Prabhupāda: These twelve. Brahmā, Svayambhūḥ; Nārada Muni; Śambhuḥ, Lord Śiva; svayambhūr nāradaḥ śambhuḥ kapilaḥ (SB 6.3.20), Kapiladeva; kumāra, catuḥsana-kumāra; manuḥ, Manu; then Janaka, Bhīṣma, Prahlāda, then Śukadeva Gosvāmī, Bali Mahārāja, and Yamarāja, vayam. So these are eight mahājanas. Out of them, Nārada is brahmacārī, Brahmā is gṛhastha,... Svayambhūr nāradaḥ... Śambhu is gṛhastha. Then Kapila, brahmacārī, Kumāra, brahmacārī. Then Manu, gṛhastha; Janaka-rāja, gṛhastha, Bhīṣma, brahmacārī, then Śukadeva Gosvāmī, brahmacārī; then Bali Mahārāja, gṛhastha; Yamarāja, gṛhastha. So there are gṛhastha, brahmacārī. It doesn't matter. Everyone can become mahājana by his example of service to Kṛṣṇa. It doesn't matter. Caitanya Mahāprabhu also never said that a, one has to become brahmacārī. No. He Himself was gṛhastha. So there is no difficulty. Svayambhūr nāradaḥ śambhuḥ kapilaḥ kumāro manuḥ... (SB 6.3.20). (pause) (prasādam comes in) You take.
Yamaraja (Conversations)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Candanācārya: If one has difficulty becoming Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is that suffering?
Prabhupāda: No, what is the difficulty, first of all?
Candanācārya: You once said if someone is not attracted to chanting, then he is being punished by Yamarāja.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So if you, if by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, you can save your suffering, what is the difficulty, not to accept it? Everyone is suffering in this material world. And everyone is trying to get out of the suffering. That is also a fact.
Prajāpati: They try to get out of suffering by committing more sins.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because they do not know how to get out of the suffering. (break)
Candanācārya: ...to tell people who think that they are not suffering that they are actually suffering.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Satsvarūpa: Don't they sometimes have to go to Yamarāja first for practice?
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is daiva-netreṇa. These things are finished very quickly. And if it takes little time, then this man who is dying, he remains in coma and does not die. Because the judgement is going on, the decision waiting, coma. You have seen sometimes a man is in coma for seven days, eight days? Yes. That means his judgement is going on, that... Such kind of death means very sinful death. Not yet settled up, very complicated case. Therefore it takes time.
Yadubara: What about persons who die in their sleep? Is that a sinful death?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Dream or awakened, everything is dream, gross dream and subtle dream. That's all. This is also dream. What do you mean by dream? Dream means existent for a little period. That's all. So night dream is for two hours and this dream is for twenty-four hours.
Yaśomatīnandana: So in other words when it says that one goes to hell, any lower species is also like hell. If one is going to assume a dog's body, then does he go to hell before he assumes a dog's body?
Prabhupāda: Yes. And śrutayo vibhinnaḥ. Literatures are also, authentic literatures... Śrutayaḥ means authentic literature, which is acceptable. They are also various type. Just like Vedas. There are four Vedas: Sāma-Veda, Yajur-Veda, Atharva-Veda, Ṛg-Veda. Then the Upaniṣads are there. Then the Vedānta-sūtra is there. So if we study all this Vedic literature or any other similar literature, it is very difficult to find out the Absolute Truth. Śrutayo vibhinnaḥ. And if we take the philosophers, so one philosopher differs from another philosopher. Na cāsāv ṛṣir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam. Therefore, to approach the Absolute Truth, God, is very difficult subject matter. Therefore our principle is mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). Mahājana means the recognized persons, recognized by the Supreme Lord, such persons we follow. We have got a list of recognized persons, just like Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva, the Manu. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā, Manu's name is there. Imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam, vivasvān manave prāha (BG 4.1), this Manu. So Manu, then Kapila, then Prahlāda, Janaka, Vyāsadeva, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, Yamarāja. In this way there are twelve mahājanas. And we receive knowledge from either of them. That is bona fide philosophy. That is called paramparā system.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Twelve: Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva, Nārada, then the four Kumāras, then Kapiladeva, then Prahlāda Mahārāja, Bhīṣma, Janaka Mahārāja, Vyāsadeva, er, no, Vaiyāsakī, son of Vyāsadeva. Not Vyāsadeva—son of Vyāsadeva, Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Bali Mahārāja and Yamarāja. These twelve mahājana, we can follow them. Sarvātmā snapane baliḥ. Bali Mahārāja gave everything to Kṛṣṇa. (end)
Prabhupāda: So that means those who want success, they should eat the milk of rat. (chuckles)
Guest: Yamarāja is going on buffalo. So buffalo milk also we are not recommending.
Prabhupāda: Buffalo milk?
Guest: We are not recommending. In the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we are not recommending buffalo.
Prabhupāda: No. Anyone who wants to go very soon to Yamarāja, he can drink buffalo milk. Or it may be that if you drink buffalo milk, the Yamarāja will not touch you. (laughter) The other side may be taken. (break) ...in the morning take water from the river, evacuate, then wash their hands and take nice bath. And one jug water brings at home. Then everything, water problem, is solved.
Prabhupāda: Yes. They might have gone to some hellish planet, where there is only sand, only, and very hot, and the culprit is pushed through that deserted place to the Yamarāja. And before going to Yamarāja he has to suffer so much. There are places, copperlike, you see. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. So hot, and the criminal has to go on that copper land. There are mentioned for many millions of miles simply copper, and one has to pass through that to Yamarāja. So, they might have gone to some such place, not to the moon planet, who is the source of vegetation even throughout the whole universe—and in his own planet there is no vegetation. Now I am sure they have not gone to moon planet. How they will go? It is beyond the sun. I was protesting that they have not gone; now I am convinced that they have not gone. The Russian scientists and the American scientists joined on the platform, "Don't expose me, I don't expose you." (laughter) (Bengali) "You have to do your business and same I have to do my business. Let us support one another." In all other case, they are inimical, and the scientific field they are friends.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) Still they do not accept God. (break) ...ājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakro. Everything is. (break) ...cribing the whole universal situation, Śukadeva Gosvāmī concluded, "as God has made it." He never mentioned any other demigod. "As God has made it." Yathā bhagavān kriyetām (break) ...not to accept the authority of Kṛṣṇa, misfortune. Narādhama. (break) (walking:) ...kara bhai, ara saba mithyā, palaya patha nara yo mache piche(?): "Everyone should take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Remember, behind you there is the Yamarāja, death." (break) ...to avoid this horrible conception that there is death, and they avoid this, that "There is death, but there is no life again." That's all. (break) ...this dog race and what is the rat race? There is a word, rat race?
Jayatīrtha: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: What is it?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Pravṛttiṁ ca nivṛttiṁ ca, na vidur āsurāḥ (BG 16.7). In which way we have direct out activities, in which way we shall have to stop our activities: they do not know. Āsurāḥ janā. Because they don't take direction from God. They make their own way of speculation. So therefore, they are animals, or demons. Because they do not take direction during life, therefore at the end Kṛṣṇa comes, mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham (BG 10.34). All mental speculation, creation, is taken away at death. (to passerby:) Hare Kṛṣṇa! It is said, kṛṣṇa nama koro vai ar sabe miche palaiba patha nāi yama āche piche: take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, don't try to escape. Because behind you there is Yamaraja! (laughs) He will finish your all concoction. Hare Kṛṣṇa! (end)
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Hṛdayānanda: Cheating.
Acyutānanda: No, there was a story like that, that a cow ate a man's grasses. So the man beat the cow and the cow died. So Yamarāja came. And he was saying, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa willed me, and I killed the cow. It is all Kṛṣṇa's kārya. I did not kill him." So Yamarāja said, "Well, who, who planted this rice?" He says, "I did." "And who purchased this land?" He says, "I did." "And who purchased, who raised that land?" "I did." "Who did that?" "I did. I did. I did." "Now, who killed the cow?" (Prabhupāda laughs) So they want to take credit...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Acyutānanda: ...when they do something for their sense gratification, but to sacrifice—"Oh, Kṛṣṇa has to tell me. Kṛṣṇa wills it." Then they don't... They say, "Why did Kṛṣṇa create evil?" Then there is a very peculiar question that comes sometimes: "If Kṛṣṇa knows that we were going to fall down, why didn't He save us?" or something like that.
Prabhupāda: He's saving you.
Devotee (1): That is anxiety, Śrīla Prabhupāda. That is anxiety, when one goes to Yamarāja and has to face.
Prabhupāda: That is the result of material anxiety. (break) To become anxiety-less, no more anxiety. That is nonsense.
Guru-kṛpā: They say, "Kṛṣṇa says, na śocati na kāṅkṣati."
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Guru-kṛpā: Na śocati na kāṅkṣati.
Prabhupāda: That is material, śocati, kāṅkṣati. But in spiritual world the same śocati, kāṅkṣati, is there, but for Kṛṣṇa. First of all you have to negate the material śocati, kāṅkṣati. Then spiritual, mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām. Beginning is brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati, samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu (BG 18.54). Then spiritual anxiety begins. When this is neutralized, then actual life begins. That is bhakti. Otherwise what is the mean...? Mad-bhaktim. In bhakti there is anxiety. That is spiritual anxiety.
Prabhupāda: That is Yamarāja is.... We are reading the Yamarāja incident(?). That's all.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Just like how can a living entity take birth in the fire?
