661220 - Lecture CC Madhya 20.294-298 - New York

Lectures by Date, 1966

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

661219CC.NY - December 19, 1966

Prabhupāda:

tṛtīya-puruṣa viṣṇu-'guṇa-avatāra'

dui avatāra-bhitara gaṇanā tāṅhāra

(CC Madhya 20.294)

virāṭ vyaṣṭi-jīvera teṅho antaryāmī

kṣīrodakaśāyī teṅho-pālana-kartā, svāmī

(CC Madhya 20.295)

So Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu; then next Viṣṇu, the third incarnation, is Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Within this universe there is a planet near the polestar which is called Kṣīrodakaśāyī planet, and there Lord Viṣṇu in His incarnation of antaryāmi, Supersoul . . . He is acting as the Supersoul. And He is the universal form. When you think of universal form of the Lord, that is the manifestation of this Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. And that Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu as Paramātmā, Supersoul, is situated in everyone's heart, even within the atom. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs 5.35). Paramāṇu means atom. Within the atom also.

We think of God as very great, universal form, but God can take also form less than the atom. That is God's power. He is not only great, greatest, but He is the smallest. Aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān. Mahato mahīyān means greatest of the great, and aṇor aṇīyān, and smallest of the small. We cannot think how small He can become. That is His inconceivable potency. So within this material world, He is within the atom, and He is within everyone's heart, in everywhere, all-pervading, and at the same time universal form, the biggest form.

virāṭ vyaṣṭi-jīvera teṅho antaryāmī

kṣīrodakaśāyī teṅho-pālana-kartā, svāmī

(CC Madhya 20.295)

Now, He is the maintainer of . . . whatever we are enjoying, it is due to His mercy. In the Kaṭhopaniṣad, er, Māṇḍūkyopaniṣad, it is stated:

nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām

eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān

(Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13)

Now, He is the supplier, whatever we want. So as, as a pālana-kartā, as the maintainer, as the Supersoul, He is supplying. He is supplying whatever you want, "All right." So we should not approach God as supplying agent. That is the lowest stage. He is supplying even to the cats and dogs. Then what is the difference between human being and the cats and dogs?

Just like a small child, he is supplied all necessities by the father, but when the child is grown, he wants to serve the father. Similarly, to make God as order-supplier, "O God, give us this. Give us that . . ." and the God is giving. You ask or not ask, He will give you because, after all, you are all children. So He takes care of His children. But you may say that, "Why the childrens are differently treated? Somebody is supplied sumptuously, and somebody is not. Why this difference of treatment?" That difference of treatment is also for good. How?

Just like a mother has got five children. One of them is suffering from fever, is ill. Now, very nice foodstuff is prepared. All the children come, and mother is supplying. And when the feverish child comes, "Oh, you don't sit here. You cannot take." "Why?" "Oh, you are diseased. You cannot take." Do you think that mother is partial to this child and that child? No.

Anyone who is not supplied as he wants, that is due to his own disease, chronic. So if God does not supply him sufficiently, it is good for him. Therefore, in spiritual advancement a poor man is in more advantage because he can think of God. Provided he is virtuous, he will think of God. Catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ sukṛtino 'rjuna (BG 7.16). So this supplying, God is supplying. Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13).

That one . . . there are two living entities, one Supreme and others; one singular number, other plural number. We are amongst the plural number, nityo nityānām. Nityānām, this is plural number, "Amongst many eternals." So we are amongst the many eternals. We are also eternal. We have got that qualitative, I mean to say, thing. Eternity is the same quality as of God, as of ours. We are eternal, God is eternal. That's all. But we are amongst the plural number. Nityo nityānām. And He is the singular number. And it is particularly stated that eko, that singular number, eternal eternal puruṣa, He is supplying everyone's necessities.

So God is supplying everyone's necessity. Either you are cat or dog or demigod or President Johnson or anyone, everyone is dependent on God's supply. We cannot be independent. Unless . . . if God stops supplying, you cannot manufacture. If there is food grains, there is no food grain, you cannot chew your dollar notes. (chuckles) What you will do (with) your hundred dollar notes? So He is the supplier. Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān.

So we should be . . . this is knowledge of God. We should be in love of God means, "Oh, God has supplied us so many things. Why not?" Therefore pure devotees, they like to supply God. They want to become order-supplier of God, not to make God as order-supplier. What God wants? God wants that make everyone God conscious, Kṛṣṇa conscious. He sends His son. He sends His books. He comes Himself. That is His mission. He wants that all these suffering living entities, they should become Kṛṣṇa conscious and be happy. God wants it. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly stated.

So if you wants to supply the want of God, God wants it. If you become yourself Kṛṣṇa conscious and try to serve God by spreading this mission all over the world, that is the best service. That is the best service to Lord, to become yourself a fieldworker. Fieldworker. God is very much anxious to get back His this, I mean to say, mad sons. In this material world everyone is mad, crazy. It is a difference of degrees only. I may be more crazy than yourself, but we are all crazies. And as soon as we are fixed up in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, our craziness is vanished. Yes. That is our constitutional position. The part is to serve the whole. We are part and parcel.

So this is a chance. This manifestation of this material world is a chance to have that opportunity. And especially this human form of life is a . . . the boon for understanding this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If we miss this opportunity, then we are unfortunate. Unfortunate.

puruṣāvatārera ei kailuṅ nirūpaṇa

līlāvatāra ebe śuna, sanātana

(CC Madhya 20.296)

Now Lord Caitanya says . . . "Now I have described about the three puruṣa incarnations." What is that? Mahā-Viṣṇu . . . Garbho er Kṣīro yes er, Kāraṇārṇavaśāyī Viṣṇu, or Mahā-Viṣṇu—then Garbhodakaśāyī, or Hiraṇyagarbha; Kṣīrodakaśāyī, or the Supersoul, antaryāmi. The three Viṣṇu incarnation description is finished. Now He is trying to explain līlāvatāra, pastimes.

God has got all propensities. So if He wants to fulfill some propensity, then He comes here to exhibit, to manifest that. Just like God comes here, just Rāmacandra, Lord Rāmacandra. And what was the main function of Lord Rāmacandra? He fought with Rāvaṇa, His enemy. So this is called līlā.

What is that līlā, līlā pastime? When God wants to have some desire to fulfill that, "I, I, I should fight . . ." Sometimes you sometimes feel mock fighting with friends or with your children. Similarly, wherefrom this desire comes unless the desire is in God? Because He is the origin of all, everything. So don't you feel sometimes, mock fighting? That is enjoyment, fighting with friends, boxing. That is not fighting; that is enjoyment. Similarly, God wants to enjoy by fighting.

So Vaikuṇṭha, there is no fighting, because nobody can be found there enemy. Everyone is obedient servant. Therefore He comes here to find out some enemy. The two functions are served. Paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8).

He satisfies His fighting spirit—at the same time, He protects the devotees and protects that enemy also by killing him. Because when a, when a demon is killed by the by the Supreme Lord, he is at once liberated. The liberation which he had to achieve after many, many births, he at once achieves. That is the advantage. So He saves the enemy and saves the devotee, in a stance . . . at the same times, He satisfies His fighting desire.

So God is good. So any fight, that is also good. It is not that Kṛṣṇa is inducing, inciting Arjuna, "Fight." There is a plan, big plan. So foolish people who criticize, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa is inciting war. We are very good men, nonviolence." So this "good man" has no value. That fighting has much value. But there is a plan, good plan. So this is called pastime, līlā, līlāvatāra.

So what are the līlāvatāra? Lord Caitanya says, līlāvatāra kṛṣṇera nā yāya kathan (CC Madhya 20.297): "How many number of līlāvatāras are there, nobody can count." God is unlimited, so anything manifested by Him is unlimited. That cannot be calculated by us. So there are so many līlāvatāra. Pradhāna kariyā kahi dig-daraśana: "Some of them I am just mentioning." Nobody can, I mean to say, fully calculate or understand how many līlāvatāras are there and where it is going and how it is going on. But it is going on.

