nasti buddhir ayuktasya
na cayuktasya bhavana
na cabhavayatah santir
asantasya kutah sukham
(BG 2.66)
One who is not connected with the Supreme [in Krishna consciousness] can have neither transcendental intelligence nor a steady mind, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace?
PURPORT
Unless one is in Krishna consciousness, there is no possibility of peace. So it is confirmed in the Fifth Chapter (5.29) that when one understands that Krishna is the only enjoyer of all the good results of sacrifice and penance, that He is the proprietor of all universal manifestations, and that He is the real friend of all living entities, then only can one have real peace. Therefore, if one is not in Krishna consciousness, there cannot be a final goal for the mind. Disturbance is due to want of an ultimate goal, and when one is certain that Krishna is the enjoyer, proprietor and friend of everyone and everything, then one can, with a steady mind, bring about peace. Therefore, one who is engaged without a relationship with Krishna is certainly always in distress and is without peace, however much he may make a show of peace and spiritual advancement in life. Krishna consciousness is a self-manifested peaceful condition which can be achieved only in relationship with Krishna.
Peace and Pleasure
Peace is something that everyone is searching for in this world, in their own way. Pleasure is the motivating force within everyone’s life. If we analyze scrutinizingly whatever we do the foundation of that motivation is the pursuance of pleasure. But Bhagavad-Gita describes throughout the three gunas. There are three modes of material nature: Satva guana, Rajo guna, and Tamo guna. Goodness, passion, and ignorance. And according to these three modes of material nature different classes of living beings are seeking pleasure in different ways. Those is in the mode of ignorance are seeking pleasure through intoxication, through sleep, through violent and cruel acts upon others. Those who are in the mode of passion are seeking pleasure through amassing great fortunes, accumulating material prestige and indulging in sensual activities such as eating, sleeping, and having sex life this is the pleasure for those in the mode of passion. Name, fame and physical enjoyment and for those who are in the mode of goodness they take pleasure in doing good for others the feeling that I am giving in charity, the feeling that I have uplifted a friend, the feeling that I have lent my hoping hand for another’s benefit in life. But in all cases we are looking pleasure.
Identifying Bhagavad Gita
Bhagavad-Gita is a very great and important scripture in this world because it is explaining, where real pleasure is to be found? Where real peace is to be found? It isKrishna’s only business to come here in this material world to show the way to real peace and pleasure. Therefore it is said in the fourth chapter by Sri Krishna
paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma-samsthapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge
(BG 4.8)
I come to this world in order to re-establish the principles of religion, protect the pious, and annihilated the miscreants.
yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham
(BG 4.7)
Why does he do like this? To establish an opportunity for all to attain peace and real pleasure in life. Aham bija pradapita. Krishna is the father of all living beings. The father’s great concern is the peace, the happiness, and the pleasure of his children. Is it not? That is the nature of father. Yesterday, I was with one very nice man. He just had baby child. It was just one month back baby was born. He was explaining what should I know now that I have this baby? What to do with him? This is a little boy. I told, what you have to know, is you have to know the responsibility you have now. You did know what you are getting into, when you engaged in whatever you have to do with this child because now you have the most tremendous responsibility you have ever had. He said, “But I am devotee, I can be detached from him?” I said, “What does it mean to be detached from him, that you do not understand”.
Sometimes the devotees are like this, saying, “God will protect him”. I am a devotee, I am detached. Materialists, they are attached to their children but devotees are detached. That is true but we have to understand from Bhagavad-Gita, what it means to be detached? To be detached means that you are attached to the service but you are detached from the results for your own personal enjoyment. Arjuna’s duty was he was a warrior.Krishnatold him, “You must fight. You must fight better than anybody else. You must fight with care, with conviction, and with all of your intelligence and all of your strength and all of your energy but fight for me. Do not fight for you. Do not fight according to your own will but according to my directions”. This is the responsibility that I have giving you. Is not thatKrishnawas teaching Arjuna in Bhagavad-Gita?
Responsibility:
Now you have a child that means Krishna is giving you that child and with the child, giving with the responsibility “pita na sa syat janané na sa syat” that this child is My child not yours. You are the secondary father but I am the primary father. And of the two who has the last word. Who has the ultimate proprietorship? You are only a father on His behalf but He is the father. Therefore you have a great responsibility to be a father on His behalf. To be a father on His behalf means to raise that child according to His will but not according to your will, not according to your whims and you must be thoroughly attached to doing that. If you neglect your duty, if you neglect your responsibility, you are not on the path of God consciousness. Your life is in your hands. Your life is in the hands of the bitter cruel laws of nature, karma, action and reaction.
Therefore this is such a responsibility. You must behave in such a way that this child will be the best of the all human beings, Narottam, the best human being. You must give him the best of everything by your example in life. Therefore if you are attached to any basis you are ruining his life and you are insincere in your service to God. So in this way it is a great responsibility. So this is the duty of every father. ButKrishnais the supreme father and He is such a loving and caring father that He comes to this world just to give us the way by which we can become happy. By His example and by His words He teaches us the perfect way of life by which we can find ultimate pleasure. Just like you as a father and you as a mother must not by your words but by your example show your children, how they can lead a life by which they can attain eternal enjoyment, eternal pleasure that is the real duty.
Krishnais such a loving and carrying father. The only pain thatKrishnaor His representatives experience is the pain of others. It is said, “para-dukha-dukhee”. It is not that when we become advanced devotee you become hard like stone. You become soft like butter. But what does that mean? That means, you do not care anything about your own whimsical mind’s demands but you are very much concerned for the welfare of others. You can judge how purified a person is by how much a person is willing to reach out to uplift others, spiritually. Of course the supreme most merciful friend is Krishna Himself.
Compassion of Lord Chaitanya:
I would like to give an example of how Krishna himself demonstrated the supreme manifestation of compassion upon others. When Lord Krishna appeared as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, it is described that he was surrounded by the most intimate associates living in thelandofNavadvipa. His wife was none other than Lakshmi Devi the Goddess of fortune. He had a sweet loving mother. He was living in a very peaceful and beautiful life surrounded by so many loving friends, companions, and relatives. What happened is He noticed that the people of this world, they were suffering; they were following religious path without understanding love of God. Therefore all the religion was simply a waste also much uselessness. Most of their religion was just to worship God or Gods for the purpose of material prosperity. Therefore there was no peace, no happiness, and no pleasure.
Of course Navadvipa was the high city of learning at that time. People were very much attached to studying the Vedas, studying the scriptures for the sake of learning, not for the sake of purification. Just like sometimes we have these debates. There are two types of debaters. One is trying to establish truth for the benefit of others and one is trying to establish that I have conquered and I have owned. I am the best. Does not matter, whether you are right or wrong, you are only trying to establish yourself. Take the right side or take the wrong side it does not matter but the main thing is “I can beat you and that is my goal to defeat and to conquer”. To the time of memorial in those days there was Keshava Kashmir. He was one of these types of debaters. He would just travel from place to place just defeating everyone and getting their signatures but ultimately he met defeat at the hands of Nimai Pandit.
But one who is really concerned, He studied the shastra for the sake of establishing truth that I know nothing, I am nothing, I am simply a representative of the truth and the servant of the truth for the purpose of uplifting others. But in Navadvipa and throughout India at that time people were simply studying the scriptures for their own false ego to be the greatest pandit, to be the greatest grammatical word juggler, to narrate discourses and speeches for their own aggrandizement. People were following tantrikars. Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was thinking “What am I to do? Now they are criticizing Me. They are thinking I am just an ordinary householder like the rest of them. Therefore they will not hear what I have to say. I have descended especially to deliver them by convincing them of the glory of the holy name, to give them real peace and real pleasure but they are not willing to hear”. Therefore He decided that in order for people to take in seriously, He would have to take a very drastic major in His own life and accept the sanyasa, the renounced order. Then He would be separate. People would not think, He is just like us. They would have to offer Him obeisances. If not out of love but out of formality and by just offering Him obeisance they would become purified.
Lord Chaitanya takes sannyas:
So He made this plan and it is described it was on the night of makara sankranti that night of auspicious constellation of the month of January or Magha. He decided He would leave home. So one that night by His own sweet will He inspired the devotees from within their hearts to all to come to visit His house. They all came with garlands, they all came with Prasad. Even they did not know He is leaving that night. But they all came and they gave Him garland. He would take the garland up and gave the garland back to them. In this way they exchanged their life. And He appealed to them that if you love Me take the name of Krishna everywhere you go and in everything you do. Whatever you do, do it along with the name ofKrishna. The name ofKrishnais your constant friend, your constant companion. He is the supreme deliverer from all the miseries and pains in this world, have faith and have trust in God’s name. Have faith and trust in God’s devotees. Lord Caitanya told them that you chant “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. This is Mahamantra. This is not an ordinary mantra. This mantra especially given by God for the sake of delivering, even the most sinful and fallen living creatures in this age of Kali Yuga. It is the mantra especially in this age that can uplift the lowest and bring them to the highest. So always remember the name ofKrishnaand always chant Hare Krishna.
Then He embraced each and every one of them and they were all thinking, “Oh, how wonderful it is that living amongst us, is this most beautiful and merciful personality”. Late that night one devotee, his name was Kalovecha Sridhara. He came very late with the pumpkin and offered to Lord Caitanya. Kalovecha Sridhara was very poor man. He was so poor that he could hardly manage himself or his family. He lived in the utter poverty. But he was always experiencing the highest pleasure by chanting the holy name ofKrishna. It is explained that in the night he would just be crying out “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. He would be just crying out the names all night long in love in divine ecstasy. The local people all around, who are very materialistic they would be thinking why you are keeping us awake with this loud chanting. They were thinking, he is chanting all night so loudly because he is so hungry. Because he is a devotee ofKrishna. He was a devotee of Durga or devotee of kali. Mataji would give him so much wealth and so much nice material happiness. But because he is a devotee of Krishna,Krishnahas taken everything away from him therefore he just howling in night because of hunger pains in his stomach. So they through food at him and said, “Here eat and keep your mouth shut and let us sleep”. He wasn’t concerned with food or no food. He was simply concerned with loving Krishna by chanting His name.
So that night Kolavecha Sreedhar came and brought Him a pumpkin, which was a great donation and Lord Caitanya was thinking throughout most of My life, I have been steeling things from this man, arguing with him, taking things from him and now he is giving Me this pumpkin. Such a loving devotee. So He told His mother Sachi, “Please prepare this pumpkin and cook it in milk”. So she made sweet rice with pumpkin. She took milk, rice, and sugar and cooked with this pumpkin. Lord Caitanya ate that. Then He took rest and everyone was sleeping. Sachi mata was thinking in her heart, she was feeling fear “Just as my previous son had disappeared in the middle of the night and taken sannyas, I fear that Nimai will do the same thing to night”. This was her greatest anxiety. Her husband died out of fear of this only, so she stood guarding the door that night. At three o clock in the morning His wife Vishnupriya was sleeping. She was only fourteen. He was only twenty four. He got up from His bed and when He came to the door and saw His mother. He offered His obeisances to His mother and walked out and she was posed on like stone, she knew exactly what her son is doing but she became paralyzed. She could not move. She was stricken with such intense pain of separation.
After that He went to Ganges and took His bath in the Ganges and with His wet cloths He went to Khatva, the holy city of the great Sannyasi Keshava Bharati. There He was planning to accept sanyasa, the renounced order of life. He ran and ran and ran. He finally reached Khatva at about 9 o’clock in the morning. Mean while when the devotees of Navadvipa woke up like regular they came to the house of Sachi Mata in order to greet Lord Caitanya and offer their obeisances to him and they saw Sachi mata standing at the door paralyzed. She told them you take over this house it is no longer mine, it is yours. I’ll go up somewhere and disappear from this world. They said, “What do you mean”? She said, “You are His devotees, you take this house. It is His property”. They said, “No, you must take care of His wife. You must take care of things. We will meet you”. Then gradually they understood that He had gone to Khatva to take sannyasa. It was like a thunder bolt in their hearts. We will never see Him again. We will never hear from Him again. They began to fall in the ground, crying, and weeping. Many of them immediately started running as far as they could to Khatva.
Mean while Lord Chaitanya arrived, Keshava Bharati Maharja was standing on the Bank of the Ganges. He saw that effulgence coming from the horizon. He was thinking, what is this light, that is coming and then he saw that coming from the body of this young man was all-pervading effulgence. He understood that this is Nimai of Navadvip. Nimai Pundit approached him and offered His obeisances and He said, “Today I want to accept sannyasa from you”. Keshava Bharati was thinking, sannyasa. You are so young. You are so beautiful. You have the most chaste, loving and most caring wife and most loving and carrying mother and also you have so many friends. How can you give up all these things for what? I’ll not give you sannyas. It is not possible. Lord Chaitanya said, “You must, please”. He was appealing to him because that day was an auspicious day. Many many people by the thousands were coming to get bath in Ganges. When they saw that Lord Chaitanya was appealing to Keshava Bharati to give Him sannyas they were terrified by this idea. They approached Keshava Bharati Maharaja that if you give this man sannyas, you are condemned. We will not permit. It is not possible. He has a wife. He has the mother. He is so young. He is so beautiful. Let Him enjoy His life. Sannyas is a life of tapasya in poverty. This man is not meant for this. He is meant for enjoyment only. This is irreligious. You cannot do this. If you give this man sannyas, we will just through your ashram. We will tear down your temple and tear down every thing. There was a revolt. There was revolution amongst all the people.
Meanwhile Nimai was saying, “No, no, you must give Me sannyasa”. It is very important. I have a mission. And Keshava Bharati did not want what to do? So finally he said, “Yes, how can I give you. You are so young. You are so beautiful. First you go to your mother and you get her permission in written and then you comeback. Then I’ll give you sannyas”. Lord Caitanya immediately started running back to Navadvipa. Keshava Bharati was thinking my God, He is such a powerful personality, He will convince His mother to write the letter. He is God. Why should I make Him all the way there and back. So he said, no you do not have to run, stay here. So there was a great argument. Every one hundred percent of the people were totally against it, making threats with their hearts, with their souls, they were objecting, He cannot. He must not. Keshava Bharati was getting one way order from Lord and threats form everybody else. So he did not know what to do.
At that time Lord Chaitanya seeing the revolution that was just about to take place, He began to chant and to dance to perform a beautiful Kirtan. In this way everybody started to chant and dance with Him. By this time thousands thousands and thousands of people were gathered around. They were all chanting and dancing with the lord. The beauty of His dance and the sweetness of His voice was charming everyone’s hearts and everyone’s anxieties disappeared. They chanted throughout the entire night in Kirtan and in the next morning their hearts were so much melted by the sweetness of Lord’s Kirtan that Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had no more any body to object to His desire. So Keshava Bharati Maharaja said, “No! First You must shave Your head.”
So on the bank of Ganges Lord Chaitanya asked, who will shave My head. As soon as people looked at His hair, it was the most beautiful hair in all of creation on the most beautiful head in all of creation. It was utterly impossible for anyone even conceive of this beautiful hair to be shaved. No no it is not possible. It cannot be. So Lord Caitanya understood none of My friends, they will not do. None of my devotees, they cannot do. So He called to a professional barbar. He said “it is your duty you must do it” He said, “It is my duty”. So he went with his scissors and he approached and when he saw the beauty of His blackish crawling locks of transcendental hair on his most beautiful golden form. He said, “No I cannot touch You. Not possible. This can not be done”. Lord Caitanya ordered him, “You must”. So again he approached and his eyes began to be filled with tears and he could not even see. Nimai said, “You must”. Then when he touched His hair and he put his scissors, he fell unconscious. It is not possible. I cannot do this. Please do not make me do this. Mean while all the devotees around and all the people around by the thousands they were begging my lord this cannot be done. You cannot do this. The lord ordered the barber, you must to cut.
So he began to cut the beautiful hair of the lord and as the hair began to fall to the ground people around started to think, “The supreme Lord, the most beautiful loving of all personalities, He is going to live such a life; a life of poverty and tapasya. It is beyond our imagination. How is it possible? And they began to cry, to yell, to scream. They were falling down unconscious and conscious, then unconscious and conscious. They were crying out stop, this cannot be done. Others were crying out screaming out, who is so cruel, who has created the sannyasa order of life. For a person, who completely abandons his relatives, all his friends, and leaves them helplessly crying, who leaves everything near and dear and accepts a life of a beggar in poverty. This sannyas order of life should have never been created. It is created by someone only, who must have a very hard stone like heart, why must this be? And mean while as the hair was falling to the ground, when His head was half shaved Lord Chaitanya maddened in the transcendental ecstasy just lifted in the air and began to dance in Kirtan, uncontrollably.
Then He sat down again and they completed the function. And barber as he was cutting his hand was trembling, as he was shaving his hand with trembling, tears just erupting from his eyes as heart breaking with every hair that fell from the Lord’s head. Then he made a vow. He said, “With this hand I’ll never again touch another man’s hair, as long as I live. From that day on he renounced his profession as a barbar and he became a maker of sweetmeats.
Then Nimai Pandit took His bath in the holyGangesRiver. Then He went to His guru maharaja, Keshava Bharati. They sat under a tree, which is close to the guru maharaja’s ashram. The Lord whispered in his year that last night I had a dream and this is the mantra that was told to Me in the dream. Is this the mantra that you want to give Me to initiate Me as a sannyas. Then Keshava Bharati Maharaja said, yes. This is the mantra and then he repeated the mantra he had told back into His ear. From that time this is the mantra, all sannyasis in the line of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Then Keshava Bharati Maharaja in front of everybody declared to everyone’s great surprise, “Your new sannyas name will be Sri Krishna Caitanya”. This is very unconventional because Keshava Bharati Maharaja was a sannyasi in the line of Sankaracarya. The sannyasi’s in the line of Sankaracarya are very strict. That they have ten names of sannyasis. The name Caitanya is the name of a brahmachari servant of a Sannyasi. So why did he give Him this name?
Keshava Bharati Maharja described, because your great mission my Lord, You have descended to invoke the consciousness of love of Krishna in everyone. Krishna meansKrishnathe Supreme Personality of Godhead and Caitanya means consciousness. So Krishna Caitanya means. “KrishnaConsciousness”. This is your life to give Krishna Consciousness to everyone. Therefore your name will be Sri Krishna Caitanya and there was one man that happened to be there. He was the classmate of Nimai Pandit in Navadvipa. He happened to be on his way to his father in law’s home. On the way he was passing through Khatva. He heard that Nimai Pandit is here and today He is taking sannyas and he was thinking my god, it is the most horrible thought. How could Nimai Pandit take sannyas? Our life and soul seeing Him to enjoy the beauty of His house, the beauty of His wife, the beauty of His mother’s love, the beauty of His friends. How can He do this and leave us everything? So he was there. And he was one of those great souls who was crying and weeping and waving as the hair of the lord falling to the ground and when He heard Keshava Bharati announced that “Your new name is Sri Krishna Caitanya” his words like a thunderbolt struck his heart. And He just left that place in a day in a maddened state, constantly just chanting “Sri Krishna Caitanya” and he went back home. And he could not do anything. He just simply kept saying Sri Krishna Caitanya. So they named him Caitanya Das because he could do nothing but say Caitanya’s name. Ultimately his son was Srinivas Acarya, who is one of the greatest proponents of the philosophy of Lord Caitanya in all of the history.
Love of God:
In this way Lord Caitanya after this grand and auspicious ceremony, He became so joyful and said, “Now I could just give all of My energy simply to uplifting others to creating the love of God from the hearts of all living beings”. So lord Caitanya and His guru maharaja both lifted in the air and began to chant and dance to the holy name of Krishna. So, why the husband of the goddess of fortune renounced her out of His love? For His children. The Lord Himself is willing to do even separation from His loved ones for the sake of uplifting those who are suffering from the pains of material nature. This is also the quality of His devotees. They are here on His behalf. They are here simply for the sake of you and me. They are here simply to uplift our painful suffering condition of birth and death. The most painful thing for a transcendentalist is to see a person who is about to die and that includes a 100% of everyone in this world and they are under the illusion that they are happy. Someone who knows that they are suffering, they are not is in his painful condition as someone who is enjoying material life. There is no one more unfortunate than someone who is enjoying material life and forgetfulness of God. It is better to suffer. Because, atleast in that suffering you can turn to God. Anything that helps us to turn to God, is the greatest benediction in life. Because there is no truth and there is no reality except that. Everything else is grand illusion, which ultimately ends in pain and death. So this is the love of God.
Lord Jesus Christ accepted crucifixion for upliftment of others. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu accepted this life of an aesthetic for upliftment of others. This is the nature of the Lord and His devotees. Then one may ask, “If He comes to give love then what about the inhabitants of Navadvipa? His own devotees, His own relatives He left them”. It seems like a contradiction. He is come to give love, to give happiness, to give pleasure, but those who loves Him most is given them nothing but grief”.
Separation is intense experience of Love:
Yes this is another subject matter. Actually Lord’s purpose is always perfect and complete in whatever He does especially in relationship to His devotees. There was no deficiency. There was nothing undecided, when the Lord acts in relationship to His devotees. For those who are forgetful of the Lord, He accepted the renounced order to reach out to them to gain their respect and to enlighten them with the transcendental vibration of the holy name ofKrishna. And to those who loved Him so dearly, His mother, His wife, His friends understand that Lord Caitanya is Krishna Himself. He is Avatar. He understood that by accepting the renounced order of life He would increase their love, through the process of separation. Separation is the most intense experience of love. Even in this world we can feel this.
When you love someone and they are next to us, we take them for granted, de we not? We think, “Yes, yes, I am very happy. I am thinking of you, I am feeling of you that the extent of your love is the intensity of your thought of that person. When that person is away our hearts are driven to such inner deep meditation on that person and if our sentiment is love, in separation our love can only grow. Therefore Lord Caitanya especially taught us that we should cultivate the feelings of separation fromKrishna. The feelings of meeting with Krishna are not as important as cultivating feelings of separation. Crying outKrishna, when will that be, when I will be Yours. Just like Narottam Das Thakur prays, “vishaya chadiya kabe suddha habe mana kabe hama heraba shri-vrindavana” we do not find the great souls saying, “Oh yes, I see Krishna.Krishnais dancing with me at night. YesterdayKrishnawas playing His flute for me. The day before Krishna appeared to me and gave me some laddus”. The great souls, they are praying when will that day will be mine, when I will be finish all material desires, then and only then will I see Vrindavan. Krishan, where are you? “he rädhe vraja-devike ca lalite he nanda-süno kutaù”. When will that day be mine? When all of my false ego, all of my pride, all of my selfish desires will be dissolve to the name ofKrishnaand then and only then will I taste the sweetness of love of god. This is the prayer of the real great souls of the mature vaisnavas.
The greater the devotee is, the greater the feeling of separation because separation is far more intimate. Even in connection and is much safer because Radha andKrishna’s divine lila is very confidential. To think of meetingKrishnaand meeting Radha, it is a very elevated subject matter but to cultivate the feelings of separation to long for that separation, there is no danger. There is a class of vaisnavas called sahajiyas, to take things very cheaply. Yes, I’ll dance withKrishna. Yes, I’ll be kissing withKrishna. They cannot be thinking like this. This is offensive. How in our contaminated state can we think like this? Lord Caitanya Himself. What was His mood of love, He said, “My lord, I do not even have one drop of love for you in My hard heart because I am not seeing you and if I have one drop of love for you, I could not leave one moment without seeing you. The fact is I am briefing, the fact My heart is still beating means I have no love for you”. Crying out, “Please My Lord, give Me just one drop of love and one drop of devotion to you. I have nothing”. This is the greatest way of the devotees think. So we should be praying for that. Praying for the dust of the feet of the Vaisnavas, please this is the most valuable wealth, the most valuable possession that is because it is only by serving the great souls, these feelings of separation from Krishna will awaken in my heart. The price of love of God is your eagerness to want it.
Love of god is not something that comes like some business arrangement where you pay the price then you get what you paid for. You do not get what you paid for. In justice of this material world is, you get punished according to your bad deed and you get rewarded according to your good deed; that is justice. For one, when we talking about the mercy of God, there is no question of justice. The mercy of God is causeless. There is only one price, your eagerness, your willingness to longing for it. How do you express that? Through your service and sacrifice in your service. The more we are willing to do anything we run to the temple to see the lord. We run to the temple to hear these transcendental glories of the pravachan of the lord. We run to the temple to hear the Kirtan of the name of the lord. We run to our beads every morning to chant the holy names. We run to our altar to offer some Bhoga. We run to accept the divine remnants of Prasad. To the degree we are eager for these things, eager to assist the devotees, eager to help the lord, and eager to our help in His mission to that degree love of God will be ours. You cannot be complacent.
Jesus says in the Bible, “Either you be hot or cold, but if you are lukewarm I speak you out”. What does it mean by lukewarm? Yes, I have my religion. Yes, yes I know Krishna very well. Yes I know what religion means. You have a little hear but then you have everything else and if you have some time for God then you give it. That is lukewarm. No one can attain love of god through that. You have to be intense, you have to be eager, you have to hanker, you have to be longing, you have to be willing to give everything for that. If you are not willing to do so, you are not worthy. Even if you are the most sinful of all sinners the Lord does not even consider those things. He does not care for your piety or impiety, his only concern with your eagerness. In that eagerness of course, you become transcendental, you become the most pious of all pious persons. Because, you will not do anything that will come between you and your devotion to God. So forget what you have done. Forget what’s been in the past.
This world, it is like a bridge. We must cross over it. We should not make a permanent place of residence on a bridge. A bridge is a place to cross over to go from one side to another. From the land of illusion to the land of ecstasy and sweetness and love, to thelandofKrishna. So, whatever comes within our life, to accept everything as an opportunity to deepen our love, deepen our faith, deepen our devotion, deepen our eagerness for that feeling of longing in separation for God. This is the great gift that has been given by the lord and His devotees. It is for this reason that the lord appears in this world. When we experience the higher taste of love of Krishna then all the pains, all the frustrations, all the anxieties of this material life become insignificant. We should not be so much concerned. Krishna is the supreme controller, He knows what is best, and whatever He does is out of love for everyone.
Everyone is going where they should be going. If a person is sinful,Krishnais sending that person to a place where that person can ultimately be purified for his sins. That is His love. If a person is pious,Krishnawill put that person in a place where he could gradually be purified from his piety. But if a person is a devotee, if a person has the blessings of the great souls, thenKrishnawill not deal with that person ordinarily. He guarantees. He assures that, that person will be elevated in all circumstances of life. So therefore we must see the divine hand of Krishna leading our every step in life and we must have a conviction, the faith that this world is not a place for a gentleman. To further implicate myself with the spirit of complacency in my spiritual life, I am just taking my spiritual life as something on the side and all my other responsibilities are something so important that we are cheating ourselves loyally. We are the fool number one of this world. A person who has nothing, has nothing to loose. But if a person who has given the gift the jewel of Krishna Consciousness and wasted it utilized in time for the cheap garbage of material life that person is the greatest fool, the most unfortunate soul in all creations. So let us take the advantage of the mercy of the Lord. Let us be eager, more eager and most eager of Krishna Consciousness.
To inspire that eagerness within our heart the Lord has come and He has come as in the form of His name to reciprocate and to deliver us back home back to godhead. “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, KrishnaKrishna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. To the degree we all come together to share the blessings of the Love to that degree we could experience the real friendship and real love. So we would like to think all of you for sharing your love and your kindness by coming and please come as much as you can and let us perform, what is sankirtan. Sankirtan means to come together as a congregation to glorify the Lord, Sri Sri Radha Gopinath.
Thank you, very much.
Hare Krishna.
