For the Love of God - Srimad Bhagavatam

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31 March 2017 – Srimad Bhagavatam Pariksit Maharaja raised the question that if the Lord is described as being impartial why does it seem that He is against the demons. Srila Sukadeva Gosvami replied: You have asked an excellent question. Please, listen. Some persons have tamasik natures. What is the nature of such persons? They disturb themselves and others. Rajasik people only want to enjoy and if someone does not help them do so they become angry. They think that everyone and everything is meant to be enjoyed by them. Both tamasik people and rajasik people become disturbed to see that people situated in nirguna-tattva are peaceful. Their activities include, inducing others to ruin their lives by taking intoxicants or doing other forms of sin, and turning friends or family against each other by means of rumors and politics. Sattvik people are good. They follow devas and sages. Rajasik people follow powerful mystics and tantrics and tamasik people follow only demons. Sukadeva Gosvami told Pariksita Maharaja that Yuddhisthira Maharaja once asked this same question to Narada Rsi. That most blessed sage said: tasmād vairānubandhena nirvaireṇa bhayena vā snehāt kāmena vā yuñjyāt kathañcin nekṣate pṛthak Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.1.26 Therefore by enmity or by devotional service, by fear, by affection or by lusty desire—by all of these or any one of them—if a conditioned soul somehow or other concentrates his mind upon the Lord, the result is the same, for the Lord, because of His blissful position, is never affected by enmity or friendship. Tamasik people think, “That person is my enemy.” And they cannot forget the perceived wrongs that were done to them. They thus dwell on their enemies at all times. Rajasik people are obsessed with revenge and send henchmen or hired ruffians to punish people they see as threats or enemies. They do anything to stay happy or comfortable, ignorant to the fact that nothing is permanent in this world. Even sattvik persons, although they do not dwell on nor attack those against them, will feel somewhat content when someone who has wronged them gets the result of his bad action. They are desirous of the fruits of their good behavior and austerity. Only Nirguna-tattva is above all of this. Therefore, those who see God as their enemy enter the state of avesa, absorption. This is like their bhajana. Some bhaktas find it difficult to constantly think of Bhagavan, but someone who considers the Lord his worst enemy cannot forget Him for a second. yathā vairānubandhena martyas tan-mayatām iyāt na tathā bhakti-yogena iti me niścitā matiḥ Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.1.27 Nārada Muni continued: By devotional service one cannot achieve such intense absorption in thought of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as one can through enmity toward Him. That is my opinion. God punishes the wicked. But punishment is not a bad thing. Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura gives an example of a mother who gives one of her sons a glass of what seems to be pasted bitter neem leaves to drink while she gives sweets to her other son. When the first son expresses that she seems to be acting partially, and against his favor, she says, “You have parasites in your stomach and your liver is weak. If I give you this bitter medicine you will become healthy and able to eat sweets yourself. If you were to eat sweets now, you would become very ill.” If tama-gunis and raja-gunis were to be given only blessings from God and not chastisement, they would become steadily worse in character and deed. Bhagavan is pleased when someone thinks of His bhaktas. Prahlada Maharaja, the great devotee of Bhagavan, came to the demon Hiranyakasipu. Hiranyakasipu constantly thought of him in fear and frustration. “He is a spy of Visnu!” he thought. Bhaktas like Prahlada Maharaja do not see anyone as their enemy. By Prahlada’s association and by his meditation on him Hiranyakasipu was liberated. Bhaktas cannot be divided from their beloved spiritual master and the Supreme Lord. Veni Madhava tried to break the relation between Babaji Maharaja and Vrajanatha and Vijaya-kumara, but could not do so. He was bitten by a snake and died. How long can you disturb others, especially the bhaktas, without meeting with the reaction? If a person meets with the result of his own bad actions, how can that be called the fault of God? If you do not understand bhakti, but you are sincere, God will arrange for you to meet with an expert doctor—Sri Guru and sadhus—and everything will be alright. But if you avoid the sadhus, then what chance do you have to progress? As a grass worm is caught by a bee who imprisons him, planning to eat him later and leaving him to live in such an absorbing fear that he takes on the very form of that bee, in the same way, those who live in enmity and fear of the Lord also become completely purified because of their absorption. This was