Qualities of a Saintly Person | SB 3.25.21 | Nairobi,Kenya | 12 Jan 2020 | Gopal Krishna Goswami

Om Namah Shivaya! Om Namah Shivaya! Om Namah Shivaya! Om Namah Shivayam! Before we start— We want to express our thanks to Mahāprabhu, Kīrana, and all the devotees who worked hard to make yesterday's program a success. Thank you. It was very successful. The program was well organized. The yajña was also executed nicely. A special thanks to Seva-sevārām also. Was sitting in the back. I must say thank you to the cultural program also. I thought that cultural drama was very well directed and executed. Who directed that show? Oh, you— okay. That goes very well. Either the dialogue was well selected too. We had a play in Delhi called— what was the name? It was a little similar to this. So I thought today we'll take on a verse which is a very famous verse. Some of you probably have it memorized. If you don't have it memorized, you should memorize it. It describes the qualities that a sadhu or a devotee should cultivate. Are you interested in hearing that? Yes. Yes? No?

Yes!

Okay, very good. So, Male or female, one who wants to pursue spiritual life, you cultivate these qualities. Because the last one week we've been discussing about the need and the importance of associating with a sadhu. We've done all that, but we should also know what qualities Sadhguru should manifest. Is that right? Yes, it is. This is a very famous verse, but we have limited time today because of the schedule. Sadhu, bhujana, and Masiyar. Is that MC? Prasad Raaval. Prasad Raaval. Masiyar MC did a good job too. He only made one mistake. Should I tell you what that was? You will probably not find the information. You forgot to mention the two devotees who came from Himmlavadi. Oh, Vishwanāma and Kāśipāda. Forgot to mention. Okay. So how many of you know this sloka by heart? Sadhu, sadhu, bhushana. Sadhu, sadhu, bhushana. Vishwakarunika ha.

Vishwakarunika ha.

Sridhar Sarvadeeno.

Sridhar Sarvadeeno.

Aditya Shatava Shanta. Aditya Shatava Shanta. Sadhu, sadhu, bhushana. Sadhu, sadhu, bhushana.

Sarva Dehina. Sarva Dehina. Jāśyatru Vāśānta. Jāśyatru Vāśānta.

Sādhabā Sādhu Guṣena.

Sādhabā Sādhu Guṣena.

Wait a minute. This is one of those voices that everybody loves to chant. So we have made up the time. Please excuse me. Okay.

Tidikshava. Tidikshava.

Tolerant.

Tolerant. Kārṇikā. Kārṇikā. Sūrīdaṁ, friendly. Sarva-līhinaṁ, to all living entities. Ajāta-sattvaḥ, inimical to none. Śāntaḥ, peaceful. Sadhavaḥ, abiding by scriptures. Sadhuṣanaḥ, adorned with are all sublime characteristics. Translation and purpose by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda. The symptoms of a sadhu are that he is tolerant, merciful, and friendly to all entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures, and all his characteristics are sublime. Responsibly. The symptoms of a sadhu are that he is tolerant, merciful, and friendly to all living entities. He has no enemies. He is peaceful. He abides by the scriptures, and all his characteristics 6. Sublime. Sublime. A sadhu, as described above, is a devotee of the Lord. His concern therefore is to enlighten people in devotional service to the Lord. That is his mercy. He knows that without devotional service to the Lord, human life is spoilt. A devotee travels all over the country from door to door preaching, "Be Krishna conscious, be a devotee of Lord Krishna, don't spoil your life in simply fulfilling your animal propensities. Human life is meant for self-realization or Krishna consciousness." These are the preachings of Prasada. He is not satisfied with his own liberation. He always thinks about others. He is the most compassionate personality toward all the fallen souls. One of His qualifications, therefore, is karunika, great mercy to the fallen souls. While engaged in preaching work, He has to meet with so many opposing elements, and therefore the sadhu or the devotee of the Lord has to be very tolerant. Someone may ill-treat Him because the conditioned souls are not prepared to receive the transcendental knowledge of devotional service. They do not like it. That is their disease. The sadhu has the thankless task of impressing upon them the importance of devotional service. Sometimes devotees are personally attacked with violence. Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, Haridas Thakur was caned in 22 marketplaces, and Lord Caitanya's principal assistant, Nilkananda, was violently attacked by Jagai and Madhai. But still they were tolerant because their mission was to deliver the fallen souls. One of the qualifications of a Sadhu is that he is very tolerant and is merciful to all fallen souls. He is merciful because he is the well-wisher of all living entities. He is not only a well-wisher of human society but a well-wisher of animal society as well. It is said here, Sarva Dehinam, mātā, which indicates all living entities who have accepted material bodies. Not only does the human being have a material body, but other living entities such as cats and dogs also have material bodies. The devotee of the Lord is merciful to everyone—the cats, dogs, trees, etc. He treats all living entities in such a way that they can ultimately get salvation from this material entanglement. Śrīvānanda Seṣaṇa, one of the disciples of Lord Caitanya, gave liberation to a dog by treating the dog transcendently. There are many instances where a dog got salvation by association with a sadhu because a sadhu engages in the highest philanthropic activities for the benediction of all living entities. Yet although a sadhu is not inimical towards anyone, the world is so ungrateful that even a sadhu has many enemies. What is the difference between an enemy and a friend? It is difference in behaviour. A sadhu behaves with all conditioned souls for their ultimate relief from material entanglement. Therefore, no one can be more friendly than a sadhu in relieving a conditioned soul. A sadhu is calm and he quietly and peacefully follows the principles of scripture. A sadhu means one who follows the principles of scripture and at the same time is a devotee of the Lord. One who actually follows the principle of scripture must be a devotee of God because all the shastras instruct us to obey the orders of the Personality of Godhead. Sadhu, therefore, means a follower of the scriptural injunctions and a devotee of the Lord. All these characteristics are prominent in a devotee. A devotee develops all good qualities of the demigods. 'Whereas a non-devotee, even though academically qualified, has no actual good qualifications or good characteristics according to the standard of transcendental realization.' What a beautiful purport is this.

