Text 17
sitātapatraṁ jagrāha
muktādāma-vibhūṣitam
ratna-daṇḍaṁ guḍākeśaḥ
priyaḥ priyatamasya ha
Translation
At that time Arjuna, the great warrior and conqueror of sleep, who is the intimate friend of the most beloved Supreme Lord, took up an umbrella which had a handle of jewels and was embroidered with lace and pearls.
Purport
Gold, jewels, pearls and valuable stones were used in the luxurious royal ceremonies. They are all nature’s gifts and are produced by the hills, oceans, etc., by the order of the Lord, when man does not waste his valuable time in producing unwanted things in the name of necessities. By so-called development of industrial enterprises, they are now using pots of gutta-percha instead of metals like gold, silver, brass and copper. They are using margarine instead of purified butter, and one fourth of the city population has no shelter.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj :
It’s describing Arjuna doing service to Krishna and here it mentions that Arjuna took up an umbrella in modern society. Of course, what’s the use of an umbrella? When it rains, everybody puts up an umbrella. So, nothing special about an umbrella.
Here, however, the umbrella is ceremonial and symbolic. So, when the king goes out on procession, there’s always an umbrella. So, the umbrella over the king is considered to be a service. We all see in our temples an umbrella over the Lord. So, on the altar we have an umbrella. And if you do a deed, you offer ornaments to the Lord, you dress the Lord, you put sandalwood and other elements on the Lord, you offer ornaments to the Lord, and then you offer an umbrella.
So, use of an umbrella is often associated with royalty. And, of course, the umbrella is special here because it is decorated with pearls. So, Arjuna took up the role of carrying the umbrella for Krishna. Normally, this is the service of a servant. But, here we see that Arjuna is taking up this role. Arjuna is also royalty. However, Krishna is not just royalty, he is Supreme Lord. And though Yudhishthira and his brothers are on the throne, etc., in relation to Krishna, they remain his servants. This is not because Krishna was more powerful, but because Krishna is the Supreme Lord and they are his servants.
However, if we talk about servant and master, sometimes it has a negative connotation. Often, the servant is a slave. This means they are not voluntarily doing this service out of affection, they are doing it because they are forced to do it.
Therefore, that type of service is not considered to be really valuable because it is not done with affection. In relation to the Lord, everybody is ultimately a servant of the Lord. But, this has a different meaning. They are not voluntarily serving out of love, not that type of servant. Nor are they serving by force, like a slave. In fact, the people of the material world don’t seem to be serving Krishna at all.
They are called eternal servants of the Lord. In that case, the word servant has a different meaning. It means that the inherent position of the Jiva is dependence on the Lord. So, in that sense, all the Jivas are servants of the Lord, whether they volunteer to do a service or not. So, in our philosophy, that position can never change. The Jiva is eternally a Jiva. He never becomes something else. And the very nature of the Jiva is dependent on the Lord. So, he is conscious, he has free will, but the consciousness is dependent on the Lord.
So, in the material world, though constitutionally, Jiva is dependent on the Lord, the Jivas in the material world do not recognize the Lord at all. This means, the Jiva thinks, I am independent, not dependent. So, though he is dependent on the Lord, he thinks, I am independent of everybody.
So, that is why we say, the Jiva in the material world is covered by ignorance. And it is because of this ignorance that the Jiva does activities, gets karma and gets material bodies. So, though he is dependent on the Lord, he acts as if he is independent. As a result of that, he ends up with misery. So, this misery is not a comfortable position for the Jiva. He does not like to be miserable.
Of course, in the material world, we have illusion of happiness. Those who are more intelligent than the material world realize, yes, this happiness is temporary, it is illusory. So, these people will strive for eternal happiness.
Those who are more intelligent will understand, you will never get eternal happiness in the material world. These persons become Jnanis and they seek to destroy their connection with the material world completely and then they are eternally happy. Now, of course, this is mentioned in scripture.
But, then there is also scripture that says, yes, you can become liberated from the material world by Jnana, but that does not give you eternal bliss. It gives the Jiva eternal freedom from suffering. But, is freedom from suffering bliss? So, if we are intelligent, we will say no, simply because we are not suffering, that does not mean we are blissful.
