Many times I desire to speak on a lot of topics but I am unable to do so due to lack of time. Still, in whatever I have spoken so far, the most important thing is that the first step for a person who is inclined to know about what is his actual duty is to know his real identity (swarūpa); self determination is essential. Second is to attain firm knowledge about the Supreme Lord. Who is God-ahead? We must understand who the Supreme Lord is! The third object of interest is to know about this world. The fourth thing is to know my relationship with the Supreme Lord and this world? Only then some devotional practice could be possible! Otherwise our condition will be that of a football being kicked from one end to another. One who starts dancing being overwhelmed in whatever one says, will be perplexed thinking this mahātmā is saying so and the other mahātmā is of the other opinion. So if we get more time then only we can discuss some topics giving scriptural understanding. But it's not possible here. There are two reasons. One reason is that a lot of shopkeepers and office people come here. People who work in some offices have to go to their office early in the morning. They can't come early. The time for Harikatha here is from 7:00 to 8:00 am. I have visited many places in Punjab. There, even at 5:00 in the morning, I went to speak Harikatha. The people there wake up early. Even at 5:00 in the morning, there used to be at least 400-500 people seen in Harikatha. Even before I go there! I saw this only in Punjab. Here people do not come even at 7:00 am. What time do they come? At the time of ārati, at 8:00 am. Matajis perform ārati by lighting lamps. It is not bad; it is good. But it is not sufficient. By just doing so one will remain the same; there will not be any change of heart. Doing little ārati and ringing little bells will not be sufficient for eternal welfare. To change our hearts, listening to the śāstra is necessary. Currently, the heart is inclined towards ill propensities. We have to rectify it. The direction of thoughts has to be reversed. It is going towards sense-gratification, which needs to be directed towards the service of the Supreme Lord. For that, one should listen to the śāstra, spiritual reasoning and harikatha from ācāryavān puruṣa. Those who do bad things themselves and give long lectures can not help.

ācāryavān puruṣo veda
(Chhadyogya Upanishad 6.14.2)

"One who is ācāryavān, one who is following ācārya, he knows things as they are."

Who knows the Supreme Being? Who knows bhagavat-tattva? Ācāryavān! The meaning of the word 'ācāryavān' is 'labdhvācārya'. The meaning of the word 'dhanavān' is one who has wealth. Ācāryavān means one who has ācaraṇa (proper conduct); he is called ācāryavān. Therefore, what do ācāryas do? The meaning of the word ācārya itself is explained in the scriptures as follows,

ācinoti yaḥ śāstrārtham ācare sthāpayaty api
svayam ācarate yasmād ācāryas tena kīrtitaḥ
(Vayu Purana)

"An ācārya is one who fully understands the conclusions of the revealed scriptures and whose behavior reflects his deep realization. He is a living example for he teaches the meaning of the scriptures both by word and deed."

'Ācinoti'—the meaning of 'ā' is 'samyak' (complete) and 'chinoti' means one who acquires, one who acquires complete scriptural understanding. Not all the scriptures describe the same topics. There are variegated teachings in different scriptures. Sometimes it appears as if one scripture is opposing another scripture. Therefore, the ācāryas, understanding the meanings of all the scriptures, teach evil and unethical people (conditioned souls) in their conduct according to the scriptures, by practicing the instructions of the scriptures themselves. Why? How will one learn if he himself does not act accordingly? Although, deity worship is not essential for sādhu or sanyāsis, they perform deity worship to establish the conduct. One may ask why deity worship is not essential for sādhu or sanyāsis? Where to find a place for worship? How to arrange money? How to arrange objects required for worship? All this is cumbersome for deity worship. Therefore, it is not essential for a sādhu or sanyāsis. Deity worship is absolutely a necessity for one who is engrossed in the objects of sense gratification. For one who is attached to the objects of sense gratification, deity worship is mandatory. Why? Because one's resources, senses and activities of all senses have to be engaged in service of the Lord. And for those who have devoted all their senses for the service of the Lord, have left everything and are engaged fully in serving the Lord, there is nothing left to them for gratification, if they want to worship the deity then they will have to do it by begging alms. And that is what is done in the Math. The deities are worshiped by begging alms. What is the purpose? Math is an educational center to impart education on how to worship the deity, how to offer bhoga, how to perform ārati, how to pay obeisances etc. So to impart teachings pertaining to this, the sādhus also establish deity worship in Math. The main objective is to award eternal benefits to mankind. Those who have given up their life, have given all their senses to the Lord, have surrendered themselves, there is no need for them to worship the deities separately by offering various paraphernalia like flowers, tulasi, sandalwood, naivedya (bhoga), etc. But still, they do it! Why? To teach others that see, we also do it. You should also do it. Example is better than precept.

yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas
tat tad evetaro janaḥ
sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute
lokas tad anuvartate
(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 3.21)

The common people accept the conduct of the great personality as evidence and imitate or follow it. That is why the sages, the preachers, who live in the society, who maintain their life by taking help from the society, who are fed and taken care of by grihastha families; what should they give in return to them? The sages instruct them for their eternal welfare. They instruct them by becoming ācāravān. Then they can accept the teachings. We have many Maths in India and many places in the world. The objective of the Math is to do sādhan oneself and also help others in their sādhan, help them in Bhagavad-bhajan. Here, householders do not have time. There is a committee of householders here. What could the pujari do? When the householders (who come early), out of frustration, will ask the pujari, “Why do you do the ārati so late? You should perform the ārati when we come.”

It is good to perform ārati as per the schedule. But the pujari is not at fault. Pujari will do whatever he is told by the committee of householders. The bottom line is this, when the temple is for bhagavad-bhajan, for sādhan-bhajan, progress on the path of pure devotion should be the sole objective. The main aim of sanātan-dharma is to get a deeper connection with the Supreme Lord. Ātma-dharm, nitya-dharm should be awakened in individuals otherwise the worship would just become social custom. By that one will not get the real benefit. Though in Math, there are rules and regulations to be followed for everything, some exceptions are allowed for a few special Tithis. One should not do niyam-āgrah—sticking to the rules and regulations firmly forgetting the main objective. The objective is to serve the Lord, to establish the Lord in the hearts of human beings, and to evoke love for the Supreme Lord. If the objective is not looked after then the Math will become like a recreation club. A kind of club in which we will come once a week and sit. The only difference would be in the clubs, people play cards, we will not play cards here. Even people play cards in the Math compound also. One should not play cards in the temple or even anywhere in the premises of the temple. Why is that? Because it is forbidden. Playing cards, gambling, etc. are forbidden. Where has it been said? It is been said in Bhagavat-śāstra. When in the kingdom of Parikshit Maharaj, he saw a bull standing, which had only one leg, and three legs broken. And a cow is crying. Parikshit Maharaj saw with surprise and though, "In my kingdom the cow is crying, the mother cow is crying! And the bull who is like a father has its three legs broken! Why?" Nearby there he saw a person standing. He understood, "Oh! This person has done!" He targeted his bow towards him.

Immediately, that person fell at the feet of Parikshit Maharaj requesting shelter. He pleaded, "Maharaj! Kindly protect me, shelter me." Kings do not kill those who seek their shelter. They rather protect them. Even in the current age, the asylum policy is followed by the government of every country. One who takes asylum in any country will be protected by that country. When Dalai Lama came from Tibet, India sheltered him according to the asylum policy. Because of this China got very angry against India. That started the trouble. So asylum policy is there. Even now, from East Bengal, the deputy high commission of East Bengal in Kolkata, who has protested against the Pakistan government regarding the Bangladesh matter, has taken shelter. There are other cases also where shelter was sought after. An officer of the Pakistani embassy has taken asylum in America. If he comes to Pakistan then he will be killed immediately. So he has taken shelter there.

Similar incidents are also seen in the pastimes of the Lord. In Ramayana, when Vibhishana came to seek the shelter of Ramchandra, many of Ramchandra's companions requested Him to not give him shelter saying that he was Ravana's spy and might destroy them completely and would take our information to him. But Lord Ram did not listen to anything. He said, "Look, this is My pledge as well as My nature that I give shelter to those who seek My shelter. Therefore, despite being Ravan's brother, when someone seeks shelter, I shelter him." Vibhishana is a devotee. Vibhishana is one among twelve vaishnava (dvādaśa-mahājana). Bhisma, Vibhishana etc. are all counted amongst dvādaśa-mahājanas. Ramchandra sheltered him.

So here also, when Kali saw that Parikshit Maharaj was ready to kill him, he immediately took shelter of him. He pleaded, "Give me shelter."

Parikshit Maharaj, "Who are you?"

Kali, "I am Kali. My name is Kali."

Kali means sin. The word 'kali' means sin. 'Kalah' means quarrel. The meaning of the word 'kali' means saṁśaya (doubt) etc.

Then Parikshit Maharaj asked, "Where will you stay?"

The śloka is

sūta uvāca
abhyarthitas tadā tasmai
sthānāni kalaye dadau
dyūtaṁ pānaṁ striyaḥ sūnā
yatrādharmaś catur-vidhaḥ

When Kali asked for a place to live, Maharaj Parikshit gave him these four places, "Go and live there." Dyūtaṁ—where gambling takes place like playing cards, dice, etc. Pānaṁ—where intoxicants like alcohol, hashish, bhāṅga, gāñjā, tobacco, beedi etc. The place where alcohol and other intoxicants are consumed. Dyutam, Panam, is the place of Kali, the place of sin. Striyaḥ—having illicit relationships with women other than the wife is a sin. Avaidha-strī-saṅga (illicit connections) is the place of Kali. Similarly, if a celibate or an unmarried man associates with a woman, that is also a sin; the same thing applies to women as well. Sūnā, jiva hiṁsā—the killing of animals. Therefore, those who are paramārthi (wanting their highest welfare), want to do sādhana-bhajan, want the welfare of the real self (want ātmā-kalyān), they do not harm any living beings. It is not that the Buddhists (bauddha-dharma) or Jains came and taught the religion of non-violence. This is the teaching of the oldest culture of the world, Vedic-christy, mā hiṁsāt sarvāni bhūtani—do not harm any living being. Do we follow this teaching of the Vedic culture? We do not. What will happen by doing harm to any living being? If you do it, you will suffer. We can see an example in Mahabharat. Maharaj Yudhishthir played dice. What was the result? Give attention to the example! That is it! Dushasan went to disrobe their wife. In the end, they (Pandavas) had to go to the forest. This is the result of playing dice. When devotees of the Lord like Yudhishthir, Bhima, Arjun, Nakul, Sahadev, etc. have to go to the forest after playing dice, they have to suffer, who are you and me!! Therefore, one should stay away from dyūtaṁ pānaṁ striyaḥ sūnā. One should not eat fish, meat, eggs, etc. This is jiva hiṁsā. Do not commit violence against any living being. Despite getting these four places, Kali said these are not sufficient for him.

punaś ca yācamānāya
jāta-rūpam adāt prabhuḥ
tato ’nṛtaṁ madaṁ kāmaṁ
rajo vairaṁ ca pañcamam
(Srimad Bhagavat 1.17.39)

When Kali requested, again and again, Parikshit Maharaj gave him a place in jāta-rūpa i.e. gold and silver. What will Kali get from that? 'Tato ’nṛtaṁ madaṁ kāmaṁ, rajo vairaṁ ca pañcamam'—one who speaks lies to get wealth, gold, silver, and other riches, Kali will take shelter there. People with a lot of money acquire pride and arrogance. Wherever there is pride and arrogance, that place becomes the place of Kali. Because they are rich, they indulge in unrestricted sense-enjoyment. Do not involve in such sense enjoyment which is against scriptures. 'Rajo' means violence. People do violence to get wealth. Vairaṁ—whoever has more wealth will make more enemies. So Kali found five more places to stay. One thing we should note here is that for those who use money for their eternal welfare, there is no question of Kali coming there. Wherever Kali resides that place becomes full of quarrel, sin, unrest, and sorrow. That is why it is said that one should stay away from all such activities. Gambling, playing cards, dice, etc. are prohibited in Math and Mandir. One should not do this. Otherwise, the decorum of the temple will not be maintained. You should not smoke bidi or cigarettes in the temple! I see that, forgive me, I would not utter their names. I do not even recognize them. They smoke in the Math. What is this? Could someone smoke bidi or a cigarette in God's temple? At least, while in the temple, one should pay proper respect to the Supreme Lord. If you being a Hindu, being a sanātani do not keep the dignity of the temple, then who will do so? And what would the Christians and Muslims would say? Will they not call your God an idol? You worship idols, you do not believe in God. You do not bow your head in front of God, and you call yourself a Hindu, don't you feel ashamed? You call yourselves sanātani, don't you feel ashamed? Does it hurt to bow your head to the Supreme Lord, do you feel ashamed? You have become big, you have become bigger than God. You do not consider God as God, that is why you cannot bow your head to Him. If you do not do sāṣṭāṅga pranam (prostrate yourself in such a way that eight limbs of the body touch the ground), you cannot even do pañcāṅga pranam (prostrate yourself in such a way that five limbs of the body touch the ground). Why? Because you consider the Lord to be an idol. You have idolistic intellect. You do not consider the Lord a deity or a vigraha. Those who consider the form (svarūpa) of the Lord as vigraha—the form accepted by the Supreme Lord especially to shower mercy upon us and to give service opportunities, could such a person stand in front of the Lord without paying obeisances? You go to an officer, you go to the Governor, you salute, wherever you go you salute. A lot of respect has to be given. Why? Because of the hope that our work will be accomplished sometime by doing so. But the Lord can fulfill all your work just by being pleased. The followers of sanātan-dharma should teach others by their own conduct, otherwise, what is the use of being sanātani? When we ourselves do not consider the deity of the Supreme Lord as Himself, then others will definitely say that they are the idol-worshipers. On the contrary, when we worship the deity with staunch and firm faith that He is the Supreme Lord Himself, can anybody dare to say that we are idol worshipers? That is why it is expected that you all should respect the deity as the form of the Supreme Lord Himself. I keep traveling to this area and have observed that the main problem here is people lack that basic faith of considering the deity to be the Supreme Lord. Whenever we go to the temple we circumambulate and pay obeisance to the deity. We instruct others also to worship the deity (vigraha-sevā) for their eternal welfare.

Once I went to Jagadhri. The local devotees told us that one time some five Mahatmas came there and instructed them not to go to the temple, to pay obeisances and to circumambulate the temple! Saying so, those local devotees asked whom they should consider to be correct because they got to hear two exactly opposite instructions from whom they consider to be Mahatmas. (Srila Param Gurudev is answering) Which are the scriptures where going to temple, paying obeisances, circumambulating the deity etc. are prohibited? Are these instructions from Vedas, Puranas, or Tantra śāstra? Is it said anywhere not to worship the vigraha, the deity form of the Lord? They can show us the truth; we will accept it! Which Hindu scripture says so? If you read Hindu scriptures, you will see that there are clear instructions for worshiping the deity form of the Lord; there are instructions for circumambulating the temple. These are the limbs of sādhana-bhakti. Offering obeisances, performing and having darshan of ārati etc. are the limbs of devotion. There are also instructions for playing musical instruments during ārati and abhiṣeka of the Supreme Lord. In big temples, nagāda—big drums are being played loudly during ārati. It should be played. Worship of the Lord should be done with grandeur and magnificence. It is not necessary that we just offer flowers and water; offer a variety of bhoga preparations, accept and distribute prasādam. One should worship the Lord with great splendor. The procession should be taken out for Him. It should be done with great pomp and show. These are the instructions prescribed for vaishnava in sanātan-śāstra; for those who believe in God. Nothing can be done for those who do not believe. There are not as many householders as there are the red cloth persons (he is referring to the renunciates belonging to abhakti-mārga) who do not believe in God. We have seen such persons, not only in one place but in many places in Punjab like Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Jagadhri, Khanna, Ambala etc. Even being a sanyāsi, they do not bow down in the temple. And when we offer prostrated obeisances, they laugh at us. Their laughing will not harm us in any way. Being a sanyāsi, a preacher, you do not believe in the deity form of the Lord! Do not the scriptures mention worshipping the deity form of the Lord? Bhagavad-vidhi is,

śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ
smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam
arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ
sakhyam ātma-nivedanam.
iti puṁsārpitā viṣṇau
bhaktiś cen nava-lakṣaṇā
kriyeta bhagavaty addhā
tan manye ’dhītam uttamam
(Srimad Bhagavatam 7.5.23)

Listening and singing the glories of the name, form, qualities, pastimes, and associates of Lord Vishnu, remembering Him, serving His lotus feet, worshiping (arcana) and paying obeisances to Him etc. are the nine limbs of devotion prescribed in the scriptures. So arcana is one amongst the prescribed limbs. Every householder should do arcana. Those who do not, end up paying a little money to the priest to get it done. This is even worse. Householders should do arcana on their own. They say, "Swami ji, we have little time for worship!" (Srila Paramgurudev laughs loudly and says) There is time to go to market, there is time to do the job, there is time to go to sleep but no time for worship! This is because they are indifferent to it. They do not know their ultimate objective. When there is a desire to serve the Supreme Lord, there will be time for everything. There is a sense of purpose for money, there is a sense of purpose for the rupee. That's why we earn and study for money. Why does everyone pursue higher studies and go to other countries? They go to London, Germany, America, Japan, to earn money. One has to do slavery to earn money and has to suffer a lot. They do not have any objection to enslaving others. But they feel shy about enslaving the God! There they think, "Oh! Am I a servant? No." (Srila Paramgurudev laughs at the plight of the enslaved jivas and says) It is a matter of sorrow. One must believe in God. I can give arguments but time is not sufficient.

Does God exist or not? Once a businessman came to meet me in Jalandhar. At that time I had to go to a meeting. The businessman came and while getting up said, Swami ji! We have come to you to ask you something, we have some questions. I said, “Please come tomorrow, I am going to the meeting now. A person has come to take me along, I have to go now. You please come tomorrow, we will talk at leisure. Right now there is no time.” Then the landlord came there and said, "They are big industrialists, they will go out of the city tomorrow. You are here till tomorrow and then you will also go." So then I asked him to send a message that I would be late for the assembly by 10 minutes. I asked the businessman about his queries. He asked some fifteen to twenty questions. I told him, "You have so many fundamental questions. It would take at least an hour to answer all your questions. How can I answer in such a short time?"

He replied, "Swami Ji! I do not believe in the thing which I cannot see, cannot experience. How can I believe in the existence of God? Can you show me? When you cannot show me, I do not believe in the existence of God. I do not believe in paramātmā. How will I believe in something which you cannot show me?

After listening to his questions I told him, "It will take some time to make you understand the subject. You please come some other time."

He then started saying, "Swami Ji, neither you have time, nor I have. I have come after hearing your name. There is a lot of unrest in my heart. My mind is very much disturbed. I am sorrowful from within all the time. I am not at peace. You kindly make my mind peaceful."

I then smiled and told him, "Seth ji! (O business giant!) Why are you cheating me?"

He could not understand and asked, "Why?"

"Do you believe in the existence of the mind?"

"Definitely."

"Have you seen it? Have you seen the mind, have you touched it with your hands? You have not seen it with your eyes. You have not seen its state! You told us earlier that you do not believe in the existence of anything which you cannot see or touch. You do not believe in its existence. You have not seen the soul, you have not seen God, therefore you do not believe in the existence of God. Have you seen the mind? So for a thing which does not exist, why to think about its state whether good or bad? There is no question of happiness, peace or unrest for such a thing."

"I believe in the existence of the mind. Even though I have not seen the mind, its existence is known from its actions. Through the process of contemplation which happens within, we can feel its existence."

"Seth ji! You spoke my words. Even though we have not seen the soul, its existence has to be accepted by its action and presence. Anumāna (hypothesis) is also considered as one of the evidence. An example can be given here of fire. Wherever there is fire, smoke is also there. 'Parvato vahnimān dhumāt'—seeing smoke at a far distance in the mountain, people started shouting, "Hey! The mountain has caught fire, the mountain has caught fire." The fire is not visible and you are forty to fifty miles away from that place, how can you say that the mountain has caught fire? You say dhumāt, smoke is the evidence! Dhumāt on the mountain! Smoke is formed due to fire, so on seeing the smoke, we say there is a fire. So anumāna is also considered as one of the evidence. Whoever studies nyāya-śāstra (śāstra based on evidence from reasoning and logic) knows about this. So based on the evidence of anumāna, even though you have not seen the mind, you still believe in the existence of the mind. Similarly, you have not seen the soul, you have not seen knowledge, but will its existence not be known from its action? If you insert a needle in my skin will I not shout? I will shout because I got hurt. On the other hand, suppose there is a dead body of mine, even if I tear it apart, dissect it, will I scream? In one case, just the insertion of a needle hurts but in the other even tearing apart the full body does not. A person feels pleasure when he experiences a breeze. But there is no sensation of pain or pleasure for the body. Happiness and sorrow are experienced by the knowledge principle. Therefore consciousness is related to knowledge and not to ignorance. Consciousness pertains to the soul only; it is only because of the soul. Hence, as long as the soul remains in the body, it is surcharged with knowledge. If you light up a lamp in the house, the entire house gets illuminated. Though the lamp is placed in a fixed position in the house, it illuminates the whole space. In the same way, despite being in one part of the body, the knowledge principle or the soul has its effect throughout the body. That is why one screams when any part of the body is hurt. Even though the knowledge principle is atomic, the entire body gets surcharged with consciousness.

eka-deśa-sthitasyāgner
jyotsnā vistāriṇī yathā
(Vishnu Puran)

Like fire, being situated in one place lights up all four directions, the soul being situated in one place of the body imparts consciousness to all the parts of the body. And when the soul is not present, there is no consciousness. Does not this prove the existence of the soul, the knowledge, the living principle? I am an atomic conscious principle. If I had been pūrṇa-brahma, pūrṇa-cetan (infinite conscious principle), everything would have been in my control. Everything would have obeyed my order. But it is not so. Therefore, I am not pūrṇa-cetan, paramātma. I am not an all-pervading conscious principle. I am ātmā. I am a knowledge principle, not pūrṇa-gyāna—the infinite knowledge principle. I am aṇu-gyāna (atomic knowledge principle). And if jiva is aṇu-gyāna then one has to accept the existence of vibhu-gyāna also. I am a dependent entity (āpekṣika-sattā). Therefore it is said that being an atomic knowledge principle, I have to depend on the infinite knowledge principle which is called Vishnu. He is arguing that I am not able to see with my eyes. Could you see everything with your eyes? And he says that unless he sees the thing, he will not accept its existence. Knowledge cannot be seen with eyes, will you not accept the existence of knowledge? Knowledge cannot be touched with hands, will you not accept its existence? Therefore the argument that ātmā and paramātmā are not seen, so we will not accept their existence cannot be justified. You have to accept it because you are a rational being, not a beast. Humans are called rational beings (yukti-vādi). Those who do not understand the proper logic are called animals. This is applicable all over the world, it is not only said in India. Man is a rational being and irrational beings are animals. Being a human you have to understand the proper logic because you are being given the capacity to do so. And if we apply our thought process properly then we will accept the existence of paramātmā even though not seeing Him in our current state.