Upadeśāmṛta NOI 7: Realise Sweetness of the Holy Name | Rus-Split | 17.5.90 | Gopal Krishna Goswami

Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. So these are all the rīga devotees here today. So today we are going to discuss nectar of instruction, Īśopaniṣad. And Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Yesterday we had discussed the Bhāgavad-gītā. So today we will take on a very, very interesting story of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and that story is very significant because it tells us how we have to be careful in Vaiṣṇava behavior. We will discuss the story of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Rāmācandra Puri. So first we will discuss the Uddhayāśrama. I'm not going to give a background to this today because yesterday I spent enough time giving the audience a background to this great scripture known as Śrī Uddaiśāramit. So today we are going to discuss text 7. You can repeat the Sanskrit after me. Sīyāt, Sīyāt, Vrīṣṇa, Vrīṣṇa, Nāma, Nāma, Charitādi, Charitādi, Śrītāpi, Śrītāpi, Jyushta Swadvishwadvi Ramabhavati Gana Moola Anthri. The Isha Upanishad verse for today is an easy verse to chant, so that verse we'll write on the board so all of you can chant with us, okay. So the word meaning and the translation: Sat Krishna nama charitāri satāpya vidyā, vittopatapta rasanaśena ruci-kānu, kintvadārād anudīnam khalu-saiva-juṣṭha, svādvī-kramād-bhāvati tad-gadā-mūlāhan. So this is a very, very important verse of this great book, Śrī Upadeśramit, which has been compiled by Rūpa Gosvāmī. And we shall discuss the meaning of this verse today. It is being described in this verse that everything related to Kṛṣṇa is śarāṇī-troṣṇik. Just like children are very fond of sweets, so Kṛṣṇa, His name, fame, entourage, teachings, it is all sweet like the sugar. However, In the diseased condition, we cannot appreciate the sweetness of Kṛṣṇa. Just like when you are diseased, you cannot taste the sweetness of sugarcane. Similarly, Rūpa Gosvāmī is saying, due to the influence of avidyā, we cannot appreciate the sweetness of Kṛṣṇa's name and His pastimes. But Rūpa Gosvāmī is telling us that if we sincerely chant the holy names, Then we will get cured of this disease of avidyā, and we will be able to taste the sweetness of the Holy Name. So the Holy Name and the pastimes of the Lord are completely sweet, but unfortunately, due to avidyā, we cannot appreciate the Lord's transcendental qualities. Due to the presence of avidyā, the living entity thinks The sense enjoyment is the enjoyable thing. In English there is a saying, one man's food is another man's poison. So what is food for the devotee is poison for the non-devotee, and what is food for the non-devotee is poison for the devotee. Just like the Bhagavad-gītā, in the second chapter the Bhagavad-gītā states, what is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the introspective sage. And the time of awakening for the introspective sage is night for all beings. When it is time for the transcendentalists to wake up early in the morning and start their spiritual activities, the materialists are still sleeping. And late in the night, the materialists are all still awake, but devotees are taking rest. So the living entity is born into illusion and is brought up in illusion. Illusion means, as we were explaining yesterday, identifying with the body. And as long as you identify with the body, you can never go right. Identification of the body means identification with the principles of sense enjoyment. And we have discussed yesterday from the verses of the Iṣṣvārūpa, from the Udayashramita, the sense enjoyment has no place in spiritual life. Kaamasana indriyapriti labho jiveta yavada jivasya tatva-jigyasa. The Vedic scriptures tell us how human life should be used for self-realization and not for sense enjoyment. Dhruva Maharaja stated the sense enjoyment is also available in the hellish planets. So to pursue sense enjoyment after the achievement of this rare human life is śrama evahi kevalam, simply a waste of time. In the Vedic scriptures, we have innumerable examples of how through the medium of sense enjoyment the animals meet their destruction. Human life should be used for self-realization. Ei madhū durlava mānamā deho payāki keho pāvana keho. Ṛkṣṇa. Thakura Bhakti Vinod has said, "O conditioned soul, if you do not use this life correctly, then at the moment of death you will regret it." The husband and wife were very, very attached to each other. They were busy glorifying each other, and slowly, slowly they had few children. One day the husband and wife had gone in the forest to bring some fruits for the children., and the children were little grown-ups, so they came out of the nest and started walking near their house. And there was a cruel hunter passing by. The hunter saw these innocent children walking in front of the nest, and he threw his net and he had them trapped. And when the father and mother came back, from hunting, from the forest, they saw that their so-called loved children were sitting right in front of them in the hunter's net. But there's nothing they could have done. So the mother was saying, the mother was very attached to her children. The mother was saying, "Here are my children for whom I lived. They are standing right in front of me." 'But I can't touch them.' And the children were looking at the mother. The children were in the hunter's net and they were looking at the mother and saying, 'Mummy, take us.' And the mother was saying, 'How can I?' And the mother, just lamenting, she also fell in the hunter's net. The father was there. He saw in front of his eyes his beloved wife that he was praising all day with romantic songs. Was right in front of his eyes, but he could do nothing to save her. He also saw in front of his eyes his children, right in front of his eyes they were there about to be killed, but there's nothing he could do. And he was just lamenting, "How I have wasted this valuable life just praising my wife and my children. Now they are standing in front of me in the clutches of— in death's hands.", and there's nothing I can do. And just thinking like this, the father also fell in the hunter's net. So the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has narrated this story to point out the position of the foolish materialist who spends all his time flattering his wife and children, and how the wife and children, who are fallible soldiers, are standing in front of his eyes. But he cannot do anything to protect them. We have 5 knowledge-acquiring senses: the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, and touch—genitals. Then we have objects of the senses. What is the object of the eyes? Vision. What is the object of the ears? Sound. What is the object of the tongue? Taste. And the object of the nose? Smell. And of the genitals, touch. So you have knowledge acquiring senses, then you have the objects of the senses. So in the Vedas, we have example of how these knowledge acquiring senses, if they are misused, how they become the cause of one's destruction. Just like I was explaining to you Eyes is one of the knowledge acquiring senses. Why is it one of the knowledge acquiring senses? Because through the eyes we can see and discriminate and find out what things look like. So the Vedas give the example of an animal who is called the moth. The moth is very attracted to light. I do not know if you have the moth in your country, but in tropical countries it is very common. Maybe in the Asia segment of Soviet Union it may be there. Have you ever heard of this animal called the moth? Okay, so the moth has eyes and it is always meditating, how can I satisfy my eyes? So the moth is very attracted to shining light. So in the night when you put the electric city switch on, the moth sees the shining light And it says, "Ha! This is heaven. This is where I should be." And it goes and sits on the shining light. And when the moth goes and sits on the shining light, what happens? The heat of that light is so warm, and the moth's body is so small that the moth gets roasted to death. Like if any of you have been to India, you may have noticed Even in Vṛndāvana, when you get up in the morning, so many moths are found dead. They all died due to the heat of the light. Similarly, the human animal, once he uses eyes to see something naked, to see something vulgar, obscene— it is very nice that in your country they don't have these vulgar nightclubs in every street corner. Like they have in the Western countries, but I have been told that now they are planning on starting it. Then you have the nose. The bee is very fond of smelling something palatable. It goes from one flower to another hoping to find something palatable. Ultimately it finds a lotus flower, and when it finds the lotus flower, it thinks, This is Samadhi. This is real bliss. And it goes and relaxes in that, just like people go to the beach to relax, take a— get tanned. So the bee goes and sits down on the lotus flower, relaxes completely, forgetting everything. But it doesn't realize that in the evening, by the law of nature, the lotus flower is going to close and the bee is going to get trapped. Suffocated to death. Then you have the deer. The deer has all the senses, but one sense it is trying to satisfy the most, which is the ear. So when the hunter is trying to catch a deer, he knows it is very, very difficult because at the speed the deer moves, the bullet can't catch him. So what does the hunter do? He plays a particular melody which is the weakness of the hunt of the deer. So when the deer hears that melody, it says, "Oh, where is that melody coming from?" And while it is searching out the source of the melody, it stops running, and in the meantime, the hunter shoots him. Then you have the elephant who normally is a very difficult animal to capture, but the hunter trains up the he elephant, or he trains up the she elephant. How? The hunter trains up the she elephant so she will drag the male elephant for a relationship. And while the male elephant is following the she elephant, there's a ditch that is dug up which is covered with grass, and the male elephant ends up falling in the ditch. Then the cruel hunter comes and does the rest. Then he has a fish Who has a weakness? That is the tongue. Where on a nice day, even in your country, I have seen you have hundreds of people fishing. I was in Leningrad when the weather was very nice and I saw hundreds of people. Every inch that was used, the people were fishing. Prabhupāda, when he saw people fishing, he would say, "One day the person who is fishing is going to become the fish." Now how does the fish meet its death? The fish also has a weakness, that's the tongue. So when the fish sees the fisherman's bait under the water, it says, "Oh, here is some more food for me," and it goes to catch that food, and in the end, he gets stuck, the fish gets stuck in the bait of the hunter, and he meets his death. So we have given you these examples to show How? Due to avidyā, the living entity thinks that he is going to identify, he is the body. And how? If he thinks he is the body, he is going to meet his death like these animals. So Prabhupāda is saying in the purport that due to ignorance one has joined this. And in joined this, doesn't matter how sweet you make, how sweet a product you may get, You cannot taste the sweetness of the product you eat. So just like when you fall sick, when you are sick, you lose your taste buds. So when your taste buds are killed, are dead due to your temperature, nobody brings you food and tells you, "Now please tell me which food is more delicious." So Prabhupāda says in the purport, the one who puts his faith in duraśraya, becomes a candidate of hoping against hope, hoping against hope that he can find happiness. The materialist is hoping against hope that he will find happiness. The world of Maya is called duḥraśraya, and in this world of Maya called duḥraśraya, there is no scope for happiness at all. Jīvēya-svarūpāya-kṛṣṇa-nitya-dāsa. The constitutional position of every living entity is to engage in service of the Supreme Lord. So everything related to Kṛṣṇa is sweet. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatā we say that Parīkṣit Mahārāja was hearing the transcendental pastimes of the Lord from Śukadeva Gosvāmī. And Parīkṣit Mahārāja was fasting, you know that? He was completely fasting. Parīkṣit Mahārāja was getting so much nectar in hearing the transcendental pastimes of the Lord, and he told the Lord, He told Śrīprabhupāda, "Swāmi, please go on more, more, more." Just like sometimes they go to these big rock concerts of Michael Jackson or Beatles and all that, and when people, their fans, what do they say? "Ball shoy, ball shoy, ball shoy." More, more, more. So similarly, Parīkṣit Mahārāja was getting so much nectar from hearing. That even though he was fasting, he told Śrīkantadeva Gosvāmī, "More, more, more." Because a devotee can never get tired of hearing the glories of the Lord. But we get tired due to our impurity. So Rūpa Gosvāmī is saying, "Take this medicine, then we will become healthy." And if we don't take the medicine, then there's no question of becoming healthy. So in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said, prayena alpayuṣaḥ sābhyau kala-vaṣmin yuge-janāha manda-samandamāteya māndya-bhārāupāḍutāḥ. That in Kali-yuga the people are misled, unfortunate, lazy, misguided. I heard that some people feel that all the lazy people are just in this country. I can tell you, there are lazy people in every corner of the planet. This is what the Bhāgavatam says. Any part of the world, when the boss is away, nobody works. Just like when the cat is away, the mice all begin to play. So people are lazy, misguided, and they have no interest in spiritual life. So the real disease is in the heart. Does not matter how healthy you may look externally, but we are all suffering from a disease called heart disease. But to get this heart disease cured, you don't have to go to a cardiologist, you have to go to a spiritual doctor. So, if we take to the chanting of the Holy Name, then the heart will gradually get purified. So the misconception about bodily identification can be removed only with the aid of devotional service. And avidyā, the misidentification of the body, helps us to establish ahankār. Ahankār means false ego. Ahankār makes you believe, "I am the best man. I am the best speaker, the best singer, the most handsome, the most beautiful. I, I, I, I, I." Therefore this heart disease of avidyā must be cured. So By chanting, this avidyā can be destroyed. The blazing fire of material existence is burning everyone to the crisp. There are different stages in chanting the holy name of the Lord: the offensive stage, the stage of lessening offenses, and the purified stage. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu is saying we must cure the avidyā. Therefore He said in the Sikṣāstaka, ceto-darpaṇa-mājṇaṁ bhāvamāṇa-dvārṇīna-vāpanaṁ śreyaḥ. That by chanting, the heart, which is full of dust and which was white at one time, will become cleansed. So ceto-darpaṇa, by chanting, the heart can become cleansed. And what is the proof that your heart is getting cleansed? Ahankaara is going away. Material desires are going away. Just like when you are sick. When you are sick, what is the symptom? Temperature, head is warm, body is warm, no appetite, isn't it? And then when you are recovering from the disease, what is the symptom? Temperature is down, head is not warm, body is not paining, and you have appetite once again. So this heart disease must be corrected or destroyed at once. Padekshet Maharaj, was cursed to die by a Brahmin boy. The Brahmin boy's name was Shringi. If Parikṣit Mahārāja wanted, he could easily have counteracted the curse. After all, he was saved when he was in his mother's womb also. So what did Parikṣit Mahārāja do? He invited all the great sages and asked them a very simple question: What should one do who is about to die? This meeting was called on the bank of the Ganges. The bank of the Ganges was very auspicious for spiritual development. Śukadeva Gosvāmī then recited the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. The Bhāgavatam was actually recited 3 times. The first time, Vyāsadeva recited it to Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Then Śukadeva Gosvāmī recited it to Parikṣit Mahārāja on the bank of the Ganges with all the sages present. Then another great devotee called Sānākara Rishi He was along with the sages performing a big yagya in Namashranaya forest in Lucknow. Why? Because the great sages were very concerned as to what was going to happen to the people in Kali Yuga. So in order to save the people from the effects of Maya, they were performing this yagya for people to benefit. So the sages They invited Sonaka Rishi. They said, "You are a very learned man. Please tell us what can we do in Kali Yuga to save people?" Sonaka Rishi then recited the Srimad Bhagavatam which he had heard from Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Because when Śukadeva Gosvāmī was speaking to Parīkṣit Mahārāja, in the audience there were other great sages also. And one of the sages who was present was Sonaka Rishi. Sonaṁ, Sonakarīṣī repeated the exact Bhāgavatam the way he had heard it from Śukadeva Gosvāmī. So we have given this background to point out that through the pages of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we can understand our constitutional position and our duty. So Parīkṣit Mahājjaṇa in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam heard from Śrīkadeva Gosvāmī that one who is about to die, He must hear the transcendental active glories of the Lord. You may think, "Oh, I'm a young man, I'm only 25. I won't die till I'm at least 65, 70. So I have enough time for taking to spiritual life." Devodhi, Vedas say, padam padam yād pi padam nā teśām. There is danger at every step. Therefore one should always be alert. So Parākṣita Mahārāja was convinced by Śukadeva. You must hear about Kṛṣṇa. So in this verse, hearing is being emphasized. Śrīm Nāma-kīrtanam viśnu-smāranam. Hearing. We must train the ears so that they hear the right thing and not the wrong thing. Therefore, hear about the Holy Name. Hear about the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. Hear about the Lord's teachings. Hear about the Lord's desires. And see the beautiful form of the Lord. The stage of bhajana-kriya is realized when one is initiated into the chanting of the Holy Name. And in that stage, if he sincerely executes the rules and regulations, then, ah, he will be able to make spiritual advancement. So by chanting and avoiding the offenses, one is able to create gain Appreciation of Kṛṣṇa. Maya is there everywhere, but Maya will not disturb a devotee who is in the bhāva stage. In other words, kṛṣṇa-surya-sama-māyā-hayā-ni-kāra. Yā kṛṣṇa-tayini-māyā-dhikāra. Where there is Kṛṣṇa, there is no room for Maya. Just like where there is sunshine, there is no room for darkness. So Rūpa Gosvāmī is saying, somehow or the other we must get attached to Kṛṣṇa. Then we can be protected. If the ears are not used to hear about the glories of the Lord, the ears have been described to be like the holes in the body of a snake. And the tongue is not used to glorify the Lord, it is compared to the croaking of a frog. The frog, by its croaking, just invites death. So Rūpa Gosvāmī is very clearly telling us— that if we chant the Holy Name, then the avidyā will be destroyed. We must accept the glories of the Holy Name with full faith. We should never underestimate the value of the Holy Name. Therefore, one of the 10 offenses is what? To give some mundane interpretation to the chanting of the Holy Name. So the point is that we must get attached to Kṛṣṇa. Just like the Ganges water is always purifying, Just like the metal gets attracted to the magnet, we must be attracted in the human form of life to Kṛṣṇa. But to get attracted to Kṛṣṇa, you have to make the effort. You can't expect that without effort you'll get attached. Just by chanting the mantra, attachment, attachment, attachment, you're not going to get attached. If you do what Kṛṣṇa wants you to do, then that love will develop. Just like in the daytime, when the light comes, you can see me, I can see you.

In other words, we can see everything.

Seeing the right perspective. So under the sun of Kṛṣṇa, you can see things in the right perspective. And if we are not associated with the Holy Name, then we cannot understand our real position. So we must use this human life correctly. When a man is sick, he can't appreciate prasāda, isn't it? Even when you are sick, you can't appreciate prasāda. But when you get healthy, you can appreciate prasāda again. So We cannot appreciate the Holy Name just due to our material desires. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, "My dear Lord, You are so merciful that You have invested all the transcendental energies in Your Holy Name, but I am so unfortunate that I have no attraction for them." To take the view, "Oh, now I am initiated devotee, I am chanting 16 rounds, I have spontaneous attraction for Kṛṣṇa," It is just an illusion. We have no attraction for the Lord, but if we follow the Lord's direction, then that attachment can develop. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "My dear Lord, You are so merciful. You have invested all Your transcendental energies in Your holy name." Yesterday I was showing you how even in the Bible, in all the main scriptures of the world, this process is recommended, chanting the holy names of the Lord. So The pastimes of Kṛṣṇa are very interesting. It's like the purified sun. Whether you have stool and urine on the floor, the earth can purify everything. Similarly, the Lord does not get affected by the contamination of the material world. He remains pure in all respects. Just like the magnet, the magnet, the metal, as soon as it is near the magnet, doesn't go automatically. So Prabhupāda used to say, that is how we should have our attraction for Kṛṣṇa. As soon as you see the form of Kṛṣṇa, say, "Here is my beloved Kṛṣṇa." As soon as you get a chance to chant His holy names, do it very enthusiastically. And as soon as you get a chance to chant His names, do it without interruption. And if you take advantage of every situation to cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then Kṛṣṇa, who is in the heart, will make it possible. Everything related to Kṛṣṇa is sweet. Has any devotee ever found Kṛṣṇa's pastimes to be boring? Sometimes devotees may fall asleep because they are tired, but nobody finds it boring because Kṛṣṇa's activities are so transcendental. Who doesn't like reading the superhuman activities of a great man? In your country, don't the children read those Superman comics? Anyway, the karmī children do read these Superman comics all over the world. Why? Because they like seeing some heroic work done by somebody. So whose activities can be more wonderful and transcendental than Kṛṣṇa's? When he opens his mouth, his mother sees the whole universe. When you and I open our mouth, when we go to the doctors, the doctor sees it for one second, then says, "Close it now." In fact, our mouth inside is so dirty, the spoon that they put inside it, throw it away then. And Kṛṣṇa, he lifted a huge Hill, Govardhan Hill. Kṛṣṇa spoke wonderful philosophy even when he was a young child. So Kṛṣṇa has showed his universal form. And one day you are going to have a big temple in your town of Riga also. And when you have your big temple, you are going to have Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa mūrtis. And every day Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa is going to wear a new dress. So meditate on the dress that the Deities are wearing every day. God is also a person. Don't think that Bhoga is impersonal. Those who think that God is not a person have no understanding of Bhoga. God is a person, but he is transcendental. Ānāne yāsa sakalanda vritimānte. Brahmājī says with any one part of his body he can do the functions of any other part. Just like when you offer prasad to the Lord, you again take the prasadam plate out of the altar and it is, the whole plate is still there. So the impersonalist will say, you say your God has eaten your prasāda. Where did He eat? The whole plate is there exactly like before. But Kṛṣṇa has eaten through the ears and through the eyes. How? The devotee chants certain mantras when he is offering prasāda. So the mantras Kṛṣṇa heard through the ears and through His eyes, He has already tasted the prasāda. Kṛṣṇa says, Let there be creation, and the creation takes place. Suppose you say, "Let there be a temple overnight," the temple will not take place. But if you— So the point is, Kṛṣṇa with any one part of His body, He can do the function of any other part. Goloḥkā evaṇvasāti aki-lātmabhūta. The Lord is situated in Goloka, Vṛndāvana. Nevertheless, He is manifested everywhere. Just like the sun disc. The sun disc is in the sun planet. What should they ask each other? Questions about Kṛṣṇa's pastimes. Just like when King Daśaratha, the father of Lord Rāmachandra, was ruling on the planet, anybody who would walk into the palace, he would say, "How is the progress on the journey back to Godhead?" In the material world, when we meet each other, we say, "How are you?" They'll say, "Very well, thank you. And how are you?" "Kāra śo." So the devotees, when they meet each other, they should just be asking like King Daśaratha used to ask, "What is the progress of the journey back to Godhead?" So the mind is attracted to sense enjoyment of the moment, just like the child. The child is attracted to sucking the thumb. Isn't it? So in the beginning when the mother tells the child, "Don't suck your thumb," the child will cry in protest. So similarly when the mind is wandering into areas of sense enjoyment and you bring it back to Kṛṣṇa, the mind will protest. "Why Kṛṣṇa? It is so boring." But we have to make the effort. The body sometimes says, It is so difficult to control the mind. Arjuna found it so difficult, so how can we control the oṁa? In English there is a saying, "Try and try again, you will succeed at last." So we have to try to control the oṁa, snova, snova, snova, again and again. Just like when the child is going across the street, what does the mother do? Runs behind the child and brings the child back. Prasād RAVAL. When the mind wanders into where? Sex desire and material comforts. These are the two tendencies of the mind. We should pull the mind out of those areas and think about Kṛṣṇa's instructions, pastimes, and so on. This you can only do when you understand the real position of Maya and the real position of Kṛṣṇa. Right now we don't understand the real position of either Maya or Kṛṣṇa.

What is false we accept as real. What is real we accept as false.

What is temporary we accept as permanent.

What is permanent we accept as temporary.

What is sat is being accepted as sat, what is sat is being accepted as asat, and asat is being accepted as sat.

True is being accepted as false, falsehood is being accepted as true.

Maya, which is our false identity, we think it is our real identity. We are so much in love with māyā that even in old age the desire to surrender to Lord does not come.

Even in old age the senses are hungry for sense enjoyment. They are saying, "Please, please, please give me sense enjoyment." Prabhupāda used to give one story. The story was of a Muslim king called Akbar. There was a Muslim king and he was a pious king. He asked his Prime Minister, he said, "Why in old age at least people don't give up all sorts of sense enjoyment and just concentrate on worshipping God?" His second Prime Minister said, "Because the desire for sense enjoyment does not go away even in old age." The King said, "I don't believe it." So the Prime Minister said, "Please come with me to a hospital. I will take you to a dying man." "and we will take with us a young girl." So the Prime Minister took the King and a young girl to an old man in the hospital. Prime Minister told the King, "You just watch where the eyes of the old man will be when we are talking to him." And the eyes of the old man who was sick in the hospital was at the beautiful young girl who was with the King. So then the King was convinced that even in old age the man is thinking only of sense enjoyment. So that is the nature of sense enjoyment. It will never tell you, "Now, Alexander, I had enough. Now you concentrate on the Holy Name." It will always say, "Alexander, you didn't give me anything." It's just like the materialist wife who always tells her husband, "What have you ever done for me?" So the senses are always saying, "What have you ever done for me? Nothing at all." Therefore, Rūpa Gosvāmī says, I have tried to satisfy my senses in time and I'm always, but I'm always being cheated by them. So once you understand the real position of Kṛṣṇa and once you understand the real position of māyā, then you can give up sense enjoyment. What is the real position of māyā? It is just false. There is no substance in it. It looks real, but if you probe deeply, it is not real. Even if it gives you happiness, it will give you happiness only for a short term. So therefore the devotee understanding the difference between Kṛṣṇa and māyā, understanding the real position of Kṛṣṇa and the false position of māyā, takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And as he takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and follows the rules and regulations, the impurities from the heart begin to melt away. And as they melt away, he can appreciate Kṛṣṇa more and more. Māyā means forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means remembering Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa and māyā are standing side by side. Just like if you are standing in the shadow, you can't get the effect of light. And if you are standing in light, you can't get the effect of shadow. So this verse by Rūpa Gosvāmī is very clearly telling us that Kṛṣṇa's name, form, beauty, instructions are all enjoyable, but due to ignorance we cannot appreciate. But if we take to the chanting of the holy name, then we will be able to appreciate the sweetness of the Holy Name and Kṛṣṇa's beauty. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So in the programs that I normally do, at 3:30 I usually stop for 1 hour. So today also we will stop for about 40 minutes and then we will start again. I am sorry I started late today, but we will start again in 1 hour. Or 45 minutes, and I can take your questions after the break. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja ki.

Jā. He was asking about the importance of quality of chanting.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja. Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja. So the quality of chanting is very important because if you do not chant properly, then the effect of the chanting will be limited. Chanting is important and we should be attentive in chanting. Just like you just had prasad. So suppose the temple gives you prasad, but it is burnt prasad, then will you enjoy it? So just like you do not like to eat burnt prasad, you should not want to do inattentive chanting. So it is very important that we chant our rounds attentively and also avoid the 10 offences. If you just chant and you're not careful to avoid the offenses, then the effect of the chanting will be limited. Sometimes devotees have a tendency to do their 16 rounds, but they do it so fast that they can't concentrate on it properly. I'll tell you a story about fast chanting later on.

In Angad, you told about Śukracārya that he was guru on birth, not on qualification. Yeah. And is it possible that Everyone can come in and sit down.

There is enough room for everyone.

And it is also possible that maybe Brahman on the birth, but is it possible that maybe Brahman on the initiation but not on the qualities? Yes. Ochin karol shuva prasad.

Yes, why not? People may take Brahman initiation and they are not acting like Brahman. So we have to act like Brahman. If we don't act like Brahman, and you say, "I am Brahmin," then people will think you are a cheater. Just like in India. In India, so many people have taken so-called Brahmin initiation, but they have no spiritual standard. So people don't respect them. Sometimes people want to know how did the Vedic culture break down in India. The Vedic culture broke in India because the so-called Brahmin, Kshatriyas, etc. They were just saying, "I'm born in the Brahmin family, give me respect," but they were acting like sūdras.

One devotee told Him that for all good karma, for all good karma, the man will enjoy, and for all bad karma he will suffer. And that means that good karma cannot destroy, I don't know, Uh, the bad karma and the opposite. Is it true or not?

Your next body is decided by the difference between good karma and bad karma. Suppose your good karma is 10 points and your bad karma is 15 points, so you're minus 5, and your next body will be based on minus 5. And if your good karma is, suppose, plus 10 and your bad karma is minus 5, so your next body will be on plus 5. I have one devotee in Montreal, Canada. He looks like him, talks like him, acts like him. They must be twin brothers in their last life. When I go there this time, I will tell him.

He hopes that his disciple is more happy than him.

Why are you not happy? You should also be happy. Everybody in Kṛṣṇa consciousness must be happy. Prabhupāda said this movement has been started to make people happy. So anybody who is not happy should come to me. I'll tell them how to be happy.

There are two terms, self-realization and realization of God. What is the difference between the two?

They are more or less the same. Self-realization means you realize, I am the eternal servant of God and God is supreme. And God realization means you say, God is supreme, so I must serve him.

Okay. In our heart there is a Paramatma. Who is— who knows everything? And which need, which knowledge do we need in this case?

Paramātmā knows everything. Paramātmā is seeing everything that you do. He's just keeping a record of what you do. What do you mean He knows everything what you do? Paramātmā is simply the policeman. Like in your country you have these policemen. They sit on the top and they watch everything. So Paramātmā is just watching everything, and based upon your karma and desire—

What means the eternal relationship with spiritual master, and when do they begin? After initiation or in previous lifetimes?

At least in this time it begins after initiation. Eternal relationship means The spiritual master agrees to take you back to Godhead, even if he has to take his birth again, provided you agree to keep following his instructions.

When we chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, on what should we concentrate? On the sound of mantra or on his pastimes, or can we ask something from him?

Concentrate in the initial stages just on the sound. Ala ma ale ale.