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Becoming meek and humble is outcome of advancement in Consciousness

Venue: Pandharpur maitreya uvaca

“iti bruvanam nrpatim gayaka muni-coditah tustuvus tusta-manasas tad-vag-amrta-sevaya” (S.B 4.16.1)

Translation and purport by Srila Prabhupada.

Translation: The great sage Maitreya continued: While King Prthu thus spoke; the humility of his nectarean speeches pleased the reciters very much. Then again they continued to praise the King highly with exalted prayers, as they had been instructed by the great sages.

Purport: Here the word muni-coditah indicates instructions received from great sages and saintly persons. Although Maharaja Prthu was simply enthroned on the royal seat and was not at that time exhibiting his godly powers, the reciters like the suta, the Magadha and the vandi understood that King Prthu was an incarnation of God. They could understand this by the instructions given by the great sages and learned brahmanas. We have to understand the incarnations of God by the instructions of authorized persons. We cannot manufacture a God by our own concoctions. As stated by Thakura, sadhu-sastra-guru: one has to test all spiritual matters according to the instructions of saintly persons, scriptures and the spiritual master. The spiritual master is one who follows the instructions of his predecessors, namely the sadhus, or saintly persons.

A bona fide spiritual master does not mention anything not mentioned in the authorized scriptures. Ordinary people have to follow the instructions of sadhu, sastra and guru. Those statements made in the sastras and those made but the bona fide sadhu or guru cannot differ from one another.

Reciters like the suta and the Magadha were confidentially aware that King Prthu was an incarnation of the Personality of Godhead. Although the King denied such praise because he was not at that time exhibiting his godly qualities, the reciters did not stop praising him. Rather, they were very pleased with the King, who, although actually an incarnation of God, was so humble and delightful in his dealings with devotees. In this connection we may note that previously (4.15.21) it was mentioned that King Prthu was smiling and was in a pleasant mood while speaking to the reciters. Thus we have to learn from the Lord or His incarnation how to become gentle and humble. The King’s behavior was very pleasing to the reciters, and consequently the reciters continued their praise and even foretold the King’s future activities, as they had been instructed by the sadhus and sages.

“Praise of King Prthu by the Professional Reciters” this is the name of the chapter. Prthu, what is he known for? the nine processes of devotional service, then for each process there is one devotee who kind of stands out, he is remembered immediately as soon as we say for instance, we say,

“Sravanam”- then which devotee we remember- Maharaja.

“Kirtana”- , Sukadeva Goswami, “Smaranam”- Maharaja.

There are other names also who could be said also, some kind of established understanding that these devotees. Then when we come for “archanam”- Prthu, Prthu Maharaja.

Prthu Maharaja is the topic, he is being praised, King Prthu’s appearance, that the subject matter and after he has appeared and after he has been enthroned, he is being praised by the reciters and he says, ‘no, no, no no, no, not yet, not yet, don’t praise me, I am not praiseworthy yet’ and he said he is a newcomer, ‘I have not manifested all those qualities and ‘maybe you are giving me some more….’. He is thinking like that, O! reciters, you are praising me, maybe this is your expectations, I understand, but I haven’t achieved that evolution or level of qualities and but I understand, this is what you expect but I should not be praised the way you are doing now.

He is incarnation, one of the avataras, saktyavesa of the Lord and hearing these words from him, is quite humbling experience. He has those qualities and he is claiming no.. no.. no.. no I don’t have these qualities. On the contrary, we normally fight, no, no, no I have that quality, no, no, I have more than what you have said. When someone praises us, then we say, Oh! Finally someone has realized that how advanced I am, atleast someone is understanding my advanced stage. So, we fight the other way. We are not yet there, but we say, no, no, we have more than what you think. And Prthu Maharaja says no no, no I am not that, this is too much; wait wait maybe after 10, 20 years could come back and praise me the way you are doing now but right now I am not that….. So, Srila Prabhupada is pointing out this as “humility”. Although actually an incarnation of God, Prthu Maharaja is, he was so humble and delightful in dealing with theses devotees, thus, we have to learn, so some conclusion or some lesson Prabhupada is pointing out. If Prthu Maharaja could be that humble, he does not have to be humble. So, take a lesson and thus we have to learn from the Lord or His incarnation how to become gentle and humble; and the King’s behavior was very pleasing to the reciters. So, this is a natural consequence of the advancement in Krishna consciousness. What is the consequence? That one becomes meek and humble, he takes humble position which is not a false, genuine humility exists and by cultivation of Krsna consciousness, one realizes how insignificant, tiny person he is. He is not the center of the universe or he is not all in all or he is not the Lord of all. Then this is also when a person is knowledgeable, so this knowledge infact. I am just this part and parcel tiny, just a speck, just a dust, this is knowledge; to know as we are.

