TO REMEMBER: ALWAYS PREPARING AND SPEAKING WITH ABSOLUTE REVERANCE…

Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to Sri
Guru and Sri Gauranga. Thank you all so much for the opportunity to serve by trying to speak on this
most wonderful topic today: setting the scene for Lord Nrsimhadeva’s appearance day in a few
weeks. I pray for all your blessings to do justice to this topic.

om namo bhagavate vasudevaya x 3

BG 15.19

yo mām evam asammūḍho

jānāti puruṣottamam
sa sarva-vid bhajati māṁ
sarva-bhāvena bhārata

Whoever knows Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, without doubting, is the knower of
everything. He therefore engages himself in full devotional service to Me, O son of Bharata.

Purport

There are many philosophical speculations about the constitutional position of the living entities and
the Supreme Absolute Truth. Now in this verse the Supreme Personality of Godhead clearly explains
that anyone who knows Lord Kṛṣṇa to be the Supreme Person is actually the knower of everything.
The imperfect knower goes on simply speculating about the Absolute Truth, but the perfect knower,
without wasting his valuable time, engages directly in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the devotional service of
the Supreme Lord. Throughout the whole of Bhagavad-gītā, this fact is being stressed at every step.
And still there are so many stubborn commentators on Bhagavad-gītā who consider the Supreme
Absolute Truth and the living entities to be one and the same…

The word bhajati is very significant. In many places the word bhajati is expressed in relationship with
the service of the Supreme Lord. If a person is engaged in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, in the devotional
service of the Lord, it is to be understood that he has understood all the Vedic knowledge. In the
Vaiṣṇava paramparā it is said that if one is engaged in the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa, then there is
no need for any other spiritual process for understanding the Supreme Absolute Truth. He has
already come to the point, because he is engaged in the devotional service of the Lord. He has ended
all preliminary processes of understanding. But if anyone, after speculating for hundreds of
thousands of lives, does not come to the point that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead
and that one has to surrender there, all his speculation for so many years and lives is a useless waste
of time.

om ajnana…
sri caitanya…
namo om…
namaste…

So SP says here that anyone engaged in DS has understood all Vedic knowledge, even without the
intense study that religionists may engage in. In the material world, spiritually realised people are
expected to have studied religious scripture for a long time, and the rendering of physical spiritual
services are not given the same recognition. When LC was questioned about His apparent lack of
Vedic study and constant engagement in chanting Hare Krishna, as if it made Him inferior, He smiled
and claimed exactly that: I am a fool, therefore my SM has told me not to study scripture but to
chant Hare Krishna. Yet, from engagement in DS, which is what chanting is and what so many other
processes are, every understanding of Vedic knowledge is given, because LK promises in BG 10.10: I
give the understanding to those who are devoted to serving Me with love.

In our class today, we will see some of the profound knowledge that PM had, despite being born in a
family of demons. He didn’t have the opportunity to study Vedic scripture in demon school- yes,
there is such a thing- we might say that modern education teaches the same when it denies God and
emphasises material enjoyment, and it would have been fairly difficult to study scripture when your
father was trying to kill you all the time. But what knowledge LK granted him through NM, what he
was inspired within his heart to preach to his friends and when the Lord personally lay His hand on
his head to purify him so he was able completely assimilate all Vedic knowledge is inspiration for us
all to faithfully engage in DS under the guidance of a SM, and we will understand Vedic knowledge
perfectly, for our own purification, but also to preach to others, which is such a great theme in the
prayers of PM. So we will read some of the verses from canto 7, chapter 9: the beautiful prayers of
PM.

Text 8: Prahlāda Mahārāja prayed: How is it possible for me, who have been born in a family of
asuras, to offer suitable prayers to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead? Even until now, all
the demigods, headed by Lord Brahmā, and all the saintly persons, could not satisfy the Lord by
streams of excellent words, although such persons are very qualified, being in the mode of
goodness. Then what is to be said of me? I am not at all qualified.
Text 11: The Supreme Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is always fully satisfied in Himself.
Therefore when something is offered to Him, the offering, by the Lord’s mercy, is for the benefit of
the devotee, for the Lord does not need service from anyone. To give an example, if one’s face is
decorated, the reflection of one’s face in a mirror is also seen to be decorated.

So PM begins his prayers most humbly, and this is the way that we should also. Krishna is always
most receptive to our humility so we must always approach Him in this way. Even if we’re coming
forward with the most eloquent words and opulent offerings, Krishna doesn’t need it. He has
everything already and is simply giving us a chance to be benefitted by rendering some services to
Him. The analogy that PM gives is of the mirror: one may think that the Lord is benefitting from the
offering but the benefit is reflected on us

Text 12: Therefore, although I was born in a demoniac family, I may without a doubt offer prayers to
the Lord with full endeavor, as far as my intelligence allows. Anyone who has been forced by
ignorance to enter the material world may be purified of material life if he offers prayers to the Lord
and hears the Lord’s glories.

So PM is encouraging us here because we are the ones actually steeped in ignorance: he is a pure
devotee already, further purified by Narada muni’s instructions before his birth, and now completely
purified by Lord Nrsimhadeva’s touch so there is no question of ignorance from him. But we may not
feel qualified to offer any words of prayer because of our ignorant state. But no matter how simple,
prayers are always accepted and are an important aspect of DS, so we should always try to offer
them whenever possible

Text 13: O my Lord, all the demigods, headed by Lord Brahmā, are sincere servants of Your Lordship,
who are situated in a transcendental position. Therefore they are not like us [Prahlāda and his
father, the demon Hiraṇyakaśipu]. Your appearance in this fearsome form is Your pastime for Your
own pleasure. Such an incarnation is always meant for the protection and improvement of the
universe.
Text 14: My Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, please, therefore, cease Your anger now that my father, the great
demon Hiraṇyakaśipu, has been killed. Since even saintly persons take pleasure in the killing of a
scorpion or a snake, all the worlds have achieved great satisfaction because of the death of this
demon. Now they are confident of their happiness, and they will always remember Your auspicious
incarnation in order to be free from fear.

So SP says that although the Lord always appears to save the devotees and kill the demons but in
this instance, the devotees like the demigods were a little afraid of this fierce anger that the Lord
displayed. So PM is asking the Lord to give up this mood and be peaceful again. The Lord’s anger is
not like ours that originates from our false egos and which is harmful for others. Lord Nrsimhadeva
tolerated all kinds of criticism and abuse from Hiranyakasipu without being affected; His anger was
because of PM being threatened and was therefore for the good of the universe because once the
demon was killed, everyone was happy, and in future, everyone would be able to take refuge in this
fierce form of Krishna when faced with danger

Text 17: O great one, O Supreme Lord, because of combination with pleasing and displeasing
circumstances and because of separation from them, one is placed in a most regrettable position,
within heavenly or hellish planets, as if burning in a fire of lamentation. Although there are many
remedies by which to get out of miserable life, any such remedies in the material world are more
miserable than the miseries themselves. Therefore I think that the only remedy is to engage in Your
service. Kindly instruct me in such service.
Text 18: O my Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, by engaging in Your transcendental loving service in the
association of devotees who are liberated souls [haṁsas], I shall become completely
uncontaminated by the association of the three modes of material nature and be able to chant the
glories of Your Lordship, who are so dear to me. I shall chant Your glories, following exactly in the
footsteps of Lord Brahmā and his disciplic succession. In this way I shall undoubtedly be able to cross
the ocean of nescience.

So this is an interesting statement of PM, that to get out of material miseries by other processes like
monotonous, dry studies or austere yoga or anything else that’s recommended other than DS, is
more miserable than the miseries itself! There are, of course, people who think that they are
experiencing happiness by these remedies but that is because they don’t know the real happiness of
devotional service. SP says that the happiness of this world is only the temporary cessation of pain.
When have the association of devotees in which we can render services as PM advises, then we not
only experience real happiness, but we also attain liberation from pain for good

Text 19: My Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, O Supreme, because of a bodily conception of life, embodied souls
neglected and not cared for by You cannot do anything for their betterment. Whatever remedies
they accept, although perhaps temporarily beneficial, are certainly impermanent. For example, a
father and mother cannot protect their child, a physician and medicine cannot relieve a suffering
patient, and a boat on the ocean cannot protect a drowning man.
Text 22: My dear Lord, O supreme great, You have created this material world of sixteen
constituents, but You are transcendental to their material qualities. In other words, these material
qualities are under Your full control, and You are never conquered by them. Therefore the time
element is Your representation. My Lord, O Supreme, no one can conquer You. As for me, however, I
am being crushed by the wheel of time, and therefore I surrender fully unto You. Now kindly take
me under the protection of Your lotus feet.

