Srimad Bhagavatam -04.20.01 and 02, 2023-16, Austin

maitreya uvāca

bhagavān api vaikuṇṭhaḥ

sākaṁ maghavatā vibhuḥ

yajñair yajña-patis tuṣṭo

yajña-bhuk tam abhāṣata

Synonyms

maitreyaḥ uvāca — the great sage Maitreya continued to speak; bhagavān — the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu; api — also; vaikuṇṭhaḥ — the Lord of Vaikuṇṭha; sākam — along with; maghavatā — King Indra; vibhuḥ — the Lord; yajñaiḥ — by the sacrifices; yajña-patiḥ — the Lord of all yajñas; tuṣṭaḥ — satisfied; yajña-bhuk — the enjoyer of the yajña; tam — unto King Pṛthu; abhāṣata — said.

Translation

The great sage Maitreya continued: My dear Vidura, being very much satisfied by the performance of ninety-nine horse sacrifices, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Viṣṇu, appeared on the scene. Accompanying Him was King Indra. Lord Viṣṇu then began to speak.

ŚB 4.20.2

śrī-bhagavān uvāca

eṣa te ’kārṣīd bhaṅgaṁ

haya-medha-śatasya ha

kṣamāpayata ātmānam

amuṣya kṣantum arhasi

Synonyms

śrī-bhagavān uvāca — the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Viṣṇu, spoke; eṣaḥ — this Lord Indra; te — your; akārṣīt — performed; bhaṅgam — disturbance; haya — horse; medha — sacrifice; śatasya — of the one-hundredth; ha — indeed; kṣamāpayataḥ — who is asking pardon; ātmānam — unto yourself; amuṣya — him; kṣantum — to forgive; arhasi — you ought.

Translation

Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, said: My dear King Pṛthu, Indra, the King of heaven, has disturbed your execution of one hundred sacrifices. Now he has come with Me to be forgiven by you. Therefore excuse him.

Purport

In this verse the word ātmānam is very significant. It is a custom among yogīs and jñānīs to address one another (or even an ordinary man) as one’s self, for a transcendentalist never accepts a living being to be the body. Since the individual self is part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the self and the Superself are qualitatively nondifferent. As the next verse will explain, the body is only a superficial covering, and consequently an advanced transcendentalist will not make a distinction between one self and another.

Now the amazing thing is that all those offenses came into now begging forgiveness. This is a good point. In our association of devotees, sometimes we commit so many offenses. We should always be in the mood of begging forgiveness. Not that we should go on 1 offense, another offense, another offense, another offense, another offense. And we couldn't have sensed it. We should be very much in the mood of begging forgiveness for our offenses. That's my very last point. Another point is we're not the material body. Another point is that King Prithu actually satisfied Lord Vishnu even though he didn't hit the 100. Because his sincere endeavour to hit the 99 he was very much appreciated by Lord Vishnu.

So the point is we want to please Lord Vishnu or Lord Krishna. This is the purpose of our existence. Actually we exist for that purpose of pleasing Lord Krishna. That's why we exist. This is actually called divine love. And this is where everybody is running after love. It's a very popular thing, love, love, love, love, love, running, running, running, running. The difficulty is because that love is not selfless. That love is tuned with selfishness. In other words, it's lust. Because they don't find that pure love, that divine love, that pure love they're hankering for in this material world. Everybody is frustrated actually. Everybody is miserable here because they are not finding that divine love they are actually seeking within their heart of hearts. They are all hankering for that divine love, that pure selfless loving relationship with Krishna, the spiritual master and the Vaishnavas. They are hankering for that divine love but they don't find that divine love. Therefore there are so many cases of even murder. The so-called beloved, they murder their so-called lover. Divorce, murders, there is one thing after another. So many problems of the so-called love in this material world.

kāma eṣa krodha eṣa

rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ

mahāśano mahā-pāpmā

viddhy enam iha vairiṇam

"The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world."

So we have to learn how to give up this lusty tendency. I am the enjoyer, I want to be the enjoyer, I want everyone to satisfy me. We have to give up this lusty tendency, I want to be the enjoyer, and take the mood of being the enjoyed. Instead of taking pleasure I want to give pleasure. This is the mood, the transcendentalist, they are not interested in sense pleasure. It is like Krishna explains,

bāhya-sparśeṣv asaktātmā

vindaty ātmani yat sukham

sa brahma-yoga-yuktātmā

sukham akṣayam aśnute

Such a liberated person has no interest in material sense pleasure but he is always entranced relishing the pleasure within. In this way the self-realized person enjoys unlimited happiness, so he always concentrates on the supreme. Doesn't everybody want unlimited happiness? Isn't that what we actually desire, unlimited happiness? But We cheat ourselves by trying to find that happiness in sense pleasure. This is our great foolishness. We try to find that pleasure in sense pleasure, either subtle or gross, keeping ourselves as the center of enjoyment.

