20151007 Class

 Just a few days ago, we celebrated the 50 year anniversary of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda reaching Calcutta by the ship Jaladuta on his way to the USA. It was a journey of 38 days. He stopped in Colombo, Cochin and then Cairo and then Boston. Prabhupāda was the first person who went from India to give the science of bhakti-yoga to the west. Many had gone and came back to India. But they failed to establish an origin in USA. And it didn’t give the science of bhakti-yoga. So in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Kṛṣṇa predicts to all the holy rivers that he would send a devotee after 5000 years of the beginning of Kali yuga and that devotee would spread the consciousness of Kṛṣṇa and chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra all over the world and that those devotees would come and bathe in the sacred rivers of India and by their chanting of their holy names they would release all their sins in the rivers. That there would be a 10,000 year golden age where people could easily get back to the spiritual world, easily. So we are just at the beginning of that period. And we hope that with respect to all the other religions, and people who believe in Sanatana dharma, would take advantage of this great opportunity offered by Kṛṣṇa. That they can achieve the spiritual world in one birth. Usually it takes by the process of jñāna yoga, many many births. 

bahūnāṁ janmanām ante
jñānavān māṁ prapadyante

After many many births, one achieves knowledge of Kṛṣṇa and comes back. But by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, he came down as a devotee, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And he preached all over India. India meaning South Asia. Because he went to Bangladesh, he went to other parts of South Asia. He spent 6 years travelling around South India and West India and North India. So he came 4500 years after the beginning of Kali Yuga. And he also said that he would send a leading devotee, a Senapati bhakta to preach to the countries that he didn’t preach in and give the people this priceless jewel of Kṛṣṇa bhakti. You see normally we pray to the Lord, for his different expansions or his material devas and devis who are serving him, we pray for some material blessings, “Give me a new house, give me a new car, please I want a nice child. I need to get married, I need a nice spouse.” We ask all material things. But actually the secret is if we offer service to Kṛṣṇa, it has such a major effect. It is the most confidential secret. If you offer your service to Kṛṣṇa, he never forgets you. He doesn’t need our service. Just like your son or daughter what can they offer you? But if they offer you something, you feel so happy. “Oh my son or daughter they are offering me something.” Usually its daddy offering 5 BD then they go to the mall. I saw the mall; you can’t buy anything with 5 BD. Maybe you can get a shirt from Splash. Actually if your child came up saying,” Mummy daddy what can I do to help you? Can I help you clean the dishes, or wash up,” you wonder what does he want, what does she want. You actually don’t ask for anything, just get to Kṛṣṇa. He knows better than you what will make you happy. We go to Śiva and you say give me 10,000$, then you spend it, it wasn’t enough. Then you say give me 20 lakhs of rupees. And then for flat you need 30 lakhs, “oh I need 30 lakhs.” I need a flat its 30 lakhs. I need another 20 lakhs, 30 lakhs. We go again and again. With Krishna you offer him service. You don’t ask for anything. He will give you more than you want, more than what will make you satisfied. But he wants to see that by giving you something, it won’t destroy you. Some people will win a lottery. And then they don’t know what to do.  They go to some local tower and say, “Everybody bring something I won a lottery.”

 And then very soon all the money is gone. And then they say,” Can I borrow some money.
“Are you crazy, you just won a lottery, you won crores and crores. What did you do?  And now you are begging from me?” What do you think you are?” “I won and I spent it like that.” “You are a fool.”

 So Kṛṣṇa doesn’t want to give us something by which we will just destroy ourselves. He will see are we ready. Just like Vipra Sudāmā who was ready. Vipra Sudāmā, he had some flat rice in his dhoti. And Kṛṣṇa asked him in Dwārakā,”Is this for me.?” 

“Oh! no no”

It was actually for Kṛṣṇa but when he saw that Kṛṣṇa is so opulent, how could he give that to Kṛṣṇa? Broken flat rice.

 “No, no, no this is not suitable for you.”

” Whatever is suitable for my devotee is suitable for me. “And Kṛṣṇa forced it out of him and took it. 

“Hmmmmm very good, very good. Oh nice.” [Guru Mahārāja shows action ]

 He was going to take the third time but Rukmiṇī stopped him. “He didn’t have anything. He begged this. So You took one time I’ve to give him two times as much as riches You have.” Rukmiṇī  is speaking she told you took two times, she is Lakshmi, and she serves Kṛṣṇa. “So if you take 3 times then I have to give him more than You and that is not possible.” So we work hard  [15.40] trying to meet our financial enhancement. Side by side why not get spiritual enhancement. Why not give your children the best in life? Spiritual bliss. 

Lord Caitanya was saying,

 “jīv jāgo, jīv jāgo,” 

“Wake up sleeping soulṣ. “

“kota nidrā jāo māyā-piśācīra kole.”

 “How long will you remain sleeping in the lap of the witch Māyā? “

Lord Caitanya says “ enechi aushadhi maya nasibaro lagi” 

I brought the medicine to cure the disease of illusion, maya.” 

hari-nama maha-mantra lao tumi magi’

 Hare Kṛṣṇa maha mantra you ask for it by begging just take it. It’s there for asking. I want Harinam please. Ok take it.  So Bhaktivinoda what did he say? 

bhakativinoda prabhu-carane pariya
sei hari-nama-mantra loilo magiya

I fell at the feet of prabhu. And I begged from him Harinam mantra. And I got it!! I got it. I got iṭ. Hari hari boḷ. Hari boḷ.  (Guru Mahārāja lifts both his hands and chants and devotees chant along with him). Think how happy Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was to get the Harinam maha mantra so all of you can enjoy the great gifts. 

In this Kali Yuga, it’s a special time, you see in other yugas you think of the sin you get the reaction. In Kali Yuga, you think of doing something good, you get the good reaction but unless you do the bad thing you don’t get the bad karma. In other yugas how much you do the good thing, you don’t get the good karma. So there was some devotee, he had no money so he was simply worshipping in his mind. And every day he would sit down and meditate and worship the lord. One day he wondered,” Is this sweet rice too hot to offer to the Lord?” He put his finger in the sweet rice. “Aaahhhhhh”. He burnt his finger. He woke up from his meditation. There was a blister on his finger. Nārāyaṇa was laughing Hahahahhahaha. Lakshmi said.” why are you laughing Nārāyaṇa?” He told to his assistants bring him up. 

So people say just by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa will I get all these things? You see Kṛṣṇa and his names are non-different. And offering Kṛṣṇa his name just as we go to the Ganges, and we offer Ganges water into the Ganges, we offer Kṛṣṇa’s name to Kṛṣṇa. That’s the special medicine for this age. And it’s guaranteed to make you happy and to destroy all your previous bad karmas and many other things. But I shouldn’t tell all the secrets right now. I’ll tell you later. But this hāriṇam, even the children they can also chant. In fact some of them are very very wonderful chanterṣ. When I take lunch, sometimes they chant outside my door. It’s so nectarean. So in this human life, you only live for 60-70-80 years and may be some may live 90 years. So in this short time you have to do some service to Kṛṣṇa. We can reawaken our relationship with Kṛṣṇa and go back to the spiritual world where we can serve Kṛṣṇa eternally. Now I’m not suggesting to take sanyaas, in fact someone approached Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and told, “I want to go with you and be a sanyasi. He said don’t be a markaṭa-vairāgyi. Don’t be a monkey renunciatoṛ. Stay with your wife and family and chant the holy names. Everybody you meet Yāre dekha tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa . Tell them the philosophy, tell them about message of Lord Kṛṣṇa. And in this way be a guru, on my order and deliver all your country people”. So Lord Caitanya didn’t want people to change their positions sudde

I was asked recently, what does it mean yukta vairagi ? Yukta vairagya, means say that you have children, your children you can’t force, you have to somehow make Kṛṣṇa consciousness attracted to them. So that they can also understand, what it is to be a devotee. That’s why we are so grateful to the Friday school that they are doing here. Anyway, you raise your child, allow him to study, get a degree, get married but if you don’t give them higher spiritual development, they don’t really appreciate you. Not in the same line. And then we give them one life and then they get another birth another birth according to their desires. In America we saw some sticker on the back of the car “fall again and again and again” (devotees laughing). So, how many of you would like to born again in the material life. [Guru Mahārāja looks around, no hands raised] 

How many of you would like to the spiritual world, where there is no birth, no old age, no disease and no death. Where we can serve Kṛṣṇa eternally. You see He likes playing dramas, lilas.  And we can be part those pastimes. So that pastime is actually what we are meant to do, to be a good time. 

We met how one devotee was best match-maker in Navadwip and he arrange the marriage of Lord Caitanya with Lakshmipriya. His name was Vanamali acharya and then in the purport it’s said he was the also the brahman who bought the message from Rukmini to Kṛṣṇa and he also playing equal part in Ramalila bringing the message from Janakraja and Sita to Rama. So that’s the eternal world. He arranges the marriage of the Lord in every lila.

