i want to know what i should be doing or who am i or what is my purpose that's all very good but what is it going to be based upon acquired prejudice of a misconceived self the ego intelligence mind and senses are a shadow self of the original self and so people of that ilk think you know they're all about self expression and i've just got to be me sure you should be you but find out who you are first so krishna consciousness is a spiritual project that allows you to uncover discover those layers and uh have a glimpse of oneselfand of our reality potential we have a part to play as a person and the spiritual reality a businessman sees everything in terms of a business opportunity a lusty person is constantly seeking [Music] opportunities for that sort of engagement and it says anna devotee of the lord they see everything as a opportunity for krishna culture when we think of india one of the most stereotypical images of india is the moon shining on a pool of water in front of the taj mahal if you look at the moon that's reflectedon the water you can take a stick move the water as the water moves with waves you see the moon become distorted along with the the movement of the waves but that's just the reflection the actual moon is unaffected by what's happening to the reflection the way we look at present is the perverted reflection of our spiritual features if we see how intense the lust for matter can be then it's a reflection of the potential of spiritual intensity for dedication devotion love and affection guru maharaj pointsthat out so to error is human to error is inevitable for all being not perfect still there's an element within us that seeks perfection so he's giving you a rational step-by-step uh taking in a direction of a particular conception or necessity he said and if you could bestow it upon yourself we would have done that by now so srila guru maharaj tells us it is only a a part of the perfect appears to be imperfect that's the material world in a nutshell and a material existence in a nutshell just a part ofthe perfect floating like an iceberg in an ocean of consciousness a part of the perfect appears to be imperfect from relative viewpoint so we have unique spiritual forms and features called swaroop but the swaroop at present is covered by layers of ego and guru maharaj's word acquired prejudice acquired tendencies it's being pervertedly expressed into this plane our loving propensity towards krishna is being expressed as an exploiting tendency toward matter and the mundane and we've taken on these varieties of formsthat are all unique but they're perverted reflections of the original that's root covered by layers of ego acquired prejudice acquired tendency mind mental body or intellectual body mental body physical body but still it's different unique but it's not the pure expression when we're enriched with dedicating tendency when we withdraw from the the plane of exploitation and are reconfigured as dedicating units servitors then gradually the this body which is constructed upon exploiting tendenciesstarts to dissolve and the swaroop which is the spiritual form expression of dedicating tendency starts to manifest blake says if the doors of perception are cleansed then we will see everything as it is infinite and people go wow heavy and leave it at that but i would like to bow to him and take a little further and say wait what did he mean by the doors of perception uh the sen says so saying well the senses are seeing hearing tasting touching smelling right and the mind considered sixth sense so then taking at face value what hesays and and accepting it is valid then he's saying then you'll see everything as is infinite then that would mean that you could see there should be a seeing version of infinite a hearing version of infinite a tasting version of infinite and for each one of these senses there should be a corresponding infinite we're thinking there's the infinite krsna possesses personality personal traits characteristics qualities of an infinite magnitude and then there are individual souls who possess the same things in finitemagnitude what's the example that's given in the vedic literature sun and the sun rays right so when we think of a sun ray we we can't we can't isolate it from its connection with the sun guru maharaj sun rays are touching the earth but where is its home its home is in the sun so if we try to isolate it or divorce the sun ray from its connection with the sun really that's not possible an isolated way of viewing it that's not realistic that perfection that we seek that we cannot bestow it upon ourselvesleads us to conclude it comes from beyond ourselves in fact it is a function of the perfect perfection reveals itself to the imperfect krishna says the living beings there are infinitesimal parts of me he's the infinite we're the infinitesimal complementary aspects that means to a degree there's some qualitative oneness but the magnitude one is infinite the other is infinitesimal that's a big difference attack shri krishna no it's beyond scholarship the grasp of the senses mind intelligence you mean faithrevealed truth yes the infinite making itself known to the finite we accept that prospect shraddha that's faith what is minimally you hear about krishna consciousness and think it's possible i can't understand everything they're saying but there's something there that sounds possible the revealed truth gives us infinite perspective sometimes srila guru maharaj will say that or remind us in considering evolution that what we're observing as evolving really it already has a particular positionlike the sun the sun has a particular position but from a certain viewpoint or perspective it's seen to be you know twilight just before sunrise and then we see it gradually appearing and then it so it appears it's achieving a particular position that's from a relative perspective actually it has that position but both things are there so mahaprabhu he says that they're eternally krsnadas and everything that goes with being krsnadas or you know krsnadas radhadasi so a frompoint of view or analysis we can see some gradually evolve towards it appears they're gradually evolving towards their eternal position but from another point of view that is their substantial position but it does not deny the apparent progress towards that the prophet says in the light of the bhagavat when you look at the sky and there's a clouded portion of the sky and an unclouded portion of the sky you can distinguish oh there's the clouded suction the unclouded suction so but when the clouds areremoved from the sky you cannot distinguish between that part of the sky which was once clouded and the part of the sky which was never clouded this is an example he's giving with regard to siddha when someone is nitya buddha clouded by illusion you can understand here's a nithya siddha nitya but here's the condition solar is an unconditioned soul but when the clouds of illusion are removed then you can no longer distinguish in that way and factor in that that substantial position is not something that's staticbut ecstatic dynamic guru maharaj always made that point sometimes even and like we hear the expression like an ocean of ecstasy and you think well that's enough but grandma would say and not a static ocean like don't don't think of it in that way so it's somewhat difficult to speak about these things but if we can catch the gist of what is there so from one point of view we see someone apparently evolving towards a particular position but then from another point of view to say wasn't that always their positionand so then we have to introduce the concept of lila and that is very good news for us that the original cause of everything is ecstasy personified is loving and affectionate and full of ecstatic happiness ever expanding ever increasing happiness so spiritual culture is about recalibrating your position on the basis of your reality potential as a soul in self-expression a dedicating unit a unit that's capable of dedicating every atom of its existence to something higher who am i jeeves krishna you're the eternalservant of the all-loving all-beautiful all-ecstatic personality of godhead jiva has a part to play in the eternal pastimes of the lord you