the case with Sisupala. Because the king of Cedi thought about Krsna 24 hours a day, he attained mukti. kāmād dveṣād bhayāt snehād yathā bhaktyeśvare manaḥ āveśya tad-aghaṁ hitvā bahavas tad-gatiṁ gatāḥ Many personalities have obtained parama-gati simply by absorbing their mind in Kṛṣṇa in a state of avesa, and avoiding sin. This great attention may be from amorous desire, inimical feelings, fear, affection, or devotional service. One could say that if you are female it would be very easy to do upasana of Krsna in the way of kama, lust, but this is a bodily conception of things. Purusa-bhava, the idea that “I am the enjoyer, the dominator,” is detrimental to bhakti. Even those with women bodies, all want to be the enjoyers and controllers. This is purusa-bhava. To understand things on the basis of the soul is to know that each soul is part of Krsna’s sakti. If you learn to love Krsna, all mundane lust and desire will be removed from your heart and you will see for yourself how happy you are. If you offer your love to illusion, lifetimes of pain is all you will receive. You will invite endless punishment to yourself. Therefore, you must give up attachment to all things of this world. The duty of a sadhu is to cut through the false conception of material life with the sharp sword of their words. Kamadeva’s business is to steal our intelligence. Kamis and krodhis are under the influence of raja-guna and tama-guna. People with mundane kama are never happy. They never laugh and their faces are shadowy and downcast. Why? Krsna says, “Iha vairinam—kama and krodha, lust and anger, which are products of raja-guna smash a person from within and make them slaves of the senses. Those who are materially attached and who take the path of raja-guna in the vehicle of lust and anger soon find their lives are full of fear. Looking around them, they say, “To what terrifying place have I come to?” Therefore, pray to Krsna. If He steals your lust, you will feel well and will be successful in bhajana. If this lust is not removed you will easily spend millions of lifetimes uselessly in maya. Therefore, our sampradaya acaryas give the kama-gayatri-mantra. Seriously chant that mantra and pray to Krsna, the original Kamadeva, “Oh, when will You be manifest in my heart?” Then, the enemies of lust and anger will run away in fear. By no other power is this possible. Offering your obeisance and love to Krsna will make you pure. Only when it is yours will you be able to understand that happiness of being purified of mundane lust and becoming attached to the Supreme Lord. Follow the Guru-varga and you will see. Lust, envy, fear—it is possible to engage even these feelings and become absorbed in Krsna, and when one is absorbed, he becomes liberated. Sadhana becomes very easy, automatic, for someone who sees Krsna as his or her beloved and continuously serves Him for His happiness. If one desires to serve Krsna, he will be helped by Krsna’s devotees who are already pure and above maya. This verse states, ‘kamad.’ The vraja-gopis’ avesa was out of kama. They did not fear the opinions of society and they did not think about their husbands or other family members. They thought only about serving Krsna. They were free of any attachment other than attachment to Him. They were more renounced, detached, and mentally absorbed in meditation on Krsna than sannyasis. Kamsa did reach liberation by the path of fear of Krsna, but one gets liberation very easily and with freedom from all kinds of fear if he just has a relationship with Krsna where Krsna is seen as his dear friend or family member. Bhakti removes all anarthas, but a mere show of it is reproachable. How can we be sincere and follow bhakti with taste and strength? This is impossible, but if you follow the followers of bhakti they will give you that energy. Then you will never be disturbed. Bhakti is thus very simple. Bhakti’s followers will never be crazy, but you will have to follow. Chant harinama, and if you find you cannot do that continuously then do practical service. If you cannot serve all day long, that is not a problem—do kirtana. In this way, perform all the nine limbs of bhakti. Chant, read, dance and sing in kirtana, hear hari-katha, do parikrama, and clean the temple of Sri Hari. This is very sweet and easy. You will not even realize when mundane lust leaves you and all your attraction is for Krsna—the eternal and original Kamadeva. When you can pray from the core of your heart and without shyness, even if you are in front of others, then Gopinatha will kick the lust out of your heart. gopīnātha, mama nivedana śuno, viṣayī durjana, sadā kāma-rata, kichu nāhi mora guṇa “Please hear me, O Gopinatha! Kama is killing me. Lust has me by the throat and is choking me. Gopinatha, I am a bhogi. Please help me.” Hearing this prayer, Gopinatha will say, “Kama? This is no problem!” and He will kick mundane kama out of your heart. “Don’t touch My followers,” He will say. This is liberation. That day when we have no more attraction or attachment to maya’s illusion will come. That