This is the desire of Supreme Lord that we go to Bangalore and associate with devotees. Seeing devotees only by their external appearance, we will not get any benefit; devotees may be in household life or ascetic life. It is not stated in our scriptures that only ascetics are sadhus and household devotees are not sadhu. Those who have got firm faith in Supreme Lord and dedicated their life for the service of Supreme Lord, they are actually sadhus. For example Ambarish Maharaj.

Ambarish Maharaj was the autocrat of the whole world. But he got the grace of Narayan. Durvasa Risi played the pastime of not understanding him. If you know the history, Ambarish Maharaj observed Ekadashi-vrata (complete fast on the day of Ekadashi) for one year in Madhuvan. Next day of the Ekadashi-vrata, you should break the fast at proper time and if you do not break the fast in proper time then, there will be defect in the observance of Ekadashi-vrata. Next day of Ekadashi-vrata, he served all the Brahmins and all the persons who he saw before him. After serving them he wanted to take food only to break the fast. At that time Durvasa Risi set his holy footprints there and he said, “I am Durvasa Risi and I have come here.” Ambarish Maharaj was very glad and felt so fortunate to see him. Durvasa Risi was a very powerful Risi. He could remain without food for thousands of years and he could take the food for one thousand years at a time. He was so powerful that whoever had heard about him, used to get afraid of him. Ambarish Maharaj requested him to take Prasad on that Dwadashi Tithi, the day next to Ekadashi Tithi, “I shall be very much glad if you could accept invitation to take Prasad.” Durvasa Risi agreed to take Prasad and said, “Now I am going to Yamuna to take bath.” By seeing Yamuna, he got absorbed in Brahmanand. At the fixed time you have to take something to break the fast that is the scriptural injunction. Ambarish Maharaj got afraid thinking, “How can I take anything? I have invited a great sanyasi Brahmin. Without feeding him how can I eat? And if I do not take anything at the proper time then I will commit offense at the lotus feet of Sri Hari. The observance Ekadashi-vrat would be broken and He will be dissatisfied. And if I take food then I shall have the fear of committing offense at the feet of great saint Durvasa Risi. What can I do?”

He asked for advice from the Brahmins. Brahmins advised, “You can take water. Because you are observing complete fast without taking anything so by taking water, it will be considered as taking food and also not taking food. So there will be no offense.”

So he took a drop of water. But Durvasa Risi could understand this. He thought, “Oh! Ambarish Maharaj, being the emperor of this whole world, if he ignores a sanyasi what will others learn from this? Everybody follows the best persons. He is a dignified person and a great Vaishnava and he is doing like this. The world will not be benefited by seeing this action. It will destroy the whole society so I will not allow this. I shall punish him in such a way that nobody would dare to do this. When a guest comes to the house of a devotee, devotee should first serve him and then take food afterwards, not before. But he invited me and made this record, I will not allow this.”

He cursed him, pulled a hair from his head, threw it on the ground and one goddess appeared with sword in the hand to kill Ambarish Maharaj. Ambarish Maharaj said with folded hands, “You have got every right to punish me as you are superior to me in all respects. So I accept your punishment.”

But Narayan ordered Sudarshan-chakra, “From outside it seems that Ambarish Maharaj is a householder and has connections with worldly wealth but he has got no connection. He has taken absolute shelter to Me and he has no false ego that he is the master of this world. He is always serving with unconditional surrender. Whenever he is in difficulty you go and protect him.”

Immediately, Sudarshan-chakra appeared there and destroyed that Goddess and then went after Durvasa Risi. Durvasa Risi ran from place to place to different quarters, within the ocean, within the cave of Sumeru Mountain. Wherever he was going, Sudarshan-chakra was following. Sudarshan-chakra is one with Narayan. Narayan sent Sudarshan-chakra to punish. Then, Durvasa Risi went to Brahma.

Brahma said, “You think that I am Brahma, the creator, but I am not the creator. By His (Narayan’s) imparted power and order I am doing this. I am under Him. I cannot protect you from Sudarshan-chakra.”

