760307 - Lecture SB 07.09.29 - Mayapur

Lectures by Date, 1976

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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760307SB-MAYAPUR - March 07, 1976 - 21.01 Minutes

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Translation: "O the unlimited reservoir of transcendental qualities, my Lord, You have killed my father, Hiraṇyakaśipu, and saved my life from the sword of my father. And He said very angrily, 'If there is any other supreme controller than Myself, then let Him save you. I shall now separate your head from the body.' Therefore, for both reasons, I consider that You have acted at present just to prove the words of Your devotee truthfully, and there is no other cause."

Prabhupāda:

mat-prāṇa-rakṣaṇam ananta pitur vadhaś ca

manye sva-bhṛtya-ṛṣi-vākyam ṛtaṁ vidhātum

khaḍgaṁ pragṛhya yad avocad asad-vidhitsus

tvām īśvaro mad-aparo 'vatu kaṁ harāmi

(SB 7.9.29)

So before Hiraṇyakaśipu was killed by His Lordship Nṛsiṁha-deva, Prahlāda Mahārāja never addressed his father as "father," pituḥ. Now, after his death, he is addressing pituḥ, "my father." Because before his death he was demon. Everyone knows. But if a demon is killed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he becomes liberated—either demon or anyone. Demons are generally killed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They enter into the impersonal Brahman. Therefore there is a verse—I don't remember exactly now—that "The monist and the demons, they go to the same place: impersonal Brahman." And what to speak of devotees? Devotees never enter to that impersonal Brahman. Devotees enter directly in the Vaikuṇṭha planet. Mām eti. Mām eti. Kṛṣṇa said, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāmaṁ paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). If you enter the Vaikuṇṭha planets . . . there are innumerable Vaikuṇṭha planets, and above them there is the Goloka Vṛndāvana planet, Kṛṣṇaloka. So in either of them if you enter, then that is not impersonal. Personal. Impersonal Brahman is outside. Although impersonal Brahman is also spiritual existence, but it is outside the Vaikuṇṭha planets.

So the demons and the impersonalists, they cannot enter into the Vaikuṇṭha planet. And because they cannot enter into the Vaikuṇṭha planet, they again fall down, again fall down in this material world. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho 'nādṛta-yusmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). Patanty adhaḥ. Adhaḥ means in this material world. Those who are impersonalists, they may enter into the Brahman effulgence, āruhya kṛcchreṇa, with severe execution of penance and austerities. The Māyāvādīs, they perform severe austerity. Those who are actually Brahmavādī, their mode of life is very, very strict and severe also. So even after severe penances and austerities one enters into the Brahman effulgence, there is no security. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ. Why they come down? Now, anādṛta-yusmad-aṅghrayaḥ: "Because they did not get the information about Your lotus feet." That means person. When we speak of "feet" or "hand," that means the Supreme Person, a person. But they do not accept the person. That is their difficulty. They'll never accept that the Absolute Truth is person. Therefore they fall down again and again. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19).

So Prahlāda Mahārāja says, mat-prāṇa-rakṣaṇam ananta pitur vadhaś ca. The two things are there. When Kṛṣṇa incarnates there are two things. What are they? Paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8). Two things. So here two things are being done. One thing is to save Prahlāda Mahārāja, paritrāṇāya sādhunam, and another thing is vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām yuge yuge sambhavāmi. So actually vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām, it doesn't require the presence of the Supreme Lord. The nature's arrangement is so strong that anyone can be finished within a second—anyone. There is no need of Kṛṣṇa's taking so much trouble to come here. But He comes especially for deliverance of the devotee, bhakta-vatsala, and side work, to kill the demons. That is not His business. The Māyā, Durgādevī, is sufficiently powerful to kill any demon within a second. There is no difficulty. Simply by ordering Māyā . . . or Māyā does not wait the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. She can understand what the Lord wants. Simply little indication, she can kill hundreds and thousands of demons in one stroke. Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni vibharti durgā (BS 5.44). Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya. She can do that.

So it is not the business of the Supreme Personality of Godhead to come to take this botheration. But why Lord Nṛsiṁha-deva appeared? He appeared . . . one thing is that mat-prāṇa-rakṣaṇam. This is one business. Another business was this. What is that? Sva-bhṛtya-ṛṣi-vākyam ṛtaṁ vidhātum. Sva-bhṛtya. Brahmā, he is bhṛtya, servant of Kṛṣṇa. So he did something very, I mean to say, obnoxious by offering all the benediction to Hiraṇyakaśipu. He was a very cunning materialist. First of all he asked for becoming immortal, but when he learned that that is not possible, then he thought, "I am very intelligent diplomat. I can screw out my fulfillment of desire in a indirect way." So all these people in this material world, they have got a cheating propensity. Out of four deficiency, one deficiency is cheating. Every wants . . . one wants to cheat his fellow man, man or beast, everyone. Even the dog, cats, they are also. You know the story. The dog wanted to take another flesh from the mouth of another dog, reflection, and he lost both. So this cheating, this misuse of intelligence, is going on, but that is never successful. It will never be successful because Kṛṣṇa is always more than you. If you are a cheater, but Kṛṣṇa can cheat you more than what you know. That Kṛṣṇa knows. Otherwise how Kṛṣṇa can be . . .? "God is great." So if you want to cheat Kṛṣṇa, He can cheat you more than what you know. So that is not possible. Therefore this Hiraṇyakaśipu thought himself to be very intelligent and wanted to cheat Kṛṣṇa and His servant, but he was cheated actually.

Therefore he said that tad-bhṛtya-ṛṣi-vākyam ṛtaṁ vidhātum. Ṛṣi-vākya. Even the devotee or the servant of Kṛṣṇa says something, even it is wrong, Kṛṣṇa upholds this. Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ pranaśyati (BG 9.31). So even it is wrongly done, still, Kṛṣṇa fulfills because He thinks that "My servant has promised; it must be fulfilled." Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja, in the previous verse he has said, tava bhṛtya-pārśva. So to serve the servant of Kṛṣṇa is better than to serve directly Kṛṣṇa, because if the servant of Kṛṣṇa promises something, if the servant of Kṛṣṇa says, "I'll take you to Kṛṣṇaloka," you must go there. Even Kṛṣṇa cannot do that. He can; I mean to say that He does not say very easily. But if a servant . . . yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ. Therefore our philosophy is to please the servant of God, tad-bhṛtya, bhṛtyasya bhṛtya. Then it is very nice. The success is . . .

So here it is said that sva-bhṛtya-ṛṣi-vākyam ṛtaṁ vidhātum. So Brahmā gave him benediction. He asked, "Sir, I'll not die at night." "Yes, that's all right." "I'll not die in daytime." "That's all right." "I'll not die in the sky." "That's all right." "On the land." "That's all right." "On the water." "That's all right." "No animal can kill me." "That's all right." "No man can." "That's all right." So he thought, "Now I am secure. There is no death." But Kṛṣṇa is so intelligent that He killed him not at night, not in day, not in the sky, not on the land, not on the water, not by animal, not by man—all things, ṛtam; yes, everything kept. Still, he was killed. He was killed in the evening, which you cannot say it is day or night. He was killed on the lap of the Lord. You cannot say it is sky, land or water. He did not kill him with the open weapon, but He killed with His nails. In this way you'll find that He kept everything intact, what benediction was given by Lord Brahmā, ṛtaṁ vidhātum: "Yes." At last, of course, He little chastised Brahmā, that "You should not give such benediction in future. This is botheration for Me." (laughs) (laughter) But still, He kept His servant's promise intact. The demon was also killed, and the promise given by . . . benediction given by Brahma, everything . . . that is the action of the Supreme Personality. In one stroke He is doing so many things. He's saving Prahlāda Mahārāja, He's killing Hiraṇyakaśipu, He's keeping intact the promise of Brahmā—everything. That is God's intelligence. Our intelligence, however diplomat we may be, if we want to do anything, another thing is not managed nicely. But Kṛṣṇa . . . that is called all potency. When He does something, in a moment He can adjust everything. Even opposite actions He can adjust. That is Kṛṣṇa. Therefore He's called all-powerful. We cannot do that.

So mat-prāṇa-rakṣaṇam ananta pitur vadhaś ca manye sva-bhṛtya-ṛṣi-vākyam ṛtaṁ vidhātum: "So Your incarnation is there for fulfilling so many objectives. And especially there was challenge by my father, taking his sword." Khaḍgaṁ pragṛhya yad avocad asad-vidhitsuḥ. Asad-vidhitsuḥ: "I shall kill you." This is asat-vidhitsuḥ, to say like that, "I shall kill you." Nobody can kill anyone. This is asat. "I shall give you," "I shall kill you," "I shall protect you"—no, you cannot do anything. Bālasya neha śaraṇaṁ pitarau (SB 7.9.19). Nobody can do anything unless it is sanctioned by God. You don't promise anything. Therefore a devotee always says, "If Kṛṣṇa desires, it will be done." That is the fact. That is the fact. So when Hiraṇyakaśipu was very much proud, unnecessarily challenging Prahlāda that "You are not accepting my philosophy that I am God. You are searching after another God. All right, let me kill you and I'll see how your God can give you protection . . ." That was his challenge. Yes.

So Prahlāda Mahārāja knew it, that "Unless Kṛṣṇa desires, you cannot kill me." Therefore it is asat-vidhi. If one is very much proud and challenges the authority of the Supreme, that is asat; that is not sat. Rākhe kṛṣṇa māre ke, māre kṛṣṇa rākhe ke. Prahlāda Mahārāja knew it, that "You may challenge me, but I know you cannot kill me." He was confident devotee. "All right, I am . . . he is also . . . I am also challenging. I am standing here. Let me be killed by you." That is not possible. Asad-vidhitsus mad-aparo 'vatu kaṁ harāmi. And so it was challenged by the Hiraṇyakaśipu that "You are searching after another God than me. Now I shall kill you. Let me see how another God . . ." This is demonic. The demonic means atheist and unnecessarily, falsely, very much proud of their knowledge. This is demonic. This morning as I was talking, falsely, the so-called scientists, they are falsely proud and challenge, "There is no God. Everything . . ." That is demonic.

So in the Kali-yuga the demonic spirit is very, very prominent. Everyone is thinking "I am God." So it is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mercy to cure all these madmen. Madmen.

piśācī pāile yena mati-cchanna haya

māyār grasta jīvera haya se dāsa udaya

(Prema-vivarta)

Piśācī, ghost-haunted. A man is ghost-haunted, he speaks all nonsense. So in this age, Kali-yuga, they are mostly like that. They speak all nonsense. So we should be careful not to accept their proposal. We shall stick to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We shall accept what Kṛṣṇa says and reject everything. Then we'll be saved.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda. Haribol. (end)