Chant, Dance, Take Prasadam

Chant, Dance, Take Prasadam (food offered to the Lord)

So in this age we ask the mercy of Lord Caitanya because we have all forgotten what is our relationship with God. But we have got the dormant love for God. Just like a son and father—the son may forget, he may become a crazy fellow and go out of home, but that does not mean that his relationship with the father is broken. No. That is not possible.

Even if I am a crazy fellow, when the father dies the sons have still the right to inherit the property of the father. The relationship is so strong. Similarly, we may try to forget God due to our craziness, but the relationship cannot be broken, and still God is so kind, He comes Himself, He sends His bona fide servants, He sends his son. In so many ways He is always canvassing, “My dear sons, do not suffer in this abominable condition of material existence. Come back to Me. Come back to home. You enjoy life, eternal life, and blissful life, and life of knowledge.” That is God’s business.

Therefore He is all- merciful. In spite of our being disobedient, in spite of our forgetting, he does not forget. He says, “Whenever there is discrepancy in religious processes, and when there is predominance of irreligiosity...” What is religion and what is irreligion? That is stated in the Bhagavad-gita. Krsna says, “I come to establish religion,” and again He says, “Give up all sorts of irreligion.” That means surrendering to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Any other religion is not religion. That is bogus. We have concocted so many religious principles, but real religion is which teaches to surrender to God, to love God. That is real religion. And we are teaching that.

Our Krsna consciousness movement is no sectarian movement. We don’t say that this is Christian religion or Hindu religion or Mohammedan religion or Buddhist religion. These religions develop in different parts of the world under different conditions. That is simply giving some idea of our relationship with God. But real religion is which teaches how to love God. That is real religion. The first-class religion is that if by following such religious principles you develop your dormant love of God. Then it is first class. And what kind of development? Without any reason. It is not that you go to love God because He supplies bread: “O God, give us our daily bread.” No. No exchange. There is no reason why I should ask. “God is great; I am His part and parcel; it is my duty to love Him.” When you develop this consciousness, this is called Krsna consciousness.

So try to understand this philosophy of Krsna consciousness. It is not a new thing. This Krsna consciousness philosophy was taught five thousand years ago. Not only five thousand years— Bhagavad-gita is the philosophy of Krsna consciousness, and although it was five thousand years ago in our memorable history, but in the Bhagavad-gita it is stated that it was spoken some millions of years ago to the sun-god. So apart from that reference, Bhagavad-gita is eternal because it teaches what is your relationship with God, what is your eternal duty to God, and what is the ultimate end of life.

That is stated in the Bhagavad- gita, and the last instruction of the Bhagavad-gita is that one has to give up all sorts of rascaldom or concocted religion. Simply one has to surrender to God. That is religion. We have developed this human form of life after passing through many millions of lower grades of life, and similarly we have to now develop this Krsna consciousness, love of God. If you will take this Krsna consciousness movement very seriously, then we have volumes of books to convince you what is your relationship with God, what is your duty, what is your ultimate goal of life—these things are all very nicely explained in the Bhagavad-gita. But unfortunately, so-called scholars and so-called wise men misinterpret the whole thing. That is why the Lord appeared as Lord Caitanya five hundred years ago to establish the correct principles of Bhagavad-gita, and He showed that even if you do not understand the processes of religion, you simply chant

Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

And it is practical. Just like when we were chanting Hare Krsna, all the members who were assembled here were joining in, but when I am now talking about philosophy, some are leaving. It is very practical to see. The Hare Krsna mantra is so enchanting that anyone can take part in any condition. And if he continues to chant, gradually he develops his dormant love of God. His heart will be cleansed of all dirty things, and gradually he will be freed from the material concept of life, and he will be joyful, and he will see everyone as sons of God, and then he will begin his loving transcendental service to Krsna.

So our only request is that you try to understand this Krsna consciousness movement. It is very simple. We are requesting everyone to chant the Hare Krsna mantra and take prasadam. When you are tired of chanting, the prasadam is ready. Immediately you can take prasadam. And if you dance, then all of the bodily exercise is Krsna-ized, and all of the attempts of the yoga processes are attained by this simple process. So chant, dance, take prasadam. Even if you do not hear at first this philosophy, it will act, and you will be elevated to the highest platform of perfection.
Thank you very much. (end)
[Ratha-yatra Lecture at
The Family Dog Auditorium
--San Francisco, July 27, 1969]