Ratha-yatra Pandal Address—Impressions of India

Giriraj Swami: Coming back to the Bombay city after many years, I recalled my first visit to Bombay around twenty-three years ago. Immediately, I felt at home in India. But when I began to work to establish Srila Prabhupada’s mission here, I started to visit some of the government offices, and I was very surprised to see that almost none of the workers in the office did any work. I saw stacks of papers and files piled higher and higher and higher on the floors, on the shelves, under the tables, everywhere there were files and papers. And almost, nobody was doing any work. They were drinking tea, reading newspapers, and chit chatting. And it seemed almost impossible to get any work done. So, it was quite a shock, but then some devotee explained the actual situation to me. He said that many people think that Indians are lazy, but actually, they are not lazy. For material development, they may be lazy but for spiritual advancement they are very active.

Then I had my own experience, which proved the same thing. We went to Khumba-mela in 1977. Nonetheless, for bathing in Ganges we had to go to the Khumba-mela site through the city. And we needed to find some rickshaw or some taxi to take us but there was not any to be found. Hundreds of thousands of persons had already gone and they had already taken all the rickshaws and taxis. It was quite cold and rainy, and we walked for few miles. And finally, we saw in the mist one rickshaw by the side of the road. We thought, now here is our only chance. We went up to the rickshaw but there was no driver. But actually, after we looked a little closer we saw there was a driver but he was hiding under the covering of rickshaw and he was sleeping. So, we told him that we have to go Allahabad. He said, “No I don’t want to go.” We said we would pay double the price but you must take us. He said, “No it is rainy and then he is tired.” We said we would pay you ten times the price. He said no. So, then we started to talk because we had no other place to go and we thought Krishna would inspire him. Then he said that in the morning at three o’clock, he had walked for many miles in the cold and in the rain to take baths in the Triveni. And there were so many crowds pushing and shouting, but he tolerated everything because he wanted that bath that was his precious moment. Because he was actually interested in mukti. So, for the sake of mukti, he was ready to do great penance. But for the sake of earning some extra rupees, he appeared to be very lazy.

So, this is actually Vedic culture in one sense that one should not be very interested in material development. He should be more interested in spiritual advancements. Why? Actually, there are many reasons. The great sages Narada and Prahlada in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam have instructed us that whatever happiness we are destined to enjoy will come to us automatically without any special effort. Just like nobody wants problems, nobody goes to the temple or church and prays to the Lord “Dear God, please give me problems, please give me duḥkha.” They want relief. So, the Bhāgavata says just as duḥkha comes automatically without our trying for it, so similarly sukha will also come automatically without any effort, both will come. Whatever we are destined to enjoy or suffer, it is bound to come to us, and we cannot escape it.

In the old days in India, Calcutta was the best city and people from villages and other places in India wanted to go to Calcutta to become rich and happy. In more recent days, people thought, If I go to England, or if I go to America, or if I go to Canada, I will get money and I will become happy. So, they thought. if I go to Calcutta, then I will become happy. An expression developed in Indian language that even if you go to Calcutta, your forehead will go with you. Because in Sanskrit the word for forehead and the word for destiny are the same. So, the meaning of “Even if you go to Calcutta your forehead will go with you,” meaning is even if you go to Calcutta your destiny will go with you, you cannot escape your destiny. And even when now people want to lament about their bad luck or about their bad fortune, the point to their head and [break in audio]

There is one story in Persian language about a rich man who sent his servant to, Samara, to the bazaar in Samara to purchase something for the master. So, the servant went to the market and in the market, he was bumped by death personified. So, he got a shock and death looked at him as if it was about to capture him. So, he immediately fled away to the master and told him what had happened. Then, the two discussed, and they decided he should run away to Baghdad. Then the master himself went to Samara, he met death, asked him why he did so with his servant. So, he went to Samara, and the in bazaar he met death and he said, “Why did you scare my servant? He said that you looked at him in very menacing way. Why did you scare him?” Death said, “I didn’t mean to scare him, I was just surprised to see him in Samara in the morning because I had an appointment with him in the afternoon in Baghdad.” So, we cannot escape our destiny. Whatever we are bound to suffer and enjoy, we are bound to suffer and enjoy.

So, Bhāgavata says that, instead of wasting our time trying to increase our happiness and reduce our distress, we should not waste our time. Because we cannot increase our happiness and we cannot decrease our distress, so we should not waste our time. We should tolerate whatever comes, we should our time and energy to realize God and to become free the repetition of birth and death. This is the real purpose of human life. Even the animals are trying to enjoy eating and sleeping and other things. So, the shastra says we should not live like animal just sleeping and eating and enjoying. After many lifetimes we come to human form which is very rare and very valuable. The human form of life is meant to realize God and to become free from the cycle of birth and death. And the Krishna consciousness movement is meant to give the method how one can become free from the cycle of birth and death and go back home back to Godhead. But does it mean that we are meant to suffer only until the time of death, and we will get the reward only in the next life? No. We will feel happy even in the present life if we take to Krishna consciousness.

Once one newspaper reported asked Srila Prabhupada that, “You are doing everything for Krishna, you are working for Krishna, you are speaking about Krishna, you are writing about Krishna, you are doing everything for Krishna, worshiping Krishna and everything. So, the reported asked Srila Prabhupada that, “What if in the end there is no Krishna, then what?” Srila Prabhupada replied, “Even if there is no Krishna, I would do the same thing that I am doing now, because what I am doing now? I am singing, I am dancing, I am tasting nice vegetarian food, kṛṣṇa-prasāda, and I am discussing nice kṛṣṇa-kathā, and associating with nice Krishna-bhakta. So, I would do the same thing. I would not change anything.” And we can share personal evidence that the happiness of Krishna consciousness is far greater than the happiness of material life. In America, my father is a multi-millionaire and he had three houses and so many cars but he was not really happy. None of the materialists really happy and the happiness I experienced after coming to Krishna consciousness is millions of times more than the happiness I experienced in material life. I can’t even think of going back to it.

So, this is the real purpose of life: to become happy and at the same time to realize God. So Vedic culture is the most wonderful culture. And it should be preserved and actually spread all over the world. In another words, we should not give it up to imitate the ways of the west. Of course, we don’t reject materialistic advancement of the west also, but we want to engage it in the service of the Lord. Srila Prabhupada gave very nice example. The logic of the lame man and the blind man. The blind man is very strong and healthy but he is blind; he cannot go anywhere. And the lame man he can see but because he is lame, he cannot go anywhere. But if the blind man takes the lame man on his shoulder then the lame man can see, he can direct and blind man can walk, and together they can go forward. So, Srila Prabhupada said the western countries are like the blind man. He might be very strong, but he is blind; he doesn’t know where to go. And due to maybe so many centuries of foreign invasion and domination, India is a little like the lame man. Although India is developing we must say. But Srila Prabhupada’s idea was that, like the blind man and the lame man, combined, and together go forward. Western technology and Indian culture should combine, and that will solve all the problems in the world. So, this is the idea of the Krishna consciousness movement; to combine Indian culture with Western technology, and was by spreading Krishna consciousness all over the world, to save the whole human society from going to hell, and to actually give them the chance by which they can become liberated from the cycle of birth and death, and go back home back to Godhead. So, we hope that we can all join together in this mission.

Aapka Bahut Dhanyavāda.

Hare Krishna.