Bhagavad-gita 2.14
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · South Africa · 2006
Chapters
Verse on foundation of spiritual life
Onamo Spadava Heber Sebastian Oh Namot Bhagavaj Today on the twenty third of April from the year two thousand six. I read it and the turtle goes along the first number of the second change.
This is actually the foundation of those. If we understand the meaning of this verse and try to build our life on this foundation, we will achieve a lot.
You will achieve a lot in the material sense and you will achieve a lot in the spiritual sense. This is the foundation from which you can start building your spiritual experience.
So this is mainly, but at the same time it's very important. Some people typically die in the middle of this world.
Martha Pasas Sukandya Sikas Nam Sukar Mahamayamikyashi Sasab Matras Pasha Martas Pasha Sensory Sep Sensory Seps to Only Kam Sita winter summer heaviness look up and pay and pay Divana appearyana disappear disappeared anity Translations.
Tolerating nonpermanent happiness and distress
For some of Uji, the non-permanent appears of heaven is in disgrace. And then disappears in due force. Alice appearance and disappears of winter and summer cities.
They arise from sense perception or signal barja, and one must try, one must learn to tolerate them without being so born by the basis of the solid of God. And the power of this charge of J has to law the total non-therman appearances and disappearances of happiness and stress.
According to very changing, man has to take his past lonely in the morning, even during the months of Mamka, January, February. It is very cold at the time, not here in South Saturn.
But in spite of that, a man who abides by the religious principles does not hesitate to take his body. Similarly, a woman does not hesitate to cook in the kitchen in the months of May and June.
The whole spot of the summer season. Marcus is duty in spite of financial conveniences. Similarly to, fight, is the religious principle for these subjects.
And although one has to fight with some trend for everything, one should not deviate from this display.
One has to follow the description rules and regulations of religious principles in order to rise up to the blight of knowledge.
Because the knowledge, by knowledge and emotion only, can one liberate yourself from the place of one illusion. The two different names of address given to Arjuna are also significant.
To address him as home there signifies his great blood relations from his mother's side.
And to address him as Pāṇḍava signifies his greatness from his father's side. From both sides, he is supposed to have a great heritage.
A great heritage brings responsibility in the manner of proper discharge of duties. Therefore he cannot avoid fighting. Śad-vidha-pari-pākaṁ punaḥ samāśrayata samāśrayata anubhavatāṁ saṁsāraḥ.
O, so the non-permanent appearance of happiness and distress and their disappearance in due course.
Alright, appearance and disappearance of heat and cold, some symbol may arise in a sense of touch at the time of bargain, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disrupted.
Overcoming dejection through self realization
Namaste, o Kṛṣṇa, śaraṇāgataḥ praṇamāmi tvām, prabho, mām avāpya, tava śaraṇe sthitaḥ, bhaktyā te caraṇau viśrāmyāmaḥ, kṛpā-sāgara, he prabhupāda, māṁ pālaya, bhakta-vatsala, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, tavāsmi, prabho.
As I already said, this does it's very important for us not only to understand but to practice now they are. And it's one thing to understand it and other things to practice. Because most people have theoretically.
But when you understand it theoretically, this is already a good step in the right direction. So here basically Kṛṣṇa continues to cure Arjuna from disease his. And this is the disease of all conditioned living entities.
The first chapter is called Arjuna Viṣāda Yoga, the yoga of dejection, the yoga of desperation, the yoga of grief. And this is the problem of all of us in this material existence. From time to time we become depressed.
From time to time we become dejected. From time to time we become oh we can paralyze. And Kṛṣṇa, the whole Bhagavad-gītā gives us basically the cure of this disease. Kṛṣṇa wants us to be happy.
Kṛṣṇa is never lamenting. He's always smiling. That is his very important feature. In fact, one of the godbrothers of Śrīla Prabhupāda once went to India and he searched for God.
And when you go to India, I basically will be confused because there are so many boys there, so many. Practically everyone is right. Everyone plays you disappointing things perhaps.
So and this man was very sober, he was going around, looking at gurus, hearing you Ultimately, he came to the conclusion on the Christian class. Why? Because he's always smiling. Everyone else is not.
Everyone else is fighting, has some weapons. Christian his weapon is good. His weapon is bad. It's much more difficult to play and it's good. They say that in order to fight, if you don't have finger. That's his finger.
The call is Sudarśana-chakra. The play in the flute he uses 10 of them. So he came to this conclusion that Krishna is God because he manifests the most sublime quality. Which we all strive for, that is happiness and love.
And that's the truth. You don't need any other truth. You know, you may be of some other activity. But ultimately the essence of life is to be happy. And Krishna wants us to be happy.
But at the same time he sees us, he sees the reality. And he sees all these movie faces and all these discord eyes and what and uh and he sees our human and our judgment isn't the same as this. He's totally dejected.
He's morose, he's fearful, he's crying. He totally lost his ability of fight. He is totally useless because all his forces left his voice. And there's no I don't want it. And this is the disease of everyone.
Nowadays they say that the biggest disease is the question. The people make more money to cure depression than anyone else. So many people they have this recipe for depression, on that recipe for depression,
this pill for depression, on that pill. And of course, Krishna would not have given Bhīṣma a pill. I'm going to please take this pill and fight, come on. But he knows that the deal is not a solution.
That solution should go deeper. That the real solution is the fundamental problem of our existential condition.
And basically, Arjuna represents every one of us, and the reason, the cause of our rejection, of our desperation, of our greed is one because we have forgotten that our real nature, because we have forgotten it.
We have forgotten ourselves and we have forgotten our relationship with Kṛṣṇa. And this is what we have to realize. And here Krishna starts giving the cure how to realize it.
Because again, it's not enough just to theoretically know it. It's good enough uh for the beginning to know that everything. That's already a good message. Krishna tells us you are eternal. That's good.
You know, I remember when I heard this, you know, I was very delighted and people there they come to like.
Experiencing eternal nature beyond theoretical knowledge
But it's not enough just to have this mental kind of uh joy uh knowing that you are eternal, you have to know this by the means of your own experience.
And he, Krishna, explains how to know it. Not just theoretically, but practically. He starts with this, and he makes this point in
the introduction of Bhagavad-gītā. Our main problem is that our very existence is conducted in the atmosphere of non-existence. We are eternal by nature. By nature eternal. And Prabhupāda says very beautifully after that.
He said, the living entity is threatened by non-existence. This is the greatest fear of everyone in this life. We are afraid that we will not exist. But Krishna comes and says, Rejoice. Rejoice.
There's no death. There is no death for the soul. The soul is eternal. The soul is eternal. And he gives this very important message and then he says how we should understand this.
He is not going to make us into the blind believers. Sometimes people think that we just have to believe. The religion is all about belief. You just believe something, you know. Just believe a message.
I remember once I met some Christian group in the beginning, you know, well lots of books. And in this missing group, somebody, you know, started preaching to me. He was a sleepy fellow.
He just woke up in the morning, midday, and he
woke up and uh I came and he started preaching and he said, you know, if you believe in Jesus Christ then you'll say your name is in the book of life and if you are not, your name is in another book. I said, that's it.
So yeah, that's it. I don't sleep, lady. That's it, go down. Not even to do anything else. Tell the leave. And then you move to be nice and mediated and then Because that's it, you're done. No, Krishna doesn't want it.
Krishna doesn't want to blind all this. Krishna, otherwise, Krishna would very quickly finish the whole Bhagavad-gītā.
And say, I don't want to fight, Krishna would say to him, please fight and I will take all your sins, just believe I will save you, just fight. And that's it. You know, I'm your savior. From now on, I'm your savior.
No, he's not. He doesn't want the blind following. He wants us to understand this very deeply.
And therefore, when he said that you are a tonal, and then he gives a very interesting point in the previous verse when he says that he He said that the vira, somebody who is sober,
humbly is somebody who is not drunken, who is not infatuated by the by the illusory happiness of this world. He is not deluded by the body is changed. See that after all it's another thing.
We all know that the body is changing. You know, you were a child, and then you became another. And then after that you became another man. You know, nobody laments so much.
Of course, when you become adult and then you become old and sometimes people do lament. They do lament, they and they try to fight with it. They you know they dye their hairs, you know, the gray hairs become black again.
The proof is really unhappy for you. This is something is really long and big and black hairs.
Observing bodily changes to realize the soul
And he says, Veera, veera is not doing this. Somebody who is sober, he knows the real situation. And he's not handicalled because it's inevitable. Because you cannot do anything about it.
The sign of a sober person of the person who really knows what the meaning of five is that he is not being distorted about something which he cannot change. If I cannot change it anyway, the body will die.
Why should I worry about? It will die anyway. Why should I worry?
But Krishna makes it very nice point in this verse is that the very fact that you can see all these changes, the very fact that you observe all these changes, is the proof that you are not this body.
Because if you were this body, you wouldn't see this change. Because it would be you. The very fact that you see the changes is that you are removed from this body.
You're the observer of the body. You are the possessor of the body. Like when we say you possess the wealth, if somebody says I have the wealth, it means that wealth is separate from him. Right?
That's him and that's his wealth. When we say that there is body and when we see that the body is changing, then sometimes
we lament that the body is changing, or sometimes the doctor says the body is changing, but we watch and see, you know, all the wrinkles and you know. And it's actually very difficult for people. I remember my mother, she used to, you know, to take away all the gray hairs.
hairs. But sooner or later, you realize that it's going to become more because the point is that I know this body because I can see the changes in the body. As simple as this.
Because if you would change with the body, you wouldn't see the changes. Simple. To observe something, you have to be outside of it. This is the point of physics. You know, and you don't uh, physics,
There is a position where you can see that something is moving or something is moving. But if you are moving together with this object, you cannot see the movement, right?
If you are sitting in the plane and you are not looking in the window, or even better, if you are sitting in the plane, you, no, don't see, you don't know that it's moving. You cannot see that it's moving.
Can you see that the plane is moving if you are sitting inside that?
No, you're nicely drinking your tea, and you know, both here you can do it, not to do, and at the same time you're moving at the speed of 900 kilometers an hour. But you know, and it's pretty, pretty fast.
So, but you don't notice, you don't know about it, because you're moving together with this.
But the fact that you can see the changes in the body means that there is something which is not the body, which can see the changes in the body. And this is a brilliant example.
And he says, you know, if you are dear, if you know the things as they are, you don't have to lament about them. You know you're not bewildered by these changes.
You know, as much as the uh youth is not being is not the body, you know, I used to be a young boy and I'm youth, no we are just taking and that's the point which Krishna wants to teach us.
Don't lament over something which is beyond your control. There is death and there is source, and it's totally beyond your control. And this is not the subject of my body.
And then Arjuna can say that when Arjuna hears this, he says, but still Krishna, you know, I know already I know this body, I have heard this.
On Sunday perhaps somebody told that I'm not this body. I heard this already, so many times. Did you hear this already? Did I say this in you to the sais, so what? Still I feel heavy? And still I feel this thing.
What do I do with this? How to deal with this? It's still a problem. You know, your nice statement that I know this body doesn't solve my problems because still I feel this happiness and the stress.
And Krishna speaks this verse to give us a hint how to deal with the heaviness and the stress in order to understand who we are. Because usually people, they don't learn anything in the life.
Oftentimes you can hear that people say that this life is a lesson. And you know, so many wise people have said that this life is a lesson. But usually nobody knows this lesson.
And this is very clearly can be seen at the time of death because despite so many lessons people are still so distant and so much worse and so tested. And it's such an agony they are living this boy. He used to joke.
He said, I had a friend of mine and he was dying. And he was saying, Doctor, please give me one here. I have so many plants of fulfill. And Robert Mr. Joker said, Krishna will give you the whole life to fulfill your plans.
If you are dying, there's this conception in your heart that I still have this desire, that desire, this desire, don't worry.
And that's why you fulfill all these desires and acquire more desires, you get dying, again, it's no problem. So Krishna gives us very beautiful gift here, and we have to really understand what he needs.
Understanding sense perceptions and dualities
To go deeper. He says, mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ.
He says, first of all, he says, mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya. Madras means senses. And madra is coming from sensory group miyage. Miyage means to measure.
Basically senses which we have, which is a very interesting thing, which we have that we always play with the senses. The eyes, the nose, the tongue, the skin which we have, the ears, the spine senses.
It's a meatness. They always measure. There's magic else. You know, the tongue is a special kind of device which is measuring the taste.
This is this is sweet, this is hot, this is so sweet, and this is how this is even sweet. I don't think this is B there. Oh my goodness. This is sweet, this is big. And the eyes are measuring force.
And the ears are measuring different, you know, height or the of the stone and the nose is also special instrument and it's a special very interesting. It measures different smells. So that's what's going on.
He says you have these five meters, right? That's it, you have five meters, and then mark the sparsus to come there. Sparse means the contact between the meters, between our senses and the sense objects.
And that's what's going on, that's what we are doing.
You know, you have in order to mirror something, you have to come in contact with it. Your eye is coming in contact, your nose is coming in contact with the smell, your tongue is coming in contact with the taste. That's what it is.
But then he says, this is basically going on your you know taking all these measures. But then he says, he says, then you measure it by your senses. Then you feel either cold or warm.
And basically when he says cold or cold, he means all other senses as well. It's either you know stinks or it's a nice aroma. Or it's you know bitter or sweet. Or it's a horrible sound, a nice sound, sweet sound.
So this is what it is. You want to feel it, you measure it, and then you interpret it as so-called yoka. You interpret all these measurements which is going on in your senses. And you say, oh this I like and this I hate.
And it's age. And this is all not real. Because it's totally like Jesus. You know, because if you can look around you, this is also relevant. Today you like this. Tomorrow you like something different.
Today you like this song. Like before Kṛṣṇa consciousness, many of you probably like rock music. So nice. Such a nice sound. Especially when your ears, all the the oldest on the the don't hear anything.
It's not nice because it makes you dull. That's actually the secret behind the rock music. The rock music should make you totally dull and let you feel nice. Because you don't understand anything anymore.
So you are just jumping like a dog. So, but then you know you become you and your case changes. Somehow you don't like anymore this you know and you like something different. But it's all relative. It's all relative.
In one country people like something, in other country people like something else. You know, and even you know even here it's all relative, somebody
says it's hot, it's so hot, and he's sweaty and he says, oh, it's horrible. And somebody else said, no, it's cold, but it's so cold now. And somebody says the cold is good, somebody says the hot is good. It's all relative.
Basically, the Sukha and Dukkha is all the person. It's all more or less interpretation of your sense and perceptions. And look at changing. And later Krishna will say, whatever you can change is not real. It doesn't exist.
You know, in the morning you like something, in the evening you like something else. You know, what is this? And people they they really go mad over this sense conceptions or
their impressions of what is sukha, happiness, and what is distress. They apply or invest so much importance to these relative conceptions. And it's all conceptions. And you can change your conceptions.
What you like now you may not like later. So that's what Krishna says.
Transcending relative concepts of joy and sorrow
And he says, and first of all, to try to learn how to tolerate. There's a nice story about King Solomon. King Solomon he was a wise man. And he had a ring. And on this ring it was written, "This too shall pass."
So when he had some very difficult time in his life, very difficult, some distress would come, some really problem would come, he would he had a heavy, he used to look at his ring, and he would get some solace from this, very simply passing. You know, something is really bad as well for the usually very simple person. But at one point, it is like, give me too much. And this bad situation was lasting for a long time.
He was looking in the ring and it didn't help. So ultimately he became very angry.
And he took all the ring from his from his hand and he was very anxious, he didn't even know where he bought it from, some ancestors, and he took all the string from his hand and he just threw it. then he looked in the ring and he noticed that there's something also in on the back side or the inner side of the ring.
And he never thought about this, right? So he became a little curious and he picked up and looked what was hidden inside. And inside was hidden: "This will also pass. Don't be too anxious about it.
This is the... So that's basically the advice which Krishna gives. Don't apply too much importance to this. Because what happens to us, we apply too much importance to all these things which is happening with us, this happiness and distress, this perception of that perception, this feeling or that
feeling, only because we don't know the object. That's perhaps the most important point which I wanted to say.
When Krishna says, and this is the point which he makes throughout the Gītā, Krishna says, "Don't be so hung up about your sukha and duḥkha," he will always say this one to me.
He says fame and infamy, happiness and distress, death and birth. Don't be so much anxious about these whole things because when you are anxious about these things, you don't see the whole picture.
And you're only anxious about this whole thing because you don't see the whole picture. That's all, never mind.
And our consciousness is so tiny that by trying to extract something one thing, not understanding that this is two sides of one coin.
But this was to make the point, this very important point is that you know coin has always two sides. You cannot ask the coin, please give me one side of the coin. I don't want another side of the coin.
Did you have you ever seen the coin with one side? Can you ask, please give me the coin which the only have only one side. I don't need the other side. No. But people don't understand this.
You know, when they say this is happiness, they don't know that for the happiness there is some bonus attached to it, which is called distress. If you get happiness, it means you will get distress.
But people cannot understand it, they cannot trust, and they sometimes become angry. I'm saying this, saying this, and I'm little afraid that you'll become angry because it hurts. You know, it hurts. We want to be happy.
But we don't understand that there is a price to pay. The price for happiness is distress. I'm really sorry to say this. We want to get pearls, but we don't know that there's a price to pay for this. This is for them.
We want all the good things, but we don't understand that there's always something which is totally opposite.
And the more we enjoy something which is enjoyable, the more we will suffer later from something which is suffering. Miserable. This is the law of nature.
Unfortunately, I'm really sorry to say this actually. I don't want to say this. I don't like it. I don't like it myself. But can I change? That's life. Is this the sense? If you were born, you will die.
I'm sorry to say this, but this is good. And if you are happy now, you will become happy tomorrow.
And if you are not attached to the heavens, and if you see the whole world, and if you relate to the whole world through this conception of happiness and distress, you will always be in happiness and distress. Or you will always be in distress. Ultimately, you will end up in distress.
Because happiness can bring happiness when it comes. But when the happiness goes, what does it bring? Distress. Distress. And distress, it's all relative conception. Distress gives distress when it comes.
But it gives happiness when it goes? When it goes.
So it's it's all the same, you know, when it goes it's handy, when it comes it is happiness, and then it comes it is happiness and then it goes and it's Being in this totally false conception.
People waste their lives trying to change this false conception of evidence because it doesn't happen. It just doesn't happen. It's all mixed here.
You know, and what Kṛṣṇa says basically that you should give up this false conception of life. That the value of life, which so called normal people have, is this happiness and attached to the distress.
And they don't know that there's another thing. relative conceptions and you have to go beyond these relative conceptions.
Like sometimes, you know, we have day and night. And day and night is opposites, two opposites. Day and night is an exception like happiness and distress, linger and sound. This is all obvious.
But day is a relative conception. And the night is a relative conception. What is day? Day is when it's when there's no night. And what is night? Night is when there is no day.
Or you can say day is when there's light, and when there's no light, it's night. But basically, this is all relative from each other. You know, if I ask you to define what is distress,
you will have to give the definition through happiness. Right? If you try to define what is distress, you will have to say that distress is best when I don't have it.
And you can't really avoid it, you know, because it's all relative conception.
But what Kṛṣṇa says, like relative concepts of day and night here, if you go to some, this day or night there, if you ask somebody who is really on the sun, "Is this day or night today now?", they will not understand what you're talking about.
talking about. Well, what is day, what is night? It's always sunny here. Because it's sunny.
So what Kṛṣṇa says, that if you understand who you are, if you do understand who you are, then there will be no happiness and no distress for you. All this will be heavy or blissful in another sense, in another sense.
Now you're distressed in a relative sense and you are happy in a relative sense. But Kṛṣṇa says that you can be happy in an absolute sense.
And you can be happy, or you can be distressed in a natural sense, but it's also nice to be distressed in the natural sense.
That's a very high conception, I will not talk about this, it's a little too much for this discourse. But basically what Christmas says, don't be attached to this realm of perceptions which you have. This is ridiculous.
This is all ridiculous. And this is what he says. That's what we have to understand.
Lessons from the story of King Chitraketu
Like there is this one very nice story in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. There's a story about King Citrakētu. And King Citrakētu was a king. And kings are very engrossed into this concept of good and bad, happiness and distress.
And this particular king was unhappy. He was powerful, he was wealthy, but it's always it's always something music, you know always some design which I still had to fulfill.
And in this particular case of the King Citrakētu, he was unhappy because he didn't have some. He was trying to try it with so many queens. So many queens, and he tried so many times, with every queen and nothing worked.
And he became totally desperate. I didn't have the time of the sun, I want some, I want some. When Tusan just came and he said, I want some. He said, no, this is not within your wife. This is not in this way.
This way you can enjoy. You can really enjoy this little baby bumbling something, so little. This is not really this one. He said, no one, no one. Yeah. Okay. Okay. If you really want. If you really really want.
Then we'll give you some. But with one conception, with one condition. This sound will bring you immense happiness. Immense heaviness. But this very sound will bring you immense discussion. He said, yeah, I'm ready.
I'm ready to give me some. This is what people say. I guess I'm ready. And they would say, just son will be called Harṣaśoka. Harṣa means smile. Harsha means joy. And the śoka means distress.
So he said, yes, I failed. They gave blessings and his queen, favorite queen, gave birth to the night son, and the son was so nice, and he was so smiling nice. And he was so hey, he was good bubbling and mumbling
and the everything was there. All three sides were moving in your soul. But then all other kids.
Yeah. And he became totally neglectful for other kids. Like he only liked this cool fish, gave birth to the son, and all the kids all in place, and they poisoned the sun.
Immediately the sun was so small and it was so cruel and it poisoned the sun. I mean he gave so this all this lesson. But you know I mean he said why why why?
But you know nothing he said, but hope you said, I am ready. But don't hold this yet. Because it was so close to each other. He could understand that this is two sides of our point.
If you have happiness, you will have distance. And then if you don't level the body of the world, we understood, you know, this is this is this is what life is all about. PLS.
But we are so shortsighted. We get little headaches now. We get we get that so much.
And then tomorrow we get some more, you know, some days later we get this connection we can't as I said we can't make a connection like I heard that some tribal people in
Africa here they, before people came here, white people came here, they didn't understand that the birth of a child is a result of conception because there's nine months in between. It's a long period.
You have to forget what you did, nine months after you don't understand that this is the cause and this is the effect.
And that's exactly what the saṁsāra is used. But we experience something to forget about the cause of it. But we experience distress.
We talk to God that this distress was caused by some happiness, which we experienced before. That was this. And therefore we're basically. And then what Krishna says here. Or maybe not need some preachers of it.
Then it comes and then it goes, don't worry. It will come and you will feel some happiness. Don't be overelated. Don't be too much absorbed in it.
Because when you get too much absorbed in this feeling of happiness It will be in place from saṁskāra. And this samskara will be the cause of your future glories because you will go to repeat it again and again and again.
Now later. And if this stress comes, please don't take it too serious.
Just watch what Krishna says, as much as you watch or absorb all the changes in your body, absorb in the same way the changes in your mind and be happy.
Viewing life events from a neutral perspective
Have fun. You know, like when you see on the stage, like the actors, they act. And they act and they add some something which is really, really, you know, really tragic. What do you feel when you look at this?
We feel good about it. First of all, we feel good that it doesn't have to be. But the second reason is that they're just seeing and you're watching and you just watch. You're watching.
So people, they pay a lot of money to go into this, suspend... how do we call this? Horror movies? Right? What do they do? They pay money to experience some horror. Because they watch. They watch.
So Krishna says, you don't have to pay any money. You just watch what is happening, the word which is happening in your mind. There's so much movies going on there. This way and that way.
If you learn how to watch it, if you learn how to absorb it from the neutral position of the absorber.
Or as Śrīla Prabhupāda explains here, if you learn how to absorb it from the position of the scriptures, which is the absolute advantage for it.
If you take the scriptures which prescribe the view this and take this as a position to watch your whole life, then you will have a lot of fun. No matter what happens with you.
You know, something bad happens with you, you look at this. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he gave an amazing example. And this was an example of his own life.
Once there was a period in his call, met so many problems. Of course, practically every day is coming. Śrīla Prabhupāda said spiritual movement and the material world is a difficult proposition.
But it's it's it's difficult, some it wasn't both this
very heavy you know story with Mr. Nile and Mr. Nair and Mr. Nair was hey and all the foolish disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda, the king and so And Robot was fighting and not only this, you know, in some other parts of the world, all these chemists who became all of a sudden pure devotees they they created some troubles here and there in New York, and London, there in Germany.
The police came and the arms were there, it's always heavy. So you know it became so heavy. So heavy. Nobody is the head. Head means that he's totally responsible for this. He is the head of this movement. He is an old man.
He's 70-something year-old man and he's you know and it's all heading and it's all his heading and you know the news were coming every day and
every news was the bad news the bad news the bad news ultimately you know somebody called and ultimately the carriage, heavy, heavy, something really something. And Robert looked at this carrier.
And his face became like a stone. And I know the words were very empty. They wanted him to do to say. And then Prabhupāda didn't say a word. He went to his room and he locked the door in the room.
Somebody, some clever disciple decided to watch through this keyhole. So he started watching. And he saw this amazing. The Prabhupāda went down to the floor and started crying.
He was lucky. Very heavy. Like the heaviest magic. He was lucky because you know this this person said that it was like the Danny devotees were showering flowers.
Because he was he was not weak, he was not affected. He was not in view that this was just, you know, this is just a just some kind of wheeler. And I had to do it, I have to do this real.
I have to perform my goal and I have to, you know, perform my duties, I have to follow my duties very nicely, prescribe duties. There is no exemption for this. I have to do it. And that's it. What can you all this?
Because what happened at that particular moment, when you look and your happiness and distress in display, it means that you already connected this Krishna. Who is it on? Who is non-changeable?
And you're really know who you are.
You're non-changeable. You're the spirit soul, which is the turn of the fool, please. And this is the actual point of view. And you're looking for this gravity reality from the actual point of view.
And this is called reason consciousness.
Developing Krishna consciousness as absolute vision
Man third part he gave this on this inconscience. He was flying for the first time in his life. He was already 72 years old. For the first time he knew in a plane. And he was looking to a little town.
And he saw this big, big skyscrapers in New York. And all the skyscrapers became like matchboxes. And he looked, looking, looking, and he was he was sorry to be served. Look, look, look, all the skyscrapers like matchboxes.
You know, and this certainly was an experienced version in the only that this is natural. And yes, he said, yeah, yes, this is what it is. This is an imposing version. This is the vision of the purity of that property.
Can you imagine how these skyscrapers will look from the point of view of Krishna? Even from the point of view of airplane, it looks so ridiculous. So insignificant. So how do we look from Krishna's point of view?
And then he said the art of seeing everything from Krishna's point of view is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
When you see everything within your life, the happiness and distress which is there, everything which is there from Krishna's point of view. From the absolute point of view, when you measure this from Krishna's point of view, not from your limited and very narrow-minded perception of life, measure your Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
And Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you smile. Why do you smile? Because Kṛṣṇa smiles. You are in his consciousness. And His consciousness is a happy consciousness. He is always playing, smiling.
And you also, you know, you may not play the flute, but at least you smile. Because if you try to play the flute it may not be so nice. But you smile because you are, you are connected.
You don't take your consciousness, you face your consciousness. And that's what it is. And that's the beginning. That's basically how Krishna explains to Arjuna, the dawn of this mind. Don't take your mind seriously.
Just absorb it, watch it. Just try to see. You know, just karma comes, the blast comes, the greed comes, the anger comes. But can people see this? You know, yeah, the anger came. So what?
Does it mean that you have to be angry? No, you know, the anger comes and it goes. You don't have to be angry. You don't have to yell, you don't have to smash something. Just just absorb, yes, I am angry, yeah. I know. Yeah.
I am angry. I am lusty, yes, yes, I am lusty. It doesn't mean it doesn't mean anything. So what? Your life now you will not be like this very soon. Just absorb it. Learn to do it.
And this will be very many foundations of your life.
And this life you will be able to, and that's exactly what Krishna says here in Bhagavad-gītā explains in the Bhagavad-gītā, when he says, uh, O Bhārata, son of Bhārata.
And this way, if you learn how to do this, how to perform your duties no matter what, you become a very noble human being. You will become, you will lead a life full of beauty.
And this dignified life will actually attract so much respect of other people. And this dignified life will be will be the nicest life that you can imagine. This is the way you live life.
Don't take the scandal discussions seriously.
It's just it's not it's not really worth it just to be happy, being the spiritual soul. Being the spiritual soul which has the eternal connection with the Supreme Soul, which is full of eternity, knowledge, and bliss.
Thank you very much.
Managing anxiety through tolerance and duty
Kṛṣṇa. However, many questions are very nice. Um even though I tried to get devoted in practice, still I have anxiety about life circumstances in different ways. How do I get out of this?
Well, that's exactly what this necessarily has, get out of what? tolerate.
Basically what Krishna says tolerate, tolerate means accept. This is a very important point. You just accept that this is what it is. This is you just accept all the societies and circumstances, they will change it.
Just do it as something which is not important. The problem is that we are seeking our emphasis. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means we seek our emphasis from little things to very big, is it?
We have to have uh we have to know what is important. So important for us is our relationship with Kṛṣṇa, important for us our relationship with devotees, important for us, our relationship with the spiritual master.
Everything else will come and go on its own accord. Mahārāja once said a very amazing statement. He said everything in this life is, you know, everything in this life is more or less, how can he say this?
It's more or less predestined. Whatever, you know, portion of anxiety you have to experience in this life is predestined. What is not predestined? There's only one thing which is not predestined. Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
How much Kṛṣṇa consciousness you can acquire with this life, this is this is this is a pure devotee karma. No astrology can tell you you become a pure devotee in the year 2059.
No, because you know starts will be in a certain position. No, this is ridiculous. Because, you know, stars may be giving creation consciousness.
So basically, what what this point of tolerance, when Kṛṣṇa say tolerating, means you know what is important and take care of what is important. Don't take too much care, don't take it too seriously what is not important.
Just do it. This is your duty. Just fulfill your duty. Just do what you have to do. Just be you are who you are. And you know, and watch. Absolutely. You know, please always remember that you're an observer.
You're not you're not really the actor. All our anxieties are coming because we assume very falsely the role of the actor. And this is called ahankāra. Because of this, I didn't ever see the times of me.
You know, I'm pissing. Nothing would happen if it was not for me. I'm sorry to say this. Everything would happen in some day when you are here. So just do a constant word, don't worry about this.
And worry about the Krishna consciousness.
Preaching efforts in Moscow and South Africa
And then you will be the heaviest creature in the world. What about anxiety? Like one may have ego in Moscow and the project and the government not allowing the temple. How does one tolerate this?
Well, I can explain this from my own experience how that one tolerate this. See ultimately it's all this this may be good. Very sorry. And this is the most pleasant position in life. I try as much as I can.
Yes, we want to build a beautiful temple in Moscow. We want to build a very nice glorious temple for Silogra for Silar Madhva. We want it. And I hope not only who wants it, I hope you also want it. It would be a glorious
But then if I take it as my you know my God, my ego, you know, the way to you know become puffed up. Some, you know, popped up but in the other side. And to become misery from the number one. And to remain misery.
But if you remain servant of Krishna and you try your best, and know that the fruits of your actions anyway don't belong to you.
If you don't try to enjoy the fruits of your action, then you can do it in a very proper, very support way. You do it as your stories and you try your best. And ultimately, Kṛṣṇa takes. And you watch it.
Sometimes I watch from little distance. For that I have to go somewhere to South Africa and watch what you're going to go down the Moscow. Because when you are there, it's a little difficult.
You are in this little pool of different, you know, unpleasant circumstances, this and that. But then you understand that Kṛṣṇa is there, Kṛṣṇa and everything which is happening is there. there.
And he really wants what he wants. He wants us to purify our hearts through the sections. And therefore, he gives such a hard time to the devotees. Sometimes people cannot understand this.
And once Prabhupāda, after this whole day, he said this, this, you know, this, such a difficult time, such a difficult time. know this such a difficult time, such a difficult time.
And when my medicine was finished there, it was nice weekend. Prabhupāda said, it was a, it was a good fight. Because if there's no good fight, what is the problem? There's no fun. Then we become a place that we become And
you become something that's very traditional and you are doing a very complacent way but uh this is not the point. The point of this I said the point of tradition the point of spiritual life get out of life.
This is the point. But do it in a very detached way. So this is how it is. Can you explain to us the advancement of this one in possible and how can we be of some assistance? Thank you very much for this lesson.
You would have you should have asked it at the beginning of my class, then I would spend the whole time But what I can tell you that this code is is really uh the
first devotees of ISKCON, who became the voices of Pravas in 71, they laid a very strong foundation for the ISKCON because they really suffered. They were really persecuted by the government and they were killed.
They were, you know, some of them you know tortured severely, interrogated, so many unpleasant disturbances, but they're keeping their face in that. And because of that it's called standard.
You know, we are basically easily we are there from nineteen eighty-nine, so it's little more than fifteen years, but over these fifteen years you distributed fifteen
million Bhagavad-gitas alone. Fifty million Bhagavad-gitas. It means that probably 10 million people read these books or more.
And sometimes you know the people that in the modest villages in Russia, they read these books, not only Russia, the former Soviet Union. Sometimes we we get a letter.
You know, how will we have devotees? We have telephone hardware. We have so many devotees and we have 60 people in the street. And they say our village is divided into two parts.
Sometimes it happens, people do read projects in Russia and they do become devotees. So many devotees are there. We have our big festivals. Thousands of people come.
By the way, I wanted to invite I'm very thankful to Saci-data for inviting me to this nice festival that I have, but I wanted to invite all of you to Russia to come.
We have very nice festivals, so this comes in September and the end of September.
Only some of you can come to big nice ears, very nice festivals. So on this festival they have uh basically the book is coming from cross and we have usually four thousand emotions or sometimes more. And this is really full-time devoids for very committed to the movement.
And we have 106 different centers all over our center. And it's usually very small because Russia people are poor. But there's an advantage of this. Because they are poor, they're not puffed up.
