20080917 || Addressing Devotees || Chowpatty, India #JayapatakaSwamiArchives

Very nice to see so many devotees. I was a student in a university in Rhode island called Brown University and I was studying physical chemistry. I was a science student and I was on a full scholarship. But I was wondering what was the purpose of life. I saw that the professors didn't seem like they really believed in what they were teaching. It was their job. They were teaching it. If you ask any kind of existential question, they say, don't ask all those questions. They're just a science teacher and a math teacher, physics teacher. Don't ask anything spiritual. They also didn't seem to really be very much inspired by what they were teaching. One day there was a professor came from Harvard who had the same league. And then. So they had some sharing of professors. I forget what the title of his lecture was, but I went there then. He was actually talking about vortex essential things. He told the story about Siddhartha who became Buddha and how he went out from his palace and saw a sick person, an old person and a dead person. A dead body and then a baby that he became. Doctor became shocked. As we go through these changes, we take rebirth again. And what's the whole point? It's like an insult and an injury. I want to find out what was the purpose of life. Then he got into meditation. So being an American student, science student never has been exposed even to the idea being kind of puzzled in the movies and knowledge of the movies and stuff a little bit. But in those days it wasn't a public issue in the West. Probably different from any of you who were at least in their childhood, exposed. It was a big shock. I was wondering if we get go through all these changes and that's when they call gun Violet. So then that kept hounding me. Maybe some higher purpose to life. Then during the vacation I went to San Francisco and I went into a bookstore to buy some book about something would answer my question. So all the books are from India. I asked the store, the bookstore owner, why all the books from India and everything from Americans spiritual thing? Well, I got one book. It's an astral projection. You went to some kind of meditation and you projected your dream body, your astral body, your psychic body. I bought the book when I was trying it, but I wasn't having too much success. Little bit. Sometimes I thought I was trying to break down and fly around a little bit. So I thought there was a. I saw that the author was in, so I went to see him. Then I rang on the doorbell. Oh. And I heard some noise inside. I went to the back. Larry was cooking up something big nifty guy. And I said, I read your book and wanted to ask you a few questions. Okay, okay, if you're coming. He took me in his living room. I want to tell you one thing. Since I wrote the book, I've been grounded not being able to project. When I thought, I don't think there's much use of me advising you because. So now I found it. After that I thought, you know, better I check out all these people that write these books. So I got some book on yoga. I was trying to do some yoga that I checked out. Went to his ashram. There's a big swimming pool. All the girls around there. God, Hagama and like that. Then I tried Buddhism for a while, Tibetan Buddhism. Read the book, but I couldn't find a Tibetan Buddhist guru to check out. Then I thought, this is like kind of trying out things by trial and error whether I find someone who's a real guru and get some. Someone who's gone through all these things and already come to some realization maybe that I wouldn't find anybody in San Francisco. So I can't only comment on India. Then I saw an advertisement for the Rath yacht in San Francisco in 1968. Said they get a vegetarian meal for a 25 cent donation. I was a vegetarian. I thought, okay, I'm just not going to vegetarian meal. And then check it out, see what the people are like those days. Scan was in a very basic kind of condition. I went in, everybody was sitting in the kitchens, around the pots, serving themselves, eating. I was just sitting there. Nobody was serving me and no one was. And I thought maybe this is like some spiritual thing of survival of the Phoenix. You just go in the park. Then I wanted to give the 25 7. But they were really spiritual. Nobody was willing to take it to me. They don't go somewhere else. So then I went next door to the bookshop and to the boutique. There was somebody called Gagamuni there. He fell around. He's in Navaj and is sometimes known as Gaga Money. I asked him to take my donations. Sure, sure. Come on. Then he sold me a set of Bible jumps. That time I said was three books for a schedule. And I paid $13. I don't know was it a good price or still got one of them two. So I gotta go now. There's some people in the back to talk to. Thanks a lot. I wasn't getting too much information. My first visit, I kind of found out about this. I went to the back. And then somebody came up to me and he said, so we're doing a special project here to save the whole world and need a little help. You know how to hold a nail? My uncle had a little wooden workshop in the garage. And I held the nail and