by Srila Sripada Maharaj

(The Following Lecture is an informal lecture given by Srila Sripada Maharaj at the gardens of Sri Sri Radha Rasesvara Asram. this is the last lecture of Srila Sripada Maharaj in Bali. Sripada Maharaj accompanied by King of Puri and Rajguru of Jagannath Puri on this last Visit to Bali. Sripada Maharaj affectionately called all the devotees-at that afternon-ti sit near his lotus feet as if he want to tell this is my last visit here in Bali and then speak as follows)

Bali (August 2006)

BSDS: So everybody is well?

Devotees: Yes!

BSDS: I wanted to come earlier around June, July then my program changed.  But I was told that we had a very nice festival of Jagannath. So your son, he is a son? Your son is very nice. What is the name?

Devotee: Guru Maharaj give name “Guru Das”

BSDS: Oh acha, that is not too long ago right?. Haribol Guru Dasa <laughter>

Devotee: you slept there, in Krishna Balaram mandir?

BSDS: Yeah. It is very peaceful in the forest. Maybe we should all have ashrams in the forest

Devotee: Now winter is nice here Maharaj

BSDS: Yes.  You come in large numbers next year. You come in many numbers I will come very often.

(Devotees cheer and clap loudly)

BSDS: I will put in my notebook who all comes. (laughter). Our Gajapati Maharaj is telling to our Damodar Pandit today “you come to Jagannath Puri but if they say anything you say you are all from Manipur.” He was telling in the car, right Damodar Pandit? Then what about the language? You speak your language, they don’t know Manipuri, you say this is Manipuri (laughter).  You can have a tour of India, Mayapur, Vrindavan, Jagannath Puri, and our Maharaj will welcome you. We will go to his house, he has a very nice restaurant just in front of the Jagannath Puri, no onion. no garlic. and have nice darshan and from there go to the south, see Tirupati and Rameshvaram and you can make a tour of Andhra and some ashrams like Shri Rangam Ashram and you come but November you cannot go to Badrinath but you can go Madhvacharya’s ashram and so there you have a good tour of India. It will be a very nice program. November is a good season for traveling in all parts of India including South, it won’t be hot. Of course if you like the hot climate then but still you know it is very good. So make some effort, you see, practically if you have about one thousand five hundred dollars that will be quite sufficient for [traveling]. You won’t spend much money in the train. That you can manage, one thousand five hundred and you can live for about one month. This includes the ticket, ticket included.

Devotee: One month, maybe not enough for one month.

BSDS: One month means there will be some help from buying tickets.  Tickets from , we came for $600. $600 is round trip ticket from Kolkata to Bali. From Kolkata to Imphal nowadays there are many cheap flights and it is not very expensive.

Devotee: How much is the ticket from Kolkata to Imphal?

BSDS: Kolkata to Imphal, see sometimes we have these new flights now, so that is about 4000 to 5000 rupees and if you go by train it will be about Rs. 3000. You can also go by train.

Devotee: How long it takes Maharaj, Kolkata to Assam

BSDS: By flight, one hour

Devotee: If we go by train?

BSDS: By train it will be one and half days. You go through the mountains. Yeah, if you do not fight with the wild elephant (phone given to Maharaj) Oh, acha acha.  This is voice from the spiritual world. (Laughter)

BSDS on phone: Haribol, so when are you coming? When are you coming to America. Yes I wanted to see you in America and our Gadadhara told me that he has brought some prasadam for you. Oh acha acha.  My health? My health, I was up and down and now I am ok. In Bali I am always alright. Yes. Oh I see, where is it available? I see, ok. I will try, you send me some. Oh, now the line is cut.

BSDS: This for you? So what I was talking?

Devotee: About the time for travelling Maharaja.

BSDS: If you try then the Lord will bless you and Lakshmi Maharani  will come

Devotees:  Jaya!

BSDS: We have to be sincere in prayer. You can try this time, you pray from today. Maharaj is requesting to come to Manipur.  My dear Lord please bless me, then everybody will get.  Also you have to work, not just pray (laughter). So that power of prayer. You see the scientists today, many scientists are studying about the power of prayer. Just a few years ago, twenty Nobel laureates prayed about the healing process. If a person is sick, how the person can be healed by prayer. Twenty Nobel laureates did experiment

BSDS on phone: So Dinanath, ok so are you coming next year? I am talking to our devotees here so that they come to Manipur for temple opening on November 21 next year. Yes, it may be possible. You can make some prayer and its possible. Right and you earn some money and if our devotees don’t have enough money, you can supply them (laughter). Is that ok? Yeah. Ok ok, thank you.

Devotee: Because his name is Dinanatha, the master of the poor

BSDS (still on the phone): Yes that is fine for this time, but for next year our devotees in Bali, some poor brahmacharis they might not have enough laxmi to come to Manipur so you make some special arrangement. I am going to request a few of you to arrange like that. You are one of them ok?. Ok very good, very good. The rest maybe Gunavatar, [indistinct] I want many to come next year. And whatever balance left over in India, I will take care (laughs).  So yeah, that will be nice. So your tour in America was useful? Ok, ok. You come next year again. I also wanted to see you but you are very tight and my program was already fixed. Yeah yeah, ok now I am with our devotees, very happy. I was busy for the last 2-3 days.  Alright stay well,  give our blessings, begging Prabhupada’s blessings for the devotees there, ok. So alright, day after tomorrow, yes I will stay one night in Singapore with our Maharaj, (Jagannath) Puri Maharaj and two days our Singapore devotees are taking care of them and so they are very happy to be here in this part, the first time they came to this part of the world and they liked the prasadam, they liked the culture. They say there is a lot of similarity between Bali and Orissa. Yeah, so Maharaj is inviting all of you to Jagannath Puri. Yeah and also Maharaj will be there in Manipur next year for the temple opening. If you come this year in Puri, I am doing program in Puri, our birthday program is there and followed by two days conference in Puri, the hall and everything is hired. Its called Town Hall in Puri and we expect many students and scholars from India and abroad on December 9 and 10. Oh, you got it from Internet? Ok, I see.  Maybe if you have, anyone of you, because its far away and also its – Many of you may not be able to come this year but those who have some energy to go then you can go, otherwise if you save for next year that is also fine. Ok, you save, that’s fine. So ok, you take care. Yeah (puts phone down) Priyasakhi is here?

Devotee: Yes

BDDS: Yes she is sitting here.

Devotee: She is not lost yet.

BSDS: OK, yes, you take care, ok, you take care, Hare Krishna (puts phone down)

BSDS: This is yours? This is different color, it looks darker,

Devotee: New one

BSDS: Oh new one? Gunavatar gave me one of these last year and my boys, my boys are very expert in computer, on the internet they do everything and so its useful.  Actually I also brought it here. From here I didn’t change the SIM card, its very expensive, I just.

Devotee: If you do phone by internet it’s very cheap Maharaj

BSDS: I see

Devotee: Have to have the same address like Yahoo

BSDS (to all devotees): So now I should hear from you.  I’d like to hear from you, your story, I haven’t heard for some time. How many times you are talking to Krishna? (laughter) Before I hear from you, this is a book “God is a Person” So during my conversation with Prabhpuada, Prabhupada always told me “What is good is your PhD as a scientist if you cannot prove about the existence of God from the scientific background. So he said “Write book, prove that God is a person.” So therefore this is a small humble offering to Prabhupada. This is a dialogue, means discussion, these are two Nobel laureates, Charles Townes, he is 90 years old, he is the one who discovered laser, just like we have laser photography, laser eye surgery, and laser printing and all these things, laser oven. He was the one who invented, for this he got Nobel prize, from Berkeley California. Last year his birthday was celebrated in October. I was invited as one of his friends. There were twenty nobel laureates, the most well known nobel laureates in physics from all over the world for this conference. So for the first time in history in a scientific conference, to honor his 90^th birthday, a three day conference by 20 nobel laureates and about thousands of people discussed about the importance of spirituality in our life. For the first time in history. The next one is Phillips, William Phillips. And he got Nobel prize, he is also Physics. He got Nobel Prize for discovering the cooling down of atoms. It is called laser cooling of atoms. So cooling is done like this. Suppose I have a box, this box is filled with gases, gases means atoms and molecules. So then you bring a laser beam and shine it on this box and the motion, you see the atoms and molecules are all moving, they slow down, they cool. When you shine by laser, the atom, the molecules cool down, and from that cooling you can say that a very useful product can be formed. The cooling down, from that you can make, its called atomic clock.

