11-01-29_SB-09-11-26-36_-_Its_The_Thought_That_Counts_-

_Radhanath_Swami_ISKCON_Chowpatty

äsikta-märgäà gandhodaiù

kariëäà mada-çékaraiù

sväminaà präptam älokya

mattäà vä sutaräm iva

TRANSLATION

During the reign of Lord Rämacandra, the streets of the capital, Ayodhyä, were sprinkled with
perfumed water and drops of perfumed liquor, thrown about by elephants from their trunks.
When the citizens saw the Lord personally supervising the affairs of the city in such opulence,
they appreciated this opulence very much.

PURPORT

We have simply heard about the opulence of Räma-räjya during the reign of Lord Rämacandra.
Now, here is one example of the opulence of the Lord's kingdom. The streets of Ayodhyä were
not only cleaned but also sprinkled with perfumed water and drops of perfumed liquor, which
were distributed by elephants through their trunks. There was no need of sprinkling machines,
for the elephant has a natural ability to suck water through its trunk and again throw it out in a
shower. We can understand the opulence of the city from this one example: it was actually
sprinkled with perfumed water. Moreover, the citizens had the opportunity to see the Lord
personally supervising the affairs of the state. He was not a sleeping monarch, as we can
understand from His activities in sending His brothers to see to affairs outside the capital and
punish anyone who did not obey the emperor's orders. This is called dig-vijaya. The citizens
were all given facilities for peaceful life, and they were also qualified with appropriate attributes
according to varëäçrama. As we have seen from the previous chapter, varëäçrama-guëänvitäù:
the citizens were trained according to the varëäçrama system. A class of men were brähmaëas, a
class of men were kñatriyas, a class were vaiçyas, and a class were çüdras. Without this scientific
division, there can be no question of good citizenship. The King, being magnanimous and perfect
in His duty, performed many sacrifices and treated the citizens as His sons, and the citizens,
being trained in the varëäçrama system, were obedient and perfectly ordered. The entire
monarchy was so opulent and peaceful that the government was even able to sprinkle the street
with perfumed water, what to speak of other management. Since the city was sprinkled with
perfumed water, we can simply imagine how opulent it was in other respects. Why should the
citizens not have felt happy during the reign of Lord Rämacandra.

präsäda-gopura-sabhä-

caitya-deva-gåhädiñu

vinyasta-hema-kalaçaiù

patäkäbhiç ca maëòitäm

TRANSLATION

The palaces, the palace gates, the assembly houses, the platforms for meeting places, the temples
and all such places were decorated with golden waterpots and bedecked with various types of
flags.

pügaiù savåntai rambhäbhiù

paööikäbhiù suväsasäm

ädarçair aàçukaiù sragbhiù

kåta-kautuka-toraëäm

TRANSLATION

Wherever Lord Rämacandra visited, auspicious welcome gates were constructed, with banana
trees and betel nut trees, full of flowers and fruits. The gates were decorated with various flags
made of colorful cloth and with tapestries, mirrors and garlands.

tam upeyus tatra tatra

paurä arhaëa-päëayaù

äçiño yuyujur deva

pähémäà präk tvayoddhåtäm

TRANSLATION
Wherever Lord Rämacandra visited, the people approached Him with paraphernalia of worship
and begged the Lord's blessings. "O Lord," they said, "as You rescued the earth from the bottom
of the sea in Your incarnation as a boar, may You now maintain it. Thus we beg Your blessings."

tataù prajä vékñya patià cirägataà

didåkñayotsåñöa-gåhäù striyo naräù

äruhya harmyäëy aravinda-locanam

atåpta-neträù kusumair aväkiran

TRANSLATION

Thereafter, not having seen the Lord for a long time, the citizens, both men and women, being
very eager to see Him, left their homes and got up on the roofs of the palaces. Being
incompletely satiated with seeing the face of the lotus-eyed Lord Rämacandra, they showered
flowers upon Him.

Lecture Begins:

The chapter we are discussing today is Lord Ramacandra rules the world. In these verses Lord
ramacandra having returned after fourteen years of exile in forest is again living in the kingdom
of Ayodhya and ruling the citizens. There is some sample explanation about the wonderful
management of the kingdom at that time. Especially in this purport Srila Prabhupada is focusing
on this verse of text 26 where every single street, alleyway was perfectly clean and fragrant by
the sprinkling of perfumed waters from the trunks of elephants. There must have been hundreds
and thousands of elephants cleaning the streets every day.

Story of Maharaja’s abhishek by elephant at Sri Rangam:

Have anyone of you ever been sprayed by an elephant? Just recently, we had our yatra in South
India. South India is a place, particularly in some areas where they have really tried to preserve
the very ancient sattvic culture of India. There was this meeting of all of us Sri Rangam. Sri
Rangam is the largest temple in all of India, several acres in size. And there are 7 walls and 21
gates that one can enter into before arriving in the temple room. And, they greeted us in their
traditional way with all sorts of instruments, drums, horns. Especially with elephants, and this
particular elephant when we were doing Harinaam Sankirtan, he first put a garland on me. It is
kind of that you have to have faith on these elephants. It was about a hundred times the size of
me standing in front of me and to put a garland on you they practically stand in front of you. And
then the elephant wanted to have a musical concert for us. So, someone gave the elephant trainer
a harmonica and the elephant took the harmonica in his trunk and started playing nice melodies.
This was very esoteric to me as I had thrown my harmonica 40 years ago in the Ganges, thinking
that it was a distraction to my spiritual life and now this elephant was playing harmonica in the
Lord’s temple. So, I was thinking that actually it is traditional. Even the high priests of almost
the most orthodox temple all over India has their elephants playing harmonica in the temple. And
then after that elephant did something right in front of everybody that I wasn’t expecting. He
sprayed with water from his trunk. Where the water came from I didn’t see. I don’t know if he
sucked in water and let it out or was he just blowing his nose on me. So, I wasn’t sure whether he
was honoring me or insulting me. If he was taking out perfumed water as mentioned in this verse
and spraying it to me that would be an honor but if he was just blowing his nose on me that was
no honour at all. Anyways, whatever it was I was soaked. So I just happened to remember this as
we read this verse. One thing I did learn is that when he sprayed from his trunk it was like the
most perfect shower than any human could create. It just came out so forceful but so gentle with
such tiny little particles, like a gentle shower.

How to see everyone with equal vision?

And, then in the next verses we find the love citizens had for Lord Ramacandra. Because he
literally treated every citizen, whoever he may be as His own daughters and sons and there was
no discrimination.

vidyä-vinaya-sampanne

brähmaëe gavi hastini

çuni caiva çva-päke ca

paëòitäù sama-darçinaù

In the fifth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita it is said that a godly person who has real wisdom, their
quality is to see every living being with equal vision. Whether one being a man or a woman, rich
or poor, a Hindu or a Moslem or a Buddhist or a Jew or a Christian or Jain or a Sikh or a Parsi or
agnostic or an atheist, young or old, whether one is from India or Pakistan or Palestine or Israel
or Russia or America or Africa, whether one is an elephant or a dog or a cat or even a Bombay
rat, he sees everyone with equal vision. How is that possible because they see:

éçvaraù sarva-bhütänäà

håd-deçe 'rjuna tiñöhati

The paramatma, the Supreme Lord is situated within the heart of everyone. And the Bhagavad
Gita tells:
 mamaiväàço jéva-loke

jéva-bhütaù sanätanaù

Krishna says every living being are my part and parcels. Everyone is a part of God, a spark of
God. Just like the sun is emanating unlimited sun rays and every sun ray is qualitatively exactly
identical to the sun planet, gives out heat and light. But every sun ray is just a part of the sun
planet and is actually non-different than the sun planet. So in the same way wherever there is life
there is the presence of the atma, the soul, the source of consciousness. And that consciousness is
divine, sacred and a part of God, whether in a plant or an insect or an animal or a bird or any
variety of human life. One who is Godly, one who has true wisdom, sees every living being with
equal vision. And therefore amäninä mänadena, offers respect to everyone and actually has love
for everyone. When we realize the spiritual essence within ourselves, we can recognize the
spiritual essence everywhere within everyone. So these are the qualities of a saintly person.

