Bhakti Rahasya (Secreta) - Aula com SS Bhanu Svami

Transcription - HH Bhanu Svami lecture in Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir By Ananda Tirtha Das on Mon, 2009-02-16 12:07. Date: February 14, 2009 Verse: Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.23.53 Speaker: Bhanu Swami etavatalam kalena vyatikrantena me prabho indriyartha-prasangena parityakta-paratmanah TRANSLATION Until now we have simply wasted so much of our time in sense gratification, neglecting to cultivate knowledge of the Supreme Lord. PURPORT Human life is not meant to be wasted, like that of the animals, in sense gratificatory activities. Animals always engage in sense gratification—eating, sleeping, fearing and mating-but that is not the engagement of the human being, although, because of the material body, there is need of sense gratification according to a regulative principle. So, in effect, Devahuti said to her husband: "So far we have these daughters, and we have enjoyed material life in the aerial mansion, traveling all over the universe. These boons have come by your grace, but they have all been for sense gratification. Now there must be something for my spiritual advancement." [End of purport] Bhanu Svami So Devahuti was getting married and then undergoing the life of complete austerity so much so that her body has become very very weak, her skin was showing, her skin was withered in spite of the fact that she is the daughter of Svayambhuva Manu and princess of the whole world, because she followed her husband in following austerity. But at a certain point of time the opposite happened and at one point Kardama Muni gave her a nice body. Her body was transformed and they got into an airplane and they travelled around the world. They enjoyed and went to all sorts of fantastic places, mountains and rivers like Himalayas and getting off on different heavenly places on the earth. So thousands and thousands of years passed. Then after that she was looking at her husband but not saying anything boldly. But he understood that she wanted children. So he gave her children. Not one but nine children. Nine daughters. So that's what she got. But after that still she was dissatisfied. And so she says here we wasted our time always in sense gratification. Now its time to cultivate spiritual knowledge and knowledge of Supreme Lord. But as we will see later in this chapter actually what she was thinking was is that I want a son. Nine daughters, but I want a son because Kardama Muni said once I give you children I am going to leave you. That's the promise he made when he married. So she got nine daughters and then Kardama Muni is going to leave so she said she wants a son. Now we will see that it is sense gratification. Why it talks about sense gratification in this verse indriyartha etc. She wanted children which is sense gratification. "We have been enjoying in the airplanes etc,. now I want a son to protect me in the old age." So of course these types of requirements are there in the material world. But here we probably know that Devahuti is very elevated and therefore she doesn't talk about that. She says instead that she wants this knowledge about the Supreme Lord. So two desires are fulfilled; spiritual knowledge and having a son. How? Because she got the Supreme Lord as her son. And the Supreme Lord, Kapiladeva, gave her the knowledge. And then of course when Kapiladeva gave the knowledge then he disappeared also and she was left alone. So in this way her desire was fulfilled. She got the Lord as her son and she also got spiritual knowledge. Her son of course left her also but because she had the knowledge she was satisfied. She is asking for knowledge here. In this chapter and in the next chapter basically are the story of how she bore Kapiladeva as her son and then the main important thing is the teachings of Kapiladeva which constitutes the knowledge she is asking for. So when Kapila dev was born, she understood this is the Supreme Lord and her husband departed. Then she asked Kapiladeva, "I am suffering in this material world, how do I get out of it?" This is the question we ask in this material world, how do I get out of it, and then Kapiladeva gives her knowledge. So Kapila is associated with sankhya but we have to understand this sankhya is not the same as the sankhya of the sad-darsana—jnana, Vedanta, karma-mimamsa, you have got these philosophies, that sankhya is a little different. There is some similarity but there is great difference also. That is also spoken by another Kapila. Same name and same name of the philosophy but a different philosophy. So the similarity of the philosophy is that Kapila in Bhagavatam also speaks about sankhya, that is analysis which literally means to analyse the material world into its components. And we hear in the Third Canto several times that not only Kapiladeva but also the sankhya is described in the second canto also is described that is the products of the material world(?). All the things like maha-tattva down to the gross material elements, the mind and the senses, the tanmantras, etc., so that is the sankhya of the material world.