Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 9, No. 2
By Krishna-kripa das
(January 2013, part two)
Florida
(Sent from Jacksonville, Florida, on March 6, 2013)
Where I Went and What I Did
During the second half of January, I returned to Gainesville to live at Krishna House and help maintain the program of chanting for two and a half hours during the serving of Krishna Lunch at the University of Florida and chanting at the Gainesville Farmers Market on Wednesday. In addition, I attended a program of our Krishna Club at University of North Florida in Jacksonville.
On Martin Luther King Day five of us chanted in the parade for King, with Damodar Prasad singing enthusiastically and Hladini talking to people and distributing literature, and then we joined the other Krishna House devotees for a picnic in a nearby park. While we were chanting in the park, one man remarked that our chanting was disturbing the wildlife. I laughed to myself, thinking that as we are vegetarian, we do less damage to the environment than your average American meat eater. In addition, all the wildlife made great spiritual benefit which the poor chap could not see.
Devotees from both Alachua and Gainesville drove to Tampa to do harinama at a the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, which is said to be attended by 500,000 people, and I share some descriptions, pictures and video of that.
I have many insights from Srila Prabhupada’s lectures and his books, some notes on a recorded lecture by Niranjana Swami, notes of lectures from Prabhupada disciples, including Kalakantha and Sesa Prabhus, and realizations from newer devotees at Krishna House.
Thanks to Tulasirani dd for the picture of the Krishna House picnic crew, Flickr user BXGD for the picture of the devotees dancing at Gasparilla, and Amanda from Krishna House for the videos.
Chanting at the Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa
The Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa on January 26 was a great event for exposing thousands of people to the Hare Krishna mantra and getting a number of them to dance with our chanting party.
Tulasirani dd from Krishna House commented, “At the Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa people were standing around waiting for something fun to happen, and we supplied the fun with the harinama and people were very happy to dance with us.”
These videos by Amanda from Krishna House in Gainesville will give you a feel for the wildness of it all. In particular, you can see why the Tampa Bay Timeswrote, “A number of apparently well-lubricated spectators danced with devotees of Hare Krishna.”
One girl from the crowd encountered the devotees on three separate occasions and danced enthusiastically with us each time.
A party of devotees from Alachua chanted for three hours, while a party of younger devotees from Gainesville chanted for two. I was amazed that the older people from Alachua showed greater endurance than the Gainesville youth. Perhaps they did not jump up and down so much in the hot sun and thus could keep going longer. After my friends from Gainesville desisted, I joined the Alachua party, as I was psyched to do the whole three hours.
The weather was incredible, sunny and around 75°F [24°C]. I got sunburned as I was not prepared for so much sun in January.
After the afternoon of chanting the Tampa nama-hatta devotees served excellent prasadam in a nearby park for all the devotees.
We all had a great time and look forward to doing it again next year. Come and bring your dancing shoes.
Insights
Srila Prabhupada:
If I am not jolly, maya has attacked me. If I am in contact with Krishna, how can I be morose? That is the test.
We must be enthusiastic, but we cannot be enthusiastic artificially. It has to be based on connection with Krishna.
If we cannot rise early in the morning, we are under the clutches of maya. That is the test. Sleeping is very dangerous. It is the symptom of tamo-guma (the mode of darkness).
A politician may pose that he is advanced spiritually, but when we see he is more interested in politics than Krishna consciousness, we can understand his real position.
Vaishnava means to understand the Absolute Truth is a person.
Krishna understanding is difficult, but by the mercy of Krishna in the form of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, it is possible because of His great liberality. If we do not take advantage, how unfortunate we are!
from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.18.32, purport:
“Nothing is false. One thing may be permanent and another temporary, but both the permanent and the temporary are facts. For example, if someone becomes angry for a certain period, no one can say that his anger is false. It is simply temporary. Everything we experience in our daily lives is of this same character; it is temporary but real.”
from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.18.33, purport:
“Philosophers and scientists have been trying to study the entire cosmic situation and have been theorizing and calculating in different ways for millions and millions of years. However, the speculative research work of a so-called scientist or philosopher is always interrupted when he dies, and the laws of nature go on without regard for his work.”
from Bhagavad-gita 5.29, purport:
“A pure soul is the eternal servant of God as His fragmental part and parcel. He comes into contact with maya(illusion) due to the desire to lord it over maya,and that is the cause of his many sufferings. As long as he is in contact with matter, he has to execute work in terms of material necessities. Krishna consciousness, however, brings one into spiritual life even while one is within the jurisdiction of matter, for it is an arousing of spiritual existence by practice in the material world. The more one is advanced, the more he is freed from the clutches of matter. The Lord is not partial toward anyone. Everything depends on one’s practical performance of duties in Krishna consciousness, which helps one control the senses in every respect and conquer the influence of desire and anger. And one who stands fast in Krishnaconsciousness, controlling the abovementioned passions, remains factually in the transcendental stage, or brahma-nirvana.”
from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.18.4, purport:
“The Lord is always prepared to excuse His devotee, but if a devotee takes advantage of the Lord’s leniency and purposefully commits mistakes again and again, the Lord will certainly punish him by letting him fall down into the clutches of the illusory energy. In other words, theoretical knowledge acquired by studying the Vedas is insufficient to protect one from the clutches of maya.One must strongly adhere to the lotus feet of the Lord in devotional service. Then one’s position is secure.”
from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.18.7:
“Prahlada Maharaja, the topmost devotee of the Lord, is a reservoir of all the good qualities of great personalities. His character and activities have delivered all the fallen members of his demoniac family.”
from a lecture on Bhagavad-gita 2.13:
Nature is like a great machine. Every machine has an operator. Thus nature must have an operator. We may not be able to see the operator, but the operator is there. That operator is God. Human life is meant for inquiring about God.
All science and philosophy is there, but if you are not interested in philosophy you can just chant Hare Krishna and attain perfection. But if you think “what is this nonsense chanting of Hare Krishna?” Then so many books are there you can read.
Although you are not initiated, your coming here counts as service. It is like depositing a cent in the bank every day. Someday you will have $100. So coming here every day is like depositing a cent every day. When it gets to be $100, you become a devotee.
Q: One man says he is not suffering and he is not afraid of death. What do we say to him?
A: He is a madman.
You can attain Krishna by surrendering to Him. How long does it take to surrender to Krishna? It can be done in a moment. What does surrender mean? You do what Krishna says. What is that? Four things. Man mana bhava mad bhakto . . . Think of Krishna, become His devotee, bow down to Him, and offer homage to Him. Then you come to Him.
A human being will ask how he can control his mind. A dog will never ask how to control this barking habit. That is the difference between a human being and a dog.
from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.19 Chapter Summary:
“Bharata-varsa has special significance because in this tract of land there exists the Vedic principle of varnasrama-dharma,which divides society into four varnasand four asramas.Furthermore, Narada Muni’s opinion is that even if there is some temporary disturbance in the execution of the varnasrama-dharma principles, they can be revived at any moment. The effect of adhering to the institution of varnasrama is gradual elevation to the spiritual platform and liberation from material bondage. By following the principles of varnasrama-dharma,one gets the opportunity to associate with devotees. Such association gradually awakens one’s dormant propensity to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead and frees one from all the basic principles of sinful life. One then gets the opportunity to offer unalloyed devotional service to the Supreme Lord, Vasudeva. Because of this opportunity, the inhabitants of Bharata-varsa are praised even in the heavenly planets. Even in the topmost planet of this universe, Brahmaloka, the position of Bharata-varsa is discussed with great relish.”
from The Nectar of Devotion:
“In the Naradiya Purana there is a statement of how this servitorship is transcendental. It is said there that a person who is constantly engaged in devotional service by his body, mind and words, or even a person who is not practically engaged but is simply desiring to be so, is considered to be liberated.”
“Third Canto, Seventh Chapter, verse 19, of Srimad-Bhagavatam: ‘Let me become a sincere servant of the devotees, because by serving them one can achieve unalloyed
devotional service unto the lotus feet of the Lord. The service of devotees diminishes all miserable material conditions and develops within one a deep devotional love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead.’”
“In the Padma Purana also it is stated, ‘The chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra is present only on the lips of a person who has for many births worshiped Vasudeva.’”
from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.6.10 given in Bombay on December 28, 1976:
In India it is simply in name. There is actually no varnasrama. Most people are sudras.
Most people do not have a clear idea of God nor a desire to know Him.
The same activity performed with knowledge of atma-tattva, knowledge of the spiritual truth, leads on to spiritual perfection but performed without such knowledge leads to a hellish condition.
Don’t act anything except for the satisfaction of Krishna. That is Krishna consciousness.
A classless society cannot be. Even in the Russia, the Communist country, they wanted to create a classless society but ended up having to retain a managing class and a working class.
from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.17.4, purport:
[Srila Prabhupada was not enamored by the accomplishments of material science as statements like this reveal.] “So-called advanced scientists of the modern age are trying to go to the higher planets, but at the same time they are experiencing a power shortage on earth. If they were actually capable scientists, they could personally go by airplane to other planets, but this they are unable to do. Having now given up their moon excursions, they are attempting to go to other planets, but without success.”
from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.17.24, purport:
“. . . the living entity is entangled in fruitive activities, which are executed by the illusory energy, maya. He is exactly like a computer handled by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The so-called scientists say that nature acts independently, but they cannot explain what nature is. Nature is nothing but a machine operated by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When one understands the operator, his problems of life are solved.”
from The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter Two:
“As a man’s mental disease is cured by the directions of a psychiatrist, so this sadhana bhakti cures the conditioned soul of his madness under the spell of maya, material illusion.”
“According to Vedic injunctions, when a brahmana eats it is to be understood that the Personality of Godhead is eating through him. It is not, however, that the brahmana should simply eat on behalf of the Lord and not preach the message of Bhagavad-gita to the world. Actually, one who preaches the message of the Gita is very dear to Krishna, as is confirmed in the Gita itself. Such a preacher is factually a brahmana, and thus by feeding him one feeds the Supreme Lord directly.”
Sri Visakhanandabhidha-stotra: Prayers with Names That Are the Bliss of Visakha by Raghunatha Dasa Goswami:
She is known as Radha because the worship (radha) of Her removes all distress.
Niranjana Swami:
from a lecture on Bhagavad-gita6.32 given in Boston on Sunday, December 9, 2012:
Prahlada Maharaja describes the materialists as chewing the chewed, repeating trying to enjoy the same things that have not satisfied them in the past. I had a friend in school who would stick his gum on the bottom of his seat at the end of the day, and then take it off and begin chewing it the next day.
The Lord relishes the activities of those who are selflessly engaged in service to Him and who are thus so satisfied that they desire nothing else. The Lord gives His heart to such a devotee. And that devotee can share the Lord with others.
When Durvasa Muni approached the Lord, desiring His compassion, the Lord indicated that He had given His heart to Maharaja Ambarisa, and therefore Durvasa should approach him.
Devotional service is such a rare, precious, valuable jewel. To render service to the Lord is the most precious gift of life. We must learn to appreciate that gift when it is offered to us. Otherwise we might mistake it for something else.
The Lord can fulfill our desires much better than anyone else. He knows how to fulfill the desires of his devotees.
In Ananda Vrndavana Campu, Kavi Karnapura explains that within His form as an eternal fresh youth, are His baby and childhood forms, and He manifests those forms to please His devotees who want to see Him in those features.
Even when Krishna does something amazing, His intimate associates in Vrindavana are not disturbed by thinking the Krishna is God, but remain fixed in their intimate relationship with Him.
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
They
are the original conjugal couple,
and all love relations expand
from Them, even the perverted
forms in the material world.
When we worship Radha-Krishna
we give up mundane sex desire
and only wish to serve Them
in Their pastimes. To serve
the Lord of the senses with
your senses is the perfection
of bhakti.It is the eternal svarupaor
nature of the liberated
being. It is eternal, blissful, and full of knowledge.
from Shack Notes:
“Love of God takes the form of lust in the material realm. The cleansing process is the chanting and hearing of the name, form, teachings and pastimes of the Supreme Lord. Just apply yourself tobhaktiand all contamination will be washed away. Extra counseling and discussion is only needed by ‘dysfunctional’ persons, or those who think they are dysfunctional. Only those persons who cannot obey the command, ‘Chant and don’t worry’ need special attention. And who is notin that category?”
Akuti Prabhu:
Maya, the Lord’s illusory energy, is sometimes called a witch, and “that which is not.” Hearing these qualities, would we be attracted to serve her?
Devotional service convinces us that in this life we should abandon illusory material enjoyment and engage in the service of Krishna.
Unless we surrender to Krishna, we are surrendering to maya.
One of maya’s tricks is glitter. She can make rotten flesh an exotic culinary preparation or rotten grapes a tasty beverage.
One trick to conquer maya is to get up early. I think she takes a nap at that time.
When the mind bothers you, go outside and chant louder and more distinctly.
Go out and tell someone else about Krishna. It is so healthy for your spiritual life. At least once a week. Tell either a devotee or a new person.
Regularly hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, online if not live.
comment by Kaliya Phani Prabhu: I have a technique for dealing with the mind like the strategy of not letting the salesman get in the door. When the mind proposes something, tell it, “We may do it or may not do it, but we will not do it now.”
comment by Indian student: I found at Krishna House during the break there was less service so my mind became more materially directed. I found if I did more service at Krishna House that solved the problem.
comment by another devotee: Prabhupada said to keep the mind at peace we should think of how to spread this Krishna consciousness.
Ananda Loka Prabhu:
In devotional service, all we give up is temporary and all we gain is eternal.
Bhakticannot be regulated or controlled by anything other than bhakti.
Brahma Tirtha Prabhu:
It is said that death and taxes are for certain. I know some successful tax evaders, but death evaders are harder to come by.
Lord Bhisma was happy that Krishna broke his vow not to raise a weapon in order to protect His devotee Arjuna, thus teaching the people in general that Krishna values protecting His devotees more than keeping His personal promises.
As devotees our biggest challenge is to do something and think of Krishna. Sometimes we decide to just think of Krishna, and we do so, for some time, before our mind wanders. Sometimes we decide just to do something. But to do something and think of Krishna at the same time is a challenge.
My mother-in-law was about as fervent atheist as you can be. As the time of her death was approaching, she moved to Gainesville to be near her daughter. When she talked to her daughter, it was all mundane, but when she would go out of the room, she would turn to me and say, “So what is going to happen when I die.” So I explained about it, and she said, “When I go, I am going to wave goodbye.” When the end was near, my wife and I were reading the Bhagavatam to her and trying to create the better spiritual situation for her passing. At one point, she did wave her hands, and then she was gone.
Q: Some say we must die to live. What does that mean?
A: Of course, we also have to live to die. To me, it means we cannot really live properly without taking into account death.
Comment by Kalakantha Prabhu: We have to give up our false conception of who we are to live spiritually.
from a class by Niranjana Swami played by Brahma Tirtha Prabhu in his class:
This civilization is designed in such a way people are taught to pursue sense gratification without considering there is an ultimate event that is going to come at the end of life and the purpose of life is to understand how to deal with that final event.
Sivarama Swami advised me to be with my mother at the time of death for in that way I could pay back the debt I owed to my mother, and that was one reason I was there.
Kalakantha Prabhu:
Bhismadeva, celebrated as the grandfather of the Pandavas, was so dear to Arjuna he was willing to renounce his occupation as a fighter rather than to fight with him.
The fact is that Bhagavad-gita is considered by the scholars to be a very authentic text, without disputes about the original text, unlike many major religious scriptures.
Utsaha, enthusiasm, means to put a little energy in to doing things nicely for Krishna. To be enthusiastic to serve our creator is our actual position.
When you are sick, focus your devotional energy on chanting your rounds.
Prevention is worth days of recuperation.
When I was a new devotee, there was a devotee who was struggling like anything to stay awake while chanting in the morning on his beads. He finally asked the temple president if he could go upstairs and take rest. When the temple president said “Yes,” the devotee exclaimed, “Jaya!” and ran up the stairs to take rest. This made a big impression on me—most fatigue is mental.
Fatigue is overcome by regulation. Go to sleep early.
from a discussion after lunch:
When packing a car, it is best to put the biggest item in first, and then pack the other smaller items around it. If you put the smaller things in first, you may not have room for the biggest one. Similarly with our spiritual life, we should put our spiritual practice first, and fit the other aspects of our life, our family, our work, etc., around that. If we prioritize our family and our work and other things, we may find we have no time for our spiritual practice, and our life may be wasted without profiting spiritually.
from a Sunday feast lecture in Alachua:
Yamuna Prabhu explained that the recording session that George Harrison did to make the Radha Krishna temple album went late into the night. All the devotees fell asleep except Yamuna who played the harmonium and sang a bhajana, a devotional song, that she had heard Srila Prabhupada sing many times, Bhajahu Re Mana, as she waited for George to finish mixing the recordings.George recorded her singing without her knowing, and decided to include it in the album. Yamuna protested vehemently, but George liked it and included it anyway. Some of the words were wrong and the verses were in the wrong order, but Srila Prabhupada liked it very much, and said she could fix it later.
There are sixty trillion cells in the human body, and the creepy thing is that only ten trillion cells are human, the others being symbiotic or parasitic.
It is not by guilt, fear, coersion, that we advance in devotional service.
We have to be happier performing devotional service, however faulty, than pursuing sense gratification, however successfully.
“O Lord please let me serve you.” I had never heard that prayer in all my life. Usually it is “O Lord give me this or that.”
That is why we like that bhajana (“Bhajahu Re Mana”) so much because it has Srila Prabhupada’s name, Abhaya Caranaravindam.
Srila Prabhupada said that if we just once say, “Krishna, take me, I’m yours” that we may forget it or change our minds, but Krishna never will, and He will make all arrangements for us.
Caru asked Srila Prabhupada how long it takes to become purified once in Australia when he was alone in Srila Prabhupada’s room. Srila Prabhupada replied, “About forty years.”
With what ever discretionary time you have, engage in your favorite devotional service, and you will advance more and more.
Q: Is our spiritual progress stalled if we do not follow the instructions of Krishna’s representative?
A: Yes. Krishna has sent this representative to us, so we must take advantage. Srila Prabhupada said we should not try to become big paramahamsas, but rather we should hang on to his dhoti, for he knows the back door to the spiritual world.
We can tell we are advancing when we spontaneously avoid things detrimental to devotional service because they are no longer appealing.
Even though they may not know a lot, no one can tell them they are not happy in devotional service. That is nistha or steadiness.
If you are enjoying japa you have made advancement.
If we had one-tenth as much faith in Krishna as we do that we are our body, we would attain Krishna prema [love of God].
Sesa Prabhu:
Srila Prabhupada was not so much interested in propagating a religion as giving people the opportunity to have their consciousness fully blossom.
One’s character is a manifestation of one’s consciousness.
Mahabharata addresses who is qualified to be the ruler of the entire world, and can be said to be about properly governing the world and not about religion.
One can take Mahabharata as a job interview by Krishna, the paramesvara (supreme controller), for the position of ruler of the world.
Employers hire for competence and fire for character.
Employers look for ability, track record, character, positive attitude, and enthusiasm.
Duryodhana was asked to find someone greater than himself, and he could not. Yudhisthira was asked to find someone less than himself, and he could not. This indicates that Duryodhana was narcissistic, proud, bombastic, etc. Would you want to hire someone like that? Often when people have these bad qualities, they have other bad qualities because of not being able to deal properly with other people. Recently many military leaders have been found to have other serious character flaws.
There is a path to full developed consciousness that people have followed in the past and which can be followed even now.
Shiva drank an ocean of poison to save humanity from its ill effects.
At a petrol station in India one devotee asked a local student who knew English what he wanted to do with his life. He said that he wanted to do something to bring honor to his father’s name. You won’t get a response like that in America! That is just a remnant of the Vedic culture.
Svayambhuva Manu would use his free time to study the scripture to become a better leader, not to enjoy his senses in different ways.
The real solution to different ills like violence in society is to change the consciousness of the people. Mahabharata gives knowledge by which we can do that.
To make mistakes is human, but as our consciousness develops, we learn from our mistakes.
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says others cannot harm us unless we harm ourselves. So just to protect ourselves it is in our self-interest to develop our character.
We can be overcome by lust but if we take shelter of the Lord, He will protect us.
Superficial change is not real change.
comment by Vaishnava dasa: I did not make a plan to be clean, but just by engaging in devotional service that came naturally.
The the asrama divisions in varnasrama follow the natural changes of our body.
The details of what we do might change but the reason we do things, to please Krishna, does not change.
Change should be made to develop our devotional service rather than as a reduction.
The instruction to stay in your own position does not mean to be complacent.
comment by a devotee: Srila Prabhupada used the analogy of cleaning a room to explain how when we begin our spiritual practice it seems that our life initially gets more complicated and confusing.
Q: What should we do when devotees disagree about what is a principle and what is a detail?
A: There is a principle of ista-gosthi, whereby which the devotees discuss the subject in detail, and then even if there seems to be no resolution, you will get mercy from Krishna from following His process of ista-gosthi.
Fault-finding is a very dangerous quality.
When we find faults, that person’s fault does not become magnified, rather our bad qualities become magnified.
Martin Luther King says he has a dream of a day when one is judged not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character.
When I was a brahmacari in LA in the 1970s, the brahmacaris would take prasadam together, mostly in silence. One day one brahmacari said, “Baseball season starts today.” He could have been advising us of good opportunities for harinama or book distribution, but we did not give him a chance. Instead we got on his case for being in maya for talking of materialistic thingsbecause in those days we were very fanatical.
There are different kinds of intelligence, and if a manager because of being attached to a particular one, and not appreciating others, discourages a person that can be very detrimental.
Mostly the criticism is more about the person who makes criticism than the person who is criticized.
Motivations for criticism:
-
gaining a sense of superiority.
-
getting back at someone
-
establish our position as being the best
-
to distract people from considering our own faults
The pure soul is devoid of the quality of fault-finding.
If we can find faults in ourselves, we are in a better position to learn from others’ criticism of ourselves.
comment by Dorian: Before Einstein was a great physicist he worked in a patent office, and his boss said that he would never amount to anything, and he said it just made him work harder.
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura said, “Look within. Amend yourself rather than pry into the faults of others. Cultivate patience, humility, and respect for others”.
some verses related to the topic of fault-finding from Krishna-kripa das:
“The worker who is always engaged in work against the injunctions of the scripture, who is materialistic, obstinate, cheating and expert in insulting others, and who is lazy, always morose and procrastinating is said to be a worker in the mode of ignorance.” (Bhagavad-gita 18.28)
“One should mentally honor the devotee who chants the holy name of Lord Krishna, one should offer humble obeisances to the devotee who has undergone spiritual initiation [diksa] and is engaged in worshiping the Deity, and one should associate with and faithfully serve that Pure devotee who is advanced in undeviated devotional service and whose heart is completely devoid of the propensity to criticize others.(Nectar of Instruction, verse 5)
Tattva-vit Prabhu:
Desire to serve the Lord personally does not imply service the Lord alone or without any intermediate.
Srila Prabhupada says becoming the servant of the Lord’s servants is the sum and substance of life. Narottama Dasa Thakura prays in that mood, “tadera carana-sebi-bhakta-sane bas—May I live with those devotees who serve the lotus feet of these six Gosvamis.”
Preachers should serve the Lord purely and joyfully to inspire others.
Our body, life, and ego are Krishna’s energy, and thus ultimately Krishna Himself.
Srila Prabhupada writes in The Nectar of Instruction that the first business of spiritual life is to train the senses and the mind.
By associating with devotees one will also come to desire eagerness to serve Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada told a reporter that his message could be very widely accepted if “they would hear it.”
comment by Bhakta Marlon: Because the self is part of Krishna if you present Krishna consciousness by telling people its about themselves that will be more appealing to them than telling them that its is about Krishna, who they are not so interested in.
Dana-keli Prabhu:
We hear about the pastimes so we can become purified and hear about about the pastimes in a deeper way.
Tamal Krishna Goswami in his Ph.D. dissertation explains that Srila Prabhupada special contribution was that he digested all the truths presented by the previous teachers in the spiritual line and expertly presented them for the modern world.
We may have difficulties in our spiritual practice but if we never abandon the association of devotees, ultimately we will attain success.
One thing that attracted me in the beginning of my practice of Krishna consciousness, was the idea that I have a relationship with God that is completely unique, not like that of anyone else’s, and I wanted to experience that.
One person would trick his mind into doing book distribution. When the mind would protest his program of going downtown and distributing books, he would tell his mind, “We are not going to distribute books. We just going to put books in the car and drive downtown.” When he got downtown, his mind would again protest, and he would say, “We are not going to distribute books, we are just going to get out of the car with a bag of books, and walk around.” So he got out of the car with the books and wandered around. When the mind was again worried about distributing books, he would say, “We are not going to distribute books, we are just going to say ‘Hello’ to people.” And by going on and on in this way, he tricked his mind into distributing books.
If we want to read the advanced Vaishnava literature Srila Prabhupada recommended in Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, it is good to do it in the association of devotees.
Madhava Prabhu (from Alachua):
Twice Prabhupada spoke on the teachings of Queen Kunti and from those lectures, the BBT was able to publish the book Teachings of Queen Kunti.
To take shelter of Krishna alone is the great lesson we can learn from Kunti and her sons, the Pandavas. Vyasadeva teaches this important lesson in the very beginning Srimad-Bhagavatam.
Q: In Mahabharata Krishna asks Arjuna to get weapons from the demigods for use in the battle, so some people argue that it is alright to worship the demigods.
A: Krishna is sending Arjuna to his devotees to get the blessings of his devotees, the demigods. It is not that Arjuna is thinking that the demigods can offer him something that Krishna can’t.
Prema Manjari dd:
This is the most important of Kunti’s prayers as it is very rare that someone prays for more calamities.
In a crisis our whole world may fall apart. We may feel fear, depression, etc. Some people fall apart emotionally. Even after the crisis, people continue to suffer for years because of not being able to process what happened.
Psychologists who have analyzed post-traumatic-stress syndrome say those who suffer the most are those who consider themselves as victims.
On the other hand, there are cases of post-traumatic growth, which is a exciting field of new research in psychology. This is symptomized by greater psychological, emotional, and spiritual confidence, greater compassion, increased faith in self and others, more capacity for intimacy, gratitude, etc.
The crisis is an opportunity for us to apply the spiritual knowledge we have acquired, especially by taking completely shelter of Krishna.
This world is not a place where we can be comfortable and happy, but unfortunately most of us do not believe that. Thus Krishna needs to create situations for us to realize this. It is best to see calamities in this way.
After being in the holy dhama, when you return to the West the power of the material energy to impede our spiritual progress is very obvious.
Rohini Kumara Prabhu:
The coach of a team that twice won the Super Bowl said, “Everyone wants to win. My teams wants to prepare to win.”
Caitanya dasi from Krishna House:
Hearing from the learned devotees while in Vrndavana, a common theme was that theoretical spiritual knowledge becomes realized more and more by sharing it with others.
My japa at Radha Damodara temple was very sweet, but it was not my doing it.
Nanda Kumar Prabhu:
What is striking about the narration of the prostitute Pingala, who because of frustration in her profession, surrendered to Krishna?
Typically misery causes frustration, but Pingala’s frustration brought detachment and knowledge. That was due to her past devotional activities.
comment by Tulasirani dd: Although sensual enjoyment is glorified in human society, Pingala the prostitute, comes to the conclusion that it is all useless, and that is very rare, and thus very striking.
comment by Indian student guest: The narration shows how even the most sinful person can get the mercy of the Lord.
Arjuna Prabhu:
It is a goal of mine to see how each of the chapters of Bhagavad-gita contributes to Krishna’s point that He is obtained by bhakti.
Tulasirani dd:
We were coming back from Festival of Inspiration, and we were really tired. The person who was driving swerved off the road. I cried out Krishna like I had never before done in my life. One of the girls was unconscious and covered with blood, and I knew she was not going to live, so I just chanted Hare Krishna and talked to her about Krishna. I was able to do that because I had just heard from my spiritual master at the Festival of Inspiration. There is nothing that anyone could have done for me in that car accident, except to tell me to remember Krishna. Earlier that very day my friend had said, “If I died today I would be so satisfied because I feel that I have this warm blanket of Krishna’s love around me.” I was so upset they took us to separate hospitals, because I would not be able help her remember Krishna, so I prayed to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. Turns out she was taken to a hospital where a devotee doctor was on duty and happened to remember her name and called all the devotees, and they came and were able to help her remember Krishna at the end of her life. This car accident helped me realize that death can come at any moment.
A friend was telling me that Krishna is the only one she has, all others will be taken away from us. I was surprised to hear she had such an advanced realization.
The devotees are valuable because they remind us to remember Krishna.
I asked one of my friends what made her so inspired. She said, “I think if this was the last day of my life, what are all the things I would do to please Krishna on this day, and then I try to act that way.”
We are dependent on Krishna, but it is up to us to depend on Krishna.
When you are in distress, where do find solace? What are you taking shelter of? It is good to step back and see, was I trying to take shelter of Krishna or something temporary?
We should be making plans to become more attracted to thinking of Krishna by hearing about Him and seriously chanting His holy names.
We should visit the holy dhamas to increase our attraction to Krishna.
Death is something that happens to everyone, yet we talk about so many nonsensical things but we do not want to talk about death.
Prepare for death is not as difficult as preparing for many tests. Going to mangala-arati and singing and dancing with your friends is easier than studying for many other tests.
Q: We make so many plans, getting our Ph.D., getting a job, etc.
A: As a duty to your family and Krishna you have to have to make plans, but you also have to spend time completely absorbed in sadhana [your spiritual practice] every day.
unspoken comments by Krishna-kripa das on the topic of the class:
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 9, No. 1
By Krishna-kripa das
(January 2013, part one)
New York City
(Sent from Tallahassee, Florida, on February 19, 2013)
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| Harinama in Times Square Subway Station, January 10, 2013. |
Where I Went and What I Did
For the first two weeks of January 2013, I continued chanting in Manhattan with Rama Raya Prabhu and his harinama party, and I continued living in our Brooklyn temple, Sri Sri Radha Govinda Mandir, attending the morning program there, and spending two hours afterward chopping vegetables for the temple and its weekday restaurant program, Govinda’s Vegetarian Lunch. Every afternoon from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. I would chant with Rama Raya Prabhu and his harinama party, consisting of from three to seventeen devotees, at Union Square Park, or on the cold days, in various subway stations at Union Square, Grand Central, Times Square, and Columbus Circle. Sometimes, especially on weekends, we would begin at 3 p.m. or even 2 p.m., and still continue till 8:00 p.m. By the influence of Rama Raya I spent an extra week in New York City with his harinama party, missing the first week of the spring semester at Gainesville’s Krishna House.
I did not hear so many live lectures in New York City, but I have some notes from the many Prabhupada recordings I heard while chopping vegetables, the Prabhupada books I daily read, the articles I proofread for both Back to Godhead magazine and Viraha Bhavan, the daily journal of Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami. I did hear one morning lecture by Romapada Swami, whose informative points I also share.
Harinama in New York City
New Years Day, the 76thanniversary of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saravati Thakura’s disappearance according to both the solar and lunar calendars, was auspicious for us on harinama.
Elizabeth, who just graduated from college in New Paltz and who is originally from New Jersey, listened over an hour to us chant in the Times Square subway station. She explained that she had once lived for two weeks in our ashram in Wellington, New Zealand. She was happy to encounter the Hare Krishnas for the first time in the New York City area, and we told her about our Manhattan and Brooklyn temples and their programs.
Supervisor Nandan Vyasadev, originally from Gujarat, was very happy to have the Hare Krishnas chant in the Time Square subway station where he is in charge. We gave him prasadam cupcakes and laddus, which he appreciated, and we were happy to have found a place indoors where the authorities like us.
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Rama Raya Prabhu, the leader of the Manhattan harinama program asked me to stay another week on the party, as he did not have three people committed to the full four-hour harinama. I told him I planned to go to Gainesville for three months and return to New York City for a week of harinama in April, but he preferred that I do that week of harinama in January. The weather is better in April and my friend, Ekalavya Prabhu, may also be back on the party in April, so April was my preference. I decided to ask Kalakantha Prabhu if he cared whether I came back a week later and stayed an extra week in April. He said it was better for him if I came back when I planned to and not week later, but he liberally said that I could decide for myself. During our harinama in the Times Square subway station, I was thinking about the dilemma and I decided that I should pray to Krishna for a sign indicating what I should do. While I was thinking in that way, a young lady passed our party with a bright smile on her face, her eyes fixed on the party as she walked by. I thought she definitely looked interested and offered her a pamphlet on chanting, so she came over to me. I thought she was so attracted she must have some previous experience with Hare Krishna so I asked her. She replied that she had just heard some people singing in Union Square Park a few times but that was all. I smiled and explained that we were the same people singing at Union Square and that we chant in the subways in the cold weather. She explained that she loved the chanting, and concluded with a smile, saying “that sound is pure joy!” “Wow!” I thought, it is not often that someone says, “That sound is pure joy!” We know that Krishna is eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss, and that His name is similarly qualified, but it is not often that people in the crowd have the realization that “that sound is pure joy!” Then and there I decided to stay in New York City another week, and give thousands of New Yorkers each day a chance to hear the “pure joy” of the Hare Krishna mantra. That was sign I was looking for!
At Union Square Park, I talked to a lady who was videoing our chanting, and asked her if she knew about Hare Krishna. Yes, she replied, saying she frequently goes to Govinda’s Restaurant in Stockholm, where she was visiting from. I gave her an invitation to Govinda’s in Brooklyn, and she promised to go on her next visit to New York, as she was returning home the next day.
One girl from Arkansas was videoing the party at Union Square with a big smile on her face. She said she likes to come to New York and see cultural opportunities not present in Arkansas, despite its pleasant scenic natural beauty. From that I could understand the harinama gives people from all parts of the USA, and even the world, a chance to come in touch with Krishna in the course of their pursuing the adventure of a New York City vacation.
Sally, who lives a block from Union Square, and looks to be in her sixties, comes for an hour or two to chant with the devotees each day and throws a donation in the basket before returning home. One day she spontaneously said about the daily kirtana, “This is the best thing that has happened in Union Square since I moved here over forty years ago.”
In Times Square subway station, just above the platform for the “7” train, we were chanting peacefully when a Christian preacher decided to pace back and forth across the hallway from us, giving his hell, fire, and brimstone speech to anyone who could hear him over the kirtana. After I while I decided to advise him that if he moved down the hallway a few yards, it would be easier for people to hear his message. He protested that he has been coming here for years, and it was his place. Then he began to criticize our philosophy. I could see I was not going to get anywhere with him, so I returned to dancing and giving out invitations to people with obvious interest. After a few minutes a well-dressed Afro-American gentlemen convinced the Christian to move down the hallway a few yards, and continued talking with him for some time. Then that man who relocated the Christian came up to where I was standing, and I thanked him for helping us out. He told me he saw from the staircase above how the Christian was harassing us, and thinking that it wasn’t right, he came down to tell the man so. He explained to me that when dealing with Christians, you just have to ask them two questions, “When was the Bible compiled?” and “How many books does it have?” Usually they do not know, and it is embarrassing for them and they are humbled, and then you are able to deal with them. He told me his name was Carlos, and he was a trumpet player for years in that subway station and he knew the Christians well. Then he surprised me by asking for some karatalas, and he played with us for awhile, throwing a donation in the basket as he left.
On the hallway from Grand Central Station to the Times Square shuttle, a man passed by our party, smiling and speaking a few friendly words. Then having a second thought, he returned to look at our books on display. I showed him Bhagavad-gita, and he said he had one. I decided to show him the Krishna book, explaining it was a biography telling of Krishna’s activities in this world. He glanced through it and decided to buy one for ten dollars. He told me he was retired professor with a doctorate in world religions and has been a Christian Brothers monk for fifty years. Then he offered respect with folded hands to each and everyone in our chanting party as he left with a smile.
One night at Union Square, as I taking a breaking from our chanting party to warm my body and to use the rest room, I noticed a young lady who was standing not far away for quite a while and watching us for part of the time. I asked her if she liked the music, and she said she did. She went on to explain that several times she visited a Hare Krishna restaurant when she lived in Arizona. I asked if it was the one in Tucson, and she said it was. I told her how I had spent two months in Tucson, singing three hours a day at the University of Arizona, and eating at our restaurant Govinda’s, and that I really liked the whole experience. I asked her what she was doing in the city, and she said she worked at Carnegie Hall on 57thStreet. I told her we had a Krishna lunch program in at our temple in Brooklyn and that it was just 5 stops on the “Q” train to get there from 57thStreet. She said she had an hour off for lunch, and she would like to go and check it out sometime, so I gave her an invitation. Usually we do not talk to people unless they are obviously very favorable, so I took a risk talking to that young lady, but she was very happy to hear she could get some Krishna food in New York, so I felt happy about it.
Special thanks to Rasika Gopi dd and Bhakta Alex for their wonderful pictures of the harinamas in Manhattan.
Srila Prabhupada:
from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.14.38, purport:
‘sadhu-sanga,’‘sadhu-sanga’— sarva-shastre kaya
lava-matra sadhu-sange sarva-siddhi haya
(Cc. Madhya 22.54)
Even by a little association with devotees, the conditioned soul can get out of this miserable material condition. This Krishna consciousness movement is therefore trying to give everyone a chance to associate with saintly people. Therefore all the members of this Krishna consciousness society must themselves be perfect sadhus [saints] in order to give a chance to fallen conditioned souls. This is the best humanitarian work.
from a lecture on Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s appearance day in Gorakhpur on Feb. 15, 1971:
“Except the devotee of Krishna, everyone is simply giving Krishna trouble, trouble, trouble. . . . Don’t make any plan. Accept Krishna’s plan. . . . A devotee’s principle is not place any plan to Krishna. Let Krishna do . . . . As far as possible our business is to induce persons how to become Krishna conscious. That’s all. For that reason you can make your plan, because that is Krishna’s plan.”
from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.7 in Delhi on November 13, 1973:
“A mahatma (a great soul) is not under the control of the material energy. He is under the the shelter of the spiritual energy. . . . He has no other business than to serve the Supreme Lord.”
“We are reminding people that ‘you are son of such great personality, of Krishna, why don’t you go back to your home?’”
“People are searching after God. . . . . God may be like this, God may be like that. Why ‘may be’? Why not say you don’t know? Just admit that you do not know. Why are you cheating.”
