Glorious Vedic culture is being destroyed

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Because these are all incarnations of the Lord and major incarnations of the Lord come according to a schedule.
So, it is said that Lord Krishna, as soon as he left this world, Kali Yuga started. And Kali Yuga started 5000 years ago. So the scripture mentions that the Lord came on this life 5000 years ago.
And Lord Ram came in Gopal Yuga. Kali Yuga, Tridayi Yuga. He came in Tridayi Yuga.
Lord Krishna appeared in Gopal Yuga at its very end. And Lord Ram came in Tridayi Yuga. That was Kali Yuga is 4,32,000 years.
And in the previous age is twice as long, that is 8,64,000 years. So Lord Ram appeared at least 8,69,000 years ago. Now with respect to modern science, if you actually study history in detail, you will find that beyond say 1000 or at the most 1500 years, history becomes highly speculative.
Because there are proper written records of artefacts and other objects to date, which are in an indisputable way available for say 1000, 1500 years. But beyond that, it all becomes highly speculative. For example, they have a carbon dating method, which was used as a standard dating procedure for many years, many decades.
And now the whole process is being challenged. The radioactive decay of carbon takes place at a particular rate. And based on that, they decide.
This much carbon isotope is present, this much carbon is present. And this is how old it must be. But that rate seems to vary.
So it’s all very speculative. As far as the way, if we see the way the dates have been assigned to the various events, it’s highly random. In fact, one scholar, one… He says that the time of the Quran is shrouded in horrifyingly deep darkness.
And we just don’t know. All of them are scholars. And they may know the letters of the scriptures very wisely.
When it comes to dating, it’s called the dating game. But they don’t know. The scriptures give us precise timings.
Okay, I’ll come to that. Both of them. Certainly, they have found what looks like a bridge.
And that is not India, but NASA has found that out. And they call it the Adam’s Bridge. But of course, there is nothing that Adam did in this part of the world.
So, there is this Western superiority complex, which does not allow them to accept that anything can be more ancient or more superior than their own culture. But anyway, that is very clearly correlated with the Ram’s Bridge from India to Lanka. That is one evidence.
Another is, on the banks of the Dwarka, there have been many findings of the Dwarka coast under the water of what represents a very ancient and advanced city. Now, of course, what happens is, when a city is existing, it is not that it exists and it goes away. So, as they are going deeper and deeper into the ocean, and sometimes not only do you have to go into the ocean, there is a big deep ocean well.
So, they are finding artefacts and remains which are progressively more and more old. The currently acceptable range, according to the scholars, is something like 3,000 to 3,500 years. But, it is going backwards.
Unfortunately, India doesn’t like to spend much on these sort of projects. So, an article about the Dwarka findings had come in the Outlook magazine about two years ago. And the professor was saying that he has been studying the subject, Indian professor Chotra Adnaman, and he has been heading the Dwarka expeditions for the last 10 years.
In these 10 years, all the ocean is just close to my study room and my laboratory. I have been able to go for only 8 expeditions in 10 years. Because the government is not providing any funds.
So, there is much that can be discovered if research is done. But, even with whatever little research has been done, there have been findings that it is very ancient. And certainly, the same scholars are saying that Ramayana and Mahabharata are mythologies.
But now, I think that they are histories. So, the archaeological and historical knowledge about India’s ancient past is progressing now. But, since we have not researched enough, we will not arrive at the exact dates as they have mentioned in the scriptures.
What to speak of Dwarka? Even Buddha, who appeared in the 2,500 years ago. That’s what they say. Even his appearance date, that is still shrouded in controversy.
The appearance time. Because not sufficient research has been done. Okay? Is that a question? Yes, sir.
Oh, yes. Okay. In the morning chanting Hare Krishna slideshow, there is a picture with the title, Freedom from the reactions of sin.
All of you remember that picture? Quite ghasti looking. So, what is that actually being punished? Is that the soul? Good question. The soul is situated in the body.
And when the soul goes to hell for getting its correct punishment, then it is given a particular body which is called a punishment body. That is a body which is meant to receive punishment. For example, it is described that a man who wants to drink liquor.
He drinks liquor and he is given a body in which he will be forced to drink molten hot iron. That’s the punishment. But the punishment body is being made in such a way that he experiences the intense pain of the burning sensation.
But he doesn’t die. In our body, if we are fed burning hot iron, we just die within minutes. But he goes through the ordeal of having to drink that burning hot iron, but he doesn’t die.
