19970601 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.5.10

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on June 1st, 1997 Iskcon, Bangalore, India. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.5.10.

Translation: Those words which do not describe the glories of the Lord, who alone can sanctify the atmosphere of the whole universe, are considered by saintly persons to be like unto a place of pilgrimage for crows. Since the all-perfect persons are inhabitants of the transcendental abode, they do not derive any pleasure there.

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: Crows and swans are not birds of the same feather, because of their different mental attitudes. The fruitive workers or passionate men are compared to the crows, whereas the all-perfect saintly persons are compared to the swans. The crows take pleasure in a place where garbage is thrown out, just as the passionate fruitive workers take pleasure in wine and woman and places for gross sense pleasure. The swans do not take pleasure in the places where crows are assembled for conferences and meetings. They are instead seen in the atmosphere of natural scenic beauty where there are transparent reservoirs of water nicely decorated with stems of lotus flowers in variegated colors of natural beauty. That is the difference between the two classes of birds.

Nature has influenced different species of life with different mentalities, and it is not possible to bring them up into the same rank and file.

Similarly, there are different kinds of literature for different types of men of different mentality. Mostly the market literatures which attract men of the crow’s categories are literatures containing refused remnants of sensuous topics. They are generally known as mundane talks in relation with the gross body and subtle mind. They are full of subject matter described in decorative language full of mundane similes and metaphorical arrangements. Yet with all that, they do not glorify the Lord. Such poetry and prose, on any subject matter, is considered decoration of a dead body. Spiritually advanced men who are compared to the swans do not take pleasure in such dead literatures, which are sources of pleasure for men who are spiritually dead. These literatures in the modes of passion and ignorance are distributed under different labels, but they can hardly help the spiritual urge of the human being, and thus the swanlike spiritually advanced men have nothing to do with them. Such spiritually advanced men are called mānasa also because they always keep up the standard of transcendental voluntary service to the Lord on the spiritual plane. This completely forbids fruitive activities for gross bodily sense satisfaction or subtle speculation of the material egoistic mind.

Social literary men, scientists, mundane poets, theoretical philosophers and politicians who are completely absorbed in the material advancement of sense pleasure are all dolls of the material energy. They take pleasure in a place where rejected subject matters are thrown. According to Svāmī Śrīdhara, this is the pleasure of the prostitute-hunters.

But literatures which describe the glories of the Lord are enjoyed by the paramahaṁsas who have grasped the essence of human activities.

Jayapatākā Swami: So this is a very strong verse, a very strong instruction by Nārada Muni to Vyāsadeva. Actually, Vyāsadeva is wanting to know why he is not feeling satisfied after writing so many śāstras. And this is the reply that Nārada gave to him. The words which do not describe the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, who alone can sanctify the atmosphere of the whole universe are considered by the saintly persons to be like unto a place of pilgrimage for crows. Actually, Nārada Muni is telling Vyāsadeva that even if the śāstras which he has written which are not describing the glories of the Lord are not up to the mark. Of course, although Vyāsadeva’s śāstras glorifies the Lord. You will find, just like nowadays on TV there is some Śiva Purāṇa, and when I was giving lecture in Śrī Lanka, everywhere I was going I was preaching from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and in one place a person stood up and said, you are always speaking from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Purāṇa, why not from Śiva Purāṇa, why not from Skanda Purāṇa? So then I did a research of Śiva Purāṇa and Skanda Purāṇa and there are hundreds and hundreds of verses in these Purāṇas glorifying Hari or Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Even though there may be many verses also glorifying Lord Śiva. But Śiva himself in Śiva Purāṇa, he reveals that the name Kṛṣṇa is Para Brahman, he revealed that only Kṛṣṇa is Mukunda, and can give liberation. Actually, because Śiva is incarnation of Viṣṇu for creation, for being the śambhu principle in this universe. Therefore, he is the highest tattva or highest truth in the universe, in the material world. But Viṣṇu is beyond the material world. So if you just see the material world, you can say Śiva is supreme, which is true. Then you see everything, even beyond the material world then you see that Viṣṇu is the origin of Śiva. So that, Śiva himself explains very clearly.

