Bhagavad-gita 7.28
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · South Africa · 2007
Chapters
Recitation of Bhagavad-gita seventh chapter verse
Ramananda Gorka Rupras asked me to speak on on service. So I will speak about very interesting verse of Bhagavad-gītā, which hints on this topic. It's twenty-eighth verse of the seventh chapter of Bhagavad-gītā.
Yesam, to Antakatam, Antaam Babam Babam, Jananam, Jananam, Unya Karmanam, Unya Karmanam Te Te dvanva moha moha, mirmukta, bajante mam dridhabrata, yesantvantagatamp, dhnanampunya karmanam, dyananampunja dharmanam, tedvangva moha nirmukta, moha ni Bajantim ridabrata jantimtwanta gatampavam, samtantatampavam, jananam Punya Karmanam, Dyanam Punya Karma, Dedvandva Moha Nirmukta, Divanta Mohamta, Bajanti Mandrida Brata, Bajandivamriam Yesam tvantakatampam, echamatampam, dyananamya karmanam, janamunya kamanam, tedvandva moha nirmuktawta Bhajantimandri Dabrata Bhadani Bandab Yesam Yesham Who But Antagatam Antagatam completely eradicated. Completely eradicated.
Bapam Sin. Sin.
Jananam Jananam of the people of the people pious Karmanam Karmanam Previous Activis Of duality of duality free from free from Bajante Bajante Worship Me Mam to Me to me Dridhabrata Bridhabrata with determination.
Translation of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada: Kit.
Persons who have acted piously in previous lives, and in this life whose sinful actions are completely eradicated, are freed from dualities of delusion, and they engage themselves in my service with determination performed by Sri Prabhupada.
Those eligible for elevation to the transcendental position are mentioned in this verse.
For those who are sinful, atheistic, foolish, and deceitful, it is very difficult to trans to transcend the duality of desire and hate.
Only those who have passed their lives in practicing the regulative principles of religion, who have acted piously, and who have conquered sinful reactions can accept devotional service and gradually rise to the pure knowledge of the Supreme Personality of God.
Then gradually they can meditate in trance on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And that is the process of being situated in a spiritual platform.
This elevation is possible in Krishna consciousness in the association of pure devotees, for in the association of great devotees, one can be delivered from delusion.
It is stated in the Shrimad Bhagavatam that if one actually wants to be liberated, he must render service to the devotees. Mahatsevadvara Mahurbi Nukte.
But one who associates with materialistic people is on the path of leading, leading to the darkest region of existence. Tamodvaram Yoshutam Sandhi Sangam.
All the devotees of the Lord traverse this earth just to recover the conditioned souls from their delusion.
The impersonalists do not know that forgetting their constitutional position as subordinate to the Supreme Lord is the greatest violation of God's law.
Unless one is reinstated in one's own constitutional position, it is not possible to understand the Supreme Personality or to be fully engaged in his transcendental loving service with determination.
Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya! Yesam Pvantagatampa Pam Janam Pya Karmanamdadvanva Mopana Mukavajanti Mahamde
Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life and whose sinful actions are completely eradicated, are freed from dualities of delusion and they engage themselves in my service with determination.
Namogishnupadya Krishna prista ghutares bhaktividamitaswami namaste sarasvatī devī, gaura-vāṇī- प्रचार, nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi- Paschatade Sha Tari, Panchaku Pataru Vescha, Kripa Sidvacha, Padina Pavanavyoga Vishna Vyonawana Jesi Krishna Chaitanya Prabhupita Nanda Sri Advaita Badha Srivassadi Bora Vakta Vinda
Illusion and attachment to worldly dualities
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Ajana Bam Bitabujokana Sankirtan Bharu Vija Yugudharmae jagatpriyakara.
So this is a very interesting veros because which is called Knowledge of the Absolute, Krishna explains which is called Knowledge of the Absolute, Krishna explains first of all the reason why people don't know him, why people are bewildered, why people don't see him.
He speaks in the beginning of the seventh chapter that I am everywhere. Matakhparataram Yat Kinchitas Tidananjaya. I am like the thread, and everything else is like the pearls.
And it's actually strange that people don't understand that God is there. Krishna says I am everything. I am the taste of water. I am the power in the man. I am the heat in the fire.
Whatever is there, the energy is coming from me, it must come from one source. And he says everything is just strangled me, like the pearls on the trap.
