“Everybody wants pleasure, this whole world is pleasure seeking. But pleasure comes on different levels. There is physical pleasures, mental pleasures and spiritual pleasures.

If somebody is mentally pleased, they feel physically content also. If somebody is spiritually pleased, they feel mentally and physically..things are open.

For instance, if somebody is not mentally pleased even if you give them a nice meal but they are very sad because a loved one is sick, they’re not going to enjoy the meal. So the physical pleasure will not replace the mental agony they are felling because of worry for the well being of some relative.

So generally I go for a walk on the Durban beach front and there’s a lot of people trying to sell pleasure. But the pleasure they’re trying to provide is something for the tongue, something for the touch, something for the ear, something for the eye…superficial pleasure.

We are simultaneously trying to provide pleasure on all the levels. We also have food for the tongue, but it’s also food for the soul. We also have certain cultural programs… dance, drama, music and more..

So these things are pleasing to see, at the same time they are spiritually gratifying because the topic is about KRISHNA! “

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“ Sometimes the people, they’re hankering to get famous. This is a very big thing in the world. Football players, cricket players, movie stars. Of course when you get very high fame, there is also a burden.

Just like George Harrison, because he is famous, someone tried to kill him. If you are very famous people will like to kill you, because then they become famous for killing a famous person. Now, to get that… your name put on the news cast as the killer of a big person…many crazies are willing to do anything. So it is very dangerous to be famous nowadays.

George Harrison agreed to come to Mayapur, so he said, “Don’t tell anybody that I’m coming”. Then when he was there he was saying that, big harassment, all the time people tell where they are. So when he went to Bangkok, he had the secretary sign the hotel and everything. If he signs then they’ll recognize the name. But somebody spotted him and then all of a sudden at his door there were like ten charities asking please do a benefit for an orphanage, please do this, do that. So, those are innocent things but then you don’t get any peace. Queen of England or any important person. Sometimes, people they just crawl into the house just to get famous.

So being famous in Kali Yuga goes both ways.”

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“Srila Prabhupada never promoted himself, he could have called it the Bhaktivedanta Movement instead of the Krishna Conscious movement. Just like you have, you know this.. Gurudev movement and this…all the missions, usually they name after the Guru. Charismatic Guru movement. Then after…this baba, that mama, that ma…whatever.

But Prabhupada, he named it the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Hare Krishna Movement, Krishna Consciousness movement. He didn’t make it a Personality Cult!

Still somehow or the other, because of his service, we want to glorify Prabhupada, we want to make him famous, because we appreciate he did everything,  he was a REAL pure devotee. And therefore his fame should be spread over the three worlds!”

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“You see devotees, the acharyas they pray that, “Please, if I don’t get back to You in lifetime let me immediately take birth in the family of Your devotees!”

You see so many children here, they are fortunate to have taken birth in the family of devotees. It’s the opportunity for them to get the mercy of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

If some how or the other we can create the environment for them to grow up in, in our homes, which will be so conducive in our communities that they will be able to get a taste, for the nectar in Krishna Consciousness while they are still under the shelter of the parents and then they’ll be able to  have it their whole lifetime.”

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“In the Chaitanya Mangal it mentions that Lord Chaitanya said, “I’m going to flood India, but later someone will come, one of My commanding general devotees and he will spread it to the distant places where sinful people are living. People who have escaped from the mercy in India and who are far away…Don’t worry, we’ll get them too! I’m going to send the CLEANUP OPERATION. My devotee will go and spread the sankirtan everywhere else.”

Srila Prabhupada Ki Jaya! Srila Prabhupada Ki Jaya!

So because of Srila Prabhupada’s mercy we can also get this mercy of Lord Chaitanya. We can chant the holy names. We can get the mercy.

Yesterday, so many people on the beach, Byron Bay, they were able to get the mercy. Thousands of people getting Krishna prasad, seeing Lord Jagannath, what to speak of seagulls, sharks. Even the sharks didn’t bite anybody yesterday (laughter). Must have been too much filled with ecstasy.

Lord Chaitanya is giving us this complete form of Mercy!”

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“The conditioned souls are hopelessly entangled in this material world. There is no way of getting out of this material world by their own effort. Simply by their own effort, they’ll remain stuck.

We require the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in order to get out of the material entanglement.

daivi hy esha guna-mayi · mama maya duratyaya

Duratyaya…very difficult to overcome this material nature.

mam eva ye prapadyante mayam etam taranti te

Those who surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna, they can easily cross over this ocean of material illusion. Therefore we are totally dependent upon getting the mercy of the Lord. Without His mercy we just remain stuck.

We may try, we can move up and down within the material but to get free from it, we need the mercy of the Lord.”

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“If you use your mind, your words and your activities in the service of God, or Hari, or Krishna in this lifetime, then by utilizing all your activities, all absorbed in the spiritual contact with the Supreme Lord, then you’ll be even while you are alive, you’ll be liberated.

Jivan Mukta….jivan means alive and mukta means liberated. Liberated while alive.  So we want to teach people how to spiritualize their consciousness.

Actually Narada Muni, he was chanting Hare Krishna and when he died, it is said that it was like a lightning bolt. He told his disciples how it happened, that he was chanting and meditating and then all of a sudden it was just like being hit by a lightening. And he was illuminated and he could see his spiritual form, his eternal blissful spiritual form and he could see the material body lying there, but there was like no pain, it was just like he just got liberated and it was just a natural transition. So that’s also the perfectional way of it happening.

But even while alive, like we saw Srila Prabhupada, everything he did was offered to Krishna, everything that Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was doing was dedicated, and he was a liberated person even while living in the material world. Just coming in his presence you could feel a difference, because everything he was doing was dedicated to Krishna.

So we like to train people to be liberated from their Karmas, while living in the material world so that they can be at peace with themself and be able to help others.“

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“People are being a human being, we should be concerned not to neglect this opportunity we have to fully develop our consciousness.

Why someone would take animal birth? Of course one thing would be thinking about the animal at the end of life. Other thing is to develop a consciousness which is more suited to the next birth being an animal birth, than a human being.

Like say somebody is drunk all the time, or something, that’s just always in a stooper. They’re not, they don’t want to be very conscious of whats going on. Human being is much more aware of the realities than an animal. Animal’s consciousness is you know,  blocked into a limited sphere of understanding. So they would prefer to not have to deal with the problems of life. That’s why they are remaining intoxicated.

So at time of death, they may get such a birth, that they can just, you know… ignorance is bliss, or…. They don’t have to deal with it, and just deal with the priorities of life like eating, sleeping, mating and defending.

But that’s a big waste. As a human being, we’ve have already gone through 8 Million 400 Thousand species of life of transmigration, a kind of spiritual evolution of consciousness. And being a human being, we should actually perfect our human life by fully developing our potential.“

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“There is a verse in the Nectar of Devotion that says, when you chant and dance, when chanting Hare Krishna and you clap your hands, just liken when people clap their hands and the birds fly off, as many Karmas fly off from your account…your bad Karmas.

As while you’re chanting and clapping your hands, as birds will fly off from the fields, so it’s a good impetus….Haribol….Hare Krishna! (Everyone Clapping)“

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