SB 8.18.1- Appearance Day of Vāmanadeva & Jīva Gosvāmī | Rus-Split | 8.9.92 | Gopal Krishna Goswami

Do all of you know that today is a very auspicious day? The Pushyamo. Why is today an auspicious day? Why is today an auspicious day? Vamandev's birthday. But that's not the only reason. There's another reason also. Yes, it's also Jiva Goswami's appearance day. So today we are going to have a double class, actually a triple class. We're going to discuss Lord Vamandev, We're going to discuss Jīvagosvāmī and we're going to discuss the Prabhupāda marathon. Okay, making all the plans for the Prabhupāda marathon, and today is a very auspicious day to make it. Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya. Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya. So as today is the appearance day of Lord Vamanadeva, we're going to discuss a verse from the Bhagavatam that describes his appearance on the planet. I do not think there is any religious movement in this world that has as many festivals as we have. Almost every few days is a big feast. A lot of work for the cooks and a lot of work for the devotees too. They get so much to eat. Recently we celebrated Janmasme, then Prabhupada's appearance day, then Srimati, then Lord Balaram's birthday before that, then Radharani's birthday. Today is Lord Vamandev's appearance day. Tomorrow is another appearance day, Thakur Bhakti Vinod. So sometimes in India, some people think that Vaishnavas belong to what is called the kitchen religion. They say you Vaishnavas have too many festivals, too much feasting. That's a fact, but we only feast on Krishna Prashad. So we're going to discuss a verse from the 8th Canto, Chapter 18, Text 1, that describes the appearance of Lord Vāmandaiva on this planet. And then we shall briefly present the story of Lord Vāmandaiva and Bali Mahārāja. Of course, the story is very detailed, but since we have limited time, we'll just present a summary presentation. So as we said earlier, Śukadeva Gosvāmī in this verse is describing the appearance of Lord Vāmana Deva. In the Bhāgavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa says, yidā yidāhi dharmasa-kilāni bahūtir baharata abhyūtena-madharaṣma syata dātmānām śrī-jāmiyaḥ. I appear from time to time in different parts of the world. And the Lord always appears with one goal in mind, parītanaya-sādhū-nāma vīnācyacā-dhṛskataṁ. Dharma sanstha panar thaya samavami yogi yoge. To establish dharma. And when the Lord appears, he doesn't appear like you and I have appeared, but he appears in his divine transcendental personality. Just like in this verse, you read the appearance of Lord Vamanadeva from the womb of Aditya. He appeared with four hands which were decorated with conch shell, club, lotus, and disc. And he was dressed in yellow garments and his eyes appeared like the blooming petals of a lotus flower. Krishna says in the 4th chapter of the Gītā, which Prabhupāda has quoted in the purport, janma-karma-cāme divyam evāma vṛddhi tatvata hatyaktam dehampanār-janma nitya-māmiti sarojana. My coming and going from this world is both divyam, transcendental. The Lord's body in the form of Vāmadadeva was blackish in complexion. The mark of Śrī Vāstava was on His chest. So there are many verses that are describing the transcendental nature of the Lord's appearance. Now the Lord appeared as the son of Aditi and the great sage Kasyapa. The Lord very soon transformed Himself to be an ordinary dwarf, an ordinary beggar, brahmachari. He had appeared in His original spiritual form with ornaments and weapons in His hands, but very soon He assumed in the presence of His father and mother the form of Vāmana, a brahman, brahmana dwarf, a brahmachari, just like a theatre actor. You may have seen a theater actor is playing one role, then he just changes his dress and takes on another role. So similarly, the Lord appeared in His transcendental form, but then He changed Himself to appear like a young Brahman, brahmana beggar. As Lord, as the Brahma Samhita says, advaitam ajuta manadi ananta rupa. It says the Lord is ananta rupa. Ananta rupa means He manifests Himself in unlimited transcendental forms. So all the various incarnations of the Lord are described in the revealed scriptures. Therefore, through the scriptures, we accept what are genuine incarnations and what are concocted. But whenever the Lord appears, he performs an unusual activity which cannot be equaled by any other materialistic individual. So at the time the Lord