(?) So that is one of the subject matters of Kapiladeva's teachings also, but that is a minor part of his teachings. That is actually because he hides the truth there and he tells everything here.(?) So we will see in next chapters that Kapiladeva speaks about pure bhakti, highest sadhana. But then very strangely among other things he speaks about jnana and how even to merge in Brahman. He tells to Devahuti you can even do bhakti and jnana and you can merge into the Brahman. Then he dedicates one whole chapter to yoga, how to do yoga, go to a lonely place and put a deer skin down on the asana, sit with straight back and then control withdraw your senses do pranayama, meditate on the cakras. And then meditate on the Supreme Lord and then withdraw your mind from the Supreme lord and merge in Brahman. So it becomes a little confusing because we have Kapiladeva speaking like this. And when he speaks about bhakti he speaks of tamo-guna bhakti, bhakti which is very violent, and rajo-guna bhakti where you are very greedy for material enjoyment, and sattva-guna bhakti where you also have a tendency to merge into Brahman as a result of your bhakti. So we have all sorts of processes offered by Kapiladeva to Devahuti, making it very confusing. Though we see it is not only the process or method of Kapiladeva, the whole Bhagavatam is like that. We see Bhagavatam is describing jnana and yoga. Even in the second canto is yoga. In the 11th Canto we see yoga. And jnana is described also particularly in the 11th Canto, so many chapters about jnana. So much so at the end of the Bhagavatam in the 12th canto when he is about to leave his body Sukadeva Gosvami concludes, how does he conclude? Let us strive how to merge into Brahman. (Laughs). So of course Pariksit is a little intelligent, he understands this is not what he means and he understands the other meaning which he is saying. But anyway we see that there is a little bit of mystery here because at the very beginning of Bhagavatam a statement is made that this Bhagavatam rejects cheating dharma and presents the highest truth on the tree of Vedic knowledge. So why we have to discuss karma? But we see in Bhagavad-gita Krishna also tells Arjuna, "Surrender unto me." That is all we have to learn from Bhagavad-Gita, surrender unto me. But nevertheless there is the whole process of telling you are not the body, you are atma, and discussing jnana and then he goes into karma yoga and you must do your duties of worshiping devatas. And then astanga yoga over jnana yoga and over karma yoga, so you do astanga yoga, go to the forest and meditate sitting on the asana. But then he finally says, "I prefer bhakti." Then Krishna goes into the whole process explaining everything also and we will see the same process is followed in the Bhagavatam. It explains everything—karma, jnana yoga and bhakti. We have to understand it is a matter in scripture. Scripture does not say one thing and leave it at that and not elaborate. Sometimes it will not speak directly. And that goes not only for Bhagavatam but for the Upanisads and everything else. Therefore it is difficult for us to understand the meaning of sastras. That is why we cannot simply go to the books and read Vedas and Upanisads and Puranas and think we got knowledge. That is not the process. From the very beginning just to make sure the qualification is there the Vedas were not even written. So if you want the knowledge of the Vedas you have to go to someone. Approach an acarya. Then you have to ask, "Will you teach me the Vedas?" Because you couldn't go to the library couldn't get on internet. Couldn't do anything. Where is the knowledge? You have to go to somebody for the knowledge. Its always in somebody's head. So then you have to go. And then he may say yes if he thinks you are qualified and no if he thinks you are not qualified. So its all in the hands of the acarya: "I will give knowledge to certain people that I feel are qualified to understand it properly and to others it will be a waste of time." So we go to the acaryas and they have the right to give or not give knowledge. In this way he would understood who understand things.