Sunday Feast

Giriraj Swami: We have just completed the year 2008, and now we are entering the year 2009. Of course, those numbers are somewhat arbitrary, but the cycle of days and months and years is set by the movements of the sun and moon and earth, and by the cycles of days and months and years, the passage of time is marked. Time is the most valuable commodity, the time in our life is the most valuable possession we have. Chanakya Pandit says that time misspent can never be bought back, even for millions of gold coins. Srila Prabhupada had a friend in Bombay, he was a very wealthy businessman. Before the partition, he was actually the wealthiest man in what became Pakistan. And Srila Prabhupada gave an example that very much appealed to him. Actually, I visited the man in his office, and in his office, he had rows and rows of accountants. And he even told me about his philosophy of accounting, he was so particular about his accounting. So, Srila Prabhupada told him that, “In the ledger of your life, there are two columns; profit and loss. And any time spent outside of Krishna consciousness goes in the loss column, and any time spent in Krishna consciousness goes in the gain column.” So, any businessman, any human being, but any businessman will want to maximize his gains and minimize his losses. So, that most precious commodity that we have to invest, which is the time in our duration of life, should be invested in Krishna consciousness, and any time invested in Krishna consciousness will bring great returns.

Now, people are shaken by the financial crisis, they had made so many investments that they thought would allow them to live a comfortable life for many years, some people thought that their investments would see them through their retirement in their old age, and suddenly, the value of their investments was decimated, and now they are thinking, “How am I going to survive in my old age? I will have to work. How can I work at this age?” So, we want an investment that is sure, that is not subject to market fluctuations. And the most sure investment is time spent in Krishna consciousness. And not only time, but as we will read in a few minutes, even money spent for the cause of Krishna consciousness is a very solid investment because whatever you give to the cause of Krishna consciousness will be returned to you in multiplications.

So now, I will read a verse and purport on this topic, and we shall discuss some more. We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Three, “Pure Devotional Service,” Text Seventeen.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

TEXT 17

āyur harati vai puṁsām

udyann astaṁ ca yann asau

tasyarte yat-kṣaṇo nīta

uttama-śloka-vārtayā

TRANSLATION

Both by rising and by setting, the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone, except one who utilizes the time by discussing topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

This verse indirectly confirms the greater importance of utilizing the human form of life to realize our lost relationship with the Supreme Lord by acceleration of devotional service.

COMMENT

Every word that Srila Prabhupada uses is so significant—"By acceleration of devotional service.” We are engaged in devotional service; everyone in this room is engaged in devotional service to some extent, but we want to accelerate our progress, we don’t want to coast along. In fact, coasting along means eventually, slowing down. We have some momentum, we are coasting and eventually, that momentum will dissipate. We want to accelerate our spiritual progress, that means we have to make effort, we have to increase our efforts.

PURPORT (continued)

Time and tide wait for no man. So the time indicated by the sunrise and the sunset will be uselessly wasted if such time is not properly utilized for realizing identification of spiritual values. Even a fraction of the duration of life wasted cannot be compensated by any amount of gold.

COMMENT

Srila Prabhupada has said that say a person is destined to live for eighty years, and he has passed sixty years, we say he is sixty years old. But Srila Prabhupada commented that what we should really say is that he is sixty years dead, because sixty years of his duration of life is gone. [laughter] It is just like if you buy a candle that has a life of eight hours, so after it burns for six hours, well, we can say the candle is six hours old, but actually, six hours of the life of the candle are gone, and all that is left are two hours. Of course, in terms of our life, no matter how much money we are prepared to spend to get back the time we have wasted, we can’t get it back, it is gone. So, we have to be very careful how we use our time.

PURPORT (continued)

Human life is simply awarded to a living entity (jīva) so that he can realize his spiritual identity and his permanent source of happiness. A living being, especially the human being, is seeking happiness because happiness is the natural situation of the living entity. But he is vainly seeking happiness in the material atmosphere. A living being is constitutionally a spiritual spark of the complete whole, and his happiness can be perfectly perceived in spiritual activities.

