19950727 Bhagavad-gītā 8.15

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on July 27, 1995 in Penang, Malaysia. The class begins with a reading from the Bhagavad-gītā, Chapter 8, verse 15.

abhyāsa-yoga-yuktena
cetasā nānya-gāminā
paramaṁ puruṣaṁ divyaṁ
yāti pārthānucintayan 

mām upetya punar janma
duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam
nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ
saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ

Translation: He who meditates on Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, his mind constantly engaged in remembering Me, undeviated from the path, he, O Pārtha, is sure to reach Me.

After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogīs in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.

Purport: Since this temporary material world is full of the miseries of birth, old age, disease and death, naturally he who achieves the highest perfection and attains the supreme planet, Kṛṣṇaloka, Goloka Vṛndāvana, does not wish to return. The supreme planet is described in Vedic literature as avyakta and akṣara and paramā gati; in other words, that planet is beyond our material vision, and it is inexplicable, but it is the highest goal, the destination for the mahātmās (great souls). The mahātmās receive transcendental messages from the realized devotees and thus gradually develop devotional service in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and become so absorbed in transcendental service that they no longer desire elevation to any of the material planets, nor do they even want to be transferred to any spiritual planet. They only want Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa’s association, and nothing else. That is the highest perfection of life. This verse specifically mentions the personalist devotees of the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa. These devotees in Kṛṣṇa consciousness achieve the highest perfection of life. In other words, they are the supreme souls.

Jayapatākā Swami: abhyāsa-yoga-yuktena - Someone who is practicing devotional service by gradual practice.  Abhyāsa means when you practice something day in and day out, going on becoming a custom to it practicing it. By doing so we become absorbed in Kṛṣṇa and by being absorbed in Kṛṣṇa we are guaranteed to reach Kṛṣṇa. Many personalities mentioned in the Purāṇas who had become absorbed in the Supreme personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa and their absorption, their single consciousness, they could reach the lord. There is a story in the Nectar of Devotion about one brāhmaṇa who saw very beautiful worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa going on in the beautiful temple and he thought it will be very nice if he could do such worship but he was very poor and he heard that you can worship Lord Kṛṣṇa even in the mind and he will also accept that worship.

So then everyday after taking his bath and saying his prayers the brāhmaṇa will sit down and meditate on Kṛṣṇa and in his mind, in his meditation he will do a complete worship of the Lord by meditation. He would imagine that there is deity and he is bringing bathing water from various holy rivers like the Gaṅgā, the Yamunā in golden box and bathing the Lord that he is dressing the Lord that he is offering golden chairs wonderful preparations he cooked the offerings he took the entire worship in his mind. I hear that the pūjārīs are so fortunate that he can worship in the right way but this brāhmaṇa, he has no facilities so he was doing in the mind  and by doing in the mind every day for hour and hour and hour he deeply meditating on Lord Kṛṣṇa.

So one day he was cooking sweet rice in his meditation pāyasam pāla-pāyasam - milk sweet rice and that milk sweet rice should not be too hot so after cooking the sweet rice he wanted to know that whether it was too hot to offer to Lord so in his meditation he put his finger in the sweet rice, when he put his finger inside the sweet rice suddenly his finger got burned and he said ohhhh it was so hot ohhhh he broke his meditation and he looked. His physical finger was burned with a blister and he was trying to figure out how it was possible? I was meditating and I put my in my meditation I put my finger but how is it my physical finger got burned? 

Meanwhile Lord Nārāyaṇa Lord Viṣṇu in his spiritual planet he was laughing. Lakṣmī looked inside, My Lord what is it? Why you are smiling? Why you are laughing? (laughing) you see I just played a joke with this devotee who was meditating he said I saw you. Vaali was telling about what happened with the devotee. He said that special spiritual aeroplane from the spiritual world to pick up his devotee. So the devotee was immediately transferred into the spiritual world and there he entered and they took this devotee to Lakṣmī-devī that here is a devotee he has been worshiping and once the devotee achieves the spiritual world there is no birth, no death, no old age, no disease where one can serve Lord Kṛṣṇa Lord Viṣṇu constantly. Then the devotee is not inclined to come back to this miserable world. So here the devotee was  just doing the meditation practice everyday and because he became so absorbed in thinking about Kṛṣṇa then Kṛṣṇa brought him back.

You know the story about Ajāmila, is a very famous story. Ajāmila was a very good boy born also in a very restricted family. He would help his father gathering flowers and things to do the pūjā. He was married got into Vedic right proper way and had children. One day when he was going out to gather flowers for the pooja he saw very immoral persons two man and woman intoxicated, embracing each other and the body of the women was partially exposed and he became very disturbed and with the long story how he gradually arranged various tricks to meet that women and his wife complained and finally he lost his own wife, children and family and became like an outcaste. He was not accepted in the society and he became a criminal. He was robbing people, stealing and doing all kinds of smuggling and things. Somehow he was living and had many children by that women. But he had the youngest child he called as Nārāyaṇa and although he was quiet he was about with sixty when the child was only about five. He was very attached to the child and he was always calling the child  so when he sit down to eat he call the child  “Nārāyaṇa come here”.  

What did he call?

Devotees: Nārāyaṇa!

Jayapatākā Swami: And in the evening when he goes for a walk he call his son Nārāyaṇa !

What he calls?

Devotees: Nārāyaṇa

Jayapatākā Swami:    Come on let’s go for a walk. In a day he has been calling his son hundred times.  Every time shouting out Nārāyaṇa ! Nārāyaṇa ! lets go and take rest it’s getting late. So when it was his time to leave his body and the messengers of death came because it was the symbol present that was the calculation making him to arrest in they put the ropes around his subtle body to take him out of the gross body and to take him to Yamaloka where the courtiers were all the simple souls taken for judgement after every birth.

According to the Vedas we don’t want to wait for the final judgement that happens at the end of the universe. But the world universe is going on. Every birth is a mini judgement and we are replaced in a new birth so those who are simple are taken to Yamarāja and about 28 principle hells he have for different kinds of customers. But he has a few about hundreds and thousands of special hells custom-made for special cases. For the 28 name ones are mentioned in the fifth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. I saw in Singapore they have the Chinese hell so in Māyāpur we are going to have the Vedic hells also among not only hells but hells heavens everything the whole planetarium ensure the entire cosmos. Anyway the Yamadūtas they came and taking him out of the body but immediately the Viṣṇu-dūtas just at that moment what did Ajāmila do but called his son Nārāyaṇaaaaaaa! Immediately the Viṣṇu-dūtas came and cut the rope, you had no right to take him he belongs to us he call the name of the Supreme Lord well he was dying he belongs to us.

Apart from that even if somebody chants the holy names of the Lord accidentally they get purified. He has been chanting the holy names all the time every time he calls his son Nārāyaṇaaaaaaa!. He is calling the name of the Lord he is getting purified from the so many sins. He didn’t know that he was doing this so he was not committing any offense. If we, he was going on chanting Viṣṇu-dūtas said by chanting so many times all the sins he has done cleanse away the way. You can imagine my dear devotees if a person accidentally calling out his son who happened to give the name Nārāyaṇa he could have given the name you know powerless[1]  so many people nowadays even in Hindu family they don’t give the child name of a God.     

Previous days everyone with the name Rāma, Gopāla, Nārāyaṇa, Śyāma, Yadu, Madhu, Mādhava, like so many spiritual names Kuñja-bihārī, Vamśi-bihārī. Nowadays they are giving names you know flower, dilip, Deepak different names don’t have any kind of this Anantha. Some name doesn’t have any spiritual importance. Daisy, Lily, Tina. So one of the secret ways of getting the blessings is you have to call your son or daughter’s name in give the name of Rādhā, the name of Lakṣmī. So many ways to call letchu Lakṣmī. Lakshadweep Indians letchumi but the written like that letchumi, Jamuna and so on. Of course at the time of initiation we give as spiritual names so the disciples so this by chance or accidentally chants the name of Nārāyaṇa so he got so many blessings. What is someone is everyday chanting?

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda 

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare 

So sometimes devotees say I’m not getting a taste for chanting. According to the Bhāgavatam if one chants the holy name of the Lord and not feel spiritual bliss, if the tears are not coming in the eyes, if the hairs are not standing at the end you once not feeling spiritual ecstasy by chanting the holy names then they must have committed a great number of offenses and the heart must be hard like a steel frame like a stone unfortunately I think many people have got this steel framing and we have to because this is Kali-yuga. So we need to break away this steel framing around the heart. Lord Caitanya’s mercy is so great that Lord Caitanya’s mercy can even melt the stone. When Lord Jagannātha is in Jagannātha Purī is given the bathing ceremony every year before the Ratha-yātrā 15 days before and then the Lord’s clothes is taken nad that’s one they are doing the aṅgarāga where the painting of the Lord. And it is a very very special ceremony said go on. At that time Lord Caitanya he was feeling very separation, he couldn’t feel Jagannātha there was a beautiful temple called “Temple of Ālalanātha” which is about 12 kms from Jagannātha Purī. Lord Caitanya ran at full speed to this Viṣṇu Temple, ran 12 kms and all the devotees running after Gaurāṇga!

(Devotees repeat: Gaurāṇga!)

But they could not catch up with him. He went so fast because he was burning with love for Kṛṣṇa when he got to the temple he went and in front of the deity, this say here this is all marble but there it is very big pieces of stone granite. Each stone is about 4 ft by 8 ft and he lied down on that stone and offered his obeisances to the deity.

namo brahmaṇya-devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca
jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya govindāya namo namaḥ

Lord Caitanya’s body was so much filled with love for Kṛṣṇa that it was so enhanced that he actually melted the rock. His body melted the stone, that melted stone is still available its visible. Now they have taken out of the temple and put it in a separate temple, it has the entire body print of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and its 70 tall. It was like this you can see I am body about 1 inch melted into the stone. Even if your heart is hard it is like a stone if we chant the holy names of the Lord Caitanya very loudly it could melt our hardened heart.

Gaurāṇga!

 śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Lord Caitanya came to give us this process of bhakti, Kṛṣṇa spoke here Bhagavad-gītā that you practice remembering me, you come to me when you come to me you like it so much you never want to come back. Nobody ever wants to come back. No unhappy customers but then why such a wonderful opportunity why the whole world is not taking it up? We see people because they don’t know this and they don’t know how wonderful is? And by just reading it in the book they may not believe it but if they hear from a devotee who is always experiencing how wonderful is? Pramatham (Tamil word for wonderful) How wonderful this devotion to Lord Kṛṣṇa is the bhakti-          yoga? Then people tend to get influenced so this process of spreading Kṛṣṇa Consciousness is from one devotee to another devotee to another devotee as they are carrying the mercy in the heart. His Divine Grace Abhay Caraṇa Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda who also spoke here

May be the trustees of the temple would commemorate the flag and picture that we put up next year for the centennial may be Radha Kṛṣṇa sorry penang president can do some consideration for Prabhupāda being here personally and his centennial year and other places in Malaysia. He was actually here giving a lecture somewhere here may be here (Devotess laughing) so he used to carry Vṛndāvana with him in his heart and anywhere he would go he will move people he still have faith in Kṛṣṇa because he was crying Kṛṣṇa in the heart and then people he would give Kṛṣṇa too they would also carry Kṛṣṇa in their heart, in this way the movement spread. That’s how His Holiness Bhakthi Vedanta Narāyaṇa Mahārāja, he was reached in London, I was reached in America and so many devotees and all of you have been reached in different region, Penang Malaysia.

So this is the process the Lord Caitanya when he left Bengal he was worried that what has going to happen? I’m going to preach all over India who is going to continue the work in Bengal? As being a sannyāsī he couldn’t stay in his home state, as he was married and very complicated so at that time he requested Prabhu Nityānanda so he would go back to Bengal with some devotees and continue the preaching. So Prabhu Nityānanda accepted the order of Lord Caitanya and he went back to start the preaching where he established the Nāmahaṭṭa, the house to house preaching program, village to village, in every village he established a fact[2] . The whole village took up the chanting at that time it became flooded the whole Bengal.

Lord Caitanya’s associate Nityānanda Prabhu has so much love for Kṛṣṇa it said when he was going back to Bengal with his devotees they were chanting on the way that they were remembered Kṛṣṇa and one was started to say how Kṛṣṇa would play his flute and the other would say how Kṛṣṇa would do his past time and someone say that we entirely forgot the road as they are walking and this will be very dangerous if they were driving but they are walking and they can wind [3] up the road and they get about 5, 10 kms of the road and then by the way where is the road to Bengal? And they ask the people  and people will tell no you have gone out of the road and you have to go by that way. Oh thank you very much. Then they will be doing kīrtana and they are so much into the kīrtana.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

And again they crossed the road and noticed the road they have to go on the other side so the road is like that and they are going zig zaging like this so it took twice as time to get back to Bengal it said for one month it took three months they were so ecstatic. By the time they reached there they started the kīrtana, the kīrtana extended for other three months day and night without stopping.

Day and night inside thousands of people would come and they were just be in the chanting and they get so much energy and they go back to the village and the whole village would chant and more people would come and it was like a constant one place it was like waves it was going out just to do kīrtana so Lord Caitanya and his associates especially came to give up to give out this bhakti, this taste. Śrīla Prabhupāda would like to say that normally here it is said that it is practice thinking about Kṛṣṇa, chanting His names, serving Him, go back to Kṛṣṇa but people don’t have the patience. Before days intelligent people understand this and they just do it. It is like here the children right there they don’t have the patience running here and there. They don’t have the so much patience to sit. If I give more against something like that they will sit. So like that but if I say right now ok come and take some sweets you see all the kids will come. So Prabhupāda said this is what Lord Caitanya he came down and give us the ecstasy first he giving us the spiritual paramānanda.

First it’s like giving the children some sweets in the beginning of the feast and then they become patient. You know you have to go through all the subjis and all that you know like and the sweet they are more eager. So in Kali-yuga we don’t have so much patience Lord Caitanya is giving us the happiness up from. Like now in Malaysia you have a system you can buy the automobiles, two wheelers you can buy them by bank loan even if you don’t have the money you can just pay down the small amount of money you can get the current payment every month. So here is like the Lord Caitanya giving you the higher purchase so as to speak I don’t know whether it is a very crude example but he is giving you some devotion right away if you even don’t have enough money to buy it you take it and credit, you just have to pay little by little. So everyday if you go on chanting your bhakthi will grow. Normally people will have to do lot of tapasyā, a lot of study and at the end they will get bhakti. “bahunām janmanām aṅte jñānavān mām prapadyate” but Lord Caitanya, he is giving it right away but we have to go and think for but if we don’t pray for we will loose it. He is giving it to us so we should take it and after taking it we should think its price little by little chanting its holy name.

So immediately when we are getting the benefit even when we are not fully qualified, even when someone don’t have enough money to buy the car the cash but if he has to pay 500 dollars a month then he can get a 36,000 dollar car over a period of 5 or 6 six years right? So over a period of lifetime if we go and chanting everyday, fixed number of rounds everyday, follow the Guru then at the end we can get Kṛṣṇa. This is a wonderful thing, wonderful mercy of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and no interest. Rather the interest goes down as you go on chanting you get more and more. Its opposite, in material world the longer time you take materially the longer you chant you get more and more spiritual happiness or advancement something precise.

 “Ānandāṁbudhi-vardhanaṁ prati-padaṁ pūrṇāmṛtāsvādanaṁ” – the ocean of nectar is increasing with every step we take in devotional service we chant the holy name we are getting amrita “prati-padam purṅāmṛtāsvādanaṁ” – purṅāmṛta means complete full ecstasy full bliss so they appeared to the Lord as they become so attached to Kṛṣṇa let them they don’t want anything else and they want only Kṛṣṇa in their life. When they have so much attachment to simply one Kṛṣṇa then at the end of life Kṛṣṇa will take them back to him. As they don’t have to worry about this material world anymore. But the devotees are so merciful that they don’t want to go back alone they want the other people the chance also to get out of the misery and go back. Especially it is the duty of the Guru, the Guru is the representative of Kṛṣṇa to bring back the fallen souls. Now the guru, he accepts disciples and the disciples they have the duty to help the Guru. Guru should accept qualified disciples who is ready to follow his instructions and in this way he can guide him. So actually to serve the guru one must have a lot of common sense, one has to use one’s intelligence and really try to understand what is it there to please the Guru.

If one just thinks mechanically without really trying what pleases the guru then it becomes counter productive. It is like the story of a guru and the cardamon seed. Do you know that story? Guru and a cardamon? Do you know elaichi?  Cardamon? Do you have here in Malaysia? Elaichi what do you call in Tamil? Yelakai yelakai. Elaichi in Hindi and in Sanskrit then cardamon in English. So after the guru finished his meal he wanted to take spice in his mouth for digestion and purifying the taste so he asked the disciple a cardamom. Disciple said that I don’t know what to do with the cardamom and he said you separate the skin and the seed and you bring it to me okay so that the disciple went and took elaichi the cardamon and he took out the skin, took out all the seeds and threw away all the seeds and he gave all the skins to the guru.

Guru said what is this? He think that he has been bringing the elaichi threw away the seeds and bring only the skin and you know elaichi the seed is the thing, the skin is useless I want the seed but guru you never told me you only want the seed normally the seed is useless we don’t eat the mango seed the apple seed so how do I know that you are going to eat the elaichi seed? Cardamom seed? So he threw and said in future whenever I ask you something you threw the skin and bring the seed (everyone laughs) right so the next day after eating he feel little bit heavy he wants to take something most strong so he asked the disciple one Haritakī. How many of you know what is Haritakī? It is the ayurveda triphala, this is the three herbs which are used āmalakī, haritakī and baheḍā and three are mixed together and are called triphala. This is very good for balancing the body so that the one fruit is the haritakī is like a dried and it is very bitter bitter sour it looks like a crumbled dried deep so there he took off the fruit took out the seed and threw away the fruit and he bring the seed of the Haritakī and the guru said what is this? U told me to bring the seed and I bring the seed of the Haritakī no but in Haritakī the seed is useless you have to take the fruit. Are gurudeva what can I do? So here the guru was facing so many problems because the disciple was not learning what was the use of each thing? We don’t want you know disciples they had to take out what is the mission of the guru.

 There are many gurus in ISKCON and one inspires all the gurus and one night we attracted to a particular guru and that is quite natural and we take shelter and we take initiation from that guru. And accepting a particular guru also means that he is helping that guru and realizing his mission. So one should be tried to be as much aid to the guru as possible. The disciple kept doing opposite of the work what the guru wanted that was becoming a obstacle. There was another one famous story that many people know and many don’t know about two disciples who were given a duty of massaging the foot of a guru. How many know that story? How many don’t know that story? Only enough don’t know the story. The others guru he really don’t know to train up his disciple well enough. The one disciple was very lazy and the other one was little bit crazy (everyone laughs) and when the guru came then he said oh! gurudev then he said we like to do some service he said all right you can give the massage to my right foot and you can give the massage to my left foot before I take rest.

What do you have to do you put little oil and give some massage I can go to sleep so okay jai gurudev ki jai! Jai gurudev ki jai! So each disciple is really thinking how to please the guru. Who is doing much better than this disciple and he is worth this guy he is crazy and other is lazy so they are massaging. So one day one disciple he got sick or something he had to go off he couldn’t come so guru said all right today you can do both feet so at first he massaged his own foot the assigned foot then he was thinking that lazy guy he didn’t show up and therefore I have to do his job I have to massage the other foot so I have to do two feet he was thinking in his mind that so that lazy I gonna get him he is so lazy if  i break the foot of the guru then he really have a bad time (Gurumaharaj laughs) so that he broke the foot of the guru ohhhhhhhhhhh what you are doing?

What you are doing? Oh! Sorry gurudev sorry sorry oh what you are doing? Next day the other disciple came back Mr. Lazy what this guy did? He broke the foot of the guru oh then have to put all kind of medication and take care but a few days later this disciple had to go off somewhere so Mr.crazy this guy cause me so much trouble breaking the foot of my guru now its my chance I can get back on him when he was massaging the disciple’s assigned foot so now I am going to get him he broke the foot of the guru and the guru ohhhhhhh what are you doing? You broke my foot oh! Sorry gurudev ki jai ! (everyone laughs) This way the two disciples trying to create problems for each other. Really who are creating problems for Mahārāja? So the guru spoken by a guru Śrīla Prabhupāda said it the way we can show him how much we love him is how well we co-operate together. We don’t want to give any breaking of foot of the guru just to show the other disciple. So this also the Purāṇas the itihāsas they give this example as kind of disciples you want to avoid having.

As in other ways the disciples doesn’t really understand what is guruhita?  We are disciples means we act on behalf of the guru, for his interest. By doing that because guru is the representative of Kṛṣṇa then Kṛṣṇa is pleased, one way of pleasing Kṛṣṇa then Kṛṣṇa sell abhyāsa yogena yogaṁ you come to me when you come to Kṛṣṇa - then you don’t come back here again remain with Kṛṣṇa eternally but still there are disciples breaking the foot of the guru they are going to have higher time going back to Kṛṣṇa and the guru is having a higher time walking so it is very important that we all try to become very good servitors of the servitors of  Śrīla Prabhupāda. Dāsānudāsa Kṛṣṇadāsa dāsānudāsa servant of the servant of the Supreme Lord. And in this way Kṛṣṇa is very pleased and when Kṛṣṇa is pleased what happens? We become pleased. The happiness we get by causing harm to others is ignorance. The happiness we get by pleasing our senses is in the mode of passion, the happiness we get by pleasing others materially is in the mode of goodness and the happiness we get by pleasing the Supreme Lord “śuddha sattva” – Transcendental goodness. In the bhakti-yoga process we are trying to achieve the real happiness śuddha sattva when we achieve that then we are fully satisfied so this is what we hope that everyone of you become fully satisfied in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and help others to also achieve that paramānanda. Thank you very much.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

Question: How does one develop cultivate one favourable devotional attitude so that Śrīla Prabhupāda said it is essential to advance in spiritual life

Jayapatākā Swami: How to develop favourable devotional attitude? we should accept everything for devotional service and give up everything which is unfavourable. If we really understand what is our self interest? What is helping us? And we understand serving Kṛṣṇa and serving his devotees are our own self interest and then we know what is the favourable for that we accept the favourable things and we avoid the unfavourable automatically we can. Start to get lined up. Now what is very important is to develop that is by associating with the devotees already have their attitude. Not that every devotees is equally developed in his favourable attitude such those who are especially ball pointless those who are in bitter mood they may be advancing but in a slow track. Those who are seeing good qualities in others enthusiastic cheerful and they don’t hold any grudges on anyone they are in mode of fast track. So we look for devotees that we can relate with a better situation we are and associating with them and in this way we can progress by the good association and this leads to the next question which is sādhu-saṅga which is one of most if not the most important limbs of devotional principles is offensive be six certain devotee association to avoid others, So we select the associating just associating of any devotees so we can read the questions super souls.

Lord Caitanya said that there are three kinds of devotees those who are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa but they are not following the principles we can help them otherwise we don’t associate with them very intimately but those who are initiated and following very strictly we can accept them in a very we can respect them and offer respect to them and associate with them. And those who are very advanced who are fully fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness who are in the level of guru we can take shelter from them.  Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said that we can seek out association with the likely minded devotees. Of course hopefully the like minded should be a good mind but its all right we may be more intimate with some than the others.

Question: Why was I born? What is the meaning of life? Please advice on how to live a fruitful life and for I have never come back to this material world and only want to go back to Kṛṣṇa loka. Please help me to surrender to guru and also help me to surrender to Kṛṣṇa forever.

Answer: Everyone was born in this world so that we can start to go closer and closer to Kṛṣṇa especially being born as a human being. We have given the chance this human form of life to go back to Kṛṣṇa. If we miss out it’s a big loss. Human life among the eighty four lakh species of life eight million four hundred thousand species  the species which has given the chance to go back to godhead. What is the meaning of life? Well Kṛṣṇa has given us the freedom to try to work out the material desires and at the same time he has given the opportunity to go back to him. So all the other species of life they are working out their karmas and at last they come to the human form of life and then they go back to Kṛṣṇa. We made it. Haribol!

We are human beings but we don’t engage in Kṛṣṇa service we may blew it and loose out. So therefore what is the advice? The advice is what Kṛṣṇa said in Bhagavad-gītā think of him, “man-manā bhava mad-bhakto” become his devotees mad-yājī mām namaskuru – bow down to him and worship him, always think of him, be his devotee, bow down to him, worship him, engage in his devotional service, take shelter of his representative the spiritual master who guide you how to serve Kṛṣṇa and in this way in this life time you can reach Kṛṣṇa. So initially we chant the holy names of Kṛṣṇa because it is the easiest way to worship him and to remember him.

By chanting,

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

Very nice questions. For person who is new in Kṛṣṇa consciousness how does he know for sure that scriptures were not adulterated and the one was translated by Prabhupāda because one might have the tendency to think that the Prabhupāda is another ordinary human being looking for fame and name. Well its a good objective question and people should ask such questions to clear away their doubts normally you ask this someone could they really study Prabhupāda's character. you see you have a nature someone have the tendency to think that the Prabhupāda is another ordinary human being looking for fame and name.

Well its a good objective question and people should ask such questions to clear away their doubts normally you ask this someone could they really study Prabhupāda's character. you see you have a nature someone is after name and fame. There are so many spiritual movements who was named after the Guru. This bābā and this swami movement and so on and so far. I dont want to mention any name since i respect all of them but we are not seeing this Prabhupāda for his part im not saying others did it for the reason but i'm saying Prabhupāda he didn't use even his name if he was after name and fame he would have his own name he didn't input his name. He called it as "International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness" Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. All around the world everyone knows hare Kṛṣṇa but many people don't know who is the founder of hare Kṛṣṇa is? They don't know the founder His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. Not only he was serve place nor after name and fame but he was coming in this sucession of devotional masters and he gave up a very comfortable situation in a holy place in India. To bring this message to the west and many people said to follow up to change your principle but he never changes his principle. He said i don't want that kind of followers.

Let me have less followers but i want followers who are serious about knowing the science of Kṛṣṇa. He never compromise his principle and what he said is exactly following in the you see whatever Prabhupāda said is if you want to go and see you can see what the previous gurus have said. If there is any contradiction and which great scholars even in India none of them of all the people so many people have written appreciation with Prabhupāda words nobody ever accused him of changing the view of Kṛṣṇa. Everyone is saying that he is giving out clearly what is the message of Gita and Bhāgavata are presenting? Then another point this also Prabhupāda put here the sanskrit and the word to word you can see you can ask any Sanskrit scholar is it correct translation may be many translations were nobody said it is equal. This translation this regional Sanskrit everything is there so any objective persons they can understand what is the message given in the śāstra? Then according to that realization standard down from previous guru sequence isn’t it? He is a bona fide representative of his disciplic succession he has the credentials. Someone can go doubting but the other proved those who followed him the medicine is working. When you go to a doctor how do you know that the doctor is good? The patient get cured so he is good. Everyone who took the medicine that Prabhupāda gave they are getting cured. Swamiji stick to the poses scientifically how does one know about the existence of the soul? Because the existence of the soul is mentioned in the Vedas.

Scientists can always go back to the lab and prove that his conclusions were based on his experiments. How does one go back to the Vedas and questions the Vedas because one should have faith in the Vedas. For scientists Vedas are just books which can be proven wrong without experiments. Similarly how does one prove the existence of Kṛṣṇa? According to them he is just a fairy tale. Of course this is a big question. He gave in all lectures listen where we have some intellectuals here Śrīla Prabhupāda gave a class. One form of gathering knowledge which the scientists are using what is called empirical. It is called deductive and inductive. It is called deductive. Just like here we have 100 to 80 people 200 people everybody here we have one head, two arms and two legs so based on the sampling of the people here it is said all people have one head, two arms and two legs. But sometime there might be someone born with born with one arm or three arm or two heads then the whole theory would go out. The deduction means it's based on here experiments like I got a medicine today and the medicine said we don’t know how this works? But based on clinical tests they works and based on so far so many thousand people tested it doesn’t done anybody any harm except some people get allergic and some people get diseased something they got the itching medicine so they don’t know you know may be that 1% so allergic to this medicine and die. But based on the tests only 10 people got sick and 20 people got allergy and ten thousand nothing happens so this is okay its all right so this is deductive knowledge. By deductive knowledge you can never know anything for sure. This cycle has a theory, okay swans in Germany are white. There are thousands of swans are there and so someone comes with the theory all swans are white then someone go to Australia there they have a unique black swan. So the whole theory that the swans are white have gone out. One black swan shows up so these are just very crude examples. So you can come up with the idea like this what is life? Just like every year the full theory is like what is the process of creation? What is matter? And  eventually a scientist talks the physical law could explain everything I don’t know this seem like a scientific personal he didn’t put his name. But nowadays our science has got a lot of changes and we had a meeting in 1986 called “the synthesis of science and religion” Nobel prize laureate he has admitted we would never have been sitting with religionists, the swamis, the gurus and the people 20 years ago but now because of the quantum mechanic research in physics we find that sub atomic particles are quantum mechanics does not act according to normal physical law. Therefore we want to know from these great wise people whether they have any information that can help us. That one Nobel laureate right on the Vedas on the books of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and he said that there is valuable scientific information to be gotten from these books. So the other form of knowledge is called inductive were we are getting from Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa knows what He is? He knows how he created the universe? He knows what the ātmās are? And he is handed down this knowledge.  By deductive means it is impossible to know what existed before creation?  Or before this existence or everything that exists. How can you know that? There will be no evidence. In the Vedas Kṛṣṇa said only I existed. This material world did not exists, Śiva did not exists, Brahmā did not exists only I exists its in the Ṛg Veda. So what to know what to exists before existence? And the material world we can only know from Kṛṣṇa.

You can study the Vedas from this that point of view. Then this got called He is giving the explanation what is existence? And see if it works. You will find I’m a science student I was a science student now I’m a Vedic student. And I found that the Vedas are incredibly scientific. And many many very intelligent people PhD's are taken up Kṛṣṇa consciousness based upon the scientific nature of this Vedas. So there are a lot of practical reasons why this soul exists? And why we can’t understand its existence? (aside): But I’ve to go on other questions.

Question: We are in the hare Kṛṣṇa movement practicing if it is anything wrong to worship the devas to attend any festival conducted for the devas.

Answer:  Lord Kṛṣṇa He has said that He is the higher of all living entities and so he is the higher of the devas and he is the one who fixes people’s faith on different devas. When a person fully takes shelter of Kṛṣṇa then they need to see Kṛṣṇa in everything including the devas. If they can see devas then there is no problem but the Kṛṣṇa the devas they got confused about how that two relate with each other then its obstacle. So that’s why the devotees should understand that the devas are all great devotees of God. His expansion in the Vedas what we call it as sahasra śīrṣāḥ puruṣaḥ What that mantra called? In the puruṣa śūkta how all the devas are different parts of the body of the lord in the Viśvarūpa also mentions that so that devas are the arms representing so we understand that the devas are the devotees of the lord and we offer them respect as devotees then that is no problem. If we go to the devas and asks If we go to the devas and asks the devas a blessing to be a better devotee of Kṛṣṇa then there is no problem. But if we go to the devas and asks the same thing that the devas asking from Kṛṣṇa then Kṛṣṇa asks who do you really take shelter me or him?

If you want to take from him then all right no need to take from me. But the devas they can give us the ticket back to Kṛṣṇa they can help us in many ways. I was just reading this morning in Bhāgavatam when Kṛṣṇa had disappeared from Dvāraka when he was looking for the Śyāmantaka jewel all the residents of Dvāraka went to durgā and they prayed to durga please bring Kṛṣṇa back to us we want Kṛṣṇa back. So out of love for Kṛṣṇa they prayed to the divine mother to bring Kṛṣṇa back. So in someways that devotees of Kṛṣṇa ven prayed like that the gopīs prayed to Kātyāyinī to Pārvatī her name is Katyāyinī to get Kṛṣṇa as her husband so such things are all right for devotees. Everytime I go to deva temple I always pray to deva for blessing to be Kṛṣṇa consciousness and to spread the saṅkīrtana movement of Lord Caitanya because I know that because this is what they all want. If we read in the Purāṇas  the devas are fighting with the demons you know how much they want us to spread us this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. That’s really what they want? When a person dies the soul leaves the body three or ones if we pick this one we can lack again.

Question: What is the best method of achieving the Supreme Personality of Godhead?

Jayapatākā Swami: what is the best method? Bhakti-yoga. Kṛṣṇa said bhaktyā mām abhijānāti – except for my devotee no one else can know me. If you want to come to me you want to come by surrendering unto me.

Question: What is the best time for meditation?

Jayapatākā Swami: Every time is good 24 hours a day but the best time to start your meditation is called brahma-muhūrta which is an hour and a half before sunrise. But if we can’t do that time do any time we can do. That’s the best time according to sastras. So we should do all the time.

Question: When I’m thinking of Kṛṣṇa chanting his names I feel like crying I cry why?

Answer: Well, very good good very good  if you are simply thinking about Kṛṣṇa in a possible way and you feel tears coming that means you are getting some mercy from Lord Caitanya. Of course some times people think of other things and cry so I’m hoping that you are thinking about Kṛṣṇa and crying so that’s good. If you are feeling attachment for Kṛṣṇa this is a very good sign things like this are more for individual talking to the guru because how can I say by somebody is crying but it could be that it is devotional crying. If one does experience special symptoms in spiritual life that is a good reason to interviewed with guru and conclude up with the advanced devotee and then they can see whether everything is going all right and how to advice you? It’s not something to talk about in public.

Question: Can I go back to godhead in this lifetime?

Answer: Absolutely yes. Specially keep crying for Kṛṣṇa.

Question: To become a devotee means to have gone through all purification process such as knowledge of all the Vedas and such. But have to becoming a devotee means still one has a same suffering and problems as non-devotee. Even after taking of devotional service one still has the propensity to be envious and causing anxiety to others. There is nothing wrong in the process of devotional life why does devotees come under māyā’s attack?

Answer: There are so many process of purification. You come to bhakti means this is the supreme process there is no other process after this. And there is no need of doing any lower processes but still we have to learn how to do bhakti-yoga to do properly. As we do bhakti-yoga we will find many dirt will come in our hearts. It’s a cleaning process, if we clean the house dust comes out. We have to be very careful to move the dirt. We have to be learned to be tolerant. We have to learn to be humble. These are part of the devotional process. Now side by side by chanting and performing the activities we have to also do cleaning. We have to be always analyzing and seeing wherever we have defects and systematically try to move that. Then in this material world time is immemorial.  

Millions of millions of birth even after few days, months, weeks or years of devotional service its not likely some of the contaminations are still there in our hearts. But if we absorb ourselves fully in devotional service and we take the shelter of the spiritual master properly then we can burn out these accumulated contaminations very quickly. So the reason why the process of devotional service is to get different attacks the contamination is there as I mentioned in the class we are getting devotional service very easy from Lord Caitanya we are making mmediately they are close on us. They will take away the curve. We have to make a proper we have to be patient we are not fully qualified for devotional service we are getting it on a special concession like the government sometimes give the poor people the low cost housing. They don’t get afford to get a house but they can buy it by low credit just to get the people out of the slums. So Lord Caitanya want us to get out from this horrible material world. He is giving us a special credit plan.

Because we are not fully qualified we have to work it becoming qualified. You are coming to this process very quickly. But if we stick to it within a short period of time we can get rid out of this bad qualities and we become properly situated. So we need the patience and determination and the conviction. We need the associate properly with devotees. We need to avoid the different kind of negative activities and we have to be very open hearted and straight forward. These are the six things that Rūpa Gosvāmi recommends us and help us  to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Question: I’m not intend to hurt anyone but I like to know why male Kṛṣṇa devotees commonly shave off the hair here?

Answer: There are many answers to this question. Once Prabhupāda said that we take 3 baths a day so if we don’t have much hair it doesn’t take much to dry. It’s also very clean. Very cooling. I’d recomended this if it is longer than this very hard to shave again. Too hard. But the will point is that the brahmacārīs, vānaprasthas and sannyāsīs they are basically like monks and they accept certain life styles which is simple and part of that is to shave the hair and leave the hair a tuft of here which means we are devotee. This tuft means we believe in one God. And it’s really it also if you saw someone like tuft of hairs everybody keep this tuft of hair and become a fan. You see a lot of people wearing it. And even  now in America lot of people are shaving off. So thus here always mean a devotee but the devotees who are in the preaching mode also brāhmaṇas some brāhmaṇas they want to gṛhastha brāhmaṇas then they also shave but it is not required but keeping a short hair is recommended. Simple living high thinking. And by shaving the hair then immediately one have nothing to comb style very simple you see these monk āśramas they are not trying to look attractive to women. They are not allowed to maintain a romantic relation with anyone hair is not important. May be of someone is in the gṛhastha-āśrama they have to work in society they can keep hair it’s not like that we say everybody has to shave but those who are in the monk āśrama tyāgi is recommended to shave the hair for various reasons. Those who feel I can go on some any devotee could tell you this answer I think.

Question: One what I know both the sex has to cover their head but why is not practiced by males?

Answer: Actually in Kṛṣṇa consciousness it is not required that everybody has to cover their heads. Only the married women especially are supposed to cover their head at the time of marriage. There is a ceremony where the head is covered. Even the unmarried young girls as well as the men don’t have to cover their head. Sometimes in the temple all ladies voluntarily cover their hair otherwise its not strictly required by the sastra. It’s a kind of respect for the āśrama.

Devotees please don’t take him wrong because this is the first visit to the temple. We want to welcome Mr.Singh to the temple and thank him for his questions and we appreciate him and there is absolutely no problem. Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa mahārāja are our devotees allowed to hear ISKCON songs sung by non-devotees. Examples cassettes and CDs. In āśramas we prefer to hear Prabhupāda and devotees chanting of course these are different musicians have offered their time as a devotional offering to sing a song.

Answer: So in one sentence nothing wrong. And people surely benefit something by hearing them. But usually for the initiated devotees prefer to hear singing by someone more spiritually developed. These are especially songs sung by attracting the new people by music aspect but not spiritual aspect. In public programs we use these more but for personal purification it is recommended to hear Prabhupāda and some other pure devotee chanting. But its nothing wrong but that is the guideline.

Question: Is it comfortable for a person to go through the four varṇāśramas ?

Answer: In Kali-yuga for different this is very funny the four varṇāśramas. So four āśramas we don’t. I understand its meaning. Question is addressing the āśramas. It’s a mistake to go through the varṇas. So the āśramas it depends also so some people just go through marriage the only āśrama they have to go through. For spiritual life someone joins the movement he is a gṛhastha we don’t say he has to go to brahmacārī. But later on the gṛhasthas are good to taken vānaprastha husband and wife together. It is not essential that people must take sannyāsa. If they are initiated wife and husband prepare themselves for this also. This all voluntarily. One doesn’t have to go through different āśramas but its something that one has to consult with one’s own guru. What is best for each individual? To which āśrama that one should go through? Some brahmacārīs go straight to sannyāsa and some brahmacārīs to gṛhastha and vānaprastha. So this all different scenarios.

Question: How to know that Kṛṣṇa is pleased with our service?

Answer: If guru is pleased then you know Kṛṣṇa is pleased. And you are pleased by serving Kṛṣṇa then its other sign.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!