19920414 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.10.18-26

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The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on April 14, 1992 – in Śrī Māyāpur, India. The lecture begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.10.18-26.

So now we’re going to have the translation to all these verses and we will have in English. Those who don’t know English will be asked to go over the Bengali translation and help. All the above. Our natural creations by the external energy of the Lord. Now hear from me about the creations by Brahma, who is an incarnation of the mode of passion and who in the matter of creation has a brain like that of the supreme personality of God. The seventh creation. What this means? Up to now there are many creations were mentioned creating time, matter, air, fire, water and so on. All those creations were done by the material energies. Now the creation is being described which is done by Brahma.

Prabhupāda explained that Kṛṣṇa, through his material energy creates all the building blocks, just like there’s bricks and sand and stones already there in nature. And the engineer makes that into a building. So now all the building blocks have been made by Durga and now Brahma will take those and do the secondary creation and make from those elements various things. So this is describing the creation of Brahma. The seventh creation is that of the immovable entities which are of six kinds. The fruit trees without flowers, trees and plants which exist until the fruit is ripe, creamers, pipe plants, creepers which have no support, and trees with flowers and fruits. All the immovable trees and plants seek their subsistence upwards. They are almost unconscious, but have feelings of pain within. They are manifested in variegatedness.

The eighth creation is that of the lower species of life, and they are of different varieties, numbering 28. They are all extensively foolish and ignorant. They know they are desirables by smell, but are unable to remember anything within the heart. In the Vedas, the symptoms of the lower animals are described. Lower animals have knowledge only of their hunger and thirst. They have no acquired knowledge, no vision. Their behavior exhibits no dependence on formalities. Extensively ignorant, they can know their desirables only by smell. And by such intelligence only can they understand what is favorable and unfavorable. Their knowledge is concerned only with eating and sleeping, etc. Therefore, end of quote. Therefore, even the most ferocious lower animals, such as tigers, can be tamed simply by regularly supplying meals and accommodations for sleeping. Only snakes cannot be tamed by such an arrangement.

Text 22o purest Vidura of the lower animals, the cow, goat, buffalo, Kṛṣṇa, snake, hog, Gavaya, animal, deer, lamb and camel all have two hosts. Hooves, feet, two hooves I understand in the Bible it says that many animals with two hooves but lean in hooves should not be eaten. So apparently the Bible says not to eat these. If I am not mistaken, The horse. You will ask Gora. Another animal called white deer, Sarava, bishop, bison, Sarava, Baisor and wild cow all have only one hoof. Now you may hear from me about the animals who have five nails. The dog, jackal, tiger, fox, cat, rabbit, sajaru. There’s a sajaru with the horns on the body. Lion, monkey, elephant, tortoise, alligator, was all have five tails in their claws. They are known as panchanakas or animals having five nails. Translation of text 25 the heron, vulture, crane, hawk, Pasha.

Pasha. There was no English translation. Baluka, peacock, swan, Sarasa, Chakravaka, crow, Ao and others are the birds. Verse 26 the creation of the human beings who are of one species only and who stock their edibles. In their belly is a knife in the rotation. In the human race the mode of passion is very prominent. Humans are always busy in the midst of miserable life, but they think themselves happy in all respects. Purport by Śrīla. The human being is more passionate than the animal and thus the sex life of the human being is more irregular. The animals have their due time for sexual intercourse, but the human being has no regular time for such activities. The human being is endowed with a higher advanced stage of consciousness for getting relief from the existence of material miseries.

But due to his ignorance, he thinks that this higher consciousness is meant for advancing in the material compource of life. Thus his intelligence is misused in the animal propensities of eating, sleeping, defending and mating instead of spiritual realization. By advancing in the material comforts, the human being puts himself into a more miserable condition, but illusioned by the material energy, he always thinks himself happy even while in the midst of misery. Such misery of human life is distinct from the natural comfortable life enjoyed even by the animals. Thus ends the Bhaktivedatta Swami translation with her parts of verses 18 to 26 of chapter 10 panto 3 of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam in the matter of division of the creation. So. Here we are getting a detailed explanation of how Lord Brahma does the creation. Creation. We can see Dai of our loss even though he.

The creation is done in a kind of evolutionary way. Rabba starts off from the simple creatures and he creates the next level. The next level. The human beings are the ninth level of creation. The tenth level is the Devas, which include all kind of creatures who have More powers than human beings. Supernatural, psychic, supernatural kind of powers, which includes Asuras, jinns, Yakshas, rakshasas, Asuras, Devas, Apsaras, Gandharvas and so on. So out to the human being are purely physical creatures. And beyond the human being, there are creatures who have got subtle powers. Of course, Human beings can spiritually develop and become even more powerful than the supernatural creatures if they become Brahmanas and Vaishnavas and develop themselves spiritual. If they don’t develop themselves spiritually, then they are just a vexed level above animals. So.

