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Lecture, Bhagavad-gita 10:11 #4 of series on four key verses of Bhagavad-gita
Denver,
Colorado USA - 17 January 2005 om namo bhagavate vasudevaya I would like to
thank you all ladies and gentlemen very much for attending tonight's
fourth lecture in our special series on the catur slokas, or four
essential key verses of Bhagavad-Gita.
Those four verses are 10th chapter, texts 8,9,10, and 11.
Tonight we're wrapping up this very special lecture series.
We've come all
the way from Texas to give this special lecture series.
This is text number 11 chapter 10.
tesam evanukampartham
SYNONYMS teṣam
for them; eva certainly; anukampa-artham to show
special mercy; aham I; ajnana-jam due to ignorance;
tamaḥ darkness; nasayami dispel; atma-bhava
within their hearts; sthaḥ situated; jnana of
knowledge; dipena with the lamp; bhasvata glowing. TRANSLATION
To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in
their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness
born of ignorance. PURPORT When Lord Chaitanya
was in Benares promulgating the chanting of
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna
Krishna, Hare Hare/ thousands of people
were following Him. Prakasananda Sarasvati, a very influential and
learned scholar in Benares at that time, derided Lord Chaitanya for
being a sentimentalist. Sometimes philosophers criticize the devotees
because they think that most of the devotees are in the darkness of
ignorance and are philosophically naive sentimentalists. Actually that
is not the fact. There are very, very learned scholars who have put
forward the philosophy of devotion. But even if a devotee does not take
advantage of their literatures or of his spiritual master, if he is
sincere in his devotional service he is helped by Krishna Himself within
his heart. So the sincere devotee engaged in Krishna consciousness
cannot be without knowledge. The only qualification is that one carry
out devotional service in full Krishna consciousness. The modern
philosophers think that without discriminating one cannot have pure
knowledge. For them this answer is given by the Supreme Lord: those who
are engaged in pure devotional service, even though they be without
sufficient education and even without sufficient knowledge of the Vedic
principles, are still helped by the Supreme God, as stated in this
verse. The Lord tells
Arjuna that basically there is no possibility of understanding the
Supreme Truth, the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
simply by speculating, for the Supreme Truth is so great that it is not
possible to understand Him or to achieve Him simply by making a mental
effort. Man can go on speculating for several millions of years, and if
he is not devoted, if he is not a lover of the Supreme Truth, he will
never understand Krishna, or the Supreme Truth. Only by devotional
service is the Supreme Truth, Krishna, pleased, and by His inconceivable
energy He can reveal Himself to the heart of the pure devotee. The pure
devotee always has Krishna within his heart; and with the presence of
Krishna, who is just like the sun, the darkness of ignorance is at once
dissipated. This is the special mercy rendered to the pure devotee by
Krishna. Due to the
contamination of material association, through many, many millions of
births, one's heart is always covered with the dust of materialism, but
when one engages in devotional service and constantly chants Hare
Krishna, the dust quickly clears, and one is elevated to the
platform of pure knowledge. The ultimate goal, Vishnu, can be attained
only by this chant and by devotional service, and not by mental
speculation or argument. The pure devotee does not have to worry about
the material necessities of life; he need not be anxious, because when
he removes the darkness from his heart, everything is provided
automatically by the Supreme Lord, who is pleased by the loving
devotional service of the devotee. This is the essence of the teachings
of Bhagavad-gita. By studying Bhagavad-gita, one can become a soul
completely surrendered to the Supreme Lord and engage himself in pure
devotional service. As the Lord takes charge, one becomes completely
free from all kinds of materialistic endeavors.
om ajnana-timirandhasya
I offer my respectful obeisances to my
beloved guru maharaja,
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who has come to
me in the darkness of ignorance, and is forcing my eyes open with the
torchlight of the transcendental knowledge of Vedic wisdom. This is the fourth
of the four key verses of Bhagavad-Gita.
This instruction is not only meant for Arjuna.
It is not only meant for some historical study, or some literary
study. These are very
potent poignant instructions for each and every one of us. Krishna is saying
that to show them special mercy, I dwelling within their hearts.
So, there's a person.
His name is Krishna.
He's in your heart at this minute.
He's not just on the altar.
He's not only in Goloka in the spiritual world, He's right there
in your heart right now.
And what does He do? He
says I destroy with the lamp of knowledge, the darkness born of
ignorance. The previous verse
describes the qualification for one who's ignorance will be destroyed.
For one who is constantly devoted to serving Me with love, for
them I will. So this is a
special perk for those who are constantly devoted to serving Him.
Of course Krishna is in everyone's heart, but this special perk
is for those who are constantly devoted to Him.
Just like when one goes out to get a job, especially a job in
today's corporate world, you don't only ask about the salary, you want
to know what are the perks.
Do I get a nice office? Do
I get a company car? Here Krishna is
giving the perks for being devoted to Him.
There is actually one perk here.
This perk is so good that it overrides every perk you could dream
of having. That perk is
that Krishna, from within your heart, will destroy all the ignorance.
Even the Buddhists say the same thing, the root cause of
suffering is ignorance.
That's a fact.
If you're in a
suffering condition right now.
Its not the external situation which is causing your suffering.
What's actually causing your suffering is your ignorance.
All you have to do, to get rid of that ignorance is to devote
yourself to Krishna. How do you
do that? That's what we're
here for. This
International Society for Krishna Consciousness is here to teach you how
to devote yourself to Krishna, so you can get out of the suffering of
ignorance. As Krishna
points out in the Bhagavad-Gita, satatam kirtayanto mam, this
chanting activity is not the activity of naοve sentimentalists.
It is the activity of those who are highly learned in Vedic
wisdom: the chanting of
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna
Krishna, Hare Hare/ This chanting is an
act of devotion. The first
and easiest process of devotion is to hear.
If you can find a realized soul, and hear from that realized soul
that's the easy point of access.
I have my e course, so I immediately find out where the internet
connection is. We tried one
here, it was difficult, so I had to find where is the easiest internet
connection here in the temple so that my work goes on nicely.
In the same way, we have to find what is the easiest way to
connect with Krishna. That
is most important thing we can do.
The easiest way is you have to hear from a person who is in
Krishna consciousness. This
means a guru, or a highly advanced devotee of the Lord, who has actually
realized the truths about Krishna.
If we hear from such a person, then it is easy for us to be
connected. What do we do
after we've heard? The next thing is
to chant. The advanced
devotee will tell us that if you chant these names, this will prove to
Krishna that you're devoted to Him.
Then, from within your heart, He will completely destroy all the
darkness of ignorance, which is the root cause of all suffering.
By chanting that indeed happens, now some people say well, I
don't really believe that.
Every church says that if you pray to Jesus or Allah, or Jehovah, you
become happy. I think
that's just a bunch of religious hocus pocus.
There are many skeptics.
There is a growing number of skeptics, because when you go the
university they teach you the atheistic science.
Of course science can be taught by a theist also, just like we
have a scientist here who is a theist.
But its a fact that there are people who are using science to
promote atheism. They want
to deny the existence of God, and they misuse science for that purpose.
Here we actually
have a positive science. It
is a system where you can actually realize the truth as it is.
What do we do in science?
We take some powerful instruments.
Just like in your geology science, you have some powerful
instruments for determining what's under the surface of the earth.
Every science has instruments, microscopes, telescopes depending
on the science. [Aside]
What is it? I need
some water? I'm sounding
like a croaking toad? All
right. I am so caught up in
the philosophy, I was forgetting what my voice sounded like.
(laughs) I'm not the
body, but still I have to drink some water to keep the body in shape. Every science has
its instruments. So, what
are the instruments of the bhakti science?
We have our ear and our tongue.
We also have out hands.
We can clap and do kirtan.
(claps). These are
instruments that God has given.
We don't have to invent the instruments in a laboratory.
God has already given us the ears, the tongue, the hands, a body.
We can bow down before the Deity.
We can bow down before guru.
He's given us all the instruments we need to practice this
science of krishna bhakti.
If we do so, the result will be as described here.
Through science we want to move back the unknown, and have more
known. That's the whole
idea of science. We are
trying to reduce the unknown things and increasing the known things. One science will go
to this area, the chemical, another will go into different species of
life, another will go into the mind, psychology science, but the beauty
of the Krishna science, when you become learned in this science, you
know everything. Krishna is
actually the source of everything, as He describes in the 8th
verse of this chapter,
aham sarvasya prabhavo I am the source of everything. When you have that
scientific knowledge of Krishna, through the science of bhakti,
by perfecting the instruments of hearing and chanting, then you will
know everything by simply knowing Krishna.
We can understand what is geology, psychology, astronomy,
biology, every science becomes understood, because you've captured the
essence. This is why
Prabhupada, even though he had never been trained in science, could
speak with learned Phds in any field of science and they were just
absolutely impressed with Prabhupada's firm wisdom.
They felt enlightened and uplifted by hearing from him.
They would even talk with him about different sciences.
Prabhupada would talk with everyone.
They would just be established in his deep knowledge of
everything.
He would talk with
theologins, biologists, anyone.
He could talk with a simple village man.
He knew how to talk to everyone.
Even one time in Europe, some humble villager came who had no
philosophical inclination whatsoever.
He wasn't really in any state of mind to be preached to even, so
Prabhupada just sang a nice devotional bhajan for him.
The man was so happy, he thanked Prabhupada, and then he moved
on. Prabhupada was very
expert at knowing just how to touch the heart of every type of person,
and help them move one step closer to Lord Sri Krishna.
The spiritual
master is like that. He understands what the person needs, and He
engages that person in just such a way that they can get even just a
little touch of bhakti in the heart.
brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva It is stated in the
Caitanya-Caritamrta that after wandering through the universe up and
down, from the higher planets to the lower planets, one living entity
who is very fortunate, receives by the combined mercy of guru and
Krishna, the seed of bhakti within the heart.
This combined mercy
of guru and Krishna is very important.
You can't have Krishna without guru and you can't have guru
without Krishna. The other
is that by the mercy of guru you get Krishna, by the mercy of Krishna
you get guru. They go hand
in hand. What do we get
from that? We get the seed
of bhakti planted in the heart.
Once that seed of bhakti is planted, then what do we do?
It is just like when you grow some plant in your garden, what do
you do? Do you not water
the plant regularly? Do you
have a garden in your house?
You do. So you water
the plants. Also, don't you
pick the weeds as well?
Yes. We all know that
the weeds grow much faster than the plants.
They will choke out the plant and steal all the fertilizer which
you put in the soil. When
the seed of bhakti is planted in our heart, we have to water that
seed, and how do we do that?
By regularly coming to the temple, by reading Bhagavad-Gita.
Everyone should have a copy of this Bhagavad-Gita.
If you don't have one, then devotees here can arrange for you to
get one. By regularly
studying the Bhagavad-Gita and by regularly chanting
Hare Krishna, Hare
Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ When guru and
Krishna give us this seed of bhakti, then we have to chant, we
have to read, and we have to regularly come to the temple to associate
with the devotees. If we
also avoid sinful activities like smoking and drinking and illicit
sexual connection and meat-eating, which are the weeds, which will choke
out the creeper, give up sinful activity and chant God's holy names,
then we will find an amazing awakening in the heart.
Krishna is burning off all of the ignorance which means that all
of the suffering is going away. We've actually been
suffering for millions of lifetimes.
We actually hear people say sometimes that I would like to know
what I was in my lifetime.
But actually, maybe we wouldn't want to know what we've been through in
previous lifetimes, depending on our karma.
The most important thing is to take, wherever we are right now,
and make it perfect, by surrendering ourselves to Lord Krishna.
Krishna is our eternal Lord and master.
He is there in the spiritual world right now, waiting for us to
come back. When will My
lost children come back to Me?
They somehow foolish wandered away from home, like a teenager who
runs away from home.
Actually, we are all runaways.
We ran away from
our father, Lord Sri Krishna.
We thought, I think I'll see if I can be happy living outside of
my home with Lord Krishna.
Sometimes a child in ignorance foolishly thinks that he can somehow be
happier if he runs away from home.
Of course, many of the parents nowadays aren't very good, and
maybe they are better off running away from home, but Krishna is a good
parent. He's a good parent.
We were foolish to run away from home, and come here in this
samsara loka, the place of birth and death.
Krishna knows we're
His runaway children, therefore He personally comes.
Isn't it so?
yada yada hi dharmasya He comes here to
rescue us, and He sends His representatives.
All these great acaryas, they're all great representatives
sent by Krishna. So,
India's a very special place in the world because this is where Krishna
personally comes, and this is where the acaryas appear.
Of course, an acarya can be anywhere.
They travel all over the world.
It's not that they're only in India.
Prabhupada proved that.
He was the first fully realized acarya who spread this
Krishna consciousness all over the world.
He is created now many many acaryas who are situated and
traveling all over the world to give this knowledge so that the people
can wake up from their suffering condition in the material illusion of I
am this body. This is our basic
problem. Now we're
misidentifying with our bodies.
We're thinking, I'm American, I'm Russian, I'm white, I'm black,
I'm Indian. But if we can
simply realize that I'm not the body, I'm an eternal spiritual being,
the body may get sick, may get old, may die, but I don't.
I'm not subject to birth, death old age and disease.
It has nothing to do with me, the atma within.
I may have a shirt, and after a while it may get worn out and I
have to throw it away basically.
But, I'm not the shirt.
The body will eventually wear out, but its not me.
I give up one shirt and put on another shirt, so we've been going
from one body to another body, but as long as we identify that I am this
body, then we're forced to take another one and another one and another
one. If we can realize
that I'm not the body. I'm
the eternal servant of Krishna.
Then, for us there is no more birth.
Krishna promises this is the Gita.
He says punar janma na
vidyate: they never take birth again.
Krishna has given His promise, His word, His assurance to us.
All we have to do to get free from all the suffering in material
existence, and make this our last lifetime in this material world, is to
fully dedicate ourselves to Krishna.
Krishna is so
beautiful. His flute
playing is so sweet. We try
to enjoy music in this world, but once we hear the sweet music of this
world, we will no longer be attracted to any music in this material
world. It won't appeal to
us anymore. Not the
Bollywood theme songs, not the western music.
Once we hear Krishna's flute, there will be no attraction
whatsoever for any of this music in the mundane world.
Of course, we have to become pure devotees to hear that.
It is going to be well worth it.
It will be the most beautiful music we've ever heard in our life
when we actually hear Krishna playing on His flute. Krishna now has
manifested His wonderful mercy upon us in the form of this Bhagavad-Gita
knowledge, and His dearmost devotee, His Divine Grace, A.C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
We take advantage of this wonderful mercy of Krishna.
Take shelter of the bhakti process of chanting, hearing,
associating with devotees.
Then, very quickly we will enter into that state of consciousness, known
as Krishna consciousness, where there's no suffering, no illusion and no
anxiety.
Are there any
questions? Guest 1:
You talk about suffering suffering suffering, but a person may
think that there is no suffering. SDA:
This is a very good question.
You're wondering that how is it that I'm not really suffering, so
what's the real situation.
Right? That's the question.
Now, we do see that there are three modes of material nature.
Goodness passion and ignorance.
Persons who are fixed in the mode of goodness are very pious.
Actually, they're generally speaking, very happy in this material
world. That's a fact.
Many people from
India, for example, are very pious.
They're vegetarian, they pray regularly.
They try to be kind to everyone.