We have happiness because we are free from suffering, that’s all. So, what is bliss and how to achieve it? So, scriptures say, yes, there is bliss in the spiritual world. Who is bliss? Supreme Lord is bliss.
How does the Jiva get bliss? He has to recognize the Supreme Lord. This means he should accept his position of voluntary service to the Lord. So, voluntary service to the Lord means we do it with some sort of affection.
If we don’t like the Lord, why would we serve him? So, someone comes and says, no, you have to serve him anyway, not voluntary, and we don’t have any affection. So, then it’s not real service. It’s like the slave. Unfortunately, for people in the material world, to get that favorable service attitude is difficult. Why? Because of the ignorance. The desire to be independent. So, the only way we can develop that affection is through the process of Sadhana Bhakti. So, in Sadhana Bhakti, first, before we start, we have to recognize the Supreme Lord and also accept that we should develop affection for him. This is the qualification to begin the process of Bhakti.
So, this qualification is called faith. So, the Supreme Lord, his existence, his form, his qualities, his activities are stated in the scripture. The method of Bhakti is mentioned in the scripture. So, faith also means, not only accept the Lord and favorable service to the Lord, but to accept the scriptures, which explain the Lord and the process of Bhakti. With that faith, then we can do the process of Bhakti. If we start the process of Bhakti, but we don’t accept the scripture, we don’t accept the existence of the Lord, what does that mean? It’s not Bhakti at all.
Or someone says, you must worship Krishna. If you don’t worship Krishna, we’ll chop your head off. It’s not Bhakti. So, until that faith develops, Bhakti cannot really take place. It was common in ancient societies, even in India, the king conquers, ok, everybody must worship Shiva, everybody must worship Vishnu. They just give a command like that. But, there is no faith there, so therefore the worship will not be real Bhakti. So, just to get to the stage of faith, may take many many births. But, how can it take place? Can it take place by Punyas and Sattva Gunas? No. These are in the material world, they only produce material results. As we said, faith actually is not material, because it’s the qualification for Bhakti, which is purely spiritual, so it has to be spiritual also. And that faith is not a mental state.
Mental states arise by your vasanas due to karma. So, that is why the scriptures say that development of faith and performance of Bhakti is independent of your birth or your karma. So, how does faith arise? It only arises by mercy of devotees.
But, if we don’t have faith, we will not even look for devotees. And if we see a devotee, we run away. So, very difficult for devotees to give mercy to people who don’t have faith.
And our scriptures tell the devotee, don’t preach to the faithless. So, the only way that they can get mercy from a devotee is accidental mercy. So, it’s not exactly accidental, but that person is unaware that they are getting mercy, that’s all.
So, the devotee may have an intention of giving mercy of some form, but that other person is not aware. So, that person may see the deity on Ratha Yatra, accidentally. Not completely accidental, because it wouldn’t take place unless devotees arranged for a Ratha Yatra.
But, in that lifetime, he may never see another Ratha Yatra. He may work five lifetimes later, maybe he accidentally sees a Ratha Yatra again. The person may be hungry, so he will eat something in his prasadam.
He eats it, not because it’s prasadam, but because he is hungry. So, these so-called accidental contact with devotional service influence the Jiva. The Jiva becomes a little bit favorable.
But, it will take many, many accidental contacts over many, many lifetimes in order for that tendency to favor the Lord to get strong. When it gets strong enough, then it will begin to surface in his consciousness. And then, if he sees a devotee or sees the Ratha Yatra, then he may get a little attracted.
So, therefore, the development of faith is dependent on mercy coming from devotees. So, therefore, it is purely a spiritual process, not karma. And, in this way, gradually, that person will accept, oh yes, there is a Supreme Lord, and I am dependent on the Supreme Lord, I should try to serve Him with affection.
When he does that, he starts the process of Bhakti Yoga. In this way, gradually, that person will accept, oh yes, there is a Supreme Lord, and I am dependent on the Supreme Lord, I should try to serve Him with affection. When he does that, he starts the process of Bhakti Yoga.
So, we practice to develop more affection, more favorability through engaging our senses in Sadhana Bhakti. So, we practice to develop more affection, more favorability through engaging our senses in Sadhana Bhakti. And that tendency begins to grow and grow in the Jiva.
Until Krishna says, it is strong enough that I will show myself to my devotee. That is Bhava stage. And, at that stage, then Hladini and Samvit Shaktis begin to operate within the Jiva.
