1 00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:15,084 Today is specially known as Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu Jayanti, the advent of a 2 00:00:15,084 --> 00:00:30,292 great devotee of God who lived in the bliss and the love of God, and 3 00:00:30,292 --> 00:00:39,958 propagated the love of God for the sake of the joy and the bliss of God. 4 00:00:39,958 --> 00:00:52,083 The day of love of God may be said to be Gauranga Mahaprabhu Jayanti. 5 00:00:52,083 --> 00:01:10,833 We know what is love, but our concept of love is contaminated by a trade relation 6 00:01:10,833 --> 00:01:20,708 that we establish between the lover and the beloved. Have you ever thought 7 00:01:20,708 --> 00:01:35,624 why anything is loved at all? The most initial, abrupt answer to this question 8 00:01:35,624 --> 00:01:46,541 would be that the object is attractive; that which attracts evokes 9 00:01:46,541 --> 00:02:01,250 the sentiment of love for that particular  object. But, why does that object attract? 10 00:02:01,332 --> 00:02:13,790 One of the answers may be that it is beautiful,  but what do we mean by 'beauty'? 11 00:02:13,790 --> 00:02:21,540 Here is something which everyone seems to know 12 00:02:21,540 --> 00:02:31,890 but no one can understand, because human understanding,   13 00:02:31,890 --> 00:02:44,760 which is intellectuality, operates on the basis  of calculation, a kind of mathematical judgment   14 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:59,670 of things, and measures geometrically the pros  and cons of the relationship of what appears   15 00:02:59,670 --> 00:03:16,706 to be beautiful. But beauty is a subject  of art. It is not a mathematical equation.  16 00:03:16,706 --> 00:03:27,230 There are two things in the world which  attract immensely -- the beautiful and   17 00:03:27,230 --> 00:03:44,090 the sublime. Nothing else can attract. The  full moon is beautiful; a blossomed lotus or   18 00:03:44,090 --> 00:03:58,010 rose is beautiful. Our mind goes to it, and  we look at it again and again. Even the face   19 00:03:58,010 --> 00:04:05,270 of a newborn baby is beautiful. Whether  it is the baby of a king or of a beggar,   20 00:04:05,270 --> 00:04:16,130 it makes no difference; they are attractive. On  seeing a little child, you cannot know whether   21 00:04:16,130 --> 00:04:24,140 it is a king's child or a beggar's child. One  becomes a king and another a beggar later on,   22 00:04:24,140 --> 00:04:36,830 due to social and other types of circumstance. Apart from that which is called beautiful,   23 00:04:36,830 --> 00:04:47,510 there is another thing called sublime, which  attracts by grandeur, majesty, power, force,   24 00:04:47,510 --> 00:04:59,540 magnificence -- like the elephant. In the  same way as you would not like to turn your   25 00:04:59,540 --> 00:05:08,060 eyes away from a beautiful full moon in  a blue sky, you would also like to go on   26 00:05:08,060 --> 00:05:15,050 looking at an elephant if you have actually  seen what happens to you when you see it.  27 00:05:15,980 --> 00:05:27,230 There is a total difference between the manner  in which a beautiful thing attracts and a   28 00:05:27,230 --> 00:05:37,100 sublime thing attracts. The elephant and the  ocean also attract us, due to their terrible   29 00:05:37,100 --> 00:05:41,666 vastness and majesty and power. 30 00:05:41,666 --> 00:05:51,787 Before the majesty and the power of the elephant and the vast ocean, 31 00:05:51,787 --> 00:06:08,600 we look very small. Our importance is brought  down to a very low level and the ego, which is   32 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:21,328 usually prominent in a human being, diminishes  almost to the point of abolition. And you 33 00:06:21,328 --> 00:06:25,995 admire and enjoy a thing only when the ego ceases to operate. 