the art of all work

Today we are reading the beautiful verse from Bhagavad Gita where Krishna is explaining how by engaging in devotional service we can free ourselves from all the good and bad actions of this life and previous lives. Herein Krishna explains that the art of all work is to offer the fruits of action in the service of Lord Krishna.

Prabhupada very nicely translates "the art of all work". A good artist is one who takes basic raw materials and creates something very, very beautiful. A good artist can take some dyes, some minerals from the ground and make it into paint; a good artist can take cotton cloth and make it into canvas, and by combining these elements they make a beautiful, beautiful painting.

Another type of artist will take a piece of crude stone from the mountain and carve it into a beautiful deity or a statue.

Another artist will just take musical notes; Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do; these seven notes and the notes between those notes and with those notes he will make a whole symphony, a beautiful, beautiful song.

Another artist will take a jungle or a field and make it into a beautiful architectural masterpiece of gardens, homes and parks.

So really, an artist is one who takes a very crude, more or less useless raw materials and makes them into something so wonderful, which has a tremendous value. If you go to France there is a museum, the painting of Mona Lisa; the canvas was probably not worth more than a few marks and the paint that was used was not worth more than a couple of marks. But because Leonardo da Vinci took this paint and took this canvas and put them together in such a wonderful way, now that little combination of canvas and paper and paint, that is worth a few marks in materials, is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

A big piece of stone is not worth so much, but when Michael Angelo carved this big statue, it is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, there is no price, they cannot even buy it because of what he did with it.

So this is the glory of an artist, to take crude materials which are worth practically nothing and to make it something that is very, very priceless.

So Krishna is explaining here what is the art of all work, or in another words, the art of living. In this world people are eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. There are scholars, there are warriors and politicians, there are farmers and there are businessmen and there are workers who are doing their occupation, but ultimately all that they are doing and the materials that they are using are worthless. Whatever a person does in this world in their work, whatever they earn, through the power of time and by the time of death, everything is taken away and all that is left is one big zero.

But a devotee lives in the same world and engages in the same type of activities. But because he knows the art of offering it to Krishna, everything that he does is priceless and eternal; it cannot even be estimated by any wealth in this world.

obstacles are servants of the lord

Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu accepted sannyas and He wanted to go to Vrindavana, but Lord Nityananda Prabhu tricked Him to come to Lord Advaita Acarya’s house in Shantipura. Lord Chaitanya stayed there for some time dancing and chanting with the devotees. The devotees recommended to Sacimata that the Lord should go to Jagannath Puri instead of Vrindavana because there Lord Jagannatha (Krishna) lives, and also it was very close to Navadvipa.

A devotee told the Lord that it was not a good time to go to Jagannath Puri because there were rivalries amongst various kingdoms. He said, "They will capture You and torture You and kill You if they catch You. At this time there are not only conflicting kings but all sorts of dacoits who are very, very dangerous. It is better if You wait till a better time; now there are too many obstacles."

Lord Caitanya very boldly declared “When is there ever a time in this material world when there will be not obstacles? I will go to Puri now.” When Advaita Acarya heard this he became ecstatic, he called out "My Lord, what obstacles can possibly disturb You on Your path to Lord Jaganatha?"

Then Advaita Acharya said something that we should all meditate upon, and it will greatly benefit us in our spiritual life. He said, "My Lord, all obstacles are Your servants therefore You will certainly be able to achieve Jaganatha Puri."

All obstacles are the servants of the Lord and the Lord’s mission to the world is to help everyone go back to Godhead. So if all obstacles are the servants of the Lord, they are all serving the Lord by coming in devotees’ life to help them go back home, back to Godhead. When difficulties and hardships come in our spiritual life, we should know that these are the servants of Krishna coming before us to give us the opportunity to purify our hearts and become true devotees of the Lord, and a devotee never gives up hope.

devotees are never discouraged

In the face of great obstacles we have two choices: we can either give up hope and lose our Krishna consciousness, or we can see the wonderful, wonderful, opportunities that Krishna must be giving us in this condition and thus make progress in our Krishna consciousness.

Every obstacle that Krishna put Srila Prabhupada in only glorified him all the more for the whole world to appreciate. When you think about how he was penniless, how he suffered two heart attacks, he was living alone in New York with no one to help him amongst the most sinful people - to understand this hardship only increases our love for Srila Prabhupad. Krishna allowed these obstacles to take place only to serve the mission of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. This is a very great mystery that should be understood within Vaishnava culture that the obstacles that the Lord puts on the devotees are specially meant to increase the Krishna consciousness of that devotees and to glorify that devotee.

In a positive spirit, if we see the opportunity to surrender in that difficulty, then we accept the mercy of the Lord. Therefore the devotees are never discouraged, because we are servants; we are ready to serve Krishna in any way at any time according to His desire.

kirtan or japa?

Question: Often there is more attention in kirtan rather than japa chanting. Which is more important?

Response: Kirtan and japa are both essential for our spiritual life. We take a vow when we receive initiation to chant at least 16 rounds of mala every day, and that is very, very essential for our own personal, private purification. We need to regulate our chanting to where nothing else around should in anyway disturb us. We should actually chant our japa in such a way that we have nothing else to do during that time otherwise you cannot chant attentively.

Krishna reveals Himself according to how we approach Him. If you are doing so many other things while you are chanting your japa, then Krishna’s name will be doing so many other things besides revealing Himself to you. But if you really want to show Krishna that you are serious, you will be in a place with the right people where you can just chant. No phone calls, no fax messages, no managerial decisions to be made. You should just sit and chant. We should really make a time of the day when that is the only priority; that is very important.

But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also taught the process of dancing and chanting; that is equally important. Which is more important to your health?

Let me ask Radha Rajya Prabhu, he is our most illustrious health expert. May I ask you a health question? What is more important for your health, eating or sleeping? Both. Can you live without eating? Sometimes. But you can sometimes be a devotee without chanting [laughs] but it doesn’t last very long. Can you live without sleeping? For some time; but then you go crazy. Prabhupada said who is crazy? The whole world is crazy because they have forgotten Krishna.

So similarly this chanting and dancing, and this japa; they are both very essential for proper spiritual development. The chanting and dancing - not only do we personally benefit but we present the name in such a loud way that even the neighbour and the police benefit, even the trees benefit and it creates a unity within society which is so pleasing and joyful.

So really there is no difference between japa and kirtan and bhajans. They are there for the same purpose and we make the best spiritual advancement when we accept the guidance of our great spiritual masters who teach us how to balance our life, like a good natural doctor. Similarly, Srila Prabhupada has taught us how to balance our life: have kirtan in the morning, have kirtan in the evening, and chanting japa in this way is very important. We should chant with the congregation, and we should chant our japa everyday. It is very nice if we have kirtan with our family at home or if we come to the temple on the regular basis and have kirtan with devotees. This is the sublime form of purification.

attaining the presence of srila prabhupad

When we chant Srila Prabhupada's pranama prayer, we are praying to him and offering our obeisances because he is very dear to Krishna. How dear Srila Prabhupada is... only Krishna can know. We can only, like a dwarf trying to touch the moon, aspire to understand the glories of Srila Prabhupada. And the more we can somehow or other try to understand, the more our lives will be enriched with the causeless mercy of Sri Sri Radha Krishna.

But how to understand Srila Prabhupada? He has given us the means by which we can do so. We can only understand Krishna by the mercy of the pure devotee and we can only understand the pure devotee by the mercy of Krishna. By purifying our hearts, Krishna will reveal the glories and beauty of Srila Prabhupada’s life. We can be purified by reading Prabhupada's books very carefully, with an attentive desire to learn what he is saying. Srila Prabhupada told us that when he was translating his books, he was individually, personally speaking to every devotee who sits at his lotus feet to read it. Srila Prabhupada’s books are non-different than his lotus feet. When we are reading his books, we are sitting in his divine presence.

And when we follow what is in the books, we get realisations - to associate with devotees, to chant our minimum 16 rounds very carefully everyday, to follow the 4 regulative principles, and to help in every way possible that we can, whoever we may be, in expanding the message of Lord Chaitanya throughout the entire world.

the spirit of real cooperation

Due to egoism, everyone thinks, "I can judge others. I am right. You are wrong. If you stand between me and my aspirations for profit, adoration, and distinction, then you become my enemy." Where there is disunity amongst devotees, there cannot be proper sankirtan, we cannot chant together in the proper spirit to please Krsna, we cannot serve together.

When Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur saw his own devotees fighting amongst themselves, he was willing to sacrifice everything and anything he had to bring about unity. He knew that unity alone would empower this movement to please Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and thus fulfill The Lord's mission.

For Srila Prabhupada also, this was a great worry. "Show your love for me by how you cooperate." This cooperation is not an ordinary material formula. You cannot cooperate unless you are really trying to follow the essence of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's teachings. Without wearing this shloka - trinad api sunicena, taror api sahishnuna, amanina manadena, kirtaniya sada hari - around our necks, strung by the holy name, there can be no real cooperation.

humility alone pleases krishna

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is teaching us how to aspire for trinadapi sunichena: to be humble like a straw in the street. What is its significance? No one cares for it, people step on it, spit on it, ultimately somebody sweeps it away, but the straw on the streets remains very humble. Let us be more tolerant than the tree, ready to offer all respects to others and to expect none in return. These are the qualities that attract Krishna.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told Sanatana Goswami that it is humility alone that pleases Krishna. Krishna does not care how much money you give Him, Krishna does not care how many beautiful offerings you give Him, Krishna does not care how artistically you dress Him, He does not care how profoundly you can speak His philosophy, He does not care how many delicious preparation you can make for Him in your kitchen. He cares for the humility with which it is being offered because it is this humility that gives flavor and pleasure to the service we are rendering.

If someone goes to a hospital and sees that the doctors and nurses are not even on speaking terms with one another, will they want to lay down their lives in the hands of those doctors and nurses? Similarly, people are frustrated. If they come and see that Krishna Consciousness works with harmony and peace, there is love and cooperation amongst devotees, people will think, yes, I trust them, this is what I want, I will hear what they say.

But if they see that we have our own petty little conflicts, then they will think, what is the difference? What is the difference between this and everything I am reading about in the newspapers?

So we have a great responsibility to cooperate with one another, and the only way we can cooperate in this age of Kali is to take Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s golden rule to heart:

trnad api sunicena

taror api sahisnuna

amanina manadena

kirtaniyah sada harih

To be more humble than a blade of grass; to be more tolerant than a tree; to offer all respect to others and to expect none in return and in this way chant the name of the Lord always. If we strive to live by this, the most important of all the instructions, we can live together peacefully. In that peaceful coexistence we can do great, great things for this world.

the magnanimity of srila prabhupada

Srila Prabhupada was such a devotee; he was an intimate associate of Lord Krishna. How do we understand Srila Prabhupada’s special, special, special position?

Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami said that Lord Chaitanya is the most merciful and is the supreme amongst avatars because of His magnanimity; because He wanted to give Krsna consciousness to everyone and anyone without discrimination through the chanting of the holy names. Of all great personalities, Lord Chaitanya especially selected and empowered Srila Prabhupada to manifest his magnanimity to the highest extent, to travel on every continent in the world, giving Krishna’s name with no consideration of who we are or where we are coming from. Srila Prabhupad saw every living entity potentially as a pure saintly person, just with a little covering of maya over us.

So Srila Prabhupada, without any discrimination, he gave this Hare Krsishna mahamantra. He would sit in a little park in New York City called Tomkins Square Park. This is where Srila Prabhupada started the Hare Krsna movement in Tomkins Square Park. And some of the people in India were saying, "Why is he preaching to these lowest of uncivilised people in the West?"

But those people do not understand what Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami said, that the supreme quality of Lord Chaitanya is His magnanimity and that He makes no discrimination. The Lord would give Krishna consciousness and the holy name to everyone.

So Srila Prabhupada was the manifested representative of that most illustrious quality of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. How dear he is to the Lord, and how fortunate are all of us to have the opportunity to be connected to such a special personality who is revealing the glorious opulences of the Lord in such a merciful and compassionate way.

But Srila Prabhupada explained that this verse; to be more humble than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree, to be willing to and ready to offer all respects to everyone and to expect no respect from anyone else - that is the quality that will keep us always under Krsna’s divine protection, that is the quality by which Krsna would be pleased to reciprocate and manifest Himself in His holy name to us.

