19961127 Bhagavad-gītā 11.55 House Program

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Maharāja on November 27^th, 1996 in Atlanta, USA. The class begins from a reading from the Bhagavad-gītā chapter 11 verse 55.

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mat-karma-kṛn mat-paramo
mad-bhaktaḥ saṅga-varjitaḥ
nirvairaḥ sarva-bhūteṣu
yaḥ sa mām eti pāṇḍava

mat-karma-kṛt — engaged in doing My work; mat-paramaḥ — considering Me the Supreme; mat-bhaktaḥ — engaged in My devotional service; saṅga-varjitaḥ — freed from the contamination of fruitive activities and mental speculation; nirvairaḥ — without an enemy; sarva-bhūteṣu — among all living entities; yaḥ — one who; saḥ — he; mām — unto Me; eti — comes; pāṇḍava — O son of Pāṇḍu.

Translation: My dear Arjuna, he who engages in My pure devotional service, free from the contaminations of fruitive activities and mental speculation, he who works for Me, who makes Me the supreme goal of his life, and who is friendly to every living being – he certainly comes to Me.

Purport: Anyone who wants to approach the supreme of all the Personalities of Godhead, on the Kṛṣṇaloka planet in the spiritual sky, and be intimately connected with the Supreme Personality, Kṛṣṇa, must take this formula, as stated by the Supreme Himself. Therefore, this verse is considered to be the essence of Bhagavad-gītā. The Bhagavad-gītā is a book directed to the conditioned souls, who are engaged in the material world with the purpose of lording it over nature and who do not know of the real, spiritual life. The Bhagavad-gītā is meant to show how one can understand his spiritual existence and his eternal relationship with the supreme spiritual personality and to teach one how to go back home, back to Godhead. Now here is the verse which clearly explains the process by which one can attain success in his spiritual activity: devotional service.

As far as work is concerned, one should transfer his energy entirely to Kṛṣṇa conscious activities. As stated in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.2.255),

anāsaktasya viṣayān
yathārham upayuñjataḥ
nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe
yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate

No work should be done by any man except in relationship to Kṛṣṇa. This is called kṛṣṇa-karma. One may be engaged in various activities, but one should not be attached to the result of his work; the result should be done only for Him. For example, one may be engaged in business, but to transform that activity into Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one has to do business for Kṛṣṇa. If Kṛṣṇa is the proprietor of the business, then Kṛṣṇa should enjoy the profit of the business. If a businessman is in possession of thousands and thousands of dollars, and if he has to offer all this to Kṛṣṇa, he can do it. This is work for Kṛṣṇa. Instead of constructing a big building for his sense gratification, he can construct a nice temple for Kṛṣṇa, and he can install the Deity of Kṛṣṇa and arrange for the Deity’s service, as is outlined in the authorized books of devotional service. This is all kṛṣṇa-karma. One should not be attached to the result of his work, but the result should be offered to Kṛṣṇa, and one should accept as prasādam the remnants of offerings to Kṛṣṇa. If one constructs a very big building for Kṛṣṇa and installs the Deity of Kṛṣṇa, one is not prohibited from living there, but it is understood that the proprietor of the building is Kṛṣṇa. That is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If, however, one is not able to construct a temple for Kṛṣṇa, one can engage himself in cleansing the temple of Kṛṣṇa; that is also kṛṣṇa-karma. One can cultivate a garden. Anyone who has land – in India, at least, any poor man has a certain amount of land – can utilize that for Kṛṣṇa by growing flowers to offer Him. One can sow tulasī plants, because tulasī leaves are very important and Kṛṣṇa has recommended this in Bhagavad-gītā. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam. Kṛṣṇa desires that one offer Him either a leaf, or a flower, or fruit, or a little water – and by such an offering He is satisfied. This leaf especially refers to the tulasī. So one can sow tulasī and pour water on the plant. Thus, even the poorest man can engage in the service of Kṛṣṇa. These are some of the examples of how one can engage in working for Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapatākā Swami: Okay this is a very long purport, so we’ll just take it part by part.

