The goal of life | Rus-Split | 2017 | Srila Gopal Krishna Goswami

We would like to welcome all of you to our program this evening. Is there anyone in the audience who's coming for the first time? Okay, it's very real special, those who are coming for the first time. 6 individuals raised their hands. At one time we all come for the first time. This is a very good sign. I remember the first time when this contact was Montreal, Canada, 1967, and I'm sure all of you came for the first time. I did also, with some other Russian students. The fact that it comes means we are interested in understanding what is the goal of life. In our lives, everyone's asking questions. The birds begin to ask questions in the morning, and life is nothing but a series of questions and answers. When you're a young student, You ask so many questions from your parents. And then as you get older, you're trying to decide what career to take. Again, you ask so many questions. You ask your friends, "What should I do? Engineering? Doctor? Medical? Accounting?" And then if you want to be an engineer, "Okay, what branch of engineering should you take?" Want to be a doctor, "What branch of medicine should you take?" If you want to start business, you want to know what business should I do. Our goal is always profit. If I want to be an engineer, I'm asking questions: which field of engineering will I make the most money? If I want to be a doctor, I want to know which field of medicine will I make the most money? Young student, what branch of medicine are you studying? Then he says, I'm trying, I'm going to become an eye doctor. I said, why? He said, that's where all the money is going to be in future. People are working on computers and getting bad eyes. So where can I make the most money? That's the bottom line. The politicians are also asking questions. They have surveys done in which they find out what are the problems people are facing. So we're all asking question and answers. They have question and answers. Every newspaper says they're publishing Prabhupada. Actually, no one's publishing Prabhupada. We had one newspaper called Prabhupada at one time. So we're all asking questions and getting answers, but are these question and answers satisfying us? If they were satisfying us, there would not be so much depression in society, there would not be so much anxiety in society, there would not be so many mental cases in society. Obviously these questions and answers are not satisfying anyone. In spiritual life also, we ask questions. Everyone coming here has some interest in spiritual life, unless you came here by mistake. If you came here by mistake, then you're most welcome. Most people know where they were headed for. So asking questions in fact is a sign of knowledge, and we should all be asking questions that tell us the real truth. There is one exam that no one can escape. That's a final exam that we all have to take. Doesn't matter rich or poor, male or female, Indian or Russian. And what is that exam? What's that exam? Final exam. That's death. Is that what he said? The final exam that we all have to take is death. How do we prepare for that final exam? This question was asked by an emperor called King Parikshit. As you know, King Parikshit was the emperor of the whole world. Just like in your country, at one time they had monarchy. The monarchy was there in many parts of the world, and Parikshit Maharaj was the emperor of the whole planet. Once he was in the forest. He was very thirsty. And hungry. So in search of water and food, he entered a hermit's hut. Rādhārāja Mahārāja, just we pay to him. He was not only a king, he was called Rādhārāja. So when he walked into a hermit's residence, the hermit was involved in meditation. They didn't even look at him. If some big man comes to your house, won't you look at him? The way the education is, even your enemy comes to your house, receive him warmly. Prasad RAVAL says, receive him with hot prasāda. The Hare Kṛṣṇa are famous for distributing prasāda, and they're famous for food for life. Receive them with prasāda. That's vyānyā means Receive them with water. And the Russian tap water is very good quality. You don't have to buy bottled water. And you can't even buy water. Receive them with warm, well, the words of welcome, and a mat to sit on. Do warm words of welcome cost any money? Does a mat cost any money? But this sage was absorbed in meditation. He didn't even look at the king. So the king felt offended. You may say, "But he was a devotee of the Lord, rishi. Why did he feel offended?" Not only was he a rishi, but he was also a king. So he had a kshatriya element in his character. So he felt insulted. He wasn't received properly. And as he was leaving the hut,— or a death snake. He placed the death snake on the shoulder of the sage and in an angry mood walked out of the hermitage. The king— I'm sorry, the sage's son, Shringi, was playing outside. He saw the king walking by. He was curious what transpired between the king and his father. So he went in out of curiosity. He asked his son, what did the king say? But there he saw a death snake on the shoulders of his father. So he ran behind the king, spoke some insulting words, and cursed him. What did he curse him? In exchange for what you've done, you're going to be bitten by a snake 7 days from now. Snakebite. So normally when we get term notice You know, a fatal disease, you only have a week or two weeks, a few months to live. We all get worried, isn't it? Of course, some of you may not be, but by and large people do get worried. By and large people do get worried. But Praśad RAVAL did not get worried. He did not panic. He did not cry. He wasn't, no, he was not in shock. He just wanted to know. What should one do who is about to die? So in my days, thousands of great sages, just like these days we have consultants in every field. Many times I ask people, what business do you do? Well, I'm a consultant. It appears that there are a lot of consultants in the market. There are consultants in business, accounting, law, in every field. So you have consultants for spiritual life also, and they are called sadhus. They're consultants for spiritual life. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja, being a king, he had very powerful influence. Just like these days you have SMS, you send an SMS and one second, tens of millions of people get a message. I'm sure your Roscoe Temple has an SMS system. When they will have a program, you get an SMS and you come, isn't it? I was speaking yesterday to a Devotee who lived in one little village near a big city. I asked, "Do you come to the temple regularly?" He said, "No, I only come on big festival." I said, "You live in a village, how do you know when is the big festival?" Now we have the modern techniques of communication in Prasada Maharaj's time also. Brahman sent SMS and thousands of sages came and assembled together. They all came to his palace and asked them a simple question: How does one take the final exam? One is about— what is the duty? One is about to die. Is this a relevant question? Anyone who is about to die? The rest of people don't die. Even in business They have boom and recession. In business, at some time business is booming, and sometimes it is recession. You know that? Like these people say, crisis, crisis. In every business, sometimes it booms, sometimes it goes down. But there's one business that never goes in recession, that is death. Funeral homes are always busy. They never have recession. The people are always dying. It doesn't matter how much technology you have. We all have to prepare for the final exam. Then sages gave different replies. And one of the sages in the audience was a sage called Śukadeva Gosvāmī. He was the son of another great sage called Vyāsadeva, who is considered to be an incarnation of God. So different people gave Śrīla Prabhupāda advice, but he accepted the advice given by Śrīla Gosvāmī, and he started hearing about Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord. So we have many subject matters for hearing. We have many subject matters for reading. You go to any bookstore, it's full of books, isn't it? There's so many newspapers, magazines, etc. Are these books bringing peace on earth? The answer is no. Prabhupāda in the introduction to the Bhāgavatam says, "There's so many volumes of books, but they fail to bring peace on earth because of a spiritual vacuum." Śrīla Gosvāmī then explains that one should hear about Kṛṣṇa. Hearing about the Lord, it is auspicious for everyone. The same parikṣṇa mahārāja, In the 10th canto, spoke as follows: Once Praśad RAVAL occurred to die, he decided, "Now I'm going to fast from water and from food." This is a common practice as someone is preparing to leave his body. So as he was fasting, he was also hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and that was giving him so much nectar. That the hunger and thirst did not hinder or obstruct him in any way. So we should so mold our life that we should ask questions about the essence of life. If I ask you a question, how many of you would like to be really happy? How many of you would like to be really happy? Oh, everyone. No one wants to be sad. No. No one wants to be miserable. We all want to be happy. But there are two types of happiness. There's material happiness and spiritual happiness. There is a great sage called Praśad RAVAL. He says, "Nātha vidyam svātaka te vyavaiśnu." People do not know how real happiness can be found. So all of you are assembled here, do you know how real happiness can be found? That's why you are here. We may have different degrees of conviction. Prabhu-da. Some of you in the audience may be 95% convinced, just sleep bad. Some of you may be 70%, 50% convinced. Some of you may be 10% convinced. Some of you may have thought, Oh, Hare Kṛṣṇa is a popular movement. Let me go and see what they have to offer. So whatever it is, you are at least convinced that spirituality is needed in life. Material science has made a lot of progress. Prabhu-da, look at these smartphones you have in your pocket. How many of you have smartphones? How many of you have Apple smartphones? Okay, okay. Anyway, so you have these smartphones. Smartphones can do so many things. And in the case of devotees, they usually put all the Prabhupāda books in the smartphone. So who can imagine these smartphones will be able to do so much? It's just amazing what these modern gadgets can do. It's just amazing how these planes fly. So there's no question Science is making progress. Every year they come up with a new version of these smartphones. What is it now? Apple 7? Last year it was 6. 2 years ago it was 5. In China, the day the iPhone 7 was released, the richest man of China, his son, his only son, bought 7 iPhones, i7s, Just put them like a garland around his pet dog. You see, there's such a craze. People want to buy the iPhone the day they come in the market, the latest. In many parts of the world, people stand whole night in front of Apple stores. The next morning they can say, "I bought the first few ones that were on sale." Every year they try to bring, inject some new gimmick so people feel there's something new. Just like every year they have a fashion show in Paris. All the new fashion in the Western world come out from Paris. They parade all the new women's fashions, and— but if you analyze these fashions, you see there's hardly any difference. One writer wrote an article once, all they do is move the buttons around and move the collars around. Just like they bring out these new cars every year. Really, there's nothing that much new. In spite of all these gadgets, are people's lives becoming more comfortable? A recent study showed that 70% of the people in the high-income area in America take sleeping pills to go to sleep. So you're in the high-income bracket, you have a big house, latest car, Latest amenities, people are anxiously approaching you for favors. But when it comes to sleep, we need a sleeping pill. Why do you need a sleeping pill? So much anxiety, don't know what to do. That is the ground reality in life, that in spite of all these amenities, in spite of all the comforts, in spite of all the wealth, in spite of all the privileges, we are leading a life of depression. So we should ask questions. How can I free myself from this anxiety? You take sleeping pills to put— put the sleeping pills manufacturers out of business. You have to go bankrupt. But you also take sleeping pills because you all believe in spirituality as a goal of life. So we should ask questions. How can I find real happiness? How can I free myself from the miseries of life. How can I make real friends? You want to know what the latest trend in the world is today? In the Western world, what's the latest trend? People today are more lonely than ever before. Do you know that? You will say, "Oh, I thought I was the only lonely person." He will give you some good news there. "By and large, there are more and more lonely people today." No one's a real friend. The question people often ask is, "How can I make real friends?" And, "Who is my real friend?" These are the answers we should be searching for. Who is your real friend? One who takes you to the movies? One who buys you an expensive gift? Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a matchless gift. We're celebrating the Golden Jubilee of Wisconsin Corporation. The first ISKCON temple opened in New York in 1966. That location, it became the first temple of ISKCON, was at one time a boutique. And they emptied the boutique and somebody told Prabhupāda, "Oh, Prabhupāda, we can get a storefront, only $125 rent." Prabhupāda said, "Okay, take it." They just had money for the first month's rent. That's all. And opposite the storefront was a one-room apartment which Prabhupāda lived. Rent was $75. Those who were running the boutique, they vacated the shop completely, took everything out of the shelf, but they forgot to run one thing off. The name of the bhūti, which was the matchless gift. The devotees, when they saw this, "Matchless gift!" "Boy, this is what Kṛṣṇa consciousness is!" The glass in? This is the matchless gift. So we are all looking for friends. Generally we say, "Oh, this man is from a well-connected family." If I become friends with him, he'll help me to enhance my economic position. So who is your real friend? One who gives you the matchless gift. One who gives you knowledge that will help you sit in the final exam. So that this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is giving us information on this. In the Sixth Canto, Praśādhvamāja asks another question. Praśādhvamāja had seen Many people sin and atone. We were all used to that. We sin, then we atone by going to the church or the temple. And again we sin, again we atone. In a court of law, if you're guilty, you tell the judge, "I'm sorry," you may be forgiven. But if you do it every day, will you be forgiven? You do a job. Your boss says, "Hey, you're late to work, madam." "Sorry, I'll be in time. I got stuck in traffic today." Next day again you're late. Next day you come late again. You keep coming late. Will you be forgiven? So Prahlāda Mahāprabhu wanted to know what's the value. "Oh, give us that knowledge by which we can stop sinning." If we stop sinning, Then you can take the final exam with full confidence. But if you don't stop sinning, then you're always worried about your future. The parākṛṣṇa mahārāja wanted to know, "How can we stop sinning?" Śrī Vidyātmān Swāmī said, "In the ancient Purāṇas I've heard this story." Purāṇas are also sources of knowledge accompanied by stories. He said, in ancient Purāṇa, there's a story of Ajāmila. At one time, the man was leading a very civilized life, but then he got degraded and he got into sinful activity. But he had one saving grace. He gave— he named his children after the names of God. He named his youngest son— what was the name he gave? We have children in New York City come to us every day, say, "Please give me a spiritual name." Yesterday I had gone to Vārasana, our farm project near New York City. A lot of children there. Many of them came up, "Please give me a name." They want a name related to Kṛṣṇa. So that's a healthy practice. And this practice was there in almost all the faiths of the world. It's in Christianity, it's in Islam. It's in Rāja-nārādhana-dākṣinava. It's in the Vedas. It's common everywhere. So he named his youngest son Narāṇa. And he was so attached. He would utter the name of Narāṇa thousands of times a day. He was engaged in chanting the name of the Lord. But he had also become sinful. The yām-rāja, you and I say yām-rāja, superintendent of death. There's like a police commissioner in every city.. He's the commissioner for death. He keeps an account of everyone's activities. And with the virtual computers crash, gets evocated, hijacked. It never crashes, Yama Raj's computer, and you can't hijack it also. So Yama Raj sent 3 yavadutas to bring all of you to hell for punishment. We do the right thing or the wrong thing. What are they? Mind, through the tongue, through the mind. And you want to forget the Lord. So these representatives of Yām-rāja are called yāmadūtas. You've seen pictures of yāmadūtas? In the Sixth Canto you can see pictures. Very frightening. Long nails, long teeth. So when Arjuna saw these yāmadūtas coming to him, He got scared and he uttered the name of his youngest son, Narayana, who was playing nearby. "Narayana, save me!" The angels of Lord Vishnu named him the Vishnu, if you know the scene. And there was a dialogue between the two. So the servants of Yāmraj were bewildered. This is the first time they were sent on an assignment by their master. And somebody stopped them from doing their job. Yama, Durga were bewildered. They went to their master Yamarāja. We all get bewildered sometime or another, isn't it? Even Arjuna got bewildered on so many issues. We should go to the right source. Yamarāja revealed what happened. And Yamarāja said, "Don't touch in future those who chant the names of the Lord." If you want happiness, what is the path? The Vedas recommend: Chant the holy names of the Lord. This chanting the holy name is nothing new. It is advocated in all of the scriptures of the world. In the Bible it says: Thou shalt always chant the names of the Lord. So the question was: How do you prepare for the final exam? What's the advice offered by our real friends? And who is our real friend who tells us how to find real happiness? Like everyone sitting here, if I was to ask you a question, "How did you come to, how did you become a devotee?" You will give me two answers. What are the two answers? "Someone gave me a book." "Someone invited me." Both of them are your real friends. Why did someone give you a book? Why did someone go on the street and offer someone a book? Why did they put a table and offer you a book? Because they are your real friends. They know if you can live with this knowledge, you'll find real happiness. What we do see is an illusionary concept of happiness. You see all these billboards on the, on the highways, and we don't watch TV, but If you do watch, you may be watching commercials that show, "Try this product and be happy." Here there will be both young men and young women, they go, "If I buy this product, I'll also get a girlfriend or boyfriend like him." Are they your real friends? They're selling you an illusion concept of happiness, whereas devotee is giving you the real path of real happiness. So these scriptures give us answers to this question. How can you prepare for the ultimate exam? And your real friend is a saintly person called a sadhu. What does your real friend think? Here is a conditioned soul going through the cycle of birth and death, experiencing nothing but misery in life. You may say, "That's nonsense." Who says there's misery in life? Look at my life. Beautiful wife, beautiful children, latest Mercedes, latest house, swimming pool inside my house. Where is the misery? You may have all these amenities, but are all these amenities going to stay with you eternally? Is the body going to remain youthful permanently? Does anyone like aging? Can I ask some elderly people that question? Do you like aging? Nobody likes getting old. So much misery in old age. You may have a youthful, beautiful body, but that's short-term. So ultimately there's misery that we experience in various ways. Old age and death, misery is caused by the mind, other living entities, and material nature. So we don't want to paint a negative picture to scare you. We want to educate you into realities of life. Kṛṣṇa then tell Arjuna, become an idle man. Most of you live at home. Now in the morning say, one who lives at home must earn his livelihood. He must work, study, whatever you want to do, pursue this, but bear in mind, goal should be the peace of God. Meditation and yoga, very common terminologies. Now, some people's definition of their meditation is close your eyes. What happens when you close your eyes? Fall asleep. And what does yoga mean? Yoga really means to connect, to connect your home to the Supreme Lord above. This chanting of the Holy Name for which we are very famous, is a very ancient system of purification. The system works. It's not imaginative. Some of you have gone to the Sadhu Sangha Festival. How many of you went? Okay. So you saw there was— was that real or was that fiction? Did somebody make a movie or some other thing? Just plant that movie there. You really saw the people there though. Okay, so why are they there? Are they getting bribed for coming there? No, they were getting taxed for coming there. So the way to prepare for your final exam is very simple. Kṛṣṇa says in the Gītā, yātkarocī vyādhaśnāti, yājñevocī dāsi vyāt, yātabhasvati sāntyā, sat-kṛṣṇa-vrāhmanam. Whatever you do, whatever offering you do, Whatever charity you do, whatever austerity you do, do it as an offering unto Me. You want to do your PhD? Do your PhD, no problem. But however you go, I want to please the Lord with my knowledge. Want to become an oligarch? You are very humble. You won't raise your hand. I'm sure you do want to become a billionaire, but then do it for the Lord. Hābhi, a millennial, but a nice and good rasgulla. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a very practical philosophy that can be practiced by anyone in any phase of life. It teaches you how to lead a purified life. You work for Kṛṣṇa, chant the holy names. When you be a family man, you're a family man. You see so many nice children everywhere you go in any temple. Stay in the association of real friends. What's your real friend called? Sadhu. Stay in spiritual association. This way you'll stay on the right path. Stay on the right path. In material society, you always get distracted. If you want to be saved, stay in the circle of your real friends, also known as sadhus. And then You'll be able to sit in the final exam with no anxiety at all. A student who is always studying is not scared of any exam. And a student who never studies is always in anxiety about exams. Be prepared for the exam and you'll find real happiness. Real happiness now and real happiness later. Mature life is little happiness now but misery later. Go for the real path. Happiness now and happiness later, which is possible by chanting the Mahā-mantra. Chant with determination, pursue the path with determination, you'll be happy. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Kṛṣṇa Deva Swāmī reciting the Bhāgavatam for 24 hours. Any question? How we can always remain in the association of sādhūs? Not difficult. Go on Sunday to the program. Go to Bhakti-vikṣara program in the week. Try to establish connection. There's so many festivals. Read Prabhupāda's books. They will give you association of the Supreme Sādhū. Of course, you also have to do a job. Otherwise, the money doesn't pay. We stay at home, don't do a job. There are so many programs in Rasa. Take part in those programs. How we can get rid of inattentiveness while chanting the Holy Name? Everything in life is attainable if you make an effort. There is no such thing as Impossible. We need to make an effort with determination. Your question is— what was the question? How to get rid from inattentiveness while chanting. First, start chanting. It doesn't matter, it's any more inattentive. Get into the habit of chanting. Sorry, get in the habit of chanting. Then as you start chanting, you want to improve —on the quality of your chanting. And one way to improve quality is when you chant, just concentrate on chanting and nothing else. Now the muni says in the Bhāgavatam, "Make plans with determination." You will be determined, "I am going to chant my name properly attentively, for the holy names are not different from the Lord, and the Lord will give you, will help you." Determination is the key. So when devotees together are hearing, one is reading the book, others are hearing, is it the same as others also are reading books, or we should read personally? No, hearing also. When you're speaking, three parties benefit. The person who's speaking, he's getting purified. The person who's hearing, he's getting purified. And the audience that is hearing, They are getting purified. Everyone is benefiting. So therefore we go to Bhagavad Gītā class. Therefore we go to Gītā class. We all get purified. So thank you very much.