Story of an opulent king | SB 09.04.44 | 26 Jun 2007 | Vancouver Canada | Gopal Krishna Goswami

Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya! Om namo prasad raavalayam! Om namo bahagate Vasudevaiahya! Om namoh Prasad Raavalayam! Om namah Bhagawathe Vassu Devaayahyaa! Om Namaha Shivayaswara Siva Swarupacharya! Om namo Bahagate Vaasu Deevaayanum Mahabharata Tejasvaram Aham Brahmasmi! "Alas! Just see the behaviour of this cruel man. He is not a devotee of Lord Viṣṇu. Being proud of his material opulence and his position, he considers himself God. Just see how he has transgressed the laws of religion." Śrīla Viśvanātha ṣaṅkarī ṭhākura has devoted the entire meaning of this verse spoken by Durvāsa Muni. The Rasamani used the word 'naar samshasya' to indicate that the king was cruel, but Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakur interprets it to mean that the king's character was glorified by all the local people. He says that the word 'naar' means 'by all the local people' and 'samshasya' means 'of he Amrit whose character was glorified.' Similarly, one who is very rich becomes mad of his wealth, and therefore is called 'śrīya unmatasya.' But Śrīla Viśvanātha ṛkṛṣṇa interprets these words to mean, 'Although Maharaja Amṛśa was such an opulent king, he was not mad after money, for he had already surpassed the madness of material opulence.' Similarly, the word 'iśa manina' is interpreted to mean that he was so respectful to the Supreme Personality of Godhead that he did not transgress the laws for observing ekāda-sīpārāna, despite the thinking of the rāsa-muni, for he took only water. In this way Śrīla Viśvanācārya ṭhākura has supported Amṛśma Rāja and all his activities. So as I said earlier, there are 3 verses prior to this with no purpose. But they have an important meaning. So we'll read Texts 41, 42, and 43. Best of the Kuru dynasty, after he drank some water, King Amṛśa, meditating upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead within his heart, waited for the return of the great mystic, Rvāsa Muni. Text 42. After executing the ritualistic ceremonies to be performed At noon, Durvasa returned to the banks of the Yamuna. The king received him well, offering all respects, but Durvasa Muni, by his mystic power, could understand that King Amritsha had drunk water without his permission. Text 43. Still hungry, Durvasa Muni, his body trembling, his face curved, and his eyebrows crooked in a frown, Prasad Raaval angrily spoke as follows to King Amritsar, who stood before him with folded hands. And now text 44, that's the verse on the board. "Alas! Just see the behaviour of this cruel man. He is not a devotee of Lord Vishnu. Being proud of material opulence and his position, he considers himself God. Just see how he has transgressed the laws of religion." See, we are reading very wonderful pastime of Amrit Mahārāja, the great devotee of the Lord, who was a king and a devotee at the same time. Therefore, he is called the Rāja Rishi, just like Parikṣit Mahārāja is also addressed as a Rāja Rishi. In the Vedic days, the heads of state were not only the heads of state, but they were also devotees of the Lord. And as a result, society was prosperous and peaceful. As the Bhagavad-gītā says, whatever great men do, others will follow. So when the leaders are God-conscious, the society, the citizens are also God-conscious. And when leaders are devotees, the citizens also follow in their footsteps. So Amrish Maharaj, as we read, had fasted and he took the advice of the brahmanas. What should he do? What should he do in a situation like this? Because he had invited Dharmaraja Samuni for prasad and Dharmaraja Samuni had not returned in time. And he consulted the brahmanas. It is described in these verses in this chapter that these brahmanas were free of material desires. That is explained in the verses that he was— they were free of material desires. So that is one of the qualities of a brahmana. One becomes a brahman on the basis of qualification and not on the basis of birth. "Ācātarvandam āyaśrīṣṭham guna-karma-vibhāgasaḥ." And these were genuine brāhmanas. In the 18th chapter of the Bhāgavad-gītā, the qualities of a brāhmana are described. "Samodhamo tapo sojham śāntir-ājyam eva ca jñānam vijñānam astikam brahma-karma-subbhākasyam." A brāhmana should be peaceful. He should have self-control, control over his mind, body. Then he should practice austerity. He should practice— he should observe purity, tolerance, honesty, knowledge, wisdom, and religiousness. These are described to be the qualities of the Brahmana, as explained in the 42nd verse of the 18th chapter. In prior days, The kings would have as advisors Brahmanas. The kings were Kshatriyas and they would have Brahmanas as advisors. These days also we see the same pattern that the head of state has advisors, but unfortunately the advisors are not Brahmanas. The advisors are also debauchees. And therefore the advice they also give is contrary