Sankarshan Das: Srimad Bagavatham, Fourth Canto, Chapter 17, Text 26.

puman yosid uta kliba

atma-sambhavano ‘dhamah

bhutesu niranukroso

nrpanam tad-vadho ‘vadhah

puman – a man; yosit – a woman; uta – also; klibah – a eunuch; atma-sambhavanah – interested in self-maintenance; adhamah – lowest of humankind; bhutesu– to other living entities; niranukrosah – without compassion; nrpanam – for the kings; tat – of him; vadhah – killing; avadhah – not killing.

Sankarshan Das: Translation and Purport by His Divine Grace Om Vishnu-pada paramahamsa parivrajakacharya ashtottara-shata Shri Srimad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Tridandi Goswami Maharaj, Prabhupad.

Translation: Any cruel person - be he a man, woman or impotent eunuch - who is only interested in his personal maintenance and has no compassion for other living entities may be killed by the king. Such killing can never be considered actual killing.

Purport: The planet earth is actually a woman in her constitutional form, and as such she needs to be protected by the king. Prthu Maharaja argues, however, that if a citizen within the state - be he man, woman or eunuch - is not compassionate upon his fellow men, he or she may be killed by the king, and such killing is never to be considered actual killing. As far as the field of spiritual activities is concerned, when a devotee is self-satisfied and does not preach the glories of Krishna, he is not considered a first-class devotee. The devotee who tries to preach, who has compassion upon innocent persons, who has no knowledge of Krishna, is a superior devotee. In his prayer to the Lord, Prahlada Maharaja said that he was not personally interested in liberation from this material world; rather, he did not wish to be liberated from this material condition until all fallen souls were delivered. Even in this material field, if a person is not interested in others' welfare, he should be considered to be condemned by the Personality of Godhead or His incarnation like Prthu Maharaja. (End of Purport)

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

mukam karoti vacalam

pangum langhayate girim

yat-kripa tam aham vande

sri-gurum dina-taranam

Sankarshan Das: So just see here this amazing compassion of Prahlada Maharaj. Prahlada Maharaj did not want to be delivered from this material world until all the fallen souls of this material world were delivered back to home, back to Godhead. So, this difference between compassion and non-compassion is being very clearly stated here by Srila Prabhupada. A devotee who does not preach the glories of the Lord is not considered a first-class devotee. But a devotee who has tried to preach who has compassion upon innocent persons who have no knowledge of Krishna, the superior devotee. So, this is actually Lord Caitanya's order. He wants us all to be preachers.

yare dekha, tare kaha ‘Krsna’-upadesa

amara ajnaya guru hana tara ei desa,

(CC Madhya 7.128)

whomever you meet, instruct them in the teachings of Krishna, and in this way, My order, you become spiritual master, deliver the people of this country. So, we have to take this order very seriously. We have to be compassionate. If we don't feel any compassion for the suffering souls, we are not very advanced in Krishna consciousness. We are simply greedy, thinking of our own liberation. But the true Vaishnava, he is very concerned to see that all the suffering souls of this world can be delivered. It's a horrible nightmare going on this planet right now. It's just unbelievably how bad it is. All the cows being slaughtered, all the babies being slaughtered. And now this crazy thing, it's an official policy now in the schools, you can choose your gender. You might be a boy or a girl, it's your choice, it doesn't base on your body, you can choose your own gender. I was shocked here in Texas, there's this idea that you can choose your own gender, you know. Like you're in school, you can go to the girl's locker room and the boy's locker room and the boy can go to the girl's locker room. He thinks he's a girl. I mean, it's ridiculous. It's like they have a boys’ team and a girls’ team. You can play in the other. If you're a boy you think you're a girl you can play in the girls’ soccer team. I mean it's so ridiculous. I can't believe it. This is official policy now. Can you imagine how crazy it's getting? I mean it's just unbelievable what's going on in this modern-day society. They're lower than animals. Dvipada-pasu, two-legged animals. That's all. Two-legged animals. So, we have to think what can we do? How can we preach in such a way? How can we push forward this Krishna consciousness movement in such a way that we can attract all these people. There is actually a higher taste here. Krishna consciousness is a higher taste. Actually, what is that verse if I can remember it?

