SB 2.3.17 – Time is Our Most Valuable Asset

Host: So, we are so lucky and so blessed to have amongst us His Holiness Giriraj Maharaja. Now, I would like to request the Port Colony devotees to offer virtual ārati and garland to Maharaja.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja, accept our humble obeisances.

Now we are offering ārati to Giriraj Swami Maharaja. So, I would like to request our Parth Mitra Krishna Prabhu, he offering the ārati.

Host: Hare Krishna. Thank you very much, Port Colony devotees. So now, I would like to give a very brief introduction of Maharaja. His Holiness Giriraj Swami Maharaja is a disciple of His Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. He was born in a very aristocratic family of Teton clan on September 13, 1947, and his previous name was Glen Philip Teton. He was the only son of Alfred B Teton, who was a sitting judge then.

Then, in March 1969, while studying at Brandeis University, Maharaja met Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and took initiation from him. He has helped immensely in establishing Srila Prabhupada’s mission. In 1972, Maharaja was appointed by Srila Prabhupada as the president of ISKCON Bombay and as a trustee of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Since then, he has made many significant contributions in the development of Hare Krishna Land in Juhu, Bhaktivedanta Ashram in Govardhana, kirtan Ashram for devotees in women body, Bhaktivedanta Hospice, and Vrindavan Institute of Palliative Care in Vrindavan. Maharaja was appointed as GBC and preached and guided the devotees of Paris, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, California, and many other places in the world. Maharaja has also received personal instructions from Srila Prabhupada to write. He is the author of many books, like Watering the Seed, Many Moons—Reflections on Departed Vaishnavas, Life’s Final Exam: Death and Dying from the Vedic Perspective, and I’ll Build You a Temple: The Juhu Story.

So, we are very fortunate to have Maharaja amongst us. Hare Krishna. So, I would like to request Maharaja, please give us your blessings.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. So, I will begin by singing the maṅgala-ācaraṇa prayers and leading a short kirtan, and then I will speak on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

[Prayer and kirtan]

Hare Krishna my dear devotees, now I will read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Three, “Pure Devotional Service,” Text Seventeen.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya,

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya,

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

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, the clock is ticking; time is passing. Therefore, we want to accelerate our devotional service. We want to go faster in devotional service.

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. He had a friend in Bombay named Brijratan Mohatta, who was a very wealthy man. He was married to R D Birla’s daughter. Srila Prabhupada said to him that any time utilized in Krishna consciousness is profit, and any time spent outside of Krishna consciousness is loss. Any businessman or anyone in general will want to maximize his profit and minimize his loss. Srila Prabhupada said any time used in Krishna consciousness is profit, and any time spent 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, you may be prepared to spend any amount of money to extend the duration of your life, but you cannot do so. That means that the time that we have in our life is our most valuable asset, and therefore we should use it in the best way, in Krishna consciousness.

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

COMMENT

The Vedanta-Sutra says ānandamayo ‘bhyāsāt: the absolute truth is by nature full of bliss. And we are part and parcel of the absolute truth, and our natural condition is to be happy.

PURPORT (continued)

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

Srila Prabhupada would give the example of a fish out of water. If you take a fish out of water, the fish can never be happy. Even if you put the fish in a golden bowl and fill the bowl with precious gems and jewels, the fish will not be happy because the fish is a creature of the water and can be happy only in the water. We are spiritual beings, and we can be happy only in the spiritual atmosphere, not in the material atmosphere.

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.” 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 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

As spirit souls, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, we are eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss. But when the living entity is covered by the material body, he experiences the opposite because the material body is asat (temporary), a-cid (full of ignorance), and nirānanda (without bliss or knowledge).

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

So, if you are looking for a good investment, I don’t think you can do better than this.

