Pandava Sena Youth Retreat—Watering the Seed with Japa

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. I hope you are all happy this morning. Are you? Good.

We are beginning our program of japa, and we are dividing the seminar into two parts. The first part will take place here until breakfast, and mainly, I will be presenting some thoughts and ideas about japa and bhakti. And then, after breakfast, we will move to the hall that the organizers have arranged, and we’ll learn more in terms of practical techniques. How to chant japa with attention, with relish, with feeling, and there will be a number of exercises that we will perform together. One exercise, just to begin in the next session, will be for each of you to write a little bit about your journey with japa.

Now, I know that different participants have had different degrees of experience with japa. Some may have never chanted, most have chanted, some have chanted regularly and stopped, some are chanting regularly now, some have chanted more on a regular basis in the past, and some are chanting less, some want to resume chanting regularly, and some want to increase their regular number of rounds. So, these fluctuations are something that we all experience in relation to japa. In fact, in relation to every aspect of life, we have our ups and downs, our peaks and valleys.

So, to begin, I will tell you a little about my journey with japa so you can get an idea of what you might write in your notebooks. And then, we will discuss. A lot of the format later in the morning will be performing exercises and then discussing. We may break into groups of two dyads, and you can share with your partners, and then after that, those who want to share in the larger group can do that.

One of the important elements of the retreat of the japa seminar, and of Krishna consciousness, is what Rupa Gosvami calls guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati, revealing one’s mind in confidence and inquiring confidentially. So, an important part of our retreat, in particular our japa seminar, is to be able to disclose one’s mind in confidence. Someone may want to reveal something about himself or herself that he or she would not want broadcast. So, in general, we have to be able to keep things that are revealed to us in confidence.

Another thing is that people may express different opinions or points of view on different topics. We might have a different opinion or point of view, but we should listen to what the other person says in a sympathetic mood and try to understand what they are saying and appreciate what they are saying, even if our opinion or perspective is different.

These are some basic principles of Vaishnava etiquette. In the discussion this morning, I will refer to various statements from scripture. Everyone who comes to the association of devotees, hears devotees, supports what they say with evidence from scripture. And there is a reason for this. Every conditioned soul has defects, every conditioned soul makes mistakes. To err is human, we have imperfect senses, we are subject to illusion, and every conditioned soul has a tendency to cheat. The cheating tendency is manifest when we give opinions or state as fact something that is not fact.

The basic illusion of conditioned souls is, “I am the body.” Pretty much everyone identifies with the body, that’s an illusion. Everyone has imperfect senses, but still, they pose themselves as authorities, as teachers. But as Srila Prabhupada says, “They are not teachers, they are cheaters, because they are presenting themselves as authorities, but they are not really authorities. They are presenting something as truth that may in fact be an illusion.”

So, the idea is that if we want perfect knowledge, we cannot get it from an imperfect source. We can get perfect knowledge only from a perfect source of knowledge, and that is Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And anyone who wants to give perfect knowledge to others must repeat what Krishna says, or what scripture says. Scripture means ultimately the words of Krishna, or the words of liberated souls, pure devotees, who are repeating the message of Krishna. So, we take the statements of scripture very seriously, as truth, as the Absolute Truth, but at the same time, we can verify what the scriptures say in terms of our own lives.

As I mentioned yesterday, when I first came to the association of devotees in Boston, the whole experience of Krishna consciousness was like an experiment in the sense that we were applying the principles that we learned from Srila Prabhupada, and we were feeling the effects how what Srila Prabhupada said was coming true. Whatever we read in the books was coming true.

So, to come to my journey with japa. Of course, the journey is ongoing, it never ends, but some highlights from the journey. I first met Srila Prabhupada and the devotees in Boston. I was a student at Brandeis University, and Srila Prabhupada delivered a lecture on campus. I had seen the poster, “Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami,” on such and such time and place. Well, that night, I had some friends over to my apartment for dinner. I’d already become a vegetarian, so we had soup, pasta, and salad. And then we were going to go to a movie at Harvard Square in Cambridge, but I wanted to go to the lecture, and my friends weren’t so keen on it.

But anyway, in the end, I prevailed and we went to the lecture. And at the end of the lecture, there was kirtan. Satsvarupa Maharaja was leading the kirtan. Srila Prabhupada was on the stage. The devotees were dancing in ecstasy, and one by one, the students in the audience jumped up out of their seats and climbed up on the stage and were chanting and dancing with the devotees.

And so, I stood up and I also felt like jumping up on the stage and joining the devotees, but there was already some tension between me and my friends because of changing the plan from going to see the movie to attending the lecture, I thought, If I jump up on the stage, that would be just too much for them. But I stood, and I sang and clapped my hands and swayed in the aisle.

So then, after the last kirtan, one of the devotees announced. . . In those days, the devotees didn’t have any cars, so they announced, “If anyone is going to Cambridge or Boston, the devotees need a ride.” So, I gave them a ride, and I had some discussion on the way. And then I got the address to the temple, and then the next night, I went to the temple.

And at the temple, there was more chanting, and they had a mantra sign. It was, I guess, painted on cloth, and in a sort of Sanskrit style. It was English letters but Sanskrit style. And I was looking at the words and chanting, and as I was looking at the sign, I saw the letters sort of dissolve and then reappear. They would just sort of unform themselves and reform themselves. And in that generation, that was really considered something very mystical and spiritual. And I thought, This is really powerful, more powerful than psychedelics. You don’t need psychedelics, you just chant Hare Krishna and you get all the same results. So, we will come back to that.

So, every day after my first encounter with Srila Prabhupada and the devotees, I would come for the program. The arrangement was every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening there was a program in the temple, and Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, there was a program outside, usually on one of the universities, and then Sunday was the love feast.

So, at one of the university programs, Srila Prabhupada had a vyāsāsana set up and he spoke. And then, as usual after the questions and answers, there was kirtan. And in this particular room, the seats were at the back, and there was an open space, and then Srila Prabhupada.

So, the devotees were dancing in a circle in the open space, and I was dancing with them, and I suddenly felt this tremendous upsurge of love. I was looking at the faces of the people in the room; many students and some professors and administrators, and I just felt this overwhelming feeling of love for all the people in the room. And then, that feeling of love expanded beyond the walls of the classroom, out into the neighborhood, and across the United States, and throughout the whole universe. I just felt this overwhelming feeling of love.

And up until then, other than raising my hand and asking questions, I never really approached Srila Prabhupada personally, but I was so overcome by the experience that I just went right up to him, where he was sitting, and I just said, “This chanting is wonderful.” And I was down there, he was looking at me, he smiled very broadly. And sometimes you can get a sense of it in pictures with his oceanic smile. And then he started to chuckle, his whole chest was sort of heaving. And I knew it was ecstasy, and then he looked at me with great compassion and said, “Thank you very much.” And that was the beginning. And then, there was another experience.

The Boston temple was a storefront. So, upstairs, it was just a little storefront that had been converted into a temple, and behind this front area was a kitchen, and then we had the basement, and that’s where all the men lived.

So, the devotees had a poster from S.S. Brijbasi & Sons, of Murli Manohar, very beautiful picture of Krishna. It’s on the cover of Bhurijana Prabhu’s book, Unveiling the Lotus Feet. Krishna is standing in the moonlight by the banks of Yamuna River, playing on His flute in His threefold bending form. And I had heard that we should begin our meditation on the form of Krishna from the lotus feet, or from the toes of the lotus feet, or from the tips of the toes of the lotus feet.

So, I was sitting there looking at this poster, chanting japa. I was just looking at the tip of the toe, and while chanting, that tip of the toe nail of one of the toes of Krishna’s foot became completely captivating and enchanting and attractive. And I was just chanting and chanting, and looking at that little tip of the toe. I can’t explain what I was seeing, but I was experiencing something completely fascinating. I didn’t want to go anywhere else beyond that tip of the toe of Krishna. Just chanting, chanting, chanting.

So, these were some of the early experiences, and then one day at prasāda, I mean, we were pretty busy during the day, but prasāda was one time when we would get together and talk. And so, one devotee mentioned that when Vishnujana had joined, when he would chant, he would see different colored lights. He had told Srila Prabhupada about it, and Srila Prabhupada had said, “Don’t worry, keep chanting and it will go away.” So then, I thought about my experience, looking at the mantra sign and how the letters unformed themselves and reformed themselves, and I thought, Well, maybe this isn’t really the benefit of chanting. Maybe there is something that comes up along the way, and the real benefit is something else.

So then, as I mentioned, they needed more pūjārīs. So, Satsvarupa wrote a letter of recommendation, and I wrote a letter of request, and along with it, I was supposed to send my chanting beads. And in those days, we weren’t getting beads from India. We would go to a shop, probably a head shop, if you know what that is, and if you don’t, it’s okay. A shop where they sold paraphernalia that could be useful for hippies. If you know what they are and if you don’t, it’s okay.

And then you’d buy some string, and you’d string the beads and make a mālā. And the devotees told me that if you chant a mantra on each bead as you string it, at the end of stringing the 108 beads, you will be in ecstasy. So, I thought, Okay, that sounds good. I can do that. And I did it, and a very blissful feeling was building up. So, I was putting each bead on the string, and then tying a knot, and then the next bead. So, I sent my letter and the beads.

And one day, when we were on hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana in Harvard Square, it was another one of those experiences, I suddenly felt some change during the kirtan, and I had a revelation that I was not the body. I mean, we hear it, we repeat it, but I actually experienced it. I’m not the body, I have nothing to do with the body, but I’m something completely different. I’m spiritual, I’m not the body. And again, it was a great sense of happiness and relief.

And so, afterwards, I mentioned to the devotees that I had this experience, and they said, “Maybe Srila Prabhupada was chanting on your beads and initiating you, and that could be the reason you’ve had that special experience at that time.” And then, maybe three days later, Srila Prabhupada’s letter came, and it seems like it could have been at that time.

So, I always liked to chant. Who knows? Maybe in my last life, I was born in India. I liked to chant because I would sit on the floor of the Boston temple room. And I don’t know, I would feel like I was some sage sitting on the banks of the Ganges just chanting. And so, I would chant and I enjoyed chanting. It was something I would look forward to doing every morning, and it was something I would do whenever I got the chance.

And then, time passed, we went to India. We had the first Bombay pandal at Cross Maidan, and I was in charge of the whole pandal, but my particular service was to be at the book table whenever I was free, and including during the lecture in the evening.

So, I was chanting at the book table. There wasn't much activity, so I would be chanting. Suddenly, Prabhupada stops his lecture and looks in my direction and says, “Do not disturb me. One should not disturb the spiritual master by one’s chanting.” Oh my God! I thought I was pleasing him, but I was a little oblivious, which wasn’t a good thing. And we were there for a purpose. Prabhupada had his mission, and we were there to assist him. And I was not conscious of that while I was chanting. So, that was a sort of a chastising experience. And then, so many really nice experiences.

Once, I visited a man sort of on the outskirts of Calcutta, and it started to rain. I had heard that Srila Prabhupada said that when it rains, it means that the gopīs are crying tears of separation from Krishna. So, it was out of Calcutta, and it was a long ride. So, I first spent a few hours there and met the family, and then they just gave me a place where I could chant. I was chanting for a while, looking out at the sort of back yard and trees and chanting and relishing.

Then, we got the Juhu land in Bombay, and then things really changed. There were a lot of problems, legal complications, and so I would try to chant all my rounds before the Deity greeting, but sometimes things came up, and then I would have to sort of struggle to chant later. But I always, and it’s not anything to boast about or be proud of, I just couldn’t function unless I chanted twelve rounds before anything else. I just couldn’t. And once in Calcutta, before I came back to Bombay, in Calcutta.

So, I would always chant after maṅgala-ārati, if I hadn’t finished my twelve rounds, I would chant in front of the Deities. Tamal Krishna Goswami, who was the GBC, wanted me to be making appointments to meet people, to get advertisements for the pandal, and later, to enroll new life members. But I knew if I didn’t finish those twelve rounds, I just couldn’t function. Later, I heard from Mahatma Prabhu that Srila Prabhupada had said that if you don’t finish your rounds by ten in the morning, you’ll be in anxiety for the rest of the day. Anyway, in Juhu, sometimes I couldn’t do that, and I would be in anxiety. Couldn’t do it, or thought I couldn’t do it.

And then time passed, I eventually had to have a cardiac bypass surgery in Santa Barbara, and from reading books and from what the doctors told me, I had to change my lifestyle in the sense of traveling. Three days one city, two days one city, five days one city, one night one city. I couldn’t do that anymore, and so I got a place in Santa Barbara. It was different. For the first time in thirty years, I wasn’t living in a temple, and it wasn’t the same. I mean, I would chant. There is something sort of encouraging about chanting with devotees in the temple.

And then I recalled Srila Prabhupada’s instruction to me, to write. I mean, yes, I would write articles for Back to Godhead, but I wasn’t really writing as I felt he wanted, and I never had time, so I thought, Well, maybe this is an arrangement for me to finally write. And then I found that the best time to write was early in the morning. So then, I stopped chanting my rounds early in the morning, and I would chant them in the afternoon, but as part of my cardiac regimen, I was supposed to take a fairly brisk walk every day. So, I would chant while I was walking, and without really noticing it, my japa got worse. I wasn’t chanting early in the morning, I was chanting in the afternoon, walking and chanting, and gradually, it got worse.

Then I got an email. We get so many emails that you just don’t have time to read them all. So, there was one from Mahatma to put an end to courtesy japa. Courtesy japa? But what is that? I never even heard of it. So, I didn’t read it, I just kept it, and then, I don’t know, devotees kept mentioning this book, The Nectarean Ocean of the Holy Name by Sacinandana Swami. And he had given me a copy some years earlier, which he autographed, and I looked at it with all the ten offenses, Harināma-cintāmaṇi. I read a little and kept it aside, but people kept mentioning that book.

And then, it so happened that His Holiness Narayana Swami was coming to visit, and his health wasn’t so good then. So, he was going to spend some time with me in Santa Barbara, and I thought, This is someone who has taste for the holy name. So, I thought, This is a great opportunity. I can serve him, and by serving him, I’ll get his mercy, and I’ll develop some of his qualities, in particular, taste for the holy name.

And then around the same time, there had been a meeting in Dallas of the North American GBC strategic planning committee. And I guess Purushasukta had the idea that there should be a spiritual care initiative, and so there was discussion what to do in terms of spiritual care for the devotees, and then some months later, I got a letter that they are thinking of having some seminars for devotees and that there is a group from the committee, and, “Is there anyone on the group you would like to work with?” So, I put down Sacinandana Swami’s name.

Well, that was the idea that we weren’t getting to spend time together because I wasn’t able to travel like before and go to India. So, we would do something together, and then out of that came the first japa retreat. And that was a very powerful experience, and that really helped bring my japa back to where it should have been, and even beyond anything I’d experienced before. So, we all have our journey with japa. We have our ups and downs, and talking about japa is also very important.

There was a time, I mean, in some places it’s still like that, in a way, it should be like that, there is great emphasis on book distribution. So, he talks about book distribution, the importance of distribution, the techniques of book distribution, so there was a culture of book distribution. So, japa has been something that. . . Of course, now, since the japa retreats, japa is something that devotees talk about, but not always. Sometimes you don’t even know whether you should bring it up.

I wanted to get a sense of the audience, so we had a questionnaire. It was anonymous, we don’t know who’s chanting no rounds, who’s chanting one, who’s chanting three, who was chanting and who had stopped, we don’t know, and that’s fine. We didn’t need to know, we just wanted to get a sense of the group. But if you asked someone directly, it could be delicate. But it’s actually good to talk about it, even if you are not chanting any rounds, everyone has some interest in such a basic part of our spiritual practice.

So, I think now we can distribute a handout with different verses related to bhakti and japa. Because now, in a way, America has become like India. People know much more about Vedic culture, but they actually don’t understand it exactly the way it is. So, the word bhakti. I mean, when Srila Prabhupada came and introduced bhakti, we never heard the word bhakti, and our understanding of bhakti was what we got from Srila Prabhupada.

But now, especially in yoga circles, they got kirtan. Kirtan has come in and bhakti has come in. It’s the bhakti fest, but they don’t use the word bhakti the way Prabhupada did. And I think it’s important that we know what bhakti actually is. I mean, people have a general sense. Well, bhakti for Krishna, bhakti for Shiva, bhakti for Durga, bhakti for your parents, bhakti for your pets, bhakti for your flowers, bhakti for your country, but that’s not actually what bhakti is. Can I have one? So, the first verse. . . Is your hand up because you need a handout? Oh! The diagrams didn’t come out well. Yeah, what to do.

So, just on this point about bhakti, we’ll take a few important phrases. Anyābhilāṣ means further desires, and sunyam means without. In other words, this is the definition of uttamā bhakti or first-class devotional service, pure devotional service. One should have no other desire than to please Krishna. Jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam, one’s endeavors should not be covered by jnana and karma. Anukūlyena means favorable. This is very important, that one should be thinking of Krishna favorably, one should serve Krishna favorably, as Krishna wants to be served.

Again, in Bombay, I met a very wealthy man, who was reputed to be very pious and religious. And he was sort of boasting about how pious and religious he was. So, he took out a beautiful silver box filled with tulasi leaves, and he said, “I don’t even drink tea without putting in tulasi leaves.” So, that is not ānukūlyena, that is not favorable. Krishna doesn’t want tea with tulasi leaves. He wants rasagullā with tulasi leaves, not tea with tulasi leaves. So, that’s not serving Krishna as Krishna desires.

And how do we know what Krishna desires? From Krishna, from sādhu-śāstra-guru. Anuśīlanam means cultivation. As Prabhupada sometimes said, “Bhakti is not idle meditation, but it’s an active cultivation.” And anu, the prefix anu, has two meanings. Anu means to follow, like rūpānugas, we are followers of Rupa Gosvami. So, anu means that we cultivate pure devotional service or bhakti, following the authorities, following the paramparā, and anu also means continuous. Pure devotional service is a continuous practice. It’s not, “I’ll do bhakti for two hours a day and then twenty-two hours a day, I’ll do other things.”

And in bhakti, real bhakti, pure devotional service is continuous. It doesn’t mean that you can’t go to school or go to work, it doesn’t mean that you don’t eat and sleep and take care of your body, but it means that your ultimate goal is to revive your relationship with Krishna and be situated as His eternal servant. So, you go to school, you go to work, you take care of your body, you do things that are necessary to keep the body and soul together in the material world, but the ultimate purpose is to become Krishna conscious and become free from the cycle of birth and death.

So, this is something that we have to understand, because sometimes devotees go to extremes. And we have the pendulum effect, you go from one extreme to the other extreme, back to the other extreme. So, there was a time when some devotees misunderstood. Of course, it also comes from maturity, sort of in a way, it’s inevitable. And so, they were very, you could say, fanatical. So, then the pendulum shifts. First it was like nothing goes, and then everything goes. So, it’s not that nothing goes, and it’s not that everything goes, but it’s a matter of consciousness.

Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā, “One who is temperate in eating, sleeping, work, and recreation, he can achieve the Supreme.” So, recreation is also there. Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says that for Vaishnavas, recreation includes walking, swimming. So, eating is there, sleeping is there, working is there, recreation is there, but it should be done in such a way that we can keep our spiritual focus, keep our health, physical health, mental health, and spiritual focus. And then within bhakti, there is really a lot we could discuss. But yes, I guess it would be the fourth page, the last. Well, the verse at the top of the fourth page.

TEXT 71

tāra madhye sarva-śreṣṭha nāma-saṅkīrtana
niraparādhe nāma laile pāya prema-dhana

TRANSLATION

“Of the nine processes of devotional service, the most important is to always chant the holy name of the Lord. If one does so, avoiding the ten kinds of offenses, one very easily obtains the most valuable love of Godhead.”

COMMENT

So, yesterday, Rukmini devi taught us a very beautiful verse from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta about prema-dhana. Does anyone remember it? Rukmini, would you like to recite it in your beautiful Bengali tune?

Rukmini devi: [Unintelligible 00:59:07].

Giriraj Swami: Yes. So, “Without prema-dhana, without the treasure of love of Godhead, my life is useless.” So, Lord Chaitanya is praying to Krishna, “Please, therefore accept Me as Your servant, and pay Me the salary of ecstatic love of Godhead, or prema-dhana.” And here, we find the same prema-dhana.

Tāra madhye sarva-śreṣṭha nāma saṅkīrtana, of all the nine processes of devotional service, the chanting of holy name is the best. And niraparādhe. Aparādhe means offense. Niraparādhe means without offense. If one chants the holy name without offense, pāya prema-dhana, he gets ecstatic love of Godhead, prema-dhana. So, it is important to chant without offense, and part of our study will be what are the ten offenses, so that we can recognize them and avoid them. And if we chant without offense, then we get the real fruit of chanting.

But that said, even if you chant, well, not intentionally committing offenses, but just other habits, if you keep chanting, you will become free from offenses. So, whatever the situation is, just keep chanting. So, the next page at the bottom.

TEXT 24

‘kṛṣṇa-nāma’ kare aparādhera vicāra
kṛṣṇa balile aparādhīra nā haya vikāra

TRANSLATION

There are offenses to be considered while chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Therefore simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa one does not become ecstatic.

COMMENT

And then in the purport, Srila Prabhupada mentions the ten offenses and gives some explanation. We won’t discuss them all for lack of time, but one important one, which Bhaktivinoda Thakura says is the root of all the others, is apramada, which means inattention.

Sanskrit is such a language that the same words can be combined in different ways, so the list of ten offenses is sometimes divided differently. And so, in the list in The Nectar of Devotion, and in many temples, as Srila Prabhupada said, we should recite the ten offenses after maṅgala-ārati, before we begin to chant our japa, and just reciting the ten offenses will help us to avoid them. So, in that list of ten, inattention is not mentioned. And then generally, devotees will add it is also an offense to be inattentive while chanting.

But that apramada comes again in the Sanskrit. And so, a lot of the focus later in the morning in terms of our exercises will be how to chant with attention, because Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that if you chant with attention, all the other offenses will be eradicated, and if you don’t chant with attention, the other offenses have a chance to flourish.

Otherwise, important ones, the first one, sādhu-nindā, to blaspheme devotees, but we won’t discuss that. But it’s something that we should be really aware of. We might discuss more later. Another one is the second one, to consider the names of demigods to be equal to or independent of the name of Lord Vishnu. Again, for us, that shouldn’t be a problem because we know Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and all others are His servants. But now, with kirtan being popular, there is Durga kirtan and Shiva kirtan, and all sorts of kirtan, and to think that the names of the demigods are equal to or independent of the name of Vishnu or Krishna is an offense.

Recently, I did discuss some of these points with His Holiness Radhanath Swami, and he said, “They are sort of ignorant, they don’t really know, they just sort of pick up things here and there. And they are sort of innocent or ignorant.” But the thing is that to really get the benefit of chanting, and to get the benefit of the human form of life, you really need knowledge, and you need to act according to the knowledge, and you have to know ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa, āra saba bhṛtya, only Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and all others are His servants, even the demigods.

And that was an important point from the definition of bhakti, the very first definition. Krishna is in the definition, ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanaṁ, continuous cultivation of favorable service is rendered to Krishna. But again, our acharyas have explained what each of these words mean, that Krishna means Krishna and His direct expansions like Lord Rama, Nṛsiṁhadeva, different Vishnu forms, and His pure devotees. So, all of these, that is within the definition of bhakti, but not demigods or ordinary human beings.

But even then, say if we take Lord Shiva, vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ, Lord Shiva is the greatest Vaishnava, so if you understand that Lord Shiva is a Vaishnava and you don’t worship him for material gain, if you just worship him for spiritual enlightenment, he will bring you to Krishna. In fact, even if you don’t know that he is not the supreme, if you approach him without any material desire, just for spiritual enlightenment, he’ll bring you to Krishna. I know people who’ve gone through that process.

And another, to commit sin on the strength of chanting. I mean, it’s true that by chanting without offense, you become free from sinful reactions, but if you think it in a cunning way, self-related way, Let me go out and engage in sinful activities, and I’ll just chant and then I won’t have to suffer the reaction, that is very offensive. It’s like cheating, trying to cheat. And when you try to cheat Krishna, you end up cheating yourself. So, yes, maybe due to a bad habit, due to conditioning, we don’t always uphold the highest standard, but if we do fall down, we should genuinely repent and try our best not to repeat that.

Anyway, there is so much to discuss, and even chanting, it would be nice if we could just chant all day long. But in the mood of keeping the body and soul together so we can chant, we will take a break for breakfast, and we will meet again. I mean, we had figured an hour, but that was including back and forth, but we still have to get to the hall, so it’s still an hour? Forty-five minutes to an hour. You know what that means! Maybe let’s just stick to forty-five minutes. All right. Thank you very much and I look forward to meeting you in an hour. Hare Krishna.