Srila Gurudeva:
I have told a very important sloka. It is told by Visvanatha Chakravati Thakur, the essence of our whole teachings from Caitanya Mahaprabhu and up to now. I want the preachers who preach in all theses places to always remember this sloka.
ārādhyo bhagavān vrajeśa-tanayas
tad-dhāma vrndāvanam
ramyā kācid upāsanā vraja-vadhū-
vargenā yā kalpitā
śrīmad-bhāgavatam pramānam amalam
premā pumartho mahān
śrī-caitanya-mahāprabhor matam idam
tatrādaro nah parah
In this sloka, in very brief everything has come, like ārādhyo bhagavān vrajeśa-tanayas. We see in the air and everywhere there are so many gods and goddesses. In India we see Ganesha, Laksmi, the Sun, Shakti Durga, and Visnu are the prominent five but there are numerous gods and goddesses. All are worshipable but in Indian Vedic knowledge from the beginning in the Vedas, in the Puranas, in Srimad Bhagavatam and especially in Gita, it has been taken the essence of all Vedas that there should be one Supreme Personality of Godhead.
God means G.O.D. G, generator, O, operator and D, destroyer of all universes.
We see only one God. In the Koran we see only Allah but in India we see so many gods and goddesses. So people may be in confusion. There should be one God, so why so many gods? The Vedas have told that there is not so many Gods, there is only one God. In the whole universe, in all countries, in lakhs and lakhs of universes, there must only be one God, not so many others. Then how to reconcile all these things?
In the Gita Krsna tells that previously, many lakhs of years before, He has told atma jñana to the Sun god. In the Vedas it has been told that there is only one God. Then why so many gods? Kali, Durga, Vayu, Shiva, Hanuman and so many others? According to the Vedas there are different stages of jivas, souls.
There are several classes. Where there is only one class anywhere then it means that there is no good level of study there, though it maybe only one class of Phd or DLit or anything but I think that not all are qualified to study in one class of Phd. Everywhere there are so many classes.
So in Vedic culture we see that there is not several Gods, only one and all the others like Ganesh and so on are all vibhuti, the opulences, under one God.
In a country there is a president, chief minister or prime minister, so many groups of ministers, so many officers and so many other people in that government to control the country. So to control the whole universe there must be one God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead and all others are vibhuti.
So this is like so many classes lowest to highest class, facility for all classes of person.
These are all stages so we should not disobey any of the gods, semi-gods. Don’t disobey, but we should see that all are not equal to the highest, that is Krsna. The name maybe different in different languages, no harm.
In India it has been decided by Krsna and the Vedas but it takes some quality to know all these things.
It has been told that all living entities want three things. The state of perfection is sat, cid and ananda. Sat means we don’t want to die, we don’t want to get older and have so many diseases. We don’t want that in our old age our teeth will go, the eyes will be weak and we cannot take even a glass of water and then we die. So nobody wants this but we are bound to be like so.
Those that never die, he is perfect and he can make us also how not to die, always in the same condition, in the same shape, love and affection and everything, perfect in that. This is called Sat.
Cit means knowledge. From boyhood we learn so much, asking our mother and father, “What is this, what is this?” However, we can never get perfect knowledge.
But there is perfect knowledge such as how this world was created. Who gives this intelligence? Where there is perfect knowledge there is the Supreme Personality. Sat means the eternal entity.
We all want to be happy. To be happy is called ananda. We have some ananda, some happiness in this world in our family, if there is some love and affection, but it is not perfect, in any being of this world. Even not in gods and goddesses, sometimes they quarrel. Sometimes so many problems are there, so all are not happy.
The Supreme must be happy and by Him happiness may come. So where there is perfect happiness that is called ananda. To make others also feel ananda as well as Himself.
So perfection in the extreme stage is called The Supreme Personality of Godhead. All are Godhead maybe, we are also some part of God so when we gain some more knowledge, we can be called some part of God. So jiva has been called Brahma, no harm, but not perfect.
Where there is perfect there is all these three things and especially the six opulences, I will explain further later.
So where there is sat, cit and ananda, that is called The Supreme Personality of Godhead.
There are six kinds of opulence which must be in full or fullest in that Personality of Godhead. Firstly He must have a beautiful shape, that all will be charmed and if He has no shape then how can He create all these things? He is the seed of all. If there is not anything, potency in seed, of all kinds of shapes there must be all kinds of shapes in Him.
If that is not there, no shape, then He cannot create this world. So a beautiful shape is there and that shape is so beautiful that He can charm all gods and goddesses and all living entities and in that shape, if there is no shape then He cannot create. If there is no potency of all these things then He cannot be accepted as God.
