20011010 Bhagavad-gītā 8.6

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatāka Swāmi Mahārāja on October 10, 2001 in Cape Town, South Africa. The class begins with a reading from the Bhagavad Gītā, Eighth Chapter, Verse 6.

nama om viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāyabhūtale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te
kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ

he kṛṣṇa karuṇā-sindho
dīna-bandho jagat-pate
gopeśa gopikā-kānta
rādhā-kānta namo ’stu te

tapta-kāñcana-gaurāṅgi
rādhe vṛndāvaneśvari
vṛṣabhānu-sute devi
praṇamāmi hari-priye

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 

Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya!
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya!
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya!

nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya
naraṁ caiva narottamam
devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ
tato jayam udīrayet

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ  śrī caitanya iśvaram
Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ
tyajaty ante kalevaram
taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya
sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ

Translation: Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail.

Purport: The process of changing one’s nature at the critical moment of death is here explained. A person who at the end of his life quits his body thinking of Kṛṣṇa attains the transcendental nature of the Supreme Lord, but it is not true that a person who thinks of something other than Kṛṣṇa attains the same transcendental state. This is a point we should note very carefully. How can one die in the proper state of mind? Mahārāja Bharata, although a great personality, thought of a deer at the end of his life, and so in his next life he was transferred into the body of a deer. Although as a deer he remembered his past activities, he had to accept that animal body. Of course, one’s thoughts during the course of one’s life accumulate to influence one’s thoughts at the moment of death, so this life creates one’s next life. If in one’s present life one lives in the mode of goodness and always thinks of Kṛṣṇa, it is possible for one to remember Kṛṣṇa at the end of one’s life. That will help one be transferred to the transcendental nature of Kṛṣṇa. If one is transcendentally absorbed in Kṛṣṇa’s service, then his next body will be transcendental (spiritual), not material. Therefore the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare is the best process for successfully changing one’s state of being at the end of one’s life.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Swami Translation and Purport to the of the Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā As it is, Chapter Eight, Verse Six.

Jayapātaka Swāmi: My name is Jayapātaka Swāmi. I live in the World Headquarters of ISKCON, Māyāpur. And I go on different tours to different temples, to encourage the devotees and answer questions. So it is big here in Cape Town. We are happy to see such a big turnout of devotees. Sorry for coming late. There was a - actually I was advising some devotees, I lost track of the time. While I am here I try to see as many devotees as who want to see me and give them personal guidance as well.

So today we read from the verse of the Bhagavad-Gītā. It is a very important verse. Because it gives us an insight into how the law of transmigration of the soul works. That, what we think about at the time when we leave this body, is a very very crucial thing because that is like the sum total of the end of our whole life. Now what is the thing we are thinking, when we rewind, what is the most important thing for us at that moment. We don’t want it to be an accident, thinking about some – we really want to be able to focus at that moment. And in this case, where one person who was practising spiritual life, Bharata Mahārāja, he had developed extreme affection for a deer. A mother deer was surprised by - shocked by a lightning bolt and she jumped in the  - died while giving childbirth to the baby doe, right in the āśrama of Bharata Mahārāja. So then he took the doe up as a project just to save the baby deer. So the baby deer looked to this devotee meditating as his mother. She didn’t know anybody else. He was feeding the deer and - so then - and became more than you know, Yaśoda, like sometimes, he would be like he was meditating, but he will be thinking, ‘Is the deer watching me now, feel like playing with the deer, you know, and then the deer will come up and start licking him while he was meditating. So he became very attached to this [8:34 Not clear] at the time of death he was thinking, you know, who is going to take care of the deer. I mean, like deer, you know. He was worried, maybe wolves and this and that. So because of thinking, at the time we leave our body we should really be focusing on God, we should focus on Kṛṣṇa. But he was focusing on the deer and the deer was coming and licking him and he was on his deathbed, smelling him and - so because at that time, he didn’t focus on God, he is focusing on the deer, he became a – took birth as a deer. But because, he had practised so much Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he wasn’t lost and he could remember his previous life as a human, as a king and how he renounced his entire empire to practise spiritual life but then because of his attachment to the deer, he carelessly thought of the deer at the time of death instead of Kṛṣṇa and he took birth as a deer. But he could remember all that.

