Srimad Bhagavatham 4th Canto, Chapter 17, Text 13

iti vyavasito buddhyā

pragṛhīta-śarāsanaḥ

sandadhe viśikhaṁ bhūmeḥ

kruddhas tripura-hā yathā

iti — thus; vyavasitaḥ — having arrived at the conclusion; buddhyā — by intelligence; pragṛhīta — having taken up; śarāsanaḥ — the bow; sandadhe — fixed; viśikham — an arrow; bhūmeḥ — at the earth; kruddhaḥ — angry; tri-pura-hā — Lord Śiva; yathā — like.

Translation and Purport by His Divine Grace, Om Vishnu-pada paramahamsa parivrajakacharya ashtottara-shata Shri Srimad A. C. Bhaktivedanta Tri-dandi Goswami Maharaja Prabhupada! Our saviour.

Having arrived at a conclusion, the King took up his bow and arrow and aimed them at the earth, exactly like Lord Śiva, who destroys the whole world out of anger.

Purport

King Pṛthu found out the cause for the scarcity of food grains. He could understand that it was not the people’s fault, for they were not lazy in executing their duties. Rather, the earth was not producing sufficient food grains. This indicates that the earth can produce sufficiently if everything is properly arranged, but sometimes the earth can refuse to produce food grains for various reasons. The theory that there is a scarcity of food grains due to an increase of population is not a very sound theory. There are other causes that enable the earth to produce profusely or to stop producing. King Pṛthu found out the proper causes and took the necessary steps immediately.

vande ham sri-guroh sri-yuta-pada-kamalam sri-gurun vaishnavams ca

sri-rupam sagrajatam saha-gana-raghunathanvitam tam sa jivam

sadvaitam savadhutam parijana-sahitam krishna-caitanya-devam

sri-radha-krishna-padan saha-gana-lalita- sri-visakhanvitams ca

nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale

srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine

namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine

nirvisesha-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine

So, when things are very simple also the earth can make it difficult. Right now things are very very sinful. What are we doing with the food grains? Feeding the cows and slaughtering the cows and eating the flesh. You can imagine how sinful this is. The cows are very motherly. After we finish taking the milk from our mother's breast, we take the milk from our second mother's breast, the cow's breast. So to actually kill your own mother and eat her, can you imagine how sinful this modern day civilization is? What's civil about it? Civilization is a misnomer, it's not civil at all. It's not civil. How can you say it's civil if they're killing their own mother? Is that civilization? It's disgusting.

So this Krishna consciousness movement is meant to bring life back to that place where life doesn't even exist. In fact they are just walking dead men in modern day so called civilization. Cow killers, babies.. and they kill the babies also, that's the next thing. Kill the babies too. Have sex, sex, sex, produce a baby, if you don't want to have a baby, just have sex, make a wife pregnant and then kill the baby. You see how disgusting it is. So in this way they totally lose their ability to connect with Krishna as the source of all existence, that Supreme Person. So whenever we ascribe from Brahma-Ji,

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ

sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ

anādir ādir govindaḥ

sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

Krishna is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Godhead, He is an eternal form, full of bliss and knowledge, He has no origin, He is the origin of all and He is the prime cause of all causes. sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam. So just imagine getting back to our original relationship. You see we actually exist. Everything that exists is this emanated energy.

eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭiṁ

yac-chaktir asti jagad-aṇḍa-cayā yad-antaḥ

aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham-

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

He is an undifferentiated entity. There is no distinction between potency and the possessor thereof. In His work of creation of millions of worlds, His potency remains inseparable. All the universes exist in Him and He is present in His fullness in every atom that is scattered throughout the universe at one and the same time. Everything that exists is Krishna. See, there is the expander Krishna and the expanded Krishna. It is all Krishna. The living entity is the expanded energy of Krishna. For enjoyment, for the enjoyment of rasa, if you are all alone, there is no enjoyment. If you have a relationship, that's why people like to get married, they like to have friends, fraternities, sororities, so many clubs and organizations. People like association, isn't it? We have ISKCON also, Association. That's where it becomes, that's when you can't have love if there is only one person. Love doesn't exist. Love means two, Krishna and you. There is only one person in all of existence. There is no scope for love. So how can there be happiness without love? So Krishna, to enjoy loving relationships, He expands an infinite number of living entities from Himself to enjoy an infinite variety of loving relationships.

