SB 2.3.17 – Utilizing Time Intelligently

Giriraj Swami: Before I speak on today’s verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, I will respond to some of Radha Krishna Prabhu’s introduction. I joined the Boston temple, and Satsvarupa dasa Adhikari then, was the editor of Back to Godhead magazine, and he wanted articles. So, I wrote one called, “The genuine spiritual master,” and because of the time it took for the magazine to actually be printed with the article, I was already in India with Srila Prabhupada, in Gorakhpur. And the magazine came and Srila Prabhupada called for me and he said, “I have read your article. It is very nice. You should write. You should take up writing as your first business.” And he said, as Radha Krishna Prabhu said, “You can travel with me, and I will train you.”

And then he asked, “Do you ever think of getting married?” And I said, “Not really, except I see that the GBCs are married.” And I thought that the GBCs were on a higher level. When I said that, Srila Prabhupada replied, “You will never be GBC.” And he said, “The sex urge is like an itching sensation, and if you scratch it, you might get a little relief, but after the scratching, it comes back worse.” So, it is better to tolerate, and he said not only the sex urge but all the demands of the body, it is better to tolerate, and then they will subside.

So, in those days, writing was done with pen and paper. So, I went out and bought some paper and it was in my mind to write, and then, as Radha Krishna Prabhu mentioned, Shyamasundara Prabhu was arranging for the first Hare Krishna festival at Cross Maidan, and so I and a few devotees who I was with went to Bombay. Now, Shyamasundara Prabhu wanted me to collect ads for the souvenir, and I said, “Srila Prabhupada said that I should write.” And Shyamasundara Prabhu said, “You can do that anytime, but this is one time that you can walk into any man’s office and ask for an ad for our souvenir book, and he won’t have to pay out of his own pocket, it will come from the business. So, you should raise ads for the souvenir, and then you can write.” And I was quite successful at it.

Then Srila Prabhupada came and he went into his room. This was the Akash Ganga building on Warden Road, and he would sit on his asana behind his table, and he would glance lovingly at all the devotees and exchange some words with them. And when he came to me, he said, “So, Giriraj, how is your writing going?” And I was flustered. I did not know what to say. Then, Srila Prabhupada said, “All right, we will discuss later.”

So, after all the devotees left the room, Srila Prabhupada called for me and said, “How is your writing going?” And I said, “Frankly, Srila Prabhupada, I haven’t been writing because Shyamasundara Prabhu said that I should raise funds for the pandal program. And what he said made sense, and you wanted us to cooperate with our authorities, so I did what he said.” But when I presented my explanation to Srila Prabhupada, I wasn’t sure how he would respond. I was quite anxious. And Srila Prabhupada responded, “That’s alright. You can temporarily suspend the order of the spiritual master, but you can never neglect it.” And then he said the same thing, that his Guru Maharaja ordered him to write, but he has been so busy traveling and preaching, he hasn’t had much time. So, over the years, Srila Prabhupada did repeat his instructions to me to write.

And many of you know there was a big struggle to get the land in Juhu, which is now known as Hare Krishna Land. There was a big struggle, and finally, the land came in Srila Prabhupada’s name, ISKCON’s name, and because we did not really have any proper facility on the land where Srila Prabhupada could stay, we had arranged for him to stay in a bungalow near the beach, which belonged to the [Unintelligible 00:25:01]. So, Srila Prabhupada was staying there.

And it was a momentous occasion when the land was being signed over, the registrar, out of respect for Srila Prabhupada, came from the city, and he was there, and Mrs. Nair signed over the land. Then there was a feast. It was a good feast, the devotees went out into the next room, you could say, and they had the feast. Srila Prabhupada personally oversaw the serving.

Then after the feast, he went back into his room, and I went back in, and he sort of reclined on his bolster and he said, “It was a good fight. Someone should write a book about it.” And the combination of his instructing me to write and saying that someone should write a book about this, and my being the only devotee being intimately involved with the project from the beginning to end, so I did that, and the result is this book called I Will Build You a Temple: The Juhu Story, which has a beautiful foreword written by His Holiness Radhanath Swami Maharaja.

So now, we can move on to today’s verse, because we are observing the passage of time. One year has passed, 2022, now we are beginning 2023, so I chose a verse that relates to the passage of time.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

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

So, we are all very engaged in devotional service, but the clock is ticking, the sun is rising and setting, our duration of life is being shortened. And therefore, Srila Prabhupada says, “Utilizing the human form of life to realize our lost relationship with the Supreme Lord by acceleration of devotional service.” Accelerate means to go faster. Just like in a car there is a pedal called the accelerator; whenever you want to go faster, you step on it. So, we want to accelerate our devotional service because we don’t know how much time we have.

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 in speaking in the language of his audience, and one of his friends and supporters in Bombay was Sri Brijratan Mohatta, who had been the wealthiest man in what later became Pakistan, and he was married to the daughter of Sri R.D. Birla. The Birlas were the wealthiest family in India. And Srila Prabhupada told him, “In the ledger of your life, any time used in Krishna consciousness is profit, and any time used outside of Krishna consciousness is loss.” So, any businessman, or any person, wants to maximize his profit, and minimize his loss. So, Srila Prabhupada said, “In the ledger of your life, any time used in Krishna consciousness is profit, and any time used outside of Krishna consciousness is loss.”

PURPORT (continued)

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

COMMENT

At the time of death, if we want to extend our life by spending any amount of money, we will not be able to do so, which means that our time is so valuable, as Srila Prabhupada writes,
“Even a fraction of the duration of life wasted cannot be compensated by any amount of gold.” Even if you are ready to spend any amount of money, you cannot buy back the time you lost, or you cannot buy more time. So, our time is so valuable.

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

This is why we have the human form of life.

PURPORT (continued)

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

COMMENT

How many of you want to be happy?

Devotees: Haribol!

Giriraj Swami: Everyone. We all want to be happy.

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, Srila Prabhupada gave the example of a fish out of water. If you take a fish out of water, even if you put it in a beautiful golden bowl and fill the bowl with precious jewels and gems, and light incense, and spray perfume, the fish will not be happy, because the fish is the creature of the water, and it can be happy only in the water. So, similarly, we are creatures of the spirit, and we can be happy only in the spiritual atmosphere, and no matter how we try to pamper the body and give pleasure to the senses, we, the spirit soul, jiva, will not be happy, because we can be happy only in the spiritual atmosphere.

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

We say, “Chant and be happy.”

PURPORT (continued)

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, we want to be happy, but we can be happy only in spiritual activities. Spiritual activities mean devotional service, bhakti-yoga, especially chanting and hearing about the Lord, His name, His forms, His qualities, His pastimes, His pure devotees, His paraphernalia. And that will enliven us and purify us and make us happy.

PURPORT (continued)

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. 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, the greatest fear, as Srila Prabhupada explains in the purport to the verse that he just cited, is that we will fall down into a lower species of life. But if we make a beginning in devotional service, there is no chance that we will fall down into a lower species of life. Whatever progress we make in this life will continue in the next life. Whatever we acquire in this life, materially, will be lost at the time of death. For example, one may be very expert in various languages, but after he dies, when he takes birth, he does not know any language, just, “Ga, ga, ga, ga, ga,” just like any ignorant baby.

So, whatever we acquire materially is lost at the time of death, but whatever progress we make spiritually continues in the next life. So, in this life, if we make 1 percent progress, in the next life, we begin from 2 percent. And I mean, Srila Prabhupada says here, “Endeavors in devotional service are never baffled. Nor is there failure.” And in the purport in The Nectar of Instruction, Srila Rupa Gosvami’s Upadeśāmṛta, Srila Prabhupada says that devotional service is so pure and perfect that once having begun the process, one is forcibly dragged to ultimate success.

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. Aural. . .

COMMENT

That is A U R A L, aural.

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

So, the verse is very striking, “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.” So, this seems like a surprising statement, so how is it that the rising and setting of the sun do not decrease the duration of life of a devotee? And the answer is that by utilizing his time in uttama-śloka-vārtayā—in topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead, one approaches his eternal life with Krishna, and therefore, the rising and the setting of the sun do not decrease his duration of life, but actually, he is approaching eternal life.

PURPORT (continued)

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

In the Thirteenth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, Sri Krishna mentions janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam. It is part of the process of knowledge to be aware of the miseries of birth, death, old age, and disease. To be oblivious of these miseries is ignorance.

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.

COMMENT

If you are looking for a good investment, I don’t think you can get a better return.

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, 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, veda-pāraga, one who has factually realized the path of the Vedas. As Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ, that by the Vedas, He is to be known. Yes, Srila Prabhupada says. . .

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

So now, if the money is given to a veda-pāraga, such as Srila Prabhupada, one who has factually realized the path of the Vedas, it is returned by unlimited multiplication. So, how is that possible, because everything in the material world is limited? So, to get the return on one’s investment in unlimited multiplication, one must go to the spiritual world, and that is the result of serving a pure devotee with contributing Lakshmi.

When Srila Prabhupada was in Hong Kong, he was received at the airport in a Rolls Royce limousine, and then he was taken to the penthouse suite, the fanciest suite in the Hong Kong Hilton hotel for a press conference. And one of the reporters asked Srila Prabhupada, “You are supposed to be a spiritual person. Why were you riding in a Rolls-Royce car?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “You are right, I am a resident of the spiritual world, and everything in the spiritual world is made of cintāmaṇi gems, so even if they pick me up in a solid gold Rolls-Royce car, it would not have been good enough. So, you are asking why I rode in a Rolls-Royce limousine, the answer is it was the best they could offer, so I had to accept it.” And then, when Srila Prabhupada came to Juhu, he told me the whole story, and at the end he said, “What else can you say to such envious people?” So, unlimited multiplication means the spiritual world.

PURPORT (continued)

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. 

COMMENT

So, it is very interesting how Srila Viswanatha Cakravarti Thakura brought in these quotations from the smriti shastras, about how money given in charity is returned, to relate to the point that if one engages one’s time in chanting and hearing about Krishna, uttama-śloka-vārtayā, one is guaranteed eternal life.

PURPORT (continued)

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

This is a line from the Bhagavad-gītā, in which Lord Krishna says that one who reaches His supreme eternal abode never has to take birth again in this miserable material 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

So, old age and disease are miseries that we tend to want to avoid, but they serve a purpose. As Srila Prabhupada says, they are an impetus to one’s eternal life, because when one suffers from disease or old age, one realizes that the material world is not a happy place, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam, it is a place of misery and temporary. And therefore, we should utilize our time, uttama-śloka-vārtayā, in topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead, which will bring us to our eternal life with Krishna. So, a devotee’s old age or disease in the present life is but an impetus to such guaranteed eternal life.

So now, we have passed another year, we are beginning the New Year. And generally, people make New Year’s resolutions, although they don’t always follow them. There was a. . . Anyway, we won’t go into that, but we can resolve to utilize our time in topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead and revive our eternal life with Krishna. And in the present age of Kali-yuga, it is especially recommended.

harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā

One should chant the holy names, chant the holy names, chant the holy names of Hare Krishna. There is no other way, no other way, no other way for success in this age of Kali. So, as Srila Prabhupada said in one talk in Los Angeles, if you have got time, chant Hare Krishna. Don’t speak nonsense, chant Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.

So, thank you very much for hearing so patiently and attentively, and now, if any of you want to ask any questions or have any comments, want to share any reflections?

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Maharaja. Thank you very much for being with us. So, in the beginning of your lecture, you said that somebody who has started the path of devotion, nehābhikrama-nāśo ‘sti, the greatest danger of sliding down to the lower species does not exist. So, when somebody like Maharaja Bharata goes back to the animal kingdom, is that a special circumstance, or what is it? Can you please explain that?

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, that’s a good question. As you begin to ask the question, I thought of Bharata Maharaja. Yes, Bharata Maharaja’s case was special. He was very advanced, he had come to the stage of bhāva, and he was so renounced that he could leave his kingdom and go into the forest. And in the forest, somehow, he gave shelter to a deer. The mother had just given birth to the deer and then the mother died, and Bharata Maharaja, out of compassion, gave shelter to the deer. And he cared for the deer in every respect, and unfortunately, his consciousness became absorbed in the deer. And then at the time of death, he thought of the deer, and then in his next life, he took birth as a deer.

But it wasn’t an ordinary birth as an animal. He was given the boon that he could remember his previous life. And so, he resided at the same place where he had his ashram, and he was aware of what he had done wrong that caused him to take birth as a deer, and then in his next life, his last life, he took birth as Jada Bharata, and remembering what has happened in his previous life, he was extremely careful not to become attached to anything other than Krishna and devotional service.

And it’s a wonderful story, actually. In general, we should read Srila Prabhupada’s books, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and it’s a very nice section. But yeah, that was a special, special case. He did not take birth as an ordinary animal. I mean, we also have the case of Manigriva and Nala Kuvera, what to speak of taking birth as an animal, they took birth as trees. But again, it wasn’t an ordinary birth as trees, but they were given the boon of being able to remember their previous life, and ultimately, to be delivered by Krishna. So, that was a good question.

Devotee: Maharaja, Hare Krishna. I took the phrase from Srila Prabhupada’s purport, “Accelerate devotional service.” It’s a very good phrase to really meditate upon. And so, when we think of acceleration, devotees are already doing some devotional service, they are already engaged in some form of sevā to the mission, to Srila Prabhupada, etc. So, acceleration could mean quantity, it could mean quality. So, in terms of quantity, the time is the factor, you cannot just keep increasing your services infinitely because you are bound by the time, and the body, etc. I would like to ask the question about how I can really accelerate in terms of quality of devotional service.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, that’s a very good point. Our main process is the chanting of the holy names, and in Queen Kunti’s prayers, she says that one who is on the path of material advancement cannot chant with feeling. And in the purport, Srila Prabhupada writes that it is stated in shastra that by chanting the holy name of the Lord, one can eradicate the reactions to more sins than he can commit.

And Srila Prabhupada writes that there is not the least exaggeration in such statements, but there is a quality to the chanting. And again, if one is on the path of material progress, he cannot chant with such quality, such feeling. But if one feels oneself devoid, [Unintelligible 01:14:28], without material possessions, or without sense of false proprietorship, then he can chant with feeling, with quality. So, we can accelerate our devotional progress by improving the quality of our chanting and other services.

Any other questions or comments? Yes?

Devotee: Hare Krishna. Daṇḍavat-praṇāmās, Maharaja. Not about today’s class, but I have a question about Prahlada Maharaja. He was told that his seven generations would be liberated, but he was a pure devotee. So, someone who is a practicing devotee and whose parent is not a devotee, how can we benefit them?

Giriraj Swami: Can you repeat the question? Speak a little more slowly, please. Slowly, I need to be spoken slowly.

Devotee: Please accept my humble obeisances, Maharaja. Thank you for today’s class. I have a question about Prahlada Maharaja, who was given the benediction that his seven generations will be liberated, because he was a pure devotee and a mahājana. But someone who is a practicing devotee, who has not yet perfected his or her devotional service, and has lost a parent who was not a devotee, so how can that person benefit his parent, is my question?

Giriraj Swami: Yes. Just by being a devotee, you may not be a perfect devotee, but you are a devotee, your parents get great benefit. In fact, there was a talk in which Srila Prabhupada spoke about the benefit that the parents of devotees get, and he cited the example, he had one disciple named Kartikeya, and Kartikeya’s mother was an ordinary American woman, who would go to parties and dance, and different things. And at the time of her death, her son was present, and she said, “Is your Krishna here now?” And then she left her body.

And Srila Prabhupada gave that as an example of how the parents of devotees benefit. And he went on to say that however renounced a devotee may be, but still, he or she will sometimes think of his or her parents, and that is beneficial for the parents. And Srila Prabhupada also said, “The parents of my disciples will realize their good fortune at the time of their passing away.” So, there is no doubt that the parents of devotees will get immense benefit, even if the devotee is not on the level of Prahlada Maharaja. Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Maharaja. Thank you for a wonderful class. Maharaja, in the lecture, the translation says that the time that is not glorifying the Supreme Personality of Godhead is just a waste of time. So, as grihasthas, we are spending morning and evening in earning money, in material consciousness, and we are hardly getting time for spiritual activity. So, how to see that the time is not wasted, or how to utilize that time also in glorifying Krishna?

Giriraj Swami: Nice. Well, you are married, you have responsibilities. You are earning money, but your life, in principle, is dedicated to Krishna. And so, the time you spend earning money is ultimately used in Krishna’s service, to support your Krishna conscious lifestyle, to support your family’s Krishna conscious lifestyle. But even then, I mean, I don’t know what kind of work you do, but some devotees are able, even at work, to listen to kirtan, and lectures, and during their lunch break, they chant or listen.

But yeah, whatever time we can use directly for hearing and chanting about Krishna, we should. And even otherwise, the time we spend earning money to support our Krishna conscious lifestyles doesn’t go in vain. It is not a waste of time, but it is sort of gathering the ingredients for the yajña. Gathering the ingredients is necessary to perform the yajña. I mean, one might say, “Well, gathering the ingredients is not spiritual,” but it is necessary for the yajña, and it culminates in the yajña. So, your work will culminate in your and your family’s Krishna consciousness.