Glories of Srila Sanatana Goswami | Aug 5, 2022 | Vancouver | Srila Gopal Krishna Goswami

Prasad Raaval. I would like to welcome everyone to the program this evening. I am going to speak today on Sraddhalu Gosvāmī and some of his teachings. Is that a good idea? Yes. Yes, no? Yes. Two mics. This is for Zoom. Can you hear me in all the four corners? Yeah. So there were six Gosvāmīta Menaḥuṇa. You all heard of that. And they played an important role in the ending of the Vedic literature. Sanatana Goswami was the brother of Rupa Goswami. And Rupa and his brother were forced to serve a Mohammedan king called Raja Gosencha. Now when Insha conquered over the Indian king and became the emperor, he was very smart. He knew that majority of the population is Hindu, and he was a Mohammedan. At that time, the Mohammedans were barely 0.1% of India's population. So he did a survey to find out who amongst the Indians is most popular, and he found out that the Ishwar brothers are very popular with the people, very popular. All day they are reciting Bhagavatam recitation, and people will come to them for advice. And direction. In every society there are always some people who play the role of counselors. So the king approached his brothers and said, "I would like you to administer my kingdom." And the two brothers said, "We have no interest. We are simply interested in being Kṛṣṇa-māyā." The Emperor said, "No, I'm going to do it." But they were forced to do it. And, but their heart was not there. Dukkha Gosvami was the younger brother. He left. He retired for a job. He resigned for a job. Unfortunately, His heart was not there. When he resigned, he had— when he resigned, he had so much wealth. The whole boat was full of gold. Imagine. These days you have the paper currency, it gets thinner, thinner every day. Those days you probably had gold coins and that kind of thing. So, the purpose of it— he had a huge wealth. He divided it up. He gave a good example. He said he divided 50% to the Brahmanas, 25% to the others, and he kept some money for himself. "Yujjāmaṇa." Later, his brother Sanātan also wanted to resign. What did Sanātan do? He sent information to the king that he was sick. And when it came to be a month, he didn't show up at office. His brother had already resigned. The king had so much faith in these two brothers that he transferred all the responsibility to them. And at that time, 500 years ago, the richest kingdom in the world was America. There was no America at that time. The richest kingdom in the world was the kingdom of Bengal. India. And the richest part of India was Bengal. So, Nārada Gosvāmī, he's not sure what work. The king was getting ready. King was ruling in Bengal. And the king of Orissa happened to be a Hindu. So, the king was going to Fight with him, bring Oresa under control. So the king said, "Now I have to go to fight King Oresa, and Siddhartha hasn't come." He sent his doctor, Vaidya, to go and see how sick is Siddhartha. So he says, If somebody wants to come to your house, there's certain formalities. Ring the bell. If he doesn't respond, or the person doesn't press the button, he can't come in. He can't just walk in. In those days, there was no such facility. So the doctor, right here, walked right in. What did he see? Where is he? He saw, Sanatana was surrounded by 20 brahmanas and the entire Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And what were they doing? They were studying the Bhāgavatam. Bhāgavatam, as you know, is an eye-opening book of anything in the world. Or maybe you have a Bhagavan said, "At home." That's all. I thought if we would have these books, it's good to read them. So, the idea is called the Sanatana, the sound of my Brahmana, and then suddenly, Shri Vasunava was there. So, the Vaidya went back to the king and said, "Your Prime Minister," Vaidya, it was Vajbilaka, Prime Minister, "Your Prime Minister is completely normal. I went in, he was sitting down with 30 brahmanas and And what were they doing? They were showing him Ramana Maharshi. He is completely okay, my lord. The king said, call him. And they called him. So, Sanatana Goswami came in front of the king. And he bowed down to the king. Even though the king was a materialist and definitely seen into Srinathan, out of etiquette, he was a king, Srinathan bowed down to him in all good respect. The king said, "Your brother has proved to be very irresponsible. He quit his job. And you are following his footsteps. I want you to come." and administer my kingdom. And I go away to Uppal. The materialist, because of doing the spiritual duty, materialist always thinks, "I'm pending on duty." So, it's not like that. Sir, I served you for so long, and now I just can't do the job anymore. He said, "You have to do it, otherwise we're going to imprison you." And Śrīla Dharmavāda was imprisoned. I don't think he had any justice system where he could appeal. There was no such thing. Śrīla Dharmavāda arrested, put in jail, and the king went, proceeded to call the Srinivasan received letter from his brother. His brother said, "I have got some gold coins for your use." The local shopkeeper appears there. There was no banking system in that time, but the great merchants 'For life.' 'I don't want to go back.' He said, 'Now let me release you.' Money. Told the jailkeeper, 'Please release me. I've done a lot of favors to you. I was running in the primary school.' And the jailer said, 'How can I release you? King will not let me go.' 'Give me your life.' Anyway, they made a settlement. We don't have to discuss that in public. And Sanatana was released. Sanatana accompanied by one devotee. What's his name? What was his name? As I speak, I'll test you all also. What was his name? Ishan. Ishan was carrying 8 gold coins in his pocket. And away Ishan, they left. On the way, they stopped at— they stopped at— to stay the night, something like a motel. So, The manager, or the proprietor of the hotel was very smart. He had a astrologer at the reception. Everyone who would come, they would see how rich is this person. And he was rich, and they would robbed him, deprived him of all his wealth. So, he prayed to him. Very courteous to Sanatan, very courteous, exceptionally courteous. And Sanatan was experienced in administration. After all, he and his brother were running Most wanted kingdom at that time. So, Siddhartha asked this fellow, "This proprietor being so nice to me, are you carrying wealth with you?" He said, "Yes." He said, "I have 7 gold coins in my pocket." Actually he had 8. We first cheated by saying we didn't have anything, and then we were caught and gave 7. So Sriracha took the coin then, told the rider, "Please take these coins. I'm a fugitive, and help me cross the mountain." Was headed for were Nazi. And Prasad Raaval said, "Ah, then 2 girls, they were going, they gave it to the Vodafone provider. I had it for him, the police chief." The Vodafone provider said, "I was going to kill you tonight to recover these 8 gold coins." 'But since you have brought these coins to me, I will not kill you.' And he felt embarrassed. Narada said, 'If you don't take these coins, somebody else will kill me to take these coins. Better you take it.' So then he gave an escort to this Narada. This Narada was unhappy with his servant. Why? Why was he unhappy? Because he had lied. Of course he lied, he didn't have anything. And he lied he had 8 gold coins, but actually he had— and lied that he had 7 gold coins, but actually he had 8. So, Ishan was sent home and Sanatana proceeded to Kausambhava. On the way, he stopped at his brother-in-law's house. His brother-in-law's name was Shrikant. His brother-in-law's name was Shrikant. And Shrikant was also working for "Mamlin rooda." So, Sraddhan stopped there. See? You see? Shrikanth. And Shrikanth saw Sraddhan. Dirty clothes, long beard, long hair. Because Sraddhan was escaping from— he escaped from the police. In the prison, as Rādhānu didn't have any clothes or anything with him, Śrī Kāṇṣa said, "What are you doing? You look so dirty and like a beggar. You come and join and work with me." But Rādhānu said, "Oh!" Rādhānu had renounced his kingdom. He renounced the kingdom and he was just interested in meeting Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. This is another incident. He did not get influence. So Śrī Kānta gave him a very expensive chādara, probably Kashmiri shawl. "To him, to where?" So, Sanātananda proceeded and came to where? Varnāsi. Varnāsi, at that time, Caitanya Mahāprabhu had gone to South India, no, gone to Vṛndāvana. He was returning. And in Varnāsi, It was the residence of Chandrasekhar. Chandrasekhar was born in a low caste family. You know, I mean, in India you see all this controversy about higher caste, lower caste. Is that right? And many people, this is what I have been told, Probably write a lower caste, and then birth certificate, so that they can get favour. So, Chandrasekharan was born in a low caste family. But his qualification was, he was a great devotee of the Lord. A very great devotee of the Lord. And non-chetanya. He did not see Who is higher caste and who is lower caste? Higher caste means, there are definitions, but we're going to just tell the Lord. The lower caste is one who doesn't want to follow the laws of God. Anātān sannāt. Anāt means orphan. So one who doesn't accept. The Supreme Lord is the cause of all causes. We consider Him anāt. And who is anāt? One who accepts the position of the Supreme Lord. So Lord Caitanya had come and He stayed in the house of Chandra-shekhara. There were two devotees, Chandra-shekhara and Tapa-nāśraya. Tapa-nāśraya joined Paṁprabhu's movement, he was residing in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh there were many important Vaiṣṇava locations, and many of the sages came from Bangladesh, stayed in Bangladesh. So, Prasada Gosvāmī When He came to the house of Chandrasekhar, Lord Caitanya, who is the cause of all causes, He knew that Siddhartha has arrived in front of Chandrasekhar's house. So the Lord said, "Chandrasekhar, go and see." 'There is a great sage standing outside. Come and bring him to me.' So, Chandra Shekhar came out on the balcony. He was looking on all sides. 'Where is that sadhu that Lord wants me to bring?' And he saw someone with a beard and dirty clothes. He said, 'This is his house. This looks like a mullah.' He came back and said, 'I could not find any sadhu there. I could only see a mullah wearing dirty clothes.' The sannyasi Lord Chidambaram said, 'That mullah, that man is not a mullah. He is a great saint. Bring him inside.' Then Nādhana. Then this nādhana, he got inside. And when he came inside, Arjuna embraced him. And because Arjuna knew how he had escaped from the prison, he joined him. And Arjuna had him Take a bath and wear new clothes. So then, Prasad Raaval noted, "Narayana was staring at the expensive— ah, he was wearing very expensive Father. It was given to him by whom? Shri Ganga. Sraddha nishkur. Lord Caitanya is unhappy with. Unhappy with what? By marrying such an expensive girl. He went to— Open the chapter 22. He went to the Ganga, beach of the banks of the Ganga. There he saw a Bengali mendicant. That mendicant had a torn blanket that he was drying. Prasad RAVAL said, "I have this very nice chadar. Please take it and give me your torn blanket in exchange." And the old man said, "You mean you are going to give me that expensive blanket in exchange of my torn blanket? You must be joking." Sraddhan said, "No, no, no, I am not joking. Go see it." So Sraddhan came back to see.— or Chaitanya. They saw Chaitanya. Chaitanya noticed that Sraddhan, quite red, all expensive chariot, was wearing a tomb blanket. So Sraddhan said— he told the Lord— so the Lord told Sraddhan, A good physician does not give medicine and leave the cause of the disease. A good medicine— physician also cures the cause. In other words, a good physician, he doesn't just give a medicine and the cause remains. But then the cause is again the effect. We remove the cause also. As Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu was telling Mrinalini Mahāprabhu, you renounce everything. You become a mendicant. In other words, you are living like a mendicant. You don't have to wear any fancy clothes. And Lord Caitanya preaches humility. So is Ratan Nishtha. In this way, Lord Caitanya gives Ratan an instruction. So, you may see Ratan So Rūpa Gosvāmī was instructed by Caitanya Mahāprabhu to go to Vrindāvana and write books on devotion. Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu instructed Rūpa Gosvāmī, then Sanātanā, and they brought a lot of devotion. To write books on devotional service, and to re-establish temples. The— most of the temples in Vrindavan and India at that time, 500 or 600 years ago, were broken by Mohammedan rulers. Mohammedans were ruling over India. And what did they do? They destroyed all the temples. So the pujaris of the temples, in order to protect the Deities, what did they do? They took the Deities and hid them underneath the ground. That was one thing they did. And many of them took the Deities to Jaipur, where there was a Hindu king ruling. Therefore, Jaipur is also known as Gaura Vrindavan, Śrīkrishna Vrindavan. And to identify places the Lord performed in past times. All these temples that you see, the Lord located by Gaura Swami. There, for example, the famous Radha Govindji Temple. Was established by the group of Aditya Nirmal Yada, my lord. That was my inspiration for that. It is another thing. So, That is what Swami came to bring to the point. Lord Caitanya gave him 5 important points. Lord Caitanya gave detailed instructions, but he summarized them into 5 more points which you probably hear in the class. What were his points? One was to, not advise specially. He mentioned 5 main points. First one was sadhu, spiritual associate. If he was spiritual associate, almost every problem We want to advance spiritually. What is important is who we have, spiritual association. If you have the right association, you get the right message. Isn't it? And if you don't have the right association, you won't get the right instruction. So scriptures say, sadhu sana sadhu sana, 1/14th of 1 second. If you get the opportunity to associate with a saintly person even for 1/4 of a second, it spreads your life.

