SB 2.3.17 – The Value of Time

Giriraj Swami: We have just completed the year 2017 and have begun the year 2018. In other words, time is passing; the clock is ticking. So I thought of reading a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam about the passing of time, what it means for most people and what it can mean for some people. Please, repeat after me. 

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

ŚB 2.3.17

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

According to the Bhagavad-gītā, and it is the fact, the jiva, the living entity, the spirit soul, is transmigrating from one species of life to the next. But when he comes to the human form of life, he has the ability to realize his eternal identity as Krishna’s eternal servant, to escape the cycle of repeated birth and death and go to the spiritual world, back home, back to Godhead. The human form of life is very significant, and it is meant, especially, to realize the spiritual value of life. 

PURPORT (continued)

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

So everyone in this room is engaged in devotional service. For one thing you are hearing, śravaṇam, that is devotional service, bhakti-yoga. You are chanting, most of you, that is also devotional service, kīrtanam. You are seeing the deity being worshiped, that is also devotional service. You already engaged in devotional service, but here Srila Prabhupada says “Accelerate,” go faster. Somebody might be driving along, but not going very fast, not making much progress. But if he steps on the accelerator, then he will pick up speed and he will make more progress. Srila Prabhupada is saying here, step on the gas, step on the accelerator, go faster. 

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.

COMMENT

Now, you may think, I have my duties, I can’t give up everything, become a sannyasi, and devote myself fully to Krishna consciousness. But Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says that if you perform your duties, but you do not develop attraction for hearing the messages of Vasudeva, or the same thing, uttama-śloka-vārtayā, topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead, then śrama eva hi kevalam, you have simply wasted your time. That is all right, you have duties, you have responsibilities, that is all right. But your performance of your duties is just useless labor if you don’t develop attraction for Krishna consciousness, and that attraction develops by association with devotees. So you are here, that is already a good beginning. Come again and again, and step on it. 

PURPORT (continued)

Even a fraction of the duration of life wasted cannot be compensated by any amount of gold.

COMMENT

In other words, you cannot buy back any time that you have wasted. You can’t, it is gone, so we want to be very careful not to waste any time. Our duration of life, āyur, is composed of time, it is made of time, and if we waste even one moment of our life, we can never buy it back. And at the time of death, when we are destined to leave our body, no matter how much money we are willing to pay the doctor to extend our life, he cannot extend it even one moment beyond our allotted time. That means that the time we have in our life is of incalculable value, so we must be careful. If we thought that by being inattentive, we might lose a thousand dollars, we would be very attentive. But our duration of life, which is worth more than any amount of money, we can’t buy it for any amount of money, we are not so attentive, we are not so careful. So Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is instructing us to be careful and not to let any time slip through our fingers without proper use.

PURPORT (continued)

Human life is simply awarded to a living entity (jīva) so that he can realize his spiritual identity and his permanent source of happiness.

COMMENT

Now, everyone wants to be happy, which is natural. 

PURPORT (continued)

A living being, especially the human being, is seeking happiness because happiness is the natural situation of the living entity. 

COMMENT

Ānanda-mayo ‘bhyāsāt, the Supreme Soul is by nature blissful, and the living entities, who are parts and parcel of the Supreme Soul, are also by nature blissful. But our original blissful nature has been covered by our material consciousness, our material body to begin with, but more than our material body, our material consciousness. 

PURPORT (continued)

A living being, especially the human being, is seeking happiness because happiness is the natural situation of the living entity. But he is vainly seeking happiness in the material atmosphere. A living being is constitutionally a spiritual spark of the complete whole, and his happiness can be perfectly perceived in spiritual activities. 

COMMENT

So the example is given of a fish out of water. As long as the fish is in water, it can be happy, but if you take the fish out of water, even if you put it in a beautiful bowl, golden bowl, filled with gems, jewels, light all sorts of incense and spray perfumes, and make everything wonderful for the fish, the fish will not be happy because he is out of his natural element, which is the water. We are spiritual beings, our natural element is the spiritual domain, and as long as we are outside of the spiritual domain, we can never be happy. We can experience some semblance of flickering happiness, but we cannot experience real happiness, and that is why everyone is vainly seeking happiness. I saw a little–- I don’t know if it is a sticker or a shopping bag, but it said, “The greatest obstacle in the pursuit of happiness is the pursuit of happiness,” because we are pursuing happiness in the wrong way. 

PURPORT (continued)

He is vainly seeking happiness in the material atmosphere. A living being is constitutionally a spiritual spark of the complete whole, and his happiness can be perfectly perceived in spiritual activities. The Lord is the complete spirit whole, and His name, form, quality, pastimes, entourage and personality are all identical with Him. Once a person comes into contact with any one of the above-mentioned energies of the Lord through the proper channel of devotional service, the door to perfection is immediately opened.

COMMENT

We are spiritual by nature, we can be happy only in relation to the Supreme Spirit, and the Supreme Spirit (God, Krishna) is manifested as His name, His form, His qualities, His pastimes, His paraphernalia, and His entourage. By coming in contact with any one of those, we come in contact with the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Supreme Spiritual Entity, and then we are in our natural element and we can be fully satisfied. Recently we celebrated Kirtan Fifty, and there was kirtan going until 3:00 in the morning, but people didn’t mind. They weren’t thinking about eating or sleeping because they were in connection with the Supreme Spirit, and that was giving their souls satisfaction beyond anything that can give them happiness in relation to the body.

PURPORT (continued)

Once a person comes into contact with any one of the above-mentioned energies of the Lord through the proper channel of devotional service the door to perfection is immediately opened.

In the Bhagavad-gītā (2.40) the Lord has explained such contact in the following words: “Endeavors in devotional service are never baffled. Nor is there failure. A slight beginning of such activities is sufficient even to deliver a person from the great ocean of material fears.”

COMMENT

This is also a very important point, that by rising and by setting, the sun is taking away our duration of life. It is taking away everything that we have acquired materially in this lifetime because it is bringing us closer to our death, and at the time of death, we lose everything. But whatever spiritual progress we make is an eternal credit, and it is not destroyed at the time of death. Rather, we continue in the next life where we left off in this life. For example, if I progress 1 percent in Krishna consciousness in this life, then in the next life I begin from 2 percent. That is a great benefit of Krishna consciousness, and it is a drastic difference between that spiritual achievement and material achievements, which are all finished at the time of death. Therefore, a devotee is not afraid because he knows he will continue in his next life where he left off in this life. Of course, we want to finish completely in this life and go back home, back to Godhead, but if we don’t, we can continue where we left off in the next life. Especially if we don’t commit offenses. 

PURPORT (continued)

As a highly potent drug injected intravenously acts at once on the whole body, the transcendental topics of the Lord injected through the ear by the pure devotee of the Lord can act very efficiently. 

COMMENT

A highly potent drug injected intravenously, if you take a pill, it might take a while for it to work, but if it is injected directly into your bloodstream, it takes effect immediately. And similarly, the highly potent topics of the Personality of Godhead, when injected into the ear of the pure devotee, acts very quickly and very powerfully. That is what we are doing here, attempting to do here. 

PURPORT (continued)

Aural realization of the transcendental messages implies total realization, just as fructification of one part of a tree implies fructification of all other parts. This realization for a moment in the association of pure devotees like Śukadeva Gosvāmī prepares one’s complete life for eternity. And thus the sun fails to rob the pure devotee of his duration of life, inasmuch as he is constantly busy in the devotional service of the Lord, purifying his existence.

COMMENT

The duration of life of everyone is being decreased by the passage of time, by the rising and the setting of the sun, but it is not robbing the devotee of his duration of life. Rather, he is coming closer to his eternal life with Krishna in the spiritual world, Vaikuntha. Kuntha means “Anxiety.” Everyone in the material world is kunthi, full of anxiety, but in the spiritual world there is no anxiety, and therefore, it is called Vaikuntha. That is our goal, at the time of death to be transferred to the spiritual world or Vaikuntha.

PURPORT (continued)

Death is a symptom of the material infection of the eternal living being; only due to material infection is the eternal living entity subjected to the law of birth, death, old age and disease.

COMMENT

In the Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna describes one of the items in the process of knowledge as janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam, to always be mindful of the miseries of birth, death, old age, and disease. That is actually part of the process of knowledge. So if someone thinks, Oh, I don’t want to think about these things, it is too morbid, it is too depressing, that is a sign of ignorance, definitely a sign of ignorance. We want to be conscious of these miseries because such awareness is an impetus to us, to make advancement in devotional service, so we get out of this diseased condition of material life in which we are forced to suffer birth, death, old age, and disease.

PURPORT (continued)

The materialistic way of pious activities like charity is recommended in the smṛti-śāstras as quoted by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. Money given in charity to a suitable person is guaranteed bank balance in the next life.

COMMENT

Did you hear that? 

PURPORT (continued)

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

If anyone here is a brahman, at the end you can stand up and make yourself available. 

PURPORT (continued)

Such charity is recommended to be given to a brāhmaṇa. If the money is given in charity to a non-brāhmaṇa (without brahminical qualification) the money is returned in the next life in the same proportion.

COMMENT

So if you give money to someone who is not a qualified brahman, even then, whatever you give, you will get the same amount 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

That is just pretty good.

PURPORT (continued)

If the money is given in charity to a learned and fully qualified brāhmaṇa–

COMMENT

We should have different sections; you can choose where you want to give your charity [Laughter]. 

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 is pretty good. 

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. 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

So if we give charity to someone who is veda-pāraga, who has realized the goal of the Vedas, which is Krishna, like Srila Prabhupada, that money is returned by unlimited multiplications. My understanding of unlimited multiplications is that it must be beyond the material world because everything in the material world is limited. Of course, it can be experienced in the material world, but ultimately, it is spiritual. 

I will tell a little story, I told it the other day, but still. When Srila Prabhupada visited, I believe, Hong Kong, he was received at the airport in a Rolls-Royce car and taken to the penthouse suite of a very opulent and prestigious hotel for a press conference. And at the press conference, one of the reporters asked Srila Prabhupada, “You are supposed to be a spiritual person, why are you riding in a Rolls-Royce car?” and Srila Prabhupada replied, “Yes, that is true, actually I come from the spiritual world, where everything is made of spiritual gems. I am the representative of God, and even if they had collected me in a Rolls-Royce made of solid diamonds, it would not have been good enough. Why did I, a spiritual person, ride in a Rolls-Royce car? Because that was the best they could offer me, so I accepted it.” 

From there, Prabhupada came to Bombay and he actually told me this story in Bombay, and after telling me the story, he said “What else can you say to such envious people?” But the way he answered it was clever but it was also true, and it was disarming and charming. That would be the unlimited multiplication. The opulence of the spiritual world is so far beyond anything we can conceive of in the material world, and that would be the return on our investment of service or money to a pure devotee who has realized Krishna. 

PURPORT (continued)

There is a guarantee of money’s being returned if given in charity, regardless of the proportion.

COMMENT

Depending on who you give the money to, you will get a greater or lesser return, but there is a guarantee that no matter who you give the money to, you will get a return. That is guaranteed. 

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. Mad-dhāma gatvā punar janma na vidyate.

COMMENT

That is Lord Krishna speaking in the Bhagavad-gītā, that one who attains to His abode, a divine abode, never has to take birth again in this miserable world.

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 is but an impetus to such guaranteed eternal life.

COMMENT

A devotee has a physical body, which is subjected to disease and old age, but those are not impediments. Rather they are impetuses to the devotee to accelerate his or her practice of devotional service to achieve his or her eternal life in Vaikuntha with Krishna. There is nothing bad in the life of a devotee. Kaviraja Gosvami in Caitanya-caritāmṛta says, “Good and bad are mano-dharma,” they are mental concoctions. Actually, in the material world nothing is good or bad, or everything is bad. And the only thing that is good is spiritual life or Krishna consciousness.

Even apparent reversals or setbacks, such as old age and disease, are not really bad for a devotee because they can be an impetus to the devotee to accelerate his efforts to achieve his eternal spiritual life, especially in Kali-yuga. Of course, all these processes are important and they go together as Srila Prabhupada mentioned, but especially easy and beneficial in the present age is the chanting of the holy names of Krishna.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

That will bring us to realization of Krishna, starting with His name, and then His form, His qualities, His pastime, His paraphernalia, His associates. Everything. Hare Krishna. 

Host: To keep us on our schedule we will have ten minutes available for questions, so if we have several devotees that have some questions, you could put your hand up and we will pass the microphone through, please. 

Devote 1: Thank you Maharaja for such a nice class. You mentioned accelerating our Krishna consciousness, and one of the things you mentioned was offenses. How do we understand this science of offense? What constitutes an offense? Are the ten offenses, which we read, the primary or some key factor so that part is taken care of and we can accelerate and keep going? 

Giriraj Swami: Yes. Accelerate can mean to engage only in Krishna consciousness and not in other activities. If we engage in other activities outside of Krishna consciousness or without any relationship to Krishna consciousness, that will slow us down. And the other, as you have mentioned, is committing offenses, and that can make us go backwards, at least apparently regress. There are different kinds of offenses, sevā-aparādha, offenses in deity worship, but the most damaging are nāma-aparādha, offenses in the chanting of the holy name. We should know what those offenses are and we should avoid them. 

One of the offenses is pramādaḥ or inattention, and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, one of our previous authorities, says that if we engage in pramādaḥ, inattentiveness while chanting, then the other offenses are allowed to flourish. And if we are attentive in chanting, then all the other offenses will be destroyed. If we work on that one, that will serve all purposes. I mean, we could discuss for a long time about the offenses, how to avoid them and how to counteract them if we happen to commit an offense, but I think if we just focus on that and stay in the association of pure devotees—usually we commit offenses when we associate with people who are not properly respectful of devotees and the process of devotional service. Hare Krishna. 

Devotee 2: You were mentioning how when somebody does devotional service that is never lost, and then whatever amount they do, they will pick up later. But we have seen people over the years that have done a lot of devotional service, and one day they don’t want to do any more devotional services. I ran into one of our godbrothers at a public function and I said, “Haribol [55:51 unintelligible] How are you doing?” and he said, “The name is Greg, I am all done with that thing.” So I thought that he is quoting Bhagavad-gītā, he may not want to do devotional service, but Bhagavad-gītā says that whatever he is done, he is going to restart in the future. What is the criterion or what takes place that makes the person who has quit doing devotional service and they have done a lot in the past, reignite and go back to the level that they were at and start making further progress?

Giriraj Swami: Well, the most common reason that devotees fall away from devotional service, and the least pernicious or the least poisonous, is the desire for sense gratification. They just don’t have the strength to resist the temptation of the senses to indulge in illicit activities. The rarer and more damaging reason is committing offenses, and we should avoid that. But I think these are exceptions that you are bringing up. You may say you know a lot of them, maybe you do, but still, overall they are exceptions, and we would rather focus on the good examples of success and get inspiration from that. Yes, we can also learn from the examples of failure or at least temporary failure, what not to do. There can be benefits from that. But for the grace of God we should be humble and realize it could happen to us, it could happen to any one of us. So we have to be very careful and cling to the lotus feet of Krishna, stay in the circle of pure devotees and adhere to the practices of bhakti-yoga very strictly. Otherwise, there is a chance. We should be careful. Are there any other questions or comments?

Devotee 3: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Thank you for such a nice class. I have a question. I was reading one of the lectures which has been given by Srila Prabhupada, and he was saying that often when we are practicing our devotional service, sometimes we figure out some of the difficulties and then we think, Oh, I will figure it out or I will sort it out. And Srila Prabhupada was saying that we cannot figure it out because if we are under the influence of all three modes of nature, we will not be able to sort it out because we are with those four defects. 

But he was saying that we are defective, but the only way that we can accelerate our bhakti or devotional services is by adapting or probably following some of these prayers given by one of the methods he was saying. And that we should always read some of the prayers given by mahājanas in Bhāgavatam or probably the Vaishnava version of the book. But I was thinking that I try to read them but I cannot internalize that because it is not my prayer, so I was trying to get into that mood, but it is very difficult to get into that mood. My question is: is just reading enough or how do I internalize that? How do I get into that mood when I am reading those prayers? 

Giriraj Swami: Well, that is a good question. Yes, we cannot be successful on our own strength, so we need to pray for mercy. And the general form of a prayer, as Srila Prabhupada said, is that one states the qualification of the deity to whom he is praying. One states his own disqualification, and one prays for mercy. One simple example is patita-pāvana-hetu tava avatāra, he is praying to Lord Chaitanya that “You are known as patita-pāvana, the deliverer of the fallen.” mo sama patita prabhu nā pāibe āra, “And I am most fallen so you should save me first” [Laughter]. That follows that pattern.

There are two types of prayers, In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu Srila Rupa Gosvami mentions two types of prayers: stuti and stava. Stuti means “One repeats the prayers of others” and strava means “One composes or makes his own prayers from his heart” and both are legitimate. 

There is the concept of tādātmya, “to become one” and sometimes I do this. When we are reciting a prayer, we can pray to become tādātmya with the author of that prayer, to become one with his thoughts and his mood because it won’t come naturally or may not come naturally, but we can pray to become tādātmya with the author of that prayer. Chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra is a complete prayer, and we can infuse it with whatever mood of prayer we have. This is very common that people can chant with a different mentality. I will give an example. If you go to Loi Bazaar in Vrindavan, which is a shopping area, you will hear a merchant say, “Hare Krishna Prabhu! Come, come!” [Laughter]. So he is saying, “Hare Krishna Prabhu,” but what is he thinking? He is not thinking about Hare Krishna; he is thinking about money. He is saying Hare Krishna but what he really is thinking is “Paise, paise.” The consciousness is really the most important. So when we chant Hare Krishna, it is a prayer already, “Oh Lord, oh energy of the Lord, please engage me in Your devotional service. Oh Radha, oh Krishna, please engage in Your devotional service.” But we can imbue that or invest in that our own special mood, that is what is so beautiful about kirtan. Five hundred people can be chanting, or fifty, or five thousand, and they may have their own level of consciousness if you will. But whatever their level of consciousness is, they can absorb themselves in the chanting and the chanting will help them to make further progress. But as Srila Prabhupada said, the chanting is like the genuine cry of a child for its mother. 

His Holiness Niranjana Swami told the story of a child in the Boston temple whose parents were, I guess, Pujaris. Parents can tell the urgency of the crying of their child. Anyway, this boy on Sunday would run around and he would cry, and it could be that he didn’t get what he wanted or he just wanted to get attention or whatever it was. But one Sunday they heard that boy crying hysterically, I mean, hysterically. The sound of that crying was different from the other crying, and everyone immediately became alert, “Where is he? What is wrong?” Eventually, they found him in the bathroom. He had locked himself in the bathroom, he couldn’t get out, and he was crying hysterically. And then my own little purport is that this material world—Prabhupada said — “This material world is like a stool room. We should do our business and get out, and if we think we are locked in permanently, we should scream desperately till someone opens the door and takes us out.” All right, thank you very much. Hare Krishna.