Lord Varāhadeva

The story is that sometimes the Lord also likes to fight. In the very beginning of the universal creation, there were some opponents of the Lord who appeared. Two extremely powerful brothers. They were conceived by Kaśyapa and Diti, and at an inappropriate time and because they were celestial beings – exalted beings – it was important for them to live by dharma. Their level of responsibility was greater than ours!

Therefore, when Kaśyapa and Diti were not acting appropriately and were engaging in sexual intercourse in an unauthorised time – therefore the pregnancy was not auspicious. It turned out that she was expecting twins and as the children were in the womb and about to appear – many, many inauspicious omens began to appear. For example, it was raining blood from the sky or pus! Sometimes even bones were falling from the sky! So this is kind of shocking…bones - we wonder what is going on? There were comets, just meteors falling left and right and everywhere. It looked like jackals were howling and everywhere there were such inauspicious signs.

The demigods were getting quite worried by these signs. The demigods are the exalted beings that live in the higher regions of the universe, and they are beings that were very much focused on the Supreme Lord. Therefore, these exalted personalities went in before the Supreme Lord and prayed, and asked for clarification. The news came that soon these demons would appear, but the Lord would also kill them, which was a bit of a relief for the demigods.


Then it is said that these two demoniac personalities appeared. Hiranyāksa was the first one to take birth, and the second one of the twins was Hiranyakasipu. The vedic literature considers Hiranyakasipu as the eldest, because it is said that when there is a twin, then at the time of conception – there are two drops of semen that creates these two embryos, and the one that is conceived first is the one that is the deepest within the womb – and that one grows up behind the second one. Therefore, the second one comes out first and it is technically speaking the youngest – so Hiranyakasipu was the elder brother, although he appeared second….Anyway, subsequently these brothers grew up to be very huge and powerful in physique – enormous bodies – muscular and huge, towering over everyone. The earth was trembling with every step. So they were indulging in their power, and basically their mentality was one of being extremely proud of their power, and their desire to lord it over. So Hiranyāksa began to roam over the entire universe and went up to the heavenly planets – but all the devas were hiding from him. So everything was empty. He couldn't find any opponent, and it began to get on his nerves that he was finding only empty space. He then went into the ocean to look for Varuna – knowing that Varuna lives there, and eventually he found him – he had to search. When he found him, then he challenged Varuna for a battle. Varuna explained:

" We used to do these things but these days we are getting a bit older and we have left all that behind. So if you are looking for a worthy opponent, someone powerful to fight with – then the only one who shall match is Vishnu. He will soon finish you off!" That part Hiranyāksa didn't even hear.

Anyway, he went looking for Vishnu. It is said that Hiranyāksa – 'Hirany' means gold and 'āksa' means eyes – his eyes were always on gold. Therefore, Hiranyāksa was eager to collect huge qualities of gold and he was quite an expert. He extracted all the gold from the earth. It is very interesting that the vedic literature then describes what happened, it said: ' As a result of extracting all those minerals the earth went out of it's orbit'. It is mentioned that if we keep on taking oil out of the earth, then the same thing will happen – so that's interesting. Anyway, so the earth went out of it's orbit and was going to the lower regions of the universe, then suddenly, Hiranyāksa found an enormous creature at the bottom of the universe.

"An amphibious beast!" He said

Well he knew that his amphibious beast was Vishnu. This form of the Lord was the Lord in the form of the boar. One might say:

"An incarnation of the Supreme Lord in a form of a boar? A huge boar? Isn't that a bit too far out?"

No, it is not that far out. It is far out, but not too far out, because why would the Supreme Lord have to be boring? He can be a boar, as he desires! In other words, he can play - why would he have to just eternally come down with form? With a halo and sit on a throne and just you know…bless…bless.. bless. I mean you think it's a job to be a God. You think it's a job from nine to five from Monday to Friday – full of duties, something dry and boring. No, when one is God, one can get completely spontaneous – one is not bound by any social rules. One doesn't have to worry what the neighbours think. If one wants to wear a boar costume - it is not something that is brought in a shop around the corner, with one of those big zip up jobs. No – it is the real thing! He becomes a boar and why not, but not an ordinary boar - a boar with lotus hooves! An extremely beautiful boar with wonderful lotus eyes! So our Lord still remains as the Lord.