There's a gross sense pleasure and there's a subtle sense of pleasure also. I'm going to be the worshipped person, the person everybody appreciates. I want to be the appreciated person. It's subtle sex life. I want to be the center of enjoyment. But we should take the humble position, lower than the straw in the street. Being ready to offer all respect to others and not expecting even the slightest bit of respect for ourselves. That is the mood in which we can go on chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, 24 hours a day in a state of total unlimited bliss. We have to learn how to get out of this horrible entanglement of unlimited anxieties and enter into that world of transcendental bliss, enter into that divine world of spiritual happiness. We can taste happiness in every second, in every nanosecond, relishing the sweetest ecstasy in the pure loving relationship with Krishna, spiritual master and Vaishnavas.

The difficulty is because of this selfishness, you see. We don't perform yajna. What is the yajna for this age? In this age the yajna is the Sankirtan yajna. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. That's the yajna for this age. But they don't do the yajna. What's the problem? They don't get the rain. It's like here in Texas now. There's not enough rain and now the rice farmers are downstream of the Colorado River. They're not being allowed to take any river water. They're not getting enough river water as they normally get, it's being held back. Whatever little water is there, they're keeping it for the city of Austin. See, but here we have all these lakes. We have all these lakes, Travis Lake, so many lakes that accumulate water coming down the Colorado River. But there is not enough water coming down the Colorado River, only enough in the city of Austin, so they are not releasing downstream as much as the rice farmers need. Now the rice farmers have great difficulty to grow their rice. Just like Krishna said,

annād bhavanti bhūtāni

parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ

yajñād bhavati parjanyo

yajñaḥ karma-samudbhavaḥ

'All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajña [sacrifice], and yajña is born of prescribed duties.'

So we subsist on grains like rice, we subsist on grains like rice and other grains. And now they are produced by rains and the rains come by yajna, by chanting Hare Krishna. Actually all over the world there is water shortage because they are not chanting Hare Krishna mantra. Even if they don't want to become pure devotees, just for the sake of economic development, just for having sufficient food to eat, people should start chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. But these fools and rascals think it's just some cult, some brainwashed cult. They don't realize the science behind the rains. The Rains come because of the yajna sacrifice. The chanting of Hare Krishna mantra produces rain. They don't know this science. They are caught up in all this so-called science. There was a big bang, everything came out of the explosion. I mean it's so ridiculous. This is not science.

Science means things as they are. 2 plus 2 equals 4, that is science. You say 2 plus 2 equals 5, that's not science, that's nescience. So What they are teaching in the so-called science courses in the universities, the science books, all the scientific reports, it's not science, it's nescience. We have all civilization based on nescience instead of science. We're just saying be scientific, you fool. Stop being ignorant, become scientific.

Try to understand who you actually are. Why do you have a sense of identity that goes all the way back to when you were a little baby, even though the body is completely different. Try to use a little intelligence, a little common sense, my dear PhD. Try to use a little intelligence, a little common sense. You can remember that as you were a little kid, or you're riding the tricycle around the block, you can remember that. And then you graduated the bicycle and then the car, you can remember all these things my dear scientist. The body is completely different.

Try to see the self remains the same through all the changes of body and even at the time of death the self remains the same.

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin

nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ

ajo nityaḥ śāśvato ’yaṁ purāṇo

na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre

'For the soul that is never birthed, nor dead, nor having ever been as he once ceased to be, he is unborn, ever existing, undying, and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.'

But unfortunately they are not reading Prabhupada's books. These books should be required reading in every school. The kids should be reading Krishna books. And you know, at least in junior, they are introducing Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam in all the schools and colleges throughout the whole world. You can't get a degree unless you have learned in Prabhupada's books. That should be the standard for education. You are not qualified for a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, a PhD, unless you have mastered Prabhupada's books. That has to be the required reading now in every school and university throughout this entire planet. Because by understanding this science and absorbing yourself in devotional service, then you can relish and realize great ecstasy. What does Krishna say?

na hi jñānena sadṛśaṁ

pavitram iha vidyate

tat svayaṁ yoga-saṁsiddhaḥ

kālenātmani vindati

'In this world, there is nothing so sublime and pure as transcendental knowledge. Such knowledge is the mature fruit of all mysticism. And one who has become accomplished in the practice of devotional service enjoys this knowledge within himself in due course of time.'

So they should not only teach theoretically Prabhupada's books, they should also engage the students in devotional service. That way you can actually realize it. Just like in the schools, in the high schools, they teach the students, my dear students, H2O was water. And then they take them down to the laboratory and let the students actually do it. The students actually combine 2 parts hydrogen with 1 part oxygen and lo and behold what appears in the test tube, water. So then it becomes realized knowledge. Oh, actually, if not just some theory I actually did it in the test tube and water came. So in the same way they should teach bhakti yoga, not just theoretically but actually engaging the students in doing devotional service. They should have kirtan. Every day in the school there should be a kirtan. The whole school has a kirtan together, a big Maha Sankirtan. Every day at the school. They all go to the auditorium and they have one big kirtan, the whole school has a kirtan. And that's the beginning of the day.

So this is how we have to introduce Krishna consciousness, the theory and the practice of Krishna consciousness in every town, in every village throughout the whole world. Lord Chaitanya told us to enlighten all of them in every town and village. This is our duty.

yāre dekha, tare kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa

āmara ājñāya guru hañā tāra' ei deśa

'Whoever you meet instruct them in the teachings of Krishna and this way on my order you become a spiritual master and you deliver the people of this country.'

So we are all meant to be spiritual masters, we are teachers of the science of Krishna consciousness. By our example and by our words we should be leading this world out of chaos. Prabhupada told us to deliver the world. This is the duty we have to make this whole world Krishna conscious. We have to be ideal teachers of Krishna consciousness ourselves. We have to give up all of our bad habits, our laziness, our craziness, our assinine-ness. We have to give all this up and become ideal Acharyas. Like Krishna says,

yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas

tat tad evetaro janaḥ

sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute

lokas tad anuvartate

'Whatever action a great man performs, common men follow. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues.'

That's pretty amazing, the whole world pursues it. So we have to become ideal teachers of Krishna consciousness. By our actions and by our words we inspire people to come forward and surrender and become absorbed in devotional service. That should be our example. We should be ecstatically absorbed in chanting, dancing, and feasting and serving. Ecstatically absorbed in these things so that others will go, wow, this person is relishing so much nectar, how are they tasting so much like a succumb, just like that verse says, he relishes unlimited happiness, for he always connected to the Transcendental Supreme. How can anybody be so happy? I've never seen somebody so happy in my whole life. So let me learn how to become happy like this. Sometimes we have, sometimes there's confusion and delusion going on amongst the devotees and they get carried away by a little false ego. We think, oh this person is such a rascal, why are they telling me like this? They are rascals. But This happens sometimes because we are not very advanced in Krishna consciousness. Somebody corrects me and I think they are a rascal because they corrected me. But actually I should understand I am a rascal. The more you can feel that I'm a rascal, just like that prayer by Gopinath, a materialistic rascal, I'm always full of lust. That's how Bhaktivinoda is praying. So Bhaktivinoda is praying that he's a materialistic rascal, always full of lust. So if he can think he's a rascal, what should be our position? So instead of finding fault with someone who corrects me, oh there is such a rascal why is he correcting me? We should think I am a rascal.

You take that mood always thinking I am a rascal, number one. Then you can actually learn how to dive deeply into Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, great knowledge. How much nectar is there in these 2 syllables. How much nectar is available? Unlimited nectar is available in Krishna. Unlimited nectar. So we have to learn how to connect with that nectar, how to bring our minds back. I get these devotees, there are so many devotees having difficulties. I know because they are writing me, I get all these letters, all the difficulties the devotees are having. They are not able to control their lust, They are overwhelmed by their senses. This only happens because of forgetting Krishna. Only happens, we only get bewildered by lust and anger and greed when we forget Krishna. We have to keep bringing the mind back, bringing the mind back, bringing the mind back to Krishna.

yato yato niścalati

manaś cañcalam asthiram

tatas tato niyamyaitad

ātmany eva vaśaṁ nayet

'From wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the Self.'

That is where the mind belongs. The mind belongs to the lotus feet of Krishna. It does not belong in roaming here and there in sense gratification. The mind does not belong roaming around the material world looking for a little gratification here, a little gratification there, no. The mind belongs here. We don't need any artificial intoxication, some marijuana or some methadrine, we don't need any artificial intoxication to find satisfaction. We just need to come to Krishna. This is called divine intoxication.

The so called material intoxication actually makes it worse. Because we are trying to titillate the senses, we are trying to find happiness by titillating the brain or the senses with various types of drugs. But this actually makes things worse because we are trying to find happiness on the material plane. The happiness does not exist on the material plane. This world is at-sat-nir-nan-jan. At-sat-at-sit-nir-nan-jan. It's temporary, full of ignorance and misery. So we should stop trying to find pleasure on this material plane and understand this is mrityu loka, simply a world of death and I don't want to die.

So why am I identifying with a world where I'm forced to die? Is that intelligent? That's absolutely asinine to misidentify myself in a place which is completely contradictory to my nature. Why do I understand my nature is I don't want to die so let me look for a world where I don't die. That will be my place of happiness. That is spiritual sky. Paravyoma. Aparavyoma, the material world and the Paravyoma, the spiritual world. So we understand I don't want to be apara, I want to be para. I want to come to the superior nature not the inferior nature. Let me come back now, let me qualify myself to go back to home, back to Godhead. To get out of this horrible, nescience atmosphere, capital of craziness. Let me get out of this capital of craziness and come back to my actual home, spiritual sky, where people never die, with all kinds of amazing pastimes going on every minute. Krishna is there, the gopis are there, the cowherd boys are there, the cows, the calves, the peacocks, Govardhan, Nandamaharaja, Mata Yashoda, Devaki, Rohini, all these great personalities read about in the Krishna book. Actually they are in the spiritual realmAll these are there right now. So why don't we go back and enter into our actual eternal relationships with these great personalities. Why are we loitering here in this place of misery at every step? Is that intelligent? To loiter here in this place? Where I have to get sick, I have to get old, I have to die, I have to worry about paying taxes, worry about paying my rent, I'm worrying about the utility bills, the water supply, this thing and that. Why am I so stupid to keep misidentifying with this place? Isn't it time to wake up? That's the prayer given -

jiv jago, jiv jago, gauracanda bole

Lord Chaitanya is calling -

jiv jago, jiv jago, gauracanda bole

kota nidra jao maya-pisacira kole

My dear living entities, how long will you sleep in the lap of Maya? Oh, Maya's lap is so nice. She titilates my senses so nicely. I will put my head in her lap and let her titillate my senses. Come on, come on, let's get out of this stupidity. Putting our head in the lap of Maya. Let's put our head in the lotus feet of Krishna. Maya is not, she is just there in the looting agency. She is the prison warden. Those who want to be rebellious to the Lord, Maya Devi, Durga Devi is there to keep them in prison. Durga means prison. She is there to keep him in prison because there were rebels against her. The supremacy of the Supreme Personality of God because I make I the Supreme. Why should I take shelter of someone else when I am the Supreme? She says, alright, that's your mentality. It's my duty to keep you in prison. Birth, death, old age and disease, birth after birth after birth. So we should understand that she is doing this under the direction of Krishna, it is her duty. It is the tango's task given to Durga Devi, Maya Devi to keep us entangled here in the cycle of birth and death. Let us get free from this prison. Let us get out of the shackles of Maya and come back to being who we actually are, the eternal servant of Krishna. This is intelligence. Anybody have any questions? Let's see if we have any questions coming in. We have 1. No questions here. Any questions here?

Local Devotee : Yeah, one devotee the other day was telling me that he was not so, like when he hears about Godhead by Kuntas that he doesn't get so... I don't know, he had some collision from Christianity telling him about heaven and all these glorious things. So he has a little struggle when he hears about God like the spiritual world so he doesn't really think about it so much but he is still...

Sankarshan Das Adhikari : He is not connecting with Christianity, Christ is actually a pure Vaishnava, aShaktivesh Avatar. That means he is not connecting with Christ, not real Christianity, pseudo Christianity. If you actually study the Bible, you'll see that Lord Jesus says, Father not my will, but thy will be done. Jesus is teaching you don't do what you want, do what God wants. So he is showing how to do that by his example. So if you are actually a true Christian you are a Vaishnava. Christian is a pure Vaishanava Acharya. He is not connecting with Jesus Christ. He is connecting with some pseudo so called Christianity.

Same Local Devotee : He is chanting 16 rounds of Japa Mala everyday. So he is following the path of Bhakti with Krishna consciousness. But he says when he hears about the spiritual world he is not so attracted to it but he still wants to serve.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari : What's the difference between heaven and the spiritual world? Because heaven can mean the heavenly planets. We're not interested in that heaven. But actually what we understand, I thought of that song about the Lord Jesus -

'if you want to get to heaven over on the other shore, stay out of the way of the long armed bandit, oh good shepherd feed my sheep.'

There is a Christian hymn like that. They are actually praying, you have to give up bad association and you have to pray for the mercy of Lord Jesus. That is the qualification to stay in the spiritual world. Give up bad association and beg for the mercy of Lord Jesus. That's how the Christian hymn goes. Christian hymn, oh good shepherd. He's seen as an analogy, he's like the shepherd and we're like the sheep. We have to take shelter of him. So he doesn't understand actual Christianity. He's taking some confused version of so-called Christianity and he's going to meat eaters. It's like in the Christian churches. They have the dinner they serve out meat. Can you imagine serving out beef in the Christian churches for their dinners? The pastor is smoking pipes and cigars and they are serving out meat. This is so called Christianity. They are not Christians. They don't understand Jesus Christ. We have some questions, a whole bunch of questions rolling in now. Gurumataji ?

Gurumataji : I wanted to ask, does this person chant his rounds?

Same local Devotee : Yeah.

Gurumataji : There must be something about doing wrong. I mean, so, Christian?

Same local Devotee : No, no, he's not Christian. He, he, that's how he started with Christianity. But he, when he heard about, like, you know, heaven and how everything was supposed to... You know, he didn't really like this, like, the way that the modern Christians are talking about heaven. So he found that was like kind of weird how it's like, oh you can go there and just enjoy it. Anyway, he didn't like that, so whenever he hears about Godhead, he has a little bit of contamination from that. So he's not so attracted to hearing about the spiritual world.

Gurumataji : But if he's chanting 16 rounds, all this contamination should have cleared up.

Same local Devotee : Yeah.

Gurumataji : He must be doing something wrong, I'm afraid.

Same local Devotee : I was wondering though, is it, you know, good to not think about going back to Godhead? It sounds like that's not his goal, going back to Godhead.

Gurumataji : But then still, if he can't exist, he will get another invitation. He wouldn't say, I don't like this and just like that.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari (reads question from chatbox): Question here from Jagadishwar. What does it mean to take shelter of the holy name?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari (answers) : It means you chant at least 16 rounds every day. And to understand that Krishna himself is appearing as the holy name, so I may fully surrender to the holy name. The holy name is Krishna himself, so now I must fully surrender to the holy name. He is Krishna. Krishna, the holy name is He. Krishna himself has appeared as Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Surrender to the holy name is to accept the mission of spreading the holy name. As much as possible, it will remain unique. That's the meaning of surrender to the holy name, become a preacher of Krishna consciousness. An ideal practicer and preacher of Krishna consciousness.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari (reads from chatbox) Panchtattva Das :  Why problems are everywhere but no one willing to get out but try to adjust the situation of living like earning money, produce a big house, getting paper, figure out health insurance and that etc. But won't accept Lord Krishna as the Supreme Personality of God kindly guide me. Why are they doing this?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari (answers): Because they think they are God. That's the problem. They think I'm the Supreme. Why should I listen to anybody else? I'm the center of all existence. They foolishly consider themselves to be the center of enjoyment, that their satisfaction is the goal of life. It's like the hand thinking, I will enjoy this sweet rice on my own, I'm not going to share it with the stomach. He just sits there and doesn't do any work at all. He just sits there and enjoys. Well, I should give this sweet rice to the stomach and have fun squishing it with my fingers. That's the foolishness. They want to enjoy separately from the supreme enjoyer. They think they can be happier better by not giving service to God. That is their stupidity and foolishness, their assininess.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari (Reads question from chatbox) Mahaprabhu kripa devi dasi : Without a body it is possible for the soul alone to render any service to Krishna?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari (answers) : We have a spiritual body actually. It is dormant right now, it is not activated. But the jiva soul has a spiritual form, it is not bodiless. Right now it is in a state of a suspended state, it is not activated. When you become a pure devotee and go back to Godhead, your spiritual body becomes re-manifested. So right now you are acting through the material body, you have to engage your material body in the service of Krishna, your eyes, your nose, your ears, everything. Even the genitals can be engaged in making Krishna conscious children. So you engage all your material senses in the service of Krishna and that spiritualizes your material body and qualifies you to get your original spiritual body when you go back to home, back to Godhead.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari (reads question from chatbox) : Mahaprabhu Kripa Devi Dasi : Another one. It is stated in the purport, the body is only a superficial covering. How much should we value this covering?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari (answers) : Human life is a very, very valuable asset because now you have the ability to engage in devotional service. So take this human form as a great blessing and engage in fully efficient service.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari (reads question from chatbox) Akuti Devi dasi : Should anyone, give up material duties until fully engaged in devotional services?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari (answers) : We should transcendentalize all our material duties by engaging all our material duties in the service of Krishna. Like somebody has a job, they are earning money, they are working in an office, so they said money should be spent in a Krishna conscious way. So putting the mission of the Krishna consciousness movement and taking care of the material necessities in a way that is Krishna conscious. So you should spiritualize all your material duties. And later on you may be able to retire from working a job and then you can be even more absorbent since Krishna consciousness has been engaged. Whatever you have, whatever material duties you have, engage the result in Krishna service and that will spiritualize your material duties.

Do we have any more questions, anything here locally? 

Gurumataji, would you like to add some points? We can unmute if you'd like to ask.

Gurumataji : Yes, when we commit offense to the devotees or to anybody, we ask for forgiveness. Should we do it again? Or the forgiveness is enough?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari : We should not make it a superficial thing like committing an offense, beg forgiveness, make the offense, should we make a business out of committing offences and begging for forgiveness? Going back and forth? Committed offence, sorry, committed offence, sorry, committed offence, sorry, make a business out of it? Or should we actually give up committing offences?

Gurumataji : Or even bowing down, crying, please forgive my offenses and then do the same thing again.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari : Should we commit offenses and bow down and beg forgiveness and commit offenses again? Or we should give up offenses completely? No, we should give up offenses completely and become absolutely pure devotees as soon as possible, the sooner the better.

Gurumataji : So would you say that...

Sankarshan Das Adhikari : Death can come at any minute.

Gurumataji : So would you say that kind of asking for forgiveness is cheating?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari : If one intends, if 1 is not, if 1 is thinking, I don't care what they said, but I'll make a show of committing offenses, about begging for forgiveness for my offense. I don't care what they said, I'm going to keep acting however damn way I feel like acting. I don't care what they say, but if they're disturbed, I'll beg forgiveness. That's superficial, but if you're sincerely wanting to give up on your mistakes and your offenses, and that's genuine. If you sincerely want to give them up. Other questions come in? Let's see if I got them now. I see the wrong button. Okay. Other questions come in? Okay.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari (reads from chatbox) Bhakta Prantik : How to convince myself that I'm a big rascal and remember that when criticized.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari (answers):  You have to understand the fact that you're in this material world means you're a rascal. You were originally in the spiritual world, a pure devotee of Krishna, but you thought why should I serve this person, Let me be the center of enjoyment. The fact that you're in this material world proves that you're a rascal. Do you understand that, Bhakta-Prantik? The fact that you have a material body proves that you're a rascal.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari (reads from the chatbox) Paramahamsa Das : Some amount of ego or identity keeps 1 encouraged to perform devotional service. How does that play a role in one's spiritual journey?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari (answers) : We are not impersonalist, Paramahamsa. The personality is false and it's just all 1 and I have to merge back into the oneness. We are not impersonalists. We understand I have an eternal identity. jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’. I am the eternal servant of Krishna. That is my actual identity. So we don't deny ego or identity. We reinforce it. We spiritualize it. (Pauses) Is that clear Paramahamsa? Does that make it clear? Or do you need further clarification?

Actually we can unmute if somebody wants to ask questions audibly. I'm going to unmute and inquire. You're welcome. Yes, what's the question?

Paramahamsa Das : Yes, Gurudev, just a continuation of the question.

Sankarshan das Adhikari : Okay.

Paramahamsa Das : Regarding the ego, as you mentioned, we are not impersonal. So there is some kind of personality And when that is the case, the dealings are also personal with the devotees?

Sankarshan das Adhikari : Yes, we are very personal. We want to have nice, Sadhu Sangha, Sadhu Sangha, Sarva Siddhi Hoi. The Association of devotees, that association will achieve all perfection. Sarva Siddhi Hai. So we want to have very nice personal loving relationships among the devotees, in Krishna consciousness, not for sense gratification, but for Krishna consciousness. Those relationships with Vaishnavas are very important, they are very essential. Loving relationships with the devotees. Vaishnava Sangha ki Jaya . Anything else? Well if there is nothing else we can stop here. We thank you all for tuning in. Take this process very seriously and your lives will be unlimitedly sublime.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Hare Hare