34 00:06:25,995 --> 00:06:38,995 This is how the sublime attracts. But beauty is a different thing. You can admire 35 00:06:38,995 --> 00:06:46,290 an elephant, but you cannot love it. You can be overjoyed by the majesty 36 00:06:46,290 --> 00:06:59,610 of the vast, turbulent ocean, but you cannot embrace it, hug it or love it. God is an 37 00:06:59,610 --> 00:07:13,530 object of love for a devotee. God is not merely  an object of admiration. In Bhakti Sastra   38 00:07:13,530 --> 00:07:22,170 two types of devotion are described. One  is known as aishwarya pradhana bhakti;   39 00:07:22,170 --> 00:07:35,577 another is known as madhurya pradhana bhakti. Acharyas like Madhva 40 00:07:35,577 --> 00:07:53,163 and Ramanuja glorify God through His magnificence, His majesty, His potent 41 00:07:53,163 --> 00:08:05,993 capacity, His omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence. 42 00:08:05,993 --> 00:08:16,560 But there are other acharyas like Vallabha, to  some extent Nimbarka also, and what to speak   43 00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:31,920 of Gauranga Mahaprabhu, admire God for His  being the repository of all affection and beauty.  44 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:46,980 Usually, religions describe God as a Father  in heaven, keeping Him far, far, at a distance   45 00:08:46,980 --> 00:08:59,430 from the dust of the earth -- at a frightening  distance, almost. Unapproachable greatness is   46 00:08:59,430 --> 00:09:15,600 attributed to God Almighty. But you cannot love  such a God. You cannot love, from your heart,   47 00:09:15,600 --> 00:09:26,715 a bulldozer or a crane which has great strength, though you know its utility. 48 00:09:26,715 --> 00:09:30,826 Your sense of admiration 49 00:09:30,826 --> 00:09:42,360 may go to it, but your heart will not go to it. What is this peculiar thing which makes 50 00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:55,200 one love God? It is that very indescribable  element in the factor of love which defies 51 00:09:55,200 --> 00:10:09,367 human understanding. When love attracts, nothing else can be said about it, because 52 00:10:09,367 --> 00:10:25,866 love is there where there is joy and happiness. The soul of the human 53 00:10:25,866 --> 00:10:37,908 being is basically an utter perfection and freedom. Where there is freedom 54 00:10:37,908 --> 00:10:45,574 and perfection, there an internal joy manifests itself automatically. 55 00:10:45,574 --> 00:10:57,090 Whoever has lived in this world a life of  freedom, and to some extent a perfect life,   56 00:10:57,090 --> 00:11:14,760 would be able to know what satisfaction is. All said and done, nothing can move us unless 57 00:11:14,760 --> 00:11:26,700 it satisfies us, and only that can satisfy  us which can bestow upon us all things that 58 00:11:26,700 --> 00:11:47,407 we need. What is it that we need? Whoever has lived in this world the life of a mother, 59 00:11:47,407 --> 00:12:05,615 of a parent, of a devotee, of a lover or a beloved, of a servant of a great master 60 00:12:05,615 --> 00:12:14,865 will be able to appreciate what propels 61 00:12:14,865 --> 00:12:34,090 attraction. The structure, the pattern, the  shape of the object is not what attracts. The   62 00:12:34,090 --> 00:12:42,100 meaning that is hidden behind its structure, the  significance that is behind it, is what attracts.  63 00:12:42,100 --> 00:13:05,156 A high-value currency attracts not because of the material out of which it is made,   64 00:13:05,156 --> 00:13:18,400 but the meaning that it has within itself. It embodies power. In a similar manner,   65 00:13:18,400 --> 00:13:36,550 love is the movement of the soul in the direction  of that which can fill it with joy. So many things 66 00:13:36,550 --> 00:13:43,210 in the world are there which also can  satisfy us and fill us with some kind of joy,   67 00:13:43,210 --> 00:13:55,960 but they are temporary in their effect. Every object that is dear and near is also 68 00:13:55,960 --> 00:14:07,330 fraught with fear, at the same time. That thing which you love most as an object which is 69 00:14:07,330 --> 00:14:20,620 very valuable can also perpetually keep you in  anxiety due to the possibility of bereavement   70 00:14:20,620 --> 00:14:26,712 and the loss of that object -- which can 71 00:14:26,712 --> 00:14:37,154 take place at any time due to the very nature of life itself. 72 00:14:37,154 --> 00:14:51,610 But God's joy, the ananda that the Absolute  Being is, is not of that nature. What is God   73 00:14:51,610 --> 00:15:06,904 made of? What is the substance? Everything  is made of something; what is God made of?   74 00:15:06,904 --> 00:15:24,130 Inscrutable is this great question before  us. God is made up of that capacity to   75 00:15:24,130 --> 00:15:35,470 inundate you and drown you in the uttermost  conceivable joy, almost to self-annihilation.  76 00:15:35,470 --> 00:15:55,390 Even in ordinary mortal affection, loves that  are directed to perishable objects, even in such   77 00:15:55,390 --> 00:16:10,236 intensity of love there is a temporary abolition  of self-consciousness. The more you love a 78 00:16:10,236 --> 00:16:18,736 thing, the less you feel your existence at that moment, so that when you are in utter 79 00:16:18,736 --> 00:16:30,653 possession of the most beloved of things, you do not exist at that moment. There is 80 00:16:30,653 --> 00:16:41,819 an abolition of self-consciousness. And, at that time, what is your experience? There is 81 00:16:41,819 --> 00:16:44,986 no one to experience it because you have ceased 82 00:16:44,986 --> 00:16:54,530 to operate as a personality at that time. If  your personality retains itself to some extent   83 00:16:54,530 --> 00:17:06,350 at the moment of the enjoyment of the object  of love, to that extent your joy is diminished.  84 00:17:06,350 --> 00:17:12,620 Only the object of love should be  there, and you should not be there;   85 00:17:12,620 --> 00:17:27,080 only then it is perfect enjoyment. Even in such  simple illustrations of a mother's love for a   86 00:17:27,080 --> 00:17:47,818 little child, that love makes the mother feel her own non-importance and the utter 87 00:17:47,818 --> 00:17:55,027 importance of the child. She pours herself entirely upon the child. When you pour 88 00:17:55,027 --> 00:18:01,860 yourself on the object of love, you are no more there because it is very clear that 89 00:18:01,860 --> 00:18:08,568 you have already poured yourself upon that object, you cannot be existing 90 00:18:08,568 --> 00:18:21,901 separately from that. As a molten metal can be cast into a crucible and it takes the 91 00:18:21,901 --> 00:18:31,800 shape of that crucible, the one who loves is cast into that mold of the object of love 92 00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:47,859 and experiences only that pattern of the mold, and oneself does not any more 93 00:18:47,859 --> 00:19:02,692 exist at that time. That condition is called ecstasy. Ecstasy is the condition of loss 94 00:19:02,692 --> 00:19:14,234 of self-consciousness on account of the feeling that something more than oneself 95 00:19:14,234 --> 00:19:20,400 has been obtained. In all forms of love 96 00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:30,000 and affection, the object of love is considered  superior to oneself; otherwise, there cannot   97 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:43,330 be attraction. If you are also equally important,  the object of love will also be fifty percent only 98 00:19:43,330 --> 00:19:54,067 attractive. Utter attraction, hundred percent engagement in the object of affection,   99 00:19:54,067 --> 00:20:00,840 is possible only when you are one hundred  percent annihilated, and you are no more there.  100 00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:13,240 If you are no more there, who experiences the  joy? The soul, which is not you, but more than   101 00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:24,670 you, rises to action at that time. It is the soul  that operates when you behold an object of art;   102 00:20:24,670 --> 00:20:41,316 it is reason that operates when you see a work of mathematical perfection. The soul's 103 00:20:41,316 --> 00:20:50,066 perfection, or God's perfection, is not the perfection of an equation; it is an inundation 104 00:20:50,066 --> 00:21:00,732 of indescribability. God is sometimes called the Cupid of Cupid -- sakshan 105 00:21:00,732 --> 00:21:13,440 manmatha-manmatha. Manmatha is one who churns the mind of a person, and he 106 00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:31,232 himself gets churned by another thing, which excels his beauty. The most 107 00:21:31,232 --> 00:21:46,023 beautiful objects of affection are supposed to be in the kingdom of Indra. One day 108 00:21:46,023 --> 00:21:56,606 he projected the retinue of his beauties  before the great sages Narayana and Nara,   109 00:21:56,606 --> 00:22:11,023 near Badrinath. "Yabhir grihitaha'purushaha  somyadayo drishyati," says the Valmiki 110 00:22:11,023 --> 00:22:20,790 Ramayana: "Such are those presentations, by the very touch of it, one becomes crazy 111 00:22:20,790 --> 00:22:35,100 and mad." Such things Indra projected in  a large mass of gaiety and attraction. 112 00:22:35,100 --> 00:22:56,290 Narayana and Nara were in intense tapas  and meditation. And by a stroke of his thigh, 113 00:22:56,290 --> 00:23:11,147 Narayana produced a beauty which made all these retinues of beauty of Indra look 114 00:23:11,147 --> 00:23:22,147 like crows, like darkened nothings, who hung their head in shame and withdrew 115 00:23:22,147 --> 00:23:28,190 themselves. And Narayana told Indra, "Take this if you want." 116 00:23:28,190 --> 00:23:39,522 He was shuddering with fear. He never imagined that there can be such a thing 117 00:23:39,522 --> 00:23:49,630 which the human mind cannot conceive.  That is the power that God only can manifest.  118 00:23:49,630 --> 00:24:00,370 Unfortunately for us human beings, men  or women, we cannot imagine that God is a   119 00:24:00,370 --> 00:24:14,396 beautiful presentation before us. We mostly think God is like a judge, like a disciplinarian, 120 00:24:14,396 --> 00:24:26,896 a hard taskmaster, a parent who admonishes and perhaps even threatens with dire 121 00:24:26,896 --> 00:24:34,396 consequences if anyone goes against their laws. But rarely can we imagine that He is 122 00:24:34,396 --> 00:24:43,637 beauty. The human intellect is so conditioned by the limitations of space, time and 123 00:24:43,637 --> 00:24:53,479 objectivity that intellect cannot appreciate its beauty. It cannot see it at all. It only sees 124 00:24:53,479 --> 00:25:02,687 machines and calculations and arrangements of a geometrical nature, 125 00:25:02,687 --> 00:25:13,312 not knowing that perfection is not either mathematical, algebraical, 126 00:25:13,312 --> 00:25:26,000 arithmetical or anything of the kind. In order to appreciate the possibility of God 127 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:35,120 Almighty being the object of love, one has to tear oneself completely to pieces and shreds 128 00:25:35,120 --> 00:25:46,340 in its egoistic encasement. The name of God  cannot be taken by an egoistic individual.   129 00:25:46,340 --> 00:26:04,670 This is what Gauranga Mahaprabhu said in that  famous, oft-quoted verse, which you all know, 130 00:26:04,670 --> 00:26:21,644 perhaps. One who is more patient than a tree, humbler than a blade of grass, one who gives  131 00:26:21,644 --> 00:26:34,269 respect to all but expects respect from nobody, such a person is fit to take the name of God. 132 00:26:34,269 --> 00:26:44,852 Trinadapi sunichena, tarorapi sahishnuna, amanina manadena, kirtaneya sada harih: 133 00:26:44,852 --> 00:26:53,227 That which stands between the devotee and God has to be removed. 134 00:26:53,227 --> 00:27:07,990 Only then can that ocean of love come and bathe the devotee. The ocean can   135 00:27:07,990 --> 00:27:15,880 enter the river, provided there is no bund or a dam constructed between the ocean and   136 00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:25,900 the river which is seeking to enter into the  ocean. Ahamkara, egoism, self-consciousness, 137 00:27:25,900 --> 00:27:39,810 pride, self-importance -- this is what divides man from God because before God, 138 00:27:39,810 --> 00:27:42,226 there cannot be two selves. 139 00:27:42,226 --> 00:27:52,540 God is All-Self and, therefore, your self  cannot stand before It. If you assert yourself,   140 00:27:52,540 --> 00:28:04,150 you isolate yourself from that All-Self, and  that ocean of joy cannot enter you. You have  141 00:28:04,150 --> 00:28:14,351 created a barrier between yourself and that Being. Our loves, generally, go for those 142 00:28:14,351 --> 00:28:25,767 things which will satisfy our sense organs. We do not know any other joy. Soft touches, 143 00:28:25,767 --> 00:28:41,767 tasty dishes, that which is very fragrant in its odor, which is colorful, symmetrical, 144 00:28:41,767 --> 00:28:50,434 methodically arranged, systematic before the eyes and melodious to the ears -- these 145 00:28:50,434 --> 00:28:58,395 are the things that attract the mind. But these are isolated objects, one disconnected 146 00:28:58,395 --> 00:29:06,984 from the other. The whole of the beauty cannot be enjoyed by any sense organ 147 00:29:06,984 --> 00:29:14,850 because if you see the beauty with your eyes, you cannot enjoy the melody of it 148 00:29:14,850 --> 00:29:31,350 or the taste of it, which is like honey, or the magical touch of it. There is a maddening 149 00:29:31,350 --> 00:29:43,070 odour of fragrance, an ecstasy of touch, an indescribable taste, more than honey, 150 00:29:43,070 --> 00:29:56,766 for that particular sense, and a super-abundance of colorful beauty. 151 00:29:56,766 --> 00:30:07,224 All these blend together in the perfection of God. That is why it is said that God can 152 00:30:07,224 --> 00:30:14,543 be known only in intuition, and not through sensory perception. Every sense organ 153 00:30:14,543 --> 00:30:22,141 can see one particular object. All things cannot be seen by any particular sense, 154 00:30:22,141 --> 00:30:35,432 but intuition grasps at one stroke the totality of the object. And there is no such 155 00:30:35,432 --> 00:30:41,592 thing as a total object before the sense  organs. Those who see only with the 156 00:30:41,592 --> 00:30:47,912 eyes and hear through the ears, etc., cannot understand what is a total object. 157 00:30:47,912 --> 00:30:55,921 We are confronting every day partial objects. Something is given, something 158 00:30:55,921 --> 00:31:05,265 else cannot be given by that object. Gold can satisfy you in one way, but you cannot 159 00:31:05,265 --> 00:31:15,086 eat gold, and what you can eat cannot equal gold in its value, etc., are the 160 00:31:15,086 --> 00:31:22,432 limitations of the objects of sensory attraction. But there is something which 161 00:31:22,432 --> 00:31:30,240 can melt together all the requirements of the sense organs and pull 162 00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:40,530 the soul out of the body, in which condition  alone you start feeling a rapture of ecstasy.  163 00:31:40,530 --> 00:31:50,130 I do not know how many of us had the  occasion to be in a state of spiritual   164 00:31:50,130 --> 00:31:59,040 rapture. We might have had experience of  intense concentration, a kind of absorption   165 00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:08,490 in meditation, but I do not know how many  have felt rapture, a shudder, a trembling, 166 00:32:08,490 --> 00:32:19,514 a feeling of rupture of the personality, as if  everything in you has gone and something 167 00:32:19,514 --> 00:32:31,889 else has come. These are some of the hidden significances behind the teachings 168 00:32:31,889 --> 00:32:48,180 and even the very life of the great mahabhakta, Gauranga Mahaprabhu. We only hear what he 169 00:32:48,180 --> 00:33:00,347 did, but we cannot know what he felt. You can see sugar, but you cannot know the 170 00:33:00,347 --> 00:33:09,430 sweetness of it unless you put it into your own mouth. Nobody can love God unless 171 00:33:09,430 --> 00:33:16,420 one believes that God is everything. If there is a suspicious attitude towards 172 00:33:16,420 --> 00:33:24,610 God, a possibility of getting something and a possibility of not getting something   173 00:33:24,610 --> 00:33:34,000 else also, then God will recede from us as a  horizon. He may be appearing to be near us,   174 00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:41,740 but He will move further and further  away on account of the doubts persisting   175 00:33:41,740 --> 00:33:54,490 in our mind that it is not all things. The concept of 'All', of everything,   176 00:33:54,490 --> 00:34:05,200 is super-intellectual and super-rational  in its comprehension. For the intellect,   177 00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:13,870 there is no such thing as 'All'. The all-ness that  the intellect can conceive is only a multitude of   178 00:34:13,870 --> 00:34:20,620 finite objects. A hundred million things it  can bring together and make a heap of them,   179 00:34:20,620 --> 00:34:29,440 and they may look like an 'All'. But millions  of finite objects heaped together to not make   180 00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:42,010 the All, because many finites do not make an  infinite. All the resources of the world put   181 00:34:42,010 --> 00:34:53,380 together do not give you infinite satisfaction. Because of the fact that it is impossible for   182 00:34:53,380 --> 00:35:02,380 the human mind to conceive what love is or joy is, the Upanishad gives us a series of 183 00:35:02,380 --> 00:35:12,595 degrees of perfection and happiness, in case you will be able to appreciate the meaning 184 00:35:12,595 --> 00:35:24,220 behind that calculus we have in that Taittiriya Upanishad or the Brihadaranyaka 185 00:35:24,220 --> 00:35:32,261 Upanishad. Can you imagine what is happiness? Who is a happy person? 186 00:35:32,261 --> 00:35:41,345 Have you seen anywhere a happy person? You cannot see a totally happy person 187 00:35:41,345 --> 00:35:47,117 anywhere. You can imagine in the mind, at least. If such a thing could be possible, 188 00:35:47,117 --> 00:35:59,719 "I can say I am most happy" -- a possibility only. It is not a reality. What are the things 189 00:35:59,719 --> 00:36:10,761 that can make you utterly happy? "The whole world should be mine. I must be the king, 190 00:36:10,761 --> 00:36:16,469 the emperor of the whole earth. Nobody should vie with me or contend with me."  191 00:36:16,469 --> 00:36:25,890 All right. This will give you the required satisfaction? "No. I must not die also. 192 00:36:25,890 --> 00:36:36,150 Suppose I am the king of the whole Earth, but tomorrow death is going to overtake me; 193 00:36:36,150 --> 00:36:45,930 this kingship is not of any utility to me."  So, an inconceivably long life should be there,   194 00:36:45,930 --> 00:36:56,593 together with kingdom of the Earth. Even that is not sufficient. Suppose that person 195 00:36:56,593 --> 00:37:03,240 has a contagious disease, an infection which is incurable. Together with this   196 00:37:03,240 --> 00:37:10,260 grant of a long life and the possession of the  whole Earth, that kind of life would be worth 197 00:37:10,260 --> 00:37:17,850 nothing. So, you have to ask for a third thing:  one has to be free from any kind of disease. 198 00:37:17,850 --> 00:37:26,176 Not only that, you should not be an old man. You must be youthful and glamorous. 199 00:37:26,176 --> 00:37:33,935 You don't wish to rule the world as a king who is one hundred years old. "No, I must 200 00:37:33,935 --> 00:37:45,422 be youthful, jubilant, beautiful, vigorous, healthy, long-living, kingdom of the whole 201 00:37:45,422 --> 00:37:52,707 Earth is mine." But he should not be an idiot. He must be a highly educated person also. 202 00:37:52,707 --> 00:38:00,176 So, all the qualifications of knowledge also should be there. Can you imagine such a 203 00:38:00,176 --> 00:38:07,110 person anywhere in the world? There is no such person, but the Upanishad says at 204 00:38:07,110 --> 00:38:14,430 least imagine it. Suppose such a person exists with all these impossible qualities;   205 00:38:14,430 --> 00:38:32,230 the joy of that person can be considered as one  unit of measure of joy. Multiply this imagined   206 00:38:32,230 --> 00:38:40,759 wonderful joy of the emperor by one hundred. That is the joy of the Gandharvas in the higher 207 00:38:40,759 --> 00:38:49,731 heaven. Hundred times the joy of the Gandharvas is the joy of the celestials 208 00:38:49,731 --> 00:38:53,467 in heaven. One hundred times 209 00:38:53,467 --> 00:39:01,720 the joy of the celestials is the joy of Indra,  the ruler of the gods. One hundred times the   210 00:39:01,720 --> 00:39:09,490 joy of Indra is the joy of Brihaspati, the  preceptor of the gods. One hundred times   211 00:39:09,490 --> 00:39:20,410 the joy of the Brihaspati is the joy of Prajapati,  the Creator Himself, the Virat. A hundred times   212 00:39:20,410 --> 00:39:26,230 that is the joy of Hiranyagarbha; a hundred  times the joy Hiranyagarbha is of   213 00:39:26,230 --> 00:39:36,250 Ishvara. Infinitely larger, incapable of  calculation, is the joy of the Absolute Brahman.  214 00:39:36,250 --> 00:39:49,930 So, what is the joy of people like us seated here, small individuals? We are also happy,   215 00:39:49,930 --> 00:40:01,049 in some way, isn't it. We will look like fools and we cannot show our face to anybody 216 00:40:01,049 --> 00:40:08,686 in the world, if such mighty great grandeurs exist and we look like puny nothings, 217 00:40:08,686 --> 00:40:17,174 scratching our skin and nerves for a so-called imaginary satisfaction of 218 00:40:17,174 --> 00:40:21,674 contact of the sense organs with imagined objects. 219 00:40:21,674 --> 00:40:31,740 Who can love God? Only one who can feel the  possibility of such a perfection as has been   220 00:40:31,740 --> 00:40:37,465 feebly described in the Upanishad  -- the Brahmajnana, Brahman bliss,   221 00:40:37,465 --> 00:40:44,070 the Absolute bliss -- million times,   million times, million times more 222 00:40:44,070 --> 00:40:53,160 than all the greatest joys conceivable in  this world. Can you contain the feeling of   223 00:40:53,160 --> 00:41:04,980 such a kind of bliss? If that imagination, at  least, can be contained in our mind, we may 224 00:41:04,980 --> 00:41:11,529 be transformed in one moment into super-personalities, and not remain as 225 00:41:11,529 --> 00:41:22,631 ordinary human beings. Great acharyas have proclaimed that you cannot love God unless 226 00:41:22,631 --> 00:41:33,269 you know what God is. And these few words that I have spoken before you are only an 227 00:41:33,269 --> 00:41:39,214 attempt to describe what God could be, though words cannot 228 00:41:39,214 --> 00:41:52,800 describe what He is. And even the thought of it  will raise us to a kind of love and spontaneous   229 00:41:52,800 --> 00:42:07,920 affection which will nullify in a moment all  the joys of the world as insipid, tasteless. 230 00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:15,006 Brahmaloka trinikaro vairagyasya avadirmataha. Acharya Sankara says 231 00:42:15,006 --> 00:42:23,630 somewhere: If the bliss of Brahmaloka can look like a straw which has no 232 00:42:23,630 --> 00:42:30,797 essence, you have attained to supreme vairagya. But who can imagine the bliss 233 00:42:30,797 --> 00:42:39,748 of Brahmaloka, where everything is everywhere? Such kind of love was taught 234 00:42:39,748 --> 00:42:48,338 by Gauranga Mahaprabhu. Such was the  love which the gopis felt in Brindavan, 235 00:42:48,338 --> 00:43:04,170 and such was the love of many of the saints  and sages, the Alwars, Nayanars, and various   236 00:43:04,170 --> 00:43:11,171 other devotees whose biographies we read in the Bhakta Charita, 237 00:43:11,171 --> 00:43:17,255 Bhaktamala, and such textbooks. 238 00:43:17,255 --> 00:43:31,290 Love rules the world. It is not the intellect  that rules the world, because love alone can   239 00:43:31,290 --> 00:43:43,200 appreciate; and wherever there is appreciation,  there is success of every kind. This is the rule   240 00:43:43,200 --> 00:43:58,560 of the beauty of God, the joy of God, which we  cannot entertain in our minds if we persist in   241 00:43:58,560 --> 00:44:07,890 thinking that God is only a judge sitting in  a court in high heaven, ready to punish the   242 00:44:07,890 --> 00:44:23,130 wrongdoer. God does not punish anybody; our  egoism punishes us. The adamant, flint-like   243 00:44:23,130 --> 00:44:30,670 ahamkara in us, the ego, that deals a blow over us, 244 00:44:30,670 --> 00:44:34,920 and it looks like a punishment come from God. 245 00:44:34,920 --> 00:44:50,640 Thus it is before us a brief message of  the devotee of devotees. Anandadd hy eva   246 00:44:50,640 --> 00:45:00,660 khalv imani bhutani jayante: This world  is created by the bliss of God, not by   247 00:45:00,660 --> 00:45:09,900 the terror of God. Anandena jatani jivanti:  The world is sustained by the bliss that is   248 00:45:09,900 --> 00:45:20,940 behind it. Anandam prayanty abhisamvisanti:  Finally, the whole world will enter into the   249 00:45:20,940 --> 00:45:31,586 bliss of God. Ko hy evsnyst kah pranyat,  yad esa akasa snando na syat: Even space 250 00:45:31,586 --> 00:45:37,322 itself is a bliss. Suppose there is no space. 251 00:45:37,322 --> 00:45:44,919 You see how you feel in yourself. You get suffocated 252 00:45:44,919 --> 00:45:53,711 and all the joy of life vanishes in one second.  Breathing is a joy. Spatial expanse is a joy,   253 00:45:53,711 --> 00:46:08,335 because the bliss of God is hiddenly manifest in all these manifestations, even in our own 254 00:46:08,335 --> 00:46:20,502 selves. The bliss that is within us is calling the bliss that is without us. Atmanastu 255 00:46:20,502 --> 00:46:28,335 kamaya sarvam priyam bhavati: For the sake of the bliss of the Self, every other thing, 256 00:46:28,335 --> 00:46:35,108 every other object in the world looks attractive and loveable. 257 00:46:35,108 --> 00:46:47,700 And this love that is hidden in our own self is not in one person only. It is present 258 00:46:48,168 --> 00:46:56,170 in every person. Even in an ant that crawls,  even in a creature that moves, that self-love   259 00:46:56,170 --> 00:47:06,010 manifests itself. It wriggles to maintain itself.  That total self-love of all creation is a little   260 00:47:06,010 --> 00:47:14,335 modicum of the manifestation of the infinite  love of God. Such is what we are aspiring for.  261 00:47:14,335 --> 00:47:22,084 And the life of Gauranga Mahaprabhu, the life of great devotees like the gopis of 262 00:47:22,084 --> 00:47:34,168 Brindavan, are illustrations before us. The love of Saint Surdas, Kabirdas, Tulsidas -- 263 00:47:34,168 --> 00:47:45,501 read their lives. These are inspirations before us. And today is one of the 264 00:47:45,501 --> 00:47:53,042 occasions, being Gauranga Mahaprabhu Jayanti, when we can recall to our souls, 265 00:47:53,042 --> 00:48:01,709 not merely to our minds, the joy that is everywhere. And it is well said that 266 00:48:01,709 --> 00:48:09,901 creation is the overflowing of the superabundance of the bliss of God. 267 00:48:09,901 --> 00:48:18,042 So may we try to live in that bliss and be blessed. Hari Om Tat Sat.