20020909 Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.2.19

The following is a Bhāgavatam class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on 09^th September, 2002 at the 5th Hare Kṛṣṇa Convention in Malaysia. The class begins with a reading from Canto 1, Chapter 2, Verse 19.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.19

tadā rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ
kāma-lobhādayaś ca ye
ceta etair anāviddhaṁ
sthitaṁ sattve prasīdati 

Translation: By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupāda. As soon as irrevocable loving service is established in the heart, the effects of nature’s modes of passion and ignorance, such as lust, desire and hankering, disappear from the heart. Then the devotee is established in goodness, and he becomes completely happy.

Purport (by Śrīla Prabhupāda): A living being in his normal constitutional position is fully satisfied in spiritual bliss. This state of existence is called brahma-bhūta [ŚB. 4.30.20] or ātmānanda, or the state of self-satisfaction. This self-satisfaction is not like the satisfaction of the inactive fool. The inactive fool is in the state of foolish ignorance, whereas the self-satisfied ātmānandī is transcendental to the material state of existence. This stage of perfection is attained as soon as one is fixed in irrevocable devotional service. Devotional service is not inactivity, but the unalloyed activity of the soul.

The soul's activity becomes adulterated in contact with matter, and thus the diseased activities are expressed in the form of lust, desire, hankering, inactivity, foolishness and sleep. The effect of devotional service becomes manifest by complete elimination of these effects of passion and ignorance. The devotee is fixed at once in the mode of goodness, and he makes further progress to rise to the position of vasudeva, or the state of unmixed sattva, or śuddha-sattva. Only in this śuddha-sattva state can one always see Kṛṣṇa face to face by dint of pure affection for the Lord.

A devotee is always in the mode of unalloyed goodness; therefore he harms no one. But the nondevotee, however educated he may be, is always harmful. A devotee is neither foolish nor passionate. The harmful, foolish and passionate cannot be devotees of the Lord, however they may advertise themselves as devotees by outward dress. A devotee is always qualified with all the good qualities of God. ? Quantitatively such qualifications may be different, but qualitatively both the Lord and His devotee are one and the same.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Swami Translation and Purport for Canto 1, chapter 2. text 19 – Divinity and Divine Service.

Jayapatākā Swami: in the previous verse Bhānu Mahārāja read, by regularly attending of the Bhāgavatam class and serving to the pure devotees, all that is troublesome in our heart is almost completely destroyed, ? and loving service is established as an irrevocable fact. ? So here we see that service to the book Bhāgavata and service to the devotee Bhāgavata clears away all that is inauspicious in the heart. And then it says bhakti becomes irrevocably fixed in the heart. When that happens, next step is that passion and ignorance, the effects of it; like lust, desire and hankering disappear from the heart. And then they become situated in goodness and you become completely happy. How many want to be completely happy? (everyone raises hands) Okay. Now you know how.

These verses are very important for followers of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Why? Especially for us. When Śrīla Prabhupāda was in the harbor out from America, and he prayed to Kṛṣṇa in his mārkine-bhagavata-dharma, how he’s going to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness to this sinful place, America, to this ugra place? Then he remembered these verses. By hearing the Bhāgavata, all the abhadreṣu, all the inauspicious things are cleared from the heart. When that happens, once purified from the passion and ignorance effects, situated in pure goodness. So then, Prabhupāda… about five, six verses he quoted here in his prayer to Kṛṣṇa. This is my formula. This is what I’m going to do. I’m going to engage people in hearing and chanting the glories of Kṛṣṇa and serving the Bhāgavatam. Follow this process. By the mercy of the Bhāgavata, Your mercy, it is going to work and they’re going to become purified.

So we find that this works. It doesn’t only work in America. It works in Europe, it works in Asia, it works in Africa, works everywhere. Works in Russia. It’s a universal process. It’s not a material process. Not dependent on nationality, race, religion. It works on anyone. Just like fire. Fire works, totally non-sectarian. Will burn anybody. Doesn’t matter what political party they belong to, what country, what religion. So this holy name and this Bhāgavata-sevā has a transcendental effect for everyone. The only problem is how to get people to try it. He has the medicine that can save everybody from this disease.