Then, he went to his father, Mahadeva, in Kailash. Mahadeva said, “All think that I am the destroyer and Brahma is the creator but actually, Narayan is the foundation of all the powers, without His imparted power I cannot do anything. It is impossible for me to protect you from Sudarshan-chakra. I cannot even tolerate it. How can I protect you? This is the punishment of Narayan. You have to go to Him. I give you the blessing to go to Vaikuṇṭha and take shelter to Him.”

Mahadeva is a devotee of Vishnu. In our Vaishnava sampraday, in Vishnu Swami sampraday, the original Guru is Rudra (Mahadeva). He is a Vaishnava.

Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakur has written in his commentary that Durvasa Risi played this pastime only to propagate the glories of Ambarish Maharaj and give this knowledge to the whole world that Ambarish Maharaj is such a (great) devotee. Durvasa Risi went to Vaikuṇṭha and prayed to Supreme Lord Narayan, “You are Achyut—Infallable, nobody can be detached from You so I cannot be detached from you. Your name is Achyut so I have come to You, so please rescue me from Sudarshan-chakra. He is giving so much pain which I cannot tolerate’.

But Narayan did not reply to His prayer.

Durvasa Risi further said, “You are Ananta—Infinite, Your everything is Infinite, Your grace is also Infinite. I have committed offense at Your devotee. But Your grace is Infinite. If Your grace does not come to me then Your qualification, attribute of Infinite will vanish. So You have to grace me. I have committed a great offense, I admit, but if Your grace does not come to me then Your name Infinite will be destroyed. Yet, You are Vishwanath, You are Jagannath. I am a minutest particle of Your parā-potency (according to Gita). My body (gross and subtle) is part of Your aparā potency (material energy). You are the possessor of all the potencies. So for every living being You are the Jagannath. You sustain everything. If You do not sustain me then Your name Jagannath will have no value”.

Lastly, he said, “Generally sadhus are compassionate to all the living beings of this world and they have got this compassion by worshipping You. That compassion and mercy is completely in You and by worshipping You, sadhus have got compassion to all the living beings of this world. I have come to You and You are not gracing me.”

Then, Narayan said, “You went to Brahma and Mahadeva (Rudra) but they didn’t help. They said they are under Me. They cannot go against My order. I am also not independent. Although I am autocrat, Lord of all Lords, yet I have got this sort of promise that if someone serves Me I have to give him something. But a pure devotee, has got nothing except My service. So,

ahaṁ bhakta-parādhīno
hy asvatantra iva dvija
sādhubhir grasta-hṛdayo
bhaktair bhakta-jana-priyaḥ
(SB 9.4.63)

“I become subjugated by the devotion of the devotee so My heart has been occupied by the devotee. My heart is not here. Compassion comes from heart but My heart is with My devotee. So, you have to go to Ambarish Maharaj. There you will get My compassion. My compassion, My heart is not here as it is occupied by Ambarish Maharaj.”

Then Durvasa Risi went to Ambarish Maharaj. Ambarish Maharaj was very repentant, “Oh! Durvasa Risi left without taking any food. I committed a great offense.”

For one year he took only water. Can you imagine? He did not take anything, only water. From outside it seems that he is a householder and he is wealthy, and like others he has worldly attachments but he has got no attachment. He has given up everything, the seven islands and all property for Supreme Lord. He also has no connection with all the relatives. Ambarish Maharaj thinks, “Supreme Lord is the Lord of all Lords. He is Lord of me, Lord of my wife, relatives and everything. Nothing is mine.” He has given himself and everything for the service of Supreme Lord. From outside you may see him as a householder but actually he is the highest person. He has got no attraction to anything of this world and he knows that everything belongs to Supreme Lord. And for that reason, when Durvasa Risi returned to Ambarish Maharaj, Ambarish Maharaj paid obeisance to him.

Durvasa Risi: “What are you doing?”

