2006 || Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 8.22.24 || New Tālavana, US #JayapatakaSwamiArchives

Pray to Supreme Personality of Godhead. Shivika was taking everything away from Bali Maharaj. And he requested that Bali Maharaj be released and that he suffered enough, he was punished enough. In this verse, Lord Krishna explains why sometimes because of so much material opulence, people become foolish. They become dull witted, mad, defiant against Ka. So because of their defiance to humble them, to bring them back in the right path, he takes everything away from them. In the book Vrindavani Bhajan which I wrote a commentary on. It's a poem by Srila Prabhupada about his stay in Vrindavan. There he says that Krishna also took everything away from him. Then he realized when you have material wealth, your wife, your family, everyone tends to like you a little more. If you spend a lot of money on everybody. When the going gets tough, some people get going, you know, they don't like. So maybe not everyone's the same. But in a mature relationship, money is the honey. So when Prabhupada lost his income sources and wasn't making any money anymore, everyone started to mistreat him, neglect him, not take him seriously. Criticized so many difficulties. So then he took shelter in Vrindavan. He said he realized that this is the mercy of the Lord. It was time for him as he's getting older. Time for him to get into the renounce position. Then he went on and explained all his experiences versus how he got to Vrindava. He washed everything, so took shelter. Krishna Vrindava this what we do, we get what goes around, comes around what we do. We have to pay the karmas for that. Papa said during the Vietnam War that because so much animal slaughter was going on in the United States it was caused the soldiers to go there. And having people laying down their lives just really forget. I saw the way here. There was some truck that was carrying bondage things. There was also just thinking about how the soul the American people are nice people, but unfortunately so many of them leaving me. And it's creating some bad karmas for the American country. And so many young people get killed in wars and so many violent accidents and different things. And how it would be good if someone would encourage people for me vegetarian see these big signs with pictures of freshly cooked meat and offering a comfort of joy. People very much habituated to this kind of a diet. I realized that it's not necessary. So all these things happen. When people have some money, they have some opulence. They become very proud. They don't care what anybody says. Krishna sometimes takes away thought this Is a special favor. Taking away all his possessions. Was the king of the three worlds. The visible universe we see in the sky. He was the king of all those millions of planets, trillions of earth. He lost everything in three steps. But of course, Ka gave him something in return. Much better. Because he got Krishna to be his protector. He got his own planet to the royal world. This planet was made opulent, just like a heavenly planet. And it's told that after a few manvantaras, he would become the legitimate Indra. He took it by force throughout the appointed Indra was established there by Ka system. So he got removed by local, by group. But then in the future, because of his sacrifice, because of his good attitude and devotion. Now he's in the lineup to be a future Indra. Anybody here from Kerala? He Keralites, the Malayalis. Somehow, for some reason they believe they have a connection with Bali Maharaj. That he was their king. And every year, maybe this time, I'm not sure which time of the year right now they have a festival called Onam. And that festival is celebrating that Bali Maharaj is allowed to return to the earth once a year to see his old subject and give them some charity and blessings and whatnot. So that time they. And just in this one state in India, they celebrate big festivals, feasting, cultural events. So many it's like Christmas for the Hindus. But even the non Hindus would serve. And many Siouxam festivals, they have boat races, elephant races, they have all kinds of things. It's the traditional annual festival of Terava. But it's connected with the Vali bar. It's kind of interesting. Most people don't know that he's coming back once a year, checking everybody out. Is a good king. He was very comfortable grandson of Prabhu. But he got rid of problems. The Krishna took away everything and gave him back spiritual mercy. In the future we'll give him what he wanted. This is really important because for a tensor civilization has become godless because of material advancement and opulence and how it's extremely dangerous. Within India, which is supposed to be the land of Dharma and the big cities. The country is still pretty religious. But in the big cities there's a lot of entertaining. The west, you'll be very high pressed to see anybody wear adobe. You can see thousands of blue jeans. That's not a big bad thing. But I mean, I read articles. So there's a lot of decadence amongst the new age people. Young people. Used to be the Rajasthani businessmen were vegetarians. Now mostly a lot of them are eating non veg. The young generation takes a modern way. There's a lot of this opulence can turn people away. The tradition Hindi was amongst the Vaishyas. They would be opulent that they would do devotional service. They would be very charitable. So there's a lot of preaching. The Brahmanas have to remind the rich Kihastas that they should continue to do devotional service. Otherwise they'll lose everything. Then they get the special favor and lose everything. I don't think anybody wants that. Whatever we have actually belongs to Ka. So we should give something to Ka. This material world is so complicated that unexpected things happen coming out here. Some places there used to be forests, forest, police, arena. Last time I came here last year, right after the Katrina we definitely did the golf court route to here. Everything for hundreds of meters back. Everything was just. There's quite a building back now. I saw a big sign said Casino open again. Wasn't worth it was the corporate. So Prabhupada was. Sometimes Krishna says this is his special favor. But sometimes it's not his topmost mercy. The topmost mercy is when somebody has all kinds of opulence. But they don't get mad or they don't get bewildered. They use everything for Ka service appropriately. Maharaj and so many others. So that's even bigger mercy. You don't have to lose anything. Although sometimes even then the loss is there in the Pandava's case. Not in Pitu, Mars or Ambush. But in the Pandava's case there were useless examples of how sometimes even devotees had difficulty. And they never lose their faith in Krishna. When I went to Tir, Timur says me West Africa. So I went to West Africa. And his request had a Pushpa Samadhi established in the groundbreaking for it. At least in the Akra, Ghana, in the Rathyatra. So I went there and the first day they had a program which was interfaith. What are the social ills and what are the solutions? And asking the Hare Kaas, the Roman Catholic archbishop was there. Some Muslim was there. Abai was there, Mahajasa from Iran. Different religions and. But there wasn't so much. I mean, I was saying we should all unite together and change the names of God. That'll bring you about this change of heart, the sacrifice, the chanting. Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Krishna, Krishna Hare or any bona fide means of God. They would create an internal change, a transformation, purification. Of course what happens in this interfaith program. Everybody tends to just. Rather than really everyone just states Their own positions. So the Roman or the Roman Catholic saying the standard Christian formulas. But the Muslim, this particular Muslim, he was pretty open minded. He was appreciated. Unfortunately, they had to speak first. I would have rather spoke at the end, but then, because let me put it, because this is Bhakti Tirtha Maharaj's speciality to all these interfaith and special public events. That was his really like those things. I mainly preached and talked to devotees. It was kind of. I don't know what to say, solution that we can do. But at the end, because there wasn't really so much, there was a mutual respect, I would say. But not everybody kind of stated their positions. We had one such interfaith in Atlanta and everybody spoke for like five minutes, a lot of dialogue. So that was more interesting. We had more dialogue here. Everybody got 15 minutes. Say your piece and that's it at the end, question and answer. So it was like everybody just had their prepared piece. But at the end, because there was something that somebody said which misrepresented us a little bit. Maybe this misunderstood. So when I had someone asked me a question and I asked Ravi Chandra Maharaj to answer their question and then so he closed up the holes. But then one lady was asking, I want to know. I've been hearing everybody speak. It's very nice. These are all the social problems we have. We have prostitution, drugs. We have all theft, criminality. We have public government. People who are, what do you call it, dishonest, but corruption said all the various things which are problems of the society in that area of the world. What is actually the purpose of life? She wanted to know. So this is the thing that's kind of missing is that people, the Christians survived who died. You go on the ground and you stay there in kind of a suspended animation in your bows. Everything you just do to your face. And then for millions of years, then there's the final judgment. They blow the horn and you come out of the grave and you reincarnate. You get your blood and your muscles, everything back on the bones and then you get sent because you are the body, right? And you get sent to heaven and hell. And it's like. There's one part of the Christian theology which doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Loving God, serving, that makes a lot of sense. But this thing about being a bones and then coming back and getting the flesh coming back on, that doesn't really too much sense. I tend to believe in reincarnation. I would say I firmly believe in it. And that so there's a lot of opportunity though because they have more dialogue. I heard that in Phoenix they had a whole group of different religious leaders come to Janmastana just to see what it's like and I appreciate it. Maybe we have to somehow see how to get the theists to appreciate some of the more essential basic functions, the basic things here in religion. But we should respect Krishna, we should respect God and material opulence is how it's dangerous for us to get back to Gahka that we don't have the proper attitude. This is all Ka's, all God's gift to us because he was a devotee. So he got some special favor by taking away his possessions. Bringing things back into a reality check. This is really what's everything about. Maybe a lot of people don't have that wisdom that even if they lost everything they would realize that there's a higher purpose People they don't really know what is the purpose of life. Contemporary religions, I don't know to what extent they can provide that information. So not that it's not there to stand in their scriptures but they just don't understand their own scriptures. So here the supreme personality God is personally telling Brahma don't worry, I gave him a hard time but it's a special favor because he was defying my authority and he was too opulent. So first I take away his possessions and then becomes a human being Born in some aristocratic family. He's youthful, personal beauty, good education, love and he's not proud of his opulences and he's especially favorite. So this is kind of an ordinary favor. Take away everything a special favor if they press him has all nice opulent situation doesn't become perfect about it. The opulence is never disturb a period of words. So these things are going to be discussed in the future. It's really good how devotees it's like putting Hewa is the pure devotee of the Lord who was born very aristocratic family. His parents were lords. They had huge tracts of land. They had all kinds of opulence given by the king. So they were. He was born there but he became. He was a fear of the Lord. He was actually descended from the spiritual world for Lord she tuned in his pastime. Anyway, he came into this world into this rich material family and when he met Giradharpur who came with him from the dachshund violence this devotee Thunder Egg, why don't you come and see him? I would like to see a few words. Come on. But he went and went and all this opulent. He was very rich. Travel around in a pontoin. That's part of the equivalent of a Rolls Royce today. Poor guys being around a thousand kilometers horsepower. Poor manpower. Not so many people can afford that. Even today. Lots of people going through the airport. You see a girl at first with the devotees pushing on a wheelchair. It's a little different. That's when my legs are broken, getting too old. So he goes into this house of Winnormic and it's like got big tapestries in the wall. It's got golden candelabras. Deepas. The house is kind of sitting on a silken cushion with big pillows. Two servants are putting scented oils in his hair from each side. Two others are fanning him, serving. So it's like an honest of where have I come to? This is not like the normal humble Vaishnava situation. It's all like materially very opulent. So what am I doing here? He started doubting like that. Mukunda was his old acquaintance, his friend. So he was discussing the news about things from Chittagram. But then Mukunda sensed that Gdadhara was feeling sensitive or uneasy. So then Gadadhar Prabhu where the Mukunda Prabhu started to sing a pastime of word Krishna and Vrindavan. How as a child he was treated as a son by Putin of the witch but with the purpose of actually killing him because she treated him like a son. Ka reciprocated and accepted her as one of his mothers because she tried to kill any silver. They did both. And somewhere in Goa, Vrindava and Putin is now one of Krishna's mothers. It's because she said Kuchi, Kuchi Ku. Sweet little baby, you're so nice. I love you. So many ones. But that's. You know, she's number one child abuser, serial killer as you recall it today. Because it's pretty far out. Such a person shows a little affection and promoter to the spiritual world. You would think she should burn in hell forever. But because she's directly related with the Lord, she showed some affection. He gave her that mercy. That's one reason I am such a rotten devotee. I am lowered in Khushiva. I can't even show Krishna any affection this and that. Krishna is so merciful and started giving so feeling so much appreciation for Krishna, so much separation that he started to go into some special baba where he was ripping his clothes, pulling his hair, rolling in the ground, knocking over. His servants are running over there while the cushions are catching on fire because he knocked over the lamps. He's just like Krishna. Krishna the raga is looking. He never saw anybody go through so much ecstatic symptom other than Lord Chaitanya. He was like wow. Obviously he wasn't attached to all these material things because they were all getting ripped up and spoiled. I had an auntie once. Every time I visited in Detroit. Her husband was the one who sold all the chrome to the automobile industry. So he was a very wealthy person. She had all these expensive furniture and I was a six year old wild kid in the road. She'd cover up all her furniture with white sheets. Told me I had to sit on the floor. She was so uptight, couldn't do anything. She was kind of going to spill something on that expensive imported furniture. So he was very attached to the furniture. Just a year putting me in all the expensive furniture totally wiped out. So it wasn't attached. Sigurda. I said wow, I believe we should have him. I thought he was a materialist. But he was like so much in love with Ka. He has so much opulence. But he's not attached to it. But he's really attached to is Krishna. One thing about being a rich person is you can be aloof from people. Celebrities, you know, they got all these security guards. They just go around and visit. They have their own circles. So they're very aloof from the normal people. That if somebody's really absorbed in ka consciousness that can also be useful. People go away to some holy place like rather Kuda chanting or jabba. So he used this aloofness to concentrate more in his ka consciousness. It was a unique strange combination. But that was how we used it. He didn't have to get into so much bajalpur of people. It just got his profound very activated. So people just kind of stayed away out of respect. Meanwhile, these are Japan. Maybe this shastra, it's just a show. So that's in Gadaraku. He thought that he told Mukundra Dr. That I made this offense against the Kundari vimidi. What should I do? Maybe I take him as my guru. Because the guru always produced a disciple. They're committed abhora to appear Vaishnavana. So I'm thinking of taking him as my guru and then I'll be forgiven. So they asked Lord Shaitan. He's a good idea. The person who organized the initiation ceremony Nirvadhar was initiated by Bhumura Guru Hindi from the week is Brisha Babu Maharaj and Krishna Leela. Father of Radharani who is without her. So Chaitanya Leela is the guru of Radharan. So here's someone who has all opulence when he's totally detached. He have it the size. Who's the adder? Somehow we have a Kundarik dam in Bangladesh. Anybody see Pundarig dam? I wanted to take the safari there last year. This year actually, but there was so much disturbance Bangladesh and bang chicken down. You won't take any of this. But Sunday I'm taking beautiful place. Shampoo has beautiful deities of Radhakrishna, Goyanga and parasite Parasha Bahavi Murari. Some guest houses, small temple to so much devotion for the Ganges that he would go there in the nighttime and see the Ganges in the daytime. People would go by the side of the Ganges to answer their nature call. Would feel so offended that they were mistreating the Ganges like that. They were starting out to be too much for them. So they went and nobody was around. And they were sleeping. And his Darshan put the mother of the Ganges on the stairs. Lord, she said he gave the name Prema Nidhi and instilled someone's love for Krishna. Somehow Iskar has got the birthplace of Kramer Jesus as our temple. It's kind of in the country minus one of televon. It's out in the country and about 300 years from jars from Puerto Ric's birthplace. His birthplace is the Ashrama Vasudevatta who took all the sinful reactions or offered to take them for everybody. And another little bit low for godhood and right opposition wears a father 500 year old original temple of Mukunda Datta. That's not ours. But now he just got Bruce from parishioner and they want to give it to us. They asked whether we should tear it down and build a new one. I said let's keep the original fix it up. How many 500 year olds emptied go to Kirtan hall in between the two. So 50,000 people come there January 22nd this year for the three day festival. 5,000 the first day. And then after that we have non stop faithful for life. Here's one of the this shows us not getting attached using everything. So we have different examples here. Bali got the mercy of his things taken away and he was given the mercy of Krishna. He was a devotee. So with special favor that exception that they knew especially in Haranyakashipu he lost everything. But I don't think he learned too much by him since he was a Demon demons. They don't learn so easily. I see a lot of people lost their possessions in Katrina. I wonder how many. Some people come angry at God. But then they should see that it's actually because the purpose of life is to go back to the spiritual world. Sometimes the Lewis things in the material world helps us to realize that this material world is not a favorable place to remain. It's the Dukkalaya. It's a place for suffering. How many people realize that if all of life is to go back to Gamma and how losing your things in the material world helps you to detach yourself and become more attached to God. More attached to Ka. That's what the ideal situation is. The Bali Sahar sama because he is the grandson of great grandson or grandson grandson of. He got the mercy. He didn't realize these things. He's the example of surrender. Nine practices of devotional service 1. Atman strengthening yourself. When people take initiation, they're doing Atman with their Sri. They're giving themselves to Ka. I'm dedicating my life to serving Ka. That's very special for people in this world. And taken when consciousness Renu desire to be an eternal servant of Ka. We hope that all our descendants will also take that commitment to be. All the young people will also be deciding to surrender to Ka. It's a tough decision to make. But for somebody who's devoted, I can see that that's actually the wisest decision. We can trust him and make this material. Krishna may make a devotee opulent or he may keep a devotee temple. It's up to him. All of that Shiva Galo ballet for Mo Chitanya. But he was very poor. So you can get the perfection of life. Some people have ability to make money and they do that and use it for Ka. Some people even they try to make money, they're not so successful at it. Maybe more people make the other, but everybody goes. Normally it's difficult to get love for God if you have a lot of money. But that's also possible. And it's possible to get love for God. But people who don't have money, all they think about is how I can get money and regard trying to be Ka conscious. It's not so useful. But he did. Even if he was put on the difficulties. He always chanted his Hare Ka realms. He always did his devotional service, followed the orders of the spiritual master. So in this way he went over Ka. Devotees are special. What they do is not ordinary. It's a sacrifice because they have These special qualities. Therefore Ka likes it so much and gives them so much mercy reciprocates with their sacrifice. So this is very practical for people living in the material world who can be sweet to remain focused on being Ka conscious. Brethren. That dash is another this one. And the Big Bang. Happy festival for Nityananda. But here again the most we know. So also when he took Siddh Sirupan Shanavam their prime minister and finance minister. They gave so much charity to the Vaishnavas and Brahmanas that Nabadip was able to flourish. Probably the biggest center of Vaishnav and Vedic learning flourish in the middle of a Mahavana world. In our preaching work or whatever and discussing the Christian consciousness it's difficult for the materialists to understand why God would take everything away from them when they. You know. They can't see the purpose of that. It seems like it's a negative thing for destruction and things like that to happen. It seems like they have a hard time understanding why God would do that. It's been a long time since I read the Bible even though I was 10 years old or something. But I think there's a lot of stories like that in the Bible also. Like Noah taking all of the ark and everything. He like he lost everything. Isn't it David? I forget. I can't remember the name. But there was somebody who Job. Who lost everything. Job. And there was a story about where's the city that burned and said you had to walk away without looking back. Solomon Memorial. Memorial. I don't remember all the stories but there's a lot of stories with the same instruction which I see a lot of people who are Christians. We don't know really how know how to apply it. It's the same instructions. This was some interfaith that somebody actually knows both the things that Gord Chaitanya would preach to the Muslims from the Quran. So it's a way of preaching the tone to the answer. It's a way to do Tusra that's formed around preaching and giving lectures and churches. But it's why this happens. Why? What lesson? Is it because of karma? Is it because of a mercy that we have to learn to be detached for someone who's trying to. At the end of life you want to be able to walk away from everything. Go back to Looks like some lady left $40 million Atlantis or a cat. Richest cat in the world. Mr. Garfield. Two of the fox loops got the same thing. Airplanes. There was a British Garfield duplicate was the richest. Can in the world. She was left so many hundreds of millions of dollars pounds. But these things happen before d so grateful to their cat. And then what happens when they leave their body thinking of their become a cat in the next life and not such a good situation. Not the richest cat removed. Some bonded in India. Some astrologists and one of the prime ministers of India took birth as a dogmas union when he was a very rich man's dog. Getting regular bed scrubbing down easy life comfort, lots of fresh meat. Everything he wanted in life he got there. That he didn't need to be much of religion. It's not exactly what we expected. Some big prime minister or some ruler of the people. What's our goal in life? What do we really want to be? What do we really want to achieve? If it doesn't have any spiritual purpose? We could be a queen ant and have millions of ants bring their thing for us. Have so many spot drone answers you can have. You know, maybe there's another purpose, another birth and suits for what that person wants. Does he really want to be the queen of the ants or they want to be the queen bee? If we don't as a human being we have a rare opportunity to understand that we're born again and again. That we are eternally related with your son. So we get back to ka. Sometimes we may need a shock treatment. We may need some kind of experiences that give us a little more wisdom. Whether we learn from what happens to us or whether we just take advantage of some history. Take it in some way. What did I do wrong? This line, previous lines. The story about the rich man. 7th chapter Bhavahida glorious and the Buddha Quran. He was very rich for he didn't spend money on his family. The other extreme put all money in my bitch. And then we died as the snake to protect the money. In the ditch, in the hole, in the ground. You're so attached to your money. Enjoy it. He didn't spend it. So you get money and use it for some good purpose. It's imperial adventures. You build tampon solution goodness. You help people if you have a passion. You built some big monument or building some big skyscraper. Call it the Uranium Towers. These are ignorance. You just bored and casinos and partying. So this was a weird kind of ignorance. It didn't spend at all. Couldn't even spend it. Just buried it in the ground somehow as a snake he got some realizations because he can remember his previous life. What did I go over for? Why did I use my money for building a temple? Why didn't I pay my children to be devotees? Most of the kids were just thinking how to get the money. Why did dad bury it? Willing to help him One kind of stealing room jumped up on the flame. Finally had him read the seventh chapter Bhagavad Gita and offer all the benefit to his departed soul when he was liberated from his snake curse. So that with this virtue to become a snake you got all these realizations. Sometimes people just like sometimes in the wonder some good people leave. Maybe they've already learned. But they have to learn. It's time for them to go back and change. We just had Mata Sakshi and Mayapur. She went to Mayapur with Ms. And then it was not a extreme situation. She'd go and see the deities, offer naps. But then she couldn't move anymore. She became very focused on Krishna and the event of all his divine and chanting from it. Finally there would be Bishop Panchak chanting Hare Krishna. The world is all around her conscious enough. Then God. All these bodies have expiry dates. You don't know when the expiry date is. Some people make them up, some people advance. They expire before their date as a smoking or some of their bad habits. Just like gurus offended Draupadi that reduce their rights. And he had a long expiring date over and duryodong. But he ruined by all offenses he did against the farmer ones and broken people. Being respectful for chase love very important. Whenever we have to go, whenever it's our time, we should be ready. As long as we're here, do whatever we can. Any other comment I mentioned? Yes, Brother Ravi. In the Dharmakarna they say like we can do all this service and chanting and go pilgrimage to all this. But if we don't have devotion, we don't get anything, you know. But how we get the devotion like to chant, to be service to serve the devotees. How we get that love? I think you've already done it. No, you see, we get devotion by associating with devotees. Devotees of the people takes their personal touch. It's the contagious thing. You got to associate with the devotee to understand. Of course, sometimes you read about people who get the books that way. Whether they're associated with sale or associated with Prabhupada associating with the Anastasia. But mostly it's devotees. They have some associated with things connected to Krishna. Bhava person Bhagwat book Bhav. And there are some things that like in the Bible this is the whole Chapter I think Devotional impetuses for awakening language. Some people do shamashami or they go to a holy place. Things that are connected with Krishna that somehow awakened. I love. I had no having relation with Krishna directly until I saw a devotee wearing tilak and it just like head. That was it. That was it. Justhila. Justila. That was a silent. I was in San Francisco something loving in the park and devotees were in a circle chanting. I was curious where this is where I attracted rocking posts. One little lady looked at me and she had t lock on. And as soon as I saw that all my hairs on my back stood up like a cat stinging ghost or something. I had seen this before but I didn't want to wear. And then I just started running for kilometers away. Away. Yeah, I was freaked out my intelligence. Why are you running? Only find out what this is. And it was just like a total overload. Just one tea lock. All I could think about was how to find out who are these people. This is interesting to me because your holiness has some kind of mystic power where you can. You can close your eyes and it's almost like you can read the mind of a devotee. I tested you once in Mayapur and like it was like. Sami, thank you for watching our videos. Be sure to subscribe to our channel. 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