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.