Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.10.5
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · South Africa · 2007
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Reading Srimad Bhagavatam text five
Omnamo Bhagavateva Sudevaya, Sudevaya, Omna Mo Bhagavateva Sudevaya Bhagavateva Sudevaya Omna Mo Bhagavateva Sudevaya Deva Sudevaya Reading Srimad Bhagavatam chapter 10. Departure of Lord Krishna for Dvaraka. Text number five.
Nadhyak Samudra Giraya, sanaspati, samaspati, virudha, palanti, palambi, sadaya sarva Anvrituras Bai Nagyhy samu, dragi raya, na dya sam, dragi raya, savana spati vi rudha, palantosha daya, sarvan, kamamam anbritu tasyavai, nad jah samu dragi raja, savana spativi ruda, palandh Sadia Sarva, Nad jag samudragi raja Sawana Spativ Samasad, palantyosadaya sarva, kamamam andritu ta sava, manda slash. Sabanas Sabha Sabas Sabanas Sabanas but it is Biddut Sabas The Saragama be to twist the Nadiasamotrakire, Naspadiviru, Parandi Oshayasva Natya Samokra Giraya Natya Sama Sadi One the two plus yeah I just six we also chandal. Chandi. Nadhyah Nadyah Rivers Samudraha Samudra Oceans Girayaha Hills and Mountains Pati Vegetables Virudhaha Kripas Haland Active Osadayaha Osadaha Drugs sarvaha all Kamama Necessities Anbritu Seasonal Seasonal asya for the king certainly translation the rivers, oceans, hills, mountains, forests, creeppers, and active drugs in every season paid their tax quota to the king in profusion. Since Maharaja Udishhira was under the protection of the Ajita, the infallible Lord, as above mentioned, the properties of the Lord, namely the rivers, oceans, hills, forests, etc were all pleased and they used to supply their respective quarter of taxes to the king. The secret of success is to take refuge under the protection of the Supreme Lord. Without His sanction, nothing can be possible.
To make economic development by our own endeavors on the strengths of tools and machinery is not all. The sanction of the Supreme Lord must be there.
Otherwise, despite all instrumental arrangements, everything will be unsuccessful. The ultimate cause of success is the Daiva, the Supreme.
Kings like Maharaja Yudhisthira knew perfectly well that the king is the agent of the Supreme Lord who looks after the welfare of the mass of people. Actually, the state belongs to the Supreme Lord.
The rivers, oceans, forests, hills, drugs, etc. are not creations of men. They are creations of the Supreme Lord. And the living being is allowed to take use of the property of the Lord for the service of the Lord.
Today's slogan is that everything is for people and therefore the government is for the people and by the people.
But to produce a new species of humanity at the present moment on the basis of God consciousness and perfection of human life, the ideology of godly communism, the world has to again follow the footsteps
of kings like Maharaja Yudhisthira or Pariksit. There is enough of everything by the will of the Lord and we can make proper use of things to live comfortably without enmity between man or animal and man or nature.
The control of the Lord is everywhere, and if the Lord is pleased, every part of nature will be pleased.
The river will flow profusely to fertilize the land, the oceans will supply sufficient quantities of minerals, pearls and jewels, and forests will supply sufficient wood, drugs and vegetables, and the seasonal changes will effectively help produce fruits and flowers in profuse quantity.
The artificial way of living, depending on factories and tools, can render so called happiness only to a limited number at the cost of millions.
Since the energy of the mass of people is engaged in factory production, the natural products are being hampered and for this the mass is unhappy.
Without being educated properly, the mass of people are following in the footsteps of the vested interest by exploiting natural reserves, and therefore there is acute competition between individual and individual and nation and nation.
There is no control by the trained agent of the Lord. We must look into the defects of modern civilization by comparison here,
Reading Srimad Bhagavatam text six
and should follow in the footsteps of Maharaja Yudhisthira to cleanse men and wipe out anachronisms. Shall I also read six things before me?
Nāmbāyōvya dayā-kleśaṁ daiva-bhūtāt-mahēta-vāha ajāta- śatravaḥ abhūvan. Translation:
because of the kings having no enemy, the living entities were not at any time distorted by mental agonies, diseases, or excessive heat and cold.
To be nonviolent to human beings and to be a killer or enemy of the poor animals is Saturn's philosophy. In this age there is enmity toward poor animals, and therefore the poor creatures are always anxious.
The reaction of the poor animals is being forced on human society and therefore there is always the strain of cold or hot war between men, individually, collectively or nationally.
At the time of Maharaja Yudhisthira there were no different nations, although there were different subordinate states.
The whole world was united and the Supreme Head, being a trained king by Yudhisthira, kept all inhabitants free from anxiety, diseases, and excessive heat and cold.
They were not only—they were not only economically well-to-do, but also physically fit and undisturbed by supernatural power, by enmity from other living beings, and by disturbance of bodily and mental equilibrium.
There is a proverb in Bengali that a bad king spoils the kingdom and a bad housewife spoils the family.
This truth is applicable here also, because the king was pious and obedient to the Lord and the sages, because he was no one's enemy, and because he was a recognized agent of the Lord, and therefore protected by him all the citizens under the king's protection, so to speak directly were so to speak directly protected by the Lord and his authorized agents.
Unless one is pious and recognized by the Lord, he cannot make others happy who are under his care. There is full cooperation between man and God and man and nature.
And this conscious cooperation between man and God and man and nature, as exemplified by King Yutishtira, can bring about happiness, peace and prosperity in the world.
The attitude of exploiting one another, the custom of the day, will only bring misery. Shiva praopa adati. Nadyak Samudra Girayak, Savanaspati Virudha, Paland Osadayak Sarvan, Kaman Angritasyavai.
The rivers, oceans, hills, mountains, forests, creepers, and active drugs in every season paid their tax quota to the king in profusion.
Nadayobyadayak Le Sam, Daiva Butat Maheta Vaha Ajatashatraf Abhavan Jantunam Rajni Karhichit.
Because of the kings having no enemy, the living being were not at any time disturbed by mental agonies, diseases or excessive heat and cold. Namovishna Krishta Buddha Shima Swami Bitta nam, y snach.
Dziri Krisna, Chaita, Prabhu Tanda, Shri Dwarda, Sua Dura Bhakta Brinda.
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 Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare. So
in these verses of the tenth chapter of the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the rule of Maharaja Yudhiṣṭhira is being described in a very elevated way.
In India people often dream about Ram Raja because it is also described in Ramayana, how everything was perfect under the government of Lord Ram.
And King Yudhiṣṭhira, being an ideal king, was following the footsteps of Lord Rāma because he was a true servant of the Lord. Basically, this is the first and foremost qualification of the ruler.
He has never to consider himself—need translation also, some of the devotees doesn't know English. Okay, so what shall we do? Shall we line by line?
Yeah, I think make them separate, the sides. I don't think that would say what you think.
Contrast between godly leadership and exploitation
I think I think it's not a good idea. So sometimes modern politicians, they use the slogan Rām Rājya.
But they forget about the simple fact that in order to have Rām Rājya or perfect state in all regards, the king or the ruler of the state should be servant of the Lord, should consider himself the servant of the Lord. This identity should be foremost in his mind. Because otherwise this exploiting mentality will inevitably manifest itself.
Why all the modern states are more or less failure? Because of this simple reason. As soon as you get some position, there is a temptation to manifest exploiting mentality.
We know that whatever position we may have, we always want to exploit those who are under us. Whereas the proper use of our position is to give protection.
Basically, if we have any position and somebody is under us, uh it means that we are responsible for their welfare. It means that we are responsible uh to take care of all their needs.
And people don't understand this and they more or less follow the natural tendency and try to exploit those who are under them. Like for example, by family life may be a failure. Because men will exploit women.
Woman is naturally under protection.
Although from this Bengali saying that the king may spoil the state and the housewife may spoil the house, the home, it follows that actually the wife is the queen of the host. The wife is the real ruler.
Husband is but in any case, uh the point here is that if somebody has any position and uh others are naturally under him, his main desire should be protect, not exploit, not to take advantage of his position.
But unfortunately, modern rulers and they cannot do this because of simple reason because they don't identify themselves as the servants of the Lord. If you have any position, the temptation will be to feel as a master.
You only can avoid this temptation if you have very strong consciousness that you are still the servant because somebody is higher than you, because you are the servant of the Lord.
Actually, the Krishna consciousness is the answer to all the questions and the problems of human life because it establishes human being in a proper position. It puts the consciousness in proper perspective.
Because whenever the man will manifest his enjoying spirit or exploiting mentality, he will spoil everything. He'll spoil his own life and he will spoil the lives of those around him.
Actually, therefore it is said in the first verse, it is said how everything was perfectly arranged. In the second verse it was described how the king was nonviolent.
He can only be perfectly nonviolent if you consider yourself a servant of the Lord. Otherwise, if you don't consider yourself as a servant of the Lord, you will commit violence one way or another.
You will exploit other people. You will take advantage of other people, you will really inflict pain to other people. And because you will do this, the pain will come to you.
You will spoil everything around you and you will spoil your own life. Because by inflicting pain to others you will ultimately suffer yourself according to the law of karma.
So this mentality of being the servant of the Lord is the most important in human society.
Selfless service exemplified by Lord Rama
Śrīla Prabhupāda says that actually we have the task of bringing back this mentality into the society. And ideally it should come from the ruler.
Because when Lord Rāma was the ruler, because of his service attitude, even though he was the Lord Himself, God, but he was serving his own people.
He didn't hesitate to sacrifice his own wife because of the well-being of his own people. He sent Sītā to forest, and this is still very painful to us.
Those who love Lord Rāma and they come to this chapter of his life, they cannot help but cry. But why did he do it? Because he was always conscious about welfare of his subjects.