When we think that we are the body and don’t care for the worship of Krishna, then we don’t get
the full protection of the Lord. We are simply at the mercy of whatever Time has in store for us. So
we may try in limited means to protect ourselves and others under our care but we have no
guarantee of success because the time factor deteriorates everything that is made of the material
elements, and in 3 places in BG, Krishna says that He is Time, the ultimate decider of all our Fates. In
the 11th chapter of BG, Arjuna actually sees this terrifying aspect of Time devouring everything. And
as he took shelter of Krishna, so does PM and so should all of us

Text 23: My dear Lord, people in general want to be elevated to the higher planetary systems for a
long duration of life, opulence and enjoyment, but I have seen all of these through the activities of
my father. When my father was angry and he laughed sarcastically at the demigods, they were
immediately vanquished simply by seeing the movements of his eyebrows. Yet my father, who was
so powerful, has now been vanquished by You within a moment.
Text 24: My dear Lord, now I have complete experience concerning the worldly opulence, mystic
power, longevity and other material pleasures enjoyed by all living entities, from Lord Brahmā down
to the ant. As powerful time, You destroy them all. Therefore, because of my experience, I do not
wish to possess them. My dear Lord, I request You to place me in touch with Your pure devotee and
let me serve him as a sincere servant.
Text 25: In this material world, every living entity desires some future happiness, which is exactly like
a mirage in the desert. Where is water in the desert, or, in other words, where is happiness in this
material world? As for this body, what is its value? It is merely a source of various diseases. The so-
called philosophers, scientists and politicians know this very well, but nonetheless they aspire for
temporary happiness. Happiness is very difficult to obtain, but because they are unable to control
their senses, they run after the so-called happiness of the material world and never come to the
right conclusion.

So PM has stated these truths millions of years ago. Still today, people are making the same mistakes
over and over: mistaking themselves for the body, trying to satisfy this body’s cravings with no
thought of spiritual life, and then they are vanquished like Hiranyakasipu in a moment, with all the
cherished plans and achievements vanquished also. We remember when Maharaj Yudhisthira was
asked what the most amazing thing in this world is, and he replied that, everyone is aware that
others are dying around them, but still they are living as if they won’t die, not looking for any reality
beyond this life

Text 26: O my Lord, O Supreme, because I was born in a family full of the hellish material qualities of
passion and ignorance, what is my position? And what is to be said of Your causeless mercy, which
was never offered even to Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva or the goddess of fortune, Lakṣmī? You never put
Your lotus hand upon their heads, but You have put it upon mine.
Text 27: Unlike an ordinary living entity, my Lord, You do not discriminate between friends and
enemies, the favorable and the unfavorable, because for You there is no conception of higher and
lower. Nonetheless, You offer Your benedictions according to the level of one’s service, exactly as a
desire tree delivers fruits according to one’s desires and makes no distinction between the lower and
the higher.

So PM is saying that even a devotee who is born in the worst social circumstances- there’s not much
worse that one can have then being born in a family of demons, and that too, the greatest demons
of the time- if one is sincere in their services, they can attain favours from Krishna that the great
demigods do not have. And PM states another analogy here about desire trees: we don’t have a
concept of that here, when material trees just deliver fruits indiscriminately. But in the spiritual
world, desire trees will deliver fruits according to what one wants. So Krishna can give one material
pleasures with all the concomitant troubles that it brings if we want, and if we want DS, then He
gives us that, even if we aren’t from high class families
Text 28: My dear Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, because of my association with material
desires, one after another, I was gradually falling into a blind well full of snakes, following the
general populace. But Your servant Nārada Muni kindly accepted me as his disciple and instructed
me how to achieve this transcendental position. Therefore, my first duty is to serve him. How could I
leave his service?

So this is a very powerful point: PM is standing in front of the SPG, but saying that his first duty is to
serve the SM. Without the SM, we cannot get Krishna. Without NM, PM would not have gotten Lord
Nrsimhadeva. And the Lord appreciates when we acknowledge the position of the SM in our lives,
because He loves when His devotees are praised more than when He is, and because we display
humility by not trying to jump over the SM to Krishna directly

Text 29: My Lord, O unlimited reservoir of transcendental qualities, You have killed my father,
Hiraṇyakaśipu, and saved me from his sword. He had said very angrily, “If there is any supreme
controller other than me, let Him save you. I shall now sever your head from your body.” Therefore I
think that both in saving me and in killing him, You have acted just to prove true the words of Your
devotee. There is no other cause.

So the Lord takes the word of the devotee very seriously, but we have to be serious about our
words. We can’t speak with negative emotions, pride or with any motivation other than the Lord’s
pleasure. When we speak that which is properly motivated, soundly based on scripture, with love for
the Lord and for the ultimate benefit of humanity, Krishna stands by those words and always proves
them true. As it was so for PM, it can be so for us

Text 30: My dear Lord, You alone manifest Yourself as the entire cosmic manifestation, for You
existed before the creation, You exist after the annihilation, and You are the maintainer between the
beginning and the end. All this is done by Your external energy through actions and reactions of the
three modes of material nature. Therefore whatever exists — externally and internally — is You
alone.
Text 31: My dear Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, the entire cosmic creation is caused by
You, and the cosmic manifestation is an effect of Your energy. Although the entire cosmos is but You
alone, You keep Yourself aloof from it. The conception of “mine and yours,” is certainly a type of
illusion [māyā] because everything is an emanation from You and is therefore not different from
You. Indeed, the cosmic manifestation is nondifferent from You, and the annihilation is also caused
by You. This relationship between Your Lordship and the cosmos is illustrated by the example of the
seed and the tree, or the subtle cause and the gross manifestation.

So another analogy here is of the seed and the tree: the tree comes from the seed but we do not see
the seed once the tree grows: the Lord is the source of everything, and so in one sense, everything is
Him, even though we can’t see Him in everything with our eyes. So when we see through the eyes of
guru, sadhu and sastra that tell us how Krishna is in everything, we get the faith to serve Him so that
in time being purified by this DS, we can see Him in everything also

Text 38: In this way, my Lord, You appear in various incarnations as a human being, an animal, a
great saint, a demigod, a fish or a tortoise, thus maintaining the entire creation in different planetary
systems and killing the demoniac principles. According to the age, O my Lord, You protect the
principles of religion. In the Age of Kali, however, You do not assert Yourself as the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, and therefore You are known as Triyuga, or the Lord who appears in three
yugas.
Now this verse is a reference to our most beloved Lord Caitanya: He does not assert Himself as God,
but as the perfect devotee. Lord Caitanya would hear the pastimes of Prahlad Maharaj and Dhruva
Maharaj over and over, and this is instructive because SP says that people want to skip over the
parts of the SB that are philosophical and whimsically read what they want- usually the 10 th canto so
that they can criticise or imitate Krishna’s pastimes, but there is so much nectar in every verse of SB,
and so all of it must be approached systematically from the 1 st canto and appreciated

Text 39: My dear Lord of the Vaikuṇṭha planets, where there is no anxiety, my mind is extremely
sinful and lusty, being sometimes so-called happy and sometimes so-called distressed. My mind is
full of lamentation and fear, and it always seeks more and more money. Thus it has become most
polluted and is never satisfied in topics concerning You. I am therefore most fallen and poor. In such
a status of life, how shall I be able to discuss Your activities?
Text 41: My dear Lord, You are always transcendentally situated on the other side of the river of
death, but because of the reactions of our own activities, we are suffering on this side. Indeed, we
have fallen into this river and are repeatedly suffering the pains of birth and death and eating
horrible things. Now kindly look upon us — not only upon me but also upon all others who are
suffering — and by Your causeless mercy and compassion, deliver us and maintain us.
Text 42: O my Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, original spiritual master of the entire world,
what is the difficulty for You, who manage the affairs of the universe, in delivering the fallen souls
engaged in Your devotional service? You are the friend of all suffering humanity, and for great
personalities it is necessary to show mercy to the foolish. Therefore I think that You will show Your
causeless mercy to persons like us, who engage in Your service.

