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Greetings to all of you from Nanda Falva.

Commitment comes to my mind. Commitment is a word like rules and regulations. Commitment is the need of the day in the absence of love. When I speak about commitment I am speaking about the basics. I am not speaking about any advanced topic. Why speak about commitment? Because we are not very advanced. Amongst advanced people you do not speak about commitment, it is already there. But are we committed to Gauranga Gopivallabha? Some are and some are a little and many are not. Some take their family seriously. Some do not.

Commitments in married life

If a person is married, and especially if they are married before Krishna, this is a sacred bond, which should not be broken by anyone, but Maya divides and Krishna unites. And we are moving in the Maya world, so there is always a tendency towards dividing. That's why going to Krishna's world means united, but some people are so foolish that they want to be united in the world of Maya. That's a good dream. If my family is in danger and Maya wants to divide it. My own Maya, not some external Maya. If my own Maya wants to divide my family, I want to fight for my family. We can only fight with the help of the sadhu. You cannot fight alone. Who are you to fight alone?

Family works only with Krishna in the center, and problems can only be solved with Krishna in the center. If your family is in danger you have to fight with the help of Krishna and the help of a sadhu. How often do you have to fight to save your family? I don't know but a minimum ten times. To save one's family, one's sacred connection, one has to fight strongly with the help of a sadhu. A minimum ten times, and if it still doesn't work it means one has to become a sannyasi and then you are serious. But I see people; they join together over a weekend, and three months later they want to separate. They never talked to any sadhu. They are facing a family crisis but they are not going to any sadhu to correct them. Why do they have a crisis? Because they are not committed. And these fools are speaking about love. If there is love, commitment is automatic. Then they say such foolish things: "You see, before I loved you, but now I do not love you anymore." But this is sentimental TV soap opera stuff. It has nothing to do with love and commitment.

Commitments in work

But we are not committed to anything. Are we committed to the health of our body? Not very much. Are we committed to our ideals? Sometimes. Are we committed to our work? Most people are not. Most people are with the mentality "I only work when I have to". They work when the boss is looking, and they work hard, and when the boss is out the movement decreases at least 90 %. Or they stop and start reading the newspaper and when the boss is back they work again. No morality in the job. That is why Europe and America has been conquered by China, which is the most shameful thing on the planet earth. From one side, because we buy all our stuff from communist oppressive system and number two, these Chinese made a vow that everything, which people consume in this world, must be produced in China. And they have a work ethic; the Asian people have a work ethic, which is 10 times higher. I would not say they like their work, but they are committed.

South American people could do the same, they could compete with Asia. But forget about that, they just fight. They are fighting about everything, and when it comes to work they want to steal. And Europeans they say "I only work if I have my vacation in Bangkok, if I have a big high living standard, only working 7 hours per day and being part holder of the company." They make so many conditions, that the boss closes the company and moves to Hong Kong. There is no working consciousness and no patriotism. And big multinational corporations they take advantage of this. They are coming into your town and they sell all the items cheaper even if they do not have any profit. They have calculated maybe for five years we do not have profit and in five years all the competition is finished and then we can charge whatever we want. Because then people can't get it elsewhere. And we are always as foolish as flies. Flies are flying to the fire. And the flies say, "Such a nice light, so warm. It is beautiful. Let me be little closer." And then it is burned. It flew to its own death. Like anyone in Szeged are flying to LIDL [a discount store]. And everybody is saying, "So cheap! This is wonderful. I am saving money." But they forget that all the little businesses in the town are going bankrupt. All the families and friends who lived together for the last 15 generations will be bankrupt and then they have to pray to Mr. Lidl, "Please give me a job, my master."

In this case, lack of commitment is a big problem. We are not committed to the community, not to family, we are not committed to our own health. We are only committed to sense gratification. That we do not want to give up. This is my only idol. What to speak about working hard for the spiritual master and creating a strong community. No, too complicated, too much criticism, too many different ideas. That's the reality of the world today. And only one thing saves us: if we have some love for the guru, some love for Srila Prabhupada, and we accept the commitment as a natural part of it. Commitment to a common cause is the medicine for any problem. United we are strong, divided we are weak.

Commitment to a common cause

The Chinese know that and the multinational companies also know. Others do not seem to understand it. Because united means accepting sacrifices. I have told you how the Koreans or Japanese take over the market. I do not know how their boss structure works, but it works. They came into New York 20 years ago; they rent one flat and they buy one supermarket, and in the flat twenty are living like in a military barrack, and one is cooking for all. Then they all go to a job working from five in the morning to 11 in the night and they only take some pocket money and all else goes in a big pool and in two months they buy a second supermarket and bring another ten Japanese, same principle. And the one who has worked for many years becomes the leader of the project. Big discipline. In ten years they buy all the supermarkets in New York. You cannot take any cabbage or carrot, except from the Koreans. They take over the entire city and if somebody has a supermarket, "How much you want for it?" "I do not want to sell it." And then they give some offer, which cannot be refused. This is called buying out the competition. Just like Nestle is always looking for some food business. Sometimes they buy a company and close it and use the market for selling their products.

Commitment and bhakti yoga

You cannot be innocent for this, you have to know how it works. And you may ask what does this have to do with bhakti yoga? Well, Lord Nityananda made a proposal 500 years ago, to make a multinational holy name market of the whole world. With the best books of the pure devotees, with the best music of the best singers, with the best festivals, with the most beautiful temples and yoga monasteries, with our representatives going to every town and village on the planet. That was proposed by Nityananda prabhu in his Nama Hatta movement and Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur has explained this principle in great detail in his Kalyana Kalpataru.

The power of sacrifice

So the power of sacrifice is very important. How did Gurudev get this project started? In case you still remember. I know Gurudeva from Sweden, he didn't have any family wealth. He came here with his own sacrifice and the sacrifice of those who believed in him and he bought this farm and another farm and he started to print books and magazines and this sacrifice made it possible for Krishna consciousness to be so popular in the world. But the first thing you have to accept is to work hard and put your profits toward a common cause. All of it. You get only a little pocket money. That is the system. This is called brahmachari. That's what children in India learn until they become 25. They go out and collect. All you collect you bring to your spiritual master. And he organizes. Dana - charity. There is the charity of maintaining an ashram. Buddhists have it in their blood. Every month I have to give to the monastery. Otherwise how will the monastery be maintained? So they give donations to the monks and they make more monasteries and in the monastery you can take shelter if you want to work 100% for the common cause.

The monasteries are not cheap hotels. Then it does not work. The monasteries are places for spiritual training and for dana, for charity. Because charity is the basis of the common cause. Egotism is the enemy of the common cause. Everybody is working hard. And when you ask if they have anything for charity, they say: "No, everything I am earning I am spending." And when they earn twice as much, they spend twice as much. They never have anything for charity. The situation is crazy and Srila Prabhupada said that if you are a grihasta, you give 50% of your gold for the guru's administration every month and then you can expect the mission to grow. Without practical charity of the devotees how do you do anything? How do you expect temples to be beautiful and more facility for spreading Krishna consciousness? That is all we have to think about. First you cover your basic necessities without any luxuries and after 50% you spend for the mission and with the other 50% you organize your own future plans. That is what Srila Prabhupada told us. I am not making it up.

Charity for growing as a human beings

But what about brahamacharis and sannyasis? They own nothing. They cannot own anything. Of course, it is very renounced. And what I am saying is very nice, that this is all voluntarily. With the Chinese, nothing is voluntarily. You are part of the system, you cooperate. If you do not want to participate, you are out or something like that. But the truth is that charity is something that makes you grow as a human being. Without that charity you are just a little nobody. You cannot call yourself a devotee, because this is what makes a materialist. That is patriotic for his country and his family.

Every country in the world has military service except Costa Rica. What does military service mean? You do not belong to yourself, you belong to your country. "But I, I .." "Shut up and come here. Now you learn how to work with these weapons." "I do not like weapons." "Oh, you also don't like to eat, do you? You are eating the food of this country but you do not want to fight for it. Sorry, then you get to see how jail looks from the inside behind the bars. Maybe you will come to your senses." And then after you learn, they say "Now go to fight." But you say "I hate that." Oh, you hate that? But somebody may attack your country and your wife and children. Then you're running out with a flower - Love and peace! Love and peace! They will rape your wife and child and will take everything you have and you stay with your flower. That's the argument of the military people. And to a certain degree they are right. Lord Rama and Krishna are kshatriyas. They protect the religious principles. They defend the innocent. The great student of Bhagavad Gita is Arjuna, one of the noble kshatriyas of his time. So that is very complex. Military tells you go, and it is possible to be killed, because that's the risk. But you have to do it because you are not the owner of this body. You are born in this country and you have to defend it.

The commitment - a design of God?

That is the material conception of commitment and duty. Now let me ask you a question. Is this commitment bad? Or is it a design of God that you have to understand? Is it the design of God that everyone has to be committed? And if you are not committed and practicing sacrifices then you are a rebel and the rebel will be punished. That is a big question. Why are we all being punished? Hungary is being punished by the European union. It is being punished by the multinational companies. It is just a war. Some people win, some lose. There is a saying: every forint [Hungarian currency] lost is a forint gained. Somebody is gaining when you lose. The loser is being punished. This is the rule of this material world. Those who do not cooperate, who are not charitable, they are punished. Because they do not even have commitment. What to speak of love.

But some people think "I will outsmart the system. I will find a little place where I can preserve my sense gratification. I can be a rebel without a cause and I will not be punished." Hey, have you never heard of Manu Samhita and Lord Yamaraj? Who are all these Chinese born in China and working like ants? Why are all these animals born in animal factories? Where were they before they took this birth? It's time for you to learn the law of karma. It is time for you to understand reality. And then on the top of that, you want to talk about bhakti and raganuga and ragatmika and all that stuff. You think you can become promoted to high devotional understanding because you can read and write? You are damn wrong. You will not understand anything. You will create a new concoction, a new speculation. You will become a new bhogi-yogi, false guru, fake incarnation. Srila Prabhupada said India is great for exporting fake incarnations. They have a new one every week.

Once in a hospital one said:
- I am a messenger of Lord Jesus, you must all follow me. I am the chosen messenger of Lord Jesus.
Then another one came:
- No, sir you are not the chosen messenger. It is me, I am the chosen messenger of Lord Jesus. Do not follow this rascal. Follow me.
Then they started fighting. "I am, I am, I am."
Then the third one came:
- I can solve your problems, brothers.
- How?
- I haven't sent anyone. I am Lord Jesus.

In this way this world is full of rascals. They all want to invent some way to be independent sense gratifiers and they are chastised. They have to obey the material slavery machine.

Always your well-wisher,
B.A. Paramadvaiti Swami