SB 7.10.27–29 – Can You Really Escape Death

Giriraj Swami:

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Seven, Chapter Ten, Prahlād the Best Among Exalted Devotees. I will read Text Twenty-Seven and Twenty-Eight, and then we will chant Text Twenty-Nine responsively.

TEXT 27

yo ’sau labdha-varo matto
na vadhyo mama sṛṣṭibhiḥ
tapo-yoga-balonnaddhaḥ
samasta-nigamān ahan

TRANSLATION

This demon, Hiraṇyakaśipu, received from me the benediction that he would not be killed by any living being within my creation. With this assurance and with strength derived from austerities and mystic power, he became excessively proud and transgressed all the Vedic injunctions.

TEXT 28

diṣṭyā tat-tanayaḥ sādhur
mahā-bhāgavato ’rbhakaḥ
tvayā vimocito mṛtyor
diṣṭyā tvāṁ samito ’dhunā

TRANSLATION

By great fortune, Hiraṇyakaśipu’s son Prahlāda Mahārāja has now been released from death, for although he is a child, he is an exalted devotee. Now he is fully under the protection of Your lotus feet.

TEXT 29

etad vapus te bhagavan
dhyāyataḥ paramātmanaḥ
sarvato goptṛ santrāsān
mṛtyor api jighāṁsataḥ

TRANSLATION

My dear Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, You are the Supreme Soul. If one meditates upon Your transcendental body, You naturally protect him from all sources of fear, even the imminent danger of death.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Everyone is sure to die, for no one is excused from the hands of death, which is but a feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead (mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham). When one becomes a devotee, however, he is not destined to die according to a limited duration of life. Everyone has a limited duration of life, but a devotee’s lifetime can be extended by the mercy of the Supreme Lord, who is able to nullify the results of one’s karma. Karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājāṁ. This is the statement of Brahma-saṁhitā (5.54). A devotee is not under the laws of karma. Therefore even a devotee’s scheduled death can be avoided by the causeless mercy of the Supreme Lord. God protects the devotee even from the extreme danger of death.

COMMENT

So, every living entity within the material world is full of fear, because we identify with the body. The body is always subject to destruction. Besides destruction, the body is subject to various other miseries like birth, disease, old age, and then death. So, we are always in anxiety, because we don’t want anything to happen to the body, but we don’t know how to actually solve the problem. We are in anxiety but we cannot do anything, simply we have to suffer. We don’t want disease, but automatically, disease comes. We don’t want old age, but old age comes. And we don’t want death, but death will also come. As sure as death.

So, how can we become free from fear? Because actually, we are in a fearful condition. So, the answer is given here, and the same answer is given in another way in the Second Canto, where Śukadeva Gosvami has instructed Maharaja Parīkṣit, “If you want to become free from the fear of death, you should constantly engage in hearing, chanting, and remembering the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that is the only way.”

Bhagavān īśvaro hariḥ. Bhagavān means the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is full in all opulences. The Lord is not impersonal, the Lord is personal, and He is full of all opulences. All beauty, all wealth, all strength, all fame, all knowledge, and renunciation. So, there is so much to think about the Lord. Srila Prabhupada has translated and written about eighty volumes of books about the Supreme Lord, so we can be busy reading about the Supreme Lord, discussing about the Supreme Lord, and remembering Him from morning to night, day after day, without any cessation.

Once, one big political leader of India came to meet Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. And Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura told him, or one of the devotees told him, that they published six journals every month: one in English, one in Bengali, one in Hindi, and three more in other languages; and they published a daily paper in Bengali.

So, the big politician was surprised, “How can you publish a paper every day? What do you have to say?” So, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura replied that according to Bhagavad-gītā, three-fourths of existence is comprised of the spiritual world, and only one-fourth of existence is comprised of the material world; and within the material world, there are so many universes, and we live in one universe; and within the universe, there are so many planets, and we live on one of them; and even within the planet Earth, there are so many continents, and we are on one of them; and within each continent, there are so many countries, and we live in one of them; and within every country, there are so many states, and within every state, there are so many cities, and in each city, there are so many daily newspapers just to describe the news in one insignificant city or one insignificant planet. So, let’s think of the spiritual world, how much news there must be in the spiritual world.

So, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura said, “We could actually publish a newspaper about the spiritual world every moment. We have so much news, we can publish a newspaper every moment. But unfortunately, there are no customers.”

So, this is the problem, that although the solution to all problems comes from hearing the message of Godhead, we have very little interest in the message of Godhead, we are more interested in mundane newspapers. In fact, most people are very interested in mundane newspapers, especially in the west on Sunday, the newspapers are so big, there are actually many magazines and many sections in the Sunday paper, and people can spend the whole day reading it, and into the whole next week, they can continue to read it, and they are very attached. So, there are many subject matters for hearing or reading, and generally, people are interested in material subject matter, like the newspaper. Every day, people are very anxious to read the newspaper.

Once, Srila Prabhupada told the story to illustrate how people are attached to the newspaper. One Christian preacher went to England and he was preaching to the coal miners there, and he was saying, “You must accept Jesus Christ. If you don’t accept Jesus Christ, you will go to hell.” So first, they said, “Who is Jesus Christ? What is his number?” Because every coal miner has a number, so they thought that he was also a coal miner. So, they said, “What is his number?” He said, “No, no, you don’t understand. Jesus Christ is not a coal miner. He is the son of God and He has come to Earth to save you, and if you don’t accept Him, you will go to hell.”

So then, the coal miners asked, “What is hell?” So, the Christian preacher said, “Hell is a very bad place deep inside the Earth. There is no light, no fresh air, no water, and it is very cold and dark.” So, the coal miners said, “Well, hell must be the coal mine. What you have described is just like the coal mine. We are already in hell.” So, the Christian preacher said, “No, no, you don’t understand.” Then he thought about how to make them understand. Finally, he said, “In hell, there are no newspapers.” They said, “Oh! Horrible, horrible!”

So, people cannot live without the newspaper. For them, life is hell without the newspapers. But by reading the newspaper, they do not get any benefits. Every morning, so many newspapers are delivered to the houses, and every evening, the same newspapers are thrown in the dustbins. Not in India, because they don’t have dustbins in India, somehow, the thrash goes away by itself. But in the west, they have dustbins, so all the newspapers end up in the dustbins, and every morning, the people very eagerly awake the next day’s newspaper. But what is the newspaper about? The newspaper is simply about the body and the extensions of the body. And people try to take shelter of the body and the extensions of the body.

And Śukadeva Gosvami explains that the body, and the wife, and the children, and all the other household paraphernalia, are like fallible soldiers. We are in a great struggle, a great battle for existence, fighting against the stringent laws of material nature. So, in the great battle, we want some soldiers to help us and protect us. So, who are the soldiers? The body, the wife, the children, the house, the bank balance, the car, so many soldiers. Śukadeva Gosvami says that these soldiers are all fallible. We are taking help from them, we want to take help from them, but actually, they cannot help us.

When Yamaraja asked Maharaja Yudhisthira, “What is the most wonderful thing? What is the most amazing thing?” He said, “The most amazing thing is that everyone in the material world must die.” A person sees, “My father has died, my father’s father has died, his father has died, and his father’s father has died.” And everywhere we see, every day, people are dying. But still, we think we will not die. We may not say it, but we act as if we believe that we will not die. And therefore, we are making so many arrangements to live very happily in this world. We must have a nice house, and we must have nice furnishings in the house. We must have all the modern appliances.

Now in India, there are so many gadgets and appliances, which were never there in the past, they were never needed, but now so many are coming. So, they want to have all the comforts, so they can live very peacefully and happily. They are not thinking that at any moment, death may come and take away everything.

In Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna says mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham, “I come as death and take away everything.” And we cannot do anything to escape it, because according to our karma, or according to our destiny, we are allowed to live for a certain duration only, and when the time comes, death will take us away and take away everything from us, and we cannot do anything about it.

One of our godbrothers told a story that he had read in Persian literature, that one rich man sent his servant to Baghdad, to the market, to buy something. So, while he was in the bazaar, death personified jostled him, and looked at him in a very fearful way. So immediately, the servant panicked and he fled back to the master and told him what happened. So, he was very much afraid. So, the master said, “Okay, I will go to Baghdad and I will take up the matter with death personified.” And in the meantime, the servant ran to Samarra.

So, when the master came to the market in Baghdad, he also saw death personified there. So, he said, “You jostled my servant, and you looked at him in a very menacing way and you frightened him so much. Why did you do this?” So, death personified replied, “I didn’t look at him in a menacing way. I was just surprised to see him in Baghdad, because I had an appointment with him this afternoon in Samarra.” So, he was thinking that he could run away to Samarra to avoid death, but he had an appointment with death in Samarra, and there he would meet death. So, we cannot escape death. When our time comes, death will take away everything from us.

So, does it mean that we have to go on suffering again and again? Taking birth and dying, taking birth and dying? Is there no escape? An intelligent person will ask such questions, but the Bhāgavatam gives the answer, Bhagavad-gītā also gives the answer, that there is a way to escape. And the way is to surrender unto the lotus feet of Lord Krishna.

Once, one disciple asked Srila Prabhupada, “What is the meaning of lotus feet?” Then, Srila Prabhupada quoted one verse we read in Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta.

TEXT 58

samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ
mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ
bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ
padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām

COMMENT

The meaning is that the material world is like an ocean, and we are drowning in the ocean, and at any moment, we can be completely overwhelmed by the waves of the ocean and be finished. But the lotus feet of Krishna are a boat, and if we take shelter of the lotus feet of Krishna, the boat can take us across the ocean without any difficulties, and the vast ocean of material existence shrinks to the size of a puddle contained in the footprint of a cow, and although there is danger at every step, the devotee crosses right over.

So, to cross over the fierce ocean of Kali, or the fierce ocean of material existence, we should take shelter of a strong boat, which is the lotus feet of Krishna, then we can be saved. And how to take shelter of the lotus feet of Krishna? As mentioned in the Bhāgavatam, we should constantly hear about Him. Instead of hearing about or reading so many newspapers, we should hear about and read of Krishna, śrotavyaḥ, then kīrtitavyaś ca, then we should repeat what we have heard. That is called preaching. After hearing, we should preach the same message that we have heard. And Srila Prabhupada has also stated the same steps; that one who hears nicely, he can preach nicely.

Srila Prabhupada was appreciated by his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura that he likes to hear, he hears very nicely. Then, Srila Prabhupada commented, “Because I heard nicely, therefore I can preach nicely.” So, śrotavyaḥ, first we should hear. Then kīrtitavyaś ca, then we should preach, and when we do those two things, smartavyaś, naturally, we will remember Krishna. And if we do these three things, we are deliberate, akuto-bhayam, we become free from fear.

So here, Brahma says the same thing to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, that we can become free from all fear, even the fear of death, which is the greatest fear, simply by meditating on the transcendental body of Lord Krishna. But of course, first hearing, then preaching, and then remembering. And if we are always remembering the Lord, meaning fully absorbed in Krishna consciousness, then we will have no fear, because we will no longer be in the material world, we will be in Krishna consciousness, and whether the body is with us or not, we don’t mind because we are in Krishna consciousness; or whether with or without this body, we can serve Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada told the story of one sadhu who gave different blessings to different persons. So, the first was a prince, and he gave the prince the benediction rāja-putra ciraṁ jīva, “You should live forever. Due to your past pious activity, you have taken birth as a prince, and as a prince, you are enjoying so much sense gratification, and while enjoying so much sense gratification, you are engaging in so many sinful activities, for which you will have to suffer. So, I give you the benediction that you should not die, because as soon as you die, you have to suffer all the reactions for your sins, so you should not die.”

Then, the next was a butcher. So, he blessed the butcher, “You should not live, and you should not die. Because your present life is horrible, slaughtering animals, and your next life will be even more horrible, you’ll have to suffer the reaction for the sins of killing animals. So, you should not live, and you should not die.”

Then mā jīva mā mara iti. One brahmachari came, and he blessed the brahmachari, “You should not live,” because the brahmachari executes so many penances and austerities, and by virtue of his penances and austerities, he becomes qualified to enjoy the results to go back home, back to Godhead. So, the sadhu blessed him mā jīva, “You should not live, why to take more trouble? You are already qualified to go back home back to Godhead, so you should die immediately.”

And the devotee, jīva va maro va, “You may live or die, it does not make any difference, because while you are living, you are serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and after you die, you will continue to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So, for you, both are the same, life and death, so you may live or die.”

So, the devotee, because he is absorbed in Krishna consciousness and Krishna’s service, he is not afraid of anything, including death, and therefore, he goes on chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. And he is protected. He has full faith in Krishna. One who is surrendered to Krishna has full faith in the protection of the Lord. As stated here, goptṛ.

One of the six divisions of surrender is that one has full faith in the protection of the Lord, that he considers the Lord to be his guardian, and maintainer, and protector. He knows that no one except the Lord can protect him, and he has full confidence that the Lord actually will protect him, so he has no fear. The Bhāgavatam says that fear comes from thinking of something as separate from the Lord, but actually, nothing is separate from the Lord, and if we are surrendered to the Lord, we know that he can protect us in any situation, and he will protect us. Protect us means protect our devotional service. And if He wants us to keep our body for the sake of our service, He can arrange it.”

Just like we read about Srila Prabhupada, he had a heart attack and a stroke, and he thought he would die, he actually felt that his time had come, but because of the sincere prayers of the devotees, Srila Prabhupada, He agreed, “Okay, he can stay up there for some time more.” So, Krishna is all powerful, He can do anything. Māre kṛṣṇa rākhe ke, rākhe kṛṣṇa māre ke: if Krishna wants to save someone, no one can harm him. And if Krishna wants to kill someone, no one can save him.

So, we can depend fully on the mercy of the Lord in every situation and not be in anxiety due to identifying with the body. And we should not try to take shelter of the fallible soldiers of wives, children, husbands, and other relatives and parents. We should simply move aside all such futile endeavors, and use our valuable life to hear, and chant, and remember the Lord.

Therefore, the Bhāgavatam says that by rising and setting, the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone, except those who are engaged in hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord. Their duration of life is not decreased, because they are actually coming closer to eternal life, and therefore, they have no fear. Sometimes people challenge that we also die, “But you also die, so what is the difference between you and us?” Srila Prabhupada gave the answer that a rat is picked up in the jaws of a cat, and the kitten is also picked up in the jaws of the cat. But for the rat, the jaws of the cat mean death, and for the kitten, the jaws of the cat are a loving journey with the mother.

So, for the non-devotee, death is very fearful, death means that they will lose everything, everything will be taken away from them. But for the devotee, death means that the Lord is calling the devotee to Him, and therefore, devotees are not afraid of death, and when they feel that the Lord is arranging for their death, they welcome the arrangement, “I can go back home, back to Godhead sooner.”

It was like Maharaja Parīkṣit, he was cursed to die in seven days, and he could have counteracted the curse if he had wanted, but he didn’t choose to because he thought, Oh, now Krishna is calling me to Him. He has arranged for me to be cursed, so I will accept the curse and go back home, back to Godhead. But in the seven days he had left, what did he do? He inquired what is the duty of a person on the verge of death, and then he got the answer, to always hear, chant, and remember Lord Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada comments that Maharaja Parīkṣit was told, “You have seven days to live,” but we do not know whether we will live even for seven hours or seven minutes, there is no guarantee. So therefore, every moment of our time should be engaged in hearing, and chanting, and remembering Lord Krishna. That is real gain, and everything else is lost. So, we should not waste any more time, we’ve already wasted enough time, but we should let go of all of our false attachments and just take full shelter of Krishna, and hear and chant, and glorify, and remember Him. Then we will have no fear, and what to speak of being removed from fear, we will experience the greatest happiness in life. So, we should all chant constantly.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

So, are there any questions?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:41:05]

Giriraj Swami: He says if a disciple surrenders to the spiritual master, the spiritual master relieves him of all sinful reactions, so is the disciple free from such reaction?

Yes, in Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna says,

TEXT 66

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

COMMENT

“If you surrender to Me, I will relieve you from all sinful reactions.” But we cannot surrender to Krishna directly, we surrender to the representative of Krishna, who is the spiritual master. So, when we surrender to the spiritual master, he, on behalf of Krishna, will accept our sinful reactions. But sometimes it is seen that the devotee is not completely free from sinful reactions. He feels that he is not completely free from sinful reactions.

So, the answer is that because the devotee’s surrender is not perfect or complete, the removal of sinful reactions is also not complete. But at the same time, when the devotee surrenders to Krishna through the spiritual master and takes initiation, the devotee is relieved of a lot of sinful reaction, because yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ, unless one is free from sinful reaction, he cannot really engage in devotional service, and he cannot understand the science of Krishna consciousness.

So, the spiritual master will take away enough of the sinful reactions that the disciple can understand the science of Krishna and engage in the process of devotional service. And then, as the disciple surrenders more, he can be relieved more and more of sinful reactions. It doesn’t mean that the spiritual master has to decide to suffer for the disciple’s sins.

Well, Srila Prabhupada explained that because Krishna is so great, He can absorb any amount of sinful reactions without being affected, whereas the spiritual master, who plays the part of Krishna for the disciples, is not so big, so he may be disturbed by the sinful reactions. Srila Prabhupada gives the example that if you put a lot of wood in a small fire, the small fire may be disturbed. So, the spiritual master may suffer for the sins of the disciple, but then again, he is doing it, it means he is accepting the disciple as a service to Krishna.

So, Krishna may also take compassion on the spiritual master, “He accepted some disciples on My behalf, to engage them in My service.” So, Krishna can also relieve the spiritual master of the sinful reactions, but He may also allow the spiritual master to suffer, so that the disciples will know, “For our sinful activities, our spiritual master is suffering, so we should be very careful and not commit any more sins.”

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:45:46]

Giriraj Swami: You’ll know, “For our sinful activities, the spiritual master is suffering. So, we should be very careful and not commit any more sins.”

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:46:11]

Giriraj Swami: Although we say that having a house and other paraphernalia will not save us from death, the materialist may answer, “Yes, it will not save us from death, but while we are in the world, we need such things.” But actually, everything has a price, and what will save us from death? Were you listening to the class? So, what will save us from the fear of death?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:47:17]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, if we take shelter of the lotus feet of Krishna, specifically if we always hear about, preach about, and remember Krishna. Now, to do that, we need time. If we offer someone a book about Krishna, they may say, “I have no time.” If we invite them to the temple, “I have no time.” So, to get the big house, they have to work, they have to spend time working to get the big house, and while working, they have no time to worship, chant, and remember Krishna. So, it is a very heavy price to pay.

Therefore, even the Bible says, “What profiteth a man if he gains the whole world and loses his eternal soul?” So, we are so busy with the building, and maintaining the building, and getting money, and making so many arrangements, that we have no time for Krishna consciousness. So, that is the problem. And even if we have a nice house, if we are not Krishna conscious, we will not enjoy it.

In one purport, Srila Prabhupada explained, and it’s the same idea of destiny also, that one cannot enjoy more than he is destined to enjoy. So, after I first joined in Boston, we decided we should get a bigger house. So finally, we found a nice house that had actually been a funeral parlor. So, we met the owner, who was a very rich man. I mean, he was richer than anyone we had ever met as devotees, and so we entered the deal to buy the house. Very big, three-story building.

So, one morning, we had an appointment to meet the man, to finalize the deal. So, he came to his office at the appointed time, it was seven in the morning, eight in the morning. So, the man came into his office wearing the same clothes that he wore the day before because he hadn’t slept the whole night, because he was so concerned with his business, he didn’t sleep all night.

So, he came into a very big office, nice table, nice furniture. And he wanted to have a smoke, but he was looking in his pocket, no cigarette, then he saw in his ashtray there was some cigarette butts, so he picked up one of the cigarette butts, which may have had a little bit of tobacco left, and he lit it and started to smoke, just like the bums on the street. In America, the bums on the street, they want to smoke some cigarettes, they have no cigarettes, so they look on the sidewalk if there is any cigarette butt, and if they find one, they are very happy. They light it and smoke.

So, although he may have had millions of dollars in the bank, he was not allowed to enjoy it, he couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t eat, he couldn’t even light up a fresh cigarette, he had to take a cigarette butt and light it. So, we cannot enjoy more than we are allowed to enjoy. No matter how much we try or how much money we have in the bank, we cannot enjoy more. And we cannot live more, we cannot do anything more than we are destined. So, we are trying to increase our duration of life, our happiness, but there is no use. We should just forget all this nonsense and just surrender to Krishna.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:52:09]

Giriraj Swami: He says that sometimes devotees are so busy collecting for some function, they also have no time to attend maṅgala-ārati. So, what do I think about that? What do you think about it? I would like to know what you think about it. You are also surprised.

Well, in general, we should attend the temple program, except for some very extreme emergency, we should attend the temple program. Once, Srila Prabhupada was sitting on the terrace, on top of the building where the saṅkīrtana office is now, and in the evening, at seven o’clock, Haridasa Prabhu was fanning him, and Srila Prabhupada was listening and he wasn’t hearing any kirtan in the small temple. So, he asked Haridasa, “Where is the kirtan? Now is the time for ārati.” So, Haridasa replied, “Srila Prabhupada, I think that the devotees have gone to the city to collect.” And Srila Prabhupada said, “This is not my idea, that the devotees should go out all day and night to collect. We should attend the temple program in the morning and evening.”

And then he said, “How have we been successful to get the Hare Krishna Land from Mr. N? Mr. N was such a big person. He was such a rich man, he had been the sheriff of Bombay, he owned one of his big daily newspapers of Bombay, and he had so many influential friends in the government. So, why were we successful against him? Because, even though he was materially more powerful than us, we got the mercy of Krishna, and therefore, we were successful. So, we should not think that we are successful by our own endeavors, by our own capability, that because of me, we are getting money or whatever. But we should know that our success will come from the Lord’s mercy, and to get the Lord’s mercy, we should only think of pleasing Him, and pleasing Him means coming to the ārati at seven in the evening and chanting Hare Krishna.”

So, there are so many examples, but the idea is when Krishna is pleased, we will be successful, yatra yogeśvaraḥ kṛṣṇo. The Kauravas were more powerful than the Pandavas, but because the Pandavas had Krishna with them, they were successful. So, we have to keep Krishna with us. If we have Krishna with us, especially for us, even if the whole world is against us, we will be successful; and if we don’t have Krishna with us, even if the whole world is for us, we will fail. So, this is our reflex, if we think we don’t need Krishna, we don’t need Prabhupada, we don’t need to follow Prabhupada’s instructions, we don’t need to attend the maṅgala-ārati, we don’t need to attend class, we can just make money and be successful, we will not be successful. Even if we get money, in the end, we will lose, we will not gain.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:56:24]

Giriraj Swami: Can the newspaper be spiritualized by adding Krishna consciousness? Yes.

When Srila Prabhupada came to Madras and was giving lectures every evening, this daily newspaper, The Hindu newspaper, carried a report of Srila Prabhupada’s lecture, and Srila Prabhupada was very pleased. Once, there was a report in the newspaper about the temple at Tirupati, that the board had decided to give a loan of so many crores of rupees to finance the creation of a factory. So, Srila Prabhupada was very upset. He said that people are giving money to Balaji, so the money was to be used for Balaji, and what is Balaji’s purpose? To preach Krishna consciousness.

TEXT 8

paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ
vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām
dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya
sambhavāmi yuge yuge

COMMENT

That is the mission of the Lord. So, they are taking the Lord’s money and using it for some other purpose, to start a factory.  He said, “We should write to the newspapers and protest. Balaji’s money should be used for Balaji’s mission, which is to spread Krishna consciousness.” And yes, Srila Prabhupada said we require many articles, you are right.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:58:20]

Giriraj Swami: He says what is the origin of time, and what is the relationship between time and death? So, the origin of time is Krishna, and we can say that death is caused by our sinful reactions. But our sinful reactions are manifest in the course of time. So, when the time comes, death will come and take away everything, and the time, of course, is determined by our past sinful activities.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:59:20]

Giriraj Swami: He says that generally, people have a lifespan of about seventy years, whether they are devotees or not, so how do we look at it?

Well, there is another verse in the Bhāgavatam. I think you are not reading the Bhāgavatam. It’s another verse in the Bhāgavatam that says, “A moment of perfection is worth more than many long years of imperfections.” So, our goal is not to prolong life within the body, our goal is to achieve perfection, and if we achieve perfection in the moment, we are successful. There are trees that live for thousands of years, and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu lived for only forty-eight years, so is it better to be a tree and live for thousands of years, or is it better to be Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and live for forty-eight years? This is not a goal to live longer in the body.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:00:58]

Giriraj Swami: Well, Srila Prabhupada was pleased to know that there was a daily report about his lectures. I didn’t say that Srila Prabhupada bought the newspaper to see if it was there or not. But Srila Prabhupada also said there is no harm in reading the news. It depends how you want to spend your time. Generally, Srila Prabhupada didn’t read the newspaper because he had no time. And not only time, but he had more interest in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So, if we need to know something for our service, we could read the newspaper.

But sometimes, I’ve heard, I don’t know, but I’ve heard sometimes about how they are chanting their rounds and glancing at the newspaper. This is not the way to chant rounds. The quality of our chanting is very important, the quality means that our mind should be free to think of the holy name. So, the more we become entangled in reading mundane news, the more our mind becomes filled with it. The more our mind becomes entangled with collecting more than necessary, the more our mind becomes filled with it.

So then, when we are chanting, we are thinking, Oh, today I had to meet so-and-so, and I will give such and such. And I can also meet so-and-so, and he will give such and such. And if all the people who give what I hope give it, then my total will be such and such, and I will be first, and everyone will worship me. No one will be able to touch me, then I can do whatever nonsense I want, and no one will dare to say anything, because I have collected so much. And this is what we are thinking when we are supposed to be chanting. This is not the way to chant.

So, okay, last question.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:03:44]

Giriraj Swami: He says the number of questions about newspapers proves the point about how much people are attached to them. He wants to know if there is any karmic reaction to reading the newspaper.

Yes, because to publish the newspapers, they kill trees, and because you are reading the newspaper, you are involved in killing the trees, so you have to suffer the reaction.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Granthraj Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ki jaya!

Gaura premānande!

[Unintelligible 01:05:07]

Giriraj Swami: Even if we are sick, we know one plus one equals two. If we are happy, we know one plus one equals two. If we are sad, we know one plus one equals two. In every condition, we know one plus one equals two. So, with our intelligence, we should know, “I am the eternal servant of Krishna,” and whether we are healthy, sick, happy, sad, we know, “I’m the eternal servant of Krishna,” and will act accordingly in any and every situation. So, that is intelligence. And such intelligence develops by hearing. We are hearing about Krishna, hearing about Krishna, hearing and hearing. So, the transcendental sound vibration purifies the intelligence, and at the same time, by hearing the philosophy of Krishna consciousness, the intelligence becomes fixed in its conviction about Krishna consciousness.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:06:18]

Giriraj Swami: He said that if someone is very proud, we say he has an ego problem, but then again, we refer to false ego, which means false identification with the body. But actually, the two are related.

Ego means the sense of, “I am.” So, false ego means the sense of, “I am the body,” and real ego is the sense, “I am the eternal servant of Krishna.” So, we want to give up the false ego and come to the real ego. The impersonalists want to finish the ego altogether and become void. So, “I’m not this body.” But Srila Prabhupada gives the example, “I thought I was Mahatma Gandhi, and now I realize I’m not Mahatma Gandhi.” So, that is good, you realize you are not Mahatma Gandhi, but who are you? You should have some positive knowledge. So, just to know, “I’m not the body” is good, but you should also have some positive knowledge of who you are. And Lord Chaitanya has given the answer gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ, “I am the eternal servant of the servant of the servant of Krishna.” So, that is real ego.

Now, the ego problem. Everyone has an ego problem if he has false ego. But everyone is proud. It is said that the pauper is proud of his penny. Everyone is proud, and it’s based on the false identification with the body. So, somebody’s ego problem may be bigger than somebody else’s, but everyone who has false ego has an ego problem.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:09:08].