англ. название записи: Q&A: How a Guru Extends His Bhava on a Disciple and a Disciple's Karma - 2026-05-02 - Sri Prem Prayojan
0:01The other day you were mentioning how spiritual master extends his bhava into his disciple and so I was wondering if you could, you know, sort of elaborate on that and because we all want to be vessels for spreading Krishna consciousness, at what stage will we be able to receive that bhava?
0:57Lord Brahma has said: The meaning is that: Oh my Lord, Your devotees They smell the fragrance of Your lotus feet Through their ears Which is carried by the air Of the Sruti, transcendental sound. So the significance is that when a pure Vaishnava is speaking, then it is actually Krishna himself. Krishna, His qualities, His associates, His pastimes, tasmin mahan, mukarita, madhubhich, charitra, have become mukarita. They have turned into the sound vibration. Shabda brahma, param brahma, mamobai, shashwati, tanu.
2:01Shri Krishna said, I have two forms, I have two bodies, my one body is my direct svarupa, and my other body is Shabda Brahma, so everything is there in the Guru Moka Padma Vakya Chaitate Kurya Aikya, in the words, the sound appearing on the lots of lips of Shri Guru, that is the Paramasattva, Supreme Absolute Truth, appearing in the form of sound on the lips of Shri Guru, So, if the shisya, the disciple, is really sharnagat, surrendered, that means they give up the sense of the svatantra, independence, they give up the katrita abhiman, I am the doer, the ego, the pride, then when they hear the glories of Sri Krishna, then that sound goes into the heart and begins to make revelation, prakash.
3:22As one is devoted to Krishna, yasya devay prabhakti, here the word devay means deva, Krishna, but deva comes from div-dhatu in Sanskrit, that means kridashil, who is always playing, and especially what is the play of Krishna? He is the Kamadeva, that's why we meditate on Krishna with the Kam Gayatri, Vrindavan, He is the ever-fresh, transcendental cupid of Vrindavan, so Yashadeve, just as one is devoted to that Krishna who is the ever-fresh, transcendental cupid of Vrindavan, this is the meaning of the verse, Yathadeve, Tathagaro, similarly, one is the devoted to Guru, he has Parabhakti, Parabhakti to Guru,
4:18so para means that this devotion, this relationship, it is para, transcendental, that means it's eternal, it's forever, it's nothing like our conception of what is a guru or teacher in this world, when you're born, then your first guru is your mother and father, but that relationship will be over in one life, within one life, then you go to school, when you're a school teacher, you have a relationship, but then when you graduate, then that relationship is over, someone who teaches, music is also a type of guru. Someone who teaches Sanskrit bhakyarnam is also a type of guru. But all these relations have some end. But the relation with the paramatika sadhguru, it is eternal. And so our soul and our guru and Krishna are connected forever in eternal relationship, which is beyond this world, beyond Maya. And that becomes uncovered as our bhakti becomes pure.
5:25anya-bhilasha-shunyam, jnana-karmady-anavritam, bhakti is powerful, it gives realization, immediate realization, bhakti, parashanu-bhavo, virakti, anyatra-chaisa, trika-eka-kala, if someone practices bhakti, they get three things at once, bhakti, that means the taste, the taste is abhilasa, the service, desire is growing and it's very relishable, so bhakti, parasha-anubhavah, means realization of the Supreme Lord. And virakti, that realization is so sweet and the taste is so sweet that one forgets about everything else.
