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This is an article by Jnana Dasa published in the BTG magazine in 1980 By the grace of my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, I would like to recount a few episodes from my struggle to take up devotional service to Lord Sri Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I was born near London, into a somewhat pious though not deeply religious family. As a child, I regularly attended Sunday school and Bible class. Once I suddenly felt the saving mercy of Jesus Christ, and I prayed that he would be my Savior and take over my life; but there was little sense of actual transformation, and the sentiment faded. My parents were eager for me to have a good education, so I worked hard at school and studied chemistry at Oxford University, although the subject no longer interested me. Satisfaction had to come from some other source. I didn't like sports or intellectual discussions, and so I became part of a small group that absorbed itself in singing and playing traditional music. In this way I spent my days, sometimes searching libraries for scientific information (information that would be out of date in a few years), sometimes courting women who would leave me for someone else in a few days or weeks, and sometimes trying to immerse myself in the musical expression of a culture that had already practically vanished. The scientific knowledge I acquired was an accumulation of facts in well-researched fields. I don't recall anyone's transmitting a sense of life's mystery or wonder or of responsibility for understanding life's purpose. In fact my so-called moral tutor told me at the end of his course, "Actually the most important thing is to learn how to take your liquor." "Isn't getting a degree most important?" I asked. After all, why else had I come to the university? "It's not the most important thing. You can get by in life without a degree, but you'll never get anywhere if you can't take your drink." This, then, was the nature of the elite into which I had been initiated -- spiritually bankrupt and socially irresponsible. I entered society without the slightest idea that seeking relief from the pangs of birth and death was even acceptable, socially or intellectually. Certainly I had no understanding that this was the especial responsibility of human life. After teaching chemistry at high school for a year, I went for a Postgraduate Certificate of Education at London University. The head of the Education Department smugly recounted his maxim "Those who can't do something teach it, and those who can't teach it teach others how to teach it." It was his little joke, but I saw that the men who ran the department were confused about their aims, although they had made a comfortable living for themselves. I also saw that I was little better than they were. I wanted material security, but I was also interested in the exotic and earthy vigor of primitive cultures. So I took employment as an expatriate teacher in a rural high school in Ghana, West Africa. The environment fascinated me: the vivid colors and patterns of birth, growth, and death, the individuality expressed by the animals, the birds, and even the insects and plants in their struggle for existence, and the emotional fullness of the people, with their simple life and colorful festivals. I joined in the customs of the local people, sought to understand their beliefs as much as I could, and immersed myself in their music and rhythmic drumming. I was frustrated with the limitations of the life I had known so far, and I longed for the wings to range over a wider spiritual landscape. Still, I was a young dog. I had no higher knowledge and no spiritual insight. My only escape from the mundane world was through music and song. Religion? I was a "reverent agnostic." The conventional religion I had seen so far was dull. I reserved judgment, but my other attempts to enjoy life seemed more important. There was practically no question of duty to God. My basis for moral judgments was simply that I should live without "spoiling things" for myself and others. But now my perspective started to change. At college I had doubted the simplistic religious faith of my childhood (and I still did), but now the vitality around me challenged my materialistic complacency. I had the leisure to contemplate the potency of the life force and the order and complexity of living forms and relationships. Where did material science even begin to explain all this? I could see that there was a supreme intelligence, whom I called "the Lord of Life." Now, I suppose I could have come alive by worshipping this source of life, but instead, I withdrew into drugs and what I thought to be trances of spiritual insight. My attempts to raise my consciousness seemed very significant, although in fact, I was becoming more and more remote, afraid, and unable to communicate with others. And joyful, exotic Africa now seemed weird and dangerous. I decided to return to London. For the time being, I shelved the question of service to "the Lord of Life," but I wanted to find some sort of relief for my mental confusion. So I began to count my breaths, as an exercise in inner awareness. Once, someone in London gave me a Back to Godhead magazine, but I couldn't understand it. In the front was a picture of Srila Prabhupada, looking very grave. One of the articles described the joys of chanting Hare Krsna and had pictures of Bengali chanting parties. It seemed nice, but not very serious, and I couldn't see the connection with the Supreme Absolute. Once I met a devotee in a shop. She said "Hare Krsna!" just as I would say "Happy Christmas!" Later, one afternoon, I visited London's Hare Krsna temple, but I saw no one there, and feeling insecure I walked out. I was more interested in the doctrine that one can free oneself from all miseries by stopping material activity and desires and realizing that both the world and our sense of individual existence are illusory. In other words, "We only think we are suffering. You can stop suffering by stopping the activities of the mind." After a survey of various spiritual paths, I decided that Zen was the most practical way of attaining this state of nirvana. For one thing, it seemed to correspond most closely with the experiences of enlightenment I felt I had had in Africa. Also, it hardly required any faith in anything external, and this I felt was good. I had little faith in the materialistic culture and beliefs in which I had been raised, but I had been schooled all too well in skepticism. The principal requirements for Zen, it seemed, were dogged determination and concentration. I thought I was capable of that. After returning from Africa I had managed to hold down teaching jobs for a year and a half, but I was becoming more and more disgusted. The children would ask, "Why do we have to learn this Sir?" "Because you have to pass exams to get a proper job." But I didn't want a better job myself. Neither the children nor I were interested in what I had to teach them. Meanwhile, I was becoming more disappointed than satisfied in my attempts to find material happiness. To admit that it was illusory and try to find reality seemed better than to carry on vainly struggling. I was really serious about Zen. I had waited long enough to be sure of that. I finished the school year, gave notice, cut off my beard and the long hair I had defended against several headmasters, got rid of my musical paraphernalia, bade farewell to my family, girlfriend, and other intimates, and set off for Japan to practice Zen in earnest. Somehow I thought that it would not be very spiritual to fly to Japan, so I took a train across Russia, and it was two weeks before I arrived at my destination. I climbed the steps from the road, past engraved stones ("Form is just emptiness. Emptiness is just form."), and along the wooded path to the main gate, where I paused with one foot over the threshold. Cicadas sizzled under the hot sun, emphasizing the silence. Everything was swept clean -- the courtyard, the paths, even the mossy banks were completely free of fallen leaves and twigs -- but no one was to be seen. Dragon Marsh Temple stood as if transported from another dimension, a dimension of intense stillness. At last I was granted an interview. The Roshi, or teacher, had many disciples in the West, and he allowed me to live with the monks, rising early in the morning, chanting sutras, cleaning, and sitting in zazen (focusing the mind on the nothingness that is supposed to underlie all existence and activity). I took to the