Planet ISKCON

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Srila Prabhupada’s spiritual master, is my grand spiritual master, but I feel that I never really knew him very well until I read his biography Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Vaibhava, by my godbrother Bhakti Vikasa Swami. Many of the quotes and references below come from that work.

 We are all here by the mercy of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. There’s a line through which the mercy descends upon us, beginning with Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and passing, one teacher after the other, through parampara, disciplic succession. Five thousand years ago, Krishna came in His original form and instructed in the Bhagavad-gita (9.34, 18.65), man-mana bhava mad-bhakto: “Always think of Me and become My devotee.” Five hundred years ago, Lord Krishna came again, in the devotional form of Sri Krishna Chaitanya, to explain and personally show how to be a devotee and always think of Krishna. Lord Chaitanya quoted a verse from the Brhan-naradiya Purana (38.126):

harer nama harer nama
  harer namaiva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva
  nasty eva gatir anyatha

“One should chant the holy name, chant the holy name, chant the holy name of Hari, Krishna. There is no other way, no other way, no other way for success in the present age of Kali.” He also desired and predicted:

prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama
sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama

“In as many towns and villages as there are on the surface of the earth, My holy name will be propagated.” (Cb 3.4.126) This desire and prediction were expressed at a time when it was almost impossible to imagine or believe that it could happen.

In the 1800s, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura began the effort to spread the holy name of Krishna to countries outside India. He wrote a small book in English called Chaitanya Mahaprabhu: His Life and Precepts and dispatched copies to libraries around the world. In recent years, Srila Prabhupada’s disciples have discovered copies in libraries from Canada (McGill University) to Australia. Bhaktivinoda Thakura yearned for the day when devotees from all over the world would unite in harinama-sankirtana and wrote, “Very soon the unparalleled path of harinama-sankirtana will be propagated all over the planet. . . . Oh, for that day when the fortunate English, French, Russian, German, and American people will take up banners, mridangas, and kartals and perform kirtan through their streets and towns. When will that day come? Oh, for the day when the fair-skinned men from their side will raise up the chanting of ‘Jaya Sacinandana, jaya Sacinandana ki jaya!’ and join with the Bengali devotees. When will that day be?” (Sajjana-tosani)

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was a very powerful spiritual master, an acharya. After the disappearance of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates, many unscrupulous people claiming to be Mahaprabhu’s followers introduced concocted philosophies and practices—even illicit activities—to the point that if an educated Bengali heard the word Vaishnava, he would immediately think the worst. In educated circles Vaishnava had come to mean a sentimental, ignorant person of loose character who, in the guise of religion, engaged in all sorts of questionable activities. In this precarious situation, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura came forward and presented the true understanding of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, speaking strongly against the deviant groups that had distorted and perverted His pure teachings and practices.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura held a high position in the British rule of India—the highest an Indian could hold, and then only very rarely. He had important responsibilities in the government and had a large family, but his main interest was Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the sankirtana movement. He would sleep little and rise early. He did so much—wrote books, traveled, preached, established centers—and had a tremendous effect, especially on the people of Bengal and Orissa, including the intellectual elite, who were just then coming in touch with modern ideas from the West. He revived the true mission of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, inspiring hosts of people to join him, and pushed back the deviant groups, which lost much of their influence.

Having undertaken such a tremendous task and executed it so successfully but still being surrounded by so many parties with vested interests in covering the true intention of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was at a loss as to who would carry on his mission. He prayed to Krishna to send someone—one of His own associates from the spiritual realm—to continue the work. It is understood that the appearance of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura was the answer to Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s prayers.

There are many incidents from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati’s early life that indicate that he was that person sent by Krishna. When Srila Bhaktisiddhanta was five months old, the Ratha-yatra cart halted in front of Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s home in Puri, and the Thakura directed his wife, Bhagavati Devi, to carry the baby to the chariot. When the infant was placed at the lotus feet of Lord Jagannatha, he extended his tiny arms to touch the Deity’s feet, and Lord Jagannatha dropped one of His garlands around him—a blessing and a confirmation of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta’s divine descent.

Sri Siddhanta Sarasvati understood his father’s mission and worked with him to fulfill it. His father initiated him into the chanting of the holy name (hari-nama), the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, but according to etiquette, a father does not give actual diksa to his son. So Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura instructed him to approach Srila Gaurakisora dasa Babaji, a great maha-bhagavata—a fully self-realized, liberated soul—for diksa. But Srila Gaurakisora dasa Babaji was a renounced bhajananandi and was not inclined to accept disciples; he preferred simply to immerse himself in chanting the holy names and hearing scripture.

When Sri Siddhanta Sarasvati approached Srila Gaurakisora dasa Babaji Maharaja, Babaji Maharaja told him directly that he would not accept him or anyone else as a disciple. Still, Siddhanta Sarasvati persisted, so Babaji Maharaja told him, “I will ask Mahaprabhu.” A few days later, when Siddhanta Sarasvati returned and inquired, “What was Mahaprabhu’s order?” Babaji Maharaja replied, “I forgot to ask.” And when Siddhanta Sarasvati came for the third time, Babaji Maharaja directly refused him: “Mahaprabhu has not given permission.” Sri Siddhanta Sarasvati was devastated. He stood up and quoted a line by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, addressed to the guru—karuna na hoile, kandiya kandiya, prana na rakhibo ara: “If you are not merciful to me, I will simply weep and weep and will not be able to maintain my life.” Finally, when Gaurakisora dasa Babaji Maharaja understood how sincere and serious Sri Siddhanta Sarasvati was, he accepted him as his disciple and initiated him.

Five years later, in 1905, Sri Siddhanta Sarasvati undertook a vow to chant at least three lakh holy names daily—ten million monthly—until he had chanted one billion holy names. For his disciples, Srila Prabhupada fixed the minimum number of sixteen rounds per day, which takes most devotees about two hours. Four times sixteen is sixty-four rounds, or one lakh names. And three times sixty-four rounds equal three hundred thousand names, which would take us, even at a good rate, at least sixteen hours a day. In Mayapur, Sri Siddhanta Sarasvati constructed a grass hut, where he lived very simply and chanted day and night. If rain came and leaked through the thatched roof, he would just hold up an umbrella and continue chanting: “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.”

To complete his vow took more than nine years, but even then, Sri Siddhanta Sarasvati would write, preach, and serve the dhama. One program he attended was especially significant. In Bengal the caste brahmans held a stranglehold on people’s religious practices. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura had spoken openly against them and their false claim, based on their supposed high birth, that they possessed exclusive rights to be gurus and perform brahminical functions. Naturally, when Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Sri Siddhanta Sarasvati challenged them, the brahmans reacted. An assembly of smarta-brahmanas and jata-gosanis (caste Gosvamis) came together to try to refute the arguments of the pure Vaishnavas and published a tract against them. In response, the Vaishnavas called a three-day public meeting to discuss the relative positions of brahmans and Vaishnavas. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was expected to be the main speaker, but severe rheumatism rendered him bedridden.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura himself was not born in a brahman family, and obviously, neither was his son. Now, the question may be raised that since Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati was a ray of Vishnu, an eternal associate of Krishna’s sent from the spiritual realm to the material world to preach, Krishna could have arranged for him to take birth in the highest class of brahman family, with all the brahminical qualifications. But He didn’t. Why not? Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati explains that the Lord does not arrange for pure devotees to take birth only in high-class families, with all the advantages of good health, education, culture, wealth, strength, and so on, because ordinary people would feel discouraged. They would think, “Oh, I didn’t take birth in a high-class family; I didn’t have this or that advantage. What is the hope for me?” So, great souls take birth in various kinds of families to show us the example that anyone in any condition—even if not born in a brahman family—can become Krishna conscious, and to give us hope that we too can be Krishna conscious.

So, after the publication of the caste brahmans’ tract, on the eve of the public meeting to be convened by the Vaishnavas, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was incapacitated, and he cried out in desperation, “Is there no one in the Vaishnava world who can reply to these people and, by presenting scriptural evidence and logic, put a stop to their base activities?” Sri Siddhanta Sarasvati took up the challenge, wrote an essay called “Conclusion Regarding the Comparison of Brahmans and Vaishnavas,” and went to attend the meeting.

Many caste brahmans, although not invited, also went to the meeting. Understanding that Bhaktivinoda Thakura was indisposed and unable to attend, they swaggered about, confident that they would easily triumph over the Vaishnavas.

Sri Siddhanta Sarasvati was the first speaker. He began by quoting various statements from scripture about the exalted position of brahmans, and the caste brahmans in the audience were delighted. He was so brilliant that he could speak better about the high position of brahmans than the brahmans themselves. But then he began quoting verses from scripture about the position of Vaishnavas, establishing that Vaishnavas were higher than even brahmans and that irrespective of one’s birth, if one accepted the Vaishnava principles, he would attain a position more exalted than that of a brahman. The brahmans in the audience were completely overwhelmed. Seeing no way to counter Sri Siddhanta Sarasvati’s arguments, the smarta-brahmanas and jata-gosanis slinked away.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura felt assured that his mission was in capable hands, that Sri Siddhanta Sarasvati was a worthy successor to carry on his cause. And Sri Siddhanta Sarasvati began to preach far and wide. He was fearless and open in his criticism of anything false. And his example and instructions remain relevant to us today.

Srila Sarasvati Thakura was a prodigious writer and speaker on various topics, including how to present the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. He noted that there were people who thought that you should say only positive—not negative—things. I experienced that when I was in Madras. I was just preaching as I had heard Srila Prabhupada preach, and people reacted. Even friends, people who were hosting me and supporting me, advised me, “Don’t criticize others. Just say what you want about your philosophy and activities.” Srila Sarasvati Thakura averred that it was imperative not only to elucidate the truth but also to criticize anything false, because in Kali-yuga there is so much false propaganda that we have to be very clear; there cannot be any ambiguity in our message:

“The positive method by itself is not the most effective method of propaganda in a controversial age like the present. The negative method, which seeks to differentiate the truth from non-truth in all its forms, is even better calculated to convey the directly inconceivable significance of the Absolute. It is a necessity which cannot be conscientiously avoided by the dedicated preacher of the truth if he wants to be a loyal servant of Godhead. The method is sure to create an atmosphere of controversy in which it is quite easy to lose one’s balance of judgment. But the ways of the deluding energy are so intricate that unless their mischievous nature is fully exposed, it is not possible for the soul in the conditioned state to avoid the snares spread by the enchantress [Maya] for encompassing the ruin of her only too willing victims. It is a duty which shall be sacred to all who have been enabled to attain even a distant glimpse of the Absolute.”

Srila Prabhupada also demonstrated this approach. He had a friend named Dr. Patel, who would accompany him on his morning walks on Juhu Beach. Dr. Patel was highly literate, he knew Sanskrit, and he was quite sharp. So, one morning, Dr. Patel started praising a revered popular religious figure of India, and Srila Prabhupada, in turn, began to criticize the figure. Dr. Patel protested, “You cannot criticize like this.” But Srila Prabhupada replied, “I am not saying; Krishna is saying—na mam duskrtino mudhah prapadyante naradhamah, mayayapahrta-jnana asuram bhavam asritah: If you are not surrendered to Krishna, you are a miscreant in one of these categories—fool, rascal, demon.”

Dr. Patel became agitated and raised his voice, and Srila Prabhupada raised his. The whole situation became both tense and intense. Finally, Dr. Patel’s friends dragged him away. It was like in a boxing ring when the bell rings to signal the end of the fight and the two opponents just keep going at each other and the referee has to tear them apart.

For the first time, Dr. Patel stopped coming for the morning walks, and Srila Prabhupada also said, “Now no more discussion; we will only read Krsna book.” But after a couple of days, Dr. Patel was walking in one direction on the beach and Prabhupada was walking in the other, and, as Dr. Patel described it, something in his heart just drew him to Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet. He offered obeisance and said, “Prabhupada, I am sorry, but we are trained to respect all the accredited saints of India.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Yes, and our business is to point out who is not a saint.” He had learned from his guru maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, that we not only tell who is a saint; we also explain who is not a saint. And that is the mercy of the Vaishnava, so people know clearly what is what. Otherwise, they can be misled and, as a result, suffer.

Srila Sarasvati Thakura was a tremendously powerful and successful preacher who fearlessly spoke the truth. And his pure preaching inspired hundreds of thousands of people to follow. But he also had enemies. He was the enemy of falsehood, and consequently, people who were thriving on falsehood sometimes became his enemies. Once, when he and his party were performing navadvipa-parikrama, the caste brahmans hired goondas, thugs, who let loose with a volley of stones and boulders on the party, aiming to take Srila Sarasvati Thakura’s life. (There were attempts on other occasions as well.) But one of his disciples cleverly exchanged his white dress for Sarasvati Thakura’s saffron robes, so Sarasvati Thakura emerged disguised and escaped. But it was a terrible scene. It looked like a massacre, with the streets of Navadvipa stained with the blood of the Vaishnavas. Some devotees suffered gashes and fractures, but by Krishna’s grace none were killed.

It was a dark moment, but when it came to light that the attack had been perpetrated by the caste Gosvamis, the public sided with Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and the Gaudiya Matha, and the caste Gosvamis’ opposition to him lost whatever credibility it had. As news of the event spread, those in learned circles protested in newspapers and magazines. The chief police inspector in Navadvipa was sacked, and the parikrama continued under full police protection. Later, when urged to press charges against the culprits, Srila Sarasvati Thakura declined, saying that the goondas had done a yeoman’s service—otherwise how could the Gaudiya Matha have been featured on the front pages of all the newspapers? Srila Sarasvati Thakura was the enemy of falsehood, but he was the well-wisher of everyone, even of people who were inimical to him.

Although Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati was so austere and rigid, so strict with himself, when it came to preaching he was ready to spend any amount of money and do anything. When I was first serving in India, in 1970, only affluent people could afford cars, mainly the locally manufactured Fiats and Ambassadors. But Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura had a limousine—back in the 1930s. And he dressed nicely. He would typically wear a dhoti, but on occasion, as required, he would don a double-breasted coat, stockings, and shoes. He had fine furniture for receiving special guests. Thus, referring to the elite, he said, “We are preaching by approaching the people of the world dressed even somewhat better than they, showing knowledge even somewhat greater than theirs, being even somewhat more stylish than they—without which they would think us worthless and not listen to our hari-katha. . . . I have to go to various places for propagating hari-katha, so I must present myself as a learned and decent gentleman; otherwise nondevotees will not give me their time.”

He used all means to broadcast the message of Krishna. Employing the latest technologies, he directed the construction of dioramas and other exhibits and staged huge theistic exhibitions. He built a grand marble temple on the bank of the Ganges at Bag-bazar in Calcutta. The procession that brought the Deities on a beautiful ratha, chariot, from the matha at Ultadangi to the new temple was enormous. Millions of people lined the streets along the two-mile route, which took four hours to traverse, and twenty-five thousand men, divided into forty-three groups, accompanied the Deities with loud harinama-sankirtana. For its work, the Gaudiya Matha owned four cars, a horse and buggy, an elephant, and a camel. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati would treat prominent guests to excursions on the Ganges in one of the Matha’s launches and expound hari-katha to them.

In January of 1935 the governor of Bengal, Sir John Anderson, visited Mayapur. This was a major event, because the Britishers were the rulers, and Srila Sarasvati Thakura was one of their subjects, their vassals. But the governor, accompanied by many other dignitaries, came all the way to Mayapur to meet Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and see his work.

Despite Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati’s tremendous purity and potency and success as a preacher, however, within his own institution there were disconcerting signs that some of his leading disciples were becoming materially infected. With so much opulence, fame, and respect, some of them had become distracted. Instead of realizing that all the facility was meant for the service of the Lord, to bring people to the Lord’s unalloyed service, they were enjoying it, and all the adulation. In an effort to reform his followers, Srila Sarasvati Thakura spoke strongly, and he restricted the use of certain facilities—only for service, only for preaching—to curb the devotees’ materialistic tendencies. (Of course, he also had many sincere disciples, who did not become materially affected.) At the same time, Srila Sarasvati Thakura continued his propaganda activities—writing, publishing, traveling, and preaching—and was successful wherever he went. Still, he was disturbed that some of his disciples had become so mundane.

When he reached the age of sixty-two, Srila Sarasvati Thakura experienced a decline in health, and he made statements indicating that he would soon be leaving. In late October 1936 he traveled to Puri, a holy place that was also warmer than Calcutta, but in December, though he was in a weakened condition, he wanted to return to Calcutta, and the disciples arranged for his travel by train.

In Calcutta Srila Sarasvati Thakura’s disciples called in some of the city’s most renowned physicians. When one advised him, “You have to rest more. You can’t speak so much,” Sarasvati Thakura proceeded to preach for hours about the purpose of human life—that the physical body was temporary and that the soul’s absolute necessity was to serve the Lord. He felt that if he couldn’t speak about Krishna, what would be the use of living?

On December 23 he instructed the devotees gathered at his bedside:

“I have upset many persons’ minds. Many might have considered me their enemy, because I was obliged to speak the plain truth of service and devotion towards the Absolute Godhead. I have given them all those troubles only so they might turn their face toward the Personality of Godhead without any desire for gain and with unalloyed devotion. Surely some day they will be able to understand that.

“I advise all to preach the teachings of Rupa-Raghunatha [two of the Six Gosvamis, direct disciples of Lord Chaitanya] with all energy and resources. Our ultimate goal shall be to become the dust of the lotus feet of Sri Sri Rupa and Raghunatha Gosvamis. You should all work conjointly under the guidance of your spiritual master with a view to serve the Absolute Knowledge, the Personality of Godhead. You should live somehow or other without any quarrel in this mortal world only for the service of Godhead. Do not, please, give up the service of Godhead, in spite of all dangers, all criticisms, and all discomforts. Do not be disappointed, for most people in the world do not serve the Personality of Godhead; do not give up your own service, which is your everything and all, neither reject the process of chanting and hearing of the transcendental holy name of Godhead. You should always chant the transcendental name of Godhead with patience and forbearance like a tree and humbleness like a straw . . . There are many amongst you who are well qualified and able workers. We have no other desire whatsoever.”

After midnight on December 31, Srila Sarasvati Thakura left this world. His disciples took his body to Mayapur and established his samadhi there.

News of his departure was broadcast on All-India Radio, and an official day of mourning was observed in Bengal. The Corporation of Calcutta held a special meeting in tribute to his memory and issued a resolution expressing its members’ deep sorrow. The mayor addressed the assembly:

“I rise to condole the passing away of His Divine Grace Paramahamsa Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja, the president-acharya of the Gaudiya Matha of Calcutta and the great leader of the Gaudiya movement throughout the world. This melancholy event happened on the first day of this New Year.

“Born in 1874, he dedicated his whole life to religious pursuits and dissemination of the cultural wealth of this great and ancient land of ours. An intellectual giant, he elicited the admiration of all for his unique scholarship, high and varied attainments, original thinking, and wonderful exposition of many difficult branches of knowledge.

“With invaluable contributions, he enriched many journals. He was the author of some devotional literature of repute. He was one of the most powerful and brightest exponents of the cult of Vaishnavism, his utterances and writings displaying a deep study of comparative philosophy and theology. Catholicity of his views, soundness of his teachings, and, above all, his dynamic personality and the irresistible force of the pure and simple life, had attracted thousands of followers of his message of love and service to the Absolute as propagated by Sri Krishna Chaitanya.

“He was the founder and guiding spirit of the Sri Chaitanya Matha at Sri Mayapur (Nadia) and the Gaudiya Matha of Calcutta. The Gaudiya movement, to which his contribution is no small one, has received a setback at the passing away of such a great soul. His departure has created a void in the spiritual horizon of India, which is difficult to be filled up.”

That void was a big one—Srila Sarasvati Thakura was a monumental personality, and there was no one else like him. Practically, there had never been anyone like him before, and nobody could imagine anyone like him coming afterwards.

But in 1965, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta’s humble servant, a grihastha disciple named Abhay Caranaravinda dasa, who after his guru maharaja’s disappearance had been awarded sannyasa and the name “A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami” by Sripada Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Gosvami Maharaja, boarded a steamer from Calcutta, traveled to New York, and began the Krishna consciousness movement, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, in the West. Bhaktivedanta Swami—Srila Prabhupada, as he became known—embodied the spirit and teachings and potency of his guru maharaja and fulfilled the desire and prediction of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and Srila Sarasvati Thakura that the holy names of Sri Krishna, of Sri Krishna Chaitanya, be propagated in every town and village of the world.

Srila Prabhupada made adjustments, because he had his own audience and particular circumstances. Like his guru maharaja, he was ready to use anything and everything in the service of the mission. He engaged modern technology—tape recorders, Dictaphones, electric typewriters, printing presses, computers, airplanes—in the service of the Lord. He sent disciples to Bengal to learn the traditional art of doll making and also used modern technology to create diorama exhibits illustrating the principles of Krishna consciousness and the pastimes of the Lord. Adopting Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati’s idea of theistic exhibitions, he created the FATE (First American Theistic Exhibition) museum in Los Angeles.

So, the line of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura is continuing, by his divine grace.

But it is not easy to preach in Kali-yuga. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati had many enemies, and Srila Prabhupada did too. As Srila Prabhupada said, “Big preaching means big enemies.” If we just stay at home, or tell people, “I’m okay, you’re okay—everything is okay,” we’re not going to make many enemies, but neither are we going to have much effect. In fact, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati sarcastically remarked, mein bhi chup, tum bhi chup: “I’ll be quiet, you be quiet,” meaning, “I won’t disturb you, you don’t disturb me.” But that was not his mood, and that was not Srila Prabhupada’s mood, and that should not be our mood either.

And of course, the holy name: the essence of everything is the chanting of the holy name. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati advised, “Krishna and krsna-nama are not two entities. Krishna is His holy name, and the holy name is Krishna. Krsna-nama is the son of Nanda, Shyamasundara. Our only devotional service and duty is sri-krsna-nama-sankirtana. This understanding is auspicious.”

And to one disciple, he wrote, “I am overjoyed to hear that your enthusiasm for chanting is increasing. As our contaminations are removed by chanting, the Lord’s form, qualities, and pastimes will be revealed to us in the holy name. There is no point in making a separate effort to artificially remember the Lord’s form, qualities, and pastimes. The Lord and His name are one and the same. This will be understood clearly when the coverings in your heart are removed. By chanting without offenses you will personally realize that all perfections come from the holy name. Through chanting, the distinction that exists between the self, and the gross and subtle bodies, is gradually effaced and one realizes one’s own spiritual form. Once aware of the spiritual body, as one continues to chant, one sees the transcendental nature of the Lord’s form. Only the holy name reveals the spiritual form of the living being and then causes him to be attracted to Krishna’s form. Only the holy name reveals the spiritual qualities of the living being and then causes him to be attracted to Krishna’s qualities. Only the holy name reveals the spiritual activities of the living being and then causes him to be attracted to Krishna’s pastimes. By service to the holy name we do not mean only the chanting of the holy name; it also includes the other duties of the chanter. If we serve the holy name with the body, mind, and soul, then the direction of that service spontaneously manifests like the sun in the clear sky of the chanter’s heart. What is the nature of the holy name? Eventually all these understandings spontaneously appear in the heart of one who chants the holy name. The true nature of hari-nama is revealed by listening to, reading, and studying the scriptures. It is unnecessary to write anything further on this subject. All these things will be revealed to you through chanting.”

So, let us all chant: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Thank you very much.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura ki jaya!
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

[A talk by Giriraj Swami on Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s disappearance day, December 24, 2010, Ventura, California]

His Divine Grace Paramahamsa Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Maharaja, the great leader of the Gaudiya movement, made his appearance in Jagannatha Puri on the fifth day of the dark lunar fortnight of the month of Govinda, at 3:30 pm. He was born because His father Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura had prayed to Lord Caitanya for a ray of Viṣṇu, an assistant and a successor from the Lord’s personal associates.

His pure preaching inspired hundreds of thousands of people to follow, but he was the enemy of falsehood, and well-wisher of everyone, even of people who were inimical to him.

Once, when he and his party were performing navadvipa-parikrama, the caste brahmanas hired goondas, thugs, who let loose with a volley of stones and boulders on the party, aiming to take his life. But one of his disciples cleverly exchanged his white dress for his saffron robes, so he emerged disguised and escaped. It was a terrible scene. Some devotees suffered gashes and fractures, but by Krsna’s grace none were killed.

n 1918 he took ‘tridandi sannyasa’ from a picture of Gaura Kishora dasa Babaji Maharaj. He did ‘nagara kirtana’ with disciples and attended programs everywhere to establish Lord Caitanya’s teachings as the most excellent spiritual philosophy and to fulfill the desire of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu expressed in Caitanya Bhagavata Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126,

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma

sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma

He predicted that, “All over the world, as many towns and villages are there, everywhere My name will be known,”

Śrī Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura took up this affair, business very seriously. Following the order of his Guru, he established the Bhagavat Press in Krsnanagar in 1915. He established 64 Gaudiya Maths during his lifetime. He revolutionized the Krsna consciousness movement by initiating people from different castes, gender, and backgrounds. He accepted everything favourable for the execution of preaching Krsna consciousness.

When Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur reached the age of sixty-two, his health declined. He got very sick and knew that he would soon be going to his Master, and therefore he wrote his last instruction: “Somehow we must become qualified to attain the shelter of Rupa and Raghunatha. Always chant Hare Krsna, always preach Krsna consciousness, and stay away from Vaishnava-aparadha. In this way become qualified to get the shelter of the lotus feet of Sri Rupa and Raghunatha.”

And then in 1936, on the 31st December, he left this mortal world to again return to the loving pastimes of Sri Sri Radha and Krsna.

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Fifty-four years ago, on December 26, 1969, in Boston, Srila Prabhupada awarded me second initiation. He said, “Sucih means purified. And another meaning of is brahman. A brahman means purified. Those who are going to be sacred-threaded today should remember that they are being accepted as sucih, as brahman. After chanting for six months or one year, it is supposed that he has already become purified. Now he should be recognized that he is purified. So this sacred thread means recognition. Sacred thread means one should understand . . . Just like one understands a man is learned by the degrees M.A., B.A., or Ph.D., similarly, when there is sacred thread it is understood that he has undergone the purificatory process under superior management, or guidance of spiritual master. This is called upanayana in Sanskrit. Upanayana: bringing him more near. The first initiation is the beginning of purification, and offering the sacred thread means bringing him more near. The principle is that those who are ordinarily initiated should not touch the Deity. Only those who have sacred thread, they should touch. This is the system.”

