April 17, 2013 Sadhu-Sanga — HH Bhakti Prapanna Tirtha Maharaja read from the Srimad Bhagavatam

Topic: The Importance of Hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam

Here is the recording of the April 17, 2013 sadhu-sanga.

• HH Sripad Bhakti Prapanna Tirtha Maharaja discusses the essential importance of listening to Krsna-katha from the lips of a sadhu. Maharaja Pariksit’s questions and Sukadeva Goswami’s answers are great because they are meaningful not only for them, but for all living entities.
• The Lord is described as aguna which means that He has no material qualities such as the modes of goodness, passion or ignorance. His existence is transcendental to all material conceptions.
• The Srimad-Bhagavatam is auspicious even for non-devotees who can be delivered from the clutches of material energy if they hear the narration with devotion and attention from the right source representing the disciplic succession.
• It is the duty of the sane to hear Srimad-Bhagavatam and to continue such hearing until the end of one’s life. Sripad Tirtha Maharaja recounts how some people in India chant Harinama and read Srimad-Bhagavatam for monetary gain. However, only by hearing from a genuine Vaisnava can one capture the philosophical conclusions (siddhanta) of the Vedanta.
• Persons who hear Sr?mad-Bhagavatam regularly and are always taking the matter very seriously will have the Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna manifested in their hearts within a short time.
• The sound incarnation of Lord Krsna, the Supreme Soul [i.e. Srimad-Bhagavatam], enters into the heart of a self-realized devotee, sits on the lotus flower of his loving relationship with the Lord, and thus cleanses the dust of material association, such as lust, anger and hankering. This process acts like autumnal rains upon pools of muddy water.
• Devotional service to the Lord is so powerful that it can cleanse the hearts of people in general. The Lord always resides within the heart of a living being, but He becomes manifested by one’s devotional service with specific attention to hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam regularly.
• A pure devotee of the Lord is so purified in his heart that he cannot leave the shelter of Lord Krsna in any circumstance. Severe difficulties are gladly suffered by the devotees who feel transcendental pleasure because the Lord is satisfied.
• Sripad Tirtha Maharaja closes by quoting Srila Saraswati Thakura that even though one’s house may be burning down, our only engagement is serving the lotus feet of the Lord. The most important thing in life is to become Krsna Conscious.

February 20, 2013 Sadhu-Sanga — HH Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja and the devotees read from the Srimad Bhagavatam

Topic: Overview of the Incarnations of the Lord

Here is the recording of the February 20, 2013 sadhu-sanga.

• Lord Brahma refers to the incarnations of the four sanas [Sanaka, Sanat-kumara, Sanandana and Sanatana] who renovated knowledge of the Absolute Truth, knowledge which had been erased from the universe after the last devastation.
• We then hear about the twin incarnation, Narayana and Nara, where the Lord exhibited His personal ways of austerity and penance. In his purport, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada provides an excellent discussion of celibacy and the foundation of the renounced orders.
• The next verse speaks to the complete absence of lust and wrath in the behavior of the Lord. The transcendental devotee can become free from lust and wrath by the practice of bhakti-yoga, whereby one learns to become a humble servant of the Spiritual Master.
• Next we are introduced to the activities of Prince Dhruva who chanted om namo bhagavate vasudevaya as instructed by his spiritual master, Narada Muni. By fixing his mind on the Absolute Truth at a very early age, Lord Visnu was induced to incarnate as Prsnigarbha to deliver the Prince from the injustice imposed by his stepmother.
• The Lord, by His causeless mercy, descended as Prthu, the son of Maharaja Vena. Because Maharaja Vena had deviated from the scriptural injunctions and ignored the instructions of the learned brahmanas, his life descended into a hellish existence. However, by the efforts of Prthu, Maharaja Vena was saved and the disorders on earth were rectified.
• We then learn of the incarnation of the Lord as Rsabhadeva, who practiced jada-yoga, a severe discipline where the practitioner attempts to subdue the senses with self-inflicted pain on the material body. In the last stage of His life, He would lie in his own stool, which possessed a flower-like fragrance. Such practice is impossible for a normal person, especially in this Kali Yuga. Thus, we are enjoined to practice bhakti-yoga to subdue the material senses.
• We are then briefly introduced to the Lord’s appearance as Hayagriva in a sacrifice performed by Lord Brahma. Finally, we are introduced to the Lord’s fish incarnation where He saves all the living entities and the Vedas at the end of the millenium.
• Unlike the jada-yogis, Sripad Puri Maharaja explains that we become insentient to material affairs when our sole focus is to serve Krsna. He then discusses the upcoming celebration of the appearance of Lord Nityananda.
• Maharaja closes by recounting the pastime of Brghu Muni who showed disrespect to Lord Brahma, Lord Siva and Lord Visnu to determine who was the greatest. Offenses made with the mind, the words and the body are increasingly more severe.

