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Mukham karoti vacalam pangum langayate girim
Yat kripa tam aham vande sri gurum dina tarinam
Paramananda Madhavam Sri Caitanya Isvaram
I am very glad to hear that all of you have been offering your various services. Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita, that He reciprocates with everyone who offers service. I have not much practice of Hindi. But I will mix Bengali with Hindi. Tams tataiva bhajamyaham. Krsna says that He reciprocates with the devotees, whatever they do He reciprocates. So many people waste their valuable human lives not serving Krsna. Just like we pay income tax, sales tax, the new GST, so we can only live if Krsna gives us the sunlight, He gives us the rain. So we have to perform different sacrifices in every yuga to please Krsna. Krte yad dhyayato Visnum, treta yam yajato Makai, dvapara paricarcayam, kalau tad Hari kirtanaad. In the satya yuga, meditation; in the treta yuga, by fire sacrifice, in the dvapara yuga, worship of the Lord in the temple and in the kali yuga it is the Harinam sankirtan. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. iti sodaka nam nam kali kalmasa nasanam, natah paratopayah sarva vedesu drysyate. Kalisantarana Upanisha says that this sixteen syllable names of Krsna destroys all the bad influence of kali yuga. There is no other method offered in the Vedas. So I am very glad that you are all chanting Hare Krsna and doing devotional service. Lord Caitanya gave three teachings – bolo Krsna, bhajo Krsna, koro Krsna shika. Chant Hare Krsna, do devotional service and read the teachings of Krsna. There are two types of teachings – Krsna Himself spoke the Bhagavad-gita. And the Srimad Bhagavatam is spoken about Krsna. So even a little service we do for Krsna doesn’t go in vain. But many people do not realize that we should do service to Krsna. One sanyasi, he came to a grihastha’s house, biksham dehi, please give some donation. The grihasta told his wife, give him some ashes from our chula (stove). So the sanyasi thought that if he gives me ashes even then it will be good. Actually ashes are of no use! But going through the effort of giving, they may get some merit. But he said, don’t just talk about it, just give it! So here you see many devotees end up doing valuable service for the temple. The last Ekadasi was the Apara Ekadasi. By doing that one is absolved of all kinds of sinful reactions. And then we go back to the spiritual world. Even just hearing about this, one can get absolved of all sinful reactions. Each chapter of Bhagavad-gita has some glory. Like the glories of the fifth chapter. There is a story that there was a royal singer. He was very popular. (He translated popular as paapi – which means sinner in Hindi). So he had some affairs with different ladies. His wife was very angry with him. He promised her he would not do that again and that it was a mistake. But he continued to do it again and again. His wife thought that let me have an affair with some man and I will force my husband to learn a lesson. She had an affair, but she became attached to the other man! So husband and wife were both being sinful. So the husband became angry with the wife, why are you doing so? The wife became angry with the husband and when he was sleeping, she killed him. She cut him into small pieces and threw them in the well. He was brought to Yamaraja. Yamaraja said that he went to high level of fame and fortune, but because of his ill deeds he fell down very much. So Yamaraja said you can become a vulture! Ha! You will fly high like a vulture but stoop down like the vulture looking for dead bodies. So he took birth as a vulture. When his wife died she was brought to Yamaraja. You appear to be a very pious lady but actually your mentality is very sinful. So you can become a parakeet, very colorful. So then she took birth as a bird. So she was flying in the forest, from one tree branch to another. And her husband from the previous life was flying high in the air as a vulture. He saw the bird flying was his wife. He dived down ummmm and grabbed her. Then they fell on top of a skull. He thought I will not kill my wife suddenly but will kill her gradually, piece by piece, so that she suffers as she made me suffer and killed me. She was screaming, yaaaaaa… A hunter heard her voice and took his bow and arrow and he left the arrow, it went and pierced into both the parakeet and the vulture. They fell into the water which was in the skull. Then they were brought to Yamaraja again. Then Yamaraja said, that, no these two are free, they can go to the spiritual world. Then the husband said, there is some mistake, I am a sinful person, I killed my wife. Yamaraja said, you see when the hunter killed you, you fell in the skull which was upside down which was filled with water. He was a rishi who read the fifth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita every day. Therefore, even his bones are pure! So you are freed of all your sins and you are able to both go back to the spiritual world. They fell into the water filled skull of the rishi and died. If you read the fifth chapter how much more you will get mercy? So we are trying to encourage everybody to read the Bhagavad-gita. To get initiation from Srila Prabhupada, I had to read the Bhagavad-gita ten times! Now to take initiation from me I ask the candidates to read the Bhagavad-gita twice. But they say, oh gurudev, I did not have time to ready now but I will surely finish reading, I promise! Give me diksha now, please, please! If he cannot read it in five years, ten years, who knows whether they will read it after I give initiation? I gave many people but they didn’t read. So a little service to Krsna, chanting Hare Krsna, doing some service in the temple, all these things are to your spiritual advancement. Who wants to take birth again and again? So we also don’t want that you take birth again and again! That is why we request you, please chant Hare Krsna, serve Krsna and read the teachings of Krsna. So actually the more you do service, the more you chant, the more you learn about Krsna, you start to develop affection for Krsna. Then we also gradually develop love for Krsna. This is the mercy of Lord Caitanya that very quickly we can get love of Krsna and Krsna Prema is the highest ecstasy. And we want all of you to be very blissful and get this ecstatic love of Krsna. Thank you very much.
Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari devi dasi
2 June 2019