“Sometimes someone has a little knowledge, and they become very proud. Sometimes someone has a little wealth, they become very proud, they think nothing can disturb them.

There is a story once, that there was a frog living in the pond. One day the frog, he jumped out on the side of the pond and there he found one coin. He found a 50 paisa piece…’aat anna’. Now this was quite some time ago, so that time ‘aat anna’ was more than it is today. Maybe that ‘aat anna’ was worth 50 rupees today. Now rupees are not worth so much.

So that frog thought that, “Now I am the richest frog in the world! What other frog has so much money?” Have you ever see a frog with money? So he was very proud. So he was sitting on top of that 50 paisa and he was making that sound that the frogs make…what do we call it..croaking!

And he thought that, ‘Now I have become a very wealthy frog, and I don’t have anything to fear anymore because I have so much wealth…I am going to teach that elephant a lesson!! Everyday the elephant comes down, the King’s (raja’s) elephant and he bathes in the pond here and he disturbs all us frogs. He doesn’t appreciate our real value. Just ignores us and comes and…Now that I am the richest frog in the world I’m going to just tie up this elephant and stop him from disturbing us in the pond!”

So when the muhoot came with the elephant in the morning, to take him to bathe in the raj pukoor…raj tank, so that frog sitting on his 50 paise piece…this 8 annas, he told the elephant..”Stop!”. Elephant could hardly pay any attention to what the frog was croaking.

And the frog in his anger jumped over to the elephant, hit his leg and then fell off near the elephants leg. The next step the elephant’s foot came right on the frog….Squish!! End of the story.

So the moral of the story of-course, is we shouldn’t get too proud even if we have some material prosperity. In the material world people, they get a little proud, they get a little prosperity, they are very proud and they start to do things with pride…forgetting that this life is temporary.

And ultimately, whatever power we have, it doesn’t take anything to finish us off.”

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So sometimes when people hear these principles of Bhakti..this bowing down,  offering a flower, offering a fruit, offering water with tulasi, doing some simple services, they think, ‘what is this? this is over-simplified! we  have to do some high mental speculation or….these are just the ABCs’.

There is also a story about that…One time there was one widow. She had a son, about 11-12 years old. So she wanted to give the best education for her son, but she herself was not very highly educated. She just a primary student. So she even borrowed some money and she was paying 100 rupees a month, and order for a tutor, a teacher, to come and teach her boy.

So one day she was cooking, but she was listening, what is the teacher teaching the boy. So that day…he’s about 6th standard, he was teaching geometry. So in geometry… teaching about a triangle, so a triangle is 3 corners, A…B…C. He described the sides by saying AB…BC…CA. So the teacher was explaining this…triangle A…B…C, and then how you go AB…BC..CA.

And the mother is just listening…all she can hear is ‘A…B..C…A…B..C..C..B…C..A’. She said, ‘what is this? I am paying a 100 rupees to a teacher to come and teach by boy, after he is already in 6th standard…and he is still teaching ABC?!!’

She became very furious..came out and started shouting at him, ‘You are fired! You are useless…what are you doing? I am paying you 100 rupees a month and you are teaching my son, after 6-7 years, still you are teaching him ABC??!! You are fired…get out! You are wasting my time’. Then he was trying to explain what it…but you know she won’t hear. She was so angry..so furious. So what can he do, he closes the book.. he goes.

So like that, sometimes the Jnanis, they think, ‘Oh what the Bhaktas as saying, this is ABC!’. They don’t realize that these are higher principles.  But even higher principles you may refer to certain things, which may sound that, just superficial, if you don’t go deep into it, it may sound as though this is ABC.

But actually, the devotees know how to apply it, these principles for understanding the highest knowledge…’Who is the Parambrahma? How do we relate with the Parambrahma, with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Bhagavan? What is our Sambandha, relationship? or Abhideya, how we act in that relationship? Prayojana, the purpose of life?’

All these there are very clearly understood, practiced and achieved through the process of Bhakti Yoga!”

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Because of lack of transcendental knowledge, one is thinking, “Oh because of Krishna Consciousness, I will give up some happiness, like going to the movies at night.” Some kind of attachment is there.

There is a story about Sanatana Goswami’s servant. He asked Sanatana Goswami, “There is a party going on in the forest…there is a big festival. Could I go and participate?”

Sanatana Goswami said, “Festival?…in the middle of the night???…I don’t think you should go there.”

“No, no, no, they are having a good time….”

“All right if you want to go, what can I say? You go, but no eating whatever they give you. Whatever they give you to eat, you just wrap it up and bring it back here.”

So the devotee went to the festival in the forest and they sat him down, “Please take some food.”

They gave him some nice preparations…some rice and so many things, but he wrapped it all up in his cloth, didn’t take it, and he went back to the Ashrama and took rest.

Next morning, Srila Sanatana Goswami asked, “How was the festival?”

“Oh, it was quite interesting. Everyone was having a good time.”

“Did they give you anything to eat?”

He said, “Yes, but I didn’t eat it. I kept it in my cloth.”

“Bring your cloth. Let me see what they gave you. I am sure it has got some nice preparation.”

So he brought it and when they opened the pot, instead of all the nice delicacies he had seen the night before, there was bones, and rotten flesh, and pus and blood, stool and all kinds of horrible things.

“Oh, what is this?”

“Those were ghosts having a ghost festival. They had transformed all these horrible things to make it seem like nice things. If you had eaten…oof!”

Then when the servant realized that, he said, “Oh, how did you know?”

“Who has a festival in the middle of the night, in the middle of the forest?”

So the spiritual master could understand, but the disciple was still attached to some material things. Once he has the knowledge, “Oof! Look at this horrible stuff!” Then naturally you get some detachment.”

When we finally go to the spiritual world, it’s transcendental, and then you have different levels of the spiritual world, where in the Vaikunta planets the devotees of the Lord worship Lord Narayana with awe and reverence and with great pomp, majesty and very formally.

Then you go to Ayodhya where Sita, Rama, Lakshmana and Hanuman are there, where Sita-Rama are being worshipped. It is a little less formal, because Rama is playing the part of a king but is more approachable than Lord Narayana.

Then you come to Krishna loka, and there you find in Dwaraka, Krishna is the part of a king. He is more approachable than Rama, but at the same time, a little formal.

When the Gopis met Krishna in Kurukshetra, they said, “We don’t want to be with You as a prince, we want You to come back to Vrindavana, where you were just like a cowherd boy.” So from the Gopis’ point of view, and for the residents of Vrindavana, they didn’t like to see Krishna as a young prince, they liked to see Krishna as a cowherd boy.

So in Vrindavana, Krishna is playing in a very casual loving manner. There is no formality at all. It is the opposite of Vaikunta. Everything is spontaneous there.

Krishna’s father and mother don’t even think of Him as God. They are just serving Krishna in spontaneous parental affection. His friends don’t think Krishna is God; they just think that Krishna is our friend, He is our dear most friend and they are playing with Krishna as equals.”

Even this mood of anger is there in the Personality of Godhead. He is angry when His pure devotee who are simply dedicated to preaching this message and delivering the fallen souls from their misery, are tortured is harassed and… in so many ways offended and mistreated. Then He becomes angry.

Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu advised that vaisnava aparaad mata haathi.. that the MAD ELEPHANT offense is to offend the Vaisnava. Just like an elephant goes into the garden and uproots and those branches being uprooted their leaves dry.

Similarly by offending Vaisnavas, great devotees of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Lord Krishna, Lord Vishnu, this destroys one’s spiritual progress.”

My friends, if we look in the world today, we see that, what do we need most of all but… PEACE! We see that in Bosnia, we see in so many parts as Somalia. People all over the world are killing each other based on what? Some people blame it on religion, some people are blaming it on race.

But the real thing that is actually responsible is a lack of higher spiritual consciousness. People are in bodily consciousness, they think they’re the body. If we are born in a particular family, or born in a particular religion, and if we think, and we identify ‘this is my body’s identity’.

We have to get beyond body consciousness. We have come to the transcendental vision, ‘we are the living force in the body, we are all parts of ONE Supreme Godhead’. There may be different ways that people worship this Supreme Godhead. We should respect those different paths. But there is only ONE Supreme Lord.

Just like, one time I was in Bangladesh with a group of devotees from about all the six continents, and I asked each of the different people, about 17 nations, to name the word “water” in their country. And then different people they said, ‘Whata’…’Agua’..’Aqua’, and so many different words for water… ‘pani pani’ and so on.

And then I said, now you say the name of God in your respective language. And then someone from Arabia said, ‘Allah’…and some in English said ‘God’…and someone in German said ‘Gaut’… and then somebody in Spanish said ‘Deus’, and they went around the room and they had all the different words…and then someone from India said ‘Krishna’.

So the point is that there may be so many different words but the personality of Godhead is ONE. There is only one Godhead, and we are all part of His transcendental family, we are all His children, we are all His devotees.

And in this way the whole world...if we have the SPIRITUAL VISION which comes about naturally by chanting the names of God- “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”, then we can actually have the World Peace that people are looking for.”

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“Basically the problems that we are facing in the world today, when we look in the newspapers, we can sum it all up into one common denominator – IGNORANCE! The prejudice, misunderstanding, the lack of mercy, the lack of responsibility to ecology, to the world, the lack of honesty amongst leaders, lack of personal satisfaction, lack of love, are all due to Ignorance.

So what is the anecdote for ignorance? KNOWLEDGE! Knowledge is the actual cure for ignorance. It’s like if you have darkness, what is the anecdote for darkness? Light. So there is a Vedic saying which is very famous, Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamayah, “Come out of the darkness of ignorance by bathing in the light of transcendental knowledge.”

Every human being has the responsibility of gathering transcendental knowledge. It’s not something you can inject intravenously or something someone else can do it for you. Transcendental knowledge is something, each person has to consume and digest intellectually and mentally realize it.”

“Bhaktivinod Thakura gives and example of a person trying to stand with his feet in two different boats. Obviously when the boats separate, the person falls in the water. This is the situation we are faced with.

We are trying to accommodate material desires and our spiritual desires too. There is a saying in the west, ‘to have your cake and eat it too’. Someone wants material comforts, sense gratification, and at the same time wants to experience the ecstasy of  pure Krishna Consciousness – this is a contradiction.

Sometimes a person in the Grihasta Ashrama thinks that here is a good alternative: I can enjoy sense gratification and at the same time do devotional service. But that is not how it should be. There is a difference between pure devotees who are Sanyasis or Grihastas and those are mixed devotees.

There is no happiness in material life -  a pure devotee knows this and with this in mind he is serving Krishna.

We have to be very careful and completely sincere not to increase our material situation. We have to keep devotional service priority in our life and everything else if adjusted accordingly. Grihastas deal with different situations concerning children, money, etc, but they have the prime responsibility to be attached to Krishna and engage everything in Krishna’s service.”

“Just like when a soldier is serving under the order of his commander, the commander is supposed to take on the responsibility. At least as long as the commander is ordering something ‘within the law’.

So, the GURU is ordering something, which is bonafide and is according to the scriptures. If he says something crazy like, “everyone commit suicide”, he is NOT a Guru because the scriptures says that you should never commit suicide.

So it’s not like what some people think that Guru is a dangerous cult, that all Gurus are going to tell everybody like Jones did, to do crazy things. That can’t happen if people really know the philosophy.

In the Vedic culture these type of crazy things did not happen because they are trained that one only follows a Guru as long as he doesn’t go against the scriptures and against the previous Gurus.

As long as he is giving us a bonafide instruction, which at face value is a bonafide thing, he is giving us an instruction for our spiritual benefit that we should follow.

“See normally people think that happiness is in the material world. And due to some religion they get some good karma, some blessings, we can get more material happiness.

But Caitanya Mahaprabhu revealed that Love of Godhead is the HIGHEST HAPPINESS. It makes material happiness very dull and shallow and incomparable and just insignificant.

Normally its only the great saints, who are in pure devotional service, who can get a glimpse about this pure love for Krishna and the happiness that’s connected to it.

But Caitanya Mahaprabhu is freely giving out this happiness. So much happiness that he was (is) literally flooding the world.”

“Narottama Das Thakura prayed for a short-cut. He said, “I am so unfortunate, I am so unhappy. It is so difficult for me to control my mind. So Lord Nityananda, please just flood me with ecstasy. Flood me with Your mercy. Then I will be so attracted by the taste of the love flowing from Your lotus feet that automatically my mind will be absorbed. ”

This is the devotee’s short-cut. If we can get the mercy of Lord Nityananda, then very quickly we taste the ecstasy of pure love for Krishna. Then the mind is easily controlled.”

“There are two types of spiritualists and in the Sanskrit language one is called Bhajananandi and the other is called Ghosti Anandi.

Bhajananandi refers to one who personally likes to do spiritual activities, but are more reclusive and are concerned about their own salvation or liberation. Just by their being in the planet they are helping. But they don’t go about of the way to liberate other people. If someone looks them up and asks them, they’ll help them, but they more or less keep to themselves.

The other kind is called Goshti Anandi. He is a person concerned with liberating the whole world. He doesn’t want to go back to God alone, he wants to take as many people as possible with him.

So Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita says that a person who is teaching the Bhagavad Gita to the devotees, is the most dear to Him. Someone who is giving this knowledge to other devotees is the most dear. So you will find that a lot of devotees are very enthusiastic to give knowledge to others.

“The sky may be overcast, but as the sunlight rises above the clouds, the clouds are driven away. So similarly when the dirt that clouds our heart is cleansed away, then our pure love for Krishna is manifest.

Everyone in the world is already Krishna conscious. In the context of this understanding, we don’t convert anyone . It is just a question of removing the covering.

Krishna says in the Bhagavad-Gita that everyone is Krishna conscious, but that there are different stages of ignorance.
- Some are covered like the Embryo in the Womb,
- Some are like Smoke covering a Fire and,
- Some like Dust on a Mirror.

- Living beings like Animals in the gross mode of ignorance are like the child in the womb —completely covered.
- Those who are in the mode of passion are like the smoke covering the fire . The fire is there, but because of the smoke we cannot see it clearly.
- And others, who are only slightly covered, are like the dusty mirror. By wiping off the dust you can see things as they are.