February 16, 2013 Sadhu-Sanga — Sripad Bhakti Niskama Shanta Maharaja read from Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita.

Topic: Vallabha Bhatta’s Pride is Destroyed

Here is the recording of the February 16, 2013 sadhu-sanga.

• Several scriptures are recited by Lord Chaitanya which describe the pure love for Sri Krsna displayed by the gopis and Uddhava. Lord Chaitanya then describes the virtues of Haridas Thakura, the teacher of the Holy Name. These scriptures were intended to teach the prideful Vallabha Bhatta that he must learn about devotional service from the devotees. Knowledge of Srimad Bhagavatam alone is insufficient.
• Vallabha then inquired how he might meet the devotees. The Lord stated that they were all available during the annual Ratha-yatra festival.
• Inviting Lord Chaitanya to dine at his home, Vallabha Bhatta offered a great quantity of Lord Jagannatha’s prasadam to the Lord and the devotees. Vallabha offered his obeisances at the lotus feet of all the devotees. After all the devotees had finished eating, Vallabha Bhatta brought them a large quantity of garlands, sandalwood pulp, spices and betel.
• On the day of the car festival, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu divided all the devotees into seven groups who all began dancing. Wandering from group to group, the Lord chanted Haribol! Seeing all this, Vallabha Bhatta was astonished. Overwhelmed by transcendental bliss, he lost himself in the ecstasy of divine love.
• Stopping the dancing of the seven groups, the Lord continued to dance alone. Seeing the beauty of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the awakening of His ecstatic love, Vallabha Bhatta concluded, “Here is Lord Krsna, without a doubt.”
• One day after the car festival, Vallabha Bhatta asked the Lord to hear his commentary on the Srimad Bhagavatam. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu replied that he was not a suitable person to hear the meaning of Srimad Bhagavatam.
• Vallabha Bhatta then asked the Lord to hear his explanations of Krsna’s name. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu replied “I do not accept many different meanings for the holy name of Krsna. I know only that Lord Krsna is Syamasundara and Yasodanandana. That’s all I know. The only purport of the holy name of Krsna is that He is dark blue like a tamala tree and is the son of mother Yasoda. This is the conclusion of all the revealed scriptures.”
• When Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu rigidly declined to hear his explanations, Vallabha Bhatta went home feeling morose. His faith in the Lord and devotion to Him changed. Because the Lord did not take Vallabha Bhatta very seriously, none of the people in Jagannatha Puri would hear any of his explanations.
• Ashamed, insulted and unhappy, Vallabha Bhatta went to Gadadhara Pandita and asked him to hear his explanations. When Vallabha forcefully began his explanations, Gadadhara began to think of Krsna, praying that the Lord would protect him.
• Every day, Vallabha Bhatta would engage in unnecessary arguments with Advaita Acarya and other great personalities, such as Svarupa Damodara. Whatever conclusions Vallabha presented were refuted by personalities like Advaita Acarya.
• One day Vallabha Bhatta said to Advaita Acarya, “Every living entity is female and considers Krsna her husband. It is the duty of a chaste wife not to utter her husband’s name, but all of you chant the name of Krsna. How can this be called a religious principle?
• Hearing this, Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, “My dear Vallabha Bhatta, you do not know religious principles. Actually, the first duty of a chaste woman is to carry out the order of her husband. The order of Krsna is to chant His name incessantly. Therefore one who is chaste and adherent to the husband Krsna must chant the Lord’s name, for she cannot deny the husband’s order.”
• Hearing this, Vallabha Bhatta was speechless. He returned home greatly unhappy and began to consider thus: “Every day I am defeated in this assembly. If by chance I am one day victorious, that will be a great source of happiness for me, and all my shame will go away. But what means shall I adopt to establish my statements?”
• The next day, after offering obeisances to the Lord, Vallabha Bhatta said with great pride “In my commentary on Srimad-Bhagavatam, I have refuted the explanations of Sridhara Svami. I cannot accept his explanations.”

February 13, 2013 Sadhu-Sanga — Sripad Bhakti Vijnana Muni Maharaja read from Srimad Bhagavatam

Topic: Understanding the Pastimes of the Supreme Lord

Here is the recording of the February 13, 2013 sadhu-sanga.

• When the senses are purified by the process of hearing, chanting, remembering, and worshiping the lotus feet of the holy Deity, the Lord reveals Himself proportionately to the quality of devotional service. One cannot know the Supreme Personality of Godhead fully by any method, but He can be seen and felt partially by the process of devotional service.
• The whole creation is the Lord Himself, and the creation is also non-different from Him. Simultaneously, as the original Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna is aloof from the created manifestation. The original Personality of Godhead expands Himself as the Maha-Visnu incarnation and rests in the Causal Ocean, which He Himself creates. He lies down and generates the universes by His breathing, and again, by entering into each universe as Garbhodakasayi Visnu, He creates Brahma, Siva and many other demigods.
• The Personality of Godhead is pure, free from all contamination of material tinges. This distinguishes the Lord from the individual living entities who have the aptitude for being subordinated by nescience and thus becoming materially designated.
• Only the unalloyed devotees of the Lord can know Him to a certain extent. This is because the devotees have no demands in their lives but to be obedient servants of the Lord, while the empiric philosophers, the mystics and the fruitive workers, all basically have some demand, and as such they cannot be purified.
• Karanarnavasayi Visnu is the first incarnation of the Supreme Lord, and He is the master of eternal time, space, cause and effects, mind, the elements, the material ego, the modes of nature, the senses, the universal form of the Lord, Garbhodakasayi Visnu, and the sum total of all living beings, both moving and non-moving.
• Different persons, societies and communities, worship some of the potent manifestations of the Lord, wrongly accepting such powerful objects as God. But Brahmaji advises that none of them is the Supreme Lord; they are only borrowed plumes from the original Almighty Lord Sri Krsna. When the Lord actually descends on the earth or anywhere within the universe, the less intelligent class of men mistake Him to be one of them, and thus they imagine the Transcendence to be formless or impersonal.
• The activities of the Lord are principally of two varieties. One concerns the mundane manifestation of the material creative force, and the other deals with His pastimes in the form of different incarnations. Beginning in chapter 7, Lord Brahma recounts the innumerable incarnations of the Lord known as lila-avataras.
• The first incarnation of the Lord as a gigantic boar, who restored the Earth to its orbit, is briefly described. Then the incarnation of Suyajna is described. This is followed by the incarnation of Kapila whose mother achieved liberation following the path laid out by her Son.
• When the Lord descends personally or by His personal plenary expansions, such incarnations are called amsa, kala, guna, yuga and manvantara incarnations. When the Lord’s associates descend by the order of the Lord, such incarnations are called saktyavesa incarnations.
• The reading concludes with a discussion of the incarnation of Dattatreya as the Son of Atri.
• Both Sripad Muni Maharaja and Sripad Puri Maharaja clarify that Karanarnavasayi Vishnu, Karanodakasayi Visnu and Maha-Vishnu are different names for the same initial expansion of Lord Sri Krsna.