he started hammering it in. You know, about the holy nail. There's. It's a very technical thing. As soon as it goes in the wood, you have to move your hand, otherwise you get your fingers smashed. I mean, not high tech, but there's some technique there. Then, wow, you did so great. You're an expert nail holder. He shook my hand, said, I'm Jayananda. Fortunately, that time my name was Jizzler Jay. And so, you know the hammer, too? Yeah, I had a hammer. I said, okay, hold the nail and hammer it. Do some circles on the wood. And I stammering in again. He hit me in the back and hugged me and said, you're great. You're supposed to show me a picture of the Rath Yatra in Jagannath Puri. We're going to do a festival like this. How amazing that is. How many people build this car here. This is going to be a car like that. Wow. How long is that going to take? It's going to take a couple of months or a year to build. No, no. One week. Then there's another. Do it in a week and see everyone that pulls the rod, everyone that sees his chariot. Special we have in the temple, Jagannath. They all get liberated. They go back to the garnet, need your help. It sounds like good project. Liberate the world. There I was, building the Raj with the crew of reigning the bodies, hammering the wood and sawing and everything. So while we were cutting then Jayanandapra would tell us so many pastimes about Prabhupada, how Richard Prabhupada was, how merciful. He said, this sounds like a real guru. And I thought, I'd like to go eventually to see, meet him. Well, he's in Canada, in Montreal. Lost his visa for America. He's been away. He had no visa. Go to India though. Maybe. So. Then I was working with the Rathkaptra. Then one devotee took me over and showed me how to chant Java. I read the book Easy Journey to Other Planets from Antimatter and everything that kind of fit my scientific side. And then knowing any of these, let's go out today in the park and just chant. Since I've been doing yoga and everything, I sat in the park and went into yoga asana and started chanting. And I chanted about 32 rounds. First day I thought, this is the most intense, wonderful meditation I ever did. Was feeling so much. I don't know what I was feeling. Something really super transcendental. I went back to the temple and the devotee was waiting for me. He said, excuse me, still have those beads? It's a shirt by accident. I gave you Prabhas chaining beads. I'm not supposed to give those to anyone. He was back next day. It wasn't quite the same then I was Tama. Krishna Maharaj was there and Krishna Jn. They were chanting and dancing, doing the kidnapping. It was very intense. It was a week and days of dances. I decided, if you don't really dive into something, if you don't really try it, how will you ever know, right? Or not? Let me try it out. I have application. I got time before my practice. Now let me try it. Give it an intensive program. And then if it works okay, then I found it. If it doesn't work well, at least I want people to find the right thing. I decided Mathias, shave up, become a Brahmachary. That was the beginning of is. Somehow they accepted me. I don't know how. So giant Hanukkah would shave me up. That's the big speaker. So that and the rat. The other day, Shadow was surprised. Back to Jamie's there. Shaved up, put in a rut. When I told the President that I wanted to go to see Prabhupada after the Rakat kingdom. You won't understand that it has an Indian accent. Very hard for Americans to understand it. So better stay here and do some service in the temple. Then some other devotee says, don't listen to him. He just wants to get you to do some service. You offer him a ticket to go see Prabhupada also. Then see what he said. I tried it. Really A ticket. You go. Okay. He became exposed. Then I went to Montreal. There weren't so many devotees at that time. Maybe there were only three temples. There was San Francisco, New York and Montreal. And so maybe the whole ISKCON had 150, 200 devotees. So Anu Brahmachari shake up after class. Prabhupada said, who's that? A guy with money happened to be there. Firewood. And he yelled this bag to Jay from San Francisco, bring him over for lunch tomorrow. Didn't know what I was getting into. Gagamuni was there with Ramananda, his big brother. And. And that time I was very Skinny and young. I was 19 years old, second year. So they fed so much prasad I couldn't eat some. I didn't have any fancy. But the other two could eat a lot. You get to be a devotee for a while. You're appetizing. I remember there was rice. I think it was kadisas and pakuras. But didn't really know the names of things there. But from the memory, picture memory I had. That was the friends. So they were the Prabhupada kept saying, give me more, give me more. And I was like, great with. Then I had an audience with Prabhupada. Darshan told him idea. Maybe go to India. He said, yeah, don't worry. You stay with me. I'll change you up and I'll send you to India. After a couple years. That's exactly what happened. I was with Prabhupada. He was very kind in me, gave me some. I was the assistant to his servant. He had an assistant to the system of the servant secretary. He could