Anand Vrindavana Champu – Childhood pastimes of Krishna SB 10.23.22

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Dhātu prabhāl methaneśa so although Vishnu Mahārāja would decorate Krishna with many precious jewels and ornaments and he would go to the forest to take out all those jewels and ornaments and he would wear, decorate his friends would decorate him with the colored minerals from the forest so dhātu prabhāl, dhātu refers to colored minerals and there are small flower buds flower buds will be applied on the body to help to form different designs nattavesan nattu vṛttāmase so with all these natural decorations he was so attractive that he appeared like a nattavesan like an actor going out to perform on stage anuvṛttāmase so anuvṛtta means one who follows, anuvara nithena so anuvṛtta so a friend dhānajapura, that friend was Subala so his one left hand was placed on the shoulder of Subala so Krishna was having his childhood, boyhood pastimes kāṃśiya, on the shoulder vinyasthahastam so his one hand was placed on Subala's shoulder the other hand, uttareṇa the other hand, what was he doing dhūnānavabhja he was twirling a lotus, playing dhūnānavabhja karanodpala alaka alaka kapola so karanodpala upon his ears sometimes you see people they put some flowers in their ears for beautiful decoration karanodpala utpala is lilies so on his ears there were lilies put over alaka kapola kapola means cheeks so his alaka his hair were extending down on his cheek mukhābhjahāsa mukhābhjahāsa, mukha means face abhjah is lotus like face, āsa is having a smile so that is inside the verse you cannot see the mantras, you can see in this one you cannot even see śāmam hiraṇya pardhim vana mālya barhā śāmam hiraṇya pardhim vana mālya barhā śāmam hiraṇya pardhim vana mālya barhā śāmam hiraṇya pardhim vana mālya barhā śāmam hiraṇya pardhim vana mālya barhā dhātu pravālaṇa kaveśa manuhratāṁse dhātu pravālaṇa kaveśa manuhratāṁse dhātu pravālaṇa kaveśa manuhratāṁse dhātu pravālaṇa kaveśa manuhratāṁse dhātu pravālaṇa kaveśa manuhratāṁse dhātu pravālaṇa kaveśa manuhratāṁse dhātu pravālaṇa kaveśa manuhratāṁse dhātu pravālaṇa kaveśa manuhratāṁse viññastahastamitareṇa dhūnānam avyam karṇopalālakta-pola-mukhāvya-hāsaṁ śyāmambhiranya-paridhimvana-mālabarhā dhātu pravālaṇa kaveśa manuhratāṁse viññastahastamitareṇa dhūnānam avyam viññastahastamitareṇa dhūnānam avyam karṇopalālakta-pola-mukhāvya-hāsaṁ śyāmambhiranya-paridhimvana-mālabarhā dhātu pravālaṇa kaveśa manuhratāṁse viññastahastamitareṇa dhūnānam avyam karṇopalālakta-pola-mukhāvya-hāsaṁ śyāmambhiranya-paridhimvana-mālabarhā dhātu pravālaṇa kaveśa manuhratāṁse viññastahastamitareṇa dhūnānam avyam karṇopalālakta-pola-mukhāvya-hāsaṁ śyāmambhiranya-paridhimvana-mālabarhā dhātu pravālaṇa kaveśa manuhratāṁse viññastahastamitareṇa dhūnānam avyam karṇopalālakta-pola-mukhāvya-hāsaṁ jñānaṁ jñānaṁ jñānaṁ sthākya sac-chūrṇa-mṛtaṁ yena tasmaiḥ śrī-pūrve jñāna śrī-caryaṇyāṁ viṣṇāṁ mādhyamena bhūtale svayamrūpa-kalāmayi maṁ tathā ki svāpa-dāntikaṁ vande ham śrī-guroḥ śrī-utāpatamanaṁ śrī-guroḥ vaiṣṇāṁ ca śrī-bhūtaṁ sādhvajānā sa-bhagana-vratanātmā dvitaṁ tam sa jīvaṁ sādhvaitaṁ sādhūtaṁ harijana-saṭhitaṁ viṣṇu-śaitanya-devaṁ śrī-rādhā-viṣṇu-pādāya śrī-bhaktā-viṣṇu-viṣṇā ādvaitāṁś ca namāoṁ viṣṇu-pādāya viṣṇu-kṛṣṇāya bhūtale śrīmate bhaktivedānta svāmīri nāmine namaste sarasvati devine gauravāni prachārine tri-viṣṇu-viṣṇu-vādi vāsyātma-viṣṇu-tārine samo-mahāvala-nyāya kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāyate kṛṣṇa-yāya viṣṇu-śaitanya nāmine gaurakṣe namaḥ viṣṇu-tattvā svāmīri nāmate Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare and subsequently elaborated by our ācāryas in their commentaries, in their retellings and in their references and commenting on other books so in the Bhagavad Gītā Lord Kṛṣṇa describes various purposes for His appearance most Indians most Hindus know the famous verse yadā yadāhi dharmasya nānirbhavati bhārata abhyudhānama dharmasya tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmyam so this was 4.7 the next was 4.8 paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya saṅgha-vāmi yuge yuge these three verses or these two verses describe the two-fold purpose in two verses they describe the purpose where Kṛṣṇa appears so whenever there is a decline of religion He appears and what does He do when He appears three things He does paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ He relieves the devotees from their misery vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām He delivers by destroying the demons He doesn't destroy the demons even His destruction is for delivering them so vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām and then He also creates a system of dharma for future orderly administration of the world dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya saṅgha-vāmi yuge yuge now these three purposes are important but actually even if the Lord maintains order in this world still this world is ultimately a place of misery and no matter what we do we cannot change that reality of this world so whether we are devotees or non-devotees we all have to grow old we all have to get deceased we all have to die and the material attempt to try to make this world a happy place is doomed from the beginning is doomed from the beginning sometimes scientists say that we will try to make this world immortal or we will make life people immortal in the future now Ishwara Prabhupāda in the Ishopanishad in his purport verse 14 explains that actually matter inevitably undergoes six changes there is creation and there is growth reproduction, maintenance deterioration and destruction so whenever there is life then the matter through which that life is manifesting that will always undergo these six changes so a flower bud is created then it grows it blossoms into beautiful flower then it reproduces some buds, some seeds are transferred by bees or other insects of pollination to some other flower reproduction and then against the elements of the weather it tries to maintain itself but in spite of the best efforts eventually as the day starts setting or as time passes it starts decaying finally there is destruction so science tries to explain things in terms of their simplest components so physics tries to explain matter in terms of its building blocks so we try to explain the behavior of matter in terms of atoms and molecules chemistry which tries to deal with the behavior of matter when it interacts in its different forms so that tries to explain those interactions in terms of physics so physics tries to explain in terms of fundamental particles, chemistry tries to explain in terms of physics and science tries to apply this reductionistic approach to biology where they try to explain life in terms of the laws of physics and chemistry but science is baffled about one particular thing that normal matter for example this desk is there so there is creation and there is maintenance it continues to exist for some time and then there is destruction so this matter actually has only three phases in its existence so this matter is made of the same building block as our body yet our body undergoes six changes and this undergoes three changes so why this difference everything could be explained in the physics and chemistry this would be the same as this the behavior of both of them should be the same but no matter how much technology can be advanced we cannot have a robo, a he robo and a she robo mating and producing a baby robo maybe that happens in science fiction movies but that's what it stays you don't have a baby robo and the mother robo comes and offers her breast and the baby robo suckles the milk this can't happen so even the best if somebody gets a leg, somebody's hand gets fractured or has to be cut off and sometimes nowadays they get an artificial hand or the artificial hand if somebody's hand is cut off at the age of ten then he replaces the artificial hand but after four years his other hand will have grown but the artificial hand will not have grown so no matter how sophisticated technology we have we cannot make the hand grow, we have to replace the hand so growth reproduction and gradual deterioration these are changes which we see in living matter, if we can use that word so science is baffled about these exchanges and we can't stop it, we don't even understand because of these exchanges what to speak of stopping it at least with respect to the movement of the planets, science claims to understand everything, we say that it happens by gravity but just by knowing the mechanism can we stop the way the earth is moving or the planets are moving, no we can't so Stephen Hawking one of the most prominent scientist he's been going around the world for the last 2-3 years he's going and telling Srimad Bhagwat philosophy to people this world is an extremely dangerous place earthquakes which may come up there are floods which may take place we are going to run out of food, we are going to run out of fuel the environment is polluting and of course there is a great spectacular danger that some asteroid or some comet may come speeding through the space and hit on to our earth and science has a theory that early dinosaurs were wiped out because of that when Shri Prabhupada was asked about dinosaurs Prabhupada said that actually they have a dinosaur, in Bhagwatam we have a grasshopper laughter grasshopper is also a huge serpent laughter so the point is that there are always rangers in this world so he's going around and telling that this world is an extremely dangerous place and what is his solution we have to get out of this world we have to put all our funds into space research into finding a celestial object probably a planet or a satellite which is habitable and shifting the population of the earth from here to there so that life will continue he's a top scientist and he's making a serious proposal and several countries have come together to earmark huge quantities of funds for the space research of course that is very very far away actually the struggle to get people to other planets itself is difficult not to speak of transporting the whole civilization making it habitable but although in one part he speaks how this world is dangerous the other part he gets it completely wrong that actually the danger of this world will not be solved by going to another planet because even that planet is destructible and more importantly the problems of this world or problems of this planet are not caused by the planet they are caused by us human beings living on the planet so even if we succeed in going to the moon if we have the same consciousness that we have over here we will succeed in polluting the moon that means there are two things one is the unavoidable unchangeable nature of this world this world is always a place of misery and destruction a place of misery and destruction so when the 21st century started at that time on one side there was a lot of fear because of Y2K the computer system might crash and the whole civilization might crash are all of you aware of Y2K or you were too young at that time you know all the computers they had these dates 93, 94, 95 and when they made the computer system they had not anticipated that in the future the dates will require a 4 digit parameter a 3 digit parameter so they had fear that the computer system would crash by Krishna's mercy that didn't happen but the important thing was although they were thinking a new millennium will bring up something wonderful on the other hand they were fearing that the new millennium might bring up something dreadful but eventually what happened was that the new millennium just continued like the way it was so so one of our scon leader was asked to give a talk on peace formula for the 21st century 1999, 2000 early days he started the lecture by saying there is going to be no peace in the 21st century there is going to be the topic was peace formula for the 21st century there is going to be no peace in the 21st century there was no peace in the 20th century, there was no peace in the 10th century There is no peace in the 20th century, there is no peace in the 30th century, there is no way that there can be peace in this material world. Because this world is a place of friction, conflict, everybody is struggling. You know we have left Krishna, we have given up Akarshan for Krishna and we are having Karshan in the material world.

So instead of Akarshan we have Karshan. Akarshan is attraction, Karshan is friction. So actually the solution to Karshan is Akarshan.

The more we develop our Akarshan, the more we develop our attraction for Krishna, the more we will find that the Karshan, the friction in our lives will decrease. Because what is the cause of friction? There are two countries which want the same resources and that is why they fight. For example, there was a war throughout history, Iran and Iraq are fighting for certain oil wells or earlier USSR and USA were fighting for Cuba or for Vietnam.

So basically that is at a national level, at an individual level. Sometimes there are neighbors and there are two people living in an apartment and they have flats and they have a common veranda and they fight over this veranda. This veranda belongs to me, no this veranda belongs to me.

And they make their whole life miserable fighting for our veranda and actually both of them die. So what causes this friction? This friction is at a familial level, at a social level, at a national level, at an international level. Now if you read the Vedic literature, there are fights between the demons and demigods.

It is there at an interplanetary level also. So this Karshan is a fact of material existence and what is the cause of Karshan? When the soul thinks that external objects are my source of happiness, then because those external objects are limited in number, then there is a fight among people for those external objects. So, the fertile rich land, either it is fertile for producing crops or it is rich in minerals, that sort of land, wherever it is on the earth, there is conflict.

So when people think that external objects are the source of happiness, then they fight over those external objects and because of that fight, there is Karshan. So, actually, if people keep pursuing pleasure externally, then they will keep wanting external objects for happiness and as long as they want external objects for happiness, the fight in this metal world will go on. Why? Because these external objects are always limited, whereas our desires are unlimited, they are ever increasing.

That's why in the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna in the 14th chapter, 8 verses 15, 16, 17, he describes the effects of the different modes. So he says, Rajasas tu phalam dukkham. Rajasas means the mode of passion.

So in the mode of passion, we hanker for external enjoyment. And when we hanker for external enjoyment, what is the phala? Rajasas tu phalam dukkham. Karmanas tu tasyahu, sattvikam nirmalam phalam.

Rajasas tu phalam dukkham, agyana tamasah phalam. So he says, when we act in ignorance, then we actually go into deeper ignorance. Like a drunkard, he drinks and then he slips and falls into a gutter and he goes completely in his own world, imagining and delusion things.

He is actually in ignorance and the result is further ignorance. But when somebody acts in passion, the result is dukkham. Now, what is the solution to this? The solution is, actually, we have to discover a source of happiness in our own hearts.

Individually and collectively, this world can never become a happy place as long as people are looking for external happiness. So the only way this world can become somewhat peaceful is if we can find happiness within our own hearts. So this world cannot become a peaceful place, but we can become peaceful in this world.

We can become as peaceful as is possible in this material world. But for that, we have to change. Change the direction of our search for happiness.

It's not that we have to give up our search for happiness. We have to change the direction of our search for happiness. Instead of looking for happiness externally, we start looking for happiness internally.

So what is that internal search for happiness? It sounds very interesting. Okay, search for happiness internally. What does it mean? First of all, how do we search internally? We have a flashlight here and what are we going to find internally? It's not as simple or literal as that.

Internally means we have a gross body, beyond that we have a subtle body. Beyond that, we are ourselves souls. And next to the soul is is the Supreme Lord.

And that Supreme Lord is supremely beautiful. So this verse describes His beauty. It is one of the hundreds of verses in the scriptures which describe the beauty of the Supreme Lord.

So we are all attracted by beauty. So a simple example of redirecting of our quest for happiness means instead of seeking beauty externally, we start looking for the beauty internally. Now that beautiful Lord is there in our heart, manifested externally as the deity.

And He appears in this world personally also to reveal His pastimes and to attract our hearts. So that's why after 4.8 in the Bhagavad Gita, the Lord Krishna describes, I come to establish dharma. In 4.9, He describes a more confidential purpose.

He tells, जन्मकर्मच्यमेदिव्यं एवं योवेक्ति लत्वतः यत्वादेहं पुनर्जन्म नैतिमामेति सौर्जुना Describe that, जन्मकर्मच्यमेदिव्यं that my appearance and my activities are divine, they are transcendental. एवं योवेक्ति लत्वतः एवं योवेक्ति लत्वतः If we can understand them in truth, then we will fall in love with Krishna. When we fall in love with Krishna, then our hearts are with Krishna.

When our hearts are with Krishna, our bodies will follow and be with Krishna. We will return back to the spiritual world. So the real purpose that Krishna comes to this world is not to just create some order because even the best order in this world will end in disorder.

When Abraham Lincoln supported democracy in America, he said, Democracy is a terrible form of government. But it is the best among all terrible forms of government. So actually, in this world, there are no good alternatives.

There are only best among worst alternatives. Whatever we choose, there are no good alternatives in this world. Later on, when you take up, when you go and take up jobs in companies, you'll find that, okay, this company has a good package.

Packaging is giving, oh, wonderful. Maybe it will send me abroad and it will give me rapid promotion. But once you go into the company, you will find that only your boss is very disagreeable or the work demands are too much or the expectations are too high.

Something will go wrong. And then you choose some other company, go to some other company, you will find some other problem will work. People always try to change, change, change, change.

But you can never get any best option in this world. All that we can get is the best among worst. Just like sometimes when people want to get married, they spend so much time, especially because of this whole movie industry, people are in a dream world.

They think I will find my perfect partner and they have the idea of a better half. The soul is om poornamadah poornamidam. The soul is not like a half Krishna, it is another half Krishna.

Krishna is poornam. And being a part of Krishna, we are also poornam. So, but what is required is for us to reestablish our relationship with Krishna.

To realize our poornatma. Om poornamadah poornat poornamidam. Om poornamadah poornamidam, poornat poornamudachyate.

Poornasya poornamadaya poornameva avashishyate. So, everything emanates from the poornam is poornam. But we have to learn to live in harmony with the poornam, then we experience our poornatma, poornatma means completeness.

So, Prabhupada writes in the purport of this work in Ishobhichan, all forms of incompleteness are experienced due to incomplete knowledge of the complete. All forms of incompleteness. We all think something is missing in my life.

And the advertisement makes us think that, oh, you don't have this mobile. You don't have this bike. You don't have this car.

That's what is missing in your life. That's what we think is, oh, this is what is missing in my life. And I just have to get that.

So, but Prabhupada explains that actually, what is it that is missing in our life? All forms of incompleteness are due to incomplete knowledge of the complete. The complete means the Supreme Lord. So, incomplete knowledge means people think, oh, God, maybe he exists, maybe he doesn't exist.

Or even if he exists, he is just the object of belief of some people. And maybe he's a desire-fulfiller. But then sometimes he's a desire-frustrator also.

So, maybe we do not worship him at all. So, they don't understand that Krishna is the ultimate object of love for us. When Prabhupada presented God consciousness in the West, he presented Krishna not just as an object, as a person to approach, so that we will have our desires fulfilled.

The Christians have this prayer, O father, thou art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, give us our daily bread. So, in one sense, Prabhupada appreciated that at least because of Krishna, many people go to the church and approach God. But Prabhupada said when we approach God and ask for bread, that shows our love for bread, not love for God.

So, actually, a devotee does not have to ask for bread from a Christian. The example is given by Ratcharya, just like a baby, when a small baby is growing, the baby doesn't have to worry, will my mother's breast produce milk or not tomorrow? He doesn't have to make any fire plan to make sure that there's a breast in the mother's breast. Or even when he's growing, the infant doesn't have to worry as he's growing, whether my parents will provide me food or not.

All the child has to do is stay obedient to the parents. The parents will worry about providing a baby. So, like that, the Vedic scriptures tell us that Krishna is our father and Radharani is our mother.

Radharani expands as Bhudevi, Bhudevi is mother earth. So, mother earth is also our mother. So, our parents will take care of providing for us.

What we have to take care is we don't run away from the home. And we don't become disobedient to our parents. As long as we stay obedient, we stay under their protection, we will be provided.

So, that's what the scripture enjoys, that just learn to be in harmony, and then you will experience your Purnatva. But the whole modern propaganda is exactly the opposite. Modern propaganda is forget it, forget God.

Neglect God and try to acquire as much material enjoyment as possible. The modern material life can be described in three letters, WWS. What is WWS? Worldwide Stupidity.

Let us see. Oh, actually, sometimes you can have a company, there is one company takes over another company. There's a corporate takeover.

So, bigger company takes over a smaller company. Or sometimes there's a political takeover. In Africa, it happens that one group of people is there, they overthrow the government with a political coup and they take over.

So, actually, what we are experiencing in the world is a cultural takeover. The West, led by America, is taking over the whole world culturally. Culturally, it's taking over means that the Western culture is being accepted as the normal culture for everybody in the world.

And what is this Western culture? Western culture is basically three activities, WWS. What is WWS? First is work. Work, work, work.

And people work very hard. Earlier people, when they were in an agrarian-based economy, they would work for maybe from morning to evening for six, seven hours on the fields. Hard work.

From now, when we work in our computer labs, it appears it's very soft and cozy, whereas that work is very hard. But that is actually very good for the health. People work on the computer labs and then they have to go to gymnasiums.

And they go to gymnasiums and they pay over there a huge amount of money for maintaining their health. But naturally, people maintain their health. They would have to work for around eight hours for a few months, first in the harvesting season, and before that in the sowing season.

And they would have enough produce for the full year. Then we advanced. We went to the industrial civilization.

In the industrial civilization, what happened? You had to work for eight hours throughout the year. Because we had advanced. So you had to work more, isn't it? And now we advanced further.

Now from the industrial civilization, we have the information revolution. Because we have advanced more, so you have to work more. So now people work 10 hours, 12 hours.

So first defining characters of modern life. Work, work, work. People don't have time also for anything else.

They don't have time. What to speak of God? They don't have time for their family members. Work, work, work.

And then when they come back from work, they come home and sit in front of the idiot box. And the idiot box moves their minds further and make them into further idiots. The second activity that they do is watch, watch, watch.

And they watch the television to get some relaxation. From the strain, the tension, the frustration of their office life, of their professional life. But what is the, what is the essence of the television? A television is not run by social welfare workers who want to relieve you of your stress.

Isn't it? It is run by greedy people who want to take the last paisa of the money that is there in your pocket. So in between all these entertaining programs, because all those entertaining programs are also such that they mostly show high levels of wealth, opulence and enjoyment which creates similar desires. But in between all these programs are the commercials.

And every commercial is basically what? It's basically telling you, your watch is wrong. Your shoes are wrong. Your dress is wrong.

Your hairstyle is wrong. Your face style is wrong. Your house is wrong.

In fact, now there is a whole new business called death style. Because lifestyle is called death style. Now what is death style? It's ridiculous.

Actually, before you die, you can design the coffin in which you will be buried. So, there is an advertisement. It's a thought that has become so common in India.

Because Indians bury the body. So, it's not so common. But in America, it's very common.

Death style is the latest lifestyle. So, what is it? You are going to die and the coffin is also going to be deteriorated. Nobody is going to come and see the coffin also, first of all.

It's going to be the earth. You can have designer coffins. Now you can have whatever patterns you want to be engraved.

What designs you want. What material you want. Choose your coffin and die in style.

Actually, there is no dying in style. That is that. What is that? Earlier there was an advertisement.

Live life king size. So, live life king size. Die rat size.

And be reborn dog size. That's what this material existence is. Why people try to enjoy this world.

And they die miserably. Like rats. And then because they are living animalistically, they will be born as dogs in the next life.

So, anyway. The second thing. So, all these advertisements are basically telling us.

What? Oh, shock. Isn't it? This is your hairstyle is wrong. Your watch is wrong.

Your spectacles are wrong. So, therefore, go to the shop. Go to the shop and change it.

That means, nowadays there are supermarkets. Now people, the naive people think that supermarkets are so convenient. You can get everything at one place.

You don't have to go to 100 places to purchase the different meals. At first glance, it appears right. But actually, supermarkets are simply marketing super illusions.

They are marketing super illusions. Why? Because when we normally go to a grocer's shop. At that time, we have a list.

And the items are kept inside the shop. And then we give him the list and he gives the items to us. But when we go in a supermarket, then we go with a trolley.

And very intelligent. They won't just give you bags. Trolleys.

Because they want you to purchase more and more. And then we may have our list. But along with that, we will see hundreds of items that you don't need to purchase.

And they are all placed in such a way. At that time, there is actually there is a huge industry of this. You know, there are one of my friends in the advertising industry.

So he said that actually what kind of covers should be designed for those packets. And in the supermarkets, what sort of paint and color and aura and music should be there to induce desires in people's mind. So when we are walking through the supermarket, we see all these products which we don't need, which we didn't plan to purchase.

But just by seeing them. So what happens is we get to contemplate on all these sense objects. Lord Krishna describes in 2.62. Once you start contemplating, what happens eventually? The aliens get destroyed.

And people end up purchasing much, much more things more than what they need. And earlier, at least how much money you had in the pocket was a problem. But now with credit cards, that problem is not there.

Even if you don't carry much money, you carry a credit card. And then the credit card is designed for what? Actually to take practically all the money that is in your account. But the exploitation is so much that these people are not satisfied even with that.

Then don't worry, if you don't have money, we'll give you loans. But you purchase. Why? Because actually when the WTC fell, the Twin Towers fell, you know what was the advice of George Bush to the whole American nation? It was not to pray, it was not hope, it was not comfort each other, it was shock.

Can you imagine? It's so ridiculous. The biggest disaster in American history has taken place in a war. Those of us who are in India, we probably can never understand what is the psychological impact of the fall of the Twin Towers.

America had built up a huge civilization with the illusion of comfort and security based on their material wants. And the Twin Towers symbolized that comfort and security. And when the Twin Towers fell with that, exploded, crumbled the illusion of comfort and security.

That's why it has devastated the American psyche. At that time, for the first time for a few hours, since the start of the internet, first time on the search items in Google, for a short time, God came above sex. But what was George Bush's solution? To shop.

Why shop at such a time? We are not to give charity to those who are the victims of those people. Why? Because the whole economy as we have runs by shopping. And this is a very dangerous way to run the economy.

Traditionally, when the economy would run, the economy would run based on renewable resources. Renewable resources means, the main market, the market would be the main object that would be selling with the necessities of life. The food grains, the vegetables, the fruits, these are what we need to live.

And these are renewable. So, if all the people are employed for this purpose, then every year, they will be getting new grains will be growing, new fruits will be growing, and they will be sold, and they will be transported, and people will earn their living, people will get their food. So, if people are employed in these industries, then there is gainful engagement for the whole society, which is sustainable.

Why? Because every year crops will grow new. But nowadays, most of the people are not employed in farming. They are employed in industries, which are basically consumer industries.

They are meant for luxuries. For example, now if somebody joins a mechanical company, say Mahindra and Mahesh, they are producing vehicles. So, when they are producing these vehicles, they see the number of vehicles that can be produced, or rather that can be purchased by people are limited.

Why are they limited? Because the number of people who have the financial power to purchase them are limited. So, when the market gets saturated with too many of these vehicles, and there are not enough people to purchase those vehicles, so what happens? What happens is that the whole industry will close down, and they do not want the industry to close down. So, what do they do is just keep producing new models.

You have a bike with this particular model and make some changes in that, and have this model, and have that model, that model. Especially, you see these changes in mobiles. Now, there are hundreds of models, and they always keep coming with some feature.

And one of my friends, he decided that he is not a devotee. He said that I will find out one model, which is one mobile model, which has all the features. And he started off.

And for one year, he was just doing research. And at the end of it, he found one mobile, which had all the features. But when he got the mobile, by that time some other mobile had come which had better features.

So, the way it is designed is that, actually, the modern economy runs on the production of, on the production and sale of unnecessities. Modern economy runs by the production and the sale of unnecessities. And because, unnecessities means, okay, we may say in the modern times, we need a mobile.

But the mobile, even if it is a necessity, okay, one brand is enough. Ultimately, the main purpose of mobile is to talk with people. Now, on that topic, you can have a video camera, you can have a speaker, and basically, hundreds of things can be added.

But basically, it is not that somebody is going to die if those things are not there. So, because most people today are employed in industries that are catering to unnecessities, to luxuries. So, what happens? It is wider that people purchase.

Because for people, these things are not necessary to purchase. And that is why the advertising industry is as important, if not more important, the production industry. But the problem with this is, first of all, not only are people cheated of their money to purchase things and unnecessities, but the earth cannot produce, keep producing these things for a month.

Like we are taking, oil is only one of the most prominent of the resources that are also going to run out. But metals, originally we used to use wood for fuel and wood keeps growing as trees. But when we use coal and LPG and other things, they are not going to grow.

So, it is going to lead to a disaster sooner or later. But the main point is that the whole modern media is based on shop, shop, shop. Why shop? Because if you do not shop, then we will be hungry.

If you shop, you will be hungry. We are not worried about that. We are worried about ourselves.

So, people just get bankrupt and people get fleeced. Fleeced means cheated. So, work, watch, shop.

This is what western society is. WWS. That is the worldwide stupidity.

Work, watch, shop. And actually, practically speaking, wherever western culture has come, sociological surveys have shown that people spend their leisure time. Leisure time is defined as the non-working time.

Their leisure time in two main activities. Watching television and shopping. Actually, even their family, leave alone God, even their family gets second attention after TV.

There are couples who have actually gone to court and divorced because both of them wanted to watch different programs on the television. And the fight started from there. And it just grew, grew, grew.

So, of course, now they have two televisions. No problem. But then after that, you know, you have the children.

So, every child needs his own television. And the companies are very happy because they are producing more television. Then they are selling more televisions.

Like a trap in which people get suckered in company. Work very hard, watch television, purchase things. And what happens? This is a self-fueling cycle.

When we shop and purchase things, they don't come free. So, because they don't come free, we have to pay for them. And because of that, we have to work more.

And when we work more, then we come back more tired home. And then we want to watch TV more. And we watch TV more.

There are more advertisements which you see. And then we shop more. So, just the ever-tightening cycle.

As Krishna says, you know, In the 16th chapter, 11th verse, Lord Krishna describes how demoniacally minded people are entangled by material desire. This is Asha-Pasha. Desire is like a noose.

Noose that catches us and drags us. Asha-Pasha. Shatair-Baddha.

Shatair means hundreds. Hundreds. Hundreds of people are bound by.

Baddha is bound. People are bound by hundreds of desires. And Kama, Krodha, Parayana.

They're bound to lust. And when the lust is frustrated, they become bound by anger. Kama, Krodha, Parayana.

And so, Ihante kama bhogatam. Anyaaya naam sanjay. Anyaaya.

And then they start with anyaaya. They become immortal. They become corrupt.

They become degraded. And eventually, they will become violent. So, actually, I started this whole discussion by saying how we have to turn our direction for happiness from external to internal.

Modern society actually aggravates our external search for happiness. But it is a vain search. It is a futile search.

You know, sense enjoyment. A soul seeking sense enjoyment is like a frog seeking shelter under the fangs of a snake. You know, if a frog seeks shelter under the fangs of a snake, what is going to happen? There is hot sun everywhere.

And he thinks, oh, under the snakes' fangs, in such shade, there is no more heat. What's going to happen? Yes, there will be no more heat. After some time, there will be no more frog.

So, like that, the conditioned soul trying to seek shelter in sense enjoyment, like that, he is suffering because of all his material desires. And then he thinks, oh, if I just do sense enjoyment, there is so much relief. But what is that relief? Actually, he is sleeping in the lap of Maya.

And what happens? Maya catches him and crushes him. That's why Bhaktivinod Thakur, who is up here in the stage of celibacy, he could read these. Kota Nidra Jao Maya Isha Cheera Kole Kota Nidra Jao Maya And you know, what kind of sleep is this? You have been killed, and you are peacefully sleeping.

Wake up! The Upanishads say, Uttishthata Jagrata Praapya Varam Nibodhata Awaken, arise, and there is a great blessing awaiting you. Grab that blessing and enrich yourself. Praapya Varam Nibodhata Varam means blessing.

Praapya is obtainable for you. Nibodhata, understand, what is that blessing that you will obtain? So, if you turn inwards, turning inwards means connecting with Krishna. So, we see that all of us, when we lead our lives, our lives are based on hope for the future.

The Bible defines faith as the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of objects not seen. What is faith? The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of objects not seen. That means, if you see, this is not just a definition that applies to religion.

Everybody lives by faith and hope. Now, all of you are studying. It is with the faith and hope that you will have a bright career.

I have. People are working so hard to go to America. You know, Lord Ganesh is considered to be within an asik.

That is why he is called Vinayak. So, people think that he will remove the obstacles. So, we are going to Chennai from here to this part of this.

Chennai, there is a special Visa Ganesh temple. What is this Visa Ganesh? Oh, Lord Ganesh, you are the remover of obstacles. I want to go to the dreamland of America and there are so many obstacles.

The main obstacle is the visa department. So, please, remove that obstacle. That is why he is called as Visa Ganesh.

So, this is a perfect example of abuse of religion for mundane purposes. But the idea is that these people, they work so hard to somehow try to go to America. And they have hope that by going to America, I will be happy.

But the nature of material life is that one cannot become happy. Material life, no matter how much we achieve, we cannot become happy. In Pune, we have one devotee who came back from America.

He was in America. He was very successful. He went to a dream career.

He went from India to America and he stayed there for 10-12 years. And then he was introduced to consciousness. And then, he has one daughter.

And he was sending the daughter to school. And there, at the age of 6 or 7, they start sex education. And then, he told them that, and he told that, you know, actually, this is 7-year-old, 8-year-old.

What can you do sex education with them? And then, he told that, this is not our, he went to them and met the principal of the college and said that it's not, they not only have sex education, but they have compulsory sex education. He said that, you have to have this. And they tell practically all the details.

So, he went and met the principal. And he told them, it's not our culture. It's not our culture that at such a young age, we expose children to all this.

And the principal just pulled up, you know, pulled up some charts, opened the computer. So, as I said, you know, if you don't get sex education children, children do worse things than if you use sex education with them. Therefore, this is compulsory, this is necessary.

You can't avoid it. And somehow, he decided that, I'll not send my daughter. I'll not send my daughter to school on that day.

And he didn't send. And he got a doctor's certificate, something that she is sick or something. But then, he didn't anticipate what happened.

What happened was, she didn't attend the seminar first hand, but all the other children are not going to stay quiet. So, now, she attended the seminar second hand. And what they told was even more twisted and even more distorted.

You know, for most Indians, when they see a half-naked images of women, most Indian youth, it's still relating to senses. But many of us don't think that, you know, just as we are demonically feasting our eyes on those forms, there are other people who will be feasting their eyes similarly on our mothers, our sisters, our wives, in the future, when we get married, we have children, our daughters. And that is too horrendous to contemplate.

But that is the inevitable consequence. We cannot have one side of the coin. If we want to be enjoyers of other women, other people will want to be enjoyers of our women.

And that is the culture. It's a dog-eat-dog culture. So then, you know, his small daughter, eight-year-old daughter, seven, eight-year-old daughter, she was coming and talking about all these things.

And he decided, I cannot stay with that girl. So for the sake of his children, he came back home. He had a bright career there, but left it.

Now, of course, because he was very talented, he's got a good career here also. Thing is, he said, my American dream was perfect. And when I went there, and as I went up the career chart, but actually, because he was a career-oriented person.

So he was focused. He did not get so degraded. Not because he was spiritual at that time, but because he was focused on his career.

But he saw the effect that was having on my children. Many Americans now want to come back to India. Indian-Americans.

You know, Indian government is welcoming them. They're called NRIs. Non-resident Indians.

They're welcoming them back here. Please come back and give your money to us so that we can develop this country. They may give their money, but they are coming back.

Why? Because India has some semblance of culture. So these NRIs are coming back. But more than NRIs are coming back, we have another species of people in India who are called RNIs.

You know what is RNI? Resident Non-Indians. They're residing in India, but everything about them is western. Their dress is western, their desires are western, their ambitions are western.

Everything is western. So, one of our devotees in Mumbai, he's a very senior devotee now. When he was in, he was born in a Vaishnava family.

But he felt that all the Vaishnavas were superficial. And then after that, he was introduced to this form. I was very inspired to see the devotees foreign devotees and then Indian devotees also he saw.

And then he became dedicated and he decided to take initiation. So he decided to take initiation from an American body devotee. He decided to take initiation from Radhanath Maharaj.

So at that time, his whole family exploded. He said, you know, you are an Indian, you are born in a Vaishnava family, how can you take initiation from an American? His uncle came to him. Uncle was, he had some religious aura around him.

He can build a temple and things like that. He said, don't disgrace our family. He said that, how are you going to take initiation from an American? You think these Americans will teach our culture to us? We can appreciate their taking.

We should encourage them, not seek guidance from them. Oh, you are also doing good. You are following our culture.

We should encourage them. Not that we need their guidance. So he gave a beautiful reply.

He said, you know, I have seen this person, Radhanath Maharaj for the last 10 years. And there is nothing American about him. There's nothing American about him.

In fact, I see more things American about you than about him. And it's true, you know, people's dress, people's hairstyle, people's home style, people's desires, they are very American. So these are all resident non-Indians.

So what happens is, even the materialistic people are living by faith, by hope, that in the future, their life will become better. And all hopes, all faith, comes from some external promises. So materialistic people live their lives based on the promises given by other materialistic people.

What are the promises of other materialistic people? Oh, you earn money, you get a big house, you get a beautiful wife, you go to America, and you'll become happy. With the promise. And this is the promise that is fueling the lives of most people.

But unfortunately, it's a false promise. It's nothing, the advertisements are nothing but lies, bigger lies, and still bigger lies. Nothing more than that.

Unfortunately, we take these false promises so seriously. On the other hand, when Krishna comes and tells us, you just become my devotee, and I will take you back home, you'll be forever happy with me. Immediately we become doubtful.

Does this really happen? Does Krishna really exist? Does the Lord exist? Can I really practice and become a devotee? How can I give up all my money and lives? It's not possible. So unfortunately, there's a French philosopher, he said the problem with the world is that, the problem with the world is that, the foolish are confident, and the wise are doubtful. The foolish are confident.

The materialistic people are foolish. They're thinking, oh, if I just get a new mobile, I'll be happy. If I just get a new bike, I'll be happy.

That's foolish. But they are confident. If I just get this, I will become happy.

When I was in college, I could see some of my friends, before I was introduced to Sriskanth, I was also in that factories. I had to go to America, not so much, but I was there. So I could see how my friends used to work so hard.

Can't imagine how hard they work. Day and night. So how are they working? Because they have that hope.

If I go to America, now there's a problem with the ratteries. You know, I was like a national topper in GRE, and I was a topper in the history of my college. And then after that, I was very happy for some time.

Then I realized after that, what happens? Now you have another exam coming up. And now because you're a topper in one exam, the pressure on you to top in the next exam is more. And then you top in the next exam, and the pressure to top in the next exam will be even more.

And then if you don't top in one exam, it is like a disaster. So of course, devotee not against working hard, but the idea that this is what happiness is all about, I think this is just hopeless. So then later I thought very brilliantly, the problem with the rat race is that, even if you win the rat race, you still remain a rat.

That means that you come first in one exam, but still you just remain one of the competing rats, and you compete for the next exam, and then the next exam, and the next exam. Things don't really change in material life. So even if you win the rat race, we still remain rats.

So actually, I can see this friend, they're working so hard in their material life, struggling, fighting, foaming at the mouth, somehow to go to America. And they think they will become happy. But they don't.

They don't become happy. Some of those friends are now becoming devotees, and that are they. You know, they married a girl who turned out to be a drunkard, one of them.

In India, you can't imagine, the husband becoming a drunkard once or twice, but the wife becoming a drunkard is a little too much. Another of them, he has a daughter, and the daughter is, I mean, she's small, but she's already having some, some sort of, sexual deviation, and things like that. It's like a disaster.

So people are so confident about their false promises. And they're so doubtful about the true promises. So as devotees, we are wise.

We've seen, at least partially, we've seen the false promises of Maya. That's why we have come to Krishnabai this week. But unfortunately, still we have doubts.

The problem in the world is that, foolish are confident, and the wise are doubtful. The wise are doubtful. Now we doubt, if I practice Krishna Mantra, will I really become happy? So Krishna does all that he can to remove our doubts.

And one of the things that he does, out of his great mercy is, he comes himself into this world. We will not believe that there is a spiritual world, where there can be eternal happiness. Then Krishna comes into this world, and he reveals that spiritual world to us.

When he reveals that spiritual world to us, then we understand, how much sweetness, how much beauty, how much love, how much happiness, is there in the reciprocation with Krishna. And that charms and attracts our hearts. In all the religions of the world, there is talk about God.

But, it may also be said that God is love. But how God is love, that is not described. So the Leela, or the pastimes of God, are the unique revelation in the Vedic literature.

Not the Bible, not the Quran, or no other literature, have anything similar to Leela. And they have nothing like that. In the Biblical literature, they have, they have, the idea that God is in heaven.

And then, they have this famous picture made by Michelangelo. That Michelangelo was told to sculpt a picture on the Cistern Sheep. Cistern Sheep was a famous church in Europe.

He was a painter, but he was told to do a sculpting. He was a good sculptor also. So on the roof of that church, he has made various sculptures about God's mercy on man, as told in the Old Testament, and partially in the New Testament through Jesus.

So one of the images is God stretching out his hand, and he's handing out his grace to man. And Michelangelo would depict man as Adam. Adam is the, Adam is the, he considers, like the old man.

The original man. So Adam. So then he would depict Adam as a very young, handsome, muscular man.

So that Adam was there. Adam was stretching out his hand to lift, to reach out to God. And then, at that time, he finished that part of the sculpture, and then he had to draw, depict God stretching out his hand.

And then, he wondered how does God look like. He asked the local bishop. Bishop had no idea.

And he went up to the, up in the church, at the Ecclesiastical Order, till up to the post. And nobody had any idea of how God looked like. Finally, he speculated.

And he made God like an old man, with a beard, and looking very grave. And that old man is stretching out his hand, to give his mercy to Adam. Now, honestly, actually, I had, I was asked to do this, and take this into your party.

So I have a PowerPoint also. Maybe in the future, I can show it to you. So there is a picture.

There is Adam, and there is God. And ironically enough, actually, Adam looks more attractive than God. You know, man looks more attractive than God.

Obviously, that is not correct. But he made God like an old man, because he thought that, God is the oldest person. The oldest person, therefore, he must be old.

But the various scriptures explain that, God is certainly the oldest person, but he is not under the influence of time. And because he is not under the influence of time, rather time is under his influence. Like some people ask this typical atheistic question.

If God created everything, who created God? So, on Radhashtami, my new book was released, Frequently Unanswered Questions. So, in that book, I answer this question. So, there are different ways of answering this question.

One way is that, to understand that, if you read a novel. So, some of you may have heard of Chetan Bhagat. His novels are very famous among the Chetan Bhagat boys.

So, now he is coming to our Chowpatty temple regularly. He is becoming a devotee. He met Radhan Maharaj.

And what was his latest novel? Three Idiots. That was based on Three Idiots. So, basically, somebody took this whole storyline and made a movie out of it.

And they did not give any credit for it. So, he was completely devastated about that. But at that time, he came and met Radhan Maharaj.

And when he met Radhan Maharaj, Radhan Maharaj gave him some guidance. So, he wrote very beautifully. So, he wrote about it on his blog also.

So, Maharaj told him, that you know, there are two kinds of people in this world. One kind is very beautifully based on Bhagavad Gita 2.70. So, he says that some people's hearts are like puddles. And some people's hearts are like oceans.

So, now, what is the difference between a puddle and an ocean? A puddle, you know a puddle, like what happens in the rainy season. A small depression is there on the earth and then it gets filled with water. So, like a puddle.

Then if in a puddle, a wave of water comes in from somewhere, the whole puddle gets devastated. It starts overflowing. So, like that, those people's hearts are like puddles.

That means, in their heart, there is very little internal happiness. So, that any external stimulus comes in, which is either pleasurable or not pleasurable, it devastates over there. On the other hand, sometimes heart is like an ocean.

Then, what does that mean? Krishna is called as Prema Sagar. He is the Ananda Sagar. So, Krishna is present in their heart.

Then, the heart is like an ocean. If in an ocean, a river comes in. A wave of water comes in, a river comes in.

So, like that, as long as we, our hearts are like puddles, that means we have very little internal happiness. Most of the happiness is from external sources. Then the waves of happiness, the waves of pleasure and pain will come and devastate our hearts.

But on the other hand, if we connect ourselves with God, if there is a sentiment like connecting with God, connect ourselves with God through constructive service to Him. We are living our life in a way, whatever talents God has given me, I will use them for His service. Then, Krishna who is present in our heart, reveals Himself.

And when He reveals Himself, our heart becomes like an ocean. So, when our heart becomes like an ocean, then even if the waves of worldly success or worldly failure, worldly honour or worldly dishonour, they come in, they do not shake us. But otherwise, we may write best-seller novels.

But even after writing a best-seller novel, somebody will come and steal the copyright. And they will just whistle, you know, and I went here. One of my books was given to him, so he liked some sections of the book.

So, we were discussing. I could see he was frustrated by it. And at that time, he started chanting.

He said, I think I will write better. One may become a writer of a best-seller novel. And one may become an international or international fame.

But if the heart is like a puddle, then worldly honour and worldly dishonour will devastate the person. On the other hand, a person may be unknown to the world. But he is connected with Krishna.

He is connected with Krishna. His heart will be satisfied. You know, once his owner was Jai Jyot Maharaj.

One devotee asked him, Maharaj, you have been practicing Krishna Consciousness for 35-40 years now. So, what gives you the patience to practice Krishna Consciousness? So, Maharaj said that, when I go to Vrindavan, you know, I see an old Brahmachari over there. He serves Charanamrit.

And he said, I have seen him serving Charanamrit over there for the last 31 years. And that's what he has been doing for the last 31 years. And when I look in his eyes, I see the joy in his heart.

And he says, he is not getting any fame. He is not having any followers. He doesn't have any money.

For 31 years, he has been worshipping Raghav Krishna in Vrindavan. And he is serving Charanamrit. And he is satisfied.

Why? Because he is connected with Krishna in his heart. Once your heart becomes an ocean, even if the world doesn't know us, you will be happy. On the other hand, if our heart is like a puddle, even if the world knows us, the world will know us as a miserable person.

What is the use? Now, we know Michael Jackson, most famous person in world history. But he was so unhappy. when should he die? It's an unfortunate death.

So, his worldly success itself doesn't lead to happiness. The devotee is not against worldly success. He is not against worldly prosperity.

But he knows that this is not what will make me happy. What will make me happy is my connection with Krishna. If I have that connection, then even if I have worldly success, I don't have it.

It doesn't really matter. If I don't have that success, if I don't have that inner connection with Krishna, I am not happy for Krishna. And whatever else I have, it is useless.

It will not make me happy. So, Krishna, when he comes to this world, he comes to reveal his beauty, his love to us. And to the extent, we become attracted to him, to that extent we become happy.

So, I was telling about how this revelation of Leela is unique in the Vedic liturgy. So, Michaelangelo, he sculpted God, but he couldn't sculpt God attractively because God is outside the time domain. So, you know, if somebody asks this question, who created everything? Who created God? The answer is that if somebody writes a novel, in that connection, I was telling about Chetan Bhatt.

Somebody writes a novel, novel has a storyline, it has its timeline, it has its characters. If somebody, a small child reads the whole novel, and then he comes to know this novel is written by someone. Then he asks, but where is the author in the novel? No, the author is not in the novel.

