Bhakti is Unconditional - Part 3

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

This is in continuation of the transcription of instructive class given by our beloved spiritual master H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj on Bhagavad Gita verse 7.28. In the previous offering we heard from Maharaj

1. Bhakti is unconditional.
2. Bhakti transcends.
3. Bhakti does not need material qualification.

Now let us continue to hear more nectar from Maharaj on the verse BG 7.28.

4. See Krishna in everyone: Please recite this verse very lovingly,

yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām
te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ

Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life and whose sinful actions are completely eradicated are freed from the dualities of delusion, and they engage themselves in My service with determination.

It's a beautiful verse, it tells you first two things; yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ, your sinful reactions must come to an end and there is no way that you can bring the sinful reactions to an end unless you try to recognize the existence of your own soul in your material body. We have a material body and this material body is as it is a dead body. Unless there is the motive power of the soul, your hand will not move. In dead body, the soul has already departed and that is why it can't move but your body can very well move because the soul is still there. And as soon as you recognize the existence of the soul, then you know that your real identity is the soul. Nobody is a woman, nobody is a man. Nobody is the animal. Nobody is a dog, nobody is cow, nobody is tree, it is all soul. And this change of attitude will bring you to tolerate everybody. This change of attitude will force you to be merciful to everybody. This change of attitude will force you to be friendly with all the living entities. And this type of consciousness will force you to be equal to everybody because you don't see anything else but Krishna.  Everybody of us are part and parcel of Krishna, nobody is woman, nobody is man, nobody is cow, nobody is dog.

Wherever we see, we see always the Supersoul and the soul. And this is very difficult. In Bhagavad-gita Krishna says very clearly; bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). At the end of many many births, those who are knowledgeable, maam prapadyate, they surrender unto me. And they surrender to me, what is the knowledge? vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ. Those who see Krishna everywhere, that mahātmā, that great person is very, very rare. Otherwise 99.9% we are always on a bodily level and we think that, "I am an American, I am an Indian American." The claim doesn't work, the bodily designations are the impediments in your devotional service, in your bhakti. And this is very nicely given here that as soon as you purify your actions on this foundation, you can then be devoted to the Lord otherwise you are always on the bodily level. And if you are on the bodily level, then you think that, "I am a woman, I am a man, I am a husband, I am a wife, I am a child, I am father, I am grandfather, or I am American, I am an Indian." All these are upādhi. Unless you completely get free from this deluding energy, this is the deluding energy of the Lord. You are not your body and you are thinking that you are body. As soon as you think that, "I am coming from Bengal, I am coming from Bombay we will try to fight with each other because it is east and west. There is no point in it. You think that, 'I am a Mohammedan, he is Hindu,' and we'll fight. There is no need of this, no need of this but this real knowledge is completely absent. And Srila Prabhupada is very merciful to open our eyes otherwise our eyes were completely closed. One sincere soul like Srila Prabhupada is able to convert the whole world. If we become sincere, all of us, how many worlds can we convert. You please remember his greatness and you can be great. He was telling us that, "I am not the special living entity. I and you are equal but I am sincere and you are not sincere." He was very sincere. He would get up at 1 AM daily to translate all these things. We take five years to write one letter and he wrote 100 books in ten years time and managed 100 temples on his own. He was the only one to cultivate these people and these people are coming from the foreign background and have you seen our altars, how clean it is? Anywhere you go ISKCON temples and our altars are sparkling like this. Have you seen anywhere, the seva like this? You please open your eyes! We belong to Bharati culture, you are coming from India or are connected to Indian families, our life is completely useless unless we come to this knowledge.

We don't want to lock ourselves up in some samadhi or yogi or this or that, no, that is not meant for this age. You get out of this and you come to the field and you preach and you know yourself first! You study these things and then preach. You make your life successful and then make other's lives successful. This is our mission. This is our mission.

Krishna willing, we shall continue to hear more nectar from Maharaj in the subsequent offerings.

Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Sudarshana devi dasi.