Share the spiritual treasure with the world – SHARE acronym

[Sunday feast class at ISKCON, Chicago]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. I’m grateful to be here amongst all of you today.
And, I’ll speak on the topic of the spiritual treasure of sharing and savouring the spiritual treasure with each other and with the world. In many, the Bhagavad Gita, the last verse that is spoken by Krishna is 18.72. kacchida tachchutaṁ pārtha tvayekāgreṇa cetasa kacchida jñānasam moha pranaśtaste dhananjaya So, Krishna asks Arjuna, Hey Arjuna, Have you heard attentively? Has your doubt been dispelled? And, the last word that Krishna speaks in the Bhagavad Gita is dhananjaya. dhananjaya, jaya is wealth, dhana is, sorry, jaya is victory, dhana is wealth.
dhananjaya is one who is the winner of wealth. Throughout the Gita, Krishna refers to Arjuna by different names and Arjuna also refers to Krishna by different names. And, each of these addresses have specific significances.
In the context of the conversation. So, the last word and the last address that Krishna uses for Arjuna is dhananjaya, O winner of wealth! That is very significant. Why? At one level, the war is being fought, the Kurukshetra war is about to be fought, and that war is fought for wealth, for property.
For a kingdom. But, if we look at the Bhagavad Gita itself, after the first chapter, which sets the battlefield setting, there are very very few references to the war throughout the Gita. Except in the eleventh chapter where Krishna reveals the Ishwaroopa, apart from that, in the remaining 600 verses of the Gita, there are 55 verses in the eleventh chapter, 46 verses in the first chapter.
So, you have 599 verses remaining. In those verses, the number of references to the war is not more than 10. So, that means, the Bhagavad Gita is not talking about primarily about winning the property or fighting the war.
The war field is a setting which starts but the discussion rises to a much higher level. That higher level is winning the wealth of wisdom and the wealth of devotion. So, when Krishna is asking Arjuna, O Dhananjaya, has your illusion been dispelled? Have you heard attentively? O winner of wealth, that means, the implication there is, O Arjuna, have you won the wealth of wisdom? Have you won the wealth of devotion? This is the wealth that Krishna is offering to Arjuna even before the war which was supposedly meant to win the wealth of the kingdom.
And it is this wealth of wisdom and devotion that has attracted millions of people for millennia towards the Bhagavad Gita. Even people who had no interest in fighting, the great saintly commentators on the Bhagavad Gita didn’t fight any wars, nor did they encourage anyone to fight any wars against invaders. Their interest in the Bhagavad Gita was relishing the wealth of wisdom and devotion that the Gita offers.
And what is this wealth of wisdom and devotion? Actually, we live today in what is called as a knowledge economy or an information economy. The most people who earn money, they earn it primarily with the knowledge that they have. The knowledge be it of fixing a plumbing in someone’s house or it be of fixing a computer that is not working.
It is knowledge that enables us to earn wealth. So, knowledge itself is wealth. But there is knowledge that can help us to do specific things in life.
Oh, I want to buy a new car. I want to buy a new house. But there is another category of knowledge that helps us to do not things in life but not to do something enjoyable with life but to… not to do things in life but to do things with life.
Okay, I want to do this in my life, I want to do that in my life, that’s fine. But what do we want to do ultimately with our life? What is life meant for? That knowledge is the most important knowledge. That is the knowledge of the soul’s eternality and the soul’s connection with the Supreme Soul.
That is the knowledge that can take us to the eternal level of existence. All of us have an innate longing to live forever and to love forever. Universally, wherever people go, they have this conception.
Wherever people are, I don’t want to die. Even when people go on a war field where there is a possibility they may die, they have the hope, the dream that I will live on as a martyr. There will be a memorial for me if I die.
So even if my physical self will not live, my symbolic self will live. So even when people are about to die or they take up a path which will lead them to death, that is also with the hope of living on in memory, living on through achievements, living on through legacy. So we all want to live on forever.
And this longing the Bhagavad Gita states comes from our soul. And this longing can be fulfilled at the spiritual level when we connect with the supreme spiritual reality, Krishna. And the Bhagavad Gita is a philosophical discussion.
But it is not just a philosophical discussion. It is philosophical discussion that takes us towards a devotional conclusion. So it’s wisdom that leads to devotion.
