The jewel of Bhagavad-gita: relationship with Krishna

Sri Madhan-Madhuri Kunja Ashram, Vilnius
Hari-katha by Sripad Vasanta Prabhu
2018-04-21

Anxiety comes from choosing oneself

Now you are so lucky, Gurudeva gave you a place in the ashram. This is such a golden time, which you can use for remembering, chanting, serving. Many people are thinking, “With my mind I can become enlightened”, but this is not true. It is necessary to pay attention. Mahamantra is not opening the mind, it is opening the heart, so by chanting it love is born. Otherwise, if you are going to any philosopher or do any other practice, the idea might come that, “Oh, I know what the truth is”. But knowing the truth and experiencing the truth is very different, so therefore now, as you are young, you must perform bhajana.

All our Acharyas have said that the main limb of bhakti is harinama-sankirtana – to perform bhajana, to chant the name of God. So many things you can do in devotional life – meditation, yoga, arcana, puja, fire yagya and etc., but from all of those activities harinama-sankirtana is the most important. Why? Right now you don’t understand why it’s important to chant all day long, but after some time you will.

I remember my years in India. At that time I was of your age, and I was lucky to have some faith in Gurudeva. He said, “You should chant”, and I chanted. For one year I was chanting sixty-four rounds. And then the result came: I had more faith in Gurudeva and more focus on him. Before I was thinking, “I have to go back to Mexico, or maybe I should go and enter the university and study psychology, do this and that”. But at that time I was only chanting God’s name and I understood that this is enough. Gurudeva is enough in my life, and having realized this happiness came into my heart. After that my mind was not complicated anymore.

I have no fear. I understand that Gurudeva is a pure devotee, and in my life pure devotee is granted. I already have the greatest wealth, so I must focus. I am preserving my wealth. And how I am adoring my wealth? I’m serving what God has given to me.

The problem is that we are always thinking that happiness is somewhere else, not present, and we have to achieve it, we have to go somewhere else, but bhakti already came, harinama came, already everything is there. But we have no consciousness of appreciation of what we have. We start looking here and there very stressed about our personal happiness. Where will I go? What will I find? How can I survive? Anxiety, stress…

So why do you need to chant all the time? Because the mind is very stupid. Actually Krishna is already with us, but we don’t understand – we have no focus, no love, no connection. Therefore we need to remember constantly, and that will become a habit. Then love will go towards Krishna, towards Guru, towards Vaishnavas, towards all living entities, and your heart will become warm. Why? If you have love for God, automatically you will have love for Guru. If you have love for Guru, you will have love for Vaisnavas and, if you have love for Vaisnavas, then you will have compassion for everyone. This is real compassion, real love. This happens in your heart.

Why do you feel fear? You should understand – my body is temporary, therefore one day my body will die. You must accept this fact. Where are you running? Where are you going?

Your body will die, it is already dead. I use this time in my body for bhajana, because I understand that my soul is eternal. Also I understand that the soul has potential to love. Of course, there is a possibility to do nothing – for example, mushrooms do nothing in their lives. (Smiling) But human body is meant for love.

Gopis have no anxiety or stress. They remember Krishna all the time and this is enough. Love is enough. But as human beings, we don’t understand that love is enough. We are always thinking that something else should give us happiness. So today in our lecture we will review Bhagavad-gita and I will explain this principle. Now young people are always thinking, “I must do something with my life. I must achieve something”, but this kind of thinking only brings anxiety. In the material world everybody is telling, “You must be like this, you must be like that, you must,…”

But why we don’t listen to Gurudeva? This is the main question. In United Nations politicians gather and speak about peace, but they are politicians, everyone is only doing business. If you really want to hear about peace, listen to the sadhus. What is sadhu thinking, how is he living? He is not the capitalist, so what he says will be very different. But we don’t want to listen to sadhu… Then how possible that happiness will come? Simply by surrendering to sadhu one day I will understand that sadhu has good will for me, that he is trying to give me happiness, I must just trust, let go of anxiety. Sadhu is helping and, if I am appointed, if I follow, I will have no anxiety.

It is also important to understand that it’s not me, but Krishna is doing everything. Bhagavad-gita shows us a very simple principle. Arjuna is not driving the horses, Krishna is driving, He has the reins of the horses, so He is taking Arjuna everywhere. Arjuna is trusting Krishna, “Wherever you take me, to that place I will go, I will be safe”. He is in the middle of the battle, surrounded by arrows from everywhere. Krishna is an expert driver. Arjuna has no anxiety, because anxiety comes from choosing oneself. The moment you give the horses to Krishna, your anxiety will be over – bas. “Gurudeva, you please take my horses – wherever you take me, I humbly go”. Gurudeva is an expert driver, he will not take you to the dangerous places. Why would he take you to the dangerous places? So there is no need for anxiety.

How to make a right choice?

This week a very important question came. How do I know that I make the right choice in my life? Many people are trying to understand what is the right action, what is the nature of the right action and what is going to lead us to happiness, what is finally going to give us what we are looking for? Many people are thinking that the path of yoga or the path of meditation is a passive path, which means you stop your actions, attachments and at the end of the day you will attain cessation of activities, and then go to nothing. But this will not give the highest benefit.

Another path is based on performance of dharma, which means correct actions based on the main values: truth, discipline, kindness (ahimsa) and purity. Based on these values people act correctly and then eventually they get to the platform of stability, but this will not give the highest goal, too. Meanwhile in Bhagavad-gita it is said that actually the path of devotion, the path of bhakti is the highest. The key word in Bhagavad-gita is devotion. There is the difference between the path of devotion and the path of merging into nothing or merging into everything. So one philosophy is saying that everything is illusion and nothing exists (sunyavada), there is also another philosophy, mayavada, wich says, “God exists, but actually He has no personality – He is just a state of consciousness”. So it is important to know these things. The Shankaracharya’s mayavada philosophy is very deep, but it says that you are part of everything, you have no personality, so you merge into everything, into Brahmanda…

So now we start to understand the dynamics of consciousness. What is possible within the realm of consciousness? Everything is possible within the consciousness, but in Bhagavad-gita it’s not said that this is the highest goal. In Bhagavad-gita Krishna is explaining what is the highest goal and how to attain it. So remember – the key word in Bhagavad-gita is devotion. How do we define devotion? There is a story in Bhagavad-gita, which is an example of how can we attain the understanding of Supreme Lord.