He thought, if I allow this, then everyone else will allow this.
Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas tat tad evetaro janaḥ sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute lokas tad anuvartate is looking to a Śreṣṭha of somebody who is prominent of the society Vartate is looking to a Shreshta of somebody who is prominent of the society and his behaviour becomes a proof or uh evidence for him to follow.
Sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute. Whatever they do, I will follow and for me it will be Pramani. I will tell, you know, such and such does this. Why can't I do this? Of course, I can do this. Bill Clinton has a girlfriend.
Why can't I have a girlfriend? I'm not less than Bill Clinton.
People will have this natural tendency, always follow some leaders, and therefore in the Vedic civilization the greatest stress was there on the qualities of the leader.
Even Krishna says that this science of Bhagavad-gītā or the science of karma yoga, the science of selfless actions was transmitted through the parampara of kings, of saintly kings.
So he stresses this because if the king follows then the subjects will follow. If the king doesn't follow, subjects will not follow. Why should they follow? Why should they bother? They have praman.
They don't bother to read scriptures, they don't bother to think about life much. They just look at the big animal and if the big animal behaves as an animal, they also behave like small animals.
And Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam said that in the modern day and age, you know, there are big camels, big asses, big lions, and big dogs and you know the rest of the society are small dogs, small asses, small camels.
Story of Manu on kingly responsibilities
Because the leaders of the society are like camels and ducks and asses, you know, everyone else followed their example. In uh there is an interesting story about Manu. Manu was the first king.
And he was teaching basically other kings. He was mostly concerned with the duties of Brahmanas and Kshatrias, because Brahmanas and Kshatriyas are prominent in the society and everyone follows their example.
Brahmanas and Kshatrias, their main duty in the society is to train other people, to give the example to give them proper training so that they become dignified human beings so that they become happy.
So once kings they gathered around Manu Maharaj in the forest. At that time he already renounced his kingly duties and he was in the forest performing austerities, which was very important for the king.
And they asked Manu, please tell us what are the duties of the leader. Please tell us what are the duties of the king. And he started telling them and he was so heavy
he was saying that you have to do this and you have to do this and you have to do this and you have to be absolutely spotless and you have to you know, be so strict with yourself and you have to control your senses and you have to really be ideal in all regards.
And while he was speaking the thunder started because everyone was a little bit if you want to be the leader and everyone wants to be the leader. If not the big leader a small leader everyone wants.
At least he wants to be a leader of his wife. It's no problem, you can be. But you have to be perfect for this.
So it was so heavy, so intense, the you know clouds gathered together and the thunder started and all the kings started trembling. So ultimately one of them asked in a very pitiful voice, he said,
you know, it's it's it's okay what you're saying, but do we have any privileges? You know what I mean? What we will get in return. And Manu Maharaj said, people seeing you will bow down. This is your only privilege.
Seeing your virtues and qualities, people will bow down. They will bow their head because they will see this is my leader. There are no other privileges. Only duties.
So if you want to be a leader, it's fine. But it's a heavy duty and everyone has to understand that this is the duty of any prominent person in the society, or śreṣṭha in the society.
And if the śreṣṭha or the ruler in the society is perfect, then everything will be perfect because he will serve as the via media between the man and God. Sometimes people misunderstand this.
That the ruler or the king should be respected as God. Like still in Thailand there are kings and all the kings are called Rām. Rām twenty-second, Rām fifty-seventh, Rām eighty-nine so on so forth. They're all called Rām.
And it's still a criminal punishment, a criminal offense. If somebody, maybe you are a, you know, foreigner or whatever, if you say something bad about the king, it's a criminal offense. Why?
Because the king is supposed to be representative of God. And I offending him, you're offending God. And therefore you have to be punished. Nowadays, first of all, rulers are bad.
Second of all, subjects don't have proper respect towards the rulers. The natural envy of the human being manifests in this way and they uh start criticizing the rulers, which is not proper.
Actually, the very position should be respected. If somebody is a ruler, you know it it's not proper to criticize him because he's a ruler. It's not proper.
So, um, basically what is described in this verse, and Prabhupada very uh beautifully explains this in his purport, that um
Restoring human connection with the Divine
the king sets the proper behaviour and this proper behavior sets the example for everyone else how to relate with God and with nature. Because we lost our connection with God.
Because we lost our proper relationship with God. And it's all pervading practically everywhere. There is no exception. You know, people superficially uh may claim themselves religious.
I am Muslim, I am Christian, I am this and that, but actually there is no real connection with God, or no real service attitude.
Because people lost connection with God, all other connections or relationships of people are also destroyed. There are three basic relationships which every human being has.
The relationship with God, relationship with nature or environment, and relationship with other people. If you lose the connection with God, ultimately, inevitably, you will lose proper relationship
So first you have to establish properly your connection with God. Then you will be able to understand how to relate to nature. Now people are exploiting nature, it's so bad.
And they're trying to solve this crisis, you know. They first they create the crisis, then they try to solve the crisis by means of creating another crisis. Albert Einstein, greatest scientist of the previous century,
he said the greatest mistake of a human being is the understanding that they can solve the problem created by their own mind with the same mind.
First you create the problem with your imperfect mind, then with the same imperfect mind you try to solve the same problem. Which you created yourself. What you will end up with? You will end up with bigger problem.
And bigger problem.
And bigger problem. What should be then when we have the problem, we have to really try to change our mind. Because the mind is the source of this problem. You know. People are creating problems now. Because they don't know how to relate properly to the environment.
They are exploiting the environment, now this you know global warming. Everywhere. The weather is upside down. Here there is rain, although it is not supposed to rain here.
Somewhere it's a drought although it's supposed to rain there just everything is upside down. Especially this year. In Europe there was no winter. There was no snow.
In Russia, which is famous for its winters, you know, sometimes the weather goes minus 30, minus 40 in Russia. There was not a flake of snow the whole winter and two months December January there was no, not snow at all.
You know people were going crazy, they were you know not only people, the trees were going crazy, trees in January they wanted to uh have the leaves in Russia, which is unheard of. Everything is just upside down.
Everything is messed up. Why it is messed up? Because, you know, and in India the winter uh uh vice versa, in India the winter was so severe, you know. I was in Māyāpur.
Uh in February, usually it's nice and warm in February in Māyāpur. It was cold, freezing cold. It was almost snowing. I thought maybe I go back to Russia because it's warmer in Russia. People messed up everything.
Why did they mess up everything? Ultimately because, something is wrong with their mind. What is wrong with their mind? They cannot make the proper connection with the Lord.
Because only when you have the proper connection with the Lord, then you have the service mentality: I am the slave of the Lord, I am dependent on Him. I am totally completely dependent on Him. Then you will make it proper.
Now people are dependent on their minds. Instead of being slaves or servants of the Lord, they act as slaves of their own mind. What is better? Tell me.
To be the servant of the Lord, who is definitely much more intelligent than our mind. Or to be the servant of your own mind. So you know you are anyway servant.
You are the servant of the Lord and then you will have the proper guidance, proper intelligence, proper attitude, proper happiness, proper peace of mind. Or you are the slave or the servant of your own mind of your whims.
You know, you have this whimsical desire. Your mind all of a sudden desires something. And because you are the slave of the mind, you just run, run, run doing this uh you know.
You just create one problem after another problem after another. People are now dependent on their own intelligence.
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes in the purport that people are trying they're dependent on the factories and machineries which are invention of their intelligence.
They created the problem and then they say, oh no problem, we will solve it. Wait. We will figure it out.
Now in Europe they employed, I don't know, a few hundreds or maybe thousands of scientists how to s you know solve this global warming crisis. And all these you know scientists able to give some solutions.
But it will create another solution another problem. Another crisis ahead of us. Worse crisis. But no problem we will get more scientists. And they will create bigger problems.
Because people they under this illusion that I can I I can do it. No problem. I will make Yeah, we will figure it out. We will make some islands in the sea, but they do it here, you know, beautiful islands.
We will do something else. We don't need to do islands. As a human being you're not supposed to create islands. This is Lord Brahma's duty. This is not duty. You're not supposed to do all these crazy things.
You're supposed to serve the Lord and serve everyone else and uh in this way become happy. You're supposed to do sacrifices.
In Vedic scriptures or in the Vedic culture, the proper way of relating to the environment is called yajña. Because basically yajña is the way to say thank you. You know, yajña sacrifice means that you are saying thank
you to all the demigods, to all the forces, subtle forces of the environment which provide you. You know like here it is said that even rivers and trees were paying tax to the king.
Significance of sacrifice and expressing gratitude
And this principle that we are obliged to do something for somebody is very important. Basically, yajna is a global taxing system. Because you know so far there is no tax for air, right? Nobody pays tax for air.
Of course it's a good idea probably soon there will be air tax. But still we're breathing. Air is the most important in our life. How long we can go without food?
Maybe a few days, forty days sometimes some people can go without food. Couple of days we can go without water. Five days maybe I don't know how many days. But without air, how how long you can live? You know, a few minutes.
Maybe three minutes. Five minutes at max. But who gave us the air? Somebody gave us the air. I don't know who, but somebody somebody arranged for it. So basically the yagya is the system which instills
in your consciousness that you have to serve, that you have to say thank you. You have to say thank you for the air, you have to say thank you for the water, you have to say thank you for the food.
And ultimately you will have to say thank you to the Lord. And in this way you will feel that you are the servant. Now people are just taking.
They're just squeezing the material nature, trying to get more and more, more oil. You know let's squeeze this earth, you know. Let's suck it out, suck it out, suck it out. But the duty of the human being is to give.
You can take, no problem. You have to take something which you need, but you soon take more than you need and you should definitely give back. You should be thankful.