We want knowledge. What do we want it for? We want people to study in colleges, universities, to gain knowledge so that they can earn money. That’s the primary purpose.
But why do we want to earn money? Ultimately, we want to love and be loved. We hope that if I have a good degree, if I have a good job, then someone worthy will be attracted to love me. And that’s the loving reciprocation that we long for.
The supremely worthy object for love is the all-attractive supreme person, Krishna. He’s eternal, he’s eternally attractive and he’s eternally loving. So the Bhagavad Gita’s wisdom culminates in devotion that this knowledge of our soul’s eternality is meant to provide an eternal direction for our loving propensity.
And that’s why, in the next verse, when Krishna asks Arjuna, O Dhananjaya, have you heard attentively? Are your doubts dispelled? Arjuna replies in 18.73, नच्च्टो मोहस्मतिल्लब्धा तत्प्रसादान्मयाचुत सितोस्मिगतसद्धेह करिषेवचनम्तव He says, yes, my illusions are dispelled by your mercy. And I will do your will. So this is Arjuna’s understanding of what he is going to do.
Arjuna doesn’t say, I will fight the war. He will, of course, fight the war. But that is not his primary understanding of what he is doing.
He is surrendering in love to Krishna. And in this situation, loving surrender requires him to fight a war. He will do that.
But the Bhagavad Gita concludes in a call for love and an answer to the call for love. And that is the essence of the bhakti tradition that has grown around the Bhagavad Gita and other bhakti texts like the Bhagavatam and the Ramayana. And this same expression of love between humanity and divinity that was especially spread by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu 500 years ago.
And he offered integrated bhakti in which some people thought spirituality means being silent, withdrawing into one’s heart, into seclusion and meditating on higher reality. That is one way to experience spirituality. But he, among the many things that he taught, a prominent thing he taught was Harinam Sankirtan.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught that dance, which is an exuberant physical activity, and meditation, which is an introspective silent activity, both of them can be united. When we chant and dance and share Krishna’s love through the process of Harinam Sankirtan, we are living the conclusion of the Bhagavad Gita. And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu not only did this in seclusion or in privacy in a temple, but he did this publicly to share this with everyone, to attract everyone to this process of experiencing divine love.
The treasure that the heart longs for, the dhana, the wealth of dhananjaya is the wealth ultimately of love, of eternal love for Krishna, of prema. And this is the treasure that can enrich our lives and it can enable us to enrich the lives of many others. So I’ll talk about sharing the spiritual treasure using an acronym, SHARE.
So SHARE is S-H-A-R-E. I’ll speak five points about the spirit and the benefits of sharing Krishna Bhakti with others. So first S is Sadhana.
That actually when we share about Krishna with others, when we do Krishna Kirtan, whether it is by going in the streets and chanting the holy names or speaking about Krishna by giving a formal class or it is by talking informally with someone else about Krishna or distributing books about Krishna, through all this Srila Prabhupada explained that we are actually doing our sadhana. Normally we think of sadhana, sadhana is the process by which we connect with the sadhya. In everything in our life there is a, if we are going to drive, say from here you will drive back to your home or you will go back to your home.
So the sadhya is your home and the sadhana may be your car, may be you take a bus, may be you come from some other city, you may take a plane, whatever it is. So there is a process and there is a destination. So our destination is Krishna Prema and sadhana is the process by which we get to the destination.
So just as we may do puja of the deities, we may do japa, we may do shastra adhyana, swadhyaya, we may come in satsang, all this is a part of our sadhana. All this takes us, propels us towards Krishna and similarly when we share Krishna bhakti with others, that also takes us towards Krishna. It is not that we have to become first spiritually realised and then we share Krishna bhakti with others.
Sometimes when some devotees may tell us, invite your friends to the temple, you speak about Krishna to others. Say no, no, I don’t know enough, I am not qualified enough. Actually in bhakti we are never qualified.
We are always unqualified but we are never disqualified. We are always unqualified, we all have conditionings, we all have impurities but Krishna is so merciful that we are never disqualified. We always have the opportunity to connect with Krishna and one way we connect with Krishna is by connecting others with Krishna.
So by speaking about Krishna and seeing speaking about Krishna as a sadhana that we do, as a disciplinary practise for going towards Krishna, we can get over whatever inhibitions we may have about sharing Krishna bhakti. How can I do this? I am not pure enough. Prahlad Maharaj says, Therefore, O Lord, I give up all hesitation.
