The connection between birth and death

HH Bhakti Prema Swami Maharaj

Lecture given by His Holiness Bhakti Prema Swami Maharaj
22 July 2016, Naamhat Boxtel, The Netherlands

Excerpts:

see video below

Today we are remembering the disappearance of the mother Ranmaya Gautam of Vrajendra family and we are as well celebrating the appearance of her’s grand son.  I was requested to speak about life after death, but before we speak about that we should actually first know about life itself and how appearance and disappearance are connected.

Let’s say I am in the train and someone asks me: “Where are you going?” and I say: “I don’t know”. Then the person asks: “Where did you come from?” And again I say: “I don’t know”. What kind of situation is this, normal or abnormal? Yes, we say this situation is abnormal. You don’t know where you came from nor do you know where you are going. One might say: “this person is in need of treatment!”

If I say: “Okay you are 45 years old now. Where were you 45 years ago?” He says: “I don’t know”. Isn’t this an abnormal situation? If I say, “After 100 years you will die. Where will you go when you die?” and he says: “I don’t know”. Is that normal?

So, no one has an answer. They are all sick. This is a disease. And this disease is connected with the soul not with the body. There are different levels of disease. Disease related to the body; physical, cognitive, mental etc. If one is physically diseased where do we take him? We take him to the doctor. But if you tell a mentally diseased person to go to the doctor, he will say, “No, I am not sick!” Someone has to take him to the doctor by force or trick. Thus, we see the more subtle the disease, the more difficult it is to see and acknowledge. The most difficult disease is the disease related to the soul. This means to be ignorant of where one comes from, where one is heading to and why one is here. This disease is very difficult to overcome.

So, now the question may arise where this disease comes from? How did it start? If we do not know doesn’t it mean that we are unconscious of our self? Yes, it means one is not conscious or unconscious.

And if someone is unconscious what will you do?

If there is a car-accident and a bus with your 50 family members is hit and they are all unconscious. What will you do? Yes, you will take them to the hospital. Take them to the intensive care. And if you care about them what you will do, will you go home or will you stay with them? Yes, you’ll stay with them. And while staying with them, you will wait for what? You’ll wait for a sign of consciousness. You wait for his hand or leg to move. If you ask, “ Uncle how are you?” And he remains silent….how will you feel? Until he opens his eyes you’ll be morose, you’ll not be happy. And then what happens? Suddenly he opens his eyes and says, “Where am I? Why am I here? How did I come here?” and you become jubilant. Why? Because you know that he has regained his consciousness. So, actually in this world unless and until one asks these kind of questions he is actually unconscious!!

So, if someone is unconscious and does not know the answer to these questions we take him to the spiritual hospital: the ISKCON Temple!

If someone does not ask these questions he is considered to be unconscious.

People do not only become unconscious by accidents like these. There are so many causes. One can get bitten by a snake. If so, one will become unconscious before one dies. Why? Because of the venom. The venom makes one unconscious. Similarly, we are unconscious because we drank some poison. What poison did we drink? Bisha.. Then the subject is bishaya.

Our poison is this; this material world belongs to Krsna and we take something without Krsna’s permission. Then it becomes poison. If you steal a Euro from someone, in a way it becomes just like poison which causes you harm sooner or later.  In the same way everything belongs to Krsna and if we take things without informing Him, without His permission we are actually drinking poison. If we want to enjoy without Krsna, we are drinking poison. There is this bhajan from Srila Narottama Das Thakura, where he says “manushya- janama paiya…” after getting the human form of life I am drinking poison. Knowingly I am drinking poison and what is the result? I have become lost. I have become unconscious.

So, when someone is bitten by a snake, but manages to find a snakebite-healer who comes and chants a mantra by which the poison can be removed, one again can become conscious. Similarly, if we are unconscious we should try to come in contact with a pure devotee and when he chants the mantra in our ears we gradually regain our consciousness. So, the snake…is the pure devotee and the mantra is Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

So, now the question may arise, yes if we chant this mantra then how we will regain consciousness?

So, first one must define what it means to be unconscious. Being unconscious means that one has forgotten Krsna and that one has no knowledge of ones relationship with Him. This is called being unconscious.

So, how by chanting this consciousness comes?

Let’s say of a child calls out “Ma, ma!” what does it mean? It means that the child is declaring; you are my mother and I am your child thus taking care of me is your duty. So simple! and in this way the relationship is established.

When a child is rebellious and angry with the mother but after a while realises his mistake and calls “Ma, ma!” it means he has forgotten his mischief and asks for forgiveness and thus the relationship is established.

So if one chants; “Rama Rama” Then Rama will think; “Oh he is not in Ravana’s group, he is in my group!” and He’ll be happy.

When you chant Hare Krsna, Krsna will also think He is in my group! Why? Because by this chanting we are accepting Him as authority. We establish a relationship. You are my father, my Lord, my Master and I am your servant and thus the relationship is established.

And when one regains ones consciousness and realizes he is a servant of the Lord, then what is our duty?

Krsna never forgets. We forgot. We very clearly can see how Krsna has never forgotten us. As a father He takes care of us. He is constantly supplying, water, moonlight, food and such a beautiful body…how many times do we look in the mirror? So, yes we forgot, but He didn’t. He supplies.

And isn’t it our turn now? Should we now not remember that He is our father? And we see how much He loves us. Will you not feel ashamed? Is it enough to feel ashamed or should we do something?

What if your parents have given you a mobile phone because you are going to study abroad in the USA. They want you to call them but instead you use the phone to speak with other and not with them.

Or what if the company has given you a car, a phone, I-pad etc. Is it meant for your enjoyment or is it meant to serve the company? And if you use it for your own enjoyment will the manager feel inspired to continue to supply?

In the same way Krsna gave us eyes. Why? To see nonsense? No, to see Krsna, and if we don’t see Krsna we just see nonsense. Krsna gave us ears. For what? Nonsense? No, to hear about Krsna. He gave us this body? For nonsense? No, to engage in His service. And if we do that how will Krsna feel? Krsna will feel happy.

So, when you get to know while you are in the US for studies that your parents are suffering too much because they don’t hear from you. Will you not feel ashamed? Is regretting enough? No. We should beg forgiveness. We should do something.

We should call our parents and say; “I am so sorry I didn’t call, please forgive me” and yes your mother might still be a little angry, but in her heart how will she feel?

So, if you tell Krsna, how He will feel? If you tell Krsna, I love you, how He will feel?

He will feel so happy. Why? Because He loves us. How do we know that? Because He supplies for us. So, if he supplies and we don’t love Him, aren’t we being ungrateful?

If a person tells you; “I love you” and he gets no respond. And he says it again and no reply. No answer back. How he will feel?

If you say “Hare Krsna Prabhu” but the

6/27/16, 11:28 AM - ‪+91 96440 01251: person doesn’t say Hare Krsna back, how you will feel? How long will you say Hare Krsna to him?

So, better late than never. We should say; Krsna I also love you. And how we should say that? Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

If the Prime-minister comes to your room, don’t you feel like you want to serve him? So, one will give a garland, one gives water, one gives Prasad, one gives a BG gift. So, in this way everyone will try to establish a relationship with him. Someone might even come and say here is my phone number please call me. But, will the Prime-minister be happy? No, actually he will be disturbed. So, how we can please him? Very simple method. We just chant: “Prime Minister ki jaya!!” Then he’ll be happy. If no one says “Prime Minister ki jaya!!” then he might think “Mmm.. are these people my friends or my enemies?”. He’ll be disturbed. So, the simplest way to please him is by calling his name, his title.

What if you are glorious and your name comes in the newspaper. “Krsna Das, son of Ram Das has done such and such…”, but somehow by mistake they swopped the names. Will you be happy? No. Why not? Because everyone likes to hear his own name! In the same way Krsna loves to hear His own Name. He will be happy. So, if we chant His Name, He will be happy and we will regain our consciousness. Then we will understand where we come from and where to go!

Then the cycle of appearance and disappearance will cease. How? By chanting the Hare Krsna Mahamantra. There are 3 stages of chanting: the best is sankirtan: congregational chanting, the second one is kirtan and the third is japa. When we get some time we should do sankirtan. Today we did. So many people saw from their doors and windows and they were so happy seeing us. They waved their hands. And around 15 boys were dancing with us. They don’t know what they are doing but still they are very happy. Why? Because Krsna is in their heart making them dance! Krsna says: “They are glorifying Me, go and dance!”

So, we should do this and our japa, minimum 16 rounds, and then all the poison in the body in our consciousness will go and from an unconscious state of ignorance we can regain our consciousness and understand that yes there is life after death. Not just life. There is eternal life. Eternal life in an eternal place and also an eternal father, an eternal relationship, even  drinks and foodstuffs!

HH Bhakti Charu Swami has quoted from a section of ……. that in the spiritual world walking is just like dancing…so can you imagine if someone will dance. Then what will happen? He said that if someone is talking it is as if someone is singing. Can you imagine what will happen if someone actually starts kirtan? What will happen? He said the water is just like nectar. Everything is like nectar. Sri Caitanya has come to give us this treasure and Srila Prabhupada out of his causeless mercy has made this available throughout the world. That which is so rare to get has by Srila Prabhupada’s arrangement become so easily available. So, we should take full advantage of this golden opportunity. Thank you. Hare Krsna.

Transcribed by HG Subhavnanda prabhu

Before the class we had very nice Hari Naam in Boxtel
see fotos in this link.


http://www.photosnack.com/gautam/hhbhaktipremaswamivisitsnaamhatboxtel.html?UA_PHPSESSID=nn53hvavt8vitj80aee752ls13