Hare Krishna.

Yours in service,
Giriraj Swami

The Temple of the Vedic Planetarium (TOVP) in Mayapur, West Bengal, India’s Largest Modern Vedic Temple is poised to open in 2025. This flagship project of ISKCON will be the largest Vedic Mandir in modern history and is tagged to be a Future Wonder of the World and Temple of the Millennium, with the mission to save dharma and re-establish eternal religious principles throughout the distressed world.

“We are going to exhibit the Vedic culture throughout the whole world, and they’ll come here. Just like they come to see the Taj Mahal, the architectural culture, they’ll come to see the civilization culture, the philosophical culture, the religious culture by practical demonstration. Actually, it will be a unique thing in the world.”

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

The TOVP Save Dharma Campaign gives you the opportunity to donate any amount according to your means to this historic project for the benefit of the entire human race for generations to come, and in doing so receive the blessings of Sri Krishna and our great acharyas upon you and your family, past, present and future.

“He who builds a temple for Vishnu saves the endless worlds and himself attains immortality… By building a temple for the Lord he takes his family, a hundred generations past and a hundred to come, to the region of Acyuta.”

Agni Purana

Go to the TOVP Save Dharma Campaign page today for more information and give to this extraordinary temple project, for the benefit of you, your family and all humanity.

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A Vaishnava, a pure devotee of the Lord, is unhappy to see the suffering of others. Therefore, Lord Jesus Christ agreed to be crucified—to free others from their suffering. But his followers are often so unfaithful that they have decided, “Let Christ suffer for us, and we’ll go on committing sin.” They love Christ, but they think, “My dear Christ, we are very weak. We cannot give up our sinful activities. So you please suffer for us.”

Srimad-Bhagavatam states that any bona fide preacher of God consciousness must have the qualities of titiksa (tolerance) and karuna (compassion). We find both these qualities in the character of Lord Jesus Christ. He was so tolerant that even while he was being crucified, he didn’t condemn anyone. And he was so compassionate that he prayed to God to forgive the very persons who were trying to kill him. (Of course, they could not actually kill him. But they were thinking that he could be killed, so they were committing a great offense.) As Christ was being crucified, he prayed, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they are doing.”

A preacher of God consciousness is a friend to all living beings. Lord Jesus Christ exemplified this by teaching, “Thou shalt not kill.” But most Christians misinterpret this instruction. They think the animals have no soul, and therefore they think they can freely kill billions of innocent animals in the slaughterhouses. They decide, “Let us kill anyway” and open big scientific slaughterhouses. “If there is any sin,” they think, “Christ will suffer for us.” This is a most abominable conclusion. Christ can take the sufferings for the previous sins of his devotees. But first they have to be sane: “Why should I put Jesus Christ into suffering for my sins? Let me stop my sinful activities.”

So, although there are many persons who profess to be Christians, it is difficult to find one who actually follows the instructions of Lord Jesus Christ.

Suppose a man—the favorite son of his father—commits a murder and then thinks, “If there is any punishment coming, my father can suffer for me.” Will the law allow it? When the murderer is arrested and says, “No, no. You can release me and arrest my father; I am his pet son,” will the police officials comply with that fool’s request? He committed the murder, but he thinks his father should suffer the punishment! Is that a sane proposal? No. “You have committed the murder; you must be hanged.” Similarly, when you commit sinful activities, you—not Jesus Christ—must suffer. This is God’s law.

Jesus Christ was a great personality—the son of God, the representative of God. He had no fault. Still, he was crucified. He wanted to deliver God consciousness, but in return they crucified him. They were so thankless; they could not appreciate his preaching or who he was. But we appreciate him and give him all honor as the representative of God. Of course, the message that Christ preached was according to his particular time, place, and country, and suited especially for a particular group of people. But he is the representative of God. Therefore we adore Lord Jesus Christ and offer our obeisances to him.

Once, in Melbourne, a group of Christian ministers came to visit me and asked, “What is your idea of Jesus Christ?” I told them, “He is our guru. He is preaching God consciousness, so he is our spiritual master.” The ministers very much appreciated that.

Actually, anyone who is preaching God’s glories must be accepted as a guru. Jesus Christ is one such great personality. We should not think of him as an ordinary human being. The scriptures say that anyone who considers the spiritual master to be an ordinary man has a hellish mentality. If Jesus Christ were an ordinary man, he could not have delivered God consciousness.

—Srila Prabhupada

Perhaps one of the saddest parts about growing up is learning that Father Christmas is not real. I recall a few years ago hearing how a teacher had been hauled across the coals for revealing this terrible truth to his class of six-year-olds, after outraged parents had bombarded the school with complaints. I was never […]

The post Come Out of the Darkness appeared first on ISKCON News.

“Now these Christmas holidays have begun in your country. Throughout the whole month of December you’ll observe nice festivities. Why? It began with God consciousness. Jesus Christ came to give you God consciousness, and in relation to him these festivities are going on. It may have degraded into another form, but the beginning was God consciousness. Now we may have lost it. But people cannot be happy without reviving God consciousness. It may be named differently—‘Krishna consciousness’—but that means God consciousness. That is the necessity. We want to love somebody. Our love will be perfected when we love Krishna, or God. We are teaching that. Try to love God, and if you love God, if you love Krishna, then automatically you love everybody. That is the perfection of love.”

—Srila Prabhupada, December 2, 1968, Los Angeles (adapted)

In 1974, near ISKCON’s center in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany, Śrīla Prabhupāda and several of his disciples took a morning walk with father Emmanuel Jungclaussen, a Benedictine monk from Niederalteich Monastery. Noticing that Śrīla Prabhupāda was carrying meditation beads similar to the rosary, Father Emmanuel explained that he also chanted a constant prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, be merciful unto us.” The following conversation ensued.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: What is the meaning of the word Christ?

Father Emmanuel: Christ comes from the Greek word Christos, meaning “the anointed one.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Christos is the Greek version of the word Kṛṣṇa.

Father Emmanuel: This is very interesting.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: When an Indian person calls on Kṛṣṇa, he often says, “Kṛṣṭa.” Kṛṣṭa is a Sanskrit word meaning “attraction.” So when we address God as “Christ,” “Kṛṣṭa,” or “Kṛṣṇa,” we indicate the same all-attractive Supreme Personality of Godhead. When Jesus said, “Our Father, who an in heaven, sanctified be Thy name,” that name of God was “Kṛṣṭa” or “Kṛṣṇa.” Do you agree?

Father Emmanuel: I think Jesus, as the son of God, has revealed to us the actual name of God: Christ. We can call God “Father,” but if we want to address Him by His actual name, we have to say “Christ.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes. “Christ” is another way of saying Kṛṣṭa, and “Kṛṣṭa” is another way of pronouncing Kṛṣṇa, the name of God. Jesus said that one should glorify the name of God, but yesterday I heard one theologian say that God has no name—that we can call Him only “Father.” A son may call his father “Father,” but the father also has a specific name. Similarly, “God” is the general name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose specific name is Kṛṣṇa. Therefore whether you call God “Christ,” “Kṛṣṭa,” or “Kṛṣṇa,” ultimately you are addressing the same Supreme Personality of Godhead.

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On the sacred occasion of Gita Jayanti, I would like to contemplate how the Bhagavad-gita’s message is immensely relevant to all of us because it is a message of hope amid hardship. I will talk about it in terms of three key terms and one broad context.
The Gita’s purpose
Jiva Goswami explains that we can understand the essence of a book by looking at what comes in the start and what comes in the end.
The first instructive words spoken by Krishna in Bhagavad-gita are in (02.11). Before that, he has spoken in (01.25), (02.02), and (02.03), but those are more descriptive or indicative or friendly words. The first instructive philosophical words come in (02.11).
aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ
prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase
gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca
nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ
So, the first word ‘aśocyān’ means ‘not worth lamenting.’
And the last instructive word spoken by Krishna is (18.66). He speaks some more verses afterward, which are the glorification of the Gita, and he asks Arjuna a question in his concluding verse in (18.72), but the last instructing words are (18.66).
sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ
‘mā śucaḥ’ means do not lament.
In essence, the Gita starts by saying that whatever we are lamenting is not worth lamenting; whatever we are in agony about or distressed about is not worth getting distressed about. And lastly, it says do not be distressed. This is akin to a doctor telling a patient who is terribly upset about something, “Oh! I am in so much pain. I might have cancer. I might be going to die.” The doctor says, “This is not worth worrying.” Then the doctor explains why it is not worth worrying, and finally concludes by saying, “Do not worry.”
So how does the Gita give us this message that the things that we are getting disturbed are not worth getting so disturbed up about?
I will explain the Gita’s message in three T’s. Let’s look at the first T
Temporariness
The Gita states that the things that get us worked up are all temporary.
mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya (02.14)
The Gita says the contact between the senses and the sense objects just comes and goes. The thing that is disturbing us today, six months later or one year later, we will not be so disturbed about it. How do we know that? We can look back at something that disturbed us one year ago or five years ago; we may not even remember that thing. If we have some journal or if somebody tells us that we were so disturbed at that time about that thing, we will wonder: “Was it really worth getting so disturbed about?” Even the worst of problems that we may face whether they are in terms of health, relationships or finance, whatever it is – they all are temporary. Do not get too worked up about them, Krishna says. Does that mean that we do not care about anything at all? No, that brings us to the second T.
Timeless
Timeless is God and timeless is God’s love for us and timeless is God’s plan for our ultimate well-being. In (5.29) in the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna says suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ. That he is the well-wisher of all living beings. Ups and downs are happening in this world, but through all those ups and downs, Krishna is always working for our well-being. He is within our hearts, and he is guiding us.
īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
hṛd-deśe ’rjuna tiṣṭhati (18.61)
Whether we are devoted to him or not devoted to him, he is still our greatest well-wisher. The Gita urges us to focus on that timeless reality through contemplating and practicing yoga, especially bhakti yoga which directly gives us access to God and God’s infinitely loving heart through the connection of love. That brings us to the last T.
Tolerance
Basically, we need to turn from the temporary to the timeless. And what do we need for that? Tolerance.
Tolerance is sometimes misunderstood to be passivity. But the Gita is not talking about tolerance in those terms. The Gita, for example, tells Arjuna to tolerate ‘tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata.’ But what must be tolerated? The Gita is not saying to Arjuna, ‘Oh! The Kauravas have committed atrocities; just tolerate them.’ No. While doing one’s duty in the mood of service to God, while turning from the temporary to the timeless, there will be some pain in giving up the temporary. Consider what this means for Arjuna. In fighting against Drona who is Arjuna’s guru and in fighting against Bhishma who is his grandfather. Arjuna may feel some pain. But if that is the price required to do God’s will for the ultimate welfare of the world, then Arjuna should tolerate that.
Thus, tolerance means keep small things small so that we can keep big things big. It does not mean to let big things go away from us. For this, we need to first understand.
What are the small things in life?
What are the big things in life?

The wisdom that the Bhagavad-gita provides all of us says that the temporary things are small and the timeless things are big. While navigating the temporary, how can we link with the timeless? That sometimes requires us to change our mindset, our disposition, and sometimes it may require us to change our situation, but the focus is on how we can connect with God. To have this tolerance, we need to remember that there will never be any perfect situation in the world, there will always be a trade-off. We will always have to settle for a less-than-satisfactory situation in this world, but if in that situation we are steadily making a connection with God then we are going towards a destination of ultimate peace and joy. We will find relief and rejuvenation even in this world by turning from the temporary toward the timeless and ultimately, we will be united in Krishna’s eternal embrace for a life of unending joy.
To summarize, the Gita provides us hope amid hardship by guiding us to turn away from the temporary to the timeless through tolerance.

End of Transcription.

ZONAL PRESENTATION: ISKCON NETHERLANDS The GBC meeting commenced with an engaging presentation on ISKCON Netherlands by Hrdaya Caitanya Dasa, co-GBC for the region, alongside Madhusevita Dasa. The presentation recalled Srila Prabhupada’s historic visit to the Netherlands on July 26, 1972. Noteworthy activities across ISKCON centers in Amsterdam and Rotterdam were highlighted, incorporating events such as […]

The post Highlights from Latest GBC Meeting, December 20, 2023 appeared first on ISKCON News.

Gita Jayanti is the auspicious day of the advent of Srimad Bhagavad-gita. This is the day on which Lord Krishna imparted the essence of Vedic knowledge to Arjuna over 5000 years ago and enlightened him about the ultimate goal of life.

As stated in the Gita-mahatmya, if one properly follows the instructions of Bhagavad-gita, one can be freed from all miseries and anxieties in this life, and one’s next life will be spiritual. Bhagavad-gita literally means the song of the Supreme Lord. It is the most widely known Vedic literature in the world.

