Compassion - It merely causes a Disturbance, If.. | SB 10.17.10 | 18April 2022 | Gopāl Kṛṣṇa Goswāmī

Ātva, in this lake. Praveśya, entering. Gurudā, Gurudā. Vādī, if. Matsyāṇ, the fish. Immediately. Prāṇena, of His force of life. Viyujeta, will become deprived. Sātyam, truthfully. Eṭāṭ, this. Bhavimi, I am speaking. Aham, I. If Garuda ever again enters the snake, he is a fish. Here, he will immediately lose his life. What I'm saying is the truth. Prabhu-bhai. This Prabhu is a past Prabhu. The Chai has explained in this regard, because of Smriti Munis material attachment, and affection for a fish, he failed to see the situation from a spiritual viewpoint. The 9th canto of the Bhagavad-gītā describes his fall down for this offense. Because of his false pride, Subhārīmuni lost his power of austerity, and with it his spiritual beauty and happiness. When Guruji came to the yamna, Subāhimanī thought, although he may be a personal associate of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I will still curse him and kill him if he disobeys my order. Such an offense, such an offensive attitude against the exalted Vaiṣṇava, it will certainly destroy one's auspicious position in life. As the Nāyana-kāndara describes, Subhāya-muni married many beautiful women and suffered greatly in their association. Because he had once become glorious, Taking shelter of Yamuna Deva, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he was ultimately delivered. Om aghyāntirandasya jānāñjanāśrākyaś sakṣmaṇmṛtanyena asmaśya śrī Caitanya-māno vesaḥ sāpitā-meena-bhūto. Swami Upākādāmaṇa. Bandeḥ hām śrī-guruḥ śrī-tāpada-kammanaṣṣrī-guruṇvaiṣṇāvāmśaḥ śrī-upāṁ sāgrāya-taṁ. Ahaṇaṇa-bhūrāṭṭhāṇuḥ sāṁṣrīvam. Sadveitāṁ so 'rūtam priyaṇā saigauḥ. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Rāma. Hare Rāma. Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. Hare Kṛṣṇa. We are reading the 10th Canto of the Bhāgavatam. And in the 10th Canto, Prabhupāda presents the Lord's transcendental pastimes. Prabhupāda, when he went to America, the first thing he did after he went there was to get the Kṛṣṇa book published. Prabhupāda explained that he wanted to make sure that Lord's pastimes are presented in the true form. And when you read about these pastimes of the Lord, You can see these are all transcendental. In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, "Charmā karmā ca mē." If you look at the Lord's pastimes from a material angle, you will think this is just speculation. How is it humanly possible somebody could do an activity of this type? For example, They describe the appearance of Lord Nrsimhadeva as half man, half lion. Majority of people who are not exposed to bhakti, they think it's speculation. The one who takes the path of bhakti yoga knows that Lord Nrsimhadeva is a seer. Adveitam acyutam anadyanandarupa. Adyampurana purujam. This is the Dholubama Dhulubama Atma Haksam, Govind Mahadev Kutumbhava Maharaj, Dholubama Dholubama Se, Advaita, Vedic Hinduism, Buddhism. The truth is innumerable. It would make sense to say, as we are at the end of an age, we can manifest himself in unlimited number of forms. His genuine incarnations are all explained in the bona fide scriptures. Adyam purāṇa-puruṣa vraja-yoga-nuṣyā. He is the oldest of all to appear ever, beautiful. And further, Lord Brahmā says, me naisuddhunam adhunam adhunam adhunam. You won't understand the Lord. Just by studying the scriptures, that's not going to be the principle. If you study Bhakti, then you'll be able to understand. So the Lord is against evil. That's Ganso. You read about His pastimes, and we see that the Lord, even as a young child, performs for women aggravating. So in this chapter, we read the story of Kaliya. Kaliya was a very dangerous snake living in the Yona, and the fragrance of his body was so strong Even the birds flying away would die. And Arya was ultimately, ultimately defeated by the Lord. So we see that in the Lord's pastime, that the Lord performed these pastimes at home with His devotees. Ultimately the Lord has victory. So here we read about the story of Arya and the mistake committed by— it's the 9th Canto. This is very nicely explained, the story of King, the story of Subhadra Muni. And Prabhupada in the purport discusses this. So one muni was engaged in performing austerity. He was a very powerful muni, and he was performing great austerity, and he was discharging austerity by positioning himself right at the bottom of a river. Just like the submarines, submarines go underwater. So Subramuni was deep underwater and he was able to meditate. And he was deep underwater, was meditating. There he saw, what did he see? Two fishes mating. And when he saw the two fishes mating, he got bewildered. He got cheated. He started thinking that, oh, mating, maybe this is very enjoyable activity. And so he gave up his deep meditation underwater just by meditating on the happiness of sex life. So therefore we see in the scriptures that we should always be engaged positively. The mind can be a friend and an enemy. When is the mind considered to be a friend? When? When is the mind considered to be your friend? When you are thinking about it positively. And when you are thinking about negative thoughts, then the mind is what? The worst enemy. So what was Swami Vinayak for? He was deep under water, practicing his studies for a very long time. He didn't even care. What his body looked like, his long hair and wrinkled cheeks, skinny, but the moment he started thinking about what he saw, what did he see? He saw the two fishes mating and began to think, sex life is very enjoyable, and He gave up his meditation, went straight to the palace of the king. Therefore, the Vedic advice, antināraṣviti, mold your life in such a way that, bhūmṇu, that mind is positively engaged. The mind will only be positively engaged if you have also to practice the process of devotional service. If you have not practiced the process, don't expect at the moment of death to be able to think about the Lord. So Swāmi Mārī went to the king. He came out of his meditation, and he had determined, "Oh, I should get married." So, He went straight to the palace of the king. The king saw Subhaimuni. He was a very ugly man. Naturally, living underwater and not caring for the body, he had long hair, long nails, wrinkled cheeks. His whole body had become completely weak and skinny. And Swamiji was also very expert in chanting mantra, and he would chant mantras very purely. So the king saw this sage come to his palace and the king said, Phra Muni said, I would like to marry one of your daughters. King had 3 daughters and 3 sons. So he approached, he said, I'd like to marry one of your daughters. And the king said, He saw the muni was so ugly that no one would even come near him. So he very diplomatically said, "Oh, I can't force my daughter to marry you. If you want to marry you, I have no objection, but I can't force her." So Swami Muni was not a fool. He was very expert in chanting mantras. He knew to chant the mantras with the right meter and so on. So Swami Muni said, "I know why the king does not want to give me a bride." Why? "Because I'm ugly." Naturally I was underwater. From meditation. So he said, I know why the king did not offer his daughter to me, one of his daughters, because of this, my ugliness. I am going to become so handsome, so beautiful, by chanting these mantras, my mantras, that Even the celestial planets, residents who live in celestial planets would aspire to marry me. And he was a powerful yogi. Hard to say today. He was a powerful yogi. He could chant me on very powerful, mantra very powerful. So, Subhaya Murthy, Chandramansa, by the years, Chandramansa, he became very handsome man. Like these days, you go to beauty saloons, maybe you may be an old man with wrinkled cheeks and whatnot, but if you go to the beauty saloon, They'll do such a nice makeup on you that you won't even know. Now they have this in the Western society, they have funeral homes where they take the body and decorate the body. You look very beautiful. So a lot of people should This is beautiful. Everybody got— So, Subai Muni, he by chanting mantras became very handsome young man. And he became very handsome young man. And he went to the palace where the queens were residing. Suvaiyamuni went to the palace where the queen was residing, and Suvaiyamuni entered that palace in which his 50 daughters resided. Suvaiyamuni saw, Suvaiyamuni, they become so handsome, so beautiful, so attractive. The older sisters started fighting. The sisters started saying, "I selected him first." And the other sister would say, "No, I selected him before you." So the 50 sisters were just fighting. So what did Subbhai do? Subbhai Muni engaged. He— by challenging one sister, He had created very opulent palaces, very opulent palaces. So Subai Mui not only made himself very handsome, he also created palaces and he became very, very handsome. So Subai Mui saw that, 56 years old, Sisters were fighting as to whose husband he should be. He said, "I'll marry all of you." So he married all the sisters. And by his austerity, he created such a beautiful palace that when the king came to see that palace, he was surprised because the king had a palace, Subramuni's palace, he did by the Chariyamandir, was even more attractive. Subramuni married all 15 sisters. He had 100 children from his wife. So with no time, His family expanded. His family expanded to 500 wives, 5,000 children, and he gave each of them a very royal environment to live in. He said, why money? We've got all these facilities. So why money? Notice that Even now he has all the facilities, even now he has the power to become a handsome rich, he was still dissatisfied. He wasn't satisfied because he had a carte blanche, he created such a beautiful environment, He had a very beautiful palace to live in, and his wives were also beautiful. So when he realized, I left my meditation to pursue the path of sense enjoyment, and I got sense enjoyment, I got the opportunity for sense enjoyment, still I'm not happy. He had absolute powers, chanting. He was such an expert at chanting mantras that he got 3 palaces made by just by chanting mantras. He realized that I have made a mistake. I should, I should not I have done this mistake. So he decided, I go and perform deep meditation under water. I can eat whatever. The wives— so, Subramuni, he now desires pursuing the Vedic path. And Subramuni Said, "I wasted enough time. I could not satisfy my senses even though I had all the facilities." And he said, "Now you go back and start performing meditation." When he started performing meditation, as the— the mind said, We should also follow our husband. The husband was not satisfied, could not satisfy himself, and the wife also followed the husband, and they all achieved perfection. Now, from this story, these are not mythological stories, this is not fiction, sometimes people think Everything you read in the Vedas is mythology, it is imaginative, but that is not true. During the British rule, they had British scholars perfecting the knowledge of Sanskrit. They translated these books, the Vedas, and they presented it to the Anga, this is all mythology. The Muslims are more blunt. They destroyed the Hindu temple. The Britishers were more diplomatic. They very systematically tried to show the greatness of their mentality and the greatness of their true spirit and all that. So Subhash Chandra Bose went back to the forest forest, you know, from deep meditation. In the Bhagavatam we see there are other stories also. King Ajāti, you read in his story that he had the facility for 10,000 years to practice austerity and whatever the result, he could not satisfy himself. So, Lust, anger, greed are three pathways leading to hell, and lust is a powerful enemy. Arjuna said, "Kṛṣṇa, please instruct how, in spite of our having knowledge what's right, what's wrong, we still get directed to what is wrong. What is the reason?" What did Krishna say? What did Krishna say? What did he tell? Kāvaḥ eṣa, what did he say? Rajaghoṣṭhavaḥ. It is lust only, the all-devouring enemy of the living entity. It is always burning like fire. It is never satiated. So through the pages of the Bhāgavatam, we get exposed to so many different stories, but they have one purpose. That is, you can never satisfy your material senses by material endeavours. And you can satisfy your senses, how? By engaging in service to the Supreme Lord. Seva pādīm vidyānaṁ bhaktāṁ, ātma vidyānaṇaṁ bhaktām, viśikīraṇaṇaṣṭhīkṇaṇaṣkāraṇaḥ, akiroṇcete. The senses can only be satisfied if you engage them in Now, the Chayas have explained why Subrahmanya Muni got diverted from his meditation. Subrahmanya Muni was in meditation deep under water and he still got diverted. Why did this happen? This was the effect of offenses. Therefore, Prabhupāda says, avoid offending any Vaiṣṇava. Subāhivaṇī had offended and was— gudha, the boat carrier of Lord Viṣṇu. So, Guruda is a bodhisattva of Lord Vishnu, and Guruda is entitled to eat fish. For us, eating fish is not desirable. For Guruda, bodhisattva of the Lord, eating fish is something natural. And what is— what is— so what would he do? He put— if the guru wanted to eat a particular fish, and what would Swami Muktananda do? He hid that. He gave protection to that fish so that the guru could not. Eat. Why should we eat a fish? It is sinful. For guru that we eat a fish. Prabhupāda explains we should avoid offending. We should avoid offending our Vaiṣṇava. Caitanya Mahāprabhu explains in Prasada, devotional service, Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī and Śrīla Nārada Gosvāmī explain how Prabhupāda, Prabhupāda, Kṛṣṇa Mahāprabhuji, Guru Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Prabhupāda, are going through so many persons, and you need a fortunate soul who receives what? The siddha-bhakti. The siddha-bhakti means knowledge that Bhakti Yoga is the best alternative. Bhakti Yoga is the only solution. This, you get this knowledge, but then you get the seed of devotional service, then you want the seed to grow. How does the seed grow? Hearing and chanting. By? Hearing and chanting. Hearing and chanting. This is compared to watering the seed. You may have a very beautiful garden, but if you don't water the plants properly, It was not fully fulfilled. So this, just getting knowledge that bhakti is the ultimate solution is not the end of the world. That's only the beginning. Just like when we go out and distribute books, we give someone a book, spiritual life begins with that. But then he has to read it to get full advantage of it. So, getting knowledge is good, then you do water the seed, water the seed and evolve yourself. That is known as śrāma-kīrtana. There are different stages of chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa Hymn. You have the offensive stage, the stage of minimizing offenses, and the purified stage. In the beginning, you just ask people to chant. You don't give them a whole presentation. And then as they chant, they discover, oh, there's some more guidelines that we have to follow. Just like Prabhupāda, when he opened the first temple in New York, he just told the devotees, just chat. He didn't give them any rigid rules or anything. One day, the devotees who were standing there came up to Prabhupada and said, Swamiji, don't you want us to follow some rules and regulations? And Swamiji said, this is what I was waiting for, you would come and ask. So, you see, the devotion grows through the process of Shrī Rādhām-Kṛṣṇa. And then it is said that we should, we should stay in devotee association. Devotee association is highly recommended. One may have the spiritual knowledge, but still you need devotee association to practice devotional and we can associate with those who are more advanced, those who are equally advanced, and those who are less advanced. We behave differently in different situations. When you meet somebody more advanced, then what do you do? You are joyful. Why? Because you will get some knowledge, it will help you to make spiritual progress. When you meet somebody equally advanced, what do you do? What do you do? What's the answer? You make friendship. Friendship in spiritual life means we work together to spread the mission of the world. That is very necessary. Prabhupada used to say, united we stand and divided we fall. Can't compete with the bell. Nārada Muni explains that when you meet somebody, when you meet somebody ignorant, what do you do? Make friendship. Friendship in spiritual life means work together to push Śrīla Prabhupāda's movement. And when you meet somebody less advanced, then what do you do? Show compassion. Showing compassion means giving them better knowledge. In the purva, Prabhupāda said, our compassion should be consistent with the compassion of the Lord. In other words, sentimentally you may think, Oh, I should do something. But there's a difference between spiritual compassion and material compassion. When Prabhupāda says in the purport, so our compassion should be consistent with compassion of the Lord. In other words, our compassion should be for spiritual cause, to enlighten to give people knowledge, the way they can make spiritual advancement. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu explained that the seed of devotional service grows when you water it, and in order to ensure that unwanted animals won't come inside, you should do— stay in the association, no? Devotee. By staying in the devotee association, you can— you're constantly reminded about the purpose of human life, about the importance of devotional service. So let's see that devotional growth in association. And then Lord Caitanya said, sometimes you have unwanted weeds. They also grow side by side. What do you do to these unwanted weeds? Cut down. Cut down. In other words, they happen to go weeds, what do you do? You eliminate them. Once you identify the disease, then you want to cure the disease. By being in devotee association, you can identify what the problem is. And you can also cure that problem. Many times, so we stay in devotion. Many times if someone says something, we don't like it, we get bitter. But in the spiritual sadhu sangha, we associate. Why? We associate to take part in śrīla Mahāprabhu's kīrtana. And this beautiful devotional garden gets ruined. And what happens when you commit vaishnāprāsa? So, over here we saw that Garuda had committed vaishnāprāsa also. Garuda is guiding guiding how we should execute devotional service. So the point is, we should employ Vaiṣṇava-bhāgavata. Vācchitānyaḥ. Very compassionate, merciful to everyone. He showed us the importance of avoiding Vaiṣṇava-bhāgavata. Lord was very kind to everyone, but he was a little angry, angry at his mother. And the Buddhist would say, my Lord, you're being merciful to everyone. Why aren't you being merciful to your mother? And what did he say? My mother had offended. And what was her offence? Nothing major. Just in her mind she thought that Aditya Charya, that duplicitous-minded person, he influenced my older son to leave home. Now he's in Muslim, my younger son also. And that was the anger. And when you're holding, you go to touch your mother and say, the Lord said that you have a friend. And she would say, and I would say, oh, is it possible? And once when Shri Sai Ji's mother was offering obeisance, the child was offering obeisance. She came from behind, took the dust, and applied it on the forehead. So Lord Caitanya gave us this extreme example to show this Vaishnava pradaya is so powerful, we should, we should make careful. So, guru da, committed an offense also. He gave protection to the fish. And so on the spiritual path, what do we do? Avoid the offenses. And the Lord's pastime is so powerful. By reading His pastime, you get purified. So Prabhupāda gave us the Krishna books, which is a very scientific presentation. We got a story from Śrīla Sundar once. After Prabhupāda had gone to New York, he wanted to get a Krishna book published and he wanted a high-class presentation or something of that nature. At that time the movement was young and funds were also limited. At that time, the movement of devotees had started preaching in England, and Shyamsundar had come from England. He gave Prabhupada a report on the progress. Prabhupada was very impressed by the progress, by the efforts of the service members. So Prabhupada, after he heard the report, he said, Why don't you ask George to print this Krishna book? And Prasada said, Papa, he's a new devotee. If we approach him with this now, he will— he may lose faith. And Papa said, no. You can try. He went back to England, and there he approached George and said, "I'll especially want master once you publish this book." And he agreed instantly. So Prasad wanted to present the Kṛṣṇa book in a very powerful presentation, and he wanted to present he passes on the Lord in a very genuine way. So we're reading the wonderful pastime of Krishna killing the demons. These demons that we read about, they're also devotees of the Lord. The Lord usually desires to perform these pastimes with whom? With his devotees. Just like when the Kumaras, when the Kumaras Kumar came to the spiritual palace and they were stopped at the 7th gate by the doorkeeper. The doorkeeper said, "You naked children, you can't go inside." They were very angry. They said, "You are not fit to be here." We were getting so much happiness, you stop that. So, So they were dialoguing and they cursed the donkey. The Lord heard the dialogue. When the Lord came out, the cupbearer saw that he is very friendly, intimate with the donkey. So they concluded, we made a mistake. We made a mistake in cursing them. And they wanted to withdraw the curse. What did the Lord say? No! Don't withdraw the curse. In your mind is hard, the curse. Why? You all know they're going up here on the planet. And he wanted to perform the pastime, he's a devotee. These demons that you read about, they're not actually demons. They're devotees of the Lord who descend to make the Lord's pastime more relishable. So in these two verses today, you read about the story of Subāhimanī, From Subāhimanī's story we learn that, we learn that the senses can never be controlled. The senses can never give you enjoyment. But therefore what should our philosophy be? Bokṣaram yajñeta prasāṁ sarva-lokaḥ maheśvam. Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate bokṣaram. Sūdraśrābhūtanam gātā-saṁām. So we understand through Subhadra Mani's story that real happiness can be realized when we engage in— Brahman Buddha, personal Atman, associating— we engage in the worship. And Subhadra Mani realized that One can never satisfy his senses. We should be convinced about this. We come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and we get influenced by different factors. We should be convinced that it doesn't matter how much we endeavor, we never find real happiness. You want real happiness, what do you do? Take to the path of devotion. One of the benefits of chanting the Holy Name is, ananda mudi, brother. You get special happiness, there's always increasing. So reading the Bhagavatam is very necessary, hearing the Bhagavatam is necessary. Nāsapreśyavadrēṣu, it's a Bhagavad Seva. What is the most spoken? The Bhagavad Gītā. Regularly hearing the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, will cleanse the heart and bless us with love of God. So Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam presents ripened fruit of Vedic knowledge. We should hear it attentively and practice it. That will give you real happiness. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Too late, or should we take some questions? Any questions? Hi, Mr. Prasad Raaval. My question was, when you say association of devotees, as you mentioned about Swami Muni, his mind was agitated by very small things. So when you say association of devotees, we have Prasad RAVAL. When our mind is so much disturbed, then we are prepared to leave the association of devotees. So how do we maintain our disturbed mind, especially in association with devotees? Why is your mind disturbed? When there are conflicts with devotees, one very small small issue. Why do we have conflicts? We have conflicts because A false ego. Everyone wants to believe my solution is the real solution, and the other solution is not a real solution. Because we are so proud what you are thinking that you don't get your way, then you are not satisfied. So we should take a humble approach. In other words, in China, there is a saying, One in a manner that gets them this. We should take the humble approach. Be more tolerant than a tree. Avoid your vices and false prestige. If you practice humility, then there won't be this. Then there will be cooperation. Then there will be happiness. If you're always thinking, I'm right, he's wrong, then spiritual life will be tough. Yeah? Okay. That's the way it is. Okay. Thanks. You're late. Prasad Raaval. Maharaj, how can we apply Vaishnava pradhaṇa in the rising managerial service? Because we end up displeasing others and taking some strict action or any such things. How can we? In management, if something is wrong and your superior tells you that there should be be corrected, that is not Vaishnava prasada. Vaishnava prasada is essentially when your effort, you are influenced by envy, hatred. Maybe someone is being told, this is not correct, you should improve. That's not Vaishnava prasada. In that situation, nobody will ever be able to open his mouth. Vaisnava prasada is generally activity influenced by envy, hatred, jealousy. I don't want to see this person progress. Is that right? Okay. Yes. Will you stop in front of me? What? Sorry, what did he say? Hare Krishna, Maharaj. So, as you said earlier, for cooperation we need humility. So how do we balance humility and standing for what is right? Because sometimes in cooperation humility can also, like, we may have confusion about humility meaning going along with even the wrong. I explained just now that in management, suppose your superior corrects you, that is not Vaishnava. The correction is done, no envy, jealousy, then you can say you're Vaishnava. Generally gives you a suggestion or corrects you, that should not be taken as Vaishnava. Otherwise nobody will say anything. When Prabhupada would come to— would go to a temple, he would first see things, correct them. He didn't hesitate in correcting. Wrong. So we should not be too scared of Ashna Prasad. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Can the character equals imagination about direction? Why not? You can even character superior. Why? You do it in a respectful, amicable manner. And if you see something's wrong and you want to go to your superior, you can present your views in a presentable way, not in a challenging, insulting style. And so it's That can be done. Okay. Yeah. When we try to control our mind with japa, it's so hard. So how will that go? When you try to control the mind in japa period, it's so hard. And it's not hard at the other times when you chant. Or is it? It's hard. Doesn't matter when you— Krishna himself says in the Bhagavad Gita, every living entity is struggling with what? Mind and the senses. Krishna himself is saying you will struggle. So what we need to do, be determined, make spiritual advancement. So this, this, determination is very important. And you read about this again and again. The main important point is He repeated again and again in the scripture. We stop now? Or you want last question? Yeah, quick. It can take you one minute, or it could take you several lifetimes. It all depends upon the speed at which you want to surrender. If you want to surrender in a very slow, good strain speed, it'll take a long time. If you want to struggle at the speed of the bullet, Then you can do it in a moment. If you decide, no more Maya, no more this, I'm not going to repeat the mistakes somebody made, and you practice devotion service, then you can overcome fast. If you take the right steps, stay in the right association, all the process that Prabhupāda has given us, then you can advance rapidly. Okay, I think I should have seen anybody sitting here. Okay, Śrīla Prabhupāda ki.