Well, that was the form that Hiranyāksa was witnessing. 'An amphibious beast?' - inconceivable – but yes. Hiranyāksa was quite ready for action and he stormed at the Lord, carrying a huge knaves - a big club, and d Varāhadeva equally so. They were both experts at club fighting. When Lord Varāha was aiming straight for the eyebrows of Hiranyāksa – the demon expertly knocked it aside and managed to block it. So he knew his stuff undoubtedly.

In fact, it was a real serious fight that went on for quite a long time, and at one point, when the two clubs were colliding with incredible force, it slipped from Lord Varāha's hand. From that point all the demigods said:
"Alas, alas".

They thought: "Now it's getting serious"
Then Hiranyāksa offered him a chance to pick up a weapon so that was actually following rules of combat – some sort of courtesy – not like:
"Okay Now I got you down – bang… kill you now!"

So for that he got some mercy of the Lord. Subsequently, the weapons were falling on both sides and at one point Hiranyāksa managed to just strike Lord Varāhadeva at full force and nothing happened. So then he got so discouraged and threw his club away and Varāhadeva picked it up – to try again, but he wouldn't – he didn't want to try anymore. Then he had a trident and threw this big fiery trident, which was cut into pieces by the discs of Varāhadev who then manifested the form of the four arms of Vishnu.

Finally, at the very end – it was not like love or by any weapon that caused Lord Varāhadeva to kill. Some verses are saying, even in the Bhagavatam – are saying that Lord Varāhadeva pierced the demon with his tusk, but according to Jiva Goswami that was not the cause of death.He said:

" He may have pierced him but he was already dead before, because he died by a very casual slap"

That is clear if we read the Bhagavatam then we can see that, because there are many verses describing that slap and actually showing how with a small back hander sort of - that it did it, and that made the demon crash!


(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Stockholm, February 2011)

 

 

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Symptom of love

 

 

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Chanting with Hope and Enthusiasm

 

 

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Our Survival

We see that the aboriginal lady had a basket of fruit and Krishna came as a child and He brought some grains to barter, but He dropped all the grains on the way - only a little left - but she didn't care any more because He was just so wonderful she gave Him all the fruits, although that was her livelyhood.

So it was not a small thing - because she was very poor, and she gave away basically her livelyhood. How was she going to maintain? But somehow or other Krishna lifted her above this kind of calculating spirit.
"He was so wonderful,I must give Him this fruit. I must!"
Then of course the basket was filled with jewels. In this way Krishna reciprocated. She became even purified from her mundane concerns for survival.

Always thinking about survival:
"How am I going to manage"
"It depends on my endeavor here!"
"You know, we're eating because of my hard work!"
"Because of my intelligence, because of all the arrangements that I'm making we are surviving in this world"
"It's very important! I mean, this is not play! I mean, we're not messing around here! We're getting serious now! We are surviving by work, by intelligence, by scheming, and somehow or other I figured it out! You know, and I'm doing it! I mean, I even put a sign on my door: "Self-made man!"
You see some sort of man that screws a piece of an arm on here and a piece there; a self-made man!

There are so many self-made men in the world who are convinced that by their own endeavors they are maintaining themselves.

Transcribed by Bhakta Frederick
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Radhadesh, Jan 2011)

 

 

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How to Preach?

Devotee : When we are preaching, we may not straight away say that Krishna is God and everything must be done for Him. So we may beat around the bush, so, if you could give further explanation to what point do we give the information?

Maharaja : You cannot write a hand book about that, we have to be personal. We just have to be sensitive. Preaching doesn't mean we are preaching at people:
"Okay I am going to preach to this person, Hare Krishna Hare Rama"
That's one approach - the burn out approach, the vacuum cleaner approach is not the best approach. It is putting two hands around the neck and saying "Chant, Chant, Chant!"
but there is also a subtler approach. In the subtler approach try and attempt to find the spark. Prabhupada said:
"Find the spark and fan it."
Find the spark of interest, find something in them that attracts them to Krishna, so find a connection and then feed that. That is the approach. It is personal.
You cannot say how much?:
"Okay five minutes give indirect and then do like this"
And also different people have different tactics

Transcribed By Madhumati Devi Dasi
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Sydney October 2010)

 

 

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Our Saving Grace

Ignorance is a kind of thing that is destructive to the self and to others. So, ignorance has to go as it is not going to help us. So we have to fight with ignorance.

Passion, we can channel it towards the service to Krishna.

"Oh! This passion!"
just work out for Krishna - so we run, and run, and run and we get so much busy that we don't have time to chant our rounds but somehow or other we are doing it.

"Oh! We are so busy in the service of Krishna, I have no time for myself."

"But your life is already finished"

"Oh! My God, have we got old I never even noticed it, life is so short! I never even had the time for maya! I wanted so many things but it never happened because I had so much service."

One will say that in old age. So, people in the mode of passion can be nicely engaged in service of Krishna so that is our saving grace.

Srila Prabhupada very expertly designed the Hare Krishna movement, he didn't say that we should have a programme that everyday should be a japa retreat. There are Japa retreats where we chant sixty four rounds ...

It is not so easy to chant sixty four rounds everyday, One day maybe if we get ourselves in that mood. Some of us can do, so we are maybe not the strongest in performing these things.


Prabhupada has arranged that there is plenty of service to do - If we can't chant the Holy Name then we can serve the Holy Name, this is the Sankirtan movement of Lord Caitanya.

There is unlimited engagement and that you simply give Krishna Consciousness to the whole world. Well that's enough for a few life times!

So, we have a lot to do and we can present things in a creative way and that will keep us pre-occupied and that is our saving grace.

Transcribed By Madhumati Devi Dasi
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Sydney October 2010)

 

 

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Hearing

I was just talking to the mrdanga player and how mrdanga playing is the most difficult thing. Why is mrdanga playing so difficult? It's extremely difficult because it's not about different beats or different bauls, or even different mantras - It's not about intricate rythms and so on. That is the secondary part.The primary part is about hearing. It's all about hearing. A good mrdanga player is one who listens, who's totally attentive. He's attentive to the kirtana and he's following very carefully to what he hears. That's extremely difficult. Only possible if one chants attentively. If one is an inattentive chanter, one will be an inattentive mrdanga player. For sure. One will do everything inattentive! One goes through life as in a cloud, and just walking like that in that cloud, one will inadvertently do so many things that one later wonders:
"Why did I do that..?"

Transcribed by Bhakta Frederick
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Sweden 2010)

 

 

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Enthrone Him in the Heart.

Narada Muni is explaining in Bhagavatam that as the heart is being purified, then gradually one can enthrone the Supreme Personality of Godhead within the heart. So it's interesting because the Lord was already there as the Supersoul, and now we're going enthrone Him in the heart.

The enthroning of the Lord in the heart is referring to the istha-deva, or to our worshippable Deity which in our case is Krishna, and not so much the Supersoul. The Supersoul is described as being Lord Vishnu. Ksirodakasayi Vishnu. The Paramatma within the heart, and He is the four-armed form of Lord Vishnu. Helmet and ornaments and so on. All the attributes of Vishnu are there.
It is also said that although the followers of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu are most respectful towards Lord Vishnu and they certainly are accepting Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, still they focus on their worship on Lord Krishna and not on Lord Vishnu.
Srila Prabhupada also reminds us of that in the final chapter of the Bhagavad-gita in his purports - he points out that a devotee will certainly offer his obeisances to Lord Vishnu, and then continue His worship of Krishna, -exclusively focus on Krishna. So we are not starting an altar and beginning to kind of place all kinds of Narayana Deities there as well, no. The focus in our sampradaya is exclusively on Krishna.
So interesting that as the heart becomes purified and as we are enthroning the Lord within the heart, we are actually enthroning Lord Krishna in the heart! Then from within the heart it is Krishna who is guiding us.
It is not the Paramatma in It's four-armed form who is guiding us, then it's Krishna directly, within the heart, who is guiding us! ...
We can be very intimately connected with Krishna, and that Krishna within the heart is directly Krishna!
Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Not a picture of Krishna, but Krishna in person. Krishna who is directly relating with us.

Transcribed by Bhakta Frederick
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Radhadesh 2011)

 

 

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How Important are Memories of The Temporary

How important are memories? Some people are controlled by their memories for their whole life. It's like here, I met somebody of 40 years who was just still remembering that he had a bad time in school, and I go:

"Okay, that's bad. That's really bad, I feel for you. I do, I do, but how old are you?!"
"Forty."
"Okay, Forty, Right?
"Yeah."
"And when was school? Are you sure you can still remember?"
It's like ... well, I didn't have that much fun in school either, but at the age 57, it doesn't exactly… I don't feel much connection with school at this stage - I can hardly remember. A few grey memories of my school days, and it was maybe not so much fun. I remember that. I remember, it was not so much fun. Fun was not allowed in school, that I remember. So I didn't like school that much. But it's behind us. So much is behind us.

So memories, why make so much of memories?
"I have such beautiful memories…"
You have such beautiful soap bubbles!
"Beautiful... My beautiful memories, I will never forget." Okay, but it's finished now. It's over. Gone! And they'll never come back. Sorry! So why make so much of it? That's material life. At the end, there's just some memories left. If you're lucky! You may remember that I told about the man with the t-shirt, "Seen it all, heard it all, done it all, but can't remember it all!" I congratulated him!
I met him on an airport and congratulated him and — I said:

"Wow, that's a great t-shirt!"
He said, "You like it?"
I said "Yes!"
He said, "I made it myself."
I said, "Deep! Deep… Very deep!"

Right? It's a fact! So let's see how much we can still remember at the end. So we're speaking about the temporary. Why invest so much in that? It's so obvious that when we begin to invest in Krishna consciousness then it gets very nice, because there's eternal spiritual benefit in whatever we do, and whether the temporary part is okay or not, that is secondary.Like here, whether the program is boring or whether the program is exciting, right? That is secondary. You can say: "Ah, it was a great program! It was just so dynamic and so exciting and so interesting and everything and then the prasadam, it tasted so nice!" But how long will you remember that? What is really important is the eternal benefit even if it was a terrible program!

One of those programs that were like, everything went wrong - "Kirtan was terrible"
"The lecture was *yaaawn*'", and then
"The prasadam... the rice wasn't cooked!"
"Too much salt in the dahl!"
"The subji… It was hard."
"Oh God… And the sweet rice was burnt."
"It was a great program!…" "Yeah, it was a really great program"

Well, at least the eternal side was okay. At least the eternal side was still alright. So that's there, we always have these two elements. The eternal side and the temporary material side. And of the two, the eternal benefit, that's the most important.

Transcribed by Bhakta Frederick
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Sweden 2010)

 

 

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”Even if it's cheap, I'm not buying.”

This particular age of Kali is already going on for 5000 years, we can appreciate that we may have had one or more births, many births before, in this age of Kali.

So most likely, we have during those births engaged in so many sinful activities - and if some of them were human, we are responsible - because the human birth is the one birth where one is held responsible. That we have to understand.

Therefore we cannot expect that things will be smooth, that we will not be attacked by possibly strong material desires. …

We cannot expect that we will not be attacked by some very powerful material desires since the aprarabda-karma is not good in the age of Kali. The unmanifest karma stored in the heart is not good. Therefore it will happen to us! It will happen to us, that we will be attacked by strong, strong desires where we develop the inclination to act against our better knowledge.

Then we should remember, "Now I am a victim of external forces! This is not me! I am simply a playball! A playball on the waves of karma! I'm simply being controlled by external forces. This is not me!"

One has to understand that karma works in this way. We become controlled by simply previous impressions. In this way one must be detached - even detached of what may come in the future.

One has to have a detached attitude, "When material desire comes, I will not take it serious."

In this way we have to prepare. We have to prepare a mentality of being ready.
When material desire knocks on my door.

Knock!
"Sorry! Not home."
"No thank you."
"Not interested."
"No, no."
"Even if it's cheap, I'm not buying."
"No!"
Like that, one has to fix himself.

That is only possible for one who fixes himself while chanting the Holy Name. If we try sincerely to conquer the mind while chanting the Holy Name - to fix our mind on hearing the chanting, and if we simply do that, then we can get the strength to be fixed.

Transcribed by Bhakta Fredrick
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chowpatty 2010)

 

 

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