Okay.

It's very general. There are so many examples. Ajahnabhava, he just met someone, he just gave instruction, and the boy's life changed. Prabhupāda went to the former Soviet Union in 1971. And Prabhupāda had established Kṛṣṇa consciousness in Europe, America, India. And what was left was the Communist bloc. Prabhupāda went there. That's for 5 days. Within 5 days, He initiated a special devotee, instructed him, and he started preaching. He made thousands of devotees. They all understood. Understand it. He passed away. So if we have the fortune of getting the right association, then what happens? What happens? You get the right instruction. Then what is the right instruction? Then in this age of Kali, how can we progress spiritually? Nama kirtan. By chanting the, in English, "Praise the Lord Godhead." How will people in Kali Yuga receive? What he is saying, kārīyā doceṇe deṇāya, means kārīyā da, is nothing but one wife after another. But there is one special benediction in the day. And what is that? Chanting the Holy Name of the Lord. This is what Rādhārāṇī Mahāprabhu had predicted. Particularly the archidescendant America. In every corner of the globe, what will be sung? Hare Krishna. Today, you can virtually travel to any part of the world, and what will you see? People chanting Hare Krishna. Go to any part of the world. So, this prediction of Caitanya Mahāprabhu That was fulfilled by Prabhupāda, and eventually fulfilled by Prabhupāda. And Bhaktisiddhānta Mahārāja, who has met Prabhupāda? In 1922 in Calcutta, Prabhupāda's friend told Prabhupāda, "There is a sadhu here. I want you to come and meet him." And Prabhupāda said, I have met so many sadhus, but I am not impressed by them. Prabhupāda's father's name was— what was it? I am not remembering. He was a middle-class cloth merchant. He was not some big tycoon. And, but his desire was, "My son may grow to be big devotee of the Lord. And Prabhupāda's mother, "What is that, Raval? My son should go to England, be educated there." Those days England was under British rule. It was prestigious sending your children to England. These days it has become prestigious to send your children to Canada. So, Prabhupāda's father would regularly entertain sādhūs. So, he did not discriminate who is qualified, who is not. So, Prabhupāda said, "I have had many sādhūs." But his friend said, "No, this sādhū is special." So Prabhupāda's words emotionally dragged me to see my spiritual master. And the first meeting, bhaktisiddhānta-jigvāsī. Here is a sadhu, here is a personality who will fulfill Rādhārāṇī's prediction. Rādhārāṇī had predicted, a holy name will be chanted everywhere. And many Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas had attempted to fulfill that. And 3 or 4 of the sannyāsis even were sent to England by Bhaktisiddhānta ṣrī to preach. But they didn't have much success. So the conclusion was, even our Vaiṣṇavas were thinking, "Yes, Lord Caitanya has predicted this, but it looks like Kali-yuga is too deep. It won't happen." But Thakura Bhaktisiddhanta, he had full faith, will be realized. And Bhaktisiddhanta said, Bhaktisiddhanta ji, in a very important meeting, you will see, here is a young man who has full faith. Ācārya-dhyanāyaṣṭhākṣara. When he told him, Abhaya said, "First we should make our country of India independent." Then Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi convinced him, "Real independence is freedom from the cycle of birth and death." The Prabhupāda had this instruction and he never forgot. And eventually he succeeded. So, the scriptures say, Kaliyoga Inoculum Vai. There is one benediction in the day. That is, Chaniyo Lahori. Nama Jitāmni Kṛṣṇa, Chetana Sāvegāha, Pūṇaṣuddha Nitya-mukta, Vināṇḍaṁ Nāma Nāmaḥ. The Holy Name of the Lord must be like Sugar. Yogini is like a Jyotamani stone. What is the special feature of the Jyotamani stone? What is the special feature? The way it touches, it becomes gold, or whatever it touches. Yogini mein, aye, Jyotamani. And non-different from the Lord. Yes. Pure. Understanding of the Holy Name is our worship more and better. So, Bhagavan Swami says, "The Holy Names of the Lord are sweet like sugar candy." Is that right? You like sugar? You like sweets? Yes, no? Yes. Because people like sweets, that's