Listen to this class
One should select a competent, bona-fide speaker and then hear from him. When the hearing process is perfect and complete then the other processes automatically become perfect in their own way! So this hearing process is not an intellectual process. Although, the intellect is certainly part of the process, one would certainly have to apply his intelligence to understand reasons and arguments that are given for Krsna’s qualities, Krsna’s nature, Krsna’s appearance and so on – His name, fame, fortune and pastimes. But hearing is different, it is of a different nature:
śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ
hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṇi
vidhunoti suhṛt satām (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.17)
The vidhunoti is a utensil being used in India just before the winter. These men walk through the streets with a big bow. They play on this bow and it is loud, extremely loud. When they walk through the street, you wonder, ‘What kind of music is this?’
Everybody knows the purpose of this bow. Just before the winter, they call these men into their house and they pull out all their old quilts. He opens them up and plays his bow over the cotton and the sound vibration fluffs up that cotton which is caked and packed in that quilt and it becomes loosened up.
So in this way, all this dirt that is caked in our heart and is pressed down by piles of sinful activities on top of more sinful activities. And the weight of all those sinful activities are pressing it down and making it a very thick and hard layer which even when brushed, doesn’t come off! Just like how coal stays black, one of those pots that had been charcoaled and which has been burned and you scrape but still not clean:
ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ (Sri Sri Siksastaka, verse 1)
This transcendental sound, penetrates, shakes it up and removes all these impurities. But not only that; it is explained in the Padma Purana:
aprārabdha-phalaṁ pāpaṁ
kūṭaṁ bījaṁ phalonmukham
krameṇaiva pralīyeta
viṣṇu-bhakti-ratātmanām
This aprārabdha karma, this unmanifest – all these reactions that are stored within the heart – it diminishes the stock. It diminishes the inclination. It diminishes the fruits of that karma. So in this way, in all respects, the influence of that karma is being diminished by hearing and chanting!
Let’s make it come true
Prabhupada writes this in a letter to Jayapataka Swami:
“The prediction of Lord Caitanya was that it (the sankirtan movement) would spread to every town and village but Bhakti Vinoda Thakura predicted that people from all over the world would come to Mayapur and chant the holy name.”
Prabhupada said, “The prediction is there, now let us make it come true.”
So you know, we often have this thing; “Prediction, prediction! Let’s see if it is going to happen. On 21 December nothing happened.”
What shall I say? Another let down! Just like the year 2000 also, what a disappointment – this whole Y2K but we had lots of grain for a long time, so that was good. Anyway, Prabhupada didn’t just leave it at the prediction. Yes, the prediction was there but Prabhupada said: “No, now let’s make it come true!”
Why are we giving so much credit to Srila Prabhupada?
I remember that quite some years ago, there was a seminar here which was called, ‘Unzipping Prabhupada’s purports.’ And the idea of that was comparing Prabhupada’s purports to a zip file which actually indicates that Prabhupada’s purports were full of statements of others and that, in a way, they were not Prabhupada’s purports. So the scholarly devotee was questioning, ‘Well, why are we giving so much credit to Prabhupada?’
Of course, that was a little mistake he made. We would say, that is exactly the reasons why we give credit to Prabhupada. Exactly for that reason we give credit to Prabhupada as it shows how faithful he is to the acaryas and that he was not carried away by his own brilliance and that he has some amazing insights. Yes, he has insights and he offers his insights. Certainly, but he also faithfully includes the statements of the acaryas. So that faithfulness is there throughout the Srimad Bhagavatam. Just yesterday I was remembering the statement where Prahupada said, ‘Actually, I haven’t translated the Bhagavatam. Actually, he did it.’ And he pointed at Pradyumna, his Sanskrit editor. ‘They are his translations. He did the translations.’
Because Prabhupada was not so concerned with the translation of the verses. For Prabhupada, the purports were more important than the verses. Tamal Krsna Swami also speaks about that and that is interesting because the verse is the original text and the purport is suppose to be the explanation of the text. ‘The purports are more important than the text’, sounds a little bit awkward. But if you think about it, in another way, then it is obvious because if we would not have these purports, we wouldn’t really capture the essence of the text!. We would get maybe 5 – 10% sometimes, if we are lucky, or sometimes nothing at all. If you go to the allegorical pastimes of Purañjana then thanks to the purports we can figure it out! Otherwise it is so symbolic that you just can’t make sense of it. So the purports are indeed more important than the verses!
Class on Srimad Bhagavatam 1.8.31-36 in Radhadesh, Belgium on 24 January 2013