20100109 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.14.6

mūkaṁkarotivācālaṁ
paṅguṁlaṅghayategirim
yat-kṛpātamahaṁvande
paramānanda-mādhavam
śrīcaitanyaīśvaram

Hare Krsna mantra …. Repeated by devotees.

What is the verse today?

Bhagavatam…

Someone can read it?

I suffered a stroke you know in October, 2008. So, I will try to … I will speak…

Devotee:

Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.14.6

tatra ca kvacidātapodaka-nibhānviṣayānupadhāvatipāna-bhojana-vyavāyādi-vyasana-lolupaḥ.

Shall I read the word for word as well.

atra—there (in this phantom place); ca—also;kvacit—sometimes;ātapa-udaka-nibhān—like the water in a mirage in the desert;viṣayān—the objects of sense enjoyment;upadhāvati—runs after;pāna—to drinking;bhojana—to eating;vyavāya—to sex life;ādi—and so on;vyasana—with addiction;lolupaḥ—a debauchee.

TRANSLATION

Sometimes in this house in the sky [gandharva-pura] the conditioned soul drinks, eats and has sex. Being overly attached, he chases after the objects of the senses just as a deer chases a mirage in the desert.

PURPOR

There are two worlds—the spiritual and the material. The material world is false like a mirage in the desert. In the desert, animals think they see water, but actually there is none. Similarly, those who are animalistic try to find peace within the desert of material life. It is repeatedly said in different śāstras that there is no pleasure in this material world. Furthermore, even if we agree to live without pleasure, we are not allowed to do so. In Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Kṛṣṇa says that the material world is not only full of miseries (duḥkhālayam) but also temporary (aśāśvatam) [Bg. 8.15]. Even if we want to live here amid miseries, material nature will not allow us to do so. It will oblige us to change bodies and enter another atmosphere full of miserable conditions.

TRANSLATION

Sometimes in this house in the sky [gandharva-pura] the conditioned soul drinks, eats and has sex. Being overly attached, he chases after the objects of the senses just as a deer chases a mirage in the desert.

* * *

Jayapataka Swami: Which canto? which verse?

Fifth canto, fourteenth chapter, sixth verse.

Hari Om Tatsat.

So, the Srimad Bhagavad-purana tells us side by side about the spiritual world and about the material world. It is important that we understand while we are living here in the material world how the material world is presenting us the illusion that we can be happy, whereas there is always be some mixed happiness and distress.

The example is given by taking sweet rice, it is a very delectable preparation of rice and condensed milk and sugar, but then if we take that with sand, then the grit grit taste of the sand will spoil the taste of the sweet rice. So, somehow in the material world there is always also some suffering going on. So, it is not possibly fully satisfying, fully happy in this material world. Somehow we have fallen here from the spiritual world, where we can live eternally with... in the kingdom of God, with the personality of Godhead. And somehow we have fallen here in this material world, and as a result we are chasing after different hopes for happiness, but it is not completely possible to be happy or satisfied in this material world. So, therefore, we get frustrated.