And it goes on and on and on, as long as his karmic punishment is due. Now, who is it being punished? It is the soul. The soul who is misidentifying with our body.
In one sense, the soul is Sat-Chit-Ananda. The soul is always full of happiness. All of us as souls are also full of happiness.
What causes our distress is our misidentification. Probably most of us have experiences of nightmares. Nightmares means bad dreams.
Now, when we have a bad dream, we are really fearful. Maybe somebody is about to attack us, somebody is beating us. And even after we wake up, we may be sweating, our body may be trembling, our chest may be heaving.
And we really feel very disturbed. Actually speaking, we are comfortably in bed. Surrounded by our family and family members.
Nothing actually happened to us. So now, when we have a nightmare, do we suffer or do we not suffer? It depends on our perspective. For us, our experience of suffering is real.
When do we realise that it is unreal? When we come out of the dream. It is all a dream, let me forget it. But as long as we are in that dream, it appears real.
So similarly, the soul is always Sat-Chit-Ananda. The soul, in that sense, never suffers. But body misidentification is like a dream.
And as long as the soul is within that misidentification, he suffers. In whatever way, the body experiences life. So, the soul, when misidentification suffers.
Just like a person watching a movie. Now, when the hero beats the villain, he says, I saw Bolawala. And when the villain beats the villain, he becomes fearful.
So now, as long as the person is watching the movie, those emotions are real for him. Although nothing is actually happening to him. So, to the extent we become detached from the body, realising our identity is different from the body, to that extent, we will not be disturbed by bodily pains.
Otherwise, we suffer. Vishwapitamaha, in Mahabharata, was shot with so many arrows. There was not even a place to put a single arrow.
So many arrows piercing his body. In fact, he was lying on an arrow bed. And when Yudhishthira came, and Yudhishthira, who was about to run in front of the king, asked him, please tell me Rajadharma.
What are the duties of a king? And Vishwapitamaha spoke elaborately, that if you read all this stuff, it goes into 1000 pages now. So, how was he able to speak that, that there are 1000 arrows piercing his body? Because he knew he was not the body. He was the soul, who had given up his misidentification of the body.
And so, although the body was in immense pain, still, he was able to speak with words of wisdom. So, it depends on the extent of our misidentification of the body, which depends on our attachment to bodily pleasure. And the more a person wants to see a movie, the more he will identify with all the events in the movie.
And sometimes you see a movie in your hostel room, with the lights on, sometimes when you are talking with your friends, who will not be inside us, when the lights are off, and focus on watching the movie, no other distractions. So, like that, the more we are attached to enjoying the body, and the things related to the body, the more we become, the more we identify ourselves with the body. And the more we eventually suffer.
So, in hell, that’s when the soul suffers, because he is misidentifying. And it is the soul who has to suffer. Because that very soul in some other body has done the bad karma.
We have a Raghavanshi here, as far as religion is concerned. It’s a descendant of Lord Ram. Now, in my knowledge, and I will try to verify it from senior devotees, when I get associated with them.
In my knowledge, when Krishna was in Dwarka, and he left Dwarka after that, the whole Dwarka was swallowed by the ocean. And even all the Dwarkavasis were killed in a petrified war. So, we cannot be sure whether there is any specific descendant coming from that lineage, even existing today.
But what one can understand is that you just birth in a particular lineage does not necessarily make a person divine. In fact, the shastras describe that there was one Brahma, who was born of the contact of Hiranyaksha, with Mother Earth. Hiranyaksha rescued the mother.
So, not Hiranyaksha, but Varahadeva. Hiranyaksha disturbed the Earth’s balance. You know about the history.
Hiranyaksha disturbed the Earth’s balance, and then Lord Varahadeva came to rescue the Earth. So, at that time, by the contact of Varahadeva and Bhoomi Devi, a son was born, Bhauma. And later on, this Bhauma, who was a virtuous boy, associated with a demon named Banasura, and he himself became a demoniac.
He later on came to be known as Bhaumasura. And it is described in the Tenth Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, as well as in Krishna book, that Krishna himself killed Bhaumasura. Krishna killed his own son.
So, just appearance in a particular lineage does not assure one of divinity. And in one sense, we are all children of Krishna. So, we are all in a lineage from Krishna only.
Okay? We all have our individual natures, which we can absorb even in material life. And these are the result of our own past karma. So, depending on the kind of karma that we have done, we get a particular kind of face cut, particular body, not only a particular physical feature, but also little characteristics.
What we like, what we dislike, what is our nature as an introvert, extrovert, all these are determined by our past karma. That is our material nature. At the same time, as spirit souls also, we are individuals.
