Take Shelter of the Worthy Shelter - Part 1

Dear Prabhujis and Matajis,
Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

Today we will try to hear the transcription of a discourse given by H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Rajkot on the verse 3.25.11 in 2008.

taṁ tvā gatāhaṁ śaraṇaṁ śaraṇyaṁ
sva-bhṛtya-saṁsāra-taroḥ kuṭhāram
jijñāsayāhaṁ prakṛteḥ pūruṣasya
namāmi sad-dharma-vidāṁ variṣṭham

Devahuti continued: "I have taken shelter of Your lotus feet because You are the only person of whom to take shelter. You are the axe which can cut the tree of material existence. I therefore offer my obeisances unto You, who are the greatest of all transcendentalists, and I inquire from You as to the relationship between man and woman and between spirit and matter."

Maharaj speaks:

This BG 11.38 you know, it has nice description of Krishna. The thing is we don't appreciate the transcendental nature of the Lord and that's why our surrender is always conditioned and incomplete. We don't really understand. (Maharaj sings the verse (BG 11.38) tvam aadi devah purushah puraanas).

These three qualities are Krishna's you know. tvam aadi-devah, purshah, puraanas. aadi-devah means original. we have aadi-purush - Original Person. Original means the first seed verse of Bhagavatam 2.9.33.

aham evāsam evāgre nānyad yat sad-asat param
paścād ahaṁ yad etac ca yo ’vaśiṣyeta so ’smy aham

Beautiful translation. "Brahma, it is I, the Personality of Godhead, who was existing before the creation, when there was nothing but Myself. Nor was there the material nature, the cause of this creation. That which you see now is also I, the Personality of Godhead, and after annihilation what remains will also be I, the Personality of Godhead."

This is His definition. And we don't really relish. In all three stages He exists. That's why He is known as Aadidev. And not only this, but His completeness is described in the invocation of Isopanishad. The verse which we recite in prayers.

oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate
pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate

The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.

The thing is not only that He is Aadi-purush. Nothing could be taken from Him and nothing could be added to Him. We are.., in between, for a few years we are created. Really we don't have any value ourselves. But because of our false ego, we think that we are all-in-all. All these 2-3 verses should force us to be very humble. If He contrives, then our position is null and void. Nothing is in our hand. Nothing we can create, nothing we can enjoy. Except to recognize the authority, the aadi-purush, except that, we cannot do anything, in this yoni particularly. All other yonis are completely in dark. All other species of existence, they are completely in dark. They don't have any idea about the metaphysics side of the existence. But in this yoni only Krishna's mercy, He has given some special understanding to us. In between the ignorance of the childhood and oldage we have some intelligence. In this yoni also, this boy (pointing to a 2 yrs old child) has no intelligence at all at the moment. When he gets to his age 15-16 years, then he will think, "My father is reading Bhagavad-gita or speaking on Bhagavatam" etc, and then something will come to him slowly. Then again, in old age we don't know whether our consciousness remains pure or not. Again we will forget. Only the in-between years we are given the special possibility. How much it is important to understand this and try to surrender? These 2-3 verses we should carve in our mind. To understand adi-deva we must go to Bhagavatam. That is the Post Graduate study of Bhagavad-gita.

Bhagavad-gita has given the root, that He is the original person. So how 'He is original' is described in the pages of Bhagavatam. So this is how you should continously study and refer between Bhagavad-gita and Bhagavatam. The more you read, the more you will be able to refer because the same principles are described everywhere. It is not anything else. It is all one. So that's why our continous thinking should be on these lines. Whereas our thinking is haywired. We don't know what are we thinking really. As soon as you stop thinking about Krishna, means you will be thinking about the material matter. That is definite. Thinking will go on, that is the nature of the mind. Thinking never stops. so we are given special facility in this species of existence. And we are the most luckiest persons to come under the shelter of Prabhupada. So he has made everything clear. Because without his mercy we will never know all these verses. Even we hear the verses, we may enjoy the transcendental vibration. Apart from that we don't understand anything else. But he has made it very clear. Really his Guru Maharaj Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati correctly advised him, "You please preach to these English people" and we are now English people (Maharaj laughs heartily). That time he thought that he may preach in the West. He might not have thought at that time that all our people also will be speaking English. We also understand more now in English than other language. Anyhow language doesn't matter. But the understanding must be there. And this understanding means transcendental. The natural effect of this understanding is, complete detachment from the contamination of the matter. That is the result. Vairagya vidya. It is vidya you know. In vidya 'vid' word is there. vid means 'to know'. vidya means 'that which is worth knowing'. And He is vairagya vidya. Vairagya has got to be known. And in vairagya, we don't understand why we have to cultivate vairagya. In vairagya also sometimes we are misled or misdirected. The correct direction is not there. That's why Prabhupada gave the whole thing. He didn't only tell us to create detachment. But he established the temple communities. Here we learn how to get detached and how to get attached to worshiping Krishna. His is a whole package. He didn't give only philosophy. But practical application of the philosophy. Then again with the temple communities, he has given so many namahatta programs wherein vairagya vidya is spread. He said, "If you can't come to the temple, don't worry. You have your own program. 3-4 people come together, they chant and dance."

Krishna willing, we will hear more nectar from Maharaj in the subsequent mail.

Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Kalacakra Krsna das