So, they have a certain happiness, by their piety.
But, Krishna says dukhalayam asasvatam.
This material world is a suffering place and its temporary.
So, even if someone is very very pious, who is entitled to a lot
of material happiness, Krishna blesses them with nice children, who are
well behaved, with a good job, with nice prestige in society, even such
a person, whose life is, for the most part, sukha, or happiness,
they still have to face the reality which is asasvata, it is
temporary. To know, deep down
that even if I have a nice wonderful happy situation right now, to know
that I'm going to lose it, that is actually another type of anxiety.
It is gnawing away inside the heart to know that I'm going to
lose this at any time. So,
that's why transcendental happiness is the permanent, true, lasting
happiness. If I can base my
happiness on a loving relationship with Krishna, that relationship will
never be broken by anything.
Nothing can take that away.
That's eternal. That
will bring me to the position of total complete happiness.
Even the happiness of a very pious person is sometimes disturbed
We see pious people sometimes undergo some horrible thing in
their family. They wonder,
I am so good, why did this happen to us?
Our dear child was killed in an automobile accident.
Why did this happen to us?
They're very confused.
They were very happy, and now they're so unhappy.
They don't know why this happened to them.
They don't realize
that actually the law of karma is always at work.
For every pious and every impious activity we perform in this
past, a reaction will come, sooner or later.
So, even if we are happy now, we may have some bad karma
just waiting to come. But,
if we surrender to Krishna, this is the beauty of surrendering to
Krishna, then all of our karma is erased.
Complete surrender to Krishna wipes out all our past karma.
You don't have to worry about some reactions coming from past
activities. Just by
engaging in Krishna consciousness, Krishna then rewards you.
According to your degree of surrender, He bestows all blessings
upon you. One should not be
fooled by material happiness, which is a result of good karma,
which will eventually be exhausted.
When it is, you have to take the reaction for your impious
activities. The insiders
secret is to not engage in anything impious and to simply engage in
krishna bhakti.
That way there's no karmic reactions from anything that you do.
You don't create any new karma, and all past karma
is completely eliminated.
Krishna guarantees that. He
says
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo He says I'll just
wipe out all your past karma, and give you a clean slate, a clean
bill of health. Don't
worry, just surrender to Me completely.
Questions more?
Guest 2:
Sometimes there's the academic approach.
Getting an education, getting a good job, raising a family.
That seems like it increases you materialistic or worldly
responsibilities. So, that
seems like its pushing you away from Krishna.
So, is that something you should do, or shouldn't do? SDA:
We'll first explain in terms of classical vedic culture, then how
to apply that today. In
classical vedic culture, at the age of five, the young boy goes to
gurukula. He studies
under his guru until he is 25 years old.
20 years of training.
Then, because he's properly trained now, how to be fixed in
Krishna bhakti, then whether he decides to be grhasta and
pursue some occupation and have a family or if he wants to stay a
brahamacari and be a sannyasi, it doesnt matter, because he
has very good training as a brahmacari, he can go either way and
be fine. He can take up a
career profession in the vedic culture and be purely fixed in Krishna
consciousness.
What do we do now
that we don't the brahmacari training?
We immediately talk mundane subject matters.
We do a little prayer, a little puja maybe, but there's no solid
training in vedic knowledge now.
So, that's why we have our classes here.
We make up for lost time.
Better late than never.
The ideal situation in the modern context is become fixed in
Krishna consciousness, take shelter of the guru, just like you would
have as a brahmacari.
Consult the spiritual master because he will study your nature,
and your personality. He'll
tell you what is best. In
most cases its, getting a career, get a job.
But there are some rare cases where someone actually would be
better suited to study vedic wisdom and become a preacher of
Bhagavad-Gita. That's more
rare.
For most people, we
recommend you go to the university, get a good education and get a nice
job and be a good member of our Hare Krishna movement.
You can continually be reminded of this knowledge, this wisdom,
so that you will not be polluted by the materialistic atmosphere of a
university or a corporate world situation.
Its very mundane.
Everywhere sex sex sex sex sex sex sex.
Sex at the water coolers, everywhere sex is going on.
Sexual energy. The
colleges, the corporate world situation, so many affairs are going in.
Marriages are being broken.
People who aren't even married are having all kinds of sexual
relationships. Its a very
polluted atmosphere, especially in America, but if you make yourself
fixed in Krishna consciousness, you take shelter of the bona fide
spiritual master, you chant japa mala regularly, you offer your
food to Krishna. You can
even have a little altar at home.
If you're married, you engage your wife also in Krishna
consciousness. You teach
your kids how to be devotees.
I have a very nice
disciple in back in Austin.
He comes to the temple as often as he can.
He brings his little boy with him.
Even as a little baby, every time the father would offer
obeisances, he would lay his baby boy on the floor, also offering
obeisances. The baby
doesn't even know what's going on, only that his father lays him down on
the floor, and picks him up again.
But as he gets older, when he sees his father bow down, he bows
down also, automatically.
He knows that this is the time to bow down.
In this way, if
you're a family man, or a renunciate, it doesn't matter.
Whatever you have, you use it all for Krishna.
Just engage everything in Krishna's service, it doesn't really
matter whether you are a brahmacari living in the ashram, or a
sannyasi traveling all over the world preaching.
Whether you're a guru taking disciples, or whether you're a
corporate professional, whatever situation Krishna has placed you in,
use it in His service and you become perfect.
We were studying
yesterday at the home program, the actual duties of the different
orders. The vanaprasthas
have to go to the forest and dress in tree bark.
These are not very practical now in this time.
Especially in the cold winters here in Colorado.
Can you imagine just wearing tree bark?
Krishna consciousness, krishna-bhakti is so beautiful and
wonderful, even without doing all of these different rules and
regulations, the different orders of vedic culture, just chanting Hare
Krishna, hearing from the sadhus, you can achieve pure devotion
without worrying about all of these different rules of the different
social orders.
Don't worry whether
you're a sannyasi or a grhasta.
Whatever position you have now, just use it for Krishna.
Are you married? Are
you a student or a single professional.
You're a single corporate professional.
You just use that position for Krishna.
Being a corporate professional means that there is some income.
Use whatever you earn to cover your personal needs, and whatever
extra money you have, use to help push on this Krishna consciousness
movement. Preaching
requires money. Someone has
to pay for the utilities, the printer for the books, there are so many
expenses. You can be a
valuable servant and help Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's movement go
forward. Your battle is in
the corporate world. Every
Monday morning. You fight
your battle of Kuruksetra every week and give as much as you can, the
fruit of your fight to Krishna's service directly.
That way, you become perfect, just as Arjuna became perfect.
Other questions? Guest 3
What about personal practice. SDA:
Personal practice, yes.
You get the japa mala.
Do you have a japa mala?
Make sure he gets one.
Show him the japa mala, you get a japa mala.
Every day you chant one and a half to two hours on the japa mala,
16 rounds. You should do a
daily meditation of chanting the Hare Krishna mantra.
Follow our principles, which you may be doing already.
No illicit sex, no intoxication, no meat-eating, no gambling.
Do you cook your own food at home?
Oh, so you live at home with your parents?
Oh their visiting.
We have a nice Hare Krishna temple in Chicago, do you go there?
Near Evanston. The
Deities, you wouldn't believe.
You think Radha Govinda are beautiful.
Wait until you see Kisore Kisori.
Your heart will absolutely melt.
I'll be coming to Chicago also.
I have a disciple in Chicago and in others getting ready to
become a disciple. If you
give me your contact information, we can look you up, when we come to
Chicago. We will give you
more personal instructions if you like.
We don't want to impose on you, but if you would like that, we
can.
Chant every day on
the japa mala, you offer your food to Krishna before you eat.
Just by that eating, you're making spiritual progress.
When food is offered to Krishna its transformed from material
energy to spiritual energy.
Just by putting that food in your mouth, your whole body becomes body
and your brain becomes purified.
With that purified brain you can actually understand the
transcendental knowledge that is being spoken here.
What does Krishna really mean when He says, I destroy, with the
shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.
You'll actually realize exactly what He's talking about.
You'll become the happiest person in the whole company.
You come to work
shining. You'll be like a
shining lamp in a corporation full of ignorance.
People will wonder, that I know.
I have a Godbrother that was working in a corporation.
There was another person sitting beside him.
Some kind of consulting company.
He was a devotee.
Every day he would bring a Bhagavad-Gita, and would just sit it on his
desk. He was actually from
India. His name was Naveen
Krishna Dasa. He would sit
there every day and put the Bhagavad-Gita on his desk.
This workers name was Randy Meyer.
Randy would every day sit there, and was looking at this
Bhagavad-Gita and wondering, what is this?
Naveen was preaching to this.
Now Randy Meyer is no longer Randy Meyer, his name is Ramiya Dasa.
He also became a disciple.
Just because somebody is working in the same corporate job,
sitting nearby the desk, he took the Bhagavad-Gita and laid it on the
desk. His neighbor read a
few lines on his break. He
was just wondering, what is this Bhagavad-Gita.
This way, if you
become fixed in Krishna consciousness, then people, will notice that
there's something different about you.
You have some peace, some joy, that we do not have.
Can you tell us please, tell us how do you get all this peace.
You say, well, you really want to know?
Yes. Yes.
Tell me. You sure
you really want to know?
Alright, every day I chant the holy names of God.
I read this Bhagavad-Gita, I go
to the Hare Krishna temple.
Oh really? Will you take me
with you? Oh, yes.
You can come with me.
In this way, if you
can have a wonderful happy life, as a representative of Krishna.
If you will place in yourself, the lotus feet of Krishna, as His
humble servant, then He will bless you that you can actually be His
emissary in this material world.
You can represent Him.
That will give you the greatest joy and happiness.
Even in the midst of your corporate job.
You can show yourself to be an ideal saintly person, while you do
your work. When Prabhupada
was a young man, he also was working a corporate job.
Actually, because of some connection his father had, he graduated
from college, being about 22 years old, he was made the manager of a
whole chemical factory. Can
you imagine?
Prabhupada said
that whatever I did, I was very expert.
The owner of the factory, Dr. Bose, was so very impressed,
thinking that this person is very expert.
Prabhupada did everything expertly.
This is one of the qualities a person who is expert.
A Krishna conscious person becomes very expert, even in material
things like their job. By
becoming Krishna conscious, you'll find that you become better at your
job also. Not like you
can't function in the material world anymore if you become Krishna
conscious. Actually, if you
become Krishna conscious, you become more expert than the other workers
in the corporation. You'll
probably get promoted. Bhaktivinoda
Thakura, one of our great acaryas, was in the employ of the
British government. He was
the best worker they had.
Any time they had a big problem, they would send Bhaktivinoda Thakura to
take care of it. He was a
magistrate. The other
magistrates would take so long to make the judgments.
He would be finished in a matter of minutes.
Everyone else would be toiling on with their day and he would be
finished and go home early because he could do it with such expertise.
If you become Krishna conscious, offer your food, go to the
temple, they're on Lunt Ave, you'll find that you'll become very expert.
You'll be able to accomplish things better, in less time.
You'll become so much appreciated by the bosses there.
You'll be a lot more peaceful at the job because of being expert.
At the same time, krishna bhakti will be expanding in your
heart more and more and more and more and more.
You'll become the happiest person in the world by expanding your
Krishna consciousness. If there's no questions, we can stop here. No further questions. We've been going now for almost an hour, fifty minutes and twenty seconds. Srimad Bhagavad-Gita ki Jaya! Srila Prabhupada ki Jaya! Hare Krishna. __________________________________________ Transcribed by His Grace Jagannatha Dasa |