Prabhupāda: Just like in India, there was svayaṁvara. Svayaṁvara means the girl will select her own bridegroom. That was allowed to princess. Princess, highly qualified princess. So the father would make a challenge, that "This is the condition. One who can fulfill this condition, I'll offer my daughter to him." So this was generally amongst the princes. So there was great fight. (laughs) Just like Arjuna. Arjuna married Draupadī. You know the condition? Her father made condition: there was a fish on the ceiling and one wheel was circling. So one has to pierce the eyes of the fish through the hole of the circle. And he cannot see directly. He has to see down. There is a reflection in waterpot. In this way, he had to pierce. (laughs) "In this way, he has to fix, and in one stroke the eye will be pierced. One who is successful, my daughter is for him." So nobody could, except only Arjuna. He was such expert bowman that he... Similarly, Lord Rāmacandra also made... In the palace there was a big bow. It was all hardened, made of iron. So long standing it was there. So one day, Sītā was sweeping the floor, and with her left hand she pushed the bow. It was very heavy. Nobody could... It was very weighty, heavy. And with her left hand she pushed it. So her father said, "Oh, this is wonderful girl. She can lift this. Nobody can lift it and with her left hand she pushed it? Oh, then my son-in-law will be he who can break this." (laughter) So he made a challenge that anyone, any prince, who will come and break this bow, he'll be my son-in-law.
Pierced (Conversations)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Jodhpur, Rajasthan. She is your wife? You are from also Rajasthan?
Woman: Jodhpur.
Prabhupāda: Jodhpur? Same place. We had been in Jaipur. Great function we had. (Hindi) In whatever profession you are, you try to satisfy Kṛṣṇa by your professional talent. Then your... Bhagavān is not stereotyped, that Bhagavān becomes... Just like Bhīṣma. He was great devotee, and in the battlefield of Kurukṣetra Bhīṣma was piercing the body of Kṛṣṇa by arrows and Kṛṣṇa was feeling very nice. So it is not that Kṛṣṇa is satisfied simply by throwing rose flower. Sometimes a devotee throws arrow and Kṛṣṇa becomes satisfied. So we can satisfy Kṛṣṇa in so many ways. Kṛṣṇa is varied. He is not stereotyped. But we must know the art how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. Then our life is successful.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Pañcadraviḍa: The brāhmaṇas, they all become devotee... They would all be engaged in devotional life as...
Prabhupāda: This is also devotion, to teach a kṣatriya, because this is necessary in the society. This is also devotion.
Pañcadraviḍa: And vaiśyas?
Prabhupāda: Just like when Kṛṣṇa is fighting. Kṛṣṇa is fighting, killing the demons. So that is also devotion, if you help Kṛṣṇa by killing demons, not that simply by chanting, you supply... Just like Bhismadeva. He even injured Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa took it very pleasant. Instead of throwing flowers, he pierced His body with arrow. So everything for the service. If Kṛṣṇa is pleased being pierced by the arrow the devotee will do that. His only business is how to please Kṛṣṇa. Just like, the example is given by Viśvanātha Cakravartī that when a man kisses a woman and bites her, she becomes pleased. Is it not? Is not a fact that that biting is pleasing? Is it pleasing? But sometimes it is pleasing. So one has to learn where to bite and when to... (chuckles) But if a rascal thinks that "Biting is pleasing. I shall bite always," then he is a rascal. (laughter) (break) ...lying down on the Yamunā beach, on the sand with His friends. And if we think, "No, there is no need of bedding of Kṛṣṇa. He was lying down on the Yamunā beach, so He will lie down on the floor." So is... That conclusion is very nice?
Mahāṁsa: No.
Prabhupāda: So we must know how to please Kṛṣṇa. Generally, the śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23), that is pleasing. Therefore these rules and regulation for everyone. But when one becomes mature devotee, he knows how to please Kṛṣṇa. He knows.
Prabhupāda: Why the GBC men are not interested in these talks?
Satsvarūpa: I'm interested, I was just doing secretary work.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. How you will do secretary work if you do not hear? These are the important philosophy is going on. Where is the other man Bhagavān dāsa? These important talks going on and you do not..., you think that you have learned everything. What is this?
Yogeśvara: This young gentleman's question is: if you are pierced with an arrow, it's not so much important to discuss how the arrow has got there. Just like you suggest we define the disease before we try to cure it.
Prabhupāda: No, we are not caring how the arrows, but you have got the arrows, you must take out the arrows.
Yogeśvara: That is his point also.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So the disease is because he has forgotten his own self, therefore he is suffering. (French)
Prabhupāda: It is very difficult to, not to be victimized by woman. It is very difficult.
Yogeśvara: Unless you are victimized by Kṛṣṇa first.
Prabhupāda: Yes. One who is, I means, what is called, captivated by the beauty of Kṛṣṇa, then he is not victimized.
- yad-avadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravinde
- nava-nava-rasa-dhāmany udyataṁ rantum āsīt
- tad-avadhi bata nārī-saṅgame smaryamāne
- bhavati mukha-vikāraḥ suṣṭhu niṣṭhīvanaṁ ca
Madana-mohana. Madana-dāhana and Madana-mohana. Unless one is captivated by the beauty of Kṛṣṇa he will be troubled by the arrows of the Cupid. Madana-dāhana. The Cupid is known. He has got arrow. If it pierces, then he becomes victim.
Yogeśvara: You didn't find it necessary to enter into any kind of discussion with this French Professor just now. There was no real discussion of philosophy. I was wondering why that didn't happen.
Prabhupāda: He did not raise any question. And he is simply translator. He has no philosophy. I asked him "Which philosophy you are...?" "So I make comparative study." I think he did not like to enter into philosophical... Is it not?