And we have our individual unique nature even spiritually. Although souls, constitutionally we are Satchitananda. But, just like our body, all bodies are made up of earth, water, fire, air, etc.
And mind, intelligence, ego. So, although all bodies are made up of exactly the same elements, still, even the material nature is unique. Similarly, although all bodies may be made of Satchitananda, still, the individual nature spiritually is also unique.
So, at present, it is our material nature that is visible. For materialists, it is only material nature. And as we become more and more spiritually advanced, then our spiritual nature starts manifesting.
So, qualities like good memory, eloquent speaking ability, physical strength, physical beauty, intellectual ability, information processing ability, all these are qualities of the body. And mind, which is also material. These are material qualities.
But qualities like humanity, tolerance, compassion, love, selflessness, all these are spiritual qualities. They are the nature of the soul. And it is these qualities that Krishna is attracted to.
Somebody may be a very good speaker, but it is not that… And you may speak about Krishna also. But it is not that Krishna is attracted to that. If somebody has humility, Krishna is attracted to that.
So, as we advance, we have to start exhibiting more and more spiritual qualities. And they will have come also. That’s why if you see the saintly person, it is said that the decoration of the saintly person are the spiritual qualities.
Sadhva, Sadhu, Bhushan. Although they have nothing to… they are nothing to make the material attractive, but still people are attracted to them. Because for them, for Srila Prabhupada, or for Sri Krishna Swamiji, or other saintly persons, what attracted people to them was their spiritual qualities.
But in our case, we don’t have to worry much about whether our nature is right now material or spiritual. What we will do is, whatever our nature is, try to engage it in Krishna’s service. So, if our nature is introvert, then we can try to become more thoughtful and introspective, and internalise and apply this process of Krishna consciousness.
And extrovert, can use it to preach more and more. You are saying that, when you practise Krishna consciousness, then literally, in practise also, it is the same as the saintly person. The object, the object, the object, all these, they touch.
Not necessarily, because even spiritually, if you read Krishna book, Arjun did Chaitanya Shastra, but the pastor in the law is Chaitanya. Every devotee has his own personality. Now if you see, when Lord Ram was insulted, Hanuman was not calm.
So in India there is this stereotype that a saintly person is very calm and tranquil. He should always be smiling and not be disturbed by anything. That is not necessary.
A saintly person loves God. If somebody blasphemes God, it is not that he will be quiet. Prabhupada will get angry sometimes.
So, when a saintly person gets angry, it is not that anger controls him. That’s what happens to us. When we become angry, anger controls us and we do thoughtless things which we regret later.
But when a saintly person becomes angry, he is using anger in the Lord’s service. That means, he is using anger as a tool or as a weapon to get his point across. That’s why, when Prabhupada sometimes gets angry, you just try the person and you tell him, you are wrong, this, this, this.
In the next moment, okay, what do you want? It was completely cool. The anger was just used and withdrawn. So, as we evolve, we will see that although all devotees have self-control, still they also have their personalities.
For example, even within Iskcon, you will see, there are some devotees who like Krishna. I am talking about pure devotees, Prabhupada’s disciples, sannyasis, gurus. Some of them like to speak about Krishna’s pastimes more.
Others like to speak about Kailash Mahaprabhu’s pastimes more. Others like to speak about Prabhupada’s pastimes more. Some like to speak more on Bhagavatam.
Some like to speak more on Bhagavad Gita. So, now, that is their individual preference. But as you said, all of them have one thing in common.
They all have great love for Krishna. That is one thing in common. But apart from that, they have personal nature.
Spiritual nature is also there. Spiritual world is a different world. In fact, among Krishna’s cowherd boyfriends, there is Madhumangal.
He is a Brahmana. He says, I am a Brahmana, you must listen to me. Spiritual life is also like a family.
And in a family, there are different members. Different natures and personalities. Which makes the family life very agitated and sweet.
And Krishna’s family is also like that. What is your good name? You have come from Bangalore? Is this the first time you are coming here? Do you like this place? Thank you for coming all the way. I thought they are gone.
Tell me. Oh, I forgot to answer. I am sorry about that.
All of us, we are made, in such a way that we are attracted to opulent things in this world. Let’s say now, let’s say it’s Valentine’s Day. So, on Valentine’s Day, will any boy go and give a rose flower to a 70 year old woman? No.
Why? We are attracted to beauty. Isn’t it? Similarly, we are attracted to wealth. We are attracted to knowledge.
The six opulences of Krishna must be aware. Wealth, knowledge, beauty, strength, fame and renunciation. So, we are attracted to these opulences even within our observation in this world.
That’s because our original nature is to be attracted to Krishna. So, just as we do not love anyone and everyone. We love a person whom we feel is worthy of our love.
Isn’t it? That’s why a person is not going to love an old woman. So, we always want a person as our object of love who is worthy of our love. And because God possesses all these six opulences in full, He is a person who is supremely worthy of our love.
And loving Him satisfies our heart completely. And if we don’t love Him and love anyone else, because there is no one who is like Krishna. By definition, God is supreme.
And supreme means there cannot be a substitute for the supreme. Supreme is one greatest. So, the experience of loving Krishna cannot be substituted by loving anyone else.
The joy which comes from that. At the same time, a spiritual life is not that we love Krishna alone and don’t care for anyone else. Actually, when we love Krishna, we see the relationship of Krishna with everyone.
The whole world becomes like our family. Vasudhaiva, Kutumbakam. The whole earth.
In fact, the whole universe. And everybody becomes like our brothers and sisters. And so, we love everyone.
And as an expression of our love, we help them all to come closer to God. Because we understand that when they develop love for God, they will become happy. We understand that we, by developing our love for God, are becoming happy.
Now, when we try to love someone separate from God, then, there are two things that happen. First is that the person whom we love will never be satisfied. No matter how much we do for that person.
The second thing that will happen is that we will never be satisfied. Why is that? Because, even that person is also a soul. And that person is also hungering for Krishna’s love.
And for him, we have become a substitute for Krishna. How can we satisfy him? And for us, we are trying to make him a substitute for Krishna. So, how can he or she satisfy us? That’s why, if we love anyone or anything other than Krishna, the result is dissatisfaction from both parties.
But, if we love Krishna, and then we develop mutual relationships, then those mutual relationships, because they have a spiritual foundation, they can become very satisfying. In fact, the most intense relationship in spiritual circles is the relationship between Guru and Shishya. So, that is Guru and Shishya, the spiritual master and the disciple.
That is based on based on developing a relationship with Krishna. And even the family was such that the husband and the wife would help each other to develop their love for God. In the Bible, it is said that a family where prayers together, stays together.
So, Krishna has the unifying principle for all relationships. Otherwise, we will all have our selfish interests, which will prevent us from developing selfless satisfying relationships. Shriya Prabhupada will give the example of throwing a stone into water.
When you throw a stone into water, then the ripples are formed. And the ripples grow bigger and bigger and go away. And now, all these ripples are like progressively expanding concentric circles.
That is, I throw one stone here, and I throw another stone there. Then these ripples will intersect. So, like that, if I have one object of love, and you have another object of love, then our interests, sooner or later, will collide.
Because I want something for myself, and you want something for yourself. This is like, you know, India-Pakistan. Both want Kashmir.
We have our centre, they have their centre. And they fight. But if there is one centre, God, and everybody agrees that God is the centre, and we all are going to satisfy God, then what happens is that you can have concentric circles which keep expanding.
And there will be no confrontation. Because our interests, our desires are the same. All of us want to satisfy God.
As a family, we satisfy God. As a community, we satisfy God. As a nation, and as a world.
We work towards the satisfaction of God. So, bringing God into the centre of our life is the most important step towards forming satisfying relationships, even in this world. Because then, say, husband and wife are there together.
They both understand that I am a soul, and that we are all, we are all ultimately children of God, and our goal of life is to satisfy God and return back to Him. But even if their natures are different, and they don’t match with each other, the husband wants something, the wife wants something else, then they understand that we have to live together and please God. So, one of them will step down, and another time, someone else will compromise, and they will move on.
But if there is no war in between, then their life, their goal becomes immediate enjoyment. And why should I bend down? You bend down. It becomes a conflict, because there is no centre.
It’s easy. It’s our conditioned nature. Because, now it’s not just a boy and a girl.
He is there in all the species of life. A dog is attracted to a bitch. And it’s natural.
Sometimes people feel that lust is so deeply rooted in our hearts. We call it love, but it’s lust. It’s simple.
Suppose a boy loves a girl, and he says, I will give my life for you. And the girl goes with her face in a fire accident. And he will not give her 5 minutes to go to her.
What happens next from it? So, he is just attracted to her bodily beauty. So, it’s natural, because we are beside anything other than the body. But, the attraction between the sexes, our attraction to the opposite sex, is actually a perverted reflection of our original love for God.
