Verse: Srimad Bhagvatam 5.5.24
Date: January 7th, 1987
Place: ISKCON Radhadesh, Belgium
Transcription: Alaka Radha Dasi
Edited: Hemavati Radhika Devi Dasi
dhṛtā tanūr uśatī me purāṇī
yeneha sattvaṁ paramaṁ pavitram
śamo damaḥ satyam anugrahaś ca
tapas titikṣānubhavaś ca yatra
SYNONYMS
dhṛtā — maintained by transcendental education; tanūḥ — body; uśatī — free from material contamination; me — My; purāṇī — eternal; yena — by whom; iha — in this material world; sattvam — the mode of goodness; paramam — supreme; pavitram — purified; śamaḥ — control of the mind; damaḥ — control of the senses; satyam — truthfulness; anugrahaḥ — mercy; ca — and; tapaḥ — austerity; titikṣā — tolerance; anubhavaḥ — realization of God and the living entity; ca — and; yatra — wherein.
TRANSLATION
The Vedas are My eternal transcendental sound incarnation. Therefore, the Vedas are śabda-brahma. In this world, the brāhmaṇas thoroughly study all the Vedas, and because they assimilate the Vedic conclusions, they are also to be considered the Vedas personified. The brāhmaṇas are situated in the supreme transcendental mode of nature — sattva-guṇa. Because of this, they are fixed in mind control [śama], sense control [dama], and truthfulness [satya]. They describe the Vedas in their original sense, and out of mercy [anugraha] they preach the purpose of the Vedas to all conditioned souls. They practice penance [tapasya] and tolerance [titikṣā], and they realize the position of the living entity and the Supreme Lord [anubhava]. These are the eight qualifications of the brāhmaṇas. Therefore, among all living entities, no one is superior to the brāhmaṇas.
PURPORT
This is a true description of a brāhmaṇa. A brāhmaṇa is one who has assimilated the Vedic conclusions by practicing mind and sense control. He speaks the true version of all the Vedas. As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (15.15): Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ. By studying all the Vedas, one should come to understand the transcendental position of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. One who actually assimilated the essence of the Vedas can preach the truth. He is compassionate to conditioned souls who are suffering the threefold miseries of this conditional world due to their not being Kṛṣṇa conscious. A brāhmaṇa should take pity on the people and preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness in order to elevate them. Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, personally descends into this universe from the spiritual kingdom to teach conditioned souls about the values of spiritual life. He tries to induce them to surrender unto Him. Similarly, the brāhmaṇas do the same thing. After assimilating the Vedic instructions, they assist the Supreme Lord in His endeavor to deliver conditioned souls. The brāhmaṇas are very dear to the Supreme Lord due to their high sattva-guṇa qualities, and they also engage in welfare activities for all conditioned souls in the material world.
LECTURE
The Vedas, I am repeating the translation: “The Vedas are My eternal transcendental sound incarnation. Therefore, the Vedas are śabda-brahma. In this world, the brāhmaṇas thoroughly study all the Vedas, and because they assimilate the Vedic conclusions, they are also to be considered the Vedas personified. The brāhmaṇas are situated in the supreme transcendental mode of nature — sattva-guṇa. Because of this, they are fixed in mind control [śama], sense control [dama], and truthfulness [satya]. They describe the Vedas in their original sense, and out of mercy [anugraha] they preach the purpose of the Vedas to all conditioned souls. They practice penance [tapasya] and tolerance [titikṣā], and they realize the position of the living entity and the Supreme Lord [anubhava]. These are the eight qualifications of the brāhmaṇas. Therefore, among all living entities, no one is superior to the brāhmaṇas.”
POSITION OF A BRAHMANA
So here we can see that the position of a brahmana is not just a rubber stamp. It is neither a consideration of birth nor it is a consideration of rituals. It is a matter of elevation on the spiritual platform or it is a matter of broadening one's consciousness. Actually, the living entities most important symptom are the manifestation of spirit is in the consciousness. It is the consciousness that makes the living entity a living entity. When the living entity becomes unconscious then there is no awareness whether he is a living entity or not. whether he is alive or not, whether he is or not. So according to the Vedic understanding the maximum amount of importance has been given to consciousness and according to the degree of consciousness living entities situation has been determined. Those who are in a very degraded state of consciousness they have been considered to be low class or lower grades of living entities and those who are in a very elevated state of consciousness they have been considered to be higher living entities and the highest of all living entities are the brahmanas. Because a brahmana has developed his consciousness to the fullest extent.
