20100424 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.17.24

mūkaṁkarotivācālaṁ
paṅguṁlaṅghayategirim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁvande
paramānanda-mādhavam
śrīcaitanyaīśvaram

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.17.24

yan-nirmitāṁkarhyapi karma-parvaṇīṁ
māyāṁjano 'yaṁguṇa-sarga-mohitaḥ
navedanistāraṇa-yogamañjasā
tasmainamastevilayodayātmane

yat—by whom; nirmitām—created; karhiapi—at any time; karma-parvaṇīm—which ties the knots of fruitive activity; māyām—the illusory energy; janaḥ—a person; ayam—this; guṇa-sarga-mohitaḥ—bewildered by the three modes of material nature; na—not; veda—knows; nistāraṇa-yogam—the process of getting out of material entanglement; añjasā—soon; tasmai—unto Him (the Supreme); namaḥ—respectful obeisances; te—unto You; vilaya-udaya-ātmane—in whom everything is annihilated and from whom everything is again manifested.

TRANSLATION

The illusory energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead binds all of us conditioned souls to this material world. Therefore, without being favored by Him, persons like us cannot understand how to get out of that illusory energy. Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the Lord, who is the cause of creation and annihilation.

PURPORT

Kṛṣṇa clearly states in Bhagavad-gītā (7.14):

daivīhyeṣāguṇa-mayī
mama māyāduratyayā
māmeva ye prapadyante
māyāmetāṁtarantite

"This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it." All conditioned souls working within the illusory energy of the Lord consider the body to be the self, and thus they continuously wander throughout the universe, taking birth in different species of life and creating more and more problems. Sometimes they become disgusted with the problems and seek out a process by which they can get out of this entanglement. Unfortunately, such so-called research workers are unaware of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His illusory energy, and thus all of them work only in darkness, never finding a way out. So-called scientists and advanced research scholars are ludicrously trying to find the cause of life. They take no notice of the fact that life is already being produced. What will be their credit if they find out the chemical composition of life? All their chemicals are nothing but different transformations of the five elements—earth, water, fire, air and ether. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (2.20), the living entity is never created (najāyatemriyatevākadācin). There are five gross material elements and three minor material elements (mind, intelligence and ego), and there are eternal living entities. The living entity desires a certain type of body, and by the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that body is created from material nature, which is nothing but a kind of machine handled by the Supreme Lord. The Lord gives the living entity a particular type of mechanical body, and the living entity must work with it according to the law of fruitive activities. Fruitive activities are described in this verse: karma-parvaṇīṁmāyām. The living entity is seated on a machine (the body), and according to the order of the Supreme Lord, he operates the machine. This is the secret of transmigration of the soul from one body to another. The living entity thus becomes entangled in fruitive activities in this material world. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (15.7), manaḥṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇiprakṛti-sthānikarṣati: the living entity is struggling very hard against the six senses, which include the mind.

In all the activities of creation and annihilation, the living entity is entangled in fruitive activities, which are executed by the illusory energy, māyā. He is exactly like a computer handled by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The so-called scientists say that nature acts independently, but they cannot explain what nature is. Nature is nothing but a machine operated by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When one understands the operator, his problems of life are solved. As Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā (7.19):

bahūnāṁjanmanām ante
jñānavānmāṁprapadyate
vāsudevaḥsarvamiti
samahātmāsudurlabhaḥ

"After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare." A sane man, therefore, surrenders to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus gets out of the clutches of the illusory energy, māyā.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Fifth Canto, Seventeenth Chapter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled "The Descent of the River Ganges."

Guru Maharjaja: Hari Om tatsat. Read me the verse again.

Devotee: The illusory energy of the supreme personality of Godhead binds all of us conditioned souls to this material world. Therefore, without being favored by him, persons like us cannot understand how to get out of that illusory energy.

Let me offer my respectful obeisances to the Lord, who is the cause of creation and annihilation.

Guru Maharaja: So, this verse is an important verse which is given to us on this holy day of Ekadashi during the month of Purusottama, which is considered to be one of the very special Ekadashis.

There is two Ekadashis in this month, and this month comes once every three years.

It is one thousand times… I said it was a thousand times on ordinary day. One thousand times the month of Damodara. So, in this Ekadashi it is hundred times that. Every Ekadashi is a hundred times, but this Ekadashi I don’t know, it is even more. So, a very good day to hear this verse, how we should understand that the Lord is the operator of this whole machine which is the material energy.

Actually if you want to get out of the stringent laws of the material world, we know the verse that was quoted; daivi hi esa guna mayi… that the material energy is the divine potency of the Lord. That we … if we surrender to Krsna, then He can cross us over. Mam eva ye prapdyante, mayam etam taranti te. But this verse really homes into the fact that the Lord is the operator of this whole material nature. Sometimes… recently I heard there was one book by Jewish man, but he said, well, why do good things happen… why do bad things happen to good people. Of course, his understanding of the good maybe different from ours, but he was thinking that, well, we shouldn’t like… according to our… I didn’t read the book but someone told me that according to… we shouldn’t think that God is a bad guy, he is a good guy. It is out of his control.

Things are going on and he doesn’t really have control, he created but after that he lost control. So, that’s why sometimes you see good people… they are really good people, they … they only see good movies and but still they get cancer, they get … so, why bad things happen to good people? This book is really, that’s what it says, this is completely off. This verse tells us very clearly that Krsna is the controller, and that he actually operates this material nature. So, we understand he is operator, and then we can also easily get free from this material nature by his mercy.

So, it is really important that we should understand Krsna, and we should try to serve Krsna. We should surrender to Krsna. This is a… this verse really brings us home. And that he is actually in control. It is not that He is not in control. But he lets things go on by going to his laws of Karma. Things go on. But if you are favored by him, if you are devotee, then he will give you a special mercy, and he will take you out from this place. So, we want to be the devotees of the Lord. We don’t want to be non-devotees any longer.

So, those who are… they may be very intelligent in this material world, but if they don’t have devotion for the supreme, then in spite of their education and other good qualities, they are not able to get free from this material world. They are stuck here, and they will not understand how this material world is functioning.

So, this, what they need to do is read the Srimad Bhagavtam and the Bhagavad-gita, and then the things are revealed. In a nutshell they have given in the Bhagavad-gita, even more details given here in the Srimad Bhagavatam. So, we can take this verse to heart on this very sacred day of Ekadashi. And we can decide if we have already decided, or we can reconfirm, once and for all that we want to surrender to Krsna, we want to serve him, we don’t want to do things which are against His will, which are against his instructions. In this way, we can make our life easily successful.

Prabhupada had quoted the verse from Jesus, what is the use of giving the… what is called… what is the use of getting the whole material world if you lose your eternal soul? So, in fact, all the scriptures are saying the same thing, that we should actually understand what is the purpose of human life. We should take our human life and be Krsna conscious, god conscious. In this way, we can get out of the entanglements of this material world.

If we think that we can do without being Krsna conscious, this verse tells us no hope. Because the whole material nature is designed in such a way that it is very difficult to cross over. However, if you know the operator, if you know that Krsna is behind everything, then you can easily get over this material nature by his mercy, by his favor. So, we should take it very seriously, to heart, what we should do here in this material world, we should do according to His desires.

So, that was the difference between the Pandavas and the Kurus. The Pandavas wanted to do everything according to Krsna’s desires, whereas the Kurus, they were non-devotees, but they wanted to do just according to their own sense gratification. Otherwise, the Kurus by material estimation, they were … leaders, they were nice people, but they were non-devotees.

So, ultimately they could do anything for their own material interest, whereas the Pandavas, they always do things according to what was right, what was pleasing to Krsna, and so the Pandavas were basically reliable, whereas the Kurus, you could never tell what they were going to do. They were nice guys but ….. on a good side. But if you were anyway inimical, they will not follow any rules, they would just destroy you. Whereas… one of the names of Yudhistir was Ajnyanta Shatru. He didn’t know any enemies.

Now there were some people who were inimical to him, but they found it in their own interest, better to surrender to Yudhistir, better to be under his shelter, because even if I want his downfall, I can’t survive against him. Whereas with him I can survive. So, this people would be with Yudhistir even though they were against him, because it was his interest. This is the nature of the devotee. The devotee doesn’t… he always acts accordingly, whereas if someone is a non-devotee, if they know, O this person is against me, I want to kill him first. Right? So, that is the difference between a devotee and a non-devotee. A devotee, ok, this person is against me, but I don’t want to do anything that is not proper. So, in this way, the devotee acts always according to the… what is pleasing to Krsna. So, Yudhisthir that is why, like when the Kurus were being attacked by the Gandhava, so, Bhima said, here is our chance, we can join over with the Gandharvas… finishes it for us. But Yudhisthir said, no, amongst ourselves we are five against the hundred. But against any other planet, any other danger, we are hundred and five against them. So, the Pandavas, they defended the Kurus against the Gandharvas. So, this was the nature of Yudhisthir Maharaja. He was Dharmaraja. He followed the rules of the dharma of Krsna. So, that’s why krsna wanted him to be the ruler. That way ruler would be a better place, where under the Kurus, many… so, so, but by some material estimation, but it won’t be a better place.

So, if we understand this verse today, then we should really decide, yes, I want to follow the devotees, I want to follow Krsna, I want to surrender to Krsna, and follow his divine grace, A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada ki…

So, this verse is very important verse.

And I have said a few times already but… really stuck things.

How much we need to really be Krsna Conscious. To basically to survive this material nature. That if anybody had any illusion, that I can be so much Krsna Conscious, and I can be so much… material nature, and I will manage the material nature. This are all tricks of maya. She wants you to believe, yea you can manage her. And she will manage you. This thing. Maya… Haribol.

I am sorry I can’t serve you this life time. I just want to serve Krsna. So, I want to engage what Krsna has allowed us, or we will take Krsna’s Prasad. If we are married we have our wife or husband, like this we accordingly the rules that Krsna gives us, we follow. If we go a little beyond, maya is waiting. She is waiting to kick us. Give us a good kick.

So, how much you want to be kicked, how much? Nobody wants to be kicked but we all get kicked. So, the secret is, be in Krsna’s side. No envy, no remorse, no …. Just he is the Boss. He is the supreme Lord. Just accept it. And follow his, I mean he is actually a wonderful person. To more you hear about him, you actually love him, but whatever it is, you have to follow Krsna. There is no other way, there is no other way, you have to follow the supreme Lord. And this is the only way. Now if you do it like according to the this shastra, that shastra, I don’t think anyone follows their scriptures very well clearly. But His Divine Grace Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, he very meticulously followed the shastra. So, how to do it?

Like I was last Sunday, I gave a… you call a sermon or a lecture at the Christian church. Well, it is unitarian church, I don’t know exactly. There I said, how in different religions they all glorify the holy name. And later the pastor, he told me, this is the first time I have really understood why the Hare krsna movement concentrates so much on chanting the holy names. Now I understand how this is fundamental to all the religions, but we don’t really practice so much in other religions. But it is there. You showed how it there in our scriptures. So, I want to go now to visit your Sunday feast and take your prasadam sometime.

Hari bol.

See, once I was in South America in one… there of course, most of the people are you can Roman Catholics, but some people are Protestants.

So, this one Protestant priest and he wanted to speak to me, and I said, You see, guru to guru I want to talk. So, I am a priest, you are a guru, so guru to guru.

Please everyone can leave the room. So, everybody left.

Ok, I was there.

Yes, sir, what would you like to say.

Yes sir, today you are talking about grihastha life, we are protestant priest, but in or religion they never tell us how to have like more spiritually oriented family life. So, I want to just to hear from you, how to do it? So, I told him the rules of the grihastha and how. He said, thank you very much. And next time I came by three months, six months later, he said, guru to guru I want to talk.

This time under his white color he pulled out neck beads.

Jaya….

Haribol.

So, we don’t tell people that they have to give up Allah, they have to give up Jesus or anything. They can do whatever they… because we respect all the names of God, we respect all the prophets and the sons of God as our Gurus, but we do request that they chant the names of God. So, like that, this person had started chanting, and he was secretly wearing his neckbeads. So, that was during …

We don’t … we welcome everyone to practice, you see. Prabhupada used to say this was a post graduate study for all religions. So, anyway, if we understand this verse, then we have to be personalists, that Krsna is a person, and he is operating this material nature. I think, Well, why is the nature so lousy? Why this and that.

It not lousy because of nature. It is like we… there is global warming because we misuse the nature, there is problems because … like in India some people when they see the market is good, they hoard it. This way they can sell the stuff for more money. So, the human beings, we make a mess of things. It is not Krnsa’s fault, he lets us do it, we have to take the Karma, and in India many, many years ago there were people dropping dead and blind with all kinds of …. And then they found out everyone had brought oil from the same shop. And the shop was using mobile… used mobile oil to cut the oil. And somehow the secret servant put too much. So, but can you imagine what it does to your liver, your heart, taking used mobile well. So, people died, and afterwards he was arrested, he was hung or something. But so… Karma does catch him eventually, but what we want to do is we don’t want to anything to harm anyone. And we just want to serve Krsna, and we everyone can help everyone to get back home back to godhead this life.

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna.
Krsna krsna Hare hare
Hare Rama hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare.

So, any questions or comments from our illustrious godbrothers.

I am under some treatment, and it seems that make more difficult to speak, I don’t know if I was understandable or not.

… thank you very much Maharaja. In the verse Lord Siva is explaining that without being favored by the supreme personality of Godhead, we cannot get out of this illusory condition. So, the question is, you know we all have experience in devotional service that we work hard but we don’t see anything happening first.

You don’t see what

We don’t see anything first. So, sometimes, in other words we are working very hard, but things are not working the we would like it to work. So, the question is, how do we avoid getting this mentality of business, this trapped mentality of business that if I work for you Krsna … that if He actually gives something for me I will work very hard.

So, how do we avoid developing that business mentality in devotional service.

Oh, it is said, there are two kinds of devotee basically. The sakam bhaktas and niskama bhaktas.

Those who have some material desires, and those who have no material desires. So, sakam bhaktas like the devas and the angels. In this material world they have some desire to enjoy. At the same time they want to follow krsna. As a result things don’t always work out exactly the way you want. But generally we get more than what we deserve.

And the Niskama bhaktas, basically they have love of Krsna, and they want the spiritual happiness. So, the niskama bhaktas, they don’t make this business deals with Krsna. So, the best thing is of course to be a niskama bhakta. In this verse it says whether one is a sakama bhakta, niskama bhakta or you want to liberation in the impersonal jyoti, you should engage in Krsna’s service. Akamo sarva kamo vi, moksha kama udaredi, tivrena bhakti yogena, vrajeta purusam param.

Like we see that the devas, they are also trapped in the material world. So, we don’t really want to be sakam bhaktas. I heard, I don’t know exactly where in which verse it is written, bu I heard Prabhupada say that … many of his devotees would take birth in the heavenly planets. So, by doing a little devotional service, they get elevated to the heavenly planets. But of course, we would like all to go back to godhead. But then that means that we shouldn’t make this kind of business deals with Krsna.

There is story that tells… in Tirumala or Tirupati. Balaji priest. They say that there was the guy who came up, he many, many years ago, now he came up with a lottery ticket. He said, first prize one lakh rupees. So, if you make me win, I will give you half. So, he got second prize, that was fifty thousand. So, he said, Balaji you took your half already. But his wife, no, listen, whatever you won you should give him half.

No, he said, I wanted hundred thousand, I got fifty, so he took his fifty. Some people think that they are too smart. You should give him half. And then he got sick, and he got sicker and sicker, he saw doctors but he couldn’t get better, and the wife said, give fifty percent, give your twenty-five thousand to Balaji. He resisted till the end, and then finally he said, Ok, ok, I will give.

So, he was taken in a… what you call… well, no, you know when they pick you up when you are in hospitals. A catcher or a… stretcher… he was taken in a stretcher and he put the twenty-five thousand in the hundi. Then he got better. So, if you make some deal with Krsna, you better fulfill. There is one movie that is distributed by the Iskcon, what it is called iskcon itv…. Iha Jindagi, This is life. Actually the guy there, he wanted to cheat Krsna. He kept… he took the money from the pranami box and the donation box, and then he became very wealthy. He always told Krsna, I will give you, I will give you back. But he never gave back. So, Krsna kept in this film, when he was cheating him, when are you giving back? Just now.

So, one time he was really sick, he came up and he was taking all medicine.

What is this? Teramicine, spectamicine, this micine, that misin, mycin, mycin, all this medicines raise you sin. Funny movie. But apparently that is a story that they adapted to the modern time. Originally it was true story in the puranas. I didn’t find the story, but it would be interesting.

