19860212 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.9.54

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on February 12th, 1986 in New Tālavana Farm in Carriere, Mississippi. The class begins with a reading from The Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 7th canto, chapter 9, text 54.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya
naraṁ caiva narottamam
devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ
 tato jayam udīrayet

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya īśvaram

prīṇanti hy atha māṁ dhīrāḥ
sarva-bhāvena sādhavaḥ
śreyas-kāmā mahā-bhāga
sarvāsām āśiṣāṁ patim

Synonyms

prīṇanti — try to please; hi — indeed; atha — because of this; mām — Me; dhīrāḥ — those who are sober and most intelligent; sarva-bhāvena — in all respects, in different modes of devotional service; sādhavaḥ — persons who are very well-behaved (perfect in all respects); śreyas-kāmāḥ — desiring the best benefit in life; mahā-bhāga — O you who are so fortunate; sarvāsām — of all; āśiṣām — kinds of benedictions; patim — the master (Me).

Translation: My dear Prahlāda, you are very fortunate. Please know from Me that those who are very wise and highly elevated try to please Me in all different modes of mellows, for I am the only person who can fulfill all the desires of everyone.

Purport: The words dhīrāḥ sarva-bhāvena do not mean “in whichever way you like.” Bhāva is the preliminary condition of love of Godhead.

athāsaktis tato bhāvas
tataḥ premābhyudañcati
sādhakānām ayaṁ premṇaḥ
prādurbhāve bhavet kramaḥ

(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.4.16)

