20021229 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.10.24

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

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on December 29, 2002 – in Gold Cost, Australia. The lecture begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.10.24.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.10.24

sa vā ayaṁ sakhy anugīta-sat-katho
vedeṣu guhyeṣu ca guhya-vādibhiḥ
ya eka īśo jagad-ātma-līlayā
sṛjaty avaty atti na tatra sajjate

Translation by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda: O dear friends, here is that very Personality of Godhead whose attractive and confidential pastimes are described in the confidential parts of Vedic literature by His great devotees. It is He only who creates, maintains and annihilates the material world and yet remains unaffected.

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, all the Vedic literatures are glorifying the greatness of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Here it is confirmed in the Bhāgavatam also. The Vedas are expanded by many branches and subbranches by great devotees and empowered incarnations of the Lord like Vyāsa, Nārada, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the Kumāras, Kapila, Prahlāda, Janaka, Bali and Yamarāja, but in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam especially, the confidential parts of His activities are described by the confidential devotee Śukadeva Gosvāmī. In the Vedānta-sūtras or Upaniṣads there is only a hint of the confidential parts of His pastimes. In such Vedic literatures as the Upaniṣads, the Lord has expressively been distinguished from the mundane conception of His existence. His identity being fully spiritual, His form, name, qualities, and paraphernalia, etc., have been elaborately distinguished from matter, and therefore He is sometimes misunderstood by less intelligent persons as impersonal. But factually He is the Supreme Person, Bhagavān, and He is partially represented as Paramātmā or impersonal Brahman.

Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta Swami translation purport of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1^st Canto 10^th chapter 24 verse in the matter of “Departure of Lord Kṛṣṇa for Dvārakā”.

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Jayapatākā Swami: There is Kṛṣṇa playing the part as a prince, friend of Arjuna, well wisher, Acting on the material world. In a very personal manner with his devotees. But in order. To be understood requires the vision of such great personalities like Śukadeva Gosvāmī and others who can highlight how the Lord is just mingling with everybody and interacting in a very personal, familiar way. It’s only he who creates, maintains, annihilates the material world. He does all these amazing and wonderful things, You know, means unaffected. If we create something, we get affected by it because we get attached to it. Kṛṣṇa creates things, he violates them also. It’s not affected by these things. When something gets destroyed in the material world also that affects us often very much. So in this verse it describes. So it uses the word guy and Gujavadi V. Very confidential.

Also by the confidential devotees. Generally you find all religions talk about moral codes, talk about rules and regulations and external things to talk about the supreme personality of Godhead, his nature, his pastimes, his qualities, his different devotees. These things are actually very confidential. It’s not for everybody. Confidential. Devotees also can only appreciate Even if these things are described. To non devotees that they may not appreciate because it goes over their head, it’s something confidential. They have not yet been able to appreciate the Lord. Just like someone. Vrindavan I think I gave the example Rabinda Saroop that say you have a picture of your grandma. You just went somewhere and have a picture of your grandma. You meet some president, some brother or something, look at you have a picture of your. Oh, that’s fine because it’s all family.

If you show another person this is my picture of my grandma. Because they don’t know the person, it doesn’t relate anything. Confidential means also something which is not for everybody. It’s for. So how does someone become a confidential devotee? When they actually go deep into understanding Kṛṣṇa, it opens the door for making all these things relevant. Sometimes you may meet someone on the street and if you just tell them a Kṛṣṇa pastime may not relate with it. Well, what does it have to do with me or something? When somebody starts to listen about Kṛṣṇa, starts to develop an understanding, then they go deeper and deeper into this understanding of Kṛṣṇa and they the door to confidential information just opened up. They are able to appreciate things which even big pandits, they’re not devotees, they don’t relate with it. They can’t understand.

It’s like Ramanujacharya when he was a student in his gurukul. His teacher was the Māyāvādī. He was massaging his leg. But his Māyāvādī guru, there was a verse. I can’t remember the Sanskrit right now, but maybe someone here Pandit remembers the Sanskrit. The Sanskrit talked about the beautiful red lotus on the lotus feet of the lotus face of the Lord. But this Māyā Babi broke up the Sanskrit words in a different way. So instead of the beautiful red lotus, he said the red rear of a monkey. Probably use a three letter word in certain Kapiya.

Kapiyasam.

Kapiyasam Kapiyasam. So when Ramanuja heard that, he started to cry. And then the Guru said, well what is it? What is it? What’s wrong with you? What’s wrong with you? He said, the translation he gave got me so much pain. What’s wrong with my translation? Red rear of a monkey beautifully. No, the kakapi means also lotus. Actually the translation is the beautiful pink lotus of the Lord. Here we have so many pink lotuses in the and the pond. Many pink lotuses on the garlands. My emperor. Every day you see the people go out in boats picking the lotuses, making garlands. So then the Mayavati guru he became, you know, wow, this guy is too smart. If he sticks around, everybody’s going to become a devotee and nobody  will want Mayavad anymore. So then he made a plan to murder his disciple.

Told one of the other disciples take him out in the forest and.

Kind.

Of loose him in the tiger infested forest or something. But Ramanuja then they just escaped, left that place. So Ramanuja was. He could relate. But this Māyā body, he couldn’t relate. He had no appreciation for Kṛṣṇa at all. Even he knew the verses, he knew the Sanskrit. He would mistranslate the Sanskrit, distort everything. That’s why Lord Chaitanya said that even if you hear the nectar of Kṛṣṇa Kotha, but if you’re hearing it from the lips of a Māyā body then it’s like taking milk touched by the lips of a serpent. A Vaishnava Nam Putam Harikottam Mitam Sravanam Nahiba Kota Bhyam. It’s not recommended. It’s not supposed to be heard even Hari Kotha from Anand Maharishna because they’re not confidential devotees. So you hear them talk about Kṛṣṇa, they’re gonna give some really distorted explanation.

If you hear about a devotee of Kṛṣṇa but you’re hearing from somebody, doesn’t know the person, hasn’t associated with the person, hasn’t heard about the person from someone else who really knows what the person is like. Then also you’re going to get some kind of distorted version, confidential devotees. Someone who really knows what’s happening into the inner information. So in order to understand Kṛṣṇa Bhaktama Mummyjaana, only the devotees can understand Kṛṣṇa. So how can we hear about Kṛṣṇa from a non devotee? They can’t even understand Kṛṣṇa. They’re going to give some speculative idea. I went to see the Sankaracha Prabhupāda sent me to Jagannath Purī 1971 to try to get permission to go into the Jagannath Purī temple for all his disciples. So in that effort I was led to the Ramakṛṣṇa Mishnas, to the Shankaracharya, all over the place.

Because the Mukti Mandapa said well, we will let you in if the Shankara Ramakṛṣṇa Vishnu agrees. I went to them and said we can’t agree unless the Shankaracharya agrees. And then they said, if the Shankaracharya agrees then we will. So I went to see the Shankaracharya. So he had Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa deities. And I won’t bore you with the fruitless discussion we had about getting into the temple. But after the discussion I said, well, you’re so you’re a devotee of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. You’re worshipping Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. And he said yes, I am worshipping myself. You’re worshipping yourself? Yes, I am Rādhā Kṛṣṇa. It’s my Leela. I said, rādhākṛṣṇa is very beautiful. You’re getting very old and wrinkled. Then he said, this is also my Leela. I said that Leela everybody’s doing staying eternally youthful. That’s like, you know, superficially it looked like, you know, prophets.

Even the Māyāvādī is so dry. They do also sometime Rādhākṛṣṇa worship or sometimes they give lectures and they talk about Kṛṣṇa. But their whole vision is something totally different. Here he’s worshipping Raghavasya. This is me. I am worshipping myself. So what can you understand about Bhakti from somebody with that type of consciousness? Apparently one life member wants to hear Chinmayananda giving a lecture and they notice that Chinmayananda, sometimes he chants names of Kṛṣṇa. So, so they say, well he said the happiness. The happiness is in the void. It’s in the nothingness. This is the real happiness. I said, what about the devotees of Hare Ka? They seem very happy chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. He said, don’t think that they’re happy chanting because of the names Hare Kṛṣṇa around. It’s the voyage between the names that make them happy.

When people are really oh, they think, wow, Swamiji is so smart, you know, why didn’t I think of that? I mean if we hear from people like this, obviously you’re going to completely. If you believe what they say, you’re going to distort your whole vision. So that’s what most people that don’t have a true picture who Kṛṣṇa is, they look in the dictionary and says the seventh or eighth incarnation of Vishnu or something. Though all lives have some kind of distorted Thing Prabhupāda was pointing out that in Vrindavan you have got so many big pandits and big devotees. But actually most of them are khnista adhikaris. They don’t actually preach, but they just have a very high estimation of each other. And then they criticize everybody else.

And they said, the proof is that one time a Christian priest came there and he started to criticize. What kind of God do you worship? He’s a thief. He steals butter. And nobody could go and explain him how Kṛṣṇa beautiful childhood pastimes are demonstrating how the Lord can become anything for his devotee to satisfy their desire to serve him. So some devotee wants to serve him as a parent. He becomes the perfect child. Just like children steal sweets and run around and be a little naughty. So he was saying all this, but it was the householders waiting. When is Kṛṣṇa going to come to my house? They love to talk about and Vrindavan. Everybody loved Kṛṣṇa even more than their own children. But nobody can explain to these Christian priests that he’s going around criticizing Kṛṣṇa and Brindavin and just everybody avoiding it.

Nobody would explain. So Prabhupāda, he would go, he would explain cardinals, bishops, priests, anyone. In the 11th Canto Bhagavadam. This is when somebody takes initiation and after that they should make disciples, should worship the Supreme Lord and respect the Guru. They should make friends with the Vaishnavas. They should be merciful on innocent people and they should avoid being atheistic people. So this is also the quality of a Madhya Malikari. So Bhakti Siddhānta Śānta said his whole mission he would consider a success if he could have one Maja Manikara in devotee. He also said that he wants devotees who would be  willing to give 200 leaders of blood for delivering every fallen conditioned soul. Spiritual blood. Because to save people from illusion, you have to actually give of yourself. You have to give out. And that sacrifice is something which makes the Vaishnava so special.

Why Kṛṣṇa loves his devotees, why he gives himself to his devotee because the devotees are exceptional. They’re trying so hard to give Kṛṣṇa to condition souls, to awaken people out from their ignorance and to give them spiritual knowledge. They are taking so many sacrifices. So Kṛṣṇa appreciates his devotees and reveals himself to them. What’s the words from Brahma, Saṁhitā, Sudhurlava, Vidishu, Sadhurlava, Adhurlava, Ātmā Bhakto. Even for the Veda, it’s very difficult to understand who is Kṛṣṇa. But for the Devotee Adhorlava. Very easy. The actual way to understand Kṛṣṇa is by serving Kṛṣṇa. By serving Ka’s devotees. By being a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is more pleased when someone serves his devotee than when he serves himself. The Lord Chaitanya. When he was chanting first in Avedeev, it was so filled with pandits and scholars. And he took the kīrtana outside.

Or he would be chanting, people would all be criticizing. When he was in ecstasy, they would be criticizing. The neighbors would go and complain to Mother Sachi. He, you know, you got to do something about your son. He’s got some kind of problem. One neighbor said, yes, he’s got displaced airs in the body. This loud shouting, haribo. Hare Kṛṣṇa crying. Obviously something’s wrong with his health. You should put some. Give him some tender coconut. Cool down his brain. Another one is a tender coconut. It’s not strong enough. We got some special Dasa Mul tail. Special Vishnu Toila. Made from 10 different roots and dissolved in sesame oil. You put that on the head. It will cool down his brain and settle the airs in his body. So he won’t be experiencing these aberrations. In other words, none of these things are going to work.

He’s very serious. You tie him up with ropes. Don’t let him leave the house. Mother. Such as people who don’t understand anything. My son is all right. So everybody’s saying he’s sick. He’s got some disease. Every time he chants Hare Kṛṣṇa, tears are coming in his eyes. His hairs are standing in some terrible diseases. Got you. So he went to speak to Śrīva’s Thakur Shiva. Can I interview? I always want to ask you a question. You are very senior, Vaishnava. Sure. How can I help you see, people say I got a disease. Say I am sick. So what’s your symptom? He said, well, whenever I chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, my eyes fill with tears. My hair stand on end. Sometimes my voice gets choked up. Sometimes I just start laughing. Sometimes I crying. Sometimes I am fainting. So they say, I have some disease.

I want to hear from you what is actually my situation. And Śrīras looked at him, you know, very seriously and said, yes, you have a disease. And I want that disease also. First he said, real serious. The Lord, she’s got real worried. Oh no. But then when he said, I want that disease also. Okay. It’s pulling my leg. Kidding me. You have a disease of love, of Kṛṣṇa. So even Brahma Shiva, they want that disease. They’re hankering for it. They’re eager to get. Residents of higher planets. They come down and join the Sankirta movement of Chaitanya Mahāprabhu just to get this disease. Brihaspati came down. He took birth in Navadip. In order to join Sankirtan movement of Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. He got preached to by Māyā bodies and got distracted and went off to Jagannath Purī.

When Lord Chaitanya went there, he delivered him, made him a devotee. Otherwise even he was the biggest pandit. He couldn’t understand, he couldn’t appreciate Kṛṣṇa. So Sivas Ṭhākura said, see these people, they’re not going to understand you. Nobody’s a devotee here. I know a few devotees. You can chant in my garden. Here we will invite special devotees who can appreciate this ecstasy. And we can have private kīrtana here. Because outside they’re just going to criticize. They’re not going to appreciate. So then for a while there was this private kīrtana going on just amongst the devotees. No holds barred kīrtana, Full ecstasy, kīrtana, no limit. Sometimes Lord Chaitanya would crash on the ground so hard, Mother Satchi would be there. She’d get all worried that my son’s bones are going to break. She’d start to cry and get all worried, disturb the kīrtana.

So Lord Chaitanya gave her a special blessing that whenever the kīrtana started, she just went into bliss. She wasn’t aware of what’s going on. Otherwise she couldn’t take it. She’d be too much in the mother mode, not be able to be peaceful and sour. Chaitanya crashing and ecstasy jumping. Then later Lord Chaitanya sent out a Sankirtan party. Out faced a lot of difficulties. People criticize him like anything. So just being a scholar, knowing the Vedas, it doesn’t mean that somebody knows Kṛṣṇa so many times. Also, I live india now for 32 years we’re preaching to Indians. It’s not that they may have some natural religiosity in their blood, but it’s not that everybody knows who Kṛṣṇa. Most people, they don’t know. One of our life members in South India, he was South Indian Brahmin.

And every day his pūjā room had at least 50 pictures. Every conceivable, you know, like you don’t want to miss anybody because Ba only hit one right one. He didn’t know who the supreme Lord was. So he just put every deva, every picture at least maybe 20, 50. But had so many pictures every morning she Sukta. Different all kinds of suktas and all kinds of prayers and. Purusha, Sukta, Sahastranam, Shiva and Durga prayers, everything just so many prayers. One day he just took Prabhupāda’s book off the bookshelf and started reading about Bhagavad Gītā and he was amazed. Why nobody ever told me that Kṛṣṇa was the supreme personality of Godhead why nobody informed me it’s so clear. Kṛṣṇa is the supreme personality God nobody explained to me before. Now it all makes sense. So now he arranged his altar in a different way.

So he offers worship to Kṛṣṇa and gives the prasadam to all The Devas chants 16 rounds. His whole family is chanting very active. So even someone may be very qualified. Brahman knows so many mantras but this basic thing who is Kṛṣṇa is so confidential. Most people don’t know him. Even Kṛṣṇas on the planet people couldn’t understand who he was. But great souls like Bhishma, Dev, Vyas Dev they could understand. They inform Pandavas and others. Person who’s going up and shaking your hand, embracing you, walking, laughing, talking, sitting together, you’re snacking together, you know he’s the same person that creates this material world, maintains it and annihilates it. So many people, they think well God has to be impersonal because you know, I mean, you limit him if he’s a person.

I was preaching to one person not too long ago and even I tried to explain it. I don’t know if you’re a person so how can God be less than you? He has to also be a person. But he’s an unlimited person. He’s not limited like you and doesn’t have like we are. So but somehow I said no, just have this in the brain. Personality is a limitation. Impersonal means unlimited. So she can’t be a person. It’s completely blocked. Don’t even understand a simple logic that God can’t be less than we are. If we are people then he has to also be a able to be a person. Kṛṣṇa simultaneous, personal, localized and impersonal. Bruneti, Paramat, Maithi, Bhagavaniti, Sabyuti he’s all three. But his complete form is his personal form.

Even though Christianity says God the Father but man, so many Christians are impersonal Jews, so many are impersonalists. Islam generally Islam we did a study and we found in the Quran there’s so many references to how Allah is personal. I mean he’s kind he’s merciful, he reciprocates with you. He’s all these like so many personal qualities in only one place. Did it say that he’s the light? But most Muslims think that Allah is impersonal. But just like the Upanishads say that the absolute truth is near. Guna has no material quality. But Kṛṣṇa is also Nirguna. But he is Satirananda Vigra. He is not Sattva Raja Tamma. He’s not of the material quality. He is eternal blissful knowledge in form. So there are some wisdom scholars that also appreciate when you presented really systematically from the Quran.

That actually is Allah should be a transcendental person. A person without any material quality. But very rare to find such a scholar. There are some. So even in our interfaith dialogues, even in our we have such a big opportunity where we are Prabhupāda said we are personalists, extreme personalists. The word he used hyper personalist or forget the exact word. But it was very extremely personalist. But when you see that Kṛṣṇa was so personal in his dealings and his devotees, amongst the devotees, they would be also caring and helping their friend of the other peers and very kind to the new devotees, to the new innocent people. So actually amongst the devotees it should also be that extending of oneself to help the other devotees to be concerned. Kṛṣṇa, he actually has nothing to achieve. He has everything.

So what he does is he just cares for his devotees. And the spiritual master on his behalf is also caring for devotees. That’s his only occupation. You see how Śrīla Prabhupāda he was constantly sin. What was he doing? He was caring for devotees, was encouraging. He was preaching to new people to eradicate their Taoists instead bring them to devotional services, Writing letters, even his translation of the books was all for our upliftment, for our benefit. Otherwise we  will know Kṛṣṇa. So by rendering devotional service by chanting, then one can enter into by becoming a devotee. Manmanava mat bhakto madhya ji mang namaskaru mangi vaishi Satyante pratija no Briyoshi ne We become eligible to start to understand about Kṛṣṇa. By the mercy of a devotee, we become devotees and we start to understand this confidential part of the Vedas.

And then if you’re a devotee, then this opportunity to get love of Kṛṣṇa is the. So that’s where even from the higher planets they’re coming down to get this love of Kṛṣṇa. Don’t know how many of you have come from, you know, celestial planets. Confirmed. Prophet said some of his devotees came from Satya Loka. Came from different celestial planets to participate in the Sankirta movement. This Sankirta movement is still going on. Out of the 6 billion people in the material world, this whole material world, just in this planet. There’s a few that have not yet become devotees. And the opportunity to give Kṛṣṇa to more people. To be able to awaken people to devotion. So that special empowerment is given by Lord Chaitanya. This is such a confidential Parado Veda. Normally, I mean, I have seen people even chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

But they were like gurus of a Māyāvādī guru. One person came to me and said, I have been chanting for 26 years Hare Kṛṣṇa. But I don’t feel any happiness. I said, do you know about chanting the Panchata mantra? Have you follower of what Chittan? He said, no, I am following such and such Māyāvādī. You chant this Panchata mantra. Wrote it down, said, chant the Panchatatra Mantra. Two months, two, three months later I came to the same place from a distance. The guy came running to me and went falling at my feet. Trying to grab my feet. He said, what you have given me now I feel so much happiness. Chanting. As we say. We got people committing Vaishnavalpara Kṛṣṇa Parad. Even they chant hare Kṛṣṇa for 10 million births. They don’t feel ecstasy. Don’t get Baba Kṛṣṇa.

But by the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabha we can feel that spiritual ecstasy. We can feel the spiritual bliss. It was very nice this morning how you started Prabhuchana Panchatanta Mantra quite a number of times. Waiki Nayara devotion. We need the mercy of what Chaitanya here. Because even if someone is Lord Chaitanyama. They don’t consider offenses when you chant the holy name. So by chanting the Panchata mantra then when we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, it awakens our devotion. So this Sankirta movement of Lord Chaitanya is especially there to awaken people in devotion. Lord Chaitanya ordered everyone to give everywhere to everyone you meet these glories of Kṛṣṇa. Get them to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. He wants to see the people laughing, crying in ecstasy. Let them be rolling in ecstasy. He wants to see the total madness of ecstasy overcome the world. It’s an opportunity.

Of course, as a team effort. Some people doing deity worship. Some people are doing different services. Some are doing farming. Someone’s decorating the rath car. Someone’s teaching the children. Iskcon is a special Prabhupāda said it’s his body. He created ISKCON to be a branch of Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, spiritual tree, to give shelter. He said this spiritual tree, so even one branch can cover the whole world, can cover the whole universe. It’s not limited like a normal tree. It’s got certain symmetry. One branch can’t be too big, nothing like that. This tree can go any way it wants. There’s no limit to it. So Śrīla Prabhupāda, he wanted that this tree would spread and give mercy and shelter. So we find even. In our congregational preaching efforts, we find many brihastas. They just take up congregational preaching as their particular forums.

It’s one service somebody can do. Give a week, a night or two in a week for holding house, program for going out, meeting people. And. They can change. Like in the Middle east, were in one place and then one family got transferred to another country. And that one family started having satsang programs and from there developed bhakti vriksha programs. And then they established 3, 4 groups. And then after 6 months it was 10 groups. Then 20 groups and 40 groups and 80 groups. Problem Middle east people keep getting transferred out. Different countries, don’t have a fixed membership. They don’t live there. Probably they’re working there temporarily. But anyway, now they have about 135 groups in that place. It started off with one family. It used to be in the beginning of the movement, Prabhupāda, he said, I want 108 temples.

Astrologer said, I don’t have 108 temples. I want 108 temples. So were all chained up. Every devotee should learn how to cook, play cartels, play nidranga, give a bhāgavatam class and do basic pūjā. So anywhere in the world they could be parachuted off and they could establish Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They had the basic tools. That was the mood. Everybody had to be a commando, go out, spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Whether they’re husband, wife teams or whether they’re a group of brahmacharis, however it was, it didn’t matter. Now people, it’s hard because they have jobs. But even as a congregational preacher in their own cities, don’t have to go.

Anywhere.

They can do the same thing. One couple went from the Middle east and went toronto in a very big congregation. But it’s not so well organized into groups or anything. Within three months they had 60 by 6 Bhakti rickshaw groups. Bhakti Mahargaraj was so happy. Wow. Made the devotee member of the temple board. Pranachi, Jara sehitu, Prachara. Who’s got life? They preach. I was in the Middle East. I said, they just had an indoor rath yātrā. There’s one hall that the sultan gave to the Hindus to have programs. And so in that hall they made a rath yātrā and they went around their own in the hall. Indoor. You can’t go outside. Everybody, wipe off your tilak Allah. But inside, you know, they were completely one, two times around. The men, two times the women, two times the kids. 6,000 People took Prashada.

It was pretty rough, a little crowded. A little hall of people. It’s amazing kind of situation. So I asked, I said, well, you can show. I can show from my computer to your tv. I said, well, we don’t really have any cables. Actually. We haven’t used the TV for about six months now. It’s just been sitting there. But I don’t even know where all the. You know, because every time they got a spare moment, they’re out doing house programs, out visiting people. They’re out. If they’re not helping their kids with their homework, they’re out preaching. Sometimes the husband helps the father helps the kids this day. And the wife’s out preaching. Sometimes the wife’s helping, the husband’s out. They go on vacation. Where they go? They go to Russia and give seminars and Bhakti rickshaw. They go to different places, Kazakhstan, give them seminars.

What can be more exciting than saving someone from repetition of birth and death? What can be more exciting than seeing somebody awaken up and become inspired by Kṛṣṇa consciousness? I mean, that’s what gives us the life, that encouragement. And that can be done everywhere that can be done, you know, whether you’re in Marwalamba, Brisbane, Sydney, or whether you’re in the Middle east or whether you’re in Russia. How to. Actually, that’s Lord Chaitanya. His whole movement was Rehastas, 99%. How many were renowned order? Out of all the tens and thousands, hundreds of thousands, probably 10 or 15 were in the renowned story. Everybody was rehasta in those days because people were getting married when they were seven years old and it was like, that was the child Marriage wasn’t. So everybody was rehasta, right? From only the elderly people, they became sannyasis. Everybody was preaching.

So whether one’s serving the temple directly in the temple is also a big form of preaching. Whether one is personally going out and involving people. We should all be in the mood. Ghosty and ending want to see the number of devotees expand. We want to see more and more people inspired. And we want to keep all the devotees we have. We want to keep them inspired, we want to keep them encouraged. As somebody’s in need of encouragement to make the extra effort. Because everyone so dear to Kṛṣṇa, somebody’s already been doing devotional service. It means a very beautiful avatar in Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa  will be very pleased that somehow we’re able to help them, encourage them in some way. Even if it’s just a very simple encouragement. Once somebody’s understood the confidential part of the Vedas, they have understood.

Of course, Māyā was still trying to attack and cover them up again. We have to keep them somehow in the fire. And the only way is to always stay busy in devotional service. Not devotional service. It’s a full time occupation. It’s like being a doctor or a nurse or a policeman or something. You’re never on vacation, you’re always on call. Right in the airplane. Is there a doctor in the airplane? Right. If someone needs your help, you have to be ready to help them at any time. So every devotee is a spiritual doctor, everybody is a spiritual nurse. They all have the ability to save lives. And when we utilize, we exercise that ability. Then we become an instrument in Ka’s hand. There’s nothing more inspirational.

If we’re not somehow thinking how I can preach, what can I do to help spread the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement? We’re missing the nectar. These are the pastimes of Lord Chaitanya going on now. And Lord Chaitanya’s pastime is especially preaching, spreading the Sankhirtan movement. That’s the external pastimes that we can all participate in. Māyā also tries to distract us that don’t preach. Preaching is for neophyte. Just sit around and either sit around and watch TV or sit around and criticize everybody else and say how great you are. Talk about Kṛṣṇa. The name of talking about Kṛṣṇa usually criticizes everybody else. But actually the whole point is to preach. And that’s what we need. Everybody’s helping. Prabhupāda was appreciating some of his God brothers. Actually some of my God brothers. In spite of all the difficulties, he’s still appreciating. Some. He said they’re not doing anything.

They’re sitting around and begging. Some they’re preaching. So I mean Prabhupāda he would always call a spade. If someone was preaching, he appreciated.

It.

Wasn’t like he was prejudiced against anybody. Anyone whatever was Good. He would call it good. If the Catholics say abortion isn’t good because the conception begins at. I mean, life begins at conception. Just because to Catholics, he’s, oh, I want to grieve. Sectarian thing. No, what they’re saying is correct. It’s good. But also if somebody is eating meat and saying, thou shalt not kill, the Prophet said, why that? Why the contradiction? The point is to follow Kṛṣṇa, follow the shastra, follow the Sadhu shastra guru. Whatever your religion is, whatever your practice, if we do that in our particular Sadhu shastra guru for Chaitanya Mahāprabhu’s past and his order, the Chari Dakote, Koho Kṛṣṇa, Parana. Everybody we meet, we talk about Kṛṣṇa.

Bhakti Vinod Thakur told every member of his namhat or all grihastas, told everyone, you have to tell five people a day about Kṛṣṇa. Boy scouts that do a good deed every day, preach to five people every day, eat before you talk to five people a day. That was his standard. He would go door to door with the flame, was called the victory flame of the Sankirta. And they’d go door to door and they’d knock on five doors and say, please chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. No, it wasn’t like that. They were inspired to tell people about Kṛṣṇa. We lead such a fast life, but in a week now we can set up a day. If we can even preach to one person a week.

If we can make one devotee a year, every devotee, if they could somehow awaken one other person a year, and every year, if we would double and those people would in turn make one other new person a year. And you figure from every one devotee, in 10 years you’d have a thousand devotees. If you do the mathematics. So why we don’t have so many hundreds of thousands of devoted. A tendency. Well, Maharaj is going to do it. He’s the preacher. He’s traveling and preaching. Ramaya Maharaj is going to do it. Or this temple president, he’s going to do it. Or someone else is going to do it. But no, every man, woman and child, they can all do it. Children in their school, they can preach to their schoolmates. Ladies can preach to other ladies, they can preach to men. They’re fantastic preachers.

Last time I was talking about that lady who was preaching condominium. There was one lady, she thought that all day I am sitting in the house, what am I doing? She said, let me go out and see other ladies who are sitting in their house during the day. They’re housewives and preach to them. And then she found that in certain condominiums they were favorable people. She’d go to door until they found a favorable person. And then convince that person to have a house program in the house. Then with that person they go and that lady they go invite the other people from the house from the condominium. And this way then with the husband and a few other devotees they come and do our evening program one night. And then all the people from the condominium would come and whoever was interested.

And then in this way they start having regular programs. And after a while they turn that into an organized namhat or bhakti. And then in this way she had opened up 25 condominiums, set up 25 groups alone. In Penang they have 40 bhakti rickshaw groups. And I asked what’s the secret? And the temple presence says well, my secret weapon is this married lady here. She’s my secret weapon. There’s one devotees, she’s always smiling. She’s so just like super positive personality. And she just goes around and she penetrates different mainly Indian families and gets them to Chand Hare Kṛṣṇa house program. And then pretty soon they set up a group. And like this she personally has instigated the formation of 15 bhakti rickshaw groups. One lady, one lady. 150 People brought to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One person can create revolutions. One prabhupāda. One person.

What even the whole world knows about Kṛṣṇa. Because what one individual did back to suddenly, if we can even meet one person awakened one person Madhya Mahara. One person who’s got the fire of preaching. I want to give Kṛṣṇa to everyone I meet. Whole mission is a success. So it’s exciting. Actually. It’s really exciting. When Jesus said he was the fisherman of men, he wasn’t a spirit, he was a preacher. I mean this actually preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the most exciting thing. But to do it you sometimes have to suffer like anything, you have to go through so much difficulty. That’s what makes it exciting. After going through so many tests and trials. And then finally somebody becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious. This is one family. The wife is really Kṛṣṇa conscious. 16 Rounds. Most of the husband is completely against.

Over a period of time he becomes neutral. And finally somehow they ask him to participate in a drama with the devotees. He has to play the husband of his wife. And they’re going to be attacked by different, you know, representatives of Kali Yuga. And so he plays in the Dharma by simply associating with the devotees and having a good time. And and practicing for the drama within three months. Now he’s ten to eight rounds. It’s a very contagious disease. But some people, you know, they insulate themselves. No, I won’t eat prasadam, I won’t go to the temple.

I won’t.

You know, some, they’re like. But somehow or another, if you can penetrate that and infect them with Kṛṣṇa bhakti, then everything changes, right? So we’re actually. People all have the disease. We actually start infecting people. Either example, you can call it disease. In fact, you can call it a medicine. We have the antidote. People are all in this. They have all been poisoned. They have all been completely drugged up. They’re all in this disease like someone done terrorism on the whole world. Kali is spread out, total ignorance. And people are in this cloud. And we have the antidote. But people have so much illusion, they don’t even want to take it. You can’t even go up. And you have to trick them sometimes like kids, put candy on me, put the pill inside a rasa gula or something. But at least here, people, everyone likes cooking.

You know, you can give out in Australia, people leave it open. You can give them cookies. You can sing and dance and different things. By 31st of December, so many people come and sing and dance with us. I remember one lady, she told us, she came up and said, if it wasn’t for you people, I would just be another drunk in the street. But because of you people coming here and singing, dancing, I feel so good. And I feel like my whole new year is New Year Eve. And New Year, it’s like a success because you people here, you have really done something for us. So because you’re organizing this festival every year, I think you’re all doing a wonderful preaching. And of course there’s so much more we can always do.

We should just really appreciate how this is what we’re geared up to do, Even have a beautiful farm like this. People come out here and see the devis get some association. All people need is a little prasadam, a little association, a little chanting, a little philosophy, a little contact with the devotees. And over a period of time, the Lord Chaitanyam is magic. They change. That gives us a lot to do. And then in the meantime, of course, keeping all the devotees we have, keeping them encouraged and keeping them enlivened, having programs. But you find people lose their enthusiasm when they’re not preaching, when they’re not chanting, when they’re not engaging in service. And they wonder why they’re not feeling enthused because they have disconnected their plug or they have turned down the speed so much that they’re not getting the same taste.

The solution is to turn up the current again, get into the fire. Actually sometimes you need a little encouragement to do that. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram. Any question? Hari Śrī Pravu?

Well, I was just thinking about that story you said about Chinmay.

Er, yeah.

Cuz when Prabhupāda was in Bombay in December 76, right on sh back to Sedenta Saras disappearance festival and they asked him, he was having a darshan and a lady came on and she was very talkative and she was a follower of Chinmayananda. So she was trying to glorify Chinmayananda. So then Prabhupāda started questioning her about what Chinmayananda says about Kṛṣṇa because he knew that he done a translation of the Bhagavad Gītā. So then it came out prashly the Chinmayanandu got his translation and he had translated the name Kṛṣṇa as meaning Kṛṣṇa means black or dark because that is one translation because even on our calendar we have the Kṛṣṇa Paksha and the Ora Paksha, the light four times and the dark foretaste. So he translated the name Kṛṣṇa as meaning dark and that which is dark is unknown. So the Supreme Absolute is unknown.

That was his interpretation. So then Prabhupāda’s reply to that was that he said well, Kṛṣṇa is the speaker of the Bhagavad Gītā. He says now if he thinks that Kṛṣṇa is unknown then why is he commenting on the Bhagavad Gītā? If he’s unknown then what is it? Why is he saying he doesn’t know it? Why is he saying anything? He said but actually in the Bhagavad Gītā Kṛṣṇa says to the devotees I am no. So he said therefore only a devotee can comment on the Bhagavad Gītā and he should not say anything.

Recently about what a schizophrenic is apparently schizophrenic all their lives playing with schizophrenic Professor Nash. He won the Nobel Prize and still he refused to think about a complete mind. And he refused to accept that there’s three entities, people he can touch them and speak to them and so on and that they’re there in his life even today even though he ignores them and thinking it’s like the devotees, non devotees think we’re like schizophrenics. You know, we have these imaginary relationships idols. When we come to the temple and we see these and they think we’re mad, we have a disease. Transcendental relationships with then when.

All religious people, I mean everyone, they’re praying to Allah or they’re praying to God but then they just don’t know what he looks like. They’re praying something to someone. Most people are religious but they don’t have a form. We know what the Lord looks like. So we. We have a system of worshipping the form of the Lord. Yeah, but the prophet said who is crazy? They think we’re crazy and we think they’re crazy. So we’re going to work on our understanding. We know that we can wake people up from insanity.

Sa.

So is going there at the time Shankaracharya filled with that kind of thinking or it is Shankaracharya. I had the correct thinking. What the later Shankaracharyas they developed their own thinking. Something like this, something like that. The original Shankaracharya is actually Shiva. He’s a devotee. He was finally telling the people that you should just worship Govinda and don’t argue. But apparently some of his followers thought maybe he was getting senile or emotional or something. They have their own interpretation for that. They don’t give that importance. They give the all the other the. Mayavat things importance. So they’re not following their guru’s instruction. Give up all this arguing and simply bhaja, Govinda worship Govinda. But they don’t follow that or he’s worshipping Govinda. I am Govinda. What is the use of their worship?

Yeah, talking about that one some of.

The later.

The Govinda that he is.

Mentioning there is not the Govinda. This guru is also goinder so he is saying worship my guru.

I mean that’s what they interpret.

Something speculation I guess. When we travel around and when we come unexpected upon someone who is dying, what  will be our responsibility? As you know,.

Like maybe we’re driving.

And there’s a car accident, someone is dying. Mainly if it’s a known person,.

Usually.

We try to help them to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa or say Kṛṣṇa in their ear or something and help them. I don’t know if you know whether it’s a karaks. You just walk over to someone and start chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa in the ear. They might arrest you or something.

I don’t know.

Interfering with the paramedics. I don’t have to kind of be kind of practically. You have to know whether you’re welcome somewhere or not. But you could have a group of people even like they have these chaplains going to the hospital. I mean to the prisons now preaching. Some devotees do that preaching. I heard that there’s Christians that go around hospitals and preach to people. They go and ask people, would you like me to pray for you? And things like that. Some devotees mention that they come. So it’s the kind of preaching that even a devotee could do. There could be a group of devotees who go to hospitals and help people in their home and to understand life, to chant, to pray. So many things we can do to help people. It’s really, excuse me, unlimited the possibilities to preach.

Hospitals, sick people, a lot of people that I like to hear. Have somebody explain to them. I think some place. I can’t remember where I heard some place they have a 1 800, like in number, toll fee number. You can phone in and get counseling, spiritual counseling. Apparently it’s quite busy. You need to have people that man the phone 24 hours a day. We haven’t scratched the surface of all the things we could do. A couple years ago, had a brainstorming session. All the ways we could expand the preaching and all the people we could. Devotees had so many ideas. It’s really almost unlimited. What can be done but take out one thing or a couple things and then patiently work on that and develop it over a period of time. But not so much this year.

It was last year there was a lot of people who passed away or beginning of this year that there were devotees who were helping people leave their bodies in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That was a major thing that happened. More like last year. So many people seemed to up to last. That’s also the devotees. They know what life and death is in those critical moments. They can be cool, they can know what’s happening and they can help people. For most people just get hysterical and praying. And we can. Abhiram told me how once his father was dying, Esther would leave the room and explain to his father, you’re not the body. You never die. You live forever. You just have to leave this body. So just. If you just chant one time, his name says God. It will help you if you can try to remember God.

When you’re leaving your body, it will take you back to God. So he got his father to chant one time for a while. He was peaceful. He was a little peaceful. Everybody’s knocking on the door. They probably thought he was having sign inheritance or something. So many people are there for different motives. All the Other relatives come back and then the father, please take care of the dog and the cat. Instead of at the last moment when they should be really focusing on where they’re going, they’re thinking, okay, don’t worry, everything, don’t go, everything  will be alright. Just the whole emotional kind of thing and not what they really need to focus at that time. Leave everything behind them now and just focus on God. Devotees know that even for, at least for a minute they can help them.

But most people, they don’t know it. Even in one country. The Hindu leaders asked me that we have to go. Sometimes a Hindu is given the death penalty. So we are asked to go there and to help them. So they ask us what should we think of at a time when we’re being executed. And so we didn’t know what to say. So I asked the Christian priest, what do you tell him? And the Christian priest said, well we tell him actually you’re not really the one that’s at fault, you’re not guilty. It was because you know, in your childhood they mistreated you and because you know, all kind of, you know. And I said no, you should have him chant the name of God at that moment. Just give him a simple mantra. Have them chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Well, what if they have Śiva?

Oh they chant Shiva but you know, at least then they will go back to Śiva. But best thing is if they chant names of Vishnu at the time of death. Tell them that they’re eternal, tell them they’re not going to die but they have to leave this body. If they think of God at the time when they’re leaving, they’re going to be completely, give them some knowledge, say okay, we will do that. Really, I mean the need is so unlimited, so much we can do. It’s just mind boggling. One devotee can make so much difference in people’s lives. Hare Kṛṣṇa, thank you very much.