So, we can understand how intense must be our love for God from observing how intense is our attraction to the opposite sex. That’s why one of the great devotees, Rupa Goswami has prayed, युवती नाम ये था युवनाव। युवनाव जे युवती नाम ये था, मनो भी रमतो तत्र, मनो मेरे रमताम त्वईई। He says, just as a boy is attracted to a girl, and a girl is attracted to a boy, let my mind be attracted to you and find satisfaction in you alone. So, it’s not that this is one natural form of attraction, it’s a perversion of that which is natural.
Anything which takes us away from God, that is undesirable. So, Vedic culture, it is not that everybody was forced to renounce and become celibates or enunciates. There is the Gahastashram also.
So, one can be married and one can live together as husband and wife, but then God is the centre. So, this attraction is there at the level of the body, and we have to overcome that attraction and replace that attraction with love of Krishna. And there is a process by which this can be done.
So, as we are implementing the process in our life, the process of devotional service, depending on the intensity of the attraction, we can enter Gahastashram. Gahastashram is not that man and woman come together to expel each other. Man and woman come together knowing that we are meant to serve God together.
And they help each other spiritually. And then they can advance. So, what is wrong is illicit connections with opposite sex.
Illicit intercourse and sexual enjoyment. Outside marriage or before marriage. That is wrong.
Illicit marriage for procreating God conscious children and for helping each other to advance to the path of God, our life to God. That is perfectly accepted in the Vedic scriptures. It is said that a boy and a girl are supposed to love each other.
So, in a boy, in a man’s relationship, that boy loves the girl. Actually, what happens is, especially because of the way our media portrays the boy-girl relationship, we often tend to think that there is something divine about it. There is a divine love.
There are movies and slogans like that. We will be together all our lives. But actually, we are just creatures who have come together by karma.
Who knows, the boy and the girl will do seven lives together and in the next life, the boy will become a rat, the girl will become a cat, and the cat will be the rat. So, we have to recognise, first of all, that actually, there is nothing divine about this boy-girl interaction. It is just physical.
And nothing divine. But, it can be made divine. If both of them are devotees, then, the meaning of being a devotee is that one is following the will of God.
And the will of God, as told in the scriptures, is that there should not be any mixing before marriage. So, among devotees, and, if ever it happens, then, they approach their parents, and they fix it up, and then, properly, they get married. To maintain a relationship without marriage is improper.
One thing is, lust is dangerous. Lust is blind. You may say that I am having a pure relationship.
In India, many times it happens, a boy says, she is my sister. You know that, she is my sister. I accept her as a sister.
And later on, the sister puts the rakhi around the boy. And then, later on, the sister also puts the marriage garland around the boy. So, lust is blind.
You shouldn’t play with lust. If at all this situation is there, then, one should maintain a distance till one gets married. And then, through the proper channels, one can get married.
Actually, it’s very unfortunate to have co-education. Because, if you see, what is the degree that you get when you pass out? What is the B for? It was understood, even in the western education system, that, if a boy wants to get education properly, he has to keep away from the opposite sex. Because, you see, that is one of the most important things that destroys the intelligence.
So, agitation because of planning, how to develop a relationship with the opposite sex, that destroys the intelligence. Now, of course, on the other hand, if the intent is lost, and on the other hand, when a woman gets a bachelor’s degree, she is completely perverted now. But, it’s understood, that if there is to be proper education, there has to be peace of mind.
If there is to be peace of mind, then there has to be separation of the sexes. And this is not artificial. Some people say that it’s artificial.
But actually, what is artificial is the agitation of the mind. We artificially agitate our minds by watching movies and coding and all this. And then we say, how can I control myself? But, if we, we discussed this in one of our presentations in the afternoon, that actually, the sexual drive is there in all living beings.
And none of the lower animals or anyone there, self-controlled species. They all have sexual drives. But then they all perform sex only for procreation.
You know, I say, a dog and a bitch live together, a lion and a she-lion lives together. They may live together, but they unite sexually only for procreation. So, why is it only the human beings are so agitated that they unite? And then they want to abort.
Or they want to take contraceptives. So, this is not natural. The way, our modern culture is characterised by artificial sexual overstimulation.
Constantly we are overstimulated. It’s artificial. So, this co-education is actually, in fact, generally observed, if you see, how do boys start drinking or smoking? It’s generally because of frustrated love affairs.
And there is bad association. And bad association starts it off. But where they take it off is when they become frustrated.
They take shelter over there. So, it ruins life. What is your room partner’s name? So, I said that you should not do this.
