120722 Bhakti Is Surrender In Love Not Surrender By Force.mp3 (53 minutes, 12.3 MB)

This is a Sunday feast lecture from a few days after the divine disappearance of Srila Sridhar Maharaj in the summer of 2012.

An excerpt of the first few minutes:

We’re very fortunate to be able to come under his [Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj’s] divine shelter and that of Srila Govinda Maharaj. We really consider this will give success to our otherwise feeble attempts at gaining some entrance into the plane of dedication, the divine plane. Srila Govinda Maharaj once told me, “I am never hopeless. I am always hopeful.” It is very good to have the association of somebody like that who always is seeing the hopeful side of things and the intrinsic worth of everyone.

Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, “Everything is known according to it’s potential….” We tend to see things statically, at least I’ll say for myself I tend to see things statically. But that is not correct vision. Everything in this world is in a state of change but we don’t see that.  We go to the ocean and we see the tide coming in and we see the rocks that are worn with lines over them… by the effect of time. Normally we would think, “How can water wear away stone?” but over time everything is changing and everything is worn away. In this way we can say on one level we are being consumed. Krishna says “Time I am.” He is the consumer or destroyer of all worlds and in this material existence that’s just a fact….

120603 Even liberated souls are attracted to Krishna.mp3 (46 minutes, 10.7 MB)

In this wonderful Sunday Feast lecture, Srila Janardan Maharaj tells many stories from the Srimad Bhagavatam to explain the famous atmarama verse. The verse is generally understood to mean that even liberated souls are attracted to Sri Krishna but in Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita, Lord Chaitanya explains the verse in myriad ways to show that everyone is attracted to Sri Krishna, even bees and birds. Janardan Maharaj tells the stories of Sukadev Goswami, the four Kumaras, Mrigrari the hunter, and a story from his experience with Srila Prabhupad involving a bee. In the last part of this lecture Maharaj compares the Krishna conception of Godhead to other conceptions of God.

120610 The Divine Form of Krishna .mp3 (32 minutes, 7.5 MB)

An excerpt from Srila Janardan Maharaj’s lecture:

…Dharma means intrinsic qualities, not just religion. The dharma of the sun is heat and light. The sun has heat and light but the dharma of the living entity is service. Every living entity is a servant of the Lord. But in this world we have different forms of service.

Bhakti Vinod Thakur said… “The greatest wonder is that who is the eternal servant of Hari [Hari is a Name of Krishna] has forgotten Hari. He is Krishna das; he is Krishna’s servant but he has forgotten Krishna.” That is a very perplexing position to be in. It is not that by doing so one avoids service.

We see there are so many other kinds of service. Someone becomes a servant of their family or a servant of their dog, or a servant of their country, or a servant of humanity. Innumerable kinds of service…you can’t avoid service. If nothing else, if you try to cancel all kinds of service then there is another category called godas. We have goswami and godas. They are different. Goswami can mean two things: go can mean senses and goswami means the controller of his senses… Godas means a servant of the senses. People will say “I am not a servant” but they are because they are serving their mind and senses. They are godas…

111012 Key Practices for Someone on the Path to Sadhana Bhakti.mp3 (44 minutes, 30.6 MB)

“The objective is sadhana bhakti…” Janardan Maharaj discusses in this Sunday Feast lecture, the practical process of developing vaishnava qualities according to the examples of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur. He emphasizes remembering the spiritual master at all times (which is actually the reason to follow spiritual injunctions) and avoiding intentional offenses against devotees. Later Maharaj describes the first of Sriman Mahaprabhu’s eight Sikshastakam prayers (see below), explaining among other things, that “the chanting process is a cleansing process.” This whole mission is built on chanting the holy name of the Lord and that is the natural process for cleansing one’s heart. Maharaj’s description of this verse is very thorough and illuminating. Here is the Sanskrit verse itself with Srila Sridhar Maharaj’s translation into English:

cheto-darpana-marjanam bhava-maha-davagni-nirvapanam
sreyah-kairava-chandrika-vitaranam vidya-vadhu-jivanam
anandambudhi-vardhanam prati-padam purnamrtasvadanam
sarvatma snapanam param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam

“The Holy Name of Krishna cleanses the mirror of the heart and extinguishes the fire of misery in the forest of birth and death. As the evening lotus blooms in the moon’s cooling rays, the heart begins to blossom in the nectar of the Name. And at last the soul awakens to its real inner treasure—a life of love with Krishna. Again and again tasting nectar, the soul dives and surfaces in the ever-increasing ocean of ecstatic joy. All phases of the self of which we may conceive are fully satisfied and purified, and at last conquered by the all-auspicious influence of the Holy Name of Krishna.”

120527 Exploitation, renunciation, and dedication.mp3 (44 minutes, 25.2 MB)

In this Sunday Feast lecture Srila Janardan Maharaj explains that there are three planes of reality: karma or exploitation, vairagya or renunciation, and then bhakti or devotion. Bhakti is independent of exploitation and renunciation as stated in Srila Rupa Goswami’s verse:

anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam
anukulyena krsnanusilanam bhaktir uttama
(Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu: 1.1.11)

Srila Janardan Maharaj tells the story of the appearance of Lord Vamanadev to illustrate the meaning of saranagati or full surrender to the Lord. He also discusses at length the nature of vairagya, or renunciation, and what yukta vairagya means for vaishnavas. This is a very nice lecture for long-time practitioners as well as a great introduction for beginners.