The following is a transcription of a discourse delivered by Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja in Odessa, Ukraine, on September 22, 2002 (Bhakta Bandhav Anthology Volume 90)

First, I am offering my millions of sāṣṭāṅga daṇḍavat praṇāmas unto the lotus feet of my paramārādhya oṁ viṣṇupāda Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja. And the same unto the lotus feet of my śikṣā-guru, oṁ viṣṇupāda Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja.

I want to give you a general idea of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Śrīla Kṛṣṇa-dvaipāyana Vyāsa, one of Kṛṣṇa’s incarnations, states that the Supreme Lord created this world. He is very powerful, and that is why He is called God; G stands for generator or creator, O for operator or manager, and D stands for destroyer.

Our Vedic ṛṣis, like Vyāsadeva, Nārada, and Brahmā, have said that the Supreme Lord has a very beautiful form and many millions of transcendental qualities. If the father has a form, the son may have a form as well. If the father does not possess a form and qualities, then there cannot be a son with a form and qualities. It is stated in our scriptures:

aho bhāgyam aho bhāgyaṁ
nanda-gopa-vrajaukasām
yan-mitraṁ paramānandaṁ
pūrṇaṁ brahma sanātanam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.14.32)

[“How greatly fortunate are Nanda Mahārāja, the cowherd men and all the other inhabitants of Vrajabhūmi! There is no limit to their good fortune, because the Absolute Truth, the source of transcendental bliss, the eternal Supreme Brahman, has become their friend.”]

The son of Nanda Bābā in Vraja is very beautiful, sweet, and merciful. He sports with His cowherd boys and millions of gopīs – dancing, singing, making merry, and playing on His flute. He is not an ordinary person. He is the Lord of lords. He is sanātana Parabrahman. He is unlimited and unparalleled. No one is equal to Him, and no one can be greater than Him; all are subordinate to Him.

He does not directly create these worlds. The servants of the servants of His servants create them all, whereas He Himself is always engaged in playing and giving pleasure to all His associates. A shadow of this truth has been explained in the Bible, wherein it is said, “God created man after his own image” – this is the same thing. The Supreme God created man. He is beautiful, and He also made man like that. In the Bible, it has been written that the Supreme Lord has a form. It has also been written in the Koran of the Muslims and in other religious scriptures that Khudā, or Allah, created man in His own image. No one can deny these statements in the Bible and the Koran.

Jesus went to India when he was about sixteen years old, and he visited many places of pilgrimage, like Vṛndāvana, Ayodhyā, South India, and Jagannātha Purī. In Jagannātha Purī, he saw Jagannātha, Baladeva and Subhadrā, and he heard Jagannātha addressed as Kṛṣṇa. From this name came Krista, then Kroosta, then Kroosna, and then Christ – Kṛṣṇa, Kroosna, Krista, and then Christ – they are the same. There are no separate Gods. In this entire universe, there is only one Supreme God. There are many demigods, but the Supreme God is not Russian, British, German, or Australian.

That Supreme God knows all the languages perfectly, and ultimately there is no need to know these languages. There is only one real language in the entire world, and that language is called love. Our eyes can speak the language of love, our ears and our hands can speak and understand the language of love, and a smiling face can tell everything. Our Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa knows all languages without difficulty. God is one, and He is Kṛṣṇa. All other names, like brahma, Paramātmā, Khudā, Allah, and God, are included within Him.

Kṛṣṇa is love, and His love is Rādhikā. Without love – without Rādhikā – He cannot exist for even a second. If you want to take darśana of Kṛṣṇa, you can have darśana of Kṛṣṇa in a moment if you follow Rādhikā. If you call out to Her, “O Rādhike!” Kṛṣṇa will then come at once. This is the philosophy of love, and it is imperative that we know this philosophy. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the philosophy of love, Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta is the essence of love, and the books of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, such as Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi and others, are all about transcendental love and nothing else. For example, in the first verse of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrīla Vyāsadeva and Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī offer obeisances to the Supreme Lord:

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
janmādy asya yato ’nvayād itarataś cārtheṣv abhijñaḥ svarāṭ
tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye muhyanti yat sūrayaḥ
tejo-vāri-mṛdāṁ yathā vinimayo yatra tri-sargo ’mṛṣā
dhāmnā svena sadā nirasta-kuhakaṁ satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.1.1)

[“O my Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. It is He only who first imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmājī, the original living being. By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in fire, or land seen on water. Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations of the material world. I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth.”] 