to religious principles. So King Amresh, consulted the brahmanas, but ultimately he made the final decision. Is it? So the Vaishnava has full knowledge. And after bringing the water to break his fast, King Amṛśa, as it is explained in text 41, he meditated upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As it is said in the earlier verses, "Sarve mana-kṛṣṇa-padāra-vindayo." "May my mind always meditate at Your lotus feet." So King Amṛśa, he was meditating on the Lord in the heart. So Kṛṣṇa is situated in everyone's heart as the Paramātmā. And the devotee meditates on the Lord in the nectar of devotion. We read about so many rules and regulations for the execution of devotional service, but Rūpa Gosvāmī says that the purpose of all these rules and regulations is to bring us to the point that we always remember Kṛṣṇa and— and what? Never forget Kṛṣṇa. That's a goal that we all should work to achieve, that we always remember Kṛṣṇa and we never forget Kṛṣṇa. So here's a head of state who is meditating on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So we as devotees should also take inspiration from King Amritsar's example of how he was meditating on the Supreme Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā, 18th chapter, Kṛṣṇa says, "Mānmana bhāvā mad-bhakto mad-ya-ji mām namaskarū. Mām evaśri-satyam dev-pratī-janē priya-vocimē." Always think of Me, bow down to Me, become My devotee, and offer homage to Me. And if you do these four things, Kṛṣṇa says, you'll come to Me without fail. Now, Durvāsa Muni was a mystic yogi. Durvāsa Muni, one of his various characteristics is that he gets easily pleased and easily displeased. And Narasimhuni had mystic powers. As it is reported, Narasimhuni would travel with 10,000 disciples. He would never travel alone. Fortunately, he didn't have to buy any airline tickets. If he had to buy airline tickets, he'd probably— he had mystic powers, so he could travel with the mystic powers. So when Dwaraka Muni returned, what did he do? He got very angry. He got very angry at Amritvarsha. Actually, as it has been explained by the Ācāryas, his anger was not justified because what King Amrish did was nothing wrong. King Amrish had to break his fast before a certain deadline, and drinking water, as it has been explained in the previous purport, is considered breaking fast and not breaking at the same time, isn't it? So Amrish Maharaj really They did not transgress the Vedic etiquette. But the rāsa-vani was not on the path of pure devotional service. Therefore he got agitated. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja says, kṛṣṇa-bhaktā-niskāma atayevo śānta. Mukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī sakāli aśānta. Krishna Kaviraj is talking about devotees of Krishna, he obviously means the unmotivated devotees. Krishna also has sākāma devotees. But in the Bhāgavad-gītā, Krishna does say, "Seven people come to Me under four conditions." Whereas people do come to Him with motivation also. But one who has knowledge, he recognizes The importance of anyābhi-lāsita-sūnyam jnāna-karma-dhi-anavratam anukalena kṛṣṇa-srī-lāla-bhaktir uttamaḥ. Rūpa Gosvāmī in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu has explained what is the topmost process of devotional service, anyābhi-lāsita-sūnyam. So Kṛṣṇa's Kavirāja is saying Kṛṣṇa-bhaktāndha-kāma. Those who take to the path of devotional service with a selfless motive, they are peaceful. Kṛṣṇa-maṇo 'nirskāma-ātayeva śanta. Because they have taken to the path of devotional service with that motivation, therefore they are peaceful. A devotee who takes the path of devotional service without motivation actually is peaceful in any condition. Honored, dishonored, victory, defeat, loss, gain, heat, cold. Krishna explains in the 6th chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā called Dhyāna-yoga, that one, for one who has controlled his mind, He has achieved tranquility, and to him, honor, dishonor, victory, defeat are all the same. So Krishna bhaktan is kama-ateva-shanta. So those who take to the path of pure devotional service, they are peaceful. In contrast, bhakti, mukti, siddhi, Kāmī, sakāli-ashantā. So in contrast, those who want bhakti, those engaged in fruitive activities, they may be doing religious offerings, etc., but behind that they have a goal. Actually, Narottama Mahāśākara, he condemns fruitive activity. He says fruitive activities is just like drinking poison from a golden cup. Poison, whether you drink from a clay cup or a golden cup, is going to have the same effect. So on the path of pure devotional service, creative activities are not considered the highest also. Vyāsa Dev, after having compiled the vast Vedic literature, Sitting on the bank of Saraswati, was meditating. "Why am I not feeling satisfied? I have compiled this vast literature, summarized it in the Vedanta Sutra." But still he was feeling as if there's something lacking in his contribution. And as he was meditating, he was trying to find out the cause. Narada Muni appeared on the scene and told him,— that the cause of his dissatisfaction is that he has not exclusively presented the path of unmotivated service, namely pure devotional service. And hence came the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So bhakti, fruitive activities, certainly is better than a, than a pure atheistic or materialistic position, but it's not the highest. Then mukti. Those who want liberation, the different types of liberation. And siddhi. There are those who want mystic perfection. In the Nectar of Devotion, Rūpa Gosvāmī talks about 8 different types of mystic perfections that you can try and achieve. Anīma-lagimīya-prapti. One of them is a siddhi called prapti-siddhi. If you have that prapti-siddhi, Sitting in one location, you can stretch your hand anywhere and lift anything you want. Would be good, isn't it? You have property in the city, sitting in your house, you could stretch your hand to all the safe wallets in Switzerland, take all the gold and cash out and bring it here. You could dry up the treasury of all the banks in Washington. You can just stretch your hand And also you can use it to distribute books, stretch your hand. Stay in one location, stretch your hands and you don't have to run around. Anyway, these siddhis are also not attainable in this age. So Krishna says, mukti, mukti, siddhi, kāmī. He said all these individuals are lusty, kāmī. Hence, sakāli, asantā. Therefore they're not peaceful. So Daraṣa Muni had mystic powers, but mystic powers don't give you pure devotional service. And because he was not on the path of pure devotional service, when he saw what Amritamaraṣa has done, actually he should have tolerated it. If he was on the path of pure devotional service, he would just have tolerated it. Queen Kunti tolerated so many inconveniences. Kunti and the Pandavas were banished in the forest. They had to go through so many difficulties, but Queen Kunti never protested. She never said, "My dear Lord, why are You putting me in all these difficulties after all I am Your devotee?" We see that neophyte devotees, if they have to face difficulties, etc., They get very surprised, angry at the Lord. "Why did God make this happen to me? What wrong have I done?" Because everyone, everybody likes to think he does no wrong. That's one of the characteristics of human nature. Everyone always thinks, "I'm straightforward, honest, always right." So Queen Kunti, tolerated all the inconveniences and difficulties that she had to go through, and rather she went on to pray, "My dear Lord, please may you increase my calamities, because the more calamities I had to face, the more I meditated the Lord's fate." And the more I meditate at the lotus feet, the faster I will gain freedom from, from the cycle of birth and death. So that's the difference between the mentality of a pure devotee and the mentality of someone who's motivated or someone who's not on the path of pure devotional service. So the rāsa-bhūnī, Because he had mystic powers, he was able to know that Amritsha has already drunk water. It's not that somebody came and told him, "Dwarasa, Amritsha had water, you know that?" Nobody had to tell Dwarasa that. He had mystic powers. So while bathing, he at once came to know that Amritsha has already drunk water. And the rasa's anger was, "He invited me and then he had water, he drunk without waiting for me." So the rasa money was very angry. And the verse also described how when the rasa returned, even though returned in an angry mood, Amrit was still so respectful to him. The verse describes that the rasa returned. And he came out of the bath being aware what Amritsar had done. He was in an angry mood, but still Amritsar was respectful to him. So this conveys another important message for we devotees, which is that a devotee doesn't believe in tit-for-tat. You know, material philosophy is tit-for-tat, isn't it? A tooth for a tooth. And different languages, they have different equivalents. In Russian, they say, "Zubazub," tooth for a tooth. So tit for tat. You're angry at me, I'm going to get angry at you. So let's see who wins. Now, Amritsar Maharaj was an exalted Vaishnava. So even though Narasimhadeva came in an angry mood, ready to curse him, he was still very cool. He offered him all the respects. So that is why Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommends the path of humility and tolerance. Caitanya Mahāprabhu instructed his followers to write volumes of books, but he left behind only 8 verses identified as his sikṣāstra. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu is teaching us to be more humble than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree. We all step on the grass, isn't it? It's a grasshopper Italian. So Durvasa Muni was in a very angry mood, and then he spoke as follows. What did Durvasa say? He attacked Amrit Maharaja's character. He said, "Look at the behavior of this cruel man." Amritsar Maharaj was innocent, but here he has been accused as a cruel man. He's not a devotee of Lord Vishnu. A blind man thinks everyone's blind. So he attacked him. Being proud of his material opulence and position, he considers himself God. 'Just see how he has transgressed the laws of religion.' So the Rāsa Muni was so angry because Amṛśma Rāja invited him as a guest, but instead of feeding the guest first, he ate himself. Of course, this is an etiquette that you normally feed the guest first. If you go to someone's house, the host and hostesses, what do they do? They first feed the guest. And that should be an important practice. Similarly, applying this law or guideline in our ISKCON temples, we devotees should also have the mentality that we first take care of guests who come to our temple. Then we eat. Actually, the best is, the best devotees are those, or the most advanced, those who eat right in the end. First they want to serve all the guests who come. Sometimes we see that as soon as the lines open up, the devotees are competing with the guests for prasāda. And naturally the server is out of respect, he first gives it to the devotees. The guests usually have to stand in line, wait longer. But looking at the Vedic etiquette, our etiquette should be that we serve the guests first. We let the guests eat prasad. And after we serve the guests, looked after our guests nicely, then we can sit down and take prasad. So Daraasamuni says, He should have waited for me to eat first. He invited me. So from this we can learn an important lesson from Rāsa Mūhī's instruction that when guests come to our Sunday feast and even on other days, we should try our best to give them some prasāda. As we said the other day, the highest etiquette is if everyone, every guest who comes, make him, make him sit down, and serve him hot prasada. Prabhupāda said, told us to do that. He would say we should have a running kitchen and everyone who comes, we should make him sit down and serve him hot prasada. In Tirupati Temple, they have a hall where they make, they serve prasada to everyone. I think it's free. Anyone who comes all day, they can go there and get free prasad. So Prophet really wanted that in his temples, especially in the big temples. So Bihay says, 'When a guest comes, you offer him prasad. And if you can't offer him prasad, okay, too expensive, we can't afford it, we don't have so many cooks, etc., then at least offer him Water, water, of course water is also getting more expensive day by day. At one time water was considered a free commodity. 20 years ago water was considered a free commodity. But now water also is getting expensive. About 5, 6 years ago one devotee told me in Washington, Every time you flush toilet, it costs you 50 cents. I mean, that was about 6, 7 years ago, somebody working in the water department. Then washing water is so expensive. And drinking water is even more expensive. Isn't that so? Very soon it's going to be the price of gasoline, probably. In some countries, it's the price of gasoline. So anyway, offer them water if you can. But if you can't offer them water, what can you offer them? Sweet words of welcome. That don't cost any money, do they? That probably costs more than water and food in a way. Because that requires humility. That requires a humble culture. To offer people sweet words of welcome, you really need a humble culture, isn't it? You offer everyone sweet words of welcome regardless of whether he's rich or poor, regardless of he's handsome or ugly. So if you can't offer them even water, offer them sweet words of welcome and a mat to sit on. You have plenty of mats in the temple, I see that for sure. So they don't have to hand out guests except on the Sunday feast probably. You may not have enough mats for everyone. So anyway, so here we see that the Rasa Muni is attacking Amrit Maharajas. Character. He had found fault with many of them. And then Prasad RAVAL in an angry mood, he came to the realization, "I must teach this Amritsar lesson. I should teach him a lesson. How dare he be disrespectful to an exalted mystic yogi like myself." He was a powerful mystic yogi. So he produced from his sikha, he took a bunch of hair from his head, probably from his sikha. It is said that these mystic yogis keep their power in their sikha. Because there's a nice story during Bhaktivedanta Mahāprabhu's time, there was a bogus yogi in Orissa. Was acting like Vishnu. This bogus yogi was flirting with people's wives, daughters, sisters, mothers, and many people complained to the British government that this bogus yogi is committing this fraud. But many people were worshipping him as Lord Vishnu, as incarnation of Vishnu. So the British government gave this complaint to Thakur Bhaktiradhasa, who was the district magistrate at that time. And Bhaktivedanta Thakura, of course, knew this man is not Vishnu. So he proceeded with his police force to the jungle where this mystic yogi was residing. When Thakura Bhaktivedanta arrived at his house, the mystic yogi said, "Kedārna datta." This was Thakura Bhaktivedanta's mature name. "I know I have come here." You've come here to arrest me, but you don't know who I am. I am Lord Viṣṇu, and when I drive the Britishers out of India, I'll make you the Viceroy of India. Viceroy means the head of the country. So Bhaktivedānta ṣaṭhākura said, "If you are the head, if you are Viṣṇu, what are you doing in this forest? You should be residing in the Jagannātha Temple." That's where Vishnu resides. So he said, "That is just a statue of wood. That is not God." So when he said that, Thakur Bhaktivedanta ordered his policemen to get him arrested. Anyway, he was arrested and brought to Puri for a trial. And when he was brought to Puri for his trial, his followers would come and protest in front of the court, "Release, release, release our Guru, release God." And Lord Dhaka Bhakti refused to budge. All his family members fell sick. And all, wife, children. And the whole town started saying, "Because Dhaka Bhakti Vinod has committed an offense in imprisoning Lord Vishnu, this is the punishment." And everyone was pleading with him to release him. He was totally unmoved. Then the trial went on, and one day when the trial, or when this imposter was being taken out of the court, there was a British barrister there who had read that these mystic yogis get their mystic power from their hair, from their sikha. So he came from behind with scissors. Cut his seeker. And as soon as he cut his seeker, the mystic yogi committed suicide. He died. So here we see that— I'm not comparing him to the Raja Muni, but I'm just making a point that that impostor had mystic powers. And the common belief was that the mystic power is being— they get their strength through their Sika, which is like the antenna. So here we see that the Rāsa Muni, he also, what did he do? He uprooted a bunch of hair from his head, and from that hair he created a demon resembling the blazing fire of devastation, hoping to destroy Amrit Prasad. But Amrit Prasad was totally unmoved. Dabi saw this fearful demon ready to strike. He was unmoved and he continued to meditate at the lotus feet of Lord. And because he continued to meditate at the lotus feet of Lord, ultimately the Lord came to his protection. Anyway, that's— you're going to read that story in the verses to follow. So the Rāsa-muni here is criticizing the character of Amṛśma Mahārāja. It's not uncommon even in today's society to see the non-devotees tend to criticize the devotees, isn't it? Even though devotees are very peace-loving people, they really don't harm anyone. The only thing they really do is go on the streets and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Still they say, "You're creating a disturbance. You're creating so much disturbance. You're making so much noise." When Prabhupada was trying to establish the Hare Krishna Temple in Juhu, Bombay, at that time there were some corrupt politicians in power. So when he would, when we applied for permission, they rejected it. They said, "No, they're creating too much disturbance." Sometimes They accuse us, "Your temples are creating heavy traffic jams." In Bhaktivedanta Manor, England, they had a big case for many years. And one of the big allegations was, "The temple is creating a big traffic jam. So, our cars can't move." So they were trying to close the Manor down for many years. Then they fought a big— they had a big struggle and they finally won. But they had to— make certain adjustments. So that's the nature of devotees, non-devotees, to find fault with devotees. Prabhupada says in the purport, Viśvanātha Cakruti Thakura has offered his interpretation of this, has offered his explanation, sorry, not interpretation of this verse. And Viśvanātha Cakruti Thakura has supported the activity executed by Amrish Maharaj. And he has— Vishwanath Chakraborty Thakur has pointed out that Amrish Maharaj, even though he was an opulent king, he was completely detached, like a lotus leaf within water but not touched by the water. It's not— generally, if a man has money, if one is very handsome, if one is very educated, then he tends to become proud, isn't it? But Amrish Maharaj, now he was so rich, he was not at all proud, and he was not at all attached to his wealth. Just like the King Bharat ruled over the earthly planet, but after ruling over, he withdrew to the forest to practice meditation. So Amrish Maharaj was not attached to money. He had surpassed the madness of material opulence. And he was very respectful to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and he did not violate the karadasi prana despite the thinking of the rāsa. In other words, the rāsa's accusations are totally false, and Viśvanātha Chakraborty Thakur has confirmed that. So we're reading this very nice pastime of Amṛśma Rāja, and then the verses to follow. We will read how the Supreme Personality of Godhead came to Amṛṣa's rescue. Hare Kṛṣṇa.