Tag: narada

14 May 2024 What is the real problem of life, and how to stop it? Srimad Bhagavatam Class with Bhakti Sanga Japa Group SB 7.7.37

Prahlada is a great saint. He learned everything he knew while he was still in the womb of his mother Kayadhu, from Narada Muni, the great spiritual master. And his devotion manifested when he was a small child… so much so that Prahlada is known as one of the great Mahajanas, the great pure teachers of the Science of God.

In this SB 7.7.37, Prahlada instructs that the real problem of life is birth and death. Do you want to know how to stop this continuously whirling wheel of birth and death?

Attend this class to find out, watch the recording, or if you are pressed for time, just read this article!

Hare Krishna!

The Bhakti Sanga Japa Group connects Krishna conscious devotees from across the world, be it a neophyte, serious sadhaka, or just someone with a casual interest in spirituality, through online conference calls! Bhakti Sanga group facilitates devotee association with several classes and japa sessions during the day. Classes include lectures on Srimad Bhagavatam, Sri Caitanya Caritamrta, Children’s sessions on scriptures, festival/holy days and assorted spiritual topics. The Bhakti Sanga group provides an informal setting where devotees can seek answers regarding their sadhana, spiritual topics and practices. Come experience Krishna consciousness in the association of devotees, from the very convenience of your home, just a phone call away!

DATE📆: Tuesday, 14th May 2024

TIME⌚: 7:20 AM. ET USA/ 6:20 AM. CT USA/ 4:20 AM PST USA/ 12:20 PM UK/ 8:20 PM MYT/ 4:50 PM IST

The class will be available on Zoom and later uploaded online on their Youtube Channel.

ZOOM Meeting ID: 681 873 6022 Password: 803604

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHty1ZkyTvzn_vTTfiYqwTA

Please join online if you’re interested in joining this class, or let me know if you want to get a link to the recording.

Chapter SB 7.7 What Prahlāda Learned in the Womb – Summary

In this chapter, to dissipate the doubts of his class friends, the sons of the demons, Prahlāda Mahārāja states how, within the womb of his mother, he had heard from the mouth of Nārada Muni, who had instructed him in bhāgavata-dharma.

When Hiraṇyakaśipu left his kingdom and went to the mountain known as Mandarācala to execute severe austerities, all the demons scattered. Hiraṇyakaśipu’s wife, Kayādhu, was pregnant at that time, and the demigods, mistakenly thinking that she carried another demon in her womb, arrested her. Their plan was that as soon as the child took birth they would kill him. While they were taking Kayādhu to the heavenly planets, they met Nārada Muni, who stopped them from taking her away and took her to his āśrama until Hiraṇyakaśipu’s return. In Nārada Muni’s āśrama, Kayādhu prayed for the protection of the baby in her womb, and Nārada Muni reassured her and gave her instructions on spiritual knowledge. Taking advantage of those instructions, Prahlāda Mahārāja, although a small baby within the womb, listened very carefully. The spirit soul is always apart from the material body. There is no change in the spiritual form of the living entity. Any person above the bodily conception of life is pure and can receive transcendental knowledge. This transcendental knowledge is devotional service, and Prahlāda Mahārāja, while living in the womb of his mother, received instructions in devotional service from Nārada Muni. Any person engaged in the service of the Lord through the instructions of a bona fide spiritual master is immediately liberated, and being free from the clutches of māyā, he is relieved of all ignorance and material desires. The duty of everyone is to take shelter of the Supreme Lord and thus become free from all material desires. Regardless of the material condition in which one is situated, one can achieve this perfection. Devotional service is not dependent on the material activities of austerity, penance, mystic yoga or piety. Even without such assets, one can achieve devotional service through the mercy of a pure devotee.