Context of the Bhagavad-gita

In the times when Bhagavad-gita was spoken, there were to factions fighting for India. They belonged to the same family, but they were devided. There is an antagonist Duryodhana, he was the son of the king, and there is another character Arjuna, whose father is actually the king, but he has been exiled through cheating. Arjuna was the son of King Indra, who is the king of the demigods. From the very young age he has a very personal relationship with Krishna, they are cousins. Arjuna and his brothers, five Pandavas, were very virtuous sons of powerful demigods.

So in Mahabharata war (it was the greatest war in India) these 2 sides were fighting for kingdom. Pandavas were fighting on the right faction that sustains dharma and right activity, and on the other side was Duryodhana, whose faction was fighting for dominating over the land, they have incurred all sorts of sinful and wrong activities. Pandavas have some followers, but actually they are very small, so they are challenging the entire empire. It’s the same like Lithuania would challenge America. There is no comparison in power. So Arjuna and his brothers were very virtuous, but actually they were challenging the greatest empire in the whole world, which was on the side of Duryodhana.

The key player in the battle was Sri Krishna, because at that time Krishna was a big king, He ruled a big portion of India. He had the kingdom of Dvaraka and He had married 16,000 queens, those queens also had some support from their parents, so by that time Krishna had a really big army. It was clear that he, who wins the battle, will win the whole India. So this is the context of Bhagavad-gita. This is what happens before Krishna speaks the Bhagavad-Gita.

A day before the battle started, Sri Krishna was taking rest in His palace, when both Duryodhana and Arjuna as leaders of the imposing armies went to see Krishna, because Krishna had declared, “I cannot fight, because I am God, so I can’t take physical place in any of the sides, it would be unfair. I will participate, but I will not use or touch any weapon, because it will be unfair for the other side”. So He was taking rest and they both showed up for negotiation – what Krishna will give each of them? The first one who arrived at the palace while Krishna was taking rest was Duryodhana, who was full of greed for power, safety, security and stability of his career as a great stateman, as a great king. So this represents the part of ourselves that wants career, that wants success in life in this way. In Bhagavad-gita success is portraited as a character of Duryodhana. So he
was not satisfied with what he already had, which was a lot, and he wanted a lot more. He wanted everything. Greed is insatiable. So he wanted to become the greatest king in the whole world.

Duryodhana arrived first and he was thinking, “Since I am the greatest king of India at the moment, I must sit nearby the head of Krishna”. So he sat down and patiently waited for Krishna to wake up. Arjuna came second, and when he saw Krishna, Arjuna started to think, “Krishna is my very dear friend, my best friend and actually He is my superior, He is superior than me in everything, therefore I must humbly sit at His feet”. So this is the way of thinking of two factions. One is thinking, “I should be at the head”, and devote is always thinking, “I should be at the feet”. So this is the fundamental difference in character.

Am I at the head or am I at the feet of God?

This is the fundamental difference in the vision of who God is. One wants to be at the head of God, and even rule God, and the other wants to be at the service of God, at the feet of God. This is the number one thing that we must consider when we have to make a choice – am I at the head or am I at the feet? Arjuna is telling us what is the right mood towards God. Why? God is supreme. In this world we can think, “I am the king of my company, or I am the king of my own business, I am the king of my family and etc.” But in reality who is the king? God is always the king. So it is important for the devotee is to understand that the position of oneself is that we have freedom, but the king is already there, so the best we can do is humbly accept our position and accept that we are at the feet of God. It doesn’t matter how much we try, we will never surpass God. So many have already have tried.

When Krishna woke up from His sleep, naturally the first person He saw was the person at His feet. So by right when Krishna woke up and saw Arjuna first, he got the chance to choose first. Krishna gave option, “To one of you I will give my entire army, and to another one – I will participate in the war as your chariot driver”. These are the two things that God has – He has His entire army, He has His entire wealth, and He has himself. So He was saying, “You are choosing Me – I will participate in war, but I can only drive your chariot”. So He gave the capacity to choose to Arjuna first, because he saw Arjuna first.

Duryodhana protested, “Why he gets first to choose if I came in the room first?” Then Krishna said, “Because I saw him first, therefore I must give the right to himto choose”. So He asked Arjuna, “What do you want?” Arjuna could have chosen the entire army, because the war is about winning, yes..? When you win the war you will be safe, wealthy, you will be very powerful, you will have the capacity to define some laws, so that people can be fine… But Arjuna did not choose the horses and the elephants, because he went with the quality of his relationship. He thought, “Is it better to lose the war with Krishna by my side than to win a war with Krishna as my enemy. How could I do that? Krishna can’t be my enemy, I will never fight against Him, this is not possible for me”. So on the basic on sambandha, relationship, Arjuna chose not the power of God, but a relationship with God as his friend.

The jewel of Bhagavad-gita: relationship with Krishna

So many people are saying, “Bhagavad-gita is the holy book of India, like a Bible in India”. While distributing this book, devotees say, “You’ll find the answers to all your questions. This book is about the battle, it is about the greatest warrior in the history and how God came to council him”. So if you ask, most people would tell you that this is a book about war. But it is not a book about war, it is a book about friendship. The main thing about Bhagavad-gita is that it is not about war and choices that Arjuna took, it is about the relationship that Arjuna had with God that took him to the right choices and to the peace of mind and happiness that he was looking for. This entire book is based on relationship. What is the jewel that you can get from Bhagavad-gita? Look at the relationship between Arjuna and Krishna – that is what the book is about. It this is not about intellectual consciousness and it is not about the established truths that you can get from anywhere. It is about the fact that Arjuna chose to believe in Krishna and fight with Krishna by his side – not because he wanted to win, but because he had a relationship with Krishna – this is the most important thing. The jewel of Bhagavad-gita is the choice made according to the relationship.

So whenever you have a choice in life, you have to choose according to the relationship, not according to what you think will happen in the future if you do that. You choose according to sambandha, according to relationship. There is this core belief that by performing a lot of work I will be successful and, if I am successful, then everybody will accept me, I will attain happiness. There is this core idea that if Krishna gives me a lot of wealth, talent, qualification or beauty, then I will be happy. These core ideas that we carry inside of our hearts lead us to lust, greed and anger. Why? Because if you have something but you do not have relationship with God – what will you do with all what you have?

For example you have a lot of money, but you do not have relationship with God – what are you going to use your money for? You can use your money to please yourself, but how can love come from that? There will be emptiness in the heart. If you have no relationship, you are not giving. If there is no relationship, there is no trust. If there is no trust, there is no love. If there is no love, there will be no satisfaction. Although there can be success, but there will be no satisfaction. So you can win a war with an army, but what is the use of the army if you don’t have a good relationship with God, if there is no love? It will only make you selfish, it will automatically lead you to dissatisfaction. If you have a lot and you are not satisfied – how will you try to satisfy this need? You will want more. Once you have more, you will want even more. And once you have more, you will want even more. Why? Because nothing is enough.

Arjuna is setting an example from the beginning by saying, “Krishna, You are enough for me. I choose You, You are enough, I am satisfied with Your friendship, so I choose You”. Krishna answered, “Very well, I will be your chariot driver here in the battle, and for you, Duryodhana, I will give My army”. Duryodhana was very happy, he though, “Okay, I have already won the battle, because now on the top of the biggest army I have Krishna’s army”. It is like the armies of USA and China would unite for the fight – that is overwhelming.

So Duryodhana thought, “Okay, I will win the battle, I have all the army, I have all the power of God”. But this is not the story about power, it is the story about love. Why? Krishna tells in Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna, “Try to understand that all are already death, I have already killed all these big armies in front of me, I have already swallowed them, because I am time, I am death. Everybody in this battle field is meant to die, try to realize that. All these kings and warriors – it is a temporary thing. I am God, I have already killed them, I have already defeated them. They are temporary. Ahankara, the ego is temporary, it will not last”.

So Krishna asked Arjuna, “Why are you grieving? Your duty as a warrior is to fight. I trust you so much that I Myself came to drive your chariot”. So the Bhagavad-gita is a book about relationship. A relationship between a warrior and his best friend. If you see it in such light then you understand that it is a book about love, a book about two people who are of one heart, who believe in what is good.

Pain comes from attachment to the results of our actions

In Bhagavad-gita (2.47) Krishna says,

karmaṇy-evādhikāras te mā phaleṣhu kadāchana
mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo ’stvakarmaṇi

You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction.

What gives us the pain in life? The pain in life comes from that we are always attached. If I show up in the class and I am attached to the fact that everybody will like me or to the fact that everybody will believe in me, or that everybody will see that I am more advanced than everybody, that everybody will respect me, that everybody will give me praise – I will suffer. In this way I cannot act with love, because I want the result from my actions.

Krishna tells, “Arjuna, do not do that to yourself. You are a warrior, your job is to fight. I am here with you, I am driving your chariot, so fight, conquer with a blazing fire of the truth and remember that it is all about the relationship with Me. When you perform the action, offer that action to Me – your action is the gift. It does not matter if you win or lose, what matters is that you have connection with Me, sambandha with Me, because then you have attained the highest possible level of consciousness”.

So we do what we do, because we think it will make us happy in the future by the result of the action. But actually what we need to learn from the Bhagavad-gita is that we should do what we do in the present with love, and as an offering without attachment to the result or the action itself – this is called bhakti-yoga. If in this moment you are doing anything and you are offering it with love to God – it will never perish because of your relationship, your connection, which is not a material thing. If you are expecting that you will have a result in the future, you will suffer in your mind, because there is no possible way that you can calculate that your action is going to be exactly what you expect. The variables are so many. For all I know the president of United States could bomb China tomorrow and what did you do with your life? Maybe the world goes to war – it does not depend on you, even if you are doing everything right. If somebody is stupid, he can affect you. But if you are centered in your yoga and you understand that at all the moments I have an eternal relationship with God, and the best possible thing that I can do with my life is to have a loving relationship, be friendly to God… So once again – the best thing to understand is that my life is an offering at every moment. It is a possibility of establishing a good relationship with God. Then anxiety will leave and happiness will come, because you are already there.

So this week the question came, “What should I choose, should I choose to have my job or should I choose to do bhakti? Well, depending on what your priorities are. If you believe that having Krishna’s army is going to give you more happiness than being with Krishna, then you might pursue material life endlessly. In our Western society we have this thinking that we must achieve success, that enlightenment is something where you are greater than the others… We expect that people will respect us for what we have done, for the path that we have walked. But life is not about that. It is not about being right. It is about love, because only love satisfies. You can attain everything else in the universe, but if you do not have love, you will never feel satisfied.

So if you are looking for satisfaction, then it is very simple. Even if you have an army, even if you win the battle – your kingdom is temporary, because the king is God. Everything already belongs to God. So it is not about winning or loosing, it is not about temporary success. It is about our internal relationship – this is the message of Bhagavad-gita. In 11 th chapter Krishna says:

bhaktyā tv ananyayā śakya
aham evaṁ-vidho ’rjuna
jñātuṁ draṣṭuṁ ca tattvena
praveṣṭuṁ ca paran-tapa

My dear Arjuna, only by undivided devotional service can I be understood as I am, standing before you, and can thus be seen directly. Only in this way can you enter into the mysteries of My understanding.

Bhagavad-gita 11.54

So here Krishna is declaring that only by devotion we might understand who Krishna is. Arjuna shows us a higher relationship with God than the one of servant, who daily asks for bread and butter from God. He speaks about the relationship, based of friendship. He is not asking, “Krishna, I want to win the battle, give me Your army”. He is asking, “Krishna, please be with me in my darkest hour, all I need is Your friendship. Your friendship is enough for my fulfillment, even if I die in the first minutes of the battle – the last person I am going to see will be You, so my life is complete”. So actually Arjuna has already won the battle, because he has already reached satisfaction. He is saying, “I am already satisfied with what I have”.

You already have Krishna!