And this only comes in your consciousness if you have again your relationship with the Lord. And the same way, the same kind of attitude, which is in the second verse being described towards human being.
In the first verse, the proper relationship with the environment is described. In the second verse, the proper relationship with the human being is described. It is said that the king Yudhiṣṭhira was so non-violent.
There was not a drop or slight trace of exploitive mentality in here. He didn't want to take advantage of fathers. Therefore everyone was happy.
Therefore there was no uh classes Adhivautika, and he are the Athenian classes. Everyone was hated because uh he was non violent and he set this standard for everyone.
We are not supposed to exploit others, we're supposed to serve others, we're supposed to give. This is our duty in life.
But again, people forget about this perfect setup of their life which brings about happiness and peace in mind because they forget about relationship with God.
You know if you forgot about your relationship with God you will exploit nature and you will exploit others around you.
If you remember that you are servant of the Lord, you will serve the nature, you will properly relate to the nature, and the nature will pay in return everything which you need.
Breakdown of relationships in modern society
And you will also serve uh human beings, you will serve your fellow men, your near and dear ones, the little everything. 'Cause now everything is upside down. Everything you know really.
We're talking about that everything is backwards or messed up in the environment. Look how everything is just messed up in the human society. In India it's still somewhat okay. Although it goes very quickly down to hell.
Really quickly. I was told that a few years back there was just a few hundred divorces in the whole of India a year. Now it's already, you know, kind of coming to the normal human standards.
You know, you divorce and divorce and divorce and divorce. In in in America. Uh you know, it's so it's so common, people just divorce and even devotees they sometimes they joke about it.
Srila Prabhupada established this new nice temple in Los Angeles And he called this temple New Dvārakā. And then devotees they call themselves this temple Nu Divorska. Because everyone is divorced is there.
It's supposed to be Dvaraka, but it's just divorce. You know it's it's so bad. Uh in America, like for example in America. Children's it's not a It's not unusual.
Then the children call police and pol and and tell that my parents should be arrested. And police comes and arrests the parents.
It's just crazy. The world is going crazy and everyone is just following very happily this American glorious society where there is no relationship with people. Really, there is no relationship there.
It's so destroyed totally completely. Previously, you know, people were living in one house nearby and they would know each other, they would you know, have some relationship.
Now I know people uh they live thirty years uh in one entrance, in one house, you know. They don't know the names of each other. They don't care. They just don't know.
Because either I don't care or I exploit you. This is the only relationship which is there. There is no service. There is no love.
Because of this basic defect of human civilization nowadays that people forgot that they're servants of the Lord. Everything else is messed up. The love is going away from human society.
The love towards the nature and the love towards our fellow human beings.
Solution to human suffering through service
So this is a very important lesson for all of us. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this, that the solution for all our problems. And please raise your hands who have some problems.
So if you have any problems, there is a universal solution to this. Feel yourself as a servant of God. All the time, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Not just on Fridays. Fridays okay.
It's nice for a change to feel different. But if we want to have permanent solution to all our problems, we have to feel I'm the servant, not the master. Always. I'm always the servant of the Lord. Never am I a master.
Never am I anything else. The Sanatana Gosvami, he asked this question of Śrīla Prabhupāda. He says, why am I suffering? But first he asks, who am I?
Because if you want to know the answer to the second question, why am I suffering? You first have to know the answer to the first question, who you are. Because you are suffering only because of one reason.
Because you are not behaving properly according to your proper constitutional nature.
So Śrīla Prabhupāda, answering this question, who you are, who I am, jīvera svarūpa, nitya kṛṣṇa-dāsa. Our svarūpa, our real nature is always nitya kṛṣṇa-dāsa. I am eternal servant of Krishna. I am always the servant of Krishna. If you know this, there will be no pleasures, no sufferings, no
miseries. You will have happy life. Really happy life. You will be happy human beings. If you forget about this, you're doomed to be miserable. I'm sorry to say this, but it's true and we can see it.
It's proven by so many examples. And this beautiful picture of ideal society which is being depicted here is the illustration of this point that
if you have the protection of the Lord, feeling yourself as the servant of the Lord, then everything else is fine. Everything else is profit.
If you don't have the protection of the Lord, by not having his uh proper attitude, service attitude towards him. Then well try it yourself and you know, but don't blame the Lord at the end.
Because people usually they depend on their intelligence and at the end they say, oh Lord is so bad. He makes me suffer. My dear, so you yourself the cause of your own suffering.
People they have to they always pointing out he is guilty and he is guilty and ultimately, but they don't remember that you know when you point out there are three more fingers pointing out towards yourself.
Ultimately, this is only I who is the cause of my problems. Okay. Thank you very much.
Respecting leaders in modern governance
Any questions? With pleasure, actually. I used to go more as not to say he said he said I should uh this uh this thing of the thing of the nation should be like in a sorry to the law law, he said.
But at present, if anybody any any any politician or any any private should present, if you talk about especially in India anything about the core, their freedom as a is a kind is a fundamentalist, he's he's he is he is unfit to rule the nation and so far it is uh justified in the world.
Still, see it's the duty of the ruler or king to be perfect in all regards. It's a duty to a subject to respect the king.
Even if you cannot respect him as a person, you still have to respect him as a position, as a function in the society. If there is no respect, uh it's bad. Uh because the respect has to be there.
You know, y y you you have to respect the king. When all these newspapers they publish uh articles about rulers it's it's ultimately not good. Of course this is secondary duty. This is not as important as the duty of the king to be perfect.
So the emphasis is of course you're right, the king or ruler has to be perfect, the prime minister has to be perfect.
But at the same time, it's still our duty to be respectful towards the king because he is still representative of the Lord. It's like this the husband has to take care of the wife and protect the wife.
But sometimes the husband is not good. He doesn't protect the wife. Still, it's the duty of the wife to respect the husband. Because at least this part will be problem.
It's not the justification for us to do something wrong because somebody else did it wrong. I still have to do my part of the duty.
And my part of the duty towards the king is to respect him because he is the representative of the Lord in the state. As much as the duty of the wife is to respect the husband even though the husband may not be ideal.
Still, it's the duty of the children to respect the parents. The parents may be divorced. Still it's the duty of the children to respect them. Uh and it has to be established.
You know, of course respect means that there has to be proper behaviour, if there is no proper behaviour, it's difficult, but still we we should try to do it. We should do it.
Uh b because without respect we cannot the society will go to hell very quickly.
The children have to respect the parents, the wife has to respect the husband, the husband has to respect the king, and the king has to respect the Lord. Did I answer the question, is that
Maintaining the proper mood in chanting
we're there is a question, but it's not in this topic general question. Okay.
Devotees even after ten years, fifteen years, then it's gone, they do that. If they chant two days good, three, four days the chanting is not giving any sort of uh motivation, the vibration is not good.
So can you just suggest, you are the representative of Śrīla Prabhupāda. And if you are a devotee, you can just give us some guidance on how to each and get all the seven days the same motivation. Hmm. I tell you a story.
There was one guru and he started thinking about successor. Shishya who can become a guru. And he had few choices.
So he picked up three of his Shishas and he told them to go to Dharmashala and stay in Dharmasala for a few days. So they went. And then he asked the Shishis, what are the lessons did you get from your staying there?
Because he wanted to see how they how they intelligent. You know, because we live and the way we observe the reality speaks a lot about our own perception and intelligence.
So somebody said, yeah, you know there was this lesson that people were coming and the hospital received, and the guru was not impressed.
And then the last disciple of his he said, I got a very important lesson in this dharmasala. I saw a mirror there. And I saw that the owner of this dharmasala, every day he would clean the mirror.
Because if he would know that if he would not do it even for one day, the mirror would become dirty. You know. You don't know how it becomes dirty, but it becomes dirty, you know, on its own accord.
So when the guru heard this uh reply, he said, You're my success. Because you have understood the most important principle, the mind has to be cleansed regularly.
Otherwise the dirt will come, you will not even notice how it will come. So why we don't why we're not getting good from our chanting because our mind is disturbed. Why it is disturbed?
Because the some dirt is there, some anxiety, some this and this and this and this.
Therefore it is said that, you know if you want to have this constantly nice chanting and everything, then you have to do some other cleansing procedure constantly.
Nitya-bhāgavata-sevā, every day you have just read before chanting. Just read one verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Not just No. First you set up your mind properly. By reading one verse of Bhagavad-gītā.
By you know getting into proper mood who I am because why our chanting is not efficient again because of my improper consciousness or improper identity. My sambandha or connection with the Lord has to be proper.
Who is the Lord? Who is Krishna? You know, we can Krishna, but who is Krishna? We forget about this. Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna. Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram.
So f for chanting to be efficient the mood has to be proper. And to set the proper mood, you have to remember who you are in relationship to Krishna. I'm chanting the names of God and I'm calling him. That's his name.
Just imagine, somebody calls your name. And we all know, you know, somebody calls our name, they all would become attentive. Somebody calls you, hey, come here.
You come because he called you and at the moment you come, he turns away and walks. What will you think about this person? You say he's he's just he's he's he's rashing, he's I mean he is a he's a fool.
So what do we do with Krishna? We call him Krishna. And Krishna, he hears and he comes, and we say and goes on that. We don't pay the attention. So we call Krishna.
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
Actually Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī, he says that the proper kīrtana or proper chanting of the holy name should be in the mood that Krishna is sitting in front of you. He's right in front of you. And you are addressing him.
I told this recently in one lecture that you know if you call somebody if if you call Krishna by his name, you ask him to come and he comes. And then so many people approached me after the lecture.
They didn't ask in the lecture, but after the lecture they said, okay, I call him, he comes. So what do I do with him? He's sitting in front of me. What do I do with him?
What do I do with somebody who is very near and dear come to you, you just say a few nice words to him and tell him, you know, this is my life. You tell this to Krishna when you call him.
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare. This is I am I am your soul. I'm very weak. I'm very useless. I'm very helpless. But still I'm trying to serve you. And this is this should be the mood.
If you have this proper mood, then the vibration will be proper. Because you are personally addressing Krishna.
If we see it as some mechanical ritual that we should murmur something in the morning, this is this is my religion. I should murmur something. And then somehow or other Krishna will take care of me in the end.
This is not this is not good. Uh so the the main point is again, our chanting is proper when our consciousness
is proper, our consciousness is proper if we have very clear understanding of who I am in relationship to Krishna, in relationship to Holy Name. And what is the what is it. Again, this is the point of relationship.
As I said, first and foremost in our life our relationship with Krishna, with the holy name, because we don't know Krishna, we don't see him personally.
Therefore, our relationship with the holy name should be properly established. I am the servant of the Holy Name. And I am trying to serve the Holy Name by chanting the Holy Name and by giving the Holy Name to others.
Material prosperity and accumulated karma
Giving them this gift of presence of Krishna in their life. Maharaj one more question here.
who is asking in this place if you see there's maybe the Middle East and so to say in Dubai, there is no much ideas or any such yajñas performed. Still there is so much of war around and still there is so much of safety and so much of wealth. How is this happening?
See um first of all it's a result of some previous piety. The previously people were simple and pious. Usually this is how the civilization works.
People they're very s in the beginning they are very simple, they're quite poor, and because they're simple and poor, because they depend on God, they live pious life and they establish certain you know, certain amount of piety.
And then the piety brings some opulence, brings some uh prosperity, brings some good results, wealth, and people forget about God and they use up uh this This uh this piety or this punya which they accumulated.
And when the punya is usually used up, everything is messed up. So this will happen. everywhere. Here it will also happen. There is protection, there is prosperity, there is wealth here because of the previous piety.
And if people don't keep this piety, don't commit themselves to lead the pious or because see yajñas it's not necessarily this traditional way of doing yajñas.
In Bhagavad-gītā Krishna explains that when you do pranayama it's yajña. When you control your senses in a marriage life it's yajña. When you serve others it's yagya.
You know whatever you do, if you do it as a sacrifice, it becomes a sacrifice. It's not necessarily that you have to pour ghee into fire. This is one way of sacrifice, but there are so many other sacrifices.
Krishna in the fourth chapter lists I don't know twelve or more different sacrifices. Sacrifice basically means you restrict yourself. And we can see that people even in the Muslim countries they're they're strict.
They're restricting themselves. This is yajña. And uh uh uh this is this present state of affairs is a result of their piety which accumulated through the yajña of the past. And if they lose this uh, it will be destroyed.
The prosperity will be destroyed at one point of time. You don't have to be a prophet to predict it. This is the law of karma. And why people in India are suffering now, why people are so poor?
Because again they lost they misused their piety.
And another reason is because people they know more in India there is knowledge it's more available and still they don't follow and therefore the reactions are more severe in India.
Sometimes people ask why India is so poor. It is supposed to be the most advanced country. And it is still the most advanced country in many regards.
But it is so poor because the reactions of misusing the knowledge is... The reaction will come but it will be less.
If you know that you're not supposed to kill the cow and you kill the cow, the reactions will be much more severe.
And we see now now in India in many states they're killing the cows without without any reservations. And this is very bad.
Updates on the Moscow temple project
Very bad. Maharaj, uh, we would also like to know from you about the Moscow temple and what recently is happening there. Okay. Thank you very much for this question. The yajña is going on. Big sacrifice.
Last year I came here, exactly one year back little less than one year, maybe one week less than one year.
And I told you that there is a problem that the Moscow government took uh remember our temple, gave the land, took back the land. But the devotees were very determined. They were trying hard to pursue this.
And we told the Moscow government, we are not moving from the land because we have no place to move. You give us the place to move then we will move.
So there was a very severe battle and negotiation with the government and uh some pushing and pulling and you know so many different techniques uh were employed in our dealings with the government.
Finally the government gave us five acres of land and it's twice as much as they gave before. Before they gave us only two and a half acres. This is further away from the center, but twice as much. And it's better for us.
So they gave us five acres of land and Śrīla Prabhupāda actually there was one incident when Śrīla Prabhupāda was preaching in Germany and when the preaching started in Germany the demons and in Germany there are powerful demons, they started to fight against the devotees and they wanted to finish the devotees.
But instead of being finished, the devotees increased it. And Śrīla Prabhupāda said that this is our slogan. Demons say let it be finished and we say let it increase. Let it double.
So he said they wanted to finish and they saw that it was finished, but it doubled. So the same formula is applicable to Moscow. They wanted to finish us, but it doubled. Now the land land is twice as big as before.
And we got the signatures and we are uh the the planning committee. Usually it's very difficult to approve the design, especially if it's unusual design in a planning committee.
You have to go again and again and again and they find fault with the design and say in our case from the first hearing it was approved.
They created a beautiful design in a Rajasthani style, very beautiful design. And it's on the bank of the river, in the high bank of the river, the forest is there. It's a very beautiful place.
So you please come to Moscow when the temple is there. In a couple of years, I hope it will be there. So the planning committee approved the design.
Now we have to vote to get so many other approvement from the environmental committee, from the energy committee, from the sewage committee, or whatever committees are there, I don't know.
So twenty plus different signatures to approve and then we can start building the temple. So we hope that by the end of the year we will be able to do it if if and it's a big if if we get the money.
If we don't get the money, I don't know what we're gonna do. But I I hope we will get some money, Krishna will somehow give. So we'll try to, you know, find some help from different corners of the world.
Um but it's with the blessings of the Lord and with the prayers of the devotees it's it's going. So we have this victory and actually this is victory of all the devotees
of ISKCON. Not only our victory, it's your victory too.
Personal journey to Krishna consciousness
Moscow temple. He just many of the devotees would like to know how and when did you join the movement and your interaction with Śrīla Prabhupāda? And it's a long story. But I didn't see Śrīla Prabhupāda personally.
Prabhupada was in Russia in seventy-one and that time I was only 14 years old. So, and I was in another city, so I didn't see Prabhupada personally. I was only one Russian disciple of Prabhupada who saw him personally.
Um, but um, I joined later, um, I was student and then I I became a postgraduate student. I became a vegetarian uh quite early in my life, because of some reasons in a very natural way.
But then when I became a postgraduate student, uh, I was a biologist and molecular biologist. And I I have to admit, I have to confess, this is my confession, that I was killing poor rats.
Really, I mean, I still f I'm still horrified by by remembering this things how I did it to them. I I was taking their liver. That's probably my liver is so bad now because I was inflicting pain to the animals.
And in the name of the science. I was a research scientist and I was doing this. And I was doing this, but I somehow rather just I I was not happy, I was not satisfied by doing this.
And um, and then I read an article about evolution, and in this article from the point of biochemistry, they were speculating how the life came about. What was the first proteins or DNA?
Because proteins without DNA will not work. DNA without proteins will not work.
So they were speculating how did it happen, you know, at this moment when uh just all of a sudden proteins connected with the DNA and figured out how to produce each other uh you know, from this mechanism.
And I read it and I thought this is the most ridiculous thing which I heard. Because it was solving that this is just fantasy. The author said that together they appeared and you know and the life sprang from this.
I thought this is this is ridiculous, this is not science. It just doesn't happen this way. So I didn't believe, I kind of lost my faith in science in one sense. And I started thinking about God.
And then I had a friend of mine who became a devotee first, and he didn't tell me that he's a devotee. He just gave me chanting beads.
And he said, This is a mantra, and you chant this mantra, and he didn't tell me who is Krishna, who is Rāma, and what is Hare. He said, Just chant this and you will become more happy.
And I took the beads and I thought, Let me try, because I'm not happy now. Maybe I will become happy. So just you know one year after that I found out that Krishna is God and I was shocked.
I was chanting Hare Krishna, but I didn't know that Krishna, who is Krishna, that he is God.
Anyway, I was I was I started, I read Bhagavad-gītā and I was very impressed. First I read Bhagavad-gītā not in Prabhupada in Prabhupada's translation but in some other translation and I was very impressed and I was chanting
and then at one point the KGB, the secret police from Russia from Soviet times came to me and they knew they found out that I'm associated with devotees and they came to me and they told me that I should serve them,
that I should report to them. And they told me if you do this, you will be okay. If you don't do this, you will lose your job, you will lose your postgraduate credits,
you will not be able to defend your thesis, you know, you will and we will put you in prison afterwards. They really they were really heavy and they were serious.
And I was thinking, you know, these big guys and they were powerful guys. KGB was the most powerful organization in the Soviet Union. There were thousands of people working there. And there was the whole department.
I don't know how many people, probably hundreds of people, which was in charge of Hare Krishna movement in Russia.
At that time there were maybe hundred Hare Krishna devotees in the whole of Russia and there was the KGB department working and searching and you know, interrogating and putting them in prison and doing all kinds of stuff.
And when they told me, either you work for us or you do your Hare Krishna thing, I thought, you know, these people and at that time I was not really serious as a devotee, I was just trying, I was experimenting all this.
And I thought these people, they are very serious about Hare Krishna, and I'm not very serious about Hare Krishna. Maybe I should also become very serious about it; they are so afraid.
There must there must be something powerful about this chanting of Hare Krishna. So instead of instead of pushing me out they they made me more serious
so I considered KGB my śikṣā-guru. And this way Krishna takes us, he teaches us through different agencies, including KGB. Thank you very much.