nectar of instruction

This is text number 4. And it describes the ways in which devotees should relate to each other. Six Types loving exchanges. In traditional cultures of the world like China and India, there are natural relationships that exist, for example, between family members- elders and children, between Government officials and citizens, and in so many different ways there are so many types of relationships. Now we learn today about how devotees should relate with each other. The word priti means love. There is a difference between love and duty. A duty is something that you are obliged to perform. But love is something that comes more naturally and it involves the emotions of the heart. The word duty is also connected with law, but love transcends law. For example, supposing a young man breaks the law and comes to the house of his parents for protection. Will the parents hide the boy? Or will they hand the boy over to the police?

Probably they would protect him, That means that love is higher than the law. We have to follow the law but at a certain point we have to develop something greater than duty – that is love. We are practicing bhakti yoga and bhakti yoga has two divisions. The first is vaidhi bhakti. Vaidhi comes from the word vidhi which means rules. We have so many rules to follow, just like when you come in front of the deities, you should bow down. But that rule does not tell you how you should feel. But the idea is that by following the rule, if the rule is a good rule, then the feeling will gradually naturally come. You have seen in the temple room, Radha and Krishna and the Gopis. We understand that Krishna is God and Radha is the energy of God. Radha and Krishna together is the Supreme. And Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the combined form of Radha and Krishna. Perhaps you have seen on the altar, if you go up close the smaller deities of Radha Madhava and Caitanya.

So that teaches us that Lord Caitanya is right next to Radha Madahava because Radha and Krishna together are Lord Caitanya, and when they are separate, they are Radha and Krishna. Radharani is the greatest lover of Krishna. She loves Krishna so much that sometimes Krishna thinks the only way I can understand Radharani’s feelings is that I can take her position. So when Krishna meditates very deeply like this on Radharani, Krishna’s body turns golden color which is the color of Radharani. And that golden Krishna is Lord Caitanya, Inside is Krishna and outside is Radharani. That’s Lord Caitanya. So when we look at Radha and Krishna, Radha Madhava and the gopis, they all have very natural love. They don’t serve each other because of any rules or laws. They serve each other due to loving feelings. So gradually, when our devotion becomes natural and follows a type of mood that they have that is called raganuga bhakti. So we have explained a little bit about natural love for Krishna, but in order to learn to love Krishna naturally we have to learn how to love Krishna’s devotees. So this verse explains the six ways in which love takes shape in between devotees. The first word is dadati- to give charity. In India and in China, to give charity is a very good thing. The Bhagavad Gita explains that charity can be given in three different ways, in ignorance, in passion or in goodness. Supposing someone is begging on the street, in India, there are many people who beg on the street, but sometimes they look quite healthy. Even in America, so many people are begging. But often we see that when they get some donation, they go and purchase some cigarettes or some liquor.So to give such persons money is charity in the mode of ignorance, it does no good for them, nor for you. On the other hand, something better is to give charity for good cause. Supposing you hear that we are going to help to build a school, and we will give a donation for that purpose. And after giving that donation, they will put our name on the plaque of the school hall. Everyone will know that we are very charitable. That kind of charity is better than the first, but it is still not perfect, it is called charity in the mode of passion, because you are still expecting something in return. You are doing it for name and fame. One the other hand, what is charity in the mode of goodness?

Everbody’s health is ok? So charity in the mode of goodness means to give to a proper person, at a proper time and a proper way. No expectation of name and fame and for a proper cause. But Prabhupada suggests another type of charity, even beyond this.

In the caitanya Cartitmrta,in the teachings of Lord Caitanya you will find the chapter about Ramananda Raya. And in the discussion, the question is asked, who is the most charitable person? And this is what Prabhupada is going to speak about when he says what is the best form of charity. The best charity is to distribute Krishna consciousness to others.