The author is independent of the novel. Why? The author created the storyline, the author created the timeline, the author created the character, but he is independent of it. So, like that, Krishna has created this world, he has created matter, he has created space, he has actually given all of us material bodies, so that we can do our roles, our dramas in the material world.

But he is separate from it. So, when we ask, where is Krishna in this material world? Who created Krishna? The very fact that we are asking, who created Krishna? That means, we are thinking of Krishna as a product of this material world. Because time exists in this material world.

Krishna exists beyond time. So, when Krishna exists beyond time, then there is no question of his being created by me. He is eternal.

It's eternal. And time is created by him. So, because time is created by him, once time is created, once the storyline is created, for example, the storyline in the novel has a particular timeline.

Okay, it may be 1857 to 1912. That is the storyline of a particular novel. Now, if you see, is the author there in the storyline? No.

Author is independent of it. So, like that, the timeline for this world is created by Krishna. But Krishna is separate from it.

So, Krishna is not affected by time. Ādyam purāṇa puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca. He is ādyam.

He is certainly the oldest person. That Michelangelo got right. Purāṇa puruṣaṁ.

He is the oldest person. That also he got right. Nava-yauvanaṁ ca.

Nava-yauvanaṁ. But he is eternally youthful. He is not affected by time.

That the biblical literature could not tell. So, we respect the fact that Jesus came and helped people rise to their levels of God consciousness. But it is a fact objectively analyzed that the Bible doesn't give as much information about God.

And that's why when these Christian missionaries convert people to their religion just for the sake of by giving them some money. And you just become Christian and then we will give you a job. We will feed your poor children or we will provide medicines for them.

Actually, there was such a… That is a disaster. That is a disaster. Why? Because if they were just turning to Christianity and the search for God, that is not a problem.

But when they become converted to Christians, they become or they are made by the propaganda into haters of Vedic culture. As devotees, we have a very broad attitude. We understand the one God Christians call Jehovah or Yahweh or Muslims call Allah.

That same God we call as Krishna. But the Christians themselves don't believe in that. Their idea is that there is only one God.

The God we sought about in their religion. And the God talked about in all of the religions are the forms taken by the devil to attract people away from the one God. That's why you see many Christian Muslims, they don't take Prasad.

Why? Because they think it is not God's Prasad. It is the devil's Prasad. They think that worship of any God other than Allah or Jehovah is worship of the devil.

And that's why when Muslims came to India, they destroyed so many temples. Now, this whole Ayodhya Babri Masjid controversy was there because the temples were destroyed in the past. So, we don't want to get into politics.

But the fact is that the Vedic culture is the most glorious culture, not because we are born in India and it is our culture, but because Krishna has revealed himself the most profusely over here. And instead of… Because we don't preach Krishna Consciousness, so what happens? For ignorant people, whoever speaks something, as low as possible they get attracted. So, because Indians are not taking responsibility of preaching Krishna Consciousness.

So, what is happening is Indian culture is being destroyed. Now, in the Islamic tradition also, there is not much description of God. So, the Muslim terrorists, you know, in Pakistan, there are so many Madrasas.

Madrasas are like… They are something like mosques, but they are not mosques. They are training people for young children. They train in hatred and terrorism to become machines of death for others.

And what is their goal? What is their dream? There are some Quran verses are distorted to tell them that if you lay down your life for Allah, then Allah will reward you with 73 virgins in Jannat. Whom you can enjoy for the rest of eternity. It is not love for Allah, it is love for those virgins.

And then you ask these Muslims, okay, you will enjoy with those virgins in Jannat, but what will Allah do? No, Allah just has to be the caretaker of those virgins so that the Jihadis can enjoy them. No, we don't want to sound offensive, but think about it. These people don't think about it.

If you read the Quran carefully, one of… That's why he's called a devotee. Or rather, he was earlier a Muslim. He has now become a Hare Krishna devotee.

I love him. So, he's written a beautiful book, The Hidden Treasure of Al-Quran. So, in that book, he describes how actually… In that and some other books also he described that there are seven Jannats described in the Quran.

And about the topmost Jannat is Jannat-e-Allah, where Allah remains. So, these Jihadis, certainly they're not going to that Jannat-e-Allah. They're not going to any Jannat.

If they're killing people like this. But the point is that religion does not describe much about God at all. It's after this.

These deities who tell that they were Muslims earlier and they have become Hindus now, they have to plead for their lives. Because in the Islamic religion, they have what is called apostasy. Apostasy means that the sin of giving up Allah and Muhammad.

And they say it is such an unpardonable sin and the only punishment for that is death. So, anybody who converts from Islam to any other religion, that person can never reveal his identity. Otherwise, he will have no more existence.

So, often these people change their name and that's how they live. So, anyway, that is not what actually the original spirit of the teachings of Muhammad were. But they've been distorted.

So, the important point here is that because of the narrow-mindedness of the followers of these religions and because of the limited revelation that is there in the original scriptures, although they may talk about God as a God of love, there's not much description of how God is a God of love. So, the Leela is a unique revelation of the Vedic literature where it describes how Krishna reciprocates love with his devotees in his own Leela. So, the Leela is something like a drama.

The word drama cannot be used because drama connotates the idea of something unreal and something false, something temporarily staged. One of our responding devotees scholars, Graham Shree Garud Prabhu, he has done his PhD in the Krishna Leela, especially in the Rashtila Panchadhyaya, 10.29 to 10.30, those five chapters. So, the Srimad Bhagavatam is considered to be like the poem of Krishna.

The first two cantos are considered to be like the Lotus Feet of Krishna. In the Padma Purana, there's the Srimad Bhagavat Mahatmyam that is described in the section where Lord Shiva and Parvati are talking. And Lord Shiva is telling Parvati about the glory of Srimad Bhagavatam.

So, there it is described that 10th canto is like the face of Krishna. And in the 10th canto, these five chapters, the Ras Panchadhyaya, in the 10th canto, there are 90 chapters. So, there in his book, The Dance of Divine Love, Garud Prabhu is a beautiful example to explain the concept of Leela to a Western audience.

Because Western people just can't, their brain doesn't work. They have an idea of God as a very frightening, stern person, they'll disobey him, they'll throw a thunderbolt and a thunderbolt will send you catapulting down to hell. You'll burn forever.

And when they come to India, this is what actually happened to the Western scholars when they came to India. They came to India and they saw all these pictures of this beautiful looking boy with one hand in a butter pot, other hand, trying to wipe the butter from his face. He asked, who is this? This is God.

This is God! Biggest culture shock they could have imagined. And what is God doing? Stealing butter? Stealing butter! First of all, you know in the West, they don't have the concept of butter only. They have whatever, the best that they have is cheese.

So, butter is very different. First of all, they don't understand what is butter and what is there to steal in butter. And why does God have to steal? So, they got intellectually short-circuited.

This couldn't make head or tail out of it. So, that would be a beautiful example. It says that Krishna performs Leela, which is like a drama.

And in that drama, Yogamaya is like the director. All of you know this analogy? Yes. Yogamaya is like the director.

And the director is invisible. But everybody acts according to the director's direction. So, who is the main hero in that Leela? It's Krishna and his associates are there.

So now, just like a millionaire may play the role of a beggar in a drama. He still remains a millionaire, but he plays the role of a beggar. Like that Krishna is the controller of all controllers.

He is the Sarveshware Reshwar. He is the God of all Gods. Devadev Jagatpati, the Bhagavad Gita is like that.

But he takes the role of a small innocent boy. And that boy, what does he do? He actually has such mischievous activities. So, he's playing that role.

But when he plays that role, it is not an illusion. That is a topmost reality. Why? Because this is something which will go on forever.

When we play a role in the material world, that role ends when the drama ends. And whatever role we play in our real life, that will also end when our modern lifespan ends. But the role that Krishna plays in the spiritual world, it never ends.

It is eternal. And that's why Krishna is like the most attractive. Because God does not display or brag his Godhood.

I am so great. Bow down to me. Krishna doesn't have that sort of mood.

Krishna just wants to reciprocate love with his devotees. And for the sake of reciprocating love with his devotees, he takes the role of a very small baby, different sort of roles he takes, by which he can best reciprocate love. So, Krishna is like the actor, main actor.

And all the other devotees are the other actors. And sometimes the other actors may take a role superior to Krishna also. And now we may say that if Krishna is being controlled by the director, by Yogamaya, then Krishna is not God.

God means he should control everyone. If God is being controlled by someone else, then he is not God. But Krishna is still God.

Krishna is more clever than our skeptical brain. So, Krishna is the script writer. The director directs according to a script.

So, who has written the script? Krishna himself has written the script. So, Krishna is the script writer. Yogamaya is the director.

And Krishna is the actor. So, Krishna is simultaneously not in control because he is acting according to Yogamaya's direction. And he is in control because Yogamaya is directing according to his script.

This is Krishna's brilliance. And so, in this way, Krishna performs wonderful pastimes. But actually, Krishna writes the script.

And in one sense, he knows everything. Actually, if you read in Krishna Leela, when Narad Muni comes to Dwarka, at that time, Narad Muni does very amazing things. He does two things.

Jiva Goswami explains this in his Satsang Darbhas that Krishna shows to Narad Muni how he is performing different activities in different places. All of you may have read that in Krishna book. In one palace, he sees that Krishna is no, just going to the assembly.

Other palace, he is saying that he is returning from the assembly. Other palace, he sees that he is performing yajnas. Other palace, he is saying that he is planning for the marriage of his children.

Other palace, he sees that Krishna is taking food. So, like that, he sees different activities going on. All are going on simultaneously.

Now, Jiva Goswami makes a very subtle point over here that he says that in the different palaces, activities were going on which were from different parts, different times of the day. That means, somewhere, one activity was going on. Somewhere, after one activity.

Somewhere, every activity. That is what he uses as an example to show how Krishna is beyond time. At the same time, not only can be Krishna doing different activities, but at the same time, Krishna can be doing different activities of different times.

Don't try to understand it. The one thing we have to understand about Krishna consciousness is that we cannot understand. And the important thing is, this is the thing which I will talk about more tomorrow.

But there is a difference between knowing God and knowing about God. So, we will talk more about this tomorrow. We don't want to know about God.

We want to know God. Anyway, so, Jiva Goswami says that Krishna is beyond space. He can be at different places at the same time.

And he is beyond time. He can be at different times at the same time. At the same time, he is somewhere in the morning, somewhere in the afternoon, somewhere in the evening.

So, there, actually, Narada Muni also describes to Krishna, Krishna, tomorrow, I will see you doing this pastime. Then after that, I will see you killing this demon. And after that, I will see you doing this pastime.

So, you know, Narada Muni also knows what Krishna is going to do. But still, at that Narada Muni says, I am very eager to see all these pastimes. So, actually, the joy is not just in knowing the script.

Many times when we read a detective novel, first of all, who is the thief, who is the thief, who is the thief? Who is the murderer? That is the suspense. And once the suspense is revealed, then what happens is the novel becomes very boring. If you want to read the second time, it is boring.

Now, many times when we approach Krishna Leela, we also approach it that way only. If we approach it that way, then maybe few times we will get some relish. A devotee does not approach Krishna Leela for entertainment.

He approaches Krishna Leela for shelter. We want to learn how to take shelter of Krishna. This is also a theme I will be discussing in one of the future classes more.

What it means to take shelter of Krishna and how we take shelter of Krishna Leela. But suffice it to say that, you know, when we approach Krishna Leela, there has to be a certain attitude. And when that attitude is there, then we get the maximal benefits of it.

So, Krishna knows what is going to happen, but being the perfect actor. If a millionaire is doing a drama, and in that drama he is a beggar. And he says, I haven't eaten anything for the last three days.

I have eaten three times on that day. But the thing is, he does that acting, and to the extent he gets into the mood of that character, to that extent he will relish it, and to that extent he will be able to make others relish it. Similarly, Krishna, when he performs a role, a drama, he gets fully into that drama.

And he completely, in one sense, forgets that he is God. He just relishes the drama. And that is the sweetness of Krishna Leela.

How God, who is the supreme being, you know, he becomes like an ordinary child, who is actually just doing some mischievous activities. So, when Krishna appeared in this material world, he appeared in 3228 BC, and he lived for 105 years. So, he disappeared from the world in 3102 BC.

And 3102 BC was the year when Kali Yuga started. So, when Krishna appeared, we know the whole story. I won't go into the details of it all.

So, Krishna lived for 125 years, out of which the first three years, he was in Gokul. The next three years, he was in Vrindavan. The next four years, he was in underground.

So, first three years, he was in Gokul. So, the Damodar Leela, killing Trunavar, killing Putana, these happened in Gokul. Then there is a pastime, and that is described in the Krishna book also.

How? Upananda. Upananda is the older brother of Nanda Maharaj. So, he says, how? Actually, this is a very dangerous place.

You should leave from here and go away. And they moved from there to Vrindavan. And for three years, Krishna lived in Vrindavan.

And at the age of six, he moves from Vrindavan. And Vrindavan also includes many demons. And from Vrindavan, he moves to Nandagram.

From six to ten, he lives in Nandagram. And then, from ten to the age of thirty-eight, the next twenty-eight years, he lives in Mathura. And there, Mathura, he gets initiated, who is his guru? Shri Sandipani.

And he goes to the Gurukul, and he learns various things from the Gurukul. And then after that, then Charasandh comes and attacks. How many times Charasandh attacks? Seventy times.

And then, after the seventeen attacks, Krishna disappears from there. And he takes all the citizens to Dwarka. In fact, when they wake up, all the citizens, they are mystically transported.

This is Krishna. Mystically transport them when they wake up. And they wonder, they think they are in the same palace.

But they are wondering, where is the door? What is this? And there was Dwarka. That's how the name becomes Dwarka. Where is the door of this place? So, he transports them all to Dwarka.

And from there, when Krishna is ninety years old, that is in 3138 BCE, the Kurukshetra war takes place. At that time, Krishna speaks the Bhagavad Gita. And then, at that time, actually, Gandhari curses Krishna.

Because of you, five hundred sons were killed. Now, this is how the attachment can blind a person. Actually, it was Duryodhana who was adamant.

And Gandhari also knows it. Somehow, her attachment blinds. She curses Krishna, right? You know, she says, I have to suffer, seeing the death of all my loved ones.

You will have to suffer the death, seeing the death of all your loved ones. And you will die a miserable death. After 36 years.

So, Krishna smiles. And he says, I accept your curse. Both chase one.

Actually, Krishna is beyond all curses. But Krishna says, as it is, I was thinking, my relatives are also powerful. They could not have been taken away from this world.

So, I will arrange for a mysterious way in which they will all depart from this world. And then I will depart from this world. So, Maharaja Yudhishthira ruled for 36 years.

And then in 3102 BC, Krishna departed. And soon after that, Yudhishthira Maharaja and Pandavas also departed to the north. So, when Krishna appeared in this world, at that time, he appeared in the prison of Vasudeva.

And then he was moved to the prison of Kamsa to Vasudeva and Nivkhi. And he was moved to Vrindavan. Or rather to Gokul more specifically.

So, the word Vrindavan can have two meanings. You know, within the nine forests of Vrindavan, one forest is called Vrindavan. And all the forests together also called the Vrindavan area.

It is called the Vraja Mandul Parikram. It includes all the forests. So, that way it can mean two things.

So, Krishna was moved to Vrindavan. He was moved to the Vrindavan area. And he came to Gokul.

Now, Vishwanath Chakravartha describes that actually, there is a form of Krishna who never leaves Vrindavan. That is Vrindavan Krishna. And that Krishna was born as a baby to Yashodamayi.

And actually, when Yashodamayi, by Krishna's arrangement, that night, not only did Yashodamayi fall unconscious during her delivery, but even those midwives, those ladies who were assisting him, they also fell asleep. And then, so they came and everybody was asleep. And it was dark.

So, he saw one child over there. He took that child and he placed Krishna in that place. So, he went back.

So, at that time, basically, what happened? The Vasudeva Krishna and the Vrindavan Krishna, they came one. And then, when Vasudeva had gone back, then Krishna started crying. And when Krishna started crying, that crying described was like the sound of Omka, sweet, melodious and mournful.

And then, immediately, the other ladies in the house woke up. And they woke up and they came and they said, Oh, it's a beautiful child. They were captivated by seeing the beauty, the child and the sweetness of his crying.

And they called out to Yashodamayi, Yashodamayi, just see what a beautiful child you have got. And Yashodamayi woke up and she heard the crying. She was lying on the bed and the baby was in a swing just next to the bed.

She saw that child, so captivated. At one moment, it appeared that the whole child was just like made of flowers. Now, his body appeared to be made of shining blue flower and blue lotuses.

His nails, Krishna has three parts, his lips, his nails, his fingernails and his two nails. Fingertips and lotus, these are like reddish. So, they appear to be like reddish rose flowers.

And then the remaining body of Krishna, it appeared to be like multicolored lotus. She was stunned. And then she looked again and then she saw that this child appeared to be like jewels.

His whole body appeared to be like a blue sapphire, shining sapphire jewel. His lips and his fingers appeared to be like rubies. He appeared to be like a shining jewel.

The child was wondering, is this my child? Or is this somebody else? Who is this? And there seeing her so stunned, marveling at the beauty of Krishna. That time the elderly lady said, Upananda, I said, won't you take your child and succumb him, offer him your breast milk. Yashodamayi came back to external consciousness.

And then Vrajeshwari, Vrajeshwari Yashodamayi, she begat Krishna. She was about to bend up to Krishna. Now her shadow fell on Krishna.

And she saw the shadow falling on Krishna. She thought that some witch has come to take my Krishna. She started screaming, go away, go away, go away.

And started praying, Narasimha, Narasimha, Narasimha. So she was protected. She was calling out to Narasimha there to protect that child who is the source of Narasimha.

And seeing her anxiety, Radha lady Yashodamayi, there's nobody there. Why are you worried? Just pick up the child. Then she picked up the child.

Then she picked up the child. The child was so soft. Krishna's tender body was so soft that she felt, but actually by the touch of my fingers, his body will get up.

Even when Krishna grew up, when Nanda Maharaj would come to embrace Krishna, he would feel that my beard will make scratches on Krishna's skin. So he very carefully bring Krishna. And smell his head and then bless him.

So Yashodamayi entertained Krishna. He was a small baby. So she picked him up.

She put him on her lap. And she put him on her lap. And she offered the milk from her breast to him.

And Krishna pretended as if he didn't know what to do. And he started moving his mouth. She took her mouth and put it in his breast.

And then he started drinking the milk. And then as he was drinking the milk, he became very happy. And as he was drinking the milk, some of the milk spilled out from the mouth.

On to the body. And then Mother Eswara was wiping it in her hands. And with a sari cloth.

And she was beholding the beautiful child. And she looked carefully. She saw that there was a white marking on his chest.

And she thought that it is actually some milk that has dropped off, fallen off from the chest, from the mouth onto the chest. And she tried to wipe it off. And to her amazement, it didn't wipe off.

And she realized, wonder, what is this? And she looked carefully. And she saw, actually, it was a tuft of white hair that was there. And that is the mark of Srivatsa.

That is the mark of Srivatsa that is there on all form of the Supreme Lord. Baksho, Niharini, Bakshu, Devi, Jisaila, Seven. Baksha in the chest.

Niharini, Balram in the chest. And she was amazed. Maybe this is a sign of some Mahapurusha.

And then she turned around. And she looked at the other side. And she saw one golden line over there.

So, she tried to move it. And it couldn't move. So, Lakshmi Devi came as the Srivatsa hair on the right side.

But she was thinking that, oh, I am deprived of the left side of the Lord. She appeared there as a golden line. So, she spent time on both sides of the chest of the Lord.

And she was just marveling the beauty of the child. And his gentleness. She felt waves of joy overflowing in her heart.

And those waves of love that were in her heart, they came out from the heart as a liquefied love in the form of love. And Krishna drank that love and satisfied her heart. At that time, the other lady said, let us go and inform Nanda Maharaj.

Nanda Maharaj had been performing austerities for a long time to have a child. And despite performing austerities for a long time, he had not been able to have a child. So, finally, he went to the great Rishis.

And the Rishis told him that we will give you a special mantra. You chant this mantra. This mantra will fulfill your desire.

And then they gave him the Hare Krishna. And Nanda Maharaj chanted the holy names. He performed worship of Lord Narayana very intensely.

And then, finally, now his desire was fulfilled. So, Nanda Maharaj was out in the field at that time. So, they asked a Brahmin, an elderly Brahmin who was wearing white saree and her hair was white because of the heat.

And they told him, please go and inform Nanda Maharaj. So, that old lady sat with Rani. And when she came to Nanda Maharaj, she offered a respect and told her, a great joy has descended into your life.

Your innermost desire has been fulfilled. You have got a son. And Nanda Maharaj heard this.

His heart jumped with joy. And his heart had been like a small pond which had been dried up because of the heat. The heat of not having a child.

And now when he heard that he had got a child, it appeared like the pond had suddenly been filled, not with a huge torrential shower, a huge torrential shower, not of water, but of nectar. He felt as if he was swimming and bathing and drinking and feasting in the heavenly nectar. It is there in Nandan Gardens.

He felt as if he was swimming in the celestial ganges. He is joining nobodies. He ran to the palace where the baby was.

And when he came inside the palace and he looked at the baby and he saw the beauty. He became petrified and he turned to the street. He looked like a painting, like a person in a painting or an image sculpted in the street.

And as he was beholding the beautiful form of Krishna, there was no emotion in any part of the body. The only emotion was the tears that were running down his eyes, the tears of joy. And then the lady of the palace said, would you embrace your child? And the Maharaj came back to his consciousness and like a person waking up.

And he immediately went and offered a child to the lady and asked her to embrace the child. And as soon as he touched the child, he felt as if currents of joy were permeating through his body. And he looked at the child, first he was wonderstruck by the beauty of the child.

Then he was wonderstruck by how much joy the child radiated. What it radiated was this, it was this, his own son. I had a son that brought happiness or I had happiness that incarnated as a son.

It's amazed. And then he started embracing and fondling the child. And then Nanda Maharaj started giving charity.

It's said that when Nanda Maharaj started giving charity, he gave such profuse charity that he put the desire trees, the Surabhi cows and the Chintamani stones to shave. The desire trees, the desire trees actually can heal whatever we desire. But they didn't heal it or the Surabhi cow can give whatever we desire.

But they give it when we ask for it. But Nanda Maharaj was giving charity even without asking. Anybody who would give whatever charity they wanted and didn't want, he was just profusely giving charity.

He was giving cows, he was giving silk, he was giving jewels, he was giving gold. And the joy of his heart was unlimited. And by Krishna's mercy, his treasury was unlimited.

And the charity that he gave was also unlimited. And then under the loving protection of his parents, Krishna started growing. And as he was growing, Krishna had the name giving ceremony.

So, Kargadhar Muni came and he very trickily told, you know, your son is just like Narayan. So, just like Narayan. Also, because he had told like this, so whenever Krishna would kill any demons, so what Nanda Maharaj would think that at that time when Krishna has to fight with, Krishna is just my child.

But whenever he has to fight with demons, the power of Narayan enters into him and kills the demon. And then afterwards, the power leaves him. So, then he will come, he is my child.

He will say, I have to protect him. So, Kargadhar told him, very, he didn't want to tell him that he is Narayan. But he told him, he is Narayan and he will not be able to reciprocate love with him.

So, he told him, he is just like Narayan. And then as Krishna started growing up, then the name giving ceremony was there. Now, Krishna and Balaram were always together.

So, because Krishna and Balaram were together, so whenever the parents, Rohini or Yashoda or Nanda Maharaj, they would call, Krishna, Ram. So, at that time, both of them would turn their heads. They couldn't make out which is whose name.

And seeing this, both of them, Yashoda and Rohini would start laughing. And then they said, we should separate these two babies. Otherwise, they will never learn.

And they would, when they would keep the babies at a separate distance, they would say, Krishna. And both of them would turn and say, oh, he has gone towards her. He is Krishna.

And Ram, Krishna would turn and say, oh, he has gone there. That means, that is Ram. And then they started recognizing their names.

And then they started speaking the first words. The first word that they spoke was, Mama. Then, Dada, that is speaking.

And then they learned each other's names. So, Krishna would call, Rama. Sorry, Balaram would call, Krishna.

And interestingly, Krishna would not call Balaram as Rama. He would call him as, Dauji. Dauji, Dau, Dau, Dauji.

Because he is the older brother. The older brother should be addressed with respect. So, actually, even later on in the Bhagavatam, if you read the Krishna book, Krishna very rarely refers to Balaram as Balaram.

Only in an official assembly, when somebody is supposed to be there. And then, no, Lord Balaram will go there for this purpose. But otherwise, if he has a personal address, he will always call him as, Dauji.

Actually, so, that is Krishna in his babyhood is teaching us what is culture. Culture means essentially respect. The essence of culture is not the dress that we wear.

The essence of culture is not the hairstyle or the lip style or the neck style we have. The essence of culture is how we are respecting others. So, actually, if there is no respect, that means there is no culture.

So, now in the modern times, I saw one family where, you know, all the boys would come to meet me. So, I just get Sandy here. We were talking about Sandy.

I thought he is a family dog or something. I said, who is Sandy? Oh, that is my grandfather. What? So, you know, calling your grandfather, first of all, by his name itself is not good.

And to call by nickname is too much. So, there is no respect, you know. Sometimes, so, you call the parent by the first name.

Wives call their husband by the first name. They think that it is actually intimacy. But, you know, intimacy can develop, intimacy means very close affectionate relationship.

Intimacy can develop only after respect, never before respect. Intimacy is a result of respect. It can never be the source of respect.

So, first, we have to develop a respectful relationship. Whenever we meet other devotees, we always call them Prabhu. Sometimes somebody wants to say, oh, I am so intimate with him.

I do not have to call him Prabhu. He understands. And I also understand.

But actually, that is prejudice. You know, first, we have to develop respect for others. And the external, first of all, at least we should do external respect.

But then internally, we have respect or not, that is not so easy to cultivate. Actually, externally, we should respect the calling people as Prabhu. And then after that, gradually, the internal respect will come.

And in the very advanced stage, we may call people intimately. But I have seen even sannyasis when they write to each other. For example, once I was in Raghunath Maharaj's office.

At that time, Lee Raj Maharaj's phone had come. So, when the phone was picked up, he was asking, can I please speak to His Holiness Raghunath Swami Maharaj? So, he is his girlfriend, but he is also addressing so respectfully. And I have seen most of these sannyasis also.

Like, I get to edit their books. So, when I am here with Maharaj or Raghunath Maharaj, they write me. They write.

I am like their son or their disciple or their nephew. They write, my dear Chaitanya Charan Prabhu. Why? They don't need to see that.

At all do they. So, if a guru can call his disciple as Prabhu, at least we can call our godbrother than our equal as Prabhu. We should not think that we are so advanced that we don't need to call Prabhu.

So, when we have respect for others, then gradually that respect will mature into intimacy. But the Western idea is that because I am intimate, I don't have to show any respect. But then that relationship doesn't last for very long.

In the companies, nowadays in software companies, they don't call the boss as sir. They say, just call the boss by the first name. It seems very intimate.

But the boss will let you call him by the first name, but you know he may understand. He will squeeze your blood till the last drop. If you don't do work, then first name, last name, nothing matters.

You will be fired immediately. In India, the boss, early in Indian culture, you respect the boss and the boss, even if you are not able to do the work, you fall sick or something like that, the company or the employer is there to take care. So, relationships actually are nourished by respect.

It's not easy to offer respect. It's said that nourishing a relationship is like watering a tree. Now, initially, you have to spend a lot of time for watering a tree and there's no result.

But when the tree grows, the tree gives a shelter in place. So, like that, initially, you have to spend a lot of time being respectful, being very careful, being very loving. And gradually, there is the fruit.

From birth, we get shelter. We get fruit. We get shelter when we are in trouble.

We get the fruit of love, warmth, care, understanding. All these results, then initially, there is respect. So, now, as Krishna and Balaram started growing, they started playing.

So, first, they learned to turn around. Now, every event in Krishna's life was a festival. But he was lying on his back and he turned around.

Then there was a festival. Then he started walking. There was a festival.

So, Mother Yashoda would tell him to walk. And she was going to make him walk and make him hold his hand. And then, as he was walking, and he was very frightened that he'll fall down.

And then, as he was walking, walking, suddenly, Mother Yashoda would pull off her hand. And Krishna would look frightened. That Lord is the shelter of the whole world.

And he would say, if I don't have the shelter, I look very frightened. Mother Yashoda would run ahead. She said, come here, come here.

And then, Krishna would pretend as if he cannot walk. And somehow, he would walk and run to his mother and catch her mother's legs. And Mother Yashoda would feel so happy.

And then, Mother Yashoda, as he learned to walk, then she put ankle bells on her legs, on his legs. Of course, there were ankles all the time. And ornaments were there all the time.

The ankle bells were there. And when Krishna would walk, ching, ching, the ankle bells would ring. And Krishna would wonder, where is the sound coming from? Is somebody hiding? And again, he would, ching, ching.

Again, he would wonder, where is the sound coming from? And this small child would become frightened. Is somebody hiding here? Is somebody going to attack me? And his face, which was officially going to puzzle bed, changed to here. And again, he would walk, ching, ching.

And then, Rohini and Yashoda, they would see this. They would start laughing, laughing, laughing. And then, Krishna would see them laughing.

And he would look at them with his eyes wide with fear. And he would turn and walk, ching, ching. And then, he would become more frightened.

And he would start running. And when he was running, the ankle bells would sound, ching, ching, ching. And Krishna would become more frightened.

He would run and hide himself in his mother's sari. And both of them would start laughing. And then, I started growing.

And there, Upananda, Nanda Maharaj had five brothers. They are five brothers. Upananda, Abhinanda, Nanda, Sunanda and Nandana.

So, Nanda Maharaj was like the middle of all. So, actually, Nanda Maharaj was, although the middle one, he was the most illustrious monk. So, Jigokaswami, in his Gopal Champu, says that, perhaps, we can compare Nanda and Upananda.

But, he says, Nanda and Upananda were the most illustrious, most talented, the most expert in weaponry, was Arjuna. But, he says, it is not an adequate comparison. Because, all the five Pandavas were the objects of affection for mother Kulti.

But, he says, Nanda had such beautiful qualities, that Nanda was the sole object of affection for his parents and for everyone. Not that others were neglected. But, the love for him was so overwhelming.

So, that father was Parjanya. That Parjanya's father was Devamitra. So, Devamitra had two wives.

One wife was a Kshatriya. One wife was a Vaishya. So, from the Kshatriya wife, the son that was born was Surasena.

And Surasena's son was Vasudeva. And from Devamitra's other wife, the Vaishya wife, the son that was born was Parjanya. And Parjanya's, one of the sons was Nanda.

