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the material nature but are performing pure devotional service.
Although apparently they are in the material nature, they are not
in the material nature.  Now there seems to be a contradiction,
but that has been harmonized by Sanatan Goswami and also Rupa
Goswami in Ujjala Mani.  Just as iron in contact with fire
becomes fire, similarly those who are performing pure devotional
service, even though it may appear that they are on the material
nature and that they are subjected to the laws of this material
nature, they are actually transcendental and the example has
often been given by Srila Prabhupada than when iron is put in
fire, then iron becomes fire.  You may say but it is still iron,
then our answer will be, then touch it.  In the same way, the
devotees who are free from all material desires, who are free
from karma and jnana, they are transcendental to this material
nature.  Even though they have a material body, but that body is
spiritualized even though it appears they are subject to the laws
of material nature, but that is only an apparent perception, they
are not affected by the laws of material nature.  

And Lord Siva told Narada Muni that Prahlada is actually the
greatest devotee of the Lord and he gave various reasons.  Those
points are mentioned here so I will not repeat them but I will
discuss how great a devotee Prahlada Maharaj is.  Prahlada
Maharaj, as you know from the fifth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam,
was the son of Hirankasipu.  He was the king of the demons and at
one time Hiranyakasiphu went to perform austerities in Mandhu
mountain to become immortal.  Now these gross materialists, these
demoniac people, they actually want to exploit this material
nature endlessly, and therefore they want to become immortal. 
When Hiranyakashipu went to perform austerities in Mandhu
Mountain, the demigods attacked the kingdom of Hiranyakashipu
because they were afraid of him.  This daityaraj, this king of
demons, may attack their kingdom and rive them away.  Taking
advantage of Hiranyakashipu's absence, the demigods attacked his
kingdom.  They defeated the demons and when they saw that
Hiranyakashipu's wife Kaitu was pregnant, they took her away with
the intention that when the child was born they would kill the
child because they didn't want to trust the son of the king of
demons.  At that time Narada Muni appeared and he told Indra to
let Kaitu go.  But when Indra insisted that this lady, the queen
of Hiranyakashipu, is carrying the son of daityaraj in her womb
and they wanted to kill the child as soon as he was born. Narada
Muni assured Indra that this child, although he was the son of
Hiranyakasipu, he was actually a great devotee of Krsna.  So he
requested Indra to let Kaitu go which he did and Narada Muni
took her to his ashrama.  By Narada Muni's spiritual potency,n     Kaitau did not give birth to the child until Hiranyakashipu came
back because Narada Muni anticipated there may be some scandal if
the child is born in the ashrama.  When Kaiatu was in his
ashrama Narada Muni used to instruct her regularly on the topics
of Krsna consciousness and Prahlada Maharaj, sitting in the womb
of his mother, used to listen.  As a result of that
Prahlada Maharaj became a great devotee even before his birth. 
And then Hiranyakashipu came back after receiving the boon from
Brahma, he was almost immortal.  Kaitau went back to the palace
and Prahlada Maharaj was born.  

When Prahlada was of age to go to gurukula  so this is the Vedic
custom.  That the son of a brahmana and ksatriya used to be sent
to the guru's` ashrama for proper education.  Although Prahlada
Maharaj was the son of a king, he was sent to the guru's ashrama. 
The guru of the Daityas was Sukracarya and Prahlada was kept
under the custody of Sukracarya's sons, Shanda and Amarka.  They
started to educate Prahlada with all kinds of materialistic
subjects....... politics, diplomacy, etc.  Prahlada was meant to
master those subjects.  After a while he was brought to his
father by the guru.  And his father said to Prahlada, 'What do
you consider is the most important thing to learn in school?'
Then Prahlada replied that 'The most important thing to learn is
that Visnu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the
business of every living entity is to surrender to Him'. 
Hiranyakashipu became very annoyed.  He started to chastise the
guru 'What happened, this is the kind of education you are
giving him?  You are teaching him to praise my enemy?'  

Hiranyakashipu became very inimical to Visnu because Visnu killed
his brother Hiranyaksha as Varahadev.  Hiranyakashipu was looking
for Visnu to kill Him, but he could not find Him anywhere, then
he was told that Visnu is actually hiding in the heart of every
living entity.  Hiranyakashipu became frustrated and said "See
what a coward He is, out of fear of me He is hiding in the
hearts of every living entity'.  Hiranyakashipu became very
annoyed when he saw his son start to glorify Visnu.  He started
to chastise the teachers but they said 'No we did not teach him
this.  We have been teaching him all the subjects as prescribed. 
We do not know where he learnt this from'.  Hiranyakashipu then
asked Prahlada Maharaj where he learnt this from so he said 'That
the one who is situated in everyone's heart, He actually gives
the knowledge.  Visnu Himself gave the knowledge of Him,
otherwise how can anyone get to know Him.'  In this way
Prahlada Maharaj replied to his father and he told Prahlada to
give up his misconception.  Prahlada in a very simple and
innocent way refused saying it was impossible to give up Visnu
who is the Supreme Creator and Supreme Shelter so how can anyone
give up Visnu and to do so is sheer folly.  At this
Hiranyakashipu wanted to kill the child so he told the demons
t you kill this child.  The demon army attacked Prahlada and a
very detailed description of Prahlada's incidence has been given
in Visnu Purana.  There it is said that when the demons
attacked, Prahlada's reply was "I am not seeing you anything
different from Visnu although you are attacking me.  Also your
weapons are non different from Lord Visnu'.  Because Prahlada sawn     Visnu everywhere, their weapons could not do anything and
Prahlada did not feel any pain.  In this way Hiranyakashipu tried
to kill his son.  He asked the poisonous snakes like Alapatra,
Adaksak, etc., huge gigantic snakes, to bite Prahlada Maharaj and
finish him off.  But the snakes, in spite of biting Prahlada
Maharaj, could not do anything and they appealed to
Hiranyakashipu  you see he was the controller of the three
worlds, so all these living entities were under his rule, and the
snakes said that our teeth are falling apart and the jewels in
our heads are cracking but still we cannot do anything to this
son of yours.  Then Hiranyakashipu called the Digkatas.  They are
the elephants who are protecting the ten directions and they are
huge mountainous elephants.  Hiranyakashipu asked these elephants
to charge and kill Prahlada Maharaj.  They immediately charged
Prahlada and he was gorged by their tusks.  Nothing happened to
Prahlada but all the elephants's tusks' broke.  

In whichever way Hiranyakashipu tried to kill Prahlada, his
endeavors failed.  He then asked his men to light a fire and they
covered Prahlada with a huge wooden pyre and then they lit it. 
But Prahlada replied that these huge flames of fire are appearing
to him to be like the soothing touch of the lotus petal.  So by
Krsna's mercy Prahlada was saved time and time again.  Then the
gurus of Prahlada consoled Hiranyakashipu and told him 'Let us
take him back to the ashrama and give him the right training.  If
it doesn't work, then we will make the arrangements to kill him
by some mantra'.  The brahmanas have the power to use a mantra
and through that create a weapon of fire like a thunderbolt. 
They assured if it doesn't work then they would try to kill
Prahlada with this weapon.  After a while Hiranyakashipu called
Prahlada and asked him but Prahlada again replied that Visnu is
the Supreme Personality of Godhead.  Hiranyakashipu became very
annoyed and said, 'Let this son be finished' and he told the
cooks to give hahlalhal, the poison that came from churning the
milk ocean, with his food.  Prahlada, after eating it he digested
it.  The cooks were very afraid and surprised and they reported
this to Hiranyakashipu.  The brahmanas told Hiranyakashipu that
they would arrange to kill him.  They made the sacrifice and as a
result of that sacrifice a thunderlike weapon came out of the
sacrificial fire and hit Prahlada in his chest.  But the weapon
broke into pieces and not only that, but because the weapon was
used upon a sinless person like Prahlada, it actually went back
to the brahmanas and finished them off.  

Hiranyakashipu then tried to throw Prahlada off from the top of
the mountain; he tried to kill Prahlada by throwing him in the
ocean and then covering him up with mountains, but still Prahlada
very easily shoved the mountains aside and came out of the water. 
In this way Hiranyakashipu was completely frustrated and then he
asked Prahlada 'Where did you get this power that I cannot kill
you?' and Prahlada said, 'I got this power from the same source
where everyone gets their power.  Even you, where you got the
power, I got the power from Him'.  Then Hiranyakashipu asked
'Where is that Visnu?' and Prahlada said 'He is everywhere'. 
Hiranyakashipu then asked 'If he is everywhere then he is also in
this pillar?' and Prahlada said 'Yes'.  Hiranyakashipu thenn     roared with laughter.  He grabbed his sword and leaped onto the
pillar and broke it and said 'Let me see where that Visnu of
yours is?'.  Nrshinghadev then came out and killed
Hiranyakashipu.  They fought for  I am not sure but I think
Nrsinghadev came out of the pillar at noon time and fought
throughout the day with him and then in the evening, at the time
of twilight, Nrsinghadevkilled him.  

In this way we can see how great a devotee Prahlada Maharaj was
and that is what Lord Siva pointed out to Narada Muni.  That he
is the greatest of devotees because Visnu protected him all the
time.  He never forgot Visnu and that is the glory of Prahlada
Maharaj.  His position is even higher, even greater than the
residents of Vaikuntha.

When Narada Muni went to Prahlada Maharaj, he saw that Prahlada
was mediating on Visnu in Sutaloka.  In his trance he could see
that Narada Muni was coming so he got up and greeted him and
Narada Muni started to glorify him.  But Prahlada Mahraj refused
to accept that glorification and he gave various reasons why he
is not a great devotee.  These points are here and go through
them.....   One main point that Prahlada Maharaj gave as to why
he was not such a great devotee was that he said that he was
simply meditating on the SPG.  He simply meditates on the Lord,
but devotion is actually a matter of service.  He doesn't render
any service so he cannot be considered a great devotee of the
Lord. Therefore, he admitted in a very humble way, that he was
not even a devotee.  But then he pointed out to Hanuman saying
that Hanuman is the real devotee because he renders so much
service to Lord Ramachandra.  

Let us consider the position of Hanuman, why his position is so
great.  Hanuman is a very special personality.  He was born of
Viyou and the king of the monkeys, Kesari.  Kesari's wife was
Unjana.  SHe was so beautiful that one day Viou, the god of air,
became attracted by her and he embraced her.   Unjana became
very annoyed and said 'Why did you touch me?  Why did
contaminate me in this way?' Viou said 'No, I actually touched
you in the mind, there was no physical contact but as a result of
my embrace you will be gifted with a son who will be as powerful
as I am and who will be able to move with the speed of air and he
will be extremely powerful'.  After Unjana gave birth to Hanuman
in a mountain cave, she went to the forest to pick some fruits
but Hanuman, the new born baby started to feel hungry.  At that
time he saw that the sun was rising on the eastern horizon and
seeing the big red disc of the sun he mistook it to be a fruit
and he jumped to reach the sun.  At that time Viou became cool to
give Hanuman protection, and the sun seeing he was a child, did
not burn him.  But at that time Rahu was about to swallow the
sun.  So he saw Rahu on the chariot of the sungod so Hanuman
mistook Rahu to be a fruit and he wanted to eat him.  Then Rahu
being afraid he went to Indra for protection.  Indra came to
give Rahu protection riding on his Irava.  When he stopped
Hanuman, Hanuman thought that the elephant Irava was a fruit so
he wanted to eat that.  Then, to save Irava Indra used the
thunderbolt and it hit Hanuman and he fell down from that greatn     height but Viou being affectionate to his son, carried Hanuman
into a cave and tried to treat him.  Due to Vious disappearance,
the whole world became void of air and everyone was suffocating. 
Everyone approached Brahma and appealed to him.  Brahma arrived
in the mountain cave and he revived the son and he got back his
life and his broken thigh was joined.  Indra gave Hanuman a name
that since his thigh was broken by Brajar, his name would be
Hanuman.  Hanu means thigh, and ma means one who has.  Indra also
gave him the benediction that he would never die out of a
thunderbolt, it would not be able to affect him.  Then Surya, the
sun, gave Hanuman one hundredth part of his energy and then
Brahma gave him the benediction that no curse of a brahmana would
affect Hanuman.  In this way, getting all these benedictions,
Hanuman became very powerful.  Not only he regained his life, but
he became very powerful.  

After all he is a monkey so he started to create a lot of
disturbance in the forest and the sages who were in the forest
performing sacrifices became very annoyed with Hanuman and they
gave him a curse that he would forget about his potency. But then
this curse had a condition, that if anyone reminds him of his
power, then he would regain it.  For a long time Hanuman was
oblivious of his power, but when Ramachandra was searching for
Sita and Shampati, the brother of Jataiyu bird, 

change over of tape

to protect Sita but he died in the battle with Ravana.  So his
brother Shampati had the vision, he could see for a great
distance and he could see that Sita was in the Ashok forest in
Lanka.  To confirm that somebody had to go to Lanka.   Jambhavan
who was the minister of the monkey, who is a bear and is also a
devotee of Lord Ramachandra, (Jambhavana is the father of
Jambhavati, Krsnarsna's queen in Dwarka),  he reminded Hanuman
about his power.  And Hanuman being aware of his power he jumped
across the ocean.  

