Srimad Bagavatam 4.22.27

dagdhasayo mukta-samasta-tad-guno

naivatmano bahir antar vicaste

paratmanor yad-vyavadhanam purastat

svapne yatha purusas tad-vinase

dagdha-asayah - all material desires being burned; mukta - liberated; samasta -all; tat-guna- qualities in connection with matter; na- not; eva- certainly; atmanah- the soul or the Supersoul; bahih- external; antah- internal; vicaste- acting; para-atmanoh- of the Supersoul; yat- that; vyavadhanam-difference; purastat- as it was in the beginning; svapne- in dream; yatha- as; puruṣah- a person; tat- that; vinaśe- being finished.

Sankarshan Das: Translation and purport by His Divine Grace Śrīla Prabhupād .

Translation: When a person becomes devoid of all material desires and liberated from all material qualities, he transcends distinctions between actions executed externally and internally. At that time the difference between the soul and the Supersoul, which was existing before self-realization is annihilated. This is not my body philosophy. It sounds like my body, but actually it's not. We have to understand how it's not my body. When a dream is over there is no longer the distinction between the dream and the dreamer.

Purport: As described by Srila Rupa Gosvami (anyabhilasita sunyam), one must be devoid of all material desires. When a person becomes devoid of all material desires, there is no longer need for speculative knowledge or fruitive activities. In that condition, it is to be understood that one is free from the material body. The example is already given above- a coconut which is dry is loosened from its outward husk. This is the stage of liberation. As said in Srimad Bhagavatam (2.10.6),Mukti (liberation) means svarupena vyavasthitih, being situated in one's own constitutional position. All material desires are present as long as one is in the bodily concept of life, but when one realizes that he is an eternal servant of Krsna, his desires are no longer material. A devotee acts in this consciousness. In other words, when material desires in connection with the body are finished, one is actually liberated. When one is liberated from the material qualities, he does not do anything for his personal sense gratification. At that time all activities performed by him are absolute. In the conditioned state there are two kinds of activities: one acts on behalf of the body, and at the same time he acts to become liberated. The devotee, when he is completely free from all material desires or all material qualities, transcends the duality of action for the body and soul. Then the bodily concept of life is completely over. Therefore, Srila Rupa Gosvami says:

iha yasya harer dasye

karmana manasa gira

nikhilasv apy avasthasu

jivan-muktah sa ucyate

When one is completely fixed in the service of the Lord, he is a liberated person in any condition of life. He is called jivanmukta, liberated even within this body. In such a liberated condition, there is no distinction between actions for sense gratification and actions for liberation. When one is liberated from the desires of sense gratification, he has no longer to suffer the reactions of lamentation or illusion. Activities performed by the karmis and jnanis are subject to lamentation and illusion, but a self-realized liberated person acting only for the Supreme Personality of Godhead experiences none. This is the stage of oneness, or merging into the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This means that the individual soul, while keeping his individuality, no longer has separate interests. He is fully in the service of the Lord, and he has nothing to do for his personal sense gratification; therefore, he sees only the Supreme Personality of Godhead and not himself. His personal interest completely perishes. When a person comes out of a dream, the dream vanishes. While dreaming, a person may consider himself a king and see the royal paraphernalia, his soldiers, etc., but when the dream is over, he does not see anything beyond himself. Similarly, a liberated person understands that he is part and parcel of the Supreme Lord acting in accordance with the desire of the Supreme Lord, and as such there is no distinction between himself and the Supreme Lord, although both of them retain their individuality (nityanam cetanas cetananam). This is the perfect conception of oneness in relation to the Super Soul and the soul.

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

Sankarshan Das: So, one can misunderstand when the Bhagavatam says that time the difference between the soul and the SuperSoul which is existing before salvation is annihilated. one says oh yes, you become one with God. The actual term is Acintya bedha abedha tatvam simultaneously and conceivably one and different. Your intellectual harmony, just like in music we have what's called a chord. When two notes are in perfect harmony with each other they become what's called a chord. Actually, it's like in the guitar, there are six strings, you play them in such a way that they are one beautiful vibration. They are all in harmony with each other. It's called a chord. So, the chord has a certain oneness, a beautiful sound, a very harmonious sound. Now if you just play the strings and you don't have your fingers properly then it sounds a horrible mess. The notes are not in harmony with each other. So, it's not that you lose your individuality but you come in a state of perfect harmony. That's like a musical chord, one beautiful unit chord. So, we have to be in accord with the Lord and not in discord with the Lord. That's the key. So then how do we get in harmony with the Lord? That's the question. How do we get in harmony? That's the whole process of Sadhana Bhakti. That's the whole teaching of the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna says,

sarva-dharman parityajya

mam ekam saranam vraja

Give up all your under-duties so then surrender unto me. So, we study carefully the Bhagavad Gita, we can learn how to actually surrender to Krishna and become in a state of perfect harmony with Him. That's not something artificial imposed upon us because actually our original nature is to be servants of Krishna. That just like a child has a walking ability within him and by proper training it comes out. If the child didn't have any walking propensity within him, no matter what you do to teach him to walk, he would not be able to walk. But because he has that natural tendency to walk within him, like proper training, encouragement, association, one day he can walk, and the other day he can even run someday. So, the reason that the child learns how to walk by the good guidance of his parents, we learn how to become Krishna conscious under the good guidance of the spiritual master and the Vaishnavas. We learn how to come back to being who we actually are. My story philosophy is be who you are. Don't try to be what you're not, namely the material body. Be who you actually are. You may say, well, how can you say I'm not the body? Well, once we have the experience, when some dear one dies, we say, oh, they have passed away. Well, the body's laying right there, he's asleep. How you can say he's gone? It's either, but no, he's passed away. We have the conception of the soul intuitively there in everyone. But this atheistic philosophy wants to deny, it's an artificial philosophy. Just consider how artificial is atheism. They say there's no God. In other words, there's no origin. God means the source of everything. According to atheistic philosophy, everything came out of nothing. Now, do you ever have any experience of anything coming out of nothing? Can you show me any one thing that ever came out of nothing? So how we can say everything came out of nothing? Is that logical? Is that scientific? Or is that some blind, is that dogmatism? I like this word dogmatism. The philosophy of dogs. Woof, woof, woof, get off my street. So, the atheists are like dogs, barking dogs. They bring the concept of God and bark, woof woof woof, get out of here with your concept of God. Why? because they don't want to harmonize with the Lord. They want to do their own thing independently and try to enjoy independently from Krishna. Is it possible to enjoy independently? We've been trying to do it for millions and billions of lifetimes. Have we ever achieved a state of pure enjoyment in this material existence? No, we've never done that. We're still suffering even if we're a millionaire or a billionaire, we're still getting old and sick and dying. So, we may try to enjoy here but we can never be successful in doing it because this is an artificial atmosphere. The fish cannot be happy on the land as natural environment is in the water. So, we cannot be happy outside of loving service of the Supreme Lord because that is our natural and original nature. So, try to be who you are, don't try to be what you are not. It is everything

Jivera svarupa hoi

Krsnera nitya das 

The natural consciousness of every living being is to be a devotee of Krishna. Just like a fish is in the water, everyone is naturally a devotee of Krishna. So, can a fish be happy on the land? That's what we're trying to do here. We're trying to be happy on the land, the false conception of the body. And we can see it becoming more and more miserable. Every year goes by we see this material world becoming more and more and more miserable. The more it becomes godless, the more it becomes miserable. Even the conception of God as the order supplier is better than atheism. See, it's becoming more and more godless. It's like the church is becoming many times, becoming empty now. It's like we bought our temple at 3764 Watsika Avenue, it was a church and nobody was coming. So, the more we become godless, the more we become sinful, the more we become a hellish nightmare. So, we want to bring God back to the centre, that's the whole point. Krishna or God back to the centre.

