Text 1
sūta uvāca
ānartān sa upavrajya
svṛddhāñ jana-padān svakān
dadhmau daravaraṁ teṣāṁ
viṣādaṁ śamayann iva
Translation
Sūta Gosvāmī said: Upon reaching the border of His most prosperous metropolis, known as the country of the Ānartas [Dvārakā], the Lord sounded His auspicious conchshell, heralding His arrival and apparently pacifying the dejection of the inhabitants.
Purport
The beloved Lord was away from His own prosperous metropolis of Dvārakā for a considerably long period because of the Battle of Kurukṣetra, and thus all the inhabitants were overcome with melancholia due to the separation. When the Lord descends to the earth, His eternal associates also come with Him, just as the entourage of a king accompanies him. Such associates of the Lord are eternally liberated souls, and they cannot bear the separation of the Lord even for a moment because of intense affection for the Lord. Thus the inhabitants of the city of Dvārakā were in a mood of dejection and expected the arrival of the Lord at any moment. So the heralding sound of the auspicious conchshell was very encouraging, and apparently the sound pacified their dejection. They were still more aspirant to see the Lord amongst themselves, and all of them became alert to receive Him in the befitting manner. These are the signs of spontaneous love of Godhead.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj :
So the previous chapter described how the Lord departed from the Pandavas and when he departed then he became separated from them.
Of course they were blissful when he was there but when he left they all became dejected. While Krishna was away during the battle of Kurukshetra and staying with the Pandavas, the people of Dwarka were in separation from the Lord. But when he left the Pandavas and he came to Dwarka then they were all overjoyed.So this is very similar to the duality in the material world. We possess an object, we are happy, we get separated from the object, then we become unhappy. We get separated from the object. If somebody else has the object, they are happy. So this causes happiness and distress in the material world. So this is what we call duality or dvandva. So this is often used in philosophical discussions in the scripture. For instance, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about dvandva mohena. People in the material world are bewildered by dvandva, duality. So due to the very construction of the material world, there must be this duality. Nothing is eternal. If we can possess something, we will lose it.
But even if we don’t lose it, we can hold on to it for the rest of our life. But then we die and we lose it. So all of this arises, this dvandva arises because of itcha and dvesha. This is another duality. I desire something. Why? Because it will give me happiness.
I hate something because it will give me suffering. So due to the like, I possess an object, I get my happiness. But when I am separated from the object, I suffer. And then I hate the cause of separation from the object. It may be a person, it just may be death or whatever, but we get very disturbed. Some will say, God did it, so then we hate God. Or we can say karma did it, so we hate karma. And of course, if a person does it, then we hate the person. So all this arises because of desire and hatred. Itcha and dvesha. This of course can also be expressed as kama and krodha. And of course in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says this leads to hell. This is also connected with the gunas. Kama arises from rajoguna. Krodha arises from tamoguna.
So most of the jivas in this material world are fluctuating with desire and hatred, tamoguna, rajoguna. Based on the desires or the hatred, we do activities. We only do activities because we have a desire for something.
If we have a desire for food, then we eat. So desire is a cause of action. Then anger or hatred is also a cause of action. We will take action to avoid any suffering. Or we may take action to punish somebody because they caused us suffering. But the nature of all of this is that all these actions create karma. But the nature of all of this is that all these actions create karma. We do these activities to avoid suffering. This creates karma. This is why we will have to suffer in the future. So this means we end up with countless suffering. So we can accuse the Lord.
The Lord makes a lot of karma so we can suffer in the material world. The Lord is very cruel. But no, he does something else. If you do punyas, you get happiness, not just suffering. But he does something else. If you do punyas, you get happiness, not just suffering. Unfortunately, many people try to fulfill their desires or do actions out of hatred and they get all suffering, bad karma. But if we are more intelligent, we try to fulfill our desires according to the rules of dharma. And then we get punya and we enjoy it.
But if we are more intelligent, we try to fulfill our desires according to the rules of dharma. And then we get punya and we enjoy it. And the laws of dharma give us rules to avoid acting out of anger or hatred.
So that restricts all of that. And the laws of dharma give us rules to avoid acting out of anger or hatred. So that restricts all of that.
So people can say, well, very nice, but we don’t know all these laws. It is too complicated. So why blame us if we do all these bad activities? So, to propagate the laws, knowledge of the laws, implementation of the laws, the Lord appoints Manus and their descendants.
So they teach all the people the laws. This ensures that the society can go on with maximum of punya and therefore happiness and minimum of suffering. So that is the whole purpose of the law of karma. And therefore in the Bhagavad Gita and other scriptures and even Bhagavatam, it encourages people to follow these laws. So at least we don’t get the suffering. However, this is, let’s say, we are compromised because we get maximum the happiness and minimum of suffering.
But we don’t destroy the suffering completely. Some people are happy with that.
Okay, I get a little more happiness than suffering. Fine. Okay.
Other people are a little more intelligent and say, well, as long as the suffering is there, no matter how much happiness we have, still the suffering creates a big problem for us. So, Supreme Lord also makes an arrangement for that. If you don’t like this happiness and suffering completely, get rid of the whole thing and go for liberation. And the Lord also supplies methods for liberation. That is Jnana and Ashtanga Yoga. Of course, most of the people are satisfied with the mixture of happiness.
If they get a little more happiness than the suffering, but a few will go for liberation. But people still wonder, well, Lord, why does he do this? Why does he make it so difficult to get complete happiness? So, the Lord offers another method, which is not so difficult as Yoga or Jnana. So, he gives the process of Bhakti Yoga. So, by Bhakti Yoga, yes, we get rid of the suffering, we get complete happiness, but it’s much easier than Jnana and Yoga. So, in this way, we can never criticize the Supreme Lord. He makes arrangements so we can get rid of all the dualities of the material world.
However, when we read Bhagavatam and we read here about the devotees and we say, Oh, look, they are suffering, he says, Vishada. They are suffering, lamenting. So, they are happy, then they get sad. Same dualities about the devotees. How is that possible? Because of that, some people prefer, OK, let’s just have liberation. We don’t have all this happiness, distress, nothing. However, we should not think that this so-called duality is real duality. Therefore, it says, Eva. It was like, it apparently looked like they were suffering. So, in the spiritual world, among the devotees, it looks like there are dualities, happiness and distress. And it’s largely caused by union and separation from the Lord. However, if we examine closely, we see that this type of duality is very different from material duality.
So, the devotee has a desire to serve the Lord, yes. So, does he have any hatred? We could say any interruption to the service of the Lord is a hatred. So, the difference from the duality of the material world is everything is centered upon serving and pleasing the Lord in the spiritual world.
In the material world, desire and hatred are centered on self, individual. So, the whole process of bhakti is to get the jiva away from his self-centered enjoyment to giving pleasure to the Lord. And when we do that, then we get a very remarkable result, that is eternal bliss. In that eternal bliss, centered on the Lord, we will get happiness and distress. And it has nothing to do with material bodies. So, this apparent duality is merely fluctuation in the bliss.
Prema takes two divisions. Of course, it is all blissful. But then it manifests as union and separation. But both are part of prema and both are part of the bliss. So, that is very different from the duality of the material world. When one suffers in the material world, it has nothing to do with the happiness in the material world.
It is the opposite. And the two do not automatically balance out. It can be completely in suffering with no happiness at all. So, the spiritual world may look similar to the material world. It may look like it has dualities, but it is quite different. So, we can ask the question, well, a very nice spiritual world is all eternal bliss. But still, why do we have to have the separation in the spiritual world then? And the answer is, it is to create variety within the prema. Just like people like sweet things. So, when we think of sweet, we think of sugar.
So, somebody likes sweet things, we can give them a bag of sugar. Eat the sugar. Eat the sugar.
Eat the sugar. So, after eating for a few seconds, then he will stop and he will not want to eat the sugar anymore. But, if you mix the sugar with milk and spices or nuts or whatever and you cook it or fry it or bake it or whatever, we have all sorts of varieties and you can take different types of sweets continuously all day long. So, thus within the prema, there is variety. Of course, there is variety in different rasas themselves, different tastes. But within each rasa, there is always variety. And this increases the satisfaction. And thus we have five components of rasa which will create that variety. And we have union and separation that will create the variety. So, this is a type of duality, but it is there for giving more bliss. So, that we should understand by hearing these descriptions of the various devotees in the spiritual world. We should understand this by hearing the descriptions of the various devotees in the spiritual world.
Q & A
1) Bhagavatam rejects the dharma. But here, Manu is trying to establish the dharma and Bhagavatam rejects the dharma. It is completely opposite.
So, dharma is established by the Manu, supported by the Lord, the Devatas, etc., for people in general. For those who are devotees, they can do dharma or not do dharma, but they should do bhakti. And those who are very dedicated may give up that whole dharma completely.
So, in the spiritual world, of course, there is also, just like there is appearance of duality, there is an appearance of dharma also. But nobody has to follow laws in the spiritual world because there is no papa pop and punya plenty or anything. No, icha or dvesha, anything.
So, they don’t need any restrictions. So, there the dharma only acts as an element for the pastimes. In the material world, dharma acts for people in general who cannot control their senses and are subject to getting karma and then suffering a lot.
So, if one gets too attached to that dharma, however, then that becomes unfavorable for bhakti. And thus, the scriptures like Bhagavatam often reject that dharma also. If you take to devotional service, then you can reject.
If you don’t take to devotional service, then you must do the dharma.
2) We have a desire for eating, but we are hungry for eating also. How can we understand that?
Well, we have various urges of the body, hunger, thirst, whatever.
But these are expressed through our desire. So, when you are hungry, then you desire to eat. When you are not hungry, you don’t desire to eat.
So, the two are connected together. But then we may have people who are hungry, but don’t desire to eat also. So, a yogi will control his hunger and then say, I don’t want to eat, because he says, you know, all this eating is lack of sense control.
A yogi may be hungry, but he may not desire to eat, because he thinks that hunger is lack of sense control.
3) So, in the Damodara Arathi, we have written on the board that by doing lamp, by showing lamp to the Lord Damodara, one gets rid of so many selfish reactions. And it’s a similar type of one glorification of Krishna’s reading the pastimes and doing devotional services mentioned. So, will this come under the pure bhakti? So, similarly in the pastimes of the Lord, we have such glorifications that you will win over the enemies. Even if you read the Krishna book, if you just remember this pastime, you will win over the enemies. So, similarly in Bhagavatam also we see like that. But our objective is to develop love for the Lord, but that is not emphasized in many of the places.
Yes. When we do bhakti, of course the goal is prema. But in pursuing prema through bhakti, we get many results. These are not the goal of the devotee, but that automatically happens. So, we eat to satisfy our hunger, but then we get nourished also. When we do bhakti to get prema for the Lord, we destroy all our karmas. We develop all good qualities. So, these are not the goal, but these are the effects. So, we can glorify bhakti by glorifying the different effects. And for people who have mixed devotion, then glorifying these effects is very attractive to them. I destroy all my suffering, I get nice karma, they feel happy. For one doing pure bhakti, then he doesn’t really get attracted to these things.
4) Can we worship Krishna from any direction?
Well, anything is possible in devotional service. But for deity worship, we generally follow rules. So, you face the Lord when you worship the Lord. And generally it says, for worship, you should face east or north. Ultimately, more than the rules, of course, is the devotion. And if we worship the Lord through the name, we don’t consider directions at all. You can chant facing east, north, west, south, south east or whatever. Doesn’t matter.
5) But when we establish a temple, normally we see east, west, that facing, you know.
So, when establishing a temple, we consider… So, in deity worship and establishing temples, etc., they have rules. So, when we establish a temple, we have to follow the rules.
6) Sometimes we see devotees loudly laughing and crying during Sankirtan. What kind of bhava is this?
If one has bhava and prema, then they are called sattvika bhavas and anubhavas. If one is not on that stage, one is on sadhana, then they are called abhashas.
7) Maharaj, we know that jiva is in tatastha shakti. Being the case, can a jiva become a gopi in the spiritual world after having attained the portion of hladini shakti?
Ans: Well, this is the whole point of Lord Caitanya. By worshipping Radha and Krishna, we aspire to become a gopi in the spiritual world. So, in the spiritual world, they have spiritual forms, not material forms. In the spiritual world, they have spiritual forms, not material forms. Our material forms are caused by karma. Our spiritual forms are caused by bhakti.
8) With respect to practicing devotional service, service attitude is cultivated or is it attained through the angas of bhakti?
Well, in performance of bhakti, we need some guidance. Without knowing what bhakti is, we don’t know what to do if we are involved in bhakti. So, they can say, okay, you chant Hare Krishna or you worship the deity. Get some activity. But, we also said, that’s not actually bhakti.
Bhakti is the devotion. We have to do the act with devotion. So, we need some initial guidelines on whom to worship, how to worship, what attitude to worship in.
As we develop the bhakti, then these directions become natural. So, we have a definition of pure bhakti given in nectar of devotion. When we begin bhakti, then we have to follow that. It’s like an imposition. When we begin bhakti, we have to follow that. And why that’s necessary? Because we are too attached to the material world. But, by practice, then that definition becomes the nature of the jiva. So, that happens when we reach bhava and prema.
9) At what stage of bhakti can we stop performing dharma?
Bhagavatham says, when you develop faith in the Lord and you begin the practice of bhakti, then you can give it up. If you don’t have that faith, then don’t give it up.
10) Krishna is all-powerful, is all-knowable, knower. Being the case, why he should come to the earth and do so many pastimes and save the life of devotees?
He often comes at the request of devotees. Of course, he can simply by his will kill all the demons. But he appears in the material world and performs various pastimes to give pleasure to the devotees.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam Ki.. Jai ! Srila Prabhupad Ki.. Jai !! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki.. Jai !!