I sincerely thank all of the assembled devotees for so sincerely coming to Sri Radha Vrindavan Candra’s Sunday festival. Today I would like to speak on the subject of a particular sentence spoken by Srila Prabhupada because I feel that this subject although not often discussed is one of the most frequent and essential themes within all the spiritual literatures of the world, especially Srimad Bhagavatam and the Purana’s. Prabhupada gives his definition of greatness, “One’s greatness has to be estimated by one’s ability to tolerate provoking situations.” Please repeat after me.

“One’s greatness has to be estimated by one’s ability to tolerate provoking situations,”
(Krishna Book Volume Two 1970-2-34 / The Superexcellent Power of Krishna)

Srila Prabhupada gives the example that a small flame can be blown out by even a slight breeze. However the greatest of all luminaries, the sun does not even slightly move from its position in the face of the most powerful cyclones, tornados or hurricanes. That is why the sun is greater than the flame. Srimad Bhagavatam on the banks of the River Sarasvati a group of great saints and saintly persons were gathered together. They were discussing the topic of greatness and they wanted to come to some understanding of who the greatest personality in the universe was. There were three opinions. Some said Lord Brahma others said Lord Visnu and others Lord Siva. Each of them had their reasons but they couldn’t come to a conclusion. So they deputed Bhrgu Muni, a son of Lord Brahma to make a test and evaluate of the three murtis, Brahma, Visnu and Mahesvara who is the greatest.

So first he went to the abode of Lord Brahma, his father and according to etiquette a son is supposed to offer respects to the father but he didn’t offer any respect at all. In fact he did not do anything. He didn’t say anything but just stood there. And Brahma welcomed him, “Oh my son. I am so happy you have come.” He just stood there. Brahma became so angry about this transgression and he was about to punish him but because Bhrgu was his son he controlled his anger and did not do anything. Bhrgu Muni could see that Brahma was visibly upset, angry.

Then he went to the planet of Kailash were Lord Siva resides. Lord Siva is his brother. When Lord Siva was with his consort Parvati and saw that Bhrgu has come he was so happy, he was overjoyed, “My brother you have come.” He came to embrace him with a big smile welcoming him and Bhrgu Muni spoke. He said, “Don’t you touch me you filthy person. Look at you; your body is covered with ashes from the crematorium. You have snakes on your body with all bad association. You are filthy, don’t touch me!” Hare Krishna! Lord Siva became so angry he picked up his trident and was about to kill Bhrgu Muni but Parvati pacified him, “He is your brother, he is your brother, let it be!” So Lord Siva cooled down.

The first offence was a mental offence to Lord Brahma. He did not offer proper respects. To Siva he committed a verbal offence. Then he went to Svetadvip were Lord Visnu is sitting on a flowered bed with Laxmidevi. As soon as Lord Visnu saw Bhrgu Muni come in He got up and said, “Oh My friend, O great brahmana you have come let me welcome you.” And Bhrgu Muni just ran up to Him and in a very angry disposition kicked Visnu in the chest with his foot. He wanted to see how Visnu would respond to this provoking situation. Lord Visnu sat him down and said, “Please accept this seat. I am so honored and so grateful that you have come. You have sanctified My abode by your presence. You are a brahmana. The water that washes your feet can purify even the holiest places. By you coming here you have sanctified Vaikuntha. I am very sorry. I beg forgiveness of you that I did not welcome you properly. I did not offer you proper respect so you duly punished me by kicking Me on the chest but I am feeling pain in My heart because your foot is so sacred, it is so holy, so soft and My chest is so hard that it must have caused you pain. Please let me massage your lotus feet.” And Visnu massaged the feet of Bhrgu Muni.

Bhrugu Muni was standing there seeing the quality of Lord Visnu was paralyzed by respect, choked up. The only movement from his body was tears flowing from his eyes. He just had to leave. He went back to the bank of Sarasvati and explained to all the saints and sages there about how the three great souls responded to his various tests. They all came to the conclusion that Visnu is the supreme of all the greatest. His greatness was estimated by His ability to tolerate provoking situations. Amongst themselves they came to the conclusion that if someone is not of that transcendental stage of peace within their heart how could they give anyone else peace in a provoking situation therefore Visnu is the supremely worshipable Deity of all.

In Sri Caitanya Bhagavat is a very interesting item that Vrindavan das Thakur explains. Actually Lord Caitanya tells this. That in this particular story Brahma and Siva are very great souls, they are not actually angry with Bhrgu Muni, they just pretended to feel angry because they knew that Visnu is the greatest and they are His servants and they wanted the whole world to know that Visnu is the greatest so they purposefully failed the test just to glorify the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is the quality of God. Within human society greatness means to be godly, to live by this example and we find this a continuous theme of how different people react to provoking situations. Should we name a few?

Srimad Bhagavatam, how the Bhagavatam was spoken – Maharaj Pariksit was such a great king that when in was in the womb of his mother he was seeing Lord Krishna, taking shelter of the Lord. Such a great devotee so compassionate! When he was the king he was willing to give his life his complete energy to protect even the most insignificant of his citizens if they were being plundered or abused by another. He declared war against Kali personified because he was causing harm to innocent cow and bull. That was the character of Maharaj Pariksit. One day he was roaming through the forest and suddenly something happened that was completely out of his character. He became completely overcome with thirst. That is a provoking situation. He was so overcome with thirst that he was thinking of nothing but getting water. Actually this is the quality a devotee should have, this type of eagerness for Krishna like a person in the desert who can find no shelter anywhere except in water. In the desert of this material existence we should be longing, striving for Krishna. So he went to the hermitage of Samika Rsi. He was a very great brahmana sage who was sitting in samadhi, meditation and was oblivious to the external world. Pariksit Maharaj after offering his respects to this brahmana requested, “Please give me some water I am dying of thirst. Give me a little water.” But Samika Rsi was not in this world; he was internally in his meditation. He did not even recognize that anyone had come to his house so he just sat there and Pariksit Maharaj was temporarily overcome by the illusory energy, by the will of the Lord obviously and he became disturbed. He did not do much. He saw as he was leaving the hermitage. He said, “You are a brahmana and because you are in such a high position you are not even greeting a guest who happens to be the king of the world who comes to your house.” He came under the delusion that the brahmana was purposely neglecting him out of pride so he saw a dead snake and lifted it with his bow and put it on the brahmanas shoulder and walked out. Not much of an offence! Very slight ridicule, that is all! Samika Rsis son Srngi heard about this. He was a young boy but he had tremendous brahminical powers. In those days if you were born in a family you would inherit the great powers of your families opulence and in this case with brahmanas, brahminical power. When he heard that his father was insulted in this small way he was so outraged that he lost control of his anger and to show off to his young friends he brought them all together, sipped water and proclaimed a curse. “Because this king has insulted a brahmana he has no right to be in his position. I curse that on the seventh day form today he will be killed by the snake bird Taraka.” Hare Krishna! Now this is how he responded to a provoking situation and what was the result? The result of Srngi’s inability to tolerate a provoking situation is the whole brahmana caste became very much compromised and full of degradation and not only that. Pariksit was the only person powerful enough to keep Kali out of the world. It was due to his cursing the king that Kali-yuga began and all the qualities of quarrel and hypocrisy attacked this planet and is still attacking. That is the result of one person’s inexperienced ability to tolerate a provoking situation.

In contrast King Pariksit was cursed to die in seven days that is a very provoking situation, when he heard about it he was happy. He accepted it as the will of the Lord. “Nothing happens by chance. This is a message of the Lord to me. It is time for me to become very serious about preparing for the purpose of life.

ante narayana-smrti

The goal of life is that at the time of death we remember the Supreme Lord.

anta-kale ca mam eva
smaran muktva kalevaram (Bg 8.5)

Krishna tells, “If you remember Me at the time of death you will come to Me without fail.” It is the final exam of life.

padam padam yad vipadam na tesam (SB 10.14.58)

And in this world that final exam or any other type of preliminary exam can come upon anyone at any time, anywhere. There is danger at every step in this world even if we are most careful.

Pariksit Maharaj understood atatho brahma-jijnasa, human life is meant for self-realization, it is not meant to be a king, it is not meant to be a family man, it is meant for self realization and all of the other aspects, socially, occupationally, they are all meant to facilitate our self realization. So Pariksit Maharaj considered this, the Lord’s mercy. He considered Srngi to simply be an instrument of Krishna’s blessings upon him to become very serious in his life. And that last seven days he decided to utilize exclusively to cultivate bhakti or love of God!

When I was young in the sixties, the television show, ‘Run for Your Life’ was the number one show. She is so transcendental she didn’t even know what is television! It was about a wealthy man and he was told he was going to die in one year so he wanted to utilize his life for the ultimate purpose – sense gratification! It was a weekly series, so every week for one hour you saw him with a beautiful French girl, skiing in the French Alps doing all kind of exciting adventures. Another time he was with a Jamaican girl scuba diving in the Caribbean. Every week he was doing some wonderful adventure with another beautiful women, enjoying like anything and people were thinking that this man is really together. He knows how to utilize life qualitatively to the maximum degree. That is why it was the number one show! He became the hero the idol he is the best enjoyer! He wanted to pack in seventy-five years of enjoyment in that one year. In fact the show was so popular. It made so much money with the sponsors and the commercials that they had to extend his life to another year. They expanded his life to another year, I think it went on for four years until the rating was going down, then they let him die.

Here is Pariksit Maharaj he has seven days. He vowed that he would fast to death, no eating, no drinking, and no sleeping. “I will leave all my royal garments behind and just put on the robes of a mendicant and I will be continuously in the association of saintly people hearing about Krishna.” With this vow he went to the bank of the Ganges with a humble heart. He was the king of the world. He could have sent massive armies to imprison, torture and execute this little brahmana boy he had that power! He was also a mystic. He could have pronounced a curse to Samika Rsi and his son and did something to them. He didn’t retaliate but he accepted it as the mercy of God. In fact Samika Rsi when he heard about this, he was broken hearted. He came out of his meditation he saw the snake, he didn’t think anything of it and then his son came and told him, “This is what I have done.” “You have just destroyed the brahminical class, you have destroyed the morality, the ethics of the world. This king was the representative of God. Why have you done!!!! Shame, shame, shame on us!” He couldn’t even look at the face of Pariksit Maharaj because of what had been done through the minor little thing of a snake. It was just nothing! “You have killed the man.” He sent a messenger and when Pariksit Maharaj got that news he welcomed it as Krishna’s signal that he must become very, very serious about his spiritual life.

Srila Prabhupada explains that Pariksit Maharaj knew as a fact that he would have at least seven days to live. There is not a single person is this entire world that knows with guarantee that he will have seven minutes to live. We take it for granted but we do not know. How we utilize our time is a sign of our intelligence and our sincerity. To waste time means to waste our life. Our human existence is so precious and every moment as a human being is the most precious thing in the entire creation because when you loose a moment you cannot buy it back for any amount of wealth.

So Pariksit Maharaj sat on the bank of the Ganges and there he met his Guru Maharaj Sukadev Goswami and with all humility, with eagerness to hear about Krishna he enquired from him. “What is the essence of all religions? What is the purpose of human life and what is the main duty of a person about to die?” In provoking situation one person responded with ego and anger and he is condemned today even five thousand years later and Pariksit Maharaj is everyone’s great hero. It was because of his consciousness that the Srimad Bhagavatam took birth in this world because he responded without anger. In a provoking situation he responded with forgiveness, with patience, with tolerance and with faith in God.

Another example is Ambarish Maharaj. Ambarish was also a king. He was fasting for the benefit of the world and according to the particular rules he had to break his fast by a particular time. He was just about to break his fast, the time was just about coming and Durvasa Muni came in. Hare Krishna! Durvasa Muni came with many others too and Ambarish Maharaj offered him prasad. He said, “I will accept prasad but first I want to take my bath in the river Yamuna.” This took place in Madhuvan in Vrindavan, Brjabhumi. So he went to take his bath and the brahmana priest came to Ambarish Maharaj and said, “The deadline to break your fast is now. You have to break it now.” Ambarish said, “But it is the law of hospitality that a host never eats before he feeds his guest.” “But you have to do something. You fasted for a whole year. It will all be nullified.” So with the permission of the brahmanas and with their blessings he took a little caranamrta, a little drop of water and drank it. Durvasa Muni was such a mystic he actually understood it through his mystic vision. This outraged him – “Ambarish drank a drop of water before he fed me a full meal. This is outrageous.” So he went running to that place. His eyes were red with anger, he started blaspheming Abarish, “You have no control over your senses, you have no morality, you have no ethic, no respect and you deserve to die. Today you will meet the court of Yamaraj.” Then he took a hair from his head and smashed it on the ground and by his mystic power chanting a mantra a gigantic fiery demon emanated from his hair. It is a good story to act? Then he told the demon, “Kill him!” Ambarish Maharaj was completely composed. He just stood there with his palms folded sincerely praying within the core of his heart to Lord Krishna, “If You want to kill me, take me! Through whatever agency if You want to kill me I am Yours, take me. If You want to protect me I have nothing to fear from this gigantic monster.” That was his faith that was his tolerance. Because he was praying to the Supreme Personality of Godhead in a mood of complete surrender,

kaunteya pratijanihi
na me bhaktah pranasyati (Bg 9.31)

Krishna protects His devotees, Krishna sent Sudarsana-cakra. Sudarsana-cakra came and annihilated that fiery monster but that is not all, it attacked Durvasa Muni and Durvasa Muni, he didn’t stand there with folded palms and say, “Krishna if you want to take me please take.” He ran for his life and the cakra was running right behind him. He could feel the heat right just inches behind his back and the his running was not working so by his mystic powers he started to fly from one planet to another. He went to Indra’s abode and Indra said, “Visnu’s cakra, I cannot help you.” He went to Brahma’s abode, “Visnu’s cakra, nothing I can do to help you.” He went to Siva’s abode, “Visnu’s cakra, nothing I can do for you my friend even though you are my plenary expansion!” Ultimately he went to Vaikunta – Visnu’s abode and he fell at Visnu’s feet begging, “Please save me. Take Your cakra away. No one else can save me except You.” Visnu said, “I can’t save you. You have offended My devotee.”

sadhavo hrdayam mahyam
sadhunam hrdayam tv aham (SB 9.4.68)

“The sadhu has given his life to Me, his heart to Me therefore I give My heart to My devotee. My devotee knows no one but Me and I know no one but My devotee. That is love. I have no power to call back My cakra because you offended My devotee. The only person who can save you is Ambarish. Fall at his feet with genuine sincerity; beg forgiveness and then you will be saved.” So he went all the way back to Madhuvan and he fell at Ambarish Maharaja’s feet and Ambarish Maharaj of course fell at his feet and he begged forgiveness. And Ambarish Maharaj, “Forgive for what? You haven’t eaten yet. You have been away for a year.” Ambarish fasted that whole year because he wouldn’t eat anything except that drop of water until he fed his guest and his guest still hadn’t eaten yet. That was his forgiveness that was his respectability. Ambarish was a powerful ksatriya, he was not just some little skinny sadhu of the bank of a river, he was a powerful ksatriya with armies and everything, but tolerating an offense against himself with forgiveness, with respect he honored and welcomed Durvasa Muni back and he personally prayed to Sudarsana cakra to spare him and then fed him prasad.

Provoking situation, a slight offence to Durvasa Muni and he flared up, he couldn’t control his mind and a major horrible offence to Ambarish Maharaj and he was tolerant, patient, forgiving, he was concerned with another persons welfare. That is greatness. Greatness is not how much money you have, greatness is not how much fame and prestige you have in this world, greatness is not how much knowledge you have in academic learning, greatness is not in how much you know about in spiritual subject matters intellectually, greatness is not in bodily strength, in physical beauty. These are the things that people of the world consider great but they are superficial, real greatness is one’s character, one’s integrity, “real greatness is to be estimated by one’s ability to tolerate provoking situations.”

We can speak about Prahlad and Hiranyakasipu, how Hiranyakasipu was so angered because Prahlad just didn’t obey him, how Prahlad even though his father tried to murder him in thousands of ways with cruelty but ultimately he was always the well wisher, he was always offering his respects to his father, praying for his father. His father finally met his own end by the grace of Nrsimhadev. Prahlad didn’t ask anything from the Lord as a benediction except to give liberation to his father.

In the Christian religion what is the sign of Christianity? They could have chosen so many signs because Lord Jesus Christ did so many wonderful miracles in his life and he spoke so many wonderful lessons in his life but what is so prominent about his greatness, the cross! It is on the top of almost every church, it is over the heart of almost every Christian. Why the cross? He displayed his greatness by how he tolerated very, very provoking situation and we worship him even two thousand years later for that. He did some things that technically were not accepted by some people and he was politically a threat. So unjustly they tried him, sentenced him, they tortured him. While he was on that cross by his mystic powers he could have done anything to those people. He already showed his miracles. Why didn’t he do it then? He wanted to show a greater miracle than creating or destroying or healing – tolerance, forgiveness. The same men who were blaspheming him, they tortured him killing him, he prayed to God, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” He had love for them, forgiveness for them. That is greatness and it is that greatness and forgiveness that is the very basis of the whole Christian religion.

Our beloved Srila Prabhupada what kind of provoking situation he had to tolerate! Why did Krishna put him through that? We were discussing the other day he wanted to go to America to preach Krishna consciousness out of total compassion for the suffering souls who were thinking they were happy in this material civilization without Krishna, spiritually poverty stricken society practically. He wanted to give love of God to them. He had such a burning desire. It was the order of his Guru, it was the order of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda why did Krishna not reciprocate and send him a ticket on Air India to New York City? He didn’t. He had to suffer abuse in Bombay. He had to sit on the steps of Sumati Moraji like a beggar begging for a ticket on a cargo ship. He took approximately one month. He had heart attacks, seasickness, paralysis, he was seventy years old! He arrived in Butler, Pennsylvania and there he was living with just totally materialistic people who really didn’t care anything for his message but he charmed their hearts because he was so respectful and kind to them. Then he went to New York City was living in places like the Bowrie, he was homeless, just from one place to another wherever he could somehow or the other survive. He had a ticket to go back, why did he stay? Krishna put him in that situation to show the power of his compassion, to show his greatness, his willingness to tolerate so many provoking situations. His life was threatened, he was ridiculed, he was criticized, even people of India would give him no support or even appreciation because they thought it was simply a hopeless cause and he could never succeed. Krishna revealed his greatness and we honor, worship and love Prabhupada with such gratitude because he did that not for himself, he did that for us, for you and me, that is greatness. No there are many provoking situations that come controlling anger is very, very essential them of all of our scriptures – to not respond to difficult situations and become offensive but to be forgiving and patient. That is especially necessary in Kali-yuga because the age of quarrel and hypocrisy. In order to remain united spiritually there must be greatness in this sense.

These great souls when they were in difficulty they turned to Krishna for shelter. They didn’t take shelter of material reactions but they took shelter of their faith. They took shelter of God and especially they took shelter of Gods holy names - Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Krishna is making his shelter available to every living being. We all have our free will whether we want to take shelter of Krishna or whether we want to take shelter of our own mind and all of it’s ideas, that is greatness – to take shelter of the greatest is greatness! The most opportune time to take shelter is in provoking situations. That is when our sincerity is tested and examined by Krishna very carefully from within the heart and if we past these tests we are promoted to higher realms of spiritual realization. That is the great gift Srila Prabhupada gave us. He is truly a great saint and Krishna revealed it in so many extraordinary ways. How he really lived for the welfare of others lived for the pleasure of God at every moment! We cannot imitate these persons.

mahajano yena gatah sa panthah (CC Madhya 17.186)

The path of perfection is not to imitate great souls, the path of perfection is not to try to become great but to try to emulate the spirit and serve those who are great.

trinad api sunicena, taror api sahishnuna
amanina manadena, kirtaniya sada hari

To be humble like a blade of grass, tolerant like the tree, offer all respect to others and devoid of self-prestige not expect any respect for oneself. That is greatness. However much you learned, however many other characteristics you have, without that spiritually you are not really living in greatness. Without humility, without genuine respect for service attitude spiritual knowledge is not digestible to our heart. We can memorize it with our intelligence. That any academic person can do! But humility and sincerity, simplicity, these are the qualities that are like enzymes that take transcendental knowledge and make it digestible to be assimilated in realized within the heart and that is what Krishna is looking for. When He sees that we want to follow in the footsteps of great souls in this way that He gives us Himself, He reveals Himself in His holy names.

nama cintamanih krsnas
caitanya-rasa-vigrahah ( CC Madhya 17.133)

When we have this spirit of following in the footsteps of the truly great souls

trnad api sunicena taror iva sahisnuna,

Then Krishna reveals through His name His form, His qualities, His characteristics, His abode, His pastimes, He reveals our eternal relationship with Him in the spiritual world. It is all within the name. Therefore Lord Caitanya proclaimed that take this verse, trnad api sunicena and put it on the string of the holy name and keep it always over your heart.
Thank you very much! Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai!