Prince of Peace.
BB Govinda Swami’s class, given on April 1, 2018, in Australia: Before we begin speaking on one topic of Brihad Bhagavatamrita since it is Easter Sunday, I would like to wish everybody a joyful Easter. Srila Prabhupada always spoke very highly of Lord Jesus Christ and he always spoke of the pure and unalloyed devotion of Jesus Christ, and today is Easter. Today is the resurrection day of Jesus.
Well, we are here because we have come to the spiritual path. Grace has fallen upon us. After so many lives of wandering in material existence by great fortune, we’ve come to the path of Krishna consciousness. And we never read anywhere that the spiritual path is going to be an easy path. The spiritual path is always a strong path, the spiritual path is always the path that’s got many-many tests.
Amongst us sitting here, have any of you all ever experienced great tests in your pursuit of Krishna consciousness? Great tests will always be there. And when Srila Prabhupada would speak about Jesus, he would often say that he was simply teaching love, he was teaching that we should love God and we should love our neighbor as ourselves.
And then, because of his teachings of love, he was subjected to so many tribulations, but the wonderful point is that despite of the fact that he was subjected to so many tribulations his faith in God and his faith in his Father never faltered. Never once did it falter. And we think how… I guess it was last Sunday, Palm Sunday, according to the history that’s when he entered into Jerusalem, and then he was arrested, and then he was subjected to so many different problems, so many harsh problems, and he was crucified. Simply for the sake of love, simply for the sake of teaching people that the greatest thing that we have in our lives is love. The greatest example or the greatest exposition of our love is when we direct our love to God.
But in Bhagavad-gita Krishna says:
mamaivamso jiva-loke
jiva-bhutah sanatanah
He says that “everybody living in this conditioned world are My amsas, they are My parts and parcels.” So simply to say that we should love God but not love everyone else is not enough. Our real perspective should be that we love God and we love all of God’s parts and parcels. Then that conception of love will be complete.
So he just unfailingly and unfalteringly showed that type of love. Although I grew up a Christian… I can’t remember too much now, I can’t remember too much now what I was doing yesterday. … but it seems that when Christ and his disciples were being arrested by the Roman guards, one of his disciples took up a sword and he was going to make some defense, and then Jesus said, “No, put it down. If you live by the sword, you will die by the sword.”
The greatest power is love. So it is a good example for all of us because we understand that Caitanya Mahaprabhu has given us that same message. Caitanya Mahaprabhu never forced, Caitanya Mahaprabhu only loved. Caitanya Mahaprabhu did not take into consideration our myriad disqualifications, rather Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, “Simply take love, take the highest love.”
Caitanya-Caritamrita says:
anarpita-carim cirat karunayavatirnah kalau
samarpayitum unnatojjvala-rasam sva-bhakti-sriyam
He is the karuna-avatara and He came to give everybody what is called ujjvala-rasa, which means the brilliantly effulgent love that is shared by the residents of Goloka Vrindavana for Krishna, where they love Krishna unrestrictedly and Krishna loves them unrestrictedly:
ye yatha mam prapadyante
tams tathaiva bhajamy aham
Krishna says, “In proportion to the way they love me – bhajamy aham – I reward them.”
So it’s a nice day. Although we are Gaudiya Vaisnavas, still we think of the shining example of great acaryas and great Vaisnavas like Jesus Christ.
And even after all of his tribulation, after all he had to take on in the name of love, then they went and they put him on the cross, and it’s said that one of the last things he said was, “My Father, why did you forsake me? Why did you forsake me?”
But then the last thing that he said, “Now I give my life into the hands of my Father.”
Now, that’s the definition of love according to Srila Rupa Goswami. In a relationship of love there may be every conceivable, tangible reason for the relationship to be broken, but still the relationship never breaks – that’s called love.
“Father, why did You give up on me, why did You forsake me? Why did You let these guys nail me on the cross?” But, “Father, now I give my life into Your hands.”
Caitanya Mahaprabhu said the same thing in the madness of love, He said:
aslisya va pada-ratam pinastu mam
adarsanan marma-hatam karotu va
yatha tatha va vidadhatu lampato
mat-prana-nathas tu sa eva naparah
He said “Krishna, if You like, You can hold me in Your arms and You can crush me by Your embrace. Or, if You like, You can never be present before me. And if You like, You can trample me under your feet. You can do anything to me in any way that You want to, but… You will always remain my prananatha,” meaning, “You will always remain the Lord of my life. Whatever you do – it does not matter. Put me on a cross! Still, You remain the Lord of my life.”
That’s called selfless love, and that is our goal, that’s the objective of our journey in Krishna consciousness. If through following this process of bhakti-yoga which has been given to us by our spiritual masters, has been given to us by our founder acarya, Srila Prabhupada, has been given to us by our predecessor acaryas, which has been given to us by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, by following this process eventually our hearts will become cleansed and we will come to that position of actually being worthy recipients and worthy practitioners of this selfless love of God. That is our big goal, that’s what we really want.
So, just a few thoughts on the Prince of Peace. That is a very nice name for Jesus – the Prince of Peace. I think there was one instance when many of the folks of Jerusalem were going to their authorities and they were saying, “He says he is a king, he says he is a king, he says he is a king!” And so they took him to the representative of the government of Rome. I think it was Pontius Pilate. And Pilate said, “Are you a king?” He said, “Yes, I am a king, but not in this world.” You see.
So he is called the Prince of Peace, because if we learn this art of loving God we will always be living in Peace. If we don’t learn the art in the science of loving God, regardless of what we have there won’t be peace, that’s for sure.
asraddadhanah purusa
dharmasyasya paran-tapa
aprapya mam nivartante
mrtyu-samsara-vartmani
“Asraddadhanah purusa” – if we are unfaithful, we will fall down. “Aprapya mam nivartante” – we read in the Nectar of Devotion about yogis , and they have this prapti-siddhi, they can catch things from anywhere in the universe. But He says, “Aprapya mam” – “You will never catch Me.” “Nivartante” – “You will fall down into mrtyu samsara vartmani – in the ocean of birth and death.”
So let us become lovers of Krishna and let us become lovers of one another in Krishna consciousness through… like last night Badahari prabhu spoke so beautifully before his kirtan, he said, “By japa we purify our hearts, by kirtan we purify our relationship.” And when our relationships are pure then we can love, and when all the other gunk is cleared away there is nothing that any of us want more than love. Is that it?
And HH Giriraja Swami was speaking one time… Any of you who have had the blessed darshan of Giriraja Swami, you know how deep he is. He is really deep. And really… he is so thoughtful.
And he was a university student in MIT or Boston University or some big school. Srila Prabhupada went there, and he was listening to Prabhupada and was trying to analyze the whole thing because he was trying to see if this man is really the guru that I should give me life to. And he listened to what Prabhupada was explaining, and then Giriraja Swami came up with his analysis, and his analysis is, “This Krishna consciousness movement is really nothing other than love disguised as philosophy.” Have you heard Giriraja Swami Maharaja say that before? He said, “Krishna consciousness is love disguised as philosophy.”