https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/7/7/

ŚB 7.7.37

अधोक्षजालम्भमिहाशुभात्मन:
शरीरिण: संसृतिचक्रशातनम् ।
तद् ब्रह्मनिर्वाणसुखं विदुर्बुधा-
स्ततो भजध्वं हृदये हृदीश्वरम् ॥ ३७ ॥

adhokṣajālambham ihāśubhātmanaḥ
śarīriṇaḥ saṁsṛti-cakra-śātanam
tad brahma-nirvāṇa-sukhaṁ vidur budhās
tato bhajadhvaṁ hṛdaye hṛd-īśvaram

Synonyms

adhokṣaja — with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is beyond the reach of the materialistic mind or experimental knowledge; ālambham — being constantly in contact; iha — in this material world; aśubha–ātmanaḥ — whose mind is materially contaminated; śarīriṇaḥ — of a living entity who has accepted a material body; saṁsṛti — of material existence; cakra — the cycle; śātanam — completely stopping; tat — that; brahma–nirvāṇa — connected with the Supreme Brahman, the Absolute Truth; sukham — transcendental happiness; viduḥ — understand; budhāḥ — those who are spiritually advanced; tataḥ — therefore; bhajadhvam — engage in devotional service; hṛdaye — within the core of the heart; hṛt–īśvaram — to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Supersoul within the heart.

Translation

The real problem of life is the repetition of birth and death, which is like a wheel rolling repeatedly up and down. This wheel, however, completely stops when one is in touch with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In other words, by the transcendental bliss realized from constant engagement in devotional service, one is completely liberated from material existence. All learned men know this. Therefore, my dear friends, O sons of the asuras, immediately begin meditating upon and worshiping the Supersoul within everyone’s heart.

Purport

Generally it is understood that by merging into the existence of Brahman, the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth, one becomes completely happy. The words brahma-nirvāṇa refer to connecting with the Absolute Truth, who is realized in three features: brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate. One feels brahma-sukha, spiritual happiness, by merging into the impersonal Brahman because the brahmajyoti is the effulgence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi. Yasya prabhā, the impersonal Brahman, consists of the rays of Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental body. Therefore whatever transcendental bliss one feels from merging in Brahman is due to contact with Kṛṣṇa. Contact with Kṛṣṇa is perfect brahma-sukha. When the mind is in touch with the impersonal Brahman one becomes satisfied, but one must advance further to render service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for one’s remaining merged in the Brahman effulgence is not always assured. As it is said, āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho ’nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ: one may merge in the Brahman feature of the Absolute Truth, but there is a chance that one may fall because of not being acquainted with Adhokṣaja, or Vāsudeva. Of course, such brahma-sukha undoubtedly eliminates material happiness, but when one advances through impersonal Brahman and localized Paramātmā to approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead in relationship with Him as a servant, friend, parent or conjugal lover, one’s happiness becomes all-pervading. Then one automatically feels transcendental bliss, just as one becomes happy seeing the shining of the moon. One acquires natural happiness upon seeing the moon, but when one can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one’s transcendental happiness increases hundreds and thousands of times. As soon as one is very intimately connected with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one surely becomes free from all material contamination. Yā nirvṛtis tanu-bhṛtām. This cessation of all material happiness is called nirvṛti or nirvāṇa. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.1.38):

brahmānando bhaved eṣa
cet parārdha-guṇīkṛtaḥ
naiti bhakti-sukhāmbhodheḥ
paramāṇu-tulām api

“If brahmānanda, the bliss of merging in the Brahman effulgence, were multiplied one hundred trillion times, it would still not equal even an atomic fragment of the ocean of transcendental bliss felt in devotional service.”

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
na śocati na kāṅkṣati
samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām

“One who is transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments or desires to have anything; he is equally disposed toward all living entities. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto the Lord.” (Bg. 18.54) If one advances further from the brahma-nirvāṇa platform, one enters the stage of devotional service (mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām). The word adhokṣajālambham refers to keeping the mind always engaged in the Absolute Truth, who is beyond the mind and material speculation. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ. This is the result of Deity worship. By constantly engaging in the service of the Lord and thinking of His lotus feet, one is automatically freed from all material contamination. Thus the word brahma-nirvāṇa-sukham indicates that when one is in touch with the Absolute Truth, material sense gratification is completely nullified.

https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/7/7/37

Celebrate Humility, not Pride

Pride is celebrated these days. Be proud of this or that, we are told. But what is the price of pride? And why is humility better? How to be humble? What is the big deal about humility? Why not celebrate humility for a change?

Recently there have been a number of festivals focusing around pride. Different kinds of pride, but all material in nature. For example someone is proud that they are heterosexual in their preference, and yet others are proud that they are homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, trans-sexual or queer.

It is fashionable to celebrate pride these days

Yet others are celebrating their pride of being of a certain colour skin, or others are celebrating their profession or nationality or ethnic origin.

It is another matter that in the kaliyuga, or the age of quarrel and hypocrisy, everything is mixed up… souls are born in the body of a man, but the consciousness of a woman… or the body of a woman but the consciousness of a man. This is due to incomplete karmic accounts, and these mixed-up births are actually a form of punishment, but the spirit souls are trying to turn them into perverse enjoyment.

They parade these material designations, and the various festivals involve getting inebriated, and having some silly sense indulgences which bind them further into their attachments, causing yet another painful material death, and leading to many more such materially designated lives.

All of these are essentially material designations. And we should be ashamed of material designations. OK, this is not just a matter of sentiment, but we should know that these material designations are the cause of all of our sufferings.

I am not this body, I am a spirit soul. You too, dear reader, are a spirit soul.

So why should we adopt all these material designations? Why should we make the mistake of thinking we are these bodies? Why should we identify with some temporary thing that comes and goes? Today you might be a heterosexual, and tomorrow you might become a homosexual! Today you might be Chinese or American or Russian or Indian, but what were you before were born into this body?

Instead however if we realize that we are spirit souls, we then inquire into the activities of the spirit soul, which are spiritual in nature, and which give the spirit soul great joy “ananda” bliss. In fact, we are composed of “sat” (eternality) “chit” (knowledge), and “ananda” (bliss).

In the material condition, we are simply trying to find that bliss but not at all finding it, and hence, the lawyer becomes a politician, the heterosexual becomes lesbian, the lesbian becomes straight, the businessman becomes a philanthropist, the Hindu becomes Muslim, the Muslim adopts Christianity, and yet, as life wanes and death nears, there is a sense of disgust, frustration, and dissatisfaction, which is usually hidden under a veneer of distraction, such as attempts at sense gratification, intoxication and so on.

People identify with different religious symbols, which become another material designation

What is the solution to this problem?

To free ourselves of all designations of course!

Krishna says the following in the Bhagavad Gita…

अद्वेष्टा सर्वभूतानां मैत्र: करुण एव च ।
निर्ममो निरहङ्कार: समदु:खसुख: क्षमी ॥ १३ ॥
सन्तुष्ट: सततं योगी यतात्मा दृढनिश्चय: ।
मय्यर्पितमनोबुद्धिर्यो मद्भ‍क्त: स मे प्रिय: ॥ १४ ॥

adveṣṭā sarva-bhūtānāṁ
maitraḥ karuṇa eva ca
nirmamo nirahaṅkāraḥ
sama-duḥkha-sukhaḥ kṣamī

santuṣṭaḥ satataṁ yogī
yatātmā dṛḍha-niścayaḥ
mayy arpita-mano-buddhir
yo mad-bhaktaḥ sa me priyaḥ

One who is not envious but is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think himself a proprietor and is free from false ego, who is equal in both happiness and distress, who is tolerant, always satisfied, self-controlled, and engaged in devotional service with determination, his mind and intelligence fixed on Me – such a devotee of Mine is very dear to Me.

https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/12/13-14/

All these material designations qualify as “false ego”. “ego” means identity. Then what is “true” ego?

What is our true identity?

