19920107 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.7.15

(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 January 7, 1992 – in Śrī Māyāpur, India. The lecture begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.7.15.

O powerful states My Lord, all my doubts about the supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entities have now been removed by your convincing words. My mind is now perfectly entering into them. Report Ashula Kabut. The science of Kṛṣṇa for the silence of God and the living entities is so subtle that even a personality like the Dora has to consult prisons like the Sage Maitreya. Doubts about the eternal relationship of the Lord and the living entity are created by mental speculators in different ways. But the conclusive fact is that the relationship of God and the living entity is one of the predominator and the predominator. The Lord is the eternal predominator and the living entities are eternally predominated. Real knowledge of this relationship entails rebuilding the law of consciousness to this standard, and the process for such remarks is devotional service to the Lord.

By clearly understanding from authorities like Sage Maitreya, one can become situated in real knowledge and the undisturbed mind can thus be fixed on the progressive path. Thus ends the Bhakti Vida Swami Translation and purport the textant king chapter 7 Kento Z. In the matter of the further inquiries of edura spoken this 505th year of our Lordshi Chaitanya Mahāprabhu at the Śrī Māyā poet Chandradaya Montir, 7 January 1991 pistol. So the Dora. An uncle of Lord Kṛṣṇa. By some relationships the great devotees son of God Vyasadeva he had to make inquiry into the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness in order to clear away all his doubts. If we had no doubt, we wouldn’t be here in the material world. Because of doubts. That’s why we remain in material consciousness. So the process of disciple a guru relationship is to clear away all the doubts.

One of the qualifications of a guru is he should clear away the doubts of his disciple. One surrenders to the girl, Ask questions. Pratipadvina is mentioned first. At first we surrender and then we ask questions that the question should be not asked in a challenging way, but with the idea of submissively hearing and trying to understand what the guru is speaking by clearly hearing with a submissive attitude, then one’s doubts can be eradicated. When a devotee serves a spiritual master that establishes a relationship where the guru naturally blessed thus is a disciple with the adequate ability to understand the instructions, one has to also carry out the instructions of the guru who protect not that it’s simply theoretical knowledge, but that it’s knowledge which is meant to be practically followed.

So whether a sigsha or diksha guru one Needs to receive this type of consultation transcendental information in order to progress in the path of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Śrīla Prabhupāda recorded this verse many times. That who has achieved perfection after giving up the shelter or after giving up the association of Vaishnavas or the service of the Vaishnavas, without serving the Vaishnavas, without hearing, having their association, hearing from them, having their association, how is it possible to advance? Of course, the spiritual master may give a particular instruction. Then we need to try to follow that or to follow that very carefully. If we start to add to that instruction or to follow it and instead proper way. Gradually things can become more and more complicated. There’s a story told by Surah Bhakti Siddhānta Sirasani Thakur. How once there was a disciple.

Was Sanyasi disciple told by his guru that he should read the Bhagavad Gītā every day. Did you hear that story before? So this Sanyasi went into a cave and he was reading Bhagavad Gītā. But he found that there was a mouse coming and eating his Bhagavad Gītā. Painted little bit by little bit. Those days it was a palm leaves. So he tried to keep away the mouse. But he thought all the time the mouse was coming. So he thought that in order to keep away the mouse, I need to get a cat. So he went to the market, got a little baby cat. The cat keeps away the mouse. Then the cat was hungry, said to feed the cat. He said what to do to feed the cat. I need to get a cow to give some love for the cat.

So then he went and got a cow. The cow needed to be fed milk. So he decided he had to have an employee to take care of the cow. So then he got run labor. He was taking care of the cow. But then he found that the labor required to be supervised. Otherwise how would he do his work properly? Pretend to be a little lazy. She would not supervise him. He had to read the Bhagavad Gītā. So how could he supervise? So he decided that in order to continue reading the Bhagavad Gītā, he had to take the supreme sacrifice and get married, leaving his Sannyas Dharma. So renouncing his sannyāsa, he got married. So that he’d have a wife that could oversee the labor. To bounce the cow, to feed the calf, keep away the bows. But then the wife also had certain necessities.

Sarees, food. And pretty soon there was children. Then there was land. Then there was a house and he had to do business. Pretty soon he forgot to read the Bhagavad Gītā anymore. So one day his Guru came by to see how the Sanyati disciple was doing. Then he saw Sadhak reading the Bhagavad Gītā there. He had wife and children, he had a cow, cats set out business fire. He said, what happened? He told you to read the Bhagavad Gītā. He said, guru dead. This is all this homicide of your Bhagavad Gītā reading. This is what happens when reading the Bhagavad Gītā. You can’t blame me. I am just carrying out your order. So confirm. Of course, this is not the way that things should develop. The Guru gives a simple instruction. We tend to take from that.