This last point of power was made as a human being is actually more miserable even than new animals when they don’t have spiritual life. Because the human beings, they create such a complicated situation for themselves that they put themselves into more trouble, more misery. Some previous 10, 20 years, there was a lot of appreciation of animal life. Sometimes people would run naked in the west, saying that the animals are running naked, they’re happier than we are. So if I run naked without clothes, I will be happy. This is more back to nature. Many ways, they are envious of the animal. They took a study in Europe. What would you like to be in your next bird. And apparently in France, if I can remember correctly, most of the men said they like to be horses.

And most of the women said they liked to be snakes or cats. Similarly, in Italy, they had a similar foal. But in Italy, I think they said they preferred to be dogs. I can’t remember. Maybe I got the countries mixed up. I don’t want to be helped for them. But in Europe they were doing. Of course people were taking it lightly, but they thought, yeah, better to be animal. No anxiety. We can understand from the Bhāgavata what it is to be animal. Animal does not have higher calendar. But it’s true that animals may have a less miserable life than what the humans create for themselves. But still, animal life is known is not really the goal. Animals simply suffer pain, hunger, sex drive and sleeping desire. So they try to satisfy this desire. And that’s the limit of their intelligence.

What is good to eat, what is bad to eat? So they sniff. Is this good to eat? I don’t want to eat that. Is this bad to eat? So according to their senses, they understand what is good and what is bad. They eat, they sleep. But animals, most of the animals, they have a regular time to have sex. Like elephants. Once a year they go into mass where they get sexual drive. At that time they want to have sex. Otherwise the rest of the Year they don’t have any sex desire. It’s not very prominent. The cows, once in a month, for one or two days, they go into heat, at which time they become sexually agītāted. And a bull is used to cover the cow to bathe the baby cows or calves. So generally, though, the cow is not agītāted by sex desire.

If the bull comes at another time of the month, the cow is not interested, she’s not agītāted for sex life. So most of the animals, they have got some fixed time. Actually they’re living very peaceful in terms of sex desire. They just have to worry about eating and sleeping, where to eat, where to sleep and how to defend themselves. So in this way, even the tigers, they just have sex once in a year. So human beings, their life is so much more complicated because they are not naturally regulated. Of course, monkeys and pigeons, they are having sex all the time. They are naturally regulated in the other way, constant, unregulated. The human beings, they don’t have such a natural instinct how to regulate themselves. But a human being has got more intelligence.

So Kṛṣṇa has given the system how to regulate themselves in the Bhagavad Gītā, Yashima, Bhāgavatam in the Vedas, so that they can regulate themselves for achieving the higher levels of human consciousness, so they can develop spiritually and realize their eternal nature and realize Kṛṣṇa or God, the absolute truth. But in the Vedas versus it says one should regulate the eating, should eat sahastic food for good health. Now we find that because of the modern scientists study of diet, studying the effects of different food on the body by purely empirical methods, they have come to the conclusion that smoking and intoxication is harmful for the health, that excessive eating of meat and not veg items creates high cholesterol, blood cancer, rather cancer and heart disease. So they’re recommending a more vegetarian diet.

What all this means is basically a satvic diet in the mode of goodness. So this already, without going through billions and billions of dollars of research, we can already find out what is the proper diet of the human being by reading the Vedas. So the Vedas are telling us the same thing. We should have a satvic diet. Now the scientists, because of attachment, like in America, the scientist says that better to cut out meat, it causes disease, have vegetarian diet. But when the government was going to publish a paper like that, all the slaughterhouses said, look at we’re paying you so much egg, we’re giving you so much money. If you publish this paper, this will be very bad for our business. We won’t give you any more money for your political work.

So they created a heavy lobby influence to get the paper to be withdrawn. We heard like this public knowledge. Even india, the pressure on the government is very strong from the slaughterhouses and from the whiskey factories. So the government doesn’t restrict these things so much in many of the states because they’re dependent on this money. But everybody knows that these things are bad, they should be regulated. And the Vedas are giving us a system how to do so. But when they don’t do it, we create such an environment that is hellish. Human beings think that by working hard to be comfortable, they will be happy. This is a big waste of time. As the devotees have traveled around India, they can see that india there are many austerities you have to go through. So for the Western people, they think India is very austere.

