of them, particularly the ones about gaining knowledge or sankya yoga.
So it is not clear do you want repetition? (Audience says, "NO!" Laughter
and audience applause.) Whatever you want. I don't take any offence because
I want to facilitate your understanding.
So we go every year to the Akash Sanskranti in the Sagar Island and that is
a big festival. Some 600 000 to a million people attend that. And there,
there's a temple of Lord Kapiladev, a temple, which is repeatedly moved
because of the change of the tide and the storms in the coastal region. When
went there once on safari. We took the boats right down to Sagar Island. It
was quite an adventure. One of the boats got damaged during the storm. We
were all at that time on the other side of the island so only the boatman
had to face the difficulty.
They say that Kapila Muni is still there only we can't see Him. If you can
see Him then you are very fortunate otherwise you are not able to see Him.
So we were not able to see Him but He is there. So He is still present in
the Kali yuga. Maybe one day we will have an Iskcon Temple there. (Audience
applauds the idea.) It is one of the original tirthas were the Ganges hits
the Bay of Bengal, goes to the lower planets.
So Kapila is also connected with the Ganga because when Indra was stealing
the sacrificial horse, the sons of Sagar thought that Kapila had stolen the
horse. So he went to attack Kapila who then burnt all the sons of Sagar to
ashes. So then the descendants of the sons of Sagar tried to deliver their
forefathers. The only way to do that was to bring down the Ganges. The
Ganges would come and touch the ashes of the sons of Sagar and thus they
would be delivered.
So only Bhagirath, he was able to bring the Ganges down. Ganges is in the
higher planets as Manasa Ganga but was not coming down here. Too many sinful
people! So she was worried about letting the sinful people bathing in her
waters, but Bhagirath did a tapasya and he bade her to please come down.
Thus his forefather would be delivered. So she said, "When I hit the earth I
will be scattered all around. There is no bed for me." So he agreed to cut a
river course for her. He had mystic powers to cut a river course and thus
allow the Ganga, which is known as Bhagirathi to come down to the Isand of
Sagar.
Two pastimes happened. One was that Jahnu Muni's ashram was flooded. So he
swallowed the Ganga. So Bhagirath Maharaj could not find the Ganga. She
disappeared so he was quite shocked. He was taking the Ganga down and he has
higher powers.
You want the repetition? ((Audience says NO!) Who wants? (No one indicates.)
Okay my mouth gets very dry. I think it is due to the medication because of
the treatment. I didn't have it before. It just suddenly came about a week
ago.
So anyway I am not going to tell the whole story about Jahnu Island because
that story we told when we go there on parikrama, but the Ganges came out
through Jahnu's knee and therefore she became known as Jahnavi. Then she
stopped somewhere between our temple and Yogapith. So he asked her, "Why you
stopped?" And he was praying to her. She said, "I am waiting for Gaura
Purnima!" (Audience applauds.) Because in Gaura Purinima, whoever bathes in
the Ganges, the Ganges at this position will get love for Godhead. (Audience
scream, "Haribol!!") So I want to get love for Godhead.
So she waited there at the Gauranga Nagar, which is what this place is
called, waited for the Gaura Purinima day. So that is one of the things we
do is that we bathe and pray on Gaura Purnima day and get love of Godhead.
(Audience applauds!)
Then the Ganga went down and washed the ashes of the sons of Sagar and that
is why that place is called the Sagar Island. It is very crucial for the
Iskcon Mayapur devotees who are performing the annual festival or prasad
distribution at Sagar Island. This is a great opportunity where so many
people from all over India come. They say you visit many holy places many
times but Sagar Island you visit one time.
I went down one time with boat and we visited the Sagar Island. Now the
whole Mayapur team goes down there and sets up a pandal and gives out
prasadam to tens of thousands of people. So that is a nice program.
This Kapila Muni ashram is not the orignal ashram but it is run by some, I
don't know what sampradaya they are in, I think Ramanandis, I am not sure.
They welcomed us very heartily and we saw there, there was Kapila Muni,
there was Indradev, and there was Hanuman and a number of other different
deities. All are anointed in orange color. So that is one of the connections
between Mayapur and Kapiladev, it is the Ganga. Of course Ganga is still
flowing here.