Although Śrīla Vyāsadeva is addressing Kṛṣṇa in this way: “You are creating this world; You are the supreme cause of this creation”, he knows that this is a secondary consideration. It is not primary. Kṛṣṇa can at once create millions and millions of universes simply by His eyes or by His wish. Kṛṣṇa is fully independent. No one can control Him, and there is none equal to Him. Even Brahmā, the creator of this universe, can understand something about Kṛṣṇa in his meditation, but he does not fully understand Him. He does not know who He is and how He performs all of His wondrous feats.

Kṛṣṇa has a very powerful energy, which is called Rādhikā and sometimes Yogamāyā. He also has His shadow, the illusory māyā, and by the work of this shadow energy, we sometimes imagine we are seeing land on water and water in fire. The meaning here is that this body is mortal. It is made of stool, urine, blood and many other foul substances. Although this is a fact, we still think, “I am this body, this world is true, and it is mine.” This is the influence of Kṛṣṇa’s deluding potency called māyā-śakti. I have come only to point this out and to encourage you to be careful in this regard.

In this world, there is no pure love and affection. The appearance of love and affection here is also due to Kṛṣṇa’s deluding potency called māyā. In this world, we have great affection for our wives and our children, but that blind love is not pure. If your wife is very beautiful, energetic, and always serves you, you will keep her; but if she becomes invalid in any way and is no longer so beautiful, you will change your wife. You will divorce her and get a new wife. In the same way, a lady also gives up her husband if he is not doing well and is not serving her.

Thus, there is only blind love and affection in this world; it is not real. We cannot love anyone with these bodies. The only pure love is experienced by the soul for the Supersoul. It is for this reason – to give you this pure love – that we have come to you. Due to the deluding māyā, we misunderstand this world to be true and our affection to be true, but it is actually extremely painful. Becoming old and dying is very painful. What you have collected day and night in this world, you cannot take with you at the time of death.

Moreover, you cannot take your body and present mental conceptions with you. Therefore, what is the use of labouring like the donkeys? There is no need to do so. We are offering our prostrated obeisances, Śrīla Vyāsadeva is offering his prostrated obeisances, and Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī is offering his prostrated obeisances, to He whose deluding potency māyā makes us blind and ignorant. In the first śloka, Śrīla Vyāsadeva has stated, “Satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi.” I meditate on parama-satyam (the transcendental truth), Śrīmatī Rādhikā with Kṛṣṇa. Offering respectful obeisances and meditating on satyam parama; this is the essence of the first śloka. In the second śloka of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrī Vyāsadeva is again offering respectful obeisances to Him:

dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo ’tra paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ
vedyaṁ vāstavam atra vastu śivadaṁ tāpa-trayonmūlanam
śrīmad-bhāgavate mahā-muni-kṛte kiṁ vā parair īśvaraḥ
sadyo hṛdy avarudhyate ’tra kṛtibhiḥ śuśrūṣubhis tat-kṣaṇāt

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.1.2)

[“Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhāgavata Purāṇa propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful Bhāgavatam, compiled by the great sage Vyāsadeva (in his maturity), is sufficient in itself for God realisation. What is the need for any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhāgavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart.”]

In this world, there are many kinds of new religions, although they are actually not religions. They are not permanent or eternal religions. These religions (dharmas) can only provide us with information on how to maintain our worldly lives. They have no relation with the Supreme Lord; they only consider their relation to these mortal bodies, and therefore, they are not eternal.

For example, Buddhism is everywhere nowadays. Buddhism is actually not a religion. Its followers do not believe in God, and in fact, they do not believe in anything. They do not even believe in their own existence, and they accept nothing more than false logic. If someone follows them, he may lose his existence and everything, so be careful. Buddhism is pervading everywhere, like the air, so beware of it.