day, you will frown at even the idea of looking toward maya with lust. You will be in sat-sanga always and have a sweet life of following navadha-bhakti with relationship with the eternal world. That day will come. Do not delay it. Act in such a way where it will come quickly. Do not waste time. Our Guru-varga always follow navadha bhakti. Look at their example and instruction. Bhakti is simple. It is easy. Just chant harinama, and if you cannot do that continuously, then read or do kirtan. Then, do arcana. Offer pranama. Just do sakhyam. How is this done? There is an example: Once, there was a small boy who went to his mother and said, “Mother, I become afraid when I walk through the forest to school. All I have is you, but when I walk to school I am so lonely and frightened.” “Don’t worry,” his mother said, “you have a brother. He is known to some as Paramatma, and to some as Gopal. If you just call Him, He will come to You. You can play together while you walk.” One frightfully dark and rainy morning, the boy, whose books were wet and whose heart was beating fast in fear, began to cry for his mother on the muddy path to school. Then, he remembered what she had told him about his brother. He called, “Gopala!” and suddenly a smiling young boy was before Him. His mother was right! He came to keep him company and relieve his fear. The rain soon cleared and the two boys laughed and played together as they made their way to the school. Returning home, later that day, the boy’s mother asked him, “You seem very happy today.” “Yes mother, I called my brother came today when I called Him. He is very nice.” The boy began to call his brother every day, and the two affectionately fed each other fruits from the forest and joked in many ways. One day, the boy’s teacher announced, “Tomorrow is Krsna’s birthday. Everyone should bring some milk and we will do abhiseka.” The boy told his mother that evening, “Mother, my teacher said that tomorrow is Krsna’s birthday.” “Yes, I know.” “All the other boys will bring some milk for abhiseka. Can you also give me milk to bring?” The boy’s mother thought, “We are poor. I have no cow. How can I give him milk?” Then she decided to somehow make a little bit of money by cleaning and doing chores in someone else’s house. With what she earned she went to the wife of an owner of a cow and acquired some milk. But how much. She got a small vial’s worth. When the boy brought the insignificant amount of milk to the teacher the next day, his teacher snorted in disapproval of how little there was and put it aside. As the abhisek was going on, the teacher offered all the milk that was brought and when he poured from the tiny vial brought by the boy, he was astonished to find that a continuous stream of milk came out of it. It was as if there was unlimited milk in that small vial. Everyone was amazed to see the special miracle. One day, the boy decided that he wanted to give a gift to his brother. “But I have nothing,” he thought. He asked his mother, “Can you give me something I can give as a gift to my brother?” “Where is your bother?” His mother asked. “I can call Him. Would you like to see Him?” But, when he called Gopala, she could not see Him. She did not have the same faith and simple, loving relation as her son did. If you lack faith and love, you will be distant from Krsna. You will not be able to see Him. Our acaryas tell us, “Always think about Krsna. With a simple heart, follow the process of bhakti-yoga. Krsna is not far away from us. He knows everything. We think we can close a door and become invisible to everyone but He is always with us. He can do anything. Narada Rsi informed Maharaja Yudhisthira that Sisupala and Dantavakra, the king’s cousins, were Jaya and Vijay cursed by the four Kumaras to take birth as demons. Maharaja Yuddhisthira asked, “How could Lord Visnu’s sevakas become victims of a curse? I cannot understand this. How could someone of Vaikuntha, where there is no fire of any kind, possessed of a perfected spiritual body, fall from their post and take an ordinary birth?” Narada Rsi explained that once, the Four Kumaras, namely Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana and Sanat-kumāra, went to Vaikuntha. pañca-ṣaḍḍhāyanārbhābhāḥ pūrveṣām api pūrvajāḥ dig-vāsasaḥ śiśūn matvā dvāḥ-sthau tān pratyaṣedhatām Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.1.37 Although these four great sages were older than Brahmā's other sons like Marīci, they appeared like small naked children only five or six years old. When Jaya and Vijaya saw them trying to enter Vaikuṇṭhaloka, these two gatekeepers, thinking them ordinary children, forbade them to enter. Becoming angry upon being stopped, the four Kumaras said, “You who act just like followers of raja and tama are not fit to be here. Your contaminated vision sees us only as naked children. You cannot see our soul’s svarupa. Why are you even here? You are not qualified to be here. Therefore, go to the world of birth and death and take birth as demons!” Click to Support! [CC by NDNC Bhaktabandhav]