The BapCast Network

Sannyas is a goal and it is also a method. Because in the spiritual environment people are very happy to meet somebody who is trustworthy, they can put their trust in him, they know he or she made a promise, made a commitment and he is reliable in this connection. Therefore I get enthusiastic and want to participate. Lord Krishna calls the last chapter of the Bhagavad gita, The Perfection of Renunciation. He talks about sannyas. Sannyas is a very natural step of responsibility. It is a very important element in human society. And it is also a very important element in the individual spiritual life, because if we become older and we are still attached to comfortable living, to our own mind, this is not such a happy thing. We should try everything possible to focus on the Supreme Enjoyer, the Supreme Proprietor and the Supreme Controller. It is pretty difficult because in this world we want to be the proprietor of so many things, we want to control so many things, and we surely want to enjoy so many things. Enjoyment is a natural propensity, it is something within the conditioned soul, but the only joy and happiness according to Vaishnava philosophy will be achieved when somebody overcomes his separate interest from Krishna.

The Deity is not something produced. Nobody can produce a Deity. But the spiritual teachers can install and ask the Lord to accept our service. And He will accept our service if there is love. Deity worship allows us to make God a reality of our life. He does not need this, He is totally independent. But we need to serve somebody, we need to focus on somebody, we need to be surrendered to somebody. If we are not than our life is lost. If we cannot worship Deities, than we can also not write about the Lord, read about the Lord, talk about the Lord or think about the Lord. Because just like a Deity, this is supposedly imaginary. But as much as you say it's imaginary we say sastra is not imaginary. So if sastra is not imaginary, sadhu is not imaginary, guru is not imaginary than the Deity is also not imaginary.

Spiritual emotions (bhava) are very high. They come before prema, which is pure love for God, which has completely overtaken one's existence. Pure love of God is really wonderful. We need that, we need the association of those who love God. Only those who love God are really interesting. Other people who are loving material things, they have not much to offer to us. We cannot offer to them our time, because our time is very precious. If we give our time to those who only have attachment for sense gratification, then our whole human life will be wasted. We cannot give our time to television, sports, politics. We cannot give our time to anything which is not taking us closer to Krishna. An intense eagerness develops in the heart of the devotee who is actually fixed in devotional service. He wants to be with Krishna. He has full hope that Krishna will do something, so that he can reach His lotus feet. This mood is very special.

Unless one's mind is fixed in Krishna consciousness, he can never settle for anything. I think that is a practical experience and confirmed by every entity within his own field of experience. To fix the mind is something we naturally aspire for. That's why we study one author and we get enthused about his writing. But very soon after finishing reading the book our mind flickers on to the next subject. Even we forget the one who previously enthused us with his capturing ideas.

Unless one's mind is fixed in Krishna consciousness, he can never settle for anything. I think that is a practical experience and confirmed by every entity within his own field of experience. To fix the mind is something we naturally aspire for. That's why we study one author and we get enthused about his writing. But very soon after finishing reading the book our mind flickers on to the next subject. Even we forget the one who previously enthused us with his capturing ideas.

It is a great illusion of the European people to think that they are the top race of the planet. They had some development in technology after the Renaissance. The industrial society gradually expanded in Europe. And Europeans started to colonise other countries. Ships, weapons and big idol worshippers. These people were really influenced by the whole idea that sense-gratification reigns supreme. So when the colonialism started, then slavery, enslaving entire countries became very popular. Asia, Africa, America. they went there and they made everybody their property. And what did they tell everybody? They said: We came here to save you. This so called saving implied that they wanted to make them submit to their idol worship. To their crown worship. Monarchy at that time was very strong. You had to bow to the crown of England, the crown of Spain, etc. So they told everybody that know you are under the crown of this place and that place. And if you are not accepting, we will kill you. Where they went people had very beautiful cultures, specifically in South America and India, such highly developed cultures. The europeans in order to maintain their supremacy, they followed this idea of devastating everything else. Meaning burning and killing everything they could get their hands on. They attempted to destroy Indian culture as well. But in India they had a big problem in the beginning. In India there was no religious organisation to destroy. In India religion was part of everybody's family. Part of every village and every town. It was the treasure of the heart of a yogi. And the books and the temples were very important but spirituality was independent from the books and the temples. How many temples were being destroyed in India? Besides Christianity and the Euromegalomania, there was also competition, and that was with the Muslimmegalomania. There is no count of how many temples were destroyed by Muslims. And not only temples, cities as well, entire historic elements of this world have been destroyed in this way.

It is a great illusion of the European people to think that they are the top race of the planet. They had some development in technology after the Renaissance. The industrial society gradually expanded in Europe. And Europeans started to colonise other countries. Ships, weapons and big idol worshippers. These people were really influenced by the whole idea that sense-gratification reigns supreme. So when the colonialism started, then slavery, enslaving entire countries became very popular. Asia, Africa, America. they went there and they made everybody their property. And what did they tell everybody? They said: We came here to save you. This so called saving implied that they wanted to make them submit to their idol worship. To their crown worship. Monarchy at that time was very strong. You had to bow to the crown of England, the crown of Spain, etc. So they told everybody that now you are under the crown of this place and that place. And if you are not accepting, we will kill you. Where they went people had very beautiful cultures, specifically in South America and India, such highly developed cultures. The europeans in order to maintain their supremacy, they followed this idea of devastating everything else. Meaning burning and killing everything they could get their hands on. They attempted to destroy Indian culture as well. But in India they had a big problem in the beginning. In India there was no religious organisation to destroy. In India religion was part of everybody's family. Part of every village and every town. It was the treasure of the heart of a yogi. And the books and the temples were very important but spirituality was independent from the books and the temples. How many temples were being destroyed in India? Besides Christianity and the Euromegalomania, there was also competition, and that was with the Muslimmegalomania. There is no count of how many temples were destroyed by Muslims. And not only temples, cities as well, entire historic elements of this world have been destroyed in this way.

Give up your preoccupation about your future, because if your present is a mess then your future will be more messy. But when you are aiding others then your present is glorious and your future will be glorious. Material philosophy means now save your money and tomorrow enjoy, save for your vacations, save for your home, save for your car, save save save and don't give, and in this way your life becomes pretty miserable. And nowadays the banks may also become bankrupt, we have already seen that a few times. All of a sudden there is devaluation of the currency and what was yesterday 10 is now worth only 5. This just happened in the United States, strongest country in the world, supposed to be. Everybody in the U.S. over the period of the last six months lost between 35 and 50 percent of their assets. No exaggeration. If they had a million dollars, now they have 500000 Usd or 650000 Usd. If they had debts they lost their houses. In the last 6 months 4 million homes in the U.S. went into foreclosure. The houses went down in value, what was worth 100000 Usd is now worth 50000 Usd, but they owe 80000 Usd to the bank. This means that now you have more debts than the house covers. Nice game of the money changers.

Give up your preoccupation about your future, because if your present is a mess then your future will be more messy. But when you are aiding others then your present is glorious and your future will be glorious. Material philosophy means now save your money and tomorrow enjoy, save for your vacations, save for your home, save for your car, save save save and don't give, and in this way your life becomes pretty miserable. And nowadays the banks may also become bankrupt, we have already seen that a few times. All of a sudden there is devaluation of the currency and what was yesterday 10 is now worth only 5. This just happened in the United States, strongest country in the world, supposed to be. Everybody in the U.S. over the period of the last six months lost between 35 and 50 percent of their assets. No exaggeration. If they had a million dollars, now they have 500000 Usd or 650000 Usd. If they had debts they lost their houses. In the last 6 months 4 million homes in the U.S. went into foreclosure. The houses went down in value, what was worth 100000 Usd is now worth 50000 Usd, but they owe 80000 Usd to the bank. This means that now you have more debts than the house covers. Nice game of the money changers.

Krishna due to His kindness keeps us in a state of emergency. Why? Because we need that, we need that state of emergency, because we have not yet discovered loving spontaneous devotional service. Somehow or other Sri Krishna, He has the devotee-community grow, from one emergency to the next. I have at this given moment approximately between 100 and 200 emergencies. When the telephone rings it means another emergency. The emergencies put us in contact with Krishna. Supreme Queen Kunti said that let this emergencies come again and again and again because when there is an emergency she has to take refuge in Sri Krishna. In this way Krishna is sending these emergencies to us to be more close to Him. So Queen Kunti says that she wants these emergencies to come again and again, because if everything would be going fine and there would be no problem at all then we would just go to sleep, then we would just do some useless thing like turning on the television.

Krishna due to His kindness keeps us in a state of emergency. Why? Because we need that, we need that state of emergency, because we have not yet discovered loving spontaneous devotional service. Somehow or other Sri Krishna, He has the devotee-community grow, from one emergency to the next. I have at this given moment approximately between 100 and 200 emergencies. When the telephone rings it means another emergency. The emergencies put us in contact with Krishna. Supreme Queen Kunti said that let this emergencies come again and again and again because when there is an emergency she has to take refuge in Sri Krishna. In this way Krishna is sending these emergencies to us to be more close to Him. So Queen Kunti says that she wants these emergencies to come again and again, because if everything would be going fine and there would be no problem at all then we would just go to sleep, then we would just do some useless thing like turning on the television.

Thakura Bhaktivinoda is acknowledged by all his sincere followers as possessing the powers of the pure devotee of Godhead. His words have to be received from the lips of a pure devotee. If his words are listened from the lips of a non-devotee they will certainly deceive. If his works are studied in the light of one's own worldly experience their meaning will refuse to disclose itself to such readers. His works belong to the class of the eternal revealed literature of the world and must be approached for their right understanding through their exposition by the pure devotee. If no help from the pure devotee is sought, the works of Thakura Bhaktivinoda will be grossly misunderstood by their readers. The attentive reader of those works will find that he is always directed to throw himself upon the mercy of the pure devotee if he is not to remain unwarrantably self-satisfied by the deluding results of his wrong method of study.

Thakura Bhaktivinoda is acknowledged by all his sincere followers as possessing the powers of the pure devotee of Godhead. His words have to be received from the lips of a pure devotee. If his words are listened from the lips of a non-devotee they will certainly deceive. If his works are studied in the light of one's own worldly experience their meaning will refuse to disclose itself to such readers. His works belong to the class of the eternal revealed literature of the world and must be approached for their right understanding through their exposition by the pure devotee. If no help from the pure devotee is sought, the works of Thakura Bhaktivinoda will be grossly misunderstood by their readers. The attentive reader of those works will find that he is always directed to throw himself upon the mercy of the pure devotee if he is not to remain unwarrantably self-satisfied by the deluding results of his wrong method of study.

There is no possibility of doing Krishna bhakti without Guru bhakti. You cannot engage in Krishna bhakti without honoring the Guru, without honoring the Vaishnavas. In Sri Bhakti Rasamrita sindhu by Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhupada there is a discussion about the angas of bhakti. Anga means limb, like my arms or my legs and angi means the body. So the angi has angas. Rupa Goswami gives the angas of Krishna bhakti, 64 limbs of bhakti to Krishna. In listing those angas of Krishna bhakti what is the first thing that he says? What is the first anga of Krishna bhakti? He says guru padasraya... we have to take shelter of the feet of the Guru, to come and sit and hear. So this is the first anga of the angi of Krishna bhakti.

There is no possibility of doing Krishna bhakti without Guru bhakti. You cannot engage in Krishna bhakti without honoring the Guru, without honoring the Vaishnavas. In Sri Bhakti Rasamrita sindhu by Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhupada there is a discussion about the angas of bhakti. Anga means limb, like my arms or my legs and angi means the body. So the angi has angas. Rupa Goswami gives the angas of Krishna bhakti, 64 limbs of bhakti to Krishna. In listing those angas of Krishna bhakti what is the first thing that he says? What is the first anga of Krishna bhakti? He says guru padasraya... we have to take shelter of the feet of the Guru, to come and sit and hear. So this is the first anga of the angi of Krishna bhakti.