721026 - Lecture NOD - Vrndavana

Lectures by Date, 1972

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this lecture

721026ND.VRN - October 26, 1972 - 33:45 Minutes

Pradyumna: "The Nectar of Devotion is specifically presented for persons who are now engaged in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. I beg to offer my sincere thanks to all my friends and disciples who are helping me . . ."

Prabhupāda: That's all. So, next page. (break)

Pradyumna: ". . . auspiciousness: Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes, the reservoir of all rasas, or relationships, which are called neutrality, or passive adoration, servitorship, friendship, parenthood, conjugal love, comedy, compassion, fear, chivalry, ghastliness, wonder and devastation.

"He is the supreme attractive form, and by His universal and transcendental attractive features, He has captivated all the gopīs, headed by Tārakā, Pālikā, Śyāmā, Lalitā and, ultimately, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. Let His Lordship's grace be on us so that there may not be any hindrance in the execution of this duty of writing The Nectar of Devotion, impelled by His Divine Grace Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Prabhupāda."

Prabhupāda: So Kṛṣṇa is described as akhila-rasāmṛta-sindhu. So there are different rasas, five primary rasas. Rasa means the mellow, or the taste, which we enjoy in every activity. That is called rasa. Everything is done with some taste. Whatever you do, you must enjoy some taste out of it. So there are twelve rasas, out of which five rasas are primary and seven rasas are secondary. They are described here.

When Kṛṣṇa was fighting with Bhīṣma . . . Bhīṣma, you know the story, that Bhīṣma was criticized by Duryodhana: "My dear Grandfather, you are not fighting in full strength with Arjuna because the . . . on the other side, they are your grandsons, and you have . . . you have got very natural affection for them. So I think you are not fighting according to your strength. Otherwise, they would have been finished by this time."

So Bhīṣma also could understand that, his criticism. Then he promised immediately that, "Tomorrow I shall finish all these five brothers. Will that be happy for you? So I am keeping five arrows to be used tomorrow for killing these five brothers." So Duryodhana became doubtful. So he requested grandfather, "My dear grandfather, may I keep these five arrows with me so that you can take it from me tomorrow and use it?" "All right, you keep it."

So Kṛṣṇa could understand that, "Now Bhīṣma has promised to kill the Pāṇḍavas tomorrow, and he has selected five arrows for them." So He has to protect His devotees. Now, He asked Arjuna that, "Duryodhana sometimes promised to give you some benediction. Now it is the opportunity. You go there to Duryodhana, and he has kept five arrows very carefully; you take it, them."

So Arjuna went to Duryodhana . . . because after fighting, in the evening, they were friends. There was no enmity. One man can go to the other camp as friend, brothers. So when Arjuna arrived to Duryodhana, Duryodhana received him. That is Vedic etiquette. "Arjuna, why you have come? You ask something from me. I am ready to give you. If you want the kingdom without fighting, if you have come for this purpose, I'll give you."

So Arjuna said: "No, my dear brother, I've not come for that purpose. But you remember that you wanted to give me some benediction. So I have come for that." "Yes, I am prepared." "So you give me those five arrows." He immediately delivered.

So next morning, when Bhīṣmadeva asked that, "Where are those five arrows? Give me," so Duryodhana said: "Sir, this is the story. It has been taken away by Arjuna." So he could understand it is the trick of Kṛṣṇa. So immediately he, out of devotion, became angry. Yes. So devotion, devotional service can be executed in anger also. Not by simply flowers. If he . . . there is a devotee, he can serve Kṛṣṇa by becoming angry.

So he promised immediately that, "Today Kṛṣṇa has to break His promise." Because Kṛṣṇa promised that "Although I shall be in the battlefield, I shall simply drive your chariot, but I shall not fight." That was His promise. Now Bhīṣma said that, "Kṛṣṇa has broken my promise. So I shall fight in this way today that either Kṛṣṇa has to break His own promise or His friend Arjuna will be killed." Two alternative.

So when Bhīṣma was fighting very fiercely, severely, Arjuna's chariot became broken and he fell down. At that time Kṛṣṇa took one of the wheels of the chariot and immediately approached Bhīṣma, and when He was approaching Bhīṣma, Bhīṣma was also piercing His body with arrows. And Kṛṣṇa was accepting the arrows move lovable than the flowers. This is the dealing. Therefore that is a rasa, ghastly rasa. Apparently it appears to be very severe, that Kṛṣṇa is being pierced by the arrows. But Kṛṣṇa was feeling pleasure.

So Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has explained this portion very nicely, that he has given the example of kissing. Sometimes there is hard pressure of the teeth, but still it is pleasurable. He has given this example, that although Kṛṣṇa was being pierced by the arrows of Bhīṣmadeva, still Kṛṣṇa felt very pleasing. And Bhīṣmadeva also, when he was on his death bed, he wanted to see that form of Kṛṣṇa when He was very angry and approaching before him to kill him in the battlefield. He explained that feature.

So we can enjoy Kṛṣṇa's loving service in so many ways. Not only by the embrace of the gopīs, but in the fight of Bhīṣma with Kṛṣṇa and piercing His body with arrows. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is akhila-rasāmṛta (CC Madhya 8.142). Any one rasa . . . there are twelve rasas, either primary rasa or secondary rasa. Any rasa, Kṛṣṇa is ready to response to any rasa you want to deal with Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa's position. Kāmāt krodhād bhayāt dveṣāt (SB 7.1.30). So what to speak of those who are loving.

Just like Pūtanā. Pūtanā wanted to kill Kṛṣṇa. That was his . . . that was her purpose. But when Pūtanā was killed by sucking the breast and life both, then Pūtanā was given the position of Kṛṣṇa's mother. Because Kṛṣṇa took it the bright side. Kṛṣṇa thought that, "Whatever her intention may be, she came to Me just like a mother, and I sucked her breast. Therefore she is My mother." She came as enemy, but Kṛṣṇa did not take the inimical side. The motherly side. Tejīyasāṁ na doṣāya (SB 10.33.29).

Similarly, the gopīs, they came to Kṛṣṇa out of lust, but out of lust they became purified. Just like the sun. The sun soaks the water from urinal, but sun is not polluted, but the urinal becomes sterilized. This is the process. So you try to approach Kṛṣṇa some way or other. Then your life is successful. It doesn't matter. Kāmāt krodhād bhayād dveṣāt (SB 7.1.30). And what to speak of those who are constantly engaged in love with Kṛṣṇa.

Everything is love. As soon as you divert your attention to Kṛṣṇa, that is love. It may be perverted. Just like Kaṁsa. Kaṁsa was always thinking of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa . . . he was also Kṛṣṇa conscious, but he was thinking in terms of killing Kṛṣṇa, as enemy. So this is not bhakti. This is not anukūla. Pratikūla. But still, Kṛṣṇa is so kind that Kaṁsa was also given liberation. This is the special kindness of Kṛṣṇa.

So any rasa. There are twelve rasas. Yena tena prakāreṇa manaḥ kṛṣṇe niveśayet (Brs 1.2.4). That is the direction given by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī. "Some way or other, fix up your mind in Kṛṣṇa." Then your life is successful. Some way or other. Yena tena. So if your mind is fixed up always in Kṛṣṇa, then your senses will be also engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service. Because mind is the center of all activities of the senses.

So as Ambarīṣa Mahārāja, he first of all engaged his mind in Kṛṣṇa. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18). By fixing up his mind in Kṛṣṇa, then he could use all other senses, namely the tongue . . . actually bhakti begins with the tongue. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau. Beginning from tongue, kṛṣṇa-bhakti begins. It may be very awkward to hear, that "By tongue, how bhakti begins?" But that is the statement in the śāstra. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136).

Our present senses, blunt, materially covered, it cannot taste what is Kṛṣṇa's name, what is Kṛṣṇa's form, what is Kṛṣṇa's quality, what is Kṛṣṇa's pastime, what is Kṛṣṇa's paraphernalia. Senses, they taste. But . . . just like in . . . when one is suffering from liver disease, or jaundice, he cannot taste the sugar candy. The sugar candy is sweet, but a jaundiced patient, if he's given sugar candy, he'll taste it is bitter.

Similarly, our senses being covered with material consciousness, we cannot at the present moment taste what is Kṛṣṇa's form, what is Kṛṣṇa's name, what is Kṛṣṇa's quality, what is Kṛṣṇa's pastime, what is Kṛṣṇa's paraphernalia, so many things. It is not possible. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136). Our senses are materially contaminated. Therefore we cannot directly perceive, by using our present senses, what is Kṛṣṇa. So it has to be purified.

Just like eyes. When it is suffering from the disease, cataract, you cannot see properly. But the . . . if the, by surgical operation, the cataract is moved, the eyes become purified—you can see. That is also stated in Brahmā-saṁhitā:

premāñjana-cchurita bhakti-vilocanena

santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti

yam śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpaṁ

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

(Bs. 5.38)

Premāñjana-cchurita. You have to collect the ointment of love for Kṛṣṇa. And if you apply that ointment on your eyes, then . . . Just like we use surma for clear vision, similarly, when the love of Kṛṣṇa surma is applied on the eyes, these eyes, you'll see Kṛṣṇa. This is the process.

Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). You have to get yourself freed from the upādhis, designation. The designation, the sun and substance of designation: this material body. "I am this body." "I am Hindu," "I am Mussulman," "I am American," "I am Hin . . . Indian." All designation of this body. So one has to become free from the contamination of this bodily concept of life. That is called sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam.

Tat-paratvena nirmalam. When our spiritual body becomes revealed, the material body, contamination, is washed off, nirmalam. At that time, the senses remain. Senses are there. It is simply covered by the material energies. The senses are there. The living entity is not nirākāra. Living entity has got hands, legs, everything, spiritual. Just like my . . . I have got my body, and this body's covered by this shirt, and because I have got this hand, the shirt has got hand. Otherwise, wherefrom this hand comes? Unless the spirit soul has got hands and legs, how we have got these material hands and legs?

Therefore it is . . . the conclusion is that spirit soul has form. As Kṛṣṇa has got form, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), similarly spirit soul, jīvātmā, being part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, it has got form. That form is also described in the śāstra: keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca, jīva bhāgo sa vijñeyaḥ (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 5.9). A rough idea of the form of the living entity has been given in the Padma Purāṇa, that one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. Now, perhaps we have no instrument how to measure one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. But this is given there.

So anyway, because we get information from the Bhagavad-gītā that this body, material body is . . . is like a dress. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāny yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). As we give up old dress, garment, similarly, when this body becomes useless, we give up this body and accept another, new body. Navāni ghṛṇāti. This is the transmigration of the soul. The soul is transmigrating from one body to another. That is a fact. But the gross . . . gross materialists, they cannot see the subtle body. They simply see the gross body. Therefore they say, "When this body is finished, this gross body's finished, everything is finished." No, that is not. Within the gross body, there is subtle body, made of mind, intelligence and ego.

So that is . . . just like in every day we have got experience: the gross body is lying on the bed, but the subtle body goes out of the bed, out of the room, goes on the top of a hill or somewhere, somewhere. It walks. That is our practical experience. Similarly, when this gross body is finished, no more usable, the subtle body carries the soul to another womb of the mother. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantor deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). Through the semina of the father, the living entity is injected within the womb of the mother, and the two secretion becomes emulsified, and it becomes just like a small pea, and within that pea the soul is there, and it develops. This is the process of transmigration of the soul from one body to another.

So soul has got form. It is not formless. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa has got also form. But that form is different from this form. When in the śāstras it is said nirākāra, nirākāra means nirākṛta ākāra, "This ākāra, this form, is being nullified." Nirākāra does not mean there is no ākāra. This body. When it is said nirākāra, that means the soul, the Supersoul or the soul, has no this ākāra, as we see. Just like we are seeing some dog or some cat or some hog, some tree, some plants, so many, 8,400,000's of forms, but this is not the form. Nirākāreti. Not this form. The soul has got a different form. That is described: keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca (CC Madhya 19.140).

We cannot see, at the present moment. So as we cannot see you. I am not seeing you, you are not seeing me . . . just like a man's son dies, or father dies, he cries, "Oh, my father is gone, my father is gone." Where is your father gone? Your father is lying on this floor. Why do you say the father is gone? "No, he's gone. He's no more." That means this thing which has gone, he has never seen. He has seen simply this outward body, dress. This is called ignorance. I am not seeing you; still, I am speaking that I see you. So if I cannot see you, the part and parcel of God, how can I see God with these eyes? Therefore śāstra says:

ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi

na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ

sevonmukhe hi jihvādau

svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ

(CC Madhya 17.136)

You cannot see God, you cannot see Kṛṣṇa by your these blunt senses, but if you purify your senses, sevonmukhe hi jihvādau . . . that purification begins from tongue. That purification, sevonmukhe hi jihvādau. So by the tongue we can do two things: we can taste foodstuff and we can vibrate sound. So if you engage your tongue for vibrating this transcendental sound, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, and do not take anything except prasādam of Kṛṣṇa, then your spiritual life immediately begins. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau, svayam eva . . . then gradually, as you advance in spiritual life, Kṛṣṇa reveals Himself to you: "Here I am."

You cannot see Kṛṣṇa, but by being satisfied with your service, Kṛṣṇa sees you. Just like you cannot see sun at night. But when the sun sees you, you can see the sun and yourself, both. Similarly, when Kṛṣṇa sees you, being satisfied with your service, then you can see Kṛṣṇa, you can see yourself and you can see the whole world.

Now, whatever you are seeing, this is all illusion. You are not seeing, or we are not seeing, because our senses are blunt to see things as they are. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that:

vidyā-vinaya-sampanne

brāhmaṇe gavi hastini

śuni caiva śva-pāke ca

paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ

(BG 5.18)

One who has got the eyes to see, he does not see that, "Here is a learned brāhmin, and here is a dog." He sees both the learned brāhmin and the dog in equal vision, because he does not see the dress—he sees the spirit soul within the brāhmin and within the dog. That is called brahma-darśana. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām (BG 18.54). When one has got that vision, transcendental vision, samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhakti, then the devotional service begins. Not that with blunt eyes and senses one can serve God, devotional service.

ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi

na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ

sevonmukhe hi jihvādau

svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ

(CC Madhya 17.136)

This is the process.

So when our senses are engaged in the service of the Lord, sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170), when our senses become purified, hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate, at that time the hṛṣīka, the senses, are engaged in the service of the Lord. Because Kṛṣṇa is spirit, the Supersoul. He cannot be served by matter. He has to be served with spirit.

Therefore Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). This bhakti is spiritual activity. Because Kṛṣṇa says, bhaktyā prayacchati. If you offer something, Kṛṣṇa, "Kṛṣṇa, I have brought a very palatable dish. You take it," oh, Kṛṣṇa will not take it. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yogamāyā-samāvṛtaḥ (BG 7.25). He's not exposed to everyone. It is not possible. You cannot serve Kṛṣṇa if you are not a devotee.

Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, yo me bhaktyā prayacchati. That is the real thing, bhaktyā. Not that, "I have brought a nice plate, and Kṛṣṇa will accept." Not like that. Kṛṣṇa can accept when you offer something—it doesn't matter what it is, it may be a simple flower, a fruit, a . . . a small piece of leaf or little water. This is universal. For worshiping Kṛṣṇa, there is no impediment. If you want to worship other demigod, there are so many things required. But for worshiping Kṛṣṇa the poorest man in the world, any part of the world, he can offer his love, his offering to Kṛṣṇa. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26).

So . . . so real purpose of this Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu by Rūpa Gosvāmī, which we have translated by the name Nectar of Devotion, "The Complete Science . . . the Complete Science of Bhakti-yoga," this is very important book of understanding how to become purified in devotional service, how to approach Kṛṣṇa, how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. These things are described very nicely. And Kṛṣṇa, being Supreme—He's Supersoul—we cannot approach with our material consciousness. Therefore the consciousness has to be changed. Then we can approach Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Unless we change our consciousness . . . just like, without being fire, you cannot enter into fire. In the śāstra says without being Brahman, you cannot approach Brahman. Similarly, without being purified of all material contamination, you cannot approach Kṛṣṇa. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa. How . . . what kind of hṛṣīka, senses? Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). The senses are to be purified. Tat-paratvena. Tat-paratvena means being always attached with Kṛṣṇa.

If you simply see Kṛṣṇa with your eyes, then your eyes will be purified and spiritualized. Because you are touching . . . just like if you keep yourself always in touch with fire, you become warm. Warm, warmer, warmer. If you put one iron rod in the fire, it becomes warm, warmer, warmer, and at last, it becomes red hot. When it is red hot, it is fire; it is no more iron rod. You touch that red hot iron anywhere, it will burn. Similarly, if you keep always in touch with Kṛṣṇa, you become Kṛṣṇa . . . Kṛṣṇized, and you can appreciate what is Kṛṣṇa.

Thank you very much. (break) (end)