CONTENTS:
- ONE SHOULD BECOME ATTRACTED TO KRISHNA ONLY
- SRILA PRABHUPADA’S APPRECIATION
- SRILA PRABHUPADA APPRECIATION
1. ONE SHOULD BECOME ATTRACTED TO KRISHNA ONLY LORD NRSIMHADEVA
Today we will do Srimad Bhagavatam third Canto, Chapter 9 verse 42. This Chapter is entitled as “Brahma’s prayers for creative energy.”
aham atmatmanam dhatah
presthah san presyasam api
ato mayi ratim kuryad
dehadir yat-krte priyah
Aham – I am; atma – the Supersoul; atmanam – of all other souls; dhatah – director; presthah – the dearest; san – being; preyasam – of all dear things; api – certainly; atah – therefore; mayi – unto Me; ratim – attachment; kuryai – one should do; deha adih – the body and mind; yat krte – on whose account; priyah – very dear.
TRANSLATION
I am the Supersoul of every individual. I am the supreme director and the dearest. People are wrongly attached to the gross and subtle bodies, but they should be attached to Me only.
PURPORT
The Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead is the dearest in both the conditioned and liberated states. When a person does not know that the Lord is the only dearmost object, then he is in the conditioned state of life, and when one knows perfectly well that the Lord is the only dearmost object, he is considered to be liberated. There are degrees of knowing one’s relationship with the Lord, depending on the degree of realization as to why the Supreme Lord is the dearmost object of every living being. The real reason is clearly stated in Bhagavad Gita (15.7) Mamaivamso jiva loke jiva bhuta sanatanah: the living entities are eternally parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord. The living entity is called atma, and the Lord is called Paramatma. The living entity is called Brahman, and the Lord is called Parabrahman or Paramesvara. Isvara paramah Krsnah. The conditioned souls, who do not have self-realization, accept the material body as the dearmost.
The idea of the dearmost is then spread all over the body, both concentrated and extended. The attachment for one’s own body and its extensions like children and relatives is actually developed on the basis of the real living entity. As soon as the real living entity is out of the body, even the body of the most dear son is no longer attractive. Therefore, the living spark, or eternal part of the Supreme, is the real basis of affection, and not the body. Because the living entities are also parts of the whole living entity, that Supreme living entity is the factual basis of affection for all. One who has forgotten the basic principle of his love for everything has only flickering love because he is in maya. The more one is affected by the principle of maya, the more he is detached from the basic principle of love. One cannot factually love anything unless he is fully developed in the loving service of the Lord.
It’s a long purport but we will discuss until this point. The verse again:
“I am the Supersoul of every individual. I am the supreme director and the dearest. People are wrongly attached to the gross and subtle bodies, but they should be attached to Me only.”
Just in this verse the conditioned soul in this state and liberated state. Yesterday what did we discuss? Yesterday we discussed how the living entity enters into the gross and subtle bodies and when one becomes free from the gross and subtle body then he becomes situated in the spiritual identity and that can be very easily done by executing devotional service. Now the Lord is explaining to Brahma that he is the Supersoul of every living entity; He is the director of every living entity and He is the dearest of the living entity. Unfortunately, people get wrongly attached to the gross and subtle bodies. One should become attracted only to Krishna. Then Prabhupada mentioned in the purport that when one is attached to Krishna then he is liberated and when he is not attracted to Krishna but attracted to his body and things related to his body then he is in a conditioned state, he is in maya. Maya means attachment to anything other than Krishna. Krishna Consciousness means loving relationship with Krishna. When we have our loving relationship with Krishna; when we have developed our love for Krishna then life has become perfect. Prabhupada is pointing out that the body’s attachment extends to the others those who are related to the body. Things that belong to this body, we consider this to be our own that is an extended selfishness. Body consciousness is selfishness and extended selfishness are things that are related to the body and we become attached to those things.
Now the question is what about our family, we have our children and we have our relatives. Yes, in the other condition the instruction would be give them up and walk away from home and take the life of sanyas but Krishna Consciousness gives us a very wonderful opportunity. That is the difference between other processes and Krishna Consciousness. Krishna Consciousness says you remain attached to Krishna and those who are very dear to you, you offer them to Krishna so in that way you are not losing anything. You have your family and relatives; they are not your relatives but Krishna’s servants. Your son is not your son your son is Krishna’s servant, Krishna’s property. You are a caretaker simply a caretaker on behalf of Krishna. You can maintain your relationship with your son with the understanding that he belongs to Krishna and you are his caretaker. Your son is Krishna’s property.
In the Vedic culture, generally this kind of understanding already develops. Like the daughters are considered to be the husband’s property and the parents are the custodians, caretakers. When the daughter grows up then what is the father’s duty? Offer the daughter to the rightful owner. Who is the rightful owner? The rightful owner is the husband. Already you see the sense of detachment is developed. Parents are naturally attached and affectionate to the daughters but they know one day this daughter will go away. Krishna Consciousness extends that concept not only daughter will go away but son will also go away. In this way they learn to develop their relationship with Krishna in that way. What happens? We will lead our life with detachment so that the real knowledge like everything belongs to Krishna, my family, my home, anything that I possess belongs to Krishna. That understanding is very important and beneficial and then what happens? Then we do not develop attachment to anything in relation to the body, then we learn to develop our relationship with Krishna. Develop our relationship with Krishna, as it has been pointed out in this verse, Krishna Himself is saying, “Don’t become attached to your subtle and gross body but become attached to Me because I am the supreme object of love and I am the dearmost. People are wrongly attached to the gross and subtle bodies but they should be attached to Me.”
When you become attached to Krishna then what happens? Whys is it so important to develop our attachment to Krishna? Because that is the way to go back to the spiritual world. The qualification that is needed to go back to Godhead is by developing our relationship with Krishna. You become attached to Krishna and you will go to Krishna. You remain attached to your body then you will come back to another body. You become related to some objects in relation to the body then you running the race to come back in that way.
[BG 8.6]
yam yam vapi smaran bhavam
tyajaty ante kalevaram
tam tam evaiti kaunteya
sada tad-bhava-bhavitah
As one leaves his body, remembering whatever he remembers, whatever he thinks, when he leaves his body, he will get that body.
Nowadays people are running at such a big risk like who is their dearmost object of love? Dogs. They are so attached to dogs and what will happen? They will come back as a dog. They don’t understand even when they are told they don’t want to listen.
We should develop attachment to Krishna then we can lead a normal life but because our attachment is to Krishna at the time of death who will we naturally think of? What will be our last thought? Wherever our deepest attachment is that will be our last thought. If we can develop our attachment to Krishna then we will think of Krishna at the time of death. If we can leave our body thinking of Krishna then what will happen? The dream will be over, we will wake up from the dream and we will see that Krishna is standing there and Krishna will say, “Okay, come back.” So that is why it is so important to practice Krishna Consciousness. Practicing Krishna Consciousness is something like preparing for a test. Throughout the year the student prepares for the test and at the end of the year comes the test. Now if he has prepared nicely what will happen? He will get a good result. But if he did not prepare nicely what will happen? He will go back to the same class.
So easily we can just cross over the material nature therefore for a devotee the material nature is like water in the hoof print of a calf. Material nature is so vast but for a devotee why so small? Krishna will come. When you fly across the ocean does the ocean appear very large? You are comfortably sitting in the plane, similarly, when the chariot comes from the spiritual world we will simply be sitting there and the entirety of the material nature will be left. It becomes like water in the hoof print of a calf. That is how easily we can overcome the material conditioning. Simply by developing our attachment to Krishna. Now the question is how do we develop our attachment for Krishna? We develop our attachment to Krishna by hearing. Hearing from those who have developed their attachment to Krishna because then the hearing becomes real and reading also is hearing therefore it is so important to read Srila Prabhupada’s books. Reading Srila Prabhupada’s books means hearing from Srila Prabhupada. The devotees, because they have love for Krishna just by hearing then we also develop our love for Krishna.
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA’S APPRECIATION
Now the question is how do we develop our attachment for Krishna? We develop our attachment to Krishna by hearing. Hearing from those who have developed their attachment to Krishna because then the hearing becomes real and reading also is hearing therefore it is so important to read Srila Prabhupada’s books. Reading Srila Prabhupada’s books means hearing from Srila Prabhupada. The devotees, because they have love for Krishna just by hearing then we also develop our love for Krishna.
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
We should develop attachment to Krishna then we can lead a normal life but because our attachment is to Krishna at the time of death who will we naturally think of? What will be our last thought? Wherever our deepest attachment is that will be our last thought. If we can develop our attachment to Krishna then we will think of Krishna at the time of death. If we can leave our body thinking of Krishna then what will happen? The dream will be over, we will wake up from the dream and we will see that Krishna is standing there and Krishna will say, “Okay, come back.”
(The content of this E-Magazine was based on a lecture given by HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja on 5 July 2013 at Richmond.)
(Compiled and Edited by Hemavati Radhika Devi Dasi)