And now all Indian people, they’re thinking that if we can get rid of all the austerity and have a comfortable life like we have in the west, then we’re going to be happy, then everything will be all right. The reason why India is austere, part of the reason, of course, is economical shortage. The other part is because these things were not considered very important in the past. What was given more energy was the spiritual development whereby one naturally feels self satisfied, even without so many comforts, rather than wasting all the energy of human life. To have so many comforts, like a washing machine, everything should be done by machine. But in order to pay for those machines, you have to work very hard, because machines break down. So the standard of living means working harder.

Working harder means no time for self realization, which means no inner peace, more passion, more frustration. So people are having more children. The government is saying. So to stop having children, you get sterilization, you have operation, or you use contraceptives, pills and other means of blocking having children by artificial methods. This will solve the problem of too much population. But then the people, they think, since I don’t have any problem with having children, I can have sex really anytime I want. So they become more attached, more lusty, more frustrated. So rather than solving the problems of life, rather than being more comfortable than the animals, actually their life becomes more hellish, more passionate, more envious, worse than the jungle.

It’s predicted in Kali Yuga in the Vedas, that in Kali Yuga, the siddhis will become so hellish that people will voluntarily leave the cities and go live in the forest to be with the animals, where it’s more peaceful. Actually, we’re seeing already in the west, the cities are becoming so violent that it’s very dangerous to live in the city. In Atlanta, where I zone in America, it’s a very nice city with many trees, with many nice roads, nice climate, warm climate. But in some parts of the city it’s so hellish because of drug dealing, because of humidity and so many things, people, because of so much unlimited sex life that it’s so dangerous that nobody feels safe to walk in the street.

Sometimes people pull up in a car and tell people lie down on the road, they have got these machine guns and rifles, they take all the money. When they do something they don’t like, they just shoot. You just happened, five people were shot dead right on the street for no reason. Somebody got angry. One of the subway started shooting people. He was shooting anyone wearing a business suit because he didn’t like businessmen. Well, there are so many colors. So that although everything is a nice city, nice and clean, nice roads, nice trees everywhere. But people, they feel frightened to walk in the street. Especially in some parts of the city, they don’t want to stop. Also very dangerous. So these predictions of the Vedas are coming true.

So instead of becoming more advanced than the animals, we become degraded if we try to simply enhance the animal life. Human life is not meant to enhance animal life. Human life is meant to go use our intelligence and understand what is the purpose of life, where we come from, what is the meaning of birth and death, old age, disease. Animals, they can’t remember these things. We are fighting even some human beings. So we tell them does it tight. What is the impersonal Prabhad? What is the paramātmā? What is Bhagavad? But they can’t remember. You see, this forgetfulness is the nature of animal life. To be a human being we need memory cause from proper family life. Now the scientists are saying that when the mother breastfeeds, the child gives more memory to the child, more strong body.

Prabhupāda said that unless the child is breastfed, they don’t become devotees easily. Very hard to be a devotee unless you get that motherly love. So now because people, they want to have more comfort. The mother has no time to take care of the child, no time to give the breast milk. She has to go to work, she has to be busy to make her. Both husband and wife are holding jobs. No time to take care of the kids. So in this way the children, they don’t get that type of same affection and attention. They don’t get the basic things, so it’s harder for them to become devotees. So we can see how the basic style of life, which was a little more natural way of life, was able to give little peace of mind to the human being.

It should work, but it should be regulated. It should be a proper family life. The children should be properly trained and brought up. Mothers should have enough time to give the law of affection, the breast. Now to the children, things should be organized in such a way that they will be chanting out the names of the Lord and the family. Actually, all the scientists say that by feeding the chaunas breast milk, the woman doesn’t have children so easily until after giving up the child from breastfeeding. So it’s a natural kind of contraceptive, but naturally there will be spacing of children. All these things are finding out by scientific methods. But they can’t figure out how to use it, you see, because they don’t know what is the overall purpose. But the Vedas are already telling these things, do these things, and what is the ultimate purpose?

So why it works, how it works. The Vedas may or may not give all the details, why you should feed your child, why you should not have sex life unregulatedly. You should have regulated sex life. These things are all given. And now the scientists, they find guessing, well, this is true. Too much sex life is draining the strength of the people. The Chinese, they found out that the youth become drained when they have early sex. So they made it against the law. Anyone beneath the age of 25 gets married, any man, then he will get punished. And they’re saying that they should only have sex so many times. I don’t know how they enforce it, but their whole idea is simply material, nothing religious for sure. They just said that this way that people become stronger.

So in the Vedas it says watch and practice Brahmacharya until age of 25, same age that the Chinese came up with by their scientific research. Their Vedas are saying up to 25, at least once you leave Brahmachari. And then after 25, between 25 and 35, one should get married. Death is 25, 30, lead household life till 50, then retired life, involve yourself in spiritual development, and then finally take Sanyas. So this is the Varyam system. This is how the four ashrams work. This is a very scientific system. The fact that it’s scientific, it’s confirmed that even the scientists, their research confirms the same basic truth. Of course, I don’t have all the data in a very scientific way.

I haven’t listened, you know, just saying in a general sense that this is what we heard that the scientists have heard that somebody is interested in this field of science. They could gather all the information and more systematically confirm it. But at least some scientists have published. I not be systematic my presentation. But some scientists have come up with these results. I am not an expert on the science anymore, or never was, but just a student at one time. But now we know that the data representing the in a very scientific way. We accept it as a type of science, as the original science. So the scientists, they always come up with different theories. Then later they find out new things and they change our modern science. We find it far more reliable.

The Vedic point of view, especially for how to lead a human life. This has been worked out by our great Rishis and Munis, by Kṛṣṇa himself. He has given the system of Dharma, Karma, Saksha, Bhagavad Praneetam. Karma Sakshatu, Bhagavad Pradit. Dharma is given by God. So he’s given this process. So we can lead a very proper life. We try to speculate and try to create some improvement. What the result is more misery human being. Though they think that I am happier. Look it I should be happier. I remember when I was driving to Māyāpur in 1971, 72, going into Kṛṣṇagar. No, I wasn’t driving my jeep. We had no jeep. We had no car. In those days, all of us didn’t provide us with a car. So I had a special vehicle that was a hero. Not hero, Honda Hero, bicycle, one gear.

So I drive to Ritu Kṛṣṇagar by my bicycle. It used to take 45 minutes. After crossing over the river by boat. It takes hour and 15 minutes. Going the other way, purely by hand, much harder. So you go into a Kṛṣṇa and I go to see. As it was mentioned yesterday, one of the disciples of devotees mentioned. I used to go to buy things from Nayako. Now they have several vehicles, trucks. So many pickups, vehicles, jeeps. Those days we had limited budget. We had to do the construction without any vehicle. It.

(Side B of the Cassette)

It. And other things that were needed. The little things from one life member. He became a life member eventually he bought so much stuff. So I went in. I remember one day it was. I came in the whole way. While I was riding on my bicycle, I was chanting, do something for 45 minutes while you’re so. Get a nice breeze in the bicep. I was feeling very happy. Chanting for 45 minutes on my bike. Came into Kṛṣṇar, big smile. I used to wear wooden shoes in those days. So I come in with my wooden shoes, riding in the bicycle, wearing my little Sannyāsī dress. Hardly just a simple cloth. Then I came in. I remember this one late member, he looked at me and I am smiling. Coming in to get my various nails and screws and whatever needed from my airport.

I read one Boris buggy to take it out for 35 rupees. In those days he just looked at me as this man and he just got real envious. Why are you happy? You have not wooden shoes, you have no car, you have nothing. I got a car, I got a two story brick house. I got a business, I got a social position. I got a member of a local social club. I got a beautiful wife, I got kids, I got money in the bank. I got everything. You got nothing. Why are you. Why are you happy? Why? I am like the zoo. Of course the answer is given here in the Bhāgavatam. The real happiness doesn’t come from just trying to create all these comforts in life. Because human being has got higher intelligence. We cannot be happy just by these arrangements.

Prabhupāda gave the example how you take a fish out of the water, put it in a nice box, give it a little air conditioner and a fan silk, you know, give it a tv, vcr, anything you want. But the fish will not be happy no matter how many things you give it until you put it back in the water. By nature we want to be in a free light. We want to be in a spiritual environment. All these things that we’re creating are actually limiting to our spiritual consciousness. And they create frustration. They create various kinds of misery through the walls of passion and ignorance. The more we can be, the more goodness, the happier we become. So the initial impression is that mode of goodness is very austere, bitter, like poison. That’s what the Bhagavad Gītā says in the beginning it seems bitter.

It’s like one of in Bangladesh when I was just there last week. Husband and wife are both devotees. But the husband is not Able to fully practice. His wife is taking initiation. And he was kept praising his wife in a kind of oblique way. He was saying, she’s doing so much austerity. She’s getting up at 4 in the morning at 3:30, taking her bath, doing mandalayati, doing her worship, chanting Java. So much austerity, so difficult, so hard. She’s eating, you know, very difficult. I cannot do so much austerity. I get up at 67 in the morning. She’s doing so much after. So his feeling was his wife was getting off the floor. So austere, so bitter, so difficult. I asked him, why are you finding it difficult? Oh, it’s very pleasant, Very nice. Get up in the morning, it’s peaceful.

Chant my Japa take early bath. So she is finding like nectar. But husband was not able to get over that block. She is fighting. Oh, she’s doing so much austerity. So difficult, so miserable to get out early in the morning like that. But Cheetah manoa is very sweet, very nectarian. To get out early and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa to attend bungalow. So this is the impression of those who are materially conditioned. They think all these devotees, they’re rising early in the morning and all eating vegetarian food. And what can they eat? Only vegetables. You will see today how many vegetables can be prepared. I don’t know how many will prepare. Few dozen I am sure. What’s the plan? I don’t know. We can see whether they’re still. But this is the materialist idea. They’re thinking, oh, how can you live?

One life member came and said, you are 24 hour bhaktas. I am only one hour bhakti. I can only do one hour in a day. And I can like to come in the weekend and stay in Māyāpur. But one thing I must tell you. If I don’t have coffee, tea and ice cream then for me life is not worth living this thing. I have to have coffee, tea and ice cream. He must be a vegetarian. So we get attached to little things and we become so attached. We think if I cannot live with my without this, I will die either without ice cream or die. But no, we are living with Anyway you can take Kṛṣṇa ice cream. No problem swallowed it has no hands. You can offer to Kṛṣṇa. It is made by devotees. Rbmt they are not so good.

Because he swore dash. He said he’d rather die live without coughing and tea. So this artificial dependence on these things. Although he is vegetarian, he’s not having other bad habits. So he said not Anywhere you can live in Māyāpur and have a tea in your room. We won’t supply you. We cannot supply. Of course, we have no formal decision on this. But I don’t think that is a big problem. But the point is that they just want to see how do people become miserable just by artificially dependent on these material things. And they think that oh, you are doing so much austerity. But we hope that by coming and staying in Māyāpur and by gradually getting the association of devotees, people can see that this sahmic way of life only appears miserable because of our conditioning.

Actually when you get into the habit of a spiritual way of life, it is very enjoyable. Isn’t nectar devotee won’t like to give up eating Kṛṣṇa for Sadh or won’t like to miss chanting his Japa worshipping Kṛṣṇa. It is a source of unlimited spiritual bliss. If it’s only because we are conditioned, we think. Because we think that the goal of life is comfort. Goal of life is unlimited sex. Goal of life is eat whatever your tongue desires. So because we are so conditioned, we think all this devotional life is very miserable. But actually we are miserable in material life. People are miserable when they are not with all these things. They are so miserable. But they think psychologically that they are happy. They convince themselves because they were told when they went to school, if you get a big house, you will be happy.

You get a swimming pool, you will be happy. If you’re the chief executive officer or you’re the managing director of the corporation, you will be happy. If you’re an IES officer, you will be happy. They tell you all this. This is the goal of life. Become a minister and you will be happy. You be the chief minister, you will really be happy. Be the prime minister. You will be completely ecstatic. This is why people think. But even they become minister, they are not happy. They want to be chief. Even a Prime minister, they’re still they’re not happy. They can’t maintain their happiness. So this all illusion. That’s why we say Māyā Sukaya, the thucha. This so called happiness of material life is insignificant in thucha. And we have to get away from this temporary happiness.

And so when we can see how the whole creation is going on, all the animals, all the various creatures, why are we going to act like anim? We are the ninth level. But we can be the top level. Even more than a Deva. If we spiritually develop. This is mentioned later on. After giving all the Levels that if we become Prana, if we become properly spiritually initiated by Guru, if we follow all the principles, we can become of the same spiritual quality of God. Satchyatna. Platform. No suffering, no anxieties. Why we are suffering because we are not on the Brahma platform. We are not on the spiritual platform. Sometimes we think the Brahma Buddha means we become the impersonal Brahmani. But here Kṛṣṇa says one Bhakto Vamyatevra, my devotee, he achieves the supreme level, the supreme position.

So Brahma means spiritual level, the spiritual level, Brahma. There are the Mayavanis, also the yogis and the devotees. They’re all going for the spiritual level. But the devotees reach the top most spiritual level. And as soon as we do pure devotional service. And we become on that Brahma Buddha, Brahma Mulaya. So we don’t have to do any yoga, any Ashtanga, any Gyana, anything else to achieve this Brahma platform. We get Brahmapua Bhagavati by Bhakti Chogyavate, by doing Bhakti Yoga. This is the highest religion. This is a real engagement for the human being. So this was previously difficult to achieve by Caitanti Mahava whose mercy now was very easy to achieve. So Chaitanyandi Mahara was giving this Bhakti Yoga to everyone. We should take advantage now. Practice Bhakti Yoga, give out this miserable life.

Stop trying to become more comfortable than the animals and end up being more miserable. Whatever comfort comes by our honest labor, we take that. Not if we have to artificially give up anything. If somebody is born in a rich family, if they have a comfortable house, it doesn’t mean they have to live out in the street. Use their house. Rather than trying to go on increasing their material things, rather use their energy to be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Use at least 50% of their income to do spiritual life and they will be as good as the Sanyasis. Even though they’re living in a comfortable house, we don’t work whatever we get naturally by our just a normal endeavor. We take that. That’s what we are getting from our previous karmas. But artificially they’re working so hard to get comfort.

In the end they’re more visible because it’s not very karma to be comfortable. So in spite of all the so called comfort, they have done real Dizuri. So instead of real dystri, better to have so called austerities. Uprising Early Chandi Hare Krishn associated with such nice devotees. Having a spiritual master having God builders having a disciplic succession, having a dear peace and being in the spiritual environment. And this way have real happiness. Only the materialists, they think this is miserable. We want to show that in Vayalpur, in all our temples, that to practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness is non miserable. It’s very blissful, it’s very wonderful way of life. And we hope that whole world will take out this way of life. Chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and being really happy. Thank you very much. Any questions?

That’s why this verse is saying he always thinks himself happy even while in the midst of misery. Because I think happiness is relative. It’s a psychological problem somebody brought up in our Bangladesh tour. It was interesting. One of the devotees was preaching and it was a nice point. He said our real problem is psychological. We think what is happiness? We defining it, whether it’s a real happiness or not, that we don’t see. We just create some artificial standard for happiness. And this is happiness. We have a refrigerator and a three bedroom house and so on together, this happiness. And if you don’t have that, you’re not happy. I think all the people in here, they’re not happy. I met one Indian gentleman in Atlanta and he had a house and he had a restaurant. I said, what do you want to do?

What do you think? He said, I am completely miserable. He said, everything I do is simply paying taxes. Income tax, sales tax, water tax, utility tax, break this, that so many things that what I want to do somehow if I ever get any money after paying all the taxes, because I want to go back to India. I have a nice little village house. I have a Pukur there. I will sit by the side of the Pukur and just live a simple life and go a little rice and eat some food and I won’t pay any more taxes and I won’t worry about all these things. Well, he had a different vision. Of course. People say like that, but then they get entangled. So the point is happiness is relative.

While Vedas are giving us a real objectivity, we have to see things from objective point of view. It’s not enough to say happy is relative. The man in the hospital, he’s got all the tubes in his nose, intravenous blood dialysis going on. You go in and ask him, how are you feeling? Oh, I am okay. But anybody can see the person is really miserable. But maybe because he’s a heavy painkiller, he’s not feeling intense pain at that moment. He says, I am feeling okay. But you see, it’s completely Covered. When I was in the hospital in Spain, I came out of the intensive care with these tubes and all these things. They came and said, how are you feeling? Okay now? Very nice. Anyway, actually the people don’t know what is nice, what is not nice. You feel a little better. You think I am feeling nice?

Because you’re so miserable. You feel a little relieved. You think it’s good. There’s a prabhupāda told the story of Gopal Bhar. And he said, how are you feeling? I said, very happy after passing stool. So we create. We add some natural pressures, some natural problems. When we get relief, we think we are very happy. So we should see what is real happiness. Happiness is relative in the material world. But we are trying to show you what is absolute happiness. What is happiness not dependent on relativity. We are agreeing. Yes, Your happiness is relative. Our happiness is absolute. And because we see your relative happiness, we are feeling sad for you. Then why you don’t come to the absolute happiness? Your happiness is based on removing your suffering. It’s not real happiness based on its own merit. You are suffering from some inconvenience.

When you have a little comfortable situation, you think, now you’re happy. That’s not real happiness. That is relative happiness. We are being with you. But real happiness is. Even you’re in a so called visible condition. Internally you feel happy. Your happiness is not dependent on any material. It is the inner bliss, inner happiness that you have never experienced. We are experiencing it. That’s why we are seeing how you are suffering. Why don’t you try it? When we are saying you try experiment for two months, six months, you try absolute happiness. And then you will see what is the position of your relative happiness. You are only saying, well, we don’t gain anything. Whether you are Kṛṣṇa conscious or you are Māyā, what is it to us? Only because we care for you. You are a friend. You’re a human being. Why should you unnecessarily suffer?

Therefore, we are speaking out of our own friendship of you. You are not gaining any material benefit. Somehow or other you have to convince the person. You see, healthy people, those who are asleep, they will wake up when you’re trying to wake them. Those who are really awake, pretending they’re asleep, it’s very hard to wake them up. This is a real problem. There are some people they don’t want to hear. So when you cannot tell them what they ask then if you just give them some prashad, give them some books, what happens is they put the book on their shelf. There was one man. He said he was very proud. He had got immigration to Canada. He was from Indian background, from Guyana. He was very proud when some Canadian book distributor came to him and requested you please take one bottle.

And he said, I don’t need all this. I got money, I got my suit and tie. I am drinking rum in the pub. What do I need every single day? Now I am a Canadian. I don’t need any of this stuff. That was for the Indians, poor people. They need Gītā not to be rich people. Canadian. Now I don’t need any more. But some of the person said, look, if you are a very wealthy man, you are a very. See more of a noble person. I am begging you, just give $1. Anything you like. Take this. So then he thought again, I am a Canadian, I am immigrant and here’s a Canadian begging to me, begging me. So he felt very proud. Okay, take another. I took. He took the Gītā, put the Gītā in his house. Forgot about it for a long time. Then something happened.

Somebody yelled at him in the office or some frustration. Was there something? He came home, he saw a Gītā there. He picked it up. What is this book anyway? Opened it up, started reading. He said, my goodness, what have I been doing with my life? I didn’t know anything. I was such ignorant. Then he decided, let me go to the temple. Looked at the back, there was a list of temples. He went to the Kiranto temple that happened. It was Nityānanda’s Chodasi Nithyananda’s appearance day. He went, there was a big festival feast. He had a big burshad. Someone engaged him and started helping win some service. He liked so much chanting and everything that from that day he became a devotee. So we shouldn’t be fooled by people spreading out and saying, you know what is all relative.

This that we know their position is will. O the wisp. There’s no real basis of their happiness. Their whole life is kamala ta la jalla tiba nahla mālā. Like the water on a lotus leaf. It’s just very unstable. And our position is absolute. We shouldn’t have any doubt at all. We simply by the time we just try to take that person to the level we can no use of forcing him or turning him away. Keep him favorable, be offend and take little step by step. When the time is right, it will come. We just take advantage as much as we can. When the time is right, when we have a good relationship, just Like Vidura. He had a relationship with Virasa, his brother. When time is right, he said, what you’re doing wasting your life here. Your teeth are falling out.

You’re going blind already blind. You’re going deaf. You’re just living like a kept dog. Eating food from Judaism killed your hundred sons. You know, he used it and he knew it was power. So he used his false ego to encourage him to go and go to the forest. Leave this. Go to the forest, do yoga, do meditation. Leave this false life. So somehow or another he got him to give off his Māyā and engage in meditation. He couldn’t teach him bhakti his whole life. He was envious of the devotees of Kṛṣṇa. But at least he got up to do Astangi Yoga. So this is the thing. We never know whether the time is right. A preacher has to be ready to strike when the time is right. If you strike at the wrong time, you may kill the patient.

So you have to be careful when to get heavy with someone, when to be pushy, when to be very gentle and friendly. But when you know a person, you become more experienced. And you may know that certain times it can be heavy. Tell the person, look, you wasted your life. What are you doing with yourself? You should now re evaluate. Then you give them the proper guidance. Do it the wrong kind. It won’t work. So this all comes by preaching. We have to know. Just because somebody says happiness is relative or they’re burning, how they are just waiting, you can smash that mind. And then you tell, okay, what is your happiness? Don’t try to hit me. I know what happened. I live the same life you live. You’re not living anything new. Every house is very easy to preach. These people watch you.

If you tell me something new, I know what your happiness has. I did the same thing. This is not the real happiness. And then you picture them what real happiness is. Heads are completely, you know, flabbergasted. Because they couldn’t impress you. Because you have a big car. Doesn’t impress you. I saw there’s so many other programs. Why? Well, I don’t know if there’s time. But short question. Social work with vakati marg. You see in Bhagavad Gītā, Kṛṣṇa says the best thing to do is completely fix your mind on him. In 12 chapter Gītā he said if you can’t do that, then you do regulated bhakti. You do devotional service. Devotional service to Kṛṣṇa includes many kinds of spiritual social. Then Kṛṣṇa says if you can’t do that. Then you work for me. You can’t do all the sadhana, all the practices.