It stimulates sexual activity. So, I said, you know, I thought if you do this, sexual activity is the one which harms others. So, it’s a Buddhist.
So, if you cause a social effect, it does not harm anyone. It’s also a part of my education. First of all, even if you define sin as harming others, what happens is that it is exposure to pornography and you have to be responsible for most of the cases.
People become so, they see so many agitating images and then they can’t control themselves. So, it’s not that it will not lead to harm. It will lead to harm.
And it’s harming himself more than anyone else. Because if he sees all these things, what will happen to him in the long run? His mind will become filled with this if he is not able to study properly. So, how it disappears is, it’s controlling.
But how it is is, lust is like a fire. It’s burning in our hearts. And, when we see some lusty scenes, temporarily that fire subsides.
But actually what we are seeing is fuelling our lust. So, if a fire is burning and then I put logs of wood in it, temporarily it appears as if the fire has subsided. But once the logs of wood catch fire, the fire becomes bigger than before.
Similarly, when the mind is agitated, by seeing this sort of thing, it appears the mind has become calm. But it is calm before the storm. After the mind will become even more agitated.
So, the way to extinguish the fire is by stopping all fuel to it. So, by not allowing negative inputs to go in the mind, gradually that anchoring, the agitation of the mind will go away. So, what they say, they say that actually when we enjoy, we feel peaceful, we feel satisfied.
That is basically a relief, a temporary relief to a self-created pain. Like, we agitate our mind, and then we get a temporary relief from that agitation. So, they call that as pleasure.
But then that same agitation comes with greater force later. So, that’s not enjoyment. So, this director, he did not want to… Very good.
Don’t watch. Yeah. No.
He does not want to… do that. He does not want to… He does not want to… He is a writer, so he does not feel that we go on enjoying. And everybody is a… has the same response.
So, they tend to be… they are agitated by this feeling of peacefulness. Today, for a long time, my teacher said, enjoy. Enjoy all day.
Enjoy. Just change your mind. Just peer pressure.
But actually, enjoyment is completely artificial. And what happens is, when we don’t live a life of principles, we… our life becomes empty and bored. Boring.
And then what we call as enjoyment is just a break from the boredom of our life. People, their lives are boring. In America, a survey was done.
I’ll talk about this later, but you can hear it now. They found upper middle class people who have all the facilities for enjoyment, they check the mental states of their lives. They found 5% of the time of their life, people are happy.
5% of the time of their life, they are miserable. And 90% of the time of their life, they are bored. 90%.
Because, for a materialistic person, what are the sources of enjoyment? Food and sex. Isn’t it? That’s what all the movies are also about. So now, if you see 24 hours in a day, how much can one enjoy food and sex? Not much.
So all the time when we are not enjoying, we are bored. Now people work because they have to. If they could get away without work, they would get away without it.
So that’s not actually enjoyment. That’s why people used to feel so bored and empty with their life that they want some rock music. Some very violent form of entertainment to draw them out of the boredom and emptiness of their life.
Actually, one thing is we can’t change the world. We can change ourselves. So, if you become a devotee, just by observing you, you will see that she is doing none of the things which I am doing, which I am thinking are enjoyable and he is still happier than me.
Then he will follow you. So, let your actions preach to him more than your words. Actually, when I came to engineering, I also was surprised to see this pain to his impact.
I met one… Actually, when I was in my third year, I was planning to do astrophysics. So, at that time, I met one doctorate in astrophysics who was working in IUCAA. IUCAA is a very prestigious place for engineering.
It’s called Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics. So, this person, he had done his doctorate from… he had done his master’s from IIT, Mumbai, bachelor’s and master’s. Then he had gone to America and from Stanford, he had done his doctorate and he had come back and now he was doing his double doctorate.
Very learned person. So, I went to meet him to know a little bit more about astrophysics and he was a brilliant person. He was doing research in black holes which was also my interest at that time.
But then I found that, he was telling this is the data which the satellite has found and this is my interpretation of this and he was explaining but while explaining, continuously smoking. So, I couldn’t put the two together. Astrophysics was considered such an exciting field.
It was really so exciting. Why does he need the excitement of smoke? So, then as I met devotees, I started realising that actually, intellectual ability is just a result of past karma. That is not a sign of good character.
Just as somebody may be a very good musician. He can sing very nicely but that does not mean that he has good character. Some movie actors, they can act very nicely but then, they will be smokers and drunkards.
So, these are just the results of past good karma. Especially in our educational system where the toppers are glorified, somehow we think that those who are intellectually very good must also have a very good character. But it does not work like that.
