19950714 Bhagavad-gītā 9.22

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Maharāja on in July 14th, 1995. The class begins from a reading from the Bhagavad-gītā chapter 9 verse 22.

ananyāś cintayanto māṁ
ye janāḥ paryupāsate
teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ
yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham

Translation: But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form – to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have.

Purport: One who is unable to live for a moment without Kṛṣṇa consciousness cannot but think of Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours a day, being engaged in devotional service by hearing, chanting, remembering, offering prayers, worshiping, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, rendering other services, cultivating friendship and surrendering fully to the Lord. Such activities are all auspicious and full of spiritual potencies, which make the devotee perfect in self-realization, so that his only desire is to achieve the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such a devotee undoubtedly approaches the Lord without difficulty. This is called yoga. By the mercy of the Lord, such a devotee never comes back to this material condition of life. Kṣema refers to the merciful protection of the Lord. The Lord helps the devotee to achieve Kṛṣṇa consciousness by yoga, and when he becomes fully Kṛṣṇa conscious the Lord protects him from falling down to a miserable conditioned life.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Swami translation and purport to Bhagavad-gītā As It Is chapter 9 text 22

Jayapatākā Swami: This is the chapter entitled Most Confidential Knowledge. Many times, devotees are worried that if I worship Kṛṣṇa I’ll lose something, if I worship Kṛṣṇa I may not be successful, what would happen if I worship Kṛṣṇa? So here Lord Kṛṣṇa He is saying for those who are absorbed in worshipping Him or meditation on His transcendental form, He carries whatever they lack, and He preserves whatever they have. Even though we may not have everything we need to be fixed in our devotional service, but by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, if we are doing our part to serve Him, trying our best to think of Him and being absorbed in His service, then He will make up what we lack.

Last night we had an interesting function at the Hyderabad temple, it was the Gītā club award night on the occasion of Ratha Yātrā festival there. Many children over hundreds of children and youth in Hyderabad and Secunderabad the twin cities in Andhra, they belong to the Gītā club which is a special study group where they have summer camps and they study Gītā and they have tests. Just like here we’re also having Kṛṣṇa test. This test for children and this programs for them to study the sastra are very very important. I appreciate very much everything that the devotees here are doing for the Kṛṣṇa test program which here is involving thousands and thousands of young people. If like that here also having an award ceremony after the test we’re all be giving those members of the congregation who are actively promoting this Kṛṣṇa test, some award. We have the similar ceremony for the children and those who are promoting the program there in the Hyderabad. And what is interesting at the end of the ceremony one of the boys, I think he was ninth standard or tenth standard techno, he was, but he’s just going in the college so what kind of that be? Twelve? Ten plus two. And he mentioned that he, before he got this opportunity he was basically a atheist. But he was very enthusiastically said after going through the course now he is a firm believer in Kṛṣṇa. In fact he gave a personal testimony how he had been elected the secretary of the Gītā club and so while he was still doing his studies, but he had to give some time for the Gītā club and so he couldn’t give all that time that may be his parents wanted for his studies. But whatever time he gave is very quality time. So when he sat for the final exam that time he found that by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa he got 525 out of 600 which was a very good score. And then when they had the college entrance exam he was applying for one of the best colleges, universities. But just happened that time they’re having the Gītā summer camp. So he could only, he didn’t really have time to prepare, he was so busy doing all the organization as a secretary. When he sat for the entrance exam then he was remarked, then he was very surprised when he saw the result that he had topped the exam list in the number one position and he is now at four year scholarshipped university, while he was doing Gītā club activities.

