About faith
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · London · 2012
Chapters
Welcome and introduction to speakers
Welcome to our two guests tonight, Swami Sbhakti Resident of Swami Maharaj and Swami Sbhakti Gam, Swami Maharaj, all the way from Russia and Bombay respectively. Hare Krishna.
Two is better than one and three is better than two. Um thank you all for coming so promptly and being with us here tonight. It's always a very special occasion when we have a Mahasangha.
Sangha is the coming together of devotees and Maha Sangha makes it even bigger. So we like big events. And our two guests tonight are used to very big things.
If I start with Bhakti Vigan Maharaj, he comes from a very big country. His country is so big that if you were to get on a train and travel at an average speed, it would take you eight days to go across the country.
Because all the way from Poland to Japan is a huge country, eight time zones. One language. A lot of preaching. In the Moscow area alone, which we're going to hear about, we are looking at ten thousand devotees.
Ten thousand devotees and only six of them are Gujaratis Can you delete it? Ten thousand white people chanting Hare Krishna. We dream of such things now.
But in the whole of Russia in the whole of Russia fifty thousand devotees fifty thousand devotees. So over the past few years he has been preaching a great deal, taking Krishna consciousness to these different places.
In Moscow they have one cake factory which makes Prasadam cakes. You know cakes, Mr. Kipling? Don't eat them. Malika. What is it called, Mahārāja? Malika. Ah Malika.
So in Russia they said Mr. Malika makes exceedingly good cakes. Seven tons. Seven tons of cakes every single day. Big output. Devote business. Devotees they like to come together for big festivals.
When they have big festivals, many thousands of people come together. Sometimes they come on a train one week to just to get the festival and they go back on the train one week to their homes in Siberia. Such dedication.
Such a wonderful attraction the Russian people have for Krishna and Krishna consciousness.
So we welcome Mahārāja here tonight and our early guest, our special guest, all the way from Bombay. We have had the pleasure of seeing him several times I think over many years.
But that doesn't make his appearance here tonight any less special. He has brought the sunshine to England today. It's been a funny day on the weather today, isn't it? May the first is the beginning of summer.
So when I see the sunshine I think ah, summer has come. And then we have these cold winds blowing in from Russia. I don't know what's going on here.
So the Bombay Sun and the Russian wind will come together today to liven us up. But as you know, um uh tonight is very special because uh
this is a Maha Mahasangha with a difference because both of our speakers tonight, both of our special guests, are experts in helping congregation work together to help other people become attracted to Krishna and to stay together.
Helping other people to come to Krishna and helping them stay with Krishna is pretty much all of Krishna consciousness in our movement. So tonight we're going to hear on two subjects and our subjects tonight are faith.
Faith. You can say many things about faith, I'm not going to say anything. We're gonna have a discussion about faith. And humility.
These two things, if we have faith and humility, Krishna consciousness can be very good for us and good for anyone that we come in touch with.
And then a little later we're going to hear a little bit about the new temple that is planned for Moscow.
A beautiful new temple that is just about to be begun after many many years in the planning, many, many years in making friends in the city. So Maharaj just want to show us a little bit of that.
Nature of faith in Bhagavad-gita
So So tonight we will start with His Holiness Prakti Vidyyan Maharaj, who will speak to us about faith.
I don't know about you, but do people in your office are they a little atheistic, little more atheistic than they used to be?
Do we hear arguments against the existence of God and against spiritual life? Do we hear that a little more than we used to? Are people writing books about God is simply an imaginary friend.
It's sometimes hard for our faith, isn't it? Being a faith faithful people, faithful community in a world which is dedicated to being no faith.
So we want to hear about Vishwas, very important principle in the life of surrender. How do you so thank you very much for that listening to that long introduction.
Oh, magia, temer sian, dia namia, sala, che swahul Site Kanyama mistaken, saatella uukare, sojanka Rakarayam praiswakikamiram Sri Guru Sriudabadakam Sri Guru Vashnamsha Seta Sadajara Saramada Vadikam Sajam Sarvayan Sadam Vajana Sajam Krishna Chaitanya Vam, Shri Rada Krishna Ram Sanadita, Srishakam Vitamsya, Krishna Karuna Sindu, Nina Bandu Yagate, Gopisha Govanta, Raranostude, Raptanab Ansakamya Sha, Pripas Indurya Vatra, Vatiama Yoga, Krishna Virna Bama, Ysir Vishnayanyam, Rapodam, Shigarita Sri Sami Ura Vishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Ajayan Wandita Vujokanahabadatu Sankiratanaika Bidaroka Mala Daksha Vishwamharo de Jabaru Y Badama Pamda Jabriya Karo Karunavatara Yam tappravi mamavachima mamprasubram sanjeva yatiki wa shakti dharaswadana anjampa, nandamo bhamati ur shah.
It's a great honor for me to speak to you this evening. I'm very happy to be with you. Many of you I know. Some of you I don't know.
So as Kripumaraprabhu already said, I was asked to speak on this very important subject of faith. And the first thing which we have to understand about the faith is that everyone has something.
Even those people who claim to be atheist or non-believers, they believe that there is no God. That's their belief. And this belief is not substantiated by any proof.
All these atheistic people, their favorite argument just prove us that God exists. But it's equally right to ask them ple,ase prove us that God does not exist.
And they will not be able to produce any substantial proof of this. And this particular point was very beautifully explained by Krishna.
But Krishna says in the 70s chapter, in the beginning of 70th chapter of Krishna Sattvana Rupa Sarvasya Sradamaya Yampurusha that Purusha, the living being, is Sradhamaya, is made of faith. But unfortunately, for the great majority of people, this faith has the nature of Sattva Anurūpa.
It more or less reproduces his mental makeup. Basically, everyone believes in something according to their condition of his mind. And Krishna says this you know, if somebody is a Tamasi person, he will have tamasic faith.
And this tāmasic faith will have tāmasic manifestations and he will lead the massive way of life because he believes that this is the right way to live.
And there is no logical proof that this is the right way to live, you know, Tāmasic people they like to drink. And you know, I'm from Russia, therefore I'm giving some example which is close to my compatriots.
So they believe that it is good. And they may even write books that this is good and you know try to kind of prove it. But I'll even against belief, because this belief is close to their heart.
Ultimately they just want to believe in it because this is the condition of their mind.
And that's exactly what Krishna says, and he says sattvānurūpa. Anurūpa means it follows, it's more or less the śraddhā of these people more or less follows, reproduces the mental makeup of these people. It's just replica of their constitution.
And we know according to yoga that our mind consists of three guṇas, of sattva, rajas and tamas, you know, and these three gunas they constitute our mental makeup.
