26 qualities of a pure devotee (part 1) | Rus-Split | 16 Jun 1989 | Russia | Gopal Krishna Goswami

Prasad Raaval.

So yesterday I had explained that— yesterday I had mentioned that today we would discuss— what did I say? What would we discuss today? I just want to test the devotees. Today we will discuss the 26 qualities of a devotee. All of you are trying to become devotees, therefore all of you have come here. Otherwise why would you come here? We are not paying you any rubles for coming here. In India at least When a big politician is speaking, so the supporters of the politician pay people money and bring them to have a big crowd. So the newspapers will say, "So many lakhs, so many hundreds of thousands people came to listen to the lecture of this politician." But none of you were paid to come here. You came here because you are interested in spiritual life. So being a devotee means being someone who is trying to serve the Almighty Supreme Lord. As I have mentioned, it is very, it's a matter of great privilege to be a devotee of the Lord. The Vaishnavas are devotees of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. So the Vaishnavas are very compassionate. So a devotee of the Lord must have certain spiritual qualities to manifest His compassionate nature. These qualities that the devotee should have were described by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu, as all of you know, is— Who is Caitanya Mahāprabhu? So everybody who's connected with the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement knows who Caitanya Mahāprabhu is. So these qualities are very important, and we should all try to develop these qualities. You should not think that if I don't have these qualities, that means I'm a useless devotee. Even if a devotee is very exalted, he still thinks that he's useless. A devotee is always trying to improve his spiritual understanding, a devotee is always trying to improve his spiritual development, are as follows. First quality that Caitanya Mahāprabhu describes is kripālu, very merciful. Devotees of the Lord are very merciful. People today do not know the real meaning of merciful. These, the common man's understanding of merciful means that if somebody is begging for some rubles from you on the road, you give him some rubles or you just give some material help. But according to the scriptures, mercifulness means to understand that the whole civilization can be happy only when the relationship with the Lord is established. So devotees who are merciful, they know that by any material arrangement, society can never be happy. One may artificially try to adjust things, but unless one adjusts to the point of understanding that his business is to serve the Lord, mankind can never be happy. In poor countries like in India, sometimes people accuse us for building big, big temples. They say, "Why are you spending money on building temples? Why don't you give money to the poor people?" So anybody who wants to be merciful, must give people knowledge of God so that they can stop sinning. So devotees are merciful because whoever they meet, they want to give them the science by which they can be eternally happy. That is why we go out on harinama. That is why we do book distribution. We don't do book distribution to make any profit. Even in India, people today are so fallen, when they see our devotees on harinama, sometimes they laugh. If you're glorifying some mundane personality, nobody laughs. But if you are glorifying God, then they want to laugh. Another quality of a devotee is humble. Prabhupada explained that this humility is most important for spiritual advancement. There is a famous verse from Caitanya Mahāprabhu that emphasizes the importance of this point. Tenaḍa pi suni caina tarura pi saīśṇuna māni na mana dena kṛṭṇa-dī-sādhārī. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has told us that if we want to be in a position to chant the holy names of the Lord constantly, then one should be more tolerant than the tree, consider himself lower than a straw in the street, devoid of all sense of false prestige, and then you can chant the names of God. To chant the names of God always, humility must be there. Actually, I'll just interject a small joke. Yesterday when I went back to the hotel, On the TV they had Mr. Gorbachev in Germany. So I started watching that for a few minutes. And Mr. Gorbachev had a translator next to him. But that translator was so expert that the moment Mr. Gorbachev would start speaking, in one second he would start repeating exactly in German language. And sometimes Mr. Gorbachev would speak long, so he would take notes. But the moment he would finish, in one second he would go full speed. So we have to train our translators like that. But he's doing a good job.

Okay.

