At first I pay my innumerable prostrated obeisances to the lotus feet of my most merciful and worshipable Divine master, who is the redeemer of the fallen souls, the bestower of knowledge on the Absolute, the non-different manifestation of the Supreme Lord and the bestower of service of the Supreme Lord. I pray for his causeless mercy. I pay my prostrated obeisances to the lotus feet of the worshipable Vaishnavas and pray for their causeless mercy. I pay my due respects to all the devotees who are inclined to hear discourses on the Supreme Lord and are observing Damodar-vrata. May they all become satisfied.

śrī-gajendra uvāca
oṁ namo bhagavate tasmai
yata etac cid-ātmakam
puruṣāyādi-bījāya
pareśāyābhidhīmahi

yasminn idaṁ yataś cedaṁ
yenedaṁ ya idaṁ svayam
yo ’smāt parasmāc ca paras
taṁ prapadye svayambhuvam

yaḥ svātmanīdaṁ nija-māyayārpitaṁ
kvacid vibhātaṁ kva ca tat tirohitam
aviddha-dṛk sākṣy ubhayaṁ tad īkṣate
sa ātma-mūlo ’vatu māṁ parāt-paraḥ

kālena paṣcatvam iteṣu kṛtsnaśo
lokeṣu pāleṣu ca sarva-hetuṣu
tamas tadāsīd gahanaṁ gabhīraṁ
yas tasya pāre ’bhivirājate vibhuḥ

na yasya devā ṛṣayaḥ padaṁ vidur
jantuḥ punaḥ ko ’rhati gantum īritum
yathā naṭasyākṛtibhir viceṣṭato
duratyayānukramaṇaḥ sa māvatu

didṛkṣavo yasya padaṁ sumaṅgalaṁ
vimukta-saṅgā munayaḥ susādhavaḥ
caranty aloka-vratam avraṇaṁ vane
bhūtātma-bhūtāḥ suhṛdaḥ sa me gatiḥ

na vidyate yasya ca janma karma vā
na nāma-rūpe guṇa-doṣa eva vā
tathāpi lokāpyaya-sambhavāya yaḥ
sva-māyayā tāny anukālam ṛcchati

tasmai namaḥ pareśāya
brahmaṇe ’nanta-śaktaye
arūpāyoru-rūpāya
nama āścarya-karmaṇe

nama ātma-pradīpāya
sākṣiṇe paramātmane
namo girāṁ vidūrāya
manasaś cetasām api

sattvena pratilabhyāya
naiṣkarmyeṇa vipaścitā
namaḥ kaivalya-nāthāya
nirvāṇa-sukha-saṁvide

namaḥ śāntāya ghorāya
ghūḍhāya guṇa-dharmiṇe
nirviśeṣāya sāmyāya
namo jñāna-ghanāya ca

kṣetra-jñāya namas tubhyaṁ
sarvādhyakṣāya sākṣiṇe
puruṣāyātma-mūlāya
mūla-prakṛtaye namaḥ

sarvendriya-guṇa-draṣṭre
sarva-pratyaya-hetave
asatā cchāyayoktāya
sad-ābhāsāya te namaḥ

namo namas te ’khila-kāraṇāya
niṣkāraṇāyādbhuta-kāraṇāya
sarvāgamāmnāya-mahārṇavāya
namo ’pavargāya parāyaṇāya
(Srimad Bhagavatam 8.3.2-15)

(Guru Maharaj stopped speaking for a while as there was a power cut. After the power gets resumed he says) Previously, I used to continue speaking even without a mike. But my śikṣā-guru Srila Puri Goswami Maharaj said to me, "Don't speak without a mike." Because of the remembrance of his words, I do not speak without a mike. There must be some reason behind such instructions.

After submitting his prayers Gajendra said with humility, “When Brahma and Rudra who are the foremost of the demigods couldn’t sing the glories of the Lord, how can I sing His glories?” Gajendra had so much humbleness in his heart and with such humility, he said, “I started speaking about the glories of the Lord but the words uttered by my material tongue cannot reach Him. Material mind cannot think about the Lord.” Only pure devotees can speak about the Lord. Gajendra says, “How can I speak about You?”

The Lord can be only known through revelation. Those who are not saintly (asādhu) cannot know the Supreme Lord because He will not reveal Himself to them—acchāya. The meaning of acchāya is devoid of shade. When the sun shines and one doesn’t find a shade to take shelter, he shall suffer from the heat of the sun. Sādhu gets bliss but asādhu gets afflictions only. This is one meaning of acchāya. The other meaning is—the transcendental qualities of the Lord will not be revealed to an asādhu. It is called acchāya or asphūrti (non-revelation). And cchāya means sphūrti—the revelation of the transcendental qualities of the Lord. A person who submits to a pure devotee of the Lord from the core of his heart, to such a person the transcendental glories of the Lord will manifest through revelation. Now a question may arise how Gajendra, the leader of the elephants, is speaking about the glories of the Lord being an animal himself. The reason behind this is Gajendra was a devotee of the Lord in his past life and so all the glories of the Lord manifested inside his heart and that made him speak about them.

sattvena pratilabhyāya
naiṣkarmyeṇa vipaścitā

Only a person who has got true knowledge can realize that the Lord can be attained only through devotion. Our Guru Maharaj explained the word ‘kaivalya-nāthāya’ as the master of ‘kevala-bhakti’—one-pointed devotion. The Supreme Lord is the master of one-pointed devotion. One cannot attain the Lord without one-pointed devotion. Many who do not have the proper knowledge, misinterpret the word ‘kaivalya-nāthāya’ as liberation (nirvaṇa). But there should be proper synchronization while explaining such words. People have the tendency to change the meanings of devotional terms as per their own thinking. The actual meaning is not revealed in their hearts. They speak by their own intellectual capacity.

The nature of the Lord is calm and serene (śāntāya). He is not violent. Is Krishna fiery (bhayankar)? But Kamsa was scared of seeing Krishna. Krishna killed the elephant ‘Kuvalayapida’ by uprooting its tooth, and then He entered the wrestling arena arranged by Kamsa. He was a small child at that time but on seeing Him, Kamsa became terrified. So the Lord appeared terrifying (bhayankar) to King Kamsa. But is Krishna indeed bhayankar? The devotees got His Darshan in different forms depending on their individual moods. There are twelve mellows in which the Lord appears to His devotees. He is not fiery. But those who are wicked people (asādhu), they get scared on seeing saintly people (sādhu). I am myself an asādhu so I got scared on seeing sādhus (Gurudev and his entourage) for the very first time. When I saw them in saffron robes for the very first time I got scared and tried to escape from them. But Krishna mercifully used someone as His instrument and brought me in their presence by force. So this is the trait of an asādhu who gets scared on seeing a sādhu. Is a sādhu like a lion who will kill the person? In a similar way, the Lord may appear to be very terrifying to demons like Hiranyakashipu but in reality, He is not so. Prahlad was also present there but he saw Nrisimha Deva to be the All-Auspicious Supreme Lord by means of his eyes tinged with devotion (Prema-netra). He says, "Who can think Nrisimha Deva to be Bhayankar! This material world (samsara) is indeed horrible and remembrance of Nrisimha Deva shall free one from the bondage of this material life. One gets freed from all material fears by the remembrance of Nrisimha Deva. The Lord is not fearsome."

The Lord remains hidden (ghūḍha) from the conditioned souls of this world. He remains beyond the comprehension of the minds and intellect of the conditioned souls of this world. He is the cause of the three modes of material nature namely—sattva (mode of goodness), rajo (mode of passion) and tamo (mode of ignorance) but despite that He Himself remains untouched by these modes.

ṛte ’rthaṁ yat pratīyeta
na pratīyeta cātmani
tad vidyād ātmano māyāṁ
yathābhāso yathā tamaḥ
(Srimad Bhagavatam 2.9.34, Chatu-shloki-bhagavat)

The living entity can get entangled by Maya—the illusory energy of the Lord. But the Lord, being the controller of Maya never gets entangled. He is purna sad-cid-anānd—Absolute Existence, Absolute Knowledge, and Absolute Bliss. The Lord doesn’t lack anything. When one abandons the Lord, he moves towards inauspiciousness, non-eternity, ignorance and all types of miseries.

The Lord does not possess any material virtues and that is why He is described as a nirviśeṣa. The word nirviśeṣa doesn’t mean that the Lord is devoid of any form. Gajendra is offering obeisances to Him—nirviśeṣāya namah. How can one pay obeisance to one who doesn’t possess any form? The Lord possesses a transcendental form. All of us accept cetan-sattā (the conscious living principle) to be the person. When consciousness leaves the body that body is no longer considered to be a person. Such a body has got no value. As long as consciousness is present inside a body it has got value and when the consciousness leaves, the body has got no value. The Ultimate Reality is an Infinite Person. He doesn’t possess any material form. So the word nirviśeṣa means no material form which can be destroyed. Arūpāyoru-rūpāya—the Lord doesn’t possess any form but again He possesses a multitude of forms. We have to harmonize both. Here, arūpaya or devoid of form means the Lord doesn’t possess any material form. The Lord possesses transcendental form and qualities.

He is equal to all. But out of sheer ignorance, we think that the Lord bestows His grace on some persons and deprives other persons. The Supreme Lord is pūrṇa-vastu (Absolute in every aspect). He doesn’t have any scarcity. Nothing can exist outside Him.

samo ’haṁ sarva-bhūteṣu
na me dveṣyo ’sti na priyaḥ
ye bhajanti tu māṁ bhaktyā
mayi te teṣu cāpy aham
(Bhagavad Gita 9.29)

“The Lord says that neither does He envy anybody nor is He partial to anybody. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him.”

The Lord is the friend of anybody who performs devotion to Him even if he is an elephant. There are infinite living entities created by Brahma. The Supreme Lord is neither moved by the creation nor by the destruction of these infinite beings. He simply remains as the witness to the creations and destructions. He thinks, “What can I do if they do not take shelter to Me! Since they have not taken shelter to Me, My illusory energy has caught them. Being eternal entities, the living beings neither take birth nor die. Due to being entrapped by My illusory energy they misconceive that they have taken birth, they die and undergo three-fold afflictions. If they take shelter to Me I shall remove this covering of illusory energy from them.”

daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī
mama māyā duratyayā
mām eva ye prapadyante
māyām etāṁ taranti te
(Bhagavad Gita 7.14)

“Whoever submits to Me, I shall remove the veil of My illusory energy from him.”

How can the Lord help him who doesn’t submit to Him? Such a person suffers afflictions! The Lord is equal to all. The sun gives light to each and every object and living being. He does not discriminate between good and bad objects or beings. He never thinks, “This place is dirty and so I shall not give my light here.” He is equal to all. Some people hang their wet clothes in the sunlight to dry them and some people don’t. What can the sun do if some people do not dry their wet clothes in sun rays? If we close all the doors and windows of our room and sit inside with our eyes closed and ask the whereabouts of the sun, this is deceitfulness. It is our duty to open our eyes, open the doors and windows of the room and allow the sunlight to enter our room. Only then shall we get the grace of the sun. In a similar way the Supreme Lord bestows His mercy upon all.

He is also the cause of formless impersonal Brahman. The Vedic injunction says, jyotirabhyante atulam shyamsundaram gyana ghana vigrah—there is an unequalled Shyamsundar form of the Lord in the effulgence Who is the embodiment of Absolute Knowledge. The Lord resides in the hearts of all the living entities as ‘Paramatma’ (the Supersoul). The cause of Paramatma is also the Supreme Lord.

kṣetra-jñāya namas tubhyaṁ
sarvādhyakṣāya sākṣiṇe
puruṣāyātma-mūlāya
mūla-prakṛtaye namaḥ

sarvendriya-guṇa-draṣṭre
sarva-pratyaya-hetave
asatā cchāyayoktāya
sad-ābhāsāya te namaḥ
(Srimad Bhagavatam 8.2.13-14)

The Supreme Lord is the cause of all our feelings, thoughts, doubts, good or vicious intelligence etc. Looking at the shadow of a tree one can have some conception of the tree itself. The world is created from the shadow of the internal potency (cid-ṣakti) of the Lord. This shadow of the internal potency of the Lord is Durga Devi. Externally it may appear that Durga Devi is the cause of creation, maintenance and destruction but behind her there is the internal potency of Govinda.

sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā
chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni bibharti durgā
icchānurūpam api yasya ca ceṣṭate sā
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
(Sri Brahma-samhita 5.44)

“The external potency Maya who is of the nature of the shadow of the internal potency (cid-ṣakti), is worshipped by all people as Durga, the creating, preserving and destroying agency of this mundane world. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda in accordance with whose will Durga conducts herself.”

This material world is the perverted reflection of the abode of the Lord. All the relations present in the abode of the Lord (śānta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya, mādhurya) are present in this world also. But the relations in this world are illusory and transitory by nature. Also, the nature of these relations as per superiority is exactly opposite to that present in the spiritual world. Here ‘santa-rasa’ is the topmost and ‘madhura-rasa’ is the lowest. In the spiritual world, it is exactly the reverse. There ‘madhura-rasa’ is the topmost and ‘santa-rasa’ is the lowest. The other meaning of asatācchāya is that the Lord is manifest to sādhus only and not to asādhus.

namo namas te ’khila-kāraṇāya
niṣkāraṇāyādbhuta-kāraṇāya
sarvāgamāmnāya-mahārṇavāya
namo ’pavargāya parāyaṇāya
(Srimad Bhagavatam 8.3.15)

Gajendra is singing the glories of his worshipable object. He is not uttering the Name of Him.

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ
sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
(Sri Brahma-samhita 5.1)

Here, Gajendra is saying, "I shall submit to the one Who is the cause of all causes and Who Himself doesn’t have a cause. There is only one way to know Him and that is by His causeless mercy. He is self-manifesting."

vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt
svayambhūr iti śuśruma
(Srimad Bhagavatam 6.1.40)

Like the Veda, the Supreme Lord is also self-manifest (svayambhūr). The Lord is addressed here as adbhuta-kāraṇāya. This is because even being the creator of the universes which undergo transformation (vikār), the Lord doesn’t undergo any sort of transformation. He is the root cause of everything. If a pot is to be made, the main ingredient required is clay. Even if clay is available, the pot cannot be created on its own. It requires a rod (danda) and a wheel (chakra). Even these two are not sufficient. A potter (kumbhakar) is also necessary to create the pot. This potter is the root cause behind the creation of the pot who will use the rod and wheel to give the lump of clay the shape of a pot.

Similarly the Lord is behind all the creation. The ‘vivarta-vadi’ (Mayavadi) say, brahma satya jagat mithya—Brahma has its existence but the world does not have its actual existence. According to the śakti-pariṇām-vada, the potency of the Lord undergoes a transformation. The vivarta-vadi, based on the fact that the potency and possessor of the potency are non-different, argue that the Brahma also undergoes transformation according to śakti-pariṇām-vada which is not the fact. Because of not being able to harmonize this, they say that the Brahma is formless. If they ascribe a form to the Absolute then they do not harmonize the transformation of His energy to the material universe. But as it is said in the prayers, the Lord is adbhuta-kāraṇāya—even if His various energies undergo transformations, the Lord does not undergo any transformation. To understand this we can think of a touchstone (Sparsh-mani) which converts any metal that comes in contact with it to gold. Despite turning the other metal to gold, Sparsh-mani remains unchanged. It has such power which converts other metals to gold. Sparsh-mani being a material object has such power. Now if a material object like a Sparsh-mani can have so much power, can’t the Lord have the power to remain ‘unperturbed’ and ‘unchanged’? Even if His different energies get transformed to different forms, He Himself does not undergo any transformation. For this very reason, He is called as adbhuta-kāraṇāya.

Gajendra says, “I pay my obeisances to You.” In Srimad Bhagavad Gita it is written,

vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham
(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 15.15)

In Srimad Bhagavatam it comes,

dharma-mūlaṁ hi bhagavān
sarva-vedamayo hariḥ
(Srimad Bhagavatam 7.11.7)

Narada Goswami instructs Yudhishthira Maharaj, "The Supreme Lord is the essence of all Vedic knowledge, the root of all religious principles."

Some people say that the Vedas are at the root of everything but then where did the Vedas originate? Who is the origin of the Vedas? The Vedas originated from the breath of the Lord. In this way, the Lord is the originator of the Vedas.

yamadūtā ūcuḥ
veda-praṇihito dharmo
hy adharmas tad-viparyayaḥ
vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt
svayambhūr iti śuśruma
(Srimad Bhagavatam 6.1.40)

The Veda is Lord Narayana Himself. They are Undivided Knowledge. The Supreme Lord Himself is Undivided Knowledge too. He is pūrṇa-sad, pūrṇa-chid and pūrṇa-ānanda (Absolute Existence, Absolute Knowledge and Absolute Bliss). The root of Dharma is Lord Hari. Narada Goswami says,

smṛtaṁ ca tad-vidāṁ rājan
yena cātmā prasīdati
(Srimad Bhagavatam 7.11.7)

Whatever activity pleases the Supreme Lord that is the foundation of Dharma. Where do the Veda come from? They come from the Supreme Lord. The Lord is the original cause of Veda. All the Vedic literature (Pancharatradi Agamas Veda-samuha) culminate in the Supreme Lord only. The meaning of 'sarvāgamāmnāya-mahārṇavāya' is written here as (by Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Prabhupad),

serve āgamāh pancarātrādayah
amnyāyāśca vedāh
teṣām mahārnavāya
śrotasāmiva paryavasānasthānāya

All the rivers ultimately culminate in the ocean (Mahasagar). So everything originates from the Supreme Lord and goes back in Him finally. We get to hear this in the topic of Ray Ramananda conversation. Water gets evaporated from water bodies by the rays of the sun and forms clouds in the sky. The clouds then pour down rains and the rainwater ultimately flows back to the ocean. In the same way, Ray Ramananda got power from Mahaprabhu and spoke about devotion to Mahaprabhu Himself.

Now, to whom does a sādhu take shelter? ‘Hari Om tad sat’. He fully takes shelter to the Supreme Lord. Asādhu doesn’t take shelter to the Lord. What is the difference between sādhu and asādhu? What is the primary quality (svarūpa-lakṣaṇa) of a sādhu?

mayy ananyena bhāvena
bhaktiṁ kurvanti ye dṛḍhām
mat-kṛte tyakta-karmāṇas
tyakta-svajana-bāndhavāḥ
(Srimad Bhagavatam 3.25.22)

A person who has got one-pointed devotion to Me is a sādhu. It is also mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita. Suppose a person who had committed some bad deed but now has taken one-pointed shelter at the Lotus Feet of the Lord, one should not criticize such a person for the deeds he had committed previously. Even if one sees some negative qualities in such a person one should not take them into account. One should show patience towards that person. Such a person who may have committed bad deeds in the past but has now taken one-pointed shelter to the Lord shall achieve eternal peace very soon. We listen to this instruction in Srimad Bhagavad Gita.

So Gajendra is addressing the Lord and saying, “You are the shelter of the sādhus. I offer my obeisances unto you.”

The Supreme Lord is the cause behind everything. All sorts of objects reside within the Supreme Lord. He doesn’t have a material form. Though He is nirguṇa, all sorts of creation, maintenance and destruction are carried out by Him. Despite performing all these He remains untouched or unperturbed by any of these things. This is a very astonishing thing. This is Lord's inconceivable immense power (avicintya mahāśakti). Sridhar Swamipada has written the meaning of adbhuta-kāraṇāya as, karaṇatve ca mridadivad vikāram bārayatiṇ—though You are the cause of everything, You do not undergo any transformation. Therefore You are named adbhuta-kāraṇāya.

Gajendra is then saying apavargāya (You Yourself are liberation). Where shall those who are desirous of getting liberation get it? It is said, vastāva mukti swarupena vyavasthiti—the one who is situated in his real self has actually attained Mukti. Mukti doesn’t mean that one should get merged into the Lord and lose his identity. The real significance of the term Mukti is one should be established in his real ego that he is a servant of the Supreme Lord. Immediately after apavargāya, Gajendra says parāyaṇāya—“You are the shelter of demigods like Brahma etc. who are called uttama-puruś (best of the men). I take shelter to the lotus feet of such Parameshwara (Lord of the Lords).”

guṇāraṇi-cchanna-cid-uṣmapāya
tat-kṣobha-visphūrjita-mānasāya
naiṣkarmya-bhāvena vivarjitāgama-
svayaṁ-prakāśāya namas karomi
(Srimad Bhagavatam 8.3.16)

Gajendra is speaking about the glories of the Lord which are becoming manifested in his heart. Guṇāraṇi-cchanna-cid-uṣmapāya—though externally we see the three modes of material nature (tri-guṇa) as the cause, in every aspect of cause and effect the Supreme Lord is present. Every gross ingredient in this material world contains a spiritual substance behind it. The scientists say that any material object, however small it may be, is a combination of atoms (paramaṇu). So they say atoms are the cause of everything. The cause of atoms are electrons and protons which rotate and revolve either in the same direction or in the opposite direction to each other. Science demands proof and evidence in any matter. If there is no proof and evidence then science will not admit it. But scientists cannot determine how do such electrons and protons rotate and revolve inside an atom. How can human beings determine this? So here comes the concept of spirituality (paramārtha). The real cause of all these atoms and everything is subtler than the subtlest and All-Pervading. Aravinda Ghosh, though he was not a devotee, had written about this topic in his biography. There is a cause behind every creation. Nothing is created mechanically without a cause. It is not like animals like cows etc. are created suddenly. Everything has a cause behind it. For this reason, it is said that without a cause there cannot be any kind of activity. Guṇāraṇi-cchanna-cid-uṣmapāya—the Supreme Lord resides in an All-Pervasive manner within the three modes of material nature.

Aravinda Ghosh was kept in confinement in a small cell in Pondicherry. He had written this in his biography. That time he thought, “I shall die now.” He had made lots of efforts in the Indian Independence movement. Inside the small cell where he was staying there were ants. As there was nothing else for him to do, he un-dividedly meditated on the ant and realized that it also has the same soul inside it as he himself is. By constantly meditating on this he got the realization about the All-Pervading Spirit. After realizing this, his mind became calm and serene. An All-Pervading spirit resides in the background of every aṇu-cetan (infinitesimal spark of spirit). So the scientists also have a limit of their understanding after which they say that we cannot explain beyond this and one must consult the persons who know about the spiritual science (Paramārtha).

Gajendra further prays, tat-kṣobha-visphūrjita-mānasāya. The three modes of material nature are created as per the desire of the Lord. By means of rajo-guṇa (modes of passion), creation is done. By tamo-guṇa (modes of ignorance) destruction is done and by sattva-guṇa (modes of goodness) maintenance is done. Though Supreme Lord Vishnu does maintenance by modes of goodness still He Himself remains unaffected by the modes. Brahma performs creation by rajo-guṇa and Shivji performs destruction by tamo-guṇa. Whenever required, He accepts the mode of material natures but He Himself is nirguṇa.

naiṣkarmya-bhāvena vivarjitāgama-
svayaṁ-prakāśāya namas karomi

Here it is said that the person who even deviating from the Vedic injunctions serves the Supreme Lord is a topmost sādhu.

ājñāyaivaṁ guṇān doṣān
mayādiṣṭān api svakān
dharmān santyajya yaḥ sarvān
māṁ bhajet sa ca sattamaḥ
(Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya 8.62)

The Lord had mentioned in the scriptures what a living entity should do and what he should not do as per the eligibility of different individuals. But the exalted sādhus even sometimes cross the injunctions of the Lord and please Him by their service. Their only objective is to please the Supreme Lord. Gajendra here says, “The Lord manifests Himself to such exalted sādhus. I offer my obeisances unto such a Lord.”

mādṛk prapanna-paśu-pāśa-vimokṣaṇāya
muktāya bhūri-karuṇāya namo ’layāya
svāṁśena sarva-tanu-bhṛn-manasi pratīta-
pratyag-dṛśe bhagavate bṛhate namas te
(Srimad Bhagavatam 8.3.17)