Just imagine, you know, I remember back in my old brahmacharya days I was serving at ISKCON Gainesville. We were famous for the Prasadam capital of the world, actually. We were famous for the Prasadam. ISKCON Gainesville was famous for its Prasadam. And believe me on Janmasthami night we were all out. 108 preps. I mean it's really a feast. Wow. 108. 18 varieties of Halva. You know. I made the cheesecake. I still have that recipe actually. I still have that recipe of the cheesecake. O! the cheesecake. So there are so many varieties. So the more there is variety, there is more enjoyment. So there is an infinite number of varieties, then there is infinite enjoyment. So Krishna expands an infinite number of living entities for himself to enjoy an infinite variety of relationships. You see where there are five rasas, but within those five rasas there are infinite subdivisions. Within each rasa, conjugal, parenthood, friendship, service, neutrality, within each rasa there is an infinite number of subdivisions. Every single Jiva soul has a unique sort of flavor of relationship with Krishna. There is no two that are alike. There are no carbon copies in Krishna's existence. You are unique. You are unique. You are unique. Each one of you here today, you are all unique. There is nobody like you. Nobody can give the type of love, nobody can give the type of love that you can give to Krishna except for you.

So Krishna is missing you. I am missing that type of flavor. So I have to get that soul back. So Krishna comes.

yadā yadā hi dharmasya

glānir bhavati bhārata

abhyutthānam adharmasya

tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham

Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice and a predominant rise of irreligion – at that time I descend Myself. So Krishna comes again and then He comes again as Lord Caitanya in the Kali Yuga to give special blessings. Our Lord Nityananda is even more merciful.

hā hā prabhu nityānanda, premānanda sukhī

kṛpābalokana koro āmi boro duḥkhī

Lord Nityananda is giving unlimited bliss. Ha ha Prabhu Nityananda. My dear Lord Nityananda, I see You are always full of spiritual bliss. Please cast Your glance of mercy upon me so that I can also become ecstatic. I can come out of this miserable material consciousness of this somewhat miserable neophyte devotee consciousness where I am still going back and forth between Maya and Krishna, Maya and Krishna, bouncing back and forth, bouncing, bouncing back, Maya and Krishna, Maya and Krishna, Maya and Krishna. So my dear Lord Nityananda, please get me out of Maya where there is not even a tinge of material desire left in my heart. No lust, no anger, no greed, no madness, no illusion. Let me get it completely flushed all out, my dear Lord Nithyananda. We can beg Lord Nithyananda, please cast your glance of mercy and drive all the impurities out of my heart so I become a completely pure devotee. As Prabhupada told me, now you become qualified to see Krishna face to face. Let us come to that pure level of prema-bhakti, not even a tinge of lust, anger, greed, madness, illusion, envy. We are directly associating with Krishna at every minute, in regard to every thought, word and deed, in every time, place and circumstance, intimately connected in a loving exchange with him at every minute. That's called Krishna consciousness, isn't it? Or Krishna here is some kind of mundane religion like Hinduism. No, this is the science of reconnecting with that supreme force emanating from himself right now to have a loving relationship with you. That's why you exist. Not because your mother and father want to have a baby. That's not why you exist. You exist as an eternal living entity because Krishna wants to have a certain flavor of relationship that only you can give him.

