Sravan-kirtan is Our Life
Harikatha, Sreela Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Goswami Maharaj
This harikatha was spoken by Srila Gurudev during Vraja-mandal Parikrama in the month of Kartik. One day, the devotees returned very late from Parikrama and there were only four persons in the sankirtan-hall to listen to the harikatha. Srila Gurudev that time strongly advised on the importance of sravan-kirtan in the life of a devotee. He narrated Sri Vyasdev Muni’s pastime of getting peace only after writing Srimad Bhagavatam. In this regard, he also narrated the instance of Tansen and Akabar witnessing the transcendental feeling of Sri Haridas Gosvami while performing kirtan at Vrindavan, at the appearance place of Sri Bankebihari.
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Today we left early in the morning for Parikrama and came back at four pm. Everybody had Prasadam after that. As all were tired, most of them decided to take rest and a few people immediately left for Dauji to have darshan. When I was heading towards sankirtan-hall for the evening Kirtans, one of my friends who met me on my way told me, “Everybody is tired today and most of them are taking rest. There are only four persons in the sankirtan-hall.” He advised me to finish harikatha early today. But it is the order of our Gurudev and instruction of Srila Vyasdev that one should not neglect hearing and chanting Krishna-katha. Who will attain Supreme Lord? Our Gurudev used to explain the Shloka written by Sri Vyasdev Muni in Srimad Bhagavatam,
śṛṇvataḥ śraddhayā nityaṁ
gṛṇataś ca sva-ceṣṭitam
kālena nātidīrgheṇa
bhagavān viśate hṛdi
(Srimad Bhagavatam 2.8.4)“Persons who hear Srimad-Bhagavatam regularly and are always taking the matter very seriously will have the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna manifested in their hearts within a short time.”
What is said here? By listening regularly with firm faith and after listening, remembering and speaking whatever is been heard with sincerity, one would capture Supreme Lord in his heart without any delay. But here a special emphasis is given on two words; two conditions are to be fulfilled. You have to think about it deeply— śraddhayā (with firm faith) and nityaṁ (regularly). Whose teachings are these? Vedavyas Muni has written this and our Gurudev used to instruct us. He has instructed the same thing in his article ‘Āmar Bhajan’. What is the meaning of ‘śraddhayā’, śraddhayā means with ‘firm faith’. What kind of faith? One should have the faith that by worshiping Krishna, one automatically performs all subsidiary duties.
śraddhā’-śabde — viśvāsa kahe sudṛḍha niścaya
kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya
(Chaitanya Charitamrit Madhya 22, 62)“Śraddhā is a confident, firm faith that by rendering transcendental loving service to Krishna one automatically performs all subsidiary activities. Such faith is favourable to the discharge of devotional service.”
By worshiping Krishna, all my duties are automatically performed but if I think that I rendered service to Supreme Lord but I could not serve my parents, I could not serve my relatives or other persons or demigods then I do not have faith at all. There are two kinds of faith—laukika and tātvika. It is the social custom that we should show some respect to the deities of Supreme Lord and Vaishnavas, it is called ‘laukika śraddhā’ but in actuality, real śraddhā is, that by worshipping Krishna, I have worshipped all.
If you think, “I have worshipped Krishna but my service to parents is left.”
No. If you think so then it is not faith. When you worship Krishna, you are paying back all your debt to all. You are serving all. You pour water to the root of the tree, the whole tree, all parts of the tree get nourished. You give food in the stomach and the whole body is nourished. Like that if you serving Achyuta Sri Hari then you are serving all, that sort of firm faith should be there. If that sort of firm faith is not there then all your hearing is just a routine work. That is not the life of bhajan. This is not our life. For worshipping Supreme Lord we have dedicated our life. What form of worship do we have to do? Whatever you hear and whatever you speak after hearing, you would go there. If you hear about material non-eternal things and you speak about them then you will be entangled in the material world only. From morning to night we hear and speak only about material world then how can we go to Supreme Lord? We would remain in this material world only. We will listen and speak about Supreme Lord and we devote our senses for His service for His satisfaction then we will go to Him. That is called bhajan and the topmost bhajan is śravan and kirtan. We have to listen to what we do not know, we should hear it from pure devotees those who know it. Those who do not follow themselves what will you listen from them? So you should go to Sad-guru or pure devotee and hear from him.