And, that service becomes and affection becomes spontaneous. And, as that affection grows, though the devotee is always serving the Lord, the Lord also becomes attracted to serving the devotee. So, in this case, Arjuna is serving the Lord, holding an umbrella.
But, we also have descriptions of the opposite. Krishna serves Arjuna. Krishna becomes the charioteer of Arjuna.
In the procession of the Pandavas, Krishna is following after as one of the followers. Krishna acts as their messenger. But, in spite of that, ultimately all the Jivas are dependent on the Supreme Lord.
But, when the affection is strong enough, Krishna may take the role of serving the devotee. And, this shows that Krishna is not interested in making everybody a slave. He also likes to take a service position.
Q & A
1) Maharaja, one loses the faith despite many years of practice of attending programs, hearing lectures. Why the faith is being lost despite practice of sadhana bhakti?
One reason is, due to bad association, they may start committing offences. And, we hear that the Vaishnava aparadha is the mad elephant offence.
So, as the mad elephant destroys the banana fields or whatever, so the Vaishnava aparadha destroys the creeper of bhakti. So, therefore bhakti becomes very weak. So, that’s the commonest reason.
2) Can we understand that those who don’t believe Krishna as Supreme Lord but are worshipping devatas are faithless and they are like atheists?
If they only worship devatas and refuse to worship Vishnu or Krishna, they are called Pashandis. If they only worship devatas and refuse to worship Vishnu or Krishna, they are called Pashandis.
So, this means that they claim they are believing in scripture but actually they are not following scripture. Because in scripture we will often see glorification of Vishnu as Supreme. So, if they are attracted to worshipping devatas, fine, let them follow scripture but they should also worship Vishnu.
If they are attracted to worshipping devatas, fine, let them follow scripture but they should also worship Vishnu. But if they think Vishnu is inferior to devatas, this becomes aparadha. But if they think Vishnu is inferior to devatas, this becomes aparadha.
3) You had mentioned that there is no bliss in Jnana Marga, then what about Brahmananda? You had mentioned that there is no bliss in Jnana Marga, then what about Brahmananda? So, there is a full expression of bliss in Brahmananda. In Brahmananda, on the other hand, no qualities are manifested. So, there is no bliss over Brahmananda, no such thing, because there is no quality in Brahmananda.
So, even the Mayavadis say, yes, Brahman cannot be blissful. Nevertheless, scripture talks about Brahmananda. So, the Mayavadis explain, Ananda here means absence of ignorance, absence of karma.
The Mayavadis explain, Ananda here means absence of ignorance, absence of karma. So, in other words, it represents a negative. So, in other words, it represents a negative.
Of course, the Vaishnavas will say, yes, in Brahman, because it is Bhagavan, Brahman, Paramaham are all one, there must be a little bliss there, but it is, let’s say, minimal. And of course, Taittiriya Upanishad also says that it is through rasa that bliss arises. But rasa can only arise if we have two persons, not one.
So, we must have a Jiva, we must have a Supreme Lord, otherwise no rasa. In Brahman, there is no rasa, because there is no concept of duality, no two at all, there is only oneness. In Brahman, there is no concept of duality, there is only oneness, because there is no rasa.
4) If a Jiva attains nistha through sadhana bhakti in one lifetime, is this an achievement in itself? If a Jiva attains nistha stage through sadhana bhakti in one lifetime, can we consider this as an achievement? So, any progress through bhakti is an achievement.
And whatever progress we have made, if we don’t commit any offence, is with us in next life and next life and next life. So, of course, in the material world, you accomplish something, maybe you go to school and you study to standard 7 and you quit. Next lifetime, you have to start from zero again and go off 7. But bhakti, you continue from there, you get to 12, next life you go to college, next life you… So, it’s continuous.
5) If a devotee finished his sadhana bhakti perfectly in one lifetime, attaining bhava or prema stage, will the devotee enter into the pastime with Krishna? Yes, if we get to prema, then we are qualified to enter into the pastimes, we are qualified to go to the spiritual world.
If we get to prema, then we are qualified to enter into the pastimes, we are qualified to go to the spiritual world.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam Ki.. Jai ! Srila Prabhupad Ki.. Jai !!