Matchless Gifts — Vintage Short Films

Subtitles

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

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