why the dentists, their business is booming. The more sweets you take, the more cavities you get. Anyhow, so the Holy Name is non-different from the Lord. So, these dentists will have genuine association then. You get the right instruction. This is Chaitanya. The Holy Name is the sound incarnation of God. And this is the— every— Prabhupāda was in 1975 in Iran. He was having a discussion with a prominent Muslim leader. Prabhupāda told him, "Chaitanya-namaḥ." I chant the name of the Lord, and the name of Christ, chant the name of the Lord. The problem is that, Sri Ramana Maharshi, he first said, associated with one of my devotees, and then take instruction. That is, in this age, What is the solution? Chanting the Holy Name. So this chanting of the Holy Name is most important. Agra Bhaktivedānta Mahāprabhu says, jīv-jārāḥ yijñātāko āṇitāko sādhāya bhūrjetāko. It does not matter which āśrama you belong to. What should you do? Chant the Holy Name. Was on a tour of South India. He walked for 24,000 miles, and when he came to South India, he was received in the house of a Brahmin called Kurma. Kurma Brahmin was very elevated devotee. Achyutheeraya came to his house. Washed his feet and said, "How fortunate we are, the Lord has come." Then he said, "My dear Lord, I am totally unhappy." "Nagrihasa asho." "Please take me with you." Prajnanjananya knew the man was married, he had children. He gave him practical advice. Chant the Holy Name. Be the glory to the Holy Name. Read the scriptures and issue with the scriptures. This way you will always be with me and, and what else? I will always be with you. We chant the Holy Name because it is associated with God and the Lord is associated with that. So, if you have right association, what happens? You get the knowledge about the Holy Name. Holy Name can be chanted in different phases. One is your offensive state. The second is the stage of minimizing your offence. Third is Very good. In the first day, you chant the Gauranga Mantra. Just like when you preach. When we preach, we don't tell people, "These are the 4 agreements, those you must follow, otherwise you can't chant." You first just encourage people, "Chant. Doesn't matter." I had occasions where people were smoking. And chanting, drinking and chanting, eventually he got beautiful. So, chant the Holy Name. And if you chant, what happens? Gradually it cleanses the heart. So, Ajahn Ansanath gives a real message. In this age, what is the best process? Chanting the Holy Name. We can see that practically. We can see it practically that we chant the Holy Name, we chant regularly, how it works. So one is the offensive stage. Now you are in the offensive stage, you start to associate with devotees. You start to read Prabhupāda's books. And you discover, if I want to have full benefit, I should Avoid what? Avoid the offense. When we go and chant the Holy Name of the Lord, what does it work? Unless one learns to avoid the offense, he will not be able to develop love of God. We should be alert on this point. So we become aware of the offenses, and we try to avoid them, minimize them. That is the intermediate stage. We continue chanting on the intermediate stage, and then you get to the stage of purified chanting. So chanting is useful in any situation, but for those who wish to make spiritual advancement, it is very useful. "Hey, what do you think?" So this way, Chaitanya Mahāprabhu gave instruction. In English he said, "Read the Bhāgavatam, recite and pray the guru." If you make worship of the Deity, it is good enough. So Chaitanya Mahāprabhu gave these summarized instructions. We should take advantage of these instructions. And Śrīla Gosvāmī gave us many wonderful books, and so did the Gauṣḍhavi. The literature left behind in the Gauṣḍhavi is very wide. So Śrīla Gosvāmī's instruction is something that we should all try to practice. Reading and chanting are the cure What is this initiation? Then Bhāgavata Mīlāsādhāna. We hear the Holy Name with the discipline of cessation. Then you get the pure mind. So we've all come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Everyone sitting in this assembly is practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. What should we do? You do it very easily. We should be very serious about utilizing time in service of the Lord. And if you are serious, then the Lord will give you the intelligence to utilize it. Sri Ramana Maharshi, he wrote many books on the science of devotion, and Yogi Bhagavan Swami, and then there was Jiva Goswami, or Balavara Goswami. Agrawal goes coming. Agrawal, like Bhattacharya goes. He goes coming. He has more literature than anyone. So we offer them our respects. And then I did guide them. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. I told them, We will leave some time for questions. Otherwise, you will just listen. Are there any questions? Any questions? Anyone have questions? Yeah, at the end of the class we must have a time for question to make sure people understand what they heard. Lot of money initially, and they gave up that money and then they went to Vrindavan and built all the temples. And Rupa Goswami also taught us the principle of 'yukta vairagya'. So, why did they not use all the money they had to build those temples and use it there? They gave up everything and then they built all the temples. They gave up everything. In a very exemplary process. 50% donated to the Brahmins, 25% to his relatives, and the rest he kept for future emergencies. So when they give to the Brahmins, these are genuine Brahmins. And later on, Goswami inspired the construction of all these temples. Prabhupāda Gosvāmī gave us a lākya, yuktivrākya. What does it mean? Use everything in service of the Lord. There is genuine renunciation. Prasad RAVAL, you see a $100 bill on the road, There are three alternatives. One is, "Let it lie on the road. It's not mine." That is foolish. We have the pocket. Gather it. Pocket it. Don't let anybody know you got it. The third is, "Take it. Look for the real owner." Return it. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Since we're speaking about Sanatana Dharma, Gosvāmī, and, uh, give all your wealth, Prasād RAVAL also, he said that we as grihasthas should give 50% of our income to the temple. Um, what should we usually give as grihasthas as a guiding principle? You know, Śrīla Prabhupāda said 50%. What should we be actually as grihasthas, initiated disciples, Actually, Prabhupāda did not insist for 50%. He gave us the example of Rūpa Gosvāmī. Our position is we encourage people to give as much as they can, but give something. If we take Kṛṣṇa's gifts and don't use anything in this world, we are simply thieves. So the better way. Then you take on all the karma. Maybe even it is service to Kṛṣṇa, then you are free. So do, you do whatever is practical. Kṛṣṇa doesn't see what you give. Kṛṣṇa sees what you keep. He shall see what is he keeping. So, he shall see. When he comes to me, he says, "Patam, patam, patam, swayam." "Nikku ora." When he comes to himself, he is in a silver plate. He shall see what are you keeping and what are you giving. Sorry. Prasad RAVAL, they were, what was in their, you know, was there devotional practice in their family that they became such great devotees? What was the history of their families? The Gouḍḥsāmīs were actually assistants of the Gouḥkīs. Gouḥsāmīs are paid ones, devotees. And Rūpa and Sanātan, from their childhood, though they were born in Brahminical family, and from their childhood they had only one interest, that is studying the scriptures and distributing their knowledge. This was their desire from the beginning. Hello. I, in this my most quoted identity devotion service, Which one comes first, which one comes second? Is there like 1, 2, 3, 4? In the order that the Lord presented, Ārthaṣaṇḍa came first. Probably because they were chanting the Holy Name, the most important. How do you get that knowledge? You get that knowledge from Jñānānanda ṣaṇḍana. Therefore, That has been pleased by Bhagavan. But as we know, of the five, the most important is chanting the names of the Lord. If we chant the names of the Lord attentively, then what happens? It becomes easier to cultivate the other qualities. So chanting is the most important. If you're doing chanting sincerely, it becomes a cure of all diseases. And if you're not doing it properly, then it becomes a cause of which you're attracted. The same medicine can cure all your disease and can cause all the disease. Welcome, Brother James.

Hello.

Guru Maharaj, what would please you the most from your disciples? You will get attached to the Holy Name. If you get attached to the Holy Name, you will chant the Holy Name. Not only chant the Holy Name, avoid the offenses. What is the spiritual master do? That the disciple get attracted to the Holy Name, get attracted to Prasada Raaval. He develops humility. Humility is a very important ingredient in the spiritual path, and this is one of the toughest to obtain. Humility means— some people think humility means bow down over Dandavas. Really, humility means, "I am ready to be corrected. I want to be directed. I want to be guided." Generally we think, somebody gives you some advice, "Oh, he just envious of me." That's not the sense of advice. We should develop humanity. Maybe raise yourself. Do it. A mood should be, "I'm a servant of all the Vaishnavas." And then our mood is genuine. And that pleases the Lord. Pride, arrogance are not virtues. That is actually the sin of Lord. So developing humility is one of the important factors for making spiritual development. And Chaitanya Mahāprabhu said that, English. Sometimes devotees discuss among each other that which service is better, supporting the temple financially or just do physical work, cleaning, deity worship. Cooking, between these two individual services, both are good, but which one is better? Both are— both are equally good. If you don't give donations, temples will not run. For the temples to run, you need donations. Prabhupāda once told me, "We are professional beggars. We are always begging. If we don't beg, we won't get donations to run the money. Then to build the temple, you need also donations. And to clean the floor, you also need." When you clean the floor in the temple, then you'll be able to cleansing the heart. In Hindi, chitta rishana meeta, meeta isuriya guni cha majhna, meen ho chitta neeze buri. Firstly, cleanse guni cha chama. Prasad Raaval himself was scrubbing the roof, scrubbing the floor, scrubbing the walls, and he would see How much dirt each of the devotees had gathered. Then he would see, and it was seen that Arjuna alone had more dirt, collected more dirt, all the hundreds of devotees combined. Then he made those who were more successful teach to the others how to scrub the floor. So scrubbing the floor is also important. How, by the way, you will come to any temple, first thing you will see, the cleanliness standard. Cleanliness is next to— So cleanliness is also very important. So both are important, donations and cleansing. And you have to do a cleansing job. Don't think this is something untouchable. Sometimes somebody says, "I didn't come to ISKCON to become a bhangi." Give me some executive officer. He's going to do whatever is needed. He serves as needed. That is, not that we want everything out of our comfort zone. I serve only if I get this comfort. Okay, we'll take one more and stop. Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you. As you explained through the examples, nothing was wrong with the level of surrender and attachment together. What we find in myself, I'm in pool number 1, where you have full attachment and attraction for the pony, but not sufficient surrender. Efficient, steadfast practice, what would be the remedy and the fault if we don't have?

I'm sorry, repeat the question.

It's my confusion. You explained through the example, I think, of Sarajan Goswami, that surrender and His attachment to sadhana was so strong that he had the audience of Amrutananda to give practical and direct instruction. With fools like me, when you have attachment to Holy Name but not proper level of surrender, not proper level of daily attention and sadhana, what is the risk is there, and how to improve that, how to be dedicated to that level of surrender, and what is the adequate, proper level of surrender?

Surrender increases as we attempt to purify ourselves. And that's why when we start following sadhana, bhakti, in the beginning we follow the rules and regulations. And then we endeavor to get more and more the mood of surrender. So the key is— I don't have a one-natured equation for it. The key is purification and sadhana-bhakti. In sadhana-bhakti we endeavor And that will help to surrender to the Lord. What does surrender to the Lord mean? I am following the Lord's instruction. That is surrender. Thank you for a nice class. So, Maharaj, my question is, as Babu asked that we have 5 levels of service and what are the 1, 2, 3, and you rightly said there is no one is up and one down. But my experience, it's my personal experience, when we start doing the service, we categorize the service like we say deity service is higher than 'Kitchen cleaning is higher than temple cleaning, temple cleaning is higher than the sous service.' So how do we come out of this feeling like 'I come first'? I think we should feel all service is essential and equally important, and we should be willing to do as needed. One should not think, "Oh, he's a bhujayi, I'm a sweeper, I will sweep the temple room every day." That is wrong. You should feel all the essential services, they all have to be done. Is that your question? Yes, Prasad.

Thank you, Prasad.

Look at that question. Prasad Raaval. Prasad Raaval. Thank you, Maharaj, very much. So regarding the same topic, Maharaj, we see maybe more and bigger centers, but is it okay to have employees doing all these services? In the Western world, you don't have employees in temple. There is no rajyoga here. All the work has to be done by devotees. But in India, unfortunately, we do have that facility. And also, on the other hand, the Indian temples are very big, and there is a lot of Work there. So you hire people with salary. Because there's so much to do. There's a whole issue of preaching. You pay the employee, cannot do. But at least in the West, there's no question of paying employee. Is that the question?

No question of?

Is that your question? Yeah. I think we should stop now. Thank you very much, Maharaj. Let's give him a round of applause. Thank you very much. Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram.