Matchless Gifts — Vintage Short Films
Subtitles
- [01:11]
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I was wondering the street and some of the boys saw me and gradually they can to me and.
- [01:21]
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Actually I did not try for developing this institution, the boys did it.
- [01:28]
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They are all educated, they are not fool’s.
- [01:32]
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Mr. Howard is MA, he is also BA, he is Dr Ph.D., so they’re all educated.
- [01:40]
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So they are not fools that they’re taking this blindly, no.
- [01:44]
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Most of my students, they were under the spell of this LSD but they have given up everything.
- [01:53]
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They are simply living on this chapati and some fruits, that’s all.
- [01:58]
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They don’t eat meat, they don’t want wine they don’t want cigarettes, they don’t want tea, coffee, nothing.
- [02:07]
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and they chanting Hare Krishna, following my instructions. So I am getting good hope.
- [02:17]
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The meal is composed of rice, and this soup [which we call dhal],
- [02:21]
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and a combination of vegetables and chapati, which is made of whole wheat.
- [02:36]
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You see it’s all vegetable and grain. Sometimes some fruit, there’s fruit in the dhal.
- [02:42]
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No meat, no animal products, such as eggs.
- [02:47]
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This is because in the Gita Krishna has told us what He wants us to eat.
- [02:53]
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Namely fresh fruits and grain, not animal products.
- [02:59]
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So we have a very nutritious meal here, it is very cheap; it goes a long way,
- [03:06]
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it’s quite easy to prepare, and we have a lot of fun.
- [03:11]
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Essentially these are foods that are prescribed according to orthodox Vaisnavite discipline.
- [03:21]
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So these foods are prescribed. But we don’t necessarily prescribe them for everybody,
- [03:27]
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the main thing is no meat, fish and eggs. –Why not?
- [03:31]
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Because in the scriptures it states that certain foods Krishna will accept
- [03:39]
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so we have to offer our food to Krishna, we have to offer the food He will accept.
- [03:44]
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The food that He will accept is stated as vegetables, fruits, leaves, water…
- [03:51]
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Well we believe that vegetables have… also any living… life form has a soul,
- [03:59]
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Therefore the murder of a vegetable is not in any way different qualitatively from the murder of an animal.
- [04:05]
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But the thing is vegetables are our allotment according to scripture,
- [04:09]
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we can eat certain foods that are given to us to eat by God.
- [04:13]
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If we eat food that’s not given to us to eat that’s robbery.
- [04:16]
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Are there any tasks that you have to perform?
- [04:20]
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Well we’re… There’s no real task. We’re here to learn and that’s what we are doing and we also,
- [04:21]
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we have jobs to perform to keep the organization running, to keep the word of Krishna being spread.
- [04:35]
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How do you do that?
- [04:37]
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Well, we recently purchased a couple of mimeograph machines
- [04:42]
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and that’s helping our printing. By word of mouth. By constantly being active.
- [04:51]
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Do you work? -Yes. We all work.
- [04:57]
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But you meet here every day.
- [05:01]
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Well I’m devoting all my time here so I work here all day. Money has to come in also.
- [05:07]
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Some of us work regular jobs and devote most of our money here, if not all.
- [05:12]
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Do you feel any different since you joined?
- [05:19]
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I feel very good and closer to God.
- [05:27]
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What introduced you to this group?
- [05:31]
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A friend of mine told me about a love celebration at Tompkins Square Park which was last Thursday
- [05:37]
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or the Thursday before last and I know that I had been seeking a guru for a while so Krishna sent me there.
- [05:46]
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I was there and after meeting some of the initiates I knew that the Swami had to be into something,
- [05:53]
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so I came the very next morning, and I’ve been here since then.
- [05:57]
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I came here, in America in September 1965.
- [06:04]
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My mission is to preach the philosophy of Lord Caitanya. Chanting of Hare Krishna.
- [06:23]
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This transcendental vibration will cleanse the dirty things of the mind.
- [06:34]
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It doesn’t matter what he is, this transcendental vibration is equally appealing to everyone
- [06:47]
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Without any question of language, nationality, creed or caste.
- [06:54]
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Because it is coming forth from the depth of the soul.
- [07:01]
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This simple vibration can deliver the people of this age to salvation.
- [07:13]
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Human life is meant for getting out of the three-fold miseries of this material existence
- [07:25]
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and forgetting their life’s aim.
- [07:30]
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They have become too much materialistic and the result is that actually they haven’t got that peace of mind
- [07:45]
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or peace of the world which they are hankering [for] and if they take to this chanting, transcendental vibration,
- [07:54]
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their mind, the dirtiness of the mind will be cleared and they will clearly see
- [08:04]
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their actual identity as part and parcel of the Supreme Lord or Krishna
- [08:14]
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and dovetailing their activities in that relationship, everything will be sublime.
- [08:25]
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I think how we are different from drug people also is to realize that God is here and in my heart
- [08:31]
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and all the time but we are realizing this consciously. We know this consciously.
- [08:38]
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Not just to accept it once and enjoy. You know this moment to moment.
- [08:43]
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Well I’ve only tried maraujana. I’ve never taken anything else.
- [08:49]
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You might say I was fortunate enough to have my self realization and other changes without drugs.
- [08:57]
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Leary and some of the drug followers,
- [09:00]
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they are functioning high on a low level and we are functioning low on a high level.
- [09:09]
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Could you explain that?
- [09:11]
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They are functioning high, this feeling, this sensual perception which is extended so far that they
- [09:22]
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are enjoying their foods, their incense and colors and all these things.
- [09:26]
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This anyone can do. And we are not enjoying these things.
- [09:30]
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But we are functioning on this high level, on the level of God.
- [09:33]
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We must consider ourselves as the gopis so that we can love Krishna that much more.
- [09:42]
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That we devote our whole lives to Krishna and we must consider ourselves as females you see.
- [09:49]
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Be careful. It takes many, many lifetimes of perfection to get to be a gopi.
- [09:56]
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One has to be the supremely developed perfect in perfection to qualify as a gopi…
- [10:04]
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But the reason that one of the people mentioned before that being femine
- [10:10]
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is that the masculine love and the feminine are loved and that you are feminine
- [10:16]
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so that you can be loved by Krishna.
- [10:18]
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Well, does this have anything to do with being celibate or…
- [10:21]
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This has to do with the Supreme Being of course is male
- [10:25]
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because He is Purusa as they say in Sanskrit.
- [10:27]
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That is He is the origin, He is the creator. He is the seed.
- [10:32]
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He plants the seed in the material universe of which we are the result.
- [10:36]
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Therefore we are the feminine. The whole material creation, He is the Supereme Father.
- [10:42]
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Are you celebant?
- [10:44]
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That has nothing to do with it. I may be or I may not be, this has nothing to do with it.
- [10:51]
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I just came in and I was tired, so they said, “You’re tired go to sleep, lay down here.”
- [10:57]
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You mean this is your first day?
- [10:58]
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Yes
- [11:00]
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And this is your first chanting session?
- [11:03]
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Yes, this is the first time I have ever been into it at all.
- [11:07]
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I came about the first of August. Ray was here a little earlier I believe.
- [11:12]
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I came around the middle of August.
- [11:14]
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And then others of course have come within the last week.
- [11:17]
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But the one thing that usually happens is that the ones who come like this,
- [11:24]
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they come and they just never go. Once you come, you stay,
- [11:28]
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because the Swami has something which you are looking for.
- [11:33]
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The first thing he did for us was to give us our method of chanting
- [11:37]
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which is so powerful a method that it will work for anyone.
- [11:41]
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In other words you don’t need to be one person in a million who can really be successful
- [11:50]
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in meditation and yoga where you have to spend years at that discipline without getting any place
- [11:57]
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and then finally achieve it.
- [12:00]
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Our method is so powerful that it will work for anyone in two days.
- [12:03]
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Should I bow down when I don’t feel anything?
- [12:06]
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Should I say these words when I don’t feel anything?
- [12:09]
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He says, “yes,” because this is a training.
- [12:12]
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You see you want to train yourself, this is the most important,
- [12:18]
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then you’ll gradually just fall right into it, if you work hard at it.
- [12:23]
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You must practice, and this is the main thing and then you’ll be attracted.
- [12:34]
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How about now? Do you feel really good? -Excuse me.
- [12:37]
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Do you feel uncomfortable?
- [12:39]
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Oh no, I see all this practicing and work just had to be done for where I am now.
- [12:50]
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Anyone who chants Hare Krishna, have you got the whole chant?
- [12:56]
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Just the same as we are all sitting here but if I call “Stanley,”
- [13:02]
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that’s not the same as calling you. If I call your name that shows my attention is riveted on you.
- [13:08]
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So by riveting our attention on Krishna we are able to…
- [13:13]
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In other words if I meditated on the word: “Raymond,” that wouldn’t be the same at all.
- [13:18]
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The word “Krishna” is God, the word “Raymond,” at least to my knowledge, is not.
- [13:26]
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Well you have to concentrate on these words, you have to be sincere about these words.
- [13:31]
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You have to surrender yourself to these words and through this,
- [13:40]
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this takes practice. It’s not done in one session.
- [13:45]
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It took me maybe four sessions before I began to even chant, you see.
- [13:51]
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What happens when you do chant, when you’re in it?
- [13:54]
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Well, that’s hard to explain. I guess that each person has a different reaction but you do seem to open up.
- [14:02]
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It seems as if something flies out of you. It’s like a door opens,
- [14:10]
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it slowly opens and then you walk in to the unknown, the unknown is beautiful, this unknown.
- [14:19]
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You have every muscle of your body engaged in the exercise.
- [14:23]
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You’re singing, you’re dancing, your mind is fully engaged in thinking about God.
- [14:30]
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What more could there be? This is the full aim of any kind of yoga.
- [14:33]
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It’s to concentrate the energy to a point and in this kirtan your energy is concentrated on one point, God.
- [14:42]
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Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
- [14:45]
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Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
- [14:48]
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What more could you want?
