BG 9.22

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. We shall read from the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Chapter Nine: “The Most Confidential Knowledge.” From the title of the Chapter, you can understand that we are skipping ahead to the most confidential knowledge in the whole Bhagavad-gītā which describes the personal relationship between the individual soul or a devotee and the Supreme Soul or Krishna. Now listen with rapt attention.

TEXT 22

ananyāś cintayanto māṁ

ye janāḥ paryupāsate

teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ

yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham

TRANSLATION

The Supreme Lord Krishna said, “But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form – to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have.”

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

One who is unable to live for a moment without Kṛṣṇa consciousness cannot but think of Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours a day, being engaged in devotional service by hearing, chanting, remembering, offering prayers, worshiping, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, rendering other services, cultivating friendship and surrendering fully to the Lord. Such activities are all auspicious and full of spiritual potencies, which make the devotee perfect in self-realization, so that his only desire is to achieve the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such a devotee undoubtedly approaches the Lord without difficulty. This is called yoga. By the mercy of the Lord, such a devotee never comes back to this material condition of life. Kṣema refers to the merciful protection of the Lord. The Lord helps the devotee to achieve Kṛṣṇa consciousness by yoga, and when he becomes fully Kṛṣṇa conscious the Lord protects him from falling down to a miserable conditioned life.

COMMENT

This verse describes the beautiful relationship between the Supreme Lord and the fully surrendered devotee. Every living entity is part and parcel of the Supreme Being, Krishna, and as such his natural function is to serve the Supreme. The natural function of the part is to serve the whole. The function of the hand for example is to serve the body. If the hand is not engaged in the service of the body, the hand is diseased. There is something wrong. So we, being part and parcel of the Supreme Soul, are naturally meant to serve Him. When we do, yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham, He preserves what we have and He carries what we lack.

Every living entity in the material world is preoccupied with the hard struggle for existence how to get money to pay the bills, to arrange for food, shelter, clothing, and whatever we require to live, but Krishna says that to one who is exclusively devoted to Him without deviation, He carries what they lack and He preserves what they have. But it is a matter of faith. The whole process of Krishna consciousness is the development of faith, not blind faith, but faith that is based on logic and reason and practical experience and realization. Some of the devotees here have been chanting Hare Krishna and serving Lord Krishna for many years—thirty-five years, forty years—they would not be doing so if they didn’t have some personal experience of the benefit of Krishna consciousness. No one pays us to chant Hare Krishna or engage in devotional service, but we do it because we feel some benefit, some happiness.

So it is a matter of practical realization and it is said that if you take one step towards Krishna, He will take two steps towards you. He reciprocates, but in greater measure. So when we surrender to Krishna and engage in His service, He takes care of us. Even in the material world if you serve a master, any decent person, he will take care of you. In India Srila Prabhupada told the story . . . Srila Prabhupada is our spiritual master, great teacher of the science of Krishna. He translated this book, the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, with elaborate purports, and he translated many books of knowledge some of which are on display here—the Īśopaniṣad, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. But the Bhagavad-gītā is considered the essence of Vedic knowledge. So he told stories of people in India who would need work. So they would go to the home of some wealthy man and do service. Even if the man said, “I don’t really need anyone. I have all the help I need,” they would just do service, and the wealthy man would take care of them. It was just a natural relationship. If someone serves you, you take care of him. So Krishna is the supreme master and if we serve Him especially as described in this verse, exclusively without deviation, He will certainly take care of us—yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham—He will preserve what we have and carry what we lack. But again it is a matter of faith.

There is a story in the literature about a brahman named Arjuna. In Vedic civilization society is divided into different categories according to occupation and station in life. This is natural. In every society people have different natures. They perform different types of work and they go through different phases in the life cycle, but in the Vedic civilization these varieties of occupational duties and stations in life are cultivated consciously.

