19820422 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.15.38-39

(Disclaimer: The following is a machine-generated transcript and may contain errors or inaccuracies. It will be reviewed and verified against the original audio soon.)

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on April 22, 1982 – in Norland, Canada. The lecture begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.15.38-39.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Hare Hare. Hare Śrīmadi was one impressed on his sannyāsī india who was dismayed over the great success the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement was having. So he was trying to tell the people that he knew the real secret behind the power of Hare Kṛṣṇa doesn’t lie in the names Hare Kṛṣṇa and Ram, he said. It lies in the little void between the names. The impersonalists are so insidious that they cannot help but be offensive at every moment. Of course. So here we see the donuts have little holes. I was thinking that they would probably make some interpretation of that also. But just as when Kṛṣṇa went into the. Anyway, it’s very nice to be back there. The deities open up tonight. They’re closed now, they’re going to bed or they open up for the last dasha.

So we get a darshan before night. You’re being put into the evening dresses now. I just heard that this is almost a surprise visit. Although there were some messages sent, but apparently they didn’t reach. Exactly. There’s nothing unusual for South Americans. I was at the airport in Colombia phoning up the temple, but the telephone wasn’t working. And then they said that there’s a telephone strike. 60% of the phones in the country are out. Although just last night the phone started working again. So they called up the ambassador and the assistant ambassador of Indian came to our program this morning. He’s a very favorable person. That’s what everyone appreciates in the affluent countries is the communication. Easy to communicate with each other.

But I was having an argument with someone flying up here that the problem is that they don’t have any basic conception about spiritual life. The man sitting next to me was saying, how can you feed a soul if the soul is hungry? First you feed the soul, the body, then you can feed the hungry soul. He had the right. The thing was that he didn’t have any. I mean, his concept. He didn’t have any concept or soul. He was thinking that there was like some other hungry soul there. I mean physically hungry. But in effect he was right that the soul is hungry. But what the soul is that they don’t know. Everyone’s working so hard trying to be happy. They don’t realize that if they are happy, then if they. Maybe the body and mind will also be happy.

They are the eternal spiritual sparks. They are the living force within this dead body. Very nice Māyāpur festival, meeting so many devotees. But then my Vyas Puj is two days after Ramonomi on the Ekadashi. So I promised I’d go to South America for that. So that’s why I am quite a race. With time to get all the way down to South America by the 4th of April. But there was a very nice program arranged there. They had about three buses of people at the airport with big signs welcome Acharya Pad. When I got off the plane immediately the mechanics who were going to fill up the plane, they said, there’s a reception party for you. They all look like you. And everywhere as I walked along, everyone was waving and saying.

But by the time I got my luggage to the customs and all the devotees were practically breaking the doors down and chanting. And they just put on their Diwani sticker. So then they gave a garland to so many people. So they broke up the garland and started throwing the flowers. And then the people driving by the taxi, they stopped. The taxi jumped out, ran into the crowd trying to get the flowers too. Went to the temple. I had some nice programs, national library daily program there at the temple. They put new Jagannath deity. Started worshiping Bijoy deity of Jagannath. And we had three radio programs every day. The temple was packed morning meetings. Because when I went there two years ago, I encouraged that anyone that wants to chant, just encourage them to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

That suspend of Lord Kṛṣṇa or amigos D Kṛṣṇa program. As a result, there was one employee in the government, I believe it’s social welfare ministry. He’s been chanting 16 rounds for about a year and three months now. Great. Started off one round and two and three that went up to another man who owns a toy factory. He set up a beautiful altar with Panchatatra pictures in Pharaoh Pamphra. My picture Chari based picture. Very beautiful. In his house. He made one whole room into a temple room. Invites people over there, has Saturday program, he goes to temple for Sunday program. So like that, I initiated a few people that were living outside the temple from this Amiga Kṛṣṇa program Namhat program. And just by encouraging people to chant, then naturally a certain percentage of those people on their own try to increase chanting.

And a percentage also come and live in the temple. A percentage take their own time, but they feel very favorable to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So that was one nice thing to see that how by just chanting. Gradually people they make advancements. I feel like when I drove in, especially in Europe, you know, because there they have all these two way highways. One on the right lane is the slow traffic, all the pickup trucks, vans. And on the left lane you have all the Mercedes porsche going by 250 kilometers an hour. 200. The autobahn in Germany. Swami Vistapad one time wanted to there’s no speed limit so he just wanted to be able to say that I went over 200 km an hour. So it up to 220 and the car started to fly a little bit. And I squatted down while were going 220.

Then right behind us came, I think it was the Porsche or something. And it was. We had to move over and went by us at about 250. But so they have the fast lane and the slow lane. So some people like I see that the devotees, the new bhaktas, there are people who are on the fast lane for this life. They have every chance of finishing up their business and going back to godhead. But there are many people that are on the slow lane. They may not finish in this life, but if we encourage them, they can do so much service for the temple. They can advance that Kṛṣṇa consciousness can’t be a one lane highway has to have different lanes with different people. But the fast plane, we can’t compromise the purity and the force of our devotees or the bhaktas.

At the same time, if we engage these other people, some of them will become move over to the fast plane and some of them will help in their own way. So at least in Latin America we have seen that there’s been a tremendous disband in Bolivia. The government advisor to the president of the ruling party chants eight rounds a day. Vegetarian comes to temple. He’s a very influential person. When I go to Bolivia, I never go through the customs or the body check. And they always put me right to the vip, drive me right up to the airplane, go right. Because all the big government officials are chain Hare Kṛṣṇa. They read Chanaka’s Nithyastra Arthashastra. Of course, no government stays long enough in Bolivia to be able to implement any of it. At least my political advisor, he states the same.

The government has changed quite frequently in same way in Chile the people are more like Europeans. Very strong currency, strong economy. The chile, you know, peso has gone up against the dollar over the past two years, which is rare in Latin America, from 40 pesos a dollar to 39 pesos a dollar. And the people there though are very enthusiastic. They go so wild and kīrtana. I think sometimes you’re going to break the floor, the wooden flooring. You keep the whole floor going, afraid they’re going to break it. So there they have started this NAMHA program also this congregational program along with the book distribution, they took up names. A lot of good people are becoming favorable just because we engaged them.

And now because of that program, every time we have, even on a weekday, the temple is packed with people because they’re all somehow another connected with the temple. As soon as anyone shows a little bit of interest, then he’s encouraged to become a member of the Order of Lord Caitanya or the Friends of Kṛṣṇa. I am kind of keen to see more and more people engage in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. The government there because of the good publicity we have been getting. They’re giving us 50, they’re giving us 17 hectares of land, I believe, or 50 hectares of land, about 100 acres, which is prime land.

Translation By His Divine Grace in the Ac Bhaksi Vedānta Swami Prabhupāda it is abominable for a person living in the Grihasta Ashrama to give up the regulative principle for a Brahmachari not to follow the Brahmachari vows while living under the care of the Guru. For Ivana Prastha to live in the village and engage in so called social activities, or for a Sannyāsī to be addicted to sense gratification, one who acts in this way is to be considered the lowest renegade. Such a pretender is bewildered by the external energy of the Supreme Personality of God him, and one should either reject him from any position or taking compassion upon him, teach him, if possible, to resume his original position. Translation with repetition, please.

It is abominable for a person living in the Grihasta Ashan to give up the regulative principle, for a Brahmachari not to follow the Brahmachari vows while living under the care of the Guru, for Ivanaprastha to live in the village and engage in so called social activities, or for a Sannyāsī to be addicted to sense gratification. One who acts in this way is to be considered the lowest renegade. Such a pretender is bewildered by the external energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and one should either reject him from any position or, taking compassion upon him, teach him, if possible, to resume his original position. We have repeatedly stressed that human culture does not begin unless one takes to the principles of Vanasrama Dharma.

Although Grihasta life is a concession for the enjoyment of sex, one cannot enjoy sex without following the rules and regulations of household and life. Furthermore, as already instructed, Ibrahimchari must live under the care of the Guru Brahmachari. Guru Kule Vasan Dhanta Guror Hitam If Ramachari does not live under the engages in ordinary activities or if a Samyasi is greedy and eats meat, eggs and all kinds of nonsense for the satisfaction of his tongue, he is a cheater and should immediately be rejected as unimportant. Such persons should be shown compassion. And if one has sufficient strength, one should teach them to stop them from following the wrong path in life. Otherwise one should reject them and pay them no attention. Disregard Śrīla Prabhupāda rode one act play called the Aditya Anka which means the act without a second.

It sounds better than that without a second. So we know it as a morganishing place, Morgan Chicken in Michigan. So if it talks about two people are having a discussion. They’re old friends, they have met after some time. So they say, how are you doing, whatever his name was. Well, you know, I had a very difficult court case over the. Over my tenant. Really? Did you win? Yeah, but it cost me $3,000 to win a rupee. Those days rupees were worth the last. Took all my money, but I won. And then I had the satisfaction of winning, but it took all my money in legal fees. So then he said really? So then what else is happening? Well, since I used all that money, they’re having a real hard time marrying my daughter. They can’t pay any dollars. Well, world’s really rough.

So what are you thinking about doing? I think I am going to become a sannyāsī. Sannyāsī? Yeah, I am going to join the morgue mission, the chicken mission. I am going to become a Sanyasi swami and join the chicken mission. And then all my problems will be solved. How can your problems be solved if you become a farming? I mean farming have to follow so many regulations. They have to join the chicken mission in. It’s a little bit different there. Listen, I know that people that join the chicken mission can eat chicken and fish and meat and they can lunch. They can do so many things. But I mean one thing they can’t do, they can’t have sex. So I would not recommend joining becoming it would be very difficult for you and you won’t be able to do it.

He said no offender right down the block, he. He became a Sonyaski of a chicken mission. And it was not a big problem. He used to come home on weekends and his wife didn’t really seem to mind it too much. I mean just a little bit difficulty. But I think we can cross over that. The main thing, you know, is that it’s very financially lucrative. How can I be financially lucrative? Well, you got to make a deal. Everything I collect 50, 51 and 1. They keep half, I keep half and that way get my daughter married. A nice house, no problem. Very easy to collect money in Calcutta. Here when you’re nasty from the Chicken Mission. So it’s going to say well it sounds all right but I just can’t accept that you can have sex from the externast.

I think you don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you. Are you sure that you know about this? They said well listen, I heard it from a lot of people at the peak stall in the coffee shop and I believe it to be true. Are you sure? Well then you better be sir. All right. What else can I do though? How else to get my daughter married? How else? Well, there’s another institution down the block called the. Called the something else Prabhupāda used all like chicken machine. And he called this another one down the block. He said some kind of Akra. But it was also upon our some type of sense edification temple. And he said well they have three people partners. They have one. They have one shaggy who’s describes him to be like.

Then there’s one Vihasta and then there’s one Sadhu called Bojananda Vadu. Sadhu means saintly person who controls the senses and the absolute. Tadu Sat means absolute eternal. So Tadu means one who’s situated eternal life. But this he was upon onwards. In Bengali Swadhi Saad or Swad means good king. In Bhajan is worshipping Kṛṣṇa. Means that he’s a devotee called Bhajanandi. But this was Bhojanandi. Bhojan means to eat. So the name was Bhojananda Swadhu. That is the most unusual name I ever heard. How did he get a name like that? Well when he was in Calcutta he got these tadhus go playing Kirchan or go door to door and they take some. So Paula was playing with his. Well he used to go up in north Calcutta. But you know none of the Bengalis ever give any donations. Calcutta there’s two communities, Bengal.

So many mainly Bengalis. But all the business is run by the people from Rajasthan called Marwari who are very liberal with their money to giving it to any. We have about 5,000 Light Patron members there. 4,000 of them are all Marwari. They’re very liberal with their donations. Maybe that’s why they’re so rich. They’re very wealthy also. But so this and that this person was going in North Calcutta, going to shop. They went up to one sweet shop and said, you know, give me some sweets, I am hungry. But the shop owner was at Bengali with you. So then Somewari came and said, all right, take whatever you want. So I just sat down, ate a couple hundred rupees worth of sweets. So from this time he got the name Bojananda Naswadhu.

One who gets happiness from eating and who is the expert at tasting with his tongue. So anyway, then this man can Elisha joined that institution together they have a Dihasta, they got a Sadhu and they got space for one more. Today it doesn’t matter what you are, you don’t have to take the risk of being Islamic. And then in the end find out it might be a little bit difficult for you. You can do anything you want. That was at the end of the acts without a second. And from that you get a picture of the whole thing. Of course, people I met, someone in a plane was saying, well, look at India today. Why did you follow India? Because they’re in a mess on the top American culture.

And the trouble is that people don’t understand that india the actual pure Sanātana Dharma or pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness has been there, no doubt, but it’s been not widely practiced, it’s been widely misused. The actual pure philosophy of Bhagavad Gītā, there’s millions of people with different philosophies india. And although they all accept Kṛṣṇa as the worshipable deity, they accept Bhagavad Yuda as they scripture. But they all have their different spiritual masters, they all have their different systems. And as a result so many bogus systems are there also. So the bogus as far outstep the real. You can’t see the forest for the trees. There’s so many different philosophies and different ideas. And so to re establish this was also there when Lord Caitanya appeared 500 years ago. There were so many different kind of.

At that time the caste system was so strong, the caste system by birth, that india there wasn’t one Mohammedan, not one. But when the Muslims came, they couldn’t also convert the people by force so much. They converted them by sprinkling. They spit in a pot and sprinkle water on the people and then that person would be considered to be contaminated because the Muhammad was so low considering the caste system that if you spit out of it then that would, you know, it might be a little shorter spit so if you spit on a water pot, but you have more water and it would throw that this way. If you’re swimming in a river and it fish in the river, then everybody.

So the Brahmanas were so miserly, kind of narrow minded attitude, the caste Brahmanas, that when they would approach them that what should I do? I have been spit upon, I want to be reinstated as a follower of Hinduism or nondomination. Then the Brahmin would say, well, all you have to do is boil some ghee and then while it’s boiling how you drink it, then you can deline. So if you oil, if you put oil up until it’s smoking and drinking, then there’s not much left you in anything, you become fried eggplant. The point is in NASA and then the choice was I either know I am a Mohammedan, he rejected me, or I could drink boiling oil. I mean a lot of people, you know, decided that the lecture of two evils was to be Muhammad and some people even drank the boiling oil.

But considering the situation there was even then, even today, even though Mohammedans have four wives and Hindus only have one, generally speaking, they still only have 20% of the population, which is pretty good considering that they were ruling for over 800 to 1000 years. It shows that nonetheless, India does have quite a bit of deeply ingrained culture. The thing is that one can’t judge the culture by what we’re seeing today. Just like Baba said that even though India is going through a difficult time, even though it has so many years of foreign rule, even though it’s become worse since they have been ruling it themselves, the sages, they see that India has been followed. Following is the Sanajan Dharma for millions of years. Thousands and thousands of years, just for 800 years. For a thousand years, 200 British, 800 Mohammedans. There’s foreign rule.

That doesn’t mean that the culture is finished, but there are ways like that. So you can say the low ebb. So it’s predicted that Chaitanya Mahablu’s movement is going to purify the whole world, including India. He also needs purification. Different parts of India, some are interested in fruitive work, some are interested in liberation, some are disinterested. Bombay people are becoming very much Westernized. Prabhupāda built a huge center in Bombay, so bringing people back into touch with Vedic culture. There may be ancient temples india, but there are very few active temples recently started. So. But there is an unlimited amount of benefit that the people of the west can take from the Vedic literature and especially from the Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, which is coming down in the bona fide discipleship. In the Padma Purāṇa it mentions that there are four bona fide Sampradāya.

Śrī Rudra Madhwa, Śrī Rudra Brahma and Kumar. And anyone that spoke that, I am sure many of you know that Asam Pradaya Manchan is Fula Taha, that one who gets the mantra from a sampradāya which is not bona fide. That mantra will not have any effect. That is the quote before that or the verse before that is describing these four sampradayas. The three Sampradāya means Lakshmi or Ramanuja. The Madhvar Sampradāya is coming from Brahma. The Kumar Sampradāya is coming from his head. Guru is Bharta Goswami and Rudra Lord Shiva. His guru was, in his Sampradāya was Kṛṣṇa Swami. So in this way there are four monasite sampradayas. But most of the people don’t belong to any Monofi sampradāya. Small people don’t belong to any sampradāya.

And if they do, generally speaking, if you trace back, you will find that they don’t connect with, in teaching or in anything. They just. They’re not connected with any of these sampradayas. They don’t follow the teachings of each sampradāya principal thing. So as a result, there’s a considerable lot of consideration confusion about what to do and what not to do. Myself my sin that especially if a sannyāsī not only maintains the body by ordinary means, but does everything to maintain the body, including even eating meat and other abominable things. He must be a lumpata, a greedy person engaged in tense gratification. He’s a cheater. Shirami important. I feel that Prabhupāda is especially speaking about the Murgi mission or the Chicken Mission. Here, a group of that raise chicken and pigs. They get money from the United nations and start pig farms.

And this is their activity at Sanyansis. And I just one time was asked to speak at an assembly of 200,000 people. They had a pendle, they dug a hole into the earth about 20ft deep and then put the earth in the back. So it was like a huge auditorium, but it was made in sand. At the Puma Mela site about six years ago. And I was invited to speak that the Dalai Lama was there. All the big leaders from all the different sampradāya was there and were there And I was asked to speak. I mean, they were trying to think what the Hare Kṛṣṇa group could speak on. Because we’re always known to be a little bit reformers or revolutionaries in the sense that we are always trying to re. Establish a high standard, even india.

So as a result, this whole idea was that nobody should criticize anybody else. Everybody’s all right, everyone’s good. That’s the basic mood. We respect everyone, but we can’t just tolerate if something is wrong or bad, that if you’re sick because you have got fleas, you can’t say, well, leave the fleas on and then take medicine to cure the itching or something. You have to wash yourself and get rid of your fleas, the best of the problem or whatever it may be. So we can’t just close our eyes if there’s a real problem and say that doesn’t exist. Just not to offend anybody. That would be cheating. That would not be sincere. But they wanted to give us something where. I mean, they knew that was our basic intention. So they tried to give us something where they thought it couldn’t cause any trouble.

So they asked us to speak on Kalpati, asked me to speak in teleportation. So I was given 20 minutes, I was told. But then later on, apparently it was only 10, but I was planning to speak for 15. So I first of all explained how we have these wonderful farm projects that we have in Mississippi and Tennessee and all over the world and Australia. And then the people when I say, go Mata protection of the mother cow. And everyone cheered, don’t eat. I love the animals. Don’t eat them. And then I showed them a Gītā, Bhagavad Gītā from China, restaurants, different places, and they cheered. They were very. And everyone chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then my second point was that india, you want to stop cow selling. The point is, but then train the people how to be healthy.

Eating vegetables, eating vegetarian grains, milk and other food. Then automatically people will not eat cows. But since you’re training the people to eat all kinds of meat naturally, the next step is they will eat cow. They get hungry and they’re used to eating meat. They don’t understand how to have another type of healthy diet. Then they will naturally, if they get hungry enough or if they just get lusty enough, they will kill a cow or two just by bad habit. And I said, even our son’s taboos, who are raising pig and chicken with an example like that, how do we expect people to refrain from eating meat and ultimately concealing it to eat it. When I said that then the member of the Ramakṛṣṇa mission jumped up and started screaming from behind me, stop him, stop him.

Now in front of 200,000 people he said, I continue that I was my lecture, I don’t know, I guess if the shoe fits, you wear it. But my point was just that it’s expected that people, if they’re religious people, they should show a good example and they want to make, they want to have, you know, big speech on child protection. But then everybody, if they want to continue eating meat, I am recommending it or not, or even if they want to eat meat, then eat it. According to the Vedas, there’s certain goats, you can eat goats under certain regulations and not get sinful reaction but people don’t follow it. So they have all these big Hindus that claim that they follow the Vedas. But just as what Caitanya said in the Caitanya Charit Amita Adimukhi Money.

But he’s saying that they accept these Vedas by mouth. They verbally say, yes, I am a follower of Vedas, but when it comes to their actions, they do whatever they want. They don’t consider that this is to be done or this is not to be done or what’s good for my spiritual progress or what’s not. They just do whatever they feel like. But they say, yes, I follow the Veda. He said, that’s more than half. So anyway, what takes a Mr. Better Than Them are those who actually follow the principles for elevation better than those other people who will follow, who actually try to become liberated or free from the material situation. And of those who actually are free, they’re the most evolved.

But even amongst them it is extremely rare to find out a thousand and one pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa who is the topmost. So this Kṛṣṇa Consciousness movement is giving something which is even in Hindi considers to be the topmost thing or the most rare thing. All of the four Vaishnava Sampradayas except the Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, this movement is a pure movement. They allow us to come into the temples. The Ramanuja Sampradāya, which is the purest of all the, I won’t say, the strictest, shall we say in terms of rules and regulations of all of these four Vaiava disciplic expressions wants to give us one of the 108 most sacred temples, a temple which is millions of years that place, the place is millions of years sacred. The temple is standing for Several thousands of years before the Mogul period, far before the Mohammedan attack.

It was used to protect devotees during the Mohammedan attack. It’s the place where mohinī morti distributed the nectar to the demigods. And we may have it by now I have been out of touch with. They wanted us to take charge of the temple. What to speak of going in the temple. They’re willing to give us one of the temples because they think that we can use it. They want the people to know that they accept anyone who takes up the pure principles or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That they are first class sadhus or saintly people. That they are accepted under the Vedic. There’s some rule that before one can worship a deity he should be purified. That’s not meant to be like a system of caste by birth and once instead it’s not by birth.

It’s a question just of being clean and being spiritually initiated into the secrets and the assistance of. Of worshipping deity. Anyone can be that. Even people from foreign countries, people from different communities, even people that would be considered outcast by these 5th caste caucus people. If they go under the purificatory right, they’re eligible. When I went there to one of the second biggest temples they would gave me the same reception that they give the cryas. In fact one crya happened to be there. They gave both of us the same reception together. They had an elephant wearing a big heloc. The elephant bowed down to me, took the garland from the deity and he put it on top of me with his tongue. When he put it on me though, he will not exact my speaker just for a second. Maybe that’s a special measurement.

Then they had drumming Shanai flutes and everything playing. A couple of thousand people were there. They took us up right up into the deity room. No one can go into the deity room except for the Gujarat took us into the deity room. Other people, ordinary people and then they took the garments from the deity and they wrapped those around our heads. Special blue garments they put on the deity and then they wrapped it around their head. The whole so many things people prostrated. So they gave it and then they had a whole press release and I requested everyone to take up the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa.

And in this age as a system and people from all communities they all lined up and I gave them cards where they were promising to chant hare Kṛṣṇa reached 108 times a day and they increased on the order of Khandi Mahatmabhu. So people are very interested. They’re Very eager rather for some spiritual guidance. All over the world. India right now may be going through a different kind of financial situation still. It’s country of 700 million in the part of the area a couple of times bigger than Texas there somehow or another still people are very peaceful, agītāted by politicians. And America may have the financial base. So there should be. Each has a little bit to gain from both. I have said that let America take Indian culture and let India take a little bit of American ingenuity and technical or economic expertise.

And then between the two you have a nice combination. Just the gross materialism. Everyone’s proud that the American way is the best, but how long there will be an American way if they don’t? I mean, everyone. The Romans thought the Roman way was the best, but then when they just got into gross hedonistic stent stratification, they were finished. And America is only heading in that direction. There’s. There’s need for some spiritual understanding. And that doesn’t have to just be in some kind of a sectarian, dogmatic way. It should be scientific. Who are we? Where have we come from? Where are we going? This is a modern world. You should understand very systematically, very scientifically how we fit into this world. People work so hard just to enjoy this life and then the next life. They don’t consider that.

One man yesterday said, I don’t believe in reincarnation. I am going to work so hard next life I am going to be a dog. I am going to be a. I am going to be a bug. I don’t believe in it. He doesn’t want to give praise, right? So he said, I don’t believe in it. I said, no, you can still be a human being. Ravi Shankar Prabhupāda said, Ravi Shankar, he was a sitar player for nine births. This is his ninth birth. That’s why he got to be so expert every birthday, so much into his music. When he dies, he’s thinking of music, so then he makes birthday again, has the same quality. He’s born in a human family. And in this way, birth after birth, it gets a little better. And then now he’s a Ravi Shankar. Who knows there’s going to be next birth.

Then they fall down anyway, become sense, satisfying the danger. Reincarnation is very scientific according to how you think. Yang yang vapi smanang bhavetaja nante kareva. That’s the next breath you take. In rome, there were 76 nations participating in a science and Theology conference. All different scientists. And most of them had different kinds of evidences proving that there was more than this Baptist, that there was reincarnation. One scientist in Texas had done a whole study. She’d taken a lady back in hypnosis to her previous birth. She was from Scotland. She sent a crew over to Scotland. There she had been deserted by her husband, she says she described the shape of the hospital that she was or the church she was married in, the house she lived in. Sam.

(Side B of the Cassette)

We kind of crew over to Scotland. There she had been deserted by her husband. She said. She described the shape of the hospital that she was or the church she was married in, the house she lived in. And it was the 1800s, so it was in Scotland they have all these old houses. So they went there and they videoed. They videoed her right from the beginning. They videoed the houses, the science and you know, it’s not like he’s not. There’s nothing to gain from it. And everything matched up. The name of the husband was on the marriage certificate. The shape of the house, the shape of the. Of course it’s not the official policy. Reincarnation is something which is probably bad for the American economy. People would buy less and think more or something about what’s going to be in the future.

So whoever runs things probably is encouraging people not to believe in that. So that when there was a deal made with Constantinople, with the Bible that Constantinople said, I will become a Christian and make my whole kingdom Christian. If you take out reincarnation from the Bible. I misheard this. I don’t know if it’s a fact that if the people. You just make it that it’s one life and then you get judged good or bad that way. People work very hard to enjoy this life. But if they think that there’s many lives then. Then they’re not going to work so hard. They’re going to be putting a lot of their energy into their spiritual life. Seems to match up in any case. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is based on the Vedas. Scientifically backed Vedas are not just one book. There’s so many books covering every conceivable subject.

But when one wants to advance spiritually, has to follow certain disciplines, has to control the senses. The disciplines are adjusted for different kind of people. Those who are just starting out, who are Brahmacharis, they live under the guidance of a guru, they live a little austerely, they collect alms. On this day we sell books and give the income to the temple. They don’t keep personal belongings except what they need just to. It’s a type of training. Then the next stage is one becomes married or householder. There one may have a house, may have a home, may have land, may have cows, may have so many properties, has his wife, raises children, supports himself. But there are certain rules. It’s not. Some people are Brahminical householders. They live also very austerely for preaching and helping the people.

Other people may not be Brahminical, they may be business or other communities. But Then they are supposed to contribute from their income to the sadhus, to the saintly people, to the renowned people who are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness to the Brahmanas. And they also are supposed to regulate their enjoyments so that they don’t become materially attached and again have to take birth in abominable conditions so that they can gradually progress and become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious. So when a grihasta desires not to have any more children, desires to simply engage himself in spiritual activities, that’s called vanaprastha. It means retired life. If as a vanaprastha, he still engages in his business or just in some kind of local welfare work, without actually preparing himself to leave his body, preparing himself for going back to Godhead, he doesn’t actually try to, at that point, spiritually help people.

As a householder, he may have to do some ordinary activities or help the community, because that’s the responsibility of householders who are living in a community, is to react with the other people. But when one actually becomes a renounced or rather retired person, he’s supposed to prepare himself spiritually. And at that point he’s supposed to avoid these type of ordinary activities. If he doesn’t, then he’s considered that he’s a cheater or he’s become misdirected. And when one finally becomes takes the vow of celibacy india, they would divide the life into four. First quarter was as a student of Brahmachari, second quarter was married, third quarter was retired, and the fourth quarter was as a sannyāsī or completely renounced.

So that time one takes vows not to see the wife anymore, not to associate with women, and to simply engage one’s thought, word and deed in the service of Kṛṣṇa without any other activity except service of Kṛṣṇa, not even the authorized compromises which are given in household life and other Kṛṣṇa consciousness, none of those are allowed in the sannyāsī stage. If a sannyāsī eats meat, eggs, or does other type of unallowed things, then they’re each considered to be fallen from the Vedic standard. So this is a basic system. And there are some rules we should follow for spiritual advancement. If we follow these rules, then we make spiritual progress. Now, if someone’s not following, then there’s two alternatives given here. One, he should be rejected as unimportant. Prabhupāda says. Otherwise he should be shown compassion.

And if someone has sufficient strength, then they can teach him how to stop following the wrong way of life. The spiritual master can correct someone. And then if one accepts the recommendation of the Spiritual master. And then he’s considered to be purified. Otherwise one should reject them and pay them no attention for all good sakes. If they don’t accept the system given by the spiritual master for purification and engage it according to his instructions. So spiritual life is always under the guidance of the spiritual master. Say, progress, where we voluntarily accept to limit or regulate the activities of our senses. I remember one man, he told me that. Well, I said, don’t I have the freedom if I want to regulate my senses? He said, yes, but then I have the freedom also to enjoy my senses.

I want to do whatever I feel like. That’s my freedom. And this is the way people think in America, especially all over the world. But that certainly they’re right. But then they have to understand that in the world everything is governed by the strict law of karma. Whatever they’re doing, they’re going to get the reaction too. So when they suffer various type of problems, they shouldn’t blame God. They shouldn’t blame this or that. Or they shouldn’t just become alcoholics and try to forget it. But they should understand that there’s a little reason to all the situations or madness or whatever you want to call it that’s going on in the world. The reason is that there’s this law of karma and everyone is bound to it.

So if you want to do whatever your senses say, then you also have to take the reaction for that. Just like some. I want to do whatever my senses say. Kill someone. Then you get caught, you have to go to jail. There was some doctor in Miami who started the hospital, was a great famous person. He was considered to be authority in hospital. This that he embezzled $860,000 that they know about from the hospital. And he got caught and sentenced to 25 years. Because the census told him he should do whatever he felt like it. But no one seemed to appreciate that he had founded the hospital. Once he embezzled $800,000 from the hospital.

So this is the situation is that people, because they can’t control their senses, they end up doing so many illegal activities, so many activities, which ultimately, if they don’t suffer in this life by going to jail, they will suffer in a future life in so many different ways. So this is the very strict law of karma. So people, they have the right. Kṛṣṇa has given them the right in this world to do different activities. But that’s not their freedom, that’s the misuse of their freedom. He’s given them the opportunity to rather know what we should do to get eternal liberation, Eternal freedom. Eternal freedom is not something abstract. If you’re a faithful servant of the government, then these Secretary of State, they have so much freedom to do this and that.

If it’s in the service of the government, they can practically break any law because it’s a higher principle. If they have to carry out some order of the President. But if it’s done for their own sense gratification, it’s done for their own political importance, then naturally they will be called to task. Even if a person is a Nixon, he will be impeached or threatened to be impeached if he does it for his own personal aggrandizement or his personal political benefit. But if he’s actually doing it to protect the nation, who’s going to call him on it? Similarly, if one is actually serving God, the God protects one, Kṛṣṇa protects one. And one’s not responsible if it’s an authorized activity. So then one actually has freedom to do anything because he’s free from this reactionary effect of the laws of nature.

But then one has to know that what does Kṛṣṇa want me to do? What is the authorized things that I can do? What are the areas and to actually. First we have to put out the fire. Our senses are on fire in this material world. We put them out. We put the fire out. Don’t put the senses out. We put the fire out by engaging the senses. In Kṛṣṇa, Kansas, we eat Kṛṣṇa Prashantam, we dance and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. We engage all of our senses in serving and helping people by giving them first spiritual life. When we get enough spiritual consciousness in America, we can take up other works.

We want to establish a civilized human life which is not based simply upon whether one wears a suit and a tie, but whether one is internally spiritually awakened and whether one actually knows what is the goal of life and is helping himself and his family and others to achieve it. Any questions? Anyone loses their spiritual position due to two reasons. One is due to offenses against saintly people Vaishnav. And the other is due to rampant material desires which take over and compromise one’s spiritual principles. These are known as weeds in the terminology of the Chaitanya Cheradamitta. So like even any family where gradually the traditions wear down over. Once the Kali Yuga set in, once the good kings coming from the Kurus, they were ruling for about a thousand years Jana Magya and his sons and descendants.

And after there, rain gradually broke up just by the effect of time. Then India became divided into so many Small princely states and the caste system became more prominent than the Mohammedans attacked it. When the Muhammadans attacked, then there was another phase. Basically it’s the caste consciousness came in. It was predicted that the Brahmanas, born in a Kali Yuga, the demons that weren’t killed by Kṛṣṇa, would take birth as Brahmanas in Kali Yuga and the Brahmanas in Kali Yuga. They can use their position as Brahmanas and become purified. But the nature of a demon is to be very proud, to be very angry. So the Brahmanas india, who are supposed to be the spiritual guys in this present age, are very generally, they can tend to be in some circumstances, very proud people. I don’t think anyone can deny that.

And historically they became so proud, as I mentioned, that they became uncompromising. And as a result, the culture suffered a lot for it. It’s a gradual thing, over 5,000 years. Therefore, we have to be very careful to maintain strictly the instructions of our previous crya. In this way, then one stays purified. Just like the big temples in South India. I mean, they’re still going. They have been going on with their work for thousands of years, but they don’t preach anymore. The main thing is their preaching is gone. People just took it as an occupation after a while. You always need preachers, reformers, constant preachers, because the tendency is always just to become more and more materialistic. And these preachers, Ramanuja, he accepted people from all communities. In fact, his biggest Acharyas after him were people that he picked up.

Some of them were cobblers, some of them were all different communities. Not that they were high community. Some of them were thieves that he reformed. Different type of histories of his main followers. But subsequently some of the Brahmanas and the Ramanuja Sampradāya, they would, even if someone was a pure Vaishnava, but wasn’t from the Brahmanical, you know, family hereditary tree, they wouldn’t accept him. And now they’re realizing their mistake. That’s why they’re. They’re embracing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotees and Acharyas, because they realize that somewhere along the line some of their people made some mistakes. But they’re still doing the pūjā and they’re still doing their worship in the temples and everything. But then, like you go in a temple and then the pūjā will be there.

A big fall india that I see since independence, like why India took a big dive since the independence was that the British, they maintained the. They maintained the landlord system and the landlord system, what they did is they put all the land in the name of the deity. This is a system india and the landlord would be the trustee for the deity. Now one of the things is that they definitely made many offenses against those deities because they would live like kings and the deity, they would just give, you know, a little bit of. But they at least they would observe all the, you know, Janmastami, Kṛṣṇa’s appearance day, Rasa Leela, all the different festivals they would observe.

But more and more as their families increased and they were living off the deity, then the deity’s actual share, it wasn’t like all offer the deity and take as prashad. It was kind of like divided amongst, you know, the deity also had to be worshipped. And I think due to those offenses we can trace back that there were so many offenses, they ultimately lost that. And once India was given independence, then they took away that right. They took away those properties, the government took it away. And then whatever little amount of money was going, I mean without money, you can’t do any kind of religious work or spiritual work. You have to have some money to have festivals and have programs.

So whatever money was going into those programs from this stratum of people, it was cut off because the government took away all their land. They said any land owned by deity over 25 acres goes to the government and we will pay you peanuts like you’re just a token. One deity had 50,000 acres of land and so for that they get 50,000 rupees a year. But the government hasn’t given the money for 12 years. So a deity which was a multimillionaire became a beggar. And then the people, they just somehow another, they still do their worship to the deity. So many people offer us temples like that, big temples, big houses, they can’t maintain them. I have one beautiful temple with a personal, you know, like that 20 acres of land around it even that they have taken and there’s only 10 acres left. Beautiful temple.

But they can’t maintain it. So they’d like us to take it, fix it up, use it. But we don’t have that many full time devotees right now to put in all these different places. So right now the government’s what they call sectarian. That means that they don’t help any religion. They don’t even give. If you give donation to a temple, it’s not tax exempt. In India, if you give to a charity, it’s tax exempt. We’re registered as a charity there. We show Our activities to be charitable, which they are, of course, just the opposite. In America there’s more regulations on charities and less on religions. So there the government is actually prejudiced against religion in a certain respect. But because the Mohammedans are minority, so then they take, they favor the Mohammedans.

Like if you’re a Mohammedan once in your life, you’re supposed to take a flight to the hajj in Mecca to do a hajj. It’s called the pilgrimage Hajj. So you get a full tax exemption on that. So many things. But if, say you’re a devoted Hindu or something, you want to go to some temple or this or that, you don’t get any, forget it, no help. Because it’s a political like that, you can find unlimited examples of lack of support. So as a result, the sadhus, they became more materialistic. All right, we don’t compromise. We give out food or we offer it to Kṛṣṇa. We do a farm. We do it in a specific way. But these other, because it’s tax exempt if you do charity.

So they start chicken farms, swine farms, this, that, and they’re supposed to be sadhus because it’s all government aided. And as a result, a little bit of confusion amongst the people. People are disgusted. So some of them tend to just materialist and want to go to America, become a doctor or something. Then they come here and then they remember their culture and get initiated by a charity.

Dave.

Prabhupāda Anyway, we’re dealing with philosophy. It’s not Indian philosophy, it’s eternal philosophy. It’s come down from the other planets and it just happened to be that one. That India is where it’s still being practiced by millions of people in bits and pieces. I am making good progress in getting people to practice more and more. Only difficulty india is the lack of Lakshmi. Prabhupāda said India is like Saraswati and America is like Lakshmi. America’s got all the money, but then India’s got the culture. Saraswati so these are two sisters, you need both of them. If you have the two sisters, then it’s perfect. Money and culture. If you have money and no culture, it’s useless. Creates problems. If you have culture but no money, if you don’t have money, you lose all good qualities. Of course, the devotee, he doesn’t have money, but he has Kṛṣṇa.

So Kṛṣṇa has unlimited. So that’s a different thing. When you voluntarily, if you actually accept some kind of austerity for spiritual advancement, that’s a different thing. But an ordinary materialist. If he doesn’t have money, then he just becomes dishonest. He wants money so bad, he will do anything. Any other questions?