FIVE STAGES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
It has been very scientifically described that there are five different stages of consciousness. The lowest one is called “achharita cetana”, “achharita” means covered and “cetana” means consciousness, “cetana”. So those who are in state of covered consciousness they are the lowest and the trees and plants fall in that category. They are conscious but their consciousness is so much covered that it seems as if they do not have any consciousness. Then above that stage of covered consciousness is the shrunken state of consciousness “sankuchit cetana” – “sankuchit” means to be shrunken and the living entities starting from the worms and insects to the animals fall into this category birds, bees everything from the insects or the worms up to the animals fall in that category and then the third stage of consciousness is known as “mukullita cetana”, mukulla means the bud and the third stage is the bud state of consciousness and the human beings fall in that category.
The bud although it is in the shrunken state, has the ability to bloom. The same way although apparently the human being is in a shrunken state of consciousness but a human being has the ability to develop his consciousness. Apparently, the human being is also an animal.
āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca
sāmānyam etat paśubhir narāṇām
Eating sleeping mating and defending these are the animal propensities and they are also there in the human being. As long as a human being is motivated by these four propensities, he is also in animal platform. He may have a body of a human being but his consciousness is like that of an animal. But when a human being becomes spiritually motivated or takes to spiritual life then that bud of consciousness begins to blossom.
Apparently human being is also like an animal also in a shrunken state of consciousness but a human being has the ability to develop his consciousness make the bud blossom. Now for a bud to blossom it
needs two things. It needs the rays of the sun and it needs water. So, it has been described that when a human being makes an endeavor to develop his consciousness ‘athato brahma jignyasa’. ‘Athato brahma jignyasa’ means enquiry about the Absolute truth. Now in order to approach that platform one needs or in order to develop his consciousness from a bud to a flower it needs the water and the rays of the sun and it has been described that the Guru is the water and Krishna is the sun.
“Kṛṣṇa—sūrya-sama; māyā haya andhakāra” [C.C 22.31] - often in Vedas Krishna has been compared to the sun. So, when a living entity under the proper protection and guidance of a Guru is exposed to Krishna then his consciousness begins to bloom and that is the fourth stage of consciousness known as “vikashita cetana”, “vikashita” means blossom. When a man takes to a spiritual life and his consciousness begins to develop under the direction of a bonafide spiritual master being exposed to Krishna then he begins to become Krishna conscious. So that is the fourth stage of consciousness known as the vikashita cetana and when one becomes fully Krishna consciousness when one becomes a pure devotee. When one becomes situated in his spiritual identity then it is the fifth stage or the ultimate stage of consciousness known as “purna vikashita cetana” or fully bloomed consciousness.
PROGRESSION TOWARDS THE ULTIMATE SPIRITUAL GOAL
So, this is how the living entities are gradually progressing towards the ultimate spiritual goal. Now the natural course is to reach that point. If there was no detrimental interference from nature the living entity would have gradually developed like in a sub human species of life the growth is very systematic and uninterrupted. By the arrangements of nature living entities are gradually evolving from the lower state of consciousness to a higher state of consciousness. It is a natural process of development from covered consciousness to the shrunken consciousness and gradually developing to the animal platform and ultimately getting a human body. That is the arrangement of nature. But when one gets a human body then he is given a chance to decide for himself what he wants to do with this human body with this wonderful facility. How he wants to utilize this wonderful facility to become more involved in matter or to free himself from the material bondage. Now the Vedic society was very systematically designed to enable one to reach that ultimate goal of life like those who are born in mode of ignorance. Actually, everyone was born in a mode of ignorance. ‘Janmanā jāyate śūdra.'
By birth everyone was sudra, by birth everyone is born in the mode of ignorance but ‘samskarat bhavati’, by the purificatory process, i.e. by being surrendered to the bonafide spiritual master and receiving transcendental knowledge from him, one becomes a dvija, a twice born. And then by the gradual evolution was he becomes twice born, that is his second birth. He receives the second birth, the birth of the spirit. The awareness of the spirit, awareness of the spiritual identity and then ‘Veda pathād bhaved vipra’. By studying the Vedas, one used to become a vipra. Just getting the initiation is not enough. Initiation was just the entrance to the transcendental school and in the school, we have the course and the course is the Vedas. So, one was supposed to study the Vedas and by studying the Vedas he used to become a vipra and brahma jnanati and then by realizing that Vedic knowledge one used to become brahmana.