isavasyam idam sarvam

yat kinca jagatyam jagat

tena tyaktena bhunjitha

ma gradhah kasya svid dhanam

everything animate or inanimate in the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. Therefore, one should accept only those things necessary for oneself and to set aside as one's part of knowing the ultimate everything belongs. So, everything actually is the property of the Lord. Therefore, everything is meant to be in the service of the Lord. If you take something that belongs to somebody else and you use it for your own sense gratification, that's sinful. You, see? One's property is meant to be used in the service of the owner of the property. Just like when they own a house and you go on your vacation and you come back and find some people living in your house. There are so many homeless people now around Austin. Even we drive by, coming back from the temple, we see a tent up in the woods, somebody's living in a tent. Very, very common thing. How homelessness, I don't know about in Lithuania, they're very popular now, homelessness is very, there's many people, hundreds of homeless people right here in Austin. We are telling Europe of so many homeless people. It's a new thing now. Back when I was a kid there was no homeless people. Those are things, homeless people, we didn't see them anywhere. But now we see them everywhere. Because it's becoming more and more godless, more and more sinful. There were no abortions, there was no homosex, I mean there was but it was very minimal. This homosex, all these abortions, all this stuff going, this transgenderism, all this crazy stuff is coming because of godlessness. They're not happy, someone's not happy being a male, they want to be a female, but they try to ban drugs and some artificial techniques, they try to become a female. Do they become happy as a female? No. Why not instead of being transgender, why not be transcendental gender? Krishna Consciousness is teaching transcendental gender. Become transcendental to male and female. I'm not this body. Transgender, real transgender is I'm not this body. So why don't they come to the real transgender? I'm not this material body. I'm a spiritual being. Qualitatively one will be. We should take advantage of every opportunity now to explain Krishna consciousness in a way that will be appealing to these people. We have to be intelligent to explain it in such a way that they go, wow, that's really cool. We have to find a way to reach to these people and attract them. This philosophy is very, very important. We have to somehow get them, because that's our duty. Prabhupada said, become Guru to liberate the world. Is that just some flowery word? No, it's an order that Prabhupada gave us, his followers. So, does that apply to the next generation or only Prabhupada's disciples? No, it applies to everyone. The Prabhupada's disciples, the grand disciples, the great grand disciples. This is the family business of the Hare Krishna movement is to deliver the world. That's just for the GBCs and the Sanyasis right? The book distributors, no, it's for every single member of ISKCON has a duty to deliver the world. So how do you deliver the world? Well, you deliver yourself. Prabhhpada says physician heal thyself. The doctor is sick, can he go to the office? Is the doctor's office? No, you're a contaminated patient. The doctor has to be healthy. So therefore, we have to liberate ourselves. So how do we liberate ourselves? 16 rounds of regulated principles, chanting the holy names without offense. We have to avoid these offenses. We have to become selfless chanters of the holy names. Being a selfless chanter is so powerful, you'll be amazed to hear this. The Prabhupada explains in his purport in Chaitanya Charitamrita, if one chants the holyname without offense, he becomes Jagadguru. That's how powerful, In, other words, if you can chant the holy name without any offense, you have the power to deliver the whole universe. Can you imagine the great power right there in your bead bag? You have the potential by chanting the holy name without any offense, you have the potential to become such a powerful Vaishnava who can deliver the entire universe. Next time you change your japa, remember that. Let me dive deep, deep, deep, deep, deep into the holyname. Krishna says,

satatam kirtayanto mam

Always chanting the name of the Lord. So, 16 round is just the minimum. We have heard a million times, if it is 64, can't do that, 32, can't do that, alright, 16. So we have to think. Some of my disciples are chanting 32, that's very nice. A disciple wrote me the other day, she's chanting 32 rounds, that's very nice. one can do that. Gurumataji chants 32 rounds, it's very nice, those who can do, who can find a way to squeeze into their schedule and chant even more names. Very good. So that chanting, we should learn how to become offenseless in our chanting, perfect in our chanting. So that means also to be offensive to Vaishnavas is an offense against the name. So, we have to have very good relationships amongst the devotees. Not that I become offensive in my dealing with devotees. Even if somebody is being offensive to me, maybe I thought it was offensive, but actually he wasn't being offensive, he was just correcting my mistake. But I took it as being offensive. But actually, even if somebody was offensive to me, Should I be offensive back? No.