Why? He says, Whoever glorifies you, O Lord, they become purified. So if we see that sharing Krishna bhakti, by whatever means we may do it, it’s a part of our sadhana. It’s not that we have to become siddha to do it.
So it is a process of education in which we educate while being educated. Normally in schools, colleges, if you go, the student first completes the schooling, completes the college, gets the education degree and then can become a teacher. But in some form the schooling say there’s a group schooling, the students who are in senior, they teach the younger students.
In colleges especially, there are students who may be doing PhD and they may also be teaching assistants who teach say college students. So like that, when we are sharing, we are teaching assistants who are assisting Srila Prabhupada and the great acharyas in sharing Krishna’s message with others. So if we see this as a sadhana, then we may have some hesitation.
How can I speak about Krishna? How can I sing about Krishna? How can I share? No, this is what will take us closer to Krishna. It’s not that we have to be very highly realised. So that is S, sadhana.
The H is humility. Actually, it is by the process of sharing Krishna bhakti with others that we develop humility. Why? Because when we are going to share something with someone, at that time we are approaching someone and that person can sometimes completely reject us.
And to take rejection is not easy. To take rejection, it can often be painful. It can often be humbling.
So a cardinal virtue on the path of bhakti is humility. And especially if we are going out of our way to share Krishna bhakti with others, then that often means that people are free to accept it or not accept it. Generally when people come to a temple, that time they are already receptive to Krishna bhakti.
That’s why they have come here. If people are coming here and participating in kirtan, hearing katha, speaking in a secure spiritual environment doesn’t require much humility. In fact, there, often speaking can lead to pride.
Because we speak something and people appreciate, oh, you spoke so well. We can easily become proud. But when we go out on the streets, into where people are, and we try to share Krishna bhakti over there, that brings humility.
And what is that humility? There is a difference between humility and humiliation. Humiliation and humility, what is the difference? Humiliation is our false ego frustrated. Humility is false ego rejected.
Humiliation is false ego frustrated. I want to be great, but nobody is recognising my greatness. In fact, people are criticising me, minimising me, trivialising me.
It’s just painful for me. So, humiliation is false ego frustrated. We want to be great, but we are put down, we are pushed down.
Whereas, humility means that we understand, actually, it is not I who am great. It is not I who am the doer. It is Krishna who is the doer through me.
So, false ego rejected means, we see that it is not I who am doing, it is Krishna who is doing through me. Krishna tells Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, in 11.33, when he has to fight a big war, he says, Just become an instrument. When Srila Prabhupada came to America from India, at the age of 69, alone, with no contacts, practically no money, no institutional support, at that time, he prayed, he wrote a beautiful song called the Markine Bhagavad Dharma, which is his reflections, his direct speaking to Krishna about how he is going to go about this extraordinarily ambitious project of sharing Krishna Bhakti.
And therein he says, O Krishna, please make my words understandable to them. He says, I have no capacity to help people, to make people understand. But, you are present in their hearts.
It is by your will that people can go into illusion, by your will people can come out of illusion. My dear Lord, you have the capacity to ornament my words. And that ornamentation is the potency to understand, to transform.
So when we start sharing Krishna Bhakti, at one level, when we go and meet people and people neglect us, people reject us, people mock us, then that can be, if we are only looking at that person and how that person is behaving, we may feel humiliated, we may feel rejected, we may feel frustrated. But actually if we see that it is not just I and this person, it is rather Krishna is there in this person’s heart and Krishna is present in my heart. And if I have a prayerful attitude, then Krishna from within my heart and Krishna from within their heart, from the same person, that Krishna from within my heart will make me speak, sing, act in a way that will open this person’s heart.
And the sound of the holy name, the message of Krishna’s wisdom, the message of Krishna’s love that will enter into their heart. So humility doesn’t mean just becoming humiliated. That kind of understanding will make humility seem very unappealing.
Humility means that we have a purpose bigger than our ego. We all have an ego and we can’t just wish away the ego, it is there. But humility means to have a purpose bigger than our ego.
Nobody likes to be rejected, nobody likes to be neglected, nobody likes to be scorned. But my purpose is to serve Krishna. And for serving Krishna, if this is what I have to face, I am ready to do this.
