19960109 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 9.4.21

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 9.4.21

Type Of Talk:

Morning Class

Book:

Srimad Bhagavatam (SB)

Date:

Tuesday, January 9, 1996

Collection:

Enlightenment 7

Audio player:

19960109_Srimad_Bhagavatam.9.4.21_Radhadesh_Belgium SB 9.4.21 evaṁ sadā karma-kalāpam ātmanaḥ  pare ’dhiyajñe bhagavaty adhokṣaje sarvātma-bhāvaṁ vidadhan mahīm imāṁ  tan-niṣṭha-viprābhihitaḥ śaśāsa ha

Translation by his divine grace Swami Srila Prabhupada:

In performing his prescribed duties as king, Mahārāja Ambarīṣa always offered the results of his royal activities to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, who is the enjoyer of everything and is beyond the perception of material senses. He certainly took advice from brāhmaṇas who were faithful devotees of the Lord, and thus he ruled the planet earth without difficulty.

Purport by Srila Prabhupada: As stated in Bhagavad-gītā 5th chapter, 29th verse bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ  sarva-loka-maheśvaram suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ  jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati People are very much anxious to live in peace and prosperity in this material world, and here in Bhagavad-gītā the peace formula is given personally by the Supreme Personality of Godhead: everyone should understand that Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the ultimate proprietor of all the planets and is therefore the enjoyer of all activities, political, social, cultural, religious, economic and so on. The Lord has given perfect advice in Bhagavad-gītā, and Ambarīṣa Mahārāja, as the ideal executive head, ruled the entire world as a Vaiṣṇava, taking advice from Vaiṣṇava brāhmaṇas. The śāstras enjoin that even though a brāhmaṇa may be well versed in the occupational brahminical duties and may be very learned in Vedic knowledge, he cannot give advice as a guru until he is a Vaiṣṇava. ṣaṭ-karma-nipuṇo vipro  mantra-tantra-viśāradaḥ avaiṣṇavo gurur na syād  vaiṣṇavaḥ śva-paco guruḥ Therefore, as indicated here by the words tan-niṣṭha-viprābhihitaḥ, Mahārāja Ambarīṣa took advice from brāhmaṇas who were pure devotees of the Lord, for ordinary brāhmaṇas who are merely learned scholars or experts in performing ritualistic ceremonies are not competent to give advice. In modern times, there are legislative assemblies whose members are authorized to make laws for the welfare of the state, but according to this description of the kingdom of Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, the country or the world should be ruled by a chief executive whose advisors are all devotee brāhmaṇas. Such advisors or members of the legislative assembly should not be professional politicians, nor should they be selected by the ignorant public. Rather, they should be appointed by the king. When the king, the executive head of the state, is a devotee and he follows the instructions of devotee brāhmaṇas in ruling the country, everyone will be peaceful and prosperous. When the king and his advisors are perfect devotees, nothing can be wrong in the state. All the citizens should become devotees of the Lord, and then their good character will automatically follow. yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā  sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā  manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ Translation: “Though one who has unflinching devotion for the Personality of Godhead has all the good qualities of the demigods. But one who is not a devotee of the Lord has only material qualifications that are of little value. This is because he is hovering on the mental plane and is certain to be attracted by the glaring material energy.” (Bhāg. 5.18.12) Citizens under the guidance of a Kṛṣṇa conscious king will become devotees, and then there will be no need to enact new laws every day to reform the way of life in the state. If the citizens are trained to become devotees, they will automatically become peaceful and honest, and if they are guided by a devoted king advised by devotees, the state will not be in the material world but in the spiritual world. Nitai Gaur Premanande Hari Hari bol Devotees: Hari Bo. All the states of the world should therefore follow the ideal of the rule or administration of Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, as described here. JPS: Ambarish Maharaj Ki Devotees: Jay JPS: Prabhupada ki Devotees: Jay JPS: Srimad Bhagavat Ki Devotees: Jay Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta swami translation and purport to the Srimad Bhagavatam, 9th canto, 4th chapter, 21st text in the matter of Ambarish Maharaj offended by Durvasa muni. Om tat sat JPS: Wonderful verse, the verses gives us an insight into the world vision of Krishna consciousness. Srila Prabhupada had the vision to change the way people think, to create devotee states as mentioned here, to create an environment in the world where practically everyone is a devotee. It’s very important to have that vision. Of course now the number of devotees directly of the Lord in the form as Krishna maybe somewhat limited on this planet but they know him different names whether as Jehovah, 09.42 Hanunai? Or Allah or God or something by very intense preaching, dissemination of Prabhupada’s books and then engaging people and then training them. People can understand there is one God and there is you know more about Him through the Vedas... you become attached to Krishna. In this way they can overcome all the obstacles of life. They can achieve the supreme goal of life. Traditionally the brahmana’s would live in certain places. Where did brahmana’s live? Anyone knows? Holy places? Where else? Where in the forest? That’s more like a yogi. A mendicant brahmana may live like that, a sanyasi brahmana, but to say that most brahmana’s are householders or they are brahmacharis and they become vanaprastas and they live in the forest sometimes, where else? They live in the temple, in the temple they serve the deities. Where else? They live in home, in what type of environment? Even those who live in home, they worship Krishna in their home. Lord Caitanya before He started sankirtan movement and He was showing the identical brahminical live, He used to worship adhoksaja Visnu deities.... you can still see in the birth place of Lord Caitanya, He used to worship His saligram Sheila. So Brahmana’s would create in their home...they all have temples and they would create a temple environment. At least the Brahmana Vaishnava would do that, but all brahmana’s would do some form of worship although though all were not Vaisnavas but here Prabhupada explains that we need the brahmanas, the brahmanas are guiding people but then all of the people should be devotees. Prabhupada said, “ all the citizens should become devotee’s of the Lord and then the character would automatically follow. Do all the citizens in the country live in the temple? How you... it’s become like a communist state where big masses come in temples. Ah... obviously people who live in their homes... but as they become devotees of the Lord their homes becomes tempelised, and ah... or may live nearby the temple just like so many devotees are living next to the temple here and they come here for their spiritual activities, like this there could be so many temples, so many assemblies of devotees gathering together but our... our vision is not just to have a small temple with some devotees or a big temple with many devotees or a massive temple with the whole world but to have Krishna consciousness expand throughout the entire society so that everyone practices Krishna consciousness according to their situation, that is the Varnasrama. So the brahmana’s, they live simply, they live in holy places, they live in a very special environment... generally speaking and they guide the rest of the society how to create a temple mode in their house. King’s like Ambarish were experts, they would maintain the brahmana’s and have the brahmana’s uplift the society. When Rupa and Sanatana were the President of the Prime Minister and the finance minister of the Hussain Shah government. They were maintaining the brahmana’s throughout the kingdom. Caitanya Das had met Lord Caitanya, had met Rupa and Sanatana, the father of Srinivas Acharya, had met Rupa and Sanatana... when he was a small boy of nine years old. His father went to Rupa and Sanatana in Ramakeli where they resided as a... when they were ministers, and Chaitanya Das he remembered... there were so many brahmanas who were going to meet Rupa and Santana. It was like ants going for spilled sugar. Did you ever spill sugar in your ant-hill? So what happens? It’s like they make columns you know...left, right, left, right...let’s go boys (laughter) Everyone... our girls, I guess I saw the girls do their work in a ant colony... so everybody... they all going to get that sugar...well all the brahmanas were going to get the support from Rupa and Sanatana and they were having Bhagavatam class and regularly cultivating their spiritual life and they had a temple there. Of course Rupa and Sanatana ....Prabhpada gives a history how their forefathers came from ah...brahmana’s... from Kings... from Karnataka and later they became brahmana’s and their father had been given by their previous emperor a big tract of land in Bangladesh, in Jessore... it’s now called Jessore district and there he was... that’s what kings used to do sometimes... was they give some brahmanas some land.. hundreds of hectors and then they would be Lord’s of that land, they could get taxes, the income that people had to pay... everyone had to pay taxes on the land, had to give a certain percentage of the crop or give some land tax. So the king would say, “allright, this brahmana can have this village, all the income from this can go for his deities, I wont take the income. So like that Rupa and Sanatana’s parents they had this kind of this land area given to them and it is recorded that Rupa and Sanatana appeared...they took their appearance from the spiritual world. Actually Rupa is the 9th gopi of the 108... he is the Rupa manjari and Sanatana goswami is also a manjari... Jay Sri Sri Radha Gopinath, Nitai Gaura... Jaya Jagannath Baladev Subhadra Maharani ki...they came down from the spiritual world just for the... to help Lord Caitanya, Nityananda to spread the sankirtana movement, they were actually... Rupa goswami was assigned the major responsibility for the entire disciplic succession after the disappearance of Lord Caitanya, he was the incharge.. and he and Sanatan Goswami were also given the responsibility to excavate and recover all the holy places in Vrindavan. In fact the place where Rupa and Sanatan appeared is known as Prem18.56, place of love of Godhead, and ah... it’s interesting. Of course we have not been able to... I don’t know maharaj Mahavishnu Maharaj if he was able to research but in area that appears to be the area that was the land of Rupa and Sanatan’s parents, even though Bangladesh is now a muslim country, 80% muslim, 20% hindu, the particular area where he was incharge today has 96 Hindu villages, all in one block. In in... a muslim country there is one block 96 villlages, all Hindu and ah... so one of these villages just next to the birthplace of Rupa and Sanatana was so kind... all the villagers said, “we want to do something for Rupa and Santana”, and they gave us about 20 acres of land and ah... Prabhavisnu Maharaja is ah... I am trying to help in a minor way but he is ah... taken up the responsibility for seeing that this temple for Rupa and Sanatana is ah... completed. We are all working on that ah... joint project and we are very grateful to Pravavishnu Maharaj for... he is given also... he has so many valuable responsibilities but he is taking the time also to try to as a centennial project complete Rupa and Sanatan’s temple. The most important acharya’s in our disciplic succession after Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s... so this is a very important place....most important in the world. So Rupa and Sanatana... they were Prime ministers. I mean sometimes we think, well what if you like to have a Prime minister as a devotee. They were the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister in the empire. They had... they were running the show. They had the absolute contro... the king would be going off doing different things and fighting wars and things and that... and the whole administration would be run by Rupa and Sanatana as a Davir Khash and ah... Sakar Malik. But what they were doing actually....were they were cultivating their Krishna consciousness... they had a beuti... they had a beautiful temple there...everything. So... and when Lord Caitanya came...He said.. he came specifically to see them. When Lord Caitanya was going on the way to Vrindavan He got as far as Kanai Natsala and then from there He didn’t get any further, that... that was as far as He got...He He... just stayed with Rupa and Santana. Now how Rupa and Santana were devotees, showing how grihasthas can be devotees they were acting at that point, although they were Brahmanas they were acting as ksatriyas or they were acting as ah... as a politicians... as ministers, as prime ministers but they were completely Krishna consciousness. The King Ambarish, he himself was the emperor, he is completely Krishna conscious. If somebody can be Krishna conscious being an emperor, with all the opulence and ah... material facility... usually they just like we hear from the proverbial thing as the... one brahmana gave the blessing to a king... where he gave those four blessings he told the ah... who was it... he told that the brahmacharee that “I bless you, better you die right away.” and he blessed the king, “you better, you live a long life.”,and then he blessed the.. the.. the ah... butcher, “for you living and dying is all the same”, and he blessed the pure devotee, “for you living and dying is all the same.” This is very mysterious, you know first of all why... why young brahnmachari, why you blessed him to die? Because, well if you leave your body as brahmachari before you get all entangled then ah... you get... you can go back to godhead, but the King he was so much entangled, so much sense gratification, so better you live a long time and because after you die you are going to go to hell, so you better enjoy while you got a chance because after this you are in a big trouble because he wasn’t Krishna conscious. So even that brahmacharee wasn’t Krishna conscious... but a pure devotee...it didn’t matter... he could live or die because living he was in the kingdom of God and dying he goes back to godhead. Prabhupada one time he arrived in Mayapur and he just ah... after the reception and puja and everything he went upto his room and I was ah... carrying his bag and ah... remember he just sat down in his seat and he came... kind of put his leg up a little bit which I can’t do here in the temple but then he is like relaxed, then he took a glass of water in his ah... gold goblet... now it’s stainless but it was gold... it was ah.. Mayapur water... Mayapur is...living or dying in Mayapur it’s all the same. So I thought, how can living and dying be the same, I mean it’s like complete opposite, living and dying right, so what does it mean, like what is Prabhupada saying is that, living in Mayapur you are in the Kingdom of God and when you leave your body in the kingdom of Maya... in the holy dham like Mayapur you go back to Godhead. Then Prabhupada explained, where Lord Caitanya... where the Lord appears you have got an area which is say about 10... ah.. that’s pancha kroshas, that’s five kroshas... everyone knows what a krosha is right? A krosha is approximately two miles... or about 3.2 kilometers, so five kroshas is about 15 kilometers in diameter... is the abode of ah... is the sacred area under the internal potency of the Lord directly...I guess it is a wider area that covers and then Prabhupada explained that wherever a pure devotee appears within that area three kroshas... little less than the Lord but also significant.... three kroshas which is about how much, that’s almost like about ten kilometres, that area is also purified, sacred as the Lord... because the devotee appeared there. So place like... even Rupa Sanatan Smriti tirtha is ah... is also under the spiritual potency and then there is so many places like that where the eternal associates of Lord has appeared. Now in the holy place... so we go back to that four people... so there was the butcher right, he was saved... “you cant live and die.” Now why is that a pure devotee live and die like a butcher... a butcher live and die you are living in hell...kill.... cutting animal flesh...and they are living and killing animals... they are screaming animals and things. In those days especially the butchers would also be the slaughter... there was no organized slaughterhouse. The butcher was the one who would kill the animals. They didn’t have this -28.02- where you had this massive, mass production slaughtering of animals you know.... in so called hygienic conditions or something... completely hellish... it’s the most highing incidents of work accidents, safety problems in slaughterhouse, they don’t tell the workers, high tension, high turnover...lot of problems... but anyway it used to be.... that now... I mean you have this big slaughterhouses...and the butchers just cuts the slices of the meat and sells it....but it used to be that even the butcher would kill the animal and do the whole thing... from beginning to end. So butchers are... were in the code of manu... they really had to suffer, they still have to suffer, I mean they really...they... they directly get all the karma but their life is hellish...killing animals and things like this and after life it’s hell. So either way they are in trouble. So what Bhaktivinod thakur, what Lord Caitanya’s movement is... of course is to make daiva varnashrama, to make everyone these pure devotees. If people are pure devotees, then ah...living and dying it’s all happy. You live in Krishna consciousness you are all happy, and when you leave your body you go back to Godhead, so it’s all happy. So we are not trying to establish you know a type of ordinary varnasrama or mundane brahmanas, we want all devotees, devotees within temples, and devotees within the society and that’s what Prabhupada said, “all the citizens should become devotees of the Lord, then their good character would automatically follow.” If somebody become a devotee you don’t have to worry, whether that person would have good qualities. Automatically good qualities of the devas develop in the devotees, the qualities like tolerance, austerity, cleanliness, mercy, compassion. So this is Prabhupada’s vision. If a person is Krishna conscious...if the person is Krishna conscious... then anybody can live in the situation. Prabhupada had so many places...he in Caitanya Caritamrita... he said that some people they may not be able to live in a temple, you know, even he said that ah...you know that some people they choose to practice Krishna conscious, they really practice with their family and like that, it’s not that everybody wants to practice as a brahmachari. There are advantages to be a brahmachari or a sanyasis, one can travel more, right? And one is free from so many ah...anxiety but you know there is different natures and different people may like to live in a particular way and there may be people who for some or another reason, they are not able to survive in the strict regimen of a temple life... temple ashram is a very regimented right... everything regulated and ah... so some people they are not adapt so easy to that... they would rather have little but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be Krishna consciousness, you see. There are some risk factors involved there, but you have to practice according to your own nature... so such people Prabhupada said they should have temples in their homes... you see Ambarish he could have... he was like an emperor.. he had a big palace...big temple, all the facilities. I know in Calcutta there was a big businessman and then Prabhupada told that... they were showing Prabhupada that see, “see I have temple.”, behind his house he had a nice, little temple, nice Radha Krishna deities, and then Prabhupada said, “who does the puja?” then he said, “Oh, we have brahmana coming in and do, you know I pay him 150 rupees a month and ah...he comes and does the puja.” And Prabhupada said you know, “why don’t you do the puja?”