So, you know that Śrīla Prabhupāda at one time had a pharmaceutical business. So once Prabhupāda had prepared a drug tonic and Prabhupāda told one of his godbrothers, "See, this is a new tonic vitamin that I have prepared." And the godbrother said, "I don't want this vitamin. I want the vitamin by which I can develop love of God." So then Prabhupada told him, "The vitamin formula I know, but the vitamin is not ready as yet." And what was that formula? The formula of humility. This is what is being discussed in this quality. So humility means that we have to be very tolerant. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, "Even more tolerant than the tree." I see in your country there's so many nice trees. Now, you may have noticed that whether it is hot or cold, sun or raining, the tree is there. Even if in countries like India, when it's raining, people go and stand underneath the tree for shade. In order to protect themselves from the rain, they take shelter of the tree. And when it's very, very hot, they go and take shelter of the shade of the branches of the tree. But a tree will never protest. A tree will never say, Why should I give you protection? So a devotee has to be of the same mentality. Always give your protection, guidance, service to others, even if there's nothing obtained in exchange. And the tree sometimes is cut in the middle, still the tree does not protest. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, more humble than a blade of grass. Right opposite this building we have so much grass in the front. Many times you and I walk on the grass, but when we walk on the grass, the grass does not come and bite our feet. So we have to just see how humble the grass is. Everybody is walking on the grass, but it does not protest. So similarly, a devotee must be very tolerant. Therefore, humility is a must for spiritual advancement. Sometimes devotees say, "How will we get together?" We can all cooperate with each other if we practice humility. So humility is a must, and it must to be encouraged. In material life, everybody wants to be proud. People have ahankar, false ego. Due to false ego, we don't believe that anybody can know more than us. So therefore people say, "Why should I surrender to God? Nobody knows more than me." And because of this false ego, they don't accept God. In spiritual life, our understanding is that I'm fool number one. Therefore the disciple, the devotee, begs, takes a direction on the spiritual march and Kṛṣṇa for spiritual advancement. So this is known as humility. I just want to point out that, of course, on each of these qualities, I can explain at great length, but if I start explaining each of these qualities at great length, it may take me, uh, at least a week just to finish the 26 qualities. So I'm just discussing these qualities, uh, in brief, but enough so that you can understand what these qualities mean. Next quality is truthfulness. We have a newspaper here called Pravada. So I don't know enough, a lot of Russian, but I know enough Russian to understand that Pravada means truth. So Pravada is a very famous Russian paper, but everything that is published in Pravada or any other paper need not be Pravada. Real Pravada means to understand the message of God. All the newspapers around the whole world In every country, India, America, they all call themselves, they all say they are speaking Pravada, but actually nobody is speaking Pravada. Real Pravada is only spoken by the representatives of the Lord. So truthfulness means that we understand the instructions of the Lord in a pure form without distortion. You may say, "Of course, who wants to challenge the words of God? We all accept God's words truly." But in reality, we don't. For example, over there are over 600 translations of the Bhagavad-gītā. But in many of these translations, the translator has completely misrepresented the true meaning. In some translations, the translator has even said, "If there's somebody like Kṛṣṇa, then I don't accept the gītā." So, the point is that if you're just talking about the gītā but not accepting gītā in the mentality that Kṛṣṇa spoke, then there cannot be any spiritual benefit. It would just like when the doctor gives you a medicine, to benefit from the medicine you must take the medicine without any adulteration. If you take the doctor's medicine and add water in it, then the medicine will not have effect. So similarly, if you take the message of God and you dilute it very thin, if you add your own viewpoints, then of course there will not be any effect. So we must accept the Lord's instructions as the Lord has spoken. When Krishna says, "Ma'am, surrender unto me," so it means surrender to Krishna, the personality of Godhead. When Lord Jesus Christ says, "Thou shall not kill," that means don't kill even any animals. So truthfulness means that whatever the instructions are given by Krishna and the spiritual master, one sincerely follows and executes it. Just like every devotee is told, "You must chant 16 rounds." So our first duty as truthfulness is to make sure that we are chanting our 16 rounds. So this is in brief the understanding of truthfulness. Another quality of a devotee is equal to all. Generally in every country, in every society of the world, we are dividing the society into friends and enemies. We are busy saying, "Oh, this man is my friend, this man is my enemy." One country will say, "Oh, this country is my friend and this country is my enemy." One community will say, "This man is my friend, this community is my friend, this community is my enemy." And one, a man with one color of skin will say, "This man is my friend, this man is my enemy." The United Nations is founded on the principle that there must be equality for everyone. But in reality, both you and I know that equality towards everyone is not being observed. In every country of the world, in every society of the world, there is discrimination. People will say, "Oh, this community is getting all the favours and our community is discriminated." Therefore, but a devotee of the Lord, he does not discriminate. But a devotee of the Lord, he is equal to everyone. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there is the story of Prahlāda Mahārāja. So Pralāda Mahārāja, as you know— does anyone know who Pralāda Mahārāja was? Who knows? You know? Who was Pralāda Mahārāja?

He was devotee.

A devotee. And who was Pralāda Mahārāja's father? His father was also a devotee? Demonic. Okay. So Pralāda Mahārāja's father was telling the teachers of Pralāda Mahārāja, please train up this boy. To be friendly with the demons and against the devotees. But Prahlāda Mahārāja's father said, Prahlāda Mahārāja said, "I am not interested in dividing the society into friends and enemies. I, I am a friend of everyone." So a devotee of the Lord is equal to everyone. He considers everyone to be a part of His family. Because a devotee belongs to Kṛṣṇa's family, It considers everyone equally. These devotees are my friends, but these devotees are from another republic. They're not my friends. We should see everyone as a child of the Supreme Father and be equal towards everyone. Another quality is faultless. So a devotee is faultless. Now faultless, you may think, means a devotee never makes any mistakes. You may say, how can we accept that the devotee is faultless? Guruji, you're also faultful. You also make mistakes. When you speak Russian, you make so many mistakes. And when we speak English, we make mistakes. I don't know how to do music properly. I cannot read Sanskrit. So how can you, how can you expect me to become without fault? So being faultless means that you are, you are, you are without fault in accepting Krishna's instructions. We accept Krishna's instructions in His pure form. It is not that faultless means you have to be expert in all material arts. You may not know one word of English or Hindi. Hindi or Sanskrit, but as long as you know how to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and that Kṛṣṇa is Supreme and you're trying to follow the regulative principles, then you're considered to be faultless. Now this does not mean that you should become proud. You should say, "Oh, now I'm without fault. I'm such a great man." Because I have already explained that the devotee must also be humble. So the characteristic of a devotee is that even if he is very great, he considers himself very fallen. So does not matter how perfect you may be, does not matter how good a singer you may be, you should always maintain a humble attitude. And our approach in dealing with others, Vaishnavas, is that we look at the good qualities in everyone and not their weak points. Uh, this is known as the Vrindavan vision. In the material world, everybody wants to find fault with the other person, but in spiritual life, we look at everyone's good points. That is how we advance spiritually. Next quality is magnanimous. You are good translator? No, who? A devotee of the Lord is magnanimous because he is always anxious to distribute the glories of the Lord. He is not miserly. A miserly man, he likes to save all the money. And one who is miserly spiritually, He does not— he just wants to go back to Godhead himself but not take the others with him. But a Vaishnava is so magnanimous that even if he has to go through difficulty, he will go through the difficulty and give the glories of the Lord to everyone. Just like Srila Prabhupada, he left India at the old age of 70 years to take this philosophy to the Western countries. At that age of 70, generally people retire. Like even in Russia, the retirement age for government service is what, 60 years?

Yeah, 55 for women and 60 for men.

So like even in Russia, Soviet Union, at the age of 55 the women are retired from service and at 60 the men are retired. So even if you're at that age and you're very healthy, you say, "No, no, no, I don't want to retire." But the government will say, "No, no, no, now you must retire." But Prabhupada showed us that a devotee never retires. He left India at the age of 70, an old age with no money. He landed in America in an old age with no friends and no money. For 25 years Prabhupada was struggling in India to get somebody to give him a ticket to go to the West. When he would go to the people for money for ticket, they would say, "Swamiji, you are such an old man. In this old age, why do you want to go to the West?" But Swamiji was determined to take the message of Lord Caitanya all over the world. If Swamiji would not have been determined, then today all of you would not have been here. Prabhupada was magnanimous, therefore even in old age he traveled. All over the world to give the glories of the Lord. So similarly, a devotee must be magnanimous. Even if he has to go through difficulties, he goes through difficulties in order to give the glories of the Lord. Another quality of a devotee is that he is mild. So in the material world, of course, the guiding principle is the opposite. He, he is respectful to everyone. Now this does not mean that when it is time to speak the philosophy, the devotee is also crooked. Can everybody hear in the back? Is everything clear? Just like in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there is the story of Jād-bhārata and King Rahugana. Of course, it's a very long story, but I will just mention it in great brief to you. Jād-bhārata in one of his previous births was King Bharata, the emperor of the whole planet. But when he took his birth as a— but when he was a king, even though he had renounced his wife and kingdom and everything, he still developed an attachment to a deer. And because of the attachment to the deer, he was thinking of the deer at the moment of death. In his next life, he had to take his birth as a deer. So because he had done devotional service previously, he did not have to stay for long as a deer, and he soon took his birth as in the family of a brahmana. In that position, Jadhvārtha was pretending as if he was deaf and dumb. Deaf means he cannot hear, dumb means he cannot speak. But actually he was not deaf and dumb. So one day, he was acting he was deaf and dumb because he did not want to get involved in materialistic activities. He wanted to make sure that he would not commit the same mistake that he made once before as a king. So Jadbharta was being ridiculed by society because they were making fun of him because he was pretending as if he could not speak and hear. Just like when these small children see somebody who says, "Eh, eh, eh," they make fun of him. So everybody was making fun of Jadbharta. But within his mind, Jadbharta was always thinking of the Lord. One day, the king was being carried in a special chair. And the people who were carrying the palanquin of the king, they needed some help. So because Jat Bharata was very handsome and well-built, they said, "Hey, come here, help carry the king." But Jat Bharata was a Brahmin, so he agreed to help carry the king, but he would not keep his feet on the ground till at least till he made sure that there was no ant on the ground. The other carriers of the palanquin They were Sudras, so they did not care whether they were killing an ant or no. So the king was very upset with his Jadbharta because he was walking slow and the others were running, so the whole palanquin speed was slowed down. So the king said, "Don't you understand that because of your foolishness my speed is being slowed?" And he started chastising him. In the beginning, of course, Jadbharta heard everything very patiently. But then Jadbharta spoke the philosophy and told the king, You may be sitting up and I may be downstairs on the ground, but tomorrow I may be up and you may be down. And then Jādavārtha spoke the philosophy very strongly, and in the end the king became his disciple. So, so the— of course, this is a very long story, and I can speak so many other points on this story, but right now we don't have that much time. But the point is that a devotee is mild, but when it comes to preaching the philosophy, He's uncompromising. Mildness doesn't mean that if somebody is chastising you and you just keep quiet and not explain your philosophy. When it comes to preaching the philosophy, we should be second to none. Even in dealing with the public, we are mild, but we are not mild when it comes to the Kṛṣṇa conscious philosophy. Another character quality is cleanliness. Cleanliness has two aspects: external and internal. External cleanliness means that where you live, you should— it should be very clean. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Do you have such a phrase in Russian also? External cleanliness means that is that where we live, it should be clean. It doesn't mean that because we are devotees of the Lord, we should live very dirty. Prabhupada was very strict on this point. Prabhupada would not tolerate devotees being dirty. So whether you are brahmachari living in the temple or brahmacharini or a grihasta living at home, this practice of cleanliness must be observed. And when you have a temple of the Lord here, then you should keep your temple clean. Now internal cleanliness means the cleanliness of the heart. Cleanliness of the heart is to be realized by the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. The heart is full of material desires. The material desires are so heavy that the heart has become pure black. So this dirt from the heart can be removed by the chanting of the holy names of, of what?

Krishna.

Of Krishna. So both cleanliness are important, external and internal. Don't think that you can only chant and live dirty, and don't think that you can live clean and not chant. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta there's a very nice story of Lord Caitanya and His associates cleaning the Gundicha temple. This Guneetā Temple is in Orissa, India. So Chaitanya Mahāprabhu had all his associates clean the temple. If somebody was gathering enough dust, then he would reward them. And if somebody was not gathering enough dirt, then he would be chastised. So cleanliness is very important in our spiritual development. You want me to go on or should I stop over here? Another quality is That they are without material possessions. As you know, the Western society is a capitalistic society, and in that society you're only respected if you have money, dollars. If you don't have money today in Kali Yuga, nobody gives you respect. And if you have money in Kali Yuga, even if you're a bad man, they'll come and salute you. So sometimes people say in the Western countries, you people are crazy, you're not running after money. You don't want to work hard to buy a big house, a nice car, and bank balance? So they think that we are really crazy. Actually, we are crazy. But we are crazy because we have rejected material life. The materialists are crazy because they are rejecting Krishna's request. What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-realised. And what is time of awakening for the self-realised is night for everybody else. This is a verse from the Bhagavad Gita. The meaning of this verse is that the devotee and the non-devotee have some completely separate category of activities. Like in order to develop love of God, we don't indulge in illicit sex, intoxication, gambling, and what is the other principle? No meat eating. But the materialist, in order to serve the senses, they don't live without illicit sex, meat eating, gambling, intoxication. So what we consider normal, they consider abnormal, and what they consider normal, we consider abnormal. So, uh, so the devotee is not after material possessions for his own self. The devotee only wants as much as necessary for his own survival. Since a devotee is not interested in accumulating a big bank balance, simple living and high thinking is his motto. And, and the material motto is high living and simple thinking. They want to live like kings and think like animals, because the animal is only interested in eating, sleeping, defending, mating. So we can take material possessions as much as we need for our survival, and a grihastha is allowed to save money also. But a devotee should therefore minimize his material possessions. Then the devotee is ready to perform welfare activities for everyone. Sincere, ha. Just like we go on Hare-Namaṁ and prasāda distribution. This activity is for the welfare of everyone. This activity, because it is welfare for everyone, devotees are always anxious to take part coordinate. When Prabhupada used to write letters, he used to end the letter by saying, "Your ever well-wisher." So there may be so many people in society who think that they are our well-wishers, but actually only a devotee of the Lord is the well-wisher of everyone. And therefore the devotee is working to give everyone the science of God. Why would he work to give everyone the science of God if he did not care for them? But because the devotee cares for everyone, Because He wants everyone to be really happy and not falsely happy, He works very hard to give them Krishna consciousness. In the material world, we are all after false happiness. We are ready to cheat and we are ready to be cheated. Just like even if you are miserable, but when somebody is coming to take a photograph, you will smile. If somebody takes a photograph of yours with a serious face, you tell him, "Please shake again." And, and the expert photographer is one who will make you smile before he presses the button. If you look at any picture album that you may be keeping home or your parents may be keeping, you'll see all smiling pictures. So just by looking at that album, you falsely think, "Oh, you've been happy always." And we do so much of makeup and we do so many artificial things just to look more beautiful and attract. But the devotee knows that by these artificial activities one cannot be happy. Real happiness will come only by taking to spiritual life. Therefore, the devotee is anxious to give work for the welfare of everyone, and he works for everyone by giving them the science of God. Okay, so I was thinking that, you see, so far I've covered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 of the 26 qualities. Okay, so should we take on some questions now? I'm very— I'm sitting very comfortably, but I'm very worried about all of you. So another quality is they are peaceful. In America, almost every third American is suffering from some mental disease. And all over the world people say, "Oh, I don't have peace of mind." Devotees also say, "Oh, my mind is very agitated." But a devotee can be peaceful if he is fixed in the spiritual purpose. As long as you have only spiritual goals, you'll be peaceful. But when on the one hand you're trying to be spiritual and on the other hand you have material desires— so being peaceful is possible if the mind is fixed in understanding Except for service to Kṛṣṇa, I have no other business. So you must become peaceful. You must become resolute in understanding that this is the only need, and that is devotional service, and nothing else is needed. And another quality is surrender to Kṛṣṇa. You have to surrender to somebody. People say, "Why should I surrender to God? I'm God." You are God. So we say, "Okay, if you are God, then stop death." Stop disease, stop all this. Lift a huge mountain like Kṛṣṇa lifted a golden hill. We are actually tiny gods. He is the Supreme Godhead. So we must surrender to Kṛṣṇa. You may— of course in Russia you don't meet a lot of Indians, but in India and many other parts of the world you meet a lot of Indians. And they say, "I am surrendered to Kṛṣṇa." But they will not do anything what Krishna says. So if you are surrendered to Krishna, then it means you follow Krishna. If you don't follow Krishna, then you're not surrendered to Krishna. So a devotee is surrendered to Krishna, and because he is prāyadāna Kṛṣṇa, he follows his instructions. We cannot— just because we have put on tilaka and we have a shaven head with a sikha, just because you have a spiritual uniform, doesn't mean you're surrendered to Krishna. You are surrendered to Krishna if you have the uniform and you're following his orders. So it is very important that we accept the instructions of Krishna as Krishna spoke. Another quality of a devotee is that he is desireless. So you will say, Swamiji, if you say we should become desireless, that means there's no goal in life left to live. In the Western country, especially America, if you go for a job interview and the man doesn't see that you're very, very ambitious, they don't even give you a job. So society may say That your devotees are just like vegetables. Actually, we are not avarsham. So we have desires, but our desires are to serve the Lord, and that is known as desirelessness. So somebody may say, "So what is the difference between you and us? You people want to serve the Lord, I want to serve my senses. We both have desires, so we are all one." We are considered desireless because our desire is to fulfill the desires of Kṛṣṇa. So when your desire is to serve the desire of Krishna, that is known as being desireless. So it is not that you should not have any ambition. You should have ambition, but your ambition should be to fulfill Krishna's instruction. Next quality is they are indifferent to material acquisitions. Like you may see your neighbor, you may see your neighbor is buying a new lada car, he's going on a holiday every year abroad, he's buying a nice Russian cut suit. And you may say, "Oh, look at this man, he's getting all these qualities and I'm a Hare Kṛṣṇa devotee, I'm so poor." So you may think, "Oh, I have to live so simply, sleep on the floor, I don't have the latest technology." In America there's a saying, "Keeping up with the Joneses." That is, if your neighbor buys a big car, then you must buy a bigger car. If he, if he buys a 3-room house, then you must buy a 4-room house. But that is all material logic. A devotee does not have this mentality. He knows that those who are after material assets are just simply wasting their time. He is happy in being fixed on the path of devotional service, and just by engaging in devotional service, he's fully satisfied. So I think I'll stop at this. I finished so far about 15, uh, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, Yeah, I have the rest, I will continue tomorrow because I want to explain each of these qualities in length. So if I just explain in one, one minute, then you will not— if you can just develop, keep these 15 qualities that we have just touched so far, you'll become a great devotee. Does the Hare Krishna believe in mysticism?

No, no, is it mystical? Mystical?

Mystical direction. It all depends what your definition of mystical is. You tell me what your definition of mystic is. We don't renounce, we don't negate activities. Our members are doctors, lawyers, architects, professionals, they work.

No, no, no, he says by willpower, you know, the willpower.

Okay, the willpower comes. Right now we have no willpower, therefore when we have to When we tell people, follow the four rules, give up illicit sex, intoxication, they say, oh no, no, no, it is very difficult to give it up. But that willpower will come by chanting Hare Krishna.

What is the meaning of serving God after accept the four principles and chanting?

Whose question is this? Well, when you're chanting and following four regulatory principles is the beginning of serving God. And then as you advance in service, you want to give others knowledge about God and so on.

How to develop your own— you all can come a little bit in the front, there's a little room— connection, your own connection, your own association with the Paramatma.

How to develop your own relationship with the Lord, that's the question. By chanting. When you chant, You're actually crying to the Lord for help, and the Lord will reciprocate with those who cry to him for help.

In what way the individuality, um, uh, in what way are we individual?

A bird is a green color bird is sitting in a tree with a lot of branches. Now when you look at the tree from a distance, the bird is mixed in the crowd, mixed in the green. Leaves, but still the tree, the bird has its identity and the tree has its identity. So similarly, the living entity has his own identity and the Lord has his. Do you think that after death everyone should become one with God? Then what is your real point?

If the quality is the same of every jīva, such anananda, so what is the individuality?

Okay. The quality is the same in terms of— you may go to the river water and take one spoon of water from the river. Take the one spoon of water, it is salty. And the whole ocean is also the same, but there's a difference in quantity. So we are one with God.

Difference between the jivas? What's the individuality?

There is no difference. We are all individuals, but the jivas are all eternal.

What is the difference between the soul, between the spirit soul, my soul, his soul?

No difference, but we are individual at the same time. Just like what's the difference between this apartment and the apartment in the next building? They are both apartments, but this is separate, that is separate.

Yeah, it means, yeah, in the 13th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, which is on the wall here, so it says that the old age and birth and death, it's all which means life. It's all, you know, evil. And how is it possible to serve, if we serve Krishna, how is it possible to serve Krishna if the life is evil, this material life?

We do not say the life is evil. Who told you that? Let me explain to you. We say the life is real, but it is temporary. Just like this microphone here, we are using this microphone But how can you say this microphone is false? But the microphone will become false if you use it for the wrong purpose. Just like this apartment is being used to glorify God, but this apartment could also be used for dirty things. So our statement is that this body is temporary, but it is not false. It is real. If God is real, how can his creation be unreal?

It means that if there is no birth, there is no life. If birth is evil, then logic, then the life is also evil.

We don't say birth is evil. No, no, no, you are misunderstanding our philosophy. Just like if you use your body, use your body for the right purpose, then it's okay. Just like you may have a knife, you cannot say the knife is false. If the knife is used to cut vegetables, then it's okay.

If someone is not really experienced, should he preach?

Yes, why not? If he's just going to repeat what he has heard, then there's no harm.

You say that we should only see the good qualities in everybody, but isn't it better if some people, they point out our faults and we point somebody's faults, so we help each other to avoid mistakes and avoid offense?

If we are pointing out each other's faults for constructive purposes, then it's okay. We can put the other person down and show how much better I am, then it should be avoided. Okay, traduction.

We are not this body. We are not Americans, not Azerbaijan, not Armenians. Georgians, then should— how should we— should we, let's say, the small nations, should they develop their own culture and work and struggle for the development of their culture and their traditions and everything else?

How should they?

What should they be? Is it Are they wrong in doing it?

Big or small, we only have one culture to develop, and that is the culture of devotional service. So we have to give the government the Bhagavad-gītā. You have to preach to them and make them understand. All these conflicts between one community and another, one republic and another, is going on because we are on the bodily platform.

Do we take the— if I preach to him, let's say, if I preach to him, do I take his karma automatically, or you don't take the karma by preaching, but the guru takes the karma when he gives initiation. Which means that Prabhu is asking that, which means that non-initiated devotee should not preach, that he, how he understood.

I did not say that non-initiated devotee should not preach. Yes, everyone should preach. Does everyone eat or he doesn't eat?

We say that the Tulsi Maharani is the great devotee of the Lord. So when there are so many plant, Tulsi plants, is it, does it have one soul, one individual Tulsi, or it's different, or does it expand in so many, so many plants, Tulsi plants?

Say that again.

Tulsi Maharani, the plant. The Tulsi Maharani, does it expand into any, each and every plant? Or it remains one, not divided? Or is it like Paramatma goes into each and every Tulsi plant? What is it? How would you define each and every Tulsi plant? Does it have its own individual?

Yes. Yes. Everyone has his own—

An individual.

But it is all from one family. They're all, all Tulsi plants are from one family. But they have their own identity at the same time. Like we are all an assembly of devotees, but we all have our own identity. Any questions here? Okay, okay, what's the question?

Where should we, where can we read about those 26 qualities of the devotee?

In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. You need it in Russian language quickly. Which part?

Chapter.

Is the chapter called Devotional Service. So any more questions? Otherwise we can continue or take whatever you want. Well, to be a mother of God is not an ordinary thing. Just like Mother Yāsodā, Sacīmātā, they had all performed austerities for a long time, so they were given the opportunity to have the Lord as their son. And by getting that dust touched by a great devotee, one benefits. When you go to Vrindavan, you take the dust of Vrindavan because it has been stepped on by the Lord and His devotees.

How can we understand if there is an exact number of souls, individuals?

How is the population going up?

No, no, no, not that. How is that that it says that there is unknown, there is an unexpanded countless number? It is also said that it's countless. The jīvas are countless.

The jīvas are countless because if you— there are many planetary systems. Jīvas are always moving from up to down, from one planet to another. So you cannot count the exact number of jīvas. Just like you cannot count the various incarnations of the Lord. Now you may want to know why is— how is it that the population on this planet is going up? Do you want to know that? Does anyone remember the answer I gave last time? So I'm asking this question: How is the population, how is the human population going up? Okay. Okay, I'll give the— the reason the population is going up is because those who already have a human birth, they are not moving up, many of them. So, and those who are coming up from the lower species are gradually moving up. Just like in a class, suppose 90% of the students of class 8 don't pass, then next year in class 8 you're going to have students from the previous year and those who have come up from grade 7. You understand?

Don't the people, don't the entities from higher planets come down to earth?

They also come down. The Devas are travelling interplanetary, interplanets.

How does it happen? How did it happen that we fell from the spiritual world? A million times.

We fell from the material world because of having developed the desire to enjoy the material world. It is just like if somebody comes to Russia on a tourist visa and if he starts to do a job, then the moment the government finds out, they'll deport. So in the spiritual world, everybody is meant to serve the Supreme Lord. And when we do not serve the Supreme Lord, when we have the desire to enjoy like God, then you have to leave the spiritual world. And now that you have come to the material world, you are seeing that there is really no happiness.

Why does Maya cheat us?

Maya cheats you because you want to be cheated. Even now you are letting Maya cheat you. Even though you know that Maya is cheating you, you are saying, "Okay, please cheat me more." If somebody borrows some money from you once and he doesn't return it, next time he comes to borrow money, you'll say, 'No, no, sorry.' But the mind has cheated us a million times, and again it is trying to cheat us, and we say, 'Okay, please cheat me once more.' Does this soul which has experienced the material life— the soul, yeah—

when it gets back, when we go back to Godhead, do we remember?

Yes, when you go back to Godhead, you do remember that material experience was a very bad experience. Therefore you are determined not to come back again. Otherwise everyone, people will come back.

Do the souls which are now falling into the material world, does that mean that they have never been to material world before? Is that the reason why they fell down? I don't know.

No, that is not guaranteed that they have not been before. Generally, once you've experienced this horrible experience, Then one is careful in the future. The living entity always has the freedom to choose or reject God. Even when we go back to the spiritual world, that freedom will remain.

Is there forgetfulness in the spiritual world also?

No, there is no forgetfulness, but since the living entity is always eternal and independent, he has the freedom to choose or reject God.

I would like to hear a story about Tulsī Mādhani. Why is she a great devotee of the Lord? What did she do? Whatever. He says, is she individual soul or an expansion of Lakshmi?

Tulsi Maharani is a great devotee who doesn't want to be separated from Krishna even for a second. And therefore she wants to always be at Krishna's lotus feet. But she's an individual just like the other gopis are individuals also. She is a gopi, she's a great devotee. She's like the gopi, but she's a devotee in her own right.

Which means that all the different forms of Tulsi, plants of Tulsi, they are expansions of one?

Yes, they are all expansion. The original Tulsi expands into unlimited Tulsis. And Tulsi will only grow where there is devotion, just like Krishna will only manifest himself where there is devotion.

Tulsi, you know, it dries up where there is no devotion.

If we don't take care of Tulsi properly, then Tulsi will dry up.

Properly? You think you take care properly, but then it dries up.

So it is better to say that when we don't take care properly, then it dries up. But a devotee never thinks that he is all right. A devotee is always thinking he has to improve. Tulsi is so kind. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.