Because intellectual ability is just a result of past karma. Yeah. That is why in Shastras, there is a difference between intellect and intelligence.
Intellect is basically information processing ability. How much I can remember and express, how much I can analyse and group. It is number crunching.
Number crunching and letter crunching. That is intellect. But intelligence is discriminatory ability.
To understand what is good, what is bad. What is of long term benefit, what is of short term benefit. This discriminatory ability is very much lacking in our educational system.
That is why WHO issued a statement to all the doctors of the world. Circular sign is doctors, quit smoking. So now doctors certainly have a lot of intellect otherwise they cannot become doctors.
But then they are pathetically lacking in intelligence. So it is only when we practise spirituality that our intelligence develops. And then character and morality are possible.
Two reasons. First is that there may not be pure brahmanas right now. Unfortunately many of the brahmanas or the pujaris, the pandits, they also don’t have much ritual knowledge and they may not have much devotion also.
I am not talking about all, many temples in India. So they basically treat it as a means of livelihood. Maintain the temple.
So they are just interested in charity by which they can live. That is one reason. And second more important reason is that governmental apathy.
Because temples are also big administrators. In Vedic culture, the brahmanas would be given charity by the kshatriyas. And when they are given charity then the brahmanas don’t identify well.
The brahmanas live in small huts. But whatever charity is given, they use it to create facilities for the service of God. In South India, there are so many huge temples.
Ranganath, Tirupati Balaji, how are these huge temples possible? Because the kings funded the construction and the maintenance of these temples. So now, the Indian government doesn’t do this today. In fact, here especially in Karnataka, Andhra and Tamil Nadu, Kerala is almost not taken over by Kshatriyas.
But at least in these three states, what happens is, even the charity that is given, many of the temples have been taken over by the government. And the charity that is given, is taken by the government. They say, we will give a quota for the maintenance of the temple.
And the pujaris who are working there, they are given, like the pujaris in Ranganath temple, we had gone to Ranganath, so, they are telling us, hey pujaris, those who are like very elevated priests, they are given a monthly salary of something like 150 rupees. What are they going to do with that? So then, their priests, along with that, they have to go and work in a company. They can’t do their priestly duties properly.
Now, Srila Prabhupada created an ISKCON, that’s why, we can sit and talk like this. Everybody has to have some facility for earning a livelihood. So, Srila Prabhupada created ISKCON, where there are devotees who are householders, who provide funds, and by which the preachers can go out and preach.
The brahmanas should not be engaged in earning money, because they have a higher service to perform. Their service is gyanadana. They have to study scriptures and they have to teach scriptures.
And that’s why their energy and time should not be taken away in just maintaining the body, in earning a livelihood. And that was the Vedic system. But unfortunately to those brahmanas, we are talking about those who are honest and sincere, if they don’t have any funds, what can they do? They have to go for jobs.
And how much can they do as a service to God? They can’t preach. They are not able to study also. And if you see, relatively speaking, the government, it creates so many facilities for so many middle gopals.
But if you go to Badrik Ashram, millions of people go over there, but still the roads there are so dangerous. Why can’t the government construct proper roads over there? In their country, where there are economic routes, there the government constructs so many routes, even through mountains. They spend so much.
Why can’t they do that? Because in India, unfortunately, the government is biassed against religion. The government is somehow biassed against religion. In fact, we are not Hindus.
We are spiritualists. A Hindu, Muslim, Muslim, they are all just bodily recognitions. A person was born in a Hindu family today.
He was born in a Hindu family. He was born in a Hindu family today. He was born in a Hindu family today.
Hindu family today. He was born in a Hindu family today. He was born in a Hindu family today.
