SB 1.8.42 – Prayers of Queen Kunti

Giriraj Swami: So, we shall read a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto One, Chapter Eight: “Prayers by Queen Kunti,” Text Forty-Two.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

TEXT 42

tvayi me ‘nanya-viṣayā

matir madhu-pate ‘sakṛt

ratim udvahatād addhā

gaṅgevaugham udanvati

TRANSLATION

O Lord of Madhu, as the Ganges forever flows to the sea without hindrance, let my attraction be constantly drawn unto You without being diverted to anyone else.

COMMENT

I’ll read it again.

TRANSLATION

O Lord of Madhu, as the Ganges forever flows to the sea without hindrance, let my attraction be constantly drawn unto You without being diverted to anyone else.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Perfection of pure devotional service is attained when all attention is diverted towards the transcendental loving service of the Lord. To cut off the tie of all other affections does not mean complete negation of the finer elements, like affection for someone else. This is not possible. A living being, whoever he may be, must have this feeling of affection for others because this is a symptom of life. The symptoms of life, such as desire, anger, hankerings, feelings of attraction, etc., cannot be annihilated. Only the objective has to be changed. Desire cannot be negated, but in devotional service the desire is changed only for the service of the Lord in place of desire for sense gratification. The so-called affection for family, society, country, etc., consists of different phases of sense gratification. When this desire is changed for the satisfaction of the Lord, it is called devotional service.

In the Bhagavad-gītā we can see that Arjuna desired not to fight with his brothers and relations just to satisfy his own personal desires. But when he heard the message of the Lord, Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā, he changed his decision and served the Lord. And for his doing so, he became a famous devotee of the Lord, for it is declared in all the scriptures that Arjuna attained spiritual perfection by devotional service to the Lord in friendship. The fighting was there, the friendship was there, Arjuna was there, and Kṛṣṇa was there, but Arjuna became a different person by devotional service. Therefore, the prayers of Kuntī also indicate the same categorical changes in activities. Śrīmatī Kuntī wanted to serve the Lord without diversion, and that was her prayer. This unalloyed devotion is the ultimate goal of life. Our attention is usually diverted to the service of something which is nongodly or not in the program of the Lord. When the program is changed into the service of the Lord, that is to say when the senses are purified in relation with the service of the Lord, it is called pure unalloyed devotional service. Śrīmatī Kuntīdevī wanted that perfection and prayed for it from the Lord.

COMMENT

As Srila Prabhupada often said, in Krishna consciousness everything is the same except the name on the account changes. Instead of our name being on the account, Krishna’s name is on the account. But otherwise, we don’t have to make any drastic changes in our lives. Of course, we do have to give up sinful activities, activities that are against the Vedic injunctions and against the Lord’s instructions, such as eating meat, fish, or eggs, taking intoxicants, having illicit sex, and gambling. Those we must give up. But the general features of our life don’t have to change. But the name on the account has to change, the central point has to change from me to Krishna.

My godbrother Bhurijana Prabhu sometimes says, “Most people envision life as a movie or a drama in which they are the hero or heroine, and they want everyone else to be the supporting cast.” So, you can imagine the situation. We have three billion human beings? I don’t even know what the present population is, and each one is thinking, I am the star of the show, and everyone should support me in my exploits. He said it’s like everyone is walking around. I mean, they may not articulate it the way he did, but it’s their underlying psychology. He said it’s like everyone is walking around wanting to say, “Excuse me, I have an important announcement to make. I am the center of the universe, and all of you should cooperate with my desires.”

So, that is the general psychology of the conditioned soul, and we want to change that mentality to accepting Krishna as the center. Now, we may accept Krishna as the center in theory, but we do have the tendency, still, to think of ourselves as the center.

Srila Rupa Gosvami in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu has enumerated nine stages of development in bhakti-yoga; ādau śraddhā, tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo, tataḥ bhajana-kriyā, anartha-nivṛtti, syāt, niṣṭhā ruci, āsakti, bhāva, and prema. And in a book called Mādhurya-kādambinī, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura discusses these different stages elaborately, and he says that as we progress, the focus on ourselves becomes less, and our focus on Krishna becomes more. And it is really only at the stage of ruci that our attention is more on Krishna than on ourselves.

We’re trying, of course, to develop that mentality, and by progressing in devotional service, we will come to that stage where our attention is more on Krishna than on ourselves. But in the meantime, we practice. As Srila Prabhupada said, “Practice makes perfect even in spiritual life.” So, we practice making Krishna the center and doing everything for the sake of Krishna and thinking of Krishna more. As it is said, “Being humble doesn’t mean thinking less of yourself, but it means thinking of yourself less.” So, we want to think of ourselves less and think of Krishna more. But if we do think of ourselves, we think of ourselves in relation to Krishna and Krishna’s service, gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ. We think of ourselves as the servants of the servants of the servants of Krishna.

Now, the last paragraph of this purport is very significant, especially because many of us have family members who are devotees. So, Srila Prabhupada continues. Well, I’ll just read the last two sentences from the paragraph we just read and then continue, just for context.

PURPORT (continued)

This unalloyed devotion is the ultimate goal of life. Our attention is usually diverted to the service of something which is nongodly or not in the program of the Lord. When the program is changed into the service of the Lord, that is to say when the senses are purified in relation with the service of the Lord, it is called pure unalloyed devotional service. Śrīmatī Kuntīdevī wanted that perfection and prayed for it from the Lord.

COMMENT

So, sometimes people raise the question of what is appropriate to pray for. Is it appropriate to pray for one’s spiritual advancement? And here we find that Queen Kunti is praying that her affection for Krishna should flow without any obstruction to Him, just like the Ganges flows to the sea. And praying for spiritual advancement means praying for the ability to please Krishna more, and of course, our pleasure is experienced in relation to Krishna’s pleasure.

The other day, I told the story of Srila Prabhupada’s disciple Bhavananda dasa. He was initiated by Srila Prabhupada and given the name Bhavananda. Bhavananda means. . . Ānanda means bliss, and bhāva means the material world. Like bhāva-sagara, the ocean of birth and death. So, Bhavananda Prabhu was a little concerned about what Srila Prabhupada intended by giving him the name, “The servant of the bliss of the material world.” So, he asked Srila Prabhupada, and Prabhupada answered that the devotee experiences pleasure in relation to Krishna’s pleasure, and we can give Krishna the greatest pleasure by bringing people to Him.

In the spiritual world, you can’t preach, you can’t bring new people to Krishna because they’re already with Krishna. It’s only in the material world that you can preach and bring new people to Krishna, and that gives Krishna the greatest pleasure. That is Bhavananda, that is the bliss of the material world. And by giving Krishna that pleasure, we experience the greatest bliss. And that was Srila Prabhupada’s mood. He was always trying to bring people to Krishna, working to bring people to Krishna.

So, now we come to the last paragraph of the purport.

PURPORT (continued)

Her affection for the Pāṇḍavas and the Vṛṣṇis is not out of the range of devotional service because the service of the Lord and the service of the devotees are identical.

COMMENT

Now, this statement in the purport refers to the previous verse, which I will read. I won’t read the purport for the sake of time, but I will read the verse because in this purport to the subsequent verse, Srila Prabhupada is referring to that earlier verse. That’s Text Forty-One.

TEXT 41

atha viśveśa viśvātman

viśva-mūrte svakeṣu me

sneha-pāśam imaṁ chindhi

dṛḍhaṁ pāṇḍuṣu vṛṣṇiṣu

TRANSLATION

O Lord of the universe, soul of the universe, O personality of the form of the universe, please, therefore, sever my tie of affection for my kinsmen, the Pāṇḍavas and the Vṛṣṇis.

COMMENT

So, she asked that her ties of affection for them, sneha-pāśam, should be severed. So now, here in this purport, Srila Prabhupada says:

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Her affection for the Pāṇḍavas and the Vṛṣṇis is not out of the range of devotional service because the service of the Lord and the service of the devotees are identical. Sometimes service to the devotee is more valuable than service to the Lord. But here the affection of Kuntīdevī for the Pāṇḍavas and the Vṛṣṇis was due to family relation. This tie of affection in terms of material relation is the relation of māyā because the relations of the body or the mind are due to the influence of the external energy. Relations of the soul, established in relation with the Supreme Soul, are factual relations. When Kuntīdevī wanted to cut off the family relation, she meant to cut off the relation of the skin. The skin relation is the cause of material bondage, but the relation of the soul is the cause of freedom. This relation of the soul to the soul can be established by the medium of the relation with the Supersoul.

COMMENT

So, we are all in that position with our family members and even with others who aren’t necessarily our family members. But there can be two aspects to our relationships with our family members or others—spiritual and material. And we want to decrease the material aspect of the relationship and increase the spiritual aspect, which means placing Krishna at the center more. And many of the problems in interpersonal relations in the family or even otherwise occur because we are not putting Krishna in the center, we’re keeping ourselves in the center, as I mentioned in relation to Bhurijana Prabhu’s example, we think, “I’m the center of the universe, you should cooperate with me. I’m the hero of the movie, you should support me. You’re the supporting cast, I’m the hero or heroine.”

So, when we make our relationship with each other based on the soul through the medium of the Supersoul or the Supreme Soul as the center, then there’s no harm in having affection for family members, which is natural. But we don’t want the affection to be an impediment to our spiritual progress, which it can be if the relationship is based more on the body.

Now, there are different variables in this scenario, because sometimes it happens that one of the spouses is a devotee and the other is not. I mean, it’s the same principle, but it may be a little more nuanced. And sometimes it happens that they’re both devotees, but one is more enthusiastic about devotional service, the other is less so. But still, the basic principle is that all the family members should work towards this goal of relating to each other as souls through the medium of the Supersoul, the Supreme Soul.

In the beginning of the movement, of course, we were very dependent on Srila Prabhupada to guide us in every aspect of our lives. And one of the first devotees to get married and have a child, the husband’s name was Advaita, and the wife’s name was Balai. They were in the Boston temple. At a certain stage, they were with the press, and when the press came to Boston, they came with the press. So, she’s like my older godsister, Balai devi dasi, she’s in Los Angeles now, a wonderful devotee.

So, we didn’t know, so she asked Srila Prabhupada what should be her relationship with her husband? Should she love her husband? I mean, is that all right? Should her husband love her? And Srila Prabhupada said, “It’s like the right hand has a relationship with the left hand but it’s through the stomach. So, the husband and wife have a relationship but it’s through Krishna. Krishna is the central point.” So yeah, that’s something that we should work on together, meaning husbands and wives, and all the family members, as far as possible. So now, we’re almost at the end of the purport.

PURPORT (continued)

The skin relation is the cause of material bondage, but the relation of the soul is the cause of freedom. This relation of the soul to the soul can be established by the medium of the relation with the Supersoul.

COMMENT

Just like the right hand and the left hand through the medium of the stomach.

PURPORT (continued)

Seeing in the darkness is not seeing. But seeing by the light of the sun means to see the sun and everything else which was unseen in the darkness.

COMMENT

So, this is a metaphor, and the idea is that when we’re in the darkness of ignorance, we don’t see Krishna and we don’t see ourselves and we don’t see others in proper perspective. We see ourselves as the body, we see others as the body, and we act as if we’re the center and we have this psychology that we’re the center. But when we see the light of Krishna or Krishna consciousness, then we see everything else, we see everyone else as Krishna’s parts and parcels who are Krishna’s property and meant to serve Krishna, meant to be engaged for Krishna’s pleasure. And when we act in that consciousness, then all of our relationships become very harmonious and congenial.

As Srila Prabhupada writes in the preface to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, beautiful, that although much progress has been made in the world in different areas, but there’s still a pin prick in the social body. And therefore, over relatively small issues, there are major conflicts. So, Srila Prabhupada said, “There is a need for a common cause. People are fighting or quarreling because they don’t have a common cause.” He said, “There's a need for a common cause, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam can give light to the world, it can provide the common cause which is Krishna, the origin of all of us.”

So, naturally, Krishna is a common cause. And if we all work for that common cause, the original cause of all causes, then we’ll be happy and our relationships will be very congenial and harmonious and encouraging, spiritually and otherwise.