So that's why this science of bhakti is the ultimate science. These other sciences are just here today and gone tomorrow. Chemistry, physics, so many things. Just like I studied chemistry in high school, we went to the laboratory and we learned that the teacher said, students, H2O is water. We went to the laboratory and we did it. 2 parts hydrogen, 1 part H2O, 1 part oxygen. Lo and behold, there was water in the test tube. So we have the same thing here because it is science. We say if you give your loving feelings to Krishna, if you give your loving service to Krishna, my Dear Lord, let my thoughts, words and deeds now be for your pleasure. Let's make an experiment. Well, maybe someone may say, well I don't know, maybe Krishna is just a myth. But these Hare Krishnas tell me that He is actually real and if I give my loving feelings to Him I will feel transcendental realizations within my heart. So let me just make an experiment. If Krishna were actually a real person and He wanted my love and I wanted to give it to Him, what would I do? Let me do an experiment. Experiment in consciousness, the science of Krishna consciousness. And if you do it, just like in the laboratory, we H2O, we got water. If you take your loving tendency which you apply to a dog or a cat or your country or this or that. I mean, we used to have a song, I remember, instead of loving a dog or a cat, why not love Krishna who made all of that? So just try giving your love to Krishna and see what happens. Just make an experiment. Cook an offering and put it before a picture of Krishna and say, My dear Lord Krishna, I want you to, this is for Your pleasure and Your satisfaction. Or you are just cutting some carrots or whatever you are doing. Are you giving a donation to help make a nice temple for Krishna? Why not do it as a loving offering instead of, I have this condition, I have that condition because I want to be the controller. No, if we want to experience bhakti we have to give up the tendency to be the controller and just be controlled. My dear Lord, now I put myself in your hands. You make me dance, make me dance, make me dance as you like. Not that I'm doing a service, but I have this condition, this condition, that condition. I'll cook the offering, but you have to do this, this, this, this for me, and this for me, and this for me, and this for me, and this for me. What kind of offering is that? That you're just going to serve yourself, you see. So we should not be in this mood of putting ourselves in the center. That is trying to be the controller. This is the biggest disease we have in the material world. We are trying to be the controller. That is why we are here in the cycle of birth and death. You know what your first birth was? You were Brahman. Krishna says you want to be the controller. Okay, here have a whole universe. That was the first, every living entity gets his first version of Brahma. He gets to have a whole universe, be a god of a whole universe, but he wasn't satisfied in that position. So he tried this and that and this and that through millions and millions of births. Maybe he's being a bird, maybe he's being a dog, maybe he's being a fish, maybe he's being a tree, maybe he's being a cactus plant, maybe he's being a mosquito. You know, we've tried so many things. We've been frustrated again and again and again. But now by the mercy of His Divine Grace, A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, We have the ability to get back to our original identity, to get out of this nonsense hallucination we're going through. Then if I'm with this body, I'm not just a body, I'm not a 75 year old man, I'm an eternal youth, qualitatively one with the Supreme Lord. He is eternal full of knowledge and bliss. I am also eternal full of knowledge and bliss.

The part and parcel is qualitatively one with the complete whole. Krishna is the complete whole. We are part and parcel of them, so we are eternal full of knowledge and bliss. So why are we misidentifying with matter and cursing ourselves to temporality, ignorance and misery? Isn't it stupid? Isn't it asinine? I like that word asinine. It means with the mentality of an ass. Hee haw, hee haw, running after the she ass. Isn't it? How stupid we are. How damn stupid we are to misidentify with the body and corpse, you see. When actually I'm an eternal spiritual being, I'm one of the associates of the Lord in His amazing pastimes. What am I doing here, rotting in the material world, trying to be the enjoyer in Austin, Texas, or Melbourne, Australia, or Houston, or Calcutta, or whatever they call it now. Why should I continue with this foolishness? Why should I continue with this? We should take advantage of the mercy of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and take these teachings that he has given us as our very life and soul. It is called Śāstra-cakṣus, one who sees through the eyes of scripture. We should see everything in terms of scripture, whatever it may be. My wife, my husband, my kids, my parents, my job, my income, my body, my health. See everything in relation to scripture. Don't see anything outside of the vision of scripture. When your eyes are bad you got to get glasses so you can see things properly. So our vision is there, we need the glasses of shastra. We have to see everything through the eyes of scripture.

And if you do that, you enter a good, wonderful awakening when you see through the eyes of scripture. You enter a wonderful awakening of the Unmatta body and the eternal spiritual being. And actually I get to participate in Lord Chaitanya's pastime and Srila Prabhupada, I get to participate in this great Vaishnava Acharya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and be part of his Leela. This is Prabhupada's Leela, the ISKCON is a Leela of Prabhupada, which is destined to take over the whole world. So I have either in our lifetime or in a future lifetime, this movement will completely flood the whole world. It is predicted.

Lord Caitanya is predicting.

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma

sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma

In as many towns and villages throughout this entire world, this Krishna Conscious will flood every town and village throughout the whole world. So we get to be the pioneers in the early days. Just like we studied in American history about the pioneers who came, the first pioneers who came to America from Europe. They're the great heroes, they're the pioneers. They were called the pilgrims. We used to study, oh they were great. We had Thanksgiving Day remembering the pilgrims. Thanksgiving Day remembering the pilgrims, so they gave thanks to God for their first big dinner. So we used to worship the pilgrims as great personalities, the pioneers of bringing this great nation, America. We're trained in this way as Americans. But the same thing is there for the Prabhupada. Even more so, he is a great pioneer bringing in this whole new era, the Chaitanya era. Lord Chaitanya introduced it before five centuries that stayed in India in a seed like state. Prabhupada now has taken it all over the world and he is planting the seeds of bhakti everywhere and the Krishna consciousness center is coming up in so many places. We have 30,000 people signed up for the e-course right now. And I just got 80 people yesterday, 80 new people came down. And one day 80 new people signed up. 80. That's more people than you have in the class. 80 people signed up. So we have a very exciting time. We're pioneers in bringing a new year to this whole universe. Bringing this new, this eruption, this whole tidal wave of Krishna Prem. We get into the pioneers, in the early days, it's hardly anywhere. Everywhere You got slaughterhouses, you got liquor shops, you got abortion clinics. It's horrible, this thing. We want choice. We want choice. They're picketing. We want choice. We want choice. As if it's some noble thing to be able to kill your baby, and it's a wonderful thing to be able to kill your child. We want that freedom of choice. What kind of nonsense is going on? It's horrible nonsense. So we have to take this movement very seriously because only this movement can actually put a stop to all this nonsense. The anti-abortion people, although their assignment is very nice, they are not going to be able to stop it. All these different movements which are trying to improve the situation, they are not going to be successful ultimately. But this Krishna Conscious movement will be successful in solving all these problems. Every single problem will be solved by this Krishna consciousness movement, including our own personal problems.

I get up in the morning and I'm like, wow, what's going on? Don't you become a Buddhist sometimes? Oh my God, what's going on? You become a Buddhist sometimes? Don't you become a Buddha sometimes? No you don't become the Buddha. Guri Mataji didn't become the Buddha. We become the Buddha. So we take this process seriously.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Come out of all this bewilderment. Say goodbye to bewilderment. Goodbye bewilderment. Have fun. Go to somebody else. You are not coming to me anymore. I am taking shelter of Guru and Krishna, my only business from now on. I am not going to let myself ever become bewildered ever again like Arjuna showed by an example.

kārpaṇya-doṣopahata-svabhāvaḥ

pṛcchāmi tvāṁ dharma-sammūḍha-cetāḥ

yac chreyaḥ syān niścitaṁ brūhi tan me

śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam

Now I am confused about my duties. I have lost all composure to miserly weakness. When you lose composure, that is how that is. I lose my composure. Why is it? Arjuna has told us that I lose my composure due to miserly weakness, not that somebody is mistreating me. It is due to my own miserly weakness. I am not seeing this as Krishna's mercy. Now I have lost my composure due to my miserly weakness, I am asking You to tell me clearly what is best for me now I'm your disciple and the soul surrendered to me, the soul surrendered to You, please instruct me." So that's the key. Instead of trying to be the Lord of all I survey, which never works. Even Brahma can't do it. Even Brahma can't pull it off. That's why he's given the Brahmas Samhita. Even he couldn't pull off being the Lord of all his surveys, when he has the whole universe under his control. But he realized this is nothingness. This nothingness.

veṇuṁ kvaṇantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣam-

barhāvataṁsam asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam

kandarpa-koṭi-kamanīya-viśeṣa-śobhaṁ

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, what is He doing? He is adept at playing on His flute. I mean He is the original musician. He is adept at playing on His flute with blooming eyes like lotus petals, head deck with peacock feather, His figure of beauty tinge with a hue of blue clouds and His unique loveliness is churning millions of cupids." So just imagine this great personality and the realization that Brahma had. So let us come to our own realization so we can have our own personal realization of Krishna, not just something in the book.

This is Brahma, had his own personal realization. That has become absolutely pure and perfect in our devotion. So we can have a personal realization of Krishna. We can personally realize and connect with Him and Feel His presence within every atom and between every atom. Why don't we come off the neophyte platform? You're struggling to get out of bed in the morning. Struggling to do my service in a cheerful mood. Thinking, Why do I have to do this? Can I just sleep right now? We have to learn how to conquer this damn mind. This damn mind is our greatest enemy. I tell you right now, the mind is our greatest enemy. It can be your best friend also if you engage in Krishna's service. So take your mind which is an enemy right now, I want you to enjoy the material world and say okay, that's it, now you're getting trained up, Bhakta mind. You have a Bhakta program, Bhakta program for the mind. Okay Bhakta mind, now you're going to chant 16 rounds, you're going to rise early in the morning, no illicit sex, no meat eating, no intoxication, no gambling.

So in this way, take this process seriously. Let's see if we have any questions coming in on the internet and from our locals here.

Sharda Devi Dasi, just like one is unable to connect with the Lord if the service is done without love, but with conditions, so similarly it is, yeah that happens, see, if I have conditions, I actually am doing this service but I want to be the controller, I want this, this, this, this, this, you have to arrange. If you want me to do the service, you have to do this, this, this, this, and this for me. It means actually you're trying to be using service as some way of lording it over, another way to lord it over. That's not devotion, that's business. If the service is done without love and condition, so similarly one may endeavor to obey the spiritual master but unable to feel the connection with him. This is some conditions in the subconscious mind and lack of love. So you're trying to obey the spiritual master but you're not feeling a connection with him. Why is that? It's called doubts. Well I think the spiritual master is just an ordinary man. There are doubts, you think he is just an ordinary man. We have to learn how to kick out those doubts. The spiritual master is not an ordinary man, He is an empowered representative of the line of Vaishnava Acharya going all the way back including Lord Chaitanya himself taking the role of an Acharya in that line of succession. So it is simply due to doubts actually, but you have to kick the doubts out with the boot. No, the spiritual master is not an ordinary man. He may appear to be an ordinary man, but because he was elevated by his spiritual master, the position of being his spiritual master, therefore I should not see him as an ordinary person. I should see him as an empowered representative of the disciplic succession and take his instructions as my very life and soul." This way, kick out skepticism from your heart. And then, when you kick out that skepticism, then you will start to feel that connection, that mystical connection through the spiritual master with the whole disciplic succession.

Krishna Prema Dasa. What should I do if I am able to experience bliss in Krishna consciousness.

Just try to give, instead of trying to taste bliss, try to give bliss, that's the key. The more you give bliss, the more you'll feel the bliss. Try to give pleasure to the spiritual master, try to give pleasure to the devotees, try to give pleasure to Krishna, try to give pleasure to Radharani, the more you give pleasure the more you will taste pleasure. If you just try to taste it you are being selfish. But if you try to intelligently understand the way to actually taste pleasure the more I am giving pleasure. Let me chant Hare Krishna in such a way that Krishna will go, Wow! That's so wonderful the way he is calling out My Name. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Try to give pleasure to Krishna. Try to give pleasure to your Spiritual Master. Try to give pleasure to the devotees you are associated with. In this way, the more you give pleasure the more you'll taste pleasure. If you decide to taste it, good luck, you're not going to go very far.

Pragya Nagpal. Is it okay to consume dairy products as prasadam?

Yes dairy products are very good.

I feel bothered that I don't know how the milk is obtained.

Yeah, the fact is that these rascal dairies are killing, they're milking the cows and they're killing them. That's a fact. It's a very abominable situation. If there are some devotees doing cow projection in your neighborhood, then you should buy milk from them, not the stores. But Prabhupada accepted milk from these stores that where the cows are killed. So we know it is authorized because Prabhupada himself did it. But the good news is when you accept the milk from that cow, That cow has been engaged in Krishna's service and that actually blesses that cow. Even though those rascals are killing the cows, those cows, their future is, the fact that their milk was offered to Krishna gives them an auspicious, a more auspicious future birth. So keep on taking that milk from the stores even though the rascals are killing. In Australia there is a dairy that doesn't kill the cows. We used to get that milk in Melbourne. What's that called?

Devotee: Mother cow dairy.

Sankarshan Das: Mother cow dairy where they don't kill the cows. These are non devotees but they have some pious credits. I understand not to kill the cows. So if you are in Melbourne buy mother cow dairy. If you are in Melbourne, Australia, all over Australia is Melbourne.

Melbourne, Sydney and Australia. If you are in Melbourne and Sydney, if you are in Australia, buy milk from Mother Cow Dairy. Our friend the devotees even better in the cow protection. The second best is Mother Cow Dairy. If you have no one else like here in Austin, we just give whatever we can get. We get nice organic milk and we offer it to Radha Damodar and it blesses those cows.

Okay now we have from Hare Krishna Das, if one takes a resolution to control the mind how one can know his own mind thoughts are from intelligence.

Hare Krishna Das, the mind is the one that does the thinking and the intelligence is the one that analyzes. And Intelligence is the analyzer. Should I think this or should I not think it? That's the intelligence. So you can also take a resolution to spiritualize your intelligence by seeing everything through the eyes of scripture to analyze what is good for my mind and what is bad for my mind not according to some sense gratification philosophy but according to the scriptures. Then you spiritualize your mind and your intelligence.

Anything else? Yes.

Devotee: In the same regard about the milk, So one of the vegan persons argued that even to get this milk you are making cows artificially pregnant. They don't want to get pregnant but you are making them pregnant so that you can extract the milk.

Sankarshan Das: Cows like to get pregnant. Cows love to get pregnant and have calves. That's their nature. They are happy to get pregnant and have cows and have the cows milk them, drink milk from their breasts. That's their normal happiness.

Devotee: The argument was that to run all these big big factories, to produce this mass production of milk, you need that constant supply of milk because the cow won't give milk after one year. So every year they have to produce babies so that the milk continuously comes for a number of years. So that means you have to...

Sankarshan Das: So they only give milk for one year and then they have another baby and they keep giving them milk? Yes. And then they kill the cows and eat them. If you protect the cows then you are in good shape. If you kill the cows you are in very bad shape. You have to give full protection to the cows. Actually a cow protection society would bring auspiciousness to that whole culture. Any society that protects cows would get very auspicious benefits from doing that.

Guru Mataji (Vishnu Priya Devi Dasi): Nitya Chandra can give you answers for that.

Sankarshan Das: Here we have Nitya Chandra, my cow protection disciple in Bulgaria. You should go visit him sometimes. Then I'll go to Bulgaria.

Guru Mataji: Nitai Chandra, do you kill your cows? Or do you... What do you do?

Sankarshan Das: Yeah, Nitai Chandra, tell me what do you do with your cows? We're going to unmute, let you speak up. Let me go to the... Let me go to the halfway. Tell us how you take care of the cows at your farm. Tell everybody how you take care of the cows at your farm. Unmute yourself and tell us.

Nitai Chandra Das: Hare Krishna. Srila Gurudev and Srimati Guru Mataji, please accept my humble obeisances. I am right now with the cows. I take them out to cow them in the close forest. And It's really very amazing. It's very sweet, all the cows. We put some bells to them, around 20 bells, and it's even more amazing. It's like an orchestra a little bit sometimes. It's a very wonderful service, I like it very much. It's very easy to remember Krishna with the cows.

Sankarshan Das: You have to come back to Bulgaria to see the Humanity Cow Protection Program again. I think we've been there once, haven't we?

Guru Mataji: We've been there many times.

Nitai Chandra Das: You have been here many times.

Sankarshan Das: How many times have we been there?

Nitai Chandra Das: 2009, 2010, 2011, and after maybe 2 more times, around 5 times at least.

Guru Mataji: How many cows you had in the beginning?

Sankarshan Das: How many cows you had in the beginning? You first started, how many?

Nitai Chandra Das: There was only one cow and after one month there was only two and gradually the number increased. Now there are a little less than fourty.

Sankarshan Das: Fourty cows, very good.

Guru Mataji: In the beginning, they didn't have any bulls, but they kept going out and raising them.

Sankarshan Das: They just go, left out

Guru Mataji: There were so many at one time.

Nitai Chandra Das: This year we have 11 small cows, even 12 small cows we have only this year. It's very nice.

Sankarshan Das: Very nice. We have another question that came in. Let me flip over to that.

Thank you very much, Nitya Chandra.

Another question came in. Okay, and we have from Gabriel in Lithuania. Is completing one's duties also service to Krishna?

We have, if the duties are Krishna conscious, we have a duty to chant our rounds every day, for example, offer all of our food. As far as material duties are concerned, you can spiritualize them. It is like, one may have material duty to take care of his parents, when they become old. It is the duty of the children to take care of the elderly parents. So you help them become Krishna conscious. You serve them Prasadam, you see. Your material duties can be spiritualized for the pleasure of Krishna.

Now we have Bhakti Sunil. How to cultivate equipoise attitude in material happiness and distress?

You have to see everything, sukha, dukkha, everything is coming to you is the mercy of Krishna to help you become more and more absorbed in His service. Whether it is material happiness or material distress, you can utilize it to become more and more engaged in Krishna's service. That is the key. See, everything is Krishna's mercy to help you become more and more absorbed in serving and loving Krishna. Anything else? Yes.