COMMENT

So, Īśopaniṣad says,

oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁ
pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate
pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya
pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate

that the Supreme Lord is perfect and complete, and although so many perfect and complete entities emanate from him, he still remains the complete balance. So, we also emanate from the Supreme Lord, we are part and parcel of Him, and we can realize our fullness only in relation to Him. Otherwise, we are incomplete and we try to compensate for the sense of incompleteness by trying to complete ourselves with so many things. A boy thinks he will be complete if he gets a girl, a girl thinks she will be complete if she gets a boy, parents think they will be complete if they get a child, and on and on. “If I get good grades, if I get into a good school, if I get a good job, if I make more money, if I get a bigger house,” so many things we want because we feel incomplete. But no matter how much we acquire, we will still feel incomplete because we are part and parcel of Krishna and we can only really feel complete in relation to Him, and we can only feel happy in relation to Him. As spirit souls, we are eternal, by nature eternal, full of knowledge and happy. But in the material world, in the material atmosphere, in the material body, we suffer from ignorance and death and misery. So, the real purpose of life is to revive our relationship with Krishna and feel real happiness.

Our devotees have had so many experiences. One that comes to mind was after the 1971 war, so many refugees came from East Pakistan, which subsequently became Bangladesh, and there were huge refugee camps outside Calcutta. And the conditions were so severe that the people would just live for four in the afternoon when they would get a little food. So, our devotees visited the refugee camps and they did hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, and the people were so enlivened by the hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana that they didn’t even go for their bread, their food. And the officials at the camp said never in the whole history of the camp has it ever happened that people would miss their chance to get their little bit of food that they were allotted. But they got so much pleasure from the holy name of Krishna, so much hope from the devotees, that they considered that more valuable than the food, the only food they were getting in the day, practically. So, this is real happiness.

When I joined the movement, my father was very upset because I wasn’t fulfilling his expectations for me. And he had some money, so he tried to tempt me that, “If you leave the Krishna consciousness movement, I will give you a million dollars,” which was a lot of money then, but I was not tempted because I knew that the happiness I was experiencing in Krishna consciousness far exceeded any happiness that money could buy. Then my parents even came to India and met Srila Prabhupada in Calcutta, and they tried to tempt him that, “We want to make a trust for our son and put a million dollars in it.” Prabhupada said, “Yes, you can do.” They said, “But we want him to come back to America to sign the documents.” And Prabhupada said, “You can send the documents to India, he will sign in India.” And my father was a lawyer, so he studied Srila Prabhupada’s books with that lawyer’s mentality. So, he had read in the books that you can be Krishna conscious at home, you don’t have to live in the temple to be Krishna conscious. So, he asked Srila Prabhupada, why can’t I be Krishna conscious at home, I don’t even have to live with the family, just nearby in the area. And Prabhupada said, “Well, it is a matter of association, we need association to be Krishna conscious.”

Finally, my mother could see the way the discussion was going. She was actually a very pious lady. But anyway, she began to cry. My mother was worried about my health, and she was afraid that I wasn’t getting enough protein. Because in those days, people thought, unless you had eaten meat, you wouldn’t get enough protein. So, Srila Prabhupada had some sandeśa on his table, he would give prasāda to his visitors. So, he gave some to her, to my father and said, “This is made of cheese, it is full of protein,” and rasagullās also. And then he said to me, “You should eat two dozen sandeśa and rasagullās every day.” [laughter] It is an instruction I haven’t been able to fulfill completely, but I can start working on it now that I have been reminded of it.

So then, Srila Prabhupada said, “Well, now it is the winter in America, it is very cold.” It was say October. “So, let your son remain with me for six months, and then in the spring, when I return to America, I will bring him with me.” And then I said, “Just see how intelligent Srila Prabhupada is, that when the weather is cold in America,” and I was from Chicago, it gets very cold in the winter. “When it is cold in America and pleasant in India, Srila Prabhupada is in India. And then when it is hot in India and pleasant in America, he is in America.” So, my father said, “Yes, he is very intelligent,” he said of Srila Prabhupada. And then Srila Prabhupada said, “Well, your son is very intelligent because he has understood my motive in traveling.” [laughter] And my father said, “No, you are intelligent.” And then Prabhupada said, “Well, I guess I have to be intelligent. Otherwise, how could I attract so many intelligent young men and women like your son?”

So anyway, it was a bit of a digression, but in the announcement for today’s program, Sarvas Prabhu or whoever wrote it said that I tell stories about Srila Prabhupada, so I felt I should fulfill what the invitation said. But the point I am making is that Krishna consciousness is more valuable than anything in the world, and the happiness that one experiences in Krishna consciousness is far greater than any other happiness, material or even spiritual, it is far greater even than the happiness of merging into the impersonal brahman, it is just far greater than any happiness. Now, we are running out of time. So, now I will come to the point about investing money.

PURPORT (continued)

The materialistic way of pious activities like charity is recommended in the smṛti-śāstras as quoted by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. Money given in charity to a suitable person is guaranteed bank balance in the next life. Such charity is recommended to be given to a brāhmaṇa. If the money is given in charity to a non-brāhmaṇa (without brahminical qualification) the money is returned in the next life in the same proportion. If it is given in charity to a half-educated brāhmaṇa, even then the money is returned double. If the money is given in charity to a learned and fully qualified brāhmaṇa, the money is returned a hundred and a thousand times, and if the money is given to a veda-pāraga (one who has factually realized the path of the Vedas)

COMMENT

In other words, a self-realized soul or a pure devotee.

PURPORT (continued)

It is returned by unlimited multiplication. The ultimate end of Vedic knowledge is realization of the Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa, as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ). There is a guarantee of money’s being returned if given in charity, regardless of the proportion. Similarly, a moment passed in the association of a pure devotee by hearing and chanting the transcendental messages of the Lord is a perfect guarantee for eternal life, for returning home, back to Godhead.

COMMENT

There is another verse in the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that says, “A moment’s association with a pure devotee cannot be compared to liberation or elevation to a heavenly planet, what to speak of Lordship in the material world,” which is for those who are meant to die. Why is a moment’s association with a pure devotee so valuable? Because by that association, one gets the seed of devotional service, one gets the beginning of Krishna consciousness. And that seed, if we water it by chanting and hearing about Krishna, will eventually grow and grow and grow and penetrate the coverings of the material universe and ultimately, take shelter under the lotus feet of Krishna in the spiritual world, in Goloka, Vrindavan, and bear the fruit of pure love of Godhead.

So, that is the great value of Krishna consciousness, that one gets Krishna, one gets an eternal life with Krishna. And it begins by the association of a devotee, that is how we all began. We met Srila Prabhupada in person or we met Srila Prabhupada through his books, or we met Srila Prabhupada through his disciples, through his followers, and we got his association. And by his association, we got the seed of Krishna consciousness. And we should water it by attentively chanting and hearing, that is the statement of today’s verse. And if we do so, we will, by the passage of the time in our life, we won’t approach death but we will approach our eternal life with Krishna. But it is not that we have to wait till we leave our body to realize the benefit, we can realize the benefit even now, right here and now. And we do feel the benefit and that is why we continue. And not just continue, we want to redouble our efforts, we want to accelerate our progress. So, this is about a sure return on one’s investment.

“Similarly, a moment passed in the association of a pure devotee by hearing and chanting the transcendental messages of the Lord is a perfect guarantee for eternal life, for returning home, back to Godhead.”

One who attains the abode of Krishna never takes birth again.

PURPORT (continued)

Mad-dhāma gatvā punar janma na vidyate. In other words, a devotee of the Lord is guaranteed eternal life. A devotee’s old age or disease in the present life is but an impetus to such guaranteed eternal life.

COMMENT

So, an ordinary person, if he gets sick, he is very morose because he can’t enjoy sense gratification. A devotee may be morose thinking, “I can’t do the service I wanted to do.” But pure devotional service cannot be checked by any material condition, and even in the face of disease, devotees can realize a deeper sense of Krishna consciousness. They can use that time when they are physically incapacitated to go deeper in Krishna consciousness. We have so many illustrious examples of devotees, even here in New Dwarka, His Grace Jayananda Prabhu had leukemia. He was exalted from the beginning, but in his illness, he went even deeper in Krishna consciousness. And he wrote Srila Prabhupada that, “This body is useless.” And Prabhupada appreciated his statement. Yes, the body is useless, except if it is used in the service of the Lord. But even if it is sick, we can still think of Krishna, and that is Krishna consciousness. Another example here was Gauri dasi, a wonderful book distributor. And she also became so deep in her Krishna consciousness in her illness. And death, death is just a stepping stone for a devotee, death is just a stepping stone to eternal life. It is not the same as death for an ordinary person.

Srila Prabhupada gave the example of the jaws of a cat. For a rat, the jaws of the cat are death, it is a death blow. But the same jaws are different for the kitten. The mother cat, with the same mouth, will pick up the kitten from the back of the neck and carry the kitten where she wants to take her. So, for the rat, the jaws of the cat are death blow, but for the kitten, it is a loving embrace. And so it is with death. For a non-devotee, for someone who has wasted his life outside of Krishna consciousness, death is the end, everything is finished, all my material attachments are finished, all my sense gratification is finished, it is the worst calamity. But for a devotee, death, it is the Lord welcoming the devotee into His loving embrace and to His eternal service. So, devotees need not fear death if they use their time wisely in Krishna consciousness, then that change of body, change of dress is immaterial. He is serving the Lord in this life in this body; he will serve the Lord in the next life in the next body. So, jīva vā māra vā. For a devotee, he can live or die, it doesn’t matter, he will serve the Lord in any condition.

So, this is the great benefit of Krishna consciousness, of what Srila Prabhupada has given us, and we should take full advantage of it, really increase our efforts, don’t hold back, no duplicity, just be very simple, straightforward, honest devotees, no duplicity, and really give this life to Krishna. As Prabhupada said, “We have had so many lives for eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. Just give this one life to Krishna and see the results.” Hare Krishna.

Devotees: Hare Krishna. [applause]

Giriraj Swami: So, are there any questions or comments? Yes?

Devotee: Maharaja, my question is that we are anchoring for the happiness. In devotional life, we can get happiness, devotional service. But is it right that happiness and distress is the same thing, temporary things?

Giriraj Swami: Yes. A very good point, that happiness, which is born of the contact of the senses with the objects of the senses, is temporary. And the distress that is born of the contact of the senses with the objects of senses is also temporary. Neither will last. In fact, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says that just like nobody wants misery, but misery comes of its own accord. Nobody comes to the temple to pray for misery. You see these people coming in front of the deities and praying, do you think any of them are praying for misery? [laughter] I don’t think so. [laughter] But misery comes of its own accord. So, the Bhāgavatam says that just as misery comes automatically, happiness will also come automatically, as destined to us. According to our past pious and sinful activities, we are destined to enjoy a certain amount of happiness and to suffer a certain amount of distress. And there is nothing we can do to increase our happiness or decrease our distress, they will come automatically.

There is a saying in India that, “Even if you go to Calcutta, your forehead will go with you.” Now, what is the meaning of this saying? The meaning is that our fate is written on our foreheads. And in the old days, in India, Calcutta was the big city, the opulent city, the city of opportunity. So, people thought, “If we go to Calcutta, we can earn our fortune, we can become successful, we can become wealthy, we can become happy.” So, the saying was, “Even if you go to Calcutta, your forehead will go with you.” In other words, your destiny will go with you. And Indians, you will see sometimes when they lament their bad luck, they go like this. It is their forehead; it is written in their forehead. [laughter] “I am so unlucky. I almost won the lottery.” [laughter] So, that is destined, our happiness and distress are destined, they will come automatically and they will go automatically. But the happiness of Krishna consciousness is different, that is the happiness of the soul, and that is transcendental, it is eternal. Material happiness decreases with time, but spiritual happiness increases.

Devotee: Maybe you can speak just really briefly about the beauty of Goloka and what eternal life is like. Because we know this place stinks. [laughter] So much trouble.

Giriraj Swami: You can do that, Bargula Prabhu. Okay, I will do that. Let me answer this other question, and then I will conclude with that.

Devotee: It is not a really a question, it is more of a comment. Hanumanji asked sometime, “What is sorrow?” And Hanumanji told, “The definition of sorrow is when you don’t remember Lord Rama. Then you are sorrowful.” That is the only definition he said. “If you remember Him, there is no sorrow. And if you don’t remember Him, you are full of sorrow.”

Giriraj Swami: Very good. He is quoting Hanumanji, that, “What is sorrow? Sorrow is forgetting Lord Rama. If you remember Lord Rama, there is no sorrow.” There is another verse that, “Forgetfulness of the Lord for even one moment is the greatest calamity, the greatest anomaly, the greatest misfortune.” So, we should have that attachment to the Lord that we can’t forget Him even for a moment. And that can be achieved by this process, chanting Hare Krishna with attention, and hearing the pastimes of the Lord.

Well, as far as Goloka, Vrindavan, there are many beautiful descriptions, cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu, that the spiritual world is made of cintāmaṇi gems, and the trees are desire trees, they fulfill all desires. Although devotees have no selfish desires, but they have desires to serve the Lord. And the kalpa-vṛkṣa, the desire trees fulfill the devotees’ desires to serve. And there are transcendental cows called surabhi cows that give oceans of nectar-like milk. And the center of life in the spiritual world is Krishna, who is more beautiful than millions of Cupids, and He is always being served with great reverence and devotion by hundreds and millions of Lakshmis or gopīs who are all goddesses of fortune.

There is a story that once Cupid, because in the material world, Cupid, in Sanskrit, Madan, but Cupid is the demigod in charge of lust. If he shoots his arrow into someone’s heart, they will become attracted to another person. Srila Prabhupada said that, “If someone is struck by Cupid’s arrow, they can be attracted by another person even if the other person is ugly, that is the power of Cupid’s arrows.” So Cupid, he wanted to use his powers on Krishna; he wanted to shoot his arrow into the heart of Krishna. So, he went to Vrindavan when Krishna was enjoying the rasa dance with the gopīs, and as soon as he would try to fix his aim on Krishna, one of the gopīs would come in the way. And the whole spectacle was so beautiful, that Cupid himself became attracted by Krishna and he fainted. [laughter]

So therefore, one of Krishna’s names is Madana-mohana. Madana means Cupid, the demigod in charge of lust, and mohana means one who attracts or one who bewilders. So, Madana-mohana means Krishna, who is so attractive that He bewilders even Cupid who bewilders everyone in the material world. So therefore, devotees approach Madana-mohana to attract them to Him. Because by being attracted to Madana-mohana, to Krishna, we will lose all attraction for material objects of beauty. And Srimati Radharani, She attracts even Krishna. And therefore, She is known as Madana-mohana Mohini, She attracts Krishna who attracts even Cupid. She bewilders Krishna who can bewilder even Cupid who bewilders everyone in the material world. So, that is the super excellent position of Srimati Radharani, or one could say the super excellent position of bhakti, that everyone is attracted by Krishna. Great sages, saints, rishis, demigods, ordinary religious people, everyone is seeking after God, after Krishna. But Krishna is seeking after the favor of Radharani. So, that is the power of bhakti, that bhakti can control even Krishna, Krishna is subdued by bhakti. He takes pleasure in it too. Krishna takes pleasure in serving His devotees, that is the greatness of Krishna.

Today, I was hearing the verse where Arjuna tells Krishna, senayor ubhayor madhye ‘cyuta, “My dear acyuta, please draw my chariot between the two armies.” So Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, took the position of chariot driver for His devotee, Arjuna. Just see what kind of a master, He takes pleasure in serving His servant. So, when we hear about Krishna’s loving qualities, we think, “I want to serve Him, I want to serve a master like Him who is so kind and loving. Even though He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He became the chariot driver of His devotee, Arjuna.” And acyuta, that word acyuta is significant. Acyuta means one who never falls down or one who never fails. Just like, say there is a fight, and one side is victorious and the other side surrenders, “Okay, we surrender, we will do whatever you say, we will serve you.” So, that surrendering, that offering of service is from a fallen position. He didn’t want to but he was forced to. But Krishna, He is infallible, He never falls down. When he serves Arjuna or His devotee, it is out of love.

There is a story of a brahman in South India at Sri Ranga-kshetra. The story is described in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Srila Prabhupada has also told it. He would stand outside the temple and read the Bhagavad-gītā every day. But he didn’t really know how to read properly. He would recite it, but he wouldn’t pronounce the words properly, he didn’t really know how to read properly. So, people would laugh at him. And when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu visited Sri Ranga-kshetra, He saw the brahman reading, and He approached him and he said, “My dear sir, I see that you are reading the Bhagavad-gītā every day. What is the situation?” And the brahman replied that, “My spiritual master instructed me to read the Bhagavad-gītā every day, but I don’t really know how to read properly. But because my spiritual master has ordered me, so in obedience to his order, I am reading the Bhagavad-gītā every day.”

That also gives us a clue as to how we can accelerate our spiritual progress, with implicit faith in the orders of the spiritual master. So, then Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, “But I see that you are crying. Why are you crying?” And the brahman replied that, “When I pick up the Bhagavad-gītā, I think of the Lord’s love for His devotee. That although He is the Supreme Lord, sarva-loka-maheśvaram, the Supreme Lord of all the planetary systems, but still, out of love for His devotee, He has become His chariot driver and is speaking the Bhagavad-gītā to Him. And when I pick up the Bhagavad-gītā, I see that picture of Krishna driving the chariot of Arjuna. And when I see that picture in my mind and think of that love of the Lord for His devotee, I weep in ecstasy.” And Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu embraced that illiterate brahman and said, “You are the real knower of the Bhagavad-gītā, you are the real scholar of the Bhagavad-gītā.” Because he could appreciate the love of the Lord for His devotee, the reciprocation between the Lord and His devotee.

So, that is life in the spiritual world, and especially with Krishna. With other forms of the Lord; Lakshmi, Narayana, it is more on reverence. Narayana is always the Lord and the servants are always the servants. But with Krishna in Vrindavan, Krishna becomes a play thing in the hands of His devotees. When Mother Yasoda and the elderly gopīs want to be entertained and they ask Krishna to dance, so Krishna dances for them, “Yes mother, I will dance.” So, what kind of God is that who becomes submissive to His devotees? “Please draw my chariot between the two armies.” “Yes, you want Me to take the chariot between the two armies? Yes, I will do what you asked.” That is the sublime relationship between the Lord and the devotees. So, we should want to dedicate our lives to serve that master, and then to enter into our eternal relationship with that master. Yes, sir?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:57:25]

Giriraj Swami: Good question. What is your name?

Devotee: Anil

Giriraj Swami: Anil asked, “Krishna is the father of all living entities. Why does He love only His devotees?” Well, Krishna loves all living entities. What you said is absolutely right. He is the father of every living entity, and as the father, He loves all of His children. And therefore, He accompanies us wherever we go in the material world, He stays with us in our heart.

There is the jīvātmā and the Paramātmā. And the jīvātmā, according to his desires, according to his karma, he is transmigrating from one species to another. And the Paramātmā loves him so much that He accompanies him wherever he goes, He does love him. But He doesn’t interfere with the minute independence of the living entity. The Upanishads give the example of two birds in a tree, two birds on the same branch of a tree. One bird is pecking at the fruits, and some of the fruits are bitter, and some are sweet, and that bird is enjoying and suffering. And the other bird is witnessing. So, the jīvātmā is trying to enjoy the fruits and enjoying and suffering, and the Paramātmā is beside him as his best friend, witnessing his activities. But within Himself, He is just waiting for His friend to give up this vain pursuit of material happiness and turn to Him. And then, when His friend turns to Him, then He welcomes him and reciprocates with him in a different way.

It is just like you love all of your children, but it may happen that one child will go astray, one child will leave home. There will be some misunderstanding, the child doesn’t even want to see you, speak to you, hear from you. So, what can you do? You love the child, you are praying for the child to come back, hoping that the child will come back, but there is nothing you can do because you can’t force the child. It happened with Srila Prabhupada. One of his first disciples left him. Well, three of them. Then one came back. And Srila Prabhupada wrote that he was weeping with tears in his eyes because his disciple had left him, and he felt sorry that he had been unable to protect him from the influence of maya. He said, “It is possible for the disciple to misunderstand the bona fide spiritual master by the influence of maya.” And so, he said he would weep with tears in his eyes. And then he told the story of his guru Maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, that he had given sannyasa to one disciple, and then after some time, the former wife of that new sannyasi came and dragged him away, back home. And Prabhupada said that his guru Maharaja wept with tears in his eyes and he lamented that he could not save that soul.

So, Prabhupada wrote to this one of the three who had come back that, “We can only silently pray for them to come back and weep and go on with our Krishna consciousness.” Because sometimes it comes to a stage you can’t say anything to the person. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, He is Krishna, He felt so much sorrow for the fallen souls, and He was thinking, “What can we do to bring them back?” He disclosed his lamentation to Haridasa Thakura, and Haridasa Thakura replied that, “By the chanting of the holy name, they can be liberated and come back to you.” So, it is not that He loves them any less, but they don’t want to hear from Him. Even then, He speaks the Bhagavad-gītā for us. He didn’t need to speak the Bhagavad-gītā for Arjuna, Arjuna was a personal associate of Krishna. Do you know how many people died in the battle of Kurukshetra? Millions. It was a huge world war. If one person is murdered, it will be in the newspaper. It is such a big thing, even one person, millions.

But the whole drama was organized by Krishna for us, so that He could speak the Bhagavad-gītā for us, so that we could hear from Him and return to Him. He didn’t need to speak it to Arjuna, Arjuna was already His personal associate. Krishna put Arjuna into a sort of illusion to create a situation in which He could speak the Bhagavad-gītā. But the Bhagavad-gītā had to be spoken in the context of the war because it was a very big event and people were very interested what will happen. The whole Mahābhārata, really, was created just for the Bhagavad-gītā. The Mahābhārata was the setting, and the Bhagavad-gītā was the jewel. That is for us.

So He loves us, He is speaking to us through the Bhagavad-gītā, through the words of saintly persons. And if we turn to Him, then He will welcome us. There is no partiality. You could say He is partial to His devotees, bhakta-vatsala, but anyone can become His devotee, so He is not really partial to anyone, because anyone can become His devotee. Anyone who gives himself fully to Krishna, Krishna will give Himself fully to that person. So, there is really no partiality. Yes?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:06:43]. I had no religious teaching at all, my father was an atheist. So, I have been on a search for spiritual enlightenment, and I have gone to China and trained with the Shaolin monks, and I have gone to a lot of places and I have studied the Bible. I was actually first introduced to Krishna years ago, but I brushed it off because I didn’t understand about bowing down to statues. So, if you could explain to me why the statues are such an integral part of your devotional service?

Giriraj Swami: Very good question. What is your name?

Devotee: Lynette.

Giriraj Swami: Lynette says that she is been on a spiritual quest, she has gone to China and lived with monks, and she came in touch with Krishna consciousness many years ago, but she had difficulty understanding the deities, the arcā-mūrti, and she would like me to explain it.

Well, the basic is, the Absolute Truth is realized in three phases; Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān. So, Brahman is the impersonal effulgence from the transcendental form of Krishna, and Paramātmā is the localized feature of Krishna in the hearts of all living entities, and then there is Bhagavān, the Original Personality of Godhead enjoying pastimes with His devotees in the spiritual world. So, they are all spiritual, they are all on the absolute platform, but still, the happiness that one gets in a personal relationship with Krishna is much greater than the happiness one gets from merging into the impersonal brahmajyoti or even realizing the Lord within the heart. And in that personal relationship with Krishna, one renders service.

And in the stage of sādhana-bhakti, in the beginning stage, before the stage of liberation when we can actually see Krishna face to face in His original spiritual form, but still, we want to practice serving Krishna, practice makes perfect. And so, Krishna accepts the form of the deity to accept our service. We want to serve Krishna, so out of love, Krishna doesn’t need anything from us but we need to serve Krishna. So, just like there are certain exchanges of love between people, one is say bhuṅkte bhojayate caiva, one is offering food. Say you want to develop a relationship with someone, so you might invite them for dinner and have some talk with them, give them some gifts. So, these are exchanges of love. So, we can engage in the same exchanges of love with Krishna. But because our senses are not purified to see Krishna in His original form, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, so out of His mercy, He comes in a form that we can see with our gross, material senses. So, He comes in a form that is made of stone or metal or paint, something that we can see with these eyes, to facilitate our service to Him. But when our senses are completely purified by devotional service, we will see that this form of the Lord in the temple is the Lord Himself, there is no difference. The deity can speak to you. Prabhupada said, “If you see the deity in the temple as stone, then for you, He will remain stone forever. But if you see the deity as Krishna, He can speak to you.” There are instances in the history. But did you get what I was saying?

Devotee: Yes.

Giriraj Swami: Oh, okay, good. So, what about your search now? [laughter]

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:12:36]. I understand what you said about the deities meaning, maybe I can reinterpret what I understood?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, that is a good idea.

Devotee: Okay. Understood that God needs nothing from us. So, this is His graceful opportunity for us to serve Him in the material world, and that it is a choice to see it as stone or whatever it is made of, or to see it as interacting with the true Godhead, correct?

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee: Okay. And then, my question is, why do we have a statue of Prabhupada?

Giriraj Swami: Well, it is the same idea. In order to enter fire, you have to become fire. In order to serve the pure, you have to become pure. Now, like we are reading in this verse, when someone is completely purified by chanting and hearing the glories of the Lord, he develops a spiritual body like Krishna’s. Like Krishna’s in the sense that it is as spiritual as Krishna’s. The difference is that we, as spiritual souls, are limited, and Krishna is unlimited, but we are spirit and He is spirit. But He is great and we are small. If we didn’t have something in common with Krishna, we couldn’t have a relationship with Him. But because He is spiritual and we are spiritual, we can have a relationship with Him because we are both spiritual by nature. But because He is great and we are small, or He is the whole and we are the part, the relationship is one of service. So, that is acintya-bhedābheda-tattva, inconceivable, simultaneous oneness and difference. We are one in quality, we are both eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss, but we are different in quantity because He is infinite and we are infinitesimal.

Now, a pure devotee like Srila Prabhupada is as spiritual as Krishna. But Srila Prabhupada is the one who came. Yes, Krishna came five thousand years ago and spoke the Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna, but Srila Prabhupada came a little more than a hundred years ago, he walked the earth. Many of us here today met him personally, he gave us the temple that we are in, he gave us the deities that we are worshiping, he gave us the holy name that we chant, he gave us the translations of the books that we read. He gave us everything that we need to become Krishna conscious. And it is by his mercy that we will get the mercy of Krishna, yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo, “By the mercy of the spiritual master, one gets the mercy of Krishna.” So, we can’t approach Krishna directly, but we approach Krishna through His representative or through His servant. And for us, and potentially for anyone and everyone, that person through whom we can most easily approach Krishna is Srila Prabhupada. And so, we have his deity here as well so we can establish our relationship with him, and that will help us establish our relationship with Krishna.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:17:43]

Giriraj Swami: Bhargava Prabhu says that one of our godsisters, Jadharani asked Srila Prabhupada if he is present in his picture, and Srila Prabhupada replied, “If you think of me, I am there.”

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

[applause]