do some personal service. When they went out shopping after lunch he would take rest. Then I was guru sitting. There are a few devotees. So they had me sit outside. His rankingsi rain and many days he never rained. One day he rang the bell. I went inside and he had a cockroach. Even in Canada there are cockroaches. He said, you know, help me open the door, open the window. I open the window and ignore the cockroach. You're confined in this small little room. I'm going to give you now the whole world to enjoy. Threw him out the window. Everything he said was philosophical. At the same time. He had a sense of human in those days. Then he wanted to dye his cloth. Cloth white cloth with saffron. So he gave us. In those days we used the garuamati, this rock from the Himalayas somewhere. You grind it up and it becomes saffron. Then you dip your cloth in it and it becomes dyed. It's a very kaksha called kakcha dye. This is dyed with. It was called paka dye. The woods was kakcha. So we were in the bathtub rubbing these stones for hours and hours. Spa would come in and say, start thick enough. So we had to go on and on so we got the right consistency that it would die as well. While this was going on, Rahma had gone downstairs to the basement. For some reason, my grandma just never took it out or whatever. And the second day when they came up, said that a big rat jumped in front of grandpa. Noticing Every little thing he was doing every immediate response rather than one. By McGill University Baba was walking in Dalisi then Miguel University Library one of his one bhakti non takwa's book was there life and teachings of Lord Chaitanya 787 a book to McGill. Later Prabhupada wrote some article about. There was one cardiologist in McGill who said that it seems there's something more than meets the eye. He did many open heart surgeries. People die. Something leans them like some kind of sparkle in the eye and go. It spawns something. When the blood goes through the heart it gets energized. He called it a ticker. The Tabasa wrote him on all this. How there's the spirit, soul in the heart and all these things. This letter to the doctrine. So I was there like that every day walking with Prabhupada with other devotees. It was a very wonderful experience. Then some devotees stopped by. You see, you get the blessing Prabhupada. They're going to go off to London to start preaching that Shama Sundar and Guru Das and the Mukunda and their wives they were Behastas. Prabhupada was sending them to open up a whole country, a whole continent. It went off and actually they met the Beatles and they were able to make a recording Apple Records. We still play our Govinda and Hare Krishna temple, Radhakrishna Temple. So we met with them. Prabhupada gave our blessings and they went off so like this. This is how things started for me that time. This gun was. I got this gun registered. Actually wasn't registered at first. So one time I was doing book distribution. Went to a college university hostel different students were buying and talked to them and went into one room and the guy stood up and he took a book and he started shouting at me, swearing at me, saying this all nonsense. It's very offensive. He had used to go brand new devotees. I just turned around and walked out. I was told if you hear offenses just leave the place. So I left. He was shocked because I didn't like react. I just turned around and walked off. Also thought that I had too much commotion in the hospital and they thrown out. But that time didn't have any books. Only had like Back to Godhead once they privileged the Back to Godhead had a skunk in the desert. I don't know exactly. I remember what the article was, why they used that as the COVID page. Remember I was in McGill University holding up saying Back to God, I need to look and See the skull fake faces. Then that time we're trying to devise how to pitch to the students. I think you have better techniques now. But at that time you put three to four devotees. And one had simply wonderful sweet balls. He goes, open your mouth, put it in. If you gave it in my hand, they might throw it in their mouth. At least they got a taste. The next one would go and give them a magazine. And the third one would go and have a big concha and say, see who play contributions. He will play. Friends will please give a donation. That's how we maintain the temple. Also made a lot of friends then. This kind of. The beginning was a big struggle. That time we were renting a bowling alley. No bowling. We have. Boy, this tin. This white thing is white. Whatever they call it. You throw a ball, it rolls. And he's got to knock all the 10 down. He knocked out. That's how many points he used. So there's this long wooden aisle with two gutters. We have eight plain bowling alley as their temple. So we put wood in between the gutters with some linoleum over it. So we had this very nice hardwood, beautiful lane. And then he had two white strips of linoleum on some ordinary worker. Then five lanes were used for the temple and three lanes for the ashram, for the partition. Very simple. So the Brahmacharis are all staying in the ashram side. That time Gopal Krishna Maharaj was bhakta with me. We were bhakta. He was working as an executive, I think in Pepsi Cola or some cosmetic company or something. Rewarded temple. We chat. At that time we didn't have any books. So one of the books we had was Life and Story of Mahar Chittan. There was a big chap in Haridaz Kakur. He was the Acharya of the holy name. So we didn't have all the devotees. It would be very few. Maybe one month, one year older. How you have so many counselors, all the devotees. The guiding help. He didn't have that much of a ring stand. I'm reading this book and it said that Aridas Thakar. When his mind would think of something else, he would chant Louder. Being a 19 year old student, my mind was thinking of so many things other than Hare Krishna was. So I would keep on chanting louder and louder. Every time a new thought came in, louder, another thought, louder. Probably you never have your mind go off. But my mind would go off sometimes. So I go loud enough. Finally I'd be screaming loud as I could. The Mind would stay pretty fixed. Then all the devotees went and complained that Prabhupada Bhakta is shouting so loud, chanting so loud. We can't think that was what I was. I wouldn't think so. Prabhupada called me and asked why I'm chanting so loud and disturbing. When the holy. I read in this book, your mind goes off. Chant louder. Harida Startup. So my mind goes off. So I was chanting louder. We thought Prabhupada was actually very liberal. Like he had a good reason in the park then. So I was exiled to the park so I wouldn't disturb the other devotees. Surely I'd be banned from this country. As I was saying. So then the part that time was the pre jogger regional time. There was no joggers, only squirrels and just shouting in the car, walking, feeling very strong. But after two years Baba then went off. He got, got his visa and remodel. Before leaving he gave me initiation, helped me join the khakha class, Roman Shadi. Then he made me the temple president of Montreal. And here I am two weeks initiated temple president. So then I wrote a prabhupada. Maybe I'm too young. I wrote back. He said don't be body conscious. I followed the honor of the guru. There I was, there I was Bhaktijin. Now I am Jayat Bataka. But even though the other devotees were much older, but from their point of view they are very much older. So if I told anyone do this, do that, they look at me like who are you? So I had to learn techniques of design, how to convince people to do something without offending their false ego. And I was the president, I was the treasurer and I coped in the pizzari because the biggest prize had taken all the devotees to open a new temple in Vancouver. And I had only four devotees in the temple. And one 16 year old student who came from his high school was. So we didn't also have. We had $200 in the bank about. No, that would be 8,000 rupees, not too much. Then we went out to the. Went out to the wholesale fruit market and vegetable market. There there was a different Greek and different kinds of people selling boxes of bananas and apples. We go and say we're monks, religious people eating our food and made some donations. So they gave us a whole box too old to sell wholesale. We give some banana, they pick stuff, filled up a whole little cicaptra. So many kinds of fruits. So I didn't know how to cook many things, only halva and chutney and a few sabjis. So maybe six, eight kinds of fruit chutneys and maybe half a dozen. Maybe also like five, six kinds of halva. Halva with apples, halva with peaches. Halva. But somehow we got 20 preparations. The Indian students and some of the workers that may make in India. But you get 200 people to come for the Sunday feast. Give a $2 donation and get a 22 preparation feast in the morning. I did cooking. Then travel told us how to add the chops. You put the ghee and the spices and then you lift up the dollar. It would explode. And everyone attempted. And I'd have somebody make the plate up and I run a naked shower. Those are driving. Then I'd take the plate and walk down the bowling alley lane to the Jagannath baby that was there after cooking. Then you know, get up Mangala. I can chance some quick rounds, cook the whole feast and then go and do the art day. I was so blissful by walking down with this plate is a humble offering. I hope you accept it. But I really felt very blissful in the beginning. It was really just had to start things in a very simple way. And then Prabhupada said he wanted to open many new temples. So then I thought after I had built up the temple there to maybe 20, 30 devotees. And then I would take three devotees and go and open to Raptor which is a bigger city. Then Prabhupada had. Gardamuni phoned me up and said he wants to send me to India. What he said earlier. Then he called me to see him in Los Angeles. Went to see him, give me a few tips. I really don't know what would India be like. What do I do if I see a Sannyasi in India? So bow down. So like that. Now you are sent to India. I got a really cheap fare. $111 from Belgium to Bombay. My brothers airlines. There were three brothers, Yusuf, Ali and Ahmed. They had bought a used second World War plane. That's why it was so cheap. The plane