Sankarshan Das: Srimad Bhagavatam, 4th canto, chapter 23, verse 19

arcir nāma mahā-rājñī
tat-patny anugatā vanam
sukumāry atad-arhā ca
yat-padbhyāṁ sparśanaṁbhuvaḥ

arciḥ nāma — of the name Arci; mahā-rājñī — the Queen; tat-patnī — the wife of Mahārāja Pṛthu; anugatā — who followed her husband; vanam — in the forest; su-kumārī — very delicate body; a-tat-arhā — who did not deserve; ca — also; yat-padbhyām — by the touch of whose feet; sparśanam — touching; bhuvaḥ — on the earth.

Translation

“The Queen, the wife of Prthu Maharaja, whose name was Arhi, followed her husband into the forest. Since she was a queen, her body was very delicate. Although she did not deserve to live in the forest, she voluntarily touched her lotus feet to the ground”.

Purport

Because Prthu Maharaja's wife was the Queen and also a daughter of a king, she never experienced walking on the ground, for queens used to never come out of the palace. They certainly never went to the forest and tolerated all the difficulties of living in the wilderness. In Vedic civilization there are hundreds of similar examples of such renunciation on the part of queens and dedication to the husband. The goddess of fortune mother Sita followed her husband, Ramacandra when He went to the forest. Lord Ramachandra went to the forest in compliance with the order of His father, Maharaja Dasaratha, but mother Sita was not so ordered. Nonetheless, she voluntarily accepted the path of her husband. Similarly, Gandhari, the wife of King Dhrtarastra, also followed her husband into the forest. Being the wives of great personalities like Prthu, Lord Ramacandra and Dhrtarastra, these were ideal chaste women. Such queens also instructed the general people by showing them how to become a chaste wife and follow the husband in every stage of life. When the husband is king, she sits beside him as the queen, and when he goes to the forest, she also follows, despite having to tolerate all kinds of difficulties living in the forest. Therefore, it is said here that although she did not want to touch her feet to the ground, she nonetheless accepted all difficulties when she went to the forest with her husband. (End of Purport)

