Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya(chorus)

atraiva māyā-dhamanāvatāre
hy asya prapañcasya bahiḥ sphuṭasya
kṛtsnasya cāntar jaṭhare jananyā
māyātvam eva prakaṭī-kṛtaḿ te

Translation:
My Lord in this incarnation you have proved that you are the supreme controller of maya.
Although you are now within this universe the whole universe or creation is within your transcendental body. A fact you demonstrated by exhibiting the universe within your abdomen before your mother Yasoda.

Purport by disciples of HDG A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabupada

Lord Brahma here describes the inconceivable spiritual potency of the lord. We may find a pot within a house but we may hardly expect to find a house within the same pot. By the lord’s spiritual potency however he can appear both within this universe and simultaneously exhibit all the universes within his body. One may argue that since the universe is seen by Mother Yasoda within Krishna’s abdomen within the Lors’s body they are different from the illusionary universe manifest externally. Here Lord Brahma refutes that argument. However Lord Krishna is maya dhamana the supreme controller of illusion. By the lord’s own mystic potency he can bewilder even illusion herself and thus the lord actually exhibited all the universes within his body. This is Mayatvam
the supreme bewildering potency of the personality of godhead.
Atreva may ate avatare………………………….

My dear Lord in this incarnation you have proved that you are the supreme controller of maya. Although you are now within this universe the whole universe or creation is within your transcendental body. A fact you demonstrated by exhibiting the universe within your abdomen before mother Yasoda.

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah

Vancha Kalpa tarubhyash ca kripa sindhubhya eva ca
Patitanam pavanebhyo
Vaishnavebhyo namo namah.

ajanu-lambita-bhujau kanakavadatau sankirtanaika-pitarau kamalayataksau visvambharau dvija-varau yuga-dharma-palau vande jagat priya-karau karunavatarau
Shri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhu Nityananda shri Advaita Gadadhara Srivasadi Gaura bhakta vrinda.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Shri Radhe. Shri Brahmaji in his prayers is addressing bhagavan Shri Krishna that you have already in this incarnation proved that you are the supreme controller of maya. One of the most important principles in understanding God is his acintya shakti. Acintya means inconceivable beyond the reach of our intelligence, beyond the scope of even our imagination. This is the nature of the divine power of the supreme personality of godhead. Unfortunately due to the anthropomorphic conditioning of the human mind
our faith is very much influenced by our own perceptions of what may be possible and what may not be possible and therefore we find that we have to often give scientific evidence to prove the likelihood of what Krishna has done. Many great religious scholars they try to justify the inconceivable descriptions in the scriptures by creating a logical explanation. Just like in the old testament one of the most important principles of faith is that when the children of Abraham , the jewish people were trying to escape from the slavery of the Egyptian Pharoah, they were being chased after by multitudes of army and soldiers with weapons and they were simple slaves, they had nothing to defend themselves. And they came to the Red sea. Then they had no where to run to anymore. The soldiers were fast approaching from behind, the sea was in front, they were trapped. At that time God indicated to Moses what his plan was. So Moses lifted his sacred staff , which was a gift of God and the Red Sea opened and a clear pathway went all the way across from one side to the other. And the Jewish people crossed the Red sea and after they crossed at that time the Egyptian soldiers they were in the middle of the sea and then the sea closed again and they all drowned and died. So many great scholars who are ministers of religion try to convince people that actually this is true. And they try to prove that at certain intervals every so many thousands of years there is a very very low tide (laughing). And that low tide makes the whole sea very shallow at a certain time and it just so happened that it happened at that time and after the jews crossed then the tide went up and everyone was drowned. It was not really God that did it, it was easily acceptable with the faith of modern scientists, we should not discard the scripture, the scripture is good and we can justify it. But this type of reasoning may bring sentimental materialistic people to have some degree of acceptance of the scripture but it can never bring about the required faith to understand God in our relationship, because the fact is God is unlimited , Krishna is inconceivable in anything he does, that is the definition of God. From him everything emanates, in him everything is maintained and by him ultimately everything is destroyed. This is God. What is it that he cannot do? Some times atheistic people they say “if God is so great can he make a cliff that he cannot jump over”. “ He is so great that he should be able to make a cliff that he cannot jump over”. If he can’t jump over that means he is not really very great and if he can’t make anything he can’t jump over that also means he is not very great. But Krishna he could make a cliff that he cannot jump over it and then he can jump over it. That is Krishna. Do anything. Therefore the wonderful stories we read in the scriptures no matter how inconceivable they may be, but a devotee can easily accept it, not just out of sentiment but out of knowledge, out of real logic and out of true faith. When Krishna lifted the Gowardhan hill with a little finger of his left hand we think oh really is that possible thing. Can anyone lift a mountain over with a little finger of his left hand? But if we look around us and we see how all the planets are perfectly being maintained within their orbits billions and billions and trillions of years, they never leave their orbits. The massive sun planet which is millions of times bigger than this earth is always in its place. This planet earth is always the same distance away, the moon is always the same distance away. That lord who can through endless times be maintaining all of these planets without even his own personal hand but just through his desire everything is happening, what is it that he cannot do? This is Krishna. Krishna can do anything. There is nothing that Krishna cannot do. And this is the faith of a devotee. If there is anything possible that Krishna cannot do then he is not really Krishna. The all attractive supreme controller of all controllers. So here we find Lord Brahma. He is a great Scientist. He has created every planet and every spiecies of life within this universe you know. He is a very very scientifically minded person. And he is explaining his realization. Just like often times we quote the most famous scientist of modern history Albert Einstein. Mr. Einstein at the end of his life he claimed that by all mathematical scientific study the conclusion absolutely 100% must be that without a supreme intelligence behind this universe, it cannot be working the way it is. And when he spoke like that many people developed, of the scientific world developed a desire to look into spirituality and philosophy. Well here’s lord Brahma, he is the greatest the supreme most scientist and inventor and here he is explaining that what is it that Krishna cannot do? ” I have”, Brahma says “I have created all the different variegated ness within this universe, but Krishna has created me and the entire universe”. First he creates the universe but then within his little small form of a child he is showing that he could put the whole universe within him or without him. For him it doesn’t make any difference. Just try to see the difference. From Maha visnu who is such a massive gigantic form, you know how big this universe is? Well this universe is only like a speck of dust in comparision to the body of Maha Visnu. Its coming out of one his pores. So you can imagine his size, and how the universes are coming out of him. That’s only one aspect of his divine power. And in Krishna’s leela he has been demonstrating another aspect of his divine power. The universe can appear so small coming out of his massive form and here he is in such a small form, the form of a small child, in his Kumara leela. And within his mouth, he contains the entire universe, in its fullness, in its completeness with everything. And at the same time the universe is outside him and within him as well. And even mother Yasoda she saw herself within the mouth of Krishna. What does that mean? That means Krishna manifested the whole universe simultaneously within him and without him. This is the transcendental power of Krishna. Is it possible? Is this all just mythology? Legends to try to teach us some moral instructions. No this is the nature of God. Therefore whatever we read that Krishna has done, devotee does not even have to think about how is this possible. A devotee can immediately, instantly with innocent and pure faith accept. And that is knowledge, that is real intelligence. To doubt and to be suspicious to what God can do or what God cannot do is ignorance. It is darkness. It is bewilderment Maya. And we read in the scriptures about many great saintly persons , how they do very very unbelievable things. Kardamba muni he created an arial mansion, which was floating in the sky. How is that possible. He was a great devotee of the lord. In previous ages the lord invested his great devotees with
various of these mystic powers. Why is it? Why even for a second doubt if this is possible? When we read about when Krishna was living in Dwaraka, 16108 wives. Each one having a beautiful wonderful palace, with acres and acres of gardens and lawns. And each one with hundreds and hundreds of servants. And in each palace Krishna had ten children, and each of those ten children had ten grandchildren. And then it talks about how many hundreds and millions of servants King Ugrasena had besides all Krishna’s family. And they were all living on a little tiny island called Dwaraka. According to the Srimad Bhagavatam there were billions of people living in Dwaraka. Little island of Dwaraka had more population than the whole planet today. And we are talking about over population. India(laughing) , Dwaraka is just one little tiny part of India. And India only has a mere 900 million people. And we are talking about over population but on this little island there were billions and there was no problem with over population. We don’t read about people crowding in trains in Dwaraka or people standing in lines or traffic jams. No we just read that everyone was, there was just beautiful gardens and beautiful trees and beautiful lakes and waterfalls and palatial buildings, no pollution. It was not the slightest bit crowded. Everyone was wealthy, there was no poverty. Everyone had their homes, everyone had their lawns, their gardens. Everyone was happy, prosperity. How is it possible. For Krishna what is not possible. Krishna can maintain all living beings within this creation on the tip of your thumb, if he so desires. And there would be no crowdedness. There would be no overpopulation. So therefore there is all this social concern that somehow or other the population explosion, there is no future for humanity unless we curb it. This is all nonsense. All complete nonsense. If we just learn to live in harmony with the laws of God then there would be no shortage of anything. If we live in harmony with the laws of God first of all people wont be having sex life like animals so there would be a lot less population. But even if there is ten times the population on this planet, if we are living in the harmony with the laws of God there would be no shortage, there would be no poverty, no pollution, everyone would be happy wealthy and wise. Ofcourse materialistic people they would think we are crazy if they hear like this. What is all this nonsense, its impractical. But it’s the most practical thing. To have faith in God is the most practical thing. To have faith in his inconceivable power is the most sensible of all mental states. There is no doubt Krishna always protects and provides for those who take shelter of him. We were speaking in the bible Lord Jesus Christ when he was preaching at the very beginning, on the sea of Galalie, he met Peter and his brothers and they were fishing. They threw, they were fishermen, and anyways Jesus told them you come with me. And some of them were asking. Look at this how the sun rays are at the lotus faces of Radha and Krishna. Means Krishna is pleased with you. Everyone see? Everyone look please. This is a great wonder. Shri Radha rani is effulgent. Self manifested effulgence (laughing). So anyways his disciples were saying “My lord should we, should we, what should we bring with us when we go out to preach. Who will provide food for us? Where will we get clothing? And that famous that, the birds they are being well fed. God is providing for them. Are they working? Are they striving and toiling? And the lilies in the field are they not well dressed? They are more well dressed than King Solomon and all of his glory. If God is providing for all of them you do not think he will provide for you if you surrender and take shelter of him. The devotee has complete faith. That if we simply learn how to take shelter of Krishna he will provide everything. And all the shortage in this world is because human society is trying out of fear and insecurity to develop so many forms of maintenance and sense gratification without reference to taking shelter of God. That is the cause of all the problems. But if they simply learn to live in harmony with god’s will, what can God not provide. What can he not give? He is the supreme controller of all controllers. The problem is not even 1% population explosion in this world. The problem is 100% people are not willing to live in harmony with the laws of God. If they do population or no population explosion this place will be Vaikuntha. And if they don’t, even if they drop atom bombs and reduce the population of this world to 100 people or if it expands to 10 billion people the problems will go on. There will be no refuge. No solution, so therefore one of the six symptoms of surrender is that to have complete confidence that if I just surrender to Krishna there is nothing else that has to be done. This is Krishna consciousness. How wonderful is Krishna. That is why Krishna reveals these wonderful pastimes. Just to show his unlimited infinite nature. He comes to this world and demonstrates. Just to increase our faith. And with submissive heart if we hear these wonderful pastimes we develop that faith. We read about lord Ramchandra, when he appeared, such a great powerful incarnation of the lord. On one side was Ravana with all of his armies and all of his sophisticated weapons. And on the other side was monkeys who had no weapons. Not a single one in all army. How were they to win. And Ravana had all these benedictions from Brahma and Shiva. And Indrajit had all benedictions, they were undefeatable. They were invincible. They were insurmountable. But because they took shelter of Ram they were easily victorious. But although Ravana with all of his material facilities because he did not take shelter of Rama he was vanquished. So this is our only criteria of success. If we learn to take shelter of Krishna our life is successful guaranteed. We do not have to worry anything. Srila Prabhupada used to tell us “Just surrender to Krishna and do not worry”. What is there to worry? Krishna can do anything. So simple. One sentence and our whole philosophy is understood. Krishna is perfect. He has a plan. It is question whether we are devotee or not a devotee? Hiranyakasipu he was a non-devotee. Pavitra she is a devotee. So Krishna through his devotee performs surgical operation and fixed her intestines and what is it? appendixes. Did a nice operation fixed her and now she is
nicely back sitting in our temple here in Srimad Bhagavatam Hari Bol. But with Hiranyakasipu he did another type of surgical operation. He cut him open and he took out his appendixes and intestines and put him around all bloody and threw him inside and killed him. Krishna when he wants to perform operation, ultimately he is the one that operates on everybody. And if you are a devotee he will give you life and if you are not a devotee he will give you death. Krishna is the supreme controller. And therefore we have complete faith. We are here reading the tenth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam and there are so many wonderful and amazing things that are going to happen in Krishna’s pastimes. Just great great demons coming and beautiful beautiful wonderful rasalila. Oh so many just one after the other the other the most inconceivable wonderful tremendous. I mean, I mean even the greatest movie directors with the most sophisticated special effects could never do anything to do justice to any one of Krishna’s pastimes. People are paying so much money just to go to the movie theatres to see some special effects. These days in the west the better the special effects the more people that go to see it. They don’t go to see the acting as much. They just like to see special effects. Even the biggest selling movie in history there’s not even famous actors in them. Just have famous special effects technicians to operate everything. Its true the number one selling movie in the history, there was not even any known actors in them. There was just very very famous technicians doing the special effects. So people like to see these things. But even all of them with all of their devices, if they all came together they could not do justice to any one of Krishna’s pastimes. And simply by sitting and reading the Bhagavatam we can perceive it. We can experience it. We can witness this divine lila. In Bhagavatam at every moment in the tenth canto, at every page just the most incredible, miraculous, exciting, adventurous circumstances taking place in Krishna’s pastimes. How is it possible? That’s why Krishna comes to this world simply to demonstrate all these wonderful things. Why? To attract our minds. To increase our faith. To invite our surrender. That is Krishna’s mission. And lord Brahma is explaining that Krishna maya’s so strong and we are all under the influence of maya and we are all struggling so much. And sometimes we think that it is so hopeless. You are the supreme master of this whole maya. Sometimes we think that our minds are so difficult to control. And they are. Sometimes we are helpless. We are like helpless before our minds and senses. They are so strong. Arjuna said that the mind is more difficult to control than controlling the raging wind. But for Krishna if he can control all the universes you do not think he can control your mind.
Sarba upadhir vinirmuktam tatparatwena nirmalam hrishikena hrishikesha sevanam bhaktiruchyate.
If Krishna so desires he is the master of the senses, he is the master of the mind, he is the master of all existence. By his simple glance maya will run from your mind. If he simply wills maya leave him alone, maya will stand with folded hands ready to serve your lotus feet. If he so desires, so why does he not do that for us? Because if he did that for us there would be no question of surrender, there would be no question of love. Therefore Krishna allows maya to tempt us. Allows maya to influence us in so many ways, only to increase our devotion, only to increase our desire to take shelter of him and surrender to him and only him. Therefore it is said that Krishna never allows maya to test us beyond what we can pass if we are sincere. Krishna allows maya, yes you can go upto this point with my devotee but not beyond and that’s just the point of his or her ability to overcome if they take shelter of me. And the more maya pushes us the more Krishna is giving us a chance to surrender to him, to take shelter of him. To give up our attachments to all of the illusory shelters of this world. But by understanding the wonderful pastimes of the lord and understanding the greatness of Krishna we have so much faith. Just like I remember our Srigalinga prabhu. There were false charges made against him in the legal courts of America. And he was essentially an innocent man. And due to him being an Hare Krishna and due to the government bribing in so many ways, people to testify against him, he was in hopeless condition. And even his lawyers, and even devotees were saying just get out of the country and don’t come back because you don’t have a chance in this case. So he left, ran away. Came to India, came to Malaysia. And everyone was saying, every legal advisor and everyone was saying don’t ever come back to this country or you will be in jail for the rest of your life. They wanted to give him an hundred and twenty years in jail. Hundred and twenty five years in jail. Five, twenty five year sentences. So I remember sitting with Srigalinga prabhu. He was just reading the Mahabharat. (Laughing) he was reading about how Krishna killed, Krishna saved Arjuna from being defeated by not killing Jarasandha in time before the sunset, and all of these wonderful things Krishna was doing in Mahabharat. And he just said “what do I have to worry about, I didn’t do anything wrong, every legal advisor is telling me I can’t win. The Government’s putting in all of the newspapers this person as soon as we catch him, there’s no chance he’s going to jail. Even all the so many devotees are saying don’t come back, stay away. I didn’t do anything wrong. I’ve read what Krishna has done in Mahabharat, I’ve just read Bhagavatam, what Krishna can do, so what , why should , so he just went back. It was like walking into the mouth of Agasura. And when he went back then everybody, the Government was clapping and jumping and praising their great prowess. But then he got off, didn’t even go to court. They just dropped the charges. So people asked Srigalinga prabhu(39) “how is this happening”. He said “I just read Mahabharat and I read Bhagavatam very carefully, when I was away, I didn’t have so much else to do and I figured Krishna wants to protect me who can harm me. Krishna does not want to protect me then let them do what they want”. This is faith. Faith comes by hearing. If you simply learn to hear the Gita and Bhagavatam with submissive mind from the proper sources, then faith in the supreme glory of God will awaken within your heart and that faith can carry you across all test all tribulations and all problems of this world. Without that faith we cannot make proper spiritual advancement. “Adosha dha”, in the beginning must be faith, faith comes by hearing. Therefore to hear the Bhagavatam everyday and to chant the holy names everyday, in the association of devotees is the first and foremost principle for our spiritual advancement, because through this process faith is developed, faith is awakened. And to the degree we have faith to that degree we will be Krishna conscious. That degree we will find joy, hope in every situation of life. It is based on the principle of pure faith, that we can see honour and dishonour, pleasure and pain, happiness and distress with the same vision, there’s no difference. Its all Krishna, its all his mercy, its all his gift. That is our faith. Is there any questions?

Devotee: “Hari Bol Maharaj we have been conditioned through so many lives, some because of this conditioning this vaisnava aparadh, we just do vaisnava aparadh. What are the precautions that the conditioned person can take so that he does not commit Vaisnava aparadh”.

Maharaj: “What is that? Let somebody else? when you commit offense to the vaisnavas, ultimately Krishna makes your faith material, he takes away your faith, takes away your intelligence. Then you have no power to resist the influences of Maya. Therefore Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has warned us that we must always be very very strictly on guard against committing any offense to the vaisnavas. The first is that you should never criticize another devotee for anything, unless you are in a managerial position by which, you bu your criticism you can help that person. If you are a surgeon you have the license to cut a persons body open to heal him. But if you are not a qualified surgeon, if you stick any knife in a person, you are subject to due punishment by the law. If you are in a position where you can heal a person by your cutting words then you can use those cutting words, but if you are not then you are liable according to the laws of God for anything you say or do against another devotee. So the first thing is do not take part in gossip, do not take part in rumours, don’t criticize, be respectful, polite, honour each devotee as as the property of your own spiritual master. Serve them, serve them with feeling and devotion to your capacity. Devotees who are disturbing your Krishna consciousness respectfully avoid them, don’t mix with them simply because they are devotees. If they are talking nonsense, if they are disturbing your own spiritual life and faith just simply respectfully avoid them. And those devotees who are encouraging your Krishna consciousness, those devotees who are sincerely helping you by their example and their words and their Krishna consciousness and your Krishna consciousness. Those devotees you should be longing to associate with. You should be longing to be with. You should be longing to hear from them and serve them. Even if a devotee has a fault if you criticize it you are worse off than him. Even if that devotee due to some weakness has created some mistake and made a fault. If that devotee is sincere and humble Krishna will rectify it and he’ll learn his lesson. But if you criticize him you perform Vaishnava aparadh and you are going to loose your faith. You are going to loose Krishna’s mercy altogether. That is a fact. Therefore we don’t want anything to do with anyone that criticizes Vaishnavas. Any other questions? If some devotee is making mistake and we see it. We shouldn’t talk about it with anyone, we should go to a higher authority, or we should go to that devotee, and we should try to help him. That’s all. There is no need to talk to anyone else about it. Talking to others ruins our own spiritual lives and pollutes the whole atmosphere. Talk to some one who is actually in a position to help. Or talk to him yourself if you are in a position to help him. That’s called compassion. That’s called love, that’s called service. The other is simply disrespect, offensive, throwing dirt all over your self again, get nowhere. Yes”.

