so i hope you are able to see my screen can do a chapter three text one it is described that by reading hearing chanting remembering speaking singing the verses of srimad-bhagavatam our consciousness gets cleansed and that's even if you don't understand what it means because by default sound has its own power like when you hear the honking sound coming from a car it automatically gives a certain emotion when you hear very beautiful playing of the flute or the violin that relaxes and gives us another emotion in the heart just by the sound the sound the alarm clock or let's say the alarm and the iphone wakes us up from sleep just by just by the sound right when we are in deep sleep and if there's some construction sound it sends shivers down our spine if they're like kind of cutting or crushing metal or stones similarly you can see if you just stand under a tree it's filled with birds and you just clap your hands even if they don't know where the sound the source is coming in out of fear they fly off so fear joy disgust all of these emotions can be seen just by the sound just by its sound when someone appreciates us we feel nice when someone criticizes us we feel not so nice right depending on our consciousness sometimes when we are criticized we feel good also because we see the compassion and the love that that person has in that feedback so sound by default creates emotions this is a known fact by hearing sound vibration there are emotions that are automatically generated in the heart we can see the power of sound spiritually speaking we understand that brahmaji created this world by the sound of krsna's flute it was krsna's flute sound which impregnated the knowledge of creation in the heart of brahma that's from the spiritual side and from the material side you can see that the the scientists they talk about the big bang so the creation again not just of emotions in the heart but even the whole creation by default spiritually speaking it's the sound vibration of krsna's flute and material is speaking materially speaking scientifically speaking it is a big bang so which is still sound you can see sound is so intrinsic sound is all that exists in ether you can smell ether you can't see ether you can't feel ether but you can just hear the sound of ether and that's all and that's one intricate intrinsic part that exists through all elements sound exists in earth like if somebody you know toms and stamps and jumps on the floor you can see the sound you can hear the sound right from the floor that's there in earth water sound travels through water sound travels through fire even the the splitting splatting sound that we hear in a fire flame that sound air and ether air in the sense that you can hear the sound of let's say the traveling train or the the aircraft and ether in outer space so it's sound which is so fundamental through all elements through material science through spiritual principles stirring in emotions in the heart and all of this is material sound by the way it's all material sound now what to speak if the sound starts becoming spiritual just like the sound of an alarm clock can wake us up from material sleep the sound of srimad-bhagavatam can wake us up from spiritual sleep material sleep means when we are fast asleep and we have no clue what's happening around but spiritual sleep means we are wide awake materially and we know where we are but we are sleeping as far as our relationship with krishna is concerned we don't see god we don't believe in him we don't see his hand in circumstances we either glorify someone for for what they have done to us or we criticize someone for what they have done to us but we are completely oblivious and blind to krsna's hand behind circumstances so that is spiritual sleep so just like material sound wakes us up from material sleep that we are every night spiritual sound vibration like the bhagavad-gita and the bhagavatam wakes us up from spiritual sleep and that's exactly what our problem is we i mean as the words of mahaprabhu he's saying oh spirit soul wake up right he's not saying oh oh those spirits all sleeping on their bed at night fast asleep materially please wake up he's not saying that to all those sitting in the bhagavatam class who are wide awake to them he's saying please wake up which means spiritual sound vibration waking us up from spiritual sleep so these verses of srimad-bhagavatam they are so powerful that even if we don't know what they mean if we properly in a metric uh rhythmic systematic organized manner not wishy-washy not haphazard but proper splitting of the words and proper pronunciation if you chant them it will give the desired results how much more if you know what they mean and how much more if you actually resonate and feel what they're actually feeling so there are three levels in which the shastra deals with the shastra goes onto the ear as entertainment you can either entertain yourself with the story of kajindra and it's a wow movement oh wow it's amazing even if an animal calls out to the lord the lord will come there all said and done wonderful story doesn't happen every day at national geographic or animal planet but it's a good story right so it's entertaining