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Lect LA 1968-12-23 Message to London Temple
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ANNOUNCER: Next is a speech to the
members of London ISKCON temple,
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given by His Divine Grace
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda,
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recorded on December
23rd, 1968 in Los Angeles.
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PRABHUPĀDA:
ajñāna-timirāndhasya
jñānāñjana-śalākayā
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cakṣur-unmilitaṁ yena
tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ
[Svetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.23]
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I offer my respectful obeisances
unto the spiritual master,
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who has opened my eyes
with the torch of knowledge
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in my material
existence of darkness.
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Ladies and Gentlemen, please accept my
greetings in the happy new year of 1969,
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and blessings of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the
Supreme Personality of Godhead,
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for your kindly participating in this
happy meeting of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
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Kṛṣṇa appeared on this earthly
planet five thousand years ago
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and gave us the unique
philosophy and religious principles
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of Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the
shape of the Bhagavad-gītā.
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Unfortunately, in course of time,
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as things change and
deteriorate in the material world,
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people deteriorated and forgot
the art of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
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Lord Kṛṣṇa again therefore appeared
as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu
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at the end of the fifteenth century
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to revive the same Kṛṣṇa consciousness
atmosphere in the human society.
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Lord Caitanya’s special gift
to the fallen souls of this age
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of quarrel and disagreement is to induce
the people in general, the religionists,
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the philosophers and everyone to take to
the chanting of the holy name of Kṛṣṇa.
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He informed us that the Absolute
Supreme Personality of Godhead
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can descend also in
transcendental sound vibration,
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and thus, when you chant Hare
Kṛṣṇa mantra offenselessly,
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we immediately contact
Kṛṣṇa and His internal energy,
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and thus we become immediately
purified from all dirty things in our heart.
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Our conditional life of material existence
is due to dirty things in our heart.
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Originally we are all Kṛṣṇa
conscious living beings,
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but due to our long material
association in different species of life,
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varying to 8,400,000
different forms of life,
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we are accustomed to transmigrating
from one form of body or another.
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In such cycle of birth and death,
I, you, and every one of us,
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although originally spirit soul
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and therefore qualitatively one in
constitution with the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa,
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we have identified with
this material form of life,
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subjected to various
forms of material pangs,
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specifically in the shape of birth,
death, old age and disease.
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The whole material civilization is
a process of hard struggle of life,
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ending in birth, death,
old age and disease.
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The human society is
struggling fruitlessly
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against these perpetual
problems of life in different ways.
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Some of them are
making material attempts
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and some of them are making
partially spiritual attempts.
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The materialists are trying to solve
the problems by achievement
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of scientific knowledge, education,
philosophy, morality, ethics,
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poetic thoughts, etc., and the spiritualists
are trying to solve the problems
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by different theses like discerning
matter from spirit in various ways.
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And some of them are trying as mystic
yogis to arrive at the right conclusion.
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But all of them must know it for
certain that in this age of Kali,
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or the age of quarrel and dis… dissension,
there is no possibility of success
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without accepting the process
of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
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Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the
speaker of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,
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has therefore recommended that
everyone, be he a fruitive worker,
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a salvationist or a mystic yogi,
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if actually he wants to be freed from
the pangs of material existence,
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he must take to the
process of chanting
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Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
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Hare Rāma Hare Rāma
Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
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Kṛṣṇa consciousness is therefore
an art of changing our hearts
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by purification from the
dust of material desires.
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We cannot stop our desires
because as living entities,
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desiring is the component
part of our constitution.
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Therefore we cannot give up our
desires, but we can purify our desires.
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Killing of desire is no solution,
but curing the desires,
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diseased condition of
desire, is the right solution.
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As such, therefore, this dust of
misunderstanding is cleared off.
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We can see our real position of life
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and make steady progress
towards the ultimate goal of life.
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We have forgotten the ultimate goal of
our life due to lack of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
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Therefore our entire activity should
be executed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness
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to revive our lost relationship
with God, or Kṛṣṇa.
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We do not prohibit anyone to cease
from the present occupational duties,
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but we simply recommend
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that he executes such duties
in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
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Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu
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never recommended
changing one’s position of life,
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but He favored the process
of hearing about Kṛṣṇa
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from the right, bona fide source.
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One should give up the artificial
process of philosophical speculation
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to arrive at the real goal of life,
but one should submissively hear
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about the philosophy
of Kṛṣṇa consciousness,
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which is generally inculcated in Śrīmad-
Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
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If one submissively chants the mahā-
mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa,
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and hears the message of Kṛṣṇa
as it is in the Bhagavad-gītā
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without any malinterpretation,
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then he does not have to change his
position by some artificial method.
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Simply by the method
of chanting and hearing,
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he comes to a transcendental position
which will help him to know God,
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His name, His form, His quality, His
pastimes, His paraphernalia, and so on.
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We are, however, misled
by persons and leaders
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who have very little
connection with God, or Kṛṣṇa.
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Some of them are denying
the existence of God,
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some of them are falsely trying to
place themselves in place of God,
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some of them are in favor of
the impersonal feature of God,
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and, at last, some of them, without
being able to reach any right conclusion,
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are accepting the ultimate
goal of life as void, or zero,
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in utter hopelessness
and frustration.
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But Kṛṣṇa consciousness is solid ground
for understanding Kṛṣṇa, or God,
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directly by the simple method of
chanting the holy name of God, or Kṛṣṇa.
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Misled by blind leaders, the
followers who themselves are blind
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have failed to achieve
the desired success,
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but here is a method called by
the name Kṛṣṇa consciousness
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which is directly offered by Kṛṣṇa,
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and the instructions are plainly
described in the Bhagavad-gītā,
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given to us five
thousand years ago,
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and again confirmed by Him in the form
of Lord Caitanya five hundred years ago.
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This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is
a great art of life, very easy and sublime.
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This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement
gives you everything you want,
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without any artificial endeavor.
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It is transcendentally colorful and
full of transcendental pleasure.
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We prosecute these Kṛṣṇa consciousness
activities through singing, dancing,
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eating, and talking philosophy received
through authorized disciplic succession,
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and therefore it gives
us everything we want,
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without any artificial change
of our natural instincts.
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The consciousness is there in you,
but it is now dirty consciousness,
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and what you have to do now is
to cleanse it from all dirty things
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and make it clear
Kṛṣṇa consciousness
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in pleasant method by chanting
the glorified holy name of God:
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Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
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Hare Rāma Hare Rāma
Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
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