Devotee: “Maharaj in the class you have mentioned this that if you surrender to Krishna, Krishna will take care of everthing. The birds doesn’t do anything, means they are completely surrendered, they get everything as such. Now the problem, this is a practical problem for those people who are in the grihastha life”.

Maharaj: “Haribol”

Devotee: “So the problem is this way that. This is a practical problem for all of them, that whatever, we have been told in the scriptures that we have to go out and we have to earn the money and we have to save for our future”.

Maharaj: “That is your service. According to the varnashram system created by Krishna that is your service. You must work hard. You must provide. You must give in charity. That is your service. Krishna will provide if you safely do your service. Doesn’t mean you should renounce your service to Krishna thinking that I will become like the birds. Human society is divided into four varnas and four ashrams and each varna and ashram has a particular way of serving Krishna and serving society on his behalf”.

Devotee: “But Maharaj the critical problem is this way that the more you earn it, the more you want it. The more money you want it, the more you get it. And there is no limit”.

Maharaj: “Surface rash that I have. Adikesava prabhu is my doctor. If I scratch it itches ten times more. If I don’t scratch it, it itches a little, that’s material life. You can understand this entire material world by this rash. There is nothing more. There’s a little itch and we think it will feel good if I scratch it, when I scratch it, it feels good, really feels wonderful. But the wonderful feeling is the itch is increasing, increasing, increasing,increasing increasing and I have to scratch it more and more and more you scratch the more it itches. The more you scratch the more it itches and this way the whole material world Prahlad maharaj says its just scratching itching. The more you scratch the more you itch. So Prahlad Maharaj says just stop scratching. Just utilize that same energy in the service to the lord. Your life will be perfect”.

Devotee: “Maharaj can you just draw a limit. What is the limit that we should have it that ok this much is sufficient enough for our savings or whatever it is and this is. Because the more you go for it the more you want it, the more you are in anxiety altogether.

Maharaj: “To limit is simple. You just decide what you require. To live a simple but nice life. And you just keep that standard throughout your life. And whatever more you get give it to Krishna. Don’t increase your own empire as far as your own sense gratification. Just you have your standard. We need this much space, we need this much furniture, we need this much for our budget, for food, for clothing. We need this much for each child. Not extravagant, simple, but nice. And anything above that is Krishna’s. If we use one paisa above that then we are starting to scratch the itch and then we are going to need two paisa and then three paisa and then rupees and then lakhs and then crores just to maintain our sensual habits in this world. Just make a sensible plan or a budget of what you require and keep that throughout your whole life. With inflation it may go up a little, but anything beyond that don’t even think it is mine just give it to Krishna. You may put a certain amount into savings, for emergency, allright this is how much I am going to put in for savings for emergency, this is how much we need, the rest is going to Krishna. If I need a thousand rupees a month or two thousand rupees a month and I make ten lakhs then nine lakhs and eight thousand goes to Krishna, eighty thousand right. Just keep it easy, simple, what you need and don’t even think about increasing it. Just think about increasing your service and work harder and harder and harder and the more harder you work the more you are engaging in devotional service, because the more is going to Krishna. That possible to do like that. I am not a grihastha but I am just explaining. What do you say. You have any other advice for him.

Devotee: “What you say is correct”.

Maharaj: “Can you elaborate”

Devotee: “What we need. I think the practical difficulty may be that we have to be objective in what we think is our limit. But that over some time we can see and take advice on each aspect. After that I don’t think. I mean if we have love for the devotees for Radha Gopinath, for Guru Maharaj and all then actually we would be hankering to earn more to give more. So once we develop the taste for giving then, once we develop the taste for giving then we actually want to earn more but we don’t have much desire to spend for ourselves.

Maharaj: “HariBol”

Devotee: “What should we do Maharaj. Sometimes it so happens that some unexpected expenditures are expected. For example if you have a bad health.”

Maharaj: “some unexpected expenditures are expected.”

Devotee: “Means sometimes some disease, we have suffered from some disease, that way some hospital expenditures or this or that. And that way it should not happen that we should go on begging from somebody because we don’t have savings.

Maharaj: “That is why Rupa Goswami said you should have something for emergencies. You put a certain amount for emergencies”

Devotee: “and even in future also we have seen, from last about five years or so, today the milk rate is something like fifteen rupees and before that it was seven rupees. Four five years itself it has doubled altogether, we don’t know what will be the inflation rate in the future. So if we really want to maintain the same standard of living.”

Maharaj: “You just get your own cow. Simple, why complicate things. You have your own cow then milk rate will always be the same”.

Devotee: “In Bombay it is not possible”.

Maharaj: “Why”

Devotee: “In Bombay it is not possible’

Maharaj: “Possible, how can you say it is not possible (laughing). Anyways you be practical. As the as the inflation is happening your income is also increasing, correct. So that means maybe more that you have to give towards the maintenance of your family as the prices go up. But there is also more that you could give in charity to Krishna, as your income goes up. So basically you have to understand what your needs are and then you provide for those needs whatever it costs. And whatever more you have you offer devotion to help spread the glories of the holy name. Then your life is simple. Then there is no entanglement or complications in the grihastha ashram. But as soon as there is greed, there is desire for more and more and more and there is competition then your whole life becomes very complicated, polluted and your Krishna consciousness becomes very disturbed. This is what we mean by simple living high thinking. Simplifying life. This is what I require, this is what I will maintain and everything else is Krishna’s. Yes, you could explain that to your clients in your stock market (laughing). One more question? Thank you very much. Yes“

Devotee: “This is in connection with Anad Vrindavan’s question that just as you said we should be happy with whatever we are having in our profession or business, what we are doing, and rest of the time you can just devote to your devotional service. But suppose in your profession or in your business if there is an opportunity for you to improve your business with little effort should we go in for it or not. “

Maharaj: “If you will increase the service you can offer to your spiritual master and Krishna yes you should increase it. If it will decrease then you should not. You simply have to find out from your Gurudev how you can best serve him. You can best serve him by putting your time in other places then you should not. But if you can best serve him by providing more and more facilities for his preaching mission by expanding your business then you should do it with full determination and whole heart and great enthusiasm. Thank you very much. “