- All living entities are eternal servants of Krishna.
- Krishna speaks to Arjuna in BG 15.7.
- Our duty is to serve Krishna.
- Maya-devi punishes anyone who does not serve Krishna.
- Verse: kṛṣṇa bhuli’ sei jīva anādi-bahirmukha ataeva māyā tāre deya saṁsāra-duḥkha (Cc. Madhya 20.117).
- Although the souls suffer the three miseries in this material world, they do not think about how to get out of it and seek self-realisation.
- Why do we suffer the three miseries of maya (illusory energy)? Answer: The main cause was wanting to enjoy this illusory energy of the Lord and also not serving Krishna.
- Maya-devi performs two activities: one is called avaranatmika-vritti and the other is called vikshepatmika-vritti.
- Avaranatmika means ‘to cover’, in the sense of covering our soul with the gross and subtle body.
- Maya-devi makes us forget God and creates many illusions in the heart.
- Illusion means that what we think is true is not true.
- Maya-devi gives two things to the soul: the gross physical body and the subtle physical body.
- Then Maya-devi wraps the soul in a tightly closed package with the three strings of material energy, the trigunas: sattva (kindness), raja (passion), tama (ignorance).
- About the second activity of maya mentioned: vikshepatmika, “vikshep” means “to play” and it means that Maya-devi places us in this material world.
- Maya-devi then gives us the ahankara (false ego), something that we think is true but is not: the sense of bodily identity and that something is mine.
- This false ego is characterised by two attitudes: “I am this body and doer of the action” (ahanga) and “everything concerning my body belongs to me” (mamata).
- With each life that the soul lives, it has to leave its body (die).
- The gross body consists of five elements: earth, fire, water, air, ether; the subtle body consists of: mind, intelligence and false ego (heart, where the “samskaras” impressions are found).
- In all lives we enjoy the pleasures of the senses and suffer from the illusion of the material world.
- It’s natural to know how to eat, drink and sleep (no one has to teach us these things).
- At the time of death we leave only the gross body, the subtle body remains with us and in it is the soul.
- The soul is much smaller than the subtle body, like a hair divided into a hundred parts, and each of these parts is divided into a hundred parts.
- Verse: bālāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca bhāgo jīvaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ sa cānantyāya kalpate (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 5.9).
- The conditioned soul has a very big ahaṅkāra.
- Excerpt from The Bhagavad-gita (3.27): ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate.
- The cycle of birth and death in which the conditioned soul lives.
- After eight million four hundred thousand species of life, the Lord mercifully gives us the human body.
- There are 900,000 species of life in water, 2 million plants, stones and other inert beings, 1 million and 100,000 different microorganisms such as insects that live in faeces, 3 million species of animals, 1 million birds.
- Those who do not practise spiritual life and only eat, sleep, mate and defend themselves among the 400,000 species of human beings are not considered human.
- Verse: nidrayā hriyate naktaṁ vyavāyena ca vā vayaḥ divā cārthehayā rājan kuṭumba-bharaṇena vā (SB 2.1.3). On the two nocturnal activities and two daytime activities common to human beings. During the night he entertains and sleeps, and during the day he keeps the family busy with work.
- Hari-katha and sadhu-sanga are about understanding that we are not the body but the soul and that our duty is to serve God.
- God creates man in His own image and likeness to serve Him.
- The opportunity to be born in a human body is rare, so we cannot miss the opportunity to do bhajana and sadhana.
- Verse: harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā.
- Sing the holy names and listen to the sweet sounds of the Lord.
- God’s pastimes are very powerful, they purify the heart.
- Krsna does the pastimes like a human being, that’s why they are so sweet.
- Krsna’s lila with friends Subal and Sridama, the gopis quarrelling with Krsna, and mother Yashoda with Krsna.
- Krishna is the source of all that exists, GOD “Creator, Sustainer and Destroyer”.
- Not even your own body belongs to you, everything belongs to Krsna.
- The meaning of the butter that Krsna steals is “makhan-cora”. “Ma” means “no” and “khan” means “lust”. Krishna is actually stealing prema (love) from your heart.
- Like the son who shares chocolate with his mother and she melts with love. In the same way God gives us everything and wants to receive from us.
- Verse: Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti bhuṅkte bhojayate, guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati [Upadeśāmṛta 4].
- Social etiquette: Greet each other.
- God is the personification of love.
- The Vedas and all the holy scriptures give the same message: how to give love and affection to all living entities, and if you love God, it means you love everyone.
- How to love God? Chanting the holy names
Brazil, Lectures in English