Vande ham sri-guroh sri-yuta-pada-kamalam sri-gurun vaishnavams ca

sri-rupam sagrajatam saha-gana-raghunathanvitam tam sa jivam

sadvaitam savadhutam parijana–sahitam krishna-caitanya-devam

sri-radha-krishna-padan saha-gana-lalita-sri-visakhanvitams ca

nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale

srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine

namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine

nirvisesha-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine

The women liberationists are absolutely shocked. The husband goes to the forest and the wife follows him to the forest. Their idea is the wife is in charge. She wants a husband. She can have him. If she doesn't, she can dump him. She is actually the, she is the controller of the supreme person and everyone should do what she said otherwise she'll dump them. That's the modern-day women's liberal mentality. Many of them are protesting. They call it the choice, pro-choice movement. If I want to kill my baby, it's my right. It's just a tissue. So, we're living in a very demoniac age when we don't see wives being very chaste. We want to get a father or a husband in all situations. Of course, if the husband is a rascal that's another thing. It's like some of my, some disciples, they have a rascal husband. So, if the husband is a rascal, the wife has no obligation to follow such a husband. If the husband is a very nice devotee, then obviously the wife should co-operate with him. Of course, it's not a one-way thing. I know my godbrother Tejas, he told us how his wife her name is Tejasvini and Prabhupada, they were living in Vrindavan and Tejasvini was going away again and again and Prabhupada was a marriage counselor, having to bring him back this quarreling outsider couple, bringing them back. So Prabhupada had to keep bringing Tejasvini back every time she would go away. Prabhupada said, what's the difficulty? Prabhupada said, she won't do what I say, Prabhupada. And Prabhupada said, she doesn't do what you say, and you should do what she said and this way live peacefully. So it's not a one way thing. From Prabhupada's wonderful examples, it needs a cooperation. It's not that the husband is the center or the wife is the center. Both mentality is wrong. The mentality is that the krishna is the center.  One of my disciples just wrote me that day that really no matter how hard I try I'm not happy. I'm trying to be happy but I can't be happy. I'm trying to get happiness but I'm not getting it. What am I doing wrong? I'm writing him an email right now because you're trying to get happiness. That's the difficulty. As long as we try to get happiness, we’re not going to have happiness. The key is you have to give happiness. The more you give happiness, the more you get it automatically. But you have to give giving, not taking. Trouble is this material way of a taking mood. I'm the source. I'm the enjoyer. Let me take, take, take as much gratification as I can get. But no, that is the wrong mentality. The hand thinks, let me take all the food I can get and not feed it to the stomach. Does the hand get satisfied? No. So, the more the hand gives satisfaction to the stomach, the more hand gets the satisfaction. So, we have to know the real mood is how to give happiness to Krishna. So, marriages are based on this, where the husband's trying to please Krishna, the wife is trying to please Krishna. You know very nice marriages, you see, in our movement. There are so many divorces now in the material world because they attracted to somebody for sex pleasure. If sex pleasure is fleeting, it doesn't stay. But today, the material attraction doesn't remain. Today I'm attracted to this woman, tomorrow I'm attracted to another woman. So, dump the first one and get the second one. Wife also attracted to this man, and I'm attracted to another man, dump him, let me get another man. As long as we base our happiness on our own personal enjoyment, we're not going to get satisfied. We're going to get a little pleasure from God and become distasteful for us. The position of ever-existing taste is to try to give pleasure to Krishna. In one's married life, you try to give pleasure to Krishna, in that marriage, that marriage will last. So, we have to think how to make Krishna, the center.

Isavasyam idam sarvam

yat kincha jagatyam jagat

tena tyaktena bhunjitha

ma grdhah kasya svid dhanam

(Isopanishad 1)

Krishna is in the center. Isavasha. The God centered mentality. This is very very important. This is what is lacking in the world today. These so-called leaders, I call them cheaters because they're not putting Krishna in the center. They're trying to put themselves in the center. That's the difficulty. They want to push themselves as the center and it doesn't work. Such leadership is ruining this planet. You think all these hellish things happening right now, the mass shootings, the drought, the hurricanes, the earthquakes, he thinks this is happening by chance? No way. This is a karmic reaction to the sinful activities going on this planet. The abortion, the cow slaughter, you name it, it goes on and on and on.you see. The illicit sex, the gambling, the intoxication, the meat eating, these things, we were getting karmic reactions from all these sinful things. So said that these leaders have no idea, they themselves are running after these sinful activities. If the leaders themselves are engaged in sinful activities, what can we expect of the people in general? Whatever a great man does, the common people follow in his footsteps, whatever standard he set by exemplary acts all the world pursues. So, the so-called great men are setting very, very, very bad examples and the people in general follow such examples. That's the difficulty. We need to have leaders who are Krishna conscious. That's the whole point. We need to have Presidents, Prime ministers, Senators, Congressmen, Governors, Mayors. All these people should be pure devotees of Krishna. And then the whole problem will be solved. The difficulty is democratic vote. So, the Prabhupada called it demoncracy. Demon cracy. Demon system. Demon crazy. We have a demon crazy society. Democracy means demon crazy. The best form of government is monarchy. When you have a Krishna conscious king who has absolute ruling authority, then things are very beautiful and wonderful. These kings, the Vedic kings, they were expert in the art of killing. Somebody, some rascal who was engaged in sinful activity, immediately punished, even kill him. They would give capital punishment on the spot. If somebody was engaging in very sinful activity, just kill him. This, such, Nowadays, somebody's guilty of a sinful activity, as I previously gave an example, there was this man here in Austin, they gave him, he murdered somebody, they gave him so many years in prison and then he let him out and he again started murdering again. This ridiculous thing, well give him 20 years in prison, let him out early for good behavior, it's all nonsense. Now somebody who's guilty of murder immediately kill him. Actually, it's the best thing. Somebody who's guilty of murder and they immediately put to death, they overcome the karmic reaction for having killed that person. They're put to death as reciprocation, they get over the karmic reaction. But if they're not put to death, then that's just accumulating again. That's going to come over time in so many ways of suffering. So, the best, the capital punishment is the best thing to peace in the society and the best thing for the karma of that person also. But these fools and rascals who put somebody in prison they give them a life sentence and let them out early for good behavior and it's so ridiculous. They have no idea of justice. How to punish criminals in a proper way that benefits the criminals. It benefits the human society. So, this is why Prabhupada's books is so important. I should be required reading it. If somebody wants to run for office, they have to say, I've read all Prabhupada's books and I'm following Prabhupada's books. That should be the requirement for office; run for any political post. You have to be Krishna conscious. You should be initiated devotee before you can run for political office. We have to raise the standards now and make a God conscious society. We have to raise the standards, put Krishna in the center, but they don't want to put krishna in the center. They want to put sense gratification in the center. That's a big, big, big, big problem. They want to put sense gratification in the center of society. Civilization based on sense gratification is not civilization. It's uncivil, non-civil. Civil means peaceful where is the where is the it's not a civilization that's a misnomer. The atheist of non-civilization so what can we do all begin with us, my dear listeners, my dear devotees. It all begin with us. As Prabhupada very wonderfully points out in his purport, if one chants the holy name of the Lord without offense, he becomes a God-guru, and under his influence everybody takes up the chanting of Hare Krishna. So, we devotees now have to come to the standard, here we are still hankering in the platform of sense gratification ourselves, holding back the krishnaization of this planet. So, each one of us now should become very serious now to become pure devotees. So, we can influence the whole world but simply by our own purity, we can influence the whole world to become Krishna conscious. My disciples wrote me about restrictions, how there's restrictions on my preaching, but actually the only restrictions we put on our preaching is our own impurities, our lust, our anger, our greed, our madness, illusion, and envy. The only restrictions in our preaching are our own impurities. No other restrictions are there because our impurities are gone, then we can make the whole world Krishna conscious. That's the only thing required. All I need is to be a pure devotee and then I'll be automatically able to make the whole world Krishna conscious. So, it's time now to come to that position. We must become pure devotees. Suddha Vaishnavas, pure devotees of Krishna. Giving up all of our bad habits, our laziness, our craziness, our sensiveness, our argumentiveness. We have to give up all these things and become solely, wholly fixed on the transcendental platform beyond the modes of nature. No longer imprisoned beneath the ropes of these modes. Guna means rope. By now we're tied with ropes. satva guna, raja guna, tamo guna, these are all ropes. Even the mode of goodness is a rope entangling us in the cycle of birth and death. It's better than the other modes in that mode of goodness you can go farther to pure goodness but the goodness without going to pure goodness is another entanglement. Oh, I'm a very good person. I feed the poor. I open a charity hospital. So, what is the result? Well, I gave charity to all those people, free medical care, and guess what? Now they get to give me free medical care in the future lives, you see. I get to take a birth again to each of those persons, give me free medical care. You see the entanglement of the motive goodness? So, we have to come to the transcendental platform, Suddha Vaishnava, Suddhanaam. We have to come to that transcendental platform where there's no more entanglement. But why are we holding on to the modes of nature? Even though we know better, we're still foolishly clinging to this idea I can enjoy separately from Krishna. We're clinging, clinging, clinging, surely there must be some way I can enjoy without being Krishna conscious. We're clinging, clinging, clinging in this nonsensical platform of trying to enjoy separately from Krishna but it doesn't work. You want to be now it's not good still we addicted to it after millions of lifetimes of making ourselves a center we had this addiction to egocentrism. We're addicted to it. So, we have to kick out this egocentricism and come to Krishna-centrism. That's the way to come. Krishna-centricism. We have to put Krishna in the center. So, how do we do that? Well, the scriptures are there to help us. Krishna is speaking in the Bhagavad Gita. Lord Brahma is speaking in the Brahma Samhita. There is so many wonderful scriptures that help us learn the art and mastering the art and fully implement this art of putting Krishna back in the center. If not difficult, if we take shelter of the devotee association, take shelter of the spiritual master’s mercy, take shelter of Prabhupada's books, it's not difficult if we actually take shelter, but the difficulty is we're so proud, we're so puffed up, we don't think we need to think shelter. We think we're already properly situated even though we're still lusty, angry, greedy, mad and something madness, illusion and everything. We're so foolishly improperly situated. So, we have to kick out this idea that I'm properly situated and learn from the great acharyas and teach us how to approach Krishna in this mood of not being captive by the modes of nature. That's our position. Right now, we are captive by the modes of nature. So, we should learn the Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Narottam, who have been all these wonderful songs, to help us understand in our fallen position how should we hankering and be out of it. Kabe Ha'be Bolo Sei Dina Amar When, O, when will that day be mine? So, we should be hankering, hankering, yearning, craving that day, craving it, intensely craving that day, that moment when I can kick out all these anarthas and become qualified to see Krishna directly, face to face. When we come to that position, why are we holding on to this so-called enjoyment position in the material world, but foolishly holding on to the idea that we can enjoy separately from Krishna. Kindly understand that my dear devotees, my dear listeners, it is not possible to ever enjoy separate from Krishna. Again, we're still, whole again told that somehow, I can enjoy separate from Krishna. It's impossible, we still go on doing it. Still, we go on doing it again and again and again. We're habituated to trying to enjoy separately from Krishna. Just like somebody wrote me today, they have this trouble with masturbating. From time to time, they fall down and they masturbate because they have this idea, they can enjoy separate from Krishna. We have to understand there is no enjoyment just like the scripture says,

Yan maithunadi-grhamedhi-sukham hi tuccham

that happiness, sexual intercourse, which is the original number one pleasure for the Grhamedis, the householders, the materialistic householders,he took it's indeed insignificant. So, we try to enjoy the sex pleasure that the householders try to do, sometimes the men try to masturbate and enjoy, try to enjoy some pleasure of the sex enjoyment but actually it's simply insignificant. It has no significance. Nothing compares to the pleasure of

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

So, we have to learn how to dive deep, how-to deep-sea dive in the nectar of the holy name. We have to learn how to do that. How to take shelter of the holy name. That's our saving grace. That's what makes us actually happy when we learn it. Take the shelter of the holy name. Krishna has personally come. Not that you have to go back to Godhead directly to approach Krishna. Krishna has now directly come to you in the form of His holy name.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Here comes Krishna, are you willing to, do you want His association or not? Well, I got other things to do later on, I'll chant Hare Krishna. Wait a minute, God himself has come and you don't want to associate with Him? What kind of idiocy is that? God Himself has come directly and you don't want to associate with Him? It's time we become a little intelligent my dear listeners, my dear devotees. It's time we wake up and come out of this dream state, there's any happiness separate from Krishna consciousness. It's time we kick out this illusion from our mind that thinking we can enjoy separately from Krishna. There's absolutely zero enjoyment outside of Krishna. Therefore, as Prabhupada told me, all material desires, zero. That's the position we must come to, all material desires, zero. Wipe them all out. The Buddhist tries to do that also, emerging into the void. But the person who's also trying to do that, emerging into the oneness. But those positions give what we, in fact, the Buddhistic or the personal liberation, you can temporarily fly in the sky of Brahmā, but because there's no satisfaction there, only denying the material satisfaction, well, tanti, you know, they fall back in their material existence. So, we have to learn how to be satisfied by giving happiness to Krishna. We have to chant Hare Krishna in such a way that Krishna will be pleased. You are chanting to please Krishna not to please yourself. That is a very important thing to understand. We are chanting Hare Krishna not to enjoy the holy name. We are trying to chant Hare Krishna in such a way to please Krishna. We are surrendering Krishna. Just imagine Radha and Krishna are there, actually they are, and we're singing, we're chanting and singing for their pleasure. We want to sing for their pleasure. We want to chant for their pleasure. Just visualize that when you chant Hare Krishna, Radha and Krishna is there, I want to please them by the way I chant. By the mood of my chanting, the feeling of my chanting, the enthusiasm of my chanting, I want to please them. So, we chant in that mood,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Then we'll start to get, then we'll start to really get connected to be online with Krishna. Because now everybody wants to be online with the internet. But there's another internet which has been there since time immemorial is Krishna-net. So, if we want to get online, you want to be tuned in to the Krishna-net. The password is

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

You want to log in and the paths gets log in to Krishna consciousness. Chant the pathway Hare Krishna mantra and this way we'll be on; we'll be online with Krishna directly in contact with Him 24 X 7. That is the position I want to come to. Directly in contact with Sri Sri Radha and Krishna 24 hours a day. That's the position we want to come to. So, if you're not diligent, if you don't want to take this process seriously, that means you think you can enjoy, you're foolishly thinking you can enjoy separately from Krishna. But try to understand my dear listeners, there is absolutely no happiness outside of Krishna consciousness. The hand cannot enjoy by shutting itself off from the body. It's not possible. The hand can only enjoy by serving the interest of the entire body. So, it's time to come out of the hallucination and wake up to our actual original identity as the eternal servants of Krishna. Let's see if there's any questions rolling in. Here we have one from Vishnurata.

Vishnurata - In society sometimes women are killed due to their being unchaste to the faithful husbands. How to correct this?

Sankarshan Das - Well, the husband has to be chaste also. They need proper husbands, giving protection. The husband actually giving protection to the wife should be happy, to take shelter of such a husband. The husband, the Prabhupada actually explains that women like ornaments, The husband should give some nice ornaments to the wife. That's one thing I just read yesterday in the Prabhupada’s books. So, the husband should take all care. She's happy and satisfied. Give her nice clothing, nice sari, nice ornaments, nice prashadam. Give her a nice atmosphere in the home with a deity worship going on or at least a nice altar with photographs. Make a nice atmosphere, so she can be happy. So, if the husband is not giving a proper attitude, maybe he should be killed instead of the wife. So, we have to at the time, this idea, she says to the husband, it's a very nice idea, but they made up some dogma out of it. Instead of understanding the principle behind it. That means the husband has to give proper protection to the wife, proper shelter to the wife. So, they should kill the husband instead of the wife. If the husband is not doing his job, why don't they kill the husband? So, if we bring Krishna consciousness back to the center, this will solve all these problems. I'm safe by not protecting husband. It's simply due to a lack of Krishna consciousness. If there is Krishna consciousness it solves everything automatically. It's like a controversy in this country. We call women Mathajis. We call them Prabhu. What's the big fight over? No, I say Prabhu. No, I say mathaji. A big fight has been going on. But my dear devotees, try to understand that these politics are not an important thing. The important thing is to be Krishna conscious. If you're Krishna conscious, then Super soul guide you how to deal with all these controversies in such a way, that everybody becomes happy. The difficulty is that all these controversies in this time means we are not Krishna conscious. Controversy means lack of Krishna consciousness. That's what it means. So, we put Krishna back in the center, Krishna will give all intelligence how to deal with all these conciousness. He made me should say, matajis and prabhus. So, anyway, be Krishna conscious, that's the key and that will solve everything. Time to wake up, get out of the sleep under the lap of the Maya, witch.

Leela Smriti - How do we not become discouraged due to the behaviour of devotees and even some Vaishnavas?

Sankarshan Das -That's a very nice question Leela Smriti. Well, one thing Leela Smriti understands is our behaviour is not perfect either. That's the first thing you have to understand. I may be disturbed, but I think it's the devotees not behaving properly that get all disturbed. We have to see how we're not behaving properly also. In other words, trying to find fault with others, look for your own faults. Isn't that Lord Chaitanya’s instruction?

trnad api sunicena

taror iva sahisnuna

amanina manadena

kirtanya sada harih

(Sri Siksataka 3)

One should chant the holy name of the lord with the humble state of mind thinking himself lower than the grass on the street, having all respect to others but not expecting any respect to himself. In such a state you go on chanting,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

in a state of ever-increasing bliss. So that's why it's a magnet, straw in the teeth, straw in the teeth of this un-humility. When there's controversy, put a piece of straw in your teeth. We're not interested in controversy. We're only interested in Krishna consciousness. We're not interested in behaviuor. If your behaviour, what does it say? Apani Acari Prabhu Jivere Sikhay. The point is, if you become an ideal Vaishnava, everybody is inspired by you. You become a pure devotee and everybody is inspired to become pure devotees by your example. So, when someone is not behaving properly, you behave even more properly. Instead of saying, I have to scold them and chastise them, let me become even more proper in my behaviour and that will become inspired by my even more proper behaviour. Here's something you can try. Put that to work and see how it happens. You can let me know how that works in your situation. Let me know.

Visnurata Das. - We take everything is happening as a result of Krishna, then why can’t democratic government doesn't represent it.?

Sankarshan Das – Visnurata Das understand Krishna says, I am the source of knowledge, remembrance and forgetfulness. Krishna gives facility if you want to forget Krishna, He'll give you the facility, you can forget Him forever. That's also Krishna's arrangement Krishna gives you according to what you want. Krishna is not forcing us to be robots. Krishna wants our love and love cannot be forced. So, Krishna gave us the freedom to do what we want. So, all these nonsense things going on because Krishna gave them the freedom to be rascals like one of the rascals. So, Krishna is neutral but the Vaishnava, the devotee is not. Krishna is neutral but the devotee is not. So, the devotee comes in, says, okay, stop doing this. You're calling yourself unnecessarily suffering.

Hare Krishna Das -Your Grace said chanting should be pleasing to Krishna rather than us. What mood pleases Krishna the most?

Sankarshan Das - My dear Lord Krishna, please engage me in Your pure devotional service. Simple answer. Okay.

Govardhan Das - Oh, I just, I don't know if you got my answer. I already wrote it but I don't know if I sent it. Krishna, is there, while chanting, how to see Him that is only a sound vibration? In other words, How do you feel Krishna when you're chanting His name? How do you feel His presence?

Sankarshan Das - It’s an excellent question. Krishna is present in His sound but if I don't, if I'm not chanting with devotion, I'm just chanting to get it over with. I'm not going to feel His presence. That's the problem we neophytes have. We want to get our rounds over as soon as possible, get out of us making the offering, get out of these things as soon as possible so I can go to sleep. That's the problem we neophytes have, you see. We don't do baktya, we don't do things with devotion, we don't do things with devotion. We do it to get him over with so I can go do something else. That's the problem we neophyte have. So, we have to beat our mind with the shoes and say you rascal mind, why are you like this? You have to learn how to do things bhaktya, devotion. That's the key. So, when you actually do with devotion, you'll feel how Krishna is present and blessing you unlimitedly.

Anything else? If nothing else, we can stop here. If there's nothing else, we can stop here. Thank you for tuning in.

Kunti Devi Dasi -Still I am struggling for attentive chanting.

Sankarshan Das - Welcome to the club. We're all struggling with attentive chanting. We neophytes all have that problem. The problem we all have is that. We have to learn how to overcome that unattentive chanting. We have to become a position of Suddhanaam. Then we can make the whole world Krishna conscious. Our inattentive chanting is nama-aparadh. We are committing nama-aparadh. That's why we are not making the whole world Krishna conscious.

Anything else? Okay, we thank you for tuning in.

Hare Krishna Hare krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.