Lecture by His Grace Badrinarayan Prabhu (download mp3), at the 2007 Gaura Purnima Festival, Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir, Mayapur, India.
Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.1.15
ka enam atropajuhava jihmam
dasyah sutam yad-balinaiva pustah
tasmin pratipah parakrtya aste
nirvasyatam asu purac chvasanah
TRANSLATION: Who asked him to come here, this son of a kept mistress? He is so crooked that he spies in the interest of the enemy against those on whose support he has grown up. Toss him out of the palace immediately and leave him with only his breath.
PURPORT: When getting married, the ksatriya kings would take on several other youthful girls along with the married princess. These girl attendants of the king were known as dasis, or attendant mistresses. By intimate association with the king, the dasis would get sons. Such sons were called dasi-putras. They had no claim to a royal position, but they would get maintenance and other facilities just like princes. Vidura was the son of such a dasi, and he was thus not counted amongst the ksatriyas. King Dhrtarastra was very affectionate toward his younger dasi-putra brother, Vidura, and Vidura was a great friend and philosophical advisor to Dhrtarastra. Duryodhana knew very well that Vidura was a great soul and well-wisher, but unfortunately he used strong words to hurt his innocent uncle. Duryodhana not only attacked Vidura's birth, but also called him an infidel because he seemed to support the cause of Yudhisthira, whom Duryodhana considered his enemy. He desired that Vidura be immediately put out of the palace and deprived of all his possessions. If possible, he would have liked him caned until he was left with nothing but his breath. He charged that Vidura was a spy of the Pandavas because he advised King Dhrtarastra in their favor. Such is the situation of palace life and the intricacies of diplomacy that even a faultless person like Vidura could be charged with something abominable and punished. Vidura was struck with wonder at such unexpected behavior from his nephew Duryodhana, and before anything actually happened, he decided to leave the palace for good. [End of purport]
(invocatory prayers)
So I'd like to begin by, well, I was going to apologize, but that's a long list. My eyes are going so I have either two pairs of glasses or no glasses. We'll try it no glasses and see how it goes. I've taken some notes so I don't completely waste your time. Forgive me if I fumble with those. Those who are translating, Hare Krsna. I apologize for that as well. Good luck.
Romapada Maharaja spoke very eloquently, such a sober, saintly, thoughtful person. I'm a little embarrassed to follow in his wake, but what do they say? A bird flies in the sky according to its ability. I'll try to tell a few stories, a few jokes, and not offend too many people. If I can accomplish that, please be kind on me. I'll try my best.
The question is often asked, "What is the use of all this business you are doing?"
We did a wonderful skit when the GBC had a little spiritual retreat. We are actually also human beings. We need spiritual nourishment. We actually enjoy hearing Krsna katha. It's true, I've heard it. I've seen it.
One of the skits was about Kolaveca Sridhara. One of the parts of the story is he is calling out in great ecstasy for Krsna and the atheists are thinking, "Oh, he's so poor he can't fill his belly. He's calling out from hunger."
So they look at us and they think, "You guys go through so much difficulty. You're up so early in the morning."
We had a devotee, it's off the track, but that's my nature and style. There was a devotee who went to the doctor and he was describing the story afterwards. They asked him, they're trying to get a medical history, so they said, "Have you ever taken any intravenous drugs?"
He said, I've been a Hare Krsna monk for twenty-five years. I don't even drink coffee or tea."
So OK, all right, they crossed off that. They were thinking, his symptoms, he might have AIDS. So then they said, "I'm sorry, but what about intimate relations?"
He said, "Well, I haven't done that for twenty-five years."
And he said everything just froze in the room. The nurses, they doctors, they were like "Oh my God!" [laughter] First off that someone could do that and that someone was actually happy. He said there was a long pause and they just went on.
In so many ways, we are a mystery to them. What is the use of everything, all that we are doing?
I would offer that this compare and contrast of Vidura and Dhrtarastra is a good example of this. Of course we know that this is raja-vidya, this is the king of knowledge. We know that it is described that on the path of life there are so many painful elements. If one walks on a path barefoot, so many rocks, stones, twigs. They cause great pain. But if one wears shoes, we can traverse that path much better. So the shoes make traversing the path easier, more comfortable, possible.
So it is described that on the path of life the shoes are knowledge. The transcendental knowledge makes one able to traverse through this world. Or as it is said, a child's weapon is innocence. A woman's weapon, marshalled quite effectively, is tears. An old man, he has no strength. What is an old man's weapon? Knowledge, that's his weapon.
The greatest fear of Duryodhana was to lose his palace, to lose his position. All of his plans, all of his intrigues to maintain his material position. So much so, he was going through so many sinful things, and dies a horrible, pathetic death. Actually, on one hand as a ksatriya, but still, materially everything was to nil.
That which he was trying to maintain Vidura gave up willingly and walked out the door. That which Dhrtarastra is trying to hold on to, Vidura gave up like Prabhupada says in one purport, like we leave stool after evacuating. How is it possible? What is the value of that? The point I am making is this: The anxiety that everyone is in, devotees are free from by transcendental knowledge.
Canakya Pandit gives an example that the bees work very hard, "busy as a bee". And evidently in the bee brain, whatever is there, they are always in anxiety. And what are they in anxiety for? In spite of all their working hard for their honey, they never really get to enjoy it and the beekeeper comes and takes it. It is described, in this human form of life, we are all busy making plans, but death will come and take it.
So what have we done with that time? What have we actually got as a permanent show for our time in this world? That's an intelligent question. That question should be asked. That is human form of life.
One of the elements that breeds that fear that Duryodhana is experiencing, that fear and anxiety, he says here. By what he speaks, you can understand his mentality. He says to Vidura, "We've maintained you. We're supplying you. We're feeding you. You should be grateful. You're dependent on us." But the Vaisnava knows nityo nityanam, that actually there is one among all the eternals. There is one chief eternal maintaining all the others. Canakya Pandit says as soon as the child out of the womb, the mother's breast fills with milk. Actually, Krsna is maintaining. There may be so many different agencies but ultimately Krsna is maintaining.
Prabhupada talks about how there was an artificially induced famine by the British to get the Indian populace to join the army in World War 1. Prabhupada says he saw that amongst the Vaisnavas, no one was suffering. Somehow or other Krsna was maintaining all the devotees. So Prabhupada said, "You think you are sitting on the floor, I am sitting on the hand of Krsna." So a devotee has this confidence, he has this fearlessness that ultimately Krsna is maintaining, so therefore, he is free.
Two things: the confidence that Krsna will maintain me, that Krsna is supplying everything and an awareness of the inevitability, the infallible dissolution of this material creation. You cannot stop it. Everything will come to end in this world: dust to dust, ashes to ashes.
We had one brahmacari. His parents were very concerned about him joining this monastic order. He no longer took interest in golfing or his fish tank or whatever it was. He was underage so he had to cooperate with the parents. We should always offer respects. Canakya Pandit says you cannot repay the person who teaches you even a single letter. So no doubt we are indebted to our parents. So they were trying to revive his enthusiasm for material life. Nothing worked out. This is the final version of the thing because I want to say something else. They took him to a wedding. It's a joyous occasion. There's the young man and the young girl on the threshold of life. Bells are ringing, so many gifts. Everyone's happy. It's a wonderful thing, right? He's sitting next to his father. In the Western Christian ceremony, at least in many ceremonies, they have one line at the end, "I now pronounce you husband and wife," or whatever they say, "husband and wife till death do you part."
The son turned to the father and said, "Just see, at death they have to part."
At that point, the father said, "All right, you can have him." He gave him to us, he said, "You've spoiled him. He's useless!"
But this is knowledge. Awareness that this body, whatever it is, what does it come to in the end? Krsna will maintain and what is the inevitable nature of this world. It creates fearlessness.
One of my duties here is to tell a few Prabhupada stories. One is just nice and the other has more of a purport. We were walking with Srila Prabhupada in Lake Shore Park in Chicago, Lake Michigan is there. Prabhupada asked, "Is it sweet or salty?"
"Prabhupada it's sweet."
"Very good," he liked that. We're way off the track, but he looked down because you can look down the lake and you'll see Chicago. There's that famous Carl Sandburg, "Chicago the stacker of . . . ." It's a famous poem, "Booming and building Chicago." Prabhupada looked down with his transcendental glance and said, "They are simply stacking stones." He was not at all impressed by the skyline of Chicago.
On that walk, we were walking along, there were some of these Frank Lloyd Wright houses, these big 'ole houses. And out of one house, this huge dog, like Aristasura, half dog, half horse, snarling, came running down the road. I tell you, it was every man for himself. I jumped behind Brahmananda. A couple of devotees jumped behind cars. Prabhupada, as the point man, Prabhupada just stepped right forward, threw his cadar over his shoulder, swung back his cane and went, "Hut!"
This dog turned right around and ran back up the driveway. It was so blissful. Then he looked at us like, what is the that proverb, "Big, big monkey. Big, big belly. Ceylon jumping, Melancholy." He looked at us like, "What is the use?" We kind of dusted ourselves off, but Prabhupada was fearless.
There is a morning walk that Prabhupada is walking and he is here in Calcutta. He walks past Victoria Memorial. I don't know how high Victoria Memorial is, but it's a very big building. Prabhupada as a young boy, pre-teen, climbed to the top on the scaffolding when they were building it.
So one of the devotees on the walk, you hear they say, "Prabhupada, you must have been very brave."
Prabhupada says, "I am still brave." No, no, he said, "Otherwise, how did I come to your country all alone?"
When you think about it, that age, old man, all alone, but he was completely confident in the words of his Guru Maharaja and the message of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and that Krsna was there. So this state of fearlessness and dependence on Krsna, this freedom. Duryodhana is full of anxiety and Vidura is fearless.
Just another short Prabhupada story. . . . Where's my watch? Oh, on my wrist. That helps. Yeah, I'm going to find Krsna without a guru, I can't even find my watch.
I was going to say, Prabhupada in Bombay, Giriraja Maharaja told me this story. He had been trained by Prabhupada to make sure all the lights were shut off. It's Krsna's energy. We're not impersonal, personalists. He came home from a preaching engagement late at night, after midnight. He saw that the light was on in Prabhupada' s room. Se reached around the corner, switched the light off, and "Oh!" Prabhupada was up working. He offered his obeisances, turned the light back on. He said, "Prabhupada, I'm very sorry. I thought you were sleeping."
Prabhupada said, "No, I don't sleep much any more." Prabhupada said, "And as far as eating, just a little bit. Where is the question of defense and mating? I'm an old man." He said then Prabhupada took an inventory: "No eating, no sleeping, no mating, no defending." He said, "Maybe I'm liberated!"
[laughter]
Prabhupada is far, far beyond that, but the freedom from these things. Prabhupada was free from these things.
We know the story of Puranjana. Actually Narada Muni is explaining it to Maharaja Pracinabarhisat, who, because he is proud, he cannot take it directly, so he's telling with this allegory. Actually he's talking about him, but he uses this allegory of Puranjana, which means the enjoyer. And we are all Puranjana in this world. He is enjoying like anything, but the city of nine gates, this body, is attacked by time. Three hundred and sixty soldiers, there's a whole analogy how it's time. Ultimately, everything is defeated.
I remember as a young brahmacari. Yes, to confirm my point, I was once a young brahmacari. Not any more. But my grandfather, long story, got a type of cancer that worked up his spine. Gradually, everything went out. He lost his legs. He had to wear one of those pouches. I don't want to get too graphic before breakfast, but I said, "Hey Gramps!"
He said, "Ah, plumbing went out."
He had to have this and that. He was having operation after operation, just hacking. When in doubt, whack it out. That's the modern medicine. I went to see him. I was trying to become a devotee, as I am trying now. I could just see, he came to the point he couldn't see, he couldn't hear. Ultimately he came to that point, but the point I was going to make, I went to see him in the hospital. They all said, "Oh, this operation, you're getting better. Oh, you're looking fine." He looked like death warmed over. "Oh, you're looking fine."
I saw him and I went back to my house and I came with this section of the First Canto of Bhagavatam where Dhrtarastra, Vidura speaks to him. As a fired up young brahmacari, I began reading to him, "Your teeth are falling out. You're living. . ." I let him have it, you know. Hopefully I've matured a little since them.
The nurses, the doctors: "Oh my God, you're . . . !"
And my grandmother said, "Oh, stop it! Stop it!"
My father was already fried. He jerked me out of the room.
My grandfather, to his credit, he said, "No, let him read." He said, "He is the only one who is telling me the truth."
See? The point is it's the truth. It happens to all of us. Prabhupada said, Hari Sauri and the others were there, they can confirm, Prabhupada said, "Don't think this won't happen to you."
