Self of Ilavrta varsha and extending from east to west are three great mountains named from north to south- Nishadha, Hemakuta and Himalaya, each of them is 10,000 yojanas (80,000 miles), they mark the boundaries of three varshas named Hari varsha, Kim purusha varsha and Bharat varsha. In the same way, west and east of Ilavrta varsha are two great mountains, Malyavan and Gandhamarna, respectively. These two mountains which are 2000 yojanas (16,000 miles) high, extent as far as Neela mountain in the north and Nishadha in the south. They indicate the borders of Ilavrta varsha and also the varshas known as ketu mala and Bhadrasva.

Purport By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta swami Prabhupada.

There are so many mountains, even on this planet Earth. We do not think the measurements of all of the have actually been calculated, while passing over the mountainous region from Mexico to Caracas, we actually saw so many mountains that we doubt if their height in length and breadth have been properly measured. Therefore, as indicated in Srimad Bhagavatam by Shukadev Goswami, we should not try to comprehend the great mountainous areas of the universe merely by our calculations. Shukadev Goswami as already stated that such calculations, would be very difficult even if one had a duration of life like Brahma, we should simple be satisfied with the statements of the authorizes like Shukadev Goswami and appreciate how the entire cosmic manifestation has been made possible by the external energy of the supreme personality of Godhead. The measurement given herein, such as 10,000 yojanas or 100,000 yojanas, should be considered correct because they have been given by Shukadev Goswami. Our experimental knowledge can neither verify nor disapprove Srimad Bhagavatam, we should simple hear these statement from the authorities. If we can appreciate the extensive energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that will benefit us.

In the same way, west and east of Ilavrta varsha are two great mountains named Malyavan and Gandamardana respectively. These two mountains which are 2000 yojanas (16,000 miles high) extent as far as Neela mountains in the North and Nishadha in the south, they indicate the borders of Ilavrta varsha and the also the varshas known as Ketumala and Bhadrasva.

Class:

Shukadev Goswami is herein emphasing the inconceivable potencies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His external energy is impossible to understand in detail, what to speak of his internal energy, which is beyond the reach of the mind, the intellect or the senses.

Srila Prabhupada herein is explaining how it’s not possible to comprehend the details of creation. Although in the name of science, logic, people have tried and real science is to go as far as we can go and then realize our infinitesimal nature and our limitation, that is called an honest scientist. A dishonest scientist is one who can actually say that “we will figure out and we will tell you, how its working”. Because the Lord has acuity shakti, He has inconceivable potencies and all of His potencies are inconceivable, the untaranga shakti, bahiranga shakti and the jiva shakti. They are inconceivable to an even unliberated soul they are inconceivable, the difference between an conditioned soul and a liberated soul is that a liberated soul see the inconceivable, incomprehensible nature of the Lord’s energies simply surrenders with love and an illusioned soul is practically challenging the Lord that “I will figure what you have done out”, but it is not possible. Even amongst the things we see every day, it’s inconceivable, how can we calculate. Is there anyone there who can calculate how many grains of sand are there on chowpatty beach, its only one block away from us, what to speak of how many grains of sand are there in India or on the planet or in the Universe or in the universal creation, such astronomical numbers that even the greatest computers could not calculate. Can you calculate the number of hairs on our head? The number of atomic particles within your own body? What is the number? The number of atoms, the molecules, neutrons, electrons, how many are in your body, Mr. Scientist? It’s inconceivable, astronomical numbers.

So the Lord, He has created this external energy in a very inconceivable way, so here we are hearing about mountains that are 100 thousand miles high. By modern calculations, that means one mountain would be higher than the circumference of the planet Earth 4 times. But Shukadev Goswami is speaking of other universe, he is speaking of other planets within this universe, other areas within this universe, that’s very difficult for us with our sense perception to see or calculate or understand.

Srila Prabhupada gives that simple example of Dr. Frog, because we are conditioned to a particular reality, we try to calculate according to our reality, we try to calculate according to what we see and what we know. Our numbers, what’s possible, what’s impossible. Dr. Frog, his native place was a well, he was born and raised in that little well and for him that well was gigantic, it was everything, it was his world, his universe. He has simply no experience beyond the well. With mundane intelligence it is very difficult to understand something, you absolutely have no experience of. Yes, its whole world, everyone he ever knew, all of his calculation of reality were limited to that well and when other little frog jumped in to his well, he said “oh, where are you coming from?” “I am coming from the Pacific Ocean” “ah, tell me what’s it like there?” “Its very big, it’s very big Pacific Ocean”. Dr. frog said “Is it bigger than my well?” he said “its much bigger that this” “twice as big? Three times as big?”, “How much water is in the well? If that is only your standard of reality, then how could you even imagine the water in the Pacific Ocean”.