One of our devotees got dengue fever recently. Dengue fever. The dengue fever is actually very dangerous. They got this in the world today. Malaria has come back again. Then there’s also… AIDS, of course, is increasing. What if you had the cure? You want to give it out to everyone. Some big pharmaceutical companies want to put a patent on it and make a lot of money. Want to see everybody get the cure, but everybody is dying. Death is a permanent disease that everybody has in this world. But we have the cure for it. We’re trying to convince people, “Take the cure.” We get people… some say, “Well, let me enjoy life and then when I die, then I’ll worry about that.” So many different kinds… so much ignorance is there. So even somehow, even by accident, if somebody hears the Bhāgavatam, they also get blessings.

In Chennai, there was one life member. He came to see me and his wife is my aspiring disciple, sheltered disciple. And he once said, “I just want to tell you that actually I’m really fallen person. You see, I’m a businessman. And I used to always go to Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo. And I’d always… whenever I go, I smoke, I drink. I’m a vegetarian, though. But I do all these things and I regularly go. So I thought this is the modern way, acting very modern. But my wife, she’s very religious. So I drive her to the temple sometimes. She’d regularly come. I would sit out in a car and smoke while she was taking darśana. Sometimes I’d come in also have a darśana. Sometimes I’d sit and hear the class. I thought this is not for me. It’s okay if my wife wants to do it. I’ll do it later, it’s not my time yet.” Then he had Bhakti Vṛkṣa meetings in the house, and every month by rotation it would come into their house. Sometimes he would attend the Bhakti Vṛkṣa meeting, just like sitting at the side like a host.

But because the discussion is very interactive and very informal so it’s very easy to participate and listen. So he started to participate in the discussion. After some few times of doing this, one day they are talking about how intoxication is putting the influence of ignorance in our consciousness and how this intoxication is an obstacle in spiritual life. So then he said “Well, if you take coffee and tea, is that also some problem?” Devotee told him “Well, these type of stimulants are not good. Why don’t you just take the energy from athe holy name?” Then I (the guy) was thinking, “Better not talk about my whiskey.” Just coffee and tea… (laughter). Didn’t dare ask about whiskey. He said, “Somehow now I just want to tell you Mahārāja that now I’m chanting eight rounds of japa and have given up intoxication and I aspire in the future that also I can be initiated. But how this happened to me, I can’t tell you. I don’t understand it. Somehow it happened. Very very happy.”

Devotees become very happy once they are Kṛṣṇa conscious. But the materialists, they can’t figure out why devotees are happy. They don’t do any things that make THEM happy. Their idea of happiness is different kinds of sense gratification. Most of the things that give them more happiness are in the mode of ignorance and passion, which we don’t do. So then they can’t figure out how is it devotees are happy? They think if I have to give up all these things, I’d never be happy. Therefore I won’t chant. So it’s not even good to sometimes inform people in the beginning about all the rules. Just get them to chant and hear. Rūpa Gosvāmī said, ‘yena tena prakāreṇa manaḥ kṛṣṇe niveśayet’ (B.r.s 1.2.4) By any means get people to chant, get them attached to Kṛṣṇa. Once they’re attached to Kṛṣṇa, then you can introduce the rules and regulations. Because then they’re always trying to get taste so they can keep the taste and maintain it. And then they need to know they have to give up. It’s a tāmasika.

So regularly attending Bhāgavatam classes, it has a miraculous effect. And then here’s the next stage; performing devotional service. Hearing Bhāgavatam for a while and somebody develops this fixed devotional service. When someone doing fixed devotional service, then while doing devotional service this lust, anger, greed… all this material ripus (foes) start to diminish from the heart. Mode of goodness becomes prominent. There’s always a fight going on in our consciousness between the different modes, and depending on our nature, on our previous karmas, on our purification, certain modes went out. Some people they are just fixed in the mode of ignorance, some are fixed in passion, some are fixed in the mixed, some are very much into goodness. So for spiritual life it’s better to be in goodness than passion or ignorance. From goodness we want to come to śuddha-sattva, pure goodness.

So how these things leave the heart? You want to pull it out from our heart , its very difficult. We cleanse it by performing this devotional service. Devotional service makes us happy. I know… my brother; when I was a new bhakta in the Montreal temple, just newly initiated; just five years younger than me he came to the temple in Montreal. Then after like five days he said, “I got to go back!”

I said, “Why? You were supposed to stay two weeks.”

