Bhagavad-gita 9.27
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Dubai · 2006
Chapters
Opening prayers and verse recitation
Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya naraṁ caiva nārotamaṁ, devīṁ sarasvīṁ vyāsaṁ tato jayam udīrayet.
Ramananda Gore Prabhu asked me to speak about Grihasta life. I don't know much about Grihasta life but obtain the verse which is appropriate to this topic.
This is 27th verse from the ninth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, the most confidential knowledge. Krishna is teaching us bhakti because ultimately bhakti is the essence of all knowledge.
Bhakti is the essence of the meaning of human life. Okay, let's send the Sanskrit.
Yat karoṣi yad aśnasi, yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat, yat tapasyasi kaunteya, tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam. push pan, yad karosi yadas, karosi yadasy, yadjuhosi dadasya, yathosi Yattapasasi konte ja tapas, tatkurusva madarpanam, taturusva ma depam, yat karosi yadasnasi, Yat Karosi, Yadjuhosi Dadasya, Yatosi Pasya, Yatapasya Sik, Yatapasya Tadkurusva madharpanamurosva madarpanam Yat Whatever Karoshi you do Yata Whatever Ashnasi Ashnasi you eat Yata Whatever Juhosi you offer Dadasi Dadas You give away Yad Whatever Yad Whatever Tapasyasi austerities you performities you perform asana kunti Tat Vet Kurushva do mat unto me Arpanam as an offering.
Translation Whatever you do, whatever, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform. Do that, O son of Kuntī, as an offering to me.
Thus it is the duty of everyone to mold his life in such a way that he will not forget Krishna in any circumstance. Everyone has to work for maintenance of his body and soul together.
And Krishna recommends herein that one should work for him. Everyone has to eat something to live. Therefore, he should accept the remnants of foodstuff offered to Krishna.
Any civilized man has to perform some religious ritualistic ceremonies. Therefore, Krishna recommends, do it for me. And this is called archana. Everyone has a tendency to give something in charity.
Krishna says, give it to me. And this means that all surplus money accumulated should be utilized in furthering the Krishna conscious movement.
Nowadays, people are very much inclined to the meditational process, which is not practical in this age.
But if anyone practices meditating on Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours a day by chanting the Hare Krishna mantra round on his beads, he is surely the greatest meditator and the greatest
yogi, as substantiated by the sixth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. Śrīla Prabhupāda. Yat karoṣi yad aśnasi, taj juhosi dadāsi yat, yad tapasyasi kaunteya, tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam.
Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform, do that, O son of Kunti, as an offering to me.
Namaḥ oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmitin iti nāmine. Namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe, nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe. Vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ.
Jaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhupān Nityānanda, Śrī Advaita
Gadādhara Śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma
Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. Ājānulambita-bhujau kanakāvadataṁ saṅkirtanaika-pitarau kamalāyatākṣau, viśvambharau dvija-varau yuga-dharma-pālau vande jagat-priyakarau karuṇāvatārau.
bajokanaka, sam kirtanaika pitarokamalaya taksa, vichwambarodviavaru Kṛṣṇa.
The purpose of civilized human life
Krishna. So this is the basis of civilized human life. As Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in the purport, To live in such a way that we don't forget about God.
To mold our life in such a way that every minute we remember about Him. Everything else is a waste of time. Cāṇakya Paṇḍit says that if you waste one moment, you cannot get it back.
There is no greater loss than wasted valuable human time. And people are wasting their lives traveling to Dubai and back sitting in the traffic and I think that they're born for this. But this is waste.
And Krishna here gives a hint. Krishna explains how to make our life a big success. Actually, he is lowering his demands.
In the previous verse he says: Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati. He says, give me just one leaf or just one fruit or just little water or one flower. He specifically says one.
He says patram puspam phalam toyam. You know he does he doesn't say patrani puspani phalani. doesn't say give me one kilo of fruits. He says one. And he says do it with love.
And then if you do it with love, asnami prayatatmanaha. He says, I will take it, I will eat it personally because it's done in a pure way. Krishna, what he needs is the purity of heart.
He doesn't need big quantity, he doesn't need big anything. He needs the pure heart. And the condition of the pure heart is bhakti love. When the heart is pure, the bhakti is there. The bhakti is coming into the pure heart.
But because our heart is impure, we have kama, lust, we have krodha, anger, we have greed, lobha, we have madha moha matsaryya, we have all these six enemies within our heart which are replacing in our heart bhakti and
therefore we are so miserable actually when this kama krodha lobha moha madha matsary live within our heart, we cannot be happy. This is the pollution within our heart. This is the dirt within our heart.
But when the heart is pure, Krishna says, do it with pure heart, and then I will personally come and take it. This is his promise. You will really see the reciprocation from the Lord if you do it with pure heart.
You will feel that he accepted your offering if you did it with some purity, with some sincerity in the heart. If you say to the Lord, please, I don't have much, I have this one leaf, tulsī leaf, please take it.
Draupadi and the lesson of surrender
Krishna will take this one tulsi leaf and you will become totally satisfied. There is a story in Mahābhārata about Draupadī who was in complete anxiety because Durvāsā Muni came with the host of his disciples?
Actually, Duryodhana sent Durvāsā Muni and he specifically instructed Durvāsā Muni: You come to Pandavas when there is nothing to eat. You come in the afternoon when they already eat.
Draupadī had a special pot given to her by Sūrya Dev, Sun God. And in this pot she could cook as much as she needed. She was cooking for all her husbands, five in
number, and also brāhmaṇas. There were so many brāhmaṇas living with them. And you know, basically hundreds of people were living. And Kuntī alone, she was cooking. This is about household life.
I'm telling I'm already started telling the lessons of household life. So this little Draupadī, she was cooking for so many people. But of course, she had special blessings because she had this pot.
But the problem with this pot was that once you cook it and eat, it will never produce anything more. It will just you know it will stay there empty till tomorrow.
So the Ṛṣimuni came and he has to be hosted, he has to be accepted with all due respect by the Pandavas and Draupadī. And you know, he didn't come alone and he's an angry man. He's a very angry man.
Actually, Durvasa means uh naked. Durvasa means poorly dressed. So basically it means naked because it's a very poor dress when you're walking around naked. So he came. He's in a performing austerities.
And because of the austerities, he has so much, you know, power. So Draupadī is in complete anxiety. She is saying, you know, how will I feed all these people? Thousands of people knew with him. How will I feed?
My pot is empty. I will not be able to feed them. And you dises somehow or other let's pray to Kṛṣṇa. And that's another lesson for household life. Because in household life it's always some problem.
One shortage or another shortage, one problem or, another problem. So she still said, don't worry. Somehow or other Kṛṣṇa will help us.
If you surrender to Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa will be there because he sees and he remembers and he knows the prayers of all surrendered souls. So Draupadī started praying to Kṛṣṇa.
Praying from the bottom of your heart, Kṛṣṇa, please help. Because it's a very difficult situation. If Durvāsāmuni curses us, what will happen to us? And Kṛṣṇa appears.
And Kṛṣṇa says, you know, all these people are you know they're doing the uh ablutions there in the water, taking snan, chanting the Gāyatrī mantras. And you give me some food, and I will take it.
And she said, I I I don't have any food. He said something you must have. And he took this pot. And there was little uh burnt uh vegetable on the bottom of this pot.
When she was cooking some little vegetable, somehow or other was still there, little thing. And Kṛṣṇa says, why are you lying to me? There is some vegetable here. And he took this vegetable and he ate this vegetable.
And as soon as he ate this vegetable, everyone became full. Everyone became totally, completely full. And, uh, and Durvāsā Muni and his disciples, they started, you know, burping in the water because of eating too much.
So they felt total complete satisfaction and they so
So Durvāsā Muni said, we can't go there, because there is, there will be a big embarrassment. They will give us feast and we will not be able to eat better go somewhere else.
So, but the point of this little story is not about Durvāsā Muni. This little story about reciprocation between the devotee and the Lord. If somebody gives to the Lord even something little, but with pure heart.
The Lord accepts.
The futility of material wealth
And when the Lord accepts, everyone becomes happy. This is the secret of satisfaction. The mistake, the general mistake which people do in this world that trying to satisfy themselves without caring about the Lord.
But we are parts and parcels of the Lord, we are parts of Him. And we cannot be satisfied on our own. You know how many people try to do it? Just you know, just look around. All these people are trying to satisfy themselves.
Is it possible or not? All these rich people. The richer they become, the more dissatisfied they become. They want more and more and more.
And Krishna says it himself, he says that mahasana mahapatma, then you know this satisfaction will never come by trying to satisfy your karma, your desire. Because desire will be producing more and more, more and more.
There is some generator of desires within us. And it's just increasing and increasing and increasing. In the laws of Manu, in Manu-saṁhitā, there is a beautiful verse which explains this.
It says that you know if you pour ghee in a fire, will it ever put down? No, it will just increase and increase and increase. So people are trying to satisfy themselves by putting ghee on the fire of their kama.
And the fire becomes stronger and stronger and stronger and they're putting more and more and more and more and more and more. And this is the way of material civilization. Everyone is dissatisfied. Everyone wants more.
No matter who you are, everyone wants more. You know, sometimes people think if I have one million dollars then I will be satisfied.
say, you know, no, I need two million dollars, or ten million dollars, or hundred million dollars, or thousand million dollars, or thousand billion dollars.
You know people don't know what to do with their money and still they want more.
I have one acquaintance of mine, one Russian businessman, he told me once—he's very rich—he told me once that the money which I earn within one week is enough for me and my family for the rest of my life.
Still, he is so busy. When his son, when his little son was born, he didn't have time to see—he was somewhere away, you know—and after one week only he saw his little baby.
You know, his son is born and he couldn't care less because he wants more and more and more.
At the same time, he admits himself, you know, it's enough for me to work one week and then stop, and then we will be happy for the rest of our life. But people cannot stop. Satisfaction doesn't come.
And therefore, Krishna says that the only way to be satisfied is to satisfy me. And when I'm satisfied, then everyone else is satisfied. And it's very easy to satisfy Krishna.
You need just to give him one flower, not the whole garland. Just this one flower is enough. But the secret of this is you give it with love, with complete sincerity, and it's actually not the flower which you give.
You have to give your heart. You know, when you give one leaf or one fruit or a little water, you put all your heart there. You just say, Krishna, please take it. Krishna says, I take.
If you do it like this, if you do it with the purity, I'll take and you become happy.
Surrendering all activities to God
No matter what, doesn't matter what condition you are, doesn't matter what hell you live in, you will become cool as in heaven. But Krishna also knows that this is not possible for most of us.
He knows that most of us are not capable of doing this. And therefore in the next verse he says, Yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi yaj juhosi dadāsi yat yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇaṃ. In the first verse he says, give
me one leaf in the next verse he says give me everything which you have. What is bigger? One leaf is bigger. Because in the first verse he says, do it with love. In the second verse he says, do it however you can.
And this verse he doesn't say do it with love. He says give me everything. And he doesn't even promise that I will accept it. He says yad karoṣi, yad aśnāsi, yaj juhoṣi, dadāsi yat. Just give.
Because he doesn't specify how you give. Actually, what is important is not what we do. What is important is how we do, with what consciousness we do it, with what heart we do it.
And in the next verse he says, because it's not possible to expect from you that you do everything which you do with love, then at least do it somehow or other for me, and in this way you will remember about me.
At least mentally you will have some connection between something which you do and myself. And gradually by this process the heart will be purified. This is the secret.
And Prabhupāda explains in the purport that this secret is called arcanā. Archana means you put the deity of Krishna and whatever you do, you offer to him.
You come to him every morning and you say, My dear Lord, I have to go to Dubai. Please take it as a sacrifice to you. And then you come back.
You again say, my dear Lord, whole day I was there. And I came back because I want to serve you. And you may not do it feelingly, but at least mentally you will remember all the time.
He says, you know, whatever you eat, you first offer to me. And then, you know, gradually, gradually, you will get adjusted to this idea that Krishna is in the center.
Because household life or material life in general means that I am in the center. Basically, what household life means. Household life means that I have a little kingdom.
This kingdom, you know, three room kingdom or four room kingdom. Attach bus room kingdom, you know. And I'm the king. And I have my little subjects, you know, for screaming Kenan room.
And basically this is what you know conditioned life is. Everyone is trying to create a little kingdom or little area, little space where he is the center. Because this is the meaning of life in this material world.
We want to feel that we are in the center. No matter how stupid it is, no matter how illusory it is, still everyone wants to feel that he is the most important. Even though he may be most important in this, you know, two square meters of space, but still he has to be most important there.
Julius Caesar, famous Roman emperor, he once said, that it's better to be the first man in a village than the second one in Rome.
Basically, reflecting the same kind of mentality that everyone wants to be first no matter where. And virtually what people say, they say it's better to be first man in hell than the second one in heaven.
Nobody wants to go to heaven because in heaven number one is already occupied. You can never be number one in heaven. God is there. He is the supreme person. He is the center of all activities.
But we prefer to be in hell and that's why we are in hell. We want to be the number one. And to create this illusion of being the first one, being the center of all the activities.
We live in this material world, live in this, you know, little household life in this you know little apartment or that apartment here and there and Krishna says that the essence of any human life is spiritual practice.
And here he explains what practice is. And he says, if you have your household life, you put me in the center. Because I'm already in the center. He says, I'm really sorry. But you know, I'm already there in the center.
So if you put me in the center, you just recognize the eternal fact. God is already in the center, but He is not in the center of our consciousness.
And He wants us to adjust to this idea or to this concept that He is in the center. And therefore, he says, if you want to live household life, then the household life is a sacrifice.
Household life gives some facilities, it gives some license for some enjoyment, it gives some pleasures, some there are some little happy drops in household life. We all know there are some honey in it.
The essential duty of sacrifice
But still Krishna says that the essence of human life, the meaning of human life is sacrifice. Actually, Śrīla Rāmānujācārya very beautifully explained it, proved it.
There is a very essential concept in Rāmānujācārya's Viśiṣṭādvaita philosophy of śeṣatva. Dvaita philosophy of Seshatva. He says that you know Lord is uh Lord is unlimited. And Jiva's soul is limited. Limited means shesh.
Shesha means the limit. Or shesha means basically shesha means the remnant, the whatever it is, limit.
And he says that because we are limited, because we are tiny, because we are minute, our essential duty is to do something for the Lord because we are not for ourselves.
The difference between us and God is that He is for Himself. That's God. God lives for Himself. The essence, the meaning of his life is enjoyment because he is absolute, complete, whole, and he is living for himself.
But every human being by nature cannot be happy unless he gives something to the Lord. The essence of human life is to live for somebody else. And we know this. If we only try to live for ourselves, it doesn't work.
You know, we will be bored. You know, if I only live for myself. What is the meaning of life? I have to live for somebody else. I have to live for my children. I have to live for my wife, I have to live for this or that.
And Prabhupada used to say that if people don't have anyone to live for then they get the dog and live for the dog. Really? Or cat and live for the cat.
You know, we have one pujari in Moscow, and he's renting a flat, and he told me once that underneath in the flat one floor down, a lonely lady lives and she has nine dogs living in her little apartment, and she's serving these dogs day and night basically because people need to serve somebody because this is the essential nature of the human
soul, and ultimately, this desire to serve is for the Lord, but because we forgot about the Lord, we serve Krishna.
Prabhupada said, you either serve. There's not much choice you have. You will still have to serve, but you either serve dog or God. So who is better? Whose service is more meaningful?
And basically, this is what we have to understand: that in any case we're serving, and household life means service. Household life doesn't mean enjoyment, household life means sacrifice. It's yagya, yagna.
And Krishna explains how to do this yagya. He says you serve everyone. Basically, householder.
Sometimes people think that household life is for enjoyment, but actually, the real meaning of household life is they have to serve everyone.
Basically, three-quarters of the civilized society, which is no more, which doesn't exist. They are just beggars. Brahmacārīs they beg. Little children they beg from householders. And vānaprasthas they beg.
And of course sannyāsīs they are the biggest beggars, they have the special thing to beg. You know, they go door to door. And only householders they work hard to maintain everyone else.
Basically the meaning of household life is is a sacrifice and it is explained in the Vedic scriptures that the forest first and foremost duty of householder is to take care of the guests. You know, you have to take care of your family members, you have to take care of basically everyone, but the main duty is to take care of the guests.
Because the tendency in household life is to become little selfish. So the Vedic scriptures they explain that the household life means you serve the guests as if they're God. Atithi Bhagavan.
And atithi it's a very interesting word. Atithi means somebody who comes not in time. Atithi means he is he's just coming anytime.
You know, he can come at one o'clock in the morning and knock at your door and says, here I am. And the way you receive the guest basically is the way you receive the Lord because this is Bhagavan is coming.
So the meaning of human life in any case is sacrifice, and actually, by the way of sacrifice you become happy. If you serve everyone, you become really happy because you really feel fulfilled inside.
And because Krishna sees your endeavors, sees your endeavors to serve everyone, knowing that everyone is a representative of God, then he also feels satisfied and then you become happy.
And of course, you know, nowadays it may all sound little outdated, little harsh. You know, nowadays practically there is no civilized life anymore.
But still what Krishna is explaining here, Krishna is explaining in this particular verse that you have to keep focus of your life around Krishna.
That you still have, no matter where you live, how you live, in which condition you live, you still have to remember that Krishna is the center of all our activity.
That yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat, yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam.
Balancing material duties and spirituality
and this means balanced life actually balanced life means when you give everything to Krishna. Everything else is in balance. Everything else is not really balanced life.
Sometimes, and actually Ramananda Gaur Prabhu asked me how to balance material and spiritual life. So Krishna explains here how to balance material and spiritual life. He says, give everything to me.
But this giving is actually secret because if you give something to Krishna, then Krishna will give everything to you.
Krishna explains very beautifully in Bhagavad-gītā, he says, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham, mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ.
He says how you relate to me I will relate to you see you know if we give something then Krishna sees what we give to him. And then he will also give something in return to us.
And the calculation which is behind this giving exchange between us and God, if we give him 10% of our capacities, he will give us 10% of his capacities.
Because he says it's proportionate tamsta How you relate to me, I will relate to you accordingly.
It's actually what Krishna is trying to inspire us to do, he's trying to inspire us to do because obviously he knows that you know we need something for ourselves and we're a little greedy and we always think you know why should I give to Krishna?
Uh I have my children, they also need something and you know we will always have these problems inside but Krishna says when you start giving you will start receiving more More. And then you will be inspired to give more.
And you will receive even more. And in this way, the competition between Bhakti and Krishna, Bhagavan will go on.
Prabhupada used to quote his father who was saying, you know, when you give something to God, you give with two hands. And Krishna has ten hands to give to you.
And if you give something for yourself with two hands, Krishna has ten hands to snatch from you. So who will win? If you give something to him, he will give you with ten hands.
And if you try to hold for yourself, you know, it's already lost. He has ten hands to take it from you. So what he's trying to teach us, he says: don't worry. We are narrow-minded human beings. We're always insecure.
We're always trying to, you know, secure our little future or whatever. But he says, you try you try this process.
You try, whatever you do, which you will do anyway, you will anyway eat, you will anyway act, you will anyway do some austerity you will anyway do so many things just do it at least mentally as madarpanam and arpanam,
means something valuable what Krishna says here, Mad Arpanam, pan Arpanam means offering, but offering of something which is practical.
The gradual process of devotional service
He says, whatever you do, whatever is practical for you, you give it to me, and in this way you will gradually develop this understanding that I'm here always nearby. Recently somebody asked me, one
Bhakta in Rasa, he came to me and he said, You know, I know that I have to cook food for Krishna. But if I have to cook food for Krishna, then I really have to cook what he likes, not what I like.
When I cook some pizza, I sometimes think you know whether Krishna likes pizza or not. And that's a very deep philosophical question: whether Krishna likes pizza or not.
I think that by now he likes because so many devotees offer pizza to him. So, but he says I feel a little hypocritical when I cook something and I cook what I like, not what Krishna likes.
And then I go to the altar and I say, "Krishna, please take it." But why should he take it if I cook it for myself really? And it's correct. It's true. I told him, yes, it's true.
But this is the way how you learn ultimately to please Krishna. Ultimately by doing this, yes, you're doing it for yourself.
Yes, you're cooking pizza because you like pizza, and ultimately you couldn't care less what Krishna likes. It's not it's not within the scope of your considerations, it's not what matters for you.
But by doing this, you will enter into some process of reciprocation with the Lord, and because the Lord will reciprocate, you will uh ultimately you will learn how to do everything for Him.
So this is a learning process and the whole household life is a learning process when we start with something and ultimately, what Krishna sees, Krishna sees not what we give to him. Krishna sees what we hold back.
There is one little story about this which I like very much. One Prabhupada's disciple, Bhadrasena Prabhu, he told a story about himself.
He was a student and he started coming to Hare Krishna temple in America. And he liked the food. That's the main reason why most of the people joined Hare Krishna movement outside of India.
Because they like nice vegetarian Hare Krishna food. And because it's prasāda, there is a special taste in prasāda.
So he started coming as a casual guest student in Hare Krishna temple eating some prasadam and he knew that he has to give little money when he goes out. So he uh he arranged a little trick.
He put uh paper money in one pocket and he put some change in another pocket. So that it's very convenient, you know.
Because otherwise, you know you go out and you take, you know you tak,e paper and little coins and you give coins and does it look good, right? So, but if you just take coins and give some coins, then it's looks okay.
So that was his trick, and he was, you know, cunning taking some prasāda and then he when he would go out he knew which is the right pocket so he would he would put and put some coins and you know happily going out and he was a little kid,
devotee kid, he was 10 years old, and the boy at the desk was sitting there, taking all these donations from the guests who were going out.
And you know, one Sunday he came, he took prasāda and very conveniently, as was his habit, he you know he reached little coins and gave to this boy. And the boy looked at him.
And then he pointed to another pocket and he said to him, Krishna sees not what you give, but what you hold back. And he was wondering how the hell he knows he
says that was my main reason why I joined the movement because I thought the children are so intelligent here, how intelligent must be the adults there so I should join the movement but it's a fact.
What Krishna sees, not what you give, what you hold back. And therefore he says very strongly here, Yadkarosi Yadeshasi, Yadjuhosi Dadasi Yad, whatever,
whatever, whatever, whatever you do, please understand that ultimately whatever you get, who gives it to you? Whom does it belong? It ultimately belongs to him.
Developing gratitude as a core principle
At Kṛṣṇa's. And what he says, he says that what I need from you, and this is actually the meaning of household life, I need from you the recognition of the fact that whatever you get, you get from me.
The meaning of household life is this feeling of gratitude. And basically, what we have to develop when you teach your little children, what is the first lesson that you teach the children. You say to them, say what?
What is the first words which they have to learn? Thank you. And basically, this is the first and most important lesson of every civilized human being. We have to learn how to say thank you to God.
And he says, this is how you say thank you to me: whatever you do, do it as an offering to me. You know, you're anyway doing it, just do it as sacrifice for me. Whatever you give away, not just give it away, just, say, Krishna, I'm giving it away on your behalf, not on my behalf.
And this is the balance. This is the balanced life. When we have this feeling of gratitude within our heart. This is balanced life. If we don't, this is an unbalanced life. This means the life which is basically wasted.
The life which is basically does not develop our heart because the meaning of human life is to develop the heart, to develop the consciousness, to purify consciousness and purify the heart.
And Vedic culture, Indian culture, the remnants of Indian culture still is so great in comparison with any other culture in the world. Because it is based on this principle. Basically, the culture is household culture.
But the culture again and again and again teaches people all these little lessons, lessons of gratitude, which ultimately teach us how to relate to God, how to become his bhaktas, how to become his lovers.
So that ultimately at the end of our life we will be able to offer him one fruit, one leaf, one flower with love.
So this whole long life which we have is the life of sacrifice when we help others, when we help to raise our children, when we help other people around us. But it's all only meaningful if we do it for the sake of God.
And at the end, this lesson is being completely studied by us. And at the end, we will be able to say, Krishna, I know everything. You are everything. You are my Lord. You are my master.
So please take my heart and I'm giving it to you willingly because I'm yours and you're mine. But before we reach this stage, we have to learn how to reciprocate with the Lord.
And this is the verse, how to reciprocate with the Lord. And this is the verse which we have to always remember whenever this question comes about the balance.
We have to remember that it has to be done for the Lord, for His sake.
We have to do our duties, we have to do so many things in this world, but ultimately we have to remember for whom we are doing these duties. And if we don't, it's just a waste of time.
Today it was the Sanga at Krishna in one very rich Indian businessman home. And he said to me that a couple of years ago I was drinking and I was eating meat and I was smoking.
And I could not believe that a human being can live without drinking, smoking, and eating meat. And if somebody would tell me at that time that you will live without it, I would laugh at him.
But he said, here I am, two years later. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't eat meat, I don't hunt women, and I can't understand what happened to me. But then he said, I know what happened to me.
At one point I realized that I cannot take this all with me when I die and I realized that whatever I do is just horrible, and he said, now when I think about drinking and smoking, I just feel like vomiting because now I know what is the meaning of life.
The meaning of life is to give to God because it all belongs to him anyway. It all belongs to him anyway.
And we are just here to recognize this simple fact that we are his servants eternally and there is no way to change this fact of life. And this is the meaning of basically every condition of human life.
Yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi yaj juhuṣi dadāsi yat yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kuru mad-arpaṇam.
Attaining liberation from karmic bondage
And this is the meaning of course of household life. And if we live this way, and this is what Krishna promises in the next verse, just to inspire us to do this.
Śubhā-śubha-phalair evaṁ mokṣyase karma-bandhanaiḥ sannyāsa-yoga-yuktātmā vimukto mām upaiṣyasi. He says in this way you will be free from bondage.
Śubha-aśubha, you will be free from bondage of all auspicious things and all inauspicious things. As this man was telling me, I want my balance ultimately to be zero. I want to finish it this life. I don't want it anymore.
I have it. I have everything and I want to go to God. And that's what he said.
If you live this way, then you will be free from the bondage of karma. You will be a free liberated human being in this world and you will be really happy because you will not feel the bondage of your own activities and this is the secret uh behind this and this is the great meaning of Bhagavad-gītā. Gita.
I guess we we were supposed to stop long ago. So I will not continue any longer. But if you have a couple of questions maybe I can answer. If you have some specific points, I don't know.
It is said in the Mahābhārata that to learn something, when you just hear, you learn 25%.
Because when you hear, you usually hear not very attentively and something is going in one ear and coming out from another ear. God very conveniently creating two ears so that it just goes through so.
And in the Mahābhārata it is said, only one fourth you get when you just hear. So another fourth you get if you ask questions, twenty-five percent more.
And then it is said you get another twenty-five percent if after asking questions you think about what you heard, which usually people don't do, you know.
You ask them fifteen minutes late uh later after the lecture, asked them what was the lecture, they said, Oh, it was very nice lecture. I don't remember about one. Very nice. So this is 75%.
And then you get the hundred percent complete knowledge if you teach it yourself. If the same kind of topic you teach others. So this is only way how you get the complete knowledge.
You hear, then you ask questions, then you think about it, and then you teach others. Otherwise you will remain with only 25% or something like this. So this is this is I'm trying to stimulate you.
Free will karma and predestination
Okay. Yeah. Are at least giving some chances to make it. No, we have free will. Uh it's predestined. Many things are predestined. Uh like for example how much money we get. It's more or less predestined.
You cannot really get much more than you're destined to get unless you adopt some illegal means and you will not be able to keep this money anyway.
If you adopt some illegal means or some, you know, money will come to you which are not supposed to come to you, you will lose it very quickly. You will not be able to use this money.
So some certain things are predestined or uh very strictly, but there is also freedom
you can avoid some things. This is how karma works. It's not that everything, single little detail, is already predestined. It depends how you behave.
It depends. And when you act for Krishna, then it's not karma, it's reciprocation from Krishna. Krishna explains this in the ninth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. He says that I will, uh, I'm neutral.
I'm not you know I'm not favoring everyone, I'm not partial. There is karma. You know, whatever you do you will receive as a reaction. But he says, for my bhaktas, I have a special corner within my heart.
So if you become a bhakta, then nothing is predestined. Really, nothing is predestined.
Maybe something's still predestined, but it becomes much more difficult to predict because Krishna is really trying to lead you personally towards Him.
And He gives you so much freedom and he's trying to push you in a certain direction. But still, we're always free. The free will is always there.
But it's very much limited by our previous actions, by the conditioning of our mind and everything.
But when you become a bhakta you become much more free in, uh, in your decision making and your you know process and everything so not everything is predestined and you can change it greatly, especially if you start chanting Hare Krishna mantra or doing some sadhana, some spiritual practice.
Um stem again. Hmm. Okay. Yeah that's only that's a very good question. That's it.
That after some time when we offer something to the Lord it becomes really just mechanical ritual and there is no feeling involved how to save ourselves from this from this kind of process.
Basically it's a very important question. We become mechanical because first of all because we are infected by this mechanical world. You know, previously there was not some so much mechanical interaction with the world.
You know, even if you wanted to go somewhere you had to have a horse or bullock and it's not mechanism, you have to love them and you know impel them.
But now everything is mechan mechanical, you know. You push the button and it mm-hmm You know, and we more or less uh reflect the same kind of understanding towards the Lord.
We think, you know, okay, I know the bottom now. Here it is, you know. Because we are mechanical. We are actually this whole environment is infecting our consciousness. The consciousness becomes more and more mechanical.
Especially when the children start playing with this computer. It's very bad because it really, really makes them very mechanical. So, this is one of the reasons. Another reason is that our ritualistic consciousness,
we just think that the main thing is the ritual. But the ritual is nothing, it's just the way to express our feelings. What is the ritual? Ritual has no meaning.
So, but because we are used to it and because everyone is living like this and we're living like this, it becomes a very meaningless ritual ultimately in due course of time. You're right.
But the books are there to completely smash our mechanical attitude. So what we have to remind to be reminded all the time is that bhakti is all about consciousness. Bhakti is not again what you do. Bhakti is how you do it.
And which consciousness, with which heart you do it.
So, and that already in itself is the statement that you know you should not do anything mechanically and if you read books then it's all about consciousness how you should be conscious how you should concentrate your consciousness.
And only this is the only remedy from mechanical attitude. You read the books, you listen lectures, you associate with devotees.
And especially this association is very powerful because when you associate with human beings, uh you learn how not to be mechanical. Because if you are just mechanical with other human beings, it doesn't work.
You know, like in in America they have this smile, you know, mechanical smile, you know. It doesn't work. It doesn't reflect any feeling or whatever.
So I and uh you know we have to uh learn how not to be mechanical in real interaction. Therefore Lord Chaitanya says that uh there is this three essential points of religion of this Kali Yuga.
One is chanting of the holy name. But it's not only the chanting of the holy name. He says there is also Vaishnava Seva, which is very essential because in Vaishnava Seva you learn how to serve, how to do seva.
And then there is jiva doya means preaching. Means again interaction with other human beings when you manifest the compassion of your heart or try to manifest, you tell them something about the Lord.
So this all three, only three, nāma-kīrtana, vaiṣṇava-sevā and jīva-dayā, they comprise dharma of this age. If you only do chanting, uh you're still not fulfilling your dharma.
You're not truly religious in the true sense of the word. Because you will do it mechanically. And you do all these rituals mechanically.
But if you preach and if you you know serve devotees, then when it will come time and and of course for this you have to read the books, for this you have to listen. Then when the time comes to offer something to the Lord, you will also do it with the heart.
So this is the remedy.
You have to serve the devotees, try to preach to other people, read the books and uh this will you know this will be constantly working with your heart and then you know at one point of your life you will understand that you should do it not in a mechanical manner.
Okay. Thank you very much for listening. I'm really sorry if my lecture was not up to the point but we still spoke about Krishna, which is most important.
And I hope that these lessons will help you at one point somehow or other.