Date: March 16, 2005
Verse: Srimad Bhagavatam 1.13.20
Speaker: HG Janananda Prabhu
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(During the verse recitation Janananda Prabhu encouraged everyone to chant the verse loudly, recalling how when he was in Mayapur in 1976, Srila Prabhupada had asked why the devotees weren’t reciting the verse loudly. In that case the wrong verse was on the board, but today the devotees didn’t have that excuse.)

yena caivabhipanno ‘yam pranaih priyatamair api janah sadyo viyujyeta kim utanyair dhanadibhih

TRANSLATION: Whoever is under the influence of supreme kala [eternal time] must surrender his most dear life, and what to speak of other things, such as wealth, honor, children, land and home.

PURPORT: A great Indian scientist, busy in the planmaking business, was suddenly called by invincible eternal time while going to attend a very important meeting of the planning commission, and he had to surrender his life, wife, children, house, land, wealth, etc. During the political upsurge in India and its division into Pakistan and Hindustan, so many rich and influential Indians had to surrender life, property and honor due to the influence of time, and there are hundreds and thousands of examples like that all over the world, all over the universe, which are all effects of the influence of time. Therefore, the conclusion is that there is no powerful living being within the universe who can overcome the influence of time.

Many poets have written verses lamenting the influence of time. Many devastations have taken place over the universes due to the influence of time, and no one could check them by any means. Even in our daily life, so many things come and go in which we have no hand, but we have to suffer or tolerate them without remedial measure. That is the result of time.

So Maharajas, Prabhujis, Matajis, devotees from near and far, we ask your blessings and mercy, forgiveness if there are any offences, so that we may speak a few words on this subject matter. Actually this is the first time I think, as far as we can remember, it is Kali-yuga and the memory is not very good, but as far as we can remember this is the first time we’ve been asked to give a class here in the temple room in Mayapur. I think we gave classes over here in the sankirtan building sometimes, but never here before.

I remember the first time we were ever asked to give a class. . . how many of you here have given a Srimad Bhagavatam class at some point in your life, hands up high. Not so many. Back in the earlier years 70’s if you’d been in the movement three months, you were an old devotee. Three months, it’s time to give class, Prabhu. Maybe some butterflies would fly into the stomach, nervousness, but that was the mood. You didn’t have much choice. Three months in the movement, maybe you’d be sent out to open a new temple somewhere, on your own. Nothing uncommon. Nowadays ten years in the movement and maybe we’ve not given a class. Preached, of course.

So here we are today amongst many more qualified Vaisnavas. We’re taking your association for our own purification.

(invocatory prayers)

I was talking to a devotee this morning who just came back from Sri Lanka, you may guess what he was dong there. He was together with Indradyumna Maharaja distributing prasadam to the countless thousands of homeless, destitute, distressed people. Dec. 26th, 2004, we were in Penang.

Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Maharaja was giving Srimad Bhagavatam class, 9:00 in the morning. Suddenly his vyasasana started shaking. It can happen any moment. We had no idea that a couple of hundred miles away, hundreds of thousands of people were being washed away by the force of time. We thought a little tremor, nothing unusual. It wasn’t very big where we were. We didn’t hear anything till about six hours later, some news came that some people got swept away in Penang and here and there.

Just like those who were in America, what was that, September the 9th?
11th?, 9/11, not 7/11. Out of the blue literally, nobody would have dreamt, nobody, even the astrologers had no clue. Same with the tsunami, not a clue.

Nobody would have dreamt it. Down on the beach, there we are, what a beautiful sunny day it was. Spending thousands of dollars to enjoy this body, within a second pshoo, gone, swept away. Time and tide wait for no man. Shocked, the whole world, for weeks and weeks on end. I don’t know about where you were, we were in Malaysia, for weeks on end the newspapers from front to back were full of it. Statistics, reasons why, when the next one’s going to be, what to do when they come. Just like we heard yesterday, what to do when the bomb falls. What are you going to do? Dravida Prabhu was giving a nice talk about that. In England I know they told us what to do when the bomb falls. I don’t know if we can use this language in the assembly of sadhus and sadhvis, but they said “When the bomb falls, put your head between your legs and kiss the rear end goodbye.” Because you aren’t going to see it again. Probably never seen it anyway. What can you do? We can struggle, life is a struggle, people are struggling against time, fighting, serving time. We’re all bound up in this world like prisoners, trying to enjoy the so-called sense gratification of this dream world. Attached. There’s no real happiness in this world:

ei-dhana, yauvana, putra, parijana,
ithe ki ache paratiti re

What assurance is there of happiness from all of one’s wealth, sons, family members, there is no assurances. What assurance is there, there is no assurance. There is assurance of suffering because it’s going to be taken away. Nobody likes to lose what we are attached to, this body more than anything, how attached we are; you have to lose it.

kamala-dala-jala, jivana talamala,
bhaja hum hari-pada niti re

Life is just like a drop of water on a lotus leaf, tottering at any moment it can fall off. We walk around taking it for granted. “Oh, there’s nothing to worry about!”

Yudhisthira Maharaja said, when he was asked by the Yaksa who was none other than his own father, which is interesting because today’s verse is about Vidura, same personality, “What is the most amazing thing in this world?”

What is it? Some people say sex life. Men say women, women say men, some people say knowledge, science, whatever it is. What did he say? The most amazing thing in this world is all around you see people dying. Everywhere you look, if it’s not humans, it’s insects. Nobody wants to die but everywhere you look we see it–even I was watching a cockroach yesterday, I don’t normally watch cockroaches, but he was in the middle of the kirtan yesterday in front of Prabhupada’s vyasasana, running for his life. He didn’t want to die, he could see all these–I don’t know what he thought the were–these things pounding up and down around him and he’s running this way and that way, trying to get against the wall. Struggle for existence. The human race, nobody wants to die, but everyone must die. It’s the only thing.

… . as sure as death. The only thing certain in life is death, nothing else is sure.

Srila Prabhupada said we must discuss this over and over again. We’re all, every one of us, is going to die. It might be. . . well this might be my last class. You’re probably hoping it is. (laughter) It may be, we don’t know if we’re going to last till the end of the class. Any moment it can happen all around us.

How many people died in the tsunami? Interesting word, tsunami, nami. The source of all names, su, very auspicious. You should take shelter of the real nam or you’ll be swept away by the tsunami sooner or later. How many people died? 400,000? 400,000 +, plus billions of other living entities, although I heard no animals died, they’re a little more intelligent than human beings. OK, 400,000, headlines for weeks on end, but every single day on this planet how many people die? Do you read it in the newspaper? How many, thousands, more or less 400,000 people every day die. That doesn’t include the womb, as as many die in the womb as outside of it. Every day 150,000 are murdered in the womb. This news, we don’t realize it. “Samasrita ye pada-pallava plavam”, there is danger at every step. But we take it for granted.

We are so absorbed in our sense gratification, intoxicated like a drunken man, a mad man. You can be on the verge of death, about to fall of the edge of a cliff and he doesn’t realize it, he’s drunk. We’re all drunk and intoxicated by sense gratification and attachment to this body. This human life is very valuable, very urgent, we can’t afford to waste a moment. You may say “OK, here’s Vidura, he’s preaching to Dhrtrastra at the fag end of life.” Prabhupada didn’t preach to us at the fag end of life. Of course, better late than never, but better be early than late. Prahlad Maharaja preached early, don’t waste your lives, young boys. They were five years old. Get it together now. Human life is not meant for sense gratification:

kamasya nendriya-pritir labho jiveta yavata jivasya tattva-jijnasa nartho yas ceha karmabhih

This human life is not meant for sense gratification, it is meant for jivasya tattva-jijnasa, it is meant for inquiry into spiritual life. That will save us, that will bring us real happiness. Material sense gratification, how much pleasure is it in this dukhalayam asasvatam, this temporary world full of distress. Sense gratification always leads–“ye hi samsparsa-ja bhoga, duhkha yonaya eva te–it leads to distress. Intelligent person doesn’t take pleasure in the sense objects. He knows they have a beginning and an end. Everyone likes the beginning, it depends what it is, but we don’t like it when it’s taken away from us. We don’t like to lose it, how much distress there is losing things. We lose a little thing. Somebody yesterday lost their passport, driving license, how much anxiety a little thing like that, a bit of paper. Or money, so much distress. Or lose their friends, more distress. Wife, more, usually, not always, more distress.

Children, husband, same thing. So much distress! And what to speak of our body, or our name or our wealth or our fame–all these things will be taken away in course of time. Time takes everything away. We are very very busy:

karma-kanda, jnana-kanda, kevala visera bhanda

We are bound up in this world. One who thinks that karma kanda, jnana kanda, will bring happiness, who thinks he is drinking nectar in karma or jnana, in knowledge or material sense gratification, is himself assured of so much suffering birth after birth after birth. Temporarily you may think some little pleasure in this life, hanging on to this life, just hanging on till death.

All the great saintly persons, the sadhus, Srila Prabhupada, preached to us.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Maharaja preached to Prabhupada the urgency of Krsna consciounsess. It’s urgent. In 1922, when Prabhupada met his spiritual master, he convinced him of the absolute urgency and of the message of Krsna consciousness. Other things may have to be done, but they are not so urgent.

The urgent thing in life, Bhaktisiddhanta Maharaja said, “There is no shortage of anything in this world expect for Krsna consciousness.”

Everything else is there, you can play with it or not. Many toys are there in this world, children playing with toys, or sand castles, the example Prabhupada gives, swept away entirely in the course of time. But the valuable thing, that thing which is truly eternal, Bhaktivinoda Thakura says the soul, the holy name, these are the eternal factors:

krsna-nama-sudha koriya pan,
jurao bhakativinoda-pran,
nama bina kichu nahiko aro,
caudda-bhuvana-majhe

In all the three worlds, what is there to be had other than the holy names?

Everything else is a dream over in a minute, here one minute, gone the next.

“Kamala-dala-jala, jivana talamala”, flickering like a drop of water on a lotus leaf. Unfortunately we don’t take advantage of this. Bhaktivinoda says the real thing is the holy name, we have to associate with the holy name. We haven’t a second to spare, the tsunami may come at any moment. The Ganges may suddenly rise, we don’t know. We take it for granted, here it stands.

Anything can happen, heart attack, boom, down we go. Anything at any moment.

We’ve go to prepare. . . human life is preparation for death. That’s what it’s for. Varnasrama is to prepare us for death. It is not to provide a comfortable living situation. It is meant to free us from the so-called comforts of this material world. Every asrama is to help us progress towards Krsna, to develop our remembrance of Krsna, our love for Krsna and detachment from material nature.

The sadhus are always preaching like this, as here we see Vidura. Another famous example we could cite, there are many, Bhagavatam’s full of them, all the scriptures. But in the Srimad Bhagavatam there’s a wonderful example of one of the most prominent preachers in the Srimad Bhagavatam, who preached to a very attached king. This king was very absorbed in karmakanda, fruitive activities. He wanted to gain elevation to the heavenly planets by various sacrifices, animal sacrifices prominently. Remember? King Pracinabarhisat.

And who was preaching to him? Narada Muni. It’s a wonderful, wonderful recollection. When we read this. . . I am still attached on the bodily platform, full of inimical mentalities, enemies like envy, pride, lust and greed are the constant companjons. But still when we hear these wonderful recitations from Srimad Bhagavatam, it has an inspiring effect. We develop a little bit of urgency when we associate with someone urgent, like Vidura is here, it’s a desperate situation, it’s the last hope for Dhrtarastra. And in the case of Narada, he’s thinking how to get the message through to this thick-shelled person who’s so attached. Sense gratification covers us over, it make us like a very encased prisoner in this material world, serving time.

So time. There was one king, Narada Muni gave this example, there was one king from the Gandharvaloka. His name was Candavega, one who passes very quickly. It’s also another name of time. This king had 360 soldiers, very powerful soldiers, and they also had 360 female companions. There was one personality named Puranjana. Anyone here Puranajana? One devotee was named Puranjana. Your name is Puranjana, you’re Puranjana? You sure? I’m Puranjana, maybe not by name, but by consciousness. Anyone else by consciousness Puranjana? Hands up, who’s a Puranjana or Puranjani? We’re all, in one sense, trying to enjoy within this body, what else are we going to do? We all to some degree have this mentality.

So Narada Muni is preaching to us. He’s not just telling an allegorical story of a king from an ancient time named Puranjana, he’s preaching to us to give us a little hope, a little inspiration, a little nectar as well; it’s very blissful to hear. Anyway, this king is the jiva, the soul, he’s one who wants to enjoy within the body. So he goes all over looking for somewher, he comes eventually to Bharatavarsa, to the human form of life.

With the nice city of the human body, nice gates are there for enjoyment in various ways. So he’s very happy, to cut a long story short, trying to enjoy in that body. And he’s so intoxicated with his family life, his sense gratification, his wealth and position and so on, he’s completely unaware of the creeping up of Candavega, time, together with his 360 soldiers and their companions in the form of days and nights. Taking away his time, “ayur harati vai pumsam” stealing away by the rising and setting of the sun. The sun steals the duration of life of everyone, except for those who are aborbed in hearing that wonderful message of the all-good Personality of Godhead. Devoteees never get carried away by time, but for the majority of people, if they’re aware of it, they’re fighting against it. They’re spending millions of dollars on facelifts, doing some surgery, or putting their body into some deep freeze in the hope that in the future they’ll be able to find a cure for their disease, living in some bacteria free compartment, hoping that no bacteria will come and get us, etc,. But we cannot escape from the jaws of death. When the time comes, noone can escape.

There are so many stories in this way.

So this Puranjana was intoxicated with his family life, but gradually, gradually, gradually, Candavega was getting the better of him. He had a very good superintendent guarding his city, the five-hooded serpent, the life airs, who was trying to protect his city, but the snake was gradually losing its power against Candavega and his associates.

Now Candavega, time, had a daughter, old age. In time, if we live that long, we get old, and if we don’t we’re already old. We don’t know how long we’re going to live, we might live only a few seconds in which case we’re already old. Anyway Candavega had a daughter named Kalakanya or Jara, old age. In due course of time Kalakanya was born and she was looking for somebody to marry. Every woman likes to have a husband, more or less. So she was searching for a husband, but nobody wanted her. Hands up all those who want old age as their husband. Who wants old age as your wife? You want an old lady as your wife, or an old man as your husband? Sometimes there are stories of Krsna cursing the gopis that they would get an very old man who already had so many wives as their husband. No woman wants an old man as her husband, and no man wants an old woman as his wife in this world. She’s an old woman and she’s looking for a husband.

She went to Narada Muni. “Oh-oh, I’m a brahmacari, I can’t associate with a woman, even an old woman.” Nothing to do with it. She got upset and cursed him. Anyway he gave her his blessing, devotees are always merciful even to their enemy. He gave her a blessing and sent her off to Yavanaraja. She went off to Yavanaraja, King of the Yavanas, looking for a husband. He said, “Well, you’re really an unfortunate person, I really don’t want to marry you. Nobody wants you, you can marry my brother, here you go, he’s older than me.”

This is the start of illicit sex or incest between family members. She married Prajvara, the brother of Yavanaraja. And then Yavanaraja said “All right, what are we going to do now, let’s go all three of us and let’s have some fun. We’re going to go all over the universe now and we’re going to impercebtibly attack every living entity.” Now another name of Yavanaraja is bhaya, fear. The material world is full of bhaya. Srila Prabhupada is abhaya, no fear. Why? Because caranaravinda, he’s taken shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord.

Anyway, they went all over attacking everyone, old age, and fear. Along with Yavanaraja he had many soldiers in the form. . . of course Yavanaraja automatically indicates unhygienic conditions: illicit sex, dirty consciousness, mundane behaviour, intoxications and so on, all these things help. . . the example Prabhupada gives is a person who engages young men and women. . . some of us are getting a little bit on the older side, but we’ve had our fair share of unfortunate behaviour as children in the form of illicit sex and intoxication and meat-eating and so on. We hesitate to discuss, at this point of time anyway, the gruesome details of it all. But we had our fair share. So be warned, the more one engages in these horrific activities that appear very nice, the more one suffers in old age the effects of Yavanaraja and his cohorts. They attack one bitterly: arthritis, rheumatism–innumerable bodily sufferings–mental distress senility, so many things, painful old age. Do we want that? Nobody wants it, but it comes.

So Yavanaraja and his followers attacked the city of Puranjana, smashing everything, diseases coming in. So many diseases, aches and pains, you can’t eat. Actually when I was 12 years old my teeth fell out. I started young.

After a few years in management my hairs went grey, wrinkles, eyes started failing. In the thirties all this is going on, so be warned, be careful.

When Yayati was cursed to become prematurely old, and the youngest son Puru accepted the old age on his behalf. Sometimes the indication is that acutally old age is a blessing in disguise, it’s a warning. Just like in Penang, not many people died in the tsunami because they warned the people, they had some system to warn the people. So they all ran off the beach, most of them, some didn’t but most of them survived. In other places they didn’t because they didn’t have a warning or they didn’t take heed of the warning.

We have a warning, all around us everybody is dying, but nobody thinks it will happen to me. There are warnings around us, we’re not thinking they’re warnings, as Yudhisthira Maharaja said this is the most amazing thing in the world that nobody is taking this life seriously. Death is on our doorstep.

At any moment. . . .

So Yavanaraja was there, and his brother Prajvara represents fever, 107 degrees. So as gradually the city is being smashed, Prajvara comes in and raises the temperature up to 107. And at 107 that’s it, it’s curtains. We better take shelter of 108, one more, that’s very auspicious. Prabhupada’s 108th anniversary. 108 beads, chant your rounds. Satsvarupa Maharaja writes in the Japa reform book, how to chant your japa? This is our shelter from 107. How you chant japa? (mimics mispronounced, sleepy japa: yama yama yama). Not going to protect us very much. I don’t if there’s someone named Yama who’s going to come and protect us. . . sleep asura. How we chant our rounds, he said, we chant our rounds as if this is our last breath. This is my last breath.

They used to have a sign in New York in the early days to encourage people to chant: Chant While You Can. There is a picture of a cemetry with all these skeletons running around, Chant While You Can. Or in the crematorium, somewhere. So chant while we can, “krsna tvadiya pada pankaja panjarantam”.

Prabhupada used to chant that verse a lot, King Kulasekhara. A very famous verse, that while I’m young let the swan of my mind take shelter in the lotus stem, lotus feet. . . Let’s take shelter of the holy name while we can. And whilst you’re young, so many samskaras, so easy to make impressions on your consciousness. When we got old it’s harder to remember things. . .

You learn things, keep ourselves engaged, Prabhupada would always say, don’t waste a second. . . Time is Krsna. We heard that yesterday, time is Krsna.

“Time I am.” If time is Krsna, we shouldn’t waste Krsna. He is here in the form of time and He acts favourably for a devotee.

Just like in this example of Kalakanya, she embraces everybody, like illicit sex, she grabs everyone, not just her husband. Nobody likes it. But she does, she forces her way in and everyone becomes miserable, depressed, fearful. When Kalakanya embraces a devotee, we also may get how embraced by Kalakanya, how do we feel? Depressed? Fearful? Actually if we are practicing Krsna consciousness, Prabhupada writes, a devotee will not become depressed, a devotee will become very happy and fearless. “Great, now I’m getting free of sense gratification. What else is there to do but to take shelter of Krsna? Now danger is coming, warning is there, Hare Krsna.”

Just like with the tsunami, I doubt whether many people were chanting Hare Krsna when it came in. But some people may have been. Or in the Twin Towers.

Or in the Titanic. I doubt whether many of those were. They were all having a jolly good time in the Titanic, drunk as anything, dancing and singing.

They couldn’t believe it that the invincible, the infallible, was about to fall into the bottom of the ocean. Yesterday we heard infallible. . . but it’s also in-fall-ible it cannot fall. Everyone is fallable, we can all down fall down at any moment, noone is safe. They’re all drunk, and boomp, down they went. They hit a little tiny iceberg and boomp, down they went. What are they going to do, death will come and eventually Kalakanya rips, old age, diseases, Prajvara, the temperature goes up and whoof, the soul is taken away. Next life of course Puranjana was born as a woman, Vaidarbhi.
That’s another story.

And then Narada Muni explains that the living entity is just like. . . he says “Search out that deer in the forest.” The deer is enjoying, intoxicated, enjoying the sweet sweet grasses. Everyone is looking for those sweet sweet grasses. A new girl, a new boy, a new job, a nice this, a nice that, a new computer, a new watch, a new so many things. Everything nice and fresh. When we’re old we have some operation to make it fresh again, whatever it is. 80 years old, Prabhupada said, men are still going, especially in Paris, to the prostitutes to try and enjoy something. They can’t really enjoy it but their mind may try to enjoy it. This is the nature of this world. What can be done.

So he said search out that deer that is in the forest. And in front of that deer, there is one tiger creeping up. And behind there is one hunter with bow and arrow ready to shoot anyone of us at any one of us at any moment.

Mrgari, Narada saved him. The tiger is the tiger of time, the hunter is death. We are so intoxicated with sense enjoyment that we’re not even seeing the dangers around us. We try not to see it. “Don’t worry, it’s all right”.

Yesterday we were hearing “dehapatya kalatradisv atma sainyesv asatsvapi”.

They’re trying to take shelter of these fallible soldiers. What’s the use, quicksand, hold on to someone else’s hand, they’re higher up than us. But that’s not going to save us. We are all going down. So let us take shelter of the holy names.

We’ve run out of time. This is the only protection from the unavoidable, imperceptible effects of time in the form of birth, death, disease and old age and their concomitant sufferings that come along. So let us take shelter of the only solution. This is very urgent. I was thinking the other day when we are doing the drama, “Oh boy, at last I’m getting urgent about something.” We don’t usually get urgent. When we’re doing a drama we usually get urgent. When you’re giving a class sometimes we get a little urgent too.

Prabhupada was always urgent. He impressed urgency on all of us that this human life is so valuable. We shouldn’t waste it, srama eva hi kevalam. We haven’t a second to spare. We cannot buy back one second with all the wealth in the world. So we have to take advantage of this human life and fill our life 24 hours a day, sravana, kirtana–hearing, chanting, remembering, worshipping, serving the lotus feet, befriending, and so on, surrendering everything. Fill up our lives with this, and then whatever happens, whether the Twin Towers come down and we happen to be in there, we’ll be lucky if we are absorbed in Krsna’s service. Or whether tsunami comes in or whether death comes from another source. Death will come in one way or another, it doesn’t really matter. It makes no difference whether it’s a bomb, a wave, heart attack, cancer. It’s going to come in one way or another, we’ve go to prepare ourselves.

When Ballabha Puri Maharaj’s wife was passing away on her last day–there are so many examples of devotees like this–she said to our husband, “Today I am leaving.” He said “How do you know that?” She said, “They told me.

Today is the last day in my body.” It’s like when go out on a boat, a boating pool, you go on boat number 8, 9, 10, 11. “OK, boat no. 10, your hour is up, come in.” It’s like that. For a devotee we shouldn’t take it for granted. We should prepare ourselves for death now by chanting. We’re going to chant: “Hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare, hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare”. We’re going to have to chant louder than that. All together! (really loud) Hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare, hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare!

By the mercy of Srila Prabhupada we may be delivered from the clutches of time, birth and death. We have to finish there. Srila Prabhupada ki jai!

Are there any question or comments? Yes, Prabhu?

(Question by Apurva Nimai Das asking about the similarity of sleep and
death)

Answer: Do you sleep at night? Yes, Prabhupada said it is. Sometimes he likens it to the snake of death, kala-sarpa, we were hearing yesterday. The snake of time. So yes, it is like dying practically speaking. The soul never dies, the sould is still there, even when you’re sleeping. So practice so even when we are so-called sleeping, if we practice Krsna consciousness in the day, then even when we are sleeping at night it should be a service so we can do our service in the day more effectively. Take it as a service.

It’s engaging, in the beginning, the mode of ignorance in Krsna’s service.

By sleeping properly. Don’t just sleep left and right. Don’t be in the mode of ignorance, use the mode of ignorance. The body may need some rest, utilize it in Krsna’s service. Don’t oversleep, sleep properly and sufficiently but not too much. Too much or too little is not good. Sleep properly, then it’s utilization of Krsna’s energy in Krsna’s service.

And then gradually–I remember in the earlier days in my life, not so much now–in the middle of the night regularly you would hear devotees, brahmacari asrama (I don’t know about the brahmacarini asrama, I never went there), brahmacari asrama, regularly in the middle of the night: “Hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare, (snoring) Jaya Prabhupada (snoring).

Either they were dreaming of Krsna or having kirtana in their sleep. Many times I would sometimes wake up in a puddle of sweat. We’d had such a thundering kirtana during the night, in our sleep. I felt so ecstatic. I felt more ecstatic than than I did in the temple so I thought “Let me go back to sleep again.” (laughter) Last night we dreamt of Panca Tattva, believe it or not, first time ever.

So yes, we have to sleep, we’re not transcendental to the modes of nature, we’re not the Goswamis, but at the same time, yes it is like. . . . so we should be careful and not overindulge to embrace death. Step over death. We heard yesterday, step on the head of death, taking shelter of the holy names. And even when you’re sleeping. Don’t worry Krsna’s there. If one is a sincere devotee it’s not that we’re going to die in sleep and it’s “Oh, we lost it”. But we’re still conscious, Krsna will remind us. He is the Supersoul guiding our wanderings. He is looking after us. We have to have this faith that Krsna is our only shelter. We have to behave in such a way to evoke Krsna’s shelter by calling His name, like a child crying for its mother. Whether the child is awake or asleep the mother is always very diligent to look after the child’s welfare. So Krsna and the spiritual master are always watching over us if we are taking shelter of them.

Anything else? Yes, Misra Bhagavan Prabhu. (question)

Answer: The question was sometimes we see devotees very beautiful young wives, maybe they are very well-to-do with nice clothese and material facilities. They seem to be very absorbed and sometimes very happy in that situation. Whereas Lord Caitanya said “Na dhanam na janam na sundarim, kavitam va jagadisa kamaye”. He didn’t want any of these things because He had a higher taste. He wanted the higher taste. As long as we have an attraction to these temporary things of this material world, as long as we’re attached to sense gratification. . .

visaya chadiya kabe suddha habe mana
kabe hama heraba sri-vrndavana

If we want to actually enter into Vrindavan, then we have to give up, visaya-chadiya, sense gratification. Now, if He doesn’t want anything, they are a temptation, a distraction. Sometimes we’re in that situation for whatever reason. The process is, the first verse in Nectar of Instruction, vaco vegam manasah krodha vegam, these urges. By becoming urgent for Krsna, even though we may have these objects of sense gratification, we have to at least engage them in Krsna’s service. There is a difference between having a thing and enjoying a thing. The devotee may have the thing, whatever it may be, beautiful wife or a handsome husband, money, knowledge, wealth or so many things, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. The problem is thinking that is mine, and this is my goal. If that is our goal we’re going to end up in trouble. We have to have our goal clearly fixed. The goal of our life is to go back to Godhead. And the goal is to see everything in relation with Krsna. We have to know our goal. So Prabhupada says that because the living entity does not have this understanding of the ultimate goal, therefore he is full of distress, fear of losing. So many fears are there. He may appear to be satisfied but there are so many fears under the surface. So to get rid of that we have to take shelter of Krsna. So engage these things in Krsna’s service, don’t be engaged by these things. Then it is very dangerous.

So Lord Caitanya is warning us we should not go out of our way for these things. They may come, but if our goal is to get these things, then we’re going to have to go through a few lessons. The Lord is also looking after us even in that situation, a few lessons to learn and we’ll wake up, we’ll come to our senses. Yayati came to his senses, Saubhari Muni came to his senses.

These examples are there. Indra came to his senses, we’ll all come to our senses, even Pracinabarhisat came to his senses eventually. But better that we don’t waste our time in this way. Better we take shelter of the lotus feet of guru and Gauranga. And chant, as much as we can keep chanting the holy names of Krsna as our only shelter. There’s nothing to be had in all the fourteen worlds but the holy names of the Lord. Hare Krsna. Srila Prabhupada ki jai! Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai! Thank you Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krsna.