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!

Waves of affection, waves of the Indian Ocean and waves of material existence but best of all waves of spiritual ecstasy…

Straight out of back-to-back Ratha Yatras, we journeyed by Gautrain and a two-hour flight, and then arrived in Cape Town. But it was really nice to see everybody again on the first evening and we had a good time at the temple program.

I think South Africa is a country full of variety – there are so many programs that are of a totally different nature. Cape Town has very nice university programs (University of Cape Town & Stellenbosch University) and we visited houses in Tableview, Bellville and Somerset West to meet devotees. This was nice because each home has its own atmosphere and brings out a different mood. So taking the trouble to go to all these different places makes a lot of sense because it’s part of entering into relationships with people. In the past I did so many projects – big building, properties, etc. but now my life centres around relationships with people. That’s very satisfying because Krsna is in the centre therefore it makes these relationships worthwhile.

We had an initiation ceremony during the Sunday feast and we really took time to prepare the devotees in their spiritual journey. I gave the example where I (as the spiritual master) put people on a little transcendental boat on the bhava sagar (the ocean of material existence) and the boat is still at the shore and everything is fine, and then suddenly we give that boat a push and suddenly that initiated devotee is out there! Then one has to make a conscious effort to make spiritual life more meaningful by doing deeper spiritual activities. In this way, the vows of initiation begin to flourish. The whole ceremony made people think as many devotees came with questions afterwards.

Following the initiation ceremony, the programs continued and once again we spent a night in Pringle Bay. It’s quite a place – a tip of the bay where long waves are coming in from the ocean and splashing against the rocks. There are baboons and night-adders, we were told. A real mode of goodness exists in that place actually. We were invited by Mukunda and Mira, who live there with their two children. In the back of their house, Mira started her own mini-school with a little classroom. She is a qualified teacher and teaches her own children as well as some others from the neighbourhood. Remuna, who was initiated at the yajna on Sunday (previously Remina), lives there with her children too. Bhakta Steve, who is studying jazz piano at the University of Cape Town, came along. A lot of energy went into preparing breakfast and it was absolutely great – everyone was satisfied.

And then Mukunda brought up the ‘hot potato topic’ of brahmacary ashrama: Should brahmacarys be trained to become grhastas or should they be trained to become sannyasis?

I said that in the beginning it should be open-ended and then later the brahmacarys can make a choice as to which direction they want to go. Because if people think, I’m going to be brahmacary for two years, then how can they really be serious about it… Still, it may be that a large percentage will get married in the future.

Then we spoke about how most brahmacarys are putting too much emphasis in cultivation but not enough on conviction which can actually lead to fanaticism. When the conviction is strong, in other words when one thoroughly understands that this life is for going back to Godhead, then why get distracted by anything else? Therefore one doesn’t need so much cultivation to remain strong in the ashrama and one doesn’t need to be so harsh in dealing with women. But if the conviction is weak and one is thinking: Well, I guess I don’t really want to be married so I guess I just stay a brahmacary. Then one is not strong despite all the cultivation of a brahmacary mood and one will still feel week. Anyway that gave the boys some food for thought over breakfast!

Then we rushed out the door for the Stellenbosch student program at a beautiful university, in a beautiful area, for beautiful people. And actually there is nice group of students there so we had a good time again. Now we are driving back to the Cape Town temple, the late lunch is waiting and I’m starving.

Tomorrow is the big big flight: Cape Town –> Johannesburg –> Perth –> Sydney and then a drive to Wollongong Australia, to be part of a retreat at Govinda Valley. It looks like it’s going to be good!

A brahmacari should live under the care of the guru, he should not have a private situation. Brahmacari gurukule vasan danta guror hitam. He should study the scriptures, he should beg alms and be a selfless servant.

In the Hari Bhakti Vilasa it is stated that a brahamacari should wear white cloth, but Srila Bhaktisiddhanta put his brahmacaris in saffron cloth for the sake of preaching. Saffron cloth is a responsibility ,there are more expectations from people. They expect that the brahmacari will know the scriptures,that he will know how to give lectures, that he will be an example in his personal conduct, in sadhana, in following spiritual standards, in eating, fasting, sleeping,in rising early, in chanting good japa, in enthusiasm in service, expert in all types of preaching, including leading kirtana, distributing books, giving lectures. He should make it his only business to be Krsna conscious.

…..and when they mature, they can lead many others in spiritual life with knowledge, kindness and saintliness.

All may not be attained at once, but now they must make a serious endeavor to make progress.

Yes I am looking for such brahmacaris to assist me in my mission of spreading Krsna consciousness all over the world.

Please bless them to be succesful in their endeavors, because such a brahmacari is a blessing to this earth and he is on the straight path back to Godhead and takes others with him.

Then  we sang and  danced while pulling the chariot of Lord Jagannatha through the streets of Leipzig and still there was more festival to come the next day, Radhastami, the appearance day of Srimati Radharani. Remembering the pure loving devotional service of Srimati Radharani.   Her love is like a mirror reflecting the unlimited qualities of Krsna and she continuous to discover newer and newer amazing qualities in Krsna and in this way her love is increasing eternally. That love is touching Krsna, who also feels His love for her increasing and increasing. There is no end to the pleasure in the spiritual world.   The Mayor  from Limbach, the village where the Kirtana Mela was held,  personally visited the festival and enjoyed the festival and prasadam. The Mayor is a theologian with a keen spiritual interest and came across very favorably in a newspaper artikel; “We are a town open to the world and I find it fantastic, that people from the entire globe came to be our Guest. Generally speaking  in connection  with the Globalization a stronger effort should be made toward dialogue between various cultures.” “Such festivals with their impressive atmophere are very suitable toward realizing that objective and can have more impact on the consciousness then Seminars and speeches on the theme of Global Culture”,  he added. “He would welcome the festival if it would again take place in Limbach in 2012.”

Meanwhile here in the material world, there is now a moment of peace and quiet,ki jaya, a moment of rest, and after catching up on some good sleep, we can try and catch up on some good japa and read the sastra. Hearing, chanting and remembering, sabde pare ca nisnatam, always bathing in transcendental sound continues also at a time of rest.  Now may be also the time has come to reflect, how deeply can we become aborbed in chanting  Krsna’s holy name. The Padma Purana has established that the name is non-different from Krsna, Himself, but we are not yet actually perceiving it in that way. We look at the chanting like  a yajna, a sacrifice to attract the mercy of Krsna for our purification. We also look at the chanting as just fun when famous, powerful kirtan leaders such as Lokanatha Maharaja, BB Govinda Maharaja, Madhvava, Sacinandana Maharaja and many others are leading and we don’t forget the extra dimension to that fun of the eternal benefit that we have gained from the chanting. Then we flooded Leipzig with the ecstasy of  Ratha Yatra and our heart became inundated more. On Radhastami started our reflection on pure devotional service of which Srimati Radharani is the emblem and we prayed to her for service knowing that no one can please Krsna the way that she can.

Now everyone has gone home! Where is my home? My home is with the devotees, who are my real friends, I am at home with them and visit them all over the world.

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

So I chose two very famous verses from the Sri Caitanya Caritamrta and I’ll explain a little later why.

sei panca-tattva mili’ prthivi asiya
purva-premabhandarera mudra ughadiya
pance mili’ lute prema, kare asvadana
yata yata piye, trsna badhe anuksana

 Translation

The characteristics of Krsna are understood to be a storehouse of transcendental love. Although that storehouse of love certainly came with Krsna when He was present, it was sealed. But when Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu came with His associates of the Panca-tattva, they broke the seal and plundered the storehouse to taste transcendental love of Krsna. The more they tasted it, the more their thirst for it grew.

(Cc. Adi 7.20-21)

 (Purport)

(Invocatory prayers)

Hare Krsna!

Prabhupada is there

So the reason why I chose this verse is because it is described how the members of the Panca Tattva plundered the store house of love of God and after breaking the seal they entered. They plundered that storehouse to taste the transcendental love of Krsna and the more they tasted it, the more their thirst for it grew. So this is the theme of spiritual nourishment and that is the kind of theme I wanted to meditate on this morning.  We all feel a great need, we are in desperate need to somehow or other to find such nourishment. It is widely available, it is distributed everywhere now by the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His pure dedicated followers. And we in particular remember in this regard, Srila A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada to whom we are totally indebted because every inch of our spiritual life Prabhupada is there.

Badri Narayana Prabhu wo always comes up with nice stories, tells how he wanted to do some adventurous preaching. And he thought, “I want to go to an unthread territory, some place where Krsna consciousness has not yet reached.” So he looked at the map of the world and chose New Guinea, which is indeed somewhat of an unusual place because there’s still a good part where there are active cannibals and so on. So it’s kind of a preacher’s paradise! Badri decided to go there and after a long journey all the way from the west coast of America, he finally arrived in New Guinea.  When he came into the hotel, the man behind the reception was reading Prabhupada’s book and he realised that Prabhupada was already there! So it is a fact that wherever we go- not only wherever we go in the world but wherever we go in spiritual life- Prabhupada was already there!

We are like chapati dough

Whatever we go through in our growth, in our development, little by little…we are like chapati dough, and the chapati dough is being pummelled with two fists, beating on that dough, kneading on that and shaping the dough. At first when we come to Krsna consciousness we are as hard as a rock and it is difficult to put us in any shape. But gradually, by the association of the devotees we become purified and gradually our heart softens.

When I joined Krsna consciousness in Vrndavana, after about one week I was in charge of the restaurant and somehow or other I had a real problem in that restaurant with chapati cooks because first I had a Bengali who didn’t understand anything and who just kept on rolling chapatis like a machine even after the guests had left. And when I tried to tell him to stop, he wouldn’t. Then when I took his arm he attacked me and then made politics as Bengalis do and said that I had attacked him (laughter). So it was a whole thing. Anyway, I fired him! And then there was a senior disciple of Srila Prabhupada who somehow or other became my chapati cook and his name was Rohini Kumar Prabhu. He was cooking chapatis and one day I had 25 guests and an average of four chapatis each…that’s 100 chapatis! So the kitchen was downstairs and I called down, “100 chapatis!” which I guess is a bit of a shock when you’re a chapati cook! And no chapatis came, not a single chapati came up and Indian guests are not so polite when they want to be fed. They were banging their cups on the table and were saying, “chapatis!” So again I called out in despair, “chapatis!” and then still no chapatis. So then I called out one more time, “chapatis!” and then suddenly the door flung open and Rohini Kumar flew into the room and on his finger he had made with chapati dough the head of a Joker. He put it under my nose and he said, “no chapatis!”

So gradually in the course of our devotional service, we become a little more flexible. Little by little the devotees are somehow or other gradually bringing out some detachment and bringing us to a point where we just say, ‘okay, Krsna, you are the only shelter…’ In this way, little by little we are being purified in the association of the devotees. The devotees are an essential source of that spiritual nourishment. The Antya lila of the Caitanya Caritamrta begins with the verse,

durgame pathi me ‘ndhasya
skhalat-pada-gater muhuh
sva-krpa-yasti-danena
santah santv avalambanam

 (Cc. Antya. 1.2)

 The vaisnavas generosity

In that verse it is described, durgame pathi me ‘ndhasya, “My path is very slippery. It is difficult to stay on this path but by the stick of the mercy of the vaisnavas as my support, I can remain on this path.” So that verse has for me been something that has stayed with me for many years because it is a fact that without the devotees what can we do? It is not possible to stay enlivened. And then there are so many wonderful devotees and the devotees particularly have the quality of generosity and that is the one thing that is the most amazing thing about Krsna consciousness.

Just like Srila Prabhupada introduced the, “Sunday Love Feast,” as he called it and there were 15 fabulous preparations- all for free and as much that you can desire! That was just inconceivable! That sort of conquered, that sort of brought out, ‘wow, I want to reciprocate, I want to do something in exchange.’ So in this way, the vaisnavas by their generosity, conquer. In the beginning we may not be so conscious of our dependence on the vaisnavas. We may think, ‘I’ve got Srimad Bhagavatam, I’ve got the holy name, now I know everything, what more do I need! I’ll just go forward with big steps, fast…’ but with time we realise more and more that we need the mercy.

So first of all, I have been graced by many vaisnavas by their great generosity…I always tell how after sannyasa I came into Abhentheuer and Sacinandana Maharaja called me his vairagi bhai, his brother in renunciation. Well I took it as, ‘he wants to be my friend, he accepts me as his friend,’ so I took it like that and it meant something to me. And up to the day of today I consider Maharaja my dear friend! I’m glad that he’s here today! That kind of mercy sustains us for years. A small thing but within it, a gesture of friendship and without friendship how can we stay on this path? It’s a long path, a long time, a long way before we can actually go back to Godhead. It’s not just easy, it’s not just, ‘well, you know, now I know everything, I read the Gita and understood the philosophy and now I’ll just do it….’ No , it takes a lot and we need spiritual nourishment and we need, again and again to take care of being enlivened. Thus we are always eager to be in the association of the vaisnava, especially of the advanced vaisnavas.

The vaisnavas showered me with lots of mercy; in 1994 I had the good fortune to be in Vrndavana for the installation of Srila Prabhupada’s murti in his Samadhi. There was a abhisheka and whoever had arranged it all, they had made a miscalculation. There was supposed to be a drum under the table but the drum didn’t fit and thus there was a problem in catching the abhisheka. So I volunteered, last minute, to go under there with a team with buckets…boy, I got the mercy- I got the full abhisheka! The honey…I still remember the honey! And the ghee and everything! And I got kicked by all the vaisnavas. Even Brahmananda stood on my hand and Narayana Maharaja kicked me and everyone there kicked me! In this way I was greatly fortunate, it was a great blessing. So I could list many, many blessings that I received over the years from the vaisnavas but then this class would go very, very long. So I’m just sketching now a few quick examples.

Of course, I must say, that the person who blessed me the most is my spiritual master because his generosity blew my mind! It literally blew my mind because he made me do things that I could have never imagined I would be doing all along. As soon as I showed a slight interest in sannyasa, the whole movement told me, ‘forget it! Just forget it!’ and everyone said…like, Sridhara Maharaja said, “Just stay a brahmacari.” I said, “a brahmacari? Maharaja, I’ve been a grhastha for 24 years!  A brahmacari?” But Jayadvaita Maharaja immediately said, “oh, oh that is very wonderful!”  And as I sort of carefully indicated an inch he started pulling in, “okay, let’s go!” And each time like that he showered me with transcendental mercy.

Just now I came from South Africa and my spiritual master was also there and I met him. He was telling a nice story, which I’ll share with you. It was a story of the Ramayana. The Ramayana as we all know is an endless saga, there was great battle in Lanka to free Sita from captivity. Meanwhile Sita was kept in Lanka in this Asoka Grove and there were these raksasis who were constantly harassing her, torturing her in so many ways and just trying to convince her to surrender to Ravana. So this was going on. So the battle was over; Ravana killed and defeated, Hanuman was the first to reach the Asoka Grove and to bring the news to Sita. At that time the raksasis were still there, still surrounding her, so Hanuman said, “Ravana is killed! The battle is won! You are free!” and then he saw that she wasn’t free but was still surrounded by all these raksasis, so he said, “Shall I kill ‘em? I’ll just kill ‘em all!” and she said, “No Hanuman, no, no don’t kill them.”

“No but it’s just a small thing, I’ll just get rid of them. They caused you so much suffering….” and then Sita told Hanuman a story and the story was that once there was a hunter hunting in the forest and then in his hunting activities he came upon a tiger but this tiger was just not a tame tiger and the roles reversed. Instead of the hunter chasing the tiger, the tiger chased the hunter and the hunter was running and running and running! And then there was a tree and he climbed in the tree and as he was up on the branches of the tree, there was a bear! And he looked up, saw the bear, looked down and saw the tiger…and then the tiger said to the bear, “My dear bear, this hunter is our mutual enemy. Kick him down and I will finish him off!”

“No,” the bear said, “how can I do that? How can I kick him down? He’s a guest in my home. That I cannot do.”

The tiger then turned his strategy and he turned to the hunter and he said to the hunter, “Look at that bear, just kick him down and I will eat him instead of you.”

And the hunter did it, the hunter suddenly kicked the bear and the bear fell down but on the way the bear somehow or other managed to grab a branch and hang in there and climbing back up and the bear was saved. Then the bear was back up in the branches and the tiger said to the bear, “just see, just see what kind of person this hunter is, you know what I mean? He betrayed you! While you were giving him shelter, he just betrayed you completely! Kick him down now, before he kills you! You can’t trust him, as soon as you turn your back on him. Kick him down!”

“No,” the bear said, “I cannot do that because even if my guest is misbehaving and behaving in a way that is totally inappropriate, that doesn’t give me a license to also act inappropriate. I still have to act properly. So he’s my guest, so no, I can’t kick him down.” And in this way the tiger went hungry that day…!

So our noble bear is a wonderful person. My spiritual master, who is so much dedicated to being a man of noble character, that is his outstanding quality. If I see whatever mercy has been bestowed on me, which is so much generosity, then the thing that penetrates the deepest in my heart is his noble character. That is the one thing that each time I’m thinking…I’m just a low minded person who is just trying to somehow or other become a vaisnava but then I see a man of truly saintly character. Like my spiritual master is known for his thunderbolt, karate blows and he has a tongue, which is as powerful as a lightning bolt and a very sharp intelligence. And he can with one or two words just go to the essence of something and just expose everything. Therefore people are afraid wherever he goes and people are in fear. So when I approached him for initiation, well I was also thinking about the brace position, as they speak about in planes…in case if it gets too rocky then brace yourself. So I was sort of getting ready for anything! I thought that even if thunderbolts come, I’ll take them, that was my mood. But I got a few thunderbolts over the years but not too many. Mostly, he melted me with his noble character and he did it again with his bear story which was such a nice story and I somehow or other missed that story in the Ramayana. It is very nice because I thought, here is spiritual nourishment. All of us have to become vaisnavas of noble character. It’s not just what we do but it is really who we are. We have to become very noble persons and that is one point that I wanted to make today.

Then another vaisnava who always showers me with mercy- somehow or other he has adopted me- is Indradyumna Maharaja. I don’t know why but a few years ago on my birthday- it was a passport birthday so I was hiding it- and he burst in to the Bhagavatam lecture I gave, with a big cake, together with Govinda Maharaja and Puri Maharaja. And they were three big guys! They glorified me and pinned me down and tried to put a piece of cake in my mouth and well, there wasn’t much I could do about it. So I kind of surrendered! And then, they stole it out of my mouth and then they danced around with it like intoxicated mad men, which is pretty bad, right. But then Indradyumna Maharaja glorified me for all kinds of things about African preaching, which I really didn’t do. But with that they kind of forced me to do it because now my public reputation was that I had done all these things and being proud as I am I didn’t want to lose faze, so he forced me to do something! And this year he did it again! I had a hidden little birthday party with the South African devotees in a private house, and suddenly he appears with 20 garlands, and he says, “I’ve strung them myself, I’ve been up all night.” And then he offers the garlands and everything and then he starts this whole thing, he says, “Kadamba Kanana Maharaja is just like me, we are so close, we are almost the same! I’ll tell you the secret, we are twin brothers!” And he kept this up the whole festival and he told everyone that we were twins! Non- stop! Not just once but like 25 times in every public thing, “we are twins, we are twins…” He started also this thing about how in Bhagavatam it is mentioned that the twin that appears first is actually the one that was conceived last. So the one that takes birth first is the youngest because the one that is deepest in the womb is conceived first and then the one that is sort of on the exterior side of the womb is the second one and he comes out first. So he said, “I appeared first and therefore I’m the youngest…” and this whole thing! And again he glorified me for all kind of preaching that I didn’t do. So I told everyone the story about stealing the cake and what happened the first time and I said, and now he’s doing it again! He’s again giving me my orders and now I have to simply do it. And it’s not just that I’m saying this, he’s sort of keeping the pressure on and is making sure that I’m doing this African preaching.

So in this way the vaisnavas shower me with mercy and I said that day when Maharaja was in the room at the Vyasa Puja, I said, I’m trying to become a generous person but it’s very difficult to become generous because by nature I’m quite a miserly Dutchman, who calculates and sort of, ‘well I’ll give you so much…’ and over the years I’m trying to go beyond calculating, I’m trying to just give and not think, can I afford it? So more and more I’m trying to get into this mood. But then Indradyumna Maharaja…in South Africa, in the temples, they have workers who are walking around- the men in blue labour uniforms and the ladies in kitchen uniforms, aprons and so on- and Maharaja was giving initiations and suddenly one of the workers, five minutes before the yajna it was announced that he was also part of the whole thing! And Maharaja just initiated him and called him Radhe Syama and it was all ecstatic and then he got fired up. So later during the festival, he took all the kitchen helpers, all the ladies- big, fat African mammas- he took them all to the gift emporium and he picked out saris and bangles etc, and smiled at the cashier and said, “I started this Ratha Yatra,” and didn’t pay (laughter) and then he took them all, decked out in bangles and saris, on the stage and made them dance and then he took them to the restaurant and gave them a big, big feast and he didn’t pay again! But he showed what generosity is like and I’m like millions of miles behind.

So in this way just by the association of these vaisnavas we are seeing what we have to become, transcendental personalities. Not material misers who are always thinking, ‘what can I do? How much service can I afford? How much credit can I give someone? Well, I appreciate at least one quality in this devotee…’ No, appreciate them completely in generosity. So generosity doesn’t mean just money, it means appreciation, it means giving. And this is what we are all about. This is a movement where we have to learn how to give instead of worrying about what we’re getting. And that takes a long time. We are so much concerned about, ‘what am I getting? Oh and what am I needing? I need mercy, I need inspiration, I’m struggling, please…it’s so difficult, give me a secret, give me something, give me a mantra, give me some solution…please, so that I can stop struggling…’ okay, we’re giving it now…the solution is to start giving, that is the secret. Don’t worry about what you’re getting, start giving and then everything will follow from there. And then the more you give, the more the other vaisnavas, to your surprise, start to give to you also. It’s just amazing! And then you get showered just like Mrgrari, the hunter. Narada said, “cut the string of your bow!” that was the crucial moment, ‘cut the string of your bow,’ “but how will I eat?”

“I will provide!” And we see how Narada provided; the vaisnavas could see that this hunter has transformed, he’s dedicating himself to Krsna fearlessly. He’s not depending on any material arrangements, he’s just depending on Krsna, then we’ll give.

Purity is our security

Recently there was a brahmacari who wanted some maintenance for his service because he said, “who will take care of me? What is my security?” and I was thinking about that and the next morning during my japa, I thought, our security is our purity. That is our security, that is what we have. If the purity is there then don’t worry, then we’ll be taken care of. Devotees will take care of anyone. We don’t need to worry. Now is the era where people are afraid. The other day I spoke to a young grhastha who was getting ready for a professional career in the world. And I said, it’s not the only way. Actually there is another way and it’s very simple, you just go to some city and you rent a house and you open a preaching centre. And you just preach and you live from preaching, it’s very simple. You don’t have to work, why do you want to work? Just preach and people will give and you just live simple in the temple and everything will be fine. Why do you want a profession? It’s not necessary, just preach. He said, “my faith is not strong enough, that Krsna will provide.” That is the crux of the matter.

So it is a time where somehow or other we have lost faith, collectively actually, because this spirit has died and it works I guarantee you. The only thing that is needed is purity. If one is a householder and goes out to preach then one has to be renounced. One cannot live it up at public expense; one has to be ready to make a sacrifice and to live simple and to preach. If we do then everything will come and then one can make advancement so quickly. So it’s an option, I’m only offering an option for those who are interested. It’s not like, ‘okay, all of us give up your jobs tomorrow and that’s it! From now on it’s only preaching centres…’ I won’t be so demanding but there is so much to do, so much to do all over the world. There is no lack of opportunities and Krsna will provide undoubtedly and purity is the force.

So with these kind of meditations, I wanted to make a few points which are relating to the main theme of the lecture, which is ‘spiritual nourishment.’ I’ve mentioned sadhu-sanga, then there is sadhana- there is absorption in chanting and in hearing Srimad Bhagavatam. If we have not read Srimad Bhagavatam…there are many devotees in our movement who have not yet read Srimad Bhagavatam and that means that you have given up the fight, that feels that you have not fulfilled your duty, that means that you are below the minimum. Sometimes they speak on ‘below the poverty level,’ it’s like not even minimum! Without the Bhagavatam, you cannot live! Without the Bhagavatam, you are dead! Without the Bhagavatam, you are a ghost! It’s like that because the Bhagavatam is the very foundation of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement. We see that the evidence that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu presents, the principle evidence is all Srimad Bhagavatam, all in His preaching. And we see that the whole lifestyle that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was teaching is founded on Srimad Bhagavatam. Without Srimad Bhagavatam one cannot live, it is like that. One is dead without it.

So I want to quickly put in a few pointers because time is limited. So my conclusion is that let us be conscious of the need for spiritual nourishment, that we ourselves are in need of spiritual nourishment. Let us not think that we can go on automatic pilot in spiritual life but let us make a conscious effort to be well nourished and let us nourish others by becoming vaisnavas of noble character. Then I guarantee you that the path back to Godhead will be successful and it will be successful without a doubt. Because of time constraint, I’ll pick up the thread later in the day, expand and go more in depth on other points. Now maybe one of you have a question or a comment? I’ll shortly answer it and then we’ll take a break.

Yes? (Asks devotee to translate)

Question: How hard must we try to develop our desire to go to Krsna?

Maharaja: We must try with all our heart, we must try with every cell in our body, we must try with every thought that comes into our mind…we must try completely! That’s what we should do. Of course we don’t do that and then comes the next part and that’s the part where we realise, ‘I know what I should be doing and I’m falling short. I’m very much falling short. And that’s where we start to pray for mercy and that’s why I always stress Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu because I’m so much aware of how much I’m falling short. Of course Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was deeply absorbed in meditation on Radha and Krsna. So I am also thinking about the amazing nature of Vrndavana. I consider Vrndavana my home but then in that home, I am just a poor, miserly beggar. That’s the problem. And I see the residents of Vrndavana passing by and sometimes a few drops of mercy comes my way but then I can’t really keep up with them at all. Then I know that it’s time for mercy. So then I pray to Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda for mercy and then I pray to all the followers of Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, to Srila Prabhupada and to all of you. I wrote something on this and then I said, basically as a beggar, I want Krsna prema, oh yes I really want it, but I don’t want to pay the price for it. Oh no I don’t. And I offer Krsna only broken names, that’s all and I stand there saying, ‘please give me Krsna prema, please.’ And meanwhile I am offering broken names…that is my condition.

So you must try to give everything, not a little, but everything, everything, everything to Krsna. Thank you for your nice question.

Ok, yes? She came all the way from Africa and that’s far!

Question: (Inaudible)

Maharaja: She’s asking, I was living in Vrndavana and I got a lot of association of many leaders of our movement and why Jayadvaita Swami? Okay, because the first time I met him he was standing at the maha prasad table in Vrndavana and he had a huge stack of these leaf cups of maha prasadam, as they have in India, and I walked past and I said, “Oh, hungry Maharaja?” which is a little bit challenging isn’t it? So I got it straight away, he said, “oh, okay, you can carry it.” And there I walked with the snacks and he just took me over! He just made me serve and then he laid down to rest on the bed and he said I had to read the Krsna book. So I was reading the Krsna book and after ten minutes there is this kind of sound, (makes sleeping sound), so I sort of quietly stopped and was about to slip out and then, with his eyes still closed, he says, “Don’t stop reading!” So I kept on reading and after about another 10 minutes, again (makes sleeping sound)! And this went on for one and a half hours! I was reading Krsna book for one and a half hour and each time I stopped he woke up and told me to keep on reading. So that’s where it began and he always treated me as if he was completely in charge of me. He never treated me in any other way although we were friends and although I had said that I would never accept him as an authority or anything, but throughout the years that was just what he did. So finally I surrendered! What could I do! That’s what happened!

All right, thank you very much. Let’s take a little break and we’ll meet in about an hour.

Srila Prabhupada ki, Jaya!