How to understand God's plan
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · South Africa · 2006
Chapters
Umnamo bhagalate, Mmamoh bhagavate. Krishna Bataras, Natavakti Svami, Nikinaminha Maskés, Batidin, Bhavan, Khashaven, Vishny Abadi, Vashat, Sikari, Jeshri Krishna Chayana, Ravanitanamasy, Vajadivata, Sivasari Bhara Bhaktovinda Ekishnahekishna Krishna Krishnahari nari ramari rama riamila.
Understanding God's plan for life
Okay. So the topic of our little discussion today will be how to understand God's plan. How to understand the plan of God for me. And indeed this is a very relevant topic. Everyone has to understand that there is a plan.
And this plan is not the same for everyone. Every one of us has a special mission to fulfill.
And most of our problems come because we don't understand what is our mission in life. Because we don't understand what we are meant to do. What we are born for, and what will ultimately make us happy.
Because the simple reasoning or simple logic which proves that we need to know God's plan is that unless and until we fulfill His plan, we will not be happy.
To be happy in the true sense of this word, means to know what God wants from us and to do what He wants.
And that's not so easy because most of the people are confused. Most of the people don't really know uh you know what is the plan and they're doing some kind of very chaotic things in the world.
So this is basically the topic which I'm going to speak about, how to understand God's plan and again the result of uh understanding this topic will be our happiness.
They will become totally happy. Let's try to think about it. What is God's plan? God's plan it's God's desire. What he wants and what he specifically wants from us.
And in this world we have a conflict between our own desire, which is selfish desire, our own little desires and desires of God.
And we usually think our concept of happiness is that I want to fulfill my desire. And God has somehow or other to adjust his desires to my desires.
But in reality, what we have to do is to understand what is God's desire and adjust our desires to his desire. The real happiness or the real life is not to become desire less.
Some people, especially in Indian tradition, like Buddhist or whatever, they say you have to become desireless.
But to become desire less, to become deprived of desires means to become lifeless. Because life means desires. You cannot really uh take away the desire from the heart. Because the desire is the sign of consciousness.
And we know this. You know you can only be desire less if you are dead. If you are dead body there's no desire is there, it's no problem. But if you have life, you have desires.
But at the same time, these people who say that you have to become desireless to become happy, they, they are true, they somewhere, uh, they are somewhat correct in their understanding because we have so many problems because of our desires.
Our desires are never fulfilled. Or sometimes they're fulfilled but too late.
You know, you desire and desire and desire and desire and then ultimately you're so frustrated and then ten years later your desires are fulfilled and you think, my goodness, why do I need it now? I don't need it now.
So this is, so many problems are connected with the desires, but only because our desires are wrong, only because our desires are not in harmony with the Lord.
So the real answer to this question is not to get rid of the desires, because you cannot get rid of the desires. You have to have desires.
But the real answer to the question of how to become happy and have desires is to understand and bring all your desires in harmony with the Lord's plan. And that's basically our mission in life.
Acting according to material nature
To really think deeply what is the desire of the Lord. So there are several aspects of this question, specifically two. There is a material aspect of this problem, and there is a spiritual aspect of this problem.
Material aspect of this problem is not that easy too.
The first step on how to harmonize our desires with the desires of the Lord is to understand what is our material nature, what is our nature according to the material constitution which we have.
Because there is a material aspect of our life, and first of all we have to bring this in harmony.
And for that, the simple answer which Vedas give, and which Bhagavad-gītā give is that you have to understand your nature and act according to your nature. Unfortunately this is not so easy in our chaotic society.
In our chaotic society everyone thinks that he has to earn some money. Everyone thinks that he has to be a businessman.
You know, now today is all the desire which we have. You know, if I ask you, what desires do you have? And if you are honest, every one of you will say, I want some money. I want more money than I already have.
But this is actually not that important. Only because the whole atmosphere of this world is designed in such a way nowadays that everyone is mad after money.
You know everyone is supposed to be mad after money. People they forgot that they can live with little money. They think that they need more and more and more and more and this greed is being cultivated in this world.
You know, you see the movies, and in these movies, you know, they all promote, you know, you have to, you know, you have to be it, you see the advertisement, you see this and that, you know, and everyone is pushing to this direction.
But in reality, uh there are four natures of human beings, and you have to act according to your nature, and it's only one of out of these four natures which is supposed to earn a lot of money.
This is victorious businessmen, mercantile class, you know, people who earn money, the businessmen. But nowadays everyone wants to be this businessman. But it's not correct. First of all, you have to understand who you are.
And there are four natural imprints in our constitution, and we have to understand who I am. Of course, nowadays there are kind of mixtures. Like in dog races, to have a good dog, they need a dog with a good pedigree.
You know there is this should be a very noble dog with a good ancestors. But in human society it's not anymore. In human society there is no pedigree. And you can mix your nature this way or that way.
And as a result, you get a completely mixed people, people who don't know your nature. And sometimes it takes you 50 years before you figure out what is your nature. But by that time it's already too late.
You cannot do anything. But let us say that you have to have a very clear understanding of your material nature. And basically there's four types of this nature.
Either you are a teacher or you are an administrator or warrior or king or whatever politician if politicians can belong to any civilized class of society or
or you are a vaisya, or you are a sudra. Sudra means you're a worker. You have to do something with your hands and you're happy by doing this. Basically, this is the four basic natures.
And first of all, you have to understand this and act in accordance with the nature which you acquire. Either you have to teach or you have to earn money or you have to rule other people, administrate other people.
And everyone has one inclination on the other. Everyone has a predominant inclination and he has to engage this inclination in a very clear way. And this is a very important point.
This is not something simple and not something trivial in a sense because before you can understand your spiritual nature and spiritual aspirations and spiritual goals, you have to be in harmony in the material life. If you are not happy in the material life, if you are not really properly placed in this material world, and if you are not fulfilling your material mission, you will not be determined to reach your spiritual goal.
You will be disturbed. To really be concentrated and determined to reach the spiritual goal, you have to take care of your material situation and you have to fulfill your duties.
And the Vedas are very strong about this. Yet they say you have material duties, you fulfill your duties and be happy in this situation. And if you do this, you're happy.
And at that time, when you are happy and harmonious, when you are more or less secure in your material life, then you can pursue your spiritual goal.
And it's interesting that Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna first speaks your spirit soul, your not the body.
He looks at Arjuna and Arjuna is disturbed and he's somewhere else and he's you know he's crying and he's saying this and that.
And Krishna says, No, don't be worried, don't worry about it, it's your spirit's soul, you have nothing to do with this body and he looks at Arjuna. Arjuna cannot relate to it. And that's exactly our situation in life.
We cannot really immediately relate to the spiritual philosophy that we have spirit soul. And then when Krishna sees this situation, he says, Arjuna, you accept it.
He comes down to the level of Arjuna and he says, in order to understand that your spirit soul and pursue the spiritual goal, you have to understand who you are in the material sense.
Because first of all, you have to improve your material nature. Without improving your material nature, there's no question of advancing spiritually. So this is the step number one, which every one of us has to do.
Avoiding hypocrisy and embracing reality
And the step number two, and this is basically the plan of God. The plan of God is to understand who I am. And God wants us to be what we are. The worst thing which God doesn't like is the pretense.
It is said in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that the earth can bear a lot of burden.
But the only burden which the earth cannot bear, which is too heavy for her, is the pretender, is the hypocrite, is the liar, is somebody who is pretending to be something which she is not.
And unfortunately, our little planet is so overburdened because there are so many hypocrites now. Because nobody knows even who he is.
So first of all, and this is a very strong commandment. You have to understand who you are and be what you are. If you are a woman, you have to be woman and don't pretend to be a man.
Sometimes I travel in the airport and sometimes I see this very strange creature. A very strange species of life. A business woman. It's really strange, you know. She's dressed in a very nice suit.
She has a mobile phone and she has a computer and she's you know doing this and that and she's connecting from the internet from the airport because she has to do something and she's you know, but you can see she is not happy.
Because the nature of woman to be the mother, the nature of woman to take care of children, the nature of woman, she can do so many other things, but the real nature is to express her heart and the mother the affection to the children and the taking care of the family and this and that and she is deprived of this.
No matter how successful she is, she will always be unhappy.
I know one lady, she's a very rich lady. She is she's from Russia and she's she's rich. She has you know hundreds of thousands of dollars. But she's the most unhappy creature which I know of.
She's so unhappy and she's so disturbed and she comes to please help me back? You're so successful. Why are you not happy? Only because she doesn't act and according to her nature.
So this is the first simple thing which is again in modern world is not so simple because modern world means everything is upside down. Everyone is trying to be what he is not.
You know, there's you know that and and very soon you know it it will be wars. So please don't take another chance, go back to work, don't wait, what what the zoo will be this source.
You know everything is just so chaotic. Before that, everything was orderly and people were relatively happy.
As much as you can be happy in this material world, you can be happy if you're harmonious with the constitution which you have. But this is the point number one, the step number one.
When you have taken care of your material situation, and when you please the Lord by doing what you are supposed to do. And this is actually the way to please the Lord and to know the plan of Lord for you.
In the eighteenth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā at the end it is said that you can worship the Lord just by doing your duties.
If you fulfil your duties and you act according to your nature, then this is already pleasing to the Lord. When he sees that you are happy, that you are smiling, that you are doing this.
You know you doesn't you don't have to be something big. Sometimes people think I have to be big. You know, big what? We're all small. We're ultimately all very small and insignificant.
To be big in the eyes of God is to be yourself. It's to do what you are meant to do. And this is in itself is enough to please the Lord.
Cultivating a spiritual servant attitude
But then when this is taken care of, then there is another thing which you can do. This is to fulfill the mission in life that is you know to realize your spiritual nature.
And to realize your spiritual nature is again not so simple.
That's another very significant step uh which you can do only if you uh very mature spiritually and your answer spiritual nature basically means to surrender to the Lord.
So coming back to the question of this or the to the topic of this little talk, how to understand the plan of the Lord, is that the next step when you're relatively happy in this material world, you have to work on your spiritual relationship with God.
And to work in your spiritual relationship with God means to always remind yourself that you are nobody but servant of God. That ultimately in our inner nature, inner most real nature, we are servants of God.
Yesterday I spoke with Sajinand Maharaj and Sajinand Maharaj said that and everyone uh who is traversing spiritual paths sometimes has a very severe crisis.
And this crisis is inevitable because you at one point you understand that you know you're trying again to pretend, you're trying to again cultivate your saṁskāra. You you wear these robes.
You know you're supposed to be spiritual and people you know bow down to you, do something to you, put this garland to you. But sometimes you feel that again something is wrong. You're hollow inside.
And it basically means that you have to cultivate your inner nature. And he told me very nice advice, which I will share with you.
Please listen very carefully because if you understand this advice and follow this advice, your life can be totally transformed.
this crisis and this crisis uh yesterday I was speaking about the saṁskāras about this karma how difficult it is that karma basically means that these saṁskāras all of a sudden after so many years even of spiritual practice come to you and completely bewilder you.
So many desires come and God knows where from. So he said after this severe crisis, which I had several some some time ago, it said every day in the morning I start my morning from a little meditation.
And meditation doesn't mean you sit in a lotus posture, it doesn't mean anything. It basically means you try to concentrate your mind in a certain way, on a certain way.
And he said every morning I do this little meditation. I get up, I wash myself, I go out from the bathroom and I sit down and I think for a few minutes, two minutes, three minutes, very deeply inside.
I am servant of the Lord. Very small servant of the Lord. And this day, the whole day, I will remain a servant of the Lord. I will not try to, you know, pump my ego. I will not try to pretend.
I will not try to, you know, to act somebody, you know, who should be worshipped by everyone else. I will not do anything. I will remain the servant of the Lord. And whatever I do, I will do this move. It's a simple thing.
But this simple thing can completely change your consciousness.
Accepting circumstances with daily gratitude
Because we are, in our inner nature, servants of the Lord, but the problem is that we always forget about this. Basically, Lord Krishna says what it means to understand the plan of the Lord.
He says to understand the plan of the Lord is to accept everything which is happening to you. Our problem is that we are rebellious and we have our own desires and we always want our desires to be fulfilled.
And when the desire of the Lord comes to us in some unpleasant shape or form. You think God is too cruel. I have to reject him. No, he's bad. No, no. It cannot happen with me.
So basically to understand who we are means that we should meditate on who we are.
And meditate who we are means to meditate as the servants of the Lord and what it means to be the servant to be the servant means I accept gratefully with a grateful heart whatever happens with me. I just smile.
You know, something bad happens with me, I smile and I say, thank you very much, my dear Lord. Something good is happening with me. I don't smile more. I smile the same. I want to smile more. But I smile the same.
I accept happiness and distress with the same smile. With the same grateful heart. I say thank you very much, my dear Lord. You're so grateful. You're so so merciful. You're sending me all these lessons.
And you can and you'll be able to understand all these lessons which Lord is trying to teach you every day only if you accept them.
Yesterday somebody asked this question, how to understand the lessons of the Lord. And that's in fact every day the Lord sends us so many lessons, but because we are not receptive in the heart, we're not really learning anything from these lessons. To learn from the lessons of God, the first thing which we have to do, the main thing which we have to do, is just to accept them.
And even though I may not understand what specifically the Lord wants to teach me, if I gracefully accept them and say thank you very much, this means that I already learned something.
Because all these lessons which God sends to us are meant to teach us, to be grateful. This is actually when you bring up a little child. What is the first lesson you want to instill about him?
What is the first word you want him to repeat? Thank you. Thank you, please.
You know, this is the first to be the decent human being, you have to know how to express your gratitude. You have to know how to say thank you and to feel thank you.
So in the same way the Lord is our Father. And that's what He is teaching us.
And this is the lesson number one which we have to know before we can know other lessons and there are so many other very deep lessons which He wants to teach us, but before we have to understand other lessons we have to understand this simple lesson.
Thank you very much, my dear Lord, for whatever you sent to me, for all these good things which you sent to me and for all the bad things which you sent to me.
So if this attitude is there within our heart, then for sure you will very quickly and very clearly understand the plan of the Lord.
And to be the servant means, and to be grateful servant, because to be the servant means to accept.
If a servant is a rebellious, you know, somebody, you know, perhaps somebody of you had some servants at one point of your life, but if you have a servant and the servant always yells back at you,.
You ask him to do something and he, who are you? Why do you ask me to do this? This is not the servant. To be the servant means whatever the master tells us to do, we do. And that's what is happening in this life.
To be the servant means to accept everything which the Lord sends to us. We say thank you to Him. And as soon as we do this, we know the plan of the Lord. As soon as we do this, we know the desire of the Lord.
And as soon as we do this, we are in peace with ourselves. We are happy, we are smiling. And we are, you know, we are what we are.
So basically this is little tips which are there how to understand the plan of the Lord. First of all, to act according to your material nature.
And this means that to act in the capacity which is there according to your cycle of physiological structure.
And the second of all, uh to be this spiritually enhanced in your life, it means to say thank you to everything which is happened to you.
Every day to say, my Lord, I'm your servant, and I'm going to serve you this whole day, and I'm not going to deviate from this. No matter what. No matter what happens. Maybe there will be a screen.
Maybe something the worst thing will happen with me this day, but I will still be your grateful servant. And I will go on with my service no matter what. So this is basically how to understand the plan of the world.
And of course you can ask astrology or you can ask something else, but basically this is what it is. So, if there are some other questions we can answer them, please write them.
The purpose of religious sacrifice
But I'll start answering questions now. Can you please explain the why the Muslims sacrifice goats? Not only Muslims sacrifice goats, Hindus also sacrifice goats. If you go to Calcutta, there is a famous Kali temple there.
And Kali Mata has a big tongue. And supposedly she is eating goats. Um, I'm not even sure the Muslims, they sacrifice not only God, they sacrifice everyone, including human beings. So and it's difficult to understand why.
But basically if we go to this sacrifice, the culture of sacrifice, the culture of sacrifice is everywhere. This understanding of sacrifice is permeating all the religious culture.
If you go to Christianity, the whole Christianity is based on the sacrifice. Because the Christ, Jesus Christ was the Lamb who was sacrificed. And because He made the sacrifice, sacrifice Himself, He saved everyone.
So that's the understanding of Christianity. I'm sure in Muslim religion the same kind of understanding is there.
But what we should sacrifice and this sacrifice is of course are very clearly explained in the Bhagavad-gītā.
So the idea of sacrifice, this listen very carefully, is that you first start sacrificing something uh material with the idea of offering him to God. You sacrifice God. Okay, fine.
Of course it's a big question whether God wants the goat. But anyway, Kali is there, she can take the goat or whatever. You better do this, you just sacrifice this.
But in Bhagavad-gītā Krishna explains that you only start with this point. Yes, you have to give. The human nature is to take. When the little baby is born, he already has this reflex to grab.
He doesn't know anything, but he wants to grab. He is grabbing something and putting it in his mouth. That you don't have to teach him. You know, and nobody has to teach us how to grab. Is it correct? We know.
We know we know all the tricks, how to grab as much as possible. But what we have to be taught, what we have to know and to learn is how to give.
So sacrifice, the culture of sacrifice is to teach the human being how to give. And this is difficult. I remember when I was a little child, I had a... I had a sister. She was younger than myself.
And in Russia at that time, the oranges were very rare. Maybe once a year you would get a few oranges. It was it was a big deal. So somebody gave me piece of art. And it was so nice and an orange, it was a dream.
334 days I was dreaming about this orange. And then somebody gave me this orange. And then my mother came and she said, give half of this orange to your sister. I said, no. No way. No way.
I just said no, you have to give. You have to give. I said, no, mother, no. Why should I give to her? Because you... I was crying, and finally I gave half of the orange, and I still remember this sacrifice which I did.
So this was my first sacrifice. I gave half of the orange. But basically that's the meaning of sacrifice. You give something which you don't normally want to give. To learn how to ultimately sacrifice everything.
This is only the first step to sacrifice a want or to sacrifice an orange for an orange. This is ridiculous. This is childish. But ultimately the perfection of sacrifice that you have to sacrifice your false ego.
And that's what Krishna says in Bhagavad-gītā. That if you want to be perfect in your spiritual life, you have to sacrifice your false understanding of yourself as a selfish, self-centered living being.
And Lord Krishna says if you do this, if you sacrifice your false ego, if you overcome your false ego and act in accordance with my will, this is how this question is related to the topic of today's discussion.
Because when you reach the perfection of sacrifice, you sacrifice your false ego, then you know what is the will of the Lord. Because when you have the false ego, you only know your own desires.
But to know the plan of the Lord, you have to sacrifice your false ego. I'm your servant. This is the real leader which we have.
So in any religion, there is the teaching that you have to sacrifice that ultimately should bring you to this summit of false sacrifices.
Stories of Srila Prabhupada's determination
That is the understanding, I'm a servant of the Lord, and I'm sacrificing my false ego, false identity, and remain in this eternal identity or eternal capacity and being a servant of the Lord.
Please tell us one of your pastimes with Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's a very interesting question because I never met Śrīla Prabhupāda. I'm not a disciple of Prabhupāda.
I'm a disciple of his godbrother Śrīla Radhanath Maharaj, who is the direct disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda. And Śrīla Prabhupāda came to Russia in 71 when I was 14 years old and I was not in Moscow at that time.
So with all my desires, although I didn't
have this desire at that time, I wouldn't be able to meet him. But I can tell you a pastime with Prabhupāda which happened in Moscow, or before he came to Moscow, which perhaps is relevant.
Prabhupāda was very eager to bring Krishna consciousness to Russia. And Russia was behind the Iron Curtain at that time. And to show how eager he was, there is a little story in this regard. Oh, maybe two little stories.
Prabhupada has heard that in Russia people drink vodka and that there's no vegetables, there's no fruit, there's only meat and vodka.
So he was telling to one of his disciples, you should go to Russia, to Soviet Union, and you should preach.
And his disciples said to Śrīla Prabhupāda, Śrīla Prabhupāda, but there's nothing there to eat. There's only meat and vodka. And Prabhupāda said, I give you permission, you can drink vodka and eat meat, but please preach! This was his desire.
And another little pastime along these lines that for many years Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted to get his visa to Russia. And it was very difficult at that time because again Russia was behind the Iron Curtain and
even visa was very difficult to get. Especially if you are, you know, some religious person with some American connections. Very difficult.
So at one point, somebody said, Prabhupāda, we have a chance to get a visit for you. And it was winter time. And at the same time the invitation from Hawaii came and it was a mango season in Hawaii.
And Prabhupāda loved mangoes. He loved mangoes very much. So and uh these two invitations came at the same time. And Prabhupāda said, I'm going to Moscow in the winter.
And the disciples said, Prabhupāda, it's winter in Moscow, it's so cold. You ask to go to Hawaii to eat some nice dried mangoes.
Prabhupāda said that preaching in the snows of Moscow is sweeter than the sweetest mango in Hawaii. So that was his uh that was his understanding of preaching.
Because when you bring Krishna consciousness to people and when you see how people are touched by this perfect philosophy of Krishna consciousness. This is the Swedish experience.
And if the question is about my pastimes with Śrīla Prabhupāda, I was not personally in connection with him, but I still very much feel this connection because I'm trying to preach Krishna consciousness in Russia and I know that this is very sweet.
I like mangoes too, but preaching Kṛṣṇa-kathā is it's sweeter for your thank you for your auspicious presence from Moscow. Thank you for tolerating me.
It's actually you make this festival so auspicious and I'm trying not to spoil it.
Personal journey into Krishna consciousness
Please explain more than you did it in the other 10 about your first attraction to ISKCON. Thank you. Okay. In in the weekend I told the story how KGB made many words. KGB is a secret police in Russia.
And um when I was superficially involved with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the KGB which was very worried and alarmed about Kṛṣṇa consciousness and spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness in Russia started interrogating me and actually they threatened me.
They told me, we'll put you in prison. At that time I was a postgraduate student. I was doing my PhD degree in biochemistry.
And I was very successful I was going up in my career and um uh I was actually very very threatened very afraid intimidated by the KGB, but then I started thinking, why does KGB take this movement so seriously?
And I knew at that time, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement in Russia was a bunch of strange people who totally marginal, who didn't have any status in society, who were not very intellectual. I thought why KGB?
KGB, they must know better. Why does KGB take this movement so seriously. And then I thought, maybe I should also take this movement seriously. If KGB does this, there is some good reason for this.
So this is how KGB became my śikṣā-guru. That's a fact. I became much more serious about Krishna consciousness because KGB pushed me to do this.
As far as other pastimes or whatever uh experiences in the RAS are concerned, I don't know what else to tell you. Um but uh uh yeah maybe I can tell you something.
Uh I was a scientist and postgraduate student at that time and uh but I was not happy. I was in a very difficult situation because I didn't know why
do I live, what will happen with me after death and you know why why I couldn't understand the meaning of life. So somebody gave me Bhagavad-gītā. One devotee met me. One devotee actually one devotee tricked me.
Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is very dangerous. Because Kṛṣṇa is the biggest cheater. He admits very confess this in Bhagavad-gītā. He says, out of cheaters I am the best.
Because he is the best of everyone, including the cheaters. So Krishna is treating everyone. Śrīla Prabhupāda once he also made this comment. One of his disciples in Bombay said, Prabhupāda, I don't like Indians.
Indians are so tricky. They always... they always try to cheat you. So many cheaters are here in India. Prabhupāda said, I'm also Indian. So the disciples said, no no, Prabhupāda, you are exception.
You know, this all these cheaters they're trying to teach me, cheat me on the street, but you're exception, Prabhupāda. Prabhupāda said, no, I'm not an exception, no, I also cheated. That's a fact.
Because you know when when you're being invited to Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement you say it's so blissful, you know, you don't have to do anything just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and be happy.
After a few weeks you find out that you have to do so many things that you don't become so happy immediately. So uh what happens with me, this was my first encounter with Krishna consciousness movement.
Somebody invited me and I was in this crossroads in my life. I was thinking, you know, which way to go, what to do in my life. And somebody told me, you know, you want to be free from all the diseases. I said, of course.
And he said, and you want to see the aura of people. I said, yes, of course.
He said, if you see the aura of people, the functions which is there around the body of the people, you can see the color of this aura and you can diagnose the people and you can know what's wrong with them and you can help them.
And because I was little out too easy, I said this this is a good idea, this sounds good. So I was invited to a program like this. It was a very secret program and some hostel.
So there was nothing open about religion or whatever. So this this program was about how to see aura.
And the person from the you know from the station was saying you know this you this you have to do to see the aura you have to touch and you have to do this but then he said if you really want to see the aura and to become very very sensitive and to get rid of all your diseases and to help others you have to uh pronounce this magic
sound Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare and he wrote it there and he said, please note it down, this is what you have to do, this is what it is, this is how to you know see the aura.
And I thought this is a good idea, let me change that. That's how I started changing. I have to admit that I still don't see the aura. Twenty-six years later, chanting this very Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra for 16 rounds every day.
And I still have diseases. I'm not totally healthy. But uh but I still chant and this is the biggest miracle because when I started chanting I felt that something is happening within my heart.
That something really strange was happening there. And I liked the chanting. And I went on chanting and finally I got back with it and I understood what it was all about. And I'm very happy.
So that was that's how Kṛṣṇa tricked me. He said, you want to see you want to have some mystic power. Chant.
Quieting the mind to hear God
And that's see, maybe in some lifetime you will get it. Please explain how one does get to know what the desire of the Lord, what that is, and how does He go about satisfying the Lord's desire? Thank you.
I told this in my introduction a little bit that if you uh become receptive, if you accept everything which is happening with you, and if you really have this strong understanding within your heart that whatever
happens with you is what desired. And you don't rebel against it. You don't reject it. You don't really, you know, become morose because of this is happening with you. Then you understand this is the Lord's will.
In the Bible there is this very nice example when Jesus Christ was about to be crucified. And then he was praying in this garden.
See, the sound of Hare Krishna mantra is so attractive that you know you can't tell but be attracted by it. But at this time he had a stress. He had the desires in his heart which was different from Lord's desire.
We don't know the desire of the Lord because we don't hear it, because we have our desire which is too loud. Did you notice that somebody is always speaking within your mind? And it's a very loud sound.
And you always listen to this. And also God is speaking from within your heart. All the time. He's speaking as much as he was speaking with Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, he's speaking from within.
He's telling, don't do this, do this, you know this is good for you, this is not good. But we don't hear. Why? Because there is some other voice. And this voice is too loud. And the Lord is very soft spoken. He's very gentle.
And he's speaking very softly. Don't do this. Please, please, please. Don't do this, be nice, be good, generally listening. But we don't listen because we listen to the mind.
So to understand God's desire, we have to stop listening the mind. We have basically to shut up the mind. That is a very good mantra I will teach you.
And your mind is screaming and your mind is saying something, I want this, I want this, I want this, and I'm disturbed, and I want this, and therefore we have to do this, you have to say very nice mantra, but you have to say it very loudly, you have to yell at the top of your lungs, shut up, because
you can understand the desires of the Lord only if your mind is keeping quiet, only if your mind is silent. Only then the desires of the Lord will be revealed to you. And this is what it is when we chant the mantra.
Yesterday we had this experience when we were chanting om mantra. And immediately, after chanting om mantra, we can feel this calmness and peace of the mind.
So then immediately there is a different state of consciousness.
So to understand the Lord's desire, you have to bring yourself to this state of consciousness when the mind is very peaceful and full and when you are receptive to the desires of the Lord and when you're ready to accept them, then the desires will be revealed.
And the Lord Himself says that teṣāṁ સતત-युक्तَانām (dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yena mām upayānti te) I will give you this intelligence. I will give myself and I will help you to come to me. I will lead you in this way.
So this is the whole technique, the whole you know this festival is just to teach us how to understand the desires of the world.
Features of the spiritual realm
And basically for this we have to calm down the mind and chant Hare Krishna Mahā-mantra. The abode of Lord Krishna is described in the Bhagavad-gītā in the chapter, in chapter whatever.
The Supreme World of Mind is not illuminated by the sun of the moon nor by fire or electricity. Those who reach this world never return to this material world.
What is the sun uh what is the meaning of the word electricity in the spiritual world? If they have electricity so many years ago.
Somebody is inquisitive because in Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation of this verse, the Lord gives a little advertisement of the spiritual world.
He says, in my world there is no sun, and there is no moon, and there is no electricity, and whoever comes there never comes back to this material world. So welcome to the spiritual world.
There is no sun there, there is no moon, there is no electricity. But the meaning here is that I will come a little later to this question about electricity, ...but the meaning here is that this world is self-luminous.
The nature of this world is darkness. This world is dark. Only occasionally it's a little brightened by sun and by moon, by electricity, by different sources of light.
Which actually are reflection of the original source of light which is Krishna. But the spiritual world, which is the source of all light, is bright itself.
And when Prabhupāda translates electricity, he specifically translates the word pāvaka. Pāvaka means fire. But Prabhupāda chooses to translate as pāvaka or fire. Basically the Lord says there is no fire there.
In other words, the hidden meaning of this verse, which is interesting, which is again somewhat related to the topic of our discussion, is that you cannot know the spiritual world by your own strength.
When Lord Krishna says you can't there is no Sun in the spiritual world.
It basically means that you cannot see the spiritual world by your eyes. Because the sun is what is facilitating our material vision. And that Krishna says that there's no moon in the spiritual world. It means what?
The moon rules what? The moon rules our mind. The moon is the symbol of the mind. Therefore, when there is a full moon, everyone is so disturbed.
You know, and sometimes people cannot even sleep because the mind is disturbed.
So when Krishna says there is no moon in the spiritual world, it means you cannot reach the spiritual world by your own mind, by your own philosophical endeavors so to speak.
And when Krishna says there is no there is no there is no fire in the spiritual world. It uh it means that let me think what it means. I'm explaining the commentary of what Gita on this particular verse.
It also means that uh anyway this whole statement is that you cannot understand or know or reach the spiritual world by your own material means. Not by material endeavors, not by material mind, not by material senses.
Um, what is the sun? A sun is something else. Lightning lightning is electricity also. Yeah.
Anyway, this is all electricity in a sense that this is all uh this is all sources of light and the light is the source of knowledge.
Basically, this word is about how to know the spiritual world. This verse is about how to know the spiritual world. So therefore, Kṛṣṇa tells us.
It means that by scientific endeavors you cannot understand the spiritual world. That's also one interpretation which you can give. But Rāmānujācārya probably is right.
Loving the soul to love God
Because electricity was known to people uh since time immemorial because the Because the lightning was there. Isn't it true that one will never be happy if one does not love oneself.
How can one chant and be happy or love God when one does not know how to love oneself? Thank you very much for this question. You definitely have to love yourself. But before loving yourself, you have to know who you are.
This is a little prerequisite. Usually people are confused. And they think to love oneself, one has to love, you know, this material body or my material realities, or whatever.
Yes, you have to love yourself, but the first number one, the step number one is that you have to know who you are. And to know who you are, when you know who you are, that you are so beautiful, and every one of us is so beautiful, every one of us is beauty personified. Every one of us is blissful, every one of us is very knowledgeable, every one of us is eternal.
But this is our spiritual inner nature. It will lap our wheels, it will up our distorted nature, then we never will be able to understand God. Everyone loves Himself. Everyone has some kind of love.
But because this love is not pure, because this love is perverted, because this love is not addressed to the real self, and then it doesn't help one to understand God. So you're right, you have to love yourself.
But for that, you have to know that you are spirit-soul, not anything else. And then you can love God. So this is the real understanding of love of yourself. What exactly does it mean to follow one's nature?
And what is our nature and what is our conditioning? How can one uh know the difference without being influenced by the environment we are in. Well how one can know one's nature.
You can know your nature, but as you correctly pointed out in this question, the problem is the influence of the environment. The nature is something which we like to do. This is our nature.
And the nature is so strong that if you like to do something, you are totally absorbed.
Basically, when Krishna says you have to follow your nature, he is giving this hint or this advice that if you do something which you are meant to do, then you don't need anything else.
You're already almost in samadhi. You're so absorbed. Your mind is so peaceful and so concentrated.
Like for example, if you're artist and you're painting something, you know sometimes you don't see anything, you don't know the time, you don't know what is in your stomach, whether you ate or not. You're just painting because you love painting.
Or if you're a businessman, if you're real businessman, not just imitation businessmen, not just the cheap businessman, but the real businessman whose very nature is to make money. I know one person. He's a devotee.
I will tell you a little story about him. How he became a devotee. It's also interesting. He's a real businessman. He's this business is his blood. You know, whatever he sees, he sees how to sell this.
Whatever he's he glances upon, he already knows what is the value and how and he knows how to sell this with some profit. It's unbelievable what he does. So I met with him some time ago, many years back, and
uh recently he confessed to me he became a devotee and he started associating very closely to me somehow or rather he is you know he came and
a couple of months back he confessed to me, he said, You know why I became a devotee? And you know why did I want to become so close to you? Because I thought it's a good opportunity to make a lot of money.
Is that when I came to this movement, I immediately realized it's a very powerful movement. There is a lot of potential. It means that sometime in the future there will be a lot of money.
So I have to be in this movement and I have to be near the head of this movement so that all the money will go through me because he doesn't care about money. He still didn't get anybody. He became anybody.
So uh coming back to the question, uh what is our nature? Our nature is something which we can do uh practically uh without any remuneration.
If we can do something which because we love to do it, because we're totally absorbed to do it, this is our nature. And everyone has nature.
You know, somebody likes to teach and he doesn't need anything. You know, he just loves to teach. Whether somebody gives him money or not, he's he's there to teach.
So uh this is how we should understand our nature and for that we should not be influenced by the external environment because external environment is infecting our hearts with the desires and ambitions.
When we closely associate with people, especially if these people are dear and near to us, then their ambitions come to us on a practically automatic basis.
We associate with somebody who has very strong desires and here you are you have the same desires in this in your heart so this is this is the hindrance this is the obstacle but otherwise uh to know your nature is simple.
You just do what you love to do. You just do what you can do without being paid.
Understanding Buddha and empowered messengers
And then the money comes because if you do it in a nice way, you will get what you are supposed to get. What is the relationship between Buddha and Krishna?
Well, according to Vaishnava tradition, Buddha is an avatar of Vishnu. And of course there is different controversial points connected with it. Some say that this is not this Buddha who is the founder of Buddhism.
But basically Buddha is a great preacher and at least he is definitely Shakti Arieshavatara means that he is empowered soul. Any great religious preacher, uh by far we have to
understand that he is special, especially empowered by God to propagate God consciousness. If we take the Prophet Muhammad, it's a definitely great soul. There is no doubt about it.
We may not agree with all the details of the teaching, especially the teachings how it was formed historically.
But we have to admit, we have to bow down to him, admitting that he is the empowered soul, because the Lord empowered him to propagate this particular religion for this time and for this people.
This particular kind of people, they need this approach to religion. And Christianity the same, and Buddhism is the same.
So Buddha, the relationship with Buddha, the very sure thing we can say that he is the śhakty-āveśāvatāra, means the empowered soul who propagated certain teachings to free people from the very gross simple activities.
The very simple teaching of Lord Buddha is ahiṁsā. You have to be nonviolent, you have to, you know, respect all the creatures in the world and, uh, this is the teachings of Lord Buddha and basically this is a preliminary step to understand the spiritual philosophy because you have to be non-violent.
To become non-violent, to understand the spiritual philosophy. How can we serve God when we have a material job to go to every day? It's a very good fresh — It's a very good question. You can do this.
And this is a good news for everyone. You can go to a job, you can go to two jobs, or even three jobs, and still serve the Lord. Because the Lord needs your heart.
And He gives two advices in the Bhagavad-gītā how to do this. The first advice: whatever you do, do it for Me. If you go to a job, do it for Me and sacrifice some of the fruits of your job.
Give some donation, help the preaching. You know, but ultimately the serving of the Lord is not external; it's internal. It's within the heart. It's our motivation. And if my motivation is pure, I want to serve the Lord.
Nobody can stop you. As I showed on the main stage while I was showing my slide presentation, the devotees were serving the Lord, not while having jobs, but while they were in prison.
Even in prison they could serve the Lord, because to serve the Lord means to relate with Him by remembering Him.
Basically, if you do whatever you do for the Lord, it's the way to remember the Lord by doing what you do. You do your job. If you are a businessman, you sell something, if you are you know worker, you work on a job if you are a computer worker which is the worst kind of job you can ever have
but still because it's so you know it completely wipes away the memory of God from your consciousness. But still do it for God. And in this way, your job will be your way to remember about God.
And in this way you will serve the Lord by the Lord. By doing your job. So you can do it. Nobody can nobody can stop you. This is so brilliant and so nice and so beautiful about devotional service.
Form and symbolism of Lord Jagannatha
You can do it under any circumstances, in any body, uh in in in any condition of life, you still can serve the Lord and be happy by doing this.
Can you kindly explain the detail about Lord Jagannath and the significance of the depiction of large eyes. Okay. I will give you little interpretation of this. There are many interpretations of this.
But we know that God has uh three or four basic qualities. First of all, he is all knowing. Every religion ex uh says that God knows everything. Is it correct? And then he's all powerful. Is it correct? He can do everything.
And then he's all pervading. Right? And it means that he's everywhere. Correct? And then it means he's all the fourth quality of the Lord, he's all merciful. Correct?
Somebody, if he claims to be God, he has to have these four qualities. He has to know everything, he has to be everywhere, he has to be all forgiving and all merciful, and he has to be all-powerful. And this is the definition of God.
If somebody claims to be God, he has to have these four qualities. Now we have to prove that Jagannat has these four qualities. And he has. It's very clear, he has very big eyes. Very big eyes. It means what?
He sees all things. It means that he what? He knows all. Because he sees. He sees from within the heart. He sees every movement of your thought. He sees everything. Therefore he has so big eyes.
And then he also has arms, right? And he has very strong arms. Strong arms means that he is what? All power. And he doesn't have legs. Right? He has arms, but he doesn't have legs. Why he doesn't have legs?
Because he doesn't have to go anywhere. Why? Because he's everywhere. And then what else does he have? A big smile. Not just smile, he has such a big smile. It means that he is cool.
So this is Lord Janārdana. This is all four qualities of God in this image of Lord Jagannātha.
He's looking at your heart, he's smiling because he's... Although he's all knowing and knows all your problems and all your sins and all your weaknesses, but he's still smiling.
If somebody else would look in your heart, he would probably not smile.
You'd probably become a little morose and say, "But he is looking in your heart and he knows everything and he still smiles because he's all merciful." And then he's all powerful. He can do everything.
And he doesn't have to travel anywhere, but still he travels on a beautiful chariot in this festival. So this is Lord Jagannātha. Is it correct description?
Simplicity in spiritual practice
Why and what is the significance of wearing of garments by the speakers? The Lord is simple, so should we not also be just as simple? We should.
And therefore the Lord is called Vanamālī. And Vanamālī means somebody who has a beautiful garment. And why not follow his example? Vanamālī means somebody who has a beautiful garland from the... from the simple flowers.
What is more simple than flower? It's very simple.
To have some plastic, you know, stuff. It's not simple. Some this and that and you know, lipstick and. This is not simple, but to have a nice flower garden is simple. You know what's wrong with it?
God says, if you want to please me, give me one flower. And this is the way to please him, if you do it with love. And when we want to please somebody else, we give some flour to him. This is a very natural custom.
And you know, if somebody gives you flour, this is your duty to accept the flower. And we're not doing anything complicated after all, you know, to bear a little garland.
But if you want to have it, I can give it to you. This is also very simple. I will be happy to give it to you. And you can be also simple by wearing this garden.
What can we do if we are forced to act against our material nature? For example, if you are a woman, but you cannot get married and act. The war for a living as a man in a man's world. Yeah, this is a bad scene.
So I knew that this clarification of acting according to this nature, to our nature, is not very relevant in this present material setup. The setup is very chaotic and it's very cruel too.
This world is basically forcing us to go against our nature. People cannot manifest their nature anymore because of this crazy situation in the world. Yes, I know women have to work.
I know sometimes women cannot even marry. In a traditional society, Śrīla Prabhupāda once said that if the girl is not married before 12 before she is 12 years old, the father has to commit suicide.
Because this is the duty of the father. The father, this is the first and foremost duty of the father to you know make sure that his daughter is married. But now in this world is everything is so crazy.
Yeah I know all these problems are there. But still there is a hope, there is a bright spot in this dark background. Yes, you may be forced to do something against the nature. And we have to do it.
You know, in so many occasions and circumstances we have to act against our nature. But still, nobody can force us to act against our spiritual nature.
So even if you are forced to act against your material nature, still you have to develop and cultivate your spiritual nature.
And if force comes to worse, and if you your whole life are doing something which you are not meant to do, but still you're cultivating your spiritual nature, at the end you will get a very beautiful reward of coming back to your real spiritual nature. So don't worry about this.
Even if you cannot follow your nature, just do the needful, try to do whatever little you can do, and at the same time try to cultivate your spiritual nature by chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Hare Hare. Thank you very much.