trinad api sunicena

taror api sahishnuna

amanina manadena

kirtaniyah sada harihi

One should chant the holy name of the Lord in the humble state of mind, taking yourself lower than a straw in the street, being ready to offer all respect to others without expecting even the slightest bit of respect for oneself. In such a state of mind you can go on chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare constantly. So, this process works. Why devotees are not getting the taste in this magic? Because they are not working the process. They are taking some watered-down version of Krishna consciousness. We should take it exactly as Prabhupada has given it. Krishna consciousness as it is, as it has been given to us by Prabhupada. We should not water it down with sense gratification. I see the tendency of this in Iskcon, I water it down. Water it down with sense gratification. You will not get the taste of the name. You will not get the taste of the name. Don't water it down, take it as it is, as Prabhupada has given it. And those who are preaching on behalf of Prabhupada, it is being given, we should take it as it is. By doing so we are actually in a sublime state. What is that state called? Krishna consciousness. Krishna consciousness is not just some slogan, it is actually a state of mind, a state of being, in which is one free from all anxieties. And Prabhupada explains it very nicely in the Isopanishad, I've quoted it many, many times. I'll quote it again. one should not be happy or distressed over desirables or undesirables, nor in such feelings as are created by the mind. So, the next time you get disturbed, what are we going to blame it on? The external situation, right? Yeah, I have a right to be disturbed because this happened or that happened. But actually, disturbance is not due to the external situation. Disturbance is due to our mind which is not properly situated. When you are properly situated on the transcendental platform you will see everything as a special loving mercy of Krishna to help me come closer and closer and closer to my loving relationship with Him. You will see everything in that way, not be disturbed by anything. So, what can we say? What can we say? See if there are any questions that have come rolling in yet? No questions yet? Let's go a little deeper into this purport in this verse. When a person becomes devoid of all material desires. See in my body they say, no desire, become desireless. No desire whatsoever, cut it all, cut, cut, cut, cut, nitty, nitty, nitty, nitty, not this, not that, cut, cut, cut, cut, no, to become desireless and merge into Brahma. But our nature is to desire. They desire desire lessness, that's also desire. So, if you really want to get into desire lessness you have to stop desiring desire lessness, meaning higher than that, and it doesn't work. My body is one that does not desire, they are also desiring desire lessness, which is a desire. So, their process doesn't work. You want to become free from your desires, then you have to flush them out of your heart by filling your heart with spiritual desires. And that's the key. If there are spiritual desires, I want to accept a spiritual master, I want to please my spiritual master. I want to take his orders as my life and soul. See I want to please my spiritual master. The disciple desires to please his spiritual master. Because that's how you please Krishna. I see some who instead of trying to please the spiritual master, they want to find fault with the spiritual master. We see some misguided, foolish disciples who instead of trying to please the spiritual master, they want to try to find fault with the spiritual master. So that doesn't work. You can't jump over there to the spiritual master, step on his head and go back to Krishna. You can't fall with him and step on his head, or ignore him altogether and go around him. You have to go to the medium of the bonafide spiritual master, that is the process. That's why we pray every day the Guruvastakam prayers. That's why we pray in the Guru Puja. My only desire is that my consciousness is purified by the words emanating from his lotus mouth. That's the mood of the disciple. He must hear, hear, hear, hear from his spiritual master. The more you hear from the spiritual master, the more your heart becomes purified. So, if you want to jump over the head, I don't need my spiritual master. I hear this and that, but I'm not going to hear my spiritual master. Such a person will not be properly situated in Krishna consciousness. Not possible because Narottam Das has made it very clear in that song we sing every day. So liberated from all material qualities, again you can't become quality-less, we have to turn on our spiritual qualities. He transcends the sanction between actions executed externally and internally. That's an interesting statement. Actions executed externally and internally. Well internally can apply to thoughts. That's one way of looking at it. Internally. Let's see. Let's see if Prabhupada describes any more about external and internal here in his purport. Let's see here. Another way, that's a very interesting statement. I don't see how Prabhupada elaborate on it in the purport. He transcends the distinction between actions executed externally and internally. It's a very interesting concept, isn't it? Is it anywhere in the purport where Prabhupada elaborates on what that means? I don't see anywhere in purport. Oh, here he says, one thing he says, at that time all activities performed by him are absolute. In the conditioned state there are 2 kinds of activities. one acts of the body and at the same time you become liberated. Taking in your bodily, just like You have to eat, you have to go to the toilet, there is a bodily activity, then your activities become liberated, chanting, offering obeisances, attending the Aarti. The devotee is completely free from all material desires, material qualities, transcend the duality of action, the body and the soul.

Local devotee: Srila Gurudev, Prabhupada explains in teachings of Lord Chaitanya, this same point.

Sankarshan Das: Another place?

Local devotee:  In teachings of Lord Chaitanya.

Sankarshan Das: Oh, okay. In TLC. Where does the big incentive begin? It's from the top. Devotional service with attachment can be executed in two ways, externally and internally. Externally, the devotee strictly follows the regulative principles beginning with chanting and hearing, while internally he thinks of the attachment which attracts him to serve the Supreme Lord. Indeed, he always thinks of his special devotion, service and attachment. Such a real devotee's attachment does not violate the negative eight-pencil of devotion. This sounds like a very advanced stage where he's actually realizing his Brussels. There's a whole other level. Let's see what we have rolling in here. Much of the question is rolling in by the assemble of devotees. Let's see how many people we've got here today. Only 57. We want to get 57 million. Actually, Prabhupada wanted us to make the whole world Krishna conscious. You know in every town and every village it is predicted. Lord Caitanya has predicted that this Krishna Consciousness movement will inundate the entire world and drown everyone. Such as saj-jana, durjana, paṅgu, jaḍa, andha-gaṇa prema-vanyāya ḍubāila jagatera jana Lord Chaitanya predicted; the whole world is going to become Krishna conscious. So, what is our 57 compared to the world population? It's the English world, the English-speaking population. We have to think how we can be very aggressive, how we can make the whole world Krishna conscious. That's our family business that each one of us has a responsibility, each one of us shares this duty to make the whole world Krishna conscious. So, we have to think what we can do. So, let's get up to 57 million. Why only 57? So now let's take the questions rolling in.

Visnurata Das: What confirms that nectar oozing out from chanting Hare Krishna is the nectar every living entity is always anxious for?

Sankarshan Das: Shastra. Srila Prabhupada's teaching in his books. Srila Prabhupada confirms it. Srila Prabhupada's authority is not a speculator. He speaks according to previous acharyas. The disciplic succession confirms it as stated by Srila Prabhupada.

Amala Purana Das:  Please help us understand the statement being translation, when a dream is over there is no longer a distinction between the dream and the dreamer.

Sankarshan Das:That's another interesting statement in this purport today. The verse. What does Prabhupada say? When a person comes out of the dream, the dream vanishes. That's what he says. When a person comes out of the dream, the dream vanishes. The dream doesn't exist anymore. That's how the Prabhupada says it.

Okay, anything else?

Akuti Devi Dasi: How to make the material desire to be spiritualized and our natural tendency to be. How to make the material desire to be spiritualized?

Sankarshan Das: See right now we desire to enjoy separately, that's our problem. Our material desire is we desire to enjoy separately from Krishna. That's our problem. So, what you have to do is Sadhana bakthi process means you take your tendency to act and you engage in the service of the Lord. You have a tendency to do this and do that. So do things for Krishna, hear about Krishna, talk about Krishna, remember Krishna. Krishna is everything you are doing, that's the point. And then gradually as you do that your natural desires will become, see the first stage is Vaidhi and Sadhana Bhakti has 2 phases, Vaidhi Bhakti and Raghanuga Bhakti. In Vaidhi you are just doing it, okay you have to get up, you have to go to Mangalarati, you have to do this, you have to do that. You do it because you are told to, you have to do it. But gradually you start developing enthusiasm doing it. Wow, I want to go to Mangalarati, I love singing and dancing in front of the deities. You become at a more spontaneous level. So, in this way your material desires become, your spiritual desires become your material desires.

Sanat Kumara Das: Is Thakur mean the Kshatriya position?

Sankarshan Das: You must know the meaning of the word Thakur. You can do some research in the Veda base for that. We know that Bhaktivinoda Thakur was not a Kshatriya. Although externally he had a government position, but actually he was a Brahmana. So, is Thakur mean a Ksatriya? You can do some research in the Veda base with such questions. Just look up Thakur in the Veda base and see what comes up.

Anything else? We are done. Have a short class today. Everybody satisfied? Any other questions? Why no more questions? You don't want to learn more? Nobody has any questions? Everything is perfectly understood? Look up Thakur in the Veda base.

Local devotee: It's like Lord, Master, Thakur.

Sankarshan Das: What does it say in the Veda base?

Local devotee: I'll check.

Sankarshan Das: Yeah.

Okay, here we go, coming in.

Bhakta Sunil: How can I measure how much or how less I have gotten disturbed by an external situation?

Sankarshan Das:That's pretty easy. If you are transcendental in all the happiness and distress of the material existence, finding your happiness and your loving relationship with Guru and Krishna, then you know you are getting, you are transcending. But if you go, you are up and down according to what is happening externally, you get depressed or elated, then you know your happiness is not based, your happiness is mundane, you are still in a mundane plane. So, the more we are less we are affected by the ups and downs of the external situation the more we become situated transcendentally. You can judge your own day by being introspective, seeing how you can analyze your own cycle, and analyze yourself, bhakta Sunil how much you are finding happiness and stress according to the ups and downs of your daily experiences.

Visnurata Das: What separates the sense pleasure of touch in the spiritual body and the material body.

Sankarshan Das: Touch. In the spiritual body I am not trying to enjoy, in the spiritual sense I am not trying to enjoy being touched. I am trying to use my sense of touch to give pleasure to Krishna. It's like one may be having deity service, you see, and he has to touch the body of the Lord. But I'm not trying to enjoy all the feeling, I'm not trying to, oh wow, right now I'm touching Radharani, I get to feel Radharani, I am touching the deity of Radharani and now how can I get pleasure of Radharani by the way that I am touching her, by taking .. , one is not thinking how to get pleasure through his touch, how to give pleasure through the touch? That is the distinction. Giving pleasure through the touch. So, we have Visnurata Das,

Asarya Devi Dasi: When one is deviating from the actual essence, especially when one is putting Krishna consciousness on a material platform by criticizing other's path, by presenting its real transcendental nature. Preacher is senior and one can't say anything so these kinds of deviations may happen everywhere.

