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19900722 Bhagavad-gītā 4.31 Lecture with Hindi Translation

22 Jul 1990|Duration: 00:32:44|English|Bhagavad-gītā|Hyderabad, India

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Maharāja on July 22nd in 1990. The class begins from a reading from the Bhagavad-gītā chapter 4 verse 31.

nāyaṁ loko ’sty ayajñasya
kuto ’nyaḥ kuru-sattama

Translation: O best of the Kuru dynasty, without sacrifice one can never live happily on this planet or in this life: what then of the next?

Purport: Whatever form of material existence one is in, one is invariably ignorant of his real situation. In other words, existence in the material world is due to the multiple reactions to our sinful lives. Ignorance is the cause of sinful life, and sinful life is the cause of one’s dragging on in material existence. The human form of life is the only loophole by which one may get out of this entanglement. The Vedas, therefore, give us a chance for escape by pointing out the paths of religion, economic comfort, regulated sense gratification and, at last, the means to get out of the miserable condition entirely. The path of religion, or the different kinds of sacrifice recommended above, automatically solves our economic problems. By performance of yajña we can have enough food, enough milk, etc. – even if there is a so-called increase of population. When the body is fully supplied, naturally the next stage is to satisfy the senses. The Vedas prescribe, therefore, sacred marriage for regulated sense gratification. Thereby one is gradually elevated to the platform of release from material bondage, and the highest perfection of liberated life is to associate with the Supreme Lord. Perfection is achieved by performance of yajña (sacrifice), as described above. Now, if a person is not inclined to perform yajña according to the Vedas, how can he expect a happy life even in this body, and what to speak of another body on another planet? There are different grades of material comforts in different heavenly planets, and in all cases there is immense happiness for persons engaged in different kinds of yajña. But the highest kind of happiness that a man can achieve is to be promoted to the spiritual planets by practice of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. A life of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is therefore the solution to all the problems of material existence.

Jayapatākā Swami: Here Śrīla Prabhupāda describes various stages, various stages of sacrifice for human development. Human life is a special gift of God. According to Vedas there are 8 million, 4 hundred thousand species of life. There’s plant and aquatics. Then there’s the lizards and insects Birds Then animals Then finally human being 4 million, four hundred thousand types of human beings. Chār lakṣa, human beings. Different kinds of human births So human form of life is specially important because only in human form of life can be achieved liberation. In the animal or bird or other forms of life this is not possible by their own free will. Human being is more intelligent so they can search for God. But if human being doesn’t perform sacrifice and try to achieve the Supreme Lord then it’s a waste of the valuable human life. There are many type of sacrifices given in the vedas. But there’s, amongst those in Gita Kṛṣṇa says ‘yajñānāṁ japa-yajño ’smi’ to chant the holy names of a greatest form of sacrifice. By following the process of saṅkīrtana-yajña one can achieve all profits of other processes plus much more. By chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa you can get Kṛṣṇa Himself which is the greatest gift of all.

When Kṛṣṇa was resting before the Kurukṣetra yuddha that time both Duryodhana and Arjuna came to see Kṛṣṇa to ask for His help in the battle. Arjuna went and he sat by the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Duryodhana arrived first But he thought why should I sit by Kṛṣṇa’s feet. You see he don’t consider Kṛṣṇa like a Bhagavān, he thinks that I, himself a great king. So he sat by Kṛṣṇa’s head. So when Kṛṣṇa woke up you know the story He saw Arjuna first. Ask that Arjuna, how are you? What do you want? When He saw up, Duryodhana, you’re here also! So then He said well who ever I see first I’ll give him whatever he wants. You have the choice, you can have either me or you can have my army. So Arjuna said, okay I’ll take you. And Duryodhana he thought arey! It’s very good to me as I wanted the army anyways. What’s the use of Kṛṣṇa. He’s not even going to fight So what do you think is the most important. You want Kṛṣṇa or if you have something else. Who wants, who thinks better to have Kṛṣṇa? Who thinks that Duryodhana has a right idea? So like that because Arjuna asked Kṛṣṇa so he can crossover so many difficulties.

Golokera prema-dhana hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana’ chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa is imported Is imported Import, import and export He  root my figured. (laughing) Is imported from Goloka Vṛndāvana, Vaikuṇṭha. You see! Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra was brought from Goloka by Nārada Muni and given here to us, human beings to perform this greatest in yajña. So you are very fortunate. They’re many people come to Abids to buy imported goods. You see, you see many boutique or registered, notified, customs notified shops. But here we have a real thing 'asli cheez' hai (laughing) (clapping) we have things brought not only from some other country but brought from spiritual world! Nitāi-Gaura Premānande! Hari Haribol! So here you can get the most valuable thing. You see! But we don’t have to pay any rupees for them. If we put here rupee price, no one can pay because it becomes more than all the money in the world. Because it’s more valuable than all the money in the world. It’s simply by you’re desire you can take the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra with the blessing of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and you can achieve all your success in life. And achieve the highest kind of happiness. No higher happiness is there than that. You see, someone misses this chance after going through so many lives of 84 species of life, so what greater misfortune can there be? After going through 84 lakh species of life. Chaurāsī-lakṣa jīvana ke bāda manuṣya jīvana mil gayā. If he now revolt to get this greatest blessing and again we go down. Isn’t that a great misfortune? What can be greater than that?

So Lord Caitanya came to give everyone the good fortune. Brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja. In whole brahmāṇḍa become the most bhagyavāna by taking this seed of bhakti and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Any way everyone should do some type of yajña This is the Vedic injunction Although in this age of Kali this is the yuga-dharma, this is the yajña recommended for this age.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

iti sodaśakam nāmnaṁ, kali kalmaṣa nāśanaṁ
nātaḥ parataropāyaḥ, sarva vedeṣu dṛśyate

The Kali-santāraṇa Upaniṣad give this 16 names. So this is the solution to all the problems of kali yuga. This is recommended for all the Vedas, sarva vedeṣu dṛśyate So you are, you are very fortunate to take up this process. The maya may try to mislead you to some, to stop chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. To stop chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa You have to be very careful not to be mislead by māyā. By studying Gita and Bhagavatam and knowing the teachings of Kṛṣṇa. And dedicating the actions to Kṛṣṇa. This way our life will always be connected with Kṛṣṇa. And you’ll be on the transcendental platform.

Nowadays people are practicing the Kṛṣṇa Conscious movement in all the continents of the world. In Russia, Soviet Union this year so many rath yatra festivals were held. About 60 branches are there alone Saat saat (laughing) Sixty Ten twenty thousand people full time chanting So then in, so if even in Soviet Union they’re chanting how to speak of other places? In italy we have our own radio station. It’s called ‘Radio Kṛṣṇa Centrale’ It goes almost to the whole Italy country And there the 24 hours a day they’re broadcasting the message of Kṛṣṇa. Teaching and at special time in the day they’re doing the Naivedya mantra. Naivedyam, Naivedyam mantar They tell the housewives, you prepare the vegetarian food and put before the Kṛṣṇa picture, we are saying the mantra over the radio, offering all the prasad periodically (laughing) (clapping) Then they have question and answer period, and I was invited to answer their questions. And people were calling in from all over, from Rome, from Milan, from various parts they’re phoning in their questions And they’re asking question reading from Gita and Bhagavatam. I was very impressed how many people they’re reading the great sastra. They’re asking question that in 4th chapter Bhagavad Gita Kṛṣṇa speaks like this, what is the meaning of that? This technical type question they’re asking. This showing that they’re reading all the books which were translated from sanskrit into italian. We also have radio station broadcast from Denmark and Sweden and some countries in South America as well. Dakshin America In Canada we have our own television show. Every saturday And this is most popular program We’ve been only three months showing, is become number one and that time period. So people are, they’re taught on the television how to cook all type of Indian vegetarian prasadam preparations. For five minutes The after that other philosophy programs come. So I was that they’re teaching how to make lemon rice, south Indian Andhra Pradesh type lemon rice. (laughing) So like this using all the modern means we can present so many Kṛṣṇa Conscious items. To leave the people that everyone perform this sacrifice, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and be happy.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare 

Any question?

Question: What is the naivedya-mantra?

Jayapatākā Swami: Naivedya-mantra, you praṇāma to guru, to Gaurāṅga and to Kṛṣṇa. And some mantra is there for offering naivedya. You see, if you want to offer the prasāda in your house then we can teach you this mantra also because in India we are not having the same radio station (laughing). So we’ll give you the mantra.

On the Supreme Lord: So many doubts Thirty koṭi devatā, thirty three hundred million, 330 million. You see Vedas also say that there’s one Paramabrahma. You see just like, if you say Brahma and Parambrahma that means that if there’s Parambrahma there must also be Brahma. Just like prime minister he must also have minister. If we have Prime Minister that means there must be other ministers, then he is the number one. Jab pradhāna mantri hai, toḥ both mantri hai. Both mantri ke andar ek pradhāna mantrī hai (laughing) (clapping) Is prakāra, they’re many devas, but there’s one Devadeva. They’re many īsvaras but there’s one Parama Īśvara. So

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

So there are so many devas, so many īśvaras but Parama Īśvara means Kṛṣṇa. One Parama Īśvara So just like in ministry, in government we had different departments, water, health, commerce, finance. So this universe we have so many departments. Each department has different devas incharge.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

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