bahya-sparsesv asaktatma

vindaty atmani yat sukham

sa brahma-yoga-yuktatma

sukham aksayam asnute,

(BG 5.21)

such a liberated person is not attracted to material sense enjoyment, but he is always in trance, relishing the pleasure within. In this way, such a self-realised person enjoys unlimited happiness, for he always concentrates on the Supreme. So, our happiness is not based on these material senses. Our happiness is based on what is called Krishna consciousness. So that is why you have this movement, the Krishna consciousness movement. So, we as members can be Krishna conscious and we can accept Lord Caitanya's order to make the whole world Krishna conscious. He's even predicted it's going to happen. That's an amazing thing. prthivite ache yata…. What is that? Prthivite ache yata… nagaradi-grama... As many towns and villages as there are throughout the entire world this Krishna consciousness movement will be spread. So, it is actually predicted that there is going to be a huge spiritual revolution inundating this whole planet. Or to speak of the universities, even the multi-universities. We are sitting in a very amazing moment in history. Lord Caitanya appeared five-hundred years ago. He spread this movement in India, then Prabhupada spread it all over the world. Now Prabhupada has given us the order. He said, become perfect in understanding the science of Krishna, become guru and deliver the world. That's your assignment, deliver the world. Not just make a living and have a happy family life. No. Our real business is to deliver the world. So how are we going to do that? Well, we have to become pure ourselves. That's the key. We have the power to deliver the world to whatever extent we deliver it ourselves. So as Prabhupada points out, he says, if one can chant the holy name of the Lord without offense, he becomes Jagadguru and under his influence the whole world takes up chanting Hare Krishna. So, each one of us should take our own sadhana, our own perfection of our consciousness very, very seriously and not be carried away by bodily consciousness, thinking I am this body, my happiness is based on this body. Our happiness is not based on the health or the sickness of our body. And there is that nice statement that one should not be happy or distressed over desirables and undesirables knowing that such feelings are just created by the mind. So, this happiness and distress is simply a mental concoction. Happiness and distress, happiness and distress. So, I'm happy about this, I'm disturbed about this. This is mental concoction. We have to come beyond the level of the mind and come to the level of self-realization. We are relishing the pleasure of serving Krishna and of giving Krishna and spreading Krishna's mercy to the suffering souls of this world. Like we sing every morning in the Nrisimha prayer, bahir nrisimho, hridaye nrisimho. May Lord, the Nrisimhadev dwell within my heart, killing all this dirt, all this garbage in my heart, all my sinful propensities, so my mind becomes completely clean and I can make the whole world Krishna conscious. So, we have a spiritual revolution, a two-sided spiritual revolution going on right now here in this International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Purify ourselves, deliver ourselves and deliver the world. So, it's really interesting how it works because the more you deliver yourself, the more you empower the world, the more you take of the activity of liberating the world, the more you become delivered. So that each side, each one feeds into the other. The more you focus on your own side, the more you become empowered to preach, and the more you preach, the more you become purified. We not only purify the world by preaching, we purify ourselves. So, we should work both ways, bahir nrisimho, hridaye nrisimho. The Nrisimhadev within, and the Nrisimhadev without. Revolutionized within and revolutionized without. In this way we can actually get free from all the sufferings and anxieties of material existence. And that's where we can kick depression in the face. Get out of here depression. I kick you in the face with boot. Get out of my heart right here right now. It's simply a mental concoction of bodily misidentification, mental misidentification, etc. So, there's really nothing to do except become Krishna conscious and spread Krishna consciousness. That is our only business actually. Do everything, we can to awaken our Krishna consciousness and to attract the people of this world to get Krishna consciousness. So, it's time to get serious, time to get really serious about being frivolous. Becoming very sober and understand this is my business here. I've gotten this human birth after millions and millions of forms in the lower species. There's eight million in the lower species, the plants, the animals, the worms, the germs, the demigods, some of these different species. Of course, the demigods may be considered in the four-hundred, but anyway, go to all these species and now we've got a human form. So, we have to take it very, very seriously, athato brahma jijnasa, and now you've got this human form, you must utilize it for self-realization. What does self-realization mean? I understand I am not this body; I am not this mind; I am not even the intelligence. I am simply the eternal spiritual being, qualitatively one with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

