viernes, 12 de febrero de 2010

Live from Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir! HG Harivilas Prabhu

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Darshan arati (Deities new dresses), midnight abhishek (bathing the Deities at midnight, the time of Lord Krishna's birth), huge crowds in the temple, scenes from the temple area, road scene at night.

Sri Krishna Janmastami @ ISKCON Baroda, Gujarat, India 2009 -2











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Live from Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir! HH Brhat Bhagavata Swami

By Brhat Bhagavata Swami

Those who are averse to the Transcendence realize the Supreme Absolute Truth differently through speculative sense perception, and therefore, because of mistaken speculation, everything appears to them to be relative.


Live from Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir! HG Harivilas Prabhu

Live from Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir! HG Harivilas Prabhu

Date: February 9th, 2010 Verse: Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.32.26 Speaker: HG Harivilas Prabhu
_______________

jnana-matram param brahma paramatmesvarah puman drsy-adibhih prthag bhavair bhagavan eka iyate

TRANSLATION: The Supreme Personality of Godhead alone is complete transcendental knowledge, but according to the different processes of understanding He appears differently, either as impersonal Brahman, as Paramatma, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead or as the purusa-avatara.

PURPORT: The word drsy-adibhih is significant. According to Jiva Gosvami, drsi means jnana, philosophical research. By different processes of philosophical research under different concepts, such as the process of jnana-yoga, the same Bhagavan, or Supreme Personality of Godhead, is understood as impersonal Brahman. Similarly, by the eightfold yoga system He appears as the Paramatma. But in pure Krsna consciousness, or knowledge in purity, when one tries to understand the Absolute Truth, one realizes Him as the Supreme Person. The Transcendence is realized simply on the basis of knowledge. The words used here, paramatmesvarah puman, are all transcendental, and they refer to Supersoul. Supersoul is also described as purusa, but the word Bhagavan directly refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is full of six opulences: wealth, fame, strength, beauty, knowledge and renunciation. He is the Personality of Godhead in different spiritual skies. The various descriptions of paramatma, isvara and puman indicate that the expansions of the Supreme Godhead are unlimited.

Ultimately, to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead one has to accept bhakti-yoga. By executing jnana-yoga or dhyana-yoga one has to eventually approach the bhakti-yoga platform, and then Paramatma, isvara, puman, etc., are all clearly understood. It is recommended in the Second Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam that whether one is a devotee or fruitive actor or liberationist, if he is intelligent enough he should engage himself with all seriousness in the process of devotional service. It is also explained that whatever one desires which is obtainable by fruitive activities, even if one wants to be elevated to higher planets, can be achieved simply by execution of devotional service. Since the Supreme Lord is full in six opulences, He can bestow any one of them upon the worshiper.

The one Supreme Personality of Godhead reveals Himself to different thinkers as the Supreme person or impersonal Brahman or Paramatma. Impersonalists merge into the impersonal Brahman, but that is not achieved by worshiping the impersonal Brahman. If one takes to devotional service and at the same time desires to merge into the existence of the Supreme Lord, he can achieve that. If someone desires at all to merge into the existence of the Supreme, he has to execute devotional service. The devotee can see the Supreme Lord face to face, but the jnani, the empiric philosopher or yogi cannot. They cannot be elevated to the positions of associates of the Lord. There is no evidence in the scriptures stating that by cultivating knowledge or worshiping the impersonal Brahman one can become a personal associate of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Nor by executing the yogic principles can one become an associate of the Supreme Godhead. Impersonal Brahman, being formless, is described as adrsya because the impersonal effulgence of brahmajyoti covers the face of the Supreme Lord. Some yogis see the fourhanded Visnu sitting within the heart, and therefore in their case also the Supreme Lord is invisible. Only for the devotees is the Lord visible. Here the statement drsy-adibhih is significant. Since the Supreme Personality of Godhead is both invisible and visible, there are different features of the Lord.

The Paramatma feature and Brahman feature are invisible, but the Bhagavan feature is visible. In the Visnu Purana this fact is very nicely explained. The universal form of the Lord and the formless Brahman effulgence of the Lord, being invisible, are inferior features. The concept of the universal form is material, and the concept of impersonal Brahman is spiritual, but the highest spiritual understanding is the Personality of Godhead. The Visnu Purana states, visnur brahma-svarupena svayam eva vyavasthitah: Brahman’s real feature is Visnu, or the Supreme Brahman is Visnu. Svayam eva: that is His personal feature. The supreme spiritual conception is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gita: yad gatva na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama [Bg. 15.6]. That specific abode called paramam mama is the place from which, once one attains it, one does not return to this miserable, conditional life. Every place, every space and everything belongs to Visnu, but where He personally lives is tad dhama paramam, His supreme abode. One has to make one’s destination the supreme abode of the Lord. [End of Srila Prabhupada’s Purport.]

HG Harivilas Prabhu: We are actually the most fortunate people because we are sitting in Lord Caitanya’s appearance place, Sridham Mayapur in the beautiful temple built by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada seeing Sri Sri Radha-Madhava, Sri Nrsimhadev and Panca-tattva and Srila Prabhupada’s murti and hearing Krishna’s words in Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam with the nectarian purports of His Divine Grace A. C Bhaktivedanta Srila Prabhupada. That means that we are the most fortunate people. And this fortune is created by seeing properly and this verse is about seeing properly.

When it says drsy-adibhih, it means by philosophical research and other processes. In the Sanskrit language the word for philosophy is darsan and in English we define philosophy as the love of the truth and so forth but in Sanskrit it means seeing. Now how do we see things? This is the purpose of Vedic knowledge, to see things properly. For example when Kamsa heard that the eight child of Vasudev and Devaki was born, [Sri Sri Radha-Madhava, Sri Nrsimhadev Bhagavan Ki Jai! Gaura-premanande Hari, Haribol!] He ran down to the dungeon where they were being imprisoned. He ran into the prison and he grabbed the child. He was expecting to see a boy. It turned out to being a girl but he did not stop in his determination. He was going to smash that poor young girl on the ground and kill her but as soon as he threw her down she jumped up into the air. And what did he see?

He saw Durga, but what was the name of that girl? Yoga-maya. So why did he see Durga but actually it was yoga-maya? Because he was not a devotee! Although in a sense you can say that he is a devotee because he was thinking always of Krishna but he was not thinking favourably about Krishna. And he was thinking to kill Krishna.

There are many people in this world that are pious but that doesn’t mean that they are genuine devotees. For example, Indrajit, the son of Ravana, you could say that he was pious. He was always doing Vedic yajnas and he knew that mantras but what was the goal of his yajna? To kill Rama! And what was the goal of Kamsa? He ran down excitedly all pumped up with energy but his purpose was to kill Krishna and therefore he saw Durga this is very interesting. And he became afraid and she told him, “You rascal you think you can kill Krishna but He is already far away and He will someday kill you.” And he became full of anxiety.

So this is our position when we don’t see properly then we become full of anxiety and fear and we become oppressed by the material energy by Durga Matta. She has a very great service to do for Krishna. It is just like being married. If the husband looks at his wife as an object of sense pleasure then his wife becomes like Durga. And what is the function of Durga? Durga’s function is to reward the materialists of this world and then to smash them. Therefore the pain is much more excruciating.

For example let’s say you don’t have anything. Just like a friend of mine, I asked him, “How you doing in the economic downturn?” He said, “Oh, I’m okay.” I said, “How come?” He said, “Well I don’t have any stocks, I don’t have anything. All I have is a house and a car and they are paid off. And I live within my means so I am not hurt by it at all.” I thought it was interesting. “He said that the only people that are hurt are the people that have money. They have stocks and they own things and they want to make money. They are hurt but I am not hurt at all. I just live within my means and God has blessed me.”

So when we learn to live within our means and we use things in Krishna’s service there are extra.

isavasyam idam sarvam, yat kinca jagatyam jagat tena tyaktena bhunjitha, ma grdhah kasya svid dhanam [Iso 1]

Everything in this creation is owned and controlled by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Nirmamo nirahankarah [Bg 2.71] Actually nothing belongs to me and I should not have the false ego to think that I could be the controller and enjoyer - sa santim adhigacchati [Bg 2.71] I can attain real peace in this life. So someone who understands this principle,

kurvann eveha karmani, jijivisec chatam samah evam tvayi nanyatheto ’sti, na karma lipyate nare [Iso mantra 2]

Such a person who accepts bare minimum knowing well to whom everything belongs and anything extra used in the service of Krishna they are never affected by the laws of karma The can live peacefully in this world. In fact Srila Prabhupada mentions this as spiritual communism. Very interesting point! He says that when we understand this principle - “All living entities beginning from Brahma down to the lowest ant have the right to use material resources.

Narada Muni points out that we can use these resources as much as we require but if we take more than required we become thieves. Unfortunately everyone is trying to conquer and predominate. Countries race to the moon in order to put up their flags and claim that planet. When Europeans came to America they put up their flag and claimed it for their nation. This flag planting and flag waving is all due to ignorance. We do not stop to think were we are putting our flag. That is not our property but Gods. Knowing this is knowledge and thinking that, “It is my property.” It is ignorance. We have the right to utilize but not to claim or hoard.

If we throw a bag of grain into the street pigeons may come and eat four or five small grains and then go away. They will not take more than they can eat and having eaten they go freely on their way but if we were to put many bags of flour on the sidewalk and invite people to come and get them, one man will take ten or twenty bags, and another would take fifteen or thirty bags and so on but those who do not have the means to carry so much away will not be able to take more than a bag or two. Thus the distribution will be uneven.

This is called the advancement of civilization. We are even lacking in the knowledge, which the pigeons, dogs and cats have. Everything belongs to the Supreme Lord and we can accept whatever we need but not more. That is knowledge.”[Raja Vidya 7: Knowledge as Faith in Guru and surrender to Krishna]

So everyone is given their minimum requirements. For example a man is married and if he looks at his wife as the object of his sense gratification then he violates. He doesn’t see properly. He violates the principles of Krishna consciousness but if he looks at his wife as his most intimate partner in this great adventure of how to get out of this mess of birth, death, old age and disease and respects her in such a way, then she becomes yoga-maya.

What does Mahamaya do - Durga? Durga takes you away from Krishna and what does yoga-maya do? Yoga-maya brings you closer to Krishna. So it depends whether we wants to be happy or whether we want to suffer in life. If we are trained properly as brahmacaris and bramacarinis and as devotees then we learn these principles by reading Prabhupada’s books in the company of genuine devotees, discussing them, following the rules and regulations of Krishna consciousness, hearing and chanting - quality hearing and chanting, then we become darsana. We are able to see properly.

krodhad bhavati sammohah, sammohat smrti-vibhramah smrti-bhramsad buddhi-naso, buddhi-nasat pranasyati [Bg 2.63]

We become entangled in material life by not seeing properly. So if I meditate on the object of the senses and don’t look correctly - looking correctly is what Prabhupada explained isavasya idam sarvam - everything belongs to Krishna. Nothing belongs to me - my body, my wife, my children, my house or my everything. It all belongs to Krishna. And Krishna is,

upadrastanumanta ca, bharta bhokta mahesvarah paramatmeti capy ukto, dehe ’smin purusah parah [Bg 13.23]

He is the upadrasta, He is the overseer. He is seeing everything we do. Therefore we should always act as if the Lord is standing right there watching us. In order to engage in sense gratification we have to be convinced that nobody is watching us. Sense gratification needs privacy but if Krishna is upadrasta, then there’s no privacy. He is standing right there.

Actually what is the difference between a devotee who is initiated and a devotee who is not initiated? Well it depends on if they see Prabhupada standing next to them, if they see their guru standing next to them and witnessing everything they do. That means they are initiated because then they will be carful. Lets say someone is not initiated but he hears nirmamo nirahankarah [Bg 12.13]- nothing belongs to you and you should not have any false pretentions as being the controller and the enjoyer. So he comes to the temple - lets say his name is Bhakta Eddy and in the first week he learns this and the temple commander picks him up, turns him upside down and shakes everything out of his pocket and he says, “All this belongs to Krishna.” So Bhakta Eddy says, “Okay, I give up. I am going to live like a bramacari. Everything belongs to Krishna.”

Now Bhakta Eddy has become highly advanced because he understands everything belongs to Krishna. This is the principle of spiritual advancement. To see that Krishna is the Supreme proprietor, He is the beneficiary of all sacrifices and He is your best friend. Then Bhakta Eddy becomes peaceful and then he begins his spiritual life. Chanting Hare Krishna and following the regulative principles and learning to see properly. But lets say I have been in the movement, twenty, thirty years and at first I was a little mouse and now I become a big tiger. When I am a tiger I begin to think, “This belongs to me, that belongs to me. I did this, I did that.”

This is the famous Mexican song, “I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,” This is a famous song, “I did this. I did that.” This is what materialists think. “I am the doer.” And so forth and they begin to accumulate. Then the mouse becomes the tiger. Now Bhakta Eddy They just shook him down like this, took everything away from him and said, “Nothing belongs to you.” And he said, “Yes. I accept that.” And now after forty years someone thinks, “I did this, I did that. This belongs to me. That belongs to me.”

So which one is actually initiated? Which one is actually a devotee? The one that has faith and follows and is humble or the one that has become puffed up and thinks that they are the owner and proprietor?

prakrteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvasah ahankara-vimudhatma kartaham iti manyate [Bg 3.27]

If I think I am the doer and I am the owner then I am in illusion even though I might be in the movement for fifty years. So this is very important that we come to proper understanding of how to see. This is explained in Bhagavad-gita,

sraddhaval labhate jnanam tat-parah samyatendriyah jnanam labdhva param santim acirenadhigacchati [Bg 4.39]

Srila Prabhupada says some very interesting things about this verse. He says, “A faithful man who is absorbed in transcendental knowledge and who subdues his senses quickly attains the supreme spiritual peace.” (Bg. 4.39) “For those who are hesitant and have no faith, Krsna consciousness is very difficult. Even in our daily affairs a certain amount of faith is required. When we buy a ticket, we have faith that the airline company will take us to our destination. Without faith we cannot even live in the material world, what to speak of making spiritual progress. Where are we to keep our faith? In the authority!

We should not book our ticket with an unauthorized company. Faith must be in Krsna, the speaker of Bhagavad-gita. How do we become faithful? Control of the senses (samyatendriyah) is required. We are in the material world because we want to gratify our senses. If we have faith that a physician can cure us, and he tells us not to eat such and such, and we eat it anyway, what kind of faith do we have? If we have faith in our physician, we will follow his prescriptions for cure. The point is that we have to follow the instructions with faith. Then wisdom will come. When we attain to the stage of wisdom, the result is param santim — supreme peace. Krsna indicates that when one controls the senses, faith comes in the near future (acirena). Having attained that stage of faith in Krsna, one feels that he is the happiest man in the world. This is our position.” [Raja Vidya 7 Knowledge as Faith in Guru and surrender to Krsna]

So that is why I say, we are the luckiest people. We have Srila Prabhupada. We have his books. We have the association of Vaisnavas. We have a beautiful temple. We have prasadam. We have all these wonderful assets. My question to you now - Are you happy?

Prabhupada said this once. He came to France and he said, “Are you happy?” And one person said, [gestures negatively (?)] Prabhupada said, “What? You must be happy!” su-sukham kartum avyayam [Bg 9.2] Therefore if you are not happy,

man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru mam evaisyasi satyam te pratijane priyo ’si me [Bg 18.65]

If you are not happy, think of Krishna, mad-bhakto - become His devote, mad-yaji - worship Him and namaskuru - offer all you homage and respects to Him. Then Krishna says, satyam te - I promise you - this is Krishna telling you, right! satyam te - I promise you that you will come back to Me.

So Prabhupada said, “So are you happy?

man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru mam evaisyasi satyam te pratijane priyo ’si me [Bg 18.65]

You must be happy if you do this properly.” He said, “If you are not happy then there is fault in the practice. You are not chanting Hare Krishna properly or you are not following the regulative principles or something. There is a fault in the practice. That is why you are not happy.”

So we are so lucky to have as guru Srila Prabhupada. One time there were two farmers and they were both very poor and one farmer had a bull and during the winter time the bull died. So in springtime he couldn’t work his land. So he knew one other farmer who had a bull. So he went to him and said, “My friend,” he said, “I will give you very low rent. You take my land and you work it because I do not have a bull.” He said, “Okay my dear friend. Thank you very much.”

So that second farmer started working the land and while doing that he hit something in the ground and his plough couldn’t move. So he dug it up. It was a pot of gold! So he ran back to his friend. He said, “Prabhu! Prabhu! This is your lucky day.” He said, “What happened?” He said, “There is a pot of gold in you land. Come and see.”

They both looked at it and he said, “This is yours.” He said, “No. It is yours.” He said, “What do you mean? This is yours. It is your land!” He said, “No. I rented my land to you and you had the right to whatever comes out of the land. That why it belongs to you.” He said, “No, no, no, no, no! It doesn’t belong to me. It was in your land and it belongs to you.”

They got into a fight. And people came they broke the fight up. They were very serious about fighting. So they took them to the king to settle it. So the king said, “What is going on?” The one man said, this man did this and the other man said that man did that but the only thing the king heard was, “Pot of Gold.” (Laughter) So he said, “Wait a minute! Everything belongs to me. I am the king. Therefore the pot of gold belongs to me,”

They did not say anything because the king has guns. They do not have guns. So the king said, “Let me go see the pot of gold.” So he was taken to the land with his soldiers. The two farmers stayed back. And when the king opened the lid of the pot he saw scorpions and snakes. One tried to bite him and he jumped back and he was frightened so he ran back with his soldiers. He was going to kill the two men. He had them put in jail. He had them beaten and they started screaming, ” We are innocent. We didn’t do anything. There is gold there.” They insisted so much that the king came to talk to them. He said, “What do you mean? There were snakes there. They said, “No, no, no let us go back. Let the soldiers come with us. We will show you. There was gold!!!!”

So they went back they opened the pot and there was gold! They came back to the king and the king said, “So?” They said, “Sir, there was gold in the pot.” He said, “What? I must have opened another pot.” So he went back He opened the pot and there were snakes and scorpions and one tried to bite him again. So he came back and he was confused so he called all the great pundits in his land. And they all came and he said, “Explain this.”

The pundits looked at each other. It is always tough to tell the truth to a powerful man. So one of them said, “Sir, may you have long life. If you promise not to kill me or punish me I will tell you the truth about this.” He said, “Okay, I promise.” He said, “Sir, these two men, they are honest. They are just simple people and they had not false pretensions but you, you are a king and I am sorry to say that you are greedy. God has blessed these men because they are honest. They are simple. They have no false pretensions. Therefore they were arguing with each other to give the pot to each other instead of keeping it for themselves. But you are greedy. You wanted to take something that does not belong to you. Therefore God has punished you by seeing snakes and blessed them by giving them gold.”

The king kept silent. He didn’t say anything. So then he said, “What shall we do?” “Okay” he said, ” And he looked at the two men. They started arguing again. So then he said, “Stop.” And he asked the pundit, “What shall we do?” So the pundits they said, “Look let me ask these men some questions first.” So they asked the on man first, “Are you married?” “Yes.” “You have any children?” “I have one son.” And they asked the other one, “Are you married?” And he said, “Yes.” They said, “Do you have any children?” he said, “I have one daughter.” They said, “Solution! You marry the boy to the girl and you give them the pot of gold!” (Laughter.) They both said, “Okay we will do that.” So they had a marriage for seven days and everyone was happy and the children got the pot of gold and the problem was solved!

You see. It all depends on how you see. But because we are not trained to see properly there is gold there but we see snakes. Just like when a man and a woman get married there is gold, especially when they are both devotees but if the expectation is material sense gratification, then the gold turns to snakes but if it is advancing in Krishna consciousness then it is real gold. Then you are actually rich. You do not have any problems. Your children grow up to be respectful and good. You have actual love in your life.

Actually Krishna has promised prosperity. There is such a thing in America as ‘prosperity theology’. But the real prosperity theology is explained in Bhagava-gita where Krishna says,

saha-yajnah prajah srstva purovaca prajapatih [Bg 3.10]

He says, “In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Visnu, and blessed them by saying, “Be thou happy by this yajna [sacrifice] because its performance will bestow upon you everything desirable for living happily and achieving liberation.”

And Srila Prabhupada says, “The Lord created this material world to enable the conditioned souls to learn how to perform yajna (sacrifices) for the satisfaction of Visnu, so that while in the material world they can live very comfortably without anxiety and after finishing the present material body they can enter into the kingdom of God. That is the whole program for the conditioned soul. By performance of yajna the conditioned soul gradually becomes Krishna conscious and becomes godly in all respects. In the In the Age of Kali, the sankirtana-yajna, (the chanting of the names of God) is recommended by the Vedic scriptures, and this transcendental system was introduced by Lord Caitanya for the deliverance of all men in this age. Sankirtana-yajna and Krsna consciousness go well together. Lord Krsna in His devotional form (as Lord Caitanya) is mentioned in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.5.32) as follows, with special reference to the sankirtana-yajna:

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam sangopangastra-parsadam yajnaih sankirtana-prayair yajanti hi su-medhasah

“In this Age of Kali, people who are endowed with sufficient intelligence will worship the Lord, who is accompanied by His associates, by performance of sankirtana-yajna.” ” (Bhagavad-gita 3.10, purport)

So it is very nice. There is one boy here, I think from Africa. Everyday he is doing sankirtana. People told me they are very happy that he is doing this. All afternoon they are chanting Hare Krishna. So this is the benediction of being here. Simply by doing sankirtan, taking prasadam, hearing Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam and associating with devotees and engaging in practical devotional service everything is supplied by Krishna. You don’t need to do anything else but this.

So but the why are there problem? Well, because people become greedy and this greed spoils everything. This aham mametti - mine! Just like for example I saw a film last night about Iskcon’s charitable work in this area and there was an interview with villagers. They were saying, “Devotees put in this arsenic water plant in our village and it worked for some years. Now it doesn’t work. And now we have to go somewhere else and get water. It is big trouble and we are getting into fights with people. What to do?” And then the person was saying that, “Yes, but there is no money to fix it.”

Now, this is interesting.

1. Brahma creates.

2. Siva destroys.

3. Visnu maintains The hardest part is given to Visnu. So therefore if you do charity or social welfare work and that is greatly appreciated by people but you don’t do maintenance then you destroy the whole purpose of this charity in the first place. There has to be maintenance for things to continue to work and for people to have sustainability to appreciate Krishna consciousness and to chant Hare Krishna. So good management means no complaints. Devotees are happy. People are happy. That is good management. If there are complaints that means that somebody is not doing their job properly.

So this yoga-ksemam [Bg 9.22] safety and supply or needs, safety and gain, yoga-ksemam vahamy aham, Krishna said, “I supply what they need and preserve what they have.” So this is good management. What does it actually mean? “I supply what they need.” What do we need? We need a place like this. We need good association. We need Prabhupada’s books. We need some prasadam. We need harinäm sankirtan. So this is being supplied.

“Preserve what they have.” Means that you are protected. So that is what is being supplied. Don’t fall down from Krishna consciousness. You feel protected. You feel safe. You feel loved. So this is good management. To be able to take care of devotees so there is no complaint and they feel happy. The feel safe and they have faith that, “I have made the right decision to join this movement. I made the right decision by associating with these people and giving my heart and my strength and everything to this movement.”

So the way outside people understand that there is good management is the women are happy and the children are happy, the men are well behaved. There is cooperation. There is good organization and there is respect or as they say in Hindi - saman, respect. Children respect their parents and parents respect each other. Devotees respect all visitors to the dham and so forth. The respect is in all 360 degrees. So at this point we will end and I will tell just one little story.

There was once a guru who was getting old and his disciples were all beginning to get restless about who would replace him and the guru was afraid that this would cause tremendous problems in the future because of the self interest of his disciples. People sometime kill each other because of self-interest. So he called his disciples together. He didn’t have too many. And he said to them “I only have one precious thing that is material.” And he showed them. It was quite a big diamond. And he said to his one disciple and he said, “I want you to break this.” So the disciple looked at his. He was trying to figure out what to do, what the guru meant by this.

He said, “Maharaj, Gurudev, this is a precious thing. It’s a diamond. It is worth a lot of money and I really don’t think that I should break it. It says that you should never violate the guru’s possessions! I am not going to do it.” So he said, “Very good my son, I appreciate your concern.” He gave it to the second one and the third one and so on. There were eight disciples. Some of them refused t break it. The eight one looked at it. His hand was shaking a little bit. He wasn’t sure what to do and then he thought and then he smashed it on the ground! Smashed it with a hammer broke it into pieces into dust and the guru looked at him and everyone looked at him. Everyone was shocked. And the guru said, “Thank you my son. You have done the right thing.”

He asked him, “Why did you do this?” He said, “Gurudev, I understand that your order is the most important thing in my life and you said emphatically, ‘Break this.’ Therefore I cannot let any other consideration come in between your order and my execution of it. That is why did it.” He said, “Very good my son. You are a true successor.” So with that we will stop. Are there any questions?

Question: When the devotee is not happy with his devotional service and due to his carelessness he lives a devotional path incomplete, is that considered a nama-aparadha? HG Harivilas Prabhu: We are here to see properly. So rather than go the negative way, go the positive way. Here is the solution. Just follow simply what Prabhupada says and have faith in it and you will be happy and everything will be successful. Obviously the opposite means that you are not going to be happy and not successful. But take the positive thing. Here’s to pick it out. Say for example if you were drowning right now in the Ganges and I came up in a boat and I said, “Prabhu, here is two tickets to go to Chennai and here is ten thousand rupees.” Would you be happy? See you are drowning and I am offering you money and tickets and whatever. So what do you need at that moment? Answer: Save me. HG Harivilas Prabhu: I want to save you right? So at that moment you can clearly see what you need. This is our problem. We don’t clearly see what we need but at that moment you can clearly see what you need. You need someone to save you, to lift you up from that water.

So when we are able to analyse our life deeply and understand, “What do I really need in my life.” Then you can eliminate the money, sense gratification, and all these things. You need someone to save you from that all encompassing spectre of death old age and disease. You need someone to save you from that. Then you can be happy. You can’t be happy as long as old age disease and death is facing you, following you. But to see clearly like that you need help. Obviously we wouldn’t be here if we understood that, we wouldn’t be making plans.

Just like if I say to you, “Hey Prabhu I’ll see you tomorrow.” How do I know that I am going to be alive to see you? I don’t know. You see? And Prabhu would say, “Okay Prabhu but chant Hare Krishna.” Yes that is what I need. If I can get through tomorrow by chanting Hare Krishna then when I see you I am going to thank you because you gave me good advice. So if we have a clear understanding of what we need then we become self realized.

Question: Are offences considered sins? Are they in the same category as sins? Are offences sins or based on ignorance? HG Harivilas Prabhu: All are based on ignorance. Just like when a person commits murder he gets caught. He goes through a whole trial. He is convicted. Then he has to go through the second phase, which is the sentencing in which all the victims and their relatives have a chance to speak right to his face. And then after all that they ask the criminal, they say, “You want to say something?” He comes up and says, “Excuse me. I know I did something wrong. I am sorry. I am sorry.”

It took all that to make the person realize he did something wrong. You see? Now, but if you sit down and hear, susrusoh sraddadhanasya [SB 1.2.16]; bhakti-yogena sevate [Bg 14.26] and listen very seriously - susrusoh, very seriously listen Bhagavad-gita, Bhagavatam, then you understand - not only this life, millions of lives I have done wrong things and now I have an opportunity to solve the problem. And solving it is very simple. All I have to do is dance, chant, take prasadam, speak nicely about endearing things about Krishna, associate with nice people who take bathe two or three times a day, put on clean clothes, don’t smell bad, chant Hare Krishna and hopefully are nice and affectionate. What more can you ask for!!! What else you want? You want a better nail to sit on? You want to immolate yourself? What else do you want? Everything is give. It is easy. If you say it is too easy give me something hard. Then you are crazy. So take it. Take it and you will be happy. Leave it and you will continue to be confused and miserable. Are there any other questions? Okay. Thank you very much. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! [Applause]


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