The bhāva stage is the final division before one reaches love of Godhead. The word sarva-bhāva means that one can love the Supreme Personality of Godhead in different transcendental modes of mellows, beginning with dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya and mādhurya. In the śānta stage, one is on the border of loving service to the Lord. Pure love of Godhead begins from dāsya and develops to sakhya, vātsalya and then mādhurya. Still, in any of these five mellows one can render loving service to the Supreme Lord. Since our main business is to love the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one can render service from any of the above-mentioned platforms of love.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda purport to The Śrīmad Bhāgavatam Text 54, Chapter 9, Canto 7, in the matter of Prahlāda pacifies The Lord with prayers.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva was very angry and everyone was afraid to go to Nṛsiṁhadeva to appease Him, except for Prahlāda. When Prahlāda came forward, Nṛsiṁhadeva touched his head with his lotus feet with His lotus hand, with His conchshell, I think with His hand and as soon as he was touched by Nṛsiṁhadeva, touched by The Supreme Personality of Godhead, then he became totally purified, by the blessing of The Lord he was able to speak very eloquently. After speaking then Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva was very pacified by His devotee, Prahlāda Mahārāja.  Although the prayers of Prahlāda Mahārāja were offered on the transcendental platform, so then he gave His blessings to Prahlāda Mahārāja. He said my dear Prahlāda most gentle one, best of the family of the asuras, all good fortune unto you, I am very much pleased with you, it is my pastime to fulfill the desires of all living beings and therefore you may ask from me any benediction that you desire to be fulfilled. My dear Prahlāda, may you live a long time, one cannot appreciate or understand me without pleasing me, but one who has seen or pleased me has nothing more for wish to lament for his own satisfaction. Then he said today's verse. So those tries to please me with different mellows, because I am the only one who satisfy everyone's desire. So, Kṛṣṇa was alluring Prahlāda, that now you have pleased me, I am the one who satisfies everyone's desires, whatever you want, you can have. So now you just ask me what you want. Then I will give you that. So, Prahlāda is born in the family of asuras, that means normally the asuras are very anxious for material benedictions, for material happiness. So in a sense Nṛsiṁhadeva is testing him. Kṛṣṇa when He gives His mercy to His devotees, He may offer His devotees you can have anything you want. If you want aa have heavenly planet or you want to have a long life, different things He may offer. He may want to have liberation, to live on a plane with Lord Nārāyaṇa, all these different things The Lord can offer one and anything, whatever there is, one could get. So it's a big test, at that time what the person ask for, you see. Just like Brahmā so there, he couldn’t become a Brahmā but he could thinking of Brahmā when he left his body he took birth on the planet of Brahmā. So people have these different desires, they develop, we have to be careful about what we desire, if we desire to please Kṛṣṇa, if we desire to please the disciplic succession, Śrīla Prabhupāda, then, that desire is completely spiritual. We have other desires, Kṛṣṇa my satisfy those desires, just like He satisfied the desire of Dhruva Mahārāja, who wanted to be a great king, so he gave him a planet to be a king of and he made him a king for 36000 years on this planet but that time Dhruva Mahārāja felt great separation from the Lord, he was, when he actually saw Kṛṣṇa then he didn't want those things but it was already too late, he had already prayed, he had already desired those different benedictions. So here Prahlāda is being offered what benediction do you want, so in our heart we actually have to purify our consciousness from other desires because if we don't then as we say bottomline ' yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram', when we leave the body, when it's time to make that decision we'll choose whatever we have been thinking about. So it's enough just to give lip service, I want to have pure love for Kṛṣṇa but all time we are thinking of other things. We have train our mind actually think about, serving Kṛṣṇa, when other thoughts come we have to relegate them to their appropriate position in our mind, that oh this is a secondary thing, my first priority is love for, we have to train our mind continuously so that its reflective, reflex, as soon as it comes to desiring something we automatically desire love for Kṛṣṇa. There may be intermediate things that come in there, just like everyday when we go on saṅkīrtana, of course we desire to offer something to Kṛṣṇa, but that's also part of the offering to Kṛṣṇa. We want to see that people get Kṛṣṇa Conscousness that we can distribute more books in the International BBT meetings that I came for there was now BBT is being reorganized in North Amercia, in the world basically, in those places where it's not already organized like that, that very strictly the cost of the total production cost of books will be doubled according to Prabhupāda's formula and the doubled part of it, 25% will be half of that will be used for printing more books, first part of the, first 50 is just for re-printing the same book and then putting in the new volume like the remaining Bhāgavatams in English and other languages the books that have not yet been translated and published or another, in other different language, the more America has given, the Spanish, Portugese and African languages to develop further books into. Then the other 25% goes for construction, the majority of which of course is for, for India the samadhis or the Māyāpur project. So in this way. Of course, America has always been giving but sometimes in retrospect different percentages were been given where Prabhupāda wanted a bigger percentage usually Northern Europe has been given biggest percentage. We found that Southern Europe is only giving 7, 6% where they were supposed to be giving 12-15. America has been giving 10 very regularly. 10-12. So it's now going to be a very steady remittance. So in this way everytime a book is purchased that means simultaneously there will be new books being published as well as, as well as Prabhupāda’s projects in India being build. So it's a further impetus for purchasing more Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books, distributing books. In any case Prabhupāda, his desire was that we should engage people in Kṛṣṇa consciousness whether they have different desires or not but for the devotees who are engaged in pure preaching, they should refine their own desires. It's upto us, no one else can say what we are thinking. Of course, we can get some idea from outside seeing a person's activities over a period of time what's their desire but may be somebody is too good at, hiding what they are thinking, only a most expert person would be able to figure it out. But Kṛṣṇa, He knows our every thought, just like there is a saying, don't fast under water on a fast day. That don't, like the story that sometime on a fast day, a devotee goes to the Ganges river and although he is taking Nirjala Ekādaśī on a nirjala fast, he doesn't take any water, but when he is going under water, taking his sacred dip, gup, gup, gup, he takes some water. So it's like taking water, under water on a fast day. He thinks nobody is watching so I can take water under water. That is why devotional service is not easy. Why the Māyāvādi, they say Oh, bhakti-yoga is very easy, its too easy, you have to that more difficult way. Physically bhakti-yoga is not difficult in that sense, although sometimes devotees take different austerities to preach, that's their glory, but it's not the type of simply unrelated austerities like the Māyāvādi or yogīs do, sitting in five fires. Glory is to voluntarily accept many austerities for preaching Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. That is their austerity. Devotees purify their mind, they constantly watch the mind, that its not developing the desires other than pure Kṛṣṇa Conscious desires. Whereas the yogīs they don't have that process. So actually for them bhakti-yoga is very difficult. So how do we purify their mind is we constantly, we, purify the desires. When we see different desires and thoughts come up which are every moment then you have to something comes up which is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, we reject it immediately, drive it out or we try to change it in our mind that no this is not proper and then we change it. So its a constant endeavour but to, that's why we chant the Gāyatrī mantras, we chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra to purify the mind, it makes it easier to change the way we think, actually we change the way we desire, instead of desiring sense gratification we desire to do things in such a way that Kṛṣṇa is pleased, so naturally desires be there, so we learn how to dovetail those desires. So in this way they become purified, just like we have desire to eat, we can't say I won't eat, that's material we should only eat prasādam, that's Kṛṣṇa's mercy, śarīra avidyā-jāla, jaḍendriya tāhe kāla, jīve phele viṣaya-sāgare, in this way it's like we are now having the Christmas, the Prabhupāda marathon for offering to Prabhupāda, very intensive service. So in this kind of rigorous preaching we have to all, always be very careful to keep our consciousness fixed and what is the goal, what is the objective, if we are fixed at, we are doing everything for the pleasure of guru and Kṛṣṇa, we are trying o satisfy Lord Caitanya, Śrīla Prabhupāda, disciplic succession, then the devotional service becomes nectar, becomes very relishable, but when we are, its like Prabhupāda said, sometimes the guru gives the deity, installs the deity for the disciple and the disciple worshiping and then after sometimes, the disciple thinks Oh the guru has given me so much of headache, we have to do the āratīs and get up in the morning and we have to do so many things for the deity, it's too much, then it becomes material. Prabhupāda explains it's a burden of love. So we take our service as an opportunity to serve Kṛṣṇa, it's not some external, doing like somebody is working 9 to 5, it's something external, they want the money, but it's our personal service, it's our personal offering to Kṛṣṇa, whatever service we do, whether we offer an ārati or service of bathing the deities or whether we offer our service in the fire of preaching. We may offer our thoughts, words and deeds in the fire of devotional service. In this way we have to always see the mind, what's its thinking, what it's coming up and continue to purify it, we are doing everything for the service of Kṛṣṇa. When we are in that consciousness then we start to feel blissful, then it's; that flow of nectar gets interrupted or doesn't come easily. That's why it's so, so dangerous when we start to get absorbed in offenses or we start to get absorbed in material talk, gossip or things like that because it distracts our mind from the constant desire of simply offering something to Kṛṣṇa and we start to get distracted. That's why Lord Caitanya said "grāmya-kathā nā kahibe" |"grāmya-kathā nā śunibe" | bhāla nā khāibe bhāla nā paribe", don't talk materialistic or don't engage in gossip or materialistic thought, don't; don't listen to it, 'nā śunibe, nā kahibe', don't speak it, don't desire to have luxurious clothing, don't desire to simply eat luxuriously things, simply engage in worshiping The Lord, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, in pure devotional service. Kṛṣṇa's mercy. Deities offer nice prasādam, sometimes we get very nice opulent prasādam, sometimes we get simple prasādam. All these things devotees takes in stride and keeps fixing the mind what is the actual goal. We know that, we have already experienced this material world doesn't give us complete satisfaction, so then why should we harbor in our heart the idea, that may be there is some material arrangement that I can be happy in " ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokaḥ punar āvartino ’rjuna", when we go up to the brahma loka down to the material, most insignificant position, there is no complete happiness in this material world "duḥkhālayaṁ aśāṣvataṁ", as long as we harbor that idea that somehow, by some arrangement i can be happy in the material world, then māyā give us the opportunity, when we get some opportunity to enjoy then we think that oh this is the chance, this is the make me happy, then we can fall down. So, this is the thing, we have to be aware of, always wach our mind, purify, this is what they say pulling the weeds. Even some advanced devotees due to committing offences or due to being overly proud and not being careful of association which he takes gradually this, these little weeds and little poisons can enter into the consciousness, but if one is an expert gardener, you see, it's no a very difficult task, it's not some huge that we have to become some kind of great self-realized soul, automatically happens when become self realized, one becomes a great soul, by serving the greatest. But that doesn't, its not something externally that one can easily recognize, its just who is a very humble, careful gardener, on his own spiritual creeper, who is able to guard against the weeds and mad elephants and things that come in and who is able to very religiously water the creeper with chanting and hearing the nine practices of devotional service. So we know that even in one practice we can go back to Godhead so normally we practice so many practices by doing the marathon, sometimes we only practice chanting and hearing, chanting our japa and listening to the japa, or we don't necessarily always have time for deity worship other things like that, so then we have to learn how to depend even on one practice of devotion or two practice, we do service during the day and we chant and hear in the, to purify our consciousness, we need to chant and hear always because otherwise we may start to see our service as material. If i don't purify the consciousness by chanting and hearing. So Nṛsiṁhadeva was asking Prahlāda, what do you want, what are you going to ask for. Of course, when Prahlāda was given this opportunity he, very pious, my dear Lord, The Supreme Personality of Godhead because I was born in an atheistic family I am naturally inclined to material enjoyment, therefore kindly do not pep me (not sure) with these delusions, I am very much afraid of material conditions and I desire to be liberated from materialistic life. It is for this reason I have taken shelter of your lotus feet. O my worshipable Lord, because the seed of lusty desires which is the root cause of material existence is in the core of everyone's heart, you have sent me to this material world to exhibit the symptoms of a pure devotee, otherwise my Lord, the Supreme Instructor of the entire world, you are so kind to the devotee that you could not induce him to do something unbeneficial for him. On the other hand one who desires some material benefit in exchange for devotional service cannot be your pure devotee, indeed he is no better than a merchant who wants profit in exchange for service. Little Prahlāda is such a great devotee. So he was offered this benediction which included any kind of benediction even materialistic benediction but he rejected that. He said that in fact don't tempt me Kṛṣṇa because I born in an atheistic family and but actually i don't want any of these things because these materialistic desires they are called the seep of our attachment to the material world, So please don’t tempt me with these illusions because I am very much afraid of material conditions. In other worlds, even though when we preach, when we do active service, sometimes we may feel because of Kṛṣṇa's own inspiration we get some taste of bliss, but we shouldn't become fearless of material conditions. Become fearless in one sense but we have to be fearless in the shelter of Kṛṣṇa, in another words not that we suddenly think, now because I got a little bliss I feel I got some result of my devotional service or i feel some kind of enthusiasm somehow by the mercy of guru and Kṛṣṇa that now I don't have to be very careful about with the material condition, we always have to be careful but then comes to sensitive issues, of sense gratification, we have to be careful because māyā is such that when a devotee's heart is very soft actually that makes it a rigt place to plant a seed of devotion, also makes it a right place to plant a seed of material, actually we have to be very careful to not allow material desires to creep in, we have to be very careful for that. Just like Prahlāda said I am of afraid material condtion, we have to be fearful of material condition. Therefore we condtanly do service. We constantly remain absorbed. So I hope that doing this marathon everyone can take advantage of the additional services and try to experiment with being completely absorbed in Kṛṣṇa's service in a very intense way and be careful, see that the mind doesn't take on material bend. If you find that the mind is somehow experiencing some material changes then we should reveal our mind to some devotees. That we are actually experiencing some material doubt or something like that, because we don't want any casualties in the battle. Somebody sees any dangerous symptoms then they should allow themselves to be preached to or to analyse that little more objective view or try to get purified from any kind of doubts. So these are some of the points we should follow in the footsteps of Prahlāda Mahārāja, one of the mahājanas and pray to Kṛṣṇa that you always give us His mercy to have pure devotional service.