Sankarshan Das: The thing is we do criticize those who are, and we rightfully criticize those who are in the name of religion doing all kinds of nonsense. And we, and Prabhupada criticizes them and we also criticize them. Just like they say, you know, the Bible says, thou shalt not kill, and these Christians are operating huge slaughterhouses and eating meat. After church, they go and eat hamburgers and fried chicken after the church service. On Thanksgiving the big thing is they have turkey dinner. They kill the poor turkeys and they are murdered and slaughtered. And they say thou shalt not kill. We have a right to criticize them. It's not wrong for us to criticize them. And of course, at the same time, you're encouraging them, at least you're better than atheists. At least you're going to the church and praying to God. So, on one hand we glorify them for whatever they are doing, but at the same time you criticize how much they are actually deviating from the principles. It is not wrong to criticize them for their deviations. They should be corrected. Spiritual master is a cut. Sadhu means one who cuts. He is a cut through the nonsense. The whole material world is going to the hellish regions because they are deviating from the religion, the actual religion of dharma. So, it's not an egoistic thing. You go to the doctor and he says, my dear sir, you have an infection. Why are you criticizing me? No, you go to the doctor to find out why you're having pain in your elbow and he says you have an infection. The doctor being cruel by telling you no, it's his duty to tell you you have an infection. And yet that's his duty, so the preacher has a duty, he has to point out the faults. Because his duty is to rectify, heal the human society, he has to point out the faults. It's his duty to do that. So, it's not wrong to criticize or point out the faults, it's the duty of the preacher to point out the faults. But it's not in a compassionate mood, not in an egotistic mood. In the mood of trying to help that person become free from there that which is causing them to go down to the lower species in their next life.

Govardhan Das:  Very difficult to know whatever I'm doing is for Krishna's desire, how do I know?

Sankarshan Das:  How do you know if you're doing it for Krishna? Are you acting according to the instructions of the spiritual master and the scriptures? Then you know it is for Krishna. You are going to the Mangalarati, you get up early for the Mangalarati ceremony, that's for Krishna. You are chanting a japa, that's for Krishna. You are eating only Krishna prasadam, that's for Krishna. Of course, if you over eat, then that's material, that's sense gratification. But by following the instructions of the spiritual master, the sadhus and the scriptures, that's for Krishna. You're not doing it for sense gratification, you're doing it to heal yourself from this false tendency to try to lord it over what actually belongs to the Lord. See that's our difficulty in this world. We take what is the property of the Lord, we try to use it for our own sense gratification. The actual duty is to take everything that belongs to the Lord, which is everything, engage it on His service. That's how we become spiritually perfect. That's how we become freedom from anxiety.

Any questions from the locals? You know all the answers? You know all the answers? You should try to inquire. Try to find that area where you are not clear and inquire about that because that is our duty to clarify all the dark spots within your consciousness. It is our duty to shine a light of wisdom into every dark spot in your consciousness. So, try to find those places of confusion and uncertainty and inquire so we can help you become free from those uncertainties.

Bhaktin Pronamee: People in India invest a huge amount of money in purchasing gold.

Sankarshan Das: I can finish typing the rest of its in. There's nothing wrong with purchasing gold using Krishna's service. Gold ornaments for their marriage. The ..  ornaments on such a special occasion? We have no objection if the wife has a nice beautiful sari for her wedding. We have no objection. The husband gets a nice silk dhoti. We have no objection if one decorates himself nicely for the wedding ceremony, we have no objection to that. But at the same time, you have to use your marriage in Krishna's service, not as a facility for sex enjoyment. You see that's the difficulty nowadays, it's like a facility for sex, sex, sex, sex, sex. Krishna says, I am that sex life which is not kamo 'smi bharatarshabha I am that sex life which is not contrary to religious principles. So, Sex is actually meant to be used for procreation, not for entertainment on Friday night. So, if they use sex properly, making Krishna conscious children, then we have no objection if they have a nice sari and some gold ornaments for their wedding ceremony. We have no objection to that. But it shouldn't be outrageous also, $10,000 worth of gold. I mean it should be a little reasonable.

Sadbhuja just asked a question which is not answered. Let me go back and see. I missed Sadbhuja's question. Okay.

Sadbhuja: Pure devotional service is without karma and jnana. But we read in the Gita in your class to acquire knowledge.

Sankarshan Das: See there are two kinds of knowledge Sadbhuja. And there is the knowledge of, the speculative knowledge, where I try to, by speculating and understanding the absolute truth by the power of my intellectual exercises, I try to deduce what is the absolute truth. That sort of mental speculation is not proper because you can never come to, by your intellectual power you can never transcend the material existence and gain understanding of the transcendental dimension which is beyond the power of the intelligence. So, use your intelligence to try to understand the teachings of Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita and the great saintly teachers who were purely presenting the knowledge of Krishna consciousness. That's proper. This is called, that's transcendental knowledge. So, the transcendental Gyan is very good, but the speculative Gyan, that's not proper.

Anything else? I see that questions is rolling in.

Hare Krishna Das: When one tries to do service like book distribution, one gets many rejections, one realizes one's own false ego, one gets hurt, in that situation how can one tolerate the pain and be enthused to preach, to persevere? 

Sankarshan Das:So, one goes out and distribute books and you meet so much opposition, you should be strong. You should be strong in preaching. I give the example many times. I was out distributing a very nice sweet. We have in our Hare Krishna room; we have a famous sweet called Simply Wonderful. You ever heard of Simply Wonderful? You haven't heard of Simply Wonderful? Raj hasn't heard, so I'll explain. It's made with powdered milk and butter and powdered sugar. Very simple sweet but they are really good. So Prabhupada must have given them the name Simply Wonderful. Anyway, Prabhupada was asked by my godbrother Nandakishore Prabhu, he said, Prabhupada what happens when we give somebody a Simply Wonderful? Prabhupada said, he will eat that Wonderful sweet, and he will come to your temple and he will become Simply Wonderful. He said, this process of Krishna consciousness is Simply Wonderful, Krishna is Simply Wonderful, and you are all simply wonderful. And then he said, Prabhupada is simply wonderful. Prabhupada said, that's alright, you have kirtan. So anyway, I was passing up Simply Wonderfuls on University Avenue in Gainesville, Florida. And some smart .. thought he had a little funny, hit the bull and knocked all those sweets out in the street. So, talk about being, it's all about rejection. How did I deal with that rejection? I did be very tolerant. I didn't even know I said, I yelled at top of my lungs and put my finger in my eyes, you better get out there and pick up all those sweets right now. I got beat the hell out of you if you didn't do it. And it worked. I used anger in the service of Krishna and it worked. He snapped out of his false ego trip. He went out and picked up all the sweets in the street. And I helped him. We picked them all up before their life turned green and all the cars ran over them. So yeah, sometimes you have to be, you have to be strong in preaching. It's not false ego, it's a duty to rectify the demonic mentality these people have. The doctor has to be strong enough to give you a shot and not kill you with it. It's not fun having a needle stick in your arm. You have a needle stick in your arm? It's not fun, is it? But it's the doctor's duty to shoot you with that needle because you need the medicine. So, it's not a way to be strong. When these opposing elements are there, you have to be very strong with them. But you have to do it intelligently. Not carried away by anger. You can use anger in Krishna's service, but don't be carried away by anger, that's the key.

Okay, the questions are rolling in, we'll go a bit more now. We have,

Shyama Priya Devi Dasi: It is mentioned here, when one is completely fixed in the service of a Lord, He is a liberated person in any condition, kindly enlightened, what it means to be completely fixed in service and what it means to be liberated in any condition.

Sankarshan Das: That means your only desire is to please Krishna, that your every thought, your every word and every deed in all times, places and circumstances. That's what it means to be fixed in service. You have no desire separately from pleasing Krishna. That's what it means.

Pancatattva Das:  Hare Krishna, Srila Gurudeva, kindly enlighten how to understand or evaluate ourself to confirm whether our Krishna consciousness is correct or not. Since I feel one day very enthusiastic, one day anger on me, and someday I feel sad or depressed and not able to serve the Lord to my satisfaction, how to evaluate myself, kindly guide me.

Sankarshan Das: Well, you can know, pancatattva das, that you are not properly situated if you are up and down, up and down, up and down. If you are fixed and you are steady in your consciousness, you are feeling transcendental bliss in every situation if you are fixed properly in Krishna consciousness. But if you are not, you are up and down, up and down, it means you are not properly fixed. It is a very simple thing. You are not properly fixed if you are up one day and down another day. Krishna consciousness means you're always up and you're going up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, steadily going up. It's up and down, it's for the neophytes, you're not properly trained up or fixed. Advanced devotee is going up, up, constantly going up. More ecstasy, more enlightenment, more knowledge, more realization, becoming more and more compassionate also for the fallen souls who are suffering in ignorance.

Anything else? Any objections? Any criticisms? What don't you realize about Krishna consciousness?

Local Devotee:  How to maintain it. How to maintain it?

Sankarshan Das: How to maintain it? Well, you have to, by the way you want to maintain it you have to steadily chant the japa. How many rounds of chanting did you do today?

Local Devotee:  I did 2 yesterday. 3?

Sankarshan Das: How many today?

Local Devotee: 9.

Sankarshan Das:  9, yeah. Steady chanting is the key. See, pick a number you can maintain and handle as a day-to-day and do that every day and gradually increase, come to 16. The 16 is the minimum given by our Guru Maharaj, founder acharya. Become steady in your japa. That's for you, for your level, become steady. Whatever number you can do every day, and do it every day without fail. Even if you don't eat, it's all right. You get those rounds, and That's the most important thing, even more important than eating. That's how you become steady. How you can maintain it.

Bhakta Gabriel from Lithuania. I mean from Latvia, excuse me.

Bhakta Gabriel: I've heard that when some disciple of Prabhupada used strong words like rascals and fools in preaching he was told by Prabhupada that he should not preach like that, using anger as the same.

Sankarshan Das: But it depends on the situation and how it's done. If you show me the exact, I heard, show me in the database exactly what the situation was. Then I can give you a wider Prabhupada said in a certain situation. I don't know the situation in which he told them not to use the word rascals or fools. Prabhupada used the word rascals and fools. So, but that depends on the situation. Preaching is a term called Desa, Kala patra, time, place and circumstance. Some situation is proper to say rascal and some situation is not. It's like I use anger and I smart alley guy who hits the bull, sweeps in the street. I use anger in every situation. You have to understand that according to the situation, you have to be sincere in your desire to become Krishna's pure devotee, sincere in your desire to spread Krishna consciousness and then Krishna will give you the intelligence how to deal with every situation perfectly. That's the key. Be sincere in desire to become a pure devotee and to make the world Krishna conscious, which is your duty. And then Krishna will give you the intelligence how to deal with every situation perfectly. There is a seed in our heart of all living entities, and can meet, can acknowledge, remember and forgetfulness, Krishna says. So, Krishna will give you knowledge, forgetfulness, remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. All 3 things are available according to where you are at. If you want to forget Krishna, he will make you an atheist. He will give you the arguments how to become an atheist. You want to remember Him, then give you all the arguments to defeat the atheist. According to your desire, Krishna facilitates you either way. You want to be a rapist; Krishna will give you the intelligence how you can be a successful rapist. But you have to become an animal in your next birth. The thing is, wherever you want, Krishna will give you that. one has the desire of pure devotion. And then when Krishna gives you the intelligence how to become His pure devotee. So, your desire is the key. You have to desire pure devotional service, pure love for God.

Devotee: How one should deal with agitation due to the coming of old age. That's a good one. I'm sitting in a 75-year-old body, I still remember Sankarshan Das Brahmachari, 21-year-old, I'm still living that bad body I have. That has to do with it, even now I have a hard time getting up from the Vyasasana after the class. Maybe you can show me some exercises. I have a therapist, a physical therapist. After sitting in this Vyasasana for an hour, I have a hard time getting up in the office and talk about the agitation of old age. The thing is one has to do whatever you can. As Prabhupada took morning walks every day for his health. So, you have to take the best care you can of your health. The old age is coming to each and every one of us. Every minute we're getting old, every breath we're getting older. So, one has to take good care. Previously, the beginning of the age 100 was the normal thing. Everybody needs to be 100 but now what's the average life span in America? What's the average life span?

Local Devotee: 82

Sankarshan Das: 82? So that's 20 years gone, used to be 100. Actually, used to be very common to live to be 100, but now it's a big thing in the newspapers. Somebody living to be 100 is a big thing. Oh, awesome.

Local Devotee: They say the first person to be living at 120 or 150 has already been born. So, it's going to steadily rise back up.

Sankarshan Das: And also, the yogis can live for hundreds of years. There are yogis and there are mahajanas who can live for hundreds of years. Because the yogic system can actually do that. They can become very powerful. They can even go to other planets by yogic power. But that's not the average person. So anyway, you have to understand you're not your material body. As I've many times explained, if you feel out of form, what's your age, what's your age, you only put down your proper age, put down infinity, because we're all infinite. And I'm not an old, I never become an old man when I'm in eternal youth. That's my actual identity, I'm an eternal youth. I'm not this old man's body. So that's how people at old age realize that I'm not old, only this body is old, not me. I'm a determined youth. Then you won't be agitated. You'll have a sense of humor about the thing.

Bhakta Gabriel:  Thank you. I'll try to look for this situation in the database. 

Sankarshan Das: Send it to me by email, Bhakta Gabriel, I can help you for understanding. 

Anything else? What about our locals here? We have

Amala Purana das: Prabhupada mentions in a few places, the non-devotee cannot extend his life by even a second.

Sankarshan Das: That's right. If the non-devotee is strictly under the laws of karma, when it's time to go and come, he's finished. That's right.

Devotee: The yogis, how the yogis can extend for hundreds of years

Sankarshan Das: Because that was their karma. They had the karma to be yogis. That was their karma. They were probably yogi in a previous life also, avoiding all kinds of sinful activities. So, the yogi can do that and then say there is karma.

Anything else? Okay, we'll go ahead and stop here. We thank you everybody for tuning in. Take this process seriously and your life will be unlimited sublime. I absolutely guarantee it.