All Activities depend upon Lord Krishna | BG 18.57 | 30 Jun 2007 | Toronto | Gopal Krishna Goswami

Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya! Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya! Om namo bahagate Vasudevaiahya! Om namo Bahagwatai Vaasudhevayahyam! Can everyone hear? Yes. Can you understand? Yes. Sometimes you can hear but you can't understand. That also happens. So we are very happy to be here and we want to thank our host and hostess for organizing this program and inviting the regular devotees plus some newcomers. So this is basically a class in which you have old students from the school and new students. So we will try to say something for both segments of the student population. So those who have come here for the first time, we just want you to know that Kṛṣṇa consciousness It's not some new thing. It's a very old philosophy. Kṛṣṇa says in the 4th chapter, He first spoke this knowledge to whom? To the Sun God. What's His name? Vivasvan. You have a name, I have a name, the President of United States has a name. Basically what we are presenting is a path by which we can find real happiness. Is there anyone in this room who doesn't want to experience happiness? You want happiness in life? You want happiness in life? I'm just asking this question for our visitors. Sahaji, what's your name? Sugdeep. Sugdeep, what's your educational background? I'm B.Tech mechanical. Okay. See, I'm sure you're Educated young man, you want happiness in life? Definitely, with peace. Okay. So is there anyone who doesn't want happiness? People are searching for peace of mind also. You may think that people have peace of mind, but they don't. There was a survey done in America a few years ago, and people were asked a question, "What is it that you want in life that money can't buy?" They say money can buy everything, isn't it? If you have money, you can even become President of United States. If you have money, you can become a senator, member of parliament, isn't it? So the people were asked the question, 'What is it that you want in life that money cannot buy?' And you know what the number one answer was? Peace of mind. This survey was not done by Hare Krishnas. It was done by CNN. CNN did a survey of about 10,000 people, interviews, and they asked, "What is it you want in life that money can't buy?" See, we are all looking for peace of mind, whether you are a devotee or a non-devotee. Some people believe that sense enjoyment or taking care of the body is a medium to get peace of mind. And those who are more intelligent feel, "No, you need something beyond that." If you look around in society today, you'll see that even now you see a lot of flashy cars on the road, you see people wearing flashy clothes, new style of clothing coming out. People are not happy. More people today are mentally depressed than ever before. Over half a million people in the United States committed suicide or attempted to commit suicide. And Japan, one of the richest countries in the world, has the highest per capita suicide rate in the world. You may say, "Oh, but Canada is completely peaceful." No places. Exactly. Okay. We have the same problems everywhere. So what is the root cause of all these problems? The root cause of all these problems is we are going away from spirituality. And even if we take spirituality, our acceptance of spirituality is just token. They say in Hindi, naam ke vasthe. Nam ke vasthe means for name's sake. For name's sake, I go to the temple, I will go to the gurdwara, masjid, Senegal, etc. But I don't, I'm not getting to the essence of religion. Essence of religion is what? To develop Krishna, love of God. And you give up your love for so-called simple activities. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness is teaching people how to lead a human life and find true happiness and peace of mind. If you take a fish out of water and place the fish on a golden plate, will the fish be able to survive? No, why? Why will the fish not be happy out of water? Fish by nature, by constitution, is meant to live in water, isn't it? So you take a fish out of water, it won't survive. Human being may be a very good swimmer and you throw him in the river. Tell him, 'Now live there swimming for one year.' Will he survive? Why? Why won't he survive? Because he is meant to live on land. You take a bird, put it in a cage, the cage is decorated with ornaments, but you don't feed the bird any food. Will the bird survive? Why? He wants freedom. He wants freedom. No. If you don't feed him food, can he live without food? He wants to fly high. His home is air. Okay. But, okay, let's say you let him fly, but you tell him you can't eat. Okay. Someone gives you a nice house to live. What's the most expensive area of Toronto? Is it Saigur? Rochedale. Someone gives you a house next to you, Rochedale, yeah, where the temple is, gives you nice clothing, everything, etc., but puts one restriction on you: you can't eat. You won't accept it, no? So similarly, without spirituality, Human life is a failure. So what Kṛṣṇa consciousness means is, tell— it tells people, please inject spirituality in your life. That's all. It doesn't tell people to abandon their material duties. It merely tells people to inject spirituality in their life. So in Bhāgavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa is instructing us. He is removing our ignorance. We often say a prayer, "Oṁ akiyānti vinandasya jñānānjanā śrīla Kṛṣṇa." So what does this prayer mean? This prayer means that I was born in ignorance. Now, isn't that a fact that we are all born in ignorance? Whether you are Canadian or Indian or American, it doesn't matter. We're all born in ignorance. When we were born, we didn't know how to read and write, regardless of whether it's English, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, whatever. We didn't know anything about technology. But then we go through a certain educational process, and we learn how to read and write. We learn our specialisation, isn't it? So similarly, when we are born, we don't have any spiritual understanding. But then when we come in association with a saintly person or the scriptures such as the Bhagavad-gītā— there are many bona fide texts around the world, Bhagavad-gītā, Granth Sahib, Bible, Quran, We respect them as all bona fide texts. When you come across these scriptures, they tell you what's right and what's wrong. We, for example, in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, based our teachings based on the Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is also known as the Song of God. And Bhagavad-gītā which consists of 18 chapters, 700 verses, helps us to understand what is our real duty. The beginning of Bhagavad-gītā is with knowledge in the second chapter about the difference between the body and the soul. Krishna tells us that the body is perishable and the soul is eternal. This is the ABC of spiritual life. When we are born, our parents teach the child, "What is your name?" Isn't it? You taught that to your children when they were born young, isn't it? You tell them, "What's your address? What's your phone number?" 'If you are going to school and you get lost, this is the number you should dial,' isn't it? So we give all the basic information to our children, but we don't tell them, 'My son, your duty is to serve God.' That we don't say. We may give a token introduction, but we don't say, 'What is the goal of life?' Thousands of years ago, There was a great sage called Prahlāda Mahārāja. So Prahlāda Mahārāja said, "Nānāte vidum svartakātim hi viśnuḥ." This is the ancient Sanskrit language. Prahlāda Mahārāja is saying that people do not know how real happiness can be found. Those of you who have come here, of course, as I said, many people are here because they are regular practitioners of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There are many people who are here because you are guests and friends of Mr. and Mrs. Agarwal. Am I right? So he invited you, you all came. So whatever the reason is, you are fortunate in that you are getting exposed to a philosophy that can give you real happiness. So Bhagavad Gita Guides us how we should come to the platform where we act according to the directions of the Lord for the pleasure of the Lord. We have to work for somebody's pleasure or the other. Am I right? We all try to please someone. I also work in countries that were formerly communistic. And we see everywhere that everybody is trying to serve someone or the other. If you don't want to serve Krishna, if you don't want to serve God, then who do you have to serve? Maya, mind and senses. We are not against keeping dogs or cats. They are also children of God. We believe, for example, people these days love to keep dogs and cats, isn't it? There's no time for God, but they have time to keep dogs. You know how many people keep dogs in America? Over 60 million. And now the cats have overtaken the dogs. Previously people were keeping, concentrating on dogs, but now more and more people are keeping cats. So anyway, yeah, the point is, if you don't focus your attention correctly, you have to focus your attention somewhere else. Now what is normally traditionally accepted as the medium to happiness is not really the medium to happiness. But if you make God the focal point, then you can make, find real happiness. So I want to read one verse of the Bhagavad Gita, and the verse is as follows. It is Chapter 18, Text 57. Tejasa sarva-karmani mani sanyasa mat paraha buddhi-yogevopashyatiya "Mārcitā satatvam bhāvā." The translation is: "In all activities, just depend upon Me and work always under My protection. In such devotional service, be fully conscious of Me." So Kṛṣṇa is not saying, "Don't work." Some people think that if I become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then it would mean that I don't have to work. Kṛṣṇa is saying, in all activities, what do we do? "Just depend upon Me." Just depend upon Me. So, "Just depend upon Me" means you make the effort. The effort is in our hand. The result is not in our hand. So Kṛṣṇa says, "Work for Me." This Bhagavad-gītā, as you know, is a dialogue between the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and His eternal devotee and friend, Arjuna. And this dialogue was given— took place for the benefit of entire humanity. In the second chapter of the Bhāgavad-gītā, Arjuna told the Lord, "I am now confused about my duty." And You please instruct me what I should do and what I should not do. And then Kṛṣṇa began to explain the instructions of the Bhāgavad-gītā. And Kṛṣṇa starts off, as I said, in the second chapter He teaches the ABC of spiritual life by teaching us the difference between the body and the soul. In 1968, there was a very famous heart surgeon from the Toronto General Hospital. He had seen people die for 32 years, and he made a statement in the press that after seeing people die for 32 years, and the way the lustre of the person's face changes, he is convinced that there is something in the body And when that something leaves the body, the body is pronounced dead. So this article came in the first page of the Montreal Gazette. Now this paper doesn't exist anymore, but it did exist at that time. So I sent that paper, article to our spiritual master, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Prabhupāda said, wrote to this doctor saying, I'm very glad that you are at least acknowledging that there's something in the body, and when that something leaves the body, the body is pronounced dead. But this Dr. Prasad RAVALI was saying, now our next phase will be to research to see what is that something and where is it. So now we are going to investigate. And find what is that something which leaves the body. When it leaves the body, the body is pronounced dead. So Prabhupāda wrote to these, to these scientists quoting many verses from the second chapter of the Bhāgavad-gītā. Where Prabhupāda said, "That something they are referring to is the soul." And Prabhupāda quoted verses from Gītā to show the soul can never be seen, never be dried, cut, etc., burnt. So someone may say, "We belong to the modern generation where we only believe what we can see. So I can't see the soul, I'm not going to believe it." So what's your answer? What's the answer that soul is in the body but you can't see the soul? What's the proof? What's the proof? Huh? What's the proof? The proof is consciousness. As long as there's soul in the body, there is consciousness. When the soul leaves the body, consciousness goes away. What is death? Death is nothing but a change of dress. That's all. We cry, we lament, but actually it's nothing but a change of dress. Just like we discard our old clothes and wear new clothes, Bhagavad-gītā says the soul leaves one body and takes on another body. We can see even, even in our own life how this body is constantly changing. We had a youthful body. I see many young children here. We all had a youthful body like the young child. Gradually the body grows. The body goes through 6 stages of development. The body takes birth, it grows, then maintains itself, produces, produces by-products, dwindles, and finally disappears. And then what happens? The soul takes on another body. The other body takes on, can be chosen from different pieces of life. Sometimes people say, "You Hare Krishnas, you Hindus believe, you people believe it's Atma, Atma is eternal." But who is witnessing all our activities? Isn't it? We may do so many wrong things, but who is the witness? I may do wrong things inside a well-covered room, no light, no— who is witnessing? Who knows? Parmatma. There are many witnesses, not just Parmatma. There is the Sun God and the Moon God. The Sun and the Moon are the two eyes of God. These days when you fly, you check your baggage in and you go through a metal detector, isn't it? When you check your baggage in, do you know your baggage is thoroughly screened before it gets on the plane? They don't open the bag, they just put it through a machine. Now with medical technology advancing, you can go for a CT scan. I'm sure all of you have gone for that. And what is a CT scan? What do you do? See everything inside their bodies. They have these satellites. You read about astronauts in space, but what these astronauts are doing is spying on the whole world. So they take pictures from such a great distance. So if this is possible in the mature condition, why the sun and the moon cannot witness anything, isn't it? So the sun and the moon, they can witness everything. Even if you are sitting in a room with closed doors, curtains, everything. In the morning is the sun, in the night is the moon. Then they are the different stars, stari. The stars are also the eyes of God. From here you look at the stars, they look so small, isn't it? From here you look at the sun, it looks like a football, isn't it? From here you look at the moon, it looks a little bigger than a football. But do you know how big the sun is? The sun is bigger than the whole planet put together. But from a distance, it looks chota, very small. Just like when you are flying in a plane, when a plane is landing from a height of 10,000 feet, the skyscrapers all look very small. But then as the plane gets lower and lower, the buildings look bigger and bigger. Isn't it? So the Sun and the Moon and the Stars, these are all the eyes of the world. In addition, you have the air god. Can anybody live without vayu, air? So there is a vayu. And above all this, there is the Lord in the heart as Paramatma. Lord is in everyone's heart as Paramatma. Sometimes people say, "My feel, I have an inner voice." There's no inner voice. The Paramatma is fulfilling many functions. One function the Paramatma fulfills is it is witnessing everything, and it is recording. Just like right now, our talk is being recorded by this video, but this video will record for a limited time, and then you have to put a new film. And even if you have data stored, Computers can also crash, but the Paramatma's memory, hard drive, never crashes. The Paramatma's hard drive is solid, and it doesn't get virus infection either. So Paramatma is one thing witnessing all our activities and recording everything. Then the Paramatma is also guiding us. According to our desire. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā, 14th chapter, Kṛṣṇa says: sarvācya caḥ mṛḍhi sanyavisto vātāhaspriti-gānaṁ abhāhānaṁ caḥ. I am the cause of smarana. What does smarana mean? Remembrance. And abhāhānaṁ means opposite, forgetfulness. So Kṛṣṇa says: I am the cause of remembrance and the cause of forgetfulness. Now you may say, "Why does God cause one to remember and another to forget?" Just like here we have an assembly of devotees, by and large, but there are so many other people who are probably invited, and they do get invited to spiritual program, and what do they say? "Sorry, no time. Sorry, I am too busy. Next time, next time." He said, "That is why." They have no real interest in spiritual life. So, and sometimes people say, "Why did God create Maya? If Kṛṣṇa would not have created Maya, we would all be pure devotees." So it is Kṛṣṇa's fault He created Maya. So the answer is the Maya, illusionary energy is there because we all had a basic desire to try and enjoy the material world. So now you have the human facility See if you can really enjoy. Then Krishna doesn't interfere with our freedom, our freedom to surrender to the Lord or not to surrender. And just like if you pass through a garden, you can smell the flower and identify the fragrance of the flower, isn't it? Similarly, the Lord residing in the heart can smell our desires and guide us accordingly. And the Lord guides us in proportion to our surrender. So Paramatma guides us. He smells our desires and guides us. Just like many of you are here for satsang today, you didn't have to come here, but you came because you had some interest. So Paramatma guides us. That is, Paramatma is the Ultimate sanctioning authority. Have you heard this statement, "Man proposes, God disposes"? You heard that before? Actually, it's man proposes, Paramatma disposes. Man may propose, "I want XYZ, this, this, this, this, this." Paramatma sees, "What's your balance? What's the balance of karma?" You want a Rolls-Royce car, but your karma says you have a beat-up secondhand Ford. So that's what you get. Because it's like you write a check, before your check gets cleared, the teller sees what your bank balance is. So Paramātmā keeps an account of our balance. Then sometimes, you know, you see somebody may be born deformed, someone may be born with some handicaps. So people say, "Why did God do this to him? He was just born, he didn't even do anything wrong. Why is he getting this punishment?" Don't people say that sometimes? I get asked this question all the time when I preach around the world. So they don't understand— that we are all eternal. Our karma is eternal. Our bank account is eternal. It's not that we can do anything, everything. In the material world, you can even be a criminal and not get arrested. There's so many criminals in countries like India who've done so many hundreds of murders and they don't get arrested. So that is— but in the spiritual world, No one can cheat Yamaraj. You heard of Yamaraj? You all know him? Who is Yamaraj? He is the superintendent of death. Just like you have police commissioner in Toronto, so he is the police commissioner of death. He keeps a watch on everyone's activities. And based on activities, We get rewarded or punished. The Bhagavad-gītā and the Vedas say, as you know, that is, human life is very rare and it should be used for what? Auspicious activities. So Kṛṣṇa here is saying, "Depend upon Me and work under My protection." So depend upon Me means what? Work for Me and then you depend upon Me. Just like in the previous verse, Kṛṣṇa has said, "Though engaged in all types of activities, my devotee under my protection reaches the internal and impersonal abode by my grace." So it is not that if you are devotee of Kṛṣṇa, you cannot do job, you cannot do business, you cannot be a housewife, you cannot be a student. Sure you can. Kṛṣṇa says, "My devotees are engaged." in all kinds of activities. Now this doesn't mean you do anti-social activity. You cannot do anti-social activity and say, "I'm doing it for Kṛṣṇa." This doesn't mean you do an irreligious activity and say, "I'm doing it for Kṛṣṇa." This doesn't mean you do something against the laws of the country and say, "I'm doing it for Kṛṣṇa." What Kṛṣṇa means when He says, "In all kind of, by engaging in all kind of activities," what He means is You may be engaged in different types of professions, etc., but your goal is what? That I must serve Kṛṣṇa. And then what happens to such a devotee? You reach the eternal and imperishable abode by my grace. So this big material world that we can see is called kūnta-jagāt, place of misery. Beyond this material world there is what? The spiritual world. What is the spiritual world? It never gets destroyed. Spiritual world, what is it called? Vaikuntha. Vaikuntha means where there is— No kūnta or anxiety. No anxiety. And kūnta means? Anxiety. Where there is nothing but anxiety. So this material world, is it full of anxiety or without anxiety? What is it? Swamiji, what is the material world, full of anxiety or not anxiety? Full of anxiety. It is full of anxiety. Doesn't matter whether you are a millionaire or a pauper, we are all going through our share of misery. Even in America, in this part of the world, what is the largest selling medicine? Sleeping pill. People can't even go to sleep. They can have 4 cars in the parking lot, Billions of dollars stashed away, but he sleeps, he needs a pistol. So the point is, this is Kuntaloka, where there is nothing but misery. So Krishna is saying, "Work under my protection." Krishna also tells Arjuna, "Declare to the world." What? What do you declare to the world? "My devotee will not perish." So Krishna wants us to become his devotee. And how can you become His devotee in Kali Yuga? Very simple. Just chant the holy names of the Lord. Before I spoke, we were doing kirtan for 2 hours. That's why we did a short kirtan. Why do we do kirtan? Because that is the recommended process for Self-realization. In the Grand Sai Baba also that is recommended. In Quran, Bible also say, "Thou shall always chant the names of Lord." In the Vedas it's said, "Hare Naam, Hare Naam, Hare Naam, Evoke, Evoke, Evoke." So this chanting of the Holy Name is not some concoction. This chanting of the Holy Name is authentic and it is going on since times immemorial. Of course, most of the people sitting here do believe in chanting, but since there are many guests here, We want to request you all, so also try this chanting process. If you don't like it, you can always give it up. But is there any harm in liking, in trying? No. Parikṣit Mahārāja was asked, "How will people in Kali Yuga be saved?" To which Śrī Kṛṣṇa Deva ṣvāmi replied, "In Kali Yuga there is nothing but an ocean of vice. But there is one benediction in this age." What is that benediction? Living in Toronto. What's that benediction? The holy names of the Lord. So we can chant the holy names anytime. We have nothing to lose. We are hankering, we are running a rat race. Everything else will be kept behind. The only thing that goes with us is the holy name. So our request to those who come here the first time on the invitation of Mr. Raghav, You know, all your guests coming out the first time. So we're appealing to them to try this chanting process. This chanting process is nothing new. It's very ancient. It has been proven. And by chanting, you get peace of mind. It cleanses your heart of material misgivings and gives you real happiness. And it will give you peace of mind. And ultimately, Free you from the samsāra of birth and death. So try this process and depend upon Kṛṣṇa. Try to please Kṛṣṇa. And how do you know what is good for Kṛṣṇa's please? You have guru, sadhu, śāstra. Take the help of the spiritual teacher. Take the help of Vaiṣṇavas. And with this process you can make spiritual advancement in prātikṛṇa. Hi, Christian.