had no decoration and no air pressure. Every time they went out, your ears would go. You get a headache. It would only fly a few hours after land, reload and go on side food to fresh start. Then Rome, then Cairo, then Yemen, then Karachi, then Bombay. When I arrived, my head was. I thought I had a few contacts from Bombay. I called up, nobody answered the phone. Sometimes the phone didn't work. Cross line, different things. It was 1970. So then somebody came up. The eye was like hanging out and some diseased beggar with the open terminal that time and said, you know, Bakshi said, I wonder talking about. So I thought, this is a very strange place. Let me go to Kalpada where Ashutananda was waiting. Someone saw me a ticket for $15 to Kathada. At that time it was 7 and a half rupees per dollar. Gasoline was 60 paisa per petrol. So then I got to Calcutta and I asked a taxi to take me to this temple where Chittendhamara was staying. I got there and he charged me six rupees. They said, oh, you're paying three times the amount. He went on. Must have taken you on a real ride to get the media that way. Here I was in India by first I learned Bengali script because I was in most difficult thing was we didn't have they write English Indian script. You know how they write. Not all the sanctions, but that's going out and shopping. Good morning. Chudananda was here for a few years. He knew the ropes. Was just holy room. Prophet wanted to establish mission in India. So he was registered in Bombay in 1971. He had branches in Calcutta, Mayapur, Delhi. I'm really glad that I met T.R. in my marriage. In Canada or in the West. When it comes to India, I'm looking for a guru. Who knows what. I would have known four or five person. So you're really fortunate. You have very systematic health. What time? Prabhupada. Someone said the Prabhupada. What about those good old days? Those are the rough good old days. These are the good old days. Those are really rough days. When I got sent to Mayapur, we didn't have a car. We had a bicycle, remember? I went to buy some wood and nails and things. Whatever is hardware. So I rode 45 minutes in my airport bicycle. I got on, I was really happy the moment I was chanting Hare Krishna. Although father grandfather were millionaires, but was very happy being a single Babushari. At that time there was a samas when I drove by bicycle, I was chanting. I was very happy. Came in with a smile. Got off in this big hardware, you know, set. He looked at me so why are you happy? You have nothing spicy. I am my hyperstore. I got a three story house, my wife, money, big position here in the market. I'm not happy. Why are you happy? Unfortunately people don't know how big a house you have, how big a car you have. Does it make you happy if you're ka conscious? You're happy if you have an understanding. What is the real meaning of life? Such gratification may make you happy. Sometimes they make you sad. You smash up your new power. You're sad. I was happy because of Prabhupada's mercy. Having some devotion myself. I'll be happy if you do devotional service. We were living in a grass hut. Actually in Mayapur. We had a grass hut still there. Same hut. Prabhupada came out to visit us and he said, actually this grass hut is all you need to be ka conscious on the side of the Ganges grass hut. Chant your rounds. This is Satvik mode of goodness that we only have this facility. People come here now. People, modern people, they work things more in the mode of passion. That's why we're building this guest house with stone chips and iron and cement and bricks and steel and so on. It's in the mode of passion. We can get people to come and be comfortable here. Shriba gave us a vision to build a spiritual city. 50,000 people living in Grasshop. Five of us. Whatever. Baba was talking about a city where Aurora Maya was developing. We have over a thousand thunderoids still far away from a city, but at least something developing. I'm getting a lot of important help. Guidance from Ramanath Swami, one of my output schools, UCs. That's why we're meeting here. Everything happened very fast with you. I was sent to India. We were there for a few months and we were waiting for Prabhupada Sati would come. And then we heard that Prabhupada gave nine people sannyas in Los Angeles. He wanted, let's try to take sannyas. We should take sannyas. Nobody has so much of an idea what sannyas were for. Young Brahmacharya. It sounds very inspiring. Prabhupada came and we were staying in a temporary place that was given to us for six months. It was going to be a clinic but it was just empty at this point. So the owner said we could just stay there. No leaves, no renters. Stay there as our guest. We were there. Prabhupada one's son. There were some issues in his family that time won't go into all the details. But he talked to Achuja Mehta first, who is my elder. And then client thought maybe giving him sanyas. We didn't really have an idea what the procedure. Then he didn't get sannyas. Then he called me and talked to me. I didn't get it either. Just wanted to find out a Few things. Then later Prabhupada called us here and said that I gave nine people sannyas. There's actually 11 on my list. The new two are the other two. Then he asked chudanali want to take sannyasu? He said yes and he asked me. Lori decided to remain a Brahmachari. So of course when I was in India, he gave us. Then he gave the tanda first to Achutananda. You are a Chittananda swami and giving you first that means you are the senior Samyasi. So I was put in my place. Then he gave me the Ramda and said yojaya Pataka. This time I was 21. Oh, it's much harder to get some yeses to be older on a long waiting list and go put into training somehow probably it's in a very fast. After I was there for a while, I was sent to Mayapur. A small budget, 35 rupees. So we. So I asked the mishna we could grow our own food. And then Samakrishnav asked Samavani the many things I suggested he didn't agree with. But we are used to that. He said wonder their Westerners how they can grow the thing. I said, give us a chance. You can try, you know, five acres. Then I was okay. Then we were growing like viti and tomato, all kinds of things. I got this Indian Council of Agricultural Research labor magazine Delhi. And so it was like a science school. Chemistry okay. MPA science. Chicken droppings are this much. So figuring out how to do that thing is more up and it's like a science label workers when they were he didn't wash through the hill. Not doing anything. One little plot maybe a little bigger than this room of tomatoes. I got five tons. You'd be surprised how much mother earth gives. Then somebody gave me a seed for winged beans from Australia. There's so many winged beans, nobody in it. Nobody know how to cook it or anything. Well, when you cook, when you grow your own, you get so much. You get like quintles and quintles. That's what we would eat every day. We grow radishes and we have so many like couple tons of radish. There would be no more radish every day. That's the downside. It was inspiring to be in Mayapur. And Prabhupada gave us the time to build the first building and a lotus building. Remember when I was a student, I was thinking that trying to be able to work and do something was a challenge was inspiring. For me, everybody was looking around thinking what I'll take up. And all the professors normally looked inspired by what they were doing. But then Krishna had so much. Every day was such a challenge do different things. Whether I worked on a farm, in the airport, whether pitching in the city. So much of a challenge, so much inspiring. I remember once in Canada, a television show asked us, we'll pay you $45 each. We want you to be act as an actor on a television show, you have to act. Your role is to be a Hare Krishna. That sounds pretty easy. That's what it was. And there was this kind of daytime show. They called it the People's Court or something like that. Here we have our Lokadala. But this was more disciple issues. So they had a real actor who was acting as my father and I who was supposed to act as his son but who was a devotee. So he wanted to take away my bicycle or motorcycle because he said that he's going to use it in the church. And I gave him use it for himself. He wanted back. This was the basic issue. There was a. A doctor, a lawyer, psychologist. Like people are senior established citizens. Maybe they're all active. But they said that very early they had to like mediate between us. Judge. So then they knew that I was really underwater. Everyone else was active. And so the father made his case. He gave it to me. He used it. Now I'm doing this. This is what I'm doing for the welfare of people. If I want to use my motorcycle for this purpose, why did she take it back, gave it to me. I can use it for whatever I like to do some simple things. Try to put in as much teaching as I could. And I said okay, great. Advertising, commercial. And the three of them are there. They're looking at me. No, he really believes in what he's doing. One of the other panel of judges says, wouldn't that be amazing to actually believe in what you do? It's inconceivable. I can't conceive of actually believing one to do. I'm still young, I'm 20 year old. Here they are, all these big doctors and nobody believes what they're doing. A few of them really like doing what they're doing. But most of them believe in what they're doing. If you have Krishna consciousness of days, whether you're working or whether or not, sure you'll find life a lot more exciting and satisfied. Otherwise life is pretty dry. Sukha Dukada. You get ducked up and down having something. One thing I'm very concerned about one of the biggest causes of Death of like 18 year olds to 25 year olds India is suicide. If they don't know what the purpose of life is, the girlfriend drops them or they fail the exam and the parents are really angry with them, somehow life for them has no more meaning and they commit suicide. A valuable life. If you do so much, go back to Gandhi and help people. So many things. Sometimes I was thinking somehow because sometimes, you know, it's not like suicide what we can do or how we can also like when you Krishna consciousness, you know, we don't die, we commit suicide. You just lose your gross body and you're there in the astral body, you're there as a ghost and then you know, playing around and friends or something trying to haunt somebody, take over their body. It's not a positive alternative. So many, even I Read in Australia 11,000 students a year commit suicide. I don't have a number for India, but I'm sure it's much more because of our population. So many people are frustrated, they don't know the purpose of life. Even despite we know a little bit about kaja in the Bhaiavad Gita, a little bit, a little bit of Mishnah. If you just offer one Dhammada lamp, you'll be safe from so many troubles in your life. It's actually one of the mahatmyas, the Dhammada. Whoever offers a lamp, the Dhammada is safe from troubles for as long as Indra is in its post. The person who attacked you with a blade, someone gave the blade and attacked you, tried to stab you. I was visiting the temple in Madrid. Actually outside of Madrid. There's a fire from Barcelona, in the district of Guadalajara in Spain. They had a big festival. Many sannyasis and many devotees and beautiful bidis. One guy kept asking me if I wanted a ride to Barcelona. I said no, I already have my plane ticket. Apparently he was asking many people, many sannyasis and he was praying so terribly crazy. And he had as his idea that he wanted to kill a Hindu guru, Hare Krishna, Guru Sanatana or whatever this concept because whatever reason he had in the one guide somebody on the way, murder them and throw them off the road. So if you don't know that, you just hear this guy swearing and driving tummy. I was in the airport checking in at the counter. I look at the lady in front of me, she makes like a horrible like frightening face. This guy ran behind me and took a knife and slit my throat and he ran off and so I was giving you a throat cut. I was exceedingly bleeding and I thought that I took off my cheddar and wrapped around my neck and sat down. Nowhere to go, what to do. So I just sat down and my whole life went before me. I thought I'm going to die now. Started making my prayers to Krishna and medical people came and took me to their first aid room. Bandages up my neck, took me off my ambulance. Now whenever I see an ambulance I feel different. Because when you're in the ambulance and the sirens are going, people don't move. It's not like everybody just pulls over with the ambulance by. It takes a while. I'm sitting there reading and playing this ambulance people move aside. Eventually going on. And I got to the hospital. I couldn't talk as my neck was cut. They asked me what my blood type was. Know your blood type? I didn't know it. It's good to know your blood type. Stays for about 10 minutes which may be life and death. Later I found out my blood type is to be positive. So I try to build my goods. Then they told me to lie down. I was sitting up all this time and I lay down and literally I was like drowning my own bleeding. I passed out as if giving me some anesthesia. Three days later after an intensive care I woke up and I was still here. The doctor said that it missed my carotene artery by 1 millimeter. And if you cut the coronary artery even in the hospital they can't stop the bleeding. Dr. Jagaloddin and I was there in the hospital listening to Prabhupada taste and I said I had a vegetarian diet that time I had a tracheo dystractomy. It's like hole they put in your throat. And they were feeding me through the nose into the stomach by tubes and injection. Then they injected this into the tube and a chicken bone got stuck in the tube. These people are cheating me. I told them I'm vegetarian and they gave me I can't taste anything. It's going right by me where I can get gas like non veg gas. Then we had some devotees who came to help me. And they took a hotel room near the hotel and they were cooking there. And they smuggled. There's a no outside food. But they smuggled it into the hospital. Then they served me whatever they were going to feed me. Then the person go out, the devotee come quick, take the pot, wash it off in the toilet, put my food in it, close it. Sometimes they have to do it in two parts. One time they put in spinach. That's the home. The hospital also served me spinach. Maharaj and Shiva Maharaj came to see me. Brought according to our needies in the hospital. I had a darshan to worship them. And I didn't have a Brahmin ted because my poita, my Upanyan thread had been cup taken off by whatever. I didn't have it. Then I asked Tamakrishna chair Nama given. So I have a installed. See, when we get a second initiation, the guru chants on your thread, touching it to his thread. So there's a connection from all the gurus. Before I had no threads. I need a new one. I wanted a connected one to Chanda gave me like this was when the devotees had come to see me and I couldn't talk. I had to write because my door was. I was in there 12 days. You can imagine. And so they said that normally somebody will get serious and then she'll be there for a few months. They let me out. They wanted to get rid of me in 12 days. I was later they found. They arrested the person, but they found that he was mentally unstable and put him in a mental hospital. Then he was there for two years and he let out. Someone told me that he committed suicide. I go there. They have extra security from something. Something like that happens. You really think, what do you want to do? Whatever. Krishna gave me back some life. I really want to do something for Krishna. While I was here in the prayer. Then he revealed that he was looking. He was trying for a long time to kill a religious leader. But he failed. So that was the last chance. You got to be careful. Later they found out he was really acting crazy in a temple during Janvasthani. Came in with six knives, razor sharp. Put them in a tulsi plant. After nine parties. Today and tomorrow. Today and tomorrow. See the people. This started Today and Tomorrow issue. Because even 5,000 years ago, when Krishna spoke about Gita, they have birth, death, old age and disease. People are still suffering the same problems and they need some spiritual guidance. I need some spiritual direction. I need to be saved from these four basic problems of life. It's not like now we're in the 21st century. You don't get old anymore, you don't get sick anymore, you don't die anymore, you don't get reborn anymore. That's happening today, happens tomorrow. And of course, remember I was just watching when I flew there. One documentary, some loose ending going back just above now we have the financial crash, people losing their homes but they can't pay their mortgage on. But even tomorrow there will still be some homes around. But we also have the environmental problems that were destroying the environment. But if you don't solve that, no turning back. They say that I read also some recently that the biggest cause of environmental pollution is slaughterhouses. Very simple thing. Even though we're vegetarian and we promote a more simple spiritual real life. It's very hard in the king sacrific life if you're not spiritually oriented. But even if we could reduce the slaughterhouses, that would be a big aid for the environment. There are many whether you are materially, spiritually, different kinds of aspects that ISKCON is helping with. Ultimately the Prabhupada said eventually there will be a financial crash and it will be good to have self sufficient farms and communities show people how they could survive. When there was a problem in the Cold war, there was one devotee offering special tours to India and survival for $5,000 a trip for each person. So he asked me, he wants to bring them to Mayapur and they need a demonstration how to pass stool in the field because they only use the toilet. So they don't know how to pass stool. But in India you can get some guidance and how to plow their fields with the bulls and things. What if there's no more mobile or petrol or anything? How they eat, they don't know. If the grocery store doesn't open and they can't buy everything in a plastic bag, does it stand and die? And then that's all. We're so far away from survival and if there really is a collapse of the economy and even here in Bombay there are many people don't know how to survive also. But Americans are real common. They don't go to the grocery store, they don't know anything. They don't even know like something was just eaten up a steady dinner. And it's like people, they actually just get raw rice or wheat and make it into food. That's like too high tech for them, too low tech or whatever. They don't know how to do the problem. That's just an example how people want to pay so much money and take them out in the bushes and show them how to pass through for $5,000 two lakhs of rupees. Here also you have like in Samantha. Maybe India and Asian places won't be so much hit. But be a big shock if people can't have the normal routine that they're used to any breaking that they really don't know how this. We should also be prepared to shelter people. We haven't really succeeded in having so many self sufficient farms. But that was this one is a reference. Prabhupada had all these ideas that no, no. We can't 100% depend on the material infrastructure that's going on. Not that we're paranoid, not that we're overhearing. We're using it Krishna's service. But there's so many ways that this can help the people know what is the main thing. If you don't know who you are, what's the purpose of life? What is the direction you should take? The whole world is really chaotic and crazy things. If you know how you fit in, how everything fits in. It can be much more peaceful. Even for simple things like getting rid of stress. Do you also have stress Nowadays psychologists and psychiatrists and what studies of meditation. The best way to release stress. The best meditation is mantra meditation. That's what we are teaching is how to do mantra meditation. Of course the most important thing is your love for guidance. Your love for Ka. The highest happiness, the highest perfection. And this guidance is teaching Vajaitanya is important message. How to develop love for Ka. I think that's useful today. It will still be useful tomorrow. Anybody here wants love for Krishna. This is the fast track to learn how to do things in a way that's pleasing the Christian. Thank you for watching our videos. Be to sure sure to subscribe to our channel. We publish new videos every day. And don't forget to like and share our channel.