And because they are not puffed up, they are really practicing very sincerely. And they very sincerely pray to God, let's give us some money. So uh there is a lot of things which is being done.
Uh like uh He tells a nice story all this and he speaks about early days. He started talking in the 80s of Russia and he said the thing is most amazing.
People will come like here you have this nice temple which is so beautiful,
And you know, but uh in Russia you have little flats and uh tiny, tiny flats, apartments. And people are squeezing, sometimes in one room, you have sixty people. And people that squad that were sitting on the head of somebody else, and they're sitting on the wardrobe, wardrobe or something.
And my husband said the thing which amazed me is that they could sit in this position for three hours, four, five hours, and be eager to hear more and more and more.
It's not unusual when you know they they sit and chant for so many hours in a hour. And it's still, they have the spirit is still there.
And when you go to this festival, sometimes we have these kirtans. And the kirtan is amazing. It's just it's just something clearly out of the school. And all these four thousand people are so eager to share and uh dance.
So this is uh story for interrupting how you can help with this great for our success and uh sound very kindly uh whole national council they agreed to help financially.
In South Africa, they said if uh if you can donate to this project, because we do need you know we've some financial difficulties of kulekha so if you can help financially it's also nice and if you can come and share your experiences with all the time.
But you can always play the situation. Narottam, since this is your first visit, what are some of your impressions of South Africa? How can they improve?
I have such a nice impression I think because I came here just to learn from you. I really uh I really had a very good time here. I was very interested in the festival.
I was very impressed by the eagerness and how many people came and such a nice festival. I'm really not a good question to say how you can improve. Who am I to say? I need to know from you how I can improve.
And but I say it is beautiful room, you know, I hope it's really stupid to say how you can improve. How you can improve It's so nice here and so so after my aging and I really like
uh the autist and I really feel and won't feel and I'm very grateful to all of you for everything that you are doing for all the nice basic work that you're going for. Because this is very important.
This is very important for everybody. where we have to show the example to the world. And this country, the South Africa, has such a good reputation in the country. That is really exactly in this code.
So I know this is all my impressions. I can only say so many exclamation marks and uh I only thank you again and again and I'm sure she will probably very very pleased this development this
Attaining true happiness and spiritual salvation
takes place here and I can be of some little assistance I would how can I become eternally happy if there are way to escape the problems of life? Well I basically explained this in the uh in the lecture but um yeah
there is a way to escape the problems of life it's just don't take them too seriously, that's it. It was one of the problems. It's just not the problems which they, you know more sort of the screen of that that's it.
And we don't really need to do the sort of world. The storm is always hitting. No, because they just truth. And nobody can be granted your source. Why variantly? Because we have the false conception of ourselves.
And in this false conception, we think this has to be mine, this has to belong to me, oh I lost this, oh I have to get this. This is all our voice. So there's only one seat, it's nobody.
And the very fact that somebody can take something from us, means that it doesn't belong to us. It's not ours. And we are so worried about these things which I lost or which I have to acquire. This is not yours. Anyway.
So the way to become happy and to get rid of all the problems is just to understand who you are.
And to understand who you are means to understand that you're serving that this is a position which nobbodyody, no can deter it. Because people just wore, they're so mad, they want to have this position or that position. But they lose anyway. But what you can always do, you can always so you cannot do anything else
always, but even all the surface, even if you're badly, if you're sick by the dog, you still can surface, you still can be memory, you still can be discerned inside.
So this is how you become heavy, because you are not becoming artificially designated in this world. The Christians say that if you are not washed in the blood of Jesus are going to roll to hell. Highest. No.
This is also this concept of precarious salvation is actually quite quite delayed development. Jesus Christ never said this. Believe it or not, he never thought this.
This is all invention of Paul and later Christians who kind of you know are difficultly imposed with the conception on the simple teaching of Jesus Christ.
But Jesus Christ said, he didn't say this, he said, be like children, be happy like children, because you cannot be simple. Not be complicated. You know, this is his teaching, this is what his sermon on the mountain.
He said, you know, be simple, simple-minded, be happy, and serve God. I love God. Don't be at this.
He didn't say you know on this mouth, he didn't say, you know, please take sources of my blood. I will give you some blood and then you wash it again. No. No. All this thing is just for some lazy people.
These people they are uh lazy because they want to be saved by some kind of miraculous way and somebody has to save them. But in the Vedānta-sūtra it is said, anāvṛttis-śabdāt anāvṛttis-śabdāt, you can be saved.
The salvation or liberation comes through the sound. You have to get this sound vibration. Śāstra also means from the scripture, because scripture is also śāstra. It's also which regulates our lives.
So basically this is the salvation study for.
The salvation, yes, you have to wash your heart, but you have to work so hard uh through this process of divorce more service by trying to, you know, get rid of all these problems which are imposed upon you by your all this kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, mātsarya, they all come in because of your whole sequel. Madam Akari, they all come in because of your whole sequel. So this is the way to stand for.
Not in some kind of miracles may uh I don't appreciate this concept.