bhūmir dṛpta-nṛpa-vyāja-
daityānīka-śatāyutaiḥ
ākrāntā bhūri-bhāreṇa
brahmāṇaḿ śaraṇaḿ yayau
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.1.17)
Translation
Once when mother earth was overburdened by hundreds of thousands of military phalanxes of various conceited demons dressed like kings, she approached Lord Brahmā for relief.
Purport
When the world is overburdened by unnecessary military arrangements and when various demoniac kings are the executive heads of state, this burden causes the appearance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gita (4.7):
yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham
“Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion at that time I appear Myself.” When the residents of this earth become atheistic and godless, they descend to the status of animals like dogs and hogs, and thus their only business is to bark among themselves. This is dharmasya glani, deviation from the goal of life. Human life is meant for attaining the highest perfection of Krishna consciousness, but when people are godless and the presidents or kings are unnecessarily puffed up with military power, their business is to fight and increase the military strength of their different states. Nowadays, therefore, it appears that every state is busy manufacturing atomic weapons to prepare for a third world war. Such preparations are certainly unnecessary; they reflect the false pride of the heads of state. The real business of a chief executive is to see to the happiness of the mass of people by training them in Krishna consciousness in different divisions of life. Catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasah (Bg. 4.13).A leader should train the people as Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Shudras and engage them in various occupational duties, thus helping them progress toward Krishna consciousness. Instead, however, rogues and thieves in the guise of protectors arrange for a voting system, and in the name of democracy they come to power by hook or crook and exploit the citizens. Even long, long ago, Asuras, persons devoid of God consciousness, became the heads of state, and now this is happening again. The various states of the world are preoccupied with arranging for military strength. Sometimes they spend sixty-five percent of the government’s revenue for this purpose. But why should people’s hard-earned money be spent in this way? Because of the present world situation, Krishna has descended in the form of the Krishna consciousness movement. This is quite natural, for without the Krishna consciousness movement the world cannot be peaceful and happy.
Earth is our Mother because she provides for us
Earth is here addressed as our mother. This is not simply a figurative statement. But it is literally. A mother is one who provides, protects child. The mother is that person anyone else the child depends upon for everything necessary for one’s life for one’ security, for one’s happiness. The mother is the one who supports, protects, provides and nourishes the child within her own very womb. If we understand what the true position of mother is, toward the child, we will find that we are all children and the earth is the mother for all of us because within her womb we are all being nourished. She is providing all protection, she is providing the wood of the trees to build our homes, she is providing the minerals, she is providing all food to nourish us and she is also at all times maintaining us within her very womb. So factually we are all exactly in the position of baby children in the womb of mother earth, being nourished, being protected by her motherly affection. Now of course especially here in the great land of India – Bharatavarsha, and in all civilized cultures of the world, there is a great emphasis and respect for one’s mother. If we do not respect one’s mother we are uncivilized, uncultured and irreligious, because if the mother is providing, nourishing and protecting, doing so much for you, it is simply an act of being ungrateful and offensive if we do not reciprocate by offering proper respect.
Even in the western world, where people are not very respectful at all times because there is not much of a culture there. If someone is the worst possible person, the worst insult you can give that person is that you would kill your own mother. If you say that to a person, it means war, you are going to make a lifelong enemy with that person. He will never forgive you if you say that, you would spit on your own mother, you would kill your own mother. It is an absolute insult, because how much grateful, thankful the duty of every living being is to the mother that without you could not be existing today, you could not be alive today. Therefore Sri Canakya pandit in order to give a sense of dignity to the woman class, he has said, that you treat and see every woman, other than your wife, as your own mother.
Today all over the world there is this great campaign for woman’s liberation. Why? Because women have been exploited, mistreated and disrespected because physically they are a weaker sex. And the ambitions and tendency to lord it over, to control, to exploit for sex life, woman have been trampled upon, disrespected and exploited especially in recent times terribly. Therefore, women want liberation now – they want equal rights, equal job employment and all of these things. But however much they get they will still be exploited, until man accepts the verdict of Canakya pandit, see every woman except your wife as your mother, treat them with all respect, honor and with dignity. And of course according to the sastras, the most important of all of our mothers is the earth, because even if the present family mother leaves this world, dies, you would still be nourished and protected by the womb of mother earth. She is the one mother that will never leave you that will protect you, protect your children, protect your grandchildren, nourish your great-great grand children and then all of your descendents for all times to come. They will all be protected, maintained and nourished by mother earth. And therefore, to live in respect and harmony with the earth is one of the most basic principles of civilization. And to exploit the earth means to exploit the very resources that you and all humanity and all civilization are utterly depending upon.
There was a beautiful letter written by a native American Indian chief, the American Indians in their religion, they very very highly recognized their dependence on mother earth and great emphasis on respecting and living in harmony with nature in order to reach God. So at that time, the white people from Europe they came into the what is now United states, America, Canada, South America and they simply wanted to control and take over because they had stronger armies, bigger weapons; they wanted their land, they wanted their homes, they wanted women, they wanted everything. And they were building all sorts of gradually as time was going on, industries and technologies and they were killing the buffaloes and they were using the land for all sorts of sinful purposes. And there is one native American chief, his name was Seato, he wrote a letter to that time the president of United states, President Franklin Roosevelt, and he told him that you are asking us to move and give us some money to go to a different place. But what is this nonsense, this land belongs to God, it is not mine to sell and it is not yours to buy. You are in utter illusion. If you have ever created this land, can you maintain it? All you can do it is destroy it. That is all you people have shown me is to destroy what God has given and you are thinking- its ours to buy and sell, you want to buy and sell the sky, you want to buy and sell the sun, you want to buy and sell the moon, the rivers, the lakes, the oceans, the earth. Our relationship with the natural resources that God is given us is to simply live in harmony for Him. But our warning that mother earth like her womb she is also your bed. You are resting and you are seeing in her. And if you contaminate your own bed, let me warn you, for the rest of your life and all of your descendents, you are going to have to sleep in that contamination. What you do to earth is what you do to humanity, because the earth is our mother.
Mother Earth is being exploited and misused by her own children the human beings
In the Shastra it is said we have seven mothers. One’s mother coming from family connection, the wife of Brahmins, wife of guru, the nurse that brings you up in the world, the cow, the wife of the king and the earth. So here we find and we find in many great avatars of the Lord, when mother earth is so much exploited and insulted and misused and disgraced by her own children, she herself approaches in her personified form to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Right now, in today’s society Srila Prabhupada is explaining here, that political leaders are at such a greedy, political and selfish mentality that they are destroying human life, not only human life but all life. Through their unnecessary meddling with the nuclear energy they are filling the earth with nuclear waste and they know it’s just a matter of time that it all leaks out and all food on earth will become radioactive and poison. If you poison the earth, you poison you, your children, your friends and every living being. Water is one of the most essentials, you cannot live without water. Because of the pollution in most places in the world, the rain is acidic, its full of poison and chemicals and therefore, I know in the western world, I don’t know here, it’s a scientific medical prophecy that in the generation that we are living in, not future, the people who are in this generation, one out of three will die out of cancer. Why is that? Because you pollute your mother, she cannot provide for you properly and you have to die, there is no alternative.
One of the most precious gifts of the earth is air. Like we have respected guest here who is a yoga teacher and He can tell you how through pranayama, simply through inhalation and exhalation of air in proper ways you could nourish every cell of your body for long life, for health, for mental energy which opens the door to spirituality. But now in many of the most advanced cities in the world from time to time people have to actually wear oxygen masks, because there is no oxygen, it is all been destroyed by pollution because are so greedy to go here and there so fast for more money for more prestige, for more sense gratification. And what about water just drinking water. The largest growing industry in the world is bottled water. I remember living in a place like Chicago, this is even years ago, there is a massive lake, Lake Michigan – hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of square miles. It’s a lake which originally was crystal clear pure water which can be used for everything and anything. Now it is not only can you not drink it you cannot even swim because you will get skin diseases. And practically all the fishes there are dead. And we want water through the piping system they take water and they add all sorts of chemical substances in it and although everyone in the city are living right on the bank of this gigantic lake you can’t even be see the end or the width of it or the depths. They have to spend their hard earned money importing water from six seven hundred miles away by trucks and God knows how long that water will remain pure and fresh with everything going into the ground.
If we live in harmony with Mother Earth we can live in harmony with Krishna
Yoga means union, yoga means harmony, harmony with our father and harmony with our mother. When we learn to live with harmony with mother earth naturally we also learn to live in harmony with our father, Krishna. And because Krishna is so merciful, so kind and so compassionate upon all the creatures of this earth, He wants us all to have a life of happiness joy and prosperity. We see when kings, a good king performs sacrifice, he teaches people how to live in harmony with God’s laws.
At the time of Yudhistra, at the time of Pariksit and the time of Lord Rama the whole kingdom was flourishing, the earth provides abundance of everything. Incredible jewels just everywhere, fresh water, no droughts no earthquakes. We see that there are cyclones, earthquakes, there’s volcanoes there’s tornadoes, there’s floods there’s epidemics. These are all simply the reactions of mother earth, striking back at humanity. If you misuse your mother enough, she is going to slap you, is she not? Right now we are getting slapped; the whole human race is getting slapped by all these terrible problems. And here we find that despite so many slaps and so many warnings due to the greed of political leaders, and due to the greed of various leaders of all fields of society, including in many cases religious leaders, nobody is willing to hear the warning and making things worse and worse and worse. Therefore there is only one solution – Krishna consciousness.
And here we find the same thing that Srila Prabhupada is explaining that is happening today was happening even a greater degree 5000 years back. When king Kamsa, Jarasanda, Sisupala – Sisupala is not yet (born), but Jarasanda & Kamsa all these greedy powerful demons were taking posts of the exploiters manipulators and controllers of society, in building gigantic military arrangements. Does that sound familiar? In Iraq, Iran, in India, in America, in Pakistan, in South Africa all over the world we find the greatest emphasis is simply military power to control, building armies. I was just in Israel and man, woman it’s mandatory that when you reach a certain age, you are drafted and you go in the army. Just a tiny little country with only a few people and most people that we see, literally, when you walk down the street the most common person to see are soldiers with full military uniforms, carrying machine guns. You never see a soldier without a hi-tech machine gun in their hands ready to fire. And in other places, they are more sophisticated that their military people are undercover, they have a suit and tie but have a high power pistol underneath that you can’t see. The armies are getting bigger and bigger, Prabhupada says 65% of most national budgets are simply to build weapons. And this was written about 14 years ago, probably now it is 80%. It is a fact that in America alone they spend 1 billion dollars a day, 1.2 billion dollars a day on military. If they just gave the Krishna consciousness movement of what they spend in half hour of one day, we can build the most beautiful temples in the entire world. But of course they won’t even consider that, because that half hour is too precious to build tanks and nuclear bombs and equip the soldiers and so forth.
Mother Earth pleads for Krishna’s shelter for protection of her children
So here we find mother earth, she is coming, pleading taking shelter of Krishna – save me, save my children. Actually it is very similar, we know the story of Uttara, when Asvattama, he was the son of Drona, but he was acting in a very very demoniac capacity and threw his Brahmastra weapon at the child Pariksit within the womb of Uttara and the mother loves the child. The child didn’t know who Krishna is, the child didn’t know where to turn, and it was the mother that cried out Krishna save my child”. She knows that she will not be harmed but in helpless desperate love she just cried out for Krishna, “Please save my child, I love him, he is in danger and Krishna appeared within the womb, right before the eyes of Parikshit who was just a little embryo and when he saw Krishna the beauty and the mercy of this wonderful form of Godhead. First of all he understood that has Krishna saved my life, he brought me back to life. And not only that, how beautiful, how effulgent, how merciful. When he came out of the womb, he was simply interested in Krishna. And that was all by his mother’s mercy. If she did not call for Krishna, he would have just been an ordinary child.