And we can see that it's actually very logical. Very logical to understand that there is one force which is uniting everything together. So many different varieties of manifestations are there.
But it's so logical to understand that there is one force behind it. But somehow or other people don't see it.
And Krishna very clearly says, Vedāham samatītāni vartamānāni cārjuna, uh what is this verse? Uh what is this verse? Yeah, Vedāham samatītāni vartamānāni cārjuna. Uh, bhaviṣyāṇi ca bhūtāni māṁ veda na kaścana.
Nobody knows me. Nobody knows me. I'm everywhere. I am so accessible. Everyone can get understanding of myself. Prabhupada said when the drunkard drinks wine, which he likes very much.
He can meditate that the taste which he likes so much is Krishna and in this way become Krishna conscious. So everyone can become Krishna conscious, even the last drunkards.
Still, Krishna very emphatically says nobody knows me. Nobody understands me. Nobody has a clue who I am and how I manifest myself. So the question is why?
And he explained this in the previous verse, but he says, icchā-dveṣa-samutthena, dvaṁdva-mohena bhārata, sarva-bhūtāni saṁmohaṁ, sarge yānti paraṁtapa. Sarge Yanti Parantaba. He says, everyone.
Sarva-bhūtāni, every living entity, saṁmohaṁ is illusion. Not only illusion, completely illusion. Not just moha, saṁmohaṁ. They are totally immersed in the illusion. sarge yānti paraṁtapa. When did it start? From the creation.
It started from the beginning, from our birth or even before them. It's samutthena dvaṁdva-mohena bhārata. And he says, what is this dwandva moha, what is this moha, the nature of this illusion.
The nature of this illusion is that we're attached to dualities of this world. We are totally completely immersed our consciousness into this interesting game of dualities.
You know, this life is interesting, because there are dualities. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. Otherwise it would be boring. If it was only good or only bad, it would be really boring.
But it's sometimes good, sometimes bad. Sometimes man, sometimes lady. And it creates taste. It creates rasa. And everyone likes it. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura He explains this nature of this duality.
He says people are so immersed in this moha, in this illusion, because sometimes they're glorified and they like it.
When somebody comes to you and says, You are so good. We feel so good about it. We feel really, really good. You know, somebody honors me. Oh, I'm so, yeah, I finally somebody understood how good I am. Yes.
But then next moment somebody comes to you and says, you're so bad. And we feel so bad about it. How he can say this, I'm good, but he said I'm bad. And in this way, our psychic works.
You know, sometimes we are elated because somebody praises us, sometimes we are sad or morose because somebody disrespects us.
Ultimately, you know, what changed for you if somebody told you that you're good? Did it change anything? It didn't change anything. You didn't get anything out of it. It's just illusion. It's just some sound. You're good.
Yeah, you like it. You know, what if what if he good in his language means bad? It's just some vibration. Or somebody comes to you and says you're bad. What what what is the problem? What changed for you? Nothing changed.
Still, it affects your consciousness. And Krishna says this is illusion. This is moha. And because of this illusion, people don't understand him because they have no time to understand him.
They're too busy to enjoy the praise or honor and they're too busy to be morose about some dishonor or some disrespect or some problems which are there. And there's no end to this.
And Krishna explains that the basis of this problem of our moha or illusion is our attachment to ICcha-dveṣa. Iccha-dveṣa means this I like and this I really hate. This I like so much and this I hate. And this is the driving force within our life.
Actually, all our activities can be classified under these two headings. What do we do? What do we do in this life? We try to get what we like, and we try to what? Avoid what we hate. That's it.
Something we don't like we try to avoid. And we are so clever to do it. Something we like, we try to get it. And that's it, that's life. There's nothing more about life than this.
Today I was in a taxi and there was radio on some Indian radio and you know Indian lady uh was She said, "Hi, how are you?" said, "Oh, I'm great."
She said, "What, what is the best thing happened to you during this last 24 hours? And he said, "Oh, I had such a good lunch." She said, "Oh, really, it's great. That's life."
What, what is good happened to first he was a little bewildered what to answer, but then said, "Oh, I had a very good lunch." That's life. You get something which you like, you're successful, you feel good about it.
You got something which you didn't like, oh you're so morose about it. And because of this simple thing, we don't understand God. We throw him out from our world. He doesn't exist for us.
He says, "I am everywhere," I was attacked. We can care less about it. What we need, we need what I like, and we have to avoid what I don't like. And this is, this is called karma.
Actually, the nature of karma, it's coming from the previous birth. Why some people like some things and other people don't like the things. You know, people they have very relative tastes.
You know, Indian people somehow or rather they like chili so much. And Russian people hate chili. You know. If you give them chili they will they will be caught in the you
know, but you like chili. You can't live without chili. And Russian people hate chili. They can live without chili. Very happily. So it's all coming from our previous lives, from our karma.
We are born with this inclination. We are born with these tastes. This I like because in the previous life I developed this habit.
This I don't like again because in the previous life I had some bad experience about it, and somehow or other it was stored in my consciousness.
So therefore, Krishna explains that everyone is born with this iccha-dveṣa. Vish. Everyone is born with this. You can't avoid this. This is your karma.
You know if a good astrologer will look at your chart, he will say, oh these people this person will like will like some satvic food. If Guru Jupiter is very prominent in your chart,
then you will have some inclination to the sweets and you will be more or less Brahminical nature and you will be fat because this is this is the influence of Jupiter you become very good Brahman if
some other influences there symbolically re if your karma your karma is symbolically represented there in your chart. So the preferences are already there.
You know, good astrologer can tell you this what you will like, this you like, and this you hate. I went to one astrologer and I I have this curiosity, I really like to see what they can say.
And this astrologer looked at my chart and he said, You love swimming. And I said, yes, you're right, I love swimming. How do you know? He said, it's clear. Because of my previous karma, I like this and I want to get this.
And I hate something and I want to avoid this. And Krishna says: this is moha, this is illusion. Until you're guided by these preferences of yours.
If this is uh the guiding factor or motivating factor within your life, you will never be able to understand God.
Because actually we shouldn't ask ourselves what I like and what I hate. But we should ask what Krishna likes and what Krishna hates. Not what I like. Because who cares what you like? You know. It's not important.
What is important what, Krishna likes and what Krishna hates, but still most of the people, of people. They are guided by this simple factor that this I like, this I don't like.
Four consequences of following worldly preferences
And Krishna, therefore Krishna says nobody knows me. That's the reason why nobody knows me. And then naturally and actually Śrīla Prabhupāda
very beautifully explains in the purport of this verse that because of your karma you have basically four choices if you are guided in your life by these preferences of yours, this I like, this I hate, in other words, if you are living out your karma, if you are not trying to transcend your karma, then you basically have four choices which are also described in this chapter.
You can either become foolish or you can become uh atheistic or you can become how Prabhupāda says you can become sinful, atheistic, foolish or deceitful. This is four choices which you have.
You can choose out of these possibilities. Whatever you want. You want to become foolish? Go ahead, as it is. Krishna will give you all the facilities. You want to become sinful? No problem.
So many sinful people are there trying to fulfill their whims to fulfill their wishes and desires and at least plenty of them are there.
Again the reason, the root cause is this ichchha-dvesha. Raga and dvesha. Yeah, I like this, I don't like this.
This liking and disliking, if you're guided by liking and disliking, either you become a fool or you become an atheist or you become a sinful person or you become deceitful person.
Deceitful person means you know that God is there, but you try to not admit it. Māyā-pahṛta-jñānā. You have some jñāna. You ha you understand. I remember very clearly, I'm a scientist by background.
You didn't tell this, so I have to tell myself I have PhD, molecular biologists. There's nothing good about it. It's it means deceit. It means cheating.
Śrīla Prabhupāda was very strong about this. He said all the all the scientists are cheaters because they know that there is something more about life, but still they teach some really foolish things.
So, what happened with me in my career as a scientist? I was interested in evolution because I thought what is the origin of life? And because I knew how the life constructed, it's a very complex phenomenon.
There are proteins, there is DNA, and they're very intimately, intricately connected with each other, producing life, and this is basically the basis of life.
So I found an article in a big, big, very reputable scientific magazine. And in this article, the author was trying to figure out how the life what
was first proteins or DNA because protein without DNA cannot produce the life DNA without protein cannot produce the life. DNA and protein together cannot produce the life because they have
to be, they have to understand how they relate to each other. There is a code in DNA, and anyway, it's so complicated.
So the author of this article he was making some you know some arguments and some theories and some experiments and ultimately he says I think that the life came about because at the same
time simultaneously protein and DNA appeared all of a sudden and then the life came. And I thought this is too much, this is really this is this is not scientific. This is cheating. Because it is cheating.
You know, it is cheating. It is cheating.
It is cheating and Prabhupada said this is what you become if you follow your karma you become either sinful man or you become foolish you become so foolish so engrossed you know you drink drink drink drink drink drink drink vodka vodka vodka and beer then you become so we have plenty of them in Russia.
So or you become atheist and you try to deny God. Or you become cheater. You say there is no God although you know that there must be something.
If you are honest, if you are scientist but you're honest, you know that there is something more to life than what you're trying to say to people.
So this is the choices which people have, and because of this, they don't know God. He says that's that's the reason. Then they people live out their karma and therefore they don't know God.
Transcending karma through service to devotees
So the question, natural question, arises, how to overcome this? Because everyone is born with this. Krishna very clearly says, Sarva Bhutani Samuham Sargiyanti Parantapa. Everyone from the birth has it has it.
Everyone has karma, right? Everyone has chart. Everyone was born and there was some kind of influences there. How to overcome this? How to know God? How we can know God.
And Krishna speaks, answering this question, he speaks this very mysterious verse. He says Yasham Tvantagatampa Jananam Punya Karmanam Tedvandva Moha Nirmukta Bhajanti Mangri Dharata, he says
there are few people who can overcome Dvanva Moha. This moha or illusion, bewilderment of duality.
And he says, these people, yesam tu antagatam pa pam tu means but means that he said there is some people who can overcome the duality they lose how they can overcome duality?
He says they got rid of their sins, they finished their sins, they gave up their sins, and they performed pious activities. Now this is not an easy thing.
In one sense to understand because how you can give up sins this verse apparently doesn't answer how you can give up sins and how you can neutralize your sins by pious activities. What kind of pious activities it is?
Why all of a sudden you start creating pious activities. And besides that there is a big philosophical problem in this
understanding of this verse because Krishna apparently says that you can neutralize your bad karma, your sins, with good karma. Punya. Is it correct or not? It's not correct. Because papa and punya is also duality, right?
It's also the same Dvanva. You know, people are trying to avoid Papa and to increase their punya to enjoy. Krishna says here. You give up Papa and you do puny.
So this is uh he says it for people with superficial understanding using their own their own language so to speak.
But there is mystery in this verse which I wanted to explain to you and Prabhupada actually explained to you. I'm trying to follow his footsteps.
The mystery is disclosed by Baladeviya Bhusiness and Prabhupada follows his footsteps in his explanation of this verse.
Because Baladeviya Busin explains how you can destroy this very strong habit or very strong attachment to sinful activities. If you attach to this Dvanva duality, you will commit sins.
How you can get rid of sins? There is only one means. There is only one uh how how to say this one uh one way to do it. Only one way. Not by punya. Not by just pious activities. No.
He says Punya in this particular verse and he quotes to confirm a Markata's dictionary. Puny in this particular verse means pleasing. Punya karmana means something which is pleasing.
And he particularly discloses or reveals the mystery of this verse.
He says that Krishna is speaking here that if you perform some activities which are pleasing to the great souls, which are pleasing to the great devotees.
If you try to please consciously great devotees, Mahatsevadvara Mahadvārā mahur-vi-muktir says, Śrīla Prabhupāda says, if you render service to great devotees, then only your habit to be in this illusion is destroyed.
Then only your path, your sinful tendencies are completely eradicated. This is the only key. And this is very important to understand. Prabhupada says that actually it's not possible to get rid of your karma.
Once you're there, you're there. It's a vicious circle. You know, you create some karma and you try to neutralize this karma by another karma, by another karma, by another karma, and it's just snowball.
It just becomes bigger and bigger and bigger. Like nowadays people are trying to do something. They're trying to neutralize one karma with another karma. You all perhaps know that there is global warming going on.
People really messed up with the with the nation. Really messed up. The ice is ice in the in the northern pole and the southern poles that really melted away the you i it it's it's a mess. It's it's tremendous mess.
So they engage some scientists, some few hundred scientists, how to deal with this problem.
So they they suggested the solution. I mean it's really foolish what they suggest. Now they say, you know, there is global warming, right? How to cool down everything? We will figure it out.
So the solution which they suggest is that you cut the trees in the areas where there is a lot of snow.
And because you cut the trees in the areas where there is a lot of snow during the winter when the snow is still there, which is still there. You know, the sun will will be reflected from the snow and somehow or other it will cool down the whole thing.
So let's you know, we made a mess. Now let's solve this problem by cutting more trees. This is crazy. And this is we're doing globally and this is people doing individually.
When they're trying to get rid of their karma, so-called improve their karma. Then try to improve this karma by other karma.
Prabhupada says, and Baladeva Vidyabhushan explains, and this is actually the solution for all the problems, you cannot, by one karma, you cannot get rid of other karma. You can only increase your karma.
It will be more karma and more karma and more problems and more problems, more complicated and more complicated.
The only way to get rid of your karma, to really transcend your karma, transcend your sinful tendencies is to render service to great devotees.
Then only, uh, you will be able to do. Bhajanti mad-bhaktāḥ, Kṛṣṇa says, worship me with great determination. Otherwise we know perfectly well, we try to worship Krishna. But somehow or other it just doesn't work.
It's difficult. There is no determination. We think, you know, I have to do this and I have to do this and I have to go to work. I have no time to chant, you know.
People they don't have don't have enough determination to worship Krishna. It's the most important thing. He's God. God means source of everything. Source of everything means He can give us everything we need.
If we worship Him properly. It's the most important thing in our life, still it's the least important in our consciousness. We push it down and down, down the road and down the road, you know.
This is not the first priority. First priority I have to do this and this and this. And this is lacking of determination because we don't understand that this is important.
And Krishna explains here how you can get determination. You can only get determination if you render service to the devotees. If you render service especially to great devotees.
And if you render service to great devotees, your life will be transformed totally completely. You will not even notice it, your heart will be transformed. And Śrīla Prabhupāda was an expert in this.
Śrīla Prabhupāda is writing in the purport that the great devotees they traverse this earth only for this simple reason. They want to give others the chance to serve them.
Examples of pure devotees attracting souls
Because they know this is the only chance for people to really change their karma, to really get rid of this vicious circle of karma. Like Śukadeva Gosvāmī we know.
And it is explained in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that Śukadeva Gosvāmī used to knock at the doors of householders and beg, please give me some milk. Why? You know he is a great mystic yogi. He doesn't need your milk.
You can live without milk for months and years. By his coming to every door and knocking at every door and says, give me a little milk. Because he knows when they give little milk, then this their spiritual life starts.
There is a nice story in this regard.
One sannyāsī he was begging, and he was knocking at the doors, and he knocked at one door, and the lady housewife she came out and she was in the bad mood, really bad mood. She had a quarrel with her husband and she was really, really, really angry.
And all of a sudden she sees this sannyāsī with begging bowl, asking, please give me something. And she's in such a bad mood that I like I will do something really nasty to him.
She goes to her house and she gets some little ashes from the fireplace. She says, let him take it. She grabs the ashes, comes to the door, and he's there with the begging bowl.
She throws the ashes and says, Take it, get out of here. And this sannyāsī, you know, when he gets this, you know, he was not offended. He said, Mataji, thank you very much.
At least you gave me this ashes so from now your spiritual life started. At least you gave me something. You gave me these useless ashes, but still you gave me, so thank you very much.
This is this is an important principle we have to understand that you know the only way to transcend our simple tendencies is to serve, to serve the devotees. And as I said, Śrīla Prabhupāda was very expert at this.
I think it was who was it? Somebody, some one Prabhupāda disciple. He he uh uh gives a very interesting description of Prabhupada in London.
He said then when Prabhupada obtained uh when they had this buried place in London, Prabhupada used to walk and it's a very central place in London so there is a lot of English people very you know very gentlemanly people very you know typical English.
And Prabhupāda used to walk early in the morning in a garden or somewhere in a somewhere there in a park with his disciples.
And you know, sometimes he would meet this Englishman very nicely dressed, and Prabhupada would say to them, uh he wouldn't say Hare Krishna, he would say good morning. And the Englishman would say, good morning.
So so his disciples they couldn't figure out why Guru Maharaj is saying such a mundane greeting to them. Why doesn't he say Hare Krishna?
You know they were fifth-level brahmacārīs, they said, you know, why why he doesn't say Hare Krishna?
So ultimately next time when Prabhupada met with some Englishman and said good morning and the Englishman replied to him, Good morning.
Prabhupāda, why why you say good morning to him? Why you don't say Hare Krishna to him. How about that?
Because when I say good morning to him, he is forced to reply, good morning. And it means that he wishes well to the devotees. And it means that his spiritual life begins. So So I'm doing it for him.
If I say Hare Krishna, he will not say anything in return. And vice versa, he will be offended or he will not understand what it means. But if he says good morning, it means that he wishes well.
And if he wishes well, it means that something really tremendous happened with him. Something really important happened with him because he met with devotee and he rendered service to him.
So Prabhupada is actually there only for this purpose. Sometimes devotees would ask Prabhupada, you know, Prabhupada, tell us what pious activities did we perform in our previous lives to become devotees?
Because it is said in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that if somebody is chanting the holy name, it means that he visited all the holy places, it means that he took bath in all the holy rivers, it means that he performed all pious activities.
So it means that I'm chanting the holy name, it means that in my previous life I was really somebody, somebody really, really important.
So somebody asked Prabhupada, tell me what pious activities did I perform to become a devotee in this life? And Prabhupada said, zero, you didn't perform any pious activities. Zero.
He said you were nonsense in your past life. He said, Prabhupada, how how come I'm chanting Hare Krishna? He said, I created your pious because you rendered some service to a great devotee. Mahat seva dwara mahurdibutez.
If somebody is rendering service to Mahat, if you're doing seva to Mahat to a great person, then Ahurbi Muqtes Tamob Baram Yosef is something really important. He he gets liberated immediately, instantly.
He gets liberated from his sinful tendencies, from his sins. You know, sins are are not there anymore to push him. And we can see this is not just nice theory, this is reality.
Because we can see that sinful people would come to Prabhupada and associate with Prabhupada for a short while.
And after short association with Prabhupada, if they have sincere desire to render service, all of a sudden they become liberated from their sinful tendencies. They were drug addicts, taking heroin.
You know, it's it's very difficult to get rid of this addiction to heroin. So many people got rid of it. How? Because they render service. Mahatsevatvara mahurvi muktes.
You get rid of all your sins if you render service to a pure devotee. If you render service to devotees.
And Prabhupada, he created ISKCON. There are so many critics of his, ISKCON is bad, this ISKCON is so bad, blah blah blah blah blah. You know, there is nowadays with internet you can say so many things.
But you know, ISKCON is not perfect. Because we are not perfect, right? Who is this ISKCON? Once uh Lakshmimoni Mataji was giving class and
she said, you know, people say ISKCON this, ISKCON that, and I I never can understand who is ISKCON, what is this ISKCON, ISKCON? This is me, this ISKCON is you. And this ISKCON only as good as we are.
But what is good about this ISKCON is that it still gives people the facility to render service. To render service to a pure devotee. To Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupada created his own, this mission, so that people can have a chance to render little service. Very insignificant service. It doesn't matter.
Even insignificant service which you render can completely change your life. You know who we are, what kind of service we do we're doing. We're not doing much, they're doing a little bit.
You know, but Śrīla Prabhupāda is very merciful and very generous. He sees our little service and he has a big magnifying glass. And our little service becomes big in his eyes.
And because our little service becomes big in his eyes, he becomes pleased. As Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa explains this, puṇya-karmaṇa means activity which is pleasing to the Supreme Lord.
So we never should take it for granted that we have a chance in this form to serve. Because this is the only solution to all our problems. All our problems are created by karma.
And something which is not within our karma is this service. And if we render service, if we perform some service with sincere desire to please Śrīla Prabhupāda or to please his followers,
great followers of Śrīla Prabhupāda, who are pleasing Śrīla Prabhupāda, who is pleasing his spiritual master, who is pleasing his spiritual master. And this way only we can get rid of all our karma. This is the only way.
Yeṣām tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ. And in this way we can put a full stop to our past. And that's the only way. Otherwise we will continue this sinful life in this material world.
It may be, you know, little sinful life and maybe gross sinful life, but it doesn't matter. It's still sinful.
But to put a full stop to all our sinful activities, there is only one way is to render service and to do it as sincerely as possible. So that's what we are all about.
Transforming lives through small acts of service
That's what ISKCON is all about. Like we're building this big temple in Moscow, Rāmānanda Gauura explained that we are performing this task which is far beyond our capacities of doing this.
But actually this is this is the way uh Prabhupāda is engaging us in his service. He gives us the chance. There was a nice story in this regard about Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī. He wanted to build a big temple.
And he didn't have money, as usually, you know. Sannyāsīs don't have money. Of course nowadays they do have money. But they're not supposed to. Anyways, he wanted to build a temple.
And there was one big man who came to him and he said, Swamija, I know you want to build a temple, I can give you the full donation. And Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda said, no, I will not take your hands.
I don't need your crore rupees. What I need? I need 100 crores of paisas. Meaning that I want to engage many, many people who will give one paisa. You will give me one crore and you will only get the benefit.
And it's not fair. I want to engage many, many people who will give little bit and will take part in this glorious mission and in this way they will purify their heart.
You know they will put little brick in this temple, little paisa they will give.
And this paisa it will be, you know, like people if you go to Govardhana. Then sometimes by Govardhana you can see that people put some few Govardhana shilas with you know together.
And the meaning of this custom or tradition is that if you put a few you make a little house near Govardhana, it means that in the spiritual world you will have a big palace there.
You go to Govardhana and you put a few bricks there or few stones on each other. But it means that you made a nice residence for you in the spiritual world.
So if you do something little for Krishna here, build a temple for him, build a residence for Krishna, or do some other service, whatever is there, whatever within your capacity of doing, it means you will get a lot in the spiritual world.
Because Krishna has a big, as I said, magnifying glass. You know. He is very generous. He is not miserly. He says such and such person was serving in Sharjah. You know.
In the spiritual world now they are very much aware about this geography of this material world because people are coming from this strange corners of the world.
So he was rendering service in Sharjah to Śrīla Prabhupāda. Because he was rendering this service to Śrīla Prabhupāda, how can I deny his access to the spiritual world? He was trying to please my pure devotee.
He was doing this Punya Karmana. And as Krishna says here that the sign of this, when you really sincerely from the bottom of your heart try to please the pure devotee, the sign of this, you become determined.
Like sometimes people ask this very common question, how to become determined? How I can become how I can pra you know chant with determination, how I can do this, how I can do this. There's only one answer to this.
You should render some service to the devotees.
And with this service you get blessings, and with this blessings you get determination. And with determination you will get a lot of blessings from Krishna. So this is how it works and this is how it is explained in this verse.
So don't be cheated by this deceitful appearance in this world.
Krishna says punya-karma, as Prabhupāda explains, this is special karma which you do by trying to render some service to Śrīla Prabhupāda and in this way yeṣām dvantagatāṁpa and the dvandva-moha-nirmuktā you will get rid of this illusion of duality.
So this is this is my good presentation of this topic.
Practical guidance on serving and sharing knowledge
Thank you very much. Do you have any questions? Yeah, ways that we can search the No, there is other sending us something. Just see, this is punya karma and punya means pleasing.
You do something which which is pleasing to them or which you think is pleasing to them. You just try if you have this attitude within the heart, I want to please this particular person. This is good enough.
Because this is the way of life, you know. We may or may not be able to please somebody, but if if we have this good intention, you know. Even it is said that even a smile can be service if you smile at somebody.
Really from your heart. If you are happy. It is said that actually when we see the devotees, we have to smile. This is the regulative principles of the śāstras. When you see Viṣṇu-bhakti, you have to smile.
If you don't smile you're offended. You offended him. You know, you see the devotee, You have to smile. You have to be generous enough to give him little smile. This is already service.
As Prabhupāda says, as I explained, you know, if you say good morning, this is already service because you wish wealth. So service is not difficult. Service service means I want to please. That's it.
And service to Krishna is not difficult either. Service to Krishna also means I want to please him. And you know how you can please Krishna, you know. You know, it's really childish to think that we can please Krishna.
We cook something for him.
It's like little girl, you know, mother is cooking and you know she says, I also want to cook. And you know, she makes some bakes from the sand some some some and mother says, Oh yeah, very nice, very nice. Your sand sandwiches are very nice.
So when you know when we cook something for Krishna, Krishna doesn't eat it in a in a real sense because you know he's not a material person. He doesn't eat our chapatis.
But if we do it with love, he accepts it he says himself, if you do it with love, I accept the love which you do it with. So it's it's our intention, our desire to please constitutes service.
And if we understand that this is important, that Śrīla Prabhupāda really wants something, like why we're doing this big temple in Moscow, you know, only because Śrīla Prabhupāda wants it. There is no doubt in my mind that Śrīla Prabhupāda really wants it.
That if now Śrīla Prabhupāda was here, I'm sure that you know he would put all the resources of ISKCON to build this temple in Moscow because it's so important.
It's the first temple in Russia in the Soviet Union, this and that. And we know Śrīla Prabhupāda wants that's why we're doing this. Whatever little we can do we'll do and this will be pleasing to Prabhupāda.
You know, the sincerity again, what is service? Service is desire to please. And we we have to be really sincere.
Sincere means not just do something which I think is pleasing, but really apply our mind to figure out what would be pleasing for Śrīla Prabhupāda. What he really wants. What would be really pleasing.
If this intention is there, then it's service. Whatever you do with this intention will be service. If we chant with this intention, it's it's service. Why do I chant?
Because I want to please my spiritual master, I want to please you without. This is so easy. It's not difficult. Did I fulfill your request speaking about the service? How important it is? It is the most important.
There is nothing more important than this service attitude. Nothing more important in our world. We have to try to serve every devotee. Every devotee.
Kindly guide us how to bring the awareness of this important knowledge of Krishna particularly to youth for completely immersed in other activities. You give them the taste.
This is how Prabhupada was, f there are different ways of doing it, but one simple thing which Prabhupada taught us is that we have to make Krishna consciousness attractive. He was revolutionary.
I mean Prabhupada was really revolutionary. Nobody would do what he did. You know he went to San Francisco and hippies were there.
Oh actually there's one nice story about San Francisco I can tell you later about really nice story. So he went to San Francisco and it was the really the mecca of the hippies in this time.
And you know the first thing which he did, he went to to sing with the rock bands.
There were rock bands on the stage and Prabhupada was singing Hare Krishna with them. You know, for a sannyāsī, dignified, very noble sannyasi from India to go to this place at night, you know, with all this rock band.
You know, he he goes there. Why? Because he wants to reach people. And he wants to make or present Krishna consciousness in in a palatable way, in a way which people can accept.
So basically if you want to present this knowledge about Krishna to use, you have to figure out how to make it tasty or attractive to the youth. And there are unlimited ways of doing it.
You have to really know you know how to do this. Otherwise it will be just, you know, old fashioned religion.
I know one Russian devotee, he's in India and he's distributing Prabhupada's books. And he goes to hostels and to campuses to distribute books to students.
And he said that the most standard reply which he gets from the students, oh man, go to my dad, this is a book for him. Go to my grandpa. I'm not interested in this.
But But uh you know if you want to reach other people you really have to tax your brain to understand what how to make it tasteful for them, how to make it really tasty. And there are ways of doing it.
Because ultimately Krishna consciousness is good and if you feel that it brings you happiness, then you can share this happiness with others. That's another answer to this question.
If you're really happy about this, you can present Krishna consciousness in a very happy way. And everyone wants happiness, right? So you can do it in a very happy and easy way.
I wanted to tell you one more story which illustrates the same point how important it is to serve the devotees from San Francisco. Very interesting story. Malati told this story.
They said that every day when Śrīla Prabhupāda came to San Francisco, he would go for the morning walk to the Golden Gates Park. And early in the morning they would go with the disciples,
the you know the huge crowd of disciples and Prabhupāda up and from. So the disciples notice that every day near the temple the car is standing and in the car a very very sad person is sitting as a driver, really gloomy, you know, is sitting and he's really depressed.
You know, and every day it happens. Every day at the same time in the morning, Prabhupāda goes for the walk and you know this man is sitting there. And this happens day after day after day after day.
And finally, one day Prabhupāda he just leaves the crowd of his followers and disciples and goes to this man in the car. And the man initially he just he rolled up the window.
But then Prabhupāda he's standing there. And you know to be polite, the man rolls down the window. And Prabhupāda smiles at him. He says, Good morning. And the man he smiles back. And he says, Good morning.
And Malati says the disciples they looked at this man and they saw he became so happy and he never came back because he got rid of all his problems.
They said, you know, Prabhupāda Svāmījī, by one smile, he could liberate this person from all his problems.
This man was sitting there, Prabhupāda just came to him and smiled at him. And the man was relieved totally completely. This is this is how it is.
This is the power of even a second of association with devotee, wasn't how it go I I I can tell so many stories about this. I will not tell. It's late already. It's ten o'clock.
Thank you very much for your kind attention and and your service which you're doing. Thank you very very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki. Śrīla Bhakti Aloka Swami Maharaj ki.