“No, I got to go back right away.”

I said, “Why?”

“I’m liking this too much. (laughter) I’m feeling so happy, if I get attached to this, then how will I go back home? (laughter) They’re not vegetarian. No all these things there… I won’t fit in. I have to go, quick quick before I get too…”

Wow, māyā’s really got him. I couldn’t convince him to stay because he had all figured out that from his mental point of view, sensual point of view. ‘I’m not going to be happy.’ He’s happy! He realizes he’s happy chanting. Because so much identified with the body, he went back. Sometimes when people start to chant hare Kṛṣṇa, they get frightened. They feel so happy, “How? How? Why!?” they… don’t know how to adjust.

Then one yogī in Māyāpur, she was practicing Patañjali yoga system for two years in Pondicherry. Her guru passed away. She’s from Switzerland. She came back to Māyāpur. Said she went actually to Calcutta and when you land in the airport in Calcutta, every foreigner, they come up and say “Māyāpur! Māyāpur!” all taxi drivers. So she basically didn’t know. “Okay! Lets go Māyāpur!” (laughter) Like Kṛṣṇa brought her you know, to the holy-dhāma. So I had some Swiss devotees and European devotees talk to her. and after… because she was the only yogī so they got her to do mantra meditation. That time it was a month of Vaiśākha and were doing the boat festival. After two, three days I talked to her and even by three days she said actually, “I never felt happier! The whole two years I meditated, I didn’t feel as much spiritual energy as I’m feeling now.” But then she said, “But then… how is it possible? It’s too easy! Work hard… you got to struggle, you got to suffer! It’s too easy.” You know they just have this in the brain that because all the Māyāvādīs told that I got to… it’s a very dry and suffering, the meditation. How can you feel so happy so fast? So that put a doubt in her mind. ‘It’s too easy’.

So somehow, sometimes, this devotional service; you go like rocket (woosh)! So quickly that people get frightened even. So much change. I was talking to one daughter of devotee. She was saying, “What if you’re chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa; you don’t have a taste but you’re forcing yourself to chant because you know it’s your duty. Your parents want you to do it. But you really want to enjoy your senses.” So I said, “Well, you are looking from which perspective? It seems to me you’re looking from the mental platform. The lust is in the senses, the mind and intelligence.” So we tend to look from a mental platform. We’re identifying with the mind and the body. Just like some people say that, “I have a soul.” rather than, “I am the soul.” If you make the decision that, “This is what I want to do. I am the soul, I’m the boss here. I decide what I want to think. My mind doesn’t cooperate always and I got a rebellious mind. But what I want to think, I decide. What I want to do, I decide, based on what’s good for me. Not what is my conditioning because of where I was born or what influence my peers are having on me or anything. What I want to do, you see… with my intelligence I decide.” If you decide, “I want to be Kṛṣṇa conscious.” and then you act like that. If your mind doesn’t cooperate, tell your mind, “Why are you thinking of other things?”

But to get to that spiritual platform, to get out of the mental platform, is very difficult. If we regularly chant, hear, engage in devotional service; eventually, gradually, we do get fixed and we start to get happy. But because people are fixed up this mental platform. Somehow how to inspire our children to want to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Not that your parents… not somebody’s forcing or… This is what they actually want to do. They’re inspired. They want to be devoted. They want to taste this.

I asked one devotee who recently said a similar thing, “Have you have you ever tasted the ecstasy of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa?” We all see here about this happiness. You chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, tears pour from your eyes and your hairs stand on end, as your voice got choked up (imitating) when you chant the holy name. Have you fainted in ecstasy? Rolled in the ground in ecstasy? Your hair stood all on end and chanting “GAUUUUUUUUURANGA!!” He said “No.” (laughter) Why don’t you desire that happiness? Why the popsicle happiness or the ice cream? Why not the super ecstatic happiness, the love of Kṛṣṇa? Why not try for that happiness? Why Lord Caitanya has come and shown these loving symptoms? So people can realize this happiness you can get. There’s a much greater happiness than anything material.

