The following Srimad Bhagavatam lecture (verse 1.7.52) was given by Srila Acharyadeva at the ISKCON Gainesville Preaching Center on November 20, 2008.

 

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Translation by Srila Prabhupada:

Caturbhuja (the four-armed one), or the Personality of Godhead, after hearing the words of Bhima, Draupadi and others, saw the face of His dear friend Arjuna, and He began to speak as if smiling.

 

Purport by Srila Prabhupada:

 

Lord Sri Krishna had two arms, and why he is designated as four-armed is explained by Sridhara Swami. Both Bhima and Draupadi held opposite views about killing Asvatthama. Bhima wanted him to be immediately killed, Draupadi wanted to save him. We can imagine Bhima ready to kill while Draupadi is obstructing him. And in order to prevent both of them, the Lord discovered another two arms. Originally, the primeval Lord Sri Krishna displays only two arms, but in his Narayana feature He resides with His devotees in the Vaikuntha planets, while in His original Sri Krishna feature He resides in the Krishnaloka planet, far, far above the Vaikuntha planets in the spiritual sky. Therefore, if Sri Krishna is called caturbhujah, there is no contradiction. If need be He can display hundreds of arms, as he exhibited in His visva-rupa shown to Arjuna. Therefore, one who can display hundreds and thousands of arms can also manifest four whenever needed.

  When Arjuna was perplexed about what to do with Asvatthama, Lord Sri Krishna, as the very dear friend of Arjuna, voluntarily took up the matter just to make a solution. And he was smiling also.

 

Lecture:

 

     This is an interesting story because it illustrates an important principle in Vaishnava morality (I actually wrote an essay about this). Here we have a compromise between justice and mercy.

 

Throughout the history of religion there has always been a tension between these two competing principles. People generally want justice (which means: if you do this, you get that consequence), but there is also a need for mercy (which means we have to be kind and people have to be forgiven).

Here we have Draupadi who wants to be merciful, Bhima who wants to kill him and Krishna compromises.

 

Another interesting thing is that he was not killed, but he was humiliated. He was not physically killed but it is said that cutting his hair, taking his wealth and driving him away from his position was as good as killing.

 

Hair was somehow important back then (this was long before the musical “Hair”).

For example, Bhagavatam mentions twice that Kurus had lost the duration of their life because they dared to touch Draupadi’s hair. In this culture, the northern and southern parts of the body are of great significance. To touch someone’s shoe is a major offence. Similar is with the hair.

 

This is obviously a culture in which honor is very important. People take their honor very seriously. For example, people don’t go back in their word. It was based on Kunti’s word that Pandavas all married Draupadi (polyandry).  When they lived disguised as brahmanas, Pandavas went every day to beg for food (as that’s the way brahmanas maintain themselves). And when they came back at night with the collection, Kunti instructed them, “Share it equally among yourselves.” So, when they came back from Svayamvara with Draupadi, Arjuna and Bhima said jokingly, “We have some good collection today.” Kunti replied with the same words as always, “Share it equally among yourselves.”

 

The idea is that people took their word seriously in those days. It was considered a disgrace if people went back on their word. Today, it’s very different. We live in the society of advertising and lawyers. It’s a society of vaisyas and sudras . For vaisyas, honor means to have a lot of money. Honor is not related to truthfulness but to what kind of car you drive. If you drive the right car and belong to the right club, you are honorable.  It’s not time for the truth.

 

You can say practically anything if it furthers your interest. Even in terms of seduction, because it’s a very low and promiscuous society, people will say anything or believe anything to satisfy their lust. So, it’s an age where there is very little honor.

 

There is another parallel incident (story) in the Vedic literature- the story of Krishna cutting Rukmi’s hair. Krishna came from Dvaraka to save Rukmini from a ridiculous marriage to Shishupala that her brother Rukmi (who was completely out of control) had arranged. After Krishna kidnapped Rukmini, Rukmi attacked Krishna. Krishna was going to kill him, but because Rukmini begged for mercy on her brother, Krishna only cut his hair off (he gave him the original punk-cut), and thus humiliated him.

This was considered a very heavy thing to do.

 

Even though Balarama chastised Krishna for dishonoring his brother in law, later on, when Rukmi insulted Balarama, Balarama smashed his head with a club.

And the king Kalinga was laughing at Balarama.

 

So, in both these cases Krishna shows a compromise. In the Bhagavad-gita Krishna also teaches the middle path- moderation. For example, He says, “You should neither eat too little nor too much, neither should you sleep too little or too much.

 

Today there is a tendency to assume that Vedic India was like India today. There is no real historical evidence that people were dressed in kurtas and saris back then. Kurta is a muslim dress. As far as dhoti and sari, they are not even Hindu words.

 

Devotee: Do the devotees get angry if someone dishonors them like that. What is the difference between false pride and dignity?