There is a difference between knowing and realizing. Knowledge is a matter of perception through the senses and receiving it in the mind but becoming fully aware, becoming fully conscious or assimilating it and digesting that knowledge is called realization.That is the word that has been used - one is knowing and the other is actually digesting. You may know that the food is there that is the knowledge but when you eat the food and digest the food and it is transformed into energy, then it is realization of the food. So Vedic knowledge is one thing but realization is another thing. Just knowing is not enough it is matter of realization.
WHAT IS REALIZATION?
What does realization mean? Understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The understanding that Krishna is The Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the realization. In India there are many people, those who know the Vedas. They studied the Vedas from the childhood and they can recite slokas they can quote slokas very eloquently. They can defeat anybody in argument and so on and so forth. But they do not have the realization. Scholarship is one thing and realization is another thing and if the scholarship does not culminate into realization, then that scholarship is useless. Srivas Thakur told Chaitanya Mahaprabhu when Mahaprabhu did not manifest his devotional sentiment or attitude. Before that He was a great scholar, a great logician and He would defeat anybody and everybody.
MAHAPRABHU DEFEATS KESHAVA KASHMIRI
At the age of sixteen Mahaprabhu defeated the greatest scholar of India, Keshava Kashmiri. He was such a great scholar and such a powerful logician that when the scholars of Nabadwip heard that Keshava Kashmiri is coming in order to save themselves from the disgrace of defeat they ran away from Navadwip under different pretext. He was such a great scholar that people were just running away from him. And Mahaprabhu was sixteen years old at that time, just a young boy. He defeated Keshava Kashmiri even without entering into an argument with him.
When Keshava Kashmiri challenged Him, Mahaprabhu said: “Look, I am not qualified enough to fight with you. It’s better I listen to you; I receive knowledge from you.” So Keshava Kashmiri said: “Ok tell me what you want to learn, what you want to know.” Then Mahaprabhu said please glorify this Ganges. Mahaprabhu was sitting on the banks of Ganges teaching his students. So, Keshav Kashmiri just started to recite extempore, he composed hundred verses in praise of Ganges and it has been said that those verses were as sublime and as vibrant as the flow of Ganges. The description of the glorification of the Ganges were flowing in the same way as Ganges is flowing from the mouth of Keshava Kashmiri.
He asked Mahaprabhu: “How did you like this?” Mahaprabhu said: “Fine, it’s quite nice excepting a few mistakes here and there.” So Keshava Kashmiri became furious he said you are just a little boy. Do you know who I am? I mean you are trying to find faults in my composition. No one has ever been able to find faults in my composition. So, he started to blast Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, chastise Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and then he asked, tell me what is the mistake and very humbly Chaitanya Mahaprabhu picked up one shloka, sixty fifth verse and in one verse Chaitanya Mahaprabhu pointed out five different mistakes and Keshav Kashmiri was completely defeated, knocked out.
So, this is how great a scholar Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was and He was such an expert logician that He would challenge everybody and He would literally turn everything upside down. He could make the truth appear to be a lie and a lie appear to be the truth by His logic. And then Srivas Thakur told Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ‘shesh janiba jnea nischay Krishna pada pad chitta vrutti’. Try to understand that the ultimate goal of knowledge is to develop sincere attachment to Krishna’s lotus feet. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said: “If you bless me, that will happen.” He told Srivas Thakur: “You please bless me that I become a devotee of Krishna someday.”
ULTIMATE GOAL OF KNOWLEDGE IS TO BECOME A DEVOTEE OF KRISHNA
So, we see that the ultimate goal of knowledge, the ultimate goal of wisdom is to become a devotee of Krishna. So, there are brahmanas who are caught up in collecting knowledge and performing different rituals and they are very much absorbed in all those activities but they are not the real brahmanas. Prabhupada has very clearly pointed out that who a brahmana is actually, this verse is pointing out who an actual brahmana is and pointed out that these are the eight different qualities of a brahmana. Sama is the mind control, Dama is the sense control, then truthfulness – satya. And Prabhupada in the purport pointed out that word “satya” very specifically as satya actually means to reveal the actual conclusion of the Vedas. Satya is not just telling the truth but to reveal the ultimate truth that is the business of the brahmana. To reveal the truth to the world.
Know what is the Absolute truth. And then “titiksha sama dama satya” - mercy “anugraha” and then “titiksha” is there also - tolerance and then “tapasya” - austerities, practicing penance and then “anubhava” means feeling. Feeling is from the heart. And “anubhava” is like knowing Krishna in the heart. Krishna is truth. Krishna is not an imagination or an abstract concept. The abstract concepts can be perceived in the mind but the ultimate realization comes from feeling it in the heart. So, the ultimate consideration of realization is “anubhava” - knowing the Lord in one’s heart and knowing one’s identity as he is, as a spiritual entity. So, this is how a living entity becomes situated in a brahminical platform.
PRABHUPADA WANTED TO MAKE A SOCIETY OF BRAHMANAS
Prabhupada actually wanted to make a society of brahmanas. Prabhupada wanted that ISKCON is a society that will produce brahmanas. This age of Kali is making everyone into a sudra, turning everyone into a sudra ‘sudra brahmana kali…’. In the age of kali even the brahmanas will become as impure as sudras. So that is the position of a living entity, a human being in this age of Kali. But Prabhupada actually came to reverse the cycle of Kali, the influence of Kali. Kali is turning everyone into a sudra and Prabhupada came to turn everyone into a Brahmana.
CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU - THE MOST MERCIFUL INCARNATION
It’s a struggle between Kali and Krishna. The struggle between Kali and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement. And Krishna’s devotees come, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s devotees come to counteract that influence of kali and Prabhupada came and did it very expertly.
The way Krishna comes Himself and came in this age of Kali to distribute His mercy. And that is one of the most important qualities of a devotee - he is merciful, compassionate. And when he sees that the living entities are suffering then he becomes very much afflicted. We know that Krishna came as Lord Buddha because He could not tolerate the suffering of the living entities because Lord’s heart is very soft and He can’t tolerate the suffering of His children, the living entities and the suffering is violence.
Prabhupada defined violence as obstruction to one’s natural development. Naturally everyone is developing towards Krishna consciousness and when somebody causes certain impediment to that development himself. And the subtlest form of that violence is that the living entity is not allowed to become Krishna conscious and kali is doing that. As I mentioned earlier, every living being is naturally progressing towards Krishna. Every living entity is becoming gradually more and more conscious. And if there was no such impediment then gradually the living entities would have become Krishna conscious naturally. But in this age because of the influence of kali, the Vedic culture has been destroyed and that’s why people are completely bewildered and their natural progress to Krishna is being hindered, obstructed.
So, Buddha came to stop the gross form of violence - animal slaughter. But Krishna came as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to stop the subtle form of violence. And that’s why Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has been described as the most munificent incarnation ‘anarpita-carīṁ cirāt karuṇayāvatīrṇaḥ[C.C1.4]. He has appeared very mercifully in this age of kali in order to bestow upon the living entity that has never been bestowed before. A kind of mercy that was completely unknown to the living entities before. In order to distribute that, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has appeared and what is that? That is samarpayitum unnatojjvala’ [C.C1.04]. He is in the most celebrated mellow. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came to give it to us and that is why He has been considered to be the most munificent incarnation.
COMPETITION BETWEEN THE LORD AND HIS DEVOTEE
And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s devotees are even more munificent than Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Actually, the devotee and The Lord are competing with each other constantly. The devotee tries to love The Lord more and The Lord reciprocates by offering him more love. So, this is how a loving competition begins between The Lord and the devotee. And the same thing applies with mercy. The Lord gives us mercy but the devotee becomes even more merciful to the conditioned living entity. That’s why we see
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came. He distributed Krishna consciousness all over India. But He predicted that someday somebody will come and by his mercy I will be defeated. Like this mercy that I distributed all over India and because of that I have been addressed as the most munificent incarnation someday somebody will come and defeat Me. He will distribute it to everybody all over the world. In every town and village, the Holy Name will spread. It was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s prediction.
PRABHUPADA - THE MOST INTIMATE ASSOCIATE OF CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU
And then that personality came, the most wonderful devotee of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the most wonderful associate of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and He has distributed this love of Godhead all over the world. So much so that He is converting people into Brahmanas. Those who never even heard the word brahmana before. Before Prabhupada came nobody knew what Brahmana actually meant or they never even heard that word and by Prabhupada’s mercy people were becoming such elevated Brahmanas that they are converting others into brahmanas. So that is the transcendental quality of The Lord and His devotees. Their transcendental quality is that they are like touchstones and whoever comes in contact becomes transformed.
The touchstone has the quality that when it is touched with a base metal like iron, aluminum, brass and copper those metals turn into gold. And that is what is happening by the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s devotee. All over the world people are turning into gold and it is quite significant that yesterday Sacidananda prabhu was talking about the division of society and the highest class of the society has turned into gold and they are actually the brahmanas. By coming in contact with the devotee the grossest, basest, the most degraded people even become gold, a brahmana. So, this is the mercy of the pure devotee. Not only pure devotee-Prabhupada was not just a pure devotee, Prabhupada was one of the most intimate associates of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
SERVICE TO THE LORD IN VAPU AND VANI
This can be analyzed this way, out of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s servants there was Govinda. Govinda was very very dear to Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He served Chaitanya Mahaprabhu very sincerely. Govinda used to massage Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s feet when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s would lay down after taking His Mahaprasad. And one day Chaitanya Mahaprabhu lay down just on the doorway to His room and He blocked the door and Govinda could not enter, but Govinda had the service to massage Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s feet. And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was asleep so what Govinda did - he put his cloth on Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s body and he stepped inside because it is considered to be offensive to cross over the body of a superior what to talk about Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And then he massaged Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s feet and after a long time when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu woke up, he saw Govinda inside the room. So, he asked him: “What happened? You didn’t take lunch today?” Then Govinda said: “How can I go out? You just blocked the door.”
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said: “You could have gone out the way you came in.” Govinda said: “No, I could come in, in order to serve you. I can commit offence even if to serve you I have to go to hell because of committing an offence I don’t mind. But for my sense enjoyment I will not want to commit offences. So, I could come in to serve you but I can’t go out to eat. So, this is a kind of a service, body service, vapu.
Then there is another kind of service - Haridas Thakur served Chaitanya Mahaprabhu very wonderfully, he served Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s instructions, who came to distribute the Holy Name. And Haridas Thakur chanted the Holy Name three hundred thousand times every day without fail. So that’s another kind of service, serving Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s, vani.
UNDERSTANDING THE HEART OF THE LORD
But then there is another kind of servant, Rupa Goswami wanted to stay with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu because it’s a natural desire for a devotee to stay with The Lord but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said: “No, you go to Vrindavan and in Vrindavan you write scriptures and preach Krishna consciousness and discover the lost places of Krishna’s pastimes. And then Rupa Goswami once came to Jagannath Puri and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu during the Rath Yatra was singing a song in front of Lord Jagannath. That song said:
[C.C Madhya Lila 13.121]
“yaḥ kaumāra-haraḥ sa eva hi varas tā eva caitra-kṣapās
te conmīlita-mālatī-surabhayaḥ prauḍhāḥ kadambānilāḥ
sā caivāsmi tathāpi tatra surata-vyāpāra-līlā-vidhau
revā-rodhasi vetasī-taru-tale cetaḥ samutkaṇṭhate”
The person who when I was a young girl that person has become my husband today, my Lord today, but still my heart - and it is the same the full moon night of spring and the gentle breeze is blowing from the old kadamba tree carrying the fragrance of malati flowers but still my heart is yearning to go back to the bank of Reva River under the Vetashi tree.
So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is singing this song in front of Jagannath. And no one could understand why Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is singing such a mundane song. And only Swarupa Damodara understood. And then after the rathyatra festival one day Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went to see Rupa Goswami and that time Sri Rupa Goswami went to take a bath in the ocean and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw a palm leaf was stuck on the ceiling of the hut and He pulled it out and He saw a verse has been written by Sri Rupa Goswami.
