Granthraj 201010

Power of Holy Names - Part 1
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
Following is a humble effort to transcribe one of the Bhagavatam classes given by our beloved spiritual master Srila
Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj on 8 July 1996 in Dubai.
Maharaj recites the below verse and devotees follow after him.
yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni sā niśā paśyato muneḥ
Simple lyric. Majority of verses in Bhagavad Gita are in this lyric. Now let us see the verse 6.2.8 from Srimad
Bhagavatam
etenaiva hy aghono ’sya kṛtaṁ syād agha-niṣkṛtam

yadā nārāyaṇāyeti jagāda catur-akṣaram
The Vishnudutas continued: Even previously, while eating and at other times, this Ajaamila would call his
son, saying, "My dear Narayaṇa, please come here." Although calling the name of his son, he
nevertheless uttered the four syllables naa-raa-ya-ṇa. Simply by chanting the name of Narayana in this
way, he sufficiently atoned for the sinful reactions of millions of lives.
To sing also, you should get into the verse. Otherwise you cannot sing nicely. Lets go to the word-to-word equivalents.
etena - by this (chanting) - Many times we are asked why we should chant Hare Krishna Mahamantra. Why not 'Sree
Rama Jaya Rama Jaya Jaya Ram' etc. But I always tell that I am a fool and when I went to my Guru Maharaj, he said
that 'You are completely duns. So you simply chant the Mahamantra -
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
I just obeyed my spiritual master and continued chanting - Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare /
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Because I obeyed my spiritual master and chanted - Hare Krishna Hare
Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, I became completely satisfied. So if
you want to be happy please chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare. By continuously chanting, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama
Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, you will be satisfied and then tell others to chant - Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. They will be very blissful if they chant
continuously. This is the way. There is no difference in the names of Krishna. But this is the authoritative way given by
Srila Prabhupada. So please repeat Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare. There is no wrong in repeating, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare /Hare
Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. It is good to obey Prabhupada and chant - Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna
Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare and if you obey him you will always chant Hare
Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Jai Srila Prabhupada
ki Jai. (Gurudev is in complete bliss when he spoke the above words and made everyone chant the Mahamantra
multiple times).
This is how we should chew the words. We just took one word now - etena. Be peaceful. Do not run. "shānta" - This is
the main quality of Krishna. You know how much factories He is running? The whole manifestation. Millions of factories.
Not only material manifestation. But much larger spiritual mainfestation. The whole thing is running on His energy. He
is grazing the cows. Can you imagine ? A man with so many factories, going to graze the cows. No. That is the
difference between us and Him. We have limited capacity and He has unlimited capacity. If you come to Krishna, you
should be completely satisfied - completely shaanth. And as soon as you are shaanth - you stop speaking about
anything else. - 'nānyam vadāmi na shrunomi na cintayāmi' - See how correct is this ? You will be shānth. And as soon
as you are shaanth and you take a word, you will speak a book about it. Each shloka from Bhagavatam is whole
Bhagavatam. It is non-different. You don't need to read the 18000 verses. No. Only one verse. But you get into it and
realise it. After realisation, you will develop the qualities of Krishna and nothing will disturb you.
What is there in material problems? They are going to come anyway. Srila Prabhupada used to tell a story - One man
was waiting near the sea-coast. People asked him "what are you doing?" He said, "I am waiting to take bath." People
replied, "Then take bath. What are you waiting for?" He said - "No. I am waiting for the waves to stop and then I will
take bath". (Maharaj and devotees laugh.) This way our material existence is like a ocean. Different waves are coming.
You cannot think or tell Krishna - "Wait. I will come after the wave stops." They are going to come one after the other.
It is nature of material existence. We have accepted the material imprisonment. Janma mrtyu jaraa vyaadhi is there.
And apart from this adhyātmic, adhibhautik and adhidaivik miseries are there. These seven problems - there is no
remedy for it. Is there any remedy for janma ? Is there any remedy for death ? You don't wait for any peaceful
time in this existence. You will never have that. Please with all those miserable waves, you continue with
devotional service and then a time will come when the waves will not affect you at all. That time we are
waiting for. And please pass on this culture to the younger ones and if you are able to do that successfully, then they
will be happy."
Krishna willing we will hear more nectar from Maharaj in the forthcoming mails.
Thank you very much.

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Sudarshana devi dasi.
Lessons from Bali Maharaj - Part 3

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev.
We are continuing the topic on "Lessons from Bali Maharaj". The realization of Bali Maharaj on being arrested by the
Lord is nicely expressed in seven transcendental gem of verses spoken by him in 8 Canto Chapter 22 - Verses 4
through 11. We have discussed verses 4 to 9 in the previous two offerings on this subject. We saw how Bali Maharaj
logically and sequentially explains his realization and his reasons for surrendering his life to the Supreme Lord Krishna.
We will see the next verse in this offering.
SB 8.22.10
itthaṁ sa niścitya pitāmaho mahān
agādha-bodho bhavataḥ pāda-padmam
dhruvaṁ prapede hy akutobhayaṁ janād
bhītaḥ svapakṣa-kṣapaṇasya sattama
My grandfather, the best of all men, who achieved unlimited knowledge and was worshipable for
everyone, was afraid of the common men in this world. Being fully convinced of the substantiality
afforded by shelter at Your lotus feet, He took shelter of Your lotus feet, against the will of his father and
demoniac friends, who were killed by Your own self.
Bali Maharaj is expressing the reasons for surrendering his life to the Lord because there is real substance in this. How
is it? He has got a proof that his grandfather Prahlad Maharaj surrendered to the lotus feet of the Lord and achieved
three things.
1. Unlimited knowledge of everything

2. Worshipable for everyone
3. Fearlessness in material existence
1. Unlimited knowledge agādha-bodhaḥ: In the material world everyone of us wanted to acquire unlimited
knowledge of everything. But we can attain unlimited knowledge only when we become knowledgeable of the Absolute
Supreme Lord Sri Krishna. Prahlad Maharaj attained this position by means of his unflinching devotional service unto
the Supreme Lord.
2. Worshipable for everyone - mahān: We want to be recognized by everybody and become famous all over the
world. People have started creating temples for celebrities who might be famous in some specific field in this mundane
world. But we can become famous in this world and become worshipable for everyone only if we worship the unlimited
Supreme Lord. Prahlad Maharaj did not glorify anyone, even his own father who was terrorizing the entire universe. He
simply glorified the Lord and the result is that he is glorified for millions of years, even today.
3. Fearlessness in material existence - akuto bhayaṁ: When we realize our real position in this material world
and that we as the eternal soul, eternal servant of Krishna exist eternally, then we will be free of the fear of death.
Prahlad Maharaj was so transcendentally free from the bodily conception that even when his father was devising all
means and ways to kill him, he did not budge an inch from his unflinching devotion to the Supreme Lord. The first and
foremost effect of devotional service is that we become free from the fear of material existence.
We should realize that in the material world we can never acquire unlimited knowedge and even if we acquire such
unlimited knowledge, we can become worshipable only as long as we are in this world. Once we exit, there is no
question of remembrance at all. By the efflux of time everything is forgotten. We forget our own family members who
have passed away after few years. Assuming that we get good knowledge and fame all over the world, still fearfulness
will be there as to how to retain the knowledge and fame. There is a constant threat attached to it. We can never
become fearless in material existence. Prahlad Maharaj was never fearful even he was to be dropped off from the cliff
by his own father. He had firm faith in the eternal shelter of the Lord's lotus feet. Thus by the example of his grand-
father, Bali Maharaj is showing us the importance of surrendering unto the Lord under all circumstances.
We can see the classic example of Srila Prabhupada in the recent history who due to his unlimited knowledge is still
famous all over the world and exhibited complete fearlessness in the material existence. He was fearless in preaching
the Supreme Truth even to the extent of calling the leaders of the 'so-called' society as rascals and animals. He is
worshiped 24 hours around the globe even though he has disappeared from this world 33 years before. Bali Maharaj's
realization that surrendering everything to the Supreme Lord never goes in vain but in actuality makes us gain
unlimited knowledge, famous and fearless in material existence. Everyone of us from the core of heart as devotee has
to admit that we have the desire of achieving these three things. Why not we surrender to the will of the Lord following
the footsteps of great Mahajanas like Prahlad Maharaj, Bali Maharaj and Srila Prabhupada?
Krishna willing we will look at the next verse spoken by Bali Maharaj in the ensuing mail on this subject.

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev,
Sajjana Priya Krishna das
Abu Dhabi.
Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 19

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In continuation of our discussion on the topic "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", we were meditating on the below
qualities that we need to learn from one of the spiritual masters of avadhuta brahmana - Ocean.
1. prasanna — pleasing;
2. gambhīraḥ — very grave;
3. durvigāhyaḥ — unfathomable;
4. duratyayaḥ — unsurpassable;
5. ananta-pāraḥ — unlimited;
6. akṣobhyaḥ — not to be disturbed;
We had a peek into the quality of being prasanna (cheerful and pleasing), gambhira (grave), ananta-pāraḥ (unlimited)
and akṣobhyaḥ (never disturbed) in the last few mails of this series. Today we will try to delve into the next quality
durvigāhyaḥ (unfathomable).
5. durvigāhyaḥ - unfathomable: Ocean is so vast and deep that even centuries of research has made scientists
completely insignificant.
a) Every gallon of sea water contains an average of four ounces of salt. And there’s enough salt in the world’s oceans
to cover the entire surface of the earth with a layer of salt more than 147 feet thick! But scientists are not quite sure
how all that salt got into the oceans.
b) More than a century of oceanographic research has revealed that oceans play a critical role in regulating earth's
weather and climate, house extraordinarily diverse plants and animals, provide food and medicines, and significantly
influence the creation and ever-changing appearance of our coastlines. However, the scientists are still paddling at the
surface of this immense entity.
c) Its sheer size is intimidating. Even at jet speeds, we ultimately have to sleep (or read a couple of books) while
traversing the ocean. And breadth is just one of their dimensions. The ocean's depth is even harder to fathom.
These are just a tip of the iceberg. Pure devotees and their activities are also unfathomable just like the ocean. We
cannot estimate the depth of their knowledge and realization as much as we cannot measure the depth of the ocean.
Some of their activities will be inconceivable and even bewildering but because they are directly and fully engaged in
Krishna's service, whatever they do pleases Krishna. We have the example of Srila Prabhupada in front of us.
1. When all other saints and sadhus were strictly following the traditional principle that one should not cross the ocean
or preach in the mleccha countries, he defied the tradition and preached the message of Bhagavat-gita all over the
world.
2. When everyone else would be satisfied just to retire in the old age and play with their grandchildren, he started a
worldwide movement that took the world by storm. And that too with just 40 Rs!
3. Even though he was very sick many times, still he would continue with his travel all over the world and preach
tirelessly. 14 world tours in a short span of 10 years that too at the age of 70-80!
4. He wrote so many books in such a short time that a normal human cannot write for his entire life time.
5. When he got the land in Juhu for the Bombay ISKCON temple, everyone was criticizing him for purchasing land in an
area largely occupied by the fisher men and in such a far away land from the city center. At that time Prabhupada
replied, "You do not know. Soon there will not be an inch of land available in this area." Everyone who visits the temple
now will realize how true are his words.
There are innumerable such instances where Srila Prabhupada showed us how unfathomable and inconceivable he was
and it is not possible to list them all here.
We had many such instances of our Guru Maharaj too who completely bewildered us by his inconceivable activities.
Just to quote one example, so many times devotees who were personally serving him, had seen him critically ill,
gasping for breath and completely wiped out. When they try to take him to the hospital, he would forcefully deny and
ask them to just recite Bhagavat-gita/Bhagavatam and to the devotee's surprise very soon he would get his breath
back, will look as if nothing has happened and then to the complete astonishment of the devotees, will go on to give
Bhagavatam class for 4-5 hours non-stop.
Pure devotee's activities are unfathomable because they are fully charged with loving devotional service unto the
Supreme Lord. Srila Prabhupada beautifully says in his purport to SB 9.4.68: vaiṣṇavera kriyā mudrā vijñeha nā bujhaya
. Even the most learned or experienced person cannot understand the movements of a Vaishnava, a pure devotee. No
one, therefore, should criticize a pure Vaishnava. A Vaishnava knows his own business; whatever he does is
precisely right because he is always guided by the Supreme Personality of Godhead."
This quality of being unfathomable behooves us to simply accept the glorious activities of the pure devotees of the
Lord as it is with awe and reverence and worship them with earnestness to bestow us with a drop of eagerness to
render service to the Lord. Trying to get into the logic or reasoning behind those unfathomable activities spoils the
pleasure of relishing it just as it is with the pastimes of the Supreme Lord.
At the end of the day, we just have to feel transcendentally proud to have born very near to the age when great
acaryas like Srila Prabhupada and our Guru Maharaj appeared and gave us this transcendental mercy of unalloyed
bhakti unto Lord Sri Krishna. If not for their mercy, we cannot read a single word of Srimad Bhagavat-Gita or Srimad
Bhagavatam what to speak of understanding and preaching that message?

Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi.
Lessons from Bali Maharaj - Part 4

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev.
We are continuing the topic on "Lessons from Bali Maharaj". The realization of Bali Maharaj on being arrested by the
Lord is nicely expressed in seven transcendental gem of verses spoken by him in 8 Canto Chapter 22 - Verses 4
through 11. We have discussed verses 4 to 10 in the previous three offerings on this subject. Now let us see the next
verse.
athāham apy ātma-ripos tavāntikaṁ

daivena nītaḥ prasabhaṁ tyājita-śrīḥ
idaṁ kṛtāntāntika-varti jīvitaṁ
yayādhruvaṁ stabdha-matir na budhyate
Only by providence have I been forcibly brought under Your lotus feet and deprived of all my opulence.
Because of the illusion created by temporary opulence, people in general, who live under material
conditions, facing accidental death at every moment, do not understand that this life is temporary. Only
by providence have I been saved from that condition.
This verse is exemplary expression of Bali Maharaj's humility. He says that he has been saved by the Lord by
providence and not because of his own endeavour for devotional service. Bali Maharaja appreciated how the Lord had
saved him from such a bewildered life of ignorance. He therefore said that his intelligence had been stunned. stabdha-
matir na budhyate - He could not understand how the Supreme Personality of Godhead favors His devotees by forcibly
stopping their materialistic activities. Material opulence is temporary because we are facing accidental death at every
moment. Saved from illusion created by temporary opulence of the material world.
We are all brought by providence to take shelter of the holy names of the Lord by our Gurudev or otherwise we don't
have any interest in this devotional service and therefore we should realize the material opulence we are possessing is
temporary. We are facing accidental death every moment. Devotional service and the lotus feet of the Lord is the
saving grace for us in this material world and this has to be really realized by us. Being a conditioned soul, we want
variety in our activities. If we don't remember the value of devotional service and our final moments, then we may
commit the offence of considering bhakti also as a kind of entertainment and loose the focus. Srila Prabhupada writes
in very nicely in his purport to verse SB 2.2.3 - "Since every second of human life is important, an enlightened man
should be very careful to utilize time very cautiously."
These verses, translation and purports should enlighten us within our hearts so that we do not loose this providential
mercy extended by our Gurudev, Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. Regarding providence I would like to share my own
realization, that 14 years ago when I decided to come to Abu Dhabi, my sole aim was to make more money and
become happy in this material world. By the will of providence and sheer mercy of the Lord, Gurudev has entered on
his own will to put us in the path of eternity. I am ever grateful to HG Svayam Sphurati prabhuji and his wife HG
Radhacharan mathaji for their persistence and insistence on our engaging in devotional service in Abu Dhabi and also
for their guidance in making us take shelter of our beloved Gurudev. Otherwise we were rotting in Abu Dhabi from one
mall to another mall, not knowing what to do in weekends. Lord is unlimitedly merciful in sending these wonderful
souls and above all enabling us to take shelter at the lotus feet of such a great Mahabhagavata.
I pray intensely at the lotus feet of our most lovable Gurudev, Srila Prabhupada and the Supreme Lord Krishna to give
me such a whipping that I realize these things in my life and put into practice without delay so that there is a meaning
for this providential mercy showered on me by the Lord.
Srila Gurudev ki Jai ! Srila Prabhupada ki Jai ! Bali Maharaj ki jai !

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,
Abu Dhabi.
sudHare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In continuation of our discussion on the topic "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", we were meditating on the below
qualities that we need to learn from one of the spiritual masters of avadhuta brahmana - Ocean.
SB 11.8.5
muniḥ prasanna-gambhīro durvigāhyo duratyayaḥ

ananta-pāro hy akṣobhyaḥ stimitoda ivārṇavaḥ
A saintly sage is happy and pleasing in his external behavior, whereas internally he is most grave and
thoughtful. Because his knowledge is immeasurable and unlimited he is never disturbed, and thus in all
respects he is like the tranquil waters of the unfathomable and unsurpassable ocean.
1. prasanna — pleasing;
2. gambhīraḥ — very grave;
3. ananta-pāraḥ — unlimited;
4. akṣobhyaḥ — not to be disturbed;
5. durvigāhyaḥ — unfathomable;
6. duratyayaḥ — unsurpassable;
We had a peek into the quality of being prasanna (cheerful and pleasing), gambhīraḥ (grave), ananta-pāraḥ -
(unlimited) and akṣobhyaḥ - (never disturbed) and durvigāhyaḥ (unfathomable) in the last few mails of this series.
Today we will try to delve on the last quality of ocean mentioned in this verse duratyayaḥ (unsurpassable).
6. duratyayaḥ - unsurpassable: Unsurpassable normally means 'that which cannot be exceeded', 'of the greatest
possible degree, quality or intensity. We all know how great, huge and unsurpassable ocean is. Even a big ship that
many times act as runway for fighter jets or a passenger ship that carries thousands of people or huge cargo ships that
carry thousands of tons of containers looks like a small ant compared to the enormous size of the ocean. Normally
when we have to identify a personality with this 'unsurpassable' nature, we will think of someone who is materially
very powerful, very expert, very skillful, knowledgeable and so on. But that almost always is accompanied with pride,
conceit, envy, overconfidence etc. That is not considered bad too in this world. But when the same adjective
'unsurpassable' is to be used for a saintly personality, it actually refers to their transcendental qualities and their level
of realization of the Supreme Absolute Truth.
We all have heard and discussed many times about the great feats that Srila Prabhupada performed in his short visit to
this planet. He has achieved so many things that are not possible to even dream of. All the temples he has
constructed, all the books he has written, all the devotees he has trained, all the world tours he has made alone does
not make him unsurpassable. Beyond all these achievements, it is his innumerable transcendental saintly qualities
such as humility, tolerance, courage, compassion for all the living entities, complete surrender to Lord Krishna,
unflinching dedication and determination to follow the instruction of his spiritual master and many other such
transcendental qualities that make him 'unsurpassable'. After all, the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna is completely
unsurpassable. When a devotee is fully dedicated to the service of this unsurpassable Lord, they also automatically
become 'unsurpassable', and Srila Prabhupada is the practical example in front of our eyes. For our own purification,
we will briefly look at some of the instances that made Srila Prabhupada 'unsurpassable'.
1. Humility: Once when Srila Prabhupada was explaining about the three different classes of devotees (first class -
uttama adhikari, second class - madhyama adhikari and third class - kanishta adhikari), one of the reporters asked
him, "Which class do you belong?". Obviously all the devotees present there were annoyed at this question. But Srila
Prabhupada very humbly replied, "Actually I belong to the fourth class (lower than the third class)". This response
stunned everyone including the reporter. It is easy for someone to say when they have not achieved anything and are
not an important person, but it is very difficult for someone like Prabhupada who had achieved so much in this world,
to speak so humble. Truly his humility is 'unsurpassable'. There are innumerable such instances where Srila
Prabhupada showed his humility, but for that we have to write a separate book.
2. Tolerance: How much he had to tolerate when he was trying to preach the message of Bhagavat-gita in India? If we
were to write books, we will probably write and employ servants to print and distribute. But he was doing all this by
himself. Even though he was neglected by the material-minded people still he was so tolerant in his preaching. When
he went to the West, again he had to face so many difficulties and he tolerated. Who will be eager to teach the
complicated subject matter to Westerners who do not have an iota of idea of the Vedic culture? But he ventured and
tolerated all their mistakes, lack of proper respect, etiquette and everything. He tolerated his own bodily ailments so
much that even when he was completely ill, he would continue to travel, preach and write his books. Our Guru Maharaj
used to say, "Srila Prabhupada did not write these books sitting in a 5-star hotel, eating sandwich. He
wrote these books after undertaking extreme austerities, that is why they are full of transcendental
realizations and are so much respected."
3. Courage: Srila Prabhupada was courage personified. Being completely surrendered to Lord Krishna, he had nothing
to fear in this world. Who would have the courage to call bluff on the scientists and professors calling them publicly
'fools and rascals'? Who can challenge those scientists to prove that 'life comes from matter' by even creating a
mosquito on their own? He had the courage to defy all sentiments of age-old tradition of not taking the message of
Bhagavat-gita outside the shores of India and preaching to the non-vedic people and converting them into first class
vaishnavas. As many contemporary acaryas have approved, it is not possible for us to get another saint to surpass
Srila Prabhupada's transcendental qualities in the near future.
4. Compassion: His compassion for all the living entities in well-known. ''Unsurpassable' compassion means risking
one's own life to save another living entity. Srila Prabhupada risked 2 severe heart attacks in the Jaladuta to travel to
the West to save the 'lost souls'. His unlimited compassion convinced him that so many souls are suffering all over the
world without 'love for Krishna' and they do not even know that they are missing this which is why they are suffering.
What to speak of the souls in the Western world, he is so compassionate to all the future generation 'lost cases' like
ourself and many more to come, that he has put himself in his books! Even when he was in Vrindavana, he was so
compassionate even to the scorpions and spiders that were living in his room in Radha-Damodara temple.
5. Complete Surrender to Lord Krishna: With all knowledge and achievements pride comes naturally. But this is
where Krishna really tests us and to pass that test knowledge has to be combined with humility (vidya vinaya
sampanne). Srila Prabhupada was given the title 'Bhaktivedanta Swami' because of his unsurpassable bhakti and
knowledge of the shastras. But he was not proud of that knowledge thinking that he will turn the whole world to
Krishna with his knowledge. When he reached USA, he wrote a poem which is famous as 'Markine Bhagavata dharma'.
In that he prayed to the Lord feelingly, "How will I make them understand this message of Krsna consciousness? I am
very unfortunate, unqualified and the most fallen. Therefore I am seeking Your benediction so that I can convince
them, for I am powerless to do so on my own... I have no devotion, nor do I have any knowledge, but I have strong
faith in the holy name of Krsna. I have been designated as Bhaktivedanta, and now, if You like, You can fulfill the real
purport of Bhaktivedanta." Srila Prabhupada was so completely surrendered to Krishna that he threw himself at the
lotus feet of the Supreme Lord and begged Him to use him in whatever way He wants, and the Lord used him to
maximum capacity!
6. Dedication to Spiritual Master: We do not have any eligibility to speak of this quality (rather any of the above
qualities) but having taken the service of enumerating some of the transcendental qualities of great saints, we have no
escape route. By meditating on this astounding quality of Srila Prabhupada, we pray and hope at his lotus feet that one
day we will also dedicate ourself to the mission of our spiritual master. Srila Prabhupada often would say that, even if
you do not have any other qualification, if you have this one qualification, ie., to follow the instructions of the spiritual
master, you will become successful. He has aptly written in his Bhagavatam purport 1.1.8, "The secret of success in
spiritual life is in satisfying the spiritual master and thereby getting his sincere blessings." Srila
Prabhupada hardly met his spiritual master 2-3 times but the instructions he received from him was engraved in his
heart. He took inspiration from those instructions (to print books and preach in the Western countries) and served
those instructions with heart and soul. It would be an understatement if we say that he sacrificed his life to carry out
the instructions of his spiritual master. Truly his dedication and determination to follow the instructions of his spiritual
master is incomparable and unsurpassable.
It did not take much time for us to write on these qualities but to actually follow them we have to surpass one
'unsurpassable' enemy that is sitting within us - that is our own 'mind'. We fervently pray unto the lotus feet of Srila
Prabhupada and our Guru Maharaj who gave us all the inspiration to take up devotional service, to shower their
causeless mercy so that we will cultivate at least a fraction of these qualities in our life time.
With this offering, we are concluding a glimpse of the lessons learnt from 'ocean'. Krishna willing, we will try to
continue with the lessons from the next spiritual master in our next offering.

Dedication to Spiritual Master

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev.
In recent granthraj offering, "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 20", H.G.Kalcakra prabhuji while discussing
about the qualities of ocean had described duratyayah (unsurpassable) as that 'which cannot be exceeded' The point
Prabhuji mentioned about the unsurpassable dedication of Srila Prabhupada in following the instructions of his spiritual
master and how one becomes successful in spiritual life, simply by following the instructions of his spiritual master, is
worth meditating.
In one of the lecture by Srila Prabhupada mentions how during one of the morning walks along the beach, he watched
the surfers fell off their boards and struggled to swim back out against the waves for another ride. He quoted that even
though a fish may be very tiny, she can go against the waves, but a huge elephant is useless in water. The powerful
elephant, being in a foreign situation, becomes helpless. But the little fish, because it has taken shelter of the ocean,
can swim against the biggest wave. Srila Prabhupada concluded that if we take shelter of Krishna, everything
will be easy.
The question we need to introspect ourselves honestly is as to where are we in following the instructions of our
spiritual master. Are we faithful to him? After reading and hearing so many things, if there is no change in our
behavior, then it is simply because we don't want to change. Though we cannot surrender to Lord Krishna at least by
following few instruction of our spiritual master there is chance to prove our self disciple. We have pride that we are
vegetarians and that we are not killing animals, but we don't know how much himsa we are doing through our mind,
speech and actions when we think or talk or do ill for others.
In Bhagavad Gita verse 4.39 Lord Krishna says,
śraddhāvāḻ labhate jñānaṁ tat-paraḥ saṁyatendriyaḥ

jñānaṁ labdhvā parāṁ śāntim acireṇādhigacchati
A faithful man who is absorbed in transcendental knowledge and who subdues his senses quickly attains
the supreme spiritual peace.
Srila Prabhupada in his wonderful purport to the above verse says that - "One is called a faithful man who thinks that,
simply by acting in Krsna consciousness, he can attain the highest perfection. This faith is attained by the discharge of
devotional service, and by chanting "Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama
Rama, Hare Hare," which cleanses one's heart of all material dirt."
More importantly when one who is faithful to his spiritual master can easily attain perfection in the knowledge of Krsna
consciousness without delay. When we follow the instructions of spiritual master, then everything else will fall in place.
As Srila Prabhupada mentions in purport to verse 2.8.21, "A devotee should see to the right discharge of devotional
service under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master and should not stick only to the formalities. Under the
direction of the bona fide spiritual master, one should see how much service is being executed, and not simply in the
matter of rituals. A devotee should not hanker after anything, but he should be satisfied with things that may
automatically come to him by the will of the Lord."
We are all in the middle of vast unsurpassable ocean of material miseries and we can easily get drowned in the ocean
even if there is slight agitation. Be it material life or spiritual life, we might come across so many ups and downs as the
life here is definitely not a bed of roses. Krishna Himself has told that this is duhkaalaayam ashaasvatam - temporary
and full of miseries. So when such challenges come how should we deal them ? We should remember that somehow by
the causeless mercy of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, we have have boarded the boat of bhakti in this life time
and the captain of the boat is our beloved spiritual master. So simply by holding on to the boat of bhakti and following
the instructions of our spiritual master meticulously we would be able to safely cross over the ocean and reach the
shore. On the other hand if we act whimsically, against the instructions of our spiritual master we are sure to be
doomed.
Our heart-felt thanks to HG Swayam sphuraty Krishna Prabhuji who has been sending SMS daily for the past one month
to all of us in Abu Dhabi and thus helping us to remember the instructions of HDG Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj.
Following are few of the instructions that Prabhuji had shared with us.
1. If we neglect chanting, chanting will neglect us.

2. At the time of death there is nothing - Bhagavat-Gita, Bhagavatam, Chanting will only be there.
3. Respect Bhagavatam every thing else will fall into place.
4. Apply Bhagavatam to your duties and every one will be pleased.
We sincerely pray at the lotus feet of Lord Krishna and Srila Prabhupada to bestow their mercy upon us so that we
faithfully dedicate some service for the pleasure of our spiritual master.

Tushta Krishna das and Suniti devi dasi
Sharjah.
The Process of God Realization - Part 1

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Gurdueva.
Recently I came across an interesting story in relation with God realization.A King had a very intelligent minister who
could answer all types of questions. The King once asked his minister a question, "If God exists and is present
everywhere, why we are not able to see Him? Can you practically prove this point?". The minister was very
knowledgeable in all branches of knowledge except spiritual science. So he couldn't answer this question. He asked for
one week time and tried to find out the answer himself and failed. The servant of the minister, who was a sincere
devotee of the Lord, noticed that his master was worried and asked what happened. The minister explained everything
and the servant said, "Don't worry master. I will answer the King tomorrow". The next day the servant went to the
palace in royal robes and the King asked the same question. Immediately, the servant asked for a vessel full of milk.
When the milk arrived, the servant asked the King, "Can you show me the butter which is present in this milk?". The
King was unable to answer. The servant asked, "Ok. At least can you show me where is the butter in this pot of milk?".
The King couldn't answer. The servant said, "Actually butter is present everywhere in the milk. But we cannot see it
with our naked eyes, because it is present in a very subtle form. To extract it, the milk has to be boiled, curdled
(adding curd to the boiled milk) and churned. In the same way, God is present in every atom of the creation. But to see
Him we need to qualify ourselves by hearing about Him (boiling the milk), associating with devotees who can
transform our lives (curdling the milk to transform into curd) and constant remembrance of Him by chanting His holy
names and glories (Churning our consciousness). When we are purified by these processes, we can see Him
by His Grace". The King was wonder struck and very happy to hear this practical explanation. This point is very nicely
explained in the Vedic language as follows.(Svetasvatara Upanishad I-16)
sarvavyāpinam ātmānaṃ kṣīre sarpir ivārpitam

ātmavidyātapomūlaṃ tad brahmopaniṣatparaṃ tad brahmopaniṣatparam
As butter is present in milk (completely pervading it), the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is
attained by spiritual knowledge and devotional service, is present everywhere (He is All pervading). This
Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Supreme Truth declared by the Upanishad. This is the Supreme
Truth declared by the Upanishad.
That is why in the Bhagavata purana we find many verses stressing on seeing God through our ears first. When we are
thoroughly purified by this process of hearing and chanting, we can see the Lord who is pleased with our devotional
service. This is confirmed by Lord Brahma in his prayers as follows.(3.9.11)
tvaṁ bhakti-yoga-paribhāvita-hṛt-saroja
āsse śrutekṣita-patho nanu nātha puṁsām
yad-yad-dhiyā ta urugāya vibhāvayanti
tat-tad-vapuḥ praṇayase sad-anugrahāya
O my Lord, Your devotees can see You through the ears by (shrutekshita) the process of bona fide
hearing, and thus their hearts become cleansed, and You take Your seat there. You are so merciful to
Your devotees that You manifest Yourself in the particular eternal form of transcendence in which they
always think of You.
In the commentary Srila Prabhupada explains this as follows. "Here in this verse it is particularly mentioned: tvam
bhakti yoga paribhaavita. This indicates the efficiency achieved through execution of matured devotional service, or
premaa, love of Godhead. This state of premaa is achieved by the gradual process of development from faith to love.
On faith, one associates with bona fide devotees, and by such association one can become engaged in bonafide
devotional service, which includes proper initiation and the execution of the primary devotional duties prescribed in
the revealed scriptures. This is clearly indicated herein by the word shrutekshita. The shrutekshita path is to hear
from bona fide devotees who are conversant with Vedic wisdom, free from mundane sentiment. By this
bonafide hearing process, the neophyte devotee becomes cleansed of all material rubbish, and thus he
becomes attached to one of the many transcendental forms of the Lord, as described in the Vedas."
In the Caitanya Caritamrta also Srila Prabhupada beautifully explains the above verse with the following words. "
The word shruta in shrutekshita-pathah refers to the Vedas, and ikshita indicates that the way to understand the
Supreme Personality of Godhead is by proper study of the Vedic scriptures. One cannot imagine something about God
or His form. Such imagination is not accepted by those who are serious about enlightenment. Here Brahma says
that one can know Krishna through the path of properly understanding the Vedic texts. If by studying the
form, name, qualities, pastimes and paraphernalia of the Supreme Godhead one is attracted to the Lord,
he can execute devotional service, and the form of the Lord will be impressed in his heart and remain
transcendentally situated there. Unless a devotee actually develops transcendental love for the Lord, it is not
possible for him to think always of the Lord within his heart. Such constant thought of the Lord is the sublime
perfection of the yogic process, as the Bhagavad-gita confirms in the Sixth Chapter (verse 47), stating that anyone
absorbed in such thought is the best of all yogis. Such transcendental absorption is known as Samadhi. A pure
devotee who is always thinking of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the person qualified to see the
Lord. The Lord expands Himself in innumerable svamsa forms. When a devotee, hearing about these
innumerable forms, becomes attached to one and always thinks of Him, the Lord appears to him in that
form."
So even though the Lord is beyond the vision of the material senses and mind, if one follows the bonafide process of
devotional service and develops pure love, then one can see Him. In the present conditional state also one can see
Him through the ears (by the process of hearing). Srila Prabhupada's great contribution is that he has propagated the
process of hearing and chanting all over the world so that wherever we go we have the facility to chant and hear about
the Lord and in this way become qualified to see Him.
Krishna willing we will see the next example cited by the minister's servant to convince the King about God's existence
and the process of realizing Him.

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Gurudeva,
Narahari Krishna das
Chennai.
The Process of God Realization - Part 2

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Gurudeva.
This is in continuation of the offering "Process of God Realization" that was sent yesterday. We'll see the next
illustration given by the minister's servant to demonstrate the process of God realization to the King. The servant
asked the King to arrange for a two pieces of fire wood (called the 'arani' stick). He asked the King, "Can you please
show me the fire inside this fire wood?" The King was unable to answer. The servant then arranged for the two pieces
to be placed one over the other and started churning them. (In the Vedic times, for sacrifices, fire was created by this
method/chanting Vedic mantras. This method is called Hand drill method). After a few minutes of churning, fire
manifested from the pieces of fire wood. The servant then said to the King, "O King, the fire is already present inside
the fire wood, but not visible. When it is churned, the fire is manifested due to friction. In the same way, the Supreme
God is present everywhere. We need to churn our consciousness by the process of devotional service and He will
manifest in our hearts. For this, you need the guidance of a spiritual master, just as we need a person to
teach/demonstrate us how to extract butter from milk and fire from firewood." This point is very well explained in the
Vedas as follows - (Svetasvatara Upanishad I-14, 15)
vahner yathā yonigatasya mūrtir na dṛśyate naiva ca liṅganāśaḥ

sa bhūya evendhanayonigṛhyas tadvobhayaṃ vai praṇavena dehe
sva-deham aranim krtvā pranavam cottararanim
dhyāna-nirmathabhyāsād devam pasyen nigūdhavat
As the fire in wood cannot be seen, although it is present there, so the Supreme Personality of Godhead
cannot be seen, although He is present, everywhere. As fire is manifest by rubbing sticks together, so
the Supreme Personality of Godhead is manifest by chanting the sacred syllable Om. Making one's body
the lower arani (fire wood) stick and the sacred syllable Om the upper arani (fire wood) stick, and
rubbing them together in the trance of meditation, one can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead as
by rubbing two sticks in the process of churning one can see the fire hidden in wood.
In the above verse, it is mentioned that one should meditate on the Pravana (Omkara) so that the Supreme Lord will
manifest in our hearts. In Kali yuga, we are blessed with the Mahamantra
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
which includes the Omkara and the entire vibrations of the Vedas. Chanting Omkara involves so many rules and
regulations whereas the Hare Krishna mantra can be chanted by anyone irrespective of any prior qualification. By
chanting the Hare Krishna mahamantra, we can perceive the Supreme Lord, who cannot be seen otherwise.
And the story ends like this. The King was very much impressed by these explanations of the minister's servant and
amply rewarded the minister's servant. The minister felt ashamed for ignoring transcendental knowledge so far. He
and the King then seriously adopted the process of devotional service (inspired by the minister's servant) and attained
perfection in their lives.
Srimad Bhagavatam being the distilled essence of the Vedas contains the above example and Srila Prabhupada in his
unparalleled commentary explains how one can perceive the Supreme Lord. SB 1.2.32
yathā hy avahito vahnir dāruṣv ekaḥ sva-yoniṣu
nāneva bhāti viśvātmā bhūteṣu ca tathā pumān
The Lord, as Supersoul, pervades all things, just as fire permeates wood, and so He appears to be of
many varieties, though He is the absolute one without a second.
Srila Prabhupada comments "Lord Vasudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by one of His plenary parts
expands Himself all over the material world, and His existence can be perceived even within the atomic energy.
Matter, antimatter, proton, neutron, etc., are all different effects of the Paramatma feature of the Lord.
As from wood, fire can be manifested, or as butter can be churned out of milk, so also the presence of
the Lord as Paramatma can be felt by the process of legitimate hearing and chanting of the
transcendental subjects which are especially treated in the Vedic literatures like the Upanishads and
Vedanta. Srimad-Bhagavatam is the bona fide explanation of these Vedic literatures. The Lord can be
realized through the aural reception of the transcendental message, and that is the only way to
experience the transcendental subject. As fire is kindled from wood by another fire, the divine consciousness of
man can similarly be kindled by another divine grace. His Divine Grace the spiritual master can kindle the spiritual fire
from the wood like living entity by imparting proper spiritual messages injected through the receptive ear. Therefore
one is required to approach the proper spiritual master with receptive ears only, and thus divine existence is gradually
realized. The difference between animality and humanity lies in this process only. A human being can hear properly,
whereas an animal cannot."
It is the unique contribution of Srila Prabhupada and Gurudeva that he has brought people from different social and
cultural backgrounds of the world into one family of devotees by the process of chanting and hearing the glories of the
Supreme God. I pray at the lotus feet of the all merciful spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada and the Supreme Lord so
that I will realize the importance of devotional service and perform it with a bit of seriousness.

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Gurudeva,
Narahari Krishna das
Chennai.

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
This is in continuation of the offering, "Power of Holy Names", mailed few days ago, based on the transcription of the
Bhagavatam class given by our beloved spiritual master, Srila Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj on 8 July 1996 in Dubai,
on the verse 6.2.8 from Srimad Bhagavatam.

The Viṣṇudūtas continued: Even previously, while eating and at other times, this Ajāmila would call his
son, saying, “My dear Nārāyaṇa, please come here.” Although calling the name of his son, he
nevertheless uttered the four syllables nā-rā-ya-ṇa. Simply by chanting the name of Nārāyaṇa in this
In the previous offering we heard Gurudev explaining the first word of the above verse - that is etena (by this
chanting). Maharaj insisted on the importance of chanting Hare Krishna Mahamantra and how we need to start it
immediately, without waiting for peaceful time in our life to start the same. Now in this mail let us continue to hear
more nectar from Gurudev.
"I was talking to a devotee who said that he was remembering his father who was very devoted to Krishna. But when
the father was alive, this person did not take interest and now he repents. Its too late to repent now. But it happens
that many a times we don't realise the value of the father when he is alive. When the roof is on our head, we
don't know the value of the roof. But once the roof is blown out we are completely opened to storm and
rains, then we realise the value of the roof. So please when the roof is above your head itself come to
devotional service. Now we will continue with the word-to-word equivalents. Please repeat. eva — indeed; hi —
certainly; aghonah — who possesses sinful reactions; (Devotees repeat after Maharaj). agha means sins. In Bhagavad
Gita verse 3.16 Lord Krishna says
evaṁ pravartitaṁ cakraṁ nānuvartayatīha yaḥ

aghāyur indriyārāmo moghaṁ pārtha sa jīvati
My dear Arjuna, one who does not follow in human life the cycle of sacrifice thus established by the
Vedas certainly leads a life full of sin. Living only for the satisfaction of the senses, such a person lives in
vain.
In this verse Krishna gives us the process. evam pravartitam cakram - Srila Prabhupada has given us the process. Daily
wake up early in the morning ; Do mangala arathi, Tulsi pooja, then chanting, greeting the deities and Bhagavatam
class. This is morning program - the process given by Srila Prabhupada. If you don't follow the process,
nānuvartayatīha yaḥ - in this life, in this planet, if you don't follow the process, then the result is - aghāyur - your life is
full of sins. You don't do mangala arathi and you are completely lazy. You don't feel like getting up at all and if you
start the day with that laziness, then the whole day is gone. aghāyur - and once you don't feel alright, then the tablets
are there. You keep ringing the doctor. "Hello Doctor - I am not feeling well." Doctor gives some tablets and you start
the day with medicines. Once when I was staying in the Manor, I used to call the devotee staying with me in the room
to come for mangala-arathi daily. But he wouldn't come. Every day when he gets up, he will check the tube of his urine
as to how much salt is there etc. He had some guage to measure it and then immediately he will ring his doctor and
tell how much salt was there etc. Doctor will advise him to take some tablet and immediately he will take that tablet.
By the time I return from mangala-arathi, he would have taken 12 tablets and would say to me that he is not well. I
told him that because you are not coming and taking Krishna's darshan, you have to take your urine's darshan in the
morning. You have to take some darshan. Either Krishna's darshan or urine's darshan. If you come to Krishna's
darshan, you are happy without any medicine. This is pure lunacy. We are lunatics if we don't take shelter of
Krishna.
Now let us go to the next line. (Maharaj continues with word-to-word and devotees repeat after him.) asya — of this
(Ajāmila); kṛtam — performed; syāt — is; agha — of sins; niṣkṛtam — complete atonement; yadā — when; nārāyaṇa —
O Nārāyaṇa (the name of his son); āya — please come; iti — thus; jagāda — he chanted; catuḥ-akṣaram — the four
syllables (nā-rā-ya-ṇa).
You all know this story how just by merely unconsciously chanting Lord's names, Ajamila was saved at the time of his
death. The Vishnudutas came and there was a fight between the Yamadutas and Vishnudutas. The important message
here is that even if one unconsciously chants the holy name, the effect is there. For example, this child does not know
that fire hurts. But if he touches the fire, the fire will burn. Same way, we don't know the advantage of chanting
Krishna's names. But you force yourself to chant and you will have the benefits. That is the main
instruction."
Krishna willing we will continue to hear from Gurudev in the subsequent mails.


This is in continuation of the offering, "Power of Holy Names", mailed few days ago, based on the transcription of the
Bhagavatam class given by our beloved spiritual master, Srila Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj on 8 July 1996 in Dubai,
on the verse 6.2.8 from Srimad Bhagavatam.

son, saying, "My dear Narayana, please come here." Although calling the name of his son, he
nevertheless uttered the four syllables naa-raa-ya-na. Simply by chanting the name of Narayana in this
In the previous offerings we heard Gurudev explained
a) the importance of chanting Hare Krishna Mahamantra and how we need to start it immediately, without waiting for
peaceful time in our life to start the same.
b) how if we miss auspicious darshan of Krishna in the morning, we will have to face inauspicious things in the form of
diseases and medicines.
Let us continue to hear more nectar from Gurudev.(Maharaj recites the above verse and devotees repeat after him
three times.)
In order to get into this lyric you must remember the verse from Bhagavad Gita that I gave you. (Maharaj sings verse
BG 2.69 and devotees repeat after him).
yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni sā niśā paśyato muneḥ
What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening
for all beings is night for the introspective sage.
yaa nishaa sarva bhutanaam - what is night for all living beings, tasyaam jaagarti samyami - the realised soul is awake
during that time ; yasyaam jaagrati bhutaani saa nishaa pashyato muneh. (Maharaj then sings verse 6.2.8 in the same
meter as above verse followed by Hare Krishna Mahamantra).
The beauty of Mahamantra is that it can fit into any lyric. You sing the lyric and you will be able to fit into it. By doing
so you are with it. It takes a bit of time to understand these things and get into the lyric. But please try to study
Bhagavad Gita verses. These lyrics are in-built in the verses. You cannot - but have to sing in that lyric. If you
pronounce the short and long letters nicely and sing the shloka, then eventually it will fit the lyric. It is not that
something we have to force ourselves. But sincerity of purpose is required. But I am sorry to say that most of the time
we are not sincere. (With deep humility Maharaj says) I am also not sincere. But we must somehow force ourselves to
be sincere. The more you are sincere about the purpose, it will just come. We have this diaphragm in our throat. This
diaphragm can be damaged by anything. But if you recite the shlokas, it will not be damaged. I am not young. By this
time, my voice must be shaky and vibrating. (With a transcendental smile Maharaj says) But it doesn't do that because
I am always chanting Krishna's shlokas. So my diaphragm is intact. Otherwise in this life time, it gets affected with age.
This is the proof that the old age doesn't touch you if you are engrossed in chanting His Names. Please, please for your
own health - you forget about anything and everything and you come to this 24 hours a day. But we have a practical
difficulty that we have to go to work, household duties etc. But you please believe me - you will become daksha -
you will become expert in managing your material affairs. Somehow or the other Krishna will help you to
settle your material matters and you will be completely free. He will give you Lakshmi also and He will
give you time also, provided you sincerely chant. Slowly He does. Slowly, definitely He does. He gives
you time and Lakshmi. What for we want Lakshmi ? We want to stay, eat some prasadam, wear some clothes.
Thats why we want Lakshmi. We are also moving around the world and we are getting everything. Everywhere we are
going, we are staying, we are taking prasadam, we are wearing some clothes also. So what for we want Lakshmi? Here
again, we should not be greedy. If our needs are satisfied, then it is enough. The needs of your family also will
definitely be satisfied. Don't worry ! Every living entity is looked after by Vishwaambar. His name is
Vishwaambar.
bhojanācchādane vṛtāḥ cintā kurvanti vaiṣṇavāḥ

sa deva viśvambharaḥ bhaktānām kim upekṣate
We unnecessarily worry about bhojan (food) and chaadan (shelter). Vaishnavas don't worry about it. Lord
is Vishvāmbar. He takes care of the whole world. Why should He neglect devotees?
Why should He neglect you? At the moment, its Kali yuga and so we are full of faithlessness and to that extent we are
miserable due to lack of faith. Our own ancestors, father and grandfather were all depending upon Krishna. They did
not have a single rupee. In our childhood, we didn't see money at all. Four annas we used to get sometimes to buy
things and there was so many things which could be bought with that four annas (one quarter of a rupee) that we will
not be able to carry the bag. But now four annas we don't see anywhere. Times are fast changing. But devotional
service never changes.
Krishna willing we will continue to hear more nectar from Gurudev, in the subsequent mails.


This is in continuation of the offering, "Power of Holy Names", based on the transcription of the Bhagavatam class
given by our beloved spiritual master, Srila Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj on 8 July 1996 in Dubai, on the verse 6.2.8
from Srimad Bhagavatam.

son, saying, "My dear Narayana, please come here." Although calling the name of his son, he
nevertheless uttered the four syllables naa-raa-ya-na. Simply by chanting the name of Narayana in this
In the previous offerings we heard Gurudev explaining
a) the importance of chanting Hare Krishna Mahamantra and how we need to start it immediately, without waiting for
peaceful time in our life to start the same.
b) how if we miss auspicious darshan of Krishna in the morning, we will have to face inauspicious things in the form of
diseases and medicines
c) how Krishna being Vishwambar will definitely not neglect us and take care of our needs, provided we are sincere in
devotional service.
Now let us continue to hear more from Gurudev.
acyutānanta govinda nāmocchāraṇa bheṣajāt

naśyanti sakalā rogāḥ satyaṁ satyaṁ vadāmyaham
Dhanvantri quotes this as first verse in Ayur Veda - 'I am stating this truth again and again - mere
pronunciation of the names of Acyuta, Anantha and Govinda destroys all diseases.'
Only the pronounciation of His names is the medicines. All diseases are completely vanquished. This is the jist.
(Maharaj folds his hands and requests everyone) Please, please be kind to yourself and become serious in
devotional service. Don't hesitate for a single second. There is a nice verse from Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.17:
āyur harati vai puṁsām udyann astaṁ ca yann asau

tasyarte yat-kṣaṇo nīta uttama-śloka-vārtayā
Both by rising and by setting, the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone, except one who utilizes
the time by discussing topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead.
This is without exception that when sun rises and sets a day decreases. Is Dubai an exception? If you utilize your
kshana, time and movements in Krishna's shloka, then you are saved. If you carry on Krishna katha, then your life is
not decreased. In the sense, diseases might come to your body. But you will not feel it. Just like how Srila Prabhupada
would give the example of snake-charmer who comes in the streets in India. He plays with the snakes because there is
no poison in it. It looks like a snake. But it cannot harm him. Our miseries also will look like miseries. But they cannot
harm us because we have taken shelter of Krishna. Be it old-age or death, there will be no effect on us. Because as
soon as we come to Krishna, we trancend all these things. Krishna is transcendental Supreme Absolute Truth and as
soon as you come to Krishna, you also become transcendental. Transcend means, if we drive on the road in a car, we
have to follow the rules of the road. Red light means we have to stop and green light means we have to go. But have
you any time seen a helicopter waiting at red signal on the road? Why? It transcends. Similarly we can also transcend.
Krishna is param brahma param dhaama pavitram paramam bhavaan. It is very easy. As soon as we take His
association we can easily transcend.
nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis

tatrārpitā niyamitaḥ smaraṇe na kālaḥ
etādṛśī tava kṛpā bhagavan mamāpi
durdaivam īdṛśam ihājani nānurāgaḥ
O my Lord, Your holy name alone can render all benediction to living beings, and thus You have hundreds
and millions of names, like Krishna and Govinda. In these transcendental names, you have invested all
Your transcendental energies. There are not even hard and fast rules for chanting these names. O my
Lord, out of kindness You enable us to easily approach you by Your holy names, but I am so unfortunate
that I have no attraction for them.
Please study the shlokas from Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavatam. Times are changing fast. But devotional service never
changes and the effects of devotional service never changes. It is beyond the time - para like Krishna. Because it is
non-different from Krishna. Krishna is not restricted by time. At the time of Kurukshetra yuddha, He was 125 years old
and you look at the picture. He looks like a 20 year old boy. He is above the influence of time. We are under the
influence of time. So if you want to be above the influence of time, then again you will have to come to Krishna. The
whole world will reject you after 60 years of age. As soon as you are 58, they will kick you out of the work. "You are not
required." Then you cannot shout and scream. They will simply say, "Now you are not required". That time Krishna will
help you. (Gurudev smilingly says) There is no unemployment in Krishna consciousness. (and devotees say
loudly Haribol!). You come here, the roof is ready; the prasadam is there. You get whatever you need here. But as soon
as you become sincere in devotional service, your taste for material things automatically decreases. So please I
request you, please please come to devotional service. Hare Krishna !

Dharmashala - Part 1
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis,

Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
Following is a transcription of a nectarean discourse given by H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Sharjah on 10-7-
1996.
This whole material manifestation is a big dharmashala. We may stay normally in a dharmashala for 7 days. But in this
dharmashala (this world) we may stay for 70 years. But time doesn't matter. Dharmashala is dharmashala. Just like we
are not attached to that dharmashala, the same attitude we should have here also. Instead we get attached. This is
the result of our material body. Because of this bodily existence we get attached to it. We get attached to that extent
that we do not want to leave. Day in and day out I think that my bank balance belongs to me. For the whole life time I
am attached to my bank balance. Anybody wakes you up in the middle of the night and ask you, "Hey how much you
have in the bank?", immediately we will tell the exact amount. Anything else we will forget. We will forget even the
name of our wife. But we will not forget the bank balance. That is our attitude. Then we don't forget our house, we
don't forget our children, we don't forget our parents. All these are different attachments. And why? Because
we don't know that this is a dharmashala. This is just a temporary mela. We are all now together, this is a fact.
This is not a dream. But we know that we are only here for 1 hour and then we may be separated, never to meet
again. Who knows? samyujyante viyujyante tatā kālena dehinah - we come together and we get separated by kāla. Kā
la separates us and may be never to meet again. This idea never sinks in us. That is why our attachment is very
strong. How to develop these ideas? These are eternal ideas. These are not sectarean. Our Sanatana Dharma is not
sectarean. If you see America is ruled by Christians, whole Europe is ruled by Christians, Russia is also ruled by
Christians. These countries (UAE, Saudi Arabia etc) are ruled by Mohammedans. Why India is not ruled by Hindus?
Because our consciousness is very broad. We welcome anybody and everybody and we don't mind tolerating other
people. This is Sanatana Dharma attitude. We are very conscious that these are all temporary, whether we are Indian
or anything else, one day we have to leave.
And then in the name of modern advancement, we have created so many things to kill ourselves. For eg,. Cars. If you
go to India, you cannot breathe in Bombay. You cannot walk. So much dirty air is there. Polluted to that extent that
even your clothes gets dirty. Here at least the cars are maintained and they are new. But in India three generations
use the same car (laughter), and he is proud that this (car) belongs to my dada (laughter). Dada is gone, your father is
also going but the car is still there. He says, "No, No, my son will also use". So fourth generations again. I don't know
how much pollution it will throw into the air! And again diesel. If the municipal vehicle comes in front of you, Oh God! It
pours the whole black smoke in front of you. This is our advancement! And then so many diseases! These are the
results of the modern development. We are ashamed to buy the wheat and grind ourselves. Really ashamed. So we
want to buy the readymade flour coming from Canada. I don't know what they have ground there. Is it wheat or not we
don't know. But it is written in the cover that it is beautiful wheat flour. And we buy it. The maida they add makes it
very thin. It will not be digested at all. And then we develop so many diseases. We have no control over eating. No
control over anything in our life. This is a very serious problem of the human existence. We understand that we cannot
escape these things. So we have to find out a way to escape. This is the main reason we have come together here.
So don't feel that you are new or you are just acquainted with Krishna consciousness. No, nobody is new. Basically we
are all Krishna conscious. What is that nice sentence? jivera svarupa hāya krishnera nitya dāsa. It doesn't say hindu
svarupa hayā krishnera nitya dāsa. No. it says jivera svarupa haya, that is the broad outlook of our philosophy. This
philosophy, this culture is applicable to everybody. Who doesn't have to take birth? The Christians don't fall from the
sky. The Mohammedans don't grow out of the ground. Everybody has to take birth. And those who are born, they have
to die. In between birth and death everybody has to become old. You cannot claim that, "I am in Dubai, I have million
dirhams in my bank and I don't want to get old." Yamaraj is not Indian government officer that we can bribe him. You
have to have the old age. You have to have the diseases, repeated diseases. All these things when we consider
practically, then there is no outlet anywhere. We want to escape out of this. But falsely what we do? If we have white
hairs, you know first few white hairs. We want to hide it. We will apply oil and comb the hair and cover it so that
nobody can see the white hair. We are very much ashamed of old age. And then when we are not able to hide them,
we cut them. And if we can't cut them, then we put coal and powder (dye) on it. You die before your death (laughter).
And why this whole endeavor? It is just a decoration of the dead body. The body is dying. And we are very proud of our
birthdays. 60th birthday, 70th birthday and that person is worshiped! We do not know that 60 years already we have
died. It is the deathday, it is not the birthday. But we call it birthday. Falsely we are under the illusion, "How nice, I am
75 years old". It is not the thing to be enjoyed. We are just near the grave, one leg is already in the grave and one leg
is outside. This is the main thing to be understood. And this forces us to come to the Bhagavad-gita and congregations
like this. This forces us to come to the saner attitude of the human existence.
We will continue to hear the nectarean discourse by Maharaj in the next mail, Krishna willing.

Kalacakra Krsna das

We are continuing with the transcription of a nectarean discourse given by H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in
Sharjah on 10-7-1996. In yesterday's mail we saw Maharaj's beautiful explanation on how this world is like a
dharmashala. Today we will see how much Maharaj's is insisting on the importance of reading Srila Prabhupada's
books.
Apart from anything, apart from our ashram, apart from our family conditions, the temporary things are just hovering
around us and they want to catch us anytime. We are like the frog. In Bhagavatam, a very nice example is given. The
frog can lick the insects. It has a long tongue. It just extends the tongue and catches the insect from a far distance and
lick the insect. And the snakes can eat the frog. So one frog was already in the jaw of the snake. Just it was a matter of
seconds that it will be swallowed by the snake. But even then that frog who was in the jaw of the snake, saw the insect
and immediately it took out (Maharaj and all the devotees laugh heartily at the example). That is our position. We are
already caught in the jaw of the death. But I see dirhams and 'boom, I snatch it' (laughter). I don't worry about whom
does it belong. In order to stop this lunacy we have to come to somewhere and this is the right place. Prabhupada is
very kind and merciful. He says, "Please don't run after these temporary things. You are already caught up in the jaws
of the snake of death."
Then the questions comes that, many times people feel in our condition also that they have to find out a way for these
things. But they don't know what it is to be done. In this also there are so many pitfalls. One may come up to this point
that he has to do something to solve the problems of life. And he will say, "Maharaj, now I understand everything you
said. What you are telling is very correct." Till I am talking he is very serious. Then he says, "Maharaj, I have now
decided that I have to make spiritual progress and I promise you. You are very good. I have understood everything and
now I am very serious." And then next day he goes to Sai baba's meeting! He knows that something has to be done.
But there are so many groups, we are not the only one in this bazaar. In spiritual bazaar there are so many groups.
Now again it is the test of our sanity to decide which place we have to go. This is where the instructions of the
scripture come in. Without the scriptures we are lost. This is our eternal position. That we have to come to this, and
this knowledge is only imparted by Srila Prabhupada. We are not fanatics, but unless you come to Prabhupada you
cannot get the real knowledge. We are not Prabhupada fanatics. Prabhupada said, "We are not claiming that we are
No.1 in the spiritual field." So we were very happy that Prabhupada is very generous to other groups also. He says that
we are not the only one in the spiritual field. And then he said,"But I must tell you that we are second to none."
(laughter). I told Prabhupada,"Prabhupada you are joking". Prabhupada said," No I am serious. We are second to none."
It is the case. There are so many in the spiritual bazaar. But they fall short of the goal. There is a nice verse (SB
3.23.56)
neha yat karma dharmāya na virāgāya kalpate

na tīrtha-pada-sevāyai jīvann api mṛto hi saḥ
Anyone whose work is not meant to elevate him to religious life, anyone whose religious ritualistic
performances do not raise him to renunciation, and anyone situated in renunciation that does not lead
him to devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, must be considered dead, although he
is breathing.
It is very easy to understand. na iha means in this planet. We are all in this planet. na iha karma. Those karmas are
useless which will not take you to dharma. na iha karma dharmāya. Those activities which will not direct you to the
religiousity, they are useless. Then that dharma which doesn't develop virāgā detachment, then that dharma is
useless. And that viraaga which doesn't take you to tirtha pada seva, to catch the lotus feet of Krishna,jīvann api mṛto
hi saḥ, we are breathing dead. We have to come to tirtha pada sevaayai. We have to catch the lotus feet of Krishna.
Otherwise everything is useless. and that's why we have to be resolved, we have to be determined to do these
things. We are very determined to come to Dubai, Muscat, Abu Dhabi or Bahrain. It is a very worshipable place in India.
They say (if someone coming from Bahrain) "Jai Bahrain" (devotees break into thunderous laughter on Maharaj's joke).
I told, "hey, you are so ecstatic, what is the matter?" He says, "Bahrain, is a heavenly place". I didn't have any idea,
but now I see, it is really heavenly planet (laughter). Much more enjoyable than heavenly planet (laughter). (Maharaj
immediately changes into a serious tone) This 'jai' of anything we should stop. It is only 'Jai' Prabhupada and 'Jai'
Krishna. Otherwise we are just misdirected and then it is a big doubt in our mind also, that why we should worship
Krishna. We are coming from so much background, so many deities, so many demigods etc. We question why
Prabhupada is insisting on Krishna? In a way, the western population was a clean slate. They did not know anything
about these things. Prabhupada was giving them Krishna and they just took it. So it was very easy for Prabhupada to
impress on their minds about Krishna. We are all Prabhupada's but we undermine Prabhupada also many times
thinking he is not correct. We don't have any idea. (Maharaj speaks with a heavy emphasis) The man (Srila
Prabhupada) who has written so much in 10 years that we will not be able to read it in life time, forget about
understanding it! If you take just the translation and purport of one verse from Srimad Bhagavatam, you will require 1
month to understand each shloka and to read 'in between' particularly. And 18000 verses are there. So 18000 months
you require.18000 divided by 12, you have calculators and computers, find out how many years you require. It is
nearly 1500 years. Where is the time?
We are very proud that we are working in Dubai, Sharjah, this and that. The work consumes so much of our time.
Hardly we have may be 1 hr that too we have to steal from our life. During the day we don't have much time. Please I
would request you, think that you are spending 1 or 2 hours more to earn your dirhams and come to these literatures.
These literatures will give you the whole idea.
Krishna willing, we will look at Maharaj's explanation in the next mail on why should we worship Krishna.

Kalacakra Krsna das
The Complicated Hurdle - Part 1

Please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
It always happens that time and again we become complacent with our own situations and tend to take things very
casually and it requires a very powerful alarm to wake us up from the dream and illusion and the following powerful
speech by our beloved Guru Maharaj on the Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1.14 is a real eye opener.
āpannaḥ saṁsṛtiṁ ghorāṁ yan-nāma vivaśo gṛṇan

tataḥ sadyo vimucyeta yad bibheti svayaṁ bhayam
Living beings who are entangled in the complicated meshes of birth and death can be freed immediately
by even unconsciously chanting the holy name of Krishna, which is feared by fear personified.
The verse itself describes the purport of the verse. "āpannaḥ" means "entangled". We are really helplessly entangled.
We do not have any way to get out of it. Our situation is very complicated. By nature we are completely spiritual and
even then, don't know really, how and why we are punished this way. That is why for millions of years, our rishis and
sages and scriptures thought over again and again and so many incarnations appeared just to explain that we are
entangled in the complicated meshes. It is a very nice translation by Srila Prabhupada. He gives the word to word
equivalent of "saṁsṛtiṁ" as "in the hurdle of birth and death". It is not one time. It is hurdle. Once we are out,
again we are subjected to the same thing. It is not that we will tolerate one birth and death and then we are free. No. It
is a hurdle. Because it is a hurdle, no way can we get out of this, and on top of it, He has forced on us the behavior
patterns of the millions of combinations of three modes of material nature. It is not only straight forward three. No.
There are so many combinations. Many times goodness is mixed with darkness and darkness is mixed with passion. All
the three we carry at the same time and there are millions and millions of combinations of the ratios of these things.
May be sometimes goodness is high and darkness is a bit low. Because of these combinations, we are forced to accept
the bodies to the extent we are attracted to these particular modes. Frankly speaking, in this life, we are preparing to
order our next body.
This is how it is a hurdle and is so very complicated. The word "saṁsār" comes from "saṁsṛtiṁ". And "samsriti" means
unsurpassable misery experienced in the material existence and this is the material existence that we have the hurdle
and then we are helplessly slaved completely under the influence of millions of combinations of material nature and in
addition to that there is "bhutānam yan mithah kalih" (the dissensions between living entities due to social
intercourse) again. With those mode of material nature, we come together and we have so many complications in our
mind. Unlimited complications we carry from the last millions of births. As a fish also we had entertained the lusty
ideas. In any species we had the same influence of the millions of combinations of modes of material nature and the
whole burden is carried by the subtle body - mind, intelligence and false ego.
If our bhakti is not complete, may be in the last time we had human existence, that is why we are forcibly put in to the
8400000 births and deaths and again in the ignorance we are again preparing for the next round and that is again
8400000 births and deaths. We do not know how to get out. We try our best. Krishna says "mām aprāpyaiva kaunteya
tato yānty adhamām gatim" - you do not attain Me, and go to the lowest species of life.
That is how it is very complicated situation we are put in. we do not have the time. The time is slipping out. Years and
years and years and years are going in deep sleep. We are completely entangled. When are we going to realize these
things? Unless we realize these verses and unless we really very peacefully go through these things, we cannot even a
have a dint of idea of our complicated situation. It is not that we want to scare, but this is the fact of our actual position
of material existence and it has got to be understood.
Maharaj was referring to Arjuna's calling out to the lord when he was chased by Ashwatthama's weapon and the same
shall be posted in the ensuing mail, Krishna willing.

Vaijayantimala devi dasi
Abu Dhabi.
Transcendental Qualities of Lord Sri Rama - Part 3

This mail is in continuation of the series "Transcendental Qualities of Lord Sri Rama", based on the transcription of the
wonderful class given by HG Vaijayantimala Mathaji on S.B.5.19.4. In this verse 8 qualities of Lord Ramachandra is
mentioned by Hanumanji.
1. viśuddhānubhava-mātram - The Lord, whose pure form is uncontaminated by the modes of material nature, can be
perceived by pure consciousness.
2. ekam - one without a second.
3. sva-tejasā dhvasta-guṇa-vyavastham - by His own spiritual potency, vanquished the influence of the modes of
material nature.
4. pratyak - transcendental, not to be seen with material eyes.
5. prashāntam - undisturbed by material agitation.
6. sudhiyopalambhanam - only in pure consciouness, or Krishna consciousness, can one perceive the transcendental
form of the Lord.
7. anāma-rupam - without a material name and form.
8. niraham - without a material ego.
We had sent the first two parts of this offering in July and August. Our sincere apologies for not being able to continue
the series for a while. We saw the first 4 qualities of Lord Rama as described by Hanumanji in the previous two mails.
In this mail we will see the next 2 qualities.
5. prashāntam - undisturbed by material agitation.

shānta itself is peace. prashāntam means highly peaceful. Srila Prabhupada says "A person who is not disturbed by the
modes of material nature is peaceful". In Bhagavad Gita Krishna also calls that person as "dhirah" - meaning one who
is not disturbed even when there is sufficient provocation. Lord Rama was undisturbed even when He was asked to go
to the forest. In Ramayan it is said, His face was like a lotus when He was told that you are going to be coronated. His
face was like a blooming lotus, when he was told no coronation and you have to go to forest. He was completely
unaffected.
In Kali yuga, 99% of the people are disturbed. That is why Bhagavatam itself says in 1.1.10, "O learned one, in this iron
age of Kali men have but short lives. They are quarrelsome, lazy, misguided, unlucky and, above all, always disturbed".
The main reason for disturbance is given in S.B.3.9.6 "asad-avagraha ārti-mūlaṁ", meaning we are catching hold of
temporary things which is the root cause of anxiety.
If we are disturbed then there is no peace in our life. If we are not peaceful then we cannot chant or read the
scriptures. So our Maharaj gives some of the tips to remain "prashāntam ". Let us try to practice them.
1. As far as marriage is concerned, there should be two souls with only one mind.
2. We should maintain "give and take" policy with all the relationships.
3. We have to remember 3 c's be cool, calm and composed in all situations.
4. We have to understand that by worrying, we are unnecessarily wasting our time. In the word cinta (worry) and cita (
funeral fire), just one dot is missing. A person who worries too much has to go the funeral fire very soon.
5. Anger should be completely avoided. The mind is the leader of the senses. We are thinking so many things in our
mind, so the mind becomes warm. We have to bring down the temperature of the mind. There are 4 tips to keep the
mind cool.
a. Put snow on the head and fan it with cold air.

b. Apply tilak on the forehead.
c. Take a fresh bath.
d. Get in touch with the Lord through the scriptures and chanting.
6. The names of Krishna being non-different from Krishna Himself should spread peaceful attitude in whole of life.
Passion should be decreased. We should be passionate only in the service of Krishna.
7. We should be satisfied with whatever Krishna gives.
6. sudhiyopalambhanam - only in pure consciousness, or Krishna consciousness, can one perceive the
transcendental form of the Lord
We may have a question that the Lord is having so many transcendental qualities, is it possible for us to perceive the
Lord. Yes, we can perceive the Lord by pure consciousness or Krishna consciousness. In the Upanishad 1.2.23 it is said "
The Supreme Personality of Godhead cannot be obtained by giving expert explanation about Krishna or by extreme
brain intelligence or by hearing so many lectures. He can be obtained only by one who Krishna Himself chooses". We
cannot question Krishna, why He is not selecting us. We should only have the faith and be surcharged with the attitude
of eagerness to attain the Lord. This eagerness attitude is nothing but Krishna consciousness. If we have the eagerness
to do our devotional service, Krishna will be pleased and He will provide the visa to enter His abode. If Krishna decides
to give visa to a pure devotee, He gives visa even to the person who is attached to the pure devotee. We have to catch
hold of the pure devotee. Even though we may be disqualified, but if we have the association of pure devotee, then our
visa is confirmed.
To understand this, there is a small pastime in Caitanya Caritamrta. There was a great impersonalist named
Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya. By the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he became Krishna conscious. He became a great
devotee of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Once he thought of providing lunch to Mahaprabhu. So he invited Caitanya
Mahaprabhu. Mahaprabhu also accepted his invitation. In 6 hours of time, his wife cooked number of dishes. The whole
room was filled with hundreds and hundreds of pots of prasadam. Then Caitanya Mahaprabhu came and saw the
prasadam. He said that He is a sanyasi and how can He take so much prasadam. But Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya said
that He is bluffing. He is not a sanyasi. In Jagannath Puri, He is taking 52 times hundreds of pots of prasadam. In
Vrindavan, He goes to all His relatives' house and takes prasadam everywhere. He ate the whole stack of offering as
Govardhan. In comparison to that, his offerings are nothing. In other words, being a true devotee of Caitanya
Mahaprabhu, Sarvbhauma Bhattacharya considered Him as non-different from Lord Jagannath and Lord
Krishna. He kindly requested Caitanya Mahaprabhu to take all the prasadam. He served nicely. This Sarvabhauma
Bhattacharya had a son-in-law and his name is Amogha. His nature is to find faults with others. When serving
prasadam to Mahaprabhu, Bhattacharya did not want Amogha to see that. So he held one stick in his hand to guard
Amogha from entering into the room. In between Bhattacharya left the guard job and went to serve Mahaprabhu. At
that time Amogha entered into the room and saw Mahaprabhu's plate full of so much prasadam. He started
blaspheming Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He said that the sannyasi should eat only one time that too very little prasadam.
When Bhattacharya heard this, he came with the stick in his hand and started chasing Amogha. Then Amogha ran
away from that place. Bhattacharya's wife cried profusely and started beating her chest and mouth and said let her
daughter become a widow. She said that she doesn't want a son-in-law who is blaspheming Krishna or Caitanya
Mahaprabhu. So much was their love for Caitanya Mahaprabhu that even if the offender of the Lord is their own son-in-
law they wanted him to be punished for his offense. Then Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked them to cool down.
Amogha was an offender because he blasphemed the Lord. As a result, he was about to die of cholera. Amogha did not
receive an opportunity to be freed from all offenses after being attacked by the disease, but Sarvabhauma
Bhattacharya and his wife were very dear to the Lord. Because of their relationship, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu excused
Amogha. Instead of being punished by the Lord, he was saved by the Lord's mercy. All this was due to the unflinching
love of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya for Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
The pure devotee is very dear to Krishna. When we become his servant, then Krishna takes us even though we may
not have any qualification. Our only determination is to become Krishna conscious.
Krishna willing, we will see the other 2 qualities of Lord Sri Rama in the next mail.

Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Anuradha devi dasi
Abu Dhabi.

Please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev.
This is in continuation of the previous mail transcribing the powerful speech by our beloved Guru Maharaj on Srimad
Bhagavatam verse 1.1.14.

by even unconsciously chanting the holy name of Krishna, which is feared by fear personified.
Maharaj was refering to the following verse in Srimad Bhagavatam 1.7.22 where the word "samsrti" is there at the end
of the verse.
arjuna uvāca
kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa mahā-bāho bhaktānām abhayaṅkara
tvam eko dahyamānānām apavargo ’si saṁsṛteḥ
Arjuna said: O my Lord Sri Krishna, You are the almighty Personality of Godhead. There is no limit to Your
different energies. Therefore only You are competent to instill fearlessness in the hearts of Your
devotees. Everyone in the flames of material miseries can find the path of liberation in You only.
This is the verse spoken by Arjuna when he was in difficulty. With all the association of Krishna, Krishna was in the
same chariot; even then see Arjuna's complicated meshes. How can it happen? You are with Krishna. You are fully
Krishna conscious. But even then, the difficulty was so very acute that devotee like Arjuna was also bewildered. So
what to talk of us? We are completely far away from Krishna. tat dure - I do not know how far we are, and that is why
our position is, it is very difficult to get out of this hurdle. I remember there is a pilgrimage place. There are 10 to 12
wells small wells but not very deep on the rock of the river and the natural arrangement is there because of the water,
that in the rainy season, if you enter one well, then you have to enter into another well and you cannot come out in
between even if you wish. It was done like that. This is the meaning of the hurdle. Once you enter in to it, you can only
come out at the end. Luckily if you come across pure devotees like Srila Prabhupada we can come out of the hurdle.
Otherwise it is completely impossible.
As soon as we come to this realization, then what happens? Then may be somewhere we have heard the holy names.
Somewhere again, we may have seen some temple. We may see some nice calendar and fix it in our mind. There are
so many ways these have the effect or somewhere we might have seen devotees running around with dhotis. The way
you people look all in white dhoti is vaikuntha like. It is beautiful. There is no comparison to this dress. At least in India
we should force ourselves to put on these clothes. Every time we were slaves. The Mohammedans came and they were
there for 1000 years and they left their pyjamas. They are no more the rulers but the pyjamas are there and we are so
very attached to the pyjamas and the kurta which is also so long extending till below the knees. Our pyjama is also not
ordinary pyjama. This is muslim domination. Atleast 2 pieces of cloth must be consumed in kurta whereas for dhoti in
three meters, the whole thing could be done. So it is complicated again. Complications we like because, we ourselves
are entangled into these complicated meshes. This is the main thing to be understood.
As soon as we realize this, then vivaśo gṛṇan. Then helplessly we try to chant something. This is the main thing.
Somebody comes to the program, or hears the tape or attends Srimad Bhagavatam class or Bhagavad gita class or
chanting. And then our sleeping (dormant) spiritual nature gets triggered. So this is how somebody pulls our trigger by
these things. After our grhastha ashrama, nearly half life is still left with us if if we are really serious. Because after
retirement, the major part of the life we are thrown out of the house or we had to get out of the house or in the house
also we may pass free time, then at that time if we are not really serious about these things and if we do not have this
engagement, "yan-nāma vivaśo gṛṇan", that time, we will be tested. Majority of the people, do not have this
knowledge. Either they go insane or die immediately. As soon as they retire, they die. There is nothing to do. Nobody
welcomes you in the house and outside the house. The situation is more precarious than whatever naturally it is, and
naturally we are entangled. Then we have so much time at our disposal and money is also there. Everything is there
and we do not know really what to do? May be for the whole of his lifetime, he might have performed dishonest
activities and these activities stand on his head at the time he is free and that is burdensome and he again worries
what will happen and he forcefully passes away.
If at all you helplessly chant His names, tatah - thereafter, sadyah - immediately; vimucyeta - he gets liberated. Why?
Because Krishna's name is very powerful. But we are not chanting in a helpless mood. That is why when we chant 16
rounds, I do not know whether we are chanting 16 rounds or not, it is very difficult to chant. At the end of the 16
rounds, we throw our japa mala that we have finished our rounds today and we want to do whatever we want to do. So
we are very scared to come to Him. The fear personified is afraid of the Names, what are we?
Maharaj's explanation on how the asuras are very much afraid of the Holy Nmaes, shall be posted in the ensuing mail,
Krishna willing.

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,
Abu Dhabi.
Smash Your Pride

In one of the lectures in of Singapore, Maharaj was singing this beautiful bhajan by Surdas in bhairav raag.
hey govind hey gopāl ab to jīvan hāre

hey govind rākho sharan ab to jīvan hāre
nīr piban hetu gayo sindhu ke kināre

sindhu bīch basat grāha carana lei pachāre
char prahar yuddh bhayo lei gayo majhdhāre

nake kān dūb na lāge krishna ko pukāre
dwaraka me shabdh gayo shor bhayo bhāre

shanka chakra gadhā padma garuda lei sidhāre
shur kahe shyam suno sharan hai tihāre

ab ki baer pār karo nanda ke dulāre
Gurudev was explaining this bhajan very nicely. Here it is said that, "My Lord, we need Your shelter, else we are
completely lost in this life because nowadays, everywhere in the world there is frustration. And because of the
frustration we feel, 'I am losing, I am losing'. Those who are losing are really losing but those who are winning, may
think that he is very rich or he has so many cars or he has so many factories. Ultimately they are also losing."
In the next line it is explained how Gajraj went to the shore. Whenever misery comes, it never informs us. It just
comes. Misery just comes upon us. Then we look here and there, what to do? What to do? And then if we don't find
way out of it then it acts on our health. First mind goes wrong, then health goes wrong. Once the health collapses it is
very difficult. No medicine will work as the mind is not there. To keep the mind healthy sa vai manaḥ Krishna padā
ravindayoḥ it is said in Bhagavatam somehow or the other we have to focus our mind upon the lotus feet of Lord.
Medicine is only one - our mind should be focused on the lotus feet of Lord Krishna. It is explained here that
the elephant Gajendra went to drink water with many she-elephants around him. In the association of women he was
intoxicated and puffed up. He didn't know that his feet will be caught up. This elephant was nothing. As for us, we are
more proud than elephant. He was intoxicated. He was proud of having 40 she-elephants around him. We have only
one. We should be very careful. We must not be proud of material possessions. This abhimān is very bad. Lord cannot
tolerate this at all. He can tolerate anything else.
Once it so happened Satyabhama was proud that 'I am so beautiful. What are these other queens? They are all
rubbish'. Krishna came to know about this and thought this has to be set right. Then Sudarshana chakra was also very
proud. 'What is Krishna without me? Zero'. Then Krishna thought of treating him too. Next Lord came to know about
Garuda that, he was becoming very proud. He was fighting with everyone. 'What do you think of me? I carry Vishnu on
my back. Who can compete with me? I am very powerful. Without me Vishnu is lame'. So Krishna recognized this, He is
seated in everybody's heart - sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo. He cannot tolerate pride. So then He called for Garuda.
Garuda came and asked, "Yes Lord. What can I do for you?" Garuda is Lord's Mercedes car. Lord asked him, "Go to
Gandamadana parvat, Hanuman is staying there. Tell him I want him immediately." So Garuda went to bring Hanuman.
Then Satyabhama was standing near Krishna. So Krishna said to Satyabhama, "You please go to Rukmini and tell her
that She has to sit next to Me and that She should wear sarees of Sita. She should be Sita today because Hanuman is
coming". Satyabhama immediately flared up, "Krishna! What are you talking? Am I not beautiful enough? Why I should
tell Rukmini?" So Krishna said, See, I have told you what to do. Now you do whatever you like." So anyway Satyabhama
thought that she will get ready as Sita and come. She came and sat. Krishna remarked, "It is upto you. I have told what
you have to do. Now sit doesn't matter."
Then Krishna called Sudarshana chakra. Bhoom bhoom bhoom he came and asked, "What can I do, my Lord?" Krishna
asked him to go to the main gate of the palace and see that nobody enters from there. By this time Garuda had
reached Gandamadana parvat and found Hanuman was busy in chanting Lord Ram's names. Garuda said, "Lord Ram is
remembering you and just now you have to come? So Hanuman replied, "I will come, I am coming." Garuda said,
"Come immediately otherwise I will carry you." Hanuman said politely, "See, you please go I will be there before you."
But Garuda started boasting, "No no. You don't know how powerful I am. I can carry your father Vayu also". Hanuman
is Vayuputra. He thought there is something wrong. He could understand that Lord has sent him to destroy his
abhimaan. So he said, Please, don't agitate me. You just go and I am coming. Again he repeated the same thing.
"Please shut up now" said Hanuman and he caught hold the tail of Garuda, swung him around and threw into the
ocean of Dwarka. He was disposed off. Now Hanuman was on the Gate to face Sudarshana chakra. Sudarshana said,
"Hey monkey? Where are you going?" Hanuman thought, "This is another one, today our Ram wants me to smash all
these people." He said to Sudarshana chakra, "In treta yuga I have served Lord Rama very sincerely. So Mother Sita
has given me the benediction that I can go anytime to their inner quarters also. And I can see them. So please allow
me to go." But Sudarshana was adamant. Hanuman just picked him up and put into his mouth and walked in. Lord Ram
was very pleased to see him. Hanumanji paid obeisances and sat down as if he had to say something. Lord Ram asked
him, "What is the matter Hanuman Do you have something to ask? Actually Satyabhama was sitting beside Lord Rama,
so Hanuman asked, "My Lord, Who is this dasi?" Satyabhama frowned and ran immediately perspiring to Rukmini and
told her, "Your son has come. That monkey son. Except You he regards everyone else as dasi. Then Rukhmini came
and Satyabhama was disposed off. Then Garuda came with wet body. Krishna asked him the matter and he said, Ask
Hanuman. So Krishna looked at Hanuman. He could see his mouth was red . Krishna asked, What is there in your
mouth. Did you eat pān?. He opened his mouth and Sudarshan came out with his face hung down. Thus Lord smashed
the abhimān of all the three.
In the bhajan we see how Gajendra was draged into the river by the crocodile. He fought for years together until he
helplessly surrendered to the Lord. Our lives are full of miseries big or small. It is the way we look at, it helps us to
come out of it. In another lecture in Abu Dhabi Gurudev had once told about the distance between the misery and
happiness. That is the distance of our knee to touch the ground - SURRENDER. Actually we are all so proud to
deal with these miseries ourselves that we don't rely on Lord's mercy. As soon as we surrender to the Lord, then all the
miseries disappear.
I pray unto the lotus feet of my beloved spiritual master and all the Vaishnavas to keep me away of all the Pride.

Abhirakanya devi dasi
Abu Dhabi.

This is the concluding part of the transcription of a nectarean discourse given by H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in
Sharjah on 10-7-1996. In our last offering we saw Maharaj's beautiful explanation on the importance of studying Srila
Prabhupada's books. Today we will see how beautifully explains why we should worship Krishna.
Now the point is that why should we worship Krishna? So He describes it in Bhagavad-gita. There are 700 verses in
Bhagavad-gita. But you may not have time to go through all the 700 verses. Or you may recite but you may not
understand. You should study the verses and then recite. But even recitation is much better if you don't have time to
understand it. If you go on reciting it will give you the idea sometime somewhere. But to understand is the best thing,
beautiful thing. And Prabhupada has toiled and moiled. He was telling devotees when he was alive that "Please relieve
me of the managerial duties. I don't want to manage anything. Because I have to meditate on each word." It is a very
difficult job. Because in Sanskrit. there are ten meanings for the same word. And if there is a bit of different word, then
the meaning changes. So he had to meditate on these words and give the correct meaning. And he has done.
Now, if you cannot study all 700 verses, then you please study at least 4 verses. That is known as Catur-sloki
Bhagavad-gita. In 4 verses, the whole philosophy of Bhagavad-gita is squeezed in. These 4 slokas are in 10th chapter.
Sloka no., 8, 9, 10 and 11. These 4 slokas must be studied. Out of these 4 slokas, in the first sloka, Krishna explains
why should we worship Him. And this is the best weapon. Even if you go to the Indian population, they will ask the
same thing. Why not this god, that god etc. Then Krishna's answer you can give to them. And to your own mind, to
convince, you have to have this argument. So that's why the study of the sloka is very important. You select some
slokas from Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita so that you may have some weapon to fight with. With your own mind you
have to fight with. Forget about anybody else. Our mind is a devil sitting with us 24 hours. And the mind dictates, "do
this, do that, don't do this, don't do that. You relax. You may be tired." In the evening you will come. And the mind will
tell, "The whole day you were running around here and there. Forget about this spiritual matters and just relax." This is
how the mind always gives you suitable arguments. So don't hear the mind. You dictate your terms to the mind. And
you force him to do this.
Now I will give you this verse and show you how to understand these verses. In English there are 4 lines. First line we
will take (devotees repeat after Maharaj...)
ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate

iti matvā bhajante māṁ budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ
If you take one line, there are 3 words. And our languages, Indian languages, there are so many Sanskrit words. So we
are familiar with this. Take first line, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo. for these three words, Prabhupada has given the
translation. Please repeat. aham - I, sarvasya - of all. prabhavah - the source of generation. If you combine these
three meanings, then you can see, Krishna is saying, "I am the source of all generation". This is the qualification of
Krishna. Nobody can claim, no demigods or demigoddess can claim that he or she is the source of all generation. Not
even Lord Ram. Lord Ram also didn't say that. Only Krishna can claim. And this qualification could be studied in detail
in Srimad Bhagavatam where the creation is described in Kapila Muni's chapter. We don't have much time otherwise it
is beautiful to understand the creation of the 24 elements in the material manifestation and how they come into
existence and how they go back at the time of pralaya. It is a nice study. You please find out time and you will find out
more about this aham sarvasya prabhavo. This is how we study Bhagavad-Gita first and then go to Bhagavatam. And it
will elevate your spiritual platform. And not only that, this knowledge will give you the best health. If you understand
these things, it is the eternal knowledge. Not for anything else, but for our own health we have to come to this.
Dhanvantari is the incarnation of Ayurvedic medicine. He has written one book. In that book, the first Sloka he is giving
acyutānanta govinda nāmocchāraṇa bheṣajāt Only ucchāraṇa, only pronunciation of His names, is a great medicine.
Everything comes from Krishna. He is the source of everything. Under Him everything works. mayyādhyakshena prakrti
ḥ suyate sa carācaram. If the whole prakrti behaves according to His instructions, then our body also should behave
under His instruction. And moreover as body is the creation of Krishna, the curative forces of any disease is already
inbuilt. There is no need of going to outside medicine. This is the great mistake we are committing - to pour outside
medicine. It is not needed. When the child is born, it is not born with the box of medicine. Otherwise he would have
medicines with him. If Krishna wanted outside medicine, He would have supplied the box of medicine also. But He did
not supply. It means that our body is completely self-sufficient. And that is our experience. The less medicine you put
into your body, the more you are healthy. The more medicines you take, you will go away early. No Dubai then!
(laughter).
This is the thing to be understood. This one sentence gives us the idea of the supremacy of Krishna. It fixes in our
mind, that if the Supreme force is the Supreme one, then I must catch Him for my own good. There is no mistake. He
Himself tells that I am the source of everything. And that is very correct. You know that verse in 7th chapter (verses 4
and 5), bhumir āpo analo vāyuḥ and apareyam itas tvanyām. In these two verses he has given the whole material
manifestation, all that is coming from Krishna, that bhumi, āpah, water agni etc and then our jiva also. apareyam itas
tvanyām. This is how parā prakrti. And there is another one aparā prakrti. jiva bhutam mahā bāho yayedam dhāryate
jagat. The jivās are also His energies. So Krishna should be the source, the Supreme source of everything. How is it? It
is very nicely explained in the pages of Srimad Bhagavatam. I would request you please, to find time and go through
the 3rd canto of SB. Next time Krishna willing, if we see each other again, we will spend some time to discuss about
these things. But this is the main thing to be understood. But you please be sure that except Krishna nobody can claim
this, that 'I am the source of everything.'

Kalacakra Krsna das.

Please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!
This is the concluding part of the transcription of the powerful speech by our beloved Guru Maharaj on Srimad
Bhagavatam verse 1.1.14

by even unconsciously chanting the holy name of Krishna , which is feared by fear personified.
Srila Prabhupada writes in the purport “Vāsudeva, or Lord Krishna, the Absolute Personality of Godhead, is the
Supreme controller of everything. There is no one in creation who is not afraid of the rage of the Almighty. Great
asuras like Raavana, Hiranyakashipu, Kamsa, and others who were very powerful living entities were all killed by the
Personality of Godhead. And the almighty Vaasudeva has empowered His name with the powers of His personal Self."
The asuras were very much afraid of the Holy Names. Hiranyakashipu had an allergy of the Names. You know we have
allergy of dust or sometimes we eat something and we are in trouble. Hiranyakashipu was supreme allergic to the
Names of Krishna. Those who have any tinge of the vedic culture are merciful because the root of vedic culture is
mercy. There is a Tulasidas doha in Hindi.
dayā dharma kā mul hai pāp mul abhimān

tulasi dayā na chāniye jab lag ghat me prān
‘dayā dharma kā mul hai’- the root of dharma, the root of our duty ‘sa vai pumsām paro dharmo’ is mercy and ‘pā
p mul abhimān’ -‘abhimān’ is the root of sinful activities. abhimān means pride and that is why he advises us that till
we are alive, we should be really helping each other through the merciful nature. This is the main thing and these
asuras, they were all cruel people- krurās because they were averse to the Vedic culture. Vedic culture means Krishna
is the centre. Veda means to know and Krishna says in Bhagavad gita ‘vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo’- the purpose
of the Vedas is to understand Krishna.
We have to think about these things. As soon as we know and come to this conclusion, we know the importance of the
Names. There were so many asuras from Putana to Kamsa, and everybody was killed by Krishna. This is the main thing
to be understood. As soon as we understand this, our mind gets completely fixed on the Maha mantra ‘Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.’
Please even if you carry some scratch in your mind, throw it away and fill up your mind only with Srimad
Bhagavatam. It is in our advantage to throw all the scratch from our mind, because knowingly or
unknowingly we may carry these things with us. This is the main point to be understood from the whole of
Srimad Bhagavatam and as soon as the mind is completely pure, our activities can never be impure because mind is
the impelling force of the activities. It is not only the controller but also the origin. From the mind, the activities start.
First the subtle idea is there and then we perform the activities. Certain ideas we catch and slowly we perform those
activities. So activities are the end result. There are two verses regarding the mind in the Third chapter of Bhagavad
Gita verses 6 and 7.
karmendriyāṇi saṁyamya ya āste manasā smaran
indriyārthān vimūḍhātmā mithyācāraḥ sa ucyate
One who restrains the senses of action but whose mind dwells on sense objects certainly deludes himself
and is called a pretender.
yas tv indriyāṇi manasā niyamyārabhate ’rjuna

karmendriyaiḥ karma-yogam asaktaḥ sa viśiṣyate
On the other hand, if a sincere person tries to control the active senses by the mind and begins karma-
yoga [in Krishna consciousness] without attachment, he is by far superior.
So who is superior and who is inferior is very nicely shown here. We should stop being pretenders and be genuine. So
those who have taken up the process of devotional service seriously, have traveled so far, have come a long way and
now the goal is very near. So a bit of a push and you are there. So please engage all your free time which you can
really take out from your material activities, in studying these things so that the mind gets fixed. Please continue the
pious activities by giving this knowledge to the ordinary mass. Try to attract as many people as possible and Krishna
and Srila Prabhupada will help us in this pious job.
Srila Prabhupada ki jai!

Srila Gurudev ki jai!
Thank you very much,

Abu Dhabi.

Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Srila
Gurudeva.
In continuation of our discussion on the topic "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", let us learn from the next spiritual
master of the avadhuta brahmana - the moth. In Srimad Bhagavatam verses 11.8.7 the avadhuta brahmana tells us
the lessons that we need to learn from moth.
dṛṣṭvā striyaṁ deva-māyāṁ tad-bhāvair ajitendriyaḥ

pralobhitaḥ pataty andhe tamasy agnau pataṅga-vat
One who has failed to control his senses immediately feels attraction upon seeing a woman's form, which
is created by the illusory energy of the Supreme Lord. Indeed, when the woman speaks with enticing
words, smiles coquettishly and moves her body sensuously, his mind is immediately captured, and thus
he falls blindly into the darkness of material existence, just as the moth maddened by the fire rushes
blindly into its flames.
Chanakya Pandit says "mātravat para dāreṣu" - One should consider all women other than his wife, as mother.
In this regard we are reminded of story of Jaimini which our beloved spiritual master, Srila Mahavishnu Goswami
Maharaj used to narrate in a very instructive and humorous manner. Jaimini was disciple of Srila Vyasadev. Lord
Ganesha and Jaimini were engaged in the service of writing Mahabharat as and when Vyasadev dictated it to them.
One of the verses Vyasadev dictated was
mātrā svasra duhitrā vā / na viviktāsano bhavet

balavān indriya grāmo / vidvān sam api karshati
One should not allow oneself to sit on the same seat even with one's own mother, sister or daughter, for
the senses are so strong that even though one is very advanced in knowledge, he may be attracted by
sex.
Lord Ganesha wrote down the verse. But Jaimini ignored it and said that he is not in agreement with it. He argued that
a knowledgeable person cannot be attracted to his mother or daughter or sister under any circumstance. Vyasadev
replied - "These are not my words, but are inspired by Krishna. But if you are not agreeing, you can stop writing
for a while and we can resume after you understand the truth behind this statement." Jaimini then left for his ashram
thinking that his spiritual master was wrong in dictating that verse. That night it rained heavily and Jaimini heard the
scream of a young woman outside his ashram, pleading for help. Initially he thought that being a brahmachari he
should not be worried about the woman. But as heard the pleading voice repeatedly, he went out. She requested him
for accommodation. Jaimini denied. But his mind began to trick him. He started thinking, "How can I be unkind to this
poor woman? What will happen to her of I don't provide her shelter now?".
Then he went out of the ashram and just for a moment, when lightning flashed, he saw the woman. He told her that as
a brahmachari he is not supposed to interact with woman but since she is in difficulty, he would let her sleep inside the
ashram and he will sleep outside as guard for her. He told her to lock the door and not to open the door even if he
himself knocks it. The woman agreed and closed the door. But the whole night Jaimini was thinking of her. He went and
knocked the door hard. But she did not open. Unable to check his agitation, he climbed the wall and through the roof
entered the house. The lady taunted him. So he shamelessly asked her, "Are you married?". She said, "No". He further
continued - "Any intention?". She replied, "I am waiting for a suitable person to propose." Jaimini got relieved by her
reply and immediately proposed to her and she accepted his proposal. But the woman said that there is a custom in
their community that as and when the wedding happens, the groom has to walk on his four limbs like a donkey and
carry the bride on the back and circle the fire 4 times. Jaimini was bit hesitant but when the woman said that this can
be done in privacy he was relieved. Immediately he got ready and knelt down and carried the woman 4 times. After 4
rounds he tried to catch hold of her hand, he was blinded by a beam of light and could not see anything. But in the
centre of spectrum of powerful beam of light, he could see an old person with a white flowing beard, his own honoured
saint Vyasadev had come in the disguise of the young woman. Jaimini felt distressed and embarrassed. Vyasadev
smiled and asked him, "Are you convinced now with that verse?". Jaimini did not have any more arguments now and
accepted to continue writing.
So the point is no matter how knowledgeable we are, if we are not submissive to elders and spiritual master, we will
easily fall a prey to maya. In his transcendental powerful class on Jan 3 2010, while Gurudev was in Panvel, he said
how great sages like Viswamithra and Parasara muni themselves were not able to control their senses. "At any point
of time, please remember that we cannot control our senses on our own. We should pray to Krishna to
help us in controlling them. So we should never become proud that we have controlled the senses.
If at any point of time, we think that we have controlled the senses, then its like throwing Vindhyacal
mountain into the ocean and saying that it will float. We must always pray to Krishna for help in
controlling the senses."
It is very important to take shelter of Holy Names and Krishna and They alone would help us in our struggle against
Maya. Otherwise we will be attracted to the fire of sense gratification like the moth and destroy ourselves. If we don't
abide by the rules of scriptures and behave whimsically and indulge in illicit sex, then Krishna has His own ways of
punishing us in the form of fiery diseases like AIDS etc. Nothing goes unnoticed and we can never ever dare to trick or
cheat the omnipotent Lord. Namacharaya Srila Haridas Thakur took shelter of Lord and His Names and that's why even
when the prostitute tried to provoke him, he was able to remain steady and by his pure unalloyed devotion and
chanting, he was even able to change the prostitute into a devotee. Such is the potency of Lord's Names. There is no
doubt that maya is very illusive, powerful and attractive. But every moment we should sincerely pray to our spiritual
master and Lord Sri Krishna to protect us from her and give us strength to properly utilise this valuable life in Their
service.


Gurudeva.
In continuation of our discussion on the topic "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", let us learn from the next spiritual
master of the avadhuta brahmana - the elephant. After the spiritual master moth, the avadhuta brahmana is listing the
lessons that he learnt from honey-bee. But since we found that the lessons to be learnt from elephant are similar to
the ones we learnt from moth, we thought of discussing on verses 11.8.13 and 14, wherein the avadhuta brahamana is
explaining to us the important lessons we need to learn from elephant.
padāpi yuvatīṁ bhikṣur na spṛśed dāravīm api

spṛśan karīva badhyeta kariṇyā aṅga-saṅgataḥ
A saintly person should never touch a young girl. In fact, he should not even let his foot touch a wooden
doll in the shape of a woman. By bodily contact with a woman he will surely be captured by illusion, just
as the elephant is captured by the she-elephant due to his desire to touch her body.
Elephants are known for their strength, eye-sight and memory power. But in spite of all these assets, the he-elephant
easily falls into the hunter's trap in the forest, when it is provoked at the sight of she-elephant. In purport to verse
1.9.27 Srila Prabhupada mentions that - "As far as the women class are concerned, they are accepted as a power of
inspiration for men. As such, women are more powerful than men. Mighty Julius Caesar was controlled by a
Cleopatra. Such powerful women are controlled by shyness. Therefore, shyness is important for women.
Once this control valve is loosened, women can create havoc in society by adultery. Adultery means
production of unwanted children known as varna-sankara, who disturb the world." Unfortunately in today's
world, Vedic life style is becoming a dream. There is not a single advertisement, irrespective of whether it has
relevance to woman or not, has the picture of woman in it. For eyes are the entry points of sin and even if we simply
walk on the roads the big banners of advertisements pollute our mind. To save ourselves from these rubbish, we
should remember the golden words of Maharaj that even while walking on the road, we should keep our eyes only
half open, just enough to see the path and not anything else. In verse 11.8.14 the avadhuta brahmana says
nādhigacchet striyaṁ prājñaḥ karhicin mṛtyum ātmanaḥ

balādhikaiḥ sa hanyeta gajair anyair gajo yathā
A man possessing intelligent discrimination should not under any circumstances try to exploit the
beautiful form of a woman for his sense gratification. Just as an elephant trying to enjoy a she-elephant
is killed by other bull elephants also enjoying her company, one trying to enjoy a lady's company can at
any moment be killed by her other lovers who are stronger than he.
By the process of marriage and varnashrama dharma, scriptures have regulated our life and we have to be satisfied
with the spouse whom we are blessed by the Lord. Instead if one tries to enjoy others' wives we are bound to suffer. In
case of Kauravas we saw that because of their dirty wish to enjoy Draupadi, they had to face miserable death in the
battle-field of Kurukshetra. Ravana also faced his end at the hands of Lord Ram as he had the illicit desire of enjoying
Mother Sita who was Ram's wife. So for our own well-being, we should not indulge in illicit sense-gratification activities
and waste this rare human birth. But by following the scriptural injunctions, we should lead a life pleasing to Guru and
Krishna.

Take Shelter of the Worthy Shelter - Part 1

Today we will try to hear the transcription of a discourse given by H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Rajkot on the
verse 3.25.11 in 2008.
taṁ tvā gatāhaṁ śaraṇaṁ śaraṇyaṁ

sva-bhṛtya-saṁsāra-taroḥ kuṭhāram
jijñāsayāhaṁ prakṛteḥ pūruṣasya
namāmi sad-dharma-vidāṁ variṣṭham
Devahuti continued: "I have taken shelter of Your lotus feet because You are the only person of whom to
take shelter. You are the axe which can cut the tree of material existence. I therefore offer my
obeisances unto You, who are the greatest of all transcendentalists, and I inquire from You as to the
relationship between man and woman and between spirit and matter."
Maharaj speaks:
This BG 11.38 you know, it has nice description of Krishna. The thing is we don't appreciate the transcendental
nature of the Lord and that's why our surrender is always conditioned and incomplete. We don't really
understand. (Maharaj sings the verse (BG 11.38) tvam aadi devah purushah puraanas).
These three qualities are Krishna's you know. tvam aadi-devah, purshah, puraanas. aadi-devah means original. we
have aadi-purush - Original Person. Original means the first seed verse of Bhagavatam 2.9.33.
aham evāsam evāgre nānyad yat sad-asat param

paścād ahaṁ yad etac ca yo ’vaśiṣyeta so ’smy aham
Beautiful translation. "Brahma, it is I, the Personality of Godhead, who was existing before the creation,
when there was nothing but Myself. Nor was there the material nature, the cause of this creation. That
which you see now is also I, the Personality of Godhead, and after annihilation what remains will also be
I, the Personality of Godhead."
This is His definition. And we don't really relish. In all three stages He exists. That's why He is known as Aadidev. And
not only this, but His completeness is described in the invocation of Isopanishad. The verse which we recite in prayers.
oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate

pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate
The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all
emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes.
Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete
Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.
The thing is not only that He is Aadi-purush. Nothing could be taken from Him and nothing could be added to Him. We
are.., in between, for a few years we are created. Really we don't have any value ourselves. But because of our false
ego, we think that we are all-in-all. All these 2-3 verses should force us to be very humble. If He contrives, then our
position is null and void. Nothing is in our hand. Nothing we can create, nothing we can enjoy. Except to recognize the
authority, the aadi-purush, except that, we cannot do anything, in this yoni particularly. All other yonis are completely
in dark. All other species of existence, they are completely in dark. They don't have any idea about the metaphysics
side of the existence. But in this yoni only Krishna's mercy, He has given some special understanding to us. In between
the ignorance of the childhood and oldage we have some intelligence. In this yoni also, this boy (pointing to a 2 yrs old
child) has no intelligence at all at the moment. When he gets to his age 15-16 years, then he will think, "My father is
reading Bhagavad-gita or speaking on Bhagavatam" etc, and then something will come to him slowly. Then again, in
old age we don't know whether our consciousness remains pure or not. Again we will forget. Only the in-between years
we are given the special possibility. How much it is important to understand this and try to surrender? These 2-3
verses we should carve in our mind. To understand adi-deva we must go to Bhagavatam. That is the Post Graduate
study of Bhagavad-gita.
Bhagavad-gita has given the root, that He is the original person. So how 'He is original' is described in the pages of
Bhagavatam. So this is how you should continously study and refer between Bhagavad-gita and Bhagavatam. The
more you read, the more you will be able to refer because the same principles are described everywhere. It is not
anything else. It is all one. So that's why our continous thinking should be on these lines. Whereas our thinking is
haywired. We don't know what are we thinking really. As soon as you stop thinking about Krishna, means you will be
thinking about the material matter. That is definite. Thinking will go on, that is the nature of the mind. Thinking never
stops. so we are given special facility in this species of existence. And we are the most luckiest persons to come under
the shelter of Prabhupada. So he has made everything clear. Because without his mercy we will never know all these
verses. Even we hear the verses, we may enjoy the transcendental vibration. Apart from that we don't understand
anything else. But he has made it very clear. Really his Guru Maharaj Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati correctly advised him,
"You please preach to these English people" and we are now English people (Maharaj laughs heartily). That time he
thought that he may preach in the West. He might not have thought at that time that all our people also will be
speaking English. We also understand more now in English than other language. Anyhow language doesn't matter. But
the understanding must be there. And this understanding means transcendental. The natural effect of this
understanding is, complete detachment from the contamination of the matter. That is the result. Vairagya vidya. It is
vidya you know. In vidya 'vid' word is there. vid means 'to know'. vidya means 'that which is worth knowing'. And
He is vairagya vidya. Vairagya has got to be known. And in vairagya, we don't understand why we have to cultivate
vairagya. In vairagya also sometimes we are misled or misdirected. The correct direction is not there. That's why
Prabhupada gave the whole thing. He didn't only tell us to create detachment. But he established the temple
communities. Here we learn how to get detached and how to get attached to worshiping Krishna. His is a whole
package. He didn't give only philosophy. But practical application of the philosophy. Then again with the temple
communities, he has given so many namahatta programs wherein vairagya vidya is spread. He said, "If you can't come
to the temple, don't worry. You have your own program. 3-4 people come together, they chant and dance."
Krishna willing, we will hear more nectar from Maharaj in the subsequent mail.

Kalacakra Krsna das

This is in continuation of the offering, "Take Shelter of the Worthy Shelter", a transcription of discourse given by H H
Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Rajkot on the verse SB 3.25.11 in 2008.

Devahuti continued: I have taken shelter of Your lotus feet because You are the only person of whom to
relationship between man and woman and between spirit and matter.
In yesterday's offering we heard from Maharaj that we are not taking complete shelter of Krishna as we don't
appreciate His transcendental Supreme nature. Maharaj insisted how Srila Prabhupada has mercifully given us the
scriptures in a simple and sublime manner, in English language so that everyone of us could understand Lord's
transcendental nature. So we need to do deep study of Srila Prabhupada's books. Now let us continue to hear more
nectar from Gurudev.
But because we don't understand Krishna that's why we don't have the rati you know, that attraction. We are still not
attracted to Krishna. That's why we are beating about the bush. All these pages, they force us to get attracted to
Krishna. Our nature particularly is bharatiya you know. We always keep something in the margin, that one comes first,
then this. And our forefathers have shown us the way. They were doing everything but they were not doing anything,
everything was happening. They will completely free from that. Now the complex situations are there. The families are
breaking down, this and that. So many things are there. But it doesn't matter. Human values don't change. Social
status may change here and there. Human values remain the same. That's why in any condition of material life, these
things are valuable. You have to have attraction to the transcendence. You understand it through the pages of
Bhagavad-gita and Bhagavatam. Not only that, sincere understanding must be there. What is it? Seriously inquisitive
student realizes the Supreme Absolute Truth. Devotional service which is based on the foreground of full
knowledge, combined with detachment from material atmosphere and which is fixed by the aural
reception of vedanta shruti, is the only perfect method by which a seriously inquisitive student can
realize the Absolute Truth. The serious inquisitiveness is absent. And that's why out of our 24 hours a day, 23 and
half goes in nonsense. And that 23 and half could be done in half-an-hour. (Maharaj laughs). That capacity we have.
That's why they have the VRS schemes you know, Volutary Retirement. Early retirement. You can retire early. They will
give you something, some money will be there, your expenses somehow or other will pull off and you retire. Somehow
or other, everywhere VRS is there. Either we are voluntarily retiring or force kicked. Those both are voluntary. You
HAVE to retire. There is no way but you have to retire. Then that should be regarded as a special prerogative offered
by Krishna, that you are not in the picture. You were telling now (pointing to a devotee) that you are somehow or other
trying to organize so you can retire from these activities. That is best. Whatever years are there, you can do a deep
study of the whole Bhagavatam and really learn so many things.
These only 2-3 verses we are speaking, how nice they are. Even if we don't understand, if we only vibrate, even then it
is quite nice. And we know so many things about Krishna being always under the roof of Krishna. Please drive away the
lethargy. (Maharaj recites prāyena alpāyusha verse). The thing is it is very easy to conquer the laziness, but we
don't really want to conquer. The intense desire is not there. And to have the intense desire, the practical thing has got
to be seen. The day is bound to come when our eyes will not open, our ears will not work, we cannot hear anything,
that is our condition also. But we are simply wasting time. Please, instead, we should get more attached to these
spiritual things, before we get the same condition. what is it? turnam yateta anupatet na mrtyu yāvan. turnam means
immediate. turnam yateta means, try immediately. na patet - before you fall down mrtyu yāvan - again you are
facing another death. So before that death arrives please try to turn your notebooks, keep the things ready and you
just go through them. Other maintenance activities are not really time consuming. It is just a few hours or few minutes
many times. Just arrange something and everything will go on. Now we have ordered the iron (for construction). Iron
will come, we will pay the money and that's itm, forget about it. We are going on meditating, Iron, we should do this, it
is 50000 bill has to be paid etc. When the time comes bill has to be paid. Iron is there, Iron man is there and they are
working. What are we doing? We are not doing anything. We unnecessarily linger on. That is bad. These material
activities we don't know that they happen without our interference. We are not the cause of that. Iron was already, the
iron ore was taken out of the mine, then it is melted, then it was converted into bars, what did we do? We didn't do
anything. Krishna supplied everything. We forget the original source and we just run after the iron. And this is our
condition.
In all the material matters we cannot do anything unless He does. There is no way you can arrange
without His mercy. Even then we put ourselves in the center. That is what this Narasingh Mehta shouts you know "
hun karun hun karun ej ajnāta - I think I am doing; I am doing; this is the gross ignorance". Then he gives the
example. shakat no bhārna shvān thāne - the bullock cart is driven by the bullock and the dog comes in between the
bullocks and he thinks that he is pulling the cart. We are like those dogs. I mean to say, that the material things don't
take long. If we are serving somewhere or if we are having some responsibility it may take a few hours. Otherwise it
will take only 5 mins. For me it is a matter of only 5 mins. For me to think about these material things is just 5-10 mins.
That's why, I don't know if you have seen me I am always writing some notebook or something. Have you seen me
anytime, writing something like "You are managing this or He is managing that?" From the beginning since Dwaraka, I
was sitting upstairs. Bhagavatam was nice. So many times I repeated. Dwaraka was best really, it was very peaceful.
And that room is best you know. No disturbance at all. Please try to do something and invest your energy in this. That
energy will be multiplied and it will spread everywhere. Only these 3-4 verses if you do, it will give insight into the
nature of the Supreme Absolute Truth. And there are innumerable verses in Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita.
Wherever you open it is all Krishna. And that's why it is non-different from Krishna. There are only 2 things.
One is the instructions about our contaminated behavior. The other thing is transcendence. That's all, there is nothing
else in the scriptures. Only 2 things we will find out. All the different episodes are there to correct our contaminated
behavior. Behavior pattern, how it should be for a Krishna conscious person. And with that behavior how you can
endeavor into the transcendence is the other part. There is nothing else at all. Behavior pattern once and for all, we
have to correct ourselves. Since last so many years we are discussing Bhagavad-gita and Bhagavatam. What are we
discussing man? Even now, if we don't touch the purity what are we discussing daily? Day in and day out we have
to be on our guard. Nobody can guard you. We may suggest something. Sane guard must be there. The
confidential thing of the purity is, that the more purity you have the more things will be arranged
according to your will. Purity must be there. And we don't have to do anything. He will arrange.
Krishna willing we will continue to hear more nectar from Gurudev in the subsequent mails.

Kalacakra Krsna das

This is in continuation of the offering, "Take Shelter of the Worthy Shelter", a transcription of discourse given by H H
Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Rajkot on the verse SB 3.25.11 in 2008.