life seriously, and the monks readily accepted me. After a while I was invited to move into their quarters, and finally the teacher agreed to ordain me a monk. I appreciated the discipline and orderliness of their humble life, with its emphasis on cleanliness and neatness, and in the natural, peaceful atmosphere of the charming wooden temple set amongst forested hills and paddy fields I had the feeling of getting to the roots of the Zen tradition. "When the mind halts, one has achieved enlightenment." Now I was on the path toward stilling the mad mind. Every day I would battle with it, counting my breaths or concentrating on the word mu ("none"). The lofty Bodhisattva concept inspired me. Instead of seeking only his own release from birth and death, the Bodhisattva vows to enlighten all other beings. Transcending the limits of material personality, he appears throughout the material world in suitable forms to rescue suffering beings from illusion and misery. Aspiring to attain this state, I struggled with the abominably dry practice, striving to quell the ceaseless agitation of my mind. We had gruelling week-long meditation sesshins, in which we would sit for many hours a day in the oppressive summer heat and the piercing cold of mid-December. Because there was no heating and our quarters were made of lattice and paper, January and February were especially austere. Sometimes as we sat we would feel earth tremors. The buildings would shake, and the warning bells in the eaves would jingle. "This is a test of my samadhi," I would think, and I would try harder to blot out the troublesome mind. Still, it did not halt. After a few months, doubts began to crowd in. It was too obvious that the other monks were not at all liberated from material attachments. They ate meat and fish outside the temple's dining hall, they smoked, and from time to time they would return from the town drunk and with bite marks on their necks from amorous pastimes. Their interest was professional; they had to put in two years at a training hall before they could take over the temples of their parents for a livelihood. The teachers were more dignified, but they also ate meat and fish and were partial to hot rice wine. They introduced me to various aspects of refined Japanese social life that seemed to have little to do with liberation from birth and death and were quite incongruous with Zen teachings. The most serious students appeared to be the Westerners who visited the temple from time to time. Without exception, either they were baffled by the contradictions they saw in the behavior of the monks, or else they stayed and came to a stickier end. One American boy returned home after a week-long meditation session at the temple and stabbed himself. Another young man I had known at the Zen group in London despaired of attaining enlightenment, went to a nearby barn, and hanged himself in a meditation posture. An American lady became deranged and had to return to America. I persevered. I was determined to attain awakening and could see no better situation for working on it, although I had doubts about the degree of attainment of my teacher and about Zen philosophy itself. I read the Lotus Sutra and the Surangama Sutra and found that two of the most important personages in the Buddhist hierarchy, namely the Bodhisattvas and Manjusri, both recommended concentration on sound rather than silent meditation. Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of compassionate wisdom, particularly prescribed concentration on the sound of one's own voice. This started my interest in chanting. I soon read The Way of a Pilgrim, a book that relates how a Russian peasant reached deep absorption and spiritual bliss by ceaselessly chanting the name of Jesus. The book moved and impressed me. My teacher took me to visit a neighboring Christian nunnery, and I was rather ashamed of the contrast between our rigid formality and their simple, joyful spontaneity. One of the other Western students and I began discussing, "If all religions are equivalent to one another, what is the equivalent in Zen to love of God?" At first I thought the question would be easy to answer, but then I saw that there was no equivalent. Zen denies the reality of personal identity, both in the individual and in the Absolute. So in Zen it is not possible for love of God to be the ultimate stage, for neither the individual nor God is seen as having a real existence. Here was a problem. Either the personal feature of the Absolute was an inferior concept, which Zen transcends, or else the philosophy and practice of Zen were incomplete. I did not understand such questions at the time, nor did the other monks. "Zen wo zenzen wakarimazen," they would quip ("I don't understand Zen at all"). They gradually lost patience with my efforts to abstain from eating meat and drinking liquor. Such abstinence was tolerable in the temple but too troublesome when supporters entertained us in their houses. "Why don't you drink whiskey with the rest of us?" demanded my immediate superior at one stop for refreshment. "It's just egotism. That's what it is. Everyone agrees." I consulted my teacher, and he found a small hut in the mountains where I could practice solitary Zen. The retreat was the last building on a mountain path. Above me were forested hills, and the only sounds were the plaintive calls of Japanese nightingales and the sweet trickling of rivulets running down toward the valley. So I began a new phase in the battle to still my turbulent mind. All-day long I concentrated on the sounds of bells, simple flutes, and my own chanting. (I could no longer bear to sit and concentrate on nothingness. It had been driving me crazy.) But I fared even worse in the peace and tranquillity of the mountains than in the confusion of the temple. After two or three days of austerity I would go on a binge of eating, sexual desires became troublesome after being absent for more than a year, and I began to meditate on my family. It was plain that I was not becoming free from material attachments, despite every effort to do so. Then I went to visit a fellow Zen student from London who was staying with a friend in Kyoto. This friend was engaged to marry the daughter of a priest of the Buddhist Pure Land sect, and while waiting in the house I read some books the priest had left there. The real purpose of Gautama Buddha's appearance, these books explained, was to preach the chanting of the name of the compassionate Buddha Amitabha. The books quoted authorities such as Vasubandhu and Nagarjuna, recognized patriarchs in the Zen line, who prescribed surrender to the Other Power and chanting of the name of Amitabha Buddha as the way of liberation. Enlightenment by one's own efforts, they said, is difficult, like traveling on land, whereas reaching perfection by surrendering to the Other Power and the holy name is easy, like traveling on water. It all tied in! The same emphasis on sound and chanting. The same conviction that silent meditation was not practical. After a kindly priest instructed me in chanting the name of the compassionate Amitabha Buddha, I began the continuous chanting of nama amida bu ("obeisances to Amitabha Buddha"). I longed for the mercy and realization that would free me from the miseries imposed by the mind. I no longer relied on my own ability to reach enlightenment. I needed help. On the northern side of Japan there are many followers of this way, including a number of people who were supposed to have experienced a complete change of heart by deep faith in the holy name. I made a barefoot pilgrimage in my monk's dress, chanting and searching for someone who could show me the way to realization. Sometimes at night I would sleep leaned against my backpack, with only my rain cape and broad bamboo hat to serve as shelter against the wind and rain. In the morning I would sit on the seashore in meditation, the rain pattering on my hat and cape and smoothing the surf before me. But nothing could soothe the raging of my mind. Who could have been more lonely and miserable? I despaired of finding happiness in materialistic life, yet I could find no transcendental alternative. Frustrated and disappointed, I returned to London and tried to pick up the relationships I had left two years before. But there was no point of contact. I was convinced that the aims of these people I had known were futile, but I had nothing to offer them. I did not want to spend my days with people who had no inner life, but I had no real life of my own. I was becoming desperate. I chanted the names of Jesus and Buddha