Verse: Srimad Bhagvatam 6.2.2
Date: July 15th, 2017
Place: ISKCON Ujjain, India
Transcription: HG Radhikeswari Dasi
Edited: HG Shyamsundar Krishna Das and Bh. Priti Sarin
śrī-viṣṇudūtā ūcuḥ
aho kaṣṭaṁ dharma-dṛśām
adharmaḥ spṛśate sabhām
yatrādaṇḍyeṣv apāpeṣu
daṇḍo yair dhriyate vṛthā
SYNONYMS
śrī-viṣṇudūtāḥ ūcuḥ — the Viṣṇudūtas said; aho — alas; kaṣṭam — how painful it is; dharma-dṛśām — of persons interested in maintaining religion; adharmaḥ — irreligion; spṛśate — is affecting; sabhām — the assembly; yatra— wherein; adaṇḍyeṣu — upon persons not to be punished; apāpeṣu — who are sinless; daṇḍaḥ — punishment; yaiḥ — by whom; dhriyate — is being allotted; vṛthā — unnecessarily.
TRANSLATION BY HIS DIVINE GRACE A C BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI SRILA PRABHUPADA
The Viṣṇudūtas said Alas, how painful it is that irreligion is being introduced into an assembly where religion should be maintained. Indeed, those in charge of maintaining the religious principles are needlessly punishing a sinless, unpunishable person.
PURPORT
The Viṣṇudūtas accused the Yamadūtas of violating the religious principles by attempting to drag Ajāmila to Yamarāja for punishment. Yamarāja is the officer appointed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead to judge religious and irreligious principles and to punish people who are irreligious. However, if completely sinless people are punished, the entire assembly of Yamarāja is contaminated. This principle applies not only in the assembly of Yamarāja, but throughout human society also.
In human society, properly maintaining religious principles is the duty of the king’s court or the government. Unfortunately, in this Kali-yuga, the religious principles are tampered with, and the government cannot properly judge who is to be punished and who is not. It is said that in the Kali-yuga if one cannot spend money in court, one cannot get justice. Indeed, in courts of justice it is often found that magistrates are bribed for favourable judgments. Sometimes religious men who preach the Krishna consciousness movement for the benefit of the entire populace are arrested and harassed by the police and courts. The Viṣṇudūtas, who are Vaiṣṇavas, lamented for these very regrettable facts. Because of their spiritual compassion for all the fallen souls, Vaiṣṇavas go out to preach according to the standard method of all religious principles, but unfortunately, because of the influence of Kali-yuga, Vaiṣṇavas who have dedicated their lives to preaching the glories of the Lord are sometimes harassed and punished by courts on false charges of disturbing the peace.
LECTURE
EFFECTS OF BAD ASSOCIATION; WHY ONE MUST REMAIN IN SADHU SANGA?
Ajāmila is extremely sinful and he is dying. It has been described that there was no sin which Ajāmila had not committed. He was born in an exalted brāhmaṇa family. He was trained nicely in his childhood with brahminical culture however just by seeing a couple indulging in some degraded activity, he fell down. This shows that how a wrong association can influence one in a negative way.
Therefore, one of the first considerations for spiritual advancement is to avoid bad association and remain in good association, sādhu saṅga. Why? If we remain in bad association, then individuals are very susceptible to do wrong activities like meat eating, intoxication, gambling and illicit sex which especially is extremely degrading. Sex desire is a very strong impulse in living entities and that attraction can become very degrading. When one remains in good association, he is advised to give up these sinful activities in the form of intoxication, illicit sex, meat-eating and gambling. Asat saṅga tyāga ei vaiṣṇava ācāra. Vaiṣṇava acara, one of the principal activities of a vaiṣṇava is asatsaṅga tyāga to avoid and give up bad association. Sādhu saṅga sādhu saṅga sarva śāstra koya lava mātra sādhu saṅga sarva siddhi haya. The association of the saintly personalities and devotees of the Lord is so powerful that an association of not even for a moment or a second, but just one eleventh part of a second, sarva siddhi haya, achieves for one an ultimate perfection.