And we find many things like this, although we always encourage the students who study, but while you doing the study by doing the spiritual activity somehow Kṛṣṇa helps them. Although, those who are not so faithful don’t think that well I don’t have anytime to study, I have to chant, I have to do all my studies. And those who give a little time for chanting and time for study would be better. For Kṛṣṇa, if we give our devotion to Kṛṣṇa he makes up what we lack in many different ways. Not only material but most important spiritually. So this once, he the student, I, saying like he’s question my mind and he was posting that was his realization, he said now he believes in Kṛṣṇa fully. Of course we shouldn't thing even if something happens wrong in our life, we shouldn’t lose our faith in Kṛṣṇa. That might, sometime there is trails, challenges which come, which make us become more fixed up and more dedicated. And we have to crossover the trails as well as accept the good fortune. So what what was good is that when the child had a good fortune he thought this was Kṛṣṇa’s mercy on me. And what’s also good is when we have any difficulty we have to face. We should know that this may be due to our own previous errors. But by that Kṛṣṇa’s mercy He will cross us over the difficulty. Kṛṣṇa promises ‘na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati’, My devotee shall never perish. Kṛṣṇa promises to protect His devotee under all circumstances.

The fact that you are all engaging in all different services and even your daily activities for your, those who’re gṛhasthas for the gṛhastha life. If you do these activities always remembering Kṛṣṇa and thinking that I want to have, maintain my family in a nice way so that I can, they can all engage in Kṛṣṇa’s service so that I can have sometime to give for Kṛṣṇa’s service so that I can help in serving Kṛṣṇa and think Kṛṣṇa’s project come up. If we analyze and put our activity in touch with Kṛṣṇa, it becomes something special, it becomes like a karma-yoga or Bhakti-yoga, rather than karma. Karma means that we’re doing something for a pious purpose. And by karma, good karmas, puṇyas we can get to swarga, we can get to the heavenly planets. Right now we’re on the bhūloka, you know the seven higher and seven lower planets, the seven higher Bhūr, Bhuvar, Svar, then there’s Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapoloka and Satyaloka. So in Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says how we can go upto these higher planets by doing puṇyas. But this is not the real goal of life, because even if you get upto Satyaloka again we have to come down if you’re not Kṛṣṇa conscious.

ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino ’rjuna
mām upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate

Those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious they don’t have to take rebirth again, they’ll go to Kṛṣṇa. This is very important to understand because in the previous verse it describes, those who have done lot of puṇyas, those who study the Vedas, good brāhmaṇas and good those who study śāstra, do puṇyas, drink soma-rasa, seek heavenly planets, svargatiṁ, they get to svarga. Bhū, Bhūr, Svar, they get to the third higher level therefore purified of the sinful reactions. They worship Kṛṣṇa, Viṣṇu, but indirectly, not out of devotion purely. So they take birth in the pious heavenly planet of Indra where they enjoy godly delights. Then, when they have thus enjoyed vast heavenly sense pleasure and the results of their pious activities are exhausted, they return to this mortal planet again. Those who thus seek sense enjoyment by hearing to the principle of the three Vedas achieve only repeated birth and death.

So that is the path of those who’re doing only puṇya-karmas. So what is better than puṇya-karma, of course those are very good people, they’re very pious people, they’re very dear to Kṛṣṇa, but they’re not liberated people. What we want to do is encourage people to do bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga means to serve Kṛṣṇa, to serve the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu. If we serve Kṛṣṇa without envying any living entities, being kind on all the living entities then Kṛṣṇa is very pleased. And we’re able to go back to Kṛṣṇa after finishing our material activity. So in this life we can be peaceful and the next life we can be with Kṛṣṇa, this is a very great success. So that’s possible if we’re absorbed in Kṛṣṇa. You see practice of devotional service is a gradual process, it’s not possible to be absorbed in Kṛṣṇa for everyone all of the sudden. It’s something that may take many years and years of practice to gradually become used to thinking about Kṛṣṇa in our different activities. But if we’re able to be absorbed in Kṛṣṇa then we’ll go to Kṛṣṇa without a doubt. Even in the Bhāgavatam it explains how asuras who have become absorbed in Kṛṣṇa by other emotions. Like Kaṁsa, he was always thinking of Kṛṣṇa in fear. Day and night he’s seeing, he’s seeing that image to Kṛṣṇa coming, that Kṛṣṇa is going to come and kill me! Kṛṣṇa is going to get me! I have done so many things against Him! He’s going to get me! When will Kṛṣṇa come! He’ll wake up in the night, he see dreams all the time! Everywhere he’s looking he is seeing Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! But he wouldn’t see Kṛṣṇa with devotion. He was seeing Kṛṣṇa with fear. But because he was totally absorbed in Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa had to come to him out of His causeless mercy and give him what he was expecting.

ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham

He reciprocates according to the how people approach Him. Of course Kaṁsa was then always sending some friend please, this Kṛṣṇa, I’m so afraid of Him, you please go and kill him. And he send one more rākṣasas, rākṣasī, Pūtanā, Triṇāvarta, one after the other they all going. Of course this is lessening the burden, this interesting how in that yuga, Dvāpara yuga, the asuras they are inflated at the human planet to control mankind by taking birth in the kingly families and by being born as the royal heirs, they, like Kaṁsa was the (inaudible 18:31) prince that he arrested his father and took over the kingdom, Ugrasena was put in prison. Like that headed by Duryodhana and many other Śiśupāla, Jarasandha, so many asuras had taken birth as humans. And that burden was felt by earth and the, not ordinary humans are taking birth, now asuras are taking birth to control and they had taken all the leading positions. So Kṛṣṇa came to deliver His devotees and to relieve the burden of the earth from these duśkṛtinas, from all these asurics.

But anyway the example I’d give the how even these demons do absorbed in Kṛṣṇa, Śiśupāla some other demon, always thinking of Kṛṣṇa in envy. Why Kṛṣṇa should be worshipped? Why Kṛṣṇa? Why not others? Why not me? I must, this Kṛṣṇa then like he’d always be envious of Kṛṣṇa. So finally Kṛṣṇa cut off his head, he got liberation, he got mokṣa, ātmā came out and went in to Kṛṣṇa, he got mokṣa. Although the demons, they got mokṣa, sāyujya-mokṣa, they get merging into Kṛṣṇa, effulgence. But the bhaktas they don’t aspire for that type of mokṣa, these five types of mokṣa, sālokya, sāmīpya, sārupya, śārṣṭī and sāyujya, Sāyujya is the merging, they don’t want merging. Sālokya means live in the planet of Kṛṣṇa, Sarupya have a form like Viṣṇu, saccidānanda-rūpa, then śārṣṭī is the ordinance of the Lord, sāmīpya is being very close to the Lord, close association. These four types of mokṣa are accepted by devotees if it is for serving the Lord, or would all[1]  serving they’re not interested. They don’t want a visa to go to Vaikuṇṭha in there’s no service for Kṛṣṇa there, they want to go to serve the Lord, service is for them the most important. So we’re not recommending people should take a demoniac attitude and fear Kṛṣṇa or envy Kṛṣṇa, that’s not recommended here. But once being shown as anyway you think of Kṛṣṇa it’s good, even for the demons it was good if you’re fully absorbed. So for devotees, we’re fully absorbed by bhakti, by hearing and chanting. We don’t do the envy and hatred and all these, this is not recommended, we’re not recommending please don’t misunderstand, nobody please. Don’t follow Kamsa or Sisupala, follow Nanda, Yaśoda, follow Arjuna, follow the devotees, then you get absorbed by love, by devotion. And that can happen by a regular practice if we every day we get up in the morning first thing what we do?

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

And so many say,

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

Then in the morning hours we chant some Kṛṣṇa, read some Gītā, Bhāgavatam, then we do our, any pūjās and we do our daily activity. While we’re working we also, while we going in the car, bus we can also go on chanting

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

We fill up any spare moments, we chanting and while we doing our work we also thing how that this work I’m doing, let this work be pleasing to Kṛṣṇa, let some of the fruits of my work go to Kṛṣṇa. Because Gītā is explaining

yajñārthāt karmaṇo ’nyatra loko ’yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ

Any work we do as a sacrifice, as a yajña, meant for the pleasure of Viṣṇu, that frees us from the bondage. And any activity we do which will not be for the pleasure of the Lord, it will bind us in the karma fall.