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 the money is given to a veda-pāraga, it is returned by unlimited multiplication. Everything in the material world is limited, so to receive an unlimited return suggests that one will receive it in the spiritual world. When Srila Prabhupada was in Hong Kong, he was received at the airport in a Rolls-Royce limousine and then taken to the penthouse suite of the Hong Kong Hilton for a press conference. During the press conference, one reporter asked, “You are supposed to be a spiritual person. Why were you riding in a Rolls-Royce?” Prabhupada replied, “I am a resident of the spiritual world, and in the spiritual world, everything is made of cintāmaṇi gems or spiritual gems. So even if they had collected me in a solid gold Rolls-Royce or a solid diamond Rolls-Royce, it would not have been good enough. The answer to your question is that was the best they could offer, so I accepted it.” The idea is that to receive the unlimited multiplication, one will receive it in the spiritual world. In the material world, everything is limited, but in the spiritual world, we can receive our unlimited reward.

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. Mad-dhāma gatvā punar janma na vidyate.

COMMENT

That is a line from the Bhagavad-gītā in which Lord Krishna says that one who attains His abode never has to take birth again.

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

Nobody likes old age, nobody likes disease, but old age and disease can serve as an impetus for us to realize our eternal life with Krishna because they remind us that the material world is not a happy place, that the physical body is not a suitable environment. Thus, a devotee’s old age or disease in the present life is but an impetus to such guaranteed eternal life because they remind us that we should not be satisfied in this physical body in this material world. But we should utilize our time in Krishna consciousness so that we can attain our eternal life. In this age of Kali-yuga, it is recommended,

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

“That 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 the present age of Kali-yuga.”

As Srila Prabhupada said in a talk in Los Angeles, “If you have got time, chant Hare Krishna. Don’t waste time, don’t speak nonsense, chant Hare Krishna.” So, we should use our time in, uttama-śloka-vārtayā, topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead and in chanting the holy names of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

So, my dear devotees, thank you for listening so patiently and attentively. If any of you have any questions or comments, you can raise your hand—your physical hand or your virtual hand. Yes, Sriman Rudra‘s hand is up.

Sriman Rudra: Maharaja, thank you so much for your humble presentation and holy association to us. Please accept my humble obeisances. I have a question. Sometimes we see some materialistic people’s lifespan is so long, although they don’t practice krishna-bhakti at all. On the other hand, some devotees serving guru and Krishna very nicely, being engaged in Krishna consciousness, depart from this planet very shortly. My question is, why does this happen, and how should we take this dual behavior according to this verse?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, there is a verse in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that says that even a moment of perfection is worth many years of life lived in vain. The quantity of one’s life is not so important, but what is important is the quality of one’s life. And, of course, the best quality of life is Krishna consciousness. So, we shouldn’t worry that a materialistic person lives a long life or that a devotee has a short life, because as we read in the verse, the devotee is preparing for his eternal life. So, it doesn’t really matter so much how long he spends in the present body. Does that address your concern?

Sriman Rudra: Yes, Maharaja, I got the point. Thank you so much. Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Hare Krishna. So, Maharaja, Kaushik Prabhu asked how to balance money and bhakti because, in this material world, we need money always. Even in devotional service, we constantly need money. So, how to balance money and devotional life at the same time?

Giriraj Swami: How do you personally make money?

Devotee: Online Income. Freelancing.

Giriraj Swami: Right. Well, you yourself use the term balance, and balance is very important. The main thing is to keep our Krishna consciousness, and you should not see your earning money as separate from Krishna consciousness because you are using the money to maintain your Krishna conscious lifestyle. So your earning is also part of your effort to be Krishna conscious. But, of course, you should keep enough time for chanting your rounds and reading scripture and engaging in activities that are directly Krishna conscious. Beyond that, you spend some time to earn money. Srila Prabhupada said the money is the honey.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja, we are so much happy to have your divine association. We are so much fortunate. So my question is that whenever we get any association of your devotees, or we are in the devotee association, we get nourishment through the different spiritual classes. We feel very enthusiastic, and we can chant the holy name very attentively. But later on, we don’t get this intention or attention in the chanting of the holy name; we lose it. So my question is, how can we have the consistency in the continuous progress of hearing and chanting the holy name? How can I get it?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, well, chanting japa early in the morning is most recommended. Just today, I was reading where Srila Prabhupada spoke about the brahma-muhūrta, the early hour of the morning that begins an hour and a half before sunrise, and how auspicious they are for spiritual practices. So for good japa, I suggest chanting early in the morning, in front of Tulasi-devi. Our nāmācārya Haridasa Thakura chanted in front of Tulasi-devi. It is good if we have a place where we can chant where we won’t be disturbed by anything else, and we can just focus on our japa with no distractions. And as Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā, whenever and wherever the mind wanders, you should bring it back under the control of the self. So when we are chanting and our mind wanders, we should bring our mind back to the sound of the holy name. There may be a battle, but that battle must be fought. You cannot just surrender to the mind and let it go everywhere while we are chanting.