And the purification of the heart that will affect the change of consciousness is affected by the chanting of the holy name, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. So, we should chant as much as possible and as attentively as possible. Our inattentive chanting is caused by not keeping Krishna as the center but that old habit of making ourselves the center. So, when we’re chanting, our mind goes here and there thinking about what we have to do, who said what to me, what I’m going to say back, and so many things, there’s no limit. But yeah, we can pray to Krishna to help us to hear His holy name while we’re chanting and to set aside all other thoughts because this is our special time with Krishna.

All right, thank you very much. So, are there any questions or comments?

Host: Hare Krishna. If you can please type your questions in the chat, then I can unmute whoever wants to ask the question, and then that way, we can do this effectively.

Giriraj Swami: Okay, what if they raise their hands?

Host: Or you can raise your hands, yeah.

Giriraj Swami: Oh, there’s someone.

Host: Yes, Mathura Priya Prabhu, go ahead, you can unmute yourself now.

Devotee: Thank you very much, Maharaja for [Unintelligible 00:34:32]. So, sometimes our faith in Krishna consciousness goes down, and sometimes it’s up. When it goes down, this is due to our offenses we have made to the Vaishnavas.

Giriraj Swami: Well, how do you know that your faith has gone down?

Devotee: So, I mean, generally, I see that tendency to remember if Krishna goes down, and that’s how I understood that the faith is going down. Sometimes in Krishna consciousness, the faith initially goes down, and then up, up, up. And then, I was more dependent on Krishna at that time, maybe due to other things, maybe the material situation was weak at that time, and now it’s a little bit stronger. I mean, I am thinking, Okay, now I fit in this material world, something like that. So, in other words, let me say in a straightforward way, when the money comes to a person, I’m feeling the faith is going down. So, I mean, that is the one thing, maybe there are lots of factors in it. So, I mean, how to make it up?

Giriraj Swami: Well, I mean, being in that situation that you remember Krishna more when you’re in difficulty or in hard times, and you forget Him when you’re in good times and you think you’re alright on your own, that could make you a candidate for Krishna’s special mercy. And in the Bhāgavatam, Krishna explains what that special mercy is. He says, yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi hariṣye tad-dhanaṁ śanaiḥ, that when someone wants to serve Krishna but is too materially attached, the first installment of Krishna’s special mercy is He takes everything away from the devotee.

So, I’ll just give a little example. Srila Prabhupada had a devotee, an Indian boy in New Delhi, who was translating Prabhupada’s books into Hindi. And one time, the boy’s father came to visit Srila Prabhupada, and he had a bad habit of smoking cigarettes, and Srila Prabhupada asked him if he’d given up smoking. He said, no he hadn’t been able to, “Can’t I get some special mercy?” And Srila Prabhupada said, “Oh, special mercy, yes, there’s special mercy, yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi hariṣye tad-dhanaṁ śanaiḥ. The special mercy is that Krishna will take everything away from you, and then when you’re completely humbled and have no one to depend on except Krishna, then you’ll seek the shelter of Krishna and His devotees. So, yes, there is special mercy. So, do you want special mercy?” He said, “No, no, Prabhupada, I’ll do it on my own,” meaning he’d give up smoking on his own, he didn’t want that special mercy.

So, I would suggest being mindful of that special mercy because Krishna is not going to let you go. So, if making money and being well-situated means that you’re going away from Krishna, that means it’s a choice, there’s Krishna on one side and then there’s your wealth on the other side, and you’re sort of going for the wealth and away from Krishna. Krishna doesn’t like that, and ultimately, it’s not in your best interest either. So then, Krishna will take away the wealth, and then you’re left with Krishna, which is very good. But if you don’t forget Krishna with the wealth, then there would be no reason for Krishna to take away the wealth.

There’s the story of Bali Maharaja. Krishna came as a dwarf brahman, Vamanadeva, and asked for three steps of land. And with the first step, He covered the whole upper planetary system. In the second step, the whole bottom lower part of the universe. And so, Krishna said, “Well, now I’ve taken two steps. You promised Me three and you’re not fulfilling your promise.” But Bali Maharaja said, “No, Lord, you can place your third step on my head,” and he surrendered himself. It’s a wonderful pastime. And then in the end, He gave Bali Maharaja a whole planet, and He gave Himself to Bali Maharaja.