So humility means to have a purpose bigger than our ego. And that’s why the first point I said is, it’s our sadhana. It’s the way we connect with Krishna.
So when we go out and share Krishna’s message with others, that time we are expressing our intention to connect with Krishna by our willingness to experience rejection, derision, negligence from others. And although our ego will not like it, but our purpose is bigger than our ego. And that will please Krishna immensely.
So sharing Krishna bhakti, especially in non-spiritual environments, going out to where people are, that is a powerful way of expressing our humility, of placing our purpose above our ego. And not only expressing our humility, but also developing our humility. Then A is, we are looking at the acronym SHARE, A is appreciation.
Appreciation means that when we share what we have, we gain deeper appreciation for the gifts that we have. One of my friends is a works in the pharmaceutical industry. And he told me an anecdote from their company.
It’s not their company, it’s in pharmaceutical history, it’s a well-known anecdote. There was a company that was manufacturing medicines, a life-saving medicine for what could otherwise be a fatal disease. And somehow, the employees started becoming negligent.
Everyday they had to mix this chemical, put this powder together, grind this, mix this. And while they were doing it everyday, day in day out, month after month, year after year, they started becoming negligent. And the employers told them, you cannot be negligent, this is very important work.
And they tried to chastise them, correct them, correct them, discipline them, but not much effect. And then finally, a consultant told them that you change, you swap roles temporarily. And let, so at that time there was an epidemic in a particular area, and this medicine was the cure for that epidemic.
He told them, and the company was distributing free medicines to people because of that particular epidemic. So he said that you, those people who are involved in the manufacturing unit, get them out. And let them go to the epidemic prone area.
And let them give the medicines to the people. Now when they went to the field, and when they saw people being terribly sick, and people taking the medicine, and being cured, that had a profound impact on them. All that was theoretical for them, it became practical, it became realised.
This is really a life-saving medicine. A person who is about to die, if they get this medicine, in time, they will live on. And how important it is for us to make sure that this medicine is manufactured properly.
That everything is in the proper combination. So after they came back from the field trip, that was when their appreciation for what they were doing shot up. The same principle applies for us.
Krishna Bhakti is Bhava Aushadhi. It is the medicine for material existence. Bhava Aushadha Chotra Mano Bhiramaat.
So in the 10th Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, it is said that the glorification of Krishna is the medicine for material existence. By glorifying Krishna, our worldly attachments get minimised. And our devotional attraction towards Krishna increases.
And that is the cure for whatever ails us in this world. But when we are in our own small cocoon, in our own small world, glorifying Krishna, we may be glorifying Krishna, but it often becomes mechanical. It often becomes, everyday I do it, it becomes ritualistic.
Everyday I keep doing it and I chant some mantras, I do some puja, I do some kirtan, I hear some Katha, and I speak something. It just goes on and on. And sometimes it becomes mechanical.
But, when we try to go and share Krishna Bhakti with people who are in need, and when people get this knowledge, and on getting this knowledge, their life gets transformed. There is a devotee in Russia, one of the leaders in Russia, recently told me this incident, that one day, he was in the temple and suddenly got a phone call. And somebody was yelling at him.
As soon as he picked up the phone, he started yelling. This person was so emotionally charged, as to be incoherent. Sometimes when we are too upset with something, we can’t think, our thoughts don’t come out clearly.
Just wondering what happened. Maybe sometimes some devotees, and he was talking about book distribution, distributing books. So, what is happening? So, please calm down, what exactly is happening? He thought, maybe sometimes some book distributors, the devotees when they distribute books, they sometimes become too aggressive.
And they force somebody to take a book. Or sometimes, some devotees may tell something about a book, which is not actually true. And then people who get the book, they get upset.
So he thought, maybe this person will become upset like that. And, that’s why he is yelling like this. And finally he calmed down, and then that person started speaking.
And he said, you know, I got a book from you, from one of your persons two days ago. And I read this book. And, now I understood what is the meaning of life, what is the purpose of my life.
That is a good thing, isn’t it? Why is this person upset? So he said, you people, you have this knowledge. You know, I wasted 37 years of my life without this knowledge. Why didn’t you give this knowledge to me earlier? So, he was upset, not because somebody had thrust a book on him, but because, this knowledge had not come to him earlier.
So actually, the knowledge about the purpose of life, is the most precious knowledge. And sometimes people don’t value it, because, they are too caught in their small small purposes in life. Oh, I want to get this job.