We use Ganga water for bathing our deities. Also Gaura Purinama bathing we
use Ganga water. So Ganges is an integral part of our Mayapur daily culture.
We bath in the Ganges, we do our, through out the year, Ganga is a regular
aspect of our lives. So we hope that while you are here at least one time
you would take bath in the Ganges and get her mercy.
Another point is we are coming in the Brahma sampradaya. And Brahma he knows
what is going on. No one had to tell him because he was known as svarat. He
independently gets the knowledge through the heart from the Supersoul. So
Lord Brahma was happy to understand that the Supreme Lord, Visnu was coming
into the universe again. This time in the form of Kapiladev and He would
teach His mother sankhya yoga. The sankhya yoga taught by Kapila Muni is
filled with bhakti. It is not just an analysis of the material energy but
also an analysis in relation to the Supreme Lord in relation to devotional
service.
We can take advantage of Kapila's teachings in the third canto of Srimad
Bhagavatam. Prabhupada asked me that I should also teach my mother like
Kapila Muni taught His mother but unfortunately she did not have so many
questions. She was a devotee according to Srila Prabhupada. Devahuti, she
had lot of questions so it was easy for Kapila Muni to answer these
questions. I did not have so much opportunity but it is an excuse anyway.
But Prabhupada asked me to follow in the footsteps of Kapila Muni and teach
my mother.
My mother was chanting four rounds a day. Seven years she lived in Iskcon
communities, in New Orleans, in LA and in Dallas. She personally came and
served Prabhupada. I often remember how Prabhupada was preaching to her that
we are not the body but we are the living force in the body. Living force, I
never heard Srila Prabhupada use that word 'living force' before. Usually he
used spirit soul or something. He specifically came down in such a way so
that she would be able to understand and was teaching her, living force in
the body. This living force never dies and it goes from one body to the
next. Like this he was teaching my mother in his ashram about Krishna
consciousness.
I was amazed to see how Prabhupada was giving so much mercy to my mother and
she would come every day and bring him roses that she cut from the rose
garden around the grass hut and Prabhupada once explained how she was a
devotee. Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai!
When we were in South India, I went to the Sri Rangam Temple. I didn't have
any time but this time I heard a pastime where Brahma wanted to worship
personally a deity of Visnu or Krishna so then he was praying to Visnu to
give him a deity so out of the milk ocean came the Ranganath Deity. The
Ranganath Deity was worshipped in Sattyaloka by Lord Brahma for some time
and then he gave over the worship to some priests. It was handed down to
Manu and Manu gave it to Isvaku and It came down in the sun dynasty until it
reached to Lord Ramacandra. Lord Ramacandra gave it to Vibhishan. Vibhishan
was going to take it to Sri Lanka but he got as far a Sri Rangam and left It
there.
So that deity had been worshipped in Sattyaloka by Lord Brahma personally.
How many of you have seen the Ranganath deity? So if you want to see that
deity, it is an orignal deity, it is self-manifest from the ocean of milk,
Ksirodaksayi. We have an Iskcon temple there. There also is Ramanuja Acarya.
When he went into samadhi, he just went into meditation and stopped
breathing. The same body is still there in the meditation mood. He is
covered in sandalwood and saffron and camphor. Only his thumb they let you
see. You can see his thumb. So there are quiet a lot of holy places to see.
Here in Navadwip Dham there are also many holy places and Prabhupada wanted
us to uncover them. So we have discovered several hidden tirthas in Navadwip
Dham like Naimisaranya as well as Kuruksetra also Puskara Tirtha then
Goradaha, where Lord Caitanya delivered one boy who was cursed by Durvasa
Muni to become a crocodile. Also Arkatila which is also non different from
Surya kunda.
So we are trying to locate the hidden places, which are mentioned in
Caitanya parikrama book by Bhaktivinode. So Prabhupada wanted that we should
do this, to develop Navadwip Dhama. He started Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity
Trust and this was also to develop the tirthas in Navadwip and Gauranga
Bhumi and to give donation to the Gaudiya Vaisnavas whose temples were run
down condition.
So we have fixed up the kitchen of Jagannath Das Babaji and several temples
in Navadwip dham. Also Narasinga Bhumi. In Jahnudwip also but there is still
a lot to be done. So we need the help of you to revive the holy places. Just
like Rupa and Sanatan and the six Goswamis, they discovered the tirthas.
These are places of Lord Caitanya. These places are written down by
Bhaktivinode Thakur also in the Caitanya and Bhakti Ratnakara, written down
by Thakur Mahasayi. That time Srinivasa acarya, he was taken to all the holy
places of Navadwip Dham.
The idea is that the places, which are there we want to develop them and
those, which are not known where they are, we try to find them.
Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, he used to go around and visit all the
places, at least most of the places. So we got a few old Prabhupada god
brothers before they left the world to tell us were these other hidden
places were. So that is how we found some of these places.
Still there are some places we don't know were it is. On the google map you
can find some hills but we don't know where it is exactly. So like this
Iskcon is also taking on some of the work of the six goswamis in Navadwip
Dham. (Audience applauds!) And Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur used to take
out a traveling group for doing Navadwip parikrama. Since his departure none
of the followers have done that except Iskcon.
We have to thank our Lokanath Maharaj because he started us on padayatra
aspect of the parikrama and since then we have been doing padayatra, but for
those who don't want to walk so far they can go by bus and meet up with the
kirtan. So these things are going on side by side, the bus kirtan as well as
the padayatra. This padayatra is endeavor for walking quiet a way.
So in Iskcon when I was first coming to India I asked Prabhupada, "What
should I do when I see a sannyasi?" I was brahmacaris so I thought I would
see a sannyasi in India. "What do I do?" So he told me, "Bow down." Now we
find that the sannyasis who are in the Gaudiya Sampradaya they talk about
Iskcon standard. "Why don't we chant sixteen rounds like in Iskcon." Most of
them chant four rounds. So I had the idea when I first came that they were
chanting a lakh of rounds of Hare Krishna but in reality they don't do that
anymore. That was during the time of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur.
So we are keeping a higher standard in our Iskcon camp. So it is also very
good if we can keep up taking out this parikrama. That is also something
that was done by our previous acaryas. It is not done today. Iskcon is
reviving all the aspects of the Navadwip parikrama, of Navadwip dham of
Vaisnavism which you can say is lost or at least reduced. So Prabhupada has
come and kept us on the track and we have our ability to show others in the
future that we are doing these things.
Originally there was only foreign devotees coming to the Mayapur parikrama
and so Prabhupada was saying that, "You westerners and I am easterner, you
are young people and I am old person. So how it is that we can have such a
close relationship? It is because it is spiritual, spiritually we have love
between each other." So Prabhupada sitting, that time this temple wasn't
there, in that temple and he was talking to two hundred to five hundred
disciples coming from the West about how they had a spiritual relationship
with him and now we have also thousands of devotees from the east in India
and Prabhupada must be more pleased that we have devotees from all the
different continents and distributing sankirtan all over the world and
coming here to Mayapur.
One time there was a GBC and he said, "We spend so much money on people
going to Mayapur, 500 people, $1000 each. That is $500 000. So if we could
take the money from them we could buy a temple. Those days you could buy a
temple for $ 500 000."
Prabhupada said, "You spend so much money on eating. You should stop eating.
You can get so much money." So obviously we can't stop eating so Prabhupada
was saying that going to Mayapur was like eating, it is an essential aspect
of our annual program. (Audience applauds!)
Prabhupada said that for the next ten thousand years for the sankirtan
movement and in the Brahma-vaivarta Purana it is mentioned that all the holy
rivers they came to see Krishna in Dvarka and they asked Krishna, they put
Ganga forward to be the spokes person and she asked, "Please take us with
you. We know that Your lila is going to end soon. Take us with You. We don't
want Kali yuga's sinful people to bathe in our waters."
Krishna smiled at her and told her to wait for 5000 years and someone will
go to the west from India and bring the harinam sankirtan and there will be
thousands and thousands of devotees all over the world, chanting the holy
names. They will come and bathe in your holy rivers and just by touching a
single Vaisnava you get purified. So wait for that 10 000 year period and
the whole world will become one cast eka varna, haribhakta, devotees of
Krishna.