February 9, 2013 Sadhu-Sanga — Sripad Bhakti Niskama Shanta Maharaja read from Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita.

Topic: Lord Chaitanya with Raghunatha Dasa and Vallabha Bhatta

Here is the recording of the February 9, 2013 sadhu-sanga.

• Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu instructs Raghanatha dasa to worhip the govardhan-sila with a jug of water and eight soft tulasi flowers, each with two leaves, one on each side of each flower.
• Thus Raghunatha dasa began worshiping the stone from Govardhana, and as he worshiped he saw the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, the son of Nanda Maharaja, directly in the stone. Thinking of how he had received the govardhana-sila directly from the hands of Lord Chaitanya, Raghunatha dasa was always overflooded with ecstatic love.
• After some time, Svarupa Damodara instructed Raghunatha dasa to offer the govardhana-sila eight kaudis worth of the first-class sweetmeats known as khaja and sandesa. Having received the sila and the garland of conch shells from Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he could understand the Lord’s intentions to offer him a place near Govardhana Hill and to offer him shelter at the feet of Srimati Radharani.
• Raghunatha dasa Gosvami followed the regulative principles so strictly and rigidly that they were compared to the lines on a stone. Spending more than 22 hours every day chanting the Hare Krsna mahamantra, he ate and slept less than one and one-half hours each day. He never touched anything to wear except a small torn cloth and a patchwork wrapper. Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains that very rigidly carrying out the order of the spiritual master is essential for achieving progress in devotional service.
• After it has decomposed, Lord Jagannatha’s prasadam is thrown before the cows at the Simha-dvara gate. At night, Raghunatha dasa would collect that decomposed rice, bring it home, wash it with ample water, and then eat the hard inner portion with salt. Seeing such activities, Svarupa Damodara asked for a small portion and then ate it. When Lord Chaitanya heard news of this, He went there and forcibly took a morsel and began to eat. However, when the Lord reached for a second bite, Svarupa Damodara caught His hand, declared the food was unfit for the Lord, and forcibly took the food away. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, “Of course, every day I eat varieties of prasadam, but I have never tasted such nice prasadam as that which Raghunatha is eating.” Seeing the severe penances performed by Raghunatha dasa in the renounced order, the Lord was greatly satisfied.
• A learned scholar named Vallabha Bhatta went to Jagannatha Puri to meet the Lord. Offering his obeisances at the lotus feet of the Lord, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu accepted him as a great devotee and embraced him. Seating Vallabha Bhatta near Him, Vallabha Bhatta very humbly began to honor the Lord with many scriptural references confirming that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was the all-auspicious incarnation of the Personality of Godhead.
• Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu countered that He was a sannyasi of the Mayavada school having no chance of knowing what krsna-bhakti is. He then proclaimed that His mind had become purified through association with Advaita Acharya, that Lord Nityananda Prabhu was directly the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya had shown him that devotional service to Krsna is the essence of all mystic yoga, and that through Srila Ramananda Raya He had understood that ecstatic love of Krsna is the highest goal of life.
• Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada explains that purusartha (“the goal of life”) generally refers to religion, economic development, satisfaction of the senses and, finally, liberation. However, above these four kinds of purusarthas, love of Godhead stands supreme. It is called parama-purusartha (the supreme goal of life) or purusartha-siromani (the most exalted of all purusarthas).
• Suddha-bhava, pure Krsna consciousness, is not dependent on an understanding of the Lord’s opulences. Even without such opulences, the devotee in suddha-bhava is inclined to love Krsna as a friend or son.
• Sripad Puri Maharaja discusses the difference between Brahman realization and material realization. Both realizations are impersonal, but one is seeking liberation from the material world, the other is simply becoming more entangled in the material world. However, the ultimate destination is Krsna-prema which is achieved by taking up the service of gurudeva.