Ambarish Maharaj: “I am a very negligible person with no qualification. I am a householder; I have got so much attraction. You are a saint.”

Durvasa Risi: “No, No. I have committed an offense. This Sudarshan-chakra is giving me so much pain.”

Then, Ambarish Maharaj prayed to him (Sudarshan-chakra), “He has done nothing wrong, he did this for my own benefit so you do not torture him, do not give him so much heat’.

But Sudarshan-chakra was not leaving.

Ambarish Maharaj prayed to him, “I am giving my all piety (Please leave him).” Yet Sudarshan-chakra was not leaving.

Ambarish Maharaj, “I tried to serve Narayan but I could not serve Him. But if I did something for the satisfaction of Narayan, then in due of that O Sudarshan-chakra , you relieve this sanyasi saint.”

Then, Sudarshan-chakra left. What sort of household devotee he is!

Today’s subject is Bhakti-yoga. By the example of Ambarish Maharaj you can understand what Bhakti-yoga is? There are so many yogas. Yoga means to link up. We are minute conscious particle and He (Supreme Lord) is the Absolute conscious substance and we are coming out of Him.

yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante
yena jātāni jīvanti
yat prayanty abhisaṁviśanti
tad vijijñāsasva tad brahma
(Taittiriya Upanisad, 3.1)

All the jīvas have come from Supreme Lord and they are in Supreme Lord, they are by Supreme Lord and they are maintained by Supreme Lord. For that reason you will find in Gita, Gita is universally adored by all, Krishna Himself has given complete comparative deliberate decision about karma-yoga, gyāna-yoga, bhakti-yoga, hath-yoga etc. Here, He Himself has said in sixth chapter,

tapasvibhyo ’dhiko yogi
gyānaibhyo ’pi mato ’dhikaḥ
karmibhyaś cādhiko yogi
tasmād yogī bhavārjuna
(Bg 6.46)

Tapasbhiyo—those who perform penance, immense penance, austerity (taking pain), for example, in very hot season they remain in the place surrounded by fire, it is a kind of austerity. In the winter season they remain submerged in the cold water and also by stooping head and heels are upturned, they remain in that way. All these are called penances. But yogis are superior to persons who perform such penances. There are yogās; karma-yoga, gyāna-yoga, bhakti-yoga. Krishna says, “tapasvibhyo ’dhiko yogi—yogis are much superior to such tapaswis, hermits, ascetics”, “gyānaibhyo ’pi mato ’dhikaḥ—yogis are also superior to gyānais. Gyānais are superior to tapaswis, they have got the knowledge of impersonal, formless brahman and they have got brahmanand. But yogis are superior to gyanis. They have got the realization of sat-cid-ānand.

If I ask anybody, do you want to die? What will be your answer? “No Swamiji, I do not want to die.” Why? This body will remain for some time and it will ultimately be destroyed. When there is birth there is death. The one that is produced, will be destroyed. So why you have got the desire to remain in this world eternally? Nobody wants to die because your real self is sat. Sat means eternally existing principle. So you do not want to die but, being enveloped by the illusory energy of the Supreme Lord, you are wrongly thinking, “I am this body. I am born, I shall remain in this world for some time then I shall die.” You fear but actually you are not this body (subtle or gross). Being averse to Supreme Lord Sri Krishna you are enveloped by the illusory energy of Supreme Lord and you think of yourself as the body. Like that you have got inner desire to remain in this world eternally because the self is eternal. Devoid of eternal existence principle, you cannot have the desire to remain in this world. This desire proves that you are eternally existing principle.

You have got cid—knowledge. If you have no knowledge then you cannot have the inquisitive desire to know something. If anything happens to you, you want to know why. That is because you are a knowledge principle. Being devoid of knowledge, you cannot have the demand of knowledge. Being devoid of happiness, you cannot have the desire for happiness. So you are sat-chid-ānand—nitya, gyānamaya, ānandmaya. We read Gita but we do not believe in Gita.