So we should chant very sincerely and very attentively every day to purify our consciousness, and simultaneously we should sincerely be a humble servant within our life.

lord chaitanya is the most magnanimous

When we chant the holy names of the Lord, we are crying out for Krishna to save us. And how does Krishna save us? Because He is non-different from His name; because He is all pure, when we chant attentively within our heart, the name cleanses all of our illusions and all of our attachments. The holy name awakens the pure state of our original consciousness, and we are liberated form the web of material existence.

So Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, He came to give this name of Krishna without discrimination to everyone and to anyone. In fact, in the Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita it is described by Sri Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami, the author, that Lord Chaitanya is the topmost of all incarnations of God, that He is Krsna Himself from His original form.

But Lord Chaitanya is acting in a superior way, in the sense that He was magnanimous. This magnanimity is the special feature that makes Lord Chaitanya the most merciful of all incarnations. Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami explains the meaning of Lord Chaitanya’s magnanimous nature: He is giving pure unalloyed selfless love of God, the ultimate happiness of the soul, to anyone and everyone without discrimination. He does not consider who is qualified and who is unqualified, the only qualification to receive the mercy of the Lord is simply the eagerness to accept it; that’s all. Whether you are sinful, whether you were born in kind of adverse conditions, it doesn’t even matter, what you have done or what you haven’t done.

Are we eagerly willing to accept the mercy when it comes? And what is that mercy?

To associate with the Lord and His devotees and to chant His holy names.

the most sincere welfare worker

When our enthusiasm is directed by great souls, our enthusiasm is then purely and truly engaged in God's service. This is the greatest wealth: the mercy of the great sadhus, and under their direction and inspiration we can serve the Lord and thus serve every living being.

By serving Krishna, by watering the root of the tree, the whole tree is nourished. One who loves God is the topmost well-wisher for every living being. He is the most compassionate, most charitable, most sincere welfare worker on the face of the earth. Why? Because he has genuine love for everyone, he has genuine concern for the suffering of all living beings, he is free from all selfishness, he is free form all fanaticism, he is a genuine friend for every being. These are the qualities of one who is genuinely enthusiastic in the service of God.

seek and ye shall find

Seek and you shall find. If you are looking for faults, you will find faults in everyone and everywhere. If you are looking for the good, you will find the good in everyone and everywhere. It is a question of what you want.

Krishna will reveal Himself according to how you approach Him. Shishupal only saw faults in Krishna, whereas Arjuna and Yudhishtir only saw the glory of Krishna. According to how each of these men approached Krishna, they were saved. Krishna is in the heart of everyone.

So to find faults with the devotees is a disease, it is a contagious disease, it is a sickening disease. And to see the good and virtue in devotees is an opulence, it’s a benediction. So we should not be diseased, we should not spread the disease; we should spread love and goodness.

the king of education

The self by nature is part of the Supreme Self, or God. In essence, you are eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss, saccidananada. Happiness is your nature. You suffer when you are not full of bliss, not full of knowledge, or if you are not in realization of your eternity. 

This means that you are in a diseased condition. You are in an unhealthy condition. You have forgotten the essence of your own being; the realization of you. Who are you? The consciousness within. Who is seeing me, right now? Your eyes, or your soul? Are you seeing through an eye, or  are you an eye? Are you your ear, or are you hearing me through your ear? So who are you? You don’t even know! Some mysterious Consciousness is witnessing this world through your body. But you think you are the body. You are flesh, or are you feeling through your flesh, but we don’t even know who that person is who is witnessing, that’s experiencing. There is a science of Physics to understand the flesh, right? There is science of psychiatry to understand the mind. 

Similarly, there is also a science of self-realization to understand the soul, the consciousness. It is a science. Today religion has become so degraded that everyone, simply says “I believe this, you believe that, whatever I believe is all right. Whatever you believe is all right. I think this and I think that”. And it is so unscientific and ridiculous that most of the educated class of people say, “Forget religion. It is so dogmatic and ritualistic."

But if you read the Vedas, religion is approached as a great science, raja vidya raja guhyam pavitram idam utamam - Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, that this is the king of education, the supreme science, because it gives one the direct perception of you, the self, through realization. 