Scholars claim to be searching for God, and although the Lord appears as Krishna and is accepted by great spiritual authorities, the scholars foolishly continue to search for Him elsewhere, making different theses.
from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.2 given in Hyderabad on March 15, 1975:
“Is it very difficult to constantly remember Krishna? You can do it. You are remembering something. The mind is occupied always with something. Just practice occupying the mind with Krishna. That’s all. Where is the difficulty?”
from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.8 in Hyderabad on April 22, 1974:
“Anyone who accepts the supremacy of God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, his process of worship has to be considered in the category of bhakti-yoga.”
You cannot say, “Let us all become technologist sudras.”Then you can get money for wine and meat but the ideal life is lost.
from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.11 in Vrindavan on October 22, 1972:
That the sunshine spreads all over the universe does not make it more important than the sun globe. Similarly the all-pervading Brahman is not more important than the Personality of Godhead from whom it emanates.
By chanting Hare Krishna we immediate contact Krishna, while by other yogic processes that can take many births.
from Sri Caitanya-caritamrita Adi 9.50 verse and purport:
“When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the great gardener, sees that people are chanting, dancing and laughing and that some of them are rolling on the floor and some are making loud humming sounds, He smiles with great pleasure.”
“This attitude of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is very important for persons engaged in the Hare Krishna movement of Krishnaconsciousness. In every center of our institution, ISKCON, we have arranged for a love feast every Sunday, and when we actually see people come to our center, chant, dance, take prasadam, become jubilant and purchase books, we know that certainly Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhuis always present in such transcendental activities, and He is very pleased and satisfied. Therefore the members of ISKCON must increase this movement more and more, according to the principles that we are presently trying to execute.Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, thus being pleased, will smilingly glance upon them, bestowing His favor, and the movement will be successful.”
from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.16.3, purport:
“If one rigidly observes the regulative principle of chanting sixteen rounds of the maha-mantra every day, his dealings with the material world for the sake of spreading the Krishna consciousness movement are not different from the spiritual cultivation of Krishna consciousness.”
from Back to Godhead,Vol. 47, No. 2, March–April 2013, “Protected by Krishna”:
“This is the crucial point. Dehantara-prapti: one has to accept another body. If you can find a means so that you do not accept another body, then you are safe. Otherwise, as soon as you take another birth, then you must die also. And between birth and death are disease and old age.”
“How are these European and American boys and girls advancing, realizing? Simply by using the tongue to chant Hare Krishna and take prasada. You can introduce this process all over the world. Give people a chance to chant the Hare Krishna mantra. But it is difficult also. There was a cartoon. One old lady is requesting her husband, “Chant chant, chant,” and the husband is replying, “Can’t, can’t, can’t.” [Laughter] We are requesting everyone, “Please chant,” and they are replying, “Can’t.” They will not chant. That is the difficulty. Otherwise, we can deliver all the people on this earth back home, back to Godhead, simply by this process: chanting and taking prasada.”
“They cannot give up that small piece of meat. The same thing can be made from milk. Prepare cheese and fry it, and you’ll get the same taste. Let the animal live, take its milk, and prepare so many milk preparations. But these rascals will not do that. They will kill simply for the tongue.”
from Back to Godhead,Vol. 47, No. 2, March–April 2013, “Prabhupada Speaks Out”:
[From aconversation between His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and some of his disciples which took place in September 1975 on an early-morning walk in Vrindavana, India.]
But how have you become embodied if you are the Supreme? What made you embodied? You don’t like to be embodied—the body is bringing so much suffering—so you want liberation. But whoever made you embodied—He is the Supreme. You are not the Supreme.
Romapada Swami:
Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura explained that in the pastime of the cursing of Jaya and Vijaya, the Lord accomplished several purposes. He satisfied Laksmi, Jaya and Vijaya, and the Kumaras. Here is how:
Once Narayana wanted to rest so he posted Jaya and Vijaya to guard the door to his room and not let anyone in. When Laksmi, the eternal consort of the Lord, arrived, they turned her away, and she did not say anything, but she was not happy about it, and later she let Narayana know that she wanted them punished for that mistake.
Jaya and Vijaya knew that the Lord had a chivalrous nature and liked to fight but had no suitable combatant, and so they had a desire to play that role for the Lord.
When Narayana arrived on the scene, He pleased the brahmana Kumaras by supporting the position of the brahmanas by His words and actions.
In steadiness, there may be some residual materialistic inclination, but the bhakti is so powerful it overshadows that slight material tendency.
In disagreements between devotees, it is best not to take sides but to understand the Lord has some plan in that.
The Lord rules the hearts of the residents of Vaikuntha so there is diversity but no conflict and thus no fear, just as there is no conflict between the different organs of the body.
In Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s autobiography, he tells of a scholar who wrote a book of fictional stories about Krishna and showed it to him before publishing. He spent four days without eating or sleeping, explaining to the scholar why one could not write a fiction book about Krishna, and finally the scholar agreed and rewrote the book. Later that scholar recalled, “Whenever I was in his association, very quickly Bhaktivinoda Thakura would begin to talk about acintya-bheda-abheda-tattva [the truth that the living entities are inconceivably and simultaneously one and different from the Supreme Lord].
Recognizing the majesty of the Lord and being satisfied simply to serve Him in that mood is the qualification to live in Vaikuntha.
The love that the residents of Vrindavan have for Krishna is what Lord Caitanya came to give and what people are receiving from Him, step by step, whether they know it or not.
You can be steady in faith, but not steady in the execution of bhakti only because of external circumstances beyond your control.
It is my experience that once a person has regulated his life in a spiritual way, if he again takes to an unregulated life, it is very, very difficult to become regulated in spiritual life again.
The Kumaras generally agree, but occasionally express their individual non-conflicting views.
Q: Is it enough to understand bhakti is the essence and not absorb oneself in all the details?
A: It is certainly good to understand that bhakti is the essence, but appreciating the details we can increasingly relish the pastimes.
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
from an online poem:
“Radha controls Krishna, yet He is the independent Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
from Qualities of Sri Krishna:
“The Nectar of Devotionspeaks of Krishna offering obeisances to Maharaja Yudhisthira before the rajasuya sacrifice as an example of His gentleness, but His most amazing act at the rajasuya sacrifice was His volunteering to wash the feet of the arriving guests. How gentle Krishna is. What other great and powerful king would be willing to overcome his own arrogance to touch the feet of so many people? Krishna did not agree to bathe the guests’ feet out of political motivation; He bathed their feet as an exchange of love. Krishna is both father and mother to all living beings. He likes to care for them in a way that eases their hearts. Certainly, His washing the guests’ feet is an example of His quality of gentleness.
Urmila dd:
from Back to Godhead,Vol. 47, No. 2, March–April 2013, “Offering Dandavat”:
One Sanskrit word Srila Prabhupada translates as “surrender” is prapadyate, which literally means “to throw oneself down at someone’s feet.”
Caitanya-carana Prabhu:
from Back to Godhead, Vol. 47, No. 2, March–April 2013, “The W.R.I.T.E. Service”:
“Though different people may be able to forget worldly miseries by absorption in various activities, devotees know that the transcendence attained by absorption in Krishna is unique because it comprises a this-worldly glimpse of the eternal, ecstatic absorption that awaits them in the next world.”
Vamsi Vihari Prabhu:
from Back to Godhead,Vol. 47, No. 2, March–April 2013, “Sickess: A Friend and Teacher”:
One of my devotee friends shared his realization that Krishna takes the risk of being blamed: “Oh! I am trying to serve You, Krishna, and You are giving me problems. What kind of God are You?” But as a true well-wisher, Krishna is concerned not about being blamed but about ending our material existence as soon as possible.
Sickness can reveal the true level of our spiritual connection by showing whether our foundation is shallow or deep—that is, based on a genuine desire to practice Krishna consciousness in any circumstance. If we are open, we may find the revelation humbling, which in spiritual life is helpful. So, illness can be a turning point in our life. We may understand that we have forced Krishna to put us into this predicament to take us out of the illusion that life in the material world is “the good life.”
Years ago I read the poem “Reduced,” by Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
My list of Things to Do
falls to the side.
All I do is rest.
Yet one cry to Krishna
is worth a hundred days
of marching in pride.
Sickness can become a golden opportunity for us to realize our smallness and helplessness and take shelter of Krishna. We have to remember that if Krishna is allowing something to happen to us, it must be good. I have met devotees who feel that the best time of their Krishna conscious lives was when they were going through some difficulty. Not finding any other shelter, they intensely took Krishna’s shelter and felt His presence more evidently than at any other time. That’s why Kunti Devi, the glorious mother of the Pandavas, prayed to Krishna for more and more calamities. “Because,” she reasoned, “calamities inspire me to see Your lotus face, which means I’ll no longer see the face of repeated birth and death.” We need not imitate Kunti Devi by asking for more hardship, however; our destined calamities should be enough for us to turn to Krishna.
—–
tasmat sankirtanam visnor
jagan-mangalam amhasam
mahatam api kauravya
viddhy aikantika-niskrtam
“Sukadeva Gosvami continued: My dear King, the chanting of the holy name of the Lord is able to uproot even the reactions of the greatest sins. Therefore the chanting of the sankirtana movement is the most auspicious activity in the entire universe. Please try to understand this so that others will take it seriously.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.3.31)
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 9, No. 1
By Krishna-kripa das
(January 2013, part one)
New York City
(Sent from Tallahassee, Florida, on February 19, 2013)
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| Harinama in Times Square Subway Station, January 10, 2013. |
Where I Went and What I Did
For the first two weeks of January 2013, I continued chanting in Manhattan with Rama Raya Prabhu and his harinama party, and I continued living in our Brooklyn temple, Sri Sri Radha Govinda Mandir, attending the morning program there, and spending two hours afterward chopping vegetables for the temple and its weekday restaurant program, Govinda’s Vegetarian Lunch. Every afternoon from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. I would chant with Rama Raya Prabhu and his harinama party, consisting of from three to seventeen devotees, at Union Square Park, or on the cold days, in various subway stations at Union Square, Grand Central, Times Square, and Columbus Circle. Sometimes, especially on weekends, we would begin at 3 p.m. or even 2 p.m., and still continue till 8:00 p.m. By the influence of Rama Raya I spent an extra week in New York City with his harinama party, missing the first week of the spring semester at Gainesville’s Krishna House.
I did not hear so many live lectures in New York City, but I have some notes from the many Prabhupada recordings I heard while chopping vegetables, the Prabhupada books I daily read, the articles I proofread for both Back to Godhead magazine and Viraha Bhavan, the daily journal of Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami. I did hear one morning lecture by Romapada Swami, whose informative points I also share.
Harinama in New York City
New Years Day, the 76thanniversary of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saravati Thakura’s disappearance according to both the solar and lunar calendars, was auspicious for us on harinama.
Elizabeth, who just graduated from college in New Paltz and who is originally from New Jersey, listened over an hour to us chant in the Times Square subway station. She explained that she had once lived for two weeks in our ashram in Wellington, New Zealand. She was happy to encounter the Hare Krishnas for the first time in the New York City area, and we told her about our Manhattan and Brooklyn temples and their programs.
Supervisor Nandan Vyasadev, originally from Gujarat, was very happy to have the Hare Krishnas chant in the Time Square subway station where he is in charge. We gave him prasadam cupcakes and laddus, which he appreciated, and we were happy to have found a place indoors where the authorities like us.
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Rama Raya Prabhu, the leader of the Manhattan harinama program asked me to stay another week on the party, as he did not have three people committed to the full four-hour harinama. I told him I planned to go to Gainesville for three months and return to New York City for a week of harinama in April, but he preferred that I do that week of harinama in January. The weather is better in April and my friend, Ekalavya Prabhu, may also be back on the party in April, so April was my preference. I decided to ask Kalakantha Prabhu if he cared whether I came back a week later and stayed an extra week in April. He said it was better for him if I came back when I planned to and not week later, but he liberally said that I could decide for myself. During our harinama in the Times Square subway station, I was thinking about the dilemma and I decided that I should pray to Krishna for a sign indicating what I should do. While I was thinking in that way, a young lady passed our party with a bright smile on her face, her eyes fixed on the party as she walked by. I thought she definitely looked interested and offered her a pamphlet on chanting, so she came over to me. I thought she was so attracted she must have some previous experience with Hare Krishna so I asked her. She replied that she had just heard some people singing in Union Square Park a few times but that was all. I smiled and explained that we were the same people singing at Union Square and that we chant in the subways in the cold weather. She explained that she loved the chanting, and concluded with a smile, saying “that sound is pure joy!” “Wow!” I thought, it is not often that someone says, “That sound is pure joy!” We know that Krishna is eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss, and that His name is similarly qualified, but it is not often that people in the crowd have the realization that “that sound is pure joy!” Then and there I decided to stay in New York City another week, and give thousands of New Yorkers each day a chance to hear the “pure joy” of the Hare Krishna mantra. That was sign I was looking for!
At Union Square Park, I talked to a lady who was videoing our chanting, and asked her if she knew about Hare Krishna. Yes, she replied, saying she frequently goes to Govinda’s Restaurant in Stockholm, where she was visiting from. I gave her an invitation to Govinda’s in Brooklyn, and she promised to go on her next visit to New York, as she was returning home the next day.
One girl from Arkansas was videoing the party at Union Square with a big smile on her face. She said she likes to come to New York and see cultural opportunities not present in Arkansas, despite its pleasant scenic natural beauty. From that I could understand the harinama gives people from all parts of the USA, and even the world, a chance to come in touch with Krishna in the course of their pursuing the adventure of a New York City vacation.
Sally, who lives a block from Union Square, and looks to be in her sixties, comes for an hour or two to chant with the devotees each day and throws a donation in the basket before returning home. One day she spontaneously said about the daily kirtana, “This is the best thing that has happened in Union Square since I moved here over forty years ago.”
In Times Square subway station, just above the platform for the “7” train, we were chanting peacefully when a Christian preacher decided to pace back and forth across the hallway from us, giving his hell, fire, and brimstone speech to anyone who could hear him over the kirtana. After I while I decided to advise him that if he moved down the hallway a few yards, it would be easier for people to hear his message. He protested that he has been coming here for years, and it was his place. Then he began to criticize our philosophy. I could see I was not going to get anywhere with him, so I returned to dancing and giving out invitations to people with obvious interest. After a few minutes a well-dressed Afro-American gentlemen convinced the Christian to move down the hallway a few yards, and continued talking with him for some time. Then that man who relocated the Christian came up to where I was standing, and I thanked him for helping us out. He told me he saw from the staircase above how the Christian was harassing us, and thinking that it wasn’t right, he came down to tell the man so. He explained to me that when dealing with Christians, you just have to ask them two questions, “When was the Bible compiled?” and “How many books does it have?” Usually they do not know, and it is embarrassing for them and they are humbled, and then you are able to deal with them. He told me his name was Carlos, and he was a trumpet player for years in that subway station and he knew the Christians well. Then he surprised me by asking for some karatalas, and he played with us for awhile, throwing a donation in the basket as he left.
On the hallway from Grand Central Station to the Times Square shuttle, a man passed by our party, smiling and speaking a few friendly words. Then having a second thought, he returned to look at our books on display. I showed him Bhagavad-gita, and he said he had one. I decided to show him the Krishna book, explaining it was a biography telling of Krishna’s activities in this world. He glanced through it and decided to buy one for ten dollars. He told me he was retired professor with a doctorate in world religions and has been a Christian Brothers monk for fifty years. Then he offered respect with folded hands to each and everyone in our chanting party as he left with a smile.
One night at Union Square, as I taking a breaking from our chanting party to warm my body and to use the rest room, I noticed a young lady who was standing not far away for quite a while and watching us for part of the time. I asked her if she liked the music, and she said she did. She went on to explain that several times she visited a Hare Krishna restaurant when she lived in Arizona. I asked if it was the one in Tucson, and she said it was. I told her how I had spent two months in Tucson, singing three hours a day at the University of Arizona, and eating at our restaurant Govinda’s, and that I really liked the whole experience. I asked her what she was doing in the city, and she said she worked at Carnegie Hall on 57thStreet. I told her we had a Krishna lunch program in at our temple in Brooklyn and that it was just 5 stops on the “Q” train to get there from 57thStreet. She said she had an hour off for lunch, and she would like to go and check it out sometime, so I gave her an invitation. Usually we do not talk to people unless they are obviously very favorable, so I took a risk talking to that young lady, but she was very happy to hear she could get some Krishna food in New York, so I felt happy about it.
Special thanks to Rasika Gopi dd and Bhakta Alex for their wonderful pictures of the harinamas in Manhattan.
Srila Prabhupada:
from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.14.38, purport:
‘sadhu-sanga,’‘sadhu-sanga’— sarva-shastre kaya
lava-matra sadhu-sange sarva-siddhi haya
(Cc. Madhya 22.54)
Even by a little association with devotees, the conditioned soul can get out of this miserable material condition. This Krishna consciousness movement is therefore trying to give everyone a chance to associate with saintly people. Therefore all the members of this Krishna consciousness society must themselves be perfect sadhus [saints] in order to give a chance to fallen conditioned souls. This is the best humanitarian work.
from a lecture on Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s appearance day in Gorakhpur on Feb. 15, 1971:
“Except the devotee of Krishna, everyone is simply giving Krishna trouble, trouble, trouble. . . . Don’t make any plan. Accept Krishna’s plan. . . . A devotee’s principle is not place any plan to Krishna. Let Krishna do . . . . As far as possible our business is to induce persons how to become Krishna conscious. That’s all. For that reason you can make your plan, because that is Krishna’s plan.”
from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.7 in Delhi on November 13, 1973:
“A mahatma (a great soul) is not under the control of the material energy. He is under the the shelter of the spiritual energy. . . . He has no other business than to serve the Supreme Lord.”
“We are reminding people that ‘you are son of such great personality, of Krishna, why don’t you go back to your home?’”
“People are searching after God. . . . . God may be like this, God may be like that. Why ‘may be’? Why not say you don’t know? Just admit that you do not know. Why are you cheating.”
Scholars claim to be searching for God, and although the Lord appears as Krishna and is accepted by great spiritual authorities, the scholars foolishly continue to search for Him elsewhere, making different theses.
from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.2 given in Hyderabad on March 15, 1975:
“Is it very difficult to constantly remember Krishna? You can do it. You are remembering something. The mind is occupied always with something. Just practice occupying the mind with Krishna. That’s all. Where is the difficulty?”
from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.8 in Hyderabad on April 22, 1974:
“Anyone who accepts the supremacy of God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, his process of worship has to be considered in the category of bhakti-yoga.”
You cannot say, “Let us all become technologist sudras.”Then you can get money for wine and meat but the ideal life is lost.
from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.11 in Vrindavan on October 22, 1972:
That the sunshine spreads all over the universe does not make it more important than the sun globe. Similarly the all-pervading Brahman is not more important than the Personality of Godhead from whom it emanates.
By chanting Hare Krishna we immediate contact Krishna, while by other yogic processes that can take many births.
from Sri Caitanya-caritamrita Adi 9.50 verse and purport:
“When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the great gardener, sees that people are chanting, dancing and laughing and that some of them are rolling on the floor and some are making loud humming sounds, He smiles with great pleasure.”
“This attitude of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is very important for persons engaged in the Hare Krishna movement of Krishnaconsciousness. In every center of our institution, ISKCON, we have arranged for a love feast every Sunday, and when we actually see people come to our center, chant, dance, take prasadam, become jubilant and purchase books, we know that certainly Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhuis always present in such transcendental activities, and He is very pleased and satisfied. Therefore the members of ISKCON must increase this movement more and more, according to the principles that we are presently trying to execute.Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, thus being pleased, will smilingly glance upon them, bestowing His favor, and the movement will be successful.”
from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.16.3, purport:
“If one rigidly observes the regulative principle of chanting sixteen rounds of the maha-mantra every day, his dealings with the material world for the sake of spreading the Krishna consciousness movement are not different from the spiritual cultivation of Krishna consciousness.”
from Back to Godhead,Vol. 47, No. 2, March–April 2013, “Protected by Krishna”:
“This is the crucial point. Dehantara-prapti: one has to accept another body. If you can find a means so that you do not accept another body, then you are safe. Otherwise, as soon as you take another birth, then you must die also. And between birth and death are disease and old age.”
“How are these European and American boys and girls advancing, realizing? Simply by using the tongue to chant Hare Krishna and take prasada. You can introduce this process all over the world. Give people a chance to chant the Hare Krishna mantra. But it is difficult also. There was a cartoon. One old lady is requesting her husband, “Chant chant, chant,” and the husband is replying, “Can’t, can’t, can’t.” [Laughter] We are requesting everyone, “Please chant,” and they are replying, “Can’t.” They will not chant. That is the difficulty. Otherwise, we can deliver all the people on this earth back home, back to Godhead, simply by this process: chanting and taking prasada.”
“They cannot give up that small piece of meat. The same thing can be made from milk. Prepare cheese and fry it, and you’ll get the same taste. Let the animal live, take its milk, and prepare so many milk preparations. But these rascals will not do that. They will kill simply for the tongue.”
from Back to Godhead,Vol. 47, No. 2, March–April 2013, “Prabhupada Speaks Out”:
[From aconversation between His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and some of his disciples which took place in September 1975 on an early-morning walk in Vrindavana, India.]
But how have you become embodied if you are the Supreme? What made you embodied? You don’t like to be embodied—the body is bringing so much suffering—so you want liberation. But whoever made you embodied—He is the Supreme. You are not the Supreme.
Romapada Swami:
Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura explained that in the pastime of the cursing of Jaya and Vijaya, the Lord accomplished several purposes. He satisfied Laksmi, Jaya and Vijaya, and the Kumaras. Here is how:
Once Narayana wanted to rest so he posted Jaya and Vijaya to guard the door to his room and not let anyone in. When Laksmi, the eternal consort of the Lord, arrived, they turned her away, and she did not say anything, but she was not happy about it, and later she let Narayana know that she wanted them punished for that mistake.
Jaya and Vijaya knew that the Lord had a chivalrous nature and liked to fight but had no suitable combatant, and so they had a desire to play that role for the Lord.
When Narayana arrived on the scene, He pleased the brahmana Kumaras by supporting the position of the brahmanas by His words and actions.
In steadiness, there may be some residual materialistic inclination, but the bhakti is so powerful it overshadows that slight material tendency.
In disagreements between devotees, it is best not to take sides but to understand the Lord has some plan in that.
The Lord rules the hearts of the residents of Vaikuntha so there is diversity but no conflict and thus no fear, just as there is no conflict between the different organs of the body.
In Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s autobiography, he tells of a scholar who wrote a book of fictional stories about Krishna and showed it to him before publishing. He spent four days without eating or sleeping, explaining to the scholar why one could not write a fiction book about Krishna, and finally the scholar agreed and rewrote the book. Later that scholar recalled, “Whenever I was in his association, very quickly Bhaktivinoda Thakura would begin to talk about acintya-bheda-abheda-tattva [the truth that the living entities are inconceivably and simultaneously one and different from the Supreme Lord].
Recognizing the majesty of the Lord and being satisfied simply to serve Him in that mood is the qualification to live in Vaikuntha.
The love that the residents of Vrindavan have for Krishna is what Lord Caitanya came to give and what people are receiving from Him, step by step, whether they know it or not.
You can be steady in faith, but not steady in the execution of bhakti only because of external circumstances beyond your control.
It is my experience that once a person has regulated his life in a spiritual way, if he again takes to an unregulated life, it is very, very difficult to become regulated in spiritual life again.
The Kumaras generally agree, but occasionally express their individual non-conflicting views.
Q: Is it enough to understand bhakti is the essence and not absorb oneself in all the details?
A: It is certainly good to understand that bhakti is the essence, but appreciating the details we can increasingly relish the pastimes.
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
from an online poem:
“Radha controls Krishna, yet He is the independent Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
from Qualities of Sri Krishna:
“The Nectar of Devotionspeaks of Krishna offering obeisances to Maharaja Yudhisthira before the rajasuya sacrifice as an example of His gentleness, but His most amazing act at the rajasuya sacrifice was His volunteering to wash the feet of the arriving guests. How gentle Krishna is. What other great and powerful king would be willing to overcome his own arrogance to touch the feet of so many people? Krishna did not agree to bathe the guests’ feet out of political motivation; He bathed their feet as an exchange of love. Krishna is both father and mother to all living beings. He likes to care for them in a way that eases their hearts. Certainly, His washing the guests’ feet is an example of His quality of gentleness.
Urmila dd:
from Back to Godhead,Vol. 47, No. 2, March–April 2013, “Offering Dandavat”:
One Sanskrit word Srila Prabhupada translates as “surrender” is prapadyate, which literally means “to throw oneself down at someone’s feet.”
Caitanya-carana Prabhu:
from Back to Godhead, Vol. 47, No. 2, March–April 2013, “The W.R.I.T.E. Service”:
“Though different people may be able to forget worldly miseries by absorption in various activities, devotees know that the transcendence attained by absorption in Krishna is unique because it comprises a this-worldly glimpse of the eternal, ecstatic absorption that awaits them in the next world.”
Vamsi Vihari Prabhu:
from Back to Godhead,Vol. 47, No. 2, March–April 2013, “Sickess: A Friend and Teacher”:
One of my devotee friends shared his realization that Krishna takes the risk of being blamed: “Oh! I am trying to serve You, Krishna, and You are giving me problems. What kind of God are You?” But as a true well-wisher, Krishna is concerned not about being blamed but about ending our material existence as soon as possible.
Sickness can reveal the true level of our spiritual connection by showing whether our foundation is shallow or deep—that is, based on a genuine desire to practice Krishna consciousness in any circumstance. If we are open, we may find the revelation humbling, which in spiritual life is helpful. So, illness can be a turning point in our life. We may understand that we have forced Krishna to put us into this predicament to take us out of the illusion that life in the material world is “the good life.”
Years ago I read the poem “Reduced,” by Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
My list of Things to Do
falls to the side.
All I do is rest.
Yet one cry to Krishna
is worth a hundred days
of marching in pride.
Sickness can become a golden opportunity for us to realize our smallness and helplessness and take shelter of Krishna. We have to remember that if Krishna is allowing something to happen to us, it must be good. I have met devotees who feel that the best time of their Krishna conscious lives was when they were going through some difficulty. Not finding any other shelter, they intensely took Krishna’s shelter and felt His presence more evidently than at any other time. That’s why Kunti Devi, the glorious mother of the Pandavas, prayed to Krishna for more and more calamities. “Because,” she reasoned, “calamities inspire me to see Your lotus face, which means I’ll no longer see the face of repeated birth and death.” We need not imitate Kunti Devi by asking for more hardship, however; our destined calamities should be enough for us to turn to Krishna.
—–
tasmat sankirtanam visnor
jagan-mangalam amhasam
mahatam api kauravya
viddhy aikantika-niskrtam
“Sukadeva Gosvami continued: My dear King, the chanting of the holy name of the Lord is able to uproot even the reactions of the greatest sins. Therefore the chanting of the sankirtana movement is the most auspicious activity in the entire universe. Please try to understand this so that others will take it seriously.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.3.31)
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 8, No. 24
By Krishna-kripa das
(December 2012, part two)
New York City and Albany
(Sent from Gainesville, Florida, on January 30, 2013)
Where I Went and What I Did
When Yadunandana Swami came to serve Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami on December 19, I left my guru’s personal service to go to New York City to chant in Union Square Park with Rama Raya Prabhu and his harinama party. For the rest of the month I lived in our Brooklyn temple, Sri Sri Radha Govinda Mandir, attended the morning program there, and spent two hours afterward chopping vegetables for the temple and its weekday restaurant program, Govinda’s Vegetarian Lunch. Every afternoon from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. I would chant with Rama Raya Prabhu and his harinama party, consisting of from three to seventeen devotees, at Union Square Park, or on the cold days, in various subway stations at Union Square, Grand Central, Times Square, and Columbus Circle. Sometimes, especially on weekends, we would begin at 3 p.m. or even 2 p.m., and still continue till 8:00 p.m. I took a two-day break for Christmas Eve and Christmas, when I visited my family, my Quaker meeting, and my initiating spiritual master, Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, along with a few of his disciples including Yadunandana Swami.
I was happy to be visiting New York City at the same time as Radhanath Swami, and I include some notes from his lectures, in addition to some material from Srila Prabhupada directly.
At the end I summarize my activities in the year 2012 and include my annual financial statement and thank my donors. I also talk about what to do differently in 2013.
The Christmas Story Seen from a Hare Krishna Perspective
Twice on Christmas Eve I encountered the story of the appearance of Lord Jesus Christ in this world, once at my Quaker meeting and once reading a book with my relatives, which had become a family tradition at Christmastime since I lived at home, called The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
Living as a Hare Krishna monk for the last thirty years, I naturally viewed both encounters from the Hare Krishna perspective. Lord Jesus Christ is seen by Hare Krishnas as a realized son of God, and as such, his appearance in and disappearance from this world are spiritual and transcendental, and one advances spiritually by coming in touch with narrations of them. In the Quaker meeting, as newly recruited players from the audience dramatized the script of the event and the congregation sang appropriate songs, I did feel a kind of transcendental joy coming from being in touch with the account and the songs glorifying God and His son. And although it is repeated every year there is a certain freshness and wonder in it.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, written by Barbara Robinson in 1971,told of another interesting feature, the transforming power of such narrations. The book is summarized aptly on Wikipedia: “It tells the story of Imogene, Claude, Ralph, Leroy, Ollie, and Gladys, six delinquent children surnamed Herdman. They go to church for the first time after being told that the church offers snacks. Despite protests from other church members, they are given roles in the Sunday school’s Christmas play, in which they tell the Christmas story in a nonconventional fashion.” [Buck, Jerry (1983-12-03). “Meanest kids in town make the best pageant”. The Free-Lance Star.] The interesting feature of that story is that the character of the children changes from demonic to divine as a result of hearing the narration of the appearance of Lord Jesus and from acting it out. Hearing the story the first time, the delinquent Herdmen kids, instead displaying their usual mentality of taking pleasure in causing others to suffer, show sympathy for Mary having to give birth to baby Jesus in such an unsuitable environment as a manger, and in a land ruled by a demonic king. Although the kids previously took pleasure in stealing and destroying property, in the course of enacting Christmas story they end up giving charity, without even desiring anything in return. It all calls to mind a few verses from the ancient India spiritual classic Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana), namely verses 1.2.17–19 which describe how narrations concerning God and his pure devotee, such as Lord Jesus Christ, cleanse the heart of demonic qualities, such as lust, greed, and anger, bring one up to the platform of goodness. It occurred to me that it was the best Christmas pageant ever because it demonstrated the divine power of the spiritual narration to transform the character from demonic to divine, which really is what religion is all about, not just some dogma one claims to have faith in, but narrations with uplift our consciousness to the plane of loving God and all his children, our brothers and sisters. It also calls to mind another verse, our verse for the week in the Gainesville Krishna House, about the pastimes of the Supreme Lord Himself, which was spoken later in Bhagavatam by His most intimate devotees, “The nectar of Your words and the descriptions of Your activities are the life and soul of those suffering in this material world. These narrations, transmitted by learned sages, eradicate one’s sinful reactions and bestow good fortune upon whoever hears them. These narrations are broadcast all over the world and are filled with spiritual power. Certainly those who spread the message of Godhead are most munificent.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.31.9)
Harinamas in New York
Rama Raya Prabhu, playing harmonium above, who was part of Aindra Prabhu’s 24-hour kirtana in Vrindavan for many years, is focusing his attention on steadily doing harinama each day in Manhattan for at least four hours between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., and I had the good fortune to join his party for three and a half weeks in December 2012 and January 2013. He has been going out since the end of March 2012. Each day for the last two or three hours we would regularly have around eleven people, and sometimes as many as seventeen!
When it was in the 40s (5-10 C) we would chant in the parks, mostly Union Square but sometimes Washington Square.
But when it was in the 30s or less (below 5 C) we would chant in the subway stations, which were warmer.
We had a beautiful Hare Krishna maha-mantra sign that was decorated and lighted.
Whoever gave some coins or just expressed interest got a Krishna Reservoir of Pleasure or an On Chanting Hare Krishna pamphlet.
Whoever gave a dollar got a small book. If they gave five or more, they got a Bhagavad-gita.
Sometimes people would dance with us.
I would dance at one end of our party.
Almost every day on harinama something special happens, that is something in addition to thousands of people becoming from free from karma and taking a step toward Krishna, which are in themselves pretty amazing wonders.
At the Union Square market, one young man who was loading a truck came up to me and said our incense smoke was blowing down to his work site and making it difficult to breathe. He asked if we could put out the incense for an hour until he was finished. I complied as incense is not an important part of our function. To devotees who were upset I joked that Lord Caitanya did not advent Himself to distribute maha-incense. A few minutes later the man came back with two packages of organic sprouts as a donation. Deva Madhava Prabhu suggested we give them to Radha-Govinda so the donor would make great spiritual benefit, and so we did.
One young Oriental man came up to me and said, “Didn’t I see you in Soho (London) giving the lunch program lecture?” And it was true. I gave lectures there this summer and fall. It is a small world! He said he would be in New York City for ten days and asked about our local programs, and I gave him invitations and details about them all. He said he would come to the Bhakti Center Thursday night kirtana the next day. Another day he came by Union Square to listen to the harinama for half an hour and dance a bit.
One young Christian man stopped by and danced for a while, and then came up to talk to me. He told me how he had just come to New York a week ago and that by the grace of Lord Jesus Christ he had money, a place to stay, and a replacement water bottle for one he recently lost. I told him in the course of our conversation that we accept the Biblical idea that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, that the best spiritual practice was to sing the glories of the Lord congregationally, and that dancing was an expression of love of God. He seemed to be getting into the kirtana, so I invited him to play an instrument, and he sat down and picked up some karatalas and played a beat of his own that was in time with the music, and he stayed in the kirtanafor fifteen minutes.
One young lady with dog on a leash passed our party, and the dog was focused on the chanting devotees the whole time. Even after his owner had passed us, he continued looking back toward us, coming as close as his leash would permit. I had see children often looking backward toward the devotees as their parents pulled or carried them onward, but never a dog.
Young children are often attracted by the chanting, and some of the parents are very open to let them investigate it. We have some small shakers just for kids to use to play along with the music. Some children live in the neighborhood of Union Square, and their parents regularly bring to the park, and some spend fifteen minutes or even half an hour with us. We have smiling Jagannatha stickers for the kids whose parents give donations. Occasionally the kids dance and attract a crowd.
Once several kids, probably all under ten years old, were sitting with us on our mats, playing the different extra instruments like shakers that we brought for people to play. One boy tried playing every instrument we had a least once, demonstrating a lot of natural rhythm as he did so. The kids seemed happily engaged, and seeing them, passersby were attracted. Thanks to Rasika Gopi Devi Dasi and Bhakta Alex of the Bhakti Center for their beautiful photographs on the Manhattan harinamas.
At Union Square, one couple came up to me, and said, “Are you from Gainesville?” I replied, “Yes.” Turns out they were Tiffany and Joshua, occasional attenders at the Krishna House programs. When they saw the Hare Krishnas, they glanced at the chanters looking for Rasaraja Prabhu, who they knew from Krishna House and who came to New York for the break, and then they saw me. I suggested that Rasaraja would probably be at the Bhakti Center Thursday night kirtana at 7:00 p.m. and they might find him there, and so they did.
At Grand Central Station one young man asked how many of the ten or fifteen people chanting were from Gainesville, and I looked at our party, and seeing Rasaraja Prabhu, told him two. He mentioned how he had Krishna Lunch for four years there, and he really missed it. I told him that we have Krishna Lunch in Brooklyn, and he was overjoyed to hear it, and so I gave him an invitation to the Brooklyn temple and its weekday lunch program.
Also at Grand Central I met a guy from India who knew Hare Krishna and even Radhanath Swami from there, and so I invited him to Radhanath Swami’s Sunday lecture at the Bhakti Center.
Again at Grand Central, one lady exclaimed with joy, “Great! You guys are back! I haven’t seen you in 30 years.”
One young lady smiled and watched us the entire time she was walking past. I asked her how she knew about Hare Krishna. She said, “I just know you from this, but I am attracted to what I see.”
Insights
Srila Prabhupada:
from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.2 in Johannesburg on October 22, 1975:
The aim should be how to become a friend of God.
Radhanath Swami:
The spirit in which something is spoken and received needs to be understood to have more than a theoretical understanding.
We do not have to experience the extreme situations that Pariksit and Arjuna experienced to learn from their experience.
Maharaja Pariksit would not be rude to an insect but this world is so arranged that despite all good intentions, we make mistakes, and due to circumstances, we make people miserable although we desire to make people happy. This happens to everyone, and so it happened to the King [who when thirsty was so frustrated due to a meditating sage’s neglect to offer him water, he garlanded the sage with a dead snake and was cursed by the sage’s son to die in seven days].
Krishna can reciprocate everyone’s love simultaneously and fully satisfy them.
Due to false ego we become upset if someone is doing something better than us, or even if they are not doing something better than us, but they are getting more credit for it.
Sometimes when people are good at something you can not get them all together in the same room.
In the early 1970s, eight hundred yogis joined together for the first time for a conference. There had never been such an opportunity before or has there been since. At the end, the main sages and yogis each had 2 minutes to speak. I was in ecstasy. I had hitchhiked to India to encounter enlightened beings, and here was a whole stage full of them. The first person spoke ten minutes, the next person about fifteen minutes. As time went on, about a dozen of them were literally fighting over the microphone. It is on film. It was a great embarrassment—so many ‘enlightened’ people acting in such a way. However at Naimisaranya, the sages unanimously agreed that Sukadeva Goswami would speak. He was not arrogant but asked for the blessings of others.
We talk about it as a curse [that he would die in seven days], but Pariksit saw it as a blessing.
When we see this life as all in all, we see everything in one way, but when we see this is just one of many lives, we see it all differently.
One sage said this life is one point in a line that goes on infinitely. When we understand that, then we can harmonize the blessings and curses we receive. We can focus on the opportunity to advance spiritually.
You say you didn’t make castles out of sand as a kid, but your whole life is probably making castles out of sand.
You see the tide is coming in, and you try to build walls to protect your castle. The parents laugh. Why are you taking your castles so seriously? But the enlightened souls see all that we are doing in Washington and Wall Street to be like castles of sand.
