There is a famous verse about king Biraja, because of his high qualities and wide fame king Biraja become the jewel in the dynasty of king Priyavrat, just by Lord Vishnu by His transcendental potency decorates and bless the demigods.
Purport (HDGA.C.BVSP):-
Within a garden a flowering tree attains a good reputation because of its fragrant flowers similarly if there is a famous man in a family he is compared to a fragrant flower in a forest because of him an entire family can become famous in history because lord Krishna took birth in the Yadhu dynasty the yadhu dynasty and the yadhavas have remain famous of all times because of king Birajas appearances the family of Maharaj Priyavrata has remain famous for all time thus end the Bhaktivedanta purport of the 5th canto 15th chapter of the Shrimad Bhagvatam “ The glories of the decendences on King Priyavrat.

Today we are reading from Shrimad Bhagavtam 5th canto chapter 15 and text16th entitled with Decendence of King Priyavrat. In the purport Prabhupada tells us in a garden if a flowering tree has fragrant flowers it attains good reputation, our little garden downstairs vrindavan forest, often times devotees visit in the evening when there is not much light and there is just two or three trees it give up beautiful fragrances. Night blossoming and that becomes a centre of attention, you can see so many other things but that fragrance becomes very much focus of attention. When the light are turned on and you can see everything still it becomes the focus of attention, similarly once family once forefathers and the line that one comes is very much known by one particular person who has particular qualities, just like for instance in Srilanka where there is the whole dynasty of people and what is our impression of all of them? Because of one person Ravana the whole dynasty is forever condemned as Raksasas, demons cruel people and example is given here of yadhu dynasty, Krishna appeared in yadhu dynasty and because of that forever as soon as hear yadhu dynasty we think of purity, we think of piety, we think of God so we have such a great responsibility such a scar can be put on a whole classification of a person or such a decoration of an ornaments because of the behavior of one person. Today in Germany many wonderful wonderful people but one person Hitler has put such a blemish and everybody at ever was or will be born in that conscious yes! When people think of Germany people usually think of Hitler before Mercedes Benz or BMW the power of one person, so what a great responsibility everyone has. Shrila Prabhupada explains where in the family of dynasty of disciplic succession it is the behavior of a disciple either is an ornament that glorifies the spiritual master or scar that blemishes the reputation of the spiritual master while its spreads for a long long time therefore Shrila Prabhupada explains what a great responsibility one has because any misbehavior is a black mark or blemish in the name of Guru or in the name of whole Guru Parampara. In the world today if one Hare Krishna devotee does something horrible the whole movement is stained people consider that very much as our identity and conversely if a person certain things it is an ornament. Shrila Prabhupada made the Gaudia vaishnav parampara famous throughout the entire world, one man previously outside of India or more or less outside of Bengal nobody ever heard even in Bombay there is only two hour flight from Nava deep, how many of you have heard of the Gaudia Vaishnav Sampradai, Lord Caitanya’s Hare Krishna movement but Shrila Prabhupada explains Hare Krishna movement has become the household world throughout the whole world, the parampara of Krishna is a one person’s activity and when the devotees do abominable, dishonest activity in that very much transforms the whole thing and people Hare Krishna movement is very evil, very bothersome very bad and all takes as one person, so yes responsibility is there just as one fragrant flower makes the whole garden something wonderful similarly if there is (I don’t want to use crud terms too much) something abominable and someone leave there excrement in the garden then people are choking and want to leave that garden immediately the whole garden is identified with that, so how do we want to contribute that is our responsibility. Human life is a life of responsibility and everyone makes a mark in the world may be big may be small positive or negative and is our service to God what is the mark we are going to make however big or small that our service to God, we can increase people faith or create confusion and disprove peoples faith, we can make so many wonderful documentaries and beautiful presentation to glorify Krishna and Prabhupada but if we misbehave is anyone going to take it seriously! In my generation and I imagine is very consistent, people left the religions in the west not because of the founder but because of the followers many people have great adoration for Jesus Christ but not much for Christians, there are saintly Christians but who are we been in contact with, if we see hypocrisy, if we see sub religious standards or an interest if we want something spiritual we will go somewhere else, the same principle is there with the Hindu whatever we want to call it India was a Hindu country but because of the Brahmans we corrupt tens and million of people converted to other religions because they didn’t want to participate they don’t have the inspiration to be part of hypocrisy and today’s world there is a lot of (14:10) against Islam because of few people is probably almost a billion who follow Islam in this world but a few people have done some horrible deeds and world wide suspicion even hatred, so yes responsibility is a great importance and what is the nature of a person who is responsible, a people who lives with the integrity with their expected to represent who and what they represent and whatever the price may be because in this age of Kali the way the world is there is so much to gain temporarily superficially by compromising, by taking to corruption, by bending the rules and there is so much potential believe illused by remaining faithful and terms of position and prestige economically, in terms of money in terms of labor is how much effort we have to put into some thing, to do something honest is much more than doing dishonest in this world today. To work for 9 to 5 job you may not make a million dollars for life but sell some illegal drugs for couple of days you can earn million dollars, it is temptations. One foolish person who wanted to do something that would be quick and easy but karmic reaction always come back on us, we have heard that crime done not pay but apparently it pays a lot actually it does pays a lot, crime pays immensely specially in Karma it does pay. It purchases massive Karma and its reactions. So Shrila Prabhupada warned us about this mentality of pennywise pounds foolish to compromise on our ideals and our principle for something fast, nothing great is easy if you want something great you will be tested and this is the form of test are you willing to compromise or are you willing to live by your ideal? And those persons throughout history who have lived by their ideal such risk of loss even potential risk of life, they are the fragrant flowers that has actually given so much meaning and hope to the people of this world. So today we are reading about one such person King Biraja, because of the high qualities and wide fame king Biraja became the jewel of the dynasty of king Priyavrat just as Lord Vishnu by His transcendental potency decorates the demigods, king Biraja in the previous birth is the decendance of Maharaj Gaiya. Maharaj Gaiya was such a great king such a king he was declared to be non different from Vishnu himself why! Because he perfectly represented the God. It is described that mother earth is like a cow and maharaj Gaya was good ruler his good quality was like a calf. When a cow sees a calf it naturally gives milk. How many of you have milked a cow please raise your hands? In vrindavan amongst brijavasis you cannot actually be accepted as a real Brijavaisi unless for one year you take care of cows so what excites a cow in its natural environment to give its milk, the calf! The milk is produce for the purpose of feeding the calf. The mother cow has motherly affection qualitatively equal to human mother may be not with such a sophistication or intellect, the emotion of the mother cow is very very deep we have seen, take the calf away from the cow and the cow is really in distress calling out for he calf or the calf is in danger the mother cow is obsessed with protecting the calf its affection motherly affection, so the tradition a way of milking the cow is very different than today. Today you just have a cow sometime she never sees her calf and you put a milk machine and it just sucks the milk out, but traditionally you bring a calf, let it drink to its satisfaction because cow gives a lot more than a calf could drink so after the calf is happy you take it away and then you milk and the mild is just pouring down you hardly even have to squeeze, I milked cows for 4years and sometimes you really have to squeeze but when you keep a calf there its flowing you hardly have to work on it. Due to her affection the mild is just affection so the good qualities of Maharaj Gaiya is compared to a calf and mother earth is compared to cow everything was been provided and what were those good qualities, for anyone who wants to make progressive spiritual advancement or anyone who wants to be a anyway leader weather it may be mother, father employer or king or a good example for other these qualities are very important to understand but what was maharaj Gayas special qualities as the king he dedicated his life in giving full protection and security to his citizens and highlighted in the Shrimad Bhagavtam is that a person of property of the citizen would never be disturb by undesirable allegiance. Today in cities there is so much need for unofficial security, doors and windows and special locking systems and security and sometimes security guards guns, all sorts of banks to keep your money but in America (25:45) nobody lock their doors banks were formality nobody kept there money at home. But people were basically raised in the conception of good character with this good qualities in people life there security, one lust, greed, envy and anger when these qualities are advocated or molded those were the example of people see and everything becomes very chaotic. King Gaiya because he was such a first class example for people to follow because he educated people so well by his words, by his example and by the system he created, he educated people in character, he educated people in devotion to God, he promoted it not in a suppressive or depressive way but in an enlightening way. Shrila Prabhupada explains a proper ruler if he puts aside religion or spirituality things are going to become chaotic because there is no foundational basis for real morality or ethics or good character. Shrila Prabhupada explains the true secular state that should follow their religion properly, the essential values of their religion not that you throw what out, weather are a jues, Christians, Muslim or a Zoroastrian what is the essential of the principle of your religion you must follow not that we put aside religion and make our own laws they are essential universal spiritual principles and a great king or a great leader not only understand them but also follows them and promotes and make laws on their basis and the result is people love God, people have faith and trust on God, people understand what real values are and will bring good future to their family and everyone else. Otherwise it becomes so fashionable so cruel so sinful to be abuses to be greedy in many cases people engage, young people and when your young you get conditioned and then it becomes a habit and your standard usually throughout your life. People engage in unethical sinful activities because it’s the social norm not so much because they can do without it bad association, something like smoking cigarettes its not that when you are born you are craving cigarettes its not that when you reach 17 years old something develops in your system that you have to have tobacco in your system, no people around are doing it and it’s a fashion that’s the reason people do it its just the reason that everyone do it. People are moral, people are faithful in their marriages then to remain chased and pure is normal but if in a society there is so much illicit sex and if you don’t do it then people think there is some thing wrong with you. I remember when I was a teenager a very respectable person told this is very respectable horned man he says if your 18 years old man and you are still a virgin then there is something seriously wrong in you, is some mental problem (hare Krishna!) why? Because most people in social norm as just the think to do that’s the people talk about so in a society like that people are corrupted, Shrila Prabhupada explains situation like its a spiritual slaughter houses and yes world is very much like that. I know many people who are today in prison for many years for dealing illegal drug since yesterday I got a letter from I never even meet him he just some how heard one of my tape or something in a prison (33:00) he is in prison for 25 years and basically he is a good person but he just got in a wrong association selling drugs and there he is. Just recently we put the assess of one man in river yamuna a really sweet boy I know his parents very much but some how or other he started taking drugs he was with people who were taking drugs, once you start taking drugs on thing often times leads to another , from drug to something stronger and stronger and then you have to have money to get more and what’s the easiest way to get money is to sell the drug fast money and he starts selling it and when you start doing that then you are in the association very very violent immoral people, so this nice boy was found dead and these mafia type people who are the people dealing with such types of substances. If you betray them as long you doing the favors they want you make what you want but as soon as you cross them or soon as you are not able to meet their demand you are dead, life is cheap, this is reality his assess are in Yamuna because his parents love Krishna, he was a good boy but just a wrong influence and hi e is dead and he suffered. How many millions and thousands of times it happens? So Maharaj Gaiya he was a real leader because he educated the people in a way they understood what is real value and therefore the wicked minded people have illegal influence. The greatest influence, the greatest problem of evil minded people is when attract other people to be like them just like a terrorists bring of today if just one man the worse he could do is blow himself up somewhere when there is a whole network of thousands and ten thousands of people who are influence by your mentality then it becomes a world wide problem. So in today’s world governments promotes activities and desire that simply feed the fire of greed, lust and intoxication and violence and therefore security and protection is very very unpredictable so Maharaj Gaiya gave full protection to his citizens not only by apprehending violators but educate the people to keep the violators number down to give good influence. Begin children are brought up to really honor and respect this is something high and great and even if they are distracted for some time ultimately they come back to that but they have something high and great some thing very different a different type of materialistic activity and there is corruption and one thing leads to another and now people are so much afraid fearful for protection and security so that way first quality explain by maharaj gaiya educated people by his own personal example and by a system of education by which people learnt a values of loving God and serving god and leaving with ones principles in their lives and (39:50) that there was profuse distribution of food its not that need to do food for life because everybody had food he created not created but its was of its forefathers but he persevered by which everyone had the opportunity to perform their duties equal opportunity to everyone to earn and everything was in sufficient quantity so everyone were happy, probably making a good person bad it’s a fact when people really most so much of crime is in places where there is so little, maharaj gaiya there was no poverty and that could be done it is just a matter of proper leadership of course on thing is so much out of hand then it becomes very difficult and he was distributing gifts to the citizens to satisfy them, personally he was distributing gift to the citizen and through the government there were millions of gifts given to the citizens and they were all given instructions of how to be first class citizens. And because of Gaiyas personally (41:05) of being such a loving father responsible husband people understood that’s how we should be because “ ( sloka 42:20) “ what leaders do common people should follow this is a common principle people follow their when they are young they follow their older brother or sister yes! Are nature is to follow those who are senior to us and then we start getting idols and hero’s, role models and very much influence us so this good leaders there is good society, if there is not good leaders there is no hope of good society. Maharaj Gaiya was according to this sloka besides all this King Gaiya was a house holder whose strictly absorbed the rules and regulation of house hold life and he was also a great devotees, he perform the religious principle, he preformed sacrifices for the pleasure of the Lord. In the age of Kali the greatest of all sacrifices is the chanting the holy names because the purification of the heart that takes places due to chanting of the Gods names is what is most pleasing to Krishna, what pleases God is this is the universal principle what pleases God is to love Him to love with all your heart mind and soul. Shrimad Bhagvatam gives the only message how to love God, Krishna is please by love if we give everything else without that He is not pleased “aham bija prajapita” Lord Nityananda and Haridas Thakur was sent to the streets of Navadeep with this message that Krishna is your mother Krishna is your father, from that perspective mother and father what is that mother and father want a real mother and father a good one ultimately they want love of the children and want to give love they want to receive love. When parents see the children fighting it hurts their hearts, when they see children love each other, in my own family it is so diversified unbelievable , just recently my father call on the phone and he was with his cousin brother and he said that the three generations of that family are exactly identical so the grand father, the great grand father, the father, the children, the grand children they all married into their own religion they all married to first boyfriend or girlfriend they ever had, they are all doing basically the same kind of business so that is unbelievable all his children he saw them all are exactly the same as their parents as their grand parents and the great grand parents so about my family so what happen to all of you, I am not going to go into the (47:00) one is married to girl of different religion one not married at all the Hare Krishna devotee living in India, his grand daughter boyfriend is Mexican but ultimately he said but I am completely satisfied because you love each other Hare Krishna. Parents want that, they want to see their children loving each other. Prabhupada said you will show your love to me by how you cooperate with each other thats was one of the difficult instruction he gave because of Kali in the age of quarrel and hypocrisy its very difficult to cooperate because of so many temptation and so many obstacles coming to our life, how to cooperate with another person who has different false ego than me and what to speak of whole multitude of people having different false egos yes, its difficult enough to get cooperation in one little house or a temple but Prabhupada created International society for Krishna Consciousness, there are so many devotees of different races different nationality and different religious background different caste different community very very different conditioning and different egos then how to cooperate? Very difficult but if you want to love the father and mother you have to show love to those to whom they love thats call cooperation . Some people are very passionate to get the thing done and some people are just very introspective how like this two people can work together, “do something ya I am doing I am doing” and everybody has their own idea and everybody has their own interpretation yes! its very difficult, the only possible that they can be cooperate is the higher principle “ Stam Stidhi Hari toshanam” this is what please the Guru, this is what pleases father mother, this is what pleases God. Krishna appeared to the prachetas, He made Himself visible for their eyes, He told I am appearing before you because of friendly relationships with each other. Maharaj Gaiya he lived by his principles so deeply he preform his spiritual activity in such a way that he himself was so pure in heart that he was accessing as an instrument of the power of Gods love because from the philosophical point of view to really have the power to love anyone we are part and parcel of Krishna we have that element of Krishna within us, we have that infinitesimal Krishna within us which is the power to love, ultimately Krishna is the only one loving and who is he loving, ultimately God is loving Himself “ (Sloka 51:44) Krishna expands Himself in the form of Shrimati Radharani and who is Radharani? She is Krishna the absolute truth, actually the absolute truth is one, that absolute truth has a feminine and masculine aspect or the enjoyer and enjoyed aspect, Shrimati Radharani is the supreme enjoyed, Krishna is the supreme enjoyer but they are one supreme person in two forms and “mamai vainsha jiva loke jiva bhuta sanatana” there are innumerable “nityo nityanam chetan chetanam” innumerable living entities who are all part of Krishna who all are part of that lila of Radha and Krishna and the more pure we become the more Krishna's love manifest through us, the more Shrimati Radharani love manifest through us, toward God and toward every living entity. The other day SutaKirti Pr was explaining Prabhupada's beautiful pastime in Atlanta George and I remember listening to a lecture tape, I heard it many times of that visit, somebody ask Prabhupada tha question what pleases you the most? And Prabhupada reply was so simple but so deep thats the foundation of everything we should be striving for Prabhupada said what pleases me the most is when you love Krishna because when you love Krishna everything else is there in highest and best form and if you don't love Krishna everything is essentially empty and superficial so Maharaj Gaiya shrived through his own sadhana through his own spiritual practices to love Krishna and he did and therefore he had such power of Gods grace Gods love Gods authority to influence others by his examples by his words therefore he was called Mahapurusha and despite having all of these immense qualities the next quality that is explained here is he was the strict devotee of the Supreme Lord and as a devotee he was always ready to give respect to others hare krishna! He was free from the bodily conceptions therefore he was always jubilant although he was perfect in all respect he was not proud nor was he eager to rule the kingdom hare krishna ! No pride no attachment, his eagerness was to serve. It is an extraordinary quality, to have good qualities of not be proud this is maharaj Gaiya and these were the qualities of his decendend Biraja therefore he was like a fragrant flower in a garden of his whole dynasty and even today millennium later we are reading about it speaking about it.
Is there any Question?
Yes.
One devotee:- Thankyou Maharaj for very nice class. Maharaj talking about the life of Maharaj Gaiya how till his end of his life he was such a worderful devotee of Krishna but we see in our day to day Krishna conscious life in Iskcon that we are been coming to Krishna consciousness, we have full of energy we have full of enthusiasm and we practice Krishna consciousness very nicely not taking care so much of our health not taking so much care about our material possession but as we spend more and more years in Krishna consciousness some how the feeling is that now I should take care of my health I should take care of trying to develop some security some bank balance and gradually over a period of time we start compromising on our practices of our Krishna consciousness give more preference to aspect like this insuring that take medicine on time and things like that so does this happen Maharaj actually you are spending more years in Krishna consciousness then it should be actually depending more on Krishna, you are actually depending more on the external energy.
Maharaj answered:- What is your opinion!
Devotee said :- I am confused maharaj, not able to
Maharaj said:- the varnashram system is that as we grow older we are supposed to become more and more detached from these things, obviously health is a matter of more energy as you grow older that just the way the body works when you are young you generally do not have to take much attention at your health but as you get older more and more attention has to be put there because things just start following apart just like in an automobile you don’t have to put much energy in a new automobile you just drive and everything works fine you don’t have to think about it you don’t have to invest in it just drive but there is no automobile that stays like that there is never been one made as time goes on more maintenances more repairing more changing of parts more time so body is the machine and its like that, it’s the machine made of maya energy it just get warn out we have give time and that is devotional service cannot separate it from devotional service Shrila Prabhupada he is teaching by the highest example we heard from Shrutakirti Pr amazing nectorian class last week, let is thank him for the wonderful wonderful gift us by loudly chanting (haribol!) and much of his talk was about Prahupada taking care of his body, how many times you got massaged everyday? For how long each time he( Prabhupada ) was getting massage 3 hours a day and morning walk was about 1 hour that atleast 4 hour just trying to keep his body going but when he was young I don’t think he had given much attention, its not like that he liked to be get rubbed by people those massages was simply absolutely necessary for his devotional service he wasn’t massaged because liked the feeling of massage he would much rather have been doing something else but he have its body and body is the vehicle to serve Krishna he have to keep his body fit not for his sake for our sake for Krishna’s sake so yes he spent as he getting older more time have to be there for his body he didn’t take morning walks until after he had a heart attack and he had a something like a stroke it was it that time the jewes doctor in New York city said swamiji you prayed too much and devotees were offended by that but Prabhupada said what he is saying is truth he wasn’t saying he shouldn’t praying what the doctor said you prayed too much it means you need exercise so after heart attack then he started his morning walk then every single religiously he took his morning walk, he took his massage because that machine was getting old, when he was young he must have enjoyed his cooking a lot but as he grown older he told shrutakirti Pr that you are killing me by deprived food, mustard food, that’s how the body work, but all the morning walks, all the massages all the dietiary restriction he was doing was all the devotional service to Krishna was all for the purpose to facilitate the service for Krishna, If you are working for money and you are using money for Krishna then working for money is the devotional service to Krishna. If you are giving time for your body and health and using your body and health in serving Krishna the giving time for health is devotional service to Krishna so that’s the part of devotional service as your get older to give attention to your body as what your body needs that may have never needed us in the past. However if its distracts us from the regulative principle of Krishna consciousness from the essential spiritual principles and there is something wrong then there is something wrong! Then we are not doing it any longer for spiritual purpose and that we have to be careful of. We will have to put more attention into these apparent material things as we grow older but should not compromise our sacred idols of our sadhana or our enthusiasm to serve actually as we get older and practicing Krishna consciousness properly more more renounced as we get older not more and more attached we should become more and more detached but because of the nature of the body that detachment may take a different form that did in the past. Detachment never means neglect what Krishna gives you but it means to do the needful as an offering to Krishna Is that answer your question, we should be more detached as we grow older we should be more detached from sense of proprietorship we should be more detached from the false ego as we grow older, for one thing we must know that every stage of our spiritual life we have our free will, nothing happens automatically everything happens by our free will and every movement of every day of every week of every month of every decade we have free will and anytime whether you are devotees for 6months or for 50 years we always have a choice whether we want to go up or down whether we want to put our attention in cultivation of material thing or detaching from that, whether we want frustration or yelling still we have the choice whether we want the dictation of false ego or satify the will of the Lord so yes maya has a trap at every step when we are young maya traps our often times our passionate energies our tendencies and to be greatness as we get older and all these things are getting warn out then maya tries to attach the fear the fear of the future, security and all those things and always someways to distracts what protects us if we nice association of every stage of our spiritual life, if we maintain our sadhana of hearing Shrila Prabhupada’s books and the holy scriptures from a advanced sadhus chanting the names of the lord and that will gives strength, the clarity, the intelligence of the right choices still we have to make the right choice. So yes more time is going in seeing material but they are not material if they have the right purpose we have to be very careful with our free will always looking towards the goal. Old age is a beautiful thing its actually a very beautiful thing, the illusion that we are immortal is just been ground by time into dust. Young devotees hear everyday that death is certain but that theoretical still as long we have youthful energy it is very difficult to realize to really take it to our heart when your kidney starts failing when your knees don’t and you can sit on floor any more and all these things starts happening, you are not able to dance in kirtan than you start taking seriously I am dying ! its true I am dying so old age is beautiful thing it’s the best part of life in that sense where its very sobers and it makes us very serious about the reality that who we are nice old people around, when we are young we look at them and we understand I am on my way and nothing you can day that’s one thing no one no matter how much power how much money that’s one thing no body can do and that’s stops progress in that direction so yes we should try to keep body and soul together we should have good health that’s our service to Krishna with right motive and right purpose and as old age comes yes Krishna I am becoming more helpless and more dependent ultimately I am yours! And we should actually grow in wisdom in purity and detachment through old age but that will not happen automatically we have to make choices, none of you should think now I am young and restless and I will enjoy and ban the rules when I grow old then I wont need to do these things that is mays illusions nothing happens KC never happens automatically even when you are dead bed still maya would be right there whispering in one ear and Krishna at one ear and you have the choice even one second before death so what’s life about practice listening to Krishna so when that movement comes naturally we will listen to Krishna not because it is automatic but because we have invested. Thank you very much.
Shrila Prabhupada is Jai!....