Then you work for me. Give the fruits of your work to me. When you give to Kṛṣṇa doesn’t consume it. That means it’s like it’s a spiritual oriented social work. Then finally he said, if you can’t do that, then at least behold mother. So doing general material work for others is recommended in the 12th chapter Bhagavad Gītā. But it’s fourth class. It’s a fourth class type of service. First class is to be completely devoted to God. Second is to regularly worship God and serve Him. Third is to give the fruits of your labor to God. The fourth is you can do that to God and help others and other people. When we help God, say we want to give food out. Kṛṣṇa says to Gītā, whatever you do it as a donation to me. So we give our food.

Today we will feed thousands of people. Probably I don’t know how many people will come. There will be some people will be fed. So we feed the people Prashad. So prashad means that we’re feeding the body, but also the mind and the soul is also getting the benefit. So simply material social work does not consider the full human being. It only considers the body. Or maybe it’s the mind to some extent. So there are many people doing that. But the world is not perfect. Even in spite of that. That world will go on because there will always be people who are more materially conscious. But what we see is that the real best social work is where you help the total person, the mind, the body and the soul.

If we leave out the soul and only help the body and mind, then what happens is the people remain on the animalistic platform. Their future births are going to continue. They suffer. We want to help them be materially happy. At the same time, we want to see them spiritually emancipated. So we see the total version. So our social work is orientated in that way because otherwise the end result is not complete. Thank you. What’s the difference in passing school and what? No, the dress. For instance, we have businessmen who are devoted. We have many billionaires. Billionaires who are devoting wearing a dress. It’s not a you do whatever dress. You have to do your work. Some lady today is taking initiation. She’s a nurse. She’s a head nurse in the operation theatre. So she’s wearing her white dress, her operation dress.

You wear whatever dress you occupation. You’re dealing with the consciousness we want to change the real person. If you’re a businessman, your real business. For the disciple Arjuna, he was fighting battlefield, he is wearing armor, he is wearing helmet, he is wearing so many things, but he is also considered a pure devotee. Hanuman is carrying a club and wearing a helmet, so he was doing battle. So according to what your occupation, you were then dressed. But the point is that we know that it’s not my eternal identity, this is my karma, this is my present duty. But actually I am spiritual, I am eternal, I am part of Kṛṣṇa. With this work I should be seeing that God has satisfied, Kṛṣṇa is pleased, then I will be freed from the karma, you see.

So that person, even though he is working in business or working in his occupation, he is really liberated because he is not making karmas. Whatever we make profit for ourselves, we have to take a karma, isn’t it? When we make the profit, when we are doing it for the pleasure of God, then he takes the garment and we are free. So we want to train people not to give up their work, not to give up their suits or whatever. Maybe in the future people can do business india without suit. But right now we are doing an American way. So people, if they wear suit, it’s alright. One of my disciples in Madras, he shaved his hair and was wearing pila. I told him, you’re doing business, you shouldn’t do like that, people may not make you trouble. He said, no, I want to do.

But later he found that people tried to cheat him. And he thought, he’s a sadhu, he can cheat the sadhus. So then he grew his hair. And he grew our little tilak and grew his hair. So then he found the people respecting him more because we’re working in a materialistic society. So I am worried the kind, place and circumstance we have to act for all of us. And utility is a principle. So that way we’re not telling people to give up their work. We’re having people, thousands and millions of people all over the world doing their applications, but rather to see themselves, their own personal view of themselves. They know that I am wearing a suit and tie. I am doing all this is for my business impression, but my real identity.

I am not a Mr. Suit, I am a Jeeva suit, I am a Jīva, I am a. So in this way you can bear. So when the people, they think they’re wearing a suit, they think that they identify so much with the suit. But for the devotee, they see much higher than that and what happens to them. For the devotees are more intelligent than other people. If a person has the quality of being a businessman plus he’s a devotee, Kṛṣṇa will help him to see through other people. He will know what is the vision weakness of the other people. Business is like a war. You have to know what is the weakness of your competitor. And you have to defeat him on his weak point. You have to build him up and yourself up on your strong point. But they are not able to find out a weakness.

As Buddhist and devotee, if he has a business quality. If you are Brahmaning into business, you may not succeed if you are a businessman with that karma, with that guna at the Vaisha last year, the Lord the Kṛṣṇa will give me more intelligence. We are not saying don’t do business but do business. For Kṛṣṇa Nanda Maharaj, he was Vaishya. He never gave up fending for his cows or feeding his butter, growing his grains because he was Vaishnava, he did that. But he gave everything to Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Sam.