Seeds of a tree take a long time to grow, if you take a fig tree seed and plant it it will take a long time before the fig tree sprouts,becomes mature and produces fruit, but if you take other seeds, say grass and weed seeds, they will sprout very quickly. In the same way all the good and bad seeds are in our hearts and some of them sprout quite quickly, people talk about, "instant karma", this is the case when we perform some activity and the reaction comes very quickly. This happens sometimes when we are worshipping Krishna in the temple. If we are worshipping Krishna and we commit some offence sometimes something happens immediately, you knock your head or something else happens. In the case of worshipping Krishna it is not actually karma, worshipping Krishna is a completely spiritual activity so it's Krishna correcting His devotee or giving His devotee a loving kick.
Karmic reactions are not always instant. Many times the reaction for our sinful activities isn't coming to us for a long time so we go on performing sinful activities and still our life can appear to be very nice. This is particularly true if we have performed many good deeds in previous lives, we then get the opportunity to take birth in this life in a good family, in a wealthy position, in a nice country and so on. All these things are due to our past pious activities. We can take the good opportunity afforded by this and use it for material enjoyment. Instead of using a beautiful body to glorify God and serve Him we can use it to try and attract beautiful women. If we get lots of money instead of using it to please Krishna we can use it for our own sense gratification. Similarly all the good opportunities we get can be used in either way. They can be used to serve God or they can be used for our own sense gratification.
The whole idea is one who is enjoying a nice comfortable life is enjoying as a result of his past good activities and someone who is suffering difficult conditions is suffering because of his past sinful activities. It's not necessarily the case that the man who is enjoying is now pious, he might now be completely sinful. He may have taken advantage of his good birth and used it for sinful activities. It is also not necessarily the case that a man suffering the results of his sinful activities is a sinful man at the moment. It may be he is very pious, very religious. So this is the intricate arrangement. It's not that what's happening to me at the moment is a result of my activities at the moment or yesterday or last week, even last year or the year before. The enjoyment and suffering I am experiencing now are a result of the activities I have performed over many, many lifetimes.
tad viddhi pranipatena
pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam
jnaninas tattva-darsinah
This means we must approach a bona fide, pure devotee spiritual master and render service unto him, enquire from him submissively. Such a great soul can give real knowledge because he has seen the truth. This is the process. We have to find a liberated soul, we have to find somebody who has seen Krishna, who has seen the spiritual world. The spiritual master can also show us how we can see Krishna, how we can also see the spiritual world. This is the process of Krishna consciousness.
This is the purport of the verse I a speaking on. The verse says: "If one is unhappy to see the distress of other living beings and happy to see their happiness his religious principles are appreciated as imperishable by exalted persons who are considered pious and benevolent." The real purport of this verse can only be understand when one becomes purified by engaging in Krishna consciousness because when we become purified through serving Krishna we can see things as they are. In our ordinary condition under the modes of nature, generally we are influenced by the modes of passion and ignorance, we can't see things as they are. We accept something which is very obnoxious and creates many painful suffering reactions as being a happy condition. We think if someone has a nice women, a nice house and lots of money he is happy. When this verse talks about the distress of other living beings, it doesn't mean somebody who is poor or doesn't have a nice girl friend, it means somebody who doesn't have any spiritual knowledge.
I was speaking to a young man last week whose girl friend had just left him. He was so distressed, he had tried to commit suicide. When I was talking to him he was completely drunk, he had been drinking for days. He took it as such an important thing whereas a transcendentalist is not distressed by these bodily relations. We have to understand, "I am not this body, I am the spirit soul, I am the person inside this body. This body is just a vehicle." Krishna says: yantrarudhani mayaya, "This body is a machine made from the material energy and I am seated on that machine." The relationship between a man and a women is only on the basis of the machine. It is simply concerned with satisfying the genitals, nothing else. It's very difficult because this man is thinking, "Let me kill myself because my girlfriend has left me." And this is not an isolated occurrence, you will see so many young men in Australia are actually killing themselves for this reason, "My girl friend has left me." This means they have no education, they have no knowledge of the real purpose of life. They have no knowledge even of what life is, they are thinking, "I am this body and if I satisfy this body, particularly if I satisfy my genitals, I'll be happy."
Purification is a continuous process but if we understand a little bit about Krishna the natural next step is to serve Krishna, to do something to please Krishna. If you love someone it is not that you think, "Oh this is very nice," and you just sit back and don't do anything. No. When the love develops in your heart there are activities, there is service. If one has actually developed a little love for Krishna he will want to serve Krishna 24 hours a day without stopping. He wants to organize his life in such a way that not a single moment is wasted. He wants to arrange his life so that every day, 24 hours a day, he is always thinking of Krishna and serving Krishna. This can be very easily done in the association of devotees so we need to form an association of devotees to facilitate this service to Krishna. There are many loving exchanged between devotees which help us to become Krishna consciousness:
dadati pratigrhnati
guhyam akhyati prcchati
bhunkte bhojayate caiva
sad-vidham priti-laksanam
Srila Rupa Gosvami has described in the Sri Upadesamrta, his introductory book to Krishna consciousness, the different kinds of loving exchanges that nurture devotion to Krishna. These are the giving of gifts, receiving gifts, giving prasada [food offered to Krishna], accepting prasada, revealing ones mind to the other devotee and inquiring confidentially. These exchanges of love nurture the development of Krishna consciousness.
A devotee doesn't want to associate with materialistic persons, he just wants to associate with devotees, he wants to hear about Krishna, he wants to associate with people who will talk to him about Krishna. This is the only desire of the devotee. Of course he associates with everybody to preach. We go out and distribute books and talk to people but we don't take their association, it is not that we enter into their business. We see their suffering and we want to bring them into our business, we want to bring them to Krishna consciousness, to engage them in chanting Hare Krishna so they won't suffer any more, so they will be happy. This is the real mercy, this is the real humanitarian welfare work, it is the best activity, it is all auspicious and beneficial for the whole world so everyone should take it up this activity of spreading the chanting of Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare very seriously. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.