Morning Walk

Prabhupāda: For this purpose, arrange meeting in the school, colleges, societies, big, big halls. Because they may not come. They are not attracted to the temple meetings. They think, "This temple is temple, some priestly class." They want philosophy, logic, science. So they have to be convinced. Not sentiments. So those who are advanced, they are not in favor of religious sentiments, because they have got experience, "Now, some sentiments..." But they do not understand what is this sentiment. Therefore they have to be understood through logic, philosophy, science. [japa] [break]

Girirāja: ...meeting a week from Saturday.

Prabhupāda: Oh, where?

Girirāja: Well, it's on Marine Drive. Somebody just became a Life Member, but he is inviting six hundred guests on the terrace of the building.

Prabhupāda: Very good. This kind of meeting should be arranged. [aside:] Hare Kṛṣṅa. [break] It is also our business to kill all undesirable so-called svāmīs, yogīs, avatāras. [aside:] Hare Kṛṣṅa. Jaya. [break] What is that? Kṛṣṅa...

Girirāja: [reading from Kṛṣṅa book] "Kṛṣṅa, who advented Himself just to kill all undesirable elements in the world..."

Prabhupāda: [aside:] Hare Kṛṣṅa. Who is this boy?

Girirāja: "...just to kill all the..."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Similarly, this movement is advented to kill all the so-called yogīs, svāmīs, avatāras, rascals, philosophers, commentators. We have to kill. Kill means... Where is your tilaka? You did not have tilaka in the morning?

Devotee: [indistinct]

Prabhupāda: Ah. So this is our one of the item, to vanquish all these rascals, so-called svāmīs. They say that "Why you criticize others also?" Because we have to vanquish them. Now these people cannot rise. When there is sunrise, there is no use of these glowworms. So this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is Kṛṣṅa Himself. Therefore they must be finished, all over the world. So-called religionists, so-called philosophers, so-called avatāras, svāmīs, yogīs—finished. Our program should be like that.

[aside:] Thik hai? [break] ...all these rascals, anymore to flourish. That is one of our program. [Hindi with Indian man] [break]

Girirāja: Garuḍa put some nectar on the tree to preserve it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, nectar, ambrosia. Amṛta, amṛta.

Girirāja: Is it spiritual?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That amṛta means spiritual. [break] But this grief is for Kṛṣṅa. Therefore it is spiritual.

Dr. Patel: The gopīs became in grief when Kṛṣṅa went away. That's all.

Prabhupāda: Center is Kṛṣṅa.

Dr. Patel: I want to read this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam five times in one year.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Then read it. You will be benefited. Śrīmad-bhāgavataṁ purāṅam amalaṁ [SB 12.13.18].

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the spotless Purāṅa. It is most dear to the Vaiṣṅavas because it describes the pure and supreme knowledge of the paramahaṁsas. This Bhāgavatam reveals the means for becoming free from all material work, together with the processes of transcendental knowledge, renunciation and devotion. Anyone who seriously tries to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, who properly hears and chants it with devotion, becomes completely liberated.]

Amalam: there is no black spot. Amalaṁ purāṅam. Yad vaiṣṅavānāṁ priya...

Dr. Patel: I have read all the modern literatures all about... [break]

Prabhupāda: ...nāmāny anantasya yaśo 'ṅkitāni yat śṛṅvanti gāyanti gṛṅanti sādhavaḥ [SB 1.5.11]. Even there is some broken language, abaddhavat api. Abaddha, not systematized. Because there is explanation, nāmāny anantasya yaśo 'ṅkitāni, therefore śṛṅvanti gāyanti gṛṅanti sādhavaḥ. Sadhu, they do not take care of this. They see what is the bhāva there. Budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ [Bg 10.8].

[I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who know this perfectly engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.]

Dr. Patel: Something they'll say, "Why do you want to go after Sanskrit? That will be all right if you are merged with God."

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is real thing. God is not concerned with any language.

Girirāja: "Out of fear they could only cry in agony and stand erect on the banks..."

Dr. Patel: [indistinct]

Prabhupāda: Oh yes, that is their... That is right.

Girirāja: "...unable to help their beloved Kṛṣṅa. While this scene was taking place on the bank of the Yamunā, there were ill omens manifest. The earth trembled, meteors fell from the sky and the bodies of men shivered." [break]

Prabhupāda: If a boy has got alone, without his elder brother, you see, there is anxiety also.