If the world is false, if God is false, if we are false, then love is also false. Without love, however, we cannot maintain our lives for even a second; therefore, their theory is totally false. Whereas they advocate no love at all, our God is supreme, eternal, and the embodiment of love and affection. Do you know which religion was practised over 2000 years ago? Christianity is only approximately 2000 years old, and the Muslim faith is even younger, at approximately 1400 years old.

But love existed even at the beginning of the universe. Love is really our religion, and this love is called sanātana-dharma, or Vedic dharma. If you throw a stone, earth, a piece of wood, or another thing into the sky, it will go upward and then return. Why? This is due to Earth’s law of gravitation. Anything made of earth, wood, and so on will come back down if there is nothing to hold it up.

On the other hand, flames of a fire also go up, but they do not turn again towards the earth. If you send a balloon into the sky, it will go up, and it may never return. The example of this balloon is given because the air in that balloon and the fire in those flames are not part of the Earth. When any part of a whole meets its whole, the two will exist together and be happy. Otherwise, if they do not have this relationship, they will not. Similarly, we are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, so unless we meet Him with love and affection, we cannot be happy. This is the philosophy of love.

Even dangerous lions, tigers, bears, very poisonous snakes, and even dacoits have some kind of love. Despite undergoing repeated births, only love will remain with us. We all want ānanda (happiness), and real happiness is nothing but love. Does anyone present here want suffering? You can raise your hands if you want to suffer, and I will at once give you suffering. Nobody likes suffering. All want happiness, and this happiness is pure love.

But love does not mean body-to-body. Inside the body is the soul and the Supersoul (Kṛṣṇa). The Supreme Lord is everywhere, and if we attain pure love and affection for Him, then we can serve Him eternally – and He can be controlled. This is the philosophy of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The Supreme Lord is very kind; He is causelessly merciful. He has given us a very valuable asset: love.

We have love, but we require purification to awaken love for Kṛṣṇa. Only in this way will He be controlled. The only way to be happy, and the only way to control the Supreme Lord, is by this love and affection that He has donated to us. The philosophy of love is presented in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which not only offers philosophy but also examples of real love and affection. It explains how the gopīs and other Vrajavāsīs love Kṛṣṇa fully, with their lives and souls.

If one hears Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and thinks about even one line or even half of a line, or even one word – Kṛṣṇa or Rādhā – he will attain that pure love and be able to control the Supreme Lord.

Śrī Vyāsadeva realised the full love felt between Kṛṣṇa and all His associates in his trance of meditation. He also saw how a conditioned soul forgets Kṛṣṇa and falls down to this material world, and how one who remembers His names attains that love and affection very quickly. We should try to hear very carefully and attentively to whatever Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is telling us.

The transcendental religion explained in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is not periodic or partial. It is not like worldly intoxication in the name of religion. Rather, it is permanent, transcendental love and affection. If anyone hears it, he will be happy in this life and, giving up his body, his pure soul will go to Goloka Vṛndāvana, where he will be happy. 

It is true that we are not seeing Kṛṣṇa, but He sees us, and He may hear what we say to Him. We do not hear what He is telling us, and we do not hear when He is calling us. But He may hear our call. He is very kind and causelessly merciful.

He has sent all our guru-paramparā ācāryas. He has also sent Jesus, and sometimes He Himself descends along with all His associates, only because He loves us. He is calling us, saying, “Come, come, My sons and daughters. Chant this mantra: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. Chant even one time. I will take you to Goloka Vṛndāvana, and you will be transcendentally happy forever.”

Do not be hopeless; never be hopeless. Always have hope, because He is weeping for us. He is lamenting for us. We cannot lament or weep for Him, but He is lamenting and weeping for us. Go on chanting, remembering, and offering obeisances, and soon you will attain it.

Source(s): Purebhakti.com, Serve Love – Bhakta Bandhav (Bhakta Bandhav Anthology transcribed and edited by the Bhakta Bandhav Team)

Image(s) made possible by Pixabay.com, Krishnapath.org.in, Keystone Press / Alamy Stock Photo and / or Bhaktiart.net

Unless indicated otherwise, all verse translations and quotes are from the books by Śrīla Prabhupāda (Vedabase.com)