Devotee: Nimaivar Prabhu asked, some of his family members help him in devotional service, and some of the family members are not helping him. They even don’t want him to progress. What to do right now?

Giriraj Swami: Well, generally, my advice to people who have family members who are not Krishna conscious, is two things. One – we should be happy and two—you should deal with your family members very nicely. And if they see that you are dealing with them nicely and that you are happy, they will think that Krishna consciousness is good. And of course, we pray for them that they will become favorable to krishna-bhakti.

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Maharaja. Ramanidhi Madhava Prabhu is very pleased, very happy to have you among us because you are the most dear brother of his guru Maharaja, His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaja. He requested, he begged, to your lotus feet that please share some of the events that you passed with Srila Prabhupada during Juhu, Bombay.

Giriraj Swami: Well, I have written a whole book about it. It is eight hundred pages long, and it is called I’ll Build You a Temple: The Juhu Story. But since you mentioned my dear godbrother, His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaja, I will read a little of what His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaja said about Mumbai.

READING from I’ll Build You a Temple

Bombay had been a strategic location in Prabhupada’s war against maya. As Jayapataka Swami later said, “For us, Bombay is a very important place, one of the most important with which Prabhupada was connected. Prabhupada said that Vrindavan was his home, Bombay was his office, and Mayapur was his place of worship. Bombay was the most modernized, greatest financial powerhouse in India. It was India’s most Westernized city and was home to the Bollywood movie industry. Hence, Prabhupada wanted to establish a temple there with a mission: to stop the Westernization and to preserve the Krishna consciousness. Sometimes he would tell us how his guru maharaja had ordered him to preach in the West. ‘My guru didn’t specifically order me to preach in India,’ he said, ‘so, whenever I preached in the West I was very successful.’ His idea was to build temples in Vrindavan and Mayapur for his Western devotees to come and visit the holy places, but then, he said, how could he stand by and see India going to hell? He was disturbed by how Indians were losing their culture by following the West and becoming degraded in various ways, forgetting their Krishna consciousness. He said that it was his personal mission to preach in India. Brahmananda recounted that Prabhupada had told him that the Deity Dvarakadhisa in Los Angeles had personally spoken to him and ordered him, ‘You have to go back to India and preach there.’”

So that was His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaja’s discussion of the significance of Bombay.

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Maharaja. Actually, I am a student, and I have joined ISKCON. I just wanted to ask you one question. Sometimes it is very difficult to balance japa and studies. Sometimes, I feel that I am just chanting, chanting, chanting, and a lot of studies are left. What to do in this case?

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. Balance is very important. You must chant, of course, but you also have to study. People may know that you are a devotee of Krishna, so if you do well in your studies, people will think, “Oh, she is an ISKCON member, and she is doing well in her studies, so ISKCON must be good.” And if you don’t do well in your studies, it will reflect badly on ISKCON. So, as you said, you must balance the two, chanting and studying.

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Maharaja. Subal Sakha Prabhu asked that our lifespan is very short. How can we start thinking about vanaprastha ashram from now on? He is a married person, and what type of tendency should we have, what type of consciousness should we have, about vanaprastha ashram?

Giriraj Swami: Well, there are two kinds of vanaprastha. One where the husband stays with the wife, but they devote themselves to Krishna consciousness. In the other vanaprastha situation, the husband is not with the wife. Have you discussed the idea of vanaprastha with your wife?

Devotee: No, Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Well, how old are you?

Devotee: Thirty-two years old.

Giriraj Swami: Thirty-two. Ordinarily, that would be a bit early for vanaprastha ashram. Usually, vanaprastha comes more at the age of fifty. But you can live with your wife like a vanaprastha and be fully devoted to spiritual life.

Devotee: He would like to go for vanaprastha after the age of fifty. But what type of preparation, what type of planning should he start from now?

Giriraj Swami: Well, your wife would need to be protected. Srila Prabhupada says women always have to be protected. So one type of protection is to have some savings, some finances that can support your wife after you take vanaprastha. And then the other way is if you have a grown-up son, then he can look after your wife in your absence. It is nice that you are thinking about it now and thinking how to prepare yourself.

Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Maharaja. Shbham Ghosh Prabhu asked that he goes to bed early and wakes up very early in the morning at 4:00 a.m. and then joins the japa session at 5:00 a.m. with family. He has two sons, one is seven years old and the other is thirteen years old. His question is, is it okay that he also wakes the two sons up early in the morning and makes them chant? Is it a good idea to do so, and should he practice that, or will it harm them in any way?

Giriraj Swami: Well, it depends on how his sons respond. If they respond favorably to getting up early and chanting, that is very good. But if they don’t like it, he should not force them because then they may develop a negative attitude towards chanting and even Krishna consciousness in general.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja, a devotee of twelve years, he asked how to progress in devotional life.

Giriraj Swami: The devotee is twelve years old?

Devotee: Yes, Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: And are his parents Krishna conscious?

Devotee: Yes.

Giriraj Swami: Good. So just as far as possible, get up early, sing the morning prayers, chant japa, study Srila Prabhupada’s books. If possible, distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books. Srila Prabhupada was very pleased when devotees distributed his books. So if you do that, you could get some special mercy from Srila Prabhupada.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja, you quoted from Srila Prabhupada’s purports that we should not waste a single moment of our life without being Krishna conscious. As we are householders, we go to the office, we spend most of our time doing office work and other things, and we are not Krishna conscious there. So is it good for us? Or how can we become 100 percent Krishna conscious being a householder and going to the office?

Giriraj Swami: As I mentioned earlier to another devotee, you have to earn money to support your Krishna conscious lifestyle. So while you are at work, you should make the connection that you am earning money so that you can support your Krishna conscious lifestyle and as far as possible, also contribute to the cause of Krishna consciousness. Don’t think of your work as totally separate from Krishna consciousness but see the connection between your work and Krishna consciousness.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja, His Grace Mukunda Bhakti Prabhu is saying that this program is hosted by Nityananda Sabha, and we are newcomers and you are here to bless us. We are very glad that Nityananda Sabha devotees are connected to ISKCON-Nandan Kanan, which is the first preaching center in Bangladesh. His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaja established a temple at Sri Pundarik dhāma, which is the first temple in Bangladesh. There is also a temple being built in Gadadhar Pandit dhāma. You also joined Krishna consciousness at a very early age. You had a lot of obstacles in your devotional life. How did you overcome all those obstacles? If you could kindly tell us and bless us so that we can also face and overcome all these obstacles that we are facing nowadays. His grace Mukunda Prabhu is having the project of building temples in Gadadhar Pandit dhāma. We are very unfortunate that we did not get the darshan or direct association of Srila Prabhupada, but we are also very fortunate that we are having the association of your Holiness and all the first-generation disciples. We are very much glad.

Giriraj Swami: Well, I wish you all success in your efforts at temple construction. In Juhu, Bombay, we faced many obstacles. Our faith in Srila Prabhupada and our desire to serve him and please him enabled us to face all those obstacles and eventually overcome them. So I am sure by your sincere efforts to serve His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaja, you will get his mercy, and he will empower you in your service.

Devotee: Thank you, Maharaja, for blessing us.

Devotee: We are so grateful for this beautiful class and your auspicious presence among us, Maharaja. I have an inquiry in today’s class. Srila Prabhupada mentioned in purport that we have to give in charity to a brahman. How can we identify a brahman? What is the criteria? I have another question after I get this answer, I will ask another question. Because as householders, we have to perform different yajña in our grihastha life. For example, during annaprasana, we have to choose a brahman. So, at the same time, we have to give charity to them. What is the criteria for choosing a brahman for such occasions? How can we choose? What are the criteria?

Giriraj Swami: Well, a Vaishnava is higher than a brahman, so if you give charity to a Vaishnava, that is the best, and that fulfills the requirement to give in charity to a brahman. Especially if the Vaishnava is a preacher, it is good to support such a Vaishnava. Then you will be blessed for your service.

Devotee: Thank you. My next question is, while working, how can we maintain the attitude that I am working for the satisfaction of God? Because I am working in a very challenging environment, like in the steel mill, the mind gets very disturbed. So how can I maintain the attitude that I am working for the satisfaction of God, for Krishna, for my guru? How can we develop this attitude?

Giriraj Swami: Well, you need money to support your Krishna conscious lifestyle, so when you are working, you should think that you are earning for the sake of supporting your Krishna consciousness at home. To whatever extent possible, if you have extra income, you can give it for spreading Krishna consciousness, for book distribution, or for supporting a temple, and see the connection between your work and your Krishna consciousness.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja, I am ten years old. My question is that at this age, how can I serve the mission of Srila Prabhupada? At this age, what number of rounds should I chant?

Giriraj Swami: How many rounds are you chanting now?

Devotee: He is chanting eight rounds.

Giriraj Swami: So that is good. The authorities recommend you should have a minimum number that you chant every day. If by chance you miss some rounds one day, then you have to make them up. But eight rounds is a good number for you. What was the other question?

Devotee: The other question was, how can I serve Srila Prabhupada’s mission at this age?

Giriraj Swami: Well, if you can distribute books, I think people will be charmed to see a young Vaishnava like you, and they would probably be happy to take books from you. You can go on hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana; you can distribute prasāda and. I think people will be very inspired by your example.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Most of us are householders, and we are trying to progress in our devotional life. Every day, early in the morning from 5:00 a.m., we chant together online on Zoom platform. We are trying to progress in our devotional life and we want your blessings so that we can continue this program till the end of our life. We can chant together even though we are staying in our household and we can progress in our devotional life. There are some activities in ISKCON, and we can also progress in those activities. We need your kind blessings. Please bless us.

Giriraj Swami: Wonderful, beautiful. I wish you all success.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja, we are initiated. We got blessings from guru Maharaja. Sometimes, we miss our daily sixteen rounds of chanting. Sometimes, we make it up the next day, but sometimes we fail to make it up. What should we do so that we don’t miss the daily sixteen rounds?

Giriraj Swami: It is good to have a regular time when you chant your rounds, preferably early in the morning. You should have a schedule that allows you to chant sixteen rounds every day. If by chance you miss some rounds one day, you have to make them up. But you should try to arrange your schedule so you can chant your minimum of sixteen rounds every day.

Devotee: Maharaja, I was just told that we will be seeing a short video of books, so we will be waiting very eagerly for that. So, I would like to draw all of your attention to see that video. Hare Krishna. So, there are two more questions. So, after those, answering those questions, we see the video. Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Wonderful.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja, Amey Krishna dasa Prabhu asked that, “I am the only one who is following devotional life in my house, in my family. I have brothers, and we also have a Durga Temple near our house. My brothers always ask me to donate something in that Durga Temple. They tell me that this is a sthan of dharma, so you must donate there. You are a devotee. What should I do? Sometimes I donate there. Is it okay for me, or is it harmful for my devotional service? What should be done?”

Giriraj Swami: Sometimes we do things to please others, even if we wouldn’t want to do them ourselves. So, of course, ordinarily we wouldn’t donate to a Durga Temple but to please your family members, it is okay. Not too much, but a little.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja, take my humble obeisances. Actually, I want to know if anyone considers our humbleness as silliness or callousness, that we don’t have any personality, then how can we deal with those people, those who are thinking that we don’t have any personality, we are trying just to take donation from them, or we are giving space to them for our own benefit. Actually, that is not the matter. We show our humbleness; we maintain our Krishna consciousness or Vaishnava qualities. But how can we deal with those people who think like that? And at the same time, we have to keep our Krishna consciousness intact. We have to maintain those qualities. But in that, critical people, they are very much self-egotistic. They think like that actually. So how can we deal with those people?

Giriraj Swami: Well, just be yourself. Be who you are. You can’t please everyone. You have to maintain your Vaishnava qualities. But Vaishnavas have many qualities. And so, if people think you are being too humble, then maybe you can assert yourself more for those people, so they understand devotees can also have a strong character. Yes, they should have a good impression of devotees.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja, daṇḍavat praṇāmas to your lotus feet. We are very happy having your divine association. So, my question on behalf of my wife. My wife is a doctor. She used to practice her occupation. She is a gynecologist. After conceiving a baby, she is not continuing her profession. And as our child is not so old—age is three and a half years—so my wife wants to continue the profession. As she is a doctor, but as our child is small, she is not able to practice. As I am also a service holder, I also do a job. So, she feels some depression as she is not serving her profession. So she is asking what is the perspective of shastric evidence, shastric view, what should she do?

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. Oh, three and a half years, so very small. Are there any other family members who can look after the child so that your wife can go back to her medical practice?

Devotee: Currently, Maharaja, my mother is very old, so she is not able to take care of the baby. So there is no member.

Giriraj Swami: All right. Well, I guess for a while, until the child is old enough to go to school, your wife might have to sacrifice her medical practice, although she doesn’t want to, and I understand why she doesn’t want to. But she has the responsibility now as a mother. But as soon as the child is old enough to go to school and is not so dependent on the mother, then the mother can go back to her medical practice. My uncle, my father’s brother, was a gynecologist.

Devotee: Thank you. I have another question, Maharaja. Can I proceed?

Giriraj Swami: Yes,

Devotee: Maharaja. When there was Srila Prabhupada, at that time everything was guided by Srila Prabhupada. Now also everything is guided by Srila Prabhupada, but now there are many spiritual masters in ISKCON and there are many godbrothers of different gurus, although in the same ISKCON. But sometimes we see there is some dilemma. My question is, how can all the disciples of all spiritual masters advance, keeping ourselves side by side so that there is no doubt and we may practice Krishna consciousness as it was at the time of Srila Prabhupada?

Giriraj Swami: As Srila Prabhupada said, your love for me will be shown by how you cooperate together. So, all disciples of different gurus should cooperate for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada and the paramparā. They should not have sectarian feelings, but they should see all disciples of all gurus as part of Srila Prabhupada’s family.

Devotee: Maharaja, during and after pregnancy, she faced so many difficulties. And after pregnancy, nowadays she also has to join the office and also she has to take care of her household duties. So, for all these reasons, she cannot complete her sixteen rounds of japa every day. So, how can she overcome this situation and how can she raise her taste for chanting the holy name again?

Translator: Hare Krishna, Maharaja. She also mentioned that she understands that all these are excuses. She could not chant during her delivery, and then after not chanting for several weeks, she lost the taste. She wants to develop the taste. Now she is going to the office and is also weak physically, and she needs to do household work as well. After doing all this, she is not able to complete the sixteen rounds. What should she do now to chant sixteen rounds at least every day? She needs your blessings and some guidance. Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Is she initiated?

Translator: Yes Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Well, she has a duty to chant sixteen rounds, but it may be that her circumstances make it hard for her to finish her rounds. She should keep track, and whatever rounds she missed, she should make up eventually. Yes, of course, she should try to do sixteen every day, but if she can’t, she can keep track, and then eventually, when the circumstances allow, she can make up all the rounds she missed.

Host: Hare Krishna, Maharaja. No more questions now. Now we can proceed to the video.

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Host: What a nice session. Hare Krishna. It is such a blessing for us. We can’t imagine that. Thank you very much, Maharaja, for your kind association with us. We want that you will come again and again amongst us and continue giving your blessings to us. So, Maharaja, now we would like to see the video. Actually, Maharaja received so many instructions from Srila Prabhupada, one of them is to write. So, Maharaja is now staying in California and writing, and actually, these are blessings for us. So, we are very excited to see a short video of Maharaja’s book.

Giriraj Swami: Wonderful.

[Video clip played]

Host: Thank you, Maharaja, for your nice books for us, and we will have the good fortune enough through your book to experience those moments. Thank you, Maharaja, for these blessings.

Giriraj Swami: Wonderful, beautiful.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja, we are very much grateful. The session was supposed to be only one hour and thirty minutes, but you gave us mercifully more than two hours and thirty-five minutes. Thank you so much. Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: So, if we are going to end now, I suggest we conclude with Vaishnava-praṇāma.

vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca 

patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ

Host: Thank you very much also for this very happy association. Thank you. Good night.