So everyone is already a member of this movement. Everyone is already internally related to Krishna. It is only a question of purifying the mind of all materialistic contamination. ”

“There are many transcendental activities a person can do. They can do their profession, whether it is an artist, musician, businessman, housewife, mother, or whether it’s producing children.

They can do any activity except slaughtering animals or certain forbidden activities or specifically that taking intoxication of a chemical type etc. which cannot be dovetailed in Krishna’s service.

But the normal kind of activities that we need to do to live in the material world that don’t harm our bodies or anyone else’s bodies can be performed in a way which is spiritual or transcendental so that our whole life, 24hrs a day can be in communion with the Absolute Truth and can be on the transcendental platform.

When someone becomes accomplished in the practice of devotional service, he enjoys this knowledge within himself in due course of time. It’s not just a theory that some people might believe and some might not believe. But when we apply the knowledge through practice of devotional service a person becomes accomplished.”

“There are many examples in the scripture which tells us how we should render devotional service but there are no sufficient words to describe the relationship which evolves between the spiritual master and the disciple when the disciple renders/achieves pure devotional service. That is the greatest gift that one can get from the spiritual master is to get the gift of pure devotion.

Pure devotion to Krsna is desired even by Brahma, by Siva, by the great Rsis. But one can get that priceless gift from the spiritual master by his mercy.. that is what puts us in the inconceivable debt. Actually even if the Guru gives one spiritual instruction, one mantra in our ear, no amount of material repayment can pay for that; because material things are after all temporary.

It is like if someone gives a paper flower…like say, when some one gives a huge palatial building and in return you give a paper flower, then what is the value of that? Still there is some relative value. The paper flower is there for sometime say for few years and the building will stand for hundred years or more.

But the mantra… the spiritual seed given by the spiritual master stands forever. And any material thing has limited life so there is much greater difference. You can’t give any equable example to explain.”

“We need to really push on the sankirtan movement. Expand the congregation to Namahattas and Bhakti Vrkshas and we have to distribute the books profusely to many people. We can have halls to spread Krishna Consciousness, Bhaktivinode Thakur called it sraddha kutirs, homes of faith, so that we can push forth the sankirtan movement so that we can put back Kali and we can establish that golden age.

Now there is the financial crisis in the world. It is actually good for our business. People come to God more when there is some difficulty. So they come to Krishna to find out what is their purpose. Some of our youth I heard they are doing harinam sankirtana, the yoga groups are now doing some kirtan. So our devotees can do bhakti yoga kirtan therapy. So they can in this way flood the world with kirtan.

“Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvata Thakura’s instruction to the mind is to be  constantly engaged in the “loud” harinama sankirtana or congregationally  chanting the glories of the holy name of Krishna.

There are two kinds of Sankirtana which are authorized.

1. First there is the sankirtana performed by many devotees together playing on mrdanga drums and karatala cymbals while chanting loudly the Hare Krishna maha-mantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Räma Hare Räma Räma Räma Hare Hare. This is also accompanied by dancing. That form of vocal, audible sankirtana can be heard throughout the surrounding neighborhood, and with amplification, it can be heard for a mile or more.

2. Another form of sankirtana known as the Brhat Mrdanga or “greater drum” sankirtana, is the distribution of transcendental literatures glorifying Lord Krishna and His holy names. When literatures authorized in the line of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu are distributed amongst the general public, they glorify the holy name for an unlimited distance.

Books may go thousands of miles to rescue fallen souls from the illusion of materialistic life. Even in remote places, such as military camps, prisons, frontier outposts and distant countries, the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada have reached the hands of open-minded seekers of truth and dramatically improved their lives. ”

“Whatever the questions of life are, which are enduring, which are absolute type of questions, when they are answered, then our doubts, misgivings, our fears, our ignorance, is dissipated. Those are the type of questions, which are considered most important.

Now, whether it’s going to rain tomorrow or not? This sort of question may be there in many of our minds after so many days of rain, but this is something, which is not like an eternal problem. Eventually it is going to stop raining and the sun is going to come up.

But questions like,
- Who are we?
- Where have we come from?
- Where are we going after this life is over?
- What is this world?
- What is life?
- Is there a Creator?
- Is there an origin to life?
- Is there an ultimate or absolute truth?
- Is there transmigration of the soul?

etc, etc, so many questions for which if we had the answers, we would solve so many problems. These are considered spiritual questions that invoke transcendental knowledge when we get the answer.

So in the Bhagvad Gita we find that there are a series of questions and answers. Arjuna asks different questions and Krishna gives the answers. His basic question was that he was suffering and that he was in anxiety; and he wanted to know how to get out of it?”