To give knowledge, to give the teachings of Krishna consciousness to another person is the highest charity work. Does it cost money? Very easy, no one can say that I cannot afford it. And it is the most valuable gift that you can give. So similarly to receive gifts. pratigåhëäti : to accept something in return. These are ways of loving exchanges between devotees: to give a gift, and to receive a gift. Just like this morning, Jahnava gave me a gift, counter beads. So this is a loving exchange, to give a gift, she gave me a gift, I accepted a gift, these are two ways of loving exchange. So we can do like this between devotees. If we feel something for someone, we can give them a gift.

Just like you may have many friends who could not come to India this year. You can purchase them a sari, or a dhoti, and give them a gift. That’s a way of showing your love.

Then the next thing is guhyam äkhyäti påcchati . guhyam means something which is private or secret. Prabhupada translates it, confidential. This is not such an easy thing to do. To talk with another person about your inner feelings. Now before we go to that, we will say, that this may mean to show love to another person is to talk to them about Krsna. And from the other side, to hear someone speak to you about Krsna.

So devotees should speak always together about Krishna consciousness. The two most important principles of devotional service are hearing and chanting. So hearing and chanting together, just like in the evenings, we are having kirtanas. And just like now, we are hearing and chanting, Somebody is speaking, somebody is hearing. This is what is described here. But we should be also willing to reveal to another person any problems or doubts that we may have in the practice of Krishna consiounsness.

So we should be willing to have our doubts removed. But I think that this is not a very easy thing to do. Because generally we do not like to expose our weaknesses to another person. They make take advantage of us. They may tell other people about what problems we have. So generally we keep our problems and weaknesses to ourselves. And we only show our good face. Jut like when you wake up in the morning, you don’t look very good. But after properly bathing and putting on some tilak, and the ladies put on other things, then everything looks much better. So nobody likes to be seen early in the morning after getting out of bed. In the same way, nobody likes to have their inner problems shown outside. But in the morning, if you don’t wash you face then how would you get clean and look good?

Similarly, if you don’t get rid of the problems and doubts that are inside, then how will you ever become free from them. So we must develop close relationships with our fellow devotees based on trust. Where we can speak to another person and feel confident that they will not expose our doubts or problems, but will help us over them. Best is that you choose someone, there are two things, one is that you talk with people who are advanced as you are, and another is if you speak to persons who are more advanced. Both are good. Those who are more advanced should explain to those who are newer how they themselves made advancement in spiritual life. How they themselves have been able to advance.

We should not be miserly about Krishna consciousness, we should be willing to share with others everything that we ourselves have understood and known. But we should choose proper persons to share it with. Supposing you are a cook, and you know a recipe and you think I am not going to tell anyone else, because I am the only one who knows this recipe. No, if it is a good recipe we share it freely. Just like yesterday, I was invited to eat some pizza. So the person who invited me showed me a list of offenses against pizza. And one of the offenses is to not teach the pizza recipe to other people.We should be willing to share the knowledge. So if you have understood something that has benefited you a lot in Krishna consciousness, you should not keep it to yourselves thinking this way I will be more advanced than the others but you should offer that knowledge and help freely. Our teaching is to learn how to be servants, not masters. The guru does not think of himself as the master but he thinks himself as the servant of his students, Just like parents, they serve their children. Parents are in a superior position to children but still they are the servants of their children. So to be a servant is the best position. And to be servant of the servant is even a better position. And to be the servant of the servant of the servant is still better. That means humility is the most important quality of the vaishnavas. Just like it is said, the tree which bears the most fruit bows the lowest. And the tree that has no fruits stands up very tall. So the fruit that we are talking about is love for Krsna. And Lord Caitanya considers Himself to be a gardener. He says that He has planted this tree of Krsna bhakti, and now there are so many fruits of love for Krsna which are growing on this tree and He is in anxiety, how to distribute all these fruits. So whoever considers themselves to be a follower of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, should relieve Lord Caitanya of this burden of these fruits. The burden or anxiety He feels by helping Him to distribute the fruits of Krishna consciousness. It is said that the fruits of love for Krsna are so sweet, sweeter than any mango. It is a fruit with very small pith and very thin skin. And it is full of juice. Of course if you pick a mango before it becomes ripe then you don’t get the full sweetness of the mango. So the fruits of love for Krsna, each one of us must allow the mango to ripen fully. In order to get the full sweetness of the taste. That means that the process of Krishna consciousness must take time to mature or ripen. You cannot expect to immediately taste the sweetness of Krishna consciousness, just as a mango takes time to ripen.

Wake up, everyone should try to remain awake. Sometimes when we sit too comfortably, we many find it hard to stay awake. There is an advantage to sitting on the floor. It is not very comfortable. I have seen people who have fallen asleep while lecturing. I wont mention the person’s name but he used to be a very prominent member of ISKCON for sometime. Many people fall asleep listening to lectures but he fell asleep while giving them. One time Prabhupada was giving a lecture in Gorakhpur, it’s a city somewhat near Vrindavan. So his servant was feeling very tired. He was sitting on a wooden floor. And everyone was listening very carefully to Prabhupada and the room was very quiet and suddenly we heard this very big sound. The servant had fallen asleep and hit his head on the floor. Then he woke up. Prabhupada said, Now go to sleep. So Bhagavad Gita has taught us that we have to practice patience and we also heard this from the 3rd verse the previous verse talked about being patient. See now it is easy because many of you are very new devotees. When children are 2 or 3 years old, life is easy. Of course they fall and they scrape their arm and get a little hurt, but other than that, not much problem. But as you get older, you have to go to school, then the problems get more difficult. Then you have to get married and there’s further problems. As life goes on, problems increase. So you are all in a very nice stage because so far theres not much problems. But you’ll see within six months, one year, two years, three years, five years, things will become more difficult. It wont get easier. By then you will have so much knowledge and then you will realize how much you have to do to become Krishna conscious. If you can embrace, if you can hold on to the teachings of books like these, this will help you later on. When those problems come you will be able to talk to another person, who will help you through those problems. So I have spoken after four types of loving exchanges.

To give a gift, to receive a gift, we also said the word charity right? And to speak confidentially and to hear confidentially. There’s two more left. And these two are very easy.

To offer prasadam and to receive prasadam. I have always said, just like Gopal raj cooks for me so much, I always tell him, 50% is in cooking and 50% is in serving prasadam. Just like in England, he was cooking for me, and there were two other people living there. But I would not let them serve the prasdam. Because the mood was not right. The main thing about serving prasdam is that you have to serve prasadam just like the mother feeds her baby. When the mother is feeding her child, the mother is not thinking about eating herself, sheb is only thing that her child should eat more. She is not thing, I better save something for myself. She is not distracted, thinking about something else. She is only thinking, how can I get my child to eat nicely and be healthy. That kind of serving is good. But that’s very hard to learn if you don’t feel that way. In some good temples, the persons who serve the prasadam are the senior most people. Because they are more advanced, they can give more freely and easily. In your cooking and in your serving of prasadam, the love has to pass through. Just like sometimes in restaurants you may see that there are extra cooks but you cannot eat that food because there is no love in that cooking.

So this preparation of prasadam and serving of prasadam must be done in a loving mood and a giving mood. Prabhupada called prasadam our “secret weapon” If we think about weapon, we think about warfare. We are making war with maya. The material civilization And the secret weapon is prasadam. People who do not agree with our philosophy still like our prasadam. So prasadam can go where the philosophy cannot go. Prabhupada told me in the last year when he was living, he said to me that we do not need to open more temples, like in America we had many temples, we don’t need more temples in America, we should just open restaurants. So I think in Taiwan there are many vegetarian restaurants, Budhist restaurants. But there are no prasadam restaurants. So this is something for the future.

52.42

Ques and ans

1. what is the qualification for distributing.holy names

purity. If chanting is done offensively.not effective.