So let us approach self-realization for what it is: it is a science. It must be understood systematically, in a scientific manner with our intelligence. Let us kick out all of this dogmatic, unscientific, un-philosophical belief system that goes in the name of religion. The nature of Consciousness is that it is eternal, it is full of knowledge and full of bliss. It is part of God, therefore all of the godly qualities are your inherent nature. But why are we not enjoying the very facilities that are our right to enjoy? Because we have forgotten, due to ignorance, our true nature.

everyone has their place in society

[the following is an answer to the question of a college student]

I have started to feel that all of these people, who hold the greatest accomplishments in this field of materialism, they are miserable, their lives are empty. Many of them are destroying all of whole society due to the exploitative methods that they are accepting in their pursuit. If I would have had someone to teach me, I would have probably been a very, very successful, God conscious businessman. But I could not find anybody who could answer the philosophical questions that I had in life, especially in the college I was going to.

So, I decided to travel around the world and study the various religions of the world, the different philosophies of the world and the different values that people live by. After some years I found myself traveling as a sadhu in India, and then I met my spiritual master. My spiritual master taught me the essence of what is in all of the great religions of the world: how to love God in whatever we do. He told me, “Yes you can go back and be a businessman, that’s very good, but there is also a need for people who dedicate their lives exclusively to educate others in this subject matter. That is also a need of this world.”

Some people say to me, "What if everyone would become a sadhu like you, then what would happen to the world?" Right? That’s probably what you are thinking. this is a business school, so what if I asked, “What if everyone would become a businessman?” The world couldn't function that way. There have to be doctors, too! There have to be lawyers. And if there were no farmers to grow food, everyone would die. There have to be politicians. Sometimes we wish there didn’t have to be politicians. [laugh] There have to be politicians organizing the affairs of the state. There have to be warriors defending the state. There have to be businessmen, marketers, bankers. 

So similarly, for the spiritual progress of society, there has to be a class of men who dedicate their entire life's energy to educate others in this spiritual science. It doesn’t mean that everyone must be like that. But there is a need for these class of men. So my guru maharaj convinced me, that although 90% of our congregation are businessmen, housewives, farmers, doctors, lawyers, musicians, architects, and engineers, there has to be a small percentage of people who are simply dedicating their lives to hearing the problems of all of these people and giving them spiritual counseling and giving spiritual direction to society. 

So my taking this dress was not to run from the problems of this world, but according to need of the world. There is a need of people to take to this life also, this occupation also; to face the problems of this world, to fight the crisis of the world and strive to improve the quality of the world.

the world is a battlefield

The Bhagavad Gita didn’t teach Arjuna to be a lazy mendicant. Rather, Arjuna was the most determined and effective fighter in the whole battlefield. Why? Because he had the highest purpose in which he fought. He was fighting for Krishna; he was not fighting for his own vices. When you graduate from college, you will find out very quickly (or you may have already found out) that this world is a battlefield. This is fact. No matter what field of activity you take, it is a battlefield. Even if you take the occupation of a simple sadhu like myself, it is a constant battle, what to speak if you go into the field of business where the competition is so fierce at every step there are people are out there to cut each others' throats for money. 

And what to speak if you are just trying to be ethical and moral! The propaganda of de-morality is just bombarding you, bombarding your family, bombarding your children from all sides. This world is a battlefield. And Bhagavad Gita does not teach us how to run from the problems, does not teach us how to run from crisis, it teaches us how to stand up and fight in divine consciousness with all power and strength of God behind us, with the purest motivation, and in a state of real peace, in the light of all opposition. 

If you can learn that type of self-management, you will be perfectly successful in life, materially, spiritually.

the universal scripture

Someone may say that this self-realization business is for the yogis and sadhus. What does it have to do with a practical person of this world with a family and a job? 

The Bhagavad Gita is a scripture specifically meant for the people who live within this world. The Bhagavad Gita is not a sectarian scripture. It is a universal scripture, which explains how to live in an artful and beautiful manner, every moment of our life.

Arjuna was the recipient of the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. He was a warrior. He was a politician. He had to manage the affairs of the state, and he had to defend the laws of the state. This is very, very practical service. He was by no means a sadhu or a sannyasi (renunciate). 

And when then he was faced with a very difficult crisis - talk about crisis management. He was standing between two armies and he realized that his friends, well-wishers, and relatives were on both sides. He didn’t want to fight; he wanted to run from the problem. He told Krishna, “I’m not going to fight, I’m going to run away to be a yogi or a sadhu or a sannyasi, but Krishna, I’m not going to stay here and fight.” 

Some people say that people like me [a sannyasi] are the people who have escaped from the world, that I couldn’t face the problems of the world, that I couldn’t face practical life so I ran off to become a sadhu. Arjuna wanted to become like that. The whole reason for scripture of the Bhagavad Gita was to convince Arjuna that he had no right to run away from the problems that he was facing in his occupation. Krishna said, "You must face your problems and you must solve them. You must fight because you are a fighter. You must work; work hard. 

'But you must do it in divine consciousness, in consciousness of self realization."

the holy name is a worshipable deity

The Holy Name is a worshipable murti (deity). In fact, in this age of Kali Yuga, it is the most important murti, or form, of the Lord. Srila Prabhupada explained the difference between many other temples where everything is just centered around worshipping the deity. But in this age of Kali Yuga, that simply does not work. We make our life centered around the deity in the temple because that helps to facilitate us to actually approaching Him through His name. 

Everything we do in deity worship is connected with the name of Krishna. You cannot make a single offering without the name of Krishna. And when the devotees come before the deities, they practice the yuga dharma, the eternal service and religion of the soul, which gives the greatest pleasure to the deities. And that is coming together to dance gracefully, to chant the Holy Names: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

without love there is no question of happiness

When I was in America, I gave lectures almost every day at various universities. I have given lectures at Harvard and MIT a few times, but I would regularly give lectures in the Midwest, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Illinois, etc. And what I found in the atmosphere of colleges in America is so corrupt and so degraded, even though they are factually teaching the highest systems of knowledge in the fields of science, technology, business, computer operations and so on. But as soon as the students leave their classes, there are drugs, there is illicit sex, there is alcohol. There is absolutely no management or control over their senses. 

Students become completely selfish: intoxication and illicit sex makes them completely self-centered and selfish. They get the qualities of lust, greed, envy and pride, and then those same students attain tremendous amounts of immense power by the knowledge they are acquiring. And when they come out of school, what do you expect they are going to do with the powerful knowledge that they have simultaneously acquired with greed, pride, envy, lust, anger and illusion? They are going to take that power, and with greed in mind, with no sense of compassion, mercy, or self discipline, they are going to create havoc and chaos in the world. 

And if you doubt what I am saying; read in the newspapers, look at the world, it’s the educated class of men that are causing these big problems. Where is man’s love and concern for his fellow man? 

Without love there is no question of happiness. And you may be turning your heads and saying, “What is this guy talking about, it’s useless!” But believe me, I have been in your position. I lived in a country which is far more materially progressive than you can imagine, and I have lived within that society, everything at my hands, and I have had every opportunity to take over big companies. 

And so you may be saying, "Oh! What’s this religion, it’s not practical.” But I am speaking of  practicality to you. Consider that some of the wealthiest people in the world, the upper-class income society of America, has the highest rate of suicide in the world. They are more prone to suicide, sleeping pills, and psychiatrists than any other class of men on planet Earth. This is a statistic. 

Do you think that by becoming powerful and wealthy that you are going to find happiness in this life? You will not. At the same time, it does not mean that you can’t be a multi-billionaire, big chairman or president of a board, or a successful businessman. If you find integrity within your own self consciousness, and you find knowledge and happiness and love within, then in any situation you can prosper.

hope for humanity lies within

Look at the mess the world is in today. Do you think it is the uneducated presence that is producing the chaos in the world today? This world is plagued with so many problems that nobody knows what to do anymore. 

Everyone just has to put the blinders over their eyes and think, “Well! I am going to make my life the best I can make it. But as far as the world’s problems... forget it, they're too complicated, the world has gone too far." Even the biggest politicians and scientists in the world are throwing their hands up in the air and saying, “It’s too late.” Look what a mess we have made!!! The ozone is breaking down, the water is polluted, the air is polluted, and there is nuclear radiation filling the earth, ready to break out of its' storage compartments and pollute the ground. 

Population explosions, food shortages, terrorism popping up everywhere, there are wars practically in every corner of the world..! There is crime! There is endless rise in alcoholism and drug addiction! There are horrible and incurable diseases that are threatening the existence of mankind! Do you ever read the newspapers? I’m sure you do. In America, drug addiction is growing so much; some cities are so plagued with drug addiction that they do not know what to do. It’s growing by the day. AIDS is expanding day by day, more and more, and they say by the year 2020, if the disease keeps growing at the rate it is now, one-fourth of Americans will die of AIDS. And so what to speak of pollution in the air, the green house effect, the melting of the polar ice caps, the rising oceans... and actually, one fifth of the land of today within fifty years may be under water. And it goes on and on... and on.  

These are all man made problems, not natural problems. They are manmade due to mis-management; mismanagement of the environment. And where does this mismanagement of the environment come from? 

Mismanagement of the self. People are victims of lust and greed and pride and envy and illusion and anger. People are engaged in horrible activities which are creating horrible consequences, which affect all of the environment for all life on earth. 

There is a need for self-management. If a person learns to find peace within his own heart, if a person understands knowledge of God that is within his soul, then free from all these obstacles (anarthas) within his mind, he can live in this world effectively and with full concentration, with full determination. The energy that is not being diverted into other directions, and which is turned inward, that person is doing real good work for oneself, one’s family and ultimately, the entire human civilization.

a lifetime mission

Our thinking should be as the servant of the servant. Whether you are a counselor, or a guru, or a GBC, or a president, or if you are just a new bhakta or bhaktin, whomever you may be, it is the responsibility of every single one of us to help each other that we never, ever leave the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. 

Krishna Consciousness is a lifetime process. To go back home, back to Godhead, you have to practice strictly and sincerely, until the day you die and go back to Godhead. This is not a movement that is just like a college, where you are in this movement for four years and you graduate, and then you go back into the material world.

This is a lifetime mission.

true education

This body and mind are always changing. We are studying hundreds of courses in the university to suit the needs of the body and mind, and yet we are completely neglecting the needs of the self. So if we are talking of management, you can't manage something unless you know what to manage. And in regards to managing the self, we don't even know who we are!

This is the most fundamental principle of education. Do you know what the word "education" means? The word education comes from the Greek word "educary", which means to bring out what is within. Does that have anything to do with modern education? Modern education is to superimpose from the outside into your brains so much data, so many statistics, facts and figures. But the real meaning of the word "education" is to withdraw what is within you.

Real knowledge is within your own heart, but we are so externalized in our approach to life that we are completely neglecting the real needs of ourselves.

100% Casuality Rate

So in this great battlefield of the material world, no one survives. 

100% causality rate. 

Every soldier, from the little cells to the biggest conquerors of the world; from the whales, to the lions and tigers... everyone is conquered. No one survives on the physical platform. Why? Because that is the nature of material existence - you cannot change the nature of prakriti. Prakriti is eternal, it is the eternal energy of the Lord, and although its manifestation may be transforming constantly, the principle of prakriti is eternal and it cannot be changed, no matter what efforts we try to make. 

Therefore we should know that the only way to find real peace or happiness is for the soul to understand its own identity beyond the three modes of material nature of this material existence, and with this understanding you can rise above these modes.

apply the knowledge

So it is a very important factor of our devotional service to try to deeply understand with our intelligence the philosophy of Krishna consciousness; to carefully study our scriptures.

But we shouldn’t think that by purely studying the scripture, this will give us realisation; it is not what is going to really give us faith. Ultimately, the knowledge that we receive, we must apply it to the spirit of humble service to the spiritual master, to the Vaishnavas and our parampara (spiritual lineage). We must chant offenselessly. That is what is going to bring about true faith and realisation.

Srila Prabhupada quotes how mystical the process of Krsna consciousness is, in the sense of how it transforms people’s hearts. The qualities of God and the demigods all manifest within the body of one who surrenders to Krsna.

Prabhupada gives an example of the hunter who surrendered to Narada Muni. What was his qualification? Was he very deeply learned and renounced? No. But because he just followed the instruction of Narada Muni, what a transformation of the heart, from a ruthless murderer to the most gentle loving sage.