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

In, when I went back to Māyāpur, we actually, in Atlanta we had a very nice ratha-yātrā, procession, we did like we do here, we carry Prabhupāda sometimes, they carry Jagganātha, Subhadrā, Balarāma, palanquins in the park about few hundred people came, it's a nice little procession, little festival. Then I went back to, to Māyāpur for the full moon rāsa-līlā festival of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the end of the cāturmāsya and about 200,000 people came to Māyāpur. When I, the, so the devotees they did a, they did a little 3 day marathon because so many people were coming through, all the devotees from morning to night distributing books. They distributed about roughly 20,000 pieces of literature or Lakṣmī points. In, in the 2-3 days but time they also minister and justice from Supreme Court were there, some other respectable personalities. So I was preaching more to them than to the devotees but they were very enlivened by understanding Kṛṣṇa's pastimes from the Kṛṣṇa conscious viewpoint. Because normally in India even though everyone knows about Kṛṣṇa and His rāsa-līlā but they have some material idea about it. When they understood the spiritual nature how the gopīs were giving everything to Kṛṣṇa in a totally spiritual sense, then they became very inspired. So I came here for, specially we had international BBT and then we are having on the 3rd and 4th North American GBC meeting in Dallas. So I came for representing New Tālavana and New Orleans, Atlanta. Today is the Ācāryadeva and Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami's and the other members of the North American BBT contingent could handle everything that I come in just and take the opportunity of seeing the devotees having come so far from India right after the meetings basically all the heading back because that's the whole chain of preaching programs organized for December and January in India. In, on the way back I will be stopping in Tokyo, we just phoned up the disciples there, and, just for a day or so and then there gone a be a ratha-yātrā in Malaysia in the 13th in Penang, then in the 16th in Orissa, this is a festival in a place called Sambalpur in the western part of Orissa, then there is a whole saṅkīrtana, 3 month marathon they are doing, we are starting in December and going till; for 2 month rather 60 day, going to the end January through 3 states in India. So I will be participating in those festivals and then there is a ratha-yātrā in Madras on the 14h of January, in one in Bangalore on the 23rd. So lot of preaching programs and I'll be, I have to do deity installation of Nitāi and Gaura at Vāsudeva Dutta's place in Bangladesh near Puṇḍarīka-dhāma, then I'll be coming back here for the Mardi Gras (not sure) festival in February. That's the basic itenary now, ofcourse anything can happen in ISKCON. (devotees laugh). Don't be surprised to find.

Chanting and hearing and remembering that keep the fever down, then we come back to the dhāma and we see the deities then that helps to purify our consciousness. Just seeing the beautiful form of Nitāi Gaurcandra, Rādhā-Rādhākanta this helps to take away the images of passion and ignorance that come in the mind. That's why we do deity worship is to help to purify why we in kīrtana we enthusiastically chant and dance. When we are outdoor we don't get to see the deities so we develop sometimes more attachment and separation for the deities. Sometimes the ones in the temple, they take the deities for granted and sometimes they don't come down to programs or they don't think it's so important. When you are out preaching and you have to face all the time association, passion or ignorance then you really appreciate how great a fortune it is to be able to come and to have association, to be able to worship the deities and take association from the arca avatāra. In travelling around the world people got surprised when I told them actually I hate flying, actually flying very uncomfortable for me but to be able to go at the end and see the fortune faces of the devotee, specially to see also the different deities established by Prabhupāda or on behalf of Prabhupāda in the, in ISKCON that actually is very purifying, it's very livening. That's why it's important how we direct our thought, neophyte is usually always, like one foot in Māyāpur and one foot in Kṛṣṇa Consciouness and they are not, their mind is not real clear and thinking about service to guru and Kṛṣṇa gets a little bit splayed out with other considerations and attachments’, little, a little like false ego attachments, attachments to the body and so on. Like feeling comfortable or just kind of absorbed in the modes. But if we can culivate this attachment to the deity, to the disciplic succession, to, to the Kṛṣṇa Conscious process then actually that can help us. So when you are preaching you can be, you feel separation, O it's a nice, nice to have association with the deities. That's the way you purify. We should cultivate feeling separation for Kṛṣṇa, separation from the guru, separation from the spiritual pastimes. Then when we develop that greater taste, the greater appetite. It's just like Kṛṣṇa left all the gopīs in the rāsa-līlā because by having separation from Kṛṣṇa when He would come back in the future they would have a greater appreciation. So if we go around preaching and we are thinking of the holy-dhāma, just like when once, like when I travel and preach I usually thinking about Māyāpur. Actually if I had the choice, if everyone was Kṛṣṇa conscious in the world and didn't have, I woud prefer to stay in Māyāpur Dhāma, it's so transcendentally relishable. One immediately feels separation from Lord Caitanya, even in the dhāma. Immediately feel the connection. But Prabhupāda instructed we have to go and preach and bring the message of Lord Caitanya, the message of Māyāpur Dhāma to different parts of the world, so that the devotees feel that the Holy dhāma is their own place, we don't belong to the material world, we belong to the spiritual world, then why we are in the material world preaching that we can feel some separation for the spiritual world, that's good, if we start seeing that oh this mode of passion, this is, this looks pretty enticing, it's pretty nice, these people are really enjoying, they are having a good time, what I am missing out in, like if we start thinking like that we are in trouble. Fortunately, usually the mode of passion, ignorance, Kṛṣṇa gives us intelligence to see that these people are actually suffering, they may think they are enjoying but we can that how they are, their enjoyment is the other side of their suffering. It's like, I mean it's so gross that usually the devotees in the mode of goodness they can see that these things are actually not real happiness but if we start to get affected, start thinking, start analysing like before we are put to hell, you are taken out of this body and you are, you are put in a little training camp, say if your next body is, you are before, say you have to take birth as a pig, so they take you to hell and start forcing you to eat stool, then finally you start to differentiate well that stool was a little better than the other stool. Then they put you a pig body. So the point is that when you start to see when you categorically see that how the material world is māyā, there is no enjoyment there, then you are safe, when you start to differentiate, well may be that stool was little better than this stool, maybe that material enjoyment is a little better than this one, you see that's material. So we have to train our consciousness and see from the absolute point of view. 

Answering a question on food: In a real state of emergency the śāstra says that person can bend certain rules, something like cheese, maybe in a real emergency it could be banned because basically it is vegetarian but like in America generally speaking they have sour cheeses, cheese spread, cottage cheese, so many different kinds of soft cheddar, which doesn't use basically as far as I understand doesn't use animal lattice, the hard cheese is used, so hard cheese is soft cheese, if there is soft cheese of some sort or another then; Cheese is such a thing then in any case it keeps for a long time. Usually there are places that make cheese in the rural area and if you go to them, they'll, they will make the cheese for you without animal rennet and you combine the clunks of it for about 15, it will come to about 15 pounds, block the circular, forgot we call them, there is a name for it and it only cost about $ 80 or 2 $ per pound, or if you buy it, in a store it's a little more expensive. People can get a big chunk in devotees carry half a pound of cheese in their baggage or something. Anyway it is  more important,       cheese is not, one should always take the best alternative, I mean if there is nothing else in there persons you know later collapse out of the, I won't think it would be sin but we have to avoid the mentality of when there is the alternative we always take the, take one which is more risky, which is maybe more nebulous. Right now there are lot of companies that don't use the animal rennet. Someone can research it but it's more important if we buy things like we buy cooked foods, it's, that's more dangerous but lot of time the devotees buy cooked grains or something, pretzel, I don't know different things. The milk products and fruits doesn't, contain less karma or less, doesn't, fruits doesn't contain any mentality from the person you buy it. When you buy cooked food and not again processed, sometime buy puffed rice but normally we cook it in some kind of. So grains are little bit more risky because specially if it's coincidentally cooked by a person. Then the mentality of the person cooking will go into the grain a little bit. So that's more, it's more dangerous but anyway in preaching once as I said, there is śāstra says that we can bend the rule a little but we have to be careful just to take whatever the best alternative at that particular time is rather than just say well I have I am preaching then I can do anything. We should always take best, try to be cautious, be afraid of the material energy, otherwise we get into that mentality even when we are not doing so much preaching may be we would be protected because we are preaching but then if we get into that idea that well I am preaching so I can do anything then when we are not so fully absorbed in preaching we'll do the same thing then we will be in trouble. So, by all, Kṛṣṇa provides us with something and if it's nothing else alright but we take the best, take more, always take more cautious alternative.  Actually when he was travelling saṅkīrtana and mainly taking salads and nuts and things like that because in India especially don't even buy breads usually because when they cook the breads they cook usually the bakers are Mohammedans they cook, and when they cook the breads they, they put animal fat as the, as a, they don't use animal fat in the bread but they use it for greasing the pans. Sometimes they put it in the bread also. So usually this what they call pav roti or cooked breads in India are very risky. So unless we specially ordered or something by some know baker or some devotee, we don't usually use any kind of breads in India. So  Prabhaviṣṇu Mahārāja was explaining to Prabhupāda that how they are eating salads and fruits and nuts and things like that and Prabhupāda said ah yes, this is very good, you can simply eat Ekādaśī always. You see there is this one nut what you call that nut, it is like this, bent, then someone said oh cashew, he said yes, you can eat that it is very good, ofcourse Prabhaviṣṇu Mahārāja still eats grains now and then but he has, he told me one time Prabhupāda encourages yes you can eat Ekādaśī, you can eat nus and fruits and things, so. I personally, I find that it's very nice if like when I go in these long journeys, I try to take some bread or take somethings with me and actually if in Germany they used to have granola and cheeses and things like that, they had a special pack which apparently will last with devotees, you know. They will buy fruit, other things will last the devotees a week, 6 days, they come back and sunday will have a sunday feast. That's how they did saṅkīrtana for years with different kinds of little like trekking prasāda. I know the devotees in San Diego who used to go in Malaysian do paintings sell and things. They used to carry little hotplates with them and have one of those Prabhupāda cookers from Vṛndāvana and they would, it has like 4 stories and the bottom story you put your rice and then above it subjis and things like, you put the dal, was it the rice at the bottom and then vegetables come in compartments above that. So as you cook your rice the steam coming from the rice steams your vegetables. By the time the rice is finished, the vegetables are also cooked. So while you are chanting japa the whole thing is happening automatically. When the water is finished in the rice you take it off, your vegetables are steamed, then you take the top, the top of the cooker, has the handles on the side  so then your turn it over then it becomes a little wok and on fire hot plate you place little chunks there and then put the chunks in the subzi, the vegetable, steam vegetables you know, like a little spice, turn it around and then they take their rice in the vegetables because they get tired of eating out all the time in the fast food type of thing. I have seen different devotees have developed different techniques for survival but we have just try to be as responsible as possible and the more that we can eat food thats cooked by devotees or less we can eat you know things which are risky the better but you know within there is some grey areas like sugars contains, put to bones or some cheeses don't know there something used to curl i don't know understand that one billionth of a part but it's minor part. So if there is some kind of alternative but these are like borderline cases, I mean Prabhupāda one time said that in this Kaliyuga everyone is, had they told him that sugar even you know put through bones or something and he said well you need to know. Sugar that way is vegetarian, but I mean they spoil everything. If we can try to avoid it that's better but those things are a bit borderline. Things we should just try to avoid, it's life or death or something, that's, it's nothing else. You doing the rule without trying to please Kṛṣṇa, in not maybe become whimsical that oh where is a loophole in some, we just take the loophole then we just actually do it because we want to do it not actually because it's for Kṛṣṇa. We don't, shouldn't look for the loopholes we should try to do whatever is the best alternative at that time within we have. Those things are made by machines. Lord Nityānanda He used to take puffed rice, but normally we add a little ghee to it. It's one thing you said. Usually we just take a little ghee and then just sprinkle over it, like purifies it, added something, then we offer that. It's cooked by machines like that. Practically in a temple they don't like to offer the puffy and things from outside but, but the, the secret is that Lord Nityānanda, He used to take puffed rice, used to take this type of puffed cereals, fried rice crispies, fried puffy chivda and things like that. So for Lord Nityānanda can offer this type of cereals but generally we don't like to just offer him something dries, we add a little ghee to it, something we spinkle just a little bit, part of this cooking arrangement and a chance to (not clear) what we do. I know in India sometimes they are, they also offer I don't know if that's Nityānanda used to take this but sometimes they take, they add mustard oil, in Bengal becuase they are so attatched to mustard oil, they take mustard oil and chillies. I don't think in the west this taste has been developed. (devotees laugh). So bit passionate, they just take the cereal, mix a little, sprinkle little mustard oil on it and then take green chillies and eat it, hot chillies I don't know how, bonafide that is, it's kind of a regional habit they have. Nityānanda used to take, used to take cereals, we add a little ghee and offer but one time Prabhupāda said just add a little ghee comes alright. One time he went to a feast and they cooked everything in oil, Prabhupāda said just sprinkle some ghee over (devotees laugh).

