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THEFOLLOWING LECTURE WAS GIVEN BY HIS HOLINESS BHAKTI CARU SWAMI ONJANMASTAMI DAY, 2 SEPTEMBER 2010, IN ISKCON UJJAIN, INDIA, ON THESRIMAD-BHAGAVATAM CANTO TEN: THE SUMMUM BONUM : CHAPTER 3 : THE BIRTHOF LORD KRISHNA, TEXT 21.

Transcription : Ranga Radhika Dasi
Editing : Ramananda Raya Dasa

 

Audio : http://www.bcswami.com/2010/09/06/srimad-bhagavatam-10-03-21

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudeva
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudeva
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudeva

Srimad Bhagavatam – Tenth Canto – Chapter Three – Text Twenty One

tvam asya lokasya vibho riraksisur
grhe ‘vatirno ‘si mamakhilesvara
rajanya-samjnasura-koti-yuthapair
nirvyuhyamana nihanisyase camuh

SYNONYMS
tvam — Your Lordship; asya — of this world; lokasya — especially ofthis martya-loka, the planet earth; vibho — O Supreme; riraksisuh —desiring protection (from the disturbance of the asuras); grhe — inthis house; avatirnah asi — have now appeared; mama — my; akhila-isvara— although You are the proprietor of the entire creation;rajanya-samjna-asura- koti-yutha-paih — with millions of demons andtheir followers in the roles of politicians and kings; nirvyuhyamanah —which are moving here and there all over the world; nihanisyase — willkill; camuh — the armies, paraphernalia, soldiers and retinues.

TRANSLATION
O my Lord, proprietor of all creation, You have now appeared in myhouse, desiring to protect this world. I am sure that You will kill allthe armies that are moving all over the world under the leadership ofpoliticians who are dressed as ksatriya rulers but who are factuallydemons. They must be killed by You for the protection of the innocentpublic.

PURPORT
Krsna appears in this world for two purposes, paritranaya sadhunamvinasaya ca duskrtam: [Bg. 4.8] to protect the innocent, religiousdevotees of the Lord and to annihilate all the uneducated, unculturedasuras, who unnecessarily bark like dogs and fight among themselves forpolitical power. It is said, kali-kale nama-rupe krsna avatara. TheHare Krsna movement is also an incarnation of Krsna in the form of theholy name (nama-rupe). Every one of us who is actually afraid of theasuric rulers and politicians must welcome this incarnation of Krsna:Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama,Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Then we will surely be protected from theharassment of asuric rulers. At the present moment these rulers are sopowerful that by hook or by crook they capture the highest posts ingovernment and harass countless numbers of people on the plea ofnational security or some emergency. Then again, one asura defeatsanother asura, but the public continues to suffer. Therefore the entireworld is in a precarious condition, and the only hope is this HareKrsna movement. Lord Nrsimhadeva appeared when Prahlada was excessivelyharassed by his asuric father. Because of such asuric fathers — thatis, the ruling politicians — it is very difficult to press forward theHare Krsna movement, but because Krsna has now appeared in His HolyName through this movement, we can hope that these asuric fathers willbe annihilated and the kingdom of God established all over the world.The entire world is now full of many asuras in the guise ofpoliticians, gurus, sadhus, yogis and incarnations, and they aremisleading the general public away from Krsna consciousness, which canoffer true benefit to human society.

[End of Purport]

So, this chapter of the tenth Canto, the third chapter of the tenthCanto of Srimad Bhagavatam has been described as ‘The Birth of LordKrishna.’ Today is Sri Krishna Janmastami. Today Krishna appeared aboutfive thousand years ago on this day, Krishna Janmastami. This is themonth of Bhadra and in the Krishna paksha.  Each month has two pakshas:the Krishna paksha and shukla paksha. So the shukla paksha is thewaxing period of the moon, when the moon grows from new moon to fullmoon. And then comes the Krishna paksha when gradually from full moonit becomes new moon.

So in the Krishna paksha of the month of Bhadra, on the eighth day,which is today, Krishna appeared on this planet. He appeared in a veryunusual way. Although Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead,although He is the controller of the entire creation, and although Hedoesn’t really need to take birth, but Krishna, the Supreme Personalityof Godhead, took birth as an ordinary human child. And then also, Heappeared, He took His birth in a prison. When Krishna appeared Hisfather and mother, Vasudeva and Devaki, were in a prison so Krishna wasborn in a prison. Even a human child gets the treatment of a midwife ora nurse at the time of the birth, but when Krishna appeared no one wasthere to take care of His mother. And not only that, both His motherand father were imprisoned in the prison house of Kamsa.

In such a terrible situation Krishna appeared. Krishna appeared insuch a terrible situation simply to increase our love for Him. When welove somebody and when we see that that person is suffering, whathappens? Our heart becomes affected. We feel terrible pain when such aloved one suffers. So Krishna’s pastimes are like a play. Krishnadoesn’t need to come as a human being and take birth as a human being.Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He could come straightaway. Just as a king doesn’t need anyone’s permission or anyarrangement to go to the prison. If the king wants to go to the prisonhe can go to the prison anytime, because it’s ‘his’ prison. And even ifthe king goes to the prison he doesn’t become the prisoner. He alwaysremains the king. Similarly, Krishna, Who is the Supreme Personality ofGodhead, He is the Supreme Controller, the Supreme Enjoyer.

And this material nature is like a prison house. This materialnature has been described as a prison house, karagara. Maithuna agara.This is a very special type of prison house, this material nature. Inthe prison house the prisoners are tied down with shackles, withchains, but this material nature is a prison house where everybody istied down with maithuna kanka, tied down with sex desire. This prisonhouse is where everyone is tied down with a special shackle. That isthe shackle of sex desire. So this is Krishna’s arrangement.

So, anyway, Krishna comes into this prison house. Why does He come?He comes to fulfill two main objectives. Paritranaya sadhunam andvinashaya ca duskritam [Bg 4.8]. He comes to protect the devotees andannihilate the demons. Protect the devotees and annihilate the demons,paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya ca duskritam. So by appearing in thisworld He fulfills these two purposes. He protects the devotees, and notonly protects the devotees, He allows the devotees to associate withHim, and He annihilates the demons.

And He comes in various ways. Sometimes He comes directly from thespiritual sky, riding on Garuda. Dwaraka se chale Gopala, Garuda kebichare. Chakra se graho ko mari, Vraja Raja ko uddhare, gajaraja kouddhare [Hindi bhajana]. When Krishna rescued the king of elephants,gajaraja, when Krishna came to protect the gajaraja by annihilating thecrocodile, gajaraja prayed. The king of the elephants was praying toHim. He saw that now the time has come for him to die so he wasoffering his prayers to Krishna. And Krishna came directly to rescuehim, to rescue Prahlada Maharaja, paritranaya sadhunam and vinashaya cadushkritam. Prahlada Maharaja’s father, Hiranyakasipu, was torturingPrahlada Maharaja. He was even trying to kill his own son Prahlada! Soto protect Prahlada Maharaja and annihilate Hiranyakasipu LordNarasimhadeva, the Lord appeared, Krishna appeared as LordNarasimhadeva and He came, He appeared from a pillar. Keshava dhritanarahari rupa. So Keshava, Krishna, just appeared from a pillar.

In this way Krishna can come any way He wants. His appearance islike an actor on a stage. An actor plays various roles on a stageaccording to the necessity, or demand, or the need of the role. SoKrishna comes, can come in any way, but sometimes He comes as a humanbeing and He takes birth as a human being. Krishnera yateka khela taramadhye [in the verse:sarvottama] nara-lila nara-vapu tahara svarupa [CCMadhya 21.101]. Of all the pastimes of Krishna, His nara-lila, Hishuman pastimes pastimes are the most exalted, because nara-vapu, Hisidentity, His form is very much like a human form. But that doesn’tmean that when Krishna comes He becomes a human being. Krishna isalways Krishna, whether He comes as a fish, whether He comes as atortoise, whether He comes as a boar, or whether He comes as a halfman-half lion, or whether He comes as a human being ,He is always theSupreme Personality of Godhead. His form may differ, but He remains theall-powerful Supreme Controller, Supreme Personality of Godhead.

But here it says nara-vapu tahara svarupa; the human like form isHis svarupa, His original identity. So the Supreme Personality ofGodhead looks like the human being, two arms. What is the form likehuman being? Human forms are like with two arms, one head, two legs andso forth. Generally it’s a two armed form. The Lord also has four-armedform, but that form is not His original identity. Four-arm form is notHis svarupa. His svarupa is dvibhuja Shyamasundara, two-armed humanlike form with the complexion of like a monsoon cloud.

And in that pastimes Krishna appears. There are other human-likeforms also. He appears as Ramachandra, but when He appeared asRamachandra He was a king. He was a prince. He was born in a royalpalace under royal care and patronage. Everybody, His mother, wastreated very, very carefully. But in that pastimes also we see that Hehad to go to the forest for fourteen years. And in the forest, like Hewas supposed to be the king, He was a crown prince, He was supposed torule the kingdom, but just the day before, or not on the day before,the very day He was supposed to be coronated He was banished from Hiskingdom.

Now why does the Lord perform such activities? These activities areknown as the pastimes, lila. Pastimes are like a drama. Like, dramamust have conflict. Drama must have intertwining of different mellowsin order to churn our emotions. Let’s say for example, if everythinggoes on nicely, everything is okay, do we become excited about that?No, but if somebody comes and beats up somebody we love, then how doyou feel? Then you become very excited and we feel that now let’s goand beat up that person.

So similarly the Lord also creates that situation. If He came andjust killed the demons there wouldn’t have been any drama. But whenthere is an excitement, like Ramachandra is banished to the forest,what happens to those who love Ramachandra? When you see the drama whodo you side with? When you see a movie, I don’t know you don’t seemovies [laughs], but when you go to see a movie or when you see adrama, in the drama who do you side with? Do you side with the hero orthe villain? [Audience: the hero] You side with the hero. And when yousee in the movies, you see often the hero is going through a lot ofdifficulties. The hero is beaten up. The hero is beaten up… How do youfeel when you see the hero being beaten up? Don’t you feel excited?Don’t you feel that just jump on to the stage and start beating thatperson [laughs]?

So that is the purpose of a drama, the churning of emotion. SoKrishna does that, appearing as Lord Ramachandra, appearing as Krishna.So we are seeing Krishna is born in a prison house. In such adistressful condition Krishna was born. In Krishna’s pastimes we feelalthough His birth is difficult and painful or causing pain, causingdistress to our heart, but His whole activities are full of joy.Although He is born in the prison, He is transferred to the house ofNanda Maharaja. And then in the house of Nanda Maharaja Krishna grew upwith so much love and so much affection.

And Krishna grew up and He started to play with His friends, othercowherd boys. And then when Krishna grew up they started to tend thecalves. When Krishna was five years old the cowherd boys went to tendthe cows, the calves, the little baby cows. And at that time so manydemons tried to come, tried to kill Krishna. But what did Krishna do?Krishna killed all the demons. How do you feel when Krishna is smashingand killing all those demons? Don’t you feel excited? Don’t you feelhappy?

So in this way, by sometimes causing pain, sometimes causinghappiness Krishna is making us, causing us to develop our attachment toHim. And that is the purpose of His pastimes. He performs His pastimesand He kills the demons and He protects the devotees, and from that,what do we learn? We naturally become attracted towards Him. And thisattraction is the only purpose, to create this attraction is the onlypurpose of Krishna’s coming to this planet.

The paritranaya sadhunam, how does Krishna ultimately paritrana?Paritrana means to rescue, and paritrana means specially rescue. Howdoes Krishna specially rescue the living entities from the materialnature? By causing them to become attached to Him. So that is thepurpose, but of course in the material nature there are some demons.The demoniac people will become more averse to Krishna. The sadhusbecome attracted and the demons become averse. So by appearing Krishnaserves two purposes: the demons become more demoniac and the sadhusbecome attracted to Him. And the demons become demoniac, and then whatdoes Krishna do? Krishna kills them.

Like, for example, Sishupala. His whole business was to insultKrishna. He simply wanted to insult Krishna. Sishupala was born withfour hands and three eyes and seeing such a ghastly appearance, theycould recognize that it’s a demon. So they were considering to throwhim away. But then there was a voice in the sky that declared, thatannounced, that, don’t worry, his form will become normal and when youplace him on somebody’s lap… So the consideration actually was that onwhose lap when he is placed then his two hands and one eye willdisappear. The third eye and two hands will disappear. So he was placedon various laps. I mean the people were in anxiety that his father andmother were in anxiety.

Then one day Krishna and Balarama came to their house. They wereactually relatives. His mother, Sishupala’s mother, was Vasudeva’ssister, Krishna’s father’s sister. And when They came, just playfullythe child was placed on Krishna’s lap and his two arms disappeared andthe third eye disappeared. So his mother could recognize that he’ll bekilled by Krishna. So his mother appealed to Krishna, “Krishna, pleasedon’t take any offence. Please don’t kill him.” So Krishna said, “Okay,I will tolerate his hundred offences. Not only hundred offences, thehundred causes, hundred offences that could be good enough to kill him.”

There are certain offences that gives us a liberty to kill somebody.Like, for example, if somebody sets fire in your house then you cankill him. If somebody steals your wealth you can kill him. These arethe few injunctions in the scriptures that give the reasons for one tokill somebody. So Krishna said okay I’ll tolerate his hundred offences.But still, Sishupala was so envious of Krishna that Sishupala, wheneverhe saw Him, he used to just insult Krishna. That is their business. Sothis is the business of a demon. Whenever they see the SupremePersonality of Godhead, or whenever they hear about the SupremePersonality of Godhead, they blaspheme Him.

In this way hundred such offences were committed by Sishupala. Thelast one was committed in the Rajasuya yajna of Maharaja Yudhisthira.At the time of Rajasuya yajna Krishna was given the argha, the firstargha, the greatest honor. Sishupala became so furious, so envious. Hesaid, “Why Krishna? Why it is offered to Krishna? There are so manyother people who are greater than Krishna. Bhishma is there. He is thegrandsire. If you say that you wanted to offer it among your allies,your friends, your own people, then Drupada was there, who is by agemuch senior. And there are so many exalted sages, rishis, present herein this assembly. And there are so many sages, rishis present here.  Sowhy it is offered to Krishna? And who is Krishna? He is just a gwala,He is a cowherd man. There is a consideration that He is a kshatriya,but what kind of a kshatriya? Born in a prison, then brought up like agwala.”

The kshatriyas are very proud of their kshatriya heritage and theylook down upon the other classes, the vaishyas and sudras. So heconsidered that Krishna is a vaishya. And in this way he kept oninsulting Krishna. And then he started to insult in many other ways.“He is a debauchee. When He was young He did this, He did that.” SoKrishna tolerated, tolerated, tolerated. And just as the hundredthoffence was over Krishna declared that, “This person, I promised to hismother that I will tolerate hundred offences that is fit to be killed,fit to kill him. Now that is over, so now I am killing him.”  Krishnacalled His Sudarshana chakra and chopped off his head.  So this is howwe can see this is a natural characteristic of a demon to insultKrishna, stop Krishna Consciousness. So this is how we recognize ademon and a devotee.

And Prabhupada is pointing out here that in this age of Kali Krishnaappeared in a very special way. How did Krishna appear in this age? Howmany of you know? How many of you listened to the purport carefully?What is the special way that Krishna appeared? Okay, you tell me.[audience member: as the Holy Name]. As the Holy Name. Very good.Krishna appeared as the Holy Name. Kali kale nama rupe Krishna avatara[CC Adi 17.22]. Avatara, Krishna has incarnated in the form of the HolyName.

Now we will see Krishna has appeared in the form of the Holy Name,there will be people who will be attracted to the Holy Name. And therewill be people, those who will try to stop the propagation of the HolyName. So those who are trying to stop the propagation of the Holy Name,what will we understand? They are the demons! And those who accept theHoly Name, they are the devotees. This is how in this age one will showhis allegiance to Krishna. Accept the Holy Name! And this Holy Name isnon-different from Krishna. You take shelter of the Holy Name. Just asKrishna gives protection to His devotees, the Holy Name will giveprotection to you.

The situation may be very dangerous in this age of Kali, but if youtake shelter of the Holy Name you will get protection. I am sure manyof you have experienced it. In a difficult situation you chant the HolyName, then what happens? All kinds of wonderful things happen. You getthe protection. How many of you felt that? How many of you had thatrealization or experience? Very good. You chant the Holy Name andyou’ll get the protection.

To give an example how the Holy Name gives the protection, once inGermany, long time ago, in the city called Hamburg, the devotees werechanting at night in a crowded, busy area. They were chanting and thenall of a sudden they see that a huge man was just coming towards him[them].  So devotees didn’t know what to do. So they just started tochant even more loudly. And the man was running towards them as if hewas coming to hit them.

And then as he came within, say five, six feet of them , then theman just his body just went up and he fell on the ground and he becameunconscious. The paramedics came, the ambulance came, and theparamedics declared that he had a massive heart attack. Now, tell me,why does all of a sudden one gets a heart attack like that?

So Holy Name took care of him.  So this is how we have to have ourfaith in the Holy Name and this is how we should take shelter of theHoly Name, and this is how we should become a devotee of the Lord. Howdo you become a devotee of the Lord in this age? The way to become adevotee of the Lord in this age is simply by accepting the Holy Nameand chanting the Holy Name. Just chant the Holy Name and you’ll get theshelter and protection of Krishna.

Well, there is going to be the guru puja at 8.15 so I’ll give over ten minutes for questions & answers.

Does anybody have any question? Give him the mike.

Devotee: Guru Maharaja, you said that by Krishna’s descent the demons become more demoniac.[inaudible]

BCS: No, more demoniac means they display their demoniac becomeintensified. their demoniac propensities become intensified. Yeah. Sowhat is your question?

Devotee: [inaudible]

BCS: Okay, that was your question. Okay, Krishnarchana?

Devotee: Guru Maharaja, those who propagate the Holy Name, devotees,and those who go against the propagation of the Holy Name, are ofdemoniac nature. Now we can also see some exceptions to this in thesense that, someone may have been averse, may have been opposing theHare Krishna’s because of not knowing about what actually it is, andyou know, if they get exposed to the right philosophy they may supportthe Movement but they [inaudible]. So do we treat these people asdevotees or demons, or?

BCS: Yeah, actually people are of three classes, three categories:devotee, innocent and offender. Offender means demon. Innocents areinnocent. They don’t know. That’s why they didn’t accept. Or sometimesthey may even be opposing, but when they’re properly educated, whenthey become aware of the benefit of chanting the Holy Name, orrecognize that Holy Name is Krishna’s mercy, then they accept the HolyName. That is the innocent. But even if someone is a demon, still hecan become a devotee. It’s not that the demons cannot become devotees.Even demons can become devotees in a proper situation, especially inthis age of Kali. In other ages Krishna kills the demons, but in theage of Kali Krishna doesn’t kill the demons. In the age of Kali Krishnamakes the demons also into devotees. That is the special prerogative ofthe age of Kali. So even if someone is demoniac, it doesn’t matter. Wecan pray for him and he can become a devotee.

Devotee: Guru Maharaja, we see that certain preachers, somehow theymake lots of disciples like Srila Prabhupada and Bhaktivinode Thakura,whereas certain others may not have so widely preached and not havingvery many disciples as such. So the thing is, is there a difference intheir purity or is it that it is Krishna’s desire? Like Gaura KishoreDasa Babaji Maharaja, he had only one disciple and Prabhupada preachedall over the world. Is it only due to their purity or is it…

BCS: What’s your question, like the first part of the question?

Devotee: is it only due to their purity that somebody is able toconvert many individuals and due to the lack of purity somebody is not…

BCS: Well, it will depend upon their attitude. Some people want topreach, some people don’t want to preach. Don’t want to preach in thesense they rather prepare for preaching. They make the preparations forpreaching. Everyone is preaching, directly or indirectly. Like, say forexample, the Goswamis of Vrindavana. They did not directly preach somuch, but they wrote the books. So these books are the preparation forpreaching. On the basis of the books we preach. And they gave us thebooks. They prepared the ground for preaching, whereas others they willgo directly and preach. You see, the preaching, the effectivity ofpreaching is not in the number of disciples, or number of followers.The effectivity of the preaching lies in how expertly they’re makingthem into devotees. Like, there may be some people who have manydisciples, but are they devotees? No. There are so many gurus, theyhave so many disciples, but did they become devotees? No. There aresome gurus they have thousands of disciples. Not thousands, hundreds ofthousands of disciples, but did they become devotees? No. Why not?Because the guru is not pure enough. Guru is not Krishna-tattva-vetta[CC Madhya 8.128].

So the more of a Krishna-tattva-vetta one is, the more effectivelyhe’ll be able to change the hearts. So it is not in number, but it is,yeah, some in purity. But even in purity some will directly preach,some will not preach. Like, who will question the purity of theGoswamis of Vrindavana? Purity of Rupa Goswami and Sanatana Goswami.They are undoubtedly not only pure devotees, they were the mostintimate associates of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but they didn’t preach.Whereas other, like as you said Prabhupada preached all over the world,and the result is? Whoever came in contact with Srila Prabhupada becamea devotee.

Okay. Any other question? Give him the mike.

Devotee: Actually, Krishna is the most powerful. Why does Krishna as such need to create a drama?

BCS: Why does He need to create a drama?

Devotee: Why does He need to create a drama. He is the all powerful.

BCS: As I mentioned, He creates the drama to create the excitementand attraction. Do you become attracted to a person on the street? No,but when that person, you see him on the stage, playing a drama, thendo you relate to him? Right? Have you ever come across somebody likethat? So when you see him playing on the stage or he develops arelationship with you then do you become attracted to him?

Devotee: You see the point is, why does He need to create an attraction?

BCS: To give you a chance to become attracted to Him, otherwise youwon’t become attracted, right? If Krishna just came and He didn’t, Hejust stood there, would you become attracted? But when Krishna comesand kills the demons, do you become attracted? Somebody is coming toharm you, hurt you, Krishna comes and kills him. How do you feel aboutthat? Don’t you feel grateful towards Krishna and attracted towardsKrishna? So that is why Krishna actually plays these pastimes so thatyou and I can develop our attachment to Him. Otherwise there wouldn’thave been any place, any room for attraction.

Devotee: In this day of Kali Yuga the number of demons areincreasing than the number of devotees. And they constantly irritate[?] the devotees and they do not leave, so how the devotees willsustain if they do like this at such times?

BCS: As I said, like, you take shelter of the Holy Name and the Lordgives you protection. So the number of demons are increasing, but thenumber of devotees are also increasing. Like some months back, someyears back, were you a devotee? So the number of devotees increased byone by you becoming a devotee [laughs]. So isn’t it? So the number ofdevotees are also increasing. So as you said, like, what will happen,how the devotees will be protected because the demons are increasing innumber so much. Actually number of demons are always more in this worldthan the devotees. When Kamsa was here, right, and Krishna had to comein Dvapara Yuga, do you think everybody was a devotee at that time? Thedevotees were only few and everybody was following Kamsa. All therulers were demoniac. Their followers naturally became demoniac. ButKrishna came, then what did Krishna do? Krishna killed the demons oneafter another, right? And after killing the demons Krishna caused thebattle of Kurukshetra and in the battle of Kurukshetra Krishna wipedout all the rest of the demons. So Krishna is the Supreme Personalityof Godhead, so He can make arrangement for supreme protection.

Devotee: On this day also

BCS: Take the mike.

Devotee: On this day of Kali Yuga also, He should come now as the demon’s population are increasing and [inaudible].

BCS: Krishna has come, as I just mentioned, Krishna has come in theform of the Holy Name. You have to understand that Holy Name is KrishnaHimself. Is the Deity on the temple, is it Krishna? On the altar, yousaw the Deities. Is that Krishna, or not? It’s Krishna, so if Krishnacan come in that form can Krishna come in the form of sound? If Krishnacan come in the form of earth, can Krishna come in the form of sound?So Krishna’s appearance as sound is the Holy Name, alright?

Okay, it’s already little late. Gurupuja, then? Okay, I’ll take the last question. Give him the mike.

Devotee:  For what purpose [inaudible]

BCS: For what purpose?

Devotee: For what purpose [inaudible]

BCS: What is the question?

Devotee: For what purpose we appear in this world?

BCS: For what purpose? Oh, I see. To serve what purpose we came intothis world. That’s your question. To become a devotee of Krishna. Thatis the purpose of human life. You are getting an opportunity to becomea devotee of Krishna, right? You understand Krishna. You develop yourrelationship with Krishna. You serve Krishna. In this way you become adevotee of Krishna. The purpose of human life is to become a devotee ofKrishna, but if you squander that opportunity it’s a big loss, right?

What do you think? For what purpose you came? Did you come to make alot of money? Did you come to become very famous? Did you come tobecome very successful? Did you come to have a very nice house? Did youcome to have a very nice family? So why did you come? What is thepurpose of human life? Like, all these things, it’s nice to have. It’snice to have a lot of money. It’s nice to have a big house. It’s niceto have a nice family and so forth. But they all will become nothing atthe time of death, right? All that you achieve in this material nature,at the time of death everything will become a zero, right? Then tellme, what is the purpose of human life?

In human form of life you can understand Krishna. You can understandGod. Can a dog understand God? Can a cat understand who is God? Can acat ever question, is God there? Can a cat question, what is myrelationship with God? But a human being can. That is the differencebetween a human being and an animal. So human being can questionwhether God is there. A human being can find out who is God. A humanbeing can develop his relationship with God. A human being can dedicatehimself in serving God. So that is why the human form of life has beendescribed as the way, an opportunity, to make spiritual advancement bybecoming a devotee of the Lord.

So the purpose of your coming here, if you ask me, is to become adevotee of Krishna, alright? Become a very good devotee of Krishna.Will you?

Thank you!

Hare Krishna! Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!

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