Verse: Vaishnava Etiquette
Date: December 18th, 2012
Place: GURGAON, INDIA
Transcription: Ranga Radhika dasi
Editing: Ranga Radhika Dasi
Hare Krishna!
I am very happy to be here today. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to be with you and speak about Krishna, speak about Vaishnava Etiquette.
Who is a Vaishnava? A Vaishnava is one who has accepted Vishnu as his lord and master. A Vaishnava is a person who has surrendered himself to Krishna and accepted Krishna as his life and soul. In simple words, a Vaishnava is a servant of Krishna or Vishnu. Although generally the word Vaishnava indicates that he is a follower or surrendered soul to Vishnu, Vishnu and Krishna are the same. So the servants of Krishna, devotees of Krishna are also known to be Vaishnavas.
But then also there is a consideration of different levels of Vaishnavas. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura mentioned that those who are the worshippers of Vishnu, they are known as Vaishnavas. Those who are the worshippers of Krishna, they are known as Karshnas. But those who are the worshippers of Srimati Radharani, they are known as Gaudiyas. So in ISKCON what is our identity? [audience: Gaudiyas] We are Gaudiyas. That means we are the worshippers of Srimati Radharani. She is our everything. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura also mentioned on one occasion that we accept Krishna, we surrender to Krishna, we love Krishna because Krishna is dear to Radharani. Our relation with Krishna is through Radharani and that's why our prayer is Hare Krishna: first Radharani, then Krishna. Not Krishna, then Radharani. Radharani and then Krishna. We love Krishna because Radharani loves Krishna. And when Radharani gets upset with Krishna we don't like it, we get angry with Krishna. "Why did He do this to Her?!" That is the mood of the Gaudiyas. That's the mood of the devotees of ISKCON, followers of Srila Prabhupada.
Anyway, Vaishnava Etiquette. Etiquette means the way of conducting, the behavior. The Sanskrit word for this Vaishnava Etiquette is "Vaishnava Sadachara", which means the way a Vaishnava acts. The exemplary actions of a Vaishnava, the exemplary behavior of a Vaishnava is the Vaishnava Etiquette. What is Vaishnava Etiquette? The way a Vaishnava behaves. And how does a Vaishnava behave? In order to understand that, we have to understand who is a Vaishnava? A Vaishnava is a person who has become a servant of Krishna. And servitor of Krishna is the identity of the living entity. What is the identity of the living entity? Krishnera nitya-dasa. [CC Madhya, 20.108-109] He is the eternal servant of Krishna. That is the identity of a pure soul.
When a living entity serves Krishna he is in his constitutional position. When a living entity stops to serve Krishna he becomes impure, he becomes contaminated and he falls down to this material nature. We have fallen into this material nature because we have stopped serving Krishna. Why we stopped to serve Krishna? Because we turned away from Krishna. If we were looking towards Krishna then we would have been serving Krishna. There is no other way. But the moment we looked away from Krishna, we looked at the material nature, maya. And this material nature is the inferior energy of Krishna and we are coming from the superior energy of Krishna, superior nature of Krishna. So qualitatively we are superior and maya, material nature, is inferior. So when a superior comes across an inferior, what happens? He develops a tendency to lord over. Isn't the natural tendency of the superior to lord over the inferior?
Now this tendency to lord over is opposed to our actual nature, actual identity. What is the identity of the living entity? He is a servant. Our actual identity is that we are servants of Krishna but now, instead of becoming a servant we are trying to become a master, the lord. Now that is the covering of false ego. That gives us the covering of false ego. False ego means false, wrong ego, wrong identity, mistaken identity. We are not masters. We are servants, but here we are trying to lord over. And as a result of that we became entangled in the material nature - the first covering: the false ego. Then with our intelligence we are thinking how we are going to enjoy this material nature. The second covering is intelligence. Then through the mind the consciousness is constantly flowing towards the material direction. So in this way, with mind, intelligence and
false ego we get our first covering: the subtle body. We develop a subtle body. This body actually is a bondage. This body is what is tying us down to the material nature, two types of material bodies. The first one is the subtle body and there is a gross body. According to the subtle body nature is giving us a gross body. Our contamination is our tendency to lord over this material nature.
So a Vaishnava is one who is situated in his real identity. Now he has become a servant of Krishna. Of course this has two stages. One is sadhana-bhakti and the other is prema-bhakti. Sadhana-bhakti is the practicing stage and prema-bhakti is the perfected stage. We are practicing to become a servant. For so many lifetimes we are trying to become the master. Now, for a change, we are trying to become a servant. So initially we have to practice. We forgot how to become a servant of Krishna, so now we are practicing. That is sadhana-bhakti. But by practicing this sadhana-bhakti we'll achieve the perfection, siddhi, siddha-svarupa. We will become situated in our perfected identity as servants of Krishna.