Remember here in this verse Kṛṣṇa is giving the formula how to come to Him. Those who engage in pure devotional service free from contamination of fruitive activities and mental speculation, he who works for Me. ‘mad-bhaktaḥ saṅga-varjitaḥ’, ‘mat-param’, ‘mat-karma-kṛt’, engaged in doing My work, ‘mat-karma-kṛt’, who makes me the Supreme goal of his life. It was friendly to every living being, he certainly comes to Me. So these are the things we can do to book our ticket to go back to Kṛṣṇa end of this life. These are the things which can protect us and make us happy in this life. Of course, Kṛṣṇa know have many goals, here He says the Supreme goal should be to reach Him. Because we know that in this world there is no ideal situation, there is always ups and downs. Moreover apart from that, with Kṛṣṇa there is the Supreme happiness that we’re seeking. So this yukta-vairāgya was described here ‘anāsaktasya viṣayān’, viṣayān means objects of enjoyment, objects of the sense gratification. But here is ‘anāsaktasya viṣayān’, even while we are engaged in activities in the material world which are enjoyable the devotee remains detached or unattached. ‘anāsaktasya, yathārham upayuñjataḥ’, accordingly not same due to its middle path, doesn’t do anything too excessively and use it everything in service of Kṛṣṇa. And then constantly ‘nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe,’ sambandhe means relation. In Kṛṣṇa’s relationship continuously without Kṛṣṇa says, everything's been done, ‘yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate’.

So this is what we called as yukta-vairāgya or renunciation applied with say, what to so, applied renunciation. Not that we renounce things that oh this jagat mithyā brahma satya, you see, if we say like that then everything in this material world is false. So then there will be so renounced everything, but this is not what as Kṛṣṇa has prescribed. He doesn’t say that jagat mithyā, so jagat is asat, it’s not mithyā it’s asat. There is a sat-cit-ānanda jagat and there is the asat jagat. Asat means temporary, just like a dream is temporary, when we are in a dream, we’re sleeping sometime we may dream that we are emperors or empresses or next thing we may be dreaming we’re in the jungle, Ah! Tigers coming to eat us (laughing). Then we wake up from our dream, then we oh everything is alright, or oh I’m no longer the emperor. Not I’m still a (inaudible 12:48), I need to pay my tax (laughing). So, but when we’re in the dream just like we had the tiger is attacking us in the dream and at that time appearance quite real. Once we go back to Kṛṣṇaloka then whatever we do in this life is like a dream, that is the eternal life. This explained like they’re five realities, the first one is the material activities which are temporary. Then comes the eternal time factor, time is eternal, beyond that there is the material energy, the material energy is eternal. Even modern physicist have a law stating the conservation of energy. You may have, like this is wood if we burn the wood, Kṛṣṇa we don’t burn anything, but we burn wood the wood transforms to ashes, heat, light, vapours and so on gases. Energy is simply transformed, it’s not destroyed, that is the principle also mentioned in the śāstras. If the energy is eternal only the from may change, so material energy is eternal. But because the material energy is being affected by eternal time then the activities with in the energy are temporary.

It’s a very nice house but they also not last forever, not thousands of years. Even we want to build the Māyāpur temple for thousand years because, this we don’t know because mostly if you build with rebar, it will last may be hundred years. So we’re saying without rebar design for thousand years, but in this world there is you know volcanoes so many things, you never know what’s happening. We try, but in this world nothing can last forever. So a temporary thing can be a gateway for us to go to the eternal simply by using it in Kṛṣṇa’s service. Prabhupāda said that there’s no problem if someone has a beautiful house, we put deity of Kṛṣṇa, here’s Radha and Kṛṣṇa in the house, you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa in the house so the house becomes Kṛṣṇa’s. And in this way the house itself is also a kind of griha mandir, home temple for the Lord. So like this in Vṛndāvana there are 5000 temples. So here in greater Atlanta area we’d like to see thousands and thousands of temples. But how people get the inspiration or get the training how to make the house temples. That’s why we have established, we called, install deity at temple.

You see now a days of course in Hindu dharma this is a little bit of sectarianism is coming. But previously it was not so much there in north India at least, may be south India little bit. But between the Śaivites and the Vaiṣṇavas, but Caitanya Mahāprabhu He did not, He respected all the temples because according to śāstra the temple is the home of Kṛṣṇa, home of the deity. Whichever deity is installed they're called arcāvatāra, they’re incarnation of the Lord in deity form. Just like we travel around India, we go to all the temples, it’s not that we only go to Hare Kṛṣṇa temple, we’ll go to Jagannātha Purī temple or Dvarakā temple, or Nāthadvāra temple or Jaipur temple we go to all of the, Govinda jī. Because wherever Kṛṣṇa is there, of course we also go to Prabhupāda’s established temple. Because Caitanya Mahāprabhu, of course in this age deity worship is not the main process, but deity worship is also a bona fide process. So a temple is a place we can gather together, we can worship the deity. And in this age especially where we can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa together. So we want people to come together in the temple to get the training, to get the association, to get the big group together. But we want them also that they should practice in their own home, that the temple should extend throughout the whole metropolitan Atlanta region through all of the devotees.

