Lecture

Initiation of Lakṣmī-priyā & Mṛga-netrī Dāsīs

Prabhupāda: [japa]

[04:53]

What is your name? Huh?

Lucy: Lucy.

Prabhupāda: Lucy. So your spiritual name, Lakṣmī-priyā. Lakṣmī-priyā. Lord Caitanya's first wife's name was Lakṣmī-priyā. Yes. So always think of Lord Caitanya and chant Hare Kṛṣṅa.

Come on, next. [japa]

[12:28]

Your name is Mṛga-netrī. Mṛga-netrī. Mṛga-netrī means staring eyes like she-deer. When Kṛṣṅa and Rādhārāṅī used to pass through the forest of Vṛndāvana, these deers and stags, they were looking with staring eyes: "When Kṛṣṅa will pass this way?" These animals were also attracted to Kṛṣṅa. The birds, everyone, the flowers, the fruits, everyone engage... Vṛndāvana means everything engaged in Kṛṣṅa. So if all of you similarly engage yourself always in Kṛṣṅa's service, this is Vṛndāvana.

Vṛndāvana is not that... As Kṛṣṅa is not located... He is located, but by His inconceivable potency He can simultaneously become located and distributed. Akhilātma-bhūtaḥ. Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ [Bs 5.37].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, residing in His own realm, Goloka, with Rādhā, resembling His own spiritual figure, the embodiment of the ecstatic potency possessed of the sixty-four artistic activities, in the company of Her confidantes [sakhīs], embodiments of the extensions of Her bodily form, permeated and vitalized by His ever-blissful spiritual rasa.]

He is always in Goloka Vṛndāvana, but still, He is everywhere. That is God's omnipotency. We say that God is omnipotent, but we do not know what does it mean. The omnipotency means simultaneously to do or to act or to remain everywhere. That is Kṛṣṅa.

Kṛṣṅa... You may not think that "Kṛṣṅa is [in] Goloka Vṛndāvana. Here is an idol of Kṛṣṅa." No. He is Kṛṣṅa. Just like the electricity is distributed, but in the plug there is also electricity, similarly, Kṛṣṅa... That is Kṛṣṅa's inconceivable potency. He can remain in everyone's heart, He can remain everywhere. Just imagine. Everywhere He is. Goloka eva... But His location is Goloka Vṛndāvana, but still, He is everywhere.

So try to see Kṛṣṅa with that staring eyes—"Where is Kṛṣṅa?" Here is... Kṛṣṅa is within your heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānām [Bg 18.61].

[The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.]

He is within the atom. He is everywhere. So by service, we can realize. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṅa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ [Cc Madhya 17.136].

[Therefore material senses cannot appreciate Kṛṣṅa’s holy name, form, qualities and pastimes. When a conditioned soul is awakened to Kṛṣṅa consciousness and renders service by using his tongue to chant the Lord’s holy name and taste the remnants of the Lord’s food, the tongue is purified, and one gradually comes to understand who Kṛṣṅa really is.]

If we want to see Kṛṣṅa, touch Kṛṣṅa, with our these material senses, it is not possible. These senses are to be purified. How it is purified? Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau: the service. And wherefrom the service begins? The service begins jihvādau, from the tongue. The service begins from the tongue. You chant. Therefore we are giving you the beads to chant. That is the beginning of service: chanting.

If you chant, then svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. By hearing Kṛṣṅa's name, you will understand Kṛṣṅa's form, you will understand Kṛṣṅa's quality, you'll understand Kṛṣṅa's pastimes, His omnipotency. Everything will be revealed. Svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. Svayam means the Kṛṣṅa science becomes revealed. You cannot make research to understand Kṛṣṅa science with these material senses. You have to purify your senses, sevonmukhe, by service. Tat-paratvena nirmalam [Cc Madhya 19.170].

[Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects. One is freed from all material designations, and one’s senses are purified simply by being employed in the service of the Lord.]

When you engage your senses in Kṛṣṅa's service, then it becomes purified. Hṛṣīkeṅa.

That purified... Your senses is not to be abolished like the impersonalists: "No more sense, finished." No. We... Our senses are... Because we are eternal, our senses are eternal. But at the present moment our senses are being used, contaminated; therefore you are not satisfied. The senses are not to be cut off. No. Liberation does not mean I become impersonal; all my senses are gone. No. Liberation means purification of the senses. And the symptom how the senses are purified, that will be manifested that when one's senses are simply engaged in the service of the Lord. Hands, legs, eyes, ears, mouth—we have got so many senses—everything.

Hṛṣīkeṅa-hṛṣīkeśa-sevanam [Cc Madhya 19.170]. Actually the proprietor of the senses is Kṛṣṅa. We have got this hand, but it is given to us. Actually it is the hand of Kṛṣṅa. He is all-pervading. Sarvato 'pāṅi pādas tat: "Everywhere, His hands and legs are there." You'll find in the Bhagavad-gītā [Bg 13.14].

[Everywhere are His hands and legs, His eyes and faces, and He hears everything. In this way the Supersoul exists.]

So therefore these hands and legs which we have got, this is Kṛṣṅa's hands and legs. So when these Kṛṣṅa's hands and legs will be engaged in the service of Kṛṣṅa, that is the perfection. That is the perfection. If our, our senses... Just like we used to..., we like to use our senses for own satisfaction, similarly... But actually the senses are not ours; it is Kṛṣṅa's. Hṛṣīkeṅa-hṛṣīkeśa [Cc Madhya 19.170].

Therefore Arjuna addressed Kṛṣṅa in the battlefield, "Hṛṣīkeśa." Hṛṣīkeśa. The significance of this word is, "My dear Kṛṣṅa, You are Hṛṣīkeśa. You are sitting in my heart, and You are the master of my senses. So I personally cannot understand what is the benefit of this fighting, but You give me direction and use my senses as You like. That's all." He was not inclined to fight, but he surrendered his senses and mind, everything. That is Kṛṣṅa consciousness.

So sevonmukhe jihvādau. Jihvā. Jihvā means the tongue. The tongue has got two business: to articulate, vibrate; and to taste. Taste Kṛṣṅa-prasādam, and articulate, chant, vibrate Hare Kṛṣṅa. Then as soon as your tongue is controlled, become purified, all other senses becomes automatically purified. Tongue is the greatest enemy. If you cannot control your tongue, then you cannot control your other senses. And therefore we prohibit, "Not these..." They are all concerned to the tongue: intoxication-tongue and meat-eating-tongue. So, intoxicant... Tongue dictates, "Oh, my tongue is becoming dry. Let me drink something or smoke something."

So if you can control, if you become controller of your tongue—"No"—then you become svāmī, or gosvāmī. That means the senses do not become your master. You become the master of your senses. Then perfection, gosvāmī. That is... Go means senses; svāmī means master. So svāmī or gosvāmī, the same thing. So we have to become the master of our senses. That we can become only... Ourself, we cannot control our senses. If we engage our senses in the service of the Lord, Kṛṣṅa, then automatically it becomes controlled and purified. Then our life is successful.

Thank you very much. Now...

Pradyumna: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Could there be a name for their child?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Pradyumna: That little girl, Angie.

Prabhupāda: Oh, where is your daughter? She is not here?

Pradyumna: No, she is not feeling well.

Prabhupāda: All right. She may be named as Anaṅga, Anaṅga-mañjarī. That's a name of one of the assistant gopīs. Yes. So your daughter is fortunate. She is getting association of these devotees from childhood. So give her protection and raise her nicely. He is becoming... She is becoming attracted to the Vaiṣṅavas, to Kṛṣṅa. This is the opportunity, to get nice father and mother and become Kṛṣṅa conscious. Yes.

So that is the duty of the father and mother, parents, to raise the children to complete Kṛṣṅa consciousness. Then she will no more have to come back in the womb of any other mother. This is the... This finishes. That is the duty of father and mother. Father and mother should think that "This child will no more come in any other womb. I shall train him or her in such a way."

That is the duty. That is the duty of spiritual master, that is the duty of parents, that is the duty of state. But it is Kali-yuga; everything is different. So somehow or other, so she should be taken care. And as you train, so she becomes trained. That's all. Mmm.

[chuckles] Oh. [chuckles] Thank you.

Pradyumna: I have the list.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can explain the offenses.

Pradyumna: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is essential. Don't keep in the paper, but try to follow. All right. Go on. Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

[devotees chant japa]

[26:32]

Formerly, the brāhmaṅas used to ignite fire by mantra. Yes. They did not use another fire. The mantra will ignite fire. In the Vedic age this was being done. Aruṅi. The sacrifice means to sacrifice one animal in the fire end give it again a new life. That was a test for the Vedic mantra, how one has chanted. It is not sacrifice, means killing. The animal sacrifice mentioned in the Vedas were not for killing. It was experiment of the Vedic mantra.

They would sacrifice an animal and again it will be given new life, rejuvenation. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu said to Chand Kazi that "Because in this age the brāhmaṅas are not so powerful, therefore sacrifice is prohibited. Only this sacrifice: harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalam [Cc Ādi 17.21], this is..."

[In this Age of Kali there is no other means, no other means, no other means for self-realization than chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name of Lord Hari.]

[japa] That's all right. Don't put any more. Yes. Put little ghee. Little ghee. That's all. [japa] Let it burn. Then, later on... You can chant mantra.

[29:37]

Dayānanda:

vande 'haṁ śrī-guroḥ śrī-yuta-pada-kamalaṁ śrī-gurūn vaiṣṅavāṁś ca śrī-rūpaṁ sāgrajātaṁ saha-gaṅa-raghunāthānvitaṁ taṁ sa-jīvam sādvaitaṁ sāvadhūtaṁ parijana-sahitaṁ kṛṣṅa-caitanya-devaṁ śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṅa-pādān saha-gaṅa-lalitā-śrī-viśākhānvitāṁś ca

[I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master and of all the other preceptors on the path of devotional service. I offer my respectful obeisances unto all the Vaiṣṅavas and unto the six Gosvāmīs, including Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī, Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, Jīva Gosvāmī, and their associates. I offer my respectful obeisances unto Advaita Ācārya Prabhu, Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and all His devotees, headed by Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura. I then offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṅa, Śrīmatī Rādhārānī, and all the gopīs, headed by Lalitā and Viśākhā.]

Prabhupāda: With the right hand. Right hand will [indistinct]. That's alright, offer obediences and chant, that's all... I can go? Chant Hare Kṛṣṅa, Viṣṅujana you can chant...

[43:43]

[kīrtana] [break] [end]