Don’t Cheat Yourself

Don’t Cheat Yourself
Dharmavīra Mahārāja

We say we have faith in Śrī Prabhupāda, we say we have faith in Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu, we say we have faith in Lord Kṛṣṇa, then what do all of them say? Prabhupāda, he said, we constantly engage in devotional service, whatever service. If you’re hearing, you hear constantly, you don’t stop hearing. If you’re chanting, you chant constantly, you don’t stop chanting. And Kṛṣṇa, in the Bhagavad-gītā, he also says the same, that the great souls are always chanting my name. And what Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu says, Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu also says the same, he says, Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ, always chanting.

But why we don’t chant? Because we don’t have the faith, we don’t believe that this chanting is the answer to all our problems. We are faithless, but we claim, “oh, I’m a devotee,” or sometimes we will say, “oh, I’m not like Rūpa Gosvāmī, I’m not like Haridāsa Ṭhākura,” that is nonsense. You are a spirit soul, you are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, so you have the same power.

Your mind is only deceiving you, your mind is cheating you and telling you that you don’t have the power, you’re not Haridāsa Ṭhākura, you’re not Rūpa Gosvāmī. That’s nonsense. This is the mind, who’s talking? The mind, the intelligence, these are all subtle energies, we don’t listen to them. Why should we listen to the material, subtle mind, or the intelligence, or a false ego?

The spirit soul is completely pure, and the spirit soul can achieve anything, we are part and parcel of God. But because we are faithless, but we claim we have faith, we claim we are devotees, but we are not actually. A real devotee will be like the sparrow, drink drop by drop water and try to dry the ocean up. This is how determination should be like this. We should also chant and chant and chant, and if we can’t chant, we’re in here and here and here. This is the faith, this is the determination.

Otherwise we are just cheating, you know, we are finding out unnecessary things to do. We’re creating this problem, that problem, this work, that work, but really what work is there for the soul? The soul is actually part and parcel of God. The only work for the soul is to link up to the supreme soul, Kṛṣṇa. That’s where we came from, that is the only duty, there’s no other duty, but we create all these situations that I have to do this, I got this, I got that.

Who are you? Who is we? It means you’re talking of something different from who you are. Because you are a spirit soul, and the body is only your vehicle. Your mind is your subtle vehicle, your intelligence is your subtle vehicle. Your false ego, this is just your covering. So when you say I, mine, you’re talking absolute nonsense, because these are not you at all, this is your vehicle. So please, don’t cheat, don’t say you believe in Kṛṣṇa, don’t say you believe in Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu, don’t say you believe in Prabhupāda, you don’t believe actually.

You only believe in your selfish needs, you only believe in your body, you only believe in your intelligence, you only believe in your mind. You don’t believe in Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu, you don’t believe in Kṛṣṇa, you don’t believe in Prabhupāda, but you think you’re a great devotee. You’re not a devotee at all actually, you’re just a mental speculator who actually only finds excuses in everything, just to stop practicing devotional service.

So please, don’t cheat, just do what is the duty of yourself, you are the soul, so the soul’s duty is to link up again with the creator, you don’t have any other duty, don’t cheat yourself. In the next talk, I will try to explain to you how you can become a pure devotee, how by practicing devotional service properly, all the sinful activities you perform in your last will get burnt. Like Mahāprabhu says, mahā-dāvāgni is like a forest fire, all the sin is there, it’s like a forest and the fire will burn everything, but we don’t have faith in that, we only think it’s words.

Why would Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu make unnecessary, fallacious words and talk like he’s talking nonsense? No, you’re also a great soul, you are a pure soul, just don’t be misled by your mind. Don’t let your mind cheat you. Just understand that I am the soul. And my duty is to link up with the creator, this body is only my vehicle, my intelligence is only my vehicle, my mind is only my vehicle.

We must understand this important point. Why we’re not understanding this? It’s only due to contamination, due to listening to all our false directors. Your mind is your false director, your intelligence is your false director, your ego is also your false director, all these are false directors, they are cheating you all the time. So please, there is so much nice nectar by our Gosvāmīs about the mind, how the mind cheats us.

So please, give up this cheating and just listen to them. They have given up their lives, Prabhupāda even said, he’s given up tons and tons of blood to try to save the people, but the people only talk actually. So please don’t cheat, just give up this nonsense and just constantly practice, have the determination of the sparrow. Sparrow is drinking drop by drop to dry the ocean, that is determination.

So everyone, it’s not me, everyone can have this determination. Prabhupāda was only one person, only one person at the age of 69 went and he has done so much and what is our repayment to him? Our repayment is only our sense gratification, our own ego, we only talk, so please just don’t talk. If you say you are spiritual, you believe in Prabhupāda, you believe in Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu, you believe in Kṛṣṇa, then walk that talk.

Don’t give lip service and say yes, you believe. You don’t believe. If you believe then why are you not practicing? It shows that you don’t really believe actually. So please again, don’t cheat, don’t let your mind cheat you, don’t let your intelligence cheat you. Please understand this, that you are the soul, your body is not you, that’s just a covering.

So please understand this, important, it’s one of the most important points, that’s why Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā, the first thing he says to Arjuna, well Arjuna talks about the family and he talks about his grandfather and he says, how can I kill my grandfather? How can I kill my teacher? How can I kill my brothers? And then he goes on and he speaks and if the wives lose their husbands, then they will become unchaste and then we will get unwanted children and this will destroy the world. He has given so many different arguments to Kṛṣṇa, why he shouldn’t fight.

But what is Kṛṣṇa saying in the end? Kṛṣṇa just said, “Arjuna you are a mūḍha, you are a fool. You speak like a learned man, but it seems that you are not learned at all. The soul cannot be cut into pieces, the soul cannot be burnt, the soul cannot be destroyed in any way. So what are you talking about? Killing your grandfather, killing your guru, killing, you cannot kill anybody.”

Yes, the only thing you can do is give relief to the sinful activities, the wrongs. Even Bhīṣma, I mean though he was a mahājana, he also done some wrongs. And so the wrong was done through the body, so by killing the body you are relieving the body of that sin. So you got to understand these important points, that the soul is you.

That’s the whole teaching in Bhagavad-gītā, that’s what Kṛṣṇa says. You are the soul, don’t think that you are this body. He called Arjuna a fool, his friend, and Arjuna we know. Actually Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa, they appear lifetime after lifetime and play the part, but just to educate us. So Arjuna was playing the ignorant person, so that Kṛṣṇa could reveal everything to him.

So why don’t we understand this? This is such a vital point to understand that you are not this body. Then why are you saying I have to do this, I have to do that? Who is that “I” have to do this, I have to do that? Who is that “I”? It’s again, it’s a mind, it’s intelligence, it’s a false ego, it’s a body. No, the soul doesn’t need all these things. The soul only needs to link up to the spiritual person, the spiritual supreme person.

And that’s what we should do, we should practice. We should practice, we give up practicing. Sometimes we say oh we cannot chant and chant and chant. In fact 100,000 names I ask people. That’s like for a child actually, what’s 100,000 names? You can chant 300,000, 400,000, 500,000 names by constantly chanting. But you don’t do it. Why you don’t do it? Because you listen to the mind.

Or you find so many excuses, oh I have to sleep so much, I have to eat so much, I have to do this, I have to do that. You know if I don’t do that, who’s going to protect my family? Who’s going to protect my children? Oh, you should become a big protector. Where is your learning now? Where is God? No, no, no, it’s you. You’ll have to do and protect because God won’t.

No, no, no, that’s not true. Actually you do God’s work. He will pay you. Like you said, the ordinary man, he pays his servants. So you think God, the supreme person won’t pay you? No, he’ll pay you. You don’t need money. Money is not that sort of payment. He’ll pay you real. He’ll give you real wealth. Real wealth means he’ll take you back to your home, back to your spiritual place.

So please, just constantly, if you can’t chant, then constantly hear. Like Prabhupāda explained that if you are doing deity worship and you like deity worship, then you dress a lot constantly. Constantly. Change his clothes 10 times, 15 times, 20 times. Constantly. Don’t stop. Each time you put new outfits. So whatever you do, do cent percent. Don’t think, oh, I changed the deity’s clothes. It took me two hours. It’s good.

That’s my devotional service. That is not devotional. Devotional service is taught by Mahārāja Parīkṣit. No, you constantly, constantly, you constantly, like Prabhupāda explained, he sat in the Bhāgavatam. It’s there for seven days. He didn’t drink no water, nothing. He just heard and heard and heard Bhāgavatam for seven days, seven nights. He didn’t sleep. This is what we are taught. But why we don’t do it? We only listen to our mind.

So please give this up. Practice. I understand, I accept that it’s not going to happen overnight. But gradual. Everything is gradual. So practice. First try to chant 16 rounds, then chant 32 rounds, then 64 rounds. And then you go on, double that, double that, double that, double that. Till you come to the stage of perfection.

Why go for anything less than perfection? Why? Why waste this life? If we say we believe in our Gurus, we believe in Mahāprabhu, we believe in Kṛṣṇa, then why we don’t follow them? Because every word that is said by Lord Kṛṣṇa, Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu, is not speculation. It seems very, very important that you understand that they are so compassionate.

Why did Prabhupāda leave Vṛndāvana? Why? He only left Vṛndāvana to see, because he could see these conditioned souls, they are mūḍhas, they are fools. They are thinking that this material world is for enjoyment. No, he felt sorry. He knew that these people are fools, because Kṛṣṇa called them fools. And he even called Arjuna a fool, because he is thinking he is his body.

So please understand why Prabhupāda came. He came to save all of us. And now what we are doing? We only want to find excuses why we can’t do this, why we can’t do that. If Prabhupāda at the age of 69, he could do it, why can’t we do it? We can definitely do it, but please give up this mind. Don’t listen to the mind. The mind will only cheat you. Your intelligence will only cheat you.

So please, again, I’m appealing to you. Please. I’m not asking you immediately to start chanting for 24 hours, but start. One hour, two hours, three hours, four hours, five hours. Gradually, you’ll come to the stage where you’ll be able to chant for 24 hours constantly. You won’t forget Kṛṣṇa for a single second. But you have to practice. You can’t just blow out air. I see sometimes on Facebook, so many people just talk and talk and talk and talk. They have no purity. If you actually examine their lives, and even if they had to examine their own lives, they are just on the bodily concept.

They’re all on the mental concept. Ask how many of them are completely engaged in devotion, because they preach so much. Ask them if they constantly practice what they preach. And 99.99%, you’ll find that they don’t practice what they preach. They actually just only blow out air. I have seen people on YouTube who have got like 60,000, 100,000 people listening to them. But what they do, they actually only blow out air. They don’t practice. They have no purity. And Prabhupāda explained that the main force is purity.

If you are pure, you will be able to change the world. You’ll be able to change yourself. So please, let us all work together. Let us go out. Let us make this determination. As I said again, don’t have to do it immediately, but plan. Make notes. Write. Okay, today I’m going to chant one hour. And then plan your next stage.

In the next maybe week, I’m going to try to chant for one and a half hours. And then I’m going to chant for two hours. Then I’m going to chant for three hours. But make a plan. How am I going to do it? Like I remember Śrīla Prabhupāda once, when he was speaking to one of his senior sannyāsīs.

And he asked, how are you going to spread this movement when I leave? And the sannyāsī replied, “Prabhupāda, we’ll just follow the principles. And we’ll just chant our sixteen rounds.” And Prabhupāda said no. You have to use your intelligence. God gave you intelligence. That’s why man is superior to animals. Animals don’t have the intelligence. Animals cannot take proper decisions. Animals, you cannot invite them to listen to your lecture or to come and listen to what Kṛṣṇa is saying.

As human beings, we are given this mind, intelligence to discriminate, to understand. But if we start thinking, oh, I need to engage in these four activities like an animal. Eating, sleeping, mating and defending. And this will give me the happiness. Then you are no better than an animal actually. What is the difference between an animal and you? Because an animal only thinks, I could eat, sleep, mate and defend and I’ll be happy. So please, give up this animal attitude. Some people think, oh, no, no, no. I will save the woman. Women are being abused. But then that’s again, what is that?

That is also a bodily concept. I will do this. I will fight for my country. I will fight for my nation. I will do this. That is all extended selfishness. Who is that I? In fact, the whole world belongs to God. There is no such thing as this is my country, South Africa, or India is my country. No. The whole world, the whole universe, everything belongs to God. So when we start thinking of sectarian India, South Africa or wherever you are in the world, then there is this extended selfishness. Give up this foolishness.

Give up this mentality. Please. I’m begging you. Take to God consciousness. Understand. Practice slowly. Again, I’m saying slowly. I’m not saying you to do it immediately. But start. Make a plan. How am I going to do it? And you will reach perfection. Like this is saying, never give up on your dreams. And one’s dream should be always, what is the best for me? So when you say me, then you have to understand who is me? Me is not the body. Me is not the mind. Me is not the intelligence. Me is the soul. So what is the best for the soul?

So once we understand this, this is a fundamental principle. Some of us, you know, we actually talk and sometimes when we speak about Christianity or some other religions and we say, “oh, well, actually it’s place, time and circumstance. You know, when Jesus Christ was preaching, he was not preaching to very advanced people.” Then, but we cannot apply this to our own lives. We cannot apply this. Why?

We apply this only like to Christianity or maybe to Islam. Why do we say that’s time, place, circumstance? When Prabhupāda came, he also preached according to time, place and circumstance. He preached because we were not qualified to hear and to practice and to chant 24 hours. So therefore, he made some concessions to start us. So why we don’t understand like that? We were not ready at that time. But should we not be ready all the time? We’re not ready that time. It’s fine. But now we should become ready. Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa.