Prahlad M prayers 2 – Steadying and purifying our bhakti

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Pranam Ami Haripriya Vancha Kalpataru Bhascha Kripa Sindhubhya Evacha Patitaanam Pavanebhyo Vaishnavibhyo Namo Namaha Jai Shri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhu Nithyananda Shri Advaita Gadadhara Shri Vasadhi Gaurabhakta Vrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna So today we continue our discussion of the prayers of Prahlad Maharaj. Yesterday we discussed the first theme about humility and how Prahlad Maharaj had all reasons to be proud because he was able to do something that no one was able to do.
None of the demigods are able to pacify the Lord. Still he remained humble. Then we discussed about the difference between humility and inferiority complex.
So today we will discuss the second theme of giving up false shelters in material possessions and pleasures. So today we won’t recite all the verses. We will just focus on some important verses and recite them.
Other verses, we’ll just do a quick overview of those verses. So Prahlad Maharaj first says, My dear Lord, I will glorify you because by glorifying you, I will become purified. So it’s not a question of whether I can succeed in satisfying you.
It’s not a question of whether I have bhakti or not. It is actually you don’t need glorification, but I need purification. Therefore, for my purification, I will glorify you.
And the first concern at hand is that although Lord Narasimhadev has become peaceful, he still has the concern that the devatas, Brahmaji had requested him, please pacify Lord Narasimhadev who is angry with your father or with your father’s atrocities. So then Prahlad Maharaj gets on the task of pacifying the Lord. And then he describes how, My dear Lord, Actually, Ruchira means very sweet, relishable.
This avatar is very ruchira. And what are you doing? You are performing krida. Normally, we can think of Krishna performing krida when he is playing in the forest.
But Lord Narasimhadev with a garland of intestines around his neck, we don’t think of him as krida. But there is a vision of love. And because of that, he says, He says, my dear Lord, you have performed this pastime.
He’s not saying that you performed this pastime to protect me. All the devatas, they were disturbed. And to protect them, you have appeared in this particular form.
Actually, if you see, a devotee never focusses on his glories. A devotee is naturally humble. So he is not taking credit for himself.
He is saying that for the sake of all the demigods, you appeared to deliver them. Now, when Hiranyakashyapu’s atrocities are at its peak, or rather at its nadir, nadir means the lowest, at the worst, at that time, all the demigods along with Brahma, they go and pray to Lord Vishnu. And Lord Vishnu relays a message through Brahmaji that, wait for some time.
When this Hiranyakashyapu starts offending his son, who is my great devotee, then his time will run out. So the Lord has actually come just to deliver Prahlad. But Prahlad Maharaj is thinking, my dear Lord, you have come to deliver all the demigods.
And he’s saying, now all the demigods have become peaceful. He says vibhaya. Vibhaya means freedom from fear.
So he says, not only now have all the demigods become fearless, but just by remembering your fearful form, everybody will become fearless for all time to come. So people will remember you for becoming fearless. Now the question comes up, that how can somebody become fearless in this way, when the Lord who is actually being remembered is so fearsome? He is so frightful to look at.
And then he actually describes the form of the Lord. But while describing the form of the Lord, he says, I am not afraid of this. He starts off by saying, although the form is fearful, I am not afraid.
I know this form is bhyanak, looks frightful. And he’s describing that bhyanak form. So his tongue is lashing out like a sword.
His eyes are like a blazing sun. He’s frowning. His teeth are tough and they’re coming out.
He’s wearing a garland of intestine. He is having the drops of blood smeared on his hair. His ears are stiff and erect.
They also convey the conception of a very strict and stern person. And on top of all this, as if this is not fearful, he’s roaring so loudly that the elephants, normally when they hear a lion roaring, they come. Who is the lion? We want to fight with him.
But here the lion runs away in fear of him. And if somebody is so reckless as to come to him, he just uses his enemies to rip apart. Just by the tip of his nose, he rips them apart.
So I was telling, I just kept this off so that devotees can write down those who wanted to. So we just discussed these two verses. So he’s telling, He says, you have appeared as your pastime to deliver all the devatas.
Then he says, You were angry towards Hiranyakashipu. Hiranyakashipu is killed now. So please become peaceful.
Then this is the verse I said. So he’s describing, I’m not afraid of this. I’m not afraid of you, my dear lord.
Why? Because I know whatever your form is, actually you are filled with love. Your heart is filled with love. There’s a lot of things.
See, you’re so fearless. Although even the demigods were afraid of my form, even Hiranyakashipu, although his enemy, he was afraid of the form. The Bhagavatam describes that when Hiranyakashipu was fighting, he closed his eyes because the lord looked so ferocious.
He was closing his eyes and lunging around with his sword. So he says, Are you not afraid of anything, Prahlad? So if you’re not afraid of such a fearful form, are you not afraid of anything? So then Prahlad replies, what am I afraid of? He says, He says, I am very afraid of what? So he’s using a very beautiful adjective to describe the lord. Normally Krishna is called as One who loves his devotees.
But Prahlad Maharaj’s humility is such that he’s thinking, I’m not a devotee because I was born in a demoniac family. Therefore, I am a Krupana. I’m a materialistic person.
But you are so kind that you live in love, even a materialistic person like me. So he’s calling Krishna as Krupana Vatsala. You love even the Krupanas.
So actually speaking, some religions have the idea of a god who sends to hell all those people who don’t believe in him. He sends them to hell forever. But that is an idea of god which is created by those people’s false ego only.
So, you know, their god is a god who hates those whom they hate. It is like that. But the Bhagavatam reveals god who loves everyone.
And yes, it’s not that Krishna is not concerned about how a person is behaving. He’s concerned if somebody is envious, somebody’s inimical, Krishna may correct that person. But that correction is not because of anger or hatred.
That is also out of love. So there is in the Bhagavad Gita, in the 16th chapter, 19th and 20th verses, Krishna seems to talk something like eternal damnation. He says those demoniac people who do not surrender, who are envious of me, I will cast them to hell forever.
Something like this Krishna says. He says that I will cast those people to hell. Now, Srila Prabhupada translates this very beautifully.
This is envious and mischievous. So now, actually speaking, Dvishataha is envious. Kruran is cruel.
It’s not mischievous. But Srila Prabhupada is giving us a very deep translation. What is he telling us? That from Krishna’s point of view, all living beings are his children.
And if a child is misbehaving, the father may be angry, but that is just a mischief for the father. So sometimes if a father says, if you do this, you will never be allowed into my house again. I’ll throw you out of my house forever.
Now, the emphasis there is not on throwing him out of the house. The emphasis is on don’t do this. So like that, Krishna, what is he saying? His love is expressed as anger and he’s saying, don’t do this.
But he is Krupana Vatsala. And what is the proof that he is Krupana Vatsala? No matter how demoniac a person, Krishna always resides even in their heart. Although their heart is filled with envy, Krishna stays in their heart and tries to guide them.
Tries to guide them to come back to him. And there is nothing that anyone can do that can stop Krishna from loving them. There is nothing that anyone can do that can stop Krishna from loving them.
There is nothing that anyone can do that can make Krishna say, I am fed up with you. I will leave your heart, get lost. Krishna is unfailingly, unflinchingly there with everyone.
So nobody can stop Krishna from loving them. Of course, our actions and our choices may determine the way in which Krishna’s love is expressed, but Krishna always loves everyone. And the proof of this is that Lord Ram tells Sugriva that Vibhishan is coming to surrender.
He is saying that what to speak of Vibhishan, if Ravana comes and surrenders today, I will accept even him. So Krupana Vatsala, he is not just Bhakta Vatsala, he is Krupana Vatsala. And so what is Prahlad Maharaj saying? What am I afraid of? The cycle of material existence is very frightening.
And what is happening in this? I have been thrown into it. So who has thrown into it? So is it that the Lord has thrown us into Samsara Chakra? He says no. By our own past karma, we are bound over here.
And then what is he asking from the Lord? Angri’s feet. Moolam is the root of your lotus feet. Your lotus feet.
When will you call me back to you that, oh Lord? You are the shelter of all liberation. So he is saying, my dear Lord, I am not afraid of your fearsome form, but I am afraid of this material existence. Because this material existence is filled with so many temptations and sufferings.
So my dear Lord, I don’t want to be entangled in this material existence. Please free me from this. So normally speaking, we look at things from material point of view.
And normally speaking, material existence appears to be very cosy. They say we may travel around in comfortable flights. A flight, when it’s flying in the sky, it looks very, not just comfortable, it looks very elegant.
It looks very, it looks like a triumph of humanity over nature. So material existence looks very cosy, but it is fearful. And Prahlad Maharaj is telling us this, that actually to the extent we fear material existence, to that extent we can get out of it.
So then somebody may say that, but you know, material existence, we can improve things over here. We can make things better, isn’t it? So he says, no, actually we can’t make things better. What happens when we try to make things better? Yes.
So he says, my dear Lord, in this world, there are two kinds of situations, Priya and Apriya, that which we like and that which we don’t like. And among these situations, there are two possibilities. There is Sanyog and there is Viyog.
Sanyog means we get a situation. Viyog means we don’t get the situation. So everybody, what they want? They want Sanyog with the Priya.
They want to get what they like and they want to avoid what they don’t like. But he says, most of the time what happens? We get what we don’t like and we don’t get what we like. So because of that, actually, sometimes we see on the TV, on the billboards, people look so happy.
And we may start thinking, yeah, there may be miseries in this life, but there is surely happiness also over here. Now there are millionaires and billionaires and superstars. Surely they must be happy.
But here, Lord Maharaj gives a simple reasoning by which we can understand that nobody can be happy in this world. What is the reasoning? He says that there is, misery has a simple definition. To get what we don’t want and to not get what we want.
