Bible, Bhagavad Gita, all scriptures support “the Holy name” | 19 Aug | USA | Gopal Krishna Goswami

Om namah bhagavate vasudevaya. Om namah bhagavate vasudevaya. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Welcome everyone to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class. We will discuss Kṛṣṇa text, chapter 2, text 19.

Yata ātambhīryatamam.

Yata ātambhīryatamam.

Upayuktam yatracchaya. Ajānata api ātmā-gūnāṇ. Kūryāṇ-mantra api uḍrata.

Oh, one minute. I think all of you have smartphones.

Yes.

All of you have the Bhāgavatam on your telephones. Yes. We'll give you a minute. Open it up. Go where? Go where? Chapter 6.

Kanto 6, Chapter 2.

Text 19.

Kendo 6, Chapter 2, Text 19.

Word by word.

Word by word meaning?

You know, Buddhist yoga, word by word.

Yatha, what's the word meaning? Yatha, just like.

Just like.

Ardham, medicine.

Medicine.

Vidyatamam, very powerful. Very powerful. Upayuktam, properly taken. Properly taken. Yatra chaya, somehow or other. Somehow or other. Ajanata, By a person without knowledge, apī, even, ātmāgunam, its own potency, kūryāt, manifest, mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, apī, also, udāritā, Chandhaya.

Chandhaya.

Translation and purpose by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmi Śrīla Prabhupāda. Śrīla Prabhupāda ji.

Jai.

If a person unaware of the effective potency of a certain medicine takes that medicine or is forced to take it, it will act even without his knowledge because its potency does not depend on the patient's understanding. Similarly, even though one does not know the value of chanting the holy name of the Lord, if one chants knowingly or unknowingly, the chanting will be very effective.

Purpose.

In the Western countries where the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is spreading, learned scholars and other thoughtful men are realizing the effectiveness For example, Dr. James Tilson Judaha, a learned scholar, has been very much attracted to this movement because he has actually seen that it is turning hippies addicted to drugs into pure Vaiṣṇavas who voluntarily become servants of Kṛṣṇa and humanity. Even a few years ago, such hippies does not know the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. But now they are chanting it and becoming pure Vaiṣṇavas. Thus, they are becoming free from all sinful activities such as illicit sex, intoxication, meat-eating, and gambling. This is practical proof of the effectiveness of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, which is supported in this verse. One may or may not know the value of chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, But if one somehow or other chants it, he will immediately be purified, just as one who takes a potent medicine will feel its effect regardless of whether he takes it knowingly or unknowingly.

Om Gyan Sivadasya Jnananjanaishvakya. If you can't hear or understand, okay, you lift your hand, please. Should I go into my room first? I was thinking if we can chant, read the translation responsibly. I'll read and you repeat after me. If a person unaware of the effective potency— of a certain medicine— takes the medicine Who is forced to take it, it will act even without his knowledge, because its potency does not depend on the patient's understanding. And the true doctors— we have quite a few doctors in this lecture— Swāmi Prasad Raṣad is giving this example 500 years ago. Similarly, even though one does not know the value of chanting the holy name of the Lord, if one chants One chance. Or unwillingly. Or unknowingly.

Or unknowingly.

One chance.

One chance.

Knowingly. Knowingly. Or unknowingly.

Or unknowingly.

Chanting will be very effective. Chanting will be very effective. So, this verse is being spoken by the priest of the Hinduism to us. And all experience the glory of the Holy Name. And Prabhupāda gives a very nice analogy, and it is that of a patient taking a medicine even though he may not know what the medicine was. This is in a discussion That took place between the Vishnu Gurus and the Yama Gurus. Background is the story of Ajamila. I'm sure all of you have heard this story before. So, Prasadamana, the emperor of the whole planet, who was listening to the Srimad Bhagavatam, Prasadamana asked, "Swami Prasadamana, He asked, "How can people be saved from going to the hellish planets?" The Śrīmat Bhāgavatam gives a very detailed explanation of the heavenly and hellish planets. And if you were to read— How many of you have read the description of the hellish planets? Okay. It's scary. It explains very well what a difference is in different types of punishment. It's like in the material world, the judge doesn't give the same sentence to everyone, every prisoner. It depends upon the gravity of the sins. So similarly, it is explained in the Bhagavad Gītā. And if one gets elected to a position of responsibility, president of the country, prime minister, or whatever, and he doesn't stop the execution of sinful activities, he has to go through a machine, just like a sugar cane, a squeeze. By machine is to extract juice. So similarly, if one gets elected or one is occupying a position of responsibility and does not keep spiritual guidance, he does not adopt spiritual guidelines, then he will also be punished. People want to have free sex and free, free of clothes also. So what happens to them after death? They are made to embrace a burning road light form of a woman. It's not going to be pleasurable for anyone to very burning hot light form. So the punishment is very severe for sinful acts. So Prasad Raaval wanted to know how can one be prevented from going to the hellish planet. So in response to that, Shri Bhagavan Guru Paramahamsa In the ancient Puranas, there is a story of Ajna. So the ancient Puranas, this is being stated 5,000 years ago. So the Shrimad Bhagavatam contains stories that are in the Puranas, but these stories all have a spiritual message. Śrīla Bhāgavatam is nothing but a storybook, from beginning to end. Because mankind, when they are in illusion, then they don't know what is the goal of life. So Śrīla Śrīla Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Mahāprabhu, 500 years ago, Śrīla Kṛṣṇa Mahāprabhu is stating, in the ancient Brahmanas, The Puranas were first recorded a lot prior to the Kali Yuga. So this story that we are going to discuss is at best 6,000-7,000 years old. And we are so fortunate that during his youth, he was a devotee of Nirmala Prabha in the period of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. You can read what the Lord stated. I can't really hear the word. You can hear. You can hear the Bhagavad Gita. It is not different from the Lord. Just like the Bhagavad Gita spoken by the Lord is not different. So, there was— it clearly says No? Yes, it's clear. If it's not clear, we can read. So, Ajivya was born in a Brahmin family, a genuine Brahmin family, and he was raised religiously. Executing these spiritual standards, and he had a wife and children. He wanted to be a— a buddha viyasa. And one day he had gone to the forest to bring flowers Apuja. He had gone for a noble cause. He had gone to bring flowers and fruits from the forest for his devotees. On the way back from the forest, Ananda saw that the prostitute was embracing her lover very deeply, and their body was full of turbulence. And Ajimil, unfortunately, got attracted to this entity. You can see that the mind plays a major role in our spiritual success or failure. So, Ajahn Vian was very attached to this prostitute. And he hired the prostitute and gradually gave up his religious life. And he gave up his religious practice also. And so, association makes a big difference. Ajahn Vian became very sinful. And to satisfy his prostitute wife, he had to engage in various sinful activities. All our actions are being witnessed by the Divine, and everything is being recorded. Yahweh, as you know, is the retention of death. In other words, Yama keeps track of all our activities, pile after empire. In the material world, you may have computers and supercomputers, they also crash. But Yama, Yama's computer never crashes. So, Yama Duta, Yama is called— now the man is a complete sinful, and he sent 3 Yama Dutas. Yama Dutas are police force of Yama Raj. Yama Raj is a master, and Maya Raju, and Yama Raju is the Subjection of death. Sometimes people say, "You Hare Krishnas are fanatic. You believe that all our actions are being witnessed by someone." So Prabhupāda said that when he was a student in Scottish College, Calcutta, that at that time all professors came from England. Scotland. So, if they ask proper question, you Hindus believe in reincarnation, but who is witnessing all our activities? Because even in the prison system, unless you have a witness to your crime, you escape punishment. There were some criminals that would never leave anyone around. So, Bhagavan Amma said, "Kavanai vadi kvaadha." That is, all our actions are witnessed by unlimited witnesses, and also all the Paramatma. And then, according to karma, one gets injected into different type of species. So, Yama decided, "This man is very sinful. He will be punished now." So, he sent 3 Yama Dusas to bring Ajamil to hell for punishment. Why did he send 3? Yeah.

He committed sin with body, mind, and words.