Even in the Bhāgavatam it says that the happiness of love for Kṛṣṇa is so great, if you take the maximum happiness you can have in sense gratification on this planet... say you’re the king of the earth! There’s no more kings of Earth. Now all you can be is the Secretary General of United Nations, I don’t know if that’s very blissful. ? But say you were the king, the Emperor of the Earth. All the sense gratification that Earth had to offer, in a religious way, it would be considered that your happiness for comparison’s sake is equal to the numeral one. Compared to that, being a Gandharva – ten times more happiness. Gandharvas have more happiness, more fun and games, more good times than the human beings. And then I forget all the planets. You know… Kinnara, Siddha… so many planets are there. Each one is ten times more than the next. Then you get up to the Svarga, which is higher than all these other planets. By the way, the Vedas talk about so many different types of living entities in this universe. Higher than the human beings, lower than human beings. We’re not seeing them, but they’re there. Then we get up to Svargaloka, Devas, they’re ten times more. The residents of Svarga are ten times more than the other lower upadevas, these other higher planets. Indra, he’s king of the Devas. He’s like 100 times more than the other devas. That means king of the earth would probably have 100 times more sense gratification than most people. But even here we just use it as one. He is the basic. That, times ten times ten times ten times ten times ten times a 100 is Indra. Indra is like millions and billions of times more happiness, less problems. But says that Brahmā is a thousand times more happiness than Indra. So the happiness in Brahmaloka, compared to the impersonal Brahman, is not even a drop compared to the ocean. So all of the highest material happiness is not a drop compared to the ocean. Impersonal realization. And impersonal realization compared with Kṛṣṇa-Bhakti, is not even the impression… the amount of water a calf’s hoof can hold. A little cup, a shot glass, something like that, compared to the ocean of happiness, of Kṛṣṇa-Bhakti.

So we’re willing to give up… you can’t even put into the equation. We have many computer or math experts here. One drop compared to the ocean. What would be the equation for that? And then times one cup compared to the ocean. I wonder if we can have a computer to calculate it. How much more happiness! We’re giving up that happiness for some tāmasika, rājasika sense gratification which is not even… it’s not even equal to minus… one, maybe .01 happiness level. Why don’t we try for spiritual happiness? Prasīdati, where be become completely satisfied. Next verse it says also… praśānta-mānasa. Happy mentality. From happy to more happy to more happy happens quite quickly, this feeling happy in the mode of goodness. From there it goes up higher and higher. When you get love of Kṛṣṇa, it’s so much higher than anything.

It’s inconceivable what we’re missing. We’re giving that up so we can party with our friends. So we can sit in one of these taverns and get drunk. Come on! What?? People are giving up the valuable jewels for just pieces of garbage. They don’t know what a great opportunity Lord Caitanya. That’s why I said Lord Caitanya is the more mahā-vadānyāya. Super merciful. He’s giving away… I mean, it’s like, you know, he’s giving away. We just calculated how much more valuable is Kṛṣṇa-Bhakti, if you put all the other happiness. People want to be happy, right? Why do people go to the resort here? To be happy. Why they play golf? Why they go upstairs? Why they go? They’re trying to be happy. But they’re doing that carvaṇa-carvaṇānām. Chewing the chewed. They’re just trying to squeeze some happy out of these senses. Same senses, same things. Little different shape, little different. See a circus, tickle the eyes. See some fireworks. Prabhupāda called fireworks tickling the eyes. Yesterday was the Malaysian games inauguration. Fireworks. So many fireworks. ? These things give some kind of pleasure. We also show fireworks to Kṛṣṇa in the ratha-yātrā, like Chennai ratha-yātrā, as a service to Kṛṣṇa. You can see also sometimes in Māyāpur where we bring these.

All the different kind of happiness’s there are in material life are so insignificant. And that jewel of spiritual happiness is given freely by Lord Caitanya. Somebody started handing out billion dollar checks, he’d get a lot of people wanting to take from him. In Bangkok a couple of years ago, I was passing through and they’re giving out rice and some [unclear]. It’s a monastery. And everyone who came get a packet of rice and a dhoti or something. And there was 5000 people waiting at the gate. When they opened the gate, there was a big stampede. People running in just get a little packet of four kilos of rice or something, two kilo, five kilo rice. Some people rushed in such a way, in the front some people tripped and fell over. Everybody ran over them. Eleven people or seven people were killed for a little rice! Imagine if people were giving out million dollar checks, whoever wants it. But what is a million dollars compared to what Lord Caitanya is giving? If people knew the value of what Lord Caitanya is giving, there’d be a huge stampede.