It is said ‘adau śravanam’ — first of all we have to listen. If we do not know about something then how can we speak about it? So we have to hear attentively from realized bonafide souls who know the Supreme Lord, who serves Him and he is eligible to speak about Supreme Lord. Those who do not have knowledge, how do they speak? They will speak about the trash things of this material world. If you hear about the worldly things then your mind will go there. So, ‘adau śravanam’ — first of all hearing from a pure devotee who has dedicated his life for the service is necessary. If you are fortunate then you will come in contact with such a person. He serves Krishna twenty four hours a day by dedicating all his sense organs. If you are fortunate then you will come in contact with such a pure devotee. You will find many persons who merely speak from the mouth, but only those who practice themselves can preach pure devotion. If someone is not practicing himself in his life and merely speaking about these topics then you will not get any benefit by listening to him. ‘Do not follow me, follow my lectures’ will not work for the transcendental topics. It may work for material subjects. For spiritual knowledge, you must follow an ideal spiritual life. You must practice it, without practicing, you cannot impart that to others.
Śṛṇvataḥ śraddhayā nityaṁ—when the firm faith is developed in a person that without worshipping Supreme Lord, no one can be served, then he will go to Sad-guru and will tell him, “Without serving Supreme Lord I myself am not getting eternal welfare, nor my parents, nor my relatives, nor my debt towards demigods and Risis are being paid off, so why should I waste my time? Please immediately give me the mantra so I can start worshipping Supreme Lord.”
But if you have a forest fire in your heart, you are thinking that you should perform bhajan but simultaneously you should give attention to material world also, you should go here and there, you should be involved in material activities also, then you cannot devote your full time for the service of the Supreme Lord. You should think whether you belong to this material world or to Supreme Lord? From where have you come? Have you come from material world or from Supreme Lord? Taittiriya Upanishad says,
yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante
yena jātāni jīvanti
yat prayanty abhisaṁviśanti
tad vijijṣasasva tad eva brahma
(Taittiriya Upanishad 3.1.1)“The Supreme Brahman is the origin and shelter of all living beings. When there is creation, He brings them forth from their original state, and at the time of annihilation, He devours them. After creation, everything rests in His omnipotence, and after annihilation, everything again returns to rest in Him.”
A human being gives birth to a human, a horse gives birth to a horse and a dog gives birth to a dog. I am not talking about the artificial cross breeding going on nowadays. I am referring to nature’s law. Likewise a conscious entity can come only from a conscious entity and Supreme Lord is the Absolute Conscious Entity. Something cannot come from nothing. The entity that has no consciousness cannot produce a conscious entity. We all come from Absolute Conscious Entity. We are in Him, We are by Him, and we are to remain for Him. Taittiriya Upanishad says, all the living beings are coming from Supreme Lord. They are in Him, they are by Him and they are for Him. It is the constitutional position of all the living beings of this world.
As an example, this hand is coming out of this body. The finger is coming from the body. Why is the hand there? For the use of the body, it is in the body, the hand is maintained by the body. The hand should remain for the body, if it remains for the body, then if body is satisfied, the hand will have satisfaction or enhancement. If the hand is in conflict with the body and thinks I can take initiative, I shall be independent, I shall not co-operate with the body, this stomach is only sitting and eating, I shall not co-operate. Like the non-co-operation movement that Mahātmā Gandhi made in India. Then, all of you, or all the doctors of Gokula-Mahavan cannot help you if your hand is in non-co-operation with your body, it cannot give satisfaction to the hand. The hand is coming out from the body; you have to see its constitutional position. Hand is from the body, is in the body, is by the body and it should remain for the body. If the body is satisfied, the hand is satisfied. Independent of the body, the hand cannot have any satisfaction. This is the constitutional position of all living beings, they are coming from the same source, ultimately from the Supreme Lord and they are maintained by Supreme Lord. They are in Supreme Lord. They should remain for Supreme Lord. If Supreme Lord is satisfied and then all the jivas are satisfied and get enhancement. You have to see the root. The root is Supreme Lord. We have all come from Him. We are in Him, we are by Him. So by satisfying Him we all will be satisfied. Independent of the Supreme Lord, jiva cannot have any satisfaction. Vedavyas Muni has shown this to us through his life. Vedavyas Muni says, “I thought about the requirements of human beings. For the bodily happiness they want dharma, artha, and kāma. By performing religious activity in this material world, they will remain happy here and after leaving their body they will enjoy in the svarga. They want money to fulfill their desires and by fulfilling their desires, ‘kāma’ they will become happy. So for that purpose I wrote various respective scriptures. What was Vedavyas Muni’s target? His target was to fulfill the wants of the conditioned souls of this material world. But he did not get peace in his heart. He remembered his Gurudev, Narad. He appeared there. He told to his Gurudev, “If someone does something for the happiness of others then in reward he also will get happiness in heart. I wrote so many scriptures for the welfare of conditioned souls. I have written eighteen Puranas, Mahabharat and in Mahabarata I have also written Gita. I have divided Vedas and also have written Vedanta. But why did I not still get peace in my heart?”
Everyone wants peace but Vedavyas Muni has given us instruction through his life, “Even I did not get peace. Will you get it, if you will remain engaged in materialistic activity?” He took shelter to his Gurudev Narad Goswami.
When a person is not able to do anything by his own capability, he should take shelter with a powerful person. He remembered his Gurudev and he appeared there, and asked about his welfare. Vedavyas Muni replied that he is not at peace.
Narad Goswami asked him, “What have you done, in return to which you should expect to get peace?”
Vedavyas Muni replied, “I wrote many scriptures, dharma-sastra, artha-sastra, kāma-sastra for the fulfillment of the desires of the worldly people. In return I must get peace and bliss, but I have not got it, what is the reason?”
Then Narada Goswami said,
jugupsitaṁ dharma-kṛte ’nuśāsataḥ
svabhāva-raktasya mahān vyatikramaḥ
yad-vākyato dharma itītaraḥ sthito
na manyate tasya nivāraṇaṁ janaḥ
(Srimad Bhagavatam 1.5.15)“Whatever you did you did very bad, abominable work.” The jivas in their real form are the soul and not the body. As long as the consciousness—thinking, feeling and willing exists in the body, one is considered a person. But when that consciousness leaves the body, then that body is not considered to be a person. Whether theist or atheist, nobody can consider this body as a person. You can keep the dead body intact by chemical procedure, but that dead body will not be considered as a person by the government if they will take that dead body to a booth for the vote. But if a serious, bed-ridden patient (his life is there) is brought on a stretcher, they will allow him to cast the vote. As long as life is there, you can cast a vote. If someone takes a dead body there they will get him out telling that he has contaminated this place. By whose existence, my existence is there is called Ātmāātmā. Ātmā is anu-sat-cid-ānand. So ātmā, the self, is the eternally existing knowledge and blissful principle. Even though the body perishes the soul does not perish.
na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin
nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato ’yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre
(Bhagavad Gita 2.20)“There is no birth or death to the ātmā (soul). It is not that he has come into being at certain time in the past and he will exist for certain time in future. It is eternally existing principle for whom there is no birth and death. No one or nothing can kill him. He has got no relation with this mortal body.”
This body is perishable, but ātmā is not perishable. Because ātmā is the eternally existing knowledge and blissful principle. It is the minutest conscious principle, as long as that is there, I am a person. When that consciousness will leave, this body has got no value. Greek philosopher Aristotle said, “Life perceives life”. This body is composed of five elements earth, water, fire, air and sky. This body requires the transformations of these five elements like food, etc. for its maintenance. Ātmā is sat-cid-ānand, it requires sat-cid-ānand.
Ātmā requires ātmā not anātmā. [So Narada Muni says,] “You have given anātmā-vastu (non-living things), how can you expect to get peace? You have given dharma, artha, kāma and moksha which are perishable things. You have given more miseries to them. You have done abominable work. ”
“I have written about salvation also.”