So in order to become a Vaishnava we have to act like a Vaishnava. That is Vaishnava Sadachara. For that also first there is a practicing stage and then there is the perfected stage. In the perfected stage whatever the Vaishnava does is Vaishnava Etiquette, whatever he does, because his action is perfect. This perfection is not something that has been achieved by practice. This perfected stage is naturally evolved into his actual identity.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu asked Sanatana Goswami to write Hari-Bhakti-Vilasa, a scripture on how to practice Hari Bhakti. So that book is actually the perfect foundation of Vaishnava Etiquette. It's huge, very big. It's about this big and this thick. It has about two thousand pages, hundred fifty pages at least giving all the different activities that a Vaishnava should practice. But generally we selected some important parts from that. But even then, in 1987 we established an institution in Vrindavana called "VIHE: Vrindavana Institution for Higher Education." And there I gave a course on Vaishnava Etiquette and that course lasted for one month, the entire month of Kartika. In three consecutive years we gave the course on Vaishnava Etiquette, a month long course, and devotees used to come from all over the world. First of all, Hari-Bhakti-Vilasa is a huge voluminous scripture: when we spoke about Vaishnava Etiquette it was one month that it took us to properly discuss about Vaishnava Etiquette. And I am wondering how much I can say in half an hour! But still, I'll try.
As I said, a pure devotee's behavior is Vaishnava Etiquette, the way he behaves. And we can see that his behavior is perfect. At least I can say that personally I have seen such a Vaishnava: Srila Prabhupada. Whatever he did was perfect. When he spoke, his speeches were perfect. When he wrote, we have seen his writing was perfect. When he cooked, his cooking was perfect. When he chastised, his chastisement was perfect. And Prabhupada used to say that, "First of all, a Vaishnava is a gentleman." Because his action is so exemplary, he never does anything that is inappropriate. His actions are very, very exemplary. So that is one practical example, that I had the good fortune of witnessing Srila Prabhupada.
In this way we can see how all the other Vaishnavas must have been. Like, we can imagine Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami, Raghunatha Dasa Goswami, Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami, Krishna Dasa Kaviraja Goswami, Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakura, Baladeva Vidyabhusana. From our imagination we can see that they must have been perfect in their behavior.
Of all the qualities of a Vaishnava, what is most important? Trinad api sunicena taror iva sahishnuna, he is more humble than a blade of grass. [Sri Siksastakam, verse 3] So that is the first quality of a Vaishnava. But Prabhupada pointed out also that this humility of a Vaishnava is not artificial. It is natural. This humility is natural in which way? That everything he judges, everything he considers is in relation to Krishna. Therefore, he is humble in front of Krishna and His devotee but that doesn't mean that he is humble to everybody. Like, we can see Arjuna. He was like fire! When he was dealing with the non-devotees he was like fire. Another example is Hanumana, like a fire! Ambarisha Maharaja, these are the exemplary Vaishnavas. But of course those days there was a need for becoming fiery. But in this age of Kali Chaitanya Mahaprabhu set a very nice example that we should be humble. Because the whole atmosphere is so volatile that if we get fiery then we may get burned out. In this age there is no need of fire. There is plenty of fire outside. In this age what we need is fire extinguishers. [laughs]
So in today's world the Vaishnavas are setting the real mood of peace and prosperity. That is what is important. Anyway, that is the basic mood but there are certain actions that a Vaishnavai Like, if we consider the dharma part of it, dharma is standing on truthfulness in this age, just standing only on one leg. Which is that leg of dharma? Truthfulness. And cleanliness, a Vaishnava is very clean both externally and internally. Generally the Vaishnava culture is the real Vedic culture. Vedic culture is very pure. Like we have seen how Prabhupada established that standard of cleanliness in ISKCON. In the West, people generally take bath once in a week. And that also not everybody. Those who are clean they take bath once in a week. But Prabhupada went to America and he set the standard of taking bath every morning! And Prabhupada inspired the devotees to take bath twice a day. So that is one of the aspects of cleanliness. People did not know in the West. Like, often devotees say how unclean their habits were. They don't use water. They use toilet paper so that shows their standard of cleanliness. And Prabhupada set the standard that whenever one goes to the toilet, he should take a bath.
These are some basic things that Prabhupada taught the devotees, cleanliness. Wash your hands before you eat. Not only hands, hands and feet as well. And also, after you have eaten, then again you wash your hands and feet. Before eating our hands should be clean. Isn't it common sense? Like, I was seeing the other day certain basic instructions that were given to the stewardesses in the airlines. It was Emirates Airlines, I was looking at it. One of the instructions is: wash hands before serving. The stewardesses have been instructed, wash hands before serving. We can see it's a natural consideration. That's why in India it is a very healthy habit that we eat with our hands. In the West they don't eat with their hands. They eat with knives and forks or chopsticks. But the healthy habit is: use your hands! Krishna has given a natural spoon and fork [unclear]. So why not use them? Another thing is, it is better to use hands because digestion actually begins with the touch of the food. When you touch the food with your hands and you feel it, you see digestion is actually a matter of accepting it and making it a part of your body. We eat food to make it a part of our body. So the process of eating should begin with - of course - cooking, but after that when it comes to eating, it is better to touch with our hands, put the food in our mouths with our hands and so forth. And then comes the consideration, after eating the food the hands now have become dirty, so one has to wash.
These are the simple things that Prabhupada introduced, which were unknown [to the Western world]. Not only to the Western world, in India also we are forgetting that culture because we are imitating the West so blindly. Like, in India also many houses don't use water. They use toilet paper. They don't take bath after using the toilet and so forth. It is a simple consideration but it is so important. These are part of the Vaishnava Etiquette. Like, after passing stool one must take bath and after urinating one must wash himself and his feet also. Like that. These are the simple considerations about cleanliness. Then taking bath in the morning. Prabhupada mentioned once, I had the good fortune of hearing, that even if we sleep for more than two hours then we should take a bath. If it is a short nap then it is alright, but if you are sleeping for more than two hours, go, take your bath. The good thing about that is that a bath wakes you up. Bathing is a very good exercise because it normalizes the blood circulation in the body, just taking bath. Therefore the Vedic culture is to take bath as many times as possible, at least three times a day (morning, noon and evening).
And actually Prabhupada was so practical. I used to cook for Srila Prabhupada and Prabhupada gave me a very simple standard or very simple way of keeping the kitchen clean. You know what was Prabhupada's instruction on that? That as soon as you have used the pot, just wash it immediately. Otherwise what happens? The whole kitchen becomes filled with unclean utensils and some poor brahmachari has to go and clean it. But this way it takes only a few minutes. While you are cooking, just go clean it up and keep it there. So the kitchen will always remain clean. Whenever you drop something, don't leave it there. Pick it up and throw it in the waist bin. Clean the room at least once a day in the morning, if possible twice a day, morning and evening. If it is dirty, first sweep it and then mop it with a wet piece of cloth. In the villages people maintain that same standard, in the villages of India. They not only clean them, they use cow dung and that actually sanctifies the whole room. So cow dung is such an important thing for us. Prabhupada pointed out that even clinically it has been proven that cow dung is one of the best antiseptics. So in this way Srila Prabhupada was
very emphatic about cleanliness.
Then another very important aspect of Vaishnava culture is relationship, how we deal with each other. That is very important, especially in a large community like ours. When there are so many people we have to deal with then it is very important that our dealings with each other are exemplary. There are three considerations of relationship: senior to junior, junior to senior and among equals. These are the three considerations. From a senior affection should flow to the juniors. Affection should flow from senior to junior. Like, we can see; parents to the children, a mother to the child, a teacher to the student, senior members of the family to the junior members of the family, like elder brother to the younger brother, spiritual master to disciple. And then junior to senior. Affection should flow, like water goes down. From senior the affection should go down to the junior. And respect should rise from junior to senior. This is how the relationship is established. A junior must respect the seniors and seniors must offer their affection to their juniors. It's the natural tendency of the heart actually. When we are in our proper state of consciousness it will naturally happen. Just let us consider, the mother. How does the mother feel towards the child? She doesn't have to cultivate this tendency. Naturally her love, her affection flows for the child. Naturally the affection flows to that child. And receiving that love, the child's respect for the mother automatically develops. So this is how the relationship should be between junior and senior.
On the other hand, if the seniors demand, "Oh, why they are not respecting me?" The immediate consideration should be if your affection is flowing towards them. Is your genuine love for them there? Then you don't consider actually why they are not respecting me. Like, does the father ever think why my son is not respecting me? Whichever way the son behaves, the father knows that he is my son. So the onus is on the seniors. We have to recognize that the onus is on the seniors and then naturally the respect from the juniors will be there. There is a saying that you cannot demand respect, you have to command it. That means you have to genuinely earn it. You behave in such a way that their respect for you will automatically become manifest. This is very, very important, especially in a spiritual community like ISKCON. Our relationship is very, very important. And another consideration is among the equals. What should be there among the equals? There should be friendship.
Now all these relationships are actually based on genuine feelings of the heart, which is love. Of course, we know that love is exclusively reserved for Krishna. Love is for Krishna, but the love for Krishna will be reflected on these different parts and parcels of Krishna in this way: from junior to senior respect, from senior to junior affection and friendship among the equals. So this is the most important consideration because ultimately, what is the community of Vaishnavas? Vaishnava community again has three considerations: guru, disciple, peers. This is a community of guru and disciples. Senior is the guru and junior is the disciple. It is not that only that the diksha-gurus are the only gurus. No, our whole community is a society of gurus and disciples. Seniors are gurus and juniors are disciples. That is how we to look at each other. And those who are equals they are friends. They are peers. We are serving a mission of Srila Prabhupada with a genuine concern for the welfare of this world. That should be our main concern. That should be the main consideration. And the very basis, the very foundation will be love.
Recently I had a very wonderful realization. Recently I was in Bombay and I was attending Radhanatha Maharaja's Vyasa Puja celebration. His father, his brother and his old friend, childhood friend, were also present in that meeting, in that festival. His brother Lary was making his offering. He was expressing how touched, how moved he is, or at the same time, how proud he is that his brother has created such an influence among...like, there were about six, seven thousand people attending the festival and naturally as a brother he was extremely impressed. Who will not be, seeing such an accomplishment of his brother? And when he was making that offering, I was thinking at the back of my mind: do we feel that kind of pride for our god-brothers' achievements? And I was thinking that should be, I mean, the devotee world should be much more appreciative than the karmi world. Their relationship is a physical relationship. Still, it is so strong. So how strong should be our relationship, the spiritual relationship? That material relationship will only last for one lifetime. After we leave this body those relationships will be gone but our spiritual relationships are there forever. So how strong our relationship should be? And we see that. Like, when Srinivasa Acharya left this planet, the way Narottama Dasa Thakura felt. They were such good friends. They were such intimate friends that after he got the news that Srinivasa Acharya left his body he felt, "Now there is no need for me to continue to live." That was his mood. "Let me just enter into fire and give up my life."
So with that kind of genuine love and affection we should create our relationships in this community of devotees in ISKCON. It is very, very important. Then only we can appreciate that this is a spiritual organization. Prabhupada used to say that spiritual means personal, material means impersonal. Material is impersonal. Spiritual is personal. We all are persons, so let us develop that personal relationships among ourselves. And what is the basis of those relationships? Love. And that is how we are going to conquer this world. Not with some strategy or political moves or expert management that we are going to conquer the world. If the Krishna consciousness movement is here to conquer this world, then that is how this world is going to be conquered.
What's so special about Mahaprabhu's appearance? Mahaprabhu came with love. Why He is mahavadanya? He is mahavadanya - meaning so munificent - because He just came to distribute love. That is the specialty in this incarnation, in this appearance. In other incarnations He takes up weapons to kill the demons. Why does the Lord come? Paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya ca dushkritam and by doing that, dharma samsthapanarthaya, He establishes dharma. [Bg 4.8] Krishna's purpose of coming to this world is simply that. Paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya ca dushkritam. Vinashaya ca dushkritam, annihilate the demons. How does He do that? He does that with His weapon (astra). In this incarnation also He came with astra: sangopangastra-parshadam. [SB 11.5.32] He came with His astra, but what is His astra in this age? Not mace, disk, bows and arrows and sword and so forth. In this incarnation He came with a very special weapon. What is that weapon of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu? Love! Yes, Hari Nama. Hari Nama is actually synonymous to love. With love He is actually conquering the demons in this age. In other ages He killed Ravana and Kumbhakarna, Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha, Sishupala and Dantavakra. But in this incarnation His loving embrace just transformed them completely! That is the specialty of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and as His followers what are we supposed to do? As His followers we also have to follow His footsteps. Our genuine concern for the suffering conditioned souls is going to motivate us to give this Krishna-prema to them.
So these are a few aspects of Vaishnava Etiquette that we should very carefully consider. Ultimately the whole thing depends upon these two factors: cleanliness, because ultimately we have to clean our soul, all the problems are due to the impurities of the soul, the contaminations of the soul, so clean it, and how we deal with each other. These are the two most important aspects of Vaishnava Etiquette.
Thank you all very much. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!