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin
nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato ’yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre
(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 2.20)

If this body perishes, ātmā will not perish. Ātmā has got no birth, no death. It is said in the Gita. We go through Gita but we do not believe Gita. What fruit will we get out of it?

Karma-kānda activities are performed for non-eternal benefits. By doing oblation and sacrifices, we may go to heaven or higher worlds, but after finishing the piety we shall be thrown down again to this world. So gyānais do not want these non-eternal benefits. They want to merge in the impersonal formless brahman. But yogis do not want to merge in formless brahman, they want to meditate on Paramātmā, existence (sat) and knowledge (cid). They have got the knowledge of Paramātmā. So yogis are superior to those who have brahmanand. As gyanis are superior to karmis so yogis are superior to karmis, automatically. Karmis have non-eternal desires. But gyānais have got the desire for emancipation, salvation, to merge themselves in impersonal formless brahma. But yogis are superior to them, so Krishna advises to become a yogi. Then, afterwards what does He say?

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ
mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā
śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ
sa me yukta-tamo mataḥ
(Bg 6.47)

Krishna says, “According to My opinion, amongst all kinds of yogis, karma-yogi, gyāna-yogi, hath-yogi, one who worships Me with firm faith, fully surrendering unto Me, is the highest.”

Here, Krishna is saying, “One who surrenders to Me”, by touching His own eternal Supreme Self . You will find in Bhagavad Gita, ‘Bhagavān Uvaca’. If Bhagavān is impersonal, He cannot speak, but Bhagavān is speaking. Krishna is speaking, Krishna is a person. If there is no person in the cause, how can you see persons in this world? If there is no form in the cause, how will form come into this world? These worldly forms are non-eternal forms. But there is a cause in the form.

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ,
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ,
anādir ādir govindaḥ,
sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
(Brahma Samhita)

Sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, He has eternal spiritual form. He cannot be destroyed. He is the cause of all causes.

Who is the highest yogi? Yoginām api sarveṣāṁ—amongst all the yogis. Yoginām is plural. Sarveṣāṁ means all kinds of yogis. “Those who worship Me with firm faith”,

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ
mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā
śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ
sa me yukta-tamo mataḥ
(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 6.47)

Superlative degree. He is the highest yogi. You will find in Gita. Lastly, those who are not eligible to accept the śuddha-bhakti, for them, karma-yoga, gyāna-yoga have been advised. But even there He also told,

yagyārthāt karmaṇo ’nyatra
loko ’yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ
tad-arthaṁ karma kaunteya
mukta-saṅgaḥ samācara
(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 3.9)

You should do karma for yagya—the complete reality, Vishnu, fullest entity and not for non-eternal things, otherwise, you will have bondage and entitlement in this world.

If you do your actions here for other things except Supreme Lord then there will be bondage. You have to work without any kind of desire for fruits. Hari-om-tatsat—Supreme Lord Vishnu is beyond comprehension of human senses (gross and subtle). This body is non-eternal. Sense organs are non-eternal. The objects of the sense organs are also non-eternal, automatically. If there is existence of any eternal entity, it must be beyond the comprehension of these non-eternal sense organs, beyond intelligence and also beyond māyā.

manasas tu parā buddhir
yo buddheḥ paratas tu saḥ
(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 3.42)

Intelligence is higher than the mind and He is even higher than the intelligence.

Supreme Lord is beyond mind and intelligence. So hari-om-tatsat—He is transcendental. He has eternal existence. Eternal is transcendental, which cannot be mundane. Mundane is non-eternal.

You will find in the scriptures that the persons who are worshiping demigods, are advised, ultimately, to utter this verse,

priyatām puṇḍarīkākṣa sarvayogeṣvar hari,
yasmin tuṣṭe jagat tuṣṭam, priṇite priṇito jagat

“You have to please the lotus-eyed Supreme Lord Hari who is the master of all the yogis because by pleasing Him the whole world will be pleased.”