We can see how Ajāmila became degraded when he fell down, and deviated from the right path. He saw a man associating with a prostitute in a solitary place and seeing that he became affected. He approached the prostitute and he started to live with her like her husband. The prostitute had all kinds of wrong desires and she constantly pestered Ajāmila, “Give me this; give me that.” The problem with Ajāmila was that he was trained as a brāhmaṇa. He did not know of any trade to make money. He couldn’t fight like a kṣatriya. He couldn’t do business like a vaiśya nor could he take up a job like a śūdra to maintain himself. Therefore, the only option left to him was stealing. The stealing propensity led him to rob and kill people to get their money for no rhyme or reason. For a little gain, he would kill people. This is how he maintained his family. His life became full of sinful activities.
His youngest child was named Nārāyaṇa and Ajāmila was very attached to him. When the time came for Ajāmila to leave his body, the Yamadūtas came to get a candidate for Yamarāja’s court. Seeing hideous looking Yamadūtas he became very afraid as they were making arrangements to drag him out of his subtle body. We have two material bodies; one is gross body and the other is subtle body. At the time of death, we leave the gross body, but the subtle body remains. Subtle body doesn’t die as the consciousness is according to the activities done by a person during his lifetime. When he acts in a sinful way, he is taken to Yamarāja and when he acts in a pious way, he is taken to heavenly planets. In the heavenly planets he enjoys for his puṇya, the pious activities and for his sinful activities, he is punished in Naraka, the hell.
WORKING OF A SUBTLE BODY AND GROSS BODY
The subtle plane is a real plane. When we are dreaming, we see things. Is it real or not? Yes, it’s real because it is happening in the subtle plane. When we are awake then both our gross and subtle bodies are active. When we are asleep, the gross body becomes unconscious. We become unconscious of the gross body; the gross body becomes inactive or dead but subtle body can remain awake and what one experiences through the subtle body, appears to be the dream and when we dream what happens? When we dream, it all seems to be real but if there is an unpleasant dream, e.g., you are attacked by a tiger, in the middle of a forest and the tiger is just about to pounce on you. How do you feel? You scream in fear and wake up. The dream breaks when we return to the gross body plane. After the death there is no gross body to wake up. Whatever we go through, is only in the subtle body and this is the factual reality.
POTENCY OF THE HOLY NAME
When Yamadūtas came with a thick rope and a noose, Ajāmila became afraid seeing them make arrangements to put the noose around his neck of the subtle body and drag him out of the gross body and out of fear he called out. Whom did he call? He called his youngest son who was his greatest attachment. Fortunately for Ajamila, his youngest child was named Nārāyaṇa. As soon as he called out Nārāyaṇa, the Viṣṇudūtas who were patrolling around, immediately appeared. Just by changing the name ‘Nārāyaṇa’, Ajāmila became free from all his sinful reactions. The Yamadūtas saw the handsome bluish complexioned four-armed Viṣṇudūtas; in their four arms, they were carrying disc, lotus, conch and mace. Viṣṇudūtas said, “release him, give him to us and get lost.” The Yamadūtas said, we are the representatives of Yamarāja, and have come to take him to the court of Yamarāja to be punished, for he is sinful. Viṣṇudūtas acknowledge them by saying that, Yamadūtas are like policemen who are supposed to maintain law and order. Yamarāja is the supreme judge and his agents are the Yamadūtas. They actually come to fulfil their responsibilities but at that time they don’t know the effect of the holy name. Though Ajāmila didn’t chant the pure name of the Lord, he just chanted the nāmābhāsa; which is the shadow of the holy name. It was not the holy name because he did not address the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By that name he had called his son, Nārāyaṇa, hearing the name the Viṣṇudūtas appeared.
OFFENSIVE CHANTING AND EFFECT OF NAMABHASA
Another consideration here is Ajāmila’s chanting of Nārāyaṇa which was free from aparadhs, free from offenses. It was not an offensive chanting. Although the name didn’t address the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but it was free from offenses. Therefore, it had a tremendous effect, just one name, the impression or reflection or shadow of the holy name freed him from all sinful reactions. Just as Haridas Thakur said, koṭi janma brahmā jñāne jei mukti nei suddhu mātre nāmābhāse sei mukti haya the liberation that one cannot achieve after millions of lifetimes of Brahman realization, just by nāmābhāsa, the shadow chanting of the name, one achieves that liberation, suddhu mātre nāmābhāse sei mukti haya liberation is achieved when one becomes free from sinful reactions. Due to sinful activities one goes to Yamarāja’s abode to be punished but when there are no sinful reactions then one is free from this material bondage and he goes to the spiritual world and is liberated.
