Glories of the Bhagavatam

[The following is part of a lecture given by H.H. Kavicandra Swami on March 9th 2008 at Mayapur Dham] http://www.mayapur.com/main/?q=node/801

Devananda Pandit, who was over in what is now Navadvipa, he was a teacher of Srimad Bhagavatam, so-called professor. Srivasa Pandit heard him speak. He heard Bhagavatam verses, and became overwhelmed with ecstasy. He started rolling on the ground, so the followers of this Devananda, they didn’t understand the Bhagavatam properly, so they threw Srivasa out as a disturbance and a serious whatever it was.

Later, Nimai, Lord Caitanya, was passing by. He just started shouting at Devananda Pandit, “You’re a rascal! You’re a fool! You don’t understand a word of Srimad-Bhagavatam! You’re just a disturbance to society!” Very loudly shouting outside his school.

Later, this Devananda saw a kirtan with Vakresvara Pandit. Vakresvar Pandit was a great devotee, and especially a great dancer. If you have read Caitanya-caritamrta, you know that he could dance for seventy-two hours. He was lamenting that no one could have kirtan for seventy-two hours. He was praying that some Gandharvas would come and he could dance. So when this Devananda, in spite of his dull-headedness, he saw Vakresvara Pandit dancing in ecstasy and chanting, he became attracted. Vakresvara would be sweating like anything. He would fall on the ground, get all muddy. Devananda started to help him. He would pick him up, wipe his face. He would stay behind him when he was dancing so if he fell over backwards, he would catch him. He would get on the ground, get dirty. Lord Nityananda used to do that for Lord Caitanya.

So he started hearing from Vakresvara Pandit and becoming attracted. Next time he saw Nimai, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he asked him, “What is the real meaning of Bhagavatam?”

Lord Caitanya told him, “It is all bhakti, only bhakti, and nothing else.” He took it and he became a great devotee.

Any house where the Bhagavatam is kept, there cannot be any inauspiciousness. Any house is protected by Srimad-Bhagavatam, but we want the entire set of Srimad-Bhagavatam in every house and then we want to get the people to somehow read the Srimad-Bhagavatam, not just keep it, although even keeping it is also good. People understand that about spiritual books.

Sometimes we tell people that they don’t have to read it because many people say, “I do not read. I do not want to read.” Tell them it has its own vibration. It will benefit you even if you do not read it, which is true because they will think about it. Eventually, someone will read it.

Even in Israel, I met a rabbi from the Kabala and he gave me their book. They have one set of books called Zohar, I think it is, big box of books written in Aramaic language that very few people can read, but he said that you do not have to read it. Its vibration will benefit your house. I was thinking we should remember that. But we want to follow up when people get books, we want to read them ourselves, so that we can explain these kind of things.

Selfish Love

The Rasa-Lila of Krishna and the Gopi girls of Vrindavan is said to be the greatest lila of the lord. In fact, in some sources it is referred to as "sarva-manoram" - "the most beautiful". This amorous pastime of the girls meeting krishna at night and performing a dance together is the aspiration of the devotee.

According to the vedic description, Bhagavan (God) is the center and Jiva (ourselves) is the servant. It might not seem to be this way some of the times since the Jiva's being covered up by false ego, false pride, which is materialism. Materialism is the seance of self centeredness while spiritualism is God centered relations. Yet the Jiva may choose whether to have devotion or pride. But God does not associate directly with matter. That is why if Jiva chooses to be in matter, God will vanish. As the Gita says in chapter 7, God is letting them go after whatever they want and even set the field for them to do so. If they want fame and fortune, so they shell have. But their relationship with him they shell not have, and therefor may not know true bliss. Until they will remember to look inside and seek their original relationship with him.
And that is the story of Rasa-Lila, as told in the 10th part of Srimad-Bhagvatam: When the girls were dancing with Krishna and this brought them supreme joy. During this dance, Krishna split into many images for dancing with the girls in Rasa-Mandala - the circle of love. This dance is eternally taking place in the spiritual world and also, even today, is said to be taken place every night in Vrindavan - India at a place called Seva-Kunja.
But then the girls started to feel proud. Out of the joy of the lila, they became absorbed in self pleasure, as sadly many spiritual aspirants do. We see them use yoga and meditation for being absorbed in the self centered joys of inner peace, and by that becoming self centered. This false interpretation is leading them downward. Yet even if we are told of this danger, it is easy to forget. An so did the Gopies who danced with Krishna, feeling pride.
But Bhagavan does not associate directly with matter, and therefor it was on that part that Krishna had suddenly vanished, leaving the girls tormented. They suffered so hard, missing Krishna. Together they acted his tales from memory and showed the same mode of separation the devotees show when crying in ecstasy. Then, they witnessed the footprints of lord Krishna, along with the footprints of another girl. "How special must she be" they said to each other "for he left us, yet did not leave her". They observed their footprints. At a certain point, her footprints stopped and he's continued. "He must have carried her in his arms!" they thought "and here is where he put her down, probably to pick some flowers".
Indeed lord Krishna was with one of the girls. And according to authorities, Radharani was her name. He stayed with her for she was the only one which did not let herself fall to the clutches of false pride. Yet then false pride began to rise as she suddenly noticed how special she was. And special indeed is Sri Radhika. She is the expansion of God's love, Haladini Shakti. From her splits all the Jivas. Special she is indeed and without her no one can reach him. And so, she felt proud, asking him to carry her in his arms as a servant. Krishna replied: "As you wish!" and then vanished from her sight, leaving her alone.
So is the temptation of pride within religion. Religion is not necessarily spiritual. Spirituality set it's center not around the self. Yet God supply his devotee all he needs, including material things, setting the field for his enjoyment. But if a devotee keeps praying for things for his own benefit, is that a God centered relationship or a self centered one? And in this way, he receives all he prayed for, for God provide the world as a father provide his children. And even if the Jivas wish is to forget God, so the field will be set for this act and so shell he receive. And be tormented until he realizes what is his original position.
And so the girls were lamenting the lost of Krishna, observing his lovely footprints. They thought of the joy they have lost and washed Krishna's footprint with their tears. And then a thought had came to their minds, and by that Krishna had re-appered to them. And this was the thought: "our beloved Krishna is walking barefoot on the ground! What if something will cut his foot?" A single unselfish thought, revolving upon the pleasure of the lord. And Krishna may not be harmed by none, for he is the supreme. He is the endless all providing lord of all there is. yet that is not how the devotee sees him. The devotee sees Krishna not as God but as a lover, a friend as equal, sometimes as a small child. But never as an endless impersonal thing. Only as a person. A person who accept our service. And as the Gopies only wish was to serve the lords feet, concerning his benefit, at that point the lord re-appered to them.
Some say such devotion is only a step before reaching the lord in his endless, impersonal features and that the devotee must in time abandon the devotion in order to reach the higher goal. But would that be true devotion? If you hold your lovers hand only for him to help you climb up a hill, in an intention to cast him away once you'll reach the top, is that loving devotion? If we agree that love and devotion is the way for spiritual elevation, then we must accept that the supreme goal it a state of eternal devotional relationship. Otherwise it isn't devotion at any part of the way. And if that is the supreme goal, there is in fact nothing higher.

Shiva as a girl

The sacred holiday of Shivaratri is celebrated to commemorate the saving of the world by Lord Shiva. Once, as the devas and demons were churning the nectar, a horrible side effect had accord: a sea of poison was produced, threatening to flood the universe. Lord Shiva then swallowed the poison, holding it in by wrapping a snake around his neck. And thus all was saved by Lord Shiva who consumed this grate trouble of the world, yet remained unharmed himself.

Who is Lord Shiva? Is he God or deva? Is his worship spiritual or or meant for material benefits? There might not be a simple answer to these questions, since it seems the answer to all of them is yes. He is God yet not. Or one might say: in the middle. Out of the two categories of persons we know of Vishnu-tatva, the personality of godhead, and Jiva-tatva, the servant. God only is Vishnu-tatva, along with his different forms and incarnations (avatara). And we, the living entities, as well as the Devas (the controllers of the universal forces) are all Jivas.
The material creation is manifested as Prakriti, the material energy, is being impregnated by God. Yet God is not associating with it personally. Therefore, Vishnu, God, manifest himself as Lord Shiva, the male principal that impregnates the female principal, known as Prakriti or Parvati. So what is Shiva? Is he Jiva-tatva or Vishnu-tatva? The answer: non of the above. Shiva is a third category of self, known as Shiva-tatva. Is he God or not? Well, is yogurt milk or not? Yogurt and milk are two different things, yet yogurt is milk. The same is the relation between Shiva and Vishnu.
Shiva is known as the greatest yogi (Maha-Yogi). He is being worshiped for material gain. Yet he has the power to deliver the living entities. from material bondage, for he is the greatest devotee of the lord within this universe. Lord Shiva also taken a part of Lord Krishna's greatest pastime, the Rasa-Lila, and by that, revealed his role:
In Vrindavan, Krishna and the Gopies, the village girls, were performing the amorous dance, the Rasa-Lila, a pastime of true love and devotion of the Gopies and Lord Krishna, to which the devotees of krishna aspire. Lord Shiva was very eager to join this pastime and so he entered the nearby lake of Kusum-Sarovar and went out in the form of a young Gopi girl. By that he was not only able to enter the pastimes of Krishna, he was also appointed the guardian standing at the entrance of these pastimes in this form of his as Gopesvara-Mahadeva.
In the spiritual world, the Rasa-Lila is performed in the inner cycle of Goloka and in the outer rims is Kailesh, the abode of Lord Shiva, guarding the entrance to the spiritual world. In order to reach the spiritual level, one must get rid of the urge for being self centered, as the Gopies in Rasa-Lila. One must take the mode of the Gopies who, by gazing and the footprints of Lord Krishna, thought not of their own pleasure, but worried about the bear feet of Krishna being harmed by blades of grass. Shiva, who in time of destruction destroy the whole universe with his dance of anger, has the power to destroy our vices and elevate us to the level of pure devotion. And by meditating on his image as Gopesvara-Mahadeve, as a Gopi girl, one should ask permission to enter the pastimes of Lord Krishna.

Kusum-Sarovar - Goverdhan - India