"'With sweet songs, all the Gopis dance totally satisfied with Radha and Krishna, the treasure of their life. In this way, seeing the beautiful nature of Krishna-lila expanding throughout the forest, I don't want to go back to my home. I want to enter into this forest in search of the sweetness of this Krishna-lila." Bhaktivinoda is praying: "When can I renounce all my family attachements and I will exclusively worship the King of Vraja, Sri Krishna."

So, the forest of Vrindavan is enchanting. The forest, accompanied by the most beautiful river of love flowing along as the Yamuna-river curves it's way through the Vrindavan forest. And there are little ponds of lotus-flowers. And there is the sweet enchanting sound of the chirping of the birds. Everything gets excited and paralized as the sweet sounding flute emanates from the lotus lips of the Supreme Enchanter penetrating through the holes of the flute of love traveling through the space and touching the hearts of all including the stones which become as soft as butter. The trees, the birds, the deer, the cows, the peacocks, all of them get captured within that flutesong and drawn towards the Supreme Enchanter. But this flutesong has a definetely powerful nature of traveling to the ears of all those longing for rendering loving service to the infinite Lord of love, the Enchanter of all, who is Govindaji, the sweet Lord of His beloved devotees. Thus the flutesong goes right into the houses of Vraja and goes into the earholes of the Vraja-Gopis. And as they are hearing this flutesong they are becoming stunned: "Our Lord is calling. What am I going to do to go there ? I am here with children, husbands, cooking, cleaning, arranging the family-house affairs. And I am hearing this flutesong coming into my heart and just like a hook it is piercing any type of external consciousness and pulling me out of my duties into the forest to meet the Originator of that sweet call of love". So the Gopis make all the arrangements, one, two, three, come up with some excuse, saying: "I have to still pick some water", whatever, they go out of the door not to return so fast either. Of they go, they don't have time to arrange their clothes properly, their hair is not necessarily very well arranged, everything is in disorder, they can hardly walk properly. They stumble as they run along the dark path, along the forest to go to that place next to the Yamuna, where this Enchanter is leaning on a tree in the Vanshi-vata, doing as if He was just absorbed in the flute music, and had nothing to do with all the effects it takes on the hearts of the afflicted souls, who had simply been pierced and made slaves of the sweet flutesound. So as they come there Krishna is still playing on His flute. He is all of the sudden opening His eyes and He sees Himself surrounded by Vraja-Gopis who are drinking up the nectar of His lotus-face with their lotus-petal eyes as they can simply think: "My beloved Lord, I am so fortunate, tonight I have come to see Him, and tonight I will be able to please Him". And they see all the other Gopis there, and they are so profoundly absorbed in the bliss of contemplation. Then Krishna opens His eyes and looks with His naughty prankish look of: "Girls, what are you doing here at night ? can't you see the time ? You are not supposed to be in the forest here, I am astonished". And they look at Him: "Yeah, yeah, you are astonished", "I think for the sake of morality, chastity and good tradition you should but now go back to your homes, wouldnt you ? I don't think it will look to good for you that you simply ran away from home to come here into the forest. I may be a little bit guilty of playing flute, but anyhow it's time, you should return." The Gopis look at Him and say: "Oh, why He says such horrible things ?" And they don't know what to say because He is giving such good arguments, so they are starting with the toes of their feet, they are drawing lines, pushing the soft sand of the Yamuna from one side to the other, and they are speechless. Then Krishna goes on, He says: "Really my dear girls, I think you have risked very much by coming here, but anyhow, since you made such an effort why don't you walk a little bit along with me, along the Yamuna and we can have a nice time".