Lord Rama is God himself who has incarnated within this world as an avatara. So He is seeing
everyone as His own sons and daughters. Krishna tells in the Bhagavad Gita:

ahaà béja-pradaù pita

Krishna says that I am the seed giving mother and father of everyone. Because of such love, such
care, such compassion you see a mother and father managing a household. They don’t just
manage the house and the affairs and in a impersonal way, that whoever happens to be here gets
the benefits, no. The mother and father care in a very personal and intimate concern and care for
everyone of their children.

And that is the way Rama treated everyone. And its but natural that if you give love, you
recognize the love of others. Sometimes we feel unloved. There may not be that much we could
do about that. But there is something we could always do, we could love others. And when we
actually express our love for others, in most cases people will reciprocate it back to us. And
hence, we will be able to recognize. The nature of love between the God and the soul is based on
the sincerity of our intent. Srila Prabhupada explains that Krishna does not the things that are
offered, but the intent and the purpose in which they are offered. In Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells
that even if you offer to me a fruit, a flower, a leaf or a little water with love and devotion I will
accept it. There countless examples of this within the great histories of India and the world. I
would like to tell a few stories in this regard.

Story of Rama and Maharaja Guha:

Here we find Ramacandra in the most opulent city of Ayodhya accepting the love of his devotees
in the form of what we are discussed already: incredibly decorated palaces, roads sprayed clean
by the perfumed waters from the trunks of elephants. So majestic and opulent, there is no city in
the world today could do this. But when He was in the forest in exile, a tribal king named Guha,
his people were living in small straw huts. And Maharaja Guha offered Lord Rama some straw
to sleep on that night and offered Him some wild roots and herb to eat. Lord Ramacandra was
conquered by the offerings of Guha, because they were offered with love.

Story of Shabari and Rama:

While Rama was looking for Sita who had been abducted by Ravana, He was directed by
Kabandha to this lake called Pampa where He would meet Hanuman and Sugriva and make
allies with them. There on the bank of that little lake there was a very old tribal woman named
Shabari. She was very old and she had been living in the forest since her childhood as an ascetic.
When Ramacandra saw her she had long matted hair. She was dressed in the bark of trees and
black skin of a deer that had departed by natural causes. She was emaciated from lake of proper
food. But when she saw Lord Rama, she was overwhelmed with joy. The background of Shabari
is that she was born in a Bhil caste. In those days it meant she was a tribal lady with no
education, practically born and raised in the jungles. But she met great devotees, her guru was
Matanga Rsi. Matanga Rsi used to live in that forest and she simply wanted to be with them, to
hear from them, to learn from them, to serve them. She lived many many years just humbly
hearing the message of God, seeing the compassion of these great Rsis and serving them and
serving with them. Long before Matanga rsi everyone in his ashram back to the spiritual world.
But, he told Shabari that you should stay back behind. Because, the Supreme Lord is going to
incarnate and He is going to come to this forest. You should receive Him and serve Him nicely
and give Him happiness. And after you serve Him, then your life will be completely purified and
you can join us in the spiritual world.

So her guru and all of her intimate loving friends, they all left for the spiritual world and she was
alone in the forest. Every day she expected Rama will come. Every day she would wake in the
morning and think that today is the day when Rama will come. And she would go out and collect
fruits. The main fruits which grew there was a simple berry that monkeys like to eat. She would
collect them, keep in a basket. She would clean the little forest ashram very nicely. And then she
would wait. She would be looking in every direction in anticipation. This was her meditation and
then when night came and Rama didn’t come, she went to sleep. The next morning was spent the
same way. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year she followed the
same routine. Imagine the anticipation. But she never lost faith, she never lost hope. Matanga Rsi
had said that Rama will come and He will give you all life’s perfection, she was patient. It’s not
that after a few months she gave up and decided to do something else, like try to get a job
somewhere else. She knew 100% for sure that Rama was coming, because it was the words of a
great soul.

Decades passed, she grew very very old. She waited and waited, she was a master yogi, a perfect
yogini. She mastered all the principles of yoga. She could practically live without eating and
drinking. The only thing that nourished her was the expectation that Rama will come. And on
that very holy day she saw from a distance a most effulgent personality. It attracted her heart like
no other. And even before she could clearly visibly see His form, she knew He had come. She
said,” My Lord has come!”

Now let’s meditate on the setting. It’s not that Shabari was waiting for God to come to her and
he didn’t come for one day or two days. And she was trying to pass the time by watching
television or listening to music, getting intoxicated or going to social gatherings. She didn’t see
another human for all those years. She was in the most isolated part of the forest. And, she would
not leave that place for anything because her guru had said that Rama was going to come here.
She was in the ecstasy of vipralambha, loving separation, just waiting.

So when Rama appeared before her, her heart was bursting with happiness, supernatural spiritual
happiness, she was in transcendental ecstasy. And when she saw the beauty of Rama and
Lakshmana approaching her and then standing before her, Shabari ran to them, although she was
so incredibly old. But she wouldn’t give up her life either until she rendered this service to Lord.
You see she wasn’t waiting to take something from God. She was waiting all those years with
the anticipation to render personal service to the Lord that was her dream. And when the Lord
was standing before her, what did she have to offer? She had nothing. There was no grocery
stress or markets to buy something, it was just a forest. But she made out of her hands little mats
out of kusha grass, the wild grass which grows out of the water. And she offered a kusha grass
mat for Rama and Lakshmana to sit. And they sat down. And according to the custom when a
great personality comes to your home, you wash their feet. Because, in olden times people didn’t
drive or take taxis and planes. When people would walk a distance to come to your house, the
custom was to wash the feet with very cooling nice scented water, to make your feet very very
cool and comfortable. And it is also a sign of humbling yourself before a special guest.

So although Pampa Sarovara was very close by, the eagerness of Shabari was so intense, tears
were pouring from her eyes, tears of ecstasy, tears of love and tears of gratitude. She profusely
washed Lord Rama’s feet with the tears of her love. And Sri Ramacandra he didn’t accept the
water, He accepted the love in which it was being offered. And it was from the heart and to the
heart and He was perfectly satisfied. Then she wanted offer Rama some food to eat, knowing that
He had also been travelling in the forest. Rama Himself was in tree bark and matted hair. The
fruits Shabari had collected, the nature of that fruit is whether or bitter or sweet, it looks exactly
the same. The only way to tell is to taste it. Now according to tradition when you are offering
food to the Lord, you never taste it. It is considered improper or disrespectful to taste something
and then offer to the Lord. We first offer it as bhoga and after it is offered with love and
devotion, the prasadam, the mercy we accepted. But Shabari, as I said was very very uneducated,
coming from a very very isolated little tribe in the forest, she just wanted Rama to taste
something sweet. She didn’t know all these rules and regulations. So spontaneously she took
each fruit and bit a little piece of it, and if it was bitter, she would put it aside for herself to take
later. And if it was sweet, she took it out of her mouth and gave it to Rama. And he ate it, tasting
the sweetness of her devotion. And after He ate to His full satisfaction, He explained, “Even
when I was in the city of Ayodhya, being fed by my father, who was the king, the most luxurious
dishes. And even when I had been wandering in the forest eating sometimes the most succulent
fruits from the trees, I have never ever tasted anything so sweet and satisfying to my heart as
these berries, that you Shabari have given to Me today”. Was it the berry or was it the loving
intention in which she was giving?

Then Lord Rama asked her questions. He asked,”Please tell me, having you found what you are
looking for through your asceticism? And what is the type of meditation you are doing? And I
can see by tree bark garments and matted hair and emaciated body and your very very old age,
that you are living a very hard life here. Please tell me, what are your realizations; what are your
meditations, what is your austerity?” And then He said, “I am longing to see the ashram of your
guru, Matanga Rsi”. So Shabari said,” I will be happy to show You all that You want to”. So she
gave Rama a tour of the forest. She said,” This is the altar where my guru and my godbrothers
and godsisters did their worship. Their whole worship was just taking flowers from the forest and
little fruits and offering them to the Lord in meditation, in devotion. And this where they would
sit and meditate. And this is where they would do their offerings”. And then in great enthusiasm
Shabari said,” Now I will show You a very special place”. After bathing in the lake in their tree
bark, they would take it off and put on a dry set. And they would hang the wet tree bark here.
Shabari said,” Look! The tree bark is still wet, just as it was minutes after they washed. And it is
decades and decades later. And the flowers and fruits on the altar that they offered are still fresh
as they were on the day they were offered”. Just to keep within her heart, the memory of all these
great personalities, who had all left her for the spiritual world, the Lord by His transcendental
potency kept everything in the forest, just as if they had left a few minutes ago. Why? Just to
give that experience, that feeling of joy to Shabari.

After she honored and worshipped the Lord in her most simple way, she said, “Actually I want to
offer prayers to You, but I don’t know any prayers. I have no education”. She didn’t know any
verses from any scriptures; she didn’t have that mental capacity of her brain. But the Lord told
her,” The sincerity of the love of your heart is the very fulfillment and offering of all prayers.
You have mastered the path of yoga, because you have awakened unselfish love that has
absolutely no trace of false ego. And I know Shabari that you are waiting to join your guru and
all of the sages in the spiritual world. I give my blessings, you may go now”.

And then Shabari after bowing at the feet of the Lord and crying tears of gratitude, she sat in the
lotus posture and by her mystical yogic power she ignited the fire element within her own body
and body went into fire. And from the flames of her physical body, her original eternal spiritual
form manifested and bowed down before Rama. And Rama smiled and said,” Shabari! Go back
to my abode”. In that youthful, beautiful form, sac-cid-ananda; eternal, full of knowledge and
full of bliss, that was the body she was awarded. And she ascended to the spiritual world.

patraà puñpaà phalaà toyaà

What did she offer Rama? The tears from her own eyes to wash His feet and some simple
flowers and fruits that she had tasted, berries from a bush. Saàsiddher hari-toñaëam , all she
wanted was to please the Lord. And because of that desire Lord Rama was pleased, and her gave
her the highest perfection.

So here in Ayodhya the citizens, who are wearing beautiful silks, ornaments, living in palaces,
eating fine foods, highly educated: both academically and spiritually; they are throwing flowers
on Lord Rama’s head. The beautiful thing is there is no difference; there was absolutely no
difference between the elegant citizens offering flowers or Shabari in her tree bark offering little
simple fruits and berries. Because, in the path of bhakti, there is no material qualification or
disqualification. Everything is based on the sincerity of our heart.

Krishna in Mithila accepting love of devotees:

There is a beautiful story in Krishna’s lila that depicts the same principle, in fact there so many.
In Rama’s lila, Bharata spent those fourteen years worshipping the shoes of Lord Rama and
Rama was manifested every moment in those shoes for him. According to the vedic system, God
is both male and female equally. And the male and female natures in the world, there origin is in
the eternal spiritual realm, where the Lord has a male and a female aspect, called by different
names in different times at different places: Sita and Rama, Radha and Krishna, Lakshmi and
Narayana, Parvati and Shiva, Bhu and Varaha.

Sita, the eternal consort of Rama, who is the feminine aspect of the divine, appeared in the town
of Mithila. Has any of you ever been to Mithila? It is a beautiful place. I lived there exactly forty
years ago and it was such a simple village. While we are on the subject of elephants I’ll tell you
that it was the main form of transportation there. There are beautiful temples there and so many
devotees of Sita and Rama. But it was like that forty years ago, I don’t know what it will be like
now, because forty years can change holy places in the age of Kali. But in those days, there was
no cars, no trucks, there weren’t even any motorcycles.

I remember I was sitting on the main highway of Mithila. Would you like to hear this story? The
main highway is a dirt path. And on the dirt path instead of semi trailer trucks we had something
else. In America you have 18 wheeler gigantic trucks going down the road. In India you have
these lorries that, sometimes you see the trucks in India, the cargo they put in the back of the
decrepit, dilapidated vehicle is three times the size of the vehicle. And then on top of that there
were goats, chickens and a couple of families sitting. That’s the way I used to travel in India, on
top of those overcrowded lorries. But in Mithila those days, semi trailers were elephants. One
elephant after another, because, this is near South Nepal, where many wild elephants are living.
So they would train them and on top of each elephant there was usually a little boy, about 10
year boy, a little Nepali child, usually pretty skinny. The elephant weighs couple of tons and the
child probably weighs about 20 kilos, and he’s got a little bamboo stick and he is telling the
elephant, “Go here! Go here!” I was coming from America where when I was growing I saw that
strength is an important thing and now I was thinking this is incredible. This is small skinny
child didn’t even have the muscles, he doesn’t workout. He’s just got this little stick and if he hit
me on the head with that little stick it wouldn’t hurt, and yet this gigantic elephant is afraid of
him. The elephant could just take his trubk and just pick the boy up and stomp with his foot and
he is finished. But because the boy is feeding the elephant and bathing the elephant and washing
the elephant and scratching the elephant and doing all nice services to the elephant, the elephant
honors the child. And the elephants were going down the road, and on the back of the elephant
were like a big box strapped down his waist. And he would put all their cargo in it. Each
elephant had a bell around his neck and no horns. And like on the back of the trucks in India it is
written Ok! Horn Please!, nothing of that sort was written on the back of the elephant.

So, they were walking gracefully, like clouds moving on the sky. They have such grace. Really,
it is incredible creation, the biggest land animal in the world is the elephant and yet when the
walk they are the most graceful of all creatures, they seem to be floating. And in Mithila each
one had a bell around there neck, and they would take certain steps the bell would go Ding!
Ding! Ding! Ding!, it was so soothing to the heart; not like the horrible horns used in the vehicles
these days. And in India they have created by their technology the most horrible sounding horns;
it was such a relief Ding! Ding! Ding!

So, in that place of Mithila, Sita appeared in this world. And, how did she appear? She appeared
from the earth. Her father Janaka, there was a great drought in his kingdom. He understood that
when we please God, then all auspicious things can happen. When we take care of Mother
Nature, Mother Nature gives in abundance in return. Mother Nature is an expansion of the
feminine divinity, of the feminine aspect of the Lord. So the king himself was ploughing the field
with a golden plough, and within the circle of which we was ploughing, he was going to perform
a yajna or a spiritual ceremony. As he was with that meditation of honoring Mother Earth and
worshipping the Lord, as he was ploughing, as the earth was coming up, a beautiful little golden
colored baby came out of the earth. And Janaka, his heart melted, it was utterly unexpected.
Usually dirt comes out when you are ploughing, but with the dirt came this little baby born of the
earth. And he took her home and raised her as his own daughter. And it was in that place of
Mithila where Rama, Lakshmana and Visvamitra Muni came, and Rama broke the great bow of
Siva and married Sita. So I was so happy to go there.

And while I was there I learnt that Krishna also came there. And this is described in Srmad
Bhagavatam, the great scripture. Krishna was then living in Dwarka, which is off the coast of
Gujarat, an island. And in Mithila there was a great king by the name of Bahulasva and a very
simple Brahmin named Srutadeva. They had such love and devotion for Lord Krishna, but to
travel all the way to Dwarka was just possible to them for various reasons. But Krishna is in
everyone’s heart. The Lord knows our every thought, our every desire, our every word, our every
action. So Krishna decided that if my devotee cannot come to see Me, I will go and see him. So,
He got all great munis like Atreya Muni, Parashara Muni, Narada and so many of His close
family members and ministers. And they got on their chariots and went all the way, thousands of
miles to Mithila just to see their devotees. When they arrived the whole town came to greet
Krishna. And King Bahulasva, who was the ruler of the entire country there; he approached the
Lord with such humility and devotion and fell at the Lord’s feet and prayed with gratitude
requesting Him to come to his palace. At the same time Srutadeva came, Srutadeva was a very
very poor Brahmin, he had practically nothing. And he also bowed at the feet of the Lord and
prayed, “Please come to my home”. One lived in a royal palace, one lived in a straw hut, but they
were both asking with the same enthusiasm to serve. Now, for us, if two different people ask to
do something, we have to make a choice who we going to do it for. And we usually disappoint
one and hopefully we will satisfy the other. But Krishna doesn’t have that problem. Because, the
Lord is abhigya and svarat, He is all knowing, seated in the heart of every living being. And he is
also independent, he can do anything, He has acintya sakti, inconceivable potencies. So the Lord
simply expanded Himself into 2 identical forms and one went to Bahulasva’s house and one
went to Srutadeva’s house. But, neither one knew that the Lord was going to the other. So, each
one of them was thinking that the Lord is only with me. And in the palace of Bahulasva, the first
thing the king brought him into a elegant palce of gold and silver and ivory, marble and put Him
on a golden throne. And then fed Him with the hundreds of the most luxurious dishes of food
and fanned him with fine silver handed camara wisks. He had the kingdom’s most proficient
dancers and musicians playing for Him and dancing for Him. And he offered prayers, his prayers
were without ego. He said, “My Lord! What do I have offer You? The best I have is what I am
giving. But you are so kind; you are so generous that you are willing to accept it”. He had pure
love and no ego. Meanwhile at the same time, Srutadeva welcomed Lord into his little straw hut.
He didn’t have a throne. He just made a little mat out of grass, tied it together and put it on the
floor for the Lord to sit on. And, he didn't have any fine foods, he went on to beg and got some
broken up chipped rice and offered that to the Lord. And there were no dancers or musicians,
Srutadeva himself, in order to entertain the Lord started singing and as he was singing he started
dancing. And the Srmad Bhagavatam tells Lord Krishna was equally satisfied by both, Srutadeva
and Bahulasva. Because, it is not the thing that the Lord accepts, the path of bhaktoi teaches, it is
the love, the intention.

Lesson Maharaja’s mother taught him: “IT’S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS” :

I remember my mother taught me this principle in my earliest childhood. She herself was born
and raised in the Great Depression, her family was in tremendous poverty. Her parents were
Jewish immigrants that came from Eastern Europe and Russia, they hardly spoke English. Her
father died when she was a young girl. Her mother had severe diabetes, she very sick. Her elder
sister was attacked in an alleyway, because it was such a rough neighborhood. And because of
that trauma so became mentally so traumatized that she couldn’t function at all for the rest of her
life. And my mother had a younger sister who was in a grade school, so my mother had to work.
As a child she went to school and she worked. And she worked and she worked, such a simple
family. And then she married my father. Somehow or the other, he was very enthusiastic, he
started making money. And he was trying to provide for all the other family members. And then
I was nine years old, he went totally bankrupt and lost everything. And she mother, she never
complained, she never wasted. She raised three incredibly wild children, specially my elder
brother. Even today 50 years later his name is remembered in the neighborhood. He wasn’t a
criminal, he was just so mischievous. He loved to get people upset and he knew just how to do it.
In school, he used to plant smoke bombs in the desks of his teachers. Anyways, my mother was
given a pure pearl necklace or a diamond, piece of jewelry or if she was given a simple flower;
she would always say that it’s the thought that counts. It’s not the thing; it’s the thought that
counts.

And I remember, on her birthday once, some relatives gave her some precious jewelry. And I
had forgotten that it was her birthday, because men are like that. Men just forget all this kind of
stuff, just too busy with their egos usually. So, when I saw other people giving her such nice
things, I was thinking, “Oh No! I forgot!” And I ran out to her own rose garden, she personally
planted those roses in our little backyard and she watered them and she pruned them. And I stole
a flower from her own rose garden, and I didn’t even take the thorns off. And I ran inside and
said,”Happy Birthday!” And she started to cry in happiness, she knew I stole it from her garden.
And she took that rose and she with tears of gratitude and love smelled it and she said, “It’s the
thought that counts”. It’s not the thing. It is the love in which it is offered that makes anything
meaningful. If we have grateful heart, we can actually appreciate the meaning and the value of
something. Now what the heart is really longing for is not things. The heart is not longing for
Mercedes or Ferraris, the heart is not longing for..(lecture ends)