The Divine Bliss, which is the source of all happiness, is related to its Knowledge that was revealed in its original form by the Supreme Divine power, Krishna, during His miraculous appearance in this world. That was the Gita. The origin of all the spiritual “isms” and the knowledge of all the knowledges, which has now been further simplified by His Divinity Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, the foremost disciple of Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj, who is the Supreme Divine descension of this age.
The Gita is not only a philosophy. It is a promise of God.
क्षिप्रं भवति धर्मात्मा शश्वच्छान्तिं निगच्छति |
कौन्तेय प्रतिजानीहि न मे भक्त: प्रणश्यति ||
Kṣhipraṁbhavatidharmātmāśhaśhvach-chhāntiṁnigachchhati.
Kaunteya pratijānīhina me bhaktaḥpraṇaśhyati.
It tells to merge all the spiritual formalities into the exclusiveness of loving devotion to the Supreme form of God, and you will receive His vision.
The Divine souls!
In the last speech I explained about the Divine personality of Krishna who is always Divine in His abode or whenever He descends on this Earth planet. Now the word Krishna some people might think,“Why Krishna is called only Krishna? Why not some other word?” You see our scriptures are very precise, and they reveal the secrets of the Divine kingdom. This word Krishna comes from the scriptures. Just take the literal meaning of the word Krishna:
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कृष शब्द अर्थः णश्चानन्द स्वरूपकाः
Krish shabdaatarthahrnashchānandswaroopakah.
The word Krishna has two words joined together – ‘Krișh’ and ‘rņa’ and Krish means satah. Satah means the Divine existence. The Divine omnipresent existence satah. When we say the ‘Divine omnipresent existence’, the Divine is always blissful. Divine means bliss. Ved says further
यो वै भूमा तत्सुखं …
Yovaibhūmā tat sukham…
‘Bhūmā’, the absolute, supreme, omnipresent, whatever it is,He is God and He is Bliss. So omnipresent Divine existence means omnipresent Divine Bliss. ‘Satah -krish’. Then why is the ‘rna’ sound is there?‘Rna’ means the Bliss of the Bliss. The thing that makes something blissful means Bliss of the Bliss. So Krishna means ‘the Bliss of the Divine Bliss’. Divine itself is Bliss. God Himself is Bliss. So you can say,Bliss of God; Bliss of the Bliss. That’s the meaning of the word Krishna.It means the absolute, original, ultimate source of Divine Blissfulness. Take it like this. This is the meaning of the word Krishna. The absolute, supreme, original,Divine Blissfulness, Krishna or the life of Divine Blissfulness, Krishna.
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So Krishna could be only one. It’s like in your physical body. The life-source is one. Your physical body has so many hands, feet, eyes, nose, various organs of the body, but life-source is one. One life-source gives life to whole of your body. So, what is the life of Bliss? It could be only one. So that is what is meant by the word Krishna. There are some more words in Vedas because they are the original scriptures.
We see…
रसो वै सः।
Raso vaisaha.
आनन्दं ब्रह्म।
Ānandam Brahm,
विज्ञानंमन्दम ब्रह्म
Vigyanamandam Brahm,
सौतमःपुरुषाः
Sautamahpurușhah,
All these are phrases from the Vedas indicate the Absolute Blissfulness and also the Bliss of the Bliss.
Vigyanamāndam Brahm isthe omnipresent Divine Bliss.
Ānandam Brahm is the omnipresent Divine Bliss.