Jai Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma! Jai Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma! Jai Nitāi-Gaura!

The Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu ordered some of the living entities to take up this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He basically ordered all of the human beings in the universe to take it up, not everything, but at least all the human beings. And He said that they should now take it up but they should give it to others. And He gave a special instruction those who born in India, He said ‘bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra,’ those who take in human birth in the holy land of Bhārata ‘janma sārthaka kari'’ you should make your life a success by following this Kṛṣṇa conscious process, ‘janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra,’ and then you should try to help others. The people don’t know who they are, then they actually suffer the most. The biggest problem in the world today is that people don’t know their spiritual identity, they don’t know that we’re spiritual entities, they don’t know that they have a eternal relation with the Supreme Lord, that we are all beloved by the Lord and our duty is meant to offer Him loving service. He is our friend 'he kṛṣṇa karuṇā-sindho dīna-bandho jagat-pate,’ He’s a dīna-bandho, He’s a friend of the fallen and the helpless.

namo brahmaṇya-devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca
jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya govindāya namo namaḥ

He is working for jagad-dhitāya, and in Gītā Kṛṣṇa says

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram
suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati

That I’m the enjoyes of all religions, of all activities, all sacrifices on all the planets, I’m the Lord of all existence, sarva-loka-maheśvaram. But I’m suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ, I’m the suhṛd, I’m the friend of all living entities, Kṛṣṇa is our friend. He’s not only the greatest Lord but He’s also our dearest friend. And if we understand that and something we get jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati, then we get peace of mind, that Kṛṣṇa is my friend. Kṛṣṇa is my protector provide what I need, give what I lack. But to earn that we had to be good friends and good devotees of Kṛṣṇa. We can’t expect that, as people say I’m a good person why do bad things happen to me?

I had a case recently one gentleman came to me in South America, he’s, he was born in from Lebanon, Muslim but he became a Christian, but he also come to our temple occasionally and chants Hare Kṛṣṇa occasionally, he’s an universal. He was a Consulate General there, so his daughter, was a very nice girl, she was doing lot of social work, she was doing lot of help in the community materially helping poor people. But not particularly religious but she would go to church occasionally and she was good person by the normal standard. So he was very upset because they were, his daughter and her husband and granddaughter and his wife were coming back from the beach. And there was some, somehow the car came out of the control and she daughter was driving and fell into some deep kind of culvert. Some river or something was then no body saw there was deep, thirty foot deep and crashed down. So all the members of the car out, somehow the daughter got caught behind the steering wheel and she died. So his wife survived, the granddaughter survived and the son in laws, but his daughter didn’t survive. But he said she’s a good lady how is it she could die? He was like, he’s like going through a big culture, mean a big emotional shock, something very natural for a father. So we did a special śrāddha type of pūjā for her soul cause she was, came to the temple once, so for her, and his request we do the pūjā in the temple.

But you could study the psychology, I mean he was just couldn’t understand she was a good person, she was doing good karmas, why did she had to suffer? And many people they don’t understand this point that how does the law of karma work? It’s like a bank account, you got one account that’s for puṇya, you get another account that’s for pāpa. That’s like, she wasn’t vegetarian, she was good in a western sense, she was doing so many things that we will consider very sinful here, but she was doing some social work. So that she was to getting some puṇya for helping people. But the puṇya does goes in the good account, but the pāpa it goes on in the bad account, the puṇya doesn’t cross out the pāpa. This is what people don’t understand, they think of I do lot of good work, it’ll cross out by bad work, doesn’t work like that. Pāpa goes in separate account, puṇya goes in separate account. Whatever papas you do, that goes in that account and the puṇyas goes on this account. So just do lot of puṇya doesn’t cross out the pāpas. The only way you can clean out pāpas is by yajña, by acting for Kṛṣṇa then you can clean out this material account. Otherwise by simply good works doesn’t mean good people will have bad things happen to them if they also doing bad things or if you’ve done bad things with in the last hundred births. Because the karmas are coming even for a hundred births. So this is not unlikely that some sinful reaction can come on them.

So many people they don’t understand the intricacy that how good work does not going to save you, not going to save anyone. It helps, it’s better than doing bad works, no doubt, we encourage good work. But better is to do a good work in such a way that Kṛṣṇa is pleased, it should be a good work that we do for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa, then we get all the benefit. So that if you give something away, Kṛṣṇa said do it in My name, if you’re giving out for the poor people, do it in the name of Kṛṣṇa, give out the Kṛṣṇa prasādam. Do it in that, this is on behalf of the temple we’re giving that people be drawn to Kṛṣṇa, that I’m getting this from God, we’re giving basically to the Supreme Lord. And this Lord is, the temple then is giving out the benefit to the poor. So that way our service is to the Lord which will go to the benefit of the needy. We don’t get bad karmas, we get the, not only we get the best things from Kṛṣṇa we get the sukṛti. There’s another higher account, this is eternal credit, this is beyond the puṇya and pāpa account, this is the sukṛti account. This is the account which gives us a visa back to Goloka Vṛndāvana and Vaikuṇṭha, many people have these Vaikuṇṭha passports. You see well, Kṛṣṇa He has also His special accountant, he’s keeping track. All the sevas we do that goes in our account of sukṛti. When we get enough sukṛti accumulated then Kṛṣṇa He gives us visa back to the spiritual world. We were discussing that not only does He give you the visa but He also gives you the air fare (laughing). Some people are you know, they want to go to America or London or Australia, they get visa but then may again have to also buy the ticket. Even you buy the ticket you might not get the visa. But Kṛṣṇa is a package tour, if you get visa you get also the free opening, the Puṣpaka-vimāna the spiritual airplane will come.

Just like Dhruva Mahārāja when he was, the life is over he went to Badrikāśrama there he was meditating on worshipping the form of Nārāyaṇa there he was being fully absorbed in that meditation. If he, when his was so complete he was so absorbed, he was starting to tears coming in his eyes, his hairs was standing on end, he was feeling so much ecstasy that time he wasn’t thinking of anything else but Kṛṣṇa. And he said, it just like a coconut becomes dry on outside and inside the coconut become loose. That when a devotee get so much absorbed in Kṛṣṇa that he becomes liberated while living. And the connection between the external body is just like in the dry coconut inside the big husk, it’s inside there but there’s no connection. But for all practical purpose is already liberated, only the superficial connection is there and that will be finished when the body is finished. So then that, while he was meditating beautiful moon like light start to appear in the sky. He saw that this airplane had come down and there was there representative of Viṣṇu, Nanda and Sananda, the two special associates of Lord Viṣṇu from Viṣṇuloka. They came and told him that we have come, Viṣṇu has sent now you’re ready to go back, if you want to get to Viṣṇuloka you can get on the airplane. So he thought, get on the airplane, that Viṣṇu is not the small thing! I will take my bath first (laughing). So he went into the Gaṅgā there and took the bath at Badrikāśrama, Gaṅgā and put on the fresh cloth and his tilaka everything. Then he went, and he’s still little bit hesitant they thought you know the actually the brilliant Viṣṇu-vimāna, then he gone around it four times, circumambulating. Then he said alright, he thought now I’ll get on. As he was going to step on and he saw that death personified was coming raising to him. Oh! She’s death! Death! He put his foot on the vimāna, put his foot on the head of death, he’s coming, he stepped on death and walked on to the holy airplane of Viṣṇu, crossed over death. And then he was in his spiritual form, saccidānanda-rūpa. And when he taught what about my mother? If it wasn’t for my mother, today I wouldn’t be here going back to Viṣṇuloka. She was the one who told me to look for Viṣṇu, look for Kṛṣṇa, look for the Supreme Lord. He said what about my mother Sunīti? And they, Viṣṇudūtas, Sananda, Nanda they said, look at! And there was another vimāna going and she was already heading back. She a, since your guru she’s already going ahead of you. So the disciple goes back to Kṛṣṇa, Guru also gets free visa and passage (laughing). So please go back, then your guru can also get, incase the guru is not able to get on any other way, then in this way he can also go.