Ajāmila was not fully liberated however he was free from sinful reactions. Yamadūtas were not so well conversed with the scriptures. They didn’t know the effect of the holy name. This is the reason why Viṣṇudūtas are mocking at them, laughing,“Look at these guys; they are supposed to maintain law and order but they don’t know what the law is.” In this way, Viṣṇudūtas drove the Yamadūtas away leaving them surprised, offended, hurt and thinking, “Who are these characters? who superseded the law of our master, Yamarāja.” They go and complain to Yamarāja thinking that Yamarāja will punish them. Instead Yamarāja’s advised them and said, “when somebody takes shelter of the holy name as a reaction, he is immediately freed from sinful reactions and then you don’t have any jurisdiction over them”. He also told them to offer obeisances to those personalities who have bluish complexion, four arms and carry disc, mace, lotus and conch and then run away from there as they are Viṣṇudūtas the representatives of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
We now know the potency of chanting the holy name and how powerful the holy name is and the wonderful effect of chanting the holy name. Therefore, never neglect your chanting and make it a point to chant without committing offenses. Don’t blaspheme the devotees of the Lord. Never consider the demigods to be equal the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Never disregard the instructions of your spiritual masters. Never blaspheme the Vedic scripture as they are the instructions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Even if one can’t understand them, we should not criticize the scriptures. In this way, there are ten offenses.
When the chanting of the holy name is in the clearing stage (nāmābhāsa), we see the effect of the holy name and become free from sinful reactions. Take shelter of the holy name wholeheartedly and make it a point to remember the Supreme Personality of Godhead by chanting His name all the time. Never forget Krishna, always remember Krishna. And the best way to remember is by remembering His pastimes and by reading Prabhupāda books, the Krishna book, read Chaitanya Caritāmṛta, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad Gītā. By reading Bhagavad Gītā the understanding will develop about how we are not this body, but a spiritual soul. We will understand who the Supreme Personality of Godhead is, how to surrender unto Him and how to follow the instructions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS: ULTIMATE ANANDA
Surrendering to the Supreme Lord is the most important thing. After you surrender what do you do? You render service unto Him. Remember Him all the time and this way make it a point to make your life fully Krishna Conscious. Don’t take this process lightly. Accept the process wholeheartedly because this process will free you from material bondage and take you to the spiritual world. While this world is a world of suffering, spiritual world is a world of joy. We are in a world of darkness, the world of suffering. In the world of suffering, we are constantly making arrangements to remove the suffering conditions, and free ourselves from them. If our suffering condition is compared to darkness, from which we try to free ourselves by lighting a lamp. When we light a lamp, darkness is dispelled, but for how long the darkness will be dispelled? Only as long as the lamp will burn, when the lamp is extinguished the suffering condition prevails again. If we are in a totally dark room with the windows and doors shut, we somehow or the other try to come out where there is daylight, the sun is there. When the sun is up in the sky will there be any darkness? No. In order to light up a region, do you need to light some lamp or put some electric bulbs? That is the difference between sukh and ānanda.
Sukh is removing the darkness with a lamp and getting some light for the time being. In the material nature we all are running after sukh, but when we get out of this material nature and go to the spiritual world which is full of light, full of joy and enjoyment. We don’t have to make any endeavour to enjoy there. So just by being there, we will be joyful. This is ananda. Now decide you want to light lamps to get rid of the darkness or go out of the dark room in broad daylight and enjoy the sunrise? What is the intelligent thing to do? What can take us out of this dark room? The analogy I give is Krishna sūrya sama - Krishna is like the sun. Māyā haya andhakar māyā is darkness. Yāhā Krishna tāhān ahin māyār adhikār- where there is Krishna there is no room for Māyā. When the sun is up, is there any room for darkness? No. Therefore the intelligent thing to do is to just be Krishna conscious. Lead your life with Krishna in the centre, remembering Krishna, serving Krishna, speaking about Krishna, singing the glory of Krishna, and then what will happen? You will be liberated in this life itself even though you are in this material body. This is the ultimate goal!
What if somebody is not fully purified, and is not fully Krishna Conscious. He is seventy percent or eighty percent Krishna conscious then what will happen to him at the time of death? My answer to that is, if you chant the holy name at the time of death, then eighty percent Krishna consciousness will become hundred percent Krishna consciousness and you will go back to the Godhead. That’s why when someone is dying, remind him of Krishna. When you see someone dying, chant the holy name. This is the culture in India, especially in Bengal but the culture is little demented, defective because they don’t chant the holy name when the person is alive. In Bengal, only when they are dead, they chant bolo hari, hari bol. They carry the dead body chanting the holy name of the Lord and in North India they chant rāma nama satya hai. If the name of Ram is Truth, then why don’t you chant when you are alive? People often do things without knowing and Srila Prabhupāda has told us through his teachings why we should do all that? That’s quite a common culture in India.
Maybe some advantage is there when during a funeral procession people chant ram nama satya hai, bolo hari, hari bol (Rāma’s name is truth, call Hari, Haribol (when we chant Ram’s name which is truth, Haribol, then Yamadūtas run away). When the person is alive and himself is aware of the benefits of chanting of the holy name of the Lord, he himself will chant all the time. Not just sixteen rounds, chant all the time and be engaged in serving Krishna, that is also chanting because then your mind is absorbed in serving Krishna. Become fully absorbed in the holy name of the Lord, build attachment to the Lord because you don’t know when death may come. We should not think, “Well! When I am eighty-five years old, I will be lying in bed and the devotees will come and chant and create the good fortune for me.” No, we don’t know for how long we may live. Death may come at any moment. Therefore, let’s chant the holy name and be Krishna conscious all the time.
When the time comes to leave the body say, “Krishna I am ready.” And even if Yamadūtas come say, “Okay! You are going to take me to Yamarāja’s abode, what a wonderful opportunity! I will get to see one of the mahajans; please take me quickly there.” And when we see Yamarāja, we offer obeisances, vānchā kalpa tarubhyas ca kṛpā sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaishnavebhyo namo namaḥ. And then what will you tell Yamarāja? “Please enlighten me with Krishna Consciousness. You are one of mahajana yena gataḥ sa panthā”. Please tell me what should I do now, mārobi rākhobi jo icha tohar, I have been so sinful please punish me and prepare me to become properly situated in Krishna Consciousness.” Yamaraja will be so pleased and say after associating with the criminals all the time I am getting a vaisnava association. For a devotee the attitude should always be positive and worry about nothing. For a devotee has taken the shelter of Krishna and He takes care of His devotees. So always remain surrendered and submissive to the process of Krishna Consciousness.
Thank you very much.
All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Gaur premanande Hari Hari bol.
Does anybody have any question?
Question: You mentioned in the class when we are in dreams and see the bad things then it comes from the subtle body but at the death there is no possibility for that, the mind actually stays in our brain, also intelligence, after death how is ...
His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami: No, the brain is the seat of the mind. The mind remains in the body, brain is the region from where mind functions. Antarendriya -the brain centre, the nervous system, the senses, right? This is how the mind functions in the body but mind is an element by itself and the subtle body made of mind, intelligence and false ego. Just like this body is made of earth, fire, earth air and ether that body is made of mind, intelligence and false ego.
Question: that means after death the subtle body always remain with the soul?
His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami: Yes, the subtle body carries the soul. Just as the soul is in this body, gross body is with the subtle body. When the gross body is gone, the soul is with the subtle body. Prabhupāda gave the example- gross body is like a coat and subtle body is like the shirt and the soul is the person. When you take off the coat, you still have the shirt, right? So, that is the understanding of the subtle body.
Question:Is there some sort of approximate time that we will be in the stage of namaparadh, then nāmābhāsa and then finally śuddha nāma? If this is not dependent on time, what is the progression of the stages of chanting...?
His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami: It is not dependent upon time. It’s a matter of purification. As long as we are affected by the influence of the material nature, we maintain our impurities. As long as we are affected by mode of ignorance and passion, we are affected by lust, greed, anger, illusion, envy and pride. And these are the impurities, these are the knots in the heart and it is a matter of becoming free from the influence. Then evaṁ prasanna manaso bhagavad bhakti yogataḥ when one becomes situated in the mode of goodness, then he becomes qualified to practice devotional service and devotional service takes him beyond this material nature to the spiritual nature. So, it is not a matter of time, it is a matter of purification. When we become completely free from all the impurities of this material nature, we become pure devotees.
Question: The spirit soul, the jīvātmā, is a part and parcel of Krishna and Krishna has the ability to expand. Does ordinary soul also have the ability to expand to be at more than one place at a time?
His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami: One soul expanding!! He himself cannot but if Krishna wants he can. For example, Krishna says, “Okay, you come with me to My pastimes in 24 different planets.” So then that person can expand and Krishna can contract. Many souls can become one, just like we see that Rāmānanda Rāya is Lalitā Devī, Vishaka Devī, Arjuna (the Pāṇḍava), and Arjuna, the cowherd boy in Vṛndāvana, so four personalities in one entity. So, this can happen only by Krishna’s arrangement, not by our arrangement. The Yogis can expand in different bodies but not one person becoming many.
Question: As you explained that being engaged in service is also chanting but while serving, we are not in the proper mood or mind that we are serving Krishna. It’s just like that we are serving as a duty. So how can we correct ourselves that this is also chanting?
His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami: As long as you are not chanting properly, it won’t happen. When you chant properly and when you become pure, then you see that rendering service and chanting the holy name is the same. When you are chanting what’s happening? With your mind you are hearing the holy name. When you are absorbed in serving, where is your mind? In the service that is meant to please Krishna, therefore there is no difference.
Question: Why different ācāryas have different, different commentaries on the same verse?
His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami: Not completely different. They give different aspects of Krishna’s pastimes or different aspects of that statement. Not completely different. It is not that some ācāryas say sun rises in the east and some other ācāryas say sun rises in the west, isint it?
Question: You said that soul is full of knowledge and saccidānanda, so before coming to the spiritual world the soul knows that there are suffering in the material world?
His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami: No, the soul doesn’t know, that’s why it has come here. If you knew you would have never come here, alright?
Question: Then how can we say that it is saccidānanda?
His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami: It is saccidānanda only when it is connected to Krishna because Krishna is saccidānanda and when the soul is connected to Krishna, the soul is saccidānanda, but when the soul is separated from Krishna, then it is asat, acetan and nirānanda. So, when soul is separated from Krishna, he is conscious through his body, he thinks that he is the body. Is the body saccidānanda, right? It is only through connection to Krishna that one becomes saccidānanda. Like an electric bulb- when it is connected to the electric power, then it can give light. When the power is cut does the bulb have the ability to light itself? No, it is the current that makes it light.
Question: Due to the mercy of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu and Śrīla Prabhupāda millions of people are hearing the holy name, many of them are chanting in innocence and without offense during street holy name, like children, will they be rescued in a way similar to Ajāmila?
His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami: Yes, and even more. Because Prabhupāda’s mercy is more than Viṣṇudūta’s mercy.
Question: At the time of death will the subtle body remember Harināma especially if the dead person was at least striving to be a devotee. In one of his recent statements Guru Maharaja stated that at the time of death the subtle body will have the tendency to go near its old body due to attachment.
His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami: Yes, those who are attached to the gross body, those who are attached to the material nature, even after death, although the soul left the body but because of his attachment, it wants to remain with the gross body. That’s why we have the culture of burning the gross body after death. So that attachment is destroyed; one cannot maintain that attachment, because if one remains attached to the material nature, not only to the gross body or to the relative or to the house or to something, then what happens is he cannot go forward towards achieving the next gross body. So, he remains in the subtle body and those people are called ghost. Due to their attachment, they remain here but they don’t have a gross body; they remain in a subtle body. As you are asking Krishna Aṅganā after death whether one can remember the holy name in the subtle body? Well, if one remembers the holy name in the subtle body then also, he will become free from the bondage of the subtle body, but don’t take a chance and that’s why at the time of death we should remember Krishna. Then immediately we get our spiritual body- ante nārāyaṇasmrtih- when the time comes for leaving the body then if we remember Krishna then the soul in his pure form can go back to Godhead.
Question: In GaruḍaPurāṇa it says that the soul is around the home relatives for a period of twelve days and later moves to further destination but from Ajāmila’s case we learn that the Yamadūtas had arrived at the moment of death. Can you please explain?
His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami: Well, the more the attachment, longer is the duration that one stays near the departed area. Like for example not that everybody’s attachment remains for twelve days rather deeper the attachment longer is that duration. It’s the brāhmaṇas who remain attached, their performance of śraddhā takes place after twelve days. The kṣatriyas and vaiśyas after twenty-one days and for the śūdras thirty days. But in this age, everyone thirteen days, but the vaiṣṇavas three days because the vaiṣṇavas are not attached. Their attachment is very little.
Thank you very much.
All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Gaur Premānande Hari Hari bol