BG 9.2 – Devotees Do Not Mind Calamities

Giriraj Swami:

rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ
pavitram idam uttamam
pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ
su-sukhaṁ kartum avyayam

TRANSLATION

This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.

COMMENT

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

This chapter of Bhagavad-gītā is called the king of education because it is the essence of all doctrines and philosophies explained before. Among the principal philosophers in India are Gautama, Kaṇāda, Kapila, Yājñavalkya, Śāṇḍilya, and Vaiśvānara. And finally there is Vyāsadeva, the author of the Vedānta-sūtra. So there is no dearth of knowledge in the field of philosophy or transcendental knowledge. Now the Lord says that this Ninth Chapter is the king of all such knowledge, the essence of all knowledge that can be derived from the study of the Vedas and different kinds of philosophy. It is the most confidential because confidential or transcendental knowledge involves understanding the difference between the soul and the body. And the king of all confidential knowledge culminates in devotional service.

COMMENT

So now we know that the difference between the body and the soul is confidential knowledge but the king of the confidential knowledge is knowledge of the body and soul and Supersoul and relationship of the individual soul with the supreme soul as the eternal servant of the supreme soul Krishna and such knowledge which culminates in devotional service is the king of confidential knowledge.

PURPORT (continued)

Generally, people are not educated in this confidential knowledge; they are educated in external knowledge. As far as ordinary education is concerned, people are involved with so many departments: politics, sociology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, engineering, etc. There are so many departments of knowledge all over the world and many huge universities, but there is, unfortunately, no university or educational institution where the science of the spirit soul is instructed. Yet the soul is the most important part of the body; without the presence of the soul, the body has no value. Still people are placing great stress on the bodily necessities of life, not caring for the vital soul.

The Bhagavad-gītā, especially from the Second Chapter on, stresses the importance of the soul. In the very beginning, the Lord says that this body is perishable and that the soul is not perishable (antavanta ime dehā nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ). That is a confidential part of knowledge: simply knowing that the spirit soul is different from this body and that its nature is immutable, indestructible, and eternal. But that gives no positive information about the soul. Sometimes people are under the impression that the soul is different from the body and that when the body is finished, or one is liberated from the body, the soul remains in a void and becomes impersonal. But actually that is not the fact. How can the soul, which is so active within this body, be inactive after being liberated from the body? It is always active. If it is eternal, then it is eternally active, and its activities in the spiritual kingdom are the most confidential part of spiritual knowledge. These activities of the spirit soul are therefore indicated here as constituting the king of all knowledge, the most confidential part of all knowledge.

COMMENT

So the material world is like a prison house for the conditioned souls. We come into the material world because we have desired to take the place of Krishna, to imitate the position of Krishna and the enjoyer, as the controller, as the proprietor. And because we have disobeyed the orders of god, we have been placed in the prison house of material energy and as long as we are in the prison house of the material world, we have to suffer. Now the impersonalists have the idea that when the soul leaves the body, it merges into some void and loses its individual identity and activity. But here Srila Prabhupada says that the nature of the soul is to be active, so why should we think that the soul, which is so active in conditioned life, will become inactive in liberated life? The soul is always active, just like the person in the prison house is active in the prison, and when he is liberated from the prison, he is also active. It is not that after he is liberated from the prison, he becomes inactive. Now he is liberated in the prison, and when he is released from the prison, he is also active.

So somehow the soul is active, whether it’s in the conditioned state of existence within the material body or whether it’s liberated. Now we know the activities of the soul in conditioned existence are basically activities of sense gratification or mental speculation. But what are the activities of the soul after liberation? The activities of the soul after liberation are devotional service, and even while we are in the material world, we can engage in devotional service, and such servants will qualify us to enter into the spiritual world, to be released from the prison house of material existence. Srila Prabhupada gives this example that if a student is in school but he is doing the work of someone in college, that he can be immediately promoted to college. So similarly, if we are in the material world and we are doing the same work as devotees in the spiritual world, then we can be promoted to the spiritual world. So the activities of the spiritual world are transcendental loving service to Sri Krishna. So we engage in transcendental loving services to Sri Krishna in the material world, we are eligible to be promoted to the spiritual world.

PURPORT (continued)

This knowledge is the purest form of all activities, as explained in Vedic literature. In the Padma Purāṇa, man’s sinful activities have been analyzed and are shown to be the results of sin after sin. Those who are engaged in fruitive activities are entangled in different stages and forms of sinful reactions. For instance, when the seed of a particular tree is sown, the tree does not appear immediately to grow; it takes some time. It is first a small, sprouting plant, then it assumes the form of a tree, then it flowers and bears fruit, and, when it is complete, the flowers and fruits are enjoyed by persons who have sown the seed of the tree. Similarly, a man performs a sinful act, and like a seed it takes time to fructify. There are different stages. The sinful action may have already stopped within the individual, but the results or the fruit of that sinful action are still to be enjoyed. There are sins which are still in the form of a seed, and there are others which are already fructified and are giving us fruit, which we are enjoying as distress and pain.

As explained in the twenty-eighth verse of the Seventh Chapter, a person who has completely ended the reactions of all sinful activities and who is fully engaged in pious activities, being freed from the duality of this material world, becomes engaged in devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. In other words, those who are actually engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Lord are already freed from all reactions. This statement is confirmed in the Padma Purāṇa:

aprārabdha-phalaṁ pāpaṁ
kūṭaṁ bījaṁ phalonmukham
krameṇaiva pralīyeta
viṣṇu-bhakti-ratātmanām

For those who are engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, all sinful reactions, whether fructified, in the stock, or in the form of a seed, gradually vanish. Therefore the purifying potency of devotional service is very strong, and it is called pavitram uttamam, the purest. Uttama means transcendental. Tamas means this material world or darkness, and uttama means that which is transcendental to material activities. Devotional activities are never to be considered material, although sometimes it appears that devotees are engaged just like ordinary men. One who can see and is familiar with devotional service will know that they are not material activities. They are all spiritual and devotional, uncontaminated by the material modes of nature

COMMENT

So, devotional service is pure and it is so powerful that it eradicates all phases of sinful action and reaction. Srila Prabhupada give the example that if you sow a seed the seed does not immediately fructify but it first sprouts and it becomes a small plant then it takes the shape of the tree then it bears flowers and ultimately infused fruit and the person who planted the seed to sow the seed ultimately enjoys the fruits and flowers. so in the same way by our sinful activities we are planting a seed which ultimately will grow and fructify and we will have to taste the fruit of this that sinful tree and the fruit means pain and suffering so even though one may have stopped engaging in the sinful activity but because he is already sown the seed of the sinful reaction he has to suffer the sinful reaction for example someone may smoke cigarettes and after some time you may give up smoking. But still he will have to have to suffer the reaction for having smoke and all the cigarettes he smoked before he gave up smoking. Similarly, one may give up eating meat but still he is liable to suffer the reaction from all the animals he killed before he gave up eating meat. So therefore we are subject to suffer the results of sinful activities and the results can be eradicated by devotional service gradually.

Srila Prabhupada gives the example that the fan is turning and you pull out the plug but still the fan continues to turn but it slows down and then finally it stops. So similarly when we take the Krishna consciousness we pull out the plug from sinful activities but there is still some momentum some action which has been set in motion from before we pulled out the plug but gradually it will decrease and ultimately stop. So devotees cannot expect to be completely freed from the reaction of sinful activities even after they take to Krishna consciousness and when such sinful reactions come the devotees should think of Krishna and expect His mercy. Nobody can be completely freed of sinful reactions unless he is completely perfect in devotional service. so when sinful reactions come and calamities come the devotees think of the Lord and they think that because of their past misdeeds now they are suffering and that actually their past misdeeds are so bad that they actually deserve to be suffering more but the Lord is so kind that he minimizes the suffering of the devotees.

The other point is that even though one may have given up gross sinful activities he may still maintain some subtle desire to enjoy the material world, but until we give up even the summer desires for material enjoyment we are not really eligible to serve Krishna in the spiritual world. So the Lord will arrange for some suffering for the devotee so that the devotee realizes the nature of material of the material body of the material world and he gives up whatever vestiges of material attachment he is still harbouring and thus he sees the calamity as the Lord’s mercy to help the devotee give up his last vestiges of material attachment. Because the devotee really wants to go back home back to Godhead here one’s wants to become qualified to go back home back to Godhead and in order to be qualified to go back to Godhead when he has to be completely free from material desires. so the Lord very mercifully arranges some suffering for the devotees so that he can be give up whatever last vestiges of material desire he still harbours and therefore the devotee welcomes the calamity as the mercy of the Lord to remind him of the miseries of material existence and when such calamities come the devotee resolves to become more serious about Krishna consciousness less frivolous and thus he actually increases his intensity of his devotional service.

So therefore devotees do not well Queen Kunti actually welcomed the calamities. She prayed to Lord Krishna that when she and the Pandavas were in so many difficulties Lord Krishna was always with them and now that they are comfortably established as the rulers of Hastinapura Lord Krishna is leaving them to return to Dvaraka. So queen country praise let the calamities come again and again because in the calamities we were able to see the lotus feet of Krishna and by seeing the lotus feet of Krishna we are freed from having to see the repetition of birth and death. So devotees do not mind calamities in fact they welcomed them once when we were having the fight with Mr n for the Juhu land His Holiness Tamal Krishna Goswami commented that Srila Prabhupada that sometimes he is so disturbed about the whole struggle to get the land that he could he can’t, he can’t even chant his rounds properly so Srila Prabhupada said that yes i know how you feel sometimes I feel the same way. But then in the course of the discussion Tamal Krishna Goswami had the realization that in such difficulties one may actually surrender to Krishna more he may actually think of Krishna more so Tamal Krishna Goswami said that that generally he used to try to run away from difficult situations but now he sees that actually such situations are good opportunities to make advancement in Krishna consciousness so he said to Srila Prabhupada maybe I shouldn’t try to avoid such situations maybe I should actually welcome them and Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes.”

So devotees don’t accept or reject any situation. They accept whatever situation that comes as the mercy of the Lord or as the reaction to their past actions and in whatever situation they are they, they appreciate the mercy of the Lord and they try to use the situation to make more advancement in Krishna consciousness. For example if the devotee is given some good opportunities from opulent facility he thinks that the Lord is very merciful He is giving me some facility to serve Him and I should use the facility to serve the Lord and if he is in some awkward situation he also sees it as the Lord’s mercy that the Lord wants him to depend on the Lord more and not to put his faith falsely in material relationships or material situations. So the devotee is always he always sees the Lord’s mercy in every situation he doesn’t accept or reject but he accepts every situation as the Lord’s mercy and he tries to make more advancement in devotional service.

So that is pavitram devotional service is so pure that it gradually eradicates all sinful reactions and while the devotee is undergoing the last actions of sinful reactions he tolerates and he prays to the Lord to make further advancement in devotional service.

PURPORT (continued)

It is said that the execution of devotional service is so perfect that one can perceive the results directly. This direct result is actually perceived, and we have practical experience that any person who is chanting the holy names of Kṛṣṇa (Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare) in course of chanting without offenses feels some transcendental pleasure and very quickly becomes purified of all material contamination. This is actually seen.

COMMENT

So everyone can experience the pleasure of chanting Hare Krishna if he chants without offenses and by such offenseless chanting one becomes purified of material contamination

PURPORT (continued)

Furthermore, if one engages not only in hearing but in trying to broadcast the message of devotional activities as well, or if he engages himself in helping the missionary activities of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he gradually feels spiritual progress. This advancement in spiritual life does not depend on any kind of previous education or qualification. The method itself is so pure that by simply engaging in it one becomes pure.

COMMENT

And Srila Rupa Gosvami said:

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ

jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam

The pure devotional service is beyond karma, jnana, yoga, or any other activity except pure devotional service and therefore there is no material qualification or disqualification for devotional service. because devotional service is beyond karma so according to karma someone may have a higher birth or a lower birth someone who may have more mature material strength or less but it doesn’t make any difference because pure devotional service is beyond karma. So there is no material qualification or disqualification for devotional service. so one can actually experience his own spiritual advancement by hearing and chanting about Krishna and not only very chanting for oneself but broadcasting hearing and chanting about Krishna for the benefit of others that can also lead one to have the direct perception of spiritual advancement.

PURPORT (continued)

In the Vedānta-sūtra (3.2.26) this is also described in the following words: prakāśaś ca karmaṇy abhyāsāt. “Devotional service is so potent that simply by engaging in the activities of devotional service one becomes enlightened without a doubt.” A practical example of this can be seen in the previous life of Nārada, who in that life happened to be the son of a maidservant. He had no education, nor was he born into a high family. But when his mother was engaged in serving great devotees, Nārada also became engaged, and sometimes, in the absence of his mother, he would serve the great devotees himself. Nārada personally says,

ucchiṣṭa-lepān anumodito dvijaiḥ
sakṛt sma bhuñje tad-apāsta-kilbiṣaḥ
evaṁ pravṛttasya viśuddha-cetasas
tad-dharma evātma-ruciḥ prajāyate

In this verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.5.25) Nārada describes his previous life to his disciple Vyāsadeva. He says that while engaged as a boy servant for those purified devotees during the four months of their stay, he was intimately associating with them. Sometimes those sages left remnants of food on their dishes, and the boy, who would wash their dishes, wanted to taste the remnants. So he asked the great devotees for their permission, and when they gave it Nārada ate those remnants and consequently became freed from all sinful reactions. As he went on eating, he gradually became as pure-hearted as the sages. The great devotees relished the taste of unceasing devotional service to the Lord by hearing and chanting, and Nārada gradually developed the same taste.

COMMENT

So, as proof of the statement that anyone can engage in devotional service without any previous qualifications, Srila Prabhupada cites the example of Narada Muni. Narada Muni was born in the most humble condition as the son of a maidservant. But fortunately, he had the opportunity to associate with great devotees and to serve them. And just like taking the remnants of their food, he became purified. That is again, pavitram. He became free from all sinful reactions and he developed a positive taste for hearing and chanting about Krishna. Because by serving the great sages, he took on the qualities of the great sages. Just as the great sages were attached to hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord. Narada also developed his taste for hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord as a result of the service of the great devotees. Now it says further

PURPORT (continued)

tatrānv-ahaṁ kṛṣṇa-kathāḥ pragāyatām
anugraheṇāśṛṇavaṁ mano-harāḥ
tāḥ śraddhayā me ‘nu-padaṁ viśṛṇvataḥ
priyaśravasy aṅga mamābhavad ruciḥ

By associating with the sages, Nārada got the taste for hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord, and he developed a great desire for devotional service. Therefore, as described in the Vedānta-sūtra, prakāśaś ca karmaṇy abhyāsāt: if one is engaged simply in the acts of devotional service, everything is revealed to him automatically, and he can understand. This is called pratyakṣa, directly perceived.

COMMENT

So Narada Muni, by taking the remnants of the great sages and serving the great sages, he developed the same quality as the great sages, namely taste for hearing and chanting about Krishna. And thus, he could actually perceive his own spiritual advancement. And we should also be able to perceive our spiritual advancement. If we are executing devotional service properly, we won’t have to ask others, but we ourselves will experience how we are advancing.

PURPORT (continued)

The word dharmyam means “the path of religion.” Nārada was actually a son of a maidservant. He had no opportunity to go to school. He was simply assisting his mother, and fortunately his mother rendered some service to the devotees. The child Nārada also got the opportunity and simply by association achieved the highest goal of all religion. The highest goal of all religion is devotional service, as stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje). Religious people generally do not know that the highest perfection of religion is the attainment of devotional service. As we have already discussed in regard to the last verse of Chapter Eight (vedeṣu yajñeṣu tapaḥsu caiva), generally Vedic knowledge is required for self-realization. But here, although Nārada never went to the school of the spiritual master and was not educated in the Vedic principles, he acquired the highest results of Vedic study. This process is so potent that even without performing the religious process regularly, one can be raised to the highest perfection. How is this possible? This is also confirmed in Vedic literature: ācāryavān puruṣo veda. One who is in association with great ācāryas, even if he is not educated or has never studied the Vedas, can become familiar with all the knowledge necessary for realization.

The process of devotional service is a very happy one (su-sukham). Why? Devotional service consists of śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ, so one can simply hear the chanting of the glories of the Lord or can attend philosophical lectures on transcendental knowledge given by authorized ācāryas. Simply by sitting, one can learn; then one can eat the remnants of the food offered to God, nice palatable dishes. In every state devotional service is joyful. 

COMMENT

As Srila Prabhupada said, “The devotional service simply consists of chanting, dancing, feasting, and philosophy.” So it is pleasurable in every stage.

PURPORT (continued)

One can execute devotional service even in the most poverty-stricken condition. The Lord says, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam: He is ready to accept from the devotee any kind of offering, never mind what. Even a leaf, a flower, a bit of fruit, or a little water, which are all available in every part of the world, can be offered by any person, regardless of social position, and will be accepted if offered with love.

COMMENT

So again, there is no material quantification. And if one is a very important man, you can get a leaf to offer Krishna. You can offer some water to Krishna. And if he makes the offering with love and devotion, the Lord will accept it and the devotee will be able to feel the effects of spiritual advancement.

PURPORT (continued)

There are many instances in history. Simply by tasting the tulasī leaves offered to the lotus feet of the Lord, great sages like Sanat-kumāra became great devotees. Therefore the devotional process is very nice, and it can be executed in a happy mood. God accepts only the love with which things are offered to Him.

COMMENT

So it’s a long purport and I think we will stop here because there is a long purport and we will spend a little time answering the question. Hare Krishna.

Question 1: When guiding the people most common question is why do bad things happen to good people? What would be the ideal answer for this?

Giriraj Swami: But we were discussing that there is a great chain of sinful actions and reactions and someone may be suffering the reaction to a sin that he committed in the past. So we may not know what sin the person committed in the past. We may just see that he is a good person. Of course, we may not know what is a good person but we may see that he is a good person and why the bad things happen to good people. But whatever we are suffering in the present is definitely the result of some sin we performed in the past. One devotee gave the example that someone may come in the middle of the movie and they come in the middle of a movie and see that a man is being murdered. So he may say that, “Oh, he was such a good man why was he murdered?” But he missed the beginning of the movie and in the beginning of the movie the man himself killed so many people. But he only came in the middle of the movie so he thought, “Oh he is such a good man why did he have to be killed?” The other thing is that people don’t really know what is good and what is bad. People who eat meat they’re involved in killing so many innocent creatures but to ordinary people who are ignorant of spiritual science they may think that someone who eats meat could still be a good person. But actually we know that the mediator is a murderer.

Question 2: How does one know what is pure devotion or how to perform pure devotion?

Giriraj Swami: Anyway Srila Rupa Gosvami has defined the pure devotional service anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ, it is free from any other desire except the desire to serve Krishna and please Krishna. jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam. It is not covered by karma or jnana or any other process. ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanaṁ. Ānukūlyena means it should be rendered favourably means it should be done for the sake of pleasing Krishna and Krishna should actually be pleased.

Sometimes people are not really thinking of what will please Krishna and I think that what will make them happy. What service they can do but they are actually thinking what will make them happy. but in pure devotional service we think what will make Krishna happy. Because we know that if Krishna is happy we will automatically be happy and people who think of their own happiness first. They may end up being most unhappy and the ānuśīlanaṁ means continuous cultivation. Now that we engage in devotional service for some minutes then we do some fruitive work then we do some mental speculation and we do some welfare activities a pure devotional service means pure devotional service no other activity is mixed with it.

Question 3: How does soul in an animal body become elevated to a human body so that soul can perform devotional service bhakti-yoga be liberated and then go back to Godhead?

Giriraj Swami: Well of course the animals gradually evolve to the human form of life but if we want to know how the soul can come to the human form faster the only way is by some sort of devotional service. So if the animal takes prasāda, the animal hears the holy name, if the plant offers one of its leaves or fruits or flowers to Krishna then the soul gets the credit for devotional service and can very quickly be elevated to the human form of life and it can pass over so many intermediate species but without some touch of devotional service the soul just goes one after the other after the other eight million species of life up to the human form and the soul has to take birth in each and every species until it Reaches the human form but if it gets the chance to hear Hare Krishna even in the body of an animal or even in the body of a plant it gets the credit for devotional service śravaṇam and it is very quickly elevated to the human form of life.

Question 4: What happens to those souls that transfer from the human body down to an animal body?

Giriraj Swami: Well the same process begins all over again it is not a fact that the souls can only go up when they come to the human form of life if they engage in sinful activities they can go down again so we have to be careful.

Question 5: When a brahman becomes a lawyer how does he or she carry on his duties in court because the lawyers in this age have to make right wrong and wrong right if he or she is a lawyer does he or she as a lawyer get any reaction?

Giriraj Swami: Well the Bhagavad-gītā says that every activity is covered by some fault even if one is a brahman there will be some fault and if one acts as a lawyer there may be some fault and the fault is that one may have to prove that an innocent man is guilty or that a guilty man is innocent or as the person said, “Make right wrong and wrong right.” That is the Lawyer’s work. Once one lawyer in Bombay asked Srila Prabhupada that sometimes you will know that a client is guilty but still in the courtroom he will argue to prove that the client is innocent, so is there any sin? And basically Srila Prabhupada says that every endeavour is covered by some fault, even sometimes they have to sacrifice animals in the fire. Every occupation has some fault but we should do our duty according to the injunctions of the scripture we should not act whimsically or independently and of course continue the regular activities and hearing chanting about Krishna that will help purify one of any accidental mistakes committed in one’s occupational performances.

Question 6: Srila Prabhupada explained that the scientists haven’t been to the moon so where did they go?

Giriraj Swami: One theory is that they went that the whole performance was staged in some desert in the western united states in fact in one of the telecasts of the moon landing one of the telecasters commented that the moon looks like the Nevada desert the associated province said we see we didn’t even say it. they said it but in any case they didn’t go to the moon because the moon is a heavenly planet and what was depicted as the moon or described as the moon does not conform to the descriptions and the scriptures and we have faith in the scriptures we don’t have faith in the scientists or the politicians or the newscasters. we had one devotee who was in the peace corps in India before he came to Krishna consciousness and he was in India when the news first was announced that man had gone to the moon and he was saying that the villagers in India did not accept it they said that, oh the moon is Chandrama or how could they go to Chandrama. they didn’t accept it so basically we have to decide what authority we want to accept we want to accept the authority of the Vedas and the spiritual master anyone to accept the authority of the modern scientists and politicians and of course in Krishna consciousness we accept the authority of the Vedas and the Vedas say that the moon is a heavenly planet and it has beautiful cities and gardens and rivers and highly advanced residents and not like what the moon is was presented. and even for the sake of argument we don’t dispute the fact that they went to the moon but what was the benefit they spent so many years, lives millions and billions of dollars what was the benefit therefore Srila Prabhupada said it was simply childish.

There was a nice article back to Godhead so many years ago when the moon shot took place and you see after everything the scientists supposedly got some rocks from the moon which was considered to be like something wonderful and then the rocks were put in the Smithsonian institute in which is a big museum in Washington dc so in the article in back to Godhead there was a full-page painting done by some devotee artist and it showed a table with a glass case and in the glass case were some rocks and with the title rocks from the moon and then under the caption runs from the moon was another like inscription that are grateful thanks to the people of America for their kind donation of ninety-seven billion dollars for our latest acquisitions. So they spent so many billions of dollars and we have got a few rocks but they could have gone somewhere else they might have thought it wasn’t but it wasn’t the moon they might have gone somewhere else. I mean sometimes i mean generally Srila Prabhupada well sometimes he accepted the argument that they may have gone somewhere else but Christopher Columbus was trying to come to India and he ran into America. But he thought he had reached India and therefore the Native Americans became known as Indians because the first explorers thought that they had reached India so Srila Prabhupada said they may have thought they were going to the moon but they might have ended up somewhere else but they definitely didn’t enter the moon.

Question 7: Many people believe that the soul is in the brain and some say it is in the nose. We say it is in the heart so please explain?

Giriraj Swami: I hope he doesn’t sneeze too much.

Well we don’t say anything we just repeat what’s in the scripture and the scripture says that the soul is in the region of the heart now the soul is there with the super soul and the super soul is not is not in the material world at all it always exists in its own spiritual environment but it is in the region of the heart it’s not literally in the heart but it’s the region of the heart and we get the information from the scriptures. people may think that the soul is in the brain because they equate the brain with thinking and they think that thinking is life but actually the soul is in the heart but the energy from the soul pervades the whole body and Srila Prabhupada says that they that when the blood passes through the heart the soul gives energy in the blood which is carried throughout the body and he said that even scientists and medical men they admit that something happens to the blood when it goes through the heart it gets some energy which it carries to the rest of the body but they cannot figure out what is the source of the energy but actually the source is the soul but doctors cannot know it. But it’s not that the soul is really in the heart. it can be heart transplants when someone’s heart is defective the defective heart can be taken out and a healthy heart from someone else from a deceased person can be placed in the place of the defective heart so it’s not that the soul is trapped in the heart and when they take out the defective heart the soul goes out with the heart but the soul stays in the body and when the new heart comes in then the soul enters into the new heart and Srila Prabhupada give the example that if someone is sitting on a chair and the chair gets broken then he will stand up for a few moments while the defective chair is taken away and a new chair is brought and then he will sit down again so in the same way the soul and the super soul are seated within the heart but when the heart is defective the soul and the super soul sort of move to the side wait for the defective heart to be replaced and then they come back and sit down again.

Okay, any other questions? Oh yes, there is one more.

Question 8: How do you know exactly what one’s soul is?

Giriraj Swami: Well, because the soul is spiritual and our senses are material, we cannot perceive the soul and therefore the descriptions of the soul in the Gītā are negative. Many of them are negative, but the soul cannot be cut, the soul cannot be wet, the soul cannot be burned, the soul cannot be withered. And so when the soul does not die. But by chanting Hare Krishna and engaging in devotional service as mentioned in the verse, we can have direct perception of the soul and the supreme soul and the relationship of the soul and the supreme soul. So that is the great value of the devotional service in Krishna consciousness.

So are there any other questions or comments? Okay, so we will end.