The Srimad Bhagavatam, 4th Canto, Chapter 22, Text 48, Matamaitreya Uvaca taatma yoga pataya Adivajena pujita silam svidhiyam san samta Kevavan vishatam nirnam Translation and purport by His Divine Grace, Srila Prabhupada.

The great sage Maitreya continued, seeing thus worshipped by Maharaja Prithu, the 4 samaras who were masters of devotional service, became very pleased.

Indeed they appeared in the sky and praised the character of the king and everyone observed them." Pretty amazing, they appeared in the sky.

Well, Purpura, It is said that demigods never touch the surface of the earth.

Like the great sage Narada, the Kumaras do not require any machine to travel in space.

They are also residents of Siddhaloka and who can travel in space without machines.

Since they go from 1 planet to another, they are called siddhas.

That is to say, they have acquired all mystic and yogic powers.

Such great saintly persons who have attained complete perfection in mystic yoga are not visible in this age on earth because humanity is not worthy of their presence.

The Kumaras however praised the characteristics of Maharaja Prithu and his great devotional attitude and humility.

The Kauravas were greatly satisfied by King Prithu's method of worship.

It was by the grace of Maharaja Prithu that common citizens in his domain could see the Kumaras flying in outer space.

Krishna presthaya bhutale, shivate bhaktivedanta svayam iti namane, namaste sarasvate devye, go ravani pacharine, ne visheshu shunyavadi pachacchate sutarine.

So it's an interesting point about flying in space without machines.

If 1 becomes a brethren of Siddhaloka 1 has that power and by great penances and austerities of the yoga system 1 can also achieve that power.

But it takes many, many lifetimes actually of our lifetimes.

It takes hundreds of years to achieve such perfection.

So we don't bother with it because even if you can travel freely in outer space within this universe, you're still in this universe.

So why even worry about developing such powers?

Actually, we can get an airplane and fly in the sky if we need to.

So we shouldn't worry about developing such mystic powers.

We should therefore focus on the supreme mystic power which is going back to home, back to Gauda.

In this way 1 goes beyond the power of the great yogis, surpasses the great yogis.

So then the real question is then what does 1 do to qualify, to actually qualify himself to go back to home, back to Godhead?

The first thing is we have to have proper understanding.

We have to base, you see, your thoughts, your words and your deeds are based on a proper understanding.

If your understanding is wrong, your thoughts, your words

and your deeds are based on a proper understanding.

If your understanding is wrong, your thoughts, your words and your deeds will be wrong.

Your understanding of reality has to be correct.

If that understanding is correct, then everything else follows automatically.

Your thinking will be proper, your words will be proper and your actions will be proper.

So let us look now at the proper understanding of reality.

Actually in many ways it is just common sense, it is not really blind faith in some dogma or some teaching is actually common sense.

If you think about it very carefully and clearly, you can see this Vedic wisdom, it just makes common sense.

Just like, for example, Do your eyes see?

After the time of death these senses can't do anything.

The skin cannot feel, the tongue cannot taste, the ears cannot hear, the eyes cannot see.

So it's very common sense to see that actually the self is utilizing the body, not that it is the body.

The self is actually situated beyond the body.

So we understand the non-material, just by simple logic and common sense we can understand the non-material nature of the self.

Another thing is God, they say that believing in God is blind faith.

Is it really blind faith to believe in God?

I've explained many times before, 1 person has so much power, another person has more power, somebody has some beauty, somebody is more beautiful, more beautiful.

Someone has renunciation, Somebody has more renunciation.

So there is some person, if you consider these 6 opulences that are considered very valuable things, power, beauty, renunciation, knowledge, wealth and fame, you consider that not everybody has the same amount of money, the same amount of fame, we're not all equal.

There's somebody who has more and more and more.

You find that person, there has to be some person in the possession of these opulences who actually exceeds all others.

There's some person who in possession of these opulences has more.

To say there is no supreme person means we are all equal.

We all have the same amount of money, the same amount of fame, the same amount of beauty, the same amount of knowledge, etc.

Do you have the same amount of money that I have?

Do I have the same amount of money that you have?

So there is somebody with more, somebody with less.

So if I'm that person who has more of these things, more beauty, more power, more beauty, more renunciation, more knowledge, more wealth, the same, that would be the Supreme Person.

So the atheists say there is no Supreme Person.

So That's a ridiculous dogmatic statement.

We don't follow dogma, we follow God-mode.

We take the teaching given in the Vedas which is actually the most common sense vision you could ever have of reality.

So even though we can understand them by simple logic, simple exercise, we can understand them by not being a material body, but still why we identify with them.

Another example is, Here's an example of how we identify with them.

You're driving in your car, you come to a stop sign, and somebody behind you rams into you because they spaced out.

They didn't realize it was a car and it ran into you.

So you jump out of the car very angry, you hit me, you rascal, you hit me.

No, he hit your car, but you're misidentifying yourself as being the car.

So in the same way, we misidentify ourselves as being this material body.

And we live in a culture that encourages this in every advertisement, every magazine, every movie, everywhere we go, our friends, our neighbors, everybody is reinforcing the false conception that I am this body.

So to come to this, if you want to become self-realized, you have to get free from the conditioning that is being imposed upon you by the material society.

You've been programmed to misidentify since your very birth, you've been programmed to misidentify with your material body.

So to become self-realized you have to cut off your identification with all this conditioning that's been imposed upon you for all these years or all these decades.

I'm no longer going to be a slave of this conditioning.

I'm going to start using the logic and common sense to understand actually who I am.

And then we can further understand that the Supreme Self is the source of all existence because He has unlimited power.

Therefore, His very Self is expanding all of existence.

Of course he is self-satisfied, Atma Ramana is totally satisfied with himself, at the same time to increase his satisfaction.

You can't say, well my dear Lord, you must be satisfied with yourself all alone, you cannot have any loving relationship with anybody else.

We can't tell the Lord that he is not allowed to expand from himself an infinite number of Vishnu Tatvas and Jiva Tatvas, an infinite variety of sweet loving relationships.

He's absolute, so if he wants to expand his satisfaction infinitely, he can do that by expanding himself by an infinite number of vishnu tapas, infinite number of jiva tapas.

So, Krishna consciousness is actually just common sense.

See the problem we have as neophyte devotees is that we have been so conditioned by the material society to misidentify with our body.

My satisfaction is my tongue, my belly and my genitals.

If you want to be happy, you've got to have your tongue, you've got to have your belly, you've got to have your genitals and your false ego also, and become a little famous and appreciated, you know.

We have been programmed to think this is our happiness.

How do we get free from misidentifying with the body and making my happiness my tongue, belly and genitals?

By hearing from the Buddhavide spiritual master the teachings of Lord Sri Krishna.

We have to understand what is our actual satisfaction.

We learn that actually the real satisfaction is to satisfy the Supreme Self.

That Supreme Self is the root, I've explained it many times, that the Supreme Self is the root of all existence.

So to water the tree you don't water the leaves and branches, you water the root.

So the leaves and branches become nourished when you water the root.

So we are the leaves and branches of that tree, that supreme tree.

And we become satisfied not by trying to enjoy it separately, but trying to enjoy it by satisfying the supreme enjoyer.

We're enjoyers by nature because Krishna, God is also the enjoyer and we are part of Him, our nature also to be enjoyers.

It's like the drop of ocean water has the same chemical composition as the entire ocean, although in a smaller quantity.

So Krishna enjoys unlimitedly, And if we try to enjoy separately from him, we can have a limited amount of enjoyment mixed with suffering.

But here is the mystical secret, that just as God is the unlimited enjoyer, if we satisfy his enjoyment, we enjoy unlimitedly along with him.

This is the beauty of the Krishna consciousness movement.

Everybody wants to enjoy but they are getting sukha dukha, happiness and distress going on.

Happiness and distress, happiness and distress, going on and on and on.