So is that going to happen to, is there anyone to whom this is not going to happen? No matter how wealthy, no matter how powerful a person may be, there will always be things that will happen in his life that he doesn’t want. And there will always be things which he wants which will not happen. A person may be the wealthiest billionaire in the world, but the global economy is not going to work according to his views.
And even if the global economy works, his own body’s biology is not going to work according to his views. So he’s going to grow old, get deceased and die. So therefore, everybody will face situations which go against their will.
Which go against their will. And that will make them miserable. Somebody may be the most famous and popular film star in Bollywood.
But even that person can’t control his own temper. And he gets disgraced and banned from a stadium. So what happens is, even a person who is very famous and very popular, that person also doesn’t always get what he wants.
That person also gets at times what he doesn’t want. So therefore, nobody in this world can be happy. यस्मात् प्रियाप्रियवियोग संयोग जन्न So what happened? शोकागनिन सकलयोणिषु दहियमान Shokaagni, lamentation, the fire of lamentation.
Everybody is burning in this fire. दहियमान And the most amazing or challenging part of what Prahlad Maharaj says is, दुख आउशदम तद पि दुखम अतद्धियाहम Sometimes, दुख आउशदम, we may get what we want. But he says, that will make things worse for us.
दुख आउशदम तद पि दुखम अतद्धियाहम तद पि दुखम, the cure for a disease is worse than the disease. Now, how can we understand this? Let us see. So, we discussed about humility.
I discussed about humility. So, I was talking about how when we serve maya, we are betrayed. Betrayed means we are disappointed.
What we want, we don’t get it. So, in general, when a person tries to solve a material problem at a material level and get some material pleasure out of it, there are three possibilities. Whenever anybody tries any form of material enjoyment, there are three possibilities.
And all three possibilities lead to frustration. Let us see how. We can remember these three possibilities by a simple acronym.
That acronym is FIT. We need to make our intelligence FIT. F-I-T.
So, F-I-T. Some of that slide has got deleted from me. So, F is futility.
I is insubstantiality. And T is temporality. I’ll explain what this means.
Futility, insubstantiality and temporality means temporary. So, let us look at this. Suppose, a person likes a particular food item to eat.
Somebody likes a malpua. And that person thinks, okay, next week there is a feast. And in that, there is going to be the malpua.
So, I will eat and I will enjoy. Hence, anticipation, anticipation, anticipation. Actually, that anticipation torments them.
And then, when one goes for the feast, one finds there is no malpua. So, what happens is, one is just craving, craving and one doesn’t get anything. That means, one hopes for one’s enjoyment but one doesn’t get it.
That is, our hopes turn to be futile. The second possibility is that, we may go for the feast and we get the malpua. There is malpua.
But while cooking it, the cook has messed up the whole recipe. And the malpua tastes like a perverted reflection of the actual malpua. It tastes very pathetic.
So, we get the enjoyment but it is not substantial. It is insubstantial. It doesn’t satisfy us.
It doesn’t live up to our expectations. Then, third is temporality. Temporality means, okay, I get it and it also tastes good.
I get it, it tastes good. But after I eat it, I want a second helping. And the answer is limited helpings.
I feel frustrated because I got the enjoyment but I got frustrated now. Because it’s not full fed. But then, if I will say, okay, I will go up to a place where I have unlimited helpings.
But even if I have unlimited helpings, my body’s capacity to enjoy is limited. And therefore, after some time, I can’t eat anything. So, our desire for happiness is constant.
But our capacity for enjoyment is not constant. Our capacity for enjoyment is occasional. I can eat for some time.
After that, my stomach’s capacity becomes exhausted. I can no longer enjoy. It’s temporary.
So, now if you think about it, there are only these three possibilities. That I desire something, I don’t get it. I desire something, I get it.
But it doesn’t satisfy me. I desire something, I get it. It satisfies me.
But then, it ends. Somebody might dream that I want to purchase the latest car and drive about in the car. So now, some people work throughout their life to maybe get some savings so that they can get the most trendy car.
Sometimes, they may never attain that much savings. So then, their craving is futile. They don’t get anything.
And then, they get it and they drive in it. And they’re driving in it and they’re thinking very happy. But then, they find that the petrol prices skyrocket.
And then, they can’t afford to drive around too much. So what happens is, the car is there, but the enjoyment is not there. Because all the time, one is driving, one is thinking, how much is the expense going to be? So, it’s insubstantial.
The actual enjoyment doesn’t live up to the hype. And then, even if it’s, okay, I have so much money that I don’t bother how much is the petrol price. I can just drive to my heart’s content.
But still, ultimately, the car is temporary. Even if the car doesn’t get damaged or destroyed in an accident, the charm of the car doesn’t last. The charm of the car, the same car I take, first day when I drive around, what happens is, all heads turn.
Oh, who’s driving this car? What is this car? And I saw one advertisement of a car. It says, purchase this car and enjoy the envy in your neighbour’s eyes. What a pathetic standard of enjoyment, isn’t it? To make somebody envious and enjoy that envy.
But if one is going to enjoy that, the envy in somebody’s eyes or the admiration in somebody’s eyes, that is not going to last. So, I have a car, first day, second day, third day. Sometimes we purchase a new dress and then we go around in new dress.
Actually, the joy of the new dress comes when people appreciate, hey, your dress is so good. And if nobody notices the dress, they start feeling, are you people blind? Can’t you see? So, actually speaking, our enjoyment depends on external things and external things are temporary. Now, when we get some material enjoyment, its newness doesn’t last for long and the object also doesn’t last for long.
So, therefore, what happens is when we get some external enjoyment, we get habituated to it. And then when we lose it, our suffering is far greater than if we had not got the enjoyment. Our suffering is far greater.
So, temporality means we get happiness, but then when it is temporary, when it is taken away, we suffer. So, in all three ways, material enjoyment leads to suffering. So, Dukha Aushadham Tadapi Dukham means that we get the enjoyment, but the enjoyment frustrates us.
Enjoyment frustrates us when it ends. Dukha Aushadham Tadapi Dukham Atadyaham. So, about four or five years ago, I was invited to a United Nations conference that was on the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations.
So, the head of the India division of the United Nations was there. So, my speech was just after his speech. So, when he was speaking, he was telling that since now the United Nations is 60 years old, and in 60 years, United Nations has got dozens of sister organisations, and they have practically millions of volunteers and employees, and billions of dollars have been spent.
But he said it is such a sad thing to report that in around in these 60 years, in not one of the areas in which United Nations has worked, has the situation improved? Whether we talk about World Health Organisation or International Maritime Organisation, UNESCO or International Labour Organisation, in none of these areas have we actually been able to improve people’s lives. United Nations was made to start off peace, but there have been so many wars, and there are so many wars going on right now. So, actually speaking, this doesn’t mean that United Nations work is useless, but focussing all our endeavours only on the material level is not going to be productive.
So, when we try to solve a problem, that problem becomes a bigger problem. That problem becomes a bigger problem. So, to a large extent, the Afghani terrorists were funded by America in order to break down Russia.
That whole geopolitics was there. But then what has happened? That same Afghani terrorists are now the biggest security threat for America. So, dukkha ushadam tadapi dukkham.
So, we can see this in life. Now, we see pollution is one of the biggest threats today. Why? So, we thought that we can solve our problems by having technology, which can help us move faster.
But then it has created so many further problems. So, Pilat Maharaj says, my dear Lord, I am not interested in solving my problems at a material level. I just want to come back to you.
So, what is his solution? He says, Vaman Brahma Vivadami Tava Dasya Yogam. Please instruct me, my dear Lord, Dasya Yogam. How can I serve you? How can I serve you, my dear Lord? So, it does not mean that in bhakti, we can’t improve things materially.
Now, we may, for example, now we have this very comfortable facility. We have fans and such a luxurious resort. It’s not that we can’t improve things materially.
But our purpose is to serve Krishna better and to provide facilities by which people can serve Krishna better. So, Pilat Maharaj is not saying I reject material life. He says, please instruct me how I can serve you.
So, even when we are in material life, our motive, it’s not that we have to give up material life. We have to give up the hope that material life will make us happy. We don’t have to give up material life.
We have to give up the hope that material life will make us happy. So, what we do is, we use our material life in Krishna’s service. So, we have our family, we have our jobs, we have our careers, we may have our cars and our possessions.
What the materialistic propaganda tells us is, these things will make me happy. But what we understand is, these things in and of themselves cannot make us happy. But that doesn’t mean we have to give up these things.
We have to give up the hope that they will make us happy. And then use them in Krishna’s service. When we use them in Krishna’s service, all the things can give us happiness.
So, vadameetava tasa yogam. So, bhakti doesn’t mean rejecting material life and material progress also. It means rejecting the false hope that material life and material progress can make us happy.
My dear lord, if you want me to stay in this material existence, I will stay. But please guide me how I should serve you. Then, after describing his desire, please let me serve you.
Then he says, somebody may ask, okay, if you are saying material existence is miserable, how will service to me solve the problem? How will service to me solve the problem? So, Prahlad Maharaj expresses his confidence. Durgani means the obstacles of material existence. So, he says, I will go beyond all of them.
I will attain the shelter of your lotus feet. How? Hamsa are the devotees. In the association of devotees, what will I do? Leela Kathas.
He says, I will hear and speak about your pastimes in the association of your devotees. By that, what will happen? He says, my dear lord, you are my surdha. You are my greatest well-wisher.
And when I hear about your pastimes, what happens is I experience your presence. And when I experience your presence, when I experience your shelter, that remembrance, that absorption gives me shelter. That takes me beyond the miseries of material existence.
So, in one sense, for a devotee, the problems of material existence don’t go away, but the problems don’t trouble him. How does that happen? We consider this situation that, suppose there is a small tender boat in a big ocean with stormy waves. So, the waves, the boat will be just tossed up and down.
And there will be the fear that the whole boat may get overturned. And the person may drown and die. So, like that, in our situation, this big world is like we are a small boat.
And this world is Bhavasagar. There are waves of happiness and distress, of health and sickness, of wealth and poverty, of temptation and tribulation. These keep tossing us up and down.
Now, it is not realistic to expect that the waves in the ocean will stop. The waves will keep coming. But if the boat can get anchored, get anchored to something which is stronger and bigger, then the waves will come, but the waves will not shake the boat so much.
The waves will not shake the boat so much. So, earlier, the wave would have shaken it like this. Then it will be a little shaking, little shaking.
And gradually, the shaking will become lesser and lesser. So, like that, for us, our remembrance of Krishna is the anchor that connects us with Krishna. So, the more we remember Krishna, the more material things lose their capacity to shake us.
How is it that remembrance of Krishna stops our getting shaken by material things? See, all of us need shelter. And we may get shelter in our bank account, in our business, in our family, in our own abilities. But unfortunately, material life can shake all of these.
Material life can shake our bank account. It can shake our health. It can shake our family situation.
But material life cannot shake Krishna. So, it is said, the more things change, the more we need to embrace the things that don’t change. The more things change, the more we need to embrace the things that don’t change.
And if we don’t have a connection with Krishna, then there is nothing that doesn’t change. Everything seems to be changing. And then we feel shelterless.
It’s like, suppose somebody is in a boat and a big wave is coming. So, I start thinking, this is a very dangerous part of the ocean. I’ll go to that part of the ocean.
Then I go to that part of the ocean and I find there is a wave coming over there also. Then I go somewhere else, I find a wave there also. So, in material life, we seek shelter in various things.
But everything changes. Everything changes. The last time this recession hit, big, big banks, which had existed for more than 100 years, just collapsed.
People had thought this was never possible. When the Twin Towers collapsed, it was not just the fall of the buildings, but the fall of what it symbolised. For modern Americans, the Twin Towers symbolised the success and the security of the American nation.
And the Twin Towers fell, along with that was burst, the bubble of success and security. So, in material life, nothing is certain. Nothing is certain.
Now, politicians may feel that I have so many threats, so I’ll have my bodyguards. But the bodyguards themselves may shoot the politicians, isn’t it? That’s what happened with Indira Gandhi. So, actually, in material life, there is no shelter.
There is no shelter at all. If I am sick, I may think I’ll go to a doctor to get shelter. But nowadays, doctors are so money-minded that they may complicate the disease to get more money.
So, where do I go for shelter? So, therefore, in material life, there is no shelter. But Krishna is a shelter who is beyond material life. Because he is beyond material life, nothing material can shake him.
And that’s why he says, Titharami means I’ll cross over. How? Anjasa, easily. So, by the remembrance of Krishna, I will transcend all material miseries.
This is actually something which all of us need to experience. So, one of our congregation devotees in Pune was telling me his story. About five, six years ago, there was a sudden big flood in Gujarat.
So, what had happened was the river was rising, rising, and there was a dam. And they were planning to open the dam. Because as the river was rising, the dam may get burst.
And that would have caused huge devastation. So, the plan was to send an alert to all the people that we are going to open the river. So, please evacuate.
But the way Indian bureaucracy works was that the water came before the message. I remember this devotee was with his friend. They were in the third floor story of a building.
And they were just sitting and talking. And suddenly they looked out of the window and they saw a huge flood coming in. They were shocked.
And the flood was rising, and rising, and rising, and rising. And they went from the third floor to the fourth floor. The water kept rising.
Then they went right to the terrace. And then he told his relatives. He had been preaching to them for a long time.
But they were not very serious. He told them, now we have to take shelter of Krishna. Because there were two fears.
One fear is that the water may rise above the terrace level. Second fear is that even if the water doesn’t rise above the terrace level, the sustained pressure of the water may cause the building to collapse. Because in India, how well a building is constructed, we never know.
Because people just keep using substandard materials. So, he said, now the only thing we have to do is take shelter of Krishna. And, you know, he started doing kirtan.
And he said that he was there on that terrace for 15 hours. And 15 hours they were just doing kirtan. And then the water subsided.
Water subsided. But he says, all those relatives, they realised the… Prabhupada says, He is saying to Lord Krishna in one of his songs in Bengali. He says, my dear Lord, you showed me the naked reality of material nature.
Nagana chitra dikhaila. So, when they saw it, how suddenly you are sitting in your house one day talking, and suddenly a flood comes out. So, they all started chanting 16 rounds after that.
So, what happens is, when nothing in material life seems to be working, at that time… So, it was not just the fear of the flood coming, but what his relatives told him is that those 16 hours when we were just continuously chanting, no, those were actually the happiest moments of our life. Because there was no distraction from chanting. Because we know as soon as we get distracted, there is the horrifying prospect that we may get drowned.
So, what happens is, Krishna consciousness is always joyful. But when we let ourselves get distracted, we can’t experience its taste. But when there is material danger, we don’t let ourselves get distracted.
And then we can experience the sweetness of Krishna consciousness. So, the material dangers will be there, but… I’ll easily cross over them. Now, somebody may object that, why are you so pessimistic about material life? Why are you so pessimistic? We can solve problems materially.
And when there is danger, remembrance of Krishna is not the only solution. We can have material solutions also. So, Prahlad Maharaj says, material solutions are not solutions that work always.
And he gives three examples for this. So, this is a very important verse. Srila Prabhupada would quote it quite often.
So, you can recite it after me. I’ll just recite it partially so that you can… Kindly repeat. I’ll tell the meaning, then we’ll recite it.
He’s saying, He is in the shelter of his parents. But, the parents cannot protect the children. So, he says, Arthasya means distressed.
Here, it means diseased. If somebody is diseased, as a medicine or a doctor. He says, somebody is diseased, the doctor or the medicine cannot always cure the person.
You can look at the meaning also below if you want. So, Udanvati means somebody who is drowning in an ocean. Nav is a boat.
Somebody is drowning in an ocean, the boat cannot always rescue him. So, Tapthasya. When one is burning in this way in the fire of mortal existence.
Pratividhi means the counteracting measure for that. When one tries it out, it will not work as long as, Tavad Vibhotanubhrutam Tvad Upekshitanam As long as you neglect that person, my dear lord, that Pratividhi, that counteracting measure will not work. So, what will make that counteracting measure work is your mercy, is your sanction.
So, let’s recite this verse. Sneha Sharanam Pitrao Narsimha Sneha Sharanam Pitrao Narsimha Bala Sneha Sharanam Pitrao Narsimha Sneha Sharanam Pitrao Narsimha Narthasya Chagadam Udanvati Majyato Nau Narthasya Chagadam Udanvati Majyato Nau Tapthasya Tat Pratividhiri Hanja Seshtas So, this is a very important philosophical concept. Let us look at this.
So, material protector is not the actual protector. that is the essential message of this verse. There is a material protector.
So for example, when I am deceased, the material protector is a doctor. And the material protector is important, but is not final, he is not decisive. That is not the ultimate protector.
Now let us see how we can understand this. So this is a little philosophical, but it is relevant to all of us. So we will try to understand this.
So Vedic philosophy explains that for everything that happens, there is three levels of causes. Three levels of causes. For example, if I get malaria, then modern medical science will tell me that the cause of the malaria is that a mosquito bite.
That is true, it is correct, but it is not complete. Why? Why is it not complete? Okay, maybe I’ll just read it out. If some of you want to note it, note it down, then I’ll explain it.
So the three levels of cause are immediate, remote and ultimate. So the immediate cause is a mosquito bite. And the immediate solution for that is a material medicine, which I may take.
But along with the immediate cause, there is a remote cause. The remote cause is my own past karma. It was because of my past karma that I got malaria.
And the solution for the past karma is atonement. There is a prayaschita that is called, said in the Vedic terminology. And then beyond the remote cause is the ultimate cause.
The ultimate cause of not just the malaria, but of all sufferings in material existence is forgetfulness of Krishna. And the solution at the ultimate level is Krishna consciousness. So like this, there is for every action, there is an immediate cause, a remote cause and ultimate cause.
Now let us understand this a little more carefully. Modern science tells us that malaria is caused by mosquito bite, which is fine. As far as it goes, that explanation is valid.
But this explanation doesn’t tell us if I am living in a house with six other people, the same mosquito could easily have bitten all the six people also. Why I alone got malaria? Somebody may say, okay, my immunity level was low. But actually, there may be other people who may have the same low immunity level as I have.
Why I alone got the disease? That is something which material science can’t tell. Sometimes there is an epidemic of a disease. But in the epidemic, not everybody gets.
And sometimes you will find that some people get a disease even when they have high immunity. Nowadays, we see the heart attacks, they happen. And some heart attacks, many heart attacks may happen to people who have heart problems.
But sometimes some people who have no heart problems suddenly get a heart attack. So as far as tackling the disease is concerned, material science may be effective in its own way. But as far as identifying the precise cause in a complete way, medical science doesn’t have an answer.
So what Vedic philosophy tells us is that, why did that mosquito bite me only? Because the Paramatma is there in the heart of that mosquito. And the Paramatma told that mosquito, this fellow has done a lot of sinful activities, go and bite him. So that’s why the mosquito came and bit me.
So our own past karma is a explanation that doesn’t contradict, but it complements the scientific explanation. It doesn’t contradict, it complements. Complements means it completes.
So if a plane meets with a crash, so we don’t deny the material explanation that something technically went wrong with the flight. Something technically went wrong with the flight. So that material explanation is correct.
But actually why did that technical flaw happen only in that flight, only at that time, only at that situation? That is something, like even those of you who work on computers, sometimes computers suddenly crash. Now, those who are experts in computers, they may tell, okay, why that crash happened? But why that crash happened at that particular time, when you press that particular key, that is something which can’t really be explained all the time. So material explanations are valid, but they are not complete.
And as devotees, we don’t deny the value of modern science. Yes, malaria causes a disease, we take a cure for it at a material level. But we also refuse to let material science deny the value of spiritual philosophy.
So they complement each other, they don’t contradict each other. So therefore, the past karma plays a role in whatever happens to us also. Now, in the karma kanda path, karma kanda means material religiosity, religiosity which tries to solve problems at a material level.
See, the solution to material problems can happen at non-religious levels and at religious levels. Non-religious levels means when I am sick, I go to a doctor and I take a medicine. There is no religion involved in it.
Of course, I may pray to God over there, but it’s primarily a material solution. Some people may say that, okay, this problem has come up, let us go to some tantric or something and maybe they will say worship this particular Devi or Devata. And I may try to solve the problem at a religious level.
But even the religious solution is also material, because we are not really changing our conception of life. Many people at the material level, they think of religion as a shock absorber for material life. They think of religion as what? A shock absorber for material life.
That means if I am going on a bumpy road and if my vehicle doesn’t have shock absorber, boom, boom, boom, I keep getting jolts. But if I insert a shock absorber, then the jolts become less. So people think that I want to go on in material life, I want to enjoy material life.
But while enjoying material life, there are some shocks which I will get. So religion should absorb those shocks. So at this level, people may try to solve a material problem religiously.
And the solution may work. But that is not the ultimate solution. Because even if I solve a problem, say a couple doesn’t have a child and they go to doctors and doctors tell that actually it’s not possible for you to have a child.
Then they go to some, they do some puja, they do some mantra, tantra, yantra and they get a child. That’s fine. Now if we see, when Chitraketu did not have a child, he did not go to a doctor.
He went to a sage. And the sage solved the problem. But for Chitraketu, what happened? Dukkha ushadam tanapi dukkham.
He got a son, but the son caused him greater misery. Harshashok, that’s why it’s called. So now going to a sage and solving the problem, that was not necessarily spiritual.
That was just material. He told, do this yajna and you will get a son. So that solution may also work.
Now how does it work? Say somebody whom the doctors say that you cannot get a child, how can going to some mystic, some yogi and doing some yajna give a child? Because the doctor cannot change the past karma. Now can a mystic change a past karma? Can’t change the past karma, but he can adjust the past karma. So when we do demigod worship, it doesn’t change our past karma.
It adjusts our past karma. Adjust means rearranges. Okay, our past karmic suffering say was supposed to come as you will not have a child.
But what happens is if somebody does some pooja, then that past suffering will get readjusted. That past karmic reaction will get readjusted. That means I will get that suffering not as not having a child, but that suffering will come in some other way.
So demigod worship cannot remove suffering, but it can adjust suffering. It can in one sense reposition suffering. Instead of coming in this way at this time, it will come in some other way at some other time.
It repositions suffering. So when we practise Krishna consciousness, we are solving the ultimate problem at the ultimate level. What does it mean? Now if you say that, okay, I am poor or I don’t have a child or I can’t sing very nicely.
Will chanting Hare Krishna solve these problems? It may or it may not. Krishna can make a person who is singing very poorly also a good singer. Krishna can make a person who is poor wealthy.
But if we see that is not the essential purpose of Krishna consciousness. What Krishna consciousness does is it frees us from remembrance of Krishna, forgetfulness of Krishna. And when we remember Krishna, that is a source of constant happiness for us.
That is a source of constant happiness. Once we get a taste for chanting Hare Krishna, it will be like having a permanent chewing gum in our tongue. If you have eaten chewing gum, people want to keep chewing it, to get some sort of rasa out of it.
But it becomes rasaheen, it becomes tasteless after some time. But Krishna consciousness, the holy name of Krishna is a chewing gum which never becomes tasteless. What does Rupa Goswami say? He says when the holy name of Krishna dances in my tongue, He is saying these two words, Krishna, I don’t know how much nectar they have produced.
How much nectar they have produced. So in Krishna consciousness, we solve the problem at the ultimate level. So now what is, going back to this verse, what is Prahlad Maharaj telling? Sometimes we will see that some person gets malaria, you take the medicine, he gets cured.
But other time it’s a simple malaria, but you take it, the person takes medicine, still he doesn’t get cured only. And the disease gets complicated, complicated, complicated. And sometimes people die of what started off as a very harmless disease.
So the material solution is not the complete solution. The material solution, material protection is not the actual protection. Ultimately it is Krishna who makes the medicine work.
So in Ayurveda it is said that you can take the medicine, but remember it is Krishna, it is Lord Vishnu, who is the master of Dhanvantari, who will actually cure the disease. Not just the medicine that will cure the disease. So this is an important philosophical point.
I would like to pause here before we go ahead. Are there any questions? Yes, wait a minute, wait a minute. It’s not working? Hare Krishna.
Not working, speak loudly. Sorry. Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. So what is the real atonement which can really get out of this nature? Oh, yes, thank you.
Very good question. As devotees we may do something wrong and we may deeply regret it and we may even do some atonement. But still later on we keep doing the same thing again.
So in Sanskrit there are two words. There is prayaschit and there is pashchatap and these two are different. Prayaschit is an external ritual that we perform.
Whereas pashchatap is the internal feeling. So here as devotees there are these two things prayaschit and pashchatap. So prayaschit is external.
Pashchatap is internal. That means that say if I do something wrong in the karma kanda there is a lot of things. If one does this sin one should do this activity.
One should do that activity. That is fine. But in the 6th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam when Parikshit Maharaj asked Shukdev Goswami that atonement doesn’t work.
People keep doing the same sins again and again. So it is like elephant bathing. What should we do? So Parikshit Maharaj says actually, One should practise bhakti.
By that one will become He says just like when there is mist. If there is mist around me I can’t see anything. Now if I try to catch the mist and push it aside.
Actually I can’t do that because there is so much mist and the mist is also I cannot catch it. But if the sun comes then the mist goes away. So like that what happens is our past conditioning creates a mist in our perception.
What a mist does is we can’t see clearly when there is a mist. So therefore our past conditionings create a mist by which we can’t see clearly. That means when we do something wrong this was so bad.
Why did I do that? I will never do it. But after sometime the mist forms again and again maybe that’s not so bad. I will get a little pleasure by it.
I feel like doing this. So again the mist forms. So atonement in and of itself is not a lasting solution.
So he says actually practising bhakti is the lasting solution. So as devotees when we do atonement probably we will do some devotional activity. So we may chant some extra rams, we may fast on a particular day, we may decide to do some other austerity, go to some pilgrimage or doing some extra service.
All these are fine. These will help but we need to understand that it’s an inner battle that is going on. In the inner battle, one victory is not necessarily the final victory.
So when we do an atonement for a wrong doing, it’s like we lost a battle and now we regain the territory. I did something wrong, I atone for it. But the battle still goes on.
And winning the battle is going to be a lifelong effort. So in general all of us have our temptations. For some of us it may be loss, some of us it may be anger, just burst out against people.
For some of us it may be just greed. We are so much infatuated and I have to earn, earn, earn. All of us will have our individual temptations which we have to battle with.
And in the battle with temptations, we will go through four stages. These four stages, so understanding these stages will help us get a compass in how we are going. So the first stage is, say when somebody comes new to Krishna consciousness, I tell him that you have to follow four regulative principles.
That person says impossible. So this is a stage of hopeless defeat. I can’t do this.
No meat eating, no intoxication, no gambling, no illicit sex. He says no Krishna consciousness only. Forget it.
People think like that. So first stage is hopeless defeat. I can’t do this at all.
Then second stage is struggle and defeat. That means I decide I won’t do this. And we struggle, we make resolutions, but still we fall off, struggle and defeat.
And the third stage is struggle and success. That means we make a resolution and it’s very difficult. And we have to pray, we have to fall at our feet, beg to Krishna, make all kinds of plans.
We succeed afterwards. And then beyond that is effortless success. Effortless success.
That time the temptation itself goes away. So I’ll give an example and then I’ll elaborate this further. Some of us might have been eating meat before we were introduced to Krishna consciousness.
And some of us might have been addicted to eating it. And maybe when we are first introduced, I can’t live without it. How is it possible? So we had a hopeless defeat.
But then Prasad is both devotionally and literally a higher taste. So what happens? Once we get a taste for Prasad, we say I will not take meat. And then we decide not to, but then we go to a friend circle, some relatives and then we eat it.
There is a struggle and defeat. But then gradually we become stronger and we make plans. Okay, I will not go in such a journey.
Even if I go in such a journey, this is what I will do. Plan and then struggle and success. And now over the years, suppose we are travelling in a train or a plane and say our neighbour is eating meat.
What to speak of feeling tempted and we may feel disgusted. What is this? I can’t tolerate the smell also. So now just maybe a few years ago, we couldn’t tolerate resisting that smell.
Now we can’t tolerate inhaling that smell. What caused that change? That is the working of the process of Krishna Consciousness. So the process works.
Now with respect to meat eating, because Prasadam is such an immediate and powerful higher taste, we can very quickly go to the fourth level. But in many other temptations, we keep battling between the second and third level. We keep oscillating.
Going sometimes going to third, sometimes coming back to second. So in this, essentially what is it that takes us forward from level one to level four? What takes us forward is our taste in Krishna Consciousness, our attraction to remembering Krishna, the happiness that we get in Krishna Consciousness. So the more happiness we get in Krishna Consciousness, the more we don’t feel the need for other things.
Now, the happiness in Krishna Consciousness is not always physically visible. Sometimes we may say that I dance in Kirtan and I sing and there’s a big smile on my face. So that is also one level of happiness.
But another level of happiness is a deeper inner fulfilment that we feel. Actually, the mind is always tempting us. You’re missing this, you’re missing that, you’re missing that.
The mind is always tempting us. And that’s what creates a sense of incompleteness within us, which makes us go in unethical or anti-spiritual directions. But as we keep practising spiritual life, we start experiencing a deeper fulfilment.
Yes, there may be things which are wrong in my life also, but there will always be things wrong in my life. And there is a lot that is right in my life also. We start feeling overall satisfied with our life.
Yes, things need to be improved, things need to be adjusted. But overall, I’m on the right track. So once we start experiencing that inner happiness, then we move from struggle and defeat to struggle and success.
So all of us, we need to make sure that we are spiritually nourished sufficiently. So spiritual nourishment, again, is not a gross thing. It is subtle.
Just like when I water a tree, when I water a tree, I cannot measure. Okay, I put one litre of water, so the tree grew by one inch. It is not quantifiable in an immediate sense.
But if I keep watering the tree every day, after six months, I can see that the tree has grown. So the growth of the tree is subtle, almost to the point of being invisible for us. But over a period of time, it is significant.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu compares the advancement in bhakti to the growth of a bhaktilata beach. And he says, Hearing and chanting is the jala which nourishes the bhaktilata beach. So when we chant the Hare Krishna maha mantra, when we attend classes, every day we are like watering the bhaktilata beach and it is growing.
So on a day to day basis, we may not see any difference. But over a period of time, we will see a difference. And in fact, one difference is the very fact that we are asking this question.
Maybe 10, 15, 20 years ago, what we thought of, what we are thinking of today as an activity of atonement, we would not even have thought of it as an activity of atonement. It is the way everybody is. It is the way to enjoy life.
So even if our desires may not have changed, our values have changed. This is the deeper change that happens by bhakti. Our desires are passing.
I see some good looking object, I may get attracted to it. That’s a desire. But a value means, when a person is materialistic, he thinks chasing after that object is the goal of life.
But we understand that chasing after that object is not the goal. It is a distraction. I should not be doing it.
So what has happened by the power of bhakti is much more deep rooted. That our desires may or may not have changed, because desires just keep, it is a sine wave which keeps coming up and down. But our values have changed.
And that is significant. So the senior Prabhupada disciple, Badrinath Narayan Prabhu, he gave an example of how bhakti changes our values. So he said that, twice in the temple hall, I forgot my expensive camera.
Expensive camera I forgot in the temple hall. And I was wondering, if the camera gets stolen, it is so much Lakshmi. But what happened? When I went there, the camera was there as it is.
And I found it. But he said, three times I forgot Mahaprasad in the temple hall. When I went there, it was not there.
So he said, bhakti changes the values of devotees. So devotees don’t value the camera so much, but the Mahaprasad, let’s take it. So essentially, what happens is, if we keep nourishing ourselves by practising bhakti, then that itself will purify us.
It will take us from this struggle and defeat to struggle and success. Now with respect to some specific wrong activity that we are succumbing to repeatedly, we can find out some specific devotional activity that especially nourishes us. And do that more.
Because the process of bhakti is not about torturing ourselves. Sometimes I may decide I’ll fast as a punishment. Fasting is good at one level, but fasting in and of itself does not purify our desires.
It just sort of suppresses our desires. So if we… Radhat Maharaj says in one lecture, that now Nirjala Ekadashi is coming, so all of us are going to try to fast, which is fine. But he says that when we are fasting, if somebody is fasting Nirjala, and then he goes to the… Not a Nirjala Ekadashi, not a normal Ekadashi, somebody is fasting Nirjala, and then he goes into the kitchen to see who all is eating what.
All these people, they are fallen souls. I have sense control. He says, in our body maybe fasting, but our ego is feasting.
Our ego is feasting. So essentially, fasting is good as long as it goes. It helps us.
But the important thing is that we need to strengthen ourselves. So some of us may find that maybe chanting extra rounds gives us some special strength. Someone else may find that reading scriptures gives us extra strength.
Some of us may feel, maybe just associating with some devotee, that gives me extra strength. So although Bhakti gives us a standard process, there is room for individuality in Bhakti. In fact, not only is there room, actually there is necessity for individuality.
Because everyone is individual and everybody will be inspired by different things. When book distribution was at its peak in ISKCON in the 1970s, there were some devotees who were brilliant book distributors. And they formed a team and they went to Prabhupada.
And they said to Prabhupada, Prabhupada, we have found out that certain gestures, certain expressions, certain lines, if we speak, people get persuaded and they take books. So can we go around temple to temple and train devotees in how to appear, how to speak, how to gesture, so that book distribution will increase. Prabhupada became very grave.
And Prabhupada said that, very memorable statement, Bhakti is individual, voluntary and spontaneous. Bhakti is individual, voluntary and spontaneous. So I’ll explain these three words, just complete the pastime before that.
Individual, voluntary, voluntary, spontaneous. And he said that when a soul desires to serve Krishna, then Bhakti is performed. Don’t go around telling devotees what lines to speak while distributing books.
Go around, inspire devotees to distribute books. When they are inspired, Krishna will give them the right lines according to their nature and their situation. Therefore, in Bhakti, we don’t standardise all the actions.
There is no doubt some standard process. But ultimately, Bhakti is a relationship of the heart. And the way Krishna attracts you is different from the way Krishna attracts me.
And the way Krishna attracts somebody else, that’s also different. In fact, if we discuss deeply, if there are 50 devotees in this room, although all of us are practising Krishna Consciousness, what Krishna Consciousness means to each one of us, there will be 50 different versions. What in Krishna Consciousness attracts us, there will be variety in that.
So, therefore, we need to find out what is it that gives me strength and do that extra. Some devotees find memorising verses as very nourishing. And some others may find memorising verses as just intellectual torture.
Why? I have got so much work to do with my brain. I don’t want to do this. So, we can’t standardise everything.
Yes, chanting 16 rounds, following 4 regulative principles, associating with devotees, the 5 potent forms of Bhakti, they are standard. But beyond this standardisation, there is individuality and there is room for individuality also. So, if we find out what it is that nourishes us and do that more, that is the best atonement.
Because that will take us from the level of struggle and defeat to struggle and success. So, now regarding these 3 specific adjectives, individual, voluntary and spontaneous. Individual means that everyone of us is unique.
Is unique not just in our looks, not just in our thoughts, but also in our essence. As souls, everyone is unique. And everyone has a unique individual relationship with Krishna.
So, in that sense, Bhakti, individuality is not just a feature of Bhakti, it is the essence of Bhakti. Every Gopi is unique in Krishna’s Raas Leela. Although Radharani is his favourite, but that doesn’t make all the other Gopis redundant.
All of them play significant roles. And all of them have an individual relationship with Krishna. Then most important is voluntary.
That Bhakti cannot be forced. We may standardise certain processes, but ultimately unless we do something voluntary, we cannot please Krishna by it. And Krishna is a God who respects our free will.
Krishna is a God who respects our free will. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna doesn’t appear as a God who is high up in the sky throwing down thunderbolts on the sinful, sending them to hell. Krishna appears as a God who is right by the side of a human being, Arjuna.
And Krishna is no doubt concerned about the course of human history. He wants that the evil Kauravas be destroyed. But rather than using any supernatural power to destroy the Kauravas, he is actually appealing to the intelligence of a human being to become an instrument in his mission.
So Krishna can do everything himself, but he not only uses human beings, but he appeals to human beings to become instruments. That means Krishna respects our voluntary free will. In the Bible, they have ten commandments.
The Bhagavad Gita is not so much of a book of commandments as it is a book of choices. Krishna is telling Arjuna, these are the choices you have. And with these choices, there will be these inbuilt and inevitable consequences.
So now you decide, if you don’t want this consequence, fine. So there is a nice 18.58 in the Bhagavad Gita, which is most directly indicative of Krishna consciousness. Sometimes people ask, where does this word Krishna consciousness come from? Is it there in Bhagavad Gita? So this is the verse, mat-chittaḥ sarva-durgāni mat-prasādā tarīśyasi ata chetvam ahaṅkārān naśroṣyasi vināṁśyasi Krishna is saying, mat-chittaḥ chitta is consciousness, mat is me, Krishna consciousness.
mat-chittaḥ sarva-durgāni sarva-durgāni means all obstacles. mat-prasādā tarīśyasi by my mercy, tarīśyasi, you will cross over all of them. ata chetvam ahaṅkārān If, however, out of ego, out of ahaṅkārān, naśroṣyasi, if you do not hear me, vināṁśyasi, you will be lost.
So Krishna is giving choices and consequences. If you become conscious of me, all your problems, you will cross over them. If you don’t become conscious of me, if I act out of false ego, you will be destroyed.
So Krishna consciousness is voluntary. And ultimately, it is spontaneous. Spontaneous means, it is not stereotyped.
It is not stereotyped. Yes, we have certain standard activities when we go in front of the deities, we bow down to Krishna. But, ultimately, bhakti is based on the emotions that arise in our heart when we try to serve Krishna.
So, of course, in the initial stages there is more of a discipline. But as we go through the Vaidya Bhakti and come to Rāga-Nuga Bhakti, there will be spontaneity. And Śrīla Prabhupāda encouraged devotees to use their intelligence to come up with new ways of serving Krishna.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda appreciated innovativeness. In fact, Śrīla Prabhupāda used to say, whenever Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja wrote, he has written a very beautiful book called Servant of the Servant. And that book is primarily like a, like the letters, he is describing his life, but primary is the letters of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
And how they shaped his life and his service. So, whenever he would come up with some good idea about doing book distribution, or say he started the Rāga-Nuga Bhakti, and he distributed so many books, made so many devotees, whenever he would come up with some new idea, one of the standard things that Śrīla Prabhupāda would write is, because you are sincere and intelligent and are trying to serve Krishna, because you are so sincerely trying to serve Krishna, so Krishna from within your heart is giving you intelligence to come up with so many ideas for spreading this mission. And then Prabhupāda would quote, So the point is, there is a lot of room for individual initiative in Bhakti.
And that’s why if we tap that, then we will find that, we will surely go beyond from that struggle and defeat to struggle and success. Okay? Right. Yes.
Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
Oh, sorry. Just one more thing. As in the atonement, there is one offence and the ten offences.
The strength of the holy name, commit offences in the strength of the holy name. And also, last this thing, you know, even after understanding so many instructions on this matter, still keeping material attachments. But many times it’s said that it is not possible to overcome at this stage of, you know, this lifetime.
So how do we understand these two offences and try to avoid that? Yeah. Yeah. Good question.
The seventh and tenth offences is, that on the strength of the holy name to commit sinful activities. And tenth offence is, to continue sinful activities even after hearing the glories of the holy name. So actually, what is offensive over here is the intention and the justification.
It’s not necessarily the action. What is the intention and justification? That means, I do sinful activities and I say, after all I’m chanting Hare Krishna. What’s wrong with it? Chanting Hare Krishna will take care of everything.
So, when we do sinful activities with the intention of doing them and then justifying them, I’m chanting Hare Krishna, everything will be alright. That is what is offensive. But, sometimes because of our past conditioning, like if a train is moving very fast, its momentum is so great that even if we put the brakes, the train will keep moving, keep moving, keep moving.
It will take some time for it to stop. So like that, our mind and senses, not just in this life before we came to Krishna consciousness, but even in previous lives, they have a huge momentum of sense gratification. So now when we come to bhakti, even when we press the brakes, still they keep moving forward.
So, when that sort of something wrong happens, that’s not considered offensive. But, what this is talking about is that I don’t press the brake at all because I think I’m chanting Hare Krishna. What’s wrong with it? Or rather because I’m chanting Hare Krishna, I press the accelerator.
Everything is alright because I’m chanting. So, as long as we don’t, we don’t intentionally plan to commit sinful activities, the force overpowers us because of conditioning. We don’t plan it, we don’t justify it.
Then it’s not considered offensive. What is offensive is the justification or the desire to keep doing it as if it doesn’t matter. So seventh offensive, the justification of sinful activities by chanting.
And the tenth offence is not even wanting to give it up. So, most of us, we are not in that category. We do want to give it up but we are unable to give it up.
That is not offensive. In the Vritrasura pastime, what Indra is a little afraid, actually Vritrasura was born from a Brahmana and before that also he kills Tvasta, Tvasta’s son, Vishwaroopa. He is a Brahmana.
How can a Brahmana be killed? So at that time, his Brahmin counsellors tell him, no problem, you do a, you can kill him and afterward you do a Ashwamedha yajna. So that is offensive. Prabhupada explains in the Bhagavatam, this attitude, you know something is sinful, we do it and then we say that, okay, I’ll just do something to counter it.
That is offensive. So now, sometimes what may happen is, we may do something wrong and then we think, oh I did this wrong, let me chant Hare Krishna. Now our chanting Hare Krishna is not an atonement for what we did wrong, it is actually to strengthen ourselves so that we don’t do it.
We are not saying so much Krishna, that Krishna please, forgive me for all the sins that I am doing. Our chanting Hare Krishna is more that, Krishna please give me the strength so that I don’t commit it again. Now Parikshit Maharaj, his attitude is very exemplary.
In the first canto, when he commits that aparadha against Shamik Rishi, he says, let the reaction come to me, but he also says, my dear lord, let me always remember you. So in atonement, the idea is, whether I remember you or not, it doesn’t matter, let the suffering not come to me. Let me do this so that suffering doesn’t come.
A devotee is saying, if the suffering has to come, let it come, but let me not do this again. Let me not forget you. So the intention is quite dramatically different.
Yes, Mahaprabhu. Prior to that, now when one can reach to the stage of effortless success, when we are chanting the holy name of lord, getting defeated, struggling, getting success, when, whether that same principle can apply in chanting the holy name. So when can we come to the stage of effortless success in chanting Hare Krishna? At one level, the answer is, when Krishna gives us mercy.
But, we don’t know when Krishna will give us mercy. So, at our level, we understand that it’s an ongoing process. It’s an ongoing process, and the process is evolutionary, but the result is revolutionary.
The process is evolutionary. Evolutionary means, every day when I chant, same problem my mind is wandering. Every day I am thinking of so many things.
So we don’t seem to experience any tangible difference. When we are chanting. But actually, every day, when we are trying to bring our mind back to the holy name, it’s like we are exercising our inner muscles.
And the inner muscles are becoming stronger. Especially for chanting Hare Krishna, the process, the sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, is very instructive and inspiring. Because there also the yogi has to control the mind.
And the yogi has to control the mind, for the yogi it’s even more difficult, because he does not even know that actually there is Krishna. The yogi is just going along the yoga path. He’s actually thinking I just have to control the mind and fix it on the soul.
Then afterwards he’ll find next to the soul there is a super soul. And then he’ll fix the mind on the super soul. So it’s a much more tough process.
But overall the outline is similar. So there, what Krishna tells us is very instructive. So I’ll just quickly go through that.
There are four, five verses which illustrate this point. So first Krishna says, what he expects from us when we try to chant. Starts from 6.24. So he says, Have nishchay, have determination.
And, what will happen? Nirvinna means dejected. Don’t become dejected. Have determination, but have no dejection.
And what should you do? What is it that distracts us? Kama, material desires. He says whenever the desire comes, abandon it. And then he says, With the mind, control the senses.
Now Arjuna says, this is a very difficult process. To not get dejected, to stay determined, to bring the mind again. So Krishna says, yes, that is what you have to do.
He says, by this, what will happen? Slowly, gradually. Intelligence sustained by conviction. It’s a very precise phrase.
Intelligence sustained by conviction. That means, when we hear the philosophy, that’s intelligence. But when we experience the philosophy for ourselves, that’s conviction.
So when intelligence sustained by conviction. So what happens is, our mind wants to go, let me think of my business, let me think of my family, let me think of my health. But, what happens when we think of anything else, all the thoughts of everything other than Krishna, only agitate our mind.
Nothing else satisfies our mind. Whereas, on the few occasions, when we are actually able to think of Krishna, we feel so peaceful, we feel so joyful. So, Kulasekar Maharaj says, He’s telling his mind, the tendency of the mind, let it become fixed on Govinda.
How? Fixed. It’s opposite of Krishna, will say, Let it become fixed on Krishna. Why? What will you get by thinking of anything else? Yes, we have our business, we have family.
So, when we have to do those activities, we have to think about them. But constantly thinking about them, what are we going to get by it? So, So, We use our intelligence, sustained by conviction, and slowly, Fix the mind on the soul. Because Krishna is talking about the path of yoga over here.
So, he doesn’t say, Fix the mind on the soul. We can say, Fix the mind on Krishna. And then, Arjuna says, It goes here and there.
He says, No. Whenever it goes, bring it back. Wherever and whenever, the mind goes, bring it back.
The Acharya has described, Krishna uses the word, Yato, twice. Yato, Yato. Wherever, whenever.
Mind goes, just bring it back. And, what will happen by this? The next verses are most important. In one sense, if we are driving a car, the car is always going off track.
And we have to constantly keep steering the wheel to get it on track. But when we get it on track, what happens after that? This is the most hope-giving verse. Krishna says, If we keep doing this, Prashanta Manasam Yenam Yoginam Sukham Uttamam Upaiti Shantarajasam Brahma Bhutama Kalmasham The words itself are so pacifying.
Prashanta. And then, Shantarajasam. He says, If we keep doing this, Prashanta Manasam Yenam, the mind will become peaceful.
And how will it become peaceful? Shantarajasam. The Rajoguna, the passion that is there in the mind, that will go away. Shantarajasam.
And then when that happens, Yoginam Sukham Uttamam Sukham Uttamam We’ll experience the ultimate happiness. So, this Shantarajasam is very interesting. I’ll just give a quick example to illustrate this.
Suppose, somebody is a very big fan of cricket. And yes, today is the IPL final. Of course, that’s over, no? But whatever.
Today is the IPL final. And as soon as he hears that, the Rajasa in the mind becomes Ashant. Who will win? How will this player perform? How will this bowler perform? What will happen? The mind becomes so Ashant.
So, as long as we are excited about material enjoyment, the mind becomes agitated. But as we become spiritually advanced, as we keep chanting Hare Krishna and getting purified, after a period of time, we don’t get excited about material enjoyment. So, okay.
Who wins? Who loses? What difference is it going to make anyway? And when we don’t get excited about material pleasures, then we don’t get agitated by material problems. The two sides of the same coin. If I get excited by material pleasures, I’ll get agitated by material problems.
And then, our mind will fix on Krishna. So, it’s a process. And sometimes a daily struggle may appear a little discouraging.
But if we know that it’s a long-term process and we are moving forward on it. So, gradually, we’ll surely come to that stage of effortless chanting. So, at our level, we just need to see whether we are doing things enthusiastically.
So, Krishna says, utsaha nishchayat. So, I’ll just, because this is an important question. This is a point which I’m going to take later.
I’ll take it now over here. This is there somewhere in my other slide. But, you know, there are these three modes of material nature.
So, there is goodness, passion and ignorance. Okay. So, you know, Krishna says, we need to have three things.
Utsaha nishchayat dhairyat. Let’s put it this way. Ignorance.
Passion. Goodness. Goodness.
And then we have Transcendence. So, we have these three qualities. Enthusiasm.
Patience. Faith. So, when we are ignorance, there is no enthusiasm, there is no patience and there is no faith.
When we are in passion, we have enthusiasm, but no patience. There is enthusiasm. I want the result.
I want the result. But there is no patience. And there is not much transcendental faith, that means material faith.
When there is goodness, there is enthusiasm, there is patience, but not yet faith. But when there is, when we are transcendental situated, then there is enthusiasm, patience and faith. That means if I have only enthusiasm, but no patience, that is Rajoguna.
Okay. Maybe. This is like this actually.
If I have only patience and no enthusiasm, then what happens? I am not doing anything. I am not trying to concentrate, I am thinking, just saying Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. My mind is wandering, my eyes are wandering, only my tongue is moving.
Then what happens? I am just being patient, but I am not trying anything. So, then we can’t really hope for much improvement. So, patience, enthusiasm and faith.
So, utsaha, nishchaya and dhairya. When all three are there, then we can march steadily forward. So, therefore, sadhakas, association of devotees gives us faith.
And if we adopt the devotional culture, then we get enthusiasm and patience also. So, hearing gives us faith and the devotional culture gives us enthusiasm and patience. Many times what happens is that we have enthusiasm for the result we have enthusiasm for the result and patience for the process.
That means what? We need to have enthusiasm for the process and patience for the result. But we have opposite. We are very eager for the result, but we are not so eager to follow the process.
Prabhupada would give the example of a mother of a woman begetting a child. She can be enthusiastic about wanting a child, but there is a process to be followed. So, if one doesn’t go through the process and for the result, it doesn’t work.
So, the process is gradual. As I said, the process is evolutionary. But at the end, the result is revolutionary.
Does that answer your question? Thank you. Hare Krishna. Is there some other question? Yes.
What’s in the room? You were talking about the prayaschitta. Suppose we have been in the material world suffering. So, somebody preached us.
So, we started associating with devotees. We started going to the temple. We started chanting.
So, these are all external things. After listening to the lecture and all, then we have to internalise. That is paschata.
So, how to develop that intensity to increase our internal faith? That is where the struggle is. Actually, if you look into we have been listening so many years that when Maharaj has been telling that So, we have been hearing. It is like actual data that is getting accumulated into our mind and into our system.
But then, we miserably fail when we are trying to put it into practise. So, where exactly that process of internalisation is going wrong and how can we practise it? So, we are hearing for many years but internalisation is not happening. So, where is the process going wrong? What do we need to do? Many times, we may have a little hazy or unclear idea of what internalisation means.
Because externals we can see. Go to the temple every week or regularly. Do this, this, this service.
So, internal is a little unclear and hazy. Therefore, the internalisation may not be happening or we may be feeling it is not happening. We can’t really know.
Now, firstly, just continuing the external year after year is not possible without some level of internalisation. That means, certainly some internal experience of happiness is also there. Because in one sense, Krishna conscious practise has significant material demands, following the four regulative principles, taking prasad.
These are not easy things to do. And if one is able to do this year after year, even at external level, that indicates there must be some internal experience. So, it’s certainly not true that there is no internalisation that is happening.
But there is much more that can be done. That is true. Now, if we look at the internal pathway, there is a book by Vishwanath Chittagurth called Madhurya Kadambini, in which he describes how the process of anarthani vritti takes place.
And he describes various stages like gantarla and then yudhvikalpa. I won’t go into technicalities, but I’ll focus on the principle over here. Where he says, what are the emotions that a devotee will go through and how he will evolve forward.
So, if one is seriously interested, it is good to read that book, Madhurya Kadambini. It’s not a very esoteric book. It’s a nice book which gives the internal stages at the first thing.
But overall, what we will observe is that although our inner emotions will be like a sine wave, they will keep going up and down. Sometimes we feel very happy to be in the association of devotees. Sometimes we may not feel so happy.
But overall, our emotions are not necessarily a reliable judge, a reliable barometer of our internalisation of Krishna Consciousness. Because the emotions themselves are always going to be transitory. So, our commitment is itself the actual parameter.
That means, say, in the early days, if I did not feel good about Krishna Consciousness, then I might have thought, like the sine wave goes up, this is so wonderful. And the sine wave comes down, I don’t even want to go to the temple. I don’t want to pick up my bed bag also.
But now today, probably, even if the sine wave goes down, we will rarely think of giving up the association of devotees or giving up chanting Hare Krishna. We will feel, I don’t want to chant now. I will chant afterwards.
My mind is too disturbed. So, the sine wave’s amplitude itself has decreased. So, that itself is indicating that internalisation is there.
Sorry, sine wave is like a, it’s like a shape which keeps going up and down, up and down, like that. Sine wave. So, even when something goes down, it doesn’t go as down as it would have gone in the earlier days.
So, is the internalisation a matter of emotions? No, it’s much more a matter of commitment. So, what will happen is that even in our low times, when the modes of passion, ignorance are pulling us, we may not be able to practise it externally but our internal commitment will not waver. Yes, I want to do it, I am not able to do it right now but our internal commitment will not waver.
So, what we can do is, to some extent, set, because the internal landscape is so hazy, we need to set up some internal landmarks for ourselves. Internal landmarks means that, for example, there are certain things which I don’t like to do but I know they are important for me to do for my spiritual advancement. So, now, can I sort of use my devotional willpower and do it? If I can do something that indicates I am spiritually advanced, this does not necessarily mean I have to torture my body but the idea is that I just have to set up some internal landmarks and we don’t have to rely too much on our emotions because emotions are very fickle.
Even in the path of bhakti, we are talking about ultimately spiritual emotions but before we come to spiritual emotions, our emotions can be very fickle. So, we need to set up some internal landmarks for ourselves and try to achieve them. That means, it can vary.
For example, say, I want to read Bhagavatam but I will commit myself to, say, reading this much time every day. Now, even after committing externally, we may or may not be able to do it but we can at least see every day, at least for a few minutes, I will cultivate the desire and we can check, did I really cultivate the desire? Sometimes, circumstances may just not allow us, although we can try but we can check our own desires and that can be like our internal landmark. So, the external commitment is an internal commitment.
So, this is a big subject. Now, there is a whole seminar I have on journal writing as a means of spiritual advancement, writing our own journal and in that we talk a little bit more about internal landmarks but the essential point is that we need to have our own internal commitments and even if we are not able to fulfil them, whether we really want to fulfil them. If that itself remains, that is also a success.
So, it’s a little intricate subject. Maybe we can talk it some other time. So, that’s the last question and then we will stop.
You had a question, Mataji? Yeah. Yes, please. Sorry, Krishna.
There, I think, Mataji asked. There, there. This is a question relating to what you discussed yesterday about you were giving an example of Yudhishthira Maharaj and Bhima and then how Duryodhana was captured by the Gandharvas and then, you know, Yudhishthira Maharaj allowed Duryodhana to be released and Bhima was reluctant and we were talking about humility and you were saying that how humility means that there is no desire to hold on to your false ego and Yudhishthira Maharaj had no that, you know, was completely humble.
He had no desire to hold on to the false ego and that’s why he said, okay, release Duryodhana. So, at the same time, Bhima also being a devotee and, you know, great devotee of the Lord, but his perspective of humility was completely different than Yudhishthira. So, when I was seeing that example, I was asking myself that even in our day-to-day lives, sometimes we do follow the path of Bhima.
We do not follow the path of Yudhishthira. It means we are just like we want our right. You know, just like we don’t even have, we sometimes have desire to hold on to that ego like how Bhima did.
You know. Yes, the ego is maybe not so purified but just the individuality ego that you know, whatever we are, you know, we do understand that yes, we are the servant of Krishna. So, I was just thinking if you can just put through some light as to is it okay to be like Bhima? I mean sometimes just being bash about it and just say yes, I am going to, you know, I mean he was very nice that he listened to Yudhishthira but sometimes we just want to be like Bhima.
Is that okay? Yeah. Good question. So, Bhima doesn’t at all seem to be humble.
He seems to be very not just assertive but arrogant. So, can we also be like that in our past process of bhakti? Certainly the Mahabharata through the five Pandavas illustrate that they all have their individuality and that is not suppressed because of their unity. Although they are united they still have their individuality and that is not suppressed.
That is subordinated. Okay, this is what we will do if Yudhishthira wants us to we will do that. But Bhima doesn’t suppress it.
The first point is that there are certain emotions which are very strong for us and if we try to suppress those emotions then they may burn us within. So, if certain situations are troubling us very much, it is important to express them and to whom we express them, that will vary upon time, place, circumstance. It’s best if we have some close devotee, friends, maybe senior devotees, counsellors, somebody with whom we can express that.
certainly expressing emotions is not wrong but acting on the emotions may not always be right. Expressing emotions like when we had this memorial so Radha Maharaj was telling one of the devotees who is relative at past you know cry but let every tear be a tear of gratitude. So we don’t want to suppress our emotions.
But at the same time we don’t want to act on our emotions if that is not conducive to our devotional service. So then we may have to express them in a proper forum or proper circle. That is also one advantage of diary writing.
If we don’t have very close friends to whom we express our emotions then just pour them out in a diary or laptop or whatever. Speak out everything. What happens is when the mind is caught up some passion, some anger, some sense of injustice, it wants to burst out.
At that time nothing seems to make sense to us. So it’s best if we express it either to some other person or to some other way like I said writing a diary. And then after that once it’s vented out, the mind calms down.
And then our intelligence can start acting. Okay, whatever I wrote down on my diary, let me see. Is there another way of looking at this? Why did that person do like that? Why did he or she speak like that about me? He’s just such a rascal.
Maybe so at that time we just can’t think of anything else. Why that person could have done it? We express it out. Maybe there was a reason why that person spoke like that.
Maybe there was something which I did because of which that person got the conception. So what happens is in this way when we do we train our intelligence to become the counsellor of our mind. When we first impulsively burst out, it’s our mind speaking.
Let it speak out and then let it calm down. Then we whatever philosophy we have heard, whatever principles we have learned, we start making them active to get an alternative perspective of the whole thing. So usually we will get that alternative perspective from a counsellor or some other senior devotee.
But as we progress we may be able to do it with our own intelligence acting as the counsellor of our mind. So I talked about two points till now. First is surely we need to vent out.
But with how we act we have to take guidance from either the intelligence of others or if we are mature enough then our own intelligent deliberation depending on time, place, circumstance. Now beyond that we will see even within devotee circle, different devotees are of different natures and some people may be more assertive to the level of some people may be aggressive also. So then if that is say our nature and we feel that it’s not practical for us to change it right away.
Then at times other than that we may just burst out at some particular times but other times we need to be able to make sure that our devotional feelings, our devotional side is also communicated to people not in artificial way of parading to others that I am a devotee but ultimately people don’t know our heart. People see only our actions and for people our actions are an indication of the content of our heart. So generally speaking if we see that a devotee is a little aggressive, if a devotee is demanding then the normal perception that comes is this person is not humble, this person is not really a devotee.
So maybe if that is our nature and the pushing is so strong that at that time we can’t resist it then there are other times when we need to convey our love and care and our devotional side to others not in a exhibitionist way but in an authentic way and when we do that then things will balance out overall the other devotees will understand this person is like this and people will understand around us but if that aggressive way is the way we constantly behave then it may be difficult for devotees to see our devotional side and then once a particular label gets affixed on a devotee as devotees we don’t want to affix labels on anyone but once a label gets affixed on a devotee then it becomes difficult to change that label so therefore even material life if I am short tempered I may be short tempered with my subordinate but I will not be short tempered with my boss because it’s the case of my livelihood over there I will not generally speaking start blasting my boss so if for our material sake we can subordinate our emotions then why can’t we do it for Krishna’s sake so there is two different things subordination and suppression we are not recommending suppression there has to be expression but in the right forum where we will get understanding and where we will get counsel about what is the best way to act but indiscriminate expression can lead to problems so Bhima no matter how angry he was he ultimately abided by the will of Yudhishthir so he expressed his emotions and there were times when Yudhishthir really tested the patience of Bhima and there were times when even Bhima was to some extent right and Yudhishthir was wrong now when Yudhishthir gambled away Draupadi Bhima was so angry at that time Bhima said to Sahadev, Sahadev is the youngest brother Sahadev he says there are utter debauchees who gamble away everything but even those debauchees will not wager and gamble even their maid service but here this Yudhishthir has gambled even his own wife he says I want to burn the hands that gambled away Draupadi Sahadev get fire I will burn Yudhishthir hands right away Bhima was so angry at that time Arjuna caught the shoulder of Bhima and he said oh brother what are you speaking just see how Arjuna is also very intelligent he doesn’t give a moral sermon to Bhima what he says is just see how our enemies are delighting at our misery why are you adding to their delight by showing them the disunity in our ranks so you know the last thing that Bhima wanted to do was increase the delight of Duryodhana so Arjuna is very intelligent what he speaks he says you have never spoken like this to Yudhishthira before and you know as well as I do that Yudhishthira did not gamble willingly he gambled only because he was instructed by his elders and he considers his elders instructions to be like the word of god and then when Arjuna speaks immediately Bhima cools down and Bhima says yes if I had not known that Yudhishthira was fighting only because of duty he says I would have I would have destroyed Yudhishthira even before the Yudhishthira was gambled what to speak of watching her gamble getting gambled away so the point is here Bhima had a relationship with Arjuna even when he was about to burst out against Yudhishthira Arjuna could pacify him so relationships also act as a buffer for our nature therefore we need to cultivate relationships with people who understand us and then they can in one sense save us from ourselves we need to be saved not just from the world we need to be saved from ourselves also so to summarise separation is not necessary it is not desirable also but at the same time subordination is necessary at times and also it is desirable at times so we need to separate the two with the use of our own intelligence with the association of devotees and with relationships that can help us does that answer the question so humility will be expressed by those actions you don’t suppress it you express it in a forum where it will be accepted see humility doesn’t necessarily mean that we don’t have any natural emotions if somebody has insulted us it doesn’t mean that I don’t feel anything if you don’t feel anything that’s like becoming a stone so that is not possible, humility means Prabhupada gives in 13.8 to 12 in the Bhagavad Gita where amanitvam is there so Prabhupada gives a very practical down to earth definition of humility he says to not be anxious to have the satisfaction of being honoured by others to not be anxious to have the satisfaction of being honoured by others that is humility that means what the motivation for our actions is not honoured from others but at the same time there is natural human reciprocation if we expect a particular person to deal with us in a particular way and that person doesn’t deal in that way then naturally we may feel disturbed so we can’t deny those human emotions Arjuna heard the whole philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita it says you are not the body you are the soul and yet when Abhimanyu died Arjuna was heartbroken in fact there is almost a full chapter in the Mahabharata which describes Arjuna’s emotions and Krishna doesn’t tell Arjuna did you forget the Bhagavad Gita no he is sympathetic at that time he is sympathetic at that time so the important point is with respect to Arjuna Arjuna vented his emotions but his emotions did not stop or obstruct his service to Krishna his emotions did not stop his service to Krishna they did not even obstruct his service to Krishna in fact the next day the 13th day of the war was the worst day for the Kauravas when his service to Krishna increased so ultimately humility means that our motivation for action is not our honour our motivation is service to Krishna and naturally if somebody disrespects us we will feel certain emotions but those emotions don’t obstruct our service to Krishna we continue our service to Krishna so this is an important point I will just add one more example then I will stop at a material level we can say that when Srila Prabhupada was preaching in India Srila Prabhupada was only being superficially respected, you know people are respecting you are a sadhu but nobody was seriously hearing his philosophy, following his instructions and applying what he was teaching so then when Srila Prabhupada went abroad he got followers followers who practically took his word as the word of God and were ready to lay down his life for him lay down their lives for him so in one sense Srila Prabhupada was superficially respected then he went to a zone where he was not respected at all in the early days of Krishna consciousness people did not know what is a sadhu and then later on his words were respected like they were the word of God now if we see in all these phases Srila Prabhupada was always serving Krishna but if there were times when some devotee behaved improperly like there is a did I mention this incident of Jaipur yesterday the devotees in Jaipur they were I didn’t I think so some Mataji disciples of Srila Prabhupada had gone to Jaipur to get deities made at that time they were in Radha Govinda temple they were doing everyday kirtans in front of Radha Govinda and the local people were very impressed because first of all these are foreign Matajis and they were wearing sarees and they were singing such beautiful kirtans so they asked him they told about Prabhupada so they were very happy they said what can we do for you we want to do something for you so if you want to do something for us get Srila Prabhupada over here he said organise a big programme for him then Prabhupada will come he said ok and Prabhupada was very happy when he got the news that these Matajis have attained a programme for him and Prabhupada said you know these serious Matajis they are not ordinary souls they are organising big big programmes to spread Krishna’s message and then Prabhupada was very happy and when they came there they had made a pamphlet and this is Bhaktivedanta Swami with his international disciples so Prabhupada was very annoyed he said why international disciples he said you should write European and American disciples now we wonder what is this what is the matter whether it is international or it is European and American because Srila Prabhupada’s whole plan for going abroad was what to get western people to become devotees and Indians are attracted to western people so international can mean Chinese international can mean African international can mean maybe Zimbabwe, South American Brazilian those are not the people who are impressed those are not the people who impress Indians so Srila Prabhupada wanted to use the attraction that Indians had to the west that means primarily Europe and America to get them to Krishna’s lotus feet. Srila Prabhupada was very annoyed and he told them you just throw away these pamphlets and make new pamphlets with Bhaktivedanta Swami along with his American and European disciples now here Srila Prabhupada was in one sense asking for honour and not just honour but specific honour but what was the purpose? The purpose was glorification of Krishna so even when one time Srila Prabhupada went to a programme and actually speaking there were times especially in India when he was treated as a curiosity object who is this Swami who has got foreign disciples but people would not become committed so Srila Prabhupada whether he got honour or he got superficial honour or whether he got dishonour Srila Prabhupada was fixed in his service to Krishna so now in some situations if our service to Krishna requires the requires a certain level of honour and if that respect is not offered then either asking for that respect like Srila Prabhupada did over here or may be changing the service Srila Prabhupada was preaching in India it didn’t work Srila Prabhupada could have said I want to be humble so nobody is hearing my message that’s how I will stay humble now our primary goal is not humility our primary goal is service to Krishna and we don’t want our pride to come in the way of service to Krishna but just being humble now Bhakti Sahaja Thakur said that if nobody comes you preach to the walls that is fine but that doesn’t mean I will not do any propaganda for the programme let nobody come I will preach to the walls I will become purified that is fine but I am preaching not just for my purification I am preaching to fulfil my spiritual master’s instruction and that is to share Krishna’s message so we are ultimately not devotees of humility we are devotees of Krishna and humility is very important in our service to Krishna because pride can often obstruct our service to Krishna so therefore we want to put pride aside and serve Krishna but we shouldn’t get so bogged down with with say appearing humble and so not expressing our emotions that we don’t feel inspired to do any service because if you are too cautious I should not become proud I should not become proud I should not be seen as proud by others we have to do our service to Krishna many people thought of Srila Prabhupada as proud but when they came close to Prabhupada and they saw his dedication to Krishna’s service then they understood he is not self-centred he is Krishna-centred so the same answer to what I gave to yesterday Vamshi Dharpo’s question also essentially we have to do our service to Krishna and as much as possible we try to be humble and act in a way that others will also see as humble but primary it is that we are servants of Krishna and we try to serve Krishna in whatever way we can is that clear? Thank you Thank you very much Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai Srila Prahlad Maharaj Ki Jai Gaur Bhakta Vinda Ki Jai Pitai Gaur Prem Anandi Hare Krishna In half an hour we will start we will take a half an hour break 12 o’clock I am just rotating my condition I was mad for words before my Krishna Consciousness words memorising words so now I am trying to channelise them do you know he writes lots of books I have so many books scientific I have got in my bag