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Mukham karoti vacalam pangum langayate girim
Yat kripa tam aham vande sri gurum dina tarinam
Paramananda Madhavam Sri Caitanya Isvaram

Srimad Bhagavatam 10.1.37
So when Kamsa heard that the 8th child of Devaki would kill him, he did not hesitate to immediately grab her hair and ready to kill her. He was a very cruel person. Vasudeva was trying to convince him to be merciful, to be honorable. So Vasudeva with a cool head began to think how to save his wife. So he was trying his level best, how he could do that. This shows the great good quality of Vasudeva. It shows how evil and ill-intentioned is Kamsa. So Vasudeva was trying to convince him to be merciful, to be honorable. Last night someone asked me, how does one be tolerant and patient in the face of difficulty? When things don’t go your way. If everything goes your way audio break Poor Devaki, she had nothing to do. The voice from the sky predicted that the eight son of Devaki would kill Kamsa. And then all of a sudden Kamsa grabbed her and thought if I kill her, she will have no children and therefore wanted to kill her because her children might be a danger, So, for his own safety he wanted to do this. So what can we learn from this verse? How a devotee in difficulty has to be cool and think what is the best thing to do? What action to take so that they can remain in Krsna consciousness. So finally he convinced Kamsa. Actually Ugrasena was the king then. A demon came in the form of Ugrasena and approached his wife for sex. She thought it was her husband but it was the demon who took the form of her husband. And so she was impregnated by the demon. Thus Kamsa who was a demon, was born in the family of devotees. And Kamsa he arrested his father and put the father in jail He declared himself I AM THE KING! I AM THE KING! All his friends were great demons. So when Lord Krsna was born, Kamsa sent his friends to kill Krsna. Putana, Trinavarta, Agasura, Vatsasura, so many. One by one, Krsna liberated all of them. So finally the prediction came true and Krsna took the life of Kamsa. So this verse tells us how the situation was before Krsna came. And how after Krsna came, Kamsa was still more evil than ever. So sometimes devotees also face difficulties. Vasudeva faced extreme difficulty, but at that time he was thinking how to save his wife. Similarly, the Russian devotees, the Soviet devotees, they had so many difficulties in the time of the Soviet Union. We heard the pastimes when the KGB would search a car and stop a car which was filled with books, and how the devotees were very intelligent, and thought how to get out of this situation. So in spreading Krsna consciousness there may be many obstacles. Just like Lord Krsna is so merciful to His devotees. He appreciates how the devotees go through great difficulties to spread His message. Lord Caitanya also had many obstacles. But the Hindus complained that He was chanting the names of Krsna out loud. And they said this was a great offence. But Lord Caitanya said how in the sastra, it was authorized. But the Hindu brahmanas who were envious of the vaisnavas, they went to the Cand Kazi and complained. These people are chanting the holy names and chanting loudly they told him. Cand Kazi sent his soldiers and said that you are forbidden to chant Hare Krsna. Lord Caitanya when He heard this, He said, no, we will not stop! He sent His men to the different parts of the city to gather a mass crowd. Haridas Thakura went one place, Advaita Acarya went another place, Srivas Thakura went one place. They all gathered 500, 1000, 2000 people and chanting loudly the holy name, going to the house of the Cand Kazi, with torches, shouting, kill him, kill the kazi. Then the kazi was frightened. He never saw – this is the first civil disobedience. But this was for the right cause. Then the Cand Kazi told Lord Caitanya that you used to call me uncle when You were young, why are You angry now? Then Lord Caitanya said, why did you order our sankirtan to be stopped? Lord Caitanya said that if you are My uncle, then why have you made Me stand on the street? Then the Cand Kazi said, come in and sit down. Then there was a discussion between Lord Caitanya and the Cand Kazi. At first they were testing each other. Cand Kazi said that oh, in your sastra it says that killing the cow is allowed. Lord Caitanya said, the killing of an old cow chanting mantras, to give it a new lease of body is done in kali yuga. That was the effect of the mantras. Then Cand Kazi said I had a dream last night. There was someone half man, half lion came to me in my dream and said, YOU HAVE STOPPED MY SANKIRTAN. You do it once more and I WILL KILL YOU! Cand Kazi woke up and saw the marks of the nails of the lion on his cheek. He was filled with ecstasy. He said, you are now allowed to chant Hare Krsna! From now on, me nor any of my members will not obstruct the sankirtan. Then Lord Caitanya went to Kolaveca Sridhar’s home, which is near the Jagannath Temple. This way Lord Caitanya showed how one has to meet difficulties with faith. Of course, He is the Supreme Lord, but He can do everything. Like we see that Prahlad maharaj, he was a little child. But his father wanted to kill him. His father was a big demon. But Prahlad had the faith that Krsna will protect him. Similarly also, our deities of Lord Jagannath Baladeva and Subhadra are very special. One time a Muslim person came to the temple. The pujari gave him a plate of maha prasadam. He threw that away, I don’t take the prasad offered to idols, he said and he threw it. The pujari asked him why did he do that? If you do not have faith or respect for our deities, why did you come here? So he left. The next day he came again. He went to the pujari and said, please give me prasad! The pujari said, what happened to you? Are you out of your mind? Yesterday, you threw away the prasad and today you have come and are begging for prasad? He said that last night I had a dream. These three people came to see me. This white faced person, He held my neck and said, you dared to throw away the prasad of My brother, I will kill you! And this yellow faced lady, she said, yes, kill him, kill him! I was so frightened. Then the black faced person said, let him go, leave him! He has committed an offence for the first time and it was not so grave. So he showed the marks on his face. He said, I BELIEVE! I BELIEVE! I DO BELIEVE YOU NOW! Give me prasadam! Ha! Ha! So the Cand Kazi saw a dream of Nrsimhadeva and this person saw Lord Jagannath’s dream. So this way we learn the lesson, don’t mess around with the Lord. This Mayapur Navadvip dhama is very special. Whatever devotional service you do here, you get a thousand times benefit. And in this way you can advance very quickly in Krsna consciousness. But of you do nothing, don’t go to mangala arati, don’t attend classes, you do zero, what is a thousand times multiplied by zero, is zero. So you have to do as much devotional service as possible here and multiply it with 1000. Actually I also heard that, somewhere in the sastra it says, one who lives within one and a half miles of the Ganges, they get 100 thousand times benefit. 100 thousand times 1000 is millions? So this a very good place to be for devotional service. I told at the wedding ceremony some days ago, doesn’t matter what ashram you are in. Rendering devotional service and how much of it is rendered, is what is important. Be they brahmacharis, sanyasis or grihastas. Sanyasis have more time to do devotional service, as they devote less time to material things. But if they do not render devotional service even if they have time, they will not get any benefit. Actually sanyasis have to give 100 per cent service to Lord Krsna. Grihastas, if they give even 50 per cent of that, then that is like equivalent to the sanyasi! Srila Prabhupada was saying how three grihasta couples to London, they called on the Beatles and with their help produced a record with Apple records and that was a hit! There were headlines in the newspapers then: HARE KRSNAS’ ROCK LONDON! Prabhupada was so happy that I sent three grihastas and they achieved more than what a sanyasi could not do. So there is a song by our acaryas, grihe thako bone thako sada Hari bole dako. Whether you are a grihasta or vairagi, chant Hare Krsna. So of course Devaki, Vasudeva, they were all eternal associates of the Lord and were assisting in the pastimes of Krsna. When Krsna killed Kamsa then He went to Devaki and Vasudeva in the arena. Having seen Krsna kill Kamsa they offered their obeisances and they were respectful. But Krsna did not want His parents to be respectful, He wanted them to be loving! Parental. So He had His lila shakti spread. And then their mood changed. Oh, my dear son! Ha! Ha! So Krsna has so many things, His lila sakti. Like that there was a devotee of Lord Caitanya, Miniketana Ramadas, who had a whip or stick or something. Anyone he hit, they get love of Krsna! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! I want to get hit by that stick! So, this was the special mercy of the Lord on some of His associates. So we want to be part of Krsna’s pastimes. He doesn’t have anything to achieve, like in a drama, He plays the parts. Those in the drama they don’t know they are actors! But they get to associate with Krsna. So now in the Navadvip parikrama, we go to the Swarna Vihara. There was a king who worshipped Lord Caitanya and offered prayers. He got the Gauranga name mantra from Narada muni and he began to chant, Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Suddenly Lord Gauranga appeared to Him. Then He disappeared. Then he chanted again Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! But Gauranga Mahaprabhu did not appear again. Then Gauranga Mahaprabhu said that you are not ready to have My darshan, but I am giving you special mercy! In the future, whatever lila I do, you will come as Budhimanta Khan. And You will be My associate. So Budhimanta Khan was the chief tax collector of Navadvip. I don’t know how a tax collector could get so rich! Ha! Ha! But he was very rich and he said he would pay for the marriage of Lord Gauranga and Visnupriya So like that, he was part of Lord Caitanya’s pastime. So we want to be part of Lord Gauranga’s lila, Lord Krsna’s pastime. The devotees of Lord Caitanya have the special benediction to be part of Krsna and Gauranga’s pastimes. Who would like to be part of the pastimes? Haribol! Alright, So I hope you will all be able to part of the pastimes! But for Vasudeva and Devaki, there were hard times and good times. Eight children were born while they were in the prison house and killed. And eventually they were freed and were with Krsna for a whole century in Mathura and Dvaraka. So like that sometimes the devotees go through various tests and then Krsna saves them. So like that we get the association of Krsna. So thank you very much. Are there any questions?

Question: What happened, the local persons previously they were disturbed by Haridas Thakur while chanting, and they told that it disturbs their sleeping. But now we hear some techno music at night time but audio break here

Guru maharaj: They hear music and disturb everyone but who is there to object? In the cities if you make too loud a noise after some time, the police stop you. But in the villages, it is much more loose. So audio break here ridiculous music, but they think that this is religious music! Durga puja, Kali puja they have loud music. Or on some occasions they have the sound called nama yagya. Audio break here the mridanga for the kirtan group. He was a very good mridanga player. At that time, they had two hours each group would chant for. He would be thinking when my two hours will be over and I will smoke my bidi, before he was a devotee. So while they are chanting and showing imitation of bhava of Krsna. One Iskcon sanyasis was listening for 45 minutes, he said that they sing very nice. What are they singing? Ha! Ha! They were singing Hare Krsna but he couldn’t understand it. Each one was for like ten minutes. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…. Prabhupada said that this chanting like money, money, money, give me money! So we have all this kind of kali yuga contaminations. Professional kirtan groups. So we want devotee kirtan. You can hear the mantra and naturally your devotion for Krsna increases. So these professional kirtan groups, it says that somehow they are chanting the holy names, so it is a pious activity. But it doesn’t make any devotees. So I am sorry that we have music that disturbs you. Audio break. Srila Prabhupada, he said that the secretary would type, that did not disturb him, because he knew they were doing Krsna’s work, but if someone was snoring while sleeping, that disturbed him! Then one devotee was snoring, he had him go upstairs, out of hearing range! So any other question?

Question: Thank you maharaj for your class. When we stay in Mayapur, how will we get maximum benefit of staying in the holy dhama?

Guru maharaj: audio break. We would do more service, without just sleep, we want to do service and even laying down in the dhama is like doing pranama. Every step is more than an Aswameda yagna. So during the Gaura Purnima festival we have the parikrama and we have different festivals – kirtan mela, different deity festivals, boat festival, jhulan, each day a different festival. Ganga puja, Ratha Yatra, so we try to give the visiting devotees many festivals that we have, a sample, one day, one day, one day. So if you live here then the challenge is to always be in devotional service. Like during the candan yatra, to grind some sandalwood. Or in the winter go on the elephant procession. To attend the mangala arati and evening arati. Srila Prabhupada said, if you don’t have work, attend the noon arati. So, as much as you can do service, try to do, and you will see that you will get a taste. Haribol! What time is it?

Question: Hare Krsna guru maharaj: When we live in Mayapur, what should we do to still have this mood and this benefit when we go out of Mayapur? Benefit we get 1000 times more when we are here, so what should we do to keep this mood when we go out?

Guru maharaj: What should your mood be when you go out? (Question: Also, how to keep the benefit, 1000 times more, when we go out also?) When you are in Mayapur you get a 1000 times, when you are out you don’t get a 1000 times. Audio break But when you travel, if you also preach and if you help people remember the dhama, and if you somehow are living in the dhama mentally, then you get some extra benefit. When we are here, chanting is easy, everything is easy. So we may slow down. When you are outside, you are attacked by the material energy. You are bombarded by different material images. So you have to be very active, just to keep your Krsna consciousness. So sometimes people come to dhama, it is easy, so they take it easy! They don’t get the full benefit! We should try to always think how we can serve Krsna here! And get that extra strength so that when you go outside, you have more protection. Audio break to the extent that we are not fully Krsna conscious. So somehow in this prime time here, we want to get as Krsna conscious as possible. So we don’t have any time to waste! And the more we get advanced, more we get the taste for the ecstasy. So we read a few days ago that how Lord Nityananda said, first you chant. Then you get more knowledge about Krsna. So then that way you become more affectionate to Krsna, till it becomes like, love. And then audio break these are the four steps. Also there are eight steps, shradha, devotee association, bhajana kriya, anarta nivritti, nista, ruci, aasakti, bhava and then prema. So like this audio break.

Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari devi dasi
1306 2019