Meeting With Devotees | 2 Aug 2022 | Toronto | Śrīla Gopāl Kṛṣṇa Goswāmī

Hare Krishna. Jai Nrsimha Svarūpa. Jai Nrsimha Rādhārāṇa. Jai Jāñāpīya Mādhava.

My guru mahārāja, Prasād RAVAL, he used to visit Boise every year. And there my mother, she started homeschooling us using Śrīla Prasād RAVAL's books, using the Bhāgavatam. And we used to read Bhāgavatam at home. And as a result of that reading of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, we started college when we were 13 years old. And one thing that Guru Mahājā actually inspired us was, I used to chant when I was like 8 years old, I sometimes used to chant 5 rounds, sometimes 4 rounds. So what he said is that we should chant, just to inspire us, he said we should chant the number of rounds according to our age. So after that, that was a really nice inspiration. So when I was 8 years old, I would chat 8 rounds, 9 years old, 9 rounds.

I'm actually 35. It's actually a good idea.

And then by the time I was 15, it was so close to 16. So, well, by the time I was 14, it was close to 16. So we just started doing 16 rounds, and then I got initiated when I was 15.

What did you do after that?

So after, I went to university, and then I completed my bachelor's and master's in electrical engineering by the time I was 19. And then I took 1 or 2 years off. From time to time, by Guru Maharaj's mercy, I would travel with him. By his mercy, by his grace, get some inspiration to serve. And then I did my PhD at Oxford University in science and religion. Particularly Hinduism, Bhagavatam theology.

Prego.

At Aurora University near Chicago.

Okay, very good question.

In one of the lectures, you mentioned that original illusion was gone by the end of the Bhagavad Gita when Lord Krishna asked him. So his illusion was gone when he heard Lord Krishna. So my question is, day in, day out, when we work life, like professional life, we deal with people who are either in the mode of passion or ignorance most of the time. So during that time, how should we manage our life that we should be in Krishna consciousness, our thought process?

And he has a different way from work. Alright? It's good. So, Baba Keerath gives an example. Although it is even more tough, but I'm just going to quote. If you have prepared in the morning by chanting a song, then there's a good chance in the daytime you'll be able to remember the song. It's like, you know, some get up As a boy, I was born in Pukkisilvi village. Those who do good sādhanā in the morning, they do very well in Pukkisilvi village. Those who do sādhanā in the evening, they don't do so well. So, the early hours of the morning are very conducive for chanting a hymn. Thank you very much. Maharaj, I find it very difficult to preach to people who are rich, professionally very successful, but they have all sorts of these arguments against Krishna consciousness. How to preach to them? It's not that. Every brain Krishna conscious is poor. He said he finds it fun to preach. There were 1 million at that moment also. So the point is, you should preach. Majority may not accept it. They may not hear. They may not believe. Never indicate people. You will have rich people, of course, In the Bhagavad Gītī, what is becoming angry? Too much merit, too much education, proud personality, and beautiful wife. And nothing wrong with beautiful wife, anyway. But that's unnecessary. In the Bhagavad Gītī, before becoming angry, very precious life. But it's not with everyone. I hear so many devotees who are very rich, very humble, down-to-earth. There's so many people who are very educated and they still devote. But there are cases, these 4 factors will influence you.— from trouble. We preach, say we do our duty, Krishna blesses. Actually we have no qualification to preach. We should just pray to the Lord. He made us instruments in preaching Him glory. Everyone understands that. By doing Mind you, the 'I' opens this thing. If you think, 'I, I, I,' then the 'I' will let you turn down. So, better to be humble and think as a totally unworthy. If you think, 'I am so worthy,' that's another aspect. What do you do with that? Okay, I think one or two more. Yeah.

Prasad, what happens to a devotee who at the end of his life may not remember Krishna?

Unfortunately. If he is a devotee, he will remember. If somebody has implanted, then he should remember. But You may have a decision. Someone done good devotion and he died in an accident. So, and in an accident, sudden accident, you may not be able to remember. But Prabhupāda said, "The devotee doesn't need to fear." Because, because of that, what he had done, That's how this country is. That's how we are educated. That's how we just pass on brain and accidents. So, you know that? I hope it wasn't scary. God is with you. Maharaj, how do we elevate ourselves to the next level? Just when we do very bare minimum 16 rounds, in order to do more, how do we get the inspiration to do more than 16 rounds? As you progress spiritually, you get attached to Hoga Niyam. We have two things in yoga, prasadabhakti and abhinavabhakti. Prasadabhakti means you follow rules and regulations. If you follow the rules and regulations regularly, then you get to the next stage. It is spontaneous devotion. So, if you go on Zen, you will reach the state. You will go to Zen all the time. Of course, of course, someone who do job, business, you will say, "Stop doing your job, just Zen." Oh, this is a story. Arjuna and his family in South India came and stayed in the house of Kausalya Brahman, of Kurma. Kurma Brahman said, "I want to leave home. I'm tired of staying at home. I want to go with you and bring it." Arjuna said, "No, I have here, Prasad Raaval, with two children." Śrīla Mahāprabhu, when Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "Stay at home, chānta Hare Kṛṣṇa, feel the glories of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, preach the Bhāgavatam and distribute them." He said to Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, "Always be with Me, I will always be with you." This is a very important guideline for Kīranaṣṭhā. Sometimes they get tired of this. When we do our bhakti and try to advance in devotional service, so does maya also get stronger to test us in bhakti? Maya is going to get stronger day by day as Kali will expand. As Kali will expand, the more it is, more coalesced, more lazy, more misbehaved. And you can see, I Anyway, of course the Windows service also is there. It's like the smartphone. The smartphones are shortcuts to hell. You can have pornography there, you can have dating, whatever thing, you can gamble there, you can watch movies there. You see, he had to go to movie theater. You don't have to go to movie theater. You're right here. At that point, and he can gamble on that, he can go horse racing on that, he can go deal at the stock market. What is there that he can't do? He wishes everything on his smartphone. People are not buying wristwatches now, because they can see their time on the smartphone. People are not reading newspapers now, they get all the news in the papers. On the smartphone. Smartphone they have, they change. So, at one time, we had the movie. They tried to keep all the movies on the telephone. I had been to Modi, Modi office, open up the computer and they're reading about Madam "I'm a boss in the world." So, it's part of one. I say, "A blessing and a curse." A blessing if you use it correctly, a curse if you don't use it correctly. Okay, anyone? Nobody is. Yeah.

Sadhguru Maharaj, as I'm wearing the kanti mala, in my mind sometimes I think like some people are thinking bad about me and I think bad about them. So it is a big abrath, right?

Why should you think bad about them?

Because sometimes they say things like that it's not good for us, like, may be thinking, "Oh, I'm doing so much," and things that I'm doing, like especially Krishna consciousness, and like the family members or whatever, they may be thinking that, "Why is she—" You're talking about family members? Family members or friends or anybody.

They will think bad of you. Yeah. Why should they? Let them think bad of you, but you don't think bad of them. Okay. We don't believe in tit for tat. I never said that. You will think good of everyone. You will be respectful to everyone. You will be truthful in your dealing. You will be humble in your dealing. The other person will be arrogant and rude. All right. That is what it means to be a devotee. Okay? Okay. I will read all the answers. Yeah.

Hare Krishna, Guru Mahārāja. My question is, like these days we are allowed to work from home, and as a devotee we have to be honest and we should keep integrity with our job. But sometimes as a devotee you listen side by side, you know, sometimes classes or kīrtan, And sometimes you start searching something, so like 1 hour or sometimes it goes in your dead aspect. Is it justifiable?

But now working from home is the end of the company. Many companies now are realizing it's not surviving. They have no solution. And then they have decided working from home. To show that the more desirable they are, the more fighting is going on. And then they go, "Where you go?" Everything at a bad point, amazing point. You can ask Prasad RAVAL.

Guru Mahājānanda. In the Bhāgavatam and so many books we see that like the sages, they had to meditate for thousands of years or over the course of many lifetimes to attain the Lord. So is it possible for us in one lifetime to go back home, back to Godhead?

Is it actually possible? Before the 4th wave of people, when they really go back to sanctity, we have proper sanity. And Amazon gives you a warranty, you are 100% paid. If I don't like the product, I can return it. Some people use the product and bring back. Everybody doesn't know that that's part of the business side of it. We could be another Gandhi, but we don't have faith in Krishna or Gandhi. Maybe we cannot be. Maybe we have faith. Gandhi practiced our faith again. Come on, man. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.