So then you know, he was really feeling foolish. This is not why I did all these things to become a deer. And he passed in the forest. So the next life, he was born as Jaḍa Bharata. Because he could remember the previous two births, so this time he was determined, I am not going to blow it now. I am not going to - he became very anti-social. Because he was very funny. He was very paranoid – otherwise. I got attached to a deer, look what happened. So he didn’t talk to anybody. His parents thought he is a fool. He refused to talk to anyone. Yes Mom [10:23 Not clear] like very introvert. He was always thinking how to remain Kṛṣṇa conscious. I don’t want to blow it. I don’t want to make a mistake. And so they didn’t know that - we got this useless son, he doesn’t talk to anybody. He is very quiet, so. They put him to watch the field to scare away the birds from the crop. Do you do that in Africa? In India, the people sit with the cans, ding ding ding, they pound the cans and they scare away the birds. And now sometimes they use the firecrackers. But someone has to keep the birds away. It is amazing, I mean, in India, I saw much - a hundred thousand sparrows Boom! Just land on the – just devour the rice crop in no time. And so then they start making noise and they fly off. In fact, there is a, there is a verse in the Nectar of Devotion, it says, when you chant and dance, while chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, when you clap your hands just like people clap their and the birds fly off, as many karma fly off from your account – your bad karma as while chanting and clapping your hands, the birds will fly off from the field. Haribol!! Hare Kṛṣṇa!! [crowd claps].

So, he was sitting there on the side and appeared he was meditating on Kṛṣṇa chanting to himself but he looked you know, just purposely tried to look stupid[12:18 Not clear] people won’t engage him in any kind of nonsense discussion. But as it would have, there was an Emperor passing by, the king – King Rahūgaṇa. And he, just at that moment – one of the bearers of his palanquin – four bearers carrying him, one had stepped on a thorn or something, so he was limping- you know, the whole thing was, like you know, shaking. So we need another bearer. He saw this healthy – kind of a foolish looking guy sitting there aside, you know, he is scaring birds. He said, “Listen, you come here. Take up the palanquin.” So he didn’t go with the flow. So he was taken - but then he was very afraid that he would step on a ant. He didn’t want to commit any bad karma, he didn’t want to hurt even an ant. So he’d be [13:18 Not clear] everyone else is walking  - Left, Right, left, right, you know, just keeping, you know, the military pace for carrying this palanquin. But he was, you know, ta ta da ta -something around kind of missed all the ants, so the thing was moving up and down. “What’s wrong with you? You fat idiot! You stupid fool! Can’t you even carry a palanquin properly? “

Then Jaḍa Bharata is like, you know, ”I am not fat and I am not skinny. I am not foolish and I am not intelligent. Because I am not this body. I am the spiritual self within the body.”

So then the king said, “Alright, stop! Let me go! Who are you? You are not an ordinary person. What do you think you are talking philosophy?” The other bearers were like – they don’t talk philosophy. ”And I want to, I want to know what you are coming. You seem to be some kind of a learned philosophical seer of the truth.”

So then they had a long discussion which lasted for hours and days. And in the end the king became convinced by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And Jaḍa Bharata, he was exposed that he was the most elevated – after going through three births, remembering all of them, having gone through all these things, listening, he was profound spiritual – spiritually potent. And so then he accepted him as his guru and he was elevated to the situation of guiding a entire empire and living there to give proper spiritual instructions, from his wisdom that he was hiding. And then, sometimes he would hide himself, just to avoid complications.

So this planet is - according to the Vedas – this is such an amazing story that how the Emperor of the entire world became a deer and then became a self-realised soul. And he became so famous that this planet became known as the planet of King Bharata or Bhārata Varśa. Until this day India is still known as Bhārata, but at one point the whole planet was a part of Bhārata. And apparently other planets don’t say planet Earth. They say - the planet Bhārata. According to the Vedas there are living entities and intelligent beings in other planets. And they used to come and visit here. Even five thousand years ago in the Mahābhārata, it is described when Yudhiśtira Mahārāja performed the Rājasūya sacrifice, a dozen denizens from other planets flew in on special aircraft and participated in the festival and all the people present could see them. All the public. Because at that time the ruling people – the living people of the planet were so spiritual, that on the spiritual level they could relate with the other spiritual entities on higher planets. But right now, since our spirituality has decreased on this planet, they are not interested in coming around. This is when you all chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, sometimes they are invisibly - residents from other planets do come – from higher planets and they participate watching you chant. They are very happy to see you engaging in this mantra meditation.