I mean ..... “ I should do the puja?” He said, “yes, we will train you how to do to the puja, you should do the puja, you should do the worship of the deities.” You see, this is revolutionary... even the big, rich people in India, lot of them... they just hire some priest and they are hardly related, and there is so many stories about this professional priests you know, just like you know using Saligrams to crack peanuts, you know that story. Srila Bhaktisiddhantha thakur, he used to use this example, that there was a rich landlord and he had a higher priest and this was a priest... actually he was born in a priest family, he was a son of a priest, and he could get another job, so he took up puja but actually he was a atheist, he could care le... he wasn’t a devotee at all but just out of sheer economic pressure he became a priest without believing in the deity or anything. So one day one devotee came and ah...and gave a break.... ah... peanuts in the shell... and this pujari, he loved peanuts, it was his favourite food, he was like peanut junkie or something, he was really into peanuts and ah... when he saw those peanuts instead of thinking, “Oh, what a nice offering for the Lord, he was just thinking yum, yum, yum, I want to enjoy this and practically he was drooling and then he closed the door of the temple and then he thought, “I got to crack this peanuts and eat them, and how to do it you know...you know some peanuts are very hard, so one way you could crack the peanuts is take a stone and crack it, so right in the altar there is the sacred Narayana Shila, the self-manifested deity of the Lord, comes from the spiritual world, manifesting down to the Gandaki, Nepal, see Mahavisnu maharaj is preaching in all the transcendental places. So this form of the Lord can give you great mercy but you should never offend the Lord, but this was an atheist, he wasn’t... he was just there because his...for him this stone, any stone it’s the same, so he took the shaligram and he started smashing the peanuts. So then the landlord who owns the temple, the temple owner he comes to see the door closed, what’s going on? , he hears the pujari in there you know.. chk chk chk.chk...chk chk...chk...chk...you know smashing...so what’s going on, and he looks through the window, “Ah... Ah...you demon what are you doing, you are smashing”, can you imagine, you come into a temple you see somebody smashing...Oh...no, no, no He was completely shocked you know, got in there, grabbed that guy, threw him out in the street, “what’s wrong with you, you are a demon, you are a atheist, you rascal” We have to do a big abhisekh of the saligram, what an offense, my goodness! Horrible, this is -37.07- so carefully, sacred deity, you know, stupid, atheist you know, does such a thing. So Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur, he would sometimes use this cliché, “saligram diya badam bhanga”, to illustrate different points, to get an idea like professional brahmanas in the Vedas do get a high rating, I mean most of them are that bad but ah... sometime they say just like... a deity who is taken care of by professional brahmana, they just don’t look the same, they are just not cared for nicely, this is just like they do it out of a sense of duty. When we take care... I mean the devotees are supposed to take care of the deities out of love, of devotion, to please the deities, to satisfy the deities, so you don’t want that kind of brahmanas who are you know just atheists brahmanas, what’s the use of this, they are not brahmana at all, they are some kind of a imposter. So that the society become devotees, they give up all the good qualities. Prabhupada then he said, “why... don’t keep a professional, you do the puja.” “Oh, no,no Prabhupada... I am busy, I have to do my business.” “No, No, No, you set aside timing, and you do the worship.” This was the kind of dynamic vision and engage everyone in Krishna’s service. If that gentleman had done the worship personally, got initiated and trained up by Prabhupada, did the worship, surely he could easily go back to godhead, just like Ambarish. Ambarish had qualified devotees doing his temple worship but he would personally go... in the previous verse it explains how he would personally go sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor  vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane karau harer mandira-mārjanādiṣu  śrutiṁ cakārācyuta-sat-kathodaye mukunda-liṅgālaya-darśane dṛśau  tad-bhṛtya-gātra-sparśe ’ṅga-saṅgamam ghrāṇaṁ ca tat-pāda-saroja-saurabhe  śrīmat-tulasyā rasanāṁ tad-arpite pādau hareḥ kṣetra-padānusarpaṇe  śiro hṛṣīkeśa-padābhivandane kāmaṁ ca dāsye na tu kāma-kāmyayā  yathottamaśloka-janāśrayā ratiḥ

