The Romance and the Resistance in Fasting

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Transcript

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

इसकान में, आपके लिए किसी आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए और वो पर शास्त्रिक अध्वाईसरी कमिटी के लिए भी आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके लिए आपके ल वाहववубстаточноं अधुनाही को में जटना किया हारेव, हारेव, हारेव हरेवनिष्णा किया मगे सबदा प्रेहर करें ओमज् ×्याणद दि मिरंधज्य Tricky ग्याणांजु निशिलाखाईघ । toцौज्डञ्डज्ज्ञग्। स्थापितां येन भूतले स्वयं रूप कदां मैहं अदाती स्वाप दान्तिकं वन्देहं श्री गुरो श्रियोता पदखमलं श्री गुरोन वैश्णवांश्च श्री रूपं साग्रजातां सहगणरगुना थान्वितं तंस जीवं साद्वैतं सावधूतं परिजन सहितं � सुपत्बादर्वं कृष्णचयितन्यदेवं šrī रादemu कृष्णपादान सहगणर ललिथा श्री विशाखान वितंश्चनमाऊमन trauma avidupalaya kPodsāy putalapremata श्रीमते भक्ति वेदान्त स्वामीति नामिने नमस्ते सारस्वती देवे गवरवानी प्रचारिने निर्विशेश शुन्यवादी पाश्चात्य देश तारिने नमो महावधन्यायो कृष्णाप्रेम प्रदायते कृष्णाय कृष्ण चैतन्या नामने गवरति शेनमहा हे कृष्णा करुणा सिंदो दीन बंधो जगत्पते गोपेश गोपिका कांत राधा कांत नमस्तुते तप्त कांचिन गवरांवी राधे विंदावनेश्वरी प्रिशभाम सुते देवी प्रणमामी हरी प्रिये वांचा कल्पतरुभ्यस्ज कृपा सिंधू प्येवच पतिता नामपावनेभ्यो वैश्णवेभ्यो नमोनमहा जैश्वी कृष्ण चैतन्यो प्रभूनित्यानन्दा शियद्वईतगदाधार शिवासाधि गवरभक्त विंदा हरे कृष्णा हरे कृष्णा कृष्णा कृष्णा हरे हरे हरे राम हरे राम आधारे तिल् परम्दृष्ट्वानिवर्थति, we get a higher taste. Now if you look at the Sanskrit, different Acharyas have given us different insights. So if you look at the Sanskrit itself, the word is निराहारस्य देहिनः.

So आहार is food and निराहार is absence of food. So विशयाविनिवर्थन्ते, when we go away from the sense objects, निराहारस्य देहिनः, so the देहिनः, the embodied soul feels as if the sense objects are his आहार. So आहार is not just what we eat with our tongue.

For the eyes, looking at beautiful objects is आहार. For the ear, to hear sweet sounds is आहार. For the fingers and the hands and the body, to touch soft, soothing objects is आहार.

Like that, each of the sense has its आहार. And when we try to live a regulated, principled life in Krishna consciousness, at that time, the senses feel as if they are becoming निराहार. They feel as if they are being starved.

And रसवर्जम, रसोप्यस्य. So रसवर्जम, even when the रस is taken away, still the desire remains. But परम्दृष्ट्वा निवर्थते.

Now, Srila Prabhupada translates परम्दृष्ट्वा as higher taste. If we look at the Sanskrit, a more complex and complete picture emerges. The word is दृष्ट्वा.

दृष्ट्वा is connected with दृष्टि. And दृष्टि is connected with vision or sight. So परम्दृष्ट्वा means a superior vision.

A superior vision. So if the Sanskrit is saying superior vision, then why is Srila Prabhupada translating as a higher taste? Generally, we think of vision as something to do with the eyes, taste as something to do with the tongue. So actually, Srila Prabhupada is conveying, even when he uses the word higher taste, this higher happiness is nothing like sense gratification.

So when Krishna is talking about परम्दृष्ट्वा, he is talking about a higher spiritual vision of all of reality, by which we can see reality deeper than what we normally see with our senses. And when we see the reality deeper, we see the presence of Krishna over there. So that's why neither the concept of taste nor the concept of vision conveys the totality of the experience of Krishna.

In the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, in the sixth chapter, when Narada Muni is describing to Vyasadeva about how he became Krishna conscious, at that time it is described that when he actually saw Krishna, every one of his senses became individually and immensely enlivened. Individually and immensely enlivened. He felt as if he was experiencing Krishna with all of his senses.

So Krishna at the spiritual level is the complete sense object. Krishna is the complete sense object. Krishna is नेत्रेपिबंति नेनाभेरामा He is extremely beautiful to see.

When we behold the beautiful deity of Krishna, then it is like a shower of nectar for our eyes. But when we hear Krishna's flute or Krishna's speech, मधुरयागिरा बल्गोवाक्यया बुद्धमनोग्यया पुष्करेक्षणा In the 31st chapter of the 10th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, the Gopis in separation from Krishna are praying, मधुरयागिरा Your voice is so sweet. बल्गोवाक्यया The words that you speak with that sweet voice are so charming.

And how charming are they? She is giving an example, बुद्धमनोग्यया पुष्करेक्षणा बुद्धमनोग्यया A sweet, a glib speaking person may be able to fool a naive person. But an intelligent person is not easy to bewilder. But Krishna, your speech is so sweet and your content of the speech is so charming that even the wise get bewildered.

So in this way, Krishna is the I just gave two examples. One of the eyes and the other is of the ear, hearing. So Krishna, we know in the Chaitanya Mangal, Rukmini Devi tells Lord Krishna that what your lotus feet mean to a devotee, you can never understand that.

You can never understand that. So Krishna das Kaviraj Goswami has written a very beautiful, ashtakam glorifying Lord Krishna. And there he describes that how extraordinary are the lotus feet of Lord Krishna.

So he says, मनी रञ्जित गञ्जित भृङ्गमदम मनी रञ्जित गञ्जित भृङ्गमदम So the honey bees, they have, they are always looking for honey. But when they come to the lotus feet of Krishna, lotus feet of Krishna are adorned with money. But greater than the adornment of the money is the adornment of the lotus feet.

The honey bees get completely intoxicated. And then similarly it is described that the Kumaras, when they went to Vaikuntha, at that time when they saw, before even they saw Lord Vishnu, actually we know what happened. The Kumaras cursed the Jai Vijay.

So at that time, Lord Narayan immediately came there. And as Lord Narayan was coming, at that time they smelled the fragrance of the tulsi at the lotus feet. Now in Vaikuntha tulsi is there everywhere.

What attracted them is not the tulsi plant that is there everywhere. What attracted them was the tulsi that was there at the lotus feet of Lord Narayan. गिंजल कमृष्ट तुलसी मक्रंद वायो संक्षोभम अक्षर जुशाम पिछित तन्मो So when that Vayu, wind carrying the tulsi came to them, अक्षर जुशाम, they were fixed in impersonal meditation but they got agitated.

So they were in a situation where they would not have got agitated by anything material. Only something higher than material, higher than impersonal could have agitated them. So that is the capacity of the fragrance of the lotus feet of Krishna.

So we talked about the touch, the fragrance, the speech and the sight. So like this Krishna, we can go on this elaborate discussion, Krishna is actually the complete sense object for the soul. Of course, we consider ourselves as objects for Krishna's pleasure.

We don't consider Krishna as the object for our pleasure. But the relationship is reciprocal. As Bhaktivinod Thakur says in that Atma Nivedhana song, he says, आमी तो तो मार, तुमी तो आमार, कि का जया परधाने, पुर्व इतिहास भुलिनु सकल। पुर्व इतिहास भुलिनु सकल। He says, whatever I have lived in the past, I will just forget it all.

And what will I do? आमी तो तो मार, I am yours and you are mine. तुमी तो आमार, कि का जया परधाने, Why do I need any other wealth? So the relationship of Krishna with us is reciprocal. And we experience Krishna in the spiritual world through our spiritual senses.

In the material world, how do we experience Krishna? We experience Him through His manifestations in the material world. So we see the beautiful deity of Krishna. We experience Krishna through that.

So as souls, the soul has the power for desiring. And that power of desiring is always directed somewhere. So here, in this material world, we have all come in search of substitutes for Krishna.

In one sense, we say that we have come to imitate Krishna. We were envious of Krishna in the spiritual world. So we came from there to imitate Krishna.

But at the same time, we are also looking for an object that we feel is worthy of our love. Krishna is supremely worthy of our love. But we are looking for some object now that we have forgotten Krishna.

And we may look for that in a member of the opposite sex, we may look for that in a car, in a bungalow, in social prestige, in fame, in bodily strength, in our bank balance. Through all these, we are looking essentially for substitutes for Krishna. That means something that will give me the happiness that I was originally getting in relationship with Krishna.

So generally, the luxuries are what attract our heart. Now every day, I need air to breathe. But nobody sings songs of love for the air.

Oh air, I love you so much. Why? Because that's a necessity that is so innate to our existence and more importantly, so readily available to us that we don't feel the separation from it anytime. Maybe except when we are suffocating or drowning or some other terrible incident like that.

Normally speaking, we, our heart longs not for necessities. If our necessities are provided for, it longs for luxuries. If a new cell phone model comes up, I want that new cell phone.

If a new bike comes up, I want the bike. If a new car comes up, I want the car. So like that, the luxuries are what attract our heart.

And as devotees, we try to regulate our life so that we don't get caught up in the luxuries. The chase for the luxuries in life is an endless chase. Actually, the chase for luxuries leaves us with no luxury of time.

The chase for luxuries makes spare time a luxury that we can't afford. Because the desires are endless. The desires are endless.

So, as devotees, we understand to some extent that okay, in material life, whatever arrangement Krishna has provided for me, I can work for attaining a certain level of respectability. But beyond that, it's an endless pursuit. Not only is it endless, it is not going to be satisfying also.

Because even after I achieve something wonderful, it's temporary. So therefore, I will search for spiritual advancement. I'll seek spiritual advancement.

So to some extent, if we are philosophically sound, then we understand that okay, I should not pursue the luxuries. So we don't search for substitutes for Krishna in the luxuries. At least we curtail that search.

But at another level, even the necessities of life also become substitutes for Krishna. They become distractions from Krishna. Why? Ultimately, we have only one heart.

And that heart has to be offered somewhere. So, the heart, if it is offered to Krishna, it brings us the supreme happiness. If it is offered anywhere else, at best, it will bring disappointment.

At worst, it will bring devastation. At best, disappointment. That means we offer our heart to somebody else.

And that person maybe turns out to be somewhat compatible. But at the end, no two people are compatible in this world. Except the soul and Krishna.

This is the only compatible pair that is there. All other pairs, the best that we can strive for is minimum incompatibility. The best that we can strive for is minimum incompatibility.

Because it's not the problem of any particular person. It's just the nature of the world that we have loved Krishna in the spiritual world first. And now we have come to this world looking for a substitute for Krishna.

So, no person, no matter how many good qualities that person has, can ever equal Krishna. So, our own expectations when we offer our heart to somebody, are unrealistic. And that's why our expectations are bound to be at best disappointed.

That means if there is a minimum incompatibility, sorry, at best, they will be disappointed. That person will not be able to live up to our expectations and will be disappointed. But if that person just rejects us, there may be even devastation of our heart.

So, that means in material life we have these two options, devastation at worst, disappointment at best. But only when we direct our heart towards Krishna, then there is fulfillment. There is ultimate fulfillment.

So, even our body's necessities, the food, we don't just eat for the sake of eating. We eat because we love to eat. We love to eat.

If we were just eating for the sake of eating, the whole cooking industry would be out of business. Animals eat for the sake of eating. That's why when a cow is eating grass, it doesn't think, oh, today I have to put some spice in the grass.

It eats the same grass because for the cow, the grass is simply a biological necessity. And it treats it as a biological necessity. It may hanker for it.

If it is starving, it may crave for it even at the risk of its own life. That is fine. But it is basically a biological phenomenon.

But because we as souls, see, the human condition is very unique among all the other species. We know at one level humans alone can practice spiritual life. But what does that mean practically? See, the soul is here and the soul gets covered by a body.

The body covers the consciousness of the soul. Krishna explains, āvṛtaṁ jñānaṁ etena. He says in 3.39 that the soul's consciousness is covered by the body.

So now, in the animal species, the consciousness is entirely at the bodily level. So animals more or less function like machines. Programmed machines.

And their instincts are their programming. Say tomorrow is Ekadashi, so we can say I will fast. If a cat sees a rat, it can't think, oh, today is Ekadashi.

It can't. If it is hungry, it just has to pounce on it. It is just going to work according to its instincts.

And the soul's consciousness is so covered that it will seek happiness through those bodily activities and whatever happiness it has got through the bodily activities, it is satisfied by that. A grass, actually we talk about eating, sleeping, mating, defending as the pleasures that the soul seeks for in material existence. But think about a grass.

Actually speaking, what is the pleasure of mating for a grass? Or even if you talk about a plant. Okay, it is a flower and it is an andrushyam and a gynushyam and the seeds come from here, fly and they come in contact. And what is the pleasure there? Actually, Shri Prabhupada explains in this purport of 3.38, dhumena avriyate vahanir, that in the tree species, the soul is so covered that there is very minimal experience of pleasure.

Very minimal experience of pleasure. So the point I am making over here is that all the lower species, their capacity for happiness is more or less determined by and limited to their bodily capacities. Whereas we in human species are in an anomalous situation.

Because the soul's consciousness is uncovered much more than any other species. And because the soul's consciousness is uncovered more than any other species, we long for more happiness than what the body can provide. Every species longs for happiness.

But in the animal species, the consciousness is covered enough that whatever is the capacity of the body, that much is their capacity for happiness at that level of consciousness. So that's why we will see that animals mate during the breeding season. During the breeding season, it's almost impossible to stop the animals from mating.

But at other times, even if the male and female are there, they are not really attracted to each other. But what about human beings? Human beings are constantly fantasizing about it and they want to indulge it at every possible opportunity. So what is that saying? Man is the only animal who eats when he is not hungry, sleeps when he is not tired, fights when there is no reason and mates when there is no procreation wanted.

So why is this? This is because actually we as souls have our consciousness so much developed that we long for more happiness than what our body can provide. And because of this, we eventually become forced to go in the direction of spirituality. How can we become forced by this? Actually Prabhupada explains in the Purport of 3.37 that he says the soul searches for a long time for happiness and when it doesn't get that happiness, then he starts thinking where is real happiness and where is reality? What is reality? And then Prabhupada says Then he starts inquiring about spirituality.

So in one of the first Rath Yatra that was held in America, Shri Prabhupada had hundreds of young hippies coming and he told them thank you for coming for this Rath Yatra festival and he says I know in your country all of you are not appreciated very much. People criticize you calling you as hippies saying that you are all frustrated people. He says but I appreciate all of you.

He says human life is meant to become frustrated. Human life is meant to become frustrated. He says and Prabhupada quotes this verse He says only when somebody is frustrated with the search for material happiness then will he start searching for spiritual happiness.

And if one doesn't become frustrated with the search for material happiness then he is not yet become a human being. Shri Prabhupada writes in the first canto that in Kali Yuga the human beings are a royal edition of animals. Now what do we mean by a royal edition of animals? It is a very curious phrase.

If you have a book, normal edition is there. Royal edition means the covering is very attractive. The binding is very attractive.

But the content is the same. So like that we have got human body so the covering we may have a shirt, a coat, a tie and we wear a tie and then we wear a coat and then we turn on a AC because we are sweating so much and we think we are progressing so nicely. So the point is that in Kali Yuga if we don't become frustrated with the search for material happiness then actually we have not realized the inherent futility of material pleasures.

This frustration can come in two ways. Sometimes people feel that you take to spirituality so just a few months ago one of my friends had come and he was asked after almost 15 years I met him so he was telling many times I have seen people take to spirituality because they become frustrated by the failures of material life. They try to get success in material life they fail and when they become frustrated they turn to spiritual life.

I said that's possible some people may take up spirituality like that but many of the people I know who are practicing spirituality were very successful in spiritual life and they were frustrated not with the failures of material life but with the successes of material life. What do you mean? What do you mean to be frustrated by the success of material life? That means that you succeed and after success we find that the happiness is so little. Happiness is so little.

So when the conditioned soul gets the enjoyment of his dreams and asks at that time Is that all? Is that all? I dreamt for years and years for this pleasure and now I got it. It's over in a few minutes. Is that all? There must be something more in life.

This is Brahma Jigyasa. We get material happiness and we find it disappointing. So when I was in my college days since my childhood because of my family, my culture all had just given me one dream I wanted to be the topper in my college.

And of course I was always among the toppers but I was never the topper. Now we joined first, second, third but never number one alone. So that was like my lifelong dream.

So then in my senior college I gave GRE in my third year and somehow since childhood I had a lot of love for English language. So then at that time this was almost 15-16 years ago so at that time out of 2400 I got 2350. So I was not only the topper in the college I was the topper in the history of the college and I was the topper in the whole state at that time.

So I thought I'll be so happy and then many people were coming and congratulating me and after that I found something very peculiar. I found myself observing who all are not coming and congratulating me. And I found myself thinking why is he not congratulating me? Doesn't he know what I have done? Or is he envious of me? Then it struck me that actually after achieving this I have become more dependent on happiness on others.

I have not become happy I have become more dependent on happiness on others. And ultimately one becomes a topper people come and congratulate and it's over. Is that all? Isn't there something more to life? So the point is in the material body which we have as human beings we have a desire for happiness that is greater than the capacity of the body to provide happiness.

And that is why what we do is we try to increase the variety of the bodily enjoyment that we get. As I said a cow will just eat the same grass but we will cook newer and newer and newer delicacies and try to get some enjoyment. Similarly as in every field we will try to get something new and try to get better and better happiness.

So this doesn't work because the body's capacity for happiness is limited. The body's capacity for happiness is limited. How is it limited? Because if I decide to eat and I get my favorite item to eat and as much as you want you can eat it.

Start eating, start eating, start eating. After sometime no matter how much is there my body's capacity is exhausted. Now the most over glamorized pleasure in modern society is the pleasure of sex.

So when people have sex there may be some pleasure in it but when they stop the sexual enjoyment it is not because they are satisfied. It is because the body's capacity is exhausted. It is because the body's capacity is exhausted.

The body has a limited capacity to generate and secrete and excrete chemicals and the essence of the pleasure is that thrill that comes when the hormones are secreted and excreted. But that capacity is limited. So at the bodily level our longing for happiness will never be satisfied.

But because our society, our culture glamorizes material pleasure so much that our minds are constantly in a hyperactive mode thinking this will make me happy, this will make me happy, this will make me happy. So there is always the option of material pleasure and spiritual pleasure throughout history. And to take the option most extreme there is the option of spiritual pleasure and there is the option of sinful pleasure.

The great evil of Kalyuga is not that there are these two options, they are always there. But the great evil of Kalyuga is that the evil pleasures, the harmful pleasures, the sinful pleasures they are culturally glamorized. That never happened in the past.

Ramana was going around the universe grabbing whichever woman he wanted. But he was not glamorized for that. But in Kalyuga every hoarding, every commercial, every movie, what is it doing? It is glamorizing sinful pleasure.

And that's what, when Kalyuga makes sin fashionable and you see how subtly and sinisterly values are shifted. If a woman does sexually explicit scenes where she is exposing her body in a very obscene and vulgar way it is said that she is a bold actress. Now what is the boldness in that? In vulgarity, in obscenity if it can sacrifice political correctness we can say it is shameless, isn't it? But it is called bold.

Now if you think about it as bold, then who wants to be cowardly? So that becomes the idea that everyone wants to aspire. Who knows, maybe a few years down the line a woman dresses herself nicely, she will be called cowardly. It is the opposite of bold, isn't it? So this is how values are shifted.

So subtly, what is happening by calling obscenity and vulgarity as boldness what is happening? Sin is being glamorized. When sin is glamorized like this then we lose the clarity of the choices for us. This is virtuous, this is vicious, this is noble, this is ignoble.

But when ignoble, when the vicious is glamorized as fashionable then it becomes almost impossible to resist it. So the necessities of the body they occupy not just our bodily capacity but they occupy our heart, our heart's desires. That means delicious food items, good looking sense objects.

They, at one level someone can say they are bodily necessities, they are. But the way our culture glamorizes it and the way our human form makes us look for happiness more than what the bodily capacity allows we give our hearts to the bodily needs. And that's why they can become distractions.

So in one sense, even the sense objects that are not sinful they can also become substitutes for Krishna for us. So when we try to do some devotional austerity like fasting, what are we trying to do? We are trying to say Krishna no more substitutes for you. Only you.

So that is the romance and the resistance. What is the romance? If our physical appetite for food is forgotten due to our devotional appetite for Krishna. That means we are so eager for Krishna.

It may be we are hearing Krishna katha, chanting Krishna's name, taking Krishna's darshan. We have a devotional appetite for Krishna. Krishna is not an object to be consumed by the mouth.

But we do consume prasad with our mouth. So the word appetite is used in the sense of inner hunger. So what we do is we intensify our devotional appetite so much that we forget the physical appetite.

Krishna at least for this one day no substitutes for you. Only you. So if we can think of fasting in this way then it becomes like an expression of our love for Krishna or expression at least of our intention to love Krishna.

So that is the romance in fasting. But what is the resistance in fasting? The resistance is sorry it's not appetite for our devotional appetite for food sorry for Krishna I'm sorry about this. Our devotional appetite for Krishna is forgotten due to our physical appetite for food.

That means that if when we are fasting we can't get our thoughts away from the bodily level to Krishna then what happens? We are just thinking about food, food, food. When will I get food? Then that hunger is so great and the thoughts of the hunger dominate our mind so much that they create an an immense resistance to our fasting. So now if we look at the romance the example of fasting at the level of romance is the Vrajavasis under Govardhan Hill.

For seven days not only were they not eating or drinking or sleeping they were not even thinking about it. Why? Because they were absorbed in Krishna. They were so absorbed in Krishna that instead of longing when the seven days will end and we'll get something to eat they were actually lamenting when the seven days ended.

They were lamenting when the seven days ended. So for them the fasting was actually in one sense incidental. They neither intended to fast nor did they struggle to fast.

It is just something that happened because their devotional appetite for Krishna was so thoroughly satisfied. For all of them they would rarely have darshan of Krishna for so long. Krishna has his pastimes and when he performs his pastimes different devotees have his association at different times.

Although there is no time in the spiritual world in the material sense but there is time in the spiritual sense. In the material sense time controls and destroys. What does it do? Control.

I may like to do something but then time is running out. So time controls me. I can't control time.

And time destroys. I want to be young and good looking but I grow old. But in the spiritual world time flows but without any control or without any destruction.

That's why when Lord Krishna defines time while describing his Vishwaroopa he says कालोस्मि लोकक्षय कृतप्रभृत्धो लोकक्षय One of the defining attributes of time is it destroys. So in the spiritual world there is a flow of time but it neither controls nor destroys. When Krishna is performing Raslila with the Gopis He doesn't have to look at his watch Time is out now I have to go.

He is performing Raslila with the Gopis Raslila is going on Krishna expands time and one night can become the night of Brahma. As long as he wants he can enjoy. So Krishna can expand time but even when Krishna expands time the devotees don't feel that the time has been expanded because they are so much relishing Krishna's association.

So every morning when the Sakhas come to take Krishna out to the forest प्रभातकाले वरवल्लगवगः प्रभातकाले Early in the morning वरवल्लगवगः The best among the Gopis They come गोरक्षिनार्थम् दृतवेत्रदंडः So they have their sticks For what? गोरक्षिनार्थम् आकारयनासुरणन्तमाद्यम् गोविन्ददामो धर्माधवेति So they come and stand outside Krishna's house and they say आकारयनासुर They are calling out अनन्तमाद्यम् That Lord is Ananta That Lord is Adya They are calling Hey Krishna Are you still sleeping? You are so lazy Come it is time to go And as the Gopas are coming Krishna says Krishna is still sleeping No Krishna Nobody knows Krishna has been performing Pastime with the Gopis throughout the night So So when he comes At that time Mother Yashoda comes And she Gently What does she do? She says प्राभोधयत्पानितलेनमंदम् प्राभोधयत् She comes and wakes Krishna पानितलेनम् With gentle tip of her hand मंदम् गोविन्दधामो धर्माधवेति Krishna wake up Wake up it is time He says all your Gopas have come The cows are ready They are going So wake up So Mother Yashoda is duty bound Krishna is the son of the Cowherd man Cowherd man king King of the cowherd man And he has to do his duties But she is thinking Now I am able to see Krishna But when he goes out I will not be able to see Krishna So as they start going out Yashodamayi starts coming behind And Krishna just wants to Play with his Gopas And Yashodamayi says I will be ok He says that's fine But I will come with you He says no I want to play Let me go Yashodamayi says no I will just come for a little distance And then finally Krishna just Goes into the forest And Yashodamayi is just Looking, looking, looking So there They experience separation From Krishna Why? Because the hankering is so great So none of the associates of Krishna Can have the association of Krishna Constantly Of course internally They are always having The association of Krishna But they cannot have the Association of Krishna directly So in the Govardhan Puja Or in the post Govardhan Puja When the rains were being Showered by Indra At that time all of them Had the association of Krishna The beautiful presence of Krishna Krishna was smiling Talking with them Looking at all of them Krishna was Glancing at them And all of them felt that Krishna is glancing at us So they were so happy So for them fasting was Incidental Similarly We may say that the Vrajavasis Are eternal associates of Krishna They are very lofty That level is not for us That's true That level is not for us Even if you look at the Goswamis They fasted But they fasted Not because they wanted to Prove how renounced we are They fasted because They were so busy in serving Krishna They just didn't think about eating So Nidrahara Vihara Kadi Vijitao Vijitao They had conquered over Nidrahara Vihara But how? Because of Radha Krishna padarvind Bhajananandena mattalikau Because they were mad In serving Krishna So Sri Prabhupada writes In the 4th canto parpot That the determination To serve Krishna Is tantamount To seeing Krishna That the determination To serve Krishna When we are determined To serve Krishna By following the instructions Of the spiritual master That is equivalent To seeing Krishna Because we can experience Krishna's presence at that level So therefore At our level We may not have a devotional appetite Like the Vrajavasis We may not have A devotional appetite Even for service to Krishna Like the Goswamis But we do have Some devotional appetite If we had no devotional appetite We wouldn't be here The very fact that we are chanting Hare Krishna And practicing Krishna Consciousness Indicates that we have Experienced some devotional taste Some devotional happiness We have experienced And we want to experience it more now So in general Sometimes we may get doubts Actually Am I really getting purified by Krishna Consciousness Everyday I am getting trouble by lust By greed, by anger And I keep fighting and saying no to them But again they keep coming So where is the purification Actually happening So actually speaking Is something changing In our life, in our heart There is a big change And the proof of that change Is we are asking this question What does it mean If we see Ordinary materialistic people If they become lusty They feel happy Isn't it They are inventing ways to become lusty Isn't it Discover the passion So what does it mean As devotees I don't want to become greedy I don't want to become lusty I don't want to become angry So this indicates The process of Krishna Consciousness Has worked at a much deeper level More than Changing our desires Krishna Consciousness has changed Our values What is the difference between desires And values Desires come and go But values refer to Those things that we value So in material When we are entirely materialistic We value lust When lust comes I feel so good Actually that good feeling is Just It's only Flickering There is a long feeling of being miserable There is a saying That Nowadays pornography Is such a big mess It takes 20 seconds To see a pornographic image And it takes 20 years to forget that image So It's like that So the nectar Is just for 20 seconds But after that Especially when we see obscene images These images have a sort of Mental glue By which they just stick to the mind Stick to the mind And even if they want to they don't go away So That's how material pleasures are But With respect to devotional pleasures It's entirely different Actually speaking when we remember Krishna Every moment we remember Krishna It gives us deeper and deeper happiness So as devotees What has happened Our values have changed That means earlier We look forward to becoming lusty We look forward to becoming greedy Now we are wondering why am I becoming lusty I don't want to become lusty So actually As long as we are in the material world And we have a material mind The desires will keep going up and down But which desires Do we value Do we value impure desires Or do we value pure desires The very fact that I am asking The very fact that I am asking When will lust go away That means I am no longer Valuing material desires I am valuing Purity from material desires I am valuing purification So actually Even the material desires will go away over a period of time They will go away But that process takes a little more time Because these material desires are so deep rooted But The devotional desires They also awaken in our hearts With material desires Sometimes some of us might have been eating meat Regularly before we are introduced to Krishna consciousness But now if somebody Shows us meat We don't have to resist much of a desire Prasad is literally a higher taste Isn't it So what happens Actually speaking Sometimes if somebody is eating meat And the sight of the meat or the smell of the meat I just want to go away somewhere else So what happened Hasn't the process of Krishna consciousness worked Not only have our values changed But even our desires have changed We don't even get the desire So This way the process has worked So with respect to others It will work But at a deeper level the values have changed And that is important So for us To change our values at a deeper level We need to get Experience of the happiness Of Krishna consciousness And we get the experience Of the happiness of Krishna consciousness To the extent that we Free our Consciousness from other distracting Experiences So when we are trying to fast What are we trying to do The thought of food is a distraction So we just put aside Now Krishna prasad is not a distraction From Krishna Krishna prasad is a way to Krishna But Krishna prasad Is not the only way to Krishna And what happens most of the time We may take Krishna prasad But we are not remembering Krishna So because Still there is purification But there is Not as much purification If you are not remembering Krishna So as devotees Prasad is always pure So there are some stories about Ekadashi Mahatmya About how grains become impure When we On the days of Ekadashi And that's why grains should not be taken But that is actually only for the Karmakand material religiosity level When we are offering food to Krishna And taking prasad Prasad can never become contaminated So we fast Not just because the food is impure We fast because we want to focus On Krishna We fast because our acharyas have told us That on these days we should fast So as devotees When we are trying to practice Krishna These opportunities Like Nirja Lekha Dashi We can mine these opportunities Mine means Gold is underground So we have to dig and mine it So these are mining opportunities For experiencing Deeper levels of Krishna consciousness As I said, the underlying principle is That Krishna No more substitutes for you Only you So when we have this Mood We make our appetite Singularly focused In the devotional dimension of Krishna And then we will Experience that The fulfillment that comes from it Is far Greater than the Fulfillment that can come from anything else So as devotees we are not interested In torturing our bodies That is the Path of Jnana But we are Interested in nourishing and awakening Our soul And for us bhakti is Primarily In the process of bhakti Fasting is meant primarily to Nourish and awaken the soul So we Intensify our Krishna consciousness As much as possible on these days And when we intensify Krishna consciousness We get Extraordinary experiences Of the Sumptuous Satisfaction that Krishna consciousness Offers Kula Shekhar Maharaj In his prayer says Sukha taram aparam na ja tu jaane Hari charan smarana Amrute na tulyam Hari charan smarana The smaran of the Lotus feet of lord Hari Amruta, what kind of amruta is it? It is tulyam, there is nothing to this Sukha taram aparam Na ja tu jaane I don't know any happiness Like this In the Govinda Damodar Stotra, Bilvamangal Shakur says Oh my tongue I have only one prayer to you Jivve rasagye madhura Priyatvam satyam hitam Tvam parmam vadami Aavarnayeta Madhuraksharani Govinda Damodar Madhaveti So he is saying Jivve oh tongue Rasagye He is actually flattering his tongue Oh my tongue, you are very wise Tongue is not wise actually Tongue is foolish And it makes us foolish But he is flattering the tongue to make it see sense Jivve rasagye You know Rasas very well Madhura priyatvam And I know that you like sweet tastes You like delicious things Jivve rasagye Madhura priyatvam Satyam hitam Tvam parmam vadami He says I am going to speak the truth to you Parmam, the supreme truth I will speak to you Aavarnayeta Madhuraksharani He says these akshara Are very madhur I know that you know what is good taste And I know that you like sweetness So here I tell you Where there is a supreme sweetness Aavarnayeta So please enunciate these letters Madhuraksharani This is a very sweet word Govindadamodarmadaveti He chants the names of Krishna So here Govindadamodarmadaveti All these are the names of Krishna So actually speaking For us Maybe our mind is At the phase of the resistance To fasting, how can I fast It's not possible, full day But if we can get this Devotional vision Actually it's an opportunity To go away from the resistance And experience the romance Aspect of fasting We deepen our loving connection with Krishna And when we deepen that loving connection With Krishna, the austerity Is for one day But the memory is life long The austerity will last for one day But if we can actually fast And we experience I thought Some people think if I just don't take breakfast I will die But if I do it Not only I didn't take any meal throughout the day And Far from being dead I realized that all the days of my life Before I was dead That means I have experienced a new level of life So much Fulfillment If we can just fix our mind on Krishna And to some extent The fasting Offers us a good opportunity to fix the mind on Krishna Why Because normally Fixing the mind on Krishna Is optional Why optional Ok I can think of Krishna But don't think of Krishna There are so many other things to think about And they are so important also Our mind makes us think They may be important also But when we are fasting As soon as we stop thinking of Krishna The body starts Tormenting us So what I am hungry Give me something So then we have only two options Either if we keep listening to the torment Then we will not be able to maintain the fast But if we want to maintain the fast Then We have to force ourselves to think on Krishna So fasting is a way To make remembrance of Krishna Non-optional Non-optional We make it mandatory We make it compulsory for ourselves And there is a great joy In that So that is the opportunity that we have We don't want to torture the body And if somebody has great physical difficulty It is not necessary to fast But if it is possible We can have a very wonderful experience And Srila Prabhupada did not recommend regular fasting But on Ekadashi And special days like Janmashtami Srila Prabhupada always talks about austerity in two terms Austerity means Brahmacharya Controlling the sex surge And fasting on certain days And generally talks about these two Ekadashi and Janmashtami And other major festivals like that So among all Ekadashi There is a big story I won't go into But just the essence is Vyasdev once told the whole story about How important fasting on Ekadashi is And then Bhima said You know fasting He says Even the most powerful enemy Doesn't give me as many shivers As fasting gives me He says I can't fast Most of us Probably know that When Kunti When Draupadi was brought first time by Arjuna After he won her hand In the Swayamvar Then Kunti told her She is a new wife and she has to serve So she told him how to serve He says I know how to serve He says I have to serve food No there is a special way to serve these people He says what is there She had served in her family He says actually We have to serve in a special way Whatever food is there, divide into two Take one part Take the other part, divide it into We normally divide it into five Now we will divide it into six She was not able to understand He said these six parts Are for the four Pandava brothers For you and for me And this whole thing is for Bhima So Draupadi looked at Arjuna Arjuna smiled and nodded So the idea is That Bhima He used to eat so much And he used to do so much service In the forest when they were lost After the Lakshagriha was burnt Then everybody felt tired So Bhima said All of you Arjuna, Yudhisthira, Nakula, Sahadeva and Kunti All of you sit on my shoulders I will take all of you Ran through the forest So he could lift all of them Carry all of them and do huge amount of service He used to eat a lot also So we told Vyasadeva I can't fast So then Vyasadeva said you must fast Ekadashi is very important He says no He says please have some mercy on me So he said Ok, I will do one thing for you If you can't fast throughout the year You should fast once a year But fast completely And if you fast once On this Ekadashi Then I will arrange by my mercy That you and everybody Who fasts on this Ekadashi Will get the benefits That will come by fasting For all of you For all the Ekadashis So it is 52 times multiplied result We fast once And we get that Of course we are not interested in the material Calculations But we are interested in intensifying our Bhakti for Krishna So we don't want to torture our body And if we find something very difficult To fast then we can always take some water Better to take water and think of Krishna Than to not take water And while hearing about Krishna think of water So whatever it is But at whatever level we can If we try to fast And we understand the principle That actually this is not meant to torture my body But it is meant to increase My appetite for Krishna And experience the joy of remembrance of Krishna Then we can have a very wonderful Experience Through fasting So I will summarize quickly And we can have a few questions if there are any I started By talking about How in this world we are all Looking for substitutes For Krishna We are looking for Something that will give us happiness the way Krishna Gave And when we are not able to experience it We try to get better and better Material things So unlike the animals Whose longing for happiness is more or less Equivalent with their bodily capacity For happiness In humans our longing For happiness is far Greater than our bodily capacity for happiness So even the bodily necessities We try to process and manipulate And improve them So that we can experience more and more happiness But overall This makes us frustrated We saw how Prabhupada said human life is meant to be frustrated We are frustrated not just With the failure to get material Success, material happiness But even after the successes In material life Is that all? There has to be something more And that something more is Krishna Consciousness So fasting offers us The romance of it is Increasing our devotional appetite The resistance to it is Starving our physical appetite So if we keep our mind fixed on Krishna We discuss fasting at different levels Where we are not even aware of it Because it is absorbed in Krishna At our level Whatever devotional appetite we have We can increase that By trying to fast And if we do it We tell Krishna Krishna on this day No substitutes for you Only you That will open us to a very wonderfully Fulfilling experience Thank you very much Are there any questions? Yes Hi Krishna Prabhu The lecture you gave Was very scholarly And the thing is that I also write articles On Krishna Consciousness I read many places He was saying that devotees should write He is asking devotees to write And you are such a Wonderful great writer So please give us some tips Because we are all young boys So how we can become writers And use that talent in service of Krishna And write more and more There are so many mundane Material newspapers and magazines We should also write about Krishna So please guide us in that direction Because there is practically Nobody who does it Asking people to write on Krishna So how can we write About Krishna I can give a whole seminar on this Suffice it to say For most of us Not everybody is a writer In the sense that We may not write article that will be published And will be read by others But all of us can become writers For our own devotional advancement How is that? That All of us If it is possible We can make a simple personal diary Where we write down Even briefly our realizations Our experiences Our special incidents And special emotions In our Krishna consciousness See in material life If we have some enjoyable experiences Our mind grabs on to them And holds on to them forever As I talked about that Seeing some obscene images But in devotional life Many times we have Extraordinary experiences But soon after the Experience happens Our mind presses the F2 button It gets deleted almost Just forget it So We need to Cherish our devotional Memories And one way to cherish the devotional memories Is by writing them down So If we have some wonderful experiences Some penetrating insights Some very heart touching interactions With some devotees So I talk about three things One is we have some experiences going somewhere Doing something Or we get some penetrating insights We hear some class And we rewrite it in our own words Or we have some very heart touching interactions With some devotees So then So that means basically the incidents That can happen are They can be events, they can be emotions in our heart Or they can be interactions with others So we can write these down And Our mind is like a sine wave Keeps going up and down So when it goes down We start feeling disheartened in Krishna consciousness We need to bring it back up So these memories Can help us to bring it back up So that is one way All of us can write Write our experiences and memories In Krishna consciousness Another way is If you feel very disturbed by something So I am talking about writing Only at a personal application level Because that's what is most relevant For everyone So if you feel very disturbed about something And if we have somebody with whom we can share our heart That is good We can share our heart with a counselor If the counselor is not available Then our person Our diary can become like a counselor Just write down All the anger, all the frustration All the despair, whatever is there Just pour it out On to the diary, just write it down And then once it is vented out The mind becomes calm And then re-read it Then our intelligence starts working How could that person have spoken Like that about me Who does he think he is How did he do that I am going to bash him up I feel so angry Just write the whole thing down How could he have spoken like this Maybe somebody told him Maybe somehow I spoke something Which was interpreted in a particular way I think before arriving at a judgment I should at least find out What actually happened So in this way what is happening We are making our intelligence Act as the counselor of our mind Our mind is Jumping to judgments This is like this, this is like that Ok fine, you speak it out And the mind calms down Then re-read the whole thing Use our intelligence, use our philosophical vision to understand So then We can in this way Use our diary as a tool For our spiritual advancement And beyond that if some of us are inspired We hear some points, have some experiences We share that with others, that's wonderful Ultimately the Most important qualification for writing Is A desire to share a message Our English language command Our grammar, all those are secondary The most important thing is The desire to share a message So if we have the desire We can share it Gradually Krishna will give us the ability to improve our Linguistic skills Our expression skills But most important is To have that Desire to share a message Ok Nowadays There is a lot of craze of Blogs and websites And lot of people are That is free for everybody Everybody can write, in fact There is a huge revival In writing Because of the Generation of e-space Internet So as devotees, if we want to write We can just Take up any point that we Hear in a class or read in a book And rephrase it in our own words That's the best way to start And as we start off, we will find that We will get more and more ideas to write So writing can be in general Have three motivations In the sense that, how will it start off It can be Study motivated It can be inspiration motivated It can be task motivated Task motivated means Somebody tells us Can you write on this topic Can you write an article Somebody gives us a task and we write something on it Of course we can also set a task For ourselves Inspiration motivated That means I feel inspired about this I want to write about this And third is study motivated That means I have studied a book I have understood the concept I want to present it So either of these we can use So as devotees, we can surely use this E-space to write and share So these are the Three ways we can do it In general we can get the triggers for writing From our study, from our inspiration Or setting a task for ourselves And this You are saying about internet, the whole world Can read what we write So will that help them Also in becoming Krishna conscious Or is it that only if a pure devotee writes No no no Will it help others? Surely If we are repeating the words of Srila Prabhupada and senior devotees In our own words Surely it will help others Someone says Write your own realizations and what you feel Just like you said, write an article on Janmashtami Or maybe something Suppose I come to this temple and write about this So generally speaking, when we are writing It is good to For example, we have a magazine So we have a team of editors over there Who will review our articles So we can get some experience of reviewing So that our writings are in good quality But yes, as long as We are not speculating in terms of Coming up with our own new examples Or if you use new examples We should always get them checked from senior devotees But if we are just putting in our own words What we have heard from Guru Sadhu Shastra Then that is wonderful and that will surely benefit In fact That writing is the testimony That the parampara is alive It is not frozen We have the books of the previous Acharyas They are very important We have the books of Srila Prabhupada But the parampara is a living parampara And living parampara means people even now are getting realizations And are writing So it will surely help others Any other questions? We can have one or two more Okay, quickly Where is the mic? Was there a question here somewhere? Yeah, please There? You can come ahead Hare Krishna Prabhu Ji My question is regards to the timing of fasting Generally it is considered that One should not eat food after sunset And we consider the British timing Of 12 midnight And we eat by 11 or 10.30 also So is it correct to follow this timing Or we should stick down to our Vedic system Of eating before sunset Okay Should we stick to the Vedic system Of eating before sunset Or should we follow the western calendar See In the Vedic system Also there were multiple levels of fasting When When Vishwamitra Before he became a sage When he was a king He went to the ashram of Valmiki He found there were hundreds of sages And He says the average standard Of the sages was That they would live on air Vata is air They were just living on air Those who could not sustain that level of austerity They used to drink water Ambu And those who were the least austere They were eating leaves So Vata, Ambu, Parnash And Putadeha In this way they were purifying their body So the Vedic standards are Of entirely different dimension We can't even conceive of it So Shri Prabhupada In formulating His scorn was pragmatic Pragmatic means What is practically possible for us So if it is possible for us To fast before sunset, that is fine But We see the essence in Jyotish Fasting is quite complex And essentially The important principle is That The day Starts from As you say, the timing The clock is not British or European The clock is a clock which is universal We may have different kinds of timing But the essential sacred time The idea is that Just as Krishna Manifests as an avatar So just as Krishna manifests as a deity Just as Krishna manifests as a dham So dham is a geographical area In space The geographical area in space But at the same time It is mystically manifesting Krishna So Just as a dham is like a Manifestation or an incarnation of Krishna In space Similarly These holy days are like Manifestations of Krishna in time So Janmashtami Is a manifestation of Krishna in time In the 13th chapter of Adila Chaitanya Jatamrta When Krishna Das Kavirajan Swami is talking about Gaur Purnima, the day of Lord Chaitanya Mahapurva's appearance He says, I am offering Obeisances to the day on which Lord Chaitanya appeared Very interesting, offering obeisances to the day Because that day is itself sacred So that day begins Chronologically from 12 to 12 So We can Prepare ourselves for that Day By fasting say from 6 o'clock But it is important At least from 6 o'clock or 12 o'clock To fast because that is the time when we want to Make ourselves open For receiving the spiritual potency That is available on that day So this is flexible If we can fast from 6 o'clock that is fine But that is not essential And in general As devotees When we live in a community It is best to Follow the standards That everyone else is following Because otherwise Often the tendency is that We become proud I am following higher than everyone And it is not necessary That that will purify us Because the pride may contaminate us also So in general it is not necessary If you want to do it, you can do it But better do it discreetly In order to impose These standards on others Because the Vedic culture was very vast And Srila Prabhupada has given us What is best for us So in general he did not insist That the fasting has to be from The previous sunset The timing is the chronological 24 hours And of course the fast breaking Has to happen at a particular time in the next day That's why We can follow higher standards if we want But discreetly being careful that We don't judge others as inferior or think of ourselves as superior Okay Yes please Re Krishna Guruji We usually heard that at the time of difficulties We remember Krishna My question is that What is the best way to remember Krishna Through past times or through the beauty of deities How? What is the best way to remember Krishna? Again Whatever works for us There is no standard in this So once Jaya Dwait Maharaj asked this question How should we become serious about Krishna consciousness? So he said Somehow or the other Somehow or the other What does it mean? Rupa Goswami is saying that Somehow or the other What that means is That actually Although the process of Krishna consciousness is standard There is Abundant room for individual Expression of the process That means How Krishna attracts you Is different from how Krishna attracts me And I have to find out How Krishna attracts me You have to find out how Krishna attracts you So we all do the standard processes So we will all chant sixteen rounds We will follow the four principles But beyond that If we want to absorb ourselves in Krishna more We will have to find out Each one of us Which aspect of Krishna consciousness Can I link with easily So Rupa Goswami says that There are four kinds of dhyana There is Rupa dhyana Naam dhyana, Leela dhyana And Seva dhyana So whichever we can link with, we should So there is individuality No need to impose our standards on others And no need to feel pressurized By other standards By standards I am saying In addition to the standard process of devotional service We all Chant sixteen rounds, we all do the standard activities But over and above We always have individuality Some of us may like kirtans Some of us may like to memorize shlokas Some of us may like to hear pastimes Some of us may like to hear philosophy I think there will be very few But some of us may be there also Who will like to exercise our Intellectual muscles So whatever Works for us And that's why whenever we are practicing our Krishna consciousness activities We should also be observing Which activities I really like to do And we can maximize them Those are the activities Through which Krishna is revealing himself To us Okay Is there a question there? I had a question in my mind That we follow a different calendar For fasting Our Ekadashi comes one day after the normal Calendar what we see outside And you said that sin enters into the food So on which day the sin enters One day before or on which we are fasting Because we consume Rice and other grains So isn't it that we are consuming sin Okay Are we consuming sin because Our calendars are different from other calendars See the thing is That India Had the most Sophisticated system of time Measurement In the whole world First of all numeric system They call it Arabic numerals But they are not Arabic, they are Indian So they originally originated in India But still the point is The Vedic calendar system is quite complex And that's why Sometimes You practice Janmashtami at one place And you go to another place They are having Janmashtami today over there So there are many people Especially on Diwali They like to feast so they go to 2-3 places Where every time Diwali is celebrated It happens like So Here we should not get In the zone of Niyamagraha We don't need to worry too much about The technicalities of the rules Because on the path of Karmakanda On the path of Karmakanda The technicalities are Important But in the path of Bhakti the Bhav is important And that's why We respect the technicalities And as much as it is practical we follow them But we don't Go into paranoia about them Paranoia means excessive anxiety about them So it doesn't matter Whatever There is the traditional Vedic calendar And there is the Vaishnav calendar So there are some differences between that So we don't have to worry about that Krishna is not a god Out to catch us doing wrong Krishna You ate sinful food Krishna He knows our faults But he is not a critic He is a coach A critic is out to find faults Because he considers finding faults A sign of his cleverness But a coach is aware of the Faults so that the ward Can be helped to become free from the faults So we don't have to bother about that too much So whatever Shila Prabhupada And the Krishna consciousness movement have given us We follow those dates And we make forward the spiritual advancement And if others are having other dates We respect that See these are again There is beyond the technicalities There is the Bhav And on the path of Bhakti the emotion is what is important What is that verse Dheero Vadati Krishnaaya Moorkho Vadati Dheero Vadati Vishnaya Moorkho Vadati Vishnavi So In Sanskrit different words are pronounced differently But if you pronounce the word Even if accurately without devotion There is not as much benefit As if you pronounce wrongly but with devotion So don't bother too much About these things As I said we are taking prasadam Sin is not entering anyway So we are fasting not so much For the sin aspect but for the Purification through the following Instructions of Guru Sadhu Shastra Yes Yes Hare Krishna Thank you very much for the wonderful class My question is Regarding the If we are involving If we intensify our devotional Service or Krishna consciousness Through involving the various devotional service like Chanting, hearing and Involving in some physical services So as we increase this So at the same time We get the interest In the same these activities Devotional service activities But at the same time we lose interest from our material things Like our job and other activities And most of the times May be in a day 9 to 10 hour we have to be there in Our job and we have to Involve in our office activities also But it is very difficult To maintain this balance like it is It looks like inversely proportional to each other So How to balance this Means it is very difficult for when we Increase our sadhana Increase our devotional service So please guide regarding the same So How can we maintain the balance between Our material activities which we do for Larger part of the day And our devotional activities Especially when our devotional Activities cause us to Lose our interest in material Activities See in the 18th chapter Krishna Talks about renunciation in Three modes And he says that If somebody renounces his duty because It is too troublesome One will not get the true fruit of renunciation So actually Speaking as devotees We are not primarily interested in renunciation We are primarily interested in Krishna So to some extent We may feel that the devotional Activities are more relishable more joyful Than our material professional activities Whatever they may be and that is Certainly true At the same time the whole process of bhakti Involves Not rejecting the world But engaging the world Not rejecting the world But engaging the world And materialistic people They romanticize the world This world is so wonderful We can enjoy this world there is so much happiness here In the path of gyana The path of gyana Demonizes the world Filled with maya So dangerous Is this Get out of this world as quickly as possible The path of bhakti Neither romanticizes Nor demonizes It utilizes the world So utilizes the world But For us to utilize the world We should be connected So Krishna is here We are here and the world is here Krishna is in our hearts We are next to it and the world is here So our morning sadhana Is meant to strongly connect Us with Krishna When we strongly connect ourselves with Krishna Even when we go outside the world We don't let the world Pull us out We connect the world with Krishna So we have our jobs We use our jobs For whatever purposes We may Use the earnings to serve Krishna We may use the position to preach about Krishna consciousness If we are planning to get married Then we can raise our family in Krishna consciousness So whatever it is If our hearts are connected with Krishna Then we can Engage the world also in Krishna's service So that's why The important principle is Our morning sadhana If we do that well Then even if we have to go out In the heat and the passion of the world We will stay protected And if we sincerely Try, Krishna will give us intelligence How we can utilize and Krishnaize Even our material activities So we can find out Ways and means by which We can cultivate remembrance of Krishna even in those situations So we As devotees want to discover Krishna In his holy name But we want to discover Krishna even in the actions Of this world Because through the actions of the world Through the things of this world also we can offer these to Krishna So that's the basic point First connect our hearts With Krishna through sadhana And to the extent we are Lazy in our sadhana To the extent we are lazy about Controlling our mind in the morning And fixing it on Krishna To that extent Our mind will trouble us during the day time So there is no easy way out Either we struggle With the mind for the two hours of chanting Or we struggle with the mind For the remaining 22 hours of the day So it's better if we can struggle And intensify our sadhana We will find that the mind will be much more peaceful Of course at the practical level We may have to consult with some counselors And see If our job is so demanding that it just doesn't allow us time Then we may have to consider Changing our situation a little bit So that we are more compatible But On a more sustainable level We have to solidify our sadhana And that helps us to Krishnaize Our professional activities Okay So shall we stop here Thank you very much Thank you very much So just two announcements One is everyone is Aware of the Pandav Nirjalakadashi Kirtan Just to help us do the fast So those who don't have Passes, you can collect it from me This is very close by to our temple That is Haji Ali Over here And also there is Kirtan in temple For those who would like to come to temple There is a 12 hour Kirtan in temple And there is a 16 hour Kirtan in the hall over there And also one more announcement is regarding Trip to The Govardhan Eco Village There are only 50 seats for the IOS boys, this is a free trip So for those who would like to come on this Saturday, Sunday, they can Contact me, this is Saturday We will be spending in Govardhan Eco Village In association of His Holiness Loknath Swaimaharaj And also Sunday is Snaan Yatra at Palghar, that is the appearance day of Lord Jagannath Festival in the ISKCON Food Relief Foundation So those who would like to come, they can contact me Hare Krishna.