Ratha-yatra Afternoon

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. According to Vedic literature, there are four ages, which repeat in cycles like the four seasons. And in each age, a particular method for self-realization or God realization is recommended.

The first of the ages is Satya-yuga, and in Satya-yuga people live for one hundred thousand years. This may sound fantastic to us but everything in the material world is relative. There are some creatures that take birth in the morning and die at night, their whole life span is included within that period. So, if someone was able to communicate to that creature, that there are people who live for a hundred years, they would find it inconceivable. So, in Satya-yuga people lived for a hundred thousand years and the recommended method was meditation. That method, in the true sense, is not possible in the present age. Maybe for one or two people, but in general, it is not possible at all. The Bhagavad-gītā does describe that method of yoga and it says śucau deśe, that one must find a sacred place.

According to the Patañjali Yoga-sūtras, one cannot practice yoga in a place where two streets meet. In other words, you cannot practice it in the city. What passes as yoga now is not really the yoga prescribed by Krishna in the Bhagavad-gītā or by Patañjali in the Yoga-sūtras. So Satya-yuga; then, in Treta-yuga, the recommended process is performance of sacrifice. And although there is something like a fire sacrifice performed in Kali-yuga in the present age, but the actual Vedic sacrifice requires very qualified priests or brahmans. They were supposed to be able to light the fire by mantra not by matches or cigarette lighters. And to perform a Vedic sacrifice required tons of ghee and grains, which we don’t have now. And if the priest mispronounced even one syllable, the whole sacrifice could be spoiled. Not only null and void, but it could have the opposite effect. So, Vedic sacrifice is also not possible in the present age.

Then the next age, Dvapara-yuga, the recommended process was temple worship, and we do have a simplified form of temple worship that is included in bhakti-yoga, but the original system of temple worship is very elaborate. When Srila Prabhupada first came to America and introduced the system of temple worship, which was very simplified, the devotees considered that there were so many rules and regulations, and Srila Prabhupada said, “I have just given you a small number as a beginning. If I told you all the rules and regulations, you would faint.” So, that type of elaborate temple worship is also not possible in the present age. What is possible for us is the chanting of the holy names of the Lord.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

And because God or Krishna is absolute, His name and He are the same. In the material world or relative world, the name of a thing and the thing are different. For example, if I am in the desert and I am starving for water and I chant “water water water water", just chanting “water water” will not quench my thirst because the word ‘water’ and the substance water are different. But in the absolute world or spiritual world, the name of the thing and the thing are identical and therefore, when we chant the name of Krishna, ‘Krishna Krishna Hare Krishna,’ Krishna is personally present, dancing on our tongue. So, by chanting Hare Krishna, we associate with Krishna, by hearing about Krishna, we associate with Krishna, by worshiping the form of Krishna, such as Lord Jagannatha, we are associating with Krishna.

To an ordinary person, the deity, the form of Krishna made of stone or metal or wood may appear to be a statue. Someone might think, “We are just worshiping statues, that is not God, that is just wood and paint or stone and paint or metal and paint.” But because Krishna is absolute, His form and He are the same. One example that our spiritual master Srila Prabhupada gave is, if you put a letter into a mailbox, the letter will reach the person. Now, it doesn’t mean that you can put the letter in any box. Say there is a cardboard box here, empty cardboard box that was holding the paper cups. You can’t put your letter in any box and think that it will reach the intended recipient. You have to put it into an authorized US Postal Service mailbox. So, in the same way, we cannot worship any form. There are people who think you can worship any form and if you think it is God, then it is God. But no, you can’t put your letter in any box, but if you put it in a certified US PS mailbox, it will reach its intended recipient. So, in the same way, whatever devotion we give to the authorized deity form, whatever prayers we offer, whatever flowers we offer, whatever water we offer, whatever weeds we offer, they will go to Krishna and Krishna will accept them.

So, as His Holiness Ṛtadhvaja Swami said, “All of our activities in life will be tested at the time of death.” We have come into the material world, we are actually spiritual beings and by nature we are eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. But when we come into the material world and accept a material body, our embodied existence is just the opposite, it is temporary, full of ignorance and full of misery. But that is not our real nature and that is why nobody wants to die, because by nature we are eternal, we have no beginning and no end. Even an ant, if you put a stick in front of an ant, it will go around it. Any creature, you will see they always fight for life, no living entity wants to die because our nature is eternal. Similarly, no living entity wants to be in ignorance, especially in the human form of life. We go to school to learn or we approach our parents to learn, we approach our teachers to learn because we don’t want to be in ignorance. Ignorance means suffering, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Suppose someone is ignorant and puts his hand in fire, he will be burned, he can’t say, “I didn’t know I would be burned.” Ignorance of the law is no excuse. So we need knowledge to protect ourselves from suffering but our original nature is sat-cit-ānanda, it is full of knowledge and that knowledge can be reawakened by hearing about Krishna from Vedic scriptures. And nobody wants to be miserable, everybody wants to be happy, but in the material world, we cannot be happy. We may have some temporary happiness but it doesn’t last and so it is not true happiness.

When I was a student, I somehow developed that idea that I wanted perfect happiness. And so, I started reading books, I was looking for knowledge that would explain how to achieve perfect happiness. And eventually, I understood that I could achieve perfect happiness only by a spiritual process. And there were so many spiritual processes being recommended, there were many swamis and yogis from India coming to America in the 1960s. And eventually, by reading books, I came to the conclusion that I needed a guru, I needed a teacher. So, then my quest became ‘How to find a guru?’

And Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also says tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam, that when one is inquisitive into the ultimate benefit of life, uttama, tama means darkness and ut means above or beyond. When one is inquisitive to find out what is his ultimate benefit beyond the darkness of this material world, then he should approach a guru. One shouldn’t approach a guru being inquisitive of material things, like, to ask, ‘What is the price of a certain commodity?’ That is maybe a good question but that is not the type of question you ask the guru. You ask a guru, “How can I achieve the highest perfection of life?”

So, anyway, I was searching for a guru and I met many of the more popular religious or spiritual figures in America then and I could tell you about each one, they were very interesting, the whole range from Zen Buddhism to whatever, but I was not satisfied by any of them because in each case I found there was some defect. Then eventually, after traveling anywhere, I mean, within a thousand miles if I heard there was some guru, I would go. Then, it turned out that there was a lecture at my university, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. And I just saw that poster just like a day or two before the event, and I had already made plans to see a movie at Harvard Square with some of my friends. By then I was already a vegetarian so, I had invited them over to my house, apartment near the university for pasta and bread and salad and soup, and then we were going to go to the movie. But just when it was time to leave, I thought of that lecture on campus, and I told my friends, “There is a lecture by a swami and I would like to go to it. And we can still go to the movie, but we will go to the later show.”

So, one of my friends in particular, a lady, was very upset. Somehow, she was extremely upset, and my nature was such that I didn’t like to displease people. So, “Okay, no, we don’t have to go to the lecture, we will go to the movie.” But there was something inside of me that just would not allow me to skip the lecture. It was like no matter how hard I tried to please my friends and go along with the original plan, something inside of me just kept forcing me, it was beyond my control that ‘You must go.’ And the young lady said, “Why can’t you be like a normal person? Why do you always have to be going after these swamis and yogis?” And I really didn’t want to displease her and finally I said, “Okay, this will be the last one I ever go to,” and it was. Of course, she didn’t know I would never come back. But because of all the discussion and arguments and everything, we got there a little late. It was towards the end and just leading into the last kirtan. And that kirtan, which was performed on the stage of the auditorium, it was just so powerful. It was in an auditorium that had bare brick walls and the sound was just reverberating and the students in the audience, one by one, they were just getting out of their seats and climbing up onto the stage and joining the dancing on the stage. And so, I actually felt like that, so I stood up and I was like clapping and sort of swaying back and forth. I thought, I also want to go up there and dance. But I had friends on both sides and I looked and I thought, This would be too much. They will never accept this. So, I stayed in my place and joined from there. Then, one of the devotees, most likely Satsvarupa Maharaja. Yes, it was Satsvarupa. He announced, “If anyone has a car and is driving to Boston or Cambridge, please see the devotees in the lobby, because we need a ride.” Because the devotees didn’t have any motor cars then. And I had; I had my Red Rambler Station Wagon. It was second hand but it was my high school graduation gift from my father.

So, I went out to the lobby and there was one devotee, he looked like he was so high on Krishna consciousness. I mean, he came up to me and he started saying, “In the Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna showed His universal form to Arjuna and it was more brilliant than millions of suns and Arjuna was trembling and he was just going on and on. And then he asked Krishna to show him His four-handed form and eventually, His two-handed form.” And I was thinking, “Wow! This is amazing! I have never heard anything like this in all the books about yoga and meditation.” So, I said, “I heard the announcement and I am driving to Harvard Square so I can give you a ride.” So, they all piled into the car and I was in the front with that young lady, and a lady devotee named Jahnava, who I believe is in Alachua now, and then, all the devotees squeezed in. I mean, there was so many. And then, in the back compartment of the station wagon was my best friend, Gary, and other devotees, including Satsvarupa Maharaja. Pretty much everything was impersonal philosophy.

So, in the back compartment, I heard my friend Gary arguing with, who I later found out was Satsvarupa, and my friend was saying that, “Everything ultimately is void” and Satsvarupa was saying, “There is no void in the creation of God.” And they were arguing back and forth and from the front, from the driver’s seat, I was hearing them and I was thinking, “This is silly, I know the answer.” So, I turned around and gave my pronouncement of the truth, as I understood it then, and I said, “It is not void, and it is not not void. But to give it a name, we call it the void.” Well, that brilliant pronouncement had no effect whatsoever, they kept arguing. So, I thought, Alright. So, I had all these questions on my mind so I started to speak with Jahnava and I mentioned Yogananda because I had read Autobiography of a Yogi. She said, “Oh, Yogananda. He is just a shopkeeper. Whatever you want he keeps it in stock. You want philosophy, he gives you philosophy. You want yoga, he gives you yoga. You want Durga, he gives you Durga. You want Ganesha, he gives you Ganesha. And if you have ever been to his ashram, he has a statue of Mahatma Gandhi and he calls him a worker for world peace. He wasn’t a worker for world peace, he was working for India’s political independence. He wanted to drive the British out of India, he doesn’t even know who Mahatma Gandhi is.”

I thought, Wow! She is really powerful. But I could sense it couldn’t be her power, she was just a young girl. I thought, But she is very powerful, she is in touch with some very great power. So then, I brought up about Zen, and she gave a better explanation of Zen than I had read in any of the Zen books or even got at a Zen retreat I went to in Rochester, New York. And she was saying, “Whatever we see it is just like images on a screen, they are not real. But if you draw your consciousness back from the screen, you will see there is light and that light comes to a point.” And it is really, the best explanation I have ever heard. “And then behind that point there is a light bulb and behind the light bulb is a projectionist, there is a person who is behind the whole show, and that is God, that is Krishna.”

So, I thought, Wow, this is the best, this is the best. And I was very eager to meet the guru. So, I dropped them off and got the address and went to the temple. And so, I asked Srila Prabhupada that, this is the big question, “There is so many swamis and yogis and each one is advocating a different method of self-realization and each says his is the best. So, which is actually the best?” And he answered very intelligently. He asked me a question, “What is your goal?” Because I am asking what is the best means, so he very intelligently asked, “What is your goal?” Because the means will fit the goal. And then he said, “Is your goal to become God, or to serve God?” And actually, because of that exposure to impersonal philosophy, it was to become God, unfortunately. And he said, “If your goal is to become God, that means you are not God now.” And then, “How can, not God become God?” and he said that, “Krishna is God, He is always God, He doesn’t have to become God by yoga or meditation. He is God when He is playing on the lap of Mother Yasoda, He is God when He is speaking the Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna. He is always God; He doesn’t have to become God. But if you want to serve God and sow the seed of service to God and water it by chanting Hare Krishna, God will give you all the sunlight and air and everything necessary to make the plant grow. But if you want to become God, you are only cheating yourself. Why would God help the competition?”

So, then I realized he is my guru and I bowed down in surrender and ever since then I have been trying to serve him. If I could perfectly follow the instructions he gave me at that very first meeting, I would be perfect in Krishna consciousness, everything was there in the very first meeting. And ever since then, I have wanted to bring people to meet Srila Prabhupada, and he is still available through his teachings, through his instructions, through his books, and through his society, International Society for Krishna Consciousness, through his sincere followers. So, I am glad that all of you have come today. Some may be regular visitors, some may be here for the first time but whatever it is, I request you to please increase your association with Krishna and increase your service to Krishna and His devotees and become fully absorbed in Krishna, so much so that at the time of death you think of Krishna and then you go to Krishna.

There is one statement in scripture, that, “If you just dance in ecstasy before the deity of Lord Jagannatha, the form of Lord Jagannatha in Ratha-yatra, then you will go back home back to Godhead. So, one disciple asked Srila Prabhupada, “How does that work? How is it possible?" And Srila Prabhupada replied that, “At the time of death, your whole life passes through your mind like a movie and if you have seen His form in that mood and clapped in ecstasy, then when all those events of your life are passing very quickly through your mind at the time of death, it will stop at that image of Lord Jagannatha. It will freeze on that frame, and you can give up your body thinking of Lord Jagannatha and go to serve Him eternally.

So, thank you for coming, thank you for being so patient and I hope you will stay for the rest of the festivities today. And either if you are one of the fortunate ones, you could spend the night or else you can come back tomorrow. Every day is a festival. When we first went to India we went to a Hindu man’s home, very big estate in Mumbai with beautiful lawn and gardens, a beautiful arrangement. And when we got there, they said, “Oh, it is very good you have come today, it is a holy day today.” And we said, “Really, what is it?” And then they said some name that we never heard of. So, when Srila Prabhupada came we asked him, “They said this is a holy day today. Is it really a holy day?” And Srila Prabhupada said, “For us every day is a holy day. Every day is a holiday because we are Krishna’s servants. So, every day is a holy day. All is the spiritual world. All speaking is music, all walking is dance, and we can enjoy it together eternally.”

Hare Krishna.