appeared, Bali Maharaj was performing an asvadema sacrifice. This was being performed under the patronage of brahmanas. Belonging to the Bhrigu dynasty. Bali Maharaj was a very exalted devotee of the Lord, as we will see. But the Lord wanted to show him special mercy. The Lord told Yudhishthira Maharaj that I show special mercy upon my devotee by taking away all his material possessions. Because when the Lord sees that here is a sincere individual, his only weakness is little bit of attachment, some material possession, then the Lord removes that material possession so that the devotee may become completely dependent upon the Lord. So the brahmanas were performing the big asvamedha sacrifice, and Vamanadeva walked into that sacrificial arena. And as soon as they all saw him, they saw his special personality. They felt that his body had more effulgence than even the sun and the moon, and they could understand that here was a special personality who had come. So Bali Maharaj was very happy that a very great personality like Lord Vāmanadeva had appeared on the sacrificial arena because he was performing this asvamedha sacrifice. So Bali Maharaja worshiped Lord Vāmanadeva by washing his lotus feet. And after receiving him in a Vaiṣṇava way, Bali Maharaja said, "Please tell us what we can do for you." This is natural. When a saintly personality comes to your house or he comes to your, you know, your sacrificial arena, the host offers him any facility that he may desire. So Vamanadeva said, "Just give me enough land where I can keep 3 footsteps." Bali Maharaj, when he heard this, he said, "That's all? You don't want something more? You're not very intelligent. You're a small child. Ask me for something more. This is nothing for me. Enough land to keep 3 footsteps?" But Lord Vamanadeva said, he spoke very nicely. Lord Vamanadeva said, "A man who doesn't control his senses, Even if he gets the whole world, he will not be satisfied. And a man who controls his senses, he can be satisfied with even something very little. We see this happening in the material world. A devotee is satisfied with a little bit of prasadam, some basic possessions, and the Holy Name. And the gross materialist, he has so much money, so many assets, still he's always complaining, dissatisfied. We have the opportunity of meeting these so-called rich people both in India and in the Western countries, and our observation is regardless of how much wealth they have, they always appear dissatisfied and wanting to grab more and more, more. So Vāmanda Dev told the Lord, told Bali— Vāmanda Dev told Bali Maharaja, no, thank you very much for offering me more, offering me whatever I may desire, but just give me enough land where I can keep 3 footsteps. Because if I have one who has controlled the senses, He is satisfied with whatever is provided by the will of the Lord. Lord Vāmandaīva said, if a learned brahmana takes more than what he needs for his basic necessities, then he becomes entangled and he has to suffer sinful reaction. There's a nice story of Lord Rāmachandra. When Lord Rāmachandra was on the planet, he called all the brahmanas and offered them unlimited land. He said, take as much as you want. But the Brahmana said, no, we just want as much as we need for our survival and not more. So a brahmachari, a Brahmana, a sannyasi, he can beg alms from others, but he should not beg more than necessary. If he begs more than necessary, then he becomes entangled. So even though Bali Maharaja was offering Lord Vamanadeva unlimited land, but Vamanadeva said, no, no, no, I don't want. So ultimately Vamanadeva convinced Bali Maharaja that he only needs enough land to keep 3 footsteps and he would be satisfied. Actually, Bali Maharaj said, I'm so impressed by your sweet words, but you're not intelligent at all. You're asking me for so little. Bali Maharaja's spiritual master's name was— see, appeared in his Nayaka— Shukracharya. So the word shukra— shukra is a Sanskrit word which means semen. So Shukracharya was not actually a spiritual master, but he was a priest, a family priest. He was a family priest on the basis of birth. So Shukracharya knew that this beggar is not a beggar, it is God himself. So Shukracharya told Bali Maharaja, his disciple, what have you done? You have committed all your wealth to this beggar, Vamana Dev, who is going to take away everything you possess. So Shukracharya was trying to induce Bali Maharaja to break the promise that he had given to Vamanadeva. But Bali Maharaj said, I cannot do that. I cannot break my promise. I cannot break my promise. Bali Maharaj said, the, the Earth, Mother Earth, it can tolerate the burden of mountains, rivers, forests, trees, but it cannot tolerate the burden of liars. You see the Earth, on the Earth, the Earth is carrying mountains, rivers, oceans, and big, big mountains, but the Earth cannot carry the burden of a liar. This was the verdict of Bali Maharaj. Now, as we said earlier, Shukracharya— shukra means semen— so Bali Shukracharya was a spiritual master or a family priest, not on the basis of qualification but on the basis of birth. So Shukracharya was worried. He was worried that if his dear disciple Bali Maharaj will give up all his wealth, then there'll be nothing left for him. And therefore, Shukracharya was trying to induce Bali Maharaj that he should break the promise that he has given to the beggar Vāmana Deva. So there are two categories of spiritual masters: one on the basis of birth, one on the basis of qualification or guna. Spiritual master on the basis of birth is only interested in his pocket money, but the spiritual master on the basis of qualification is, is interested in helping develop love of God in his disciple. Actually, Bali Mahārāja was more advanced than Śukrācārya. How? Bali Maharaj had developed love of God and he had developed complete detachment to all his possessions. One who has developed love of God doesn't retain attachment to anything material. His attachment is only to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and his meditation is only how can I develop love of God. So Bali Maharaj, Bali Maharaj was warned by Shukracharya that this beggar has come to take away all your wealth, but still Bali Maharaj did not hesitate or fear. He did not hesitate about giving up all his possession. So Bali Maharaj refused to budge to Shukracharya's instructions. So you may say Bali Maharaj here is, is rejecting the advice of his spiritual master. He's a third offense, disobeying the instruction of the spiritual master. But actually he was not— he was disobeying the instruction of the spiritual master because the spiritual master was instructing him to not develop love of God, was preventing him from surrendering to God. And because the spiritual master was instructing him to not surrender to the Lord. Bali Maharaj rejected his advice. Just like we've seen in the Bhagavatam, that Lord Brahma had instructed the Kumaras to get married to expand the population, but the Kumaras were not interested in engaging in sex life. So they refused to get married and take part in this activity of helping expand the procreation. So with the first footstep, Vamanadeva covered this whole worldly planet. He expanded, and with his first step, he covered the whole planet. And with his second footstep, Vāmana Deva covered everything right from this earth till the sky. So here is God. Yesterday someone asked me a question. Last night someone said that she met somebody who said he's an incarnation of Krishna. So, but when Krishna appears, he doesn't perform ordinary activities, he performs superhuman activities. So in the form of Lord Vāmana Deva, He stretched his leg and the leg went right from the earth to the sky. In the material world you have the Olympic Games, and in Olympic Games you have several people who have big records of long jump, but you've never had somebody who can jump so high. So Vāmana Deva, with his second foot, he covered everything right till the sky. And then Vāmana Deva asked Bali Maharaja, where should I keep my third foot? Bali Maharaja could say, yes, What Śukrācārya had told him was right. This Vāmana Deva was not a beggar, but here he's God himself. He said, keep the third foot on my head. So Vāmana Deva, the Lord incarnated and showed very special mercy to his beloved devotee Bali Mahārāja. In the first two footsteps, Lord Vāmana Deva took away the possessions of Bali Mahārāja, but in the third footstep, he took away what? He even made Bali Mahārāja surrender to him. So on this auspicious day of Lord Vāmandaiva's birthday, we should meditate on the wonderful pastimes of the Lord. We should meditate on this wonderful pastime of Lord Vāmandaiva. We should meditate how the Lord is capable of performing inconceivable activities and how the Lord appears in His transcendental form and performs activities which can never be equaled by anybody else. Many people these days want to imitate God, but to imitate God is not easy. You have to perform superhuman activities, and these were performed, and the superhuman activities were revealed by, they were revealed by the Lord whenever he incarnates. So today is a very auspicious day, and we should meditate on these wonderful pastimes of Lord Vāmana Deva. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So if you don't mind, I'll just come back in 1 minute and continue with the discussion on Jīvagosvāmī and sāṁkīrtana. Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana, Jñānātma Gosvāmī, Rūpa Gosvāmī, Raghunatha Das Gosvami, Raghunatha Bhatta Gosvami, Gopal Bhatta Gosvami, and Jiva Gosvami. So Jiva Gosvami was the nephew of Sanatana and Rupa. Jiva Gosvami was actually the most learned of the 6 Gosvamis of Vrindavan. He compiled over 400,000 verses. So Jiva Gosvami, actually his father died when he was young, and Jiva Gosvami He wanted to go to look at Navadvipa, the birthplace of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, but his mother would not let him go because his mother was very worried that he may get attracted to the path of bhakti. So Jīvagosa Mahāprabhu told his mother that he was going to visit a relative, but he took the boat and he ended up in Navadvipa, and there he met Lord Nityānanda. And then he visited all the places where Lord Caitanya had performed his innumerable transcendental pastimes. Jīvagosvāmī was trained in Sanskrit in Banaras by a devotee called Madhusudana. And he was a very, very prominent Sanskrit scholar. It is said actually that Jīvagosvāmī's preaching, his philosophical knowledge was so vast that even the Muslim king Akbar came to Vrindāvana to take guidance from him. Because Jīvagosvāmī was the youngest of the Gosvāmīs, You don't read much about him in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. But you do read about Jīvaka-sāmī in scriptures that were compiled later on, like in the Caitanya-bhāgavat. The gosāmīs of Vṛndāvana were all very learned in spiritual philosophy. They were expert in all the languages. They had all the wealth at their command, but they renounced everything. And they inspired the kingly class to build very opulent temples of the Lord. Actually, a lot of the temples in Vrindavan had been destroyed. Most of the temples in Vrindavan had been destroyed by the Mohammedan rulers who had invaded northern India. So Chaitanya Mahāprabhu sent the Gosvāmīs to Vrindavan to reestablish places of worship. So the Gosvāmīs gave us the perfect example of how to do devotional service. They themselves would live underneath a different tree every day, but for the Lord, they built the most opulent temples. We are not suggesting that all of you start living underneath different trees. We may all end up in the hospital. But the mood of the Goswamis must be cultivated. That is nothing for ourselves and everything for the Lord. So Jiva Goswami, as we said, was the youngest of the Goswamis, and he was a very, very prominent Sanskrit scholar. At the time Jiva Goswami was on the planet, there was a very prominent Sanskrit scholar called Rupa Narayana Saraswati. Rupa and Sanatan, as we had explained earlier, were also very prominent scholars. But they had retired to Vṛndāvana to live the life of mendicants and to write books on devotional service. In one lecture in Los Angeles, Prabhupāda said that the Gosvāmīs left behind so much literature that you would need a truckload, you would need a whole truck to carry that literature. Caitanya Mahāprabhu left behind only 8 verses known as the Sikṣāṣṭhaka. The Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana took the theme of the 8 verses of Sikṣāṣṭhaka and elaborated it into hundreds of books. You can see how learned they were. So Jiva Goswami, he was actually initiated by Rupa Goswami. He had actually approached Sanatana Goswami for initiation, but Sanatana Goswami referred him to Rupa Goswami. And before Rupa Goswami gave him initiation, he severely tested him. He gave him a lot of difficult assignments to do. He would send him out begging. He would massage his legs. And only after he was fully convinced about Jiva Goswami's spiritual integrity, Did he initiate him? So Jiva Goswami's fame was very, very widespread. So there was one very prominent Sanskrit scholar, as we said, whose name was Rupa Narayana Saraswati. This Rupa Narayana Saraswati, he had virtually defeated all these Sanskrit scholars in India 500 years ago. So he approached Rupa and Sanatan and said, I heard