oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
So, we are reading from Bhagavad-gītā's seventh chapter called "Knowledge of the Absolute", text nineteen.
bahūnāṁ janmanām ante
jñānavān māṁ prapadyate
vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti
sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ
After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare. Purport by Srila Prabhupada:
The living entity, while executing devotional service or transcendental rituals after many, many births, may actually become situated in transcendental pure knowledge that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate goal of spiritual realization. In the beginning of spiritual realization, while one is trying to give up one's attachment to materialism, there is some leaning towards impersonalism. But when one is further advanced, he can understand that there are activities in the spiritual life and that these activities constitute devotional service. Realizing this, he becomes attached to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and surrenders to Him. At such a time, one can understand that Lord Sri Krsna's mercy is everything, that He is the cause of all causes, and that this material manifestation is not independent from Him. He realizes the material world to be a perverted reflection of spiritual variety, and realizes that in everything there is a relationship with the Supreme Lord Krsna. Thus he thinks of everything in relation to Vasudev, or Sri Krsna. Such a universal vision of Vasudev (meaning Krsna) precipitates one's full surrender to the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna as the highest goal. Such surrendered great souls are very rare. This verse is very nicely explained in the third chapter of Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad. In this body there are powers of speaking, of seeing, of hearing, of mental activities, etc. But these are not important if not related to the Supreme Lord. And because Vasudev is all-pervading and everything is Vasudev, the devotee surrenders in full knowledge.
bahūnāṁ janmanām ante
jñānavān māṁ prapadyate
vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti
sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ
After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.
oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya
jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena
tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ
vande śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-
nityānandau sahoditau
gauḍodaye puṣpavantau
citrau śandau tamo-nudau
I was born in the darkness of ignorance, but my spiritual master opened my darkened eyes with the torch of knowledge. I surrender unto his lotus feet. I offer my obeisances to Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityananda, who have arisen simultaneously on the horizon of Gauda, to dissipate the darkness of ignorance and wonderfully bestow benedictions upon all. So, Srila Prabhupada has put forward many very important points in his purport. And it starts with he's explaining that to attain the ultimate goal of life—the ultimate goal is explained here to be the Personality of Godhead behind the different aspects of brahman, the spiritual nature. The ultimate aspect is a person, the Supreme Lord. It's explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam... the three aspects, I know it by heart, now it has gone. brahman, paramātmā, and bhagavān.
vadanti tat tattva-vidas
tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam
brahmeti paramātmeti
bhagavān iti śabdyate
So, the Absolute Truth, the spiritual existence is known in three features: brahman, which is the impersonal aspect of the Lord, the divine cosmic light. That's an aspect of the Supreme Lord, and it's actually the effulgence of that transcendental body of Krsna, the Personality of Godhead. He has an aura that is intense and extreme. So many in this world, as also Prabhupada spoke about in the purport, in the beginning stages of spiritual life, they are very attracted to this impersonal feature. And especially in the West, people have the general understanding that spiritual existence is the cosmic light, the white light, and they have a desire to somehow or another merge their existence into that light, understanding that mukti or liberation from this material existence... they understand that there is suffering in this material world, and they cannot fulfill their deepest desires by manipulating the material energy. That's a sign of intelligence, you understand that. So, the ultimate goal of mokṣa, for many, progressive material life is called dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa. So, civilized life means dharma—you perform religious activities, and by those activities you get a certain reaction, karma, that is helping you to develop financially. Because money is... we need money to attain anything in this world, to pay the rent, and to get the food, and, go out Saturday night and have a good time or whatever. You need money. And people are working very hard to get money to pay everything. And from that you get karma, you can enjoy your senses—physically, you can enjoy the tongue, you can enjoy whatever sense, and also mentally, you can enjoy mentally. These are the reason why you work hard like anything, to enjoy the body. And then, a certain class of men understand that all this ultimately doesn't fulfill