Jayapatākā Swami: We want to take shelter of Nitāi-Gaura.

Also, Lord Kṛṣṇa.

And if we are harassed with memories of our previous mistakes,

we should pray for forgiveness,

and proceed with devotional service.

It is not worth giving attention to these sinful memories.

Jayapatākā Swami: Hope you never reach that stage!

And that always try to avoid offences.

I don’t know what the limit of Lord Caitanya’s mercy is but

I don’t want to take it that far!

Especially Lord Caitanya. He did not want anyone to offend the Vaiṣṇavas.

Cāpāla Gopāla offended Śrīvāsa and He said you have to suffer.

But then Cāpāla Gopāla begged Śrīvāsa for forgiveness.

Lord Caitanya embraced Cāpāla Gopāla and saved him.

Jayapatākā Swami: We should not be attracted by temporary things.

Temporary things only last for short time, so we should not be distracted by them.

If we are attracted by some temporary things, we should think how to do that in the service of Kṛṣṇa.

In this way, we can naturally develop our love for Kṛṣṇa.

So, developing love for Kṛṣṇa is a gradual process.

And step by step we develop our love for Kṛṣṇa. Just like if we want to have a child, we pray to have a Kṛṣṇa conscious child.

We do everything in such a way that Kṛṣṇa will be pleased.

And naturally like we were reading how the king and his queen were praying to Kṛṣṇa and then they got a Kṛṣṇa conscious child, they actually got an avatāra, Ṛṣabhadeva as their child who was the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Jayapatākā Swami: You see here someone eats non veg.

Non veg is sinful.

You are killing animals, causing them suffering and you are eating their flesh.

Some are doing selfless service to society, they are helping other people, they may be doing some, of course selfless service to society.

But we have to see what the Vedas say.

Whether that service is puṇya or pāpa.

Like someone may do selfless service and make a new abattoir, means a new slaughter house for society.

He thinks I am doing selfless service.

But according to the Vedas, he is also doing pāpa, he is doing sinful activity.

Someone may be doing selfless service of distributing free tea or whisky to all the people, I am not considering those kinds of selfless service.

I am saying like he is feeding the poor, he is making hospital, such service where the people are getting material benefit in a sāttvika sense, that is called puṅya.

So according to Vedas we get two accounts in the material world.

We get a puṅya account and a pāpa account.

And we are putting deposit in both.

Because someone does puṇya, it does not cross out the pāpa.

Some people think that ok, I will do many pious activities and I will do little sin and the pious will cross out the sin.

It doesn’t work that way.

Both you get.

That is why even if you find someone very rich, have a big car, big house, lot of money, but the wife got breast cancer.

But the son ran away with someone and married out of caste and the whole family is suffering.

So many things happen.

Income tax is raiding.

I am feeding the poor, I am giving so much to charity, why I am not –

because both the accounts are there – pāpa and puṇya. If you do pāpa you have to suffer, you do puṇya you have to enjoy. Material activities, you know they are not free, you have to take all the reactions. Usually the puṇya you get first and the pāpa you get later. But there is some mixing going on. Now the other thing is that he is greatly devoted to the Lord. Now that devotion to the Lord, the Lord is beyond the material world. He is saying mām ca avyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate, sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhuyāya kalpate. (Bg 14.26) That those who do my bhakti-yoga, their activities are beyond the three guṇas. So if someone does bhakti that can clear out the path. But it is dangerous to tell this to people. Because if you tell to people who are not devoted, they will say, very good, I will pray in the temple, then I will do more pāpa. And then Kṛṣṇa takes that as an offence, you are trying to cheat Me. So He doesn’t save them. That is why we don’t tell people about this glory of the Lord that if you worship the Lord it takes away your sin very much. Of course we have to tell but we try to tell them. They should not think I can do more sin, that they shouldn’t do. What people should do is come and pray and chant the name of Kṛṣṇa and try to avoid sin. They may do some sin but they should try to reduce it, try to avoid it. They should not think that by doing my Kṛṣṇa conscious activity, I can do more sin. Whatever sin I am doing, I have to suffer. But let me chant, let me worship, some day I can get free from this. Then it is ok. So if they are devoted to the Lord, they should try to do what the Lord wants. What is the meaning of I am devoted to the Lord, the Lord is saying don’t do these things. I am devoted to the Lord, what does that mean? Lord, I want to please You. If I am Your servant, I want to do what You want me to do. Like if you have a servant in the house, you tell the servant, clean the floor. He says no, I won’t clean the floor, I want to clean the wall. But I want you to clean the floor first. You can clean the wall later. He says, no, I want to clean the wall and then the floor. How would that servant keep the job? If you have a servant and you tell him, cook me breakfast. And he says no, I want to cook you lunch. I want you to cook me vegetarian and he says no I want to cook you non veg! Then you wont keep such a servant, servant, who is this servant! So if we are already devoted to the Lord, we should do what the Lord wants us to do. And the Lord is telling us don’t do these things. Don’t take intoxication, don’t eat non veg, don’t do gambling and don’t do illicit sex. Don’t go to prostitutes. Don’t leave your good wife or husband, and do extra marital sex. So when we are devoted to the Lord we should do what the Lord wants. We are devoted to the Lord, we come and pray and then we go. That is called hāthī-snāna. Like the elephant is having a bath and coming out and throwing the dirt. So we should not worry what others are doing. Someone says he is vegetarian but he is cheating.

If you do pāpa you have to suffer, you do puṅya you have to enjoy.

Material activities, you know they are not free, you have to take all the reactions.

Usually the puṇya you get first and the pāpa you get later.

But there is some mixing going on.

Now the other thing is that he is greatly devoted to the Lord.

So therefore I can be nonveg and I won’t cheat.

Not much, little bit.

We should avoid everything like that.

Don’t settle for that.

Don’t judge.

It is just like if you want to judge gold, you want to judge it with pure gold.

You don’t judge it with some mixed gold, my gold is better than that gold.

What is that?

That is 10 carat mine is 4 carat.

You judge gold by 24 carat.

This is not a good decision that I am better than that so it is okay.

That person is going to hell no. 5 and you are going no. 4.

So what is the difference?

?

We want to go back to Kṛṣṇa.

So therefore what is the standard paramahaṁsa?

We see what gurudeva, what the pure devotee is doing.

We try to lead our life and follow the Mahājanas.

Mahājana yena gatā sa panthā.

We follow the great souls or Mahājanas, like Prahlāda, Nārada, Śiva, Brahma.

All the devas, Svāyambhuva Manu, all the great souls, we follow in their footsteps.

Not that we are following some ordinary person and we are saying oh that person, he is not so great.

I am not so bad.

This is all mental concoction.

He is not so great, I am not so bad.

So I can live with my sin.

Yamarāja doesn’t pick all these things.

What your neighbor was doing.

What you did he has all the account here.

You did this, this is your karma.

Now you enjoy, now you suffer.

If you see the animatronic works you can see the Yamadūtas and the Viṣṇudutas.

You can decide who you want to be the customer for.

Jayapatākā Swami: I mean somehow, there was a presentation how to be happy.

That was very interesting because

I was not happy.

I had sense gratification

but it wasn’t satisfying.

So somehow if we want to tell those people that

by practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness

they can become happy.

The bridging programs can somehow bring them to Kṛṣṇa consciousness

then that would be ideal.

If anger management can include some aspect of Kṛṣṇa consciousness,

some practices that they could do.

Some ways they can control their anger

by dovetailing it.

So bridge is to take us over the bridge to the other side of the river.

That means, take us to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

So at the end of the bridge there should be something Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Although the attraction is okay, anger management for instance,

we learn that we can practice, we can control anger through bhakti-yoga.

So the bridge program actually does that, it bridges us to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

At least to some extent.

Like you are saying people have many lusty desires and bad habits,

I saw today on the Tv

that in some states 3 or 5 states in the USA,

they do a referendum and made marijuana smoking for recreation legal.

It was previously legal for medicinal use.

But now it is legal for recreation in some states.

So, all kinds of bad habits people have –

not only drinking, smoking,

illicit sex.

Actually, we know that none of these things give one satisfaction.

But we cannot directly attack these things.

Rather, we try to present the positive thing of chanting, meditation,

and then when they are more ready,

when they ask appropriate questions,

we may reveal that bad habits should be controlled.

That is a gradual process.

That is what Śrīla Prabhupāda said that it takes buckets of blood,

not easy to make a devotee.

Do you think only people now are addicted to bad habits?

Ha! I think before I was 12-I had already broken all the regulative principles!!

Jayapatākā Swami: In the 18th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ.

So, there He says He will destroy all the sinful reactions.

If you have offended any devotees,

then you should see how you can beg forgiveness and touch their lotus feet.

Or do something which will help others to be Kṛṣṇa conscious and get forgiven for the offences.

Like Mādhāi he apologized to Nitāi

that, “I hit You!”

But Nityānanda said, “No, I took it like a mother kicked the baby.”

Then Mādhāi said, “I have offended many other Vaiṣṇavas of the dhāma,

how can I get forgiven for that?”

So, then Nityānanda Prabhu advised him to build a bathing ghāṭa

so that he will facilitate people to go and take bath in the Ganges,

and thereby he would get forgiven for his offences.

So one of the ghāṭas in Navadvīpa is Mādhāi-ghāṭa.

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, whatever one does for Kṛṣṇa, for that he is never the loser; he always gains.

If one gets money by sinful means, you see, then if he offers to Kṛṣṇa he can get forgiven for that but Kṛṣṇa doesn’t want that the person should go on committing sinful activities.

That’s why, people who are committing the sinful activities, they generally speaking, don’t give to Kṛṣṇa.; they may give to some demigod.

They know that if they give to Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa say, “Oh! this living entity wants to get my shelter,”

then Kṛṣṇa puts him in such a position, He takes away the opportunity to commit such sinful activity

and gives opportunity to more fully devote in Kṛṣṇa’s service; so they avoid Kṛṣṇa.

These… generally speaking the people doing heavily sinful activity and they approach some demigod, where they think that, “Well, I will give and I’ll get back some more opportunity to enjoy sinful life,

without any... In other words, someone who is sinning very heavily, usually unless he gets put in some very difficult position he won’t like to get out.

So, but if one somehow or another gives to Kṛṣṇa, then he is freed from that sin, no doubt.

Kṛṣṇa takes the reaction.

But Kṛṣṇa does not want that one should earn money by unfair means and give to Him.

So, then Kṛṣṇa will try to give some good instruction to that person.

But if one is actually, you see, getting money by any means and giving to Kṛṣṇa, then he is like a tax collector; you see.

Because everything is belonging to Kṛṣṇa, actually everyone should be giving to Kṛṣṇa.

Other sinful people they are not giving to Kṛṣṇa.

So, if one is actually taking, giving to Kṛṣṇa, where is the question of sinful activity?

The problem is that if someone who is engaging in illicit activity and then said,

“I am going to give to Kṛṣṇa” generally due to such a tamasic association, they never get… they get contaminated and cannot give to Kṛṣṇa.

Therefore, it is recommended that the Vaiṣṇava should not perform activity which is, you see, against the regulative principles.

But in this material world every work is sinful, every work has got some bad part to it.

If you do business, you must tell lie and cheat; there is no way out of it.

That’s why if a man is doing business, he must be giving to Kṛṣṇa; if he doesn’t, definitely he will be defeated by this material energy,

because you have to tell lies to do business.

If you tell a person who is buying something, this thing is not very good.

You bought it someone who told you is very good.

You bought it and say, “Oh, is not good.”

But you tell everyone this is not good but you should buy any way, no one would buy; You have to say this is first class,

it may have a rip in it, may have a defect; it’s a very good thing you must say if you want to make your money back.

You’ll make no profit.

So business means, to some extent, you see, there has to be little bit of misrepresentation;

you can say at least not complete representation of all the defects; otherwise how you can make money? You see.

So, what is the question of degree?

A person is putting a poison in the oil, giving mobile oil, killing people and then giving the money to Kṛṣṇa,

he may, you see, get some relief, but he may also, you see, have to suffer for the reactions and then he will get the results of giving to Kṛṣṇa.

How Kṛṣṇa would do? Unless one fully surrenders, he does not get full shelter.

Once when one is fully surrendered, he cannot do that, he cannot poison people with mobile oil, because that is against the regulative principles.

So, until one is fully surrendered, he will get both the puṇya and the pāpa; he won’t get the spiritual shelter.

So that means you have to suffer for his misdeed, and he will have to… you see… to get the enjoyment for his good deeds.