When I was in the hospital, at that time, we had one hospital which is owned by Iskcon, that is called the Bhaktivedanta Swami hospital. So, they have spiritual care department which… some of the cases come there for suicide cases. In Indian families the children often stay with the parents. So, with this one son and daughter-in-law they decided they would be separate. It is also not uncommon in the modern context. Of course in the West most children live separate from the parents. In this case, it was a shock for the parents. So, the father thought, “If my son will be separate, there is use of me to live any longer. I will consume sleeping pills, I will go to sleep, I won’t wake up.” He thought it was very easy to die. So, the wife thought, “Well, if my husband is also commit suicide, then I don’t want to live without my husband. So, I will also take the sleeping pills.” So, both of them consumed huge quantities of sleeping pills and went to sleep. But the wife woke up in the middle of the night coughing off the sleeping pills. So, the son found mother, “What you are doing coughing out this pills?” So, she revealed the plan, and he called the ambulance, and they had to take him to the hospital... they pumped their stomach. So, the spiritual care department talked, “Don’t you know that if you commit suicide, it is a horrible thing. And according to the Vedas we take birth after birth in this material world, until such time when you really want to go back to godhead. But if we commit suicide, we don’t take an immediate birth, we remain... we have two bodies. We have the subtle body and the gross body. So, we kill our gross body, but in the subtle body the mind, intelligence and the false ego – we remain in a kind of a ghostly plane for some time, until our normal life span will be over. So, we don’t really don’t gain anything. Rather we are frustrated. So, like this they are telling them, “Don’t you know all this things?” They said, “We knew that it was sinful to commit suicide, but we don’t know what came over us.” So, they convinced them, “Please chant the names of God.” So, they happened to be hindus. So, they chanted Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. If a Christian had come to the hospital, they would have told him to chant whatever name they have faith in. By chanting the names of Jesu-Christo, Jesus Christ... If a Mohammad comes, they would say chant the names of Allah. The spiritual care department is in an area of the town where there is all the different religions. So, according to how the people are, they appropriately tell them... because basically our movement is not a religion. It is a spiritual movement. So, we don’t mind, anyone from any religion can practice bhakti yoga. This is …. we don’t advice anyone... they have to like somehow reject the previous religious training. Rather they should just take this as a kind of a post graduate study and practice bhakti yoga.

The main part of bhakti yoga in this age of kali is to chant the holy names,

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

But this is the mantra given in the Vedas. However, one may chant whatever bonafide name of God that they have faith in. That… so, it is like, one time like Jesus said also in his … prayers that, “O God my father, hallowed be thy name.” The name of the Lord and the Lord are same. Lord Caitanya is not different. I was fortunate, before I came to KC, I read the teachings of Solomon, and he based his meditation on the holy names of the God in Hebrew, like A..., Jehovah...so, I was already little bit open to the name of God. That this was a powerful medium, but at that time I didn’t know the Sanskrit names of the Lord. So, when I met the Krsna Conscious movement, then I could understand that there are also names in different languages. And that Sanskrit being the mother of all languages, the origin of latin and origin of greek and so on. That the names in Sanskrit are very powerful. So, we can chant

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

So, like this always we chant every day the names of God. That we chant on a pair of beads. By using the beads we are able to use our sense of touch in the meditation, we just feel by hearing the touch. Of course we chant joining together in the kirtan, where we clap, we dance, we play drums and cymbals. In the songs also it describes that one should glorify the Lord with cymbals and drums. I don’t know the context really but this is the process that we follow, we glorify the Lord. Now, so, side by side we want to transfer the people back to home godhead, to the spiritual world. To do that on one hand we teach them that, “Well, this material happiness is illusion.” At the same time, we want them to experience personally the spiritual happiness of chanting. So, you actually get ahappiness by chanting. If you won’t chant you won’t realize it, but if you chant you realize that you get happiness, which is not all dependant on the material situation. The material happiness, it comes and goes. So, one has a choice in KC. They can either be a renunciant, or they can be a householder. In the householder they have facility to enjoy but that should be regulated, that should be restricted so that they… I mean, to some extent so that you can also experience spiritual happiness, side by side. Then they can see both the things.

Those who take the renounced order, they have given up their material happiness, but they engage in devotional service. Of course it says in this verse that even if you want to give up, you are forced to have some happiness, like the renounced people. We eat Krsna prasadam. So, Krsna prasad also tastes good, we like it. But… so, that is a kind of happiness. We don’t drink aLord Chaitanyaohol, we don’t... the renounced, they don’t engage in sex life but they do have… they eat, so some happiness is there. You can’t help it. But, so all we do we eat prasadam. So, this prasadam is offered to Lord as a sacrament. So, we eat only sacrament. We don’t eat any material food. So, most of our members are not renounced, I don’t know, less than one person or maybe renounced, brahmacharis, 99 plus are married, or some of us are retired from marriage life.

So, but, the idea is that everyone should see side by side what is, how this material happiness, it gives you happiness for a moment, but then there is also so much difficulty that one has to face. So, they should see that, they should have that experience. In Tirupati, in our temple in Bombay, they have many young professionals who want become devotees, but they found that… sometimes they become devotees and then they think, “Maybe I left behind some valuable aspect of my life”, and so there is some leaning back to the material world. So, in their temple they have a system. Before you are allowed to leave in the ashram, you have to work for at least two years outside. So, by that … they love to come to temple, but they work outside. So, then they experience that working outside is not all a big ball of cherries, that there is all kinds of difficulties in working outside, crazy bosses and so many difficulties.

So, anyway, whatever the happiness or difficulty is, they can get twenty-five thousand rupees or fifty-thousand rupees or whatever it is. They can experience that. Then if they decide that they want to be a brahmachari, they want to try out the ascetic life, they have the choice. But they can at least experience what is in the material life.

There is one devotee, one lady came, she was, she came to tell me about Radhanath Swami, and different things. She was doing some active… as well. So, she told me that she had approached Radhanath Swami that she wanted to get married. Many things. So, then he told one devotee, and said, “What do you think about marrying this girl?” and so he was of two minds, he was thinking, “whether I should get married or I should live in the ashram as a ascetic?” So, since the guru asked, whether you want to get married, then well... there ended his question. So, he has taken up this grihastha life, but he helps the temple.

So, they have a nice system there where they have... the grihasthas they maintain the temple, but the brahmacharis in the temple, they don’t have to raise any funds, they fully engage in the preaching work. So, they had one time fifty, and now they have sixty brahmacharis. So, that is a nice system. Anyway, I just got news last night that Radhanath Swami met the President of India, and the Chief Minister of Delhi and number of other dignitaries of Delhi were at the launch of his new book. So, it’s a good thing for all of us that this people in Indian in high positions are getting some association with Krsna Consciousness.

Hare Krsna.... [repeated by devotees]

Jaya Radhananatha Swami ki….

So, once Prabhupada, I mentioned on a Christmas day that Prabhupada, he was asked by one father, what is his position??23.00... about Jesus Christ. So, he said that, we consider Jesus to be our guru, to be our spiritual master because he taught, he taught God consciousness. So, all those who teach God consciousness, who teach surrender to Lord, we respect him as guru, as our spiritual preceptors. So, like this Prabhupada was saying that he had a good reception. Prabhupada, he didn’t say one thing, and something else to someone, and he was consistent.

So, we respect all the spiritual teachers. At the same time we have our own tradition. So, Lord Chaitanya, He was… twenty-four years he had spent as a house holder, and twenty-four years he spent as a ascetic. So, this marks the five hundredth anniversary of his taking the sanyasa order of life, or renounced order. So, he left his loving mother or very beautiful wife. He had no material reason to leave, but in order to preach God consciousness; he thought it was necessary for him to take sanyasa. So, he took the sanyasa ashram. So, this year, I was especially remembering, how he, although he was an incarnation of Godhead, he took the aesthetic life, and as an example for all of us, as a sacrifice for our liberation. So, since He was the Lord, we don’t like to think of Him as taking this austerity. Aesthetic life if actually meant as a kind of austerity for the fallen souls to get back to Godhead. But Lord Himself, He shouldn’t have to take this kind of austerities and difficulties, but sometimes he does so as an example through us.

Krsna taught the Bhagavad-gita. He is the Lord. He taught the Bhagavad-gita which was … on how you can get back to Him in a short context. But as Lord Chaitanya had said, he is like the master. He goes to the chuck board, and He writes on the chuck board the different lessons. So, he practically showed how to practice the Bhagavad-gita, how to practice the Srimad Bhagaatam, how practice bhakti yoga, because although Krsna told to practice in this way, “You think of me, you bow down to me, you surrender to me” that they had, more or less, many had forgotten how to do this. So, how to surrender? So, Lord Chaitanya came. He is Krsna, but he came as a devotee in order to teach how to be a devotee of the Lord. So, this is a very rare thing.

It is said that Krsna only comes in one day of Brahma, in like eight billion years he comes once, and that was five thousand years ago, and sometimes after Krsna comes as Lord Chaitanya. So, not every time. So, that was five hundred and twenty-four years ago. So, this is very rare occasion for us to have his presence so soon. So, we have the great opportunity to follow the personality of Godhead, who incarnated five hundred years ago, and take up this process.

Now, the process as we said earlier, anyone can practice. It is not that we are saying that we are the only ones. Anyone can practice. If you don’t want to chant the names of Krsna, chant the names of Christo, or chant the names of Allah. But somehow chant the names of the lord. In this way, you will get the spiritual infusion. You see, in other ages, or other processes, like it is said krithe dhyato Vsnu, that one should meditate on the supreme Lord by meditation. That was the process followed in Satya yuga. In Treta yuga they did fire sacrifice, in Dwapara Yuga they did the temple worship, but in this Kali Yuga, Kalau tat Hari kirtanat, in Kali Yuga it is chanting the Lord’s names,

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

This is the mantra that we chant. This is not a secret mantra. This is open mantra. Mantra literally means… man means the mind, and tra means to deliver. So, mantra means something that delivers the consciousness, from material to the spiritual. So, we have recommended everyone chant the mahamantra, but if you don’t have faith in the mahamantra, if you have faith or attraction to some other name, then you can chant that name. So, that also has effect.

We had some priest in South America, they were chanting Hare Krsna, they were chanting rather Jesu Christo Jesu Christo, Christo Christo, Jesu Jesu. They were chanting the names of Jesus Christ. And some of them, they thought, well, chanting Jesu Christo is very much like chanting Hare Krsna. Because Prabhupada, our founder, he also said that the name Christ is the same as Krsna, that Christas in Greek is the origin of the name Christ, and in Christas comes from Krsna in India.

Actually in Bengal, it is very common that people say, “O you are Christo devotee.” That means you are Krsna devotee. So, the name Christo or Krsna is very much interchangeable. So, somehow this are previously thought, that how they could chant Jesu Christo. Why not chant Hare Krsna. So, they tried to chant

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

And they found that they found more bliss by chanting. So, they took it very inspiritational, and they kept chanting Hare Krsna.

So, Krsna means literally – is two syllables, Krs and na. So, Krs means all-attractive, and na means the source of all happiness. So, who else is all attractive and the source of all happiness except for the supreme Godhead. And Rama means the supreme happiness. So, whether one chants in Sanskrit Krsna or Rama; Vsnu means all pervasive. So, one time we were doing a program in Bangladesh, and I had like forty-two nations with me. So, I just took fifteen different languages, and we all said the name of water, and so there was whea, ocva, like that … pani and jal, water. So, they all said different names. Then we said, what are the different names for rose? So, he said rosa, there are different names in that …. Gulab and rose.

So, then we said, say God. So, that some said God, some said Jeos. So, Jeu. So, like that they had the different names of God. So, we said language may be different, but the substance is the same. So, it is just a linguistic difference. So, we are chanting the name in Sanskrit. So, some people like to chant in the original language, sanskrit. Otherwise, you chant in any name, any language, it’s the name of God. So, it has all the power of the Lord. So, this way we … last year we had a big kirtan, some ten thousand, some twenty-thousand, some fifty-thousand people. So, they all started chanting with us,

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

So, this is our process for this age. So, I live mainly in India. So, in South India, we had just coming out in the fourteenth of January is the Makara Sankranti, when the sun is said to go the northern side. So, they... of course here they say … on the twenty-first. Just a slight difference. So, here we observe it as pongal. So, I mean Pongal day I would deliver a lecture, we had around two, three thousand people. So, I told them, people, that you should chant the names of God anytime.

See, in Chennai, Madras, the people wait for hours sometimes for the buses, and there is a big queue, and when you are waiting in the queue, don’t waste your time, chant the names of God,

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

So, after that they said that some people, in the bus line they start chanting Hare Krsna. So, somehow or other in the bus or on the way to bus, in your house, you can chant the name of Godhead.

We also have temples. It is not essential to go to temple, but it helps. In the temple we install deities. The deities are not considered as statues. The statues are considered to be reflections. They are called bimba or pratibimba. But when they are installed, then we pray, that this is the Lord came down, entered into the statue, entered into the murtis, deities, and he accepts our worship.

Because we are not pure enough to see the Lord eye to eye, we are not good enough to be able to experience God, visibly directly. So, he comes as these worshippable deities. So, this is called the archa avatara, that the Lord descends to allow us... to allow us to worship him, to serve him. So, what food we eat generally is offered to the lord.

At least what we give out here... At least the pujari, the priest, he was giving almonds and raisins and dates. So, whatever is offered to the lord, we take that as a sacrament offered to God. And so, technically we shouldn’t take more than what we can eat, we shouldn’t throw any away, we should eat whatever is there, except for the guru to his disciples, but otherwise we should eat.

So, when we take prasad, at least take whatever you can consume, and not to throw any away. So, this is all like a fight.

When they serve out, in India the servers want to eat more and more, and you say, “No, no, I had enough, I had enough.” But you are host, you want to give out. So, you are told that as a host, but the servers, no, no, still give him. You put your hand, but still give him. If they come right like a lion, like a tiger, no, no, no, ok…

So, you have to know the rules. Otherwise, they will pile your plate up, and you can’t eat much. And it is a sacrilege, it is an offence to leave. So, blessed you really... turn your plate over or like a lion, no, no, no. So, I don’t think in India... here in L.A they are so aggressive. If they say no, they will probably, ok. But in India you have to know the rules. Sometimes if people do like this, it doesn’t mean no, it means yes. So, you have to learn the sign language kind of. In different parts… sometimes like this, and sometimes like this. (laughter) so, what they are actually saying..

So, I would like to give you some time. If anyone has any question.

Raise your hand.

No question, no doubts.

Ok very good.

Devotee: Thank you Maharaj for very nice class. Sometimes some people will turn down religion because in some cases they might say, you sound very negative. Your descriptions of the hell, or your description of the world is very pessimistic. Do you have any positive side, any joyful, because everybody is looking for joy. And some people they are not familiar with that in religions, in some religions. Can you say something about it?

Jayapataka Swami: Quite interesting. In this material world according to our desires and according to our karmas, we take repeated births. Sometimes we get accumulation of bad karmas or negative, sinful activities, so much that there is a place called hell where we go in a subtle body, so to speak tortured or whatever … they experience some very unpleasant situations. We have talked about a lot of this bad karmas, sinful activities, sometimes when someone at the point of death, they are in comma, at that time, just like the authorities of the… you have angels over the decision, either they can decide where they can go, but there is no suitable birth available. So, they keep you in suspended animation for long, until such family comes available. Otherwise, like there are times when they decide, what they should do, what they should do with you.

In some cases they have like twenty six standard hells, which are described also in the fifth canto. But some are custom made, they are architects who work on this, they are custom made for really hard core sinners. So, Jagai, Madhai, they were such hard core sinners, and they, the … the personality in the hellish planet which is headed by Yamaraja, they had… they had to design some special hell for them, because they were born in a priestly family, their parents were like priests, but they decided, all they knew about all the rules that one should do, they would take that as a guide, ok, today we will break this rule, or break that. So, they would purposely try to do as many sinful activities as they could. So, we don’t deny that there is a hell, there is also in the material world. If someone is very pious, they can go to the higher planets which are considered as heavenly planets, but what we are trying to do is transfer people back to the kingdom of god. Not to heaven not to hell.

I mean the kingdom of Godhead is for those who are god conscious, they go to the kingdom of God. So, like Lord Jesus he said, what is the use of losing our eternal soul for this material happiness? So, we don’t want to lose our, we are actually the atma, we are the soul, we don’t want to lose our eternal opportunity to go back to godhead to serve the Lord face to face. So, this is really a post graduate study. We don’t preach about the hell much, because that is not actually our focus. But actually one can be happy by chanting,

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Like I had mentioned earlier, I had practiced hatha yoga, and practiced some mysticism, I practiced Christian doctrines and different things, Buddism for a while. In Buddhism there is no God. So, I didn’t really feel so happy about that. But there was. It made lot of sense in reincarnation and karma, but there is no God, they didn’t talk about it at all. So, then someone gave me a pair of beads, and they said, “Go out and try to chant it.” So, I went out with this beads and I was chanting. I chanted for six hours. I don’t know how to sit in yoga postures, I was chanting.

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

And I felt so much ecstasy, I never felt so much happiness. That I was convinced when I came back, I wanted to thank that devotee. But he was waiting for me. He said, “O by mistake I gave you the masters beads, I must not give those to anyone.” So, wasn’t the same after that. To some great extent it was similar, but I got some special mercy by taking the Prabhupada’s beads to chant on. Whatever. So, we are trying to teach people that in spiritual life there is real happiness, and that’s why... I think that there is a book, there is a famous saying by Prabhupada, our founder, “Please chant and be happy.” So, the idea was to show the positive side, that people want to be happy, that… just like this verse said, “Material happiness is like an illusion. The deer’s are looking for the happiness, but by looking for the water, but they follow a mirage, but in the desert there is no water. So, people think to be happy, but the happiness they are looking for, they don’t find. So, when they chant, they can actually experience happiness. So, that is why we want people to rather chant or experience the happiness, and then we talk about the negative aspects. It is a different style of preaching. Some groups rather focus on the negative, “turn or burn”, that kind of like, hell and grindstone... that is not our system, that is theirs, but that is not so attractive for the people.

We are trying to do … anyway, we are trying to show the positive side. That if you chant, if you serve, you are actually experiencing happiness. So, this is called bhakti yoga, this is the process of how any devotee of god, they can awaken the dormant love of God that is in their heart. So, this process is known as the bhakti yoga, or the yoga of love and devotion. So, the great saints throughout history, we see that either they are chanting or they hearing, or they are remembering god, they are serving god. So, they are doing this process of bhakti yoga, whether they knew it or they didn’t know it. But they were doing it. So,... Lord Chaitanya in a very systematic way, how to practice the bhakti yoga in the modern age. So, Prabhupada brought it to the west. So, we are trying to show people whether as a grihastha, as a married, or as a renounced order, how they can practice the bhakti yoga.

What’s you name?

 Mataji: I grew up in Christianity, and we attend church or the chapel, and there was a lot of emphasis on singing songs and it was very nice you know praying like that, and we didn’t do any chanting, but we had song books, and I am just wondering why chanting a mantra is recommended specially in this age over may just sitting and singing songs or reading scriptures or things like that.

Jayapataka Swami: During this Christian season I was hearing many carols. Some were god conscious, and some were mundane. Jingle bell, jingle bell, there is no mention of God.... there is no mention of god. But in some songs they are more Christ conscious. So, I was thinking how in one sense how some of our bhajans are in Bengali or in Sanskrit, they do go into this kind of like hymns, written in English, but still as our regular meditation, it is recommended that we chant the name of god because god and his name are non-different. God is one. So, god, his name are non-different, God and his form are non-different, God and his glories. So, especially to chant the name of God has got… like Lord Chaitanya taught, nam nam akari... nija sarva saktis. That there are unlimited names of god, and all these names has been invested with the full, all the potencies of the Lord. So, chanting the name of God is directly meditation. A hymn - like it maybe depending on the writer, depending on so many factors, it maybe more god conscious or less, and may even have misconceptions. Some things are very simple. Hymns have their place. Here we have like Jada Kirti, she sings some songs in the more Christian style. It has its attractive nature to it. I was thinking that …some things like that... Bhakti Vindo Thakura said, we can use any style of music, but the lyrics should be Krsna Conscious, god conscious. So, in his time there was the Bauls. So, they had a style of music, they would sing especially mundane songs, but it was very popular. So, he had some of his devotees to take those style of music to make God conscious lyrics, but he never said that that should replace the chanting of the names of god. We should chant.

So, like... as initiated devoted we are to chant sixteen rounds, which is about one thousand and seven hundred twenty mantras of Hare Krsna. So, those who are not initiated they chant eight rounds, four rounds, everyone should chant some number of rounds, some number of Hare Krsna mantras. Or I think in other religions they use rosary or thasbi or they use some system where they chant carols, they chant names. I don’t know they chant names, at least they chant some prayers.

So, it is recommended in this age of Kali, we can directly communicate and directly connect with the lord through his names. Just like, even in India now, you find riksha walas, the fisherman, they all have mobile phones, they go home to their home, bring home a good catch...So, everyone in India, to get a mobile phone is very cheap, and they cost only two cents a call. Some calls, local calls are free.

So, its... Here in America, I think most people have mobile phones. So, you can keep in touch. So, with God you don’t need a phone, you can just chant his names, and immediately you are in connection. So, if you chant the names of God, like Hare Krsna, then Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Rama Hare hare. So, in different languages there are different bonafide names. So, this name is in Sanskrit. Otherwise all the mantras we chant, they are … usually they are preceded by the word Om. So, om is the… is like the code that... what follows is the name of God.

Om namo bhagavate…

Om is godhead. I offer my obeisance’s to Vasudeva, like that. So, according to the … our tradition, we follow, we chant the names of god. Now we also have hymns or songs, but they are not considered as same as the name of God. They are not different, but they are not... still we chant some names of God particularly. And that seems to be missing by chanting in many Christian traditions.

Like I also grew up in a Christian family, I was a acolyte, in my teenager I was an assistant priest, but I helped out the priest give out the... and the wine and all that, but there was no chanting of the names. There were some hymns. So, when you chant, just like it is much more powerful dose, when you chant the names of God, and as I said, the hymns are subject to interpretations. So, we have the priest there, she came and showed… everyone should take the charanamrita… you should take everyday. The charanamrita is spiritual. Take three drops, take it and wash your hands, and put it on your head, nice.

Here the charanamrita is a bit thick. So, put on your head.... but that is the system. Someone told me yesterday, a few days ago, as I asked people to tell people, or I told the head priest, I didn’t get to talk to the head priest yet, what lilas went one. Some told me they won’t tell me. One person said that for eighteen years he has been in touch with Krsna consciousness, trying to 61.10…. Prabhupada disappearance day. He was feeling inspired that he should really become serious about his Krsna Consciousness. That night he had a dream about Jaganatha, he came in his dream and he was smiling, and from then on he has been chanting sixteen rounds much more serious. So, like that the deities are also giving their mercy to people. So, when we worship, we sing these hymns in Sanskrit, kiba jaya jaya gaura chander. So, that is a hymn, but it is in Bengali. So, that way... our literature is the same all over the world. Every temple you go to, they sing kiba jaya jaya, whereas if you chant hymns, in one place, in one place it will be English, another place it will be in Spanish. So, there is an advantage of having... but you should know what it means.

At the same time … for preaching to the outside people, we can adapt some hymns. I was thinking, your jingle bell is like nothing about god, I was thinking ringing bell, ringing bell, ringing all the while, chant Hare Krsna and dance for the smile. That is not exactly hymn but…

Hare Krsna…

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Mataji: Hare Krsna maharaja. My name is Anita.

Thank you very much for the very nice class on chanting. It certainly helps me a lot. I have a question about the transmission of the soul from one body to another.

Jayapataka Swami: That is a quick last question.

Mataji: I read in the Bhagavad-gita, that immediately as the body dies, the soul transmigrates from one body to another body, and also a person gets the body that a person wants at the time of death, and he will be punished for the sinful actions in the hellish planets. So, I was wondering the order of the events, when these things occur.

Jayapataka Swami: You wanted the order.

Mataji: Does the soul transfer from one body to another. That is appropriate, or does it go to hellish planets, and then come back?

Jayapataka Swami: It depends on one’s karma also. It is not everybody goes to hell.

... 65.30... when he goes from one body to next. So, according to their karmas, maybe they get what they deserve, maybe they want a human body, but they should be rich or poor, but they should be physically challenged or healthy, all this things are deciding. There are some cases given in the puranas, like one guy was… he was brahmana, had a very good wife, but he had no children, no money. So, he went to Vasista muni, and Vasista said, the reason you have no money and no kids because in your previous life you were rich, and you didn’t spend any money on your wife and kids. And so therefore you don’t have any kids in this birth, and no money. Because you misused your money. So, then he said, how to get a good wife, and how to get birth as a brahmana. So, he scanned. Oh, three days in the month of Vaisakh. Vaisakh like Damodara is a holy month. Then you will get a hundred times the benefit. So, you had a vaisnava visit your house, and you engaged in some Krsna Conscious activities. Rest of your life very much like a desert. So, there are three days you were Krsna Conscious. Because those three days you got a good wife, and you got born as a brahamana. So, he didn’t have to go to hell because... see hell is for those people who are really not God conscious at all. They got so many karmas, they go first to hell, they pay all their karmas, and they t... how long? that may be very quick in our calculation, but it maybe very slow for the people there.

Time is a relative thing. So, those people who are… like it said, what kind of people go to hell? So, they go and then they are again put back into the karma. So, their negative karma is paid off. Now, if one suffers in this life that also takes off our karma. If you enjoy in this life, you are cashing in the good karma. So, the good karma and the bad karma are considered accounts. Separate accounts. One doesn’t cancel the other. They go side by side. So, when you have enough bad karma accumulated, you got a free ticked to hell. But if you engage in some devotional service, that is so powerful that it burns off the bad karmas, you don’t have to suffer, or you just have to take a token. So, therefore, we are recommending that people to chant Hare Krsna and engage in devotional service. In this way, they will gain maximum benefit. We don’t have to also see hell.

It is said, what if... Arjuna had a doubt. What if I left the material… I am mainly concentrating on spiritual life. Of course he was a householder, he was a prince, he was a general, he had some material experience but he … like material things, by and large, and concentrate more on spiritual life. So, if you don’t, if you are not successful going back to godhead, neither have a enjoyed materially, nor am a complete success. You are lost somewhere in the middle.

I was once driving in a car. Some devotee, what is his name, Osho, Rajnish, later version. So, he was also saying like with a background sound music like dangling in space, and when you hear there, so, of course his situation, his recommendation was more or less materialistic, but krsna says, someone who does good never gets a bad result. If you don’t get back to godhead, it is not that you go to hell or something. You take very good birth, you are born in some heavenly planets as a angel, or a deva or something, or you can go on in this earth in a rich family or a family of yogis. Best birth is the family of yogis. So, to be born in a family of devotees, that is considered to be a best birth, because you can immediately take up where you left off with your devotional service.

So, you don’t suffer for that. Rather any … we do for devotional service, that will serve eternal benefit. Of course, someone pointed out that if you take birth in the heavenly planets, you live for hundreds and thousands of years, you may come back to this planet in the darkest period of kali yuga, where there will be like all cannibalism and negative situations. That why the most thing the devotees pray, if I am not qualified to go back to godhead in this life, may I immediately take birth as a… in a family of devotees so that I can get prasadam, I can continue where I left off with my devotional service. So, for the devotees this is the reason… but generally we take birth right away.

If... like in Narada Munis case, he was liberated at the time of death. So, he said, it is like a flash, he looked down and there was his dead body, and he was having a spiritual body. So, life and … so, spiritual bodies are eternal. Once Ravana he had threatened, now I will kill you if you don’t bow down. He said, I wont bow down to anybody accept Vsnu, and you cant kill me because I am already dead.

So, then Ravana took his sword, chk… cut through Narada Muni, right through… cut again,,, he was a librated soul, he didn’t have a material body. He had a spiritual body. So, if we are going to get a spiritual body, then death is not painful... in fact we have got many devotees, they are chanting Hare Krsna, and they left. Someone may say, O Prabupada! some saw Prabhupada, some saw effulgent beings, somehow they go back.

But most people when they die, it is said that if they are going to hell, they pass stool and they go out through the anus. So, you can see the symptoms, if someone died passing through the anus, he is probably going to hell. If there is no stool, and they go through the top, then they go back to godhead, some people …

Does that answer your question?

So we have Narasimha oil?

If you want to get the oil that was used to bathe the Narasimha deity, this is specially to remove obstacles in your spiritual life, you can come forward.

I use my left hand because my right hand is not fully functioning yet.