HH Radhanath Swami

To Be Greedy For Krishna

[IDT: 1993-110_SB-10_29_39_Mumbai_1993-06-08]
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TAGS: 1) Greedy 2) Gopies 3) Parikshit 4) Räsa-lélä 5) New York

Lecture begins:

vékñyälakävåta-mukhaà tava kuëdala-çré

gaëòa-sthalädhara-sudhaà hasitävalokam
dattäbhayaà ca bhuja-daëòa-yugaà vilokya
vakñaù çriyaika-ramaëaà ca bhaväma diäsyaù

SYNONYMS
vékñya—seeing; alaka—by Your hair; ävåta—covered; mukham—face: tava-
Your; kuëòala—of Your earrings; çré—with the beauty; gaëòa-sthala—having
the cheeks; adhara—of Your lips; sudham—and the nectar; hasita—smiling;
avalokam—with glances; datta—bestowing; abhayam—fearlessness; ca—and;
bhuja-daëòa—of Your mighty arms; yugam—the pair; vilokya—glancing upon;
vakñaù—Your chest; çré—of the goddess of fortune; eka—the only; ramaëam
—source of pleasure; ca—and; bhaväma—we must become; däsyaù—Your
maidservants.

TRANSLATION
Seeing Your face encircled by curling locks of hair, Your cheeks beautified by
earrings, Your lips full of nectar, and Your smiling glance, and also seeing Your
two imposing arms, which take away our fear, and Your chest, which is the
only source of pleasure for the goddess of fortune, we must become Your
maidservants.

PURPORT
Çréla Viçvanätha Cakravarté Öhäkura envisions the gopés' dealings with
Kåñëa as follows:

"Kåñëa says, 'You want to become My servants; so do I have to buy you with
some payment, or are you giving yourselves freely?'
The gopés reply, " 'Since the beginning of our youthful womanhood You have
been purchasing us with a payment millions and millions of times more than
enough. That payment is Your gemlike smiling glance, which constitutes a
great treasure we have never heard about or seen anywhere else.'
" 'When You put Your golden turban on Your head, Your maidservant will act
as Your valet, pulling up the turban bit by bit until it is in just the right position.
And even while You shake a chastising finger at her, trying hard to prohibit
her, she will put her hand beneath Your turban and take the opportunity to
glance at Your face. Thus we, Your maidservants, will relish with our eyes Your
abundant sweetness.'
"Kåñëa says, 'Your husbands will not tolerate this miss behavior of ours. They
will complain bitterly to King Kaàsa, thus producing a fearful situation for Me
and for you as well.'
"The gopés say, 'But Kåñëa, Your two mighty arms make us fearless, just as
they did when You held up Govardhana Hill to protect us from the pride of
Mahendra. Those arms will certainly kill that beast Kaàsa.'
" 'But being a religious person, I cannot make others' wives My maidservants. '
" 'O dear crest jewel of religious personalities, You may say that You refuse to
make the cowherds' wives Your maidservants, but by force You have already
taken Lakñmé, the wife of Näräyaëa, from Vaikuëöha and are carrying her
around on Your chest. Out of shame she has assumed the form of a golden
line on Your chest, and she takes her only pleasure there.
" 'Besides, within all the fourteen worlds and even above these worlds—in
Vaikuëöhaloka, beyond this universe—You never reject any beautiful woman,
no matter who she is or whom she belongs to. We know this quite well.' "

oà ajïäna-timirändhasya
jïänäïjana-çaläkayä
cakñur unmélitaà yena
tasmai çré-gurave namaù

äïchä-kalpatarubhyaç ca
kåpä-sindhubhya eva ca
patitänäà pävanebhyo
vaiñëavebhyo namo namaù

çré-kåñëa-caitanya
prabhu-nityänanda
çré-advaita gadädhara
çréväsädi-gaura-bhakta-vånda

hare kåñëa hare kåñëa

kåñëa kåñëa hare hare
hare räma hare räma
räma räma hare hare

Seeing Your face encircled by curling locks of hair, Your cheeks beautified by
earrings, Your lips full of nectar, and Your smiling glance, and also seeing Your
two imposing arms, which take away our fear, and Your chest, which is the
only source of pleasure for the goddess of fortune, we must become Your
maidservants.

Gopies greed for Krishana

In this wonderful dialog between Shamsundar and gopies we find the
sweetness of the pure love that is shared between the lord and his beloved
servants madhurya rasa the sweet love affairs between Krishna and Brij
gopies can only truly be appreciated by those who have not even the slightest
tinge of material desires within their own hearts. In fact it appears like the
type of conversation that would take place in a romantic affair between a
young man and a young woman, but actually it is just the opposite. The
original lover affair is the lover affair between Krishna and his pure devotees
and the so called love of this world the romantic interactions between young
man and young woman is simply a perverted reflexion of the pristine and
ecstatic loving relationships between Krishna and gopies. In fact everything
that exists within this world has its origin from Krishna and in Krishna’s lila, we
find in this spiritual world there is lust, attachment, greed, envy, pride, all of
the qualities that cause bondage, frustration and suffering in this world and
their original form which is pure and which is created by the lord simply to
increase the ecstasy of loving affection.

All The Human Like Qualities Have Their Origin In Krishna

Some foolish people they think that the authors of the scriptures they have
superimposed human emotions on Krishna and his dealings with his devotees
in order that a human being with sensuous desires may be able to relate and
find attraction to the subject matter of Krishna Katha that this is a device to
make god very much like us. So that we can relate to him, but in fact it is just
the opposite. All the human like qualities that we find within our own lives
within this earth they have their origin in Krishna, because Krishna is a person
we are persons because we are part an parcel of him, but as a part and parcel
by forgetting our relationship with Krishna we become imperfect persons and
similarly all the attributes that are part and parcel of Krishna which are all the
attributes within human nature, they are perfect when they are connected to
Krishna for when they are disconnected from Krishna they become imperfect,
for instance Krishna says in Gita,

käma eña krodha eña

rajo-guëa-samudbhavaù
mahäçano mahä-päpmä
viddhy enam iha vairiëam

He says that it lust only that is the all devouring enemy of this world, it never
fulfilled, therefore it is it is transformed into wrath.

Lust It Is Such An Enemy

Krishna says this lust it is such an enemy that it burns like fire and in the very
beginning one should give it up, what Krishna is speaking out is the natural
quality, we are eternally Jivatma part of Krishna all of our qualities are part of
Krishna. Lust which means material longing, material attachment, when that
quality which is the part of the natural energy of the soul is directed away
from Krishna it becomes an all devouring enemy, it becomes the cause of all
sorrow and frustration. Because it is miss used, miss directed, but that same
energy that same lust when it is directed for Krishna in his loving service. Lust
when it is directed towards Krishna in its purified state is not selfish.

Service Without Any Motivation For Ones Own Selfish Purposes

In this material world all of our qualities are based self motivation for sense
gratification, but the original energy of every soul is to be directed towards
Krishna for his pleasure in his service without any motivation for ones own
selfish purposes and we become completely attached to the object of our love.
So here we find in the gopies love of Krishna we find the original pure perfect
form of the spiritual energy of the soul, and in this world we find the perverted
reflection. Similarly the gopies how much greed they had in their heart. In
this material world a greed person is condemned. A person who has greed is
a person who is willing to defy all sanctity of relationship with others in order
to somehow or other get more and more and more for himself to accumulate
far beyond his needs and is never satisfied, but if that same energy that same
propensity that same quality is properly placed in the service of Krishna, it
becomes a selfless expression of Devine ecstasy, which brings deeper and
deeper satisfaction and brings the heart closure and closure to Krishna.

Be Greed To Hear Krishna Katha

In fact Srila Rupa Goswami has said that the price of Krishna Consciousness is
greed, to have absolute greed for Krishna, but that greed is for service to
Krishna. See how greedy the gopies are, they want more and more and more
and more service to Krishna, they won’t give it up for anything. If you are
greed for something it someone tries to take it away from you, you fight
furiously to protect it. The gopies service for Krishna the gopies right to
satisfaction and pleasure to Krishna. They want more and more and more and
if any one tries to take it away they are willing to give up any thing. They are
willing to give up their homes, they are willing up to give up the sanctity of
their chastity. They are willing to give up their prestige. Their protective
surroundings security. They are willing to give up anything to preserve their
service to Krishna, and in our particular condition of consciousness it obviously
cannot imitate the gopies. To try to imitate the gopies we would be better of
trying to imitate Lord Shiva by drinking an ocean of poison. But we can
understand through the words of the Acharyas how on our level of
consciousness we can follow on the footsteps of the gopies, and that is to be
greed to hear the glories of the lord. Krishna Katha is the purifying agent of
this world. The manifestation of Krishna to attract the hearts of all of us to his
loving service. Therefore we should cultivate a greed to hear more and more
and more our Krishna Consciousness, we should never be fasciated.

Maharaja Parikshit’s Qualification

The more we hear about Krishna, the more we should want to hear about
Krishna, this was Maharaja Parikshit’s qualification for the perfection of life.
He was so greedy, so anxious to hear the glories of the lord, the more his ears
would hear the more they become greed for more and more of this sound
vibration. He could not get enough and nothing would get in his way from
hearing the glories of the lord. Because Krishna relieves himself according to
how we approach him. The more we genuinely are aspiring to hear his glories
the more he relives himself to the sound vibration of his holy name, in his holy
instructions, his holy pastimes.

And How To Develop This Greed for Krishna

And how to develop this greed?

çuçrüñoù çraddadhänasya
väsudeva-kathä-ruciù
syän mahat-sevayä vipräù
puëya-tértha-niñevaëät

Factually when you are greedy to hear the glories of Lord Krishna from within
your heart will reciprocate and cleanse all miss gives and reveal himself from
within your heart. It is by service to the great souls that we develop this greed
for hearing and chanting the glories of the lord. We should be greedy for
service, but what does it mean to be greedy. It does not mean we put our self
greed in this world means you are willing to step on other peoples heads to
full fill your greedy propensities, but that is not greed for service, that is greed
for enjoyment. Greed for service means, gopé-bhartur pada-kamalayor däsa-
däsänudäsaù. You do not step in front of any one, but you step below every
one. Anxious, anxious, and more anxious to serve the Vaishnavas, the guru,
and Krishna. The more service you get, the more you want. You must
cultivate this consciousness.

Laziness Is A Great Enemy

Laziness is a great enemy to spiritual advancement. It just the opposite when
we are lazy we just want to do what we have to do to get by if even that, but
those who want Krishna Consciousness, they have to be inspired, enthusiastic,
and greedy for service. They cannot get enough they want more and more
and more and however, much service is given they are always finding ways
and means to do something extra for the pleasure of Krishna, for the pleasure
of guru, and for the pleasure of the Bhaktas, the vaishnavas. We should be so
much longing and anxious for service to the vaishnavas, so much longing to
hear the glories of lord, to chant his holy names. At the beginning that natural
inclination may not be there. So we must as an austerity practice as if we
were greedy for service, as if we were greedy for hearing and chanting of the
glories of the lord, because through that process we become purified so that
natural internal greed awakens within our heart.
At the beginning hearing Srimad Bhagvatam may an austerity. We may have
to stand up and move our feet to and fro just so that we do not follow sleep,
but just that endeavor to hear the glories of the lord is showing Krishna that
we are wanting to be greedy to hear Bhagvat Philosophy. The fact that we
come every day and we are willing to do what ever it takes to stay awake, and
we are doing what ever it takes to be alert, means there is some greed to hear
the glories of the lord, and it is being cultivated, it is being nourished, it is
being strengthened by the sound vibration of Krishna Katha. There are so
many other things we could be doing, we could be sleeping, we can be doing
some other seva, we could be doing some work, we could be eating, we can
be doing so many thing at this time of the morning. But a devotee casts
everything else aside. He is greedy to hear to Bhagvat philosophy. And the
same when we were chanting the holy names where ever out mind wanders,
where ever it goes, we just keep dragging it back to Krishna and we chant our
rounds nicely everyday. By doing this gradually we become greedy for more
and more and more harinam.

Impersonalous Philosophy
The impersonalous philosophy is essentially to kill ones desire, but the
Vaishnava philosophy is to infinitely increase our desires for Krishna. The
impersonlous philosophies they try to annihilate greed, but the vaishnavas
want to infinitely increase our greed for hearing, chanting, and serving
supreme personality of godhead. his names, his qualities, his pastimes.
Krishna in the spiritual world he increases the greed and the lust of his
devotees by so many wonderful means.

The Gopies Longing For Krishna

To spiker the gopies, first he played his flute. The gopies were always longing
for Krishna, but when they heard his flute that longing become so unbearable
and uncontrollable that they just left every thing to be with Krishna. There
was no question of family attachment or attachment to even life itself. And
then when they came before Krishna with their hearts flaming with the longing
to serve their beloved to give pleasure to their beloved at that time Krishna
rejected them. He told them you go home and those words were like pouring
millions, and millions, and million and trillions infinite liters of petrol upon the
fire of their burning hearts, simply to increase their attachment, their lust and
their greed for Krishna.

The gopies, their hearts, their minds, their entire existence is just a burning
raging fire consuming their entire consciousness, simply for the purpose of
giving pleasure to Krishna, what type of love is this, this is perfect love, pure
love super excellent quality of the highest spiritual status and throughout this
räsa-lélä step, by step, step Krishna is simply acting in such a way to increase
the fire of longing and affection in the hearts of the gopies. And Krishna when
he sees the ecstasy of love rise in the hearts of his devotees, the ecstasy of
love increases within his own heart. In this way there is an eternal
competition between the lover and the beloved to give love to one another
and to increase the pleasure of the others love. So actually in the same way
according to our particular realization of Krishna consciousness in this world
Krishna was within our heart and he was also in and between every atom and
within the heart of every living being.

Krishna Calling Us Back Home

He is in so many ways calling us back home, back to god head, and giving us
so many wonderful opportunities to increase our affection to increase the
intensity of our greed and our longing for his service and devotee recognizes
that and a devotee who is sincerer he responds positively to Krishna’s merciful
invocations and invitation. We can see just by examining our own
consciousness, how unfortunate, how little love and affection we have for
Krishna, in fact this is the beginning of self realization, when we read the
beautiful story of the gopies’ love for Krishna. The first thing that should come
to our minds is how I have no love for Krishna, what am I willing to give up for
Krishna. How stagnant my heart is, how little taste I have for hearing his
glories for chanting his names. The gopies entire consciousness was inflamed
engulfed in the fire of attachment to Krishna. There is hardly a particle of the
spark within our own hearts. Where is my love, where is my affection. In fact
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he prayed like this. I have no love for Krishna, not
little, but none at all, because if I had even a trace of love of Krishna I would
have died long ago in separation from him, when you have the realization.

Magnanimous Love Of The Gopies For Krishna

You have nothing, but you want that thing, then you will do anything for it and
this is what we can learn practically from this wonderful story of the räsa-lélä.
After seeing the pristine magnanimous love of the gopies for Krishna we must
come to the realization that comparatively we have no love of Krishna. If we
think we even have a drop after hearing this beautiful story then we are in
total elusion. Totally infatuated by false pride, we have no love for Krishna,
but we read about it, we hear about it, we want it, because unless we have
Krishna, his love we cannot satisfy Krishna. When they asked Prabhupad what
is the greatest service we can do for Krishna, he said to love him, because
what ever we offered to the degree it is offered with love it gives satisfaction
to Krishna and our life is meant to satisfy Krishna. So we desperately require
that love to give him that satisfaction and there is no any. We search through
out hearts from the top to the bottom, to the deepest recesses, we do not find
a trace of real love, so we will do anything for that, we will sacrifice any thing
for that, we will accept anything for that.

We Must Give Up Our Lethargy

Rupa Goswami says that for even a drop of love of Krishna what ever you have
to give for it you do it immediately you will not be the loser. So we must give
up our lethargy, we must give up our laziness, we must be willing to put aside
everything of this earth, if that is what is required to acquire even one drop of
love of Krishna. If we are willing to do that Krishna will give us his love. If we
are not willing to do that Krishna will give some thing else. Krishna will always
give us something, but if you want a real thing you have to pay the real price
and what is that price, greed that is all, the price is greed. The price is you
have to be willing to do anything or not do anything to give up anything or to
accept anything for that love. So let us all become very greed for Krishna,
greedy for hearing Bhagvatam, greedy for chanting his names, greedy for
serving his beautiful form of Radha Gopinath, greedy for serving the dust at
the feet of his devotees, give anything for that. For a particle of dust that falls
from the feet of the devotees a vaishnav we should be willing to give our
whole fortunate, our whole life, our whole intelligence every thing that is how
much we should be greedy for Krishna.

Devotee: Something about Srila Prabhupad was that Bhakti Sidhanta marked
that I will initiate him because he has a strong desire to hear. He always used
to talk about this that his Guru Maharaj saw in him a great desire to hear
about Krishna. Since there was a strong desire then some day he will be a
good preacher. So when it came time for initiation I think in Allahabad some
one recommended him he said yes I will initiate him immediately I have
marked him he likes to hear about Krishna.

Maharaj: Hari bol. Just recently before that Prabhupad went to Koshi for the
Bhakti Sidhanta’s Braj mandala parikama and there were big beautiful tents.
The whole civilization Bhakti Sidhanta there were thousands of people in his
parikram and it was announced by Bhakti Pragyan Keshav Maharaj then he
was bhramachari of course, he announced that we are going to Sheshashahi
to see the beautiful deity of Vishnu so everyone who wants to come please
come, but also Guru Maharaj Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté will be giving
darshan to night, speaking from Bhagvat. So Srila Prabhupad was thinking
that seeing the form of Krishna the murti is very nice, but hearing the words of
Gurudev is the most vital and important thing, so he stayed back and the
common devotees they are left. He was just a handful of the most intimate
sanyasis and some others that were sitting and Bhakti Sidhanta Sarasvati was
speaking for hours and hours and others had other duties or they were getting
tired it was late at night, so they were going coming going, coming going, but
Abhya Charan he sat in wrapped attention, simply absorbing the nectary
words of his Gurudev. He would not go anywhere and Bhakti Sidhanta
Sarasvati Thakur, he had that Devine spiritual power to see right into the heart
of Srila Prabhupad how anxious he was to hear. For hour after hour after hour
until finally Bhakti Sidhanta Sarasvati ended his dissertation. Prabhupad is
sitting their in wrapped attention, so was just very shortly after that in
Allahabad that he was recommended for initiation that Sri Pharbhu was saying
one bhramachari named Atul Anand recommended him and generally
Bhaktisidhanta Sarasvati, he would not give initiation very freely. He would
very much screen people, question people, test people, but as soon as he saw
Abhay Charan and heard to every ones great surprise, he immediately
accepted. He said I will gladly initiate him because I have marked that he
loved to hear, he is anxious to hear. He does not go away and he gave him
first and second initiations together on that day.

Later on Bhakti Sidhanta Sarasvati also he had so many publications. The

Harmonist was one and he had just incredible quantities of scholarly disciples,
great, great scholars, great, great pandits and Bhakti Sidhanta Sarasvati he
trained his brahmacharies and sanyasis to be scholars of the scriptures and to
be great preachers. He very, very consciously deeply trained them.

And Abhay Charan was a Grihasta and Bhakti Sidhanta told the editors and the
coeditors of his publications that anything Abhaya Charan Arvida writes you
print it. Do not consider whether it is worthy or not you just print it, and he
said the same thing because he hear so nicely whatever he writes is perfect
publish it.

And of course, hearing does not simply mean to sit and to listen. Hearing
means to listen with a willingness to put it into your life. Bhakti Sidhanta
Sarasvati saw that Pharbhupad’s quality of hearing was not that he has just
sitting, listening, but what ever he was hearing, he was willing to act upon.
Srila Bhaktisidhant Sarasvati gave him the order to preach Mahaprabhu Sri
Chaitanya’s massage all over the world in the English language and as soon as
Prabhpad heard, he heard it and he took it deeply in to his heart with the
willingness to sacrifice everything to do it and he did. He gave up his family, it
is not that his family were not nice people, they were wonderful loving people,
but if they were not willing to assist him in this world wide preaching mission.
He could not tolerate that they were coming between him and the order of his
guru, so he left them. To this day they are angry with him and he left the
comforts of life.

He went to Brindavan with nothing not even one paisa and he knew to preach
the message he had to have some books to distribute. He heard the words of
his guru so much, his guru told him directly and personally, if you get money
print books. He had no money, he was begging just to get some money to
print the Bhagvatam. He was spending his entire life. Recently at he Radha-
Valabha Temple where he met one of the Goswamis. He said when he was a
little boy he used to play with the Goswamis from the Radha-Damodara
Temple. Every now and then he would go to Rupa Goswami’s Samadhi to just
fall on his knees praying fervently, but the rest of the day he would simply be
in his room writing, writing, writing.

Balaram Maharaj from Lodhra, he explains that he lived with Prabhupad for
sometime. He was young, he used to bring prasad for Prabhupad and put it
outside of his room, Prabhupad would be so immersed in writing sometimes
the prasad would sit there all day. He would forget eating because he knew to
fulfill what he had heard from his guru.
He had to write these books and then as soon as those books were finished
and printed what he heard from his guru to spread the mission of Lord
Chaitanya all over the world in the English language, he left Brindavan. He
has nothing except those books and he came to Bombay to beg for a ticket to
beg, he was every day begging, Sumati Murarji and she was refusing every
day because she thought for sure he will die. It is such a terrible hard journey
across the Atlantic ocean and New York is such as a Violent and cold place,
but he completely defied all material considerations, why because he sat there
and heard his guru tell him you preach any one across the atlantic, heart
attacks, sea sickness, nausea, terrible spinning headaches you can imagine
the suffering and he came to New York City, Butler Pennsylvania. No help,
freezing cold, people threatening him to murder him. Whatever little he had
stolen. No place to stay. No place to eat, any time he could have got back on
that boat and moved back to Brindavan and lived a peaceful life, but his guru
did not want that, his guru was against going to Brindavan to live a peaceful
life. His guru wanted his disciples to fearlessly travel through the world and
preach the massage of Mahaprabhu. Prabhupad he gave his life for that that
is called hearing, not just sitting and just letting the words come into your
brain. When Bhakti Sidhanta saw in Prabhupad was he was anxious to hear
and he was anxious to execute what ever was being heard, that is hearing,
and therefore he become supreme most empowered representative of his
Gurudev. So that type of greed, greed to hear the glories of the lord and
greed to put it into action.

Another part of Prabhupad’s life were he became so immersed in Bhagvatam

that when his wife sold his Bhagvatam for tea biscuits. He left his home. But
that part of his life he Krishna was gradually taking everything away from him.
So he was practically just reading Bhagvatam all day there was no income
coming in for the family. So the wife was worried that here is no money
coming in. So when he was out one day she took the Bhagvatam and she told
it for tea biscuits. So when he come back and could not find his Bhagvatam,
which was his most sacred item, then he asked his wife where is the
Bhagvatam she said I have taken it to the Market and sold it for tea biscuits
and that was the last, he walked out of the house and never came back, that
is Srila Prabhupad.
Hare Krishna

Lecture ends