19940915 Bhagavad-gītā 17.16

(THE FOLLOWING IS A MACHINE TRANSCRIPTIN VERIFIED UNTIL 40 MINS)

Oṁ namo bhagavata vāsudevāya!

nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya
naraṁ caiva narottamam
devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ
tato jayam udīrayet

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ
paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande
śrī-gurun dina tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam
śrī caitanya īśvaram

Bhagavad-gītā 17.16

manaḥ-prasādaḥ saumyatvaṁ
maunam ātma-vinigrahaḥ
bhāva-saṁśuddhir ity etat
tapo mānasam ucyate

SYNONYMS

manaḥ-prasādaḥ—satisfaction of the mind; saumyatvam—being without duplicity towards others; maunam—gravity; ātma—of the self; vinigrahaḥ—control; bhāva—of one’s nature; saṁśuddhiḥ—purification; iti—thus; etat—this; tapaḥ—austerity; mānasam—of the mind; ucyate—is said to be.

Translation: And satisfaction, simplicity, gravity, self-control and purification of one’s existence are the austerities of the mind.

(A-side: This goes to the kitchen also? The amplification goes to the kitchen? They can hear there? Is the mic, speaker box over there?

Vijaya Veṇu-gopāla Dāsa: No! No!

Jayapatākā Swami: Why don’t you extend one over there? So that they can hear.

Translation: And satisfaction, simplicity, gravity, self-control and purification of one’s existence are the austerities of the mind.

(Translation with repeatition)

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: To make the mind austere is to detach it from sense gratification. It should be so trained that it can be always thinking of doing good for others. The best training for the mind is gravity in thought. One should not deviate from Kṛṣṇa consciousness and must always avoid sense gratification. To purify one’s nature is to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Satisfaction of the mind can be obtained only by taking the mind away from thoughts of sense enjoyment. The more we think of sense enjoyment, the more the mind becomes dissatisfied. In the present age we unnecessarily engage the mind in so many different ways for sense gratification, and so there is no possibility of the mind’s becoming satisfied. The best course is to divert the mind to the Vedic literature, which is full of satisfying stories, as in the Purāṇas and the Mahābhārata. One can take advantage of this knowledge and thus become purified. The mind should be devoid of duplicity, and one should think of the welfare of all. Silence means that one is always thinking of self-realization. The person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness observes perfect silence in this sense. Control of the mind means detaching the mind from sense enjoyment. One should be straightforward in his dealings and thereby purify his existence. All these qualities together constitute austerity in mental activities.

* * *

So today… Thus ends the text 16 Chapter 17 Bhagavad-gītā As It Is in the matter of the Divisions of Faith, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s translation and purport.

Austerities of the mind we discuss today. Texts 14 and 15 are describing:

Bhagavad-gītā 17.14: Austerity of the body consists in worship of the Supreme Lord, the brāhmaṇas, the spiritual master, and superiors like the father and mother, and in cleanliness, simplicity, celibacy and nonviolence.

Bhagavad-gītā 17.15: Austerity of speech consists in speaking words that are truthful, pleasing, beneficial, and not agitating to others, and also in regularly reciting Vedic literature.

We just had an important Janmāṣṭamī function in our temple in Patna, Bihar. And the chief minister of Bihar, Lalu Prasad Jadav, was the chief guest. But after he spoke, there was a sannyāsī, who was visiting, and he spoke. What he spoke were truthful words, but they were not pleasing. They agitated the Chief Minister, and thus they were not beneficial. So much so that the Chief Minister told the sannyāsī that I withdraw the garland that I gave you, and if I wasn’t the Chief Minister, I would beat you up. So it is not only that we speak truthful words, but the words should also be pleasing and beneficial and not agitating to others. Anudvega-karaṁ vākyaṁ satyaṁ priya-hitaṁ ca yat (Bg. 17.15) should be satyam and priya-hitam – dear words.