And Rajasi people they will believe in enjoyment and they will, you know, have a great time of proving that this is the only way to live. And sāttvika people have their beliefs.
But what Krishna is explaining in Bhagavad-gītā, and that's extremely important point to understand, that these three kinds of faith which people develop completely spontaneously automatically without any conscious endeavors without any logical kind of attempts to understand the reality, they all are useless.
Role of sadhu-sanga in transcendental faith
Why? Because they do not bring any new quality in your life. You remain where you are. Your life becomes more or less a repetition, useless repetition of what you already are. You more or less reproduce yourself.
Prabhupāda explains it very beautifully in this verse, commenting this verse of Bhagavad-gītā in the 17th chapter, I believe it's third verse, where he says, uh that uh śraddhā or faith is necessary and the faith itself has the nature of the mode of goodness.
So the faith itself can elevate person, but usually it doesn't if it just more or less follows the you know the what you already what is already there. So the faith, Shraddha, has this ability to elevate it.
The mission of human life, the very purpose of human life is evolution. Human beings are special have a special place in evolution of the consciousness.
And that special place is that they can go even further, they can elevate themselves.
The peculiarity of human species of life is that human species of life is a transitionary position and the evolutionary you know, evolutionary how you call it ladder, an evolutionary ladder.
In the sense that there are four things or four case scenarios which can happen with the soul which have faint human body. It can degrade back down into the lower spaces.
It can remain on the same level and remain a human being in the next life. It can be promoted to the higher realms of existence, that is heavenly planets or heavens.
And it can transcend completely, altogether, the material conditioning of this life and obtain the spiritual position in the spiritual world. And ultimately the human being is meant to do the lasting, to transcend.
But usually people remain on the same level uh at best. Or in the worst case scenario, they go down, they degrade themselves, and this is a complete tragedy.
This is a tragedy because we have something special in us and we have to utilize it to the fullest extent. So therefore, Krishna is extremely negative about this kind of traditional faith.
Basically when Krishna is speaking about this Satvana Rupa Sarvasya Sradamaya Yamkarusva, he is more or less speaking about faith which is developed you know which is which is created by the customary by by custom.
You know, you're living in certain environment and you just, you know, by custom you believe in certain things. You know, if you take Indians, they believe in certain things.
If you take Gujaratis, they believe in particular saying if you take crasses they believe in communism and Lenin not anymore but they used to believe uh
but this is you know and usually people they're very proud of their faith, but if you ask them how do you develop this faith, they never they will never be able to say because it's more or less put in themselves from the environment.
There's nothing special about the things which they ultimately develop because they only you know follow the tradition more or less. But by saying that these three kinds of faiths are useless, Krishna implies that there is a fourth kind of faith, which is extremely useful.
And this fourth kind of faith, which is transcendental faith, not the faith in the modes of material nature, not sättvika, not rājasika, not tāmasika, but completely transcendental faith, śraddhā,
can only be created by sādhu-saṅga. And this particular faith, which is the seed of the most precious gift in our life, the gift of love, can be given to us by sādhu-saṅga.
Most of you are Indians and you know how much stress is there in the Indian culture on sādhu-saṅga.
Again and again and again, people are being told you just you don't have to do anything, but just every now and then come to some sādhu-saṅga, sit there, you know, look at the sādhu, and something may happen to you.
And that's a fact, because this is what is explained by our ācāryas.
Jīva Gosvāmī, he says that just by seeing a sādhu, just by seeing a sādhu, or by what to speak about listening to a saintly person, a sādhu, you may develop this transcendental faith, and the way how it is being developed is that you develop a little respect towards him.
Generally in the culture, in the Indian culture, and the Vedic culture in particular, there is a great deal of emphasis is given towards the respect to a saintly person.
And respect when it becomes directed, when it's directed towards a particular person, is the seed of śraddhā, which is completely, totally causeless.
Ultimately, when we're talking about this transcendental elevation or elevation on a transcendental plane, we're talking about causeless things. Because this whole world is ruled by the law of cause and effect.
This law of cause and effect is called the law of karma. And we know this whole realm of material existence is on this side, on this shore of the causal ocean. Why the ocean of creation is called causal?
Because on this shore, everything is causal. Everything is completely conditional and causal and has causal effect relations. On the other side, which is the spiritual realm, everything is completely causeless.
And to go from this shore of the causal ocean to another shore of the causal ocean, you have to obtain something which is causeless.
And the seed of this extremely precious gift of the causeless spiritual world is causeless śraddhā or causeless faith, which is given to you without any you know without any cause just by mercy of a sadhu if you happen to come.
How it works, there's a beautiful story about Śrīla Prabhupāda, Giriraj Maharaj explained this. How it works. And this is a real kind of process which we have to understand how it works.
Our ācārya is explained that this phase, you know, so many people may come to sādhu-saṅga and not everyone will develop faith. So the question which we should ask ourselves why is answer
that faith is causeless and of course what you should do you should be little respectful but still it's not a guarantee but the ācārya says that there is a special energy in the heart of the sādhu, which is called kṛpā-śakti of the Lord, the energy of mercy.
And if this energy is being agitated towards a particular person or towards everyone who is there, then for sure the kṛpā or mercy in the form of śraddhā will descend upon this particular person.
There is a very interesting story in this regard. Giriraj Maharaj likes to tell this story. He says that he was a he was a young boy and he was a student and
he you know, he was looking for some meaning in life and he was visiting different gurus and he was going here and there and then he also heard that there is some svāmīji who is talking, you know, tonight. So he went to this event, you know, he sat there and he asked some stupid questions he himself says. You know, he's basically his basic questions, how to find the proper guru.
Prabhupāda looked at him and this and thinks through him says it depends what you want. Whether you want to become God or you want to become a servant of God.
And Giriraj he remembers he says in in my bedroom in the hostel of university there was a big uh poster and the poster was saying, You are God. So Prabhupāda answered this and then you know somehow or other there was some little exchange, very little, minimum exchange between them.
And then somehow or other he got inspired and he started coming and he was more and more involved and you know it's going on and on. And Prabhupada was not there.
So one and a half year later, Prabhupāda comes again. And uh by that time Giriraj Maharaj is he's not yet Maharaj, but he's already almost brahmacārī and you know he's completely into it. His his whole life is changed, everything is changed because he got this seed of faith.
So uh when Prabhupāda came after the lecture, Giriraj Maharaj uh started asking this some other questions, much more intelligent questions.
Yes, I and Prabhupāda said, I remember you. You know, it was one and a half year past.