Knowledge is to know as we are, to know our position as humble servant, this is knowledge, to know things as they are. That’s knowledge, there is nothing, no exaggeration, no demolition even no plus or minus, as it is, that’s knowledge. So we are somebody in relationship with Krsna, we have some value, but we still are, the fact is we are just tiny living entities and the point is, we are not the only one here in this world. Like us, like you and me, there are billions of personalities and they also have to be accommodated and they also have position, humble position of being servant of the Lord and the servant of the servant serving the Lord and serving the devotees of the Lord and that way. We have our position but we are not the only one in the world, there are others and the spirit souls; they are as good as you are, no less. Literally speaking or some circumstances, big small positions in this world, age factor is there, then education in this world other topics, but Maharani says, there are 4 things that people become proud of in this world, one thing is the birth, high birth. For some reason, everyone thinks his birth is very high, because I have taken birth in such and such country, my birth is high, because I have taken birth in aristocratic family my birth is high. Because whatever…you could say so many things, you always have some justification how your birth is very high birth and you attached importance to it high birth, that’s one thing. Then education, education is supposed to make you humble in fact, that’s why you become educated to become knowledgeable of your position, your constitutional position. Education is for that purpose but they never find out who they are, what they are, how tiny they are and who others are and in this whole infrastructure or whole situation they are just one bit, little piece, part of the puzzle. So education, people become proud of education.

Then some kind of beauty. Does anyone think that he is not beautiful? Everyone thinks I am and they look into the mirror and….(Laughter). Everyone is proud of his beauty, master piece or I am the standard. Although everyone has the same, every person has nose, 2 eyes, mouth, forehead, this 4- 5 parts on the face and they have been differently managed, same thing but as soon as you change the positions, different thing happen to you. The tiger, you push his nose down and they have tiger’s nose, cat’s nose. They have the manipulation, Nature is manipulating and just creating different feelings. But the best is, everyone has a mouth, everyone has a nose, nostrils and eyes and forehead, and the chin. There is so much variety, so much variety, for that we should be appreciating God because God’s nature is creating. No two persons are alike except for Pankajanghri and Jananivas in Mayapur. But there is also difference. Those who know, I haven’t figured it out in 30 years (Laughter) don’t tell them. I take long time before I open my mouth. I don’t know who is who there (Laughter) but there is a difference. So the beauty is the eye of the beholder it’s said. Even though the beauty doesn’t exist, the beholder, one who sees, he just feels he thinks, this is a beautiful person. So, like that there is attachment to the beauty.

And then the wealth the 4 things, the high birth then education, beauty, wealth. If I don’t have, I am going to acquire it. I have acquired so much and I have all these plans to acquire more. And I have defeated this enemy and I am going to defeat this many more. This is, Krishna says – demoniac nature, divine and demoniac nature. The thoughts of the demoniac person he always thinking like this, planning like this. So these factors become the bondage and it becomes difficult to exhibit humility. There is every reason they are proud of this possessions or these attributes, beauty, birth, high birth, education. The Lord, He possesses all these qualities, all these opulence’s. Here Prthu does possesses, Prthu Maharaja but he displays his humility. Here Prabhupada is pointing out, look look at this example of Prthu Maharaja, see how humble he is. Be humble; be gentle, gentle, humble. These are qualities of a vaisnava; 26 qualities of vaisnava.

So, there was an assembly of some saintly persons, in . One time, there was a gathering and they were testing who is humble, who is mature. So they decided to find out who is most matured in their knowledge. (Guru Maharaj discussing in Marathi, with a devotee in the audience, what’s his name?). So, we are just trying to gather right figures, right facts there. But the point is, so they decided to check out the humility and maturity of. One person was going to do the examination, he has a stick and he was going to beat on the head and so those who complained, those who protested, those who reacted or those who took their own stick to fight back, so they failed. And those who tolerated the beating on the head, they passed the test, they were considered humble, tolerant.

In other word, not identifying with the body or bodily concept and….No I am different from the body, you rascal, don’t hit me, you hit me! Prabhupada gave that example; someone in the back car dashed into the front car, the person in the front car said, ‘you, you hit me! You hit me!’ that person in the back car, the driver, I didn’t hit you, I hit only your car! But this person in the front car, he identifies himself so much with the car. Although his car was hit from behind, he is, he exclaimed, ‘No! You hit me, you! He came out and gave a punch on his nose. So something similar, this bodily concept; identifying with the body. So, education, the high birth, the beauty, the wealth this is all connected with the body. It is here today it will disappear tomorrow, one of these days and all you are left with the soul. Soul is what you are, what we are and not the body. But, we identify everything that is in relation with the body. My birth is here, so I took birth, my body took birth in this country, so immediately I am this, I am American, I am this, took birth in such and such family, oh! I am high birth such and such family. Wealth comes oh! And immediately I am wealthy person, next you go bankrupt and you are despondent. So, all these things, all in relationship with this world outside. So, cutting all these connections cut off and go internalize, turn towards God and then… My position in relationship with the Lord that is knowledge and that is most important. My relationship with this world is comes and goes, changes ever changing. Ya, so you may become , you may fall down, become or indragopa germ, some germ its known as indragopa germ, I don’t know, have you seen? Some insignificant germ you become next day you may become Indra.

So, up and down you go, So that’s changing but there is one thing that never changes and answer is ‘ei jiva krsna das e biswas’ Bhaktivinoda Thakura says, ‘ei jiva krsna das e biswas’. These jivas, these living entities are Krsna’s dasa, Krsna’s servants. By knowing this, he says ‘korle to ar duhkho nai’, all your duhka, all your miseries finished. The day you are convinced that I am spirit soul and I am servant of Krsna, ‘ei jiva krsna das e biswas’. Full conviction that I am part and parcel of Krishna, I am servant of Krsna eternally, that is my position. I am eternally servant of Krishna. Thus, finished, you don’t have to bother with some promotion or demotion, promoted to become Indra, demoted to become germ, indra germ. You are free, fixed; my position is I am servant of Lord Krishna. Then, you don’t have to bother and whatever happens in this world up and going down. Others may think you are going up and down but you are fixed as a servant of Krsna, mind fixed to the last breath, not aspiring like Desai, could become Prime Minister; then you’ll come back, you’ll strive to become Prime Minister, all attached to the nice home, nice family, then you may have to come back. You could come back to the same house but you come back as a rat, in the same house you stay but as a rat.

So, the best policy is to find out, ‘ke ami’. This is ’s program, ‘ke ami’, he inquired that to Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Benaras, . He ‘ke ami’ and why am I going through this, ‘tapa-traya’, why these four miseries; adhyatmika, adhidaivika, adhibautika are bothering me, torturing me, why? Why? This is his question and anyway we are going in philosophical here. The purpose was to say some more pastimes, Pandharpur dhama, Vitthala .

In Remuna in Orissa, then Pandharpur, I don’t know other places; they allow abhishek in front of you, then dressing in front of you. There are only few temples in varsa. There is no curtain between you and the Lord. This is Lord’s private..this is something that has privileged, of course she doesn’t just sit around and watch , she is the one who does the bathing, changing clothes and putting on new clothes and the other assist. So, this is the Lord’s very confidential and internal and eternal spiritual affair pastimes. The bathing is a pastime; whole world is bathing, no big deal. The Lord is bathing, Lord is being dressed. Every time new experience, elevating, evolution and finally you show the mirror to the Lord.

(Guru Maharaj says) I remember when I was the head pujari in Rasabihari temple, within couple of hours dressing Radha Rasabihari. Then turban and then peacock. As soon as you add turban, it would enhance the beauty and the peacock and then finally flute comes, that’s kind of order. And then you show the mirror to the Lord and while He is looking into the mirror, you look at Him and sometimes, happened few times, there is no peacock feather, you are showing mirror to the Lord!!! Then you realize, oh!..Then immediately….the flute is not there, you are showing the mirror to the Lord!!!(Laughter). So, that feeling, you look at the Lord while He is looking into the mirror after you have personally dress Him. The Lord is appreciating, you have dressed Him and He is appreciating the way He has been dressed by you. You feel, oh! The Lord is happy!

When I was the head pujari, brahmacari, I just had dhoti, I didn’t even have kurta (Laughter). It didn’t matter in it was manageable without kurta or sometimes kurta, sometimes no kurta because also you cannot offer arati with a kurta on, and I had to offer 6 aratis, I was offering 6 aratis, every arati, so taking off kurta, putting on I was not bothering, I was just keeping it aside. So I didn’t have to bother about myself, my dressing, how I looked like. I was just happy seeing the Lord is happy. The Lord is satisfied, it doesn’t matter how you are looking like.

All lifelong all that you cared is your beauty, you looking into the mirror, praising your own beauty, appreciating your own beauty, your raised nose and your eyes reaching almost ears and if they didn’t reach, you going kind of stretching them with the kajal and ointment and brushing, dragging them. Although your eyes are just like a monkey, you want to make them like a deer and so many other attempts are there. And finally that body dwindles and death, all lifelong you appreciating your body, you attempting to improve your body and skin care and nail care and this polish and that polish. Useless, all that labor finally burnt to the ashes. That beauty you thought was beautiful. What a waste!! All those thoughts gone, finished.

Instead you should appreciate the beauty, appreciate the beauty of the Lord and all that appreciation is to your eternal credit. Purifying and not that you are not beautiful, but that’s not your body that is beautiful, the soul is beautiful, soul is beautiful, soul is Krishna’s child, Krsna is beautiful. The parents are beautiful then the children are also beautiful, isn’t it? That happens, the parents are beautiful featured then the children are also beautiful. So, Krsna is beautiful then His children, the souls are beautiful. We should be more proud of the soul’s beauty not body’s beauty. Soul’s beauty is also eternal, not only soul is eternal, soul’s beauty is also eternal.

So, this Lord Vitthala, Tukarama Maharaja says“sundar te dhyan ubhe vitevari kara katavari thevoniyaa” meditation on the Lord. This is a beautiful meditation of the Lord, Lord who is standing with His hands on His hips. This is “sundar te dhyan ubhe vitevari” the Lord who is standing on the brick. ‘tulsi har gada kase pitambar aavade nirantar hechi dhyana’ the Lord with the garland, tulasi garland this is special feature, I think no deity in the world I would say doesn’t get as much as tulasi and garlands as much as Lord Vitthala gets. No worship of is complete without tulasi. That’s there offering tulasi to the feet, offering tulasi in the offering plate on each item. But here there are many tulasi they used, tulasi garlands, tulasi mala, ‘tulsi har gada ‘.

So, Tukarama has praised the Lord, ‘Oh! Lord, you have the garland around your neck, ‘tulsi har gad’ always there is a garland. Tulasi at your feet, tulasi around your neck because she is very dear. Something that is very dear to you, where you put that object? You put around your neck, so tulasi is very dear, so tulasi is around the neck of the Lord.‘kase pitambar aavade nirantar hechi dhyana’ Oh! Lord, you with a tulasi garland and the bright yellow garments as you wear, I like to remember that form eternally. ‘makar kundale talapti shrwani kanti koustubhmani virajati’ makar kundale – then there are earrings like a shark, the fish and they are dazzling and that dazzle that glitter of the earrings then reflects on your face because they are shinning, sometimes shaking is there, so your face is already bright face, it becomes even more brighter as with the shinning of the earrings. ‘kanti koustubhmani virajati’ ‘ and around Your neck there kanti, kaustuba , special mani jewel called kaustubha, no one else has a kaustubha jewel. When they did the churning of the ocean, the demigods on one side, the demons on another side and the milk ocean was being churned, 14 different items emerged from that churning and kaustubha mani was one of the jewels obtained and it was given to Vishnu, Krsna, oh! this is for You. So from that time onwards Vishnu is wearing that Kaustubha mani. Prior to that it was a bit difficult. If you go to , the residence of Vaikuntha, they look like Vishnu with four hands, they also have crowns and so many similar features, so difficult to know who is who, you may be doing ‘jaya jagadish hare’ to some living entity (Laughter). You thought he is the Lord, that looks like Him, but that’s not Him! So, there was a difficulty like that in recognizing the Lord so He was given this kaustubha mani. That easy, right? One with the kaustubha mani is Vishnu, everyone else is His devotee, part and parcels. This kaustubha mani is like the I.D of the Lord. Oh! he is not the Lord, not the Lord, no kaustubha mani, not him, not him, not him, not him, Yes!! Him! Because He has kaustubha mani, ‘kanti koustubhmani virajati’.

So, “Tuka mhane maze hechi sarv sukh!! Pahin shri mukh avadine” Tukarama Maharaja says, this is it, this beautiful form of the Lord standing on the brick wearing yellow garments, tulasi garland around His neck, kaustubha mani on His chest and earrings hanging from His ears, this Lord, this I , I am just happy to meditate upon this Lord. So, this Lord, He came here from and then He never went away! This deity is not installed by anybody; this understands of Tukarama and others. Lord came here and He stood here and He is waiting for His devotees to come to Him.

So, briefly you could say, that once in Dwarka, Rukmini noticed that her husband, Dwarakadhish was paying some extra attention to some young beautiful women. And she didn’t know who she was and the way He was mixing, mingling, very familiar and joking and He had good time and He was so friendly with them. And Rukmini was saying, Oh! Look! He is, He never behaves like this with me, first of all what business He has to talk with other women, so confidentially, so close and right here in my palace! In front of my nose! NO! She was very very upset, with her He has a different dealing, He acts like a boss, you shut up Rukmini, hey! I say shut down, but He was not doing like that; He was very friendly with these strange ladies. Rukmini has never seen before, certainly they were exceptionally beautiful, a group and there was one leader of that group. So, the headed by Radharani, they were in Dwarka and so, Rukmini was naturally very disappointed with her husband, very upset, almost on the verge of going for divorce…just she didn’t go to any court or just she decided to quit or go away. So, she went away and travelled and travelled. Because she is from we could say so, we can’t read the mind of Rukmini, we don’t have access to Rukmini’s thoughts but we could say something that Rukmini appeared in Maharashtra is one of the state in India called Maharashtra. She appeared near Amravati, we have ISKCON center and we have ISKCON in the place of Rukmini’s birth!! Haribol!!

The birth place of Rukmini and we have 5 acres of land acquired in Rukmini’s birth place. Lots of time we do take this Maharashtrian tour to Rukmini’s birthplace, Kundinpur. It’s called Kundinpur. This time we didn’t go. I just received the call yesterday from our Akrura prabhu. He was in Kundinpur, Rukmini’s birthplace and he called and said we are also with Rukmini Dwarkanath. We are in Pandharpur, he is in Kundinpur, we were communicating and he is doing some initial land development, digging well and planting trees and fixing one hill; to have , there is a hill already there and it was made like a Govardhan and so he is busy. In future you could go in Rukmini’s birthplace, so, she is from here. Maharashtra is very big, so that’s part of Maharashtra, so she left , Dwarka, Gujarat state and she entered Maharashtra and finally she comes here on the bank of Chandrabhaga. There was a forest called Dindirvana, she selects this, some traces of the forest is still there, and so she was here by herself doing tapasya or leading various austere life away from opulence of Dwarka. And so there back in Dwarka when Dwarkadhish realized nowhere Rukmini to be found in the palace or in Dwarka town, then He started to search, looking for Rukmini.

There are two versions I have come across that says Dwarkadhish directly came here sitting in the and He found Rukmini in Dindirvana, other side of the river; and the other version is, He went to Vrindavana first and from Vrndavana He came to, He was with, He took some cows with Him. He took cowherd boys with Him and the whole entourage is going around looking and searching and they came to a place called Gopalpur, that’s where you were there this morning. And you saw some footprints of the cows, the calves, yes or no? and flute, footprints, mark of the flute so that Gopala,Gopala Krsna, Gopalapur because Krsna came from Vrndavana and thus where He had come and He sits down takes His food, all the cowherd boys are sitting around Him and He finally finding Rukmini here.

So that 2 versions we can say He came directly from Dwarka, the other one He goes to Vrndavana and then He comes with the cows and cowherd boys from Vrndavana. Hence, the Gopalpur here. So He Dwarkadish, Sri Krsna tries to pacify her, His dear wife Rukmini but that didn’t work. She was very furious and fuming fired up.

So, Dwarkadish didn’t succeed so then He remembered, Lord remembered He had promised one devotee who was living in this area, that’s Lord promise was that He would visit him so Lord goes to visit him and his name is Pundalika and Lord knocked at the door. Hey! Who is it? That’s Me! So, Pundalika realized that from the deep voice, not ordinary voice, deep rumbling like when the clouds, thunder, like a thunder, sweet at the same time and he was a devotee and he had a promise. So, he was busy taking care of his vaisnava parents. “Serving vaisnavas is superior than serving Vishnu”. That philosophy. He requested Lord, ‘Lord I am a bit busy, please hold on, I’ll be just now finished, I’ll be with you, just few more minutes, so please take this, this asana for you.’ So, he took a brick and placed in front, please stand. So, Lord took that asana and stood there and then when he was done with serving his vaisnava parents, he was back with the Lord and then the dialogue. And very special appeal from this Pundalika to the Lord. ‘My dear Lord, you please stay here and thank you for your visit, I have been blessed. I am eternally indebted to you but I would like some many more in future blessed, benedicted by your presence, your darshan, so please stay here.’

And so, Lord decided, obliged and He stays on here, then after sometimes Rukmini, she was pacified, she forgave the Lord for His misbehavior, you could say so then she also joined. Because she joined a little later, she has separate temple, separate altar. They are not on the same altar as you have noticed. So, They have stayed on and They are here and we are here and it has taken long long time for us to directly come in contact with Lord face to face. So, this is not deity that was carved in Jaipur and then later on installed, that’s one way of doing things. The other way is called svayambhu, the Lord just manifests and becomes the deity. That is also not the case here. The third and very unique situation; that Lord during His manifest lila, He visits this place and He stands here, He becomes the deity, Lord. Like we know, Dwijavaninath from Navadwipa, there is Gaura Gadadhara temple in one of the nine islands. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Gadadhara they were visiting this Dwijavaninath and this devotee also requested, ‘My dear Lord, please you stay here’. So, when the Lords were requested, you please stay here, so the Lord became the deity but the two Lords also started towards Jagannatha Puri; that’s where They had to go but then this Dwijavaninath and Gauridas Pandit, two names I am hearing, two similar pastimes happened twice. I’ll say Dwijavaninath because I have heard that. So, when the Lords were walking towards Jagannatha Puri, They were leaving, Dwijavaninath ran, My Dear Lord, you stay.. you stay, then as he was requesting you stay, ok We stay. So, those who were walking towards Puri, they became deities and those who had earlier become deities, they began walking and as they are walking, he running to Them, hey! no, no You stay, you stay, ok We stay; They became deities and other party began walking. He was going back and forth and this pastime, Lord is trying to prove, I am not different from My deity and that we could also understand here.

So Lord stayed here and He also returned to Dwarka and continued His pastimes in Dwarka, not that everything was wound up here. That could be big question, oh! Then what happen to the remaining pastimes of the Lord? They happened as They returned. He stayed here and returned to Dwarka at the same time. So, that Lord is here, whole Gopalapur dimension is here, its Krsna, Vitthala is Krsna.

You saw Him eating butter? You noticed? They offered Him big bowl in the middle of arati. You took notice of that? It happens for few minutes….in the middle of the bathing, abhishek, the arati is going on and He is also offered a bowl butter, so He is Krsna. So, that is the basic foundation of ideas, pastimes and once the Lord was here, then always His devotees and Caitanya Mahaprabhu visits then Nityananda prabhu then many others, Sankaracharya and Tukarama. Aand there is chanting and dancing, ya, there lots of faith in chanting the Holy name people have in Maharashtra. Lots of is also distributed in Maharashtra, Marathi language. The most sold Bhagavad Gita as It Is in India is in Marathi language!! More than Hindi, combined sales of India, Hindi Bhagavad Gita distributions, that is defeated by the scores of Bhagavad Gita in Marathi. There is big demand, big number. I remember when 30 years ago, I was selling Bhagavad Gita for 10 rupees, I sold Bhagavad Gita for 10 rupees, whole day I was saying “gita gya gita bagha” .