On Service: There is two aspects, one of course is which kind of grows result that who is Kṛṣṇa empowering more for preaching, for collecting or for whatever particular service, that certainly is recognized, it’s like Hanuman. He is lifting mountain tops, certainly that wasn't thought to be insignificant, he was doing a very big service for Rāma building a bridge going to Lanka, so but the little spider was throwing the flax in, dust into the ocean, you know its the same but this is also a consideration that Kṛṣṇa considers a person's own person of capacity. You know it's like two people we have put some weights here and different devotees try to lift weights, depending on how big their muscles are, they may be able to life different size of weight but with practice a person can gradually increase. So like that certain person might have natural kind of level in a particular service, by Kṛṣṇa's mercy that can go unlimited, no limit to it. It's not that we have think that I am only limited by some but it is unlimited, it can go unlimited but in our try Kṛṣṇa is seeing that, well how much energy a person is giving and He is also recognizing that service. Just as when Hanuman wanted to brush aside the spider then Rāma said no he is also serving to his capacity. So Lord Caitanya advises we should be humble. " tṛṇād api su-nīcena taror iva sahiṣṇunā amāninā māna-dena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ ". Amāninā, we shouldn't desire, the, any faults or any kind of honour for ourself. Actually we are, get some result we always give credit in any case to guru and Vaiṣṇava, to Kṛṣṇa, is a competition who can please Kṛṣṇa little more, competition is actually to please Kṛṣṇa. So, when another devotee sees that oh that devotee what is transcendental competition that devotee is done so nicely, so Kṛṣṇa is more pleased by that devotee serves, so that's very nice, the goal is to please Kṛṣṇa, so may Kṛṣṇa also bless me that I can do more service. In other words we are not, the goal is that Kṛṣṇa should be pleased, everyone is trying to please Kṛṣṇa, so in any particular day one person may somehow appear to be more empowered for pleasing Kṛṣṇa in particular service but doesn't mean we also work to our capacity trying to please Kṛṣṇa to the maximum. We are all very pleased that someone does more because objective is that everyone should do more. There is no law. So in that sense we are not attached to the results in material sense but we want to offer something more to Kṛṣṇa. But since our only objective is to offer to Kṛṣṇa therefore we don't think well I can't offer more to Kṛṣṇa therefore then I should not offer anything to Kṛṣṇa, that's material. Objective is only to offer more and more to Kṛṣṇa, to give more devotion, so someone else is doing more, we are also happy because it's for Kṛṣṇa's service. So we have to keep our consciousness transcendental then it is transcendental competition. Like when have these bicycle races in things, when they are going around the corners in the, nobody is looking then, they kick the other person's bike, it's not transcendental, it's mean, it's dirty sometimes. Recently in football games I saw newspaper front page or something had a headline, purposeful injury, where they just send out some big mobber who come out and he just picks up some million dollar quarter bag something just picks him up and just smashes him on the ground and breaks bones or something, so then he gets kicked off the game and find ten thousand dollars but they ruin the opponent, million dollar whatever they pay those people so much. So it's like in a competition in the material world it's dirty business, it's like they found out recently that in Wall Street there's people been cheating the government, cheating other people from million, hundreds of millions of dollars. So of course they got caught. So they have to spent time in jail and pay a hundred million dollar fine, pretty big fine. So that is material because not the transcendental, transcendental competition, we feel happy if we see that someone else does some, we hear that someone has done a really good score, makes us feel blissful, oh that's wonderful, but then I also feel inspired well that person can do then Kṛṣṇa can also empower me to do. It's just like before people like never thought that you could break a four-minute mile, but now everybody breaks for minute mile. So when the first person did it then there was a new goal. I remember that we used to do Harināma in Toronto and we used to collect, the whole temple would go out on Saturdays and do Harināma and collect and we used to collect 400 dollars a day, 450 dollars, Canadian a day for the whole temple and that was the best collection in the whole North America on that particular type of, around 20 temples in North America, so you know then somebody developed new ways of book distribution and things like that and then gradually so new, new heights were achieved. So we don't know what capacity a person has to do a particular kind of service except under very intense situation then we can see what are the limits then that can help us to assign new goals in our mind, that helps to build our own faith, you know I can do more then I am doing now. If other persons can do then I can also, usually in our mind we are, we relegate ourselves to particular level of service, then if somebody does more we are Oh how that person is doing more, he must be cheating, that attitude shouldn't be there. Is that all right. Everyone is all right. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki Jaya! (devotees chant with Gurudeva).

Transcribed By: Anuttama Gandharvikā DD
Transcribed On: February 2nd 2020
Proofed By: Bhakta Aruṇeśa
Proofed On: December 9^th 2023