- On the specific sequence of the Bhagavat-katha.
- On the location where the Bhagavat-katha was recited: Naimisaranya Forest, on the banks of the Gomadi River.
- On pertinent questions to be asked of the sadhu in the Harikatha.
- The five questions asked in the Bhagavat-katha.
- The first question: What is the most sacred thing?
- On sreya, that which is gratifying to the soul, and preya, which gives satisfaction to the senses.
- On our soul that cries out for Harikatha and we don’t realize it.
- For the benefit of the soul, sreya is the most sacred Bhagavat-katha.
- Second question: How can the soul achieve happiness?
- The soul is only happy if it practices Bhakti incessantly and without cause, that is, everyone should practice devotional service to the Lord, this is suddha-bhakti.
- Bhakti only applies to Krishna.
- Quote from Gurudeva’s book: Bhakta, Bhakti, Bhagavan.
- Third question: Why did God appear in this world as the son of Devaki and from the womb of mother Yasodha?
- The answer to this question is in the Tenth canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam.
- Explanation for the six limbs of surrender.
- Fourth question: Glorification of the 26 incarnations of Krishna, avatar Lila Katha.
- Fifth question: They asked to hear about Krishna and Balarama.
- Sixth question: When Krishna left this world, where did religion take refuge?
- Story of an atheist king who offended a sadhu.
TRANSCRIPT Time Stamp – 1:31:45 – 1:50:24
When Krishna departed from this material world, Kali-yuga has come. Kali-yuga people are always are quarreling, making quarrel to each other. This is their nature. Kali-yugas nature is always making the quarrel. With reason, without reason. Stupid nonsense. They’re not doing bhajana and sadhana, nothing. They’re always making quarrel. Nowadays it is very easy to quarrel. How to make quarrel? Go to facebook. If you want to go to direct naraka (hell) go there and write.
Do bhajana and sadhana and chant holy name! No. Only stupid nonsense. Try to realize.
kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann
asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ
kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya
mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet
Srimad-Bhagavatam (12.3.51)
[My dear King, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still one good quality about this age: Simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom.]
In this Kali-yuga people have millions and millions of faults. This is their nature. They’re not looking at their own fault. This is the nature of Kali-yuga. Kali-yuga people are looking at others faults. Not looking at their own faults. Stupid nonsense. Arre, chant holy names. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told,
kāhāre nā kare nindā
‘kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa’ bole ajaya
caitanya sei jinibeka hele
Chaitanya-bhagavata (Madhya-khanda 10.312)
[One who constantly chants the names of Krishna without offending others can easily control the unconquerable Sri Chaitanyadeva with his love.]
Always chant holy names. Or if you look at others faults, all their sins go to you. One day I told very nice beautiful story. Listen to it. Sometimes Upanishads are speaking small, small stories. Then people may understand. If you only speak the shlokas, katha then will be dry. But when you speak the small story, then you may understand. Babies like or not? Babies like what katha? Small, small stories. So for this regard in the Upanishads, there are many places Vyasadeva Gosvami wrote small stories. Then people have interest and listen to asking what happened, what happened.
So, listen. Once one sadhu came in front of one king. That king was completely atheist, he had no faith in sadhu, Guru, Vaishnava, shastra, nothing. Nirvishesha-vadi completely. Nirvishesha, shunya-vadi, that king. Understand? Completely nirvishesha and shunya-vadi. He has completely no faith in spiritual things. When sadhu came, he asked to the king,01.33.53 ‘Give some donation’, then king told, ‘No I’ll give nothing’, I am not giving any donation, nothing’. Then sadhu said, ‘Give something!’. That time king joked with the sadhu. Sometimes when you joke with a sadhu, big problem will come, if sadhu wants.
That time, the king joked with the sadhu. He gave some very bad cow dung to the sadhu, ‘Take this!’. Then the sadhu took that cow dung and a bad smell, maybe some insects, are coming. Very bad smell. Then the sadhu put that bad smelling cow dung in front of the king’s bedroom. Where the king is sleeping, sadhu put cow dung very close there. Then a bad smell started coming. Then the king could not sleep. And king cleaned that cow dung, but again the cow dung is still coming. Sadhu did some mystic power. Again and again the king cleaned that cow dung, but again the cow dung came in same place and bad smell coming. All the people also ran away, bad smell. You cannot imagine, bad smell.
If bad smell is coming here you will sit here or no? No. You will run away. So in the same way, all people ran away. king is thinking ‘What to do?’. Then the king is thinking, ‘Oh maybe I committed an offense at lotus feet of sadhu’. Then king is coming in front of sadhu and very humbly asked, ‘Oh I committed an offense to your lotus feet, so how will this bad smell of the cow dung leave and be removed from this place?’ Then sadhu told, ‘You are very miser, I know you don’t want to give any donations. So you feed the 100 brahmanas every day! For one year”. How many years? One year. One year means how many days? 365 days. “Every day you feed brahmanas”. How many brahmanas? “100 brahmanas you feed everyday, very nice prasada”.
So the king fed the brahmanas every day very nice prasada. So when he fed the brahmanas, that very bad smell disappeared. 364 days past. Last day. Then king told the cook, ‘Hey! Today you prepare also sweet rice and feed to the brahmanas’. Then those who cooked prepared very nice sweet rice. But in the meantime one snake entered into the kitchen room and that snake touched the sweet rice and that sweet rice became completely contaminated with the poison. No one knew. And that sweet rice was fed to the 100 brahmanas. Then they all died. Understand? Then the king is thinking what to do now, this is the last day. 364 day I fed the brahmanas, and now it’s the last day and all brahmanas left their body”. How many brahmanas left boy? 100
Brahmahatya papa. Who will suffer from this brahmahatya papa? Tell to me. This question is coming. Is it who cooked? Or snake? Or king? Who will suffer? King? King did nothing, he did not cook. Or cook ? Those who are cooking? They think this is our duty cooking, if snake comes then what to do. So, now coming in this way. Then the king became very upset. King came in front of the sadhu, ‘Oh today is the last day. I fed the sweet rice but that sweet rice was poisoned and 100 brahmanas died.
Sadhu told, ‘Okay who will take this sinful activity, going to whom? Then sadhu told, ‘Okay you go to one village, and one night you stay in there, then you will realize’. Then the king disguised himself in the form of a sadhu. Simple sadhu. He came to one villagers house and asked to the villagers, ‘Hey! Tonight I want to stay in one place’. That time villagers told, ‘Oh here is one brother and sister, they are staying together. Young brother and youngest sister. They are staying together. They are very pious people. If anyone comes to this village they give shelter’. Understand? So now the king who disguised in the form of a sadhu told to them, ‘Hey brother and sister, just tonight I will stay at your house’. That time they told ‘Okay you can stay at our house no problem’. So king was staying in their house. Early in the morning the king had to leave their house. According to the Vedic culture, if sadhu comes to your house, when sadhu leaves your house you have to follow seven footsteps behind them. Sapta pada. You have to follow. That is called anugamana. When sadhu is going you have to follow. Understand?
So the brother told, ‘Sadhu please wait a couple hours, my sister is meditating. Wait a couple hours’. Then both brother and sister will follow. That is called anuvraja. When sadhu goes out from your house you have to follow his footsteps. At least how many? Seven footsteps. Understand? Otherwise you’ll lose all your charity, donation, punya-karma, everything’s destroyed. Sadhu will take your punya-karma. So when sadhu is going you have to do anuvraja. Anuvraja means you have to follow his footsteps.
So for this regard the brother told, ‘Sadhu please wait. My sister is now meditating. So when she finishes her meditation then we will both follow your footsteps’. So king is thinking ‘Okay, I will wait’. So then after two hours the sister came out from her meditation. Then the brother asked, ‘Oh my sister, why are you so late? You meditated too much today, why? Everyday you’re finishing after two hours. But today maybe 3, 4 hours, why? That time the sister told, ‘Oh my brother listen, today in my meditation, dhyana, one thing is coming. In the heavenly planet, one big problem was coming there. A big debate and discussions going on’. Understand? She told, ‘In my trance I went in the heavenly planet and one big discussion was going on, one big debate. In the debate, Brahma, Shivaji, Narada, all hugh class exalted, even Yamaraja, all came and they discussed one subject. There was one king. He fed sweet rice to 100 brahmanas, but the 100 brahmanas, they left their body, so now brahmatya papa, killing the brahmanas. Who will take that sinful activities? That discussion was going on there’.
When the king heard this, He thought ‘Oh my God! This is my life!’. Then the king asked, ‘What happened, what’s the decision? Brahmaji, Shivaji, Yama Maharaja, what decision did they give?’. ‘Today they did not give a decision. Still a big debate is going on. They told tomorrow we’ll give the decision. So again tomorrow I have to meditate on this subject’. Then the king told, ‘Okay I have to listen to this conclusion. So for this regard the king told, ‘I want to stay one night more’. Then the brother and sister told, ‘Yes you can stay, you’re sadhu, you can stay one day, two days, five days, whatever you want you can stay, no problem’.
So now sadhu is staying how many days? One night more. Then the villagers started to gossip. Because this is the nature of Kali-yuga. ‘Oh this sadhu came to there house and told he’ll only stay one night, but now sadhu is staying two nights, why? Ahh this sadhu must be attached with the young girl’. Many people are also saying different different ways, giving there different gossip. Maybe this way, maybe this way, actually nothing happened.
King is staying in there house to listen to the conclusion. But stupid nonsense villagers, they are gossiping and criticising. Then next morning, the young girl she also meditated. After her meditation the king asked, ‘What is the decision? Who will take the sinful activities of killing the 100 brahmanas? Brahmatya papa, who will take?’. That time the young girl told, ‘Oh Brahmaji and Shivaji gave decision. All the villagers will take’. Because why? Because they criticised to sadhu. Sadhu-ninda.
Try to understand this way. Those who criticise to sadhu, actually all the sin is going to the people who are criticising.
So Srimad-Bhagavatam m is saying, ‘na nindati, na prasaṅgati — vasanti asura’. If you criticise to someone all the sin will go to you also. So that means those who are criticising, they are taking the sinful activity, papa, from there. So shastra is saying never criticise to anyone, chant holy names.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
So try to understand those who are criticising actually they are taking all the sinful activities from the sadhu. Understand? They are thinking ‘Oh I am writing very nice, many people also support to me’ but they don’t know what is going on. After death they have to go to Yamaloka and Yama Maharaja will bitterly beat, ‘Hey stupid nonsense! You criticise to sadhu!’. “