True ego means to realize oneself as an eternal part-and-parcel of Krishna.

jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’
kṛṣṇera ‘taṭasthā-śakti’ ‘bhedābheda-prakāśa’

sūryāṁśa-kiraṇa, yaiche agni-jvālā-caya
svābhāvika kṛṣṇera tina-prakāra ‘śakti’ haya

“It is the living entity’s constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa because he is the marginal energy of Kṛṣṇa and a manifestation simultaneously one with and different from the Lord, like a molecular particle of sunshine or fire. Kṛṣṇa has three varieties of energy.

https://vedabase.io/en/library/cc/madhya/20/108-109/

Krishna claims all souls to be His own too.

ममैवांशो जीवलोके जीवभूत: सनातन: ।
मन:षष्ठानीन्द्रियाणि प्रकृतिस्थानि कर्षति ॥ ७ ॥

mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke
jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ
manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi
prakṛti-sthāni karṣati

The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.

https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/7/
Krishna Lifts Govardhan
Krishna Lifts Govardhan, to protect from the deluge sent by Indra, and the residents of Vrindavan enjoy close proximity with Him

Srila Prabhupada writes in his purport:

Every living entity, as an individual soul, has his personal individuality and a minute form of independence. By misuse of that independence one becomes a conditioned soul, and by proper use of independence he is always liberated. In either case, he is qualitatively eternal, as the Supreme Lord is. In his liberated state he is freed from this material condition, and he is under the engagement of transcendental service unto the Lord; in his conditioned life he is dominated by the material modes of nature, and he forgets the transcendental loving service of the Lord. As a result, he has to struggle very hard to maintain his existence in the material world.

https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/7/

There you go. Instead of being proud of the material designations, we should feel humbled that such an exalted spirit soul is now in illusion and anxiety as some idiotic little temporary designation.

And when the soul feels humble, then that is cause for celebration. Why is that? And how to accomplish this freedom from material designations?

सर्वोपाधि विनिर्मुक्तं तत्परत्वेन निर्मलं
हृषिकेन हृषीकेश सेवनम् भक्तिरुच्यते

sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-
sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate

 Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects. One is freed from all material designations, and one’s senses are purified simply by being employed in the service of the Lord.

https://vedabase.io/en/library/cc/madhya/19/170/

And what is the big deal about Bhakti? That is our natural identity. So we can know who we are, and be who we are.

One of the most humble souls I know, and naturally ecstatic!

Don’t you want to be yourself?

Supreme Conviction and Supreme Reciprocation – a Poem by Saritha Devi

A poem written by a devotee for Bhakta Prahlada & Lord Narasimha

Poetic Service

Saritha Devi, 06/06/2019 

Dear Devotees,

Hare Krishna to all.

Just a small poetic service to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva and Prahlada Maharaja :-

Supreme Conviction and Reciprocation:

When great pure soul Prahlada Maharaj

Was tormented by demonic nature

offered to bodily agony and hellish setting

and subjected to fatality with sharp arms,

dumped under giant beings, the elephants and thrown from mountains

strived to kill the great soul in thousands other ways,

still the great soul proved his purity and stable in his conviction for Lord

demonic efforts were in vain due to Lord’s compassion to his servant.

One grand evening, Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva incarnated from a pillar

in His violent form with fire eyes, sharp tongue, fearful face, with terrible teeth,

His body expanded till sky like a moon with His opulence

to dawn the demonic aura in this world

And to bring sunshine of peace and assurance in devotees’ lives

to answer His servants’ prayers with His great mercy by laying His kind hands

—

your servant,

Saritha

Vishwajit Bhadrashetty, 06 June 2019

Wonderful poem Sarita mataji

May God bless you

Sincerely,

Vishwajit 

Please subscribe to daily inspirational emails from His Grace Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari (Writings and lectures archived at www.ecstaticmedia.com ), written fresh every day from his travels around the world sharing the highest spiritual knowledge with everyone. Sign up now at www.joincourse.com