And Prabhupāda said to him, I remember you. At that time, one and a half year back, I was praying for you in my heart. Such a nice boy, let him become a devotee.
And you recognize himself, he says: Now I understand what happened.
You know, this, this kṛpā-śakti which lives in the heart of a sādhu, when it was agitated or you know somehow or other was uh inv was turned on towards a particular person, this particular person got this creeper.
Transformation of the heart through faith
And this creeper is is causeless. There is no pious credits or whatever on the side of this person, it's just mercy.
And when you get this state, what is most important, when you get this faith, you have to understand that this is the most precious gift which you have.
Because ultimately this is a small seed which can grow in the huge tree of love of God. Faith is love of God, but in a very undeveloped rudimentary form. Like a huge banyan tree is there in a tiny tiny seed of banyan.
So in the same way this huge you know tree of love, creeper of love, spiritual love, which is unlimited.
According to our scriptures, the love when you develop it, it's so, it's such an overwhelming experience that it it doesn't, you know, it it completely your heart blooms, your heart becomes completely unlimited.
Now your heart is very small. Maybe few people can make it into your heart. Your children, maybe not even your wife doesn't have it. I don't know. But that's the reality.
You know, people become selfish and selfish and it means the heart shrinks. The heart becomes more and more closed. But the effect and heart means consciousness.
The effect of spiritual practice and spiritual mercy which you get is that heart starts blooming. It literally blooms and expands.
And if you see the saintly people who achieved success in this path, you know their heart is so big, practically the whole world can make it into their hearts. And so deep that unlimited God is there in their heart.
Now we don't have place for Him in our heart. Really it's too crowded to be practical.
But you know when your heart blooms, uh it's the most the most amazing experience. You know when the heart is small you have all these very unpleasant emotions like fear and the feeling that something is lacking in myself and depression is there.
This is what the small heart is capable of feeling.
But when the heart blooms, you know, it's it's an amazing thing, you know, you love everyone literally, you are so bold and you don't have any fear, there is no place for fear in the
big heart. The fear is the condition of a small heart. But when the heart is there completely in union with God,
then there is no fear, then uh, you know, and you're so fearless that you're ready to give everything which you have. Because usually we don't do this because we're afraid. What will happen to me if I give everything?
Nothing will happen to you. You know, you're spirit, so don't worry about when the heart becomes soft and big, you know, you become very generous, you become uh you become a real human being.
So what I need to say is that this little seed, little tiny seed of faith, is the most important thing which we can get in our life. Because this is the only thing which can bring the new quality in our life.
This is the only thing this little tiny seed can take us from this shore of the causal ocean to another shore,
And give us the spiritual world, the complete freedom, love of God, relationship with God, personal relationship, you know, so many important things it can give us.
And this faith, when we get it, is something which we have to develop. We get it through this mysterious process of sadhu sangha.
Stages of spiritual development through hearing
And uh, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that first there is Satām kṛpā. The very first, uh, very, uh, unnoticed, usually unnoticed stage of uh spiritual life, the Satām kṛpā or the mercy of sādhus, of satām.
The next stage is mahat-saṅga. To develop faith, now I will very quickly go through the different stages how this faith grows. First to get this mercy. But then to develop this faith you have to
develop a little desire to serve sādhu. And serving sādhu doesn't mean, you know, it's not it's not too difficult. You know, sādhus first of all, they don't need money. So it's not that they're demanding anything. No.
Sādhus are, you know, you give them a little garment, then that's enough. No. And if you don't give, that's also the case, you just sit and listen a little bit. They're already heavy, you know, sadhs are like this.
They like to talk and if somebody sits It's good enough. But uh Mahatseva is the next stage. You know, when you get little mercy and then the desire to serve because it's reciprocation. You get some reciprocal feeling.
And if you try to serve to do something little. Śrīla Prabhupāda was very expert in this. He knew how it works. There is a beautiful story. It's a little long story, so I will not go into details of this story.
But he was once when he just came to Manhattan to America, he brought this you know sweet trance of books of which he was very proud because it was printed in Delhi, you know, and if you have seen this first
printing of Srimad Bhagavatam and it's kind of a little strange according to Western standards.
So he's there in the in the center of New York City in Manhattan and he's going through some street and he's in his heart is only one desire. How I can give people the chance to see
these books, to read these books, to somehow rather associated because this is another kind of sadhu-sanga.
Narottama Dasa Thakura says that there are two kinds of sadhu-sanga. One is the direct reciprocation or direct association with the sadhu, another one is reading of the Holy Scripture.
Reading of shastras is also sadhu-sanga because it's sat. Sadhu means somebody who is established in truth. And if you're reading the holy scriptures, it's the same. It has the same.
So Prabhupada, he's eager to do this. And he's going through Manhattan and he sees this, you know huge you know luxury cosmetic shop with a huge you know huge window you know very very expensive cosmetic is being displayed.
And he he goes and he says, that's a good idea that's a good place for my books to be displayed.
You know, so he goes into the shop and he asks can I speak with the shopkeeper, the owner of the shop because he's so gentle and he's so humble. You know, so the clerk calls shop even says, I have nice books.
Don't you like to put them in your windows nice books.
You know, this shopkeeper, he's just, he's totally bewildered. Guess this book's printed in Delhi. If you've seen this first printing of Srimad Bhagavatam, there's no line which is straight, it's just kind of going in all directions.
It's a strange kind of thing. Robot feels that you know doesn't go too far, you know, from the initial response of the shopkeeper. So he decides another tactic, technique.
He says, you know, can I can I have a glass of water? So reluctantly he brings a glass of water. So that's already Maharaj set in. That's the service goes out, you know, and Prabhupada says, can I have a chair?
Can you see the chair? So he sits in his chair. He gets his glass of water and he starts, you know, slowly drinking it in a very graceful way. And then he goes to his bag and he takes some little bag from this little box.
He says, I have a nice samosa. Would you like to take this samosa? Anyway, this man became life member and you know, but he did it. But the point is that if you do some service, some service that will solidify your faith.
That's another stage, very important stage of your spiritual development. You get some little respect, this little respect has to manifest into something which you know, some little service which is there.
And then only, as Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says, the śraddhā, the real śraddhā, the faith appears.
And when the faith appears, the next stage, which is very important, Śāstras, he says, you have to develop desire to hear more and more.
This hearing process is the beginning of spiritual life because through hearing you can dissipate all your doubts. Now we have this little seed of faith which is there in our heart.
But this little seed of faith can can be, I mean, it may not give it it may not grow because it is there in a very hostile environment of our heart. There's a lot of doubts.
No, we are living in this age of doubts, everyone is at least, you know, and all our neighbors they will always say, you know, you know, you must be crazy, believing in God. You know, and we will have so much opposition.
In this day and age, if you believe in God, you're almost like an alien from another planet. Maybe maybe you are, I don't know. It's not so common.
People, you know, they are they somehow rather they developed this artificial civilization uh over last two hundred years and they think you know we can make it without God and sure enough they make it. They make a lot of mess without God.
Practically the whole planet is destroyed by this human intelligence. But what I mean to say is that there's a lot of lingering doubts in our heart.
And when the little seed of faith is there, the environment is not very conducive. So if we want to develop this, we have to continue hearing. Not continue hearing, we have to develop desire to hear.
We have to understand if this is something which is very important for me, for my development, then the only way to develop it is to develop desire to hear, to hear again and again and again.
Sometimes people, you know, they wonder why Prabhupāda repeats the same thing again and again and again. But the simple answer is that, you know, because you still didn't understand this thing.
You know, Prabhupāda repeats again and again and again, you're not this body. You know, the very fact that you have heard it 2685
Next time you come in front of your mirror, you completely forget about this lofty philosophy that you're not this body. You are. You're completely identifying yourselves. But this desire to hear is extremely important.
Because from this desire to hear, all other important spiritual development uh will go stage by stage.
Then ultimately you will reach uh uh amazing stage of you know ecstatic emotional love of God and pure love which is for Krishna. Kṛṣṇa.
But it all starts from a little tiny seed, which is again something extremely, extremely precious because it can change our life completely 180 degrees.
From the instinctive, automatic, more or less animalistic kind of life, into the life of complete, beautiful, self-sacrifice.
When you're serving God and serving all the creatures in this world, and you are the most happy being, because all we need is love. The service is our nature.
Spiritual revival in Russia
Service is the most natural thing which we have. And this is, you know, and if the service is transcendental, this is the most rare thing which you may have. It's amazing, you know the people in Russia,
because I'm from this Russian background, I will finish now. But I felt this little thing, little observation. Russia was completely atheist country.
For seventy plus years you just were not allowed even to to say God. Only if you are about to criticize God you you could be allowed to say God. If you say God doesn't exist, then it's it's okay. You can say this.
And there's so much at ease was there. Sometimes, especially in India, to impress people, I say that I'm the atheist in the third generation.
My father was an atheist, my grandmother was an atheist, my grandfather was an atheist, and completely amazed so generation and something impressive.
The point is that uh you know even though people tried sincerely tried that was the official party line that there's no god and they
they tried they even sent you know the first Sputnik to prove that there's no god. They didn't make any pictures of God out there in this place. So they thought it's good proof that God doesn't exist.
But anyway, so when the country became somewhat free, all of a sudden everyone starts believing in God again. You know, even I, when I was a little child, nobody told me, but I was praying to God.
And at that time, I was too small and I didn't know that he doesn't exist. So I prayed to him. I didn't know who he is, how he looks like, but I prayed to him.
And now when I came to this Krishna conscious movement, I know who he is. I know how he looks like. I know his name. I know his girlfriend's name and so many other intimate details. And I know how to pray to him.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare, and I also know uh in which mood I have to do it.
This proper mood of approaching God, which is the quickest way to realize God within our heart, is the mood of complete surrender and humility.
And that's the topic of the next discussion which Bhakti Samarit Maharaj revealed to us. Thank you very much.
Introduction to the quality of humility
Roma Gyanu Tanga, Yamamjana Shailakaya, Shakash Romitan Svai Shigura Sadvari tam sabu tam parametam Krishna Chaitanya Vivam Sri Dadha Krishna Padam Sahana Ladita Sri Vishakamitams Shay Bhutari Shrimadaswami Mamasy Saraswati Goldavadi Bachari Vishumyavati Pascha Vesha Taricha Mutyana, Sri Nyada, Sri Sabhuru Bakranda, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare, Krishna.
What can one say after such a lecture? When Shuti Dharma Prabhu told me in the morning that we have to speak on this topic, he asked me, should Bhakti Rudyyan Maharaj speak first or you will speak first.
So I said my opinion is Bhakti Ridgyan Maharaj should speak first and then he should speak second.
But anyway, somehow or other I'm placed in front of this microphone and of all topics I am asked to speak on the topic of humility. So well, life is full of contradictions, what to do. This is one of them.
We have to accept it as our lot. Of course it's a difficult topic because it's quite strange in this world to find humility or to even talk about humility. It's such an alien concept.
I was asked specifically to speak about this tridaṇḍī-bhikṣu piece of a verse, which of course we are all aware of. For devotees, humility is something that is so natural, something we talk about all the time.
But in the outside world it's just the opposite. And that is what we hear. In the material world everything is the opposite of what it is in the spiritual world.
Urvamolam Shakam Ashtam Brahu Rabdyam. It's like an inverted banyan tree with its roots upwards and branches downward, meaning that this material world is a reflection of the spiritual world.
So whatever you find in the spiritual world we find here in this material world in perverted or distorted fashion, in inverted fashion. So the quality of humility is sublime in the spiritual world.
So that is reflected here invertedly as pride. Pride is something that comes naturally to the condition living entity. Humility comes naturally to the pure living entity.
In the spiritual world there is love. It is pervertedly reflected as lust. So this world, lust is is natural for the conditioned living entity. For the pure living entity, love is natural.
Compassion is natural to the pure living entity. But when it is pervertedly reflected in this material world, it becomes anger. Like this, all the pure qualities of the spiritual world are pervertedly reflected here.
So when we say that the ills of this world, the evils of this world, we justify them by saying it's natural. Yes, but natural for whom? Natural for what? It is natural for an unnatural state.
Because we are in an unnatural state. So when we come back to the natural state, then the true nature of the soul emerges. So in our unnatural state we find that which is natural to be unnatural.
So humility seems such an unnatural idea, such an outrageous idea. Yes, it is outrageous. One time one of our devotees became a brahmacārī and joined the temple. And then he became acquainted with the language of devotees.
When devotees write letters, they start up by saying, Please accept my humble obeisances, and they end the letter by saying, Your servant so and so. And one time he sent a letter to his father and his father was outraged.
They had put you through university and spent so much money for you just so that you can become a servant. I can do all this so you become a servant. I wanted you to become a big person in this world. The Lord and Master.
That's what every parent wants, at least most parents want and their child should become a big person in this world.
How many parents in this world want the child to become a humble person, a gentle person, a genuinely godly person. Very few. So therefore the names that we get are all ending in Das.
As Dr. Udayānanda Mahārāja was explaining this morning in his Bhāgavatam class. The purpose of the word das is not just servant but slave. So to become a slave, what kind of uh objective of life is that?
It's something that is very demeaning. Now everybody wants to become number one in something. But if you want to be the last in something, then that's something very strange.
But the philosophy of bhakti tells us that we have to be humble. If you want to attain real happiness, real love of God, you have to be humble. And humility is based on knowledge. And knowledge is based on faith.
Logic and self-knowledge behind humility
So continuing from where Dr. Mahārāja left off where he analyzed the subject of faith so nicely. Even knowledge is based upon faith. The different kinds of knowledge.
We have knowledge that we obtain with our senses, knowledge we obtain through gossip, knowledge we obtain through our science and scientific methods, knowledge we obtain obtain through the scriptures.
So there is knowledge of different kinds. Which kind of knowledge do we have faith in? Which kind of knowledge do we accept to make advancement or attain happiness in our life.
So the scriptures give us transcendental knowledge. And therefore the faith in the scriptures is transcendental faith.
And therefore we understand that faith in this knowledge will make us humble because we accept that yes the scriptures say that I am the soul, I am not this body.
Even to actually understand it from a material point of view, it's not very difficult. Humility is something you can understand even by ordinary logic. Śrīla Prabhupāda one time famously told his devotees,
he said, look, imagine the vastness of this whole material world. How many millions of universes there are? Countless universes. And in all these universes, there are so many planets, countless planets.
And this universe is just one amongst so many universes. And amongst all these different planets in this one universe, there is this one earth planet. And on this one earth planet there are so many countries.
In this one country there are so many cities. In this one city there are so many blocks. In each block so many buildings, in this building so many, so many individuals.
And in this building, so many rooms, and in this one room there are so many people. And in this one room there is one person who thinks he's very great. That goes for all of us.
So even if you analyze it logically, leave aside the scriptures for the time being, leave aside God for the time being. Even by ordinary logic we can understand that our position is completely insignificant.
One time on the road he came to Prabhupāda and said, Prabhupāda, I'm really, very fallen. You know, this is something that only a genuinely humble person can say from his heart. It's not easy to admit that I'm fallen.
We say it casually in our everyday talk, but it's a very deep thing. So if someone says I'm really fallen, then it comes, it has to come from a genuine feeling of belief in that statement.
So he said, Prabhupāda understood that he is making it as a formality, the statement. Well he's saying it because the devotee is supposed to say that which is also nice. But then Prabhupāda wanted to just make a point.
You are not the most anything, you are simply insignificant. So to think that I am the most fallen, no, we're not the most anything. We are simply insignificant.
What are we when you're in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on a boat and there's a fierce storm there, what don't you realize what is your position? What what is there to be proud about when you are in the middle of the ocean or you're in a flight and the aeroplane starts really going topsy turvy, and
you can know the air hostesses are getting scared and the pilot is sending out frantic messages on the voice and the the uh voice system, then you understand yes, there's nothing really to be proud about.
Proud of your own intelligence, your your money, your power and whatever else. What is the value of this intelligence, beauty, money and so on.
So humility is something that you have forced to accept even if you accept logic, even if you don't accept God. Which is of course illogical, that's another matter.
Yesterday I was at another Sanga program and Sakshi Gopal Prabhu made a very good point. He said there's two words: humility and humiliation.
Humiliation in material nature versus voluntary surrender
If you don't have humility, you'll be humiliated anyway. And you'll be forced to become humble. Such is the way of material nature. Material nature is like a big grinding wheel. You don't have grinding wheels here.
In India, in the old days, and even now in the villages, you'll have the ladies and grinding wheels where they crush the spices and they do various other jobs. They grind it.
So the laws of God it is said also, as you know, are like the grinding mill. They grind slow but they grind exceedingly fine. So in the grinding mill of this world, everybody is crushed. Nobody is spared.
From the smallest person to the biggest person, no one is spared. King or pauper, everyone has to go through the grinding mill. And then what remains? What is death? Isn't death the ultimate humiliation?
Isn't old age an humiliation? There are so many things we get in life that we don't want, is it not humiliation? We are constantly being humiliated in this world.
Imagine, Hiranyakashipu, such a powerful man, the most powerful person in the universe next to Brahmā. And he couldn't control his five-year-old son. Can you imagine?
What kind of humiliation was it that simply by raising his eyebrows, the demigods would tremble.
And here is a five-year-old son of this powerful demon who doesn't want to listen to the father and the father tries to kill him in so many different ways and he doesn't die.
Not only that he doesn't die, he remains fearless. So what happens to Hiranyakashipu's anger and his ego?
Incidentally, this is one of the facts of life that this is why God creates children to crush the egos of the parents. So the parents know they may be a big person in the society.
But in front of the child, what can you do if he doesn't want to listen to you? Will be a small child and when you grow up, of course they will never listen to you. That's another thing.
But even when they are small, they don't listen to you. So we are being constantly humiliated in this world. So then if we are not voluntarily humble, we will be forced to be humble. So it's a fact of life.
It's not something strange.
The miracle is that despite all these humiliating experiences, and despite the inevitability and unavoidability of being humiliated and crushed completely in this world, we still oppose humility.
We still stubbornly refuse to be humble. So this is the illusion of this world. That it makes us feel that it is right to be proud, that it is good to be proud, it is demeaning to be humble, it is false to be humble.
So we are living in a world of illusion, in an unnatural world, perpetuating illusions and false beliefs in the name of advancement.
And what to speak of gross materialists, even those who are impersonalists or mayabadis, they also believe that we are very great.
One time many years ago, as a new devotee, I remember I had gone to distribute books. This was in Calcutta City.
And there was a poster outside one auditorium and there was a very big māyāvādī sannyāsī and it was his speech that was uh going on inside the auditorium and the title of the speech was You Are the Whole, W-H-O-L-E.
And then I walked in to the auditorium. It was a very elite kind of an audience, air conditioned auditorium and everything.
And I walked in there and I was really like a black sheep there, all out. And then he noticed me coming in with the books and everything looking very strange. And then he eventually understood where I came from.
So then he said he he got onto the flow of the subject. He said there are some people who believe that we should be small, we should be humble, but actually we are the whole.
And when you realize, when you actually get knowledge and you understand that you are everything, so don't try to be a servant. Don't try to be something small.
Seemingly, if I teach you, see, Seemingly, Jagannath or the deity from darśana. Oh sorry, Seemingly, that's fun. I'm a man teacher. I just came from a Jagannath temple to see.
So you may say all this humility and humbleness is not something that we need. So whether one is materialistic or whether one is spiritual, you will find this argument.
Spiritual argument people who are the Mayabadi is the impossible. But from the devotional point of view, you will find this is something so natural. It's a natural phenomenon.
We want to be humble because it is our nature to be humble. The very fundamental thing we learn, the first thing we learn when we hear Bhagavad-gītā is that I am not this body, I am the spirit soul.
So I am not only the spirit soul but the spirit soul is one ten thousandth of the tip of a hair. Now that's something. Many times, you know when people get into arguments or fights, you must have seen this many times.
They confront each other and one person ask the other person, Who do you think you are? shouting at each other and then who do you think you are anyway? Yes, they say that. It's a very good question.
Actually it's a deeper question than the person understands. He's saying it in a sense of outrage, but he he doesn't understand what a deep statement he's making. Who do you think you are indeed? Who are you? Who am I?
You are only one ten thousandth of the tip of a hair, that's what you are. Now that's not a humbling thought and what is.
I may think well I I I am a multi billionaire or I am a famous footballer or I am whatever big person of this world, but at the end of the day, I'm just one ten thousandth of the tip of a hair.
Defining humility through faith in Krishna
So if I have faith in this knowledge that I am the eternal spirit soul, one ten thousandth on the tip of a hair, then that faith will automatically bring humility.
So the ācāryas have explained humility as faith in the greatness of Krishna and in the insignificance of oneself.
You see, if one simply understands that one is small and insignificant, one will just add to the numbers of the depressed in this world. You know simply to know that I'm insignificant is not sufficient.
You have to know who is significant then. Is there anything or anyone who is significant? Yes. Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is significant. The most significant living being in all of existence.
I am insignificant, but I am an eternal part and parcel of that most significant person, Krishna. So I have faith in Krishna, but I do not have faith in myself
in my ability my intelligence my capabilities and so on so humility means faith in Krishna, faith in the process of devotional service to Krishna, but lack of faith, a conviction in one's in the inabilities and lack of intelligence of oneself. If you do see one without the other, then the humility will lead to depression and many other problems.
But because we have faith in Krishna, faith in Krishna's protection, Therefore, even though a devotee is personally very humble, he can still
be very enthusiastic, very energetic, and where necessary he can be very aggressive.
In the beginning of the Bhagavad-gītā we see Arjuna's relationship or compassion upon his relatives was causing him to become falsely humble and so depressed. Actually he was in depression.
Arjuna initial initial section of Bhagavad-gītā saw Arjuna in depression. But then Krishna enlivened him. He enlivened him to a stage where he fought and how fiercely he fought.
When you're fighting a battle, then you have to be fierce. You know, you can't say Hari bol and then fight a throw an arrow, right? You have to be really aggressive, you have to be very, very energetic, angry.
It's it's uh externally it doesn't appear like a picture of humility. If you see the picture of Arjuna on the battlefield, he's fiercely fighting.
But actually Krishna transported him from a platform of false humility to the platform of real humility. Real humility means that we are surrendering our everything to Krishna.
We are surrendering our intelligence, our independence, our desires, our decisions, everything to Krishna. And we do what Krishna says. This is humility.
Today even if you ask a small child, do something, say why should I? So it is so ingrained in us that I want to do what I want to do. Why should I listen to anyone else?
And because we have removed God from the picture as Maharaj was so nicely explaining earlier, we are now in a crisis of faithlessness, and this faithlessness manifests in lack of faith and authority. Erosion of authority.
So now we don't want to accept any authority. So when we don't have faith in God, then we don't have gradually faith in anybody in this world.
We don't want to accept anybody's instructions or anybody's views. And you simply want to do what you want to do. But that obviously is not a good formula for happiness or success.
Because we are after all one ten-thousandth of the people here.
So even though externally Arjuna was not appearing like a picture of humility, but he was actually humble. Because he surrendered his independent desires to accept the desire of Krishna.
Now whatever you say, oh Krishna, I will do. So this is our understanding of humility. To understand that I am small and simultaneously to understand that God is great.
Srila Prabhupada used to say that there are many people in this world who believe that God is great. But exactly how great is God, that they do not know.
So fortunately, we have the Bhagavad-gītā, we have the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrīla Prabhupāda has opened up to us a whole new universe revealing to us how great God is.
And the greatness is not simply in terms of physical strength or in terms of power and so on.
But his greatness extends over all aspects, even the sweetness of his nature, of his character, his mercy, his beauty, his affectionate dealings with his devotees, all these make Krishna very great.
So when we have faith that I am insignificant and God is great and it's supremely wonderful in all these different ways, then that faith brings us real humility.
So knowledge, faith, humility, devotion are all intertwined together in this process of devotional service.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's teachings on humility and chanting
So Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has given us this very wonderful verse. Tṛṇād api su-nīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā / amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. One should be humbler than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree.
One should not desire any respect for oneself and one should be ever willing to give respect to others, in such a state of mind one can constantly chant the names of Lord Krishna.
Now this verse is so important for us as devotees that arguably it is the most important verse for us in our Krishna consciousness.
It will not be an exaggeration to say that it is the most important verse in all of existence. In all the Puranas, Upanishads, Vedas, everything. This is the condensed essence of all knowledge.
Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura or Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, Goswami says in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta that this verse is so important for us that we should string this verse on the string of the holy name and wear it around our neck for continuous remembrance so that we can constantly remember what we are, what we should be, and how we should chant the holy name to the Lord constantly.
But of course it's easier said than done because so steeped are we for millions of lifetimes in pride, in arrogance, in illusion that it is very hard to be humble.
And even when we hear that we are supposed to be humble and the first traces of humility start dawning in our life, we become proud of that humility. There was one Bengali poet many years ago.
So he thought he had heard so many things about Vaishnavas. So he said, you know, I I would like to be a Vaishnava. Let me see what it's all about. He'd heard so many things about being a devotee and so on.
So then he came to the association of devotees and he practiced Krishna consciousness for some time. He heard the philosophy from the Sabus and so on.
And then finally, after a few days of a certain period of time, then you compose a verse. I'll tell you the Bengali verse and I'll tell you the translation also. Varsna Vurte Bodamonachila Shadapish Lokshune Pura Yalabha.
The meaning of this verse is for a long time I had a desire to be a Vaishnava. Then I came to the association of devotees. Then I heard this tṛṇād api su-nīcena shloka and I said, forget it. Just imagine.
You have to be humbler than a blade of grass, and if that were not bad enough, you have to be more tolerant than a tree.
And what's more intolerable is that you shouldn't expect any respect for yourself and what's really the limit of everything is that you have to give respect to others. Come on. Isn't this too much?
So for the materialistic mind, it seems to be asking for too much. But the point is, do we have a choice? We don't. In any case, as I mentioned earlier, either we are, we become humble on our own or we become humiliated.