You are worshiping demigods but you have to pray to Lord Hari to be pleased. Why do you have to pray to Lord Hari? Because He is the only master and enjoyer of everything.

ahaṁ hi sarva-yagyānaāṁ
bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca
na tu mām abhijānanti
tattvenātaś cyavanti te
(Bg 9.24)

Supreme Lord says, “I am the only enjoyer and master. None else.” If He is satisfied then, demigods will be satisfied. Because you've got desires so you go to demigods to satisfy your desires but the teachings are given that ultimately you have to come to Hari. By pleasing Hari you please all. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu preached Bhakti-yoga.

Supreme Lord is One. Supreme Lord cannot be many. Infinite cannot be many. Absolute cannot be many. Absolute is One. If you say Infinite is many then, Infinite loses his position. Nothing can be outside the Infinite. Everything is within Him. If you say, this mic is outside, then Infinite loses his position. Everything is within Infinite, Absolute. Absolute is one. Absolute cannot be many. But Absolute can have many forms for different pastimes, such as Ram, Narayan, Matsya, etc. He is Infinite, He has Infinite forms. They are actually one. They are to make different pastimes to attract devotees. Devotees have different desires, so in whatever form you want, you can serve Him as Varaha Bhagavān, or Narsingh Bhagavān, or Ram, so many. He says, “You come, you surrender to Me, I shall rescue you.” For that reason, to attract all the living beings, He has appeared in different forms. But actually, they are one. In pastimes, they are different. The highest pastimes are of Nandanandan Krishna. You can get all kinds of relations with Nandanandan Krishna. By worshipping Nandanandan Krishna, you can have relations of śānta-rasa (i.e the two qualities of Krishna niṣṭha and tṛṣṇā-tyāga, one pointed devotion to Krishna and no other desire ). Then, dāsya-rasa (Krishna niṣṭha, tṛṣṇā-tyāga and there is also a master servant relation). When this relation is there, you will serve with love. You will engage all sense organs in service and you will get more contact with Supreme Lord, He is all-bliss, and you will also get bliss. In dāsya-rasa there is fear but in sākhya-rasa, there is no fear. In dāsya, one is serving from a distance. In sākhya-rasa, there is no fear. Arjun (being in sākhya-rasa) is ordering Krishna, “You place my chariot here, I want to see who all Kauravas have come in the war front.” He is ordering (the Supreme Lord) being a devotee ! But you will find more than that in Vraja-sakhas. They are standing on Supreme Lord. Supreme Lord is going with all the cowherd boys and calves to the forest. All the cowherd boys have got friendship relations and they want to serve Krishna. They see one tree with so many fruits. They think, “It seems the fruits are very good but how to pluck the fruits? It is very difficult.” So they ask help from Krishna, “O Krishna! You are our friend but You are very powerful. We are not so powerful. So you remain on the ground, and we shall climb upon You to reach the fruits.” What sort of devotion is this? Yet they cannot reach so they climb on one another and at the last one standing on the ground is Krishna. Three or four sakhās are on top of Him. And then they pluck the fruit. They then think whether the fruit is sweet or sour or bitter, we have to taste it. How to know without tasting it? If you give tasted fruit to Narayana, you will go to hell. It is scriptural injunction. But here in Vraja, they taste. One sakhā tastes then other sakhā tastes to see whether it is actually sweet or not, like this all three-four taste it and after that Krishna takes it with great satisfaction because of love.

More than that you will find in the parent and son relation with Nanda Maharaj, Yashoda Mata and Krishna. Nanda Maharaj and Yashoda Mata never think of Krishna as Supreme Lord. They always think of Him as their own child. He is killing Putana and other demons but yet they are thinking, “Luckily my son is saved. He cannot kill demons.” They are never seeing Him as Supreme Lord. Yashoda Devi tries to punish Supreme Lord Sri Krishna because all the Gopa-Gopis are reporting to Nanda Maharaj and Yashoda Devi that your son is very naughty and He is coming in the night and stealing all the yogurt, milk and milk preparations, cream, butter etc.