So in this way by liberal practices, hearing and chanting and preparing, gradually we start to develop attraction to Kṛṣṇa. And then when the attraction is there very easy to think of Kṛṣṇa. I the beginning we’re not be attractive because we are in diseased condition, but if we go on practicing we become purified. Prabhupāda give the example when we have jaundice you take sugar candy it taste bitter, is sugar candy bitter? What do you think? Miśrī, sugar candy, is it bitter or sweet? Normally any, ever had any sugar candy that’s bitter? Not normal always stays sweet. But why the sick man with jaundice is thinking it’s bitter? Why is this? What is this mystery? Because of the ease his taste is giving the wrong information cause he’s sick. He’s tasting a sweet thing and he’s thinking it’s bitter, isn’t it? But if he goes on eating the sugar candy will get cured and what will the sugar candy taste like when he’s healthy? It will taste sweet. So some time people in the beginning they say, oh chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa this is very tiresome or they’re not appreciating in the beginning. But if they go on chanting this is just like the jaundice, if you go on chanting then you gradually start to say, oh this is very sweet, this is very nice. So the beginning we have to kind of force our mind, force our self a little bit to those who’ve not the taste yet, to give that time. It’s like a question of priority, we have to set the time aside.

I asked one businessman in Hyderabad, he came and he was saying, I chant but I don’t get the time. I asked him do you find time to bathe everyday? No no, I bathe everyday before I go to work. So you’re finding the time to bathe but it’s taking so much time? No but I have to bathe before I go to work. Do you wash your clothes? No no, everyday I wear clean clothes. So what is more important, your body for bathing or your consciousness? You see the consciousness has to also be cleansed, all these influences of the world. Just like when we go under the world, we see anger, we see violence, we see hatred, we see so many ugly things, we hear things, these pollute our consciousness. We had to sometime hear lies, sometime people in business they have to tell lies, so many things had to be done. And cause to affect the consciousness, we need to bathe our mind, bathe our consciousness to get free from all these contaminations. That Lord Caitanya gave the secret ‘ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaḿ’, the chanting is the cleansing of the consciousness. So we have to give some time for cleansing the consciousness just like we give time for bathing and putting on the clean clothes. Then he could understand, yes! I can see now it is the question of priority. If I give the priority, is some time I have to give for chanting. The people don’t understand the necessity of it. They all think when I get old, I’ll do it. But we should do it even from the young age and go on practicing. Then it becomes the natural habit to remember Kṛṣṇa and we always are cleansing our self.

So I thank all of you very much for your taking up this process. I understand many sādhakas and sevakas and the śraddhāvānas and other devotees, Prabhupāda āśrayas, guru āśrayas and of course disciples are here also and we appreciate very much your determination. Prabhupada give the example that if you, anyone who comes on the path of devotion even if they beginning stage they might be very unright, they may be very new. But once a person decides that in my life my priority is I’m going to serve Kṛṣṇa, I’m going to use my life to please Kṛṣṇa, this is my objective, they are already in the path of bhakti. And so by Kṛṣṇa’s arrangement, He’s saying ‘yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham’, He’ll give whatever is needed to get you to that destination. We have to fix the goal, I’ll reach Kṛṣṇa one day. I may be very weak, I may not have all the qualities, it may take me awhile but my objective is like that, I’m going to step by step head in that direction to whatever pays I can hand up. So Kṛṣṇa will help you, Kṛṣṇa helps all of us. We need that help, without that help how we can reach Him. We also need to give all our effort and head in that direction.

So Prabhupāda gives the example here that would happens is anyone who makes that decision they’re all to be considered devotees. And the only difference is that some devotee is a ripened devotee and some are unripe. So he give that like a mango is ripe and unripe. If you buy get now many mangos are coming in market they’re picking from the tree green. They’re shipping it here and they’re keeping it in the box and it gets ripe. Or they pick the mango they pick also the banana little unripe for shipping purpose and they keep it in the city, after few days it ripens. The banana or the mango will ripen if you keep it, if you keep it on the tree it will ripen, that’s the sweetest if you have tree ripen. But the point is that once it’s already fruit is formed, little time it will ripen, devotion is like that. If we remain in the path of bhakti we will ripen in due course, simpy we have to remain in the path. So everyone is at different stages of ripening but everyone is heading in the correct direction. Everyone will reach Kṛṣṇa simply by remaining in the process.

So we wish all of you and pray to Kṛṣṇa to give all His blessings on you. Thank you very much!

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

Of course Lord Caitanya is the special, gives His special mercy when you help others to get to Kṛṣṇa. This is a way of reducing the bad account very quick, the aparādhas and other negative things are destroyed when we help others. We have harmed others, that’s called offence, when we help others spiritually that’s neutralize, that neutralizes. Doing puṇya doesn’t neutralize, but going spiritual upliftment helps others, that helps others reduces your aparādhas. So that’s why this Kṛṣṇa test program and other program at the temple which are helping to bring people closer to Kṛṣṇa. Not only does it help those people but it helps the people who are doing that promotional activity and trainings and so on. Because by helping others then Kṛṣṇa is more inclined to help you and that neutralizes any mistake you might have made in the path. It’s very important secret for making quick advancement.

So thank you very much for helping in all these activities also. May Kṛṣṇa give you all the strength needed to serve Him. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

On Karma and Karma-yoga: Karma and karma yoga, there’s a difference. Karma means the puṇya karmas or the normal good activities that someone does. Also karma mean any activity which has a reaction. We may do some activity that karma-phala is there, for every karma there is a karma-phala, a fruit of the karma, reaction for the karma. But karma yoga means that we’re offering the fruit of the action to Kṛṣṇa, to Viṣṇu. Then we don’t get the karmaphalA, we giving that. Just like when you do yajna you say ‘idam Kṛṣṇa idan na mama’, I’m offering this to Kṛṣṇa, the fruit I don’t want it. We have the right to do the work right? ‘mā phaleṣu kadācana,’ we don’t have the right for the fruit. Like you’re working in a factory, you may produce so many, in Bangalore what they’re producing, airplanes, computers, watches, so many things. If you work in a factory, say you’re working in the HMT watch factory.

So by working there the, if you’ve decided I’m working here, I’m going to take tem watches and put in my pocket and go (laughing). He has the right to do that? What do you think? Not, I’m working here so I want to take the watches. If he gets caught by the gate guard he’ll find himself in trouble, isn’t it? We’re working in this world, but who is the owner? It’s like we’re working in factory but owner is someone else. We have the right to work, we don’t have the right to take the products of the factory unless we buy them. May be they’ll give discount for employees or something, we can’t take it without permission. Like that Kṛṣṇa then He’s, given us permission what we can take. We have enough to eat but we should eat only food, sāttvika food. We can have clothing, we can have halls, He given so many what we can take. But those things which He didn’t give us permission to take, if we take that then we’re responsible. Just like someone working in a factory, they’re responsible.

So devotee need a universal vision, who has that vision and he does his work and offers the fruit of the work to Kṛṣṇa he’s a karma yogi. When we add to karma-yoga bhakti, chanting, arthan and other, the saṁskāras and thing then it becomes bhakti-yoga. Karma yoga is one of the aṅgas of bhakti-yoga. But karma-yoga all yogīs have to do. Whenever you act you should do karma-yoga, otherwise if you act you’ll be getting only karmas, karma means the reaction and you’ll be bound. So you can do karma-yoga doesn’t mean only pūjā, puja is says bhakti yoga. Work for Kṛṣṇa is also bhakti yoga and it’s also working for Kṛṣṇa without puja is karma yoga. Just like say that you’re working and you decide I want to give a, from my work I’m giving so much percentage I give for the temple construction, so your work becomes karma yoga. But I’m working, but that, from the, by the money I earn I’m going to buy the sāttvika food and offer to the Kṛṣṇa deity and give my children and wife, so that activity is also becomes a purified activity. Anything, we work we do that we offer the result to Kṛṣṇa then is becomes a yoga, karma-yoga.

