No, because I wasn't going to have them chant.

If you don't want to call them, it's fine.

Aahaara, Sushka, Purna, Shana, Tvachit, Abhaksha, Kadhi, Chit, Bhakshan, Vayu, Bhakshas, Taka, Param, Kanda, Shrank, Mula, Roots, Hala, fruits, aahara, eating, shushka, dry, porna, weeds, vashana, eating, kvachit, sometimes, Sometimes, a bhakṣa, drinking water, katicit, for several bhakṣān, fortnight, vayu, the air, bhakṣa, breathing, atataparam, thereafter.

Translation in purport, by His Divine Grace, Om Vishnu Pad Paramahamsa Parivartato Sankhya Ashtadharasya Vishisheemad, A.C.

Bhaktivedanta 3, Dandigos Mame Maharaj Prabhupada.

In the Tapovan, Maharaj Prasad sometimes ate the trunks and roots of trees.

And Sometimes he ate fruits and dried leaves and for some weeks he drank only water.

Finally he simply lived by breathing air.

In Bhagavad Gita, Yogi Yudhisthira advised to go to a secluded place in the forest and live alone in a sanctified spot there.

By Prithamara's behavior we can understand that when he went to the forest he did not eat any cooked food sent from the city by some devotees or disciples.

Since 1 takes a vow to live in the forest he must simply eat roots, tree trunks, fruit, dried leaves or whatever nature provides in that way.

Prithamara strictly adopted these principles while living in the forest and sometimes he ate nothing but dried leaves and drank nothing but a little water.

Sometimes he lived on nothing but air and sometimes he ate some fruit from the trees.

In this way he lived in the forest and underwent severe austerity, especially in regards to eating.

In other words, overeating is not all recommended for 1 who wants to progress in spiritual life.

Srila Rupa Goswami also warns that too much eating and too much endeavor atyahara-pradahsa-ca are against the principles by which 1 can advance in spiritual life.

It is notable that according to Vedic injunction to live in the forest is to live in the mode of complete goodness, whereas to live in a city is to live in the mode of passion, and to live in a brothel or drinking house is to live in the mode of ignorance.

However, to live in a temple is to live in Vaikuntha, which is transmittal to all the modes of material nature.

And Krishnagana's movement affords 1 the opportunity to live in the temple of the Lord which is called as good as by concept.

Consequently a Krishna conscious person does not need to go to the forest and artificially try to imitate Maharaj Prithu and the great sages and munis who used to live in the forest.

Srila Rupa Goswami, after retiring from his minister's seat in the government, went to Vrindavan and lived beneath a tree like Maharaj Prithu.

Since then many people have gone to Vrindavan to imitate Guru Goswami's behavior.

Instead of advancing in spiritual life many have fallen into material habits and even in Vrindavan they have become victims of illicit sex, gambling and intoxication.

The Krishna consciousness movement has been introduced in the Western countries, but it is not possible for Westerners to go to the forest and practice severe austerity, ideally practiced by Prithu Maharaja of Rupa Goswami.

However, Westerners and anyone else who can follow the footsteps of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, but living in a temple, which is transcendental residence in the forest, and to vow to accept Krishna-prasad and nothing else, Follow the regulated principles and chant 16 rounds daily of the Hare Krishna mantra in this way one's spiritual life will never be disturbed.

So, dayitam sabadutam parijanah sahitam krishna cetanya devam, sri radha krishna padam sahagana laddhita shivisakam vittam sthya.

1 day, thank God, go in the forest and live on tree trunks and sometimes only live on air and not even water, you know, We can't dream of such austerity.

But Srila Prabhupada has given us this very nice program.

We can live in the temple or also we can make our home into a temple by having regular daily worship and make our home into a temple also.

So we have to either live in the temple or make our home into a temple.

It's a place of residence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and we are the servants.

1 should always think this place belongs to Krishna and he is the proprietor and I'm simply the servant.

We keep this nice service mood and we can live nicely on Krishna Prasadam, but we have to strictly avoid these illicit sex, meeting, intoxication and gambling.

If we engage in these activities then we are in a very fallen condition, servants of our senses.

You don't have to take sannyasa order to be a Goswami.

Goswami means as a brahmachari, a grhastha, a vanaprastha, a sannyasi, to engage the senses only in the service of the master of the senses, Lord Sri Krishna, and not to engage oneself in the service of the senses.

The senses are like snakes, venomous snakes.

You give them sense gratification, it simply increases their venom.

So if you break these regulative principles, then your senses become more and more poisonous and more and more dangerous.

So that's why we have to strictly follow the regular principles so we don't become victims of lust, anger, greed, madness, illusion and envy.

There's a tendency in this modern day society due to so much association with the material energy, there's a tendency to go back to sense gratification.

Because everywhere you see, sense gratification is going on.

Every billboard, every sign, all the advertisements, it's all based on sex, sex, sex, and money, money, money, money.

The whole thing is based on sex and money.

So we have to therefore detach ourselves from this material society in which we are presently living.

Very, very clever to detach ourselves from it.

1 must give up the association with non-devotees.

So even though in our jobs or in our preaching we are out there and we are associating with so many atheistic people just going to the grocery store.

Everywhere we go like the grocery store they are selling meat, fish and eggs, liquor, cigarettes, everywhere we go all this sense delegation is going on.

So we have to therefore become free from asat-samgha, the association of non-devotees by taking shelter of the devotees.

We are not jagi by nature, living in the forest.

So unless we learn how to associate nicely with the devotee, we will go back to associating with the non-devotee.

And non-devotee association would kill us.

It would keep us entangled in the cycle of birth and death, birth after birth after birth after birth.

So 1 has to decide, I want to stay in the cycle of birth and death, suffering in an unlimited number of ways as a dog, as a camel, as an ass, as a monkey, as a demigod, as a human being, as a germ, as a worm.

I want to keep going through this cycle again and again.

Since time immemorial we've been caught up in it and I don't want to keep going in it forever.

I want to get out of this horrible cycle of birth and death and go back to my original constitutional position in the spiritual world as an intimate associate of the Lord, as a servant, as a friend, as a parent or a lover, conjugal lover.

If I want to go back to that or I want to stay here suffering like anything, birth, death, old age and disease, the fourfold, the threefold, and zapping us again and again and again and again.

Just like recently there was a fire in Hawaii, the whole town was wiped out by a fire.

Can you imagine the whole town was wiped out by a fire.

Can you imagine the whole town was wiped out by a fire?

That's an example of the miseries we are going through in the material world.

So we have to then become a little intelligent, a little bit sober, a little bit discriminated.

Understand what is beneficial for me and what is harmful for me.

If we associate with a rascal we will become a rascal.

If we associate with a sadhu we will become a sadhu.

So that is my sadhu sangha, sadhu sangha, sadhu satya kai sadhu sangha, sarva siddhi hoy.

All the scriptures are saying associate with sadhus, associate with sadhus, associate with sadhus.

If we don't want to associate with the sadhus or we are offensive toward the sadhus then what happens?

You have to learn what is the art of associating with the sadhus.

You can't go in a joking or frivolous or offensive way and associate with the sadhus.

very serious sober way, always in a respectful way, Always in that humble respectful mood.

Whether the sadhus glorify me or criticize me, you should take it as the same thing.

Take it as the same thing, be equipoised and associated with the sadhus.

Take everything as their blessing, not if they tell me I'm a rascal, I should tell them that they're a rascal.

You should be very humble and respectful in all situations.

In this way we will actually be able to make steady, steady advancement in this pathway.

There is a whole system, a scientific process.

You see in the beginning you have Shraddha, some sages, well these devotees seem pretty nice and then what do you do?

Then what happens when you associate with them?

Well, let me take up this process, bhajana-kriya, chant the japa, do some service, bhajana-kriya and then you come to naga-nirviti, you have to give us a bad habit.

The sadhus say I shouldn't have illicit sex, I shouldn't engage in meeting, I shouldn't engage in intoxication.

I don't know if I can handle it or not, but let me just try it for a little bit and see what it does for me.

I feel really good giving up these anarchists.

I am giving up the service of the senses and taking up the service of Krishna.

And then by taking up that nakta and nirviti giving up the bad habits, then what happens after dukkha?

Become fixed, subtly fixed and no longer being pulled around by the modes of nishtha nature.

Now I can say goodbye to the modes, goodbye mode of ignorance, goodbye mode of passion, goodbye mode of goodness even.

Now I want to be fixed totally in devotional service and you become nishta state.

And then of course you become at a very very advanced level.

We can talk about what we have read, maybe not

from experience but we can talk about what we

have read, maybe not from experience, but we can talk about what we are reading in the shastras, and then you enter the stage of spiritual emotions.

You actually feel an emotional love of God starting to awaken your heart to Baba's face.

And then from there you become more and more and more purified and the beginning of spiritual emotions come and then you become fully absorbed in the pure love of God, Prema.

So there is a whole scientific process, step by step just like the university you go through the scientific process, you go to the elementary school, then high school, then you get your master's degree, master's degree, PhD degree.

No, you have to go through the process of becoming a PhD.

You can't say I have pure love for Krishna, I have been going through all the preliminary stages, I am smoking marijuana, I am having a little liquor now, I am having a little sex life and I am a pure devotee.

You have to go through the authorized system of becoming a pure devotee.

It's an authorized system for becoming a pure devotee of Krishna.

If you haven't gone through the authorized system, we can understand you're a cheater and a rascal posing yourself as a pure devotee.

So in this way, if you take up the process very soberly and very carefully all success will be ours.

What is the beginning of a thousand mile journey?

If you don't want to take the first step, well you're not going to get the thousand mile journey, you have to take that first step, and then the second step, and the third step, and this way you go step by step by step by step and not give up the pathway.

I see so many have come to this movement in the 52 years I have been here, I have seen so many come and so many went.

I think of all our devotees, we were together in Brahmacharya Ashram, where are they?

I've seen so many devotees, we've done Brahmacharyas together, serving together, cooking together, so many things we did together.

Just Preaching together, so many things we did, where are they?

They gave up the process, they didn't have sufficient faith, the Shvada and the process.

So it's very very important we have strong faith in the process, very very important we have strong faith.

Very very important, very very strong faith that this process actually works.

If I work the process I am going to get the result.

But if you are doubtful, I don't know if this process really works or not, You can't be doubtful about this process.

You have to have the knowledge that you must be completely convinced that by chanting Hare Krishna and following the regular principles and serving the Vaishnava and serving the spiritual master, I am completely convinced by this process that I am awakened in pure love of God and I get back to my original intimate relationship with the Supreme Personality of God and His transcendental pastimes in the spiritual world.

I have complete faith that I'll achieve this.

So I may not be well situated yet, I may have some of the anarchist, but in spite of that I must have total complete, I am totally convinced.

And I have a very nice name, you must inquire until your intelligence is fully satisfied.

is any doubt you need to inquire, Gurudeva I have a doubt about this, I have a doubt about that.

So if there are any doubts you have to inquire.

Because that's how you become subtly fixed in svartha.

All your doubts are erased, then you become, then you attain the svartha phase, all the doubts are removed.

And then from that position you can go on step by step by step all the way to the PhD, Krishna Paramita level.

Now we have a phone call coming in, we'll pause for a minute.

We can follow the very nice instruction of So, we can imitate Prithvi

Mata's example, but we can follow Prabhupada's

very nice instruction to live in a temple or make our home into a temple.

You have free will, we are not robots, we are not puppets.

We have the free will to do what we choose to do.

You want to stay in the cycle of birth or you want to get liberated?

I want to get liberated I have to follow the instructions of the sadhus, the spiritual masters.

I have to become submissive and humble servant of the sadhus and the spiritual masters.

Now that I associate with devotees and I tell them that they are nonsense.

Now associating with devotees means that I have a humble service mood.

That's what it means to be associative devotees.

You see if I have this attitude, what do you mean giving me that instruction?

I am so and so dot, so and so dot, who are you to give me that instruction?

No we have that attitude, we haven't fully entered into sadhu sangha.

We may have faith in the prophets but we are not respectful and humble in our dealings with the devotees, that means we are not in sadhu sangha.

We have got the first step, we haven't made the second step.

If you can't make the second step, you can't get the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth and the seventh.

So we have to learn how to properly associate with the devotees.

That's what Lord Caitanya said, chanad api sanicena, taro rapi sahisnuna, amanina amanidena, kirtaniya sadhahati.

1 should tell the holy name of the Lord in the humble state of mind, taking himself lower than a straw in the street, being willing to offer all respect to others without expecting even the slightest tinge of respect from oneself, in such a state of mind 1 can go on chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, 24 hours a day in a state of ever increasing bliss.

We have to be in that mood, we can go on chanting 24 hours a day and want more, more, more, more, more of Christian's mercy.

We have to come to that state of defenseless chanting against the Holy Name, not that disobey the spiritual master.

I tell the spiritual master he's stupid and I go on chanting.

We have to become humble, submissive and in this way the Holy name will manifest.

We don't want the arshudanam, the impure name.

There are so many offenses, we want the pure name to awaken in us.

Otherwise we are just kidding ourselves about being a devotee.

It's a joke, it's a false show, being a devotee.

I'm not committing so many offenses against the holy name, against the Vaishnava, against the spiritual master, But yet I think I'm a great pure devotee of the Lord.

I should not be carried away by maya in this way, to think I was a devout devotee, but actually a struggling neophyte.

Our actual position is we're struggling neophytes, battling it out with lust, anger, greed, madness, delusion and envy.

That's our actual position, we're struggling, stumbling, bumbling neophytes.

So we admit our fallen position instead of trying to present ourselves as big shots, present them as big shots.

If we take a humble position and understand, I need to be corrected a lot because I am so mistake.

Very good if I am corrected again and again and again to my problem.

If we have this humble mood of welcoming corrections, welcoming chastisement, etc.

Then we are in a good position to associate with the devotees, Sadhu, Sambhu.

And then from there we can actually come nicely to the spiritual and devotional service and freedom from anarchism and move on to that Nishti Sethra and solidly fix, Nothing at all can divert me.

Just like Haridas Thakur, he was so fixed up as a pure devotee, so solidly fixed, so much that Aniruddha couldn't stand it.

He said, I am Muslim now, being worshipped as a great saint.

I am Muslim, being worshipped as a great saint?

He found 1 beautiful prostitute girl and he said, you go there and seduce him.

I want to catch you in the act so we can expose him for being a rascal.

He was so determined to expose, to make the trick, to make Haryanatha into following the illicit sex of this prostitute so he could spoil his reputation.

The prostitute came, she even exposed part of her body to him.

She came into his quarters and exposed part of her body naked to him.

But he was completely chanting, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, I can't even live unless you satisfy me.

Please satisfy me, let me live, give up my body.

She so passionately and zealously begs for sexual union with him.

But he goes, yes, yes, I'll give you what you want my dear girl, but let me finish my job first.

And he said, as soon as I finished my rounds, and then the second night and the third night, finally by all this association, Sada Sandra, even though she was offensive, even though by the great power of Hari Dasa Thakur, she became a devotee of the Supreme, and a Krishna, she took up the same vow of chanting that he was doing.

We can't imitate him, but just see the power of being fixed in Krishna consciousness.

No matter how many arrows, common day, may try to shoot into our heart, it will just bounce off.

It will bounce off if we are fixed in Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

So we should take full advantage of this mercy coming down from Siva Prabhupada.

It's amazing to me his pastime he had in New York City with those hippies.

He married 2 disciples, they were living together as boyfriend and girlfriend without being married but he initiated them.

So then he said now you have to get married.

After they were initiated, this is Makunda and Janaki, he said now you have to get married.

So they surrendered, alright, if he wants to get married we'll do that.

So the system is a family member has to turn the girl over to the boy to marry somebody.

So he told her, bring your relatives now, but none of them would come except 1 came, the sister came, Joan.

She came all the way from Oregon, 3,000 miles, for this wedding ceremony.

And so now Papa himself is cooking the wedding feast, and he engaged John to help him cook this feast.

And Papa was so kind, Joan said, Swamiji, can I take a cigarette break?

Prabhupada engaged her in helping her to take a break.

I am just telling you about how merciful Prabhupada was.

Not that I can imitate him or Hari Das Prakriti.

But Prabhupada was so kind and merciful in that way, she became 1 of the most advanced devotees in our movement, actually, Jamuna Devadasi.

When she gave up her cigarettes, she became totally settled out of the service of Srila Prabhupada.

So in this way, we can be kind and merciful, not imitating the great advanced devotees, but in our own way, be as kind and merciful as possible to help these fallen souls who are drowning in the ocean of birth and death.

However much we can be merciful we should be to help them get out of their illusion and confusion, experiencing profusion.

So I don't have so much to say, I'm not so realized, but I'm just struggling neophyte here.

Bhaktivinoda Tantra says, Bhaktivinoda Tantra says, please give me a chance.

Actually after millions and millions of births, now

the chance, you have the opportunity to take up the diversional service.

So you have to use your intelligence and not be pulled by your senses like the example we give many times.

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SB 04.23.05 There is a authorized system of becoming a pure devotee 2023-08-13 Austin.mp3