to the year now if you get the lessons out like even if somebody's an animal they call out to krishna with all their heart krishna will come we're all like the chandra another lesson and the crocodile here represents let's say corona the kovid 19 pandemic or the crocodile may represent emotional strain in family life the crocodile may represent physical problems the crocodile may represent economic financial problems the crocodile may represent fight with the in-laws [Laughter] or the crocodile may represent uh legal problems whatever it may be accidents anything unfortunate so when we as gajendra living in the opulence of our material comfort go into the pond of this world to drink the sweet water of joy you see metaphorical explanations coming up when the crocodile unseen unheard unexpected crocodiles of reversals come and catch all of us and we struggle and kind of fight to to the best of our might to get out and we are not able to and we look out to our friends and family to help us and just like gajendra tried none of them helped a sense of detachment comes in our heart that ultimately i'm like gajendra i may request them for help they may not come when i need it because they themselves are kajandras caught up in their own crocodiles and then just like gajendra did i must call out to krishna and krishna will come if i call out with all my heart so there's one level of shastra where it deals with the year and then the lesson so there's entertainment for the year and then there is enrichment for the mind with the lessons but when you practice them and call out in that manner and when you actually feel the reciprocation of the law then it's no longer just entertaining or enriching it goes from entertainment to enrichment to enlightenment these are the three stages in which the shasta work they give us the entertaining storyline they give the enriching lessons out of it and when practiced and experienced it lights up the soul with enlightenment with realization so we can see in uh in this section of the pastime of gajendra which is in the eighth canto of srimad-bhagavatam actually this this section is very dear to my my heart also i'll tell you exactly why one time in sri brandar vandham i asked my guru maharaj srila pradha govinda maharaj that guru maharaj out of all the prayers in the srimad-bhagavatam there are so many prayers this prayers by prahlada maharaja prayers by dhruva maharaja by kunti devi by uttara by manigriva nalakuvar by brahma by the wives of kaliya by the gopis so many wonderful prayers by kunti by bhisma so of course i didn't name all of this guru maharaj knows all of this i've heard all of this from him so i said of all the prayers in the shrimad bhagavatam we don't have time to chant many which is that set of prayers that we should chant regularly and before even i completed the question srila guru maharaj said which means prayers of gajendra and i find it to be very relevant that this is in the first three chapters of the eighth canto the story of kachendra in fact the first four chapters of which the first chapter describes the the chronological order of different kings etc in the manwantara but chapter 2 3 and 4 of the 8th scan to deal with the story of gajendra where 2 gives the background history the fourth the second gives the background history the fourth gives the post offering of prayers but the third chapter from text 2 to 29 deals with 28 beautiful prayers of gajendra so i that that is the introduction we will start we will read the five verses straight in the interest of time i will just be reading the words and the translation because there are five verses in this elaborate commentary to all of them and then i will try to comment for a few minutes and then if there are questions or reflections we can take it at the end okay so [Music] thereafter the king of elephants gajendra fixed his mind in his heart with perfect intelligence and chanted a mantra which he had learned in his previous birth as indra dumna and which he remembered by the grace of krishna so this is very very important this verse talks about the importance of chanting japa many times devotees ask this question is it okay if i just took kirtan and if i just skip japa because japa is kind of more challenging to sit in one place and just repeat a mantra without any melody or tune and without any instruments and all by ourselves but kirsten is comparatively easier sure they are all wonderful means of focusing our mind on krishna but here it is described how did gajendra chant how did gajendra chant in his past life it is described so there are some devotees waiting in the waiting room so maybe somebody can take care of admitting them would that be okay so um would that be okay with you um i think you're on mute mataji sorry i'm actually adding all of them oh okay okay no problem no problem um so here it is described that gajendra chanted japa how did he chant biawasito buddhiha with intelligence and samadhayam his mind was focused his intelligence was focused this is very interesting when you chant japan the buddhi must be focused in the sense that we must be convinced that by repeating this mantra i will get the goal that i want if i want