Anyway, the main thing here is how to prepare ourselves when we leave our body. I was discussing with – in one country there was a group of Hindu leaders. They approached me, and they asked me what to do when there is someone who is on the death row? What should he be told to think of, if he asks what should I think of when I am going to be executed? I want to know at that moment what am I supposed to do? So the Hindu leaders didn’t know what to tell, so they asked their Christian brothers what you  tell. So we tell, when you were really innocent, your mother and father mistreated you, problem of the society, you are really a good person, even if you murdered twenty five people you were a serial killer, you are actually, you know, it’s alright, because you know, because you were never treated properly in your primary school and this and that [laughter]So is that what we should tell him? I don’t think that is the best thing to tell that person at that moment. So I advised them you should tell them to think of God at the moment of death. That  actually, what the most important thing is. So tell him to chant the names of God and tell him you can chant

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

Or chant some name of the Lord at that time of death. Then you will be transferred to that. If you are just thinking about other things not in that location. So there is a saying ‘nārāyaṇa ante smṛti’ in the Vedas. That, remember Nārāyana or God - Kṛṣṇa at the time of leaving your body. Ante smṛti’ – the end. And then we will transfer you to Kṛṣṇa. and somebody chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa – their whole life, if they are practising devotional service, Kṛṣṇa promises that

yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham

He will provide what they lack and He will protect what they have. He also said,

na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati

My devotee will never perish. He will protect His devotee. So at that time He helps the devotee to remember Him. I mean even Bharata, of course, he was careless, so he became a deer. But he didn’t become an ordinary deer. He became a deer who remembered his human life. So that was also a kind of a training program. It was a preparation for his next birth for him to achieve full realization.

And Kṛṣṇa in the next verse He also says to Arjuna,

tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu
mām anusmara yudhya ca
mayy arpita-mano-buddhir
mām evaiṣyasy asaṁśayaḥ

And the one before,

anta-kāle ca mām eva
smaran muktvā kalevaram
yaḥ prayāti sa mad-bhāvaṁ
yāti nāsty atra saṁśayaḥ 

And whoever, at the end of his life, quits his body remembering Me alone at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.

So if we remember Kṛṣṇa when we are leaving our body, then, that is the most auspicious thing. If, I mean, all of us and all of you are going to face situations where you are going to have relatives who are leaving their body, and of course all of us have to leave our body also, sooner or later, but also you may have many friends or relatives who are leaving  and at that time if you can help them, because most people [21:27 Not clear] because they don’t know what death is, they don’t realise that the soul never dies. It's just going to go from one body to the next. But what body it gets, what next birth it will take, that person would take, depends on a - lot on what the final thoughts are. That is an opportunity to get an immediate elevation. So if somebody is there to help them remember Kṛṣṇa it can make all the difference.

I have a disciple who are –  is from Buenos Aires, at that time she and her husband were managing the Hare Kṛṣṇa Restaurant in Soho Street in London. And suddenly she got an information that their father is in a coma. So she flew down to Buenos Aires. At that time her family were all Roman Catholics and they were not happy that she had become a Hare Kṛṣṇa devotee. But you know, they were living with it, this time was very strange and so much, when she came into the hospital room, saw the father on the bed and the whole room, the mother and other brothers and sisters were there. And in the room, one of the sisters said, “Now you have come. You were always doing all these spiritual things.  You and your Hare Kṛṣṇa, now let’s see if you can do something for our father. Look at him now. What are you going to do?” Oh, what a welcome! [Laughter]

"Ok, let me see what I can do. I just got here.” So the father was on the bed [Laughter] looking very painful and wasn’t talking to anybody, and coma. So then she sat next to the father and started reading the Bhagavad-Gītā. Just reading the Bhagavad-gītā to the father. And then after a period of time – after half hour, one hour’s reading, then the sister is looking, you know, and says, “Mama!”, you know, “Look! Father is smiling.” And the father had been like, you know, he was painful. Gradually by hearing the Bhagavad-gītā, his whole expression changed [laughter] And the mother went over and looked into, “ Ah! I haven’t seen him smile in ten years” [Laughter] He is really smiling, I mean, he is  - must be that his soul is in some peaceful situation, otherwise why is he smiling?” So then as soon as she would stop reading the Bhagavad-gītā or chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa, then again his face will [Laughter] So then to keep him smiling, they all took turns in reading the Bhagavad-Gītā and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa[Laughter] That was the only thing that worked. And in some cases, I have other situations – people have had miraculous recoveries. But in his case he did not recover, but he actually died with a smile on his face. And everyone felt that his soul was at peace.

I know another – one of my godbrothers, he went to see his father – he was told that he only had a few - short time to live. And all the relatives in the room were crying. And you know, he was telling, you know, ‘Take care of the dog, take care of the house, take care of this, take care of ‘You know, and they said, “Don’t worry, everything will be alright”, then you know. But nobody was helping him remember God at that time. So then, "Let me just be with my father for five minutes. And these five minutes, I am going to be alone with him.”

So then he explained, you know, they are  - “Ok, you are going to die. You are not going to understand that you are not going to - you as a person are never going to die. The soul never dies. You are going to live forever. You are going to leave this body. So at least one time just chant – just say these names of God. He got his father to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. As soon as he did, he felt really relieved and he was very peaceful. But then you know, maybe they thought inside he is trying to or something, you know, I don’t know, they start pounding on the door, getting off [26:21 Not clear] After that moment he said, he actually, that his father, suddenly was very peaceful. But then, you know, once everybody came back, they all started crying, - the whole thing [26:37 not clear] at least he was able to help this right prior to his leaving to have remind – reminded about God.

So many different stories that devotees recently told me. There was an Indian family– this story was from London. Just yesterday and she has gone to Malaysia and her grandmother who was always doing impersonal yoga, she got a dream of Kṛṣṇa– because they were - somehow she had a dream of Kṛṣṇa and she became really convinced that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And she starts chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and reading Bhagavad-Gītā until her last moment of her life and when she left her body she had her hands folded and she had a smile on her face. And she still remembers the doctor said, ‘I never saw anybody die with a smile on their face and their hands folded like that.’ That is how they cremated her. So devotees, they can help people to deal with this trauma, that’s not the end of the world, end of this particular life time, this is one  - we have gone through this millions of times. But once you be focused on Kṛṣṇa, one lifetime, we go back to Kṛṣṇa. This science is so practical, so relevant, that the world needs it very much. So many people will be benefitted. I mean just like in the World Trade Center, so many people five, six thousand people perished in that horrible incident. But what happened of course, they had to suddenly change their bodies.  It is not that by – being blown up by a bomb, they are liberated from the cycle of birth and death. The soul within the body had to go untimely change of the body and then start  over. That is very traumatic – traumatic for everybody involved and that is very painful and horrible. But – it doesn’t – still people go on existing, they don’t cease to exist. When you get someone to practise some Kṛṣṇa consciousness, to chant, to read Bhagavad-gītā, it may well be that - you are definitely helping them, it may be that this could be their last birth.

Kṛṣṇa lives in the spiritual world which is beyond this material world. This material world is like a prison house. Somehow or the other, we ended up here in this material world, where we are in this conditional life. In other places of Bhagavad Gītā, Kṛṣṇa says there are two kinds of souls – there is the conditioned soul – what who are called nitya baddha – eternally conditioned and there are liberated souls called nitya mukta – eternally liberated. Those who live in the spiritual world are eternally liberated. They never have to fall down – not like this -  period of - be there for ten million years, they have to come down, they are forever. If they want to come down- some reason they come down. But there is no obligation that they have to come down. For sometime, for something. Similarly, we can stay here in this material world forever. It is not that automatically we go back to the spiritual world. If you want to go back, you can go back anytime. The reformation of our consciousness that will allow us to go back to the spiritual world is not a very difficult process of bhakti-yoga – the person can reform himself in one minute. Just by change of consciousness, “Ok, I surrender, I want to serve God.” Everyone in the spiritual world, accepts the supremacy of God, they are in the service of the Supreme. Somehow we wanted to experience what it was like to be independent and that’s why we are here. So to reform our consciousness and bring it back in harmony with Kṛṣṇa is done automatically when we chant

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

And Kṛṣṇa is so powerful that even a little contact with Kṛṣṇa can have a tremendous effect. This, every verse in the Bhagavad Gītā has got tremendous potency. We were reading these verses in the Bhagavad Gītā and these were spoken by Kṛṣṇa. So the same vibrations that was spoken by the Supreme Lord has a very powerful potency.

Lord Śiva told Pārvati the glories of this particular chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Chapter Eight is remarkably a powerful chapter. So there was a - to give an illustration. So there was a family who were practising Kṛṣṇa consciousness, thousands and thousands of years before. And a boy and girl from these families - they got married. So they knew about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but they were into experimenting with enjoying life in the material world. Sometimes you could take the video camera and show the approaching faces - I could be sitting in the Arctic Circle.[laughter] And they were travelling around the world to experience material life, just try to enjoy all that. So after travelling for some years, they got bored with all things. After all, material world is kind of same thing going on everywhere, just different styles, trying to find [33:20 Not clear] in the material world is like chewing the chewed. We have already done it so many times, we do it again but in different ways. So they were bored, frustrated. So they were sitting under a big tamarind tree on a hot summer day, resting from their journey. They didn’t know that this particular tree was actually a hangman’s tree, was an execution tree where the government would hang people for theft or whatever the - assassination, like [34:05 Not clear] So hundreds and thousands of people over the years, over the centuries, it is a big old tree. They have been hung from this tree. Because it is a sudden kind of death by hanging, sort of violent death, people don't always immediately take the next birth. They may stay in the subtle form as a ghost. Because they didn’t really change their body in a normal kind of a situation, where, sudden type of traumatic way of going. So in this tree there were hundreds of subtle entities. And they came all crowding around the couple, you know, looking. They were feeling a little  uneasy. This kind of a feeling, you know, frustration. The husband said, “You know, what are we doing with our lives? What is the purpose of life? What is the self? What is the Absolute Truth? What is, what is the whole material activities and the results? What does it all mean? And the wife said, “You know, when I was young my father told me a verse which says the same thing you are asking from the Bhagavad Gītā. He told me this verse,

kiṁ tad brahma kim adhyātmaṁ
kiṁ karma puruṣottama 

All these ghosts you know, listening every word, you know, and she spoke the Bhagavad Gītā verse. kiṁ tad brahma kim adhyātmaṁ kiṁ karma puruṣottama. They were all immediately released from their karmas and in fact they were all like liberated you know, they were all like listening and waiting [36:04 Not clear] and then the – all of a sudden she spoke the Bhagavad-gītā verse and they were totally focused, then that liberated their consciousness. There were so many of them, the whole tree kind of couldn’t take the - that many entities - the tree broke down and then all of a sudden there was a spiritual airplane came from the spiritual world and all these ghosts had achieved their spiritual bodies and they got into the transport and then they were Swishhhhh , they were taken back to the spiritual world.

The husband looked at his wife and sked, “What did you just do? [Laughter] Did you see that? You just, you just, what did you say?”

“kiṁ tad brahma kim adhyātmaṁ kiṁ karma puruṣottama”

“Wow! You have really got some potency. You just liberated - this tree was loaded with ghosts and then you just chanted  the mantra and they are all liberated. Well, now I know one thing for sure. Whatever you said, if it can liberate them, it can liberate me.”

So he began everyday chanting like you know that mantra.

kiṁ tad brahma kim adhyātmaṁ kiṁ karma puruṣottama

So every day he was chanting but Kṛṣṇa is a person, so He can also decide when He wants things to happen. So He was just enjoying that this devotee is chanting that. But He gave [38:01 not clear] everyday he is chanting and chanting.

After sometime Kṛṣṇa - Nārayana in Vaikuntha - spiritual world, the majestic section – He was [laughter] He was smiling and the Goddess of Fortune, Lakshmi – She said , you know, “Why You are smiling today? Kind of blessings. One of this brāhmaṇa, young brāhmaṇa in the universe of four-headed Brahma [39:13 not clear] and he is everyday chanting half a verse of Bhagavad Gītā, Eighth chapter. So I just want to - what I should to give him as a blessing.[laughter] And then He called His assistant Viśvaksena and said, ”Ok bring him up. Bring his wife also.” So then they sent down the spiritual airplane and brought them up back to the spiritual world. So it is just half a verse, what to speak of the whole verse. The whole verse is

kiṁ tad brahma kim adhyātmaṁ
kiṁ karma puruṣottama
adhibhūtaṁ ca kiṁ proktam
adhidaivaṁ kim ucyate 

Just this half a verse is enough to liberate so many souls. So the potency of this Bhagavad Gītā, if you read a chapter a day, then you are going to achieve amazing results, even a verse a day. Very powerful – these verses in the Bhagavad Gītā. So this young couple, they became instruments. They may have learnt Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but then they kind of neglected it for a while. But then it remains with you, even if you practise some Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you don’t lose it. It stays with you like a permanent asset. But the most important thing is trying to build up as much spiritual strength as you can so that you have the strength to get over all these attachments and be able to remember – who at the end of life?

Devotees: Kṛṣṇa!

Jayapatākā Swami: Who?

Devotees: Kṛṣṇa!

Jayapatākā Swami: Who?

 Devotees: Kṛṣṇa!

Jayapatākā Swami: So, there was some lady in America, she willed her entire fortune to her cat.[Laughter] Hundred and twenty two million dollars. [41:26 not clear] The trust lawyers and everything but the [41:32 not clear] owner was the cat. The lawyers would manage that money and then when the cat died there was a big [41:38 Not clear] and a tomb and after that the money would go to different charities. The cat was her best friend, she wanted to make the cat the richest cat in the world. Of course, you know, she was taking this at the end of her life, she was thinking, my cat, my cat. [Laughter] People don’t know the danger of what you are thinking about at the end of your life - to multi-millionaire, you know, changing lives. [Laughter] It sounds funny but I mean it is actually deplorable. People being a human being, we should be concerned not to neglect this opportunity we have, to fully develop our consciousness. Why someone would take an animal birth - one thing by thinking about animals end of their life and other thing is to develop a consciousness which is more suited to the next birth being an animal birth than a human being. Like say somebody is drunk all the time, they are just always in a stupor. They are not, they are not - they don’t want to be very conscious about what’s going on. The human being is much more aware of the reality than an animal. Animal consciousness is blocked into a limited sphere of understanding. So they would prefer to not have to deal with the  problems of life. That what is actually the meaning of intoxicated. So at the time of death they may get such a birth that they can just, you know, ignorance is bliss, you know, they have to deal with it, deal with the priorities of life of eating, sleeping, mating, defending. But that’s a big way. The human beings, we have already gone through 8,400,000 species of life transmigration – kind of spiritual evolution of consciousness. And being a human being, we should actually perfect our human life by fully developing our potential.

What Prabhupāda was sad about was that even in the modern society of big big professors and scientists, but they don’t know this basic science of the soul. I don’t think that there is any university that this is being taught, that the science of the soul is being taught. I don't know. But the time they establish the university in Māyāpur. We have a number of devotees who have recently gotten their Ph.Ds and some of them are going to get their Ph.ds, so that they are studying in Cambridge and Oxford, they want to be the organisers of this university in Māyāpur. And definitely that university will also teach the science of the self. But we talked with the Indian government, they said we can have the standards as deemed university and offer, kind of, you know, degrees. But I think generally people, how many go to the university to teach the science of the soul? It is not one of the required curriculum unfortunately. Although may be in some comparative religion studies at least theoretically taught as a concept. But this is like most essential for all of us. This life and death matter. Because if we leave our body and we develop our consciousness in a proper way, next life, we don’t have to take birth again. Otherwise, you are born again and again and again and maybe the next birth goes down. And if you go down into animal species and you know, you may be a dog, for all the species of dog and gradually move up one after another and it takes a long time to move up in that way. So, this is the way you can help yourself, you can help your family members, you can help many other people to end the cycle of birth and death and while we are alive, if we know that what would be our [45:59 Not clear] we can be more peaceful and more well-based, well grounded about what life is.

So this is very profound instructions that Kṛṣṇa is giving here revealing – how this law of reincarnation works, how we can prepare ourselves. It is like if you are walking and keep your foot on something you stumble, suddenly startled like a little test, at that moment what are you saying [46:44 not clear]. It is not ok. So then these will probably kick our foot, Ouch! Something else can be [47:06 not clear] But if we are able to train ourselves, any moment, any kind of startling, any danger any – have you ever been in any life-threatening situation –  car accident or – at that moment if you can remember Kṛṣṇa, then it is like, Kṛṣṇa, even at this time you remembered Him then, He is so grateful. When you are in need you thought of Him, so then He reciprocates back. He will protect. When I was involved in a car accident, the car rolled over seven times, and I was just saying Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa. And somehow I didn’t get injured by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy but very frightening situation. So I hope that everybody gets strength from this and to some extent lose that fear of – no we don’t want to be afraid of – to some extent actually the fear of death rather fear of self-preservation is a natural responsibility for everybody. We should try to live as long as we can. At the same time we shouldn’t have this type of obsession with the kind of fear that makes us unsettled because sooner or later we do have to go from this body. And then if we are spiritually strong enough to deal with it, then there is no karma.

Should I open up for question answers or you want one more story about some experience I had?

Ok, I have a disciple who is – she is an Italian lady, she is a mother of two children and she was practising form her home  Kṛṣṇa consciousness and she had the cancer before she became - may be the disease kind of brought her to look into the life death – life threatening disease, shocking. So she came to Kṛṣṇa consciousness after she already had the cancer. And she was back, chanting and everything and she came to me in Māyāpur one year  and said that she got permission to be initiated. ‘I don’t know how I will deliver back to – I have only six months. I want to be initiated before I die.’ So I gave her initiation after two months or something. I gave her initiation and then later on in the year she went to the, to the hospital feeling very bad. And they said actually  now what’s happened is, this cancer has gone all over your blood [50:11 not clear] So there is nothing you can do for this?”

“There is nothing we can do right now. All I can do is may be give you a shot of morphine or something to take away the pain. So you can't hear me, you can't do anything. Just take the painkiller. You are going to die, anyway, any hour.”

 So then she said, “Can I have an ambulance? “

“Ambulance? You are in the hospital! [laughter] Why you want an ambulance?”

