Hare Krishna!

I would like to very graciously welcome all of you for coming to participate in this event this evening. The topic that they have chosen for me to speak is “Conquering the Greatest Enemy”. When we speak about enemy this indicates conflict, opposition, or even warfare. The greatest danger is not to know who or what your enemy is. 

Espionage is a very important aspect of every government, to somehow or other put your spies in the enemy camp. The best spy is one who the enemy thinks you are a well wisher, a supporter and a friend. There was a book recently written by the uncle of one of my father’s friends. He was, my father never met him for obvious reasons, which you will find out. This person was a very high ranking official in the communist government. He was an American citizen and his purpose was to try somehow or other infiltrate America with communism. And give the communist government all sorts of information and they give me all sorts of money and other things to somehow or other spread communism in America. They trusted him so much he did so much good work for them. But after many years he saw so much hypocrisy, so much suffering, he realized that he had dedicated his life to an ideal that was completely theoretical and had no practical substance. So he decided that he wanted to overthrow the communist government. So he went to the American officials. According the book only the President of the United States and just a few of the very very high ranking agents of the intelligence knew what his mission was. He would sit with the Heads of State, with the Premier, Chief Ministers who were plotting against the American government and he was giving them the wrong information. They completely trusted him and he was giving American government the right information. So they thought the man was their friend, they thought the man was their well wisher, they thought he was on their side but actually he was on the enemy’s side. And he said so much damage to all their efforts. Haribol! It’s a book you can buy it. It’s all public information, since the man died it became public information. 

 

When you trust somebody as your friend but you don’t know that he is not your well wisher he is your enemy, that person could do such intense, internal damage to your life. What is the greatest enemy, who is the greatest enemy? According to the scriptures and according the basic common sense, the ultimate original enemy is ignorance, ‘Avidya’. What is the definition of ignorance? Maya, Maya means illusion, Maya means the energy that keeps us in ignorance, Maya means that which is not. When we forget who we are, what is our needs, what is our real desires, that is ignorance. So who are we? This is the first question dealt with in Srimad Bhagavad Gita. According to this position practically the entire human population of the world is in ignorance. Surrendered to their greatest enemy. Originally we are all perfect parts of God. We are not the material body and we are not the material mind. The body is changing, how much the mind is changing through boyhood to youth to old age and ultimately the inevitable must come upon everyone, death. What is death? The body is there, the brain is there, the heart is there, the organs are there, everyone is there except the person, the conscious force, the animator, the driver of the vehicle of the body has departed. Who is that? We are not simply the physical components of the body. We are the consciousness within the body. When the consciousness leaves, the body is dead. The nature of that consciousness that is the highest science, that is the most important of all forms of knowledge. 

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We are all part of the Supreme consciousness, the Absolute Truth. The jivatma is sat-cit-ananda, eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. That is you, that is your nature. However when we forget who we are, what our real needs are and what our real wants are, that is the basis, the origin of ignorance and all the problems, all the sufferings in the entire creation stem from that forgetfulness. We are ‘sat’, that is were are eternal, that means for the soul death, old age is completely artificial, unnatural, cannot be accommodated but when the soul is identifying with this temporary body so many anxieties. 

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So much struggle for survival, so much fear of death, so much fear within this world. Fear is the greatest stimulator there is. People get jobs and work foaming at the mouth to the fear, fear of not having food, fear of not having a proper place to stay, fear of no security for yourself, for your family, fear of social disgrace. And the greatest expenditures by practically every country world today is on defense, building militaries, building weaponry, arsenals, bombs. It is motivated by fear. Defense is born of fear. Because we are eternal therefore something so artificial as death is very fearful. Our relationships are eternal, but we are under the conception that our relationship’s end at the end of the body, that we fear for others. Sat-cit-ananda, cit means full of knowledge, if we think we are something we are not, if the eternal thinks it’s temporary that ignorance, that ‘acit’ is the cause of so much anxiety and disturbance. But the most essential aspect of the true soul is ‘ananda’, it is by it’s nature full of bliss it is ecstatic, and where does that ecstasy originate? In love, love is the greatest need, the greatest want in all life. If you have it you are happy in any situation and if you don’t have it you will be miserable, lonely and frustrated in any situation. The soul’s nature is to know the absolute pure attractive supreme person. But when we forget our relationship with the Supreme, when we forget the eternal love of the soul for God, we cannot live without love, we must search somewhere for that experience. So we try to find that through the temporary objects of this world. In Sanskrit that is called ‘kama’ or lust. What really does kama or lust mean? In essence it means to try to enjoy in a state of ignorance. To try to find pleasure

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We are pleasure seeking living entities. When we try to find pleasure in temporary objects that really have nothing to do with our true selves that is lust. Gold and iron are both metal but they are very different. Love and lust, the difference is when our propensity for pleasure is directed towards the needs of the soul, to our service to God, then we experience infinite pleasure in that love, but when that same propensity, the same need is misdirected on the basis of the illusion I am this body, I am this mind, towards the temporary objects of the senses it becomes lust. Krishna tells in third chapter of Gita

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It is lust only Arjuna, kama which is later transformed into wrath which is the all devouring sinful enemy of this world. In economics simple problem, everyone has unlimited desires and there is only so many resources within the world to fulfill people’s desires. So people are fighting over property, people are fighting over land, over food, people are fighting over the limited resources of our planet. Even a little house, children are fighting over who’s toy’s, over who’s bedroom and when they grow a little older, they become more intelligent, they have higher education, they start fighting over money and prestige, people kill each other fighting over a woman. Governments build massive armies fighting over land. So much fighting, so much competition in the business world, so much competition amongst politicians, so many people want the same post, great conflict. Why? We are looking for a spiritual experience, which is eternal and full of unending pleasures, we are looking for love in the material plane through a material vehicle. So Krishna explains in Gita, this is the greatest enemy. Lust doesn’t simply mean the passion between man and woman, lust means the desire to enjoy, on the gross plane it is enjoying through the five senses, the eyes, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the flesh. On the subtle level, lust means the desire for profit, adoration and distinction. It’s very dangerous. Krishna explains in Gita that there are three places that this enemy of lust is stationed, within the senses, within the mind and within the intelligence. Now if we identify it as an enemy you must learn where that enemy is and how to conquer it. Krishna says in Gita

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That one who controls the mind, the mind is the best friend, but one who fails to control the mind, the mind is the very worst enemy.

How to control the mind? That is the subject of this beautiful song we sang tonight by Govinda das. He is praying to his mind, please engage yourself in the loving service of Sri Nandanandana Sri Krishna, then you will be fearless. This human life is so very very rare. Why should we waste it seeking the same thing that are available to lower species, the fish, the birds, the insects, the reptiles, the animals, some physical experiences of pleasure and some mental satisfaction. All of those goals that people are trying to achieve Govinda das says, they are like a drop of water on the lotus leaf. They are here today and tomorrow they are gone. Therefore my dear mind, please engage in your natural propensity to worship the Supreme Lord. 

 

The nature of the soul, the consciousness is, it’s looking for unending, unlimited pleasure. But when it looks for it in the dying temporary objects of the world it is disappointed. When you find some semblance of that pleasure of love, even a drop of a hint of that pleasure you become practically uncontrollably attached to that object. But then when it drops away like water on the lotus leaf such great suffering, such great anxieties. Then how do people deal with these anxieties in this world? The extreme frustration comes out in suicide, madness, atrocities, cruelties of these people who are serial murderers. It’s not they are they are from really really poor families, they are simply frustrated. In Washington DC now there is somebody shooting people dead. He doesn’t even know who they are. He is just so frustrated. This is how he gets his pleasure knowing that he has the power of control over people’s lives. Stalin killed twenty five million people in his own country such power, such control. In America certain leaders of the past killed tens and thousands of native American Indians power, control! In India there has been leaders in the past of your history who murdered tens and thousands of people simply because they did not believe the same thing they believed. That’s not religion. That is simply extreme expressions of frustration for power and for control. Lust.

So how to deal with that? If you can control your mind your mind becomes your best friend, if you cannot control mind your mind becomes your greatest enemy. Why? Because it is an instrument of ignorance, it is an instrument of lust, it is the residence of your greatest enemy. 2001 the World Health Organization has claimed that the greatest cause of suffering from the medical point of view, not AIDS, not Hepatitis, cancer, heart disease, but mental disease. In the generation you are living today the greatest epidemic that is going to cause suffering and death is mental disease. How is this possible? We have so much scientific, technological, economic and medical progress. At one time if a person had small pox he died, there was mass plague the black plague, bubonic fever. It destroyed over 1/3 the population of the entire European continent and London. In fact in London the plague was killing hundreds and thousands of people. Then one medial scientist he came to the conclusion that the cause of the plague is the fleas on cats. So you know what they did, they killed every cat in the UK. And guess what happened, the plague multiplied like never before. Then they realized it was due to the fleas in the rats. Then the only thing that was keeping the rat population down was the cats. So a slight technical error had a major effect on the people’s lives. Almost half of the population of the UK died, this plague went on for generations. But now medical science we don’t find it anywhere in the world. Now we have this open heart surgery, people who would have died by hardened arteries in their hearts and massive heart attack are now getting extended lifetimes. These are all wonderful breakthroughs in medicine. And as far as technology, now we have the cellular phones. It used to be the phone rings, nobody is home. That was such a simple thing. But now you are always home, there is never a time you are not home because the phone goes with you anywhere. You don’t even have to know where the person is. I don’t know much but I know one of my god brother, he has a phone number in Boston Massachusetts and I call his Boston number he picks up the phone, I ask where are you, he said Moscow! Another time I thought he was in Moscow and I called him on the phone, I said where are you, Calcutta! Very very great breakthrough. You don’t even need to wire you. Bow they have these phones you don’t have to even hold them. Some they hold you! They are just hands free you just walk around talking you don’t even have to dial, you just say ‘my mother’s house’, hello! hello! So much technology. And all these satellite communications television, computer, internet, emails, very very tremendous breakthrough and progress.