How we know when we get together we feel the energy so many devotees chanting, so many devotees associating, this is what gives the tremendous force. Kṛṣṇa said He is more pleased when His devotees are together. Even Lord Śiva said he’s more pleased with the Kṛṣṇa bhaktas and he gives them his special blessing. So in this age you know the Skanda Purāṇa also it mentions that simply by chanting the two words HA RI, those two syllables HA RI, all of the inauspiciousness is taken away from the heart of the devotee. So temple is place to everyone can do some sevā, some work for Kṛṣṇa. We shouldn’t think, even whether we agree always with all the management decision or don’t agree or whatever we should see this is the home of Kṛṣṇa I’m coming to serve Kṛṣṇa. Time to time policy may change in that way, that we try to always improve and make it the best responsive. For different people may have difference of opinion, so gradually we try to refine and make it better and more pleasing and so on to Kṛṣṇa and His bhaktas. But if everyone goes with the mood I want to come to serve! What sevā I can do? If someone doesn’t have money to do big sevā, financially grow much, they can clean the temple, they can serve the prasādam, they can sole for the deities, there’s hundreds of sevās they can do.

That I was coming with devotees this year in April I went to the Nāthajī temple, Nāthadvāra, and it was so nice temple, actually that deity of Nāthajī, Śrīnāthajī originally is worshipped by our guru-paraṁparā. The guru of the guru of Caitanya Mahāprabhu was the devotee who found that Śrīnāthajī deity in Govardhana hill. Anyway that temple they accept this deity was in Govardhana hill and during that time of Aurangzeb that deity was brought down from Govardhana to Jaipur and some village by village until finally to Nāthadvāra. Anyway the wonderful thing about that temple, everybody offers sevā. Some people are cutting subzis, after the ārati you go you can get flowers and there’s the window you can offer the flowers through the window. You can get milk and offer milk through the window. When the firewood comes they just say sevā, everybody goes and lifts the firewood and puts it inside, don’t have to hire coolies, we are the coolies (laughing). I also lifted firewood and went into the kitchen, everyone, we enjoyed to do the sevā. It is that principle of sevā is what Kṛṣṇa is saying mat-karma-kṛt, who’s doing My work, for Me, he comes back to Me.

So that’s we want to make the temple a opportunity for everyone to do Kṛṣṇa’s sevā. We don’t have a, no one has a monopoly, not in only the swamis do sevā, only the initiative brāhmaṇas or some, sevā is for all bhaktas. Whether one is Sudāma-vipra or whether one is Yudhisthira Maharaj, whether one is a Kubja whoever one might be, everyone can do the sevā for Kṛṣṇa. And that’s what we want to always increase and make it better opportunity so everyone can do some sevā. We were very grateful because since the sunday program has come under the volunteers of the devotees in the congregation. Sunday program also developing nicely, then Madras has some program is completely organized by the youth. Youth shouldn’t think that it’s only for the old people, they can also take some initiative. So in conclusion here, of course I miss it, just one last word here,

Purport (continued): The word mat-paramaḥ refers to one who considers the association of Kṛṣṇa in His supreme abode to be the highest perfection of life. Such a person does not wish to be elevated to the higher planets such as the moon or sun or heavenly planets, or even the highest planet of this universe, Brahmaloka. He has no attraction for that. He is only attracted to being transferred to the spiritual sky. And even in the spiritual sky he is not satisfied with merging into the glowing brahma-jyotir effulgence, for he wants to enter the highest spiritual planet, namely Kṛṣṇaloka, Goloka Vṛndāvana. He has full knowledge of that planet, and therefore he is not interested in any other. As indicated by the word mad-bhaktaḥ, he fully engages in devotional service, specifically in the nine processes of devotional engagement: hearing, chanting, remembering, worshiping, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering prayers, carrying out the orders of the Lord, making friends with Him, and surrendering everything to Him. One can engage in all nine devotional processes, or eight, or seven, or at least in one, and that will surely make one perfect.

Jayapatākā Swami:

Sometimes we think mat-bhaktaḥ, the mat-bhaktaḥ means, if I think I’m a devotee that means I’m a devotee. But here the definition mat-bhaktaḥ means who is engaging in devotional service. Just like someone may say I’m a citizen, but I don’t pay tax and break all the laws or something, it’s not the real good citizen, isn’t it? (laughing) I don’t do, I don’t follow anything. So mat-bhaktaḥ means one who is engaging in devotional service. Bhakti is practical, we chant the Lord’s names, we remember, we hear the glories of the Lord. You see even a little bit of bhakti, doesn’t even we have to do so many, even if we can do one thing, is enough. In the Padma Purāṇa there’s explanation by Lord Śiva, he was telling Pārvati about glories of Bhagavad-gītā. So Pārvati asked what is the glories of the eighth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā.

So then Lord Śiva explained that once there were two people born in family of devotees. They got married they are husband and wife but they were not very interested, their grandfather and their forefather were all great bhaktas but they were not very active. They just you know chalti hey, just you know, (laughing) let it go, they’re not paying much attention. So they were on tour just to see here and there what’s going in the world. And in that tour they saw so many things. So one day they sat under the big tree and they didn’t know that this tree was used by the king to hang criminals, (laughing) it was the hanging tree. So you know there are lot of entities living in that tree (laughing) in the subtle platform. So the wife was feeling little uneasy like something unusual and mystery something unusual. So she started to become curious to know what is life after all, she ask her husband, who are we? What is the purpose of our life? Where do we go after life? What is the, this law of karma? What is the origin of everything? Oh, our forefathers knew all these thing but I never paid any attention, I like to know some of these answers. So the husband he wanted to show off that he knew a little something. And he remembered the half of the eighth, first verse of eighth chapter, more or less he could remember. So that question is very similar to her question when Arjuna asks:

"Arjuna inquired: O my Lord, O Supreme Person, what is Brahman? What is the self? What are fruitive activities? What is this material manifestation? And what are the demigods? Please explain this to me."

So then he repeat you know the first half ‘kiṁ tad brahma kim adhyātmaṁ kiṁ karma puruṣottama’. Shouted out ‘kiṁ karma puruṣottama’ to impress his wife see I know so much (laughing). He shouted out the Bhagavad-gītā verse all the ghosts in that tree they immediately got liberation (laughing) hearing Bhagavad-gītā, even it was only half the verse. The tree crashed down and they could see all the subtle entities getting spiritual form, Viṣṇu-dūtas came from the spiritual world, took them in divine airplanes. Ohooo aaa oooo! (laughing) and they went off. Om namo Nārāyaṇāya!

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

So he was really amazed! Just I chanted half of the verse of Bhagavad-gītā and all of these entities got delivered, spiritual form back to the spiritual world. His faith in Bhagavad-gītā improved so much that everyday he sat down and he was chanting again and again this half of verse of Bhagavad-gītā ‘kiṁ tad brahma kim adhyātmaṁ kiṁ karma puruṣottama,’ ‘kiṁ tad brahma kim adhyātmaṁ kiṁ karma puruṣottama,’ ‘kiṁ tad brahma’, like that mantra again and again he is chanting, chanting. But Kṛṣṇa is independent, He doesn’t have to deliver on our schedule, He has His own timetable. But one day Lakṣmī was looking at Nārāyaṇa and saw Nārāyaṇa was smiling and said what is that, that You’re smiling about? He said there’s one devotee, somehow the devotee that’s chanting half the verse of Bhagavad-gītā in the material world, in the Bhārata-varṣa of the four headed Brahmā. And I’m thinking what to give him in exchange to bless him for his offering. So then He set for him and have here also brought up to the spiritual world.

Nitai Gaura sitānātha premānande! Hari Haribol!

So even a little, in Bhagavad-gītā it says ‘sv-alpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt,’ even little devotional service, little progress in devotional service can save us from the greatest danger. So side by side while we do our other activities we should learn how to Kṛṣṇatise them, spiritualize them by this yukta-vairāgya process. Everything we do we need to do, attach it somehow to Kṛṣṇa and then we are, you just put that stamp on it and duty free, karma free by offering it to Kṛṣṇa. So that is the secret and that is why temple is there to train us in this methodology. So we are very happy here our devotee, has a nice house Kṛṣṇa is here. Naturally He wants the devotees to come and chant. We should all pray for all the obstacles in this family’s path of devotional service may be removed and that their house they can be peaceful here and have so many nice services for Lord Kṛṣṇa by chanting the Narasimha prayer at the end. We’ll do that at the end, one, I’m setting up for the show, we can chant Nāmaste Narasiṁhāya. But now I like to end here

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Are there any questions?