So the Gopis are totally infatuated by their love for Krishna, but their love is so pure, they are only there, they want to please Him. They want to make Him happy. As it is always being emphasized by our spiritual Masters that the criteria of love for God is that you are not concerned with your own pleasure, but you are exclusively concerned for pleasing His senses, regardless what effort it may take, what danger it may entail, regardless. For His pleasure you are ready to do anything difficult. So in this way the Gopis are ready to put their entire existence at the lotus feet of their beloved Lord Sri Krishna, whom they have prayed to when they prayed to Goddess Katyayani to be so kind and make them wifes of Sri Krishna, they wanted to be His wifes. And Katyayani made all the arrangements, she is an external aspect of the powerful potency of the Supreme Lord. And in this way she pleased the Gopis that now they can dance with Krishna in this famous rasasthali in Seva-kunja, celebrating the most intimate sweetness of tasting the lotus lips of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, because their purity knows no bounds, and there in the innermost samadhi of their heart the Supreme Lord is making His fun and dancing and singing and musical entertainment in the most beautiful forest of Vrindavan. In Sharat-purnima we will celebrate this here, in the night our beloved Gauranga Radha-Vraja Mohan will come out here and dance with the devotees. So we hear about all these qualities of the Gopis, we hear about this unique sweetness, this unique dance which has been glorified even 5000 years later. We are still in rapture when we hear about this loving connection which is so unique. Then we are hearing Bhaktivinoda Thakuras prayer, and he says: "With sweet songs all the Gopis dance totally satisfied with Radha and Krishna because Radha and Krishna are the treasure of their life". You see the Gopis always want to make arrangements that Radha and Krishna can meet. But Radharani she always wants to make arrangements that the Gopis can meet with Krishna. So there is an incredible plan to always enhance Krishnas pleasure and Krishna enjoys how the Gopis are always eager to make all the arrangements for the pleasure of the Supreme. He is the parama-purusha, the Supreme enjoyer.

When we are talking about the Gopis love for Krishna, our Gopis love today is the Sankirtan love. Now don't think that I am utilizing this for any propaganda purpose. Going out to convince the conditioned souls that they should act to please Krishna, that will make Krishna very pleased with you and make Srimati Radharani very convinced that you are belonging to that group of surrendered servants. When you go out and try to convince somebody about Krishna, oh, it is so nice if they are receptive. If they are totally impersonal and agnostic and suspicious and they think Krishna wants to, or not Krishna, they don't believe in Krishna, if they think you want to take advantage of them in any way then you cannot feel anything, then you say: "Hey you are not this body, hey you are spirit soul, hey you are going to suffer the karma of your sinful activities". That type of talking we can still do, but otherwise we are not so inspired. But if we can tell to somebody who is trying to please his senses and who is never satisfied, you say: "Yes because you are not pleasing the senses of Govinda, it is your life and your business to please the senses of Govinda, please Govinda, do for Govinda what Govinda wants to be done and tell people about that they are unhappy because they are not serving the senses of Govinda, they are trying to serve their own senses and they are never satisfied, you have tryed it so many times, who knows what did you try to please your senses, what you did for illicit activities, taking drugs, drinking alcohol, dancing late at night, trying to please your senses and all you could get at the end of it was like nothing, stale, frustration, I was not happy, I could not please anybody", then you see all of a sudden that you are wasting your life, you are wasting your time. And then a Vaishnava comes and says: "Because you are not pleasing Govinda, you have to please the senses of Govinda. And how do you please the senses of Govinda ? By telling others to please the senses of Govinda. My business is that your business is to please the senses of Govinda. And Govinda will be pleased by your senses when your senses tell others that their senses should also be dedicated to Govinda because we got nothing else to do. There is no other engagement, there is no movie you have to see, there is no book you have to read, there is no visit you have to make, there is no trail to be tracked, there is no excavation to be made, there is no archeological survey to be undertaken, there is no sociological study to be done, there is nothing to be done except serving to please the senses of Govinda, the Lord in everybodies heart. Everything else is a waste of time. "That type of activity in the human life which does not bring about loving attachement to the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord should be understood to be an utter waste of time" (Srimad-Bhagavatam).

