Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and all the teachers in His line want
us to be happy. Everyone wants to be happy, but generally
we can only find a very little happiness and affection in this
world, and even then it is mixed with sorrows and suffering.
Why is it that we are unhappy, even though we have so
many possessions? We should consider this. Napoleon was
not a street beggar, and neither was President Kennedy.
Princess Diana was also not a street beggar; she was not at all
ugly, foolish, or ignorant. On the contrary, she had name,
fame, beauty and everything one could desire, and she was
married to Charles, but she was still not happy.
Why is it that even people who seem to have everything
are unhappy, in spite of their wealth and opulence? We
should think about this very seriously. If we don’t, we are no
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better than animals. You have heard of Mussolini. His
political power made him quite a giant, and Hitler was more
than a giant, but they were not happy.
We should reflect on the way that we are living at present,
and look into the future, asking ourselves, “Will I be happy in
the future, if I continue doing what I am doing now, and
following the process that I am following now?” When we
ask ourselves this question, we will see that we are going in
the same direction as those people have gone. They were all
unhappy, and if we go in that direction, we will also be
unhappy.
There are many very rich people — for example
presidents and prime ministers — who are unhappy, even
though they have plenty of opulence, and facility for
enjoyment. One day, they, too, will become old and die, and
they will lose everything that they have in this world.
Nowadays we have become very advanced in material
life, from the kitchen department to medical science. We have
produced many wonderful inventions, especially in the areas
of communication, transportation and medicine. If a limb or
an organ is damaged, we can change it for another. A dead
man’s eyes can be removed and given to a blind person, so
that he can see. Surgeons can even replace a defective heart
with a new one. Nonetheless, we still have to become old,
and we still have to die.
As far as the advancement of material science is
concerned, America is at the forefront, but are Americans
happy? If they are, why are they all quarrelling with each
other? Why do so many of them commit suicide? We should
see that material advancement cannot make us happy.
OLD AGE WILL MARRY US BY FORCE
We don’t want to be old, and we don’t want our hair to
become white. We don’t want our eyesight to become
worse; and we certainly don’t want to become blind. We
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want to remain young and very beautiful forever, but after
some time we will be forced to become old.
Generally, men do not want to marry women who are
old and no longer beautiful. Old age is ugly, and who wants
to marry someone who is ugly?
No one wants to marry Old Age, but she will force us to
marry her, whether we want to or not. Old Age will take
away your teeth, and you’ll have to use false teeth instead. We
can make some artificial arrangement to make our white hair
black, and our teeth beautiful. In the end, though, we’ll have
so many wrinkles, like all other old people.
You’ll have to marry Old Age and become old. Perhaps
you won’t be able to walk. Finally, many people will come
and help you go to the last resting place of the body: to the
cemetery or the crematorium. In India, thousands of people
take the dead body to the crematorium, and there they burn
it to ashes. Other people bury dead bodies; in that case,
worms and insects eat some of the body, and the rest rots. If
your body is not burned or buried, many wild dogs, jackals
and hogs may come and quarrel over it: “Oh, that’s my piece.
Why did you take it?” Then the body will become stool.
Ultimately, the body is bound to rot, or to become ashes
or stool. This is the truth about the body, to which we are so
attached. The body will die and disappear forever, but we
don’t want to think that we will die and disappear forever.
WE ARE REFUGEES HERE
We should consider whether in fact we are this body, or the
soul within the body. It is a fundamental truth that there is all
the difference in the world between our real self, which is the
soul, and this body. Knowing this, we have to be detached
from this body, and from worldly, lusty desires. We should
also inquire where the soul has come from.
We are parts and parcel of God, of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. This material world is not our
homeland; it is a place for refugees. We have come to this
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world as refugees, and one day we’ll have to give it up at a
moment’s notice. Then where will we go?
WE NEED PURE LOVE AND AFFECTION
Modern scientists have discovered nuclear weapons, and they
are continuing with their research. They want to discover
weapons of destruction that are so powerful that the whole
world can be finished in a moment. But this is not progress
and advancement. Where is the love and affection between
husband and wife? Where is the love and affection between
father and children? Where is the love between one country
and another? Why do we have to have such complicated and
difficult systems with passports and visas? Why? I often come
and go between India and different countries in the world.
My only business is to teach people about Krishna
consciousness, but the officials make it so difficult. Why?
Inventions and the advancement of material science are
bringing the different parts of the world much closer to each
other. Unfortunately, they are also creating many problems.
The main problem is that love and affection is disappearing
from everyone’s heart. That is why everyone is unhappy. That
is why they quarrel amongst themselves, and want to control
each other.
People are obviously not happy in their married life, or in
their life outside the home. If their standard of happiness has
advanced so much, why do they change wives three, four,
twelve, or even twenty times, like dogs changing their mates?
Why?
Everyone wants peace and happiness in their lives, but I
don’t think that the advancement of material science has
actually made any one happy. Happiness really depends on
love. We cannot find happiness without prema, or love and
affection. This is our real necessity: happiness and love. We
want pure happiness, and pure love and affection, but we
can’t find them here.
Nevertheless, they do exist.
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We are trying to find happiness by developing impure
love and affection for imperfect personalities. The Vedic
literatures tell us that we can only be happy by developing
pure love and affection for the supremely pure personality,
the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Throughout the Vedas and Upanisads we read that we are
parts and parcels of the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
Krishna. Our constitutional nature is to serve the Supreme
Personality of Godhead with love and affection.
Unfortunately we have forgotten this, and that is why we are
bound by maya in this material world. Maya has imprisoned
us, and she is giving us the sorrows and sufferings of life:
birth, death, old age, disease, and so on. This is just so that
we will understand that we cannot be happy in this world.
We cannot become happy by making material arrangements,
or by trying to fulfill material desires, or by collecting material
possessions. We can only be happy in this world and the next
by serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. We
should chant and remember His holy names and glories.
GENERATOR, OPERATOR AND DESTROYER
We have to develop affection for the Supreme Personality of
Godhead who has created this world. He has created it and
brought it into being; He is supporting it; and when this
world becomes old, it goes back to Him.
What is the significance of the word God?
G stands for Generator, the one who creates this world.
O stands for Operator, the one who is maintaining and
supporting this whole world. Without this support, the whole
world would have no basis, and would cease to exist.
D stands for Destroyer.
ETERNAL, AUSPICIOUS AND BEAUTIFUL
God is satyam sivam sundaram. Satyam means that He does not
die or take birth. He is eternal. God is one, not many. All the
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scriptures in our ancient Vedic tradition say that Krishna is the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, although He also has many
other names.
God is sundaram, very beautiful. There is no one as
beautiful as Krishna. His form is eternally
youthful, like that of a very beautiful young boy.
His body curves elegantly in three places — His ankles,
His waist and His neck. He smiles and
plays on His flute, and His transcendental body has
a most alluring fragrance. He attracts everyone in the
spiritual world — including His beloved cows —and He
attracts everyone in this world as well.
Everyone likes beautiful things, but we cannot love a
beautiful man if he has some poison in him. God must
therefore be sivam, auspicious.
Krishna has all auspicious qualities in full. That means that
He has infinite power, and besides being almighty, he is also
supremely merciful.
LOVING RELATIONSHIP WITH KRISHNA
Krishna is satyam, eternal; sivam, very merciful; and sundaram,
very beautiful. Everything is in Krishna, and that is why He
can fulfill all kinds of desires. You may know of
Nrsimhadeva. Nrsimha Bhagavan is another form of
Krishna, and He is also God; He has a head like a lion, and
He is very powerful and dangerous, but He is not as beautiful
as Krishna. Rama, Lord Ramacandra, is very beautiful, but
He cannot fulfill all desires.
Jesus Christ is powerful, and he will protect us like a
father or mother, but we cannot play with him like a sakha,
an intimate friend, and we cannot relate to him as we would
to a husband. Nrsimha Bhagavan protects everyone, but He
cannot be like a friend, because He is so dangerous.
Krishna is the only Personality in whom we can find
everything. His beauty and His mercy are unparalleled; He is
omnipotent and omniscient; and He has all the good qualities.
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He will relate to us according to our own inner heart’s desire.
We can be like His servant or His intimate friend. We can
care for Him in a parental mood, and we can even have the
mood of His beloved.
If you have a little affection for Krishna, He can fulfil
whatever wishes or desires you may have.
He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the origin of
all other forms of Godhead, and He can give what even
Rama cannot. If we have just a little love and affection for
Krishna, we can be so happy, for all time. We can be happy
in this world, and we can be happy in our next birth as well,
and birth after birth. Even if we have liberation, affection for
Krishna will make us happy.
CAITANYA MAHAPRABHU’S MISSION
We should develop an affectionate relationship with Krishna,
who is the embodiment of love and affection. Caitanya
Mahaprabhu came to this world to teach us this [and to tell
us that the best way to love Krishna is to follow the gopis of
Vraja]. Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna Himself, and He
came because He is causelessly merciful. He loves everyone in
this world, because we are all parts and parcels of Krishna.
He came to give love and affection for Krishna.
Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to this world to bring us
closer to Krishna, and to wean us away from worldly affairs,
worldly enjoyment, worldly false ego and from the false
happiness of this world. He gives us eternal bliss, and eternal
love and affection, so that we can be happy and peaceful.
And it is not possible unless we have what He has come to
give.
Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to this world and gave a new
message by which everyone could be happy. We can know
all this by reading Sri Caitanya-caritamrta. He gave the
advanced philosophy of prema to very elevated devotees. He
preached in a simple way for people who were not so
advanced, and while He was traveling through the forest
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towards Vrindavana, He even gave divine love to tigers,
bears, elephants and other animals.
HAPPINESS BY CHANTING THE HOLY NAME
If you want to be happy, and to have love and affection for
the Supreme Personality of Godhead, you should chant Hare
Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare
Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Then you will be
eternally happy. There is no other means. Caitanya
Mahaprabhu taught us this verse from the ancient scriptures:
harer nama harer nama, harer nama eva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva, nasty eva gatir anyatha
“In this Kali-yuga, the age of quarrel and hypocrisy, one
should simply chant the holy name, chant the holy name,
chant the holy name. There is no other, no other way, no
other way.”
We have come to the Western countries only to give the
same message that Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to give. We
are giving it in brief, and in a very simple way, because the
message of love and affection is so deep.
To understand this profound philosophy and to put it
into practice, people must first chant Hare Krishna, Hare
Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama,
Rama Rama, Hare Hare. At first they can understand this
message in a simple way. Then they will gradually understand
it more deeply and broadly as they develop through the
steady practice of Krishna consciousness, and especially by
chanting the holy names. There is a systematic process of
development from faith, to firm devotion, taste for
devotional practice, transcendental attachment to Sri Krishna
and His associates, ecstatic moods and then full
transcendental love and affection for Krishna (prema). This is
Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s method of developing love of

Bhaktivedanta Narayana Goswami Maharaja