The great sages were not concerned that they speak, but rather that some competent person was speaking nicely.
Pariksit. although cursed to die in seven days, was the happiest man in that glorious assembly of sages with such a great opportunity.
Stokakrishna, my disciple in India, at age 32 was diagnosed with one of the most fast acting forms of cancer. When I came to see him he was paralyzed and emaciated. He said, “Why am I so fortunate that I could chant Lord Krishna’s name so many times in this life? Why did I get to hear so many classes on Srimad-Bhagavatam? I did not deserve that. Why did I get the association of such nice devotees? Why did I get to be part of Srila Prabhupada’s movement?” Because he was so consistently happy in such an externally miserable situation some originally doubtful brahmacaris concluded that he must have a higher realization.
If something is inevitable, we might as well see it as a blessing.
Some friends who were brijbasis [residents of the sacred land of Krishna’s childhood pastimes, Vrindavana] happened to visit America, and I invited them to come to chant at Bhakti Tirtha Swami’s deathbed. One of them, Madana Mohan Brijbasi, was singing so simply and so sweetly, tears poured from Bhakti Tirtha Swami’s eyes in a way that his disciples had never seen. Bhakti Tirtha Swami said that because he could not go to Vrindavana, Vrindavana had come to him in the form of these devotees from Vrindavana. Madana Mohan Brijbasi was also there to chant for my disciple Stokakrishna at the end of his life.
We have to deal with the material world responsibly but keep it in perspective and remember our ultimate spiritual aim.
If when we are fasting, we think, “I am so austere, and look at these people, they are eating,” then our body is fasting but our false ego is feasting. Fasting is meant to humble us and meant to help us to take shelter of Krishna. Then we are really fasting.
Unless we prepare for the exams along the way we will not be prepared for the final exam of death.
When the tests come we have to apply all we learned from previous struggles.
To overcome pride, we have to watch from a detached point of view. If we see ourselves thinking “I am better than others,” that is the weed of pride, which impersonates the creeper of devotion and induces us to water it instead. If we see that we are envying others that is also a manifestation of pride.
Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami was selected by the great Goswamis of Vrndavana to write Sri Caitanya-caritamrita because of his great realization, scholarship, and humility.
The title The Journey Home [Radhanath Swami’s autobiography] was selected at last moment. The working title was Autobiography of a Worm in Stool, but the publishers would not accept it.
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
From Begging for the Nectar of the Holy Name, quoted in online in his Viraha Bhavan:
“Here is a quote from an initiation lecture by Srila Prabhupada in July 1970 in Los Angeles. Srila Prabhupada spoke on each of the ten offenses and then said, ‘Then, what is next?’
“Devotee: ‘To become inattentive while chanting Hare Krishna.’
“Prabhupada: ‘Yes, when you are chanting, you should hear Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare. You should hear at the same time. Then the mind and the senses are compact. That is samadhi. That is perfection of yoga. This yoga is recommended in the Bhagavad-gita.Yoginam api sarvesam mad-gatenantar-atmana. So everyone, by chanting he should hear.’”
A Summary of the Year 2012
I started the year being part of a 12-hour in our Mexico City temple. At that time, we were on the Vaishnava Youth winter bus tour to Mexico and were blessed by the association of Madhava Prabhu, who takes great pleasure sharing Lord Krishna’s name with others in a mood of complete concentration. A 6-hour kirtana in Dallas, and a final kirtanaby Madhava in Alachua finished off the youth tour, which was the best event I had been part of in the months of December and January. The rest of January I spent assisting Krishna House in Gainesville, and the new weekly programs the devotees started in Jacksonville. In February I visited Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami and our temples in Manhattan and downtown London, on my way to India to attend the Kirtana Mela in Mayapur. After a wonderful Gaura Purnima, bathing in the Ganges and reciting verses about Lord Caitanya’s appearance with Danavira Goswami and some of his followers, I joined Navina Nirada, Ekalavya Prabhu, and others at the Bhakti Experience, a two-week Krishna outreach program in Rishikesh in March. We met some interested people and took down contact information for fifty of them. Some even later visited Vrndavana, although previously they had not known of Krishna. Then I returned for more harinama in Mayapur, after an ecstatic Delhi Ratha-yatra and three days on the 24-hour kirtana party in Vrindavana on the way.
I returned to Europe in April, catching the tail end of a Chennai temple opening enroute, for Kadamba Kanana Swami’s Vyasa-puja and the amazing Queen’s Day harinama in Amsterdam. After Queen’s Day we traveled with Leipzig devotees from Belgium, through Luxembourg and Germany to the Nrsimha farm for Nrsimha Caturdasi, doing harinama in several cities on the way. After that, we spent the rest of May and the beginning of June with Janananda Goswami and his followers, based in Newcastle, England, and doing harinama three hours each day. Janananda Goswami greatly encouraged me in my service of harinama by giving me a wonderful amplifier, money for travel, and assistants to chantwith, as well by as his personal example of complete dedication to harinama and by wisdom shared through lectures. On the way to London for Ratha-yatra I attended the monthly harinama in Manchester, nama-hatta programs in Leeds and Sheffield, and the UK brahmacari conference. For me, the attendance of the brahmacaris in the devotee procession in the Borehamwood Carnival (parade), adding lots of extra energy, was a high point. After London Ratha-yatra, I did harinama in London for a few days with some followers of Janananda Goswami, then attending the Stonehenge Solstice festival, where we chant from midnight to 6 a.m. and distribute prasadam. I was invited to a nonexistent weekend warrior program in Croydon, where I chanted for three hours and distributed flyers for the next day’s Ratha-yatra by myself anyway, collecting 27 GBP for the Soho St. temple sankirtana office. On the way back to Newcastle, Sri Gadadhara and I did the Sunday program in Leeds, and nine devotees from the congregation went with us on harinama afterward, causing us to think perhaps post feast program harinamas may be introduced elsewhere. After all Kharkov, Ukraine, does them every week, even in the winter. After two weeks in Newcastle, I returned to the Manchester area for more harinamaand more nama-hatta programs on the way to Ireland. Ananta Nitai Prabhu traveled with me from Dublin to Belfast, to Govindadvipa, where we chanted at a couple nearby towns, and back to Dublin, where by his inspiration we had organized a 12-hour harinama. He and I both did over eleven hours and other people joined for some of the time. We felt it was so successful that we decided to organize more in the future.
Next I flew to France for three days of harinama in Paris, and then to Switzerland for an evening program in Langenthal and two Jhulan Yatras and a harinama in Zurich. Then by train to Berlin and then Kostrzyn for the Polish Woodstock festival where hundreds of thousands of people hear the holy name and take prasadam. Our harinama at the Kostrzyn train station for the those returning home after the festival was the best ever, and the officials were so pleased with the calming effect the chanting had on the tired crowds they asked us to do it next year. I did a few days harinama in Prague and then on to the kirtana mela in Spain, and three harinamas there, two of which directly inspired people to come to our local temples. Then to Trutnov, Czech Republic, for the Czech Woodstock, where we did lots of kirtana late into the night, and a harinama as well, with our guest, Srila Prabhupada’s disciple Guru Das Prabhu. Next I attended a brief Polish padayatra which gave some transcendental experiences to the residents of the towns near our New Shantipur farm, where we had a weekend nama-hatta festival afterward. Then onward to travel with Janananda Goswami doing harinamas and evening programs in Slovakia and one in Czech Republic. After that, we went with Dhruva, Trevor, and Vamana to the Wroclaw Ratha-yatra, and then the German Kirtana Mela, with three harinamas embedded in it, and followed by the wonderful Leipzig Ratha-yatra. Trevor and I then joined the Nitai Gouranga harinama bus tour for a day from Leipzig to Wroclaw where we did a beautiful three-hour harinama in the square where we had Ratha-yatra the week before. We stayed in Wroclaw and did harinama there, next traveling to Bydgoszcz, where we did harinama and an Ekadasi evening program. Then back to Czech Republic for evening kirtana programs in Trutnov and Prague, and a nama-hatta program in Slovakia. Then on the the Ukraine festival (Bhakti Sangama) with lots of seminars and great three-hour evening kirtanas. Then to Warsaw for Radhastami, and then Simhachalam, the German Nrsimha farm, for the festival for the 30thanniversary of the Prahlada-Nrsimha’s installation, with a few small harinamas on the way. That festival ended with the first ever Passau Ratha-yatra.
Then I returned to the UK to travel with Janananda Goswami in The North of England for the World Holy Name Festival, ending with a harinama and an eight-hour kirtana in Edinburgh, Scotland, a new city and country for me. Dhruva Prabhu and I then went to Belfast, where we were joined by Ananta Nitai for more harinama there, and in the cities of Enniskillen, Dublin, and Bray. Ananta Nitai, inspired by the July 12-hour harinama, planned for a 12-hour harinama on Saturday, followed by the Sunday feast, and a 12-hour kirtana in the temple on Monday. The program was successful enough that he wants to do it the first week of every month. Then I went back to Newcastle for a week or so, and then nine days worth of evening lectures beginning there and including all the nama-hattas nearby Manchester, my third swing through there this year, as opposed to my usual one. We preceded the Bolton nama-hatta with the monthly harinamaand were encouraged to see several local children enthusiastically taking part for forty-five minutes. Back to London for a few days with more harinama and lectures, including four hours of harinamaon Halloween, while waiting for New York airports to be reopened after hurricane Sandy.
Then back home to America for a week on harinama in Manhattan with Rama Raya and Ekalavya Prabhus, some days on a book production marathon for Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami’s The Story of My Life, and a brief visit to my family in Albany. Then I flew to Jacksonville where I chanted on the campus for two hours, meeting a couple people I who had come to our programs back in January and a nice Indian man who started coming to our Jacksonville programs as a result. Then I caught the end of a beautiful ceremony in honor of Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance in Alachua with a wonderful feast. The next several days were many evening kirtanas leading up to the 24-hour kirtana, the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving and it was great to hear Madhava Prabhu so much. The 24-hour kirtana was special this year with guests Niranjana Swami and Agnidev Prabhu. Dravida Prabhu led for two hours on a wonderful harinama in Tallahassee that Saturday at the last football game of the season. Then a couple weeks at Gainesville’s Krishna House, and another evening at our Jacksonville program on the way to fly north for Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami’s Vyasa-puja in December in Stuyvesant, where I cooked breakfast and lunch for him for nine days afterward, punctuated by a harinama in Hudson and a day trip to New York City to see Niranjana Swami and do kirtana and harinama. Then we ended the year with eleven days of four hours of harinama in Manhattan, with two-day visit to my family for Christmas in the middle.
Niranjana Swami advised I go to fewer places and stay longer and try to increase the devotional service in those places, and reading the above account where I travel to fifteen countries, it sounds like I was a dismal failure. I did, however, spend 53 days in Newcastle, England, 43 days in Gainesville, 39 days in The Northern UK and Ireland, and 18 days doing harinama in New York City. Successes include new people coming to the temple from the harinamas in Newcastle, Belfast, Sheffield, and Jacksonville, a new popular program, the back-to-back 12-hour harinama and 12-hour temple kirtana in Dublin, and a string of nine evenings of lectures in a different cities in England each night. By the inspiration of Janananda Goswami, we also went to towns where devotees rarely if ever to harinama, so new people got exposure to the recommended spiritual practice of the age. Incidentally, the guy who came from harinama to the Belfast temple bought four books. The best comment on harinama was “seeing your party was the best part of my trip to Dublin” by a girl from Seattle.
With the blessings of my advisers Niranjana Swami and Janananda Goswami, I hope to increase my focus and continue to try to spend more time in fewer places, trying to bring people to a higher level of devotion, including myself. I am thinking of just spending one month in Europe in the summer instead of two, and going to the Lithuanian festival instead of the Ukraine festival so I can return to England and New York sooner.
Financial Statement for 2012
Srila Prabhupada taught his followers to keep careful records of expenditures. People always wonder how devotees get their money and how they spend it. Here is a summary for me for 2012. If for some reason, you want more details, let me know.
|
INCOME
donations
book sales
total income
EXPENSES
travel
gifts to temples, swamis, etc.
maintenance (clothes, medicine)
internet, phone, computer, etc.
festival fees
loans
food (bhoga, prasadam)
rent
unaccounted for expenses
total expenses
balance |
4107.59
18.32
——–
4125.91
3360.59
277.06
88.54
72.25
63.00
50.00
39.25
24.75
130.41
——–
4105.85
-20.06
|
I would like to thank all the very kind and generous people and organizations who contributed to my expenses so I could share the congregational chanting of the holy name with people in fifteen countries this year. These include, with those contributing the most listed first, GN Press, Kalakantha Prabhu, Kaliya Krishna Prabhu, the devotees in Manchester (England), my mother (Pat Beetle), Rama Raya Prabhu, Paramesvara Prabhu and his congregation in Modra (Slovakia), Bhakta Clive, Ali Krishna dd, Janananda Goswami, Touchstone Publishing, Vrajendralal Prabhu, Bhakta Andy (Gainesville), Bhakta Steve (Belfast), Dr. Dina Bandhu Prabhu, Raj Sharma, the congregation in Leeds, Balarama Prabhu (Opole, Poland), the Nama-hatta leaders in Poland, the devotees in Langenthal (Switzerland), the JPS office in Mayapur, Prema Sankirtana Prabhu of Newcastle, Ramai Prabhu of Sunderland, Sidharth from Michigan (who bought me some very nice boots for cold weather harinamas), Pandava Prabhu, Govinda Prabhu from Scotland, Bhakta Andrzej, Bhakta Doug, Bhakta Sumit, Bhakta Suresh, Parananda Prabhu, Gaura Karuna Prabhu, Tara Prabhu, Adi Karta Prabhu, Kishore Prabhu, Bhaktin Padma, Ramiya Prabhu, the over twenty people who donated less than twenty dollars each, and all the people who bought books on harinama. I hope Lord Caitanya blesses them all with some of the transcendental merit from our sharing the congregational chanting of the holy name with the people in general.
—–
yei yahan tahan dana kare prema-phala
phalasvade matta loka ha-ila sakala
“The fruit of love of God is so delicious that wherever a devotee distributes it, those who relish the fruit, anywhere in the world, immediately become intoxicated.” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi-lila 9.48)
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 8, No. 24
By Krishna-kripa das
(December 2012, part two)
New York City and Albany
(Sent from Gainesville, Florida, on January 30, 2013)
Where I Went and What I Did
When Yadunandana Swami came to serve Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami on December 19, I left my guru’s personal service to go to New York City to chant in Union Square Park with Rama Raya Prabhu and his harinama party. For the rest of the month I lived in our Brooklyn temple, Sri Sri Radha Govinda Mandir, attended the morning program there, and spent two hours afterward chopping vegetables for the temple and its weekday restaurant program, Govinda’s Vegetarian Lunch. Every afternoon from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. I would chant with Rama Raya Prabhu and his harinama party, consisting of from three to seventeen devotees, at Union Square Park, or on the cold days, in various subway stations at Union Square, Grand Central, Times Square, and Columbus Circle. Sometimes, especially on weekends, we would begin at 3 p.m. or even 2 p.m., and still continue till 8:00 p.m. I took a two-day break for Christmas Eve and Christmas, when I visited my family, my Quaker meeting, and my initiating spiritual master, Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, along with a few of his disciples including Yadunandana Swami.
I was happy to be visiting New York City at the same time as Radhanath Swami, and I include some notes from his lectures, in addition to some material from Srila Prabhupada directly.
At the end I summarize my activities in the year 2012 and include my annual financial statement and thank my donors. I also talk about what to do differently in 2013.
The Christmas Story Seen from a Hare Krishna Perspective
Twice on Christmas Eve I encountered the story of the appearance of Lord Jesus Christ in this world, once at my Quaker meeting and once reading a book with my relatives, which had become a family tradition at Christmastime since I lived at home, called The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
Living as a Hare Krishna monk for the last thirty years, I naturally viewed both encounters from the Hare Krishna perspective. Lord Jesus Christ is seen by Hare Krishnas as a realized son of God, and as such, his appearance in and disappearance from this world are spiritual and transcendental, and one advances spiritually by coming in touch with narrations of them. In the Quaker meeting, as newly recruited players from the audience dramatized the script of the event and the congregation sang appropriate songs, I did feel a kind of transcendental joy coming from being in touch with the account and the songs glorifying God and His son. And although it is repeated every year there is a certain freshness and wonder in it.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, written by Barbara Robinson in 1971,told of another interesting feature, the transforming power of such narrations. The book is summarized aptly on Wikipedia: “It tells the story of Imogene, Claude, Ralph, Leroy, Ollie, and Gladys, six delinquent children surnamed Herdman. They go to church for the first time after being told that the church offers snacks. Despite protests from other church members, they are given roles in the Sunday school’s Christmas play, in which they tell the Christmas story in a nonconventional fashion.” [Buck, Jerry (1983-12-03). “Meanest kids in town make the best pageant”. The Free-Lance Star.] The interesting feature of that story is that the character of the children changes from demonic to divine as a result of hearing the narration of the appearance of Lord Jesus and from acting it out. Hearing the story the first time, the delinquent Herdmen kids, instead displaying their usual mentality of taking pleasure in causing others to suffer, show sympathy for Mary having to give birth to baby Jesus in such an unsuitable environment as a manger, and in a land ruled by a demonic king. Although the kids previously took pleasure in stealing and destroying property, in the course of enacting Christmas story they end up giving charity, without even desiring anything in return. It all calls to mind a few verses from the ancient India spiritual classic Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana), namely verses 1.2.17–19 which describe how narrations concerning God and his pure devotee, such as Lord Jesus Christ, cleanse the heart of demonic qualities, such as lust, greed, and anger, bring one up to the platform of goodness. It occurred to me that it was the best Christmas pageant ever because it demonstrated the divine power of the spiritual narration to transform the character from demonic to divine, which really is what religion is all about, not just some dogma one claims to have faith in, but narrations with uplift our consciousness to the plane of loving God and all his children, our brothers and sisters. It also calls to mind another verse, our verse for the week in the Gainesville Krishna House, about the pastimes of the Supreme Lord Himself, which was spoken later in Bhagavatam by His most intimate devotees, “The nectar of Your words and the descriptions of Your activities are the life and soul of those suffering in this material world. These narrations, transmitted by learned sages, eradicate one’s sinful reactions and bestow good fortune upon whoever hears them. These narrations are broadcast all over the world and are filled with spiritual power. Certainly those who spread the message of Godhead are most munificent.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.31.9)
Harinamas in New York
Rama Raya Prabhu, playing harmonium above, who was part of Aindra Prabhu’s 24-hour kirtana in Vrindavan for many years, is focusing his attention on steadily doing harinama each day in Manhattan for at least four hours between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., and I had the good fortune to join his party for three and a half weeks in December 2012 and January 2013. He has been going out since the end of March 2012. Each day for the last two or three hours we would regularly have around eleven people, and sometimes as many as seventeen!
When it was in the 40s (5-10 C) we would chant in the parks, mostly Union Square but sometimes Washington Square.
But when it was in the 30s or less (below 5 C) we would chant in the subway stations, which were warmer.
We had a beautiful Hare Krishna maha-mantra sign that was decorated and lighted.
Whoever gave some coins or just expressed interest got a Krishna Reservoir of Pleasure or an On Chanting Hare Krishna pamphlet.
Whoever gave a dollar got a small book. If they gave five or more, they got a Bhagavad-gita.
Sometimes people would dance with us.
I would dance at one end of our party.
Almost every day on harinama something special happens, that is something in addition to thousands of people becoming from free from karma and taking a step toward Krishna, which are in themselves pretty amazing wonders.
At the Union Square market, one young man who was loading a truck came up to me and said our incense smoke was blowing down to his work site and making it difficult to breathe. He asked if we could put out the incense for an hour until he was finished. I complied as incense is not an important part of our function. To devotees who were upset I joked that Lord Caitanya did not advent Himself to distribute maha-incense. A few minutes later the man came back with two packages of organic sprouts as a donation. Deva Madhava Prabhu suggested we give them to Radha-Govinda so the donor would make great spiritual benefit, and so we did.
One young Oriental man came up to me and said, “Didn’t I see you in Soho (London) giving the lunch program lecture?” And it was true. I gave lectures there this summer and fall. It is a small world! He said he would be in New York City for ten days and asked about our local programs, and I gave him invitations and details about them all. He said he would come to the Bhakti Center Thursday night kirtana the next day. Another day he came by Union Square to listen to the harinama for half an hour and dance a bit.
One young Christian man stopped by and danced for a while, and then came up to talk to me. He told me how he had just come to New York a week ago and that by the grace of Lord Jesus Christ he had money, a place to stay, and a replacement water bottle for one he recently lost. I told him in the course of our conversation that we accept the Biblical idea that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, that the best spiritual practice was to sing the glories of the Lord congregationally, and that dancing was an expression of love of God. He seemed to be getting into the kirtana, so I invited him to play an instrument, and he sat down and picked up some karatalas and played a beat of his own that was in time with the music, and he stayed in the kirtanafor fifteen minutes.
One young lady with dog on a leash passed our party, and the dog was focused on the chanting devotees the whole time. Even after his owner had passed us, he continued looking back toward us, coming as close as his leash would permit. I had see children often looking backward toward the devotees as their parents pulled or carried them onward, but never a dog.
Young children are often attracted by the chanting, and some of the parents are very open to let them investigate it. We have some small shakers just for kids to use to play along with the music. Some children live in the neighborhood of Union Square, and their parents regularly bring to the park, and some spend fifteen minutes or even half an hour with us. We have smiling Jagannatha stickers for the kids whose parents give donations. Occasionally the kids dance and attract a crowd.
Once several kids, probably all under ten years old, were sitting with us on our mats, playing the different extra instruments like shakers that we brought for people to play. One boy tried playing every instrument we had a least once, demonstrating a lot of natural rhythm as he did so. The kids seemed happily engaged, and seeing them, passersby were attracted. Thanks to Rasika Gopi Devi Dasi and Bhakta Alex of the Bhakti Center for their beautiful photographs on the Manhattan harinamas.
At Union Square, one couple came up to me, and said, “Are you from Gainesville?” I replied, “Yes.” Turns out they were Tiffany and Joshua, occasional attenders at the Krishna House programs. When they saw the Hare Krishnas, they glanced at the chanters looking for Rasaraja Prabhu, who they knew from Krishna House and who came to New York for the break, and then they saw me. I suggested that Rasaraja would probably be at the Bhakti Center Thursday night kirtana at 7:00 p.m. and they might find him there, and so they did.
At Grand Central Station one young man asked how many of the ten or fifteen people chanting were from Gainesville, and I looked at our party, and seeing Rasaraja Prabhu, told him two. He mentioned how he had Krishna Lunch for four years there, and he really missed it. I told him that we have Krishna Lunch in Brooklyn, and he was overjoyed to hear it, and so I gave him an invitation to the Brooklyn temple and its weekday lunch program.
Also at Grand Central I met a guy from India who knew Hare Krishna and even Radhanath Swami from there, and so I invited him to Radhanath Swami’s Sunday lecture at the Bhakti Center.
Again at Grand Central, one lady exclaimed with joy, “Great! You guys are back! I haven’t seen you in 30 years.”
One young lady smiled and watched us the entire time she was walking past. I asked her how she knew about Hare Krishna. She said, “I just know you from this, but I am attracted to what I see.”
Insights
Srila Prabhupada:
from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.2 in Johannesburg on October 22, 1975:
The aim should be how to become a friend of God.
Radhanath Swami:
The spirit in which something is spoken and received needs to be understood to have more than a theoretical understanding.
We do not have to experience the extreme situations that Pariksit and Arjuna experienced to learn from their experience.
Maharaja Pariksit would not be rude to an insect but this world is so arranged that despite all good intentions, we make mistakes, and due to circumstances, we make people miserable although we desire to make people happy. This happens to everyone, and so it happened to the King [who when thirsty was so frustrated due to a meditating sage’s neglect to offer him water, he garlanded the sage with a dead snake and was cursed by the sage’s son to die in seven days].
Krishna can reciprocate everyone’s love simultaneously and fully satisfy them.
Due to false ego we become upset if someone is doing something better than us, or even if they are not doing something better than us, but they are getting more credit for it.
Sometimes when people are good at something you can not get them all together in the same room.
In the early 1970s, eight hundred yogis joined together for the first time for a conference. There had never been such an opportunity before or has there been since. At the end, the main sages and yogis each had 2 minutes to speak. I was in ecstasy. I had hitchhiked to India to encounter enlightened beings, and here was a whole stage full of them. The first person spoke ten minutes, the next person about fifteen minutes. As time went on, about a dozen of them were literally fighting over the microphone. It is on film. It was a great embarrassment—so many ‘enlightened’ people acting in such a way. However at Naimisaranya, the sages unanimously agreed that Sukadeva Goswami would speak. He was not arrogant but asked for the blessings of others.
We talk about it as a curse [that he would die in seven days], but Pariksit saw it as a blessing.
When we see this life as all in all, we see everything in one way, but when we see this is just one of many lives, we see it all differently.
One sage said this life is one point in a line that goes on infinitely. When we understand that, then we can harmonize the blessings and curses we receive. We can focus on the opportunity to advance spiritually.
You say you didn’t make castles out of sand as a kid, but your whole life is probably making castles out of sand.
You see the tide is coming in, and you try to build walls to protect your castle. The parents laugh. Why are you taking your castles so seriously? But the enlightened souls see all that we are doing in Washington and Wall Street to be like castles of sand.
The great sages were not concerned that they speak, but rather that some competent person was speaking nicely.
Pariksit. although cursed to die in seven days, was the happiest man in that glorious assembly of sages with such a great opportunity.
Stokakrishna, my disciple in India, at age 32 was diagnosed with one of the most fast acting forms of cancer. When I came to see him he was paralyzed and emaciated. He said, “Why am I so fortunate that I could chant Lord Krishna’s name so many times in this life? Why did I get to hear so many classes on Srimad-Bhagavatam? I did not deserve that. Why did I get the association of such nice devotees? Why did I get to be part of Srila Prabhupada’s movement?” Because he was so consistently happy in such an externally miserable situation some originally doubtful brahmacaris concluded that he must have a higher realization.
If something is inevitable, we might as well see it as a blessing.
Some friends who were brijbasis [residents of the sacred land of Krishna’s childhood pastimes, Vrindavana] happened to visit America, and I invited them to come to chant at Bhakti Tirtha Swami’s deathbed. One of them, Madana Mohan Brijbasi, was singing so simply and so sweetly, tears poured from Bhakti Tirtha Swami’s eyes in a way that his disciples had never seen. Bhakti Tirtha Swami said that because he could not go to Vrindavana, Vrindavana had come to him in the form of these devotees from Vrindavana. Madana Mohan Brijbasi was also there to chant for my disciple Stokakrishna at the end of his life.
We have to deal with the material world responsibly but keep it in perspective and remember our ultimate spiritual aim.
If when we are fasting, we think, “I am so austere, and look at these people, they are eating,” then our body is fasting but our false ego is feasting. Fasting is meant to humble us and meant to help us to take shelter of Krishna. Then we are really fasting.
Unless we prepare for the exams along the way we will not be prepared for the final exam of death.
When the tests come we have to apply all we learned from previous struggles.
To overcome pride, we have to watch from a detached point of view. If we see ourselves thinking “I am better than others,” that is the weed of pride, which impersonates the creeper of devotion and induces us to water it instead. If we see that we are envying others that is also a manifestation of pride.
Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami was selected by the great Goswamis of Vrndavana to write Sri Caitanya-caritamrita because of his great realization, scholarship, and humility.
The title The Journey Home [Radhanath Swami’s autobiography] was selected at last moment. The working title was Autobiography of a Worm in Stool, but the publishers would not accept it.
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
From Begging for the Nectar of the Holy Name, quoted in online in his Viraha Bhavan:
“Here is a quote from an initiation lecture by Srila Prabhupada in July 1970 in Los Angeles. Srila Prabhupada spoke on each of the ten offenses and then said, ‘Then, what is next?’
“Devotee: ‘To become inattentive while chanting Hare Krishna.’
“Prabhupada: ‘Yes, when you are chanting, you should hear Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare. You should hear at the same time. Then the mind and the senses are compact. That is samadhi. That is perfection of yoga. This yoga is recommended in the Bhagavad-gita.Yoginam api sarvesam mad-gatenantar-atmana. So everyone, by chanting he should hear.’”
A Summary of the Year 2012
I started the year being part of a 12-hour in our Mexico City temple. At that time, we were on the Vaishnava Youth winter bus tour to Mexico and were blessed by the association of Madhava Prabhu, who takes great pleasure sharing Lord Krishna’s name with others in a mood of complete concentration. A 6-hour kirtana in Dallas, and a final kirtanaby Madhava in Alachua finished off the youth tour, which was the best event I had been part of in the months of December and January. The rest of January I spent assisting Krishna House in Gainesville, and the new weekly programs the devotees started in Jacksonville. In February I visited Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami and our temples in Manhattan and downtown London, on my way to India to attend the Kirtana Mela in Mayapur. After a wonderful Gaura Purnima, bathing in the Ganges and reciting verses about Lord Caitanya’s appearance with Danavira Goswami and some of his followers, I joined Navina Nirada, Ekalavya Prabhu, and others at the Bhakti Experience, a two-week Krishna outreach program in Rishikesh in March. We met some interested people and took down contact information for fifty of them. Some even later visited Vrndavana, although previously they had not known of Krishna. Then I returned for more harinama in Mayapur, after an ecstatic Delhi Ratha-yatra and three days on the 24-hour kirtana party in Vrindavana on the way.
I returned to Europe in April, catching the tail end of a Chennai temple opening enroute, for Kadamba Kanana Swami’s Vyasa-puja and the amazing Queen’s Day harinama in Amsterdam. After Queen’s Day we traveled with Leipzig devotees from Belgium, through Luxembourg and Germany to the Nrsimha farm for Nrsimha Caturdasi, doing harinama in several cities on the way. After that, we spent the rest of May and the beginning of June with Janananda Goswami and his followers, based in Newcastle, England, and doing harinama three hours each day. Janananda Goswami greatly encouraged me in my service of harinama by giving me a wonderful amplifier, money for travel, and assistants to chantwith, as well by as his personal example of complete dedication to harinama and by wisdom shared through lectures. On the way to London for Ratha-yatra I attended the monthly harinama in Manchester, nama-hatta programs in Leeds and Sheffield, and the UK brahmacari conference. For me, the attendance of the brahmacaris in the devotee procession in the Borehamwood Carnival (parade), adding lots of extra energy, was a high point. After London Ratha-yatra, I did harinama in London for a few days with some followers of Janananda Goswami, then attending the Stonehenge Solstice festival, where we chant from midnight to 6 a.m. and distribute prasadam. I was invited to a nonexistent weekend warrior program in Croydon, where I chanted for three hours and distributed flyers for the next day’s Ratha-yatra by myself anyway, collecting 27 GBP for the Soho St. temple sankirtana office. On the way back to Newcastle, Sri Gadadhara and I did the Sunday program in Leeds, and nine devotees from the congregation went with us on harinama afterward, causing us to think perhaps post feast program harinamas may be introduced elsewhere. After all Kharkov, Ukraine, does them every week, even in the winter. After two weeks in Newcastle, I returned to the Manchester area for more harinamaand more nama-hatta programs on the way to Ireland. Ananta Nitai Prabhu traveled with me from Dublin to Belfast, to Govindadvipa, where we chanted at a couple nearby towns, and back to Dublin, where by his inspiration we had organized a 12-hour harinama. He and I both did over eleven hours and other people joined for some of the time. We felt it was so successful that we decided to organize more in the future.
Next I flew to France for three days of harinama in Paris, and then to Switzerland for an evening program in Langenthal and two Jhulan Yatras and a harinama in Zurich. Then by train to Berlin and then Kostrzyn for the Polish Woodstock festival where hundreds of thousands of people hear the holy name and take prasadam. Our harinama at the Kostrzyn train station for the those returning home after the festival was the best ever, and the officials were so pleased with the calming effect the chanting had on the tired crowds they asked us to do it next year. I did a few days harinama in Prague and then on to the kirtana mela in Spain, and three harinamas there, two of which directly inspired people to come to our local temples. Then to Trutnov, Czech Republic, for the Czech Woodstock, where we did lots of kirtana late into the night, and a harinama as well, with our guest, Srila Prabhupada’s disciple Guru Das Prabhu. Next I attended a brief Polish padayatra which gave some transcendental experiences to the residents of the towns near our New Shantipur farm, where we had a weekend nama-hatta festival afterward. Then onward to travel with Janananda Goswami doing harinamas and evening programs in Slovakia and one in Czech Republic. After that, we went with Dhruva, Trevor, and Vamana to the Wroclaw Ratha-yatra, and then the German Kirtana Mela, with three harinamas embedded in it, and followed by the wonderful Leipzig Ratha-yatra. Trevor and I then joined the Nitai Gouranga harinama bus tour for a day from Leipzig to Wroclaw where we did a beautiful three-hour harinama in the square where we had Ratha-yatra the week before. We stayed in Wroclaw and did harinama there, next traveling to Bydgoszcz, where we did harinama and an Ekadasi evening program. Then back to Czech Republic for evening kirtana programs in Trutnov and Prague, and a nama-hatta program in Slovakia. Then on the the Ukraine festival (Bhakti Sangama) with lots of seminars and great three-hour evening kirtanas. Then to Warsaw for Radhastami, and then Simhachalam, the German Nrsimha farm, for the festival for the 30thanniversary of the Prahlada-Nrsimha’s installation, with a few small harinamas on the way. That festival ended with the first ever Passau Ratha-yatra.
Then I returned to the UK to travel with Janananda Goswami in The North of England for the World Holy Name Festival, ending with a harinama and an eight-hour kirtana in Edinburgh, Scotland, a new city and country for me. Dhruva Prabhu and I then went to Belfast, where we were joined by Ananta Nitai for more harinama there, and in the cities of Enniskillen, Dublin, and Bray. Ananta Nitai, inspired by the July 12-hour harinama, planned for a 12-hour harinama on Saturday, followed by the Sunday feast, and a 12-hour kirtana in the temple on Monday. The program was successful enough that he wants to do it the first week of every month. Then I went back to Newcastle for a week or so, and then nine days worth of evening lectures beginning there and including all the nama-hattas nearby Manchester, my third swing through there this year, as opposed to my usual one. We preceded the Bolton nama-hatta with the monthly harinamaand were encouraged to see several local children enthusiastically taking part for forty-five minutes. Back to London for a few days with more harinama and lectures, including four hours of harinamaon Halloween, while waiting for New York airports to be reopened after hurricane Sandy.
Then back home to America for a week on harinama in Manhattan with Rama Raya and Ekalavya Prabhus, some days on a book production marathon for Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami’s The Story of My Life, and a brief visit to my family in Albany. Then I flew to Jacksonville where I chanted on the campus for two hours, meeting a couple people I who had come to our programs back in January and a nice Indian man who started coming to our Jacksonville programs as a result. Then I caught the end of a beautiful ceremony in honor of Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance in Alachua with a wonderful feast. The next several days were many evening kirtanas leading up to the 24-hour kirtana, the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving and it was great to hear Madhava Prabhu so much. The 24-hour kirtana was special this year with guests Niranjana Swami and Agnidev Prabhu. Dravida Prabhu led for two hours on a wonderful harinama in Tallahassee that Saturday at the last football game of the season. Then a couple weeks at Gainesville’s Krishna House, and another evening at our Jacksonville program on the way to fly north for Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami’s Vyasa-puja in December in Stuyvesant, where I cooked breakfast and lunch for him for nine days afterward, punctuated by a harinama in Hudson and a day trip to New York City to see Niranjana Swami and do kirtana and harinama. Then we ended the year with eleven days of four hours of harinama in Manhattan, with two-day visit to my family for Christmas in the middle.
Niranjana Swami advised I go to fewer places and stay longer and try to increase the devotional service in those places, and reading the above account where I travel to fifteen countries, it sounds like I was a dismal failure. I did, however, spend 53 days in Newcastle, England, 43 days in Gainesville, 39 days in The Northern UK and Ireland, and 18 days doing harinama in New York City. Successes include new people coming to the temple from the harinamas in Newcastle, Belfast, Sheffield, and Jacksonville, a new popular program, the back-to-back 12-hour harinama and 12-hour temple kirtana in Dublin, and a string of nine evenings of lectures in a different cities in England each night. By the inspiration of Janananda Goswami, we also went to towns where devotees rarely if ever to harinama, so new people got exposure to the recommended spiritual practice of the age. Incidentally, the guy who came from harinama to the Belfast temple bought four books. The best comment on harinama was “seeing your party was the best part of my trip to Dublin” by a girl from Seattle.
With the blessings of my advisers Niranjana Swami and Janananda Goswami, I hope to increase my focus and continue to try to spend more time in fewer places, trying to bring people to a higher level of devotion, including myself. I am thinking of just spending one month in Europe in the summer instead of two, and going to the Lithuanian festival instead of the Ukraine festival so I can return to England and New York sooner.
Financial Statement for 2012
Srila Prabhupada taught his followers to keep careful records of expenditures. People always wonder how devotees get their money and how they spend it. Here is a summary for me for 2012. If for some reason, you want more details, let me know.
|
INCOME
donations
book sales
total income
EXPENSES
travel
gifts to temples, swamis, etc.
maintenance (clothes, medicine)
internet, phone, computer, etc.
festival fees
loans
food (bhoga, prasadam)
rent
unaccounted for expenses
total expenses
balance |
4107.59
18.32
——–
4125.91
3360.59
277.06
88.54
72.25
63.00
50.00
39.25
24.75
130.41
——–
4105.85
-20.06
|
I would like to thank all the very kind and generous people and organizations who contributed to my expenses so I could share the congregational chanting of the holy name with people in fifteen countries this year. These include, with those contributing the most listed first, GN Press, Kalakantha Prabhu, Kaliya Krishna Prabhu, the devotees in Manchester (England), my mother (Pat Beetle), Rama Raya Prabhu, Paramesvara Prabhu and his congregation in Modra (Slovakia), Bhakta Clive, Ali Krishna dd, Janananda Goswami, Touchstone Publishing, Vrajendralal Prabhu, Bhakta Andy (Gainesville), Bhakta Steve (Belfast), Dr. Dina Bandhu Prabhu, Raj Sharma, the congregation in Leeds, Balarama Prabhu (Opole, Poland), the Nama-hatta leaders in Poland, the devotees in Langenthal (Switzerland), the JPS office in Mayapur, Prema Sankirtana Prabhu of Newcastle, Ramai Prabhu of Sunderland, Sidharth from Michigan (who bought me some very nice boots for cold weather harinamas), Pandava Prabhu, Govinda Prabhu from Scotland, Bhakta Andrzej, Bhakta Doug, Bhakta Sumit, Bhakta Suresh, Parananda Prabhu, Gaura Karuna Prabhu, Tara Prabhu, Adi Karta Prabhu, Kishore Prabhu, Bhaktin Padma, Ramiya Prabhu, the over twenty people who donated less than twenty dollars each, and all the people who bought books on harinama. I hope Lord Caitanya blesses them all with some of the transcendental merit from our sharing the congregational chanting of the holy name with the people in general.
—–
yei yahan tahan dana kare prema-phala
phalasvade matta loka ha-ila sakala
“The fruit of love of God is so delicious that wherever a devotee distributes it, those who relish the fruit, anywhere in the world, immediately become intoxicated.” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi-lila 9.48)
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 8, No. 23
By Krishna-kripa das
(December 2012, part one)
North Florida and New York State
(Sent from Brooklyn, New York, on January 7, 2013)
What I Went and What I Did
December started off with a new event for the North Florida Hare Krishnas on its very first day, the St. Augustine Christmas parade. In Gainesville, we had our last week of Krishna Lunch on the campus for the year, and I chanted on the campus through Wednesday. That Wednesday we had our usual harinama at the Gainesville Farmers Market, which had a special feature this time. Thursday Andy drove me to University of North Florida where Hladini, Amrita, Dorian, and Dorian’s friend, Tim, and I chanted together for four hours outside the Student Union as hundreds of students traded in their used books. Hladini also distributed many cookies and invitations to our Thursday evening program which Tim ended up coming to for the first time. On Friday I flew to Philadelphia where I saw Radha-Saradbihari and Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu, and Sraddha dd, and where I took my niece, Fern, to my friend Haryasva Prabhu’s Govinda’s Restaurant, along with Jaya Sita dd and Varuni, a couple friends from Florida. The next day I went to Stuyvesant Falls, New York, about 100 miles north of New York City, where my initiating guru, Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami had his Vyasa Puja ceremony that weekend. For the next week after that I served Satsvarupa Maharaja, by cooking his breakfast and lunch, cleaning his room, and washing everyone’s dishes. Muktavandya Prabhu, who was also assisting Satsvarupa Maharaja, and I went to Hudson on the warmest day of that week and did harinama for an hour, and we received some favorable gestures and smiles from a few locals and no negativity. On Saturday the 15th, I made a day trip to New York City to do harinama and kirtana, and to hear from my siksa guru, Niranjana Swami. That harinama was a special experience because of the response, and I share some video of some Santa Clauses dancing along with our party.
I share insights of visiting guests like Niranjana and Rtadhvaja Swamis and Malati Prabhu, as well as senior devotees in the Alachua Country community like Kalakantha and Sesa Prabhus. I tell of Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami’s Vyasa Puja ceremony and include some nice excerpts from his autobiography, The Story of My Life, in which he describes the early days with Srila Prabhupada. Then I share details from presentations by newer devotees in Gainesville and Jacksonville.
Lord Jagannatha Blesses the St. Augustine Christmas Parade
By the grace of enthusiastic devotees from Alachua, Ratha-yatras are on the increase in North Florida. For the first time we had a Ratha-yatra cart in the St. Augustine Christmas parade. It was also special as this was first time as the new replica Jagannatha Deities rode on the cart. Dharma-raj Prabhu and his family, as usual, made all kinds of practical arrangements, getting the cart there, and decorated.
Although I love freely distributing promotional literature about Krishna consciousness because I am convinced it will benefit the people, I was not very enthusiastic during the beginning of the parade because I thought the authorities would not appreciate us doing that at the parade and that the vast majority of the people would not be interested. Of course, I did it anyway as a matter of duty, and I was very pleasantly surprised. Many, many people were happy to see the devotees, and they reached out with smiles and words and gestures of approval to take the Krishna, Reservoir of Pleasure and On Chanting Hare Krishna pamphlets that we were distributing. Of course, the prasadam candy canes were even more popular. After two-thirds of the parade, a light rain started, and I hid the pamphlets under my kurta for protection and continued to distribute. Later Kesava Prabhu got a call from the organizers in St. Augustine, saying that we won the award for the most unique float. Of course, that is not so surprising. Who is more unique than Lord Jagannatha, His brother, and sister on their glorious cart and His entourage of singing and dancing followers?
1565Today.com, St. Augustine, Florida’s newest online magazine, in an article “The St. Augustine Christmas Parade Wows the Kids” posted on December 1, writes “And honorable mention goes to the Hare Krishna devotees, who sang and tambourined their way through the city in a colorful injection of ethnic and religious diversity.” The two pictures illustrating this article were taken by Brian Nelson of 1565Today.com and are used with his permission.
A Special Harinama at the Farmers Market
With devotees working on Krishna Lunch and finishing up projects and papers and studying for finals as the semester ended, we had few devotees to chant at the first Gainesville Farmers Market in December. There was one surprise addition to our chanting party though, and that is our friend, Anna, a Quaker lady in her sixties, who originally came in touch with Hare Krishna at the very same Farmers Market perhaps a year or so ago. She developed a fondness for chanting Hare Krishna on beads, attends some programs, and sometimes helps serve out the Krishna Lunch on the porch of Krishna House. She chanted with us for an hour at the Farmers Market, spontaneously giving out invitations to those sitting or standing nearby, so they could benefit from some of the gifts the Krishna consciousness movement is sharing, as she herself has.
December 15 Harinama in New York City
As I walked from 34 West 31th Street, where the Chinese bus from Albany dropped me off, to find our harinama in Union Square, or as it turned out, Washington Square Park, I was amazed to see somewhere between 10% and 25% of the people were dressed as Santa Claus! “What is going on?” I wondered. Later as I researched this article, I found out, “SantaCon!” According to Wikipedia, “SantaCon is an annual mass gathering of people dressed in Santa Claus costumes parading publicly on streets and in bars in cities around the world. The focus is on spontaneity and creativity, while having a good time and spreading cheer and goodwill.” [Donaldson James, Susan (December 11, 2009). “Santa Con: Kringle Chaos is Coming to Town”. ABC News. Retrieved December 18, 2011.]
People are in mood of celebration around Christmas, and during SantaCon, that is intensified. Thus during our five-hour harinama, many jolly Santas danced along with the devotees, as you can see in these videos by Bhakta Peter of The Bhakti Center:
We ended our harinama fifteen minutes to eight, a little early, as many devotees wanted to attend the rest of this month’s six-hour kirtana at the Bhakti Center, with Niranjana Swami as a special guest. We made an announcement to those dancing with us at the end to follow us to 25 First Avenue for some more singing, dancing, and refreshments, and about five or six of the Christmas partiers came along. I noticed two of them stayed at least two hours. The most enthusiastic was Yael, a NYU student, who was attracted to the kirtana in Washington Square Park being a percussionist. Although it was her first encounter with Hare Krishna kirtana, she played the djembe drum with the party for several hours, came to the Bhakti Center for more kirtana and prasadam, and she even washed a few pots. The next day she returned to catch the end of Niranjana Swami’s lecture.
She showed up for a few harinamas the next week, and hopes to visit the Chicago temple when she returns home for the holidays.
It was awesome for me to see all the people doing so many acts of devotion as a result of meeting the harinama party on the SantaCon day. This daily four-hour harinama in Manhattan organized by Rama Raya Prabhu is a very powerful outreach event!
Insights
Niranjana Swami:
To accept one’s imminent death as good news takes realization.
My mother was ninety and had no interested in hearing the word “death.” As far as she was concerned, she would live another hundred years. Although there were signs that things would not improve, she did not take them seriously. Five months before she passed away she was in a rehabilitation hospital and she told me, “I do not belong here. This place is only for old and sick people.” Life is meant for learn how to deal with the unavoidable event of death, but our present society is not dealing with this. My aunt got notice she was going to die within a week, and my sister invited me to visit her. My aunt said about me, “Look at him. Look at his eyes. Look at how peaceful he is! He looks like he knows the purpose of life.” Then she addressed me directly, “I can tell that you can accept whatever happens to you in life. Can you teach me to be like that?” People detected that something was going to happen and so they left, not for a long time as it turned out. I explained that soul exists beyond the body, and takes up another body according to one’s karma. Then an old friend came in and our conversation ended, but at least she could understand her situation and try to deal with it.
As it turned out I was with my mother alone in the room as she was dying. I saw her breathing was slowing down, and I decided to stop reading and chant Hare Krishna kirtana. And so I was chanting Hare Krishna for five minutes when my mother left her body. When I messaged Devamrita Swami, he replied that Prabhupada told Giriraja that parents of devotees at the time they leave their bodies will realize their good fortune of having a child who became a devotee. When my sister came in the room she said to me, “Your face is glowing. As soon as I saw your face. I knew everything was alright.”
We have to feel as a result of our devotional service that Krishna is there making arrangements in our life.
Bali Maharaja was cheated by the Lord, to whom He had offered three steps of land, but who had taken everything in two. But Bali was so elevated, he was not disturbed.
Voluntary repentance is the way to get the Lord’s attention, not to blame others.
Pariksit Maharaja saw the curse as an opportunity to become detached from all his material possessions and to become attached to Krishna.
The devotees have the greatest asset and the greatest benediction—to remember the Lord. The Lord minimizes other things in a devotee’s life to facilitate that.
We should practice developing this consciousness throughout our life, not just at the time of death.
from a conversation after the lecture:
In 1972 I lived in a hippy commune on Cape Cod. There were 15 fifteen of us, and we all had our own dogs. We considered that we would not want to kill our dogs and so it was hypocritical to kill animals for food, and thus we all became vegetarian. Many people liked to cook, but no one liked to clean up, so there were piles of dishes in the sink. As I was becoming a devotee by reading Bhagavad-gita, I knew Krishna would not accept the offering if the kitchen was not clean, so I would always clean the kitchen before I cooked. When the others understood that I would clean the kitchen before it was my turn to cook, they became even less enthusiastic to clean their own pots and dishes. I became resentful that I was doing everyone else’s dishes. When I came to the temple for the first time, I had been reading Bhagavad-gita for some days. When the devotees asked me if I wanted to do some service after the Sunday Feast, I agreed. They led me to the kitchen, and I saw a pile of pots that was bigger than I had ever seen before. I was shocked, but because I agreed to do some service, I did it, although reluctantly. When I was halfway through, another devotee came in. His name was Narendra. He was rejoicing seeing my fortunate position being engaged in the Lord’s service, but it was difficult to appreciate his mood. Then he spoke to me some words that completely transformed my consciousness: “By cleaning Krishna’s pots, you are cleaning your heart.” Then I saw the service in a completely different way. It was different than cleaning the pots at the co-op house. These were indeed Krishna’s pots, and I was becoming closer to Krishna by cleaning them.
Rtadhvaja Swami:
from Kalakantha Prabhu’s grandchild’s grains ceremony:
When we were having festivals almost every weekend in LA, Srila Prabhupada told us, “If you let me know, I can give you a festival for every day.”
These events, like the child’s grains ceremony, allow us to remember that human life is meant for self-realization not sense gratification.
There is a pastime with Narottama Dasa Thakura. He would not take the grains at his grains ceremony repeatedly. Then they realized that the grains had not been offered to Krishna first. They made a new batch, and offered it to Krishna, and tried again, this time successfully.
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami [Vyasa-puja address]:
The purpose of the guru is to guide the disciple to go back to Godhead as soon as possible. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura advised to go back in this life. Why wait for additional births?
Srila Prabhupada said if you are 75% pure you can go back.
Srila Prabhupada said, “If you hold on my dhoti I can take you back to Godhead. I have a key to the back door.”
My task is to represent Srila Prabhupada to you. I have been representing Srila Prabhupada to people since being temple president in Boston.
I am in stable health and sound mind, and I am determined to serve you for the forseeable future.
It is said of the guru that he lives forever, and the follower lives with him by his instructions.
We serve the guru by taking care of him and serving his preaching mission.
I preach by the way I live my life and by my writing.
I wrote Srila Prabhupada asking if I could write, but fearfully, that I was so daring to write when he has written so nicely.
Srila Prabhupada replied, mentioning all the acaryas [previous spiritual teachers] who wrote extensively and saying, “Any self-realized soul can write unlimited books not deviating from the original purpose.”
Lilamrita [Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami’s biography of Hare Krishna founder Srila Prabhupada] is second best selling Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT) book next to Bhagavad-gita As It Is.
I am writing now for my daily web site, beginning with quotations from a rasa-sastra, accompanied by illustrations, and then a japa report. I continue the japa report although it is repetitious because devotees say it helps their japa. I draw a picture. Then I tell about my life, telling my interactions with the devotees I live with, the local devotees, and those who visit here, along with material from the books I am hearing each day. And finally I tell about my deity worship.
By reading these writings is the best way for my disciples to keep in touch with me. It takes only ten minutes to have a relationship for me in cyberspace each day.
I try to write a book a year and present it to my disciples on Vyasa-puja day.
We have 150 books on Kindle and e-readers.
Radhanatha Swami looked through Prabhupada Smaranam and liked it very much. He promised to get help to print many copies for his followers.
I have written about Prabhupada, practices of devotional service, and the chanting of the holy name.
It is the duty of us all to produce as many Krishna conscious books as possible. People can help with these different tasks:
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We have funds. We need cover designs and proofreading for fifty low run books.
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Locating and digitizing art work.
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Obtaining a tripod for photography.
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Typists and proofreaders for my autobiography.
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Buy ebooks and post comments on them.
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Print 50 sets of 100 of my books to place in schools and libraries at $7 per book.
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Transferring audio tapes to digital format.
We owe such a debt to the Goswamis, Krishna dasa Kaviraja Goswami, Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and Srila Prabhupada for all their books.
I wrote 25 books about Srila Prabhupada.
I give people Caitanya Vaishnavism through a variety of genres.
If you attain pure love for Krishna, I will consider my spiritual master duties successful, and you can bless me, and we can go back to Godhead together. Srila Prabhupada writes about this in connection with Dhruva Maharaja taking his mother back to Godhead. That is my request of you. Thank you very much.
Vyasa-puja Homages:
Haridasa Prabhu:
You have led us by your example to be a follower of Srila Prabhupada. You are his faithful and empowered representative. Your writing of books is a great contribution in this. You are inextricably linked with Srila Prabupada. Your honesty has endeared you to your readers.
Rama Raya Prabhu:
You have linked us to Srila Prabhupada wonderfully for so many years. When I have your association I feel Srila Prabhupada’s presence.
I could distribute cards for your site on harinama.
Krishna-kripa das:
You praised your disciples who are publishing and selling Russian translations of your books. I just wanted to say from my own experience at the Ukraine festival, Isani and Alexi Prabhus set up their GN Press book table at the very beginning of the festival and go to the very end. Instead of working a single book table together as many couples would do, they have two separate tables at different locations to increase sales. This year new and reprinted titles numbered five, including Entering a Life of Prayer, Prabhupada Appreciation, Japa Transformations, and Distribute Books.
When I quote from your journal on my blog, I could include a link to it.
A friend of my loved your Begging for the Nectar of the Holy Name in which you share your personal struggle. He learned from that it is alright for devotees to be personal and to share feelings, not just to be austere and stoic.
How did you help us? Your writings gave me faith in Srila Prabhupada and the holy name. Your instruction to dance more in kirtana has made me so enthusiastic to dance in kirtana, I do it even when everyone else is sitting down.
Haryasva Prabhu:
I feel sadness that I am not reading or distributing your books as I have in the past.
Prabhupada and the holy name are two gifts you emphasized.
I felt I just missed Srila Prabhupada, but through your writings I feel connected with him.
I find that new people find your books to be easy reading.
Baladeva Vidyabhusana Prabhu:
After three years of interviewing for Lilamrita, the message I got from the devotees was that they wished they had given Srila Prabhupada more time to write as that is what is left, and that they feel bad they did not take advantage of his presence while he was here. This is a realization I had that any disciple can help to do these two things in connection with you.
Mother Lilavatara:
When I met you I felt you were someone special and would be someone special, and you were.
Thanks for teaching us to be more regulated.
The pictures Guru Das posts are special to me.
Your drawings of the devotees are so funny to me and make me so joyful. They make my heart feel so light.
Thank you inspiring us to go back to Godhead by improving our chanting.
Your servants have done such a wonderful job for you over the years.
Thank you for guiding me to become more Krishna consciousness.
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami:
reading from his autobiography, The Story of My Life:
“No talent is required to make a combined diary and autobiography interesting.”—Mark Twain
“The Swami kept leading the chanting for a full half hour. After awhile I got bored, but I kept going and eventually entered into a trancelike stage. It was far out. I went past boredom and became absorbed in the sound vibration. . . . I had the mantra almost memorized, and I was mesmerized. By the time it was over I felt that I was high. I left the storefront and walked home chanting in my mind and feeling certain that I would continue to attend the meetings. I felt I wanted to change my life and become pure.”
“My first personal contact with Srila Prabhupada was in a formal setting — the question and answer period after his lecture. In the company of about fifteen people I raised my hand, and he recognized me. I asked, “Is misery eternal?” My question came from my reading of Van Gogh’s letters to his brother, Dear Theo. In one letter Van Gogh proposes to his brother that “misery is eternal.” I wanted to know what the Swami thought. Without hesitating he answered me, “Yes misery is eternal. You may break your arm and go to the hospital and have your arm healed. But then you may go out and break your leg. In this world there is no end to miseries. But there is another world . . . ” Swamiji explained that if you develop love of God and go back to the spiritual world you will be free of miseries, because there is no misery there. I was satisfied to be recognized, and his answer was assuring, overriding Van Gogh’s dismal view.”
“The early years with Swamiji were my favorite as ISKCON was a small movement, like a family.”
from a talk with disciples about japa:
Acaryas [the great spiritual teachers] say kirtana [chanting loudly with others] is more important than japa [individually chanting softly] because more people benefit, but that does not mean japa is not important, it is fundamental. Srila Prabhupada said it is the most essential instruction.
Japa is so personal. We speak to Krishna and Radha, and ask Them to engage us in Their service.
Lord Caitanya would not eat at the house of anyone who did not daily chant 64 rounds (100,000 names of the Lord).
I know one lady who plays the harmonium and sings kirtana, but does not chant her sixteen rounds of japa. Better that she would chant sixteen rounds first and then play the harmonium.
The mantras are a gift and should be handled gratefully.
In recent years, I have finally been able to pay attention to the names while I chant.
I pray to the holy name, “Please forgive me. Please protect me.”
I long for the day when I feel emotion like in “Siksastakam.”
Chanting is cozy, intimate and warms the heart.
Q: What does it mean no hard and fast rules?
A: It is not like Deity worship where you have to clean yourself first. You can chant morning or night. You can chant in the bathroom. The mantra can be chanted by anyone. You do not have to be initiated to chant. You can even still be doing sinful activities and still chant.
Q: Can you change the words?
A: No. Srila Prabhupada said not “Dear John.” No om, no sivaya. You can play any variety of instruments, and Prabhupada encouraged the musicians to play with us.
Q [by Rama Raya Prabhu]: How would you encourage us to preach in America?
A: Do Union Square harinama. There are bright spots: Kalakantha, Vaisesika, Hari Vilasa. Jayadvaita Swami said the Las Vegas center is encouraging. Take a place and do something, and it will become a bright spot that will be inspiring to others.
comment by Mother Lilavatara: I say Hare Krishna to the people. When they ask what it means? I said it is a blessing. They like that. They say, “I need all the blessings I can get.” Saying Hare Krishna to everyone I meet helps me, as now that I am older and cannot go out so much to share Krishna with people.
comment by Sankarsana Prabhu: Your example of chanting, getting up early, and being regulated, inspies me.
I yearn to progress to suddha-nama.
My disciple in Russia, Isani wrote a prayer, “Dear Lord, please give my guru maharaja nama-ruci [taste for the holy name].”
One should not chant too slowly.
Kalakantha Prabhu:
The conditions of Satya-yuga are similar to the Biblical description of the Garden of Eden. Then when Adam and Eve begot Cain and Able they two brothers got involved in agriculture which corresponds to the second age, Treta.
comment by Vaishnava Dasa: At Janaki Kunda in India one sage was reading the Vishnu Purana. There it said at the end of this age of Kali, the maximum age a human will live is seventeen years while the average is only twelve. A girl could conceive a child at age five.
No doubt that the teaching of Jesus Christ is pure bhakti, but with all that has happened over the years, it is hard to encounter his pure teachings.
I was involved with one meditation group where I had to pay for the mantra, and each successive class was more expensive than the last. The introduction to pure devotion is free, the intermediate instruction in devotion is also free, and the advanced classes in devotional service are also free.
Malati Prabhu:
There are two levels of liberation (1) freedom from material desires, and (2) positive engagement in Krishna’s service.
The Mayavadis accept the light but do not find out the source of the light, so theirs is an inferior understanding.
The natural instinct of the liberated person is to engage in the devotional service of the Lord.
Bowing down before the Lord is offering a service to Him.
Srila Prabhupada said we should not give children younger than ten the deities because they have not yet developed the necessary cleanliness.
Strictly speaking one should not set the holy books on one’s lap because the clothing below the waist is impure.
Srila Prabhupada’s father gave him 5-inch Radha-Krishna Deities which Prabhupada named Radha-Govinda like the larger Deities of his neighbors.
Srila Prabhupada said the Ratha-yatra cart is not different from the Lord and by decorating the cart one can make great advancement.
The Ratha-yatra symbolizes the gopis pulling Krishna from Kurukshetra to Vrindavana.
All religions are meant for awakening the dormant instinct for devotion for the Supreme Lord—to reconnect with the Supreme Lord.
When we went to England, we were thinking, “We are going to meet the Beatles and get them to chant Hare Krishna.” That was our strategic plan.
We could understand we needed special empowerment to spread Krishna consciousness in England. We had heard from the scriptures about the glories of the lotus feet of the spiritual master, so before leaving for England, we asked Srila Prabhupada if we could touch his feet. We had seen the Indians do it, but we could see Srila Prabhupada did not really like it. He consented, and so we did.
I have interviewed 183 of Srila Prabhupada’s female disciples and at least 180 said he was glowing.
When leading kirtanas in Tompkins Square Park, Srila Prabhupada would encourage people to sing along, and more people began to get involved.
Srila Prabhupada called his society “The International Society for Krishna Consciousness” because he wanted people to understand that Krishna is God.
As soon as George Harrison came in contact with the devotees his devotion sprouted up.
I have had people tell me that they had no idea what Hare Krishna was but because George Harrison made the record, they chanted.
From 1970 to 1971 was a Hare Krishna explosion with 32 new temples being opened.
In the beginning we called the Sunday Feast, the Sunday Love Feast. I think we should get back to calling it that. The world needs a lot more love.
On Srila Prabhupada’s morning walks you got insight on practically applying the teachings in life.
Srila Prabhupada was an expert musician, especially with mrdanga and harmonium, but he made it clear that playing the instruments was simply an accompaniment to the chanting of the maha-mantra.
Srila Prabhupada wrote 6,000 letters that have been archived, and 30,000 photos were taken of him and 70 hours of videos made about him.
Mahatma Prabhu was interesting how organizations were managed. He had seen the Hare Krishnas with their chanting and dancing and happy disposition, and wondered how they were managed. He secured the opportunity to witness a meeting between Srila Prabhupada and his main leaders. Prabhupada began by preaching. Two hours later he was still preaching. Then Mahatma understood that Srila Prabhupada managed by preaching.
Sesa Prabhu:
My daughter was teaching some 1st or 2nd graders as a student teacher as part of getting her teaching degree. One of the boys in the class said to her, “Miss Spellman, I saw you in the parade!” So she had to explain to the teacher and the class that she was in the UF Homecoming parade as a Hare Krishna devotee. The husband of the teacher came by and mentioned how he enjoyed the Krishna Lunch as a student. Then the teacher asked my daughter, “What do you believe?” Later at home at the dinner table, we discussed the best way to answer this, and concluded, “We believe the purpose of life is to love God and serve Him.”
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura considered that first three processes of devotional service, sravanam, kirtanam, vishnu smaranam, hearing, chanting, and remembering the Supreme Lord, are primary, and the other six are contained within these.
We can become absorbed in so many things in life, but they may not be good for ourselves or others, but Krishna kirtana is good for both ourselves and others.
Remembering the Lord is natural, especially when we are in difficulty. When the U.S. astronauts were in a dangerous situation, the American leaders advised the citizens to pray to God for their safety.
The five kinds of smaranam (remembering):
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to contemplate something we previously experienced
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dharana: to focus our meditation on a specific subject
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dhyanam: to meditate on a specific form of the Lord
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dhruvanusmriti: a flow of remembrance of some pastime of the Lord.
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samadhi: complete absorption.
comment by Mother Akuti: After I gave a class where we talked about how Lord Caitanya got all the animals to dance, we went on harinama, and I encouraged the devotees at least to get all the people to dance. That day we saw a lot of people dressed in animal costumes, and they all danced with us.
Citsukananda Prabhu was preaching in Trinidad, and he met the person who corresponded with Srila Prabhupada before he came to America about coming to Trinidad. The man even showed him the letters he received from Srila Prabhupada.
comment by Malati Prabhu: At the first arati of Radha-Shyamasundara in Vrindavana, Visakha Prabhu wanted to get a picture of Prabhupada doing the arati, but a tall sannyasi was standing in her way. She tapped the sannyasi on the shoulder twice, and the second time said pointing to her camera, “If you stand where you are, you will get a nice vision of Srila Prabhupada offering arati. but if you let me stand there the whole world will get that vision.” The sannyasi kindly traded places with her, and so we have that historic photo.
Tulasi Priya dd:
People who travel tend to be less bigoted, more tolerant, and more open minded.
A temple or place of pilgrimage is so powerful that no matter what your consciousness is, you will connect with Krishna simply by going there.
The Muslims have an idea that at least once in your life you should visit Mecca. Similarly, for us it is valuable if once in our life, we can go to India and visit Krishna’s birthplace.
We watch people’s lives like we watch a movie. We wonder what will happen to our friends next.
Dina Bandhu Prabhu:
In the purport to Bhagavad-gita 11.55 is a description of the spiritual world as having many planets. This tradition has more details of the spiritual world and what is going on there.
Our activities of exploiting material nature which we are thinking are making us happy are actually creating our distress.
Mental speculation is to think that by the power of our inductive reasoning we can understand the ultimate truth without hearing about it from a higher authority.
Bhagavad-gita 18.55 gives make practical suggestions of how to engage in devotional service to Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada explained to one devotee who was entering the household life and worried about how he would get good association there, “If when you are working, if you are remembering that you are working for Krishna, then you are associating with Krishna.”
Amrita Keli dd:
This Hare Krishna mantra is spiritual sound vibration, and it is completely different from any other sound vibration you have heard.
I started chanting Hare Krishna on my way to class, and I found my day went much better.
Bhaktin Laura:
As a result of chanting eight rounds a day, I became more peaceful and was not haunted by things I had done in my past. Recently, because of the end of the semester, I have been too busy to chant eight rounds a day, and I can see I am sometimes haunted by such thoughts as before. I am so glad I am finished now, and I can return to chanting eight rounds.
Bhakta John:
In addition to the famous example of God appearing to Moses as a burning bush, in the Bible it also says the Lord manifest as, “A pillar of a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.”
comment by Ananda Loka Prabhu: When I was a tennis instructor, I would remember Krishna by chanting before and after going to work, bringing prasadam to the students, and bringing a small set of beads I could chant on when not otherwise engaged.
comment by Sruti Sagar Prabhu: To avoid bad association, Indradyumna Swami advised me to chant 64 rounds then, glorifying that practice for two minutes before saying at least chant 16 very good rounds.
Krishna-kripa das:
Sign on a church between Gainesville and Jacksonville, “You are the only Bible some people will read.”
from a post on Facebook:
Forty years ago on this day, Dec. 9, 1972, I broke my leg skiing. It hurt like hell, and it was awkward using crutches for six weeks with the snow and ice. In July of that year, my father had passed away, and my grandmother was to pass away in May of the next year. Thus when the Hare Krishnas told me seven years later, that the material world was a miserable place, I felt they actually understood the truth.
—–
susrusoh sraddadhanasya
vasudeva-katha-rucih
syan mahat-sevaya viprah
punya-tirtha-nisevanat
“O twice-born sages, by serving those devotees who are completely freed from all vice, great service is done. By such service, one gains affinity for hearing the messages of Vasudeva [the Supreme Lord].” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.16)
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 8, No. 23
By Krishna-kripa das
(December 2012, part one)
North Florida and New York State
(Sent from Brooklyn, New York, on January 7, 2013)
What I Went and What I Did
December started off with a new event for the North Florida Hare Krishnas on its very first day, the St. Augustine Christmas parade. In Gainesville, we had our last week of Krishna Lunch on the campus for the year, and I chanted on the campus through Wednesday. That Wednesday we had our usual harinama at the Gainesville Farmers Market, which had a special feature this time. Thursday Andy drove me to University of North Florida where Hladini, Amrita, Dorian, and Dorian’s friend, Tim, and I chanted together for four hours outside the Student Union as hundreds of students traded in their used books. Hladini also distributed many cookies and invitations to our Thursday evening program which Tim ended up coming to for the first time. On Friday I flew to Philadelphia where I saw Radha-Saradbihari and Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu, and Sraddha dd, and where I took my niece, Fern, to my friend Haryasva Prabhu’s Govinda’s Restaurant, along with Jaya Sita dd and Varuni, a couple friends from Florida. The next day I went to Stuyvesant Falls, New York, about 100 miles north of New York City, where my initiating guru, Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami had his Vyasa Puja ceremony that weekend. For the next week after that I served Satsvarupa Maharaja, by cooking his breakfast and lunch, cleaning his room, and washing everyone’s dishes. Muktavandya Prabhu, who was also assisting Satsvarupa Maharaja, and I went to Hudson on the warmest day of that week and did harinama for an hour, and we received some favorable gestures and smiles from a few locals and no negativity. On Saturday the 15th, I made a day trip to New York City to do harinama and kirtana, and to hear from my siksa guru, Niranjana Swami. That harinama was a special experience because of the response, and I share some video of some Santa Clauses dancing along with our party.
I share insights of visiting guests like Niranjana and Rtadhvaja Swamis and Malati Prabhu, as well as senior devotees in the Alachua Country community like Kalakantha and Sesa Prabhus. I tell of Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami’s Vyasa Puja ceremony and include some nice excerpts from his autobiography, The Story of My Life, in which he describes the early days with Srila Prabhupada. Then I share details from presentations by newer devotees in Gainesville and Jacksonville.
Lord Jagannatha Blesses the St. Augustine Christmas Parade
By the grace of enthusiastic devotees from Alachua, Ratha-yatras are on the increase in North Florida. For the first time we had a Ratha-yatra cart in the St. Augustine Christmas parade. It was also special as this was first time as the new replica Jagannatha Deities rode on the cart. Dharma-raj Prabhu and his family, as usual, made all kinds of practical arrangements, getting the cart there, and decorated.
Although I love freely distributing promotional literature about Krishna consciousness because I am convinced it will benefit the people, I was not very enthusiastic during the beginning of the parade because I thought the authorities would not appreciate us doing that at the parade and that the vast majority of the people would not be interested. Of course, I did it anyway as a matter of duty, and I was very pleasantly surprised. Many, many people were happy to see the devotees, and they reached out with smiles and words and gestures of approval to take the Krishna, Reservoir of Pleasure and On Chanting Hare Krishna pamphlets that we were distributing. Of course, the prasadam candy canes were even more popular. After two-thirds of the parade, a light rain started, and I hid the pamphlets under my kurta for protection and continued to distribute. Later Kesava Prabhu got a call from the organizers in St. Augustine, saying that we won the award for the most unique float. Of course, that is not so surprising. Who is more unique than Lord Jagannatha, His brother, and sister on their glorious cart and His entourage of singing and dancing followers?
1565Today.com, St. Augustine, Florida’s newest online magazine, in an article “The St. Augustine Christmas Parade Wows the Kids” posted on December 1, writes “And honorable mention goes to the Hare Krishna devotees, who sang and tambourined their way through the city in a colorful injection of ethnic and religious diversity.” The two pictures illustrating this article were taken by Brian Nelson of 1565Today.com and are used with his permission.
A Special Harinama at the Farmers Market
With devotees working on Krishna Lunch and finishing up projects and papers and studying for finals as the semester ended, we had few devotees to chant at the first Gainesville Farmers Market in December. There was one surprise addition to our chanting party though, and that is our friend, Anna, a Quaker lady in her sixties, who originally came in touch with Hare Krishna at the very same Farmers Market perhaps a year or so ago. She developed a fondness for chanting Hare Krishna on beads, attends some programs, and sometimes helps serve out the Krishna Lunch on the porch of Krishna House. She chanted with us for an hour at the Farmers Market, spontaneously giving out invitations to those sitting or standing nearby, so they could benefit from some of the gifts the Krishna consciousness movement is sharing, as she herself has.
December 15 Harinama in New York City
As I walked from 34 West 31th Street, where the Chinese bus from Albany dropped me off, to find our harinama in Union Square, or as it turned out, Washington Square Park, I was amazed to see somewhere between 10% and 25% of the people were dressed as Santa Claus! “What is going on?” I wondered. Later as I researched this article, I found out, “SantaCon!” According to Wikipedia, “SantaCon is an annual mass gathering of people dressed in Santa Claus costumes parading publicly on streets and in bars in cities around the world. The focus is on spontaneity and creativity, while having a good time and spreading cheer and goodwill.” [Donaldson James, Susan (December 11, 2009). “Santa Con: Kringle Chaos is Coming to Town”. ABC News. Retrieved December 18, 2011.]
People are in mood of celebration around Christmas, and during SantaCon, that is intensified. Thus during our five-hour harinama, many jolly Santas danced along with the devotees, as you can see in these videos by Bhakta Peter of The Bhakti Center:
We ended our harinama fifteen minutes to eight, a little early, as many devotees wanted to attend the rest of this month’s six-hour kirtana at the Bhakti Center, with Niranjana Swami as a special guest. We made an announcement to those dancing with us at the end to follow us to 25 First Avenue for some more singing, dancing, and refreshments, and about five or six of the Christmas partiers came along. I noticed two of them stayed at least two hours. The most enthusiastic was Yael, a NYU student, who was attracted to the kirtana in Washington Square Park being a percussionist. Although it was her first encounter with Hare Krishna kirtana, she played the djembe drum with the party for several hours, came to the Bhakti Center for more kirtana and prasadam, and she even washed a few pots. The next day she returned to catch the end of Niranjana Swami’s lecture.
She showed up for a few harinamas the next week, and hopes to visit the Chicago temple when she returns home for the holidays.
It was awesome for me to see all the people doing so many acts of devotion as a result of meeting the harinama party on the SantaCon day. This daily four-hour harinama in Manhattan organized by Rama Raya Prabhu is a very powerful outreach event!
Insights
Niranjana Swami:
To accept one’s imminent death as good news takes realization.
My mother was ninety and had no interested in hearing the word “death.” As far as she was concerned, she would live another hundred years. Although there were signs that things would not improve, she did not take them seriously. Five months before she passed away she was in a rehabilitation hospital and she told me, “I do not belong here. This place is only for old and sick people.” Life is meant for learn how to deal with the unavoidable event of death, but our present society is not dealing with this. My aunt got notice she was going to die within a week, and my sister invited me to visit her. My aunt said about me, “Look at him. Look at his eyes. Look at how peaceful he is! He looks like he knows the purpose of life.” Then she addressed me directly, “I can tell that you can accept whatever happens to you in life. Can you teach me to be like that?” People detected that something was going to happen and so they left, not for a long time as it turned out. I explained that soul exists beyond the body, and takes up another body according to one’s karma. Then an old friend came in and our conversation ended, but at least she could understand her situation and try to deal with it.
As it turned out I was with my mother alone in the room as she was dying. I saw her breathing was slowing down, and I decided to stop reading and chant Hare Krishna kirtana. And so I was chanting Hare Krishna for five minutes when my mother left her body. When I messaged Devamrita Swami, he replied that Prabhupada told Giriraja that parents of devotees at the time they leave their bodies will realize their good fortune of having a child who became a devotee. When my sister came in the room she said to me, “Your face is glowing. As soon as I saw your face. I knew everything was alright.”
We have to feel as a result of our devotional service that Krishna is there making arrangements in our life.
Bali Maharaja was cheated by the Lord, to whom He had offered three steps of land, but who had taken everything in two. But Bali was so elevated, he was not disturbed.
Voluntary repentance is the way to get the Lord’s attention, not to blame others.
Pariksit Maharaja saw the curse as an opportunity to become detached from all his material possessions and to become attached to Krishna.
The devotees have the greatest asset and the greatest benediction—to remember the Lord. The Lord minimizes other things in a devotee’s life to facilitate that.
We should practice developing this consciousness throughout our life, not just at the time of death.
from a conversation after the lecture:
In 1972 I lived in a hippy commune on Cape Cod. There were 15 fifteen of us, and we all had our own dogs. We considered that we would not want to kill our dogs and so it was hypocritical to kill animals for food, and thus we all became vegetarian. Many people liked to cook, but no one liked to clean up, so there were piles of dishes in the sink. As I was becoming a devotee by reading Bhagavad-gita, I knew Krishna would not accept the offering if the kitchen was not clean, so I would always clean the kitchen before I cooked. When the others understood that I would clean the kitchen before it was my turn to cook, they became even less enthusiastic to clean their own pots and dishes. I became resentful that I was doing everyone else’s dishes. When I came to the temple for the first time, I had been reading Bhagavad-gita for some days. When the devotees asked me if I wanted to do some service after the Sunday Feast, I agreed. They led me to the kitchen, and I saw a pile of pots that was bigger than I had ever seen before. I was shocked, but because I agreed to do some service, I did it, although reluctantly. When I was halfway through, another devotee came in. His name was Narendra. He was rejoicing seeing my fortunate position being engaged in the Lord’s service, but it was difficult to appreciate his mood. Then he spoke to me some words that completely transformed my consciousness: “By cleaning Krishna’s pots, you are cleaning your heart.” Then I saw the service in a completely different way. It was different than cleaning the pots at the co-op house. These were indeed Krishna’s pots, and I was becoming closer to Krishna by cleaning them.
Rtadhvaja Swami:
from Kalakantha Prabhu’s grandchild’s grains ceremony:
When we were having festivals almost every weekend in LA, Srila Prabhupada told us, “If you let me know, I can give you a festival for every day.”
These events, like the child’s grains ceremony, allow us to remember that human life is meant for self-realization not sense gratification.
There is a pastime with Narottama Dasa Thakura. He would not take the grains at his grains ceremony repeatedly. Then they realized that the grains had not been offered to Krishna first. They made a new batch, and offered it to Krishna, and tried again, this time successfully.
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami [Vyasa-puja address]:
The purpose of the guru is to guide the disciple to go back to Godhead as soon as possible. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura advised to go back in this life. Why wait for additional births?
Srila Prabhupada said if you are 75% pure you can go back.
Srila Prabhupada said, “If you hold on my dhoti I can take you back to Godhead. I have a key to the back door.”
My task is to represent Srila Prabhupada to you. I have been representing Srila Prabhupada to people since being temple president in Boston.
I am in stable health and sound mind, and I am determined to serve you for the forseeable future.
It is said of the guru that he lives forever, and the follower lives with him by his instructions.
We serve the guru by taking care of him and serving his preaching mission.
I preach by the way I live my life and by my writing.
I wrote Srila Prabhupada asking if I could write, but fearfully, that I was so daring to write when he has written so nicely.
Srila Prabhupada replied, mentioning all the acaryas [previous spiritual teachers] who wrote extensively and saying, “Any self-realized soul can write unlimited books not deviating from the original purpose.”
Lilamrita [Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami’s biography of Hare Krishna founder Srila Prabhupada] is second best selling Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT) book next to Bhagavad-gita As It Is.
I am writing now for my daily web site, beginning with quotations from a rasa-sastra, accompanied by illustrations, and then a japa report. I continue the japa report although it is repetitious because devotees say it helps their japa. I draw a picture. Then I tell about my life, telling my interactions with the devotees I live with, the local devotees, and those who visit here, along with material from the books I am hearing each day. And finally I tell about my deity worship.
By reading these writings is the best way for my disciples to keep in touch with me. It takes only ten minutes to have a relationship for me in cyberspace each day.
I try to write a book a year and present it to my disciples on Vyasa-puja day.
We have 150 books on Kindle and e-readers.
Radhanatha Swami looked through Prabhupada Smaranam and liked it very much. He promised to get help to print many copies for his followers.
I have written about Prabhupada, practices of devotional service, and the chanting of the holy name.
It is the duty of us all to produce as many Krishna conscious books as possible. People can help with these different tasks:
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We have funds. We need cover designs and proofreading for fifty low run books.
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Locating and digitizing art work.
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Obtaining a tripod for photography.
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Typists and proofreaders for my autobiography.
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Buy ebooks and post comments on them.
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Print 50 sets of 100 of my books to place in schools and libraries at $7 per book.
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Transferring audio tapes to digital format.
We owe such a debt to the Goswamis, Krishna dasa Kaviraja Goswami, Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and Srila Prabhupada for all their books.
I wrote 25 books about Srila Prabhupada.
I give people Caitanya Vaishnavism through a variety of genres.
If you attain pure love for Krishna, I will consider my spiritual master duties successful, and you can bless me, and we can go back to Godhead together. Srila Prabhupada writes about this in connection with Dhruva Maharaja taking his mother back to Godhead. That is my request of you. Thank you very much.
Vyasa-puja Homages:
Haridasa Prabhu:
You have led us by your example to be a follower of Srila Prabhupada. You are his faithful and empowered representative. Your writing of books is a great contribution in this. You are inextricably linked with Srila Prabupada. Your honesty has endeared you to your readers.
Rama Raya Prabhu:
You have linked us to Srila Prabhupada wonderfully for so many years. When I have your association I feel Srila Prabhupada’s presence.
I could distribute cards for your site on harinama.
Krishna-kripa das:
You praised your disciples who are publishing and selling Russian translations of your books. I just wanted to say from my own experience at the Ukraine festival, Isani and Alexi Prabhus set up their GN Press book table at the very beginning of the festival and go to the very end. Instead of working a single book table together as many couples would do, they have two separate tables at different locations to increase sales. This year new and reprinted titles numbered five, including Entering a Life of Prayer, Prabhupada Appreciation, Japa Transformations, and Distribute Books.
When I quote from your journal on my blog, I could include a link to it.
A friend of my loved your Begging for the Nectar of the Holy Name in which you share your personal struggle. He learned from that it is alright for devotees to be personal and to share feelings, not just to be austere and stoic.
How did you help us? Your writings gave me faith in Srila Prabhupada and the holy name. Your instruction to dance more in kirtana has made me so enthusiastic to dance in kirtana, I do it even when everyone else is sitting down.
Haryasva Prabhu:
I feel sadness that I am not reading or distributing your books as I have in the past.
Prabhupada and the holy name are two gifts you emphasized.
I felt I just missed Srila Prabhupada, but through your writings I feel connected with him.
I find that new people find your books to be easy reading.
Baladeva Vidyabhusana Prabhu:
After three years of interviewing for Lilamrita, the message I got from the devotees was that they wished they had given Srila Prabhupada more time to write as that is what is left, and that they feel bad they did not take advantage of his presence while he was here. This is a realization I had that any disciple can help to do these two things in connection with you.
Mother Lilavatara:
When I met you I felt you were someone special and would be someone special, and you were.
Thanks for teaching us to be more regulated.
The pictures Guru Das posts are special to me.
Your drawings of the devotees are so funny to me and make me so joyful. They make my heart feel so light.
Thank you inspiring us to go back to Godhead by improving our chanting.
Your servants have done such a wonderful job for you over the years.
Thank you for guiding me to become more Krishna consciousness.
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami:
reading from his autobiography, The Story of My Life:
“No talent is required to make a combined diary and autobiography interesting.”—Mark Twain
“The Swami kept leading the chanting for a full half hour. After awhile I got bored, but I kept going and eventually entered into a trancelike stage. It was far out. I went past boredom and became absorbed in the sound vibration. . . . I had the mantra almost memorized, and I was mesmerized. By the time it was over I felt that I was high. I left the storefront and walked home chanting in my mind and feeling certain that I would continue to attend the meetings. I felt I wanted to change my life and become pure.”
“My first personal contact with Srila Prabhupada was in a formal setting — the question and answer period after his lecture. In the company of about fifteen people I raised my hand, and he recognized me. I asked, “Is misery eternal?” My question came from my reading of Van Gogh’s letters to his brother, Dear Theo. In one letter Van Gogh proposes to his brother that “misery is eternal.” I wanted to know what the Swami thought. Without hesitating he answered me, “Yes misery is eternal. You may break your arm and go to the hospital and have your arm healed. But then you may go out and break your leg. In this world there is no end to miseries. But there is another world . . . ” Swamiji explained that if you develop love of God and go back to the spiritual world you will be free of miseries, because there is no misery there. I was satisfied to be recognized, and his answer was assuring, overriding Van Gogh’s dismal view.”
“The early years with Swamiji were my favorite as ISKCON was a small movement, like a family.”
from a talk with disciples about japa:
Acaryas [the great spiritual teachers] say kirtana [chanting loudly with others] is more important than japa [individually chanting softly] because more people benefit, but that does not mean japa is not important, it is fundamental. Srila Prabhupada said it is the most essential instruction.
Japa is so personal. We speak to Krishna and Radha, and ask Them to engage us in Their service.
Lord Caitanya would not eat at the house of anyone who did not daily chant 64 rounds (100,000 names of the Lord).
I know one lady who plays the harmonium and sings kirtana, but does not chant her sixteen rounds of japa. Better that she would chant sixteen rounds first and then play the harmonium.
The mantras are a gift and should be handled gratefully.
In recent years, I have finally been able to pay attention to the names while I chant.
I pray to the holy name, “Please forgive me. Please protect me.”
I long for the day when I feel emotion like in “Siksastakam.”
Chanting is cozy, intimate and warms the heart.
Q: What does it mean no hard and fast rules?
A: It is not like Deity worship where you have to clean yourself first. You can chant morning or night. You can chant in the bathroom. The mantra can be chanted by anyone. You do not have to be initiated to chant. You can even still be doing sinful activities and still chant.
Q: Can you change the words?
A: No. Srila Prabhupada said not “Dear John.” No om, no sivaya. You can play any variety of instruments, and Prabhupada encouraged the musicians to play with us.
Q [by Rama Raya Prabhu]: How would you encourage us to preach in America?
A: Do Union Square harinama. There are bright spots: Kalakantha, Vaisesika, Hari Vilasa. Jayadvaita Swami said the Las Vegas center is encouraging. Take a place and do something, and it will become a bright spot that will be inspiring to others.
comment by Mother Lilavatara: I say Hare Krishna to the people. When they ask what it means? I said it is a blessing. They like that. They say, “I need all the blessings I can get.” Saying Hare Krishna to everyone I meet helps me, as now that I am older and cannot go out so much to share Krishna with people.
comment by Sankarsana Prabhu: Your example of chanting, getting up early, and being regulated, inspies me.
I yearn to progress to suddha-nama.
My disciple in Russia, Isani wrote a prayer, “Dear Lord, please give my guru maharaja nama-ruci [taste for the holy name].”
One should not chant too slowly.
Kalakantha Prabhu:
The conditions of Satya-yuga are similar to the Biblical description of the Garden of Eden. Then when Adam and Eve begot Cain and Able they two brothers got involved in agriculture which corresponds to the second age, Treta.
comment by Vaishnava Dasa: At Janaki Kunda in India one sage was reading the Vishnu Purana. There it said at the end of this age of Kali, the maximum age a human will live is seventeen years while the average is only twelve. A girl could conceive a child at age five.
No doubt that the teaching of Jesus Christ is pure bhakti, but with all that has happened over the years, it is hard to encounter his pure teachings.
I was involved with one meditation group where I had to pay for the mantra, and each successive class was more expensive than the last. The introduction to pure devotion is free, the intermediate instruction in devotion is also free, and the advanced classes in devotional service are also free.
Malati Prabhu:
There are two levels of liberation (1) freedom from material desires, and (2) positive engagement in Krishna’s service.
The Mayavadis accept the light but do not find out the source of the light, so theirs is an inferior understanding.
The natural instinct of the liberated person is to engage in the devotional service of the Lord.
Bowing down before the Lord is offering a service to Him.
Srila Prabhupada said we should not give children younger than ten the deities because they have not yet developed the necessary cleanliness.
Strictly speaking one should not set the holy books on one’s lap because the clothing below the waist is impure.
Srila Prabhupada’s father gave him 5-inch Radha-Krishna Deities which Prabhupada named Radha-Govinda like the larger Deities of his neighbors.
Srila Prabhupada said the Ratha-yatra cart is not different from the Lord and by decorating the cart one can make great advancement.
The Ratha-yatra symbolizes the gopis pulling Krishna from Kurukshetra to Vrindavana.
All religions are meant for awakening the dormant instinct for devotion for the Supreme Lord—to reconnect with the Supreme Lord.
When we went to England, we were thinking, “We are going to meet the Beatles and get them to chant Hare Krishna.” That was our strategic plan.
We could understand we needed special empowerment to spread Krishna consciousness in England. We had heard from the scriptures about the glories of the lotus feet of the spiritual master, so before leaving for England, we asked Srila Prabhupada if we could touch his feet. We had seen the Indians do it, but we could see Srila Prabhupada did not really like it. He consented, and so we did.
I have interviewed 183 of Srila Prabhupada’s female disciples and at least 180 said he was glowing.
When leading kirtanas in Tompkins Square Park, Srila Prabhupada would encourage people to sing along, and more people began to get involved.
Srila Prabhupada called his society “The International Society for Krishna Consciousness” because he wanted people to understand that Krishna is God.
As soon as George Harrison came in contact with the devotees his devotion sprouted up.
I have had people tell me that they had no idea what Hare Krishna was but because George Harrison made the record, they chanted.
From 1970 to 1971 was a Hare Krishna explosion with 32 new temples being opened.
In the beginning we called the Sunday Feast, the Sunday Love Feast. I think we should get back to calling it that. The world needs a lot more love.
On Srila Prabhupada’s morning walks you got insight on practically applying the teachings in life.
Srila Prabhupada was an expert musician, especially with mrdanga and harmonium, but he made it clear that playing the instruments was simply an accompaniment to the chanting of the maha-mantra.
Srila Prabhupada wrote 6,000 letters that have been archived, and 30,000 photos were taken of him and 70 hours of videos made about him.
Mahatma Prabhu was interesting how organizations were managed. He had seen the Hare Krishnas with their chanting and dancing and happy disposition, and wondered how they were managed. He secured the opportunity to witness a meeting between Srila Prabhupada and his main leaders. Prabhupada began by preaching. Two hours later he was still preaching. Then Mahatma understood that Srila Prabhupada managed by preaching.
Sesa Prabhu:
My daughter was teaching some 1st or 2nd graders as a student teacher as part of getting her teaching degree. One of the boys in the class said to her, “Miss Spellman, I saw you in the parade!” So she had to explain to the teacher and the class that she was in the UF Homecoming parade as a Hare Krishna devotee. The husband of the teacher came by and mentioned how he enjoyed the Krishna Lunch as a student. Then the teacher asked my daughter, “What do you believe?” Later at home at the dinner table, we discussed the best way to answer this, and concluded, “We believe the purpose of life is to love God and serve Him.”
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura considered that first three processes of devotional service, sravanam, kirtanam, vishnu smaranam, hearing, chanting, and remembering the Supreme Lord, are primary, and the other six are contained within these.
We can become absorbed in so many things in life, but they may not be good for ourselves or others, but Krishna kirtana is good for both ourselves and others.
Remembering the Lord is natural, especially when we are in difficulty. When the U.S. astronauts were in a dangerous situation, the American leaders advised the citizens to pray to God for their safety.
The five kinds of smaranam (remembering):
-
to contemplate something we previously experienced
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dharana: to focus our meditation on a specific subject
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dhyanam: to meditate on a specific form of the Lord
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dhruvanusmriti: a flow of remembrance of some pastime of the Lord.
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samadhi: complete absorption.
comment by Mother Akuti: After I gave a class where we talked about how Lord Caitanya got all the animals to dance, we went on harinama, and I encouraged the devotees at least to get all the people to dance. That day we saw a lot of people dressed in animal costumes, and they all danced with us.
Citsukananda Prabhu was preaching in Trinidad, and he met the person who corresponded with Srila Prabhupada before he came to America about coming to Trinidad. The man even showed him the letters he received from Srila Prabhupada.
comment by Malati Prabhu: At the first arati of Radha-Shyamasundara in Vrindavana, Visakha Prabhu wanted to get a picture of Prabhupada doing the arati, but a tall sannyasi was standing in her way. She tapped the sannyasi on the shoulder twice, and the second time said pointing to her camera, “If you stand where you are, you will get a nice vision of Srila Prabhupada offering arati. but if you let me stand there the whole world will get that vision.” The sannyasi kindly traded places with her, and so we have that historic photo.
Tulasi Priya dd:
People who travel tend to be less bigoted, more tolerant, and more open minded.
A temple or place of pilgrimage is so powerful that no matter what your consciousness is, you will connect with Krishna simply by going there.
The Muslims have an idea that at least once in your life you should visit Mecca. Similarly, for us it is valuable if once in our life, we can go to India and visit Krishna’s birthplace.
We watch people’s lives like we watch a movie. We wonder what will happen to our friends next.
Dina Bandhu Prabhu:
In the purport to Bhagavad-gita 11.55 is a description of the spiritual world as having many planets. This tradition has more details of the spiritual world and what is going on there.
Our activities of exploiting material nature which we are thinking are making us happy are actually creating our distress.
Mental speculation is to think that by the power of our inductive reasoning we can understand the ultimate truth without hearing about it from a higher authority.
Bhagavad-gita 18.55 gives make practical suggestions of how to engage in devotional service to Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada explained to one devotee who was entering the household life and worried about how he would get good association there, “If when you are working, if you are remembering that you are working for Krishna, then you are associating with Krishna.”
Amrita Keli dd:
This Hare Krishna mantra is spiritual sound vibration, and it is completely different from any other sound vibration you have heard.
I started chanting Hare Krishna on my way to class, and I found my day went much better.
Bhaktin Laura:
As a result of chanting eight rounds a day, I became more peaceful and was not haunted by things I had done in my past. Recently, because of the end of the semester, I have been too busy to chant eight rounds a day, and I can see I am sometimes haunted by such thoughts as before. I am so glad I am finished now, and I can return to chanting eight rounds.
Bhakta John:
In addition to the famous example of God appearing to Moses as a burning bush, in the Bible it also says the Lord manifest as, “A pillar of a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.”
comment by Ananda Loka Prabhu: When I was a tennis instructor, I would remember Krishna by chanting before and after going to work, bringing prasadam to the students, and bringing a small set of beads I could chant on when not otherwise engaged.
comment by Sruti Sagar Prabhu: To avoid bad association, Indradyumna Swami advised me to chant 64 rounds then, glorifying that practice for two minutes before saying at least chant 16 very good rounds.
Krishna-kripa das:
Sign on a church between Gainesville and Jacksonville, “You are the only Bible some people will read.”
from a post on Facebook:
Forty years ago on this day, Dec. 9, 1972, I broke my leg skiing. It hurt like hell, and it was awkward using crutches for six weeks with the snow and ice. In July of that year, my father had passed away, and my grandmother was to pass away in May of the next year. Thus when the Hare Krishnas told me seven years later, that the material world was a miserable place, I felt they actually understood the truth.
—–
susrusoh sraddadhanasya
vasudeva-katha-rucih
syan mahat-sevaya viprah
punya-tirtha-nisevanat
“O twice-born sages, by serving those devotees who are completely freed from all vice, great service is done. By such service, one gains affinity for hearing the messages of Vasudeva [the Supreme Lord].” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.16)
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 8, No. 22
By Krishna-kripa das
(November 2012, part two)
Alachua and Gainesville, Florida
(Sent from Radha Govinda Temple, Brooklyn, New York, on December 21, 2012)
Where I Went and What I Did
I had greatly hoped to make it to Alachua in time to hear the wonderful remembrances on Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance day, but I just caught the end of the kirtana and the feast, and a few remembrances in the evening, which I include below. The next day, we chanted for two hours before the football game in Gainesville, and Dravida Prabhu, who loves to chant, joined us, making it even better than usual. That night we went to a nice festival Madhava Prabhu from the Alachua community had at his place with beautiful kirtanas, enlightening talks, and tasty prasadam in celebration of the anniversary of the appearance of Krishna as Govardhan–sila in his life. Sunday was the Govardhan Puja festival in Alachua. For several days leading up to The Festival of the Holy Name in Alachua, Madhava Prabhu, the kirtana leader from Switzerland, sang kirtana for two or three hours every night and by the grace of Krishna and my friends with cars, I was able to attend all of them. Wednesday we had an amazing harinama at the Farmers Market with thirteen people taking part. Thursday I got to speak about gratitude for Thanksgiving, and people said they liked the lecture. I sent it to the ISKCON Desire Tree website, and you will be able to find it there in a few days. This year’s Festival of the Holy Name was the best so far, and I will mention a few high points for me. Dravida Prabhu, who visits this time of year specifically for the Festival of the Holy Name impressed me by taking eight hours out of the festival to drive with us to Tallahassee to lead the harinama before the football game for a couple of hours. For the final week of November, I stayed in Gainesville’s Krishna House, helping to maintain the harinamas and evening programs, and inspired to see and work with some very enthusiastic new devotees.
Among the insights, there are many wonderful quotes from the letters of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saravati Thakura, soon to be published as Patramrita, by Touchstone Publishing. Also particularly inspiring are realizations from Dravida and Kalakantha Prabhus. And there are other gems as well.
Prabhupada Disappearance Remembrances
Rasa Lila dd:
Srila Prabhupada patiently teaches me every day something new about Krishna, just as he did when he was present.
He taught you can do something amazing for Krishna at any age, and now that we are approaching his age, we might consider that if we are thinking we are too old to do anything, we should think again.
Mukunda Prabhu:
The Bhaktivedanta Archives is building a concrete room with a door like a bank vault to preserve Prabhupada’s materials and just today on his disappearance day someone came through with a donation.
Vegavati dd:
In Hawaii there were two camps of devotees that disagreed, but when Srila Prabhupada was there and the kirtana was going on, there was so much spiritual love no differences existed.
Puskara Prabhu:
I was in Vrindavan in 1977 the whole time from April to November, when Srila Prabhupada left this world.
Toward the end, rickshaws were delivering salt for the samadhi [holy tomb] but we were in some kind of illusion thinking that Srila Prabhupada would stay.
I was given the job of calling Ramesvara in LA to tell him that Prabhupada had left.
When there was a debate about whether Srila Prabhupada would go to Govardhan or not [just a few days before he left this world]. I asked Bhagatji [a friend of Srila Prabhupada’s] whether Prabhupada would go, and he said with conviction, “He will not go,” as if I were a fool for asking.
There was a devotee Sac-cid-ananda who would sing every day for Srila Prabhupada in his last days. One day he did not sing and Prabhupada asked for him to.
Several times Krishnadasa Babaji Maharaja came. Prabhupada very much liked his association. At different times Srila Prabhupada said he was paramahamsa [topmost devotee].
Once I was painting trees in Vrindavan, thinking all the trees in Vrindavan were desire trees and so it was OK. Then I felt bad because Krishna wasn’t there, so I added Krishna and some cowherd boys. I showed it to Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada looked for a long time and didn’t say anything. Then he said, “What is the idea? Where is it in the books?”
I said, “The Nectar of Devotion.”
“What verse?” Srila Prabhupada replied.
I said, “Krishna is unlimited.”
Srila Prabhupada replied, “Krishna is unlimited, but you are limited. Stick to the book.”
Gauranga Prasada Prabhu’s Going Away Party
Gauranga Prasada Prabhu was a new devotee in Gainesville who was very eager to apply himself to different aspects of Krishna consciousness such as cooking for the Lord and playing the harmonium and singing. He left Krishna House after not even two years to become the bhakta leader in the Tucson temple, and the Krishna House devotees had a nice going away party for him.
Kalakantha Prabhu: Gauranga Prasada was seeking the truth. He was immediately attracted by Krishna consciousness. He was supported by his family. He has many talents. It is clear he is continuing his practice from a previous life.
Hanan Prabhu asked devotees to say three things each about him:
Clayton: Sincerity, simplicity, wailing on the harmonium with total absorption. Ananda Loka Prabhu: His bright smile. Srutisagara Prabhu: Hard-working, humble. Ghee, butter, hing. Tulasi Priya dd: A good example for me. Dr. Dina Bandhu Prabhu: Always said “welcome home” each weekend when I returned from Jacksonville. New lady: Made me feel at home. Girl with glasses: Eye-opening, laughter. Tall Indian male: Positive. Jai Nitai Gauranga Prabhu: Reliable. Father: An old soul. He had a wisdom about him. He has given so much. Mother: He is well loved. Thank you all here for showing him compassion and giving him safety. Haribol. Amrita Keli dd: Completely lovable, without fault, potent. Just today he came into my dream to remind me to help in the kitchen five minutes after I said I would be there. Andy: A mine of valuable gems like potency, kindness. I feel very enriched. Syamala Kishori dd: Enthusiasm. I love your kirtana.
I mentioned his enthusiasm, his happiness, and his kindness. He kindly sent some Krishna sweets to my relatives for me when I was overseas. I wish him well.
Gauranga Prasada Prabhu:
My plan for life was originally very clear, go to school, get a job, raise a family, but now I feel my life is much more uncertain, but in the best possible way. I just want to serve Krishna and be with the devotees. The rest is just details.
I am grateful for the service opportunities here at Krishna House, which I think are more extensive than any other temple.
comment by Kalakantha Prabhu: I appreciate you were always willing to do the needful.
Harinama at the Farmers Market
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving there were no classes at University of Florida, and so both students and Krishna Lunch workers had more free time. Thus we were able to have a harinama with thirteen people at the Farmers Market! Four of us came together, driven by Michele, a new devotee who loves kirtana. Then a couple more devotees joined us. Then two Krishna Lunch workers along with the sister of one of them. Michele gave the new girl a mantra card, and she chanted Hare Krishna for the first time. Jaya Sri Krishna Prabhu joined us and played the drum. One lady on a nearby bench seemed to be enjoying the kirtana, so we gave her a mantra card, and she chanted along. Later Damodar Prasada gave her a book. Thus Krishna really reciprocated with my desire to have a well-attended harinama in the Farmers Market upon my return to Gainesville. It was great that two new people chanted the mantra.
The Festival of the Holy Name
Festival of the Holy Name is an annual kirtana festival during Thanksgiving weekend featuring two days of 12 hours of kirtana at ISKCON New Raman Reti in Alachua, Florida. This year’s was the third festival.
It was a treat having Niranjana Swami fly in just to be part of the Festival of the Holy Name this year. Agnidev Prabhu, a legendary Hare Krishna kirtana leader, also was a special guest. And of course, there were Madhava and Amala, as usual, as well as Mitra Prabhu, who came from North Carolina, and locals like Visvambhara and Jagannatha Kirtana Prabhus, to name a few.
One friend from Tallahassee, Sara Black, a young Mormon music major, who just completed her Ph.D. dissertation on kirtana at Hare Krishna festivals came to the Festival of the Holy Name for at least the second year. Inspired by her research, she is now writing a book on the recent explosion of interest in kirtana. I encouraged her to stay and hear Niranjana Swami, and she stayed and appreciated the kirtanas of both Niranjana Swami and Agnidev Prabhu. In fact, she and her husband stayed to hear Visvambhara Prabhu whose singing they had previously developed an attachment for and who did the last segment on Friday evening. It was wonderful to see them both intently singing Hare Krishna and clapping along with the music. She developed an interest in Hare Krishna festivals when she grew up in Utah and attended the Holi festival that Caru Prabhu organized his temple in Spanish Fork.
The group of local second generation American Vaishnavas including Gaura Shakti, Krishna Dhama, Govinda, and Ramachandra, and many more, who organized the festival did a great job, and it gets better every year. All thanks and blessings to them.
Insights
Srila Prabhupada:
from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.1, given in Bombay, on December 25, 1976:
“This is the difficulty at the present moment that we take leadership of the society although we remain in the bodily conception of life.”
There is a not a problem of overpopulation. We are all sons of Krishna, and He is providing for us. The problem is that we are mismanaging and then claiming God is not providing.
The more you become godless, the more miseries will be inflicted by material nature.
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura (from Patravali, a collection of his letters soon to be published by Touchstone Publishing in an abridged work called Patramrita):
If the mind does not become disturbed at the time of chanting mantras then it should be understood that the chanting is being done perfectly.
In order to test us and benefit us, the Supreme Lord has placed different types of inconveniences in this world. We have to realize those things as being beneficial for us and thus accept them gracefully. Glorious are those who serve the Supreme Lord. In the midst of all difficulties, keep hearing about, chanting, and remembering the Supreme Lord. Other than this I have no better advice. You should always chant a fixed number of rounds of the holy names of Lord Hari. If there is any problem for openly decorating your body with tilaka then you can do it mentally while chanting the appropriate mantras. Know for certain that the holy name of Hari and Lord Hari Himself are one and the same. Know for certain that chanting the holy names of Hari and meeting the Supreme Lord directly are one and the same. Sri Harinama Prabhu is the worshipable Lord of liberated persons.
There is no comparison to Sri Gaurasundara’s compassion, and there is no limit to Sri Krishnacandra’s sweetness.
Simply by reading about glorification of the Supreme Lord and the devotees, all our needs will be fulfilled. Do not be impatient for the result, but rather always chant the holy names of Krishna with patience and tolerance. The Supreme Lord will certainly not sit quietly. According to the degree of one’s sadhana, Sri Gaurahari certainly awards one auspicious results. Service to Hari is called bhakti. You will realize that chanting of the names of Krishna is in itself bhakti.
The forefathers of that family in which a devotee takes birth attain special benefit so that their lives become successful. There is no need to pray for them separately.
Dreams are false. They are manifestations of the enjoyment of one’s thoughts, and they are the results of one’s previous bad association. Therefore just throw away those things from the heart.
Sri Gaurasundara tests us in various ways by putting us into difficulties and different kinds of association. It depends on the good fortune of the living entities for them to pass those tests. As the indwelling Supersoul, Sri Gaurahari has revealed the eternal truth in the hearts of the living entities out of His causeless mercy. Those who have taken shelter at the lotus feet of Lord Hari and the spiritual master never trust the illusory words of misguided people. Only unfortunate people become bewildered by hearing deceitful words. One need not worry about that.
It is the duty of householders to worship the deity of the Supreme Lord with faith and devotion. A householder who has taken complete shelter of the holy names, having realized his relationship with the Supreme Lord, respects deity worshipers. Those who avoid worshiping the deity just to save money incur the sin known as vittasa?hya, or miserliness. Householders with abominable characters and restless minds must engage in deity worship.
You are a learned person and so you must know the scriptural evidence the smarta Bhattacarya Raghunandan has quoted in the ekadasi-tattva.
devata pratimam drstva. yatinacaiva tridandinam
namaskaram na kuryaccet upavasena suddhati
“You are the father, but still you should offer obeisance to your sannyasi son, otherwise you will have to purify yourself of that fault by observing a fast for one full day.”
You were inspiring him to enter a miserable family life, which is a more severe form of vow than the severe vow one takes to worship Hari, because it instills a great fear in one’s mind. Your attempt was not proper.
Those who are faithful and devoted never face obstacles or inauspiciousness. Only those who desire material enjoyment and liberation face inauspiciousness in life.
I have been wandering about since my birth for the attainment of the goal of life about which you have been deceived for the last twelve years. I did not feel any need to hanker after sense gratification, which is the aim of your life and wealth. I never felt any need to accumulate wealth to mitigate my hunger, to maintain my wife and children, or to supply fuel for my illicit desires. I have never made any endeavor for material wealth like you.
Lord Krishna has never put me into any sort of difficulty or anxiety regarding filling my belly, like He has you. I only try to earn that much wealth with which I can engage in the service of Lord Vishnu, and with which I can keep my sinful body healthy just to serve Lord Hari. Apart from that, I never tried to earn any wealth whatsoever. Even today, I am not greedy for anyone’s wealth. I am not greedy for perishable material wealth like you.
Please bless me so that I can remain greedy for eternal wealth, birth after birth. I wish that even my greatest enemy would not have greed for enjoyable wealth. May I not have any desire other than to pray for the benefit of my greatest enemy. Bless me that I may not see in the last days of my life the face of atheists who are greedy for wealth for the purpose of enjoying profit, adoration, distinction, gold, and women.
We, surrounded by enemies, are determined to engage in the service of Lord Hari and His devotees. All of us are more or less forgetful of Lord Krishna while serving the six enemies. All of you together should serve Lord Hari with unity. This is my request. Ekaki amara nahi paya bala. “I have no strength to do it alone.” Remembering this line, all of you should continue to execute kirtana-yajña, which is the goal of life. The responsibility of the leaders in charge of the execution of kirtana-yajña is to make friendship with all, and especially satisfy all the Vai??avas, while engaging in the service of Hari.
This material world is temporary—nobody has come here to live forever. When the Supreme Lord keeps one in a particular place, he should gladly stay there and accept His rewards and punishments. All types of rewards and punishments awarded by the Supreme Lord are meant for our benefit. We welcome the rewards of the Lord’s external energy, maya, whereas we consider her punishments as troublesome. Since the punishments of maya are awarded so that one can obtain the Lord’s mercy, the devotees do not disregard them; rather they gladly accept them as the Lord’s mercy and simply tolerate them. Those who cannot understand worldly inconveniences to be the Lord’s mercy ultimately fall into a state of disappointment while searching for material happiness and advancement.
Our material miseries and scarcities will go away by participating in festivals in the association of those who serve the Supreme Lord. To always remain engaged in hearing and chanting the glories of Lord Hari is the instruction of saintly persons, scriptures, and the Supreme Lord.
According to proper etiquette, in day-to-day business, one should normally start a letter by saying, “all glories to,” or by offering obeisances at the top of the letter.
By calling out the holy names of the Supreme Lord while fixing our mind upon Him, all auspiciousness is achieved. The Supreme Lord alone is the one who awards worldly prosperity, happiness, and distress. We are maintained by Him and are surrendered unto Him. Whatever arrangements He makes for us, we should humbly accept.
Every disturbance is a fault of my mind; nobody can actually harm me in this world.
Try to avoid quarreling. There is no possibility of disharmony if the purpose is one. In the spiritual world, apparent conflict of interests helps to increase the glories of loving service to the Supreme Lord.
Even by riding on the motorcar of the Madras Gaudiya Matha, the principle and guise of a sincere beggar can be maintained. There is no need to externally display artificial renunciation, or luxury by imitating the sahajiyas. Renunciation is a state of the heart. There is a gulf of difference between the considerations of those who misuse renunciation and that of the followers of King Janaka and Raya Ramananda. By taking advantage of, and by imitating, King Janaka or Raya Ramananda, and thus acting like Ravana, is not internal renunciation, or yukta-vairagya. When duplicity is externally displayed, having entered the heart, nobody can achieve his true welfare.
People are extremely averse to us and so their behavior will surely be exhibited according to this mentality. If we can patiently tolerate their insults then one day they will definitely repent their misdeeds.
None of you should be afraid of natural calamities, such as heavy rain or disease. Embrace them and then bid them farewell in due course of time. Srila Jagannatha Dasa Babaji Maharaja used to say that when painful diseases come to our body, if they are not pampered, or do not get excellent food, they will automatically leave. Diseases stay longer in the bodies of aristocratic people because of their luxurious living.
As soon as bodily pleasures are increased, the propensity for serving the Supreme Lord decreases. That is why the Supreme Lord spreads thorns on the path of all kinds of comfort for those upon whom He shows mercy.
I have received your humble letter dated the 29th March and have understood your present physical and mental condition. Always remember the lotus feet of Lord Hari, the spiritual master, and other Vaishnavas without interruption while accepting that all physical and mental miseries are a result of one’s previous karma. In this mood, always pray for the mercy of the Supreme Lord. Gradually, by Krishna’s will, all types of miseries will be destroyed and you will become empowered for the service of the Supreme Lord so that the inclination for constantly worshiping Lord Hari will be awakened. All impediments in the form of bad association will be removed and the propensity to always serve Lord Hari, the spiritual master, and the Vaishnavas will predominate.
I hope that you will soon be cured of your physical and mental illness by the Lord’s mercy so that you will increase our happiness by being engaged in the worship of Hari. It is quite warm here. If you feel extreme pain then invite a devotee known to you from Gaudiya Matha and hear from him Hari-katha and Hari-nama.
There is no happiness in the material world. The material world creates many disturbances by manifesting various kinds of disasters. Although there is good and bad, and partial purity in it, material life often produces varieties of disturbances. That is why the tat te nu’kampam verse has been presented.
There are no such disturbances in the abode of Goloka. Anyway, there is no alternative but to tolerate all inconveniences that come to us at various times and at various places.
Let them harass you as much as possible; you simply must quietly tolerate these disturbances. We firmly believe that the people of the world will not allow injustices to predominate. The Supreme Lord arranges everything for our benefit—this is our firm faith. The atheists cannot flourish in this world for long, for eventually they are pulled down by the punishment of providence. Everything takes place by the will of the Supreme Lord.
The duty of relatives is that they should first offer some foodstuffs to the Supreme Lord on the day of sraddha and then offer some portion of the Lord’s prasada to the departed soul and thus help him achieve his ultimate welfare. Offering the departed souls prasada will satisfy the devotees of the Supreme Lord. There should also be performance of harinama.
When maya conditions us, we remain busy calculating who is big and who is small.
We should unconditionally accept whatever condition Krishna puts us in at any time. The desire to gain physical health with the sole intention of worshiping Krishna is also favorable for devotional service. A non-devotee’s endeavor to demand service from the Supreme Lord, such as becoming cured so that he can attain the platform of anarthas is not acceptable. But to pray for good health to the destroyer of obstacles, Ganesa, and at the lotus feet of the destroyer of obstacles, Lord Nrsimha, for the sake of Krishna bhajana is certainly acceptable.
If our photograph is worshiped when we are alive; this will make us fall down.
If you constantly engage your mind in the Lord’s service then no one can harm you. If you are restless or dissatisfied with others then an inclination for the Lord’s service will not be present within your mind. Your words, body, and mind will form a mental displeasure that will not allow you to serve Hari. Therefore become tolerant like a tree, and by the Lord’s will stay at Samanta-pañcaka. This will be beneficial for you. Wait for the day when Lord Gaura Hari will send you elsewhere.
The dear devotees of Sri Gaurasundara have no other business than to take the treasure of His distribution of Krishna-prema [love of God] and distribute it door to door. This business is their only means of livelihood as they execute their loving devotional service to Krishna.
As Srila Rupa Gosvami elaborately explains in his Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, there are five principal rasas—neutrality, servitude, friendship, parental love, and conjugal love—and seven secondary rasas—amazement, humor, chivalry, compassion, fury, fear, and dread. Altogether there are twelve rasas, the supreme object of them all is Sri Krishna. In other words, our love and affection are actually meant for Sri Krishna. Unfortunately, out of ignorance, we stubbornly try to squeeze happiness and love out of material relationships, which are not directly connected to Krishna, and thus life is experienced as a constant frustration. The solution is simple: surrender to Krishna, love Krishna, love Krishna’s devotees, and be happy forever.
Pray to the holy name with your heart and soul so that the holy name may bestow mercy upon you. Remembering astakaliya-lila is not to be performed when one is full of anarthas. Only by kirtana can smarana be practiced. At that time, realization of astakaliya-lila-seva is possible. One should not artificially practice astakaliya-lila-smara?a.
We are insignificant beggars. If a rich person or a particular community harasses us then Lord Nrisimha will protect us. No community can hurt our feelings for our religious beliefs.
When the futility of false ego is understood, then we give up bad association and come to know that worldly happiness, worldly knowledge, and worldly settlement, etc., are all useless in comparison to realization of the Supreme Lord, who is eternal, and full of knowledge and bliss. Only when one is initiated into Krishna consciousness like this can he obtain supreme auspiciousness.
By installing deities of Lord Jagannatha and Lord Mahaprabhu in the villages of England and offering Indian foodstuffs to the Lord and then distributing them as maha-prasada, gradually the people of England will support the service of the Supreme Lord by showing sympathy and being faithful. In the future, qualified persons will go there and benefit the people by propagating pure sanatana-dharma.
Oh!When will the time come when all the people of that country honor the transcendental maha-prasada in the Lord’s temple while chanting the holy names of Lord Gauranga with a purified heart and thus understand the value of spiritual life?
Because we will forget the Supreme Lord if we are are satisfied with material happiness, the merciful Lord has created various dangers to test us. Happiness in this material world guarantees forgetfulness of Krishna. Hence, miseries are examples of His compassion.
There are differences of opinion between the resident devotees of the matha and the “big” householder devotees. According to the considerations put forth by Maharaja in Delhi, the Supreme Lord and His devotees are the only objects of service. Just by serving the Supreme Lord and the devotees, the weight of our attached household activities will decrease. But if the residents of the dhama think of themselves as “big devotees,” just like the sahajiyas of Kuliya, and transform the servants of the matha into their servants, then rather than serving the dhama, they will imagine themselves as being objects of service in Vaiku??ha. Living in the dhama is only to serve the devotees, but if instead of serving the Supreme Lord and the devotees, service is demanded from them and displeasure is shown at their activities, then rather than dhama-seva, an offense called dhama-bhoga will be committed.
It is better to live in a place of material enjoyment and serve the devotees of the dhama from a distance than to be an enjoyer of the dhama.
Simply by worshiping Hari, the body, mind, and soul will remain healthy, but if one is averse to bhajana, these three will act unfavorably.
The tendency for material enjoyment is one hundred percent present in the Western countries. Therefore their faith in God is very weak.
Sastra says, “One should take shelter of saintly persons while giving up bad association.” Those who mistake nondevotees to be devotees make a mistake like trying to cheat a blacksmith out of steel. We need not talk about others, but while serving Lord Hari, the spiritual master, and other Vaishnavas, discussions of Agha, Baka, Ravana, and so on automatically arise. Anyway, everything is the Lord’s test. I did not expect such unfavorable behavior from my so-called disciples. Anyhow, this is Kali-yuga and so everything is possible.
To ascertain the varna of a person is the essence of varnasrama. To merge familial identity with one’s personal nature is not its purpose.
The followers of Sri Rupa, without putting faith in their own power, attribute all their successes to the original source. We too do everything for the pleasure of Sri Krishna Caitanya, Sri Rupa, Sri Bhaktivinoda, and our spiritual master.
Bhakti Tirtha Swami (from a YouTube video lecture):
The Vedic scriptures are the oldest scriptures on the planet, and if you follow them, they will make you a better Christian or a better Moslem. And the end result of that is that you will understand that we are servants of God, beyond all sectarian designations.
In our movement we have people of different nations and races all working together to benefit society. Where else is there such an example?
Niranjana Swami:
When a diplomat visited Prabhupada in Geneva, Srila Prabhupada started out by asking if he had any questions. The man said, “No.” Then Srila Prabhupada asked for the harmonium, and played a beautiful Hare Krishna tune for twenty minutes or so. Then he said to the man, “This is what we do.” Then he asked Guru Gauranga Prabhu to give the man prasadam. So I tell this story as a simple introduction to this 12-hour kirtana program. This is what we do.
Badahari Prabhu (from Krishna House):
Using mechanical substitutes for essential body parts or functions cannot extend life without the sanction of the Lord.
Our hearing apparatus works 24/7 and thus can protect us from calamity at all times.
Morning is best for the spiritual cultivation because the ether is not polluted by materialistic sound vibrations.
Srila Prabhupada and Krishna are ready to take you with them, if you are willing to give up the desire to control.
It is hard to be detached from the material world, but because someday you will need to be, it is good to practice.
Beg borrow or steal, somehow get devotional service. The more devotional service we do, we build up our spiritual body.
Comment by Gauranga Prasada Prabhu: Laksmimani dd says that pride, such as that in Vedic scholarship, is one thing that remains as indicated by the word prayesu [almost to nil] in Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.18.
Caturatma Prabhu:
In Vrindavan, I was noticing three Govardhan silas on Indradyumna Swami’s altar at the MVT. I asked the origin of them. He said he had to confiscate them from his disciples, and he did not know what he was going to do with them. I said, well I have been wanting to worship Govardhan for some time, I would like to worship them. He said, “Well you’re not shy about asking.” He also had a very large sila, one that was completely impractical to travel with and, he did not have a clue what he would do with Him. I said, “I know just the person, a hefty devotee, who has a desire to worship Govardhan. That was Madhava [from the Alachua community].”
Dravida Prabhu:
The prayers of Brahma are very conclusive and many acaryas have written explanations of them.
Brahma had just experienced that his intellect had failed to appreciate the divinity of Krishna, and so he spoke this verse (SB 10.14.3): “Those who, even while remaining situated in their established social positions, throw away the process of speculative knowledge and with their body, words and mind offer all respects to descriptions of Your personality and activities, dedicating their lives to these narrations, which are vibrated by You personally and by Your pure devotees, certainly conquer Your Lordship, although You are otherwise unconquerable by anyone within the three worlds.”
“What is the ultimate goal of life and how to attain it?” is the main question of a seeker.
There is a logical order to the four imperfections of a conditioned soul. First we have imperfect senses, then we make mistakes, and when we make enough mistakes, we become illusioned, and when we present our illusions as factual knowledge we cheat others.
Adhoksaja is a combination of three words, ja meaning janma or birth, aksa meaning the eyes, or the senses in general, adha which means pushing down. Aksaja thus means knowledge born of sense perception, and adhoksaja therefore means that which pushes down this knowledge born of sense perceptions.
Krishna wants only one thing: love.
One may be a multi-millionaire but if he has no one to exchange love with he is unhappy.
How to serve the topics of the Lord? With our body, by following His instructions, with our minds, by thinking of the topics, and with our words, by repeating them to others.
Two of Jarasandha’s daughters were wives of Kamsa, so he was upset with Krishna for killing Kamsa and leaving them unprotected.
Everything begins with hearing. If we had not heard about Krishna, how could we have become attracted to Him?
Kathamritam means that hearing about Krishna is like nectar, but you cannot drink too much of such nectar, nor does it have any bad side effects.
Our constitutional position is not to be a university student nor to work a certain job, nor to be a man or woman, nor even a human being.
On Halloween people dress in costumes but if they forget it is just a costume and continue to act as a ghost or Napolean, then they really have a problem. That is our situation in this world.
The topics glorifying Krishna are the purifying force.
The most valuable thing you have is your desire to be Krishna consciousness, and that we must increase by our practice.
The main reason we stay in the material world is because of our desire to hear about things other than Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada said if you take one step toward Krishna, Krishna takes ten steps toward you. These steps are the taste He gives you.
Everything depends on the intensity of one’s attention.
The secret is to keep everything fresh and new. For me it is verses. There are always more verses, and the verses have great depth. The verses are like old friends. And the books . . .
The sastra [with a long ‘a’ (the scripture)] cuts off our attachments, but the sastra [with a short ‘a’ (the weapon)] cuts off our head.
The Siksastakam is throughout the Padyavali (a collection of verses) of Rupa Goswami and was gathered together by Krishnadas Kaviraja Goswami.
Step to memorize verses:
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read translation
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figure out meter
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look at word meanings for the first line
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practice saying the first line while remembering its meaning
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repeat steps 3 and 4 with all the lines of the verse
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practice your verses periodically
The “Madhurastkam,” which describes the sweetness of Krishna, only works because it is about Him. It would become trite to describe any other person as being sweet in so many ways.
Similarly if anyone were dressed as opulently as the Deity one would consider the person to be overdressed but for Krishna such opulence is appropriate and pleasing.
Some people look for the bliss at this festival and that festival, but hooking up with Lord Caitanya and His movement and all the previous spiritual masters by making a contribution to the mission, we taste the real bliss. We forget that this is something bestowed upon us.
Constant prayer and willingness to do austerity for Krishna makes us advanced.
Prabhodananda Sarasvati said, “Lord Caitanya is more magnanimous than ten million mothers.”
The real friend is the friend who will introduce you to your eternal friend Krishna.
The real guru inspires you to chant the holy name.
The holy name is like a touchstone. When our consciousness touches the holy name it becomes transformed.
The chanting is attractive because Krishna is present there.
Three things come from devotional service, the pleasure of serving Krishna, direct experience of Krishna, and detachment from other things. This is compared to the pleasure of eating, nourishment, and freedom from hunger.
Ajamila was so grateful that the holy name saved him from the Yamadutas that he very seriously took to devotional service and attained perfection.
The holy name is supremely pure and made of spiritual bliss.
If we want to associate with Krishna, He is willing to associate with us, primarily through His avatar as the holy name.
There is no downside or bad effect to the pleasure of the holy name. It is all up. Stay high forever.
Talks of materialistic people steal the most valuable gem, our desire for Krishna.
By associating with the faithful, we become faithful.
Progressing in devotional service means refining our activities so they are supportive of chanting.
By chanting japa during class we can commit two offenses at once, inattention to chanting and insulting the Bhagavatam speaker.
Srila Prabhupada was always completely focused on what he was doing for Krishna, and thus he was able to do so much in just eleven years.
In the Eleventh Canto, one verse states that the greatest pure devotee does not want to forget Krishna even for a moment, even in exchange for all the wealth in the world.
Comment by Lilananda Prabhu: Bringing a television into your home is like bring in billions of people who are against Krishna.
Comment: If one chants the names of Nitai Gauranga, Bhakti devi comes chasing after you.
Comment by Kaliyaphani Prabhu: Regarding the Gauranga campaign you mentioned where devotees in Scotland put up posters saying “Chant Gauranga” everywhere, I have a couple stories:
“A devotee doing street sankirtana [book distribution] in Scotland stopped a young mother with a small son. He was a scruffy, cheeky-looking kid. After the exchange, the devotee said to the kid, ‘Can you say Gauranga?’ The reply was, ‘Aye, I can. But it’s nae Gauranga, it’s Gauruunga!’
“
Two devotees going door-to-door in central Edinburgh entered a very posh-looking restaurant with the idea of going round the tables to collect. There were big pillars, chandeliers, etc. They hesitated at the doorway thinking it was too posh. Then a customer at a table must have recognized them and at the top of his voiced yelled out, ‘Gaaaaauuuuraaaangaaaa!’ the sound reverberating round the hall and shattering the devotee’s doubts!”
If you make a habit of glorifying devotees you will derive such pleasure from that activity that you will not feel the tendency to criticize devotees. Radhanath Swami is a good example of that.
When we are doing japa and kirtana, we should think, “Now is my time to associate directly with Krishna and to forget everything else.”
We have to come to the platform of always following Srila Prabhupada’s instructions to attain purity in chanting.
Dhanesvara Prabhu was the manager of the production team of me (Dravida Prabhu), Gopiparanadhana Prabhu, and Hridayananda dasa Goswami to complete Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavatam translation. At one point, things were difficult and Gopiparanadhana Prabhu suggested that we worship the Bhagavatam. So we set up an altar and put the Bhagavatam on it, and worshiped it, and ultimately we were successful in completing the translation and publishing it.
We should think, “By chanting the holy name purely all my aspirations will be fulfilled.”
Because we are chanting Hare Krishna, Krishna is reducing our taste for meat eating, illicit sex, intoxication, and gambling.
All of us have the capacity to appreciate the holy name as Rupa Goswami did: “I do not know how much nectar the two syllables ‘Krish-na’ have produced. When the holy name of Krishna is chanted, it appears to dance within the mouth. We then desire many, many mouths. When that name enters the holes of the ears, we desire many millions of ears. And when the holy name dances in the courtyard of the heart, it conquers the activities of the mind, and therefore all the senses become inert.”
We can pray to the holy name for the strength to avoid sinful activities.
Kalakantha Prabhu:
One devotee walked from Africa to Mayapur chanting Hare Krishna. The devotees in general were very impressed with him, but Srila Prabhupada was not impressed. That devotee eventually stopped talking with other devotees and lived alone, saying he wanted to focus on his chanting. Ultimately, however, he went away because people stopped paying attention to him.
Bhaktivinoda Thakura was opposed to the idea of seminal succession of spiritual masters, and so rather than initiating his son, he advised his son to approach Gaurakisora Dasa Babaji Maharaja for initiation.
We cannot become advanced by imitating the symptoms of advanced devotees, but rather absorbing ourselves in Krishna and naturally becoming advanced.
Whatever taste we have for hearing about Krishna is our greatest gift.
The great acaryas [spiritual teachers who teach by example] are not appointed but emerge.
After a day of searching by the order of Dronacarya, their teacher, Duryodhana could not find anyone superior to himself and Yudhisthira could not find anyone inferior to himself. Dronacarya then proclaimed, “Yudhisthira is fit to rule the world and Duryodhana is fit to have his body eaten by jackals.”
Anuttama Prabhu tells a story of an experience on sankirtana:
One man said, “I don’t want your book. I have my own religion. You are going to hell.” Anuttama replied, “What religion are you?”
The man said, “Christian.”
Anuttama inquired, “Are all Christians going to heaven?”
The man said, “No, not all Christians.”
Anuttama asked, “So only people in your church?”
The man replied, “No, not all people in my church are going to heaven.”
The madhyama devotee’s relationship with the innocent person is this: “I want to help this person as much as he wants my help.”
As soon as you take to spiritual life seriously, some people will love you and other people will hate you.
The neophyte devotee cannot abandon the society, friendship, and love of the material world to pursue Krishna.
In no religious scripture will you see a statement like “I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me.” Only Krishna is so bold as to say this, but He says it not because He is arrogant, but to establish the truth. He does this in half a verse. And in rest of the four main verses He talks about His devotees and how He reciprocates with them.
There is a long standing discussion in theology about whether God is attained by works or grace. The relationship between the two is cleared up in Bhagavad-gita: “To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.” (Bg. 10.10)
If the most important thing to a person is God, then that person is a devotee or a Vaishnava.
Nondevotees consider the activities of the Lord are too amazing to be true. But what do you expect God to do? Actually the more amazing the activities of Krishna are, the more they are wor
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 8, No. 22
By Krishna-kripa das
(November 2012, part two)
Alachua and Gainesville, Florida
(Sent from Radha Govinda Temple, Brooklyn, New York, on December 21, 2012)
Where I Went and What I Did
I had greatly hoped to make it to Alachua in time to hear the wonderful remembrances on Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance day, but I just caught the end of the kirtana and the feast, and a few remembrances in the evening, which I include below. The next day, we chanted for two hours before the football game in Gainesville, and Dravida Prabhu, who loves to chant, joined us, making it even better than usual. That night we went to a nice festival Madhava Prabhu from the Alachua community had at his place with beautiful kirtanas, enlightening talks, and tasty prasadam in celebration of the anniversary of the appearance of Krishna as Govardhan–sila in his life. Sunday was the Govardhan Puja festival in Alachua. For several days leading up to The Festival of the Holy Name in Alachua, Madhava Prabhu, the kirtana leader from Switzerland, sang kirtana for two or three hours every night and by the grace of Krishna and my friends with cars, I was able to attend all of them. Wednesday we had an amazing harinama at the Farmers Market with thirteen people taking part. Thursday I got to speak about gratitude for Thanksgiving, and people said they liked the lecture. I sent it to the ISKCON Desire Tree website, and you will be able to find it there in a few days. This year’s Festival of the Holy Name was the best so far, and I will mention a few high points for me. Dravida Prabhu, who visits this time of year specifically for the Festival of the Holy Name impressed me by taking eight hours out of the festival to drive with us to Tallahassee to lead the harinama before the football game for a couple of hours. For the final week of November, I stayed in Gainesville’s Krishna House, helping to maintain the harinamas and evening programs, and inspired to see and work with some very enthusiastic new devotees.
Among the insights, there are many wonderful quotes from the letters of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saravati Thakura, soon to be published as Patramrita, by Touchstone Publishing. Also particularly inspiring are realizations from Dravida and Kalakantha Prabhus. And there are other gems as well.
Prabhupada Disappearance Remembrances
Rasa Lila dd:
Srila Prabhupada patiently teaches me every day something new about Krishna, just as he did when he was present.
He taught you can do something amazing for Krishna at any age, and now that we are approaching his age, we might consider that if we are thinking we are too old to do anything, we should think again.
Mukunda Prabhu:
The Bhaktivedanta Archives is building a concrete room with a door like a bank vault to preserve Prabhupada’s materials and just today on his disappearance day someone came through with a donation.
Vegavati dd:
In Hawaii there were two camps of devotees that disagreed, but when Srila Prabhupada was there and the kirtana was going on, there was so much spiritual love no differences existed.
Puskara Prabhu:
I was in Vrindavan in 1977 the whole time from April to November, when Srila Prabhupada left this world.
Toward the end, rickshaws were delivering salt for the samadhi [holy tomb] but we were in some kind of illusion thinking that Srila Prabhupada would stay.
I was given the job of calling Ramesvara in LA to tell him that Prabhupada had left.
When there was a debate about whether Srila Prabhupada would go to Govardhan or not [just a few days before he left this world]. I asked Bhagatji [a friend of Srila Prabhupada’s] whether Prabhupada would go, and he said with conviction, “He will not go,” as if I were a fool for asking.
There was a devotee Sac-cid-ananda who would sing every day for Srila Prabhupada in his last days. One day he did not sing and Prabhupada asked for him to.
Several times Krishnadasa Babaji Maharaja came. Prabhupada very much liked his association. At different times Srila Prabhupada said he was paramahamsa [topmost devotee].
Once I was painting trees in Vrindavan, thinking all the trees in Vrindavan were desire trees and so it was OK. Then I felt bad because Krishna wasn’t there, so I added Krishna and some cowherd boys. I showed it to Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada looked for a long time and didn’t say anything. Then he said, “What is the idea? Where is it in the books?”
I said, “The Nectar of Devotion.”
“What verse?” Srila Prabhupada replied.
I said, “Krishna is unlimited.”
Srila Prabhupada replied, “Krishna is unlimited, but you are limited. Stick to the book.”
Gauranga Prasada Prabhu’s Going Away Party
Gauranga Prasada Prabhu was a new devotee in Gainesville who was very eager to apply himself to different aspects of Krishna consciousness such as cooking for the Lord and playing the harmonium and singing. He left Krishna House after not even two years to become the bhakta leader in the Tucson temple, and the Krishna House devotees had a nice going away party for him.
Kalakantha Prabhu: Gauranga Prasada was seeking the truth. He was immediately attracted by Krishna consciousness. He was supported by his family. He has many talents. It is clear he is continuing his practice from a previous life.
Hanan Prabhu asked devotees to say three things each about him:
Clayton: Sincerity, simplicity, wailing on the harmonium with total absorption. Ananda Loka Prabhu: His bright smile. Srutisagara Prabhu: Hard-working, humble. Ghee, butter, hing. Tulasi Priya dd: A good example for me. Dr. Dina Bandhu Prabhu: Always said “welcome home” each weekend when I returned from Jacksonville. New lady: Made me feel at home. Girl with glasses: Eye-opening, laughter. Tall Indian male: Positive. Jai Nitai Gauranga Prabhu: Reliable. Father: An old soul. He had a wisdom about him. He has given so much. Mother: He is well loved. Thank you all here for showing him compassion and giving him safety. Haribol. Amrita Keli dd: Completely lovable, without fault, potent. Just today he came into my dream to remind me to help in the kitchen five minutes after I said I would be there. Andy: A mine of valuable gems like potency, kindness. I feel very enriched. Syamala Kishori dd: Enthusiasm. I love your kirtana.
I mentioned his enthusiasm, his happiness, and his kindness. He kindly sent some Krishna sweets to my relatives for me when I was overseas. I wish him well.
Gauranga Prasada Prabhu:
My plan for life was originally very clear, go to school, get a job, raise a family, but now I feel my life is much more uncertain, but in the best possible way. I just want to serve Krishna and be with the devotees. The rest is just details.
I am grateful for the service opportunities here at Krishna House, which I think are more extensive than any other temple.
comment by Kalakantha Prabhu: I appreciate you were always willing to do the needful.
Harinama at the Farmers Market
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving there were no classes at University of Florida, and so both students and Krishna Lunch workers had more free time. Thus we were able to have a harinama with thirteen people at the Farmers Market! Four of us came together, driven by Michele, a new devotee who loves kirtana. Then a couple more devotees joined us. Then two Krishna Lunch workers along with the sister of one of them. Michele gave the new girl a mantra card, and she chanted Hare Krishna for the first time. Jaya Sri Krishna Prabhu joined us and played the drum. One lady on a nearby bench seemed to be enjoying the kirtana, so we gave her a mantra card, and she chanted along. Later Damodar Prasada gave her a book. Thus Krishna really reciprocated with my desire to have a well-attended harinama in the Farmers Market upon my return to Gainesville. It was great that two new people chanted the mantra.
The Festival of the Holy Name
Festival of the Holy Name is an annual kirtana festival during Thanksgiving weekend featuring two days of 12 hours of kirtana at ISKCON New Raman Reti in Alachua, Florida. This year’s was the third festival.
It was a treat having Niranjana Swami fly in just to be part of the Festival of the Holy Name this year. Agnidev Prabhu, a legendary Hare Krishna kirtana leader, also was a special guest. And of course, there were Madhava and Amala, as usual, as well as Mitra Prabhu, who came from North Carolina, and locals like Visvambhara and Jagannatha Kirtana Prabhus, to name a few.
One friend from Tallahassee, Sara Black, a young Mormon music major, who just completed her Ph.D. dissertation on kirtana at Hare Krishna festivals came to the Festival of the Holy Name for at least the second year. Inspired by her research, she is now writing a book on the recent explosion of interest in kirtana. I encouraged her to stay and hear Niranjana Swami, and she stayed and appreciated the kirtanas of both Niranjana Swami and Agnidev Prabhu. In fact, she and her husband stayed to hear Visvambhara Prabhu whose singing they had previously developed an attachment for and who did the last segment on Friday evening. It was wonderful to see them both intently singing Hare Krishna and clapping along with the music. She developed an interest in Hare Krishna festivals when she grew up in Utah and attended the Holi festival that Caru Prabhu organized his temple in Spanish Fork.
The group of local second generation American Vaishnavas including Gaura Shakti, Krishna Dhama, Govinda, and Ramachandra, and many more, who organized the festival did a great job, and it gets better every year. All thanks and blessings to them.
Insights
Srila Prabhupada:
from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.1, given in Bombay, on December 25, 1976:
“This is the difficulty at the present moment that we take leadership of the society although we remain in the bodily conception of life.”
There is a not a problem of overpopulation. We are all sons of Krishna, and He is providing for us. The problem is that we are mismanaging and then claiming God is not providing.
The more you become godless, the more miseries will be inflicted by material nature.
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura (from Patravali, a collection of his letters soon to be published by Touchstone Publishing in an abridged work called Patramrita):
If the mind does not become disturbed at the time of chanting mantras then it should be understood that the chanting is being done perfectly.
In order to test us and benefit us, the Supreme Lord has placed different types of inconveniences in this world. We have to realize those things as being beneficial for us and thus accept them gracefully. Glorious are those who serve the Supreme Lord. In the midst of all difficulties, keep hearing about, chanting, and remembering the Supreme Lord. Other than this I have no better advice. You should always chant a fixed number of rounds of the holy names of Lord Hari. If there is any problem for openly decorating your body with tilaka then you can do it mentally while chanting the appropriate mantras. Know for certain that the holy name of Hari and Lord Hari Himself are one and the same. Know for certain that chanting the holy names of Hari and meeting the Supreme Lord directly are one and the same. Sri Harinama Prabhu is the worshipable Lord of liberated persons.
There is no comparison to Sri Gaurasundara’s compassion, and there is no limit to Sri Krishnacandra’s sweetness.
Simply by reading about glorification of the Supreme Lord and the devotees, all our needs will be fulfilled. Do not be impatient for the result, but rather always chant the holy names of Krishna with patience and tolerance. The Supreme Lord will certainly not sit quietly. According to the degree of one’s sadhana, Sri Gaurahari certainly awards one auspicious results. Service to Hari is called bhakti. You will realize that chanting of the names of Krishna is in itself bhakti.
The forefathers of that family in which a devotee takes birth attain special benefit so that their lives become successful. There is no need to pray for them separately.
Dreams are false. They are manifestations of the enjoyment of one’s thoughts, and they are the results of one’s previous bad association. Therefore just throw away those things from the heart.
Sri Gaurasundara tests us in various ways by putting us into difficulties and different kinds of association. It depends on the good fortune of the living entities for them to pass those tests. As the indwelling Supersoul, Sri Gaurahari has revealed the eternal truth in the hearts of the living entities out of His causeless mercy. Those who have taken shelter at the lotus feet of Lord Hari and the spiritual master never trust the illusory words of misguided people. Only unfortunate people become bewildered by hearing deceitful words. One need not worry about that.
It is the duty of householders to worship the deity of the Supreme Lord with faith and devotion. A householder who has taken complete shelter of the holy names, having realized his relationship with the Supreme Lord, respects deity worshipers. Those who avoid worshiping the deity just to save money incur the sin known as vittasa?hya, or miserliness. Householders with abominable characters and restless minds must engage in deity worship.
You are a learned person and so you must know the scriptural evidence the smarta Bhattacarya Raghunandan has quoted in the ekadasi-tattva.
devata pratimam drstva. yatinacaiva tridandinam
namaskaram na kuryaccet upavasena suddhati
“You are the father, but still you should offer obeisance to your sannyasi son, otherwise you will have to purify yourself of that fault by observing a fast for one full day.”
You were inspiring him to enter a miserable family life, which is a more severe form of vow than the severe vow one takes to worship Hari, because it instills a great fear in one’s mind. Your attempt was not proper.
Those who are faithful and devoted never face obstacles or inauspiciousness. Only those who desire material enjoyment and liberation face inauspiciousness in life.
I have been wandering about since my birth for the attainment of the goal of life about which you have been deceived for the last twelve years. I did not feel any need to hanker after sense gratification, which is the aim of your life and wealth. I never felt any need to accumulate wealth to mitigate my hunger, to maintain my wife and children, or to supply fuel for my illicit desires. I have never made any endeavor for material wealth like you.
Lord Krishna has never put me into any sort of difficulty or anxiety regarding filling my belly, like He has you. I only try to earn that much wealth with which I can engage in the service of Lord Vishnu, and with which I can keep my sinful body healthy just to serve Lord Hari. Apart from that, I never tried to earn any wealth whatsoever. Even today, I am not greedy for anyone’s wealth. I am not greedy for perishable material wealth like you.
Please bless me so that I can remain greedy for eternal wealth, birth after birth. I wish that even my greatest enemy would not have greed for enjoyable wealth. May I not have any desire other than to pray for the benefit of my greatest enemy. Bless me that I may not see in the last days of my life the face of atheists who are greedy for wealth for the purpose of enjoying profit, adoration, distinction, gold, and women.
We, surrounded by enemies, are determined to engage in the service of Lord Hari and His devotees. All of us are more or less forgetful of Lord Krishna while serving the six enemies. All of you together should serve Lord Hari with unity. This is my request. Ekaki amara nahi paya bala. “I have no strength to do it alone.” Remembering this line, all of you should continue to execute kirtana-yajña, which is the goal of life. The responsibility of the leaders in charge of the execution of kirtana-yajña is to make friendship with all, and especially satisfy all the Vai??avas, while engaging in the service of Hari.
This material world is temporary—nobody has come here to live forever. When the Supreme Lord keeps one in a particular place, he should gladly stay there and accept His rewards and punishments. All types of rewards and punishments awarded by the Supreme Lord are meant for our benefit. We welcome the rewards of the Lord’s external energy, maya, whereas we consider her punishments as troublesome. Since the punishments of maya are awarded so that one can obtain the Lord’s mercy, the devotees do not disregard them; rather they gladly accept them as the Lord’s mercy and simply tolerate them. Those who cannot understand worldly inconveniences to be the Lord’s mercy ultimately fall into a state of disappointment while searching for material happiness and advancement.
Our material miseries and scarcities will go away by participating in festivals in the association of those who serve the Supreme Lord. To always remain engaged in hearing and chanting the glories of Lord Hari is the instruction of saintly persons, scriptures, and the Supreme Lord.
According to proper etiquette, in day-to-day business, one should normally start a letter by saying, “all glories to,” or by offering obeisances at the top of the letter.
By calling out the holy names of the Supreme Lord while fixing our mind upon Him, all auspiciousness is achieved. The Supreme Lord alone is the one who awards worldly prosperity, happiness, and distress. We are maintained by Him and are surrendered unto Him. Whatever arrangements He makes for us, we should humbly accept.
Every disturbance is a fault of my mind; nobody can actually harm me in this world.
Try to avoid quarreling. There is no possibility of disharmony if the purpose is one. In the spiritual world, apparent conflict of interests helps to increase the glories of loving service to the Supreme Lord.
Even by riding on the motorcar of the Madras Gaudiya Matha, the principle and guise of a sincere beggar can be maintained. There is no need to externally display artificial renunciation, or luxury by imitating the sahajiyas. Renunciation is a state of the heart. There is a gulf of difference between the considerations of those who misuse renunciation and that of the followers of King Janaka and Raya Ramananda. By taking advantage of, and by imitating, King Janaka or Raya Ramananda, and thus acting like Ravana, is not internal renunciation, or yukta-vairagya. When duplicity is externally displayed, having entered the heart, nobody can achieve his true welfare.
People are extremely averse to us and so their behavior will surely be exhibited according to this mentality. If we can patiently tolerate their insults then one day they will definitely repent their misdeeds.
None of you should be afraid of natural calamities, such as heavy rain or disease. Embrace them and then bid them farewell in due course of time. Srila Jagannatha Dasa Babaji Maharaja used to say that when painful diseases come to our body, if they are not pampered, or do not get excellent food, they will automatically leave. Diseases stay longer in the bodies of aristocratic people because of their luxurious living.
As soon as bodily pleasures are increased, the propensity for serving the Supreme Lord decreases. That is why the Supreme Lord spreads thorns on the path of all kinds of comfort for those upon whom He shows mercy.
I have received your humble letter dated the 29th March and have understood your present physical and mental condition. Always remember the lotus feet of Lord Hari, the spiritual master, and other Vaishnavas without interruption while accepting that all physical and mental miseries are a result of one’s previous karma. In this mood, always pray for the mercy of the Supreme Lord. Gradually, by Krishna’s will, all types of miseries will be destroyed and you will become empowered for the service of the Supreme Lord so that the inclination for constantly worshiping Lord Hari will be awakened. All impediments in the form of bad association will be removed and the propensity to always serve Lord Hari, the spiritual master, and the Vaishnavas will predominate.
I hope that you will soon be cured of your physical and mental illness by the Lord’s mercy so that you will increase our happiness by being engaged in the worship of Hari. It is quite warm here. If you feel extreme pain then invite a devotee known to you from Gaudiya Matha and hear from him Hari-katha and Hari-nama.
There is no happiness in the material world. The material world creates many disturbances by manifesting various kinds of disasters. Although there is good and bad, and partial purity in it, material life often produces varieties of disturbances. That is why the tat te nu’kampam verse has been presented.
There are no such disturbances in the abode of Goloka. Anyway, there is no alternative but to tolerate all inconveniences that come to us at various times and at various places.
Let them harass you as much as possible; you simply must quietly tolerate these disturbances. We firmly believe that the people of the world will not allow injustices to predominate. The Supreme Lord arranges everything for our benefit—this is our firm faith. The atheists cannot flourish in this world for long, for eventually they are pulled down by the punishment of providence. Everything takes place by the will of the Supreme Lord.
The duty of relatives is that they should first offer some foodstuffs to the Supreme Lord on the day of sraddha and then offer some portion of the Lord’s prasada to the departed soul and thus help him achieve his ultimate welfare. Offering the departed souls prasada will satisfy the devotees of the Supreme Lord. There should also be performance of harinama.
When maya conditions us, we remain busy calculating who is big and who is small.
We should unconditionally accept whatever condition Krishna puts us in at any time. The desire to gain physical health with the sole intention of worshiping Krishna is also favorable for devotional service. A non-devotee’s endeavor to demand service from the Supreme Lord, such as becoming cured so that he can attain the platform of anarthas is not acceptable. But to pray for good health to the destroyer of obstacles, Ganesa, and at the lotus feet of the destroyer of obstacles, Lord Nrsimha, for the sake of Krishna bhajana is certainly acceptable.
If our photograph is worshiped when we are alive; this will make us fall down.
If you constantly engage your mind in the Lord’s service then no one can harm you. If you are restless or dissatisfied with others then an inclination for the Lord’s service will not be present within your mind. Your words, body, and mind will form a mental displeasure that will not allow you to serve Hari. Therefore become tolerant like a tree, and by the Lord’s will stay at Samanta-pañcaka. This will be beneficial for you. Wait for the day when Lord Gaura Hari will send you elsewhere.
The dear devotees of Sri Gaurasundara have no other business than to take the treasure of His distribution of Krishna-prema [love of God] and distribute it door to door. This business is their only means of livelihood as they execute their loving devotional service to Krishna.
As Srila Rupa Gosvami elaborately explains in his Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, there are five principal rasas—neutrality, servitude, friendship, parental love, and conjugal love—and seven secondary rasas—amazement, humor, chivalry, compassion, fury, fear, and dread. Altogether there are twelve rasas, the supreme object of them all is Sri Krishna. In other words, our love and affection are actually meant for Sri Krishna. Unfortunately, out of ignorance, we stubbornly try to squeeze happiness and love out of material relationships, which are not directly connected to Krishna, and thus life is experienced as a constant frustration. The solution is simple: surrender to Krishna, love Krishna, love Krishna’s devotees, and be happy forever.
Pray to the holy name with your heart and soul so that the holy name may bestow mercy upon you. Remembering astakaliya-lila is not to be performed when one is full of anarthas. Only by kirtana can smarana be practiced. At that time, realization of astakaliya-lila-seva is possible. One should not artificially practice astakaliya-lila-smara?a.
We are insignificant beggars. If a rich person or a particular community harasses us then Lord Nrisimha will protect us. No community can hurt our feelings for our religious beliefs.
When the futility of false ego is understood, then we give up bad association and come to know that worldly happiness, worldly knowledge, and worldly settlement, etc., are all useless in comparison to realization of the Supreme Lord, who is eternal, and full of knowledge and bliss. Only when one is initiated into Krishna consciousness like this can he obtain supreme auspiciousness.
By installing deities of Lord Jagannatha and Lord Mahaprabhu in the villages of England and offering Indian foodstuffs to the Lord and then distributing them as maha-prasada, gradually the people of England will support the service of the Supreme Lord by showing sympathy and being faithful. In the future, qualified persons will go there and benefit the people by propagating pure sanatana-dharma.
Oh!When will the time come when all the people of that country honor the transcendental maha-prasada in the Lord’s temple while chanting the holy names of Lord Gauranga with a purified heart and thus understand the value of spiritual life?
Because we will forget the Supreme Lord if we are are satisfied with material happiness, the merciful Lord has created various dangers to test us. Happiness in this material world guarantees forgetfulness of Krishna. Hence, miseries are examples of His compassion.
There are differences of opinion between the resident devotees of the matha and the “big” householder devotees. According to the considerations put forth by Maharaja in Delhi, the Supreme Lord and His devotees are the only objects of service. Just by serving the Supreme Lord and the devotees, the weight of our attached household activities will decrease. But if the residents of the dhama think of themselves as “big devotees,” just like the sahajiyas of Kuliya, and transform the servants of the matha into their servants, then rather than serving the dhama, they will imagine themselves as being objects of service in Vaiku??ha. Living in the dhama is only to serve the devotees, but if instead of serving the Supreme Lord and the devotees, service is demanded from them and displeasure is shown at their activities, then rather than dhama-seva, an offense called dhama-bhoga will be committed.
It is better to live in a place of material enjoyment and serve the devotees of the dhama from a distance than to be an enjoyer of the dhama.
Simply by worshiping Hari, the body, mind, and soul will remain healthy, but if one is averse to bhajana, these three will act unfavorably.
The tendency for material enjoyment is one hundred percent present in the Western countries. Therefore their faith in God is very weak.
Sastra says, “One should take shelter of saintly persons while giving up bad association.” Those who mistake nondevotees to be devotees make a mistake like trying to cheat a blacksmith out of steel. We need not talk about others, but while serving Lord Hari, the spiritual master, and other Vaishnavas, discussions of Agha, Baka, Ravana, and so on automatically arise. Anyway, everything is the Lord’s test. I did not expect such unfavorable behavior from my so-called disciples. Anyhow, this is Kali-yuga and so everything is possible.
To ascertain the varna of a person is the essence of varnasrama. To merge familial identity with one’s personal nature is not its purpose.
The followers of Sri Rupa, without putting faith in their own power, attribute all their successes to the original source. We too do everything for the pleasure of Sri Krishna Caitanya, Sri Rupa, Sri Bhaktivinoda, and our spiritual master.
Bhakti Tirtha Swami (from a YouTube video lecture):
The Vedic scriptures are the oldest scriptures on the planet, and if you follow them, they will make you a better Christian or a better Moslem. And the end result of that is that you will understand that we are servants of God, beyond all sectarian designations.
In our movement we have people of different nations and races all working together to benefit society. Where else is there such an example?
Niranjana Swami:
When a diplomat visited Prabhupada in Geneva, Srila Prabhupada started out by asking if he had any questions. The man said, “No.” Then Srila Prabhupada asked for the harmonium, and played a beautiful Hare Krishna tune for twenty minutes or so. Then he said to the man, “This is what we do.” Then he asked Guru Gauranga Prabhu to give the man prasadam. So I tell this story as a simple introduction to this 12-hour kirtana program. This is what we do.
Badahari Prabhu (from Krishna House):
Using mechanical substitutes for essential body parts or functions cannot extend life without the sanction of the Lord.
Our hearing apparatus works 24/7 and thus can protect us from calamity at all times.
Morning is best for the spiritual cultivation because the ether is not polluted by materialistic sound vibrations.
Srila Prabhupada and Krishna are ready to take you with them, if you are willing to give up the desire to control.
It is hard to be detached from the material world, but because someday you will need to be, it is good to practice.
Beg borrow or steal, somehow get devotional service. The more devotional service we do, we build up our spiritual body.
Comment by Gauranga Prasada Prabhu: Laksmimani dd says that pride, such as that in Vedic scholarship, is one thing that remains as indicated by the word prayesu [almost to nil] in Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.18.
Caturatma Prabhu:
In Vrindavan, I was noticing three Govardhan silas on Indradyumna Swami’s altar at the MVT. I asked the origin of them. He said he had to confiscate them from his disciples, and he did not know what he was going to do with them. I said, well I have been wanting to worship Govardhan for some time, I would like to worship them. He said, “Well you’re not shy about asking.” He also had a very large sila, one that was completely impractical to travel with and, he did not have a clue what he would do with Him. I said, “I know just the person, a hefty devotee, who has a desire to worship Govardhan. That was Madhava [from the Alachua community].”
Dravida Prabhu:
The prayers of Brahma are very conclusive and many acaryas have written explanations of them.
Brahma had just experienced that his intellect had failed to appreciate the divinity of Krishna, and so he spoke this verse (SB 10.14.3): “Those who, even while remaining situated in their established social positions, throw away the process of speculative knowledge and with their body, words and mind offer all respects to descriptions of Your personality and activities, dedicating their lives to these narrations, which are vibrated by You personally and by Your pure devotees, certainly conquer Your Lordship, although You are otherwise unconquerable by anyone within the three worlds.”
“What is the ultimate goal of life and how to attain it?” is the main question of a seeker.
There is a logical order to the four imperfections of a conditioned soul. First we have imperfect senses, then we make mistakes, and when we make enough mistakes, we become illusioned, and when we present our illusions as factual knowledge we cheat others.
Adhoksaja is a combination of three words, ja meaning janma or birth, aksa meaning the eyes, or the senses in general, adha which means pushing down. Aksaja thus means knowledge born of sense perception, and adhoksaja therefore means that which pushes down this knowledge born of sense perceptions.
Krishna wants only one thing: love.
One may be a multi-millionaire but if he has no one to exchange love with he is unhappy.
How to serve the topics of the Lord? With our body, by following His instructions, with our minds, by thinking of the topics, and with our words, by repeating them to others.
Two of Jarasandha’s daughters were wives of Kamsa, so he was upset with Krishna for killing Kamsa and leaving them unprotected.
Everything begins with hearing. If we had not heard about Krishna, how could we have become attracted to Him?
Kathamritam means that hearing about Krishna is like nectar, but you cannot drink too much of such nectar, nor does it have any bad side effects.
Our constitutional position is not to be a university student nor to work a certain job, nor to be a man or woman, nor even a human being.
On Halloween people dress in costumes but if they forget it is just a costume and continue to act as a ghost or Napolean, then they really have a problem. That is our situation in this world.
The topics glorifying Krishna are the purifying force.
The most valuable thing you have is your desire to be Krishna consciousness, and that we must increase by our practice.
The main reason we stay in the material world is because of our desire to hear about things other than Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada said if you take one step toward Krishna, Krishna takes ten steps toward you. These steps are the taste He gives you.
Everything depends on the intensity of one’s attention.
The secret is to keep everything fresh and new. For me it is verses. There are always more verses, and the verses have great depth. The verses are like old friends. And the books . . .
The sastra [with a long ‘a’ (the scripture)] cuts off our attachments, but the sastra [with a short ‘a’ (the weapon)] cuts off our head.
The Siksastakam is throughout the Padyavali (a collection of verses) of Rupa Goswami and was gathered together by Krishnadas Kaviraja Goswami.
Step to memorize verses:
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read translation
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figure out meter
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look at word meanings for the first line
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practice saying the first line while remembering its meaning
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repeat steps 3 and 4 with all the lines of the verse
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practice your verses periodically
The “Madhurastkam,” which describes the sweetness of Krishna, only works because it is about Him. It would become trite to describe any other person as being sweet in so many ways.
Similarly if anyone were dressed as opulently as the Deity one would consider the person to be overdressed but for Krishna such opulence is appropriate and pleasing.
Some people look for the bliss at this festival and that festival, but hooking up with Lord Caitanya and His movement and all the previous spiritual masters by making a contribution to the mission, we taste the real bliss. We forget that this is something bestowed upon us.
Constant prayer and willingness to do austerity for Krishna makes us advanced.
Prabhodananda Sarasvati said, “Lord Caitanya is more magnanimous than ten million mothers.”
The real friend is the friend who will introduce you to your eternal friend Krishna.
The real guru inspires you to chant the holy name.
The holy name is like a touchstone. When our consciousness touches the holy name it becomes transformed.
The chanting is attractive because Krishna is present there.
Three things come from devotional service, the pleasure of serving Krishna, direct experience of Krishna, and detachment from other things. This is compared to the pleasure of eating, nourishment, and freedom from hunger.
Ajamila was so grateful that the holy name saved him from the Yamadutas that he very seriously took to devotional service and attained perfection.
The holy name is supremely pure and made of spiritual bliss.
If we want to associate with Krishna, He is willing to associate with us, primarily through His avatar as the holy name.
There is no downside or bad effect to the pleasure of the holy name. It is all up. Stay high forever.
Talks of materialistic people steal the most valuable gem, our desire for Krishna.
By associating with the faithful, we become faithful.
Progressing in devotional service means refining our activities so they are supportive of chanting.
By chanting japa during class we can commit two offenses at once, inattention to chanting and insulting the Bhagavatam speaker.
Srila Prabhupada was always completely focused on what he was doing for Krishna, and thus he was able to do so much in just eleven years.
In the Eleventh Canto, one verse states that the greatest pure devotee does not want to forget Krishna even for a moment, even in exchange for all the wealth in the world.
Comment by Lilananda Prabhu: Bringing a television into your home is like bring in billions of people who are against Krishna.
Comment: If one chants the names of Nitai Gauranga, Bhakti devi comes chasing after you.
Comment by Kaliyaphani Prabhu: Regarding the Gauranga campaign you mentioned where devotees in Scotland put up posters saying “Chant Gauranga” everywhere, I have a couple stories:
“A devotee doing street sankirtana [book distribution] in Scotland stopped a young mother with a small son. He was a scruffy, cheeky-looking kid. After the exchange, the devotee said to the kid, ‘Can you say Gauranga?’ The reply was, ‘Aye, I can. But it’s nae Gauranga, it’s Gauruunga!’
“
Two devotees going door-to-door in central Edinburgh entered a very posh-looking restaurant with the idea of going round the tables to collect. There were big pillars, chandeliers, etc. They hesitated at the doorway thinking it was too posh. Then a customer at a table must have recognized them and at the top of his voiced yelled out, ‘Gaaaaauuuuraaaangaaaa!’ the sound reverberating round the hall and shattering the devotee’s doubts!”
If you make a habit of glorifying devotees you will derive such pleasure from that activity that you will not feel the tendency to criticize devotees. Radhanath Swami is a good example of that.
When we are doing japa and kirtana, we should think, “Now is my time to associate directly with Krishna and to forget everything else.”
We have to come to the platform of always following Srila Prabhupada’s instructions to attain purity in chanting.
Dhanesvara Prabhu was the manager of the production team of me (Dravida Prabhu), Gopiparanadhana Prabhu, and Hridayananda dasa Goswami to complete Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavatam translation. At one point, things were difficult and Gopiparanadhana Prabhu suggested that we worship the Bhagavatam. So we set up an altar and put the Bhagavatam on it, and worshiped it, and ultimately we were successful in completing the translation and publishing it.
We should think, “By chanting the holy name purely all my aspirations will be fulfilled.”
Because we are chanting Hare Krishna, Krishna is reducing our taste for meat eating, illicit sex, intoxication, and gambling.
All of us have the capacity to appreciate the holy name as Rupa Goswami did: “I do not know how much nectar the two syllables ‘Krish-na’ have produced. When the holy name of Krishna is chanted, it appears to dance within the mouth. We then desire many, many mouths. When that name enters the holes of the ears, we desire many millions of ears. And when the holy name dances in the courtyard of the heart, it conquers the activities of the mind, and therefore all the senses become inert.”
We can pray to the holy name for the strength to avoid sinful activities.
Kalakantha Prabhu:
One devotee walked from Africa to Mayapur chanting Hare Krishna. The devotees in general were very impressed with him, but Srila Prabhupada was not impressed. That devotee eventually stopped talking with other devotees and lived alone, saying he wanted to focus on his chanting. Ultimately, however, he went away because people stopped paying attention to him.
Bhaktivinoda Thakura was opposed to the idea of seminal succession of spiritual masters, and so rather than initiating his son, he advised his son to approach Gaurakisora Dasa Babaji Maharaja for initiation.
We cannot become advanced by imitating the symptoms of advanced devotees, but rather absorbing ourselves in Krishna and naturally becoming advanced.
Whatever taste we have for hearing about Krishna is our greatest gift.
The great acaryas [spiritual teachers who teach by example] are not appointed but emerge.
After a day of searching by the order of Dronacarya, their teacher, Duryodhana could not find anyone superior to himself and Yudhisthira could not find anyone inferior to himself. Dronacarya then proclaimed, “Yudhisthira is fit to rule the world and Duryodhana is fit to have his body eaten by jackals.”
Anuttama Prabhu tells a story of an experience on sankirtana:
One man said, “I don’t want your book. I have my own religion. You are going to hell.” Anuttama replied, “What religion are you?”
The man said, “Christian.”
Anuttama inquired, “Are all Christians going to heaven?”
The man said, “No, not all Christians.”
Anuttama asked, “So only people in your church?”
The man replied, “No, not all people in my church are going to heaven.”
The madhyama devotee’s relationship with the innocent person is this: “I want to help this person as much as he wants my help.”
As soon as you take to spiritual life seriously, some people will love you and other people will hate you.
The neophyte devotee cannot abandon the society, friendship, and love of the material world to pursue Krishna.
In no religious scripture will you see a statement like “I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me.” Only Krishna is so bold as to say this, but He says it not because He is arrogant, but to establish the truth. He does this in half a verse. And in rest of the four main verses He talks about His devotees and how He reciprocates with them.
There is a long standing discussion in theology about whether God is attained by works or grace. The relationship between the two is cleared up in Bhagavad-gita: “To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.” (Bg. 10.10)
If the most important thing to a person is God, then that person is a devotee or a Vaishnava.
Nondevotees consider the activities of the Lord are too amazing to be true. But what do you expect God to do? Actually the more amazing the activities of Krishna are, the more they are wor
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 8, No. 21
By Krishna-kripa das
(November 2012, part one)
London, New York, Jacksonville
(Sent from Stuyvesant Falls, New York, on December 17, 2012)
Where I Went and What I Did
I continued to do harinama and lectures in London, based at Radha-Londonisvara’s temple on Soho Street for three days, flying to New York City the afternoon of the third day, to do harinama for a week with Rama Raya and Ekalavya Prabhus and their party who chant for four hours a day, mostly at Union Square. It was amazing to see the enthusiasm of those devotees for harinama and the enthusiasm of the New Yorkers who listened, gave donations, and took books about Krishna consciousness. I took a three-day break from the harinama party to visit family members. I visited my sister and my mother for a day each, cooking several meals and helping my mother with various computer issues. I visited my diksa-guru, Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, where I assisted his team in a successful marathon to get the first volume of his autobiography, The Story of My Life, printed by the beginning of December. On November 15, I flew to Jacksonville, where I spent a very enlivening day assisting in our outreach at the University of North Florida there.
This issue is bountiful with the insights of great souls. I begin with many quotes from the books and lecture of our founder-acarya Srila Prabhupada. Next there are some wonderful insights from the letters of his guru maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura from a collection of his letters called Patravali, soon to be published in an abridged form by Touchstone Publishing as Patramrita. After that there some useful quotes from Bhakti Charu Swami and Radhanath Swami. Then I have excerpts from the first volume of the recently published, The Story of My Life, by Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, mostly memories about the early days of our first center at 26 Second Ave. Then there are some revolutionary quotes by Aindra Prabhu, a great lover of the holy name. And Rama Raya Prabhu, a follower of Aindra, shares his conviction about the public chanting of the holy name. And there is still more!
Itinerary
Dec. 17–19, 2012: serving Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami in Stuyvesant, NY
Dec. 19–23, 2012: harinama in New York City
Dec. 24–25, 2012: visiting family in Albany, NY
Dec. 26, 2012–
Jan. 7, 2013: harinama in New York City
Jan. 8–April 2013: Gainesville, FL (with visits to Tallahassee and Jacksonville)
London Harinamas
I did harinama in London the first three days of November, before flying to New York. As the month of Karttika was starting, there was increased impetus to do more chanting and that boosted attendance on our harinamas. The after-breakfast harinama in London was much more regular and attended by more devotees than usual. In addition, late Friday afternoon we did harinama to Kings Cross for their Friday evening program at their storefront called “Matchless Gifts.” The Saturday Weekend Warrior program of chanting and book distribution was located in Ealing, a London borough which is practically on the way to Heathrow Airport, so I was able to participate for three hours before flying to New York.
Harinama in Manhattan
For several months Rama Raya Prabhu, who spent many years on Aindra Prabhu’s 24-Hour team in Vrindavan, and Ekalavya Prabhu, who plays the trumpet and is an excellent musician and performer, have been doing harinama in Manhattan, usually at Union Square, for four hours each and every day from 4 to 8 p.m. I joined their party for seven days. Once during foul weather we were chanting at Roosevelt Avenue subway station. I was singing my favorite tune of Hare Krishna and Ekalavya Prabhu played trumpet and a crowd of at least fifty people were watching us. I was amazed to see so many people stopped to watch a kirtana in America, especially one I was leading. One Sunday we chanted at Union Square for six hours from 2 to 8 p.m. One time we had seventeen people chanting, mostly practicing devotees with a few new people who had become interested from the daily public chanting in their city. Another day we had fifteen people. Even the slowest days we always had six or seven people at the end, although sometimes in the beginning there were just three or four of us. Some devotees are dedicated and go out every day for at least part of the time. One of these is Rasika Gopi dd, who as Bhaktin Rose went out on harinama with me twice in the Netherlands two and a half years ago.
Several new people have developed an interest in kirtana and Krishna consciousness during the several months the daily harinama has been going on and several thousand books have been distributed to people, just from them hearing the holy name and choosing to give a donation. Both Rama Raya and Ekalavya Prabhus are very enthusiastic about the program, and after a short break from January to March to go on pilgrimage in India, they are looking forward to another successful year.
Sharing Krishna at the University of North Florida
I have been singing on the campus of the University of North Florida in Jacksonville a few times a year since back in 2003 or 2004. I find the students are less under pressure in that relatively small school, and you always find interesting and interested people. People buy books, play instruments with us, like our treats, and talk about spiritual issues.
After a two-and-a-half-hour flight and a two-hour bus ride, I arrived at the campus too tired to chant, so I took lunch and a nap. Then in the late afternoon I decided to sit on a bench on the green and play my harmonium and sing for a couple of hours before our Thursday evening program and invite some new people to come.
I was surprised to meet Regina, one girl who remembered me from our weekly programs back in January, and who told me she has been coming to them ever since. Another girl, Jessica, just came to a single program, back in January, and also remembered me from that. We had a nice conversation about some supernatural experiences she had, and she promised to come to the program. On top of that, I met a math professor, who had done her graduate studies at University of California at San Diego and developed a love for the Krishna lunch the devotees served there each week. I had met her before on the green at UNF, and on days I did not see her there, I would bring prasadam to her office. It was wonderful that she spontaneously walked by during the brief time I was chanting there. I also met one young Indian man who is a Krishna devotee, and had looked online for Krishna temples in the area but had failed to find any. I told him about our program on the campus, and about our temples in Alachua and Gainesville. As a result he became a regular attendee at our programs at UNF.
By the fall semester of 2012, Dina Bandhu and Amrita Keli Prabhus, the devotees doing programs at UNF nature pavilion since January, had created enough interest in the students that they could create a Krishna Club with meetings on the campus. I was happy to see about fifteen people at the weekly program. Sometimes they said they got twenty-five. They do some yoga, have a talk related to Bhagavad-gita, have chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra with instruments, and then Krishna prasadam, spiritual food for the soul. When I was there, after the program they discussed plans for a weekend field trip to a home program in LaCrosse and the Govardhan Puja festival in our Alachua temple. I was surprised to see the number of students interested in the devotional adventure. It was inspiring for me to see the interest in Krishna consciousness in a new place, and I bet such programs could be started on many campuses by enthusiastic young devotees who simply share in a straight forward way whatever they have learned about Krishna with others.
Insights
Srila Prabhupada:
from Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi-lila 1.55, purport:
“The development of submissiveness is the cause of proportionate spiritual realization, by which one can ultimately meet the Supreme Lord in person, as a man meets another man face to face. Because of his development of transcendental attachment for the Supreme Lord, a surrendered soul feels the presence of his beloved everywhere, and all his senses are engaged in the loving service of the Lord. His eyes are engaged in seeing the beautiful couple Sri Radha and Krishna sitting on a decorated throne beneath a desire tree in the transcendental land of Vrindavan. His nose is engaged in smelling the spiritual aroma of the lotus feet of the Lord. Similarly, his ears are engaged in hearing messages from Vaikuntha, and his hands embrace the lotus feet of the Lord and His associates. Thus the Lord is manifested to a pure devotee from within and without. This is one of the mysteries of the devotional relationship in which a devotee and the Lord are bound by a tie of spontaneous love. To achieve this love should be the goal of life for every living being.”
from a lecture:
In this material life, you will never be able to make anyone happy by your activities. That is not possible. Neither you will be happy.
For the jnanis (those interested in cultivating knowledge) Krishna says, “After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.” (Bg. 7.19), for the karmis (those interested in enjoying their senses) Krishna says, “Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform — do that, O son of Kunti, as an offering to Me.” (Bg. 9.27), and for the yogis Krishna says, “A yogi is greater than the ascetic, greater than the empiricist and greater than the fruitive worker. Therefore, O Arjuna, in all circumstances, be a yogi” (Bg. 6.46).
Nirguna means Krishna is not influenced by the three qualities of material nature (gunas) not that He has no transcendental qualities.
from a lecture:
Meditation begins with the lotus feet of Lord. Meditation on Krishna’s lotus feet destroys the dirty things in our heart.
Krishna’s feet are marked with four primary symbols: ankusa (goad), vajra (thunderbolt), sauraubya (lotus), . . .
When a British reporter asked me where hell was. I told him London is hell. There is no sun. It is always rainy and cold. You to do not have to search out hell in another place, hell is already here.
There is no light so you are paying electricity bill, but in the spiritual world no additional illumination is required. Why do you not go there? Why should we pay the electric bill? Go to the spiritual world. Every planet is effulgence.
In the material world, even the richest person is full of anxiety, but the spiritual world is Vaikuntha, without anxiety, so we should aspire to go there.
No material condition can check Krishna consciousness.
from an early-morning walk in Vrindvana, India, in September 1975:
On one side they promote contraceptives, and on the other side they encourage women
to marry three times a week. This is their civilization. If you want to stop increasing the population, why are you inducing people: “Indulge in sex”? Everything is contradictory. And it is all based on sense gratification.
from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.6 in London on July 23, 1973:
Without following the religious principle there is not humanity. . . . It does not matter what kind of religion you follow, it doesn’t matter, but you must follow. . . . That is the duty, dharma. Human civilization begins when there is a religious conception of life.
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura:
from the abridged Patravali, known as Patramrita, to be printed by Touchstone Publishing:
If you pray for the well-being of your subordinates then your own spiritual progress will take place.
As far as the present anarthas [unwanted tendencies] are concerned, if your hearing and chanting is very strong, they cannot display their prominence.
When I think that I am well, I become averse to Krishna, and as a result, I consider senior devotees to be junior to me. That is why, considering this, Lord Krishna keeps me in various distressful conditions, such as in ill health and other inconveniences. At such times I try to understand the meaning of the verse beginning with tat te’nukampam [My dear Lord, one who earnestly waits for You to bestow Your causeless mercy upon him, all the while patiently suffering the reactions of his past misdeeds and offering You respectful obeisances with his heart, words and body, is surely eligible for liberation, for it has become his rightful claim. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.14.8)].
When we remain absorbed in material subjects, which are not related to Krishna, we are inclined to quarrel with the different people of the world.
I am very glad to learn that Bhaktisarvasva Giri has received an English certificate. If the sannyasis and brahmacaris keep proving their merit in this way at different places, our happiness will know no bounds.
We should have churches for devotion and love all over India (preaching centers for pure devotional service and love of Krishna). Perhaps you remember the teachings of Mahaprabhu:
prithivite ache yata nagaradi-grama
sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama
“In every town and village of the world, My name [the holy name of Krishna] will be preached.”
No one has the right to drink even a drop of nectar from the ocean of the transcendental mellows of Lord Krishna’s pastimes without the mercy of the daughter of King Vrishabhanu [Radharani, Lord Krishna’s consort].
The dim reflection of madhurya-rasa is svakiya-rasa, and so it is simply another form of dasya-rasa. Many people make a mistake by accepting Lord Narayana’s pastimes with His legitimate wife as madhurya-rasa.
“A Vaishnava comes to this material world according to his karma, and after spending a fixed amount of time here, he goes to where he is being sent by Baladeva, according to his qualifications. Mahalaksmi resides within Balarama, and within Mahalaksmi resides the Supreme Lord. Therefore, Tota has gone back to serve his worshipable Lord. He was a Vaishnava part and parcel of Nityananda Prabhu, the predominating Lord of the sandhini potency and so if you learn to treat Lord Vishnu as your son, you will no longer feel the absence of your son.
“As the Supreme Lord lived in the heart of Tota and so you served Him, so now you should serve Lord Baladeva. The material body of Tota has been merged into the five gross material elements. The spirit soul of Tota will remain engaged in the service of the energetic Lord. Your material son has been separated from his material father. He is meant to be enjoyed by the Supreme Lord and so his real business is to serve Him. Realizing that you are not conditioned by maya, the Supreme Lord will not allow you to become overwhelmed with grief and will bestow upon you His unlimited mercy and power. This is my feeling.”
When Mahaprabhu accepted the renounced order of life, He said to His old mother, His wife Vishnupriya-devi, and the residents of Navadvipa, “I am only a human being and I am related to all of you in some kind of relationship. When I am gone, you should establish your relationship with Krishna instead of Me and thus give Me an opportunity to serve Lord Hari independently.”
“They may think that sincere premika bhaktas, who are under the shelter of the transcendental parakiya-rasa, are less ethical, but love for Hari has such a wonderful power that even a greatly delightful moral standard becomes dim in front of it.”
The Supreme Lord keeps Himself hidden within this universe in order to test us. If we can perceive Him behind every object, our apparent misunderstandings will diminish.
The Supreme Lord’s testing place is this material world. In order to pass this test, one has to hear glorification of Hari from the mouths of devotees of Hari.
Only those whose time for the destruction of anarthas has arrived will hear lectures on the topics of Hari and thus become successful in their attempt to achieve the ultimate goal of life.
If you chant one hundred thousand holy names every day then the offenders will not be able to disturb your bhajana.
There cannot be any better and more favorable condition for bhajana than giving up bad association.
In the inclination for service on the path of aisvarya, the chanting of the holy name, Hare Rama, refers to Lord Rama, the son of Dasaratha. But the devotees who worship the Lord on the path of madhurya know Rama to be Gopi-ramana, or the enjoyer of the gopis. He is the son of Nanda. In that case, the word Rama refers to Radha-ramana, and the word Hara refers to the daughter of Vrsabhanu.
There is never any possibility of falling down for a person who has received even a hint, or reflection, of the mula-mantra, or the secret of unalloyed bhajana. Still, as full-fledged members, their inability to accept the authority of the matha as a result of their previous offenses committed against the Vaishnavas is ultimately due to their personal weakness. When, by the grace of the Supreme Lord, the service attitude is progressively increased within their heart, they will not fall prey to sinful propensities. Try to benefit such fallen persons by helping them. That will be an act of real friendship.
Thoughtless and ignorant people who are unable to comprehend the magnanimous pastimes of exalted personalities question, “Why did Kala Krishnadasa, who was under the shelter of Gaurasundara, become attracted to the Bhattathari women? Why did Chota Haridasa, rather than exhibiting the example of a devotee, engage in inferior activity on the pretext of serving Gaura? Why did Ramacandra Puri give up his subordination to Madhavendra Puri? Why did a few so-called sons of Advaita Acarya Prabhu, and a few so-called disciples of Virabhadra, become independent?”
Ignorant people may like the arguments that challenge the faith of those on the kanistha and madhyama platforms which are put forth by those who are out of touch with reality and cannot accept the actual truth, but when these foolish people enter the deep meaning of the transcendentally magnanimous pastimes of exalted personalities who are under the shelter of Lord Caitanya or His devotees, they will understand that in order to provide an opportunity for well-being to all unfit and fallen souls, Lord Caitanya has revealed the truth that all living entities are constitutionally servants of Lord Krishna. Even though the service of Krishna temporarily manifested in a perverted form as an aversion to Krishna when combined with material enjoyment is abominable in the eyes of unqualified gross materialists who believe in direct perception, it does not violate the principle of the api cet suduracara verse. A maha-bhagavata knows everyone as his spiritual master and therefore only a maha-bhagavata is the spiritual master of the whole world.
The goal of our service is to arrange a meeting between the object of worship and the worshiper.
Bhajana is not something to make a show of. If we chant the holy name loudly, the enjoyment of idleness cannot devour us.
Bhakti Charu Swami:
Lord Caitanya taught Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Vrindavan is His abode, and the gopis method of worship is best.
If Yasoda knew that Krishna was the Supreme Personality could she try to tie Him up?
Everyone forgets that Krishna is God in Vrindavan.
The relationships of friendship, parenthood, and conjugal love are prominent in Vrindavan.
Aghasura could not be killed by the demigods, who would tremble in fear at the sound of his name.
If one performs vaidhi-bhakti he attains Vaikuntha.
After Krishna demonstrated his pastimes, he considered that when bhakti is merely performed according to rules and regulations, no one would ever attain Goloka Vrindavan.
Raganuga means to follow a resident of Vrindavan. By serving Lord Caitanya, we are serving Radharani, and what greater resident of Vrindavan is there than Radharani?
Asvatthama had the benediction from Lord Shiva to be invisible for one night, and so he could kill the sleeping Pandavas without being stopped. Why would Krishna would allow them to be killed? They had played their role in His pastimes and so they would not be needed in this world.
At the border of Vrindavan and Mathura when Krishna and Akrura bathed, Shyamasundara Krishna returned to Vrindavan and Vasudeva Krishna continued to Mathura and Dvaraka.
To go from Vaikuntha to Goloka Vrindavan, you have to come to this world and do sankirtana in Vrindavan.
Regarding your mother, because she went back to Godhead, you should consider what is your relationship with her now. Do you want to follow her example? Do you want to assist her in her service to Krishna? Do you want to pray to her that you might also be engaged in Krishna’s service?
When you give up an old car and buy a new one, do you lament? So in the same way, we should not lament when one gets a better body for serving Krishna.
A rich man is always changing his car while a poor man holds on to it until it is a piece of junk. We are neither the rich man nor the poor man. We are the chauffeur of the richest man, and He will certainly make sure we have a first class car to drive in His service, so we do not have to worry.
Radhanath Swami:
from a BTG article:
Mother Theresa spoke to me years ago, “The greatest problem in this world is not the hunger of the stomach but the hunger of the heart. All over the world both rich and poor suffer. They are lonely, starving for love. Only God’s love can satisfy the hunger of the heart.”
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
from his autobiography, The Story of My Life:
It is always good to live with the chanting and to bring it out in a time of difficulty. It may seem odd to the people who are confining you, but it will always work in your favor. They will know you are religious and serious.
And I was there among the first. I feel he [Srila Prabhupada] will always remember me as “Satsvarupa” from my typing and donations and giving him a daily mango. He picked me up as a sad lonely hippie and made me a happy and responsible son. I will never forget those days or fail to treasure them.
At the welfare office I chanted Hare Krishna mantras silently in my mind. The Swami had approved the practice. I had told him my co-workers engaged in talking nonsense. He said, “Even the greatest philosophers are talking nonsense. Go on chanting Hare Krishna in your mind.”
Going to meet the Swami was the nectar of life, and I did it every morning for Caitanya-caritamrta class and every evening for kirtana and his Bhagavad-gita class. He was so kind and inviting, accepting me as I was, and giving me typing tasks. I gave him my money and that solidified my relationship. He called me “Sat-svaroop.” I don’t have to make up the early days. I just have to remember them as they were. Gradually more intimacy developed and a sense of belonging to his group. I was learning the philosophy of Krishna and eating lunch with him daily and taking “heavenly porridge” with the boys in the morning. It was a favorable burgeoning time. I remember leaving the storefront in the morning and walking to my workplace, feeling that I was a cowherd boy with my necktie in my back pocket. I had friendly talks with Rayarama and the others and felt they were my brotherhood of friends. I had moments alone with the Swami when I asked him questions about the philosophy and commented on how I was feeling. I was no longer intimidated by the city buildings in the concrete jungle. I saw them as material energy, and now they were temporary and in a sense unreal. Real was Krishna in the spiritual world. We had pictures of Radha and Krishna in Goloka Vrindavan. Gradually we were setting the foundation for lifelong commitment starting with the summer of 1966. We kind of knew what we were getting into.
I knew the Swami as my spiritual master, the guru of my soul. He was guiding me into my relationship with Krishna through him. We needed him to be there, and we wanted him and he was there. We knew where to find him, in his apartment, in his temple. He started a Sunday Love Feast and chanting in Tompkins Square Park. He was like putting milk in a bowl, and we were like cats lapping it up. Everything was auspicious, even as the season changed. So life revolved around the activities with the Swami and the future seemed eternal. We didn’t think of it ending. This was just fine, getting up at 1 a.m. and chanting japa on the red beads, sitting on the floor. Then dressing and leaving the apartment, entering the streets and passing people on your way to the storefront. As dependable as the Big Ben clock in London, the Swami would enter the storefront and step out of his shoes and sit and lead us in the morning tune chant for twenty minutes. Then he set up his reel-to-reel tape recorder and started lecturing about Sanatana Swami’s getting out of jail and going to meet Lord Caitanya in Benares. A cliff hanger lecture every morning. I can keep going back and remembering, and it’s always there. I don’t have to make it up. It all actually happened, and it was wonderful as he took me up and molded me into a devotee of Krishna consciousness. He is my Swami, and I hope to remember him now and at the hour of my death and to somehow go to him in that same mood as when I first joined him.
Aindra Prabhu:
from a lecture on March 16, 2009, in Varsana:
Humility means you have to be humble enough to realize that you are a fallen conditioned soul and your only hope is the sankirtana which has been specifically prescribed by the scripture and by Lord Caitanya and His representatives for the fallen souls of this age. No other process can help you.
Manadena means to respect the actual position of the living entities by engaging them in devotional service.
Book distribution is meant to convince the people to take to the sankirtana movement of Lord Caitanya.
If people do not do sankirtana. they will look for a higher taste elsewhere.
Japa is like taking tablets, and sankirtana is an injection.
from a lecture in March of 2010:
There are five more important items of devotional service, but the supreme item is nama-sankirtana. The other items cannot be complete without nama-sankirtana.
One comes to Vrindavan for the service of Srimati Radharani, and the best way to please Srimati Radharani is by chanting Hare Krishna. By pleasing Radharani only can we get the original Krishna.
We used to chant 8 or 10 hours a day [in public], and on Saturday 15 hours. Srila Prabhupada wrote a letter full of approval to Damodara Prabhu, our temple president, for our program in Washington, D.C., where we were chanting 14 hours a day.
In Vrindavan, for every hour of kirtana we get credit for a thousand hours of kirtana.
All except nama-sankirtana [the congregational chanting of the holy name] and what supports it, are cheating religion.
Laksmi Nrsimha Prabhu:
Rupa Goswami read Bharata Muni’s Rasa-tattva, describing mundane relationships in detail, and used his ideas in describing the eternal relationships we can have with Krishna.
In explaining the different rasas to people, I ask them, “Isn’t the love you have for your children different from the love you have for your spouse or the love you have for your parents?”
Dasa Mula—Ten Roots given by Bhaktivinoda Thakura
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Pramana: Evidence comes from the scripture.
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Parama-tattva: Hari alone is the Truth.
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He is the possessor of all potency.
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He is the source of all relationships, rasa.
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We are all his amsas (parts).
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Souls in this world are baddha (bound by maya [illusion]).
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Liberated souls are free from maya.
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We are simultaneous one with and different from Krishna [acintya-bheda-abheda].
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Pure devotion the is only means for perfection.
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Love of Krishna is the goal.
Respect means to look again and appreciate the good qualities of the person.
Aldous Huxley says the most realistic vision is to see our ourselves the way others see us and to see others the way they see themselves.
William James says that when two person are in a room there are actually six people: the way each person sees himself, the way each person sees the other, and the way each person actually is.
There is a Sufi saying that “words that come from the heart go to the heart, and words that just come from the lips do not make it past the ears.”
If we appreciate the qualities of others, we should express it.
Dayananda Swami:
Srila Prabhupada did not think the strategy of his godbrothers to distribute the books of his guru maharaja which were written for another time and place was so wise.
As we develop bhakti, our bhakti will impel us to spread it to others.
Maya likes senior devotees. [She says:] “Come with me . . . ”
Rama Raya Prabhu:
This sankirtana movement is not meant just to make a few street vendors teasingly take a few dance steps but to bring everyone on the planet to the point of chanting Hare Krishna with faith and love.
Because of the devotee’s attraction to Krishna, what is going on in the material world, no matter how popular or well advertised it is, is not of interest to him.
Q (by me): Is is sufficient just to go on harinama, which purifies the people, knowingly or unknowingly, to bring everyone on the planet to the point of chanting with faith and love or should we be doing other things too?
A: When the disease is severe, the medicine must be stronger and more frequently given. Thus there should be thousands of sankirtana parties going out regularly all over the world to bring people up to such a level of purity.
Radha Caran Prabhu:
Krishna arranges that the material bodies of the gopis stay home to please their family members while they go in the rasa dance with Krishna.
Pride disturbs the rasa [intimate relationship] we have Krishna, even in the case of the gopis [His most advanced devotees].
Ahladini Radharani Devi Dasa from her BTG article [Vol. 47, No. 1, page 22]:
“Just as red-hot cinders may smolder beneath a pile of hot ashes, love of God, though hidden, burns within the heart of every living entity. And just as blowing air on hot cinders can rekindle a flame, hearing the glories of the Lord can invoke one’s dormant love of God and revive one’s connection to Him.”
Caitanya-carana Prabhu:
Saying a resounding yes to Krsna is the most effective way of saying a decisive no to parasitic material desires.
Dr. Dina Bandhu Prabhu:
Religion regulates behavior, but so does our family or political system.
Religion is not so much different from other fields of study where there are teachers and a path.
Just as achieving an M.D. is not cheap, neither is attaining spiritual perfection.
Murali Gopal Prabhu:
Materialists love to know past, present, and future so they can maximize their sense grati
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 8, No. 21
By Krishna-kripa das
(November 2012, part one)
London, New York, Jacksonville
(Sent from Stuyvesant Falls, New York, on December 17, 2012)
Where I Went and What I Did
I continued to do harinama and lectures in London, based at Radha-Londonisvara’s temple on Soho Street for three days, flying to New York City the afternoon of the third day, to do harinama for a week with Rama Raya and Ekalavya Prabhus and their party who chant for four hours a day, mostly at Union Square. It was amazing to see the enthusiasm of those devotees for harinama and the enthusiasm of the New Yorkers who listened, gave donations, and took books about Krishna consciousness. I took a three-day break from the harinama party to visit family members. I visited my sister and my mother for a day each, cooking several meals and helping my mother with various computer issues. I visited my diksa-guru, Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, where I assisted his team in a successful marathon to get the first volume of his autobiography, The Story of My Life, printed by the beginning of December. On November 15, I flew to Jacksonville, where I spent a very enlivening day assisting in our outreach at the University of North Florida there.
This issue is bountiful with the insights of great souls. I begin with many quotes from the books and lecture of our founder-acarya Srila Prabhupada. Next there are some wonderful insights from the letters of his guru maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura from a collection of his letters called Patravali, soon to be published in an abridged form by Touchstone Publishing as Patramrita. After that there some useful quotes from Bhakti Charu Swami and Radhanath Swami. Then I have excerpts from the first volume of the recently published, The Story of My Life, by Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, mostly memories about the early days of our first center at 26 Second Ave. Then there are some revolutionary quotes by Aindra Prabhu, a great lover of the holy name. And Rama Raya Prabhu, a follower of Aindra, shares his conviction about the public chanting of the holy name. And there is still more!
Itinerary
Dec. 17–19, 2012: serving Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami in Stuyvesant, NY
Dec. 19–23, 2012: harinama in New York City
Dec. 24–25, 2012: visiting family in Albany, NY
Dec. 26, 2012–
Jan. 7, 2013: harinama in New York City
Jan. 8–April 2013: Gainesville, FL (with visits to Tallahassee and Jacksonville)
London Harinamas
I did harinama in London the first three days of November, before flying to New York. As the month of Karttika was starting, there was increased impetus to do more chanting and that boosted attendance on our harinamas. The after-breakfast harinama in London was much more regular and attended by more devotees than usual. In addition, late Friday afternoon we did harinama to Kings Cross for their Friday evening program at their storefront called “Matchless Gifts.” The Saturday Weekend Warrior program of chanting and book distribution was located in Ealing, a London borough which is practically on the way to Heathrow Airport, so I was able to participate for three hours before flying to New York.
Harinama in Manhattan
For several months Rama Raya Prabhu, who spent many years on Aindra Prabhu’s 24-Hour team in Vrindavan, and Ekalavya Prabhu, who plays the trumpet and is an excellent musician and performer, have been doing harinama in Manhattan, usually at Union Square, for four hours each and every day from 4 to 8 p.m. I joined their party for seven days. Once during foul weather we were chanting at Roosevelt Avenue subway station. I was singing my favorite tune of Hare Krishna and Ekalavya Prabhu played trumpet and a crowd of at least fifty people were watching us. I was amazed to see so many people stopped to watch a kirtana in America, especially one I was leading. One Sunday we chanted at Union Square for six hours from 2 to 8 p.m. One time we had seventeen people chanting, mostly practicing devotees with a few new people who had become interested from the daily public chanting in their city. Another day we had fifteen people. Even the slowest days we always had six or seven people at the end, although sometimes in the beginning there were just three or four of us. Some devotees are dedicated and go out every day for at least part of the time. One of these is Rasika Gopi dd, who as Bhaktin Rose went out on harinama with me twice in the Netherlands two and a half years ago.
Several new people have developed an interest in kirtana and Krishna consciousness during the several months the daily harinama has been going on and several thousand books have been distributed to people, just from them hearing the holy name and choosing to give a donation. Both Rama Raya and Ekalavya Prabhus are very enthusiastic about the program, and after a short break from January to March to go on pilgrimage in India, they are looking forward to another successful year.
Sharing Krishna at the University of North Florida
I have been singing on the campus of the University of North Florida in Jacksonville a few times a year since back in 2003 or 2004. I find the students are less under pressure in that relatively small school, and you always find interesting and interested people. People buy books, play instruments with us, like our treats, and talk about spiritual issues.
After a two-and-a-half-hour flight and a two-hour bus ride, I arrived at the campus too tired to chant, so I took lunch and a nap. Then in the late afternoon I decided to sit on a bench on the green and play my harmonium and sing for a couple of hours before our Thursday evening program and invite some new people to come.
I was surprised to meet Regina, one girl who remembered me from our weekly programs back in January, and who told me she has been coming to them ever since. Another girl, Jessica, just came to a single program, back in January, and also remembered me from that. We had a nice conversation about some supernatural experiences she had, and she promised to come to the program. On top of that, I met a math professor, who had done her graduate studies at University of California at San Diego and developed a love for the Krishna lunch the devotees served there each week. I had met her before on the green at UNF, and on days I did not see her there, I would bring prasadam to her office. It was wonderful that she spontaneously walked by during the brief time I was chanting there. I also met one young Indian man who is a Krishna devotee, and had looked online for Krishna temples in the area but had failed to find any. I told him about our program on the campus, and about our temples in Alachua and Gainesville. As a result he became a regular attendee at our programs at UNF.
By the fall semester of 2012, Dina Bandhu and Amrita Keli Prabhus, the devotees doing programs at UNF nature pavilion since January, had created enough interest in the students that they could create a Krishna Club with meetings on the campus. I was happy to see about fifteen people at the weekly program. Sometimes they said they got twenty-five. They do some yoga, have a talk related to Bhagavad-gita, have chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra with instruments, and then Krishna prasadam, spiritual food for the soul. When I was there, after the program they discussed plans for a weekend field trip to a home program in LaCrosse and the Govardhan Puja festival in our Alachua temple. I was surprised to see the number of students interested in the devotional adventure. It was inspiring for me to see the interest in Krishna consciousness in a new place, and I bet such programs could be started on many campuses by enthusiastic young devotees who simply share in a straight forward way whatever they have learned about Krishna with others.
Insights
Srila Prabhupada:
from Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi-lila 1.55, purport:
“The development of submissiveness is the cause of proportionate spiritual realization, by which one can ultimately meet the Supreme Lord in person, as a man meets another man face to face. Because of his development of transcendental attachment for the Supreme Lord, a surrendered soul feels the presence of his beloved everywhere, and all his senses are engaged in the loving service of the Lord. His eyes are engaged in seeing the beautiful couple Sri Radha and Krishna sitting on a decorated throne beneath a desire tree in the transcendental land of Vrindavan. His nose is engaged in smelling the spiritual aroma of the lotus feet of the Lord. Similarly, his ears are engaged in hearing messages from Vaikuntha, and his hands embrace the lotus feet of the Lord and His associates. Thus the Lord is manifested to a pure devotee from within and without. This is one of the mysteries of the devotional relationship in which a devotee and the Lord are bound by a tie of spontaneous love. To achieve this love should be the goal of life for every living being.”
from a lecture:
In this material life, you will never be able to make anyone happy by your activities. That is not possible. Neither you will be happy.
For the jnanis (those interested in cultivating knowledge) Krishna says, “After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.” (Bg. 7.19), for the karmis (those interested in enjoying their senses) Krishna says, “Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform — do that, O son of Kunti, as an offering to Me.” (Bg. 9.27), and for the yogis Krishna says, “A yogi is greater than the ascetic, greater than the empiricist and greater than the fruitive worker. Therefore, O Arjuna, in all circumstances, be a yogi” (Bg. 6.46).
Nirguna means Krishna is not influenced by the three qualities of material nature (gunas) not that He has no transcendental qualities.
from a lecture:
Meditation begins with the lotus feet of Lord. Meditation on Krishna’s lotus feet destroys the dirty things in our heart.
Krishna’s feet are marked with four primary symbols: ankusa (goad), vajra (thunderbolt), sauraubya (lotus), . . .
When a British reporter asked me where hell was. I told him London is hell. There is no sun. It is always rainy and cold. You to do not have to search out hell in another place, hell is already here.
There is no light so you are paying electricity bill, but in the spiritual world no additional illumination is required. Why do you not go there? Why should we pay the electric bill? Go to the spiritual world. Every planet is effulgence.
In the material world, even the richest person is full of anxiety, but the spiritual world is Vaikuntha, without anxiety, so we should aspire to go there.
No material condition can check Krishna consciousness.
from an early-morning walk in Vrindvana, India, in September 1975:
On one side they promote contraceptives, and on the other side they encourage women
to marry three times a week. This is their civilization. If you want to stop increasing the population, why are you inducing people: “Indulge in sex”? Everything is contradictory. And it is all based on sense gratification.
from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.6 in London on July 23, 1973:
Without following the religious principle there is not humanity. . . . It does not matter what kind of religion you follow, it doesn’t matter, but you must follow. . . . That is the duty, dharma. Human civilization begins when there is a religious conception of life.
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura:
from the abridged Patravali, known as Patramrita, to be printed by Touchstone Publishing:
If you pray for the well-being of your subordinates then your own spiritual progress will take place.
As far as the present anarthas [unwanted tendencies] are concerned, if your hearing and chanting is very strong, they cannot display their prominence.
When I think that I am well, I become averse to Krishna, and as a result, I consider senior devotees to be junior to me. That is why, considering this, Lord Krishna keeps me in various distressful conditions, such as in ill health and other inconveniences. At such times I try to understand the meaning of the verse beginning with tat te’nukampam [My dear Lord, one who earnestly waits for You to bestow Your causeless mercy upon him, all the while patiently suffering the reactions of his past misdeeds and offering You respectful obeisances with his heart, words and body, is surely eligible for liberation, for it has become his rightful claim. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.14.8)].
When we remain absorbed in material subjects, which are not related to Krishna, we are inclined to quarrel with the different people of the world.
I am very glad to learn that Bhaktisarvasva Giri has received an English certificate. If the sannyasis and brahmacaris keep proving their merit in this way at different places, our happiness will know no bounds.
We should have churches for devotion and love all over India (preaching centers for pure devotional service and love of Krishna). Perhaps you remember the teachings of Mahaprabhu:
prithivite ache yata nagaradi-grama
sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama
“In every town and village of the world, My name [the holy name of Krishna] will be preached.”
No one has the right to drink even a drop of nectar from the ocean of the transcendental mellows of Lord Krishna’s pastimes without the mercy of the daughter of King Vrishabhanu [Radharani, Lord Krishna’s consort].
The dim reflection of madhurya-rasa is svakiya-rasa, and so it is simply another form of dasya-rasa. Many people make a mistake by accepting Lord Narayana’s pastimes with His legitimate wife as madhurya-rasa.
“A Vaishnava comes to this material world according to his karma, and after spending a fixed amount of time here, he goes to where he is being sent by Baladeva, according to his qualifications. Mahalaksmi resides within Balarama, and within Mahalaksmi resides the Supreme Lord. Therefore, Tota has gone back to serve his worshipable Lord. He was a Vaishnava part and parcel of Nityananda Prabhu, the predominating Lord of the sandhini potency and so if you learn to treat Lord Vishnu as your son, you will no longer feel the absence of your son.
“As the Supreme Lord lived in the heart of Tota and so you served Him, so now you should serve Lord Baladeva. The material body of Tota has been merged into the five gross material elements. The spirit soul of Tota will remain engaged in the service of the energetic Lord. Your material son has been separated from his material father. He is meant to be enjoyed by the Supreme Lord and so his real business is to serve Him. Realizing that you are not conditioned by maya, the Supreme Lord will not allow you to become overwhelmed with grief and will bestow upon you His unlimited mercy and power. This is my feeling.”
When Mahaprabhu accepted the renounced order of life, He said to His old mother, His wife Vishnupriya-devi, and the residents of Navadvipa, “I am only a human being and I am related to all of you in some kind of relationship. When I am gone, you should establish your relationship with Krishna instead of Me and thus give Me an opportunity to serve Lord Hari independently.”
“They may think that sincere premika bhaktas, who are under the shelter of the transcendental parakiya-rasa, are less ethical, but love for Hari has such a wonderful power that even a greatly delightful moral standard becomes dim in front of it.”
The Supreme Lord keeps Himself hidden within this universe in order to test us. If we can perceive Him behind every object, our apparent misunderstandings will diminish.
The Supreme Lord’s testing place is this material world. In order to pass this test, one has to hear glorification of Hari from the mouths of devotees of Hari.
Only those whose time for the destruction of anarthas has arrived will hear lectures on the topics of Hari and thus become successful in their attempt to achieve the ultimate goal of life.
If you chant one hundred thousand holy names every day then the offenders will not be able to disturb your bhajana.
There cannot be any better and more favorable condition for bhajana than giving up bad association.
In the inclination for service on the path of aisvarya, the chanting of the holy name, Hare Rama, refers to Lord Rama, the son of Dasaratha. But the devotees who worship the Lord on the path of madhurya know Rama to be Gopi-ramana, or the enjoyer of the gopis. He is the son of Nanda. In that case, the word Rama refers to Radha-ramana, and the word Hara refers to the daughter of Vrsabhanu.
There is never any possibility of falling down for a person who has received even a hint, or reflection, of the mula-mantra, or the secret of unalloyed bhajana. Still, as full-fledged members, their inability to accept the authority of the matha as a result of their previous offenses committed against the Vaishnavas is ultimately due to their personal weakness. When, by the grace of the Supreme Lord, the service attitude is progressively increased within their heart, they will not fall prey to sinful propensities. Try to benefit such fallen persons by helping them. That will be an act of real friendship.
Thoughtless and ignorant people who are unable to comprehend the magnanimous pastimes of exalted personalities question, “Why did Kala Krishnadasa, who was under the shelter of Gaurasundara, become attracted to the Bhattathari women? Why did Chota Haridasa, rather than exhibiting the example of a devotee, engage in inferior activity on the pretext of serving Gaura? Why did Ramacandra Puri give up his subordination to Madhavendra Puri? Why did a few so-called sons of Advaita Acarya Prabhu, and a few so-called disciples of Virabhadra, become independent?”
Ignorant people may like the arguments that challenge the faith of those on the kanistha and madhyama platforms which are put forth by those who are out of touch with reality and cannot accept the actual truth, but when these foolish people enter the deep meaning of the transcendentally magnanimous pastimes of exalted personalities who are under the shelter of Lord Caitanya or His devotees, they will understand that in order to provide an opportunity for well-being to all unfit and fallen souls, Lord Caitanya has revealed the truth that all living entities are constitutionally servants of Lord Krishna. Even though the service of Krishna temporarily manifested in a perverted form as an aversion to Krishna when combined with material enjoyment is abominable in the eyes of unqualified gross materialists who believe in direct perception, it does not violate the principle of the api cet suduracara verse. A maha-bhagavata knows everyone as his spiritual master and therefore only a maha-bhagavata is the spiritual master of the whole world.
The goal of our service is to arrange a meeting between the object of worship and the worshiper.
Bhajana is not something to make a show of. If we chant the holy name loudly, the enjoyment of idleness cannot devour us.
Bhakti Charu Swami:
Lord Caitanya taught Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Vrindavan is His abode, and the gopis method of worship is best.
If Yasoda knew that Krishna was the Supreme Personality could she try to tie Him up?
Everyone forgets that Krishna is God in Vrindavan.
The relationships of friendship, parenthood, and conjugal love are prominent in Vrindavan.
Aghasura could not be killed by the demigods, who would tremble in fear at the sound of his name.
If one performs vaidhi-bhakti he attains Vaikuntha.
After Krishna demonstrated his pastimes, he considered that when bhakti is merely performed according to rules and regulations, no one would ever attain Goloka Vrindavan.
Raganuga means to follow a resident of Vrindavan. By serving Lord Caitanya, we are serving Radharani, and what greater resident of Vrindavan is there than Radharani?
Asvatthama had the benediction from Lord Shiva to be invisible for one night, and so he could kill the sleeping Pandavas without being stopped. Why would Krishna would allow them to be killed? They had played their role in His pastimes and so they would not be needed in this world.
At the border of Vrindavan and Mathura when Krishna and Akrura bathed, Shyamasundara Krishna returned to Vrindavan and Vasudeva Krishna continued to Mathura and Dvaraka.
To go from Vaikuntha to Goloka Vrindavan, you have to come to this world and do sankirtana in Vrindavan.
Regarding your mother, because she went back to Godhead, you should consider what is your relationship with her now. Do you want to follow her example? Do you want to assist her in her service to Krishna? Do you want to pray to her that you might also be engaged in Krishna’s service?
When you give up an old car and buy a new one, do you lament? So in the same way, we should not lament when one gets a better body for serving Krishna.
A rich man is always changing his car while a poor man holds on to it until it is a piece of junk. We are neither the rich man nor the poor man. We are the chauffeur of the richest man, and He will certainly make sure we have a first class car to drive in His service, so we do not have to worry.
Radhanath Swami:
from a BTG article:
Mother Theresa spoke to me years ago, “The greatest problem in this world is not the hunger of the stomach but the hunger of the heart. All over the world both rich and poor suffer. They are lonely, starving for love. Only God’s love can satisfy the hunger of the heart.”
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
from his autobiography, The Story of My Life:
It is always good to live with the chanting and to bring it out in a time of difficulty. It may seem odd to the people who are confining you, but it will always work in your favor. They will know you are religious and serious.
And I was there among the first. I feel he [Srila Prabhupada] will always remember me as “Satsvarupa” from my typing and donations and giving him a daily mango. He picked me up as a sad lonely hippie and made me a happy and responsible son. I will never forget those days or fail to treasure them.
At the welfare office I chanted Hare Krishna mantras silently in my mind. The Swami had approved the practice. I had told him my co-workers engaged in talking nonsense. He said, “Even the greatest philosophers are talking nonsense. Go on chanting Hare Krishna in your mind.”
Going to meet the Swami was the nectar of life, and I did it every morning for Caitanya-caritamrta class and every evening for kirtana and his Bhagavad-gita class. He was so kind and inviting, accepting me as I was, and giving me typing tasks. I gave him my money and that solidified my relationship. He called me “Sat-svaroop.” I don’t have to make up the early days. I just have to remember them as they were. Gradually more intimacy developed and a sense of belonging to his group. I was learning the philosophy of Krishna and eating lunch with him daily and taking “heavenly porridge” with the boys in the morning. It was a favorable burgeoning time. I remember leaving the storefront in the morning and walking to my workplace, feeling that I was a cowherd boy with my necktie in my back pocket. I had friendly talks with Rayarama and the others and felt they were my brotherhood of friends. I had moments alone with the Swami when I asked him questions about the philosophy and commented on how I was feeling. I was no longer intimidated by the city buildings in the concrete jungle. I saw them as material energy, and now they were temporary and in a sense unreal. Real was Krishna in the spiritual world. We had pictures of Radha and Krishna in Goloka Vrindavan. Gradually we were setting the foundation for lifelong commitment starting with the summer of 1966. We kind of knew what we were getting into.
I knew the Swami as my spiritual master, the guru of my soul. He was guiding me into my relationship with Krishna through him. We needed him to be there, and we wanted him and he was there. We knew where to find him, in his apartment, in his temple. He started a Sunday Love Feast and chanting in Tompkins Square Park. He was like putting milk in a bowl, and we were like cats lapping it up. Everything was auspicious, even as the season changed. So life revolved around the activities with the Swami and the future seemed eternal. We didn’t think of it ending. This was just fine, getting up at 1 a.m. and chanting japa on the red beads, sitting on the floor. Then dressing and leaving the apartment, entering the streets and passing people on your way to the storefront. As dependable as the Big Ben clock in London, the Swami would enter the storefront and step out of his shoes and sit and lead us in the morning tune chant for twenty minutes. Then he set up his reel-to-reel tape recorder and started lecturing about Sanatana Swami’s getting out of jail and going to meet Lord Caitanya in Benares. A cliff hanger lecture every morning. I can keep going back and remembering, and it’s always there. I don’t have to make it up. It all actually happened, and it was wonderful as he took me up and molded me into a devotee of Krishna consciousness. He is my Swami, and I hope to remember him now and at the hour of my death and to somehow go to him in that same mood as when I first joined him.
Aindra Prabhu:
from a lecture on March 16, 2009, in Varsana:
Humility means you have to be humble enough to realize that you are a fallen conditioned soul and your only hope is the sankirtana which has been specifically prescribed by the scripture and by Lord Caitanya and His representatives for the fallen souls of this age. No other process can help you.
Manadena means to respect the actual position of the living entities by engaging them in devotional service.
Book distribution is meant to convince the people to take to the sankirtana movement of Lord Caitanya.
If people do not do sankirtana. they will look for a higher taste elsewhere.
Japa is like taking tablets, and sankirtana is an injection.
from a lecture in March of 2010:
There are five more important items of devotional service, but the supreme item is nama-sankirtana. The other items cannot be complete without nama-sankirtana.
One comes to Vrindavan for the service of Srimati Radharani, and the best way to please Srimati Radharani is by chanting Hare Krishna. By pleasing Radharani only can we get the original Krishna.
We used to chant 8 or 10 hours a day [in public], and on Saturday 15 hours. Srila Prabhupada wrote a letter full of approval to Damodara Prabhu, our temple president, for our program in Washington, D.C., where we were chanting 14 hours a day.
In Vrindavan, for every hour of kirtana we get credit for a thousand hours of kirtana.
All except nama-sankirtana [the congregational chanting of the holy name] and what supports it, are cheating religion.
Laksmi Nrsimha Prabhu:
Rupa Goswami read Bharata Muni’s Rasa-tattva, describing mundane relationships in detail, and used his ideas in describing the eternal relationships we can have with Krishna.
In explaining the different rasas to people, I ask them, “Isn’t the love you have for your children different from the love you have for your spouse or the love you have for your parents?”
Dasa Mula—Ten Roots given by Bhaktivinoda Thakura
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Pramana: Evidence comes from the scripture.
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Parama-tattva: Hari alone is the Truth.
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He is the possessor of all potency.
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He is the source of all relationships, rasa.
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We are all his amsas (parts).
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Souls in this world are baddha (bound by maya [illusion]).
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Liberated souls are free from maya.
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We are simultaneous one with and different from Krishna [acintya-bheda-abheda].
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Pure devotion the is only means for perfection.
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Love of Krishna is the goal.
Respect means to look again and appreciate the good qualities of the person.
Aldous Huxley says the most realistic vision is to see our ourselves the way others see us and to see others the way they see themselves.
William James says that when two person are in a room there are actually six people: the way each person sees himself, the way each person sees the other, and the way each person actually is.
There is a Sufi saying that “words that come from the heart go to the heart, and words that just come from the lips do not make it past the ears.”
If we appreciate the qualities of others, we should express it.
Dayananda Swami:
Srila Prabhupada did not think the strategy of his godbrothers to distribute the books of his guru maharaja which were written for another time and place was so wise.
As we develop bhakti, our bhakti will impel us to spread it to others.
Maya likes senior devotees. [She says:] “Come with me . . . ”
Rama Raya Prabhu:
This sankirtana movement is not meant just to make a few street vendors teasingly take a few dance steps but to bring everyone on the planet to the point of chanting Hare Krishna with faith and love.
Because of the devotee’s attraction to Krishna, what is going on in the material world, no matter how popular or well advertised it is, is not of interest to him.
Q (by me): Is is sufficient just to go on harinama, which purifies the people, knowingly or unknowingly, to bring everyone on the planet to the point of chanting with faith and love or should we be doing other things too?
A: When the disease is severe, the medicine must be stronger and more frequently given. Thus there should be thousands of sankirtana parties going out regularly all over the world to bring people up to such a level of purity.
Radha Caran Prabhu:
Krishna arranges that the material bodies of the gopis stay home to please their family members while they go in the rasa dance with Krishna.
Pride disturbs the rasa [intimate relationship] we have Krishna, even in the case of the gopis [His most advanced devotees].
Ahladini Radharani Devi Dasa from her BTG article [Vol. 47, No. 1, page 22]:
“Just as red-hot cinders may smolder beneath a pile of hot ashes, love of God, though hidden, burns within the heart of every living entity. And just as blowing air on hot cinders can rekindle a flame, hearing the glories of the Lord can invoke one’s dormant love of God and revive one’s connection to Him.”
Caitanya-carana Prabhu:
Saying a resounding yes to Krsna is the most effective way of saying a decisive no to parasitic material desires.
Dr. Dina Bandhu Prabhu:
Religion regulates behavior, but so does our family or political system.
Religion is not so much different from other fields of study where there are teachers and a path.
Just as achieving an M.D. is not cheap, neither is attaining spiritual perfection.
Murali Gopal Prabhu:
Materialists love to know past, present, and future so they can maximize their sense grati
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 8, No. 20
By Krishna-kripa das
(October 2012, part two)
The North of England and London
(Sent from Stuyvesant Falls, New York, on December 12, 2012)
Where I Went and What I Did
As Newcastle and The North of England are my base in the summer, I felt I should return there before going to the U.S.A. for the winter. I spent a few days in Newcastle and was happy that Prema Sankirtana Prabhu encouraged a few new devotees to go out with us on harinama, and they all had pleasant experiences. During one busy period from October 21 to October 29, I gave nine evening lectures, in Newcastle, Sunderland, Leeds, Sheffield, Preston, Liverpool, Bolton, Manchester, and London. Harinamas in Sheffield, Preston, and Bolton stand out in my mind. In Sheffield favorable people talked to me, in Preston a couple who met us on harinama came to our evening program, and in Bolton several children joined us, carrying our mantra signs, chanting, dancing, and even trying to play the drum. I have several pictures of that lively Bolton harinama. I was planning to fly to New York on October 30, so I could be there to do harinama on Halloween, but Hurricane Sandy, under the direction of the Supreme Lord, delayed my departure, so I got to chant for a few days with my London friends on Oxford Street. One London devotee who was committed to doing harinama every Thursday night at 6:00 p.m., decided to increase for Karttika and do harinama 6:00 p.m. every night that he had no other engagement. Thus as it turned out on Halloween, I got to give two lectures and go on harinama for four hours. Indeed, had I turned down the second lecture opportunity and continued with the harinama, it would have been six hours. I like college outreach programs, however, as I met the devotees at that time in my life and like to encourage people of that age, so I spoke to the students instead of doing more harinama. In London, I also met some friends from America, specifically, my former temple president in St. Augustine, Vasudeva Prabhu, who came to the UK to help start a devotee restaurant in Nottingham, and Estefania, who encountered the devotees in Gainesville, and was enroute to India to study Bhakti-sastri and for pilgrimage. She joined us for harinama in London on Halloween.
I do not have so many lecture notes to share, as I was staying at places without morning programs, just a few from London where I ended out the month, most notably one by Candramauli Swami and another by Gaura Krishna Prabhu.
Itinerary
Dec. 12–19, 2012: Serving Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami in Stuyvesant, NY
Dec. 19–23, 2012: harinama in New York City
Dec. 24–25, 2012: Visiting family in Albany, NY
Dec. 26, 2012–
Jan. 7, 2013: harinama in New York City
Jan. 8–April 2013: Gainesville, FL (with visits to Tallahassee and Jacksonville)
Memorable Harinamas in the North of England
This time in Sheffield was the only time I could not find anyone to go out with me on harinama. Moreover it was lightly sprinkling a lot of the time. Still a few people stopped to talk:
-
an Eastern European who did not know we had Hare Krishna programs in Sheffield.
-
two Muslim couples, stopping at different times, who upon hearing my explanation, considered that chanting God’s names in public was a good thing to do.
-
a lady who was a follower of another Gaudiya Vaishnava group who did not know there were Hare Krishna programs in Sheffield.
Because of informing a few people about our local programs and our process of chanting the holy name, the fact that I was chanting alone in the rain did not negatively color my experience, but rather I felt glad I had gone out on harinama in Sheffield.
In Preston, Bhakta Doug is full of enthusiasm. The weekly Thursday program that had been reduced to a monthly Thursday program has been elevated to its former status as a weekly program by him. Moreover Bhakta Doug is always ready to go on harinama. While the two of us were on harinama, we met a couple who attend our programs at Bhaktivedanta Manor. The man works during the week at different cities in the UK, sometimes at a company office in Chorley, just 20 minutes from Preston. He was happy to learn of our Thursday programs in Preston, and he and his wife attended it that very night.
I was surprised to see the number of people roaming the streets of Bolton on Saturday during the time of our monthly harinama. Some were children who were attracted to join our kirtana party.
A few boys danced.
Two girls carried our Hare Krishna mantra signs in front of our party for some time.
One guy even tried playing the drum.
One girl bowed down to the the devotees.
One girl delighted in taking pictures of her friends with the devotees. The children must have participated for at least 45 minutes. Local devotees say that this was not the first time the kids participated. After the harinama, as we were driving to the temple for the program after, two of the girls who had held our mantra signs, spotted us in the car, and ran up to smilingly knuckle touch our driver.
Vrajendralal Prabhu, singing in front in the picture below, is the leader of the monthly Bolton harinama program, which is generally the last Saturday of the month.
Insights
Candramauli Swami:
Even the residents of Vrindavana got into trouble because of their relationship with Krishna, but He saved them in the end. Krishna will always save you. Sometimes not in the beginning but in the end.
Life is about learning how to die in the right consciousness, thinking of Krishna, so you attain the spiritual world. One is happy to leave when Krishna says it is time to go.
Spiritual life is difficult, but material life is impossible. Material life is impossible because whatever you gain you lose, but in spiritual life, your spiritual assets come with you to the next life.
Hanuman becomes a physician, Murari Gupta, in Lord Caitanya’s pastimes. Actually he was also a physician in Lord Rama’s pastimes because he brought the herbs to bring Laksman back to life.
In the last stanza of the “Damodarastakam” the phrase “your unlimited pastimes” refers to rasa-lila [Lord Krishna’s celebrated dance with the gopis].
If we could hear Krishna’s flute we would drop everything in the material world.
When pride enters, Krishna is gone.
Bhakti means to assist the Lord in His pastimes.
The gopis always aspire to assist Radha and Krishna in Their pastimes.
People say they love God, but what do they actually do for God?
If you want to do something to increase the happiness of the other person, that is love.
Radharani can please Krishna by being mad at Him, and that is difficult to do, but Radha can do it.
Krishna wants to taste love from each and every soul.
In this world, people pray to God for food, but in the spiritual world, they consider what food to offer to God.
Prabhupada says Krishna’s favorite sweet is rasgulla.
The soft sweet sound in the heart is the Lord, and that loud voice is our false ego.
Krishna’s name, Gopi-vallabha, means one who gives ever newer pleasure to the gopis.
Niranjana Swami:
from a recorded lecture in Ukraine:
Krishna enjoys by sharing the pleasure He enjoys with His devotees.
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
from his autobiography entitled, The Story of My Life:
“Krishna-kripa quoted Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati as saying harinama sankirtana was the emperor of all sadhanas. Every form of sadhana must have its connection with harinama sankirtana in order to have its meaning. He said this was the best quote he had ever found and Agnideva said, ‘Wow!’ I hope I connected to harinama sankirtana while describing the spring, otherwise it’s useless. We chant while we work, singing the Lord’s Names.”
from Viraha Bhavan, October 25, 2012 poem:
I am remembering Bhaktisiddhanta
Sarasvati’s saying that the Hare Krishna mantra
is nama-bhajana to Radha.
Gaura Krishna Prabhu:
When Gopa Kumara attained Goloka Vrindavana and ran up to Krishna and embraced Him, they both fainted in ecstasy. At Heathrow you will see many reunions, but nothing like that.
Our reunion with Krishna comes through service.
We each have a special thing to offer to Krishna. Although He is self-sufficient He is missing that special thing until we reconnect and offer it to Him.
Kirtida dd:
Krishna explains that without tolerating dualities we cannot come up to the level of spiritual knowledge.
Radha Mohan Prabhu:
Just as people all over world were interested when Bin Ladin was killed, all the demigods were very interested to hear that Krishna had killed Aghasura.
Although Krishna as the Lord is worthy of being served, He took pleasure in letting His friends eat their lunch while He searched for the calves.
comment by Gaura Prabhu:
One student who joined a devotional retreat in South Africa became convinced that this Krishna consciousness was something special by the end of it because all we did was sing the same song and yet it got better and better. Thus he joined and became a very good preacher.
Radha Ramana Prabhu (of Wales):
conversation of prospective disciple with Radhanatha Swami:
prospective disciple: I feel you are my spiritual master.
Radhanatha Swami: I feel I am your servant.
—–
tava kathamritam tapta-jivanam
kavibhir iditam kalmashapaham
sravana-mangalam srimad atatam
bhuvi grinanti ye bhuri-da janah
[The gopis addressing Lord Krishna:] “The nectar of Your words and the descriptions of Your activities are the life and soul of those suffering in this material world. These narrations, transmitted by learned sages, eradicate one’s sinful reactions and bestow good fortune upon whoever hears them. These narrations are broadcast all over the world and are filled with spiritual power. Certainly those who spread the message of Godhead are most munificent.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.31.9)
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 8, No. 20
By Krishna-kripa das
(October 2012, part two)
The North of England and London
(Sent from Stuyvesant Falls, New York, on December 12, 2012)
Where I Went and What I Did
As Newcastle and The North of England are my base in the summer, I felt I should return there before going to the U.S.A. for the winter. I spent a few days in Newcastle and was happy that Prema Sankirtana Prabhu encouraged a few new devotees to go out with us on harinama, and they all had pleasant experiences. During one busy period from October 21 to October 29, I gave nine evening lectures, in Newcastle, Sunderland, Leeds, Sheffield, Preston, Liverpool, Bolton, Manchester, and London. Harinamas in Sheffield, Preston, and Bolton stand out in my mind. In Sheffield favorable people talked to me, in Preston a couple who met us on harinama came to our evening program, and in Bolton several children joined us, carrying our mantra signs, chanting, dancing, and even trying to play the drum. I have several pictures of that lively Bolton harinama. I was planning to fly to New York on October 30, so I could be there to do harinama on Halloween, but Hurricane Sandy, under the direction of the Supreme Lord, delayed my departure, so I got to chant for a few days with my London friends on Oxford Street. One London devotee who was committed to doing harinama every Thursday night at 6:00 p.m., decided to increase for Karttika and do harinama 6:00 p.m. every night that he had no other engagement. Thus as it turned out on Halloween, I got to give two lectures and go on harinama for four hours. Indeed, had I turned down the second lecture opportunity and continued with the harinama, it would have been six hours. I like college outreach programs, however, as I met the devotees at that time in my life and like to encourage people of that age, so I spoke to the students instead of doing more harinama. In London, I also met some friends from America, specifically, my former temple president in St. Augustine, Vasudeva Prabhu, who came to the UK to help start a devotee restaurant in Nottingham, and Estefania, who encountered the devotees in Gainesville, and was enroute to India to study Bhakti-sastri and for pilgrimage. She joined us for harinama in London on Halloween.
I do not have so many lecture notes to share, as I was staying at places without morning programs, just a few from London where I ended out the month, most notably one by Candramauli Swami and another by Gaura Krishna Prabhu.
Itinerary
Dec. 12–19, 2012: Serving Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami in Stuyvesant, NY
Dec. 19–23, 2012: harinama in New York City
Dec. 24–25, 2012: Visiting family in Albany, NY
Dec. 26, 2012–
Jan. 7, 2013: harinama in New York City
Jan. 8–April 2013: Gainesville, FL (with visits to Tallahassee and Jacksonville)
Memorable Harinamas in the North of England
This time in Sheffield was the only time I could not find anyone to go out with me on harinama. Moreover it was lightly sprinkling a lot of the time. Still a few people stopped to talk:
-
an Eastern European who did not know we had Hare Krishna programs in Sheffield.
-
two Muslim couples, stopping at different times, who upon hearing my explanation, considered that chanting God’s names in public was a good thing to do.
-
a lady who was a follower of another Gaudiya Vaishnava group who did not know there were Hare Krishna programs in Sheffield.
Because of informing a few people about our local programs and our process of chanting the holy name, the fact that I was chanting alone in the rain did not negatively color my experience, but rather I felt glad I had gone out on harinama in Sheffield.
In Preston, Bhakta Doug is full of enthusiasm. The weekly Thursday program that had been reduced to a monthly Thursday program has been elevated to its former status as a weekly program by him. Moreover Bhakta Doug is always ready to go on harinama. While the two of us were on harinama, we met a couple who attend our programs at Bhaktivedanta Manor. The man works during the week at different cities in the UK, sometimes at a company office in Chorley, just 20 minutes from Preston. He was happy to learn of our Thursday programs in Preston, and he and his wife attended it that very night.
I was surprised to see the number of people roaming the streets of Bolton on Saturday during the time of our monthly harinama. Some were children who were attracted to join our kirtana party.
A few boys danced.
Two girls carried our Hare Krishna mantra signs in front of our party for some time.
One guy even tried playing the drum.
One girl bowed down to the the devotees.
One girl delighted in taking pictures of her friends with the devotees. The children must have participated for at least 45 minutes. Local devotees say that this was not the first time the kids participated. After the harinama, as we were driving to the temple for the program after, two of the girls who had held our mantra signs, spotted us in the car, and ran up to smilingly knuckle touch our driver.
Vrajendralal Prabhu, singing in front in the picture below, is the leader of the monthly Bolton harinama program, which is generally the last Saturday of the month.
Insights
Candramauli Swami:
Even the residents of Vrindavana got into trouble because of their relationship with Krishna, but He saved them in the end. Krishna will always save you. Sometimes not in the beginning but in the end.
Life is about learning how to die in the right consciousness, thinking of Krishna, so you attain the spiritual world. One is happy to leave when Krishna says it is time to go.
Spiritual life is difficult, but material life is impossible. Material life is impossible because whatever you gain you lose, but in spiritual life, your spiritual assets come with you to the next life.
Hanuman becomes a physician, Murari Gupta, in Lord Caitanya’s pastimes. Actually he was also a physician in Lord Rama’s pastimes because he brought the herbs to bring Laksman back to life.
In the last stanza of the “Damodarastakam” the phrase “your unlimited pastimes” refers to rasa-lila [Lord Krishna’s celebrated dance with the gopis].
If we could hear Krishna’s flute we would drop everything in the material world.
When pride enters, Krishna is gone.
Bhakti means to assist the Lord in His pastimes.
The gopis always aspire to assist Radha and Krishna in Their pastimes.
People say they love God, but what do they actually do for God?
If you want to do something to increase the happiness of the other person, that is love.
Radharani can please Krishna by being mad at Him, and that is difficult to do, but Radha can do it.
Krishna wants to taste love from each and every soul.
In this world, people pray to God for food, but in the spiritual world, they consider what food to offer to God.
Prabhupada says Krishna’s favorite sweet is rasgulla.
The soft sweet sound in the heart is the Lord, and that loud voice is our false ego.
Krishna’s name, Gopi-vallabha, means one who gives ever newer pleasure to the gopis.
Niranjana Swami:
from a recorded lecture in Ukraine:
Krishna enjoys by sharing the pleasure He enjoys with His devotees.
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
from his autobiography entitled, The Story of My Life:
“Krishna-kripa quoted Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati as saying harinama sankirtana was the emperor of all sadhanas. Every form of sadhana must have its connection with harinama sankirtana in order to have its meaning. He said this was the best quote he had ever found and Agnideva said, ‘Wow!’ I hope I connected to harinama sankirtana while describing the spring, otherwise it’s useless. We chant while we work, singing the Lord’s Names.”
from Viraha Bhavan, October 25, 2012 poem:
I am remembering Bhaktisiddhanta
Sarasvati’s saying that the Hare Krishna mantra
is nama-bhajana to Radha.
Gaura Krishna Prabhu:
When Gopa Kumara attained Goloka Vrindavana and ran up to Krishna and embraced Him, they both fainted in ecstasy. At Heathrow you will see many reunions, but nothing like that.
Our reunion with Krishna comes through service.
We each have a special thing to offer to Krishna. Although He is self-sufficient He is missing that special thing until we reconnect and offer it to Him.
Kirtida dd:
Krishna explains that without tolerating dualities we cannot come up to the level of spiritual knowledge.
Radha Mohan Prabhu:
Just as people all over world were interested when Bin Ladin was killed, all the demigods were very interested to hear that Krishna had killed Aghasura.
Although Krishna as the Lord is worthy of being served, He took pleasure in letting His friends eat their lunch while He searched for the calves.
comment by Gaura Prabhu:
One student who joined a devotional retreat in South Africa became convinced that this Krishna consciousness was something special by the end of it because all we did was sing the same song and yet it got better and better. Thus he joined and became a very good preacher.
Radha Ramana Prabhu (of Wales):
conversation of prospective disciple with Radhanatha Swami:
prospective disciple: I feel you are my spiritual master.
Radhanatha Swami: I feel I am your servant.
—–
tava kathamritam tapta-jivanam
kavibhir iditam kalmashapaham
sravana-mangalam srimad atatam
bhuvi grinanti ye bhuri-da janah
[The gopis addressing Lord Krishna:] “The nectar of Your words and the descriptions of Your activities are the life and soul of those suffering in this material world. These narrations, transmitted by learned sages, eradicate one’s sinful reactions and bestow good fortune upon whoever hears them. These narrations are broadcast all over the world and are filled with spiritual power. Certainly those who spread the message of Godhead are most munificent.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.31.9)