Hanuman was so powerful that the were many wonderful things
happening when he was crossing the ocean.  In the ocean on the
way to Lanka there was a very big demon called Shinhinka.  She
used to catch the shadow of a living entity who was passing by
and eat the living entity.  She used to live in the ocean and any
entity Shinhinka would catch the shadow and eat it.  Hanuman all
of a sudden he felt that his journey to Lanka was stopped, he was
not flying anymore and he was being drawn to Shinhinka.  
Hanuman had the power to expand himself into an unlimited size or
contract himself into a very tiny body.  He first of all
expanded his body but Shinhinka also became bigger and bigger to
swallow him.  So Hanuman became very small and entered into
Shinhinka's mouth and then with his nails he pierced open her
heart, killed her and came out of her.  Then Hanuman went to
Lanka and became very small like a mouse. Then he went into Lanka
and went to Sita Devi and revealed his identity to her. 
Ramachandra actually gave Hanuman His ring.  At first Sita Devi
didn't believe Hanuman, she thought this is another maya of
Ravana but then Hanuman gave her the ring of Ramachandra and shen     believed him.  Hanuman could actually carry Sita back to Lanka
but she refused because she could not touch anyone else besides
Lord Ramachandra.  Then Hanuman consoled her saying 'Do not to
worry, Lord Ramachandra would be back to rescue you.  We just
wanted to confirm that you are here'.  She felt some doubt as to
whether that was possible because she was in the forest and
Ravana was so powerful. Also it was such a great distance to
cover so how would Ramachandra be able to rescue her.  In order
to prove his prowess Hanuman broke that forest.  It was a very
dear garden of Ravana, Ashok Forest.  Then when Ravana got the
news that a monkey was breaking his garden, he sent his army and
Hanuman, one after another, killed five of Ravana's generals with
their full army.  Then finally Ravana sent his son Aksha and
Hanuman killed him also.  Then Ravana sent Indrajit and Indrajit
used the brahmastra upon Hanuman and tied him up with that
weapon.  Hanuman accepted that torture just to see Ravana and
teach him a lesson.  When Hanuman was taken to Ravana he stared
to blast Ravana for his heinous deed of stealing Sita.  Ravana
got so angry that he wanted to kill Hanuman but Vivisan
intervened and stopped Ravana from killing Hanuman.  Ravana
decided to let the monkey burning himself.  He tied a cloth on
Hanuman's tail, put a flammable substance on it, lit it and then
Hanuman go.  But Hanuman he just jumped from one room to another,
one palace to another and in this way he burnt out the whole of
Lanka.  And the fire could not do anything to Hanuman because
Sita was praying to the firegod and due to Sita's prayer, the
fire did not touch Hanuman.  Finally Sita gave Hanuman the jewel
from her a crown on her head as a token to show Lord Ramachandra. 

Then Hanuman went back to Lord Ramachandra and he rendered great
service to Lord Ramachandra during His battle with Ravana. 
Hanuman killed many big generals of Ravana, he carried Laxman on
his back to kill Indrajit.  Indrajit was Ravana's son who had
the power to hide behind the clouds.  Therefore another name for
Indrajit was Megnan.  Meg means cloud.  He could hide behind a
cloud and fight, and no one could see him and Indrajit had
weapons in his hand so it would have been practically impossible
to kill him.  Vivisan actually told Ramachandra that it would be
impossible to kill Indrajit.  The only time you could kill him
would be when he goes to worship in the temple, then he would be
unarmed.  Hanuman carried Laxman and Laxman killed Indrajit in
the temple.  When Ravana used shaktishell on Laxman and Laxman
was unconscious and dying, Sushen the physician prescribed that
if they could get a herb from Gandamani mountain then they could
revive Laxman but the medicine had to be brought before sunrise. 
This mountain is far far away and the only person who could get
it was Hanuman.  He was told what this mountain looks like and
where he could find the herb but when he went there he could not
figure out which was the kalani herb.  He didn't want to take any
chances so he carried the whole mountain and brought it to Lanka
and this way Laxman was revived.  Hanuman rendered many services
to Ramachandra.  