 In part of the development in Bhakti yoga is to awaken our love for Krishna.  We start up by hearing. Then we associate with the devotees and then we take the shelter of the spiritual master, we gradually get rid of the anarthas, the unnecessary qualitieṣ. Then we become fixed in our spiritual practices. Then we develop a taste, to perform these activities and then we get attached, to the spiritual activities. Then we can [30.25- 30.29] these ecstatic symptoms like, crying, hair standing on end, voice choking up,acting like a mad man yawning, fainting. There are about eight spiritual symptoms of spiritual ecstsacies. And then after one reaches that stage one has the audience with the Lord and that’s Kṛṣṇa prema. Lord Caitanya was in Kanai Natashala that’s in Jharkhand, India. It used to be part of Bihar. And He had just taken initiation in Gaya from Ishvarapuri Mahārāja, the disciple of Madhavendra Puri and then he saw a boy in the distance, playing on a flute, dancing, smiling, coming closer and closer and then he saw the boy had the turban with a peacock feather and then He was wearing a yellow dhoti, with a red sash and He was blue in colour.  He got closer, that’s Kṛṣṇa, all his hair stood on the end, and he was stunned, he didn’t know what to do and Kṛṣṇa ran up to him and embraced him and He just ran off, he ran after him, He was too fast and ran away. Then he came back to Navadvīpa. He was changed. He invited the devotees .. you don’t know what is life, you don’t know, to have had Kṛṣṇa and then lose Him, you don’t know. (33.50-33.55) this is the process of bhakti yoga. 

Use what you already have in the service of Krishna. To eat, no one said you have to stop eating, rather you cook satvik food offer it to Kṛṣṇa, take prasad. If you have devas, offer  to Kṛṣṇa, offer all the devas then take Mahaprasad (devotees haribol). You see that’s yuktya vairagya. Everything you are doing at your house, sometimes, may be once a week, once a month, twice a year, you have some friends over, some people over, have them chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, read Bhagavad Gita or Śrimad Bhāgavatam. In this way use your house to serve Kṛṣṇa that’s yuktya vairagya. You don’t have to change what you have, you just have to adjust your consciousness. Knife, in the hand of a  thief, he wants to insert it to kill you, to steal from you, the knife, in the hand of the surgeon to operate, to save you. So, the same thing, the electricity, you use it as a heater or use it as an AC. So, the same things you have, you can use them as a spiritual offering to Kṛṣṇa. That’s yuktya vairagya or just use it for your own sense gratification. That’s karma, you use it for good thing, you get good karma, use it for bad thing bad karma. Somewhere in between, not good not bad. So there are these three modes. 

One lady she gave forty-one million dollars to her cat. The richest cat in the world. There were lawyers who were handling the money and taking care of the life of the cat. He was to be fed, give him massage, washed down, brushed. And when the cat died, the money went to different charities. So, if she’s thinking of the cat as her best friend when she left her body she probably took birth as a cat. 

They asked people a year what you like to be in your next birth. Some people said snakes, some people says dogs some cats. But this is craziness. What you really want is to get liberated from, birth, old age, disease and death, that’s what we really want. So how many of you would like to be fully under the grips of karma (39.10 – 39.15) we know you have many choices. So, all of you have a choice. You want to fly the Karma Airline or Lord Caitanya kripa airline. (devotees haribol). Who would like to enjoy or suffer your karma. (devotees answering). Who said that, that airplane went bankrupṭ. Those who would like to get the mercy of Lord Caitanya  by flying that airline (devotees haribol). 

So, it’s very nice to meet all of you and. Actually, the last few nights I was taking questions and giving answers. 

May be if you have questions, you can see me tomorrow night. So, I’m very much impressed with [41.02 -41.24] because so many of you would like to ride with the mercy of Lord Caitanya. So, we ask you to do few things chant Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. And do some devotional service to Kṛṣṇa and to listen and study the teachings of Lord Kṛṣṇa. We are grateful that the Hari Lila Das is giving Bhakti shastri and Bhakti vaibhav lessons. The main course in Bhakti shastri is Bhagavat Gita. And that’s lessons by Kṛṣṇa and the Bhakti vaibhav is the first six cantos of the Bhagavat maha purana. Which are teachings about Lord Kṛṣṇa and his different devotees in avatars. So, like this its very easy to assimilate the knowledge. And if you are inspired then naturally, your children will be inspired. Children, if you are inspired, your parents will be inspired (devotees haribol). 

One thing is that how many of you have smart phones? Phones that have access to internet? So few? How many have dumb phones? (devotees laughing) so we have JPS app which you can download to your smart phones and you can get regular updates where I’m going. As now people all over the world are seeing that I’m here in Balaramdesh. So, you can see me wherever I’m. You can get the JPS app for Android and Apple phone. There’s no charge (devotees haribol). So,  that advertisement was free. (devotees laughing)