“You can help me. You can help me. I want an ambulance to go the temple, because  if I can die in the temple, I will go back to Godhead. I want to go before the deities and I want to pray and I want to prepare myself to leave my body. Here you are going to give me some morphine [laughter] I am already a goner. So let me go to the temple and die and go back to God. So they said it is like a wish. So they gave her the ambulance. Eeeeeew, she kind of pulls up into the temple in Milano and the devotees are all surprised why the ambulance is pulling up with siren. And then she came and she said that, I could die any minute. I want to come and see the deities. You know, she saw the deities and then they gave her a place she could stay. This is like temple, may be we  need to have a hospice type of thing. People want to leave their body in Māyāpur. When they are going to build, make sure we are going to build a nice one. And suddenly while in the temple, she felt better. And the last – she just stayed, ok now I have to focus you know. I am bleeding now, I can't do anything more for my husband or my children or anything else. Now I have to just prepare myself. I am going back to Kṛṣṇa leaving this material world. So she just, everyday was reading, hearing tapes, and just like really focusing and chanting her Hare Kṛṣṇa. and then after about eight days then she got, she [52:22 not clear] painlessly, painlessly was practising.

But then on the eighth day, being in the temple, she suddenly got, like symptoms of, very severe symptoms. She knew that it was like her time. So the devotees that were helping her they all came around and there was, may be twenty devotees in the room doing big kīrtan, chanting and this was that moment, Madhu Sevita prabhu is one of the ISKCON gurus, he said he had, driving from the Belgium down to – Italy normally starts from France. That night we decided to drive straight through. They just happened to come in the room at the time, when the kīrtan was going on and he saw the lady, he told me, “I saw her chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, open her mouth and that was like her last. I shouted out Hare Kṛṣṇa. At the same time everyone was chanting.” He said, you know, if I could have a wish to leave my body, I would do it with group of devotees chanting and being able to focus your mind on Kṛṣṇa, leaving. I couldn’t think of a more ideal way of leaving this world.”

So here was a novice still here in the material world struggling over, but she was able to focus her mind completely on Kṛṣṇa and peacefully leave this world. So someone who leaves like that remembering Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa says, you know, without a doubt, He says without a doubt, asamśayah, without a doubt, beyond a doubt, they are going to achieve Me. So I had that personal experience. I remember once she sent me a fax, that she was going through the situation, I told her what to do, how to meditate on Kṛṣṇa at that time what – to wear the flower garland from the deities, prasādam and take caraṇāmṛta everyday and all the things she could do and so I am very proud that she was able to be such a mahā-yoginī. So brave to face that danger and then be able to go with the support of the devotees like that.

I have another situation where there was a small child, nine year old, so he had a cancer tumour. And then the whole temple was praying for him to recover and mother went – the mother was supposed to go to the hospital when they operate – they are going to do a - they did a biopsy and it was, it was malignant. So then, they are going to operate, she didn’t go to the hospital. She stayed in the temple. What can I do there? I will be praying to Kṛṣṇa [55:20 not clear] And when the doctor went into the operating room, [55:25 not clear].the devotees were outside, something over there, helping there and he came out. And said, “Remarkable! Remarkable! I am going to see the-,” what do you call, “the college of physicians. Look! Here the X-ray shows that there is a tumor. When we open up there is no tumour. Nothing. Remarkable!”[laughter]

I was like, you know. It is like a miracle. That the boy, completely the tumour went.  Even after all the things – the biopsy, everything was malignant and the big tumour. Somehow, sometimes that happens, but that doesn’t always happen. So, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, I find it very exciting, it is really helping people to deal with the challenges in their life and you can make a very big difference. You know, one person like, when I was doing harināma yesterday [56:33 not clear] I was thinking that, these terrorists, they don’t like materialism, so they are like, bombing people. But they literally didn’t change anything. I said we are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, we are giving love bombs [laughter] that can have remarkable effect on people. So thank you very much for too long.

So death is like your final exam. So if you cross your final exam you can – but then there are many other tests before that. If you pass those tests,  you can already have a spiritualised consciousness while living. There is a verse in the Vedas that says

īhā yasya harer dāsye

karmaṇā manasā girā

nikhilāsv apy avasthāsu

jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate

That if you use your mind, your words and your activities in the service of God, of Hari or Kṛṣṇa in this lifetime, then by utilising all your activities, all absorbed in your spiritual contact with the Supreme Lord, that then you will be, even while you are alive, you will be liberated.  jīvan-muktaḥ – jīvana means alive, mukta means liberated – liberated while alive. So we want to teach people how to spiritualize their consciousness. As you said, Nārada Muni, he was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and when he died, he says it is like a lightning here when he told us his disciple, what would happen that he was chanting and meditating and then all of a sudden he - like a bang, like hit by a lightning and he was illuminated and he could see his spiritual form, his eternal, blissful spiritual form, and he could see the material body lying there, but there was like no pain, there was just like – he was supposed to be liberated and -  that was just a natural transition. So we want that also, I mean, the perfection of way of happening. That even while alive, like we saw Śrīla Prabhupāda everything he did was offer to Kṛṣṇa, everything that Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda was doing was dedicated, and he was a liberated person even while living in this material world. Just coming in his presence, you could feel the difference, because everything he was doing was dedicated to Kṛṣṇa. So we like to change people to be liberated from the karma while living in the material world, so that they can be at peace. Consequently, they could be able to help others. And then in that case, for them there is no apprehension where they are going to go. Or even if someone is not at that level, but then somehow they can muster up. So even if someone doesn’t do all the preliminary test but they really [1:00:22 not clear] and do the final exam right, they can still, some like bonus kind of opportunities. But if you are Kṛṣṇa conscious, your whole life, then Kṛṣṇa also helps you at the time of death, so you will obviously be able to remember Him.

You try to cheat Kṛṣṇa , it doesn’t work like that way, you know. At the last minute, you know, you will probably think of something else, there is something, just almost accidentally, or by a friend or someone else, then to [1:01:20 not clear] they start thinking about Kṛṣṇa, they got delivered. There are many cases. Ajāmila, he was, he was, he was a good boy at his childhood but then he became – he married a kind of professional lady and he – a prostitute, so he was - to maintain her, he didn’t have any normal income, so he became a criminal – and he was robbing and he was definitely headed to a hellish birth and  -but he named his son Nārāyana. So everytime he would be calling his son Nārāyana come here. Come and sit here Nārāyana. Nārāyana, let’s go and take prasādam, take food. Nārāyana let's go for a walk. Nārāyana, come on. So always he was saying Nārāyana, Nārāyana. That is he name of  - one of the names of Kṛṣṇa . So by saying Nārāyana, Nārāyana, he was actually getting purified. It was totally accidental. Was not conscious but he was still getting the benefits. May be somebody has names that’s – one thing they do in India – many times they name the children – used to – not now, now it is all fashion – that used to name some name of Kṛṣṇa or one of His avatāras or one of the energies of Kṛṣṇa for the ladies.

We give spiritual names to people when they take initiation. So there are cases like that where people. There is a lady who had a parrot who would always chant Rāma Rāma. And she would talk with the parrot, and she got hit by a lightning. After saying Rāma Rāma, she was also liberated. She didn’t have a clue that - she was just like. So there are examples like that.

It is also there in the Vedas. You shouldn’t use – in fact, use name of God in vain and because of that when Lord Caitanya came five hundred years ago, none of the priests would chant the name of God. The only time they would say it out loud was when they are bathing in the Ganges because they considered that that was a pure place. So there was a lot of restriction of chanting the name of God.  What Lord Caitanya did is actually was too restricted. Chanting in vain, or means to offensively say the name of God, there are some offensive ways you can say. So we are also trained, we should avoid the offenses to the name of God. But Lord Caitanya specifically said that if we chant the name of Kṛṣṇa and His instruction, then He will protect us from these offenses. That is why before we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa to avoid any kind of offense, maybe we are too familiar or not in the proper consciousness, we say the mantra

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

 So that’s like a little secret. He ordered that you should chant -  then I will take the responsibility, if you chant by My order. So if you want to be freed then chant Lord Caitanya’s names and then Hare Kṛṣṇa. We are training people not to chant – don't chant the name of God in vain, but what do? What about chanting in devotion? You know, it is like people, sometime they like swear, i don't know how they swear. [Laughter] They say the name of God just like, like a curse word you know and so that kind of a thing. But there is a legitimate way of chanting the name of God. Christianity also say the Lord's prayer by Lord Jesus, Lord our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. So the name is very sacred. Even I was - just used to study a little bit of Solomon mysticism. He used the holy names as his meditation. That’s how Solomon became a very powerful king in the Biblical history. He would have the whole method of chanting the names of God and making maṇḍalas and yantras with the names of God. So it is part of the Christian tradition we have a rabbi – they would chant these names of God. But they don’t tell the normal people. It will be like, secret mantra. So Lord Caitanya said that secret mantra, we all will give out the secret mantras to people who are initiated after sometime but the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra was made public domain – it was made public for everybody. That is why it is such an important mantra because everybody can chant that and there is no restriction. Lord Caitanya is - the difference between the mantra and the hidden mantra and the name. The name can be chanted. So we should avoid the offenses. Ok, if there’s more questions, I will be here at your service. You can come and approach me there whenever. Thank you for your association and I hope that we can keep in contact. I come here sometimes. I wish – I like to help any devotees anyway I can.

Transcribed by Sudhāmayī Citra Devī Dāsī
Completed on 27/DEC/2020