Question: You talk about yukta-vairāgya, how can we use same glory and love in service of Kṛṣṇa?

Jayapatākā Swami: Well! Yudhiṣṭhira used. Yudhiṣṭhira used his strength, his glory. If a devotee is, devotee automatically gets fame. There was this one brāhmaṇa in South India, in Andhra Pradesh and Kūrmadesh, his name was Vāsudeva and he had leprosy and Lord Caitanya embarrassed him and not only cured him from the leprosy but even his hands and limbs which were half gone, they became returned, restored. So then he became in anxiety then I’ll become very famous now to be cured in this way, now I’ll get puffed up and I’ll forget about You or I’ll become proud or something. So then Lord Caitanya said if you always chant the holy names

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

Then you’ll be protected. You use this to encourage other people to chant. How much fame or wealth or power whatever someone is get, it’s not only due to someone’s hard work. It’s the combination of hard work as well as karmas as well as ultimately blessing of Kṛṣṇa. So that’s why we consider them without the blessing of Kṛṣṇa nothing could be achieved therefore Kṛṣṇa is ultimately the proprietor, I’m only trustee. So if anything is given to me I need to use that for Kṛṣṇa. So that’s where we need guidance of a guru. For instance George Harrison when he want, when the beatles were together, as the beatles came to Prabhupāda and asked him what should I do? Should I give up my music and just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa? And Prabhupāda said no, you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and do your music. You use whatever your position is and do something nice for Kṛṣṇa. So George Harrison donated that temple in the Watford building.

How many have gone to London temple? You’ve seen?

He donated that plus he sang a few songs like My Sweet Lord. Within that song Hare Kṛṣṇa is sung many times. So depending on you know what a person is famous for you can use it. You see Maradona unfortunately is a devotee of cocaine. But if he was a devotee of Kṛṣṇa and then went to Bangladesh in India and all these places he could have bring impact on the youth. Shouldn't look up to these type of sports people. That way, anyway we need the guidance of the guru after we, we should want that. To do our work and doesn’t be too much attached. Because the, what happens is if we attached to the result and then to get the results sometimes we drag all kinds if rules we get all kinds of bad karmas. We have to be very clear why we want this result for Kṛṣṇa right from the beginning. If I get this result I’m gonna do this for Kṛṣṇa.

There is a famous story in Tirupati how one bhakta, he went to the, he had lottery ticket and went to the Lord Venkateśvara and told Him, it was a, it was a one lakh rupee lottery that was the first prize. He said if I win I’ll give you half (laughing). So then he got second prize which was fifty thousand (laughing). So then he went to the Lord and said thank you You took Your half (laughing). But his wife was little more sensible, said no! you said if I win, you didn’t win first you won second. Half you have to give to the Lord. No no! I wanted one lakh only got fifty thousand so half He got it. You have, whatever you got you have to give half that was your promise. No no no, like that he was very much intense. But them he got sicker, he got sickness, he went to doctors, nobody could cure his sickness finally the said we don’t know what you have, nobody can cure. The wife kept telling him you must give the 50% to Balaji, you promised Him. So he went in the stretcher and went up to the hundi and gave that twenty five thousand. After that immediately he got better.

We want one half, we want only the you know they sale the chicken. Everybody wants t the cow they like the rare end giving the milk, you don’t want to feed the front end. But we need both that we have to, we have to fulfill, we want Kṛṣṇa to help us but we have to reciprocate it. Kṛṣṇa is, what we’re here for otherwise we do get entangled in the laws of karma. But if we do the activities for Kṛṣṇa under guidance of guru we can be saved form the karmic reaction.

Question: What does the word Hari mean?

Jayapatākā Swami: Green (laughing). Hari normally we take it from Haran. Haran means to steal away. So Hari Kṛṣṇa is also Hari that He is also stealing away the hearts of His devotees. He steals tem away from the material nature. Also hari means He steals away all the bad qualities of the devotee. He’s taking it away, lifting it up. So in that sense, from the word Hara, Hari.