me. I do not get that deep satisfaction I'm actually hankering for. And then they turn to mokṣa, mukti and mokṣa, liberation. They want to stop the cycle of birth and death, saṁsāra-cakra. So, that's the impersonal aspect. They simply think, "Okay, I want to get... I'm suffering now, I get a body, it's... well, it's kind of okay when it's young, it's strong, we can do so many things, but it grows old, and once you grow older it starts to not function so well. You can't run very fast on a cricket field or football field, or you can't go out Saturday night and just drink all night, and if you do that, you'll have a hangover for several days. Your body simply cannot do it, whatever it is. So, old age is not very pleasurable at all. And then sickness is also an unavoidable aspect of this material life. You have to get sick at one point. And we're not just speaking about a cold or some little sickness, but when you get older, the tendency is you can get very severe sickness. And then, ultimately, death. You have to die again. It goes on and on and on in this material life: birth, disease, old age, death, and then you start over again: birth, disease, old age. I just had so much lately, I know many of you here are quite young, but I had a lot of death around me lately. That's a thing, when you grow older, you'll be more confronted with death because family members, friends, they start dying. I'm sixty-three now, and last week I went to a funeral, bisættelse. My father's partner through many years, a very wonderful lady, she died. She was eighty-two or eighty-three. So, she was old. But she left, and it was sad. We went to the funeral. And last year I had a very close friend who died. He was only fifty-nine, Radharana. My mother left in January that year. I had another friend leaving last year. I had some other I knew about, not close friends, who also just left. So, my point is, and you can more relate to that when you get older, because when you are young, you have everyone basically. They are living, all your friends and family. But they start dropping one after another, especially if you have older friends, right? So, it's kind of like when you get that age and you are a spiritualist, you are a devotee, you can more see the goalpost. Okay, this is a goal because the time of death is a big examination in this lifetime. And we know as devotees,
yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ
tyajaty ante kalevaram
Whatever we remember when we are at that crucial point of death, whatever is there dominant in our consciousness, that state we will attain without fail, that body we will attain. And there is no cheating. It is not like someone can say, "Oh, I heard the Bhagavad-gītā, but it's all good and it's kind of, it could be true. But I just want to live my life. I don't want to think about all the controlling my senses and mind, and having to think about what I'm eating and whatever. I just want to enjoy full life, enjoy my body as much as I can, and then, when I get old and when I'm there in the hospital bed or whatever, then I'll just think of Krsna, I'll start chanting Hare Krsna at that time, and then I'll get a very elevated next life. I'm not going to have a body of... that's crippled or a dog's body or anything like that," even though, one may think, actually, understand, maybe they are living a kind of animalistic life. They may know that subconsciously at least. "No, no, I'll just chant Hare Krsna when I'm very old, when I'm about to die." But you cannot do that. You cannot cheat. Because all this is forcefully coming into your consciousness at the time of death. That's a big examination. So, the devotee has a different objective. As Krsna is... this is Krsna speaking: "After many births and deaths..." because the soul is here, the spirit soul in this material body—remember, we are not this body. We are not Lucas, we are not [Anas, our friend], we are not any of these bodies. We are the ātmā inside this body. And after many, many births, when we get actual knowledge, when that knowledge is deeply ingrained in us—there are two kinds of knowledge: jñāna, which means knowledge, and vijñāna, realized knowledge, not theoretical knowledge. There is a big difference there. So realized knowledge means you really understood it, and when we really understand something, then we start acting on it. And then it becomes more powerful. And also, like when you speak, it becomes more powerful. Like when we listen to... we can go and listen to Srila Prabhupada's lecture or any other very elevated soul. When you hear that person speaking, whether it's kīrtana or hari-kathā, philosophy, it's very penetrating because it's completely pure. So, sound vibration has many layers. And according to the consciousness, that sound vibration has more potency. So, if someone like... okay, I can mention his name. There is a very famous kīrtanīyā... you have this big kīrtana scene in the world today, which is very wonderful, kind of ordinary people, they get into kīrtana, this Indian thing, they chant Hare Krsna or oṁ śiva śiva śiva or whatever, all these mantras. They love it. And there is one very famous kīrtanīyā, American, leading that, called Krishna Das. So, even though he is called Krishna Das, a name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he is not a devotee. And actually, he has stated some very derogatory and offensive things about Krsna and about Siva. I'm not going to