People have false ego nowadays, and they had always had false ego. So it is difficult for people to accept even truthful words, if it is said in a way which is not pleasing, which is angry or harsh. Of course, a guru, he may sometimes speak heavily to his disciples, and they may tolerate being his students. But a guru shouldn’t speak to people, who are not his disciples in such a way as to agitate them. So mana, kāya, vākya—mind, speech and body. These three austerities are there. Today especially, we read about mental austerities. Actually, everything begins with the mind. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that if the mind is our friend, how does it become our friend? If we are able to control the mind, it becomes our friend. Then it helps us in our spiritual progress. And the uncontrolled mind can become like our worst enemy and drag us away from Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Now, whatever we meditate upon naturally, we are going to get attached one way or another to those things, either positive attachment or negative attachment. In the material world, one leads to the other easily. It’s like if you want something very bad and then something obstructs you from getting that, then you might become angry or sometimes someone has a loving relationship. But then if the person deals in a wrong way or some way which is interfering with one’s, what one thinks is going to be enjoyable or happy, then that same relationship may change over one may become hateful. That is why whenever there is some violent crime, the police first look at the relatives. You would think that the relatives should be the last. But they said because of such a close relationship, someone can flip over from favorable to very unfavorable in material life. So these things happen also when we don’t exercise austerity of the mind, when we become very fixed on some sense enjoyment, then if someone is obstructing, we become attached to that and someone obstructs our achieving that sense enjoyment, then we can become very angry with that person. So that is how from kāma comes krodha, born from the mode of passion. So right at the root, at the thought, we had to take the mind away from thinking about sense gratification and bring the mind back to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Śrīla Prabhupāda In a lecture, I was at in Montreal, Canada, the 1960s, he mentioned how it always stuck in my mind, exactly what is being said here in this verse, that the more we think of sense enjoyment, the more the mind becomes dissatisfied. Śrīla Prabhupāda at that time he excited in this way that as soon as we think about sense enjoyment, immediately we become dissatisfied. Because then immediately we are thinking that I don’t have this. If we think that we don’t have something, we want to have something, that means we are dissatisfied. Now that dissatisfaction, of course is exploited to the maximum in the modern world through the advertising media, the whole advertising media is to create thoughts, to induce you to think about something, some form of sense gratification that you hadn’t even been thinking about, and to create a dissatisfaction, enough dissatisfaction in you to compel you to go out and buy the product, to invest your money in it (right). It is like they will present some cigarette advertisement showing beautiful beach scenes and the white outdoors and everything you think you are like… we don’t show you the picture of the person with the lung cancer, with the completely black lungs filled with tar, and person totally with the tracheotomy here, breathing from here because he is got cancer, the throat or something. They don’t show you those pictures. They show you as know, if you smoked a cigarette, you would be in heaven, the wide outdoors.

Now there is a big controversy going on that the companies in America know that and that they have been breeding special kinds of tobacco, which have a high percentage of nicotine, which causes one to become addicted. I saw a study that showed that nicotine is almost as addictive, or in some experts consider it more addictive than heroin, although the reaction may not be as violent, but there are very distinct withdrawal symptoms, where the body will have an intense craving and go through many kinds of disturbances and if it doesn’t get it. So it is like a very vicious circle. I know some aspiring devotees, who have very difficult time trying to stop smoking. And it’s actually because it is like, apparently some people are accusing that there is a whole conspiracy. Knowingly, they have been giving people this addictive sense gratification to keep them as a committed customer.

So here we are in a world, where sense enjoyment is being promoted in so many different forms, on the radio and the television and newspapers and every billboards… Here, I don’t see too many billboards. The Royal Government has kept Oman somewhat free from such visual pollutions. And Prabhupāda said that how the mind is very imaginative, how the mind will work. Just like India, it is quite common to see these cinema posters in South India, they have some cinema advertisements, which are so big that I think they had to outlaw. It was like the cutouts 60ft in the air of some big movie idol. You go driving along and people be looking, get into accident. (laughter) Huge advertisement. He said, what happens is that, say you see a big billboard and there it shows men and women are embracing. So then the mind, it may see that and then identify the woman, may identify with the woman there and be thinking, “Here is the hero.” And instead of the woman being in the arms of the hero, the woman seeing this, puts herself in the arms of the hero, or the man looking, he may do the same thing and the mind will just put him. And here he is holding that woman, the beautiful starlet. So in this way, the mind agitates and starts to think about, meditate on sense gratification. This creates dissatisfaction, hankering, so unnecessarily disturbing one’s austerity of the mind. So all these things are obstacles in the path of spiritual progress.