All the religions say we should love God. But how to actually get love of God? It’s not an easy thing. When we follow the Bhāgavatam step by step by step, you have to go through a few steps here. This is now getting the mode of ignorance and passion off of our heart. Getting happiness. Then we go the next step next step. And eventually we really get love of Kṛṣṇa, after many many steps. And Lord Caitanya is giving it freely. But we get so quickly. Don’t even have to hear a thousand Bhāgavatam classes. Within a few days you get it because of Lord Caitanya’s mercy. We should appreciate how merciful the Lord is and try to get his mercy. But māyā’s there. The Upadeśāmṛta is saying how there’s the spoilers. Bhaktir vinaśyati, praṇaśyati. Those things that kill bhakti, we’ll be discussing later today. Māyā is trying to take this jewel away from us. Easy come, easy go, right? Somebody gets you a diamond worth of $50 million, “What’s this?”, “Oh it’s just a piece of glass. You can give me $100 for it.” Oh really, a hundred bucks? Okay.” It was real. Just gave $50 million. That kind of a thing.

We get the most valuable jewel and then māyā sees that if that person stays with the jewel, he’s out. She’s out. Not going to be in the material world anymore. Come on, quick quick. She steps it up. Come on, I’ll give you some… you know hundred bucks. I’ll give you a… what do you want? I’ll give you a nice girlfriend, boyfriend. Come on, I’ll give you something. What do you want? A better job? If you don’t give it up, I’m going to give you trouble. She tries all the tricks she can, but she can’t take it away from you. You have to be tricked to give it to her. You have to give it to her. So we should be… that’s why all the training. And so don’t get tricked. Don’t give away your bhakti. Don’t have it just taken away from you. Leave it carelessly out, someone takes it. You have to give it away. Or you have to just kind of leave it neglected and walk away and someone picks it up.

As long as you guard it, Kṛṣṇa will help you protect it. Nobody can take your Kṛṣṇa-Bhakti from you if you just cling on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. That’s why Śrīla Prabhupāda said “We should cling on the lotus feet of Gaura-Nitāi, hanging. Don’t let go.” Somehow Prabhupāda gives this system though. Bhāgavatam, chanting, and it works. People start feeling… once they get the nectar. Lord Caitanya makes it work much faster than even normal. Some people… even minutes. Maybe somebody wants a devotee in a previous life and they see a picture of Kṛṣṇa, they may start to cry. They may feel. Like some people they might not have been devotees in the past, so takes a more longer time before they feel the spiritual bliss. But if they stick with it by Lord Caitanya’s mercy, the process of Bhāgavatam it works. We should try to get the spiritual happiness. Make a good effort here. We haven’t really tried. There’s some people chanting one round for a long time saying “Why don’t I taste this ecstasy?” That’s why we’re trying to encourage. Put a little more effort into it, more rounds, better rounds, read the Bhāgavatam, be absorbed.

And the answer is a question of absorption, of getting immersed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It’s a practice, a yoga process. If yogīs are meditating and they go into samādhi after many lifetimes or many years, then they get into that spiritual bliss. We don’t have to learn all those procedures of yoga, but we need to get absorbed. We can get absorbed through kīrtana. That’s why you’re dancing in kīrtana or absorbed through chanting very clearly and hearing. Absorbed by serving. Cutting the sabjīs for the… if we’re thinking this is for Kṛṣṇa, I’m offering it to you. Cutting these sabjīs, don’t cut your finger please. Be careful! Then you can also be absorbed. The gopīs in Vṛndāvana, they were churning the butter for Kṛṣṇa. That’s how they absorbed. They’re thinking about this butter is for Kṛṣṇa. He will eat the butter. ♫ ♫ ~~gopāla kṛṣṇa, govinda kṛṣṇa~~ ♫ ♫ Churning butter. We have to be absorbed in the service, especially programs to get our children and our youth absorbed. So somehow before… sooner than later they can taste the spiritual bliss. Once they taste the bliss then they’ll be irrevocably fixed in devotional service and by the age of 14 they haven’t tasted bliss, they get in the teenage years it’s going to be tough. Bigger fight. The senses are more wild.

? Prahlāda, he felt ecstasy at age of five. From his birth he was feeling it. Constantly feeling. Its not an age thing. You don’t have to be a particular age to feel it. You can be 100 or you can be five. It’s a question of who can absorb their mentality. So it can be done gradually by regularly hearing the Bhāgavatam, hearing, chanting, attending, serving the devotees, step by step. Gradually it can happen. Or someone can decide “I want to jump into the water.” Sometimes you put your toe in the water, it feels cold and you go in, you get used to it and its nice. You want to get into the water up to our neck. Even dip in all the way. Totally immersed into Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then you can feel. Used to be that we’d say you had to join the temple, because everyone knew that if you joined the temple, you’d be fully immersed in devotional service because the temple commander is going to keep you working from day to night, morning to night. And the saṅkīrtana leader and head pūjārī and the temple president… so they don’t give you any time. You have to be busy all the day. And it was thought that people living in a congregation, since they don’t have that level of immersion, therefore they’re not going to taste the same ecstasy and they’re not going to be fixed up. But what we’re trying to do is train the congregation also. That they can also experience the same spiritual bliss.

But it means that they have to push themselves, they have to engage themselves in devotional service. Some devotees are so fired up they’re preaching in Nāmahaṭṭa, they are preaching in Bhakti Vṛkṣa, they’re preaching in every spare moment that they have. Even though they’re in the congregation they don’t have so many spare moments but between the work and the family and the preaching they have a full package. They’re doing everything for Kṛṣṇa that they’re feeling also the same spiritual happiness. See them, you can see them walking around smiling. You can see them with blissful faces. So it’s not a thing that you have to be in a temple to feel this ecstasy. Temple is a good facility because there’s so many… it’s like being in the army, military, it’s very regulated. But if someone really wants to, they can space out a temple also. It’s possible… but some good facilities are there. You can also have the same thing. It just means that someone has to create that environment. Get up in the morning, offer a little incense to my deity, take my shower, chant my Gāyatrī or chant my round, a little pūjā for the deity, kiss my children on the cheek, say hello to the wife… whatever you do, start off the day a little bit better if you chant together. Take a little prasāda. Sit in the bus. Someone asks, “Gurudeva, can we chant japa in the bus, while we’re going to work?” “Hope so. What else are you going to do in the bus? Sing cinema songs?” Sure we should chant japa. Otherwise you know… tell that to the students. Chant japa in the school bus. They said, “No. What will my friends think? I’m weird. Not cool.” (laugher)

There’s a story in American folklore. Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. Parents of Tom Sawyer told him he had to paint the fence. So he made a plan. He started painting the fence and he was smiling, singing, “Wow, this is so much fun! All the friends came around, “Hey, what are you doing?” “I’m having fun! I’m painting the fence.” “Really? We’re going to go playing.” “But I’m having fun. This is great.” Then they all said, “Can we also do it?” “Okay!” Pretty soon all his friends are painting the fence. Actually, he didn’t think it was fun at the beginning. (laughter) This way, get everybody, trick everybody to paint the fence. They all came here.

We’re not tricking anybody. Chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa IS fun. It IS blissful. And if you can show consistently you’re happier than the other people, then even the students think, “Hey, this person really has something.” Everything’s possible. Being actually Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a realized process. You have to realize it’s. It is for experiencing. It’s like people say, “Well, look… I want to enjoy life now. When I die, I worry about it.” Because they think that this is all for getting payment at the end of life. So they’re worrying about enjoying now. But no, Lord Caitanya made Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You enjoy it now, you experience it now. You are actually feeling the transcendental happiness today, tomorrow, just in a very short time, you can feel it. You don’t have to wait till you die and you go to heaven and things like that. No, you’ll feel, experience that transcendental bliss in this lifetime. All these verses are telling us that they are fixed in happiness. This is before you die. This is why you’re living. While you’re still here in this body, you’re experiencing all these happiness. It’s not something that you only experience like a postdated check. I do everything faithfully and end of life when I die, I hope I get what was promised. That’s what most religions are. Everything is payday at the end.

But we’re showing that look, devotional service is so transcendental. It’s directly not different from Kṛṣṇa. We are spirit. Kṛṣṇa is spirit. When we serve Kṛṣṇa, we are feeling the spiritual happiness, now! Inspite of having a material body. Bodily things are going on, but the happiness is coming from the soul. So we want to be able to realize this. To realize this, they have to get into it. They just put their toe in the water and if it’s a little bit cold they don’t go. They have to stop smoking eventually. All these kind of mental things are holding us back. Dive in, try it out, get absorbed. If somebody fully gets absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it doesn’t take years to start to experience some spiritual changes in the consciousness. It depends how much we can absorb. Prabhupāda said if we could in one moment, if we really surrender to Kṛṣṇa, we really cry to Kṛṣṇa with our whole being, like a little baby cries for the mother. When baby is totally freaked out. Wahhhhhhhh! If he could just really cry for Him, He’d pick us up in one second just like the mother picks up the baby. But we are kind of halfhearted. (laughter) And we’re not like fully.

I saw this one drama in Russia and then Nārada Muni gave a blessing and then he said, “Okay, you can go back.” Then Kṛṣṇa kept coming and saying “I’m ready to take him back to Godhead” He said, “Look, I’m not ready yet. I want to get married first.” This rṣī kept putting it off. “I got to pay my debts first. I got to have my daughter married.” Something was always coming up. Wasn’t ready to go back to Godhead. We have so many things. And these attachments, how to get rid of these attachments here? All these kind of subtle attachments in the mode of ignorance and passion which are binding us in the material world automatically get cleaned up just by performing this devotional service. You don’t have to worry about all these things. You just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. You do the best you can. You try to avoid all the offenses and simple activities. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, do your duty as whatever your āśrama is. And then the very grossest kind of attachments which can bind you in the material world, those roots which are tying you down are very subtly purified, so that your relationships are on a higher level. You’re going to go back to Godhead. Your wife is going to go back to Godhead, your children, everyone is going to go back to Godhead. Why leave somebody behind? 14 generations can go back. Don’t have to worry. Everyone go back.

So we hope that devotees see that how this very mystical process, very practical process. Get absorbed in it. Those who don’t live in a temple, you have to create that environment where you get fully absorbed. You have to go. Sometimes you know, there’s two main causes. Somebody can say “I’m doing all this service. Why nobody else is doing the service?” There’s that kind of mentality. There’s other mentality that, “Can I have more service?” Going and asking, “Is there any service for me? How can I help?” We’re not competing like that. Who can do less service and get away with it. The point is who can be more absorbed? What’s your capacity? Someone else may have a limited capacity. You may have a greater capacity. Work up to your capacity. Make your schedule. See how you can be fully absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness the whole day. How many minutes a day you’re spacing out. Everything you do should be something connected to Kṛṣṇa. In this way, if you’re fully absorbed throughout the day, it’s like there was one lady she saw 3 hours in the middle of the day. I cleaned the house, the kids are in school, husbands in the work. I don’t have anything to do. Let me go out and preach. Go out door to door in the condominiums and find ladies to preach to. In this way, she set up something like a dozen Bhakti Vṛkṣa groups in different condominiums, in the middle of the day. I have to end the class. Its time for breakfast.

And so it’s up to you, you see. Gṛhastha means more responsible. You have to make… there’s, no temple commander looking over your shoulder. What you do, how absorbed you are, how happy you are and Kṛṣṇa conscious you are is going to inspire your children, whether they want to follow your example. To a large degree. Of course, children have a lot of influence from the friends. So that’s why I was talking… I forgot to mention to the Annual Delegates Conference that back to this Pāṇḍava Senā that we have in KL, somehow this program needs to be expanded throughout the whole of Malaysia and be really well organized like they have in England. So many children, the youths in England are this Pāṇḍava Senā program. It saved many of them from just going astray. They have devotee friends that they’re associating with, playing with, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa with and doing different programs with. Distributing prasāda at orphanages, old folks homes, different programs together. Keep them busy in self-instructed Kṛṣṇa conscious way. They have lots of fun and taste a lot of Kṛṣṇa conscious nectar. The kind of program we need, a program for all the different levels of our community so that everybody can get this taste of Kṛṣṇa consciousness as early as possible. It’s there for the happiness. Lord Caitanya wants to give it to us. If we don’t help people, facilitate for people young and old to taste it, then we will be a disservice for them. We hope that during this festival everyone’s getting fully absorbed.

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

If you have any questions today in the afternoon, there’ll be question answer period. No time now.

Thank you very much, Hare Kṛṣṇa!

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