and prayed often -- but to whom? I was not sure whether the Absolute was a person, and if so, who? So I just prayed, "Please! Please!" I saw that the skepticism with which I had grown up had been crippling my ability to trust in a transcendental life. So I put my trust in the unknown supreme, once again cut loose from my former ties, and went to the community of a self-styled Buddha who was preaching love and trust. But I found the Buddha making passes at the wife of one of his followers, and once again I was on the road. This had been my last hope. Now I was finally exhausted. In a cheap boarding house near Victoria Station in London, I kneeled by a broken bed and for the first time acknowledged my complete helplessness. "My dear Lord," I prayed, "I don't know who You are or what Your name is or anything about You. I am sure You are there, but I don't know how to find You. I cannot live like this for many days more." It was a prayer of utter distress and helplessness, like that of a baby crying for its mother to pick it up. The next morning I wanted to make a phone call, but I couldn't find a phone box. I walked a long way before finding a row of them, all full. While I was waiting, a Hare Krsna devotee came over from a house on the other side of the street. He wanted to make a call too. "Go ahead," I told him. "I'm not in a hurry." As he tried to get through, we talked. "Where have you been?" he asked. "In Japan," I told him. "I was studying Buddhism." "Whew! That must have been dry." I was surprised he knew. "Well, yes, it was. I told him that I was looking for a spiritual master and that I wanted to find a community or group who were chanting the holy name. "Why don't you come back with me," suggested my new friend. "That's what we're doing." He made his call, and we went to the apartment where the devotees were staying. He told me that he was initiated by Srila Prabhupada and that his name was Jagajivana dasa. "This is the Bhagavad-gita;" he offered, showing me a book. "It gives us a lot of information about the soul and reincarnation. Do you believe in reincarnation? "Yes. Buddhists don't accept the existence of the soul, though. They say there is no real self. It's just illusory." "Well, if there's no real self, what is it that reincarnates, and what stops your body from decaying until the time of death?" "I don't know. Buddhists say you can t really understand that until you have gained enlightenment." "Are you enlightened?" he asked. "No "I said. "I'm not." "Do you know anyone who is?" "I don't think so." "Do you think there is anyone who is enlightened?" "I'm not sure. I think there may be one or two people. I don't really know where, though." "How can you become spiritually realized if you don't have a teacher who is realized?" "I don't know. It's a difficult problem. Is your teacher self-realized?" "Oh, yes," Jagajivana said confidently. "Srila Prabhupada is a pure devotee of Krsna." "Who is Krsna, really?" I asked. Jagajivana happily began to tell me about Krsna, the Supreme Lord. He told me of Krsna's personal form, qualities, and pastimes and read me a story about Krsna's cowherd boyfriends helping to dress Krsna in the morning. While one of Krsna's friends was tying on Krsna's ankle bells, Krsna teased him, out of transcendental love. Mother Yasoda scolded Krsna, but the friend said he liked being teased by Krsna. The story was intimate and simple. 'This is a miracle," I thought. "Last night was the first time I completely put my trust in the Lord, and already He is answering my prayer. This may be the end of my search. Perhaps Krsna is the Lord of Life who showed Himself to me in Africa! I neglected Him for so long, and now that I've turned to Him He is showing Himself again. If only I can become self-realized by chanting Krsna's name!" A beautiful photograph fascinated me. A group of robed young men and women with vertical lines of tilaka on their foreheads were chanting and dancing. I gazed and gazed at their sweet expressions of joyful absorption and prayed that I could become like them. Jagajivana took me to his temple, and after three days of chanting Hare Krsna, eating prasadam (food offered to Krsna), and working with the devotees, I felt greatly relieved of my anxiety. "I don't care what my family and friends think." I told Sri Sri Radha-Krsna, the presiding form of Krsna the devotees worshiped in the temple, "I want to love You and serve You. Please don't let me go. The life of the devotees was practical and full of spiritual potency. I reveled in the chanting of Hare Krsna and the classes, and I appreciated the prasadam. Of course some parts of the teaching were still difficult to accept, but I was convinced that Krsna was the Lord of my life and that He would look after me. It would be a struggle, painful at times, but I would gradually become Krsna conscious. It would just be a matter of time.

If I ask you whether or not you have a mother, I undoubtedly think you will reply positively. No one can escape the inevitable reality that we all have parents. If I ask you whether or not you have a mother, I undoubtedly think you will reply positively. No one can escape the inevitable reality that we all have parents. Everything in nature has a pair of parents: a mother and a father, wherever you look. It’s actually one of the core principles of life itself, whether you’re a hog, dog, man or a tree, you’ve got some old folks, man. So It’s a very logical and elementary question for us to ask, who is the original father? If we go with the scientific theory, that life is coming from little fish in the pond in the early annals of time, that’s alright, let’s take a trip to that period. Because you’re reading this instead of watching one of our cool movies, you’ll have to bear with me and imagine a montage-style sequence of zooming past all the major historical events while the timer on the bottom of the screen counts all the way back to whatever year the scientists say life started at. Okay so, now it’s at like 100 million B.C, or whatever. There’s two fish, the first living creatures ever, right? They’re about to mate or something like that and then evolution starts right? Well, that doesn't seem very logical. Who gave birth to them? I mean, that’s how we see everything is going on. Because life always requires two to be born within this material world. Have you ever seen a man just spontaneously giving birth, or a woman, or any animal, or a tree? No, they have a mate or they’re pollinated or something like that, but life always have a cause and two parties involved. There’s never just one elements coming from nothing and making life. So, who’s the original father and mother? We get the answer from the Bhagavad-gita, the eternal philosophy truths given by the eternal, original Dad Lord Sri Krishna! He says, “O son of Prtha, know that I am the original seed of all existences, the intelligence of the intelligent, and the prowess of all powerful men.” (Bg. 7.10) There has to be an original, conscious decision and personality for life to exist. It’s very simple: you have a father, he has a father, and that father also has a father. If you go back far enough, who is the original father? That’s God, baby. So Krishna glances over this material energy of his and the eternal living beings who are his parts and parcels get injected into the “womb” of nature and take on varieties of material forms just to enjoy life and the senses according to their karma and desire. There’s one funny story we can give in this connection that in India, one will find that sometimes scorpions are born within a pile of rice. The fermenting rice is fertile ground for scorpion eggs, but if one thinks that the scorpion is being born out of the rice alone, he has very little brain substance. Similarly, although it may appear that life is coming when a material body is formed, the cause is always another conscious being. So there is no doubt that the laws of nature didn’t begin as different to what they are now, and your greatest grandfather wasn’t a pile of chemicals in a pool or some rock trillions of years ago that just decided to start things off. Science can’t make an experiment to prove this crazy theory, but everyone knows that they have parents, and their parents had parents. Besides that and more importantly, we should take perfect information from the best authority; just like how you learn about the birds and the bees from your dad, now you’re learning about the fundamental, original birds and bees from the supreme father, Krishna.

Another B.L.I.S.S. Podcast, one on the very present situation!

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The following from KRSNA: The Supreme Personality of Godhead, written by his Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The portion is a small excerpt detailing the moment of Lord Krsna's birth into the transcendental family of Vasudeva and Devaki, the Supreme Lord's parents. Lord Visnu, who is residing within the heart of every living entity, appeared in the darkness of night as the Supreme Personality of Godhead before Devaki, who appeared as one of the demigoddesses. The appearance of Lord Visnu at that time could be compared to the rising of the full moon over the eastern horizon. The objection may be raised that since Lord Krsna appeared on the eighth day of the waning moon, there could be no rising of the full moon. In answer to this it may be said that Lord Krsna appeared in the dynasty which is in the hierarchy of the moon; therefore, although the moon was incomplete on that night, because of the Lord’s appearance in the dynasty wherein the moon is himself the original person, the moon was in an overjoyous condition, so by the grace of Krsna he could appear just like a full moon. In an astronomical treatise by the name Khamanikya, the constellations at the time of the appearance of Lord Krsna are very nicely described. It is confirmed that the child born at that auspicious moment was the Supreme Brahman, or the Absolute Truth. Vasudeva saw that wonderful child born as a baby with four hands, holding conchshell, club, disc and lotus flower, decorated with the mark of Srivatsa, wearing the jeweled necklace of kaustubha stone, dressed in yellow silk, appearing dazzling like a bright blackish cloud, wearing a helmet bedecked with the vaidurya stone, valuable bracelets, earrings and similar other ornaments all over His body, and beautified by an abundance of hair on His head. Due to the extraordinary features of the child, Vasudeva was struck with wonder. How could a newly born child be so decorated? Vasudeva could therefore understand that Lord Krsna had now appeared, and he became overpowered by the occasion. Vasudeva very humbly wondered that although he was an ordinary living entity conditioned by material nature and was externally imprisoned by Kamsa, the all-pervading Personality of Godhead, Visnu, or Krsna, was appearing as a child in his home, exactly in His original position. No earthly child is born with four hands, decorated with ornaments and nice clothing, fully equipped with all the signs of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Over and over again Vasudeva glanced at his child, and he considered how to celebrate this auspicious moment: “Generally, when a male child is born,” he thought, “people observe the occasion with jubilant celebrations, and in my home, although I am imprisoned, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has taken birth. How many millions and millions of times should I be prepared to observe this auspicious ceremony!” When Vasudeva, who is also called Anakadundubhi, was looking at his newborn baby, he was so happy that he wanted to give many thousands of cows in charity to the brahmanas. According to the Vedic system, whenever there is an auspicious ceremony in the ksatriya king’s palace, out of joy the king gives many things in charity. Cows decorated with golden ornaments are delivered to the brahmanas and sages. Vasudeva wanted to perform a charitable ceremony to celebrate Krsna’s appearance, but because he was shackled within the walls of Kamsa’s prison, this was not possible. Instead, within his mind he gave thousands of cows to the brahmanas. When Vasudeva was convinced that the newborn child was the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, he bowed down with folded hands and began to offer Him prayers. At that time Vasudeva was in the transcendental position, and he became completely free from all fear of Kamsa. The newborn baby was also flashing His effulgence within the room in which He appeared.

Srila Prabhupada tell's the eternally blissful pastime of the Mother of Krishna, Yosoda-Mayi, who chastised her son, God himself, for eating dirt, and a transcendental surprise. So Krsna, He is born of a ksatriya father. He is not born, but He appeared as the son. God is never born. Unborn. Therefore the Mayavadi philosophers, they mistake to know Krsna. They think that Krsna is born, then how He can be God? But actually, Krsna was not born from the womb of His mother. He appeared in four hands before His mother, and the mother was afraid that "My brother Kamsa, was awaiting to kill God, and now God is here in four hands. Immediately he'll kill." The mother forgets that "My son, if He's God, how He can be killed?" But the mother's affection is always like that. Just like Krsna, when He was going to attack a demon as a boy, Yasoda-ma, mother Yasoda, would ask her husband Nanda Maharaja, "Why do you allow this boy to go out? Why don't you lock Him?" So that is mother's affection. The mother, Yasoda mother, she does not know that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then her motherly affection will be checked. Therefore she was, by yoga-maya, she was always covered. Although Krsna playing child just like a common child, at the same time showing that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He was eating clay. Some friends complained to mother Yasoda that, "You gave Him nice foodstuff, and He is eating clay." So mother called Him: "Oh, Krsna, You are eating clay?" Krsna said, "No, mother. They're all liars." (laughter) "Oh, Your elder brother Balarama is also saying." "Oh, He is angry upon Me. He is angry upon Me; therefore He is also speaking lie." Then the boys still stressed, "No, mother. He has eaten clay. We have seen." So mother said, "All right. Open Your mouth. I'll see." So Krsna opened His mouth, and she saw the whole material cosmic manifestation. Not only Yasoda, thousands of Yasoda and thousands of planets, sun, moons, and everything saw. Mother's thought, "Must be something jugglery. All right. Forget. Don't do it again."

There are so many criminals nowadays. But we know that only 0.1% of the whole population is currently in jail, which logically means that the others are not criminals. But that might not be the case. Who is a criminal? One who is committing a crime. But actually everybody is a criminal. We are using the property of Krishna for our purposes. We stole Krishna´s property; isn´t that a crime? Are those belongings really ours? Just because I bought it it is considered to be ours? Those who are selling things also stole them from nature; namely the materials, and made a products out of it. People cannot control their senses and are committing crimes at every step. Why? Because they cannot control their tongues! One persons says, “you cut down those trees, load them in the truck and then you go there and build a house.” It all started with sound vibration. There is an idea at the beginning. And that idea is in form of sound because you hear a voice telling you, “it would be nice to do this and this.” And then you order people what to do, or you follow that inner voice, which is, by the way, the Supersoul, Krishna Himself, inspiring you what to do and how to do certain things. But He is doing so ONLY because YOU had that desire by your free will. And whatever the mind hears it repeats. “Go and make that wooden house.” So you decide to do so. That is the power of the tongue. If we don´t tame our tongue it will dictate to us what to say and what to eat. Because the tongue is vibrating and tasting, those are its functions. By simple words, big world wars have been started, animals are being killed and so much trouble has been done due to our untamed tongues. And the solution? Well, can you put your tongue into jail? No. Or put a lock on you mouth? No. You cannot restrict you senses from inputs. The soul is naturally active, he needs action; everything is active. Can you simply lay down and do nothing? How is it possible? You are alive, you breath, you exist. Even the process of dying is activity. You want to stop existing? That is another activity. And who wants to die in the first place? You see? So in the same way, the tongue is the part of your body so it needs some inputs. The soul originally has legs, hands, eyes and a tongue. The body is simply the reflection. In the spiritual world we, as the soul with a form, all serve Lord Krishna. And because we were put into this jail, this body, we follow the same principle that we want to serve. So give the body Krishna prasadam instead, an offered food to Krishna under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master, and he will tell you what Krishna wants and how Krishna wants it. And then when you taste prasadam, Krishna is Himself on your tongue - Krishna is not different from prasadam. And chant Hare Krishna, because tongue needs to vibrate. Instead of vibrating irrelevant sounds you can chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare. In this way, the greatest criminal will become your good friend, because it helps you to chant and taste prasadam. Thus the mind, instead of building a wooden house over and over again, can instead chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna... Thus the mind becomes fixed and pacified thanks to contact with Lord Krishna in the form of His Holy Name. Now the tongue as your good friend can liberate you. So don´t put him into jail or put a lock on your mouth, but train your tongue by chanting and tasting prasadam and come back to Lord Krishna.

The Vedas are the worlds most ancient scripture, and they give complete knowledge of the absolute truth, all things material and spiritual. However, they are frequently misinterpreted. The correct way to understand Vedic Literature is explained below by Srila Prabhupada in his purports to the Caitanya-Caritamrta. The Vedic literature is to be considered a source of real knowledge, but if one does not take it as it is, one will be misled. For example, the Bhagavad-gita is an important Vedic literature that has been taught for many years, but because it was commented upon by unscrupulous rascals, people derived no benefit from it, and no one came to the conclusion of Krsna consciousness. Since the purport of the Bhagavad-gita is now being presented as it is, however, within four or five short years thousands of people all over the world have become Krsna conscious. That is the difference between direct and indirect explanations of the Vedic literature. Therefore Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, mukhya-vrttye sei artha parama mahattva: ”To teach the Vedic literature according to its direct meaning, without false commentary, is glorious.” Unfortunately, Sri Sankaracarya, by the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, compromised between atheism and theism in order to cheat the atheists and bring them to theism, and to do so he gave up the direct method of Vedic knowledge and tried to present a meaning which is indirect. It is with this purpose that he wrote his Sariraka-bhasya commentary on the Vedanta-sutra. One should not, therefore, attribute very much importance to the Sariraka-bhasya. In order to understand Vedanta philosophy, one must study Srimad-Bhagavatam, which begins with the words om namo bhagavate vasudevaya, janmady asya yato ’nvayad itaratas carthesv abhijnah sva-rat: ”I offer my obeisances unto Lord Sri Krsna, son of Vasudeva, who is the Supreme all-pervading Personality of Godhead. I meditate upon Him, the transcendent reality, who is the primeval cause of all causes, from whom all manifested universes arise, in whom they dwell and by whom they are destroyed. I meditate upon that eternally effulgent Lord, who is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations and yet is fully independent.” (SB 1.1.1) Srimad-Bhagavatam is the real commentary on the Vedanta-sutra. Unfortunately, if one is attracted to Sri Sankaracarya’s commentary, Sariraka-bhasya, his spiritual life is doomed.

The following is an excerpt from Srila Prabhupada's original Delhi Bhagavatam, in which he details Lord Caintanya's dismantling of the Mayavada philosophy as presented by Sripad-Bhattarcarya. Bhattacharya was the professor of many Sanyasins in the order of the Shankaracharya Sampradaya and he himself also belonged to that cult. As such the Bhattacharya desired that the young Sannyasi Lord Chaitanya may also hear from him about the teachings of Vedanta. Those who are followers of the Shankara cult are generally known as the Vedantist. It does not, however, mean that Vedanta is a monopoly study of Shankara Sampradaya. Vedanta is studied by all the bonafide Sampradayas but they have their own interpretations. But the Shankar Sampradaya is generally known as the Vedantist without any knowledge of the Vedantist Vaishnavas. For this reason the Bhaktivedanta title was first offered to the author by the Vaishnavas. The Lord agreed to take lessons from Bhattacharya on the Vedanta and they sat together in the temple of Lord Jaggannath. The Bhattacharya went on speaking continually for seven days and the Lord heard him with all attention without any interruption. This dumb like hearing of the Lord before the Bhattacharya raised some doubts in his heart and he asked the Lord how it was that He did not ask anything good or bad in the matter of hearing the explanations of Vedanta. The Lord posed Himself before the Bhattacharya as a foolish student and pretended that He heard the Vedanta from him because he wanted Him to do so as the duty of a Sanyasi; otherwise He hardly could follow or understand the lectures delivered by him. By this the Lord indicated that the so called Vedantist amongst the Shankara Sampradya or any other Sampradaya who do not follow the instructions of Srila Vyasadev, are mechanical students of the Vedanta without any introspection within the great knowledge. The explanation of the Vedanta Sutras is given by the author himself in the text of the Srimad Bhagwatam. Any one who has no study or knowledge in the Bhagwatam will hardly be able to know what the Vedanta says. The Bhattacharya as a vastly learned man could follow the sarcastic remarks on the popular vedantist by the Lord. He therefore asked Him why He did not question on any point which He could not follow. The Bhattacharya could understand the purpose of His dead-silence for the days He heard him. This shows clearly that the Lord had something else in His mind and he requested Him to disclose his mind. Upon this the Lord spoke as follows-"My dear sir, I can undelstand the meaning of the Sutras like 'JANMADYASYA YATAH' 'SHASTRAYO NITWAT' 'ATHATO BRAHMAJIJNANASA' of the Vedanta Sutras but when you explain them in your own way it becomes difficult for me to follow them. The purpose of the Sutras is already explained in them but your explanations are just like covering them with something else. You do not purposely take the direct meaning of the Sutras but indirectly you give your own interpretations." The Lord thus attacked all Vedantists who interpret the Vedanta Sutras fashionably according to their limited power of thinking and also to serve their own purpose. Such indirect interpretations of the authentic literatures like the Vedanta is hereby condemned by the Lord. The Lord continued to say, "Srila Vyasdeva has summarised the direct meanings of the Mantras in Upanishads in the Vedanta Sutras. Unfortunately you do not take the direct meaning of them and indirectly you interpret them in a different way". "The authority of the Vedas is unchallengeable and goes with out any question of doubt. And whatever is stated in the Vedas must be accepted in toto otherwise it becomes a challenge to the authority of the Vedas". "The conchshell and cowdung are bone and stool of two living beings. But because they have been recommended by the Vedas as pure people accept them as such and that is the authority of the Vedas". The idea is that nobody can apply his imperfect reason on the authority of the Vedas. The orders of the Vedas must be obeyed as it is without any mundane reasoning. The so called followers of the Vedic injunction make out their own interpretations of the Vedic injunctions and thus they establish different parties and sect of the Vedic religion. Lord Buddha directly denied the authority of the Vedas and He established his own religion. For this reason only the Buddhist religion was not accepted by the strict followers of the Vedas. But those who are socalled followers of the Vedas are more harmful than the Buddhist. The Buddhist has the courage to deny the Vedas directly but the so called followers of the Vedas have no courage to deny the Vedas and indirectly they disobey all the injunctions of the Vedas. Lord Chaitanya condemned this class of followers of the Vedas. The example of the conchshell and that of the cowdung given by the Lord is very much appropriate in this connection. If some body argues that cowdung is the stool of a living creature and therefore the stool of a learned Brahmin will be still more pure, that sort of argument will not be accepted. The cowdung will be accepted and the stool of a highly posted Brahmin will be rejected with equal abhorrence. The Lord therefore continued to say. "The Vedic injunctions are self-authorised and if some mundane creature wants to adjust the interpretations of the Vedas certainly he will commit blunder upon the authority of the Vedas. It is foolish to think of oneself as more intelligent than Srila Vyasa deva. He has already expressed himself in his Sutras and there is no need of help from personalities of lesser importance. His set up of the Vedanta Sutras are as much dazzling as the midday Sun and when some body wants to give his own interpretations on the self effulgent Sun-like Vedanta Sutras, certainly such person attempts to cover the sun with a kind of cloud of one's own imagination." "The purpose of the Vedas and Puranas are one and the same. They want to ascertain the Absolute Truth and the Absolute Truth is greater than everything else. The Absolute Truth is ultimately realised as the Absolute Personality of Godhead with Absolute Controlling Power. As such the Absolute Personality of Godhead must be completely full of opulence, strength, fame, beauty, knowledge and renunciation. And as such the transcendental Personality of Godhead is astonishingly ascertained as impersonal." "The impersonal description of the Absolute Truth in the Vedas is meant for nullifying the mundane conception of the Absolute whole. Personal features of the Lord is completely distinguished from all kinds of mundane features. The living entities are all individual persons and they are all parts and parcels of the Supreme whole. If the parts and parcels are individual persons, the source of their emanation must not be impersonal. He is the Supreme Person amongst all the relative persons." The Vedas inform us that from Him (Brahman) everything emanates and on Him only everything rests. And after annihilation everything merges in Him only. Therefore, He is the ultimate dative causative and accommodating cause of all causes. And all these causes cannot be ascertained to an impersonal object." "The Vedas inform us that He alone becomes many and when He so desires He puts His glance over the material Nature". "Before His such glance over the material Nature, there was no material cosmic creation. And, therefore, His glancing over the material nature is certainly not one of material creation. Material mind or senses were unborn when the Lord placed His glance over the material Nature; and all these evidences of the Vedas prove it without any doubt that the Lord has transcendental eyes and mind distinguished from the material one. His impersonality therefore is negation of material but not denial of His transcendental Personality". "Brahman means ultimately the Personality of Godhead. Impersonal Brahman realisation is just the negative conception of the mundane creations. Paramatma realisation is localised aspect of Brahman within all kinds of material bodies. Ultimately the Supreme Brahman realisation is the realisation of the Personality of Godhead. Lord Sri Krishna is that Supreme Personality of Godhead according to all evidences of the revealed scriptures. He is the ultimate source of Vishnu Tatwas". "The Puranas are also supplimentary to the Vedas. The Vedic mantras are too stiff for an ordinary man. Women, Sudras and the socalled twice-born higher castes are unable to penetrate into the sense of the Vedas. And thus the Itihasha or the Mahabharat as well as the Puranas are made easy to explain the truths of the Vedas. In the prayers of Brahma before the boy Sri Krishna He said that there is no limit of the fortune of the residents of Brajabhumi headed by Sri Nanda Maharaj and Yasodamayee; because the eternal Absolute Truth has become their intimate relative." "The Vedic mantra describes that the Absolute Truth has no legs and no hands and yet goes faster than all and accepts everything that is offered to Him in devotion. These statements of going faster or accepting everything by hand definitely suggest the Personal features of the Lord, although He is distinguished from mundane hands and legs or other senses." "Brahmam is, therefore, never Impersonal but when such Mantras are indirectly interpreted it is wrongly established that the Abolute Truth is impersonal. The Absolute Truth Personality of Godhead is full of all opulences and therefore He has a transcendental Form of full existence, knowledge and bliss. How one can establish thus the Absolute Truth as impersonal." "Brahman being full of opulences, it is understood that He has manifold energies and all such energies are classified under three headings under the authority of Vishnu Puranam (6.7.60). It says that the transcendetal energies of the Lord Vishnu are primarily three. His spiritual energy as well as the energy of the living entities are classified as superior energy whereas the material energy is inferior one which is sprouted out of ignorance." "The energy of the living entities is technically called Kshetrajna Energy. This Ksehtrajna Shakti although equal in quality with the Lord, becomes over powered by material energy out of ignorance and thus sufferes all sorts of material miseries. In other words the living entities are marginal energy between the superior spiritual and inferior material energy and in proportion of the living being's contact with either of the material or spiritual energies, the living entities become situated in proportionately higher and lower levels of existence." "The Lord is beyond the inferior and marginal energies as above mentioned and His spiritual energy is manifested in three different phases. They are manifested as eternal existence, eternal bliss and eternal knowledge. So far eternal existence is concerned it is conducted by the Samdhini potency, similarly bliss and knowledge are conducted by the Ahladini and Sambit potencies respectively. As the Supreme energetic Lord He is the Supreme controller of the spiritual marginal, and material energies. And all these different phases of energies are connected with the Lord in eternal devotional service." "The Supreme Personality of Godhead is thus enjoying in His transcendental eternal Form and therefore it is astounding that one may dare to call the Supreme Lord as non-energetic ?" "The Lord is the controller of all the above mentioned energies and the living entities are parts and parcles of one of the energies. Therefore, there is a gulf of difference between the Lord and the living entities. How then one can say that the Lord and the living entities are one and the same thing." "In the Bhagwat Geeta also the living entities are described to belong to the Superior energy of the Lord. On the principles of intimate co-relation between the energy and the energetic, both of them are non-different also. Therefore, the Lord and the living entities are non-different as the energy and the energetic". "Earth, water, fire, air, sky, mind, intelligence and ego all these elements are inferior energies of the Lord but the living entities are different from all of them as superior energy and that is the version of the Bhagwat Geeta." "The transcendental form of the Lord is eternally existent and full of transcendental bliss. How then such Form can be a product of the material mode of goodness? Any one, therefore, who does not believe in the Form of the Lord, such person is certainly a faithless demon and as such he is untouchable, not to be seen person-nongrata and fit to be punished by the regulation of the Plutonic king." "The Buddhist are called atheist because they have no respect for the Vedas but those who defy the Vedic conclusions as above mentioned under the cover of being follower of the Vedas, are verily more dangerous than the Buddhists." "Sri Vyasdeva very kindly compiled the clause of the Vedic knowledge in his Vedanta Sutras and if somebody hears the commentation of the Mayavadi school (as represented by the Shamkara Sampradaya), certainly such audience will be misled on the path of spiritual realisation". "The theory of emanations is the beginning for the Vedanta Sutra and as such all the cosmic manifestations are emanations from the Absolute personality of Godhead by His inconceivable different energies." "The example of the touch-stone is verily comparable with the theory of emanation. The touchstone can convert unlimated quantity of iron into gold and still the touch stone remains as it is. Similarly the Supreme Lord can produce all the manifestive world by His inconceivable energies and yet He is full and unchanged. He is Purna (complete) and unlimited number of Purnas being emanated from Him, He is still Purna." "The theory of illusion by the Mayavada school is advocated on the ground that the theory of emanation will cause transformation of the Absolute Truth. And in that case Vyasdeva will be put into error and to save this anomaly of the great Master, they have skillfully brought in the theory of illusion." "The world or the cosmic creation is not illusion or false as it is advocated by the Mayavada school. But it has no permanent existence. A non-permanent thing cannot be called as false altogether. But the conception of the material body by the living being, as his self, -is certainly wrong." "Pranaba (Om) or the Omkara in the Vedas is the primeval hymn and the transcedental sound is identical with the Form of the Lord. All the Vedic hymns are based on this Pranaba Omkara." "Tatwamasi" is but a side word of the Vedic literatures and therefore this word cannot be the primeval hymn of the Vedas instead of the Omkara. Sripada Shankaracharya has given more stress on the side word Tatwamasi than the primeval principle "OMKARA". *The Lord thus spoke on the Vedanta Sutras and defied all the propaganda of the Mayavada school. The Bhattacharya tried to defend himself and his Mayavada school by jugglery of logic and grammer but the Lord was able to defeat all such jugglery of words by His forceful arguments. He affirmed that we are all related with the Personality of Godhead eternally and the devotional service is our eternal function to exchange dealings of our relations. And the result of such exchange of dealing is to attain Prema or Love of Godhead. When Love of Godhead is attained, love for all other beings automatically follows because the Lord is the sumtotal of all the living beings. *In our Chaitanya Charitamrita Essays and Text we have more elaborately explained all these philosophical intricacies Srimad Bhagwatam clears them all. The Lord said except these three items namely eternal relation with God, exchange of dealings thereof and to attain to the stage Love of Godhead, all that are instructed in the Vedas are Superfluous only, and besides these three items everything is concocted imagination. The Lord further added that the Mayavada Philosophy catered by Sripad Shankaracharya is something imaginary explanation of the Vedas but it had to be done by Him (Shankaracharya) because He was ordered to do so by the Personality of Godhead. In the Padmapuranam it is stated that the Personality of Godhead ordered His Lordship Shiva to deviate the human race from Him (the Personality of Godhead). The Personality of Godhead was to be so covered that people may be encouraged to generate more and more population. His Lordship Mahadeva said to the Devi "In the Kaliyuga, I shall preach the Mayavada Philosophy which is nothing but clouded Buddhism, in the garb of a Brahmin." After hearing all these speeches of the Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Bhattacharya was struck with wonder and awe and began to see Him in dead silence. The Lord then encouraged him with assurance that there was no cause of wonder, "I say that DEVOTIONAL SERVlCE UNTO THE PERSONALITY OF GODHEAD IS THE HIGHEST NEED OF HUMAN LIFE". He than quoted a sloka from the Bhagwat and assured him that even the liberated souls who are absorbed in the Spirit and spiritual realisation, do also take to the devotional service of the Lord Hari because the Personality of Godhead has such transcendental qualities as He attracts the heart of the liberated soul too. (Srimad-Bhagavatam Inroduction)

Srila Prabhupada explains in a nutshell the cause of inflation in our modern society and offers a solution. Are we ready to apply it? Gold-standard currency is based on falsehood because the currency is not on a par with the reserved gold. The basic principle is falsity because currency notes are issued in value beyond that of the actual reserved gold. This artificial inflation of currency by the authorities encourages prostitution of the state economy. The price of commodities becomes artificially inflated because of bad money, or artificial currency notes. Bad money drives away good money. Instead of paper currency, actual gold coins should be used for exchange, and this will stop the prostitution of gold. Gold ornaments for women may be allowed by control, not by quality but by quantity. This will discourage lust, envy and enmity. When there is actual gold currency in the form of coins, the influence of gold in producing falsity, prostitution, etc., will automatically cease. There will be no need of an anticorruption ministry for another term of prostitution and falsity of purpose. (SB 1.17.39 purport)

The Vedas say, "Wake up! Wake up! Realize the importance of the human form of life!" Let's forget these temporary things and move on to the real thing. If you're not familiar with the corona virus, I don't know which planet you've been living on for the past several months but this virus has become a big deal across the global front. Countries are shutting down their borders, setting curfews, enforcing fines and patrolling the streets. Grocery stores are emptied as soon as they are filled and people are panicked, stowed away in their various residencies. The world is on lock-down. It's so much hassle, stress and anxiety over a little piece of genome wrapped in a protein. We have, however, a far bigger, more worrying and deadlier disease accompanying us as we speak, and it's fever is ever increasing. That disease is called the skin disease. Not a skin disease, the skin disease. The sickness of our perception that we think, "I'm white","I'm Black","I'm American","I'm a Muslim" or "I'm a father." The illness of thinking that we are the body. That disease is far more dangerous and infects incomparably more people than this little nonsense corona. The disease of the skin pushes one man to hate another based on the outwardly appearance while ignoring the soul within. Krishna, the Supreme lord and source of all wisdom, says in his Bhagavad-gita: dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara tatha dehantara-praptir dhiras tatra na muhyati The body and it's subsequent identities pertaining to the land of birth, religious upbringing and familial ties are all subject to change along with the material elements of the body, so what is the use of identifying with them? They come and go, and all that ever remains is the conscious observer within the material tabernacle, yet it is that part of our existence we unfailingly neglect. If mankind can realize his position as a spiritual particle of the supreme lord, the inebrities of material differences in skin color, religious identification and the land of birth will become redundant. When man learns to see that what he actually is, the unchanging eternally spiritual consciousness within the body, he will see clearly that every man is his fellow man, without artificially trying for such vision on the platform of the body, which consequently results in his killing of the cow and similar animals while claiming universal brotherhood. This disease of the outward layers keeps man thinking that, "He is my enemy" to everyone who differs ever so slightly in tone of the flesh. The cause of so much conflict and strife is due to a poor fund of knowledge concerning the identify of the living entity. When he understands that he is the part and parcel of the complete whole, the supreme person, Sri Krsna, then he will realize that all other creatures are also part and parcels of the whole. The real interest is not to consider the differences of the body, and therefore serve the false object of service, the body, but to use that body in the blissful service of the complete whole, much like a finger is in it's healthy state, along with all other parts of the body, when it serves the whole body.

At sunset the snakes become powerful, thieves are encouraged, ghosts become active, the lotus becomes disfigured and the cakravaki laments. What is a ghost? The glorious Brahma next evolved from his sloth the ghosts and fiends, but he closed his eyes when he saw them stand naked with their hair scattered. Ghosts and mischievous hobgoblins are also the creation of Brahma; they are not false. All of them are meant for putting the conditioned soul into various miseries. They are understood to be the creation of Brahma under the direction of the Supreme Lord. According to Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, the breathing dead body is a ghost. When a man dies, he is called dead, but when he again appears in a subtle form not visible to our present vision and yet acts, such a dead body is called a ghost. Ghosts are always very bad elements, always creating a fearful situation for others. Those who are very sinful and attached to their family, house, village or country do not receive a gross body made of material elements but remain in a subtle body, composed of mind, ego and intelligence. Those who live in such subtle bodies are called ghosts. One becomes a ghost when the subtle body acts without the help of the instrumental gross body. The followers of Lord Siva are generally unclean. They are not even very hygienic; they do not take baths regularly, they wear long hair, and they smoke ganja. Persons of such irregular habits are counted amongst the ghosts. How does someone become a ghost? Ghosts are bereft of a physical body because of their grievously sinful acts, such as suicide. The last resort of the ghostly characters in human society is to take shelter of suicide, either material or spiritual. Material suicide causes loss of the physical body, and spiritual suicide causes loss of the individual identity. People try to avoid the results of their sinful activities by killing themselves, but this is not possible. Suicide is just another sin. Therefore those who commit suicide become ghosts. A confused, frustrated man cannot get relief by committing suicide because suicide will simply lead him to take birth in the lower species of life or to remain a ghost, unable to attain a gross material body. Because Krsna has given you, or maya has given, maya has given under the direction of Krsna, a certain type of body for enjoying for a certain span of life, you cannot finish it. If you disregard it, then, if you commit suicide, the result will be that you will not be allowed to accept another material body. You will have to remain in that subtle body. That is ghost. Ghostly life means one who has misused this life, this body, and by his whims he has killed this body. He becomes a ghost. That means he will have to suffer for so many day, then he'll get another material body. The disease of insanity or being haunted by ghosts takes place in an unclean state of existence. Here it is clearly stated that when a man is fast asleep and saliva flows from his mouth and he remains unclean, ghosts then take advantage of his unclean state and haunt his body. In other words, those who drool while sleeping are considered unclean and are subject to be haunted by ghosts or to go insane. Because of his desire to enjoy the material world, the living entity is dressed with the material gross and subtle bodies. Thus he is given a chance to enjoy the senses. The senses are therefore the instruments for enjoying the material world; consequently the senses have been described as friends. Sometimes, because of too much sinful activity, the living entity does not get a material gross body, but hovers on the subtle platform. This is called ghostly life. Because of his not possessing a gross body, he creates a great deal of trouble in his subtle body. Thus the presence of a ghost is horrible for those who are living in the gross body. Sometimes in the present body the living entity feels that many of his desires and imaginations are not fulfilled. Those who are overly attracted to their life situation are forced to remain in a ghostly body and are not allowed to accept another gross body. Even in the body of a ghost, they create disturbances for neighbors and relatives. Sometimes we become ghost. If we become too much attached, we cannot leave. Therefore too much opulent apartment, opulent life, is not very good for spiritual advancement because we get too much attached to it. He got enough money and he was too much attached to the palace. The whole money he acquired, he constructed that house. Now after death, due to his too much attachment to that house, he is living there as a ghost. Sometimes the living entity is forced to give up his body and enter another one according to the judgment of Yamaraja. It is difficult, however, for the conditioned soul to enter another body unless the present dead body is annihilated through cremation or some other means. The living being has attachment for the present body and does not want to enter another, and thus in the interim he remains a ghost. What do ghosts do? We have heard of people's being haunted by ghosts. Having no gross material body, a ghost seeks shelter of a gross body to stay in and haunt. By birth as a ghost one gets the mystic perfection of disappearing and entering into the bodies of others. Not exactly enters, but he catches the body. But because the ghost has no gross body—he has got his subtle body: mind, intelligence, and ego—you cannot see him, how he has attacked that body. You cannot see the body of mind, intelligence. You know I have got my mind; I know you have got your mind. But you do not see my mind; I do not see your mind. So ghost is within the subtle body: mind, intelligence and ego. So with that subtle body, he attacks the man, but you cannot see. He does not enter into him. The enter is the soul within the body. Therefore sometimes ghost is walking in the room. We cannot see him. But he takes away something. We see that the thing is going away. Because you cannot see his gross body. Ghosts sometimes manifest a body and sometimes they do not. And because he hasn't got gross body, he can move very swiftly. Now he is here; he can go ten miles away immediately. But there is ghost. The word eka-pada, "one-legged," refers to ghosts, for it is said that ghosts walk on one leg. They especially attack women. They're ghostly haunted; therefore a male ghost haunts over woman, woman ghost haunts over man. Sometimes a ghost attacks a man. Because he has no material body, he wants to act through other's body. There is eating in the subtle body also. The ghosts also, they eat, but the method is different. So the man who is attacked, he forgets himself, and he speaks and walks according to the dictation of the ghost. The Vedas say that once a man becomes crazy, or haunted by ghosts, he speaks all kinds of nonsense. Just like a person, when he's ghostly haunted, he calls his father by ill names, but he cannot recognize even his father. A man may be haunted by the ghost of a snake or a tiger. Different kinds of Ghosts. In the material world, when one is not covered by the gross body but subtle body, they are called ghosts or pramathas. Those who are good, not harmful, they are called pramathas. And those who are harmful... As in this material world there are good men and bad men, similarly, amongst the persons who has no this gross body, they are sometimes called ghosts and sometimes they are called pramatha. So without brain, without head, when the body moves it is ghost. So it is ghostly civilization. All ghosts. There is a kind of ghost, perhaps you know, that without head. If a man is chopped of his head, and if he has got attraction, then he becomes a ghost without head. So at the present moment, all these so-called educated civilized men are ghosts without head. Mother Yasoda was firmly convinced that she should protect her child from different kinds of evil spirits, ghosts and denizens of inferno—namely Bhutas, Pretas, Pramathas, Guhyakas, Pisacas, Vetalas, Dakinis, Yatudhanis, Kusmandas, Yaksas, Raksasas and Vinayakas, along with witches like Kotara, Revati, Jyestha and Putana, as well as the Matrkas, Unmadas and similar other evil spirits, who cause persons to forget their own existence and give trouble to the life airs and the senses. Sometimes they appear in dreams and cause much perturbation; sometimes they appear as old women and suck the blood of small children. Out of all kinds of ghosts, the ghost of the name Brahma-raksasas are very powerful. A brahmana transferred to the species of ghostly life becomes a Brahma-raksasa. What to do about them. Before the sunrise even takes place, the light of dawn destroys the fear of the dangers of the night, such as disturbances by thieves, ghosts and Raksasas. Ghosts and evil spirits cannot remain where there is chanting of the holy name of God. The best way to remove them is to chant Hare Krishna very loudly and have jubilant kirtana until they leave. In England, in Mr. John Lennon's house there was one ghost. But as soon as the devotees began chanting very loudly, he went away immediately. It is said that wherever the chanting of the holy name of Krsna is done, even negligently, all bad elements—witches, ghosts and dangerous calamities—immediately disappear. Thus Mother Yasoda chanted different names of Visnu to protect child Krsna’s different bodily parts. The great saints and devotees of the Lord are in the list of His paraphernalia, and thus as soon as a saintly devotee is present, the ghostly sins are at once vanquished. That is the verdict of all Vedic literatures. One is recommended, therefore, to associate only with saintly devotees so that worldly demons and ghosts cannot exert their sinister influence. If one is habituated to taking the prasada of Lord Visnu, there is no chance of his becoming a ghost or anything lower than a human being. Dakini and Sankhini are two companions of Lord Siva and his wife who are supposed to be extremely inauspicious, having been born of ghostly life. It is believed that such inauspicious living creatures cannot go near a nima tree.