So might as well. Discretion is a better part of valor. So might as well become humble because that's the most intelligent and normal thing to do. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, after the pastime
of delivering Shuklamba Brahmachari, who was his first companion after he came back from his initiation by Ishvara Puri in Gaya? He came to Navadvipa, he blessed Shuklamba, and then he spoke at length upon this famous verse, harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam. kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā.
We've all heard this verse. The meaning of this verse is that in this age of Kali, Kali Yuga, there is no other way, no other way, no other way except nama eva kevalam, the name of Hari, the name of Hari.
And then Mahāprabhu explains.
He said the word Eva, which means certainly is mentioned three times or repeated three times. And then the word Harinam is also said three times for the sake of emphasis. When we want to emphasize something, we say it three times.
So we emphasize that it is only the holy name of the Lord that in this age is a source of deliverance or a cause of deliverance.
Nothing else, nothing else, the word kevalam indicates that no other process of realization or no practice in this age can bring us to the point of perfection. Not yoga, not karma, not dhyāna, not anything else.
It's only the process of bhakti which is centered around chanting of the holy names of the Lord.
And because this is the only method for attaining self-realization, God realization in this age, it is so important that we should do it right.
In order to chant the holy names of the Lord constantly, then you need these four things.
If these four qualities are not there, then we will not be able to chant the holy names of the Lord, which means that we will not be able to attain the perfection of life.
So humility, tolerance, pridelessness, and willingness to give respect to others are the four qualities that naturally arise in the heart of a devotee.
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that a devotee doesn't actually have to strive separately for it.
If one is performing devotional service very sincerely, if the fire of devotional service so to speak is blazing strong enough then automatically naturally these qualities will emerge yes
but we may also have to make an endeavor when we are dealing with other people, maybe in our family or others, and we behave somewhat arrogantly sometimes, and someone points out our mistake, then we can't say, well, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, you know, one doesn't need to make an endeavor, it will come automatically. So the moment the day I become humble naturally I will be humble. No, we have to make an attempt.
At least we start from the external. Sometimes it's hard to tolerate the things that people tell us, especially when it's the truth. But we have to accept it.
We practice and Krishna will give us plenty of opportunities to practice humility and tolerance every day. It's a good practice, good practice field.
So when we practice chanting of Hare Krishna, we practice cultivating these four sublime qualities, we will find ourselves making advancement in our spiritual life.
And this is actually the essence, the sum and substance of our spiritual life, of our very existence. In the association of devotees, these things become easy. Outside the outside world, the exact opposite is encouraged.
So we have such a wonderful opportunity, we are blessed that we have got an association of devotees like this, by Śrīla Prabhupāda's mercy, a whole new universe has opened up to us, the spiritual world is opened up to us, and all we need to do is to follow this one verse.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Hare, Hare. Thank you very much.
Overview of the Moscow temple project
Hare Krishna. I would like us to uh put our hands together very loudly for our two speakers tonight who have really given us a kṛpā-śakti. And uh I feel even though my heart is somewhat dead and swallowed,
I feel like if I had two big Wonderful. Humility. And what was the other one? Thank you very much. You had the same effect, thank you. So please put your hands together very loudly for us.
They're just setting up for the uh little slideshow which will you know we develop spiritual qualities and then it manifests. Prabhupada said his disciples they're happy on the end, so they were at peace and then they were happy. And this manifests in their face and they're singing and they're dancing.
So when you have bhakti then it manifests in bhakti shakti. And people are drawn. People are very interested in someone who has bhakti shakti.
And also things in this world start to develop because the sadus like to bring people together to listen about Krishna and to worship Krishna.
Those of you who are sangha leaders, those of you who go regularly to sanghas next week you should know that Bhakti Rāmāmṛta Mahārāja will again be with us for another maha-sanga, but this is a mentorship launch.
As His Holiness Radhanath Swami likes to say the ships in this world are easy to sink. But there are two ships that you cannot sink. One is good friendship and one is good relationship.
And there's a third ship that will help you to float both and it's called mentorship. Where do I get them? I get them from Christmas crackers, that's really good.
But um this is something that we really would like you to come.
In fact if you're a mentor it's compulsory, if you're a mentee, which means you're receiving good guidance and sādhana from someone else in your life regularly and you're chanting more than four rounds every day, we would like you to come on the twenty sixth then to uh meet His Holiness Bhakti Rasamrita Swami at six o'clock on the twenty-sixth next Saturday.
And for one hour you can have us company. You can ask personal questions. All three hundred of you at once. And at seven o'clock we will be launching officially our uh our
mentorship system, which is now becoming very, very large. Just like in Russia, they've launched a mentorship system, devotees looking after devotees. So many thousands of people being looked after by other devotees.
So many sanghas. I can't even tell you how many sanghas there are in Russia. So many you could not even count them. So in London we have a big mentorship system. In Mumbai we have a big mentorship councillorship system.
You see. And of the Senas and the mentorship system. So also all of us we have a mentorship system now and we would like to officially launch it and to welcome you here.
It will be prasāda, there will be meeting with sādhus, some small talks, but don't miss it. Can you read what this says? I think Maharaj did very well speaking in English. Can you speak Russian?
Oh yeah, a lot of you can actually. Alright. So can we have that light down a little bit? Somebody know how to do the light up there? That's it maybe maybe we'll see the screen a little bit better.
So for the pleasure of uh the lordships and uh devotees this is good news about Moscow. So what I will show you now is just two minutes little video. Uh hopefully we will have some sound tech also.
Uh you will see it's a self-explanatory and it's to the most part in English. So let's put it on. It's just it's the center of ediculture. Uh so just it's the logo of our Moscow temple.
June of seventy one, Moscow, the property, the five days. And he would say to us, one day we will have a temple like this in Moscow and no one could even imagine in those days that this would come true.
And I'm seeing for myself this is actually happening.
So from uh the the there is a reason why the last uh you know the last shooting was from up there because the temple will be located near the international airport and whoever will come to Moscow or fly out of Moscow will see the temple exactly as you have seen it now.
Anyway, I'll I'll now show you a very short presentation uh about this temple. Most of you probably have heard about it.
Uh it was a long process but it all started forty one years back in nineteen seventy-one when Prabhupada came just for a five- uh, days' visit to Moscow, and he wrote immediately after that, he wrote a very interesting letter.
From Calcutta I went to Bombay and then to Moscow. We stayed there for five days. There are many younger Moscowites who are very much anxious to join our movement. Rupa is extremely optimistic.
Unfortunately, the government is so strict that it is difficult to start a center there. Everything is strictly under governmental control. Still they are trying to open a center with the help of local men.
At that time, Prabhupada had just one follower, but he called it a local man. The city is very big, and there are many nice buildings, roads, etc., but life is not very happy; one cannot live according to his own choice.
Fruits and vegetables are very scarcely supplied, but milk, butter, and yogurt are amply available. So that's Prabhupada's letter about his visit and impressions from Moscow.
And then, uh, in nineteen seventy-one, Prabhupada made a very interesting prediction. We saw the tanks, uh, going through the streets of Moscow, and he said, "This country has only twenty years at best."
So in nineteen ninety-one, this country fell apart.
According to the prediction of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, please don't shout Haribol, because it may not be interpreted right if this is recorded.
So, but in any case, uh, in nineteen ninety we got this, uh, little building, which was initial, but then in 2003, uh, the building, uh—we got a notice from the
government that they will, uh, destroy the building. And then at that time, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Prime Minister of India, and we asked for his help: please help us to build something in Moscow.
And this is Narendra Modi who came to our temple. And when we asked Atal Bihari Vajpayee, please help us, he told us only Krishna will help you. So he's basically directing us to the boss.
Anyway, we had uh different attempts to do something. In two thousand four this little building which used to be the temple was destroyed.
It was a very tragic event because uh spiritual lives of so many people started in this little building. And we had to move into these boxes. We're still there in these boxes. We call it temple.
Um you know initially there was no water, so but there is a lot of snow so you could could use the snow. It's a hard thing, but we developed it into something special.
There is a bundle of which works throughout the year even even in uh winter. And uh every Sunday around one thousand people come to Sunday Peace Program you can see as people listen for the lectures they
chant, hearten and uh come and for big days like Janmashthana ten thousand people come and as you see the there is a very few Gujaratis as people want to say anyway
and then uh you know the landmark was the delegation of the Patron Council of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Manor.
So uh for me it's always special to visit Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Manor because in two thousand four we got uh great support and uh the whole project started because of the help of this delegation.
And then Sheila Dikshit, the Chief Minister of Delhi, she came and she spoke with the mayor of Moscow at that time and they entered into agreement.
The Moscow government will take necessary steps to settle the matter of allotting a land plot to the Moscow Society for Krishna Consciousness for the construction of a temple. She insisted uh to do this, it was not easy.
And um it's apparently was not easy for Moscow Garbon because it took them almost ten years to do. So they worked hard.
So ultimately we got a plot of land near the international airport as I said this is the city of Moscow and you see the logo of the temple and uh it's just you know five minutes drive from the international airport and uh uh you can take a train from the center of the city and it's only twenty minutes from the center of the city.
And what Prabhupada did, he said that um Hare Krishna temples they should be different. He said uh he wrote it in uh 49 and he was very consistent throughout his life.
He said that theistic temples are actually different centres as are the churches and mosques all over the world.
The sacred centres were meant f for diffusing spiritual education and by this process of spiritual culture, the disturbed mind could be trained up in concentration for higher education, which every human being must do.
Prabhupada gave a very interesting concept of what the temple is. The temple is not just a place of worship.
The temple is the place of spiritual education and culture to help people to concentrate on the higher reality, to meditate on the higher reality. And we know there are cultural centers of this cones, this is Delhi.
And And this is basically the explanation of logo which we have and the five petals of this lotus represent bhakti, the central one, faith and devotion, then spiritual education. Basically it means preaching.
And then harmony. We're doing so much work to you know to help people to live in harmony. That's part of the mission which Prabhupada gave us.
And then service to others, Vaishnava seva, or the community service is very important part of our internal mission. And then finally the culture of sattva, pure meaning and high thinking.
So this is how we envision or encapsulate the teachings of Srila Prabhupada into this logo. And basically we can go very quickly. This is the sadhusanga part and this is bhakti. This is by the way the vice mayor of Moscow.
She is taking prasāda and we teach her how to respect prasāda, how to become humble. Anyway, so the what I mean to say is that Prabhupada he had a vision that it's not just religion, it's the spiritual education on all
different levels and therefore we you know distribute prasāda. And we help people. This is our Food for Life program.
Recently there was a voting on the internet and the Food for Life programme uh got the second uh most prominent place in the country as far as the uh charity programs uh all over the country. Food for life was the second one.
And sometimes people they uh kind of accuse us and say that this is a subtle presentation you want to make these people into devotees you, know, I usually show this picture and I say but definitely don't want to make these people into devotees. Definitely not our ambition.
But we want to help, this is the natural uh condition of Vaishnava heart, as Maharaj said, the compassion is the state of our consciousness. We try to help people in many different ways.
Uh and uh this is one of the problems which is very prominent in Moscow. We help people to get rid of uh you know the alcohol and uh drug addictions from different addictions.
And we do it together with Russian Orthodox Church, believe it or not. We cooperate in them on this level, fighting with these social evils And of course simple living and high thinking and everything.
Some work cleaning the city, you know, this is not the temple, this is outside of the temple, trying to you know bring the ecological consciousness into people's life.
And of course we have to deal with all these governmental officials. And we promote Indian Russian ties.
uh we uh make different programs and this is one of our interface programs together is uh the one in the robe you see is the one of the biggest Russian orthodox figures came to our program and but he was kind of distancing himself a little bit he didn't want to be too close to us.
Anyways and of course this is a humble and very simple vegetarian meal which is a very important and, uh, also trying to do, you know, cow protection as much as possible.
Of course it's not that developed, this problem is not that developed, but it's definitely there in our mind. And yoga, Ayurveda, and different rituals to improve the family relationship.
This is all the mission of this cultural center and temple, therefore we don't call it even temple, we call it cultural center and temple. And this is the land.
The government was looking for a long time for a land, and uh ultimately I think
it was Krishna who was looking for the place which would remind him Vṛndāvana's the only place in Moscow which is somewhat similar to Vṛndāvana. You can see it's, uh, beautiful countryside with a river nearby, uh,
and uh very good location but it has a very dramatic kind of history because initially we got the land and the land is triangular the rectangular part is just for the park.
And we initially wanted to build this kind of temple, separate temple and cultural center to make it straightforward.
But when we showed it to Vāstu experts they, they said you are up for a problem, you, you, you're asking for a problem, and because we already had so many problems and it's better to be safe than sorry.
they said the only way to deal with it is just to take a rectangular part and build something square there.
And, uh, and our architect already made this design, and, uh, the architectural firm started working on the drawings. I came to him and I said, you know, do whatever you like, but we're changing it completely.
So, uh, initially he was totally bewildered what to do with this square stuff. But uh luckily for us we