Prabhupāda: Yes. So thing is that, first thing is that you have to believe, but whom to believe? If the person whom I believe, if he is perfect, then my belief is perfect. And if I believe a person who is not trustworthy, then there is no meaning of this belief. Therefore we have to find out the person or the statement which are to believe. That is accepted in the Vedic culture, that the knowledge in the Vedas, that is perfect. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). If one is perfect in Vedic knowledge... Veda, Veda means knowledge, perfect knowledge. So that belief is perfect. Just like we are believing Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is accepted as the perfect, the supreme perfect. So far we Indians are concerned, there are ācāryas, just like Śaṅkarācārya, Madhvācārya, Rāmānujācārya. Actually these ācāryas are controlling the Indian culture. So all of them are unanimous to believe Kṛṣṇa, the supreme perfect person.
Professor Durckheim: May I ask a question, master. You see, the belief, the understanding, is always depending on the level of the one who wants to understand, and that's the level of our quite natural, normal mind of the usual general person. And there is another level where certain experiences open the door to some deeper consciousness. And, as you know, one of the key words of the Christian religion is in the Gospels, that you have to turn around, to make annoya (?), to pierce through a certain skin to get quite another level.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Professor Durckheim: And from this level the heaven opens to those who didn't understand what the heaven means. They thought it was behind the clouds. You see, there is a natural way to look at God, and this natural way to look at God is lost as soon as people go through the rational mind. And then there is no other way out but to have a personal initiated experience. We talk about initiation. When people are capable to go through a certain death and to discover another level, and only... And so, the great wisdom which you are talking about, I am sure that it also touches people on two levels. There is the ordinary man and he might believe, but there is a deeper level where things start to change yourself, to transform yourself in deeper experiences.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is... That is the beginning of instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā. The beginning of knowledge...
Prabhupāda: Our philosophy is "Come. Come here, play with Kṛṣṇa as cowherd boy. Come here, dance with Kṛṣṇa as gopī. Come here, accept Kṛṣṇa as your son, Kṛṣṇa will accept you as His mother." There will be always two, and enjoy, any way. Even as enemy, demon displaying part of enemy, Kṛṣṇa killing, that is also pastime too. That is also enjoyment. Just like sometimes we fight, friend to friend, to enjoy life, because fighting is enjoyment. You become enemy of Kṛṣṇa purposefully, and to fight with Him, that is giving pleasure to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is enjoying, and He also becomes so staunch enemy. So this is also transcendental pleasure. Just like Bhīṣma. He is piercing the body of Kṛṣṇa, and He is coming with cakra. That is a pleasure. Kṛṣṇa is enjoying being pierced by His devotee. And devotee is enjoying, "Now Kṛṣṇa is coming to kill me." So any way you can deal with Kṛṣṇa and enjoy transcendental pleasure, either as enemy or as friend or as son or as lover, as master, as a servant—any way. Kṛṣṇa is prepared to deal with you any way, in twelve rasas, akhila-rasāmṛta-sindhu. Raso vai saḥ, in the Vedas, He is the reservoir of all pleasure, transcendental.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: He was chariot driver at the risk of being killed. The other party may kill the chariot driver to stop the progress of the enemy. They kill. They kill the horses, they kill the charioteer, then the person. So Kṛṣṇa took the risk of being killed. Bhīṣma attacked Him. He pierced His body with arrows.
Devotee (1): I think the tribes in South America, the Aztecs, they were also worshipers of the sun-god.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: That is prince. They are not cheap, loitering street. Every father of the prince made some bet. Just like Arjuna got Draupadī. How difficult it was! There was a fish on the ceiling, and you cannot see in this way. You have to see. There is a water pot, and you have to pierce the eyes of the fish. Then you will get this prince. So many failure. It is not so easy job, see the eyes from the shadow, and in this way you have to pierce. It is not so easy job.
Bahulāśva: You can go this way, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: The Satyabhāmā's father, he made a bet that "I have got these bulls, one dozen bull, very strong. And the boy who will be able to break the horns of these bulls, I will offer my daughter to him." So whole world will fail. You see, it is not so easy job. But Kṛṣṇa did it. That is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is not that husband, that he would pick out some cheap girl and make her pregnant and go away. (laughter)
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Dying, that... There is difference of dying. But nobody, he died... They did not die a crazy. That is the superexcellence.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, he died gloriously.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Not only that, that he prepared himself, "Now I am going to die. Now I am sleeping. You just pierce with your arrow." So where is that death? Even that death is perfect.
Prabhupāda: The king and the daughter went to a great muni's house, a saintly person. Cyavana Muni, Cyavana Muni. And the daughter, young daughter, out of ignorance, she committed some offense. Took one straw and pierced through one insect. The muni was sitting there as insect. So the result was—because she offended—all the men of the king, means the soldiers, the secretaries, they stopped passing urine and stool.
Hari-śauri: The muni was there in the form of an insect?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hari-śauri: And she pierced him. Oh.
Prabhupāda: So the result was all of them became without passing stool. So the king could understand there is some offense. So... Because formerly the kings were saintly persons. He asked all his men, "What you have done?" Then the girl said, "Father, I have done something." Then he made this plea that, "Kindly excuse this girl... Out of ignorance..." He was very angry, that Cyavana Muni. His attitude was always angry. Then all of them became very much aggrieved. Then he asked, "Whether your girl is married?" King could understand that "He wants to marry my daughter. Otherwise, why he's inquiring." And he was so old... I have got my skin still tight. All loose.
| Page Title: | Pierced (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti |
| Created: | 10 of Mar, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=11, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 11 |