Devotee: In the beginning you said Krishna expands and, expands Himself and help you, like all these..

Sankarshan Das: The separated expansion, the integrated expansion, the different incarnations like Brahman, Narasingha, they are called integrated expansion. But the separated expansion, they are us Jiva souls.

Devotee: Yes, so in the sense like He wanted to expand to have a loving relationship, at the same time some of these expansions, separated expansions, they have come here, material world.

Sankarshan Das: That's because you can't have a loving relationship with a robot. That jiva has to have free will, to love me or leave me. Otherwise unless he can choose loving over leaving, there is no love, he is just a robot. So in order for love to exist there has to be the ability to leave also. Otherwise love cannot exist.

Devotee: So does this mean that His original purpose was that He wanted to have a loving relationship, but at the same time this Jiva has come here. So now He is unhappy in the sense like He...

Sankarshan Das: Now He comes as Lord Caitanya. That is His lament. He comes as Lord Caitanya to lament for Himself.

Devotee: But then isn't it like in the sense that you wanted to have a loving relationship but now you expanded so that 2 people when they come together there is always a difference And now 1 of them decided that, OK, I want to...

Sankarshan Das: Certainly Krishna is not very happy that you have fallen into material world. He wants you back. Therefore He comes and speaks the Bhagavad Gita. That's for you. Just like the Bhagavad Gita is for you. Krishna spoke it, actually He spoke it for you. Because He wanted us. That Bhagavad Gita is spoken for us to bring us back to that world. He wants us back and therefore He comes to speak Bhagavad Gita. yadā yadā hi dharmasya Again and again I come to this material world to track us and come back to be with.. He wants us back. Isn't it? So let's do it, let's get back, let's stop our little war of independence here, revolution, revolutionary war, independence here, I'm going to be independent, do my own thing, I'm going to be in charge, I'm going to be God here, everybody should do what I say because I'm God, don't they realize I'm God?

I'm not God, I'm not God, we are the servants of God.

jīvera svarūpa haya kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa. The constitutional position of living entities, the eternal servant of Krishna.

Another question that came in from Sharda Devi Dasi, Can skepticism be removed by hearing?

Yes, you have to hear from those who are speaking from Krishna Himself or those who are speaking strictly according to Krishna's teachings. If you hear from skeptics, you will maintain your skepticism. You have to hear from those who are completely free from skepticism and by hearing from those you will become free from skepticism. You have to see who you hear from. You have to hear from that place where there is no skepticism. From Krishna Himself, those who have absolute faith in the birth of Krishna, you hear from those persons and that will give away all your skepticism. Yes.

Devotee: Srila Gurudev, Why cow protection or so much stress in our movement? Is there any specific reason?

Sankarshan Das: The cow is very dear to Krishna. Goloka means, filled up with cows. Of all the animals, cows are very dear, don't you know Goloka Vandavan? Krishna is a cowherd boy. Don't you know? He is a cowherd boy. He grew up with the cows. That is his love. He loved the cows. He loved the gopis and the cows and the cowherd boys. Those three things. Jamuna also. So the cows are very very dear to Krishna. So we have to show Krishna that we love Him by loving the cows also. You can't be devoted if you eat hamburger. Krishna don't accept your so-called devotion. You have a hamburger on the way to the temple. Stop by McDonald's for a big Mac and go to the temple for the Sunday program. Krishna won't accept you. Krishna is not going to be very happy.

Guru Mataji: I have something here.

Sankarshan Das: Anything else?

Guru Mataji: Can I say something?

Sankarshan Das: Yeah, what?

Guru Mataji: I was just thinking that cow is not the only thing Krishna was... Krishna says, no,patram pushpam phalam toyam. You can't have any kind of meat. But cow is more because cow gives the milk for everybody's survival. So at least one can have a lower species, but not a cow. And even Bible says thou shall not kill. It doesn't specify any animals that you should kill. Period. Thou shalt not kill. But still they go on killing. Because you cannot give the life to anybody. What right you have to kill anybody?

Sankarshan Das: Another question from Leela Majari here. Being part and parcel of the Lord, do we naturally have a loving feelings for the Lord deeper than ours?

Yes. Every one of us have pure Prema bhakti buried deep, deep, deep within our hearts. Not an artificial, Prabhupada said, Krishna consciousness is a natural state, it's not an artificial imposition on the mind, it's the natural energy of the living being. We're all pure devotees of Krishna, but deeper than, simply covered by this lust, anger, greed, madness, illusion and envy. So this chanting of Hare Krishna washes away the lust, anger, greed, madness, delusion, envy. The more you chant, the more you engage in service, the more you hear, the more you serve, the more you take shelter of the spiritual master and God takes his orders of your life and so all these things cleanse the heart, wash away, wash away, wash away the dirt. And finally that day comes and all the dirt is washed away and you become fully awake and the pure love of God is within your heart and you can see Krishna face to face, eye to eye. It's like Brahmaji was able to see him face to face. premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena.

Anything else? Everybody is ready now? Yes.

Devotee: Srila Gurudev, In the beginning you said about the rascals killing the cows and abortions and everything. So for them to stop this, they have to have that transcendental knowledge. And that beginning is that they need to accept that we are not this body, they are spirit soul. So for a mass people how we can...

Sankarshan Das: Book distribution, Harinam Sankirtan, Prasadam distribution and preaching. It like an atheist man can came and I forgot the Prasadam, that was my mistake, the atheist man came yesterday and before he left he said, can you say Hare Krishna? He said, Hare Krishna. Do you know how much benefit he got? I thought may be the first time in his whole life he said he heard it before but never said it. But he actually said, Hare Krishna, like he knew, like he is familiar with it. He wouldn't something new, he heard about it before, he said, Hare Krishna, Do you know how much benefit he got from doing that? He may remember it for the rest of his life. So I said, Hare Krishna. I had such a wonderful feeling. See the thing is, book distribution, massive book distribution, Hari Nama Sankirtana, Prasadam Distribution, festivals. Just like now we have a book table coming up for the festival coming up next month. There is a Body, Mind and Spirit festival. We have a book table there. So we have disciples who are doing full time book distribution. So book distribution is the most powerful thing. Because they get it. It's touching them, these books, their lives become transformed. What to speak of reading one verse. These books of Prabhupada have a great power to completely turn world history right side up. So the more we distrubute, Harinam, book distribution, Prasadam distribution, we can actually, just like my e-course I'll tell you, so many people, 80 people signed up yesterday, one day 80 new people signed up. So we have to take every possible way we can push forward, push forward, push forward this movement.

yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa āmāra ajñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa.

That is the order of Lord Caitanya. Whoever you meet, instruct him in the teachings of Krishna and this way you become a guru and you deliver the people of this country. You are ordered to become a guru. Wherever you are. Right now in the US you should be a guru. You should be a guru here in Austin, Texas. That's the order of Lord Chaitanya. You go back to Melbourne, you be a guru in Melbourne, wherever you are. Wherever you are, be a guru in that place and spark off a global spiritual revolution in that country. That's the order of Lord Chaitanya, Krishna himself. So we have to take that, how can I think, speak and act in such a way to spark off a global spiritual revolution right now on this planet? How can I be thinking, speaking and acting right now to be an instrument for the deliverance of all living entities and material existence back to home, back to Godhead right now? That's the kind of purity we have to have and we have to cultivate. Whether you're working a job, whether you're a full-time preacher, whether you're a pujari or a cook, whatever you're doing, whatever your service is, how can I think, speak and act in such a way that I can be an instrument for the deliverance of every single Jiva soul in this material existence, back to home, back to Godhead, right now, this very nanosecond? That's the intensity of devotion we should have 24 hours a day. And if you have that mood, you will be blissful and happy. If you have that mood of how can I give Krishna to the fallen souls of this material world, deliver them, how can I be an instrument for their deliverance, if you are in That mood you are going to be tasting naturally 24-7? That naturally gets sweeter and sweeter and sweeter. Tomorrow you will go into that loving, serving mood, delivering the fallen souls mood.

Am I just hot air or do you think I am speaking the truth?

It makes sense. Does it make sense? According to the Prabhupada's books? You are damn right it is. I preach according to the Prabhupada's books. Because Prabhupada is the authority. My duty is to take Prabhupada's teachings and present them in such a way that the whole world will become attracted. That's how I see it. My duty is to take Prabhupada's teachings in such a way that instead of 80,000 people a day signing up, that's my goal. 80,000 people every day signing up for my e course.

Anything else? Okay, I guess we'll stop here. Thank you everybody for tuning in. Take this process seriously and your life will be unlimitedly sublime. I absolutely guarantee it.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare

Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.