 

HDG: We don’t see that type of behavior in Vaishnavas today, that they go crazy if someone cuts their hair. But yes, how are they different? There is a certain dignity that belongs to the position itself. The dignity of the office has to be preserved. There is a tendency in ISKCON to think that, if someone wants to preserve certain dignity for the position he takes, that it must be due to false pride or selfishness and sense gratification. But Srila Prabhupada actually insisted that a certain dignity for the office be preserved. For example, in the present time the president of the country is extremely unpopular. And therefore people are proposing to take away his helicopter, his place etc. But people don’t understand that, even if the president is not qualified , the dignity of the office has to be preserved. If we were to strip all the positions of their dignity, we would actually destroy civilization.

 

Devotee: Sometimes, after a devotee falls down, no one wants to read the books he had written earlier or classes he had given while he was not fallen. What do you think about this?

 

HDG: In the Bhagavad gita, Krishna says, “In this endeavor, there is no loss or diminution.” So, it’s not necessarily the case that everything the devotee did before the fall should be rejected. If that devotee is undergoing an accidental fall-down and at the time he served Krishna he was truly connected to Krishna, then his lectures or/and books should not be rejected. If, however, that person had led a parallel (or double) life while he/she was externally serving Krishna, it’s different.

 

Devotee: Is it not wrong to judge the devotee with our limited vision.

 

HDG: It depends on the state of one’s mind/consciousness. Just like the child can not analyze his parents so much. When you get older, you can still respect your parents, but you can also objectively analyze them.

 

Actually, this historical issue can be seen in the philosophy of Koran, which is not bad. Once they conquered other countries they had to set up laws in those countries. So, they had to think of what kind of laws they wanted. There were several main laws in Islam.

 

If the time comes when Krishna consciousness would be governing, then the question would arise,” What is Krishna conscious contract law?”

Or, “What do you do if someone commits crime? Should one forgive like Lord Caitanya or kill like Krishna killed demons?”

 

In another words, we would have to see what is imitation and what is following. That will be the day of challenge for ISKCON. We don’t even have laws for ISKCON, what to speak of laws for the whole country or many countries.

 

Devotee: Did Ksatriyas shave their heads? We see pictures of warriors with long hair.

HDG: It was a very diverse society where there were all kinds of things going on. It is not the way we think- that the Vedic culture was very simple. But the real point of the culture was lost. (Like Krishna says in the Bhagavad gita).

So, the question arises, “What’s the Vedic culture? If there is no Krishna Consciousness, it is useless.”

 

Mutual acceptance of civilized behavior makes it possible to have a spiritual community. So, everyone has to pick an occupation. So, varnasrama system is there to civilize human beings. And you can have so called Vedic culture which is useless. Someone can perform their dharma very nicely, but if that practice does not arouse in them attraction to Krishna, it is useless (according to Srimad Bhagavatam).

 

We can see from different statements in the sastra (like Srimad Bhagavatam), that there were differences even within the Vedic culture, between people in different ashramas, varnas, and between city culture and village culture. So, Vedic civilization was very sophisticated. Then, we also have to consider different yugas, different regions etc.

 

Even in Mahabharata there is a story of brahmanas who suddenly proclaimed a new dharma. There is a story of a brahmana who took too much liqor at night…

 

 

 

There is another story when Pandu was trying to convince Kunti to have a child with another man. Thereby he is telling her that women didn’t have to be monogamous. People who live up in the mountains in India (called “Uttara Kurus”) still do that.

 

So, what is Vedic culture? There is Vedic dharma, but, as I always say, we have to know the cultural principle and the ethnic detail. For example, things like a dowry- we know that people gave dowry when they gave daughters in marriage, but does that mean that they had to do it? In other words, was it a principle or ethnic detail?

There are stories of where people asked for dowry from the groom’s family when they gave daughters in marriage. So, the Vedic culture was a combination of Vedic injunctions and local customs (what people did back then).

 

When Krishna found His father preparing to worship Indra, He asked, “Is this a Vedic injunction or a local custom?” Therefore, even things described in the Bhagavatam are a combination of Vedic injunctions and local customs.

 

There are many things people do today in India that are simply local customs. And there is a tendency to do this in ISKCON, too. People simply do things because they are customs. Different Hindu temples in India have different customs. Even different ISKCON temples have different customs (for example, in regard to where women stand in the temple room etc).

 

Throughout the human history people apply cultural principles in different ways, sometimes out of practical reasons (because of different climat etc).

 

Another example is that in Caitanya Caritamrita there is no mention of japa beads. Now, it’s a great idea and it’s practical, but it is not an eternal principle. We know for a fact that in the past in India people counted their chanting, but we don’t know how (on fingers, by tying knots etc), but the beads we have today are coming from Europe. They are Rosary beads.