And that verse says: “Priyaḥ so ’yaṁ kṛṣṇaḥ saha-cari kuru-kṣetra-militas” [C.C Madhya Lila 1.76]
My dear sakhi, my dear friend, I met Krishna again in Kurukshetra and it is the same I, Radha, but still my heart is yearning to go back to the bank of Yamuna in the forest of Vrindavan that is filled with the fifth note of Krishna’s flute. So, this is the counterpart of the song Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is singing. Now Chaitanya Mahaprabhu never told Rupa Goswami but Rupa Goswami understood Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s heart and wrote that verse and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu became very very happy and when Rupa Goswami came back, He slapped him on the back out of affection and started saying "Rupa how did you get to know my heart?" And said to Swarupa Damodara,"Now tell me, how he got to know my heart? How he got to know what was going on in My heart? I never revealed it to anyone!" and then Swarupa Damodara said, "You must have bestowed your special mercy on him otherwise who can ever understand your heart?" And that is another kind of servant like who understands the heart of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And when we see categorically above Govinda’s service is the service of Haridas Thakur and even above Haridas Thakur is the service of Rupa Goswami.
SRILA PRABHUPADA UNDERSTOOD CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU'S HEART IN THE MOST PROFOUND WAY
The most intimate servant and of all Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s associates, who is the greatest? Who understood Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s heart? The best possible way, in every town and village, this Holy Name will spread. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came to distribute love of Godhead irrespective of any consideration anywhere and everywhere. And who did it? So, who understood Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s heart in the most wonderful way, most profound way? Srila Prabhupada. That’s why we can understand that Srila Prabhupada is one of the most important associates of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. It is because of our spiritual blindness that we can’t see Him today but some day when our spiritual eyes will open then we will be able to see who Srila Prabhupada is. So at least we can understand that we are extremely fortunate that we have come in contact with Srila Prabhupada. We have become a part of his movement.
Now let us also try to understand Prabhupada’s heart and that is what brings us close to this personality. If everybody wants to come close to Prabhupada then that coming close to Prabhupada is not an external consideration. It is not a physical consideration whether we have been initiated by Prabhupada. There are many devotees who have been initiated by Prabhupada and they are not even in ISKCON today or in Krishna consciousness today. There are many devotees who served Prabhupada physically coming in very close contact with Srila Prabhupada. But actually, surprisingly most of them left today. So that is not the consideration - how physically close one came to Srila Prabupada. Actually, Prabhupada gave one good example. He says a bed bug is very close to your body but what it does it simply harasses you, bites you. So, let’s not become bedbugs.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Question [inaudible]:
HH BCS: Prabhupada often gave the example there is a shower and the whole world is flooded but if you are thirsty then just standing on the shower is not going to quench your thirst you have to receive the water in your palm
But because of our material attachment we do not do that because we are too much involved in our material entanglement so that’s why we really can’t detach ourselves from material attachment and lift our hands and cup our palms and drink the nectar, that’s the problem.
Mahaprabhu’s nectar is flooding the whole world but we are still not able to drink it. So, we have to become detached. We have to give up the propensity to enjoy because we can’t really have both. We can’t really maintain our material attachment and at the same time have Krishna consciousness. It doesn’t work.
Like the example can be given about the marriage party going in a boat and in the morning, they saw that they did not make any progress and they found that the boatman forgot to pull the anchor. So, although he was going through the process of rowing the boat but the boat did not make any movement. So, one may go through the process of rowing the boat or performing ritual of Krishna consciousness but if we do not leave the anchor then you won’t make any progress.
The first thing is to become fully convinced that this movement of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s can bestow us the ultimate benediction. And if we just give up all our attachments both subtle and gross and just surrender unto Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s representatives then we will be immediately taken into another region. But actually because of our attachment, because of our doubts because of our offences, we can’t pull that anchor.
That’s why it is very important that we pull that anchor and that is why it is so important to associate with the devotees favorably because when the devotees get together, they empower each other. Sanatana Goswami was begging Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to empower him. The devotees empower each other by their association. It is very important to associate favorably with the devotees and then the progress will automatically happen.
We may be very degraded but if somehow or other we get linked up with other vaishnavas and that’s why Prabhupada gave this International Society of Krishna Consciousness - to associate with each other so that we can reach the ultimate goal, the lotus feet of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. There are some people who actually don’t want to see that ISKCON grows and I won’t call them devotees. They are envious people and some even pray that ISKCON is destroyed. Who gives a damn about what they’re saying. ISKCON is going to go on. The question is whether we are going to be linked up.
The way Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati's Gaudiya Math is going on. Actually, Gaudiya Math is going on through ISKCON. The same way ISKCON will always go on. Prabhupada's ISKCON and Mahaprabhu’s sankirtan movement will always go on. But the question is whether we will participate. And what Prabhupada started is that the absolute point? Prabhupada started it and Prabhupada gave us the chance to further it the way Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came and gave The Holy Name.
He wanted His devotees to come after Him and further that movement the same way Prabhupada gave us and fulfilled Mahaprabhu's prediction. Prabhupada is giving us the chance - now you all further it. In every town and village, I didn't complete the work I left some for you all to do. So, there will always something left by the spiritual master for his disciple to do and let us learn from the previous mistakes. Gaudiya math made mistakes even in ISKCON we made many mistakes and learn from the mistakes and push on this movement.
Question [inaudible]
HH BCS: Every town and village mean people in every town and village should have chance to become Krishna Conscious. There may not be just one temple in each village but there may be many temples in a village. Like now, we see it’s not very difficult Christians have their churches two or three churches in a village so why can’t Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement spread so much that every village has many temples?
Question [inaudible]
HH BCS: He has an empowered job. His business is to spread adharma and he has been described as ‘Karala-vadana krurah’, his face is very vicious and ‘kalis ca kalaha priyah’ who is very fond of fighting he is very fond of quarrel and that is what kali is doing to us. That’s another thing like wherever there is fight you can close your eyes as kali is trying to influence us. So that is why devotees always avoid but nothing can destroy this movement from outside. Prabhupada said only from the inside. And how it will come?
it will come in the form of fighting, internal quarreling. Gaudiya Math was destroyed. They won’t like it if they hear “destroyed”. It was broken to pieces; they lost their mission because they were fighting among themselves soon after Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur left. Not only soon after, the fighting started even before.
I heard once Krishnadas Babaji Maharaj, one very good friend of Prabhupada told me. During Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur’s time he also gave sanyasis different areas to preach. So, one sanyasi went to preach in some area. And then he thought since he had come so far might as well go to the next area which was not his zone. He went in some other sanyasi's zone and he preached and he collected some donation and then these two sanyasis met in Gaudiya Math in Mayapur. And they were fighting very bitterly - why did you come to my zone? The fight started and then all of a sudden, they saw Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur was standing.
He just stood there at the door. He just stood there and he kept on watching. When they saw him, they stopped and offered him obeisances. Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said," I don’t blame you for this, I blame me, I blame myself." He said,"Mahaprabhu made kings into beggars and I picked you up from the streets and made you live in big palaces. Naturally you will fight today, naturally you will become agents of Kali." He was so heavy and actually the fight started even before that. They were fighting that who will get the biggest room, who will get his territory and if somebody encroached into somebody else’s territory then there is fight. And I heard from another god brother of Srila Prabhupad that Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur was very disturbed that they were fighting amongst themselves and that is one of the reasons that he left. So at least let us not do that.
Question [inaudible]
HH BCS: That's a nice concern. Yes, this will happen. You see Krishna consciousness is very new to the west. It will take time some time. Also, another thing is, you see for last few years we have not been really preaching. We have been collecting, we have been maintaining but we haven’t really been preaching and that’s why it's not making so much progress. During Prabhupada’s time, in ten years it spread so much. Over hundred temples and there were thousands and thousands of people who took to Krishna consciousness very seriously. But after Prabhupada left, in last ten years what did we do? And the momentum was tremendous after Prabhupada left. Everything was booming – ‘78, ‘79, ‘81 one everything was booming. But then the decline started. Actually, everything was booming because of the momentum from Prabhupada’s preaching but we started applying the brakes and that’s why it came to a standstill practically.
So, we have to pick up the spirit of Prabhupada, revive the spirit and push on with sincere dedication, only then it will spread. Mahaprabhu’s movement is very potent.
What did Prabhupada do? A man, single handed, alone, seventy years old, no friend, no money - went to America and he didn’t know whether he is going to have anything to eat there. So, he just carried a bag of chipped rice, flat rice with him not knowing whether there will be anything to eat in America and started the movement. In ten years’, time what he did and what did we do? So many of us, thousands of us. So, I feel that we must now get our act together and spread this movement all over the world then only our joining this movement will be fruitful instead of fighting about petty possessions and petty material profits.
I think I will stop now.