The three agencies through which we execute our activities: through the mind, through the body, and through the tongue. These three can be used for spiritual purpose, or misused for material activity. Body, mind, and words. The mind, Krishna explains in the Bhagavad-gītā, is the best of friends and the worst of enemies. When is the mind considered to be your friend? The mind is considered to be your friend when the mind is thinking, What is the instruction of the Lord? Māṣāpa-samnānyā. Kṛṣṇa says, "This is the highest knowledge. There's nothing higher than this." So, when mind is thinking, I should follow the words of God, and the mind wants to make self-realization a goal of life. The mind is your friend. And when is the mind considered your enemy? When I'm thinking, "Oh, I was satisfied, all my senses, I was able to satisfy them." Then that is, that is misusing human life. Prasad RAVAL showed a lecture, he gave a lecture, published in a book, Who is Crazy? And you'll read that book, Who is Crazy? It was Prabhupāda's lecture in the New York Temple. So Prabhupāda said, there are two types of men in society: those who believe in spirituality— those who don't believe— those who believe in spirituality say, the materialists are crazy. Wasting the value of human life. And those who, those who are spiritualists won't do anything. They return it, are wasting the value of life. And the other party thinks, no, the spiritualists are wasting their time. Look where it's going. So, then the way is, Anyway, so the mind should be focused on spiritual activities, or how to achieve that goal of life. So, the Yamantaka came, and Ajahn Prasad RAVAL saw these very dreadful looking Yamantaka. I don't know if you have seen the 6 heads. Ketu. How many of you have read the 6th Ketu? 6th Ketu, you see, it is so scary at the beginning. So, Arjuna, the Ketu, the God Divine soul, to help. Just at that time, Arjuna got so scared when he saw these dreadful-looking individual, he shouted, "Shall I have a word?" Actually, Narayana was the youngest of Anju Devi's 10 children. He was 88 years old, he had 10 children from a prostitute wife, and the youngest child was his favorite. He was so attached to The youngest child who was named— it was a tradition in the past that we would give children names of God. There was a tradition among the Hindus, they would give their children names of God, and it's a tradition among the Christians. You find Christian names like Saint Paul, Saint Mary, St. Andrew, all of them, even from the Bible, even in the Muslim tradition, that you give your children names of God. These days, every Hindu says, I want to name my children, give children names of God. They want to have more and more and more names. So I feel Buddha called Narayan with such great emotion and such great concentration that the Narayan word was heard by simply Yamadutta, then Vishuddhututta, and immediately appeared Vishuddhututta. Vishuddhuttas are are members of Lord Vishnu's family. They are like the Lord's priests, of course. Just like the Yavas are part of Amritas army, the Vishnu Dusas are part of Lord Vishnu's army. They are the pre-emptators of representative of Lord Vishnu. So, Vishnu Dasa appeared as soon as Ajimela uttered the word. Aah! Vishnu Dasa prevented Ajimela. Then Yama Dasa, taking Ajimela's life, so So the Vishnu, the Yavanas were baffled. And this is the first time that Yama had sent them to execute some mission and they were prevented. So they couldn't believe it. They were thinking that the highest authority is Yavanas. So the young ones were prevented from doing that or from executing in their master's order. So some of the young ones could not take any medicine. Like, so what? Yama Nusirah was very, very disappointed. Disappointed. So, Ajami engaged in very sinful activities, as a result of which he— Ajami, Yama Nusirah left him. So, the Yama Nusirah remained with the Lord. Yamraj. Yama just went to Yamraj and said, "Sir, you have sent us on an empty mission and no one ever stopped us, but this time when we went to bring Archibald to you for punishment, Vishnu Dutt has appeared on the scene." and prevented us from executing our duty. So, Kaurav said, "In future, don't touch those who have chanted the name of the Lord. Don't touch the one who chants the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord is unknown essence of the Lord. And the priestly— the yama explained to them the value of chanting the holy name of the Lord. So in this story of Ajamila, the thing we pointed out is the glory of the holy name. It is said in the scriptures, just like Dry grass can become ashes due to fire. This chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa is completely beneficial regardless of whether one chants knowingly or unknowingly. We see that, but chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, and they may not know, they don't know the value of chanting that. Kṛṣṇa. They don't know that the Holy Name is non-different from the Lord. They don't know that. So, in chanting the Holy Name, the delivery for all vices. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Rūpa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Rūpa. In Kali-yuga, Lord incarnates in the Holy Name. In the four principal ages, Sathya Yuga, Dwapar Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapar Yuga, Kali Yuga. The duration of Sathya Yuga was 100,000 years. The modern-day people may not believe it, but— they have no proof, right? But this is a fact. and the process of meditation. Today, even if you go to mountain top, you can't meditate. Birds are flying about. Instead, you have to go performing samadhi again, and the duration of life more than 100 years. Can't hear. You can't hear?

Okay.

Thank you. In the back? Yeah, I thought it was not normal. So, in Kriya Yoga, the duration was 10,000 years, and the process was very elaborate sacrifice. The mantras would be chanted and fire would be ignited without any matches. They would chant the mantras, fire would be ignited, and it was involved in that way. Then came Ruchi, the Baba Yaga. Very elaborate gifts to the Lord. People, when they would go to see the Lord, they would take expensive gifts. In Kali-yuga, it's 10 times that. And then, how many you get maximum? Chanting the Holy Name. Now regarding the Holy Name, there are 3 stages of chanting the Holy Name. What is the first stage? Being offensive. You're chanting and committing offenses. In other words, you may be chanting, or you may be drinking, may be doing other wrong activities, but when you come in contact with a spiritualist, or read the Bhagavad Gītā, and come to spiritual awakening, Then, Krishna sends you to a saintly person or the book, and you understand, "Oh, I should avoid the offenses. I want to take full benefit of chanting the Holy Name." And then in that state, you try to minimize the offenses. And then there is the purified state, where one is completely pure. And that happens by chanting the Holy Name. The Holy Name is beneficial in every situation. And the Lord is not different from the Holy Name. Tākabakti vāmano, vāmano gaya ca yaḥ. Established this true teaching of Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya's teachings have over time fallen in the wrong hands, and as a result, Vaiṣṇava has lost support in society. So, Dāvī Mukta is very sorry that he never could establish pure devotional service. It is your fault. At the end of the day, you must remove fear by— I call it— but it's peace by example. So Bhagavan Atma wrote 100 songs, 100 books. He wrote nearly 100 books in Bengali, Oriya, and English. So he is one of the famous By his name, Jīvājāra. Jīvājāra, by his mode of attack of a guru, say, "Conditioned soul, Jīvājāra, Jīvājāra, guru, Ājana Mūla, conditioned soul, please wake up, Jīvājāra, wake up." We are sitting in the lap of the witch known as Maya. And so he said, "I have brought the medicine for curing your disease." And what is that medicine? Ho'oponopono. And then Hoi Nē, descending from where? From the spiritual world. Descending from the spiritual world. So this holy name of the Lord is being glorified by Nityānanda Prabhupāda. So this holy name is non-native to the Lord. That's like a Gītā admonishment from the Lord. For example, Arjuna, in the fourth canto you read, he was feeling very disappointed when he heard that Kṛṣṇa had departed from the planet. And Śrī Arjuna was feeling very, very sad. Then Arjuna began to meditate. On all the instructions in the Bhagavad-gītā. And when he started meditating on Kṛṣṇa's instruction on the Bhagavad-gītā, what happened? His sadness was gone, and he felt that Kṛṣṇa is present with me. So Prabhupāda explains, Anyone who reads the Gītā will feel the presence of Kṛṣṇa, presence of the Lord. So the holy name is supported in all the scriptures. In the Bible it is said, "We all shall always chant the name of the Lord." So this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is recommended and supported by other saintly people. We see that in every culture, they are chanting the holy name of God. They have— Prabhupāda, when he came to the West, he instructed us all, "Repete the holy name, Hare Kṛṣṇa." So, the scriptures, they are unlimited voices. The support of principle, chanting the holy name of the Lord. And we are so fortunate that we have been exposed to the advantages of chanting the holy name. Srila Prabhupada gave us pure philosophy. And if we follow the pure philosophy, then we can perfect our life. Lord Caitanya was was on a tour of southern India, and he came to a temple known as Srirangam. Srirangam, as I said, is one of the largest Hindu temples in the world. There he saw a Brahmin holding a Bhagavad Gita, and tears were coming from his eyes. Sri Lalchitaniah stopped over there and he asked the Brahmin, "What is it about the Gita that's making you sad, giving you these tears?" And the Brahmin said, "I am uneducated, but my spiritual master, gave me one order, that is to read 18 chapters of the Gita every day. So I sit at this location and recite 18 chapters every day. Because I'm highly uneducated, I can't pronounce the words properly and I don't understand the Bhagavad Gita— in a good order, I appreciate it. And when I see the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, so magnanimous, and He's becoming Arjuna's driver, Prasad RAVAL. He became Arjuna's driver. When I see the humility of this with a lot of tears of ecstasy emanating from my eyes. So Lord Chidambaram embraced his child, Brahman, and kept him with him for 4 months. For 4 months, the local boy instructing the Brahman about the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita. So, Prabhupāda in the purport says, this Brahman followed the Lord's, Guru's instruction. What was the Guru's instruction? That, 'Rīda-pāvāki veda-īdiya veda-īdiya.' And now God has come personally to teach. God means So, Bhagavad Gita is not a traditional law. Bhagavad Gita, when Vishwadeva decided to depart from the planet, Vishwadeva had the unique benediction that he could choose his moment of death. Vishwadeva, after he saw that, he used his was installed on the throne, and he thought that now the court functioner government, he was lying on a bed of arrows, and he was already with body. He was— at his bedside were the Lord himself, and then they will go on. And the Pandavas. So, at that point, the Supreme Lord told Yudhishthira, "Ask Bhishma Dev to explain the meaning of human life and the principles of religion." So, the Lord was there before he was glorified. His devotee. So he said, "Ask." Prasad RAVAL explained the duties of proper religious process. So Prabhupāda properly— Prasad RAVAL had a unique fortune of seeing that lotus feet of the Lord while living in body. So if I may mind, fortunate enough to hear the Holy Name while living in the body, he will also attain the same benediction, the same benefit that, that would be there by Prasad RAVAL. In other words, the Holy Name is knowledge from the Lord. We can't expect that at all when we play at our bedside when we leave our body. But if we are fortunate and somebody is chanting the Holy Name, that is the same as the Lord. So there are so many stories that highlight the importance of chanting the Holy Name. So we are very fortunate in that we have the Holy Name. Now we should be very respectful to the Holy Name. Just like if we are next to some Ajahn Venerable Venerable or some important man, we are very attentive. So similarly, this chanting of Vedic, that knowingly or unknowingly, is going to give you spiritual benefit. So we should consider ourselves very fortunate Prabhupāda said that one doesn't come to the path of pure devotional service unless one has pious activity, pious behavior. So the only name is descending from the spiritual world and knowing Kṛṣṇa Nārāyaṇa and knowing Me. Prabhupāda said, when people say, Look at the crazy, guru was crazy, Hare Krishna. Why? What is the mood of Hare Krishna? It's a very bad. So, taking full advantage of the holy name means, we chant and we endeavor to avoid the offenses. And one of the most serious offenses is committing sin on the strength of chanting. I think that now I'm initiated, I'm Brahmin, so even if I do some nonsense activity, the Lord will protect me because I am initiated. So that is the big mistake of the Chinese. Somebody may say, "I'm going to do like Ajivin." After devotion service. I did devotion service, and now I can take a break, one and a half hours of time. Gave him a bullet of death on his charge head. So, is this correct understanding? Probably this is exclusive discussion, but I will try here. This is not correct understanding. Only we had at one time a judge that purely and he executed purely with a bullet. So that service, that chanting came to his rescue. So, Ājivinmaṣaka, according to Viśvanātha Gosvāmī ṭhākura, the conclusion, Ājivinmaṣaka engaged in sinful activity, but he did think that his sinful activity would be offset by the service, pure service I've done before. I had to be always chanting Narayana, the name of Narayana, not with the intention of contracting his sinful activity. The holy name is to one eternal credit, and he would be, at that he would also, in that, bring unlimited benefit. So, This is the summary of all our pious activities. This is the culminating point, preaching the Holy Name. What does the Holy Name do for you? What does it do? It gives you limitless spiritual benefit. And the ananda, the— that's going on increasing. So, we chant the Sikshastra. In the Sikshastra prayers, the Lord has summarized in 8 verses the entire message of the prayer. And in the Sikshastra prayer, what Chaitanya explains, The holy name pleases the heart, gives us endless spiritual pleasure. So our endeavor should be to constantly, and in the endeavor, we can chant the holy name. And our endeavor should be to chant as sincerely as possible. Krishna says, All living is surrendered to me and supported accordingly. So the Holy Name is our real asset. And the Holy Name is a real treasure. And the Holy Name can satisfy your heart. Can satisfy your heart. Nothing else can satisfy the individual. With you reading. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Any questions? My soul is— you know, as you said, holy name is so powerful. If one is only chanting and doing no other activities, would that will give the same benefits, or when one has to do other activities too? Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, you're praying to the Lord, pleasing Him in devotional service. Suppose you're chanting all day, yeah, if you're chanting all day His main goal was chanting, and his chanting was so pure that everyone was attracted. But in the present-day environment, you question him more with regards to present-day situation. The question is that if you just chant, do nothing else,— the person and the environment. Just try to do nothing else than the person and the environment. That's it. There are two types of devotees: Vaiṣṇanandī and Gosvāmānandī. The Gosvāmānandīs are I don't care for the rest of the world, I'm only worried about myself. And he just says, that's good. But he doesn't believe what he says. I have been saved from hellish life, let me save the others also. So he wants to preach and do some other action. So that depends upon our realization. I think the question is more in the present environment. By the way, there are some people who really just chant, and there are some people who chant and they want to know what can they do. So Prabhupada has proposed, has said in many places, Thank you very much for explaining the glories of Holy Name. However, Śrīmat Bhāgavān Mahāprabhu has also glorified the pastimes of the Lord very much. So how do we put the Lord's pastimes and the holy man, you know, perspective to each other? There's always pastimes. The mind needs some engagement. The mind cannot be idle. So either you engage it positively or you engage it negatively. So, it's not that the mind can be, you know, like a mistake. So, if you're thinking about that pastime of the Lord all the time, then that's very good. That will purify you. And both are important. The Holy Name and chanting the Holy Name and thinking about the Lord. Every time the Holy Name, as the Holy Name chanting is going on, your mind will gradually transform. Thinking of material things, You know, just pray for peace. So both are important, passing of the Lord and chanting. If initiated person leaves the body and he did not finish his bhakti, so upon leaving the body, does the soul go to the maharaj and then go to the heaven? No. If he is a devotee, if he is executed, devotion was there. He doesn't go to any hell, rather he goes to the Lord. There the Lord is there. And if he is a devotee, somebody who has chanted the Holy Name, he will directly enter Vishnu. Yama Durga asked Yamraj, "Sir, why did we get stopped?" Lord said, Yamraj said, "In future don't touch those." I was chanting the holy name of the Lord. So, he said, "Don't worry, you may not go back to Godhead, but you will definitely be put in a position where you can continue." devotional service. It doesn't matter how one meets death. For example, in the Bhagavad Gītā it is said, yam yam akiśvaram bhavah, wherever your mind is at the moment of death, that's where you're going to go. Let's say somebody died in an accident, an accident, and he was not praying for this, that it doesn't matter the shows he may have done in the past, all that matters is prayer. That's why they said, "Show the Lord you really love him and he will protect you." Any more questions? Yeah. Gurumārāj, so in the story of Ajāmila, does Ajāmila get liberated as he is rescued by the Viśṇudattas, or does he take successive births and perform atonement for all his committed sins? Prasad, we have a question.