mention it here, but it's very derogatory, not very nice at all. So, he is simply making a living from chanting because he has a very beautiful voice, and very deep, beautiful, and if you don't know, you can listen to that, "Oh, it's..." because it's pleasing to the ear, it's, even though he is chanting the holy name, it's actually the names of the Lord, but because his consciousness, he doesn't have love for Krsna, he's doing it as a business. So, kind of superficially the ear may like the sound vibration, "I like his version of the holy name because it's suitable to the material ear." But it's not really a powerful transcendental sound. If you hear another person who may not be expert musically, he or she may not have a wonderful voice, but if they have so much devotion to the Lord, when you hear that sound vibration, the effect is so much deeper. Like, not long ago we listened to one of... one of Sarasvati Thakura... Srila Prabhupada's guru... we listened to one of his disciples was called Akinchana Krishnadas Babaji. And Krishnadas Babaji was always chanting the holy name, a very elevated soul. And there was a few, you can find them on YouTube, there was some kīrtanas. So, he wasn't like a kīrtanīyā in the sense that his voice wasn't like, one that everyone just, "Wow, this is such a beautiful voice." But the devotion in it, when you listen to it, you can hear that devotion, and the effect is so much more powerful than if you hear any kind of kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, any neophyte devotee, who may have a beautiful voice and it's still nice, but there is more potency when you hear someone who is actually pure because the śakti, the svarūpa-śakti, the spiritual energy is really penetrating. So, when you listen to Srila Prabhupada, Akinchana Krishnadas Babaji, any very elevated soul, you get more potency. Aindra Prabhu, like we listened earlier, like that. So, yeah. So, if a person is very pure in consciousness and has that devotion, the sound vibration coming from the lips of that person is more penetrating. That's why it's recommended to listen from elevated souls, as far as possible. Not only, but it has more potency. So, back to what Krsna is stating here: someone who is actually understanding this vijñāna deeply, that Krsna is the Supreme Personality and the ultimate goal of life, such a person surrenders unto Him. And then Prabhupada states in the purport that before you can fully surrender unto the Lord, you have to have the... you have to precipitate... that means before doing this, something comes, and that is you have to understand Krsna's aiśvarya nature, His quality as of of... it's called aiśvarya means His greatness. Because Krsna in Vraja, that's the goal of the devotees here, and we in the Gaudiya line from Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and our goal is ultimately to enter into Krsnaloka and Vraja, the particular mellow they have in Krsnaloka, which Krsnaloka is the highest planet in the spiritual sky. There are unlimited planets in the spiritual sky. Like, this material world, there is also kind of unlimited planets, but in the spiritual sky, it's even far more. Like, when we are looking up into the night sky on a night with no clouds, we can just, "Wow, it's incredible." We cannot count the stars we can see, and this is just one universe. And there are unlimited material universes. And all that, all the whole material creation in its infinity is explained to be like one-fourth—or is it one-third? One-fourth. One-fourth of the entirety of existence, both material and spiritual. So, spiritual planets, they are like... we can't count it. And on each planet, there is a presiding deity, there is a form of the Supreme Lord who is the presiding deity. And in most of those planets, that is Narayana, the four-armed form of the Supreme Lord, which you can see here on the wall. I have two posters up here behind Max. You see, I think it's Garbhodakasayi Visnu on the left there, and here is Ksirodakasayi Visnu, the paramātmā in the heart of everyone. So, that is the form of the Lord on those planets. And the residents, those perfected beings who attain that situation, either they are there eternally liberated—most jīvas, most living entities in existence, they have never gone to this material world, they are called nitya-siddhas, eternally liberated. But those of us, all sitting in this room, and the spiders, and all the people walking out there, we all called nitya-baddhas, we are called eternally conditioned. But don't be scared about the word "eternally" because we can get out of this saṁsāra-cakra. We don't have to stay here eternally. But the reason the word is used is because we cannot trace out the time when we got into this material existence, when we fell from that divine realm. So, that's why it's called eternally conditioned. So, on all those spiritual planets, most of them, they worship Laksmi-Narayana. That means they understand that Narayana is the Supreme Lord, and "I am his servant." It's still pure love, but the flavor is one of... there's kind of... it's not as intimate. Because how can you be completely intimate with a person you understand is God? Like, we know Narayana is God. You cannot kind of, "Hey pal, how you doing?" get up to him and kind of, "You want to go out and have fun?" This kind of intimacy you cannot do with Narayana. It's still pure love, and you see it especially in South India, they have all this... it's a special flavor, and it's wonderful, it's wonderful. And those who attain that destination, they are completely satisfied, deep, deep, deep satisfaction. But in this particular line we are following, we want to go to that highest transcendental planet. So, even though the whole spiritual world is perfect and all the souls are completely satisfied in whatever relationship they have to the Supreme Lord, still there are gradations. And on Krsnaloka, Krsna's planet, the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His original form—two-armed form, Krsna is up here as a little boy, and He is here in His deity forms above the altar—and so in His original two-armed form, and the relationship with Krsna is one of intimacy. And all the living entities, the perfected beings who attain Krsnaloka, they have no idea Krsna is God. Because they are covered by His internal potency, the spiritual energy, the svarūpa-śakti. So, they are under illusion. Like, in this world we are under illusion, daivī māyā, material māyā, which... and that māyā makes us think, "I am this body. I'm a man, I'm a woman, I'm a Dane, I'm a Nepalese, I'm an Indian, whatever." You know, "I'm fat, thin, good-looking, whatever, I need to go to the dentist to get my tooth fixed, whatever," all related to the material body and the mind, the subtle... subtle energy up here, we have a mind also. That's also material, but a subtle kind of matter. So, in Krsnaloka, we are not under that kind of māyā. That's a divine illusion, and the soul in that relationship can be very intimate with the Lord. But before attaining that, we have to understand Krsna's greatness, and that's also explained in a little bit here. And there are so many in the śāstras explaining about this, and we have to understand that first, like Krsna's sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam, He is the cause of all causes. Anything in existence, whether spiritual or material, its ultimate cause is found in Krsna. And then Krsna is manifesting in so many other forms, because Krsna in His original form, He is not dealing with all this creation of the material universes and all the different elements. This is not Him. He is doing it through His expansions. And like in every material universe, you have a first living, aja, first living entity called Brahma. And he is manifested directly from Visnu. And Brahma is doing the subsequent creation, creating all the physical elements.
bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ
khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca
ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me
bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā
And stated there are eight material elements: five gross elements—earth, water, fire, air, and ether, ether is like space, we are all in ether, we are all sitting here in this space in here, right? So, they are becoming more subtle as it goes: earth is the most gross, and then of course water, etc. And we can understand them because it's all around us, we can understand them to some extent. Our body is made of that, mainly water, right? And also the other elements, and we got a kind of liquid gas in the digestive fire, so we also have the fire element. It's all there in the body. And then three subtle elements: manaḥ, buddhi, and ahaṅkāra. So mind, we also understand, everyone has a mind, right? We are all thinking something. Someone may be attentively listening, another one, even though he looks like he is listening, but he is actually thinking about tomorrow because he has to go and do something, you know? We all have mind and it's always active, all the time. And then we have an intelligence, everyone's got intelligence, we know that, and according to the body there are different levels of intelligence. But the ant also has intelligence, any living entity has intelligence. The flowers have intelligence to grow, it's very limited, but there is intelligence. And then we have ahaṅkāra, the most subtle material energy, that energy which makes us identify with something we are not, that energy which makes us identify with this gross body. "I'm a materialist, man, I've been a materialist my whole life." We are all in that consciousness, we are quite sure, I mean, we are this body generally. I know I'm amongst devotees, so it doesn't apply as much to devotees, but that potency is there and it's called ahaṅkāra, the most subtle. And then Krsna explains in the Gītā in the seventh chapter text five:
apareyam itas tv anyāṁ
prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām
Above this, there is another prakṛti, above this matter, and that's the living entities, the unlimited living entities that are filling all over. There are sarva-gaḥ, there are living entities all over, even in rocks, even in rocks there is living entity. But yes, it's everywhere, but they have a different form. In the sun, sun planet, there are living entities, but their bodies are mainly made of fire. We know fish in the ocean, they're living entities, but their bodies are different from ours. We cannot live inside the water, but the fish and the shark can do it finely. So, it's all depending upon the particular body, but they are living entities everywhere. And the ultimate cause of all that is Krsna. And then, that's one aspect of the Supreme Lord, and He is also the sustainer of all living entities. Everyone is given their sustenance by the Lord.
nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām
eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān
Amongst the nityas, nityānām means there are unlimited eternal living entities, but there's one nitya, singular. A lot of plural, all of us, we are the plural, unlimited living entities, but there's one nitya, and that's the Supreme Lord. And He is giving the necessities of all living entities. So, when we go, even though we may go to Rema and buy our whatever dairy and vegetables or whatever, but we know it comes from, you know, the farmer, and the gardener, whatever. But the farmer cannot make the vegetables. He can put the seed and he can water when it's necessary and take out the weeds, but he cannot create the seed. And ultimately, we are depending upon water from the sky, we are depending upon water, we are depending upon the soil, it has nutritions, all these things men cannot create. That's coming from the Supreme Lord. So, ultimately, our bodies, it's all coming by His mercy. Everything is coming from Him. So, there are so many descriptions of that in the Lord—sorry, in the śāstra. Now, there are two aspects in the Vedas: one is called śreyas and one is preyas. And preya means that which comes with not much endeavor, which comes quickly, like pleasure. We all seek pleasure, and whatever comes quickly, that's preyas. Like, nowadays, "Oh, I'm hungry, I really want to eat something." And then we can go—devotees don't do it, but one can go to McDonald's, Burger... you can also get a veggie burger there. But people go to fast-food shops—unfortunately, not so many vegetarian fast-food shops—they go, "Oh, I'm so hungry, I have to eat now." This is called preyas. And śreyas is long-term. You make an endeavor because the goal is worthwhile the wait, the patience. Like, you make old-fashioned slow food, slow-cooked food, really nice food, whatever, Italian—oh, the Italian mama, she is doing everything from scratch. She make... she boil, cooks down the tomatoes, and she takes away the peel, scalding them, take away the peel, cook down, cook down, cook down, and that the pasta sauce for the ravioli or of the pizza or whatever. Now everyone is starting getting hungry, I'm speaking about food. We'll have food in a short while. So, and then everything is made by hand, nothing is kind of pre-made. This is slow food, and this is the best, it has a very different taste. So, this is more like śreyas, you wait, you patiently wait for the goal, you wait for that nice pizza, or you wait for attaining your goal, whatever it is in life. Like, if you are a sportsman, you want to get to the highest level within your sport, you have to be very patient, you have to train, you have to control your senses, you cannot go out and party, no, because you have an important thing coming up in a few days. So, I remember that from when I was a boxer back in time. And at Christmas time, it was like, third Christmas Day we had in Aalborg, we had a big stævne, what is that called? We had a big cup, cup.
Q: Event.
A: Yeah, event. I think they also call it a cup, a boxing cup. That was tradition, third Christmas Day you had to box. So, I was on, I had to... I was around eighteen, nineteen, so I had to go. And all my... at Christmas dinner with my parents, they were all just, enjoying the food, but I knew I had in three days I'm going into the ring to meet a guy who really want to punch me. He want to get me down, he want to knock out me. He want to raise his hand and I'll be just like, "I don't want that to happen." So, I had to control my senses, I was very controlled, even though it was Christmas. So, this is kind of, long-term goal. I want this, I want to win that match, I have to control my senses now. I want to get on the national team, so I have to say no to a lot of things which most people can do. Or you want to be a big politician, you want to be a big academic, whatever, you have to go to school so many years, you have to go to university, you have to do your bachelor, you have to do your master, you have to do a PhD, and after that you may have to wait longer before you can get the funding and become that professor of that big university, whatever. This is śreyas, you have to wait long time. And another person like, "I don't want to wait for that, I just want to enjoy now." This is preyas. If we want this goal, the highest goal of all, this is śreyas, we have to be patient. Rupa Gosvami is explaining in the book called Upadeśāmṛta... utsāhān niścayād dhairyāt. dhairyāt—patience. He is explaining different qualities that are favorable for advancing in spiritual life, and one is utsāha—enthusiasm, you have to be enthusiastic. "Oh, let's go on harināma, come on, prabhu, let's go and distribute some books, let's clean Krsna's temple, let's help Kamsahanta with washing the dishes after we finished," or whatever. No, he says no generally, you can go back. But this is utsāha, "I want to do sevā, I want to do service."
Now, so many here nicely, you brought flowers, we put on the altar, right? And fruits. I have to buy more vases because I'm actually running out of vases, as you may see. So, thank you so much, I'll get more vases, just keep bringing the flowers. So, this is utsāha, you are enthusiastic for doing service. Like, Balaram and Karuna, they are coming all the way from Aarhus. Rene, they're coming all the way from there almost every time. That's a one and a half hour drive. Right? That's utsāha, they are enthusiastic. Cost a lot of money in gas, and so many hours before they can be back. This is enthusiasm. So, this is good. So, enthusiastic, confidence, understanding, "If I continue like this, I'll get my goal, I just have to follow this scientific process," and then dhairyāt, patience, you also have to be patient. Because it takes a long time. Krsna says here: "After many births and deaths..." And in another place in Bhagavad-gītā, he states:
yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ
janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām
te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā
bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ
Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life, many lives piously, many lives and in this life, whose sinful actions are completely gone—the bad karma is gone, they uprooted it by their devotional activities—such a person can engage in My service, in My service with confidence. He becomes free from the dualities of material life and gets fixed on the spiritual platform. So, after many births and deaths, so we have to be patient. It's not like, "Oh, now I've been chanting Hare Krsna for one year, and I'm a vegetarian now and, you know, I'm doing service, I've been giving donations in the temple, and bringing flowers, I'm chanting Hare Krsna at home," or whatever, "one year, when am I going to see Krsna? When is He going to manifest in front of me and embrace me?" No. No. It's not that cheap. It's not that cheap, I'm sorry, it's not that cheap. I've been going on, some devotees in here have been going on for like over forty years. I'm not seeing Krsna dancing. I really wish I could. But I do know, I do know that this is such a high price. Like, if you want to buy a real diamond, it cost a lot. If you want to get cubic zirconia, it may look similar and someone who is not an expert cannot see cubic zirconia, you know, have a ring, "Oh, it looks like diamond, it's sparkling," whatever, "it's beautiful." Yeah, it only cost two hundred fifty crowns. You cannot get a diamond for that, cost a lot. So, if something is very valuable, you have to pay a big price. And that price is you have to follow the scientific process and keep going on, even when it's raining and the sun is not shining, and it get a bit tough, and like that. Because that spiritual life also, sometimes it's kind of easy, it's going well, "Hey, it's going my way, I'm chanting Hare Krsna, kīrtana is ecstatic, prabhu, it's ecstatic." Or prasādam, really nice prasādam, all that. But if you are kind of sincere, you start following the process, sometimes it gets a little tough. Especially like some of us have been on saṅkīrtana, book distribution, have that experience, go and try to spread Krsna consciousness out in society, distributing the books of Srila Prabhupada. And sometimes, because it's kind of tough, most people have no interest in it. And I remember especially back in the days, in the beginning, people could be quite rude here in Denmark, "Oh, you know what you can do with that book?" Sorry, okay. People were quite gross and like even physically they sometimes attacked you and like that. But other times, because it was, you know, surrender, it's difficult, but you are doing it for the pleasure of Krsna, and sometimes you were like in a bubble of spiritual ecstasy. And suddenly you felt like in the spiritual world. You were in the material world, on the walking streets somewhere, and people were, you know, rushing back and forth, but you were kind of in a bubble, and you weren't in the... even though physically you were there in the material world, but you were kind of in a spiritual bubble, and you were just in ecstasy, and it was so pleasurable, being on the street trying to give people Krsna because Krsna gave that, gave you the mercy. Was so intense, so wonderful, and you thought, "I just want to do this, I just want to give people Krsna." You feel that compassion in your heart, "Here is a spirit soul, suffering in material existence, I have to give him Krsna, I have to give him this knowledge by which he can perfect his life." So, sometimes it was like that. And other times, it was just like wham, like... I remember one time, I'm going to finish in not such a short time, but not so much longer. But I remember one time, I was chanting my rounds, I was really focused, I was really making an intense endeavor in the morning. We were out somewhere in North Zealand, in Helsingør, I remember. And we were chanting, I was chanting, I thought today, "I really want to not space out when I chant my rounds, thinking about everything else, really want to make a great endeavor to hear the holy name." And that day, somehow or another, I really could do it, and then I thought, "Wow, I really heard my rounds today, was quite amazing." And then I thought, "Now I'll go out, and I'll just, pump out the books, I'll just distribute so many books, and Krsna will give me His mercy and I'll be in that bubble and just all ecstasy."
And when I went out, the first person was just, was early in the morning like that, on a, I remember a gas station, and the first person was just so rude. "Okay, all right, yeah." And then went to the next, he was rude too. And I met a lady, she was, "I'm not interested." Everyone was like that, it was just like intensely, like, heavy, no one was interested, and people really rude. And I thought, "Hey, I was just really hearing the holy name, but what happened?" I was kind of thinking I could buy Krsna, bribe Him: "I chant my rounds well this morning, Krsna, you have to give me your mercy, you have to give me that ecstasy." No, Krsna gave me His mercy in the sense that I had to have a, I had a, you know, test, obstacle. And that was His mercy because I had to show that even though it was so heavy, I would keep going on. That was the mercy, a chance to really surrender. Because when the sun is shining, everyone is speaking nicely to you, it's easy to be a devotee, right? But if everything is hard, you know, it's difficult. But this is a test also. When you become more sincere, you have to pass that test. There are so many tests, like, PhD, right? Sometimes it's really difficult and it doesn't, you know, work for you, sometimes it's going nice, other times it's very difficult, whatever you do in life. And also in spiritual life, it's like that. But as you advance more and more, those tests will become greater, but Krsna will never give you a test you cannot surpass. And then, ultimately, one glorious day, it'll be our last birth in this life. And Krsna, at that crucial time of death, He will manifest Himself. And I think I'll end with this very short narration of what someone experienced. Like, there was a devotee, very wonderful disciple of Srila Prabhupada called Sudama. He was a sannyāsī at one point, American devotee. And he left Krsna consciousness at one point. And he had a... he was actually homosexual. So, he could not control that urge, the senses, many kind of leave Krsna consciousness, get into sexual activity or whatever, the most powerful force in this material world, right? So, he got into that kind of, left Krsna consciousness. And, you know, he had that weakness. But then, after some time, he got very, very sick. And the devotees brought him... he was brought back to Krsna consciousness, and devotees took care of him. I think he had AIDS or whatever. And he was in the hospital bed, suffering like that, but the devotees took very nicely care of him. And he was such a sweet devotee, they said. And then what happened, one lady devotee was taking care of him, and just when he was leaving his body, that crucial last hour, he was kind of getting up in bed, like, was lying down, then he kind of got, you know, up with his torso in bed. And then he was like... he kind of bright, and then he was doing his obeisances to different directions in the room. And that lady, there was nobody there, so to say, but somebody was there, but she could not see it. He could see them. Because in the time of death, you can see divine beings, if you are so fortunate. You can also see very horrible beings, if you've been very sinful, called the yamadūtas, the messengers of Yama, the Lord Yamaraj, the Lord of death. So, that's if you're very sinful. And we know the story of Ajamila, incredible story in the Bhāgavatam, a very sinful soul, he saw the yamadūtas, very fearful. Somebody sees those. But devotees won't see them. Don't worry. If you're chanting Hare Krsna and if you have your kaṇṭhī-mālā, very auspicious, you cannot see the yamadūtas. So, he made these, his namaskāra, so he saw divine beings, they came to take him to higher... even though he gave up Krsna consciousness. Why? Because he was a very dear devotee to Srila Prabhupada. If the pure devotee gives you his special mercy, even though you've been fallen, even though you gave up the process of Krsna consciousness, you can attain the supreme destination. And Prabhupada said that if you just chant sixteen rounds, follow the four regulative principles, you will attain that destination. That's called kṛpā-siddhi, special mercy. So, that's possible. So, that is the highest goal. And intelligent persons will aim for that śreyas, that highest goal where there's no suffering, no more repeated birth and death, and you'll have an intense loving relationship with the Supreme Lord, enjoying your transcendental senses in the company of Krsna. And there is nothing in your heart that's not satisfied. It's a spiritual energy, it's not the energy of this world. It's transcendental, eternally developing. When we go to the spiritual world, there is endless variety of loving exchange and enjoyment. That should be our goal. So, please continue chanting Hare Krsna. And come here for the saṅga as much as you like, and hopefully at one point we can get a center or temple in Aalborg and many other places, and expand that wonderful saṅkīrtana movement. Thank you for your attention. Maybe there is a question or comment? No? That's okay too. So, all glories to Srila Prabhupada.