The same example, that the sun is always in the sky. Now, where it is, that you have to find out. But sun is always in the sky. Similarly, the līlāvatāra is always there.

Just like Kṛṣṇa. In this planet Kṛṣṇa is not present, but in some of the universe He is present. His avatāra is going on. Is going on. In every minute, every second, He is taking His birth and He is fighting in the Kurukṣetra. That is called nitya-līlā, eternal. His everything is eternal. He is eternal—whatever He does, that is also eternal. And because we are conditioned, we cannot understand His eternity, His unlimitedness. But He's unlimited, His everything is unlimited.

So Lord Caitanya confirms there that how many līlāvatāras, incarnations, are there. We . . . we want to everything make limited, because we are all limited sense, limited understanding, limited . . . everything is limited, and God is unlimited. That we do not understand. We try to understand God with our limited means. That is our folly.

Therefore we don . . . don't don't believe. "Oh, God is doing like that? Oh, God is lifting hill? How it is possible? This is story." How? Why it is story? God is omnipotent, and God cannot lift a hill? He is floating so many planets in the air, weightlessness, and He cannot lift a hill? Because I don't believe that He is God. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā (BG 9.11): "Foolish rascals, they consider Me as ordinary man. 'Not Kṛṣṇa, but me. You offer your respect to me. I am God. I am competitor to Kṛṣṇa.' " So these are foolishness. He is unlimited; His everything, He is unlimited.

Now Lord Caitanya (is) mentioning some of these main features of these līlāvatāra.

matsya, kūrma, raghunātha, nṛsiṁha, vāmana,

varāhādi-lekhā yāṅra nā yāya gaṇana

(CC Madhya 20.298)

Some of the principals, principal avatāras, they are mentioned. Matsyāvatāra. During Vaivasvata Manu there was devastation, and in that devastation, Lord took Matsyāvatāra, incarnation of fish, and He protected the Vedas.

pralaya-payodhi-jale dhṛtavān asi vedaṁ

vihita-vahitra-caritram akhedam

keśava dhṛta-mīna-śarīra jaya jagadīśa hare

(Śrī Dāsavatāra-stotra)

The poet Jayadeva, a great devotee poet, is singing then, "In the devastation, my Lord Keśava, You have assumed the form of fish." A great muni was sitting. He was meditating. And after taking his bath in the ocean, in the sea, he brought one pot of kamaṇḍalu. Kamaṇḍalu, that pot, you have seen. He found a little fish there. Then . . . then, within few seconds, that fish covered all the pot, and the muni thought, "Oh, this fish is is is is . . . he is growing so rapidly. All right, let Him have some big pot." So he gave Him big pot. Then again He became full. Then in this way he had to put it in the ocean, and He became oceanlike. Then he understood that He is God.

So this is godly power. He can take the shape . . . as the ocean is big, so He'll take, and take this bigger-than-the-ocean form. But He is the maker of all forms. He has made ocean. But is it very difficult to understand how God becomes fish? That does not mean that every fish is God. No. So there is Matsyāvatāra.

pralaya-payodhi-jale dhṛtavān asi vedaṁ

vihita-vahitra-caritram akhedam

(Śrī Dāsavatāra-stotra)

Similarly, He took the incarnation of tortoise, Kūrma. There was a churning of the ocean, and the churning rod must be rested on something solid. So He became the churning rod, resting. And the hill, Mandara Hill, was placed, and He was feeling some itching sensation. So it was nicely itched by churning rod. You see? So this is . . . He is Kūrmāvatāra.

Then Raghunātha. Raghunātha. Raghunātha, this Rāma, Lord Rāma, He . . . He came to kill that daśanana, who had ten faces. Vitarasi dikṣu raṇe dik-pati-kamanīyam. So in this way there are innumerable incarnation of pastime. Nṛsiṁha. Nṛsiṁha.

tava kara-kamala-vare nakham adbhuta-śṛṅgaṁ

dalita-hiraṇyakaśipu-tanu-bhṛṅgam

keśava dhṛta-narahari-rūpa jaya jagadīśa hare

(Śrī Daśāvatāra Stotra 4)

Nṛsiṁha. Nṛsiṁha means half lion and half man, and this shape was assumed by the Lord to kill Hiraṇyakaśipu, the father of Brahmā . . . er, father of Prahlāda. Prahlāda was a great devotee of Lord, and his only fault was that he was a great devotee. His father wanted to kill him. So it is very dangerous also to become devotee. Even the father will be prepared to kill you. You see? Mother will be prepared to kill you. And what to speak of others, complaining, "O Swāmījī, you are disturbing our sleep."

So although we have made our friendship with Kṛṣṇa and He will always protect us, but at the same time this devotional line is risky also, that we create so many enemies. There are many examples in the history of this devotional service that unnecessarily people become enemy to these innocent devotees. Even a innocent boy like Prahlāda Mahārāja, five years old.

But a devotee cannot give up his profession. You see? He was being chastised so many times by his atheistic father, but what Prahlāda Mahārāja was doing? Oh, because he was king, he ordered the teachers that, "This boy is coming home and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. What is this nonsense?" teachers were asked. Teachers said: "My dear sir, we do not teach Hare Kṛṣṇa. According to your regulation, we are secular. (laughter) There is no possibility of teaching God or God's name. This boy, I do not know wherefrom he has got this Hare Kṛṣṇa." (laughter)

Oh, he became very angry, "Where you have got your Hare Kṛṣṇa?" "Father, from where you have got your anger, I have got that Hare Kṛṣṇa. (laughter) He is the supplier. You want to be angry, He supplies the anger. And I want to chant." Oh, he becomes more angry. So, but that boy, what he was doing? That teacher was forbidden, secular, and the father was enemy. Still, he was taking some opportunity as soon as the teacher is out, "O my dear friends, come on. I shall speak to you Hare Kṛṣṇa and the science."

So this should be our, your policy. Whenever there is some chance, just preach this. Whenever there is chance. But you should always know that you will find enemies, but you don't be afraid. Go on with your work.

So Prahlāda Mahārāja, he was such a nice devotee. And to protect him when he was just going to be killed by his father . . . and his father was very polit . . . good politician. He took benediction from Brahmā that he will not be killed by anyone. By policy he took benediction from Brahmā that, "I shall not be killed by man." "Oh, yes." "I shall not be killed by demigods." "That's all right." "I shall not be killed by any animal." "That's all right." "I shall not be killed in day." "That's all right." "You shall . . . I shall not be killed at night." "That's all right." "I shall not be killed by any weapon." "That's all right."

And he said: "Now it is finished. Everything is now secure. I cannot be killed in day. I cannot be killed at night. No man can kill him (me). No demigod can kill me. No animal can kill me. Then where is the killing? Everything finished." But God is so, cunning that He assumed neither man nor animal, and no weapons. He killed him with the nails. He never expected that "I will be killed by the nails." This is the definition by negation, defective definition. There the . . . in argument, if you define negatively, "This is not this. This is not this. This is not this," then something will come that will, I mean to say, nullify all your arguments. You see? So he protected himself in all negative ways, "This will not. This will not. This will not. This will not." Something came which was not in his power. So this Nṛsiṁhāvatāra.

Then Vāmanāvatāra. Vāmanāvatāra, I have already mentioned, that He became a dwarf brahmin boy and took all the possession that Mahārāja Bali. This Mahārāja Bali was grandson of this Mahārāja Prahlāda. So these are līlāvatāra pastimes. Pastimes means exchange of dealing between the devotees and the Lord, between the living entities and the Lord, exchange. Either there are twelve kinds of humor, rasas . . . sometimes He deals as enemy; sometimes He deals as friend; sometimes He deals as so many things. There are twelve.

So we are all related with God in some humor out of these twelve, either as enemy or as friend or servitor or lover or as son or father, as the master and servant. In so many ways we are related. And when these relationship is exchanged between God and the living entity, that is called līlā, līlā, pastimes. So līlāvatāra, we shall explain again tom . . .

Thank you very much. Any question? (end)