(?) So we make sure that they would get the proper need(?). As I said it is a little difficult. One has to go through a teacher. We will not know the Vedas, the Upanisads, if we try on our own. Therefore it went through the acarya. Of course in Kali-yuga Vedavyasa combines the Vedas into four and then he gave it to different acaryas and then it was written down. Then he wrote Puranas for the less intelligent people with the same conclusion. But inspite of that it is still difficult for people to grasp the truth because Vedvyasa wrote tamasic Puranas, rajasic Puranas and Sattvik puranas. Sometimes we see in the tamasic Puranas that Siva is glorified as more powerful than Vishnu and so many stories would be there to illustrate that. So sometimes people would say that, "Oh you are saying Krishna is supreme, but in Shiva Purana Vedvyasa says that Shiva is supreme, not Krishna. So why are you saying Krishna is the Lord?" So some contradictions even among what is supposed to be written by Vedavyasa, some contradiction is there. So again we need to explain the meaning of these contradictory statements, how can Shiva be Bhagavan and how can Vishnu be Bhagavan and how can Krishna be Bhagavan—how can they all be Bhagavan? Why does Vyasadeva say this? One who is an avatara, why does he confuse like this? So that is the method as I say that there is certain methodology and that is that scriptures… ? But its not done, scriptures is not done like that. The sages do not speak like that because they like.(?) So similarly in Srimad Bhagavatam in 11th canto it is said that the rishis preferred indirect expression of ..they will not speak directly and then Krishna says to Uddhava, "I like that too. I also prefer speaking indirectly. So i will not reveal everything to everybody. If you are sincere then you get a proper teacher then you can get the right knowledge. But i will hide that knowledge from others." So therefore in Bhagavad-gita also bhakti is called rahasya, secret, secret knowledge. Guhya, raja guhya. Something that not everybody understands even though stated directly. The 9th chapter of Bhagavad-gita and 12th chapter of Bhagavad-Gita is still guhyam. Not everybody will understand. Different people will read Bhagavad-gita in different ways. So the same is here for the Bhagavatam as it is the highest scripture. It is the final truth for the tree of knowledge but at the same time it functions in other ways. So it is also atma pravik(?) which means it is general knowledge about the atma which can attain Brahman and therefore it has Brahman present in so many places here, merging into the impersonal feature of the Lord. Of course the Bhagavatam is also considered to be like the sun. It is greater and deeper, deeper get little enlightenment(?). So when we say Brahman it is like seeing the Lord at a great distance. It is like a little lamp. So we get closer we get dim light we get more revelations. So Bhagavatam is like a sun. It reveals so many things. Not just like a little lamp. So we get many details of the Supreme Lord. The Bhagavatam functions not only to talk about atma and how I am not the body and we have to get out of the material world of suffering and literally destroy the ahankara and the false ego, ignorance, and becomes free which is one of the questions. But we get higher knowledge. Not only spiritual but it gives the understanding of atma and the understanding of Supreme Lord(?). But it also tells of the Supreme Lord as described in various ways. Supreme Lord is Paramatma who is functioning in the material world and ultimately as Maha Visnu who creates and destroys. There is another aspect of God. And actually it is repeated in so many places in the Bhagavatam in 2nd Canto and the 3rd Canto, and in other cantos again and of course we see the Visvarupa and the description of how the senses and the sense objects and the material elements manifest in the body of the Visvarupa in the first three cantos 6 times. A shole description is given but what is the purpose of that? To show us that whole material world is created and destroyed and destructible and that …so this again is general knowledge. Beyond this form of the Lord we have those forms of the Lord which are eternal. The avatar forms of the Lord who are displaying pastimes like Varaha and Narasimha and Rama etc., and we get more like Kapiladeva. We get further instructions of the Lord in the pastimes giving knowledge like Kapiladeva here or performing prolific activity like lifting the bhumandala from the ocean as Varaha, piercing the universe with his foot like Vamanadeva. So we also we have different activities of the Lord. So we get more knowledge of the Supreme Lord that way. And finally we get knowledge of Krishna. The main purpose of Bhagavatam to show that svayam bhagavan Krishna is the highest aspect of realisation. He is ashraya, the 10th aspect of Bhagavatam. Finally the cause of all causes is Krishna. So we get the form, qualities, activities when Krishna is described. So this actually is the final fruit. We get the general knowledge that is Brahman and Paramatma, we get more knowledge of Bhagavan in different avataras and finally we get the final fruit as is mentioned in the third verse of Bhagavatam, the topmost fruit. Many fruits are there but this is the topmost fruit. Bhagavatam represents all that because we know this advaita (?)jnana that the Supreme Lord is Bhagavan, he is Paramatma and he is Brahman. He is all three. But they aren't separate. We should not think that Brahman is something else and Paramatma is something else. It is all included in Bhagavan and ultimately in Krishna. Krishna has everything. Krishna is Bhagavan so he has Brahman and Paramatma, all the three aspects. And when Krishna appears in the material world who comes with him? Everybody. So there is Narasimhadeva in him, there is Varaha in him, there is Vamana in him, everybody is in Krishna. Vishnu is in him. Everybody is in Krishna when he comes in this material world and displays his pastimes. He is complete so everyone must also be within him. As Bhagavatam is complete and presents all these aspects. It may be confusing because of all these different descriptions and Kapiladeva does this. He presents all this: Brahman and jnana and Paramatma and yoga and bhakti of course. And then a mixture of everything, karma-misra bhakti, jnana-misra bhakti, pure bhakti and jnana with a little bhakti and yoga with a little bhakti and karma with a little bhakti and tamoguna bhakti and rajoguna bhakti etc. All sorts of permutations and combinations of these processes he gives. So these are confusing sometimes. But these are as I said part of the process of the whole of Krishna.(?) And the devotee who understands this …. so this is the technique used. So we will find all these different things mentioned. It is like the sun. Bhagavatam is like a sun. Another example of the sun is when the sun comes up in the morning it is good. But for the owls it is bad. The owls don't like the light. They hide, the owls will hide when they get the light in some dark place. At the same time we have something like a sun stone, as we have moon stone we have sun stone. So the moon stone takes the moon's rays and becomes very cool and the sun stone takes the sun rays and becomes very hot. And a blind person, what happens to a blind person in sunlight? Nothing, it is dark. Nothing happens really. Neutral. Nothing bad…but the sun stone becomes very hot. And for the chakravaka bird, the chakravaka bird that moans all night and when the light comes it is very happy. Though for cakravka bird sunlight is very good. Or for the lotus. The lotus closes at night and blossoms during the day. So the sun does different things to different entities. The Supreme Lord in the Bhagavatam also does different things to different people. And that's described later in the 2nd chapter. Kapiladeva mentions that when he describes all the different types of processes, then he says the Lord has different faces. He is different for different types of people. He is brahaman for the jnanis, he is Paramatma for the yogis and for the karmis who also worship the lord a little bit he is the giver of material benefits. That's how we see Vishnu and Lakshmi giving money. We see the Lord giving us material benefit for someone who is in karma yoga. And for jnanis he gives liberation and a yogi may see Paramatma or he may merge in Brahman. And for the devotee of course the devotee doesn't want anything except service. But everything is included in this. Material things, liberation, Paramatma realisation is within the Bhagavan realisation. He gives himself to the devotees in service. Devotee gets everything but these are not what the devotee requests. So it is like milk. So if we look at milk, we say it is milk because it is white in colour and it is liquid so the eye can perceive it. It does not mean that all the milk is white and liquid. So if you taste milk with the tongue, yes it has the milk taste, the sweet milk taste. So the tongue can perceive something about milk and the eye can see something also. Then you can smell the milk also and you can say its milk not water by the nose. So you get the odour of the milk or the fragrance of the milk. And of course if you touch it you find it is liquid, not solid. It's not frozen. Each of our senses give knowledge about milk but not complete knowledge. Each sense has got a little bit of knowledge. So how do we get complete knowledge? The mind gets all the information from all the senses and then we see that its sweet, its white, its liquid, then we say yes, that's milk. So none of the senses has perfect knowledge but the mind get the complete knowledge from the smell, taste, fragrance etc. So the mind gives the complete knowledge whereas the senses give limited knowledge. In the same way different sadhanas give partial knowledge. So we do jnana and we get partial knowledge about God. God is something, some spiritual substance. When you do yoga we get another aspect of the Lord. The Lord is the creator and the destructor of the material world, is Paramatma, all-pervading. And when we do bhakti we get complete realisation of the Lord. Just as with milk, the mind has the complete knowledge from the eye, ear and tongue, so bhakti gives complete knowledge of the Lord, the distinct vision of Brahman, the more localised vision of Paramatma, and the personal vision of Bhagavan. All three will be included. So bhakti is like the mind and the senses are all different processes of knowledge. In this way Kapiladeva says that by the process of bhakti we will get complete realisation of the Lord but all aspects are represented in Bhagavatam, why, because there are different people reading Bhagavatam and different people were in Sukadeva Gosvami's audience. There were rishis of many types there. When Parikshit asked the assembled people what should I do, everybody had a different opinion. Some people said do karma, some people said do jnana, some people said do yoga. All sorts of people were there. Therefore Parikshit refused. Nothing was conclusive. They were all arguing until Sukadeva Gosvami came. So many people were there in audience. Of course Sukadeva was speaking mainly to Pariksit. So he spoke and everybody was listening. So he spoke not only to parikshit but to everybody else. But everybody else wasn't qualified. They were jnanis and karmis and yogis. So therefore he included all these aspects(?) and everybody became a little attracted by him with the hope that eventually they will get into the bhakti aspect. So he included everything but at the same time he wanted to show that everything was related to bhakti and if we do bhakti everything is included in bhakti. So that is why all these things are presented in Bhagavatam. One is to attract other people but at the same time if they are unqualified Sukadeva Gosvami hides certain things and aspects of bhakti from the people who are unqualified so that the jnanis would get one meaning. Therefore at the end of the Bhagavatam Sukadeva Gosvami says therefore the final conclusion after telling all of this is that you should merge into Brahman and this makes the jnanis very happy. But Pariksit does not accept that and the devotees also do not like this. So they would give another meaning to the same word. Sometimes Sukadeva Goswami speaks and he has two meaning to the same words, a superficial meaning for the people to bewilder everybody and the deeper meaning that the devotee will understand. That's why it is said that the Lord does not always speak directly and the sages also to hide certain things from the unqualified. So that is for Sukadeva. He speaks like that, therefore certain things will be hidden and he will not reveal certain things, even aspects of bhakti. And even Krishna does the same thing in the Bhagavatam and not just to everybody, he even does it to the gopis who are the highest devotees. He hides things from them and speaks the opposite. For instance when he called them for rasa lila and they all came and they gave up their husbands, milking the cows, cooking and everything and they ran out of the house running to Krishna at night and then Krishna said, "Oh, very nice that you have come here. Why did you come?" And they all felt very disappointed and then he began to (?) and gave them a lecture on dharma: "You have to be faithful to your husbands. You can't run away from your house like that. You have to be very chaste, you are women from good families. You have to follow the rules of dharma and you have to serve your husbands and serve your children properly. It is very wrong to run from your husbands and not follow their orders come to the forest at the middle of the night. You will lose your reputation." He gave a bit of lecture on dharma and karma and they were very disappointed. And later on when he went to Mathura and promised that he will come back and he didn't come back. Then he sent Uddhava. He didn't come back, he sent Uddhava and then Uddhava came back and saw Nanda and Yasoda in great grief and he tried to preach to them, "You see Krishna is actually the Supreme Lord." They wouldn't accept that. Krishna is the supreme Brahman still everybody accepts him as their son.