“It is even more abominable. You have completely closed the path for them to attain the bliss in the loving service of Supreme Lord. You have deprived them of getting Krishna-prema for eternal time. You have done a great harm to living beings. It is the topmost violence. If somebody stops someone from attaining his ultimate destination then it is violence. You have given the path by which they will destroy their existence itself. It is the loss for the living entity as well as for the Supreme Lord.
Another meaning of liberation is getting free from all the miseries. But getting free from miseries is not the ultimate need. Someone has become free, meaning he was in an uncongenial atmosphere and in prison, and now he has been released from there. What has he got after liberation? Will he get the highest bliss after liberation? Liberation cannot be the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is Krishna-prema.
You have not sung the glories of Sri Krishna. He is Absolute-Bliss. Without the mercy of the Absolute-Bliss nobody can get bliss. Supreme Lord is raso vai saḥ rasaṁ hy evāyaṁ labdhvānandī bhavati—when one understands the Supreme Lord, the reservoir of pleasure, he actually becomes transcendentally blissful. Have you sung His glories?”
“Yes, I have written in Mahabharat”
“No, it will not work, you have to write for His satisfaction. In Mahabharat, you have written about devotion to Him while writing Gita, but it is for getting liberation. There, the target is liberation, not Krishna who is All-Bliss, All-Knowledge, All-Existence, All-Good. Target is different; mark is different. Mark is the non-eternal benefits of this world or getting emancipation from the births and deaths of this world. This is negative. You have not given any positive happiness to them. You have sung the glories of Krishna in Mahabharat but not for Krishna’s sake. It is for emancipation.”
If Krishna is satisfied everyone will be satisfied. If the body is satisfied all his parts, hand etc. will be satisfied. If you sing the glories for Krishna’s satisfaction, you will be satisfied. You will have association of Supreme Lord. He is not for anyone else. Western philosophers say, “Absolute is for Himself and by Himself”. We use ‘He’ for God and not ‘It’. He is transcendental personality. One person met me at Vrindavan, after taking Mantra from our Guruji. He stayed in my room. He had the mentality of the Mayavadi group of people. He said, “Ultimately we shall have to merge in the formless Brahman. He has got no form, no qualities, no potency nothing. If there is potency; there is form then He becomes limited; material. This is the ultimate knowledge.
Whenever I tried to explain to him the teaching of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he used to say like that. Then I said, “Who are you? You are formless? Or do you have any form? You are telling me that the ultimate reality is formless. Can you bring somebody without form who can speak to me? You are speaking with me with form. Are you speaking with me without form? Can anyone get knowledge from someone who does not have form? Arjun is getting knowledge from Krishna. Krishna has got the form. You are saying that the ultimate cause is without any potency and form. But you are speaking with me with a form. Can you bring someone who can speak to me without form? Then I can believe what you say. You cannot bring anyone like that. Who is Supreme Lord?”
You say, “Supreme Lord does not have any potency, form or quality. He is cipher (zero).”
“Can anyone go to a person who does not have power, qualities etc.? Whom do you go to? You go to ministers who have a power to do something. If Supreme Lord does not have any form, quality or power; if He is cipher then will you worship a cipher? What are saying? If we have form then how can you say that Supreme Lord does not have form? When there is no form in the cause, where from the form comes in its effect? The form in the ultimate cause is not like the form we have. He is the embodiment of complete sat-cid-anand. He has eternal spiritual form. His form is not made up of bones and flesh like ours.”
īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ
sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
(Sri Brahma-samhita 5.1)“Krishna is the topmost of all the controllers. He is the embodiment of sat-cid-ānand and the cause of all causes.”
He is the cause of Brahma, Paramātmā and everything. He has such inconceivable power that while being in the form He is the cause of all causes. Externally He is a small Gopal but mother Yashoda could not fasten His belly! He is simār madhye asima—boundless within boundaries. So-called gyānis could not understand this. He has infinite form, transcendental form, blissful form. Ānand (blissful principle) is transcendental; He is omnipotent.
To be continued...
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