A Vaishnav should have exemplary behavior | 30 Apr 2022 | Juhu | Gopāl Kṛṣṇa Goswāmī

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Is food costing more? Yes or no? Yes. I was reading an article the other day, and after 27 years, we're very hard to get in meditation, and Prabhupada said As the world situation gets worse, we will run short of food. As you know, there's a very big war going on right now. You know that? Between whom and whom?

Russia and Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine. ISKCON has nearly 50 temples in Ukraine, more than 20,000 devotees. Unfortunately, they're all shattered at the moment, and most of the temples have closed because of the war. In Ukraine, all male, the ages of 21 to 61, have to serve in the army. They just catch, well, every man on the road. Yeah, he speaks 21 languages. Give him a gun and say, "Go and shoot." And they give him a 5-minute training program. So this war is unbelievable. It's unbelievable because I've been working in these countries since 1981. It's unbelievable because They have the same culture, the same religion. Why do you want all this to be taped? I see a lot of cameras here. I will change my lecture. So, still they are fighting. And usually fighting, what's happening? The world is running short of now grains. Ukraine and Russia were the biggest exporters of wheat in the world. Now they have no wheat. If we— this year, you'll have to pay more for your Bhagavad Gītās. And you will complain, "Oh, the prices are so high!" But they're so high because we are paying high prices for the paper. And why are we paying high prices for the paper? Because the pulp, it comes from Russia. Ukraine is not available. So we will pay a higher price. So you can see that in the material world, things are really getting from bad to worse. And if anybody thinks that he has an alternative, That's simply illusion. Kṛṣṇa says, "vikalāmaśāya vidyam," which in the world means misery. Everything is misery. All of you sitting here are very fortunate in that you came in contact with Prabhupāda's movement. And Prabhupāda gave us the simple truth that is there in the Vedas. And if we see this knowledge, is for entire humanity. Yesterday I was giving a lecture to Ramjas College in Delhi. Much of what I meant, Ramjas College is the most sophisticated commerce college in India. And they do the lecture on, on Business and business and business ethics, I'm sorry. It was actually on business ethics. What does business ethics mean? I participated in a series of lectures on business ethics in China 4 years ago. So they have a lot of these conferences. They're very fashionable. Giving the— the word ethics. So people talk about ethics. Ethics essentially means certain etiquette, certain principles of morality that we should follow. But in reality, no one follows. The ethics will be there in our day-to-day life. You heard of Chinakya Pandit?

Yes, ma'am.

Who was he? Who is Chinakya Pandit? Chinakya Pandit was the Prime Minister of a pious Hindu king, and the king— was very big man, he was. Chanakya Pandita, the Prime Minister, would live in a small hut next to the palace. And he, Chanakya Pandita, was a man of great wisdom. The king would say, Chanakya, you are such a knowledgeable man and you're living in a small hut. I'll give you— I'll build a palace, a big house. I was for you. He said, "No, sir, I'm happy here. Because if I take your obligation, I have to say yes to everything you say. I want to keep my independence." Śrīla Prabhupāda gave us very nice quotes. One thing he said, "Deal with others the way you want others to deal with you." So how do you like others to deal with you? Nicely, rudely? Nice.

Lightly.

Chappal mala ga. No, you don't say that, do you? So deal with others the way you want others to deal with you. So we would like others to deal with us nicely, isn't it? Am I right? You want others to speak to you in a very gentlemanly way. Deal with others nicely also. If you deal with others nicely, what happens? When you deal with others nicely, then the other person develops little respect for you. Why? He says, "Oh, he's a gentleman. He knows how to talk." If you are, for example, rude, shouting, insulting people, talking behind their backs, then what do people say? This man is not a gentleman. So deal with others the way you want others to deal with you. So we naturally like to deal with others, we naturally expect Everyone has to deal with us nicely, isn't it? So you should also deal with us in a better way. Then he said, look at everyone's assets as nothing but garbage. You know, you see a nice car on the road, The mind says, "Take that car." But if you look at garbage, and that is garbage, then you don't have, you're not attracted. So we get lusty desires when we see something. But if you see that it is garbage, then it won't be like stealing. In our scriptures we have so many nice quotes. Krishna says, "Lust, anger, and greed are three highways that take you where?" Take you to hell. Lust, anger, and greed. Actually these days you don't have to experience much about going to hell. Environment we live in is as good as hell. Is that right? Yes, yes. The pollution that you have in the Indian cities, maybe only 1% less than hell. It's almost as good as hell. So we are experiencing living— the one time we were in Bombay, it wasn't so packed, wasn't so polluted. Now it's so polluted. So what should we do? We should take it one day, or the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gītā. Kṛṣṇa says, naśaṅga-gṛḥ, a three-time race leading to hell. Greed. Can greed ever be satisfied? Take for example, you have the kings of India. Mukesh Ambani and Adani and all these big multi-millionaires. You think they are satisfied? Every day they start some new enterprise. They feel that they don't have enough. Is it so? Don't you read in the papers? Adani is starting a new factory. They don't feel they have done enough. It was more and more and more. The more I would stop, I stopped. In the Bhagavad Gita, the story of Vāmanadeva. Lord incarnates in various ways. One of them is Vāmanadeva, where he appeared as a young Brahmin. So he went to the He went to the palace of the king. King received him very warmly and said, "What can I do for you?" I say, when you see a saintly person, you should be inquiring, "What can I do for you?" So the king, beggar Brahmin boy said, "You want to do something for me? Just give me enough land." "I can keep 3 feet." And the king was surprised. He's come to such a big man, and that's all he wants? "I'll give you much more. I can give you a whole planet." He said, "No." He said, "A man who can't control his mind and senses will not be satisfied even if he gets the whole world." That's a fact, isn't it? No one is really satisfied with what he has. I meet so many millionaires, they're not satisfied also. So, whereas if you take to the chanting of the Holy Name, you are satisfied. Prabhupāda used to give us an example. Can you hear me? Yes, Mādhava. Am I loud enough? Yes, Mādhava. Okay, so Prabhupāda, he's a good example. The Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana, they were very aristocratic. They were running a huge kingdom. They had so much money that when they retired, they had a whole ship, boat full of coins. But when they went to Vṛndāvana, they were living by doing madhukari. You know what you want to carry? Yes, take enough to keep your belly together. So the body is satisfied. So if you have Kṛṣṇa, the Holy Name, you don't need satisfaction in any condition. We should take the, take the chanting process seriously. Hare Kṛṣṇa. I thought I'll leave some time to answer questions. Okay. Yes, ma'am.

Yes, Prasad.

Prasad said asking questions is sign of intelligence. So they tell me that this is the group with the highest IQ. You have any question?

If you have any question, please raise your hand.

Yeah, because you know the philosophy. Yeah, quickly.

Thank you, Maharaj, for your association and giving us instruction. Maharaj, I have a question that we all know that association of devotees of prime importance. We have all been advised that association is the main thing, but sometimes when we associate devotees, we take it for granted. We feel that why this devotee is getting so much involved in my life. So how can we develop that mode of appreciation and move that there is a value which has been coming and I'm getting that value. So how to have that?

So your question is how do we appreciate what we are getting? Is that it?

How we appreciate association of devotees in our life?

To appreciate association of devotees, you must have at least some basic knowledge. And if you are on the spiritual path, then you want to associate with somebody who is giving you spiritual knowledge. Now as Ammuni explains in the fourth canto, that there are 3 levels of association that you can experience. One is you associate with those who are less advanced than you. Then what do you do with them? You display compassion, give them knowledge. Then you meet those who are equally advanced. How do you associate with them? By making friendship. Then you meet somebody who is more advanced than you. Then what do you do in such a situation? You become joyful. And there's a very nice example in the Vedas of peacocks. Peacocks, when they see clouds for the first time in the rainy season, they dance in ecstasy. Don't tell me why, but I think that. So, when you meet somebody more advanced, you're joyful because you're going to get some knowledge, going to help you achieve the goal of life. That's like if you're suffering from a major disease, you meet a doctor who can cure it, you feel happy, isn't it? You think, "He may save my life." Yeah? Any more?

Any other questions?

Yeah. So, Prasad.

Yeah. So, in life, when we are trying something for, any task or anything, repeatedly, if there are any disappointments, so, for the same thing again and again.

When you are trying to do something and it's not succeeding.

Yes.

Is that what you mean? Yes. We should not get discouraged. We should understand that everything is controlled by the Lord, and we all have our quota of happiness and distress predestined. You may have seen, sometimes there's an accident, and and the man dies. And sometimes you see there was an accident, and a bigger accident, and they survived. Sometimes you see a man with a minor disease dies, and a man with a worse disease survives. You seen that?

Yes, Prasad Raaval.

That is the law of karma. Law of karma says You will get your quota of happiness in this world. Only as your quota is, not a drop more. So if you don't succeed, let's say you say, "I want to overtake Ambani." So, you try. If you don't succeed, then at least you know it's not your karma. So you may say, You may say, "I want to get a good Mercedes car." And then the karma says, "You are not entitled to a car. You can just get a beaten-up taxi." That's in your quota. So sometimes you may try and try and try and not succeed. Don't get discouraged. You've done your best. The Lord doesn't want you to have it. So be satisfied. Be content. One of the problems of material life is nobody's ever content. Everybody wants more, more, more. Is that right? Any more questions? Yeah.

I have one question. I have one question about distress, what we see in this society, and many times we get disturbed. So is the distress outside us or it is within us which makes a dilemma what we should do?

You mean you get disturbed by what? By things? I mean, let's say you see a bad accident, you get disturbed by seeing that ugly scene. Is that what you mean?

Yeah, I mean, when you move around, you see a lot of people in trouble, you want to—

what's—

what's— so that they are happy.

Frankly, we would like to believe that I can be happy in life. But I hate to give you bad news. And the bad news is, doesn't matter how hard you try, happiness will be short-lived. And what is happiness today will become the cause of pain tomorrow. Dukkha naiyam asāyacanam. Kṛṣṇa says in the Gītā, two characteristics. One, there is misery, and the other, that it is temporary. Everything is temporary. Even if you become a big multimillionaire, you know it's short-term. So when you see this misery, it's good. Just like this COVID. COVID came for 2 years. And in the second year of COVID our book distribution was very good. You may say, "Why?" Well, people were realizing there's nothing but misery in life. Now here's a Gita that has some solution. So our book distribution on a one-to-one basis was the highest last year. So people were seeing misery and they wanted a relief. So there is misery in life. Doesn't matter how much you Try to hide it. You know, like now you have these beauty salons. Any of you own a beauty salon? No? We have many devotees having beauty salons. One of them has one in Surat. He has 20 chairs, but he plays Prabhupāda's music all along. He tells me that. The marriage season, the business is really good. Because everyone wants to look beautiful for a few days. What was I saying?

You were saying beauty surrounds people.

Yeah. We try to beautify ourselves. Even we try, it's temporary. Like the West, they have this anti-aging shops. Anti-aging in English means something that avoids getting old. You can do all the makeup you want, but gradually it will catch up. So there is— you must recognize there is misery, and the only solution is spiritual solution. What is this your question? When you see distress everywhere, you can see that one day it can happen to you also. Like when you go to a funeral home, they're going with a funeral party, they're very grave and sober. You know, one day this may happen to you. But then you forget it. So the reality is that misery will come to you also. It's just a matter of time. Any more questions?

Yeah.

Hare Krishna, Maharaj.

So, uh, I understand that, uh, God is one and there are various forms and manifestations of God. But for some of us who have anchored since our childhood and grew up on worshipping various other forms of God, so for someone who is doing Kṛṣṇa-bhakti, should he also continue worshipping other forms of God?

I don't think. You see, in India we are brought up in the culture All gods are one. Take any path, you'll reach the same destination. Isn't it? In our day-to-day life, is that true? If you want to go from here to church, you can't. Can you go to Bile Palai? You can't. So we should know that even in spiritual life, The scriptures explain the one Supreme Lord and all others are subordinate. Īśvā-parama-kṛṣṇa. In India we are all born in this understanding, all gods are one. When you come to ISKCON, you start reading the books, you discover, "Oh, it's not that all gods are not one." There's one Supreme Lord and and the others are subordinate. Pārṇaṁ pāsaḥ. So then we change. The Bhāgavatāmṛta says, just like when you water the root of the tree, all the branches are nourished. Similarly, when you worship Supreme Lord, you worship all the demigods also. 33 crore. In India, most people don't get a proper exposure to religion at a young age. They just start, "Amma, why naked?" All religions are not the same. You read the Bhagavad Gītā, it is specifically written that, "Shrī Bhāgavānabhuva ca." One thing you'll notice in ISKCON publications, Everything Prabhupāda gave us is 100% based on śāstra. Not 100%, he did not deviate from the truth. That's why the Bhāgavad-gītā is called Bhāgavad-gītā As It Is. Chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, that's also the real thing. Anything else? Okay. Hare Krishna.

Do we have to really follow the Vāstu Shastra?

I'm sorry, can you speak louder?

Question is, do we have to follow Vāstu Shastra?

Vāstu is a Vedic science. You have to have the right Vāsū guru. Vāsū, sometimes, some of the people who broke the building, Vāsū advice. If you get a good Vāsū teacher who knows real Vāsū, then it's okay. But the problem is, push the mouse away first. I'm not so trained. So that's why. Vastu is a Vedic science. Just like astrology is also a Vedic science. So you have to have the right astrologer. Somebody who is trained. You work with an architect. I'm working with an architect. No, no, no.

I work in a company, but this I asked because if we are buying the house, so at that time we have to follow this fast of Shraavana. So for that only.

Make sure you get the right teacher. Okay. Anyone? Yeah.

Thank you very much, Guru Maharaj. So Maharaj, you mentioned about Chanakya Pandit. In terms of dealing, the way we want others to deal with us, the way we want ourselves to get dealt with, we should deal with others.

Deal with others the way you want others to deal with you.

Yes. So the question is, Maharaj, how we deal with those who are not nicer with us? It may be a devotee, it may be a karmi also. So it really becomes like, we should also react the same with those, or how?

Very good question. One approach could be, tit for tat. You know what he said for that? Nere pedeira. You slap me once, I'll slap you twice. That's one alternative. Now Chaitanya says, become tolerant, more tolerant than a tree. That is, even if somebody is misbehaving or cheating you or abusing you, you become tolerant. And if you don't do tit for tat, then the other person will realize, "I'm being foolish," and he may improve. Because even if you retaliate, you're not going to get anything. You're just going to increase your temperature, increase your blood pressure. So if you want to be cool-headed, That's better. You may say, "Lao Tzu, you read that good verse of Sushyantsika, 'More humble than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree'?" You know that verse. That is the best advice. Okay?

Okay.

I'll just take one more and then go. Yeah.

Maharaj Prabhupada, once he was telling that I will take you from the back door if there is some flaws. Back door means back home, back to Vrindavan. But I will take you from the back door if there is some flaws in you in practice. So, right, Maharaj, my question is like, you know, now if I am practicing, you know, not properly, there are so many flaws, so many mistakes are also happening. So not eligible to go back home, back to Godhead. So, but still, Maharaj, is there any chance, you know, one thing which I can do, even though committing so many problems and offenses, but still one thing I can do very nicely, I can go, I can have that chance to go back home, back to Godhead? And also that back door, what Prabhupada is saying.

I never heard of Prabhupada saying back door, but I heard Prabhupāda say, if you chant 16 rounds and follow 4 regulatory principles, then you'll definitely go back to Godhead. He gives you a guarantee. When Amazon gives you a guarantee, you have faith. You know, why do people buy from Amazon? Mainly because of the guarantee. So, well, So Kṛṣṇa also says, "You have all religiousness, then surrender to Me. I will then protect you." So we should have faith. Kṛṣṇa says, "Rend unto Me and I will protect you." So you do 16 rounds, or 4 regular mantras, then you go back to Godhead. Yeah? Okay.

There's one more question. Yeah, just one question. Uh, so what is the practical advice we can give someone who is struggling with a lot of sleep, like basically 10 hours or something like that?

I'm sorry, repeat your question.

Someone who sleeps a lot, what do we tell them?

More than 10 hours. I once read a report, a survey done in England, it was about 10 years ago. And they had analyzed how many hours people sleep and how long do they live. And their conclusion was those who slept 6 to 7 hours a day lived longer than those who slept more than 6 to 7 hours a day. So your body energy, if you have a healthy body, you don't need more than 6 hours. If you have a sickly body, that's different. Many times people sleep because they're just a little lazy. Sleep is another aspect of ignorance. So, you know, when you were young you probably heard, "Ala ma ala ma." That should be our blessing. Useless rest is not going to give you any happiness. We should use every minute of our time and productive service. That is, the time belongs to the Lord. And don't waste it. Sleep is nothing but going to— going in ignorance. Okay. Any more question? Can they run out of questions? Okay, thank you. You're gonna come every week? Lama Lama, alay alay.