And so, in those purports, Srila Prabhupada, he begins by saying that when Krishna wants to show favor to someone, He takes away his material possessions. And in a way, that’s what happened with Bali Maharaja. But then, in the end, Srila Prabhupada says that when Krishna is really pleased with someone, He will give him everything materially, knowing that the person will not misuse it for sense gratification, but use it exclusively for Krishna’s service. And Srila Prabhupada said of himself, “In the beginning, Krishna tested me by taking everything away from me. And in the end, He tested me by giving me everything.” And Srila Prabhupada passed both tests. When Krishna took everything away from him, he still was surrendered to Krishna. And when Krishna gave him everything, he was still surrendered to Krishna. So, that should be our position.

But that was a good question. And it’s okay to earn well, but it’s not okay to forget Krishna. And one way you could link your wealth to remembering Krishna is by giving your wealth to serve Krishna, because after all, it does belong to Krishna.

I remember that. . . it was the very first day I went to the Boston temple. So, I was new, obviously, it was my first day, and there was another young man who was new, and he suddenly took out his wallet and he emptied out his wallet. And he said, “This is all stolen property. And the sooner we return it to Krishna, the better.” So, that was our youthful idealism and enthusiasm, but it’s true.

Any other questions or comments?

Host: Actually, there are two questions coming. One from Gopal Prabhu, but prior to that was a question from Lalita Mataji. She sent me the question but I think the question will sound better in her voice. So, Lalita Mataji, do you want to quickly unmute yourself and ask the same question which you sent to me? Thank you. Lalita Mataji? Okay, Lalita Mataji, can you ask your question? All right, so I’ll just read out the question.

Giriraj Swami: Well, why don’t we go to Gopal Gupta?

Host: Yeah, okay, we can go to Gopal Prabhu then, and then we’ll come back to Lalita Mataji.

Gopal Gupta: Hare Krishna, Maharaja. Please accept my obeisances, all glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Giriraj Swami: Nice to see you.

Gopal Gupta: Thank you for your very wonderful class, Maharaja, it’s just so inspiring. I had a question, it’s sort of connected to this point, but a question I had also from before. And that is that when we see the life of Maharaja Parīkṣit, then he is cursed by the brahman boy, and after he is cursed, he accepts it as the will of the Lord and surrenders to it completely, accepts it, fully surrenders. And we find when the residents of Vrindavan were in difficulty and Indra was pouring down rain on them and they were about to die, they go to the Lord, they say, “Please save us, save us.” And it seems as though they’re asking the Lord to save their life from death.

And so, pure devotees, if they’re serving Krishna every lifetime, why do they go to the Lord requesting the Lord to save their life? Praying to the Lord, “Please protect me.” And in the case of Maharaja Parīkṣit, how does the devotee understand, for us in our situation, when we should depend fully on the Lord, surrender to Him, and when we should also do some action to resolve the situation? Maharaja Parīkṣit could have gone to the sage, perhaps for the benefit of humanity, to stay longer. How do we follow that example?

Giriraj Swami: That’s a very good question. How do we know something is the Lord’s will or the Lord’s arrangement and accept it? And how do we know if it’s an impediment to our service that we should resist and try to overcome? Well, as a sort of a working answer, I would say that we can try to overcome the situation, or I could say the obstacle, and see where that gets us. I mean, I saw both in Srila Prabhupada. And not only did I see both, but I saw the subtleties in his motivation. And I’m thinking specifically of the battle in relation to the Juhu Land.

Sometimes he would talk about giving up the struggle to get the permission and build the temple, and he said, “We’ll make Hare Krishna Land into a bus stop and we’ll fill up our buses with devotees and books and send them out to distribute books.” And sometimes he said, “Actually, I was not so eager for this land. We could get land anywhere. But I couldn’t bear the thought that the Deities; Radha and Krishna, Radha-Rasabihari, would be sent away, that would be a great insult to them.”

But sometimes he would talk about leaving the land. And I remember one of our, we would say congregation devotees, we didn’t really have much of a congregation, but they were supporters. They lived not far from Juhu, in Vile Parle. And they wrote Prabhupada, they were concerned that he was going to give up the land, and Srila Prabhupada wrote back, “I will be the last person to give up this land to the demon Nair.”

So, sometimes he would weigh different possibilities and consider different options. But when something was really important to him, he wouldn’t give up, he was tenacious. And there was one incident, a very interesting little story. So, there was an old, dilapidated cottage, you could say, two stories, right where we wanted to build the Deity room. And the owner of that little house lived down the street, he was a Hindu but he was quite a character, sort of tamasic and very volatile.

And so, I said, “Well, how much do you want? We’ll pay you.” We started at ten thousand rupees, which was sort of reasonable, and then he suddenly went to twenty, out of nowhere. And then he said, “I want to speak to your guru. I want to discuss it personally with your guru.” So, all right, Prabhupada came and we went to the man’s house, and he was a peculiar character but he was asking Prabhupada, “How much are you willing to pay?” And Prabhupada was saying, “How much do you want?” And the man would say, “No, how much are you willing to pay?” And Prabhupada was saying, “No, how much do you want?”

And the man was, as I mentioned, very volatile, he was getting red in the face and we didn’t know what was going to come of this meeting. And he said, “How much are you willing to pay?” And Prabhupada said, “No, how much do you want?” Finally, the man blurted out thirty thousand, which was way more than it was worth, and Prabhupada immediately agreed, “Yes, thirty thousand.” And then, as we were leaving the man’s house, Srila Prabhupada said, “For my whole life, if I ever really wanted something, I was ready to pay anything for it.” In that case, because Krishna was there, he just, like he said, couldn’t bear the thought of Krishna being driven away, it would have been too much of an insult.

And then, there was another little incident, much afterwards, after we got the land and everything. He was sitting in his room, and he was just sort of wondering to himself about this lawyer Diwanji, who was our lawyer but he ended up being in cahoots with Nair. And he said, “I just couldn’t understand Diwanji, I thought he was our friend.” And then he said, “Or maybe Krishna didn’t want me to understand.” So, I mean, a lot goes on, of course, with pure devotees, a lot goes on and even with us aspiring devotees, different things are going on.

But yes, I guess it’s a subjective call, but I would say we resist it, to our capacity, we fight it. But at a certain point, if we see the circumstances are not changing, then we take it, “Whatever, it’s Krishna’s desire.”

And just on that point of different moods, different attitudes, I think this was during the war with Pakistan in 1971. So, the president of Pakistan was Yahya Khan. So, someone asked Srila Prabhupada, maybe a reporter, “If Yahya Khan came to bomb you or kill you, what would you think?” And he said, “I would think that Krishna has come in the form of Yahya Khan to kill me.” Sort of like Maharaja Parīkṣit’s boon. But then another time, I guess a reporter asked him, “What if someone attacked you? What would you do? Would you take any action?” He said, “Yes, why should I let some nonsense harm Krishna’s devotee?” So, seemingly the opposite.

Good question.

Gopal Gupta: Thank you very much, Maharaja. And thank you for the very clarifying answer.

Giriraj Swami: My pleasure, my pleasure.

Devotee: Guru Maharaja, a few devotees have said that the chat is disabled, so they’re unable to raise. . . Just a few devotees texted me that it’s disabled somehow, the chat. Just so you know.

Host: Okay. So, let me check. I’ll check on that in a minute. Meanwhile, I’ll just read out the question from Lalita Mataji, she was having some trouble unmuting herself so she requested me to please read it out.

Giriraj Swami: Is this by chance Lalita from Columbus?

Host: Yes, yes, Guru Maharaja. So, the question goes like this: “In the earlier verse, Srila Prabhupada says that one may not request Krishna for anything. But being a grihastha, Kunti devi requests for help with cutting the ties of biological affection. Far away that we are from Kunti devi, we may request Krishna almost all the time for so many things, sometimes just to get through the day remembering Him or for an insight into a particular situation or to reveal one’s own anarthas in particular situations or in general. Just being able to address Krishna almost constantly may be the only thing that keeps us sane. Please give your precious guidance.”

Giriraj Swami: Well, you should approach Krishna and remain sane. I don’t see any problem with any of the questions that you put to Krishna or any of the requests that you made to Krishna. I think they’re all fine.

Host: Okay. And the chat should be open now. I just tried it out, I was able to do a couple of chats.

Giriraj Swami:  Prithi Radhika is raising her hand.

Host: Yeah, we have a question from [Unintelligible 00:59:12] Prabhu, go ahead and unmute yourself, and you can ask the question.

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Prabhuji. So, my question is a little bit off topic. So, for a long time, I had a question about the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. Why does Hare Krishna come before Hare Rama?

Giriraj Swami: Do you feel that Hare Rama should come before Hare Krishna?

Devotee: No, I was just wondering.

Giriraj Swami: It’s just the way it is.

Devotee: Is there any reason for that?

Giriraj Swami: It’s the way God made it. I mean, there are people who chant Hare Rama first, and I heard an explanation in India, that Hare Rama comes first in the Vedas and that only brahmans are allowed to chant Vedic mantras. So, in order to allow everyone to chant, they made Hare Krishna first. I’m not sure if that’s accurate because in the Kali-santaraṇa Upaniṣad, the mantra appears and Hare Krishna comes first.

Devotee: I actually googled several times, maybe somebody put some kind of explanation, but I couldn’t find anything about why it’s like that.

Giriraj Swami: How much do you chant?

Devotee: Yes.

Giriraj Swami: How much do you chant?

Devotee: I don’t count, but it was just keeping it in my heart and my mind every time. So, while I’m driving or I’m at work, it was just going on and on and on.

Giriraj Swami: Well, I would suggest you get some chanting beads, japa-mālā. Do you have japa-mālā?

Devotee: Yes, I do. I tried but that way, my brain goes towards the japa-mālā and not towards the maha-mantra. So, I thought, Okay, I don’t want to divide my mind at the two different places while I’m chanting. So, I just stopped chanting on the japa-mālā and I just kept chanting.

Giriraj Swami: Okay.

Devotee: It was very difficult for me to concentrate in two places.

Giriraj Swami: But you say now you chant while you’re driving or at work?

Devotee: Yeah, yeah. My drive is about an hour and fifteen minutes each way, so I sometimes loudly chant it by myself, and sometimes I put on a phone and chant with the phone. And most of the time, I heard the lectures from Gaura Gopal dasa from the Juhu temple. So, the chanting just keeps coming, I don’t count, it just keeps running internally.

Giriraj Swami: Okay, well, I guess you have your own way of chanting, and I guess you could have your own way of saying the mantra too. You could say Hare Rama first.

Devotee: Thank you, Prabhuji.

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Guru Maharaja. I don’t really have a question, but if you can elaborate kindly on something. You mentioned that we should make Krishna the center. But for eons and many previous births, we are accustomed to making ourselves as center, and that’s the reason we are here in the first place, because we wanted to enjoy separately from Krishna. So, can you elaborate? And this is very hope-giving and encouraging that with practice and by striving, we can get there. So, can you please elaborate a little bit more on the practice aspect of that?

Giriraj Swami: Well, it’s our regular practice of bhakti- yoga, because that progression ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo ‘tha bhajana-kriyā that Rupa Gosvami gives in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, and then Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura explains that when we come to ruci, then we do naturally think more of Krishna than of ourselves. In fact, there’s a lower stage of ruci and a higher stage of ruci. And in the higher stage, just like now we’re chanting and our mind wanders and we don’t know how it left the holy name or how it got to where it is, but when you’re more advanced, your mind might wander, and then it comes back right away, and you don’t know how it came back but it just came back.

So, we just have to persevere. And I just heard Srila Prabhupada speak about the six items favorable for devotional service from Upadeśāmṛta. So, utsāha, enthusiasm, first is enthusiasm. So, without enthusiasm, we can’t be successful at anything. Utsāhān niścayād dhairyāt, confident, patient. Srila Prabhupada said that enthusiasm without patience can lead to a desire to control, and patience without enthusiasm can lead to lethargy. So, we need both. Tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt, to follow the rules and regulations. And sato vṛtteḥ, to associate with devotees. Ṣaḍbhir bhaktiḥ prasidhyati, these six items assure the success of devotional service.

I mean, you referred to your conditioning, lifetimes of conditioning, but whatever it is, Krishna’s more powerful than your conditioning. Daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā, “This material energy which consists of the three modes is very difficult to overcome,” but mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te, “One who surrenders to Me can easily overcome it.” You just have to surrender to Krishna.

Devotee: Thank you, Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Surrender to the process.

Host: All right. We got a question from Priksha Mataji.

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Maharaja. Thank you for such a wonderful class. My question is, Maharaja, just like there are two different kinds of students in a classroom. The teacher is giving the same content to both of them, and one of the children is getting 100 percent marks, and the other one is failing. So, the difference is the difference of intelligence or the sincerity of listening to the teacher. In the same way, how do I increase my sincerity or my enthusiasm in hearing rather than listening to kṛṣṇa-kathā or Krishna’s holy name? Yes, I hope I explained my question.

Giriraj Swami: Well, you mentioned two elements. One was enthusiasm. And Srila Prabhupada says that enthusiasm comes from following all the rules and regulations and chanting the holy name. So, if you do that, your enthusiasm should increase. And what was the other thing that you asked for? Enthusiasm and?

Devotee: I mean, how to get that enthusiasm in hearing? That was my question. And to get the sincerity.

Giriraj Swami: Oh, sincerity, right, right, sincerity. So yeah, Srila Prabhupada gave different answers about sincerity. One answer was similar to the answer about enthusiasm, one answer was to follow all of the spiritual master’s instructions, however big or small. That’s sincerity. And another answer he gave was to associate with sincere people, devotees, and then you’ll become sincere.

Devotee: Thank you. Thank you, Maharaja.

Devotee: Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotee: This is Mimi. Thank you, Maharaja. I just want to say I cannot leave any questions and it’s locked, and the other thing is that the sound sometimes is not clear, so we can’t hear you many times that you’re saying some valuable things that we’re missing out. I just wanted to share that, and I wasn’t able to share it by chatting, so I had to unmute myself to tell you that.

Giriraj Swami: Okay. Well, someone pointed that out yesterday, so I’ve ordered an external microphone from Amazon, which should make it easier to hear me, it should make my voice more consistently clear.

Devotee: Thank you, wonderful.

Giriraj Swami: And yeah, I’ll try to stay closer to the screen.

Devotee: Can I ask a question while I’m up here?

Giriraj Swami: Okay.

Devotee: I wanted to ask you regarding the relationship between family members who are not necessarily Krishna conscious. You were talking about relating to them without the physical connection but more through the Supersoul and the spiritual connection so we don’t get attached. But yet, if we could look at family members or people who are in your life and have them in your life connected and not attached through the external body but more through the Supersoul or the soul.

Giriraj Swami: Are you asking a question?

Devotee: Yes, how is that exactly? How do you do that?

Giriraj Swami: Well, I mean, in your case, although your family members are not devotees, they’re very supportive of your Krishna consciousness, so I think that’s good. And certainly, as a devotee, you see them as spirit souls. I don’t know what their spiritual understanding is but they’re supportive of you, so that will help them progress spiritually, just them being supportive of you, that will make them progress, so I think it’s fine.

Devotee: Thank you, thank you.

Host: I apologize, I finally figured out how to enable the chat so it’s my fault, I’m so sorry about that but it should be open now in case anybody has a question. Looks like Amrita Gopi Mataji has a question, so please go ahead, Mataji.

Amrita Gopi Mataji: Hare Krishna, Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Amrita Gopi Mataji: My humble obeisance to you. Here in the last paragraph of the purport, it says, “The skin relation is the cause of material bondage,” you see. And I read somewhere in the book that devotees are encouraged to raise a family, raise Krishna conscious children. Is that a material bondage when we are supposed to have a family?

Giriraj Swami: Not necessarily, not necessarily.

Devotee: Sometimes, I am confused if something blockage for the devotional service, then why are devotees encouraged to raise a family? The larger the family is, the more the material bondage?

Giriraj Swami: It depends, it doesn’t have to be. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura had many children and he was very Krishna conscious and he produced Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura who never married and obviously never had any children. So, we have both examples.

Devotee: I see. So, having a large family isn’t always necessarily a bondage?

Giriraj Swami: No, no. It’s the quality of the family members.