The following article has been transcribed from an excerpt of the talk that Srila Janardan Maharaj gave during the Janmastami in the Park program held in 2011 at Ponderosa Park in Sunnyvale, California.
Everything will come into one’s life if they take up some Krishna bhakti. Krishna bhakti will give everyone everything.
vasudeve bhagavati
bhakti-yogah prayojitah
janayaty ashu vairagyam
jnanam ca yad ahaitukam
(Srimad Bhagavatam: 1.2.7)
By worship of Krishna you get all knowledge and detachment from unwanted and troublesome things of this material world. We were singing this song bhaja hu re:
sita atapa bata barishana
e dina jamini jagi re
Hot and cold, day and night, I am working very hard in this world.
biphale sevinu kripana durajana
chapala sukha-laba lagi’ re
Who am I working for? I am working for kripanas. They have no mercy upon me because I am only interested in chapala suka, some enjoyment in this world, and in order to get that I need some money. I am working hard day and night to acquire some money but why am I doing all these things?
These are the words of the sage Govinda das. He is very wise. He says e dhana, yauvana, putra, parijana. We are all enchanted by wealth, youth, sons and so many of these things.
ithe ki ache paratiti re
kamala-dala-jala, jivana talamala
Happiness is fleeting, like a drop of water on a lotus leaf
He says kamala-dala-jala, like a drop of water on the leaf of a lotus flower: it won’t stay there very long. It’ll stay for a few seconds then it will roll off. Like that everything I’m working for is so temporary. I will enjoy it for a few days but then it will be gone and for that I am spending my whole life.
These are the words of the sages. Those who are seers are telling us, “Why spend all of your energy on something that is temporary?” You’re saying “I’m looking for happiness and I want to be happy in my life. I don’t want to give up on life and move into a monastery. I don’t want to become a monk or a sannyasi. I don’t just want to do these things. I want happiness in my life.” People are thinking like that and it’s true, we’re working for happiness, not for unhappiness. Some days you’re walking up, though, and there is so much unhappiness in your life. Other days there’s much happiness in your life. That happiness and unhappiness is coming by itself. You don’t have to work for it. It’s coming in your life according to your karma. What you have coming that you are getting (some happiness and then sometimes some unhappiness) is all karma-fal. That is what you are getting–the fruits of your karma. You don’t have to look for it. But some things you do have to look for because they are not coming automatically in your life. What is not coming automatically?
To know what is the purpose of your life. The purpose of your life is to have some spiritual connection with the divine Lord. The nature of all of us is we are serving so many persons in this world but actually, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says we are:
jiver swarup hoy krishner nitya-das
We are all souls; we are all Krishna das. We are all servants of Sri Radha and Krishna. That is what we should be striving for. You’ll get your happiness and some unhappiness but why not spend some energy for what is your eternal life and your eternal benefit? That is what we are asked to do. Bhagavad-gita, the whole message is that you are an eternal person and this life is not your only life. The soul is eternal so why not look for your eternal wealth?
What is for your actual eternal benefit? That is what we are interested in. Look for something beyond the temporary. So many things I have in this material world but tomorrow or the day after tomorrow so many of those things will go away. What I had yesterday has changed. That is the nature of life. But our divine wealth is always increasing. If you spend a little bit of energy, Krishna says in Bhavad-gita that even a little bit of advancement will save one from the greatest fear.
What is the greatest fear? Actually we are eternal persons but in this world everyone is caught by material nature. The nature of illusion is that we are identifying with this body thinking it is our identity. The body dies and that is our fear. We are eternal souls thinking that we are going to die. That is a contradiction.
Eternally we are servants of Hari and we are spirit souls. There is no birth and death for the soul. That is what Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita. He says,
dehino ‘smin yatha dehe
kaumaram yauvanam jara
tatha dehantara-praptir
dhiras tatra na muhyati
(Srimad Bhagavad-gita: 2.13)
What we are seeing is only temporary changing of our body, of our clothes. We have gone through so many changes, but the person who is actually within this body–that is our real identity. Everything else is upadhi. Upadhi means that which is not a real identity. If I say “Who are you?” and you say, “This is who I am. You see I have my driver’s license, credit card, voter registration card and so many cards. I have family pictures….” But these are all upadhis. You’re are not this picture. you’re not even the picture that you see in the mirror. I am looking at myself in the mirror supposedly but that is not who I am. I can see that the picture is always changing.
My real identity? I don’t know who I am…. We have to make contact with a realized person who can give us proper adjustment. Religion means proper adjustment. Right now we are misreading this environment and thinking it is unfriendly. Everyone is very protective. That is our idea of reality–that we have to be protected. Real reality is spiritual and eternal. Search for Sri Krishna Reality the Beautiful. That is reality. When you’re on that plane you’ll get good news.
The news in this world is that everyone is going to die
You go buy the San Jose Mercury News or the San Francisco Chronicle and mostly it is not good news. Yamaraj told Maharaj Yudhistir that the news is we are all going toward death. That is what is in the newspapers, but that is not reality, and it is not good news. On the spiritual plane is only beauty and all news is good. Since we are out of adjustment we are not receiving that good news.
Give this Krishna consciousness a place in your life and you will find all happiness. Now is a good time to come visit with us. We are celebrating Sri Krishna Janmastami and it is our hope that all of your friends and family will all please come visit.
Jay Bhagavan Sri Krishna!
Sri Krishna Janmastami ki jay!
Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharvika Giridharijiu ki jay!
Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!
Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar DevGoswami Maharaj ki jay!
Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhu Nityananda Sri Adwaita Gadhadar Srivasadi Sri Gaura Bhakta Vrinda ki jay!
Sri Sri Radha-Krisha Gopa-Gopinath Giri-Govardhan Shyama-Kunda Radha-Kunda Kalindi-Jamunaji ki jay!