Devahuti continued: I have taken shelter of Your lotus feet because You are the only person of whom to
relationship between man and woman and between spirit and matter.
In the previous offerings we heard from Maharaj that
a) We are not taking shelter of the worthiest shelter Krishna as we don't appreciate His transcendental Supreme Nature
b) Srila Prabhupada has mercifully helped us to know the transcendental glories of the Lord by translating Bhagavad
Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam in English
c) We need to give up our lazy nature and immediately take up to study of Srila Prabhupada's books.
d) Krishna and His words, Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam are non-different from Him and by getting in touch
with Them our contaminated behaviour will be purified and once purity is there, Krishna will arrange everything else.
Now let us continue to hear more from Gurudev.
We have our responsibility because we are already in the material world. We have our work, we have our children and
so on. All these are our responsibility. But there is a way to have shortcut to complete the responsibility. And that
is through this purity. And that's why the behavior pattern must be crystal clear. Crystal clear. Nobody should doubt
us. And once you shut your eyes from that contamination then everything becomes very transcendental. And your
responsibilities are taken care of. Once in Granthraj paper somebody had very nicely written - "You please surrender to
Him and the rest will carry on". And He is carrying on anyway. What are we doing? Our children are there,
grandchildren are there. They are studying, working and doing so many things. What am I doing? Now I catch my head,
"Oh what happened to him? How is he doing?" No end to it. We can't do anything but unnecessarily we catch our head.
This should shop. And contamination in the behavior should never be there. At least those who are already married,
who are already finished something, they should be completely clean. I told you yesterday, these ladies who are
forsaken or who are widows, they were addressed as ganga-svarup, like Ganges. That doesn't mean that the ladies
only are supposed to be Ganges. The purush also should be very very careful about it. Because we don't understand
Krishna, that's why purity is completely away from us.
Anything we come across, we have our material law to apply to. And there we commit our mistake. Our material rods
don't work, that we knew already. And it has worked so far by Krishna's mercy but it is not supposed to work. So one
day vanaprastha situation is there or retirement is there or kicking out by the children. If you don't follow renunciation
according to vedic culture, Krishna will take you away. caatur varnyam mayaa srshtam. Everybody will have this
situation to face. That they don't follow. In the Western world varnashrama system is completely absent but we see so
many divorces, so many marriages and again remarriages why? Because they are not following the behaviour pattern
of Bhagavatam. So many difficulties are there. And they ask why, why this is happening? Because anti-
bhagavatam situation is there. Srila Prabhupada wanted to correct this situation. So those who are following
Prabhupada in the Western civilization also they are a bit better than the ordinary crowd, at least for some time. This is
how this process is well-tested and purity has its own way. Why Grandfather was respected so much? Because he is
the head of the family. And he didn't run like a dog here and there. Our grandmother, I hardly saw them together. My
grandfather and grand mother, they were really happy. They may fight some time but no mention about divorce. He
was completely engaging himself in worship and she was cooking or whatever, never bothered about each other.
Please, material relationships should be seen through this eye of Kapila. Particularly this verse. śaraṇaṁ śaraṇyaṁ
must be there. śaraṇyaṁ means worth taking shelter of. Find out first the living entity who is worth
taking shelter of, and then śaraṇaṁ. These two things you should remember. But we don't find sharanyam. Till
that time we are kicked out. Because we don't go to the sharanyam, we don't go to the transcendence which is worth
taking shelter of. So you go anywhere which is not worth taking shelter of, we are going to have the same kick. This we
don't understand. That's why these material relationships, there is so many problems because they are not going to
sharanyam. Sharanyam means worth taking shelter of. This is our mistake. From the beginning, if you do śaraṇyaṁ,
then your sharanam is quite fruitful. But from the beginning you don't go to sharanyam. Here Devahuti gives only 2
words in this verse. And these 2 words are very important in our life. We don't find sharanyam at all. We don't find
sharanyam and we are surrendered. The wrong śaraṇyaṁ is there, then again the material kick is bound to
be there. We are thinking, "Oh, I am completely surrendered and even then I am kicked". People who serve in the
bank, may be they are very surrendered to the manager. And the manager himself kicks out because the bank is not
making profit. So no mistake from our side but still the kicking out is there because śaraṇyaṁ is wrong. I don't mean
that we should not be surrendered to the office boss. We have to to some extent. But to that 8 hours only. It is not that
12 hours we are meditating on him. 12 hours meditation is sharanyam. And those who choose this correctly, then their
position is secured.
So many examples are there. Prabhupada did not have anything at all. It is very clear, when he got down from the
ship, he did not know whether to go East or West. No money at all. Except dhoti, kurta, no trousers also. nothing at all.
His dress also not worth looking at. And he could achieve so much. Why because sharanyam was there. The surrender
was complete surrender. And complete surrender to what? He was surrendered to Bhagavatam. And that's why
he had taken a vow that he will translate the whole thing before he dies. And if we kick that
Bhagavatam out, then our śaraṇyaṁ is gone. If we surrender to anti-bhagavatam people and situations, then our
sharanyam is gone. We do our seva, whatever it is. But the rest of the time everybody should know that we are with
Bhagavatam. They should see us, so we should not worry about our own praise or whatever but somebody
should see that he is always with Bhagavatam. That will protect you. That will really really protect you. I
was traveling to Ahmedabad, Bombay and other places. But whenever I am not doing anything, I am always
writing something from Bhagavad-gita, Bhagavatam in my notebooks. So one devotee, whenever he saw me, he saw
me with Bhagavatam. "You are sane", he said. And he gave us some donation that time for our Dwaraka project. It was
so difficult for us. We didn't have a single penny there. But because of Bhagavatam Lakshmi came. And I boast that he
liked me, that's why he paid. No! Not because he liked me but he saw me with Bhagavatam. And I didn't know that
Bhagavatam is bringing money to me. I didn't have any idea. The thing is, that unless śaraṇaṁ śaraṇyaṁ is there, the
kutaaram is not there. Axe is not there. And this Axe we have to understand very clearly you know. Samsaara taroh
kutaaram. To cut the samsaara tree the axe is required. But in transcendence, actual material things are absent. That
we have to understand. We have to get rid of samsaara. This axe is śaraṇaṁ śaraṇyaṁ. Correct surrender must be
there, so automatically axe will be there. So we are situated in samsaara, and even then we are not attached. So this
kutaaram in the proper material meaning, you must have the kutaaram to cut. But here we don't cut actually,
automatically it is cut. Bhakti pareshaanubhavo viraktir. As soon as the devotion is there, correct surrender is there,
axe is already there. This is the sequence of this verse. Because śaraṇaṁ śaraṇyaṁ is there, the kuṭhāram is there.
Once the kuṭhāram is there, then jijñāsayāhaṁ word is there. jijñāsa means desire to know. Inquisitive to know that is j
ijñāsa. Yesterday I quoted that verse - parābhavas tāvad abodha jāto yāvan na jignāsata ātma tattvam. jijñāsa word is
there. yāvan na jijñāsa ātma tattvam. Till you are not inquisitive sincerely of the atma tattva, till that time
you are defeated. And that's why in the material relationships we are defeated because jignaasa atma tattvam is
completely absent. So that's why we are failures. But those who are attracted to this aatma tattva, they take it very
easy. And they don't worry too much about these things. And they go on that's it. Somehow or the other we have to
adjust. Prabhupada was always giving the example of waiting room. In waiting room so many people come together.
Our mela is like a waiting room. You were here for 10 days and you are gone now today. We are here for a few years
may be, coming and going. Who knows when anybody will just go away. So this is just a mela, very temporary mela we
have. And in temporary mela we don't get attached to temporary shelters.
Those who guide us correctly, we are surrendered to them. Please try to understand these things, so that it will never
pass over our heads. It should go through the heads. Sharanam sharanyam is very important. We have to have the
serious attraction to sharanyam - worth taking shelter of. And He is worth taking shelter of because He says Himself, "
Brahma, it is I the Supreme Personality of Godhead....(2.9.33 translation)." Three times Prabhupada repeats the
word Supreme Personality of Godhead in this translation. "Which you see now is also I, and whatever remains
after also is I the Supreme Personality of Godhead". This is śaraṇyaṁ. Om purnamadah is śaraṇyaṁ. Then
tvam aadidevah, only one quality we discussed. aadidevah, again purushah puraanah. purusha is enjoyer. Purānam
means oldest. All these qualities are included in aadidevah. This is the point to be understood. Please try to your
best and get attached to Srimad Bhagavatam. Hare Krishna !
Granthraj Srimad Bhagavatam ki Jai! HH Srila Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj ki Jai! HDG Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!

Kalacakra Krsna das

Gurudeva.
In continuation of our discussion on the topic, "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", let us learn from the next
spiritual master of the avadhuta brahmana - the honey-bee. From this spiritual master the avadhuta brahmana is
learning both "do's and don'ts". The lessons are as follows
1. Madhukari
2. Learn good from all
3. Do not over-store like greedy honey bee
1. Madhukari : Let us try to meditate on the first lesson which avadhuta brahmana is telling us in verse 11.8.9
stokaṁ stokaṁ grased grāsaṁ deho varteta yāvatā

gṛhān ahiṁsann ātiṣṭhed vṛttiṁ mādhukarīṁ muniḥ
A saintly person should accept only enough food to keep his body and soul together. He should go from
door to door accepting just a little bit of food from each family. Thus he should practice the occupation of
the honeybee.
This is a very important lesson to be learnt from honey-bee, especially for devotees who are preaching the glories of
the Lord. The natural constitutional position of honey-bee is to go from one flower to another. Similar manner saintly
persons travel from door to door and accept just a little bit of food from each family, just to keep their body and
soul together. They do not take shelter permanently in any family, because their permanent shelter is
Supreme Lord and they know their real purpose of life. The reason for their traveling from door to door is
also not for their sustenance, but to spread the message of the Supreme Lord to the suffering souls. They
are mercifully giving an opportunity to the grhasthas stuck in materialistic life, to hear about the glories of Krishna and
to serve them and there by help the people to advance in spiritual life. In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 1.4.8, Shaunaka
Muni while glorifying this quality of Sukadeva Goswami, very nicely mentions that the time he stays in any household
is just sa go-dohana maatram - time for milking a cow.
sa go-dohana-mātraṁ hi gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām

avekṣate mahā-bhāgas tīrthī-kurvaṁs tad āśramam
He [Sukadeva Goswami] was accustomed to stay at the door of a householder only long enough for a cow
to be milked. And he did this just to sanctify the residence.
In his wonderful purport to the above verse Srila Prabhupada very nicely writes that Sukadeva Goswami met Emperor
Parikshit and explained the text of Srimad-Bhagavatam. He was not accustomed to stay at any householder's
residence for more than half an hour (at the time of milking the cow), and he would just take alms from the fortunate
householder. That was to sanctify the residence by his auspicious presence. Therefore Sukadeva Goswami is an
ideal preacher established in the transcendental position. From his activities, those who are in the
renounced order of life and dedicated to the mission of preaching the message of Godhead should learn
that they have no business with householders save and except to enlighten them in transcendental
knowledge. Such asking for alms from the householder should be for the purpose of sanctifying his home.
One who is in the renounced order of life should not be allured by the glamor of the householder's
worldly possessions and thus become subservient to worldly men. For one who is in the renounced order
of life, this is much more dangerous than drinking poison and committing suicide
.
Even the Goswami's of Vrindavan never used to sleep under the shade of same tree for more than one night. To that
extent they were careful not to become attached to the temporary shelters. So from the examples of such great souls,
we should take the lesson of madhukari from the honey-bee and travel only for exchanging the message of glories of
the Lord and leave the place as soon as Krishna katha is over. The negative impacts of lingering around the same
place for any service are:
a) We forget the real cause, Krishna and start thinking those temporary instruments (place, people, situations) as the
ultimate cause of our service.
b) Our spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj says that "intimate dealings" will spoil the relationship as
familiarity breeds contempt.
This dependence on temporary shelters is explained nicely in the purport to verse 11.8.9, "Sometimes a honeybee is
attracted by the extraordinary aroma of a particular lotus flower and lingers there, neglecting his usual activity of
flying from flower to flower. Unfortunately, at sunset the lotus flower closes, and thus the infatuated honeybee is
trapped. Similarly, a sannyasi or brahmacaari may discover that excellent foodstuff is available at a particular house,
and therefore, instead of wandering from place to place, he may become a veritable resident of such a well-fed
household. Thus he will become bewildered by the illusion of family life and fall down from the platform of renunciation.
Also, if a mendicant takes unfair advantage of the Vedic custom of charity and takes too often from a single family,
the resentment he causes will disturb the social order. An ideal sage should, like the honeybee, travel from place to
place, but he must be careful not to become a chubby bee by going to many houses and eating sumptuously at each
house. According to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, such a chubby bee will undoubtedly become entangled in
the network of maya."
On the positive side,
a) When honey-bee collects honey from one flower and travels to another flower, pollination takes place automatically.
Similarly when we discuss Krishna katha in one place, we get an opportunity to receive the nectarean honey of Krishna
katha from that place and inspired by the same, when we travel and share those inspirations to other places, we shall
become Krishna's instrument in spreading His glories everywhere.
b) The vital ingredient for sharing Krishna katha is humility. So when we follow the example of honeybee and move
around, we will not take things for granted and would be grateful to all kinds of people and circumstances
that help us, (be it favourable or unfavourable) and see them as instruments of ultimate controller, Sri Krishna. This
increases the purity of our shravanam, kirtanam and smaranam of Lord Sri Krishna.
To quote the golden words of Gurudev - "To save ourselves from the pains of old-age, we should move around and
preach. Instead if we remain within four-walls, then the four-walls will kill us."
We pray at the lotus feet of Srila Gurudeva, Srila Prabhupada and Sri Krishna that we remember this lesson and put it
into practice in our life.
Krishna willing, we shall discuss the remaining lessons from honey-bee in the subsequent offerings.

Jewels from a Maha-Bhagavata : Stop fighting

With your permission we would like to share the contents of a short lecture given by our Spiritual Master HH
Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj. We were having darshan of Maharaj in the office room just outside the Radha
Neelamadhav Temple hall. Maharaj was conversing with someone on the phone and once he had put the phone down
Maharaj spoke the following jewel-like words.
Gurudev Speaks:
"We do not know the purpose of our lives. Millions of lives, so much suffering and by the mercy of Lord we have been
put into this species. Once we get here what we do? We fight. We don't know how fragile our lives are. At any moment
now, time is going to break it. We are so proud that we are going to live forever that we waste our time fighting and
quarreling. We have to facilitate these things, because unless we facilitate no one is going to go to Bhagavatam. How
unfortunate ? People need to be told to go to Bhagavatam.
We are not getting into our chanting and studying, it is all very superficial. If we seriously study (Bhagavatam,
Bhagavad Gita) and pick up the reality from there then nothing can affect us. When you equip yourself with the
realities of life through the pages of Bhagavatam then we are never affected. We should free ourselves of these things.
Let them fight, why we must also do? If someone hits us, we don't have to hit them back. These things are
formalities of this age. Please come out of these nonsensical formalities by repeatedly chanting and
going through these verses (Bhagavatam). We can be loving to everyone. It is not wrong.
We should focus only on serving the Lord very seriously. Like this we will have no time to offend or be offended by
others. We will exist, and at the same time not exist. Our existence is not in this world even though we are here. This is
power of Krishna. So when we don't even exist here how to get caught in these things? We should not be lazy in
our dealings with others. See Krishna and automatically we become pleased and pleasing. You are young.
Don't become a grandfather too soon by shouting and quarrelling. Save yourself from these things by becoming
serious in the study. "
I could not make out who Maharaj was speaking to on the phone and what the problem was at the other end, but I
could see one thing - By the mercy of the Lord I was at the right place, at the right time to hear my Spiritual Master
shatter my egoistic existence.
All glories to Srila Gurudev who exists eternally in his transcendental instructions.

Your servant,
Madanmohan das,
Singapore
"If You Don't Read, Then You Will Feel Restless"

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev.
We have been trying to practice Krishna consciousness for so many years but still we find the real bliss eludes us. Still
we find we have not developed the taste for chanting the holy names. We know that as per Srimad Bhagavatam the
human form of life is so valuable and we should take advantage very quickly and not postpone our serious spiritual
practices. One of the most important aspect of spiritual practices in developing the taste for devotional service is
reading of Srila Prabhupada's books especially Srimad Bhagavatam. But nowadays we are more interested in showing
statistical numbers of devotees we have generated without the underlying important aspect of perfecting our own
sadhana - chanting the holy names with full attention. We are so much misled that we don't understand that one of the
topmost guiding principles given by Srila Prabhupada is "Books are the basis". Srila Prabhupada is not insane to put
Srimad Bhagavatam class during the morning hours and Srimad Bhagavad Gita in the evening hours. He could have
put any other books but he did not do so. Because he knows the whole movement is mainly based on these two books.
But that does not mean we should not read other books. Of course all the books are also important but the basic
principle is not to ignore these two particular books. As our Guru Maharaj says that even one verse takes so much of
time to understand and assimilate and we don't have enough life time to complete Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavad
gita, Caitanya Caritamrta and others.
We can see a wonderful part of the lecture given by Srila Prabhupada on Srimad Bhagavatam 2.9.14 on the importance
of reading his books. This lecture was given in Melbourne, April 13, 1972.
"You don't read. In the first volume of Bhagavata these things are explained. But I don't think you read all these things.
Do you read? So if you don't read, then you will feel restless: "Oh, let me go from Japan to India, from India to
Japan." You are restless because you don't read. I am laboring so hard for you, but you don't take advantage
. Don't take advantage of eating and sleeping. Take advantage of these books. Then your life will be successful.
My duty -- I have given you so valuable things, day and night trying to convince you, each word to word
. And if you don't take advantage of this, then what can I do for you?"
Srimad Bhagavatam confirm this statement 11.9.29:
labdhvā su-durlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte

mānuṣyam artha-dam anityam apīha dhīraḥ
tūrṇaṁ yateta na pated anu-mṛtyu yāvan
niḥśreyasāya viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt
After many, many births and deaths one achieves the rare human form of life, which, although
temporary, affords one the opportunity to attain the highest perfection. Thus a sober human being
should quickly endeavor for the ultimate perfection of life as long as his body, which is always subject to
death, has not fallen down and died. After all, sense gratification is available even in the most
abominable species of life, whereas Krsna consciousness is possible only for a human being.
Srila Prabhupada is pleading from the core of his heart to study his books and we just simply ignore his pleading. How
can we expect to cross over the hurdle of birth and death? As our Maharaj says, "Kaliyuga forces are so powerful
that it will drag you to faithlessness everyday and therefore everyday we have to recharge our faith by
reading Srila Prabhupada's books."
I therefore pray to Srila Prabhupada, Gurudev and Lord Sri Krishna to shower Their special mercy so that I understand
the value of Srila Prabhupada's books and take advantage of them.

Abu Dhabi.
Disrespect Leads to Downfall

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In the battlefield of Kurukshetra, when both the armies were arranged by their respective commanders, Duryodhana
approaches the elders in his army and speaks in a diplomatic manner. Throughout his life, he had been disobeying
and disrespecting Bhishmadev, Dronacharya, Krpacharya, Vidura and other elders. They were elder to him both in age,
experience and skill. He tries to superficially show as if he has respect for them. But internally he had no respect for
them and in a fault-finding mentality he says in verse 1.3
paśyaitāṁ pāṇḍu-putrānām ācārya mahatīṁ camūm

vyūḍhāṁ drupada-putreṇa tava śiṣyeṇa dhīmatā
O my teacher, behold the great army of the sons of Pandu, so expertly arranged by your intelligent
disciple the son of Drupada.
Our spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj has mentioned in one of his diaries that it was this
disobedient attitude, which was the main cause of downfall for the Kauravas. What to speak of elders in their
army, even when Lord Krishna went as a peace messenger, Duryodhana disrespected the Lord and even tried to arrest
Him. In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 10.4.46, SukadevaGoswami says to Maharaj Parikshit
āyuḥ śriyaṁ yaśo dharmaṁ lokān āśiṣa eva ca

hanti śreyāṁsi sarvāṇi puṁso mahad-atikramaḥ
My dear King, when a man persecutes great souls, all his benedictions of longevity, beauty, fame,
religion, blessings and promotion to higher planets will be destroyed.
In case of Pandavas, they were always respectful to elders and very obedient to them as well as Supreme Lord Krishna.
That is why even though they faced so many troubles in their life, they were saved in the most miraculous manner. In
Srimad Bhagavatam verse 1.9.12, Bhishmadev lying on the bed of arrows, recollects the dangers which were
underwent by Pandavas through-out their life and says to Maharaj Yudhisthir - "Oh, what terrible sufferings and what
terrible injustices you good souls suffer for being the sons of religion personified. You did not deserve to remain alive
under those tribulations, yet you were protected by the brahmanas, God and religion." In his unparalleled purport to
the above verse Srila Prabhupada writes that - "As long as a person is fully in cooperation with the wishes of
the Lord, guided by the bona fide brahmanas and Vaishnavas and strictly following religious principles,
one has no cause for despondency, however trying the circumstances of life."
Even though Maharaj Dhrtarashtra and his sons had been troubling them all through-out his life, Pandavas never
disrespected him. In fact, even after the Kurukshetra war, Yudhisthir Maharaj served Maharaj Dhrtarashtra and Mother
Gandhari very nicely. In contrast to Duryodhana, we find Arjuna, who was even ready to give up fighting when he saw
the elders who were ready to wage fight against him in the battlefield. In Bhagavad Gita verse 2.4 Arjuna says,
arjuna uvāca
kathaṁ bhīṣmam ahaṁ saṅkhye droṇaṁ ca madhusūdana
iṣubhiḥ pratiyotsyāmi pūjārhāv ari-sūdana
Arjuna said: O killer of enemies, O killer of Madhu, how can I counterattack with arrows in battle men like
Bhishma and Drona, who are worthy of my worship?
In his beautiful purport to the above verse, Srila Prabhupada says - "Respectable superiors like Bhishma the
grandfather and Dronacarya the teacher are always worshipable. Even if they attack, they should not be
counterattacked. It is general etiquette that superiors are not to be offered even a verbal fight. Even if
they are sometimes harsh in behavior, they should not be harshly treated."
Now-a-days it has become a rare thing to find obedient children. Some times children claim that parents of this age are
not perfect enough as olden days. But as Srila Prabhupada has emphasised in the above purport, whatever the case
may be, elders needs to be treated with love and respect. Parents and elders of this age are definitely not as cruel as
how Hiranyakashipu was to Prahlad Maharaj. Hiranyakashipu mercilessly tortured Prahlad Maharaj in so many different
ways. But still in all his interactions with his father, we find that Prahlad Maharaj always paid obeisances unto him,
whenever he met him. He spoke with folded hands and never used any harsh words. From the examples of Arjuna and
Prahlad Maharaj we find that, respecting elders attracts the mercy of Lord and brings us closer to Him whereas
disrespecting elders takes us far away from Him. So whether we want to be closer to Lord or far away from Him is a
choice which we can make by our careful dealings with elders.

Transcendental Jewels - Part 1

In today's offering I will try to share some salient points that I had taken down in my notes from the lecture given by
our spiritual master H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Rajkot on 22nd Jan 2009.
1. In grhastha ashrama, we should try to be self-independent. Not depend too much on wife or husband.
2. Breathing is not just for a few hours. It is for the whole life. Bhagavatam is more important than breathing.
3. Once we realize the Bhagavatam life style, we should take to it.
4. There is a fine line between 'hankering' and honestly trying to improve our material situation. We should identify it
and act accordingly.
5. To be 'bhagavadiya' (Taking shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Krishna) is life-style. Because we forget our life-
style we are not always with Krishna.
6. sevon mukhe hi jihvaadau - seva is very important. If we don't perform seva then svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ is
absent. We are not happy because we don't perform seva.
7. Even if we perform seva, there is contamination over it. Then Krishna stays away from us. When we perform seva
with Pride, the Lord does not like it. The example of Hanuman and the squirrel during Setu Bandhan - Lord Ram
adviced Hanuman that his mountains are equally important to Him as the squirrel's dust particles.
8. To perform seva properly, we should get rid of anger. If you see, we are only angry towards those who don't
oppose or who are weak. We are afraid of showing our anger to someone who is more powerful than us. Instead of
being angry, we should be alert in not wasting our time.
9. We cannot catch Krishna by senses (na bhaved graahyam indriyaiḥ). So how to catch Him? By seva (sevon mukhe hi
jihvādau).
10. Just keeping quiet will give us an auspicious atmosphere. We can get in touch with the Supersoul by keeping quiet.
11. We may be seeking guidance from others but we do not reveal the complete detail to them and therefore the
advice we receive from them is also incomplete. We are not arrogant but we should be self-sufficient with the
Supersoul's guidance. This does not mean that we should not seek guidance from others, but we should take the final
decision ourself.
12. Whatever you do without expecting anything in return satisfies you more than what you do expecting return.
13. Devotees are not shirkers but workers. As soon as you love the job, you will be loved by everybody. Sincere
workers do not look at the fruitive result. (Maharaj quoted the following verses from Bhagavat-gita 3.8 and 3.35:
niyataṁ kuru karma tvaṁ karma jyāyo hy akarmaṇaḥ

śarīra-yātrāpi ca te na prasidhyed akarmaṇaḥ
Perform your prescribed duty, for doing so is better than not working. One cannot even maintain one's
physical body without work.
śreyān sva-dharmo viguṇaḥ para-dharmāt sv-anuṣṭhitāt

sva-dharme nidhanaṁ śreyaḥ para-dharmo bhayāvahaḥ
It is far better to discharge one's prescribed duties, even though faultily, than another's duties perfectly.
Destruction in the course of performing one's own duty is better than engaging in another's duties, for to
follow another's path is dangerous.
14. From your fruitive work done without expectation akarma is born. In the old age we cannot do any karma and we
become useless. In old age our limbs also don'y obey us.
15. By developing a karma, we can catch Krishna. We are converting our work into bhajan by working without fruitive
result. Working without expectation gives us a lot more.

Kalacakra Krsna das
Obedience Saves Us from Suffering and Injustice - Part 1

We would like to share a very powerful lecture delivered by our Guru Maharaj H H Mahavishnu Goswami on the 20th
Jan 2009 in Rajkot. Maharaj gave an astounding practical explanation on the verse SB 1.9.12:
aho kaṣṭam aho ’nyāyyaṁ yad yūyaṁ dharma-nandanāḥ

jīvituṁ nārhatha kliṣṭaṁ vipra-dharmācyutāśrayāḥ
Bhishmadeva said: Oh, what terrible sufferings and what terrible injustices you good souls suffer for being
the sons of religion personified. You did not deserve to remain alive under those tribulations, yet you
were protected by the brahmanas, God and religion.
1. The thing is we should try to think about our conditions. No doubt the Pandavas were put into so many turbulence
by the Kauravas. These living entities how pure they should be? They were able to talk to Krishna directly. We cannot
even see Him anywhere. We have to be satisfied with water, fire etc. He says, "I am the taste in water" and then we try
to find Him out in the taste of the water. Then fire, air, omkar etc. In these things we have to endeavor to find Him
out. How to habituate to see Him? We have to habituate to find Him out. Otherwise without Him it is all terrible
suffering and terrible injustice. Unless we find Him out, we will not be satisfied at all.
2. Every living entity is knowingly or unknowingly in search of Him. But they don't know where to find Him out and how
to find Him out. That's why the guide is needed. Otherwise there is no need of guide. We get lost without the guide.
Guide means we should follow the shloka (guṇāyanaṁ śīla-dhanaṁ kṛta-jñaṁ vṛddhāśrayaṁ. vṛddhāśrayaṁ is very
important. saṁvṛṇate ’nu sampadaḥ, all opulence you can get just by obedience to elders).
3. This is the common trend in Srimad Bhagavatam. Here Bhishmadev says this verse to pacify Yudhishtira. The reason
was that the massacre was a terrible one, nobody survived. Yudhishtira might be remembering all his uncles and aunts
who died in the battle. It was more than nuclear disaster in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nagasaki was limited to that city
only but this was disaster for the whole globe. That's why the figure of the globe changed. Where there was water,
there was land and vice-versa. The whole culture was changed. And formally it was only vedic culture all over the
globe, but because of this great battle, pockets of cultures were formed like Roman Empire, Egyptian Empire, Indian
Empire etc. All these empires were completely cut off from each other and they were struggling on their own. That's
why Yudhistira Maharaj was very much morose.
4. But the thing is that we have to churn our intelligence and find out why these things like terrible suffering and
terrible injustice are happening. And how to avoid that?
Here also every living entity feels he is having injustice. Every living entity feels that I am working hard and he is not
working etc. The kashtam and anyaayam is there everywhere. What is the reason we are experiencing these things?
Because vipra-dharmācyutāśrayāḥ is not there. Brahamanas are not there, religious principles are not being
followed and Acyuta is absent in our lives. That's why Prabhupada says in the purport, "As long as a person is fully
in cooperation with the wishes of the Lord, guided by the bonafide brahmanas and vaishnavas, and
strictly following the religious principles, then there is no cause of despondency, however trying the
circumstances of life".
5. Everybody's mind is independent. I want to do one thing and he wants to do another thing. We are running in
different directions. Our minds are different. How to coordinate? That is shown here. We should work fully in
cooperation with the wishes of the Lord. Lord is there in the form of Supersoul
. But He has given us elders - vrddhashrayas. So some form of obedience must flow. If we obey, that will save us from
injustice and terrible suffering.
6. Till the time the family has the leader and wife is submissive, the family progresses. Code of obedience is important.
In the absence of the orders, say, father may die or whatever, then the system is there. He has chalked out a system,
and the family goes on. This was really possible when the obedience was there. The families were very happy.
Unequivocal obedience was there in those days. The independent attitude of our mind will not poke nose into father's
orders. We had one determination - that "I will obey", that's it. Obedience carried us through. We had no kaṣṭam, no
injustice. In absence of authorities, the system works.
7. In factories also there is the system. Authority is not there always but it is the system they follow. In any concern if
the orders of the authority are followed and if the system is there, then these injustices are less. The chalked out
program is there. That's it. There is nothing to be doubted about it or no question against it. It has got to be followed.
This is the way you can avoid this anyāyya and kaṣṭa. Immaculate system must be there. If we are shop owner, shop
runs very good because the system is there. If suppose that so many people might be taking the things, they don't
know where to pay. They may go away without paying and the concern will be bankrupt within five minutes because
there is no system. But if one til (cash counter) is there and a girl is standing, then people know that they have to pay
money at that spot. So everything goes on alright. This is the only system in the shop that you have to pay at the til.
So people know that I have to pay at the til to buy. There is no kashtam, no suffering, no injustice. Why? Because the
system is there. So in absence of the orders, the system works. And then there is no question. Nobody can question
the system. Nobody asks, "Why I should go to the til and pay? I will pay in the office." No, you cannot do it. In the office
nobody will accept the money. You have to go to the til. There is no kaṣṭam. There is no revolution against the system.
The system is there, everyone stands in the line before the til. This is how anywhere if the system is there or the direct
orders are followed, there is nothing like that.
8. Here in our life, we are always obeying. We are obeying police department unknowingly. That's why we don't have
any suffering, there are no injustice. Police has fixed, "You always drive on the left side of the road." We follow. Till we
follow we are safe, there is no suffering, there is no injustice also. Because this is the system. Anywhere you go, we are
following that. Krishna has manifested this material manifestation. He has given us a booklet - Bhagavat-gita and
Srimad Bhagavatam. If you are on this planet, this is the way to stay. īśāvāsyam idaḿ sarvaṁ. Clearly He says, "
Everything belongs to Me. I have set a quota for you. Be satisfied." So if you follow this, then there is no
question of injustice. Injustice evaporates. But as soon as you stop the cooperation, the suffering is there.
9. Duryodhana did not cooperate with Krishna's wishes. The Supreme Lord goes to his court to explain to him that He
doesn't want to have war, just give five villages and that too Duryodhana denied - śucyagram naiva dāsyāmi keśava. I
will not part with the land which is at the tip of the needle, yuddhena vinā keśava - 'without yuddha I will not give'.
That is his opposition to the system. He disobeyed. The result was complete massacre. In case if he had obeyed
Krishna's order, everybody would have been very happy. In any place, obedience plays an important part.
10. Unless we improve our quality of existence by finding out practical points from these verses, these discussions are
useless.
Krishna willing, we will continue with the transcription of this transcendental lecture in the subsequent mails.

Obedience Saves Us from Suffering and Injustice - Part 2

We will continue to hear the very powerful lecture delivered by our Guru Maharaj H H Mahavishnu Goswami on the
20th Jan 2009 in Rajkot. Maharaj was explaining on the verse SB 1.9.12. He was explaining how obedience is important
to avoid terrible sufferings and injustice:
aho kaṣṭam aho ’nyāyyaṁ yad yūyaṁ dharma-nandanāḥ

jīvituṁ nārhatha kliṣṭaṁ vipra-dharmācyutāśrayāḥ
Bhishmadeva said: Oh, what terrible sufferings and what terrible injustices you good souls suffer for being
the sons of religion personified. You did not deserve to remain alive under those tribulations, yet you
were protected by the brahmanas, God and religion.
1. All the inebrieties are present in our family and society. How to improve the situations is shown in Bhagavatam. That
is why Bhagavatam we can never avoid. If you explain this way, the hearers will be very elevated, how to organize
their life. Whether they organize or not we don't know, it depends on so many things. We just show the way, that is our
duty. And according to time and circumstances, these slokas and Prabhupada's purports should be moulded into their
understanding. Then they will be satisfied, because young or old, everybody is in need of guidance. They don't know
what to do. They have the human existence, they have money also but the guidance is absent. Guidance means
unselfish guidance. Otherwise you go anywhere, the guide wants to grab from you everything. That is selfish
guidance because the guide is polluted. Unselfish guidance is the monopoly of Prabhupada.
2. The thing is, unless some way of improving the quality of our existence is there, all these discussions are
useless. Our quality must improve. Otherwise what are we going to do if our quality doesn't improve? We are then
back into the rut. Our life must be guided by some principles. Some guidelines must be there. And because we are
organizing our lives according to the guidelines, we are improving. You took education, you were not rebellious, that's
why you are educated. Now suppose you were rebellious, don't know today what you will be doing. There was
obedience, that's why the education was there. You were obeying your parents, you were obeying your teachers. You
passed the exam according to their guidance. It is all obedience to the higher laws. And in English it is very nicely
stated, "Those who obey, they can only command." So 'command' is not the first thing, 'obedience' is the first
thing.
3. Because Duryodhana disobeyed 125%, that's why the result was, not even a single Kaurava remained. These things
are very clear. Make it crystal clear for the people to follow Bhagavat-gita, so that they can avoid terrible suffering and
terrible injustice. There is no question of injustice. As soon as the law is there, "You have to drive on the left", that's it.
No suffering, no anyaaya at all. We have to follow. That's it. And we are safe. Otherwise we will have banging and so
many accidents.
4. We have to avoid misunderstanding about the whole injustice attitude. Because everybody wants to be in some
prime position. That is our disease. We are suffering with the disease - "I want to be in a prime position", and
subtly it works. We are very humble. But then again we see if our obedience is giving us 'something' (in return). We
are not naturally humble. We try to be humble. But then we want to see if people recognize us that we are humble.
Humility is the first thing required in this devotional field. Humility is a must. Humility means you put your head
down and obey, that's it. That is the symptom of humility. You have to be humble, because if you are in difficulty,
nobody will save you. That time you have to be humble somewhere to save yourself from difficulty. This is the meaning
of that sentence - "As long as a person is fully in cooperation with the wishes of the Lord, guided by the
bonafide brahmanas and vaishnavas, strictly following the religious principles, one has no cause for
despondency, however trying the circumstances of life
."
5. Prabhupada has given everything. First the cooperation must be there. Then taking guidance from brahmanas and
then strictly following the religious principles. Three conditions are there. Then there is nothing to do with
despondency and 'trying' circumstances. It is very clear. If you miss one thing, then the chain is broken. Then it doesn't
work. Full cooperation must be there, guided by brahmanas and vaishnavas and strictly following the religious
principles. If one item in the chain is missing, then it will be problem. Chain is a chain only when everything is
connected. Otherwise, we can take, may be Cooperation. but if we are not guided by the Brahmanas then we are in
trouble. If we are not following the religious principles then we are gone. That's why the cause of despondency is there
and we are always suffering. Somehow or other these three things have to be insisted. And the societies are peaceful
only when they followed religious principles. Formerly, police department was not there at all. Corporation and
Municipality was not there. All religions were there. Without any expenditure all the things were done which are done
by the big departments now. Religiosity was doing everything. The society was purely guided by the principles of
Bhagavatam.
6. Unless we try to find out some practical point from the verses, the discussion is not worth it. People must know what
to do. People don't want to know about Yudhishtira Maharaj or Bhishmadev or whatever. People want to be guided.
They are in kashta, terrible suffering and terrible injustice. How to go about solving it? In the family nobody complains
that the injustice is there The head of the family dictates and others obey. The family members don't feel any injustice.
The same way in factory also, the rule must be there, otherwise the concern will be bankrupt. Bhagavatam should
be put into practice in our day-day life. This is how this sentence is very important.


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Power of Holy Names - Part 1

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

etenaiva hy aghono ’sya kṛtaṁ syād agha-niṣkṛtam

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

1. Unlimited knowledge of everything

Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

athāham apy ātma-ripos tavāntikaṁ

Srila Gurudev ki Jai ! Srila Prabhupada ki Jai ! Bali Maharaj ki jai !

Thank you very much.

sudHare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

muniḥ prasanna-gambhīro durvigāhyo duratyayaḥ

Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

In Bhagavad Gita verse 4.39 Lord Krishna says,

śraddhāvāḻ labhate jñānaṁ tat-paraḥ saṁyatendriyaḥ

1. If we neglect chanting, chanting will neglect us.

Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

sarvavyāpinam ātmānaṃ kṣīre sarpir ivārpitam

Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

vahner yathā yonigatasya mūrtir na dṛśyate naiva ca liṅganāśaḥ

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

etenaiva hy aghono ’sya kṛtaṁ syād agha-niṣkṛtam

evaṁ pravartitaṁ cakraṁ nānuvartayatīha yaḥ

Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

etenaiva hy aghono ’sya kṛtaṁ syād agha-niṣkṛtam

In the previous offerings we heard Gurudev explained

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

bhojanācchādane vṛtāḥ cintā kurvanti vaiṣṇavāḥ

Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

etenaiva hy aghono ’sya kṛtaṁ syād agha-niṣkṛtam

In the previous offerings we heard Gurudev explaining

Now let us continue to hear more from Gurudev.

acyutānanta govinda nāmocchāraṇa bheṣajāt

āyur harati vai puṁsām udyann astaṁ ca yann asau

nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis

Thank you very much.

Dear Prabhujis and Matajis,

Thank you very much.

Dear Prabhujis and Matajis,

neha yat karma dharmāya na virāgāya kalpate

Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

āpannaḥ saṁsṛtiṁ ghorāṁ yan-nāma vivaśo gṛṇan

Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

5. prashāntam - undisturbed by material agitation.