The Bhagavad Gita is the essence of Vedic wisdom given by Lord Sri Krishna. His message holds the key to ending all of life’s misgivings and the secret to a life of happiness, satisfaction, fulfillment and self-discovery.

Srila Prabhupada, the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON, has presented the Bhagavad Gita As It Is in a scholarly yet simple language. This is the best–selling version of the Gita in the world.

Gita Jayanti is the day on which Lord Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna.

The Gita is also known as the Gitopanisad and is considered one of the Upanisads. The title Bhagavad-gita is sometimes translated as “The Song of God.” Gita means “song.” God, Krishna, is so sublime that whatever He speaks is music and poetry. The word bhagavan has been analyzed by Vedic authorities. Bhaga means “opulence” and is related to the word bhagya: “good fortune.” And van means “one who possesses.” So bhagavan means “He who possesses all opulence in full.”

aisvaryasya samagrasya
  viryasya yasasah sriyah
jnana-vairagyayos caiva
  sannam bhaga itingana

“Full wealth, strength, fame, beauty, knowledge, and renunciation—these are the six opulences of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” (Vishnu Purana 6.5.47)

All of us possess some wealth. I may have ten dollars, but if I look further, I will find someone who has a hundred dollars. And if I look still further, I will find someone who has a thousand dollars, and a million, and a billion. But no one can say that he has all the wealth in all creation, that no one is equal to him or greater than him in wealth. When we come to that person who has all wealth—no one is equal to or greater than him—that is Bhagavan, Krishna.

The Bhagavad-gita was spoken by Krishna to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. But, as stated in the Gita (4.1),

sri-bhagavan uvaca
imam vivasvate yogam
  proktavan aham avyayam
vivasvan manave praha
  manur iksvakave ’bravit

“The Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna, said: I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun-god, Vivasvan, and Vivasvan instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Iksvaku.” Lord Krishna originally spoke the Gita to Vivasvan, the sun-god, who spoke it to his son Manu, who in turn spoke it to Iksvaku. In this way the knowledge was passed on through disciplic succession from one to the next to the next. But in the course of time, that chain became broken.

evam parampara-praptam
  imam rajarsayo viduh
sa kaleneha mahata
  yogo nastah parantapa

“This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.” (Gita 4.2) Nasta means “spoiled.” You may have a nice plate of prasada, but if you leave it aside and it becomes old and contaminated, it becomes nasta, spoiled. It is food, but you don’t get the benefit. And to get the real benefit of the Bhagavad-gita, one must receive it through parampara (evam parampara-praptam imam rajarsayo viduh).

Five thousand years ago, Lord Krishna detected that the chain was broken and that, consequently, the knowledge had been lost. So He came again and spoke the Bhagavad-gita again, to Arjuna: “Now, Arjuna, you become the first recipient of this knowledge in the new chain, so that the knowledge is received and presented as it is.” Srila Prabhupada called his translation of the Gita the Bhagavad-gita As It Is. “As it is” means as Krishna spoke it and as Arjuna understood it—five thousand years ago.

How did Arjuna understand it? First, he accepted Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead:

          arjuna uvaca
param brahma param dhama
  pavitram paramam bhavan
purusam sasvatam divyam
  adi-devam ajam vibhum

“Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal, transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest.” (Gita 10.12)

He accepted everything that Krishna said as true: sarvam etad rtam manye yan mam vadasi kesava—“Krishna, I totally accept as truth all that You have told me.” (Gita 10.14) “I accept whatever You say, in toto.” He did not discriminate that he liked some parts of the Gita but not other parts. Sarvam etad rtam manye: “I accept in toto everything that You have said.”

If we begin to discriminate, “I like this portion, but I don’t like that one,” we become implicated in ardha-kukkuti-nyaya, “half-hen” logic. A farmer had a hen that was laying eggs. But the farmer thought that only the hind portion was valuable, because that part was giving eggs—that the neck portion was simply troublesome, because it just ate food. He concluded, “I will cut the neck portion, which is just a botheration, and keep the hind portion, which gives eggs.” And when he did, of course, the hen died and there were no more eggs.

One verse in the Bhagavad-gita that is very popular among some people states, karmany evadhikaras te: “You are entitled to do your duty.” They think, “I can do my duty. I can go to work. I can make and spend money. I can take care of my family, live with my family, enjoy with my family and friends. That is a precious instruction.” But when they come to sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja—give up all varieties of religiousness and surrender to Krishna—that is a little troublesome, and they want to cut that part: “We don’t really need it. We’ll just keep the really valuable part: I can do my duty.”

In order to get the full benefit of the Bhagavad-gita, it is essential to accept it as it is. Devotees who have accepted it as it is and applied its principles in their lives have undergone extraordinary transformations. This knowledge can really help people. And any genuine person who gets something good will naturally want to share it with others. Anyone who has imbibed the nectar of the Bhagavad-gita, gotten the benefit of the Bhagavad-gita, will want to share the knowledge with others. It is natural. If you are eating a nice plate of prasada and taste something really good, it is natural to say, “You should try this; it’s really good.” Or, “You should try this with this; it’s a really good combination.” Anyone—any child—will do that. So, when you actually experience the benefit of the Bhagavad-gita in your life, you will naturally want to share the knowledge with others so that they too can benefit and become happy.

Now, why did Krishna choose Arjuna to be the first student of the Bhagavad-gita? Arjuna was not a sannyasi; he was a married man. And he was not a brahman; he was a warrior. Why Arjuna? Krishna explains,

sa evayam maya te ’dya
  yogah proktah puratanah
bhakto ’si me sakha ceti
  rahasyam hy etad uttamam

“That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend and can therefore understand the transcendental mystery of this science.” (Gita 4.3) The main qualification for understanding the Gita is bhakto ’si me, to be Lord Krishna’s devotee. And later Krishna says that one should hear the Gita with faith and without envy (sraddhavan anasuyas ca srnuyad api yo narah). (Gita 18.71) This is a most important point: to get the true benefit of the Gita, one must be a devotee.

What does it mean to be a devotee? Sometimes the word devotee is used quite broadly. To begin, let us understand devotee in contrast to karmi, jnani, and yogi. These are all technical (as well as general) terms. A karmi engages in fruitive work. He works for personal gain: “I have worked and earned. Now I have the right to enjoy the fruit.” That is 90 percent of the world. People work, and they feel, “I have earned the money, so I have the right to spend it—on myself, on my family, on my community, on my country” (or whatever limited or extended concept of sense gratification they have). But the Gita says no. Karmany evadhikaras te ma phalesu kadacana: “You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action.” (Gita 2.47) The fruits belong to Krishna.

If you invite a carpenter to your house and give him wood and nails and glue—everything he needs—and say, “I want you to build me a cabinet,” in the end, to whom does the cabinet belong—to the carpenter or to you? It belongs to the proprietor, not to the worker. The worker has assembled the ingredients supplied by the proprietor, but that doesn’t make him the owner.

This entire material creation, this entire cosmic manifestation—the elements are provided by Krishna. The earth we tread; the water we drink; the air we breathe; the fire, or electricity, we use—everything belongs to Him, and we cannot rightly claim any of it for ourselves. We may assemble the elements in different ways, but it all belongs to Him and is meant to be used for His purposes.

A karmi engages in work and wants to keep the fruits for himself. A karma-yogi engages in work but gives the fruits to Krishna. A man may grow a tree that produces fruit. A karmi will keep the fruit for himself, whereas a karma-yogi will give the fruit, or some of the fruit, to Krishna. The sakama-karma-yogi has selfish desires, but he still gives something to Krishna. If the tree produces a hundred mangoes, he may give one or two or ten or twenty to Krishna. And as he becomes purified, as he develops more faith and becomes more attached to Krishna, he will give more to Krishna. And eventually he may give all one hundred mangoes to Krishna, without any selfish desire (niskama-karma-yoga). But he will not be the loser. Krishna will give him His prasada, His mercy.

The jnanis and often the yogis are impersonalists; they believe that God is ultimately impersonal—nameless, formless, without qualities, without activities. They may even go so far as to think that Krishna’s form is material, that just as we have a physical body made of flesh and bones and blood, so does Krishna. And according to them, if Krishna is material, then His name, form, qualities, and activities are also all material. People may chant His name, but ultimately they have to go beyond that. People may worship His form, but they have to go beyond that. People may talk about His qualities and activities, but they have to go beyond that. Ultimately, according to impersonalists, we have to go beyond all these illusory forms and names and come to the all-pervading impersonal light and merge and become one with it. Then there is no you, no me, no Krishna—nothing. Just oneness.

In theory, that is also a possibility. But it is very rare to achieve that state, and very difficult. Lord Krishna explains in the Bhagavad-gita (12.2–7):

mayy avesya mano ye mam
  nitya-yukta upasate
sraddhaya parayopetas
  te me yuktatama matah

“Those who fix their minds on My personal form and are always engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith are considered by Me to be most perfect.

ye tv aksaram anirdesyam
  avyaktam paryupasate
sarvatra-gam acintyam ca
  kuta-stham acalam dhruvam

sanniyamyendriya-gramam
  sarvatra sama-buddhayah
te prapnuvanti mam eva
  sarva-bhuta-hite ratah

“But those who fully worship the unmanifested, that which lies beyond the perception of the senses, the all-pervading, inconceivable, unchanging, fixed and immovable—the impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth—by controlling the various senses and being equally disposed to everyone, such persons, engaged in the welfare of all, at last achieve Me.

kleso ’dhikataras tesam
  avyaktasakta-cetasam
avyakta hi gatir duhkham
  dehavadbhir avapyate

“For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied.

ye tu sarvani karmani
  mayi sannyasya mat-parah
ananyenaiva yogena
  mam dhyayanta upasate

tesam aham samuddharta
  mrtyu-samsara-sagarat
bhavami na cirat partha
  mayy avesita-cetasam

“But those who worship Me, giving up all their activities unto Me and being devoted to Me without deviation, engaged in devotional service and always meditating upon Me, having fixed their minds upon Me, O son of Prtha—for them I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death.”

Not only is the impersonal path difficult; the result is also not very satisfying, because ultimately everyone wants happiness and love. The two most basic human needs are to love and be loved. We want friends, we want family, and we want community, and we are not happy without them. If you were a billionaire but could never see another living being, would you be happy? No. You would be so desperate for company, for relationship, that you would say, “I don’t want this wealth. I just want to be with people I love and who love me.” In a way, this was Arjuna’s thinking at the beginning of the Bhagavad-gita. He considered, “What is the use of winning a kingdom if in the course of the battle all my friends and family die? What’s the use? With whom will I enjoy my kingdom?” The thought of being without family and friends so overwhelmed Arjuna that he said to Krishna,

na hi prapasyami mamapanudyad
  yac chokam ucchosanam indriyanam
avapya bhumav asapatnam rddham
  rajyam suranam api cadhipatyam

“I can find no means to drive away this grief which is drying up my senses. I will not be able to dispel it even if I win a prosperous, unrivaled kingdom on earth with sovereignty like that of the demigods in heaven.” (Gita 2.8)

There is much truth to what Arjuna said at the beginning of the Gita, but that truth is on a lower level. By the mercy of Lord Krishna, after hearing the Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna was elevated to a higher, better understanding. He realized that perfect happiness and love were to be realized in relation to Krishna, and so Arjuna surrendered unto Him.

Krishna gave Arjuna the choice. Krishna did not force him, because true surrender, or true love, is voluntary. Krishna gave Arjuna the freedom to deliberate and then decide:

iti te jnanam akhyatam
  guhyad guhyataram maya
vimrsyaitad asesena
  yathecchasi tatha kuru

“Thus I have explained to you knowledge still more confidential. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do.” (Gita 18.63) Yathecchasi tatha kuru—“You can do whatever you like.” We all have free will, given to us by God. But after hearing the Bhagavad–gita, Arjuna immediately responded, karisye vacanam tava: “I will do whatever You say.” That is the position of the surrendered devotee.

arjuna uvaca
nasto mohah smrtir labdha
  tvat-prasadan mayacyuta
sthito ’smi gata-sandehah
  karisye vacanam tava

“Arjuna said: My dear Krsna, O infallible one, my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your mercy. I am now firm and free from doubt and am prepared to act according to Your instructions.” (Gita 18.73)

Now we may be a little worried. We are back to that troublesome sloka, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja: “Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me.” And we may wonder, “What are the implications of karisye vacanam tava: ‘I am prepared to act according to Your instructions’? What if Krishna tells me to give up my wife, my children, my business, my home? Then what?” This is a problematic question, and some people may not want to pursue the course of surrender to Krishna, because they are afraid of the consequences.

But there is some leniency here, some considerateness. Lord Krishna gives us a gradual process to come to the stage of surrender, because surrender is based on faith. When we have faith in someone or something, we can surrender. And if we don’t have faith, we won’t surrender. In this present Age of Kali, faith is very rare. It is very difficult to come by genuine faith. The society is materialistic, and everyone is cultured in the idea that they are independent, free to think and do whatever they like, without restriction. In fact, they are envious. Material life means envy—first of Krishna. People think, “Why should I surrender to Him? I am also intelligent. I also know things. I can also speak and argue. Why should I surrender?” And people find fault with Krishna: “Why did He tell Arjuna to fight? Why did He cause so many people to die?” In particular, people who are envious find fault with Krishna. They can never understand the Bhagavad-gita. Therefore Lord Krishna says,

idam te natapaskaya
  nabhaktaya kadacana
na casusrusave vacyam
  na ca mam yo ’bhyasuyati

“This confidential knowledge may never be explained to those who are not austere, or devoted, or engaged in devotional service, nor to one who is envious of Me.” (Gita 18.67) One must be a devotee, a bhakta. Only devotees are without envy.

