Nrsimha Caturdasi 2012- New Simachalam, Germany

 My relationship with Lord Nrsimhadeva

 I was staying in Mayapur when we decided to install Lord Nrsimhadeva and at that time I was responsible for all the construction in Mayapur. So we were all in great anticipation- ‘Nrsimhadeva is coming!’ I had the good fortune that I was allowed to construct His little temple and oversee that construction. We were also unloading the Deity who came in a truck filled with sand; the Deity was lying basically in sand. Then we dug out the Deity, which was 450 kilos! So it was quite a thing to take Him out without a crane but my man power! But we did it. Maybe about 12 men lifted Him up and placed Him on the altar. So I was very happy that I was somehow or other allowed to serve the Deity from the very beginning, from when the Deity came. Although they said a grhastha shouldn’t go on the altar of Lord Nrsimhadeva because He will destroy your grhastha life, I didn’t mind (Laughter).

So from the onset I had a relationship with that Deity, a relationship of service. So it carried on but then with time they asked me to change my service and take charge in Vrndavana. And there I got some real purification after a number of years, with a bullet in the back and so on, which is sort of the heavy side of the Lord. Then after I recovered, I came to Mayapur and then I came in front of Lord Nrsimhadeva and I was scared of Him, for the first time! I was really scared of Him and I was thinking, ‘boy, are You heavy!’ It sounds very nice when Sacinandana Maharaja explains it like the piano won’t fall on your head, but I tell you, I stood in front of Him after the piano just landed! (Laughter)  So I was a little scared of Him at that time. So it took some time to really think deeply how compassionate Lord Nrsimhadeva is.

The Lord appeared solely for His devotee

And I was thinking, ‘isn’t Krsna killing many demons? Isn’t Krsna protecting all the residents of Vrndavana? Isn’t He also the protector of the devotees? So why anyway do we turn separately to Lord Nrsimhadeva? And aren’t there so many incarnations of the Lord? Jayadeva Gosvami is giving us his ‘dasavatara stotram’ and is describing the ten various incarnations of the Lord, who appear every millennium, every cycle of four yugas. And these are following the mission as is described in Bhagavad Gita,

 paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma-samsthapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge,

They annihilate the demons and they establish the principles of religion, and Krsna also. Although Krsna has His other pastimes in Vrndavana- His personal pastimes, the pastimes in the spiritual world- but that killing of the demons is going on everywhere. So then we see that Srila Prabhupada points out that this Nrsimha Caturdasi is one of the main celebrations in the year. Lord Nrsimhadeva is one of the main principle manifestations of the Lord. Thinking about it, it came to my mind that when Lord Vamanadeva is doing His tricks, He tries to do so to reclaim the universe from the demons for the demigods (the devotees) so that the order in the universe will remain intact and so everyone is in his proper place. Ultimately, spiritual knowledge will remain protected within the universe. In other forms the Lord also does that: He helps to save the Vedic literature, the Matsya avatara and so on.

But in the appearance as Lord Nrsimhadeva, the Lord appears really for one devotee. Of course, extended for all devotees but in the actual incident, for one devotee only. That is His motive, that is the very reason why He appears. He is the most personal; He is very personally dealing with the devotees. It is then not surprising that Jayadeva Gisvami is writing, bahir nrsimho hrdaye nrsimhah, outside He is there stopping the demoniac forces undoubtedly and internally He is there within the heart as vigna vinasana, removing these obstacles from the heart. So He’s very personal with Prahlada and with all of us also. His whole appearance- His teeth like thunderbolts and all His nails and very harsh appearance- is a symptom of extreme soft heartedness because of His extreme anger when His devotee was in danger. So the hardness on the outside shows the depth of how deeply He cares for His devotees.

The Lord provides us with a personal path

When I start to contemplate on that I think, ‘all right, He may have just arranged a bullet, which is sort of something intense and somewhat hard. But then if I see the hardness of my head because I’m such a hard-head and such a stubborn person, then I don’t think anything lighter might have worked.’ So it’s not always in the process of becoming purified ion Krsna consciousness that the purification is light, it is not always soft. He may be soft in His purification, He may also be strong in His purification, but He will also provide us with a very personal path, a path that is designed for us. It’s not that everyone get’s the same; one gets what suits ones nature and ones particular situation. And in this way, whether we are receiving the mercy in a mild, gentle way, or receiving the mercy in a strong way, we can have that faith that Lord Nrsimhadeva is dealing with us in a very personal way. He has no other desire than to bring us to that state of pure love of God. In this way we have to place our trust in Him. Even more so than Krsna, Lord Krsna is emerging as the protector. Krsna is the protector when He kills so many demons but Krsna is doing it in an almost playful way and at the same time displaying all His various opulences- He dances, while He is on the hoods of Kaliya. So it’s not just chastisement; His focus is not just the chastisement of the demon but His focus at the same time is to display His opulences as the Lord in the spiritual world. But Nrsimhadeva, His whole focus is just His incredible, deep, deep compassion, which is translated as pure, unadulterated anger. There’s nothing else in His mood! It’s that in relation to Hiranyakasipu.

Satsvarupa Maharaja, who wrote so many books (I’m not even sure how many), but one that he wrote, he asked a fundamental question, and the question was the title of the book- “Am I a demon or a vaisnava?” which we may secretly also have in our heart. We may wonder, ‘well, is there a little Hiranyakasipu in me? And if that is so, then how will He treat me? Who will He deal with? Will He deal with the Hiranyakasipu in me or will He deal with the devotee in me?’ So again, a reason to be afraid of Lord Nrsimhadeva. Then we are judging the situation from our own human perspective because we should not forget that the Supreme Lord is extremely generous by nature and His inclination is to see even the smallest service as something very substantial. In this way, even a small service rendered by a vaisnava is taken by the Lord as of great significance. Therefore He accepts us as a devotee. Then these remnants of impurities, He’s assisting us, He’s helping us to become purified in a way that is ultimately not going beyond what our capacity can deal with. Bhakta vatsala, the protector of the devotees. The Lord is not going to test His devotees beyond the capacity that they can manage, although at times He may make it a little difficult. But within that, we get so much purified and gain so much strength.

Our best friend

So we must trust that the Lord is truly our best friend. Srila Prabhupada said that the Lord is our best friend and the devotee said, ‘no, Srila Prabhupada, you are our best friend.’ And Prabhupada said, ‘no, I may disappoint you because I am not omniscient and I’m limited but Krsna is omniscient and He knows everything and He’s completely our well-wisher.’ Therefore, there is nothing to fear. He is our best friend at all times and at all time He will take us. His only desire is that we will go back into His association eternally and as soon as possible! That is His desire. Therefore there truly is no reason to fear Lord Nrsimhadeva but rather we are very happy to turn to Him knowing that He protects us. bahir nrsimho hrdaye nrsimhah, He protects us from outside, negative forces and He also protects us from ourselves, to save us from sinking down in the material swamp. So in that way we are very eager for that protection and we pray again and again here, to Lord Nrsimhadeva on His appearance day, to free us from all the material entanglement and uplift us and take us back quickly in the eternal association of Krsna.

Thank you very much.

Sri Caitanya Caritamrta, Adi Lila, Chapter 9, “The desire tree of devotional service,” text 1:

tam srimat-krsna-caitanya-
devam vande jagad-gurum
yasyanukampaya svapi
mahabdhim santaret sukham

Translation: Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the spiritual master of the entire world, Lord Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, by whose mercy even a dog can swim across a great ocean.

(Purport)

(Invocatory Prayers)

A devotee doesn’t think himself as a great

This is the mood of the vaisnava; he is not thinking, ‘I am so powerful, I am so great, I am so intelligent, I’m so qualified,’ but rather realising that, ‘all my power simply comes from Krsna.’ When Krsna gives, we can do so many things. When Krsna takes, then everything is gone. Why be proud of one’s brain or one’s beauty, one’s position of birth? All these things are given to us and Krsna gives to His devotees. Not only to devotees, but He also gives to materialists according to their karma. But whatever He gives to materialists according to their karma, that will break down quickly. That will just temporarily be there and then it will be gone. But to His devotees He gives lasting spiritual powers. We see that it is described that the demigods are much more beautiful than the human beings. In comparison the human beings are just a lower creature. The bodies of the demigods don’t perspire, for one thing, and there’s no dust ever clinging to their body. The demigods, they never touch the ground when they walk. So from a demigod perspective, human beings are not very attractive. But it is said that from the perspective of the residents of Vaikuntha, their beauty is nothing in comparison to the residents of Vaikuntha. Then if we look at the residents of Goloka, those residents of Vaikuntha, they look just ordinary compared to the residents of Goloka. Amongst the residents of Goloka, the gopis are certainly the most beautiful. And amongst them, undoubtedly, Srimati Radharani, is the most beautiful.

So in this way, one becomes empowered by Krsna and a devotee becomes empowered by Krsna to go beyond his material conditioning. The materialist is trying to build up his own power- take some pill, take some energy food, do some exercise and you have muscles like Hulk! And then you are very powerful. Everyone shudders in fear when they see you! You’re just walking down the street and, ‘look at those arms! Woah!’ In this way we are trying to build our own power. Of course, such powers will not last and such powers will always find a greater power. That is the nature of the material world, that no matter what we do, we will always find a greater power in this world.

So Krsnadas Kaviraja Gosvami is saying,

“It is by the mercy of all these vaisnavas and gurus that I attempt to write about the pastimes of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Whether I know it or not, it is for my self-purification that I write this book.”  (Cc. Adi 3.5)

So one should never think that, ‘I am a great devotee.’ Just like when we are speaking, we should speak for our self-purification, we should speak and think like, ‘okay, let me say something about Krsna.’ It’s not like, ‘I now, I’m the one who’s giving the talk today, I’m going to say some really far out things and I’m going to share some real deep realisations.’ No, but let me simply describe something about Krsna and about devotional service and let that speak for itself. If we simply describe the nature of devotional service or the nature of Krsna, then that speaks for itself because that is perfectly pure and that is the potent thing. Just like who am I? Or who are we? We are just limited, very much so. Somehow or other we became involved in materialistic activities and the result is that we became covered. Our powers became covered and now we have these material bodies, which limit us very much. How much can one do with a material body? Very little, actually. So it means that we are sinful and that we have become limited due to our sinfulness. Everyone who is embodied in such a material body is sinful and as a result, has become limited. So when we take to devotional service and hear about devotional service, hear about Krsna then gradually we are liberated from this imprisoned state.

Those who are in Maya, they think that, ‘this body is a tool for my enjoyment.’ That’s illusion because this body can never supply us enough enjoyment no matter how we try. In this way or that way, to squeeze some enjoyment out of the body and it seems like, ‘oh no, I am having a great time,’ but it’s not a fact. All those who are trying to enjoy through their body are experiencing frustration. So Krsnadas Kaviraja Gosvami is completely aware of that. Although he was in a material body, he had come to a stage of perfection. He was so deeply absorbed in devotional service that he had become purified from material conditioning, he had become attached to serving Krsna that he had gone further, he experienced the presence of Krsna everywhere. In this way he was living in his relationship with Krsna. He was going deeper and deeper in that relationship with Krsna and he was always, always, always fixed in pure devotional service. Still he was not thinking, ‘I am not very great.’ And still he knew, ‘what can I do without the mercy of Krsna?’ Krsnadas Kaviraja, however, knew that the world was in great need. He knew that people were living in ignorance, he knew that ignorance had become the standard and he knew that people by nature are inclined to do what others do. ‘If everybody is doing it then why should I not do it? Give me one reason. If everyone’s doing it, then why should I not do it?’ Well what if everyone is in hell by the way they live, then why should you also be in hell? There’s no need for that. Then you can actually get out.

Opening our darkened eyes

Krsnadas Kaviraja Gosvami came to give this knowledge, the knowledge about pure devotional service as taught by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So this Caitanya Caritamrta is that description. Krsnadas had not personally been on the planet or in the association of Caitanya Mahaprabhu but he had heard from His devotees. Hearing from the pure devotees is the same. In that way we also, through them, approach Krsna, through them we can see Krsna. When one is following the directions of the pure devotees then one is connected to Krsna. If one is engaging in activities under the direction of the pure devotee then these activities are accepted by Krsna and then in that way we are also directly connected with Krsna although we can’t see Him. But then through that service, gradually the ignorance becomes destroyed. Prabhupada use to say that one can see Krsna but it’s just like when you have cataract. Cataract is a disease where something grows over the eye and covers it and someone like that goes blind. But someone can take it off; they can operate there and then you can see again. So Prabhupada said, in the same way you can see Krsna but now you are blind due to ignorance. If that ignorance is removed, then again you can see, literally see. So this is the difficult state of Krsna consciousness where we cannot see. That’s the most difficult state.

But still, by hearing we can also experience and we get a better quality of life because one who is trying to engage in materialistic activities is getting caught up either in lust… and then when you get caught up in lust then so many things need to be done just to satisfy sex desire. So many complications arise from that. So lust is not an easy thing and it’s never satisfied. So then one goes for stronger activities. That’s the nature of things and therefore gradually one becomes degraded and engages in more degraded types of sex. Greed- the same thing, money, money, money! We see so many people, they work so hard to accumulate a lot of money and then a big wall around it, arms and everything to protect it, to fight to keep that property. So in this way one becomes obsessed. All these things obsess us. With lust one becomes obsessed, with greed one becomes obsessed, with anger one becomes obsessed. A devotee gradually becomes free from this obsession- not overnight- but gradually does become free from this obsession.

Staying free from material anxiety

Well, even if we don’t become completely free in the beginning, at least we can’t take it so serious anymore. How can you take these material things so serious? Money, money, money…okay but everything has a price. We would like money if they would come and drop it off on the door step. That would be nice! The problem is that you would have to slave for it and sell your soul to the devil for the money. That is the problem. Then you’ll get it. You will have to do so many things that you don’t want to do and then you’ll get your money. Some people go for the shortcut and go for crime but then you’re at high risk. You can be killed at any moment, jailed any moment and all these things. So then there’s that- the high risk. So it all has a price, everything has a price and the price is not worth it. That is the thing.

So a devotee comes to the conclusion that, ‘all right, let me just be satisfied with something more simple.’ So if you can be satisfied with simple living, then it is much easier and a lot easier. Some are taking to devotional service and then they go and try for a while to sort of experience what it’s like to enjoy in the world. But they become frustrated because that is the nature of the material world. Devotional service is nice. In the beginning you test it out and you say, ‘well, the kirtana is not bad. Yes, this Caitanya Caritamrta, the Bhagavatam is deep, there’s good knowledge there, prasadam- it’s good’- and in this way we are experiencing some taste, undoubtedly. But there is more- there is much more! There is the taste of becoming very active in changing the world, in changing the lives of other people- that is a level of juice that keeps us going. And if you become obsessed with that, if you get in the fire of passing on the mercy of Krsna to others, then actually you realise that it gets better. Then we become more and more free from all the remnants of this lust, greed, anger, illusion, envy… all these things that just hound us. People are actually pushed, pushed by these things- everybody. It’s just driving people, it’s just tirelessly whipping them along. Lust is like a whip, (dramatic), ‘Go! Go! Go!’ we are whipped along the path and so many things it forces us to do.

So devotional service is liberating us and that brings us to a point where we are just free. When one is free from material desires then it is very peaceful. Then there is no anxiety. When we have so many material desires, then, ‘anxiety! Anxiety, anxiety! It’s not happening! I’m trying to make it happen but it’s just not happening and I don’t know to say! It’s like I don’t know why, it’s not fair! And others are getting it and why am I not getting it? This is just too much!’ and we just gradually become really, really angry. ‘This is just too much! It’s unfair!’ So we have to see this very clearly, we have to see that people are not free, people are obsessed and it’s not nice to be obsessed. Like I use to smoke cigarettes and the thought of waking up without a cigarette was unbearable and the idea that I would have to wake up in the morning and not have a smoke to begin the day, that was too much! So I was ready to walk five kilometres to a machine to get cigarettes so that I could like at least wake up in the morning. Insane! And that’s addiction. All material things are addictive. It’s addictive and locks us in more and more because there is the hope to be happy in the material world. We hope that, ‘somehow or other I will be happy.’ This is Maya!

So a devotee is not hoping that, ‘I’m going to be really happy in this world.’ No. A devotee is also not desiring to suffer. It’s not that a devotee is thinking, ‘let me suffer in the material world.’ No. A devotee is trying to live a decent life and everything okay- nice food, nice place- as much as possible, of course, but not at a very high price. Not at the price where it takes so much energy. That’s not worth it. We can make some endeavour to live in a decent place but if it becomes too difficult then oh well, what to do; we will just sort of make the best use of a bad bargain. And we can’t bargain so much with that. Like I can have this chadar or I can have that one or this jacket or that jacket- at the end of the day, oh well, we try to stay warm and sort of something that’s a little comfortable. That’s enough. How many things do we need? So one has to look at that. We have to look at what drives us in our lives. Devotees cannot just be blind. Devotees must know that we are conditioned souls. So because we are conditioned souls, we are not liberated souls, we are being driven by lust, greed and all these things but it’s not intelligent. One should control it with intelligence, one should choose and say, ‘so much yes, and not more than that.’ The less we get involved with these things then the better life gets.

My boss is Krsna

Sannyasis have the best time! Yesterday one of the students was saying like, ‘how is it possible that you are a disciple of Jayadvaita Swami? I mean you are so different!’ No, we are not. We are not different at all! We’re both sannyasis, we’re both staying out of trouble…oh yes, we are very much the same. Okay we may be speaking in a different way- one may speak karate and another one may sort of like give it to you straight in the face! But sometimes I can speak like very sweet and then you think like, oh, we’re so different. But we are not so different because we both decided that it’s really smarter to stay out of all this entanglement. Why bother trying to have a nice situation in this world? It’s not going to be nice enough. And we are convinced about that, very, very sure about that. No matter what you do, it’s not going to be nice enough. Therefore we became sannyasis and forget it, we are not going to bother with all this. And sannyasi means being free, be free for Krsna. I don’t have to go to work at 9 ‘o clock or 8 ‘o clock or 7 ‘o clock and put on a tie and a suit- forget it! I don’t have a tie and a suit- no way! I don’t have to wear shoes that are too tight, the whole day! Forget it! I don’t have nothing like that. I don’t have to say, ‘Yes boss, sure boss, whatever you say boss, haha boss, how nice boss…’ no way you know! My boss is Krsna and that’s it! And to Him I say, yes whatever You want. That’s the better way of life and anyone can have it, no problem. But then you have to preach, preach Krsna consciousness. If you simply preach Krsna consciousness and you live it then you live just that, just Krsna and nothing else. Then people will give you more money than a PhD will ever get! That’s the way it goes- you get everything.

Someone was interviewing Prabhupada and saying, ‘So, you’re driving in such an expensive car?’ and Prabhupada said, ‘you will also like to drive in such a car, isn’t it? You can, but then you have to give up sex life!’ Then he shut up. So like that, we can see that the more we just dedicate ourselves to serving Krsna, the more people simply will become impressed. Not everyone but some people will become so impressed and they will just support us in whatever we do. So there’s no anxiety, no anxiety. Like I don’t have a health insurance but I’m not too worried about it. In South Africa especially I don’t have to worry about it because when I am not well, a doctor comes to my room, pays obeisances and if I need an X-ray, then he takes me to the hospital, takes me in front of all the queues and get helped immediately- I don’t have to wait and go right through- he takes me back in his Mercedes and offers his obeisances and says, ‘I’ll get back to you with the results!’ (Laughter) So all we have to do is preach Krsna consciousness actually and that is our insurance, that is our security, that is the best security. What other security is there? Krsna is the best security.

A devotee has to choose smartly

Not everyone is ready to do that right away. That’s okay. Then you can do something in the material world- get a degree and then find yourself a material situation, which is comfortable but don’t do anything that harms devotional service. No sinful activity, no not all. So certain jobs are out and that’s obvious. There are many professions in the world that are compromised, what can be said. People make their money off sinful activity and of course, it’s hard to avoid. For example, if you take a job in DHL then you can’t avoid it. Sometimes you are just going to have to ship some things that are sinful. So in this way you get compromised. If you work in a hospital then you have to serve meat in many departments, if you’re a nurse etc. So many professions get compromised. Someone here in Pretoria came to me and said, ‘I got offered a job where I can earn three times more than I’m earning now. Should I take it?’ Well tell me more about it…They said, ‘well, I’m basically just doing the office work…’ So I asked what is the business? They said, ‘Arms- weapons.’ Well…that’s not a very clean way to make your money, by selling weapons, obviously. It pays well but then you also get karma. It’s not just that you can have that job and that, ‘it’s my profession so what can I do? I’ve got to live…’ No, no, no, you get karma at the same time. So one has to be careful in choosing a profession in this world and all the sinful things, they pay more.

So a devotee has to be smart. Everyone wants something but we have to be intelligent. We have to look at like, ‘okay, I need some money if I want a few material things…’ It’s not forbidden for a devotee to have an I-phone or something even better than that. If you want a sexy phone, that’s okay you can have but not at the price of sinful activity. That’s how it is. If you want a little snazzy car, sure you can have it or even a big one- you can have, no problem. But not at the price of sinful activity. And that’s a little difficult in this world because the better paying jobs are usually a little compromised. There are people working in a nuclear power plant and it’s not really very pious; a nuclear power plant is a kind of a very destructive thing! The radioactive waves are killing a lot of the planet. One who works there shares in the karma. So it’s better to avoid.

We see that story of King Nrga, he was very, very pious and his life he was giving away charity and he gave away many cows to brahmanas and this that. And one time he gave away a cow and because this cow was attached to home, somehow or other the cow walked back to the King’s stables (or whatever) and joined the herd of the King. So he didn’t know that he had already given away this cow to the brahmana. Then he gave the herd away and this cow was a part of it. So effectively he gave the same cow twice to different brahmanas then both the brahmanas came and said, ‘we want our cow.’ And then the King came and said, ‘Oh my God, this is a mistake, it’s an accident, what can I do? This cow just wandered back and anyway what I’ll do is, I’ll give you both a 100 000 cows with gold plated hooves and horns. I’ll give you that instead.’ And both the brahmanas said, ‘no, no, we want our cow.’ Why did they do that? Because the brahmanas wanted to make sure that the King could not touch the property of the brahmana, under no condition, and to make sure that that standard was maintained. That is Vedic scripture.’ So they didn’t agree to a compromise because otherwise some king can take the property of the brahmana and say, ‘oh, I’ll give something else.’ No. So at the end of his life Yamaraja was asking the King what he wanted first- the result of his pious activities or the result of his impious activities? And he said, ‘I’ll take the result of my impious activities.’ So then for giving away this cow twice, he had to become a lizard and he was a lizard for that. Then later because of all that pious activities he was delivered from that lizard existence by Krsna and Krsna’s sons found that lizard in a well, they tried to get him out, they couldn’t take him out and then they called their father. This Krsna came and this well was about 10 meters deep and Krsna just stretched His arm and it became 10 meters long. He grabbed the lizard, pulled him out and then he got a celestial form and told the whole story.

Better to be poor and pure

So even in profession, even in what we do on a professional level, we get reactions for it. That is interesting. So if we get involved in the world and if we want some things of the world, then we have to also be very careful. The more we take shelter of Krsna, the more easier it becomes and the more simpler it becomes. Automatically there’s no sinful activities, automatically you don’t have to worry and you don’t get involved in any reactions. Everything is auspicious all the time. Krsna can save us from these reactions. Let’s say we do some material things and also spiritual things, if Krsna is sufficiently pleased with us then He can save us from these material reactions and for that we pray. It’s a little risky…

So better to be poor and pure than rich and compromised! But that takes strength of character, then you have to be very strong to say no. Not that, ‘because everybody is getting it and I also want.’ Like Shakespeare said, ‘the deep, dark, sinful things that are behind great possessions…’ what can we say? Like when you’re in the process of becoming very wealthy then what can you do? When it comes to profit then, what to do? Sometimes what can be done? You have to just take it. In this way devotees are choosing a pure life and in order to help that, Prabhupada had the idea that devotees should live together in communities. Actually Prabhupada started many communities and these communities were all based on putting Krsna in the centre and everyone would just live simple in their community, together serve Krsna and in this way they could live a pure life. But then after some time, the leaders of the communities, they were not mature enough, they didn’t have enough love in their heart…A leader must be by nature a very kind person who is always thinking of how to look after others and to help them. Not that help means to give them everything they want but help also means to sometimes say no but a principled leader who is kind and compassionate. Such leaders were missing and they didn’t always look after people. Then people lost trust and they said, ‘no we don’t want to live in these communities anymore, we want our own place where no one can touch us.’ And then the communities broke up. But actually, Prabhupada initially started communities. You get farms and everyone was living on Krsna’s farm in small cottages (or whatever), serving Krsna. Now because the trust broke down and because the leaders are not mature, now the second best model is villages, where people have their own little property but live together in communities. But then everyone has to make his money and may get compromised. Still it can work also…

Like I have a group of disciples in the Czech Republic and they have started a prasadam business. They package prasadam and sell it and they all moved into a village. One of those villages where there are no more young people. Houses are cheap because everyone moved to the city. And they moved back to that village and they are producing prasadam, which they sell and more and more devotees are moving into the village. They bought the local bar on the corner and they are changing it and turning it into a temple now. We’re going to open it on Janmastami! So like this, where are we going to go next in South Africa? Pretoria is nice, you can have a little bungalow and a picnic on the grass and we can make samosas and have a good time! The ladies are well engaged in the right occupation! But how does it go on after this? So somewhere along the line we need some community but then we need saintly householders because the renunciants can’t look after communities. They have to be free. The sannyasis must be free, they cannot be bogged down. They must just be free to come and go and preach and not like get all kinds of people who are saying, ‘This one is saying this to me and that one is doing that and we are having a big problem and we need to start a solution and we need help…’ For that you need saintly householders who will solve the problems and look after. Sannyasis  don’t bother with these things. Forget it! They just preach the glories of Krsna, the glories of devotional service that set you free. And by being free they can encourage others to become free and that’s the best way to live. Therefore the first option is that you all become sannyasis and the ladies, they can take up university preaching and then the sannyasis can come and visit the university programmes. (Laughter) That’s a good idea!

So Krsna consciousness is a great philosophy that makes sense, it is about being liberated from suffering due to obsession, it is about preaching Krsna consciousness and in this way inspiring people and we have to find a way to live according to what we need. So sooner or later you have to make a plan and you have to decide, ‘what do I want?’ and then make a plan. You have to ask yourself, ‘how much do I need in the world?’ and then accordingly make a plan to keep it clean and pure- for those who cannot be sannyasis. What to do…but a few should try, why not? And those who want a member of the opposite sex, they got to get married because they’ve got to take care and good family life is the basis of peaceful society. Broken family means moral standards, ethics gone- out of the window. You can see in Africa also: when the tradition culture was in place, there was marriage and there was a much more stable situation. But then, urban life began, people moved to the big cities and all the values just broke down and what do you get? A city jungle!

Well, I’ll stop talking now because I talk too much…so any feedback from the floor?

Question: Hare Krsna Maharaja. Thank you for the nice class. As you were speaking I was thinking about a recent experience I had in Cape Town. I went to my agent and she said, ‘we’ve got a great job lined up for you and you just have to do it for 3 months and you’ll get R 48 000 just from 3 months!’ and it’s part time not full-time at all. So I was so excited, I thought yeah I can pay off my student loans! Krsna you’re amazing! And I get to the office and she said, you just have to promote this alcohol brand…! She thought I was crazy because I said no and I did sink in a weeks depression because I’m not so elevated that I can say I did this for you Krsna…also one week before Ratha Yatra I was stuck to get a ticket to Durban so I got a promotion to shoot a food show but it involved eggs in it and I’m ashamed to say it but I did shoot it because I needed a ticket to Durban…but why does it hurt so much to do the right thing for Krsna? And the second question is, if we are going to use the money for devotional service like going for Ratha yatra, does it lessen the effect of karma?

Maharaja: Ya, well, obviously the world is demoniac and they are designing it. Study loans are designed to enslave people. There’s a strategy behind it; it’s not only that they want to help you finish your studies, but they want to lock you in and therefore, ‘take the study loan, take the study loan,’ and then you’re locked in and you have to slave for so many years and be submissive because you got a big debt. So in this way, ‘we got you!’ So the system is in this way enslaving people. ‘We like debt, debt is great! The more debt, the more loans people have, the better it is!’ because basically people become slaves. It’s modern slavery. If you think slavery has been abolished, it has not. It’s just presented in another way called study loan. So naturally you felt the oppressing pressure of that money and think like, ‘woah! In one shot I can knock a big hole in it!’ and you smelt freedom! ‘Freedom! Freedom!’ and then you were like dancing all the way and then you saw behind that ticket to freedom, the smiling face of the devil, who said, ‘just advertise this little thing…just sell your integrity here, for the money.’ So no, what can we do? We live in this crazy, modern world but take some more time to get rid of this study loan, eventually you will get rid of it, don’t worry about it and don’t get compromised. Okay that’s part one. Part two, the eggs…

You can disguise yourself at the end of life with a moustache and you can say, ‘Yamaraja, it wasn’t me!’ And you have to do some real acting on that day!’ I wish you lots of luck! In this one you’re on your own, I can’t sign off on it. In the beginning sometimes these things happen but we shouldn’t do it again.

Okay, next? Savya…

Question: (Reiterated) What happens when a devotee uses money for his religious work that has been given by someone else who earned it through sinful work?

Maharaja: Every work is covered by some fault and you cannot give it up. That’s true. But just like, to choose for it, you know what I am saying…like if he works at DHL and there’s a shipment of some stuff which is not exactly within the four regs, then okay what can you do? But if you choose for a contract, then it’s already a conscious choice. So that’s difficult. If you choose to have a job to serve meat then you’ve chosen for it. But if you work in a company that also does something like touches these activities then what can you do? When I was a kid, my father was in textiles and producing textiles. There was this big factory. So when I was a kid, he put me in a suit and he took me to the factory and everyone was like treating me as the kid of the boss, so I enjoyed it! I got a full tour of the factory- everything. But when it came to the point where the wool was coming in, I saw all this blood on the wool! And I never thought of that, I never thought that textiles was something like compromised. So I was shocked because it was quite some blood, not just a little! I thought textiles were clean but it wasn’t so clean after all. It shocked me actually when I saw that.

So yes, every work is a bit compromised and you can’t avoid it altogether, that basically what it means. Every work is covered by some fault; you can’t avoid it. But still the principle better be poor and pure than to be rich and compromised.

Now what about the Swami, who gets a donation from the drug dealer or from the butcher? We see in traditional, Vedic culture, money would not be taken from any impure source. The preachers of Lord Caitanya, they may take things from people but if they really know that it is from an impure source, they may not take it. Like if you know it’s all drug money, then let it go. Sometimes drug money, made its way to Prabhupada and obviously it’s like so much of drug money around. But when Prabhupada found out about it then he didn’t approve and he said, ‘no we shouldn’t take this.’ So even those who live off donations must be a bit careful. But if there is a fault in the work because the company is touched by some fault- every company is touched by some fault- that gets purified and that we accept. That’s all right. But if money smells like crime, we don’t take it. The criminal is trying to buy some good karma, no thanks it’s okay. We don’t take it, even if it’s big bucks.

If you advertise in the airlines…for example, one brahmana can come and say, ‘how can you advertise the airlines because they serve such impure things? You cannot do that either.’ But that you can do, you can advertise that. It’s not direct and we all fly in airlines so what can be said? But to directly stand up and say, ‘this is okay.’ No. Like, if you advertise the airlines, you are not really advertising meat but you are advertising flying. But if you’re advertising eggs and you hold it in your hand and paint a face on it and all the kids are like (dramatic)…then that’s not okay because you are directly advertising the impure activity. But advertising airline…it’s obviously touched by the fault…

Question: Maharaja you were speaking about service and committed to being just Krsna’s servant. Also sometimes you are taking service without consultation. Are you able to do what you want?

Maharaja: Well, when we are new then we should kind of for a while be ‘Mr, Miss or Mrs Surrendered Soul’ and just sort of do everything so that we can become a servant. But then at one point we can develop a particular service that is suitable for us and that is needed and that we are good at. Then we cannot just accept any other service. So then sometimes you just have to say no. Like, if someone becomes a book distributor then there’s no need for him to spend a lot of time cleaning the time or something. Say no, go that same time out on book distribution. That’s more important. So as we are getting more experienced we may get a little more selective about our service and just specialise in a particular field. But in the beginning you have to learn to do some service, whatever it is- yes! One should not say no too quickly to service. We should always think it’s a gift, it’s a great opportunity, it’s mercy that I’m allowed to do this. Can I do it? Okay, I’ll do it. If it interferes with more important service then we should not do it. Like you can see I do nothing- I eat, sleep and I talk- that’s it, nothing else. And you must be saying, ‘God you know, can’t you even do something else? Cook his own chapatti?’ No, I don’t even do that. Nothing! (Laughter)

Comment: Like yesterday I was telling Maharaja, ‘you always do so much of kirtan.’ And maharaja says, ‘yes, any other suggestion?’ and I was thinking that’s so clear, what you do. When you say we must surrender to it, like in the Mela, my name was there and I had to…

Maharaja:  Yes, that happens to me too. Like I’m not a kirtana machine and then sometimes it’s very difficult and it’s announced that, ‘Kadamba Kanana Swami will lead an ecstatic kirtana,’ (laughter) give me a break you know! I’m not a machine, you know. You can’t order an ecstatic kirtana, it comes on its own. Sometimes it’s an ecstatic one and sometimes I don’t want to lead kirtana, that also happens. Anyway we live in the world…in the traditional world a sannyasi would just go into the forest and come out of the forest whenever he wanted. He was all by himself and with Krsna. But now we have a preaching mission so we are working together with others for the sake of pushing on this movement. So then you have to adjust sometimes and be what Satsvarupa Maharaja used to call, ‘the dancing bear.’ A sannyasi has to be the dancing bear, ‘dance bear! Dance!’

Question: (Reiterated) Maharaja, I forget which philosopher it was but he said that one should work and then pray because everything depends on God. So, when we are making some plans to do some service we want to do something nice for Krsna…we do all the small arrangements but at the same time we are dependent on Krsna. We make our plan in devotional service and then we pray please help me this, and then oh, I got into trouble with this…it feels like we are bothering Krsna. So how do we go about in making our plans in devotional service?

Maharaja: Well, we have all our limitations and it depends how powerful we are in inspiring others. Prabhupada always spoke about lazy intelligence. Prabhupada said that in his youth he got involved in a soccer team and Prabhupada said that he became the goalie because he was too lazy to run around! He said, ‘I always was lazy,’ and he would speak in favour of lazy intelligence, which meant, inspire others to do. So the more we can inspire others to do, the better it is, because if we ask others to do things for us, that’s very good because people cannot chant Hare Krsna the whole day. Who can do that? But they can help to do something practical, they can help to put on a program in the university. That they can do. But who can chant Hare Krsna the whole day. 16 rounds is like, siiiiixxxxteeeen rounds! So in this way it’s very good that we create many practical engagements for people. It should not become an over endeavour where we try to take on so much and that we ourselves start to neglect our rounds and our reading and our hearing and chanting. That we must always protect and when that gets affected, then we are over endeavouring. Of course everybody does that; like me, I sometimes get so busy and then get so exhausted by all the activities and then I have no more energy to chant properly. And then I know that okay now I over did it, now I went too far. So the nature of living in the material world is that sometimes we get out of balance. As soon as you notice it then you have to somehow return to do that good balance. There’s no such thing as being situated in a balanced position. It doesn’t exist. One has to always go back to a balanced position. That comes from experience then we learn to look at all our interest, not just at one thing but at everything. Preach up a storm but also reserve some energy for good sadhana. How to balance? It’s not easy. I speak for myself, it’s not easy.

Like I did Ratha Yatra, I forgot what I did before Ratha Yatra…I did something in Cape Town- I forgot it but it was busy- and then I got into the Ratha Yatra. Then after the Ratha Yatra I crashed for one day, which everybody does. Then I did a program and went to a meeting, then I had a birthday and then I drove to Ladysmith, which is far, because I’m crazy and back the next morning! And then I went to a National Council meeting because I’m crazy! Then there was this Kirtana Mela and Savyasaci was there and he is also crazy! He started to sing like in such a crazy way and Vraja Vallabha was playing mrdanga and he was also playing in a crazy way! And the kirtana went crazy! Then I was totally finished and people wanted to see till 11’0 clock and the next morning I left at a quarter to five because I’m crazy! Flew to Johannesburg, did a Sunday Feast in Lenasia then drove straight to Soweto and did another Sunday feast there. And I told Mahaprabhu that I’m not going to do a rocking kirtana but I did one because I’m crazy! Then at the end of that Sunday Feast, Svaha told me that she wanted to have a Ratha Yatra meeting and I told her that she was crazy! And I crawled, crawled to the car! And on Monday, tired was not even the word. I knew I had overdone it! And now I’m in Pretoria and I’m trying to keep cool and therefore today, I don’t care that the university program is really great, I’m not going! I’m sending my servant, Jananivasa, he’s really good and it’s good for him too and good for me too- I’m staying home! I’m not going to Soweto, I’m not going anywhere the whole day! Because I’m not crazy! (Laughter) I try to keep a balance in my life.

Okay thank you very much. Srila Prabhupada ki, Jaya!

Jaya Jaya Sri Caitanya Jaya Nityananda
Jaya Advaitacandra  Jaya Gaura bhakta vrnda

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam
sangopangastra-parsadam
yajnaih sankirtana-prayair
yajanti hi su-medhasah

The hidden avatar

This time Krsna appeared but His form was not blackish; it was the same Krsna but this time His mood was different. Krsna is always soft hearted. It is mentioned in Bhagavad Gita, tesam eva anukampartham aham ajnana-jam tamah, that Krsna is waiting in the heart for us to turn to Him and if He sees a little, little inclination towards devotional service, He immediately showers the living being with mercy. But Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu didn’t even consider that. Caitanya Mahaprabhu thought that, ‘even if there is no inclination towards devotional service somehow or the other I’ll give them the mercy anyway’ and suddenly everywhere people began to chant the holy name of the Lord. So the chanting of Hare Krsna is the main means by which one constantly can access the mercy of Lord Caitanya. One devotee said, ‘I cannot chant anymore, I just have no taste for it.’ All right, taste or no taste it is an ocean of mercy! Even if it is a little bit of austerity one is just been flooded with the mercy.

First the mercy of Lord Caitanya remained covered- after all He is the hidden avatar because only to His intimate devotees is He manifesting as the Supreme Lord. Many times He showed that He is the Supreme Lord: Like in the house of Srivasa, He showed it to all the devotees. To Lord Nityananda and Sarvabhauma He showed His six armed form with two arms of Ramachandra, two arms of Krsna and two arms of Lord Caitanaya. The Ramacandra arms were holding bow and arrow, the Krsna arms holding a flute and the Caitanya arms holding a kamandalu and a stick. In this way Lord Caitanya revealed Himself. To Ramananda Raya He showed that He was non different from Radha and Krsna. Ramananda Raya saw that He became Radha and Krsna and then He became Gauranga. To Advaita Acarya He showed His universal form. Lord Caitanya was directly showing in so many ways that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead- but only to His devotees; the world could not see.

Maharaja Prataparudra was thinking that He cannot be an ordinary human being. It is described that Maharaja Prataparudra, who was the king in Puri at that time, was a reincarnation of Indradyumna Maharaja who had appeared in Satya Yuga and now He appeared as a king of Puri and again as a servant of Lord Jagannatha. Maharaja Indradyumna is the original king who installed Lord Jagannatha. And Maharaja Prataparudra, thousands of years later, again worshiped Lord Jagannatha. And when he saw Lord Caitanya dancing in ecstasy he thought He is not an ordinary human being. He must be the Supreme Lord! But then when he saw that He was falling unconscious in the street and that His body was becoming covered with dust and there was foam on His mouth and saliva everywhere, then he thought, ‘He cannot be God!’ But then that night Lord Jagannatha appeared in His dream and Lord Jagannatha was covered in dust and foam and saliva! And in this way the Lord was communicating through dreams.

The Lord present in dreams

Many times we see that devotees are experiencing the presence of the Lord in dreams. For example Narottama Das Thakura, who never met Lord Caitanya because he was born just after. I mean it’s just too much to take birth just after Lord Caitanya had left! So he was in separation. But there was one brahmana who had actually seen Lord Caitanya and he was giving all the descriptions about everything. But we know that Lord Caitanya had previously been to the same place where Narottama had appeared and Lord Caitanya had suddenly called out the name, “Narottama, Narottama, Narottama , Narottama ,” and everyone was like,’who’s Narottama?’ And then Lord Caitanya had called Ganga and the deity of Ganga came before Him. Lord Caitanya told Ganga, “you must keep this Krsna prema!” and Ganga devi was just like holding this Krsna prema and she stared trembling and shaking and became completely beyond herself and she immediately flooded all her banks and the whole village became flooded! And she said in ecstasy, “this is too much, this is too much! I can’t deal with this!” Then Lord Caitanya said, “don’t worry, you keep it but in the future you will give it to Narottama.”

So Narottama, many years later, appeared in this world. And finally one day he took bath in the branch of Ganga known as the Padma. It is a nice river. We went there; we took a boat went in the middle of the river and jumped in- just in case! Because a few hundred years earlier Narottama jumped in and he just got hit by this Krsna prema and in ecstasy his body turned golden and then he came out of the waters and he was crying and chanting! And his own mother didn’t recognise him! She said, “he looks like my son but this one is golden, mine is dark.” It was nice to jump in that water and I hope there was a little bit of that Krsna prema left- even a little, little bit!

So in this way we can see how Lord Caitanya appeared in Narottama’s life by showering him with mercy. But Narottama still felt great separation and in separation he had no desire of continuing to live. Then in his dream the entire panca tattva and all Their associates appeared and there was an ecstatic kirtan. Narottama just fell on the ground paying his obeisances. Then Lord Caitanya just picked him up, embraced him and said, “Narottama, you must go to Vrndavana.” And then Lord Nityananda embraced him and said, “Narottama, you must go to Vrndavana and then Advaita said,(loud voice) “Narottama, you must go to Vrndavana.” It is said that Advaita Acarya had a very loud voice. One day in Shantipur, Advaita Acarya said, “today we will have a special kirtana. Today we will glorify Gauranga!” and the devotees were very worried because they knew that Lord Caitanya didn’t like that. But they couldn’t say no to Advaita Acarya. And he said, “yes we will all sing the glories of Lord Caitanya but I will just dance because my voice is very loud and if I sing then you all will become afraid.” Advaita Acarya told to Narottama with a loud voice, “go to Vrndavana.” And then all the devotees told Narottama, “go to Vrndavana!”

So when Narottama woke up he had this kind of feeling that maybe he has to go to Vrndavana. So he went towards Vrndavana and it was a long walk- all the way from East Bengal. Then he walked the whole day and in the night he came to a village. He stopped in that village and the people were like amazed to see him- this lotus eyes and this golden form was just amazing! So the villagers started fighting with each other about where he is going to stay. Someone said, ‘I have the best house in the village so he should stay at my house!’ And others said, ‘no he is a sadhu, he is renounced and he should therefore stay in a simple place.’ Like this, all the people were finding a reason why he had to stay at their house. And then the whole night they had amazing kirtanas because Narottama could really sing very beautiful and then they had katha. Then in the morning Narottama said, ‘I have to go,’ and the villagers said, ‘no, no, you cannot go, we will die if u go.’ And Narottama said, ‘yes, I will also die if I go, I also cannot go, you are such wonderful devotees, how can I go? But I have to go because I have the order of Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityananda, Advaita Acarya and all the other associates of the Lord.” So then again he would walk the whole day and again the same thing would happen at another village!

So when we hear about these amazing devotees then we think how is this possible? These are the eternal associates of the Lord and their love of God is so deep and their ecstasy is so great. And Rupa Goswami asks for millions of millions of ears and tongues for chanting the holy name and we never really have that. So on the one hand it’s very inspiring to hear about such great devotees and on the other hand we ourselves seem to just be so far from that.

Pushing a broken car up the hill

Yesterday we were remembering an example: it is said in the beginning, spiritual life is like pushing a broken car up the hill. You may have experience in the village. In the stages of sraddha (initial faith), in the stages of sadhu sanga, bhajana kriya, anartha nirvittih- all stages are like pushing the car up the hill. But when you come to nishtha then the car comes on top of the hill and when you come to ruci then the car is coming down very easily; you don’t have to push anymore. At asakti it begins to move, at bhava it’s trucking down and in prema it’s just madness! It’s not difficult to develop Krsna prema. It’s not that this is some sort of deep hidden secret or something very mystical- (dramatic) ‘how do we get taste in Krsna consciousness? How?’ Well, if you would ask around the room somebody would say, ‘by chanting! By devotional service!’ but then why is it that we still don’t have taste?

The answer is that we are not enough engaged. We need more hearing, need more kirtana, need more chanting, more Deity worship, more Bhagavatam… Sanatana Goswami, when he was young then he also had a dream and in his dream a brahmana came and this brahmana gave him Srimad Bhagavatam and then he woke up and saw it was all a dream. But later that day the same brahmana came and gave him the Bhagavatam. So because he first saw the dream and then it really happened, it was a big thing and it was significant. So it was for that reason that he became completely fixed on Bhagavatam. And he writes in Krsna-Lila-Stava that, ‘the Bhagavatam is my constant companion.’ Obviously, he was not twenty four hours a day reading the Bhagavatam. I knew one devotee who was always having a book under his nose. Whenever you would see him, he would have the book and if ever you needed something from him, like, ‘can we use the car?’ and he would be like, ‘huh?’ and we go, ‘the car, car…’ and he says, ‘… er oh yes!’ and then we ask, ‘where is it parked?’ and he says, ‘huh?’He was always reading! He would walk on the street reading and he had a plastic book cover in case it rained! And at home there were all books around him. But still he didn’t have the same level of absorption that Sanatana Goswami had, who was not just reading but he was also remembering. He was always meditating on Krsna.

Just think of Krsna

One year I was attending a European GBC meeting and next to me was the European communication minister for Europe. He had a computer and on the computer something was scrolling, ‘25 ways to improve a meeting.’ Then he took a big piece of paper. On that he wrote, ‘don’t forget to think,’ and he put it right in front of him. On the other side of me was Smita Krsna Maharaja and he was writing on his notepad, ‘don’t forget to think,’ question mark! And then under that, ‘why think,’ question mark! And then under that he wrote, ‘just remember,’ and then under that, ‘…Krsna!’ It was pretty far out! Really interesting! So yes if one could be so simple, to just think of Krsna…

But when we read we read in a ritualistic way, when we chant we chant in a ritualistic way, we don’t actually simply appreciate Krsna. If we actually just sometimes think that Krsna is actually nice. He is actually very nice. And if we had a little bit of that appreciation then maybe it would not be that austere to chant His name. So like this we have to allow ourselves to appreciate Krsna and actually see how attractive is Krsna. Then that taste comes and then your car starts rolling down the hill! What more do you want? If somehow or the other we can always increase our hearing about Krsna and see how wonderful Krsna is. This is smaranam and this is actually appreciating Krsna. Then we become Bhakti Jana – people who are totally absorbed in bhakti. Then we become Parama Karuna- supremely merciful- because we are Pada Pankaja because we have taken shelter at the lotus feet of Krsna. Then we become Jananivasa, the shelter of all living beings. Because we are faithfully preaching Gauravani and then one gets absorbed in the playful pastimes of the Lord- Keli Lalita. In this way spiritual life is fun!

We just came from New York- it was nice and crazy! We didn’t see many trees, did we? But in the Tompkins Park we saw the Hare Krsna tree where Prabhupada chanted. The park was filled with bums (homeless people) and my servant naturally felt attracted! And there was the Matchless Gifts store front, which is like so much invested with Prabhupada’s potency. So just by being in such a place we get so much mercy and we were staying just around the corner. So that was nice and lot’s of nice people too. We celebrated Gaura Purnima three times there- that was also nice! And some people never leave their village and that’s also very nice. Again Smita Krsna Maharaja…We were in Switzerland in a Summer Camp and he does a seminar. So we all are sitting down in the room and everyone with a pen and paper getting ready for the seminar and then he says, ‘well, we’ll go for a walk!’ So we are all going for a walk in the mountain and we find a big tree and he said, ‘okay, we are going to sit down here.’ And then he said, ‘and now slow …’ and I must say my mind was going, ‘how do I get out of here?’ (Laughter)But this is exactly how the six Gosvamis lived under trees simply chanting Hare Krsna, no need to go here and there.

So that’s the wonderful thing because still people…like today we were on the airport and there was the advertisement of HBSC and they show a picture they show someone with tennis shoes and then it says,’ free time shoes’ but then they show a tennis player and the tennis player has work shoes- a professional- and then they show someone else has very nice shoes when they go out in their free time to a party or something. So this morning they showed a picture of a Volkswagon loaded up with furniture on top- mattresses, tables and chairs and so many things on top of it. And it said something like everyday 10 000 people are leaving the villages to go to the city. It’s because of passion. This New York is so passionate. And then we went to Times Square, it’s a high rise buildings and on the whole side of the buildings there are these big, big television screens on the whole side of the building and they all are like moving around with colours and pictures. And when you‘re on that square you don’t have to take drugs; it’s the craziest place in the world- its worst than LSD! And all this is just going on in the name of enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. And that’s what people wish each other- like if you buy something… ‘enjoy, enjoy, enjoy,’ but that’s not realistic at all. The homeless people are maybe not enjoying so much. So village life is very nice because it makes you sober. In the village we are more confronted with reality. In the big, big cities we live in illusion and in the village life is what it is.

But by adding Krsna consciousness it becomes like magic. Then you have a magic village! And that’s actually how we are meant to live. When Nove Sady becomes famous for maybe an amazing summer festival where deities are worshiped really in an amazing way, with amazing dramas in the forest, with bhajanas and with lots of prasadam from a certain gentlemen, then such a village becomes the most wonderful place in the world. But when there is no spiritual life then in the whole world, people are leaving the villages. It was said that in the year 2000 one third of the world population lived in the cities. In 2010, 55% in cities and everyday people are leaving the villages, everywhere all over the world. Well it’s good for us because land becomes cheap and lots of empty houses so we just move in and we’ll make an amazing transcendental village, something like Vrndavana and Nandagrama. We are happy to be here, especially straight from New York as it is hard to see a tree and here there are lots of them!

Any questions or comments?

Question: How is the preaching in New York?

Maharaja: There’s good preaching. There is no limit to it! There is so much opportunity to preach. There are lots of people who are willing to come. There was a building that was previously under Kirtananda Swami who had his own movement and few years ago that building came back to ISKCON. It’s a six stories building- a very long narrow temple room. And there is a mataji who rented a part of the building and who on her own is doing cooking courses. And she advertised through facebook and internet and she signed up 800 people for the introductory course! So lots of potential.  Yes it’s New York city and the universities are open and book distribution is great. Union Square is the place full of young people and they come out of the subway, they come out of the dark and into the light! It’s the good spot. Yes there is nice opportunity. And here in the winter you feel – Wow! We saw a bird. But winter has its own charm as we eat lots of prasadam in winter. Preaching can be done anywhere. And Prabhupada also said that it is not that one place is good and one place is bad. Because Lord Nityananda said, prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama, in every town and village there are devotees. So in that way Prabhupada said everywhere is good, you just need to know how to do it. Different techniques for a different place.

Question: How do we wake up this desire for preaching ? Yesterday I read that a devotee came to Srila Prabhupada for darshan and Srila Prabhupada mentioned that everyone should preach even if it looked only in a way that you beg and please chant Hare Krsna.

Maharaja: Yes I guess we must develop a little bit of the mood to give some mercy to others. Like give a little bit of prasadam to the neighbours every once a while. So preaching doesn’t have to be difficult. It is not to take a book and get the money. So there are different ways to preach.

Question: Is it correct to think that as we work nicely in our spiritual life and we develop our taste then our preaching will be more effective and it will become more natural?

Maharaja: Yes it is right. ‘I lost my beads three years ago.’ But you know you must chant, it is the only thing that can save you. That was Prabhupada so much faith so much happiness. Prabhupada said preaching is very easy. Just show people how happy you are!

And then there was prasadam!

Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya

A number between 1 and 18?

Audience: 9

Okay. A number between 1 and 34?

Audience: 18.

Okay, 9.18. This is not gambling (laughter) because in gambling you can lose and win and here you can never lose!

 gatir bharta prabhuh saksi
nivasah saranam suhrt
prabhavah pralayah sthanam
nidhanam bijam avyayam

Translation: I am the goal, the sustainer, the master, the witness, the abode, the refuge, and the most dear friend. I am the creation and the annihilation, the basis of everything, the resting place and the eternal seed. I am the goal, the sustainer, the master, the witness, the abode, the refuge, and the most dear friend. I am the creation and the annihilation, the basis of everything, the resting place and the eternal seed.

We all need Krsna

If you ask anyone what do they want then they can think for a moment, get an idea and then say the answer, ‘Krsna!’ because everyone really wants Krsna. One time they asked Prabhupada, ‘how many devotees are there around the world?’ Prabhupada said, ‘everybody is a devotee- only some know it and some don’t.’ So many people in the world are covered by the material energy,

avrtam jnanam etena
jnanino nitya-vairina
kama-rupena kaunteya
duspurenanalena ca

It is said that the living beings become covered and they forget. It is due to the influence of lust. Lust is that we want everything for ourselves, that we basically want to enjoy the material energy. atmendriya-priti-vancha—tare bali ‘kama’, for our own senses. That is lust. Well everybody has become conditioned like that and all of us have so many goals in life. But naturally there is also some frustration because in the material world although we try we are still not happy. And of course some people will disagree and say, ‘no I’m very happy.’ Just as they went to the hospital, then one man was hanging there with his leg in the plaster and when we asked, ‘how are you?’’ and he said, ‘oh I’m very happy!’ Many people say that they are very happy but you look at their lives and say, ‘well I don’t want to change for that.’ You work in a horrible factory from Monday to Friday in hell and then, ‘I’m very happy.’ This kind of happiness is not real happiness. Real happiness means that everything must be perfect. People will say, ‘that’s not realistic, that’s for dreamers. The problem with you Hare Krsnas is that you are all dreamers! You should do something practical. Dreaming, dreaming about big spiritual worlds but what are you doing here?’ No, no, no, we are not just dreaming about the spiritual world. Certainly we believe that there is an eternal, spiritual world. Certainly we believe that in that eternal spiritual world everything is perfect but we also realise that this world can also be spiritualised. You can take anything and use it for Krsna and suddenly it becomes spiritual.

Devotional service changes everything

A simple example given is a knife; I take a knife and I put it on your throat and because I’m a barber I slowly start shaving! So in that way the knife is useful…my grandmother use to say that if you can peel the apple all at once without breaking the peel then you will get married very soon. Grandmothers knows these things. So whatever may be, a knife may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how it’s used. In this way one can make a selection in the material world. Everything can be used for Krsna. The people that made this thing never thought it was to be used for Krsna. And you may be thinking why is she (translator) is using this thing (mic), she does need to use it. It’s true because she has a very loud voice. She doesn’t really need it but she’s using it to purify the factory where it has been made! This is how it is; if we use anything that is made for material purposes and we use it for Krsna then the makers become purified. In this way devotional service can change everything!

Smita Krsna Maharaja told us once that Prabhupada said that when the harinama sankirtana party goes through the street, the transcendental sound changes all the people in the street! He heard it from Prabhupada. He said but that’s not everything because the street itself also becomes purified and therefore even after the harinama party has left, anyone who goes through that street becomes purified! Can you imagine that there are houses where devotees use to live like here in Modra. In Bratislava they use to have a house next to the oil refinery. I remember it very well. Now it’s not a temple anymore and I don’t know who lives in that place but don’t be surprised if these people sometimes feel like… ‘hare Krsna!’ it’s like something…they get purified just by being in that house because a lot of serious kirtana was there in that house. In this way places become purified. In India people know this, therefore they always say, ‘please you must come to my house! Come to my house, little prasad (Indian accent)…’ It’s true, when devotees come to your house then your house becomes purified. Whoever chants the holy name once becomes purified.

The sleeping soul

The living being, when he becomes embodied, has two bodies- gross body and a subtle body. The subtle body is made of mind, intelligence and false ego. And Prabhupada says that by chanting Hare Krsna the subtle body becomes dissolved. What does that mean? Well it means that the mind disappears. Is that a good thing? Some people think like, ‘well I don’t know! I get mental when I think about things like that!’ That’s it, the mind is always giving us trouble, all the time and the mind and the mind and the mind! So to get rid of the mind is not at all a bad thing. According to the Bhagavad Gita, the functions of the mind are thinking feeling and willing. Thinking, feeling and willing are natural functions of the mind. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura said that actually these are not the functions of the mind. He said that actually, they are functions of the soul. But when the soul enters into the body then the soul goes into a dormant state and then the mind takes over the functions of thinking, feeling and willing. As we get purified then the thinking, feeling and willing starts to come again from the soul. Then one is free from any form of anxiety. On the level of the mind there is always happiness and distress so the mind comes up with moments of anxiety and ‘yes, yes, yes!’ Just always up and down, up and down! Sometimes it looks really good and sometimes it looks really bad, sometimes it looks really dry or sometimes it looks really wet.

Whatever may be, the material energy has its dualities. But the soul is naturally connected to Krsna and when we get busy with the material energy, the soul just naturally falls asleep- too boring! But when there is Krsna and service to Krsna then the soul becomes awake.

So because we have been on the mental platform for a very long time, we cannot access the soul.

 mamaivamso jiva-loke
jiva-bhutah sanatanah
manah-sasthanindriyani
prakrti-sthani karsati

 A little bit for Krsna and a little bit for me

The mind and the senses are busy with the material energy and then by chanting Hare Krsna we become free, free from anxiety. So it’s very simple to understand but not so easy to put into reality. Prabhupada came to England and in one lecture Prabhupada said, “Krsna consciousness is so simple, you might just miss it!” and we think, ‘no it cannot be so simple. The lecture was just too simple, I wasn’t very impressed. It was really simple.’ Yes, but the truth is very simple- everything about Krsna is blissful, Krsna is just amazing. Therefore whatever is in connection with Krsna is very wonderful whereas with material things it’s not always just blissful. Well since we used the example of getting married when peeling the apple, well most people get married because they think they will be happy but it’s not always like that. Some people they just suffer for 40 years! In the material world you never know, you just don’t know…it looks so good and then after a while it looks like a crocodile. Like that you just never know what you get. But when it comes to Krsna you can’t go wrong. Whatever we invest in Krsna, it will make it better. That’s how simple it is. But the mind is not sure…

‘No it cannot be so simple! I think I will do some service for Krsna and I will do something else at the same time…’ and this is what everybody is doing, (sings) ‘a little bit for Krsna, little bit for me’ and this is how we live. We have nice terms for it; we call it ‘material desires.’ In sanskrit we can call it visayi and we can use words such as ‘entanglement with the material nature,’ or ‘due to the interaction of the three modes of material nature the living entity becomes entangled in an endless variety of circumstances.’   Or to just say it more simple, we are just not choosing for Krsna because we still believe that we will be happy in the material world.

If only we would let go

It is said that the kanistha adhikari, or the neophyte devotee is very afraid because, ‘what if I give up what I have and then I give my whole life to Krsna and then I’m still not happy? Then I will no longer have my material enjoyment and will no longer have any spiritual things. No better I hold on to my material things and at the same time try out Krsna.’ So to give an example of a beggar in India who was not doing so well. Due to the economic crisis even the beggars were not getting much as result. So he had not eaten for days and he was feeling very weak. So he thought, ‘I’ll go to a temple because that’s a good place to beg.’ But when he came to the temple he felt so weak that he grabbed one of the pillars and he was hanging on the pillar. So one man saw and said, ‘oh this beggar looks really bad, I should give him something.’ So he had some puffed rice and he said, ‘here for you, I have some puffed rice.’ The beggar was holding on to the column and said, ‘just put it in my hands.’ But then how could he eat it? The column was in the middle and if he would open his hands it will all fall on the ground. So we are the same- we hold our column of material things, in our arms and therefore we cannot taste the happiness of Krsna consciousness. But we believe in it! We hold onto the column, we are not tasting anything but we say, ‘I’m not giving up, I believe in Krsna consciousness but it’s very difficult.’ So this is the situation. If we would just have a little courage, if we would just say, ‘okay, let go off the column and I would just do everything for Krsna’ and then suddenly we will feel very inspired.

I have another story…one man was in the foot hills of the Himalayas where it is going slowly up and he was walking and walking and walking and he was thinking, ‘this is too much walking, I wish I had a horse!’ Just then there was a horse! And he was like, ‘this is the arrangement of God!’ So he tried to buy that horse and it was very expensive. But anyway, it was sent by God so he paid the price. So then he jumped on his horse but it didn’t want to move so he tried all the tricks that he knew…hut, hut, hut….he tried the flat hand on the back…he was looking for the hand brake but it wasn’t moving. So he got out from his horse and then the next moment his horse gave birth to a little foal. He said, ‘Look at this, this is my lucky day- two for the price of one!’ But then he wanted to go but the big horse wouldn’t move because the little foal wouldn’t walk. So sometimes later someone saw this man and he was carrying a little foal on his shoulders and the horse was following him. So the man said, ‘what are you doing? Why are you carrying a little foal up the mountain, I mean what are you doing?’ so then he told this whole story that, ‘I got this divine horse and I got two for the price of one!’ So then the man said, ‘Why don’t you just leave these horses behind? They are no good to you anyway!’ ‘No, no, no I can’t do that! I paid a lot of money for them…’ So we are also like that; everyone is carrying their horses and they don’t go away- they start off like little foals but then they grow into horses. Then someone says, ‘well, why don’t you leave these horses behind? And then we say, ‘oh no, no, no; I’ve invested so much in them, how could I give them up?’ In this way we stay for years and years in a hellish situation and we never leave. Someone will say, ‘this place, this place is just too much, I lived here for 40 years and it’s just hell! And then someone will say, ‘why don’t you just leave?’

‘Oh no, no, no, I can’t do that!’ We are like that man and the horse!

Everything for Krsna

So these are all stories that show that Krsna consciousness is actually very simple and that when we feel it’s complicated it’s because we make it complicated. So if our life has become complicated then let us know that we have made it complicated because Krsna consciousness is very simple. It’s just everything for Krsna and nothing for us. And whatever Krsna gives us, all right, then we can accept. In Bhagavatam you find descriptions of personalities like that. In the 7^th Canto there is a story of Prahlada. When Prahlada was grown up then he was a king and one day he was walking on the road and there was some sadhu lying on the road. The sadhu was actually to be honest, quite fat. So Prahlada being quite straight forward told him, ‘please don’t mind if I ask you some questions. You are a sadhu, how come you are so fat?’ The sadhu said that well, he had taken a vow of the python. A python, unlike other animals and instead of hunting, the python just waits and it’s just lying there on the path, just waiting for someone to come. And when it comes the python will just swallow it. So this man took the vow of the python and he was just lying on the road accepting whatever came. And he explained to Prahlada and said, ‘allot came!’ and that’s why he was so fat! So you can see that what I am saying is actually existing in the scripture.

Another example is Madhavendra Puri. Madhavendra Puri, his conclusion was that all trouble starts with eating: because you have to eat you have to work and then from that so many complications come. So Madhavendra Puri decided that, ‘okay, I will not work, I will only worship Krsna and I will just not worry about eating. And if something comes then it comes and if nothing comes then I’ll fast.’ So that was the program. And he was seated next to Govardhana and he was fasting and chanting and he was peaceful. H e wasn’t thinking, ‘Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, oh God I’m fasting, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, I’m hungry, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, oh I wish I had something to eat, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna,’ no he was simply absorbed in his chanting. But then in the afternoon one boy came with a pot of milk and the boy said, ‘oh I heard you were fasting so I came to bring some milk.’ And then Madhavendra Puri was surprised, ‘how did you know I was fasting?’

‘oh some ladies from the village they said there’s one baba and he’s not eating. Ladies know everything! Anyway if you finish the milk then later on I will come and collect the pot.’ Of course he never came back  but later that same person appeared in the dream of Madhavendra Puri and he then turned out to be Krsna! So then he realised that it was Krsna who had brought him the milk.

So there are many devotees like that of great devotees who had full faith in Krsna and didn’t make any arrangements for their material enjoyment or their material maintenance and everything was going on fine. So we can see that Krsna consciousness is very simple- it’s just everything for Krsna. But we are the ones who make it complicated. Sometimes when we are in the process of balancing then it can also happen that a little for Krsna and then a little for me! But that is not allowed. Whatever you give to Krsna, you can never take it back. Whatever we promise Krsna, we cannot take it back. That has to be the standard. And if we have that standard then we can make advancement.

The 15^th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita explains how a living being makes a life which is a network of karma. It is said there is a tree that is upside down- the roots are up and the branches are going in all directions. So this is how our life has become very complicated because our in our life there are so many branches, so many things that we got involved in and our mind is not peaceful you know, ‘the Chinese are coming! Did you think about that? They are really coming!’ So like that there are so many things, so many things to worry about and so many anxieties because we have made life so complicated. Okay we cannot all at once we make it so simple like Madhavendra Puri but we can begin to make it a little more simple. If you don’t have so much then what are the Chinese going to take from you? I hope there is nobody Chinese here (laughter). I’m just joking about the Chinese because they are taking over the world now. Like they have a cartoon and there’s a Chinese delegation and there is Obama and he is like bowing down to them. Then one of the Chinese says, ‘oh yes this is Mr Obama and he’s one of the managers of our western holdings.’ So people are in anxiety about that- the economy- and then you read the newspapers (dramatic: in anxiety), ‘are you also reading newspapers? Oh God! Do you know what I read in the newspapers! You know I read that drinking water in Delhi, there are many bacteria, which are resistant to antibiotics! And they are spreading! And the newspapers said that it was so serious that there will be a time when the miracle antibiotics will no longer work! Oh my God, but that is very serious! Oh my God, think about that! No more antibiotics! Oh no! Oh, no! What will we do!’

See there are many things to get worried about but when we simply chant Hare Krsna then we just leave it up to Krsna. ‘Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, bacteria….Krsna Krsna Hare Hare…’ then you don’t need a microscope and you don’t need all these things. Modern man invented all these things. For thousands of years people were living very peacefully- some people died and many people lived – and then they invented microscopes and then you have to go and give blood and injections and all kinds of things and some people died and some people lived! It’s just like that, what has really changed? Some diseases have disappeared and some new ones have come…what has really changed? ‘We are no longer dying of the black plague!’ No, now we’re dying of cancer. What’s the difference? They’re just dead, I’m sorry to say.

Therefore the more Krsna conscious we become, the more simple we become. Our only real source of happiness is Krsna. So if you’re already married with 12 children and a dog and a cat and a canary then I know that this lecture may be a little…you may wonder, ‘is it really practical?’ Yes, I think it is; I think you can teach the canary or the parrot to chant Hare Krsna. The more Krsna there is at home, the more happiness there will be at home and the less Krsna there is at home then shew…the more headaches, troubles and anxieties. So actually it is very simple, very, very simple to be Krsna conscious. It’s only us who are not simple.

Any questions or any comments?

Question: Maharaja, you were talking about the man who saw his horse as divine and we are in the same situation. So how should we see if it’s been given by Krsna or by maya?

Maharaja: Well let’s just take this house- is this house given by Krsna or is it given by Maya? What do you think?

Devotee: Maya is Krsna’s servant so… (laughter)

Maharaja: Well I think that the house has been given by maya- karma. Karma is the laws of action and reaction which is part of Maya energy but we use it for Krsna. So why are we worried whether it is given to us by Maya or by Krsna? We just use it for Krsna. We don’t care who gives it to us- if we can use it for Krsna we use it, if we cannot use it for Krsna then forget it! Like I cannot use a house for Krsna- forget it. But they can so that’s good. So just use it for Krsna and don’t worry who gave it- even if it is the devil himself! Who says the devil cant become a devotee!

Question: I would like to ask, when the harinama passes the street, how long will the streets stay purified?

Maharaja: Well Prabhupada didn’t exactly say that part so now I have to speculate (laughter). It’s very powerful so it might be for some time. But just to make sure, it will be better to have regular harinama. So it’s better that once a week you go on harinama just in case!

I thank you all for coming here. You all came from different places. The last time I came from Slovakia, I came to Modra and then I went to Ekachakra. So I met many people in Modra and then I came to Martin and then I met the same people. And when I arrived in Ekachakra everyone was already there. So I thought that this time I will just stay in Modra! But I thank you all for coming. I appreciate that. Nobody can be Krsna conscious alone because the material energy is very strong. But somehow or other we meet again and again and that gives us strength and somehow or other we carry on. Not that it all becomes easy but still, it gives enough energy to say no. So everyone needs to be enthused. So it’s very enthusing that you all came and thank you for taking all the trouble. I’m just sitting here lazing on my nice seat (laughter) so thanks for coming!

jaya jaya sri-caitanya jaya nityananda
jayadvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vrnda

 sri-caitanya, nityananda,     advaitadi bhakta-vrnda,
sire dhari sabara carana
svarupa, rupa, sanatana,     raghunathera sri-carana,
dhuli karon mastake bhusana

Translation: According to the parampara system, I wish to take the dust from the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Nityananda Prabhu, Advaita Prabhu, and all the associates of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu like Svarupa Damodara, Rupa Gosvami, Sanatana Gosvami and Raghunatha dasa Gosvami. I wish to take the dust of their lotus feet upon my head. In this way I wish to be blessed with their mercy.

(Cc. Madhya 2.94)

 The predicament of the Age of Kali

The mercy of Lord Caitanya is unmatched. There are four cycles, four yugas. A yuga lasts hundreds of thousands of years. The Satya yuga lasts 1.7 million years, the Treta yuga is about 1.2 million, the Dvapara yuga is about 864 000 and Kali yuga is 432 000 years. So these are very long periods of time. Four of these periods together make one maha yuga. In one day of Brahma, who has a very, very long life span- not like ours but very, very long- there are a thousand of these yugas (a thousand cycles of the four yugas). So only once in those thousand cycles, that Krsna appears. So there are many cycles and only once Caitanya Mahaprabhu appears in a day of Brahma. It is only then that special mercy is available and now it is only 500 years after, which is very short. So we are incredibly close to the time of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and the whole world is touched by the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, which is present everywhere but people don’t see it because the influence of Kali is very present.

We remember the story of the bull Dharma, who stood on four legs and Kali was breaking these four legs. The four legs of Dharma were including, cleanliness (purity), truthfulness, austerity and compassion. So it is said that when man began to just kill for his food, then compassion was lost. Then when man started to take all kind of intoxicants then austerity is being destroyed because intoxication creates addiction somehow or other and then one becomes controlled and one no more has mental strength at all. That addiction will break any mental strength and one becomes a slave of some foolish habit. In this way intoxication destroys austerity. Illicit sex destroys cleanliness and purity. So all these were destroyed by Kali; he broke the legs of Dharma. Kali stood next to Dharma, holding a stick still in his hands. Only one leg was still there- the leg of truthfulness- but of course the bull Dharma standing on one leg was shaking and he was not able to do much. So therefore even truthfulness is shaking.

So this is the Age of Kali where illicit sex, intoxication and meat eating have become the standard. It’s just the most normal thing in the world now. But that was not so in the past. Now people think, how can you live without these things, it is natural. But that’s not the case actually. It just means that society at large has become degraded. In this way we are looking at the Age of Kali and the result is that more and more selfishness, more and more hard heartedness is manifesting in the Age of Kali.

A potent time

There are a thousand Kali yugas in which there is no Lord Caitanya. In these other 999 Kali yugas, there is also an incarnation of Visnu, a dark form of Visnu, who is doing some sort of sankirtana yajna (so it is described by Rupa Gosvami in his Laghu-bhagavatamrta)but that sankirtana yajna doesn’t have the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and therefore it is a very difficult process. One has to chant for a long time to get the results. Yes, the potency of the name is there but still, because offences are made in the chanting, especially in the Age of Kali, it takes a very long time. Therefore very few are getting the benefit. But because the mercy of Lord Caitanya is there, offences are overlooked and therefore, now, in this particular Kali yuga, the chanting of Hare Krsna is producing very quick and very big results. That is the special nature of this particular time. We have appeared in that time. So from a spiritual point of view this is a very potent time. At the same time the influence of Kali yuga is strong and that everybody can see. It’s not difficult to see that. Not only on the outside of us but everybody has become corrupted – some a little, some a lot by the Age of Kali and no one can say that they are not afflicted by the influence of Kali.

We see that great devotees like Krsnadas Kaviraja Gosvami give the example, saying, “I wish to take the dust from the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu…” and so many other great personalities. Taking the dust from the feet means to bow down and means to become humble, it means to give up one’s own agenda, to desire to give up one’s own goal in this material world and get behind the goal of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Well within that, we are still individuals, we still have to naturally be ourselves but we commit, ‘I will be a devotee, I will be a devotee of Mahaprabhu, a devotee of whatever He has established, His teachings…I will follow certain principles, I will chant, I will take shelter…’ Taking shelter means that we need to undergo purification. It’s not just automatic, ‘Now I will be a pure devotee!’ no, we need to undergo purification. So temples are meant for that purpose specifically, to give us opportunities for purification and there we have activities and a spiritual atmosphere. It’s dedicated to that and not to anything else. Temples are meant for hearing about Krsna, transcendental music…everything must be spiritual in the temple.  When material influence comes into the temple we have to throw it out, out, out! Because the whole world is full of material influence and we need to keep the temple as a pure place where we can come and where we can actually get some relief.

Flying our own plane

The pressure of the Age of Kali is very strong, it’s everywhere. As soon as we step out of the gate, it’s another world, as everybody knows. Of course we bring with us in that world whatever mercy we have received and whatever we did with that mercy. The mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu come in through our life and then it’s up to us to do something with it. Some don’t do so much but still they have the mercy and they keep it. Some are not looking after the mercy so well, then the mercy may become a little bit dry but it’s still there, it’s still not gone. But those who are really taking it and making something out of it and are really trying to take advantage of it, then their spiritual life starts flourishing. It’s an individual thing. Prabhupada gave that analogy of a plane and he said that when a plane is on the ground then there are many people by the plane: one is checking the tyres, another one is putting the fuel, another one is doing some other checks…there’s a whole lot of ground staff. So the ground staff are all around the plane and some are loading things on the plane, some are taking things off the plane…whatever they are doing. So Prabhupada said that on the ground, yes it’s all this support for the plane but as soon as the plane is in the air then the pilot has to deal with the situation and whatever happens up there he has to deal with it. So Prabhupada said that in the same way, everyone is flying his own plane in spiritual life.

In other words we are all together and we can look at the community of devotees and we can think, ‘well what are the devotees doing? What is the standard that everyone is following? Well, it cannot be expected of me that I am doing more than everybody else. I’m just also a normal person. So I cannot be expected to do what others are not doing?’ You see the logic behind that? That’s how people operate in this world- everyone looks at others and they do what others do. In that way we take support from each other. We are looking at, ‘what can another person manage? Alright, then I would also try to manage that. If ten others are doing it then maybe I should also be able to do it. But if nobody is doing it then how can I do it?’ So everyone has this; we are looking at what others are doing and sort of setting standards in our life for that. But in spiritual life it is a little different because everyone is flying his own plane. In that way everyone has his own relationship with Krsna and some are going to say in this material world for another 100 000 lives and some are going to go back this life! It’s up to the individual to decide where we want to be. Sometimes they say that in this movement, 90% of the people do 10% of the work and 10% of the people do 90% of the work. We can decide who we want to be with…

So one has to think about that; we cannot just do what others are doing because we have our own responsibility to Krsna. We fly our own plane- it’s between us and Krsna. We’ve got that mercy and it’s up to us to be serious. And of course we can find many reasons in the world which make our life difficult. One can think about a 100 problems in life which make it very difficult for us to practice this Krsna consciousness. Everyone can write down 100 special difficulties- ‘why I have an extra problem in being a devotee…’- like health, relationships with other people (family relationships, marriage relationships, work relationships- where there’s a whole field of problems! So in all these areas we can list our problems- then the government problems…it doesn’t end! And all these are giving us good reasons why it’s extra difficult for us to be a devotee and everyone feels like that. Everyone feels that, ‘it’s especially difficult for me. It is easier for others but my circumstance are such that it’s especially difficult for me.’ Everyone feels that. It is funny but we always feel that we are the one who somehow or other has it more difficult for us. But that’s not a fact. Everyone has the mercy and should think, ‘what will I do with it? Let me take it and develop it.’ Like maybe you find or get some small deities of Jagannatha- that’s mercy. Little Jagannatha, how nice-round eyes and everything! Now, what are we doing with Jagannatha, that’s up to us! That’s our choice. It’s entirely our choice. We get the holy name- what are we doing with it? It’s entirely our choice! And we can see that people, in any condition of life, somehow or other are being devotees. Prabhupada said that this chanting of Hare Krsna does not depend on external circumstances, it’s not for the rich, it’s not for the educated…it’s for everyone! Anyone can do it, anywhere. One can always chant Hare Krsna.

Taking shelter of the great devotees

So we all fly our own plane and we all have the individual responsibility to take advantage of this mercy. But we need support and sometimes when we look around us we don’t find it. But then we open up these scriptures and then we see a devotee like Krsnadas Kaviraja Gosvami and we see his prayer and we understand that he was very serious about going back to Godhead. And therefore he was looking for mercy and therefore he desires the dust of the feet. It is said the dust of the feet is found in two places: one is at the feet itself and one must bow down in order to get that dust. So to get the dust of that great saintly person, one must bow down. Bowing down is more than physically bowing down but bowing down means to bow down one’s will and to really, really take shelter of the saintly person and to say, ‘what would you recommend that I do?’ Obviously if you’re flying your own plane and you’re a pilot then you have some experience otherwise they wouldn’t let you fly (we hope) but then there are really, really expert pilots and these are the instructors. Even the regular pilots they go every once in a while for training, updating some new machines, this and that…so the experts come in and they are pointing out how you really fly a plane. In the cause of flying or you can think of driving, everyone develops his own habit, his own style and you start doing things…cut a few corners and start doing things not exactly proper. But then in the association of the experts, that’s all exposed. The expert goes there and says, ‘there are 20 bad habits that pilots generally develop’ and bang! Every pilot says, ‘oh my God that’s me!’

So through these books, these scriptures we are associating with Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s great devotees and then we can see where we are falling short. So that’s what these books are for. Because if we are just looking at our neighbour and looking at the devotee next to me, then the devotee next to me is just as hesitant as I am! I’m hesitating and, ‘shall I? Shall I?’ and the other one is looking and thinking, ‘Shall I? Shall I? Is he going to do it?’ and you’re looking like, ‘is he going to do it?’ we are looking always at our neighbours and thinking, ‘are they going to do it first? Then we’ll also do it.’ And then in the end nobody does it! Everyone is waiting for someone to come forward and in the end no one comes forward. I experienced it…okay I read books and I heard lectures and I was in Vrndavana and there was a lot of talk on the initiation, sannyasa, and then a whole group of men who were getting older were talking about it and said, ‘maybe we should’ and then I said, ‘maybe we should, okay I’m doing it’ and they all said, ‘yeah, yeah, very good, very good, do it!’ And then I did it and then I looked back and said, ‘what about you guys?’

‘Well, uhm…we’re working on it…’ And they are still working on it!

It’s up to us

So I felt like I made the jump and all the others didn’t jump! Not to criticise…but anyway the point is that we should always remember that at the end of the day, and that is literally at the end of the day, at the end of our life we are alone with Krsna. That’s when we are alone with Krsna. It doesn’t help that there’s a whole group of loving family members sitting around the bed and crying and, ‘oh! We feel so sad!’ It doesn’t help you because you’re all alone and you’re the one that’s going to have to die and not them, you’re leaving and they are sitting there and they can’t do anything for you. No one can say, ‘okay, I’ll go with you so you don’t have to face this alone,’ it’s not possible. Well someone may say, ‘okay ya, I’ll go with you…’but even then they are not really going with you. At that time we are all alone and at that time what counts is what we have done in our life, what we have done about taking advantage of the mercy.

So okay, my talk is focusing on our individual responsibility in spiritual life and that we have to take individual initiatives and ultimately….well, we chant at the beginning of our lectures,

om ajnana-timirandhasya
jnananjana-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena
tasmai sri-gurave namah

that by the mercy guru or the guru parampara, the disciplic succession of spiritual masters, our eyes have been opened. That is the mercy. The spiritual master gives us divya jnana, transcendental knowledge and with that transcendental knowledge we understand what to do. Then some will do it and some will not do it and that’s already understood. The spiritual masters already know that and they know that they can give this transcendental knowledge which is full of mercy and it will be received by people in various ways and some say, ‘thank you so much! Thank you soooooo much! This is what I’ve been waiting for my whole life! I thank you soooo much….’ and then they don’t do anything!’ Others, they may say nothing and they’re quiet but you see that they are doing something. Again there are others who say, ‘thank you so much,’ and they do something. So you can’t see by the outside. It is not necessarily the one who’s jumping the highest in the kirtan who is the most serious. It has to be consistent; not that you jump in the kirtan and then you go and have a smoke in the park around the corner! Some people tell me, ‘I’m chanting but I’m still drinking coffee…’ God! Are you going to stay in the material world for coffee? It’s not worth it so forget it!

As Bob Dylan sang that song, “one more cup of coffee before I go!” So that is for those devotees, ‘one more cup of coffee before I go back to Godhead!’

From the army boot camp to the liberal ISKCON

So like that our eyes have been opened and we get an opportunity and we must make something of the opportunity and it’s up to every individual. I’ve seen the Hare Krsna movement in different phases of its development. There were times when temples were like an army base and when things were like really rigid. There was a temple commander- he was the sergeant- and he would march on the asrama in the morning, (dramatic), ‘Get UP! UP!’ and they would cut the hot tap off; they wouldn’t just take the hot tap off the shower but they would cut it with a saw so that you can;t5 sneak in your own tap! So there was no hot water and there was no question of it! No question! ‘The brahmacaris took cold showers Prabhu! Brr! Even in the winter! Hot showers are sex life!’ So I have seen the army boot camp style of temples and I sometimes I see some remnants of it also but it’s not like how it used to be. I also have seen a more modern Hare Krsna movement… (to devotee) what did you tell me the other day about devotees coming to the temple, Vibhu Caitanya?

Vibhu Caitanya: It was a play by Bhakti Marg Swami and he shows a new guest coming in for the first time during Prabhupada’s time. And she comes in, ‘Hello anyone there?’ And this person is immediately there preaching to her, giving her a book, the swami comes in and gives her a book. Then it goes on to the Wild West and she comes in and someone starts preaching to her in a Southern American accent and she goes to another temple and someone preaches to her and it goes on like that. Then it comes to a next scene where it says, ‘ISKCON Today.’ So she walks in the temple, ‘hello, anyone there? Hello? Hello…’ and then it carries on like that and no one comes to greet her.

Maharaja: Ya, I remember going to a Sunday Feast when I was sort of new and I was a little hesitant to go because the Hare Krsna’s were extremely intense! And everybody knew that if you go close to these guys they are going to preach to you…and sure enough, on the Sunday Feast, there were more temple devotees than guests! And as soon as you had prasadam you would sit down in rows and some devotees would sit opposite of you and as soon as you had prasadam in your mouth they would start: ‘Surrender, you know! How can you not surrender to Krsna? Don’t you know that you are in this material world and that you are getting caught up in a network of sin and you will just suffer in hell and you will get so many reactions for all of these things that you are doing and why don’t you give it up and just surrender to Krsna and stay in the temple and what is your reason for not staying in the temple, tell me! ‘ and they would preach like that while you are trying to have your pakora!

So I’ve seen ISKCON in different times- from the army boot camp to the very liberal ISKCON. And I also myself, nowadays, I’m not giving thunder speeches because those days are over where you basically tell someone, ‘surrender or you’ll burn in hell!’ I don’t give those lectures anymore. But still, of course, if you don’t surrender there’s a good chance that you will burn in hell! I’m really sorry about that, what can I say! But I don’t want to force anyone!’ If you need some psychological support, I did read some books about counselling and all these things and I’m quite expert at this these days and I know everything about ‘emphatic listening’ where the counsellor is just sitting like (dramatic), ‘ya, ya….no, of course…no, ya, ya…I understand…no, ya, ya…that’s the problem…no, no, no don’t push yourself…no, no…yes please, I know it’s very difficult…’ I learnt these things and I’m expert at them these days and well trained but that only means that you are getting less help in flying your plane because you still are flying your own plane. It’s still between you and Krsna for so many lifetimes.

So Harikesa Prabhu was Prabhupada’s secretary for a long time and once he wrote somewhere in ‘Memories’ that  Prabhupada saw one devotee and he said to this devotee, “when will you get serious? I’ve been trying to deliver you for 600 lifetimes!” Life after life we are actually coming to Krsna but somehow or other we don’t get serious and then we come back again! Krsna is like that; Krsna is the one giving us that room, ‘Oh you want to take a little more time? Alright, take some more time.’ That’s Krsna.

Taking advantage of the mercy

So we see in a devotee like Krsnadas Kaviraja Gosvami that he’s made up his mind, ‘no, not me, no thank you. I’ve had enough! I’m getting out of here! I’m going to get serious this time.’ So there are many devotees like that who are getting serious and they are living a very auspicious life. It’s not an easy life because we are still in the Age of Kali and in the Age of kali nobody gets an easy life. An easy life doesn’t exist in this Age! It’s an Age of struggle and no matter what you do, you can’t escape it. Everyone is struggling in this Age of Kali; no one gets an easy life because it’s the nature of the Age. So the devotee who is taking advantage of the mercy and really trying, that devotee is going back to the spiritual world. Well I would like to be such a devotee. Of course, it’s not so simple and I know for that I have to improve and then that’s the next point where you say, ‘well, what can I do to improve the quality of my spiritual life?’ And then you come with a smaller group of devotees…there’s a large body of devotees who are part of Prabhupada’s movement and they are all part of the mercy and they are all getting it and they are all staying around. But then within the movement there’s a smaller group and that smaller group is more serious about, ‘okay, I want to be a pure devotee. Yes I want to give everything to Krsna and I just really want to do it.’

I was in Vrndavana and in those days I was in different services but always in management for many years. I saw many sannyasis coming into Vrndavana and I saw may other senior devotees coming into Vrndavana. And I saw that they have something- whatever it is- they have some shakti, they have some power. What is it? And it intrigued me. I thought, where did they get this spiritual power from? So I wanted to be closer to these kind of devotees and that is ultimately the way that one becomes more serious- by being with devotees who are more serious and more committed. Then we will also become more committed and more serious.

So this is what Krsnadas Kaviraja Gosvami is looking at and what we want. Of course Lord Caitanya is very merciful and even if there’s a little bit of impurity left in somebody’s heart they may still go back to Godhead if he’s done nice service. But still, we better get as much service in as we can and we better live as pure as we can. That is spiritual life. Then we can decide for ourselves on the material side what we want to do according to our nature. Everyone has their nature. On the material side, that’s alright. Like in this room I see a painter, I see people with business sense, I see actors- like myself, I’m a good actor! It’s all a show! (Laughter) So I see all that and that’s material but we don’t have to suppress our material nature for a hundred percent but our attachment to sinful activities will have to go. And even if it’s small things then that has to go.

What would you like me to do?

So that minority group of devotees who are more serious, they are a little bit heroic because they are ready to fight with their own weakness. Everyone has that weakness and they are ready to take on the fight with one’s own weakness. One cannot take on such fight alone; one must take shelter of a spiritual master who will sort of help us and set goals. It’s not that the spiritual master will control every millimetre of our life but we should come to the spiritual master. It’s not that he’s a policeman, a transcendental policeman, ‘alright, alright, alright! Pull over! Okay, what have you’ve been up to? How come you didn’t send me your weekly report? Where’s your sadhana sheet?’ and so on and so on…it is ultimately we who have to go for shelter. We have to ask for it. We have to even come to the spiritual master and say, ‘what would you like me to do?’ It’s a very scary thing! It’s sort of better to go up to the spiritual master and tell him, ‘well, I’m kind of interested in these things…’ and you test the waters and see if he’s kind of favourably inclined. If not then you let it quickly disappear and let it rest for a while and try and bring back the same plan but in a different coating and somehow or other try to sell it to him so that he finally says, ‘yes blessings!’

‘Okay, done! I surrender to my spiritual master! I’m completely working under the order of my spiritual master!’ This is of course not the best way and I mean really, to actually go without any motive and to simply ask, ‘what would you like me to do?’ Shew, you’ve got to be brave to do that! And it could be anything! Imagine you would ask him anything would you like me to do? And you ask him and God knows what he’s going to say…And he could say very casually…like you maybe a musician, a piano player and totally attached to it and he may just say, ‘well, it’s not so important.’ And that’s not even like, ‘you can’t do it anymore!’ but it’s just sort of some casual thing, ‘it’s not so important.’ And then suddenly it’s like, ‘oh my God! This was my whole life, this was my all inspiration in life and suddenly…it’s gone! It’s not there anymore!’ So it can be heavy…

But the spiritual masters, they have different techniques. Spiritual masters are tricky! They are pure devotees, they are serious about Krsna and about giving Krsna to others but they are sankirtana devotees. And sankirtana devotees, they know that somehow or other they have to sell Krsna consciousness to people. In selling, you don’t want to cheat; you tell the truth but there is a way to tell the truth! So the spiritual masters are Krsna’s salesman. They are selling pure devotional service and they know that if they would right away tell everything, then people might not buy. Prabhupada installed Jagannatha in San Francisco. He asked all the devotees to come forward and Hayagriva was in the front and Prabhupada took a tray, he put a little candle on the tray and then he said, “now take this candle and move it in circles in front of Jagannatha and then give it to the next person in the line and then he can also move it in circles around Jagannatha.” Everyone got a turn so when Hayagriva  was doing it he said, “wow this is fun! Is there more?” And Prabhupada said, “if I would tell you, you would faint!” So like that, Prabhupada didn’t tell everything all at once. We don’t always tell everything that we see, that we know…the spiritual master sees everything at a glance because he knows the fine line between spirit and matter and he knows the difference between Krsna and Maya. He even knows the fine, little points- how Maya comes in. Therefore he sees it, he sees even the subtle things of Maya, the subtle compromises that a person has made with Maya, he sees at a glance. You can’t hide; you can try to but sooner or later the spiritual master will know. Sometimes he acts as if he doesn’t see it but he can see that this disciple cannot take it. If you give him instructions that are too direct, he cannot take it. Of course, if a disciple cannot take any strong instructions and he’s given softer instructions then the progress of that disciple may be more slow. Those who take it ‘on the chest’, those who take it straight, they may get more powerful instructions and they’ll advance faster. One cannot play games with the spiritual master because while we are playing games with the spiritual master, the spiritual master is playing games with us. And his games are more powerful than our games because he, somehow or other, hooks us to Krsna. If we don’t surrender then the spiritual master puts little hooks and in this way, slowly and slowly hooks with strings that pull us slowly to Krsna. So like this, the best relationship is that we turn to the parampara open hearted and just surrender.

Be with devotees who have a strong desire to go back to Godhead

So I’ve tried this morning, like usual, to give some food for thought, something that you take with from the lecture and we can reflect on later on. And everyone can decide for himself. It is like that. Like me to you know, I’m at the end now of my tour of South Africa. I don’t know how many tours I made to South Africa. When I’m dead and gone then we can look at my life and you can say, he made so many tours to South Africa, so many tours to Australia, so many this, so many that…Just as we’re looking Prabhupada: he went 14 times around the world in 11 years to many, many countries…alright, so we can look at that and what he did and then some people can say, ‘Ya, I didn’t really have a relationship with him and I don’t really feel that my guru was like understanding me…’ well, so since I’m not dead I can comment on that, so I thought that I may as well bring up this point before I die and still give a  comment! (Laughter) So my comment to the one who will say that is that you can’t expect the guru to run after you. I mean gurus are already really going out of their way, trying to meet people. I mean, if we come all the way to South Africa then it’s really up to the people from South Africa to come out of their houses or wherever they are hiding and to come and meet us. I mean what can I do? I can’t go to everybody’s home, that’s for sure! I can’t go and find everyone and see where are they now and see under every tree where they are hiding…no. So ultimately it’s those who are coming. We can do some outreach, we can try and extend a hand, we can try and help people a little this way and that way but at the end of the day if someone feels I don’t have a relationship with my spiritual master then that means they are not doing anything about it. I don’t see my spiritual master so much because we are both sannyasis and he once told me that sannyasis wave at each other from planes! So it’s a little short- 1000km one way and 1000km the other way- so you don’t really get much time! So we don’t really don’t have so much time together but I’m trying to offer whatever I do to my spiritual master and I’m trying to think that he’s always looking over my shoulder. So sometimes when I do something I think, maybe I should change that, maybe he doesn’t like it.  So I’m doing it on my own and it’s always been like that in spiritual life. When I understood what I’m supposed to do then I try to do it on my own…and I took a lot of support from a lot of people…

Like when he speaks about Bhakti Marg Swami- Bhakti Marg Swami is tough! Not only does he do these plays but he walks…for preaching! I remember I was in Canada and he said, “well you want to come on the walk tomorrow?” and he was doing 40km in a day! I haven’t trained so for me 40km is a bit too much so I said okay I’ll do half, knowing my limitations. But even for me, 20km is like serious! And for most of us, if we suddenly have to walk 20km, then we go like wow, 20km! So okay, I went and we left early in the morning. We started walking and just close to noon, maybe 11:30 or so, the 20km was up so it was arranged that someone came to pick me up in a car and I was like finished in the car! Shew! My feet were like gone, my knees, my everything! So I went into the temple, it was a bit of a drive, got there just for lunch and then they said at 5 ‘o clock, we’re going on harinama! And I go like, my God! A 20km walk and now harinama! So I thought that I’d better take some rest after lunch and I can sleep really well after lunch! So I woke up and it was almost time for the harinama and then Bhakti Marg Swami just arrived from the 40km walk…and went straight into the harinama! And I’m supposed to be like a fired up kirtana leader, so I was but still I had to work hard to sort of keep up with him. Then after that I was finished! At night, after 10 ‘o clock I was like, that was a helluva day!  And then the next morning after five hours of sleep then I get up and Bhakti Marg Swami is already up! I mean you can’t knock him dead! He just goes and goes on desire, on a strong desire to be a pure devotee, a strong desire to take advantage of the mercy.

So I want to be with such devotees who have a desire. If somehow or other we can spend time with the devotees who have a desire to go back to Godhead, then that is very important.

Okay I think I made my point, I won’t go on. You must be tired now; this was like a 40km walk! So any questions or any comments?

Devotee: Maharaja, one devotee who had this great desire or who was part of the minority that wanted to go back to Godhead was mother Yamuna. And as you were speaking, her offering to Srila Prabhupada in 2002 came through, so I’ll just read it, it’s quite short:

“Dear Srila Prabhupada, I remember how kirtan was so intense and joyous in
your presence. How time and place dissolved in those kirtans. How your
thumbs lifted off the surface of your kartals as they sizzled in sound, and
how your vocal cords and mouth vibrated and extended as you filled a space
with hauntingly beautiful transcendental sound vibrations. I remember losing
myself in that sound and wishing never to leave this space or your presence.

“In this connection, I pray, even if only one more time,  to hold the
microphone for you as you chant your favorite Vaishnava prayer — Hari Hari
Biphale — as experienced that final time at Akash Ganga in Mumbai.

“I pray that one day in the future I may see you face to face again. This
vision may be many lifetimes in front of me, but I do not see any goal worth
achieving, however slow or difficult or impossible this task may seem from
my fallen position. There is nothing else more appealing.

“Please bless me with the perseverance to continue on the path to meet you.

“Your eternal servant, Yamuna Devi”

Maharaja: Yes, so Yamuna was one of the very, very first devotees who came to Prabhupada. In those days, these devotees became sold out to Prabhupada- completely cent per cent. And therefore they were really together. That was really struck me. When Yamuna left then I also gave a lecture about Yamuna the next evening. And then throughout the day I also read many things and the thing that struck me  was that how they all got behind pleasing Prabhupada and for that they did so much together and it was just amazing! It didn’t need so much of  big meetings. There’s this story of how Syamasundara started to build a Ratha cart in London on his own. And somehow or other, they were renting a place and he started doing it in the garden. So they had this flat and he’s building this Ratha cart in the garden and the landlady is living upstairs and she thinking, ‘what’s thing going on in the garden!’ they just build this huge cart in the garden! And everybody got into it immediately! It was Syamasundara’s idea and he was a hundred percent behind it. So this spirit was there and Prabhupada became everything for them and you can see in the end that her highest goal is just to meet Prabhupada.

For many of us, every day we stand in the guru puja and we worship Prabhupada and we’ve sort of got in there like a symbol of a pure devotee and so on but we keep distant, very distant. So we should also connect with Prabhupada, we can. We can develop a relationship although we have never met him in person by finding out more about his life, about what he wanted and dedicating ourselves to it. Then we’ll find that actually our gurus will become very enthusiastic because they are the servant of Prabhupada. And when anyone starts to really serve Prabhupada then the guru goes like, ‘hey, that’s wonderful! You have understood! Now you are an assistant! Now you are doing what I’m trying to do, I’m trying to serve Prabhupada. Now you are a disciple that is of great help to me.’ Some disciples are a burden and some are help- naturally. Some children are a help and some kids are a burden! Every family has some problem cases and some of your kids will help you in the family business or whatever. That is natural.

So Yamuna was one of those who really tried to help Prabhupada’s mission with a hundred percent dedication.

You had a question?

Devotee: Yes Maharaja, my question is how can people of the Age of Kali get that mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu that was extended to those devotees at the time of Caitanya Mahaprabhu? (question rephrased)

Maharaja: Yes, the mercy that goes out to people who don’t know about Him is ultimately by engaging them in glorifying Krsna. What Lord Caitanya is doing, is really glorifying Krsna and that is the meaning of life. The kirtan is glorifying Krsna or the books are glorifying Krsna…so some people get a book and that’s their first connection. For others, the kirtan is the first connection. Another one, the prasadam is the first connection…whatever the first connection may be, these all come together- kirtan, prasadam and books. These are the three things that will ultimately connect someone with the mercy of Lord Caitanya. So that’s our program. Call it Food For Life- call it whatever you want- but it’s prasadam. Harinama, kirtan- we do it in the streets, we do it here…the kirtan never stops! It goes on! And the books…now we print them in the local languages with the idea that they becomes accessible to the people. Nowadays, most African people speak good English. In fact I meet some young people who go like, ‘oh you have a Zulu book, very nice, I’m really happy. But can you get me an English one because I can’t read Zulu. I can speak it but I can’t read it.’ But still it’s a gesture…they see the Zulu book and they think, ‘this is for me.’

Last year we had two devotees from America and they visited here. There was a lady and she is Gujarati originally but she’s a business lady and she’s into book distribution also. So she set up, right in front of the temple in Durban, and started distributing books there! And there’s always people there going to work, coming over the hill and you see all these people coming by and she’s giving all these books to African people and she said, ‘you know, you should come and visit the temple.’ And she says, ‘can we go there? But that’s for Indians isn’t it?’ So those are the barriers that we have existing in this country and the people walk past your doorstep every day, they walk right past! And just one little book…boom! Suddenly you can break the barrier and some might think, ‘I can go there actually!’

So like this- kirtan, books and prasadam. So always carry a few little books with you and when you meet a person who’s interested then give him a book….Carry some prasadam and say, ‘here try this.’

Devotee: Maharaja, on the topic of family…the kirtan and prasadam doesn’t work…

Maharaja: It works- 007- the secret prasadam! You don’t have to say this is prasadam. When they come home you can say, ‘this is an apple pie and I personally baked this for you because I love you all so much and I miss you so much…’ and meanwhile ‘ting, ting, ting,’ we’ve offered it nicely to Krsna- James Bond 007!

Devotee continues: …because I know with my family they are not going to touch the books…

Maharaja: ..yes my family is he same, they are not going to touch the Hare Krsna book- forget it!

Devotee continues: Christmas was a nightmare and even prasadam they wouldn’t even touch…

Maharaja: …yes my brother doesn’t touch it but I give it to his kid when he’s not watching!

Devotee continues: So I just wanted to know about family, because I have always been told, ‘don’t preach to families’ because they are in the category…(inaudible)

Maharaja: Yes, so preach to them tactfully. Not like, ‘preach, preach, preach! You are like so sinful and you have to give this up!’ No, but in tricky ways we can do it.

Devotee continues: …but I’m not even attached to my family, so do I even have that obligation, can’t I just leave them?

Maharaja: You can and sometimes when you don’t leave them after all, oh well, then you throw some maha water in the juice. And you leave some books around the house…

Okay it was a long talk and I think we are finished. Thank you all for coming and we will meet again I guess.

Srila Prabhupada ki, Jaya!

We’re reading from Srimad Bhagavatam, 7^th Canto, Chapter 14, “The ideal family life,” text number 2:

sri-narada uvaca
grhesv avasthito rajan
kriyah kurvan yathocitah
vasudevarpanam saksad
upasita maha-munin

Translation: Narada Muni replied: My dear King, those who stay at home as householders must act to earn their livelihood, and instead of trying to enjoy the results of their work themselves, they should offer these results to Krsna, Vasudeva. How to satisfy Vasudeva in this life can be perfectly understood through the association of great devotees of the Lord.

(Purport)

(Invocatory Prayers)

Goodbye sense gratification

Srila Prabhupada, in the purport, immediately takes a verse from the Bhagavad Gita, from the 6^th chapter, where he describes the renounced order of life. It’s interesting because the topic in the verse is the grhastha asrama and Prabhupada begins to speak about the renounced order of life because his point is basically is that whatever asrama one may be in, one has to really say goodbye to sense gratification. That is the point- goodbye to sense gratification and one should really get serious about spiritual life. That is Prabhupada’s point: “Whether one acts as a brahmacari, grhastha, vanaprastha or sannyasi he must act only for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord.” That is goodbye sense gratification because sense gratification is to act for the pleasure of our own senses. So that means a total revolution, that means a serious change in our life and what to say…we are hesitating. Even those who have taken sannyasa are hesitating, everyone is hesitating to really make that jump and say everything for Krsna.

Therefore we are looking for sources of inspiration and strength and with time we realise that we need that more and more. Wherever we see extraordinary dedication to guru and Krsna, that is where we turn.  We go on places of pilgrimage, we read about such personalities or we meditate on such devotees. In that way we try to take inspiration. Srila Prabhupada states these things but to actually do it is not simple at all but still, that is the thing to do. We see that at the end of the purport, Prabhupada is emphasising the point that in India in villages 50 years ago, in suburbs of Calcutta, people were all engaged in hearing Srimad Bhagavatam when all their activities ended or at least in the evening before going to bed. So that is nice. Sanatana Gosvami also is glorifying Srimad Bhagavatam and he calls Srimad Bhagavatam his “constant companion.” So I mean, that’s a meditation, to make Bhagavatam our constant companion. To either read Bhagavatam or remember Bhagavatam or think about Bhagavatam or think about Krsna and his pure devotee. That basically is what is going on so that we can get that strength through the saksad upasita maha-munin, by worshipping the great devotees. This worship of the great devotees is very purifying and it can immediately uplift us.

Devotees are our saving grace

In the Caitanya Siksamrta, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, has explained that a devotee who has nistha can create faith in the heart of conditioned souls. He said a devotee who is in the stage of bhava can lift others up to the stage of ruci because this devotee in ecstasy, is sharing that ecstasy with others. That is why others are also getting a taste in spiritual life. And when that taste becomes more regular, due to regular association, then a person can actually come to the stage of ruci, a stage where one lives in that taste of serving Krsna, glorifying Krsna and so on. It is said that a devotee on the platform of Krsna-prema, there is no limit in how much such a devotee can elevate any conditioned soul; he can raise that conditioned soul up to the platform of prema. That we saw in Haridasa Thakura who brought that prostitute to the point where he was also, although she was completely fallen and materialistic. Somehow or other by his chanting she became elevated to a point where she was also able to chant 300 000 names of the Lord everyday, which means that he lifted her up to a platform  of chanting in great ecstasy. Otherwise you can’t chant 300 000 names everyday! Maybe on determination; if one is very determined and can chant 300 000 names on one day… ‘I will do it! I shall do it! I must do it! (dramatic chanting) Done! See, now just like Haridas Thakura I’ve chanted 300 000 names!’ Good, good, good, now do it again, the next day! ‘Okay, (dramatic chanting) Done it! Done it! And the next day as well!’ Alright, do it again, the next day….On determination alone it’s not going to work. ‘This is too much, this is impossible…’ well, it must be on higher taste.

So in this way, in the Siksamrta, we see that different devotees on different levels have the capacity to uplift others to different levels. That is interesting. So we are always connecting with the saintly devotees, always with the enthusiasm of devotees. I also like that story about Visnujana and his kirtan and then someone said, ‘oh Visnujana, you’re always so enthusiastic in kirtan,’ and then Visnujana said, “no, I’m not always so enthusiastic in kirtan but I just act enthusiastic in kirtan and then the devotees become enthusiastic in kirtan and that makes me enthusiastic!” So that is very nice because it shows the reciprocation of devotees and how the enthusiasm of one devotee makes the other devotee enthusiastic. Like this morning during mangal arati, the walls were vibrating. It was the enthusiasm! Like that we see that the devotees are depending on each other. When one is weak, another one is strong and in this way we rely on each other’s spiritual strength and we always stay close to the devotees, even if it is sometimes difficult because the association of the devotees is being stressed and of course we are looking for inspiration in the association of the devotees.

There is a reference in the Caitanya Caritamrta about Gadhadhara Pandit and it is said that Vallabha Acarya had written a commentary on the Bhagavatam and he was at some points in disagreements with Sridhara Swami, the original Bhagavatam commentator. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu didn’t want to hear his commentary so when Caitanya Mahaprabhu didn’t want to hear it then no one wanted to hear it. And Vallabha Acarya was very much depressed because of that. But Gadhadhara was extremely soft and therefore he just one day overpowered Gadhadhara! He cornered him and he just said, “Now I am going to recite my commentary on Bhagavatam to you!” And then Gadhadhara is like, “Please…oh Lord, save me, save me, save me!” and he was thinking, “yes, Lord Caitanya, He will forgive me because He understands but I fear the devotees because they are very strict and they are not very tolerant.” So this showed another aspect of the devotees association that the devotees are strict and are like, ‘Maya! Maya! Maya!’ Therefore in the association of the devotees one also feels pushed to live up to a certain standard- peer pressure! So that is also there. And sometimes if the association of devotees is not directly inspiring us then at least indirectly it’s inspiring us to realise more about the verse, 

trnad api sunicena
taror api sahisnuna
amanina manadena
kirtaniyah sada harih,

then at least we can learn tolerance because we are not all pure devotees and it is sometimes not so easy to deal with each other’s false ego. That can be intense and in that way we are also developing tolerance in the association of devotees.

But whatever may be, we stay close to the devotees because that is our saving grace. And we see that when devotees become too distant from other devotees then they are at risk and many are watering down the spiritual standards more and more. What to do… And devotees together should maintain a culture of hearing and chanting and adhering to vaisnava principles. That culture is their strength because devotees find strength by taking shelter. That is the principle.

Our shelter

Sometimes I come on this point of taking shelter and how no one on his own is spiritually strong. It’s just by taking shelter that one becomes spiritually strong. So yes, again and again we must take shelter. The mind says, ‘no!’ the body says, ‘no!’ that may be…and even people around us might say, ‘what are you doing? Come on!’ maybe those who are close to us will shake their heads and say, ‘you’re gone! You’re lost! You’re totally impractical! Be more practical! I mean how are you going to deal with life like this? Now you’re young, and you think you are going to last like this your whole life? And what will you have later on, when you’ll need it to fall back on? Nothing! You’re wasting the best years of your life!’ In this way we hear and seeds of doubt are planted in our consciousness by the environment, by family, by friends, by the media, by our own minds…So how do we counteract all these mundane influences that are somehow or other entering our consciousness? By just turning back to the devotees, it’s so nice!

The other day in Durban we came on the theme of reading many literatures and we went around the room and everyone gave a comment and at the end it was my turn. My point was that when reading Srila Prabhupada’s books, we don’t need any filters and you can just drink it in. And anything from Prabhupada’s books just enters our consciousness and is a benediction! It does good and is favourable and auspicious, whereas in the world, whatever we look at, we always have to look through filters and just filter out the good and just push away the bad and so on. And even that may be there with other sources of information about devotional service. But when it comes to Prabhupada’s books, all filters off! It’s so relaxing because it always takes energy, wherever we are, to be on guard and we just filter it out, all the rubbish and just constantly all day long- filters, filters, filters…But when we turn to Prabhupada, switch filters off! When we come to the devotees, to the temple….relief! Now we can relax! Here everything is right; it’s no weird, it’s not twisted, it’s not off, it’s not cynical, it’s not sarcastic, it’s not sceptical, it’s not perverted, it’s not sick…it’s just normal! Phew- finally! The whole day we are confronted with people who have committed themselves to some form of contamination, dedicated whole heartedly to a contaminated goal.

Like in airports I see all kinds of people and I study them (my hobby is to study people). Like a story of a man in a black suit, a very fancy suit, and he had a little speck on his suit. So what he did was, he licked his hand and then he started to smear saliva all over it! And then he got into it like a cat (dramatic), smearing saliva over his whole suit! And I was sitting there on the edge of saying, ‘what on earth are you doing! You’re smearing saliva all over your suit!’ I had to bite my tongue to not create a public scene! So I like to study people….and we see in the morning, the businessman and then we see that they are all dressed in office clothes and cutting the successful profile, and jolly in a little circle and they have to say the right thing and you can see that they are sold out to the money! You see the smiles, the false, Pepsodent, or whatever other toothpaste, smile! It’s just like unreal and you see the hypocrisy in their faces as they talk to each other! And as they turn to the world… ‘I want your money!’  It’s just contaminating, to see that is just contaminating. Then you see the old men with the Thai girls! It’s very popular these days. The Thai girls don’t mind marrying the old men because they die quick and the girls get a lot of money after that. And you see these old guys, they are all over these girls and their hands are everywhere! And it’s like oh God, so early in the morning…Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare…

So all day long we’ve got to face these things. When you fly with American airlines and the stewardess walks in the aisle and she looks like she knows it all, done it all, heard it all, seen it all…if you know what I mean- seasoned all the way! And as soon as I see a lady like that I go, ‘oh God save me!’ I mean, where is the purity? Then when we see purity in devotees, who are just dedicated to purity then what a relief! Here are people who are into becoming elevated instead of degraded- thoroughly degraded! To look at all these things in the face is just contaminating and we have to filter it out, like firewalls around our brain to keep out the viruses and all horrible things. So how nice is the association of devotees! 

Embracing the vaisnava culture

And then one can also rise above differences between natures- this one has a nature that’s like that and that one has a nature that is like this! And this one is ladidadidadida…and one goes (dramatic), ‘now you listen here prabhu, I want to make myself really clear…!’ and the other is like, (dramatic- spaced out case) and ‘bhakta Bonzo your mouth is hanging opened!’ I mean it takes all kinds to make up a movement! Undoubtedly! But whatever may be of these natures is not so important and we just overlook the side in the nature that we don’t like so much because they are dedicated to Krsna and that is the main thing. Altogether we are behind Prabhupada, we are with the saints you know, (sings) ‘oh when the saints…go marching in…’ So it’s a great song! That’s it, that’s the Hare Krsna movement; we want to be there with the saints!

And of course we hope that they notice us…I remember a film of Roman Polanski where these ordinary people were infiltrating with a whole group of vampires. And the vampires were in a gathering and there was a ball- not a football but a ball where they were all dancing- with the vampires and it was in a palace. And our friends were also infiltrating in there and they were dressed up in the same dress and so on. But everything was going well until they stood in front of the mirror because vampires, their bodies don’t show up in a mirror and suddenly their bodies reflected in the mirror and all the vampires just saw it! They suddenly realised….run, run, run, run for your life! So yes, we are so often in situations of people who suck our life force, who suck our spiritual life force and their association is just draining. So many people are like that, everywhere in society. So many things like that. So many things we have to see. But we were born in this world. Once upon a time we also had these big teeth (vampire) but we got rid of them and now we are devotees. But we were born in this world and accustomed to this world and therefore our mind being conditioned tends to just tell us that it’s normal. (Dramatic), ‘Well you know…well…well..’ and everything is contaminated- the language, ‘this guy and that guy and look at that guy…look at the prabhu!’ So it changes the whole thing, it immediately changes the attitude, the mood as soon as we get into this language of our environment. So the environment is very heavy and is weighing on our mind and has already entered and has taken over and little by little we are becoming liberated from this infiltration that has entered deep into our whole being and it’s a whole thing to throw it off by embracing the vaisnava way, the vaisnava culture. Step by step one has to embrace it and leave the other culture.

Yes, it’s completely funny to see a person completely dressed up like an extreme creature, namely, a Hare Krsna, who is trying to act normal with people! I mean forget it, you’re not normal! No matter how much you are trying to be normal, it’s never going to be normal enough. The more we try to be normal to people it’s still to strange and may not be normal enough. We may as well be strange. Better be strange and be really strange- why be half strange? I mean to be half strange, you’re neither here or neither there. Better to be completely strange- ‘Haribol!’ ‘Hare Krsna!’We may as well go for it and go for the identity of a vaisnava and take shelter. That is the point.

Of course, Prabhupada also on a morning walk said, “Good morning!” to someone and the devotees asked, “Prabhupada, why did you say good morning? Why didn’t you say Hare Krsna?” And Prabhupada said, “I said good morning so that he could wish me good morning in return and in that way do some service and he was making an offering.” When people voluntarily make an offering, oh that’s devotional service! Just like yesterday we walking on the beach and the guy on the bench was a bit of a…well, he was one of those bench people! A typical bench man! He spontaneously said, “oh, I really like your dress because it’s spiritual!” That was service, that was the kind of thing which one gets a lot of mercy of Lord Caitanya. That’s why I wanted him to have a book although he was ranting and raving…but anyway, what to do! He went on a preaching rave and he got carried away by the modes as he was doing that but that I didn’t care about because he had done voluntary service and that was the essence. For that, he had attracted the mercy of Lord Caitanya undoubtedly.

Adopting a mood of glorifying devotees

Let us just get into being devotees and then gradually adopt the values of being devotees and glorify devotees and find good qualities in devotees. In Radhadesh they had a custom, that at the end of the year after the Christmas marathon (and maybe they still have it), they had a session where they glorify all the devotees- not only the sankirtana devotees but every devotee. And you get someone to say something about everyone and it goes on for six hours! I mean, I can’t sit through it, my back, my bones, my everything…and it goes on for six hours and they get everybody to come forward to say something about everyone. And someone comes up and says like, “Madana Gopala is always peeling the potatoes!” So it’s like that, they find something to glorify! But it’s purifying in different ways- just sitting there is purifying in terms of austerity! It is purifying. Actually after that, the relationship with the devotees have improved, it really works. And it’s amazing because you know, people ghet stuck in their niches and when you live in the temple then after a while everyone has his niche, his corner and they look at other people in their niches and then you go like, ‘Hmph!’ And people in relationships they get like that, they think about each other like, ‘Hmph!’ These things creep in the relationships and then when we go through a glorification session, then we realise that after that it’s changed a little bit. So this is very nice. So if we have this culture, of practising glorifying the vaisnavas then something starts to happen. And the layers of contamination that starts to stick to our consciousness will start to slowly disappear. So this is very nice. Therefore upasita maha-munin, we are worshipping the devotees.

Okay, I’ve bounced the ball around; you take a verse and then you sort of juggle it a little and I think I’ve juggled it and now it’s your turn to come up with comments or questions.

Question: Maharaja, what did you mean when you said a person that drains one’s energy…is it a devotee also and maybe even a senior devotee?

Maharaja: I’m really sorry for that (laughter), I’ll try to correct myself. No, no, no, no; with devotees it’s not like that. When we feel drained by devotees it means that we ourselves are still a little bit like the kitchen sink. It means that it all goes down the kitchen sink, it means that we ourselves have not yet developed the eyes to see the good side. So we should see more the good side of the devotees and see that, ‘actually he’s got a few rough edges, he does, but then again he’s also very dedicated.’ Of course I may keep like a few metres distance, that’s all right. If it gets too much, one can keep a respectful distance but at the same time one must see the good qualities in a person and must try to look for good qualities because every devotee has. So when we get overwhelmed by seeing the negative side of a devotee then we have to see that, ‘I’ve got my negative glasses on and I have to change my glasses and see the positive side of the devotee.’

Remember the story of Yudhisthira and Duryodhana? They were asked by Drona Acarya to go into the world and he asked Duryodhana, “Duryodhana, please go into the world and find one good person.’ And he asked Yudhisthira, “please go into the world and find one bad person.” They both went all over the place and Duryodhana was back first so Dronacaraya asked him, “So Duryodhana, did you find any good person in the world?” and Duryodhana said, “I really tried, I really tried but I couldn’t find! Everyone’s got something bad!” and then Yudhisthira came back and Dronacarya asked him, “Yudhisthira, did you find any bad person in this world?” and Yudhisthira said, “I looked everywhere, I looked everywhere but I can’t find anyone bad because everyone has some good quality.” So who do you want to be Duryodhana or Yudhisthira?

Anyone else?

Question: I heard that in the association of devotees the internal energy is there. Can you explain that maybe?

Maharaja: The internal energy is the activity or the energy that pleases Krsna and that is the internal energy. It is the pleasure potency that has the power to please Krsna. Nothing else can please Krsna. So in the interaction with devotees, there is the energy that can please Krsna, if the interaction between devotees is pure. If it’s based on false ego then it may not always be pleasing…but that’s the reason; in the exchange there are principles that are pleasing to Krsna because devotees are after all appreciating devotion to Krsna in each other. That’s what we appreciate the devotee for. Like see a devotee who makes a sacrifice in devotional service is appreciated. Last year we went to the BBT conference and this mataji from Kenya impressed everyone! She’s just a tiny mataji and she standing there in the streets of Nairobi, right there, down town, in the heart of the African city. And she’s all day long distributing books to these kind of people. And it’s not soft; everyone knows that that is serious street life and she’s out there and she’s doing it. And she was just bubbling with enthusiasm and determination. then she sorts of says, “yes, it’s okay, I have my spot and I stand close to a security guard and he’s my friend, I keep my extra books there and at the same time he keeps an eye on me also. So she’s  got it all under control and she looks like very innocent and meanwhile totally fixed and determined and bang- and everyone walks away with a book! She impressed everyone with her dedication. So that’s the internal energy that we see. We see, wow, look at this devotee! Look how much service this devotee is doing! Look at Madana Gopala (devotee in audience); look at how many potatoes he’s peeling! Therefore the service of the devotee is naturally enlivening us and enlivening Krsna.

Srila Prabhupada ki, Jaya!

Quickly browsing to the letters that Prabhupada wrote to Gurudasa her husband, “I have great regard for her”, and to Yamuna directly,” I have full faith in you.”

Yamuna was on the team that first went to London, this is from her memories;
“By the enthusiasm that Srila Prabhupada had given us in Montreal we were able to make contact with George Harrison, who was a member of the Beatles at the time. And he was such a pleasant person to be with. He so much appreciated the Hare Krishna mantra that he immediately said, “Lets make a 45 record.” So we cut a record and he was very pleased with it.He did a little background music on it and it was released and Apple organized tours for us. We went to Germany and France and had television coverage.
And in this way the London Times, the Sunday Times, wanted to do a feature on us. And we were able to send the report back to Srila Prabhupada with the headlines,
“Krishna consciousness startles London.”

Sila Prabhupada was her life and soul and I am sure that she is now with him and again a devotee has left this world, who can not be replaced. I pray to her for the inspiration to dedicate my life to Srila Prabhupada.

The servant of the servant of Srila Prabhupada,
Kadamba Kanana Swami

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

There is an attempt in Russia to ban the Bhagavad Gita., we can not just let it happen without any form of protest. It’s time to speak up! Please sign this petition on line, we must try to do something to stop this.

They need the signatures on latest Sunday, Dec 18th!

It would be really good if everyone, who reads this, could sign the petition. Please do it now, without delay!

http://www.petitions24.com/gita

and please forward this link to others.

Your in service to Srila Prabhupada,

Kadamba Kanana Swami

jaya jaya sri-caitanya jaya nityananda
jayadvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vrnda

 We’re reading from Sri Caitanya Caritamrta, Adi lila, chapter 8, entitled, “The author receives the order of Krsna and guru,” text 79: 

sei likhi, madana-gopala ye likhaya
kasthera puttali yena kuhake nacaya

Translation: As a wooden doll is made to dance by a magician, I write as Madana-gopala orders me to do so.

(Purport)

(Invocatory prayers)

To be the instrument of Krsna

As a doll is made to dance…this marionette, the puppet on strings, is not dancing independently. It is said that in the same way, the pure devotee is the instrument of the Supreme Lord and the Supreme Lord from within the heart is dictating His desires through him. In that way this devotee is becoming an instrument, nimitta-matram bhava savya-sacin- as it is said in the Bhagavad Gita. Savya Sacin- to become the instrument of the Lord. That is the idea. To put false ego aside, to put false dreams aside, to put what we want to be aside or to put lamentation of all that we couldn’t get… to put it aside and to simply be what Krsna wants us to be. We should accept that and preach accordingly. Destiny somehow or other gives us a certain service and then we develop that service. The mind may come up with so many things- not satisfied, restless, disturbed…the mind is not our friend, it is stated and in the conditioned state, only the pure devotee, his mind becomes his friend. The mind is no longer in conflict, the mind is no longer pulling in another direction and the mind simply becomes purified. ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-maha-davagni-nirvapanam, it is said by chanting Hare Krsna, the consciousness becomes purified. The consciousness is like a mirror and this mirror is simply reflecting Krsna or His desire in various ways.

 Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami was writing the Caitanya Caritamrta. How he was writing was inconceivable because the Caitanya Caritamrta is in a way a book full of quotes from different scriptures. It is therefore a book, which is not something which is written like on the top off ones head but it is a book that has a lot of work in it. A lot of work- by taking quotes here and there from different scriptures and it means the writer has to do hard work. One can also just write something that comes into the head but if one starts to pull in evidence from here and there then that is a serious book. So the Caitanya Caritamrta is like that, it’s a serious work but he was in his 90’s when he was writing it! So most people in their 90’s are like slowing down a little, the brain is no longer in such a good condition and Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami, in the last chapter of the Cc is writing like that; he is saying, “my memory is finished, my eye sight is gone, my hand is trembling so much, my body is full of disease…how am I writing? How is this possible? It’s not me who is writing, it’s the Supreme Lord who is dictating, dictating from within.” Caitya-guru, Srila Prabhupada explains, is the guru in the heart, Krsna who is acting as guru in the heart. In this way the pure devotee, he knows what to do, he knows from within.

We cannot imitate because when we start listening to the heart then actually we are listening to our mind and how do you know what comes from the mind and what comes the heart? It’s very difficult. We say, ‘yes, yes we feel it,’ but later we realise that no, that was not Krsna, that was my mind. At the time when I got the message, I thought, yes, yes, this is Krsna’s desire but now I realise that it’s my mind. My mind is just pushing me through the three modes of material nature and in the three modes of material nature we desire to enjoy this and that. That is the mind and that will bring us suffering, it will bind us because the mind is the seat of the senses. The senses are connected to the mind so whatever we perceive through the eyes, the nose, the ears or the sense of touch, all that is connected to the mind. In the mind we store remembrances of previous experience. For so long no sense enjoyment and then we remember that, ‘actually the last time it wasn’t that bad, let’s have it again. Of course that is difficult then one has to struggle to try and get the same enjoyment again. So these are all being on the mental platform.

To be the servant of the servant

Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami was obviously another type of devotee. He was always thinking of Krsna. According to the Gaura- ganoddesa- dipika from Kavi Karnapura, which is a book that basically describes the ‘who is who.’ It describes who in the pastimes of Lord Caitanya, what role they played in the pastimes of Krsna because after all, Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krsna. So He has come back now as Caitanya Mahaprabhu then along with Him all His associates also come like that and vrajendra-nandana yei,     saci-suta haila sei, balarama ha-ila nitai. That Vrajendra-nandana, the son of Vraja, the son of Nanda (Vrajendra means the controller of Vraja, Nanda Maharaja) has now appeared as saci suta, the son of Saci. And Balarama, He has come as Nitai. So Krsna and Balarama appear and along with Krsna and Balarama all the associates also appear. So we see that so many of the devotees with Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu were also there with Krsna and then we can see who they were. So the Gaura- ganoddesa-dipika is saying that Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami was Kasthuri Manjari, one of the gopis described as nitya sakhis, or the eternal friends of Srimati Radharani. Of course it is known that Krsna is not only enjoying with Srimati Radharani but also with other gopis. But these nitya sakhis, they are performing austerities to become free from the desire to be embraced by Krsna so that their desire is only to serve Radharani and nothing else. Those are the nitya sakhis.

So Kasthuri Manjari is one of these sakhis and they perform these austerities. Srila Jiva Goswami describes that they perform these austerities and then as a reward for their austerities they perform a bathing ceremony of Srimati Radharani, who was always in that mood of somehow or other serving Radha and Krsna, by serving Radharani. That actually is the mood of Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s followers that, ‘I am not a great devotee, so what can I do to please Krsna? Here I am doing some service for Krsna but what does Krsna care about my little service in comparison to the service of His great devotees. Therefore better than trying to make my offering and say Krsna here is my offering, I’ll make my offering to assist a greater devotee and in that way Krsna will be more pleased.’ So that is the mood in Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement, to assist the greater devotee and not to just say, ‘out of the way! Here I am! I am serving Krsna!’ so that is our mood. One serves the spiritual master, one serves the vaisnavas, the senior vaisnavas and one thinks, ‘who am I? I am simply an assistant.’ That is important. It’s obviously in that where humility develops, in that mood of being an assistant and all assistants are assistants of Srimati Radharani, who is the topmost.

So Krsnadas Kaviraja Gosvami comes in that mood now to assist Caitanya Mahaprabhu. When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu comes into this world then all these associates come and in the spiritual world, they are close servants. Rupa Manjari is Rupa Goswami. Rupa Manjari is the direct servant of Lalita. The most intimate servants are Lalita and Vishaka. It is said that they are members of the asta-sakhis and they are expansions of Srimati Radharani. So Radharani is serving Krsna in a particular mood but then She expands Herself into other forms that have a little bit different mood so that She can also serve Krsna in another mood simultaneously. Like that, it is going on.

The service of the Goswamis

The point is that Rupa Goswami is a real leader amongst all the devotees. Rupa Goswami is distributing service as an assistant of Lalita. So there is a whole heirachy, it’s not that everyone is in the spiritual world and walking around in the mood of, ‘I’m serving Krsna…’ and it’s all just ‘Krsna, Krsna, Krsna, Krsna…’ no, everyone is serving some other servant and service is given, not that service is taken. In this way everyone is given some service. There is incidental service, service that you do sometimes. That may be given just once, ‘do this service,’ ‘yes, thank you. Done!’ and then there is a fixed service, a service where one takes responsibility for a particular service. In that fixed service, there we are developing that service, improving the service. That is of a higher calibre. So we see that all the eternal associates of the Lord have a fixed service.

 So when Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu came into this world then we see that Rupa and Sanatana Goswamis also came and they came to write books, elaborating on the teachings of Caitanya Mahaprabhu as they had heard it and then establishing these teachings based on conclusions of various scriptures. nana-sastra-vicaranaika-nipunau sad-dharma-samsthapakau, they took different things from so many scriptures and they found evidence of everything they had already heard from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So in this way they established all the conclusions of Mahaprabhu on the basis of scripture. Not that Mahaprabhu could have not done that Himself but He left it for them to do that, ‘okay you do that; this is the essence and you do that work…’ and then Jiva Goswami came and he was brilliant, absolutely brilliant! Such a learned person! Such a brain! So sharp that Jiva Goswami was defeating all other philosophers and clearly establishing vaisnavism based on Srimad Bhagavatam as the truth. And then Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami came…

He appeared during the time that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was still on the planet but he never met Him because he was still a child at the time. Only later when he was grown up did he go to Vrndavana and he spent some significant amount of time in Vrndavana. Exactly how long, he’s not sure and in Vrndavana he resided in Radha Kunda and he became the assistant of Raghunatha das Goswami. So Raghunatha Goswami is interesting because he was born of a very, very wealthy family. It is said that at that time his father was having a monthly income of 1.2 million rupees. So if even today- 500 years later- you can imagine, incredibly wealthy! Inconceivably wealthy! And Raghunatha das just gave it up, he gave up everything, he gave up all that wealth and he became completely renounced and his renunciation was just inconceivable. He came to Jagannatha Puri and joined Caitanya Mahaprabhu  there. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu placed him under the care of Swarup Damodara Goswami and Swarup Damodara Goswami was teaching Raghunatha, not in renunciation but in antaranga-seva. He was teaching him according to his eternal spiritual identity, which is for the very advanced devotees. So he was serving under Swarup Damodara, not in the consciousness of this external body but within the consciousness of a spiritual body. He was really there; it wasn’t like imagined therefore he was able to serve, always being in the spiritual world. On the material platform, he had no interest in anything material- zero interest. Not only had he renounced all the wealth of his parents but he didn’t want to bother with material things. So very simple clothes, whatever was lying around, whatever he was getting he took without any endeavour. Even for his meals he was begging at the Jagannatha temple. But then he stopped doing that and then he started taking from the charity booth. They have these holy places in India where they give out some free food. So he would just go there. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked, “Swarup Damodara, what happened to Raghunatha? He used to beg in front of the gate, the lion gate of the temple.” He said, “ya, he gave that up because this kind of begging is in the mood of a prostitute who is always thinking, ‘maybe this one will be my customer, maybe that one will be my customer.’ And if one stands and begs, he is thinking, ‘maybe this one will give something…yesterday he came and he gave so maybe he’ll give again.’ One’s mind gets into calculating so he said Raghunatha das decided to give it up. So Raghunatha said, “better to take once a day from the charity booth and then finished.” 

Then after a while Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked again to Swarup Damodara, “Raghunatha has stopped taking from the charity booth, what’s he doing now?”

“Oh, what Raghunatha das is doing now, he is taking whatever rice they have thrown out from the Jagannatha temple. Whenever there is the maha prasadam there is always too much rice and when the rice goes bad they throw it out and first the cows eat it but then after a while it gets so bad that even the cows will not take it. So Raghunatha is taking that and he’s washing it under the water until all the soft parts comes off and only the hard core remains and he eats that with a little salt.” Then that day, Caitanya Mahaprabhu went to Raghunatha das and He said, “oh, Raghunatha, what nectar are you having there?” and Raghunatha das said, “no, no, no, my Lord, no, no, no! This is not for You!”
“But Raghunatha das what are you hiding from Me? You are having some nectar there!” Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, “Raghunatha, give me some of that…”

“No, no, no….” but Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He is very powerful and Raghunatha das couldn’t stop Him. Somehow or other He snatched it and said, “mmmm! This is the best prasadam, the best prasadam I’ve ever tasted! Delicious!” Then Swarup Damodar arrived there and sort of came in between and said, “no, no, no, this is enough, enough! This is not for You, this is for Raghunatha.”

So in this way we see how Raghunatha das performed his austerity but it was not austerity at all. He was simply staying free to be absorbed in the eternal, spiritual reality. Why bother with the material world and all the complexities? Just keep it as simple as possible and as pure as possible. Like he wanted to solve his eating problem very simple but at the same time he got maha prasadam! So like this, it was of the higher, spiritual calibre and at the same time very simple. So Raghunatha in this way was very fortunate. He became the intimate servant of Swarup Damodara Goswami and Swarup Damodara Goswami, he was the one who stayed in the final days with Caitanya Mahaprabhu so he knew everything about the special ecstasies that Caitanya Mahaprabhu was experiencing in His last days. The amazing symptoms of love of God, nobody knew about but people had heard about- not in detail- but they had heard that there was something extraordinary going on but nobody knew the fine details of it. But Swarup Damodara knew and he wrote it down in a diary. Then that diary was lost! My God! It was a written in a diary and the diary was lost but somehow or other, Swarup Damodara had told about this diary so many times to Raghunatha das that Raghunatha das remembered it. Raghunatha  das was one of the very few so he was a treasure house of knowledge.

 Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami- the chosen one

Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami, he lived in Radhakunda. It was Raghunatha das who had developed Radha kunda. With the wealth of some businessman, who was instructed from within to give his money to Raghunatha, he had used it to build all the ghatas and so on. Raghunatha was expert at handling money because of his family background. He had arranged for all these ghatas and now Radhakunda has all these stone slabs- the whole thing! Then, because Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami was there, he had heard everything from Raghunatha das Goswami. So, he knew that the vaisnavas knew it, that Krsna das Kaviraja knew it. And the vaisnavas knew that Krsnadas was very learned in the vaisnava books of the Goswamis because they knew that Krsnadas had come to Vrndavana and had been trained by Rupa Goswami and Jiva Goswami personally. Therefore he had not only studied the books but he had personally trained him. They knew that and they knew that he knew the secrets about the diary of Swarup Damodara Goswami and therefore they knew that he was the one to write about Caitanya Mahaprabhu although he never met Him! So he was the one who was chosen to write the Caitanya Caritamrta, which included the teaching and the life of Mahaprabhu and especially also the later part, describing to what extent love of God can go. And then one chants Hare Krsna and then one becomes mad with love of God. But what is this madness, how does it work? It is to do with intensity, not just a desire to be a devotee, not just a desire to serve Krsna but intense desire and everything else becomes insignificant, meaningless, forget it. Caitanya Mahaprabhu forgot everything else- everything else! It was only Krsna and it just became more and more intense.  That of course is another subject matter.

The Caitanya Caritamrta as a mirror

But we can see that actually, the pastimes of Caitanya Mahprabhu are like staged by the Lord. When the Lord comes into this world He stages His pastimes like a road show and along with Him comes His associates and they are performing all this pastimes and teachings for us so that we can connect and that everything that we need is there, that everything that comes up in our spiritual life is being dealt with. In this way, a book like the Caitanya Caritamrta deals with everything that we encounter in our pursuits in spiritual life, it’s there. Everything that we come across is dealt with, is described. In that way, when we look at the Caitanya Caritamrta it’s like looking in a mirror and we see our own spiritual life in front of our eyes and how we performing. We can see how to move on, we can see where we went wrong, we can see what we are lacking, what pure devotional service really is. In this way we can find inspiration to become more serious.

Being cooked on all sides

The kanistha is a weak devotee. It is said kamala sraddha, he has weak faith, he doesn’t believe firmly that his happiness will come from only Krsna. He is thinking, “Yes, happiness comes from Krsna but there is also other things. So the kanistha will always hold on to other things but can’t give them up either. So this is the first fight; the first fight is that one has to cut with knowledge. One has to cultivate knowledge and when there’s knowledge, very sharp knowledge, then it cuts. So with this sharp knowledge, we cut this old, stale attachments- cut, one after another! And one has to cut more, step by step…

Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami, is described as a wooden doll that is dancing in the hands of the magician. That means he is completely humble. Step by step one has to cut to become humble. One doesn’t get humble by a mood, ‘and now I’m going to be humble…’ I usually say that one can take super glue and put their hands together and they always stay together…it looks humble but it’s only superglue! That is really what it is. So one of the acaryas was saying that it is a journey and one has to pass by oceans, mountains, stars in the sky… and give them all up! So, big things, big attachments, one has to leave them. The big things, one has to pass by and let it go. Everyone has some big things in his life, big, so many big things are there and we have to do it. Of course in the beginning we have all these big attachments so the spiritual master will say, ‘yes, yes…’

We had a discussion about, ‘yes, yes’ it was a ‘yes, yes’ discussion. Someone came and said, ‘should I get married? Or should I stay single for life?’ Yes! ‘Should I take a job?’ Yes! ‘should I just surrender and just preach?’ Yes! ‘You’re saying yes to everything?’ Yes! ‘Then what am I supposed to do? Should I just do any of these things?’ Yes! ‘You mean it doesn’t matter?’ Yes!

Whatever you do there will be austerity, whatever you do there will be austerity. You choose, you try…

I went to the city of New York and you know, in New York you have everything! So in New York I saw a chapatti machine. Yes somewhere I saw a big machine cooking chapattis. That’s New York- you have everything! And it was interesting that at the top there was a container and they put in the flour in the machine and then some water  and then (machine noise) it mixes it up and then cut and little balls come and they go through rollers and then perfectly round, flat chapattis come out. And then it goes on a hot disc and it gets roasted. Then after a little while the metal arm comes and the chapatti hits the metal arm and then it goes down a hole and then it goes down a slide and it turns and lands on a hot disc one level lower and now it gets cooked on the other side. So, you’re going to get cooked no matter what! Either this side or another side, but you are going to get cooked! Oh yes you are! Therefore the spiritual master knows, he knows that you are going to get cooked, he knows. And he can see, this one needs to be cooked a little more…so what to do, we just wait. He says, ‘yes…yes…’

‘Shall I get married?’ Yes! ‘This marriage is too much!’ Yes! ‘Shall I move to another country?’ Yes! Everything is ‘yes’ because you will be cooked by the austerity that is in that situation. Yes, you can’t escape it; it’s there! ‘Shall I stay in Soweto? Shall I move to Pretoria?’ Yes, yes! If you get cooked in Soweto, you get cooked in Pretoria! No matter where you go you get cooked! Have you noticed? That is how it is. at one point you just say, ‘you know what, I had enough of this, I really had enough! No, no, I’ve said it many times that I’ve had enough but this time I’m not only saying it but this time I actually really had enough! I’m going to get serious about spiritual life!’

So this is what it takes to go from kanistha to madhyama- one has to be cooked! A kanistha has to be cooked like a chapatti! Sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other side until finally a kanistha says, ‘I’ve had enough! I’m going to get serious about spiritual life and then madhyama begins. When was is serious and one takes shelter of devotional service then one will apply himself very seriously to both acara and pracara- to behave like a devotee and to preach. And because we behave like a devotee and preach then we’ll get mercy, taste and inspiration very quickly. So a madhyama gets inspiration. Then uttama, to be completely uttama- an advanced uttama- means to be like Raghunatha das. To actually live in that eternal, spiritual relationship with Krsna, that comes by grace and you can’t jump to that. That you cannot do by determination. Some try to jump to that level by determination. No, that level comes by grace. When Krsna gives it, He gives. That day will come when Krsna desires. That comes by grace of guru and Krsna.

So in this way we can see the progression and we can see how these eternal devotees are showing everything, all the stages of bhakti. And then the present spiritual masters are presenting it according to time, place and circumstances. In this way we are all the servants of the servants. We are servants of Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami when we are trying to explain the Caitanya Caritamrta, who is the servant of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who is non-other than Radha and Krsna combined, showing the eternal nature of the spiritual world. This is how we are all servant of the servant. And otherwise, just be a chapatti!

Any questions, any comments?

Question: So if we are cooked anyway, it doesn’t make sense to get married or move to another country…

Maharaja: Yes, it makes sense…if you marry a blue eyed blonde from America, beautiful and pockets full of dollars! Anyway, there are other countries and other varieties and yes you can handle all these things and why not…

At the point when you come to surrendering, it really doesn’t matter. As long as you’re in the grhastha asrama and you’re not surrendered to Krsna and then your hope will be that this grhastha asrama is going to work out and is going to be full of wonderful experiences and so on is not happening. Well sometimes, a little bit, but most of the time it’s not and then the result is that you get frustrated. Then we think, ‘is this what I got married for?’ well there’s a few options and then we may think, ‘I’m going to dump this one and get another one.’ We can think like that but then again there’s so much trouble.  So that’s all part of the frying process of being cooked. So ultimately, one day, a grhastha will have to come to the point and say, ‘actually, it really doesn’t work, I should just try and be a devotee and should just put my energy into being a devotee.’ And then when both of them are going to do that, then it’s okay and then suddenly the relationship starts to work better. And before that, it just doesn’t work. So it’s okay to be married, there’s nothing wrong there. Of course if you are all alone then you will save yourself a lot of time and a lot of money. You know, when you get married you need a lot of money and you have to work or somehow or other hustle to make some money. It takes effort.

So you can save yourself all that trouble and walk around in orange. But that’s also austere because there you also get cooked. And for the one thousandth time…bang! clang! In the middle of the night some guy smashes the door and turns on the light just when you’re asleep. And then for the one millionth time, one brahmacari puts his alarm clock at 2 ‘0 clock and he doesn’t get up. And the damn thing keeps on beeping and beeping and it’s everyday!!! and when you feel, ‘I want a place of my own, just my own place, where I can do what I want, my place…God do I want it!’ Well when you come to that point then you know that as a brahmacari you are going to get cooked. And then you know that there’s only two options: either get married or take shelter of Krsna and get serious.

So yes….anybody else?

Question: Hare Krsna Maharaja, please explain this conditioned life and karma… (question inaudible)

Maharaja: Karma is a factor obviously. Some people, by karma, they are more renounced and some people by karma are more inclined towards sense enjoyment. Some people in the last life were already brahmacaris and some people in the last life were you know, just having a party everyday. So yes, obviously, we bring some karma with us but it is stated that karma is only a factor in the beginning. This karma in the beginning makes a difference but if one is advancing then the karma does not make so much difference. Yes, a kanistha adhikari, one of the factors is karma but when we make karma too big then we think, ‘it’s all my karma, it’s destiny’ and then you begin to believe in astrology. And then you are going to an astrologer and he’s looking at your chart and then he begins to do calculations and says, ‘oh my God! Oh my God! Ya on September this year your whole life will change and then it will become very difficult for you and to maintain this asrama. You will meet your wife from last life in September. Yes, she will come and there’s not much you can do about it and I mean, what are you going to do? Tell me honestly? Think about it…but I’m telling you, in September, you are going to meet your wife from last life!’ So then you go like, ‘oh my God! oh my God! Listen to this prabhus! I went to an astrologer and you know wha5t he told me? He told me in September it’s going to happen to me, I’m going to meet my wife from last life…oh no! What am I going to do! What am I going to do! What am I going to do! Oh no, oh no, oh no!’

Look, my answer to that is, you married her last life, so don’t make the same mistake again- that’s one answer! (Laughter) Of course, I’m not speaking out against marriage but it doesn’t mean you have to do it again. But some people, astrology, it will control everything in their life. ‘oh it says on my chart! Oh now what can I do? I have to do.’ No, it’s up to you to choose and karma, that’s the astrology- it shows the karma. And when we think that astrology controls our life, the karma controls our life, then we have no faith in the power of Krsna consciousness. So the power of karma is there but the power of bhakti is greater than the power of karma. What can karma do? Prabhupada said that Krsna can kick out a million Rahus!

Another question? Okay finished…finished with Rahu- an auspicious end! (Laughter)

Srila Prabhupada ki, Jaya! Hare Krsna!