Daily Class

At the time of death a materialist thinks of his wife and children. He is absorbed in thinking of how they will live and who will take care of them after he leaves. Consequently he is never prepared to give up his body; rather, he wants to continue to live in his body to serve his society, family, friends and so on. Therefore by practicing the mystic yoga system one must become detached from bodily relationships. If despite practicing bhakti-yoga and studying all the Vedic literature, one is afraid of giving up his bad body, which is the cause of all his suffering, what is the use of his attempts to advance in spiritual life?

The only purpose of life is to be fully absorbed in thoughts of Kṛṣṇa and His form, pastimes, activities and qualities. If one is able to think of Kṛṣṇa in this way, twenty-four hours a day, he is already liberated (svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ). Whereas materialists are absorbed in material thoughts and activities, devotees, on the contrary, are always absorbed in thoughts of Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa’s activities. Therefore they are already on the platform of liberation. One has to think of Kṛṣṇa with full absorption at the time of death. Then he will certainly return home, back to Godhead, without a doubt.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is described as sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, the body of eternity, transcendental bliss and full knowledge. Now in this verse He is more fully described. Kṛṣṇa is the creator of the entire cosmic manifestation, yet He is unattached to it. If we were to construct a very tall skyscraper, we would be very attached to it, but Kṛṣṇa is so renounced that although He has created everything, He is not attached to anything (na badhyate).

In his own book, known as Nārada Pañcarātra, Bhagavān Nārada has very vividly described how to work to achieve the ultimate goal of life — devotion — through knowledge and through execution of the mystic yoga system. He has also described the glories of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The great sage Nārada instructed the tenets of this transcendental literature to Sāvarṇi Manu in order to teach those inhabitants of Bhārata-varṣa who strictly follow the principles of varṇāśrama-dharma how to achieve the devotional service of the Lord. Thus Nārada Muni, along with the other inhabitants of Bhārata-varṣa, always engages in the service of Nara-Nārāyaṇa, and he chants as follows.

One must be very serious about self-realization and the practice of austerity. Unfortunately, the people of this Age of Kali do not even know the meaning of austerity. Under these circumstances, the Lord has appeared as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to bestow upon the fallen souls the easiest method of self-realization, technically called ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, cleansing of the dirt from the core of one’s heart. This method is extremely simple. Anyone can chant the glorious kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtana — Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

When the Lord appears in this universe in the form of a human being, He has two purposes, as stated in Bhagavad-gītā — paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām: to destroy the demons and protect the devotees. To protect the devotees, the Lord not only satisfies them by His personal presence but also teaches them so that they will not fall down from devotional service. By His personal example, Lord Rāmacandra taught the devotees that it is better not to enter married life, which is certainly followed by many tribulations.

Lord Śrī Rāmacandra is so kind and merciful to His devotees that He is very easily satisfied by a little service rendered by anyone, human or not. This is the special advantage of worshiping Lord Rāmacandra, and there is the same advantage in worshiping Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Rāmacandra, in the manner of kṣatriyas, sometimes showed Their mercy by killing asuras, but Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu awarded love of God without difficulty even to the asuras. All the incarnations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead — but especially Lord Rāmacandra, Lord Kṛṣṇa and, later, Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu — delivered many of the living entities present before Them, indeed almost all of them.

Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu had a very sincere devotee whose name was Kholāvecā Śrīdhara and whose only business was to sell pots made of the skin of banana trees. Whatever income he had, he used fifty percent for the worship of mother Ganges, and with the other fifty percent he provided for his necessities. On the whole, he was so very poor that he lived in a cottage that had a broken roof with many holes in it. He could not afford brass utensils, and therefore he drank water from an iron pot. Nevertheless, he was a great devotee of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He is a typical example of how a poor man with no material possessions can become a most exalted devotee of the Lord. The conclusion is that one cannot attain shelter at the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa or Śrī Caitanya Gosāñi through material opulence; that shelter is attainable only by pure devotional service.

Since the Lord is always spiritually qualified, He is attached to servants who always render transcendental loving service unto Him. He is attached to the truth in life, not to brahminical qualities. Indeed, He is never attached to any material qualities. Although He is the Supersoul of all living entities, He is specifically manifest to those who are self-realized, and He is especially dear to the hearts of His transcendental devotees. Because Lord Rāmacandra descended to teach human society how dutiful a king should be, He apparently gave up the company of mother Sītā and Lakṣmaṇa. Factually, however, He could not have given them up. One should therefore learn about the activities of Lord Rāmacandra from a self-realized soul. Then one can understand the transcendental activities of the Lord.

“I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda, who is always situated in various incarnations such as Rāma, Nṛsiṁha and many subincarnations as well, but who is the original Personality of Godhead known as Kṛṣṇa and who incarnates personally also.”