radha and krishna in vrindavan and i want to serve them in the nikunjs of brindavan i should be convinced that by chanting hare krishna mahamantra i will get there this is buddhi now how do we get that firm conviction how do we get that conviction that by chanting this mantra we will get there we will get that conviction by reading books glorifying the holy name we have to read books which glorify the holy name the art of chanting hare krishna by mahanidhi swami is a very beautiful book the nectarian ocean of the holy name by sachin nanda maharaja is a very beautiful book again the japan reform notebook by satsuru maharaj is another beautiful guide and of course the best the favorite one that i have is sri namah mrita it's a compilation of all the quotes by srila prabhupada it's quite thick a book and it's very entertaining it's called sri namambruta you can maybe even take a screenshot of this and search for it online you may you will really benefit we all will benefit by reading that book it's compilation of different codes special approval on japan so that's how that's step number one how we have our intelligence fine tuned with with faith in the process another thing that happens is we have to associate with people who chant sincerely therefore when there are japa workshops there are places like srinagar maharaj keeps doing it again and again mahatma does it so many wonderful version of us do it so by associating with vaishnavas who chant japan properly our faith in the process will be better also by seeing effects you can see when prabhupada started preaching the glories of the holy name he went straight to the hippies in new york city and they had no past history of chanting any mantra and they were living off streets and they were actually eating beef but by chanting japa they even came to a point of not eating onion and garlic they were at a point where they were drinking alcohol but by chanting japa they came to a point where they were not even drinking tea and coffee and they were not even wearing clothes properly they came to a point where they were teaching others how to wear sari and dhoti and and kurta and tilak and kantimala so how did this transformation how did this change take place it's by the chanting of the holy name and if it worked on them and it has worked in the past and it works in the future and it's working on many at the present it will definitely work on me so this is buddhi we have to read more on the holy name we have to associate with vaishnavas and the holy name we have to hear classes on the holy name we have to by that what happens we our mood of confidence that this is the process this mantra will take me there like like for example uh when you when you see the life of personalities like sripadandraprabhu who sat on one tile in sri brandavantham enchanted one mantra the harikrishna maha mantra for 25 years the same service the same mantra with the same clothing in the same place the same title and you can see the revolution that he created thousands and thousands and thousands of people from all over the place came to sri branda by the power of his chanting of the holy name sometimes we see that we travel from place to place on the pretext of preaching and and we can't even preach to ourselves properly and here is sripada prabhu he never left brindavan never he didn't come to you know he didn't go anywhere but the power of his chanting was such he was sitting in one place and it was almost like when you throw some grains on the on the on the field on the countryside you can see birds come in big huge numbers to eat those grains so sripada in the prophet was throwing in the grains of the holy name pure chanting of the holy name and all the bird-like devotees they came in jumping to sri brandavan dam to taste those grains so what was it that helped sripada aindra prabhu keep going doing with the same service against the heat and cold of brindavan you know it's not like ainder prabhu was living in a comfortable mansion at beverly hills and you know just telling everyone you chant you chant he was actually doing it heat cold and at the time when andhra prabhu came to brindavan well even drinking water was not available now brindavan is like you know you can have pizzas and you can have mvt and whatnot i mean you can have everything it's like comfortable place you can have the most luxury apartments and um you know you have kovinda's and you can there's no problem but when sripadandra prabhu moved to brindavan in the 90s in fact in the 80s he started the 24 hour kitten in 1986. you know you had to go out to get water in extreme conditions of climate and eindhoven was on the top of the gurukul building he didn't even have a ceiling fan or to speak of a table fan or an air conditioner or a cooler he would have prickly heat on his back many times either prabhu would say that when i would rest and keep my forehead on my hand in the afternoon for like a 30 minute nap i would wake up to a pool of sweat on my hand so my question is somebody born in virginia in the united states of america and serving in chicago and dc and baltimore and new york not to forget radha govind in new york that ain'r probably would personally decorate and worship he left everything and lived in brindavan the life of extreme renunciation and extreme austerity but what is that thing that kept him going what was that what was that taste that he was tasting anyway that was chanting of krishna so it's not that the holy name can't give it's just that i am not receiving enough at this point i don't have a container and if i do it's filled with the holes of my own wrongdoings i am criticizing vaishnavas i am gossiping i am doing things which are detrimental to progress so this is the first point this was to succeed on the path of japan the first thing is we must have buddhi very sharp intelligence and conviction that this process will work for me that will happen by reading books on the holy name by hearing harikatha on the holy name by associating with sadhus who chant the holy name and by reflecting upon how srila prabhupada got this whole revolution going how sripada indar prabhu had this whole revolution going i i i'll ask you a very simple question we've all seen his grace matava prabhu lead kirsan right sadhu-sanga retreat and so many kirsten miller retreats you tell me what is he most appreciated and most glorified and most worshiped for it's his absorption enchanting he takes like this one mantra and goes on for three hours the same one through the same melody for three hours and now honestly from my perspective if i see i don't have that taste i need like a change in the melody i need like an upbeat kirtan i need some change to keep me going but he has his eyes shut and he's like sitting like a deity for three hours so there's definitely something that he is tasting something that he finds relishable in the holy name which i am not able to it's not that the holy name can't give it's just that i'm not tasting it so this is buddhia by analyzing now once we are convinced that by repeating this mantra i will have all good fortune then you have to give your mind to this process how do you give your mind to this process when we chant we chant we don't do anything else we are repeating the mantra we are hearing the mantra we are chanting with all our heart guru maharaj was once explaining it's a please don't take it literally it's a it's an example given to give us a hint of how serious and sincere one should be srila guru maharaj was saying that when we chant our first 16 rounds we should sit down and chant like a statue no moving he said even if everyone comes to us and they kind of proclaim that oh dear devotee earth is about to um [Music] sink there's going to be an earthquake everything is ending everyone is going to die and you're the only one who can save us srila guru maharaj said still your duty is to sit there like a statue and chant the holy name don't care about this krishna will take care said krishna created this a krishna will protect you don't worry your duty is to sit there like a statue and chant the holy name because when we introspect we see that there is no focus while chanting there are a few things that are very important we should sit in a place which is and not a noisy place not a place where people are walking back and forth talking loudly a lot of music going on somebody's knocking at the door phones are ringing you can't focus like that so therefore you see in the yoga studios they have a concept of sacred space create a sacred space it's not a new concept it's just a new term sacred space is a new term but traditionally you can see in the bhagavad-gita krishna uses the term which means situate yourself in a pure pristine clean favorable environment to chant the place must be clean if the place is dirty like my my room at this moment filled with a lot of books a lot of paper i have to set it up i promise after the class i will do something about it but [Laughter] chanting must be done in a place which is more clean so that we can we feel more relaxed at a time when we are focused not when we are pulled with ten different other things actually in our community here there's one mataji who chants um very nicely i have seen her chant even if her child comes and kind of pulls her to the side and says you know like ask for attention she doesn't open her eyes she's still sitting and chanting and even the child kind of knows by now that my mother is sitting and repeating a mantra so if i go and pull her you know hand for attention i'm not going to get anything so even the child knows that um his grace adiga prabhu sets the example here he starts chanting at 3 30 in the morning 3 30 in the morning and he chants till he used to chant till 7 30 straight four hours um but now he chants till about 6 15 6 20 and then reading of srimad-bhagavatam etc and he sits in one asan front of the camera eyes closed chanting nothing else even when he's on call as a doctor and the phones are ringing you know he prioritizes his chanting so time place mood repeating the mantra the mind will say just stop do something else no we just want to do that that's mind buddhi means conviction that this mantra will help this process works and i will get my goal now mana means focusing now sometimes people complain oh my mind is not focusing when i'm chanting no problem continue to repeat the mantra continue to repeat sometimes devotees ask this question will it work after all is it actually going to work even if my mind is not there is it going to work so srila guru maharaj gives another example he says that you know in india you have this concept of watchmen it's a security guard right you have these different uh housing cooperatives cooperating houses housing societies you know like different buildings and you have like a security guard who's guarding away from guarding the the residents from let's say thieves and intruders etc so srila guru maharaj explains many times these uh security guards what do they do at night they're awake because they have to protect but how do they keep themselves awake sometimes they are listening to music sometimes they're reading newspaper sometimes they're on on a phone call talking to their wife or something so srila guru maharaj explains doesn't matter what they're doing they get paid for being awake at night because they're doing their duty so similarly krishna is not going to worry about where your mind is going the fact that you're awake and doing your duty of repeating the mantra you get your pay [Laughter] just like that security guard even if he's distracted even if he's on a phone call even if he's reading newspaper even if he's watching tv even if he's just uh you know walking around and and and just killing time maybe but just for the fact that he's awake at night with a stick in his hand ready to be on guard if there's an intruder he's ready to shoot them away just for that he gets his pay so similarly the fact that we are sitting and chanting japan even if our mind goes to a million different things no problem no problem krishna will give us krishna will give us the pay krishna will give us the pay the fact that we are repeating the mantra you don't have to worry and how much more if there is focus in the section of ajamil i want to i'll actually screen share that so it'll it'll make sense just give me a minute this is uh do let me know if you're able to see it okay so it's going to be i think chap can two six chapter two takes 49. yes this is the one i hope everyone's able to see the screen 6 249 yeah so in this section you can see there are five things that are mentioned i'll chant the words first and you can all uh take note of this it's 6 249. kim so the translation then we'll of course speak something in analysis of that while suffering at the time of death ajamil chanted the holy name of the lord and although the chanting was directed towards his son he nevertheless returned back home back to godhead therefore if one carefully and inoffensively chants the holy name where is the doubt that he will return back to godhead so five points to be mentioned here and all of you can take note of this maria mano when did ajamil chand the holy name at the time of death ajamil chanted the holy name at the time of death when do devotees stand the holy name all their life ajamil chanted the holy name only at the time of death and still he got what he got when do devotees stand the holy name they chant the holy name all their life okay this is point number one second point whom did ajamil call narayana narayana is the lord of vaikunta whom do devotees in the international society of krishna consciousness call out hare krishna they call out to radha krishna in golok so if ajamil calls out at the time of death and devotees call out all their life whose situation is better devotees of the lord right second if ajamil is calling out to the lord of vaikuntha vishnu and devotees are of iskan are calling out to the names of radha and krishna in vrindavan so their chances of going back home back to garden back to golocabrandavan is higher now third grand means to chant whom did he call out to putra upacharitam the word putra means son so ajamil called out to his son whom do devotees call out to they call out to krishna they don't call out to their son they call out to the supreme lord himself make sense so point number one ajamil called out only at the time of death devotees call out all their life every day in japan second ajamil called out to the lord of vaikuntha devote his callout to the lord of goloka radha and krishna and here hare nama he called her only to narayana but devotees call out to radha and krishna third ajamil called out only to his son but devotees when they chant japan they don't call out to their son they call out to krishna himself this is third point fourth point ajamila api agardhama even ajamil went back home back to got it so the word api here refers to also what does that mean although ajamil was so sinful he also went back home back to godhead how are devotees are they sinful they follow four regulative principles so they are free from the four regulative from the sins that ajamil committed i will quickly recap first ajamil called out only at the time of death devotees call out all their life second ajamil called out to narayana without lakshmi and that too in vaikuntha but devotees call out to radha and krishna together in golok third ajamil called out to his son devotees call out to krishna fourth ajamil was very sinful devotees are pure because they follow the four regulator principles and fifth ajamil called out helplessly without faith and devotees call out with lot of hope and with lot of faith these are the five aspects of active japa first to call out every day second to call out with the internal potency which is radha and krishna we should always chant together if someone is chanting the name of rama they should chant with the name of mother sita sita and ram both if somebody is chanting the name of narayana they should chant the name of narayana with lakshmi and if somebody is chanting the name of krishna you should chant the name of krishna with radha so that's the second point very important third instead of calling out to our son we should actually call out to krishna fourth not be sinful like ajamil we follow the four regulative principles which cause physical external and internal purity and fifth ajamil called out without faith but devotees call out with faith so we can see back to the words that we were discussing of course i came to this because of the importance of chanting japan here so we can see sukhodev goswami is saying that when gajendra called out his buddhi was in the right place and we discussed how we can do that second his mind he was calling out with all his heart and mind and how can we do that by following these five principles with faith calling out every day calling out to the supreme lord in fact he says does that mean he he gives the example this is the the greatest chanter of the holy name speaking he says that once upon a time there was a a muslim person who was out in the woods for for some work and somehow he was being chased by a wild boar a wild pig a wild hog and the worst goes as damshri which means that animal which has sharp tusk damastri what did that boar do damstra with the sharp tusk with the sharp teeth the wild pig attacked this malaysia this person and what did he do he kind of used a swear word in arabic his language to show the animal away he said haram haram which means abominable you abominable animal get away but haridasa says again and again he was saying haram and by then what happened the boar pierced his tusk through the body of this man and he died haridas thakur says when this man died the residents of my kunta came there and he said who are you and who called you you called us how did i call you you called out to the lord of vaikuntha he said no i just said haram which means abominable. so they said yes you said haram but our lord is so kind and merciful he heard haram oh my lord oh my god so by saying this he instructed us to come and take you so haridas thakur says just by saying this if one can get liberated and what to speak when the mind is absorbed and one is calling out with all one's heart srila prabhupada says one should chant japan like the crying of a child for its mother we hear that so many times but now how do we practically do it sometimes people say i have no taste for chanting japan yes taste will not be there if taste was there then we wouldn't be here in this world we would be in that world right so before ruchi comes nishta first to be fixed that i will chant to sit and nice peacefully sit and chant japa to constantly chant as much as possible whenever we have time we should put our hand into the bead bag and keep chanting should keep chanting as much as possible how many of us have heard of his grace in mumbai such a great inspiration right he inspires everyone to chant more japa and devotees in huge numbers they get on the call and they're chanting japa with him sometimes even 120 rounds and even 190 rounds and 200 rounds even on a zoom call it's unheard of in the history of mankind that people sitting in different parts of the world connect through zoom and they zoom in to the essence of shastra which is chanting japa and for 24 hours with their video on their chanting so once when i had the fortune of meeting his grace ananranda and prabhu's wife tulsi mataji she was telling me prabhu [Laughter] which means the way he is in classes the the enthusiasm that he has in his classes is how he is even at home she was mentioning that even if we are talking something else he will come out and and he will hear for some time and if he understands that well this is just a generic talk he will immediately go inside and bring his clicker or counter and he's standing with everyone and everyone's talking and you can he can hear the the clicking sound because he is chanting japa and mataji was mentioning that once i asked him like why do you do this and he said all of you are chanting all of you are speaking but this is not going to help me at the time of death i'm going to die alone and i have to practice focusing as probably everybody knows is you know very sharp with laser beam focus so such devotee sex is constantly chanting i'll give you another example one very senior vaisnava in mumbai his son so this devotee is a very very um enthusiastic chanter and preacher of the holy names he himself chants 80 90 100 rounds and whomever he inspires they also chanting 20 30 40 50 64 80 rounds so that prohibits was telling me look at this this is a very fascinating story please listen to this it's unfortunate but it's spiritually very inspiring so his son this prabhuji's son was driving a car and he you know he was driving through i think punjab haryana border and he had a sannyasi next to him and they were going for some preaching program and suddenly there was a truck you know in punjab there are a lot of trucks that keep moving and many of the times the truck drivers they're drunk right so they are in their own world so he was driving the car and somehow a truck driver who was drunk on the truck on the wheels he banged against their car and this devotee had head on collusion with the car and there was full of blood all over he was a brahma he's a brahmacari and this whole jaw got hit against the steering wheel and it came down you know with teeth broken and and the sannyasi was also badly hurt he hurt his hip etc so when he got up and he saw this devotee this devotee was drenched in blood because of this accident but guess what the devotee was doing he was sitting there with a broken jaw with teeth all out blood all over the place maybe couple of broken bones as well and he was sitting and chanting jabba at that time of the accident and the sannyasi said shouldn't we call the the doctors and the devotee said i didn't plan the accident krishna did so let him take the responsibility of bringing in the doctors my duties to call him his duties to protect me so the the point i'm of course the devotee was later rushed to delhi ames and a lot of surgery and then even back in mumbai and he's safe and healthy now but the point is such devotees with such focus exists in this world to constantly chant as much as possible life is ticking time is ticking we don't know when we are going to die this kovid got the reality out of us people in their 20s and 30s and 40s and 50s age was no bar left right center people were dying without oxygen cylinders without beds at the hospital so this is what we see in this horse it is described that gajendra when he called out there was buddhi complete conviction that if i call out krishna will come when draupadi called the krishna king when panda was called krishna came when prahlada maharaja called krishna came when dhruva maharaja thinking when i call why won't krishna come in has said where my devotees call out my names i am there lives in that place where devotees chant his names so this conviction and when we chant trying to chant properly without multitasking sitting and chanting repeating the names even if we don't feel anything no problem the names are working they are working whether you understand or you know you don't understand what the chemical composition of the capsule is you just put it in your mouth it's gonna work even if you don't know what what how it is made and what the ingredients are even for sadhana for that matter you just eat you may not like for me i i don't know anything about cooking i just know how to eat nicely three times a day that's all that i know i don't know how to cook but body's nourished even if i don't know what is added which vegetable is added first and what's the cooking time of this vegetable in comparison to that vegetable i don't know any of those intricacies but it's working because i'm just accepting with faith if capsules are working like that if prasadam is working like that why not the holy name even if you don't know anything just repeat and uh maybe somebody can take care of taking off these lines so that uh children i'm pretty sure it's some child who's trying to cancel out and play around so that's the second point now please listen to the third point gagendra in his past life prac germany why did gajendra succeed sugdev goswami is giving these three reasons in fact four reasons he was convinced about the process he called out with all his heart third param japan he chanted a powerful mantra mantra that we have sometimes devotees say can we chant any name of the lord yes sure we can chant any name of the lord no problem but the kali santarana upanishad has said something very interesting upanishad says that the soul is covered by 16 layers every soul that is all of us are covered by 16 layers of material covering what are those 16 layers five working senses five knowledge acquiring senses five elements earth water fire air ether that's five plus five plus five is fifteen and the sixteenth is mined so these sixteen elements cover the soul and this is straight from kali santara no upanishad i'm not making it up brahmaji is telling naruto muni sixteen coverings to the soul and therefore brahmaji says to break through all this covering you need a mantra with 16 names and that is the krishna maha mantra so hare krishna krishna krishna krishna that these 16 names of the hare krishna maha mantra they tear open the 16 layers of the soul and the swaroop comes out the original constitutional form but for that what we have to do anu shikshitam we have to practice we have to practice and shukdev goswami says prak prak means past janmani means life in his past life he who gajendra he did japa of param japan great chanting prabhupada in the purport he writes apart from the hare krishna mahamantra one should also regularly chant the brahmasamhita prabhupada gives three options he says chanting of hare krishna mantra in this report you can read it says brahma and third srila prabhupada mentions these three prayers prabhupada has quoted in the what has been practiced in past life will come handy lifetime after lifetime please note gajendra in his past life was king indra dhumna who was serving his deity because of a curse from a sadhu and we won't have the time now to get into that how he became you can read that in the fourth chapter that's given the chapter after this that suspense is revealed how augustine oops agast when he cursed and so many wonderful details so in the previous life you can see that gajendra he was a great devotee and he was worshiping the deities and because of a curse he became an animal so the devotee forgot the deity but the deity did not forget the devotee how wonderful we forget krishna in this life you chant hare krishna next life you may forget him but the deity in front of whom you have chanted hare krishna will never forget you and when the time of difficulty comes he sits on your tongue and he says the gajendra's prayers which gajendra asking indrathma chanted now please tell me is it possible for an elephant to chant sanskrit prayers calling out to the lord and the lord gives a vaikunt on the back of garuda and comes for an elephant it's generally not seen but it's not impossible if the lord wants to do it good the elephant can do it you can see an elephant do it but if krishna sits on the tongue of the elephant and does it then it's possible then it is possible absolutely it is possible but for that why would krishna do it unless we have practiced it ourself so next life and the life after and the life after in case we don't go back home back to godhead if you practice sincerely this life krishna will never forget us krishna never forgets us when putana came to krishna and krishna was squeezing her life air out putin i was crying she said just let go just leave me leave me leave me if i knew you were god i would have never come to you i just thought you were a baby sripathari suriji writes srila guru maharaj explains that putana was told by krishna was telling krishna let go leave me she was telling that to that lord who only knows to hold he doesn't know to leave if somebody comes and holds on to krishna krishna holds that person forever you will never let go even if you say you leave me it's not krsna's nature he just let's go and shilla guru maharaj explains that when bhutana was flying in the sky krishna was on top of her and putin was trying to push krishna down from the height thinking that the baby will get scared of the height but krishna's love for putana was way more than his fear of fall guru maharaj gives the example of when you travel sometimes you have these big bags right you check in those bags and you have like a small lock onto them and the bags travel from india to dubai and dubai to let's say you know boston or wherever in america you know you're flying emirates let's say or any of it wherever so the bags go long distance so when you come let's say in europe or america or australia you see the back the bag is there and that lock is also there so guru maharaj explains putana was like that bag she was flying from one place to another and krishna was like that little lock who didn't let go he was there he was there krishna never forgets the devotee krishna can never let go prague gajendra forgot krishna but krishna did not forget him krishna sat on his tongue and made him chant the mantra that he himself chanted in his previous life gajendra as king indradium chanted these prayers in his past life to the deity and the deity had heard so many times now when his devotee was in the time of difficulty the deities spoke back all these prayers as paramatma and it came out through the mouth of gajendra prague so these things these four things we have to note in today's discussion conviction about the process of chanting to reading through hearing through association of devotees who have that faith and practically seeing the revolution that the chanting process can bring in second when we chant being focused and chanting as much as possible with this intensity that we don't know when how much more how many more years we have in life and chanting is a very simple form of service to serve krishna in other ways you need something else you need like you need to cook you need to have a garland you need to have something but chanting is just by the tongue which is always there in the mouth you can constantly serve krishna by calling out his names that is with the mind and the third thing is the mantra must be powerful which is krishna and fourth is we practice sincerely so that even if we don't succeed in one life wherever we go this chanting process will help us lifetime after lifetime when we are dead and gone all of us will never meet again we will never meet each other again ever ever ever again it is krsna's inconceivable mercy in my life that i am getting all of your association but once the bodies perish and we go on our own journey as the soul from one place to another we all will never meet but what will help us is the times when we sat together enchanted together that will help us prague janmani anushka you