Dr. Patel: Even though they have realized the extraordinary quality of the sun, but they have not been able to think that He is God incarnate.

Prabhupāda: This means these things, these sentiments—anxiety, grief, anger, all these things—they are constant companion with the living entity. You cannot give it up. But when they are used for Kṛṣṅa, that is perfection. That is upādhi-śūnya, without any designation.

Satsvarūpa: Prabhupāda, we are only neophytes. How we can know if our anxiety is still material when we feel anxiety in devotional service?

Prabhupāda: No, no. If you feel anxiety for Kṛṣṅa, then it is not material. That anxiety is not... That is love. That is pure love, that... Why you become anxious for our children? Because there is love. So whole scheme is that you have to transfer your attachment to Kṛṣṅa.

Dr. Patel: All bhakti should be directed to the sacred feet of Kṛṣṅa.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha yogaṁ yuñjan [Bg 7.1]. This is called bhakti-yoga. Mayy āsakta. The aśakti, the attachment, is for so many things. Now we have to concentrate it on Kṛṣṅa. This is bhakti-yoga. Mayy āsakta manāḥ pārtha yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ. Simply by this concentration of an attraction to Kṛṣṅa, you become liberated. This is the process.

Dr. Patel: First you must perfect your thinking of Kṛṣṅa. Then you think of Kṛṣṅa...

Prabhupāda: Yes. When you think of Kṛṣṅa, you are on the transcendental position. You are not in the material world. Māṁ ca vyabhicāriṅi bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate, sa guṅān samatītya etān [Bg 14.26].

[One who engages in full devotional service, who does not fall down in any circumstance, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.]

He is immediately transcendental to all the qualities of material world.

Dr. Patel: Then he becomes brahma-bhūta.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So if you continuously... That is our Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement. If you continuously remain yourself thinking of Kṛṣṅa, smārtavyaḥ satato viṣṅu vismārtavyo na jātucit [Padma Purāṅa, Uttara-khaṅḍa 71.100]. This is the process: You have to think of Kṛṣṅa always. The yogīs and others, they artificially, for a certain time, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes or half an hour, they think of Kṛṣṅa by meditation, and they engage again in the material activities. But here...

Dr. Patel: The yogīs have got difficulty because they get... [break]

Prabhupāda: ...helpful to bhakti.

Dr. Patel: That is why they are... I am getting sidetracked.

Prabhupāda: They think that these are the processes, mechanical process. Kṛṣṅa-bhakti is not mechanical. It is spontaneous. When you spontaneously think of Kṛṣṅa, that is perfection. [break] Abhyabhicāriṅi. [break] Apratihatā. Yena ātmā prasīdati.

Dr. Patel: Without any anxiety... [break]

Prabhupāda: ...anxiety for Kṛṣṅa. Therefore it is transcendental.

Dr. Patel: All mana buddhi should be concentrated to the sacred feet of Kṛṣṅa. And you have written many of them about... [break]

Prabhupāda: ...Madana-mohan, nobody can be saved from the hands of Madana. Madana-mohana we have to see.

Dr. Patel: That day we talked about these things that you say... [break]

Prabhupāda: ...perfection. They think of Kṛṣṅa that "He is our child. Now He is going to be vanquished."

Dr. Patel: Because it was very late to come back from... [break]

Prabhupāda: Same sentiment, but in relation with Kṛṣṅa.

Dr. Patel: These sentiments are not...., absent in American society these days. That is why these boys are neglected by the parents. [break]

Prabhupāda: ...philosopher, Vedāntists. They were small children, woman, village persons and animals. But they were so much, I mean to say, full with the Kṛṣṅa consciousness. That is the perfection. [break] They're so fortunate. [break] Anxiety is also thinking of Kṛṣṅa, nothing else but Kṛṣṅa: "How Kṛṣṅa was smiling with us, how He was playing." That is natural. If you have got love for anyone...

Dr. Patel: "What will happen to us when He is not there?"

Prabhupāda: Yes. Thinking of Kṛṣṅa.

Dr. Patel: To think, it surrounds...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

[break] ...void, everything is there, but centered around Kṛṣṅa.

[break] Govinda viraheṅa me. Śūnyāyitāṁ jagat sarvam. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching. Śūnyāyitāṁ jagat-sarvaṁ govinda viraheṅa me [Śikṣāṣṭaka 7]:

[O Govinda! Feeling Your separation, I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are flowing from my eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in Your absence.]

"By Govinda's separation, whole world is void." You see? These are exhibited in the person of the...

Dr. Patel: That they are describing... [break]

Prabhupāda: "...Kṛṣṅa is gone, I shall die." This is govinda viraheṅa me. "Oh, what is the use of living if Kṛṣṅa is gone?"

Dr. Patel: He was just a boy of five, six, seven years. [break]

Girirāja: ...about a hundred hoods, how could Kṛṣṅa manage all of those hoods?

Prabhupāda: Oh, then you do not understand Kṛṣṅa. [laughs] You are trying to understand Kṛṣṅa from your point of view. Kāliya may have unlimited number of hoods; still, Kṛṣṅa can expand Himself. That is Kṛṣṅa. You are thinking Kṛṣṅa from your standpoint of view.

Girirāja: So He did it. He expanded Himself.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Bhāgavata: But did the residents of Vṛndāvana see the many expansions, or did they only see one Kṛṣṅa?

Prabhupāda: They may see one. That is not very difficult to understand. Just like Arjuna saw the virāṭa-rupa of Kṛṣṅa, and others saw Kṛṣṅa as a chariot driver.

Bhāgavata: Others saw Kṛṣṅa as a chariot driver.

Prabhupāda: As a chariot driver, that's all.

Bhāgavata: But Arjuna saw the virāṭa-rupa.

Prabhupāda: The virāṭa-rupa. [break] ...stated those who are Kṛṣṅa conscious people, their seeing of Kṛṣṅa and ordinary man's seeing of Kṛṣṅa, there is much difference. They think that "What is this? A boy, a village boy they are worshiping." One so-called sādhu in Haridvar he has remarked like that, that "Bhaktivedanta Swami is worshiping a rural boy."

Indian man: That was in the Times.

Bhāgavata: A rural god.

Prabhupāda: Yes. [laughing]

Girirāja: Another thing we were discussing yesterday is that in Goloka there are no demons.

Prabhupāda: No. There cannot be any demons. Then how it is Vaikuṅṭha? Vaikuṅṭha means without any anxiety. So the situation of anxiety is created by the demons. Therefore, when Kṛṣṅa wants to fight, He has to come down here, because there is no question of fighting. There is no chance of fighting. Everyone is devotee. A devotee will never agree. But they will agree Kṛṣṅa's fight, but here, in this field.

Girirāja: But the sentiment of anxiety or fear for Kṛṣṅa, is that sentiment in Goloka?

Prabhupāda: No. There is no such thing. That is separation. Just like gopīs, they are full of anxiety: "Oh, Kṛṣṅa has gone to the pasturing ground." Their anxiety is there. Just like Rukmiṅī, she was thinking, "Oh, Kṛṣṅa may not give me up. He is talking in this way." She fainted. So anxiety is there. So that..., the anxiety is that one may not be separated from Kṛṣṅa. That is the anxiety. And actually there is no separation, but the feeling of separation out of ecstatic love. Just like one who has got love for the other person, beloved, he always thinks like that, "My beloved may not be separated from me." This is ecstasy of love. Just like a miser man who has got much wealth, he always thinks, "My money may not be lost. My money may not be lost." Out of his too much attachment for the money, he thinks like that. Is it not? "How shall I protect this money? How shall I protect this?" To earn money is also troublesome. To keep money also troublesome. And when it is lost, that is also troublesome. This is the position. But there is no such thing, loss, but the anxiety is there. We shall return from here? [break] ...vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām [Bg 4.8].

[In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.]

So both the sādhu and the duṣkṛtina, by Kṛṣṅa's two activities, act differently to the devotees and to the demons. They realize. That is their achievement. By punishment, this Kāliya realized, "Oh, Kṛṣṅa is the Supreme Lord." And devotees, by out of love they realize. Therefore Kṛṣṅa is Absolute. In either process He is realized. Mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ [Bg 4.11].

[All of them—as they surrender unto Me—I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pṛthā.]

If one is sincere, then they gradually make progress. Yes. [break] ...vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām.

Girirāja: " 'O Lord, You have descended especially for the purpose of annihilating all kinds of disturbing elements within the world, and because You are the Absolute Truth, there is no difference between Your mercy and punishment.' " [break]

Prabhupāda: ...the surgical operation is there, the knife is being used on the body, that means he is getting relief. It is not punishment. [aside:] Hare Kṛṣṅa. [Hindi with passerby] That's all right. Hare Kṛṣṅa. [break]

Girirāja: Is that benefit coming in all suffering, or only when it is given by Kṛṣṅa?

Prabhupāda: Yes. When there is suffering given by Kṛṣṅa... Therefore a devotee does not take seriously suffering. Tat te 'nukampāṁ susumīkṣamāṅaḥ [SB 10.14.8]. A devotee thinks, "It is the favor of Kṛṣṅa that He has put me into suffering." They never see suffering as suffering. It is favor of Kṛṣṅa. That is devotee's vision. [break] It is exactly like a son who knows his father well. If the father slaps, the son never protests. He knows that "It is good for me." Similarly, a devotee never is disturbed when there is suffering given by Kṛṣṅa. [break]

Girirāja: A karmī is suffering just the laws of...

Prabhupāda: The karmī is different. The karmī is suffering... He is suffering just like criminal is suffering. A criminal is given slap by the police. That slap and the father is giving slap, that slap is different. Although it looks the same thing, but there is great difference.

Satsvarūpa: So there is no benefit to suffering unless it is connected with Kṛṣṅa?

Prabhupāda: Yes. When Kṛṣṅa... Therefore we shall fully surrender to Kṛṣṅa. As Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, mārobi rākhobi yo icchā tohārā: "Now I surrender. Now if You want to maintain me, that is all right, and if You want to kill me, that is also all right." This is surrender. It is not business: "If You maintain me, then I surrender. If You kill me, then I do not." It is not like that. Mārobi rākhobi yo icchā tanhārā. "Now, as You like. If You want to maintain, that is also good; if You want to kill, that is also good." This is devotee's view.

Satsvarūpa: Someone might say, "But if one is surrendered, why should Kṛṣṅa give him trouble?"

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is because he is always free. Why do you make Kṛṣṅa dependent on your so-called goodwill, that "Kṛṣṅa must give me always pleasure"? This is sense gratification. This is sense gratification, that you approach Kṛṣṅa for your comfort, sense gratification. That is not bhakti. That is sense gratification. Prahlāda Mahārāja was given suffering by his father so harshly, but he never said, "Oh, I am devotee of Kṛṣṅa and giving me so much trouble? Oh! Give it up." He never said that. Neither he asked Kṛṣṅa to come and save him. That is kṛṣṅa-bhakti. The Pāṅḍavas... The Pāṅḍavas, they were always with Kṛṣṅa, and they were suffering. They never asked Kṛṣṅa that "You are the Supreme, and why we are suffering?" Never said. Never said. That is kṛṣṅa-bhakti.

Girirāja: "Because You are the Absolute Truth, there is no difference between Your mercy and punishment."

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is to be understood. If we understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Absolute Truth, then this is understanding, that either suffering or enjoying, it is all Kṛṣṅa's mercy. There must be some purpose. When Kṛṣṅa puts me into suffering, there must be some purpose. So we should welcome, because it is Kṛṣṅa's mercy. Tat te 'nukampāṁ susumīkṣamāṅo bhuñjāna evātmā-kṛtaṁ vipākam [SB 10.14.8]. [Hindi]

[break] "...misdeeds. It is Kṛṣṅa's mercy that He is reforming me, slightly suffering. I would have suffered very greatly on account of my past deeds, but He is kindly accommodating me by giving little suffering. That's all." [break] ...by the wife of Kāliya. [break]

Girirāja: " '...that this creature, appearing in the body of a serpent, must have been overburdened with all kinds of sins. Otherwise, how could he have the body of a serpent? Your dancing on his hoods reduces all the sinful results of actions caused by his having this body of a serpent.' " [break]

Prabhupāda: ...to become angry by Kṛṣṅa is auspicious, auspicious. It is a very nice verse. "It is very auspicious that You have become angry upon him." He is getting salvation. [break] ...the punishment of Kṛṣṅa, one has to execute many pious activities in his past life just to get the punishment of Kṛṣṅa. And what to speak of love of Kṛṣṅa, how much pious activities one has to do? If for being punished by Kṛṣṅa one has to undergo lots of pious activities in the past life, then just see, to be loved by Kṛṣṅa, how much one has to undergo pious activities? Kṛta-puṅya-puñjāḥ [SB 10.12.11].