And pretty soon we do that complete opposite thing. In the end he will stop reading the Bhagavad people. So. Bharat Maharaj, he had a similar problem. He was in a secluded place doing his meditation. He was crying for Kṛṣṇa when a baby calf, a deer calf was born near his ashram. A deer was shined, crossed the river, got hit by lightning, died. Calf was. The baby deer was born. Fawn. I guess it was fawn. And then he I had to take care of the fawn. And he was feeding it. The fawn didn’t know any other person. It was like his mother, father. So the fawn would go and lick him. And this way he became very attached to the fawn, taking care of it. So when he was dying, the fawn was going and licking his face. Oh my protector is dying.

And he was thinking how who will take care of the fawn? Who will take care of the deer when I died? And then he died thinking about the deer. Next slide. You can burn as a deer. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that actually he should have consulted with the Guru before getting so entangled with the thought. Because by being so attached thinking about the thought at the time of death and the next birth, he took birth as a deer. Similarly, you need to consult with the Guru with the Vaishnavas at certain stages. Otherwise, just like the Sannyāsī being the Bhagavad Gītā, he gradually got so entangled that he ended up leaving reading the Bhagavad Gītā of heart. Nor as he became so entangled with the thought that he ended up taking birth as a deer.

So the safe way is to confirm what we want to do or to be clear of any doubts so that we can do the Things in the proper way, not to unnecessarily get ourselves distracted from the real path of devotional service. Lord Chichatya taught whether one is a Grihasta, whether what is in the renounced order, everyone makes a change, the Holy Name. So the process of how to be a Grihasana, how to be Brahmachari, how to be a Sannyāsī. This has to be understood from the Guru. Otherwise if one gets distracted from the real business, one will be completely lost in the material entanglement. It’s not difficult to get entangled in material life. The whole material life is meant to entangle us. So all we have to do is look away from Kṛṣṇa and then Māyā is there.

We turn our face away from Kṛṣṇa, desire some material sense gratification. And my eyes immediately dared to tackle us and throw it down the Lord Chaitanya. He was always seeing his devotees and cautioning them to be very careful not to engage in any sense gratification. Śrīla Baba, he said, don’t do any sinful activities, don’t do any pious activities. Simply engage in the service of Rādhā and Bharava. Serving the Lord is neither piety nor is it. Of course it’s not sin. Serving the Lord in pure devotion is completely transcendental. In fact, someone who’s. Engaged in devotional service, thought, word and deed is liberated from the material suffering even while in this material body. It’s mentioned in the previous verse or verses.

When the senses are satisfied in the Seer super soul, the personality of God here and merge in him, all miseries are completely vanquished as after a sound sleep. Simply by chanting and hearing of the transcendental name, form, etc. Of the Supreme Personality of Gandhi and Śrī Kṛṣṇa, one can achieve the cessation of unlimited miserable conditions. Therefore, what to speak of who have attained attraction for serving the flavor of the dust of the Lord’s lotus deeds. In the 12th chapter Bhagavad Gītā Kishta explained that it’s a dual Vya Choga. Then you will come to me. You develop attachment to come to me. And then heard before that he said that you can fully fix your mind on me. Then you will be. You come to me.

So whether practicing Sadhana Bhakti or by being attached to the Lord and serving the Lord out of attachment, One of the connected with the Lord, those activities are transcendental. But to perform those two processes Sadhana Bhakti Raghavti practically we need to follow the instructions of the bona fide Spirit Master. Sometimes there are unscrupulous spiritual guides who try to attract people who are the level of sadhana bhakti with promises of instant raga bhakti simply by imagining that they’re already on a spontaneous level of devotional service is somebody is not already transcendentally attracted to serving the Lord simply by imagining that they have a particular rasa with Kṛṣṇa will not actually increase their spontaneous devotion. Rather, Due to their offenses to the actual devotees of ragavakti, they are forced to become more entangled.

