How to Become Serious in Spiritual Practiсe
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Лондон · 2012
Главы
Introduction to seriousness in spiritual practices
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, Devāya, nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya, naraṁ caiva narottamam, Devīṁ sarasvīṁ vyāsaṁ, tato jayam udīrayet. Tato jayam udīrayet, Hare Krishna. Tatojayamud Myauni Hare Krishna.
I'm very happy to see all of you this evening and Amol asked me to speak on this topic how to become more serious in our spiritual life and spiritual practices. And I will read a very important verse
from Bhagavad-gītā, which is the last verse of the 16th chapter. The sixteenth chapter is called Divine and Demoniac Nature
And basically in this chapter, Śrī Krishna, the speaker of Bhagavad-gītā, very graphically describes the consequences of utilizing or employing either demonic nature which we all have, especially in this age of Kali, Kali Yuga, or uh developing our divine nature, which we also have by nature.
Human beings they have these double natures, and sometimes
this nature fight inside us the demonic tendencies to reject God to live according to one's own whims, desires, lust and divine nature, which tells us that there is higher meaning in life, that there is something more deep than it is there on the surface which we can see.
So Sri Krishna he warns us by describing in this chapter the destinations of those who uh develop their demonic side, demoniac nature. And he basically tells us that such people go to hell.
Reading scriptural injunctions from Bhagavad-gītā
And I will explain little more what it means to find oneself in hell but let's read
the last verse of this chapter tasmāc chāstraṁ pramāṇaṁ te kāryākārya-vyavasthitau jñātvā śāstra-vidhānoktaṁ karma kartum ihārhasi. Tam Karmakartum Hiha Arhasi.
Tasmāt therefore Shastram the Scriptures, Pramam Evidence, Te, Yor, Karya Duty, Akarya, Forbidden Activities, Vyasti in detetermining, Yatva knowing, Shastra of Scripture, Vidhana, the regulation, Uktamas declared, karma, work, Kartum, du Iha in this world are Hasi Yushut. Translation.
One should therefore understand what is duty and what is not duty by the regulations of the Scriptures. Knowing such rules and regulations one should act so that he may gradually be elevated.
As stated in the 15th chapter, all the rules and regulations of the Vedas are meant for knowing Krishna.
If one understands Krishna from the Bhagavad-gītā and becomes situated in Krishna consciousness, engaging himself in devotional service, he has reached the highest perfection of knowledge offered by the Vedic literature.
Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu made this process very easy.
He asked people simply to chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare and to engage in the devotional service of the Lord and eat the remnants of foodstuff offered to the deity.
One who is directly engaged in all these devotional activities is to be understood as having studied all the Vedic literature, he has come to the conclusion of uh to the conclusion perfectly.
Of course, for the ordinary person who are not in Krishna consciousness and who are not engaged in devotional service, what is to be done and what is not to be done must be decided by the injunctions of the Vedas.
One should act accordingly without argument. That is called following the principles of Shastra or Scriptures.
Shastra is without the four principal defects that are visible in the conditioned soul: imperfect senses, the propensity for cheating, tendency to commit mistakes, and tendency to be illusioned. These four principal defects in conditioned life disqualify one from putting forth rules and regulations.
Therefore the rules and regulations as described in the Shastra being above these defects are accepted without alteration by the great saints, Acharyas and Great Souls.
In India there are many parties of spiritual understanding generally classified as two the impersonalist and the personalist. Both of them, however, lead their lives according to the principles of Vedas.
Without following the principles of the scriptures one cannot elevate himself to the perfectional stage. One who actually therefore understands the purport of the Shastras is considered fortunate.
In human society, aversion to the principles of understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the cause of all fall downs. That is the greatest offense of human life.
Therefore, Maya, the material energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is always giving us trouble in the shape of the threefold miseries. This material energy is constituted of the three modes of material nature.
One has to raise himself at least to the mode of goodness before the path of understanding the Supreme Lord can be opened.
Without raising oneself to the standard of the mode of goodness, one remains in ignorance and passion, which are the cause of demoniac life.
Those in the modes of passion and ignorance deride the scriptures, deride the holy man, and deride the proper understanding of the supreme personality of Godhead.
They disobey the instructions of the spiritual master and they do not care for the regulations of the scriptures. In spite of hearing the glories of devotional service, they are not attracted.
Thus they manufacture their own way of elevation. These are some of the defects of human society which led to the demoniac status of life.
If however man is able to be guided by proper and bona fide spiritual master, one can lead who can lead one to the path of elevation to the higher stage, then one's life becomes successful.
Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the sixteenth chapter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the matter of the divine and demonic natures. Krishna pristay Bhutade, Srimati Bhaktividanta Swami Kinami,
Namaste Saraswati Devi, Goravani, Placharini, Nervi Shesunyavadi, Paschatisatarini Svasadi Gaura Bhakta Vrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Ram Ram Rama Hare Hare Ajanu
Wandita Bujoka Nakabadatu Sankirtanaika Pitaro Kamala Taksa Vishwambarod Vijay Varu Yuga Dharma Palu Vande Jagat Priya Karovaranavatar,
Dantah Pradishya Mamavachimam Pras prau Sptupamtam Sanjae Vayata Kina Shapki Dharakswadana Anyamsha Hasta Charanashra Manatva Pranana Bhagavat Brusha
Consequences of demoniac nature and hellish consciousness
Tudam. So this verse is a conclusion of this chapter and Krishna starts this verse from the word Tasmat which means therefore.
In other words, he is telling us what conclusion we should derive from everything described above. And above in this chapter, he described how the demonic nature takes over people.
How, because of pride, because of lust, because of greed, because of anger, one degrades himself and ultimately falls down. This degradation of human nature is very obvious.
We can see you know all people they start their life Full of hopes. I will become happy. And I will conquer this world. And I will become a very important person. But what is the result of all these hopes?
Total, complete frustration, if not depression. And ultimately, Krishna himself tells that if one gives in or give the ways to last karma, anger and greed, he finds himself in hell.
And it doesn't mean that you need to wait to the next life to be in hell. You can perfectly be in hell in this life. There is no doubt about it. You can live in hell now. In fact, most of us already live in hell.
When Prabhupāda came to London, journalist on TV, some you know, host man asked him, what is your conception of hell? He said, London is hell. This is our conception of hell.