He was today. he was born in a Hindu family ok Jani went on my team good, Krishna is a real man he went there and you recovered there it was so difficult for you hmm oh hello hello somehow or the other so far you have been whatever is required good that you were able to and your brother will also be happy that you came I am going now maybe you can avoid going in a future time later ok good excellent I had a plan thank you very much for calling me please take care Hare Krishna you are in the drama team he is also coming with you ok hello father father I am sorry there was one father from here who came and left I thought you had left you were asking so many excellent questions I was in disappointment I thought you had left very nice so certainly we can talk so we will answer this question so the lack of cleanliness is because of governmental apathy because cleanliness is not an easy thing to maintain it requires constant effort and for that we need manpower and manpower means money so where will the money come from in Delhi in India if you see Hindus they talk big big things but they don’t give much charity also Tirumatiwala ji he will give charity or they think god will give me a return but they give one rupee two rupees Christians and Muslims give a lot of charity now the thing we are not Hindus we are souls and just like Maharashtrian or Karnataki or Bengal these are bodily definitions similarly Hindu, Muslim, Christian are bodily definitions but among all the religions which are there in the world today the Hindus are closest to what is our eternal nature to love and serve god so Hinduism is like the best substratum for preaching pure Krishna Consciousness although Sri Prabhupada preached to Christians Muslims also are taking up Krishna Consciousness but it is like the best medium where people can very easily take it up so unfortunately in India there is a reverse discrimination government provides no funds for the growth of the temples in fact the charity that comes to the temple that is supposed to go to the government and the government reallocates again and we know what happens government is bureaucracy and corruption and conversely if you see for the Muslim Hajj pilgrimage the government every year allocates something like 15 crore subsidy to take the Muslim pilgrims to their pilgrimage India what is that 15 crore is not provided even to build roads properly for the places so that is one of the main reasons why there is lack of cleanliness and lack of facilities at the holy places see this was in Vedic culture social order is maintained by the Brahmans and the Kshatriyas so the social order is maintained by two things Shastra and Shastra Shastra means weapons and Shastra means scriptures so the Brahmana’s duty is to teach the scriptures and teach people by living a moral and spiritual life that is what will make you happy if you don’t live like this you will suffer that is teach through good instruction and Shastra means through law through punishments to the judicial system that is the duty of the Kshatriyas so in ISKCON what we are primarily doing is using Shastra creating Brahmanas who will teach others who themselves live a life of principles and will teach others spiritual knowledge which also inspires others to live a life of principles so this is the main contribution of ISKCON right now but in the long run if the world is to be changed along with the Brahmana there has to be a Kshatriya like with Chanakya there was Chandragupta Buddha was unknown till I think, what was the name of the disciple Vishala someone who met Ashoka and transformed Ashoka then Buddhism spread all over the world so when the Kshatriya and Brahmana combination come together and both are principles then they can change the world so that’s why we can certainly do the needful to remove corruption but first we should acquire the position we should not take the law in our hands because ultimately you understand what is it that makes people corrupt it is greed greed for money so what the Brahmana does is he gives spiritual knowledge and spiritual processes by which the greed is removed from the heart of the people and then they give up their corruption but there are some people who are not ready to give up the greed for them Shastra is required you are understanding so we should also learn to separate as Bipayaji just said hate the sin not the sinner so we should learn to see the separation difference and as far as possible we have to try to transform people’s heart destroy their sinful mentality within their heart rather than destroying their body itself now with respect to incorrigible that means people who cannot be corrected then the law has to be used but generally taking the law in our hands does not lead to much fruitful results because there is a movie there is a corrupt politician and the hero goes and beats him up and kills him that’s great that’s what we think but then how many people can be killed like that first there has to be a Brahmanical culture which shows the benefits and the glory of living the life of principles see just by the stick people cannot be controlled stick is essential for controlling the people but only a stick is not enough along with that people have to be given a positive alternative see our modern society they want to be moral without being spiritual they say let us be gurus don’t cheat, don’t rob, don’t be corrupt but there is no need to bring God in the picture but morality without spirituality is impossible because why are people immoral because they feel by being immoral I will be happy morality is like the traffic rules so the traffic rules help us to travel smoothly on the roads but spirituality tells us what is the goal of travelling on the traffic rules if I am following the traffic rules but I feel that I am following the traffic rules you know I am going very slowly and that I will go to my destination faster if I break the traffic rules then I will not be inspired to follow the traffic rules isn’t it so what happens what are the goals of people’s life today the goal of people’s life is basically wealth wealth, sex, power prestige and if you want all these then morality is an obstacle rather than a facility so people feel that the goal of my life is to enjoy and morality is an obstacle to enjoyment and why should I be immoral so morality is an obstacle that’s how people feel it’s only when we become spiritual that we find inner happiness and then we realise that living morally will help me spiritually also it will help me to find more and more inner happiness by developing my love for God and then that spirituality becomes the foundation for morality when I understand that I am driving the traffic rules this is my destination and I will get there safer and faster by following the traffic rules then I will follow it for example today the parents may tell the children don’t mix with girls, some parents may tell why? the parents can’t give any reason it’s our family tradition the parents tell the girls don’t wear fashionable dresses why? parents teach the children that the goal of life is material to become wealthy, to become famous to go to America but don’t become western how is that possible? so as long as people are taught material goals in life they cannot be moral