But I guess we don’t want to have a business mentality with Krsna. This is like in the third Canto of Bhagavatam, Kapila Muni, he tells that there are different types of mixed devotion; in goodness, in passion and in ignorance. So, in passion, say you want some… something in return for your devotion. Like I heard that some devotees said, I have been serving Iskcon for fifteen years, I don’t have a T.V. what is this? I have been cheated. I never got T.V. Of course no devotees have T.V’s, that is not the thing.

Ostensibly they only watch the news. Only a few Krsna conscious videos. Like this if someone thinks, for my devotion I should get a T.V, I should get this, I should get that, obviously they missed the boat. They can get those things anyway, that is not the big deal nowadays, but when … he said that that it was a bid deal, but the real thing we want to get love of Krsna, we want devotion. Other things we… you know use it in such a way that we don’t want to be under Maya, we don’t want to… we want to use it in a Krsna conscious way. So, basically if we have a fear, like Devaki, she was afraid for Krsna that if Kamsha came and saw him with the four hands he would attack. So, he said, take a baby form. I will take you over to … so in the purport it says that Devaki, just as she was afraid for Krsna, out of her motherly affection. Like that we should be afraid for Krsna consciousness, we should fear Maya.

So, not to do business with Krsna. We don’t want to like be away from Krsna. We want to be under the shelter of Krsna. If you make some deal, it is said we have some separatist mentality. If there is just one kind of pure devotee, he want to do what Krsna wants us to do. So, we decide, we want to do what Krsna wants us. And he gives us a scope to do things. But we want to do in his way. So, if we decide we want to be pure devotees, we won’t go into this rajasik or tamasik or even sattwik mode of devotional servie, because all those modes have a separatist mentality. Like some people they are devotees of God, but they want see, let the world be a nice place, let it be peaceful, ah… so, their desire is still somewhat separate, whereas the pure devotee, well, we don’t like to see anyone suffer, but whatever, ultimately we want to take him back to Krsna. That’s the best interest. That’s all we want.

So, it is said, even sometimes, its like maybe a recession or maybe good, we don’t really care. Sometimes in recession people maybe more open and we may preach to them, and sometimes when things are going good, they think, well, I don’t need God, I am happy as I am. So, in our Krsna conscious movement whatever be the circumstance, we try to make the best. But sometimes even the bad circumstances are better for preaching.

What do you think?

Ok.

Any comments?

Devotee: You know, you have been saying a lot about how we need to be fixed in serving Krsna, but how is it that even if one you know one acquires liberation. You know, even in KC we can be here and we can feel liberated from the material energy, and we want to be a devotee, and we really want to serve the mission of Krsna Conscious, but what happens that as you progress in KC, you always feel like you have an authority. You always feel like someone is there, giving you instructions or giving you some type of protection, but when you get into… it appears that when you get into some type of liberated state, you feel like you know everything, and you sometimes don’t want to take instructionsv, you know from maybe godbrothers, godsisters, maybe just you want to feel like you are just independent. You spoke a little bit about that.

We find that even in sastras that happens to great devotees. Even like the story of Bharat Maharaja who was Brahman realized, and he was practically, he was in love of god, but still he became illusioned. So, what do we do, because you are speaking about how we need to stay fixed at the lotus feet of the Lord. What can we do to kind of avoid that kind of a situation where we can take instructions, or we can develop humility, and maintain that desire to serve the mission of Iskcon, of Prabhupada, of Lord Caitanya.

Guru Maharjaja: Interesting. Well, … upto Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakura, or upto Prabhupada there were.. there were Acharya system, but Bhakti Sviddhantha, he said to make a governing body, and Prabhupada, he made the governing body in Iskcon. So, we always have like the governing body. I reached the whatever member of the governing body and I am the guru, and sanyasi, but still I have the governing body over my head. And we have to act according to their decisions.

As you know that there was one… earlier this year that … what I should do or what I should not do. So, ultimately whatever the G.B.C wants we have to do. So, that is good in one sense, keeps us humble. It keeps us… we have to follow. So, like that initially we have our… well, not initially, always we have to take the guru, we take siksha guru, and we folvlow the diksha guru, and in our case we follow Prabhupada. In everyone’s case of course Prabhupada’s teachings are the primary teachings I mean. All the gurus in Iskcon are teaching from. So, we take Prabhupada as our primary or principle you can say siksha guru, and everyone follows his teachings. But still we have directly gurus to be followed.

At some point the guru may go back to godhead, and we also have his teachings, but we also have their godbrothers and senior devotees, and we have our temple President. So, we take vtheir instructions, we take their guidance, we may have a siksha guru, we take their guidance, because we always try to take the instructions of the older devotees.

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna.
Krsna krsna Hare hare
Hare Rama hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare.

We visited some of my godbrothers. I used to see Prabhupada, he would ask us to leave the room. He would talk to his godbrothers. Amongst godbrothers there is the … you can say like different relationships amongst the guru-disciple. Obviously it is more of a colegeate, more of a friend-friend discussion. So, the god brothers they can also tell us, or godsisters … what we should do, what we shouldn’t do. From their perspective. They have that right. so, all this things keep us on the track. From me, I had a lot of association with the sp, so, when he left there was very big loss. I think for everyone but I don’t … I was getting a lot of personal guidance and personal association. So, some didn’t have so much. So, … it was business as usually but for me it was a whole new experience.

Pr was giving a regular guidance what to do and what not to do in Mayapur. So, it was always something unexpected of course sometimes. Like sometimes two in the morning.. Pr wants to see you. I would wash my face, I would wash my feet, hands, run downstairs, yes sp? Don’t forget. … anytime, anyplace, he had… I mean anything he wanted to ask, it was ok. So, I miss that a lot, especially in the beginning. Of course, here in LA, a few … not all, but a few godbrothers have come and visited me, and a few godsisters and they have … gave me some perspectives. So, it is nice to have their association.

This is one thing that keeps us on track. Our godbrothes and godsisters. But … left something by regular reading of sp’s books and getting the instructions, asking if you don’t understading something, or if there is different ways to understand it. Then they are asking some other devotee what’s their understanding of that verse. All this things would help the devotees. The idea is, we should see what Krsna said in the Gita to Arjuna. He was thinking, well, according to the dharma this is right and this is not right. He may misunderstood even when he went off. But this is the nature of the devotees. To want to follow the… do the right thing.

So, if you want to do the right thing, you want to do… actually everything we do, we should be very clear, that is the proper thing to do. If we are not, we go to our guru, and we ask, under this circumstances what is the right thing to do. This or… maybe I am not very strong, this is my situation. So, under this… ok, then A, B,C, oh this steps, so you get, we know that ok this is what I should do, at this particular time. So, we should be under any kind of doubt what to do and what not to do. That is one advantage of being in ds. Its our philosophy is complete. We can always know what to do at any time, but then we should try to follow what to do.

There is no excuse to say, oh I don’t know what to do. I will just do whatever I feel like. There is no excuse. So much they are giving for us that we are always be able to do what to do. If we can do or not. Well, like we can go to pr and say, well, I am not able to do this at this time. Well, he would give some practical instruction according to time, place, circumstance, the person. Ok, then do this.

Just like Krsna says in twelfth chapter, well, the best thing is gita… best thing is to fully fix your mind on me, if you can’t do that, then follow regulated bhakti, if you can’t do that, then work for me, and if you can’t do that then just… so, if whatever the best we can do, we know that, Oh this is my goal. I may not be able to achieve niskam bhakti now, I have got certain desires, but that is my goal. So, like that, we take a humble position, I have got this weakness, I am not… I am under some illusion that I am some great devotee. At the same time I want to be a great devotee, I want to be a pure devotee. This is my goal. So, I am trying for that step by step. At this time I am not at that level, but I am trying to be in that level.

We should … like that be very sincere, not… if we think, well, that is not good, what I am doing is good. Whenever we try to achieve the higher level, and this year we will cheat ourselves. So, we rather take the humble position. If we are not able to achieve the highest position, we should be very humble and say, ok, I am not in that level, but I want to achieve that level. So, then how to do it systematically? How to do it step by step. That is what pr taught, like he once he told, if you cant chant sixteen rounds, then chant some number of rounds everyday like twelve or eight, something as a minimum, rather than one day sixteen, one day none, next day eight, next day.. so, he would give to certain devotees. But obviously he desired that they sixteen rounds everyday. But he couldn’t then he would get some vikalpa, some alternative root. Ok, you do this, and eventually you come back to sixteen. So, like that.

We should try to do the best we can do, and we can… our goal is to be pure devotees. So, like that…

Hare Krsna.

Thank you very much.