You get older, there is more distress and less happiness, more distress and less happiness.

The beauty of Krishna consciousness is just the opposite.

By satisfying the supreme enjoyer, who enjoys unlimitedly, you can also enter into that realm of unlimited enjoyment.

And the beauty of advancing in Krishna consciousness, of course, is that neophytes are still getting a mixture of happiness and distress because we are still to some extent misidentifying with our bodies.

Thinking our happiness is the tongue, belly and genitals.

We are still misidentifying with our bodies.

happiness is a tongue, belly and genitals.

But as you advance in Krishna consciousness, you become more fixed in your realization that another's body of an eternal spiritual being qualitatively 1 with the Supreme Lord, the more you become, that becomes more and more realized and fixed in your consciousness, then the happiness goes up and the suffering goes down.

In other words, you get older, you get to the point of 100% happiness and 0 suffering.

And That's when you are fully Krishna conscious.

So the intelligent thing is to become more and more Krishna conscious.

Because the more you are Krishna conscious, the more you are happy and the less you are suffering.

The less you are Krishna conscious, the more you are suffering and the less you are happy.

So we want to become more and more and more Krishna conscious.

We don't have to guess, we don't have to speculate, Prabhupada explains exactly what we should do.

Rise early in the morning and chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

It gets in japa beat, early in the morning before sunrise.

That's the best time for meditation, for self realization.

You're in a very very auspicious time according to astrological calculations.

very auspicious time according to astrological calculations, you have a very very auspicious time for spiritual awakening.

So if you are up in that time at least an hour and a half before sunrise, engaged in chanting and worshipping the Lord, then you are going to be blessed with an amazing awakening within you, an incredible miraculous awakening will happen within your heart.

You actually come out of your false identification with your body, you come into proper identification on a spiritual being, holistically when you are a Lord and I am a Lord's servant.

My body says don't be a servant, just be God.

They say I am God, you are God, we are all God.

No, light comes from a source, doesn't it?

The sunlight comes out of nowhere, it comes from the sun planet.

And actually it comes from the residents of the sun planet whose bodies are effulgent.

And you have all these millions of residents of the sun planet and the sun god also, their bodies are illuminating their sun, the sun and their bodies are illuminating the whole universe.

Getting back to the point, the light comes from a source.

It's like you light a candle, the light comes from the candle, the light bulb emanates light, the light comes from the bulb.

You say, I want to emerge from the light and become 1.

Wait a minute, where does the light come from?

And that is what Krishna said, Brahmano pratishtha, I am the source of that impersonal Brahman.

So why does meet the emanating, the emanation when you can meet the emanator?

It's like you can meet a secretary, why not meet the boss himself?

I got to meet with the secretary of the president of the US.

Instead of merging into the light, meet the person as a source of the light.

So that's why that's the highest level of Self-Realization.

Brahma is the light, Paramatma is the expanded form of the Lord within the heart of all living beings.

You should realize that he is a highly advanced yogi, but that is very difficult, It takes millions of years to achieve it.

But if you go straight to the Supreme Source, Krishna, our God, the source of everything, that can be achieved quickly within 1 lifetime.

You can absorb yourself in Krishna consciousness and go back to the supreme abode upon leaving your body.

I just got a report from 1 of my disciples, her mother just left the body.

She was in a complete coma, like unconscious, And then she woke up.

Her eyes were all blurry and not focused.

Then they put a picture of Krishna in front of her and her mind was completely focused on Krishna.

She turned around and then she left her body.

Her daughter was a devotee and she blessed her mother with a dark shana of Krishna and she was leaving her body.

1 can be Krishna conscious when they leave their body.

So even if you are not a devotee, you are in the association of devotees, that can also give you the supreme perfection.

Smoking, although smoking, I remember he used to smoke a pipe.

You know, he was addicted to all kinds of things that are not carnival dispensable.

But he had a very nice attitude to the devotees, he appreciated the devotees.

He actually glorified us in our devotion to Krishna.

And because of that he got the great opportunity at the time of death, he was staying in some care home east of Austin, we got the notice he was bleeding right in his eyes, so much as he jumped in the car and we got there and we had a cure done and he was leaving his body.

He was all like in all anxiety, but then we had the cure time and the faith became very peaceful and then boom.

So even if 1 is not a devotee, if you can be in the association of devotees, that is also a great blessing.

But Why wait and say, well if I'm lucky I get devotee association at the last minute.

It may not be fortunate, I have some devotees there to help me at the last minute.

If I'm all alone at the time of death, I'll be able to focus my mind on Krishna.

There's no problem with that all along because I've learned now how to get my mind off this sense gratification platform, the tongue, the belly and the genitals.

I've learned how to get my mind off of this platform and get it now onto a tremendous platform.

The level of the tongue, belly and genitals may give some temporary pleasure, it doesn't give any lasting pleasure.

I can eat, eat, eat, but then I get very sick and I can't eat anymore.

My belly feels really good getting stuff.

I eat so much it may even vomit, you see.

I may have some sex pleasure, but then there's all kinds of problems.

A girl gets pregnant and I have to take responsibility, I get married and raise a child and there is a whole life of struggle.

But I didn't want to marry that girl but I made her pregnant so I am stuck.

So We have to give up this pleasure of the tongue, belly and the genitals and become very sober and very serious.

Now let me become fixed in Krishna consciousness, understanding I am not this material body, I am an eternal spiritual being.

Let me become fixed in this understanding of who I actually am and dedicate my whole life now for awakening that divine consciousness, that Krishna consciousness, which is sleeping within me.

Krishna consciousness is not something artificial.

But due to bad association you've forgotten that.

So now I've come back to being who I actually am.

It's just like fish that got washed up on the beach, the flapping in agony on the beach, because our actual environment is the ocean, not the beach.

But then a very kind person comes, a spiritual master or a devotee comes and says, what are you doing suffering here in this material existence?

Don't you know you are an eternal spiritual being, qualitatively 1 of the Supreme Lord, your actual nature is to be eternal, full of bliss and knowledge?

Here, let me show you how to get back to being who you actually are.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Hare Krishna, Srila Gurudeva, my humble obeisances, in Bhagavad Gita 18.54 it is said that a devotee needs to realize the Supreme Brahman and then 1 can attain pure devotional service.

Just look that up, see exactly how it is worded, 1854.

Brahma bhuta prasannatma na soksati na kamsati samak sarvesu bhutesu mad-bhakti-mabhute param 1 who is astronomically situated at once in the life of the Supreme Brahmana becomes fully joyful.

He never laments or desires about anything.

He is equally disposed to every living being.

In that state he attains pure devotional service unto me." It's not required to have...

Actually this automatically happens when you become Krishna conscious.

But simply becoming Krishna conscious, you will come to the Ramana platform.

Ramana is the platform which you attain pure devotional service.

Just like you have a million dollars, you automatically have a hundred thousand dollars.

So when you come to Krishna Bhakti, you are going to get, Ramana will come automatically along with it.

You see, happiness and distress is the same thing.

You are no longer being buffeted or tossed on the waves of happiness and distress.

You see you are happy in happiness and you are happy in distress also.

You see they are both beneficial for your spiritual progress.

Prasannatma is fully joyful, you become jolly, very happy in every situation, you are equally happy both in happiness and distress.

That platform of Ramana will come automatically as you advance in Krishna consciousness.

So this is different from merging into Ramana.

Merging into Ramana, of course, the Brahman realized persons also achieve this position of a type of happiness, equi-poised in happiness and distress.

Patanthi and all, they fall back to material existence because they get a temporary relief from the sufferings of material existence by merging into Brahman and they come back again.

But for a devotee, your Brahman realization is permanent asset, it's not temporary like for the Brahmananda.

You get Brahman realization as your eternal asset, as a companion of the devotional service.

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SB 04.22.48 Living Entity, God and Material Nature 2023-07-28 Austin.mp3