isvarah paramah krsnah

sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah

anadir adir govindah

sarva-karana-karanaam.

(Brahma Samhita 5.1)

Kṛṣṇa is known as Govinda, the Supreme Godhead. He is an eternal form, so the bliss analogy has no origin. He is the origin of all and He is the prime cause of all causes. So, we are qualitatively one with that Krishna where He is eternal emanation. We exist simply for the purpose of having a loving relationship with Him. We have no other purpose for our existence. So, we try to find some other purpose for our existence that puts us in a state of illusion and confusion. We can't actually taste the true happiness of our beings, our actual beings. So, it's very important we take advantage of the mercy of the bonafide spiritual master who is coming in the disciplic succession from Krishna Himself.

evam parampara-praptam

imam rajarsayo viduh

sa kaleneha mahata

yogo nastah parantapa,

(BG 4.2)

this supreme science was thus received in the chain of the disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. So, we just as the saintly kings understood it, we also need to understand it. We have been blessed by Srila Prabhupada's presence here. It is amazing, Prabhupada's presence. How he attracted so many thousands of young boys and girls to take up Krishna consciousness. It's just amazing being with Prabhupada, just to be with him is an unbelievable ecstasy. Just to be in his presence, it was like being with Krishna Himself. It was so powerful, his personal association. I remember one time I was there in Atlanta. We came up from Gainesville because Prabhupad was in Atlanta. He didn't come to Gainesville at that time. He came earlier to Gainesville. When I was there, he didn't come to Gainesville. He came to Atlanta. So, we all came up from Atlanta and the place was packed. There must have been two-hundred devotees. It was really packed. And Srutakirti, his personal servant, can you imagine being Prabhupada's personal servant, traveling with him, living with him twenty hours a day? Wow, what an amazing thing to be Prabhupada's personal servant. So anyway, I got as close as I could, the closer the better, as close as I could get to his body, right there. So, Prabhupad was sitting near the Vyasasana and I was on the right side, right up by the Vyasasana. And I looked across Prabhupad's lap and there was Srutakirti prabhu, he was on the left side. And I looked over shoulder Srutakirti prabhu. And he gave me the most beautiful, loving, wonderful smile. It was like he was flooding me with unlimited mercy. The beautiful, loving smile just flooded me and I realized he was like a mirror. And this mercy, this unlimited mercy was bouncing off Prabhupada and coming via Srutakirti upon me. So, in this way being with Prabhupada is very special. When I speak, I got my Brahman initiation. I got to be all alone in the room with Prabhupada, with this thread over my head. What mercy! And let me do the Gayatri mantra one word at a time. He'd say that word, I'd repeat. So, we have to understand the great power and potency of the bonafide spiritual master, that his presence is as powerful as Krishna's presence. So, by hearing Prabhupada's words, and the beauty of these books, you see, actually if we read, if we tune in these books with full love and devotion, reading these purports is as powerful as being right there with the Prabhupad himself. The Prabhupad is personally here. In these Bhaktivedanta Purports, his translations also, the Prabhupad is personally here. So, we just have to connect with him. But now, my Dear Srila Prabhupada, please bless me now I can be fully tuned in to you and my every thought, my every word, my every deed can be pleasing to you. Let me no longer act in some stupid way for some so-called sense gratification. Let me now work for Krishna gratification. Let me gratify Krishna, let me guru gratification, Krishna gratification. Let me gratify guru and Krishna by my every thought, my every deed in all times, places and circumstances. In this way I can enter into the sublime mellow known as what's it called? Krishna consciousness. I can enter that sublime mellow where I'm actually tasting the nectar of being in Goloka Vrindavan even while I'm here in Austin, Texas or wherever I am in the material world. I can actually experience the nectar, the Vrajavasis that are tasting right now in Krishna's presence just by tuning completely into Guru and Krishna right here and right now, kicking out all this nonsense, all this garbage that has been clouding my consciousness from millions and millions of births. I am the enjoyer of all I survey. I mean give me a break, Mayadevi. Get out of my heart, Mayadevi. Get out of my heart once and for all and never come back again. I now want to become so purified that I can see Krishna face to face right now, right here. Let me kick all this garbage out. Let me become fully empowered to see Krishna face to face. I'd revolutionize this whole material world. It's like Prahlada Maharaj wanted to do that. Let me become an instrument in the hands of the previous acharyas, fully empowered to deliver the fallen souls of this world back to home, back to Godhead. Let me fully embrace the world deliverance mission of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and all these great acharyas, the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya sampradaya. Let me embrace the world deliverance mood which has been passed down from guru to disciple, from Guru to disciple, from Guru to disciple, for thousands of years and it's predicted that now it's going to happen. This is a ten-thousand-year period now. It's predicted the whole world is going to become Krishna conscious. So, let's take it up seriously. Even Prabhupad said we can conquer the whole world. He said we can do it. He told one of his disciples that we can conquer the world. So, let's do it. So, conquer your mind by keeping it fully absorbed in Krishna consciousness and every nanosecond and 24 hours a day in all times, places and circumstances. The more we conquer our minds, the more we are empowered to conquer the world. To track these poor suffering souls who have been caught up in this horrible situation. Where are all these human populations right now on this planet? All got to make out of animals. All got into the animal kingdom. All these so-called leaders, so-called professors, so-called doctors and lawyers and all these people we even go to sometimes to get help in different ways are going down to the animal kingdom. Isn't it horrible? They are all going down to the animal kingdom. Even the garbage man, everybody is all going down to the animal kingdom. So, we should have mercy upon them by cultivating pure bhakti as our only business. So that will have an uplifting impact on this whole material existence, an uplifting impact on this whole material existence.

So, does anybody have any questions? If not, I have some questions for you all. My question for you all is this. How do you know that Krishna exists and He is not just a myth? Anybody say how they know Krishna exists and He is not just a myth? Some Hindu myth? Or some very talented poet who made all these Vedic teachings, this concocted thing. How do you know Krishna is real? How do you know Krishna is real? Do you know that He is Krishna is real or you think maybe He is real? Is Krishna real?

Local Devotee: I am convinced.

Sankarshan Das:  What convinces you that Krishna is real, that He is not a myth?

Local Devotee:  It doesn't make sense. If you take Krishna out of the picture, then the world doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. You can't explain the existence without Krishna.

Sankarshan Das:  So, the idea of God is that we can understand God by logic.

Local Devotee: To some extent.

Sankarshan Das: It is like every machine requires an operator. No machine can turn itself on. So, by logic we can deduce or say it is a supreme operator. But how do you know Krishna is that Supreme operator and not Shiva or not one of these people who claim to be God? How do you know that Krishna is the real God and not somebody else?

Local Devotee: Because God has to be all attractive. He has to be the most attractive in every aspect. That's what we mean by Krishna.

Sankarshan Das: How do you know that Krishna is all attractive?

Local Devotee: Because that's what Krishna means. The person who is all attractive.

Sankarshan Das: But the name Krishna, it means all the time, but how do you know He actually lives up to the name?

Local Devotee: Yeah, but see, the way I see it, Krishna, we can name anyone Krishna. There are so many people named Krishna in India, you know. But when we pray to Krishna, we are praying to that person who is not just named Krishna, who is actually all attractive.

Sankarshan Das: So, what exactly is meant by Krishna consciousness? That's a nice question. Krishna consciousness means to always think of Krishna. To always be totally devoted to Krishna with every thought, word and deed in all times, places and circumstances. So, what can this mean that Krishna is God? I had like a mystical experience actually. I was looking for self-realization. I went to this guru and that guru and it didn't work. Alan Watts said, actually you're God but you're playing hide and go seek with yourself. You just have to come out of hiding and be God again. I tried that and it didn't work. I tried Maharishi, his mantra didn't work. I was going ay, ay, ay, never lifting off the material plane. But then a friend of mine turned me on to this Hare Krishna mantra and I had a very mystical experience and I thought, wow, this is pretty amazing. I'm experiencing something Transcendental and in the Hare Krishna mantra I wasn't tasting this anywhere else. I'm actually feeling a lift off of the material plane. And then I went to the Denver Public Library, or my college library, forget one, Metropolitan State College, I got a little Bhagavad Gita and checked it out from the library and I found one verse, Krishna says, to offer Me with love and devotion, a leaf, flower, fruit or water, I'll accept it. I went, wow, this is amazing. I never thought this as a Krishna, I could give something to God and He would accept it from me. They never taught me this at St. Luke's Presbyterian Church. And then I got a picture, I found a beautiful poster in a gift store, of Radha and Krishna. And it was like I really felt their presence there and I could really feel their presence. I could feel how I was offering it, I was bowing down and offering my food and I could actually feel their accepting it. I got that, I could feel their presence, I could feel they were accepting it. So, for me it was a mystical experience. It convinced me that Krishna was God.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: I can ask you a question on that.

Sankarshan Das: Okay.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: That can be somebody can say that was your experience but my experience is different.

Sankarshan Das:  Well, I have to go on about my experience.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: Yes, so how can you tell others, they will say they are not experienced.

Sankarshan Das: I can say that I, ok, then Krishna speaks, I actually experience, I experience how the Bhagavad Gita was actually the words of God. I can experience that was the words of God. So, then what does God say?

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: I can say that the words of Bhagavata Upadhyayam, Krishna also says according to the modes, one experiences differently.

Sankarshan Das:  Krishna explains beyond the modes of nature, how to escape the modes of nature, how to act beyond the modes of nature. That's the whole Bhagavad Gita, how to get you out of the modes of nature. The modes of nature is contamination. Different kinds of contamination. Even the mode of goodness is contamination.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: In Bhagavad Gita Krishna says this….

Sankarshan Das: In Bhagavad Gita Krishna says, give up everything else and surrender unto Me. That's the conclusion. Chapter 18.

sarva-dharman parityajya

mam ekam saranam vraja

aham tvam sarva-papebhyo

moksayisyami ma sucah,

(BG 18.66)

abandon all their duties, fully surrender unto Me. I will deliver them of all your sinful reactions. You have nothing to worry about. So that's the final conclusion. Krishna said surrender unto Me. So, when you actually do that, then you experience how you are living beyond this material existence. You actually experience it, you live it. When you actually surrender to Krishna it is not some blind faith. You can say, okay, let's make an experiment. Bhagavad Gita, maybe it is some mythological thing, maybe it is the words of God Himself. So let me put it into practice and see what happens. Let me just try it, you see. Let me try. Just like when I was a kid in high school, the teachers said, students, H2O equals water. So, we didn't have to accept the blind. He said, okay now students, let's go down to the hall of the laboratory. We all had our chairs and it's a whole fancy thing, a laboratory there at Westbury High School in Houston, Texas. And we all got to do it. We had our test tube, we had hydrogen. We actually did it. I did it in my test tube. I combined two parts of hydrogen with one part of oxygen and low and behold, water. So, by taking the formula and applying the formula and actually experiencing the water, I knew the formula was correct. So, in the same way, the formula of how to become a self-realized soul is given in the Bhagavad Gita. And you say, well, it may be a bonafide formula, it may be a bogus formula. Let me just try it and put it in the laboratory, you see. Instead of a test tube, it's your heart, you see. Your heart is a test tube, you see. So just try following the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita and you will experience Transcendental awakening. You will experience your identity beyond your material body. That will actually happen. So therefore, we don't take Krishna consciousness on blind faith. We actually test it and we get our own personal experience of the reality of Krishna consciousness. So now we have another question. Yes.

Local Devotee: So, Gurudev, if we say that to someone, you know, this logical argument that by practice you can experience it, one could say that, okay, you know, you should also practice Islam or Buddhism.

Sankarshan Das: We accept Hazrat Muhammad as a pure devotee of Lord.

Local Devotee: Yeah, but they don't accept our acceptance as bona fide. Because to them Allah and Krishna are not the same. So, they think that we are mistaken when we accept Allah. So according to them…

Sankarshan Das: That means they don't fully understand the teachings of Hazrat Muhammad. They have an imperfect understanding of Hazrat Muhammad. Krishna Consciousness is not a sectarian religion. Actually, the perfection of Islam and Judaism and Christianity and Buddhism, Krishna Consciousness is the perfection of all religions. This is not another religion. This is the science of how to reconnect with the Supreme Person. You can do it as you like. I am a Christian. I became a perfect Christian. I haven't given up Christianity. I become a perfect Christian. Lord Jesus says, to Lord Jesus teach that we surrender unto God. It says, Father not my will, but thy will be done. Right there in the Lord's Prayer, Father not my will, but thy will be done. That's exactly what Krishna says, do what I want you to do. So, if you actually study in depth Christianity or Buddhism or any of these religions you will see the perfection of every religion is Krishna conscious. Become a perfect Muslim, become Krishna conscious. Perfect Krishna become Krishna conscious. Perfect Buddhist become Krishna conscious. Perfect Jew become Krishna conscious. You don't have to give up being a Jew, a Muslim, a Sikh, a Jain or a Buddhist, whatever. Now become a perfect Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Christian or Muslim. Here we have some more coming in.

Sacinandana Das: What to do when people call scriptures, mythology on office casual meetings?

Sankarshan Das:Interesting, they say it's mythology. Well, what if I say your office is a myth? Well, I say your office is mythology. This office doesn't really exist, this is mythology, mythological. This office that we're in is not really an office. It's not, it's just a myth, it's a myth. Our existence is a myth. We don't really exist; we just think we exist. This office doesn't really exist, it's just mythology. It depends on how they would say it and how they do it. I would say that you're calling the scriptures mythology, that is mythology. That's your mythology. For you, you may think it's mythology, but for me it's a scientific fact. You may say God doesn't exist, He's just a myth, but that's your myth. Your myth is that God doesn't exist, that's your myth. So, your myth is that the scriptures are... You're saying the scriptures are a myth, that's your myth. Okay, yes.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: That will lead into arguments. Unnecessary. So, do you want to debate or do you want to impress?

Sankarshan Das: It depends on how it's said. There are many different ways it could be said. I can't give you, if I was there in the office with you, I could probably answer your question better, but how it's said, the way it's said, the mood in which it's said, it's all many different factors that would determine how you would reply to it. You could just ignore it, not get into a debate over it, you could, depends on how it's said. Someone openly challenged you, they said, your Bhagavad Gita is this mythology. I just say, you have no proof. You have no proof it's mythology, it's just your belief. Okay, now we have the something coming else.

Visnurata Das: When sastras are read, daily incidents remind us of facts that match what was read. And faith sprouts in what was not experienced in today in day-to-day life.

Sankarshan Das: I could not understand Visnurata’s question. When sastras are read, daily incidents remind us of facts that match what was read. And faith sprouts in what was not experienced in today in day-to-day life. If one does so, is his faith to be called firm faith without his experience? I'm not sure I understand the question. Anybody else understand the question?

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: Say that again.

Sankarshan Das: Okay. Srila Gurudev. When sastras are read, daily incidence reminds us of facts matches with what was read in faith sprouts in what was not experienced in day-to-day life. I don't understand the question.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: When sastras are read, daily incidence reminds us of facts matches with what was read in faith sprouts in what was not experienced in day-to-day life. (reading Visnurata das question)

Local Devotee:  I think he is making a point here.

Sankarshan Das: If one does so, is his faith be called firm faith or not his experience? I don't fully understand the question.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: If you don't have firm faith, that means you are not subscribed in what was not experienced in today's life. But if you have to follow the formula, then surely one can experience. That's why the example was given that one should go to the chemistry experiment. So, formula is there. Whether it's available or not, the formula is given by the sastra. You must follow it and you get the experimental results.

Sankarshan Das: Next question.

Devotee: Is it correct to understand that if one sincerely takes the shelter of Guru and Krishna, then one will be protected by them from the unfavourable or offensive associations?

Sankarshan Das: Yes, this whole material world is bad association, it's offensive, unfavourable association. But by taking shelter of Guru and Krishna you are protected from the influence of bad association, but you will be protected to the extent that you actually take shelter of Guru and Krishna. If we take shelter of them partially, we are only partially protected, we will be partially contaminated. But when you take total, complete shelter, 100% with every thought, mind and deed, in all times, places and circumstances, you are always tuning in to pleasing Guru and Krishna, then you will be absolutely fully protected from all kinds of bad associations you may encounter in your daily life.

So, Vishnurata thanks, he understood. So, you answered him correctly, Devi. He understood your answer and he appreciate it. Anything else?

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: If you don't have an experiment, then you won't get the result and you will be doing it.

Sankarshan Das: Anybody else? Yes.

Local Devotee:Gurudev, I have an argument against the mythology argument. I would just like to know what you think about it. It's like when they say that, usually when they say that it's mythology, it's because they don't believe that humans existed that far back. But, like, history cannot be proven. So, if I tell them that when you say World War I happened, it's mythology, prove it that it's not, then they cannot.

Sankarshan Das: That's a good argument.

Local Devotee: Yeah, so history cannot be proven.

Sankarshan Das: They have newspaper articles.

Local Devotee: Yeah.

Sankarshan Das: They have newspaper articles describing Meroe Ward. Okay, but those are all just mythology too. Yeah, they just read it. Somebody made it up.

Local Devotee: They just read it and believe it.

Sankarshan Das: Yeah, that's an interesting argument.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: How do you prove all the textbooks? And the scientists? They love mythology. Because he is an imperfect person.

Local Devotee: I mean, even if I tell them that your description of the solar system is mythology, prove it to me. They will literally have to take me to space to prove it to me and they can't do that.

Sankarshan Das: Very good argument. Very good argument. Anything else? Anybody ready now to embrace pure devotional service as your only business in your all time, places and circumstances, where every thought, word and deed. Krishna, help us come to that level. Please help us, Krishna, come to that level where we fully embrace devotional service to the only business in all time, places and circumstances of every thought, word and deed.  Srila Prabhupad Ki Jai. Grantharaj Srimad Bagavatham Ki Jai. Gaura Prema Nanda, Haribol! Another one came in. All right. We will accept that.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: Ask them to say the question or write the question as soon as possible, not in the end.

Sankarshan Das: Okay. Take this as an add-on, but this is no more questions. This is the last one.

Devotee:  I always believe in willing to get the results of something. There must be faith on that path. Many see failures in others' performance, but on spiritual paths, why they do not come?

Sankarshan Das: It's due to bad association actually. That's why people are addicted to this, they are completely plugged in this idea that my happiness is based on sense gratification. That's why. They are addicted to material sense gratification. That's why.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: They have not put the formula perfectly well so they don't get the result.

Sankarshan Das: They have been taught about God but they take God as the order supplier. They haven't been taught properly the science of God. Therefore, they take Maya instead of Krishna. They were never trained properly. Okay, we'll stop here. Hare Krishna.