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Giriraj Swami: We shall read a verse from Srimad-Bhagavatam,

Canto Two, Chapter Three, pure devotional service, text 17.
Please repeat after me.

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya,

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya,
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya,

Please repeat.

ŚB 2.3.17

āyur harati vai puṁsām

udyann astaṁ ca yann asau
tasyarte yat-kṣaṇo nīta
uttama-śloka-vārtayā

Synonyms: āyuḥ — duration of life; harati — decreases; vai —

certainly; puṁsām — of the people; udyan — rising; astam —
setting; ca — also; yan — moving; asau — the sun; tasya — of one
who glorifies the Lord; ṛte — except; yat — by whom; kṣaṇaḥ —
time; nītaḥ — utilized; uttama-śloka — the all-good Personality
of Godhead; vārtayā — in the topics of.

Translation: Both by rising and by setting, the sun decreases the

duration of life of everyone, except one who utilizes the time by
discussing topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead.

Translation again: Both by rising and by setting, the sun

decreases the duration of life of everyone, except one who
utilizes the time by discussing topics of the all-good
Personality of Godhead.

Giriraj Swami: Is everyone able to hear? Good.

Purport by SP: This verse indirectly confirms the greater

importance of utilizing the human form of life to realize our
lost relationship with the Supreme Lord by acceleration of
devotional service.

Comment by GRS: Acceleration means-- there's a book right there,

“America Acceleration” but they might be accelerating in the
wrong direction. But here it says “acceleration of devotional
service” that means we're engaged in devotional service but we
have to accelerate, because like in the car there's the
accelerator, we have to step on it, we have to go faster because
the clock is ticking. The sun is rising and the sun is setting,
decreasing the duration of life of everyone, or almost everyone.
We have to step on it.

Purport by SP: Time and tide wait for no man. So the time
indicated by the sunrise and the sunset will be uselessly wasted
if such time is not properly utilized for realizing
identification of spiritual values. Even a fraction of the
duration of life wasted cannot be compensated by any amount of
gold.

Comment by GRS: Yes, at the time of death you may want to

increase the duration of your life, and you might be willing to
spend any amount of gold or money to extend your life, but you
can't. That means that the time of our life is more valuable than
any amount of gold, I mean, once it's gone we can't buy it back
for any amount. So the idea is that we should utilize it in the
best way, in Krishna consciousness. Otherwise, it's wasted, that
time is wasted.

Srila Prabhupada had a good friend in Bombay named Bridgerattan

Mota. Mr. Mota had been the wealthiest man in West Pakistan,
before partition. Then he came to Bombay and he was married to
the daughter of Ardi Birla, who's one of the four Birla brothers,
the wealthiest family in India. Srila Prabhupada was expert in
speaking in the language of his audience, so Mr. Mota would come
quite frequently to Juhu, even though it was a bit of a drive,
and meet Srila Prabhupada. One day Srila Prabhupada told him “In
the ledger of your life there is profit and loss, so any time
used in the service of Krishna, in Krishna consciousness, is
profit. And any time used outside of Krishna consciousness is
loss.” Every businessman, of course, wants to maximize his
profits and minimize his losses, and we can do that by maximizing
the time we use in Krishna consciousness and minimizing the time
we spend outside of Krishna consciousness. And the time loss can
never be brought back or bought back, at the end of life we can't
purchase any extra time. Our time is so precious.

Purport by SP: Human life is simply awarded to a living entity

(jīva) so that he can realize his spiritual identity and his
permanent source of happiness.

Comment by GRS: We all want happiness, but as Srila Prabhupada

often noted, we don't know where to find real happiness. Real
happiness means happiness that is permanent, that does not end.
What we have in the material realm, which is the world of
duality, is happiness and distress, the two go together. But as
Srila Prabhupada says here:

Purport by SP: A living being, especially the human being, is

seeking happiness because happiness is the natural situation of
the living entity. But he is vainly seeking happiness in the
material atmosphere. A living being is constitutionally a
spiritual spark of the complete whole, and his happiness can be
perfectly perceived in spiritual activities.