Can you repeat the question?

Does Ajamil attain liberation as he's rescued by the Vishnu Dattas, or does he take consecutive births afterwards for his atonement for his sins that he's committed? Well, he did. He went to Varanasi and there he chanted for years and years. Because he realized, realized how important the Bhagavad Gita Association is. Because when Vishnu first appeared on the scene, Anubhava was and prevented the Vishnudutas from taking Arjuna to hell for punishment. The Yama-Nusaya had realized, Arjuna had realized, and they had made a mistake. A dialogue then took place between the Vishnudutas and the Yama-Nusayas. Arjuna was Hearing. And the vision loses, or the yama loses. And anyway, he is not being taken for punishment, because he has also executed devotional service in the past. Okay. Hare Krishna, Prasad. Question is that, you know, as long as you're doing offences, you cannot go to the next stage. But there are so many offences like unknowingly, knowingly, 'haṁ aḥprāsad sevaḥ prāsad,' all this stuff. So are all these offences, if you do knowingly or unknowingly, you cannot get to the next stage? No, if some offences are unknowingly, then you are pardoned. But if an offence is committed against him, then it's time to apologise. Prasad Raaval. Gurumānanda, I wanted to know the difference between what is sin and what is aparādha? Aparādha is generally an activity that you do out of jealousy of somebody. First time, Achchutanya was doing some kīrtana in Śrīvādhanga all night, and thousands of people were going to come in, but he would not allow. So, there was a Brahmin in that area who was there. Śrīvādhana is getting so much Lakshmi Swami was dancing and he was at the house. So she was in a— she was getting so much honor and fame, I should defame him. So he took liquor, meat, everything, and he ordered Durga. He kept it in front of— she was at the door. She was opening the door in the morning, he thought. Oh! All this. And then he told everyone, "See, Brahmins, this Shiva, this is what I formed in front of his house." But nobody believed it. And then he said, and then Brahmins were all, "Achyanda go, Shiva pranishman." And then he was later pardoned. So, sometimes you get envious of somebody, jealous of someone, you want to defame him, you spread some false rumors. And then, so there are various types of offenses. One saving grace in Kali Yuga is, for mental offenses you don't get punished. When you have mental activity, let's say you're thinking in your mind, "This guy is so corrupt, this guy is so bad," you have mental offense. That is your own activity. But if you are mentally offensive, then that will translate to, or lead to, action. What you think, you want to speak. When you speak, you want to do. So we should also mentally— but in Kali Yuga, mental affairs are discounted.

Hare Krishna.

Hare Krishna, Gurubaraḥ. You said that we should chant the holy name of the Lord, and Lord has different names, so can we simply chant any name of the Lord? We can chant bona fide names of the Lord. Sometimes people who have no spiritual understanding, say, "He is my God, he is my God." What you chant, you purify names of God. Like call the name of Krishna, Rāma, Śiva, Mahārāja. In the Bible also, it is standing, Modified name of God. It has to be modified. In other religion, say, this tree is my God, so I'm going to chant the name of God. The tree is reading. Yes, sir. Thank you, Guru Mahārāja.

So, what is it that's keeping us from having enthusiasm in chanting?

Because it might be someone is living a life, leading life without sin, like a good life, but he's lacking that eagerness for chanting, for doing service, for experience, like Kṛṣṇa's association.

So what is it that's keeping us, Guru Mahārāja?

It's māyā. Māyā means that which is not. Material desires. Just like if you have cataract, you can't see. If you remove the cataract from the eyes, then you can see. So, we are blinded by unlimited material desires. And the material desires can never be satisfied. You can have all the free sex you want on this planet, Nobody's happy. You can't— and you see that in material society, nobody's happy. Nobody has peace of mind. But a spiritualist has peace of mind. A spiritualist knows the cause of his suffering. And the real liberty, which others don't have this knowledge. In the beginning, we don't have it, so he had them, but then as we progress on the spiritual path, the three Adam come. We have many bhaktis, I am one of the bhaktis. Many bhaktis, they follow all the rules. You must do this, you must not do this. Sometimes people say, "It's gone, too many rules." I love it. So, the rules are there based on the scriptures for our benefit. And when you execute that, then you develop saguru-lāmaka, which means spontaneous devotional service. Okay?

Thank you, Guruji. Just want to ask, you know, younger people ask us, and I think it may be related to the previous question. Some people, like the younger people, will say, what's the use of going to a temple or a gurdwara or a mosque, wherever, if you just do good work? And do good deeds, try to help your neighbor, try to help everybody else. Is that not enough? Yes, when we chant the Lord's name, we get inner peace, our life is transformed, but is it less worthy for that the person, another person who doesn't even believe in the Lord, but does his, spends his whole life every moment of it, trying to help his neighbor, his friends and everything.

People often say, "I'm good, I do no harm to anyone." No, even life is such. Everywhere you walk, you are killing energy. Everywhere you go, it's not that Or if you are eating meat, you produce animal cruelty. You drive your car, so many entities have been killed as you drive. You can't even see it. So, we are all committing sinful activities all the time. So, where is it? I do good, someone opens an eye hospital. Yes. I care. Which is very common. But, it's like you have restored somebody's vision. So, good activity. But he doesn't understand how the law of karma works. He engages in sinful activities again. So, you may have cured his eye materially, but he's doing sin again. So unless we can do mundane charity, it must be accompanied with spiritual knowledge. You must tell people how to stop sinning. We've all been committing sins since the time we were born.

Yeah, but you know, I mean, this is giving us personal, chanting the Lord is making us pure and maybe closer to the Lord, but that's, we are all his creatures and if we are doing that to help them in any way, is that any less important?

Please, the last line.

You know, doing charitable work, is it any less important? Whatever spiritual work we do, it only benefits us, but if we do, if we doing good works, like you were saying about, you know, taking with the cataract operation, etc., and giving vision to others, and doing other good things which are helping your neighbours, is that any less worthy? The younger people want to know, why do I have to go to the Gurdwara or church or mosque, or, you know, why can't we do the good work? And, you know, yes, we may not be saved as much, but we are saving our— with the creatures of the same Lord.

Completely would work. Whereas if you tell the person, as I said, the person has benefited, his vision is restored, but then if you indulge in the sinful activity, we have endangered him more. Because now he has committed more sinful activities and never he cleans off. Afraid.

But that's regardless, you know, even if I'm very spiritual, I can be unwittingly stepping on insects or doing things.

Yeah, but Krishna say, if you surrender to me, then you become free from reaction. That's like Somebody may be convicted to 10 years in prison, but if he behaves nicely, the sentence is reduced. So similarly, if we surrender to the Lord, we made a mistake, now we want to rectify. Thank you. Some people, doesn't matter what you say, they won't listen. There was a person going with a horse, and he had a small child with him, a young 15-year-old boy. So, one minute, and both of them Father and son were sitting on a horse. The villager said, "Look at this man, he's putting so much weight on the horse." Two of them were sitting on the horse. So the next village he went, keeping his son on the horse, and he was walking. And the villager said, "Look at this man." A young boy walking and father sitting on the horse. Then he put the child on the horse, he went walking. Then actually the people said, "Look at this man, he's so foolish." So, in some way people, doesn't matter what you say, they have to decide. They will find fault. Okay, hello. Yeah.

Um, this question comes from my Prasad Raaval. I had a question about the 9th offense that we can't, we shouldn't tell the glories of the Holy Name to people who are faithless. So I was wondering about like when we are preaching, then most of the people don't have faith in the Holy Name, Krishna, and we're trying to ask them to chant because the Holy Name is good. So I was confused by the whether it's— that's offensive for us. But like the translation says, that even if they don't know the benefit of the Holy Name, they don't know the potency, but still it's beneficial for them. So sometimes about that dynamic, it's offensive for us, but it's beneficial for them.

I'm sorry, what is some substance of your word?

About the lines of the Does it make sense that we shouldn't tell the glories of the Holy Name to faithless people? When we're preaching, most of the people don't have faith in the Holy Name, but we're trying to tell them to chant the Holy Name. And I was confused whether it's offensive for us.

Thank you. And then telling about holy names that we should avoid. One of the men preaching to the faithful, when you go on the streets with the Shrimad Bhagavatam, you don't know who is faithful, who is not. Lord Caitanya has told us, 'Jāni lakhotāya kāupriṣṇa prabodhayā.' Tell everyone about the glories of the holy name. But the deep meaning you'll be present after you develop some faith. That's like you meet a man on the street and he wants to know your name, you may give him your name, but you won't give him your address till you're sure the man is reliable. So we chant Hare Krishna, people come and hear that Hare Krishna, but the true meaning That you may explain after you develop the management of fear. Okay. Okay. Any more questions from that?

Yeah.

We also like to welcome Prasad Raaval. He is coming first time here.