Then after that will end this golden age and you can go underground because
that time will become real hellish Kali. So we have 10 000 years to make hay
while the sun is shining to spread the harinam sankirtan of the holy name.
We just at the beginning stage now and we want that this be spread to every
town and village, as Lord Caitanya predicted.
Prabhupada brought the message to the west. It seems that they were talking
about Prabhupada. Lord Caitanya came 500 years and He only preached in
India. So to preach in the west after 5000 years was Srila Prabhupada.Srila
Prabhupada ki Jai. So he brought the message to the west. So that means we
are just in the twilight zone now. We need to really push on the sankirtan
movement. Expand the congregation to namahattas and Bhakti vrkshas and we
have to distribute the books profusely to many people. We can have halls to
spread Krishna Consciousness, Bhaktivinode Thakur called it sraddha kutirs,
homes of faith, so that we can push forth the sankirtan movement so that we
can put back Kali and we can establish that golden age.
Now there is the financial crisis in the world. It is actually good for our
business. People come to God more when there is some difficulty. So they
come to Krishna to find out what is their purpose. Some of our youth I heard
they are doing harinam sankirtana, the yoga groups are now doing some
kirtan. So our devotees can do bhakti yoga kirtan therapy. So they can in
this way flood the world with kirtan.
Prabhupada was once saying that in ashrams in Maharastra they are pure
devotees even they pure devotees. Their kirtan touches the heart. So he was
encouraging all the devotees to chant Hare Krishna and in this way touch the
hearts of the fallen souls. Some mayavadi was doing kirtan but he was not
appreciated by Srila Prabhupada. He said what is this, entertaining us? Or
is he chanting another mantra not Hare Krishna mantra.
So this is the facility we have, spread harinam sankirtan. Take advantage of
being here get recharged in Mayapur dham seeing the Panca Tattva, seeing
Radha Madhava, getting the association with the senior Vaisnavas, in this
way go back and try to make as many devotees as possible and in this way
bring in the Golden age.
Haribol.
Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai.
Any questions or comments?
Question: Thank you for your wonderful class Maharaj. Maharaj my question is
regarding Kapiladev. What category of avatara is Kapiladev? Is he a
saktyavesa avatara or what kind of avatara is he and how do we understand
this?
HH Jayapataka Swami: It is saying He is a Kalah - expansion of an expansion.
Whether saktyavesas fit in the kalahs I am not sure. He is not ordinary He
has got a lot of power. He burnt out the sons of Sagar just by glancing on
them. So if you go to the Sagar Island if you are fortunate you can see Him.
He is still there still meditating. But this purport says he is an expansion
of an expansion - kalah.
ete camsa-kalah pumsah
krsnas tu bhagavan svayam
(SB 1.3.28)
So all the expansions and all the expansions of the expansions - not all -
about 25 are listed in 1st canto Srimad Bhagavatam. Krishna is the original
Personality of Godhead.
Any other question? I can't see that well. The doctors have given me
permission to come for Gaura Purnima and for the Vyasa-puja. (Audience
applauds.) All depends on Krishna if He is willing. We want to have some
Ramnaumi festival. People send us so much money to come but on Vyasa puja
they can get some spiritual enlightenment. Radhanath Swami has agreed to
come. Bhakti Charu Swami will come for the seminars before the Vyasa-puja.
Any other question?
Question: Guru Maharaj, thank you very much for your wonderful class. My
question is in this age our yajna is the higest, harinam sankirtan?
HH Jayapataka Swami: Yes.
Question: Thank you very much Maharaj for the class. My question is when we
are preaching or trying to preach do we have to distinguish between the
innocent and the demoniac or we should just preach anywhere to push on the
movement?
HH Jayapataka Swami: We supposed to preach according to time, place and
circumstance. So according to the audience one should preach. We used to
preach to the devotees who are preachers. So our preaching is little
different and the preachers go and preach to the new people. Sometimes we
like to preach to new people and then you have to adjust how you are
speaking so that they will be able to relate to it. Sometimes like at Sunday
feasts we get old, middle and new and it is difficult to actually know how
to preach to them whether to preach to the new people or the old people. So
it is always a dilemma what to do at the Sunday feast. So I try to cover all
the angles.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.
Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam Ki Jai.
Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai
(Audience applauds.)