So to please the senses of Govinda by selling books in the Bookstores, by giving the people many nectar from the transcendental world or by establishing a Vaishnava academy in Mexico or by taking the songs to every town and village or by preaching through the Internet or by making a preaching center and a Vaishnava-forum or by taking care that all of our programs are protected like Paramahansa Maharaja is doing. Or by doing anything like that to please the senses of Govinda in Vrindavan, thats why we are here. If you are coming to Vrindavan to please your own senses, this is not Vrindavan, you should leave immediately. You should come here to please the senses of Govinda. And don't think you can run away from Vrindavan because every temple is Vrindavan, not only Vrindavan is Vrindavan. Every place where devotees live and they try to please the senses of Govinda there is Vrindavan. So don't think: "Oh Vrindavan is a heavy place so maybe I should go somewhere else" Where ? To be in maya somewhere or to be with devotees somewhere ? If you are with devotees somewhere thats also Vrindavan. So they have a saying in English which is pretty heavy: "Shave up or ship out" Either you get your show together or you gonna be on the run again through the planetary system like Durvasa Muni when the Sudarshan chakra ran after him because he had offended a Vaishnava. He could not find peace anywhere. Everywhere the burning sensation of the Sudarshan was just scorching his back. So you want to find peace without pleasing the senses of Govinda ? Forget it ! You have to work, you have to think you have to dream you have to do anything to please the senses of Govinda because Govinda is the only one who loves us all, Govinda is the only one who is really our eternal friend and pleasing His senses means pleasing Him and pleasing His devotees.

So Sankirtan is the mood of the Gopis, this Sankirtan movement is in the mood of the Gopis. The Gopis go out to recruit more people for Radharanis group. They say: "Hey come here my friend, don't you want to be part of Radharanis group ?" You say: "What group ?" "Yes, we are recruiting for Vrindavan, we need some more preachers who want to come and please the senses of Govinda" "No, but I want to be Govinda" "Oh you fool get away !, He wants to be Govinda this rascal, lets find somebody more serious". Like that, we invite people to come and become members of the group of Radharani. Radha-dasyam, that is what our acaryas have taught us. So we have to be very careful if we want to accomplish that. Thats not a joke. Krishna consciousness is not a joke. It is a full commitment. It is a full task, so wonderful task to do something for our beloved Lord Sri Krishna. This is a very, very important task. Now my spiritual Master Srila Prabhupada he taught us from the very beginning that this is the movement of Radha and Krishna and that Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Radha and Krishna and that Nityananda is the original spiritual Master and that He gave everybody the mercy to come to the lotus feet of Lord Gauranga and He went to knock at every door in every corner in the world and tell everybody, even Jagai and Madhai, to chant. And Jagai and Madhai by accepting the lotus feet of Nityananda were even purified of the offence of having beaten Lord Nityananda and they were getting the mercy by the mercy of a devotee. And that principle being applied is the principle, the life principle of this Krishna-consciousness movement. Because somehow or other we also came here. And we didnt come exactly from the saintly circle of philosophical students or pure hearted souls. We came from the dark dungeon of kali-yuga, crazy for sense gratification, running here and there, trying anything to please ourself. And when somebody told us :"please Krishna" we said: "Who is Krishna we don't know Him" We only know the mirror and looking at our face and thinking about what this guy wants to have enjoyment for today, eating, sleeping, mating, defending, anything. But enjoy, enjoy, enjoy your life, at least enjoy your Gulabjamun which is not offered to Krishna, lets enjoy some bhoga. Like in India it is not so much traditional, so you don't have so much illicit sex life. Drugs you also have, people are taking bhang everywhere and others go and drink their stupid whisky and things like that. Foolish things are everywhere, you don't have to go out of India to find foolish things, they are right here also. What about speculation and what about wanting to become God ? Hmm, everybody wants to become God, you don't have to go to the west for that either. As a matter of fact Srila Prabhupada said India is exporting a new incarnation every week. Everybody wants to be an incarnation, like in the west there is one yoga-group they have started now the avatar-course. You can take a 6 month course to become an avatar. Now what do you think about that, wouldnt that be exciting ? become an avatar ? with certificate of course. You absolved succesfully the avatar-course and now you are a bhogi-yogi avatar. So cheating is going on everywhere, but who is ready to please the senses of Govinda ? That is the real question we have here. Now Bhaktivinoda Thakura says: "When I see the beautiful nature of Krishna-lila expanding throughout the forest, I don't want to go back to my home. I want to go into that forest and I want to find the sweetness of this Krishna-lila".

So in one way or another we have come into this forest of Vrindavan, and sometimes you may think: "Maybe I should go back to Vienna and get a job", or: "Maybe I should go back to Colombia and study in the University of Medellin", or: "Maybe I should go and become security agent in Miami", or: "Maybe I should go and have hip-hop dance in a Disco of Mexico", or: "Maybe I should go to Manipur and see If I can get a new job", or: "Maybe I should open a shop for my own and have a big family". Like everybody may have some ideas what he could do, there are so many ideas. But the fact is that this is not the pleasure of Govinda. Govinda is not looking that you do all that nonsense. There is no home waiting for you, there is no home. So called homes thats where people are fighting, thats where people are frustrated, thats where people want money, money and thousands of other things. Thats where people spend all day watching television and don't even talk to each other. Like one person told me she went to visit her home. And in her home television was running. Even after they havent seen themselves ten years there was no solid conversation because everybody was sitting there and television was running there (imitating television): "Oh why did you leave me you stupid fool, I wanted that you love me" and then everybody says: "Oh how are you ?, so nice to see you, look this novella we are looking here", and back they are on the novella. There is no relationship in this world. Everybody is taking duo-darshan (looking television), but not real darshan, no nama-darshan, no thakurji-darshan, no sadhu-sanga-darshan, only duo-darshan. In this way they are wasting their life away, and that is the home you want to go back to ? No, Bhaktivinoda Thakura says: "Forget it, I don't want to go back to that so called home, if anything I want at home I will sent a letter to home: Come to the Forest of Vrindavan you beloved fools ! You are wasting your time there, drinking, sleeping, come to Vrindavan, go to the temple, chant Hare Krishna. And then they say: "Oh, she became a fanatic, they must have washed her brain that she is only telling us we must give up our beautiful televisions, we should give up our beautiful whisky bar, we should give up our beautiful play of enjoyment where we are king, sometimes", until somebody comes and kicks you out from your kingdom. Latest death comes and kicks you out. Usually people get kicked out before death comes. it's just the way nature is, you get and then you loose, you get and then you loose.

So in this way my dear friends, follow the footsteps of Bhaktivinoda Thakur, this is the call to Vrindavan. And somehow or other, I don't know how we are sitting in the forest of Vrindavan, this is the kadamba-tree, this is the tamal-tree, tulasi is everywhere, Vrindavan, Vrinda-kunja is Vrindavan. Thats why I dared in that song to call it: "The door to the rasa-dance". So Vrinda-kunja is actually Vrindavan and in Sharat-purnima we have actually personal chance to witness the dancing of the Supreme Lord here in the forest of Vrinda-devi. It is very sweet, very nice, very kind, but we have to be serious. That is also a fact. Be serious anywhere you go, be serious anything you do. If you want to be serious your life will be most fortunate. If you are not serious well then you have to go and experience all that nonsense you still want to experience for not being serious. We have seen that, sincerely speaking it is so important to be serious about Krishna and we hope the best for our beloved devotees that they all get the blessings of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna, that we all get the blessings of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna, that is my humble request to all of you. Jay Sri Krishna, jay Srila Prabhupada, jay Sri Vaishnavas, jay Sri Vrindavan dham. The Forest of Vrindavan, Gopeshwar Mahadeva, Vrinda-devi, Vanshi-vata, Dhira samira ki jay. Gaurapremanande haribol, Sri Harinam Sankirtan yajna ki jay