One of the most profound conversations I heard was once when I was driving somewhere, hopefully to the temple, and I was listening to one of Prabhupada's conversations. It stuck in my mind so much that I thought I'd pass it on to you, and it goes like this: It was in Honolulu, 1976.

Devotee: "So if we have to wake again, then there's no reason, why should we have to stop birth and death?" Prabhupada had been describing that dying is like going to sleep for some time. So the devotee was playing devil's advocate.

Prabhupada: "So, you have no experience. Do you sleep perpetually, whole day and night? Why do you wake up? Is it not your experience that you sleep at night and wake up at daytime?"

Devotee: "Yes, but if I'm going to wake up again, then why should I want to stop it? I go to sleep, I wake up."

Prabhupada: "No, but you're waking up like a dog. That is the privilege. You sleep perpetually, not perpetually, for seven months, and then you wake up as a dog. The body is changed, and you go on barking—that you do not know. That is ignorance."

Devotee: "Krishna, that's amazing. You go to sleep in a human body, and you wake up in a dog's body."

Prabhupada: "Ah, that's it."

Devotee: "When I wake up the next morning, I'm not afraid to go to sleep because I know that I will wake up. So if I'm going to die, and I know..."

Prabhupada: "Die means you sleep as a man and wake up as a dog—that is dying."

The part that stuck in my mind was when the devotee exclaimed after Prabhupada said that. He said, "Oh, you go to sleep as a man and wake up as a dog." It reminded me of a story I read in my childhood about a man who wakes up as a cockroach. It quite alarmed me, actually—was it a cockroach, or maybe it was a centipede? Somebody can check on that, but he was trying to figure out all his legs and arms—a famous author.

There's a stark reality to death, and that is, it's not a joking matter or something to be taken lightly. When you do go to sleep or you die, you transfer to another body, and at that point, it's out of your hands. A devotee who had been arrested for trespassing and solicitation (a pretty common offense amongst devotees) he recalled being put in the back of the paddy wagon after having been handcuffed. There's this sense, once your hands are behind your back, and you're being pushed into a paddy wagon—where am I going? Don't worry about it. You're just going, and there's nothing you can do about it at that point. He recalled to me the feeling of helplessness that he had at that point. It's like, now it's out of my hands. Previously, I could have done something about it, but now it's out of my hands.

So although death isn't final in any way because we're eternal, still there's a finality to the destination that we're going next. The only time that we can do something about it is before we go into the death throes. Even then, it's a little late because whatever we've cultivated throughout our lifetime will generally manifest quite strongly in the last days. It's hard to turn it around, so to speak. That is our habits, our way of thinking, and what we're attracted to at the last moment. Just as Prabhupada this morning brought up about taking a test, when you go in, you don't do it two minutes before they tell you to put everything away and pick up a number two pencil. You do it weeks before, months before. Hopefully, you're on track when you walk in. It's like a final exam, and Prabhupada brought our attention to this again and again, talking about how serious it is or how seriously we should take it because that's the final exam.

(excerpt from the talk)

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Japa is one of those times because we have to self-examine and see how we're chanting. There are plenty of opportunities to examine ourselves in chanting japa, just to see what is the intensity, are we finishing at an appropriate time, and so forth. By taking that responsibility then, we can develop spiritual strength. There are various obstacles to that. One of them is if we are lending our ear to those who don't consider it very important, then we can be dissuaded from taking it seriously. That's why Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that we have to regularly hear about the importance of completing the practice in order to stay serious about it.

There's a phenomenon which I like to call 'The Jarāsandha effect', that goes like this: Just like Jarāsandha came to Mathurā and was totally defeated by Kṛṣṇa and Balārama. His armies were slaughtered 17 times, rivers of blood were flowing, every one of his soldiers was annihilated. But every time he walked away, Jarāsandha's ministers told him that his losing the battle was a fluke and he should go back and try again.

So the same thing happens. These same kinds of words come in a regular stream from those who are attached to the material world that just keep saying, "You'll be victorious next time." We have to constantly hear the sambandha-jñāna from Kṛṣṇain the Bhagavad-gītā, who assures us that this material world is not our home and that there's only one shelter—take shelter of Kṛṣṇa. That's why He says in the Gītā, "sarva-dharmān parityajya

mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja," just categorically forget the material world as a place of shelter and take shelter in Me.

So it's our responsibility to take advantage of Japa, its self-examination. It's also our duty to constantly hear about the importance of it so that we can remain in a determined state of mind to complete our 16 rounds, a minimum 16 rounds - every day.

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I have a book. It's called "Compost Everything," and the author argues that anything could be composted. I mean, theoretically. Actually, of course, you wouldn't want to throw an aluminum can in there. It would take longer than your life to actually go back into the earth. However, almost everything else organic is compostable. And he argues that it's just how long you want to wait. Even a piece of a log you could throw in wood. If you go to the forest, which we did recently, you look around, and you see the tree. A huge tree, lying there long enough, just deteriorates and goes back into the earth. So you can compost anything.

There's only one thing you can't compost: the soul. Because, as Krishna mentions in the second chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, it's not compostable. You can't cut it, you can't dry it. It can't wither in the wind. Put it in water, it doesn't get wet. It's impervious to material nature. In fact, he mentions in the 13th Chapter, it never mixes, kind of like oil and water. They don't mix together, and air, although it may go into mud, doesn't actually mix with the mud. There are two substances side by side. So the soul is not compostable, and it's not subject to the changes of material nature.

So this is one of the first and much-needed points for souls in this world about what death is. We're in this existential situation where we're not compostable, but everything around us is, and it is constantly getting composted. And so Kṛṣṇa talks about this in the Gitā when he says, "dehi no ‘smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati," that we're changing. The compostable world is changing around us. It's always changing.

Can somebody look up the word compost? I want to get a clear idea of what it means to compost something. Everything's being composted except for us. We're non-compostabl, if that's a word. And so he says, you can observe how the body we've been given, the present body we have, is going through these constant changes, but we don't change.

(excerpt from the talk 42:43)

Verse for discussion : https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/11/3/3/

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The mantra is like a flower airplane. Okay, so far? Is everyone's good ? Okay, so it's ready to take us up, and we have to, of course, board the plane. That's our job. The aircraft comes. The flower airplane is there, but we have to be ready to board the plane means you have to have a ticket in hand, means enthusiasm to chant. And when you go to the airport, they announce certain things. They ask you questions before you get on the board. One of them is, has anyone unknown to you given you anything to carry? Have they ever asked you that? They also ask you, did you pack your own bags? Or Did anybody else pack them? Put something in your bag?

So when we're preparing to board the airplane, we have to know who gave us what's in our consciousness. Has our awareness been under our control at all times? Has anybody unknown to you, like some random person on the internet and on TikTok given you something to hold in your mind of unknown origin? It is just random because it could be dangerous,. And so we have to prepare ourselves and get a ticket.

In the United Airlines website for the boarding process, they say we are dedicated to providing convenience and comfort throughout your journey with United and are always looking for ways to improve your overall experience. So in the same way, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu wanting to give everyone an opportunity to board the flight back to Goloka Vṛndāvan, gives this convenience of The holy name that anybody can board. They're just a few simple rules to get on the flight. You have to be sincere and you have to show up. And then there's avoiding the 10 offenses, a few prerequisites for boarding. So that's our part. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given the ultimate convenience that in this age, all you have to do is chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

(excerpt from the talk 01:43)

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Balance doesn't always look perfectly straight and I notice with balance, you're trying to pull back to the center, at least when I do it. Knowing what the center is and being able to come back to that regularly is very important. And more seva, "śuśrūṣoḥ śraddadhānasya vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ syān mahat-sevayā viprāḥ puṇya-tīrtha-niṣevaṇāt"; it's a way in which when we do seva, we get a deeper desire to hear and chant and when we hear and chant, we get a deeper desire, they're complimentary. So it's nice to notice it and be aware of how we're feeling, and make sure that we're feeling okay. It's important to take care of ourselves.

(excerpt from the talk)

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This tendency to diminish anything anyone else is doing comes from the envy within the heart. But Rūpa Gosvāmī says, a miracle happens by the association of pure devotees, and that is gradually one's heart changes, and there's no more envy within the heart. And therefore 'nindādi-śūnya-hṛdam īpsita-saṅga-labdhyā,' the person then becomes free from nindā.

Do you know somebody who is a professional at criticizing what they're called? A nindaka, or, you know, nindanīyā, like a kīrtanīyā. The kīrtanīyā is they're always singing Haribol! But a nindanīyā is somebody who's always singing other people's faults, and they criticize everyone, but that idea or impulse doesn't enter within the heart of a sādhu. So tolerance, steadiness, and mukhyā prasādāt and they're long, long lists of qualities of the sādhu.

In this verse 'satāṁprasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ (SB 3.25.25),' there's the most important quality mentioned of all, and that is that the sādhus are always speaking about Kṛṣṇa's glories. Vīrya means that the Lord's activities are glorious. And such a person is not interested in the mundane news of the world. Prabhupāda mentions that the devotees are not so interested in following the news because he says "Things will go the way they're going to go, and what can you do?" But we're on a different track, and those who follow Sādhus are on a different track. They're interested in discussing in more and more detail the activities of the Lord and His pastimes.

(excerpt from the talk 23:12)

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Without spiritual strength, we can't maintain niṣṭha or steadiness in practice. So to this end two points about practice. One is it's really hard to make it up at the last minute. Sometimes people become serious about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but they're, of course, Khaṭvāṅga Mahārāja is an example. Even at the last minute, you can, you should try, and you can do it. But generally, if you try to pass a test at the last minute by studying the night before, it's very difficult, because it takes time to develop momentum, to have spiritual strength or acumen in any particular subject.

So don't try to make it up at the last minute, because we've seen people near death, and then they say, I'd like to do it, but I don't have the yoga-balena, I don't have the spiritual strength. So remember that your practice is giving you the spiritual strength now so that you'll be prepared especially for death. Because you have to be able to be strong when you leave this body in order to attain the destination that requires niṣṭha, steadiness in the practice. And we get that through sāṅkhya-pūrvaka, which means numerical strength.

So you have to be consistent and keep a certain number every day, can't fluctuate. So even if you start small, then keep that number and don't go below. And then gradually, when you feel spiritual strength, you climb the ladder, take the next steps, and take a higher number according to your qualification at that point. And then keep it. And if you stay there, and you keep that practice going, and arrange everything around that then you come to the stage of niṣṭha. And It's important also to remember that taste comes later, because oftentimes people say, I don't have any taste for this, but don't worry about that. Now worry about niṣṭha or steadiness. Now let your taste be in niṣṭha or steadiness, not in yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa, that I'm feeling one moment to be like 12 years or more, where the tears are flowing from my eyes. That comes of its own accord, that comes as a descending process from Kṛṣṇa.

He awards that to those who have attained niṣṭha. So have a taste for steadiness, and that comes from having a sense of duty. There's there is taste in doing one's duty that I'm doing this for a higher cause. You can get a taste from that. So get your taste in niṣṭha and duty. Don't worry about crying and rolling on the ground, or feeling like you're devastated because you're chanting the holy name that comes by Kṛṣṇa grace. Our part is to practice. We may be in the beginning, last point, we may be in the beginning feeling that I'm nowhere. I don't have any adhikārī whatsoever, but everyone can grab on somewhere

(excerpt from the talk 13:45)

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Śāstra is amazingly relevant to our lives. One realization I've had about reading Śrīmad-Bhāgvatam, especially at Kārtik time when we were able to read long sections at a time and hear the whole canto in a month, is that it solves all problems, which originate in the mind.

There are very psychological anomalies that arise in the minds of humans, especially in mine, and by hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgvatam, they become resolved. That's a practical application, and you don't have to do a lot except be there and hear it. That's one of the principles that you were mentioning about Kṛṣṇa coming and sweeping—it's the vidhunoti principle that He's there actively cleaning the heart if we're actively listening with devotion, and that's very practical also.

People are always trying to position themselves in the world so that they don't suffer. It's the main thing everyone does—try to avoid suffering. But when you hear Śrīmad-Bhāgvatam, it's the natural way that your suffering diminishes because of the way it resolves the psychological anomalies, which are under three general categories: rāga, bhaya, and krodha. And then there are subsections of those, ad infinitum, and the combinations and permutations of those are all dealt with in the Bhāgvatam so expertly like nobody else can do it like that. So that's very practical also.

You'll notice that if you do, then you'll start to see your life as a real project rather than drudgery, that you have to go through these things. You feel that there is a resolution to everything, and chanting is very practical also, which is recommended in the śāstra.

(excerpt from the answer)

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The sense of devotion is there within the heart of every being. It's intrinsic, and by stimulation, it becomes awakened. We might say that a seed is stimulated. It lies dormant in a little package, perhaps. And then when you take it out, bok choy, little seed, and you say, come here, little fellow, and you put him in his own cup, you get some nice rich earth that doesn't have any contamination and make it moist, and then it's a little warm, sun's coming down, and the little seed in there goes like, I think I'll wake up.

Now, there's something to wake up for, and it sprouts and pops up. And so the sense that we have of love for Kṛṣṇa, they're dormant. What's the word I just asked you for? stimulate means?

Research Department: Stimulate is a verb, and it means rouse to action.

Vaiśeṣika Dāsa: And where does it come from?

Research Department: It comes from the Latin stimulatus, which is a past participle of stimuli.

Vaiśeṣika Dāsa: And what does it mean? The root? Stim, just look at the etymological dictionary and see if you can find about the root. And then, yeah, so the seed, yes, seed wakes up. Similarly in bhakti, the word uddīpana means to stimulate. Uddīpana means that there is, I can use a modern word that people use a lot, 'triggers' that really triggered me. That's very popular now think. It's a trigger, just seeing you triggers. So in bhakti, we surround ourselves by triggers. Everything's a trigger. Why do we come and see Tulsi? It's like, Oh, that's pretty nice. But, you know, she's actually from the spiritual world, so we start to trigger that. And then you have the spiritual master, and then you have the deities, and you have the scents, and the scents meaning, S, C, E, N, T, S, and all these very stimuli. Bhakti is a stimuli-rich or stimulus-rich environment. And then that helps, you know, by proximity, to awaken our sense of bhakti that's there sleeping within the heart.

(excerpt from the talk 1:13:18)

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In the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa says in the 10th chapter that of all the sacrifices, Japa is the best. And we can consider why that is so. There are many different processes of devotional service that are easy to enter into. For instance, the Sunday feast, or any type of prasadam, anyone can do, or we can walk in and dance in kīrtana, even if we don't know much about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, lots of people do that, but to deliberately take time to use your own voice and your time to commune with God by saying his name over and over again is unique, and therefore it's the only vow that Prabhupāda asked us to do. There are other things he said, don't do. But this is the only one thing he said, you make a vow.

The word devotee actually means one who makes a vow,voto. Voto comes from the word 'voto', or the word vow comes from voto, devoto. And the word vrata is the origin of that, that you make a vow. So vows make the world go round. In fact, as we can see, in some countries, there's a way in which people draw up a constitution, but it's all dependent on people agreeing to do it. If everyone, if people say, "No, I'm not going to do that," then ultimately it just doesn't hold together. So the world's held together by vrata, and our lives are held together by our vrata.

"Etan nirvidyamānānām icchatām akuto-bhayam yogināṁ nṛpa nirṇītaṁ harer nāmānukīrtanam",(SB 2.1.11) this vow to do the names of Hari, Kṛṣṇa is already vetted, says Śukadeva Goswāmī. You can count on it that every single great teacher has said, this is the clear path for everybody, and it doesn't matter if you're a king or a renunciate or a school child. I don't know what a school child is, somebody who goes to school. So this is the place to make the vow that holds everything else together.

We will have other vows we have to make in our life. But the śāstras say, Kṛṣṇa says that there's no vow more important than keeping Japa. And if you think about it, it's the time, the one time when we put everything else aside, ideally, I mean, that's the point. And have private time with suhṛt. Kṛṣṇa is our best friend. He's always been with us. He always will be with us. No one else can claim that. Other people come and go. So it's time that we could show our appreciation for our best friend who always stays with us in our hearts by keeping this clear vow. And if we do this one thing properly, all other things will fall into place in the proper way.

(excerpt from the talk 00:15)

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