So, Nanda and Vasudeva were related like that through their grandfather. They were distant cousins. So, when he was to be coronated, when Devamitra, when he handed over one part of his kingdom to Surasena, another part of the kingdom to Parjanya.

And Parjanya, when he became old, he decided to retire and focus on devotional service entirely. Then he wanted to hand over the throne. So, he handed over the throne to his oldest son, Upananda.

And there was a big ceremony. So, Vasudeva and all the elders from their family, from Mathura, they were all there. And he came and put the crown on Upananda's head.

And Upananda accepted the crown. And then he got up from the throne. And he went and placed the crown on Upananda's head.

Upananda trembled in fear. He folded his hands and then Upananda turned to the samjha. And he said, extremely profound words of history.

He said, leadership is based on affection. Affection, how can somebody become a leader? It's not just a post. It's not that you get a post.

Oh, you are made into a leader. So, therefore, you are the leader. That sort of leader will not last for very long.

So, leadership is based on affection. So, only when the followers feel affection for the leader, can the leader go on. It's like we see Srila Prabhupada, he was an old person.

And generally, if you see in most families, the old person is just kept neglected somewhere. People don't even want to come, they don't want to see him. And especially, they don't want others to see him.

When guests come to the house, let him be in a corner. So, Prabhupada, so many young people were ready to lay down their life for him. Why? Because there was affection.

This is leadership arises from affection. Affection arises when there is sweet behavior. Why did people feel affection for Srila Prabhupada? Because Prabhupada was so sweetly behaved.

He loved so much everyone. Affection comes when there is sweet behavior. And sweet behavior is possible when there are good qualities.

So, therefore, ultimately leadership is based on qualities. Leadership is based on affection. Affection is based on behavior.

Behavior is based on qualities. So, then he said, the qualities of Randa are such that he does not deserve to rule Andhra Pradesh, but rather he deserves to rule the whole world. Therefore, let him rule our kingdom on my behalf.

I hand the kingdom over to him. By the service to his older brother, on his instruction, Nanda Maharaj accepted the rule. Nanda Maharaj actually the very word Nanda means to give.

Nanda means Ananda. One who gives happiness to others is a Nanda. So, the word Nanda means Nanda, one who gives happiness to others.

And the word Yashoda means Yashada. Yashada means fame. One who gives fame to others.

So, actually, Krishna has illustrated parents that Nanda would give happiness to others and Yashoda would give fame to others. But when Krishna came in their lives, Krishna gave Ananda to Nanda and Krishna gave Yashoda to Yashoda. That is Krishna's inconceivable ability.

So, in this way, Krishna had very beautiful pastimes as Nanda Maharaj's father. So, Nanda Maharaj, although he was the third son, he became the king. But whenever Upananda would give any suggestion, Nanda Maharaj would take it as instruction.

And in this, Jiva Goswami compares the relationship between Nanda and Upananda to the relationship between Chitrangada and Bhishma Pitamah. So, Bhishma Pitamah was older. But Bhishma Pitamah had taken a vow that I will not become the king.

Chitrangada and Vichitravirya were the younger brothers. They became the king. But they would always follow the instruction of Bhishma.

Of course, the generation after that, Dhritarashtra and Duryodhana never followed Bhishma. But, so I said, in this way, Nanda would always follow the instruction. So, therefore, Upananda suggested, let us leave and order Nanda Maharaj again.

So, Upananda's wife was like the grand old lady of the house. So, one day, she came to Krishna and said, Krishna, show me your teeth. Krishna became very shame-faced.

My teeth have not yet come. My teeth have not yet come. And here the graceful Krishna caught him and embraced him and started laughing.

And as Krishna started growing, he started playing around. And we know how he would go around, stealing butter. So, initially, as he grew up, he learned to walk.

And then he started, at that time, so the first demoness who came was Udala, when he was still a breath-sucking baby. Then the next demon was Dronava, Shaktasura. Then was Dronava.

So, these three were there. And then after that, even when Krishna was still drinking his mother's milk, actually, even when Krishna grows up, this is the mystery of Krishna Lila, that in the spiritual world, Krishna's eternal age. Eternal age.

Because Krishna has an age. Is there time in the spiritual world? Yes, there is time in the spiritual world. But that time does not control or destroy.

That time just creates variety for Krishna's pastimes. In this material world, when there is time, that time controls. Just like when you go for a yatra to Mayapur.

It feels so wonderful. But then the yatra ends and you have to come back. So, because time controls.

If you are late for a train, the train goes away. So, time controls everything. And time destroys.

Time makes you put into hold. In Krishna Lila, time doesn't control and time doesn't destroy. When Krishna wanted to perform Rajasthi Lila, at that time, he expanded time.

So, that one night was like one Brahma's night. And the gopis performed wonderful pastimes with Krishna during that time. Krishna then expanded.

And similarly, when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would perform Sankirtan at night, the devotees would be so ecstatic. And while the sun would come, sun would start rising, the devotees would get so angry at the sun. Why are you rising? It is described in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that their anger seemed to be so great, it appeared as if by their anger they would burn the sun only.

So, time doesn't control in the spiritual world. And time doesn't destroy. So, in the spiritual world, everyone is eternally of the same age that they are.

So, Yashodamayi and Nanda Maharaj are elderly. They are not old, they are just middle aged sort of, 40-something years old. And then, the only old person in Vrindavan is Poorna Maasi.

Poorna Maasi is one elderly lady. She is like the grandmother of the whole village of Vrindavan. And she is the advisor.

So, she advises what should be done, how it should be done. So, Krishna's eternal age in the spiritual world is 15 years. He is Kishore.

Now, Krishna's pastimes from his age of 1 to 5 are called as Kumar Vrindavan. Then, 5 to 10 are called as the Bhauban Vrindavan. And 10 to 15 are called as the Vaishya Vrindavan.

So, although Krishna lived only for 10 years in Vrindavan, actually, his age from 1 to 3 was like 5 years. He arranged the time in such a way. Although Krishna lived for 10 years in Vrindavan, from the age of 1 to 3 when he lived, that was equivalent to 5 years.

So, 1 to 3, I mentioned earlier, where they lived in Gokul. That was his Kumar Leela. Then 3 to 6, when he was in Vrindavan, that was his Bhauban Vrindavan.

And 6 to 10, when they moved to Vrindavan, that was the time of his Vaishya Vrindavan. So, each of these forms is conducive for a particular rasa. And the Kumar Leela is most conducive for Vasa Sanyas.

So, Mother Yashoda and Nanda Maharaj, even when Krishna grows up to be 15 years, they still see Krishna like a small 3-4 year old child. And, Yoga Maya arranges everything in such a way. That Krishna's Kishore Roop is the original form, eternal form.

But that Kishore Roop contains all the other forms. And when Krishna is reciprocating love with any particular devotee, accordingly that form manages. So, Yashoda and Nanda Maharaj always see Krishna like a small baby.

It is very beautifully described in Aam Vrindavan Champu by Kavikaran Appu. So, then the Kumar Roop is best for Vasa Sanyas. The Bhauban Roop, Bhauban Roop is from 5 to 10, that is the best for the Sakhya Rasa.

That is, the Bhauban Roop is called the Sakhya Rasa Vigraha. That is the, that is the Vigraha, which is, Vigraha that is formless, that is the shelter for Sakhya Rasa. And for Madhurya Rasa, it is Kishore Roop from 10 to 15.

So, Krishna performs very beautiful, sweet pastimes in each of these ages. And those particular devotees eternally see him like that. They eternally see him, even when he becomes middle-aged, if Nanda Maharaj and Yashoda see him, just like a small boy, even he is their protection.

So, as Krishna was performing his pastimes, he would conquer the hearts of everyone of them. So, I have not even started the Dig Brahman pastime. Maybe we will discuss that tomorrow.

But I will tell one brief pastime, which will end, and then we will have a question and answer session, if you have any. So, when Krishna, as a Kumar Roop, he started, one of the first activities he started doing was stealing butter. So, he would go from house to house, and he would steal butter.

And he would come back. So, the Gopis, they noticed that the butter in their house is missing. So, initially, Krishna would steal butter in his own house.

One time he was stealing butter, a small baby. So, he is in a pot and stealing, and he is throwing it. He is looking around for it, looking like a thief.

Suddenly, he saw, there is somebody watching him. He looked very careful. Actually, Nanda Bhavan had such shining transparent walls, not transparent, reflecting walls, and he saw his own form over there.

And Krishna thought, this is somebody else's. What are you doing? That person was asking, what are you doing? That person said, shhh. Krishna was wondering, what is happening? Krishna went up, and he took up to that, and he took some butter in his hands.

He says, Don't tell your mother, I will give you some butter too. And Krishna started taking the butter and putting it on the wall, and he was wondering, what is going into his mouth? And actually, I was watching everything from out there. And when she saw Krishna's bewildered face, she was watching all this, and she was smiling, but when she saw Krishna's bewildered face, she could not resist.

She started laughing. And then, Krishna realized, oh, I have got it. And then, he first tried to put his hand behind his back.

And then, he realized, there is butter over there. He started licking. And then, he realized, I have got it.

And then, he said, I am not stealing, he is stealing. I am not stealing, he is robbing. And I was trying to stop him.

I was telling him that you will punish him. Catch him and punish him. So, he caught and embraced him, and started caressing him.

So then, Krishna started going up, and he started going out. He started stealing in other remote houses, other elderly people's houses. So, when you start stealing there, he would go through the windows alone.

Like a planned, organized thing. You watch him, you tell him, Krishna, I will watch in this direction. You watch in this direction.

And then, he would watch. And then, when nobody is there, he would also climb in through the window, go through the door. He would search and steal the butter, and eat the butter.

And eat the butter. And when they would finish eating, they would start giving charity to the monkeys. They would give to the monkeys.

And then, the Gopis would come. And they would say, Krishna, what are you doing? And they would start rallying. Hey, why are you stealing our butter? Since you are butter, who will steal? Even these monkeys don't want to eat your butter.

And then, he would go. And then, the Gopis would try to catch him. And they couldn't catch him.

And then, eventually, one day, the Gopis decided to make a plan. They didn't catch him. So, all of you know that bell passed time.

So, Krishna decided that what we will do is. So, the Gopis decided that on the butter pots, we will tie bells. So, when Krishna puts his hand inside the butter pot, all the bells will ring.

And then, it was all dark. And then, Krishna came. Krishna came, just touched.

And saw there is something here. These Gopis have planned to catch me. They think they are clever.

They don't know who I am. So, he clapped his hands off. And he called the demigod in control of bells.

And he told her, don't ring. Whatever you order, I am asking, shh, don't ring. And then, Krishna started climbing up the pot.

And then, he put the hand in the pot. And started eating. And as he was eating, all the bells started ringing.

And he said, run, run, run. And he started running. And as he was running, Krishna was running also.

He was angry also. He said, demigod of the bells, I told you not to ring. He said, yes, my lord.

Yeah, you told me not to ring. But I was in a dharma sankat. What happened? What do you mean? Krishna was running.

And the demigod was also running with him. What happened? He said, actually, the scriptures instruct me that whenever bhoga is offered to the lord, I should always ring. I am not the lord in Vrindavan.

Get out of here. Never ring here after. And all the time, Krishna decided that.

But still, the gopis couldn't catch him. They ran away. But the gopis decided that this time, we will all hide in the same room.

That time, they had thought that we will keep the bells and we will do our work. And when Krishna comes, the bell will ring. And then, we will come and catch.

But they would run away. Because they were hiding there itself. They were hiding in the same room.

And Krishna came. Now, Krishna has one friend. Most of the Krishna's friends are Vaishyas.

One friend is a Brahmana. He is Madhumangal. Madhumangal has another name called Kusumasa.

Kusum is flower. Asa is the essence. The nectar which comes out of it.

So, Kusumasa speaks very sweet, nectarian words. Other name is Batu Vijaraj. You know, in that song.

Jai Radhe, Jai Krishna. Batu is small. Vijaraj is the best among the Brahmanas.

So, he is a little fatty. And he has a little lame leg. So, he can't run very fast.

But he is a Brahmana. Very proud of being a Brahmana. So, he also comes with all the Gopas to steal butter.

So, one day. And this Madhumangal has one characteristic. He likes to eat a lot.

He has a big belly. He has a big belly. So, what happened? All the Gopas came to steal the butter.

And when they came to steal the butter, they had all surrounded the pot. And they were about to eat. Put in the hand a lot.

And the Gopis are like, we caught you now. And Bago, Krishna and all the Gopas started running. They ran to the window and the Gopis were catching him.

Now, Krishna is male. And all the Gopas are male. And the Gopis are female.

So, Krishna is stronger. So, Krishna just jumped up the window and went up. And then from outside, you know, he was pulling each Gopa up and pulling him.

So, Krishna was pulling from above. Gopis were pulling from below. And Krishna pulled and pulled them out.

And then everybody came out. Now, Madhumangal was the last person to run to the window. And when he came out, the Gopis were pulling from below.

And Krishna was pulling from above. But because he had such a heavy stomach, you know, Krishna got exhausted. And the Gopis were pulling from below.

And boom, Madhumangal came down. Then, Thief! Now we will beat you up. And they all started beating him.

Beating him top, bottom. Like, dramatically. Madhumangal was frightened and bitter.

And he was wondering what to do. Krishna has also run away now. Who will save me? And suddenly he got an idea.

Stop! Wait. Don't you know who I am? I am a Brahmana. And he pointed out his threat.

He said, If you offend me, I will curse you. You know the power of a Brahmin as well. He became a little frightened.

Some of them were young Gopis also. Some of them were little bit aged Gopis. So he became frightened.

What will he curse? He said, I will curse you. And you will get married to a 70 year old man who already has 7 wives. And they became very frightened.

And he said, please don't curse him like this. Please don't curse him like this. So he said, please forgive us for offending you.

He said, the words alone are not enough. If you want me to forgive you, then you must offer me prasad. He said, what do you like? He said, Ladoos.

Get Ladoos. And all the Gopis went to their home and they got Ladoos. And then he ate Ladoos.

His stomach became bigger. And then he carried Ladoos and he came back to Krishna. Krishna said, you went to steal water, you couldn't get butter.

But I got Ladoos and came back. Krishna said, oh you are very clever. Very clever.

He said, but don't come with us again. Because next time you will not get Ladoos. So then, all these Gopis decided that they will come and complain to Krishna.

Complain to Yashodamayi. So when they came to Yashodamayi, at that time, what Krishna did, Krishna was very intelligent. So Krishna went and he stole butter.

And when he came back, he came from a backside. And he pretended to sleep. And then Yashodamayi said, your son, Yashodamayi, Yashodamayi, the Gopis came and said, your son is so naughty.

He creates trouble for all of us. What happened? Actually he is constantly coming and pestering us. He spoils our house cleanliness.

He steals butter. He spills butter. He wastes so much of the treasure of our house.

We should discipline him. We should punish him. Krishna is stealing butter.

Krishna has not woken up till now. He is still sleeping. Krishna is very intelligent.

What he did was, when his mother Yashoda came, he was sleeping. When he went and he stole butter and came back, Yashoda came and saw, he is still sleeping only. He is still sleeping.

And at that time, Krishna woke up. Krishna pretended as if he is rubbing his eyes. I am hungry.

I am hungry. And Yashoda and other Gopis said, don't believe him. He is expert at doing false dramas.

What happened? Krishna said, I am hungry. He said, they are telling that you are stealing butter at their house. Butter at their house? Yes.

You make such good quality butter. Their butter is so low quality. What? Even if they give you butter as charity, I will not take it.

So, the elderly Gopis were very frustrated. Yashoda said, you have already spoken enough bad names to Krishna. And you have chastised him enough.

Now leave him alone. Gopis said, ok. Next time, we will catch him and bring him red handed to you.

You are not ready to believe us. Yashoda took an embrace. He said, Krishna, Krishna, when you steal butter at our home, it is alright.

Especially small baby. But, if you steal butter outside, then, who will give their daughter in marriage to you? So, Krishna, I told him, why are you blaming me for nothing? And at that time, Nanda Maharaj came back home. And then Nanda Maharaj, Krishna just jumped out.

And he ran to Nanda Baba, Nanda Baba. What happened? Why I am being chastised for nothing? What happened? Yashoda told the whole story. Both Nanda Maharaj and Yashoda love Krishna very much.

But when Yashoda gets angry, whenever there is a difference, when Yashoda is chastising Krishna, Nanda Maharaj always takes the side of Krishna. Nanda Maharaj became very grave. And he said, that, that person who has chastised Krishna, deserves to be chastised.

And Krishna was in Nanda Maharaj's lap. He pointed to Yashoda. He pointed to Yashoda.

And Nanda Maharaj turned to Krishna. He said, Krishna, now you need not go to Yashoda. You can just stay in my lap.

And as soon as Krishna heard this, Krishna jumped off Nanda Maharaj's lap and went to Yashoda's lap. And seeing this unpredictable, childish, sweet behavior of the children, both of them started laughing. And then, next time the Gopis planned properly, this time we will catch Krishna only.

So next time Krishna went to steal butter. At that time, the Gopis were in the same room. Krishna went in to steal butter.

And then Gopis decided, we will not try to catch all the Gopas. Because the leader of all of them is Krishna. Even if we catch the other Gopas, it is not of much use.

If we catch Krishna, and Krishna is chaste and disciplined, then that will solve the whole problem. So, when all the Gopas saw that this Gopi is coming, then she just ran straight to Krishna. All of them tried to run away.

But she ran straight to Krishna and she caught Krishna by that. And pakad liya, I caught you now. Now I will take you to your mother.

They started parading him through the street. Krishna said, mere bezati mat karo aise. Don't disgrace me like this.

If you want to take me, at least cover my face that everybody will not see me. And she said, okay, let's cover your face. She had her own one of her own sari cloth was there.

She put it on his face. And Krishna was going along. Krishna was going along and in those days, the Gopas and Gopis would get married at a very young age.

They would not stay together, but they would get officially married. So, Krishna was going along. And as he was going along, at that time, Krishna told the Gopis, you are holding my hand so tightly that my hand is paining.

My hand is so tender. And you, you grind the mortar. Your hand is so tough.

My hand will break. He says, at least you know, you hold my other hand. So, Krishna spoke so sweetly.

The Gopis could not resist. And Krishna said, okay. And what Krishna had done was, the Gopas, this Gopi was married and he had an older sister.

Who was married to? One of the Gopas was a friend of Krishna. So, that Gopa was right there. Krishna blinked at him.

And when she released the hand, Krishna ran away and that Gopa came over. And because the cloth was on the face, she could not see that. And she touched the hand and started going along.

And Krishna ran by the back door and again he went to his room. And he laid down in bed. Peacefully sleeping.

And then the Gopis came. Yashoda, look! I have caught your Kana. I have caught your Kana now.

Kana? Where is she? And Kana? Kana is sleeping at home. And then Krishna came and said, I am very hungry. And then she became really bewildered.

I just caught you. And she picked up the cloth and she saw Devarji. And she was so bewildered.

Bewildered. Yashoda said, I told you. You are just making false accusations against my Krishna.

Now, just see. You have got your own brother-in-law in the name of my Krishna. If he is stealing, then punish him.

Why are you complaining and accusing about my Krishna? Gopi was completely bewildered. I saw Krishna. I captured Krishna.

Now how has he come over? And then completely bewildered. Krishna from the wall of his house, he climbed on the wall of his house. Srinu! Next time you try to catch me, I will become your husband.

And he made a big face at her and went away. And Gopi went back completely bewildered. And then another… In this way, Krishna performed so many sweet pastimes.

You know that one time, Madhureshwara told him again and again the complaints were coming. I will actually remove all the ornaments. Why don't you keep all the ornaments? But in a dark place, Krishna will not be able to see.

No, Krishna has ornaments. And his ornaments are shining so much that he will see anywhere. Okay, then I will remove the ornaments.

I will remove the ornaments. But you know, actually, his body itself has an effulgence. So, wherever he goes, it becomes warm.

It becomes bright. Okay, then Srinu said, I will tie up Krishna and I will not let him go out of the house. Then Gopi thought about it.

But then they went and they thought No, if you tie up Krishna, then what is the use of making our butter? What is the use of making butter? So, another time, when Gopi came to Krishna and she said, Krishna, come, I will give you some butter. Krishna turned to her. Am I a beggar? Am I a beggar? Then I will come and take charity from you.

And she just embraced Krishna. And then she gave him something to eat. Another time, Krishna was playing in the mud.

You know, making some castles, making some houses. That lord who makes all the universes. He was struggling to make castles.

Everyone, Gopi came. Krishna, come to my house. I will give you some sweets.

Krishna said, Can't you see? I am busy. I don't have any spare time. And Gopi was fine.

And she caught Krishna. And she took him and she gave him nice sweet foodstuffs. So, the Gopis for them, the whole purpose of making butter was to actually attract Krishna.

To come and steal the butter. And their complaining was also a part of the Leela. So, Krishna, in a small child, if you see there are mothers, they always want to talk about their child.

My child did this. My child did that. And if the child is very simple, gentle, nice, the mothers won't have anything to talk about.

So, Krishna would act as a very mischievous and sweet child, just so that he would give the Rishudas and all the devotees so many things. So much Katha to talk about. As Billa Mangal Thakur in his Chauragraha has to come up with a phrase, Navaneetha Chauram.

Prajiprasidham Navaneetha Chauram Gopam Rananam Chandukula Chauram Aneka Janma Arjita Paapa Chauram Chauragraha Ganyam Purusham Namami He says, Prajiprasidham In that Vrindavan, his Prasidham is famous as Navaneetha Chauram So, my dear lord, that lord, please what do you do? Aneka Janma Arjita Paapa Chauram My dear lord, you please come and steal. My heart is covered by all these sins. Please steal away all those sins.

Actually, lord will come in our heart and steal our heart also. First he comes as the holy name. In the initial stages, the holy name steals away all our sins.

And by that, our heart becomes softened. Our heart is hard like stone. And by the repeated chanting of the holy name, by the repeated remembrance of Krishna, our heart becomes soft.

And when our heart becomes soft, then, when it becomes soft like butter, then butter king Krishna will come and steal our heart. When he steals our heart, then that is the ultimate gain. Now our hearts are stolen by the advertising agencies like this mobile and this car and this girl and this bike.

And they are all very unworthy thieves. The thief that we want to steal our heart is Krishna. When Krishna steals our heart, that is our greatest gain.

For he will come and reside in our heart and that will make us extremely happy. So, when we hear the wonderful pastimes, it's not just for hearing and relishing. We should pray that our heart becomes attracted to Krishna.

And when the heart becomes attracted to Krishna, then there is real happiness. Then the karshan ends and the akarshan brings ananda in our life. So I'll summarize it.

And we'll continue with the pastimes tomorrow. So we started by discussing about how Krishna comes in this world for three external reasons. He comes to destroy, deliver the demons, to protect the devotees, to restore his family.

But the real reason is that he comes to take us back from this miserable material world to this spiritual world. We discussed how this world is always a place of misery. Now I was talking about how Srikantopi wants to go from this world to another planet.

But that planet is also temporary. And that planet also, if we humans go, we'll create problems there also. So the temporary nature we cannot change.

There will be no peace ever in this world. But if we change our consciousness, we can become peaceful. We discussed upon our heart being like a small puddle or being like an ocean.

So if we seek external pleasures, we have very little inner happiness. Then our heart becomes empty. Very little inner happiness.

But if we connect Krishna in our heart, then our heart becomes like an ocean. And external situations don't trouble us. Because we have inner wealth, inner happiness.

Then we discussed about how everybody lives their life based on faith and truth. How people put faith in false things. We discussed about worldwide stupidity.

WWS. What was that? Worldwide Shock. So we discussed how people are working more and more hard on agriculture, industrial, and then how people are being exploited more and more.

Shocked more and more. Modern economy is an economy of un-necessities. And it's unsustainable.

And people are being exploited. So we put our promises here. We discussed about how western culture is so terrible.

Small children are falling prey to asexual deviations and things like that. People have a problem with the world is that the foolish are confident and the wise are doubtful. Because we are unable to put faith in Krishna, we put faith in advertising ideas instead.

So Krishna comes and redeems his own sweet pastimes. So that our heart is going to be attracted. These pastimes are real.

They happen here in this world. And they are eternally happening in the spiritual world. And then we started discussing about Krishna's pastimes.

Childhood pastimes. How when he came, he flooded the heart of Nanda Maharaj with love. All of his love was gone.

And then we discussed especially the childhood pastimes of stealing butter from Krishna. And we pray that Krishna comes and steals our heart also. So we will conclude with one prayer.

I think most of you know this prayer. It goes like Vasudevasudham devam Kamsachanudamardhanam Devakiparamanandam Krishnam vande Jagadguru So you can recite this prayer with me. Vasudevasudham devam So Vasudeva's son is the Supreme Lord.

So Krishna's name is not Vasudeva. It is Vasudeva. Vasudevasudham devam Kamsachanudamardhanam He defeated Kamsa and Chanu.

That wrestler who was a real weapon. And he got a supreme happiness. Devakiparamanandam That Krishna who is the spiritual master of the whole world.

Krishnam vande Jagadguru. I offer my respectful obeisance to him. Vasudevasudham devam Vasudevasudham devam Kamsachanudamardhanam Vasudevasudham devam Kamsachanudamardhanam Vasudevasudham devam Kamsachanudamardhanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadguru Krishnam Vande Jagadguru Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadguru Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadguru Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadguru Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadguru Devaki paramanandam krishnam vande jagadguru, devaki paramanandam krishnam vande jagadguru, vasudevasutam devam kamsa chanuh mardanam, vasudevasutam devam kamsa chanuh mardanam, devaki paramanandam krishnam vande jagadguru, devaki paramanandam krishnam vande jagadguru.

So I'll recite it full once and you can listen to the rest of it. Vasudevasutam devam kamsa chanuh mardanam, devaki paramanandam krishnam vande jagadguru, vasudevasutam devam kamsa chanuh mardanam, devaki paramanandam krishnam vande jagadguru, krishnu bhagwan ki jai, krishnu prabhupada ki jai, gaur bhakta ki jai, jai gaur prabhupada ki jai. Do you have any questions? We can discuss during prasad.

Prasad, are you ready? Any questions? Generally, marriage should not be within the same kotra, but when Krishna comes, Krishna by omnipotence can neutralize these material influences. So these material influences don't apply to Krishna or his immediate associates. That's why there can be marriages like that.

Especially when, generally when the kotra is not the same, but even when the kotra is the same, because Krishna is the Supreme Personality of God, and he is in charge of above all these kotras, they don't influence when Krishna jaya prabhupada. Yes. I heard that Kaliva actually begins from the time when Shami Krishi had first, like that first, started as Krishna, to Parikshit Maharaj.

So was it the same time when Krishna left? See, how it is, that the moment Krishna left, Kaliva started. The personality of Kali came to this world. Kali is also a person, Kali is also like a demigod.

He has no imposed. And he has the service of providing facilities for demoniac enjoyment for those souls who are rebellious of Krishna. So, in Kali Yuga, those souls, sometimes when you filter liquid, sometimes the gross dirt comes out first, the subtle dirt comes out, and what remains is pure.

But with respect to the Yugas, it's the opposite. The purest souls, they go back in Satyuga. What remains goes away in Tridaya Yuga.

What remains goes back in Dampari Yuga. Those souls who are the most dirty, those who could not pass through the filters of time and mercy, the refused remnants from all the other Yugas, they come in Kali Yuga. So, when we consider modern science, modern Yugas, we are the most progressive of all ages.

It's just an indication of great false ego that we have. But for those souls, Kali provides the facility. So, as soon as Krishna left, Kali Yuga officially started.

But as long as Parishad Maharaj was the king, although Kali was there in the kingdom, Kali had no influence. So, it was that by Parishad Maharaj's virtuous rule, he could keep Kali in check. But when Parishad Maharaj got Kali off, Kali got Parishad Maharaj off the scene, through shrinking, then Kali Yuga took control, or rather Kali took control.

So, that means Kali Yuga started officially from that time, but Parishad checked the influence of Kali during his rule. Yes. To leave this contribution to Lord Krishna, there is Vatsalya Ras, then this all in veneration is correct, but then again when you see the relationship of Devaki and Vasudev with Lord Krishna, there is the Vatsalya Ras, but there is all in veneration because of which the love that Yashodamayi and Nandamaharaj, we are giving to Lord, like Lord is completely dependent upon Yashodamayi and Nandamaharaj, but here it is not like that.

Vatsalya Ras explains the same thing with another example. Like Arjuna is also a Sakha of Krishna, and Shridhama, Madhumangal, Stokha Krishna, Varunthapa, Devaprastha, all these are also Sakha of Krishna. But what is the difference? He says Arjuna's relationship with Krishna is called as Gaurav Sakhi, and Shridhama, their relationship is called Vishwarambha Sakhi.

Gaurav means, although in general in Sakhi there is friendship, but that friendship is also with some avant reverence. Because, of course there is some avant reverence which we see when Arjuna sees the Vishwaroop of Krishna. Sakheti Vatvaa Parthabhangi Durgale, He Krishnahe Yadave Sakheti, Maya Ajanta Mahimanantavedam, Arjuna says, My dear Lord, please forgive me, for not knowing your glory, Ajanta Mahimanantavedam, Ajanta, not knowing Mahima, not knowing Maya, what happened? I joke with you and call you, Hey Krishna, Hey Sakheti, please forgive me.

So, that is of course one time when Arjuna, Arjuna's Sakheti Vatvaa Parthabhangi gets overshadowed by his awareness of Krishna's glory. But in general, although Krishna and Arjuna are intimate, that is more the intimacy of princes or kings. Whereas, this intimacy of Shridhama with Krishna is the intimacy of Gopababas.

It's much closer. That's why Krishna and Arjuna are in Gaurav Sakhi, Sakhi is respected. Whereas, Shridhama and Krishna's relationship is Vishwambha Sakhi.

Vishwambha means very intimate. So, like that, the relationship of Devaki and Vasudeva with Krishna is something like Gauravakshaya. It's Vatsalya, but with some awareness of Krishna's greatness.

Yashodamaya and Krishna, Yashodamaya Nand Maharaj, even when others tell them that he is God, temporarily they will realize it, then they will forget it. Like that. Vatsalya is more intimate, surely in Vrindavan.

That's why it is said that Krishna in Dwaraka is perfect, Krishna in Vrindavan is more perfect. Krishna in Vrindavan is most perfect. So, Aradha Bhagwan Rajesh Dhanas.

So, there are many forms of God, but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has told us that the most worshipable form of God is Krishna as Rajesh Dhanas. So, Rajesh is Nand Maharaj, Dhanaya is Krishna. So, when Krishna appeared, Rajendra Nandana, Rajesh Dhanaya, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu worshiped Krishna.

Tanthama Nandana, the most worshipable abode for us is Nandana. Pramya Kaachita Upasana, Rajendra Dhanu, Vargena Vatramita. Nobody can worship Krishna in a way better than all the gopis have worshipped him.

Sarva Dharman, he gave up everything to Krishna. And all this we learn from where? Shrivad Bhagvatam Pramana Mahaprabhu. The topmost Mahabhag is Shrivad Bhagvatam.

And Prema Kumarpo Maham, the ultimate goal of life is called Moksha. It is Prema. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Madhaviran Pradharanaparam.

This is the pinnacle of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Because he is the supreme God, there is nothing higher than this. These are the five highest things for us.

So, Vrindavan is the highest, Krishna Bhai's love is also the highest. Yes sir. Krishna's age is 15.

So, the childhood pastimes, for example, Krishna growing up happens only in Madhya Pradesh. In the spiritual world, Krishna is eternally of the same age. But, although Krishna is of Keshavar age, he appears like a child to Mother Yashoda.

But the pastimes of growing are not there. So, the childhood pastimes are there in the sense that as a child, Krishna is simply in love with his devotees. His mother Yashoda and his Maharaj.

But, as Krishna is small, Krishna's birth is not there in the spiritual world. Krishna is taking his first steps, Krishna walking, all these things are not there. But, as a child, the rasa of Vatsali is there in the spiritual world.

By the yoga maya put in, Krishna arranges all this. In the spiritual world, Krishna allows time. He allows time to be controlled by time.

Whatever he wants. He doesn't grow beyond it. So, whenever Krishna wants, he allows time.

In one sense, you can say that Krishna appeared in this year and left in this year. And that means Krishna becomes just like another personality. The date when he appeared in it, it disappeared.

So, in that sense, whenever anybody comes in the material world, to some extent, that person we can say comes into the realm of matter. But, that is by his choice. And Krishna is never under the realm of matter.

Because, whenever he wants, he can expand time. Yes. Among the Muslims, they follow a religious system called philosophy called Jihad, in which they, for the sake of religion, they can kill or they can do merciless killing of anybody.

They follow that if somebody comes in the path of religion, then they can kill or they can do anything. So, is that in connection with Quran? What's the philosophy in Quran? Prophet Muhammad, he was also the messenger of Lord. So, how is the philosophy in Quran? Whenever Prasad is ready, you let me know.

You should not delay devotees. Okay. So, Prabhupada appreciated Christianity, Islam, because they accept one God and they accept going to the kingdom of God as the ultimate goal of life.

And he said, there is one article, he referred to Muhammad as Hazrat Muhammad. He came to raise God consciousness. Now, like Prabhupada said Jesus is the son of God, but Prabhupada not exactly said that Muhammad was the messenger of God.

But he said according to the time and place, he tried to raise the consciousness of people. And in that sense, we can say that he was doing the work of God. However, if we look at first the Islamic history and then we look at Prophet Muhammad's history, it is largely a history of violence.

Like he said, we fought a lot of wars. And at times, during the wars also, there was deception that was used. And the deception was considered Fakhr, they call it.

That is the grace of God. So, what they call it, deception being used in service of God. Something like that.

So, since then, see taking his example, the Muslim rulers have been quite barbaric. And they have wrecked a lot of devastation. Now, in their religion, they have the term Kafir.

Kafir means anybody who does not accept Allah as God and accepts Muhammad as the topmost, at the best and the last Prophet of God. There are the Baha'is who accept Prophet as God, but they accept their leader as a later Prophet. And that is why the Muslims are dead against them and they consider even them to be Kafirs.

So, the idea of Kafir is a hotly debated idea. If you go to peace conferences, the Muslims will quote, the Quran has two parts. Basically, Muhammad lived in Mecca.

At the age of 40, he went into a trance. And then, he was born on top of a mountain. And there it is said according to Islamic tradition that the archangel Gabriel, he came to Muhammad and told him, write.

So, Muhammad went and said, I don't know how to write. Write. He said, I don't know how to write.

Write. And then his hand moved and he started writing. Something like that.

And then, from that time onwards, he started getting revelations. So, whenever he would get revelations, he would tell his followers, write this down. And they would write it down.

So, when initially he got revelations at Mecca, none of the relatives or family members or immediate friends of Muhammad excepted him and the revelations. So, he was angry with them. And he left Mecca.

He went to Medina. So, the Meccan revelations are quite soft line. They are about tolerance, brotherhood, friendship.

So, if you go to any peace conference where Muslims are there, I often go to peace conferences, they will quote the verses from the Meccan Quran. So, the Quran has two parts. The revelations which were in Mecca are called Meccan.

And the revelations which were in Medina are called Medinan Quran. So, they will always quote this verse. In religion, there should be no quotes at the words that they quote.

That Islam is a religion of tolerance. But in the Medinan Quran, the revelations are much more hard line. And there in 9.4, there are the words of the school which they use.

That is, kill the kafirs wherever you see them. So, and in the Islamic tradition, because the Medinan revelation was later. So, their understanding is that, if the later, all the revelations are authoritative, but if the later revelation and the earlier revelation contradict, the later revelation is to be considered superior.

So, actually the mullahs in their mosques, they will always talk of the later revelation. That the kafirs should be killed. And in peace conferences, they will portray that actually Islam is a religion of tolerance.

So, we as devotees, we appreciate God Consciousness wherever it is there. And we have to appreciate that Islam has made people God Conscious. Many Muslims do namaz very regularly.

And they have some faith in God through that. At the same time, the overall trend has been very aggressive. So, the way Islam has been, and it has largely grown in the life of Muhammad Prophet.

And it is more, it is a religion, which is more a quest for political power, than a quest for spiritual power. Now, Islam, you know, we don't have any celibates. We don't have any people abstaining from polygamy.

Muhammad himself had many wives. In fact, he married one girl when she was six years old. And he married her when she was eleven or something like that.

And she became one of the literary girls. Aisha was her name. So, his life was not like what we would call a sadhu in Vedic tradition.

Or not even what we would call a saint in the Christian tradition. So, he was in some political room. Beyond that, the meaning of the word Kafnir.

So, that word is clearly there. There is one more thing which Airavatar mentioned in his book. There are incidents, at least one incident documented, when Muhammad said, it was a revelation, he said write it down.

And then, afterwards he said, Oh, that is not God's revelation, that is the devil's revelation. The devil had come to me. So, and he told cancel this revelation.

So, now, actually, the Quran was not written down till almost 50-60 years after the Prophet's departure. And Muhammad had told Ali to be his successor. So, Ali was supposed to be the next caliph, they call him.

But there were other people where Ali was like his cousin or something like that. The other people were more power hungry. And while Ali was performing the final rites of Mohammed, they declared somebody else should be the caliph.

So, two, three people, afterwards, Ali eventually became the caliph. By that time he was quite old, he lived for a very short time. So, the teachings that Ali has given are very, very tolerant.

And Ali was the person who was the closest to the Prophet. So, if you look at Ali's teachings, they are very, very tolerant and broad-minded. But the teachings we get in the Quran now, because the Quran was written 40 years afterwards.

So, there may be some verses which have been added also. They are either the devil's revelation or there was the ad-lib. Of course, no Muslim will accept that any verse has been added afterwards.

They say the Quran has not changed at all. But as of now, there are verses in the Quran which are quite heavy against those who don't follow Islam. Now, again, the meaning of kafir is debated.

If you go to peace conferences, they will say the word kafir means that if somebody opposes you in your practice of devotion to God, then he is a kafir and he should be fought with that act. And Islamic scholars will also say that actually kafir also means an inner war. Within all of us, there is a tendency to disobey God.

To fight against the Tanzanians and the Tanzanians constantly conquer the Tanzanians. Some of them, they are Shias and Sunnis. So, they also have their own debates about what is right and what is wrong.

So, anyway, kafir from the point of view of the broad-minded Muslims, which from our point of view, we will see the best part of other religions, the most God-conscious parts. So, we will consider that part to be the actual revelation. So, the jihad means the inner fight against the lower tendencies.

Kafir means the person who opposes us in our practice of religion. But historically, that is not the way Islam has been practiced. And that we could say is the mistake of the Islamic leaders or whatever.

So, as devotees, we want to encourage God-consciousness wherever we can. And therefore, we appreciate if a Muslim practices devotion to God, whatever way he is practicing. At the same time, we also have to be cautious.

Because they just don't have any concept of deity worship. Because at that time, many false gods were being worshipped. And when Muhammad reconquered Mecca, at that time, there was a Kaaba.

Kaaba was a, it's a long history. But Kaaba is considered a sacred place. And there are many idols being worshipped over there.

So, Muhammad went and smashed all the idols. Personally smashed all the idols along with his followers. Of course, there was a picture of Jesus and Mary.

He said, don't tear. He said, remove it, but don't tear it. Don't harm it.

That means, even in the Prophet's actions, there is the indication that there can be some sacred form which need not be desecrated. Which need not be desecrated. Desecrated means vandalized or destroyed.

So, they consider, that is not highlighted in their religion. And their idea is that God is so holy and so pure. And matter is so unholy, so filthy and so contaminated.

There can be no contact between God and matter. The only contact is in the Buddha. So, they consider all deities to be idols.

And because they consider the deities to be false gods. So, therefore, whenever the Muslim rulers would conquer India, one of the first thing they would do is, they would destroy the temples. That's why we know, if you come to Vrindavan, many of the original deities from Vrindavan are now in Jaipur.

Because Jaipur has been ruled by Rajputs. So, they protected the deities. So, historically, Islam has been a religion of intolerance.

It has been a religion of violence against others. And that's how many of the Muslims are brainwashed into the religion. But ultimately, we understand that every soul is a part of God.

And God can give many ways by which he can manifest himself to us. So, Bhaktivinoda Thakur says, it's a long prayer, I'll paraphrase it, long thought. He says that, my dear love, when I see somebody worshipping you in a form different from, when I see you being worshipped in a form different from what I am accustomed to, by a ritual that is different from what I am accustomed to, you know, I am amazed at how much merciful you are.

That you have appeared in this form to this person to accept his worship. And seeing your mercifulness, my devotion to the form that I worship is increasing. How merciful is my love.

So, if we see a Muslim offering prayer, namaz in that frame, or congregating on time to offer their namaz, you know, we can appreciate that this is a beautiful prayer. So, one time, Prabhupada was in Iran. And at that time, the devotees, they were discussing and at that time this, Allah o Akbar, the prayer is there, namaz prayer, loudly it started.

And Prabhupada closed his eyes. He became very meditative, completely absorbed. And he completely silenced throughout the full prayer.

And when the prayer got over, Prabhupada opened his eyes. Eyes were dry. Wasn't that beautiful? So, when the devotees asked, Prabhupada, wouldn't it be better if they chant Hare Krishna? Prabhupada almost fainted.

Why are you making me sectarian? Why are you making me sectarian? That means, Prabhupada was at a broad level. So, at whatever level, people appreciate the worship God. We respect that.

We appreciate that. We recommend that to them. But we understand that Krishna has revealed a much higher and richer form.

And we worship that. At the practical level, if we face threats, we have to protect ourselves. At the same time, we don't have to be hate mongerers.

We don't have to criticize and oppose unless it is necessary. So, we appreciate God consciousness wherever it is. Now, Prabhupada's policy was, if he met some, whenever he would meet some Christians, if they were nominal Christians.

Nominal Christians means, Namke Vasta Christians. Like most of us were nominal Hindus. We are not practicing any Hindu religion at all.

So, if they were nominal Hindus, like Satyaraj Prabhupada has one incident in his life. He was from a Jew family before. So, when he became a devotee, then his family got together.

And he was telling his family members about Krishna consciousness. So, his uncle said, his uncle was known to be atheist. He said, are you trying to convert me? So, Satyaraj was also very interested.

I didn't know that you belong to any religion. I am a Jew. Of course, I am atheist.

But I am a Jew atheist. Now, this has no meaning. A Jew atheist, a Jew is one who follows the commandments of Moses.

And ten commandments are all related to God. Thou shalt love God with all thy heart, all thy mind, and all thy might. One of the most important commandments.

Most important, not one of the most important. When Moses was asked the most important commandment, he said this one. When Jesus was asked, this is the most important commandment.

So, how can there be a Jew atheist? It has no meaning. So, what does this mean? This means religion has become another bodily designation. So, if it becomes a bodily designation, then it has become a part of the false Hindu.

The purpose of religion is to cut through the false ego. To actually bring out the soul's natural God consciousness. But unfortunately, when there is not proper philosophical education, then religion becomes another part of the false ego.

And then, when people are fighting, they are not fighting because of religion. They are fighting because of false ego. And false ego can lead them to fight because of race.

It can lead them to fight because of nationality. It can lead them to fight because of money. Ultimately, it's money and power.

So, religion can also be one of the guards. So, as devotees, we understand that there are different ways to raise God consciousness. If somebody was a nominal Christian, Prabhupada would tell them that actually Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy is unparalleled.

And this is the fastest way to raise your God consciousness. And he would inspire them to become Krishna devotees. But if somebody would be a devout Christian, for example, if there was a Christian priest, Prabhupada would not tell them to convert.

He would say that you have dedicated your life to Jesus. At least follow Jesus now. Jesus and Tao shall not kill.

Stop eating meat. Follow Jesus, Prabhupada. Prabhupada would say, if you read Bhagavad Gita, you will become a better Christian.

You will understand the universal principles of God consciousness. So, the teachings of prelude reincarnation, of karma, of the kingdom of God are much more better dealt with in the Vedic literature. So, in that sense, we are not sectarian.

Ultimately, the soul is neither Hindu nor Muslim. Soul is a part of God, a devotee of God. And whatever ways Krishna has offered for souls to get elevated, we appreciate this.

But we also understand that by Krishna's inconceivable mercy, we have come to a path where the revelation is the clearest and the highest. So, we have to protect this revelation. And if we can, we attract other people to this revelation.

If we cannot, then we have to protect at least those who are practicing it. And others, at whatever level they are practicing, they can practice. So, the ultimate goal of God consciousness is to develop love and affection.

Not to become violent and not to become, means not to force some religious philosophy on somebody. So, the philosophy of Muslims is that, whatever religious philosophy they are following, believing on Allah and this, they are ultimately leading to violence and ultimately leading to rights which they are creating, is they do not develop love. They are more deluded.

That's not the goal of any religion. Although they are following… Well, with all due respect to Hinduism, see, you know, Hinduism is also not much better. Hinduism may not lead to violence, but it has led to sentimentality.

So, how much is Hinduism leading to love for what? May be Zagresh. That may not lead to violence to others. So, basically, we should understand that Hinduism and Islam, are two brands of Maya.

So, Islam may be a little more violent brand of Maya. And Hinduism may be a little more tolerant brand of Maya. But both are Maya.

And we are not battling Islam. We are battling Maya. So, when Muslims are being violent, it is not that they are Muslims violent, they are puppets in the hands of Maya who is making them violent.

What makes people violent is the modes of passion and ignorance. See, we should not divide people by their designation. We have to have a philosophical vision.

So, yes, the history of Islam may be such that people are more passionate and more violent in that. And the history of Hinduism may be that people are more tolerant. That's okay.

But we have to see the philosophical vision that ultimately we are conquering Maya. Of course, if Maya is coming in particular forms which are threatening, we have to accept that. In Islam also there are Sufi saints who are very devout.

So, there are exceptions also. But Transcendentalism is not a focus in Islam, at least as it is practiced today. Thank you very much.