So this is the responsibility of the mother and father, pita na sasyat janani na sasyat. When the child is in the womb, if the mother is Krishna conscious, if the mother is exposing the child to holy name, to association of devotees, to nice Krishna prasad, she is doing the same thing Uttara did. She is giving her child Krishna from her womb and when he comes out he is going to be looking for Krishna. But if the mother just lives the so called normal life in the world she is cheating the child, she is depriving the child of its real glory and joy – Krishna consciousness. So in the same way, that Uttara called out for Krishna, “save my child, he is about to be exploited by this demon”. In the same way, mother earth is approaching Lord Brahma. Because, she knows that Brahma has that direct connection with Krishna. She is approaching through disciplic succession. Even mother earth, does not approach God directly. What to speak of us, we want to God conscious directly! It is said in the scripture that you must understand God through the guru who comes in disciplic succession; even mother earth follows this principle. She approached Lord Brahma – “save my children, they are being exploited, by the demons of this world. Save them”. And of course, Lord Brahma feeling pity he called upon Lord Krishna, we are about to read by chanting the Purusha Sukta prayers, the demigods and by the meditation of Lord Brahma, they are about to invoke the sympathy and compassion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Krishna Consciousness is the necessity for human civilization
So somehow or other, Prabhupada is explaining, we must have the conviction within our own life’s that Krishna consciousness is not just something that we like to do but it is the absolute necessity for human civilization to exist with any values, any goals. It is the absolute necessity to counteract the condition of utter suffering in disgrace on every level – physical, mental and spiritual. Therefore Srila Prabhupada used to plead with us. He would beg his disciples, his followers, his congregational members; kindly help this great mission of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. It is the dire urgent need of humanity on this earth today. And what does it mean to be Krishna conscious? What he is talking about? He is not talking about simply joining a sectarian movement. He is explaining the necessity of adopting this consciousness and spreading this divine consciousness to others. And what is that consciousness? To learn how to live in harmony with the lost God, to learn how to love God, to learn how to serve God, to learn how to respect, adore and with all humility offer all the facilities of this earth in Krishna’s service. At the rainbow gathering in America people are very earth conscious because as far as they could see, they are not very transcendent but they are pious. They can see that as long as man is exploiting and destroying the earth he is destroying all the good qualities within and without. There is no chance of even survival. We were explaining to them that if you really want to truly be a good servant of the earth, you must understand what mother earth’s consciousness is herself that she is the eternal servant of Krishna, she is the property of Krishna she is the mother in the symbolic representation and Krishna is the father and she is a chaste and faithful wife. And like Sita, only way to please Sita is to please Ram, to bring her back to Ram. So everything that is on this earth, all the facilities that we have are provided by her and she has one pointed desire that all of these gifts that she is producing be offered to her beloved Krishna. That nothing be utilized for any other purpose except the service of the Lord.
Therefore Krishna consciousness- jivera svarupa hoye krishnera nitya das is to use everything in the service of Krishna is the ultimate philanthropic, ultimate spiritual, ultimate welfare on every level including ecology. All of these ecologists we are speaking about purifying the water and nourishing the earth and cleaning the air, it is all bogus and nonsense if they are not Krishna conscious. Why? They are just going to try to make everything clean and then what? Exploit that for their own sense gratification, without relationship to its source, to Krishna. It’s all nonsense. It’s all karmic. Therefore Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur used to say, there is only one problem in this entire creation-lack of Krishna consciousness. Where there is Krishna consciousness, automatically, naturally everything will be purified, everything will be respected and everything will be utilized for the glory of God and enlistment of humanity. But without Krishna consciousness, without understanding bhoktaram yajna tapasam sarva loka maheshvaram suhrdam sarva bhutanam jnatva mam santimricchati; Krishna says “I am the proprietor of everything that exists, and all things are meant ultimately for my satisfaction, my enjoyment and to be utilized in my service. All sacrifices are meant to be performed for my pleasure”.
Offer everything in Krishna’s service
When we understand this, only then can there be peace in our lives. Because without this we are living an unnatural way of life, even if we are in the mode of goodness, trying to make the world itself a very fresh, pure and wholesome, if we are exploiting those nice things for our own sense gratification, we are creating karmic reaction. We are still disgracing mother earth. Everything she is doing, she is growing it, she is manifesting it for Krishna and we are stealing it away and taking it for our own sense enjoyment. Is that the way the son to treat the mother? Son should assist the mother, in the service of the father. “Yes mother, if you are providing me these nice fruits, let me offer it to Krishna. Mother, you are offering this nice grain, let me offer it to Krishna”. This nice tree, Srila Prabhupada said that one of the worst offences in the whole earth is that man is murdering millions of trees, to use for paper, for pornographic and mundane literature. It’s confirmed. But at the same time, if that tree is used to print Srimad Bhagavatam, the Bhagavad Gita or some very very pure spiritual subject matter, that is the glory and love of that tree to give her body for Krishna.
Mother earth is providing so many resources, simply take whatever resources we have and offer it to Krishna. That is harmonious life. That is the life that leads to inner and outer prosperity. And that is Krishna consciousness and that is the great need in society. That cannot take place, unless we first change our hearts. Unless there is a change of heart, all the other changes are simply superficial, it’s just a show. It is like you can say to someone I love you, but in the heart if you hate them, what does it mean? What will that love accomplish? What joy will we derive from that? What service can be rendered in that situation? But if you actually love somebody in your heart, then my God! There is no greater joy, no greater pleasure, no greater service rendered in that condition until we learn to change our hearts, to become free from exploiting greedy nature, of exploiting the resources of God and our own mother. Until we learn how to love God and utilize and all gifts of God and the earth in His loving service, we are just part of this massive, corrupt, polluted problem. Therefore Lord Sri Krishna and all the great acharyas, they are all echoing the same message. And Krishna himself came on earth recently, only 500 years ago, to expound the same divine message. “Ceto darpana marjanam bhava mahadavagni nirvapanam“, the process of how to change your heart to live in harmony with God’s laws and God’s love. And that is to attentively chant the holy names of Krishna. Srila Prabhupada used to say that the chanting of Hare Krishna Maha mantra is the panacea cure for all the ills of the society. Because it creates the transformation and purification of the heart, where we could live in oneness, in oneness with the will of God, in oneness with the love of God. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
Questions And Answers
Is there any question?
Devotee: This is the question regarding yesterday’s class on Dr.Alva’s house.
Maharaj: Yesterday’s class, alright, go on, go on (laughing).
Devotee: This is regarding Maya, you said that Maya is so tricky that there is no chance if you are somewhat flickered, Maya is there to trap us out. And you have to see that we keep our strong vows in such a way that, you have to see all the things … I have a personal problem in such a way that, we try to see that our consciousness is completely engrossed in Krishna consciousness, with all strong vows and all sorts of things, we see that we engage ourselves in devotional service in the nine processes, whatever has been told. Yet Maya is there to trap us out. Now at that time, we do not try to deviate altogether, we try to follow whatever we can to the best of our abilities, we feel totally frustrated altogether, I do whatever I can, yet Maya is putting me down. At that situation what should I do?
Maharaj: Why are you blaming Maya? Maya’s job is to separate the sincere from the insincere. Do not give anyone entrance into pure bhakti unless they really want it more than anything else. So in this, Maya is actually our friend. Because she is protecting Krishna’s abode from insincere souls. And also, by her temptations upon us, if we are insincere we’ll fall into her wasp, but if we are sincere, we become stronger by passing the test. We’ll come closer to Krishna, much closer than if she had never tested us. So we should actually thank the Lord, because Maya is actually His energy, its not something separate. It’s His energy in this world. To make the devotees better the devotees and to make the rascal people better rascals. But eventually by suffering as a rascal long enough, they are going to want to become better devotees. So really she’s here to bring everyone back to Krishna. Immediately she’s here, immediately reason is take everyone away from Krishna, but actually, Maya is not so bad, she’s my friend, I don’t need Krishna so much. This will become ritualistic, superficial. Krishna wants you to surrender from the bottom of your heart to call out for His mercy. Unless you understand through experience and realization, of the power of Maya you will never do that. So actually she is helping you. Just like in athletics, sometimes the instructor or the coach, will just make you work so hard that you just drop in total exhaustion, you can’t do anything, you start saying what is this guy, what is he doing ? He’s crazy. I can’t even, my arms and legs are so soar, and I am so tired, I cannot do anything for weeks. But every athlete knows that the best coach is one who is so hard on them, that they torture them and make them suffer like anything. And the athlete who is going to be a champion is going to stay with such a coach, and the athlete who is just wants to be medium finds somebody who is lenient to him or very mild. So at the beginning, you say My God! Why are you doing this, you’re torturing me and everything else, but at the end, you thank him, because you made me great. Not in the same way, but in a similar way, Maya is testing us and torturing us to make us strong. If we are sincere, we will stay with Krishna. Actually its Krishna working through Maya. We’ll stick with Krishna by all means, by all costs, and we’ll learn how to be strong devotees. We learn how to really take shelter under any situation in life. Do you what the time of death is like? If you cannot tolerate the inconveniences now, the time of death is the most mortal painful situation conceivable. When the soul is being ripped out of its body, and all the attachments of all the things we have identified since time immemorial, its terrible experience, from the physical level, from the mental level. And at that time, we have to learn how to cry out for Krishna. That’s like the tournament, we have to train for that tournament, and if we want to come out successful we have to be willing to accept the most rigorous training, if that is what is required. For a devotee, Maya is simply training us. Krishna is simply, Maya adhyakshena prakriti suyate ca caracaram. Krishna is simply manipulating Maya in such a way that train us up, so that we can be very very very deep, internal, stalwart devotees of God. So we know how to cry out for Krishna, so that we know how to take shelter of Krishna, we learn how to surrender to Krishna. Especially, we understand the need. So when these situations come, Maya is doing two things, she’s testing your sincerity for Krishna consciousness to see whether you are worthy of this movement or not. I’m not talking about dressing, this is not the movement. I’m talking about the movement of the heart toward Krishna. There are many people who appear to be in this movement, but not in this movement at all. And there are many people who appear not all in this movement, but are really in this movement. Because it’s the movement of the heart towards Krishna. So she’s simultaneously separating the sincere from the insincere by her great tests and tribulations she puts upon us and she’s also giving us the opportunity to become strong.
Is there any other question?
Sukadev Maharaja, would you like to make any comments? He is the leader of Kurukshetra dham. Sukadev Maharaja was a fully licensed practicing doctor in America. He graduated in America; he had the world in front of him. You know, doctor in America, My God! With a graduation in America. He had incredible amount of money and prestige everything just standing and knocking at his door, begging to come in his life. Of course, we have many doctors who, they can best serve Krishna by being doctors, by living within society with family, that’s great. But there’s a need for everything. There’s a need for doctors of the soul too. He has brought hundreds of people to the lotus feet of Krishna. In his own humble and gentle way, he just wants to be the doctor of the soul. The people in this temple, there’s not single one of them, who are simply coming because they want free chapattis. 95% of our congregation, are devotees, who by the will of their Guru and Krishna, are maintaining their position in society and showing first class example, how to be Krishna conscious, to live in this world but not of this world, Raise their children in Krishna Consciousness, be responsible, offer their fruits of their action in the loving service of Krishna, spread the glories of the holy name in that way. But according to the sastras and according to all of the great acharyas, there’s also the need of some of this very very first class people of society to show the highest ways of renunciation. Simply to give every drop of their energy and life, to society, to bring them up, with no other distractions. Simply to learn the scriptures, very carefully and to present it and more than that, to present a life of utter simplicity and purity as an example of people to direct themselves.
We have here, Viswarup Pr, he’s a doctor, real doctor, and he’s doing wonderful service. There is Ashok Sethi, Hrdayananda, Nathji prabhu was just here, big industrialists, they are being industrialist for Krishna. There’s a need, there’s a dire great need for people. 90% naturally will stay in the grhastha ashram and be Krishna conscious and spread the glory of the holy name in that way. But for those rare few souls, who really want to renounce and surrender everything, simply for Krishna’s, simply to be the humble servant of all classes of men. That’s also a great contribution. Vrindavan Maharaja was a high posted banker in the State Bank of Maharashtra. He could be a wealthy man now. He sleeps on the floor and few pieces of cloth to his name and some tulasi beads. But if you go to Belgaum, there’s a doctor, there’s lawyers, there’s businessman by the hundreds who are chanting the holy names, who are living pure lives, why? Because he has separated everything else from his life, so that he can preach to them. Sukadev Maharaja, American doctor. Now, when he goes to the colleges, they call him Dr. Sukadev. They are correct. He’s doctor, he’s treating, and he’s dispensing the medicine of the Hare Krishna mantra to all the diseased hearts of this world Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
So in the real Krishna conscious society, everyone honors, recognizes and respects all the asramas and varnas. We do not think, nobody should think, I’m better than you. “I’m a grhastha, I’m responsible, I’m doing things in society, what you guys are doing, get a job, make a living, this is inferior. Everyone should be like me” Or sannyasis and brahmachari’s are thinking “We have giving up everything for Krishna and you people are just immersed in all sorts of sense enjoyment, you have your home, you have your wives, you have children, you have sex. It’s all Maya. You people are inferior, we don’t want to touch you, look at you or be anywhere near you. There’s this ego. The Christians say “If you are not a Christian you are going to hell”. The Muslims are saying “If you do not accept Muhammad as the seal of all prophets, you are going to hell, it’s the only way.” The Jews are saying that if you are Jew, you are a highly evolved soul; all other souls are low class. If you are not of our religion, you cannot attain understanding of the true God. And the Hindus, in Jagannath Puri, if you are not born in India, following Hindu tradition, you cannot come in our temple, because you are a low class mleccha, because you can never understand God in truth. You’ll certainly pollute the atmosphere. In this way, all religions are thinking, we are the best. Similarly the varnas, the grhasthas think,”We’re responsible, we’re doing good things in society, all these other people they’re just rejects. They’re just wasting their time”. And the Brahmacharis & Sannyasis thinking “Look at all these sense enjoyers, they’ll never go back to Godhead”. Associating with women and children and having jobs and talking about money all the time. Unless they join full time and put on saffron they’re all going to hell”. Everyone thinks like that. It’s all ego. Krishna consciousness society, real Sanatana dharma is to respect, adore and love what each and every living being can do for Krishna according to their capacity. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught like this. Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami, he told them take sannyas, go to Vrindavan, write books, establish temples and preach. Sarvabhauma bhattacharya, Ramananda ray, Sivananda Sen, Advaita acharya, Srivas Thakur they were all grhasthas will children and houses and jobs. Stay in your position, give a good example, and spread the glories of the holy name. Lord Chaitanya didn’t see difference between one and the other. They are both serving perfectly according to how they can best serve God, according to their nature, according to their inclinations. And therefore, if you read the Chaitanya Caritamrita, you see a book of just utter love amongst the devotees for one another. Because every devotee is thinking that every other devotee is better than me. The grhasthas should be thinking when they see the sannyasis and brahmacharis, “I am so attached. I wish I could be like them.”, and the brahmacharis and sannyasis should think, “If I was so responsible and expert like them, I could also have family and everything, but I am so useless, better I just stay like this”. In this way, everybody is taking a humble position and looking up to everybody else. And there is love, and there’s trust and there’s sweetness. And with this love, trust and sweetness amongst all the different classes of people, is what is going to attract people more than anything we say.
I don’t know how I got off-track, I just wanted Sukadev Maharaja to say something, he didn’t say anything, so I started saying. Are you going to say something or not (laughing), now that I have given a glorious introduction for you, you will really break their hearts if you don’t say something. Seeing Maharaja is worth… it’s said a picture is worth a thousand words, just by seeing his humility, he is speaking more than any of us. Srila Prabhupada ki jai ! Thank you very much.