Comment by GRS: We living entities, by nature, by constitution,

are spiritual beings. Therefore, we can be happy only in
spiritual activities, in a spiritual environment. Sometimes Srila
Prabhupada gave the example of a bird: “If you put a bird in a
cage and you fill the cage with nice gems, jewels, fragrances,
and make everything very nice, but you don't feed the bird, will
the bird be happy? No.” This body is like a cage, and we the
spirit soul are like the bird in the cage, so no matter what we
do for the cage, if we don't feed the bird, the bird will not be
happy. The food for the spiritual soul is Krishna consciousness,
hearing and chanting about Krishna, that is the nourishment for
the soul. And if we don't nourish the soul, the soul will be
unhappy, it will be weak, no matter how well the cage is
maintained.

Another related example that Srila Prabhupada gave was a fish out
of water. The fish is a creature of the water, the fish can be
happy in the water. If you take the fish out of the water, even
if you put it in a golden bowl, and fill the bowl with gems and
jewels, it won't be happy because it's out of its element. It can
only be happy in the water. So again, we are spiritual beings, we
are of the spiritual nature, and we can be happy only in the
spiritual nature. If you take us out of the spiritual nature, no
matter what you do to fill the bowl with nice objects, but as
long as the fish is out of water, the fish cannot be happy.

Purport by SP: A living being, especially the human being, is

seeking happiness because happiness is the natural situation of
the living entity. But he is vainly seeking happiness in the
material atmosphere. A living being is constitutionally a
spiritual spark of the complete whole, and his happiness can be
perfectly perceived in spiritual activities.

Comment by GRS: In the Bhagavad-gita Krishna says mamaivāṁśo

jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ, that the living entities are His
fragmental parts and parcels, they are eternal and they (we) can
be happy only in relation to Him because we're His parts and we
feel complete when we're in relationship with Him. Outside of a
relationship with Him we feel incomplete and we try to compensate
for that feeling of incompleteness, or we try to overcome that
feeling of incompleteness, by material things, by accumulating
material things, gross and subtle. Subtle could be profit,
adoration and distinction, but they are never satisfied.

There was a man named John Paul Getty, who was considered the
wealthiest person in the world, at least in America. And an
interviewer asked him, “You're the richest man in the world, you
have everything that money can buy, can you tell us what is your
philosophy of life in one word?” And he said, “Yes, more.” That
answer was very telling, that means he's not satisfied, he wants
more. But even if he gets more, he still won't be satisfied
because he's vainly seeking happiness in the material atmosphere.
Then the interviewer asked him, “In a similar vein, you're the
richest man in the world, you have everything money can buy, when
you're all alone and no one else is there with you, what do you
think about?” And he replied, “I think about how to pay the
bills.”
On our level we might think about how to pay the bill of a
hundred dollars or a thousand dollars. You might be thinking how
to pay a bill of a million dollars or a billion dollars to take
over some company. But it's the same as any ordinary person,
qualitatively there's no difference. All right, so he's vainly
seeking happiness in the material atmosphere.

Purport by SP: The Lord is the complete spirit whole, and His
name, form, quality, pastimes, entourage and personality are all
identical with Him. Once a person comes into contact with any one
of the above-mentioned energies of the Lord through the proper
channel of devotional service, the door to perfection is
immediately opened.

Comment by GRS: We've established that by nature we're spiritual

beings, we cannot be happy in the material atmosphere, we can
only be happy in relation to Krishna. So how do we connect with
Krishna? Here Srila Prabhupada explains that Krishna can be
appreciated or realized through His name, His forms, His
qualities, His pastimes, His paraphernalia and His entourage.
That's Krishna consciousness, that's connecting with Krishna in
any one or more of these aspects of His personality.

Purport by SP: The Lord is the complete spirit whole, and His
name, form, quality, pastimes, entourage and personality are all
identical with Him.

Comment by GRS: The form means the deity form, like Radha Chandi,
that is identical with the Lord, the holy name, or the
scriptures, the words spoken by the Lord or about the Lord,
they're all Krishna.

Purport by SP: Once a person comes into contact with any one of
the above-mentioned energies of the Lord through the proper
channel of devotional service, the door to perfection is
immediately opened. In the Bhagavad-gītā (2.40) the Lord has
explained such contact in the following words: “Endeavors in
devotional service are never baffled. Nor is there failure. A
slight beginning of such activities is sufficient even to deliver
a person from the great ocean of material fears.”
Comment by GRS: This is a very important fact about devotional
service, that it is never lost. Anything material can be lost.
Suppose someone is a learned scholar and knows many languages,
but when he leaves his body and takes birth as a baby in the next
life, he doesn't know any languages, it’s all “Gagaga”, it's all
lost. And the same thing with money, you may be a millionaire in
this life, but at the time of death, you have to leave it all
behind, and in the next life you're born with nothing. I mean,
you may get something or you may not get something, depending on
the circumstances of your next life. But devotional service is
never lost, that's the difference between devotional service and
material achievements.

So say you only progress one percent in this life, but still, in
your next life you start from two percent, there's no loss or
diminution. Even a little progress protects one from the most
dangerous fear. What is the most dangerous fear? That's the fear
of taking birth in a lower species of life, where one cannot
continue in devotional service. There's a very big difference
between material achievements, which are lost at the time of
death, and progress in devotional service, which continues into
the next life.

Purport by SP: As a highly potent drug injected intravenously

acts at once on the whole body, the transcendental topics of the
Lord injected through the ear by the pure devotee of the Lord can
act very efficiently.

Comment by GRS: The idea is you can inject a highly potent drug
in a vein and immediately the whole body gets the benefit, and
similarly, you can inject the messages of Krishna through the ear
and immediately the whole being gets the benefit. It starts with
the ear, hearing, sravana, first is sravana, kirtana, smarana and
so on.

Purport by SP: Aural reception-- that's a-u-r-a-l, through the

ear. Aural realization of the transcendental messages implies
total realization, just as fructification of one part of a tree
implies fructification of all other parts. This realization for a
moment in the association of pure devotees like Śukadeva Gosvāmī
prepares one’s complete life for eternity.

Comment by GRS: The verse is very striking, “By rising and by

setting the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone” that
we can all understand. “Except one who utilizes the time by
discussing topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead.” So how
is that? That happens because by utilizing one's time in Krishna
consciousness, one achieves his eternal life. His duration of
life is not being decreased, but actually, he's approaching his
eternal life.

Purport by SP: And thus the sun fails to rob the pure devotee of
his duration of life, inasmuch as he is constantly busy in the
devotional service of the Lord, purifying his existence. Death is
a symptom of the material infection of the eternal living being.

Comment by GRS: In other words, death is not natural for the

living being because the living being is by nature eternal,
sanātana. But it's a symptom of our diseased condition in
material life that we have death, otherwise, there is no death
for the soul.

Purport by SP: Death is a symptom of the material infection of

the eternal living being; only due to material infection is the
eternal living entity subjected to the law of birth, death, old
age and disease.

Comment by GRS: Those are janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi duhkha-

dosanudarsanam. The Bhagavad-gita says that perception of the
evils of birth, death, old age and disease is part of knowledge,
anything else is ignorance. So this is very important that we're
aware of these four miseries and make a plan to become free from
them.

Purport by SP: The materialistic way of pious activities like

charity is recommended in the smṛti-śāstras as quoted by Śrīla
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. Money given in charity to a
suitable person is guaranteed bank balance in the next life. Such
charity is recommended to be given to a brāhmaṇa. If the money is
given in charity to a non-brāhmaṇa (without brahminical
qualification) the money is returned in the next life in the same
proportion. If it is given in charity to a half-educated
brāhmaṇa, even then the money is returned double. If the money is
given in charity to a learned and fully qualified brāhmaṇa, the
money is returned a hundred and a thousand times.

Comment by GRS: That's a pretty good return, but it doesn't stop

there!

Purport by SP: And if the money is given to a veda-pāraga (one

who has factually realized the path of the Vedas), it is returned
by unlimited multiplication.

Comment by GRS: In the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna says vedaiś ca

sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ, that the goal of all the Vedas is to
know Him, by all the Vedas He is to be known. A veda-pāraga means
“One who knows Krishna” so if you're given charity to a veda-
pāraga like Srila Prabhupada, the money is returned by unlimited
multiplication. How does that work? Because nothing in the
material world is unlimited, so I would say that it's returned in
the spiritual world.

There is a very interesting exchange with Srila Prabhupada in

Hong Kong. Bhurijanna Prabhu was there preaching and he arranged
to pick up Srila Prabhupada in a Rolls-Royce car and bring him to
the penthouse suite in the best hotel, maybe the Hong Kong
Hilton, for a press conference. So one of the newspaper reporters
asked him, “You're supposed to be a spiritual person, why did you
ride in a Rolls-Royce car?” And Srila Prabhupada replied,
“Actually, I'm a resident of the spiritual world, and in the
spiritual world everything is made of spiritual gems, so even if
they had picked me up in a solid gold Rolls-Royce, it would not
have been good enough. You asked me why did I ride in a Rolls-
Royce car. Well, the answer is that that was the best they could
offer.”

Then from there Srila Prabhupada came to Juhu and he related that
to me, and he said “What else can you say to such envious
people?” But actually, of course, there was truth to whatever
Srila Prabhupada said, so that unlimited multiplication has to be
in the spiritual world. That's the tremendous benefit of giving
to a veda-pāraga, there are unlimited-- or it could be, but I
think that's a better understanding, more correct.

Purport by SP: If the money is given to a veda-pāraga (one who

has factually realized the path of the Vedas), it is returned by
unlimited multiplication. The ultimate end of Vedic knowledge is
realization of the Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa, as stated
in the Bhagavad-gītā (vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ). There
is a guarantee of money’s being returned if given in charity,
regardless of the proportion.

Comment by GRS: And now we're coming back to the basic topic.

Purport by SP: Similarly, a moment passed in the association of a

pure devotee by hearing and chanting the transcendental messages
of the Lord is a perfect guarantee for eternal life, for
returning home, back to Godhead. Mad-dhāma gatvā punar janma na
vidyate.

Comment by GRS: It means one who attains the abode of Krishna and
never comes back to the material world.

Purport by SP: In other words, a devotee of the Lord is

guaranteed eternal life. A devotee’s old age or disease in the
present life is but an impetus to such guaranteed eternal life.

Comment by GRS: Generally, we don't like old age or disease, but

they're not bad actually for a devotee, in the sense that they
are an impetus for the devotee to realize his eternal life, that
this material world and this material body are not comfortable
places. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam, Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita
that this material world is a place of misery and it's temporary,
duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam. So even if you're ready to make some
compromise that-- well, yes, it's not perfect, there's no perfect
happiness, but there's some happiness, so I'll take that. But
aśāśvatam it's temporary, you can't. Yes, temporarily you might
for a while, but you can't keep it.

A devotee's old age or disease in the present life is but an

impetus to such guaranteed eternal life because they remind us
that this body, this place is not our real home, it's not a happy
place and it's not a permanent situation. This is the great gift
that Srila Prabhupada and our Parampara have given us, the
knowledge of our actual identity, our actual goal, and the
process by which we can achieve it, which is mentioned in this
verse, uttama-śloka-vārtayā, discussing topics of Krishna. Hare
Krishna. Are there any questions or comments? Yes, Nandini.

Devotee 1: You mentioned this very wealthy man who was from
Pakistan and--

Giriraj Swami: Oh, Mr. Motta!

Devotee 1: --that he married a very wealthy woman in India, one

of the wealthiest families in India.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, Ardi Birla’s daughter.

Devotee 1: My question is--

Giriraj Swami: Well, I think of it, not that it's very much on
the topic, but from time to time my parents would visit me in
India, so once we had a program at Mr. Motta's home, very nice
home, on Malabar Hill. And it's sort of the culture that the
hostess stands at the door as the guests leave and sort of greets
them. So when my parents were leaving, Mrs. Motta, Ardi Birla's
daughter, said to them, “If I ask my husband to do something, he
may or may not do it, but if your son asks him to do something,
he always does it.”

Devotee 1: Well, I guess my question was that they had, from what
it seems, a good amount of association with Prabhupada.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, Mr. Motta did.

Devotee 1: Did you experience that although he was extremely

wealthy, he was embracing Krishna consciousness? That's one
question. And is it possible then for people that are in
business, business people, to be Krishna conscious, practice
Krishna consciousness, advancing Krishna consciousness?

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, Mr. Motta definitely made spiritual

progress. He was like many Hindus, maybe most Hindus, he is an
impersonalist at first, but he had some interest. This is very
interesting, it was very unusual. We received a letter from him
in the mail saying that-- I think it was maybe addressed to Srila
Prabhupada, saying that he wanted to meet Srila Prabhupada and
discuss with him. But Srila Prabhupada was out of town and he
didn't really-- I went to his office to meet him, and he was one
of those people who thought that ultimately God was impersonal,
and that the impersonal was speaking through Krishna in the
Bhagavad-gita. But that the ultimate goal was impersonal.

After meeting Mr. Motta-- I mean, there was more to it, but after
meeting Mr. Motta I reported to Srila Prabhupada about the
discussion, and he said that I should ask Mr. Motta “Even
assuming that the impersonal is greater than the personal, what
would you rather have, ten rupees in the pocket of the two
billion people on earth, or a million rupees in your pocket?”

Yeah, but of course, one can be a businessman and be Krishna

conscious. I think Nal Srinathji Das was a brilliant example, he
was-- well, his father was a very shrewd businessman in Bombay,
and the son-- the father was Dharamsi Didi Dassai, and the son
was Endy Dassai. He was considered sort of a pollyanna, not
shrewd like his father. So I would meet business people when I
would go out preaching, and that was the talk, “How is he going
to carry on the legacy, the fortune?” And he ended up multiplying
the businesses. I truly believe the reason was because he was a
devotee, he developed a-- I think the original business is-- I
know they had one company called Power Oils, it was sort of a
petroleum-- but he developed light bulbs, a line of light bulbs
called “CEMA” C-E-M-A.

I would see billboards advertising and there was something-- it

wasn't just because I was a devotee and I knew him in person, but
there's something about those ads that were just so attractive.
And I felt that Krishna was making his business successful
because he was very charitable, I mean, very charitable. He
talked about all these family relationships, his wife was the
daughter of Arvind Mafatlal, and in those days the Birlas were
the number one, and the Mafatlal were the number three. So he
would get up early every morning and chant his rounds, and he
said-- not that it was his intention, but he did mention that in
his early morning japa he would get good insights into how to
conduct the business. He became very successful, way more than
his father, but he was very generous and also-- anyway, I could
say a lot about him, but the answer is yes, one can certainly be
a businessman and a devotee at the same time.

Devotee 2: I think I've heard you say in one class, I'm not sure
if it was yesterday or-- but that Krishna consciousness is about
love, did you say something like that? That the sentiment is
about love.

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee 2: So we love the example that you water the root and
then automatically all the leaves are benefited, so sometimes you
see that the concept that we're all one, which is spiritually, in
the sense we are all spirit souls, and there's a connection in
that way. It's a natural inclination, I think, for devotees to
feel love for everyone, and for people, generally, to feel love
for others, for their immediate family, for sure. But to sing
that Krishna is there, he's with everyone, he's like-- you see
him.

Giriraj Swami: Well, in the beginning of the Nectar of Devotion

Srila Prabhupada explains that every living being has the
propensity to love, even animals, even lions have the propensity
to love their offspring. But he said, or he wrote, that we have
to know where to place our love so that we're satisfied, and that
is Krishna. But again, Krishna ultimately includes every living
entity because they're all His parts and parcels, so if you love
Krishna, then you do love every living entity.

Devotee 2: Asking for advice. Sometimes the dualities of life are

such that there's a lot of mental anguish, and despite trying to
engage the mind in the nine processes of devotional service, one
isn't quite able to overcome the anguish. So what would your
advice be? What should a person do?

Giriraj Swami: Well, when we're chanting we have to fix the mind
on the sound of the holy name. His Holiness Satcitananda Swami,
who's conducted a lot of japa retreats and holy name retreats,
says that whatever it is, you just have to bring the mind to the
sound of the holy name. But he did say that if something keeps
coming back, some disturbing or distracting thought or challenge,
then you may have to deal with it. Yes, I mean, mental anguish--
well, first of all, you're not the mind, so with your
intelligence you can see that this is your mind, it's not you,
it's your mind. Or we just have to take more shelter, more
sincerely, more earnestly. But there's another-- yeah, I think we
could leave it at that, as far as this exchange perseveres. It’s
like they say, “Drops of water wears away stone” so if you just
keep with the chanting and hearing, then eventually that anguish
will get worn away.

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