(?) So then he went to gopis and Krishna had sent a special letter and that was the whole purpose of Uddhava—to give a special message to the gopis and satisfy them, to tell them you should not lament as he is Paramatma in everybody's heart. "So I am not separated from you, you just meditate on your heart." So first the gopis didn't accept that. They said we are not yogis, we are gopis. This is not our process, yoga process and all. Why is Krishna telling us to be yogis? It seems a little strange. Why Krishna sent Uddhava and was telling the gopis to be yogis. And then when he met them at Kurukshetra again he teaches them. What did he say? "Actually ether is everywhere. All elements spread everywhere. Ether is spread everywhere. So I am like that. I am spread everywhere. So look anywhere in this material world and I am there." Again, "Brahman is everywhere, you can see Brahman everywhere and you don't have to worry about separation." And the gopis said he is playing the same trick again. Earlier he spoke about karma then he spoke about yoga, now he is speaking about jnana. He is giving us lecture about all these things. So it looks a little crazy, little peculiar. Why Krishna is stressing these things which are not the essence, not the truth? Although he is rejecting dharma why is he preaching like this to the highest devotees? The answer of course is it looks like that but actually there is another meaning for devotees. Actually when he is saying you go home to your parents he is not saying that. He is saying stay here with me. And when he is talking about I am the Paramatma everywhere he doesn't means that. What he means is that I am so attached to you that I am always in thoughts of you and you are so attached to me that you are always thinking of me. Such as in Bhagavad-gita, you are in me and I am in you. This idea is in bhakti that the Lord completely has devotees in his heart of hearts and the gopis have Krishna all the time in their heart because of their prema. That's another way they are not separated inspite of so called visible separation. In other words it is indicating prema, not meditating on Paramatma. And similarly with the elements in the ether because once in prema one is always thinking of Supreme Lord, one sees him everywhere. So therefore Krishna speaks like this and it looks a little strange but actually he is speaking one level to the normal people of the world to please the yogis the karmis the jnanis and if one goes deeper then he will see the other level. In this way Krishna himself hides the meaning. Therefore we have to be very careful when we read this Bhagavatam that as well as the superficial meaning we understand the internal. So far the final meaning is that Krishna is svayam bhagavan and the relationship with Krishna in service is the highest of all. But that is embellished and covered all over and magnified and transmitted in different ways so that we don't have only the 10th canto, we have others as well. We have 1st canto to 12th canto and in middle we have so many different discussions with so many different things. But ultimately we understand that everything is included in Krishna, not separate. So we cannot separate different cantos from the 10th canto, it's all related because all is in Krishna. At the same time we should not neglect the fact that Krishna is svayam bhagavan and we shouldn't neglect that final truth. So we have to ultimately relish the essence, the qualities of the devotees as mentioned in the 10th canto. So in this way we have to get the essence. We will get that through the acaryas. And we won't get everything simply by looking and studying and seeing the words. There are other meanings behind everything. Vishvanath Cakravarti Thakur says the Bhagavatam is like Mohini. So Mohini was an avatar, a special avatar in the form of a woman. Mohini means one who bewilders. So she bewildered the demons. She approached the demons after they stolen nectar, they went to get the nectar of the ocean and then the demons stole the nectar. So the devas were very disappointed, how we are going to get that? Then the Supreme Lord appeared as Mohini. So Mohini went to the demons. And she was very beautiful as she is the Supreme Lord and the Supreme Lord is very attractive. In the form of a woman she was most attractive to the demons. So they were completely captivated by Mohini and then when she came forward they thought, "She likes us. She is attracted to us and she is a very wonderful woman. She likes us very much. We will do anything for her." Mohini said, "Oh, that's very fine. Give me the nectar." They said, "Yes we will give her as she likes us so much she will give us the nectar anyway." So they gave her the nectar and she took the nectar and gave it to the devatas. In this way the demons were defeated. So that is Mohini, bewildering the demons and giving to the devotees. So Bhagavatam is like that. It bewilders the demons. Impersonalists and others find one meaning in Bhagavatam and they criticise Krishna leaving Vrindavana and never taking another look at the Vrajavasis. They criticize him for many things and finally they say, "Oh see even Sukadeva Goswami is including jnana as the conclusion of everything, merging in Brahman is the final conclusion. So therefore we don't have to worry about Krishna." So in this way Bhagavatam acts as Mohini and hides certain things from those who are not qualified. So the devotees will see through that. And of course Mohini gave the nectar to the devatas. In the same way Bhagavatam gives the nectar to the devotees. So the devotees follow the acarya then will get the real understanding. Kapiladeva speaks all this different knowledge but we should not be bewildered by and Understand it. And Devahuti, what did she do? She understood it very clearly after everything was explained, all the different types of knowledge she got: get out of this material world and give up all this knowledge. She understood what was the conclusion and after everything then the last chapter of this canto describes how Kapiladeva was about to leave and she would be all alone. Then she prays to him. She says, "I understand you are the Supreme Lord, what is the process of understanding you I must realize(?)". Of course she is also mother so she has vatsalya rasa. Simultaneously she knows that he is God. But then she praises him and says that your nature is such that simply by devotion to you everything is achieved and all karma is destroyed such that even a candala or the most fallen person by remembering or chanting the names of Lord once attains the level of a brahmana and he can do all the sacrifices a brahmana does. But not only that, so many fallen people, dog eaters, they just put the name of the Lord on their tongue, not completely, just on the tip of the tongue which means they didn't even say the name completely, they just partially say the names of the Lord once, and by that they surpass all brahminical activities, all austerity, all bathing in the holy tirthas to get purified of sin, all sacrifices, all rituals, everything is surpassed. They don't want to do the yajnas, they don't want to do any of that. They are completely beyond that, simply by partially chanting the names of the Lord once. So in this way she glorified the power of devotional service and particularly chanting the names of the Lord. This is the power of bhakti alone, unmixed with any other process. It is not dependent on any other process. And then what did she do? Kapiladeva went away and she performed bhakti and she went to Vaikuntha. In this way she understood the real meaning of everything and followed the process properly. Question: (Inaudible) Answer: So the idea is that different Puranas have different values and we have to give the greatest value to Srimad Bhagavatam. This is Amala Purana. So tamasik Puranas are speaking about Shiva and Rajasik puranas are speaking about Brahma and sattvik Puranas are speaking about Vishnu. And of course sattva is superior to tamas and rajas so if there is a contradiction we will take the sattvik statement over the tamasik or rajasik statement. But Bhagavatam is beyond everything, beyond sattvik, tamasik or rajasik. It is transcendental and it is the king of all the scriptures. It is the best of all Puranas. So Bhagavatam is the final conclusion and if there is a contradiction we will take the Bhagavatam version over everything else. Question: (Inaudible) Answer: So your question is why does he explain specifically. Well that is what the acaryas do. It is hidden in the scriptures but nevertheless those who are serious, those who are devotees who understand that we have to get real meaning here and in case of confusion they will go to the acaryas and will get the clearings there. So the acaryas explain to them the Vedas, they know all the secrets. They can give you the secrets. But the point is only the devotees will know who the acarya is. The mayavadis will not know. So they may be confused in the scriptures themselves but the acaryas will be very, very clear. Question: Maharaja, both the Yasodamayi and Devahuti had vatsalya rasa… of these two whom we say that more… ? Answer: The higher? In one sense all forms of God are highest because they are all God. Therefore Krishna is God and Narasimha is God and Rama is God and Vishnu is God and Kapila is God and Dattatreya is God. They are all God but they reveal different level of qualities and different rasas. Krishna is svayam bhagavan because he revealed everything. Like the full moon compared to the caturdasi or the trayodasi or the ekadasi or whatever when the moon is getting lesser and lesser. So he will be everything and his devotees will also have higher realisation because they are of that position. Just like the jnanis will have one realisation of Brahman. The yogis get Paramatma and the bhaktas get Bhagavan. So if you have devotion to Krishna then you get that realisation of Krishna. If you have devotion to Rama you get that realisation and comparatively you will get that amount of rasa. Krishna is purna so you get full rasa with Krishna. So the devotees are expressions of that(?). So Yasoda is related to Krishna in vatsalya rasa and therefore her prema, or let us say quality of prema, is much greater than of Devahuti with Kapiladeva, who is also part of the Lord but manifesting only a certain percentage of qualities of God. Devaki was also the mother of Krishna. Her love also is less because she is seeing Krishna as God also, as her son but also as God. Mother Yashoda never sees Krishna as God so that is the most intense love for Krishna. She is in the highest category and in fact in the Bhagavatam Sukadeva Goswami glorifies Yasoda in the first 14-15 chapter as the highest devotee(?). Just like there are gopis, in the first 14-15 chapters Yasoda is the highest. Any service to the Supreme Lord is wonderful even if you don't know it is a service. Even eating is service to the Lord, we give prasadam to people, they don't know prasadam, but that's service also. That's called ajnata-sukriti and that's beneficial for them. Only by that do they get little sraddha eventually. In other words it looks like we are eating something which is material but actually it has a spiritual effect on the atma and the atma gradually begins to change and (?) there is attraction to the Supreme Lord. How it is difficult to say but that's the power of prasadam or the holy name or whatever. So we simply hear the name of the Lord accidently such as Krishna, Narasimha, that also has got some power to it. So in the actual bhakti we are intentionally doing it because we have faith. In other words the atma has inclination towards the Supreme Lord and in that inclination or attraction or love for the Lord we are doing some service such as chanting or hearing or whatever then that is not mechanical because it is based on our faith. Faith is not mechanical, it is coming from our atma. Now mechanical service, the mayavadi can do that. He has no faith. He is thinking the Lord is a material entity with a material body, but he will also do some worship to the Lord because scripture say to do some worship:worship Vishnu, worship Ganesa, worship Shiva, so we will also worship Vishnu. There is no devotion there. There is no bhakti at all. It's an offence. That the Lord has a material body, that's not even bhakti. They are offenders against the Lord. It looks like bhakti. Anyway… that's the activities that's real bhakti(?). That bhakti of course must develop from sraddha to nistha, ruci, asakti, bhava to prema. In other words atma's love for God should become stronger and stronger and stronger and consequently that would influence sadhana so that it doesn't become "it has to be like do this do that," which is vaidhi bhakti. If one comes to the stage of ruci and asakti then one is not thinking like that, one is doing it out of taste. So it becomes more spontaneous then one can go through vaidhi and can get bhava and prema and we can't say that it is mechanical at that point, as it is becoming more and more spontaneous. And the other form is raganuga bhakti in which even in sadhana one begins to take more of a spontaneous attitude for the services, like the inhabitants of Vrindavana. Mother Yasoda is not thinking, "I have to feed Krishna or the scriptures say that I have to feed God every day morning at 4 and 8 and 12 noon". She is not thinking like that. She is saying, "Krishna is my child and I have to feed him, he is hungry all the time. So when one develops that mood that is raganuga mood, more spontaneous. Even in vaidhi bhakti even in sadhana bhakti and that develops into bhava and prema(?). One question more. Question: (Inaudible) Answer: Well of course the other exceptional form is Krishna himself and he made it Kripa(?). Of course that is very rare and usually kripa or mercy comes through devotees. But that may be a rare case Lord comes out when there is no opportunity to meet devotees and Lord may himself also give kripa. It is in extraordinarily cases. Usually it is through devotees. As in the course a person prays very sincerely, sometimes the Lord makes some arrangement. Somehow or other the devotee does some service and that's an unusual process. Usual process is through devotees. And externally process could be through Supreme Lord himself from a past devotee or Narada Muni(?) Usually through devotees. Hare Krishna. END.