But, uh, putting aside the geographical considerations of where hell is located. We have to understand that ultimately hell is the condition of our heart.
If we are depressed, if we are completely morose, if we are desperate, if we are lost in this life, if we are completely constantly troubled by incessant desires,
and if we are frustrated that I lived my life and I wanted to be happy and ultimately I didn't find the happiness or all these promises which were there in the beginning vanished. So that's hell.
And Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explains that hell is the condition of the heart in which tamo-guṇa, the mode of ignorance, darkness, is predominant.
When darkness is predominant within our heart, it creates all these conditions inside, which actually is very difficult to get rid of because it's inside you.
If we are in a very difficult external situation we can try to change this external situation and there is some way out of it. We can have a hope that if there is external situation is not very favorable, I can change it.
But if the internal situation is not very favorable, what can you do? You just live with it, you live in this hellish condition of your heart. And so therefore, Kṛṣṇa warns us.
He said, if you more or less go with the flow of this world, if you don't try to resist the tendencies which are there in this world, you will end up in the situation which will
be very much like hell because tamo-guṇa will be predominant. The condition of this world is always changing, and if we just live
the life of our instincts, our cravings, then the tāmasika tendencies will take over our heart, and the end result will be very and very lamentable.
We will find ourselves in a very difficult situation and the most problematic part of it is that there is no way out of it. The only way out of this problematic situation is to change the condition of our heart.
And Krishna explains in this chapter and in this particular verse, how to change the condition of our heart. How to get rid of all this cravings which are there. How to get rid of lust?
How to get rid of anger, how to get rid of greed. He says this three things: kama, krodha and lobha. Lust, anger and greed are three doors, three gateways to hell.
And the normal life more or less pushes us in this direction. And people find themselves being enslaved by these tendencies. Tendency to lust, to fulfill our lusty desires, tendency of greed,
when we give way to our dissatisfaction, to our anger, to our frustration and tendency to greet when we try to collect more than necessary. -> greed when we try to collect more than necessary.
This all tendencies which ultimately deprive us peace of -> These are all tendencies which ultimately deprive us of peace of mind.
And as Krishna Himself says in the Bhagavad Gita, Ashantasya kutak sukkam, what is -> And as Krishna Himself says in the Bhagavad-gītā, aśāntasya kutaḥ sukham, what is the question of sukh, the happiness without Shantra, without peace.
There is no question. There is no question.
Importance of peace of mind over material goals
There is no way to become happy without peace. There is a very nice little story which I heard that once a young student from a village, young boy from a village, went to a city and he studied in a university there.
And in the university, especially in the modern day, you know, people are being taught how to become more and more ambitious, meaning more and more passionate, meaning more and more demoniac ultimately.
So he came back from the village full of all these hopes and aspirations, and he made a list of what he wants to achieve in life. It was a long, long list.
I want to have this and to have that and to achieve this and that, and I want to become this and become that. And he was looking at this list, and it was a very inspiring list.
Oh, I will become this, and I will become this, and I achieve so much. And then at the end, being from a traditional Indian background, he added at the end, and also I want to achieve peace of life, peace of mind.
And then he was looking and looking and looking, and then he decided to go to a local sadhu, to a local wise man, to ask maybe he missed something in his long list of aspirations and goals.
Because according to the modern way of life, people are being taught how to achieve goals. You have to meditate on your goals, you have to set the goal, you have to think about the goal.
So he came to the saddle and he said, you know, if I miss something, please -> So he came to the sādhu and he said, you know, if I miss something, please add something to my list.
Because maybe if I'm missing something, you know I will not you know please give me some good advice. And Sadhu looked through his long list of goals. And then he said, give me your pen.
And he took the pen and he crossed everything. And underlined the last one to achieve the peace of mind. And this young man he was so angry at him.
He didn't say anything, but he, you know what is this useless thing, you know, and he's he took his notebook and he went in his life and he achieved everything, but he didn't achieve the peace.
And at the end of his life, he looked in his notebook and he remembered this episode. And in the beginning, he came to this and he looked at this last line. I want to achieve the peace of mind.
And he realized that I achieved everything else, but not this. And I was not happy. And he said, this guy was right, but it's too late.
He actually wrote memoirs about his life and he said, yeah, that's what happened with me. I achieved everything which I wanted. But I didn't achieve what I needed. I needed happiness.
And there is no question of happiness without peace of mind. So, and this peace of mind is coming from a different corner. It's not coming from our external achievements. We may achieve many things.
You know, these people, these big achievers, they are most miserable people in the world. I know some of them.
They are so they're so uptight and they're so agitated and they're so frustrated ultimately. They're ultimately so completely frustrated.
And Krishna tells this, Krishna says this, that if you don't set your goals properly, if you don't understand what is the meaning of life, we all want to be happy. Ultimately, that's what we want.
And Krishna says, you know, to be happy you have to ultimately achieve the peace of mind, and the peace of mind means the only way to achieve the peace of mind is to stop thinking I'm this body.
You know there is no there is no way of achieving peace of mind if I think I'm this body. Because this body will die and this body will become sick. This body will ultimately become very old.
So how you can be happy and peaceful if you totally completely identify with the body.
And therefore, Krishna explains here in this chapter that there is a way out of it how to change the whole perception of life, how to change the whole vision of life, the whole understanding which we have.
Role of scriptural regulations in elevation
He says there is a way to do it for normal people. And Śrīla Prabhupāda explains it in this way. He says, for normal people, there is a way of following śāstra.
If we want to achieve peace in mind, then we have to upgrade ourselves at least to the mode of goodness. And mode of goodness is only available if we follow śāstra.
Because śāstra means regulations of our life, and as Śrīla Prabhupāda explains, it's a perfect regulation. So many people being you know miserable in this life, due to some mistakes, they try to elevate themselves.
You know, sometimes people, because of frustration and because of so many diseases, what usually what the life is, people start, you know, breaking all the rules and regulations which is possible.
Uh especially when they're young. They're very enthusiastic to break any rules. You know, and they think the more rules we break the happier we are.
So they do this and then very soon they become totally completely depressed and the health is gone and you know there's there's no fun in life anymore.
So in this particular condition sometimes people are trying to elevate themselves. Prabhupāda is speaking about this. And elevation means basically elevation to the mode of goodness.
And mode of goodness basically means more regulated life, the life which is more austere, the life when we follow some certain rules, perform some austerities and sometimes in their attempts to solve their problems which they themselves created, people
are trying to follow certain rules like for example they start fasting or they start taking only raw food, you know, they're raw food or they fast this and that.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda is basically, he's kind of laughing at this. He says, all these attempts are futile because they are not according to śāstra. They can only bring us something good as much as they coincide with śāstra.
Śrīla Prabhupāda says that you cannot invent your own rules. You may try to become happy or elevate yourself to the level of goodness, but ultimately
it will not work because if you're just trying to speculate and invent yourself, invent your your own way of life, try to find out your own way of life. It's it's not the solution because of the simple reason.
Because as Śrīla Prabhupāda says you're certain to commit mistakes.
You know I know so many people you know sometimes there is a special section of the society who are obsessed with all this different you know diets and different rules and different esoteric things, you know that this is their way to find happiness. But ultimately they're frustrated as well.
You know, they're they're doing this and you know some I I knew one lady
she ultimately became a devotee but she was doing all kinds of stuff she was doing yoga and uh her favorite thing was she was she was following all kinds of diets, you know today one diet, tomorrow another diet, you know.
She was taking she was taking the reddish the you know I don't know if it's common here the leaves of radish and making bus of this juice of radish and thinking that this will bring her real happiness in life.
But this is all ridiculous. You know, people are trying. People trying hard. People trying hard to find some way for happiness. But Krishna is very clear about this. He says it's simple.
Don't try to invent anything; it's already there in the Vedas. The Vedas are explaining what you should do, what you shouldn't do. And therefore, he said, Tasmat Shastram Pramanam te.
If you want praman, praman means evidence or the source of real knowledge. The source of truth. There is only one source of real knowledge, this is the Vedas.
Everything else is imperfect and ultimately it will bring you to some undesirable end. So many people, you know, every day, practically every day, there's some new scientific discovery.
If you take the health magazine, national health magazine. Every new issue there will be new recipe which will solve all your problems. But the problem is that it's always different.
You know, sometimes they say you should drink the carrot juice and only carrot juice and if you drink a lot of carrot juice everything will be fine.
The problem is that the next issue they will uh advise you to drink apple juice and then watermelon juice and then something else. This is how people are trying desperately trying to elevate themselves.
We are not talking now about people who are more or less consciously trying to degrade themselves.
There is plenty of those people, especially in this day of age and age, there are many people who are degrading themselves, who are leading way of life which is very lamentable.
But even among those people who are trying to elevate themselves, very few are achieving real success because they're following faulty path. And therefore, uh Krishna is so emphatic here.
He says, if you want to know where is the real knowledge where it's coming from then you have uh in regard to what you have to do what you should avoid Karyaya Kar Vyavastitao If you want to know what you shouldn't do and
what you should not do, there is only one source for this Gatva Shastra Vidanoktam.' Its Shastra Vidhana Ukta, Shastra Vidhi. The rules of the Shastras. And Shastras say drink milk.
And so many people nowadays speculate milk is bad because milk is this and that and cholesterol level and of course probably milk which you buy in a supermarket probably is not so good because it's not really milk.
No, even the microbes bacteria is don't want to take it, you know. You know, you open it and it's for two weeks it will just stand as it is, nothing happens to it. Because it's not milk.
But uh but ultimately shastras are very clear what you should do, what you should not do. Shastra say Prabhupada used to give this example, you know, the cow dunk is clean. And it means it's clean.
And of course you can take a grant of one million pounds and investigate the all the properties of Kaudank. But there's no need for this. So many people misuse this. But ultimately Shastra says this. It's good. It's clean.
Unless you know and if you try to speculate and say, you know, if Carl's stool is so clean then my stool probably is even better. That's that's not going to work because this is not how it works. Shastra means shastra.
Shastra means something which tells you what to do, what not to do, and tells you something which you cannot really know by your own intelligence.
That's the definition of Shastra which is given there, that shastra reveals you something which you cannot really know.
Like for example, uh fasting on ekādaśī. Why should we fast on ekādaśī? Because Shastra says this. You can't really figure it out yourself.
And and especially when it comes to this, you know, when the there is a clinical not clean, when the puricades or not puricades, you know how you can figure it out. You can't figure it out.
You know, Shastra says that if the tense Tithi is there just a few minutes after the sun rise, and if you fast on this day, you will go to hell.
And if you fast on 11th day when it's uh at the sunrise it's 11th day, then then you go to heaven and to Waikuntha. How do you I mean you you can't figure it out yourself? No matter how much you try. But that's a fact.
It's said in the Shastra, and Shastra means uh the This is the mercy of God. Ultimately, Krishna being merciful to us, ignorant as we are, gives us the solution how to break this vicious circle.
Without Shastras, we are caught in this vicious circle because the karma is such that it ultimately brings about degradation and only degradation. And this is very clearly explained there.
If you just if you don't follow Shastra, then ultimately you position in the modes of nature will become lower and lower, and lower and lower.
So Krishna says, if you want to elevate yourself, here is the way to elevate yourself and that's follow the shastra.
Realizing the supreme purpose of Vedic wisdom
And this is as Prabhupada explains: this is the normal way for general people, the shastra is there, but general people basically people who are still quite selfish and who want elevation for themselves.
Here, Prabhupada explains a very interesting point which we have to very clearly understand that That uh the essence of all the Shastra is to know Krishna. Krishna Himself says this: that uh, you know, all the Vedas,
Vedacha Sarvaya ham ever vedya. I and only I am ever. In all the Vedas Veda Sarva ham ever vedya. All the Vedas and need are there to help people to understand me, God, who is the source of everything.
The essence, the the main message of all the shastras is ultimately to understand God. But Prabhupada also explains that people cannot understand God
when they are conditioned by the slower modes of nature, by the Tamagun and Rajagun. They can't understand God. No way, no way, no way. They will have a very hard time to understand who is God and how to relate to Him.
And therefore there, is a gradual way of elevation from Rajagun and Tamagun by following Shastras. And you have to follow Shastras, as Prabhupada says, under the guidance of somebody who knows Shastra.
Because we don't know Shastra, right? Nobody knows Shastra.
You know, just few rare people they know Shastra and they can tell you this is how you should do this, this is this is important, this is not so important, this is what you should do.
And then gradually you will be elevated to the mode of goodness, and mode of goodness means
you know you're happy, you're nice, everything is nice, your family is nice, Lakshmi Devi is favorable to you, and a lot of money is coming to you. That's a natural result of goodness. Goodness means something positive.
You know, people goodness means you know tamas and rajas means something really negative. There is a lot of negativity because of this tamas and rajas. But when people are sāttvika, they are very positive people.
They're happy people, they're little fat because they don't have so many so much anxieties. Brāhmaṇas are supposed to be little fat because they eat a lot, they don't have so many problems.
And and they follow Śāstra and Śāstra says Ghee you should take a lot of Ghee because Ghee is good. That's also regulation of the Śāstra. But uh But ultimately, this whole
thing about elevation yourself this is not yet the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal of Vedas. And uh you can only be happy if you achieve the ultimate goal is to know Krishna.
And uh as Prabhupāda says, for normal people, uh the elevation is just to follow Śāstra and hope that in the course of following Śāstra when you reach certain point you will develop uh something higher, some more higher understanding.
But at the same time, Prabhupāda says for those people who already know what is the goal of Śāstra, Krishna, it's much more simple. I tell you, and that's a good news.
Śāstra is a very complicated thing. There are so many rules and regulations. You know, it's it's just impossible. Like I know one brāhmaṇa, he's from Madhva Sampradaya, from Udupi traditional, he lives in Bangalore.
So he follows Śāstra, at least tries to follow Śāstra meticulously. It basically means that he can only eat. You know, he cannot eat anything basically. He can only eat what he cooks himself using the cow dungs.
You cannot cook on the gas because it's not so sāttvika you know. Śāstra is very particular about making your mind and your heart sāttvika and sāttvika means food should be very sāttvika.
And there is no sāttvika food in Kali Yuga. Forget about it.
If you think that rice in Kali Yuga is sāttvika it's not sāttvika. So much chemicals it's uh you know if you think that vegetables are satvik, vegetables are not satvik you know. How many insects were killed to to bring these vegetables to you. It's not satvik.
Nothing is satvik in Kali Yuga. If you live in London, you know, forget about it. You think if you don't eat meat, it's satvik, it's not satvik. It's still very much rajasic.
So shastra is it very particular because Shastra is basically it's a regulation how to live healthy and happy life. Satvik life. But you know it's next to impossible to try to follow Shastra in this day and age.
Not possible. But luckily for us, it's not even necessary. Because as Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in the beginning, if we know the essence of the Vedas, we follow everything in the Vedas. And the essence of the Vedas is who?
Krishna. Krishna. Vedaish ca sarvaham eva vedhyah. All the Vedas are meant to bring people closer to God.
And if you are more or less trying to connect yourself with God, you follow everything which is there in the rest of the Shastra. Because that's the essence. You're already connecting with the essence.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu he made it very simple Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare and not to worry about anything else because you know whatever imperfections we have, Krishna will himself take care of it.
Krishna knows that you know he cannot be he cannot be a cruel God of Old Testament. And he's not, luckily.
He is he cannot really demand or even expect from us that we follow everything which is there in ancient sastras and they're not you know they're not practical in this day and age. To the most part.
Transforming consciousness through chanting Hare Krishna
Some basic things we have to follow but ultimately Prabhupada explained to us that you can definitely change your heart if you follow the simple rule.
Chant this Hare Krishna mantra and take simple vegetarian food and invite others and chant together this Hare Krishna mantra. And immediately you can feel the change without knowing anything.
In my own case, I started chanting this Hare Krishna mantra without knowing who Krishna is. Not to speak about Hare. I never heard who Hare is and why Hare and why you know I it was pure experiment in my own life.
Somebody told me just try this. Somebody tricked me, he said, you know, you will develop some supernatural human. I'm still waiting when this supernatural will come to me.
But what happened miraculously, completely miraculously, without any kind of preconceived notions or some kind of you know self-you know trying to hypnotize oneself. You know, I became happy.
And uh nobody could understand. And I was the first one who couldn't understand why I'm so happy. But I did.
That was an obvious fact and everyone around me was completely shocked because before that I was very kind of you know I was gloomy person and I was really you know I was introvert and I was reading all the books all the time.
And all of a sudden I became a completely different person and everyone was asking why you're so happy. I and I would answer to them. I don't know why, but but uh it's good.
One ladyship mm relative of mine, she became really angry at me. She said, Why are you so happy? You're not supposed to be happy because nothing good is happening with you. Says I know. What can I do? I am.
So but it's basically because, uh, while chanting Hare Krishna you're directly associating with Krishna who is the absolute positive pole of the creation. There is nobody more positive than Krishna. Krishna is always smiling.
Krishna is never never blooming. Krishna is always playing his flute. He is not really concerned with all other you know duties in life. He is just Hare Krishna is and even if you don't know who he is Like
yesterday I was in one family and uh owner he said you know you people are so positive. How come you're so positive? You know you're smiling and you know there is so much negativity around you.
You look in the internet, it's all you know so bad.
Demonstration in the centre of London in front of the parliament, you know, this strike and that strike and somebody was killed and somebody was murdered and this and that. You know this this whole internet is full of so much negative energy.
You know and and you're you get affected. If you associate with this, uh it will affect your consciousness, no doubt about it.
So this man asked me, you know, how come how you come you're not affected by all this? I know you also you also read the news on the internet, how come you're not affected by this? But this answer is simple.
You know, first of all, if you associate constantly with this positive energy which is there.
And if you get Shastra, and Shastra is still there, even Though Prabhupada says you just chant Hare Krishna and take prasadam and be happy,
but ultimately he and many many many times he stresses this point as well it's not just chanting because if you only chant without understanding what's going on, then ultimately it will become a ritual in your life.
Developing spiritual faith through sadhu-sanga
But if you chant understanding what's happening then then you will be able to digest all this negative energy and to bring again the positive uh conclusions out of all the negative things which are happening with you.
Basically what it is first and now I'm trying to tell our way. The classical way, the traditional way is that you have shastra.
And shastra tells this is your duty, this is the duty of the chaste wife, chaste woman, this is the duty of the man, and you know if you do it then you will be elevated.
It's not practical again because you know there are so many details which we don't know, which we cannot follow, which are not practical.
So, but what we can do, what we really can do, and this is important, this is how our spiritual life, real spiritual life begins. When we listen to sadhu, to somebody who is positive.
Sadhu means his his mind is uh focused on sat satt means reality sat means something which is really there which, exists.
He is not concentrated on this illusory flickering, you know thing which is going on. He is focused on reality.
And if you develop little shraddha, and shraddha basically means respect. If you see that here is the person who is happy no matter what. And you develop little respect. This little respect called Shraddha.
This Shraddha will give you impetus and energy to follow certain rules. We know how it happens. We come to some satsang, and satsang is for this. So much stress is there in the Vedic literature.
If you have to uh you know get rid of all other rules and leave only one rule in your life. This one rule in your life would be sādhu-saṅga. Associate with sādhus, listen to them.
What it gives you it gives you little faith and this little faith inside you will give you energy to follow something little. Because the faith in the beginning is very little, so you will follow only very little.
Usually people come and they listen something and they think, let me give it a try. Sounds good, I don't believe it so much, but who knows, maybe it works.
And they start chanting one round or one round every two days, you know. Just not too much. Too much spiritual life is not so good.
Because you know this changing it's takes too much time, you know, maybe ten minutes it's too much. I can spend this ten minutes much more in a much more exciting way by doing something stupid.
But but because the faith is very little. People they still have some doubts. You know, the doubts are very natural. In this life and in our you know, condition of life, we have so many doubts.
And doubts means in Sanskrit the word doubt it sounds like saṁśaya and saṁśaya means sam, samyak, perfectly, completely, and śaya means śaya. Saṁśaya means complete sleep. Complete lethargy.
If you have some doubts, you can't do anything, right? Doubt has this uh effect on your consciousness that you just you just sit there and you think you know what you know I I I don't feel like doing anything because I am in doubt.
So what happens when you associate with sadhus you get little little faith little and it means that doubts, some of the doubts regarding spiritual life, the necessity of spiritual life are being removed from your consciousness.
And as much as the doubts are being removed from your heart, that much you have energy for spiritual life. Because you believe that this is something important. This is important for me.
This is something which ultimately will save me. And if you do this, you start chanting this little bit, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Ram, Ram Ram, Hare Hare.
But then you have to continue again listening. How sadhus explained Shastra: if you don't do this, you will never move from this level because your faith will remain the same.
Very little faith, and you will be preoccupied with some other things. So the shastras are there, and the sadhus are there to explain shastra. Shastras are there to make us happy. Shastras are there to remove our doubt.
Shastras are there to explain us the perspective of life, to explain how everything works, to see how it works. And then what happens if you continue listening? Therefore hearing is very important.
Sravanam is the beginning of spiritual life.
You first, you hear and you don't understand anything, but you know, you feel like it's a good person, you know, it's not bad. you know you feel like it's a good person you know it's not bad. So you do something little.
But then you have to continue hearing. What happens next if you continue hearing? Your faith, not really faith, your understanding or your vision of reality will change.
And this vision of reality, this understanding which you will get will help you to understand and to see everything differently in a positive way.
Shastras again are extremely positive things because Shastras say and teach us that there is nothing bad.
In this material world we always caught in this duality, this is bad, this is good. I want to avoid bad things and I want to accumulate good things and to increase good things.
But is it possible to avoid bad things in this life? Is it possible? No matter how much you try, you know. Is it possible only to have everything good? No. And people are in complete anxiety.
But what Shastra teaches you, Shastra teaches you, there is nothing bad. Everything is for your good.
Shastra teaches you how to derive very important lessons from your life. And then when you derive these important lessons, there is nothing bad for you because you understand, oh, this is something very valuable for me.
It works, and it works in a very brilliant way, because you become happy, you know, because in a normal life, if something goes wrong with you become happy, you know, because in a normal life, if something goes wrong with you, you become completely frustrated, you know, again, something not to my liking.
And there is a very serious reason for this, because you're not God. Everything will work according to your liking, only in one case. In case you're God. Because you're not so everything goes wrong not the way you like.
But ultimately it goes the way Krishna likes. But if we understand that he only brings good into our life, then nothing is bad. Nothing is really bad. This whole life is a big school.
And this is a school where there is one teacher, one guru. His name is Krishna. He is Ādiguru. He's teaching us. He wants to teach us something valuable.
So when you read Shastra and when you hear Shastra, and gradually your faith increases, what happens? The less negativity is remaining in your heart, and the more energy is there.
We know when people practice spiritual life, the more they practice spiritual life, the more energy they have. It's not that saintly people or you know all these people they have easy life. No.
When people take to spiritual life, sometimes it becomes very difficult. They have so many impediments in their life, but at the same time, they have tremendous energy to overcome these impediments.
They're so completely positive. And that's the real proof of the truth. How it is it is said here, Tasmāt śāstram pramāṇam te. Śāstra is pramāṇa. But even more serious and more strong pramāṇa, evidence
of truth is the life of sādhus.
Finding inner happiness amidst material challenges
How they become, how they are completely calm and how they they are completely fixed in truth and how ultimately they're victorious. There is a very beautiful story in the life of Rāmānujācārya.
Rāmānujācārya was a great ācārya in the south of India, and at one point he had a debate. One Māyāvādī sannyāsī came, Yatirāja came to Śrīraṅgam, and he challenged him. And he said, Let's have a debate.
And if you lose, you will become my disciple. And if I lose, I will become your disciple. And Rāmānujācārya was arguing and arguing and arguing from śāstras and there was a culture of debate in Vedic India.
You know, there was certain rules which you should follow. And after 18 days, Rāmānujācārya was completely smashed. He didn't have any arguments left. He was totally, completely smashed by this guy.
And he knew that nothing is there, he has to surrender, so he came to Vadarat, no, no, to Ranganath. And he said to Ranganath, I don't know why you're doing this to me.
I am trying to defend your glory I'm trying to say that God ultimately is a person and bhakti is the way and you know somehow or other this guy you know he is victorious over me and I have no arguments anymore.
I don't know what to say. And you know. And he said to Ranganat, you please do something about it because I can't do anything anymore.
So and then he went to sleep and just imagine he is a big ācārya, big guru, he has a lot of following, and in front of everyone he is completely defeated.
And inside his heart, he knows he is right but he cannot really argue with this guy and what to do and according to the rules he has to become his disciple and this is you know
the you know it's it's a serious enough situation to become little f morose and little little gloomy.
You know, so next day this Rāmānujācārya, somehow or other Krishna from within his heart uh tells him everything will be okay. So he he goes there, he's smiling. He goes there and smiling. And this guy is looking at him.
He's looking at him. He's smiling. And they look at each other. And then all of a sudden this guy, his opponent, he pays full dandavats, obeisances to Rāmānujācārya and says, I'm defeated, you're my guru. He said, how come?
He said, because I smashed you yesterday and you're smiling today, so you're completely happy. How come you're happy?
You're only happy because there must be something, some truth must be there inside you, which makes you happy.
And that's what it is, you know, when you follow śāstra and when you follow spiritual practice, you become completely immune to all the problems of life. Actually, a similar problem was in my life.
It happened a similar situation, not exactly the same, but similar situation happened in my life. At one point during the Soviet time, when Russia was Soviet Union and when you know religion was totally completely prohibited in the country, people were put in prison because they would
you know, if they believe in God. You know, you couldn't you couldn't write God with the capital G. That was the crime against the Soviet Union.
You can write God but only with the small, you know meaning that he's, you know, son. Anyway, the people were put in prison because they believed in God.
So I I became a devotee, I started practicing something and the KGB, the secret police, took me and started interrogating me and I I had to come every week. And every week you know for two, three, four hours they would ask some questions and very intimidating me saying you know we will do this we will put
you in prison and the first day when they did it you know and in the beginning you go there you God bless you and God save you from this, you know. But it was really serious.
You go to this KGB and uh you never know whether you will be released at the end of the session or not, you may be very well put in prison.
So I go there and I am shaking in my boots and I'm you know I'm you know pale and you know I'm perspiring and I'm thinking, you know, what will happen?
And he starts asking and he's and he's sitting there, you know, smiling.
You know, and for one hour he's asking some questions and I'm trying to defend myself and all of a sudden, somehow or other from out of blue, this Hare Krishna mantra comes to my mind, and I very clearly hear, you know, the sound of this Hare Krishna mantra chanted in a very beautiful tune.
And you know when something changes I become very relaxed and you know I start smiling.
And he becomes really he doesn't know what's happening, you know, because he's supposed to be on top and I'm supposed to be there and I'm smiling and I'm just and I start giving him some you know completely obnoxious answers he can't figure it out and I cannot figure it out because
Because the this is how it works ultimately.
What I want to say is that if you make spiritual practice, it brings some amazing immunity inside yourself. You become totally immune to all the negative things of this world. You become completely protected because you feel the shelter of the Lord.
Still He's there. He's there in your life, He's taking care of you because you try to surrender to Him. No matter how feeble your attempts are, you still trying and you feel his protection?
So and uh this is and this is the proof. What I want to say that the real proof is that when you practice spiritual life, if you practice spiritual life properly, then you become happy no matter what.
And you can uh you can bring happiness into the life of people, into the life of other people.
When you're dissatisfied, when you're angry, when you are completely, you know, not in peace with yourself, ultimately everyone around you suffers because you try to somehow rather you know spill out this dissatisfaction on others.
So much negative energy is around you because you are negative yourself. And negative means only one thing: a way of God. No God in your life. This is how the negativity comes to our life.
But if we bring this positive energy by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, by studying scriptures, by listening, associating, coming to these songs.
You know, this is the first very obvious and clear thing which we will notice in our heart. We become much more protected inside. This protection will become the reality of our life.
We will not be so vulnerable, so so much vulnerable or affected by all these negative things which are happening around us. And that's that's a very small initial result of spiritual practice.
Everything else is supposed to come later, but even this is good enough. A good little beginning for us to start to practice spiritual life. Anyway, so that's a few words which I wanted to uh to tell.
Story of searching for internal happiness
And unfortunately I will tell you a little story. It's a nice story. What people usually do. Unfortunately, people don't want to listen to things.
The people usually in a hurry and they don't have time to listen to this, or even if they listen, they don't believe. And there is a little funny story about this.
You know, there was one man, young man, and he had a horse, and he loved his horse dearly. And once he was, you know, he was riding in his horse with a great speed and you know through his village.
And all the villagers they were asking, where are you going? Where are you going? Where are you going? And he was saying to them, I lost my horse, I lost my horse, I am looking for my horse.
And they were shocked because he's on the horse. And they were trying to say him, you know, this is the horse, this is the horse. You know, but he couldn't listen. So he went there and he was searching, searching.
After two hours he came completely exhausted. And he said, I couldn't find my horse. I couldn't find my horse. And then his villagers, his neighbors told him, you know, are you crazy? You're on your horse.
You know, you're looking for your horse, but you are on your horse. He said, really? And then he said, why didn't you tell me before?
They said, we were trying to tell you before that you are on your horse but you couldn't listen. And he became very angry. He said, How could I listen to you? I was in a hurry, so I couldn't listen. So
that's usually that's our story. We are in a hurry. You know, and so many people are trying to tell us where the happiness is. The happiness is the horse which we are looking for. And the happiness is exactly inside us.
And we are looking for this horse everywhere, and we got totally exhausted. And everyone, you know, some people know that the horse is there. It was not really lost. And they're trying to tell us. Your happiness is there.
It's within your heart. You can reach this happiness very quickly. But we don't listen to them because we are in a hurry. We have to find the horse. Too much too much absorbed into this attempts to find the horse.
And then after you know so many years we come totally exhausted and said we couldn't find the horse and then you said you know but it's there. That's a very important advice which we all have to have.
The peace is there, the happiness is there. And if we just take this beads, mala, and start chanting in a very sincere way. Approaching Krishna, asking Krishna for help. He will be there for us.
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare. He will come and he will give us whatever we need. So So please don't waste your time.
There is nothing more important in this life than to follow spiritual practice.
Because this is the mission of our life. The specific purpose of human life is to know God. There is no other purpose. Everything else can be done in some other varieties of species of life which are there.
But to know God you can only do if you are human being and you can only do it if you are associated with sādhu, if you have satsang.
Then the purpose of your life will be fulfilled and as a result of it there will be meaning of your life and there will be happiness in your life. So thank you very much.
Questions on dietary regulations and proper health
Thank you very much. Would you like to take questions? Yeah. You explained about the ghee.
But now all over the world doctors they write they specially advise the people not to eat ghee. They say you get stroke and you get heart attack and how do you explain that is a very healthy product.
If it's taken first of all in moderation, there has to be certain limits. It's not that everything should be floating in ghee that's one thing because if you take ghee in excess it will bring disease.
But another thing is that the ghee should be produced properly. If ghee is produced from yoghurt, then it's very healthy. You take just one spoon of this ghee every night and you will have very peaceful
sleep and it's not producing any cholesterol or whatever. What people do they usually take this you know butter which is produced god knows from where probably from some I don't know from some fish.
That's what they call butter now. If it's produced properly from the yogurt, churned from the yogurt, then this ghee, and there is there is some scientific research on this, this ghee has completely different effects.
It doesn't have uh moreover it takes away the cholesterol from your from your blood so that's you know that's how it should be understood.
The Shastra say they uh read the Shastras say that you should take something like uh all together a day twelve 12 to 15 grams of this ghee. If you take this much, then it's enough.
And that gives you a lot of brain power also.
Ghee is not only healthy physically, it's also very healthy mentally because it gives you you know these people will never become senile they will not have all this stroke and everything if they take this good proper ghee uh every day so that's what it is.
And there is no doubt about it. I think cow ghee is uh good for the type of cow it is yeah but they say that it creates cholesterol but it can look Thank you Maharaj for a nice class.
Um you imagine how in this age uh if you simply have Krishna in the center, if you chant Mahamantra then all other Vedic rules and regulations are kind of followed simultaneously.
So I know just that I try and Maha Mantra and I take Prasad deity. So if Prasad is quite heavy so to speak, then you know, my chanting would be done in one way.
If I take some light prasad then my chanting would be yeah, lighter, easy so
the obvious conclusion I make that it really depends on how you eat what I eat how much I eat and I'm was becoming you can see like this lady you know more and more conscious of my diet.
So how to be sensible about that and not to get over attached to these things? No, it's the we depend on the conditions of all these conditions because we are conditioned soul.
Your conditioned soul therefore your chanting is dependent on your eating. If you were liberated so your chanting would not depend on your reading.
So that's a natural limitation on a certain level we are very much dependent on these conditions, but the more we practice spiritual life the less we are dependent on those conditions.
And basically if we are you know if we are reasonable we have to take care of conditioning into consideration. We have to take into consideration our our can conditioning.
If we need to take lighter prasad it's fine but we should not be overly conscious about these things because ultimately this is not the solution. You know no matter you know what prasadam is there the prasadam
itself will not bring perfection into your chanting. You should not be in the illusion that if you only take the you know the carrot juice then your chanting will be pure chanting. It will be carrot juice chanting.
No, we we should not be too much absorbed into these things. As much as it is necessary, it's fine, but you know, to be too much particular about this whole thing. This is not the solution.
Solution is to have Have good association and solution is to have shastras in your life and to listen. That's the solution. That's the diet.
We know lot of times that uh what is what is good for us uh we even after reading Shastra.
But But at certain point of time there is some kind of threshold. If that crosses, we end up in doing all maybe sinful or nonsense activities. And below that threshold we can control ourselves. Why that threshold is there?
Overcoming false ego to transcend material conditioning
How how does that work? And how to make sure that our control will keep increasing?
What exactly the—It's basically you can answer this question from different points of view, but uh ultimately we have the problems unless and until we have the false identification with the body.
When the false ego is there. Then we have all the problems. Therefore, Krishna starts Bhagavad-gītā from this false ego problem. You're completely wrong in your understanding who you are.
The whole Bhagavad-gītā is about this: to explain to us who we are in reality. And Krishna says that when you don't have false ego, then there is no sin for you.
All the problems are because of our very strong identification with the body, and it's um bodily identification which you know pushes us to do sin.
But Krishna says if if if there is no false ego, even if you kill somebody, you will not commit any sin.
Of course, he he doesn't say it to you know it doesn't mean that whoever becomes free from false ego starts killing everyone left and right. He's just giving this example for us to understand that
is the very term, the very, uh, how you say, the very, uh, and conception of sin is only there when there is false ego. When there is no false ego, there is no sin. The conception is not there.
Sin is in relation to body and in relation to our identification with the body. So and therefore, bhakti is working on this.
Therefore, ultimate instruction of Krishna in Bhagavad-gītā: Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaḿ śaraṇaṁ vraja. Śaraṇaṁ vraja.
So basically, if we stop identifying if we if we if we consider ourselves independent living entities, independent of Krishna—that's false ego.
And as much as the you know some little traces of this false ego remain in the devotee's psyche, there will be problems, and therefore the main instruction for the practice in devotees is humility, because humility helps us to get rid of the false identification.
Therefore humility is the main teaching. When somebody is humble, really humble, truly humble, he doesn't have any problem. No threshold for him. So that's the the main thing is this ego, ego, ego.
I'm here I'm here to show everyone to to enjoy here. That's that's the whole Bhagavad-gītā is about this how to get rid of ego.
Limitations of modern science and lifestyle solutions
Anyone has any questions? Um what is your opinion uh on the scientists who are researching like the genomes and involved in genetics um to come up with possible cures for diseases and things.
I understand the ultimate goal of life is to understand Krishna and but uh if that's part of the duty was the I mean it does have some application definitely if it helps people but ultimately when they're trying to solve the problems on this level, so to speak, it's quite unpredictable whether the problem will be solved or not.
You know, Albert Einstein he said a very you know proper thing. He said that you cannot really solve the problem on the same level of consciousness which created the problem, so to speak.
What usually people do, some problem is created, but it's created by certain mentality. And without changing mentality, people are trying to solve the problem.
But because they are solving problem with the same mind, the with same mentality, they only create new problem and new problem and new problem. So, this genetic approach is this kind of approach.
This is a scientific approach when we try to change it not on a deeper level. The usually the problem can be solved when you go to the root of the problem.
Yeah, I'm I'm you know we shouldn't be fanatical completely, but at the same time when all these genetic engineering experiments are going on, people don't really know what what what they're doing.
You know, like uh when I was in my postgraduate studies, I was doing genetic engineering at that time it was the very beginning.
And in the next lab, uh two hours there was a group of people who were working on this interferon.
It wasn't using and they were they were trying to produce human interferon through bacteria, through genetic engineering, and I believe they achieved some success ultimately.
And at that time I remember very clearly people were completely under the impression that if this will be done, all the problems will be solved because this interferon is such a powerful drug. Nothing like this.
Because uh you know they don't know how the whole thing works and they take something and they add it and they don't know what is the whole effect.
I I know people who were almost killed by this interferon. They were given this very expensive drug but, this interferon it creates such difficult psychological problems and completely destroys so many things.
So, what they do they try to solve the problem, but they don't really know how the human body works. They what to speak about human body. They they study one bacteria, the the pet of all the scientists
who are doing all this molecular biology stuff is $E.$ coli, it's the smallest bacteria. The smallest. And you know, thousands of scientists for decades, if not centuries, study this little stuff. You can't see it.
It's it's smallest. You know they still don't know how it works. Because it's what to speak about human body. They they change something but you know it's a complete system and it may not really work.
So the solution is on a deeper level. One has to find solution on a deeper level and to find spirituality.
Otherwise, you know it's okay, but one doesn't have to be too much enamored or too much too much so to speak illusioned by by all this stuff. I don't think it will bring any solution.
Some you know we know some diseases are not there, but you know we have new diseases. Which were never there. And moreover, people may be proud that there is no smallpox now.
But you know that there was never time when the cancer was so rampant. That's basically the cancer, this is the disease which kills the humanity.
Every 20% of people, if not more, if not 25% of people now are you know having cancer and dying from cancer. It has never been like this. Never. Never. And that's that's the disease of the lifestyle of people.
And you cannot change it on the level of the genes. People are into this quick solution. This is to change something on the level of the genes is a quick solution.
The difficult solution, but the real solution is to change your lifestyle. That's the solution. And they will never say to you to do this. Never. Because they know that you will not follow them even if they say.
Anyway, this civilization is not very impressive.
Addressing individualism and building spiritual community
Any more questions? Maharaja had one question. Today I was uh hearing last from Bhati uh Samuel Maharaj and he was saying that uh in this age lot of people are you know he was comparing the time.
Previously people used to stay more closer as a united family and you know they used to share more things. But now uh with the time people are becoming more kind of in
their private lives so they don't like to even live with others, even the extended family. They're becoming more and more personal to themselves.
So I was just wondering whether this influence is coming on the nature or is it due to the nurture that they see things around? No, it's this influence is coming because of the social setup.
The social setup and the whole society is set up in such a way that it's very difficult for people. People becoming more and more selfish, more and more individualistic, more and more self-centered.
And you know if you're self-centered, it's very difficult to live with somebody, you know, who is also self-centered.
Two self-centered persons living in one flat—too much. They need to live in two different rooms to create their own space.
People are becoming very impersonal because they are self-centered uh so the self for the self-centered person everyone else is an object because he's the only
subject, he is the, you know, the living entity. objects, you know, when the objects behave in a strange way. Why people like all these gadgets? Because they behave in a predictable way.
Sometimes unpredictable too, but but basically you you can have a sense of control.
You push the button and something happens and you feel you know I'm God, you know, I I'm I'm, you know, I'm making it work, you know, how I like, you know.
So, but with human beings, they're free; you can't do the same things. You can, of course, push the buttons in them, but it doesn't work all the time.
And uh and there is an idea of making others objects and therefore it's very difficult to live.
Um when people don't understand that the beauty of life is to have somebody who is free near you and to have relationship with a free person then you know
they don't they don't know how to enter into the relationship because they are totally completely conditioned themselves.
To enter into meaningful relationship with others you have to be free yourself and then you you will respect freedom of other people because
people. If somebody is not free, you know, if you're trying to exploit some other person, then there is it's not a subject-subject relationship, it's the subject-object relationship. You're trying to enslave somebody.
Make him the object. And there is no happiness in this relationship. So people don't know how to associate or relate with people who are free. That's the problem.
And because people are free, essentially free, you know, and either they want to exploit other people but that's that's that's the the most the biggest problem in modern society.
That's because it it comes from the upbringing. Ultimately it comes because. Because of the lack of love.
If people would have love in their childhood then they're capable of you know manifesting this love and relationship with other people but the basic problem why it's not possible because there's less and less and less scarcity
of love between different people, especially in the childhood. You know parents are too busy, they are in the internet and TV and cinema, know, who cares about these little guys? They're just nuisance, they're just they're just botheration.
So but then they will grow up and then they hope things that they change. This conditioning does it change at later stage or it stays? It can be
changed but it's very difficult if if people didn't get enough love in their childhood it's very difficult to change them because they will be they will have a lot of mistrust towards other people they will be afraid to enter
into relationship to enter into relationship you need trust you need to have trust and if if they were betrayed ored abandoned or left on their own in their childhood, how they will trust.
The main you know this this whole godless society is as such that you know that creates people who cannot trust God ultimately. The father and mother, this is a figure for small children, they're like God.
And father and mother they have to understand that they this is their role. They have to be completely totally trustful and uh give complete protection to little children who are surrendered to them.
Then the children will grow up and they will themselves they will become good harmonious human beings who will believe in God.
If you were betrayed by your parents, You will never even if you try to believe in God, it will be very difficult for you. And that's the problem. Everything starts on this level.
The whole society is set up in the wrong way.
You know, like these little children, they are given to kindergartens. Before that the grandparents would take care of them. And that's much better than to give them to this you know to this thing difficult yes
uh just regarding the previous question, uh I know Śrīla Prabhupāda emphasized on creating farm communities, one national system. Yes.
Uh where there would be the extension of families where community builds up to be removed from nuclear families.
I know a lot of emphasis has been put into city printing and less for farm community. So how can we can we build on that? See because everyone is spoiled.
City means comfortable life and and farm communities means a lot of mud everywhere. So So uh I I'm thinking all the time about this.
City means passionate life, you know, and uh people are very much conditioned and used to it. But you know somebody has to set an example and people are moving now. More and more people are moving countryside.
I recently was in Dubai and in Dubai uh there is a very uh one very amazing devotee, his name is Nanda Kumar, he's with his family, he's very successful, he's a chartered accountant he has huge flat in Dubai you know big salary he's you know he's giving it all up and moving to some village in near Chennai Tamil Nadu you know, with some other families to do some farming there.
Because he realizes this and that's uh ultimately it has to be preached because people will not be happy in this city environment. So it's a very difficult life. Very rajasic life. Okay, thank you very much. Hare Krishna.