I want to develop this relationship. I want to buy this house. They are so caught in their small small purposes, that they don’t think about the big purpose.
But there are times when people’s small purposes, they are either frustrated, or they fulfil those purposes, and still they are frustrated. And they are looking for something bigger in life. If at that time, it’s not provided to them, then again, they will settle for some small purpose.
They will set up some goal, and keep pursuing that. There are people, everybody actually needs spiritual knowledge. And there are people, during the course of their lives, they feel the need for spirituality.
It is for some period. Everybody is covered by the curtain of illusion, by Maya. But in everybody’s life, sometimes, this curtain opens.
And that curtain opens, because of certain situations, they go through in life, because of certain realisations they may have. And when the curtain is open, if they get Bhakti, if they get spiritual knowledge, then, a new chapter in their life will begin. And even if, the curtain is still closed, if somehow, we can create, some positive spiritual impression, in people’s lives, in people’s hearts, when we interact with them, when people see us, speaking about Krishna, singing about Krishna, hey, these are nice people.
If we interact with them, and we give them a positive impression of Krishna Bhakti, then, later on, when that curtain opens, they will know where to go. So by seeing, people’s lives transformed, by seeing people’s lives transformed, actually, our appreciation, for what we are doing increases. When I was just about, 5-6 years old, in Krishna Bhakti, I was in India, in Pune, and, I used to, try to connect, some of the, teenagers who would come to the temple.
So one day, one boy came to me, and, he was a friend of another devotee. And this boy, I started talking with him, and he said that, I’m actually very sick. And, he got me to touch his hand, and when I touched his hand, I felt almost like an electrical pulse.
He said, my body, my heart can’t, my heart doesn’t beat properly, my lung doesn’t move properly, so I’ve got a lot of, things implanted in my body. And, that’s how I’m living. And I told him, that whatever it is, that our body goes through, ultimately we are souls.
And, you can chant, chant Hare Krishna, and this will raise your consciousness, above the body. The body will experience pain, but if you chant, you will experience something, higher than what the body is experiencing. And that will give you some relief.
So he came twice or thrice to the temple, and each time when I came, I would encourage him to chant, he took a bead, and he chanted. And after that he stopped coming. And then I forgot about him, more or less.
I was travelling also. And six months later, I had given a Sunday programme in Pune, and after that, one woman came and she said, I want to talk with you. And she said, do you remember that boy? I said, yes of course, how is he? She said, I’m his mother.
And he says, he just passed away about a month ago. So, I said, oh, I knew he was sick, I didn’t know he was so serious. I said, I’m sorry.
She said, no, he, in his last days, he was in great pain, but he was constantly chanting. And by that chanting, he got great relief. She said, even his doctors were amazed how he was so calm.
She said, normally people in that situation take a lot of painkillers. He did not take much painkillers, and he was very, very calm. And he said, he was remembering you, he said he wanted to meet you before.
I said, you could have called me, you could have told me. He said, you are not in station. So I said, at least you could have called me on phone.
He said, no, we thought you were too busy to come. I said, I would have definitely come. But, even without my knowing, I just met him a few minutes, maybe a little more than a few minutes, on a few occasions.
But, I just gave him a connection with Krishna. And he was in a situation where he took that connection and he got immense solace, immense strength through that. And, actually when we try to share Krishna Bhakti with others, that time, maybe we try to share with 100 people, and 99 people are not interested.
But if one person was interested, one person was benefited, one person, the quality of whose life improves, that increases our appreciation for what we are doing. That helps us to recognise that we really have a treasure. Once we start practising Krishna Bhakti, it often seems to make a daily struggle.
Oh, I have to do my sadhana, I have to do my japa, I have to do this, I have to do that. And, how much of a difference it can make, it has made in our life, it can make in others’ life, that we can forget. So, by sharing Krishna Bhakti with others, our appreciation for Krishna Bhakti increases.
R is responsibility. Devotion is actually not just a matter of singing about Krishna or worshipping Krishna or just forgetting the world in doing these things. Devotion is actually a relationship with Krishna.
It’s a relationship with Krishna. And in every relationship, there is a responsibility. Mother Yashoda, when she is taking care of Krishna, she is in anxiety.