So this is our hope: that the greatest personality, Krishna, will show mercy to us, the foolish. But
then we have to remember that we have to react in the same way when others act foolishly towards
us. Whatever mercy, compassion, tolerance, forgiveness and love that we expect from the Lord, we
have to show to others

Text 43: O best of the great personalities, I am not at all afraid of material existence, for wherever I
stay I am fully absorbed in thoughts of Your glories and activities. My concern is only for the fools
and rascals who are making elaborate plans for material happiness and maintaining their families,
societies and countries. I am simply concerned with love for them.
Text 44: My dear Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, I see that there are many saintly persons indeed, but they are
interested only in their own deliverance. Not caring for the big cities and towns, they go to the
Himālayas or the forest to meditate with vows of silence [mauna-vrata]. They are not interested in
delivering others. As for me, however, I do not wish to be liberated alone, leaving aside all these
poor fools and rascals. I know that without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, without taking shelter of Your lotus
feet, one cannot be happy. Therefore I wish to bring them back to shelter at Your lotus feet.

So this is the personal mission statement of everyone in ISKCON. SP created this movement in this
spirit of PM, for preaching this most essential knowledge to everyone. We can’t simply be happy
with our own advancement. As the saying goes, when we rise, we lift others also. This is the way that
we get the ultimate mercy of Krishna: He says of a preacher that, there is none more dear, nor will
there ever be one more dear. So which one of us wants to be dearest to Krishna? The answer to this
is to become a preacher of His transcendental message, with love. This is important. PM specifically
states that we must do this with love, else we end up talking at people, and not to them. Whatever
we say must be for their benefit and not our glory. This is how we will touch their hearts

Text 49: Neither the three modes of material nature [sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa], nor
the predominating deities controlling these three modes, nor the five gross elements, nor the mind,
nor the demigods nor the human beings can understand Your Lordship, for they are all subjected to
birth and annihilation. Considering this, the spiritually advanced have taken to devotional service.
Such wise men hardly bother with Vedic study. Instead, they engage themselves in practical
devotional service.
Text 50: Therefore, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, the best of all persons to whom prayers are
offered, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You because without rendering six kinds of devotional
service unto You — offering prayers, dedicating all the results of activities, worshiping You, working
on Your behalf, always remembering Your lotus feet and hearing about Your glories — who can
achieve that which is meant for the paramahaṁsas?

So PM has nicely summarised what is practical DS; how we should be living our lives daily in 6
straightforward ways.
Offering prayers
dedicating all the results of activities
worshiping Krishna
working on His behalf
always remembering His lotus feet, and,
hearing about His glories

Text 51: The great saint Nārada said: Thus Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva was pacified by the devotee Prahlāda
Mahārāja with prayers offered from the transcendental platform. The Lord gave up His anger, and
being very kind to Prahlāda, who was offering prostrated obeisances, He spoke as follows.
Text 52: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Prahlāda, most gentle one, best of the
family of the asuras, all good fortune unto you. I am very much pleased with you. It is My pastime to
fulfill the desires of all living beings, and therefore you may ask from Me any benediction that you
desire to be fulfilled.
Text 53: My dear Prahlāda, may you live a long time. One cannot appreciate or understand Me
without pleasing Me, but one who has seen or pleased Me has nothing more for which to lament for
his own satisfaction.
Text 54: My dear Prahlāda, you are very fortunate. Please know from Me that those who are very
wise and highly elevated try to please Me in all different modes of mellows, for I am the only person
who can fulfill all the desires of everyone.

So Lord Nrsimhadeva was very pleased with PM and offered him all benedictions, but as we will see
PM refused anything material. He had witnessed his father’s downfall because of his addiction to
material pleasures, so we should be wary of the same and always strive for pure DS, which is the
only benediction worth attaining

Thank you very muc h for your kind attention. SP ki! Jaya!