you two are very prominent scholars. I want to have a philosophical debate with you. Rupa and Sanatana had sacrificed everything in the world and they were not interested in a title known as Sanskrit scholar. So Rupa and Sanatana refused to get into a debate with the Sanskrit scholar. So the Sanskrit scholar, he was very proud, he had a very strong false ego. He said, you don't want to argue with me because you're scared I'm going to defeat you. So Vaishnava by nature is also humble. So Rupa Goswami and Sanatana, yes, yes, yes, you are more intelligent than us. So then Rupa and Saraswati said, okay, give me a letter, peaceful, saying that I've defeated you in a debate. So Rupa and Sanatana gave him a letter saying that Rupa and Saraswati has defeated us in a Sanskrit debate. So Rupa and Saraswati started telling everyone, see, I've defeated even Rupa and Sanatana. Jiva Goswami knew that this was not possible. In front of an assembly of many people, there was a big debate for 40 days in Vrindavan. Between Jiva Gosvāmī and Rūpa Nārāyaṇa Sarasvatī. Because Rūpa Nārāyaṇa Sarasvatī said, I've defeated your uncles, I've defeated everyone, only person I've not defeated is you. So let me have a debate. So in that debate which took place, Jiva Gosvāmī completely smashed Rūpa Nārāyaṇa Sarasvatī's Sanskrit knowledge. And Rūpa Nārāyaṇa Sarasvatī ran away from there feeling very embarrassed. And he never returned to Vṛndāvana. So Jīvaka Swāmī was very happy that he has defeated this man who was boasting that he has defeated his spiritual master and uncle. So Jīvaka Swāmī went to his uncle and his spiritual master Rūpa Gosvāmī and said— and he told him what he had done. So when they heard— when Rūpa Gosvāmī heard what Jīvaka Swāmī had done, instead of becoming happy, he became angry. Why did he become angry? Because Jīvaka Swāmī and the Gosvāmīs, they had renounced Everything, and they were not interested in some mundane achievement of having defeated a mundane scholar. A devotee is not interested in just meeting a big man just for the sake of meeting if there's no preaching value. I remember in 1968, devotees were trying to arrange an appointment of Srila Prabhupada to see the Pope in Rome, but Prabhupada was not interested. He said, I'll only meet him if we agree to discuss religion on the basis of four religious principles that we follow. Otherwise he was not interested. So Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana were very upset when they heard that— sorry, Rupa Gosvami was very upset when he heard that Jiva Gosvami was happy because he had defeated this big scholar Rupa Narayana Saraswati. So Rupa Gosvami, he punished Jiva, chastised him, and he was so severely chastised that Jiva Gosvami had to leave Vrindavan. And he left Vrindavan and he had to go and live in Mathura. And for one year He would eat only very little. He wouldn't even talk to anybody. And he lived in the bark of a tree. And then one day, Sanatana Goswami was talking to Rupa and Sanatana said, "Jīvādaya." Jīvādaya means be merciful on the living entity. Jīva means the living entity. And Rupa Goswami could understand that his brother Sanatana was telling him, please be merciful on jīva Gosvāmī. So then Rupa Gosvāmī called Jīvā Gosvāmī back. So on this auspicious day, which is the appearance day of Lord Vāmanda Deva and the appearance day of Lord of Śrī Jīvā Gosvāmī, we devotees should pray to Lord Vāmanda Deva and Jīvā Gosvāmī for their blessings so that we can make spiritual advancement. I want to read to you devotees the 25 books that were compiled by Jīvā Gosvāmī. Hari-nāma-mṛta-vyākaraṇa-sūtra-mālikā Dhatu Sangraha, Krishna Chapa Deepika, Gopala Viruddhāvalī, Rāsa-Āmita Seśa, Śrī-Mādhva Mahotsava, Śrī Śaṅkālpa Kalpabrikṣa, Bhāvarta Sūcya Champu. The 10th book is Gopāl Tapanī Tīkā. 11th is Brahmā-saṅgīta Tīkā, Bhakti-rāsa-Āmita Seśa, Lōcana Roci-nāni, Yoga Svaśratika, Gayatri Bhāṣya, Agnipurāṇa, Padmī Purāṇa, Gopala Champu. Then he wrote these sandharbas, and there are 7 sandharbas. So these are just, uh, I just wanted to give you all a little idea. I know that you don't know the content of these sandharbas, but I just wanted to give you a little idea of the vast amount of literature that was composed by Jīvagosvāmī. So the Gosvāmīs were engaged in compiling transcendental literature. In other words, what the Gosvāmīs did, they took the essence of the Vedic scriptures and presented in an easy, sublime manner so that humanity in future could benefit.