6:05So these three things happen when a person engages in bhakti, the person who surrendered. So if when we chant, when we remember, we don't have a vision of Krishna, that means that the true nature of bhakti is covered. jnana-karmady-anavritam, it's covered. Otherwise, if it were uncovered, then Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, then we should have the, at least the reflection of the lotus feet of Krishna is appearing in the heart. That's from Nishta onwards. So, if the disciple has some worldly desires, and they have an independent mood, then when the sound coming from the lips of the pure Vaishnava goes into the ear, then it becomes blocked. It's called maikapyavadhan, the obstacles made by material nature. So all of that
7:02independent mood and attachments that's in the mind. So you have the sound and the mind and the soul. So the sound never reaches the soul because it hits the mind and the mind is just like interference. The message won't get through because the mind is making interference. That is called maikapyavadhan. So then when that When it happens, then the sound, instead of being a direct revelation of the Absolute Truth, then it's diffracted into the paricchenna jnana, limited fractions, portions, pieces of data and information. And sometimes a devotee listens to a class, yes, that class was very nice, there was lots of good information. So we're not listening to the past times of Krishna or the glories of Krishna, so we can collect a big list of things,
7:56things about Krishna. It's not like that. So that's called paricchenna jnan, when we just get information, data, from hearing Harikatha. Or it becomes vikrta jnan, distorted, a distorted understanding of the truth. Or it becomes sankirna jnan. Sankirna means it's contracted and mixed with vikalpa, mixed with speculation. Or one can even hear and get totally the wrong idea. That's called vivartagrasta jnan, just like Like if someone is a great moralist, worldly moralist, and then Krishna played His flute and called all the wives of the gopis and danced to them in the middle of the night, then they conclude that Krishna is immoral.
8:43So there's a vivarta-grasta-gyan, a type of understanding which is the complete opposite of what's really going on. And so, it's incumbent upon the real disciple to truly be surrendered, to have no ambition in this world, to only have such a disposition of heart, how can I please my spiritual master, pure and clean and unmixed?
9:09And when that disposition is there in the heart of the disciple, then as they are hearing, then revelation will begin to come. Now you're asking a bit about which stage. So which stage? In the stage of nishtha, then it is not the direct, it is not saksat darshan. It's not the saksat darshan, direct darshan of Krishna, but the citta has become steady enough in the stage of nishtha that it has this quality called bhagavad-bimba-grahitva, the power to catch the reflection of Krishna.
9:44So in Nishta, the svarupa of Krishna begins to appear in the heart, and something, a little of Krishna's Aishwarya qualities, but then when Ruchi comes, then there is Madhurya Anubhav, realization of the sweet qualities of Krishna, along with also the associates begin to appear. So now the question is, well, what stage we begin to understand the mood of Gurudev?
10:13So in the stage of Ruchi, when the associates appear, among those associates, Gurudev is one of them. So that becomes the first glimpse. In what mood is Gurudev serving? But we don't have the Bhava yet. The Bhava is not ours, but there is some reflection of the nature of the associates. Then in the stage of asakti, the nama, rupa, guna, associates, and some lila as well. And the abhasa, that means the reflection of your own svarupa comes in the more mature stage of asakti. And so this is still, if you say, when do we get the bhava of the guru? But it's still bhava-abhasa, it's a reflection of the bhava, not a pure bhava.
11:08But now the one's own svarupa is manifested, the reflection of that, and guru's svarupa and other sakhis as well, and internally one conserves, so that's described in the verse,
11:39It's impossible. Narada Muni said to Yudhisthira Maharaja, The meaning is, O King, you should know for certain that the mind cannot think of anything that was not experienced before.
12:09sadhaka, sadhat saan anubhut orto, ananubhut, that means what has not been realized, experienced before, ananubhut means realized, ananubhut, not experienced, sadhat svaa means you should put faith in this, you should believe it without any doubt, sadhat svaa, so sadhat svaan anubhut orto, namanas prastam ahati, the mind cannot touch anything, it is not experienced, So in other words, there's a huge difference between the imagination of Kṛṣṇa-līlā and the actual Kṛṣṇa-līlā. And the imagination is never really anything like the real thing. Because the mind is a material energy. And it only reproduces past experience. You see, everything that you do makes some impression in the mind. It goes into the citta and it's stored there.
13:10So when you imagine something, a person may think, oh, my imagination is unlimited. Well, we can say that there's almost, there are not unlimited, but many, many varieties are there because we have experiences of millions of lifetimes. And not only the experiences of so many lifetimes are there, but because the mind can mix up those experiences.
13:39Like for example, you've seen a flying bird, and you've seen a horse, but you've never seen a flying horse But because you have the experience of the bird and the horse, your mind can put them together and make a flying horse, like this So it becomes many, it's not unlimited, but there are many permutations, many combinations of experiences that the mind can come up with and one can become proud of being a creative person So, but, if you examine it, all of those experiences are in a particular plane, they're in the plane of sensory experience, and the transcendental realm is adhokṣaja, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Ṭhākura has so essentialized the message and the teaching of his mission, the Gauḍīya Maṭha, in so many beautiful ways, one of them we said the other day, Prabhupāda said,
14:40the Gauḍīya Maṭha, our program for civilization is this verse that says that if a person's karma, their activities do not become dharma, a yajña, and if their dharma does not become jñāna, and their jñāna does not become vairāgya, and their yajña does not lead to bhakti, then they are dead, even though they are breathing, they are dead, dead person. And so, Bhaktisiddhānta Ṭhākura gave that vision of how everyone should be evolving. We're preaching in such a way that each person, whatever level they're on, they should be evolving towards pure bhakti. So that's how he summarized the civilizational program of the preaching of the Gauḍīya Maṭha. And another way in which he gave, he said, the essence of the message of Gauḍīya Maṭha is this, adhokṣaja, that is that
15:46Kṛṣṇa, his name, form, qualities, and pastimes, they're all adhokṣaja. So ada means down, akṣa means eyes, and ja means born. So what is born from the eyes, knowledge of the physical world. In other words, the senses give us knowledge of this plane, but the knowledge of Kṛṣṇa is of a superior category, which minimizes and makes worthless the experience of sense perception.
16:14So Kṛṣṇa is always adhokṣaja. So there's a huge difference between the imagination taking place in the mental plane and actual bhajana. And therefore, the mind has to become subdued. That's what niṣṭhā means. Niṣṭhā means that the volatility of the mind goes down and it becomes steady. And then when it's steady, it becomes a suitable reflection place to start to experience the unfolding of actual realization.
16:44first in the ābhāsa form. So nāmābhāsa will give the ābhāsa of Kṛṣṇa's form and qualities and so on like this. And so we cannot say that one is in that stage experiencing the mood of guru, but we can say there is some ābhāsa, a semblance of that mood. And that semblance of mood leads us gradually, gradually to the śuddha-rati.
17:11So from rati-ābhāsa, doing sādhana in the stage of rati-ābhāsa, then it's transformed into śuddha-rati, pure rati.
17:30So that is when the śuddha-sattva, the vṛtti, the function of saṃvit and hlādinī, which is in the heart of guru, overflows and fills the heart of the disciple. and now the disciple is serving. So the stage in which we've gotten qualified to realize the bhāva of guru is bhāva, right? I mean, it should be. But it's not like an on and off switch that you don't realize anything and then you realize bhāva. But rather, because of the stage, the ābhāsa stage of experience, the type of a covered form, a reflection of that is experienced first before or it becomes a direct experience. Is it clear?
18:20Yeah. In this life, let's say, we only reach to a certain rock.
18:27So, next life, you get the opportunity to go further. As you're saying, that the relationship of the bhāva is internal. Yes. So, next life. Yes. Yes, absolutely. So, one should try to attain perfection in this life. We should try for that.
19:19But anyway, if someone is sincere, and surrendered, and serving, then the mercy of guru is more powerful than our disqualifications, we should put faith in that, that Śrī Guru is more merciful than I am unqualified, we may be very, very unqualified, but guru is more merciful, even, so we should put faith in that, and one should try, make a great endeavor to come to niṣṭhā, and then from niṣṭhā, the whole process unfolds very rapidly. And another thing to consider is that when a person is, because you can also pass away when you're young, but in many cases a person is old, and as one becomes old and one realizes his own mortality, in the last years one becomes more and more serious. When you're young and you think, oh, I have so many years ahead of me, I'll surrender later.
20:24Prahlāda Mahārāja saying, no, no, don't think like that. But when we are faced with our own impending mortality, it's inevitable, it's coming close, then a gravity comes. And then when one gets even more closer to the moment of death, when it's just, that's it now, the health is failing, the body is failing, and so on, then there is a great increase in humility.
20:56in dainya-bhāva, in humility. And the wonderful thing about dainya-bhāva is that in one sense, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has actually explained in Bhakti-sandarbha at this point, that when a person sees that they're about to die, or death is coming very soon, humility comes, and if they have a little bhakti, then bhakti is like a creeper which is growing, and that creeper is watered by hearing and chanting.
21:27But the soil, the field in which it grows is jñāna, humility and respect for others. That's the field. So even though there can be people who just by their nature, they're humble and respectful to others. They're well-mannered, they're courteous. It may be just by their mature conditioning and by a high level of the mode of goodness.
21:59So that's not bhakti. It's not bhakti. That's true. But if a person is practicing bhakti and they have transcendental faith given by guru, then the field in which that creeper grows is the field of humility and respect for others. And so it's so favorable and so supportive. The more we can realize that we're unqualified, really, truly know that from the core of the heart, know that we are like coal.
22:33Dad, this coal is dirty, let me clean it. But it doesn't matter how much you rub the coal, just more and more black keeps coming off and it doesn't. So all is going to be black. So a person should feel like this. Really? And to be respectful to everyone. It doesn't matter if this person does this thing wrong and this person does that thing wrong and that person disrespects you. There is no justification for not respecting everyone. There's no reason to not do it. Because Kṛṣṇa is in the heart of everyone.
23:07and whatever qualities you may see in them that somehow disqualifies them and and removes them from your list of respectable persons yeah all of those things is not actually the soul it's the guṇas so by seeing their the qualities of the guṇas in them you have āveśa absorption in the guṇas that's your fault so seeing the faults in others that's your fault because you have absorption in the guṇas Kṛṣṇa said this Kṛṣṇa said, one should not praise or blame, one should not praise or criticize the activities and the qualities of other people in this world. Why? Because by doing this, you quickly lose the thread of your own self-interest, because asatya-abhiniveśa, now you have become absorbed in the three guṇas, because you're thinking of that soul in terms of the guṇas, and your mind is thinking of the
24:15thinking of that, you are absorbed in the guṇa, so that's your fault. You're not seeing that everyone's a soul and every soul is exactly like you. There's no real qualitative or categorical difference between any soul, we're just all souls.
24:29That's why when we were discussing Prahlāda Mahārāja, the other day, Prahlāda Mahārāja said, the animalistic mentality is to think that you're different or special or that you don't see others to be exactly like you. That's an animalistic mentality, actually. And so, coming back to the point, when we get closer to the time of death and one feels really helpless, perhaps one regrets one's own past activities and mistakes and time wasting and all of these things.
25:01So, because humility is the fertile ground for bhakti to grow, at the last moment when there's a great increase in humility, that increase in humility causes ucchalita, that means a sudden boost into the transcendental bhakti, whatever small bhakti was there in the heart, it gets a boost by that humility in the final moments.
25:27So even though our progress may seem to be quite slow, but we should know that the mercy of Guru is great, and one can make very, very rapid advancement as you get towards the end, you know, just like in an Olympic race in the 200 meters, everyone's running, but not too fast, but when it gets to the last 50 yards, then everyone goes full out, so, but we should try to, those are intelligent, they sprint for their whole life, but anyway, those are intelligent, They're on a full sprint every day. But for those who have not come to that level yet, at least we should know that there's a great hope that as we're going towards the finishing line of this life, there's a great chance we can make a great deal of progress unexpectedly. And with Guru's mercy on top of that, then who knows what will happen? Could be a great surprise waiting for all of us. Raise your hand if anyone else has a question.
26:34The living being has all its karma for millions of lives. It's like called sañcita or aparādha. Then when we're born, you get a drop, and that's the prārabdha karma. Then my understanding is, if we hear the pure devotee chant the pure name, or at the time of dīkṣā, all those sins are burned up.
26:59and then everything that happened in the life of the disciple was actually Guru and Krishna's arrangements to purify you and bring you to pure bhakti sooner. Also, Srila Prabhupada, he said, oh, that the devotee got a cut in his arm actually made, maybe he's meant to lose the arm. Or his head. So, um, I also heard, I wanted to get this confirmed, is that, um, all the sins are burned up, but the sinful desires may still be there, and we're meant to adopt that everything that is happening, like, for someone who just, like, kind of hates their fate, or, like, feels like, I didn't sign up for certain things that happened to me, like, after initiation, they're meant to switch their point of view,
27:53that this is actually Guru and Krishna's arrangement to purifying, to keep going, right? And so, yeah, my question is, the sinful desires still remain, but then if you don't follow Guru's instructions, does some of the karma come back, like, and there's still a little bit more. So, like, I studied astrology, and I came to this point, well, when devotees ask me a question, who am I, because they met Dīkṣā Guru, who am I to say anything about how their life is going to happen, because the chart was a snapshot at the time of birth, how many devotees did they meet?
28:37So in general, should devotees even go to astrologers, because usually you're upset with your fate and you want to hear some hope that yes, my life's going to change, you know, so basically, yeah, just some confirmation. I understand the gist of your sentiment here. It's a fascinating subject and I'm sure this question has arisen in the minds of practically everyone.
29:05So first of all, we should know that if a person just once chants nāmābhāsa, all of his karma, prārabdha, aparabdha, kūṭa and bīja, everything is destroyed, everything.
29:32When Ajamila, at the time of death, he called Nārāyaṇa, then the Viṣṇudūtas came and saved him from the Yamadūtas, that calling the name Nārāyaṇa did not free him from sin. He was already free from sin when the child was born and he gave him the name, your name is Nārāyaṇa, the first time he said Nārāyaṇa, that first time all his sin, past, present and future was destroyed and then every day he was saying Nārāyaṇa come here, Nārāyaṇa sit down, Nārāyaṇa be quiet, Nārāyaṇa eat your breakfast, you know calling his child all the time and like this, so that was kind of like a sādhana actually and by repeating Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa all the time as nāmābhāsa, some affection was manifested
30:24manifesting, some feeling of affection for Nārāyaṇa was manifesting. But because he associated the name with his son, he was projecting that feeling of love that was coming onto the boy. The boy wasn't really that lovable. I mean, everyone loves their kids and everything, but you know, sometimes there can be a pain. So, but he was feeling really like an overwhelming love and affection for the child, but it wasn't really the child. It was the feeling was coming by saying Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa.
31:01And so, but even after the child was born, he still continued in his, the behavior, his unethical behaviors. He still did so many sinful things. So when you, when you engage in a sin, it's, that's the reaction of a previous sin. When we do some pāpa, we do some adharma, that's just because we came under the control of a saṃskāra of a previous experience of doing adharma.
31:36So the irreligious activities and pious activities also, whatever, they self-perpetuate in a chain reaction.
31:47So Ajāmila, he continued to do sinful activities even after he chanted nāmābhāsa. So from this you can see the parallel that's in your life or in the life of any devotee that they meet a pure devotee, they chant the holy name and it's probably at the beginning when they come to the devotional path, it will be nāmābhāsa.
32:12Because if a person doesn't know about the glories of the name and not to commit offences, then they'll not commit offence. But then when they learn about the holy name and then they commit offences, then the power of the holy name is diminished for them personally. So, the question comes, if it is some reaction of a previous impious activity that causes us to do another impious activity, why is it after chanting nāmābhāsa or associating with a pure devotee, we still have some worldly tendencies?
32:54And so that can be answered by the example of Ajāmila, he chanted the nāmābhāsa, but he still had sinful tendencies. So, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that if you have a rope, and there's a rope coiled, and by this rope you can bind someone, but if you pour some gasoline over it and set fire to it, it goes up in flames, and when the fire goes out, you see there's a black charred rope, but it looks like a rope, it's a shape of the rope, but this rope cannot bind anyone, if you try to pick it up even, it just crumbles into ash.
33:33So after chanting nāmābhāsa, the life still goes on, as if nothing happened in many cases. Of course, let's say a person, they meet the devotees and start to chant, and very soon they become vegetarian, because that sin of eating meat is quickly gone. But still other tendencies persist, and so it should not be considered that these tendencies are karma in the sense that When that devotee comes to the end of his life, even those sins they did after chanting nāmābhāsa, they cannot bind that person. And this is something that the Yamadūtas couldn't understand. They came there to take him away because they were very sure, they've seen the list, they've seen Citragupta's reports on his life, and they know he's sinful. And he didn't give up his sins even right until the end. So they're convinced we've got to take him away.
34:36But what they didn't realize is, they actually had no karma, because those activities were not actual karma, they were not the reaction of karma, and they were not producing more karma. It was just the empty, hollow, insubstantial shape of the prārabdha karmas. It was only the shape. And so, that is called pūrvābhyāsa, pūrvābhyāsa, acting due to previous habits, but it was not creating any karma.
35:07So you can say that, let's say, all the saṃskāras of your previous activities, they're there within the citta, and those saṃskāras come into the mind one after another, and they, because we identify with them, we're impelled to act. The saṃskāras themselves cannot impel us, but because we identify with them, therefore we feel impelled to act according to those saṃskāras.
35:34But, so for someone who's chanted the nāmābhāsa, it's like all those saṃskāras are there, but they've been hollowed out. They don't have the power to create further saṃskāras. They've been kind of petrified. Their essence, their active principle has been completely withdrawn from them. They're a shadow of their former self. They're not binding karmas. And so this is why the devotee who's had association chanted nāmābhāsa.
36:06He continues by the strength of pūrvābhyāsa, but this activity is not creating more. But if a person knows the siddhānta and they hear this and think, wow, why sinful activities are not creating more karma. So, and he's deliberately, he's deliberately doing this. Not that, you know, he's trying not to, but anyway, he's kind of overpowered due to weakness, but he deliberately does it. Now that becomes nāmāparādha, committing sins on the strength of chanting the holy name, you see.
36:37And so then he'll have mature desires and attachments which are actually not karma. They're the result of nāmābhāsa. He can become more demonic than he was before. Maybe before he was kind of, you know, a little bit sinful or something, but he wasn't really, really demonic. But a person hears nāmābhāsa, then they hear the philosophy, and then they commit the nāmāparādha of committing offenses on the strength of the holy name, now they can become even more wicked than ever before, because aparādha is much more dangerous than pāpa sins, even, as well.
37:18So one should be extremely careful to avoid the ten types of nāmā-aparādha. So then just let's say for the life of a general devotee who is sincere, but it's still like his experience, it looks like he's experiencing his karma. And he can see in his chart that his life and his chart, they're matching.
37:42So, it should be understood in this way, that your life experience is now from birth to death, that's the prārabdha karma. But because it's been destroyed, but its shape is still there. So, there's a reason why Krishna keeps the shape, that's his mercy, that he keeps the shape there. And that is that, if you don't have any prārabdha-karma, or the shape of the prārabdha-karma, then you don't have a body.
38:18And you need a body to do sādhana. You need a body to do sādhana and associate with Vaishnavas and attain prema. So nāmābhāsa gives mukti, gives liberation. But by the mercy of the Supreme Lord, the Supreme Lord keeps some remnant of the karma so that you can have a body to do sādhana and develop love. Otherwise, you'd be sitting here in the morning, devotees are chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. Then suddenly, someone chants nāmābhāsa and their body disappears. It's just like a bead in a bead bag sitting.
38:51on the floor. What happened? Oh, it's okay Prabhu, he chanted nāmābhāsa, you know, because he's prārabdha-karma, just poof, poof, gone. Then you have no body, you see? And that's why still having a body after associating with Vaishnavas and having chanted perhaps once or twice nāmābhāsa, having that body, that is mercy. The fact that you just have a body is mercy because you can serve Thakurji, you can sing and dance in Kirtan, you can study Srimad Bhagavatam, You can associate with devotees and serve them. Just the fact that you have a body and you can do some service, that's amazing mercy. And we should be very grateful to that. And all the difficulties that come to us, that's a help as well, because our problem is this pride. We're proud and the difficulties remind us, you are not the supreme controller. But, but, but, but, we're not the supreme controllers. We're quite helpless.
39:55And so, in this way, the devotee, and so Lord Brahma said also,
40:37So whatever's happening, you did specifically order that. You looked at the menu and said, yeah, I'll have that.
40:48And then when time, like a waiter came, oh, sir, your order delivered it to you. Wait a minute, I didn't order this. No, no, you did actually.
41:00So we should be very aware of that, that yes, we did order it, but the reason we're in this situation, we have this body and we're experiencing it, that is actually Krishna's mercy, and that's to help us. And Lord Brahma said, if someone adopts that attitude, that everything is Krishna's mercy, and also I ordered this meal, then for that person, the lotus feet of Krishna already belong to him, but it's like an inheritance.
41:32Sometimes there's a wealthy father and he's about to pass away and he thinks my young son, he's so reckless and irresponsible. If he'll inherit all my money now, he'll blow it and destroy himself. So I'm in my will, I'm putting a time lock on it. And he'll get everything when he's 30 years old and he's actually become a bit mature and grown up like that. So it's like that. That means the wealth is already his, but he has to wait a little time for the inheritance to be the for the will to be activated. So in the same way, if a person simply adopts that attitude, everything is Krishna's mercy, and whatever's happening is, it's my own fault, but the reaction is coming to me in a therapeutic way to cure me. Then for that person, Krishna's lotus feet, they're already his property. It's only a question of time. Now in regard to astrology, should people go to astrology? Don't get so much deeply into astrology.
42:39my wife is an astrologer, and I consult with her, and also devotees, we see what time, what period they're in their life, but this is not the use of astrology as a type of, to understand what is upāya, you know, upāya, upāya means, here's the problem you see in the chart, so from this, then you, there are different types of upāya that you can do, remedy, yeah, the remedies, I'm gonna wear this, this gem, and offer three coconuts to Hanuman, and there are all types of things that people come up with to try to counteract their karmas, and that self is karma, that itself is karma.
43:27So, as Vaishnavas, we don't take that path, we don't have that attitude towards astrology. Astrology is a Vedic, it's a Vedic science, and Srila Gurudev, Srila Gurudev was like that, when it was time to go on any journey, a few days before he would check with the astrological, with the Pañjikā, and see what's the auspicious time of the day, and then check, and if he's not about to set out on the journey, if it's not convenient to begin at the auspicious time, you will have to leave a little bit later, then Gurudev would just, once he told me, take my bag and my daṇḍa and carry it to the door, so I came in his room and I took his daṇḍa and I carried it to the
44:13the door to the exit of the temple where we live, we're in Rome. And he did that because the movement of his daṇḍa to the door meant that at that moment it was the auspicious time for setting out. And though he left a little bit later, but he made that token gesture. And I said, well, Gurudev, what's the pure Vaishnavas? They're not under the control of karma. And so why choose to select? Why not just set out?
44:48at the inauspicious moment, if that's the convenient time to go to the airport or something like that. And Gurudev said, well, the devotee always depends on Krishna, for sure. So if there are two paths you can go, and one path is clean and clear, and the other path, there's a mad bull who's smashing everything and goring people in the marketplace, and then you decide, well, let me go down that narrow alleyway with the mad bull, because Krishna will save me.
45:20The devotee doesn't think like that. He doesn't think, well, why should I bother Krishna? Let me just go down the alleyway, which is clear. So even though the devotee depends on Krishna, they also look and they don't try to put themselves in situations to make Krishna come and save them like that. So, there is some consideration.
45:46Now, as you know, there are so many planets, and some are benefic and some are malefic, but there are more malefic planets than the beneficial, and therefore, that everyone will experience in this world more problems than lucky breaks, generally, right? Because it's just that there are more planets that make inauspicious and difficult situations.
46:11And of course, in the course of a person's life, everyone has to go through the dashas, which are extremely trying. And so what you should think as a devotee is that not that you look at the chart or anyone else's chart and try to calculate the remedies in terms of material remedies. Only you can give something beneficial in this way by saying, look, now you're in this period.
46:40Maybe it's the Saturn period. And you should know that Saturn very slowly crushes a person into the ground.
46:51And so this is what will happen to you. Saturn is going to just crush you into the ground until there's just nothing left. It's going to be slow and painful. But we can say that is for the person who is unprincipled or who is without discipline. On the other hand, if a person will try to be disciplined in their life to practice bhakti in an orderly way, then Saturn will become their friend and actually help them develop gravity and maturity to overcome whimsical and frivolous activities, capricious activities, the restless mind, unreliability, all of these faults that stop us from being steady.
47:46If a person is in a difficult period in their life, if they'll just try to be disciplined in their sadhana bhakti, then all the planets that seem to be negative will actually help and support that person mature in bhakti. So really, it's a fact. There's nothing inauspicious for a devotee. So if you know something about astrology and someone asks you for advice in a particular situation, you should tell them that, well, before you were in an astrological period where it wasn't so critical.
48:19And so you had a little room, if you will, you know, not be serious or play around in this way or that way, you'll not, you would not immediately feel the consequences. But now you're in a period of your life, you're going to have, there'll be severe consequences for being without discipline, without focus.
48:40And so then that will definitely light a fire under that person and give them some inspiration to take their spiritual life more seriously. So you should think about it in that way. We're not astrologists, we don't want to get deeply into astrology and all the upayas, the remedies, but if you know something about it, use that to advise a person to become more dedicated in their devotional life. Is everything clear? Go, prema, Nandu!
49:12And we've been inviting everyone, after this festival we're going to Alachua for another festival, and after we're going to North Carolina for another festival, and then we'll be going to New York for, you guessed it, another festival. So then we're flying over to Europe for another festival, and there's so many festivals in Europe, in Rome, and in Venice, and in Mallorca, and in Sevilla, in Switzerland, in England, in London, Birmingham, Blasteries, with so many festivals, if you have the chance, please join us, and then when all those festivals are over, go to India, for another festival, so we're also extending the invitation, please, please, if it's at all possible, join us to perform Kartik-vrata in Braj-mandala for at least a month, and we continue for another, more than a month after that as well, if you want, you don't have to just come for the month, but come for a month, that's wonderful, but we'll continue for another six weeks,
50:11two weeks or so, after that, before, and then when it gets really freezing cold in Brindavan, we go to Goa, where it's very warm and pleasant, and there are lots of foreigners from all over the world, and young people to preach to, so we have a big festival there, and then after that, we'll have in the springtime, Navadvipa program, we don't do it, leading up to Gaura Purnima, we do it earlier to avoid the crowds in Navadvipa, and so whatever chance you get, please join some of our Chaitanya Academy festivals, events, and programmas. If you haven't done that before, I think that you'll be pleasantly surprised. It's maybe a little bit different from what you've experienced. Oh, who has been on and out of the programma? You've visited, right, for a couple of days. It's a very wonderful experience. So try it out at least once and see how it works out.
51:08So everyone can, we'll have breakfast now, and be ready to hear the glory of our Nitai, Jaya Nitai. After Gaura Purnima, next week, come here again?
51:22Well, let's see, I hope so. If Gurudev is possible, I'll have the chance to return. This is really a holy dharma, a place of so many pastimes of Gurudev, and I think that Gurudev is eternally staying here, and definitely those who come here, and try to serve Him, then they can definitely feel His presence and His blessings here. So I will be blessed if you all pray and pray for me that I can again come and visit this holy palace.
51:54Srila Gurudev!