If I don’t feed Krishna properly, Krishna may become weak. Krishna may even die. When Balram and other Gopas come and tell Mother Yashoda, Krishna has eaten mud.
Mother Yashoda is wild with him. Mud? Why did you eat that? If you are hungry, I would have given you food. Let me open your mouth.
Show me what have you eaten. So, she takes responsibility for taking care of Krishna. Krishna doesn’t need to be taken care of.
But by taking that responsibility, she becomes more absorbed in Krishna. And similarly, for us, in our relationship with Krishna, if we take up responsibility for Krishna, then our relationship will become much more closer, much more intense, much sweeter. It is it is responsibility that brings reality to relationships.
If there is no responsibility, then the relationship is largely ethereal. It is largely hallucinatory. Yes, I think I have a relationship with someone.
But it’s only when we care for that person, we take responsibility, that relationship becomes real. And what does it mean to take responsibility for our relationship with Krishna? Sri Prabhupada explains in one lecture, what does it mean to be Krishna conscious? He says, now, there could be different understandings, always chant Hare Krishna, always remember Krishna’s pastimes in Vrindavan, always think of the deities. So, all this is Krishna consciousness.
But Prabhupada was eminently pragmatic, very wisely practical. And he said that if you come to a temple and when you look at the deities and you feel that the deities are asking you, what are you doing for me? If you feel that Krishna is asking you, what are you doing for me? Then you are Krishna conscious. Most people come to the temple and ask Krishna, what are you doing for me? I have this problem, you have not solved it till now.
I asked for this, you have not given it till now. It’s okay, whatever way we approach Krishna, that is good. But, it is, our relationship will evolve when the dynamic changes from demanding to doing.
Like a small child, a child, whenever a child goes to mother, mummy I want this, mummy I want that, mummy I want that. It’s natural, the mother will provide. But, that’s fine for a child who is 1 year, 2 year, 3 year old.
But, the child is now 25, 30 years old. Then at that time, the child has grown up into adult. At that time, the child should not ask the mother, mummy give me this, mummy give me that.
The child should go to the mother, what can I do for you? Relationship has to evolve. So similarly, our relationship towards Krishna evolves when we take up responsibility for Krishna. What are you doing for me? And what does it mean? What are you doing for me? What does Krishna want? Krishna wants, that everybody who is lost, come back to him.
Everybody who is in forgetfulness of him, get remembrance of him. Everybody who is living, in distress. They seem to be in happiness right now, but they are headed towards distress soon.
Because that is the nature of the material world. Those who are living either in distress, or living to go towards distress. That they all come towards the supreme happiness.
Krishna descends to this world, to attract souls to him. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu descends, in the mood of a devotee of Krishna, to attract people towards Krishna. Srila Prabhupada, the great devotee, travelled across the world, to attract people to Krishna.
So responsibility means, that we take up responsibility, for fulfilling Krishna’s mission. Doing our own small part in Krishna’s mission. When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu predicted that, तुत्विते याचेत नगराति ग्राम सर्वत्र पचार होईबे मोरणाम। In every town and village, the names of Krishna when they chanted, Prabhupada did not think, oh this is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s prophecy, he will fulfil it.
Prabhupada took, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s prophecy, as his responsibility. And he, took up that responsibility, and when he took up that responsibility, the Lord empowered him. So when we take up responsibility, then there is a much greater intimacy, in the relationship.
So taking up responsibility means, that we want to do Krishna’s will. What does Krishna want? Krishna wants more and more people to know about him. So that, he can come closer and closer to him.
Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, two verses before, three verses before the words I quoted. He says, नचतस्मान्मनुशेषु कष्चिन्मेप्रियकुत्तमा भवितालजितस्मान् अन्यः प्रियतरोभवी He says, there is no one more dear to me, than one who tries to share my message with others. Sharing can be by many different means.
It can be by speaking, as I said formally, speaking informally, singing about Krishna publicly. In all these ways, we can connect others with Krishna, attract people towards Krishna. So taking responsibility means, that in Krishna Bhakti, we don’t remain the guests, but we become the hosts.
That means, when we come to temple first time, we are like guests, and some devotees may ask us, how are you doing, where are you coming from? And they greet us, they give us some prasad, they explain to us Krishna Bhakti. So at that time, we are the guests. But if we get our friends to the temple, then for those friends, we become the host.
Because we tell them, this is this temple, these are the details, this is what this is all about. And one very easy and reliable way, of understanding how serious one is, about one’s relationship with Krishna is, how long one stays in the role of a guest, or how soon one becomes a host. Guest means, when we come to the temple, we expect others to take care of us.
But host means, we try to take care of others. And just as there can be guests and hosts, with respect to the physical premises of the temple, there can be guests and hosts, with respect to the whole process of Krishna Bhakti. When we come, and we learn about Krishna Bhakti from others, that is good.
But when we share Krishna Bhakti with others, that means we are becoming hosts for them. And we are inviting them. And this can take our relationship with Krishna, to a much higher level.
There is practically nothing we can do, to please Krishna, as much as we can, by sharing his message with others. And last, E is ecstasy. Ecstasy means, that great sublime joy.
The process of Krishna Bhakti, can actually bring, supreme joy in our life. Sanjay, who hears the Bhagavad Gita, tells at the end, Vishmayo me mahan rajan, Rishyami cha punha punha. In 18.66, 18.76 and 77 in the Bhagavad Gita, he uses the word Rishyami, twice, in each verse.
Rishyami, I am thrilled. Rishyami cha punha punha. Rishyami cha muhur muhur.
So that thrill, comes when we become permeated, with remembrance of Krishna. So Sanjay, acted, not just as a recipient of the Gita. He acted as a sharer of the Gita.
He shared it with, Dhritarashtra. And it’s significant, if you see the Bhagavad Gita, is a two level conversation. There is one conversation, between Krishna and Arjuna.
And another conversation in between, Sanjay and Dhritarashtra. In an external sense, the conversation between, Krishna and Arjuna was successful. That means, Arjuna was confused about what to do.
And Arjuna chose to fight. That means, Krishna was successful. At another level, the conversation between Sanjay and Dhritarashtra, was not successful.
Dhritarashtra was attached, and he stayed attached. Although he heard so much about Krishna’s glories, Dhritarashtra did not have any change of heart. So was that in vain? Sanjay is speaking.
No. Although, Dhritarashtra was not transformed, Sanjay was transformed. Sanjay became enriched with ecstasy.
So if we, share Krishna Bhakti with others, then, irrespective of whether others take it or not, we will experience ecstasy. We will experience joy. Because we will be going closer to Krishna.
We will be becoming enriched, with the presence of Krishna. And, that ecstasy, is not necessarily, the ecstasy of jumping high in kirtans when we sing. That’s nice.
But that is only one aspect of the ecstasy. The ecstasy that we experience when we are absorbed in Krishna, is that, we just don’t want anything else. This is what is life’s supreme attainment.
This is what I want more and more and more. That, that longing for Krishna, becomes the driving force of our life. And, Prabhupada, he spent his whole life, sharing Krishna Bhakti with others.
And, one time Prabhupada, was, came to a particular city, and devotees were there to receive him. In the pre-911 world, you could go practically next to the airport to receive people. Practically next to the aeroplane to receive people.
So devotees would often go very close to the aeroplane, and Prabhupada would come down the stairs. One time Prabhupada was looking very grave. And, the devotees asked Prabhupada, one devotee asked Prabhupada, why are you so grave? Prabhupada said, that is not gravity, that is ecstasy.
Because, Prabhupada was absorbed in the remembrance of Krishna. Thinking, I have come here, to give Krishna’s message to others. So the ecstasy that we get, by practising Krishna Bhakti, is that we become enriched with the remembrance of Krishna.
And that enrichment itself, is life’s supreme ecstasy. So, the ecstasy we get, when we chant the holy names in kirtan, in the temple or outside, all that is just a glimpse of the sublime ecstasy, that is available to us, if we can become enriched, with attraction towards Krishna, with devotion for Krishna, with absorption in Krishna. And that is the gift, that we all can get, by giving.
So by sharing, we will savour this gift more and more. The more we give, the more we will experience it, in our own hearts, and our own lives. I’ll summarise.
I spoke on the topic of, sharing the spiritual treasure of Krishna Bhakti. Started by, 18.72 in the Gita, the last word that Krishna speaks is, Dhananjaya. Oh Arjuna, the winner of wealth.
The Bhagavad Gita is not so much concerned about, the wealth of the kingdom, because it doesn’t talk about the war, much. What it talks about is, the inner wealth of wisdom and devotion. Knowledge is money, because it helps us to earn money.
