19870802 Bhagavad-gītā 15.6

The following is a given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Maharāja on August 2nd, 1987 in Penang, Malaysia. The class begins from a reading from the Bhagavad-gītā chapter 15 verse 6.

na tad bhāsayate sūryo
na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ
yad gatvā na nivartante
tad dhāma paramaṁ mama

Translation: That supreme abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by fire or electricity. Those who reach it never return to this material world.

Purport:  The spiritual world, the abode of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa – which is known as Kṛṣṇaloka, Goloka Vṛndāvana – is described here. In the spiritual sky there is no need of sunshine, moonshine, fire or electricity, because all the planets are self-luminous. We have only one planet in this universe, the sun, which is self-luminous, but all the planets in the spiritual sky are self-luminous. The shining effulgence of all those planets (called Vaikuṇṭhas) constitutes the shining sky known as the brahma-jyotir. Actually, the effulgence is emanating from the planet of Kṛṣṇa, Goloka Vṛndāvana. Part of that shining effulgence is covered by the mahat-tattva, the material world. Other than this, the major portion of that shining sky is full of spiritual planets, which are called Vaikuṇṭhas, chief of which is Goloka Vṛndāvana.

As long as a living entity is in this dark material world, he is in conditional life, but as soon as he reaches the spiritual sky by cutting through the false, perverted tree of this material world, he becomes liberated. Then there is no chance of his coming back here. In his conditional life, the living entity considers himself to be the lord of this material world, but in his liberated state he enters into the spiritual kingdom and becomes an associate of the Supreme Lord. There he enjoys eternal bliss, eternal life, and full knowledge.

One should be captivated by this information. He should desire to transfer himself to that eternal world and extricate himself from this false reflection of reality. For one who is too much attached to this material world, it is very difficult to cut that attachment, but if he takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness there is a chance of gradually becoming detached. One has to associate himself with devotees, those who are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One should search out a society dedicated to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and learn how to discharge devotional service. In this way he can cut off his attachment to the material world. One cannot become detached from the attraction of the material world simply by dressing himself in saffron cloth. He must become attached to the devotional service of the Lord. Therefore one should take it very seriously that devotional service as described in the Twelfth Chapter is the only way to get out of this false representation of the real tree. In Chapter Fourteen the contamination of all kinds of processes by material nature is described. Only devotional service is described as purely transcendental.

The words paramaṁ mama are very important here. Actually every nook and corner is the property of the Supreme Lord, but the spiritual world is paramam, full of six opulences. The Kaṭha Upaniṣad (2.2.15) also confirms that in the spiritual world there is no need of sunshine, moonshine or stars (na tatra sūryo bhāti na candra-tārakam), for the whole spiritual sky is illuminated by the internal potency of the Supreme Lord. That supreme abode can be achieved only by surrender and by no other means.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Swami translation and purport to the Śrīmad Bhāgavad-gītā As It Is chapter 15, text 6

Jayapatākā Swami: Here in the Bhagavad-gītā, a brief description of some of the qualities and of the existence of the spiritual world is described. In different religions of the world there is a description that there exists a spiritual world, the divine kingdom of God. here in the Bhagavad-gītā a little additional fact is found about the spiritual world. The spiritual world if self-illumined, it is self-effulgent. In the material world there is darkness, in the spiritual world there is light. In the room we have light because we have electrical bulbs and when the daylight we have the sun. But basically the outer space is dark except for the illumination of the sun, the moon and the stars. That means material world is by nature dark, black, un illumined, it requires special illuminaries. But in the spiritual world it is the opposite. Everything is illuminated, there is no darkness, simply light, illumination, full eternity, full bliss, transcendental and full knowledge. Naturally everyone is looking to be very joyful. According to this Vedānta-sūtra everyone is coming from the absolute truth ‘janmādy asya yataḥ’. And according to the Brahma-saṁhitā the absolute truth is Kṛṣṇa, the absolute truth is eternal, blissful and full knowledge.

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ
sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

That Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa, Bhagavān who is sac-cid-ānanda naturally He has an appropriate residence or the spiritual world. The spiritual world is coming from Him, this material world is coming from Him, we are also coming from Him. Everything is coming from the Parabrahma, the absolute truth. So, by nature since the Supreme Absolute Personality of Godhead is blissful is filled with joy. Therefore, by nature we are also filled with joy. We are looking for joy, but in the material world because we are out of our natural habitat, of our natural way of life, therefore we are not happy all the time. We are looking for happiness because we are part of Kṛṣṇa

mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ

Because we are part of Kṛṣṇa and He is fully joyful. ‘ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt’ therefore we also want that ānandamayo, we want that full joy that full happiness of spiritual life. We want complete happiness and therefore we are looking in various ways. So when we find that there is an abode, there is a supreme place where one can always be happy, naturally that is very revolutionary, that is very attractive. Not only there’s a description that such a place exists, but there is also various descriptions about that spiritual world. Here in the Bhagavad-gītā one or two verses are mentioned, several verses refer to it. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there is elaborate description of the Śrīmad, of the spiritual world. If one wants more descriptions of the spiritual world you can see the Śrīmad Bhagavatam, also the Brahma-saṁhitā gives some description just like that where spiritual world is described as a cintāmaṇi-dhāma.

cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-
lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhir abhipālayantam
lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānaḿ
govindam ādi-puruṣaḿ tam ahaḿ bhajāmi

Cintāmaṇi means that it’s completely conscious, cognizant. In the material world dull matter is the substance we see everywhere; dull matter in itself has no consciousness. It’s like this table, the table doesn’t have any consciousness on its own. These bodies they are not conscious on their own, they require the presence of the soul, of the ātmā. When the jīva is present within the body, the body is conscious. When that living force is absent from the body the body is described as dead. Actually, the body is never alive, but the living essence is inside the body and that makes this dead body appear alive, that makes the body for all practical purposes alive. But the real life is not in the body, it’s in the soul or the spirit which is in the body. Life symptoms coming from that spiritual essence. The Bhagavad-gītā clearly explains to us that we should understand the difference between the living force and the body and the mind. We are the living force, we are transcendental to the body. The body is considered a machine of material nature which is carrying our, us of out. ‘yantrārūḍhāni māyayā’ yantra means machine. This material body is a machine made of the material nature.

It’s like one time Śrīla Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda he was touring India and he was visiting different villages. He went to one village and he told the simple village people. That my dear village people, certainly in your village sometimes a grandfather, a village elder dies. At that time he’s laid down and his relatives are crying. Wife is crying, children are crying, brothers are crying they’re crying. Where has grandfather gone? Where has grandfather gone? Where has father gone? Where has brother gone? They’re crying because he’s dead they’re saying where he has gone, where has he gone. So then Prabhupāda he asked those villagers so who has actually gone? There the same man is laying down, the same body, the same head, the same legs, the same arms, same hair, same skin, same organs so who is gone? If the body is gone there the body is, then who is gone? The villagers of India they are spiritually very astute, they said the jīva is gone, the ātmā has gone, the person has gone, the soul. The person is the soul. Then Prabhupāda said yes, you have properly understood. This is the very quality of India that even a common people in the village they know about soul, about the spirit. If someone suddenly have some misfortune, they will say oh this is due to our karmic reaction of my previous life. If they have good fortune, they think that is also due to their karma. They believed in reincarnation and for them it is just natural as anything.

So in the evolution of the soul we’ll be gradually go through the 8 million 400 species of life. From the plants to the aquatics, the fish to the insects and reptiles to the birds, the (inaudible 16:00) bird in the animal kingdom, from the animal kingdom we go through various evolutions from the rats to the cats to the dogs, to the monkeys and so on. When we take birth as a monkey a lion or tiger or a cow, at that time our next birth will be human being. Even according to the Buddhist philosophy certain types of animals are never do the harm because they are considered to be very high on the evolution of reincarnation. In Thailand, the king of Thailand on his birthday he will accept any donation of cow and put a seal on the cow that no one should ever slaughter that cow. Because the cow is considered to be the highest evolution of animal birth. After cow one takes birth as a pious human being. So there philosophies are well spoken throughout Asia, India. But here the Bhagavad-gītā is telling us of a higher evolution. Once we achieve the human form of life then what? Modern science they all thought human being is more intelligent than all the animals. Modern custom tells us because human being is more powerful therefore the human beings should eat all the weaker animals and bliss. But the Bhāgavad-gītā says that whatever we eat that will also give us the reaction. Actually Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the animals, the animals are like the younger brothers and sisters of the human beings. They are weaker in many ways, they are indeed, they can be exploited by the human beings. But if a big brother, we may have little brother and sister is that mean you have the right to eat them? No. No right to do so. Similarly the human being they should not eat other creatures just because they’re weaker. They should eat according to the need for healthy body, for a healthy mind, they should eat for their spiritual development. So at the present time especially in opulent countries like Malaysia where there is a nut, fruit, vegetables, grains, milk products, butter, ghee what is the need for killing innocent animals? And eating the flesh. In the modern world there is a good enough supply that in all the countries of the world, even I saw in middle east they are content in nuts fruits and vegetables even though their own country are filled with ham. Everyone can eat a nonviolent diet which will offer an opportunity to advance in the evolution of life and will spare the innocent animals from suffering.

So when as human beings starts with being responsibly this way, and starts to follow these various guidelines given in the sacred books the Vedas, śāstras etc then they are considered to be civilized. Because they are acting responsibly not causing unnecessary harm to others. This civilized life is different from the undeveloped life of humans who are not civilized. Who without any responsibility of willing to commit violence to others including innocent animals is a lack of civilization in there activities. The civilized life begins from following certain rules and regulations given in religious scriptures. That civilized life tells one in the first stage you do these activities to get a happy life, you do some authorized activities and you’ll be peaceful so on. Of course, now a days because people have, they enable to have certain amount of economic development, they feel no need to go to church or mosque or temple to pray. Because already the economic development is there. But sometimes even though one may be materially happy for some time in due course of time frustration comes. Then one feels a need to understand what is the real purpose of life? Why am I suffering? Why am not peaceful and happy even though I have certain material things? At that point one becomes a jñāni or one who is seeking for knowledge. The jñāni is more advanced than the person who is going through religion simple for material benefit. One who is going for the spiritual life in order to understand the purpose of life, in order to achieve freedom from material bondage that person is considered more advanced. But even more advanced than the jñāni are those yogīs who are actually meditating on the Absolute. There are different types of yogīs the mystic yogī who is able to meditate on the Absolute in the heart, who was able to achieve certain mystic powers, they are considered as more perfect than those who are simply seeking for liberation. But even more complete than these mystic yogīs is considered the devotee, a bhakti-yogī. A devotee of the Lord who’s practicing bhakti-yoga is considered to be above the material world. Because Kṛṣṇa is himself above the material world, He’s living in the spiritual world. Just like if you want to write someone a letter, everyone has their address. If you want to write the president of United States you address it to the white house in Washington DC. if you want to address a letter to the general secretary of the politburo of Russia then you address it to Moscow, the Kremlin. If you want to address a letter to the Prime minister of Malaysia, it's a different address. Kuala Lumpur. You see everyone has their address. So when we want to address to Kṛṣṇa, to Bhagavan then what address do you put? You give the address Goloka Vṛndāvana, that Goloka Vṛndāvana is described here in this verse as ‘tad dhāma paramaṁ mama’ my supreme abode. Unfortunately, so far I don’t think the national post office facility has enabled to provide delivery facilities to that ‘tad dhāma paramaṁ’ or the supreme abode. In fact I think they are still limited to this planet, they are not even able to deliver letters to the moon or to the sun. Although recently they’ve sent out some voyager aircraft to go deep into outer space by 30,000 years from now it’s expected to reach the next solar system. So that’s one way of sending mail, but by that way I think take a long time to reach to Kṛṣṇaloka. When Durvāsa Muni was escaping from the Sudarśana cakra he went by the speed of the intelligence to the Viṣṇuloka of the universe. He reached to that planet in one years' time going at speed far faster than light. So by doing [1] it to your means is very difficult to reach the Supreme Abode. But one can go from the material world to the spiritual world at the speed of the spirit no separation of time and space. So because that Lord is in that supreme abode if someone is connected with the lord through the process of devotional service then that devotee is already considered to be transcendentally situated. He’s under the protection of that supreme energy ‘mayādhyakṣeṇa’ Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhāgavad-gītā another pray that He always puts His devotee under His protection of His internal potency. So when one is fully Kṛṣṇa Conscious that in one moment you can transfer from the material world to the spiritual sky.

Nārada Muni when he was meditating on Kṛṣṇa in this material world before he become Nārada Muni, when he was just a son of the maid servant. Suddenly death came, by the time where the lightning shot (clap), suddenly there was a flash, he looked he saw his material body lying beneath him. He looked and he has his own spiritual form. A spiritual effulgent body. In that form he could immediately go to the planet of Kṛṣṇa, of Viṣṇu or anywhere in the material worlds. No longer does he have to suffer birth and death like the ordinary living entities in the material world. So for the devotee there is no fear of death because death means simply transferring from the material body to spiritual body. So one can immediately go to the supreme abode in that way or sometimes a devotee goes through the material worlds truing the different planetary systems in to finally one goes to the supreme abode. In this way there is considered to be 14 levels of planetary existence. Just like in this world by modern usage they say there’s the first world, second world, third world countries. Or within a particular city there is a very rich upper class then there is the upper middle class, then middle class, then lower middle class, then upper lower class, then low class then there is the very poor class. There are various type levels that people divide, the city the residences, in some places it’s very evident in other place it’s very suffer. So in this universe there is considered to be, generally speaking 14 different levels of planets. The millions of planets you see in the milky way all of then can be categorized 14 levels. So just for information sake you might be wondering what level does this planet we are? Are we the 14? Are we the lowest or are we the number one the highest? What number are we?

So yes we are in the 7th class. We are in the 7th level. That mean we’re just on the upper half. There are another 6 levels of planets which are considered better than we are. Then each of their own unique qualities but it turns the basic standard of living. Our planet is number 7. Then there is 6 5 4 3 2 1.

Brahmaloka, Satyaloka, Lord Brahmā with 4 heads his planet is considered to be number one, topmost of all in the material world. So from this planet you could go and you can see each of the different levels, all the living standards, all the variety of enjoyments. Some are, each are having more happiness, more peacefulness than the next, ten times more. With in this planet there is variation, but if you take the average happiness of this planet would be average happiness of the next level. Then according to the Vedas the next level is ten times happier. Ten times more peace, more happiness, more everything. And it goes like that ten, ten, ten, each one is ten times more than the next. That means two levels up is 100 times more than this, three levels up is 10,000 is a 1000 metric system. And till right here up to Brahmaloka that is the 1000 times more than the one before. There’s not be any suffering there. So one can go up planet by planet seeing each of the different levels. The second level below Brahma loka is the level of the devas, Indra, Varuṇa and so on. They have all their planets, of course Indra amongst all the devas considered to be 100 times more, because he’s the king of the devas. If you go beyond this and then just outside, just at the border of the material world when you leave the universe, you leave the darkness and you just come at the twilight between the material and the spiritual world, between the supreme abode and this material world there you find Kailāsa. Lord Śiva, Śambhu. Lord Śiva with Pārvatī or Umā, or Durgā, different forms, Devī. They are, he’s residing. So when one leaves the material world goes to the Nirvāṇa, just to the Kailāsa. There in Kailāsa in the abode of Śiva the soul can have very high standard of peace in a type of, almost liberated state, very wonderful type of environment is there in Kailāsa. This is described in Brahma-saṁhitā that we have Devī-dhāma, Maheśa-dhāma. But beyond Maheśa-dhāma is coming the Vaikuṇṭha-dhāma. So when the soul wants to go to the Vaikuṇṭha-dhāma, but there’s an ocean, an ocean of Brahma Nirvāṇa, an ocean of brahma-jyoti. Once there was a soul was trying to cross that brahma-jyoti. Time to go to the Vaikuṇṭha planets. He just started to leave Kailāsa to go, to make that journey across the unlimited spans of Brahman, light. Going into the Brahman light. Trying to go to the planets of Viṣṇu, suddenly he started to think that I can merge, I can become one with the Brahman, I can become God. As he was speeding, he started to merge he was trying to just merge to become nothing it, just become merged with that light, suddenly.. "No No..! Viṣṇu!!" Boom he was in Viṣṇuloka, Nārāyaṇa. He was saved from merging into that sāyujya-mukti, that merging into the brahma-jyoti which is given by Kṛṣṇa when He kills the demons who attacked Him. That brahma-jyoti which is aspired to by the great advaita yogīs who study the Vedānta Sūtra following Śankarācārya. That unlimited brahma-jyoti is not accepted as a suitable place for residence by devotees of Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu. Because when you merge into that brahma-jyoti it was almost like a spiritual suicide. One loses one’s own individual cognizance that I am a individual separate from others. And one identifies that I am just a light. So that’s considered to be a horrible state for the devotee who is able to experience the spiritual variety, the spiritual beauty of the Lord’s sat-cit-ānanda form. Simple to be locked into the sat form, the eternal aspect and not, if we deprive, we deprive from the bliss and the knowledge is not acceptable to the devotee. So somehow that devotee he saved himself by remembering the name of Nārāyaṇa and he immediately went to the abode of Nārāyaṇa. You see so this way the soul can either journey directly to the planet of Nārāyaṇa or can go planet by planet. But we may also get stuck up, we may get mislead or maybe get, what do you say, diverted, detour if you go to these other planets. Even from Vaikuṇṭha there’s again Ayodhya, from Ayodhya then there’s finally Goloka Vṛndāvana. Goloka Vṛndāvana there Kṛṣṇa is present in two handed form. There are all the spiritual world the paramaṁ dhāma. So there’s one famous verse in Bhāgavatam that tells us what great souls consider about this world and the spiritual world.

samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ
mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ
bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ
padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām

By taking in this world the shelter, samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ the shelter of the boat which is the lotus feet of Murāri. If we take shelter of Murāri or Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet this becomes like a boat, a ship. In Penang I think ships are very well known because this is one of the famous jewel pearl of the earth. So if you want to cross over from Penang to the mainland of Malaysia you can go now by bridge. But if you want cross over the ocean and go to India or go to Australia then you have to go by ship. There’s no bridge as yet. Maybe for India we have land way but at least for Australia there is no bridge, you have to go by ship. So to cross over this ocean of material nature you need a ship. So that ship is called Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet. Taking shelter of Kṛṣṇa is like crossing this ocean of birth and death in a ship bhavāmbudhi, the ocean of material birth and death. Everyone in this material world is supposed to die, after death we leave the spirit always living, we’re eternal, consciousness, again we are forced to be born, again we apply [3] to die again we are born death birth death birth death birth death birth death birth death birth death birth death birth, it goes on like that again and again and again and again and again punarjanma, transmigration of the soul. So this is an ocean of being born and dying again and again after death we born again and after birth we all are dying again going on like this. So how we get out of this ocean how do cross over this ocean of either birth and death? So the suitable ship is taking shelter of devotional service of Lord Kṛṣṇa, Murāri. Because Murāri why the name Murāri is given? Mura means the Mura demon Hari means that will clear up. Material world has so many obstacles which are like demons to us. But Kṛṣṇa can remove all the obstacles in our path of progress to the Supreme liberation to the Supreme abode to that Supreme perfection of life. So when we take shelter of Murāri or Kṛṣṇa then we easily got crossover this ocean of birth and death bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ again they say what paraṁ padaṁ in the Gita today we read paraṁ dhāma. In the Bhāgavatam is saying paraṁ padaṁ we easily cross over the ocean, how easily? It said the ocean become so small that you can just step over. You say two from earth, the padaṁ padaṁ means more steps, step after step. Every step we take padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ. Vipat means danger, there’s danger every step. Who take shelter in the material world where there’s danger at every step? Life insurance companies are making money because everyone knows they could die at any moment. The existence of life insurance is the proof of my point. So life insurance can only help those who are remaining after we leave, but this is eternal life insurance. This helps those after who had left as well as the person who’s left. Because by taking the insurance of Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet you crossover the material world to the paraṁ padaṁ. And if one family member reaches, the whole family gets delivered. The whole family also the children, also the grandchildren, the great grandchildren seven generations. Not only that also the parents, grandparents, great grandparents seven generations before. So who can offer insurance policy for fourteen generations? Only the Kṛṣṇa Conscious movement. So everyone should book their ticket to the Murāri express ship. (laughing) luxury liner. Crossing over all the dangers and going to the Supreme abode where Kṛṣṇa says one should go you don’t have to come back. If you want to come back, you are always free to. But who will come back to this place of padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ. No one wants to come back to a place where every step is danger.

Just like I was recently visiting somewhere, where was that is, they were some youth they are all going out for a trek in the country, forget which country, maybe i’ll come back. No no It wasn’t our devotees, it was on a newspaper. And whole party of people went on trekking and one person went on the wrong way. So they are all coming back, they came back look up there is one person missing. They send all the men, they tried finding that person they couldn’t find him. Finally they find him dead. This material world is vipad param. Little walk in the country, everyone was going one way, they hear some boys that you go that way but it was the wrong way, they are going in the, at the end of someway far away, lost in the forest it gets dark, it’s very cold at night then morning comes, person dead. Danger every step, then after that who wants to go in the forest like that alone, you get lost like that and you don’t want to go to such a dangerous place again so easily. So once one leaves this material world they don’t want to come back, why should they? When they are in a very happy spiritual world. Completely happy. So we can experience that Supreme abode now just like now we can talk from Malaysia to London by telephone through satellite. By sound vibration we can communicate. Similarly, you can communicate with the Supreme abode not by satellite, not by telecommunication but by vibration, transcendental vibration, spiritual vibration, mantra. The mantra for communicating from any soul to the spiritual world is known as Mahā-mantra. There are many mantras, some mantras are only for some special parties. Just like there are special governing rights only can be used by some people. Like that there are these Gāyatr=i mantras, other mantra, this in only for particular source to particular destination. But Mahā-mantra means for everyone to the Supreme destination. Anyone who chants the Mahā-mantra they can communicate with the Supreme destination.

Does anyone know the Mahā-mantra for this age of Kali? Any other ladies or the children you know the Mahā-mantra? Anyone knows? (clapping)

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

By using this form of communication, we can directly become in contact, soul to soul communication between individual soul and the supreme abode. This can give us an immediate experience of some of that transcendental knowledge and happiness and eternal bliss that we are going to expect where we get to the Supreme abode. Even a drop we’ll be getting an idea what it’s about. Even if we get a drop of that happiness it is such a profound experiences more than anything experience anywhere in the material world what to speak of a 7th level planetary system like planet earth. Known in Vedas as Bhāratavarṣa or Ilāvṛtavarṣa. So many religious people, you are very philosophical and intellectual awakened audience therefore we’d like to opt to this very best of systems for achieving perfection in your life. And we hope that all of you will study the Bhāgavad-gītā and Śrīmad Bhāgavatam by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda and chant the

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Mahā-mantra and remain in constant communication, don’t cut off the links. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda came from India to 1965 he went to America and spread this movement to the west. Then he came back to the east at 1971, he came here to Malaysia. He’s the founder of the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement in the world he’s also the founder āc=ārya in one sense here in Malaysia. Because he founded the, ah, brought the first message of Kṛṣṇa consciousness here in Malaysia (clapping) the movement of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Actually Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda he could feel the vision that we are in Malaysia, people could easily achieve this perfection. They don’t have the lot of material economic worries as in Myanmar some other countries. Of course, everywhere on this world today there are economic worries but not life and death in Malaysia. Even in America there are economic worries are there, American government has got deficit budget and Russia is always trying to make the ends meet. So there’s always economic worry but there’s not that type of worry that people should sacrifice their spiritual life. That is not economy that one can concentrate on the higher goal of life. So Prabhupāda's vision was that the the people here have spiritual potential to achieve the Supreme perfection. Therefore, he visited to various cities in Malaysia (clapping) spreading this message. So I am very glad to be invited here by the society of Kṛṣṇa conscious in Malaysia for this opportunity to come here and to express you some of the teachings of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda of Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Bhāgavad-gītā and I am sure that each one of you can achieve complete perfection whether a man, whether a women, whether a child or whether a elderly, whether here in a Indian body, Indian origin body or Chinese origin body or whatever origin body you might have. Because this is the spiritual process is with the soul, is with the consciousness. An any human consciousness can bring it up to the highest level of complete realization. Thank you very much.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

On food: It says in the Vedas that emergency (inaudible 48:35) if there’s life and death situation and there’s no other food then one can eat whatever will keep one alive. Even one great ācārya he got lost in the desert, there was drought and he was about to die and as he was just not even able to walk, he was just crawling through the sand. In front of him there was a dog, that dog suddenly died so he took this as a sign because the died, he was about to die and there’s no way to get out of the death that he ate the dead dog. Of course, he can kill the dog, he waited for it to die. When it died, he ate the meat, get out of the desert. After that he was pure vegetarian pure Kṛṣṇa prasādarian again. But I mean the population of Greenland is also only 70,000. So it’s 70,000 in all, island named this Greenland or Iceland they are also growing bananas (laughing). In Northern Iceland they’re having volcanic gases coming from the earth so they because so far north they have six months of the sun and six months dark. That’s what they call the midnight sun that doesn’t set. So they built very big greenhouses and that hot gases captured in the greenhouse and inside they’re growing bananas. And because it’s getting six months daylight, no night they grow very fast. You can here in Malaysia about nine months for banana to give fruit. But there because day and night it’s getting sun so within four five six months it’s getting the fruit. So now they are exporting bananas from Iceland to other parts of the earth (laughing). So now that we have the modern technology even in Iceland, Greenland there’s a scope for them to eat a vegetarian sāttvika food.

How many of you are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa? Yes you see so again. How many of you are chanting on beads? Complete? In our book table we have beads? We have. This one. We have and we confirm in a moment. Apart from that you can also get in our center  at Kuala Lumpur and our travelling parties.

The purpose of beads is to give us the more concentration. The practice of bhakti-yoga is done using the senses. These different types of meditation, one is the meditation or one is just finally doing the prāṇāyama. Stopping the activity of the senses. Gradually bringing the senses and mind under control going deep deep within stopping all the sensual activity even finally stopping the breath itself. That’s one type. That takes, you have to sit still for long time to do that. Which modern man nobody cannot sit still for such a long time, neither they have the time not the nature. But that is one type which we normally think of. The other type of meditation is using the senses, in the meditation to help to focus the consciousness, to concentrate the consciousness. So we use all the senses just like you saw His Holiness Param Viṣṇu Mahārāja singing and dancing earlier at the kīrtana. So he was singing and hearing, he was also playing the kartālas in this way all the senses will be used. The pūjārī here offered incense flowers to the deity, the flowers are having a smell. By smelling that, that also engages the senses and purifies the mind. Immediately after this program I mentioned there’s going to be Kṛṣṇa prasādam. The prasādam will give you a sense of taste, all these help the concentration because it’s all based on Kṛṣṇa. So when we are chanting and dancing this is one way of using the senses. When we are alone then if we use the beads. The beads use our sense of touch that kept our sense gives us the more concentration. Also the beads help us to keep track how many times we chanted because if we make a promise to Kṛṣṇa or even to our self that will practice a certain number of chantings per day this gives us a very strong regulation, a very good connection with Kṛṣṇa. It makes us more determined, gives us more regularity and have a link with Kṛṣṇa. It is highly recommended in our sastras to count a minimum number of chantings every day. The minimum criterion is set by the individual, later when one finds a guru then the guru fixes a, fixes a number for that disciple. So all these things or even by the means, the other means also are counting by hand counting. So we recommend that you attend the regular programs and practice chanting on a regular basis this will build up more spiritual strength and give you a deeper connection and taste with the spiritual world.