Generally, in society people think these are very good things, especially in the west, they don’t consider this to be… the more they can get agitated, they think, that is our plus point. They don’t understand that there is a higher purpose to life, where we try to control the mind, the body, the words, and engage our senses and our mind in self-realization. And any kind of preoccupation with sense enjoyment, it’s a kind of disturbance, just creates this hankering and dissatisfaction. Somebody wants to become satisfied. The normal concept is then you have to get the object that you are hankering for, and then you will become satisfied. But it doesn’t work that way, because the senses, they may become satiated for a moment. Again, they will desire that sense enjoyment after a short time. So it’s a repetitive kind of a syndrome that develops. And this way one gets entangled in the complexities of karma, in the complexities of material thoughts, and they lose the austerity of mind means that next will be difficult to lose the austerity of speech, and it would be more difficult to be easy to lose the austerity of the body. So it starts from the mind and speech. People think about senses, or they talk about it, then they finally they engage in it, then they get entangled in the karmas, and they get deviated from the spiritual path. So there is hankering. When we don’t have something, we are hankering to have it. We are dissatisfied until we can have it, and they said, and we think, if I get it, then I will be satisfied. But the example is like in a fire yajña, You put the ghee on the fire, for a minute it goes down, then the fire comes up more furiously, more violently. So sense gratification is like that. We put, we satisfy it for a minute, that hankering is somewhat satisfied, maybe, depending… Sometimes it’s not at all satisfied. It wasn’t what we expected. But just take the optimum situation, okay for a moment it’s satiated... But again, after a short time, that desire increases more and more. So then one becomes very much attached to that sense gratification. And then if anything threatens or is a potential threat for that object of attachment, then a person become very fearful, very much afraid of losing what a person has gotten, that they are attached to, and then from fear, eventually we do lose. In the material world, everything is separated from, this is the nature of material life, that we get separated from things we are attached to, by nothing else, at least by death. We get separated and there are many other ways we can get separated. So then what happens is that, we are lamenting that I lost. I had what I liked and now I have lost it.

Like a cow loses the calf and the cow is lamenting. The cows are also people, they have feelings. This way in the modern dairies, they separate the calf immediately from the mother. So that the mother won’t be attached to the calf. So that way, like a machine, it will go on giving milk. Because if it gets attached to the calf and the calf dies, the cow will stop giving milk, because it’s giving out of love for its calf. So if it doesn’t see the calf, it might just think that the cowherd man was milking or maybe he is like a calf or something. But the Vedic system of course is you keep the calf there, and the mother, the cow gives more and more nice, rich milk. Generally, Indian cows give higher butter fat than western cow. Although the quantity might be less. I don’t know if that is a connection from the calves being kept. And sometimes, if the calf dies, the cow herder will stuff the skin of the calf. And just at the time of milking, bring it over there and the cow smells the calf-smell and feels satisfied, “Okay, my calf is here and gives the milk.” The cows are not very intelligent. Although they have feelings, and they have affection attachments. But they can be fool like that.

So therefore, in the Vedas for people who want to advance in self-realization. It’s saying there are certain things that we can allow ourselves to think about. And that is austerity of the mind. As much as possible, we should be actually thinking about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, putting Kṛṣṇa in the center. So just like for a brahmacārī, he should see every woman as his mother. That means that any other thought comes into mind, he has to take that thought out and just put the thought in the mind that, “This is my mother.” That’s austerity of thought. It is said, for a gṛhastha, he should see every woman as his mother except for his wife. It’s not expected either way. But other women he should see like that. These are symptoms of a learned culture, civilized human being. So all these things are based on austerity of the mind.

Now, what people, who are trying to make advancements spiritual life find is that the most difficult thing in working with non-devotees, is they have a totally different view. Instead of being austere with what they are thinking, austere with what they are speaking or austere with what they are doing… is just the opposite. They all like to think about sense gratification, like to talk about sense gratification. And of course, they would like to do sense gratification as much as they can. And therefore, you see that they are agitated, they are dissatisfied, they are frustrated, or depending what stage of the game they are at. They might be very hankering, or they may be very fearing or very lamenting depends which of the level of the cycle they are going. Now… and depending on how cultured, how spiritual the people are that one’s working with. I know that people work in the western countries, they find that people very much preoccupied with sense gratification. It’s very difficult to associate with them. But because they have family responsibilities, they had so many, they had to do it. So that is why in the Vedas, it recommends not to intimately associate too much with non-devotees, because the non-devotees, they are not exercising these austerities of the mind and the speech. If we get into too much intimate friendship with non-devotees, then they are going to start revealing their minds, which are filled with so much material contaminations that it becomes a kind of distraction for our own mind. And that is why associating with devotees is so beneficial, so important. Because devotees, they like to talk about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they like to discuss about spiritual things. They are exercising this kind of austerities, they are trying, depending how advanced they might be. So therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda really appreciated anyone who was actually exercising or trying to exercise these austerities of body, mind and words, that they were actually glorious. They are very glorious. They are fighting for making spiritual advancement.

