dharma-rāḍ iva śikṣāyām
āścarye himavān iva
kuvera iva kośāḍhyo
guptārtho varuṇo yathā

dharma-rāṭ iva — like King Yamarāja (the superintendent of death); śikṣāyām — in education; āścarye — in opulence; himavān iva — like the Himālaya Mountains; kuveraḥ — the treasurer of the heavenly planets; iva — like; kośa-āḍhyaḥ — in the matter of possessing wealth; gupta-arthaḥ — secrecy; varuṇaḥ — the demigod named Varuṇa; yathā — like. (responsive chanting)

Translation and Purport by His Divine Grace, Srila Prabhupada

Mahārāja Pṛthu’s intelligence and education were exactly like that of Yamarāja, the superintendent of death. His opulence was comparable to the Himālaya Mountains, where all valuable jewels and metals are stocked. He possessed great riches like Kuvera, the treasurer of the heavenly planets, and no one could reveal his secrets, for they were like the demigod Varuṇa’s.

Purport

Yamarāja, or Dharmarāja, as the superintendent of death, has to judge the criminal living entities who have committed sinful activities throughout their lives. Consequently, Yamarāja is expected to be most expert in judicial matters. Pṛthu Mahārāja was also highly learned and exceedingly exact in delivering his judgment upon the citizens. No one could excel him in opulence any more than estimate the stock of minerals and jewels in the Himālaya Mountains; therefore, he is compared to Kuvera, the treasurer of the heavenly planets. Nor could anyone discover the secrets of his life any more than learn the secrets of Varuṇa, the demigod presiding over the water, the night, and the western sky. Varuṇa is omniscient, and since he punishes sins, he is prayed to for forgiveness. He is also the sender of disease and is often associated with Mitra and Indra.

 vande ’haṁ śrī-guroḥ śrī-yuta-pada-
kamalaṁ śrī-gurūn vaiṣṇavāṁś ca
śrī-rūpaṁ sāgrajātaṁ saha-gaṇa-
raghunāthānvitaṁ taṁ sa-jīvam
sādvaitaṁ sāvadhūtaṁ parijana-
sahitaṁ kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devaṁ
śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-pādān saha-gaṇa-
lalitā-śrī-viśākhānvitāṁś ca

nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine

namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

So again, we are reading about the amazing qualities of Pṛthu Maharaja. This is the advantage of becoming Krishna conscious. One develops all good qualities. Why would one not want to become Krishna conscious? It is idiocy not to become Krishna conscious, to remain caught up in the modes of nature, to be a slave of maya. It doesn't make any sense. It's stupid. So, we have to understand how to properly guide ourselves so we become Krishna conscious. There is a nice example of the chariot, the chariot driver, the reins, the horses and the passenger. It is a very nice example. The horses are the senses and the reins are the mind and the intelligence is the driver and the passenger is the spirit soul. (a devotee translating in Lithuanian language asks, “what is the driver?”. The speaker His Grace Sankarshan Das Adhikari answers, “driver is the intelligence and the passenger is the spirit soul”). So, the difficulty is in our modern-day society, there is no intelligence. The passenger is there being driven to hell, the horse is running wild, the reins have been let go. When someone has the intelligence that does not control the mind and is letting go of the senses, “okay, go wild, whatever you want to do, if it feels good, do it”. They just go wild, go crazy; serving their mind, their words, their anger, their tongue, their belly, and their genitals, they just go wild, they go crazy; they let their horses run wild. But then you go off the cliff and you perish. So instead of letting the horses run wild, the intelligence has to take those reins very carefully and guide the horses in such a way that one will achieve the supreme destination of going back to home, back to Godhead. The people are so foolish, they are so unintelligent, they don't do that. They don't use their intelligence to understand, “what is for my benefit”. They go with the philosophy of eat, sleep, mate and defend. That's all. Eat, eat, eat, sleep, sleep, sleep, mate, mate, mate and defend. That's all. They don't use the intelligence to understand that, “by serving my senses I'm becoming a..it's called go-dāsa”.

You see there's two types of people. There's go-dāsa, the servant of the senses, and there's goswami, the master of the senses. You can choose which you want to be. You want your senses to dictate to you ,what you should be doing, what you should be thinking, what you should be feeling? Is that what you want your senses to dictate to you? Or do you want to be the master of the senses and say, “no my dear senses, you must engage yourself in the service of the master of the senses, hṛṣīkeśa”. But how many people are doing that? In fact, this whole world is running on the principle of serving the senses. Therefore everything is going to hell, more and more and more. It's becoming more and more of a nightmare on this planet. The atmosphere, there's so much pollution in the air, so much pollution in the water, now there's a shortage of water. So many things are going bad because we are not serving the Master of the senses. We are serving our senses instead.

So how do you convince somebody who is going wild and addicted to serving their senses? How do we convince that person to get out of this horrible position of serving their senses and get into the position of engaging their senses in the master of the service of the senses. This is the big question. The difficulty is they are addicted to sense gratification. They are addicted. They can't give it up. They can't even dream of giving it up. “ I must gratify my senses. I have to gratify my senses. I can't even live if I can't gratify my senses”. Like that prostitute who told Haridas, “if you don't gratify, you know if we don’t have sexual enjoyment, I can't even live”. So this is their mood. “If I can't gratify my senses, better I commit suicide if I can't gratify my senses”. But they don't understand the self and the body… the self and the body are two different things. They have no understanding. They are spiritual beings. The body is just a tool, it's just a vehicle. But they're so caught up in bodily consciousness. “I'm this body, I'm this body. I'm the eyes and the nose and the ears and the tongue, the belly, the genitals. This is me. So, I have to gratify myself. I'm going to be happy. If I can't gratify my mind, my nose, if I can't gratify these things, I can't be happy.”

So they are completely misguided by the modern day civilization. What is civil about it? I ask you; I challenge you, my listeners, is there anything civil about this so-called civilization? What's civil about it? It's not civil at all. It's a non-civilization. Civilization means Vedic culture, Krishna consciousness culture. That is actually civilization, civil. Civil means peace. There's actual peace when you get back to serving Krishna. We are the part and parcel of Krishna; therefore, we are meant to serve Krishna, just like your hand and your legs and your tongue, the eyes, the ears, the nose, all these things are meant to serve the passenger seated within the car or the body. We are totally caught up in just gratifying the senses. We forget who is the actual person meant to be serving. The hand tries to …. If the hand tries to enjoy separately not giving the food to the belly, just squeezing with the fingers, the body will die. So instead of serving our source, Krishna, we are serving His energies. That's the problem. We are slaves of Maya, slaves of Durga devi, serving, serving, serving, serving, serving these sensual desires day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, lifetime after lifetime after lifetime to the 8,400,000 species. When are we going to come to our senses and realize, “I cannot be happy about serving this mind, words, anger, tongue, belly and genitals. I cannot be happy about doing it”. But still, we go on as slave of Maya, serving, serving, serving, serving, serving. Our nature is to serve, but we don't know where to serve.

We just, like… Guru Mataji gave the example, you're going for a job, go bring it to the best deal. The best working hours, the best pay. Don't take some horrible job where you don't get paid very much. Take the best possible job. So, we should, since our nature is to serve, we should see where will I get the best deal. By serving this mind, words, anger, tongue, belly, and genitals, what do I get? one material body after another material body through these 8,400,000 species? Is that a very nice thing? To be caught up, sometimes a man, sometimes an animal, sometimes a plant, sometimes a worm, sometimes a germ, sometimes a demigod. Is it good to be caught up in this crazy madness? Is it a good opportunity? No. Why not go to that place where you have eternity, knowledge and bliss? Why not get out of this madness and come to that place? But the senses keep saying, “Gratify me, gratify me, gratify me. I cannot live if you don't gratify me”. The senses are screaming at us, “give me gratification, give me gratification, give me gratification”. They're screaming at us, like a screaming child, you know, a screaming baby demanding the mother's attention. The senses are like a screaming baby demanding that we give him attention. But now we have to say, “my dear senses, you calm down now, be a little peaceful. Because you are not me. This is a tool that I'm using … which will be most beneficial for me. So, my dear senses now instead of becoming agitated and disturbed, give me, give me, give me mentality, my dear senses, now we are going to engage in the service of the Lord.”

vāco vegaṁ manasaḥ krodha-vegaṁ
jihvā-vegam udaropastha-vegam
etān vegān yo viṣaheta dhīraḥ
sarvām apīmāṁ pṛthivīṁ sa śiṣyāt

It's such a great benefit. Can you imagine the unlimited benefit of bringing your senses? They are called pushing in Sanskrit, vegaṁ. The mind pushing, the words pushing, the anger pushing, the tongue pushing, the belly pushing, the genitals pushing, pushing. All these things are pushing. But you bring these pushing under your control and then you have a powerful impact you actually become strong. As long as you continue to serve your senses you are a weakling; you remain weak and impotent and eunuch, as long as you continue to serve your senses. So, when you say, “okay senses I have served you for millions and billions of lifetimes and where did it get me? Another damn rotting material body. I'm not going to be so stupid to serve you again. Now, my dear senses, your only business is to be engaged in the service of the Lord. That's your only business, you're not meant for any sense gratification. Your only business now is engaging in the service of the Lord and my dear senses, actually that's how I become more satisfied. You think you'd be happy if I gratify you, but actually my dear senses, you will never be happy if I'm gratifying you because you keep screaming, give me more, give me more, give me more, give me more, you will never be satisfied. No matter how much gratification I give you my dear senses you will still never be happy and keep demanding more, more, more, give me more, give me, give me, give me more.” The senses will keep begging, begging, begging, begging, begging for more gratification. But if you want your senses to become calm, become peaceful and stop screaming at you, then say, “okay senses, now engage yourself in the service of Krishna actually, my dear senses, my dear self also..”, you can now speak to yourself, your nature is to actually love, isn't it? We always want to love, we love our country, we love our dog, we love our wife, we love our girlfriend, we love our boyfriend, we love our guitar, we love our harmonium, we have this tendency to love. I love my iPhone, you know, we have this tendency to love, love, love, love, love. So why don't we see where I can put my love where I get the most benefit. Actually, Prabhupada explains love means two, Krishna and you. That's actual love. Anything other than loving Krishna is not really love. They call it love, “I love you, I love you, I love you”, but it's not actual love. It's lust. Because I want to use you to gratify my.. “I love you”, “no, I lust after you and I want to use you to gratify my senses”. They call it love, it's cheating business. Actual love means to not satisfy your senses.

Actual love means to satisfy the senses of Krishna. Krishna actually loves us unlimited. We cannot even imagine how much Krishna loves us. We can't even begin to imagine how much Krishna loves us, Krishna has been loving us since time immemorial and longing, “when will this soul come back to Me?”. He doesn't want to force us because love can't be forced. So, He has given us a choice, “love Me or leave Me”, but He is wanting, He keeps giving us His love, giving us His love, giving us His love, waiting, “when will that day come, when this soul wants to reciprocate lovingly once again.” Krishna loves to have loving relationships, that's why we exist.

Krishna is manifesting us from Himself for one purpose only and that is to have loving relationships with each and every one of us. Each and every one of us have a loving relationship with Krishna. We are meant actually to bow down at His feet and beg Him to put His lotus feet on our heads and blessed with His lotus feet. That is our actual position. We take a humble position, not that “I am God, you are God, we are all God” ‘no, a humble position’”, jīvera svarūpa haya — kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa. The constitutional position of a living entity is that he is the eternal servant of Krishna. So, we are actually meant to reciprocate that love, not that “ I am equal to Krishna”. It is a humble position. The interesting thing is that you take that humble position, now, “my dear Lord,”..

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ.

As soon as you take that humble position, guess what happens? And Krishna says, “OK, now you are totally surrendered to Me, Now you can have an intimate relationship with Me as a servant, as a friend, as a parent, or as a gopi girl. Now, because you are totally surrendered to Me, I will let you have whatever relationship is most natural for you. You can come back to your original natural rasa, your relationship with Me.” So, Krishna is missing us. He's been missing us since time immemorial. “When will this soul come back? When will this soul..”. Actually, Krishna is your most intimate well-worshipper. suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ. Not that He's just one of the crowds. Krishna has an intimate, loving relationship with every single jiva soul as if that jivasoul is the only person, just like He did with those queens in Dwaraka. Every queen had Krishna all to Herself. An intimate loving relationship with that Supreme Lord, Krishna. He gave Her nice clothes, a nice bed, nice furniture, nice children. Krishna gave that wife everything. He was the only husband. So, Krishna wants to have that kind of an intimate loving relationship with every single living entity in all of existence, where you give yourself fully to Krishna and He gives himself fully to you. He wants that kind of a sweet, intimate loving relationship. So why are we, my dear listeners, I ask you this, why are we cheating ourselves by trying to go on gratifying my senses, gratifying my senses” …. “It feels good, do it”. Why are we so stupid, why are we so idiotic, why are we such asinine people we go on like this. It doesn't make sense, it doesn't make any sense. It's absolutely insane, it's crazy, it is madness, it's just absolutely idiotic if you go on like this trying to gratify my senses. “I have to gratify my senses. Oh, I have to, I must, I must gratify my senses”. No,gratify Krishna and then your senses will be satisfied. By gratifying your senses, your senses will never be gratified. But when you gratify Krishna, your senses will be gratified and you can actually make the whole world happy. You can make everyone happy. Just like that prayer,

vāñchā-kalpa-tarubhyaś ca
kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca
patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo
vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ.

“I offer my respectful obeisances to all the Vaishnavas devotees of the Lord, who are just like desire trees, who can satisfy the desires of everyone and they are full of compassion to the fallen conditioned souls”.

The fact is that when you come to the point of satisfying Krishna you can actually satisfy the whole world. You may say “that's crazy, that's madness”, but no, that's an authorized prayer, we say every day. So, the fact is, the point is this, Krishna consciousness can satisfy everyone. Satisfy everyone. It can satisfy everyone. But we have to hear and we have to learn.

Just like when Prabhupada was there on 26, 2nd Avenue, so many people came and a few of them stayed. Those who became submissive, they got the benefit. Those who became challenging, like when Hippie came into Prabhupada 's room, he said, Swamiji, “I'm higher than you. I am God”. And Prabhupada very…, he said, actually sarcastically, he said, “please accept my beg, now get out of here.” So many people came, but those who took it seriously, actually everyone who rendered service, they benefited. It's like one drunk came in, totally irregular drunk, improperly dressed, but he came to do some service. He brought some toilet paper and put it in the bathroom. He went to do a little service for Swamiji. Even though he was a drunkard, that person got unlimited benefit. So, any little service we do is our eternal asset. That's the beauty of this Krishna consciousness movement. Any little service, every bite of prasadam, every time you give a donation, every time you attend the aarti, every time you give a lecture, all these things add up more and more and more and more. They add up more and more and more. So finally, you get enough assets in your bank account for your ticket back to home, back to God. So, keep doing that service, keep doing that service, keep hearing, keep chanting, keep offering service, keep on doing these things, you're building up your spiritual assets more and more and more. Right now, we're impoverished people, we're poor, our spiritual assets are hardly existing at all. We are so caught up in material sense gratification, trying to gratify the false self of the material body. We are so caught up in these things that if we just do some service, we hear, we speak, we remember, we sit with some books, we do all these things that Prabhupada has given us in the International Society of Krishna consciousness, ISKCON, then things will build up more and more and more. They will build up more and more and more.

Let's see if we have any questions. I see one question has come in. Let's see if we have any more. (reads the questions from the chat box in the internet)

Tarun Lachandani: a big humongous question. Let's go with Rob first. He's got a simple one

Rob: Hare Krishna Guru, I recently had an episode of anxiety and I could tell Maya took it over, but I couldn't get back to Krishna consciousness. What can we do in that situation?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari:  Rob, it’s a situation we all face. We wonder if I am Krishna conscious and then Maya takes over our consciousness. We become mad if there is sense enjoyment or whatever, depression or whatever it may be. Sometimes Maya takes over, like Cupid comes with his arrows, …boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,… shoot our heart. We have a heart full of Cupid's arrows and we can't even control our mind, We get so disturbed by Cupid. So, these things happen sometimes. Why don't you get overwhelmed? You're overwhelmed with lust, you're with anger, with greed. What to do when you become overwhelmed like this? Well, you have to, that’s when you have to declare war. Maya has gotten you, you've lost the battle, but you're not going to lose the war. You may lose the battle, Rob, but if you're determined, like a little sparrow is determined to drive the ocean, even though it's an impossible feat. It seems impossible sometimes, we have so many material desires, we're so lusty, we're so angry, we're so greedy, it seems impossible sometimes to ever overcome this. “How is it possible? I'm so overwhelmed by lust, by anger and greed, how can I get out of this mentality? It seems impossible sometimes, doesn't it?” But if we have the determination of a little sparrow, “I’m going to dry up that ocean which took my eggs, ... I'm going to dry up that ocean.” Everyone's laughing, just that stupid little bird, she can never dry up the ocean. She can only get maybe one cup for the little beak. After much endeavor she can fill up one cup of ocean water. But Garuda, the king of the birds, saw his little sister, what she had gone through, and came flying in on Garuda Airlines, and that's it. ‘You rascal ocean, you give those eggs back immediately.” We have to be determined like little sparrow, determination of a little sparrow. “I'm so lusty, I can't stand it, I'm so angry, I can't stand it, and so.. all these bad emotions and feelings are overcoming me. What can I do? What can I do? What can I do? What can I do? How can I get out of it?” Well, declare war on maya. It doesn't help to declare war on the ocean. Declare war on maya. She may have won a battle, but I'm going to win the war. Maya may win a battle with you, get you off the track, get you out of Krishna consciousness, get you back into the sense of identification mood, or you may be engaged, get off the track and engage in sense of identification. But in any case, you can lose the battle, but if you are determined, you are going to win the war. “I am declaring an all-out war on maya. I am going to take every opportunity I have to push forward the Krishna consciousness in our heart. I am going to do everything I can to fight maya and defeat maya. Everything I can possibly do. I am going to hear, I am going to chant, I am going to read Prabhpada's books, I am going to hear lectures, I am going to do service, I am going to go associate with the devotees”. If you have difficulty, come over here, 10700 Jonwood Way, come and associate with devotees. Right here in town you've got a great advantage. Come and associate. You know, you can come anytime. Not only for the classes, you can come also and do some service. You can come anytime and take association. So, take every opportunity to push forward Krishna consciousness within your heart and drive all that maya, that sense gratification consciousness, drive it out of your heart, Drive it out very vigorously. “Get out of here, Maya. You are not welcome in my heart. Now get out of my heart. You are not welcome here, you rascal thoughts; you lusty, angry, greedy thoughts; you are not welcome in my brain. Get out of here and don't you ever dare come back again.” Take that kind of an intense fighting mood and you will be surprised. You can actually conquer it. You can conquer it if you take that mood because Krishna will empower you, the spiritual master will empower you. All the gurus, all the acharyas on the disciplic line will empower you. You take that mood to fight off maya. Take that mood to fight off maya. Thank you for the nice question, Rob.

Okay …

Tarun Lachandaniya,: (a big humongous question ok…) Hare Krishna Srila Gurudev, please accept my humble obeisances. I have fear that when I start acting as Krishna's servant, ..devotee gives so much service that my whole body gets exhausted…….also so much lakshmiproblems …and now one devotee does mistake, because nobody is there to take responsibility and I am taken. So, I have to pay for my own pocket….

Sankarshan Das Adhikari:  Well, do as much service as you can and take some rest. Prabhupada also took rest. You need some rest, take some rest. You have to keep your body healthy. If you push it too hard, you may get sick. You may injure yourself. So, you push it, you do as much as you can and take rest.

‘Also, so much lakshmi problems’... For example, if you have to go up to sankirtan and they tell you, ‘you take complete responsibility if someone goes wrong and then  pay yourself’…. Money is always a problem in the material world. But as much as possible, gauge your money in the service of the Lord and keep whatever you need for your personal maintenance. The standard is 50%....not easy to do, but if someone is very well off, they can give 50%. The Christians have 10% as well. You give as much as you can, as much support as you possibly can, and keep it in your maintenance.

‘And now one devotee does mistake, because nobody is there to take responsibility and I am taken…. So, I have to pay for my own pocket.’..Some devotee made a mistake and you have to pay for that devotee's mistake. Well, that devotee is part of it. Some devotee is costing you money for his mistakes. You should talk to the management of the temple and explain what's going on. He's not in a position to correct him. Talk to the management of the temple and explain, ‘this devotee is making mistakes and I'm out of my pocket, I'm covering for his mistake, but I can't afford to do this.’ So talk to the temple authorities. Like yesterday, one devotee drank milk and did not wait for me to offer it. Oh my goodness ... ..( In the background Gurumataji says..Hare Krishna) one devotee drank milk and did not wait for me to offer it. He drank bhogamilk. (In the background .. Gurumataji says, ‘what? so?’) Tarun…. ..he can  offer the milk… the devotee didn't like it, he drank it right away without being offered. (In the background .. Gurumataji says , ‘So, that is not the problem. You can train him. It's nothing big deal’).. You should correct the devotee. Tell him, ‘This is not proper, this is drinking sin. Milk is good for you, but not if it is not offered’. You should correct the devotee....whole milk gone waste…ya, it went waste. You shouldn't tolerate, you should correct him. This is not proper. You can't do this, it is sinful. You should correct him. …Such a thing.

Okay…

Bhaktin Puja: Hare Krishna, Guru Maharaj. Please accept my humble obeisances. How can I increase attachment toward Krishna because sometimes I don't feel like doing any devotional service and I get depressed because of the situation and I will never be able to satisfy Him?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari: But sometimes we make mistakes, sometimes we are lazy, we make mistakes, there are all kinds of problems we have because we are conditioned souls. So, like a little child learning how to walk, he falls down many times, does he become depressed and give up? No, the parents say, “Come on, Amit, you can do it, you can march, come on, (Claps the hand) Amit, you can do it.” So many times, he may fall off the track, but the spiritual master and devotees say, “yes, Bhaktin Pooja, you can become a pure devotee, doesn't matter how many mistakes you make, how much you get off the track, you can and you can keep all the instructions of Vaishnavas and the Guru, you will become a pure devotee followed by seeing Krishna face to face”. So don't let anything, don't ever become discouraged, just like a little child learning how to walk, the parents encourage him, “yes, yes, get up and try again”. So you have to be like that little child learning how to walk, who wants to walk, he sees the parents are walking, “why am I crawling around when everybody else is walking on two legs?” So, you have to have that determination, I am going to become a fixed-up devotee, so take all the encouragement Guru Mataji is giving, I'm giving you, and now you become a pure devotee qualified to push forward this movement and become very pleasing to Krishna.

Hare Krishna dasa: Srila Gurudev, kindly enlighten, to strengthen one's intelligence one must read, hear and do services... until one finds that intelligence is not sufficient enough to control the mind. In that condition what else one has to do?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari: Increase the intensity of your reading, intensity of your hearing, intensity of your service, and intensity of your begging Krishna. Begging Krishna, “My dear Lord Krishna, here I am, I want to be Your devotee, but I am carried away by lust, anger, greed, madness, illusion, and envy. I am being carried away. I am just like a helpless person being carried away. So please, my dear Krishna, help me, please help me. I am begging you, Krishna, please help me”. You intensify your prayers to be saved by Krishna and the Vaishnavas and the spiritual master. Intensify your prayers, Krishna is hearing every word, Krishna hears every word he knows, everything that is going on in your heart, he knows everything about what you are going through. So, intensify your prayers. Intensify your prayers. Intensify all your service…. ‘Let me do a better job of dressing Srila Prabhupada. Let me do a better job of cutting, making this offering. In a devotional mood, I just get it over with quickly. Let me intensify the quality of my service.’

So, is there anything else? Everybody satisfied now? We can end it?

Here we go…

Vishnurata:. Where does lusty desires come from?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari: It's the mode of passion. See, our original pure love to Krishna, is covered by this desire because of misuse of free will. Lust means serving my senses instead of serving servant of Krishna. That's lust. Love means satisfying Krishna. Love means sense gratification and lust also means sense gratification. The difference is love is satisfying the servant of Krishna and lust is satisfying my senses. That is lust. So, it is a simple thing, Vishnurata, it comes through misuse of free will, misuse of free will, that is where it comes from. Free will is there because you cannot love unless it's of your own free choice. Otherwise, it's forced. To love means you can't be forced to love. So, Krishna gives us a choice, “love Me or leave Me.” … So how many living entities make that foolish mistake? A very small fraction of the total number of living entities in all of existence. An infinitesimal fraction. An infinitesimal fraction of an infinite number of devotees in the spiritual world is an infinite number also. Take infinity, you go infinity times one over infinity equals infinity. So, we have an infinite number, that infinitesimal fraction of an infinite number of devotees in the spiritual world is an infinite number also. One take infinity and go infinity times, one over infinity equals infinity. So we have an infinite number, that infinitesimal fraction of an infinite number of devotees in the spiritual world is an infinite number of people who have made this stupid mistake of trying to enjoy sepeartely from Krishna. ‘I want to satisfy my senses instead of Krishna’. So, lust, very simple lust comes from misuse of free will. So now I have to take my free will that... ‘I misused, instead of wanting to satisfy Krishna I want to satisfy my tongue, my belly, my genitals, I want to satisfy my false ego.’ Here we are trying to satisfy ourselves in this way, but we have to realize. ‘That's not me. I'm foolishly trying to enjoy myself in a way where there is actually no enjoyment, there is only an illusion of enjoyment.’ There is no such thing as material happiness, only so-called material happiness. It's actually suffering masquerading as love, masquerading as happiness. Actually, here's how it works. This material world is simply a place of suffering. But when the suffering is not so bad, we think, now I'm enjoying it. It's like the example…., oh yeah, Guru Mataji gave this example, she got from Prabhupada …, the dunking stool. The criminal is put in a dunking…., he wasn't bad enough to be put to death, his crime wasn't bad enough to be put to death, so ... wanted to give him a heavy punishment so he won't do this again, …maybe it was thievery or something else. So, if it's a heavy punishment he's put to death, a heavy crime he's put to death. It's not the same as life in prison in Vedic culture. Put him to death, that's all, finished. So, he gets another chance at his next body. Life in prison is a crazy idea. They give a life sentence, it's ridiculous. It doesn't help the person get over the karma, it means he has to suffer in his next life for the sin that he did. You put him to death, that helps him get over his karma for the sin that he did and he gets a fresh start in his next life. So, this life imprisonment should be stopped and capital punishment should be increased…. But anyway, his crime was not so bad for capital punishment. So, they put him in this dunking stool and they dip him down in the water, he's underwater and he can't breathe. And he's almost on the point of dying from the lack of air and then they bring him up for a minute, “Haaaa” they put him down again. Many many times. He's almost dead, he comes up again, they put him down again. When he's up he thinks, “ah, now I'm happy”. So, our happiness is material world, it comes up from the dunking stool. The fact that it has been a horrible miserable situation, when it is not so bad, “ah now I am happy”.

So, anything else? Guru Mataji, do you want to add some points?... Vraj Kishore, do you want to add some points?

Vraj Kishore: Srila Gurudeva, I have... one point... I mean… I forgot, I was thinking something about it, I forgot, sorry. I don't remember now, I had something but I forgot.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari: All right ,any way, if you remember … So ask you all... I ask you all, my dear listeners I ask you all, why are you not asking more questions? Why are you so dull headed and not asking more questions? That's my question. Why are you so dull headed?( recording stopped …I hit the wrong button.) So, my dear listeners my question to you all is why are you not asking more questions? Then why... he's spacing out, it's going in one ear and out the other. Why are you not asking more questions? What's the difficulty? Can anybody say ,why are you not asking more questions? What's the difficulty? Can anybody say why you are not asking more questions? Gurumataji inspires unlimited questions. I don't know how... ( Guru Mataji says .. Hare Krishna, don't bring in it ...It is not very nice.)

Sankarshan Das Adhikari: Okay. If there's no more questions, I guess we'll stop here.

Gurumataji to Srila Gurudeva (Sankarshan Das Adhikari): You are dispensing them to ask me.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari: There's no more questions, we'll stop here. Are you sure there's no questions anybody before we end it? No more questions?... I'm absolutely sure there are no more questions.

Devotee: How can I know if someone is a positive thinker?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari:  It's very simple. If you are Krishna conscious, you are always Krishna conscious. You are a positive thinker. If there's some gaps in your Krishna consciousness, or you don't have any at all, you're not a positive thinker. Positive thinking means you're always Krishna conscious. If you slip off the track, then you are not so positive. You have some negativity mixed in. To not be Krishna conscious means you are a negative thinker. To be Krishna conscious means you are a positive thinker. So always be Krishna conscious in every situation, 24 hours a day, then you are truly a positive thinker. Otherwise, you are not so positive.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Yuga Dharma Devi dasi:  How can I increase my love for Krishna?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari:  That's a wonderful question. That means you have some love already. That's very  good. You have some love for Krishna. Some of us, we don't have any love at all, so you're ahead of us. You have some love for Krishna, that's very good. We should learn from you how we can develop love for Krishna too. Those of us who don't have any love at all for Krishna, we're simply full of lust, anger, greed, madness, illusion, envy. Those of us who don't have any love, we should learn from you how to have some love for Krishna. But for those who have some love for Krishna and want to increase it, you should associate with those people who do have love for Krishna. I know devotees who do have love for Krishna and associate with them as much as possible. Because of that association it will rub off on you. The other ..., sādhu-saṅga sādhu-saṅga sarva-śāstre kaya, lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya. All the scriptures declare that by associating with the devotees of the Lord, one can achieve all perfections. So that's the key, more association, more association, more association.

Okay….

Now there are a bunch of questions coming in.

Rob: Can you speak a bit on the idea of relief? Is it going in Krishna's design?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari:  No, relief is what we want. We all want relief. Right now (phone ringing…) we are caught up in all these lusty, angry, illusions, desires. We are caught up in all this stuff and we want relief from it. Krishna consciousness is the relief. Krishna consciousness is the relief. (after this phone goes…(Guru Mataji’s voice heard. Hare Krishna)) …) So, relief means to become Krishna conscious. Desiring relief is very good. ...very good ... relief is ...Actually, Krishna's design is relief. We should all become relived from this suffering. Just like the doctor's offer is there to relieve everybody from their suffering. But some people don't go to the doctor's office. They stay sick. The idea of relief is there in the human society. It's the doctor's office, for your material suffering. Like the dentist, you have a toothache, the dentist's office is there to help you. If you don't go to the dentist office you don't get relief from your toothache. That's the idea. Krishna desires is that everybody should be relieved. Krishna desire is that everybody should go back to home, back to God... to get relief. But if one doesn't seek relief, then they are not taking advantage of Krishna's design. They think, I'll go by my design.

Bhakta Sunil: Is crying the best way to get a higher taste in chanting?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari: Actually, if you are crying for Krishna, because you are not getting sense gratification, that won't work. You are crying for Krishna like a child crying for the mother. That is a very good mood. You can be chanting in that mood, you are in a very advanced position, like a child crying for the mother.

Okay…

Lila Manjari devi dasi: How can one become expert in all services free from mistakes?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari: Associate with devotees who are more advanced and freer from mistakes.  Associate with them and learn from them. That's the best thing. Find devotees who don't make mistakes, or make far less mistakes than you make, and learn from them. Their example will be inspirational for you.

Shama Priya Devadasi: Will sincere endeavour to follow regulated principles remove unlimited desires dormant and numb?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari: Yes. The more we are sincere in following these regulated principles, the more we become free from these lusty, angry, greedy desires that are polluting our hearts right now. So, the more you can be strict, no illicit sex, no meat eating, no intoxication, no gambling, the more you can be very strict and follow these, that will help you, oh yeah, it says sincere endeavour …to follow them, yeah. The desire… you see… we have these material desires, if you desire to follow the regulative principle and you keep following the regulative principle, those desires will dry up. Desires to eat anything, to have sex with anyone, all these desires that pollute the minds of the karmis… By following the regular principles and chanting Hare Krishna these desires will naturally dry up. It's like you don't see… if you don't water in the weeds they dry up and go away. Don't water the weeds. If you follow the regular principles, you don't water the weeds with all these illicit sinful desires. If you don't water the weeds, if you don't follow the weeds, they will go away in due course of time.

Okay…

Sharada devi dasi: How can one protect oneself from doing devotional service of one's sense gratification rather than the Guru and Krishna satisfaction?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari: Yeah, ‘I want to be recognized. Just see I am a big book distributor, just see how nicely I dress the deities, how nicely I cook an offering. All I want to do is do these services to be recognized’. But actually to be recognized by Krishna... Krishna's recognition, you see, “oh yes, this devotee is serving very nicely”. You should aspire to be recognized by Krishna for doing nice service. You should aspire to be that Krishna sees all, just see how this devotee is doing this nice service. We should be inspired by Krishna's recognition…we please Krishna… He notices us and we please Him ...we should aspire for that recognition.

Okay…

Bhakta Dhiraj:How to be fully dependent on Krishna while doing with material work responsibilities? I get fooled into thinking that I am the doer and that the results of my work depend only on my endeavour.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari: If you remember…What does Krishna say? “I am the ability in man”. So, if you ever do something very nice for … “ this is Krishna's mercy. I was able to make this flower garland. It's not my own ability. I made a flower garland and the devotee thought it was very nice and congratulated me. No, it's not my doing”. Devotee doesn't take credit for anything except for his mistakes. For doing things nicely he gives all credit to Guru and Krishna. Devotee takes no credit for anything he does nicely. Only for his mistakes he takes the credit.

Guru Vandana devi dasi: How to increase our determination to stay equipoised in all circumstances, accepting everything as the mercy of Krishna?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari :That is a very challenging thing we all have to learn how to do. How to be equipoised? Sometimes ‘I criticize, sometimes I glorify,’ how to be equipoised? That is a very very advanced level where I see everything equally. Honor and dishonor, happiness and distress, sickness and health, how to see everything in a very equipoised manner?

It is a very high position…

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
na śocati na kāṅkṣati
samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām.

That's the platform just prior to pure bhakti. Actually, it comes to that level, I see everything equally. Well, by sincere devotional service is the key. Sincerely hearing, sincerely chanting, sincerely serving, all of them very sincerely do all these things and you come in that position of being completely equipoised.

Govardhana dasa: I find it difficult to be always in Krishna consciousness. What should I do? Please enlighten me.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari:That's a problem we all have. Even our Acharyas pray like that. Of course, they're setting an example for us. Our mood should be, aparādha ghuci’, śuddha nāme ruci, kṛpā-bale ha’be hṛdoye sañcār. (singing) when my offenses ceasing, and faith for the name increasing, when in my heart will Your mercy shine... kabe ha’be bolo se-dina āmār... When oh ! when will that day be mine? This is the mood of our great acharya's ...Acarya teaches us the mood … hanker hanker …Bhakti Vinod says, “Hanker for that day, hanker for that day. When I can always be Krishna conscious”. We should hanker, just like somebody is hankering for material sense gratification, “I need to have that gratification now, I want it, I want it, I want it”... We should have that even more intense desire, even more intensely than somebody desires sense gratification with this desire, ‘when will I become, when will that day be mine, when will that day be mine’, everything perfectly in Krishna's service. And give this lazy, crazy attitude that ‘I don't care, I just want to gratify my senses.’… when we get rid of this desire to be a sense gratifier and actually when will that day come when I only only desire to satisfy Krishna?... We should intensely desire for that day and beg for it. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Bhaktin Sheela : Does crying for Krishna create self-pity?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari: It’s an interesting question. The question is, “Is Bhaktivinoda teaching us self-pity?” When he says,” when will I free of all these offenses? Is that self-pity?” That's an interesting question. “When will I become free from all these offenses?” Actually, we should feel, we should feel in a pitiful situation right now. “I'm not able… I make so many mistakes, I am so lazy, I have all these problems, I am so puffed up.” We should feel sorry for this, we should feel sorry about this. “I am in a pitiful situation right now.” We should feel in a pitiful situation. It is good to feel in a pitiful situation and cry for Krishna, “ please get me out of this pitiful situation. I mean, …, I'm not enthusiastic for service. I'm just lazy. I just want to get that service over as soon as possible and go to sleep”. We should feel in a very pitiful situation now. “Instead of wanting to satisfy Krishna, I want to satisfy my own sense. It's a pitiful situation”. We should feel “I'm in a very pitiful situation right now. When will I get out of this pitiful situation and become fully absorbed in serving my beloved Lord with every thought, mind and deed in all times, places and circumstances”.

Akuti Devi dasi: If one is eating only prasada but not doing any service, what will do next for furthering Krishna consciousness for him?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari: You can ask him, you are getting such benefits from this prasadam, would you like to help us distribute it to others? He is taking so much ecstasy taking prasadam, you can ask him , “Would you like to help us distribute it to others? You feel so much ecstasy taking prasadam, can I ask you if you'd like to help us distribute it to others? So, others can get the benefit that you're getting? That's how you can get engaged in more than service. “You like to help distribute prasadam to other people or have to donate to be distributed prasadam to other people”.

Okay…

Bhaktin Sunanada: How can we remember Krishna when we are not chanting or not doing any devotional service while engaged in material work?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari: Well, if you have an opportunity, one of the greatest things is to listen to Prabhupada lectures. That's a great way. I like to take walks, it's good for my health. And I listen to Prabhupada lectures. Yesterday I heard a big long lecture, I went around the block twice. I made an extra-long walk so I could hear the whole lecture. So, hearing lectures, if you can do it, it depends on your job and the situation. But if you can't do that, just put a picture of Krishna there so you can see Krishna while you are doing your work. There are so many ways. If you are eager to be Krishna conscious, Krishna will give you intelligence. How to be Krishna conscious even while you are doing material work. You have to be eager to be Krishna conscious and then Krishna will give you all intelligence.

Okay….

Hari.

Kirtan, Devi Dasi: By following instructions more and more deeply, will I feel spiritual master's presence always?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari: Yes. That's a fact. Prabhupada says, “I always feel my Guru Maharaj is with me. So, if you are intensely involved in devotional service, you always feel the spiritual master is with you and blessing you. Not only the spiritual master but whole disciplic succession ... You'll see how the mercy is showering upon you.

Okay, anything else? Okay, we'll go ahead and stop here.

We thank everybody for tuning in. If there's any last questions, go ahead before we end it.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama,

Thank you all very much for tuning in. Hare Krishna.