Nanda Maharaj and Yashoda mata asked Krishna, “Have You done this?”

Krishna: “No no...They are speaking lies.”

Actually Krishna is telling the truth because those Gopa-Gopis want to feed Krishna and they approached Nanda Maharaj and Yashoda Devi and said, “We want to serve your son. Please send Kanhaiya to us’.

Nanda Maharaj, “No No. We have got more than ten thousand of cows, we cannot send Him to others. We shall serve Him’.

Gopa-Gopis are disappointed. Then, Krishna Himself goes there (to their houses).

Everything is in present tense in transcendental realm. There is no past or Future. Because there everything is eternal.

Krishna goes to Nanda Maharaj and Yashoda Devi, “I want to go to that house to take something.”

“No No... You have so much greediness. You should not go there.”

“So ultimately what can I do? So to fulfill their desires I am going as a thief. They are telling lies”

And Highest is Gopi’s prema. It is higher than the consorts of Dwarka.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said that if you have love for Krishna, then you have love for all because all are coming from Krishna. When you become averse to Krishna, then you see others separate from you. Even in the house if you see them separate, your family members, within members you may have quarrel. But when you see all are coming from Krishna and if I love somebody, can I injure any part of Him? If actual love is there, I cannot injure any of his parts. If you love me, love my dog. Those who are dear to me are dear to you. If you love Krishna, you love living beings those are coming from Him. Whom can I injure? How can I injure? If you see that way then this world will become Vrindavan Dham. But when you see we are detached from Supreme Lord and we are the enjoyer of this world, then there will be so many centers of interests and there will be clashes, there will as many groups and that many interests and clashes. Nobody can stop it. At least in India you should not do this. Here, Ram has appeared, Krishna has appeared. Supreme Lord has appeared. If you do something like this then what teachings others will get? So we should have love for all. By doing all this violence in this world out of ignorance, what benefits will we get? There will be a reaction from this. To every action there is equal and opposite reaction. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu advised to Love Krishna. And see all beings (in relation with Him) whether in India or anywhere else, they may be geographically or nationally different but they are coming from the same source. If you love Krishna and see them in His relation, how can you have the aptitude to inflict injury to others, any person of this world? You will get actual solution to all problems of this world. When there are different centers of interest then there will be clashes. For example in geometry, if you draw circles with different centers, they will cross. If one center is there, then if you draw small circles or big circles, there will be no clashing. Center is Krishna, Supreme Lord. If I serve Him with śānta-rasa, dāsya-rasa, sākhya-rasa, vātsalya-rasa or mādhurya-rasa, whatever it may be, one is doing more service, another is doing less service but there will be no clashes. Their target is the same. And we will be happy and He will be happiest. By getting Him we shall get all. When we direct our attention towards Supreme Lord, if Supreme Lord becomes the object of our worship, then if I get Supreme Lord, others will not be deprived. But if you say I am this body then bodily interests, material interests will predominate. If you get some property, others will be deprived. But if I know that I am ātmā and my requirement is love for Paramātmā, for Krishna, then you will get Krishna and others will also get Krishna. Infinite minus/plus Infinity equals to Infinite.

oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate
pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate
om śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ

When we can direct our wants towards Supreme Lord Sri Krishna, we will get our ultimate goal. If you get it you will be in peace. You will get enormous bliss and you will give others that bliss.

For that reason, to remind me all these things, the devotees here have fixed the subject of Bhakti-yoga, that you have renounced the house and come to this institution, you should remember why you have come. You have come for the pure devotion to Supreme Lord Sri Krishna and that can be done very easily nowadays in this Kali-yuga by Harinam Sankirtan. In Satya-yuga it was done by meditation, dhyān. In Treta-yuga by yagya and in Dwapar-yuga by worship of deities. But in Kali-yuga by Harikirtan you can get everything. Under the banner of Harikirtan all can unite. I think they have organized Nagar Sankirtan here. Nagar Sankirtan should be done.