So it’s exactly what it is like for a conditioned soul, who is conditioned by a very, very limited material conception of life to understand the inconceivable potencies of the Lord, in His external energy. Even the scientist claim that the Sun planet is millions of times bigger than Earth, correct? Should we really grasp that, one planet millions of times bigger than this Earth planet, it’s made out of blazing fire and it stays in the same place, doesn’t fall, the seasons, everything is very much in order, of course in Kaliyuga there is slight variations, just to fulfill the karmic debts of the people, but it’s inconceivable how is it happening? We can make out theories, but it’s really unbelievable, how is the Sun planet floating in the air, in the same place for billions of years, such science. The conception of light years, how many that will take millions of lifetimes in our modern spacecrafts just to reach the planets we know about. Hare Krsna. That we know something about, inconceivable. Why does Krsna create this external material world, in such a inconceivable way. If He wanted to, he could have made everything very understandable and simple. Even for our mind and senses… He could make a body with just one molecule, that’s your whole body, yes. Why so many? Just make human with one cell, why so many millions of cells? Because, if we want to know God, we must understand his acintya shakti, that’s the first principle of understanding the absolute truth, He has inconceivable potencies, Therefore, Srila Shukadev Goswami, he’s speaking of subjects, that will never ever come within the reach of material intelligence or material science, Never. With our limited brains and limited senses and our limited technology we will never be able to scope the places of Shukadev Goswami is talking about, but he knows exactly. Now did Shukadev Goswami go these places and measure them? He knows through realization and Srila Prabhupada was so expert at really bringing the spirit of Srimad Bhagavatam practically into our lives. Why did he sometimes challenge, scientific data or scientific history that was considered by most of the population to be fact and he just said it was bogus, was nonsense, they never went there, why? Really who cares, I mean who in the world cares whether they go to this place or that place, how does it affect our lives? But Srila Prabhupada wanted us to understand God and unless he crushed our empirical attachment to our senses and our minds and the technology our senses and mind creates and those of others are crushed to pieces that we can understand the energies of the Lord, for there is no possibility of understanding God in truth, we will try to super impose our own limitations on Krsna and that’s exactly what people do, Krsna 7 year old lifting the Govardhana hill with is little finger of his hand, impossible, mythology. That’s what most of the world would think, it’s just mythology, it’s just trying to teach us nice lessons, how can a 7 year boy lift a mountain? With one finger and balance it for 7 days and 7 nights when there is massive storms and hurricane wind blowing on it and it didn’t come off his finger.

Hurricane Katrina was gentle ocean breeze compared with winds, Indra was blowing with samvartaka clouds and yet didn’t bulge from his finger. Could even blow a single leaf of a single tree, and there were millions of trees, could not even make a blade of grass bend, why? Because it was on tip of Krsna’s finger, things sustained by that little tip, which is not even inch in size, because He was manifesting his potencies into Govardhana through the tip of his finger and was energizing him with such ecstasy, can that be understood?

Krsna had 16108 wives, even here in India, how many people believe that? I mean in their heart of hearts, do they really believe it? How is it possible, what to speak of rest of the world? And Christian religion, Jesus did make really some small time miracles and it’s rare to find people who are ready to believe that it really even happened. It must be mythology, how can He cure blind men? How could He make lame man walk? How can a man, who is dead, He resurrect? Come out of His tomb, impossible, mythology, how do you believe these things? What to speak of Krsna? When He is in battle, He can shoot one arrow and that arrow will expand into tens of millions of arrows and through one arrow He could destroy the army, Hare Krsna. 16108 wives and all of them had 10 children and 10 grandchildren, millions of servants and maid servants in the Yadu dynasty, all on an little island called Dwarka.

According to Srimad Bhagavatam, there were practically more people living on Dwarka living with Krsna on a island than the whole population of the world today and the biggest, biggest politicians are coming together and talking about over population and how to deal with it? Now honestly do you believe this? And that’s each and every one of you personally, individually do you believe so many billions of people living on this little island of Dwarka, which is just off the coast of Gujarat. Hare Krsna. But it is fact, we don’t believe it is because we are simply covered by ignorance, because we are trying to calculate the potencies of the absolute truth, the creator of everything that exists, according to our infinitesimal standard of perception, we can’t . Krsna can do anything, if Krsna wanted to do it, He can put the whole population of this world on the head of the needle and there would be no population problem, everyone would have acres of land to live on and some many cows, on that head of the needle there would be no need of skyscrapers, just pile people up because there is not enough surface space. Everyone could have sufficient land and cows and everyone would be playing, would be no traffic jams.

Now some of you may be thinking, “what is this swamiji talking?, nonsense’. But what is that God, cannot do? And if we want to understand God, we have to break through our materialistic conceptions. Sometimes, atheist accuse that our idea of Krsna is anthromorphic, which means we are trying to make a God like us. He has two arms and He has friends and He does all these things. That is just the opposite, when they hear about the super excellent inconceivable activities of the Lord, if they say it’s impossible, that means they are trying to make God like us. We see within creation miracles of the Lord, everywhere. Everything we see is inconceivable but we don’t even see it. You, you are just a little seeds, somehow, you know entering into women’s womb and look at you now, it’s actually inconceivable, how does it happen, most scientist can never do it? They are talking about great progress in test tube babies, but what is a test tube baby? They take the seed God creates, they put it in the womb, that God created, they just do some transfer with some nice scientific technology, but all the materials, all the inconceivable materials that are absolutely necessary are created by the Lord, through material nature. Not to understand the spiritual world, where nothing is material, everything is inconceivable. How is possible? Its only possible if break loose from our mundane limiting ideas of reality, yes we can measure so many things, we could measure mount Everest, we could measure how high a plane could flies but in doing so, the best we are like little ants trying to measure our anthill, yes. It’s like an ant that can crawl up the anthill and then one step, two step two feet, three feet ant’s feet, yes. If you consider the feet of an ant and feet of a human, you know their mountains are quite high, how many feet of ant is an anthill? It’s very high maybe thousands of feet and it’s that big to us, its gigantic to them. Does an ant have the capacity of understand mount Everest, not only can it not measure it, but even if it is standing right before it, it can can’t even understand that it’s a mountain, yes, it’s like a planet, they cannot understand the shape of it, they cannot understand what it is, it’s just too big, because not only are their feet infinitesimally tiny but their brain is equally tiny, yes. Now the Demigods, what are their brains? The Demigods are not our size, they huge beings, they are huge personalities, living in huge planets, they have huge brains and of all the Demigods, Lord Brahma is the most intellectual, He has gigantic brains and He has four of them and He is actually doing so much of the work on behalf of the Lord and even He does not know how He is doing it. The Lord is empowering Him with inconceivable shaktis and Brahma who is the greatest scientist in the creation, the universe, He is doing all this amazing work and knows what He is doing but He actually knows that Krsna is doing it through Him. He has no capacity. So what kind of brain, what kind of an intelligence, what kind of preview of the universe He has compared to us.

In the Brahma Vimoha leela [0.29.08] He was totally bewildered, totally disoriented and confused trying to understand this little cowherd boy, who wasn’t even old enough to take care of the cows, at that time He was a calf herd boy. He was just taking care of little calf’s. His mother and father felt that if we give Him cows at this state, He might get hurt, He cannot control them. After sometime, he was given cow charge, but at this time, little calf’s, and how many calf’s did Krsna have? Ashanka, there is no number, that Ashanka Srila Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur Calculated, Krsna had calf’s, numerically in the quadrillions, not trillions but quadrillions, Hare Krsna. Now there is just 4 billion people in the world, but Krsna as quadrillions of calf’s and they were all staying in Braj Bhoomi and whats the size of Braj Bhoomi, just a few kroshas, just a few miles and it wasn’t that they had to import grass from Brahmaloka or something like that, it was unlimited grass, it weren’t just herded like the cattle in the life stocks of today’s cramped together, there all the calf’s were dancing and jumping and fresh air and unlimited grasses, how? How did all they fit? When Krsna comes to the Earth, He wants to show us His greatness, and even despite all that greatness, the residents of Vrindavan, they just thought, he was sweet ordinary boy , just special. That’s unbelievable, Krsna is performing amazing miracles and the residents of Vrindavan are still thinking that if we don’t feed Him, he will die. If we don’t protect Him, he is always in danger, they worry about Him, Krsna already did so many amazing things, He already showed the universe to His mother within His mouth, He already killed that massive rakshasha Putana, she alone is bigger than practically any mountain on the Earth today, its 12 miles you know, how many miles is the highest mountains in this world, 8 miles, Aghasura was that size, but Putana was 4 miles bigger than the biggest mountains on the Earth and she was running around in Vrindavan, imagine that running and screaming, she was running and screaming “leave me child, leave me” and Krsna did not even grow, I mean He was just like a speck compared to her, He was just a little baby, just a couple of days old, just holding on, amazing. So the residents of Vrindavan saw all this, When He was in the coils of Kaliya, Oh, they were falling to the ground unconscious, He is so helpless, how will He ever escape this vicious serpent? Mother Yoshoda and the cowherd men just decided to jump into the poisonous water of Kaliya Ghat, because they could tolerate living and see Krsna is this helpless condition. Even Balarama, everyone was weeping and just falling unconscious, unbearable for them to see Krsna in the clutches of Kaliya, He looked so helpless, He looked so sweet, beautiful little boy, none of them were faking while He killed, he already killed Aghasura, He already killed Putana and Trinavarta and Sakatasura and Bhakasura, Balarama said “what is the harm, what is the danger, No”. and they were on the verge of death worrying about Krsna and Balarama just looked at them and smiled, He said, there is nothing to worry about, my little brother, there is no danger for Him and then He said to Krsna “My form of Anantashesha, you never played with Me like this, but now you are playing with this insignificant little water snake, that was Balaram’s point of view. so Krsna, He has got amazing potencies, now how are we going to believe them? How we are going to overcome, the ignorance that this is mythology or exaxeration?. “Well, yes Krsna did come to the world, but He didn’t actually do this, not possible. He didn’t live in Dwarka with population like that, 16108 massive palaces Indra with beautiful gardens, If you go to Dwarka today, there is no way even Krsna’s palace could fit on the island, what to say Ugrasena & everybody having palaces there, simply wonderful, because the Lord has inconceivable potencies.

No one in the history of this world has ever produced life and never will, life is all created by God, Life is the symptoms of the presence of the Jivatma, no one can take material elements and create a Jiva atma, Why? Because Jiva atma is not material, it is the spiritual potency of the Lord. The Jiva atma can never be seen by the eye and it never will be ever seen by the eye. According to Upanishad, the Jiva atma, when it is within a body, within this world, is one tenth thousandth size of the tip of the hair and not only that, it is invisible to the eye, you cannot see spiritual substance with material vision. So materialistic people because they cannot see the Jiva atma, they cannot calculate with their instruments, they come the conclusion that life is really made out of matter, life is just a combination of material elements and when all these material elements are combined in a very favorable way there is life and when it becomes unfavorable there is death, Hare Krsna, nothing more than that, and there are religious people in the world, who profess “No, it’s not like that” But how many people from their hearts believe what they are saying, Hare Krsna. In your heart do you really believe Krsna did all those things on this Earth. If there is a slightest doubt, its only because we have this disease, that we are trying to calculate the inconceivable according to our experiential conditionings, Even in the liberated state, when you are absolutely free from all the contaminations of your conditionings, still you can’t calculate the inconceivable potencies of the Lord, Why? Because we are Jiva, infinitesimal and Krsna is infinite, we can understand Krsna and love Krsna with ecstatic love according to our particular relationship with Him. That’s the extent we can know God, in our perfectly liberated condition of Sac-Cid-Ananda, but we cannot understand everything about the Lord, because its beyond our capacity, what to speak when the Jiva atma is in condition, bound by the mundane false ego, mind and intelligence and senses, he is trying to prove things, as reality to the senses, we cannot even with greatest instruments, scientific instruments, we don’t know what people are talking about, in Bandra, yes so many people are gossiping in Bandra, can you hear them? Do you know what they are talking about? Is there any instrument that can give us the knowledge of everyone in Bandra is talking about? We are so limited. There are several hundred people in this world, can anyone estimate what they are thinking about? One thing I can estimate, people thinking of other subjects than the class being discussed, it’s the nature of our mind, it’s going to our business, it’s going to our home, it’s going to our frustrations, so many things and every now and then we try t o bring them back to the class. But can anyone tell? We are so limited, yet with these imperfect mind and imperfect senses, we want to understand God, we want to measure God’s creation.

Just like Tamal Krsna Goswami Maharaj, he is a very powerful manager, powerful devotee also in every sense, but in Los Angeles its famous story. He was trying to control a certain kind of situation and Prabhupada gave an analogy which applies to everyone of us. He said “within existence, material creation within the Mahtattva is very a insignificant part and within the Mahatattva, within the cosmic manifestation, the particular universe we live in is just a tiny speck, it’s one of the smallest universes. Caitanya Caritamrita explains and this is all inconceivable, how many of you really believe it? But why not? When Brahma came to Dwarka, to meet Krsna and Krsna wanted to teach Brahma how insignificant He was! That is part of being devotes, to realize how insignificant you are. So Lord Brahma comes and Krsna assistant comes into the quarter and says “Brahma is here to meet you” and Krsna asked non chalantly “ask which Brahma?” How many Brahma, there is only one Brahma in the universe, so “which Brahma? Which Brahma? No other Brahma, there is no one else like me, the four headed Brahma”, so Krsna at that time called other Brahmas from other universes to Dwarka and then He said “okay, now you can get the four headed Brahma”. The four headed Brahma, who is the father of all living entities within the universe comes in and he sees an eight headed Brahma, because Brahma has heads according to the size of universe he is controlling and he saw a Brahma with eight heads, there was one with sixteen heads, one with 32 heads, one with 64 heads, one with 108 Brahma, very auspicious and then he saw Brahmas with thousand heads, ten thousand heads, hundred thousand heads, millions of heads.

Now how many of you actually believe, that you could fit millions of head on one body and not be some kind of freak. Or everybody will get disgusting, put him away in some circus or something. Millions of head and he was beautiful, majestic, aristocratic, very, very attractive and he could move around better than you. He was millions of times more athletic than the world’s greatest cricket star, is that conceivable? How can a person have millions of head on one body and be athletic and beautiful. For Brahma saw this, four headed Brahma, and he felt like a little insect in a herd of elephants and he was very humble and they were going and putting their heads on Krsna’s lotus feet. They are all surrendering to Krsna and Krsna said “Alright, very good, just always remember me, never forget me and tell me if any demons come, now you can go back to your universes” and they all went back to their universes, then little four headed Brahma, understood his position and that little four headed Brahma happens to be able to see the whole universe with his eyes, that’s the kind of eyes God has given him, he sees the four directions and he lives 311 trillion years and he realized he was totally insignificant. Now this also happened in Dwarka, and much greater things happen in Vrindavan, how to understand? We have to put our faith in the word of God to understand and in order to understand the word of God, we must have conviction that through our limited mental, intellectual, sensual experiences, we cannot understand the inconceivable nature of the Lord, the inconceivable nature of all of His energies, including this external energy we are living in.

Shukadev Goswami, thus speaking Srimad Bhagavatam, not only to Parikshit Maharaj but to everyone. It is the essence of all the Vedas, He is speaking to you and me, why is he coming up with these calculations, that he is speaking like if he is seeing it, there is no problem for Maharaj Parikshit to believe the size of these mountains, there is no problem for Shukadev Goswami to speak with absolute certainty, because nothing is impossible for the Lord and that is why Srila Prabhupada, he used every little opportunity to give us this insight. It really doesn’t matter, the details of this material creation, what matters is that within our life we understand Krsna, because within this material universe, whether there is an eight mile high mountain or whether there is 100 or 1000 mile high mountain, it’s all going to turn to dust and just not even a fraction of the time it takes for the mountain to turn into dust, were all going to be dead and gone, yes. Does it really matter? We spend our whole life trying to understand the size of this mountain, we die- where are we going [unclear- 0.49.18] Paap Brahma Jigyasa- Human life is meant to understand God, Human life is not meant to just accumulate data or accumulate possessions, human life is meant to understand God and in order to understand God, there is only one way. God is unlimited, He can never be understood by our calculations, we are limited, we are conditioned to what’s possible, what’s not possible, what could be reality and what could be mythology. Factually, the greatest scientific writers could never come up with a story that is anything close to the inconceivable potencies of the Lord.

I remember, when I was first in these leelas of the Lord, I was thinking that God must be billions and trillions and quadrillions times unlimitedly greater in His capacity and any little tiny intelligence can create. He could do unlimited more things and unlimited more amazing things than human intellect can possibly could create, within its literatures, yes. So we can conceive of something unbelievable happening, God could do unlimited better than that, more than that because He is so far beyond our stretches of intelligence of the ability to even imagine, that makes sense. This is Krsna, yes so Srila Prabhupada wanted us to put our faith in what will give us the realization that what is the purpose of life. There is only one person who could reveal God to us, God. There is no one else, if Krsna does not reveal Himself to us, there is no way we could ever know Him and Krsna does out of his supreme absolute mercy. The source of Vishnu and source of Narayan, Maha-Vishnu, He is sleeping, yoganidra, He is breathing and unlimited universes are coming out, He inhales and they are all coming in. The entire cosmic manifestation, we cannot calculate the number of years in that cosmic manifestation, no can, its lifetime of Brahma, yes, 311 trillion years, some calculations. But it’s a number, we can’t conceive of that number, it’s just a number, we think I know, but can you conceive of 311 trillion years, does it really go inside? It just a big number, a lot of zeros. But that’s all happening in Krsna’s one breath. If Krsna wants to perform pranayam, can you imagine what would happen? And that’s just when He is resting, yoganidra. It’s amazing, that’s Krsna. So the only person who can reveal Krsna is Krsna and therefore Krsna comes to Earth to reveal for himself and Krsna reveals through scriptures how this external energy is working and it may match our limited scientific experiences or it may totally contradict it, but whatever Krsna is telling us what we should believe. But God says we should believe it but that may sound very simple but it’s the only way. God reveals Himself, whatever is spoken in Srimad Bhagavatam is what God wants us to believe because if we believe this we will go back home back to Godhead. We are not going to go to Godhead by just pondering over how big the mountain could be? But yes, Shukadev Goswami, so many big mountains like this, so many gigantic oceans, so many wonderful things within this universe, beyond this Earth planet, beyond our microscope or telescopes, Krsna is revealing it and even when Krsna reveals things, they are not necessarily be external energy, is not only on the plane of our gross vision, there are also mountains that are ethereal. The mountains we know are mostly predominated by the Earth element, but there is Earth, water, fire, air, ether. These are gross elements, what to speak of mind, intelligence and ego.

Here Srila Prabhupada explained in the heavenly planets even if you went there you won’t see anything because everything is created on a subtler level. That is not sensually accessible to our gross Earthly senses, what to speak of seeing God. So there is only one way of understanding Krsna, through faith, the most reasonable, logical, scientific faith. Faith in God’s inconceivable potencies, faith in God’s merciful capacity to reveal himself to us and its actually to east to have this faith, if we just look around the world around us how inconceivable it is, what is it the creator can’t do? Therefore we can have faith in anything the scripture says, if we say just that simple honesty, what is it that Krsna can do or can’t do? He can do anything, everything and when Shukadev Goswami speaks, Shukadev Goswami is powered by Krsna, not only does he have perfect realization but his Guru Ved Vyas, who is an incarnation of Krsna, He is Trikalagya, he know past present and future, Ved Vyas. He is the one who has taught Shukadev Goswami and beyond that Shukadev Goswami has descended from Goloka Vrindavana, he is Radharani’s pet parrot. What is that he could tell us, it’s beyond the reach of our greatest imagination, but in order to understand Krsna as it is, we must have this simple faith in Acintya shakti, the inconceivable potencies of the Lord and its very important that this faith is very strong, because in previous Yugas, practically everybody had this faith. But in Kaliyuga, the vast majority of people are faithless and even so called religious people have very insufficient faith, if they really had faith, their lives would have been different. Even in Christian Bible saint Paul said, faith without works is empty, if you really have faith in something, your life is based on that faith, otherwise some superficial faith, it’s on mental platform, our faith has to go to our core of heart.

{0.59.46] Adhosajatatha sadhusango ja bhajan kriya..

Rupa Goswami explains the whole progression of Bhakti is all built on the fundamental foundation of faith and the greatest ignorance is those who deny faith, because even the atheists, whatever they believe is based on their faith, faith on their intelligence, faith in their mind, faith in their skepticism, it’s all faith. No one can live without faith in something, the faithless have faith in the mundane conceptions, they are not faithless, no one is faithless. The greatest atheist base all their arguments on faith, faith in what other atheist are saying, faith in their sense perception, faith in their mental conceptions. But we put our faith in the Acharyas, those perfect beings who have lived on this Earth as instruments of God’s compassion. We put our faith in the Holy Scriptures, which are not supposed to match, the holy scriptures are not supposed to match our geography books or science books or even our mathematics books, if they were, we need no scriptures, we could read maths books but we have our Gaudiya maths books.

The scripture is God speaking to us, about the inconceivable nature of His potencies as so beautiful as so wonderful and it is so real. Just like that little cobbler, you know of the story, What was Narayan doing when he saw Him?, He saw threading an elephant through the eye of an needle ! now try to explain that to someone at IIT, threading the elephant through the eye of an needle and the cobble said “Oh how wonderful” then Narada muni said, do you actually believe this, that He was putting an elephant through the eye of an needle?”.

Now our garland makers back there are having enough trouble putting a thread through the eye of an needle, could any one of you put an elephant through the eye of the needle, same needle you are making your garlands with, can you put an elephant through that?

The cobble said “Oh how wonderful”. Narada muni said “do you actually believe me?”. He said “Of course, of course, look this banyan tree we are sitting under, you see this little banyan seed? “ Banyan see is not even a centimeter in size, he said “my Lord has put the whole banyan tree in this little banyan seed, what is the problem for Him to put an elephant through the eye of an needle?”

If see the miracles of God in this external energy, then we naturally have a scientific logical faith in what is beyond this universe, what is beyond the material existence, what incredible, beautiful leela Krsna has. Some people when they hear the incredible leelas of Krsna, they just “impossible, impossible” and other people they hear the same thing and they cry in ecstasy that their hearts are melted and all they could do is express their love of gratitude by loudly crying out the holy names..

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Because Kripa, we can only understand by His mercy and he has extended His mercy in so many ways, so by associating with devotees and hearing from Krsna, hearing the holy scriptures from people who have faith, that is how our faith naturally awakens and develops.

Thank you very much,

I am sorry for speaking so long but relatively it was not very long, even relative to most of my other classes. Any questions?

Devotee1: When you talk about faith, faith or surrender or love. In our life we have a family, we have business, we have Krsna consciousness, how do we balance? We want to balance as much as possible, but sometimes we find, we put more time to our business or more attention to the family or Krsna consciousness, I understand that the Krsna consciousness is over all but is that the surrender that everything will come to you automatically things will come before you, you have look at that this is coming and sometimes you feel that’s all you can do, to give the best shot to things coming to you, but my question is that surrender and the faith that you talk about is the same or the love is also very important part?

RNS: Love is the most important part, love is the fruit of the tree of our sadhana and faith is the root in which our sadhana is nourished, yes. So faith is very important, very important, if we do not have proper faith, even our sadhana is superficial, you cannot really put your heart into something unless we have faith. On Friday, prerna festival, I was asked to speak on the power of prayer but really in order to offer our prayers, has to come from the heart to the extent we are developing our faith. If we don’t have a faith that there is really a God, how can we really put our heart into praying? Yes. If we don’t have faith that God hears our prayers, how could we really put our heart into it? That “Oh God, if you exist and even if you do, hear me.. and then please do like this” . To put our heart, faith is very important and faith comes from our previous births of cultivation and from our endeavors from this world as well. Because Krsna tell in the Geeta,

[1.01.35] Ye yatha mam prapadyante…..

As you surrender to me, I reveal Myself accordingly, so part of our surrender is the priorities we place in our life because Krsna is within the heart, faith doesn’t come from outside, Krsna awakens that faith from within in reciprocation to our sincerity, yes. Really what is sadhana about?

[1.09.25] Adhosaja sadhu sango ja bhajana kriya.

First is little bit of faith in our heart and they seek out the association of devotees and in that association we learn Bhajan Kriya, which means the process of Bhakti, associating with devotees, we start hearing the scriptures, we chant the holy names, we follow the four regulative principles, we try to avoid pra-jalpa, we try to put Krsna in centre of our life but how does all that purify us?

[1.10.00] Samsiddhi Hari toshana…..

It’s not a mechanical process, when Krsna see, we sincerely putting Him in the focus of our life then from within our heart, He expands our faith, He expands our realizations, He expands our love, yes. So really everything is based on our desire. If we put Krsna first in our life, Krsna will reveal in our life, If we put Krsna in the shelf of our life, Krsna just be sitting in shelf of our life, If we illuminate Krsna from our life, Krsna will remain invisible in our life. Krsna is a person in our heart, He is giving us free will and is perfectly reciprocating with our free will. Love is not a cheap thing, people talk about love, people sing about love, people write books about love, I have never seen a bollywood movie in my life, I not bragging, I being honest, but I imagine from the hoardings or billboards I see that most bollywood movies are about love, yes. But what is love? It’s not cheap thing, real love is the love sole for God and in loving God and in loving God, the soul loves all parts and parcels of God, that is love. Unconditional love that bring about ecstasy in our union with Krsna and with every living being, yes that is love. That love must be developed through sadhana, sat-sang and that sadhana and sat-sang is really simply the expression about our desire, I am chanting 16 rounds everyday Krsna, just to show you that you are important, all the time I chant your names, that means I really don’t feel you are important because words are cheap, we could say, yes God is important in my heart but then if your employee takes away your instructions and doesn’t do anything and says “So Mr. Boss, whatever you told me, I am keeping it in my heart” yes, you say “Go to New York and settle this contract, have you gone?”, “In my heart, I have gone, I have taken your instructions to my heart”. Now do you really believe, he has taken the instructions to his heart, unless he goes, words are cheap, but today especially in India “Yes I know Krsna, Yes I can smoke cigarettes and think of Krsna, I love Krsna, I love Krsna in every breath of nicotine and I love Krsna in the disco and I love Krsna when I am watching cricket and I love Krsna when I am in middle of business world, I love Krsna in every way” anyone can say like this. But Krsna is the Boss, and He has given instructions of what He wants us to do and our love is reciprocating those instructions, according to importance we give God, God will reciprocate, if we really believe God is important in our life, it’s not just words, it’s just not emotions, it’s not just trying to justify within our own mind that I am a saintly person, because I am always thinking of God and I love God. God’s the one who is watching, God’s the one who listening and love is real, sincerity is real, how much are we giving Him importance? If we really want Krsna, we have to give Krsna importance, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do everything else but it means we will balance with that importance, we will make our balances keeping Krsna important in our life. Not just something vague and something you know according to our convenience, if something is important you won’t do everything that is unimportant and do what is important when it’s convenient. If you really believe in something is important, that will become a priority and we make advancement to the degree, we make Krsna important in our life. So we chant the name of the Lord, because it is Krsna’s will and we will give Him this two hours a day to chant to because He is at least that important out of 24 hours a day, I could at least give Him two hours of importance in my life and that the devotees yes I have so many social obligations and so many social situations but if I am really give Krsna importance in our life then I am going to get a very serious balanced with whomever I associate with, I give him very, very sufficient time to devotees to enrich my life and know Krsna and to Love Krsna.

So, when we speak of balancing, we have to understand the spirit of balancing our life. Balancing our life with Krsna consciousness means putting a proper perspective by our words and through actions and through our time of what really is important. Our family is important, if we don’t give proper time to family it’s going to disintegrate emotionally and Kaliyuga it even happens physically. In India its more in the emotional frame, in the west it’s more of physical thing, divorce. In India it’s just people are living in the same house but internally they are in different planets, I have seen it all around India, you talk living in the same house, in the same room but you are on different planets, there is not much communication, there is not much dialogue, there is no real sympathy or care. When it happens in the west, divorce, find someone else. What happens in the east, its more tolerated and bear it and carry on somehow or other but it’s the same thing. If your family is important, it cannot be just a theoretical importance.

Prabhupada was very much practical, Prabhupada was totally a practical man, why? Because spiritual life is totally practical. He wanted to teach us, because the tendency amongst people and religion is that they have such an impractical ethereal conceptions, everything else in life is practical but except our spiritual reality, that’s something I feel and believe. If you really feel and believe, be practical. Prabhupada said, if you love someone and then don’t look at them, you don’t say anything to them or give them anything, that person is not going to believe you , you love them, you know, every Sunday you say I love you, I love you and everybody knows I love you, it’s a formality, so real balance is giving importance, our family is important, but is it actually important not just theoretical if it’s actually important, we must invest time to give it importance. If our occupation is important, if it’s actually important, you give it the time it needs and our purpose of life, which is to serve God and love God is important, if it’s actually important you give the time that Krsna expects of you. That’s what balancing is about, being honest, the basis of balancing our life and Krsna consciousness is really being honest with the Lord and our hearts, who is watching and who you cannot fool Him, you can fool others but not Krsna, if you try to fool Krsna, Krsna will fool you, how? You try to fool Krsna that I am a saintly person, but I don’t have time for You, then Krsna will fool you by making you think you are a saintly person, giving time to Him. But we are not, its practical, so this is what balancing is about, giving importance to all that is sacred in our lives. Does it answers your question?

Devotee2: Maharaj, talking about this Krsna’s inconceivable power.

RNS: See how powerful Krsna is, Krsna hears our silent prayers, Krsna’s hears our every thought and we cannot even hear when in microphone speaking, with its super high-tech amplification, still can’t hear what you say, that is the difference between Krsna and us. Yes, thank you for humbling me in this way. This will be our last question, because it’s very late.

Devotee2: Maharaj, when we hear all this and then there is also time to cultivate faith and meanwhile we also have to go out and preach about Krsna and many times hear from devotees that preaching all these intellectual things are okay but ultimately what matters is our own purity, we often hear Prabhupada’s quotations “Purity is the Force”, so preaching all these things, considering the fact that a lot of anarthas, we have lot of lust, greed, anger, what exactly is purity at our level because we are having anarthas, we are having our struggles, so what is this purity and how do we develop this purity more effectively?

RNS: In order to have proper faith, we must be convinced philosophically, that is all is important, “Religion without philosophy is sentimentalism or fanaticism” so philosophy is all important otherwise you can have faith in the wrong thing in the wrong way. But purity is really to the degree we are un motivated, in our service-

Na dhanan Na janan Na Sundari…..[1.22.45]

This is about purity, we don’t want to fulfill our egoistic selfish desires in what we are doing, we are actually doing it to please Krsna, Guru and the Vaisnavas, that is purity and the whole purpose of life is purification to the degree we are pure, to that degree Krsna merciful potency can manifest through us, when we preach, to the degree we are not pure, we may be able to philosophically in a very scientific forms present Krsna consciousness in a way that may be convincing to people’s intelligence but to really penetrate their hearts, we have that capacity to the degree our ego is not in the way, our false ego is not there in the way. Krsna wants to manifest to all of us, but our false egos are filtering the message, the potency of the message. So if you really, really want to help others, then we really have to strive to become pure and we become pure by following the process of Bhakti by sincerely following and chanting the holy names. There is no power that purifies our hearts greater than

[1.24.45] Ceto darpanam marjanam

The chanting of Krsna’s names, as we become pure the mercy of the Lord can flow through us, without being obstructed by our egos, our selfishness, by our desires. Does it answer your question? That’s the goal of our life, to become pure instruments of God’s mercy.

Thank you very much.

Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai.