Characteristics of a Real Devotee BG 12.13-19 | Rus Split | 1992 | Gopāl Kṛṣṇa Goswāmī Mahārājā

One leg like this. Please understand, it is because the seat is extremely comfortable. If I sit with both my legs on the chair, there's a danger of falling down. So maybe somebody can get a better chair tomorrow. So nobody has an English Gita? Om namah bhagavate vasudevaya. Maybe tomorrow we can also bring a board on which we can write down the verse so that devotees can also chant the Sanskrit shlokas. So since all of you are trying to become devotees of the Lord, I thought we could read from the 13th chapter the characteristics of a devotee. In the 12th chapter of text, 13 to 19, Kṛṣṇa describes What are the characteristics of a devotee? Of course, the characteristic of the devotees are stated in many different sections of the Bhagavad-gītā, but this is one of the sections. So I'll read the Sanskrit. Those of you who have a Gītā with you, you can follow me. It's Chapter 12, text 13 and 14. Advaiṣṭhasarvabhūtānām. Maitra Karuna Ewacha. Nirmamo Niranakara. Samadhu Katsukhā Kāśāmi. Advaita Sarva Bhūtanam. Maitra karuna eva cha. Nirmamo nirankara. Stasatātam yogi. Yātmā-dhirdha-nishchaya. Mayārpitā-mana-buddhi. Yomadvaktā-sāmepriya. In this 12th chapter, which gives us information on the process of devotional service, Kṛṣṇa is explaining in text 13 to 19 the characteristics of a devotee of the Lord. First point that Kṛṣṇa is saying is a devotee is not envious, but a kind friend of everyone. What is the characteristic of material existence? One characteristic is everyone is envious of everyone, friendly to anyone, and even they're so very artificial. So a devotee, he's not envious of any other living entity. Why? Because he recognizes that everyone is coming from the Supreme Lord. The materialists, they pretend to be very religious But at the same time, they are envious of the children of the Lord, namely the animals. Therefore, these animals are slaughtered because the materialists think they have no right to live. Like even in countries like India, when you tell people, "Why are you eating these cows?" They say, "Oh, if we don't eat them, then they will come and eat us." Little entertainment this microphone is providing. So a devotee should not be envious of anybody else. In the material world, when we see that somebody has more than what you have, we become envious of each other. But in spiritual life, if we see that some devotee has more knowledge or better facilities than oneself, one doesn't become envious at all. So material envy is very bad for spiritual advancement. There's also something known as spiritual envy. Spiritual envy means that when you see that somebody is doing some service, you try and improve your service also to come up to his standard. Just like amongst the gopis, there is spiritual envy. So amongst the gopis, when we see, when they see, when Lalita sees that Viśākhā is doing more service than her, then Lalita tries to increase her service. And then Viśākhā sees that Lalitā has increased her service, then she tries to do even more than Lalitā. Similarly, there is spiritual competition between Rādhārāṇī and Chandravalī. When Rādhārāṇī sees that Chandravalī is doing so much service, then she's inspired to increase her service. And when Chandravalī sees that Rādhārāṇī has increased her service, then she's inspired to increase her service. So this is known as spiritual envy. So spiritual envy is constructive. Material envy is destructive. Then it says a devotee is a friend of all living entities. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we see when Lord Kāpīla Deva was asked to explain by his mother the characteristics of a devotee, and the Lord replied, surdasarvadhēyinam, a devotee is a friend of all living entities. Pralad Maharaj, as you know, was the son of whom? Who was Pralad's father? Who was Hiranyakashipu? Tolkā. He was also a very powerful king. So Pralad's father Hiranyakashipu had sent his son to a school, and he was telling the teacher, please train up my son in the art of diplomacy, which is dividing society into friends and enemies. So when Pralad's teachers started teaching him, "Now son, you must learn diplomacy. After all, you are the son of a king and one day you have to become the king." They said, "You cannot succeed as a king unless you learn to divide the society into friends and enemies. Some people must be your friends and some you must consider are your enemies. They must be vanquished." Prasāda said, "I'm not interested in this diplomacy. I'm not interested in this knowledge of friends and enemies. I'm a friend of everyone." So a devotee is a friend of everyone. So as devotees, we should consider every Vaiṣṇava as our friend. Not that we say some Vaiṣṇavas are our friends and some are our enemies. Now this is possible if we develop the vision of Vṛndāvana. Which is looking at the good qualities in every Vaiṣṇava. So a devotee is a friend of every entity. He's a friend of even the ant. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there's a very nice story of Jād-bhārata and King Rahugana. Do you devotees know this story? Vīsnayitīs, raskās? So this is a very interesting story. Jād-bhārata was of course the son of a brahmana, and he was pretending in society as if he was deaf and dumb. Because he did not want to get involved in the society, in material talk or material activities. So on one occasion, the king, King Rahogana, was being carried in a palanquin by the palanquin carriers, and the palanquin carriers needed some help to carry the king. So they saw Jat Baharat. He was very handsome, tall, and said, 'Come here, help carry the king.' So Jadbharata started helping the others in carrying the king. So when they were carrying the king, the king noticed that Jadbharata would not even keep his feet on the ground till he made sure that at least for the next 3 feet there was no ant. So he was a Brahmana. He did not even want to hurt an ant. Similarly, there's another story in the Chaitanya Charitamrita. How Narada Muni, while traveling once, had reformed a very dangerous hunter into becoming a saint. And Narada Muni noticed that this hunter turned into a saint was so careful after he became a saint that he would not even step his foot on the ground till he made sure that there was no ant, no entity on the earth. So the conclusion is a devotee is a friend of everyone. Then Kṛṣṇa says, who does not think himself a proprietor. So this is one important difference between a spiritualist and the materialist. The materialist thinks, I'm the proprietor of everything, therefore I should use it as I see fit. Where the spiritualist thinks everything belongs to the Lord. Therefore, I should use everything in the service of the Lord. The Lord is the original proprietor of everything. As long as we think that we are the proprietors of all that we survey, the living entity has to be entangled in the samsara of birth and death. So we have to understand everything belongs to God, everything is coming from God, everything is being maintained by God. Therefore, Everything should be used in service of God. So what does Kṛṣṇa consciousness mean? Kṛṣṇa consciousness doesn't mean that you have to change your dress. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means you have to change your consciousness. You have to change your consciousness to understand how Kṛṣṇa is the proprietor of everything. Then Lord Kṛṣṇa says, free of false ego, nirankara, nir-mammo nirankara, give up this false ego. False ego means you identify with the body, identify with the senses, get influenced by lust, anger, greed, envy, hatred. Kṛṣṇa says lust, anger, and greed are three gates that take you to hell. Now it is explained the ego has to be there. If you don't have false ego, then there must be real ego. The difference is False ego means identification with the body, with the senses and activities of sense enjoyment. And real ego means identification in your position as the eternal servitor of the Lord and using your body to serve the Lord. Jivhera surupaya kṛṣṇa-nitya-dāsa. This is the conclusion of Caitanya-caritāmṛta, how everything should be used in service of the Lord. So give up your false ego. And come to the correct understanding that we are the servants of the Lord. Then Kṛṣṇa says, samaḍukhā sukha kāśāme. Dukha and sukha. Dukha and sukha in Sanskrit translated into English means happiness and distress. So in the material world there is happiness and distress. Prahlāda Mahārāja has explained in the 6th canto of the Bhāgavatam, everyone who is born is born with his quota of happiness and distress. Now what is the normal tendency? When you get what you want, you're very happy, and when you lose what you want, you become sad. Krishna says become equipoised in both situations, happiness and distress. Just like in the second chapter also Krishna says, matraśpaśyate kānte suho sitoṣṇa duḥkha duḥkhaḥ, erga mānapaīṇa nityaḥ tam te deśaśva-bhārata. Kṛṣṇa explains how He is the perfect dhīrā, who is equipoised or who is free from the duality of happiness and distress, victory and defeat, honor and dishonor. So one should be equal also in distress. It is explained that a devotee of the Lord is fearless. And Kṛṣṇa also says in the Bhāgavad-gītā, kaunteya prati-jānahi nama bhakta-pranasyati, "Arjuna, please declare to the world that my devotee will never perish." So how do you become fearless? You have read in the Bhāgavatam, Hapralāda was thrown from the top of the mountains, he was administered poison, he had snakes surrounding him, elephants walk over him, thrown in boiling oil, still he did not become fearful. We also see that Parīkṣit Mahārāja, he was cursed to die by the Brahmin boy Śrīṅgī. Kupereksa Muni was a young handsome man, king, young king. But the boy said, "Now you're going to die in 7 days." Still the king did not get fearful. We see in the Bhāgavatam that the Rāsa Muni. The Rāsa Muni was a very powerful mystic yogi. He had thousands of disciples. He would travel from one place to another with 10,000 of his disciples. And he was such a powerful yogi that he could even go to the demigods. He could go to any planet, even go to the Supreme Lord. But he was not a pure devotee of the Lord. He had envy in his heart, and he was envious towards a very exalted devotee of the Lord. What was that devotee's name? Amresh Manhatta. Okay, so the Rasa Monik was envious of Amresh Manhatta, and when he saw When Amṛśa had invited him for prasāda, but he drank water without waiting for him, he, in order to punish Amṛśa, produced a demon from his sikha. That he was thinking the demon was supposed to burn Amṛśa to ashes. So Durvāsa, when he produced a demon from his sikha— I don't think any of you can produce a demon from your sikha, can you? You don't You don't have the same power as the Vāsava muni. Then there's another occasion. Once this Brahmana Jādbhārata, about whom we just spoke, he was guarding a paddy field. Um, Jādbhārata, as we told you earlier, was pretending in society as if he was deaf and dumb. So his father died, he had a stepmother, and the stepmother, after his father's death, We used to treat him very rudely. So the stepmother and the stepbrother said, "Okay, you fool, go and guard the paddy field. Make sure no dacoits come in the night to eat our crops, to steal our crops." So Jadbharat was guarding the paddy field when some dacoits came and kidnapped him. And the dacoits were getting ready to offer Jadbharat to the goddess Kali. They were going to to chop his head and offer it to Goddess Kali because they wanted the Dakoit chief to have a son. Some foolish people even now offer children to Goddess Kali. In India, sometimes in the papers you read about some foolish family offering their son or daughter to Goddess Kali. So the Dakoits, they were giving Jadbhara the good massage, good bath, They made him dress up nicely, just like when we offer our fruits to the Deities, we wash the fruits nicely, we cut them nicely, then we offer them to Gaurī Nāṭhaī, isn't it? So Jāsbāhad was about to be offered to Goddess Kali. Still he did not get scared, he did not move, he did not run away, he did not shout, "Pāmoj, pāmoj, help, help." And what happened? As the dacoits were getting ready to burn put the chopper on Jadbarāṭ's head, neck, the Deity of Kali came out from the statue and with the same chopper she cut all the dacoits' heads. We give you these examples to show how a devotee is fearless because he knows that my Lord will come to my protection. So a devotee is equal in happiness and distress. If happiness comes, he knows that happiness is also coming by the grace of the Lord. And you know that today there is happiness, tomorrow it can also go away. In the material world, all pleasures and pain are temporary. So Kṛṣṇa says, become equal in both distress and happiness. Then a devotee of the Lord is tolerant. So we see in the Vedic scriptures, this quality of tolerance is mentioned again, again, again. Why is this quality of tolerance mentioned again and again? Because without tolerance you cannot make spiritual advancement. Therefore, what has Lord Caitanya said on this point? Jñānām vipinete jñānāt, aror api vraja-yūnaḥ, māṇīna mānadena kirtanāri pradāhāri. That if one wants to be in a position of chanting the holy names of the Lord consistently, one should become more tolerant than the tree, more humble than the blade of grass, devoid of all sense of false prestige. And in such a stage, one can chant the holy names of the Lord constantly. So Kṛṣṇa is saying in this verse also, one must be tolerant. Just see how tolerant the tree is. Both in summer and winter, both in summer and winter, the tree is there to give you protection. See, everybody steps on the blade of grass, but the grass never retaliates. You never see the grass biting you, begins saying, "Why are you walking on my head?" Just imagine if somebody walked on your head, you'd be ready to kill him. But the grass doesn't try to kill you. It tolerates everybody's walking on it. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he wants us to become more tolerant than the blade of grass. So that means that even if you are insulted, even if you have to face difficulties, even you have to go through inconveniences, do not in any way get discouraged from the spiritual path. Then it is said, who is always satisfied, santoshtya, a devotee is always satisfied. So by the will of the Lord, we receive our quota of happiness and distress based on our past karma. A devotee, he is satisfied with what is provided by the will of the Lord. If a devotee is satisfied by the will of the Lord, then spiritual life becomes easy. Therefore, in the Bhāgavatam, Nārada Muni has told the prasādhas, dayāya sarva-bhūteṣu santuṣṭhayena kena vāsārvidnindipāśātya ca "Tu śraddhyaśu janārdana." That if we want to please Janārdana, then one must be satisfied with what is provided by the will of the Lord. In material life, no one is satisfied. Living in Kājikistān, Almāra, you devotees may think, "If only we become little rich, then I'll be satisfied." But the nature of material existence is we can never be satisfied. Because everybody is greedy. So as much as you have, is less than what you should be having. Therefore we see materialists, we meet so many rich people, they have 10 cars, 20 cars, 30 cars, so many houses, still they're always complaining in anxiety. They have so much money, they don't even know where to keep it, and they're still so busy, full of anxiety. This is a fact, don't be surprised. I know a lot of people who are multi-millionaires but so miserly and in so much anxiety. Therefore Narada Muni says, "You can satisfy a hungry man by giving him food. You can satisfy a thirsty man by giving him water. You can satisfy an angry man when he has the opportunity to shout at you. But a greedy man can never be satisfied." So Kṛṣṇa is saying here a devotee should be satisfied. So be satisfied. Of course one has to endeavor to some degree, but overall, even after your endeavor, if you don't get something, don't grumble, don't be dissatisfied, but be satisfied by what is provided by the will of the Lord. So further Kṛṣṇa says that a devotee is sataḥ, that is he is self-controlled. Self-control, as you know, means he has control over the mind and the senses. What is the nature of the mind and the senses? They always want satisfaction. Samayava prasāda. Can the mind and the senses ever get satisfied? Sure. Can they get satisfied? I say yes. Yes. So they can never be satisfied through material endeavors, but they can be satisfied through spiritual endeavors. So the mind and the senses, they're always agitating. And therefore rare opportunity for perfecting human life is lost. So all the scriptures explain that one must practice spiritual austerity to please the Lord. We are talking about spiritual austerity, not just austerity. For example, even in your country, people have to stand in strong long lines to buy some product thing. They have to wait for a bus 1 hour sometimes, 1 to 2 hours they have to wait at the bus stop. Sometimes they have to go without water and without heating for hours and hours. You have to go to work in the factory, zawod, 4 o'clock in the morning. If you drive at 5 o'clock in the morning, you'll see in every apartment building virtually all the buildings are off, lights are off. But still sometimes somebody has, some people have to go to work early in the morning. Then even the transcendentalists, they have different types of austerities. Some yogis in India, they don't speak at all. They seal their tongue, seal their tongue. They don't really seal the tongue. The tongue is still there, but they don't use the tongue to speak. And it's very cold, they will surround themselves with cold water. They go in the river and take cold water bath, stay in cold water for hours and hours. In your country, when it's very cold, the rivers, they freeze. They become ice. But in India, but in India it doesn't get so cold. So the Ganges, even in winter, it doesn't become ice. The water remains cool. So you find all these yogis, they go and stay in the cold water for hours, all day. They'll just stay in the cold water. This is their austerity. And in the summer, they will light strong fire and surround themselves with fire. So these are some of the different types of austerities that people perform. But we are talking about austerity. Tapo devyam putraka yena satvam. Mahārāja Dev said, "My dear sons, please perform austerities, but for the pleasure of the Lord, devyam." So even if the senses are agitating, we must control them. Just like the mother taking care of a small child. It is not that everything the small child wants to buy in the store. The mother says, "Okay, I'll buy it." The parents discriminate. They only buy what is good for the child and they reject what is bad. So similarly, they must be self-controlled. Use the mind and the senses in activities related to devotional service, but withdraw the mind and the senses from activities that are detrimental for spiritual advancement. Then Kṛṣṇa says, Engage in devotional service with determination. Dirdha nishtaya. Dirdha nishtaya means with determination. So to stay on the spiritual path, one must be determined. Without determination, you can't advance spiritually. Just like in material life, people are determined to have sense enjoyment. So even though they have to go through so much frustration, generation, they still keep endeavoring, endeavoring. In the Bhāgavad-gītā, Prabhupāda gives a very famous example with regards to determination. And what is that example? Who knows? Yes, the bird and the ocean. The ocean had swallowed the birds of the ocean, or the children of the bird. And when the bird threatened the ocean, please return my eggs, the ocean did not take it seriously. The bird told the ocean, "If you don't return my eggs, I'll dry you up." Ocean said, "Okay, try it." And the bird started drying up the ocean with a small mouth. So, maturely, this was an impossible task to execute, drying up the whole ocean by a small bird, by the mouth of a sparrow. But Garuda heard of the news, and then Garuda came to the bird's sparrow's rescue, and the children were returned. So all of you have come to the spiritual path. You must stay on this path with determination. Not that there's a little difficulty and you think of packing up your bags. Little difficulty, you say, "Oh, maybe I should try some other path." We must understand that Kṛṣṇa will put His devotees to test. Kṛṣṇa will test us to see how determined and dedicated we are to Him. And when Kṛṣṇa sees that, "Oh, this person had the opportunity to fight, to fall in māyā. This person had the opportunity to make these mistakes. He did not. He sacrificed all these opportunities to show his love for Me." Then Kṛṣṇa gives you the final entrance into the kingdom of God. Then Kṛṣṇa says, "Mind and intelligence fixed on Me." What is the nature of the mind? Who knows? The nature of the mind is it is very fickle. What does Arjuna say? More difficult to control the ma— wind than the mind. More difficult to control the mind than the wind. Have any of you ever tried to control the wind? Does it ever get windy in Almaty? I'm sure it does in the summer. So have you ever tried to control the wind? When Arjuna says it's more difficult to control the mind than the wind, so then what should we do? Should we just Give it up. Raise your hands and say, "No, can't control the mind. Forget it." In the 6th chapter we see that Kṛṣṇa through so many verses is explaining how we must control the mind. So Kṛṣṇa has explained, "Mān mana bahāvā mad-bhākta-vam adyājī-mān navas-guru." "Always think of Me, bow down to Me, offer your homage unto Me." So use the mind to think of Kṛṣṇa. Use the mind to think of the form of Kṛṣṇa. Desires of Kṛṣṇa, instructions of Kṛṣṇa to use the mind positively instead of negatively. Just like when the mother wants to control the child from undesirable activities, the mother has to give the child some alternative activity to engage in. So Kṛṣṇa says, use your mind to think in thinking of Me. Use your intelligence to think of Me also. Use your intelligence at my service also. So there is no shortage of intelligence on this planet. The materialists are very intelligent. The mahaintelligence is higher than the mind. And the karmis are also so intelligent. You see, the karmis are able to do so many wonderful activities. You know these aeroplanes that fly in the sky, they fly almost automatically. You can just dial a number And in 1 minute you can speak to somebody in Vrindavan or New York or London. You can take pictures from a distance of 100,000 feet. When the microphone works well, we can use the microphone to speak to you, even to big, big audiences. People have so much intelligence. Now they have a computer chip. It is the size of the nail you cut and throw away. In that computer chip you can store thousands of items in, in their memory. So intelligence is being misused. Intelligence is being used for destructive purposes, not constructive. So Krishna says, use your intelligence for me. Now what does this practically mean, use your intelligence to me? It means that think how you can use intelligence to serve me. Suppose you're doing book distribution. Think how you can improve your book distribution. Always think how you can improve the quality of your japa. See how you can study the scriptures better. Whatever you're doing, improve it. Just like when Prabhupada started this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, Prabhupada instructed his disciples that he wanted book distribution because his spiritual master emphasized his activity of book distribution. So devotees were thinking, Prabhupada said book distribution, okay, let us do book distribution. In the beginning, I remember in 1968-69 when we would go on book distribution in America, one devotee would come back with 5-6 books distributed in the whole day. It was very big, big success. But devotees were not satisfied. They were constantly using their intelligence to increase book distribution. They were thinking of new, new, new, newer techniques. So they went on experimenting, and slowly book distribution reached such high level. Similarly, in your country also, like in Moscow, in this book distribution marathon, the devotees distributed nearly 125,000 big books. A few years ago, it was not like this. One devotee goes on in Moscow in nice clothes and distributes sets of books in big, big offices, and he does sometimes 20, 30 sets in one day. One devotee goes out in sets, uh, selling sets, dressed up in very nice clothes, and he is able to do 20, 30, 40, 50 sets in offices every day in Moscow. So we gave you some examples to show how you can use your intelligence to serve Krishna, how you should use your intelligence to improve the service you're doing for Krishna. So devotee is never satisfied with what he's doing. He's always trying to improve the quality of his chanting, reading, serving. So Kṛṣṇa says, a devotee is one for whom nobody else is put into difficulty. So devotee doesn't want, because I must get this, I don't care what happens to you. The point is that the devotee doesn't want for his living somebody else should be inconvenienced. He doesn't like to disturb anybody else. He's free of anxiety and he's equal to everyone. Heat and cold, honor, dishonor, fame, infamy. And he's fixed in knowledge. We talk about knowledge. We talk about knowledge that is obtained from the scriptures. There are two types of knowledge: material knowledge and spiritual knowledge. Material knowledge is not real knowledge. What is the meaning of knowledge? That which destroys ignorance. So material knowledge just tells you how to try and exploit this body to the maximum. But Kṛṣṇa says in the 9th chapter, rāja-vidyā rāja-gūyaṁ, this knowledge is the king of education. So this spiritual knowledge enables one to understand what is one's constitutional duty. Just like With sunshine, darkness is destroyed. By the spiritual knowledge, ignorance is destroyed. So one should be fixed in the spiritual knowledge, and if you're fixed in the spiritual knowledge, then you will never deviate. So Krishna says, my devotee should remain fixed in this knowledge. So how do you remain fixed in this knowledge? By constantly keeping up with the knowledge. By constantly— therefore, Prabhupada's Introduce this system. All devotees must attend Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class in the morning, Gītā class in the evening. So when you read, when you hear, when you hear the spiritual philosophy, when you read the spiritual philosophy, then you'll become fixed in this knowledge. You are in a position where you cannot come to the temple every day, then wherever you are, read the Bhāgavatam and the Bhāgavad-gītā every day. And then you'll be able to make spiritual advance. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu gave 5 guidelines for spiritual advance. First guideline was associate with devotee. Second was chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Third was read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhāgavad-gītā every day. Kāsa-dhana. So when you read every day, you become fixed in knowledge. And then what happens? When māyā begins to strike you, You're easily able to get rid of it. Just like, you know, the surgeons. The surgeons, when they do an operation, they use a very sharp knife. The knife is so sharp, they just keep it on your skin and the skin cuts. It is not an old knife like you use in your kitchen to cut the caterpillar. So at the present moment, our intelligence is like the old knife that you use to cut the caterpillar. But you should make your intelligence as sharp as a knife of a surgeon. So the moment material desires come, slice it out. And that will come from śravanaṁ and kīrtanām, chanting and regularly cultivating the spiritual knowledge. Then Lord Caitanya said to worship the Deity with faith and reverence. So the Deity is non-different from the Lord. And lastly, Lord Caitanya has said, reside in a place, in a sacred place of worship. So all of you may say, oh, that's very good, so we can all go to Vrindavan and stay there. We should all go to India next month. So if all of you go to Vrindavan and Mayapur, who will do the preaching here? Who will preach here? Plus, if all of you went there, there's no place also for all of you. So make your place of residence into a place of worship of the Lord. So If you cultivate the spiritual knowledge, which Kṛṣṇa is also saying in the Bhāgavad-gītā, then your intelligence will become very sharp. So what we have presented to you for the past hour and a half are Kṛṣṇa's guidelines on quality that the devotee of the Lord should develop. These qualities are mentioned in the 12th chapter of the Bhāgavad-gītā. So at the present moment you may say it's impossible to develop these qualities. Nothing is impossible in spiritual life because Kṛṣṇa is in the heart and He destroys the ignorance and He makes up whatever weakness that there may be there. So just like a hungry man, by eating his body becomes strong, he gets nourished. So by taking pa— advantage of the spiritual guidelines, you will also become spiritually strong. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Krishna. Some of you were falling asleep. Okay, Vapros, should I ask you devotees questions also? So I'll answer some questions and then I will ask you all some questions. And some of you may be yogis. You were there with your eyes closed, but when it comes to answering, you may be very good. Okay, anyway, if somebody is trying to be violent, then naturally you have to defend yourself. Best is to go away from that place. Well, frankly, everybody would like to get the best results when he's doing serve. Everybody would like, when I go out, I should do at least 100 books a day, so next morning everyone can clap when my scores are read. But it doesn't quite happen like that. So should you get discouraged? No. Everybody has some abilities and intelligence in different aspects. So whatever intelligence you have, Use it to serve the Lord. Try your best and leave the rest in Kṛṣṇa's hand. And don't get discouraged. And we as devotees, if some devotee has tried his best and his result is not so good, we should not taunt him and say, "Look, you are useless. What did you do? Went out and just did 2 books, fell asleep in the ashram." We should also be respectful to all Vaiṣṇavas. If some Vaiṣṇava cannot do some service as good as you can you can do. Don't be proud, don't chastise him. Be compassionate and help him improve his service. Lord Caitanya with his associates was engaged in cleaning the Gundicha Temple. This temple is in Orissa, Eastern India. So Lord Caitanya was seeing which devotee was gathering more dust and who was collecting less dust. So the devotees that were gathering more dust He would tell them to please train up the devotees who were gathering less dust. Once Caitanya Mahāprabhu had defeated a very prominent Sanskrit scholar called Kashmiri Pandit in a Sanskrit debate. Caitanya Mahāprabhu was also very great Sanskrit scholar. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu's disciples and associates, they started making fun of that Sanskrit scholar who was defeated, but Caitanya Mahāprabhu stopped it. He said, "No, don't make fun of him." So devotee is always encouraging to all other devotees. This is how Prabhupāda dealt with all of us. How do you think Prabhupāda created this worldwide Kṛṣṇa conscious movement in record time? Devotees came to him with different abilities. Prabhupāda would take the best out of every man and engage him in devotional service. He would make every man feel as if he was the most wanted man in ISKCON. Many times Prabhupada would be talking with us and he would say, so what do you think, how should I, how should this be done? He knew the answer, but just to make his disciples feel important, he would ask all of us for our input. So that is how Prabhupada was able to create this worldwide movement in record time. So at the end of the lecture today, I gave you 5 guidelines that Lord Lord Caitanya has given to everyone for spiritual advancement. When Lord Caitanya was in southern India, there was one Brahmin who told Lord Caitanya, "I am tired of staying at home. Now I just want to travel with You, give up my wife and children." Lord Caitanya said, "Etha niyadvāsna." It's not important that you come with Me. Stay where you are, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, worship Prasada Kṛṣṇa, read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, And you will never be separated from Me and I will never be separated from you. So, householders should just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, worship the Deity, read the Bhāgavatam, offer their prasāda to Kṛṣṇa, visit the temple at least once a week, and offer the result of their work to the extent they can. This is how they can make advance. He's a nice brahmachari devotee, very dear friend of mine. Good Godbrother. He has all good qualities. Suffering is realized through 7 agencies: birth, death, disease, old age, mind troubling us, other entities troubling us, and material nature troubling us. So many times people ask, is the Lord going to incarnate in Kali Yuga? So what is your answer, friends? Nah, nirbhya. So when has the Lord appeared in Kali Yuga? Okay. Lord Caitanya is one incarnation. And where is the second incarnation? Holy Name. Where? No. Kīrtana is still 427,000 years away. So everyone gives up. So Prabhupāda said, Krishna has incarnated in the womb of this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement. So your ISKCON branch in Almata is the incarnation of the Lord in Kali-yuga. So the Lord has incarnated in Kali-yuga. Kali Yuga. That is ISKCON, and all of you are the agents of ISKCON. So all of you are the tiny incarnations. As long as you stay connected to ISKCON on purity, you will have some shakti. You will have the shakti, the power, to save people from going to hell. Yes, fear can help you. A devotee is said to be fearless, but still he is fearful. What is a devotee fearful of? He is fearful of Maya. So we have to be careful that we don't let Maya trap us. Haridas Thakura used to say, "If I don't chant my 300,000 rounds every day, I'm going to be touched by Maya." So he would not even speak and talk to anyone till he would finish his rounds. So fear. And in the spiritual world, the gopis also have fear. What is their fear? That Kṛṣṇa may leave them. So there is fear in the In the spiritual world also, a devotee should never become proud. Now Krishna is in my pocket, nothing can happen to me. Krishna is not going anywhere. I'm initiated now, I can do what I want. He's in my pocket. So the question is, what should one do if one commits offense in the mind? So I have good news for all of you. You want to hear the good news? In Kali Yuga, the offenses of the mind are not taken so seriously. Oh, isn't that good news? No, it's risky news also. You see, what is in the mind gets translated into action and words. So if you are thinking dirty things in the mind, slowly, slowly you will talk dirty and act dirty. So if you're thinking about your offenses, then you may act in an offensive manner also. Therefore, don't take advantage of this concession. Therefore, Krishna Krishna says, "Think of Me." I like your question. Most of the questions today are very good practical questions. Prajalpa means talk not related to Krishna. That has nothing to do with Krishna. That is just based on material gossip. So association with devotees means talking of Krishna, thinking of Krishna, discussing plans to serve Krishna. When you devotees meet each other, you should be discussing What is the progress of the journey back to Godhead? When King Dasharatha, the father of Lord Rāmachandra, would receive anyone in his palace, he would not say, "Kaak de la." He would say, "What is the progress on the journey back to Godhead?" So when you meet each other, encourage each other to fight Maya and develop love of Kṛṣṇa. I have good news for neophyte devotees so they don't feel bad. Lust is the problem for everyone in the material world. So everybody has to be careful. Krishna was asked by Arjuna, "How is one compelled into sinful acts even unwillingly?" And what did Krishna say? It is lust only, the all-devouring enemy of the living entity. It is always burning like fire and it is never satiated, never satisfied. So those who don't have spiritual knowledge, they try to satisfy lust by pouring butter in a fire. So when you have a fire and you put butter in it, the flames of the fire will get higher, not diminished. So similarly, when you try to satisfy lust by engaging in activities of lust, the lusty desires will increase, not decrease. Have you heard of Rajneesh? Yes? Anyway, those who are very sober, they don't even hear of Rajneesh. Anyway, Rajneesh's philosophy was you take part in sense enjoyment, and the more you take part in sense enjoyment, the more your senses will be satisfied. And then a day will come, you'll say, now no more, I don't want sense enjoyment. But that will never happen. Bhagavatam says When you have an itching sensation and you scratch on it, instantly you'll get some pleasure, but then the disease will become more worse. Questions today are all first class. These are some of the best questions I've encountered in my numerous preaching sessions in the CIS. So, inattentive chanting means you're saying Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, but in your mind you're thinking something else. You're thinking what are you going to do at home, what are you going to buy in the store, how are you going to look more beautiful, and so on. So when you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, you should concentrate on the chanting. Now I'm not saying from the first day you start chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, your mind will follow the whip of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. But by practice it will, by practice it will happen. So when you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, the best guideline is to concentrate on the sound vibration. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. When you chant your rounds, speed is not important. You're not going in a race where you have to reach your destination in the shortest time. You know that story that I said of the father who told his son, okay son, start chanting 16 rounds. The father was a devotee and the son was not. Son said, yes, rounds kanchayut. So the father said, how did you finish your round so fast? He said, very simple. On the first beat he chanted the whole mantra, and then the others he said, toda toda toda toda. So don't do toda round. Well, certainly in the spiritual world you have no need for Swiss watches. Swiss chassis need was not to Corona me in the spiritual world. And you also don't need any alarm clocks there. What do you mean everything happens simultaneously? In the spiritual world, everybody only has only one desire. There are not many desires, and then one desires to serve Krishna. But in the material world, you have many desires. You want to be the best devotee, but also you want the best material facilities. You want the best devotee, you want to be the best devotee, you also want to be the most honorable devotee. But in the spiritual world, then there's no contradiction. Everything is one track. Please Krishna, please Krishna, please Krishna. So this is a question from an honest devotee. The honest devotee says, I still have no faith. How can I make my faith strong? Actually, all our, all our faith, all of us, our faith, your faith is weak, but your faith will become strong by chanting and hearing. Just like a sick man becomes cured by taking the medicine, a weak man becomes strengthened by eating food, your spiritual strength is realized by chanting and hearing. Your spiritual faith increases as you chant and hear. Yes, Krishna is the father and mother, the cause of all causes, sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam. But the cruelty that you see in the material world is not due to Krishna. The suffering that you see in the material world, the cruelty that you experience in the material world, is due to society misusing their independence. Also, with these earthquakes, floods, drought, this is a reaction to our past sinful activities. When you commit a crime, punishment has to be there. If you commit a murder and you're sentenced to, to imprisonment, imprisonment. It doesn't mean the judge was very cruel. The question: How can we get— develop attachment to the Holy Name? Very good question. This is the real goal of all our activities, to get attached to the Holy Name. Kṛṣṇa das Kavirāja says we should tie the Holy Name to the tongue. Rūpa Gosvāmī says in the beginning, when you start chanting the Holy Name, the Holy Name is not sweet. Just like when you're suffering from joint disease, you may taste sugar, but sugar doesn't taste sweet to you because of your disease condition. But then as you progressively recover from joint disease, the sugar becomes— the sugar tastes sweeter and sweeter. So as you chant, as you follow instructions of Guru and Krishna, the Holy Name will become sweeter and sweeter. So sweet You wouldn't want to be without it for one second also. So, Prabhupada, this is a very good question. Whose question is this? So Prabhupada said a disciple should always act in a manner thinking that his spiritual master is next to him. Prabhupada dedicates the Srimad Bhagavatam first canto to his spiritual master and says he lives forever by divine instructions and the follower lives with So one associates with a spiritual master through the medium of Vāṇī and Vāpu. Vāpu is his personal presence, his photograph. Vāṇī is his instruction. So wherever you are, whether you're doing sāṅkīrtana or cooking or daily worship, whatever, you should always think, my spiritual master is standing right next to me. Now, if you're always thinking that spiritual master is standing next me, then you won't fall in Maya. You would be too embarrassed to do any activity of Maya. So Prabhupada used to say, I am always acting as if my spiritual master is standing right next to me. Explains this in the chapter on Three Divisions of Faith. Read that chapter. But our austerity, as Maharaja Vishnudeva says, is beyond the three gunas. It is divyam tapasya. That is Austerity for the pleasure of the Lord. So what is the austerity for devotees of Krishna consciousness? Chanting 16 rounds a day, following 4 regulative principles, getting up in the morning and engaging in service for at least 7-8 hours a day. That's all. Eat as much prasad as you want, do as much kīrtan as you want, and dance as much as you want so you remain slim and healthy. Smile all the time. In fact, when our devotees go on book distribution, how do they distribute so many books? The materialists are surprised when they see such smiling faces that they say, yes, now I must buy a book. Look at a picture of Krishna, he's always smiling. Look at Prabhupada's pictures, he's always grave but also smiling. Oh yes, yes, this is what Krishna consciousness means— taking out your material anchor. As long as the material anchor is stuck to the harbor, you will remain entangled in material existence, birth and death. So with determination, withdraw the— pull the material anchor out. You must have the conviction material world offers no place of happiness. Only then you can take the anchor out. But if you are thinking, no, no, no, material world is also so sweet, Hare Krishna is also so sweet. What should I do now? I'm in a real fix. Mātṛrāvāl niyatslāt ki, tōlka Hare Kṛṣṇa slāt. So that conviction must be. So Raghunātha Gosvāmī was one of the 6 Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana. Raghunātha Gosvāmī was the son of a millionaire. He had the most beautiful wife on this planet, but he renounced everything. And Maharāja, and Raghunātha Mahārāja said as follows. Raghunātha Gosvāmī, he said, just like after you pass to You just flush it away, but don't meditate on it. Similarly, he said, after you come to spiritual life, don't meditate on the sense enjoyment that you have left behind. Don't meditate on sense enjoyment that you have left behind. Say, 'Daśvidānya.' Don't say 'Daśvidānya' in the night and next day again get into Maya, then again say 'Daśvidānya.' So how can we avoid the 10th offense? So the question is, how do you avoid the 10th offense, which is to maintain material attachment in spite of chanting the holy names of Kṛṣṇa. So we must understand that when we come to spiritual life, we take to the chanting recognizing material attachment is our enemy number one. So we have to recognize that we come to spiritual life recognizing material attachments are our biggest impediment on the journey back to Godhead. So once you know who your enemy is, you should not flirt with that enemy. So when material attachment comes, just get rid of it. Just like suppose you have pain developing in the body, don't you want to get rid of that pain? Material attachment is pain. It's like cancer. You know how cancer starts in the body? Starts as a small dot. Slowly, slowly it's spreads. So, and in the beginning you don't even know when cancer has started. So take out this material impediments in the very beginning. Don't wait till your habits have become so bad, then it is difficult to defeat those habits. Well, material world is a perverted reflection of the spiritual world. It is not a true reflection. So perverted means we are trying to be artificially happy, but there's no happiness. Real happiness is only in the spiritual world. Is there sleep? Everyone there is happy in just serving the Lord. So he doesn't think of sleeping. Everything in the spiritual world is running on spiritual energy, not benzene. Prabhupada said, when you have no questions after the class, it means two things. One, it means you've understood everything, and the other is you've understood nothing. So you decide where you fit at what time. But Prabhupada also said, asking questions is a sign of intelligence. We don't cheat people, we tell people the truth. Sometimes you may have to tell the truth in a slightly more palatable way, but it should not be cheating. And if somebody is cheating, then he should correct his approach. Prabhu, do you think we should stop now? So I think what we will do We will stop over here. We'll keep these questions for tomorrow. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.