In Skanda Purāṇa Lord Murugan, he also says that one should chant the name of Hari, that by chanting the two syllables Ha Ri Lord Viṣṇu takes away all the bad qualities. He does hara, He does killing. He steals your bad qualities. We are worried about thieves stealing our wealth but if there were thieves that came and stole your garbage and took it out you would not mind. Arey! If you steal the garbage! Ha! Ha! it is very good! I don’t have to take it out! So Hari is so merciful for His devotees that when you chant the name of Hari, HARI! HARI! Haribol! Haribol! So then He steals away the dirt from your heart. How many of you will be happy if the Lord takes away all the dirty things from your heart? Ok , nobody will mind. He alone can do that. So the Skanda Purāṇa also, it mentions that all the devas should be worshiped as part and parcel of Viṣṇu, and if anyone thinks that there is another independent Lord from Viṣṇu then he is like someone who leaves his own mother to be under the care of a witch. This is literally what Skanda Purāṇa says. Even Bhāgavata Purāṇa doesn’t say something so strong. Even Gītā doesn’t say. Kṛṣṇa says that those who worship other gods, they are not so intelligent. Because they don’t see that I am the one supporting all the gods. Only svalpam. Svalpamedhasa. Only they will give the less intelligent. Very light words. But the Skanda Purāṇa is saying, no, they are leaving their own mother and living with a witch. So even if they say you can preach from Skanda Purāṇa, Śiva Purāṇa. Śiva Purāṇa uses such strong language, Skanda Purāṇa uses such strong language, that I cannot also use that. I cannot dare to say such a thing travelling in Śrī Lanka.

You see! So people are not knowing really, that in all the Vedas written by Vyāsa, he has glorified the Lord. Therefore, we respect all the Vedas. But he gives different focus in different Purāṇas, in different Vedas. So Nārada is explaining that what we need is a śāstra which has got only the focus on the Supreme Lord without any compromise. Why mix it up? One śāstra that will satisfy you. Nārada is the guru of Vyāsa. This is the duty of the guru – to dispel the doubts of the disciple. Isn’t it? So, Vyāsadeva of course, he became very inspired and he wrote the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is known as the Mahā Purāṇa. And the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is known as the literary incarnation of the Lord. If we study the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we become purified, we become fixed in great devotion. And in Vedas we find that there are 18 Purāṇas, we find that there are the Upaniṣads, the Purāṇas. We find that the Purāṇas are known as Pancam Veda the fifth Veda. All Vedas we respect. So how much is śāstra, how much of it is glorifying the Lord, that is the significance of how important, how purifying it is.

Now normal what we call normal, that means mundane literatures, they don’t glorify God at all. Mundane movies, mundane topics, even newspapers, in the south we have one column which gives about spiritual matter. 24 pages or 12 pages are all mundane topics and one column is spiritual – not fully spiritual but some religious topic. So generally we find that people are interested in mundane topics of the temporary body. But what is happening is that with those topics, all those discussions they are dissatisfied. What really makes the heart satisfied is to hear about Kṛṣṇa. We are part of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is our life and soul. We may or may not know that but it is a fact. When we hear about Kṛṣṇa then we become very happy. We are purified. But what happens is that some people they hear about Kṛṣṇa, they don’t feel happy, they think that what is this? I want to hear about girls, I want to hear about sports, I want to hear about this about that, politics. Why always Kṛṣṇa? So Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that this is because we are in a diseased condition. Like someone who has jaundice, his liver is sick. For someone who has jaundice if they take sugar, the sugar tastes bitter. Now sugar is not normally bitter, sugar is sweet. But someone who has jaundice because they are sick they are diseased, for them sugar tastes bitter. But they are supposed to take sugar candy. And gradually the liver gets cured and the sugar starts to taste sweet. So like that if people are gradually exposed, even people who think the Bhāgavatam is bitter, they think that novels are nectar. They are like the crows, when they see the beautiful lake with the lotus flowers, and the trees and the cascading water falls, and the bumble bees and all of the flowers they may think, ahhhh! Horrible place! I want to go to the Bengaluru garbage pit where the people throw out all the chicken bones and thrown out the stool and dead bodies and all the rotten things, there is a really good place, I can eat all kinds of garbage! I can enjoy life. And when so many other crows will be together and they will all be singing songs. Caw! Caw! Caw! This is a really great place. What is this horrible place! No garbage! So the crow mentality, they see the beautiful place and they think horrible, they are looking for the garbage. While the swans, you never see swans fighting in the garbage pit. Right? You see them maybe in Ooty, in some Manasarovar in Himalayas. Some beautiful place where there is nice cool water and breeze, Kailash, there are so many such birds. That type of places you see these natural swans. So even in Māyāpur, so far we are very fortunate, and we have to pray that we can maintain like that, somehow by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy, crows have not come yet. One or two ravens, the black ones come but not the crows. Although we have dogs but no crows. But in Kolkata they have so many crows. And even in Navadvīpa there are some crows. These crows they like dirty places. You have to get enough garbage together before they like it. So human beings they have such mentality, they maybe very much attracted to these things. They cannot think I am going to change a crow to a swan. We cannot think of that. Animals are just stuck. Whereas human beings by nature we have got the crow tendency but we can become completely sanctified and achieve pure God consciousness. But the problem is that we are covered by this contamination of tamas and rajas. And we think this is great. That is why the human being gets a crow’s mentality or a swan mentality – what type of mentality do you want? Someone who has a crow mentality, they don’t think there is any other mentality. Sometimes just by association with a devotee of the Lord, someone’s mentality changes. Just like Ratnākara he got little association with Nārada muni and he changed and he became Valmiki. Lord Caitanya instructed sādhu saṅga sādhu saṅga sarva śāstra koye, lava matra sādhu saṅga, sarva siddhi hoye (Cc Madhya 22.054). That even a moment’s association with a pure devotee can give one all perfections of life. So we should seek out association of a pure devotee. Like someone may have association with many pure devotees. In ISKCON there are so many pure devotees, so many spiritual masters, so many gurus and one gets inspired by many pure devotees’ preaching. This is very good. In the time of Lord Caitanya they became inspired by many devotees. There may be one spiritual master who gives many appropriate instructions for our upliftment directly and through his representatives. And this way feels that one’s spiritual master is guiding in a more complete manner or direct manner. So then that spiritual master is usually accepted as the dīkṣā-guru. Because one has a dīkṣā-guru or because one is getting help in that way by one’s spiritual master, it doesn’t mean that one may not be attracted by other pure devotees and one gets inspiration and instruction from other devotees of the Lord. That is very natural. If someone has received orders or instructions from someone else they may accept them as śikṣā-guru. Instructing spiritual master. So like this we have been taught that dīkṣā-guru is one but we may have more than one śikṣā guru. Also in ISKCON, the dīkṣā-guru is also the śikṣā-guru. He is also giving us instruction. So in this way we take shelter of the bona fide spiritual master, we learn from the spiritual master how to serve Kṛṣṇa. Actually Kṛṣṇa is everyone’s guru, Kṛṣṇa is in our heart as Caitya-guru. He is guiding us. But we are not able to hear Kṛṣṇa properly. If you are attached to so much mundane things, how many will be able to gather the message form Kṛṣṇa, our receiver will be very contaminated. We won’t be able to discern what is our mind saying and what is Kṛṣṇa telling us in the heart. Therefore, it is essential for us to have the spiritual master. And to serve Kṛṣṇa through the spiritual master. But Kṛṣṇa is the original guru. The Supersoul is considered to be our Caitya-guru or guru within. And the initiating and instructing spiritual master is known as the external manifestation of Kṛṣṇa and they are instructing us from without. So by the help of the guru we are getting back to Kṛṣṇa. So we need to get this spiritual guidance, spiritual instruction and for that Vyāsadeva has written these śāstras like Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that everyone can get the light, they can know the real purpose of life. They can know who we are, who is Kṛṣṇa, who we were before we were born, what we will be when we leave our body. We can know how to lead a holy life so that we can be happy in this life at the same time we get free from the contamination of material existence. All these things are given to us in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam but unfortunately the modern materialistic society is directing us in another direction. It is directing us to the place of pilgrimage of the crows. It is very interesting because we think pilgrimage. Now what do you think pilgrimage – yesterday Lokanatha Mahārāja said that Bengaluru should become not only garden city, not only electronic city but should now become pilgrimage city! Haribol! With this temple as the pilgrimage place. So when we think of pilgrimage we think going to holy places, going on pilgrimage to Rameshwaram, to Allahabad Kumbha Mela, Prayag, to Māyāpur, to Vṛndāvana pilgrimage, to Badrinath pilgrimage, to Guryvayoor or Tirupati pilgrimage. Going to holy place. Here we say pilgrimage of the crows. That means for crow this garbage is holy, they are attached to that, they cherish it, they are proud of it. So that means how difficult it is preach to a crow, how difficult it is to preach to someone who has got this type of crow pilgrimage mentality. They are not going to be receptive, they are going to be adamant. These are very great things. Like disco dancing, be it hotels, restaurants, this is great stuff. All types of literary, all types of things in the mode of passion, art, poetry, they are really into these things. So if you tell them this is māyā, they say, what are you telling? You are all fanatics. They wont be receptive. To preach to such people you have to be very clever. They say the ācārya he conceives ways to bring people to Kṛṣṇa by various means. Of course there are many pious people coming to the temple and we need to know who those pious people are and we need to cultivate them and bring them closer to us. We need to help them to help us spread the Kṛṣṇa consciousness around, we need allies, we need friends in this battle. We want to make Bengaluru, as said by Lokanatha Mahārāja, who is also one of our śikṣā gurus, he told us we have to make Bengaluru a pilgrimage city. Not pilgrimage of the crows! Ha! Spiritual pilgrimage! What is happening today – a devotee was sending his son for higher education to Delhi, for going to university. I said why are you not sending him in Bengaluru we have a nice center. He said no, no, Bengaluru has more drugs in university, more free mixing of men and women in university, at least they Delhi they are more conservative. I don’t know if Delhi is more conservative or not but I was shocked to hear because for me Bengaluru is very dear. But if this is true then it is very bad, very dangerous. In spite of our kṛṣṇa-taste to all our schools, by the time they get to college they may be becoming westernized. Like I was flying from northeast now and there were a group of students from Meghalaya and Mizoram, boys and girls, they are not Hindus I think, they were running, laughing and playing together. About 20 years old and holding each other’s hands. I asked them where they were going. They said we are going to Bengaluru to university. I said oh! We don’t want Bengaluru to be a pilgrimage for the crows. We want it to be a spiritual pilgrimage, pilgrimage of the haṁsa, the paramahaṁsa, the swans. And I think that there are a lot of pious people in Bengaluru. I think the percentage of modern people is not so much that we cannot deal with it. And like this temple, we are showing modern and traditional mix. We want to show, we can be modern, we can be electronic, we can be everything that is needed for the 21st century but we can also be religious, we can be spiritual, we can be happy and cultured, all these things can be done. Culture is essential for human development. But here Vyāsadeva is being taught by Nārada that the culture needs to be spiritualized. Otherwise it doesn’t fulfill the inner need for human beings to achieve spiritual deliverance. This is the point. So, it is very much essential that we spiritualize everything. We are not able to bring everything back to some traditional 19th century or Vedic yuga. But just like this temple is having the modern glass and the gopuram we have see what we have today to spiritualize the modern situation. Maintain the traditional, cultural link which is essential. Have chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, have reading of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, have the satsangas and the vṛndas, have the association, have the temple worship. Let the people’s life be spiritualized. Simply get rid of dirty things. This is what Śrīla Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura he prayed in his nāmahaṭṭa prayer. He said koro kṛṣṇera sansāra, chaḍo anācāra. You make a Kṛṣṇa conscious family. You give up the forbidden activities, anācāra. The activities which we should not be performing, which are prohibited. We are not telling people, give up family life. We are telling people you do Kṛṣṇa conscious family like but you make it Kṛṣṇa conscious. You give up sinful activities. Even our brahmacārīs, they have to be very expert how to preach to the householders. So that they do yukta-vairāgya, they do appropriate renunciation. Because Lord Caitanya never wanted people to artificially renounce things. He wanted them to utilize everything in the service of Kṛṣṇa and in this way become purified. What should we give up? Anything that cannot be used in Kṛṣṇa’s service. We cannot use cigarettes in Kṛṣṇa’s service, we cannot use alcohol, so these things we have to give up. We cannot use meat eating in His service, we cannot use such things. We cannot use womanizing in his service, so we give up this thing. Free mixing of men and women and we say we are householders, if we want men and women to mix, be a householder, be married and have Kṛṣṇa conscious children, have a Kṛṣṇa conscious family and from that family try to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness through the world. It is not just enough to just practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness, everyone should also preach it. If we have others to be Kṛṣṇa conscious, we get so much blessings. So this is the point here. Caitanya Mahāprabhu He was approached by some householder – what should we do? What is your advice to householders? He said, asat saṅga tyaga kara vaiṣṇava ācāra. You should give up asat-saṅga, you should give up the materialistic association, the degrading association. What is this asat-saṅga? What is this degrading association— Eka sādhu stri saṅgī kṛṣṇa bhakta haya. One bad association, give up bad association, one is the strī-sangī, one who is simply after womanizing. Strī-sangi doesn’t mean someone who is married with a Kṛṣṇa conscious wife, he is a religious person, a respectable person. Strī-sangi – they are talking about people who associate with women as objects of enjoyment. They don’t see the woman as a devī, they see them as a type of prostitute or something. And they are only talking about women as objects of sense enjoyment. Not about their better qualities, not about thinking of protecting them. And what these mundane A and X movies do, is pollute the mind to see in a wrong way. Which is promoting wife battering, promoting rape and so many other social problems. All these things should be banned. By the name of freedom of Kali-yuga, I don’t know freedom of degradation, because there is no moral consciousness, if the majority of the society are very strong about what should be allowed, it can be stopped. Just like public smoking is stopped in government offices and airplanes, why do I have to breathe someone else’s smoke and get cancer? Like that, why should my daughter be in danger by some crazy person who wants to rape women because he is getting agitated by watching sex movies? And seeing all women as object of his lust? Why should such things be allowed in society? Because there is no moral consciousness, nobody is protesting, so these things are going on. But somehow as God consciousness goes increasing the morality also increases, and all these things can get reduced. So people who are in that mentality, they talk about women in such a degrading way, not in a respectable way, they are called strī-sangi. Their association is not recommended. The other one is kṛṣṇa-abhakta, those who are non-devotee, those who criticize Kṛṣṇa, who are against Kṛṣṇa consciousness, against kṛṣṇa-bhakti. Who are the non-devotees? There are two type of people they are considered bad association. When we are working we have to associate with all these people. So we have to somehow limit our association, just formal association with people, and intimate association with people where you open up your mind and talk, we open our mind with likeminded devotees. And with the bad association we try to stay away from intimate association. We might be considered antisocial. Be friendly but don’t get into such discussion which will degrade your consciousness. This way people will have to learn to live. So this was Lord Caitanya’s advice to the householder. The brahmacārīs, they are not associating with all these people any way. Householder, if you work in the market, work in the business area, work in the factory, work in the school, the students, they have to associate with all these people. Student association, there are lot of asat-saṅga. They are very critical. So that was Lord Caitanya’s advice, you avoid asat-saṅga, that is how you should behave, if you want to advance. And what should you do? Kīrtanīya sadā Hariḥ! Chant

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa,
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare  
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma,
Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare!

Thank you very much! Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Devas, we should always respect all the devas. Devas are very great devotees. Some of them like Śiva, Brahmā, they are guṇa-avatāras of Lord Viṣṇu. Expansions of the Lord or guṇa-avatāra of the Lord, and they are great Vaiṣṇavas. Vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ (ŚB 12.13.16) So we should never disrespect them, we should always respect them and worship them. We worship them as our gurus and take their blessings. We are coming in the Brahma-sampradāya so Brahmadeva is directly our guru and Śiva has always been very merciful to the Vaiṣṇavas, and he always blesses us with kṛṣṇa-bhakti. So we pray to Śiva for his blessings to get Kṛṣṇa Bhakti. Even the gopīs pray to Katyāyini to get Kṛṣṇa as their husband. So we can pray, the devotee only prays for Kṛṣṇa Bhakti, for overcoming different obstacles in the path of kṛṣṇa-sevā. You can pray to Gaṇeśa to remove obstacles in worshiping the Lord but generally worship guru. We worship Viṣvaksena because they are also senior to us. And we are working in the same team. They want us to spread God consciousness, they want us to give the dharma to everyone. They are very happy, then people would do yajña. And if people do yajña the devas benefit. So we are working directly for Kṛṣṇa, we are not working under the devas as such. But devas also are pleased with us if we spread God consciousness all around. Any questions?

Question: If a person eats non veg but does service to the society and is greatly devoted to the Lord, what do you have to say about them? Many have only sāttvika food but are hypocritical in their bhakti to the Lord. What is this? Please explain.

Jayapatākā Swami: You see here someone eats non veg. Non veg is sinful. You are killing animals, causing them suffering and you are eating their flesh. Some are doing selfless service to society, they are helping other people, they may be doing some, of course selfless service to society. But we have to see what the Vedas say. Whether that service is puṇya or pāpa. Like someone may do selfless service and make a new abattoir, means a new slaughter house for society. He thinks I am doing selfless service. But according to the Vedas, he is also doing pāpa, he is doing sinful activity. Someone may be doing selfless service of distributing free tea or whisky to all the people, I am not considering those kinds of selfless service. I am saying like he is feeding the poor, he is making hospital, such service where the people are getting material benefit in a sāttvika sense, that is called puṅya. So according to Vedas we get two accounts in the material world. We get a puṅya account and a pāpa account. And we are putting deposit in both. Because someone does puṇya, it does not cross out the pāpa. Some people think that ok, I will do many pious activities and I will do little sin and the pious will cross out the sin. It doesn’t work that way. Both you get. That is why even if you find someone very rich, have a big car, big house, lot of money, but the wife got breast cancer. But the son ran away with someone and married out of caste and the whole family is suffering. So many things happen. Income tax is raiding. I am feeding the poor, I am giving so much to charity, why I am not – because both the accounts are there – pāpa and puṇya. If you do pāpa you have to suffer, you do puṇya you have to enjoy. Material activities, you know they are not free, you have to take all the reactions. Usually the puṇya you get first and the pāpa you get later. But there is some mixing going on. Now the other thing is that he is greatly devoted to the Lord. Now that devotion to the Lord, the Lord is beyond the material world. He is saying mām ca avyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate, sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhuyāya kalpate. (Bg 14.26) That those who do my bhakti-yoga, their activities are beyond the three guṇas. So if someone does bhakti that can clear out the path. But it is dangerous to tell this to people. Because if you tell to people who are not devoted, they will say, very good, I will pray in the temple, then I will do more pāpa. And then Kṛṣṇa takes that as an offence, you are trying to cheat Me. So He doesn’t save them. That is why we don’t tell people about this glory of the Lord that if you worship the Lord it takes away your sin very much. Of course we have to tell but we try to tell them. They should not think I can do more sin, that they shouldn’t do. What people should do is come and pray and chant the name of Kṛṣṇa and try to avoid sin. They may do some sin but they should try to reduce it, try to avoid it. They should not think that by doing my Kṛṣṇa conscious activity, I can do more sin. Whatever sin I am doing, I have to suffer. But let me chant, let me worship, some day I can get free from this. Then it is ok. So if they are devoted to the Lord, they should try to do what the Lord wants. What is the meaning of I am devoted to the Lord, the Lord is saying don’t do these things. I am devoted to the Lord, what does that mean? Lord, I want to please You. If I am Your servant, I want to do what You want me to do. Like if you have a servant in the house, you tell the servant, clean the floor. He says no, I won’t clean the floor, I want to clean the wall. But I want you to clean the floor first. You can clean the wall later. He says, no, I want to clean the wall and then the floor. How would that servant keep the job? If you have a servant and you tell him, cook me breakfast. And he says no, I want to cook you lunch. I want you to cook me vegetarian and he says no I want to cook you non veg! Then you wont keep such a servant, servant, who is this servant! So if we are already devoted to the Lord, we should do what the Lord wants us to do. And the Lord is telling us don’t do these things. Don’t take intoxication, don’t eat non veg, don’t do gambling and don’t do illicit sex. Don’t go to prostitutes. Don’t leave your good wife or husband, and do extra marital sex. So when we are devoted to the Lord we should do what the Lord wants. We are devoted to the Lord, we come and pray and then we go. That is called hāthī-snāna. Like the elephant is having a bath and coming out and throwing the dirt. So we should not worry what others are doing. Someone says he is vegetarian but he is cheating. If you do pāpa you have to suffer, you do puṅya you have to enjoy. Material activities, you know they are not free, you have to take all the reactions. Usually the puṇya you get first and the pāpa you get later. But there is some mixing going on. Now the other thing is that he is greatly devoted to the Lord. So therefore I can be nonveg and I won’t cheat. Not much, little bit. We should avoid everything like that. Don’t settle for that. Don’t judge. It is just like if you want to judge gold, you want to judge it with pure gold. You don’t judge it with some mixed gold, my gold is better than that gold. What is that? That is 10 carat mine is 4 carat. You judge gold by 24 carat. This is not a good decision that I am better than that so it is okay. That person is going to hell no. 5 and you are going no. 4. So what is the difference? ? We want to go back to Kṛṣṇa. So therefore what is the standard paramahaṁsa? We see what gurudeva, what the pure devotee is doing. We try to lead our life and follow the Mahājanas. Mahājana yena gatā sa panthā. We follow the great souls or Mahājanas, like Prahlāda, Nārada, Śiva, Brahma. All the devas, Svāyambhuva Manu, all the great souls, we follow in their footsteps. Not that we are following some ordinary person and we are saying oh that person, he is not so great. I am not so bad. This is all mental concoction. He is not so great, I am not so bad. So I can live with my sin. Yamarāja doesn’t pick all these things. What your neighbor was doing. What you did he has all the account here. You did this, this is your karma. Now you enjoy, now you suffer. If you see the animatronic works you can see the Yamadūtas and the Viṣṇudutas. You can decide who you want to be the customer for. Please get Bhagavad-gītā As It Is directed as a movie in different languages. Well, very good. We support. Actually Bhakti Charu Mahārāja is inspired to make Kṛṣṇa conscious movies now. But it is very expensive. He needs many crores of rupees.

Question: What kind of superhuman activities will the Lord perform if He incarnates now?

Jayapatākā Swami: It is quite hypothetical. Right now the Lord has come as the Holy Name. and the super human activity He is doing is to get everyone to sing and dance and become blissful. So let us take the name avatāra of the Lord and let everyone chant. Let us try to get people purified. That is what I am saying, gradually little bit people chant, little association. People are addicted to these things. So gradually by proper good association, satsanga, they start to slowly, not all of a sudden you can expect people to change. Maybe they meet some great devotee sometime we find they came to the guru and suddenly had a change of heart. But that doesn’t happen every time. That is not possible for everyone. There are other ways, gradual, good association, gradually we bring them closer to Kṛṣṇa. In this way people become spiritualized and they get a higher taste. They give up their bad habits. That is interesting. ? We cannot change the crow. But so many people drinking, and eating nonveg, but by good association they like it. In Māyāpur recently we had Bhāgavata Sammelan, where all the people who had bought sets of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. We had the whole Bhāgavatam in Bengali, over 1000 sets were distributed last year. So we invited all of them took their names and address to follow up and cultivate them. Invited everyone to come for three days to Māyāpur. And in the future in Bengaluru you can have such seminars. 600 came. So one of the days was Ekādaśī – they made Ekādaśī feast, about 15 preparations. With gājara-halavā (carrot halavā), nice things, purīs made from singhāḍā-atta, water chestnut. You can say like a Raja Bhoga Ekādaśī! They said if we could eat like this on Ekādaśī, we don’t feel also like Ekādaśī! We can eat like this every day! We were thinking you know Ekādaśī means like boiled potatoes and nothing. We have to work, we have to go out, how to survive with only boiled potatoes one day. So we cannot perform Ekādaśī we cannot do these things. So what is the use? Let us just go on with our nonveg. Things like that. So they were liking so much that many decided, we can be vegetarian, we can eat like this every day simply my wife, she has to learn how to cook like this! So we need to have nice cooking classes so all the ladies can know nice vegetarian cooking. And this way they can have very nice prasāda in the house and nobody will mind to eat this kind of diet which is beneficial for spiritual life. So whenever you have house program and have new people coming that is a nice opportunity to give a nice feast to everyone and they can see how vegetarian food which is offered to Kṛṣṇa, prasāda, is so nice. Something very special.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Thank you very much!