SB 2.3.17 – Don’t Waste Time—Chant Hare Krishna

Giriraj Swami: We welcome you to this evening’s festival and feast. I’m going to read one verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In the study of the transcendental science, the preliminary book is the Bhagavad-gītā and more advanced is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but because you are such an advanced group, I’m going to read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, like the Bhagavad-gītā, is considered to be an incarnation of Krishna Himself, not different from the Lord Himself. And just as Krishna is unlimited, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is unlimited, and every verse is unlimited. We can discuss even one verse for unlimited time, but we will not do that tonight. We’ll speak a little and I’ll stay on because we have our schedule, but I’ll stay on and I’ll be happy to meet with any or all of you at your will in the course of the evening.

This is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Three, “Pure Devotional Service.” Please repeat after me.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

I’ll read the Sanskrit—the sound of the Sanskrit—every verse is a mantra, so just the sound itself is purifying.

TEXT 17

āyur harati vai puṁsām
udyann astaṁ ca yann asau
tasyarte yat-kṣaṇo nīta
uttama-śloka-vārtayā

TRANSLATION

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

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

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

COMMENT

Every living entity, that means you and me and every other living being, has an eternal relationship with God. We are individual souls, jīvātmā, and each and every one of us has a unique individual eternal relationship with the Supreme Soul. That relationship can be revived by bhakti-yoga, and the first item in the practice of bhakti-yoga is. . . The first two, you can say, are hearing and chanting, śravaṇam kīrtanam. Therefore, our life is meant. . . the time of our life, the duration of our life, is meant to be used in that activity.

It’s very subtle because everyone in the material world is engaged in speaking and listening. Some people find the process of bhakti-yoga to be so subtle they wonder how it could even be effective. But the process does not require doing things different from what everyone does, it requires only that we change the subject. Everyone is speaking about something, everyone is hearing about something, but the speaking and hearing of ordinary people of mundane topics binds them to the material world. And as long as we are in the material world, we have to suffer.

Sometimes people say, “Well, what’s wrong with material life? What’s the problem if I stay in material existence?” Well, all right, but do you like disease? Do you like old age? Do you like death? That’s what material existence involves. Do you like the miseries caused by other people? The miseries caused by your own body and mind? The miseries caused by acts of nature?

People think that they can enjoy, but that enjoyment is mixed with suffering. As Lord Krishna explains in the Bhagavad-gītā, beyond this material world, there is another world where life is eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss, where there is no more repetition of birth and death. And one can attain to that realm through the process of bhakti-yoga. But again, it’s subtle because we are not doing any physical gymnastics or mental gymnastics. We are sitting, we are talking, we are listening, but the subject is different, and it is the difference of the subject that makes all the difference.

PURPORT (continued)

This verse indirectly confirms the greater importance of utilizing the human form of life.

COMMENT

There are so many different species of life, but it’s a special prerogative of the living entity in the human form of life because he has added intelligence. He can realize God, he can realize his own real identity, and his eternal relationship with the Supreme Soul.

PURPORT (continued)

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

COMMENT

This is practical, it illustrates how valuable every moment is, because when the time of death arrives, we cannot make a bargain. We can’t negotiate, “I’ll give you a hundred dollars, a thousand dollars, a hundred thousand dollars, or a million dollars. Give me one more minute.” You can’t, because your time is up, and no amount of money can buy you another minute. You can’t buy back a minute that you wasted. Wasted means outside of the real value of life.

One devotee in Phoenix was telling me how Vaisesika Prabhu, who is one of our spiritual leaders, had said that every round. . . Now, we have these chanting beads. How many of you know about chanting beads? How many of you have chanting beads? How many chant on chanting beads? So, he was saying that every round you chant becomes part of your spiritual credit. I think ten minutes for a round is comfortable for most people. That means that if you have ten minutes and you use that to chant one round, you are increasing your spiritual bank balance. And that same ten minutes, if frittered away, you cannot buy that back for any amount of money, it’s gone.

This devotee was saying how it’s always in his mind, ten minutes, “If I can squeeze out ten minutes, I can chant one round, and that will add to my spiritual credit, to my spiritual bank account.” We should think like that, and we should be very careful how we use our time, because that’s what our life is, it consists of our time, and you can’t buy it back or you can’t buy more of it.

Now, how is it that by rising and setting, the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone? That we can understand. Except one who utilizes the time by discussing topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead. How does that work? The answer is that we have our eternal relationship with God, so the passing of time in this life, if utilized properly, will bring us closer to our eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In other words, it’s not bringing us closer to death, but it’s bringing us closer to eternal life. In fact, we are being liberated from this realm of birth and death and entering the eternal abode. I’ll move along here because of time, but I will stay on to discuss further.

Now, listen to this portion of the purport because it’s very subtle, but you are very subtle people, so I’m sure you’ll catch it.

PURPORT (continued)

The materialistic way of pious activities like charity is recommended in the smṛti-śāstras. . .

COMMENT

In the realm of karma, there are pious activities that bring material happiness to us, and there are impious activities that bring material miseries to us. And then there are transcendental activities of bhakti-yoga that liberate us completely from the actions and the reactions of karma and bring us to our real life, blissful life.

PURPORT (continued)

as quoted by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. Money given in charity to a suitable person is guaranteed bank balance in the next life. Such charity is recommended to be given to a brāhmaṇa.

COMMENT

A brahman means a spiritual person who has spiritual duties essentially.

PURPORT (continued)

If the money is given in charity to a non-brāhmaṇa.

COMMENT

That means someone without brahminical qualifications, but who’s known as a brahman. In India, they have the caste system, so someone can be known as a brahman because he is born of brahman parents, but he doesn’t have the real qualifications of a brahman.

If the money is given in charity to someone without brahminical qualification, and that doesn’t necessarily mean someone born in that brahman family, it could mean anyone without brahminical qualification, the money is returned in the next life in the same proportion.

Whatever you give in charity to someone, you’ll get that much back in the next life. If the person is not qualified in any way to receive it, still, you get it back in the next life.

PURPORT (continued)

If it is given in charity to a half-educated brāhmaṇa, even then the money is returned double.

COMMENT

It’s not a bad investment.

PURPORT (continued)

If the money is given in charity to a learned and fully qualified brāhmaṇa, the money is returned a hundred and a thousand times.

COMMENT

That’s off the charts.

PURPORT (continued)

And if the money is given to a veda-pāraga (one who has factually realized the path of the Vedas), it is returned by unlimited multiplication.

COMMENT

Now, what does that mean, a veda-pāraga? Well, it is here in the purport.

PURPORT (continued)

The ultimate end of Vedic knowledge is realization of the Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa, as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ).

COMMENT

In other words, the goal of Vedic knowledge is Krishna, it is the goal of our life. So, if you give money in charity to whoever knows that goal and the means to attain that goal, then that charity is returned in unlimited multiplication. In other words, it cannot be returned to you in this earthly sphere. I mean, it can be, but it cannot be fully returned in the earthly sphere because it’s unlimited. The result is that you get your reward in your eternal relationship with Krishna. Here’s the relevance to our present situation.

PURPORT (continued)

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

COMMENT

That’s why we have these gatherings, to chant and hear about the glories of the Lord, and even a moment engaged in that activity will guarantee the fulfillment of all your desires. I mean, we all want love, but we are frustrated in the pursuit of love in the material world.

Well, we have two great needs; one is to love, and the other is to be loved. Neither of those can be fulfilled on the bodily platform, they can only be fulfilled in a spiritual relationship. And because all living entities are part and parcel of the Supreme Soul, if you develop your relationship with the Supreme Soul, Krishna, bhakti-yoga, then automatically, you have love for all the individual souls. And your loving propensity, that natural need, intrinsic need to love and be loved, will be fulfilled.

PURPORT (continued)

In other words, a devotee of the Lord is guaranteed eternal life. A devotee’s old age or disease in the present life. . .

COMMENT

And we don’t like old age and disease, generally.

PURPORT (continued)

A devotee’s old age or disease in the present life is but an impetus to such guaranteed eternal life.

COMMENT

I just received a message about a devotee in South Africa who was diagnosed with cancer, and they are performing tests to get more information. But that devotee has become very serious about taking shelter of Krishna, much more so than ever before. So, sometimes what appears to be a reversal in the material sense can actually be a positive development in the spiritual life. There is a story. . . there are others with a similar message, but I quote this one.

There was, let’s say, a farmer, a wise farmer, who had two horses. One of the horses escaped and ran out into the forest. So, all the neighbors came to the wise farmer and said, “Oh, how terrible, one of your horses is lost.” And he said, “Maybe yes, maybe no.” Then his son went out to find that lost horse, and he didn’t find that one, but found two others. He brought back the two other horses, and all the neighbors came and said, “Oh, how wonderful, you lost one horse but now you’ve got two.” And he said, “Maybe yes, maybe no.”

One of those new horses was a little wild, and while the farmer’s son was trying to break in that horse, the horse threw the son and the son broke his arm. So, all the neighbors came and said, “Oh, how terrible, your son has broken his arm.” And the wise farmer said, “Maybe yes, maybe no.” Then the king’s soldiers came to get the farmer’s son into the army because he was of age to be inducted into the army. They came and saw that he had a broken arm and that he was useless for the army, so they let him go. So, all the neighbors came and said, “Oh, how wonderful,” and the wise farmer said, “Maybe yes, maybe no.”

We don’t really know what’s in the long run, what’s good for us and what’s not. Something that seems to be a reversal may actually have a beneficial effect, and similarly, something that seems to be beneficial may have an adverse effect. But in Krishna consciousness, everything is good by the attitude of Krishna consciousness. It doesn’t really matter what happens because the devotee in Krishna consciousness sees how that situation can be used to develop in Krishna consciousness. And there are even such impediments to material enjoyment, inevitable impediments, such as disease and old age, they can be an impetus to a devotee in Krishna consciousness.

Of all the processes, the chanting and hearing is best done in an assembly like this gathering. People gather anyway for all sorts of purposes, so we have it for this purpose. But of all the different processes of bhakti-yoga, the most essential, which can be done by anyone, at any time, under any circumstances, is to chant the holy name of Krishna, and especially the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. Those of you who have beads know how to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, but you can do that anytime, anywhere, in any circumstance. And especially, if we practice, we’ll be able to chant at the time of death, and if we chant at the time of death in Krishna consciousness and God consciousness, we’ll go to Krishna. So, it requires practice.

We can practice now, chanting one mantra. Actually, the benefit of chanting even one mantra is immense, there are so many statements that just by chanting, not even one whole mantra, by chanting one name, one can destroy the reactions to more sins than one can commit. But there is also a question of the quality of the chanting, but even then, as we’ve been reading, there is so much benefit.

Please repeat after me: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Very good. Okay, so I guess. . . do we have time for any questions?  Or, now we’ll move along and we’ll just speak later. Thank you for coming and joining, and listening so patiently and attentively. Now, we will have ārati, which involves this very same chanting and dancing, and then the feast. That’s also very transcendental. So, without further ado, Hare Krishna. [Applause]