Nature cooperates if we establish our relationship with Kṛṣṇa | Rus-Split| 1992 |Gopāl Kṛṣṇa Goswāmī

Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. So I have to admit that I'm very happy to be back in the Moscow Temple, but this is the first time that I have come to a new country, because previously when I came, this was known as Soviet Union. Now it's known as Russian Republic. So in the material world, names are always changing. And tastes are always changing. You like something today, you don't like something tomorrow. What is good today becomes bad tomorrow. Just like once upon a time, one philosophy that was good later on was found to be bad. And what is good today could also be turned bad tomorrow, because all this is what you call relative knowledge. Relative knowledge is always changing, but absolute knowledge does not change. What was true today It is true today. What was true yesterday is true today, and it will be true tomorrow. So this Krishna conscious movement is presenting a philosophy that is eternally true, and it is true for the whole planet. Not that it is true for Moscow and not true for Ukraine, or true for this part of the world and not true for another part of the world. In Sanskrit, this philosophy is known as Sanatana Dharma. Sanātā means— sanātā means eternal. Dharma means duty. So the eternal duty of every living entity is to engage in service to Bhoga, to God. At one time in this country you had communism, and people thought you will become happy by communism. So they tried communism for 70 years, and they decided, no, communism cannot make us happy. We need capitalism. Capitalism will make us happy. But capitalism will also not make you happy. I'm just coming today from America and Canada, and in America and Canada where there is 100% capitalism, even over there people are crying. Just like in Moscow we have started Prasad distribution program, in America we are doing Prasad distribution in every city, and so many hungry people are coming. So you must understand that without God, whether you have capitalism or communism, nothing will work. So what we need is spiritualism, not communism, not capitalism, not socialism, but spiritualism, Krishnaism. So we are propagating Krishnaism. So some of you— I see there many visitors today, so many of you may want to know what is Krishnaism. So just now you saw a play, and I will explain to you what is Krishnaism in light of the play that you saw. Of course, the devotees who live in the temple, they've all heard this story many times, but many of our guests, they have probably not heard the story before. So these stories are all eternal and they're always sweet. Krishna incarnated in the form of Caitanya Mahāprabhu 500 years ago. If you want to be very precise, because these days everybody believes in mathematics, It was about 505 years ago. So Krishna appeared in the form of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Why did He appear as Caitanya Mahāprabhu? For two reasons. One was Krishna wanted to understand the intensity of Rādhārāṇī's attachment and devotion to Him. But this I will not discuss today because many of you may not understand this. Rādhārāṇī is recognized as the greatest devotee of Krishna. But another reason why Krishna appeared as Caitanya Mahāprabhu was to deliver the fallen souls of Kali-yuga. In Kali-yuga, by and large, people are not too interested in self-realization. They are more interested in what is known as sense enjoyment. Whether you go to a simple village in India, or a simple village in your country, or a simple village in America, everywhere people have the same interest: sense enjoyment. Eat, drink, and be merry. Because Caitanya Mahāprabhu is God, He knows that people cannot be happy by eating, drinking, and being merry. After all, who can know more than God? Just like the small child, he always turns to the father for information on everything. So we have to turn to God for direction. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu was very unhappy seeing the attempts of the materialist to become happy by some material arrangement. So Chaitanya Mahāprabhu propagated the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. In your country, the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra was first introduced when Prabhupāda came to Moscow in 1971. And in most of the Western countries, including America and all, the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra was introduced around 1965 when Prabhupāda came to those countries. But that does not mean that the Hare Krishna mantra is only a 25-year-old mantra, and this was propagated by Caitanya Mahāprabhu 505 years ago. But actually, the mantra is millions of years old. This mantra was not fabric— was not created by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. It has been existing since time immemorial. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he instructed all his followers to go village to village, town to town, and spread the propa— and propagate the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. In the drama that you saw, you witnessed that Lord Nityānanda, who is an eternal associate of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he was preaching to everyone, please chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Pāsa usta paṣṭare Hare Kṛṣṇa. So Nityānanda was ordered by Caitanya Mahāprabhu to go house to house and propagate the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. So while he was carrying out the orders of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he met these two drunken brothers called Jagāya and Madāya. Jagāya and Madāya were born in a brahminical family. Some of you may want to know what is the meaning of a brahmin. Who knows the meaning of a brahmin? Yes, what's a