Giriraj Swami: We will read a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that discusses the passing of time and how to use our time to the best end.

We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Three: “Pure Devotional Service,” Text Seventeen.

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

Just this first sentence of Srila Prabhupada’s purport, is so packed with meaning. The first point is that we attain the human form of life after a long evolutionary process. Bahu-sambhavānte, it is a rare and precious gift to have the human form of life. There are eight million four hundred thousand species of life, and among them, the human form of life is very rare and precious, because in the human form of life you can realize our lost relationship with God. Therefore, we should take special care how we use this human form of life. And don’t waste it in the activities that are common to the animals namely; eating, sleeping, defending, and sexual intercourse. Materialistic persons have no idea of the value of the human form of life, and they basically live their lives like animals. Dharmeṇa hīna paśubhiḥ samānāḥ,  without dharma a human being is on the level of an animal.

Srila Prabhupada used to emphasize this point. Once, he was interviewed on the radio in New York City, and in conclusion the interviewer asked him, “Do you have any message for the people of New York, or the people of America?” And Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes, don’t live your lives like cats and dogs!”

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

Acceleration means to go faster. We are engaged to some degree or other in devotional service, but time is running out. Every rising and setting of the sun, is decreasing our duration of life. So we have to accelerate our devotional service, like accelerating a car, to step on it, to 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

Srila Prabhupada was very expert speaking in the language of his audience. And he had a good friend in Bombay named Brij Rattan Mohatta, who was actually the wealthiest man in what later became Pakistan. He was a businessman, an industrialist, and Srila Prabhupada told him that in the ledger of your life, there is profit and loss. Of course, every businessman wants to maximize his profit and minimize his loss. And Srila Prabhupada said that time utilized in the service of the Lord is profit, and any time spent outside of the service of the Lord is lost.

So yes, we may have various duties and responsibilities in the material world, but the ultimate goal should be Krishna consciousness. And whatever those various activities are, they should be done in the mood of realizing our ultimate spiritual perfection.

PURPORT (continued)

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

COMMENT

So, time is passing. . . it is six fifty-one in Dallas, and in a minute, six fifty-one, will be gone. And we can’t buy it back for any amount of gold. So we should be very careful how we use our time, because it is so precious. And at the time of death, if you tell the doctor, “I’ll pay you any amount of money, just prolong my life one more day, or one more hour.” He won’t be able to do it. So that means that our duration of life, the time that we have, is precious beyond measure.

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

So everyone wants to be happy. Every single one of us in this room wants to be happy. And it’s natural to want to be happy, because in our original spiritual nature we are happy. Sac-cid-ānanda, eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss. But we don’t know where to find our permanent source of happiness.

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.

COMMENT

Once I saw, it might have even been a shopping bag, and it said, “The greatest impediment to happiness is the pursuit of happiness,” because we are pursuing it in the wrong way. That very endeavor, results in misery. And as His Holiness Devamrita Swami says, people talk about the American dream, and he says; “It’s a very appropriate phrase, because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

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

Sometimes we give the example of a fish out of water. If you take a fish out of water, even if you put it in a golden bowl and fill the bowl with gems and jewels, and light incense, the fish won’t be happy because the fish is a creature of the water. So we are creatures of the spirit, and we can be happy only in the spiritual atmosphere. No matter how much we have materially, without Krishna consciousness we cannot be happy.

At one time, John Paul Getty was the richest man in the world, and a reporter asked him, “Can you give us in one word your philosophy of life?” And he said, “Yes, more.” That is a pretty sad statement, because it means he is not satisfied, he wants more! And no matter how much more he gets, he is not satisfied. And the reporter asked him, “You are the richest man in the world; you have everything that money could buy. When you are all alone and there is no one there, what do you think of?” He said, “I think about how to pay the bills.” Just like us. . . Our bill might be a thousand dollars, ten thousand dollars, and his bill might be a million dollars or a billion dollars, to take over some company. But it’s just the same as any ordinary person. No difference in the quality.

PURPORT (continued)

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

So, our perfection comes in contact with Krishna, in association with Krishna. And Krishna means; His name, His forms, His qualities, His pastimes, His paraphernalia—it’s all Krishna. And if we come in touch with Krishna, somehow or other, then our spiritual life blossoms, and we experience that happiness that we are seeking—permanent happiness.

PURPORT (continued)

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

So, someone might feel concerned that, “What if I begin, but I’m not completely successful?” But this verse in the Bhagavad-gītā, assures us that whatever beginning we make will be sufficient to protect us from the great fear of life, and that is actually, to fall down into the lower species of life.

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

So, this is uttama-śloka-vārtayā, topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead. It acts as a highly potent drug injected through the ear by the pure devotee of the Lord.

PURPORT (continued)

Aural. . .

COMMENT

That’s a-u-r-a-l, through the ears.

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. 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

So this verse is very striking, both by rising and setting the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone. You can all understand that. Except one who utilizes the time, discussing topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead, because using the time in that way, prepares us to realize our eternal life.

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. 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. If it is given in charity to a half-educated brāhmaṇa, even then the money is returned double. If the money is given in charity to a learned and fully qualified brāhmaṇa, the money is returned a hundred and a thousand times, 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

So, in the Bhagavad-gītā Krishna says vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo that He is to be known by the Vedas. So, a veda-pāraga really is—one who knows Krishna, the goal of Vedic knowledge.

PURPORT (continued)

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, how does that work? Because everything in the material world is limited, so my understanding is that it’s returned in the spiritual world. Once Srila Prabhupada was in Hong Kong, I wasn’t there, but this exchange was covered in Time magazine. And I was in Juhu Bombay at the time, and one of our friends saw that article in Time magazine and he brought it to me. And the article began: “There is trouble in nirvana.” And the reporter had asked Srila Prabhupada about a fellow named Guru Maharajaji, who was purported to be God. And Srila Prabhupada replied, “We have to consider whether he is God or dog! He is cheating the people. But when he meets Krishna, he will realize that Krishna is an even greater cheat than he is, and Krishna will take everything away from him.” Anyway, it’s a long story that happened to Guru Maharajaji. Anyway, but it came to pass, let’s put it succinctly. He lost everything. I thought that Srila Prabhupada’s answer was so profound.

So, when Srila Prabhupada came to Bombay, he spoke about that press conference, and the devotees had arranged to pick him up from the airport in a Rolls-Royce limousine. Then they brought him to the penthouse suite of the fanciest hotel, Hilton, for a press conference. And one of the reporters asked; “You are supposed to be a spiritual person, why did you ride a Rolls-Royce limousine?” And Srila Prabhupada said; “You are right, actually it was not fit for me, but because it was the best that my disciples could offer, that’s why I rode it.” And he said; “Actually, I come from the spiritual world, and even if they had brought me in a solid gold or solid diamond Rolls-Royce, it wouldn’t have been fitting. But since that was the best they could do, so that’s why I rode in it.” So, the idea is that (This is coming to unlimited multiplication) there is no limit to the opulence of the spiritual world. So, by giving to a veda-pāraga, a pure devotee, that return by unlimited multiplications, must be paid in the spiritual world ultimately.

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

So, we can, if things are too comfortable (but they can never stay too comfortable for long) but if things are too comfortable, we can forget that the material world is not our real home, it’s not a place of lasting happiness. So a devotee, you could say, welcomes old age or disease as an impetus to accelerate his or her practice of devotional service, and come more quickly to his or her guaranteed eternal life.

So Srila Prabhupada formed ISKCON for this purpose, to give people the association of pure devotees. And he gave us Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which is full of topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead. And he gave us the holy names which are the most essential practice, especially in the present age of Kali – Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Thank you very much.

Are there any questions or comments?

Dharma: Thank you for a wonderful lecture and thank you for being here in Dallas. I was thinking, when you are here, things seem a lot easier in terms of Krishna consciousness, for all of us, and sometimes when you are away it seems a little harder. How can we make it easier even when you are not physically present?

Giriraj Swami: Come with me! (Laughter) Well, as stated, it’s how we use our time. And as Srila Prabhupada said, practice makes perfect even in spiritual life. So, even if we don’t have so much taste, making our association filled with kṛṣṇa-kathā, with Krishna nāma, so our hearts become purified, and we relish Krishna consciousness and we relish the association of the devotees more. But it is hard, I know. . . for example, when Srila Prabhupada was in Juhu it was different in a way that he left. But that also forced us to become stronger, to feel the connection with him by following his instructions even in his physical absence. That was an important part of our strengthening and maturation.

It seems recently, many members of the community have had a disease, so, “A devotee’s old age or disease in the present life is but an impetus to such guaranteed eternal life.”

Hare Krishna

Thank you very much.