Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!
We in Abu Dhabi were really fortunate to have the association of our beloved God brother HG Devakinandan Prabhuji from Singapore last week. He gave very powerful and instructive classes to inspire everyone in pure devotional service. This offering is the transcription of the Bhagavatam class taken on 14th October morning on Srimad Bhagavatam verse 4.20.31
tvan-māyayāddhā jana īśa khaṇḍito
yad anyad āśāsta ṛtātmano ’budhaḥ
yathā cared bāla-hitaṁ pitā svayaṁ
tathā tvam evārhasi naḥ samīhitum
My Lord, due to Your illusory energy, all living beings in this material world have forgotten their real constitutional position, and out of ignorance they are always desirous of material happiness in the form of society, friendship and love. Therefore, please do not ask me to take some material benefits from You, but as a father, not waiting for the son’s demand, does everything for the benefit of the son, please bestow upon me whatever You think best for me.
This is a very very important verse from Srimad Bhagavatam because in this verse, Srila Prabhupada explains in the purport and Prthu Maharaj prays very wonderfully that the most important thing we must understand in our relationship with Krishna is the following two things.
1. The reason we are not peaceful and really happy is because we are separated (khanditah) from Krishna because of the fact that we chose to be independent.
2. The best and the easiest way to connect with Krishna is to pray to the Lord that, "please do not ask me to take material benefits from You."
We shall see the explanation of both these points.
1. Separation from Krishna: As Prthu Maharaj points out in this verse, the reason why we are not peaceful, why we are not in real happiness, is because we are khanditah, we are separated and we are separated from Krishna not on account of anything else except the fact that we chose to be independent and because of our choosing to be independent, we have forgotten our real constitutional position. It is just like someone who wakes up in a dream thinking him to be someone else. But factually speaking, when he comes out of the dream, then he actually realizes he has a whole new different identity. This is the difficulty the living entity faces in the material world and it is very nicely stated in the pages of Bhagavatam that the reason why we are actually having this forgetfulness is not that just we are forgetting. When we forget something, Bhagavatam tells us, the real reason for the forgetfulness is, frankly speaking, we have chosen to be independent. There is a nice verse in SB 6.9.25, where the Devatas are praying to Krishna.
ya eka īśo nija-māyayā naḥ
sasarja yenānusṛjāma viśvam
vayaṁ na yasyāpi puraḥ samīhataḥ
paśyāma liṅgaṁ pṛthag īśa-māninaḥ
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who created us by His external potency and by whose mercy we expand the creation of the universe, is always situated before us as the Supersoul, but we cannot see His form. We are unable to see Him because all of us think that we are separate and independent gods.
This is the reason why we have forgotten our constitutional position. There is nothing else. Bhagavatam says except for the fact that as the Devatas are praying in this verse, "Krishna, You are the only one. You are so kind. Actually, You are the only one who is creating this universe and yet out of Your causeless mercy You have given us the potency as if we look like we are the controllers and creators of the material universe. We become little mini Gods, so to speak, but because we think we have become so powerful, we do not realize that because of that vayam na yasyaapi purah samihatah – because of the tendency to think that we can create, that we are powerful, that tendency has made us think that we are actually independent". Srila Prabhupada writes in the first line of the purport that, 'Here is an explanation of why the conditioned soul cannot see the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face.' The demigods themselves admit in the verse that, 'the reason why despite the fact that You have given us so much, we still cannot approach You is on account of our mentality that we are separate.'
Once the son thinks that he is separate from father, that son always thinks he is more powerful. The natural tendency for a son who thinks, I know better than father is that, "I have my own world. I can do my own things. I do not need father. Father is old fashioned." How many times we have been in situations when we were young and we saw our father thinking that he is our only hero. When we went to school and met friends, we thought friends are better heroes. Then we saw teacher and thought that teachers know much better than father. When we got older, we thought, father, is outdated. He does not know this. He does not know that. He is not keeping with the times. He is speaking always of those days and those days and those days are not here. Now we are married and we have our children, we begin to think, "father used to say this, father used to say that …. But foolishly I used to think I know better than father". And now our children are telling the same thing that, "you are outdated. You do not know anything."
This verse is very easy for us to understand because Bhagavatam is so practical that it brings us the examples that we can see immediately. Every one of us either has been a father or will be a father or has a father. So how many of us can escape from this? We all know how our fathers had been our well-wishers and very often we go out there and try to do something of our own. That is our independence. We do not realize that father was waiting and very often even though we do not want to admit it, our fathers know our demands, and they know our nature much better than we would care to admit. So in the same way, Prthu Maharaj is saying this prayer, and the devatas are praying in the sixth canto, "because we have thought we are independent, therefore we cannot see Krishna."
So if you want to have a darshan of Krishna, the first thing you must start to do is to completely depend on Krishna. This is the key.
Prabhuji went on to explain the way to be completely dependent on Krishna and the result of that and the same shall be offered in the upcoming mails, Krishna willing.
Thank you very much,
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,
Vaijayantimala devi dasi,
Abu Dhabi.
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