There’s a story of how many times Thakur was chanting in Kīrtana Jabba that he was going along the road. There was small, little like a marketplace, very small. There’s no a village marketplace where one snake charma was there. And he was singing a bhaja to Kalia Kṛṣṇa. How Kṛṣṇa was defeating Kalia, dancing on his head. And he was the devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, so he was singing this song. Some of the locals, villagers here in Māyāpur, they know the art of extracting venom from a victim of snake bite. Even some of the Muslim villagers know this art. So one of these practitioners, who is a Muslim, he also admitted to me one day that all the mantras I received for extracting the snake bite are dedicated to Kaliya and Kṛṣṇa. In this village, the Muslim snake charmers use Kṛṣṇa Mantra.

So this nature was singing the glories of Kṛṣṇa and Kalia being delivered by Kṛṣṇa. And when Hari Raj Thakpa heard that, he became very blissful and he started to dance in ecstasy. Next to the stake charter, there was one Brahmin astrologer. He had his parents and he would read people’s hands. And it was a regular village astrologer. And he saw that everybody, the villagers started to see the ecstatic dancing of Haridas Ṭhākura. They started to bow down to Haridas Ṭhākura, offering him respectful obeisances. And he became a little jealous that I am a prophet. Nobody bows down to me. Why they’re bowing down the Haribaz pathways. The born Ravana. So then he said, I can do whatever he’s doing. I can just imitate. So he jumped up and he started to dance. Imitating Haridas Katwa Harida Thakur was dancing with ecstasy, spontaneously.

And this astrologer was imitating dancing more mechanical way. You see the difference, of course, between the holiest chanting and kīrtana. Some spontaneous mercy of the Lord as somebody jumps into kīrtana and tries to imitate. Looks very mechanical, very stiff. I am sure you will see that over the New Year’s weekend. So. The technic part is very imitating. Anyway, This astrologer Ravin that he imitated, that he was painting in the ground and shaking as if he was in a complete, you know, Mahabh or something. And Haridas Pakra went on dancing and kind of left the place. He was not aware of all these things going on. He was so absorbed in ecstasy. But the state charmer, he could immediately tell that this one is an imposter. He must be imitating how he does proper out of enviousness.

And then he told everybody, look at this guy’s a cheater. He’s cheating. You said, watch, I will prove it. If he was a little samadhi, he won’t feel anything. When I give him a good kick, you will see what happens. He kicked him right in the front. And then there’s others who jumped up. And as you see, he’s a cheater. He’s envious. He’s trying to imitate Haridaz Kakwa, who’s a real tune of all day. He’s committed a great offense against Haridaz Kakwa by imitating him, he’s trying to cheat all of you. He just wants you to worship him being beaten by the religion. So this is the nature he’s just trying to imitate without actually following the procedure given by the Acharyas. But by practicing Saraga bhakti, one gradually rises to the point where they are spontaneously desirous of serving Kṛṣṇa and they serve the Lord.

At that point, they still externally perform the activities of Sadhana bhakti in order to give example to the others devotees, even though they are already attached to shaming the void spontaneously. So like this, there are many intricacies, many subtle points in Bhakti yoga. If one goes a little bit off, it can create Halic Prabhupāda used for example, that when you’re shaving with a straight edge razor, the razor is very sharp, a little bit of inattentiveness, you can cut the person. Especially when shaving with a straight edge razor, you have to be completely concentrated. There’s a story about one day, the king of Kṛṣṇa Nagar, he got up in the morning, looked out of his palace window and the first person he saw was his court jester, his courtier, Gopal Bihar. And that he offered his namaskar.

Gopal Gopal woke up, first person he saw was the king. He offered his namaskar to the Maharaj that day, the person shaving that king was a Little distracted. And he cut the king. And the King said, In 17 years, I never got cut shading. How did this happen to me? Then he thought the very first person I saw in the day was Gopal. So Gopal must be jinxed. There’s a certain person, the first time you see him in a day, your whole day is going to be rotten. Is called Bakunda. They’re people that normally as certain qualities mention the Veda. They’re like astrological genes. So the king had Gopal arrested. He said that actually I can see you’re a Makuta. Because the first time in my life I got cut. And I saw you the first thing in a day.

So so many people by seeing you at first thing in the. In a day, their lives must be rotten. So I better eradicate you from the world and save the people from suffering. So I am going to have you killed today at sunset. Because you’re an astrological jinx. So. All right, Maharaj, I accept whatever you’re saying. But I can just have one last word. I know you’re trying to take me. No, no. I just. I just want to have one last word, sir. All right, I will give you one last word, sir. Today I woke up in the morning. I came out and the very first person I saw today was your Marius school. And today I am dying. So the king was pretty sharp and he said, all right, release him. He didn’t want to be a bigger jinx. So. For Prabhupāda, he was.

He would sometimes tell us these stories to show that in the Vedic culture, even recently this up to a few hundred years ago, the king of Kṛṣṇagar. That’s why it’s called Kṛṣṇa Nagar at the king Kṛṣṇa Chandra. That even the Vedic culture was completely part of their way of life. So various kinds of understandings and idea that the king should protect the people from suffering. All these things were there. So Prabhupāda wanted to show us how Kṛṣṇa Consciousness can become a five brothers. Throughout all of our lives, we had to know how to practice Kṛṣṇa Consciousness in the proper way. So Prabhupāda was so kind and he’s given so many lectures, so many conversations, so many lectures. And of course, most important of all his books. Literally millions and millions of words of instruction to guide us.

Most of many of these have been recorded. Apart from that, he’s personally given his example and other private instructions.

(Side B of the Cassette)

Which he said that you can not imitate him but can follow his example that he used to go out and preach in a village sometime with us in Bengal. As some of you have gone to the recent Mount Hawk festival. And at that time Prabhupāda said, actually this is for Europe. This is your responsibility to go out and preach. But I am doing this just to show you how to do it. So I remember that in different situations when Prabhupāda went nearby here to Chakrahat, most of you drive to Chakraha. It’s about two hours from Calcutta by train. About hour and a half from here by train depending what train you take. Then. He told the commuters there that most of the people at that place. It’s like the last minute of people commuting to Calcutta from working some.

So he told them, look it, you go two days, two hours in the morning to the work. Then you get to Calcutta and by an hour you walk to your work from Shelda station or you take a bus. Then you go on to work and you work until about a couple hours. And then you take a cup of tea and a biscuit. Then you work again for a couple hours and you have a little snack. You work again for a couple hours. You take another cup of tea. Then again you work for a couple hours or gossip with a friend in the office. And then you go back walking to the Ashelda station for another hour. And then two hours you take a train and come back to Chakta. Then you come home and your wife cooks you as a meal for you.

You pat your kids on the head, you take rest. Maybe in the night you sleep or maybe you engage in procreation. Then you wake up in the morning and then you take your cup of tea and off again two hours in the train and so on. So you’re doing this every day. You say, is this human life or this animal life? If you don’t add Kṛṣṇa to this life, it’s a completely hopeless situation. You’re working day and night like an ass with just a little bit of carrot at the end. So you should engage in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Now you have been born india, shouldn’t waste your diet. You should immediately take up the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare.

When he started the verse, he used the verse from Rishabh that even material happiness is there in the animal bodies of the Hu John Ji of the school leaders. So he said instead you should go after the transcendental bliss. So after that we found that the villagers going from Chakta, many of them started to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. To this day, one of the cars in the early morning commuting train always chant Hare Kṛṣṇa all the way to Calcutta. They couldn’t give up their work, but they added Kṛṣṇa. So the prophet went to the next village called Palpara. There they had ancient temple to Mahesh Pandit established by Mahesh Pandit to Kṛṣṇa Lord Caitanya. So he told the villagers, look at you all work during the week, you come here on Sundays. You got a beautiful temple in your village.

Instead of eating in your house, why don’t you all give the ingredients and come together and cook a feast for the deities. And then you all take like a picnic here. But you all take the deity Prashada. It won’t cost you any extra because whatever you eat, you give that cool and then you cook it together offer to Kṛṣṇa. But the blessing you get by eating Kṛṣṇa Prasada and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa together will purify you. I don’t know if they took it out, but this way Prabhupāda each place even in the village or whether it’s in a big city, wherever he was, he would tell people ways and means how they could be Kṛṣṇa conscious. We would not be able to completely change our situation. But there are ways to purify our life and to become Kṛṣṇa conscious.

So this is where the expert guidance of spiritual master is needed. A Prabhupāda was trying to integrate that person in Palpara. But then there was a report that he was doing some kind of undercover work which was not appropriate for a sadhu. So then Prabhupāda said, well need it. This is the other danger that Śrīla Bhakti Siddhartha Thakur said that sometimes people are doing istif in the name of but they’re putting on his soul. So Lord Shaitanya wanted that his devotees should be very humble and sincere and actually try to purify themselves. So there’s a story how one time there was a night guard who was putting on a show of being a very good night guard.

But actually he was stealing from the householders in the night and then catching some bum off the street putting a few stolen articles in his hand and then saying, are these articles from your house? I found him coming out of your house in the night. I said, oh yes, these are my articles. Oh you copted thief. And the guy who beat the poor bomb doesn’t know what’s going on. The night guard was the real Thief. He keep most of the things and get one or two things back. And everybody thought at least he catches always the thief. Nobody knows he’s the real thief in the village. One day he goes into the richest man’s house, the dark moon night. And there he finds that another thief is in the house. He goes to arrest that thief and that thief tells him kumbijuk hampijuk.

You will be quiet and I will be quiet. You don’t say anything. I won’t say anything. You’re a big night guard. If you get exposed, so many difficulties will be there. You will lose your job, you will lose your salary, you lose your good name. You will be disgraced. When you go into prison, it will be very tough. I am always going into prison. I am getting caught. Now I am dead. Once I get out, I will step stealing again. I am a thief. Everybody knows. It doesn’t make any difference if I get caught one more time. So you don’t tell anybody. I won’t tell anybody. Let’s deal together and keep. Divide all the goods and leave it like that. So then they robbed the rich man. But the professional team kept most of their things and gave a little bit to the vanguard and split.

So this way previous Acharyas were saying people are doing all these kind of things. I was asked to go to the Visha Hindu Samala one time and they asked me to speak on cow protection. And I was thinking that he had so many Goshalas all over the world and people were cheering. We have chanted Bhagavad Gītā in so many languages. And Bhagavad Gītā says how we should eat in the mode of goodness. So actually the point is the Hindus should eat vegetarian food, eat Kṛṣṇa prashadam. In this way, naturally the animals will be protected. But if the Hindus do not eat vegetarian food or if they don’t eat according to the Vedic rituals, then gradually their power will take the better of them. And even we find in some places the Hindus are eating beef.

They get to the west and sometimes Hindu people eating the McDonald hamburgers and things like that, they succumb to the association. So in this country there are even some sadhus. They’re having chicken farms and they’re having pig farms. And this should be stopped. People should be trained to eat satvic food. When I said that, there was one particular sadhu from a particular chicken mission in Calcutta that stood up and started shouting, stop him. Stop him immediately. Stop him he shouldn’t speak these things. I didn’t mention anybody’s name. That’s a stupid word I guess. So that’s what they wanted to Mechub Hatichu, you don’t speak anything. I won’t speak anything against you. But in order to establish some purity in the world, somebody has to say sometimes something. What is the standard people should live with for political reasons.

They want everybody just pat the other people on the back. This is the present unity of Hinduism. Nobody should speak the truth. So they figured I knew that these Hare Kṛṣṇa preachers are always saying something a little bit controversial. So that’s why they gave me the topic health protection. I figured he won’t say anything because that topic he can’t say anything. But still I got in trouble. What to do? We’re trying to establish what is the agenda. And later people came up to me and said, well, you said it’s right if we don’t follow the Vedas, we put all the big cheers, Bharat Pataki, Jai, Hindu Dharma, Ki Jai and all this. But if we don’t follow the Vedas naturally everything is degraded. So this is a problem today that people do not follow the systems of the Vedas so clearly.

And therefore so many contaminations had entered in so Madura. He was very clever, he was very intelligent. Any slight doubt he had, he cleared it up immediately with the Jewish authority. First he approached Uddhava. Uddava said that I am very younger to you. Maitreya was also there during Kṛṣṇa’s final instructions. You please for post Maitreya Rishi and this way I believe Maitreya, right. So then he went there and he took instruction. So in this way from the Sage, Maitreya, Rishi or Muni, he was able to get Kṛṣṇa’s direct instruction. This is like Guru Parham Para system. He couldn’t get directly from Kṛṣṇa, so he got to see someone who heard from Kṛṣṇa.

So whether we get from someone who heard from Kṛṣṇa or who heard from someone who heard from Kṛṣṇa or heard from someone who heard from someone who heard from Kṛṣṇa, the things should be handed down very carefully according to the Guru Paramparā system. So by us receiving from Śrīla Prabhupāda and receiving from those who very carefully repeat what Śrīla Prabhupāda told them, what’s confirmed in his books, Sadhu, Shasta and Guru. In this way we can also continue to progress very smoothly in our devotional service. So what happens when we progress in devotional service that immediately relieves us from all kinds of suffering, all types of inconvenience in the material world. Sometimes people are feeling inconvenience. I have to reduce my devotional service, solve my problem, and then I do devotional service.

We don’t realize that the devotional service is what actually will solve the problems. We have to continue doing our devotional service under the guidance of the bona fide spiritual master. While we are doing our different activities, whether we are sanyasi or brahmachari or varaplasti or whatever vihasti, we have to continue doing our different duties and activities under the guidance of bona fide spiritual master. So Śrīla Prabhupāda was very pragmatic. One of his principles is the utility is the principle that he would apply Kṛṣṇa consciousness in a very practical, pragmatic manner which could be easily utilized and implemented by the people of this modern age. Śrīla Prabhupāda knew which principle was more important and which principle was a detail. There are some things which are mukya and some things which are ganya. The mukya or the principal things cannot be compromised.

But some of the details can be. So what happens is that tendency is there India, to take all the things on the equal level or even to take sometimes the details to be more important. Sometimes you find in some temples they’re ready about whether or not, or at least in the past they were. Whether you dye your cloth with rock dye or whether you use chemical dye. Because the Montis are traveling and preaching everywhere, it’s very time consuming. They use rock dye. Once you drop a little dirt on it, you rub it with soap, the whole rock dye comes out. You have to get re dye it almost every other day. It’s very hard to keep it from spotting up. So Prabhupāda said, all right. Used to. I remember when I was a bhakti, I was dying to almost cloth with rock dye.

It was taking hours rubbing the two rags together in the bathtub and tying his godi. And then little dirt would come and we rub that with soap and that would become white. The rest would be satra. And again you’d have to tighten it, color that the same color as the rest and re dye it. It’s pretty simple. I said, all right, just use chemical dye but get the same color. So then some people say, oh, look at they’re using chemical dyes. So they’re not real sadhus, you see. But then we find that they’re not having any mangal aartis. They’re not Chanting any japa. But they’re very strict that what dying use was to die. So Prabhupāda said, more important, what’s really important is having a strict morning program. Chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, attending Bhāgavatam class, worshiping the deities, Tulsi Pūjā, doing your devotional service.

The detail is what Thai use. But the color should be like this. Not too deep, like Māyāvādī, not too light. Should this be the proper color? So now we’re seeing more or less everybody’s already following his color codes for the clothing. But in the beginning I used to pick up these little details and they disqualified Everything you’re doing is wrong because you don’t use rag dye anymore. And now it’s Evelyn that they are putting forward some little detail in order to substantiate their own situation. When actually they’re doing much neglecting much more important things in their own devotional service. So this thing goes on many times. And this is another variation of Tundli chu. Pandi chu is also that okay you criticize the other person. It’s also that okay you criticize the other person on some little thing.

Like the guy would catch an innocent person and put something in his hand, say, look at, you’re a thief. He’s the biggest thief in the whole village. He’s a real thief. But they’re calling everybody else a thief over something that does not even rock. So these are the kind of things that go on in the name of spiritualism. It’s very tough to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness and Kali Yuga. You never know who to believe. So therefore it’s Prabhupāda said that we should be very careful not just to see the superficial exhibitions, but to see over a period of time how somebody is practicing devotional service, see their dedication. And this way those things are difficult to imitate. There used to be gurus not so much at present, but little bit.

Sometime in the past there were gurus who put on big shows of crying and ecstasy. And people would become enamored by them. Nowadays there’s more people put on a big show of experts speaking, learning word jugglery. And people are very attracted by them. But people don’t actually see their activities, what they are doing, their dedication or their what is the standard of the world. So just like Vidura, he was recommended by Uddava that look at Maitreya Rishi has personally received instruction from Kṛṣṇa. You can go to him safely. There’s also the Guru Paramparā system we find who’s a bona fide guru from the bona fide sadhus. And whatever the guru is saying, there is also in the scripture, he doesn’t just speculate something what he’s heard from his guru and what he’s read in the scriptures. So everything he can back up.

Kṛṣṇa said this Shastra says this, these authorities say like that. Even Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad Gītā, he’s also saying this has been previously spoken. This is eternal truth. Kṛṣṇa. But he’s the supreme authority. Whatever he says is the absolute word. But even he’s saying the other previous authorities have appeared before me was Kṛṣṇa appeared in Dvara Yuga over Kṛṣṇa’s eternally existing. So Kṛṣṇa is referring as if he’s a contemporary of that time. And when I am speaking to you as spoken before by great authorities. So even Kṛṣṇa is showing that this principle of repeating what we have heard from the previous authorities, this is the actual way of understanding Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We don’t just concoct something or rule. One of the major Mukya principles in terms of preaching, there may be a little bit of ingenuity and imagination which can be used.

Prabhupāda wanted us to use our imagination to make Kṛṣṇa conscious exilience, to use technology, to use architecture, engineering according to the principles of architecture and engineering. But little bit of artistic flair is part of it. So there are aspects for artists, for people designing the deity’s clothing and making garlands, you see sometimes in Māyā for beautiful garlands with so many different designs in it. So there’s plenty of room for imagination and ingenuity. But within certain parameters, certain guidelines are given and certain areas it’s allowed other areas like the philosophy, you cannot imagine things and start speculating. Then we have to repeat strictly what Kṛṣṇa has said. But in terms of devotional service preaching how to bring a commissioned soul back to Kṛṣṇa, there are certain natural imagination that you can use.

So in this way everything, all the abilities we have can be engaged in KA’s service. And that is how we can be freed from all the sufferings of life. As mentioned in the previous verses. That’s how we can achieve the highest happiness of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Any questions? Yes. When you were discussing the business for the activities of Raja Kabaki, there’s such things that are mentioned in the ghost. On receiving information about your sort of open acting in that mentality. And you were describing how people present that simply by imagining that you can become that. So at what stage are you supposed to start to engage in that type of meditation mentioned in there’s two parts to the question. At what stage do you start and how do you receive that information? It would seem that the first one would come.

The second one would come first when he received that information, after he received it, then he would start. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that he would reveal it. The Guru reveals. Our Kṛṣṇa directly reveals to the devotee when they are ready this information. In fact, in other words, of the Gospamis Das Raghunath mentions that we should approach the Lord in the mood of servitude or Dacian looking at this lotus feet. Dacian is compared to looking at the lotus thief of the Lord like Sakyam is like his chairs. Vasaliya is the heart and the lotus face is Mādhurya. What happens is most people immediately consider themselves a Gopī looking to the lotus face of the Lord. Saddam Śrījuna said, this is offensive. We should first look to the lotus feet of the Lord.

And when we are purified by our devotional service and servitude, then the Lord will personally come and lift up his grandma’s by the chin and start to lift our head. And depending on how high he lifts our head, either in the Sakya, Vasalyam or Madhuyam, that will be our Rasa with Kṛṣṇa, that’s our eternal Rasa. And at that position will be completely satisfied. So the ghost lining survives writing for all times a complete explanation of the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So even Dha Guna said that by performing our service in the mood of a devotee or service or the Kṛṣṇa himself brings us up to whatever level of devotion we actually fit in. But to our point we should cultivate servants. Then from there natural attraction may develop.

We should avoid suddenly imitating the Gopī because at the point of realizing Kṛṣṇa, that’s when we get Kṛṣṇa Prema. These things are also revealed by the guru basis of spontaneous afternoons. And devotee may also give some guidance. So without getting some direct instruction, guru or Kṛṣṇa, this is spontaneously or artificially tried to imitate is very precarious. The other aspect is that when we come up to this level of Agnuga, to the level where we’re doing some direct service under one of the associates of the Dawah from all the Anarthas is on the level of Prema. Those are services performed on the level of Kṛṣṇa Prema. We see that even a level of Bhava or ecstatic devotion spreading love of Kṛṣṇa, there’s sometimes some contamination, slight 1% or 2% may come in. So when we actually realize Kṛṣṇa realize when the level of Prema.

At that point, we need to perform devotional service directly under the associate of Kṛṣṇa Vrindavan, according to our particular Rasha. So they also explain what is Prema Bhakti. What we’re seeing is that people may be having still many contaminations, many material anarchas or desires. But at the same time, they already want to perform the work service as if they’re on the level of pure Kṛṣṇa Prema. You see, performing devotion and raga does not mean immediately performing. In our original Rasa, even the great devotees like Shrini Masacharya and Naraj of Nastapur Shamananda Pandit. Even though they had got special mercy from Rādhārāṇī, they were sent out to preach. They took the books to Bengal and went and had the books published and established their preaching centers in various places. Although each of them had received different kinds of mercy.

Chamunanda got a blessing from Rādhārati, touching him in the forehead. And Shrinivasacharya, I believe, got the tambula from Rādhārāṇī’s own mouth from Shadow of Kṛṣṇa. They all got some very special mercy from the Lord from Rādhārāṇī. But they were also sent out to preach Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. They established temples, they distributed books, they made devotees. They increased the number of disciples. Avoid Chaitanya’s movement. They didn’t just stay in Vrindavan imitating the other six Goswamis. The six Goswamis were given a particular duty to write books and to excavate the holy places in Vrindavan. And the others were ordered to go and preach. But sometimes we get the idea that preaching is something material. It’s sitting in Vrindavan as children, transcendental. But we should see that both the activities depends what you’re ordered to do by your guru. What’s the need of that time, Immediate time.

Of the six Goswamis, Lord Chaitanya wanted them to excavate the holy places and write books. So they were purifying the whole universe and writing the entire Kṛṣṇa conscious guides from the very basic up to the perfection of Prem Bhakti Seva. You see. So if somebody in the beginning stages wants to imitate Prem Bhakti or one is ordered by his guru that he should preach Kṛṣṇa Consciousness and deliver the world from its Māyā. And instead they disobey the order of their guru. And they want to instead imitate the Goswami saying, this is how I will get Prem Bhakti by offending their guru. How they will get premed Bhakti Rather by carrying out the orders of Guru and Kṛṣṇa and Caitanya Mahatu. They will get prayed bhakti and these things will be revealed. We see most of the.

I don’t know the history of every person, but what I see is most of the people. The people I know about who taken this path of Siddha Pranali or got himself a special mantras and been told this is your Rasa. After a short time they end up back in the west and they get married or they to Savannah devotee. They don’t even lead a proper Bihaspa. They completely discard devotional service and they end up pumping gasoline in the shell station or don’t even be named devotees. So somebody has got pray bhakti and they already realized their relationship with Kṛṣṇa. There was a question of falling down. It’s not something that’s imagined. Someone has to really burn up through their devotional service, even their spontaneous service, all the tinges of Anartha. Then Kṛṣṇa reveals himself or his devotee reveals himself to the devotee.

At that point their Rasa is realized and they engage in that service. If we are to be in that Rasa, it may be a little distracting for preaching Prabhupāda. Just like he said, you do preaching now, Samadhi later. So right now Prabhupāda wanted us to see that Caitanya Mahatma’s movement was spread in the world. Even the other great Acharyas in our line, they also took their sacrifice of not remaining in Vrindava in order to preach or may remain in higher form order to preach or Godmi. But the point is doing what the Guru wants us to do, what the previous Acharyas want us to do with their blessings, we will get this all perfections. We don’t have to worry about it by our own endeavor giving up their instruction.

Then we will just like that Sadhu who did really follow the orders of his Guru Gītā said he got so entangled in things in the end he gave up reading the Gītā. So this is the problem. We have to be careful not to get distracted from our real service that they want to get love of Kṛṣṇa. We have to do that by serving Kṛṣṇa as devorti and doing what Kṛṣṇa wants. Love means to do what Kṛṣṇa wants the Sankirta movement to be spread. So if we do that’s an expression of our love. And in that love will go on increasing until we get firmly established in our relationship with Kṛṣṇa irrevocably. This if you try to jump the gun or try to make a shortcut at some point in time. That’s the difficulty.

So we should have that faith and conviction that by carrying out the instructions, following in the footsteps of the great Acharya, we will be able to achieve all our perfection. And preaching is not material. Preaching is a manifestation of Lord Chaitanya’s own Leela. And this is a very infamous service we can do is to bring the conditioned souls back to Lord Caitanya. Otherwise, all of the associates of Lord Caitanya at different sex periods of their life, they were engaged in preaching. And sometime at a particular stage in their life, they became more absorbed in this very intimate kind of bhaja. So our tradition is that’s usually the last few years of our life, we really get absorbed in that bhaja. Just like Bhauavad when he was sick in Vrindav and he didn’t travel, he said, okay, now is my near term.

Now you chant very softly. And he just sat and looked at the picture of Kṛṣṇa Balaram and was deeply listening to the Bhāgavatam and meditating in the 10th canto. At the same time he was also giving some final instructions to the disciples and he was translating the final part of the nether Canto that he was translating. So he said, now you Sanyasis have to take up the work. Other preachers have to take up the work of traveling and preaching. Now I am not going to travel anymore. So this is my near Jan Al Majad. But did he not talk on the last three years of his life? He went to the Bhakti, Kutta and Purī. And there next to Haridas Thakur Samadhi, he was doing his Nirjana Bhajan when he was very old. At that time he was just preparing to go back to Gandhi.

So this is a tradition in our simplic succession to engage in the active preaching. When we see the endless fear that we completely absorb ourselves and the internal worship of the Lord. So we shouldn’t be distracted the beginning of our preaching.