Verse: Srimad Bhagvatam 4.22.22
Date: December 6th, 2011
Place: ISKCON Mayapur, India
Transcription: Bhaktin Brajesh Sharma
Edited: Prema Parayan Das
sā śraddhayā bhagavad-dharma-caryayā
jijñāsayādhyātmika-yoga-niṣṭhayā
yogeśvaropāsanayā ca nityaṁ
puṇya-śravaḥ-kathayā puṇyayā ca
SYNONYMS
sā — that devotional service; śraddhayā — with faith and conviction; bhagavat-dharma — devotional service; caryayā — by discussion; jijñāsayā — by inquiry; adhyātmika — spiritual; yoga-niṣṭhayā — by conviction in spiritual understanding; yoga-īśvara — the Supreme Personality of Godhead; upāsanayā — by worship of Him; ca — and; nityam — regularly; puṇya-śravaḥ — by hearing which; kathayā — by discussion; puṇyayā — by pious; ca — also.
TRANSLATION
Attachment for the Supreme can be increased by practicing devotional service, inquiring about the Supreme Personality of Godhead, applying bhakti-yoga in life, worshiping the Yogeśvara, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and by hearing and chanting about the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. These actions are pious in themselves.
PURPORT
The word yogeśvara is applicable to both the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, and His devotees also. In Bhagavad-gītā this word occurs in two places. In the Eighteenth Chapter (18.78), Kṛṣṇa is described as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, who is the master of all mystic power (yatra yogeśvaraḥ kṛṣṇaḥ). Yogeśvara is also described at the end of the Sixth Chapter (6.47): sa me yuktatamo mataḥ. This yuktatama indicates the topmost of all yogīs — the devotees, who can also be called yogeśvara. In this verse, yogeśvara-upāsanā means to render service to a pure devotee. Thus, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, chāḍiyā vaiṣṇava-sevā nistāra pāyeche kebā: without serving a pure devotee, one cannot advance in spiritual life. Prahlāda Mahārāja also has said:
[Bhāg. 7.5.32]
naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghriṁ
spṛśaty anarthāpagamo yad-arthaḥ
mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo-’bhiṣekaṁ
niṣkiñcanānāṁ na vṛṇīta yāvat
One should take shelter of a pure devotee, who has nothing to do with this material world but is simply engaged in devotional service. By serving him only, one can transcend the qualitative material condition. In this verse it is recommended (yogeśvara-upāsanayā) that one serve the lotus feet of the topmost yogī, or the devotee. To serve the topmost devotee means to hear from him about the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. To hear the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead from the mouth of a pure devotee is to acquire a pious life. In Bhagavad-gītā (7.28) it is also said that without being pious one cannot engage in devotional service:
yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ
janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām
te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā
bhajanti māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ
To become fixed in devotional service one has to become completely cleansed from the contamination of the material modes of nature. For work in devotional service the first item is ādau gurv-āśrayam: one should accept a bona fide spiritual master, and from the bona fide spiritual master inquire about one’s transcendental occupational duties (sad-dharma-pṛcchā) and follow in the footsteps of great saintly persons, devotees (sādhu-mārga-anugamanam). These are the instructions given in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu by Rūpa Gosvāmī.
The conclusion is that to increase attachment for the Supreme Personality of Godhead one has to accept a bona fide spiritual master and learn from him the methods of devotional service and hear from him about the transcendental message and glorification of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In this way one has to increase his conviction about devotional service. Then it will be very easy to increase attachment for the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
LECTURE
THE FOUR KUMARAS – THE DIVINE SONS OF LORD BRAHMA
So, this chapter is describing Prithu Maharaj’s meeting with the Kumaras. Prithu Maharaj was being glorified by his citizens and at that time the four kumaras, just appeared they came flying from the sky. The Four Kumaras although the first four children of Lord Brahma, yet they look like four little children about five years old. Just as a five-year-old child doesn't have any extended material consciousness or fear or shame etc., they also wandered around naked completely innocent, completely devoid of materialistic mentality. Although they are the first four children of Brahma, practically right after Brahma they are the first ones to come to the universe in that sense, we can say they are one of the oldest people in the universe, but they look like four-five-year-old children.
JAYA & VIJAYA CURSED BY THE FOUR KUMARAS
They wander around naked and that’s when Jaya and Vijaya got into trouble. They thought, “Who are these characters trying to enter into Vaikunta?” So, they tried to stop them and they (the four Kumaras) were upset, they cursed. And as a result of that Jaya and Vijaya had to come three times, actually four times in this material nature, in four different yugas. In Satya yuga as Hiranyakashipu, Hiranyaksha as Ravan and Kumbhkaran in Treta yuga, Shishupal and Dantavakra in Dvarpar Yuga and Jagai and Madhai in Kali yuga. So, such powerful personalities that they could even curse a resident of Vaikunta and not only that, when the Lord saw that they became upset, He just came out. He came and apologized, “Please forgive Me for the offence that My servants have caused to your lotus feet”. Such exalted personalities.
PRITHU MAHARAJ SURRENDERS TO THE FOUR KUMARAS
And Prithu Maharaj recognized that these are the four Kumaras. They were as brilliant as the sun, four little children, brilliant as the sun - and Prithu Maharaj took advantage of their presence and he asked them, “Please instruct me about the ultimate goal of life. Please instruct us for the benefit of the entire mankind”. And as a result of that, the four Kumaras started to instruct headed by Sanat Kumar. We see, at the beginning also in this chapter named Maitreya Vidura Sambanda, the conversation between Vidura and Maitreya Rishi. Vidura came across Maitreya Rishi, actually Vidura was told that Krishna instructed Maitreya Rishi to instruct him (Vidura). Soon before the battle of Kurukshetra began, being insulted by Duryodhana, Vidura left Hastinapur, the palace, the Royal Palace of Dhritarashtra. He had left the palace, left his relatives and friends and started to wander all around the holy places, to all the holy places of pilgrimage.
KRISHNA AND THE YADUS DEPART FROM THE EARTH PLANET
Many years went by in his pilgrimage and eventually he came across Uddhava and when he saw Uddhava he asked about the welfare of Yadus, welfare of the Pandavas and then he got to know that Krishna left the planet and soon after Krishna’s departure from the planet, the Pandavas also left and prior to that, before leaving, Krishna made the arrangements for the Yadus also to leave this planet. Krishna caused the Yadus to fight amongst themselves. The fight was a mock, and as a result of that they all left this planet too and went back to Vaikunta. It was Krishna's divine arrangement; this actually has been elaborately discussed in that chapter of Srimad Bhagavatam that Krishna saw that now the mission has been accomplished he came for “paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām [B.G. 4.8]”. All the duṣkṛtām, all the miscreants have been annihilated and the sadhus have been established.
Dharma has been re-stablished again by Dharmaraj, Yudhishthira Maharaj. So now that the mission has been accomplished, now we should go. But before going back he arranged for the Yadus, his eternal associates also to leave the planet and the arrangement was accordingly, they got drunk drinking rice wine and then they started to fight among themselves and prior to that there is another anecdote that leads to this incident.
DURVASA MUNI CURSES THE YADUS
The Yadus went on an excursion or picnic and there they come across the sages, the saintly personalities. Among them was Durvasa Muni, who was very adept in cursing. Durvasa is famous for cursing and they wanted to make fun of these sages. They dressed up Samba as a woman and that too a pregnant woman, they tied a pillow around his belly and presented it to the sages and ask them, “Can you please tell me whether this pregnant lady is going to give birth to a son or a daughter?” And Durvasa cursed. Actually, all the sages were present there, Narada Muni was also there but Narada Muni, he knew what was going on.
The sages also knew what was going on, they are all Brahmarishis, they are Trikaldarshi, so they say that yes, he will give birth to something he will give birth to a mace, a club which will be cause of the destruction of your whole family and then they went and reported to Ugrasena and others.
They (Ugrasena and his subjects) were very concerned and they said, “Destroy the club.” And as a result of that (curse), literally a club came out (and they found that there was a club, there was a mace) and so they decided to rub it off, that mace can be rubbed off, can be pulverized so they started to rub it on a stone.
And in this way, the whole thing was pulverized and those dust particles went and settled on the bank of river. And from that came out these weeds. The water reeds which apparently were just some hollow water reeds, like you could just press it with a finger it will break. But the Yadus went, they got drunk, they started fighting with each other and they picked up those reeds and they started to fight with (them) each other and they all died.
So, in this way we can see how wonderful Krishna’s past times are and Krishna’s past times has two aspects. One aspect is that it increases the faith of the devotees and it causes the non-devotees to become even more doubtful for the Krishna’s identity as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So, the devotees will consider that fighting with the reeds, (I mean at least if they fought with bamboo stick, we could have understood), which is so soft that if you press your finger, it will break. And the Yadus - those who are not only very very powerful warriors, Kshatriyas, but they are Krishna’s eternal associates and they all died. The devotees’ way of thinking is how wonderful is Krishna’s pastime. And non-devotees will say, “See I told you, see Krishna is God and these are Krishna’s associates and see what kind of a God He is. His relatives got drunk and fought with each other and killed themselves.”
HOW KRISHNA DISAPPEARS FROM THE EARTH PLANET
And the story doesn't end there. They were rubbing the mace, it ultimately became a very thin portion, a piece of iron, it was made of iron so finally the ultimate portion they could not pulverize so that was just a thin strip that was left. So, they threw it in the river. A fish swallowed it. A fisherman caught that fish and he found that piece of iron in the stomach of the fish. He went to the market and sold that piece of iron and a hunter bought that piece of iron. He made an arrow out of it then while Krishna was resting under a tree, he thought that was actually the ear of a rabbit and he shot and it hit Krishna at His feet. Being hit by that arrow Krishna left the planet. The Supreme Personality of Godhead was hit by the arrow of a hunter, not even an arrow of a Kshatriya. This is how the warriors actually felt.
THE STRENGTH OF KSHATRIYAS
When Bhisma was fighting, Shikhandi was shooting arrows at him and Arjuna was shooting arrows. Bhisma said that Shikhandi’s arrows didn’t mean anything, although these arrows were piercing his body, Shikhandi’s arrow didn’t mean anything. Only Arjuna’s arrows were causing him to hurt. So, this is the warrior. The Kshatriya warriors, they had inconceivable power. When Bhima was fighting with Duryodhana, the mace fight, just at the end of battle of Kurukshetra, at one point, Duryodhana hit Bhima with the heavy mace and Bhima was dazed only for a second and he continued to fight. And the same with Duryodhana. Duryodhana, getting hit by this powerful mace, struck by powerful individuals like these warriors - but they were completely unaffected. When Hanuman was attacked by Akshaya Kumar, Ravana’s son, just went up to him, after he massacred the Ashoka Forest. Akshaya, at one time hit him on the head with three arrows. Three arrows pierced his head. Hanuman just pulled it out and started to… I mean what kind of inconceivable power these individuals displayed. And now Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, is hit by an arc.