Hare Kṛṣṇa, everybody. A very welcome to the festival Śrī Kṛṣṇa janmāṣṭamī. So the process of bhakti-yoga starts by hearing, listening. So everybody, please listen. We're going to try and speak some kṛṣṇa-kathā. Who is Kṛṣṇa? Bhagavan Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Well, what Kṛṣṇa is not? He is not a historic, mythical figure. He is not something impersonal that we produce some deity and we worship for material benefit. And then when we have our wishes fulfilled, we put him back again. This is not who Kṛṣṇa is. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is eternal, one without a second. He has innumerable forms, personal forms, incarnations, like Lord Rām, Varāha, Narasiṁhadeva, Vāmanadeva, Matsya, Kūrma. He existed before the creation, and he will continue to exist after the dissolution. He is the cause of the creation, he is the cause of maintenance, and he is the cause of destruction. So, how come the Supreme Personality of Godhead choose to take his birth seemingly like an ordinary, helpless little child in a dark prison cell of Vasudeva and Devakī? Well, we all know the verse from the Bhagavad-gītā, which we quote on this day. Anyone?
yadā yadā hi dharmasya
glānir bhavati bhārata
Whenever and wherever there is a rise in irreligion and decline of religion, at that time I descend. So, it's for the benefit of everybody, because if adharma, irreligion, is on the rise, it is disturbance for the whole society. No one can live a really peaceful, prosperous, organized, civilized life, because adharma is disturbing. Now, also the atheist is suffering when the adharma is prevalent. In the next verse, Kṛṣṇa qualifies. I think we have to lower the volume slightly, thank you. He says, paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ, the first reason he comes, to protect and care for his devotees, vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām, to obliterate, annihilate the duṣkṛtinas, the lowest of mankind, the gross materialists, and dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya, to reestablish dharma. Now, so dharma is two different things. One dharma is for us in this lifetime. If you're a man, if you're a woman, if you're a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, śūdra, vaiśya, we have slightly different dharmas that will last during this lifetime. This is called the temporary dharma. And everybody should follow the temporary dharma so we can have a civilized society. But then we have the nitya-dharma, the jīva or jaiva-dharma. What is that? That is our svarūpa, our true spiritual identity, which is transcendental to our material body and our material mind. Every living being, every human being, are conditioned differently in this lifetime. But as spirit souls, we are all equal. And, as Bhagavan Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the origin of all, He is also the origin of us, of the living beings. So, Kṛṣṇa is sac-cid-ānanda. He is eternal, full of knowledge, and fully blissful. He is vibhu, He is the greatest, He is the unlimited, all-powerful. We, are we God also? No, yes, yes and no, right? Just like a particle of light from the sun is non-different from the sun, we, as a small particle of sac-cid-ānanda, are non-different from Bhagavan Śrī Kṛṣṇa. But we are aṇu, aṇu means very small. So qualitatively, we have the same spiritual nature. And, because we are also originally blissful, most of us, we don't like it in this world because here, everybody is more or less suffering from birth, death, disease, and old age. Problem coming from the body and the mind, from other living beings, suffering coming from natural disaster. This is the atmosphere in the material world, where we don't belong. So, since we are also originally of the sac-cid-ānanda nature, we're naturally looking for happiness. Isn't that why we go to work, why we go to school? We want to be happy, right? But it's very hard to be happy in this place where we do not belong, really. So, some of us, we want freedom, we want to be free from suffering, we want liberation, mukti, huh? And mukti is okay. We can do different yoga, jñāna-yoga, karma-yoga, yoga-siddhis, become liberated, and then we realize our true spiritual self. We engage in self-realization. And then we realize, actually, I'm eternal, I'm also have some knowledge, and I have a little bit of ānanda, because I'm small. However, the secret is, if you connect to the original source of all happiness, Bhagavan Śrī Kṛṣṇa, then you become fully happy. Otherwise, with liberation, you just get a tiny, little happiness, which is not sufficient for a living being. So, the real happiness Kṛṣṇa experiences in relationship with his devotees, with his pure spirit souls, in devotional service. Service is actually an expression of love and affection. Just like a mother is serving family, a mother is serving her children out of love. She cooks, and she spices the food with love. She wants to see the child grow strong, be healthy, and nourished. So that's sevā, that's service. And Lord Caitanya explains our true nature. He answers the question, "Who am I?" I'm not this body. This has a beginning, it has an end. So who am I? Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya explains:
jīvera 'svarūpa' haya—kṛṣṇera 'nitya-dāsa'
That means that we are the constant, eternal servants of Kṛṣṇa. So where do we start? How do we become dear devotees, pure lovers of Bhagavan Śrī Kṛṣṇa? So that we can exchange this mellow, which is actually the real reason why Kṛṣṇa accepts to be born as a helpless baby. Because Vasudeva and Devakī, in previous life, they were Sutapā and Pṛśni, they performed so much austerities, and they wanted Kṛṣṇa as their baby. Similarly, Mother Yaśodā wanted Kṛṣṇa as her child. She wasn't interested in the majesty, in the Nārāyaṇa feature, the awe and the reverence, because that became like a barrier. The real intimate sweetness is when you forget that Kṛṣṇa is the supreme, powerful God, who can create universes, who can destroy universes. So that's the real reason why Kṛṣṇa wants to come and take the role of a friend, of a lover, of a baby, to taste this bliss of the sweetness. Of kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa. So first, we need to learn how to become dāsa, isn't it? Those who are not interested in being dāsa, being servant, they think: "Everybody should serve me. I should be the enjoyer."
īśvaro 'ham ahaṁ bhogī
siddho 'haṁ balavān sukhī
"I am the lord and master. I'm the enjoyer." That's an asura speaking, a demon, a gross materialist. He wants to have, or she, everything. No question of service. Asura just serves false ego and his senses. So, when you start learning to be servant, to your extended, maybe to your family, friends, society, at least you do some service, right? Then you may even start serving some devatās. You serve Durgā-devī, Gaṇeśajī, Śiva, mother Sarasvatī, because you want something in return. "I offer pūjā, my dear Gaṇeśa, and instead you give me beautiful wife, money, a brand new Tesla, whatever." Anyway, you're serving some divine entity, even if it is for egoistic purposes. You can gradually elevate. These devatās, they will give you some kṛpā, some mercy. But it's kapaṭa. Kapaṭa, it's cheating, because they may give you material benefit that will entangle you more in the cycle of saṁsāra. If you continue to serve, you start serve unselfishly. You may even serve Bhagavan Kṛṣṇa, Bhagavan Rāmacandra, for egoistic purposes, but at one point, you just offer your time, your money, your work without expectancy of anything in return, right? So, this is the whole idea, you become servant, and finally, you understand that everything else you serve, society, friendship, love, employer, the government, even family, they are called fallible soldiers. None of these so-called masters can save you except Mukunda, Bhagavan Śrī Kṛṣṇa can save you. So this is what we can learn. We become servant, we become constant servant, 24/7, and we become constant servant to Kṛṣṇa. Then we will be very happy. And now comes the secret. I will tell you. Once, in the Padma Purāṇa, Lord Śiva told his wife Durgā-devī, he said:
ārādhanānāṁ sarveṣāṁ
viṣṇor ārādhanaṁ param
My dear Devī, although the Vedas recommend worship of the devatās, the worship of Lord Viṣṇu is topmost. However, above the worship of Lord Viṣṇu is the rendering of service to the Vaisnavas, who are related to Lord Viṣṇu. Also Padma Purāṇa, Lord Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna:
ye me bhakta-janāḥ pārtha
na me bhaktāś ca te janāḥ
mad-bhaktānāṁ ca ye bhaktās
te me bhaktatamā matāḥ
Those who say they are my direct devotees, Kṛṣṇa says, actually not my devotees. But those who are devotees of my servants are factually my devotees. Therefore, association with Kṛṣṇa-bhaktas, with the devotees, is the most important and most powerful way of doing bhakti-yoga. Because where there are devotees, there is chanting of the holy name, there is speaking kṛṣṇa-kathā, there is preparing and offering food to Kṛṣṇa, there is pūjā, ārati, there are so many different kinds of service, automatically. So, if you associate with the devotees, hang out with them, you will become one of them, which is the perfection of life. Because Kṛṣṇa, He says that the devotees are more dear to Him than His own life. So we have the wonderful opportunities, even if we cannot see Kṛṣṇa directly in Mathurā being a little baby, we can do service and help and assist His devotees when they put up nice festival, when they distribute books, when they arrange Sunday program. One can give one's time, one can give donation, one can give work, and that will be most pleasing. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that the most dear to Him is he who gives this knowledge to others, who preaches the Bhagavad-gītā. So, you want to be one of those, or you want to serve one of those, to perfect your life. So, let's join together with all the devotees, serve the lotus feet of Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, of Śrī Jagannātha, Subhadrā, Baladeva, Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi. And in that way, you will know the transcendental qualities of Kṛṣṇa's birth and His activities.
janma karma ca me divyam
evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ
And if you know this, at the end of life, you will return home, back to the spiritual world, and you never have to come back to this world again. That is Kṛṣṇa's promise. Okay, thank you very much. Maybe there is some comment or some question before we continue with the next point of the program. Please come in. Enjoy the festival, everybody. Okay, I will let you in on one small, actually big secret, too. If you want to be happy, then your happiness rests in the happiness of your lovable object. This is a secret given in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā chapter 4. It's not that you can try to be happy directly, but by pleasing and serving the object of your love, then you will be happy. This is the secret of existence. It actually works in a normal marriage, if the husband all the time wants to please and make the wife happy, not considering his own comfort. If the wife wants to see the husband happy, please him, serve him in many ways, not consider her own happiness, if both think like that, you will have the perfect marriage, right? And once you learn that skill of seeing your own happiness in the eyes of your lovable object, in the eyes of your wife or husband, in the eyes of your children, then you can see it in the eyes of Kṛṣṇa and His devotees. If you manage to make your friends, your devotee friends, you will have friends, if you start associating with them, you will develop very loving, friendly relationship to those who work very hard to sustain the preaching activities here in Göteborg, you will exchange gifts, you will exchange prasādam, you will have loving dealings. If you try to make them happy, if you please them, you will be extremely happy yourself. That is that secret. Okay. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Śrī Kṛṣṇa janmāṣṭamī kī jaya. Hari Hari.