We just observed Rādhāṣṭamī, a couple days ago. In the Padma Purāṇa for instance, it was glorifying the observance of Rādhāṣṭamī. Nārada Muni asked Lord Brahmā, “What is the significance of the Rādhāṣṭamī?” And then Lord Brahmā explained how Rādhārāṇī is very dear spiritual energy of Kṛṣṇa. She has expanded from Kṛṣṇa. And so she is actually a part of Kṛṣṇa, especially manifested for transcendental pastimes, and how she came into the material world on the request of Kṛṣṇa, just to assist Him in His pastimes. That she appeared in a divine way, and thereby She became known as daughter of Vṛṣabhānu, the king of Varṣāṇā, and Kīrtidā, the queen of Varṣāṇā. But actually, he found Her in some lotus, presented to his wife. It was a big festival, big celebration (cassette side changes) […] didn’t want to see anybody other than Kṛṣṇa. Didn’t want to see any man or anybody other than Kṛṣṇa. So then Kṛṣṇa said, “No, that You will only see Me. I will have so many pastimes with You.” So Rādhārāṇī, She was born with Her eyes shut. So there was anxiety for the parents. Because She was not opening Her eyes. But anyway, She was very beautiful, golden color. And so they had a big celebration. And in the celebration, they invited Nanda Mahārāja and Yaśodā to come for the celebration. So the Kīrtidā, she embraced, she brought Yaśodā inside; Yaśodā she just had her own 15-day, old baby boy, Kṛṣṇa. So brought her inside and embraced Yaśodā. They are very close friends. And then Yaśodā saw that beautiful girl, Rādhā, the daughter of Kīrtidā. And so naturally, she Just kind of left the baby Kṛṣṇa next to Rādhārāṇī. And so then Kṛṣṇa, although normally babies are 15 Days, they don’t crawl, but somehow He crawled. Kṛṣṇa, anything is possible. And He looked over at Rādhārāṇī’s face and touched Her. As soon as Kṛṣṇa touched Her, then Immediately Rādhārāṇī opened Her eyes and there saw Kṛṣṇa. So the first person She saw was Kṛṣṇa. And then of course, when the parents came and they saw that now Her eyes are open, they always saw, this is like eyes are closed. So that Kṛṣṇa has given Her eyesight. Rādhārāṇī, the first thing She wanted to see in the world was Kṛṣṇa. So then, like, there is so many glories of Rādhārāṇī.

So Lord Brahmā was explaining how observing the Rādhāṣṛamā festival is a very important festival. It said that in the Satya-yuga, there was a very beautiful woman. But she was having many material desires. And she was committed many sinful acts to fulfill her desires. And so she had left her house and she was going in distant places in search of more material happiness. So when she visited this one city, she saw that all the ṛṣis and brāhmaṇas, they were preparing to observe Rādhāṣṭamī. She asked, “What is going on?” And they said that, “Tomorrow is the appearance day of Rādhārāṇī – The Aṣṭamī tithi, Bhādra māsa, Śukla Bhādra. And therefore, we are observing this festival. And that if you, by observing this festival, one can get rid of brahma-hatyā, go-hatyā, nara-hatyā…” “It’s good for me because I committed a lot of sins. I actually, get purified.” So she decided, “Okay, I will do that Rādhāṣṭamī vratā.” (39:24)

So the next day, she fasted till dune and she saw the pūjās and the artis and all the offerings of flowers and abhiṣeka and everything to Rādhārāṇī. And just that one festival she observed. And later she got bit by a snake after some years. And the Yamadūtas came to take her subtle body away from her gross body, which was now dead, to take to Yamaloka to be punished in hell for her sins. So they tightly tied up her subtle body with their subtle ropes and they were pulling her out of the body and they were just going to really in angry mood. And all of a sudden, Visnudūtas came in a special spiritual vimānam and they cut the ropes of the Yamadūtas like they did with Ajāmila.

And they said, she belongs to us because she did Rādhās to me pūjā, you can’t take her. And they took her and the vimānan whisker away. Yamadūta and the bewildered what happened thought she was a sinner. Because she had done the Rādhāṣṭamī pūjā, she was taken to Goloka Vṛndāvana directly to serve Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. So because she exercised physical, mental and verbal austerity for one day, which was the sacred day of Rādhāṣṭamī. Said by observing Rādhāṣṭamī, it’s worth more than if you did a thousand echodices time. In other words, 100,000 echodices is more important to do one Rādhāṣṭamī according to the Padma Purāṇa. And so just by exercising a little austerity and engaging oneself in devotional service, one can be saved from so many great dangers here. This sinful lady became completely purified from all her sins simply by worshipping Rādhārāṇī.

And she could go back to Goloka Vṛndāvana at the end of this life. They are really fools. And the ladies that don’t do Rādhāṣṭamī pūjā never bereft of so much good fortune. And they’re going to have to suffer. And people that take advantage of doing Rādhāṣṭamī, they get all these benefits. Purāṇas give the Māhātyams of the pūjās. Also, how Lord Śiva was telling Pārvatī about the glorious Rādhāṣṭamī. So we just observed the Rādhāṣṭamī festival in different parts all over the world. In Māyāpur, we offered the abhiṣeka and all the temples where we have Rādhā Kṛṣṇa Deities, we offer the abhiṣeka to Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. Bombay, they had a big, filled up the courtyard with water and took Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in a boat. So they said, doing this kind of worship is an austerity of the body. You are fasting, you are praying, you are chanting.

