Morning Walk

Nitāi: January 11th, 1974. Morning walk. [break]

Satsvarūpa: ...by reading the books, he'd understood that we should become completely desireless. So he wanted more explanation. And in the car coming out Śrīla Prabhupāda just explained that our desire can't go away, because that's the symptom of the living entity. We have to have some desire. But real desirelessness means that you have no more material desire. Material desire, someone is always desiring from God, "Give me this, give me this." But when we become purified, then our desire is for "Kṛṣṅa, please take me. Please take me. Whatever service I can render, please accept it." But when one has not enough information, then he desires... His idea of desirelessness is to become like a dead stone; simply to... Because desire causes suffering and it's bad, material desire, therefore let me simply stop it and become... That will be desireless. But that is not..., that state is not possible because our symptom is of life is to have desire. So we answer him in this way: to become purified and simply serve Kṛṣṅa all the time. Not that we stop any activities. Prabhupāda was saying he is working day and night. So you cannot become absorbed in nothing. In order to become purely desireless, you have to have some activity that will always... There is a place, there is a plane of spiritual desire, spiritual activity. So there's... [pause]

Prabhupāda: What do you have to say about this? Do you understand, desireless and desireful?

Satsvarūpa: People some... Pseudo transcendentalists, they sometimes criticize us like that. They say, "Hare Kṛṣṅa devotees, you're just too active." They're think that we're fruitive, always running around, always trying to sell books, always very active. That's because they don't understand that desirelessness. They talk like that, and then they'll smoke a cigarette the next moment as they criticize us. They say, "You should not have to do anything if you're transcendental. Why do you have to work so hard?" And then they'll show that they have some very gross desire. [pause] [break]

Prabhupāda: ...therefore they see that this..., their conception of Kṛṣṅa, there is mother, there is father, there is friend—"So what is this? Here also we see the mother, father, friend. So how they become free?" They cannot understand. Their brain is so poor they cannot understand. Therefore they: "It is also māyā. To think of Kṛṣṅa, the Supreme, having father, mother, friends, playing pastime, this is also māyā." Therefore they are called Māyāvādī. They cannot conceive that in the spiritual world exactly the same things there are, but the position is different. That is absolute, without any designation.

Candanācārya: Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Candanācārya: Also this morning you said that we should try to only love Kṛṣṅa.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Candanācārya: And nothing else.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Candanācārya: But if we love our Godbrothers, is that also loving Kṛṣṅa?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Because they are of..., of Kṛṣṅa. What are your Godbrothers? They are Kṛṣṅa's servant. So if you do not love your Godbrothers, that means you reject your part of Kṛṣṅa.

Candanācārya: So also our children, like that?

Prabhupāda: Eh? Eh?

Candanācārya: Also...

Prabhupāda: Yes, if you love children for making them Kṛṣṅa conscious, then it is loving Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa wants sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṅaṁ vraja [Bg 18.66].

[Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.]

So if you help... What is our movement? Why I have come to your country? Because to make you Kṛṣṅa conscious. So there is love of Kṛṣṅa. Otherwise why..., what is the business, I have come to you? I have no business. Because I love Kṛṣṅa, I want to see all, everybody in the world, to become Kṛṣṅa conscious. Otherwise why in this old age we are trying so much? Similarly, if you love your children to make them Kṛṣṅa conscious, then produce hundreds of children and make them. That is love of Kṛṣṅa. And if you make them cats and dogs, then one children producing is also sinful. That is also sinful. But if you can make them Kṛṣṅa conscious, then produce hundreds of children. That is Kṛṣṅa's love. The Bhāgavata says, pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt: "One should not become father, one should not become mother..." na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum [SB 5.5.18],

[One who cannot deliver his dependents from the path of repeated birth and death should never become a spiritual master, a relative, a father, a husband, a mother or a worshipable demigod.]

"...if he cannot deliver the children from the imminent hands of death." That is the condition. So if you cannot make... Death cannot be avoided unless one becomes Kṛṣṅa conscious. So if you cannot make your children Kṛṣṅa conscious and stop their death, birth and death process, then don't become a father. This is the injunction. And if you can actually do that, then become father of hundreds children. This is the condition. If you cannot make your children... If you can make, that is love of Kṛṣṅa. Because unless you love Kṛṣṅa, why you should be interested to make others Kṛṣṅa conscious? Let them go to hell. Why you should be so much working hard to make them Kṛṣṅa conscious, unless you love Kṛṣṅa? This is the sign of love. "I love Kṛṣṅa, but I do nothing for Kṛṣṅa," that is nonsense. That is nonsense. Therefore I said that our Guru Mahārāja's brother, he criticizes Guru Mahārāja, but what he has done for Kṛṣṅa? And what my Guru Mahārāja has done? Unless my Guru Mahārāja had produced me, how this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is going all over the world? And what he has done? Simply criticizing is no use. We want to see practical. Do you understand or not?

Candanācārya: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. "You were also given the equal chance. Prabhupāda, my Guru Mahārāja, sat down at Māyāpur. But you were given the place of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's birthplace. What..., what you have done? It is still jungle. And what is Māyāpur there? All Americans are building a palatial building." So simply by criticizing, one does not become a very confidential devotee. Where is the action? What he has done? That is required. Phalena paricīyate. [break] ...everything. Unless Kṛṣṅa gives opportunity, nobody can serve Kṛṣṅa's. But He gives opportunity to the proper person. That is everywhere. If you want to become manager of a firm, the proprietor of the firm will see whether you are able to do that. Then he will give the chance: "Yes." This is reciprocal. Just like this śloka we were studying today. Kṛṣṅa becomes sārathi. Does Kṛṣṅa go to become sārathi of a rascal and fool? He becomes sārathi of Arjuna. That has to be seen. And without any qualification: "Kṛṣṅa, become my sārathi..." Kṛṣṅa's not so easy. First of all qualify. First deserve, then desire. First deserve, then desire. So how a Kṛṣṅa conscious person can be desireless? The first is desire: "I desire to serve Kṛṣṅa." That is the beginning. Then Kṛṣṅa will give you chance, as you deserve. This is the process. And that is explained: anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11].

[One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṅa favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service.]

When you become completely desireless for anything material, then bhakti begins. That is desirelessness. Desirelessness means when becomes free to desire anything except Kṛṣṅa. That is desirelessness. Desirelessness means not to desire anything material. That is desirelessness. Their Māyāvādī philosophy, that "Everything is māyā, and therefore Kṛṣṅa is māyā," that is called Māyāvādī. They do not know the distinction between māyā and reality. Everything māyā. Therefore they are called Māyāvādīs.

Gurukṛpā: Brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā.

Prabhupāda: Ah. So Kṛṣṅa is also mithyā. That is their philosophy. And therefore in the Bhāgavata it is beginning: paraṁ satyaṁ dhīmahi [SB 1.1.1]. Satyam, not mithyā. Mithyā you can reject, unless you find out paraṁ satyam. But that they do not know what is paraṁ satyam. Therefore Bhāgavata gives: oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, paraṁ satyaṁ dhīmahi.

[pause] The word is anyābhilāṣitā. Anya-abhilāṣa. Anya means "other than Kṛṣṅa." Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11], being completely freed from any other desires, jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam... [Cc Madhya 19.167].

[When first-class devotional service develops, one must be devoid of all material desires, knowledge obtained by monistic philosophy, and fruitive action. The devotee must constantly serve Kṛṣṅa favorably, as Kṛṣṅa desires.]

Jñāna, the jñānīs, they also desiring liberation. The jñānīs, they have got desire. How they are desireless? Because they are aspiring after mukti. The yogīs, there is, a... aspiring after siddhi. Karmīs, they are aspiring after better condition of life. So these things should be completely free. Then he's desireless. If you are desiring mukti, where is your desirelessness? Just see. How they are bluffing! They want to become mukta, and a still, they say "desirelessness." Here is your desire. Just see the defect. Eh? Why you are desiring mukti?

Gurukṛpā: Then they argue that you also want to..., you desire to serve Kṛṣṅa.

Prabhupāda: No, therefore I say desirelessness means to desire for Kṛṣṅa. That is desirelessness. Even if you... We are not after mukti. We..., we can go to the hell to serve Kṛṣṅa.

Gurukṛpā: Mama janmani janmanīśvare...

Prabhupāda: Ah! Mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahai... [Cc Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4].

[O Lord of the universe, I do not desire material wealth, materialistic followers, a beautiful wife or fruitive activities described in flowery language. All I want, life after life, is unmotivated devotional service to You.]

That is... There is no question of desirelessness. We desire for Kṛṣṅa. That is desirelessness. Just like a diseased man, if he desires for healthy life, is that bad thing? To desire for further disease, that is desire. That is bad. Therefore I say you cannot give up desire. That is not possible. You have to purify your desires. But when you desire for Kṛṣṅa, that is desirelessness. To become free from disease, that does not mean you have to stop eating. In the diseased condition, you are eating. As soon as you want to desire that "Let me..., give me this nice food," but you cannot eat on your diseased condition. It will be tasteless. You simply desire, but you cannot enjoy. But same you, man, when the disease is gone, you enjoy that same food very nicely. When you are free from disease, you just ask for rasagullā, you'll taste it. But when you are diseased, the same rasagullā will not be tasteful. That is the condition. The desire which gives you happiness, that is wanted. The desire which gives you distress, that is not wanted. Therefore Bhāgavata begins with dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra [SB 1.1.2]:

[Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhāgavata Purāṅa propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful Bhāgavatam, compiled by the great sage Vyāsadeva [in his maturity], is sufficient in itself for God realization. What is the need of any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhāgavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart.]

"The cheating type of religion is rejected." Because in every religion there is some desire for material objective, up to mukti. Bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī. General people, karmīs, they want pleasure, material pleasure. The jñānīs, they want mukti, and the yogīs, they want siddhi. They're everyone beggars. And a bhakta kicks them all out: "We don't want anything. Simply Kṛṣṅa. That's all." Therefore he's desireless.

Gurukṛpā: Kṛṣṅa-bhakta—niṣkāma ataeva śānta [Cc Madhya 19.149].

[Because a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṅa is desireless, he is peaceful. Fruitive workers desire material enjoyment, jñānīs desire liberation, and yogīs desire material opulence; therefore they are all lusty and cannot be peaceful.]

Prabhupāda: Ah! Ataeva śānta. There is śānti. You have to test whether by..., by some desire, whether you have become śānta. That is not possible except Kṛṣṅa. When you serve Kṛṣṅa, then you will feel transcendental pleasure. Otherwise you cannot. Sakali aśānta. For mukti they have to do so many things, so many things. So desirelessness means to desire for Kṛṣṅa. This is the conclusion. That Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching: mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi. This is desire. "My life after life, simply My devotion unto You may be fixed up." That's all. This is Kṛṣṅa consciousness. In the beginning He says, na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jaga... [Cc Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4]. "No, no, no, no, not this." Then there must be some positive. And the positive is: mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi. With simply negative, what you'll do? Simply negative? You must give something positive. Then you'll be satisfied. You are serving somewhere. You don't get sufficient salary. So you desire to give up this, this service. Resignation. But if you don't get any better service, then what will be the result of resignation? You'll starve. Again you'll go, "Master, I did wrong. Please give me that service." So that is... The Māyāvādīs' position is like that. They want to become merged into the Supreme. But that is not possible. After some time... Āruhya kṛcchreṅa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ [SB 10.2.32].

[[Someone may say that aside from devotees, who always seek shelter at the Lord's lotus feet, there are those who are not devotees but who have accepted different processes for attaining salvation. What happens to them? In answer to this question, Lord Brahmā and the other demigods said:] O lotus-eyed Lord, although nondevotees who accept severe austerities and penances to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence is impure. They fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they have no regard for Your lotus feet.]

They undergo very good auster..., severe austerities and reach the brahma-jyoti, but there, everything being vacant, they cannot remain there. And they have no information of Kṛṣṅa; therefore they again come down. Patanty adhaḥ. He wants enjoyment, but there is no enjoyment. Simply thinking, "I am Brahman." What is the enjoyment there? You think like a rascal Brahman. Yes, you are Brahman already. Why these sputnik-wālās, they go...? [laughter]

Devotee: Sputnik-wālās.

Prabhupāda: They go very high and again come down? Here is... "Why you are coming? You have gone so high." There is no shelter. There is no shelter. He must come down. Similarly, to become desireless, there is no shelter. So you must come to this desire, material desire.

Gurukṛpā: It says in the Brahma-saṁhitā that they may go for the speed of...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gurukṛpā: ...the mind, but...

Prabhupāda: Panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-saṁpragamyo vāyor athāpi manaso muni-puṅgavānām [Bs 5.34].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, only the tip of the toe of whose lotus feet is approached by the yogīs who aspire after the transcendental and betake themselves to prāṅāyāma by drilling the respiration; or by the jñānīs who try to find out the nondifferentiated Brahman by the process of elimination of the mundane, extending over thousands of millions of years.]

Just like child. We are experiencing. As soon as we finish, he cries. And give him something, "All right." So there must be something positive. Simply taking away, vacant, that will not satisfy. He'll have to cry again, "Oh, I am vacant. I am vacant." So Māyāvādīs' position is like that. The karmīs, yogīs, jñānīs, all they are fools. Therefore Kṛṣṅa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya [Bg 18.66].

[Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.]

"You rascal, you give up all these karmīs, yogīs, jñānī, siddhi... Kick out." Mām ekaṁ śaraṅaṁ vraja. This is the instruction. "Only unto Me. Then you'll be satisfied." Then the karmīs may say, "Oh..." Because he has got idea, without working... Just like all these fools and rascals, they are surprised, "How these people do not work, and how are happy?" They cannot imagine that without working hard, one can eat, one can sleep. But when they see that our devotees, they do not work, they are nobody's servant, "How it is possible?" They cannot think. They cannot think. But it is possible. Therefore the... When Kṛṣṅa says that mām ekaṁ śaraṅaṁ vraja, that, the karmīs, jñānīs, they are thinking, "Then how I will live? If I do not..., simply I become a devotee of Kṛṣṅa, how shall I live?" So therefore Kṛṣṅa assures, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi [Bg 18.66]: "I shall give you protection." This is Kṛṣṅa consciousness. "You first of all surrender unto Me, then whatever you want, there will be supply."

Gurukṛpā: The karmīs, they are always worried.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Gurukṛpā: They are worried. So Kṛṣṅa...

Prabhupāda: Karandhara? We made the contract to purchase the Bombay land without money. There was no money at that time, when I signed that contract.

Karandhara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So wherefrom the money came?

Devotees: Kṛṣṅa.

Prabhupāda: And not one rupee, two rupees—eighteen lakhs of rupees. And when I signed the contract, I had no eighteen hundred. [laughter]

Svarūpa Dāmodara: You have to make... We have to add one zero...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: On the right side. You have to add one zero, so that eighteen hundred.

Yaśodānandana: And the time when you signed the contract is the time when Madhudviṣa Swami went to Australia. He did not want to stay in Bombay.

Prabhupāda: No, I asked him that "Whether you can take charge?" He refused, "No, I cannot take charge." You know that?

Yaśodānandana: Yes, I heard.

Prabhupāda: Then Brahmānanda give me assurance, "I can take charge." Therefore I signed. But factually, he was as good as Madhudviṣa. [laughs] He made a contract with a..., that camp, forty thousand rupees. I settled up for ten thousand rupees. So our work is going on in India and money's spent, fifty percent is spoiled by this American brain. What can be done? There is no... They'll loot. They cheat, like anything. Just like this camp. It was..., it was Brahmānanda and Madhudviṣa combined together made a contract—forty thousand rupees. Then I said that "Then I am not going to pay you. You go." In Kumbha-melā also, the contract was ten thousand. So five thousand already paid. So I said, "I have no money. You have to become satisfied with the ten thousand." So they began some trouble, but after all, accepted. Because they make five hundred percent profit.

Yaśodānandana: As soon as they see American, it becomes twice as much.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Twice not; five hundred times. [laughter] As soon as they face: "They're Americans. They have got money."

Yaśodānandana: Same thing in market. When they go shopping and...

Prabhupāda: Yes. "Damn cheap." "Damn cheap, bābu." I have told this story, "Damn cheap, bābu"? Eh?

Yaśodānandana: No. [end]