I see unhappiness in devotees. Some of them are practicing twenty, thirty years, but there still is so much unhappiness. Why? Because you are trying to see that there is something that you are going to achieve in the future, but you already have harinama – you already have Krishna, He has come, He has manifested and He is already speaking to you, guiding you, taking you. But the problem is in our heart, our heart is so cold and dissociated from love that we think God is an idea, that He is somebody who we will meet in the future, we can’t feel His presence… Why? Because we don’t honor His presence. We have not honoured His presence for millions of lifetimes. So we do not realize that God is already present in our heart. In the Bhagavad-gita it is declared that God lives in our hearts in His form of paramatma. The problem is that we constantly neglect the presence of God in our life and, instead of becoming friends with God, we become doubters of God, and whatever mercy comes, it is not enough for us.

How does the mercy come? Sometimes after the program the garland comes and somebody tells, “This garland is from Krishna”. The other day I was just remembering Srila Prabhupada and how I came to Krishna consciousness, how I got my girst Bhagavad-gita, I was thanking him for coming into my life… And then Anuraga Lila didi came and brought me the garland of Srila Prabhupada. But if I have no sambandha with Srila Prabhupada, then this will not be fulfilling to my heart – it will be just one more garland, one more thing I put on the wall, one more thing. But when you have sambandha, when you have relationship, whn you appreciate anything that is given with love, and it brings great joy into your heart – this is Vrindavana, this is paradise.

Love and relationship is not something that you think with your mind, this is something you feel directly with your heart, with your humanity and simplicity you connect with God. You connect with a beautiful aspect of consciousness. But the problem is that we are not humble. Therefore again and again we repeat this verse:

tṛṇād api sunīcena
taror api sahiṣṇunā
amāninā mānadena
kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ

One who is humbler than a blade of grass and more tolerant than a tree, who gives due respect to others without desiring it for himself is qualified to always chant the Holy Names of Śrī Hari.

Śikṣāṣṭaka
(3)

So, whatever activity we are performing, according to Bhagavad-gita we should perform it as an offering. So if I am offering humbly – why do I worry about it? My offering is humble. I am not expecting respect from anyone in my offering, that everybody will see that I am very good at what I do… Why do I think people expect from me to be perfect? Because I myself expect from people to be perfect. Because I myself cannot respect others who are not perfect. So there is a big wall between me and the others. Therefore I cannot establish friendship – why? I trust nobody, I love nobody, because I don’t love God, I don’t trust Him, so how can I love anybody else? Therefore I am so isolated. My heart is so cold.

Give Gurudeva your reins to hold

Vaishnavism is about giving to others. Vaishnava understands that everybody is in the process, also Vaishnava understands that fundamentally this false character of the other Vaishnavas, their sinful activities and their judgement are clouded by the conditioned state of their minds. He is not relating to the conditioned state of the mind, he is relating to the eternal principle that lives in the heart.

Therefore somebody who has attained simplicity of the heart is seeing Krishna everywhere. He sees Krishna in the tree, he sees Krishna in the bug, he sees Krishna in all the living entities and he can pay respect to all of them, because he sees the presence of God everywhere. Therefore he is not challenging. He is not thinking, “God is judging me”, “I am my own, the person who is responsible for my actions is myself”.

So what is the best possible thing that you can do when you realize that you are responsible for your actions? Take the choice – surrender unto the spiritual master and give all the responsibility to him. “Gurudeva, I am your servant, and from now on you are responsible for me. Wherever you take me, I am ready”. So then you will see how God is arranging everything, every single step in your path is arranged by your Gurudeva. Even if you do not believe, even if you think that you are choosing yourself – this is nonsense.

You have taken initiation so you must realize that who is holding the reins of your chariot is not you – it is Srila Gurudeva. And your job is to perform service when he gives it to you, like Krishna said, “Now you shoot, Arjuna”. That is all you need to do. You need to stand in front of the people that are waiting for that service and you need to perform your service and not to be attached to the result of the action and to the ideas that people will respect you, or see how good you are, or that you feel good because you are performing this action… It is your job, it is a service that Gurudeva gave you, it is an opportunity to make an offering. At the end of the day it is important to make an offering with love eternally. So practice.

Does it matter if you do it right or wrong? No. It matters if you do it with love and relationship. Because at the end of the day, if God is satisfied, you will feel happy. And if God is not satisfied, then how can you feel happy? Have you fulfilled your duty as a soul? Have you fulfilled your function? You have a zero capacity to make God happy, because out of your free will you neglected Him. But the moment you realize that, “I have a service, I am lucky, I have the capacity to give love today, I am lucky, I have the capacity to practice today – I am lucky. I can serve the servants of God, I can serve Vaishnavas today – I am most lucky!”… Oh, but if my heart is cold, then this is not enough for me. Srila Prabhupada sends me his garland – it is not enough for me. “Oh, garland, how can this make me happy? It is just a garland, it is old, already dry”. You hang it somewhere and you are going somewhere else expecting a bigger, fresher garland. “Oh, this is only Prabhupad, I want Radharani’s garland”. What is the nature of this spirit? There is no humbleness, you can’t appreciate. So it is not that a garland came from Srila Prabhupada, it is that I am blind, because I do not practice love. If anybody has love for Srila Prabhupada and if a garland comes from Srila Prabhupada – he cries and his heart melts. He thinks, “Oh, Srila Prabhupada is listening to my prayers, Srila Prabhupada is with me”. Also, when you advance a little more, you will realize that akhanda-guru-tattva is always there with you. So what is the choice? What do you want to invest into in your life – do you want to become a better servant? Do you want to develop your sambandha with Krishna? Or do you want to do something else? It is up to you.

Nature of Vaishnavas – to give fragrance to everyone

By the fruits of the tree you see what the nature of the tree is. So if a tree gives mango which is very sweet, that means the nature of the tree is very good. The fig tree gives figs. If you take fig you understand, “Oh, this tree is holy”. You go nearby the cactus – the tree starts pinching you and then you understand that the nature of the cactus is to pinch. Nature of mango trees is to give juice, golden. Nature of the flower is to give a very beautiful smell – jasmin tree, kadamba tree, campaka tree – they all are giving very beautiful fragrance. So this is the nature of the tree to give beautiful fragrance. Therefore the nature of Vaisnavas is the same – the nature of the Vaisnavas is to give fragrance to everybody, because Vaisnavas are not trying to convince anything, they have no necessity for the result of their action.

When Srila Prabhupada came to preach to the West, he had no necessity of being successful in this preaching or to attract bigger masses. What was Prbhupada trying to do? He had a service given by his Guru. Why did Prabhupada come to America? To change the world, to save the world? No. He has an order given by his Guru, so Srila Prabhupada was thinking, “I must fulfill the order of my Guru because I love my Guru, I have sambandha with my Guru.” He was never attached to the result of his actions. There was so much joy and so much happiness in the performance of this service.

Many people are telling me in these days, “Vasanta, you must publish a book where you put your thoughts, because people need to hear this and that”. And I am saying, “Is my goal to make a huge movement, or my goal is to sit down with people who truly have attraction for Krishna, who want to develop their sambandha with Krishna..?” If anybody has a desire to have sambandha with Krishna – I am interested. This is good, this is my mission. Why? I serve Krishna, I want Him to be happy. I serve Radharani and, if She is happy with me, I am done – I reached my goal. Hundred people, two hundred people, thousand people – this is not my thing”. Also sometimes people come and they are telling me, “Why do you believe in Krishna? Why you are not Mayavadi?”. Then I say, “Why do you want me to be Mayavadi? I am not Mayavadi, I believe in Krishna, my Guru, I am following Srimati Radharani – from the beginning I tell you”.

And then they are challenging, “But why do you say that Buddhists are wrong, Mayavadis are wrong?”, and I answer, “Because I know”. When people are challenging me, I just kindly remind them, “I did not call you, you came to see me. I am just preaching. You want to learn? Then learn. You are going to the mango tree and telling him, “Why are you not giving lemons?”, mango tree say, “Because I am a mango tree, I give mango, understand?”. So be very clear – I chant Hare Krishna, this is a very sweet mantra, the supreme mantra. Anybody wants mango – take mango. Anybody wants lemon – you go anywhere else, no problem. And if anybody believes that a goal of life is that the tree gives no fruit – okay, no problem, go and have nothing. But do not bother me. I am not trying to be right or wrong, I am trying to love. I have sambandha with my Gurudeva and for me this is enough.

Why am I challenging Vaishnavas?

When you go to sleep, try to think in your heart what you did in your day, how many opportunities you had to serve, to practice love..? And you will realize that from the moment when Gurudeva came into your life, so many opportunities have come to you to develop the love inside of yourself, to develop the connection with God. And not only just connection with your mind, so that you would believe that God exists.

People would come to Gurudev and ask,” Oh, Gurudeva, please explain the Bhagavad- gita”. And Gurudeva would say, “Well, I did not come to explain that you are not your body and mind. By the time you come to me you must have realized this already. I am not here to explain to you that you are temporary. You should know it already”. If you are coming to nitya-sidha (eternally perfect soul), why do you have doubts that you are not your body and your mind? It is obvious. This is the most basic thing to understand.

Sometimes people would ask Gurudeva, “Gurudeva, please explain why should we be vegetarian?”, and Gurudeva would say, “This is obvious”. Then people would ask, “Gurudeva, please explain why should we serve Krishna?”, and Gurudeva would answer, “This is for your best benefit”. We expect Vaishnavas to convince our stupid minds, but why should Vaishnava do that? Vaishnava is already appointed. Why should Vaishnava sit down and argue with us, try to reexplain the philosophy? Everything is already in the books, it is written. The problem is why can’t I accept? Because I don’t practice bhakti, my heart is not open. Therefore I relate to everything with my mind, I am challenging Vaishnavas.

Why do you challenge Vaishnavas? Remember, you came to Vaishnava, Vaishnava did not come to you. You came asking for mercy and shelter. Vaishnavas are so merciful, they are giving us opportunities to serve, but I am still constantly challenging. If I believe I can challenge Srila Prabhupada or I can challenge Srila Narayana Maharaja, or the philosophy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu – where am I? Where I am in my path of humbleness? You want to reach the goal? In order to reach the goal you must become humble, otherwise you will not experience the nectar of the mango. Without becoming humble we will never understand Vedic wisdom.

So how do I become humble? You burn in the fire of service and then you understand – Vaishnava is my friend. Until I don’t understand that Vaishnava is my friend, how can I advance? If I don’t trust Vaishnavas, how can I advance? If I see Vaishnava as my enemy – how can I advance? If I see other Vaisnavas as my enemies – how can I advance?

Vaishnava who has truly found his connection with God, never sees anybody as his enemy. Why? He can see the presence of God everywhere.

What is enough for you?

Everybody is trying to advance, everybody is trying their best to try to realize what it is all about. The problem is that we get stuck in our minds, thinking that it is all about rules and regulations, and that it is all about the pride, about what I have done in my life…

People often say, “I spent all my youth in India when I was young, twenty years I gave to Gurudeva”. But if you look from the perspective of the Lord Brahma – what is twenty years compared to the millions of lifetimes that we spent in consciousness of personal enjoyment? And you say you gave twenty years… We expect that people should recognize me, because I was a monk for some little time. So this is pride. The true Vaishnava understands – I did not give twenty years to Gurudeva, Gurudeva gave me twenty years and therefore I am humble.

When I go to Premananda Prabhuji, I realize – what can I give him that he does not already have? Nothing. One thing I can give is love, relationship. It is the only thing I actually have. I pray to him, “Please kindly accept my company. I have feeling for you, you please kindly accept me”. Then, if he accepts, I am very lucky. Maybe he will not accept, then what will I do? I am lost. But if we think, “Oh, I have done all this, I know all Sanskrit, everybody should respect me, I am like a pandit, I know all the scriptures and so many slokas!”.

But why are you looking for respect? Why there is this incessant need for somebody to respect you? Is that why you came? Why you have this incessant need to save the world? You did not come to do that, you came to connect with God. You came to connect with Krishna. He sends you His garland – that is not enough? What is the quality of your consciousness? Ask yourself – what would be enough? Premananda Prabhuji is enough? Srila Narayana Maharaja is enough? Srila Prabhupada is enough? Oh, not enough for you? Who will be enough?

So this is where you can see that the heart is not humble, because nothing is enough, and that is why we can’t find happiness. But if we just change our mind and see, how lucky I am in this life – I am around good people, I eat prasadam everyday, there are Deities in my house, in my country, mahamantra is being spoken everyday, translation of the books is going on in Lithuanian… All my friends are here, I talk to good people. There are flowers in my life. Everyday I’m surrounded with flowers, colors, music, beautiful prayers. And I am still depressed, “Oh, this path of bhakti, oh…” Then I am looking for some other way.

Sometimes peopIe get the service, but still they are not satisfied, thinking, “Oh, what a burden”, and then they start looking somewhere else, where they can go. Who can they criticize, to whom can they put their finger to… Why am I not satisfied? Vaishnavas give me a blessing, but I criticize them, “Oh, he gave me this blessing, useless blessing”. This means that I have no brain. God gives you to clean the toilet. Vaishnava is giving you opportunity to clean the toilet, but sometimes the person is thinking, “Oh, useless service, why he is not recognizing me? I want to be a pujari. Why is he sending me to clean the toilet?”. In this way people do not realize that this is mercy, that we are not even qualified to clean the toilet, to do the service Vaishnava is giving… But that’s not enough for me, I am proud, I am thinking, “I am more qualified”.

We have those core ideas that, “You know, I will find happiness in my own way. I must find balance between material life and spiritual life”. So I must find balance between the illusion and the reality? How possible? There is no balance in illusion – illusion is illusion, it is useless, temporary, it will not last no matter how many lives you pursue illusion. So if you have a choice between Krishna and his army, it comes down to the fact that it is a choice between Krishna and His army. If you think that by having His army you will be happy – go ahead, He will give it to you, how much do you want?

I have seen so many times in my life how many Swamis had this greed to be recognized, and Krishna gave them army. “How many temples do you want, big temples? How many disciples do you want? Many disciples?”. He will give you. Therefore for Krishna there is no problem, Ge is rich. But the devotee is thinking, “I only want Krishna, I want You”. Even if the devotee gets a suggestion, “Take some wealth, take kingdom, take this or that”, he answers, “It is not possible. You are my best friend, Krishna, I want You, I want to spend time with You”. Then Krishna is happy.

Only through loving devotion can Krishna be seen

In Bhagavad-gita (11.54) Krishna is saying: bhaktyā tv ananyayā śakya aham evaṁ-vidho ’rjuna („My dear Arjuna, only by undivided devotional service can I be understood as I am“). First He manifested His universal form to Arjuna, He showed how powerful He is. Seeing how many mouths, arms, eyes and power He has, Arjuna began to tremble and pray “Now please show me Your form as the Personality of Godhead.“ Then Krishna explained that this form can only be seen by the devotion. Why?

We are not looking towards God because of His power, we are looking towards Him because we want to become friends with Him, we want to love Him. So Krishna declares:

mat-karma-kṛn mat-paramo
mad-bhaktaḥ saṅga-varjitaḥ
nirvairaḥ sarva-bhūteṣu
yaḥ sa mām eti pāṇḍava

My dear Arjuna, he who engages in My pure devotional service, free from the contaminations of fruitive activities and mental speculation, he who works for Me, who makes Me the supreme goal of his life, and who is friendly to every living being – he certainly comes to Me.

Bhagavad-gita 11.55

Krishna doesn’t say anything else like, “Save planets for me, become a president or become the guru of the universe”. No, He says, “Have devotion towards me, establish your relationship with me – that is all I want”.

In Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.20.32-33) Lord Krishna says:

yat karmabhir yat tapasā
jñāna-vairāgyataś ca yat
yogena dāna-dharmeṇa
śreyobhir itarair api
sarvaṁ mad-bhakti-yogena
mad-bhakto labhate ’ñjasā
svargāpavargaṁ mad-dhāma
kathañcid yadi vāñchati

Everything that can be achieved by fruitive activities, penance, knowledge, detachment, mystic yoga, charity, religious duties and all other means of perfecting life is easily achieved by My devotee through loving service unto Me. If somehow or other My devotee desires promotion to heaven, liberation, or residence in My abode, he easily achieves such benedictions.

Krishna sends His friend Udhava to Vrindavana to see, how Vrajawasis and gopis love Him. Udhava realized, “Oh, these people really love Krishna with all their hearts, they are totally devoted to Krishna so how can Krishna not accept them..?” Krishna is saying that He can only be conquered by pure hearted devotion, not by studying dry philosophy.

So it does not matter if you know all the equations of the universe. You know the light speed of the universe, the philosophical conclusion of the universe – this is nothing for God, He knows all these things, He created the universe. So if you come to Him and demonstrate your knowledge of sastras, Krishna will say, “Yes, I already know, because I wrote it”. It is like a wife of the great mathematician tries to impress her husband, “I have learned all the equations”, but the husband will say, “I already know that”. So by the philosophy we can’t conquer Krishna.

By mystic yoga we also can’t conquer Him. “Look, I can do this, I can do that. I can do leg-band, I can stand on my head. I can stand on one arm”, and you stand before Krishna. Krishna will say, “Well, I invented yoga. It helps, but no, it is not satisfying”. Also He can’t be conquered by pious activities. “Gurudeva, I have opened ten thousand hospitals throughout my life, I have taken care of the orphans, I gave food to the poor”. Krishna will say, “Well, in Vrindavana there is no hunger. In Vaikuntha there is no suffering. There is no need for you to perform those things, because in reality there is no need for that”.

Or some people are proud about their austerities or renunciation. They are proud of being sannyasis or brahmacharis, “Oh, I will renounce everything”. But is that what Krishna wants? You can renounce, it is good, but what Krishna wants is your love, not your austerities. For example, Hiranyakashipu has performed so many austerities, he was standing on his toes for ten thousand years, and he became very powerful. Even the Lord Brahma wanted to please him, so he said, “What do you want? I can give you benediction”. And then Hiranyakashipu wanted to become immortal. But he did not do this activity to please Krishna.

Another thing is renunciation. Sometimes we think that we must renounce all actions. Like Arjuna was thinking that now he should not fight and do nothing. But is it real renunciation? Krishna keeps saying and saying that the key to everything is devotion.

Whatever happens, it’s an opportunity to please my Beloved

So remember that devotion is the key word. If you have to choose between the army and Krishna – choose Krishna. It is actually what we have to choose at every moment of our life. We have so much fear to lose the battle, therefore we think that we need an army to win the battle. But devotee doesn’t want to win anything. He understands, “I have Krishna, I have the goal. I have God, I am with God, I am serving God – I am already there”. And whatever happens, it is just an opportunity to please my Beloved. Why? Because I love Krishna, I love Prabhupada, I love Srila Gurudeva – whatever comes, it is just an opportunity to engage in that relationship. Therefore service is a practice for the eternity by my spirit. The eternity by the spirit means, “I am ready to please my beloved”.

Otherwise, if you want to win the battle, you keep asking for armies and upgrades… But it is because this is a selfish desire that I want to be recognized, I want to win.

Mahaprabhu made it very easy and said:

tṛṇād api sunīcena
taror api sahiṣṇunā
amāninā māna-dena
kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ

One who is humbler than a blade of grass and more tolerant than a tree, who gives due respect to others
without desiring it for himself is qualified to always chant the Holy Names of Śrī Hari.

Śikṣāṣṭaka
(3)

So be humble, don’t want to win. If anybody wants to win, let them do that. If Krishna wants you to win, you will win. Just act, do what you have to do. So, if you are a teacher – teach. If you are a cooker – cook. If you are washing the toilet – wash the toilet. If you are an artist – paint. But offer it to Krishna. Be humble. It is not about fame or recognition, it is about serving. Without expecting respect from anyone… That’s hard. Because usually we want others to recognize us and respect us for everything that we do. Sometimes people are afraid, “Others will find out that I am devotee!”, but the devotee is never afraid. Devotee is thinking, “God gave me a holy name, therefore this is my greatest gift. My Guruveda gave me this name, this is my everything. And what the others think, it is beyond my control.”

But why do we play a character? Because we want to be accepted. So God is saying, “Do not expect respect from anybody, give respect to everybody.” Why? You can’t control what others think of you. For example, I come and say, “My name is Vasanta Das”, and some people will tell, “Oh, that name is not your real name”. I answer, “This is my real name, my Guru gave it to me”. But some people keep saying, “Your Guru is not your father”. Then I answer, “Not my father? He is my father, my mother, my everything. This is my name, my Guru gave it to me. If you are not accepting this name, this is not my problem. But I still respect you”. But if I expect that everybody will respect me because I am devotee… This is false expectations. Whether some people like me or not, this is irrelevant, because I do what I do to please my Guru-pada-padma. I am not doing this to please the world, it is impossible. It is madness.

When you stop the fan, it is still running for some time

And finally, Mahaprabhu is saying, “Be tolerant”. Why you must be tolerant? Because everybody is in the process. Not everybody will understand. Even you have to be tolerant with yourself. One time one great devotee came to Gurudeva and said, “Gurudeva, why you gave sannyasa to this devotee? I saw him doing nonsense, bad activities.” Gurudeva stopped the running fan and asked, “What did I do?” The person answered, “You just stopped the fan.” Gurudeva said, “So I stopped the fan by my action, but do you see what happened?” Devotee said, “It is till running”. So Gurudeva tol him, “Now you may not speak until the fan stops”. A few minutes went by. Then Gurudeva asked, “Do you understand? Millions of lifetimes the conditioned activities were running, and then Guru comes and with his mercy he stops it, but nonsense is still running, it has motion. This is why we have to be tolerant.” It takes some time for nonsense to stop and Guru knows it, no problem.

But the main quality we should see is devotion for Krishna. Why am I upset, why am I expecting to be enlightened? Did I come here to be recognized? Like the Pope, Dalai Lama, the incarnation of Jesus? Did you come for that? Why did you come? Let go all of these nonsense. You do not have to save the world, this is not your duty. It is said in sastra:

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanaṁ
bhaktir uttamā

Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.1.11), Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī

Uttamā-bhakti, pure devotional service, is the cultivation of activities that are meant exclusively for the pleasure and benefit of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. It is the uninterrupted flow of service to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, performed through all endeavours of body, mind and speech, as well as through expression of various spiritual moods (bhāvas). It is not covered by jñāna (speculative knowledge aimed at impersonal liberation), karma (reward-seeking activity), mystic yoga or austerities; and it is completely free from all desires other than the aspiration to bring happiness to Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

So why do we pressure ourselves with the idea that we must do something great? Why can’t a moment be enough? Why harinama and mahamantra is not enough for me? The more simple you will become, the more you will understand that Gurudeva has given mala, spiritual name and gave order to chant this mantra, chant it with love – this is enough. In my life this is enough – I have the lotus feet of Radharani, in my heart I carry the lotus feet of Gurudeva and the gopis – this is enough. But until I do not see that this is enough, I will endlessly search for happiness and I will go here and there. I will ask for an army. If you ask for an army, that means you want to win. This Krishna consciousness is not about winning, God already won, He is the champion.

How do we advance in spiritual life? We become very simple and we accept the simplicity of the love in our hearts. And we understand – I already have a relationship with Guru-pada-padma in my heart, and this is enough. Everything I do from that moment is simply an eternal practice of that beautiful relationship. So if anybody is asking, “Can you teach about Krishna?” Sadhu’s heart melts, he is understanding, “Okay, Krishna is sending this person to me, so I must serve Krishna”. Sadhu is serving Krishna with love. This is why Premananda Prabhu is never getting tired of people, because since young age he decided, “I will serve Krishna always, for the rest of my life, for the rest of eternity”.

In what form? That’s irrelevant. Maybe one day I will be with Mahaprabhu or I will meet with Srimati Radhika, but now I am in front of this bhakta and this is what God is giving me. God is coming to me and He is sending me this opportunity to serve. I am serving God, I am serving God with love – God is happy”. That is why he never gets tired. He is not saying, “I will have success in this life, I will become a great preacher, everybody will respect me” – this is not the goal of Premananda Prabhu. The goal of Premananda Prabhu is Krishna. Why? Every day in the morning he wakes up and thinks, “Today I am going to serve Gurudeva, tomorrow I am going to serve Gurudeva, I am going to serve Gurudeva forever”. So, whatever service Gurudeva gives me, I will do that forever. This is enough, no need of ‘ping pong’.

I see how so many times people are playing ‘ping pong’ – should I do this, should I do that..? It is simple, chant harinama, then your madness will be healed. If you don’t chant harinama, you will never understand that the centre of everything is God and that you have the capacity to love. You will never understand that your capacity to love is your best asset, it is your function. That is why you are here. And always remember – Gurudeva did not come to you, you came to Gurudeva. You came begging, “Gurudeva, give me some mercy”.

And when he gives you mercy – accept, your job is to accept. He tells you to wash toilet – you wash toilet. He tells you to cook – you cook. He tells you to do puja, you do puja, he tells you to go preach – you go and preach. He tells you to give harinama and diksha, you go and do it. Irrelevant. What is relevant is that you wash the toilet with the same love, because you say, “I am washing this toilet for the pleasure of Guru-pada-padma. I am reading the commentary of Bhagavad-gita for the pleasure of Guru-pada-padma, I am initiating for the pleasure of Guru-pada-padma”.

But if we want to win the battle, that’s the problem. Wherever there is a battle, don’t worry, because in Bhagavad-gita (18.66) Krishna has declared:

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

Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.

Who is going to win the battle? Krishna. Who is the greatest warrior? Krishna. Who is the king of the universe? Krishna. Who is protecting me? Krishna. Who is my best friend? Krishna. Who is my lover? Krishna. It is so simple. You want to dedicate more time to Krishna? Wake a choice. You want to serve Krishna? Take a choice. This life, next life, two hundred lives – how long will it take you to give up the army and accept the lotus feet of Krishna as the source of your fortune and welfare? The army is not the source of the wealth. Krishna’s feet, His company – this is the real source of wealth.

Rule number one: chant with love

How will He manifest to you? You are not in control. You are praying, you are serving and, if He gets attracted to you, He will come. Like in my youth I was never thinking that Seva Kunja will come to me, but They came. I was never thinking that one day people will be listening to me. I was and I am always focused on my Guru-pada-padma. I’m not looking at how many people came, I see that Gurudeva is sending them, they belong to him, they are his property. I am serving the same way as I was serving when I made books or washed the toilets. One, two thousand people come – no problem.

Gurudeva’s lotus feet are enough for me. Radharani’s lotus feet are enough for me, it’s my greatest treasure. If you find no pleasure, no fulfillment, no kindness in serving Radharani’s lotus feet – no problem, go back to maya, there is billions of lifetimes aheadwaiting for you. This is what God is doing – He is worshiping Radharani’s lotus feet, that is enough for Him, so why shouldn’t it be enough for me?

Try to think from this perspective and understand – where am I? Why am I not advancing in Krishsna Consciousness? Because my heart is hard. I am not humble. I want to know everything about the Vedas, I want to teach everybody, I am going to save the world… But if you have Radharani’s lotus feet in your heart, that’s it – you reached the goal. Everything else what comes is a natural byproduct from your bhajana. So therefore I kindly request all Vaishnavas, take as rule number one in your life – chant with love. When you chant Krishna’s name, you are connected to the truth, eventually you will realize the truth. What is the truth? God is always with you, He is nice, He is kind, He wants a relationship with you. If you want a relationship with God – cultivate it. You want a relationship with anybody – be nice, pay attention.

So remember, Bhagavad-gita is a book about friendship, about relationship, about devotion. Bhakti is about friendship, relationship, devotion. Friendship to the highest degree – that is madhurya-rasa, conjugal, when God is accepted as my Beloved. Is it enough if God gives me His lotus feet? Is it enough if Gurudeva gives me his friendship, his trust? Or if I am not satisfied – what would satisfy me? Think about it. If a pure Devotee gives you his love, service and trust, and this is not enough for you – what will be enough? Nothing will be enough to satisfy. So you are already in the presence of the pure love in your life, try to appreciate that and try to serve – it is very simple. Be very kind and have warm heart towards all the new devotees that came, be patient.

You have Radharani’s lotus feet, so you should understand how much mercy Gurudeva gave you, and be so kind to others. Whatever nonsense anybody is doing, whatever anarthas anybody has – this is not your business, this is not your problem. Why do you think you have to control somebody else? You are not their Guru. Never look what anybody else is doing wrong. Look what can I do right. How can I cultivate love? Do not think love is for something else, love is for God. He accepts, you are fulfilled. You have the full potency, you can do this right now, this moment. Pray, offer. What do you offer? Offer what you have. Offer yourself – It is all you have. Offer your heart – that’s it. Offer yourself, you are the offering. How to offer? Surrender.

Get on the train and tell Krishna, “I trust You”

Everything is based on trust and love. Trusting Guru-pada-padma, the love he gives us. Actually after sometime you will realize that everything that has come in your life came from Guru-pada-padma. Everything is by the mercy of him. If you are lucky, after some years you will realize how lucky you are to have found Vaishnavas in your life. I am not speculating about these things – I know, I have experienced. I can truly tell you – if you follow this path, you will be so happy. I have realized, and now I trust Gurudeva one hundred percent – your life will be filled with so much love, so much beauty, so much colours…

If you want to realize, there is no other way – you have to walk. Get on the train and tell Krishna, “I trust you”. Give trust. If you do not trust sadhu, then who will you trust – your own mind? So far where has it taken you? Therefore better give yourself to sadhu. Do what sadhu is telling you to do. Actually bhakti is not complicated, we make it complicated ourselves, because we have so many desires. We think, “Oh, I have done so many austerities”, but actually what austerities have you done?

Do not do many austerities, but serve everyday, chant everyday, chant sixteen rounds everyday if you are young, if you are older, chant more. If you can do little service during the day – this is enough. Anyhow God is taking love. Rule number – chant with love, and if you want the second rule – sadhu-sanga. If you are in sadhu-sanga, eventually you will understand that you don’t need to worry. Wherever Krishna is taking you, that means something is to do there. But it is irrelevant.

Offer Him everything that you do. And once you have offered your actions, offer Him also the results of those actions. And do it with love. Then you will not be frustrated anymore, but always happy. How to let go of material desires? The only way is to change them by spiritual desires. How the spiritual desires are born? They are born by association with Vaishnavas. If you understand that Vaishnava is your best friend, you will automatically desire to form sambandha with the Vaishnavas.

So the main conclusion of Bhagavad-gita is devotion. When anybody asks you during sankirtana, what this book is about, you can say that this book is about friendship, relationship between the soul and God, and devotion. Is it showing you how to win? You are already the winner. Your service is to serve God, that is the highest prize. So you are already there, you have the highest prize already. Remember and establish good connection, good relationship. See how Guru-pada-padma is always trying to establish a good connection with you.

Radhe Radhe.