And ‘rasovaisah’, in this shrutiHe says,“Rasahvaisaha.” The ras, the Bliss,is omnipresent. What is the form of that Bliss? Is it likean ocean or an atmosphere or something not tangible? What is the kind? Well, he says,“No! Bliss is always perceivable.” Bliss means love is always perceivable. SoHe is perceivable. ‘Saha’ in Sanskrit is ‘pulling’ – means His personality. ‘Saha’ has been further explained the Vedas, “Sahauttam purusha(सःउत्तमपुरुष:).“‘Purusha’ means the personality of God. So that Bliss,that ras,is personified. There cannot be impersonal experience of any kind of Blissfulness. It comes from some personality. So ‘saha’ refers to Krishna over here. So there are three phrases, Raso vaisaha -‘saha’ means Krishna. In Sautamahpurușhah, saha is further explained. ‘Saha’means the personality of the Godhead, and what is the personality? Krishna. So Krishna is the ultimate Bliss or ultimate love of the Divine.What is ultimate? Just take a brief glimpse.
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You see in the world we also enjoy bliss, happiness. In our (spiritual) books (of India) it has been described in various ways, in various styles of loving experiences; it’s called ras. For instance, you are playing with your friends and enjoying. It’s called Sakhya ras. You are talking to your mother intimately, Vatsalya ras – enjoying the love of your mother. You are very intimately talking to your fiancé; the maximum worldly bliss you experience. I said fiancé because after marriage it doesn’t remain the same.
So in the world also you see there are blissful experiences of worldly happiness, but the last one I describe is the maximum. So we have something in a great amount. So,it’s not like this; there’s also something very, very…the ultimate.Whateveris the ultimate experience of Blissfulness in the Divine world is Krishna.In the Divine world also there are some variations of Blissfulness. I’ll explain that philosophy afterwards.There are some variations. Whatever is the ultimate, the final, the supreme, the most experience of Divine love in the Divine kingdom,that is meant by the word,“Krishna”.So that could be only one and that is only one. So Krishna means what I explained just now; the literal meaning of the word Krishna.
One may again question, because questions are always coming,that,“The Krishna word, would it have come from a certain religion?”Yeah. We see our very old religion, our old Vaishnav religion of Ramanujacharya is 900 years old. Other Krishna religions are around 500 years old. Nimbarakacharya is Nimbarakreligion, Vallabhacharya is Vallabh religion, then Madhva Gaudiya sampraday religion, Haridas, Harivansh; these are the main religions in Krishna name. They are 500 years old. That’s all. 500 years old, 900 year old and Gita is5,000 years old. Gita was revealed 5,000 years ago. So, these religions took the name (of Krishna) from Gita or Bhagwatam. Religions are formed in the name of Krishna. Krishna does not belong to any religion. Religions belong to Krishna.
Take it like this, religions belong to Krishna, but Krishna does not belong to any one particular religion. Religions are like branches. So, Krishna has no religion. It’s not the word of any particular religion, but religions come out from the word Krishna. Again, someone might say that Krishna appeared 5,000 years ago and from then on the word Krishna came. No. Bhagwatam says again in the 12th canto that Krishna keeps on appearing from time to time. ‘Dwaparante’, at the end of Dwaparyug,sometimes Krishna appears. The recent appearance was 5,000 years ago. Prior to that He had appeared, prior to that He had appeared, prior to that He had appeared. After this also He will appear sometime. So He keeps on coming into this world and keeps coming to help the souls. There’s no beginning of Krishna’s appearance, and no end of Krishna’s appearance. He keeps on coming, keeps on appearing.Since how long? Since eternity.
Just take briefly: this planetary system was created by Brahma. Brahma also originated at some particular time. Brahma has a lifespan of 100 years. His one year is 360 days and His one day contains 1,000 chaturyugiday and 1,000 chaturyuginight. One chaturyugi,means four yugas,is 4.32 million years. So 4.32 million years multiplied by 2,000 times is one day and night of Brahma.Sohe has spent half of his life; 155.52 trillionyears he has spent. It means he is around 50 years old. And this day, the present day, he is almost going to take his lunch. That’s his life. So when Brahma first began 155.52 trillion years ago what was there at that time? Nothing – just Brahma. So Brahma wanted to create this Earth planet, this planetary system. So he had to have some powers. To gain powers he prayed to Krishna.
यस्यैकनिश्वसितकालमथावलम्ब्य जीवन्ति लोमविलजा जगदण्डनाथाः
विष्णुर्महान् स इह यस्य कलाविशेषो गोविन्दमादिपुरुषं तमहं भजामि ।
Yasyaika-nishvasit-kālamathāvalambyajīvantilom-vilajājagad-aņda-nāthāh
Vișhnurmahānsaihayasyakalā-visheșhoGovindamādipurușham tam ahambhajāmī.
He prayed to Krishna, “Govindamādipurușham tam ahambhajāmī.” Govind is another name of Krishna. So he prayed to Govinda Krishna. “Oh Krishna, give me power.”
This all described in Brahma Sangeetā, a small book. At the end of the prayer Krishna appears in his meditation because he was praying with closed eyes. Krishna appears in his thoughts, meditation and graces him with His love and Krishna says,
“Those who come to Me will receive My grace.”
The last verse of BrahmaSangeetā. So Brahma prayed to Krishna and Krishna came. From that time onward again Krishna word was there. Okay, prior to Brahma? Prior to Brahma there was another Brahma, prior to that Brahma, another Brahma. This all has been described in the Bhagwatam in great detail in the first few cantos -the creation of this universe. So there is no beginning, there’s no end. It is eternal. So eternally the name is coming – Krishna word. Brahma revealed the Vedas first to the great Sages of that time and they revealed to their descendants. They revealed to their descendants,Saints, then they revealed to human beings. That’s how it came. It was called shruti at that time.
In the Vedas, not just the name Krishna, but there are full Upanishads: Krishna Upanishad, Radhikopanishad, and Gopalatapini Upanishad.A whole Upanishad in the name of Krishna! So the Vedas were revealed at that time. At the very beginning when Brahma first created this world, with the planetary system, and prior to Brahma, whoever Brahma was, he did the same thing.So from when it started? From when there was no beginning; endlessly from eternity, the word Krishna came.So in this way Krishna word is not the word of any religion. Could it be the word of a particular language? No. Againnot, because language again is slowly developed. You take Hindi language, Urdu language, English language, Chinese language, any languages in the very primitive form, what was that?And when it developed in the present age it is more refined.So language gradually develops according to the civilization; it has a beginning.
Sanskrit is not just a language.Sanskrit is a way of communication in this world, in the celestial world, in the Divine world. From when?From eternity. So, from the very beginning when Brahma revealed the Vedas trillions of years ago it was the same Veda as it is today. Let’s take Radhikopanishad. What is the language of Radhikopanishadtoday? The same wordings were trillions of years ago.It was never modified, never changed, never had any progress, because it is already complete grammar. I explained in the very beginning of this series that Veda also has Vedanga. In Vedanga one part is the grammar of Vedas. The grammar is also eternal. Veda appeared with its grammar. It was never slowly developed. It was already completely developed when it appeared.
So in this way, it’s not just a language. It could be a language of all the languages or the eternal language in which people communicate in the celestial world or in the Divine world, because in some level they have to talk. So what language do they use in the Divine world?It is Sanskrit language, and in the celestial world they use Sanskrit language.On the Earth planet various languages plus Sanskrit language are used.Sofor that reasonall our scriptures are in Sanskrit language – allthe scriptures. They have been translated into various other languages but the original scriptures like Vedas, Puranas, Gita, Bhagwatam are all in the original language, Sanskrit language. So Krishna word isnot of any particular language.It is from the eternal language. And Krishna name is not the word of any particular religion,Itis eternal word that represents the absolute loveof the Divine world.
Now again remains one little question: then what is the form of Krishna? If He is the absolute beauty, absolute love, absolute charm of the Divine world, how does He look like? That question I will answer in the next speech.
We can do chanting.
Read – H.D. Swami Prakashanand Saraswati to Lecture in Dallas, Texas