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WORLD January 27, 1999 VNN2920 Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja In Singapore, December '98 BY SRIDAM SAKHA DASA  SINGAPORE, Jan 27 (VNN) — (Part One) On 9th December Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja flew from Malaysia to Singapore to spend a few days there. Most of us took a six hour train there instead, which was a very scenic ride. Srila Maharaja and his immediate party stayed in the high rise newly built apartment of Raghava pandita prabhu and Nagari didi. Evening class 10/12/98 The next evening Srila Maharaja spoke for the first time. He told the story of how Baladeva killed Dhenukasura. Dhenukasura represents ignorance, and Baladeva represents guru. Baladeva is akhanda guru tattva, the undivided guru who manifests individually as guru on this plane, destroying ignorance in the heart of the disciple. "Baladeva kills unwanted things. When He was in Kuruksetra, He went to Naimisaranya where Romaharsana suta was giving classes on Srimad Bhagavatam and other puranas. 88,000 rsis were assembled there. When Baladeva entered the assembly all of the rsis stood and offered their pranams to Him. However, Romaharsana suta, who was sitting on a vyasasana did not. He thought: 'Baladeva is a gopa, from the vaisya class, I am not going to bow down to him.' Feeling himself to be so learned, he refused to offer respects to Baladeva out of false ego. Because Romaharsana suta was not realized, and would not honour or respect other vaisnavas he was not qualified to read or teach Srimad Bhagavatam. 'If you cannot give honour to Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead,' Baladeva thought, 'Then how can you give it to vaisnavas?' . So to establish this tattva He killed Romaharsana suta with a blade of grass. The rsis then lamented, 'from whom are we going to hear? You should not have killed him.' So Baladeva called Romaharsana suta's son Ugrasrava suta, a five year old boy, and placed His hand on Ugrasrava's head and blessed him. Miraculously, Ugrasrava suta became fully qualified, realized in all tattvas. "So Baladeva is actually guru. Real gurus who preach like this, knowing maya tattva, jiva tattva, krsna tattva and guru tattva are a manifestation of Baladeva. But those who have only false ego, 'I am guru' simply knowing some slokas, but with no realization or bhakti are not even on the level of madhyama, and cannot give a seed of bhakti in the hearts of their disciples. They can only give some false bhakti, by the result of which they will collect money and send both themselves and their disciples to hell. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has said that if one accepts a false guru out of ignorance, one should at once give him up and find a bonafide spiritual master. Srila Jiva Gosvami has also stated this. If one doesn't have bhakti, then how can he give it to others? If, out of ignorance one accepts a guru who is a neophyte, not even madhyama, but who is sincere, then one should beg that guru for permission to associate with a real guru. Then that guru should bless the disciple 'Oh, yes, you should go at once. And I will also go.' One who helps his disciple in this way is known as vartma-pradarsaka-guru, (one who shows the way). Hrdaya Caitanya was the diksa guru of Syamananda prabhu but he sent him to Srila Jiva Gosvami to take siksa. When Srila Narottama das Thakura approached Srila Jiva Gosvami for diksa, Srila Jiva Gosvami sent him to Srila Lokanath Gosvami instead. Then, after some time, Srila Lokanath Gosvami sent Srila Narottama das Thakura back to Srila Jiva Gosvami again for siksa. So this is the system. This is vaisnava etiquette." Srila Maharaja then went on to tell the story of Sudama brahmana, for the benefit of those who fear to worship Krsna, thinking that by so doing they will become street beggars. People avoid worshiping Krsna, thinking that they will become more prosperous by worshiping Durga, Ganesh or Sankara. "Sudama never tried to make any money, he was so poor. Only if his wife was feeling too much worry would he go to beg. Sometimes he would be given some donations, sometimes not. His wife was also a great devotee. When Sudama would bring home the alms he had begged, he would then give them to her. But when she would try to feed him any preparation which she had made from them, then he, being very compassionate for her well being, would only accept very little. Because he could see how she was aged beyond her years, and her breasts appeared to be dried up, he would insist that she eat most of what she had cooked. But this only caused her more worry, as she saw how little he was eating. Thinking like this, one day she said to him: 'Look, Krsna is so wealthy, He has so much respect for brahmanas, you should go to see Him.' 'Yes' replied Sudama, 'but I cannot beg anything from Him.' 'That is all right' she said, 'simply because He is your friend He will give you something.' Her only desire was to serve her husband better. Since she was insisting so much, and Sudama was very happy to be able to see Krsna again, he agreed to her idea. But he made the condition that he must bring something with him as a gift for Krsna. Because they had nothing in the house, Sudama's wife fetched some chipped rice from one of their neighbours, which was very old. She wrapped it in an old, torn cloth and gave it to her husband. As he set off for Dvaraka, Sudama began to sing harinama: 'Krsna Govinda Govinda Gopala Nanda lala.' Although he was a young man, still he appeared to be much older. The soles of his feet were cracked, because he did not have shoes. He never cared for his body, he only cared for Krsna bhajan. Being weak, the journey soon began to tire him out. When he at last reached Dvaraka and asked for Krsna, he was directed to the palace of Rukmini. From a distance, Krsna could see him coming, and, weeping, he ran to embrace His old friend. He placed Sudama on His throne, and ordered His wives to bring fragrant water which he used to bathe the brahmana's feet. Not only did Krsna bathe His guest's feet with this water, but also with His own tears. Meanwhile Krsna's queens fanned Sudama with fans and camaras. Krsna wondered whether Sudama realized that He, Krsna could remember him from their gurukula days, so He reminded Sudama of them. 'Do you remember when our teacher asked us to get some wood from the forest, and a heavy storm came and we became lost? The rain drops were as large as pillars or elephant trunks. So we spent the night under a pile of wood. Bearing a lamp, our guru eventually found us, and took us home. He was so satisfied by our service to him, that he blessed us that all 64 arts would manifest in our hearts. No more need to read or study.' 'Yes,' said Sudama, 'I remember all this.' 'I was not just honouring you like any brahmana' Krsna went on 'but I remember you as my very dear friend.' "They talked all night, and in the morning Sudama said he must return. Krsna walked with him to the border of Dvaraka, and embraced him. Krsna then asked Sudama whether he had brought Him any gift. Sudama knew that Krsna had only eaten soft food like butter and milk all his life, and he did not want to upset Krsna's stomach by giving him the old, hard rice. Although Sudama had hidden that rice on his person, he was so thin that Krsna could see it protruding through his cloth. Krsna snatched it from him and ate one grain. Before He could eat any more, Rukmini checked Him with the words: 'By accepting this You have given him everything. Are you going to give him Your queens too?' "As Sudama brahmana walked back, he thanked Krsna from within his heart for not making him wealthy by any gift. But when he arrived back to where he lived, his hut was no longer there. Nor was his cow, which was also emaciated and prematurely old like his wife. In their place stood 16,108 magnificent palaces, with as many cows. Then, coming towards him, he saw a large group of apsaras, in whose midst was one raja kumari (princess), all of whom were bearing lamps for arati. He wondered why they were approaching him, and, as they surrounded him, the raja kumari touched him, and he at once became as young and beautiful as her. He then realized that if Krsna had made him young first, then the raja kumari, his wife would not have recognized him. "Krsna did not give anything directly to Sudama, because He truly felt that He did not have anything in His possession as valuable as the rice which Sudama had given him. Krsna never gives anything directly to a vaisnava. Rather, He feels indebted to the vaisnava, and, if He does give him some wealth, He does not think that it is worth anything. So if you serve Krsna He'll give you wealth and reputation far more than you will ever receive from Durga, Ganesh Sankara or any other demigod. And, after some time he'll give pure bhakti too." --end-- Many thanks to Pundarika prabhu who patiently read through this after I had finished it and corrected any mistakes. All of the tours completed to date are archived at the following site: http://www.igvp.com/tours If you would like to read more material on or by Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja, then please contact the following websites: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/2469 http://www.angelfire.com/ar/goloka/index.html http://www.angelfire.com/va/vaishnavism/news.html http://hgsoft.com/ agrahya/ http://www.igvp.com Comment on this Story This story URL: http://vaishnava-news-network.org/world/WD9901/WD27-2920.html
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