Mahārāja Ambarīṣa always engaged his mind in meditating upon the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, his words in describing the glories of the Lord, his hands in cleansing the Lord’s temple, and his ears in hearing the words spoken by Kṛṣṇa or about Kṛṣṇa. He engaged his eyes in seeing the Deity of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa’s temples and Kṛṣṇa’s places like Mathurā and Vṛndāvana, he engaged his sense of touch in touching the bodies of the Lord’s devotees, he engaged his sense of smell in smelling the fragrance of tulasī offered to the Lord, and he engaged his tongue in tasting the Lord’s prasāda. He engaged his legs in walking to the holy places and temples of the Lord, his head in bowing down before the Lord, and all his desires in serving the Lord, twenty-four hours a day. Indeed, Mahārāja Ambarīṣa never desired anything for his own sense gratification. He engaged all his senses in devotional service, in various engagements related to the Lord. This is the way to increase attachment for the Lord and be completely free from all material desires. Gurumaharaj: Ambarish was a devotee in the house, right... he was a householder living in his ah... but we want the people to practice this standard...anybody in this world, anywhere... have a flat somewhere, they can practice this standard of Krishna conscious, this is possible, under the guidance of ah... bonafide, pure devotees and ah... preachers, they can practice this standard.

Of course to get up... this is a very high standard, this is a liberated standard, you practice this standard, you could be in the temple, you could be in the house, doesn’t matter. Durvasa found that out the hard way. Householders by nature are trained to be humble and offer respect to brahmanas and sanyasis, like you look in the hall here, this temple has footbathing pictures everywhere, but Yudhisthara mahararaja bathing the foot of Narada muni right, he is the emperor of the world. Naradamuni is ah... mendicant... you can say... sanyasi, of course he is a great spiritual master. When he comes, Yudhisthir bathes his feet. What a great rule ah..., what an opportunity, how fortunate for Yudhsthir to be able to bathe the feet, the lotus feet of Narada Muni, who here would like to bathe the lotus feet of Narada Muni? Right? (laughter) Of course in my room I have a picture of Krishna, he takes a role as a ksatriya, even though he is the Lord Himself...when He is in Dwaraka He is playing the role of a ksatriya. His godbrother is coming to see Him who is a brahmana, even He is a brahmana householder but he is a brahmana, then he said, “I should bathe your feet because you are a brahmana and I am a ksatriaya, I have to take spiritual guidance from you and it shows the picture there of Rukmini.