Atomic clock is much more accurate than this watch. So in a few years all our watches will be replaced by atomic clock, these will be thrown away. Just like all the IBM typewriters are thrown away, by small small computers, replaced. For that discovery he got Nobel Prize. And he was one of the organizing secretaries of Charles’ 90^th birthday last year. This Phillips is younger than me by about 2-3 years. But he is a very nice person. And he used this technique in the Srimad Bhagavatam, you see there is a chapter called calculation of time from the movement of the atoms. Calculation of time from the movement of atoms, so this is exactly what he is using to make this atomic clock.  So this is very interesting work, even for the devotees, for all of us it is something very very wonderful. So lets see what they say.  Charles Townes says, “God is very personal,” like our boys are very personal, our friend is very personal, our photographer is very personal. The foundation of our Vaishnava philosophy is based on personhood, everything is a person. So behind this wind blowing there is a person. What is the name of the person?

Devotees: Varun?   Marut. Vayu

BSDS: What is the name of the person behind the wind?

Devotees: Vayu

BSDS: Ok, so you do your research (laughter). Scientific research. So Charles says “God is very personal. He has very personal interactions with us.” Because of that interaction he could make this type of discovery – scientific discovery.  He says “I think there is continuous interaction between God and this universe, the universe and God.”  Just like Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita “aham sarvasya prabhava[i] – He is the source of everything.” So especially with us personally. With us means we are living entities, God is there and so we have personal interactions. So where is that person whom you can interact with (God)? Where is that person?

Devotees: Bhakta, Premi Bhakti

BSDS: Bhakta? No suppose you can have interaction with God, but where is He? Where does He stay?

Devotee: In our heart

BSDS: In the heart. How does he stay in the heart?

Devotee: (laughter)

BSDS: So who said Parmatma? He stays as Paramatma. What is another name of

Paramatma?

Devotee: Spiriton

BSDS: Spiriton? (laughs), No, Spiriton is the Jivatma (laughs)

Devotee: Kshirodakashay..

BSDS: Kshirodakashayi Vishnu, right? Vishnu has three expansions called Purusha Avatar, So in this way Charles Towne says we have personal relationship, but he doesn’t say Kshirodakashayi Vishnu. He said “I have direct personal connection.”  He said this understanding is very important to our lives. Then we say according to the Bhagavata culture there are three categories of God realization. So what are those three aspects of God?

Devotee: Brahman

BSDS: Brahman, what is the Brahman? What is Brahman realization?

Devotees: Impersonal

BSDS: Can you talk to Brahman? Accha, so the Brahman is impersonal, right? That is correct, Brahman means you cannot talk. So if you cannot talk then what will you do?

Devotees: Silence

BSDS: So you do further research, this is topic for all of you. Brahman. What is the next realization?

Devotees: Paramatma

BSDS: Paramatma, we said before, what does Paramatma do with you? If you are hungry do you talk to Paramatma, “My dear Paramatma, please bless me to get some prasadam?” (laughter) Because Paramatma is the closest that you have. Actually you don’t have to talk to Paramatma like that. Paramatma knows what you have. Immediately He knows what you are thinking, what you have in your mind and  therefore Paramatma is called the caitya-guru. In dwelling spiritual teacher. He knows immediately this boy is very hungry so I will give him prasadam. In this way all the living entities, they don’t even know what paramatma is, like the birds and the [animals?]. They all have something because Paramatma is providing. And what is the next stage? What is the third stage of God realization?

Devotees: Bhagavan, personal God.

BSDS: Bhagavan, right? So therefore this Bhagavan is not so easy to realize. But Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, in order to realize Him, what does Krishna say in Bhagavad Gita? Anybody can say what does Krishna say in Bhagavad Gita?

to be continued in Part 2

---

[i] ahaḿ sarvasya prabhavo , mattaḥ sarvaḿ pravartate, iti matvā bhajante māḿ, budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ (BG 10.8)

I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds.  Everything emanates from Me.  The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.

Recorded by: Balinese Devotee

Transcribed by: Amala Gaura Das

Edited by: Rupachandra Das

Popularity: 20% [?]