Secondly all kinds of virtues should be in Him, in their fullest, in the highest way, in extreme stage, what is that? First knowledge, some purna jñana, all kinds of knowledge.
Secondly all kinds of aisvarya, opulence are there. He can be the smallest or the largest [verse 18.38] biggest and largest . In the whole world He is situated, in all parts of the world, and in the atom He is in full there. This is called aisvarya. He can do anything that a man, god or goddess cannot do.
Third, there is the shape [verse 19.18]. Fourth He should be very, very powerful and able to do anything. There is none like Him. He is second to no-one. There may be so many gods but He is the most powerful and He can control all and vairagya, vairagya means renounced. If there is no renunciation, then He would be just like other material persons, He would be attached to this world and He will cry for His father, mother, wife and all others, His children.
Then yasa. Yasa means fame. The topmost fame should be there. Many are like Him, so much famous, His name is famous, His opulence is famous, His qualities are famous, His pastimes are famous and He is so merciful that no-one can compare to him. He has so much affection and love for all.
So all these opulences and qualities, shape, jñana and vairagya, all should be there in the highest stage. If any of these six, and these three (sat-cit-ananda) are not found and in there to the topmost degree, then He is not God. He may be a god, but not The Supreme Personality of Godhead.
[Break in audio]
Not only in Vedas and Indian scriptures, also we see the Bible states: God created man after His own image. This means God has created man as His shape is. So the Bible admits this, that The Supreme Personality of Godhead has shape, He has some wishes, He is so kind, so all attributes are there. Also we see in the Koran the verse [ 22.50], which means that Khuda has created men as His shape is. So there is wish, there is shape, there are so many qualities and everything is there. So all these descriptions are like in Vedas, some what different but in this way we see that God has shape, so many attributes, six opulences and He is sat-cid-ananda, everything should be topmost in that personality.
There is nothing without shape but can you define what is that shape? Water has no shape, water has no color, water is tasteless. We see the shape of water, we taste water, it doesn’t have its own taste, but when it mixes with something, it is is like that. But actually it has its own taste, own color, but also any color can come in the water, so we cannot define but we say like this, so how we can define Krsna, that He has so many shapes, so many tastes, all attributes. So sometimes in Vedas or anywhere it has been told that He is nirguna but actually the meaning is not that, nirguna means He has all the qualities, shapes and everything, aprakrta, transcendental, and all knowledge and everything so He is nirguna but He has all shapes, all attributes and above maya. That is said, like water we cannot define so how we can define Krsna or the Supreme Personality of Godhead? We cannot define.
In the Vedas, in the Puranas, in the Srimad Bhagavatam, in the Gita, what is the conception of The Supreme Personality of Godhead?
About five thousand years before, a baby came, the son of Vasudeva and Devaki. A very beautiful son, His color like dark rainclouds. His name was Krsna. Why Krsna? Because He can attract the whole universe, all the souls, all creatures and living entities by His shape, by His attributes, by His opulence, by His everything.
When Vasudeva and Devaki were put in jail in Mathura, He came in the night as their son, four handed with a very beautiful shape and having four weapons, sankha, chakra, gada and padma. At the same time, at the same moment He took birth in Gokul as the son of Nanda and Yasoda. There, in Gokul, He was two handed, like a baby, quite naked as a baby, whereas in Mathura He was four handed, aged about sixteen, very young, very powerful, with long curly hair, having ornaments, golden cintamani ornaments, like kustubha-mani, and decorated with so many ornaments. Also he spoke so much with Devaki and Vasudeva, whereas in Gokul He was like a baby. In two shapes, here and there. Not only this, Krsna in His pastimes afterwards became lakhs and lakhs with each gopis in Vrndavan and He became lakhs and lakhs in Dvaraka, 16,108 Krsna’s. So we are seeing so much opulence in that and love and affection in its extreme amount. So much love and affection so that even deer, serpents, elephants and all others, Indra, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesa, all were attracted and controlled by Him.
So all these things and qualities what I told exist in Krsna. So all Vedas, Puranas and scriptures have admitted undoubtedly this fact, this fundamental truth, Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
[Break in audio.]
It is clearly written what is the opinion of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he has told—ārādhyo bhagavān vrajeśa-tanayas tad-dhāma vrndāvanam, he has told that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is Vrajendra-nandana Syamasundar, that is the son of Nanda. He has not told the son of Vasudeva and Devaki. Why has he told like this? In Srimad Bhagavatam we can see if you have read the book of Swami ji’s explanation, Bhaktivedanta Swami, it has been clearly written in Srimad Bhagavatam that He came from Vasudeva and Devaki in Mathura first, but after that Sukadeva Goswami has several times said, ‘son of Nanda, son of Yashoda,’ everywhere, not less than one hundred times, Yasoda Nandana, Nanda Nandana.
So in this sloka it is told Vrajendra-nandana Syamasundara. Why it has been told? Krsna from Mathura and Krsna in Gokul, They are the same, no difference at all, in opulence and everything but there is some speciality in Vrajendra-nandana. Both They are the same by tattva, but Krsna Vrajendra-nandana has so much prema and affection, love and everything. That is called rasa. There is so much love and affection in Krsna but not so much in Devaki-nandana and that is why He has been called ārādhyo bhagavān vrajeśa-tanayas. Swamiji has clearly written this. First he told in Srimad Bhagavatam, that it is clearly written by Sukadeva Goswami, but after that when Krsna is there in Vrindavan, he has undoubtedly told several times. By opulence He is here also, in Gokul also, in Goloka Vrndavan also, in all universes in lakhs and lakhs and koti shapes, this is His opulence, His aisvarya, yet that little boy that comes from Gokul who has taken birth in the womb of Mother Yasoda by Nanda baba in Gokul, He is aradhya—the worshipable Lord.
Now we come to the point, how and why He is called The Supreme Personality of Godhead.
[Break in audio]
Devaki Nandana, four handed Krsna was brought to Gokul and He mixed in Yasoda Nandana and He became one because He is one:
pūrnam adah pūrnam idam
pūrnāt pūrnam udacyate
pūrnasya pūrnam ādāya
pūrnam evāvaśisyate
So when They were separated even then They were pūrnam, when They are mixing They are pūrnam, in anyway in all stages Krsna is full.
So both They mixed in Gokul.
One day little boy Krsna, quite naked, was playing in Brahmanda ghata. Those that have been in Vraja know Brahmanda ghata, a very famous ghata in Gokul on the river Yamuna. Krsna was playing with so many boys, Dama, Sridama, Sudama, Vasudama, Stoka Krsna, Lavanga, Arjuna, so many, hundreds and thousands, all naked (Gurudeva laughs), some were two days younger, some fifteen days younger, some one month, and some were four days older and some fifteen days older, like Baladeva Prabhu who is fifteen days older. All were naked, playing here and there, in the sands of Yamuna, playing and wrestling, playing hide and seek.
At last all the boys came into one group with Baladeva Prabhu. Krsna was alone and all the boys were clapping and laughing, joking with Krsna. They were saying, “From where did you come? Your mother is golden color, Your father is golden color, so how did You become black?”
[everyone laughs]
He began to ask, “Why are you all clapping and laughing?”
Then Madhumangala came forward and said, “Oh I should say that You are not really the son of Nanda and Yasoda. Why not? What is the proof? The proof is that You are black but Your mother and father are golden, so You are not their son.”
Then Krsna was thinking, “Oh! I am black!” and began to cry [Gurudeva imitates the sound of Krsna crying as a baby.] and He left the boys and ran to His home to Yasoda. But now He was so much weeping, He had so much pain thinking that, “I am not the son of My mother and they are telling with proof, that I am black and they are golden. Therefore, all the boys were clapping and laughing and also coming and making jokes.”
So Krsna came to His mother and weeping so bitterly, falling down on the courtyard weeping and weeping. Mother Yasoda came and tried to take Krsna in her lap, but Krsna today was so angry and weeping that He slid down from her lap and was more loudly and loudly crying and weeping.
Yasoda said, “Oh, why My son, why are You weeping? Don’t weep, tell me what is the problem, why are You weeping?”
After becoming somewhat calm He began to say, “Oh I am not Your son so I am going to the forest or anywhere!”
(Srila Gurudeva and devotees laughing)
“ Why are You telling so?” said Mother Yasoda.
“All the boys are clapping and telling this. Even Baladeva, Dau bhai, is telling like so and clapping. So I am not Your son. They are telling that, ‘You have been born to any other mother, and You have been kept in a hole of a tree and Nanda Baba found You because You were weeping and he gave You to Mother Yasoda, so actually You are not their son!’ ”
So when Krsna told this and was weeping bitterly, as He was a little baby, but He was ready to go to the forest and river and thought, “I will give up my life and I will not be here.”
Then Yasoda Ma took the oath of Narayan and said, “I am telling You, by the oath of Narayan, I am touching Narayan and Tulasi, and vowing that You have come from my own womb, and the Vrajavasis are witness of this so I cannot tell a lie. The boys can tell lies only to joke and tease You, but I am telling You by oath that You are my son.”
Then Krsna was somewhat satisfied. So how He has affection and the skill of charming all. So the Vedas have told that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Even in the Gita Krsna has Himself told…
sarvam-dharmān pārityajya
mām ekam śaranam vraja
So we will explain all these things and more very beautiful stories.
Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!
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