The verse is beautiful and the purport is equally beautiful. One more thing before I start, I discovered yesterday. I wasn't aware that Venerable Vithambu was famous for paneer. It was probably a secret. If you are so famous for paneer, you have to have milk coming from your own farm. Hṛdaya-sadvāsantā-sādhu-sādhu-kṛṣṇa. So I said earlier, this is a very well-known verse, a verse that devotees love to memorize. And when we talk about sādhu, we don't necessarily talk about a sannyāsi or a brahmachari. That actually means anyone who pursues spiritual life. Whether you have a male body or a female body, it does not matter. If you want spiritual life, there are certain expectations. So this describes the qualities that a saintly person should develop. Prabhupāda, in his purport, has touched on all the points mentioned in the verse. The first thing he says is, "Siddhikshva, tolerance." Now a spiritualist must be very tolerant. In the material world, it does not matter who you are, we have to face many obstacles, many challenges, isn't it? But we should not get disturbed. Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, Emphasized the importance of tolerance in a famous verse from Sri Siksājna. What is that famous verse? Om asmi sri siksājna. So we have to be tolerant. Heat and cold, victory and defeat, honor and dishonor, are all a part of life. Normally when we get what we want, we feel honoured. And when you don't get what you want, you feel dishonoured. Honour and dishonour are both there. One day someone may say, "You are nice devotee." And another day someone says, "You are fool. You are just a burden." We have this honour. One day you may be victorious, One day you will not be victorious. You have to go and preach. Sometimes it's very cold. Of course, in Kenya, there's not so much radiation in the weather. But in some parts of the world, it's very cold. It's icy. Like right now, in a country called Kazakhstan, it's very, very cold. There's one female devotee called Krishna Nairika. She goes on book distribution every day, even in the snow. Every day, 365 days a year. Horrible. She presses. She says, "This is my duty. I have to do it." So she doesn't care whether it's hot or cold. A devotee has to be tolerant. Sometimes we have to challenges. Look at Prabhupāda's life. He was ordered in 1922 to take these teachings to the Western countries, and he had to tolerate so many challenges. And even when, for example, when he went on a cargo ship, that was not an easy job for a 70-year-old man, 40 years of experience as a pocket to go in a cargo ship. But he tolerated the inconvenience. Why? He had a higher cause in mind. So we have to be tolerant if you want to go back to Godhead. If you like the Nairobi climate, the pollution, you want to take birth again in Kenya, fine. If you want to go back to Godhead, you have to pay a price price tag. And one of the price tags is surrender to Kṛṣṇa. And surrender to Kṛṣṇa means having these qualities. But unless you have these qualities, you can't possibly surrender to the Supreme Lord. So we have to be extremely tolerant. And we see that spirit should be there in any preacher. Sometimes you go for preaching for hours and hours and you don't receive too many books. But we should tolerate that. Kṛṣṇa sees our efforts. Then karuni-kaha. Karuni-kaha means? What does it mean? Mercy. For example. Now there are different definitions of mercy. Some people think that doing merciful work means doing philanthropic work, opening a hospital, building an educational institution, and so on. We don't discount the importance of philanthropic work. Sure you can have. But the highest welfare, as Prabhupāda often said, is giving people knowledge of God. If at all there is a scarcity of anything on the planet, it is knowledge of God. So, what is true mercy? True mercy is to free. If, for example, Prabhupāda would not have sent the late Mādhava-daṣa Prabhupāda to Kenya, If Prabhupāda would not have come himself to plant the seed of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we would not be here today. We are here because some people did the pioneering work. Some people did the dirty work, as you want to call it. Now to walk into the temple, become a devotee, is not so difficult.— and it would have been 50 years ago to enjoy, and there were no facilities. So real mercy is to give people knowledge of God. Why? You may build a hospital or a school or whatever, but if you don't teach people how to cleanse the heart, then that facility that you create It just complicates matters more. You do a cataract operation for somebody who can't see. You restore his vision. If he goes and sees pornography and other vulgar things, then you've not helped him, you've entangled him. The true mercy is to deliver the message of the Lord. And what did Prabhupāda say in the purport? Go, House to house. Chaitanya Mahāprabhu called Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and said, "Go house to house and preach." You may say, "We are in Kenya, we can't do this house to house, people will throw us out." But according to time and circumstances, you can adjust. But the point is, That real mercy is giving people knowledge of God. When you go to high level, that's the dimension of real mercy. In Moscow, you've heard of Moscow? There's a Moscow City in America also. I'm talking about the real Moscow in Russia. In Moscow they are 5 different Sanghathan parties that go on the streets every day and do Hare Rama. And they don't have any police permission. They have developed very good relationship with the police by giving them prashad regularly. So even though they are pretty demonic, but they allow our prashad. A devotee want to go to get permission, take a box of sweets, and they go on and do haydā. That is true mercy. People hear the Holy Name and get purified. Real mercy is to give people knowledge of God. Our mentality should not be— I have seen myself, "Go to hell, and the others go to hell, what do I care?" No. A devotee must have the mood of compassion. Vaiṣṇava especially is parandu kadu duki. Seegala is in distress, he gets distressed. So we should not be thinking, "Oh, we have the nice Paṣvāldīnāmena nārāmī, the nice Rāmācāryāśrama." We should see how can we make the others more fortunate. What is real mercy? Real mercy is to— what's real mercy? Preach the message of God to everyone. It's not that when you want to preach, everyone's going to be favorable. No. In every environment, some will support you, some will oppose you. Even in countries like India, where you would expect they would applaud you at every step, when you tell them that you're going to move to distribution, they say, "What is this? Every day you come on the streets to distribute books. Don't you have something else to do?" So, when you are preaching, it's not that everyone is going to support you. When Lord Nityānanda and Haridas Thakur started their preaching. Some houses, they went to welcome them and said, "Yes, what's your message?" Some opposed them. Some didn't even open the doors. So, a devotee should have the mood of displaying real mercy and their various devices. Hare Rāma, even prasāda distribution, preaching, book distribution. Book distribution is actually what Prabhupāda cherished the most. He said, "If you want to please me, what do you do?" "Spread my books." How many of you do book distribution in Kīrtan? There will be enough. How many would ignore Mukteswar Ji? Very easy here. No. We should have more of a display of this mercy. I think now we are going a little slow. We should have this merciful nature. Sudha sarva. "Dehina." What is "hudasava dehina"? I'm a friend of everyone. Everyone is my friend. Not that I divide society into friends and enemies. We don't divide society into friends and enemies. Prahlāda's father, as you know, was a king, a demoniac king. He wanted his son to be trained in diplomacy. What does diplomacy mean? He's my friend, he's my enemy. That's what the politicians do, isn't it? So PRASAD RAVAL had two teachers, son in America. My honourable father's instruction, they were training up the PRASAD in diplomacy. Prasad RAVAL. Now I'm not interested in that. Everyone is my friend. No one is my enemy. So a devotee considers everyone to be his real friend. Even if someone criticizes you, normally we say, "Oh, he criticized me. He is my enemy. He is envious of me, jealous of me." Isn't that? That's what we say. If somebody is criticizing you or pointing out something that's good, we should be happy. The devotee has no enemies. Is that easy to do? Yes or no? No. It's not easy to cultivate that mood. A bhūṣbhi, everyone is my friend. Even as if somebody is criticizing you, you treat him as your friend. That is the real mentality of a devotee. No one is my enemy. Your own mind is your greatest enemy. The mind presents so many obstacles. Impulse his spiritual life. So the whole mind completely. So what he is? A friend of everyone. Then what is he? Ajitaśāttava. He is inimical to none. He is friendly with everyone. In the Bhāgavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa explains, What are the austerities of the tongue? You must be aware that in spiritual life, you hear about tapasya all the time. True? False? There are so many so-called religious preachers in the world. Examine their teachings. They never talk about tapasya. They never talk about austerity. Once I asked a very prominent preacher, "You give such big sermons, but you don't talk about austerity at all, which is discussed in the scriptures so often." He said, "If I talk about austerity, nobody will come to my lectures." So that's a fact. If you talk about austerity, then nobody will take it, take Kṛṣṇa seriously. When Prabhupāda first went to New York, on one occasion he had a meeting with the sādhus, small meeting who were there. They were advising Prabhupāda, "You are too conservative. In America, no one's going to listen to you. You should become like us, westernized." Prabhupāda refused to come. Prabhupāda was trying to get the Bhāgavad-gītā published in America. Prabhupāda had translated the Gītā twice. Once he translated it in India before going to the West, and he was looking for a publisher. With great difficulty he found someone. Who may be interested in financing it. But then when he came back to Calcutta, he discovered that the manuscript was sold. So then he retranslated the Gītā. And when he went to America in 1965, in '66 he sent Brahmananda and Rāmānanda, his disciples, to all the publishers. To get the Gītā published. So they went to big publishers in America, in New York. But the publishers would say, read the manuscript, and say, "Too much mention of bhakti, bhakti, bhakti. Too much mention of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa. If you reduce the mention of bhakti and Kṛṣṇa, then we may consider printing your book." So they came to Prabhupāda, "Prabhupāda, all the publishers are saying you are mentioning bhakti too often and devotion and Kṛṣṇa too often. They want you to reduce the mention." Prabhupāda said, "No! No compromise." Then how did Prabhupāda find my will? The devotees in America, in New York, had produced— Prabhupāda had produced an album called The Happening Record. That was advertised in a magazine called The Village Voice. In those days they had the VPP system. You could write in, send money by post, and then they would send that record by post. So one accountant who worked for a very big company called Macmillan, McMillan was a book publisher. One accountant from McMillan wrote to ISKCON, the Apple Records, that he wants one of those records. So Brahmanda saw— this is the same Brahmanda who came to Kenya— Brahmanda saw, and without form, McMillan! He knew how much Prabhupāda wanted to get the Gītā published. So he took the envelope to Prabhupāda and said, "Prabhupāda, somebody from the McMillan Company wants your record." So then Prabhupāda knew McMillan Company was a publisher. So Prabhupāda told Brahmananda, "You go and deliver the record yourself. Don't send it by post." So Brahmananda got dressed up in a suit and went to Macmillan and said— he went to give this record to the man who ordered the record. Luckily at that time in that meeting hall there was also the editor of the religious section of Macmillan sitting over there. So this man introduced Prabhupāda that, "This is Mr. So-and-so, who is in charge of our religious books." So Prabhupāda, when he heard this man, the editor of the religious books, is exactly what he was looking for. He said, "My spiritual master has translated the Bhāgavad-gītā in English, and he's looking for someone to publish it." editor there. "Oh, we just published the Bible, we just published the Quran, we just published the Jewish literature, and we are looking exactly for a Bhagavad-gītā to publish." So Prabhupāda came back to Prasāda and said, "Prasāda want to see your manuscript." And the next day Prabhupāda went with the manuscript and they agreed to publish it. Prabhupāda never compromised. So he never compromised. He didn't strike out bhakti and Krishna so that people will publish it. He spoke the truth and he maintained the truth. So a devotee is inimical to no one. He is friendly with everyone, even those who criticize him. So one of the or charity of the tongue is to speak the truth, but to speak it in a palatable manner, sweetly. So a devotee should not be inimical. We should not be friendly to some and unfriendly to others. Generally, we are friendly to those who do us favors, and those who don't do us favors, we get to be inimical. But a devotee should be friendly to everyone. Shanta. What does shanta mean? Peaceful. Peaceful. Why are we not peaceful? Why are we not peaceful? Who knows? Maturity. Conflict. Conflict in the mind. I'm talking about devotees, I'm not talking about gross sinners. Karma is the mind. Should I approach spiritual life or material life? Can I have my cake and eat it too? You know the famous English saying. It's a very nice cake with icing. Looks beautiful, but your mouth is releasing saliva. You want to eat it also. So you can't have it both ways. So the point is, we don't