So Krsna is maintaining. And what is the use of this anyway? It will all be finished anyway in due course of time.
There was a devotee palmist reading palms. This devotee, he is actually making a good living. He's a little worried because he tells everyone the same thing. He looks at them and says, "Oh, you're cruising for a bruising. You've got some trouble coming. But you've got to counter it so you better stop drinking, you better really stop eating meat, and this boyfriend-girlfriend. . . stick with your wife."
So he's instructing the four regulative principles. And he says, "You've got to put something positive in. You really should try this mantra, try chanting these names of God." And people are paying for it, it's great. He's a little worried that if they start hooking up, he's giving them all the same advice. He's going to be in hot water. But so far, so good.
I was in Prabhupada's room one time in Detroit. This man, you know how it is. Prabhupada is teaching so sweetly and wonderfully, and "Yes, yes, Swamiji, yes, yes. Can you read my palm?"
You know Prabhupada gives so many wonderful answers, but this particular time he said, "Give me your hand."
We all thought, "Fantastic! We'll all que up! I'll be next!"
Prabhupada actually tells that story how he played Advaitacandra. That's a whole thing how the play ended and no one spoke. And he looked out and the audience was crying. So Prabhupada had that wonderful, as a rich Vaisnava, rich in qualities, everything was perfect. No doubt about it, so wonderful theatrics were there.
Prabhupada took the man's hand. He turned on the desk lamp, "Hmmmm. . . ." He was, you know how they do, he was pushing the hand. It was so blissful. Then Prabhupada slapped the man's hand and said, "All bad [laughter]: birth, death, disease, old age."
I tell you, I thought this man was going to go into cardiac arrest. He was like, "Oh my . . . !" Because here's this saintly. . . . then Prabhupada let him off gently, he said, "But, you clap your hands in kirtan and the lines go away."
[Laughter, applause]
So the simple point is that we have so many plans. Vidura had, "the best laid plans of mice and men do oft go astray." Our president Jimmy Carter, materially, the smartest man outside of Thomas Jefferson to ever be in the White House, IQ wise, literally a nuclear scientist. The current president can't even say the word "nuclear" but that's another story. [Laughter] We'll save that for another class.
He got the best and the brightest. The American economy had gone into a malaise. This is the middle of the seventies. You get the best and the brightest.
There's a joke about the one-armed economist. The president asked for a one-armed economist. They asked, "Why do you want a one-armed economist?"
He said, "Because every time I ask him for advice, he speaks for two hours and as he's walking out the door, he says, 'On the other hand.'
[Laughter]
Good luck translating that one!
[Laughter]
I apologize. I'll try to stay on course.
The best minds and they came up with an ingenious plan how to prime the pump of the economy. Their idea was, instead of taking so much money back in taxes, give them a rebate. Give everybody a rebate. Being foolish sudras, they'll waste the money. They'll go out spend it at the mall. It will prime the pump, it will filter throughout the economy and everything will be great. Fantastic! The government took money they had, cash in hand, and gave it back.
What happened? In the Eastern half of the United States, they had a freak cold snap, freezing cold. Everyone had to turn up the thermostat. On the West Coast, they had a blazing heat wave. Everyone had to turn up the AC. And just as the rebate checks from the government, the tax money from the government, arrived in the mail, they also got the utility bills, which were also a couple hundred dollars higher than they expected. All the money went to pay the utility bills. The government lost the money and it didn't go into the general economy. They completely failed. They didn't fill their belly and they lost their caste. They lost the money and it didn't go any good. All it took was some deva to just tap the thermostat and their whole plan was finished.
There was a robber. This is the simple version. There was this man, this was an article in the paper one of the devotees showed me, he made a plan to rob this restaurant and bar. He had a getaway plan, a disguise, he had the whole thing figured out, how to wash the money, worked on it for years. Went into the restaurant, turned out it was packed, there were a hundred people there, all in the plan. Only thing is, turns out the policemen were having a retirement benefit in the bar. He pulled out his gun, fifty cops pulled out their guns - and handcuffs! "Phwet!" Scratch that plan, he's in the state pen right now, state penitentiary.
Krsna always wins. The material nature always wins. Prabhupada said, what is it? Krsna has one hundred hands. Prabhupada's father used to tell him, Krsna has a hundred hands. If he wants to give with his hundred hands, what can we do with our two hands? If he wants to take away with his hundred hands, what can we do with our two hands? Krsna always wins.
I saw a Ziploc bag. This one was called "triple sealed", single sealed, double sealed, triple sealed. I was thinking, Krsna has got this world triple sealed: adhibhautika, adhidaivika, adhyatmika. Nobody gets out, nobody gets away. What does it say, "Our father who art in heaven . . ."? Whatever is the whole Lord's Prayer"--"Thy will be done." Whatever Krsna's will is, whatever our destiny is, that is what is going to happen.
Rather than being like Duryodhana, feverishly making plans for that which we will lose anyway, one should stop for a moment and think, "What is the actual purpose of this world?" Do they ever stop?
There is a type of archeology called from function from form. By studying the form of an object, they can understand its function. I think it is called archeological forensics. I think that's the name of it. They can piece together the whole society, how it functioned, the whole thing, from a piece of something. From the form they can determine the function.
If we study the form of this world, what is its function? The claim is this world is made for us to enjoy. What is the next logical question? If this world is made for us to enjoy, this is the best God could do, with its birth, death, disease, old age, three-fold miseries? Give me a break.
So what is its actual function? If one enrolls in school, the success of a school is that it is a transitional experience. Is the success of a hospital that the person stays in the hospital his entire life? Let me ask you a question, is that a successful hospital? "Hey, I've got cable, I've got pretty nurses, I've got a menu everyday. Fantastic!" What is the success of a hospital, the ultimate success of a hospital, assuming that it is not a hospice? That the person gets well and moves on. What is the success of a school? That the guy's forty years old and taking basket weaving? That he goes on. They say, "Get a life!" What is the purpose of this world? The purpose of this world is not to stay and enjoy. A: From its form we can understand it is not designed to enjoy. It is meant for transcendental knowledge. It's meant for seva. It's meant for purifying one's heart. That is the purpose of this world.
We should be confident just like Vidura was confident. We should be confident of our own choice in life to be Vaisnavas, to turn our face from material nature. And we should be confident of our message. We should be confident people want Krsna consciousness, people need Krsna consciousness. We should remember what we have been given and we should remember the value of what we are giving. We are giving the best. Frankly, we are giving the only thing of value in this world.
Not to take it to the extreme, there was an article by the Archbishop of Canterbury, he was interviewed. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican Church, he was lamenting. He said, "Our churches, you go to the church and the church newsletter is advertising twelve steps to get rid of addiction. It's got a weight-loss program. It's got couples' counseling. All those things, fine, great. It's got yoga, fine, great." He said, "But what about our core message of sin and redemption? Where is our core message? We're not teaching it."
So the times of London came out with the headline, "Archbishop Says Give Them Hell".
I'm not saying give them hell.
When I was a young brahmacari, yes I was a young brahmacari as I said, we used to preach from the verse of the day. You know, the temple president would select a verse. I remember the verse one day was "avajananti mam mudhah". I remember seeing brahmacaris and young devotees having these businessmen because we'd go downtown Detroit. They'd have some guy by the tie. You knew the devotee was just really giving it to him. No doubt we have to be sensitive. No doubt we have to know how to present. No doubt we have to figure out. Prabhupada said you have to design the book so that people will like, read. The cover has to be nice so they'll open the book. No doubt about that.
Brahmananada told me one time, you know big Brahmananada. His size factors into this story - big Brahmananda. He was visiting the temple once. We had two desserts, we had this pie and we had some cake. So I said to him, "Would you like pie or would you like cake?"
He told me, "Whenever I asked Prabhupada, 'Should I do this or should I do that,' he said, 'Do both.'" [Laughter] And he took the cake and the pie. Just glad we didn't have an all-you-can-eat restaurant.
We should do both, but we should never doubt, diminish, or lose sight of what our core message is. This is not our real home. This body is not meant for us to enjoy. We are meant to come to the point. Prabhupada said, "We don't advertise it, but the whole point of our movement is to bring eating, sleeping, mating, and defending to nil." That is our movement.
Again about confidence in our message, running out of time here. Prabhupada tells the story about Dr. Beecham. Dr. Beecham was a doctor, a British doctor here in India during the British Raj. Just like Prabhupada had "Dey's Liniment". They asked Prabhupada, "What's in it?"
Prabhupada said, "Ninety percent water." [Chuckles] If you read the label, I think it is back here, on the other side, all the things it cures, but in Prabhupada's case, I'm sure it was true.
Anyway, Dr. Beecham invented a powder that you mix in water. It cures the Bombay Blues, it puts glide in your stride, pep in your step, new lease on life. It was fantastic stuff. But he couldn't market it. Somehow or other, destiny, nobody would buy it. He just couldn't sell it. And it was great stuff. Ultimately, the Raj ended, he went back to England. He had a little chemist's shop, pharmacy, or drugstore as we say in America. He gave up on it. One day, this little old lady, twenty years later, came tottering into his pharmacy and asked him, "Do you sell Dr. Beecham's powder?" Asked Dr. Beecham, who's behind the counter, "Do you sell Dr. Beecham's powder? It is such good stuff." The man was so excited to finally find someone who liked his product that he dropped dead of a heart attack.
[Laughter]
Prabhupada said we should be so enthusiastic to find even one person who wants Krsna consciousness. We know it's, what is it, "Good and good for you." We know it is good and good for them. We should be so confident, enthusiastic.
We are building here by Krsna's grace, Ambarisa's devotion, the will of Srila Prabhupada and the previous acaryas, this new temple, which is the temple of Vedic Planetarium. In that is the model of the Fifth Canto, the structure of the universe. It is a bold, as Prabhupada would say, "Boot on the face".
Devamrta Maharaja was telling me that he met Carana Renu, who is an astrophysicist. It's a long story, but the short version is, somehow or other, she's sitting as a guest coming to the temple for the loft in New Zealand. He goes right into, "They don't know a thing about the structure of the universe. They don't know . . . ."
And she turns to him and says, "You know, you're right."
He was shocked. Here she is now. She completely changed her life and she is sitting in front as a surrendered devotee and is one of the lead designers on the Fifth Canto. My point is, we don't know what's in people's hearts, but we know they want Krsna. They are spirit soul. They are looking for pure devotional service. We have to give them that message. It's our duty and they are hungry for it.
Again comparing Vidura and Dhrtarastra. Prahlada Maharaja says that just as distress comes unsought . . . . Suppose I had Badri's Elixir, "You take this and you'll all become ninety years old." How many takers? How many coming forward? I mean, if you're ninety-four you'll take it. Other than that, I'm not going to get a lot of customers. Old age is coming unsought. Distress is coming unsought. Nobody plans for misery. We make every single plan to avoid it and yet it's coming. Prahlada Maharaja says, "In the same way, happiness will come unsought, by karma, by destiny, it will come. You cannot stop it." So we should not worry about it.
We should understand, to summarize, the inevitable nature of this material world, the inevitable nature of this body, that Krsna's maintaining everything, happiness will come anyway, let me get about my real business. That business is to serve as my spiritual master, and deliver the message of Krsna.
There is a dream. Let me give you a nice example, in America they have a saying of crass - crass means low class, manipulative, venal. Suppose a young lady marries an old man for his money. And it works the other way around, a young man marries her for her money. People go, that's so low class. But if you think about it, people are bowing down . . . . Prabhupada says, "'God give us our daily bread,' that's not love of God. That's love of bread."
Or we say, "om jaya jagadisa hare, give me a new car and a house by the sea". This is not love of God. Prabhupada says at least they're coming to the right source. That's a step in the right direction.
But all day long, Prabhupada says, the grocer is putting his head on the pillow, just about to go to sleep, and he thinks, "Oh! Did I lock the back door of my store? Oh God, please did I lock the back door of my store so some robber won't come and steal everything?"
Now the robber, five children, destitute condition, "Oh God, please I hope someone left their door open." Prabhupada says in this way God is perplexed. This is what Krsna is getting, all prayers: "Give me this. Give me that. Give me this. Give me that."
So what happens when someone actually says to Krsna, "I don't want anything. I just want to serve you. What do you want? Please move me?" Just as Vidura, he accepted as Krsna's arrangement, "Krsna is moving me."
There is a joke because Americans have marriage and divorce. So the man says, "I was unlucky in love twice. My first wife left me. My second wife stayed." Ha, ha, ha.
[Laughter]
Delayed reaction there.
The point I'm trying to make is that it may come, it may not come, so what? When someone says, "I don't care, I don't want this, I don't want . . ."
Just because it's sweet and it's from Radhanath Maharaja: I was riding with him in the car. There was a devotee who will remain nameless. He was very proud of his brand new car. He had a big SUV, huge. No problem, have a nice car, use it in Krsna's serve. Hare Krsna. No problem, but this devotee was inordinately attached to his new car. And when he had this new car, the feature he just had, it had one of those OnStar systems. Not to pick on women, but it just happened to be a woman's voice and he was a man. It could be a man's voice, whatever, but this was a woman's voice.
So he said, "Maharaja . . . ," this, that, showed him the car.
You know Radhanath Maharaja, such a saintly, peaceful person, "Oh, very nice, very nice."
So he gets in the car, the first thing you hear, "A door is ajar." It was a woman's voice, but you can imagine, "A door is ajar! A door is ajar!" All right, everybody checks their doors, shuts them. Then, "Fasten your seat belts." Everyone fastens their seatbelts. Then we start going, "You are speeding!" All right, he slows down. Then, "Turn left! Turn left! Turn right!" It's giving directions.
So after being badgered like this, Radhanath Maharaja says, "This is worse than being married!"
[Laughter]
All glories to Radhanath Maharaja! My simple point is, we're being badgered, "left, right", asking for this, asking for that. When someone comes before Krsna and says, "I just want to serve. Whatever's happening, wherever you want to move me, wherever you want to put me, whatever you want to do to me, Hare Krsna, it's for my purification."
Do you know why the potter kneads the clay? You know how they knead the clay? They work it, they work it, they work it. Do you know why? Therapy, working out his angst? Why? What is the reason? Make it stronger, yes, you are close. You are close. Ah, they get rid of the bubbles. And why do they want to get rid of the bubbles? You're all close, I'm sorry.
If there's a bubble in the clay and it goes into the kiln to be fired, the bubble will expand and it will crack. Ante narayane smrti, at the time of death, will we crack? Will we chant Hare Krsna? Prabhupada says you can teach a parrot to chant Hare Krsna. We have a parrot named Sukadeva in San Diego, he can chant, "om namo bhagavate vasudevaya," but if a cat comes, "Meow," he forgets all about it.
So Krsna is moving me, let him move me, for two purposes if not more. He is moving me for my betterment, for my own purification. Prabhupada was thrown out of Jhansi by the women's league. The first temple, the wife of the Mayor pushed Prabhupada out of Jhansi. Prabhupada accepted it as Krsna's arrangement. And if he hadn't kicked him out of Jhansi, we don't know. It was Krsna's arrangement, Prabhupada came to the West. He came to us. He delivered us.
We'll end here, I promise. One of the citizens of Yudhisthira Maharaja came to him with a dream. The dream was this: He saw a fence that devoured all the fields. He saw, from a bucket of water, someone filled five jars, but those jars when poured back couldn't fill up the bucket. There was an elephant that went through the eye of a needle, but the tail was caught. There was a very thin thread, but it pulled down a mountain. So a fence that devoured a field, a bucket that could fill five jars but the jars couldn't fill the bucket, the whole elephant went through the eye of a needle but the little, tiny tail got stuck at the end, and a thin thread pulled down a mountain. What does it mean?
Yudhisthira Maharaja said this are the symptoms of Kali-yuga. That which is meant to give protection is devastating. The government is exploiting people. The child isn't even safe in the womb. These are symptoms of Kali-yuga. The father or mother are maintaining the children, giving them all that they can, and the children send them off to the old folk's ward, Geezer World, Seizure World, whatever they call it. They ship them out. Don't even care for them. The leaders are rogues and thieves and rascals. They are the elephant. They get through, but the common citizen is picked up and harassed for everything, symptom of Kali-yuga. But the Pandora's Box, the hope at the bottom, the light at the end of the tunnel, that is a thin rope can pull down a mountain, simply the chanting of the Holy Name can deliver everyone in the age of Kali. That is Yudhisthira Maharaja's dream.
So my simple point is we should remember what we have been given. We have been given priceless transcendental knowledge that gives freedom, happiness, and eternal deliverance at the lotus feet of Krsna. In turn, we can give that to others. It is the greatest gift we have received; it is the greatest gift we can give. Therefore, we should remain fixed and we should remain happy.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada! Thank you very much. Hare Krsna.
[Applause]
END