You are doing some worship physically, so it’s all austerity of the body. Then you are hearing and speaking about the Lord that is controlling the speech and the mind. So doing these little austerities for Kṛṣṇa, for his devotees. Actually, Lord Śiva was asked by poverty, there is so many kinds of pūjā, which is the best? And then Lord Śiva replied,

ārādhanānāṁ sarveṣāṁ
viṣṇor ārādhanaṁ param
tasmāt parataraṁ devī
tadīyānāṁ samarcanam

Amongst all the kinds of worship mentioned, the Vedas worship of Viṣṇu is the Supreme. This is the verdict of Lord Śiva. He said, except my dear beautiful face Goddess, there is one exception, is worshipping the dear ones connected with Viṣṇu is more effective. So, like, Kṛṣṇa is more pleased when you worship His devotee, like when you worship the guru or you worship Rādhārāṇī. So he gives more blessings. Today we are fasting a Ekādaśī.

This fast today is put on the account of tomorrow, which is the appearance of Varahādeva. Varahādeva appeared in the world to deliver the world which had fallen into a dirty place, fallen from its orbit by the sinful activities of Hiraṇyākṣa. The ruler of the planet Śrīla Prabhupāda, mentioned how the planets have got a unique balance, an ecological. Now we call ecological balance. And in the center of the planet, there’s fire, volcanoes coming out, a molten lāva, because in the middle of the planet, there’s a fire. Nashida Prabhupāda said that fire is part of the balance that keeps the planet floating in space, in orbit. And that fire is also fed by the carbon carbo, whatever you call them, fossil things, which are under the earth, which now everybody is taking out to run our automobiles and cars. Sometime in the future, there may be a shortage. The Earth needs that petroleum carbo, whatever they’re called, hydrocarbons, I was looking at, and that may actually even take us out of our orbit and create one little bit of out of orbit can create tremendous problems. So this kind of a circumstance happened previously where the planet was off its orbit and there was a total disaster. So Varāhadeva came and lifted the earth up, put back into orbit. But the demon didn’t like it that Varāha was doing. So it became a big fight. The demon was liberated. So this in the very beginnings of the universe, of the Brahmāṇḍa, this day of Brahmā, Varāha, Kalpa, Buddha, history is recorded in the Vedas. And so we are celebrating the appearance of Varāhadeva tomorrow. Since today is Ekādaśī.

Ekādaśī is a fast day and Dvādaśī is a feast day. So we fast today and we just feast tomorrow. So observing Ekādaśī, this is another austerity of the body. To only eat certain food, not to eat grains and beans, An Ekādaśī. So by doing these little austerities, this helps to bring the senses under their control, bring the mind under the control of the ātmā. It gives us a spiritual strength. And then it makes it easier for us to achieve self-realization. To get the strength to do these austerities. You see, before great ṛṣis and they would brāhmaṇas, they could have the austerity to do these things. But nowadays, people, they don’t have so much strength to do all these austerities. They lack a will power. But that’s where, if they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, that gives us more strength.

And naturally, when we are chanting, automatically we are practicing austerity of the mind and the speech and the body. So if we hear the chanting, then we are doing austerity of the mind. We are speaking, we are doing austerity of the speech. So while we are chanting, if we are clapping and we are controlling our body using in the service of Kṛṣṇa. So all these austerities are automatically achieved or practiced simply by the process of chanting. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. But in a very painless manner. Very pleasant manner. But it gives us also the strength to, even after chanting, to also practice these austerities, we have to try also. It may be gradual, but if we try and we chant, then it becomes gradually easier. Some things we can’t do without. So then we regulate those things.

So by regulation also, it’s possible to control the practice of austerity. You can postpone the desire. Just like, okay, we observe a Ekādaśī. We know, okay, the next day we can eat rice, can eat regular prasāda. So people, okay, one day they can tolerate. It’s good for the health also. So in this way, you can regulate different activities of sense enjoyment. So that they don’t become big obstacles in our path of self-realization. They become controlled activities. But today, like we read, the real secret, of course, is even a physically one may control and regulate. The real thing is in the mind. To take our mind and bring it back to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We take our mind to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then we get spiritual bliss. Immediately we become happy. And as soon as we take our mind away from Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

And we start thinking about some material sense enjoyment that we want. Immediately we become dissatisfied.

kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga-vāñchā kare
nikaṭa-stha māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare

Kṛṣṇa is like the sun. See, Māyā is like the darkness. As soon as we take our. We are looking at Kṛṣṇa. Then there is no Māyā.

kṛṣṇa—sūrya-sama māyā haya andhakāra
yāhāṅ kṛṣṇa, tāhāṅ nāhi māyāra adhikāra
[Cc. Madhya 22.31]

So as long as you are looking at Kṛṣṇa, then there is no shadow, no darkness. Like you are looking at the sun. Of course, we can’t look at the sun too long. It’s too bright. But Kṛṣṇa is very brilliant. He is soothing. It’s like looking at the moon. You can look at the moon. There is no shadow, no darkness when you are looking at the light. But when we turn away from the sun, here’s the light coming. Brilliant Light here. So if we are looking at the light, you don’t see any shadow. We look the other way. You can see behind the hand. Here is the shadow. Shadow is there. So as soon as we took away from Kṛṣṇa, then we see the shadow. We see the darkness. I said just like that. When you look away from Kṛṣṇa and you desire sense gratification, then Māyā is immediately ready. She just comes and tackles you. Jāpaṭiyā dhare means tackle. Like in Rugby or Kabaḍi had to tackle the person, pull them down. So Māyā, as soon as you look away from Kṛṣṇa, she is there, throw you right down, under her control. For the devotees, they don’t want to look away from Kṛṣṇa. They are always looking. See them always chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare. Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. They always want to eat kṛṣṇa-prasāda.

They want to associate as much as possible with the devotees so that they avoid looking away from Kṛṣṇa. Knowing that as soon as I look away from Kṛṣṇa, Māyā is going to be there to catch me. Māyā gets angry. Why person is looking away from Kṛṣṇa? I will teach this a lesson. You want some other happiness? You want to look away from Kṛṣṇa. All right then I will give you a good kick. When his father passed away, then he decided to go to Gayā after one year, the one year anniversary, to perform piṇḍī, the piṇḍī śrāddhā. They offer the worship to the lotus foot of Viṣṇu in the name of the deceased relative. So in this case, he was the only son. He had an elder brother. But the elder brother had taken sannyāsa and gone off so he was left in the house.

So it was his duty to perform this piṇḍī for the departed soul. So then he walked from Navadvīpa, up the Ganges, went. It says in the śāstra, he went to Pāṭaliputra, which is a present day Patna. Then he came down from Patna to Gayā. In Gayā, there is a very ancient Puranic temple called Gadādhara Mandir. That temple was also visited by Sītā in Tretā-yuga. So it is a very ancient temple. And everyone goes and performs this ceremony for the departed relatives. So Lord Caitanya went there. Then he met Īśvara Purī again. Īśvara Purī had stayed at his house when his father was alive. And had taught his father some Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And he had already a good relationship with Īśvara Purī. And he surrendered to Īśvara Purī. And he pleaded that without a guru, one cannot cross over this material ocean of birth and death.

One cannot get a taste for a spiritual life. We need the shelter of the guru. So I beg you, please give me the mantra. Please accept me as your disciple so that I can deliver me to lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. So I can cross over this ocean of Birth and death. So then Īśvara Purī, he initiated Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu into the Kṛṣṇa mantra. And then Lord Caitanya started to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. He went to the Viṣṇupāda temple. And there he saw their offering worship to the Lord’s feet of Viṣṇu. To impression of the Lord’s foot of Viṣṇu. Viṣṇu had stepped and left his impressions there. But he was wondering, I’m not feeling so much ecstasy, not feeling so much love than I expected. But then he took.

It was time to do the abhiṣeka. So he bathed the lotus feet and by bathing the lotus feet of the Lord, then he started to feel unlimited love for Kṛṣṇa. And he started to chant and dance. And all the priests were amazed at how he was dancing and chanting. And everyone became astonished by Lord Caitanya’s ecstatic symptoms. And then Lord Caitanya, He decided to go off to Vṛndāvana, right then, finishing the worship, He ran out from the temple and He just headed to the west toward Vṛndāvana. He was saying, Vṛndāvana-vihārī-lālā Kṛṣṇa kī (Jaya!). And He was just going,

hari haraye namaḥ kṛṣṇa yādavāya namaḥ
yādavāya mādhavāya keśavāya namaḥ

gopāla govinda rāma śrī-madhusūdana
giridhārī gopīnātha madana-mohana

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

Vṛndāvana-vihārī-lālā Kṛṣṇa kī (jaya!). Like this, He was running off towards Vṛndāvana. Then there was a voice from the sky that told Him that now it’s not the time for you to go to Vṛndāvana. That will be later. Now you had to go back to Navadvīpa and be with Mother Śacī, Lord Caitanya. He followed the daiva-vāṇī voice from the heavens. He went back again to Navadvīpa, started the saṅkīrtana movement. When He came back, He was a changed person. Everyone was surprised because before He was the student leader, He was a flamboyant professor that had so many students and He was beating everyone debating with them. Now He was going and He was helping the old Vaiṣṇavas. And He was praying to all the devotees to, “Please give Me your blessing that I can be a devotee. Bless me that I can preach the message of saṅkīrtana.” So they are all showering their blessings on Lord Caitanya.

Now He would take the old brāhmaṇas and take them from the Ganges and help them get out. Before He used to play mischief put to men’s clothes. When He was a little boy, ten or so, eight years old, whatever, He would take His clothes and put the boys men’s clothes with the women and the women’s with the men. It would come out and it would be all like embarrassing. But now He was 16, He is initiated. He was completely changed. He was all serving the Vaiṣṇavas. So sometime there will be something in our life which will give inspiration for us. Maybe it’s death in the family or maybe it’s association with some devotee or something we read or something, we go through something as an inspiration and then we get association with the devotees. Then we get shelter of the guru.

And this way we get inspired to actually, exercise these austerities of mind, body and words and engage in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And then we can achieve in this human form of life, we can achieve all the success. This is a wonderful thing. And do not take advantage of this opportunity. So the human being, what is the advantage if it just follows sense? Gratification is what animals are doing. Animals are just following whatever their senses are, dictating the real human civilization. Little learning means to control the senses and utilize them according to religious principles in such a way that we can achieve self-realization. So pretty grateful that while all the devotees here are working and performing their different occupational duties and family duties that they are actively cultivating their Kṛṣṇa consciousness, performing these austerities of mind. Word indeed to achieve success in this life. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Any questions? Many say that who are they worshipping? Work is worship. Who are they worshipping? No, worship is always directed to the object of the worship. So by work, who are they worshipping? They are worshipping their boss. Are they worshipping with the money they are getting? What is the work? Is Worship actually? Work is a neutral thing, isn’t it? Because there is good work, there is bad work, there is neutral work. Some people are working to do illicit activities, smugglers, so on... So they are also working hard. But it’s illegal. Some people are working, they are doing good works. Some people are just working to maintain themselves, just to survive. Some may be working to build a temple in South India. This Yāmunācārya, he did tremendous austerities and tremendous work to build the Śrī Raṅga temple.

Anyone can see the Śrī Raṅganātha temple. So many seven rings and so much went to build that temple. So even after thousands of years, it’s standing very nicely done. So that Yāmunācārya, he did a lot of work for that. Actually, work can be worshiped if it’s directed to pleasing Kṛṣṇa. But if work is just for maintaining your senses, just for maintaining your. Then how is it then you are worshipping your senses? And if work is being done for some illicit purpose, for some illegal, sinful purpose, then it’s like worshipping the devil or worshipping sātān or worshipping evil. It’s a destructive, self-destructive. Just hard work is not the perfection in itself. Otherwise, if that were the case, then the donkeys would be the best, right? The donkey. You put one carrot in front of the donkey on the stick and they pile.

The laundry man will pile up the donkey filled with the laundry. And the whole day that donkey will go, the ass will go trying to get the carrot and be lifting this huge load. And at the end of the day, the laundry man will take off the carrot from the stick because, you know, the carrot is dangling. So he keeps going and it’s this thing, I’m just about to get it. And finally, when they get to the destination, he gives him the carrot and he thought, aha, I got it. I’m very smart. So who is smart? The donkey or the laundryman? He is getting so much work just for one carrot. The donkey thinks that work isn’t worship. I am working so hard, I got my carrot. So for every karma we do, there’s a reaction. We should see what reaction we are getting.

These kind of slogans sound good, but they are not scientific. They are not really giving us a picture of what is happening. Just like some politicians may say, work more, talk less. It may be good for the industries or something. Don’t say anything, don’t complain, don’t discuss, just work hard. This is something you can say. Anything like that may sound good, but doesn’t have necessarily any spiritual significance. If we want to know what is real worship, it’s explained here in Bhagavad-gītā. What is worship? Here it says, worship should be engaged only for the sake of the Supreme. Is called austerity and goodness. The Guru…

deva-dvija-guru-prājña-
pūjanaṁ śaucam ārjavam
brahmacaryam ahiṁsā ca
śārīraṁ tapa ucyate

Pūjanam means pūjā of the Supreme Lord, the brāhmaṇas, the guru and other prājña respectable personalities.

Sometimes people say things and the correct response may be to ask them a question. To see if they really know what they are speaking about. Just like some people say, no matter what you do, no matter who you worship, you all get the same result. But the Vedas don’t say that. They say that if you do this worship, it’s worth so much. If you do this, it’s worth a thousand times more. If you chant this, it’s worth 10,000 times more. If you do that so many times, it gives different comparison. One is better than the other. If you do the Viṣṇu sahasranāma – thousand time.

sahasra-nāmabhis tulyaṁ
rāma-nāma varānane
[Cc. Madhya 9.32]

But that is equal to one name of Rāma. We chant names of Kṛṣṇa. That is 3000 times the name of Viṣṇu.

But chanting names of Viṣṇu is unlimitedly more potent than chanting the names of any deva. Because Viṣṇu-nāma can give you mukti. But the deva-nāmas do not give liberation. They can only give temporary benefits. So like that, the Vedas are continually giving us a comparative evaluation. But yet somebody will say, it doesn’t matter. Whatever you do, you get the same result. And if you buy a ticket from here to Bombay, you can only get down. Just like today, they are saying, okay, anyone leaving the plane, they should show their boarding path. Because sometimes the flight might go Bombay, Muscat, Bahrain. If you pay up to Muscat, you can’t go up to Bahrain, you get down at Muscat. Sometimes the flight may even go on to London. But if you pay from Bombay to Muscat, you have to get down Muscat.

You can’t go on to London. If you want to go on to London, you have to pay the London fare, isn’t it? So people are saying, doesn’t matter. Whatever fare, you can get the same final destination, it’s not practical. Nowhere does the Vedas say that. It just sounds good. If that were the case. And anybody who buys the RS1 ticket from Bombay commuter train, you can use the same ticket and go the Indian airline and fly anywhere you want, just with that little boarding, that little platform ticket. Is it possible? They’re saying like that no matter what you do, you get the same result. But the Vedas don’t say that. They say, you do Rādhāṣṭamī pūjā, you do Janmāṣṭamī pūjā. You can go to Goloka Vṛndāvana with Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa and Gītā says, no. there is another one, though.

Those who worship me, they come to me. Those who worship the devas, they go to the planet of the devas. If you do ordinary work, you are going to get Mamapit. Those who worship the devas go to the planets of the demigods, but my devotees ultimately reach my supreme planet. But Vedas, they say it’s good to work. It’s better if people work than if they don’t do anything. Because if they are lazy and idle, that is tamasic. So working is at least rajasic, so that is better. But really, beneficial work that takes us closer to Kṛṣṇa should be sāttvika, should be a higher purpose to the work. Any other question?

In the Kali-yuga, there is a special facility in Satya-yuga and the previous yugas, just from the thought, the karma would begin if you thought a good thing, if you thought a bad thing, you would have to take this bad karma. And if you did a good thing, then you get the good karma. But in Kali-yuga, if you think a good thing, you get the good karma, but you have to do the bad thing before you get the bad karma. Because people’s minds are so disturbed, even if they just mentally think about doing pūjā to Kṛṣṇa or giving charity, they get the good result. They may get angry and think, I want to hit that guy, hit that person. But unless they actually go and hit the person, they don’t get the bad karma.

But in Dvāpara-yuga just by thinking I want to hit that person, they would get the bad karma. But now if you think, oh, I would like to offer a garland to the guru. Even you don’t offer the garland, you should think about offering the garland to get the good benefit. So there is some devotees. They don’t have any money, anything. There is one devotee. He just meditated and did elaborate worship of the Kṛṣṇa. He was cooking things and bringing and offering in golden pots, golden plate, opulent worship. All mentally he was a poor man. He had nothing. But he didn’t have any material things to really to offer. But he would mentally do this worship. So one day he was preparing some payāsam in his meditation. He was about to offer. But he was afraid that payāsam shouldn’t be too hot. So he just put his finger in a meditation to payāsam. But it was so hot it burned his finger. And he broke out of the meditation. Looked, he saw in his finger there was a. So how in my meditation, how I got a blister on my finger. And then Nārāyaṇa, he was laughing, smiling in Vaikuṇṭha. And then Lakṣmī looked at and said, “Why You are smiling?” He said, “I will show you.” And he sent His vimāna and brought that devotee back to Vaikuṇṭha and explained to Lakṣmī, this is what happened. And just gave him mokṣa like that. Took him right back. So by thinking, by meditating, even worshipping the Lord by thought you can also get to benefit. So someone said, I don’t have the money. I can’t offer opulent things. Okay, then you can do. But even by meditation you can do.

This is one of the secrets mentioned. The story is the Nectar of Devotion. Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. It’s from the Piranhas. Any other question? What is a mood to please them? [End of recording].