Thereby we are single-pointed. In the Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when instructing Sanatana Gosvāmī, He said, "The process of śrī-nāgatī." What does śrī-nāgatī mean? To surrender. The process of surrender means accept what is favorable for spiritual advancement and reject what is "Āṣṭhava." That should be our guiding mantra. Accept what is favorable, accept what is— reject what is unfavorable. As Rūpa Gosvāmī says, "My dear friend, whichever price you may have to pay, pay the price but become Kṛṣṇa conscious." To be Kṛṣṇa conscious, you do have to pay a price. And Kṛṣṇa doesn't keep any secrets. Does Kṛṣṇa keep any secrets? Does He? No. Kṛṣṇa clearly says, sarva-dharmāparitajāmāham ekaṁ śraddhava-jā. Dāntaṁ sarva-pāpevayomoṣṭhitaḥ mī. I will take, protect you. Mā sucaḥ. Do not worry. But only at one condition. What is that one condition? Surrender. Surrender to Me. Kṛṣṇa doesn't say, "Do your nonsense, surrender to Me 10% only, 90% discount, and I will protect you." No. He just says, "400% you give to Me, then I'll protect you." Kṛṣṇa doesn't do partiality. Yagiri. Bargaining. He doesn't say any word. When Krishna says, it doesn't mean give up Islam, give up Christianity, give up everything and become a Vaishnava. He means engage your mind, body, senses in my service, then I guarantee you You will come to me. Okay, Kṛṣṇa doesn't mince words. Mātāpradham nānyam. He says openly, "No one is higher than me." So a devotee lives by scriptures. And that's, these are the qualities a devotee must cultivate. Now in the purport, Prabhupāda mentions about two important points. He mentions the story about Śivananda Sen, and he talks about Haidāḥ ṣakura. Haidāḥ ṣakura, as you know, was very attached to the Holy Name. Philosophically, he's considered to be the incarnation of Brahmā. A long story. Ramana desired to take birth in a very humble position. So Haidas was getting so much respect, and at that time, 500 years ago, the Mohammedans were ruling in many parts of India, including Eastern India, Bengal. So Haidas was brought to the king, the Qazi. Mother Magistrate. And the king said, "Hai, hai! You're born in a Muslim family. You know what it means, such a high elevated birth. And you're chanting the names of Kṛṣṇa. We don't even eat rice if it is touched by a Hindu. And you're chanting the holy name." So Haidāz explained that the holy names of the Lord are omnipotent and non-different. But the king failed to convince Haidāz to stop chanting. And the king, they said, "Haidāz, if you don't follow all this," You'll be cut into pieces. No problem. In those days, the system of marriage punishment was they would drag the person through different marketplaces and somebody would be whipping him at the same time. So they said, "Hi, lads! If you don't give up chanting 'Hare Kṛṣṇa,'" "Man, you're going to take me to different marketplaces." So they started dragging him to different markets, first market, second market, third market, and they gradually came to the 22nd market. Normally the experience was that by the time somebody reached the second or third market, he would be dead. Flogging him. You know what flogging is? Flogging, beating badly. So Haider has been chanting. They were flogging him, but still there was no mark on his body. Finally, they reached the 22nd market place. At that point, the two people who were whipping him said, "Now the king will not leave us alive. We have failed in our duty." He's going to punish us. So Haidar pretended as if he was dead, and by his mystic power he controlled his breathing completely. So those who were flogging him— you know what is flogging, beating very badly— those who were flogging him were saying, now the king warned me, was Because Haithās hasn't died. Even if people die, by the time we take him to the second and third marketplace, he's still alive. So Haithās heard that because of him, these, those who were flogging him would get killed. Haithās, out of compassion, what did he do? He controlled his mystic breathing. And when they saw, Hainaz's pulses were not moving, he was not inhaling anymore, they rejoiced in ecstasy. "Hainaz is dead! He's dead! He's dead! He's dead!" So the word reached the king. "Rajnath Hainaz died. He died on the 22nd marketplace." So the king said, Bring his body here. We'll give him burial according to Muslim rites. He was a Hindu, but we'll act like a Hindu. The Qazi said, no. The Qazi was a real fanatic. No, we should throw him in the Ganga. This man was so offensive, we should not give him the honor of a Muslim burial. Throw him in the Ganga. So they threw him in the Ganga. Then Jaina swam across and in the hut underneath the tree started chanting again. So the word reached the king. He said, "Jaina who was declared dead is alive and chanting the Holy Name." The king was shocked. The king came and begged forgiveness. So Hridaya Sthakur, in order to prove his loyalty to the Holy Name, in order to go on chanting the Holy Name, he had to face death threats. You know, he was beaten, but he still did not stop chanting. So somebody would say, Oh, I never been to the temple. So we are not at that level. We may not be at that level, but by hearing the stories of the gīrācāryas, yes, what do we get? Inspiration. Prabhupāda talks about Jesus Christ, how He was crucified. So a devotee of the Lord, to be ready to tolerate adversaries also. When our devotees went to the former Soviet Union in 1970, many of them were imprisoned. Some of them even died in jail. They didn't give up the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. So we need to develop determination. I believe there was in Libya, not Libya, some African country with L, where 2 or 3, one Mataji was shot. Huh? Nadine. Nadine. Which country? Libya. Libya. Liberia. Liberia. She was shot because she did not get stopped chanting the Hare Krishna. So, There are examples even in the present day, ISKCON, a devotee going amid great hardships to preach. And Prabhupāda gives example in the purport of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Chaitanya Mahāprabhu told Haidas and Nityānanda, "Go house to house and preach." Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, Rittinanda and Haidas knew that Chaitanya Mahāprabhu was God, but they wanted to glorify Him more. Chaitanya Mahāprabhu was God appeared as a devotee. If you say Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, they are going to worry. So they did a survey, who in this town is most fallen, They said, "More fallen can become, can get saved, then Chaitanya Mahāprabhu's glory would be enhanced." So after this survey they found the two brothers born in a brahminical family, they had become degraded. Who were they? Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. They were last year, they had election in India. So Prime Minister Modi was campaigning in Krishnanagar in Bengal. In his campaign speech he said, "If you vote us to power, we'll get rid of all the Jagai-Mudais." He used Jagai-Mudai. So, they discovered these two brothers are devotees. So they said, "Let us try and make them into devotees." But many people told them, "Pabu, don't go near them. They won't leave you alive. You don't know how deadly these two brothers are. They're always drunk. They're always intoxicated. And they beat anyone who goes for kirtan." So they said, "Don't go." Everyone told them, "Don't go near them. If you go near them, they'll kill you."— didn't care because they were ordered by Chaitanya Mahāprabhu to go and preach. So they went, and when Jagāya and Balāya heard what they were preaching, they said, "Get out!" And they started chasing them, and they both ran. But they could not catch Haridas and Nithyananda. 'O Jagai, my Sai!' Because they used to drink a lot, they had their bellies out. You know, when you drink a lot, you get a big belly. They couldn't catch all of them. So they went in the evening. They gave a report to Lord Nithyananda what happened. And Lord Nithyananda, so Lord Chithirananda said, You would think Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu would have said, "Okay, don't go there again, okay? It's dangerous." No! The Lord said, "Go back again!" And they came back again the next day to preach to Jagāi and Māgāi. So they were so offended when they saw them again. "You came back again to teach to us? We will tell you yesterday not to come anywhere near us!" And bang! What did happen? They did anathema stone that caused the forehead of the Lord to bleed. The Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu preached in Ādavīsa, Vrindavana. But when He saw that His devotee was attacked, He came with His Sudarśana-cakra to punish him. But the Lord didn't do that. Stopped it. He said, "My Lord, this is just a small sample of what you can expect in Kali Yuga." And so when Jagai-Malai saw that even now he was causing the itinerant to bleed, and the itinerant didn't believe it tit-for-tat, he felt compassion. He felt sorry, and he begged forgiveness, and the Then became great devotee. So the point is, when you're preaching the mission of the Lord, doesn't matter which part of the world you reside in, you have to face many hardships. And we should be willing to undergo these hardships. We should not look for what they call in English, comfort zone. You know what's a comfort zone mean? There's very little response from the audience. You know what a comfort zone is? Yes. What is it? What is it?

