Nama Retreat. Q&A
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Говардхан · 2024
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Opening prayers and retreat announcements
Namah Vishnu-padaya Krishna-presthaya bhutale Srimate Bhaktivedanta-swamin iti namine Namaste Sarasvate deve gaura-vani- प्रचारिणे — oh, gaura-vani-pracharine Nirvishesha-shunyavadi-paschatya-desha-sudarine Vanchha-kalpatarubhyas-cha kripa-sindhubhya eva cha Patitanam pavanebhyo vaishnavebhyo namo namah Jaya Sri Krishna Caitanya Prabhu Nityananda Sri Advaita Gadadhara Srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare, Hare.
told you that I wanted to make uh couple of important announcements and I will do it in the beginning uh before I forget it.
Uh the most important announcement which I wanted to make is that the beautiful presentations which I showed you, the author of this beautiful presentation is uh Namsankirtan Prabhu and Lalana Devidasi. They spent three sleepless nights.
For you it's just Haribol and for them it's it's long hours of hard work. So uh I'm very grateful and I uh I'm sure that uh these presentations uh greatly enhanced my uh my amateur uh attempts to speak. Thank you. Okay.
I and of course Radha Pramud Prabhu as I said he was the inspiration behind this retreat. He he continues to inspire me. Somehow or other, not only him, some other people as well, Brahmacharis.
Those Brahmacharis who came from Pune, from Hyderabad, from Uchain. It's very grateful to all of you. And yeah. But of course, those people who came from London they went much longer way.
And it's also a big inspiration to see how people are coming from Bangalore also. Anyway, thank you very much all. If this retreat was of any use for you, then
it's the credit of Radha Pramod Prabhu and Namsankirtana... Okay, so we'll uh answer questions. Whatever questions we will be able to answer.
So you need some questions to take out and talk about the reason you can answer something. Yeah, sure.
Uh Radha Pramud Prabhu suggests that if uh I will not be able to answer all the questions we can have zoom continuation, zoom retreat. And
Defining stages of a devotee
uh there is a special Zoom retreat center. So we meet in this Zoom retreat center. Maharaj mentioned that bhakti starts from the stage of Nishta before that it is shadow of bhakti.
We also heard that bhakti starts only after Sharanagati. When can a person be called a devotee?
Is it at the stage of the śraddhā when he got faith in this process or at the stage of bhajana-kriyā when he has started practicing śaraṇāgati seriously or at the stage of niṣṭhā.
So the question is when when somebody can be called a devotee. I think it very much depends on the generosity of the heart of one who is calling him call him as a devotee in the very beginning. Not pro.
But the idea is that Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains it in Bhakti-tattva-viveka. He says that before the stage of niṣṭhāvan is bhakti-prāya. He is almost a devotee.
And because the language is such that we can admit certain things, we can call somebody a devotee, meaning that he is almost a devotee. So bhakti-prāya is okay, he's bhakti in prāya.
But uh the bhakti starts uh a niṣṭhā stage where you're completely dedicated. Because why? The reason is very important.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains in Madhurya-kādambini the stages of destruction of the false identity. According to the stages of spiritual development on this ladder
of bhakti, starting with śraddhā, sādhu-saṅga, bhajana-kriyā, anartha-nivṛtti, and then niṣṭhā and then ruci. So in this till the stage of niṣṭhā, the material identification is very, very strong.
You already started the process of bhakti, and therefore you can be legitimately uh called bhakta, uh, but because uh your practice is weak, it's not working so quickly, and therefore, the material ego is still very strong.
On the stage of niṣṭhā, there is more or less equilibrium between your material identification and spiritual identification.
And only on the stage of ruci when the spiritual taste becomes very pronounced, very thick then spiritual identification becomes stronger than material identification.
So that's how it works according to the level of the destruction of material ego, material identity. It starts, it really starts because in śraddhā is still you're very much identifying yourself as the body.
But when anartha-nivṛtti starts, then this process really takes place. And of course, I mean we all uh product of
uh Śrīla Prabhupāda's generous heart. He was very generous, therefore he called all my disciples are pure devotees. So you're not only devotees, you're all pure devotees. No doubt about it. If you follow Śrīla Prabhupāda, no problem.
