Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.7.20–21

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [chants verse]

athopaspṛśya salilaṁ sandadhe tat samāhitaḥ ajānann api saṁhāraṁ prāṅa-kṛcchra upasthite [SB 1.7.20]

Translation: [03:21] "Since his life was in danger, he touched water in sanctity and concentrated upon the chanting of the hymns for throwing nuclear weapons, although he did not know how to withdraw such weapons."

tataḥ prāduṣkṛtaṁ tejaḥ pracaṅḍaṁ sarvato diśam prāṅāpadam abhiprekṣya viṣṅuṁ jiṣṅur uvāca ha [SB 1.7.21]

Translation: [04:17] "Therefore a glaring light spread in all directions. It was so fierce that Arjuna thought his own life in danger, and so he began to address Lord Śrī Kṛṣṅa."

Prabhupāda:

athopaspṛśya salilaṁ sandadhe tat samāhitaḥ ajānann api saṁhāraṁ prāṅa-kṛcchra upasthite [SB 1.7.20]

tataḥ prāduṣkṛtaṁ tejaḥ pracaṅḍaṁ sarvato diśam prāṅāpadam abhiprekṣya viṣṅuṁ jiṣṅur uvāca ha [SB 1.7.21]

So necessity has no law. This brahma-bandhu, he knew how to create this brahmāstra. He learnt it. But he knew it also that this weapon is not to be used generally. In very, very rare cases this should be used. As I explained, that atomic bomb, the nuclear weapon, is not used when there is fight between two dogs. It is not so insignificant. When the fight is very severe... Just like your country used this nuclear bomb. When the Japanese people dared to attack your Pearl Harbor, at that time, your president was Mr. Truman. So it was not to be used, but he took little more precaution. Anyway, such weapon, deadly weapon, should not be used ordinarily. Therefore here it is said that prāṅa-kṛcchra upasthite. He knew that Arjuna was after him and there is no escape. He would be killed. So whatever last resort he knew, he used that knowledge to throw brahmāstra so that the other party may be killed altogether. But ajānann api saṁhāram. He was not willing, but he did not know how to withdraw that. Formerly, they used to know it. They could throw one brahmāstra, and if he likes he can withdraw, or the other party, he can nullify it. This is warfare. But he did not know that. How to counteract it, he did not know that.

Another point is here. Athopaspṛśya salilam: this mantra weapon is so strong that it can be manufactured simply by touching water with mantra. Just like we take mantra, Sanskrit, apavitraḥ pavitro vā sarvāvasthāṁ gato 'pi vā yaḥ smaret puṅḍarīkākṣaṁ sa bāhya [Garuḍa Purāṅa]. The same process. Do not think that it is some ritualistic external. No. It has got meaning. If you can chant the mantra properly, if you follow the rules and... You must be expert in chanting mantra. Hare Kṛṣṅa mantra we are chanting, and Haridāsa Ṭhākura is also chanting. So Haridāsa Ṭhākura, how advanced he was, just imagine. He was a young man, and a very nice, beautiful prostitute came there at dead of night, wanted to enjoy his company, and he said simply, "Very good idea. Please sit down. Let me finish my Hare Kṛṣṅa mantra." Is it possible for ordinary man? No. It is not possible. That means he was expert, he was advanced. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has advised, ihā haite sarva-siddhi haibe tomāra [Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 23.78].

[By doing so, everyone will attain all perfection. Always chant, there is no other prescription.]

Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said, "Simply by chanting you'll get all success of life." Sarva-siddhi. It is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's blessing. Ihā haite sarva-siddhi haibe tomāra. By simply chanting one gets the highest perfection. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's blessing and gift. So we should be very careful and follow the regulative principles. Then automatically you'll be perfect. There is no doubt about it. Mantra... Just like sometimes the snake-charming mantra can be purchased in the market. But if you do not make yourself perfect about chanting the mantra, it will not be effective.

I'll give you one practical instance. It is not a story; it is a fact. It was spoken... Perhaps some of you know that my friend who came here, Dr. Ghosh. He told me when they were students, there was a case. In Lucknow University they were students. So there is a big building, and two, three snake-biting case happened. So some snake charmer was invited to find out the snake and take him. So he came. He came and took it away, the snake. Then this Dr. Ghosh and his class friends, they were medical students. Naturally, the so-called modern scientist, they do not believe in all these things. So they became very inquisitive. All of them went to that snake charmer—he was a Muhammadan gentleman. So he knew that "These students, medical students, they have come to see the fun, how the snakes are charmed." So he [they] inquired, "What is the matter? What is the magic that you can catch up snake and the snake cannot do any harm to you?" So he said it is possible by mantra. By mantra it can be done. So they challenged, "Oh, your snakes, I think they are poisonless and they cannot bite. There is no poison. The poison teeth, the fang, is taken away." "No, no. They have got everything." So he took one and showed that "Here is..." So to make a fun... He had many snakes. He let them all come out from the box. And immediately all over the courtyard, just like courtyard, they began to run over, and all these medical students, they became afraid. They were fleeing this side, that side, that side. So the charmer said, "Don't be afraid. So long I am here they'll not bite you."

So this was spoken by Dr. Ghosh, a personal experience. The mantra has got so much power. But not that you purchase the mantra and chant. That will not. You have to make it perfect. There is process, how to become perfect in chanting the mantra. Similarly... It is an ordinary, material mantra. This spiritual mantra... I have already explained, this Hare Kṛṣṅa mantra is spiritual mantra. It is not material. Therefore, I've already explained, golokera prema-dhana hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana. It is not ordinary sound vibration, material sound vibration, radio. No. Spiritual. Golokera prema-dhana. So if we actually chant this Hare Kṛṣṅa mantra properly, without any offense, then once chanting is sufficient to make you free from the reaction of all sinful life. Once chanted. There is no question of chanting thousand times. It is said, eka hari-nāme jato pāpa hare, pāpī haya tato pāpa karibāre nare. Once chanting of Hare Kṛṣṅa mantra can vanquish so many..., so much accumulated reaction of sinful life that a first-class pāpī or a very expert pāpī, he cannot commit so many pāpa. You see. It is so powerful. So if we chant it properly, this chanting, daśa-vidha, ten offenses, without offenses... Nāma-aparādha-śūnyam. Without any nāma-aparādha, if we chant according to the principle, then the mantra will act. Mantra will act in so nicely that the mantra will keep you always in touch with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the power of mantra. Don't think it is a hobby or it is something superfluous. No. Actually, this mantra, Kṛṣṅa, Hare Kṛṣṅa—Kṛṣṅa Himself.

So if you are allowed to keep yourself constantly in company with Kṛṣṅa, then just imagine what is your position. If you keep yourself always near the fire, certainly you shall remain warm; there will be no attack of cold or anything like that. So if we constantly chant Hare Kṛṣṅa mantra, then we are not in this material world. But if we purposely again come to the material world... That independence we have got. But if we chant Hare Kṛṣṅa mantra according to the instructions... Saṅkhyā-pūrvaka-nāma-gāna-natibhiḥ.

[I offer my respectful obeisances unto the six Gosvāmīs, namely Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī, Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī, Śrī Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, Śrī Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī, and Śrī Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, who were engaged in chanting the holy names of the Lord and bowing down in a scheduled measurement. In this way they utilized their valuable lives and in executing these devotional activities they conquered over eating and sleeping and were always meek and humble enchanted by remembering the transcendental qualities of the Lord.]

We have to practice. Because Gosvāmīs, they kept a number, a numerical strength. Haridāsa Ṭhākura kept the biggest. Others, they also kept, but not so big. But according... Because, just like Rūpa Gosvāmī, he had to write so many books, so he was not keeping such a big number as three lakhs. But there was some numerical... Similarly, we must have some numerical strength. And we have minimized. I know that you are coming from a different source, so according to time, according to circumstances... Even there, there is no limit. You can chant more than sixteen—sixteen hundred times. There is no... But practically we see that even chanting sixteen rounds becomes difficult. So don't try to imitate, but do it properly, what is advised by your spiritual master, without any offense. That mantra will save you from the dangers of māyā. That's a fact.

You see he manufactured this deadly weapon. It is material. Still, it is so deadly weapon, brahmāstra. He was not working in a laboratory, finding out so many chemicals to make an atomic nuclear weapon. Simply water. You see. Here it is said, atha upaspṛśya salilam. Just like we do, oṁ apavitraḥ pavitro vā sarvāvasthāṁ gato 'pi. Then if we do it properly, then it has got immense potency. Immense potency. Don't think it is childish, it is formality. No. Just see here. Atha upaspṛśya salilaṁ sandadhe tat samāhitaḥ. This is wanted. Samāhita, completely in trance. This is the process. So these things are required, how to become samāhita, samādhi-stha, in trance. If we take it as childish play, formality, then it will act, but it will take long time. But if you do it properly, you'll be quickly successful. In one life you'll be successful. You don't require to wait. My Guru Mahārāja used to say that although this process is guaranteed, but don't wait for another life. Finish this business in this life. It is said in the Bhagavad-gītā even though one falls immaturely, then yoga-bhraṣṭo..., śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo sanjāyate [Bg 6.41].

[The unsuccessful yogī, after many, many years of enjoyment on the planets of the pious living entities, is born into a family of righteous people, or into a family of rich aristocracy.]

One who has not been successful, one is fallen from this bhakti-yoga, for him also there is guarantee nice. That guarantee, Kṛṣṅa says that śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo sanjāyate. Śucīnām. Then he's given the chance of taking birth in a very pious brāhmaṅa's family. Not ordinary: śucīnām. Śuci means brāhmaṅa, and śrīmatā, śrī means fortune, and mat means one possesses fortune—that means very rich man. Śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo sanjāyate. Even...

Therefore Nārada Muni has said in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,

tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṅāmbujaṁ harer bhajann apakvo 'tha patet tato yadi ko va vābhadram abhūd amuṣya kiṁ... [SB 1.5.17]

[One who has forsaken his material occupations to engage in the devotional service of the Lord may sometimes fall down while in an immature stage, yet there is no danger of his being unsuccessful. On the other hand, a nondevotee, though fully engaged in occupational duties, does not gain anything.]

This verse is very important. He says that if one takes sentimentally this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement, tyaktvā sva-dharmam... Just like in our Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement, you young men, young boys and girls, are coming. You had some engagement previously, undoubtedly. You may be you were a student, you may be businessman or so on, so on. Everyone has got... At least you had some business for LSD. So you have given up all this. Tyaktvā sva-dharmam. Somehow or other you were all engaged in some business. That is called sva-dharma. Sva-dharma means one has selected some business. That is his sva-dharma. Generally, if it is systematic, then sva-dharma means brāhmaṅa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa. This is systematic, sva-dharma. Otherwise, everyone must have some engagement. Suppose a thief, he has taken the occupation, or profession, of stealing. That is also sva-dharma. But that is not systematic; that is whimsical. So anyone must have some engagement. That engagement is called sva-dharma, his own business occupation. Sva-karma or sva-dharma.

So if by chance somebody becomes attracted by this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement and gives up his profession, good profession or bad profession... There is no good profession in this material world. Everything is bad. That is... Here we have divided, "This is good, this is bad." This is mental concoction. It has no value, because material world is bad. I have given this example many times: just like stool, the upside and downside. Downside is moist and upside is dry. If somebody says, "This side is very nice," what is this nonsense? It is stool. Why do you forget that the dry side is good and moist side is bad, but it is stool, this side or that side? Similarly, Caitanya-caritāmṛta kaj, Kṛṣṅadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, has said,

'dvaite' bhadrābhadra-jñāna, saba—'manodharma' 'ei bhāla, ei manda'—ei saba 'bhrama' [Caitanya-caritāmṛta Antya 4.176]

Dvaite... In the material world, dvaite bhadrābhadra, "This is good, this is bad," it is all mental concoction. After all, it is material world. Either you become very expert in handling these material affairs, very big businessman, Mr. Ford, Mr. this and that, or so many things... [break] ...successful, what is the meaning of this "successful," "unsuccessful"? You have to die. You have to suffer from disease. Just like nowadays the flu is going on. Does it mean that a big man or a rich man will not suffer? When the disease is there, either you are big man or rich man or poor man or small man, everyone has to suffer. So long you will be in the material world, if you do not rectify yourself, śuddha-sattva... Tapo divyaṁ yena śuddhyet sattvam [SB 5.5.1].

[Lord Ṛṣabhadeva told His sons: My dear boys, of all the living entities who have accepted material bodies in this world, one who has been awarded this human form should not work hard day and night simply for sense gratification, which is available even for dogs and hogs that eat stool. One should engage in penance and austerity to attain the divine position of devotional service. By such activity, one's heart is purified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal, blissful life, which is transcendental to material happiness and which continues forever.]

If you don't rectify your existence, then this janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi will go on [Bg 13.9].

[Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I thus declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to these is ignorance.]

Then what is the good? Actually, there is no good. 'Ei bhāla, ei manda'—ei saba 'bhrama'. It is simply mental concoction. So in the material world, even you become very expert to deal with your business very nicely, it is all useless. Ko vārtha āpto 'bhajatāṁ sva-dharmataḥ. If one does not become Kṛṣṅa conscious, his so-called success in this material world or failure, they have no value. Rather, if by sentiment somebody comes to Kṛṣṅa consciousness, and if for a few days he chants Hare Kṛṣṅa mantra, their success, in future at least, guaranteed.

So it is so nice thing. If you neglectfully chant, still there is success, but it will take some time. And if you chant very carefully, following the rules and regulations, then your success in this life is guaranteed. So we can make our choice, because always Kṛṣṅa gives us the chance to make our choice. Yathecchasi tathā kuru [Bg 18.63]: "Whatever you like, you can do." So my request... It is my duty, because you have accepted me as your spiritual master. So I am repeating my spiritual master's order, that "Don't wait for another life." That is a very risky, another life. Maybe I am given the chance of taking my birth in a good brāhmaṅa family or a rich family, but there is chance of again being spoiled. As we see, there are so many rich men's sons. They have got all the opportunity of chanting Hare Kṛṣṅa. They have no economic problem. Father's property, immense property he has got. So he can..., he has no anxiety for economic problems. That is a chance. To take birth in a rich family means he has no economic problem. Because for economic problem we see nowadays people are pulling on ṭhelā, a ricksha, for two breads.[?] Because he is condemned to take such life, to work like an ass, like an animal. We see, practically.

So one who is born in rich family, he should think that Kṛṣṅa... But he has no knowledge, he has no good advisor, he has no guru. So he is..., he thinks that "I have got this money for nothing. Let me enjoy wine and women. Let me..." He becomes spoiled. So although he was given the chance, śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe [Bg 6.41],

[The unsuccessful yogī, after many, many years of enjoyment on the planets of the pious living entities, is born into a family of righteous people, or into a family of rich aristocracy.]

janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrī [SB 1.8.26]...

[My Lord, Your Lordship can easily be approached, but only by those who are materially exhausted, because one who is on the path of [material] progress, trying to improve himself with respectable parentage, great opulence, high education and bodily beauty, cannot address You with sincere feeling.]

Although he was given the chance by nature's law, he spoils himself. Just like in America—I always say that you are born in a rich nation's family. Your country is not poor; there is no scarcity. But you should take advantage of it. Don't spoil your life because you have got so much money for nothing or every enjoyable thing. You should always think, "It is all Kṛṣṅa's mercy that we have got this opportunity. We are honored as Americans." Now because the Americans, they have misused their opportunity, now they are degrading. To save your country, take this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement and enlighten them. Enlighten them. That is your service, actually service of the country. Push this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement. They have got good opportunity. And it will be very successful, materially and spiritually.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda. [end]