You're comfortable with what you have.

You're always looking for a comfortable position. I will preach, but I will only preach if you give me a car, a driver, and a nice place to go. I don't have to struggle. People, the moment I come out of the car with books, they'll say, "Prabhu, I want a book, I want a book." That's what it means, comfort zone. I'll serve, I'm ready to do service, but you give me my terms, not your terms. That's called the comfort zone. So we're all looking for comfort zones. I will serve if I get this, this, this, this, this. But if you're looking for comfort zones, then what will happen? You'll be denied ticket back to Godhead. To get a ticket back to Godhead, you have to get out of the comfort zone. And that is the mood of a missionary. I'm not looking for comfort zone. I'm just looking for the opportunity to serve. So Jagai Madhai was cited. And the Prabhupada also cited the example of Śivānanda Sen. Shri Narendra Sen was a devotee of the Lord. He was returning from his duties and a dog began to follow him behind. The dog was following him behind. Then they came to the boat. They had to take a boat to cross the river. When they came to take the boat, the boatman said, "Hey! You can't bring that dog inside." He said, "Okay, take more money." that he loved him. Shivaji Natha said he used to feed his dog, and one day when he was out on some errand, he saw— when he came back home, he saw that the dog left his house because his servant forgot to feed the dog. So the dog left the home. Shivaji Natha said he was very upset. This dog who had come in my care has left home. He sent several of his colleagues to look for the dog. They could not find it. So Shivana sent a dog to see Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. And what did he see? Mahāprabhu was throwing dry cockroach and the dog was jumping up and eating them. Then they went back to Godhead. So there, once when Lord Caitanya was young, once He took a puppy dog. There were many puppy dogs, but Nimai took the most beautiful puppy dog home. So Nimai's friends started saying, "You stole the best puppy dog and left the ugly puppy dogs for us." And Nimai's mother said, "We are Brahmins. How can you have dogs in our house? No, no, no, I won't allow that." And Nimai said, "If you don't allow the puppy dog, then I'm not staying at home either." So then the mother had no choice. One day when Nimai had gone swimming in the Ganga, his mother released the puppy dog. Puppy dog, and the puppy dog wasn't at home. So when Dimai was in the Ganga, his friends came and said, "Dimai, Dimai, your mother has released the puppy dog and no one knows where it has gone." So Dimai told his friends, "Look for that puppy dog." They went everywhere searching for the puppy dog, and they found the puppy dog where? In the center of the city. The dog was dancing on two legs, two hands in the sky, and chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. And in front of everyone, the dog was in such ecstasy that in front of everyone, it appeared from the spiritual world, the dog going on the chariot saying, "Bye-bye," with bhagavad-gītā. If you want to keep a dog, you have to guarantee you'll make him a Hare Krishna devotee. Otherwise, don't copy Śrī Vrinda dasaḥ. Don't say, "Oh, Śrī Vrinda dasaḥ was so careful." So to summarize, these are the qualities of a sadhu that we briefly discussed. These are very elaborate topics, but I thought that one of you should here and make an endeavor to cultivate these qualities. How many of you would like to cultivate these qualities? No one. How many of you feel you already have these qualities? Deja vu. How many of you feel you have these qualities? No one. Gauranga Mahāprabhu is a big artist. How many of you feel you have 50% of these qualities? Okay. So please endeavor to develop these qualities. Prabhupāda, when he was lecturing at Nairobi University in 1971, he told— the audience was more than 2,000 African students. They were all— Prabhupāda said, 'We are not this world.' body. If you want to get out of the bodily realization, it's not much good then to give you the whole philosophy. Let's take interest in the philosophy. You must read these books regularly. If you don't read, you'll be on the mental platform. Even our initiated devotees, if they don't read, they don't understand the philosophy. They've got into the philosophy. Like here, Kṛṣṇa is offering nice facilities for devotees to live. Lokadāma, Vaikuṇḍadāma, how many dāmas you have here. I hope people don't think I'm living here, that means I've got my ticket to the dāma. But the mood should be, not that I'm staying as a cheap bargain. The mood should be work work for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa. You offer the results. Kṛṣṇa says, karma-nivādikaḥ mahā-phalaśuḥ kadāśanaḥ. If you want to make spiritual advancement, offer the fruits to Me also. Not that, "Oh, the fruits go in My pocket and the flowers go to Kṛṣṇa." Kṛṣṇa says, patraṁ puṣopalam toyam. So I do that a mood we should exhibit, surrender in our dealings. That is perfection. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Krishna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama.

Rama, Rama, Hare Hare.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna.