BG 4.2 – The Science of Happiness

Giriraj Swami: So, we shall read from the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Chapter Four: “Transcendental Knowledge,” Text Two.

TEXT 2

evaṁ paramparā-prāptam

imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ

sa kāleneha mahatā

yogo naṣṭaḥ paran-tapa

TRANSLATION

This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

It is clearly stated that the Gītā was especially meant for the saintly kings because they were to execute its purpose in ruling over the citizens. Certainly Bhagavad-gītā was never meant for the demonic persons, who would dissipate its value for no one’s benefit and would devise all types of interpretations according to personal whims. As soon as the original purpose was scattered by the motives of the unscrupulous commentators, there arose the need to reestablish the disciplic succession. Five thousand years ago it was detected by the Lord Himself that the disciplic succession was broken, and therefore He declared that the purpose of the Gītā appeared to be lost. In the same way, at the present moment also there are so many editions of the Gītā (especially in English), but almost all of them are not according to the authorized disciplic succession. There are innumerable interpretations rendered by different mundane scholars, but almost all of them do not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, although they make a good business on the words of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. This spirit is demonic, because demons do not believe in God but simply enjoy the property of the Supreme. Since there is a great need of an edition of the Gītā in English, as it is received by the paramparā (disciplic succession) system, an attempt is made herewith to fulfill this great want. Bhagavad-gītā – accepted as it is – is a great boon to humanity; but if it is accepted as a treatise of philosophical speculations, it is simply a waste of time.

COMMENT

Krishna Priya, I am hearing Srila Prabhupada’s tape.

Devotee: I just told her to go behind to turn it off.

Giriraj Swami: So, according to Vedic literature, there are four ages, which repeat in cycles like the four seasons. The four ages are; Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga, Dvapara-yuga, and Kali-yuga. And we are in Kali-yuga, which is considered the worst of the four ages. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam describes the characteristics of people in the age of Kali, and they are lazy, misguided, unfortunate, and always disturbed. This is just one verse that describes the symptoms of people in the age of Kali, and it is quite accurate. Very few people in Kali-yuga are interested in spiritual life. Most people are in ignorance of who they are. They identify themselves as being the body. If you ask anyone, “Who are you?” They will probably say, “I’m so and so from such and such place, such and such family,” and so on. People do not know that they are not the body. And because they do not know that they are not the body, everything they do is misguided. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum, people do not know who their real self is, and consequently, they do not know what their real self-interest is.

Srila Prabhupada gives the example that if you are performing a mathematical calculation, and if you make a mistake in the first step, even if you perform all the other steps perfectly, you may get further and further away from the actual solution. So, similarly, if we make a mistake in the first step of who we are and we identify with the body, and then everything we do thereafter for the sake of the body is done very expertly, but we may get further and further away from actual happiness and satisfaction.

In fact, there have been many books written recently about people who did everything right for the sake of the body, thinking that they would become happy, but in the end, they were not happy. One book, for example, written by a Harvard psychologist, was called Stumbling on Happiness. And the basis of the title is that people do not know what makes them happy. They are very poor at predicting what will make them happy. And if at all they do become happy, it is usually because they just stumbled on it, not because they made a deliberate plan.

Earlier generations came to this country as immigrants, they didn’t have much to begin with, and they struggled hard just to establish themselves. But the next generation, our generation, didn’t have to struggle so hard. They had many facilities that their parents and grandparents didn’t have when they first came. And the next generation did exactly what everyone told them would make them happy; They got good educations, they got either good jobs or began lucrative businesses, they got qualified spouses, they had beautiful, brilliant children, and they took fabulous holidays. They did everything that they were told would make them happy. But guess what? They didn’t find happiness.

So, that gave rise to a whole new study called positive psychology, what makes people happy? And research has shown that the things that most people think will make them happy, such as getting a better job with better facilities and more income or a nicer house, a better car, whatever it is, the right spouse, those things actually alter the baseline of their happiness very little. Now, many of the truths being discovered by modern research, contemporary research, has been there in Vedic knowledge for hundreds, really, thousands of years.

For example, there is a saying, this is from some hundreds of years ago, that if you go to Calcutta, your forehead will go with you. Some time ago, Calcutta was the greatest city in India. So, people from all over India thought, Oh, if we can go to Calcutta, we can become successful and happy, as nowadays, many people come to America. So, there is a saying that even if you go to Calcutta, your forehead will go with you, because your destiny is written on your forehead. It’s also written on your palms, there are many places that one can look. But it’s on your forehead. And so, the saying means even if you go to Calcutta, your destiny will come with you, you can’t escape it.

In India, if people are lamenting their bad luck, they go, “Oh! I’m so unfortunate. I bought a ticket to the lottery and I was just one number off. If I had just gotten one number higher, I would have won the whole lottery.” So, this truth is being stumbled upon by contemporary research, that people tend to have a basic baseline of happiness. And the things that most people think will alter their baseline of happiness, does not actually do so. At most, they say 5 percent. And the only two things that have been shown to significantly change one’s baseline of happiness are meditational process, and the other is helping other people.

My cousin is a psychologist, a family therapist, and he began as a very rational, scientific-minded person. But just by reading the literature in the field, he’s learned that just something like doing good for others, helping other people, can really change a person’s consciousness, can really solve a lot of their problems and increase their level of happiness and satisfaction. And research conducted in the field of job satisfaction shows the same thing, that people who are in fields in which they help others, they’re the ones who are the happiest with their work compared to others, even though the others might make more money. But the ones who are in fields that help others, they’re more satisfied in their work.

So, in Kali-yuga, people are just so ignorant that they make a fundamental mistake in the first step of the calculation; they think they’re the body. And then, even if they do everything perfectly for the sake of the body, do all the things that they think will make them happy, they don’t end up being happy. And if they are fortunate enough to have a little interest in spiritual life, to go beyond the general animal activities of eating, sleeping, reproducing, and defending, if they are blessed with a little spiritual inclination, Kali-yuga is so bad that in most cases, they will end up being cheated. They will go somewhere for spiritual life, and they will end up being cheated. And that phenomenon has existed for hundreds, thousands of years, but it is especially prominent in the present age.

Srila Prabhupada gave the example, a true story of a man in Calcutta, (Srila Prabhupada was originally from Calcutta], who could imitate the barking of different types of dogs very expertly. And so, he would have performances, and people would buy tickets, and he would imitate the different types of barking of different kinds of dogs. And Srila Prabhupada said, “Real dogs are on the street barking and nobody cares for the real dogs, but they will pay good money to come and see the imitation dog.”

So, the real God, Krishna, is there. He is available to everyone. He is there in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, He is there as the holy name of Krishna, He is there in the form of the Deity of Krishna in the temple. But in Kali-yuga, people are so unfortunate, they don’t care for the real God, but they will go for some imitation God.

And then, there is another category of misleaders, who, as Srila Prabhupada says, want to enjoy the property of God without God. So, they take the Bhagavad-gītā, and they remove Krishna. And almost every edition of the Bhagavad-gītā, other than the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is from Srila Prabhupada, does that.

I lived in India, or was based in India for more than thirty years, and I came across many of those editions, Bhagavad-gītā minus Krishna. For example, in one verse, there are many, but say this, satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁi, “The greats souls are always chanting the name of Krishna.” So, one famous commentator wrote, “This does not refer to the boisterous kirtan of sentimental people clashing cymbals and beating on drums. This refers to the silent kirtan within.” And then, perhaps the most famous or notorious, Krishna says to surrender to Him, and this commentator, again, well-known commentator, said, “It is not to Krishna the person to whom we must surrender ourselves utterly, but it is to the unknown, unborn, unmanifest, unknowable.” Well, unknowable, you can’t even say what it is, something, Brahman.

So, this problem has existed periodically for thousands of years. And it existed five thousand years ago, and the Lord Himself, Krishna Himself detected it, that the true understanding of the Bhagavad-gītā had been lost, and therefore, He Himself came personally to re-establish the proper understanding of the Bhagavad-gītā, because this knowledge is most essential for every human being. And the first instruction of the Bhagavad-gītā is that you are not the body but you are the soul within the body. And just by understanding the first instruction, one’s whole life can be revolutionized, because then instead of working for the sake of the body, he’ll work for the sake of the soul. And what does it mean to work for the sake of the soul? It’s said here, yogo naṣṭaḥ paran-tapa, it’s the science of yoga. Bhagavad-gītā  is the science of yoga. And yoga means to link or connect. Link or connect with who? With the Supreme Soul. The individual soul is meant to be united with the Supreme Soul, and then he is happy and satisfied.

And that consciousness can be awakened, especially in the modern age of Kali, the present age of Kali, by the chanting of the holy names, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Because anyone can say, “I am not the body, I am the soul within the body,” and that is certainly true. But there is a difference between theoretical knowledge and realized knowledge. We say, “I’m not the body.” The Bhagavad-gītā says one should be equipoised in pleasure and pain, happiness and distress, heat and cold, praise and blame, but are we? Are we equipoised? If someone praises us, do we feel very happy? And if someone criticizes us, do we feel very upset? Yes. Even among people who have read the Bhagavad-gītā and heard discourses on the Bhagavad-gītā, and even perhaps taught classes on the Bhagavad-gītā. But the realization that they’re not the body and the detachment that comes from that realization is not always experienced, and so they get disturbed.

So, we need to actually realize these valuable instructions. Then, we’ll get the benefit. And the realization comes through the earnest endeavor to practice bhakti-yoga, as it has been passed down through paramparā, through the disciplic succession. And Prabhupada used the word ‘science’ twice in the synonyms. It’s a scientific process, and if you follow the process, you get the result. And if you don’t follow it, then how can you expect to get the result?

So, we should test ourselves. Just like if you’re diseased and you’re taking some treatment, you should feel the symptoms of the disease are subsiding. So, we have this disease of the material fever. We are feverishly pursuing all sorts of things; money, name, fame, prestige, or all different types of gross and subtle, material things. So, this is like a feverish condition. So, is the fever coming down? We have to see, is the fever coming down?

Now, there are impersonalists. They’re also spiritualists, but they don’t accept that the ultimate is Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they want to reduce the fever artificially. They know that the fever is causing them pain, so they want to reduce the fever. But they want to do it artificially, by giving up thinking, feeling, desiring, even acting, or working. And this is like a patient who’s suffering from a fever. So, he lies down in the bed, he takes medicine and fasts, whatever he’s supposed to do, and the fever goes down. You take his temperature, and it’s almost normal, not completely normal but almost normal. But all he does is lie in bed. So, can you say that he’s actually cured? No, if he’s really cured, it means he gets out of bed and he does the things that healthy people do.

So, healthy people, they serve Krishna. That’s what healthy people do. And diseased people, they serve their senses and their minds, either in a limited way or in an extended way. I care for my material happiness, that’s personal selfishness, the same thing. I care for my families, I care for my communities, I care for my nations, but it is extended selfishness. But the real point of Krishna is missing. And Krishna speaks the Bhagavad-gītā to tell us that the real happiness that we’re seeking lies in serving Him, and it cannot be found anywhere else.

So, I am glad that you have come here for different reasons. Krishna Priya is quite an amazing personality, and she has somehow induced you to come. But this should not be something that you do occasionally, if there’s something at the neighbor’s house. But this is something that you should do regularly, because we are in a diseased condition. And not only are we in a diseased condition, but we’re living in a very diseased atmosphere. Wherever we go, we’re being bombarded by materialism. All sorts of advertisements are assaulting us, “Buy this, buy that, it’ll make you happy,” just on and on. And they are demons, they are very unscrupulous. We actually have no idea with what information we are being assaulted because a lot of advertising is subliminal. In other words, you’re not perceiving it, but it’s affecting you.

I’ll give one example of going to the movies. Now, I don’t remember exactly, but generally, a movie will be thirty-two frames a second, in quick succession, and it gives the illusion of people moving, moving pictures. And so, in order for an impression to register in the mind consciously, a frame has to be there for a quarter of a second, but there are thirty-two frames in a second. So, they put messages that pass by so quickly that your mind doesn’t register them. You don’t know that you’ve gotten that message. This is a relatively innocuous example. And the message will say, “You’re thirsty.” This is all meant to get you to go to the concession stand and buy Coca-Cola and popcorn and candy. So, you’re getting these messages, “You are thirsty, buy a coke. You’re hungry, buy M&Ms.” And I mentioned M&Ms deliberately because I want to tell you that the shells in M&Ms have animal products in it. So, you’re getting all these messages, you don’t even know it, and you’re acting on it.

So, that’s what I am saying, the environment we live in is very diseased, and it makes our own disease worse. And therefore, to protect ourselves from the assault of the materialistic civilization, we need the association of pure devotees. And that’s why the sacred texts repeatedly advise one to associate with pure devotees, and to avoid intimate association with materialistic people. Because everything really depends on  association. No one is born a smoker. How does someone develop the habit of smoking? By association. They meet someone who smokes, and the person says, “Oh! This is really good. You should try it.” And they try it, and become addicted. And again, that’s a relatively innocuous example.

So, by association, we learn so many bad things. But by association, you can also learn good things. And therefore, one should associate with good people, with devotees, and avoid the association of materialistic people. Even the great political scientist, Chanakya Pandit, who wrote many nice moral maxims, he said the same thing, “That man is happy who always associates with saintly persons and avoids the association of materialistic persons.”

So, therefore, this society is here. Srila Prabhupada created the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. So, in that association, you can become Krishna conscious. And without that association, it’s impossible. Even younger devotees, they go away to college, and then they miss the association. And it’s very hard to resist the other association. So, that’s why I’m encouraging you all, appealing to you all, to just keep the association of devotees. Otherwise, one way or the other, you’ll become bewildered by the illusory energy, either by gross desires for sense gratification or subtle demoniac ideas of the Bhagavad-gītā without Krishna. How does that work? These things are very gradual. But one devotee told a story about how people misinterpreted the Bhagavad-gītā and ended up without Krishna in it.

So, one lady wife, a housewife, asked her husband to go to the market to get a chicken. Well, we don’t really eat chicken, but it is part of the story. So, he went into the market, he’d never shopped before for chicken. He went into the market, and he saw a vendor of chickens, saying, “My chickens have the most fat of any chickens in the marketplace.” So, he thought, Oh, well, then fat must be better than the chickens themselves. So, I’ll just get fat. So, then he went to the fat market, and he met a vendor who said, “My fat is as pure as oil.” So, then he thought, Well, the oil must be better than fat. I’ll just get some oil. And he went to the oil market, and there, the vendor said, “My oil is as clear as water.” He thought, Water must be better than oil. I’ll just get some water. So, in the end, he basically ended up with nothing.

And I went to the school today, the Goswami Academy. The children are learning the words for different colors in Sanskrit, but none of those children are here. So, what is the Sanskrit word for black? Does anyone know? Krishna. So, that’s what they say, Krishna means black. Black means unknown. Unknown means unknowable. And then, there is no Krishna. [laughter] He’s gone, completely disappeared. So, we want to avoid that, we want Krishna. And so, that’s what I was saying, that this whole material world is constructed in such a way, and especially, in the Kali-yuga, it works that way, to make us forget  Krishna. So, either through gross materialism or subtle speculations, everything works to make us forget Krishna. And that really means forgetting our self-interest, and it means being deprived of the only real enduring happiness and satisfaction that we can find in this world.

So, we should stick to the association of the devotees. And, of course, there are different degrees of advancement of devotees, so we want to associate with devotees who are really fixed in Krishna consciousness, who don’t waste time in frivolous pursuits, and whowould help us to spend our time talking about Krishna, chanting, serving. Somehow or other, being in touch with Krishna.

So, we have to be careful about what we  do when we get together, because we’re coming out of that material atmosphere and we do have bad habits from before. So, we should encourage each other in our spiritual progress, and then our association will be very congenial. And for that, you can come to the temple. But there are, by Krishna’s grace, some devotees not too far away from all of us. I mean, you might have to make a little effort. But yes, get together with devotees that learn and practice, and then share with others, because that also pleases Krishna. The whole idea is, really, to develop for Krishna and please Him. And when He sees that we’re bringing others, He’s very pleased.

Krishna Priya, when I spoke to her before coming, she was, I wouldn’t even say on cloud nine, I think she herself said she’s floating. So, she thought it was because I was coming to her home, and that might have been part of it, but I’m thinking it was because she was doing this activity that pleases Krishna so much, of bringing people to Him, at least exposing them to Krishna.

And, yeah, that can bring tremendous pleasure. I mean, I’ll give one example of my own. It’s not, in a way, good to use yourself as an example, but for many years, I went to Pakistan to spread the message of Krishna. And the government in Pakistan is officially or unofficially Islamic. I had a very good friend that was very intelligent, extremely intelligent. I think he’s the only Hindu ever to be a cabinet minister in Pakistan, Prem Shahan. He told me that even if the government wants to protect you, but if the Mullahs are against you, even the government can’t do anything, the Mullahs are so powerful.

So, anyways, that’s just to give. . . But I can tell you, it might surprise you. We actually had a friend, he was the President of Pakistan, Zia al-Haq. He was really a friend of ours. You might be surprised to hear it. And he was aware of us, and somehow, he was protecting us. I would come from Bombay to Karachi, and I would have to smuggle books. So, I’d fill up my suitcases with Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa book, various literature, and I’d try to scatter it in my bags and cover them with clothes and everything. And there was one Hindu in the customs department. So, we always tried to arrange for him to be there when I would arrive, but it didn’t always happen like that.

So, once, I came. And I wouldn’t dress like that, that was impossible. But still, they were looking at me, and they really were going through my suitcase and they found the books. So then, they called the superior and they had a big conference. I was extremely nervous, because not only can they confiscate the books, but they can do anything to you. So then, they were at a distance, but I sort of overheard them, and it came down that Zia Al-Haq liked us. So, they were like, “Okay, here are your books, you can go.” And we actually had one program. This was amazing. I’m leading up to something, but this is also interesting. So, there was an organization called the Karachi Hindu Panchayat, the main Hindu organization in Karachi. The demographics of Pakistan, at that time, were ninety million people; eighty-eight million Muslims, one million Hindus, and one million Christians. So, maybe 1 percent. A million, that’s a lot. But out of ninety million, it’s not that much.

So, the head of the Karachi Hindu Panchayat was a friend of ours, Kuchan Bhatia. And many of the members actually became initiated devotees in ISKCON. And he invited Zia Al-Haq for a dinner at one of the big hotels, and it was going to be a vegetarian dinner. So, the chief Mullah objected, “If they want us to come, they have to serve meat.” And Kuchan Bhatia was adamant, “We’re not serving meat,” and Zia Al-Haq was also adamant. They said, “If they don’t serve meat, we’re not coming.” And Zia Al-Haq said, “Well, then you don’t have to come.”

But when he came, everyone came; the chief minister of the state, the superintendent of police, all the top people came. And one of our initiated devotees, he did an invocation with Sanskrit prayers, and he presented President Zia with a copy of the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. And that photo was snapped, and it appeared in what would be the equivalent of Time Magazine, more like the Illustrated Weekly of Pakistan. It was amazing.

So, Zia Al-Haq was sitting next to Kuchan Bhatia. Everyone was getting served the vegetarian meals from the hotel. And Kuchan Bhatia took out his tiffin from home and started to eat his own food from home. So, President Zia said, “What’s that?” He said,” Well, I don’t actually eat food cooked in hotels. My wife cooked this, I brought it from home.” He said, “Well, I want to try some of that.” So, he gave him this really pure Vaishnava prasāda, no onions, no garlic, everything completely pure. And he really liked it and said, “I want to invite you and your wife to Islamabad, and I want you to teach my people how to cook like this.” [laughter] So, that was the beginning, a good beginning.

So then, on Diwali, there was a huge gathering in a big auditorium in one of the main streets of Karachi, and they invited us. President Zia wasn’t there, but the Chief Minister, again, the Superintendent of the Police, some high court judges, and different government secretaries were there. So, there was a mixture of Muslims and Hindus. And they gave us maybe twenty minutes.

And I was the leader, and I thought, Well, twenty minutes. What are we going to do in twenty minutes? This is one opportunity, we may never get this again. So, I thought, We’ll get them to chant and dance. And so, I introduced the chant and I said, “Repeat after me. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare,” and we did the Rama part too. And then, two words at a time, “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.” And then four words at a time, “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.” And eight words at a time, “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.” And it was a little slower with some of the Muslims, but not all of them. And then gradually, more and more of them got into it. So then, I said, “Okay. Everyone stand up.” By then, pretty much they all stood up. And then, “Raise your hands and move one foot in front of the other, and then the other in front.” And it was amazing.

So, that night, this is what I’m saying about pleasing Krishna, that night, I literally couldn’t sleep. I mean, I couldn’t fall asleep for hours. I was feeling so much ecstasy, and it was because Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was pleased, paramparā was pleased that these people were chanting Hare Krishna and dancing.

So, that is another way to please Krishna, really please Krishna. And it’s another reason why the association of devotees is important, because alone, how much can you do? One person alone can’t really do much at all. It’s really as a group, by a combined effort, that we can really do something to please Krishna. So, that’s why this association is so important, and it’s relishable.

Once, a newspaper reporter asked Srila Prabhupada, “You’re doing everything for Krishna, talking about Krishna, praying to Krishna, singing about Krishna, working for Krishna, doing everything for Krishna. But what if in the end, there is no Krishna?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Even if there were no Krishna, I would still do the same things. Because they’re so enjoyable, they’re so pleasant.”

And this atheism, skepticism, we’re so conditioned by it and it’s everywhere. But even if we do have some of those doubts, until you’re liberated, you do have those doubts, even then, what else you’re going to do? What better could you do than this? I haven’t found anything better.

So, thank you all for coming, and please come again and again. And if any of you want to share anything with us, any comments or questions, we can spend a few minutes and hear from you. Hare Krishna.

Devotees: Hare Krishna. [applause]

Giriraj Swami: You came for the first time?

Devotee: Yes.

Giriraj Swami: Did anything strike you from the talk?

Devotee: Well, traditionally, I’m a Baptist, and I’m trying to associate Krishna with Christ.

Giriraj Swami: That’s good.

Devotee: And compare the two, knowing that God is in charge of all, he’s the father of all. So, putting everything in perspective, we are heading in the same direction. Although I’m Baptist, we go in the same direction, to sing God’s glory.

Giriraj Swami: That’s true.

Devotee: And so, if all of us are for God, how can anybody be against it? So, this has been an experience to many. I have studied different religions in college. So, I’m really familiar with the practice. So, everybody worships God in their own way. And so, you have to have some type of coalition, some type of togetherness, so we can see the glory of God, see God one day. And we’re taught in the baptism religion that we have to go through the son to get to the father. And so, I’m thinking that you have to go through Krishna to get to the father, to get to God. God is Krishna, one and the same. In my religious edition, there is the trinity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and they are one and the same person. So, putting everything together, we are all Christians seeking the same thing.

Giriraj Swami: Well, I think you’ve hit upon some very fundamental truths. Our teacher, Srila Prabhupada, he wanted all theists to be united against the atheists. And he did say that the basic principles in every religion are the same. There may be some differences in details, but the basic principles are the same. The only thing that I’m not sure, because you said both things.

In the Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna says that He’s the father of every living entity. So, He’s the father. And you worship Jesus as the son of God. So, it’s completely compatible. And as far as, “No one comes to the Father except through me,” the truth in that statement is that we cannot approach God directly, but we need to go through His representative. And that’s the idea of paramparā, that we go through the representative of God, Guru. Jesus is like Guru, and we cannot approach God directly. So, that’s good.

Devotee: I wanted to share a little story.

Giriraj Swami: Yes?

Devotee: I was born in the Calcutta area. And when we were children, and your talk reminded me of my holidays, we used to sleep on the terrace in Bankura, which is a hundred miles from Calcutta. And we used to hear in the air the songs of Gauranga Mahaprabhu, people were chanting several miles away. The song will come in the air, off and on. And when we were going to sleep, that would kind of go through the mind. And when you took the name of Gauranga Mahaprabhu, it’s a beautiful song, it says, bhaja gaurāńga kaha gaurāńga laha gaurāńgera nāma re je jan gaurāńga bhaje, sei (hoy) āmāra prāṇa re. It’s in Bengali. It means, “Take the name of Gauranga Mahaprabhu. And the one who recites the name of Mahaprabhu, he is my prana. And there is a beautiful tune to it. And it fits right along with what you said. And I am very happy to share that.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, that’s beautiful what you just said.

Devotee: In fact, it rhythms into the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. They will sing it alternately, once the Mahaprabhu song, and then in the same note, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, that’s true. I mean, what I was referring to was the contemporary culture here, but yeah, even not that long ago, it was different. Even now, in holy places, if you go to Mayapur or Vrindavan, you do hear that, any time of day or night.

And Srila Prabhupada said that he had an uncle who lived in the suburbs of Calcutta. And so, they would go to visit him. And that was the system. Every evening, the people would gather in the village, and there would be some recitation or  discussion of Rāmāyaṇa and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Prabhupada was a little child, but he would hear that. And then, at that time, they didn’t have motorcars, or at least Prabhupada’s family didn’t. And so, they would go in a horse-drawn carriage, and Prabhupada would be lying on his father’s lap, or mother’s lap, and they would be talking about what they heard from Rāmāyaṇa or Mahābhārata or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and he would fall asleep hearing those talks, and then he would dream about Krishna.

Devotee: The other interesting thing I remember is that in the early morning in the summer, you’ll have this Vaishnava individual, at 4:30 in the morning, he will come with his cymbals and sing in every lane in our village, go house to house. In all the lanes, you could hear that he’s there, and he will sing for two months or three months. Then, come once to the door in the daytime, another time, to get some gift, and my mother will give him rice and potatoes and cauliflower. And everywhere he’ll get something. But for three months or two months, he would sing every morning  4:30 to 6:30 in all the houses, and you could hear him sing the same Krishna songs. So, we grew up with that in our heads all the time.

Giriraj Swami: That’s wonderful. You’re very fortunate. Any other questions or comments?

In Karachi in Pakistan, India also, but more there because we didn’t have our own temple, it was really hot at night. So, we would also sleep on the terrace, on those wooden cots with the ropes. But there, we would hear the sound of the call to prayer from the mosque. But I liked it. We were not really sectarian, I actually liked it. The problem is fanaticism and the militancy. But otherwise, I thought it was nice hearing the call to prayer from the mosque. Alright, so what’s next? I think the grassroots are telling us prasāda. [laughter] They need to be fertilized, but that’s fine. And did you want to sing that song that you mentioned?

Devotee: Sure, yes, if everybody will join me, I can do that.

Giriraj Swami: Well, I can’t say about that. I was saying at the same time, they can serve the prasāda because it’s late.