There’s little story about one shop in Delhi. This shop is, looks like all Kṛṣṇa conscious shop. You go and find everyone wearing tilak, big red tilak, red and white. In the front man is saying, you know Keśava! Keśava! And behind, the one guy is working little behind doing some, something and he looks and he said Gopāla! Gopāla! And the one in the back he’s saying Hara Hara Hara, Hari Hari Hari. So it seems oh very Kṛṣṇa conscious shop. But actually the guy in the front is a Kasai, Keśava means kasāi, kyā kyā ādamī hai? (laughing) The other one was saying Gopāla so bolta hai (laughing), Gopala. It’s like a village, so the one at the back he said with the gold, it’s a jewelry shop. She is taking everything and said here here, kasāi, Gopāla. Gopāla means steal all the gold (laughing), Put in all silver and other things Hare Hara Hara Hari Hari Hari.

So we don’t want that type of shop you know (laughing). That we’re showing to Kṛṣṇa wanting but we’re thinking something else. Even if we’re not very advanced, at least we should be sincere that I’m trying to progress. It’s not that we have to all be on PhD level. Whatever level we are we’re trying to progress, Kṛṣṇa appreciates that. Any father can appreciate when the children are trying to improve themself. But if someone is trying to put the show that they know everything but they’re not actually trying to improve themself that is not very useful. Because then they all just stay the way they are. So what we want to do this is process to gradually progress back to home back to Godhead. Be peaceful and happy in this life, get freed from the contamination of material life and get qualified after this life to go back to Kṛṣṇa, very simple process.

Question: How far if one is advanced just for sake of his work, does he has to work? But he’s not so advanced that while working he doesn’t think of Kṛṣṇa. So he did it just as work. He’s working very hard and is attached to do work, he doesn’t know.

Jayapatākā Swami: But Arjuna is like that also isn’t it? Even though he is very attached to Kṛṣṇa when he is fighting in the battle right? We could imagine when we’re fighting in the battle and someone is shooting arrows at you, you’re fighting with the sword. You have to be concentrating on what he other person is doing. How to counteract it, how to deal with it. So that’s why Kṛṣṇa He said that the purpose why you’re doing something. Why is Arjuna fighting? Because Kṛṣṇa ask him to, because He is protecting principle of dharma. These people said we don’t care for the śāstra, we don’t care for dharma, we don’t care that we lie, we want to enjoy the kingdom and if you don’t like it, you do something about it. So then Kṛṣṇa said alright! These people are asking, they’re not fit to be emperors of the Bhārata-varṣa and of the world. Therefore He wanted them to fight to establish principle of dharma. So even though Arjuna in the battle field, of course he can be more conscious of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is right in front of him. But you know he has to also be very conscious about what’s going on.

Even someone, I heard a nice example that said, now is a Christmas season, so everybody goes shopping. Whether you’re a christian or it’s like habit you go and do some shopping or may be for Diwali or some occasion we do shopping. So when we go shopping for a loved one you know may be you want to buy a piece of cloth or you want to buy some gifts. You look at the gift, this is the good price, occasionally you think does the person like it or would fit. But you’re also looking is it worthwhile, is it good or maybe you do bargaining or whatever. Because ultimately that object is going to be given to that person, even though you have to do so many things. Al the actions, going down there, choosing it, paying for it, bringing it back, wrapping it up whatever, it’s all part of our loving gift to that person.

So bhakti is like that, it’s not that just, everything we do for Kṛṣṇa, all the things connected with it becomes purified. That’s the beauty of it. So that’s why we have to precise it from the very beginning you have to establish your purpose. That your purpose, just like someone may say, my purpose I want to have a house I want to actually live in the house but I want to practice my Kṛṣṇa consciousness, I want to have a big room where I can invite people, we can have bhajans of Kṛṣṇa there. Occasionally I’ll invite some swamiji or guru and when he come we’ll talk Hari-kathā. So the house becomes and also something we use for Kṛṣṇa sevā. For someone else it may just you know I wanna house and I’m gonna have parties there and we’ll have a, many living rooms should go now, you know you’ll have a in the front you have a, a bar, instead of temple they put bar (laughing). That’s their deity, they bow down you know sometime they bow down in the toilet you know offering into the toilet bowl they’re swimming (laughing) to their deity (laughing).

Now in India so many states the women have pushed and had this alcohol banned. I think in Gujarat in Andhra, also in Haryana I don’t know how many, but quite a few, it’s very big thing. But of course people they, they cheat and they smuggle and all these. The thing is to change the heart. So what we do, we have to make our declare propose to Kṛṣṇa. In between we may not, or every moment thinking about Kṛṣṇa but at the crucial times we remember Kṛṣṇa.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!