Jayapatākā Swami: In our major temples in Vṛndāvana and Māyāpur, in Bombay

we don’t purchase any store-bought fruits uh these where store-bought sweets.

In the smaller temples sometime, they purchase.

Of course, purchasing is that has got some other implications.

Purchasing is sometime allowed.

but that would be considered to be not as perfect as if we could make the things ourselves,

because, they are not having any pure standard.

We don’t know what type of, actually technically speaking store-bought things which are made outside by non-devotees,

they are not… even in the West, we don’t also offer fruit juice.

We make the juice ourselves,

because whether that people are washing their hands after they are going in bathroom,

or something like that, or what they’re doing, you don’t know, what standard they have.

There are many rules, you see.

If you go to the bathroom, you have to take an entire shower.

The same cloth you shouldn’t use, if you are going to cook for the Deity.

If people are negligent of this, they will get worse than sinful reactions.

They will get offensive reactions from Kṛṣṇa.

Their devotion will be stuck up.

And for preaching sometime, you can pray to Kṛṣṇa that for preaching sometimes, we have to just do these things,

and there is no alternative.

But normally one should be very careful.

It’s an opportunity to get the blessing; it’s an opportunity at the same time if you are not careful to also get punished.

So, we should be very careful when we do these things to do it properly.

Jayapatākā Swami: When we say, “Take prasāda, you get human birth”, some people got prasāda and got liberated.

So, in describing the glories of prasāda… The kṛṣṇa-prasāda, you cannot put a limit on it.

Some people by just chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa once, they got liberation like Ajāmila.

Simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, more sins, sinful reactions of karma are eradicated than one can commit.

At the same time someone may chant Hare Kṛṣṇa for a thousand… and then not actually go back to Kṛṣṇa.

How is that possible?

So, the thing is that one is not supposed to doubt that by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, this effect has come.

That means potentially it may come for anyone.

But then each person’s situation being different, that a person if he is very offensive, even they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, take prasāda, and they offend devotees, because of those offenses, Kṛṣṇa, He may just withhold His mercy.

An offense being directly con.. An offense and sinful reaction are different – a person may be the most sinful, maybe a murderer, maybe a rapist, may be... but that is all on the material platform.

That is in relation to other people’s material bodies.

It is not in relation to God.

So, the reaction they have to get is also material.

They have to suffer materially for whatever suffering they are committing on their body and to other’s bodies.

But when an offence, means directly in relation to… with God or those who are directly in relation to Him, His pure devotees;

so therefore, what the... the most overpowering thing about everything is Kṛṣṇa’s mercy.

That mercy can destroy all the material reactions, and just give one a clean slate, bring one back to Godhead.

But if one is directly opposing God, even that He can forgive, but sometimes if you directly offend His devotees,

then Kṛṣṇa… that’s so disapproved by Him that then He may withhold His mercy to that person till he gets out of the habit of offending His devotees or whatever offense he is committing.

So, in that way, if a person is offense-less, then by taking prasāda, one may even be liberated, one may even achieve Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Depending on the offenses, lack of offenses and so many conditions, one is delivered.

One may be sincerely trying to find the truth or just ordinary material acts, an innocent person, not very inimical to God,

but just trying to enjoy his senses, trying to enjoy the senses and be happy was misled, wandering here and there trying to enjoy in different ways

and not succeeding, gets association with devotees, they give prasāda, they give spiritual advice, he starts to, the person starts to chant and then automatically they feel immediately advancement.

Another person may have, you see... they are very inimical to the devotees.

As a result, the effect may be reduced.

This offense is the most dangerous thing.

Next dangerous is of course bad habits and all that, after we have chanted.

Once one takes up seriously the chanting, one should try to avoid as far as possible unauthorized activities because they would delay one’s progress.

So, by taking prasāda, that ultimately what that person can be guaranteed a human birth.

But there may be an exception if he is exceptionally offensive to devotees.

In general, one would be guaranteed at least a human birth.

And one may even get a greater benefit by taking prasāda.

If he takes prasāda, the person is purified of all reactions.

Says an offense where he takes prasāda, he is purified and then again, the next minute again he takes more, he does more karmas, more work that he has to take the reaction for.

So, because of those reactions they have to take birth at least they get a human birth.

But if after taking prasāda they did not perform any more materialistic activities, then they could go back to Godhead.

Jayapatākā Swami: Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

I think the secret of getting up early is going to bed early.

Also, not eating too much at night,

eat light food.

If you eat heavy, then you sleep heavy.

So light food like poha or mūḍi

or something light.

And eat early.

I eat my dinner at 6 pm.

And then by the time I take rest it is digested.

So then I can get up for maṅgala-ārati every day.

Getting up at 3.30am is a bit early.

The brāhma-muhūrta starts one and a half hours before sunrise.

It is recommended that we should get up in the brāhma-muhūrta.

And that is a little later maybe. I don’t know what time the sun rises in Gujarat?

(approximately 6 am).

So 4.30am should be alright, take a bath.

Maṅgala-ārati starts at 4.30 am in Māyāpur.

What time does it start in Gujarat.

(4.30 am or something).

Anyway, the process is go to bed early and not eat too heavy.

And chant.

Jayapatākā Swami: You see here someone eats non veg.

Non veg is sinful.

You are killing animals, causing them suffering and you are eating their flesh.

Some are doing selfless service to society, they are helping other people, they may be doing some, of course selfless service to society.

But we have to see what the Vedas say.

Whether that service is puṇya or pāpa.

Like someone may do selfless service and make a new abattoir, means a new slaughter house for society.

He thinks I am doing selfless service.

But according to the Vedas, he is also doing pāpa, he is doing sinful activity.

Someone may be doing selfless service of distributing free tea or whisky to all the people, I am not considering those kinds of selfless service.

I am saying like he is feeding the poor, he is making hospital, such service where the people are getting material benefit in a sāttvika sense, that is called puṅya.

So according to Vedas we get two accounts in the material world.

We get a puṅya account and a pāpa account.

And we are putting deposit in both.

Because someone does puṇya, it does not cross out the pāpa.

Some people think that ok, I will do many pious activities and I will do little sin and the pious will cross out the sin.

It doesn’t work that way.

Both you get.

That is why even if you find someone very rich, have a big car, big house, lot of money, but the wife got breast cancer.

But the son ran away with someone and married out of caste and the whole family is suffering.

So many things happen.

Income tax is raiding.

I am feeding the poor, I am giving so much to charity, why I am not –

because both the accounts are there – pāpa and puṇya. If you do pāpa you have to suffer, you do puṇya you have to enjoy. Material activities, you know they are not free, you have to take all the reactions. Usually the puṇya you get first and the pāpa you get later. But there is some mixing going on. Now the other thing is that he is greatly devoted to the Lord. Now that devotion to the Lord, the Lord is beyond the material world. He is saying mām ca avyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate, sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhuyāya kalpate. (Bg 14.26) That those who do my bhakti-yoga, their activities are beyond the three guṇas. So if someone does bhakti that can clear out the path. But it is dangerous to tell this to people. Because if you tell to people who are not devoted, they will say, very good, I will pray in the temple, then I will do more pāpa. And then Kṛṣṇa takes that as an offence, you are trying to cheat Me. So He doesn’t save them. That is why we don’t tell people about this glory of the Lord that if you worship the Lord it takes away your sin very much. Of course we have to tell but we try to tell them. They should not think I can do more sin, that they shouldn’t do. What people should do is come and pray and chant the name of Kṛṣṇa and try to avoid sin. They may do some sin but they should try to reduce it, try to avoid it. They should not think that by doing my Kṛṣṇa conscious activity, I can do more sin. Whatever sin I am doing, I have to suffer. But let me chant, let me worship, some day I can get free from this. Then it is ok. So if they are devoted to the Lord, they should try to do what the Lord wants. What is the meaning of I am devoted to the Lord, the Lord is saying don’t do these things. I am devoted to the Lord, what does that mean? Lord, I want to please You. If I am Your servant, I want to do what You want me to do. Like if you have a servant in the house, you tell the servant, clean the floor. He says no, I won’t clean the floor, I want to clean the wall. But I want you to clean the floor first. You can clean the wall later. He says, no, I want to clean the wall and then the floor. How would that servant keep the job? If you have a servant and you tell him, cook me breakfast. And he says no, I want to cook you lunch. I want you to cook me vegetarian and he says no I want to cook you non veg! Then you wont keep such a servant, servant, who is this servant! So if we are already devoted to the Lord, we should do what the Lord wants us to do. And the Lord is telling us don’t do these things. Don’t take intoxication, don’t eat non veg, don’t do gambling and don’t do illicit sex. Don’t go to prostitutes. Don’t leave your good wife or husband, and do extra marital sex. So when we are devoted to the Lord we should do what the Lord wants. We are devoted to the Lord, we come and pray and then we go. That is called hāthī-snāna. Like the elephant is having a bath and coming out and throwing the dirt. So we should not worry what others are doing. Someone says he is vegetarian but he is cheating.

If you do pāpa you have to suffer, you do puṅya you have to enjoy.

Material activities, you know they are not free, you have to take all the reactions.

Usually the puṇya you get first and the pāpa you get later.

But there is some mixing going on.

Now the other thing is that he is greatly devoted to the Lord.

So therefore I can be nonveg and I won’t cheat.

Not much, little bit.

We should avoid everything like that.

Don’t settle for that.

Don’t judge.

It is just like if you want to judge gold, you want to judge it with pure gold.

You don’t judge it with some mixed gold, my gold is better than that gold.

What is that?

That is 10 carat mine is 4 carat.

You judge gold by 24 carat.

This is not a good decision that I am better than that so it is okay.

That person is going to hell no. 5 and you are going no. 4.

So what is the difference?

?

We want to go back to Kṛṣṇa.

So therefore what is the standard paramahaṁsa?

We see what gurudeva, what the pure devotee is doing.

We try to lead our life and follow the Mahājanas.

Mahājana yena gatā sa panthā.

We follow the great souls or Mahājanas, like Prahlāda, Nārada, Śiva, Brahma.

All the devas, Svāyambhuva Manu, all the great souls, we follow in their footsteps.

Not that we are following some ordinary person and we are saying oh that person, he is not so great.

I am not so bad.

This is all mental concoction.

He is not so great, I am not so bad.

So I can live with my sin.

Yamarāja doesn’t pick all these things.

What your neighbor was doing.

What you did he has all the account here.

You did this, this is your karma.

Now you enjoy, now you suffer.

If you see the animatronic works you can see the Yamadūtas and the Viṣṇudutas.

You can decide who you want to be the customer for.

Jayapatākā Swami: Since you are in Texas,

they have vegetables and fruits here.

Why are you thinking of hypothetical situations?

But just to answer your question,

there was a drought

and a sādhu, a great devotee, he was trying to get out of a desert.

But he had no water, no food.

He was crawling around

and he thought he might die.

Then he came across a dead dog,

so then he ate the dead dog.

Then he got out of the desert and then followed all the principles.

So Kṛṣṇa sent him some food,

and he did not kill the dog, the dog had already died,

but he ate it.

So like that, if you have no food, the only thing is you come across a dead animal, you eat it.

That would lead you to survive.

That is considered an emergency,

and emergency knows no rules.

It is not that there were so many dates and nice food and things, but he goes ahead and eats a dead dog.

It was, eat the dog or die.

So Kṛṣṇa sent a dead dog, he ate it

and survived,

and then he followed his principles after.

But it is very unlikely that you would meet such a situation.

I saw in some place people are eating cactus.

There is no food and they take out the spikes off and some cactus have spikes, and they saw it tasted good and they ate it.

So we are allowed to try to survive.

If there is no food, we die, we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapatākā Swami: Why they don’t want you to be vegetarian?

Maybe if you can prove to them that the proteins and the vitamins that you need

from different vegetarian items.

Jayapatākā Swami: Śrīla Prabhupāda has said that 

taking cow milk develops the finer intelligence 

will be able to understand Kṛṣṇa consciousness. 

At the same time, we like to protect the cows. 

And so, where possible we try to eat milk from protected cows. 

The vegans, they say since the cows are mistreated, 

better not to take any milk. 

But Śrīla Prabhupāda knew that this difficulty was there. 

He thought it was important to offer the milk to Kṛṣṇa, 

and then we can take it. 

So, we only take milk as prasāda. 

Jayapatākā Swami: Fruits, salted ingredients, milk products, and nuts, dried fruits,

can be offered.

They are offerable to the Lord,

put fresh tulasī and offer them.

Things that are made by machines or people

if their ingredients are vegetarian,

then we can say Śrī Viṣṇu three times

but that is in kind of an emergency.

But it is not offerable.