There used to be the ‘pony express’. You have heard of pony express in the United States. If you write a letter you brig it to the post office and if you really want fast mail you give it pony express. These people would ride their horse from New York to Chicago and from Chicago would ride all the way and the ponies would go just faster and faster and every 100 or 200 miles there would be another horse that would pick up your letter and about a month later the letter would get delivered and this was considered so fast, pony express. Then they developed trains, incredible technology. Then air mail. That was the ultimate, ultimate. You can get a letter from one place in just a matter of a few days. But now airmail is considered primitive. Yes! Somebody once asked me, what is your email address. I told them my postal address and they almost curled their lips in distaste and spit on me. They said postal address? When I was in Italy, this young American girl was there. I was giving some lectures. She was really enlivened by my lectures. Can I have your address? I want to ask some questions. I said 7 K M Munshi Marg, Chowpatty Bombay 4000007 India and she looked at me like I just ate a saber tooth tiger and came out of a cage. She said, what? Postal address? She said I have never written a letter or bought a stamp in my life. All we use is email. Haribol! So what is this email? It’s there instantly. You don’t have to know where the person is and within a matter of seconds it reaches it’s destination.

 

I had to write an emergency report, I was in Kiev, Ukraine just a couple of weeks ago. It took me several hours to write this report, I don’t know how to type very well, I had to do it by email, I was thinking modern progress, save not waste time. Three hours then it was time to send it and I accidentally just pressed one wrong button, it disappeared. The whole thing disappeared, I am telling you the truth. I went to get a professional computer expert and he spent hours looking all the way through all different programs in my computer findings. He said, I can’t find it, somehow or other, it has disappeared. I had to write the whole thing all over again. Now if I wrote with pen and ink it wouldn’t just disappear but somehow or other so much technology, so much excessive ability to do practically everything and everyone through this computerized communications. And transportation. Great progress, the greatest progress I have seen in transportation after traveling all around the world for many years is the Bombay Poona Highway. It’s a major breakthrough. Instead of sitting at those ghats just waiting for hours and hours and hours and miles and kilometers and miles of trucks just sitting there, truck drivers are just sitting on the roadside eating roti’s and subji, there is no where to go. Now there is nice highway. So much on every level medically, militarily. It used to be bows and arrows and guns, then machine guns, then big big guns, then bombs, then atom bombs, then nuclear bombs. So much progress. So on every level people’s lives are longer than they were ten years ago, twenty years ago. The life expectancy of all the nations of the world that are developing medically, technologically is raising, raising, raising. Economically, so much progress has been made. 

Time of our father, my father the whole family would sit around the radio and listen, that was the ultimate entertainment. That was just sixty years ago and then television, black and white, one station and then four stations, then color, then satellite, remote control. Haribol! I’ve been to some of the lowest ghettos in India where there is nothing in the house except a television antenna at the top. I am serious I have seen houses made out of flattened vanaspati cans, you know those aluminum cans they just flatten them out and make the roof and couple of bamboo polls and some bags for wall and on the top is a television antenna. It’s become a necessity of life. 

So with all this progress why the greatest medical problem is mental health, mental disease, depression. This is a serious problem today, depression and it’s not the problem is not amongst just the poor people. It’s the upper class, the aristocrats as well as the middle class. So much depression. Insanity, frustration, suicide, just people minds just burst with craziness, they just go on rape people, shoot people. One person who was a friend of my friend his mind just cracked one day and he just ran into a bank to rob it. He didn’t even have a gun. He just had a stick. He put it behind, “Give me your money give me your money or I will shoot you or kill you.” The lady looked at him and pressed the button. The policeman came in and put gun to his head. He said, drop it or I will kill you! The person took the cloth off and it was a stick. He went to jail. They asked why did you do that? He said I don’t know, just went mad. People are turning to alcohol, drugs. Why? Because they are frustrated, they are lonely. People need happiness but unfortunately in society today people do not know what happiness is. The enemy of ignorance is promising happiness. Smoke this cigarette and you will be happy. Ah I have seen the hoardings in Mumbai. All these very nice handsome men and beautiful women. Smoke this cigarette and you will have a woman like this or a man like that. You will be able to wear clothes. You will be cool. People will look at you like very very fearless person. And then they write, smoking is injurious to health and that makes it even more prestigious. Really! After they started writing this cigarette sales went up! How is that possible? In some countries it says the sergeant general declares that cigarette causes heart disease and blood pleasure diseases and cancer, lung diseases, has a whole list, pregnancy defects. Some people say it may kill you, some say it is injurious to health and then people are smoking. Jus to show the world I am willing to risk my life, I am willing to sacrifice everything to be cool! Oh such a great person such great soul

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Such great souls are very rare, who are willing to sacrifice everything, who are willing to die and be cool. People like that. I was recently in an airport and a man and a woman they were smoking cigarettes. The man would go, whoosh! and the woman would go whoosh! They were blowing the smoke in their faces. It was their ultimate romance for them. I was watching, not for too long. This is madness. First they are killing themselves then they are killing the other person and this is their idea of romance and they were looking at each other with such passion in their eyes as they were blowing smoke on each other. Haribol! 

So yes, so much tremendous progress but Prabhupada our Guru Maharaj said there is a pinprick in society. There is frustration, there is depression, there is loneliness. The mind is simply not satisfied. The mind will never be satisfied no matter how much you money you make, no matter how much sex you have, no matter how much power you have, no matter how much position you have, no matter how much land you own. The mind will never be satisfied. Bhagavad Gita tells why? Because this kama burns like fire and the more fuel you put in the fire does the fire go out and say enough! I am happy now. Did you ever see a fire do that? Put gasoline, kerosene in the fire. Does the fire say I am satisfied! The more you put the fire gets bigger and hungrier and needs more and more and more. If you are a poor man you want to be rich, if you are a rich man you want to be a millionaire, if you are are a millionaire you want to be a multi millionaire, if you are a multi millionaire you want to be billionaire and if you are a billionaire you want to control vast portions of the world and if you control the world you want to control the universe and if you control the universe. Hiranyakashipu did it and he was frustrated, he was fearful, he was lonely. It says the loneliest place is on the top. When you have everything then everyone else is thinking if I have it I will be happy and you have it and you are not happy, that’s a lonely position. And that’s the situation of perhaps one hundred percent of people who have it. And sometimes they try to make a show that they are happy but inside their life is superficial. It has no ultimate meaning, no ultimate ideal. 

So how? How to control this mind?

William Blakes said, “ the mind is such a thing it can make heaven out of hell or hell out of heaven.” Even if everything happens just according to your plan, is your mind satisfied, always thinking of something else. And if it is satisfied how long does it remain in that state? Because the soul, the soul is seeking ever lasting, eternal, unlimited love. But the soul identifying with the mind is filled with this enemy of ignorance and it is looking for that love through the temporary facilities of the body. Krishna says in the Gita that this ignorance, this lust it covers the soul in different stages like smoke covers fire, like dust in a mirror or like the womb covers an embryo. Womb covering embryo, embryo means completely immersed in ignorance. Dust in mirror, you can’t see yourself, the purpose of the mirror is to see yourself. But when it is covered by dust what do you see? Dust! The purpose of the mind is to reflect your true self. When the mind is clean you see your eternal pure self, full of bliss, full of knowledge. But when the mirror of the mind is covered with life times of accumulation of debris and dust. What do you see? All you see is that accumulated contamination. The process of human life is to clean the mind, not to further contaminate it. And how do we clean the mind, how do we bring our consciousness back to it’s natural state. That is a great challenge. But that is the greatest need in the world today. 

So much pollution, the ecology of the world according to environmentalists is on the brink of disaster. Solarized caps are beginning to melt due to global warming. Global warming is due to unnatural pollutions which are born of simple violations of natural laws. Exploitation, with no concern for the earth, for living. When western people came to the United States of America then it was just Indian tribes, they started building their kinds of technologies with no consideration for the purity of water, for the air, for the land. There was an American Indian chief, Seattle and he was a prophet, he said to the people of the West, he said, “ Mother earth is the bed you are sleeping on, If you pollute and contaminate your bed you are going to have to sleep in it.” Do you know, sitting in Bombay according to some statistics it’s like smoking two packs of cigarettes a day ad all you are doing is breathing. So much pollution. So many water born diseases due to pollution. People eat fish but the fish are born of water’s that are full of dangerous chemicals. Haribol! And according to the environmental statistics if we don’t do something serious about curbing the pollutions of the world one third to one fourth of all land on earth will be under the ocean. Solarized caps melt, oceans rise and Chowpatty beach is only about a block away. Hari Hari! So people are becoming health conscious, natural foods, natural clothing. This is becoming very very very important today. When people in the cities we see they like to go the mountains, they like to go to a nice river or to a nice ocean. People love to go to natural places because natural places can just fresh air, feel like yourself with beautiful scenery. 

But what is our nature? Unless we cleanse the pollutions, the artificial impositions that are upon our mind we can’t understand our natural state of health. So the purpose of human life according to the great acharyas, according to the great scriptures is to clean the mind, to make it pure. Instead of being frustrated with the insanities of endless desires to actually peace within, joy within, illumination within only that person is actually happy. Because think about it, is happiness something outside of yourself, is happiness something you can put in yourself? Real happiness is a state of consciousness. Real peace is not what somebody tells you, real peace is something that has to be experienced and realized within yourself. And the Supreme Absolute Truth descends in this world to reveal to us again and again how to achieve real peace. It is simple. Every religious system every religious path that is actually authorized teaches how to clean your heart, how to purify your mind, how to see your true eternal self in the mirror of your consciousness. First thing is we have to stop throwing dirt in our mind by our activities. We should live according to ethical, moral principles. We should live in a spirit of service to others rather than exploitation of others. Within our society we follow four very very essential principles, no intoxications because intoxications destroy one’s physical and mental health and put huge amount of contamination to obscure our spiritual nature. We are already intoxicated by so many misconceptions. We want to wake up to our true self. No meat eating, the laws of Karma- what you do others will come upon you. Every action brings an equal corresponding reaction. That’s the law of nature. Whether you believe it or not it is the law and it will act. If somebody goes into a store and robs it and the police come and take him before the judge and he says I didn’t know that you are not supposed to steal from the store. Will the judge say, “Oh you didn’t know, ok go on.” Doesn’t matter if you know or not. It is the law. So if we are in any way participating in the gruesome violence and death of an innocent creature that has to come upon us. We are responsible as human beings. No illicit sex. Today so many anxieties, so many diseases, so many frustrations are born of just unrestricted passion and lust. AIDS, Hepatitis, so many of these incurable diseases that are killing tens and millions are born of intoxication and illicit sex. Some warning is there. We are supposed to try to control our mind and senses. Gambling feverish, people feverishly going to a gambling situation and it brings greater and greater fever. It is intoxicating. Intoxication, illicit sex, gambling, meat eating these four principles constitute basic human morality. Honestly, truthfulness these are very very important. Why? Because they do not further thrust contaminations upon the mind but how to clean the contaminations that are already there? There are many various sciences to do that. Through prayer, through meditation, through virtuous deeds. But in this age we are living of Kaliyuga the most powerful and perfect means of cleaning the mirror of the heart is the all pure transcendent name of God. By chanting the name of the Lord it has the power to clean the mirror of the heart and allow our true eternal nature to shine, awaken our eternal love within, which is the source of real peace and real happiness. 

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Kaliyuga is the age of quarrel and hypocrisy, so many difficulties but one great benediction that simply chanting the Holy Names one can attain liberation. Therefore we take very seriously as a science the chanting of this Mahamantra

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare.

When the mind becomes cleansed, when the mind is controlled by our intelligence through the processes we have explained, then ‘param drstva nivartate’ then we experience, the inner peace the inner love of the soul for Krishna, the all-attractive object of everyone’s love. When we experience that higher pleasure then the lower entangling pursuits of material existence no longer have any influence on our lives. You cannot give up something unless you experience something higher. Bhagavad Gita does not teach that you have to give up you family, give up your career to be God conscious.   Bhagavad Gita teaches you have to give up serving your greatest enemy of ignorance and lust who is seated within your mind. You have to clean your mind, you have to experience the higher taste of true love, love of God and let that love motivate you, let that love be the foundational principle of your family, of your occupation, to share that love with your loved ones, to share that love with the world. Many wealthy people their greatest happiness is giving in charity even better than building a house for themselves. Cause they build a big big house for themselves then their elevator doesn’t work and they are in anxiety, the person sleeping in the street is happier. Something goes wrong, it is the nature of the world. If we have high ideals serving those ideals bring real purpose and fulfillment in our lives and what is the highest ideal- to help other people soul’s, to enlighten people’s heart’s. Giving some monetary donation, giving some emotional encouragement that is nice but the greatest need of another person is they are lost, they are in ignorance, they have been defeated by their enemy. They need to be rescued they need to be released from the prison house of ignorance. If you are not free you cannot free another. So the more we clean our minds and realize God, Krishna within our hearts the more we can love the soul’s of others, the more we can help them to love and that is the greatest need in all of the world today. The greatest need in the world today is love and compassion, not money and technology. Those things can be used but if money and technology are in the hands of greedy, envious, lustful people they will not help the world. You may earn money, you may use technology if required but let it be with a heart of love and compassion. Be an instrument of love, be and be an instrument of illumination in this world. Many of you are young, you have decisions to make right now in your life of what your future will be. Human life does not last very long. Sometimes it is said youth is wasted on the young. When you start getting older you realize the years go so fast. If only I could do it again. You have youthful energy, you have intelligence, you have so many opportunities. What is your ideal? What is your purpose, what is your integrity? Do you want to chase after the mirage in the desert in a state of ignorance or are you really seeking the truth? Do you want to live for the truth or just sell your soul to the illusions of this world and just somehow or other fit in as another statistic. Death will come, at the time of death will you accomplish the highest ideal possible in this life. That is the duty of every human being. Youth is the opportune time to make these decisions. But the decision should not be based on blind faith, the decision should be based on science, on research on this subject, who am I? Where am I going? What is the Absolute Truth? Who is God? What is the actual purpose of life? To make some money, to have some children, to die and then to leave your inheritance for others and then usually your children fight and become enemies over your inheritance. It’s common. What is the purpose of life? This is the single question that every great spiritualist, every great philosopher and every great man has asked. What is beyond death? Life is not meaningless. Life is full of incredible meaning. But we must know what that meaning is. It is an eternal meaning. You are an eternal soul, you are part of the Supreme soul and your nature is to love God through everything you speak and everything you do and everything you think. Can anyone think of a higher ideal than that? By spreading enlightenment and love wherever you go, if that is your ideal you will achieve it if you have the proper association. Association is essential. 

 

Recently was Dassera where we celebrate Rama’s victory over Ravana. If we look at the Ramayana so many sacred lessons are there. Practical lessons. I will be brief because I am overtime. Kaikeyi, who is Kaikeyi? Kaikeyi is you and me. Haribol! Did you ever think of that way? She is mirror image of all of us. Do you like her? Look in your heart you will see her. Kaikeyi was a pure hearted person. She loved Lord Rama. She was faithful, chaste wife of Dasarath Maharaj. She risked her life in the battlefield to save him. And therefore she was his favorite wife. She was willing to give her life to serve her husband. And she loved Rama as her own child. And Rama respected and offered love to Kaikeyi as much as he offered his own love to Kaushalya. Kaikeyi had the same love for Rama as her own son Bharath. She was a virtuous good devotee. But what happened?   The demigods Devatas, they had a mission. If Rama is just enjoying in Ayodhya who is going to kill Ravana. He was causing so much mischief so they somehow or other influenced Manthara. Manthara was greedy. Manthara was ugly and hunchbacked. She was envious of others. When you have envy, when you have greed, when you have pride, these qualities are like formal invitations asking Maya, come and use me as your instrument. It is a fact. What people consider strengths are their greatest weaknesses in this world. If a person’s proud is considered strength, if the person has tremendous sexual prowess or lust it is considered a strength, if a person is angry and can beat and kill frighten people that is considered a strength. Is it not in certain circles? It is a weakness. Because of envy Manthara was an easy person for ignorance, for illusion, for lust to just enter her and use her like a puppet. And due to association with that Manthara, Kaikeyi began to believe that she is my friend. Haribol! This goes back to the beginning of our lecture. When you think your enemy is your friend, you are in big trouble! If Kaikeyi knew that Manthara is Maya, she is a rascal, get out from here then Ramayana would be a different story. Yes! But not like that! I am your friend, I am your maid-servant, I’ll do anything for you. Yes, I know that, I trust you, you are my friend, you’ll do anything for me. I must warn you that there is a diabolical conspiracy against you and your son. They are going to coronate Rama. Yes yes I am getting all dressed up I am putting on make up I am preparing because my dear Rama is going to be king. This is the greatest news. Manthara here’s so many gifts, so many congratulations. Everyone should celebrate Rama, that was Kaikeyi’s mood! Manthara said you fool! You don’t know that Rama is envious of you, and envious of his brother, he will destroy you once he is king. Kaikeyi trusted Manthara. She considered her worst enemy her best friend. And what happened by that association, she fell into the trap of ignorance. That which is not, Maya. Rama was her best friend but she considered him the worst enemy. She wanted to be the controller, she wanted to be the mother of the king. If you are the mother of the king you are as good as the king. She wanted the power, she wanted the riches. Total transformation due to association. Putting your faith in the wrong place and not only did she suffer by that illusion, she caused the death of her husband, she caused the banishment of innocent Sita, Rama and Laxman and she caused total desperate misery of every citizen of Ayodhya, millions of people suffered bitterly for fourteen years because of her, because she was an instrument of ignorance due to associating with another instrument of ignorance and lust. So serious message. Who is that Kaikeyi? We are all spirit souls, somehow or other due to association with this material nature we’re all trying to become controllers, we are all trying to be enjoyers but our natural happiness is to serve, to be pure and to love. Humility rather than pride, compassion rather than envy. That’s what we should be striving for. And then there is Ravana. Ravana was living in Lanka the golden city, he had so many beautiful wives, he had so much power but he was willing to risk everything because of his mad attraction for Sita and who is Sita? The property of God. Lust, ignorance, envy that fills up the heart within him, even though so many good instructions, he couldn’t hear it. And ultimately Ravana was destroyed. This is history. But the history was staged in such a way to teach us practical, personal lessons in life. We must come out of darkness, we must come out of ignorance, we must see the light. The light of the Supreme Lord’s infinite Mercy in our hearts and all around us and reciprocate by cleansing our hearts, by associating with saintly people, by associating with noble devotional activities and by associating with Krishna who has appeared in his Holy Name

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare.

 

Is there any questions?

Q: Prabhuji, I have two questions. My first question is you said about so much of technology. Right? So is that technology very good or bad.

Maharaj: one question at a time. Is technology good or bad?

It is either good or bad depending on who the technologist is. Just like you have the microphone in your hand that is technology, it is a wireless mike. Now you can use that wireless mike to broadcast hatred, bigotry, enviousness and violence. Yes! Or you can preach the gospel of Bhagavad Gita, peace, harmony and purity with that microphone. So is the microphone good or bad? It depends how you use it. With email, with anything, our dear Gauranga Prabhu, where is he? He is on television, he is a television personality. Anywhere you go with him people come, “I saw you on Atma series.” He is very famous all over the world he is people’s living room preaching Gita. So in that sense the technology of television is very good because Gauranga Prabhu has appeared but when you turn the station, Haribol! You don’t find Gauranga Prabhu speaking Bhagavad Gita on every station, there is lot of other lecture series going on. So what is it used? Technology can be a glorious opportunity, if it is used by persons who have pure hearts and pure ideals. But it can be utilized for the greatest power of damaging people, physically, mentally and spiritually, if it is used by the wrong people. 

 

Q: So Prabhuji my second question would be we have achieved so much of technology. I suppose by having desires and which involve lust or passion to achieve things. So in this case does is this desire good or bad?

 

Maharaj: The desire to achieve, what do you wish to achieve?

 

Q: The same thing, as you said a place somewhere at the top.

 

Maharaj: The spiritual world? That’s the topmost place. That’s very good!

Desire to be on the top is not bad. The question is what are you going to do when you are on the top. Why do you want to be on the top? You may work for money. How many of you think some day that you may work for money? Only one person. Many people. So working for money is not bad. The question is what are you going to do with the money when you get it? I can use it for alcohol, or you can use it to go to all these cinemas and watch all these shows, are you going to use it simply to eat drink and be merry, are you going to simply use it to have a big house and go on living till you get old and let your children and your grand children and great grand children watch you getting old till you die. What are you going to do with your money? Are you going to use your money to actually help enlighten people’s consciousness, use your money to make your home a temple, use your money to buy food to offer the deities as prasad in your home, use your money to raise your children and spiritual consciousness, then making money is a good thing. It’s an act of devotion to God. So the question is what is your ideal? And how faithful are you to your ideal? That determines whether your life has spiritual integrity or whether it is superficial, puppet in the hands of illusion, ignorance and selfishness. Does that answer your question? 

Is there any other question?

 

Q: there is something I really had in my mind from a very long time, will the depth of spirituality fade away with time as technology prospers to such a height the beauties (?) of nature won’t be along with us after 20 or 40 years or maybe 2000 years. Where will spirituality go?

Maharaj: What is your age?

A: 25

Maharaj: the people sitting in this room today are potentially the leaders of the next generation. What difference do we want to make in our lives to do something positive in the service of God, in the welfare of the world. That is the question we must ask if our life is to be meaningful. The greatness of India historically is people ask these questions. But as India is becoming more westernized less people are asking these questions. In that way India is cheating the world of it’s real wealth, it’s great rich spiritual heritage. We are not against economic strength, we’re against ignorance. Where there is knowledge everything can prosper in it’s proper direction. Yes, if technology grows and grows and people are more dependent on technology then the world will be devoid of virtue. We have to learn to depend on God. God is providing the sun and the rain and the air and the earth and all the metals and raw ingredients that we make our technology with. If that is not there what can we do? We must declare our dependence on the Absolute power and the Mercy of the Supreme. We must learn to reciprocate with the love of the Supreme. We must learn to be instruments of the love of the Supreme Lord.   Then we can utilize even technology to make the world a glorious wonderful enlightened place. But if we take true spirituality out of the equation then the consciousness of men and women will become darker and darker and darker. More and more confused bewildered and frustrated. We’re not talking about a sectarian concept we are talking about cleaning the heart and bringing it to it’s natural state and the simple process is to chant the Holy Names. By broadcasting this glorious message and living it within our own life we can do so much for the world. In this humble temple of ours we are using lights we are using video, you saw that beautiful show. There is a lot of technology here but it is to enlighten people. It is to be used in the spirit of service. It is not exploit, it is not to delude. Whatever we use whether it is our intelligence, our power of speech, our strength, our influence, our potion, our wealth, our technology, whatever we use the question is simply this, are we being dictate by the Kaikeyi, the Manthara, the Manthara of ignorance or are we being dictated by Rama? Kaikeyi could have listened to Rama or Manthara. She decided to listen to Manthara therefore her mind became her worst enemy. If she had listened to Ram, her mind would have been her best friend. Who are we listening to? The passion of our senses or the Holy scriptures, the great sages, the realized souls and the Lord within our own heart. Then whatever we use we use it to serve rather than exploit and in serving there is great spiritual joy. In exploitation there is further entanglement and bondage. We have devotees who are members of this temple who are industrialists with tens and thousands of employees we have doctors, lawyers, engineers and they are very productive, creative and successful in the business world, the medical world and the professional world. You don’t have to be a simple pauper to be spiritual. You can be powerful, you can be dynamic, you can be successful in the society but everyday they clean their hearts by chanting the Holy Names they raise their family with compassion and love for the soul and they are trying to use their influence and their power to uplift the humanity and their lives are meaningful, worthwhile and perfect.    

One more question?

Q: Sir, what is intelligence and what is the right mould or direction for intelligence?

Maharaj: Intelligence is the God given power to discriminate. The senses are gross matter, the eyes see, an image comes to the eyes, the eye wants to enjoy. Actually it’s not the eye but the soul which wants to enjoy, the soul is seeing through subtle and gross elements, the eye is the gross. So the eyes sees something beautiful and it comes into the mind and the mind wants it. Yes! I want it. How many times have you seen something and you want it. I must have it, I must look at it! And then your intelligence is meant to discriminate, is this for my real welfare to look at this or will it lead to my degradation? It discriminates, it rationalizes, it makes decisions, yes? The tongue, the eyes sees something, the tongue thinks I must taste this! That’s what the mind is thinking, actually the tongue just has this desire and the mind says I want it and the tongue is going ah therefore I must have it. The tongue is crying out for this pleasure, the mind is saying give it to me and the intelligence says No it is not good for you! Haribol! That’s intelligence. Like a little child. Children don’t know what is good for them. The child picks up a knife, let’s play with my brother and sister. The child thinks it’s very nice he is having a good time wit this knife. What does the mother do? If the mother thinks let the child do whatever he wants. The child will cut himself, torture himself, maybe kill himself. The mother is meant to be the intelligence. She says, “give me this knife.” The intelligence should be the mother for the mind. The intelligence should discriminate but the question is who’s side is your intelligence on? If the intelligence is being dictated by the mind and the senses then the intelligence is spoilt. But if the intelligence is strengthened by associating with God, with spiritual principles, with integrity morality and truth then the intelligence can dictate to the mind. So this is what spiritual life is all about. To arm your intelligence with knowledge and realizations so that whatever the mind and senses propose you can decide whether it is the right thing or the wrong thing. If your intelligence is not strong by associating with Guru, Sadhu and Sastra, then your mind will control your intelligence. The example is given the body is like a chariot the senses are the five horses, the mind is like the reins and the intelligence is the chariot driver. Now horses pull, the reins are going with the horses but if the chariot driver says no you go this way, pulls then through that intelligence controls the mind, the mind controls the chariot and the passenger the spirit soul will achieve his destination. But if the intelligence is weak then the senses and the mind go their way, the chariot driver has no power to control it and you are in a very very dangerous position. Yes? What happens if you take a taxi and the driver is going hundred kilometers an hour down the highway and you say what’s wrong? He says I lost control of the car. The steering wheel doesn’t work, the breaks don’t work. Will you think oh very nice! That’s the way your life is going today, that’s the way most people’s lives are going today. You are going a hundred kilometers down the road on the Bombay Pune Highway and you are taxi driver falls fast asleep. Are you in a safe condition? Very dangerous condition. So the driver is the intelligence. It has to direct the wanderings of the car or the chariot no matter what resistance may be there. That is the purpose of the intelligence. Therefore by hearing Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagawatam, by hearing hari katha by coming to sadhu satsang your intelligence becomes enlightened,strengthened,empowered by chanting the Holy Names your intelligence becomes purified and realized and then you can actually direct your mind, your body, your senses, your very life in the direction that will bring about real success in life. Does that answer your question? Thank you

Is there another question?

 

Q: Prabhuji, can economic development and spiritualism go hand in hand?

Maharaj: can you stand up so that I can see?

Yes, very nicely! 

Q: Economic tells that man should always be unsatisfied and spiritualism says man should be satisfied with what he has

Maharaj: not necessarily. You can be satisfied but you have a deep desire to serve. I ask you this question. Which is a more productive force, greed or love?

A: love

Maharaj: You answered your own question. If you love and you see a need for money and you’re there to make money motivated by love and compassion and servitude you can work harder than somebody who is simply doing it out of selfish greed. But you will do it in a way that is beneficial for others and you will use the fruits of your labor for the benefit of others. When you were a little child did your mother make sacrifices for you?

A: yes!

Maharaj: Many!

A! Yes!

Maharaj: Too Many!

That’s why you are such a nice person! Cause your mother made so many sacrifices for you, for your health, for our well being, for everything. In the middle of the night when she wanted to sleep you would go Wha! What did she do? Just shut up! If she did that you would be a nervous wreck right now, you would probably be some kind of a mad man abusing others. Yes! But because she, so tired but I love you child take some milk, yes she did like that that’s why you are such a nice person. She sacrificed of everything of her life for you. Was she making any money for it? She was doing out of motherly love. There is no more powerful force in this world than love and the more selfless the love is the more we’re willing to sacrifice for that love. The purpose of a man or a woman who is in business is to make a sacrifice of love in your business. You have the highest purpose. You want to build a temple of God so that thousands of people will come and be enlightened, you want to sponsor prasadam so that hundreds and thousands can get nice Krishna prasadam, you want to do something that will enlighten and invigorate people’s lives and general public therefore you work so hard. Not just that I want position, I want more possession to enjoy! No matter how much position you get, no matter how many possessions there will be no happiness or inner fulfillment through that. But if you are serving a spiritual purpose there will be infinite fulfillment in that to the heart as we become purified. So yes, economic development is a necessity in this world today. Prahlad Maharaj said that, for materialistic people money is the honey and there is many bees swarming around that honey and they have stingers. Haribol! So money can be used for so many wonderful things. Money is power if money is used for the right purpose it could do such incredible welfare for the human society and for all living beings. How many sadhus have you seen begging for money? Many! Haribol! If it’s a good sadhu if he is actually good for the world if you give money he could do so many wonderful things. Some sadhus don’t beg! some do! It is not that one is good and one is bad. The question is what is their ideal in their life, what is the purity of the heart and what is the selflessness of their mission to help others. If we can help those persons, if we can uplift our family that’s glorious. You could make millions and billions and it will all be used to bring joy and harmony and love in the world. That is actually the ultimate purpose of economic development. And every single one of us can have that ideal and ask yourselves please very seriously now, what is the ideal you want to strive for in your life? Is this the ideal? Self purification, self realization, discovery of our internal love and sharing God’s love with the world through everything we do, is that the ideal you want to live for? Or just work work work work out of greed? Possess, possess, possess. Raise children without a real direction of who they are or what they need? Are you the body, are you the soul, are your children bodies or souls? Do something for their body, do something for their mind but most important serve the interests of their soul, that is love. Body, mind, soul. We should serve the needs of all of these. But if we neglect the soul then everything else perishes. And the great way of liberating the soul is associating with those who are striving for purity, those who are realized on the path of true devotion, those who inspire us to take to the yuga dharma, the universal process of enlightening the heart the sincere chanting of the Holy Names

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare.

 

Thank you very much!