But this knowledge that we get, is knowledge about what to do in life. The Bhagavad Gita offers us knowledge of, what to do with life. And, the Bhagavad Gita tells us, life is meant, for relishing lasting love.
Whatever we do in our life, we want to love and be loved. But the supremely worthy object of love, is the all attractive supreme person. So the knowledge that culminates in devotion, is the supreme wealth.
And it is that wealth, that Krishna offers to the Bhagavad Gita, that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu offers to Harinam Sankirtan, and actually Prabhupada offers, all of us to the Krishna Consciousness movement. And, by sharing this wealth, we can savour this wealth more and more. So I took an acronym SHARE, S was, Sadhana.
So, rather than thinking that, we have to become pure, or wise, or knowledgeable to share. You see, this is the process, by which I will connect with Krishna. So, if you see the path of Sadhana, by connecting others with Krishna, we connect with Krishna.
And whatever hesitation, reservation we may have, that will go away. We may be unqualified, but we are never disqualified. H was, Humility.
It is that, when we try to share, when we practise Krishna Bhakti, or speak Krishna Bhakti in a secure spiritual environment, there is not much rejection that we experience. And often that can lead to pride. But when you go out where people are not spiritually receptive, and try to give Krishna Bhakti there, you may experience neglect, rejection, and that will bring humility.
Humiliation is false ego rejected. It’s false ego frustrated. Humility is false ego rejected.
Humility doesn’t mean, if you just look at the other person, this person rejecting me, rejecting me will feel humiliated. But we see with Krishna, I am connecting with Krishna. I am serving Krishna.
And humility means, to place our ego, to make our purpose bigger than our ego. And then A was, Appreciation. Thank you.
So, I was talking about, how the pharmacy manufacturers, employees, they became careless, because of apathy. But when they actually saw the medicine, transforming people, they became again inspired. So similarly, for us, over a period of time, practise of Krishna Bhakti can become mechanical, ritualistic.
But when we go and share Krishna Bhakti with others, then, when we see their lives being transformed, that deepens our appreciation. Now sometimes we may not see people’s lives being transformed, because they are covered by illusion. But there are a few people, because of their own situations or realisations, the curtain of illusion opens temporarily.
And if at that time we give Krishna Bhakti, their life will be dramatically transformed. I talked about this Russian, devotee leader, who, a person was yelling at him, that why didn’t you give this knowledge to me before? And, I also talked about that boy, I just told him to chant Hare Krishna, and, during his last days, he was immensely helped by it. So, by sharing, our appreciation will increase.
R was? Yeah, relationship and responsibility in the relationship. So, Prabhupada said to me, Krishna Consciousness means to feel, Krishna is asking us, what are you doing for me? When we become, not a host, not a guest, but become a host, to Krishna Consciousness, then we advance. And responsibility, in the context of Krishna Bhakti means, that what Krishna wants us to do, we make that as the mission of our life.
In Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s prophecy, Prabhupada made it his responsibility to fulfil. So, Krishna, descends to this world to attract lost souls to him. And if we take up that responsibility, then, that will bring a new depth and intimacy, to our relationship with Krishna.
That will be how we express our bhakti to Krishna, and how we will experience deepened bhakti. And last, he was, ecstasy. Sanjay, was unsuccessful in changing Dhritarashtra’s heart.
But just by speaking Krishna’s message, he became enriched, with greater remembrance, and he became, filled with thrill, with ecstasy. Similarly, by sharing Krishna Bhakti with others, irrespective of whether they take it or not, if we make that as a habit, we will be enriched with ecstasy. Ecstasy is not just, dancing up and down in kirtan.
Ecstasy is, absorption in Krishna. And that absorption in Krishna comes, when there is dedication to his mission. And by thus, sharing Krishna Bhakti with others, we can savour it more and more, both in this life, and beyond this life, in Krishna’s abode.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Thank you, Krishna.
Thank you, Chaitanya, for your beautiful realisations of the importance of sharing Krishna Consciousness with others. If you want to take with you, Chaitanya Chandra’s realisations of meditation, we have a book table, where his books, right behind Prabhupada’s Yasasana, and he will kindly sign for you, the books that you purchase. So, it’s a wonderful, opportunity to associate with such a wonderful devotee.
Also, anyone here for the first time, in the temple?