But you get some people they may offer that okay I cannot do all these chanting and things. But let me come on saturday on time, I can come and clean your temple or I can go and I can do some work for the temple, I’ll deliver something for you, so that’s a karma yoga also. And the karma-yoga is unlimited, we can do anything for Kṛṣṇa that He has not prohibited. Because I want to setup one slaughterhouse, that’s karma yoga, that he can’t do because He’s not permitting, that’s not what He wants people to do. But you can make a vegetable garden, say that from this garden I’m going to give a certain percentage of the fruits. I’ll be maintaining my family and something I’ll be giving to the deity, to Hanuman, to Kṛṣṇa, to Kṛṣṇa Balarāma. So when you’re giving that to Viṣṇu 'yajño vai viṣṇuḥ and His devotees, then it becomes a karma-yoga, bhakti.

Question: Can a soul reach mokṣa without going through human birth?

The human birth has got the free will. The animal births don’t have the free will, they follow their instinct. So the animals they got no karmas, no puṇya, no pāpa. But if someone from human goes back to animal, in the animal birth they may be gaining the result of the previous papas. To become animal from human you have to be very sinful. So normally human birth is the free choice to get moksha. And since animal is just following the instinct normally how they are, they don’t have any free choice to think. Like we having, we invited we’re having class tonight on Gītā. But how many dogs have come here? How many cats? They’re not able to appreciate. But even then sometimes by rare mercy animals have gotten mokṣa. There some example, one time in the Viṣṇu temple there was one dīpa, you know dīpa, this light, lamp. The ghee wick had a, flame was down to very small, just blue, tick tick tick tick, just almost to go out, so small like microscopic, just last level. So it was not even visible, one rat, one mouse came to eat the ghee on the, on the tula, on that cotton swab. So while going to eat the ghee push the cotton with the nose little bit that mean the wick little longer. So then the flame could increase in size, that made the deity become illuminated. At that time some devotee had come to that temple and couldn’t see the deity, was praying the Lord, I wanted your darśana. The mouse came and pushed, the light came up and the devotee could get the darśana. The Lord took it that the mouse has offered Me an ārati (laughing). He gave the mouse mokṣa because mouse had offered ārati, like a pūjāri. But that mouse is not thinking anything about pūjā this, you can say this what we call ‘ahaitukī kṛpā, this is causeless mercy.

Like that there was a case onetime where one dog was following one devotee called Śivānanda Sena of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and every time that he was feeding the dog and taking the dog along. Even the dog got misplaced, he took the dog on the boat paying the fairy charge, everything. Finally the dog disappeared just when they went to the Jagannātha Purī temple town, Jagannātha Purī town. He didn’t see that dog, when he came to see Lord Caitanya he found that Lord Caitanya was sitting, that dog was sitting there, Lord just eating some prasad from Jagannātha, one coconut. And He was throwing the coconut to the dog which you know, how they catch it. And then after that, the dog by taking the prasāda of Jagannātha achieve mokṣa. Like that some animals by eating prasāda, they get either human birth or they get moksha sometime. That way, but that’s, that’s why when some day like Govardhana-pūjā, says that day you should feed everyone, even all guests, even all animals.

That it says some of these priests, some of the priests who have committed offences in the holy place. They take birth next life as dogs, hogs or monkeys in the dhāma, in that holy place. Then they being in the holy place eat the prasāda and they live and hear the holy names, so that way they can get deliverance. When you chant loudly Hare Kṛṣṇa!

(devotees repeat:) Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Jayapatākā Swami: Any insects birds anything hears that, they can also get delivered. So you can help the animals. On their own they’re not able to take much effort cause they’re not conscious.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!