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Mukham karoti vacalam pangum langayate girim
Yat kripa tam aham vande sri gurum dina tarinam
Paramananda Madhavam Sri Caitanya Isvaram

Today is Sanatan Goswami’s disappearance and is also Guru Purnima. The mayawadis observe today and worship their guru. But the vaisnavas tend to observe the birthday of the guru and observe Vyasa puja. But any way, today is known as guru Purnima. So the mayawadis, they tend to step on the guru and get moksa. Our process is, I want to serve guru and Krsna. In the material world everyone is trying to enjoy their senses, in an enjoying mood. But in bhakti yoga they stay in a serving mood. We try to serve Krsna and His devotees. Because we are part of Krsna, any service offered to Krsna, if He is pleased, we immediately get pleased. In the material world, it is opposite, we want to enjoy our senses. So everything is an object of sense gratification in the material world. But in the spiritual world, we want Krsna to enjoy, and that is why in the spiritual world, you have real love. There the devotee is trying to satisfy Krsna, and Krsna is also trying to please His devotee. In the material world, you want your personal sense gratification, so everybody is in that mood. It is hard to find someone in a real serving mood. Maybe the mother is most like that, because the mother is serving her child selflessly. But some Chinese family was lamenting how their child died in a plane crash. They said we spent so much money to educate our child in the USA, and we thought he would earn money and maintain us in our old age, but he died and all our money is wasted! I found this very strange that instead of lamenting that the child died untimely, they are lamenting how they spent so much money and had hoped that they would get some returns from the child! So this seemed more like a business negotiation. In the spiritual world you actually have real love and that is what we want to taste, and we would like to go back to the spiritual world, but there the mood is love and service. But we are diseased and so we are in this material world. We go to the temple and pray to the Lord, please cure my disease, give me a lot of money so on and so forth. We don’t actually go to serve the Lord. We don’t realize that service to Krsna gives one the greatest satisfaction. So everyone from the topmost living entity to the insect, they are all in the enjoying mood in the material world. But the pure devotees, they are in the service mood. So we want everyone to realize this service mood. Give up the enjoying attitude and be absorbed in the service mood. Visaya chariya sei rase mojiya mukeh bolo Hari Hari. Also, while in the material world, we have this material body, a certain amount of enjoyment you need to maintain the equilibrium, but the body also gives us some pain and suffering. In this planet we need to somehow balance between enjoyment and suffering. Both things are there. In the heavenly planets more enjoyment, in the hellish planets more suffering. In this planet, part suffering and part enjoyment. In the spiritual world, mood is serving and that is the meaning of real love. So we can somehow in this material world, we can become in a service attitude. The men are given the name das and women are given the name devi dasi. All we are all in the mood of serving. In this world, when one gets a job, technically he is serving the boss, he has to do whatever the boss says, within certain parameters, but that is because the boss pays you. And if he didn’t pay you, you will not work, and if you don’t work he will not pay you. So basically that is a business deal. In the spiritual world, people world out of love. They asked the emperor Hussain Shah what he thought of Lord Caitanya. They said that you are the emperor, you are the naradeva, so what do you think will be the higher truth? He said that I think that Lord Caitanya is non-different from Allah. Allah o Akbar, He is non-different from Allah. They were amazed, how this Mohammadan ruler was saying such a thing. They asked him, what brings you to that conclusion? He asked, so why do you all serve me? Why does my army serve me? Why does everyone serve me? They said, because you are a great maharaj, Allah o Akbar. No, because I pay you! If I didn’t pay you, you wouldn’t work for me. And my army wouldn’t fight. in fact, if I don’t give material gifts to my queens, I don’t know if they will stay with me! So everything runs on money. Actually, Kautilya Canakya wrote the book Arta Sastra, interesting, how money runs the kingdom. But anyway he said that Caitanya Mahaprabhu, you are running after Him, my ministers are running after Him, and He doesn’t give anyone any money! So it must be spiritual. Because you give someone money or you are a great spiritual person. So He doesn’t give any money and the people are following Hi, so I think He is non-different from Allah. HE IS SPIRITUAL! He IS NON-DIFFERENT FROM ALLAH O AKBAR. So Lord Caitanya was special because He taught how to love Krsna. He taught by His own example, He is Krsna teaching how to love Krsna. Just like a teacher takes the chalk and writes on the board, and this way he teaches the students how to write. So in the same way, Lord Caitanya taught how to practice bhakti-yoga. And then He also taught how to have love for Krsna. And so this is a great contribution of Lord Caitanya and His associates, especially Lord Nityananda. Nitai Gauranga, Nitai Gauranga jaya, Nitai Gauranga. See what is this? (Guru maharaj gestured to his knee). My knee, Myknee, Myknee My knee, (becomes kneemy, kneemy – Nimai, Nimai). Just like Narada muni told the great Dasu Ratnakar the great thief who said he could not chant anything holy, so he said you chant Mara again and again. Kill, kill, kill, Mara, mara, mara and after the first syllable he chanted Rama Rama. So if you chant myknee,myknee, so after the first syllable it begins Nimai. We want to start a new fashion. Put on a tie on your knee. Most people wear bow tie. We want people to wear kneetie. Nitai! Ha! So Nitai and Nimai, They gave out this love of Krsna to everyone. And try serving Krsna and see how you get spiritual bliss! So tonight there is a lunar eclipse. I think at 1.30 or 2.30 am. Lord Caitanya was born on the day of the lunar eclipse. At that time all the people were waist deep in the Ganges. They were chanting Haribol! Haribol! Govinda! Govinda! Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. So when He came into the world, although there was a restriction not to chant the holy name out loud, but in the Ganges, one could chant as they thought the Ganges was pure you could chant. Everyone was chanting and Lord Caitanya, He took His birth in this world. Even the non-Hindus, they were making fun how you are chanting Hare Krsna Hare Krsna! Ha! Somehow or other they were also chanting. That was the environment in which Lord Caitanya appeared. Gauuuuranga! Gauuuuranga! Gauuuranga! Are there are any questions either here or on the internet?

Question: Hare Krsna, PAMHO. How do I know that my prayers are listened to by Krsna? Balasubramaniam Lanka.

Guru maharaj: Krsna says He hears everyone’s prayers. And those who pray to Krsna humbly and devotionally, Krsna receives their prayers and He reciprocates. Ye yata mam prapadyanta tams tataiva bhajamyayam. May be a matter of faith, how do you know Krsna is listening? Sometimes one devotee told me, they were praying to Radha Madhava in Mayapur, and he said should I have Radha Krsna like you? And the pujari threw a flower and it landed right in his lap. So he took that as a sign. He also prayed to the Lord and the Lord dropped His garland. These are all considered as signs. So sometimes the Lord reciprocates and lets you know that He is listening. Lord Jagannath Baladeva Subadra deities in Mayapur, Rajapur, are very active. One non-Hindu came into the temple and the pujari offered him some prasadam. He took it and threw it! I don’t take anything offering to idols. The pujari said, why do you come here? If you don’t have faith, then why do you come? We give prasad to all those people who come here and they have faith. If you don’t have faith, then do on come here. Then the non-Hindu left. The next day the non-Hindus came to the temple, and paid his flat obeisances, prostrate obeisances. Came to the pujari and said, please can I have some prasad? The pujari said , what is wrong with you? Yesterday you threw the prasad and today you are begging for it? What happened? He said, last night in my dream, one with the white face, He came up and held my throat and said, you threw My Brother’s prasadam, I am going to kill you! And the lady with the yellow face, said, get him! Het him! I was so scared. And the one with the big smile with a black face. Oh just spare him, it is his first offence. He is not that bad! So the one with black face with a big smile, with broad eyes he saved me. I believe in prasadam! I believe! I BELIEVE! I DO BELIEVE! I BELIEVE! I will never throw prasad again. So sometimes Lord shows His devotees that He listens. Maybe someone who doesn’t have any faith, the Lord reciprocates but He doesn’t show anything. But someone who has faith, He shows. Sometimes He gives special mercy. Like this non-Hindu who threw prasadam. He gave him some special mercy. After that he believed. I believe, I believe I BELIEVE he said. You believe? Do you believe? Ha! Ha!

Question: Wish you a happy Guru Purnima. Much thanks for protecting all of us with compassion and love. My questions was that the disciple has tremendous love for guru but owing to external factors falls down due to outer negativity. How to overcome that and face the challenges? Pooja Visnupriya devi dasi.

Guru maharaj If someone has love for the guru due to bad association, they fall down, he should repent for their weakness and they should reestablish themselves in bhakti yoga. There is no higher atonement than devotional service. But one needs to have good association, then it is easy to render devotional service. Here, any other question?

Question: How to convince new people to have faith in the sastras? East London Bhakti vrksa.

Guru maharaj: Srimad Bhagavatam is very practical. I was a science student, I studied Physics and Chemistry and then I read the third canto Srimad Bhagavatam, the sankya yoga by Kapiladeva. It was very scientific and just by hearing it, my faith in the sastras grew. The problem is that most people do not read the Srimad Bhagavatam or the Bhagavad-gita. And they said that they are too busy or they have some other work. We should spend some time reading the Gita and Bhagavatam and such literatures. Lord Caitanya only gave three instructions – bolo Krsna, bhajo Krsna, koro Krsna sika. Chant Hare Krsna, serve Krsna and study Krsna’s teachings. So these three things are the first that Lord Caitanya requested everyone. So to have faith in the sastra, they should read the sastra and naturally they will develop faith.

Question: Hare Krsna guru maharaj. PAMRO. When we can pray directly to the Lord and feel connected, why we need guru, what is the importance of guru in one’s life? Jagjit Singh

Guru maharaj: You see; someone was asking how to have faith in the scriptures. How to know the Lord is hearing our prayer? These were some of the questions that came today. In our conditioned state, we are not able to see Krsna or hear Krsna. But we can hear the guru, we can see the guru. So initially, that is why we have a guru. Then when we reach the plane of liberation, the guru introduces us to some associate of the Lord, who will take our training from there. So the guru remains like an old friend, but he is to bridge us, from this material world to the spiritual world. Once we are able to see Krsna, the guru, he is there he will come when we need him, but at that time we don’t need him so much. But in the material world, we need a guru to guide us what to do, what not to do. And everything he says is based on what he heard from his guru and also what the sastras say, and also the lives of great devotees. That is called sadhu, sastra and guru. Just like if you go directly and plead to the Supreme Court, but since we don’t know the law perfectly, it is not recommended. You have to take a lawyer and the lawyer will plead in the High Court or Supreme Court. So like that we need a guru, he is also like a lawyer, and he bases things on the sastra, his guru and lives of great devotees. So because he is completely absorbed in serving Krsna, therefore he is considered to be non-different, he is serving the Lord and the Lord is the served Lord. Does that answer your question? Thank you

Question: Can you call Lord’s name in short form out of love? Will He reciprocate? Will it grant us moksa at the end when we call Him as we die? Even if we didn’t address Him by His full name? For example, some devotees call Kanhaiya, to Krsna and to Jagannath, they call Jagga. Your insignificant servant, Harita Madhavi devi dasi

Guru maharaj: Harita Madhavi devi dasi, if a child called out to you, mamma, mamma, mamma. She won’t say your whole name, Harita Madhavi devi dasi. Will you accept? Do you think that this is your daughter – recognizes you or your son? So like that you are thinking of Krsna and calling Jagga, Jagga, Jagga, will He accept? It is all in the mind, what you are thinking of! If you are thinking of Krsna, even if you don’t pronounce His name perfectly, He is a person, you are a person, He can understand what you are meaning! He is not like some machine – voice recognition!

Thank you very much! Any prasadam?

Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari devi dasi
16 July 2019