When Narada Muni went to Hanuman he saw that Hanuman was singing
the glory of the Lord and tears were streaming down his eyes andn     then he started to glorify Hanuman that he was so great a
devotee.  He was the greatest recipient of Krsna's mercy.  But
then Hanuman started to give the reason why he was not a great
devotee, he could not even become a devotee.  He did not even
receive any mercy from the Lord.  If the Lord was so merciful
unto him, then why did He disappear, why doesn't He give him
darshan anymore?  Why is he suffering from His separation?  Then
he pointed out that the Pandavas are the greatest devotees
because the Lord is always with the Pandavas in
Hastinapur.  Then Narada Muni said, 'OK. Let's go and see the
Lord'.  Hanuman refused because he was afraid of committing some
offense because he felt that the relationship that the Lord has
with the Pandavas was quite different from the relationship he
had with Lord Ramachandra.  Because Hanuman's relationship with
Ramachandra is in isogit.  Actually Lord Ramachandra is margata
purusotama, He came to establish the proper understanding of the
SPG but whereas with the Pandavas, He is their friend. 
Therefore Hanuman refused to go, but Narada Muni went to see the
Pandavas.

QUESTIONS:

Question:  Why was Hanuman separated from Lord Ramachandra and
why didn't he want to go to Ayodha?

Answer:  As I said, he didn't want to go because of fear of
committing an offense because.  His relationship with Lord
Ramachandra, and the way Krsna is dealing with His associates in
Dwarka were different.

Question:  In Dwarka, but why didn't he go to Ayodhya?  Why did
he not live in Ayodhya when Ramachandra went there?

Answer:  The pastime was over at that time.  Lord Ramachandra
packed up his pastime and went back to the spiritual sky.

Question:  We know that when the residents of Vrindaban feel
separation from Krsna but Krsna is really still present and why
is it that we may integrate? with the gopis in madhurya rasa
also, where Narada Muni's story is leading us, they feel
separation also, so what is so good about Hanuman's separation
that he is showing that as a sign that he is not a great a
recipient of the Lord's mercy as the Pandavas?

Answer:  Although the gopis are separated from Krsna, the gopis
in their intense absorption in Krsna, sometimes see that Krsna is
there with them.  First of all, Krsna doesn't leave Vrindaban,
He is always in Vrindaban.  Actually when the gopis don't see
Him, Krsna hides behind some bush.  There is a very nice
incidence to clarify that point.  Radhika, Srimate Radharani, was
feeling very intense separation from Krsna and then Lalita
painted a picture of Krsna and Radharani started to see the
painting and she felt that Krsna actually came out of the
painting and was addressing Her and reciprocating with her but
then she realized it was her mental illusion.  Then she decided
she would not be able to survive without Krsna, so better thatn     she gives up her body because if she commits suicide at least she
would be relieved of this anguish.  Meditating on Krsna she
wanted to give up her body.  But at that time Krsna came and
stood in front of her and she started to meditate and at one
point when she opened her eyes she saw Krsna there and she
started thinking it was a projection of her meditation, it was
not the real Krsna.  Actually the gopis in Vrindaban, especially
Srimati Radharani and the principal gopis, they cannot really
figure out whether they are separated from Krsna or associating
with Krsna.

Question:  I know the famous picture of Hanuman showing
Ramachandra in his heart  but even when separated from
Ramachandra, I always thought that Hanuman would have some sort
of association in that way.

Answer:  Seeing the Lord in the heart and reciprocating with the
Lord in reality is not the same.  Hanuman's thing was meditation
but with the gopis in Vrindaban, Krsna was actually reciprocating
because when the meditation breaks  that's the thing with santya
rasa, when the meditation breaks then they are separated from the
Lord, but the gopis in separation associate with Krsna.  And it
is said that vipralambha is more intense.  Absorption of Krsna is
more intense that direction reciprocation.

Question:  Is it true that  ?kas never suffer from separation?

Answer:  One can say that they do not suffer in the way that
gopis do because they are not so much absorbed in Krsna as the
gopis are.  For example somebody leaves, those who are very
close to him feel the pain for a long time but those who are not
so close they feel the pain for the time being but then they
become absorbed in other activities.  The anguish is less.  But
they do miss Krsna when He goes to the forest.  Then again the
men's heart is stronger than a woman's.  Their emotions are more
controlled.

Question:  Maharaj, when Prahlada was still in the womb of his
mother, Narada Muni already said that he was a great devotee.  I
always heard that because Prahlada heard the teachings of Narada
Muni that he was a great devotee.

Answer:  One may be a great devotee, but one needs a spiritual
master.  Without the spiritual master's teachings the
transcendental knowledge does not reveal in the heart.  It may be
there but it doesn't fully manifest therefore there was a need
for Narada Muni is give Prahlada instructions.








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