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The argument is that how can an entity take birth in perspiration? His question. So how can a living entity take birth in the fire? Mostly our experience is that entities are taking birth from the earth, but according to the understanding...
Prabhupāda: So how the fishes are born in the water? How the other living entities, they remain in the air? Or without air? There are five elements: earth, water, fire, air.... Anywhere, the living entities can take birth. Sarva-ga. Sthāṇur sarva-gataḥ acalo 'yam. You read all these words of Bhagavad-gītā. Sarva-ga. From anywhere, he can take birth.
Devotee: Do the living entities who are born from perspiration require a mother and father?
Prabhupāda: No. No. There is mother. That perspiration is mother.
Prabhupāda: And the father is God.
Rādhāvallabha: So they are just getting a particular body just due to Yamarāja.
Prabhupāda: Yes, according to the decision of the Yamarāja, he has to get a particular type of body.
Rādhāvallabha: The scientists don't know this.
Hari-śauri: It's very confusing, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Confusing must be. How you can understand the subtle laws of God? You have dull brain, with cow dung. (laughs) You cannot understand.
Arcita: So according to the Christians, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Jesus Christ was born without contact of any material father. He was divinely placed in the womb of Mary.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. Divinely placed by the Father is God. That's all. You cannot deny the fact. And he claims: "I am son of God." Then, what is the argument?
Rāmeśvara: So Yamarāja does not direct the movements of the living entities as they are going automatically from animal body to higher body.
Prabhupāda: An animal is not jurisdiction of Yamarāja. The man is in the jurisdiction of.... Just like law is meant for man, not for the cats and dogs.
Rāmeśvara: So what determines the different varieties of dogs and cats if they are just automatically being...?
Prabhupāda: Not automatically. You are man. If you develop a dog's mentality, the Yamarāja puts you in the dog's body. And then you again develop, come to the man's body. That means your term of imprisonment finished. You become again man. Now again decide. And again if you become a dog's mentality, again go. This is going on.
Rādhāvallabha: The different varieties of suffering within the animal species are due to the different varieties of sinful activities in the human life?
Prabhupāda: Yes, mental situation.
Candanācārya: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you once said that if someone is not attracted to chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, that he is being punished by Yamarāja.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Āpana karama bhuñjāye śamana kahaye locana dāsa.
Dānavīr: Śrīla Prabhupāda, sometimes when we're preaching to people that we don't eat meat, fish or egg, they say,"Why not eggs? They're not actually living. It's just a, it hasn't been fertilized."
Prabhupāda: Then that's a rascal. You explain it, explain to him that why they cannot make an egg by chemical composition and give for fermentation and a chicken may come. Why do they not do that? Why they are taking eggs from hens? Why do they not chemically manufacture egg?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Harikeśa: "I am the Self, O Guḍākeśa, seated in the hearts of all creatures. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings. Of the Ādityas I am Viṣṇu, of lights I am the radiant sun, I am Marīci of the Maruts, and among the stars I am the moon. Of the Vedas I am the Sāma-veda; of the demigods I am Indra; of the senses I am the mind; and in living beings I am the living force, knowledge. Of all the Rudras I am Lord Śiva; of the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas I am the lord of wealth (Kuvera); of the Vasus I am fire (Agni); and of the mountains I am Meru. Of priests, O Arjuna, know Me to be the chief, Bṛhaspati, the lord of devotion. Of generals I am Skanda, the lord of war; and of bodies of water I am the ocean. Of the great sages I am Bhṛgu; of vibrations I am the transcendental om. Of sacrifices I am the chanting of the holy names (japa), and of immovable things I am the Himalayas. Of all trees I am the holy fig tree, and amongst sages and demigods I am Nārada. Of the singers of the gods (Gandharvas) I am Citraratha, and among perfected beings I am the sage Kapila. Of horses know Me to be Uccaiḥśravā, who rose out of the ocean, born of the elixir of immortality; of lordly elephants I am Airāvata, and among men I am the monarch. Of weapons I am the thunderbolt; among cows I am the surabhi, givers of abundant milk. Of procreators I am Kandarpa, the god of love, and of serpents I am Vāsuki, the chief. Of the celestial Nāga snakes I am Ananta; of the aquatic deities I am Varuṇa. Of departed ancestors I am Aryamā, and among the dispensers of law I am Yama, the lord of death.
Prabhupāda: Then you must act according to His mission. According to His mission. The mission is yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata (BG 4.7). When we are engaged in glānir dharma, which is not dharma. Cheating. Glānir, glānir. What is the glānir? Glānir means which is abominable. Yes. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati (BG 4.7). So what is that glānir? Glānir means, dharma means dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there is... Yamarāja said, dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Dharma cannot be manufactured by any man. You have got Sixth Canto?
Harikeśa: Sixth Canto, Third Chapter, 19th verse.