So the brahmans are the intellectual class and spiritual guides, spiritual teachers, priests—like that. There are different means of livelihood for members of different occupations. So brahmans, they have six occupational duties—pāṭhāna pāṭhāna—they study the scripture and teach the scripture. They worship the Lord and engage others in the worship. They accept charity and give charity. The kshatriyas or the rulers, administrators, warriors, they give protection to the people and they receive taxes and they spend the taxes for the benefit of the people. The vaishyas, the agricultural class or mercantile class, they do agriculture, they protect cows, and if there is excess production they engage in trade. And then the laborers or workers, they assist the others. But all the different parts work together, all the different parts of society work together like the different parts of the body. There’s head, there’s arms, there’s belly, there’s legs—they all work together for the benefit of the whole.

Arjuna was a brahman and brahmans live by charity which is another way of saying they depend on the mercy of the Lord. They depend on whatever the Lord sends to them through the generosity of others and there are other methods. There was the system that the agriculturists, they wouldn’t harvest everything in the field. They wouldn’t be so meticulous that they wouldn’t leave a grain of rice. There would be something and people could come and pick up what was left and they could survive—different methods.

So Arjuna, he was reading the Bhagavad-gītā, and he came to the verse that we just read in which Lord Krishna concludes, yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham: “I, Krishna, personally carry what the devotee lacks or what the devotee needs.” So when Arjuna read this verse he thought to himself, This cannot be right as it is written that Krishna personally carries what the devotee needs. He may arrange indirectly through other people or agents, but He doesn’t personally bring what the devotee needs.

He took out his pen with some red ink and he crossed out that phrase that, “I personally carry.” And then he went out to perform his occupational duty of begging alms. Of course brahmans, they were not really preoccupied with their own maintenance. Begging was just an excuse to meet householders and enlighten them in spiritual knowledge. But they would go. They would address the lady of the house, “Ma, Mother, can you give me a little milk,” or, “Can you give me a little fruit.” And that’s how they would survive, but they would really take the opportunity to speak to the householders about the science of yoga. Yoga means “to connect with God,” to become linked to God. The English word “yolk,” to “yolk oxen,” comes from the Sanskrit word “yoga,” which means to be linked to God.

Arjuna went out in the morning and usually within a few hours he would return with the ingredients for his wife to cook the meal. After some time a young boy came to the door with a device—I am sure there is a name for it, but I don’t know what it is—but it is a bar, a pole, and on either end there’s suspended baskets to carry things. The person will carry that rod across his shoulders. So he came laden with all sorts of provisions—milk, butter, ghee, yogurt, grains, fruits, vegetables, sugar, spices—just everything you could possibly imagine or want to cook in the kitchen. So he came to the door and he said, “Mother, your husband has sent me with these items for you to cook.” That’s also Vedic culture—mātṛvat para-dāreṣu—that anyone who other than your wife, a man will see every woman as his mother. It means very respectable, very worshipable. So he said, “Mother, your husband has sent me with these ingredients for you to cook his food.”

She saw this young boy carrying such a heavy load and he was perspiring from the endeavor. So she said, “Please come in. Come in. Take rest. I will prepare food. I will offer it to the Deity, to Krishna, and then you wait for my husband and you can also take prasāda with him.” He said, “No, no. I can’t do that. I have to move along.” She said, “No, no, you should stay. You are a tender, young boy.” So he said, “No, your husband is very harsh. If there’s any delay he can become very angry. So I don’t want to tarry here. I better go.”

He turned around and the good lady saw on his back some slash marks which were red from the blood. And she said, “Oh my God! What happened?” He said, “Well, like I said, I was a little late, and your husband became very furious, so I’d better run along now.”

So she cooked. By midday everything was ready but her husband didn’t come. So time was passing, passing, passing, two o’clock, three o’ clock. Finally her husband came home and he looked very dejected and he said, “I am very sorry I went to so many places, but no one would give me anything, not even one grain of rice. I am afraid we will have to fast today,” because it is also the principle of brahmans not to accumulate, not to collect more than they need. So whatever they get in a day they use or give away.

I have a vaidyā in California, an Ayurvedic physician, and vaidyās are also, that’s part of what brahmans do. Again it is a way to give people spiritual knowledge, but they act as doctors, and then they take the opportunity to give them spiritual knowledge. Sometimes they act as astrologers, the same thing, take the opportunity to give them spiritual knowledge. So his father was a renowned vaidyā in Bihar and he would keep a clay pot on his desk. He would not charge for his services, but people, it was a small town, many farmers, so they would either bring grains or fruits or vegetables, or they would put some money in the clay pot, and he wouldn’t see how much they put in. And then at the end of the day he would count up the money and he would calculate how much he needed for his expenses until the next day and whatever was extra he would take to the town, walk the distance to the town. He would go to the bus stop and he would distribute whatever was extra in charity to the people who happened to be at the bus stop. So this was actually the culture. They wouldn’t hoard. They would use what they need and depend on the Lord.

So Arjuna came and he said, “I’m sorry I couldn’t get anything today. We will have to fast.” And his wife said, “No, you sent the boy with so many provisions. I’ve already cooked a huge meal.” He said, “I didn’t send any boy.” “No, you did. I saw him. He told me.” And then she took him to the kitchen and showed him all the provisions. Then he started to think that, Who could that boy be? She said that, “And he had cut marks on his back. He said that you had cut him.” So then he had the idea, “Okay, let me look at my copy of the Bhagavad-gītā.” He looked into the book to the verse we just read to where he had cut with red ink the words where Krishna says, “I personally carry you.” And he saw that the red ink was gone. Then he realized that the Bhagavad-gītā is actually Krishna. It is Krishna in this form of transcendental sound. By cutting those words in the Bhagavad-gītā he had actually cut the body of Krishna. Of course Krishna has a spiritual body—that’s another thing—but he had cut the body of Krishna and he realized that that boy who had brought all the provisions was actually Krishna, that Krishna had personally come and thus proved His words in the Bhagavad-gītā.

So this is the fact: teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ. Nitya means “always,” constantly engaged in the service of the Lord with full concentration on the Lord without deviation.

Now we here in the twenty-first century also might wonder not only about the words in the Bhagavad-gītā, but even the story about the brahman Arjuna, “Is this true?” Or, “Maybe it was true then. It may be Arjuna was on the level,” or “Maybe it was true then, but not now, not for someone like me. I have to work and forget Krishna.” Krishna is saying, “Remember Me and I will take care of you,” but we don’t have faith so we think we have to work and then we can—not everyone—but we can become so engrossed in the hard struggle for existence we hardly have time to think about Krishna. But there is an art of work, karmasu kauśalam, it is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā, the art of work, how one can work in Krishna consciousness. We are not suggesting that one should not work, but one should work in Krishna consciousness. But if one is surrendered to the extent mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā here, Krishna will take care of the person.

We have a very recent example in our own experience, in my experience of our spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, he came to America at the age of seventy years—this is his form there—on a steamship from Bombay, and because of government restrictions in India, exchange control, he could bring with him only seven dollars, which as he said was just a few hours spending in New York. He said a few hours. Some people could spend it in a few minutes. He brought a bag of cereal, homemade cereal that he made, and he brought a trunk of books—his translation of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in English—and a couple of sets of cloth. That’s all he had. And as he said when he arrived he didn’t know whether to turn left or right.

This is also by accident or Krishna’s arrangement, he happened to meet a man in Mathura, Mr. Agarwal, and Prabhupada had just mentioned to him that his Guru Maharaja had ordered him to go to the West to spread the message of Krishna and he needed a sponsor and Mr. Agarwal said, “I have a son in Pennsylvania named Gopal. I will write him and he can sponsor you.” Prabhupada didn’t take it so seriously because so many people offered to help, but they don’t really do it. But he got the sponsorship, he got the clearance from the government, he got the free passage on the Scindia Steam Navigation Company. He came in a cargo carrier and he arrived in New York with seven dollars. There was a representative of the Travelers Aid Society who had been arranged by Gopal Agarwal in Pennsylvania to put Srila Prabhupada on a bus that would ultimately take him to Pittsburgh and then Gopal met him in Pittsburgh and brought him to their home in a small town called Butler, Pennsylvania.

Anyway one thing led to another and Prabhupada ended up in New York City—that was his goal—and he sat under a tree in Tompkins Square Park and chanted Hare Krishna. And when he opened his eyes he saw that people had gathered and he spoke to them the message of Krishna from the Bhagavad-gītā. And he said that, “A devotee can go anywhere in the world and follow the same process. He can sit under a tree or go to the town square and chant Hare Krishna and people will gather around and think, Who is this crazy person? What is he doing? And when they gather around you can tell them about Krishna. People may give something.” So many devotees have had the same experience. People will give something. And then Prabhupada brought his books. He would go to book stores, sell his books, and somehow he was surviving.

So this is practical. I, of course I didn’t do it intentionally, but still, I went to Pakistan. One of my colleagues or godbrothers, Amoghalila dasa had first gone to Pakistan from Bombay, and so I went to meet him there, but there was some lapse in the communication. I guess he didn’t get my telegram. He was travelling somewhere in the interior of Sind. So I arrived in Karachi and there was no one to receive me. I didn’t know where to go or what to do. I knew there was a big temple from before partition, Swami Narayana temple in downtown Karachi. So somehow I got a taxi to take me there. It was pretty late. I didn’t know anyone. Nobody knew me. To make a long story short I survived. There was a Hindu restaurant. It wouldn’t be called a restaurant by western standards, but a little hole in the wall where they made dal and chapatis. So I went and begged some. And then I spent the night on the marble pavilion in front of the temple.

And then the next morning Hindus—there are still some Hindus left in Pakistan—they would come to see the Deity of Krishna in the temple and they saw me like this. I would approach them. Many of them didn’t know English, but I would say, “Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna devotee, Amoghalila.” So finally I found someone who knew English and he said that, “We know Amoghalila is here, but we don’t know where he is, but there is a good devotee of Krishna named Mr. Tarwani. He is close to Amoghalila. He’ll know where Amoghalila is.” Somehow they got me Mr. Tarwani’s address.

I was really laden—I had a few sets of cloths—with books because I wanted to bring books because they didn’t have any books in Pakistan, Prabhupada’s books. So it was quite a struggle carrying all those books and it wasn’t that close to Mr. Tarwani’s office. But anyway I made it. Then I went to his office and explained the situation. He said, “Amoghalila is travelling in the interior of Pakistan. I don’t know when he’ll be back, but he should be back in a few days.” “Okay, what about in the mean time?” He said, “Okay, you can stay with me.” I said, “Okay, that sounds good.”

He was a lawyer. So after he finished we went to his home and I thought, Oh boy, these Matajis are good cooks, all—Sindhi, Gujarati, Marwari, Punjabi—they’re all in those days, but I am sure now too. “Mataji is a good cook. I am really hungry. I haven’t had a good meal in two days.” So we got to his house and it was completely silent, completely quiet. I said, “Mr. Tarwani, where is Mrs. Tarwani?” “Oh, she is visiting relatives for a few days.” “Oh, okay, so now what?” He said, “I guess we’ll make some kichari.” But that was okay.

This is my point that Krishna provides. He may not provide everything we want or we think we want, but He provides what we need. It was good enough, kichari and a few vegetables and some papadams. It was quite good.

So this is something devotees have experienced. My Godbrother Bhurijana Prabhu, at one stage he was in Hong Kong. He is one of the first devotees to go to Hong Kong. He told his own story which is very relevant to this verse that they were just living at different people’s homes, he and his wife, and after a while they thought that, We need a place of our own where we can invite people where we can do chanting, we can speak from the Bhagavad-gītā, we can give them prasāda. We need to have our own place. So they had saved up about maybe a hundred and twenty-five dollars which was quite a lot of money then and they had to put it all into one month’s rent. So they took the risk. To spread the message of Krishna you have to take risks. They took the risk and they thought they will depend on Krishna.

Every day without fail someone would bring them food or give a small contribution which was enough to pay for the food they needed. But then there was the rent and it was the same thing. They thought, Where are we going to get the rent? We are going to end up in the street. But every month without fail someone by the end of the month would come through with the money for the rent. And this went on for four months. They didn’t know where their food was going to come from or where the money for the rent was going to come from, but everyday or every month Krishna sent whatever they needed: yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham.

Then devotees came. They brought books. They began saṅkīrtana selling books. They had income. Everything began to develop and immediately that mystical arrangement by which people were bringing food and money stopped. They didn’t need it. They had other methods and it stopped. They didn’t starve. They still got what they needed, but by a different method, by going out and selling books and getting income from book distribution.

So these are practical experiences in devotees’ lives. They happen even now. Of course when one has children especially there is more responsibility, more considerations. The stories that I have related refer to me, I was a brahmachari. That means unmarried student. Amoghalila was also a brahmachari and Bhurijana Prabhu and his wife, they were married, but they were very detached, very good devotees, very detached and they didn’t have children. But the principle remains that if we surrender to Krishna, Krishna will take care of us. In any case the focus of our activities should be Krishna, how to revive our eternal relationship with Krishna, and be liberated from the cycle of birth and death, suffering in the material world. That should be our mission. And we shouldn’t be deviated in our mission for fear that we will not get enough to live, get enough to eat, get enough to live. We work. We do our duty. We earn an honest livelihood—that’s important—earn an honest livelihood, but we should have faith in Krishna—saṅkīrtana—that He will protect what we have and carry what we lack.

Now one might see in one’s own life or in the life of some devotee apparent reversals. One might think, I have seen devotees who gave their lives to Krishna and in the end they suffered some calamity. So I am not going to let that happen to me. I am not going to take any chances. Of course what is destined to happen to you will happen in any case. You can’t avoid it. Just because you make an effort to avoid it doesn’t mean you can avoid it.

There is a story in Persian literature that a wealthy man sent his servant to the market in Baghdad to get some provisions and while he was in the market in Baghdad he bumped into death personified. And death personified looked at him with a very menacing expression on his face. And the servant became frightened. He fled the marketplace. He went back to the rich man’s house and he said, “I was jostled by death personified in the marketplace and he looked at me with menacing eyes. So I am leaving here. I am going to Samara.”

So the master said, “Okay go.” Then the master himself went to the marketplace to complete the unfinished business and there he saw death personified. So he challenged him that, “My servant saw you in the morning and you looked at him with menacing eyes and you frightened him, scared the daylights out of him. Why did you do that?” And death personified replied, “I didn’t look at him with menacing eyes. I was just surprised to see him in Baghdad because I have an appointment with him this afternoon in Samara.” [laughter]

What we are destined to receive will come to us. The fact that we decide, “Okay, I am not going to depend on Krishna. I am going to take care of myself,” that doesn’t give any guarantee that your efforts will be successful. In fact you will be safer depending on Krishna than trying to make your own arrangements.

But still, even if you think, I have seen too many mishaps in the lives of devotees. I am not going to take chances, there is another perspective on this and that is that what is perceived as a material reversal can actually be beneficial. We don’t know what is the plan of the Lord. He may take something away from us. In fact Srila Prabhupada said that whenever Krishna takes something away from a devotee it’s only to give him or her something better.

There is a Chinese story—somehow we are extracting wise lessons from different literatures—of a wise farmer in China, he had one horse and that horse somehow broke away and escaped and ran away. So all the neighbors came to him and said, “Oh, how unfortunate! You had a horse, one horse, and he ran away. How unfortunate!” And the wise Chinese farmer replied, “Maybe yes, maybe no.”

After three days the horse came back with another horse. So then all the neighbors came and said, “Oh, how fortunate! Your horse ran away, but he came back and he brought another horse. Now instead of one you have two horses. How fortunate!” And the wise Chinese farmer said, “Maybe yes, maybe no.”

A few days later the farmer’s son was riding the new horse to break him in and he got thrown off the horse and broke his leg. So the neighbors came and said, “Oh, how unfortunate! Your son was thrown from the horse and broke his leg.” And the wise Chinese farmer said, “Maybe yes, maybe no.”

A few days later an officer for the military came to recruit the man’s son into the army and he saw that the young man had a broken leg so he left him. He said, “You are not fit for the military.” So all the neighbors came and said, “Oh how fortunate! Your son broke his leg and he was saved from being inducted into the army. How fortunate!” And the wise Chinese farmer said, “Maybe yes, maybe no.”

So like this, the story goes on, but the idea is that from our limited point of view we don’t really know what is fortunate and what is unfortunate. And so we may endeavor for good fortune according to our conception, but we may not really know what is in our best interest. Krishna knows and therefore depending on Krishna is the best course from every point of view. He is all-knowing, He is all-powerful, He can take care of us better than we can take care of ourselves, He knows better what’s good for us than we ourselves know, and therefore we should just surrender to Krishna, and especially in the present age of Kali the method by which we surrender to Krishna and develop our Krishna consciousness is chanting the holy names of Krishna especially the Hare Krishna maha-mantra: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

This chanting can be done loudly with musical instruments—harmonium, accordion, kartals which are hand cymbals, mridanga, drums—very melodious way or it can be done quietly as a type of personal meditation on japa beads or meditation beads and one chants loudly enough just mainly for one’s own self to hear, “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.” You can begin with any amount, any number of rounds, but if one does sixteen rounds which is the requirement for initiation which takes about two hours, one can really develop one’s relationship with Krishna and become free from all sorts of material fears and anxieties and actually experience transcendental happiness.

But we have so little faith. Even when we are chanting we are thinking, we are worrying, Where’s the money going to come from? How am I going to pay the bills?—or whatever. Some people think, Let me earn now and when I have enough in the bank then I can retire and think of Krishna. Now that is illusory because the volatile markets, but that is just the particular now. In general it is illusory because there’s no need to wait. One can take to the process of Krishna consciousness now and there is no guarantee that one will ever come to the stage where one feels he has enough because the nature of greed is we always feel we want more.

Some years ago John Paul Getty was the richest man in the world. An interviewer asked him, “You are the richest man in the world. You have everything that money can buy. When you are all alone in the privacy of your own space there’s no demands on you. When you’re all alone what do you think about?” He replied, “I think about how to pay the bills.” The small man might be thinking, How can I pay the rent? or, How can I pay the mortgage? How can I pay the car insurance? And he is thinking, How can I come up with the money to buy out the next company, take over the next company? It is the same thing. It is exactly the same thing. It’s just like a big animal and a little animal, their business is the same, just one is big and one is little. The interviewer asked in the same vain, “You are the richest man in the world. You have everything that money can buy. Can you say in one word what is your philosophy of life?” He replied, “Yes. I can tell you my philosophy of life in one word: more.”

The senses are like that. The Bhagavad-gītā says no matter how much fuel you put in the fire, it always burns and it wants more. So if you are in the mood that you want more, you’ll never have enough. Just peacefully worship Krishna. So better whatever you have now, however much or however little you have, be happy with it. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā, yadṛcchā-lābha-santuṣṭo, that the devotee is satisfied with whatever gain comes of its own accord. So we should be happy. Whatever Krishna is providing it is enough. We are living and let me use this valuable human form of life to worship Krishna, to serve Krishna, to chant Krishna’s name, and to serve Krishna’s mission, spread Krishna’s message, bring other people to Krishna consciousness and really do good for them.

People want to do good for others. Someone is hungry. They want to feed him. That’s very good, but after you feed him some hours later he is going to be hungry again. The same problem will exist. But if you bring someone to Krishna and he surrenders to Krishna then all of his problems are solved permanently forever. So that’s the best service you can do for your fellow man, fellow human being. It is the best service you can do for yourself and it’s the best service to Krishna. So everyone gains. Everyone is happy. No one loses in Krishna consciousness.

Today is a special day. Of course every day is a special, but today is also a special day because one of Srila Prabhupada’s great stalwart servants, preacher in the Hare Krishna movement, His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami Maharaja left this world on this date four years ago, 2005. I could say a lot about him and I hope to tomorrow if you come, but it is an auspicious day and I know that he would be very pleased if all of you resolved to take up the process of Krishna consciousness, bhakti-yoga more seriously, more sincerely, and to help others who are on the same path because we all need help, we are all weak. So he would be pleased if we help each other who are already on the path and if we helped others who are not yet on the path, extend a hand to them, and bring them onto the path so they can also progress towards the ultimate goal of life which is to develop love of God, Krishna, and go back home, back to Godhead. Hare Krishna.