[All the boys would be differently engaged. Some boys blew their flutes, and others blew bugles made of horn. Some imitated the buzzing of the bumblebees, and others imitated the voice of the cuckoo. Some boys imitated flying birds by running after the birds' shadows on the ground, some imitated the beautiful movements and attractive postures of the swans, some sat down with the ducks, sitting silently, and others imitated the dancing of the peacocks.

Some boys attracted young monkeys in the trees, some jumped into the trees, imitating the monkeys, some made faces as the monkeys were accustomed to do, and others jumped from one branch to another. Some boys went to the waterfalls and crossed over the river, jumping with the frogs, and when they saw their own reflections on the water they would laugh. They would also condemn the sounds of their own echoes.

In this way, all the cowherd boys used to play with Kṛṣṅa, who is the source of the Brahman effulgence for jñānīs desiring to merge into that effulgence, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead for devotees who have accepted eternal servitorship, and who for ordinary persons is but another ordinary child. The cowherd boys, having accumulated the results of pious activities for many lives, were able to associate in this way with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. How can one explain their great fortune?]

That is described. Kṛta-puṅya-puñjāḥ. Puñja... Puñja means heaps, volumes, volumes of pious activities. Then one can come to Kṛṣṅa. Yeṣām anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṅya-karmaṅām [Bg 7.28].

[Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life, whose sinful actions are completely eradicated and who are freed from the duality of delusion, engage themselves in My service with determination.]

Nobody can come to Kṛṣṅa unless he has background of pious activities and one who has become freed from all sinful activities. Yeṣām anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṅya-karmaṅām. This is the qualification. [break]

Girirāja: ...some of our disciples, it seems that in this life they did many sinful activities.

Prabhupāda: But because they have surrendered, all sinful activities is counteracted. Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi [Bg 18.66].

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

Anyone surrenders sincerely to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṅa, immediately he becomes free from all reaction of sinful life. Because he is saved. Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ: "Don't worry." This is the process. So however one might have done or executed so many sinful activities, if he fully surrenders to Kṛṣṅa, then everything is counteracted immediately. But not that repetition, that "I surrender to Kṛṣṅa; then again I'll do some sinful activities and again I surrender." This business will not be allowed. This is called nāmno balād yasya hi pāpa-buddhiḥ. That is the greatest sin, on the strength of Kṛṣṅa's mercy, to go on repeating sinful activities. That is greatest sin. Kṛṣṅa can excuse you—ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣa..., mā śucaḥ—but you don't make it business, that "I commit all sinful activities and surrender to Kṛṣṅa to counteract." No, this is not good. This will not be allowed. [break] ...but you cannot cheat Him. Then you'll suffer. [break]

Girirāja: " '...been pleased by his undergoing all kinds of penances and austerities, and he must have executed universal welfare activities for all living creatures.' The Nāga-patnīs confirmed that one cannot come in contact with Kṛṣṅa without having executed pious activities in devotional service in his previous lives." [break]

Prabhupāda: ...double feature is not understood by the Māyāvādīs. If Kṛṣṅa has created the whole, so why He should be separate? He is not separate, still separate. [break] ...regularly this book Kṛṣṅa, he will be liberated, simply by reading this book. [break]

Girirāja: "...narration of the Kāliya serpent and his punishment will need fear no more the envious activities of snakes. The Lord also declared, 'If one takes a bath in the Kāliya lake where My cowherd boyfriends and I have bathed, or if one, fasting for a day, offers oblations to the forefathers from the water of this lake, he will be relieved from all kinds of sinful reaction.' " [break]

Bhāgavata: ...actually are devotees, or how do they become demons? Are they devotees? Obviously Kāliya is... Just like Jaya and Vijaya, they were devotees. And due to some offense, then they became demons and they fought with Kṛṣṅa to satisfy Kṛṣṅa.

Prabhupāda: Anyone who is living in this material world is a demon. [aside:] Hare Kṛṣṅa.

Indian Man: This my son.

Prabhupāda: Where is your mother?

Indian boy: She at home.

Bhāgavata: But only certain demons get to fight with Kṛṣṅa.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is special demon.

Bhāgavata: So those special demons, are they..., just like are all like Jaya and Vijaya? Are they all in that position?

Prabhupāda: No, not necessarily.

Bhāgavata: But to get to fight with Kṛṣṅa they must have performed many pious activities.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhāgavata: Like Kāliya. So then if they have performed so many pious activities, then obviously they have done something very mischievous in order to take this demon's body? There is some falldown?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Without some mischievous activities... [break] japa [end]