Practicing pure devotional service
He said, you know, you stop eating meat, anartha-nivṛtti is complete, you're smiling during kīrtana, ruci is there, no problem. Śrīla
Rūpa Gosvāmī's definition of uttama-bhakti or śuddha-bhakti, anyabhilāṣitā-śūnyam, does not hold from niṣṭhā or śuddha itself, does it hold from niṣṭhā or śraddhā?
Or the, uh, are we called practitioners of pure devotional service from the stage of śraddhā or from the stage of niṣṭhā? See, it depends again, uh, very much what you mean purity.
If you have faith in the ideal of pure devotional service, then in one sense you're practicing pure devotional service because this is your ideal.
You're far from this ideal still, uh but because this is your ideal, because this is your goal, then you can be called a pure devotee, no problem.
Because you don't have any other I mean at least on a conscious level you try not to have uh other goals, you're just uh consciously uh you're striving to achieve this ideal of pure devotional service.
Of course, you have so many other things, but you try to connect it with your main goal.
But this there is a difference, as somebody put it, I I liked the way he how he put it, there is a difference between uh what one believes and what one believes to believe.
You know, I may believe to believe in the ideal of pure devotional service. It doesn't mean that I believe in pure devotional service. I just believe to believe. I think that I believe in pure devotional service.
But in reality, deep down the heart, I have some other ideas which I may not be even conscious about.
Consciously, I believe in the ideal of pure devotional service. When it comes to action, uh there are some contaminations.
But uh in the process of practice, uh all these contaminations will be removed and ultimately you will be uh pure devotees.
So it's like, you know, calling, uh, Viśvanātha Cakra-vartī Ṭhākura gives another explanation of this. Similar explanation. Similar uh another metaphor for to understand this.
He says that what you you do, uh, what you call yajña, you know, yajña is the the moment when everyone sits and the priest starts pouring ghee in it. Right?
No, but yajña started way before. When he collected all these materials, ingredients, when he was thinking, the planning. So it's yajña. In the same way, bhakti, when does it start?
Does it start when you already love Krishna or when you are in the preparation stage? It already started in preparation stage.
Divine maintenance and karma
So in this sense it's also bhakti. Once a person comes in as the association of devotees, uh it takes to
the practice of Krishna consciousness and starts with some amount of śraddhā, such a person is maintained by Krishna or is karma? When when whom does Krishna maintain personally?
Krishna maintains personally even little ants. There is a beautiful story how once Krishna was late in Dvārakā. And Satyabhāmā Devi, who had a very feisty and fiery temperament, she was not happy.
Krishna came really late at home and uh uh Satyabhāmā started making some scene to him. And Krishna he didn't want to get into trouble, so he explained himself.
He said, my dear, I came so late because I have to feed everyone. And she became really, I mean, she was not happy with this explanation. How is that my husband is feeding everyone?
So next morning when she was doing cosmetics, in front of a mirror she took a special box, jeweled box uh with still and uh she saw some ant inside uh this box. And she thought, okay, let me see how Krishna is feeding everyone. And she locked uh the ant into this box without any food and smiled to her reflection.
And the same evening Krishna was even later than the evening before. And she again started complaining, why you're coming so late? And he said, My dear, what can I do? I have to feed everyone.
See, I'm very busy. I have to feed everyone, including the ant in your tilak box. And she was quite embarrassed by this statement.
She went and she opened the box and she saw that some uh rice uh which fell from her, you know, from her tilak there or whatever, some little rice was there, and the ant was happily eating this rice. So we should not make
this distinction when we are talking about śaraṇāgati that Krishna is maintaining everyone. We have to understand the general principle. Whether it's karma or not, uh when Krishna
says uh Yoga-kṣemaṃ vahāmy aham, I personally uh make the provision for those people who serve me, he definitely means those devotees who are completely dedicated to him. But besides these people, he made an arrangement for everyone to have whatever is necessary.
And when we are surrendering to him we should not too much distinguish between karma and his personal provision, his personal help because karma is also his personal help. Ultimately, he is a person.
And he's taking care of everyone. He is taking care of everyone. So we should not distinguish so much. Uh, we should have faith that Krishna is—Krishna knows what I need.
And if he doesn't give something, it basically means that I don't need it. It will be a hard pill to swallow because I think I need it.
But then I have to preach to oneself that Krishna knows better what I need and what I don't need. So if something doesn't come in a natural way, okay. So it's not my problem. It's Krishna's problem.
Redirecting material emotions toward Krishna
As a woman, I have these emotions of śaraṇāgati for my husband. How do I redirect these emotions towards Krishna?
Material relationships are good because they, uh, give us some idea, what does it mean to enter into relationship with Krishna? So it's a good starting point. At least you have the experience of these emotions.
And if you think deeply how the reality works, you will understand that your husband is also maintained by somebody. And this somebody is Krishna.
You know, you may have emotions towards the husband, but you know, the husband has to be maintained and uh if you think that uh the boss and the job maintains the husband uh you can think uh who maintains the boss and so on and so forth, ultimately you will come to Krishna and you will be greatly relieved.
You don't need to experience these emotions towards anyone else. It's just, you know, it's just a question of understanding, philosophical understanding and trying to really uh redirect this to the proper source.
Because you know, when we direct uh these emotions towards somebody else who is not of course husband, according to Vedic scriptures, is the representative of Krishna. So he is—it's legitimate for him to accept these emotions if he really feels or identifies himself as the servant of the Lord, then he can accept this.
Emotions—and you're right and he is right, you know, and he will not really hold it to himself, he will give it further and ultimately give it to Krishna. So there's nothing wrong with it as such.
But only if husband thinks that he is the servant of Krishna.
If husband doesn't think that he is the servant of Krishna and you worship him as the representative of Krishna, that will be detrimental for you and that will be detrimental for him.
Because he will become very proud and ultimately you will be frustrated in this attempt.
So if you are directing these emotions to somebody who is the true representative of Krishna, who really represents, who doesn't want to appropriate these emotions for himself, then there is nothing wrong with it.
Ultimately, he will redirect your emotions. You don't even have to try to do it yourself. Just experience this emotion towards the husband.
If the husband is honest, uh he will uh not uh you know enjoy these emotions, he will give it to Krishna and you all be happy.
Karmic reactions and divine grace
So that's another angle of uh this question. But till what stage does a person get suffering from their past karma? Is it before śraddhā or saranāgati or niṣṭhā?
There is this beautiful verse from Brahma Stuti in the tenth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Tats te 'nukampām su-samīkṣamāṇaḥ bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam tām vīpam.
Lord Brahma says that the one who thinks that bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam su-samīkṣamāṇaḥ, somebody who has this very clear vision that whatever he experiences, bhuñjāna ātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam is the result, vipākam of ātma-kṛtaṁ, of my own actions, of my own karma.
If I have this very clear vision, then and at the same time that I'm experiencing the result of my karma, but at the same time Krishna is mitigating these results and therefore I'm worshipping his lotus feet.
Then Lord Brahma says mukti-padecā dāya-bhāk, such a person uh is eligible for liberation. Basically, the idea here is that whatever is happening with me is the result of my karma. I don't blame anyone.
But at the same time, I understand that I'm the only one who is responsible for everything which is happening with me.
But at the same time, I also understand that Krishna is involved in the whole process. What is his involvement? His involvement is that he mitigates the suffering, he uh or he sees
that I get the proper it's on a proper time because karma is blind and Krishna is not blind.
Karma can come at any moment, but if you dedicated yourself to Krishna, then Krishna will see how your karma will manifest in your life and he will help you to derive the proper lessons from this.
So, from the very beginning, we have to understand everything is my karma, but uh also Krishna is uh taking part in the whole process.
You are mentioning in Prema Bhivata mentions that when a person chants with false ego then it is not the holy name but, the name Aksha and it is like anchor.
But getting rid of the false ego is the gradual process. So for a person with false ego, will holy name not purify and help him help the person if he is uh praying and sincerely trying to take shelter of holy name.
Will Holy Name not be... I explained, I explained this process this morning. Maybe the question was asked before this morning session.
Where I was reading the elaborate quote from Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura from Jaivadharma, where he says: even if somebody is very offensive and he chants the holy name, every now and then he will chant the holy name purely. Despite the presence of the false ego, he still will be able to pronounce the holy name purely if he tries.
Despite the persistent presence of the ego. And this will create sukriti and this sukriti will bring somebody in the association of pure devotees.
And in the close association with pure devotees, very quickly the notion of the pure name comes. So definitely the name helps in any stage. So we should not be afraid.
It's just a question of trying and uh accumulating the particular type of sukriti which will uh manifest its fruit little later.
Overcoming material mind and emotions
So in any case we should chant. How can we break through the vicious cycle of material emotions on our level? For example, I am from Ukraine and I have been having anxiety and depression for so many years now.
I want to break through these conditions Again, I explained this this morning that we have so much negative content in our mind.
And because this content, this burden of this content, of these negative emotions and everything else, it's very persistent, it's very heavy stuff.
But you know when we step out of this content and when we try to distinguish between the content of our consciousness and us the conscious agent. Then the magic influence of the content at least will be weakened.
You know you just look at this from the outside, yes, it's there, all these emotions are there. But uh and they belong to me, they are next to me, but that's not me.
You know, like in in Sanskrit and also in Hindi, I don't know how it is in other uh Indian languages, but it's also in Russian uh uh mm partially.
Uh you know the in English uh the verb have is very important. I have, uh, you know, you use it in uh perfect form, I have done this or I have seen this, have, have, have, have.
In Sanskrit, there is no verb have. It doesn't exist at all. When you want to say in Sanskrit that I have something, you just say something is near to you. Because you cannot have anything.
You are what you are and whatever is your possession is just next to you. It's just it's it's not yours. Uh it's it's it's next to me.
So when we have this concept that all these things which I have, these negative emotions and everything else, it's it's not mine, it's not me, it's uh it's close to me. Perhaps too close, but still is
it's not mine, then you will be able to be free. And the example which I gave this morning is that, you know, so much was there in the past. So much traumas, so much tragedies, so much pain. You know, where is it now?
And most of it doesn't influence us really. Most of it is just some. And you know, every one of us had some trauma. Is it important now or not? You know it's not important.
And every one of us had so much problems in the past lives. Do we remember this? We don't remember. You know, we may remember something. Sometimes people remember their past lives if the lives were really heavy.
But again, I, the experiencer, is different from my experience. And if I understand it very clearly, then I will be able to break through this.
Then I will not be uh the slave of these experiences. I will be relatively free from this experience. I understand that it's not. It's easy to say, it's uh it's more difficult to do.
But if we practice it again and again and again, I'm different from it, I'm not the same, I'm not this, uh then it may not be uh that uh difficult.
Developing steady meditation
How can we fix our goal? Sometimes mind focuses on form, sometimes on name, most of the time distracted. Again, how can we what? Fix our goal.
Sometimes mind focuses on form, sometime on name, most of the time distraction. This is for sanity. There are different uh gradations of a goal. If you really have strong goal in the front,
in the upfront of your consciousness, you will not forget about it. Like somebody wants to pass exam. You know, it's a very typical example in India because the exams are so heavy here.
You know, for at least one month before the exam, you have uninterrupted meditation on the goal. I want to pass the exam.
And you go to the temple and you pray to the deity, my dear Lord Krishna, please help me to pass the exam. And I'll give you 50 rupees, no problem. And uh uh see that's that's the point.
Emotions have this ability to make our meditation stable. If the meditation is not coupled with emotion, if it's not really supported by emotions, then it's flickering.
You know it's just yes, I meditate a little bit but then the mind goes here and there.
Uh uh when I said about the goal, when we have very strong desire, I do want to achieve this goal, I do want to pass this exam, I do want to have certain marks with it.
Uh you know, that this this strong desire is an emotional energy which makes your meditation very thick.
So that's why I said that uh unless you learn how to uh you know how to uh uh reproduce the emotions of Sharanagati then uh the meditation will not be uh strong enough and then you will be distracted.
Because what I want to say is that when you say this is goal and I think about goal for 10 seconds seconds, my analysis of this, my diagnosis of this, it's not your goal. You just think it's your goal, but in reality it's not your goal. If it was your goal, you would think about this day night.
At the time of death when subtle body moves on, does ego change or remain same? Do we develop new ego with the new body? It would be pretty strange if the ego didn't change, you know,
you have a new nice body, and it happens to be the body of an opposite sex, and of course, this is how all this trans transgender oh whatever homosexuals appear.
It it does change according to the body, but it may uh maintain the traces of the previous identity. And see, this is the unfortunate state of affairs in Kali Yuga. In Kali Yuga everything is mixed.
In the previous yugas, when people were born the whole culture was to very strongly establish their identity according to the present body. And it's very important to function normally, to be healthy personality.
So everything from the very upbringing was to ensure that somebody has very strong proper identity according to the body.
But because Kali Yuga is everything is mixed up, you're born with this half-baked ego and then you're born in a very strange mix family and perhaps you know you had like they killin in um America.
In America you cannot call somebody as a husband and as a no uh as the mother and father. There is no mother and father in America. There is parent number one and parent number two.
Because it's politically incorrect to call somebody mother because the mother may be, you know, he or whatever it is. It's just kind of yoga stuff. And uh because of this, uh you know you don't have a strong identity.
You become very weak, psychologically weak. It's very difficult for such people. I mean I'm not joking.
It's it's actually a tragedy uh that that this uh understanding how important it is to have uh strongly established identity according to body and understand what is the role according to my body in the society.
So previously the culture would help people to adjust to the new body completely. Unfortunately, present culture doesn't help with this so strongly.
There is no No, you know, there is no understanding of what it means to be, you know, to to play the role according to genders and this and that. And therefore people have difficulties.
They have split personalities, they have all these strange ideas, and ultimately they suffer.
So, ideally, yes, you get the new body and you forget about the old body and you develop the ego which is in harmony with this new body.
Progression of complete surrender
But in some rare case in some cases nowadays, you know it may not be that simple. What is absolute surrender means?
Does Karpanidoshapata Supav indicate the starting of this absolute surrender or only that is Sarodharman Parikhita stage is considered absolute surrender?
When Arjuna in the beginning says Karpania Dausha Pahatam Swa Bam Prichhamitvam Dharma Samu Diacham Bruhi Tan M. Twamprapanam, I am your disciple and I am surrendered to you completely.
In the next verse he says, Nayotsi Aiti Govinda, I surrender to you completely, but I'm not going to fight. That's initial surrender.
I surrender to you completely, but don't ask me to do something which I don't want. You know, that's the only condition which I have. Otherwise I surrender.
But at the end of Bhagavad-gītā, Arjuna says, Karishya vachanam tawa, whatever you will tell, I will do. So that's the whole Bhagavad-gītā is the space of surrender.
You know, from initial surrender, which is conditional surrender, which is not complete surrender, which is you know like but it it's a good starting point.
Till the complete surrender when he says that I'm going to serve you by my mind by my words and my body. So so don't worry. Start somewhere.
The question in Russian is is it possible to say that the whole life of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is the example of uh uh this gradual surrender and to achieve the same status we have to go through the same through the same path.
to go through all different uh tests uh as bhakti-vinoda Ṭhākura describes in his biography.
No, uh Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has his life and uh uh for somebody who is uh that immensely gifted. Usually the life is also more difficult. Krishna will only give you.
You know, Krishna will give you uh such uh tests and obstacles which you will be able to overcome. He knows that you are not Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. Despite of your dreams and uh imagination.
It's funny, I was passing by this little building just in front of JRC and it is written there. New dreams as an advertisement. I don't know how well what they will teach there. New knowledge, new skills, and new dreams.
So anyway, yeah, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has his life and we have our life.
And Krishna gives us whatever we need, don't worry, he will give us whatever we need to become pure devotees. And if we take it gratefully, then the medicine will work.
Real meaning of sadhu sanga
So, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has his life, we have our life.
How one is supposed to be in saintly persons association? If usually sadhus have their own bhajans, sadhana time are busy with preaching, travelling, writing, etc. and also hundreds of other devotees want their association also. Ah yeah that's a famous question. You?
You asked this question. Association means attachment. Śrīla Prabhupāda associated with his Guru Maharaj just for a few. He said maybe all together five days and a whole life.
But because he was so touched, he always felt his presence in his life.
And you may be spending years and years and years in saintly association and nothing will change in your life because you're not attached to this association.
So it's not a question of the amount of time you spent with a particular person. It's a question of how attached you are to these precious moments which you spend with them.
And how cherished you are, these moments, and how conscious you are about these moments. You may be in some close physical proximity. But in your mind you will be somewhere in New York.
You know, and it will not be sādhu-saṅga, it will be New York saṅga. It will be completely different. It's a question of where you are in the mind.
If you are in saintly association, the, you know, the prerequisite of it is to be present. And the uh then you will get the complete benefit.
Uh and besides that the emphasis when I was uh talking about the association I was not talking about the amount of time. But I was talking about—this is directly answering Rajendra Kumar Prabhu's question.
I was answering—I was talking about the surrender which we should undergo. It's not a question again of physical proximity or time spent together, but the extent how we surrender to this particular person.
And we may not be in his physical presence, but at the same time we feel that I'm surrendered to him. He is very dear to me and I will not do anything which will cause him pain or displeasure. Then you are surrendered.
So you you need a particular person to surrender to to experience these feelings. So again, it's not a question of time.
Understanding agency and responsibility
You may have so many, you know, hundreds of followers and devotees, still you can be very surrendered to him and uh uh obtain the full benefit of his uh influence upon your personality. Are we ever the doers?
If I nag someone, is it me nagging someone or Krishna nagging someone through us? Or when I am doing bad things, is it also not meing who is do it first? It really depends on What do you think?
And then what is your mentality when you're doing this? If you're doing this with this full conviction, I am the doer, then you res are responsible, you're the doer. And you will be responsible for the consequences.
And if you have this very strongly established within your heart, understanding I'm not the doer, first of all, you will not nag. Because you know, if you have this consciousness, I'm not the doer, why should you nag?
Why should you do nonsense? You will still act, but you will act in accordance with the will of Krishna.
All these things I am doing some nonsense or I am nagging and then I say when it's convenient for me, then I say, no, no, I'm not the doer, you know. I'm not responsible for this.
There's this famous story about one gardener Pandit who had a beautiful garden.
And then the cow entered the garden and he became so angry, and the cow started eating his rare plants which he planted and he threw the stone and he killed a cow.
And he became very afraid, but then after a few days the Yamadutas came to take him because he committed this great sin. And when Yamadutas came, he said, no, no, you know, it's not me. It's my hand. I'm not the doer.
I was not doing this. You know, why are you taking me? And because Yamadutas were not very experienced in Vedanta philosophy, they didn't know what to answer.
And they went to Yamaraj and they said, uh my dear master, we want to take this guy, and he gives us some bewildering philosophy and doesn't want to come with us and we don't know what to do.
And Yamaraj said, Come with me, I will show you what to do. And Yamaraj takes the garb of an old brāhmaṇa and he came and he comes to the garden and this man is sitting there and he starts glorifying this garden.
Oh, such a beautiful garden! Such a beautiful garden, you know. And he says, yes, yes, it's a very beautiful garden. You know, this plant, well, where is this plant?
This plant is uh I taken from there, and you grew this plant, yes, I grew this plant, and oh how beautiful you did this, yes you did this. And yes, I did this, I did this. And who killed the cow?
What I mean to say, you know, be consistent. If you're not the doer, be not the doer all the time, not only when it is convenient for you. But if you're only not the doer when it is convenient, then you know you're still
Soul desires and material perception
responsible for everything uh it's just a pretext so if you're consistent then you will not do nonsense. When you say that the soul wants to imitate what do you exactly mean Yeah.
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this in the purport of Bhagavad-gītā, the verse 15 of the 15th chapter when that the soul the only thing which soul can do is imitate no sorry desire uh the soul emanates the energy of desire.
And the soul wants to enjoy, and Krishna gives the soul beautiful virtual reality in which the soul spiritual by nature, can enjoy matter, which is not possible.
You know, somebody who is spiritual cannot really relate to matter. It's even a big mystery how we can see the matter.
It's a very ingenious and difficult mechanism how Krishna you know provided us with the perception of the matter. Because we are different of nature. So we want to enjoy matter.
That's the desire which is which the soul emanates.
And Krishna says, okay, because you want it, we attract the material body and the mechanism with the material mind and material chitta and material buddhi. And then this uh subtle matter starts dancing uh
in uh you know by interacting with the gross matter and we are inside this system and we see the dance of the subtle matter you know, the our citta is dancing, you know, these waves are there and that waves are there.
And we look at the and we see, oh how beautiful. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So uh we can only desire because of our desire.
Krishna provides us with this mechanism, and this mechanism gives us the opportunity to enjoy something which we cannot enjoy by the way of imitating this, by the way of identifying with this.
So you know we can only desire, but Krishna
also gives us the opportunity to identify. In spite of knowing all mechanisms of how we are stuck, why we shall don't want to get out of and we want to see uh we see it's impossible to fight our urges.
You know where the word impossible is coming from it's just a question of not understanding this. You're knowing theoretically for you, it's just a little intellectual toy. Little intellectual play, yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe, maybe, maybe. But when it comes to reality, still you maintain the
same value system which you had before, and that's why it's difficult for you to fight the urges.
But if you really understand this, if you understand the futility uh the utter futility of the attempts to become happy by material means through material experiences, then the urges will not be so persistent and so strong.
It's just because we have the hope. We still have the hope. We maintain the hope. We hope that. You know, yes, all these, you know, orange rope people they say that it's not possible, but you know. Let me try nevertheless.
You know, we still have the hope, lingering hope. I have the hope that I will become happy.
There is uh seven billion uh or how many billion? Seven seven billion or six billion uh nine hundred million uh nine hundred thousand uh ninety uh what is this uh nine hundred ninety-nine people on the earth who are not happy uh by material uh standards.
But there is one. It happened to be me and I will be happy. Everyone else failed. Did you see any, you know, happy person in this world if if he is not Radhanath Swami or somebody like him. Everyone else is miserable.
Everyone else is just, you know, undergoing some problems, sad and uh have all these mixed uh feelings. So it's just this lingering hope uh and you are trying to uh hold uh for this hope.
Uh the moment when you uh lose the hope you will become happy. There is a little Chinese story. I like this story very much, so that will be the final cherry on the cake.
You know, there was an old man in the village, old Chinese man, was really old. And he was really, really miserable.
He was so miserable, so much so that every one of his neighbors forget Forget his real name, and they all call him by nickname Miserable One.
He was always unhappy and always angry and always nagging and doing all kinds of stuff. And at one point, the news spread all over the village that the old miserable man became happy. The whole village came to see this miracle because they've
never seen him happy. And they came and they asked, you know, can we ask you one question? How is that you're happy today?
He said, because my whole life I was hoping to become happy, and I lived a long life, and ultimately today I understood that I will not become happy and immediately I became happy.
Because the hope to become happy disappeared and I don't have the problem anymore. And that's exactly what Prahlāda Mahārāja says in the seventh canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He says it's very easy to become happy.
Just give up the hope to become happy and you will become happy at this very moment. So that's it.
As long as you maintain this futile hope to become happy, but I really hope that you will become happy by chanting the holy name. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rama Rama Hare Hare. And when Śrīla Prabhupāda says chant and be happy, I think many people don't understand the real meaning of these words.
Because usually people think, uh, Śrīla Prabhupāda says, uh, if you chant you will be happy. And they started chanting and they're not becoming happy. And they're chanting more and they're not becoming happy.
And they're becoming more and more frustrated, and I'm chanting more, and frustration grows, and there's no happiness. When Śrīla Prabhupāda says chant and be happy, he means you chant and be happy. It's an order.
It's not a prerequisite of happiness. You can't then be happy. What's the problem? Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. Chant and be happy.