In my room, there is two pictures...one 44.30 here and one there...ISKCON picture shows Rukmini behind fiddling something... carrying a lamp or something...something to do arati I guess...it wasn’t so clear... in my room it shows it shows the Indian picture where it shows Rukmini holding the pot of water and I have experienced this you know... you never know what but ISKCON picture shows Krishna holding a conch in one hand and then bathing, it’s very awkward... you ever tried to bathe pouring with your left hand ...trying to bathe with your... you need both hands to bathe... to bathe the feet, and ah... in ISKCON you know you do this thing with the same but in ah.... what I found out is the picture like in the gurus room there... the quarters of the... sanyasis quarters whatever it is...there are the pictures of the... vrajavasi picture where it shows Rukmini holding the pot. I experienced in South India when you go to some householders house the lady of the house would take the pot of water and from a distance she would push...she wouldn’t touch the feet of a sanyasi because that’s not allowed or touch any other man other than her husband but she takes the water and from a height she pours it and then she and the husband does the washing, so it’s a team effort.

So that way, and that’s the way that picture. I mean I saw... I see in the picture that there is also Rukmini holding the pot of water. So that the Mataji also gets even to participate in the ah... receiving of a great saintly person. At the same time maintaining the decorum and atticate. So something for the whole family because the householder takes his humble role or your....or they are getting all the mercy from the... they would...Sukhadev Goswami visits somebody’s household, they would receive him and he drinks a little milk. So that is a protection. But even a preacher who might be a sanyasi shouldn’t think that this grihasthas, because they are doing this atticate that necessarily they aren’t equally qualified. It’s more almost a social cu.... because many of the householder... of course some maybe... all attached to or entangled, some maybe great souls like Ambarish who are very much ah... attached to Krishna.

Everyone should be a devotee and should be getting attached to Krisha, that is the process. Now ISKCON, recently...when Prabhupada brought ISKCON to the West, there wasn’t anybody, there wasn’t anybody. There were just a few devotees going out and distributing books and that was the thing- get those books out there. We have been distributing books for 25-30 years now, we are still doing it, we are going to do it for a long time to come because that is the desire of our acharyas and that’s the way of preaching, but the difference is that now after 30 years of Krishna consciousness there are 70 or 80 million books out there.

Millions and millions of people have got Prabhupada’s books. I don’t know the... they just figured out in London... in the U.K they had... how many they had... they had something like 20 million books or something in U.K... I don’t know... some... they were telling me, some how many millions of books, you know you could calculate in -48.03- how many books were there...been going out there. Lot of books out there. Lot of people, just like 35000 people come to the Radhadesh, just visit the ah... -48.19- and they see the deities and they get prasadam and so many people visit our restaurants and so many people visit our temples and festivals and so many people meet the book distributors and buy the books, and those are all people who are potential candidates to become devotees. Many of them are devotees, many of them are potential candidates to become pure devotees, you know may be a very small percentage of them could live in the temple ashram, you know there might just a very small fragment, one tenth of a percent or something but ah... or less... but everyone could be a devotee... they could be a devotee like Ambarish was a devotee, worshipping Krishna in their home.

This is ... and this is what we see that the priority in ISKCON now... is now we have been planting seeds for 30 years...we have been planting so many seeds that many of the seeds have already sprouted, grown, come to fruit and we didn’t harvest the seed, we didn’t harvest the food. We let the seed... the fruit rot in the tree, but there are still a lot of seeds out there which are still sprouting and growing and some which are ready to be harvested and the harvest... we have to see that the harvest is not only that how many people joined the temple community...that’s also wonderful and we want that because they can give all... all their time or major part of their time to changing the rest of the society but we want to see the rest of the society become devotees aswell because that’s desire that all the citizens should be devotees...all the citizens, everyone, all of them. Ok.. all means at least 90%, 80%, why not try for everyone to be a devotee? And now people...after so much preaching and the society is changed... now there are so many vegeterians. 30 years ago who was a vegetarian? You were a vegetarian you were crazy. Now you say you are a vegetarian, “oh really, that’s interesting, I always wanted to be a vegetarian... or I am a vegetarian sometimes.” Like you know...even in the airlines accept that now about 10 to 20% of passengers in the airlines are vegetarian, I mean still the majority of the people are meat eaters but there is a lot, I mean there is a major segment of the... of the people who are vegetarians.

May be for health reasons, may be for religions, maybe for different reasons, but people are changed. 30 years ago how many people believed in reincarnation? Very few people, but today in Europe it’s like a very high number. In some countries 90% of the people believe in reincarnation. 80%...70%... 20 years ago I remember... I heard that 25 years ago that in America there were 15%, then it became 30% and today... recently they had a poll, they had a 70% of the people believe in reincarnation in American. They went from 15 to 70. So Prabhupada was saying that this was due to the all the books going out, but all those people...they believe in reincarnation, they don’t have the slightest idea what it is...you know most of them or how to apply that now a days.

There are people who are every... anyone who believes in reincarnation should be a candidate, is a candidate to be a devotee, should be getting him... her to be a devotee. In their home atleast... you know, I mean that’s great.. in their home they should be a devotee, practice Krishna consciousness, learn.....because you already know, you believe in reincarnation, what’s your next birth, you can plan it out... planned birth... the next birth, not this birth, right?

What would be your plan for your next birth? Planned future birth. So this is ah... so important... this is... this is right now we are at a major opportunity in the whole Krishna conscious history, that Prabhupada said in the beginning I did was establish in temple, now I want to do Varnashrama, this is the time, but in the... we haven’t you know... what is varnashrama?

We are ... the devotees in the temple are the brahmanas, not that everyone in the temple when you clean the toilet you put on a sudra, when you clean the you know the cow barn you become the vaisya, when you clean the kitchen then you become you know the brahmana. We are devotees, we can do anything for Krishna, that’s all transcendental. For Krishna someone can do anything, but then in society all the people, all the grihasthas living in society they should be engaged in Krishna’s service, that’s daiva varnashrama.

According to the occupation they serve Krishna. We are not creating a new caste system, this is daiva varnashrama, that means that whatever you are doing, do it for Krishna.

So everybody is doing something, except for slaughterhouses and drug dealing and all this horrible things, more or less everything else can be done for Krishna. So when we start preaching in that way you can be... practice Krishna consciousness in the home. We are showing you this temple, you can have this kind of environment in your house. You can probably maintain this temple by selling deities sets...all little altars, all done with little replica’s of deities and you know pictures and other kinds of deities...little all made up out of raisin(??-54.50-) or something, and people you know get pre made, ready you know, out of the box ready you know... just like take off the wrapper and there you go....plug-in deity sets. (laughter)

And get... thousands of people, millions of people... you know, of course it happens one by one by one. I mean if it is Ambarish, when you have the emperor, you have the emperor, in the previous years the emperor was a devotee, everyone’s ah.. everyone... the whole kingdom becomes devoted more or less, you can’t force it, it has to come naturally, there is a story by Srila Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati, that once there was a king... ah about 4-500 years ago, about 2-300 years ago maybe, and his name was ah...ah... bhagavan maharaj... coincidence anyway, and ah... Bhagavat Singh...bhagavan Singh was his name....Bhagavan Singh Maharaj.

So Bhagavan Singh if I got it right, he...he wanted his whole kingdom to be ah.. devotees, and he was convinced of the importance of harinam but he didn’t.. he didn’t really have a good infrastructure for preaching. So he passed a law, everyone in the evening has to do harinam. You had to come together and chant Hare Krishna, if it’s not then you will be punished. (laughter)

Sounds great, doesn’t it but then you know what he did is... he went incognito, wore like an ordinary dress and kind of went.... that’s...on day the king’s always got the big helmet and everything... so you never see the king looks like ordinarily because he has got all this stuff on, so that way if the king wanted to wear ordinary dress then nobody could even recognize him, because they never saw him without all this stuff. So he was going and he was checking out... he was going and he was checking out whether the people were doing the Harinam or not, whether they were chanting, and then he saw there were some people there they weren’t chanting you know.... he went over you know and one said you know, “hey come on it’s time to chant, ya...you know this is a bhagavan singh’s trip you know... this is his thing you know, we are going to do his thing you know” So he is 57.35... so even though he was giving the best to the people, the best thing- harinam, but the people are so much in the modes, that some of them they just resenting you know, just sarcastic you know... this thing you know, if we don’t do this thing we will get punished... Krishna

They are chanting but they are completely you know resentful, in maya, that’s why you can’t force people, you have to win them over.

Just by... even if you had to you can’t pass...why are you not chanting... there would be people they can’t you know. Out of fear they might do it but they hate it you know....ah.... and they will be more offensive. So the only way to...to really spre.... of course if the government supported it, I mean he could have financed preaching, feast, make it fun, the way Lord Caitanya spread the sankirtan movement is from one person preaching to another and that person preach to five others, they would each preach to five others, they would preach... so you would get this thing.. one to five to 25.... 625 it’s just going like that. Within a short time it spreads to everywhere. The way the preaching goes is from one person to the next.

I meet you, I like you, you are a nice person, you tell me Krishna is great, I believe you, I take Krishna conscious, you tell, I tell my friend, my friend tells his wife, his wife tells her girl friend, and then the person in work, in this way it spreads to everwhere, quickly because I believe you, you tell me it’s good, ok I will take it, and infact the preachers giving out the books they may be the least believed by many people, you know... may be some would believe.. but you read so many people... you know they say that maybe some believe, maybe some people...but you read so many people that you are going to bound effect a few because of your purity but generally people you know, they want to hear from... they believe it more from their friends right, even their friends don’t know anything, that’s a big problem in India.

Here we have a preacher, he will go back and talk to his relatives, and his relatives will give him all crazy ideas, “no, no, no, don’t worship Krishna, you are too you, wait till you are old.” That’s usually what they say you know. I had to preach... I gave lectures in India, “don’t wait till you are old you know... how do you know how long you will live, you know”

Subhashyam sigram...do it now, do it quickly, it’s auspicious, so...anyway you can see from this verses, I don’t know somebody... I didn’t pick out this verse... it was just the verse that came although today we are having a little seminar in a about... in a short time about congregational preaching but this gives us the whole vision, this is what we want, we want to have whole countries...all the citizens, devotees, but the way we have to achieve it is by a very... ah... getting everyone to preach.

Everyone should take up Krishna consciousness, not just the temple devotees, all the congregation, they have to be empowered.

If they don’t...if they don’t...what did Ambarish do? 24 hours a day he was engaged in Krishna conscious. If we are not engaged, we cannot be Krishna conscious, and how are people going to be engaged in Krishna consciousness, if they don’t do worship in their house, if they don’t preach in Kali Yuga.

If you go and tell other people about Krishna...you could be at the work, they can make friends with people... the whole thing...how many people in my workplace can I turn to Krishna? You...you are being in work... is like an undercover job... working is just like getting the money but the real thing is how many of fellow workers can I bring to Krishna? So you can transform being some holy... you know hellish workplace and doing all mundane things into a preaching effort, making friends with people... that would be a very nice person to be a devotee, making friends, talking.

Once you come over to our Namhatta programme... in this way, what the ah... what some of the Christian preachers are doing in the non-christian countries is that they send all the Christians. They say that on the ester day we want everyone of you to bring one non-christian to our Ester programme, and then they do a big thing because everyone is bringing people, they convert so many people. They convert Hindu’s, they convert Buddhist, they convert everyone. Their own Hindus, they should all belong to Krishna right? They should all belong to Krishna consciousness, we should, there are allies, they are natural devotees of Krishna, we don’t want to loose a single Hindu, we want to gain everybody else, but they are converting Hindu’s like anything, why?...because they use this process...they go into the home... I got a book, “How to convert a Hindu to a Christian?” 250 page book they published it in London. Systematic... how it tells all the psychology of Hinduism, all the devas, tells about Hare Krishna...watch out for them. Their philosophy is very much like Christianity and they are practically impossible to convert and they are converting Christians, you got to watch out for them. (laughter)

Of course they don’t know we are not converting anyone. We don’t convert, we just make people realize that we are always devotees of Krisha, Krishna is God, He is the father of Jesus, He is Allah, He is it...whoever religion that.. he is only taking about Krishna, because Krishna is in Sanskrit and we are giving real knowledge about the supreme lord, otherwise people don’t know anything much about the Lord, they just know a little bit, he is merciful, he is all-pervasive and everything, so we are giving people real knowledge, real process... and we engage them in preaching it’s nectar.

I mean, I had a new devotee in the congregation chanting four rounds, I was coming to a program in a temple and ah... they had very few devotees there, just two devotees or three devotees in the temple, and so they got the congregational members to give out invitations to their friends to come for the function.

So this one new congregational devotee went with his wife with a 100 invitations, started giving to his friends. So when he gave it to his friends someone would say, “wha... what you are doing you know, what’s this, now we have got the beads, beads and all...what’s this all about?” because they are all friends. So I tell them you know, that I am chanting Hare Krishna and really... you know they had to preach, you had to tell him... he came back so enlivened, he said...I never felt so happy in my entire life, thought the whole day about Krishna (laughter)

Right? We take it for granted, going and talking about Krishna, our congregational members are drying up because we are not engaging them and preaching them about Krishna. In fact all of our devotees... in fact the temple, everyone they should take turns talking about Krishna, it’s wonderful.

There is nothing, or atleast they should be in the mood that they are backing up all the preachers .

Our pujaris in Mayapur who are the greatest pujaris you know, Jananivas, Pankajangri, they are so much in the preaching mood, they are always praying to the deities to deliver all the people that are coming, they are arranging prasadam, and when they get a little chance they talk about Krishna to people but they are so busy with so many... there are so many deities but they are in that mood. Even if they don’t get some direct time, they are in the mood that if they make the deities beautiful the people will see and get attracted and want to surrender.

They are very much in tune with the preaching mood. Like that if someone is in the bakery, cooking to get people prasadam so that they will be attracted to Krishna, whatever they are doing in that mood.

And in the same mood people in the congregation, they can have the same mood. And in this way you can see the society transformed because automatically people get good qualities as we described in these verses that we read today. All the good qualities would come out.

Of course in the beginning there are a lot of bad qualities you get rid of, you have to be tolerant and patient you know...you can go on practicing, you can just tolerate their defects. In the beginning they have sinful habits. If they could just get them to gradually get attached to Krishna.

Rupa Goswami, he said, “yena tena prakarena Krishna mana nivosate” , by any means get people attached to Krishna, then introduce the rules and regulations. The first thing I want to say is not, for regs...it’s not the thing I want to tell you.

“I can’t do that, I can’t be a devotee.”

Don’t get people hopeless. Krishna comes for everyone. Brahamanas do the four regs...great pure devotees four regs, but you can chant, you can do in your home anyway, wherever you can do, oh you are really into good fortune, you can pray... whatever, just get people to chant and worship. When they get attached to Krishna, then you say, “Look, you really want to get to Krishna?”

“yes, I want to really get to Krishna”

“Then you have to follow the four regs.”

If they are not attached to Krishna, why would they follow the four regs?

You know, may be a Hindu you can get to follow out of fear of hell or something. They don’t even believe in our Vedas, they are not attached to Krishna, very hard. Even the Hindu’s don’t practice so strictly nowadays. People who are attached to Krishna, they will follow. So get them attached to Krishna first. That’s not what I am saying. That’s what Rupa Goswami, greatest Guru in our sampradaya represent, who got the mercy of Lord Caitanya, how to....he said to do like that, that’s what Prabhupada said, be tolerant, be patient, and bring the people. And that way we get very high class, intelligent, qualified people to take Krishna consciousness because they will come a little slowly but when they take it up they will be very good devotees. So thank you all, you have a wonderful preaching facility. So many people coming through.

Somehow if relationships can be made in a short visits that they make, that some of the people can be cultivated and followed up, the people can practice this yoga in their home and now Mukunda Maharaj and Navin Krishna Das is also coming up with a little book about ISKCON and different things that can be used for the congregation, and we need many many such literatures to bring people up to a higher level from a very basic level. But we can see here in Ambarish the example, anybody can be Krishna conscious just if they follow His footsteps. Thank you very much, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Any questions? Q: ..09.10-09.20.........what about our book distribution, how can we do a nice, reasonable .........time to make friends Gurumaharaj: Right...right, what we had just a discussion, had a big discussion....whether you are a book distributors in Norther Europe... the German section of it...the Zurich on the 2nd of January, and I gave a special talk to the book distributors about book distributor’s relationship with congregational preaching, something geared for them, because it is definitely different perspective. When we are talking to congregational preachers we go more into the details. We just talk about overview and got...I got input from them and some of the things that they are doing and ah... nowadays in most of the areas of the world book distributors are aware that they do meet people and that could be potential devotees, and ah... many... we heard that Heidelberg...they have a thing called the Krishna connection, that’s very close, you can find out from them, things I do but they have some congregational members who man their Krishna connections and they get all the...the...there is a special form that the book distributors fill out ah... from this people and ah... the Krishna connections follow up, and sometimes they write and say that I am the secretary of you know... you me you know, what’s the name of the book distributor you know...Bhakta Bill in ah.. in this street and ah...he mentioned to me that ah... I am his secretary . He is doing very important work nowadays and ah... I mean now and so he asked me to write you that he really appreciated meeting you and wanted to see how you like the book and they had the whole format how they follow up. Ah... one book distributor said that if you find someone who is really really sweet, someone who you think really be ah... a prime candidate, you might set aside a little time cultivating those very special candidates personally, the book distributors writing a letter and so on, because there is certainly a importance... some book distributors say that we don’t have so much time and ah...we found that it was taking a lot of our time to do... to write letters, so that’s how the Krishna connection started. So that’s... now what we are doing is.. is we have established the Namhatta...we are making a little Namhatta in special way which we are going to explain today. There are small Namhattas, that multiply and we put them in .... and we keep multiplying and have many Namhattas, and the Namahattas are trained to preach. So than the Krishna connections or whatever...who are getting the names from the different places they could pass those on to the Namhatta who are trained in preaching and those Namhattas could follow up and visit the people in their homes.

That’s wanted...another thing is that sometimes one person from Dallas...what they do is that they give a little bookmark and on the back of the book mark there is a little questionnaire, would you like the book, would you like someone to visit your house, would you like to just...just kind of different things and ah... that devotees they are now in Zurich, that was from Dallas and he gave out some of this bookmarkers, and he said after giving the book it’s like a nice... one side there is a nice little Krishna and it is just a one colour but it’s a decorative. “Here is a bookmarker like to give you, here is my name in the back if you like to write me a letter how you like the book, anything you can write me.”

So that way ah... if you get a written thing from someone... that means that they are really interested. I mean they took a trouble of writing it, putting it in an envelope, sending it... I mean some special interest was there. Those are usually very high leads.

You know sometimes book distributors on the street they thing that someone is favourable but later on you know they don’t necessarily respond all the time. So they say that if a person writes in that’s a higher hit percentage but ah...

I mean if you meet a very nice person you might you know... I mean there are different ways of doing it. And people do give cards out, and they... they do give out those things but sometimes they take. So there are different ways... so distributors are getting names and then the idea is that the congregation... you know a few full time devotees... you know full time preachers backed up by the congregation should organize up the whole follow up or in some cases just the congregation does it but this is a team work effort.

We have been distributing books, we don’t do the follow up, you get someone inspired, get them, cultivate them, inspire them and later on they just you know stagnate, then they kind of dis-intricate from your.... you loose them, or they find out...well I’m interested but then I end up joining you know a weird group, I don’t want to mention you know because we didn’t have the follow up.

So I am basically a book distributor, I started out book distribution, that was my whole service, many years of book distribution, that’s how started as a bhakta- distributing books and you know, whatever efforts I am making in congregational preaching, I am dedicating in... you know to Prabhupada and to all his book distributors because we make so many people interested in Krishna consciousness through books. I want to see that every seed is planted, harvest also goes, otherwise it’s like we do the effort of giving the book and we don’t get the harvest, it’s not complete.

So I want to see that ah... you know the book distributors... they have to go on with their service, we should have teams of devotees who are expert in cultivating and engaging people, and now the congregation also is getting into book distribution, and Rohini Suta Prabhu, he did a calculation that if there is a hundred devotees in every temple of ISKCON, in the congregation, distributing one book per day, it will be over 10 million books in a year. You know, of course a book a day pretty big for a congregational member...maybe a small book or a big book...anyway, it’s something to work for, you know if somebody is into it... I saw in Sydney they have ah... they have only devotees doing fund raising and all the congregations sell the book...it’s like a different, but they got about a 150 congregation who are really into it, who are really into book distribution and ah... he wouldn’t even talk about it.

I found out from other people... I want them to write up and that’s the real interesting thing. After a while because they are getting a taste...you know their numbers may not be as big as the people giving eight hours a day doing it, but even they do ten books a week at 150 people, that’s 1500 books a week, it’s a big thing. So there are different ways that... once you get an expanded congregation they want to preach in so many different ways also. So we are trying to do something... to get the congregation empowered and have that...be a follow up and ah... as a resource when we ...people get the books... “Oh, your temple is very far from the city... you know I live in Brusseles, I live in this place, no we have groups there who are meeting and you can participate in those groups.” “Oh really!” like in Melbourne they have eighteen different groups, and they have a whole map and they show people the map, oh and there are so many people who write in, “how to get to this group, I like to participate, we don’t publish all your addresses so that you know they don’t get harassed by people. We just give the phone numbers to contact and when we -1.17.47- them we refer.

That way it’s ah... just the preaching is going to explode through all these efforts and ah... the book distribution is which is going out and planting seeds, we are going to follow up and water the seeds that we plant. We give some of the books, he reads, then he gets inspired, he gets interested, and then follow it up and see that we can engage them in the future...they can become book distributors and they can become ah... preachers and people get worried who is going to join the temple, but actually people join the temples because they want to really, fully be in this environment, they want a total immersion, maybe they can create it in their home...

Whether their parents are in Maya or the next ah... in some situations...when you get thousands of people practicing in their home the percentage of people joining the temple is still there and more people start coming. Before we had the congregational preaching program in Bengal, we were not making so many devotees. Now that we got the massive namhatta program, people see that there is something that is relevant to everyone. Last year we made a 130 new bhaktas.

In 1994... I don’t know the score for 1995. So it’s a very big thing... and I am going to get ready for the seminar. Thank you. Hare Krishna

Transcribed by :Sadananda Krishnaprem Das, Date: 17-01-2016