Sankarshan Das: Srimad Bhagavatam, Fourth canto, Chapter 18, verse 9 and 10.

vatsam kalpaya me vira

yenaham vatsala tava

dhoksye ksiramayan kaman

anurupam ca dohanam

dogdharam ca maha-baho

bhutanam bhuta-bhavana

annam ipsitam urjasvad

bhagavan vanchate yadi

vatsam -  a calf; kalpaya – arrange; me – for me; vira – O hero; yena – by which; aham – I; vatsala – affectionate; tava – your; dhoksye – shall fulfill; ksira-mayan – in the form of milk; kaman – desired necessities; anurupam – according to different living entities; ca – also; dohanam – milking pot; dogdharam – milkman; ca – also; maha-baho – O mighty armed one; bhutanam – of all living entities; bhuta-bhavana– O protector of the living entites; annam – food grains; ipsitam – desired; urjah-vat – nourishing; bhagavan – your worshipable self; vanchate – desires; yadi – if.

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

Translation: O great hero, protector of living entities, if you desire to relieve the living entities by supplying them sufficient grain, and if you desire to nourish them by taking milk from me, you should make arrangements to bring a calf suitable for this purpose and a pot in which the milk can be kept, as well as a milkman to do the work. Since I will be very much affectionate towards my calf, your desire to take milk from me will be fulfilled.

Purport:  These are very nice instructions for milking a cow. The cow must first have a calf so that out of affection for the calf she will voluntarily give sufficient milk. There must also be an expert milkman and a suitable pot in which to keep the milk. Just as a cow cannot deliver sufficient milk without being affectionate to her calf, the earth cannot produce sufficient necessities without feeling affection for those who are Krishna conscious. Even though the earth’s being in the shape of a cow may be taken figuratively, the meaning herein is very explicit. Just as a calf can derive milk from a cow, all living entities - including animals, birds, bees, reptiles and aquatics - can receive their respective foods from the planet earth, provided that human beings are not asat, or adhrta-vrata, as we have previously discussed. When human society becomes asat, or ungodly, or devoid of Krishna consciousness, the entire world suffers. If human beings are well- behaved, animals will also receive sufficient food and be happy. The ungodly human being, ignorant of his duty to give protection and food to the animals, kills them to compensate for the insufficient production of grains. Thus no one is satisfied, and that is the cause for the present condition in today's world. (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, the present-day situation on this planet is very, as powerful as us, that's ungodly. There are people who say we should not abuse the cows; we shouldn't kill the cows. Even they don't have the proper understanding. They say, well, you should not separate the calf from the cow. Let the calf have all the milk. They say it's cruel to separate the calf from the cow. They don't realize that actually if the cow is sufficiently cared for with love and devotion, she is sufficiently fed, she has sufficient milk both for her calf and for the human beings. The human beings are actually meant to drink milk, it's not just for the calves. So, even the people who have some little piety who want to stop calculating, they still don't have the proper understanding of the Vedic conception. Give the cow sufficient food, sufficient love and devotion, she will happily give more milk than her calf can even drink. The calf can drink sufficiently, as much as it wants and still there is sufficient milk for the human beings. So, it's a great travesty of justice that we take the milk from the cow and then we kill the cow and eat her. What kind of a cow is our second mother? We take the first milk from our mother's breast and then our second mother is the cow. We take the milk from her breast also. So how we can kill our second mother? She gives us all kinds of nice milk, yogurt, sour cream, ice cream, ghee, curd, so many nice things, burfi, there's so many nice things we derive from the milk. Paneer, there's so many nice things we derive from the milk. How we could be so cruel and heartless to this animal who's clearly giving her milk for our enjoyment, for our nourishment. So, we kill her and eat her. So, this cow slaughter business must be stopped. We must close down all these slaughterhouses. This cow killing civilization is very, very asat, very, very, very asat civilization. That's one point we can understand regarding this verse today. Another point is because the Prabhupada also makes the point that all necessities are being withheld. They are all being withheld. We are not doing yajna, we are not doing sacrifice. In this age the yagna is the Sankirtan-yagna. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.It is a yagna for this age. So how many people are chanting Hare Krishna? Only a very, very small, small percentage of the human population is chanting Hare Krishna.

annad bhavanti bhutani

parjanyad anna-sambhavah

yajnad bhavati parjanyo

yajnah karma-samudbhavah, all living bodies subsist on food grains, produced from rains. Rains are produced from the performance of yagna (sacrifice), and sacrifice are born of prescribed duties. So, they are neglecting their prescribed duties. They are not doing yajna. And therefore, the rain is being withheld. There is so many droughts going on all over the world. And therefore, there are not sufficient grains. And as the Prabhupada points out, if there are not sufficient grains, they kill the animals and eat them. But actually, everything depends on the grains. The animals also eat the grains. So, to get the rain we have to do the yajna. We have to chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. We have to convince everybody around the whole world to chant the Hare Krishna mantra. The Sankirtana movement will bring not only spiritual perfection but also material happiness will be there. There will be proper balance of the brain and enough sufficient production of grains. And this way it is our mission actually to make the whole world happy by making them Krishna conscious. The difficulty is so wrapped up in sense gratification. They falsely consider the body to be the self. They don't realize they have a spiritual identity beyond their body. So, they base their whole happiness on gratifying the senses, the tongue, the belly, the genitals, etc. That's their whole basis of happiness. Therefore, the whole civilization is going down to the animal kingdom. The animals are simply in the platform of sense gratification. The human beings are meant to go beyond sense gratification. athato brahma jijnasa. Now you've got a human form, you're meant to utilize it for self-realization. You're not meant to use it, utilize it by imitating the ways of the animal, simply eating, sleeping, mating and defending. Human life is a very, very rare opportunity. We had to get out of this quagmire of material existence and get back to our original home in the spiritual sky. Actually, we are eternal associates of Krishna in Goloka Vrindavan and Lord Vishnu in the Vaikuntha planets, that's our original identity. We all have identities in the pastimes of the Lord, in the spiritual sky. So, what are we doing here, trying to deny God, saying there is no God, everything is void, everything is one. How can we be so foolish and how misguided it's due to bad association. We have bad leadership; we have bad teachers. It's like we see the teachers are atheists. We have these atheists; they are teachers and they teach atheism to the students. So, we are so much misguided that we can't even understand that there is a Supreme person, the source of all existence. They don't even use logic and intelligence to analyse things carefully. It's fanaticism, its atheism, it's fanaticism. I see that every machine has an operator. No machine can function without an operator. So, we also see this gigantic cosmic manifestation operates like a machine. So, this is every machine has an operator, this gigantic machine must also have an operator. How they can say that every machine requires an operator except for this gigantic machine. Is that intelligence? Is that scientific? It is foolishness, it is asinine to deny the Supreme operator. So, our Krishna Consciousness movement is meant to educate and enlighten everyone to use their intelligence. We have to have sufficient knowledge. From knowledge we can go to pure devotional service. If you understand things properly, then you can do the needful to achieve the proper result of this human form of life. If you don't understand things properly, you'll misuse your human intelligence for sense gratification. How to build skyscraper buildings, big freeways, you know, so much development, development, development of this so-called civilization. What's civil about it? How they can call it civilization? Is it civil? Animalization is not civilization. That's a big misnomer. They shouldn't call it human civilization. It's not civil. It's not peaceful. Real human society is God conscious.

isavasyam idam sarvam

yat kincha jagatyam jagat

tena tyaktena bhunjitha

ma grdhah kasya svid dhanam,everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself which have been set aside as his quota, knowing well to whom everything belongs. Do they care a fig about quota? No way. They want to get as much as they can. Grab, grab, grab, grab as much as you can. That's the movement. It's lust, anger and greed. The whole society is going on lust, anger and greed.

kama esa krodha esa

rajo-guna-samudbhavah

mahasano maha-papma

viddhy enam iha vairinam, the whole civilization is going crazy, lust, anger and greed. The naked dance shows, the tall buildings, the big factories, you know, pouring out all kinds of manufactured goods to gratify the senses of the materialists. This has to be put a stop to this nonsense. This is our duty. Lord Caitanya wants to put a stop to this nonsense. Lord Srila Prabhupada wants to put a stop to this nonsense. He wants to bring Krishna back to the centre of the human civilization. Then you have a real civilization. When you put God and Krishna in the centre, we have to put Krishna back in the centre. We have to understand Krishna actually is a centre, but we don't recognize it. He's already the centre. Everything is going in His direction and those who don't follow His laws or His instructions, they get punished actually. It's like here in the modern-day government, if you break the law, you can be arrested and put in prison. So, this material world is a prison house for all of those who are defying the authority of God. That's why everybody here is a prisoner. Even the demigods are highly placed prisoners, that's all. We're all prisoners here in this material existence. We're thinking, well, my happiness is to get a nicer cell. We get a nicer cell with a nice bed, you know. But actually, prison life is prison life, that's all. No matter how you look at it, you're a prisoner. It's not a happy position to be a prisoner, to be an inmate within the cycle of birth and death. I don't care how wealthy, how famous, how powerful you may be, but it's not a very nice position to be caught up in this hellish nightmare of material existence. Therefore, we have to become intelligent, we have to become sober, we have to become enthusiastic to revive our original enlightened consciousness which has been sleeping within our hearts for millions and billions of lifetimes. You have had pure Krishna bhakti within your heart for millions and billions of lifetimes. Even when you are an animal, even when you are a worm in a stool, you had Krishna consciousness within your heart. So now we have this opportunity and we have the greatest opportunity, we have been blessed by this great acharya, His Divine Grace Om Vishnu-pada paramahamsa parivrajakacharya ashtottara-shata Shri Srimad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Tridandi Goswami Maharaj, Prabhupada. We have been blessed by the mercy of this great powerful Vaiṣṇava ācārya to revive our Kṛiṣhṇa consciousness. So, let's not be stupid, let's not be foolish, let's not be atheline to continue going after sense gratification. Let's be intelligent now and kick out sense gratification. It's like YBandhu, he was formerly a king enjoying so much sexual pleasure with the herons but he realized, he gave it up, he realized this is nonsense, this sense gratification is nonsense, he became a sadhu. But sometimes he would remember those past, the past so-called pleasure pastimes with his herons and he would spit at the thought of such things.

yad-avadhi mama cetah krsna-padaravinde

nava-nava-rasa-dhamany udyatam rantum asit

tad-avadhi bata nari-sangame smaryamane

bhavati mukha-vikarah susthu nishthivanam ca Ever since I have been engaged in the transcendental loving service of Śrī Śrī Rādhā and Kṛiṣhṇa, relishing what? nava-nāva-rāsa, newer and newer pleasures, ever expanding ecstasy in that service. Whenever my mind happens to go back to those past days of so-called enjoyment of my heron my lips curl with distaste and I spit at the thought. So, we have to be good spitters. We all were previously engaged in sense gratification, to be good spitters. Any thoughts of trying to enjoy like that again comes back, spit at the thought, spit at the damn thought, get it out of my brain. bhajaju re mana sri-nanda-nandana, let my mind now be fully absorbed in the devotional service of the divine son of Nanda Maharaja. Let me come back now to our original duty to always be thinking about Krishna, talking about Krishna, worshipping Krishna, bowing down to Krishna, doing everything for the pleasure of Krishna.

satatam kirtayanto mam

yatantas ca drdha-vratah

namasyantas ca mam bhaktya

nitya-yukta upasate, always chanting My glories and endeavoring with big determination and bowing down before Me these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion. Bhaktya, that's the secret, that's the secret of success on the pathway of self-realization. Do everything with love, not mechanically, well I got to wash the pot, scrub, scrub, scrub, I got to get out of here. No, whatever service we are doing, let me do this with love and devotion. Krishna can see what I am doing right now, he knows what I'm thinking right now. Krishna sees everything I'm doing; He knows everything I'm thinking. So let me do everything in a way that pleases Krishna. Let me give this lecture in a way that pleases Krishna. Let me give this love and devotion to Krishna, give a lecture of His teachings that will please Him. Let me wash this pot in such a way that will please Him. Or put away these jewelleries in such a way that will please Him. Let me do everything with devotion. This is the secret. You see, you are rolling these straps here, do it with love and devotion. If you are hearing the lecture, do it with whatever, the key is bhaktya, with devotion. Whatever you are doing in any situation, it has to be Krishna conscious. I am not going to have to eat a hamburger for love and devotion. No. You have to follow the regulative principles. No illicit sex. I'm going to have some recreational sex with my wife and do it with love and devotion. No. I have to follow the regulative principles. No illicit sex, no intoxication, no meat eating, no gambling. I have to strictly follow the regulative principles and I have to follow the order of my spiritual master taking it as my very life and soul, not acting independently doing my own thing. What does my spiritual master want me to do, what does he want me not to do also? I have to think, speak and act in such a way that I am pleasing Guru and Krishna and the Vaishnavas and do that with love and devotion, not mechanically, with feeling, bhaktya, that's the key, that's the secret. We do everything with even taking care of bodily needs. And it's not me, but it's like you're driving the temple vehicle, it belongs to the temple, your service is to go somewhere, you are driving the temple vehicle, you have to take care of it, it belongs to the temple, you have to take good care of the vehicle, make sure you don't crash, make sure you don't run out of gas in the middle of nowhere, whatever, there is sufficient oil, you have to take good care of the vehicle, it belongs to the temple, you have to take good care of it. So, in the same way this body belongs to you, it is not yours, but it has been given to you by Krishna to use in His service. So, you have to keep your body in good condition, Keep it in good operating order as best as possible. Gets more challenging as we get old but still, even in all ways, Prabhupada was advised by one health care person to take walks for his health and he did that. He took that advice very seriously. He was regularly taking walks and we had so many recordings of Prabhupada's morning walk conversation. He was advised by a health care professional to take walks for his health and he took that advice very seriously and applied it because the body, you tell the body that this is an instrument given by Krishna, I have to take good care of it, so let me take this advice now to keep the body in good condition. So, in this way we have to see everything as a property of Krishna, utilize everything in Krishna's service and this way our minds become peaceful, become happy.

vita-raga-bhaya-krodha

man-maya mam upasritah

bahavo jnana-tapasa

puta mad-bhavam agatah, being freed from attachment, fear and anger, being fully absorbed in Me, taking refuge in Me, these great personalities became purified by knowledge of Me and they all attained transcendental love for Me. So, we have attachment, fear and anger, we can become free from these enemies of the soul, attachment, fear and anger and become fully absorbed in Krishna. Let me not be angry, let me see everything that is coming to me as the mercy of Krishna. Of course, anger is being used for teaching but it is not that one is overwhelmed by anger. Prabhupada used anger as a teaching tool to instruct us and correct us from our mistakes but it is not that he was overwhelmed by anger. he lost his intelligence and became overwhelmed by krodha-vegam, overwhelmed his intelligence. We can utilize these things, even lust can be used to produce Krishna conscious children. We should not become overwhelmed by lust or anger. We can use them in Krishna's service. So, in this way we become fully absorbed in Krishna, take complete shelter of Krishna, become very knowledgeable and read these books of Srila Prabhupada. Every day we must study these books. We should be memorizing verses. One tip that I recommend sometimes is have a sloka for the day. Every day take one verse, this is my sloka for the day. Today I'm going to learn this verse, pronounce it very nicely, recite it again and again, study the purport. That's my little tip for those who are looking for ways to become more absorbed in Krishna consciousness. Have a sloka for the day. Every day, this is my sloka for the day. I'm going to meditate on it and try to live in harmony with it, etc., etc., etc. So, this process is simple for the simple and difficult for the crooked. The reason we have difficulties is we see this in crooked mentality. I am the Lord of all I survey. That's called a crooked mentality, isn't it? Don't be a, what does crooked mean? It means a Crook. If you have a crooked mentality, you are a crook. You are a thief. We can't have a crooked mentality thinking I am the Lord of all I survey. Who are you to correct me? Don't you know I am God? Or I am as good as God. We have to become humble. Actually, the more one becomes mature in Krishna consciousness, the more he appreciates being corrected. Someone who is immature, they get all upset when they are corrected. It is like a little child when they are corrected, they may start crying, they don't feel very happy that they got corrected. But actually, when they become more mature, they will appreciate, oh my mother and my father they are helping me I will become more expert in doing everything in Krishna's service. So, the more we become mature we actually become happy and satisfied that I am getting the mercy of being corrected. I can help get rid of all these faults I have. Here I am full of faults. I am drowning in an ocean of faults. And here the devotee is putting out my faults to try to help me get out of this ocean of faults that I am drowning in right now. So, we shouldn't be angry when we are corrected, we should take it as a great blessing. But now I hear that a devotee who has enough love and compassion, they are trying to correct me to help me get out of this ocean of faults that I am drowning in. So, the Supreme Lord is so kindly manifested, He's even manifested a holy dham, Vrindavan dham, Mayapur dham, Jagannath Puri dham. The Lord is, these dhams are still present, you can actually go there and take the dust of the dham, you can bow down in the dust of the holy Vrindavan dham, you can bow down in the dust of Navadvip dham, Mayapur dham. We can actually go and take the dust on our head; it is non-different from Krishna. The holy dham is non-different from Krishna Himself. So, it is a very auspicious thing. We can take pilgrimages to the holy dhams and just breathing in the air in the holy dhams purifies you. Just by breathing in the air, just by seeing the holy dhams, it's a great blessing. So, we should take advantage of this wonderful kindness of Krishna and Guru and give up our foolishness, you see. We should all take very seriously this process of Krishna-prasadam.

yajna-sistasinah santo

mucyante sarva-kilbisaih

bhunjate te tv agham papa

ye pacanty atma-karanat, the devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food which has been offered first for sacrifice. Others who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment verily eat only sins. So, we have to eat every day, isn't it? Keep our bodies healthy, so we have to make sure only to take prasadam. We should offer with love and devotion. My dear Lord, let me make this offering to you, a very nice offering, very beautifully situated on the plate, decorated with tulsi leaves. My dear Lord, please bless me, I can make this offering to you in such a way that You are pleased with this offering. So, the more we can please Krishna, the more that prasadam will be potent for Him delivering us from this material existence. Prasadam is very potent here in Austin. One boy, he thought the Simply Wonderful were pretty delicious. He ate a whole bowl of them and he surrendered. He shaved off and put on a saffron robe and became a brahmachari. He had a whole bowl of simply wonderful. His love was there and he gratified by having a whole bowl of simply wonderful and he submitted and became a brahmachari and initiated by Prabhupada. A whole bowl of simply wonderful. So, this prasadam is simply wonderful. This process is simply wonderful. Actually, Prabhupada onetime said, he said, Prabhupada said, he will eat that wonderful sweet. Tell him that it's simply wonderful, he said. You haven't heard this before? Yeah. Prabhupada said, he will eat that wonderful sweet, he will come to your temple and he will become simply wonderful. Krishna is simply wonderful, prasadam is simply wonderful, and then Prabhupada said, and you are all simply wonderful. And then one devotee said, Prabhupada is simply wonderful. And Prabhupada said, that's all right, have kirtan. So, this process is simply wonderful and if you take this process seriously, you are also simply wonderful. The Prabhupada said you are simply wonderful. But don't become puffed up, I'm simply wonderful. The way to be simply wonderful is to think I am simply terrible. That is the way to become simply wonderful. Lower than the straw in the street, ready to offer all respect to others but expecting even the slightest tinge of respect for oneself. In such a state of mind one can chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, 24 hours a day, non-stop. So, the more I feel I am lower than the dog stool in the street, that’s how one becomes absolutely wonderful. The more I feel I am simply terrible, I am a horrible despicable wretch, asuram bhava I am a demon, the more you can feel yourself low, the more you become glorified in the eyes of Lord Krishna and the great Vaishnava acharyas. So that's why to become corrected is a very great blessing and helps us become more humble. I realize I am imperfect; I make mistakes and now I have to get out of this mistaken sort of mistake in committing consciousness I'm locked into for millions of births. The fact that I have this human body right now, this material body means I made a mistake. The symptom of being, of making a mistake. I shouldn't have a material body, I should be in my spiritual body, but I made a big, big mistake of thinking that I wanted to enjoy separately from Krishna. That was my big, big mistake. So, we had to follow the pathway of these great acharyas, these great Mahajanas, that they deliver us to save us. We had to learn how to follow the example of these great personalities like Srila Prabhupada.

yad yad acarati sresthas

tad tad evetaro janah

sa yat pramanam kurute

lokas tad anuvartate, whatever the great man does the common people follow. Whatever action he performs the great man, the common people follow. Whatever standard he sets by exemplary acts the whole world pursues. So, such great personalities like Srila Prabhupada, they are empowered to actually liberate the whole world. They are empowered to liberate the whole world by their example of pure Krishna consciousness, pure Krishna bhakti. Anybody who gets connected, even if they purchase one of these books, even if they read one word, it has a great blessing upon their lives, even reading one word of these books. There is such power and potency in these transcendental literatures. These are not ordinary books. These books are non-different from Krishna Himself. We take advantage of these books and follow these books, distribute these books, observe our lives fully in these teachings, it will have a powerful revolutionary impact on the whole material existence. As is stated Narada muni told Pundarika in the Itihasa-samuccaya,

janmantara-sahasresu

yasya syad buddhir idrsi

daso ‘ham vasudevasya

sarval lokan samuddharet, after many many births one realizes that he is the eternal servant of Krishna, Vasudeva, he can deliver all the worlds. So, a great personality like Srila Prabhupada can not only deliver this universe, but every single universe throughout the entire material existence. That's the power and potency of a great personality like Srila Prabhupada. So, we have to learn how to become empowered representatives of Srila Prabhupada, purely transmit by our actions, by our thoughts and by our words purely represent Srila Prabhupada in every conceivable way, 24*7, become ideal examples of Srila Prabhupada's teachings. If we can learn how to do this, we will become a liberated soul even within this material existence. What is that verse

yo ‘ntah-sukho ‘ntar-aramas

tathantar-jyotir eva yah

sa yogi brahma-nirvanam

brahma-bhuto ‘dhigacchati one who is happiness within, who rejoices and is active within, and whose aim is inward is actually the perfect mystic. He's already liberated in the Supreme and he ultimately attains the Supreme. So let us learn how to do that. What does it mean to put your aim inwards? It means to see Krishna within everything and everything within Krishna. To be focused. In this way, everything is totally absorbed in the Krishna consciousness full, whatever you are doing, because this whole world is actually Krishna's energy. There's not any place where Krishna is not present. He's everywhere. He's with everything. He's even in the power that lights the houses and heats the houses. That power is also Krishna. So, we have to see how Krishna is everywhere, in the light of the sun, in the light of the moon, in the healing herb, in the sound of ether, in the ability of man, in the taste of water. We have to learn how to experience Krishna within everything and this way always remain absorbed in Krishna consciousness, looking and keeping our aim inward to that Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, who is blessing us unlimitedly every minute with His smiling lotus face, beckoning us, come home, why are you suffering here in this material existence, you poor suffering soul, why are you suffering here? Come back, come back, come back to My home, come back to your home. So, Krishna is there always begging us to come back.

So, Let's see if we have any questions. Any questions come in yet? Let's see. Yes, here's a question from

Lilamanjari: Please accept Hare Krishna, Srila Gurudev. Please accept my humble obeisances. One cannot do one's service properly unless one has controlled one's senses.

Sankarshan Das: Yes, that's true. If your senses are out of control, you won't do your service very nicely. Your mind will be somewhere else. It won't be fixed on the service. You say, when can I get out of here? I was asked to wash these dishes. I'm not going to get out of here and go take a nap. The service is only here at night. You have to sense that to be in control and then you can serve nicely.

Any questions from the local devotees here? Everybody satisfied? Any criticisms? You Gurumataji any criticisms? You are an expert at criticizing me? You have some criticisms for me today?

Srimati Vishnupriya Girumataji: What do you mean by I'm an expert in criticizing?

Sankarshan Das: Yeah, you're an expert.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: Criticism means...

Sankarshan Das: You need to put out the faults.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji:  What is the meaning of criticism?

Sankarshan Das: It means to put out the faults.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: Criticizing is pointing out the faults.

Sankarshan Das: It's what's called constructive criticism. It's a positive thing. It's a positive thing. It's a term called constructive criticism. It's a positive thing. Somebody is helping me if they criticize. But now they show me the fault of what I'm doing, it's actually a blessing.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: That is different. But criticism is one thing.

Sankarshan Das:That's what I was talking about, not some negative thing. Constructive criticism.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: The way you presented it, it looks like I'm a nature of criticizing everybody?

Sankarshan Das: No, no, I don't know.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: The way you presented it.

Sankarshan Das: I'm sorry if I made any sense. I didn't mean to. I'm just welcoming anyone's criticism. I can point out some fault in what I said so you can correct me. Welcome it. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that. I'm sorry if it came out that way. Please forgive me. Okay here we have

Gujarita:  Hare Krishna, Srila Gurudev. Some devotees are vegan and don't use milk from the shop. Should we also follow that or drink violence milk and use it for prasadam?

Sankarshan Das:Actually, yes, the fact is that milk is violence milk. By offering, these poor cows are being abused. But here is the insider secret, when you offer that milk to Krishna, that cow is blessed. So actually, you are blessing the cow, even though they are being abused, and in one sense you say I am supporting the abuse by buying that milk so I shouldn't do it. Actually, ideally, we should have our own, we do have some places our own dairy, it's like my disciples there in Bulgaria, they have their own farm and they're keeping the cows. That's the ideal thing. Ideally, we should have our own farms and our own cows, we are taking milk from our own protected cows, that is the ideal standard we should work for. But in the meantime, Milk is actually required for proper good health, for developing finer tissues in the brain, etc. Milk is actually required for a healthy human being and milk is favourable for our Krishna consciousness. So, we should take that milk, even though it's coming from the rascals who were killing the cows, but those cows are becoming blessed. Prabhupada accepted such milk from the professional, the commercial dairies. Prabhupada took that milk. So, since Prabhupada did it, I know it's not improper to do that. I'm doing the same thing that Prabhupada did. We're doing the same thing that Prabhupada did. If we take milk from the store and offer it to Krishna and drink it.

Any other, any other, yes?

Local Devotee: Gurudev, you mentioned that Krishna consciousness has been dormant in our hearts for billions of lifetimes.

Sankarshan Das: That's correct.

Local Devotee: So, we also hear that Guru, Krishna survived by the mercy of Guru and Krishna one gets the seed of devotional service. So how do we understand that it is innate but at the same time we are getting the seed by the mercy of Guru and Krishna?

Sankarshan Das: The seed of awakening. It is already there. The seed means it is being awakened. It is not that it is not there. It is there. You have it dormant within your heart. But the seed, bhakti means, it is like a flipping the switch to turn it on, and the seed turns it on. Not that it's not there, it's already there. You are in everyone's heart. So, the analogy is confusing you because you are thinking about the seed means it's already there. It's not there but it's only in the sea. That's where you're being confused by the analogy. We don't get confused by analogies. We take what Prabhupada actually said and base it on what Prabhupada said, not on some analogy.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: It's not analogy. It's just that here we can see that earth is presenting that she is holding the seeds. When she is going to distribute, so our seeds are there. Seed of bhakti is there. We need somebody to wake it up.

Local Devotee: Hm, okay.

Bhakti Manjari Devi Dasi:  Sometimes we are unable to offer bhoga to Krishna like when one is traveling long distances or in some other unexpected situation we have to eat and how should we do? We do not eat at all or should we pray to the Lord and take the food?

Sankarshan Das: Actually, you have to offer. When we travel, we take prasadam with us, we don't eat the airplanes, we bring our own prasadam with us. So, if you make proper arrangements, you bring your own, bring your own prasadam, so you are not stuck. If you know you are traveling somewhere, bring your own prasadam. But if you are in a situation where there is no alternative, and you brought your prasadam and somehow it got lost and you don't have it. So, you have to eat something but you have to offer it to Krishna. The best thing in that situation is don't eat anything cooked by the non-devotees. Take some fruits, some raw fruits, raw vegetables and offer them. That's the best thing. Just take some nuts. You take things cooked for the non-devotees, it's not very good, not very nice to offer to Krishna. So just avoid the situation as much as possible. If it's an absolute emergency, you may have to do something. It's a matter of life or death, but if you properly manage things you don't have to face that situation.

Anything else? Look at the verse again. Look at the verse again. The verses again. O great hero, protector of living entities, if you desire to relieve the living entities by supplying them with sufficient grains and if you desire to nourish them by taking milk from me, you should make arrangements to bring a calf suitable for this purpose and put a pot in which the milk can be kept. So, the milkman can do the work because since I will be very much affectionate towards my calf, your desire to take milk from me will be fulfilled. So, we should allow, going back to the cow protection, we shall allow the cows to have an affectionate relationship with their calves. We shouldn't just take it as some machine giving us milk. We have to understand that here's a mother and here's a mother's child. We have to give full facility for that child and the mother to have that loving relationship. It's a very important thing. Cow protection has to be brought back. It's actually very disturbing. Think about how they're killing the cows. We have all this milk, so many milk products in the store. We get the milk and it's very disturbing to consider how the situation is coming from. So, we have to pray that Krishna please bless us, our dear Lord Krishna, that we can close down these slaughterhouses as soon as possible to save these poor cows from being abused, horribly, horribly abused.

Mahaprabhu Kripa Devi Dasi: In Bhagavad Gita it says, for the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next. So whenever doubt appears what is the best way to redirect it to Krishna consciousness.

Sankarshan Das:Krishna is the destroyer of doubts. Doubts are demons and Krishna consciousness is the destroyer of all doubts. If you have any doubts, you should read Prabhupada's books or inquire from an advanced devotee who can help you get over your doubts. One should inquire until one's intelligence is fully satisfied. We have so many doubts. We should inquire and inquire and inquire until all our doubts are erased. Doubts are demons that keep us caught up in the cycle of birth and death. So, we must keep inquiring, inquiring, inquiring, inquiring until all our doubts are erased. So that's very nice you've asked this question. So, we have to inquire and reading Prabhupada’s books, hearing Prabhupada’s lectures will also do tremendous work to wipe the doubts out of our hearts.

Anybody have any doubts they'd like to bring forward? Any doubts? Do you have any doubts? Or you free from all doubts? Is everybody free from all doubts? Here we go, another question.

Hare Krishna Das: Kindly enlighten, is serving the cows, as for monetary gain and that milk is used by devotees, devotional service.

Sankarshan Das: If we are doing cow protection programs and we are lovingly serving the cows, treating them nicely, letting them have a nice affectionate relationship with their calves, and giving more milk than the calves can drink and we can even utilize for our personal service to the Lord, we could sell the milk and use that money for devotional service to serving Krishna. But I don't know, considering how many ways we can use milk. And I have more milk we can even use. It seems like an unlikely scenario. We can make burfi. So many things we can do.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: Who is asking that question?

Sankarshan Das: This is Hare Krishna Das.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: Is he keeping the cows?

Sankarshan Das: Are you keeping the cows, Hare Krishna das?

Hare Krishna Das: We don’t….

Sankarshan Das: Cow protection is not done for money. We don't make a money making... Prabhupada never told us to make a money-making business out of cow protection.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: If he doesn't have cow, why he is asking such questions.

Sankarshan Das: Prabhupada told us to make money by book distribution, that's about how he told us to make money, By preaching and engaging people in devotional service, not by cow protection.

Vishnurata:  Is cow milk has only an understanding or even assimilating spiritual knowledge also?

Sankarshan Das: Well, it's not that you get spiritual knowledge just by drinking, of course if it's prasadam you do. By taking prasadam you get spiritualized, your whole consciousness is spiritualized. By chanting Hare Krishna, by taking prasadam, prasadam milk will spiritualize your intelligence, is it not? But non-prasadam milk is good for your health but it is not going to give you spiritual realization. Prasadam milk will give you spiritual realization, spiritual intelligence, spiritual knowledge.

Anything else? Yes.

Local Devotee: So, Gurudev, Prabhupada many times mentions that the basis for economy should be milk and grains or cow protection and grains or something. And then we also see…

Sankarshan Das: Yeah, but that was not a money-making business. That was for the maintenance that you have a community. Instead of buying milk, the farming community is based on self-sufficiency. It's called self-sufficient farming. They don't need to go out to the store to buy groceries.

Local Devotee: I was speaking in terms of varnasrama dharma, because vaisyas are the ones that have the responsibility for cow protection. And they are the business class.

Sankarshan Das: Yeah, there are two types of vaisyas, cow protectors and businessmen. They are both types.

Local Devotee: But they also barter with butter and ghee because there is so much of it.

Sankarshan Das: If there is extra more than they can utilize in Krishna's service, yes, it can be done. The Prabhupada never told us to make a money-making business out of cow protection. The Prabhupada never told us to do that. Book distribution is a money-making business and preaching, cooking, donations. He never said to make a money-making business out of making milk and sell it. He told us to utilize milk in Krishna’s service.

Local Devotee: So, Gurudev, I have a question. There are so many devotees around the world like ourselves, that if we had the option for ahimsa milk or ahimsa ghee or ahimsa dairy products, we would buy it in the store even if we had to pay a higher price. So, if a devotee, there is something like that?

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: There is not the system that devotees are doing. They are paying the karmis as the cow is taking care of the souls and then they get milk from them. And they request that the cows, if they are not able to give them milk, don't feed them.

Sankarshan Das:  Satisfied? Doubts?

Local Devotee: No. 

Okay, we'll take Sharada Devi dasi then.

Sharada Devi Dasi: Does the attitude of gratitude help in focusing on the mind and in Krishna's service?

Sankarshan Das:  Absolutely. The attitude of gratitude to see everything is coming as a special mercy of Krishna to save me from this material existence. Even if it is in the winter and you have a power outage and there is no heat and no light and no electricity, The key is to see it and take it with an attitude of gratitude that Krishna is reminding me that this material world is not my home. Instead of being disturbed by it, which is easy to do in our neophyte state, you get all disturbed, I have no heat, I have no electricity, I have no light, I can't do anything, I can't do my preaching now, my online preaching is dead because I have no internet. Instead of being all disturbed and frustrated and miserable, take it with an attitude of gratitude that this is Krishna's mercy to help me realize this is not my actual home. My actual home is Goloka Vrindavan, Radha and Krishna, the Transcendental pastime. That's where I actually belong. So let me take this, take everything that comes with an attitude of gratitude. Even now I'm dying, you see. Even now I'm dying. The doctor just told me I have three more weeks to live, and my body is giving out, and it's all finished now, so I should have an attitude of gratitude. Well, this is Krishna's mercy. I've been preparing my whole life to go back to Godhead and now it's time to get ready to head out. Take a look. Take this old age disease and death with attitude. Oh, death is coming. ki Jai. Take it with an attitude of gratitude. Now death is coming. That means going back to home, back to Godhead. Just like my disciple in the Ukraine, she said, when the missiles come, I'll take them as Krishna. The Russians are shooting missiles all over the Ukraine to kill the people and wipe out apartment buildings. And she's prepared, the missile comes, I'll take it as Krishna's mercy. Krishna is not coming, in front of the Russian missile. So that's kind of an attitude of gratitude.

Bhakta Sunil: I understand that there are 2 types of milk A1 and A2.

Sankarshan Das: I'm not familiar with these 2 types of milk A1 and A2. All I know is low-fat milk and full milk and low-fat milk that's the only ones I know. I don’t know about A1 and A2.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji:  A1, A2, this and that, vegan, this, that, it's just a making business.

Sankarshan Das: Money-making business, some hype. A1 milk, A2 milk.

Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: They say A2 milk is good. It's coming from this special cow in Britain. It's just a money-making business.

Sankarshan Das: A money-making hype. Yeah, we take whatever milk we can get, we use it in Krishna's service. Because Krishna likes milk. And milk is very good. Actually, the standard was in ISKCON, Hot milk prasadam in the evening is the standard of the Prabhupada established for us. Hot milk in the evening. Hot milk in the evening. Everyone would take hot milk in the evening. That was the old standard at ISKCON. Hot milk prasadam in the evening.

Okay anything else? Everybody is ready now to take everything with an attitude of gratitude? Whether I'm chastised or whether I'm glorified, take everything with an attitude of gratitude. Everybody ready? Or not? Bhakta .. is ready. Okay. Let everybody follow the mood of Panchatattva who is ready to take everything with an attitude of gratitude. So, we thank everybody for tuning in. 

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. 

Srila Prabhupada ki Jai.