Krishna reciprocates as we surrender | Rus-Split | SB 1.2.17 | 24 May 1990 | Gopal Krishna Goswami

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya. Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya. Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya. Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya. First came to my Bhagavatam class. This temple atmosphere is very nice, doing japa in the morning and class with the devotees. I like it very much. Makes me feel as if I'm in India or Canada. So sometimes it becomes a big problem which words to select. Okay, I found a nice verse. Shravana Kirtana. Shri Gaurabhadra Mahāprabhu. Shri Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Swayām rūpaka-dāmayāṁ dadāti svāpadaṇṭikāṁ. Bandeḥ haṁ śrī-guruḥ śrī-utāpada-kamlaṇaṣrī-guruṇḥ vaishṇava-nāśṭha. Śrī-rūpaṁ sa-grājatāṁ sahāgana-laguna-tanvitam tam-sa-devaṁ. Sadveitāṁ savadhu tam parijana-saitaṁ kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devaṁ. Śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-padāṇṣahāgana-lalitāśrī-viśakāṇṭaṁ śrāvaṇaṣṭha. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So I have a new translator, Japa Das. So I'm going, because he's not so experienced, I'm going to speak very short sentences. So he can find it easy to translate. And we have a second translator also, Vishwanath. In case he misses anything, he will catch that. So this verse is very important, and in this verse many important points are being made.

I must say that I like this atmosphere of the Bhāgavatam class very much. It is just like any other ISKCON temple around the world. In all our ISKCON temples we have Bhāgavatam class every morning. So this is very nice. If I do not go tonight, if it's okay with you, I will come again tomorrow very in the morning. So in this verse it is being established that the Lord is in everyone's heart as the Paramātmā.

Paramātmā is witnessing everything. The Lord is so kind. That even when the living entity falls down to lowest species of life, like the dogs and the cats, the Paramātmā still goes in that heart. The Paramātmā is recognizing all our desires as soon as they are manifested. Just like when the mother is bringing up a young child, the mother knows every move that the child makes. What it wants, even if the child does not speak. Similarly, when you go through a garden, for example, there are different flowers, but without touching the flower, just smelling the flavor, you can recognize, oh, this is gardenia or lotus or whatever flower it may be. So Paramatma, just like now in your temple room you light incense, so there's so many different incense flavors. But sometimes devotees become so expert that just by smelling the incense they will say whether this is sandalwood or rose or whatever. So the Lord as the Paramātmā, He recognizes your desires as soon as they are manifested in the mind and the heart.

Ittha.

So if your desire is good, then the Paramātmā will pull you towards Kṛṣṇa. If your desire is sense enjoyment, Then the Paramātmā will take you in that direction. So in this verse it is being stated that the Lord who is in the heart as the Paramātmā, He is the well-wisher of the honest devotee. So honest devotee, this is important, not dishonest devotee. This verse is stating that, that the Lord is a well-wisher of the honest devotee, not dishonest. The Lord takes away the desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who is used to hearing the glories of the Holy Name. In this verse, the emphasis is placed upon the chanting of the holy names of Kṛṣṇa. So by chanting the holy names of Kṛṣṇa, the, the material desires from the heart are taken away. By whom? By the Paramātmā.

When you chant the holy names, the holy name is so purifying that every time you chant, the Paramātmā reduces your material desires. But it is being stated here that the holy name must be properly chanted and heard.

Not only do we have to chant the holy name, but we must chant the holy name and hear it properly. If we chant the holy names attentively, Then the Paramātmā will take away the material desires from the heart. So the point is that attentive and purified chanting is very, very important. And if we chant attentively, then the chanting will be very, very potent, powerful. Why is the Holy Name so powerful? First reason is Holy Name is non-different from Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is present in transcendental sound vibration. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has explained in Sikṣṭāṣṭaka śloka how the Lord has invested all His transcendental energies in His holy name. Just like sometimes a father may tell everyone, "Now you don't deal with me, you deal with my son." Because my son is as good as me. So then you can deal with the son and it is the same as dealing with the father. So similarly, Kṛṣṇa is saying there is no difference between Me and My holy name. Bhinna-tvām nāma-nāmināḥ. This means no difference between the Lord and His holy name. In the material world, this is hard to imagine because there is always a difference between the name and the object.

But we have to understand that we cannot understand the Supreme Lord by material logic. You can only understand the Supreme Lord by spiritual logic, through the eyes of the purified devotees of the Lord. So we should not waste our time in trying to speculate about the nature of the Lord or the process of devotional service. So, uh, for example, when you are hungry, and I'm sure in few hours you'll be hungry for prasad, But if the temple president tells you, "No prasad today, but just say the word prasad, prasad, prasad, and your stomach will be satisfied," you will not be satisfied. And next time you are thirsty, we tell you, "No water, paftere, water, water, water." Niyath. You won't like it. Because there is difference between name and substance. In India, it is very common when we tell people, not only India, everywhere, When we tell people many times to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa loudly, they say, "No, I will not chant loudly, but I'm always chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa in the oṁ." Do you meet people in your country also who say like this? They will say, "I'm chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa but in my mind 24 hours, not just 16 rounds." So Prabhupāda used to say— I was with Prabhupāda in Delhi in 1975. And one man came, he said, "I'm chanting, but I'm always chanting in my mind." So Prabhupāda said, "Okay, why don't you start eating in the mind also? So why don't you eat in the mind? And we will not give you your salary. We will deposit the account in currency in your bank account, but we'll deposit it in the bank of the Oṁā." So this is double standard. Everything else we want to, we want to see. But my chanting the names of God, I will do it mentally. So in the devotee's mind, there is no confusion about the strength of the holy name. So in the Bible also it is said, thou shall always chant the names of the Lord. So the emphasis on chanting the names of the Lord is in all the scriptures, even in the Koran. When Prabhupāda went to Iran, He told them, "Okay, chant the names of Allah, but chant the names of the Lord." So chanting the names of the Lord is the most powerful means for self-realization. You can see even in your country, people were not brought up in Vedic culture, but in few years only they have come in touch with the, they have come in touch with the Vedic culture through the medium of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. It is so practical, so easy. So the holy name of the Lord is non-different from the Lord, and it has the power to purify the heart of material desires. Now in the purport, Prabhupada makes another important point, which is that the Lord will reciprocate with His devotee. That is only natural, isn't it? Just like the young child is completely dependent upon the mother. So the mother is also always thinking of the young child, but the older child is not always thinking of the mother. So the mother is also not always thinking of the older child. So Kṛṣṇa, He also deals with us based upon our desire to approach Him. Those who say that to become devotee of Kṛṣṇa you have to be born in Hindu family or in India, they are simply cheaters. Just like unfortunately in that very famous Jagannath Puri temple, they don't let anybody who is not born as a Hindu go in. This is cheating, rascaldom. Prabhupada used to be very upset at this. Prabhupada used to say, "Jagannath means Lord of the universe. That means everybody is boga." So how can you say those who are not Hindus, they cannot come in? So Anybody who wants to approach Kṛṣṇa can approach Him. You don't need any material qualification. You don't have to be a doctor, a PhD degree, or a rich man, or a beautiful man, or a beautiful woman. You only need one qualification: sincerity. And if you have sincerity, Kṛṣṇa will do the rest. You take one step forward, Kṛṣṇa will take ten, ten steps forward. You take one step towards Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa will take ten steps towards you. But he must understand that he cannot bluff Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is super smart. You may be able to bluff your temple authorities. Sometimes it may appear that you can even bluff the spiritual master, but you cannot bluff Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is 1,000 times smarter than you. Hiranya Kaśipu was thinking that he was very smart. He told Lord Brahmā, "Please make me deathless. Please, I've been doing austerities for such a long time." You know how the austerities that Hiranyakāśipū did? If one ant sits on your nose, you feel so irritated. I know I was doing kīrtan 2 days ago outside, and there was one ant sitting on my nose. I was feeling so irritated. I wanted to stop the kīrtan in the middle to kick, get rid of the ant. But Hiranyakāśipū, when he was doing his austerities, He was standing on his toes with his hands looking at the sky, and he had millions of ants all over his body, millions of them, and the ants had eaten up his whole body. When Lord Brahma came looking for Hiranyakashipu, he was standing right next to Hiranyakashipu's body, because Hiranyakashipu's body was covered by millions of ants, and even Lord Brahma could not recognize him. He thought this was a mountain in which the ants were going up and down. So this was the extent of his austerities. So Hiranyakashipu, because of his austerities, he was thinking now he can achieve benediction by which he will not die. But Krishna was smarter than Hiranyakashipu. He fulfilled all the pledges that were given by Brahma, but he still killed Hiranyakashipu. I think you all know the story, so I won't go over the story. But the point I want to make is, you, you, nobody is smarter than Kṛṣṇa. You may become as powerful as Hitler, but still you have to surrender before death. The point is that for the atheist and the materialist, Kṛṣṇa is worshipped through the form of death. The atheist and the materialist faces Kṛṣṇa in the form of death, and the devotee faces Kṛṣṇa with love. So the point is that Kṛṣṇa knows all our desires in the heart, and based on our desires, He guides us accordingly. So Kṛṣṇa, when He sees that this priyādhani is very sincere, he wants to go out back to Godhead, then Kṛṣṇa will give you the strength to face all difficulties. Just like in your country, so the government put so many of your devotees in jail, but because they were sincere and determined, Even though they were in prison, Kṛṣṇa gave them the strength and intelligence to face the difficulties in the prison. Kṛṣṇa is very anxious that we come back to His house. We do not want to go back, but Kṛṣṇa is begging us, "Please come, please come, please come." The spiritual master is canvassing on behalf of Kṛṣṇa. "Please come, please come back to Kṛṣṇa." But we, the conditioned soul, keep saying, "No, no, no, no." It is just like the hog. Like I see in your Shikumi area, in this area, you see pigs walking around. In India also you see pigs walking around. So at least to the pigs in India, if you go with a nice plate of laddus and rasgullas and tell them, please take this rasgulla, the pig will say, no, I don't want it, and it will go and eat the stool. They like stool. To them, stool is more tasty than laddu or rasgulla. So similarly to the materialist, Material life is more tasty than spiritual life. And what is material life? Nothing but stool. Prabhupāda used to give one nice example. Once a boy was flying a kite on his roof. Like in India, people fly kites. In your country also they fly kites? So the people go on the roof and they fly kites. So one person was so absorbed in flying that kite that He was about to fall off from the roof. One other person came and said, "Hey, careful! You're going to fall off the roof." And the man was so absorbed in flying the kite, he said, "Don't disturb me. Let me fly the kite." So that is the story. That is the position of society today. You go to save these people and they say, "No, no, no, don't bother me. Niyath, time." So Prabhupada is saying the purpose that Kṛṣṇa will act with us according to our desire. Another point, another point that Prabhupāda makes is that one cannot go back to the kingdom of God till he becomes completely pure of the sinful desires. We must free ourselves of all material desires. Just like suppose I want to, suppose you want to go to England to visit. Now if you tell the English government you're coming as a tourist, they will let you come. But if you, as soon as you go to England and you start doing a job over there and the government finds out, they will kick you out. So we have to purify the heart of all material desires, all. You cannot tell Kṛṣṇa, "Kṛṣṇa, okay, 50% material desires I will give up, but 50% you please let me keep, please, please, please." When you are diseased, you don't tell the doctor, "Please take away half my disease and let the other half remain." When you are in pain, when you have a headache or a toothache or whatever, and your body is paining, you don't say, "Please, doctor, let half the pain go and half stay." You say, "No, I want all the pain to go." When you are hungry, you don't tell them, "Please give me 50% prasad." You say you want prasad to fill the whole stomach. So similarly, Kṛṣṇa is telling you, Give up all your material desires. So that Krishna and the guru are saying, give up all material desires, but the mind of the disciple is saying, oh, if I give up all my material desires, then how will I live? So I cannot give up all my material desires. So that is Maya playing a trick with you. Material desires can never satisfy you. This is the difference in the vision of the devotee and the non-devotee. The non-devotee is thinking "Then material desires will satisfy me." Therefore he must have vodka, therefore he must have one wife and few girlfriends, therefore he must eat meat, therefore he must gamble, therefore he must do all the nonsense he does. One great devotee, Rupa Gosvami, has said, "Kava dinam kalinam palita dornidesa." "My dear Lord, I have been trying to satisfy and serve my senses sincerely for thousands of births." But the senses are still not satisfied. You must have heard of the Rajneesh movement. So what is Rajneesh's philosophy? Have as much sense enjoyment as you want. As I am the GBC of Pune, where the Rajneesh headquarters is, I have seen their Rajneesh ashram inside and outside because I go to that city very often. So if you go to Rajneesh ashram, what do you see? Boys and girls, they are standing with their hands around each other. They are embracing each other, everything out in the open, and they call this sannyāsa and sannyāsini. So their philosophy is give the senses as much sense enjoyment as you want, and one day they will have enough, and then they will say, "Nir," I don't want any more sense enjoyment. But the nature of sense enjoyment is the more you give, the more they want. Like there are people in your country who are fond of drinking vodka. They've had drunk thousands of bottles of vodka, still they're not satisfied. They want more. So similarly, there are men who had relationship with so many women, still not satisfied. In the Western countries now, AIDS has become the biggest problem, especially in America. In America, it is such a dangerous problem that they are worried that in 20 years, uh, nearly one-fourth of the country will be affected by AIDS indirectly or directly. So why are people getting AIDS? Because they want to break the laws of God and want to have sex with the same sex, relationship with the same sex, and because they want to have unrestricted sex life like the animals. So Kṛṣṇa is saying, okay, you break the laws, have unrestricted sex, and pay the price, get AIDS. So you must understand, unrestricted sense enjoyment is not the answer. So wealth and women, Prabhupāda says in the purport, are the greatest enemies to our spiritual advancement. In the Bhāgavad-gītā, Arjuna asked Kṛṣṇa, "How is it that even when we have knowledge, one is forced into sinful activities?" Kṛṣṇa said, "Lust is the biggest enemy which is responsible for all this, which is always burning and never satisfied." Therefore, this lust can be counteracted with the attentive chanting and hearing of the holy names of the Lord. By the grace of the Lord, A devotee who is sincerely chanting will get strength from Kṛṣṇa to overcome the desires of the senses. When we sincerely chant the holy names, Kṛṣṇa, who is in the heart, gives us the strength to overcome the influence of māyā. So the holy name of the Lord, if it is properly heard and chanted, then it will take away the desires from the heart that are keeping you away from Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

They come to our mind, but can we recognize it?

Paramātmā recognizes the desires when it comes into your mind, not before.

What? Her family. Her family?

Yes. Because she's coming to spiritual life.

Yes.

Yes, when you come to spiritual life, the family will always be disturbed. This is historical all over the world. Even in India, when children come to spiritual life, children of rich families, the parents get very disturbed. If you tell your family, "I'm drinking vodka, I have a new boyfriend," no problem. If you tell them, "I'm chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, I'm giving up bad things," problem. One blind man likes to see that everyone is blind. There's a saying in English, misery loves company.

But if both of them come to spiritual life—

who is both?

Both he, she, and his wife, his husband, her husband, both of them, if they come together to spiritual life, it will be problem or not?

Hey, both, if you and your husband both come to spiritual life then it is ocean color.

It is said in Bhagavad Gītā, as we love Kṛṣṇa, He loves us. But we know that Guru loves Kṛṣṇa. As you love Kṛṣṇa, as you see Him. How you can see Kṛṣṇa? You love Kṛṣṇa, how you can see Him? How He opened to you?

How Kṛṣṇa has opened to me? Oh, this is a secret. I cannot tell you in public. I will tell you. I'm just joking. I don't understand your question completely. That is my problem. I think I'm trying to learn how to love Kṛṣṇa. I will not say that I have completely, I've completely loved, I completely love Kṛṣṇa 100%. Caitanya Mahāprabhu was God Himself. He said he has no attraction for holy name. So how can I, who am a very fallen servant of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, say that I love Kṛṣṇa 100%? A devotee will always say that he has no love for Kṛṣṇa, but he's trying to develop love for Kṛṣṇa. A devotee never thinks that he has so much love for Kṛṣṇa, now he does not need to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa anymore.

He asked questions of his friend.

Okay.

For his friend, or some man.

No problem. No problem.

He said, why you discuss so much time? Why you talk so much time about this? It will be better for you to go and to help for anyone in the hospital.

His friend is telling him. You tell him, we are building spiritual hospitals. In material hospitals you will get temporary cure, but again you will fall sick. But we are giving people spiritual medicine by which they will stop sinning. So you are opening spiritual hospitals all over Soviet Union. You tell your friend, so many hospitals are there in Soviet Union, but people are still falling sick, getting old, and dying. So you need the spiritual hospital. In your country There is no shortage of material technology. They can send man into outer space also. So they have a lot of material technology in your country and in all countries. But what they do not have is spiritual technology. So we are offering them spiritual technology. So all of you are spiritual doctors.

What is the use for chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa? Because we don't know about our previous life. And we don't know what will happen with us after.

You know about your previous life. In a previous life you were engaged in sense enjoyment, but you also did devotional service. Therefore you have come to devotional service in this life. And if you chant, if you paftere hare Kṛṣṇa, then you know your future definitely. Just like when you sit on the Aeroflot flight in Chikumi and the plane is going to Moscow, you have no doubt that you will land in Moscow. So Kṛṣṇa is same. Anybody who surrenders to Me is going to come back to Me.

Prasada, prasada. Many people come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and they have troubles with their family. And can you give any advice to devotees how they must deal with their parents?

Oh, they have trouble with their parents after they come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Yes, after.

Oh, sorry. I understand. Sorry. They are having trouble because their parents don't— the parents would rather see them become materialist rather than pure devotees. So we should tell the parents, "You want me to be happy? I'm happy. If I stay in material life, I will engage in sinful activities and still I will not be happy. But now I'm completely happy. And by my devotion, even you will become better, you will get benefited." By my devotion, even you will get benefited. Any more Vaprasad?

But sometimes it's trouble that, like for instance, some devotee in Tbilisi, he has old age parents. And, you know, he must to serve them. And what he can do?

It is exactly like India. In India you have these type of problem. So if it is necessary for the devotee to stay at home, Then he may stay at home, but still he must follow the Kṛṣṇa conscious process.

But there is no good situation for following principle of Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Then that should not be compromised. He should create that good situation.

He decide to marriage that his wife serve to him for example. Is it right or wrong?

This is exactly 100% Indian style. They say, The parents will say, "You get married and then the wife will look after us." So I will tell you a nice story. Once there was a very nice yogi. He was very austere and also he was pafterei Hare Kṛṣṇa. But there was one mouse in his house. There was a rat. No, sorry, there was a mouse. One day his clothes were hanging on a rope. And every day the mouse would come and disturb his meditation. So that yogi also had one friend. So the yogi told his friend, what should I do? Every day when I'm meditating, this mouse, this comes and disturbs my meditation. Your friend said, niyat problem, get a cat. You can meditate and the cat will take care of the mouse. So he bought a cat. So the yogi was very happy. The cat was taking care of the mouse and there was no disturbance to his meditation. But then the cat started saying, "Meow, meow, meow." The yogi could not understand what is this meow, meow. So the yogi called his friend. He said, "The problem of the mouse is over now, but now there is a new problem. The cat is always doing meow, meow, meow." So the friend said, "No problem. You just bring a cow. The cow will give you milk. The milk will feed the cat, and the cat will take care of the mouse." So the yogi went and brought a cow. So he was very happy. The cat stopped stopped doing meow meow. The milk from the cow was feeding the cat, and the cat was taking care of the mouse. But the cow started making noise. Ah, so the yogi said, like, now what does the cow want now? Why is she making these noises every day? So he called his friend again. The friend said, you have to give the cow some grass to eat. So then if you give the cow grass to eat, the cow will produce milk, the milk will take care of the cat, and the cat will take care of the mouse. So But the yogi said, "I do not have the time to go and bring grass every day from the market." So then the friend said, "If you don't want to disturb your meditation, there is no problem. You just get a wife." Prasada. "The wife will go to the market every day and bring that." He said, "Your wife will bring the grass for the cow, the cow will give milk, and then from the milk the cat will be fed, and from the cat she will take care of the rest." So the yogi said, "Okay, good. Get me a wife." So, so, no sir, then his friend got him a wife. The yogi got married. So the yogi was happy that now, the yogi was happy that now he has a wife. The wife is doing, bringing the grass, so he doesn't have to do anything. He can just meditate. But then the wife started saying, "I want jewellery, I want saris, I want this, I want that. Come on, you are my husband. What are you doing?" The wife said, "Come on, you are my husband, you have to give me all these comforts of life." Then the yogi called his friend and said, "Now what should I do? I had previously a small problem of just taking care of the mouse, but now my wife is giving me so much hell. What to do? She wants saree, jewelry." So the friend said, "No problem, I will get you a job in the factory. So you will do that job, from the job you You will earn money, from that money you will buy your wife saris and jewelry, and then— So the yogi's whole meditation was finished.

What's the end of this story?

The story ended. The end of the story is that this yogi, just to solve a small problem, he made the solution so complicated that in the end he had to give up his whole spiritual life.

Yesterday you told that so many people are in the deep, deep sleep, and is it some use to preach them?

Prabhupāda used to give an example of three different types of grass: dry grass, green grass, and wet grass. Dry grass, green grass, and wet grass. Understand this example carefully, it's very philosophical. So if you want to light fire to dry grass, you can just take one matchstick and light it, and the fire will be lit. If you want to light fire to green grass, you may have to use few matchsticks, not one, but you can light fire to the green grass, but it will take more matchsticks than the dry grass. But when you want to light grass, fire to the wet grass, you may have to burn many matchboxes. So these three different types of grass represent Individuals in the mode of goodness, passion, and ignorance. So when you are preaching to somebody in the mode of goodness, with little preaching he will understand Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If somebody is in the mode of passion, you will have to do more preaching. Yes. Like when you have to light green gas. But if somebody is in the mode of ignorance, like your friend in deep sleep, then you may have to burn several matchboxes.

Okay.

You understand, Paniyātmā?

Is there necessary to do it?

Well, try. Why not? Try to preach to everyone.

When you say matches, when you say matches, do you mean it is consciousness?

Huh?

Do you mean it consciousness?

Matches?

Yes.

Matches means effort. To preach to somebody in mode of ignorance, you need more effort than somebody in the mode of passion. Just like when you want to light fire to wet grass, you need more matchstick. Than Minga. Okay, so I think I will stop over here. Okay, did you all understand the class? Da da, it is always there, but it should not be in from one ear, out from the other ear. Sometimes they say that there's an underground tunnel from one ear to the other ear, so you have to block the tunnel in the middle. So when it comes in, it just stays in near