19820504 Darśana Lecture

(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 Darśana lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on May 4, 1982 – in Boston, USA

When Lord Brahma saw Lord Caitanya, he fell down, paid his obeisances with all four of his heads and then jumped up with folded hands and then again, overwhelmed, fell down and he prayed and Lord, you are the most merciful Incarnation. I understand that you give your mercy without considering who is qualified, who is unqualified. You forgive everyone for their offenses. I have committed so many offenses. I have stolen Kṛṣṇa cow. I am always getting proud because of my position as a Brahma. So you please give your benediction how I can come and associate with you, that I can be completely purified from my false ego, from my false pride, that I can actually achieve pure love for you, pure love of Kṛṣṇa, which will guarantee my ultimate perfection. How can I avoid committing future offenses? Please benedict me.

So then Lord Caitanya said, tataha, so be it. You will come with me and you will be my associate in my pastimes. But you will not be born a Vedic family. You will be born in a Yavana family, in a Muslim family. But you will chant every day 300,000 times the hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā Mantra. Because you’re being born outside of the Vedic culture, you will be forced to be humble. Because all these strengths, Vedic Brahmanas, Vedic people, they will not accept you easily. So therefore you will be forced to be humble. But I will recognize you as my Crya, the Crya, Guru of the Holy Name. And thus you be famous as a Vaishya. And because of your chanting 300,000 names, Hare Vishnu Mah Mantra names every day that will purify you for the rest of your life as Brahman. And you will be known as Haridas.

Then Oitanya disappeared. Brahma paid his obeisances and then he returned back to the Satya Loka, his planet. Then again he came and participated in Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s past. So these are all happening different ages. Lord Pārvatī, Devil so many Purāṇas. These references, Bhaktivino and Thakur very kindly gathered them and told us all these different references. So like that, the holy dogs, they are always manifesting. Sometimes they’re dormant, so to speak. They’re not fully manifest to the eyes of ordinary people. And sometimes they’re fully manifested. But for the spiritually awakened people, they’re always manifest. Even today you can see the past times of Lord Caitanya in Navadrita. The fortunate souls, they can see even today. Translation of Chaitanya similarly, there are spiritual chakras or circles in different parts of the world and around Those areas, people are brought together with more spiritual interests. More spiritual.

What is that? Enthusiasm, aspirations in one place. There are certain high and low spiritual places. But of course, the holy dams are places even if you visit there for a few days or hours, that has a permanent special benefit because those are the permanent places of the Lord’s pastimes. Whenever he comes in at the. Any questions from my guest? First up, forget.

I was reading in one of Prabhupāda’s reports. I can’t remember whether it was in Rishina Monta or not. It said that only the liberated souls can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. So does that mean that. And I have also heard something about shadow chanting. So does that mean that we’re still engaged in shadow chanting or we have actually reached the liberation?

The three stages of chanting offensive, clearing and pure. So a person who’s not liberated is chanting either offensively or clearing. Initially, when we chant, it’s offensive because we’re chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. But we have so many different desires and different ideas and different. It’s not necessarily very serious. We may be chanting for material benefit, or we may be chanting to get some mystic power or to become free from certain miseries, or just to get some relief for whatever reason. So that type of chanting is basically offensive because it’s not purely for a transcendental purpose. Therefore, in a higher, subtle level, it’s a little offensive. It’s like going up to the President of the United States and then asking if he can borrow his car or something. I mean, you don’t bother him with this.

But we’re going up to the top and we’re just asking for little insignificant things. So the chanting is first of all offensive. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t chant just because. Oh, it’s offensive. I shouldn’t chant. No, I mean, everyone’s already bothering Kṛṣṇa for some of useless things. That one chants his holy name at least. Even if it’s offensive, it’s having some benefit. It’s better than nothing because it’s having to do with Kṛṣṇa. Anything with Kṛṣṇa is better than nothing. It can save one from so many dangers, from so many spiritual obstructions in one’s progress just by chanting a little bit. But that’s not. They’re not getting. They’re not getting the actual taste because it’s not purely spiritually motivated, it’s not purely spiritually directed. They’re just getting some shadow benefits or side benefits. The next stage is called the clearing stage.

That means that one has already Decided that I am not interested in getting some temporary material result from my chanting. I want to get the permanent spiritual realization, the highest result possible. He’s already focused on the topmost purpose. But he’s still not completely reached purity. He’s clearing. He’s clearing off. Because it’s described as caitadarpuna margina in the Caitanya Mahāprabhu. That the chanting cleanses the mirror of our consciousness. It’s like dust accumulating on the mirror. It cleanses it off. So while it’s being cleansed, we still cannot see things exactly as they are. So that’s called the clearing stage. When finally it’s cleansed off, when finally it’s pure, we can see ourselves, we can see Kṛṣṇa, we can see everything. Absolute truth, the material world is revealed to us. We have our complete liberation.

Then when we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, we can actually realize that Kṛṣṇa and his name are completely non different. Then when we chant Kṛṣṇa, we immediately perceive that Kṛṣṇa is right there, dancing on my tongue. We immediately fully perceive the presence of Kṛṣṇa in his holy name. So those liberated devotees, when they’re chanting, naturally that chanting is of the greatest quality. But even a clearing devotee, someone who’s a pure devotee at either clearing state, also is considered to be a pure chanter. But not centerscent, yet pure nonetheless. It will purify himself and others to hear that chanting. So that’s not the shadow. Chanting is a separate issue. That’s a separate situation. It’s called not actually shadow, it’s called abhash. It means that before the sun comes up, already the night goes and you can see the light.

So abhash means that period before you get full realization, but already you’re getting some light. That sometimes even unqualified people, they chant the name of Lord Caitanya. They get some spiritual ecstasies. Tears come in their eyes, there’s quivering in their body. Or they get some symptom, and it’s actually a forerunner. They’re not pure yet, so they can’t actually have the realization. But just because of their chanting, somehow another they’re getting some effect, sometimes of a high spiritual nature. But it’s not permanent yet, because they’re not yet pure. So that all those little exceptions like that, shadows and twilights. As I said, we should focus mainly on the three basic stages. Offensive clearing and then pure changing. We should try to avoid offensive chanting. And this will bring us up to the pure Chanting and the other are just temporary for the moment.

Manifestations that come when a person is chanting until one reaches pure chanting, then it’s fixed. Yes. Lord Caitanya does not appear as often as Lord Kṛṣṇa does. And I was wondering how frequently Lord Caitanya does appear in. Well, Lord Kṛṣṇa doesn’t appear very often himself. Lord Kṛṣṇa’s other avatars appear. His Vishnu avatars appear more often. I mean they appear in every age. At least once there’s a Yuga avatar and then there’s various Leelavatars or pastime incarnations that come. But Lord Kṛṣṇa, he only comes according to Vedic calculation. Once in every creation there’s a creation of a universe. According to the Vedic calculation, once every 4 billion years it’s not a complete destruction. The basic whole of the universe remains, but inside there’s a destruction and then a recreation. It stays for 4 billion.

It’s destroyed, it stays closed for about 4 billion and then it gets created again. So Kṛṣṇa comes once in 4 billion 8 billion years, we don’t know about 4 because that time it’s closed down anyway. So it’s manifested for once in every 4 billion years. And Lord Caitanya, when he does come, he comes after Kṛṣṇa comes. He doesn’t come every Kali Yuga, he comes after Kṛṣṇa comes. These type of calculations of course are a little bit mind boggling. There are various incarnations of Kṛṣṇa, but it’s so rare that Kṛṣṇa has just come. When you consider the figures, it’s only come 5,000 years ago and just spoken the Bhagavad Gītā. This is, you see, a very rare opportunity that Kṛṣṇa, he is very liberal with accepting anyone if they surrender to him. But even more liberal is Lord Caitanya that he will accept anyone.

Even they don’t surrender. If they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and just try to perfect themselves in Kṛṣṇa consciousness or perfect themselves in this understanding of who they are. Who is Kṛṣṇa? Lord Caitanya takes charge of their life after a thousand ages. Kṛṣṇa comes, the Lord Caitanya comes after he does that. One can understand why Lord Caitanya comes after Kṛṣṇa. When one knows the inner purposes of Lord Caitanya is coming, then it’s self evident why he comes after Kṛṣṇa comes. There are other devotees and incarnations that come and spread different processes of self realization and different ages. But particularly Lord Caitanya’s coming is described as a very rare occurrence which should be taken advantage of because with very little effort one can achieve spiritual. And we see people, they come in within a few weeks or months.

If they’re a little serious, they immediately achieve and even they go to India and very lifelong. Sometimes people were in a special school, astrologically picked out from birth who would become a sannyāsī, a celibate priest, a celibate sannyāsī. And they’re given the sannyas order at age of 8 or 12. And then the whole life they just remain like that. They learn Sanskrit, they can speak fluent Sanskrit. They have all type of renounced qualities. And they see devotees who are five months, six months a year in the movement.

And they’re amazed at how they’re so spiritually advanced, so spiritually enthusiastic, just because of this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa and this process given by Lord Caitanya Mahbu, that now even these very strict people, they’re also encouraging their followers take up the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa to take up the chanting of the process of Lord Caitanya. It’s having, in a subtle way, gradually. It’s having a very big effect all around India that people are gradually taking up more and more this chanting in kīrtana, congregational chanting, it was always there more or less, but especially now it’s becoming more and more prominent. So this process is practiced in the West. People are dancing very quickly. Everyone should try. We try so many things. Why not try chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa seriously and see how far we can get? If we find that, well, I have reached a limit.

I can’t get any further by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then we will not have any objection if someone goes on to whatever further stage there is. Of course, there are many that are still finding everyday new stages by chanting, and they haven’t found the end yet. Hare Kṛṣṇa questions? Are the Maharaj have any questions? Yes. Bhakti Virat told me that you said that when there’s an expatic kīrtana or Caitanya and Vichananda are present. Is that true? Śrīla Prabhupāda said that when there’s an exceptionally ecstatic kīrtana, that some great associate of the Lord is present. Not necessarily that Lord Caitanya, of course, he there present in the kīrtana one aspect, but that especially sometimes maybe Narana Muni may be Lord Caitanya, or maybe any one of his innumerable associates who are present wanting to see and in their own way participate in the kīrtana.

This was described in many places by Śrīla Prabhupāda. He talked about Nārada Mooli’s visit to the New York temple one time. And then they were visiting the rathiators, one of the first rathiators in San Francisco. Didn’t you see them?

You’re talking about reaching different levels by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. One makes more and more advancement the process of chanting. But sometimes we see people come to the temple for a long period of time and they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa a lot, but they don’t. They say that they’re really not getting any taste from chanting, nor are they making any advancement. I don’t want to explain why that happens.

The only time I ever seen that happen is when people are sitting in the border of materialism and they. They want to go try the boat of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. But instead they put one foot in the boat of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. They don’t take the other foot out of the other boat. So they’re kind of standing in the middle of the river with their boat in two boats and one foot in each. Somehow they’re trying to still maintain the one foot in the material boat and the one foot in the chanting where they try. Although they try to put forward that well, actually I got my foot in the Kṛṣṇa conscious boat. But if you go into it, you find that they’re still keeping at least one toe or one foot in the other boat.

Just they don’t want to fully put the both feet. So what happens if you’re trying to stand in the middle of a river with your two feet, one on each boat, the boat start to go apart and then pretty soon you have to decide which boat you’re going to stand on. If you delay in this time, you probably end up in the drink. So this is what happens. Some of them end up in the drink. The thing is that it describes the Bhāgavatam gave a beautiful spoke. Whether one has got all desires or whether one has desire for mystic power, liberation, or whether one has no desire simply for pure Kṛṣṇa conscious reasons, one wants to become perfect, then in any case, one should practice Tibrana Bhakti Yogī Mah means just like the sunlight comes down, it’s pure, it’s uncontaminated.

It comes down in that uncontaminated, unmixed state like that. One should just purely put his mind and consciousness through the activity and engage in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and leave his desires to be satisfied in the sublime way by Ka’s own process. So if one actually engages in that type of train of bhakti. I don’t personally have any experience of someone not getting very rapid results. That’s a whole science described by Lord Caitanya. How to analyze when we’re chanting, if we’re not getting the full ecstasy, then there what is the difficulty. It’s either due to some offenses or due to some. What they call weeds, other type of desires which are taking over the consciousness, clouding the vision. Different type of activities that are coming. That’s a whole detailed instruction of what chaitan they gave to Sanātana Goswami, I believe. Or was it Rūpa? Rūpa Goswami.

He gave it to RPA Goswami in the Madhyalila. What are the different type of weeds that come up? What are the different offenses that come up? How to avoid them. So when chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, it’s not just mechanical chanting. It’s chanting with some enthusiasm and it’s avoiding the various pitfalls. If one is not avoiding the pitfalls, then of course the chanting. They now have the prolific also for other devotees when they have been around for some time, usually in the beginning that people chant, they get immediately some response. But a devotee, they’re not pure enough to chant all the time. That’s very difficult. So we chant two, three hours a day. What are they doing the other 22 hours? The other 21 hours, they have to have a proper service in this.

In this present age, they have to have a service where they actually can put their mouth. Many times devotees just due to lack of either surrendering or taking up a particular service to fill in the other time that they’re not chanting directly in a meaningful activity, they become bored. On the other day, they’re not pure enough to chant 24 hours a day, or 18 or 12 hours a day. They have all they can do to chant two or three hours a day. So the other time has to be filled up with some kind of engagement. In the practice of Bhagavad, so often due to a lack of a proper engagement, their mind becomes uncontrolled. And for that reason, when they’re chanting, they don’t hear properly. It’s really complex. It’s not due to any shortcoming of the chanting.

It’s due to not following the process of chanting properly. Just like even a person may be very advanced, maybe practicing for 10 years. But then Lord Caitanya said, if you commit a serious offense against Devaisma, you commit some kind of serious offense. He described Upani Bha Chinde that just like an elephant pulls out a tree by the trunk, then the whole spiritual root can be pulled out. Ordinary material activities. Person maybe broke a regular principle or has a bad habit or something. Those things can be overcome. Those are superficial. They don’t touch. They’re just there related more to the body in the initial stage, those things will be more disruptive because one has less of a spiritual growth. As one advances, if there’s a sudden, just a little stumbling, pick himself up or get picked up by the spiritual master and be reinstated.

But it doesn’t fully cut the root of one’s spiritual life. It just stunts the growth of one engages in materialistic type of activity. But if one commits some offense means something directly against Kṛṣṇa, against God, against great spiritual masters or Vaishnavas, devotees who are preaching, who are dedicated themselves to preaching the glories of the Holy Name and of bringing people out of their material bondage who are doing this greatest welfare work. If someone commits some serious offense to them, other type offenses are also mentioned. Then this has an effect of pulling out the roots, cutting the roots of our spiritual growth. And then if you cut the roots, then the plants start to wilt, the leaves wilt. So therefore, that offenses are something we have to be very careful against. We commit offense when we become too proud.

And we start to not recognize other devotees or recognize the Lord in different ways. And then we act foolishly, offensively against them. Sometimes that has a spiritual danger to it of just the ultimate degree. That’s why even a very advanced devotee, apparently an old devotee, if he gets implicated in offenses, he can fall down. There’s an example of that. Like Lord Caitanya’s Mother Satchi Mata, who is more advanced than her. So all the Lord Caitanya was giving pure love to the different devotees. And then his devotees said, well, why don’t you Benedict pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness to your mother? Lordship says, no, I can’t give her. I said, why not? He said, well, she’s an offender. Mother Sachi is an offender. She’s so pure. She’s always serving you. She’s always engaged in Kṛṣṇa conscious activity. How could she be offended?

Lord Caitanya said, no, she committed a Vaibhar to Advaita Gosai. Because of that, she’s serving and she’s engaging Kṛṣṇa consciousness activities. But she can’t get pure love for God. The devotees are so upset. They wanted to commit suicide. They wanted to fast until death or jump in the Ganges that. That it was just too unbearable for them to think that everyone in the whole world is going to get the benediction. But because Mother Saatchi committed some offense, she couldn’t get it. So then they were a little bit confused. How could Mother. What was this offense that Mother Sathi had committed? So it turned out that Mother Sathi and Jagannath Mas are always afraid that boys are going to become.

Because it was predicted that they’re going to become great preachers and take sanghas, renounce the order of life and leave the home and go out preach and that they’re extraordinary. So many different predictions were made. So they were always very paranoid, very afraid of this. And Visaroopa was a pure devotee from birth. So he was always going to listen to Advaita’s Bhāgavatam lectures. And he would just like the kids don’t want to come back from playing. When he was a kid, he didn’t want to come back from there. He listening to the Bhāgavatam class when the class. So she would sometimes send little Nimāi over to get Visaru. So one time he also stayed listening to the class.

(Side B of the Cassette)

He’s trying to, you know, like, she’s going to take all my sons. He’s going to delude them and make them, you know, become sannyāsī or something. She said something which was not very complimentary to Advaita. Although it was said out of love and out of not really. But Lord Chetan obviously was putting her up as an example just to warn others. By this little slight infraction, she was being given the ultimate sentence of not being able to get blood for Kṛṣṇa. Although, of course, she was still doing a devotional service. She wasn’t able to get the ultimate taste. So at least that’s the way Vo Caitanya presented it. So then they all went over to approach Advaita that he should please forgive Mother Sachi for her offense to him.

And when they told him that she had committed offense, he started jumping up and down. And he couldn’t believe it. He said, how can I forgive you? You’re such a great devotee. You’re always serving. You’re always engaged in meditation and serving. And he started jumping Mother Sachi. And he was just dancing and singing her praises. And going through her various different kind of activities. Or whole days filled with Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He was going on and on. He became so ecstatic that he fainted in ecstasy. He became stunned, you see, he started crying. And he became completely entranced. Thinking of the qualities of Mother Satchi. That he became overwhelmed with ecstasy. And in his samadhi, in his trance, he fell unconscious. Meaning Lord Caitanya told Mother Sath, grab his feet. She ran over and grabbed this, took the dust from his feet.

And immediately she became ecstatic. Lor Chaikin. They gave her pure love for Christian, gave her Bishop Raymond. Now you forgive him for your offense. And these are very esoteric thing we have to just worry about. Generally right from the beginning, you have to just consider what’s the body, what’s the soul. So these are very subtle things that one has to watch out. And one gets. Of course everyone has to watch out. But especially these are the final things that one has to be aware of when practicing for some time. Because it doesn’t matter how long one practice. If one doesn’t follow the basic system of Kṛṣṇa in the advanced level, then one is held more responsible in the beginning. One may make a few mistakes. And generally one is anyway more humble because he doesn’t know anything.

So the chances to make offenses are generally less. Unless the person is very angry kind of a mood. So every devotee has to watch out for those Spiritual pitfalls and that we teach the 10 offenses to the Holy Name. We teach the various to anyone who wants to really seriously get into it. First of all, they should chant for some period of time. And then automatically as they get a greater taste and get more absorbed into the chanting. Then how to refine the chanting, how to make it more pure. Then we will be glad to teach everyone that comes to the movement for learning. Did that answer your question that you had before? The one you had before? Does that answer your question? Any other questions.

The roots of the devotional creeper had specifically? Blasphemy.

Yeah. The other weeds don’t uproot. They don’t stunt the growth of the creeper. They don’t uproot it. If they stun it long enough, they can smother it. But it can’t. It doesn’t uproot it. Like say a person is chanting and then they break. They just. They don’t. They just can’t resist going back into the material world and engaging some materialistic activities. It’s not that they are completely lose whatever they have done just on the basis of that. Of course, if someone is very advanced, how they can get in that weakened condition? Sometimes it’s because they mentioned that root got cut before they lost something. Shelter because someone is very advanced. Generally they get shelter from these type of dangers. So it’s interrelated. But if someone just chants and just breaks the principle, they don’t lose their spiritual advancement. But at that time it’s like smothered.

And then later on, either in the next life or at some time, they get some special mercy from great devotee or Kṛṣṇa. Then if they can cut off the weeds that are smothering the spiritual growth, then again they start off where they began. So it’s better in many places better if one comparatively, it’s better just to the one comes and goes that’s better. Whatever amount they have done, that’s to their credit spiritually they gain that advancement. That is better than committing any kind of blasphemy or type of like resentful, hateful type of violence verbally or physically against any of the great devotees who have helped someone or tried to help someone in advancing in their spiritual life. That’s what’s dangerous more than just getting immaterial life, which is of course also dangerous. But it’s not an eternal doesn’t completely destroy one’s spiritual life.

Where the other thing could actually just finish one off for an incalculable amount of time.

Yes, so we see that happen sometimes the devotee might need. In some instances, you see, they get so called deprogrammed and then they turn around and say all kinds of blasphemy against the movement.

That’s very bad.

So how do we say someone brings that up in our preaching? Well, what about so and so in the newspaper that this person was devoted and then they said something.

Of course those people, as you say it, deprogrammed by someone. Y that’s what they do. You see, the deprogrammers, they whatever you call them, they tell you so much blasphemy that hearing, even hearing the blessing what to speak of speaking it if you don’t rebuttal it like it says, one should either cut out the tongue of the person speaking it either literally or through argument or one should leave the place or one should die just out of the. Not that one has to commit suicide, although that one should buy. Just like mother Sati, when she heard offenses against Shiva she became so disgusted and so angry to hear those blasphemies that she burned herself up from her mystic power. So these three alternatives are given.

But when they start hearing and then they start to believe it or they get affected, that’s what hurts their spiritual creeper. So that’s the first thing they do is they try to engage you in breaking principles and they try to break your faith by telling you so much blasphemy. And if you start to, if you actually listen to them, actually, you know, there’s listening and there’s not listening, then that can affect your priest. If someone speaks, you don’t believe this and that. They usually get people that are very neophyte. Many devotees they have gotten who have been devotees for several years. At least they knew what their whole act was. So they never, you know, although they said so many things, it didn’t affect them.

So they get someone who just, you know, doesn’t really know the philosophy and they tell them so many things and they start to believe some of it and then they bet cuts their people, so to speak, cuts their spiritual roots. They’re trying to cut at their roots. I don’t know the exact origin. There’s a story in Jagannath Purī, I guess I don’t know the origin actually.

Speaking of Jagannath Purī, one Indian devotee I have mentioned how we hear that if we build a temple there that Lord Jagannath will move into our temple and like that. And he said that the actual situation is that we will take over that temple and it will become our temple. And that’s what it actually means. That when things get so crazy because of war or whatever, that’s. Can you elaborate on that?

This is definitely proud. What problem has plans for us? Any other questions? I know that Bhagavananda goes to likes to take breaths and check my food. Chetan used to go bathing there every day. Kṛṣṇa Khan is not a dry process. Not that 24 hours nobody saw a video of a TV show they kind of portrayed in the road. But taking our Vaishnava sports, swimming in the sacred waves of Jagannath Purī dance and ecstasy and work to help people Kṛṣṇa Prasadam raise Kṛṣṇa conscious families and build Kṛṣṇa conscious communities and have Kṛṣṇa conscious factories distributed Kṛṣṇa conscious literature. So many different activities that drive us. It’s like it’s called Nithya Muhutsa ut Sab. Literally when we say festival, it’s been the rough translation, but actually ut means to raise. Sab means everything to. To actually utsav means to raise one’s consciousness.

Like whenever there’s some kind of a festival or some kind of a, you know, party, everyone wants to, you know, feel happy, feel high, this or that. But the actual Sanskrit word utsav means to elevate everyone, to bring everyone up to a higher level of happiness. So this is called as Mah Utsal Mahutza. That means a great festival, a great upliftment. And Nithya means daily as well as eternal. That daily there’s the festival of lifting everyone consciousness. And this is eternal. It’s a very nice way. They describe Kṛṣṇa consciousness as an Nithyan matzah. So I hope everyone participates in the daily festival. In South America we have very nice preaching. Sometimes I don’t know very much Spanish. So I just tell them. Often I just say kante Hare Kṛṣṇa say after this it makes chant Hare Kṛṣṇa to be happy.

So then one person said the greatest teaching you have ever given me. Of course I speak English. They translate be happy and make others happy. And for like 10 minutes or 5 minutes they gave a whole talk on how this was so sublime. People are very pious. And we had about 500 people in the National Library in Peru. They all signed up that they would chant 108 times Hare Kṛṣṇa every day. And then I asked, then someone started bringing up the Bhagavad Gītā in one of my autographs. About 150 people walk by what he is right there. And we’re getting some very nice response. In South America, people Are coming in great droves. I think we have in each center congregations of over a thousand people at least at the Lima airport.

When I went there was over 500 people just at the airport to receive they rented several big buses. As soon as I got off the plane then the ground staff said they were all laughing. They quickly went through the immigration and the customs and then there were all the devotees. Taxi driver stopped the taxis and ran out to try to get Prashad. What’s that right there at the airport? Quite a difference there, like in Bolivia. Took you right to the VIP lounge. One day the planning minister came to welcome me to his country. And then the government sent some officers to ask advice on the law of karma. Of course the president has changed quite often. I guess they were more concerned with what the law of karma was, as to how long they could stay in.

But I thought it was quite nice and at least they wanted to know. It’s the first time we have seen big government officers apart from Asia interested in these type of things. Of course, here in America, people don’t have a simple appreciation of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There’s so much bad propaganda against cults. They can’t understand them. Kṛṣṇa conscious, the traditional Vedic culture. It’s not a cult, it’s not one person. Everybody is serving, giving one person money and then everyone is working in a communal spirit, in a cooperative spirit, rather serving the supreme personality of Godhead. So North America, I see that people a little bit cold South Americans are very warm, very eager comparatively. But also the North American people are more intelligent in many ways.

And somehow by all of your perseverance in preaching, we are sure that you will be able to create unlimited good fortune for the people here.