Prabhupāda: Yes, find this verse. Yamarāja said, dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Even the demigods, they cannot manufacture dharma.
Prabhupāda: And he has called Padma-locana. Similarly, this harijana movement is a farce because they remain the Cāmāra and Bhangis, and still they are called harijana. The same thing. No locana, but padma-locana. Everyone has got right. You can become the most advanced devotee. There is no hindrance. But they must be trained up as harijana. Not that artificially you simply rubberstamp harijana. Therefore that movement is failure. We have no objection to make anyone... Kṛṣṇa says māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32). Pāpa-yoni, lower class. Janma-aiśvarya-śruta-śrī, these four things, to take birth in high class family, janma, aiśvarya, to become very rich, and śruta, to become very learned scholar, and śrī, beautiful, these four things are there whose background is pious life. Otherwise, not possible. Janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrī (SB 1.8.26). So those who are just the opposite—means not born in very high class family, not... They say "accident." No, it is not accident. According to śāstra, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1), there is superior examination. Yamarāja is there. Now, this man is now dead, this soul is now changing body. What kind of body he'll get next? That is judged by the superior authority. Just like in the office a person is promoted.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Pradyumna: "The Vedas are directly the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, and are self-born. This we have heard from Yamarāja."
Prabhupāda: "This we have heard." This is authority. If you have heard from the authority, that is knowledge. If you have manufactured, that is nonsense. Iti śuśruma. You'll find Arjuna also speaking with Kṛṣṇa-iti śuśruma. And Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he is such a learned scholar. He also—iti śuś..., that... This is our knowledge: to hear and receive the knowledge from higher authority. In the ordinary way also, the students go to the college, they hear from the professor. That is knowledge. He does not go to a pan-walla to hear. One who is authorized, professor, we hear from him. Similarly, we have to get knowledge from the authority. So supreme authority is Kṛṣṇa. So hear from Him. Then it is knowledge. Otherwise tad ajñānam yad anyathā. What is that? Tad anya...?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hari-śauri: It's just like when they get taken before Yamarāja at the end of their lives, it says in the Bhāgavatam, they understand all their past sinful activities. Now they're getting punished for it.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is allowed. That is within Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are doing that, because the policemen and others are beating our men in the airports sometimes. We are getting hit and beaten. Tripurāri sometimes was punched in the face. Many times it has happened to him. He has been beaten for distributing.
Prabhupāda: We can also do that.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And it's so horrible that when this happens... Just like...
Prabhupāda: No, best thing is we find out another venue. But if there is possible, we can also give. It is very nice, example: fight and give him some lesson. There are many examples. The Pāṇḍavas did it.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Patitānāṁ pāvanebhyaḥ. Pāpī tāpī jata chilo, hari-nāme uddhārilo, tāra sākṣī jagāi-mādhāi, brajendra-nandana jei, śaci-suta hoilo sei. Kṛṣṇa is coming. He has come as Caitanya Mahāprabhu to deliver these pāpīs and tāpīs. Whole process is scientific. It is not (laughs) the Ramakrishna, Vivekananda. It is not that. What do they know? Or Gandhi. They are also trying for the betterment, but they do not accept the standard process. Everyone is trying. That is struggle for existence. So who is fittest? The fittest is the devotee. He'll survive. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma (BG 4.9). I have now explained how Kṛṣṇa became subordinate to devotee. (turns on dictaphone, plays back from tape:) "Yamarāja, controller of all living entities, is afraid of the order of Kṛṣṇa. Still, Kṛṣṇa is afraid of mother's stick. This contradictory thing cannot be understood by one who is not devotee. Devotee can understand how much powerful is unalloyed devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, so much so He can be controlled by such devotee. Bhṛtya-vaśyata. That means under the control of the servant, but He is under the control of pure love by the servant. In the Bhagavad-gītā also, we see, Kṛṣṇa became the chariot driver of Arjuna. Arjuna is ordering Him, senayor ubhayor madhye rathaṁ sthāpaya me acyuta (BG 1.21).
Prabhupāda: Some sort of worship is there and instruction, many narratives. Women were advised to worship the Yamarāja, Sāvitrī, Satyavān. Then there was saṁskāras, purificatory method, out of which the higher class will be sacred thread ceremony. Always something spiritual, according to the... And actually learning Vedic knowledge, that was by the brāhmaṇas. They would give advice; people will follow. Brāhmaṇo jagato guruḥ. Just like Gargamuni came to Nanda Mahārāja. He took advantage of Gargamuni and performed some purificatory ceremony of Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. Why these big, big institutions for wasting time and dating between girls and boys, and then they learn expert how to kill child, how to make abortion? Expert. Simply concentration on sex. Then become hippie. Frustration. Worship hog. Do they not?
| Page Title: | Yamaraja (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 11 of Nov, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=22, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 22 |