Still, like a loving father, Krishna wants to bring all His sons and daughters to the highest perfection, even though He knows that it may take some time. A parent will want his child to grow to be strong and healthy and happy and intelligent and competent, and to take over the family’s business. A genuine, loving parent will want to give everything to the child, but the parent first wants to see that the child is responsible enough.

As I grew up, my father gave me a weekly allowance. My first allowance was five or ten cents. I was just a child, and he wasn’t sure how I would use the money. Eventually he raised my allowance to twenty-five cents. And I felt so proud: “My father really trusts me.” Twenty-five cents was quite a good amount for me then.

So, parents want to give to their children, but they also want to see that their children are responsible enough to take care of what they give them. In a similar way, Krishna wants to give us everything—even Himself—but He wants to see that we are qualified.

Another analogy is a teacher in a classroom. The study of math begins with one plus one equals two. There is much more, but the students proceed step by step: addition, then subtraction, then multiplication, then division—so many processes they have to learn.

In the Bhagavad-gita, the first instruction is that you are not the body but the soul within the body. Aham brahmasmi. That is the beginning, and if we understand even one line of the Bhagavad-gita, from the very beginning, our lives will change.

dehino ’smin yatha dehe
  kaumaram yauvanam jara
tatha dehantara-praptir
  dhiras tatra na muhyati

“As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.” (Gita 2.13) If we just understand that we are not the body but are the atma, the jivatma, within the body, that alone is enough to change our whole life. We will no longer act on the basis of the body, for sense gratification, but on the basis of the soul, for self-realization. In today’s materialistic society one’s whole endeavor is to get things for the body—my body, my wife’s body, my children’s bodies, my parents’ bodies—to make the body comfortable. But the body is just like a dress for the soul. Now, which is more important—the clothes or the person inside the clothes? The person, of course. The body itself is just a dress, which changes. The real person is the soul, who exists always.

vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya
  navani grhnati naro ’parani
tatha sarirani vihaya jirnany
  anyani samyati navani dehi

“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.” (Gita 2.22)

If we understand just this one point from early in Krishna’s teaching in the Bhagavad-gita, our entire life will change. We will work for the benefit of the soul, which is our actual self and is part and parcel of the Supreme Self, God, Krishna, knowing that our real relationship is with Him, not with the body. And then, gradually, step by step, we will come to the conclusion of the Bhagavad-gita:

man-mana bhava mad-bhakto
  mad-yaji mam namaskuru
mam evaisyasi satyam te
  pratijane priyo ’si me

“Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me, and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.” (Gita 18.65)

sarva-dharman parityajya
  mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
  moksayisyami ma sucah

“Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.” (Gita 18.66)

Man-mana—always think of Krishna. If you do that, you will naturally become a devotee of Krishna (mad-bhakto). You will worship Him (mad-yaji) and offer obeisance unto Him (mam namaskuru). It is so simple.

The critical point is man-mana, to always think of Krishna. And how can we always think of Him? In the ninth chapter of the Gita Krishna says,

satatam kirtayanto mam
  yatantas ca drdha-vratah
namasyantas ca mam bhaktya
  nitya-yukta upasate

“Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.” (Gita 9.14) Satatam kirtayanto mam—if we always (satatam) engage in glorifying Krishna, chanting His holy name (kirtana), we will always think of Him.

We are Hare Krishna devotees, and we are speaking about the Bhagavad-gita. What is the connection? The chanting of Hare Krishna is the real way to follow the instructions of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita. Sri Krishna Chaitanya, the incarnation of Krishna for the present Age of Kali, who inaugurated the Hare Krishna movement five hundred years ago, taught, kirtaniyah sada harih: “Always chant the holy name of Hari [Krishna].” And in the Bhagavad-gita, Sri Krishna gives the same instruction: satatam kirtayanto mam—always engage in kirtan, chanting the holy name of Krishna. So, the chanting of Hare Krishna is really the fulfillment of Lord Krishna’s ultimate instruction in the Bhagavad-gita: man-mana—always think of Krishna. And chanting is the best—and easiest—way to think of Him.

Of course, we think of Krishna when we hear about Him from the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam, but for that we need a book or a reader. We think of Krishna when we see His deity form, His murti, but for that we need a temple, a mandir, with a murti. There are so many ways of thinking of Krishna, but the beauty of chanting, either kirtan or japa, is that we need only our tongue and ears. In the Bhagavad-gita (10.25) Lord Krishna recommends, yajnanam japa-yajno ’smi: “Of sacrifices I am the chanting of the holy names [japa].” This, anyone can do. Young or old, black or white, man or woman, educated or uneducated—anyone and everyone can chant Hare Krishna and fulfill Krishna’s instruction in the Bhagavad-gita.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, the authorized biography of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, relates an instructive story. While touring South India, Sri Chaitanya came to the holy place of Sri Ranga-kshetra, where, in front of the temple, He saw a brahman holding the Bhagavad-gita and crying, surrounded by people who were laughing and criticizing him. Sri Chaitanya asked him, “Why are these people laughing?” And the brahman replied, “I am holding the Bhagavad-gita, but I am more or less illiterate. I don’t know how to pronounce the words properly, and I do not know what they mean. But my guru ordered me to read the Gita, and so I read all eighteen chapters every day.” Chaitanya Mahaprabhu inquired, “Why are you crying?” And the brahman replied, “When I hold the Bhagavad-gita, I see before me Krishna and Arjuna on the chariot. Krishna is acting as Arjuna’s chariot driver. Taking the reins in His hands, He appears very beautiful. While seeing Lord Krishna instructing Arjuna, I weep in ecstatic happiness.” Then Lord Chaitanya told the brahman, “You are the true authority in the reading of the Bhagavad-gita. You know the real purport of the Bhagavad-gita.” And He embraced him.

Proud people may think, “Oh, these Hare Krishna people can’t understand much. They don’t know Sanskrit. They don’t have the samskaras. Let them chant. It is good.” But actually, by chanting the holy name of Krishna, one awakens one’s love for Him, which is the real purport of the Bhagavad-gita. By chanting, one fulfills the Lord’s instructions in the Bhagavad-gita to always think of Him and sing His glories. Although some who chant may not be very learned or knowledgeable in a certain sense, if they are genuine devotees of Krishna, they are fulfilling the real purport of the Bhagavad-gita.

aho bata sva-paco ’to gariyan
  yaj-jihvagre vartate nama tubhyam
tepus tapas te juhuvuh sasnur arya
  brahmanucur nama grnanti ye te

“Oh, how glorious are they whose tongues are chanting Your holy name! Even if born in the families of dog-eaters, such persons are worshipable. Persons who chant the holy name of Your Lordship must have executed all kinds of austerities and fire sacrifices and achieved all the good manners of the Aryans. To be chanting the holy name of Your Lordship, they must have bathed at holy places of pilgrimage, studied the Vedas, and fulfilled everything required.” (SB 3.33.7)

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness not only presents the knowledge of the Bhagavad-gita; it also gives the practical means by which one can fulfill its purport—to become a devotee of Krishna, to always think of Him, to worship Him, to offer homage to Him, and to preach His message. After personally surrendering to Krishna (sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja), one can go further and teach this knowledge. This is Lord Krishna’s last instruction:

ya idam paramam guhyam
  mad-bhaktesv abhidhasyati
bhaktim mayi param krtva
  mam evaisyaty asamsayah

“For one who explains this supreme secret to the devotees, pure devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back to Me.

na ca tasman manusyesu
  kascin me priya-krttamah
bhavita na ca me tasmad
  anyah priyataro bhuvi

“There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear.” (Gita 18.68–69) The real conclusion of the Bhagavad-gita, built upon one’s full surrender to Krishna, is to spread this message and thus become most dear to Krishna.

This is the opportunity we all have. On Gita Jayanti we think of Krishna, recite the Gita, and perform the yajna, but the real essence of the celebration is to bring more people to Krishna, to the wisdom of the Gita. As devotees, we want to bring others to Krishna, and when we do, Krishna is even more pleased. And that is what Gita Jayanti is really meant to do: to please Krishna, to bring the Bhagavad-gita to more people and bring more people to Krishna—and make us dear to Krishna.

It is a wonderful, wonderful opportunity. I have been chanting Hare Krishna and reading the Bhagavad-gita for forty years, and it is ever-fresh. Once, Srila Prabhupada told a New York Times interviewer, “Every day your employer is printing so many newspapers. On Sunday especially the paper is so big that one can hardly carry it. But after reading it for an hour, people throw it away. Here is this book—the Bhagavad-gita—and people keep it and read it for a lifetime, and in this way it has been read for the past five thousand years. Give people such literature that will be taken and kept forever.” And the reporter laughed—and agreed.

I am very grateful to all of you for having come this evening, after what was probably a long, hard day at work, braving the rush-hour traffic. I am grateful that you came and spared your valuable time. And I look forward to working together with all of you on this wonderful project, which will be so beneficial to so many people. Srila Prabhupada’s guru instructed him to preach the message of the Bhagavad-gita in English all over the world, telling him, “This will do much good for you as well as your audience.” So, it is win-win-win: it will be beneficial for you, it will be beneficial for the people in general, and ultimately Krishna will be pleased. And that is our goal—that is what bhakti means—to please Krishna. When Krishna is pleased, our life is successful and we are naturally satisfied and happy.

Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna.

[An address by Giriraj Swami to leaders of Hindu organizations,October 23, 2009, Houston]

In our pursuit of wealth, knowledge, or power – what do we really want? We’re all thinking, “How can I be happy in this world? What do I have to do? Who can I approach for happiness, peace, and prosperity? Can our teachers and professors help us obtain happiness? Perhaps religion or government?” We might […]

The post Making Krishna Consciousness Relevant: The Most Special Gift appeared first on ISKCON News.

The TOVP Communications Department is pleased to release our 2024 Visions of the TOVP Vaishnava calendar flipbooks for North America and India. These calendars are viewable online, downloadable and shareable, and highlight the best photographic images of the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium by our official photographer, Thakur Saranga das and others.

Click the links below to download your calendar today!

2024 North America Calendar | 2024 India Calendar

As a reminder, the TOVP Nrsimha Wing will be officially opened during a three-day festival from February 29 – March 2, and viewable live on Mayapur TV. Please take this opportunity to Give To Nrsimha to help open the largest Nrsimhadeva Temple in the world.

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The TOVP Team would like to wish all devotees an auspicious end of the year and a Happy Krishna conscious New Year. May the Lord bless you and your family members so that you may all advance in His service and dive deep into the ocean of Lord Caitanya’s merciful benediction of love of God, Krishna prema.

We look forward with great anticipation to the next milestone in our progress in 2024, the completion of the Nrsimhadeva Wing in the TOVP, and the Grand 3-Day Nrsimha Wing Mahotsava from February 29, the Divine Appearance Day of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, until March 2. We encourage every devotee to pray for our successful service in this regard which will bring further empowerment and protection from Lord Nrsimha for the completion of the TOVP. The entire event will be broadcast live on Mayapur TV.

We also request one and all to Give To Nrsimha during this end of the year time as a final gesture of love and devotion, and to complete their pledges, if possible. Please pray to the Lord as follows:

Oh Sri Radha Madhav, Asta-sakhis, Sri Mahaprabhu,
Oh Sri Pancha-tattva, great acharyas! If it pleases You,
Build Your temple, born of Srila Prabhupada’s heart.
Oh Lord Nrsimhadeva, please help me. Let me do my part.

Go to the Give To Nrsimha Fundraiser page today and help as much as you can to do your part.

A New Year’s prayer from Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur:

“O New Year, all glories to you! Pay special attention to the development of Sri Mayapur Dham. Publish all devotional literature. Satisfy the people of the world by distributing the Lord’s holy names. Guide the living entities in such a way that they take to chanting of the holy names of the Lord while cultivating pure devotional service.”

MIRACLE IN THE MAKING ~ HOME OF OUR DIVINE PROTECTOR

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There is so much to be said about Srimati Yamuna-devi dasi.

In October of 1970 I was one of a group of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples from America going to join him in India. On the way, we stopped in Brussels, and it was there, in an apartment, that I first met Yamuna-devi—and Malati and Syamasundara (I had met Gurudas before that, in Boston). Upon entering, I could immediately feel their intense, extraordinary devotion to Srila Prabhupada—it was so palpable, so tangible; the room was just suffused with their devotion—and we spent the next several hours there together. As enthusiastic as I was to go to India to be with Srila Prabhupada, I felt like I could stay in that room forever; I never wanted to leave the association of these amazing devotees who were so attached to Srila Prabhupada and so capable of serving him in such different ways.

Gurudas had arranged a cheap flight on a small airline, and so, that evening we boarded an old converted dual-propeller cargo plane, bound for Bombay with a stop in Cairo. In my mood of Krishna consciousness then, I was quite oblivious to things around me. I wanted to avoid maya—anything that could distract me from Krishna—and didn’t pay much heed to anything that didn’t relate directly to my service. I was focused on the idea of chanting and hearing every word of the Hare Krishna mantra distinctly, on always thinking about Krishna and never forgetting Him. And I had heard that Srila Prabhupada had said that if you have trouble hearing, you should chant loudly. And sometimes, to really get into the holy names—and to break out of any possible lethargy—I would jump up and down. One or two of the devotees told me that they were anxious about how people in Egypt might react to my chanting, but I was determined.

There was unrest in Egypt at that time, and when we landed in Cairo we were met on the tarmac by soldiers and armed security guards with bandoliers of bullets around their chests and machine guns over their shoulders. And as we deplaned, walking down the steps, the men were pointing machine guns in our direction. Then Yamuna, as I learned later, saw the guards suddenly move their guns up and down, shifting their aim. And when she turned around to see why, she saw me behind her, walking down the stairs chanting japa, jumping up and down.

Anyway, we escaped Egypt and flew to Bombay, where, as arranged by Srila Prabhupada, we were taken to Kailash Seksaria’s house. There I went through a period of confusion—some things were difficult for me to understand and cope with—and I wasn’t sure what to do. I was a relatively new devotee, at least compared with the others in the group, and somehow I just got the inspiration to go to Yamuna and Gurudas for help. What they told me was extraordinary, and for me, revolutionary. I entered their room feeling completely at a loss, but they turned the whole thing around, saying that Srila Prabhupada had sent me to engage them in thinking about him and about topics of deep significance. They turned the whole thing completely around, and I believe they were completely genuine in the way they took it and in what they said. And that was the beginning of what proved to be a very close relationship with them both.

While we were staying at Seksaria Bhavan, Srila Prabhupada introduced a new tune for the Gurvastakam prayers in the morning. He tried to teach some of the men, but they couldn’t quite get it. Then he decided to instruct Yamuna, in the presence of us all, and she picked it up right away. Afterward, Srila Prabhupada told Yamuna, “Learn to listen. You cannot follow nicely unless you hear nicely, and you cannot lead nicely unless you have learned to follow nicely.” And gradually the rest of us learned the new melody.

In Bombay, Srila Prabhupada was invited to attend the Vedanta Sammelan in Amritsar, and so a party of seven men and two women—Yamuna and Kausalya—traveled there with him by train. The Vedanta Ashram offered us two small rooms and the use of the large common courtyard just outside. Srila Prabhupada occupied one room, Yamuna and Kausalya the other.

Srila Prabhupada was very protective of the women, and he would have them ride to programs with him in his car while the men took rickshaws. He did programs in the morning and evening—and often in between. Kausalya told me that driving to one engagement, he mentioned that he needed new shoes. “Stop at the next Bata shoe store,” he said. In the store, he told Yamuna and Kausalya, “You choose the shoes for me,” and sat down. So, they looked all around the store and found some white crisscross plastic sandals that they thought would be just right. Each of them carried one shoe up to Srila Prabhupada, and they slipped them on his feet. He smiled and asked, “Do you like them?” They responded, “Yes.” “Then we will buy them.” And so he did.

In the afternoons when there was some free time, Yamuna would chant in the courtyard. It was very cold in Amritsar in November, but it would be a little warmer when the sun came out in the afternoon, and she would sit cross-legged with her back erect and chant Hare Krishna maha-mantra japa continuously with her eyes closed—nonstop. She told me then that when she chanted, her ears and mind and heart opened up to the holy names and the names would enter and she would just hear the sound. She would be fully absorbed in the sound, not even thinking that she was chanting the holy names or that these were names she was hearing—she was just absorbed in the sound.

After Amritsar, Srila Prabhupada and his party traveled by train back to Bombay. On the way, the train stopped at the New Delhi station, and a gentleman, a lawyer named D. D. Gupta who had been corresponding with Prabhupada and had been informed of his stopover, came to meet him. He requested Srila Prabhupada to leave some disciples in Delhi to start the activities there. Prabhupada turned to Gurudas, who was riding in the same compartment, and said, “This man is inviting us. Get down and see what you can do.” Gurudas asked for some devotees, and then he and Prabhupada agreed on a team: Yamuna, Gopala, Bhakta Bruce (now Bhanu Swami), and me.

Mr. Gupta arranged for us to stay in two rooms in Old Delhi, near Delhi Gate. The rooms were very basic—just plain concrete with whitewash on the walls—and they abutted the courtyard at the center of the building. We would have to walk around the courtyard to use the simple latrine (though, in urgent cases, we would often run!).

Mr. Gupta, it turned out, was a peculiar man. He was an advocate, but not a very big one. And he was miserly. He would keep his used, dead batteries in a drawer in the hope that they would come back to life.

The whole situation was very austere, but it was wonderful being with Gurudas and Yamuna. We were like a family, with Gurudas and Yamuna like our older brother and sister, taking care of us in the absence of our father, Srila Prabhupada.

After leaving us in Delhi and spending some days in Bombay, Srila Prabhupada proceeded to Indore for the Gita Jayanti Mahotsava, and our small party joined him there. Once, when we entered his room, he looked up from his desk, and Yamuna remarked, “Srila Prabhupada, you look just like a picture I have seen of your guru maharaja looking up from his desk.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, with all humility, “All that glitters is not gold. My guru maharaja was like gold; I am like iron.”

From Indore, Srila Prabhupada and his party traveled to Surat, in Gujarat, where we received an overwhelming reception. In Surat something happened—I actually haven’t thought of it for years. One day I was chanting my rounds on the roof of the house where we all were staying, and somehow my mind got fixed on the idea that . . . I had heard that Srila Prabhupada said that if you can deliver just one soul back home, back to Godhead, then your own deliverance is assured. Somehow I thought of my girlfriend from before I joined, and I considered, “Maybe I should have her come and join me, and I will make her a pure devotee, and then I’ll go back to Godhead.” It all made perfect sense to me, but I thought I had better consult Gurudas and Yamuna. I was very serious, and they questioned me, “Why her in particular? There are so many souls that you could deliver back to Godhead—why her?” Indirectly, they pointed out my attachment for her, and they induced me to abandon that strategy.

After Surat, Srila Prabhupada stopped in Bombay, where he met with the few devotees based there. We were all staying at the Sea Palace Hotel, which was pure vegetarian and belonged to Sri Ramchand Chhabria, who knew the devotees from England and was himself vegetarian. While we were there, a new issue of Back to Godhead magazine arrived, and the first article was Srila Prabhupada’s poem “Markine Bhagavata-dharma,” written when he initially arrived in America, in Boston. We had never seen the poem before; it had never been published. Gurudas, Yamuna, and I got together to look at the magazine, and Yamuna read the poem out loud. It was written in a mood of deep humility and dependence on Krishna. And when she got to the end—“Signed—the most unfortunate, insignificant beggar, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami”—she burst into tears. She couldn’t contain herself.

Years later, in September 2002, after celebrating the anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s arrival in America, I wrote Yamuna-devi, “Two days ago I spoke of the time Srila Prabhupada’s poem “Markine Bhagavata-dharma” first appeared in English in BTG and you read it to Gurudas Prabhu and me and at the end you cried.” And she replied, “I sang this prayer this year on Vyasa-puja day, and all the while torrents of tears fell. One of my weaknesses is tears.”

From Bombay Srila Prabhupada went to Allahabad for the Ardha-kumbha-mela, and Yamuna and I were there with him. Srila Prabhupada spoke on the story of Ajamila and the holy name from the Sixth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Only the first two cantos had been translated and published, so Prabhupada read from his Sanskrit Bhagavatam with commentaries, sometimes translating from Sridhara Swami’s and occasionally from Jiva Gosvami’s.

While there, I heard that Srila Prabhupada had said that he was speaking for Yamuna. And in April 2007, when Yamuna visited me in Carpinteria and I asked her about it, she told me something that etched an indelible impression on my heart. She always thought that she had as much right as anyone else to walk or sit close to Srila Prabhupada, she explained. And generally when he spoke, she would sit in front of the vyasasana at his feet. She had never really distinguished in terms of etiquette that men should walk closer to Prabhupada, and women farther, or that men should sit closer to him, and women farther. And the movement had been like that—like a family. In Allahabad, however, one of the sannyasis had explained to her that in India the women sat apart and that she should too.

About 10:30 the next morning, after she hadn’t sat at the foot of Srila Prabhupada’s vyasasana as usual, Prabhupada noticed her passing by his tent and called out, “Yamuna, come in here.” She entered and offered her obeisances, and before she got up, he said, “So, you don’t want to hear anymore?” Yamuna burst into tears; Prabhupada—hearing from him—was her life. “Where were you this morning?” he asked. Yamuna told him what had happened. Prabhupada was silent.

That, Yamuna told me, was a turning point in her life. It changed her whole orientation in Krishna consciousness. She suddenly had the realization that she would not always have Prabhupada’s company. Since 1967, when Srila Prabhupada recovered from his stroke, she had never been able to conceive of ever being separated from him. The devotees were so dependent on him for everything, it was inconceivable to them that he would not be with them. But, she told me, every disciple must come to a personal realization that there will be a time when the spiritual master will not be present. And for her, that moment came in Allahabad, after her talks with the sannyasi and then with Srila Prabhupada.

Sitting in Prabhupada’s tent, she asked him, “How much time did you actually spend with your guru maharaja?” “Very few occasions,” he said. “Maybe five or six. But they were very intimate. We used to walk and talk so many things.” Then he said, “Those who think that association with the spiritual master is physical, they are no better than a mosquito sitting on the lap of a king. And what is the business of a mosquito? Simply to suck blood. So many of my godbrothers, they were big, big sannyasis, and they thought like that, and they simply sucked blood.”

Yamuna took Prabhupada’s words as confirmation. She now understood that she needed to go to another place to explore her relationship with him and her service to him in separation. She began to consider the question of vani (words, instructions) and vapuh (body, form), and she got more and more insight into it. As she told me, it is something “unlimitedly deep and profound. You can hear the terms on the surface, but vani means to again be in Prabhupada’s presence”—to be in his presence in separation as much as when you were in his physical association. “So, that was a turning point for me, to realize that Prabhupada was going to leave this planet: ‘He is an old man, and he is going to leave, and I have to prepare.’ ” She took it that from that moment she must start mentally preparing—find a way of continuing in Krishna consciousness that was not based on Srila Prabhupada’s personal association.

“So, that is that story of hearing,” she continued. “Prabhupada said, ‘I am speaking because you want to hear so much. I am speaking as much because you want to hear so much.’ So he knew that hunger. I never expressed that to him, but he knew.”As Yamuna often said, Srila Prabhupada was completely aware of every disciple in every way—both their internal consciousness and the external manifestations of their service.

Vani and vapuh became a major theme in Yamuna’s life—how to maintain one’s connection with Srila Prabhupada through vani to the same degree and with the same intensity as in his physical, even close personal, presence. She was convinced that it was possible, and she arranged her life in such a way as to always receive his guidance and mercy—to always be in his association.

Then came the Bombay pandal. Syamasundara Prabhu, who was the temple president, divided the work into different departments, with one devotee in charge of each. (Often, that devotee was the department.) And Yamuna was in charge of the Deities. We had very little money. Although we were raising funds for the pandal program, we needed it all for the event. And the treasurer, Rishi Kumar, was very tight with the money, which Srila Prabhupada considered a good quality for the treasurer. Sometimes Rishi Kumar would put a sign on his office door: “Closed for three days.” So, Yamuna was charged with raising the funds for the Deities. That was the year we got big marble ones. In the pandal we had small brass Deities, and on the last day of the program there was to be a procession from the pandal, at Cross Maidan, to Chowpatty, where there would be a program at the beach, at which Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari would be revealed for the first time to the people of Bombay. And she just couldn’t raise the money.

One day while she was out endeavoring to raise funds for the Deities, Yamuna became so disappointed and distraught that she just sat down on the sidewalk and wept. A black limousine, with a pious, distinguished-looking gentleman in the back seat, stopped on the road before her, and the gentleman got out of the car and asked her what was the matter. “We’re having a pandal program,” she explained, “and I’m in charge of the Deities’ outfits and decorations, and I have to raise the money, but no one is giving, and we’re running out of time.” “Don’t worry,” he replied. “I am the chairman of two of the biggest temple trusts in Bombay. How much do you need?” “Two thousand five hundred rupees,” which was really a lot back then. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Just come with me to my office, and I’ll give you a check for the whole amount.” She was that sincere and dedicated.

From Bombay, Srila Prabhupada sent Tamal Krishna and me to Calcutta to arrange a similar pandal program, and eventually Yamuna also came, and soon she was engaged in the service of the Deities there, Sri Sri Radha-Govinda. Every morning we would look forward to the darshan of the Deities. The worship was so beautiful—so devotional.

One day at the pandal site I approached Yamuna and told her that I had some questions regarding my future and the future of the movement that I just could not answer but with which I didn’t want to approach Srila Prabhupada directly. The whole mood at the time was, “Don’t disturb Srila Prabhupada. He has to translate. He has important things to do. Don’t go to Srila Prabhupada.” When I told Yamuna my questions, however, she responded, “No, you should go to him. You are just the type of devotee he would want to spend time with, and these are just the types of questions he would want to answer.”

So, based on Yamuna’s advice, I approached Srila Prabhupada in his room at the temple, and my meeting with him was very significant. “Before joining the movement,” I said, “I was interested in making movies, and I even made one. So I was thinking maybe I should make movies about Krishna consciousness.” Srila Prabhupada replied, “That, others are doing. Our main medium is books.”

Then I said, “Srila Prabhupada, now you are here, so everything is all right. But what if in the course of time, when you are not here, ISKCON falls from the standard? What should I do?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “You are also one of the important members of the Society”—I was actually very new—“You are also one of the important members of the Society, so you work for the correction. But don’t leave.”

These instructions have been guiding me ever since. And it was Yamuna who advised me to go and ask Prabhupada directly.

After Calcutta was the Delhi pandal. Again Yamuna arranged beautiful Deity worship—for Sri Sri Radha-Gokulananda, who later went to Bhaktivedanta Manor in England. The darshans were spectacular. But after the program, she was very sick. She was staying in the same, large house as Srila Prabhupada, and he noticed that she was missing. He inquired and found out that she was sick. She was resting in a small room—like a closet. Because she was sick, she had to have her own room, and that was all the devotees could offer. Srila Prabhupada went to visit her and found that no one was really taking care of her, and he became concerned and assigned a devotee to care for her. It was cold, and I think he gave her his own room heater—perhaps the only one. And he said that we have to take care of our devotees when they fall ill.

After the Delhi pandal, I went to Madras, while the rest of the party went to Vrindavan with Srila Prabhupada for the first time. There was one car—an Ambassador—with Srila Prabhupada and some men, and a bus with the rest of the devotees. Prabhupada was in the car, and he noticed Yamuna climbing into the bus. He said, “Wait! Wait!” He called her, knowing that she was very sick, and told the men to get out. Then he had her get in the back seat with Gurudas and one other man—Prabhupada was in front with the driver—and the other men went on the bus.

In time, Srila Prabhupada got some land in Vrindavan and put Gurudas and Yamuna in charge. And she related a couple of incidents to me that I consider to be very instructive. Once, a small group of devotees went to the Radha-Damodara temple, and the Goswami in charge invited them to have prasada. The devotees sat in the courtyard, and the Goswami arranged the Deities’ maha-prasada for them. While they were honoring the prasada, he began to blaspheme Srila Prabhupada—“Why does he wear a ring?” and all sorts of things. The devotees felt extremely uncomfortable and were tempted to just get up and walk out, but somehow they decided not to. After the incident, Gurudas and Yamuna reported to Srila Prabhupada what had happened, and Prabhupada instructed, “In Vrindavan there are five thousand caste goswamis, five thousand shopkeepers, and five thousand widows, and we have to keep good relations with all of them; otherwise we will end up in court like the Gaudiya Matha.”

On another occasion, Srila Prabhupada sent Gurudas and Yamuna to meet his godbrother Professor O. B. L. Kapoor. At some stage after Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura left, Professor Kapoor had taken shelter of a babaji as a siksa-guru. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta had vehemently criticized these babajis, and they had staunchly opposed him. So this was a very peculiar situation, that Professor Kapoor had taken shelter of a babaji who was the type of person who was the object of his spiritual master’s criticism and in turn opposed his spiritual master. But Srila Prabhupada simply said, “That is his weakness”—that’s all. He didn’t consider that this disqualified Dr. Kapoor from helping the movement. Srila Prabhupada had a very broad view of the Krishna consciousness movement and of engaging people in it, and that was demonstrated quite vividly in Vrindavan.

Then Srila Prabhupada left us, and things did change. And I didn’t see Gurudas and Yamuna for many years. But then somehow my relationship with Yamuna was revived. She had been a mentor to me, and decades later she was again. Although so many years had passed, when we met again it was more or less the same—the relationship hadn’t changed, and we shared thoughts about Srila Prabhupada and his service and his mission. She was always very concerned about the mission, that Srila Prabhupada’s legacy should be preserved as it is and not adulterated or compromised.

I also saw that she was very absorbed in Krishna consciousness. When I think of the five main processes of devotional service (pancanga-bhakti), she was very strong in all of them.

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana
mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

“One should associate with devotees, chant the holy name of the Lord, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura, and worship the Deity with faith and veneration.”

She was very strong in reading and studying. Every morning she would read the Bhagavatam and the teachings of the more recent acharyas—Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura—taking special note when they spoke about the holy name. This was a major focus for her, and she would relish reading, especially instructions related to nama-bhajana and to guru-seva.

Another thing about Yamuna-devi struck me as amazing. About the time of the first Bombay pandal, when we were staying in Akash Ganga, a high-rise apartment building in an affluent part of central Bombay, when we would go out she would stay back and clean. She would clean the whole place, for hours. And while cleaning, she would sing in a very ecstatic mood. The rest of us were going here and there—for service, but there were incidental benefits: seeing exotic India, meeting all sorts of cultured and interesting people, tasting varieties of delicious prasada—and she was staying back and cleaning. She put her heart into it and would be singing in an ecstatic mood.

Later, in April 2007, when she visited me in Carpinteria, I asked her about this, and she said that Srila Prabhupada had put greater emphasis on bhagavata-marga because he wanted his books produced, so they would be there for all time, and because he wanted his books distributed, so that the income from the sales would support the expansion of the mission. So he didn’t have much time to personally train disciples in pancaratrika-vidhi. But he did train her, and she considered personal service to him to be in the same category as personal service to the Deity. And, of course, she is right. Once, a devotee came forward to fan Srila Prabhupada, and Prabhupada stopped him, saying that he wasn’t a brahman. So, cleanliness is one of the basic principles of Deity worship. But Yamuna didn’t distinguish between cleaning the guru’s ashram and cleaning the Deity room. As she told me, “In Bombay, I learned to take joy in that cleaning. Whether you are serving the spiritual master or the arca-vigraha, the cleaning is external and internal. It is a very spiritual engagement—as powerful as distributing books.”

She explained that Srila Prabhupada would teach each servant about the importance and standards of cleanliness according to the servant’s capacity to understand. And she told me how strictly he had trained her. He had his four-tiered cooker, and if he found a black spot on the bottom of any of the pots, he would really chastise the servant: “This is not Vaishnava. This is Muslim. No Vaishnava will ever leave a black spot on any of the pots in the kitchen.” Prabhupada’s cooker was always to shine like gold.

Based on Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, Yamuna developed a whole system for cleaning his quarters in Vrindavan—an elaborate five-step procedure, going from bottom to top and top to bottom. First, she would get the big dirt off the bottom, then she would go up as far as she could reach, dusting, and then she would go back to the bottom, cleaning everything as perfectly as she could. If there was anything wrong, Prabhupada would notice and tell her about it. And keeping the rooms clean in Vrindavan was very hard: with the simmering sands of Raman Reti and the whole place being a construction zone, there was always dirt and corrosion—everywhere. The walls of Prabhupada’s rooms were pale yellow, and the floors were black stone. The floors were covered with rugs, and the rugs were covered with white sheets.

One morning when Srila Prabhupada came back from his walk, after Yamuna had gone through her five-step procedure and everything looked as clean as could be, he told her, “Please clean my room, Yamuna. Haven’t I taught you to clean?” “No, Srila Prabhupada,” she said. “How may I improve my cleaning?” He didn’t say anything. On his desk were a picture of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, his eyeglass case, his tilak, pens, a flower vase, and a staple gun. Srila Prabhupada took the staple gun, which was about two and a half inches long, removed it from its plastic case, lifted up the metal staple holder, and ran his little finger, his pinkie, across the thin metal strip between the staple holder and the hinge. . . .  Dust. Dust. “When will you learn how to clean?”

If Srila Prabhupada had had the time, Yamuna told me, he would have trained all his disciples in both pancaratrika-vidhi and bhagavata-vidhi, but because he was focused more on bhagavata-vidhi, he mainly trained only his close managers and personal servants, be they men or women, in both. Srila Prabhupada knew the consciousness of his disciples—he knew their capacity—and he would train them according to their capacity to absorb it.

Cooking, like cleanliness, is also part of Deity worship, and Yamuna was, of course, most expert. Once, when Srila Prabhupada was coming to Vrindavan, she went to the Vraja-vasis and asked, “What is the best way to make Vraja-vasi rotis?” They told her, “You have to get this red Punjabi wheat berry. You have to grind it in the morning, and then you have to cook it with neem wood.”

When Prabhupada came she didn’t say a word to him, but she got that red wheat berry from Punjab, she had it ground in the morning, and she cooked the chapatis with neem wood. Then she brought the plate in to Prabhupada and put the hot chapati on his plate. He took one bite and said, “This is the red Punjabi wheat berry. You ground it this morning and cooked it with neem wood.” She hadn’t said a word to him—he just knew.

That was at the Radha-Damodara temple in 1972. And there is a sequel to the story about the Vraja-vasi chapatis, from Raman Reti in 1973. I am not a cook—chapatis are too technical for me—so I will read the transcription of Yamuna’s account to me in Carpinteria:

“One time when Srila Prabhupada came—I think it was the first time I met Satsvarupa dasa Gosvami; he was Prabhupada’s servant—I was on a bucket stove again, on the floor—no kitchen. I was making Prabhupada’s prasada, and as you may or may not know, when you cook with a bucket stove and you have a little bit of hard coal and then a little bit of soft coal and then a little bit of cow dung, it is a little hard to regulate. There is a certain temperature, and you cannot turn a switch to make it higher or lower. And then, depending on the thickness of the pot, you know what intensity you want. And then there is what you call a thawa, which is an iron griddle, concave, and to make a chapati you keep that on the stove and then you lift it off and you put the chapati on top of the flame. So, I made chapatis for Prabhupada’s lunch.

“Satsvarupa Maharaja wanted to bring in the lunch, thinking that I probably shouldn’t do it. He brought in the plate, came back into the kitchen, and said, ‘Prabhupada wants me to teach you how to make chapatis.’ And I said, ‘Oh, Maharaja, I would be so grateful if you could do that. I’d love to learn to make chapatis. Please.’

“Then I got up, and he began to wash his hands. By the time he sat down and rolled out a chapati, the thawa was really hot. He rolled out an octopus-like chapati. Now, when you roll out a chapati, the ball bearings for rolling it out is the dusting of flour, and if you roll the chapati in too much flour you actually roll flour into the surface of the flatbread and then even if you try to flap it off, you still have a crust of flour. So, you use a minimal amount for the ball bearings and then flap off the little extra.

“His octopus was covered with flour on a hot thawa. When he put it on, I said, ‘Maharaja, what should I be looking for?’ He said, ‘You wait until there are pimples on the top.’ As soon as the chapati hit the griddle, very hot, the pimples came very fast. He turned the chapati over, and there were little burnt holes. So there was no question of it puffing up.

“So, he put it on, and the little bubbles appeared at different places, and he took it in to Prabhupada. Then he came back and told me, ‘Prabhupada said, “This is excellent.” ’

Yamuna concludes, “So that’s how Prabhupada taught me. It was never with a whip, but they were beatings nonetheless. They were beatings over my head.”

Another time, in 1974, one of the devotees based in Vrindavan approached Yamuna and said, “My wife is coming, and she is a very good cook. She wants to cook for Prabhupada.” Yamuna replied, “How wonderful. I will be glad to engage her in Prabhupada’s service.” The new cook arrived after the big Mayapur festival, when almost all the devotees became very ill with dysentery and other maladies. There was really no proper arrangement for them, but Gurudas and Yamuna cared for them like parents. Yamuna was doing the cooking for the devotees there at Fogel Ashram. Under the circumstances, she really didn’t have time to cook for Srila Prabhupada, so she was very happy that the new cook was there. Meanwhile, Yamuna was trying to make arrangements for the devotees’ prasada. She had no facility, she was unable to speak Hindi and communicate with the locals, and the assistant cooks were ready to walk out at any time. She was working practically twenty-four hours. And she didn’t go to see Prabhupada the entire time.

She began to get messages: “Prabhupada wants you”—but she didn’t go. She just replied, “Tell him I am really busy.” She told me later, “Bad, very bad—really low consciousness.”

When finally she came to Prabhupada’s room, he was about to go out. So she came back the next morning.

Yamuna had given the new cook specific instructions. Still, the lady had taken Srila Prabhupada’s cooker and his unclean laundry and stuffed them in a bolster pillowcase meant for his seating area, now black all over the bottom. Yamuna arrived just as the lady was putting the cooker in with the clothes, in the pillowcase. Srila Prabhupada was also standing there, watching the cooker being shoved into the pillowcase. He didn’t say a word—not to the cook, not to Yamuna.

“Prabhupada knows everything,” Yamuna told me later. Thus he said to her, “Are you too busy to come? So I am delaying my departure for one day.” The men said, “But the cars are ready. We’re just loading them.” “No, Yamuna will stay here and cook for me tomorrow,” Srila Prabhupada stated unequivocally. “I am staying, and she is going to cook for me tomorrow morning, and then we will go.”

Cleanliness. More than thirty years later, Yamuna told me, “I can honestly say that I joyously engage in cleaning, and so in our ashram [in Saranagati, Canada] we sing and clean, sometimes for hours and hours and hours. Our place is very primitive; we have a dirt floor and walls, and a lot of earth outside. It is very simple, but we like to clean a lot. We enjoy cleaning, for Srila Prabhupada and the Deities.”

Kirtan. Yamuna had a dream. I don’t remember the details, and it is a little delicate, because she was a very private person. Anyway, in this dream, or vision—whatever it was, she took it as very real—she was a sage in the forest and Srila Prabhupada was also in the same forest, and somehow he engaged her in doing kirtan. She felt that from her past life there was a connection with Srila Prabhupada in relation to kirtan.

About Srila Prabhupada’s kirtan she said, “Srila Prabhupada’s kirtan had no tinge of being a performance. It was purely for the pleasure of Krishna. It allowed the chanters access to the fact that the Lord’s holy name and the Lord are nondifferent. He said that the key to engaging in kirtan without anartha was hearing and studying our literature, and that gradually it would rise to the platform of pure devotional service.”

And in an e-mail to Bhakta Carl, now Kalachandji das, she wrote, “Leading and chanting in kirtan has little to do with how we sound to each other. It has much more to do with how we call out to Krishna and immerse ourselves in hearing the vibrations of the holy names. What a vehicle for experiencing love of Godhead.”

When Yamuna and the other devotees were recording with the Beatles, George Harrison was so impressed by her singing that he told her he could make her one of the most famous and celebrated vocalists in the world. But she wasn’t interested. Her singing was meant for another purpose—pure devotional service to please Srila Prabhupada and Sri Sri Radha-Govinda.

Yamuna said that to the degree one follows Srila Prabhupada, to that degree things are revealed. And she gave the example of Bhakti Tirtha Swami. She felt that because of his deep connection with the holy name—his dedication to japa, his private time with japa—he was able to perceive Srila Prabhupada’s presence in separation. She said, “Prabhupada freely gave everything to all of us. But it is the individual’s hankering, which leads him to make certain decisions in his life to catch that mercy, that facilitates his or her perception of Srila Prabhupada, especially in separation.”

Yamuna recalled an incident that demonstrated to her unequivocally how Prabhupada knew his disciples. She came to the courtyard of the Radha-Damodara temple in the wee hours of one morning, remaining as silent as humanly possible so as not to disturb Srila Prabhupada, and he came out of his room and called her name. “There was no way Prabhupada could have known that I was there at one thirty in the morning,” she said. “I didn’t make any noise.”

But then she balanced her statement: “On the other hand, there were many times when he would say, ‘I want your report. Otherwise how do I know?’ ” And she added, “There were times when I did it, but other times, because of low Krishna consciousness, I ceased reporting in an honest way, and it contributed to my fall, to my weaknesses in Krishna consciousness. When I was open and revealed everything honestly in my reporting to Prabhupada, as we are supposed to report to Krishna, I was stronger in Krishna consciousness. And when I closed that avenue off, my consciousness suffered.”

In her profound humility, she explained, “Srila Prabhupada’s presence in vani and vapuh, or our ability to perceive his presence in his vani and vapuh, depends on our consciousness—whether we are able to perceive a drop of who Prabhupada was. Some devotees who never had Srila Prabhupada’s company, with their laulyam and their greed for it had more of it than I sometimes did while I was in his company, depending on my consciousness. . . .

“I still have no idea of the greatness of Prabhupada’s presence, then or now, although I think about it a lot, meditate on it a lot. We discuss it almost every day. It comes up in some form or other in our morning Bhagavatam class. . . . Prabhupada’s presence then and now—vani and vapuh. And it is very important to hold onto his presence as the focal point in our maturation in spiritual life, because he is the center in our spiritual life. Nothing comes without his presence. Even if the mercy comes to us through other forms, from endless different places—still, he is the fountainhead. . . . If I am qualified, then certain mercies will come to me. Mercy is not something you bargain for or arrange for or even desire for very deeply. You can have intense hankering, and then whatever comes—whatever form the mercy comes in—it is so Krishna conscious.”

Inevitably, we come toward the end of Yamuna-devi’s stay with us. After Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance day in 2009, she wrote me a letter that shows her deep absorption in Srila Prabhupada and in the holy names, and her intimate relationship with Srila Prabhupada. I think that she really did understand Prabhupada and his mission. He gave her a lot of instruction.

“Dear Giriraj Swami, Pranama dandavats. Jaya Srila Prabhupada! I wanted to share a few thoughts and reflections on yesterday, Srila Prabhupada’s thirty-second disappearance day. We observed the day first at Radha-Banabehari Mandir with our morning program at Radha-Banabehari Mandir, then at a midday program at Govardhana Academy [the school at Saranagati], introducing the students to the traditional way Srila Prabhupada instructed us to honor this day, and then in the evening at a program with adults in the community, who for convenience regularly meet in the evening for any kind of Vaishnava holy day.

“Last night Yadubara showed his preliminary edited footage for DVD Eleven: ‘Srila Prabhupada’s Final Pastimes.’ Though I had seen much of the footage before, it had been without comment, and not arranged in sequence to tell a visual story of Srila Prabhupada’s final days and hours, the moment of his passing, and the aftermath—the Vrindavan parikrama and the samadhi entombment.

“One evening, sitting with my back to Srila Prabhupada’s front bucket seat, riding in a van from Tittenhurst [John Lennon’s estate] to a Conway Hall lecture in London, Srila Prabhupada said loud enough for me to hear, ‘When I die, see that my body is taken on a palanquin around Vrindavan on parikrama.’ Stunned, but immediately attentive to these words, I turned around, and on my knees, bent forward from the waist so that my head was even with his shoulder, I said, ‘Why have you told me to do this, Srila Prabhupada? Better that you tell Tamal Krishna. He has more access to seeing that this is done than I do.’ He replied, ‘No, you can tell him.’ He fell silent and said no more. I too fell silent and said no more.

“Yadubara’s footage last night of the thickest pastime of Srila Prabhupada’s life with us—his passing—was poignant and moving. Though I was not there physically with Srila Prabhupada, I could not have felt closer to him or experienced more of his presence had I been so. Every moment of every day has been a meditation on Srila Prabhupada, and we have been engaged in constant kirtan. Perhaps it would have been difficult for me even to have been there at that time, for except Pisima, it is clear that women were not allowed close proximity to Srila Prabhupada, and that might have been almost unbearable for me after the closeness I experienced in previous years with him.”

She wrote more, expressing appreciation for the devotional mood and service of some of Prabhupada’s disciples who were there—they had “a shared intent to follow Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, glorify his mood, honor his example, and share that with others.” But her letter also expressed her concern about how at a certain point the role of women in the movement had changed. In earlier days . . . of course, she was exceptional—she would lead kirtan before thousands of people, speak before thousands of people, and render personal service to Srila Prabhupada. As she told me, at Tittenhurst she was basically Srila Prabhupada’s personal servant—she and Malati and Janaki. Purusottama would do some of the correspondence, and some of the men would give massage, but basically these ladies were doing the personal service.

She said that one day Prabhupada came into his room—they had just made his bed and done whatever else had to be done in the room—and said, “This is very unusual,” meaning for a sannyasi to have women do that service. He said, “This is very unusual, but it is appropriate.” He continued, “Sometimes I am like your father and you are like my daughters, and sometimes you are like my mothers and I am like your son.”

In the last year there was tremendous concern about Yamuna-devi’s health. At different stages she spoke to me about her condition and options, but then toward the end, perhaps in September, she came to a point with regards to her heart. Because of her size and age, the doctors were afraid to perform an invasive procedure, yet if they didn’t, there was every chance she would have heart failure, at any time. For a while she wasn’t sure what to do, but in the end she decided to just return to her home and depend on Krishna.

She said a few times that she was ready to go, that she felt she had done what she was meant to do, or what she could do, in this life, and she was ready to go. She had no fear, and no regrets. Personally, I questioned her conclusion about her service, and I suggested, “Well, you may have something left to do in terms of service to Srila Prabhupada.” I was thinking of her writing, that she should write about her experiences with and realizations about Srila Prabhupada. But she said, “No, I have thought about it, and there’s nothing really that I have to stay to do. If there is anything—if I am given more time—it is to try to help the women in the movement.” And she added, “I don’t think that you, as a sannyasi, can understand what the women in the movement experience. But if Krishna does give me some more time, I would like to do something for the women, to support the women, to give a strong voice to the women.”

No matter how dire her physical condition was, she was so Krishna conscious. My conversations with her were quite frequent after she went to Bhaktivedanta Hospital. Naturally, I was concerned about her medical condition, and so we would talk about it, and somehow or other, without my knowing how she got there, she would be talking about Krishna and Srila Prabhupada and the holy name and how wonderful devotees were and how merciful Prabhupada and Krishna were and how grateful she was. Quite the opposite of what I often experience with myself: I begin talking about Krishna and then—I don’t know how it happens—somehow I’m talking about my body. With her, I would bring up her body—how she was doing and if I could help in any way—and without my knowing how, suddenly we were talking about Krishna and Prabhupada and the holy name and the prayers of the acharyas and the wonderful service of the other devotees and just how grateful she was for what she had been given.

At about 6:30 in the morning on December 20, Yamuna’s constant companion and spiritual confidante, Dinatarini dasi, found that Yamuna had left. Her hand was in her bead bag, and a slight smile was on her face. She looked completely at peace—even blissful. She had been unafraid of death. She had been confident that she would again be with Srila Prabhupada, or somehow engaged in serving his mission. Such is the destination that awaits anyone who gives his or her life fully to serving Srila Prabhupada, his vani, his vapuh.

Yamuna-devi was a beautiful soul, a divine servant of Srila Prabhupada, his mission, and his Lords. She exemplified nama-ruci (taste for the holy name), jiva-daya (mercy for the living entities), and vaisnava-seva (service to the devotees). She was a mentor, guide, and friend to many, including me, and we will miss her personal presence. Still, we shall try to serve her in separation by upholding the ideals she held dear.

In conclusion, I quote from a letter Yamuna wrote me some years ago, which has given me some solace and guidance at this time:

“I remember when Dina and I visited you in your house in Vrindavan. We asked you one question, and you took three hours to answer it: ‘How has your relationship with Srila Prabhupada changed since his departure?’ ” Again, vani and vapuh. She continued, “The departure of loved ones helps us to change, to go deeper. Surely this will happen.”

I haven’t visited Melbourne temple since earlier in the year and it was blissful to see Their Lordships and the devotees. Radha Vallabha maha-prasadam is famous so I got that mercy as well.

I attended the student program, which has been going for decades, over the road from the temple in the Mary Kehoe centre. This started at Nityananda Pran’s small flat down the road but grew so big that a move was necessary. Usually, over one hundred students come and a follow up program for the more serious is held every Friday.

I haven’t visited Melbourne temple since earlier in the year and it was blissful to see Their Lordships and the devotees. Radha Vallabha maha-prasadam is famous so I got that mercy as well.

I attended the student program, which has been going for decades, over the road from the temple in the Mary Kehoe centre. This started at Nityananda Pran’s small flat down the road but grew so big that a move was necessary. Usually, over one hundred students come and a follow up program for the more serious is held every Friday.

Today is Odana-sasti, the date on which Lord Jagannatha is given a winter shawl. One year when Lord Chaitanya and His associates celebrated this festival in Puri, Pundarika Vidyanidhi, who is Vrsabhanu Maharaja, Srimati Radharani’s father in krsna-lila, received some special mercy. His experience is instructive for us all.

Srila Prabhupada explains, “At the beginning of winter, there is a ceremony known as the Odana-sasthi. This ceremony indicates that from that day forward, a winter covering should be given to Lord Jagannatha. That covering is directly purchased from a weaver. According to the arcana-marga, a cloth should first be washed to remove all the starch, and then it can be used to cover the Lord. Pundarika Vidyanidhi saw that the priest neglected to wash the cloth before covering Lord Jagannatha. Since he wanted to find some fault in the devotees, he became indignant.” (Cc Madhya 16.78 purport)

And Sri Caitanya-caritamrta (Madhya 16.78–81) describes the event: “Pundarika Vidyanidhi initiated Gadadhara Pandita for the second time, and on the day of Odana-sasthi Pundarika Vidyanidhi saw the festival. (78) When Pundarika Vidyanidhi saw that Lord Jagannatha was given a starched garment, he became a little hateful. In this way his mind was polluted. (79) That night the brothers Lord Jagannatha and Balarama came to Pundarika Vidyanidhi and, smiling, began to slap him. (80) Although his cheeks were swollen from the slapping, Pundarika Vidyanidhi was very happy within. This incident has been elaborately described by Thakura Vrndavana dasa. (81)”

From this incident we can learn that the Lord does not tolerate offenses against His servants, even from an advanced devotee, and that He chastises any devotee who commits such an offense even within the mind. We can also learn that a pure devotee accepts such chastisement from the Lord with great happiness, as a manifestation of the Lord’s mercy, of His love and care for His devotees—both for those who may commit such an offense and for those who may be objects of such an offense. A pure devotee thanks the Lord for rectifying him and preventing him from committing further offenses, and he feels great jubilation within his heart.

Hare Krishna.