brahmin? Anybody can get up and say, give the answer. Brahmin is generally one who knows the purpose of human life. And who is living by the scriptures. So Jagai and Madhai were born in Brahminical family, but then they became contaminated. They became contaminated by, uh, evil habits, and they became drunkards. It is not that only in your country people drink vodka or liquor. People drink— like drinking liquor everywhere. So Jagai and Madhai, they were very big drunkards, and Lord Nityānanda would regularly beat them and tell them, "Sir, why you're drinking? You come from a brāhminical family. Please chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra." So a man who is intoxicated with material desires, he becomes like a madman. We see in society today the materialists are virtually like madmen. For a little bit of happiness, they will do anything. Whether it involves killing somebody also, they don't care. That is why there's so many abortions that are going on, so many other evil, evil habits in society. So Nithyananda Prabhu would still approach everyone and tell them, please, please, Chana Hare Krishna, don't waste a rare human life. You may want to know, why did I say rare human life? Does any one of our guests know why I said rare human life? Anyone knows? No one? Any devotee knows why I said rare human life? So this body, this is rare human life because this body is obtained after a long, long, long struggle, after going through so many millions of births as species that live in water, species that live on land that cannot move, species that live on earth are insects, birds, animals. Lastly, you get this human birth. So since this body is obtained with great difficulty, it is called rare, rare human birth. And there is no guarantee that your next birth is going to be human. Today it may be human, tomorrow it can be like an animal. So the Vedic scriptures conclude, please use this human life carefully. So, Jada Madai those two drunken brothers, every day they were being told by Nithyananda, don't waste your human life. Sometimes when you speak the truth, people get insulted. Therefore, in the material world, nobody speaks the truth. Our political leaders don't speak the truth, the parents don't speak the truth, and our so-called teachers and scholars and Nobel Prize winners, they don't speak the truth because nobody knows what the truth is. So how will they speak the truth? So, but a devotee, he always speaks the truth. He does not believe in lying. So Nityananda Prabhu, because he was telling these two drunkards, please, please, please don't waste your human life, chāna Hare Kṛṣṇa, one day they became very angry and they threw a stone on his forehead. And when the stone hit the forehead, what came out? Blood. Since this was a drama and not a real act, you did not see the blood coming out. But when Nityānanda was attacked, blood came out. So Nityānanda was attacked, but Nityānanda still did not say anything. He still pleaded, "Sir, please, please, you can beat me, no problem, but please chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." But when Lord Nityānanda heard what had happened to Nityānanda, he became very angry. Why did he become angry? Because a devotee of the Lord is very dear to the Lord. The devotee can tolerate all inconveniences, but the Lord cannot tolerate his devotee being insulted or offended. So Lord Nityānanda— Chaitanya Mahāprabhu was so angry that he ran to see what had happened to Nityānanda and to kill these two drunkard brothers with his Sudarshan chakra. The Sudarshan chakra is a very powerful weapon. Just like these days you have nuclear weapons, This is million times more powerful than a nuclear weapon. No human being can have this weapon. Tolka Krishna. Only Krishna can have this weapon. But so when Nityānanda saw that Caitanya Mahāprabhu was getting ready to release the Sudarshan Chakra, he said, no, please don't do this. He said, in this age everybody is fallen like him, like Jagai-Madhai. Therefore, we will use another Sudarshan Chakra. We will continue to beg them to please chant. So Nityānanda stopped Caitanya Mahāprabhu from killing these two brothers through the Sudarshan Chakra. And even though Nityānanda was beaten, even though blood was coming from his forehead, still he told Jagāīmādaī, please chant, please chant, please chant. He said, "You can do anything to me, no problem, but you please chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." So Jagai and Mādhāi, when they saw that this Nityānanda is so humble, we have taken blood out of his forehead and he's still begging us to chant, their hearts began to melt. Their heart began to melt and they began to think, "Oh, this man is not ordinary, he's some divine personality." So they also, they said, yes, we must, we must chant. We have done something wrong. Then Jagai and Madhai fell at the feet of Lord Nityānanda, begged forgiveness, and they became great devotees of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So just like Jagai and Madhai were saved, Prabhupāda has saved millions of people. Because when Prabhupāda came to America in 1965, Everybody was like Jagai-Madhai. 500 years ago, the Jagai-Madhais could be counted on your fingers. Niyad manoga Jagai-Madhais. There were not many Jagai-Madhais. But today, everywhere, all you see Jagai-Madhais. They are only interested in liquor and sense enjoyment. Just like I know in your country, when Mr. Gorbachev was trying to bring, to control vodka consumption, But he failed because people will not have money to eat, but they must have money for vodka. In India, I see that there are poor people in villages who don't have even enough money for eating, but they must have country-made cheap liquor every night. They will work very hard all day, earn ₹25, and ₹15 they will spend in the night in drinking, and then sleep on the road. So people are very addicted to sense enjoyment. So just like Jagai Madhai was saved by the chanting of Hare Krishna mantra, we can all be saved. The devotees have to have the humility of Lord Nityananda. They have to have the determination of Lord Nityananda, and they have to have the humility and tolerance of Nityananda. Lord Nityananda was determined that even though he was physically attacked, he He still went on pleading with them, please chant. That is why you see the Hare Krishna devotees, wherever they go, they give people only one message. They say, please chant Hare Krishna mantra. Why do they only give one mantra and not hundreds of mantras? When you go to Moscow, Leningrad, London, Paris, you'll only see devotees giving one mantra. What is a mantra? Mantra is a Sanskrit word That means a process of obtaining peace of mind. Is there anybody who does not want peace of mind? If you don't want peace of mind, then please don't chant Hare Krishna. But if you want peace of mind and happiness, then please chant Hare Krishna. A mantra— if you chant the mantra properly, then you can obtain peace of mind. So Hare Krishna mantra means that the devotee is praying to the Lord, oh Lord, please engage me in service, please save me. So we request everyone, whether you're a student, a housewife, a businessman, a factory worker, or unemployed, that everybody should please try to establish his relationship with God. Because unless you establish a relationship with God, material nature will not cooperate. Just like these days in the Western countries, in the newspapers, all you read is about the food problems and Russia and the other republics. Therefore, whenever I go to our ISKCON temples in North America, devotees want to know, do our devotees have enough prasad in Russian republics? I tell them, for devotees there's no problem, they don't have to stand in long lines. But, but unless we try to establish a relationship with God, material nature will not cooperate. In the Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna says, Food grains come from rainfall. Rainfall comes from sacrifice. Sacrifice means religious duties. So unless we execute religious duties, uh, you will not get cooperation from material nature. This is a very simple law. Just like if you don't follow the government, you cannot get cooperation from the government. So beyond this government, there's a supreme government. That is the government of Krishna. And Krishna is not a sectarian God. He's not a God for Hindus or Muslims or Christians or Indians or, or some other community. He's God for everyone. So we have to take Krishna's teachings to heart. Ordinary living entities suffer from four types of mistakes. We have a tendency to cheat, we make mistakes, our senses are imperfect, and we get illusioned. Is there anyone that any of you know in this audience who doesn't suffer from these four defects. Do any of you have any friends who are free from these four defects? No, nobody's free from these four defects. But Krishna is free, and his agents are also free from the influence of these defects in the sense that they follow Krishna's teachings. So we have to recognize that our knowledge is imperfect, but we're taking shelter of Krishna, we will gradually become perfect. Please recognize also that you have to take shelter of everyone, of somebody. If you don't take shelter of Krishna, you will have to take shelter of the agent of Krishna. And then agent of Krishna is very cruel. Krishna is very kind, but his agent is the opposite, and that's Maya Devi. You may want to know what will the cruel agent of Krishna do to you. This agent of Krishna will make sure that you're always miserable. It will make sure that if you have a healthy body today, tomorrow you will become sick. It will make sure you become old. It will make sure that you eventually die. And it will make sure that when you are in the womb of your mother, again you will suffer. Therefore the child always comes out of the mother's womb crying. Then it will make sure that material nature troubles you also. Today, of course, the pagoda is ochen karoshoi. But it's not like karoshoi every day. Sometime it is too hot, sometimes too cold. Sometime there are floods and sometime there is drought. When you have floods, everything gets destroyed. And when you have drought, no water, then you can't have agricultural production. Then there is material nature that is always ready to trouble you. There's earthquake sometimes. But that is not all. Maya, Maya, they will make sure you have more miseries than this. Other entities are also troubling you. Other entity doesn't mean just the KGB or something. It means other living entities. Some of them may be your friends, your relatives, even the small mosquito and the fly. You go to sleep in the night and the mosquito will come in, boom, boom, boom, and make your life miserable. And then your mind is always troubling you. I'm sure if you want to be honest, all of you will admit that your mind is your biggest enemy. The mind has unlimited material desires. When you see some American car, don't you feel like, oh, I should also have that car? So mind is always troubling us. Mind troubles you in two ways. One way is hankering. Second is lamentation. You are hankering for what you do not have and you are lamenting for what you have lost. He said, "But, Shri Avadhoot, people are always lamenting." Just like now you have had a change of system, but still some people are lamenting, "No, no, no, maybe we should have communism." So hankering and lamenting will always go on. Today you like someone, tomorrow you hate him. So the mind is troubling you. Never be happy. Lama Lama Ale Ale. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna.