19790910 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.9.5

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on September 10, 1979 in Los Angeles, California, USA. The class begins with the reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.9.5.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.9.5

sa vai tadaiva pratipāditāṁ giraṁ
daivīṁ parijñāta-parātma-nirṇayaḥ
taṁ bhakti-bhāvo ’bhyagṛṇād asatvaraṁ
pariśrutoru-śravasaṁ dhruva-kṣitiḥ

Translation: At that time Dhruva Mahārāja became perfectly aware of the Vedic conclusion and understood the Absolute Truth and His relationship with all living entities. In accordance with the line of devotional service to the Supreme Lord, whose fame is widespread, Dhruva, who in the future would receive a planet which would never be annihilated, even during the time of dissolution, offered his deliberate and conclusive prayers.

Purport: There are many important items to be considered in this verse. First of all, the relationship between the Absolute Truth and the relative material and spiritual energies is here understood by a student who has complete knowledge of the Vedic literature. Dhruva Mahārāja never went to any school or academic teacher to learn the Vedic conclusion, but because of his devotional service to the Lord, as soon as the Lord appeared and touched his forehead with His conchshell, automatically the entire Vedic conclusion was revealed to him. That is the process of understanding Vedic literature. One cannot understand it simply by academic learning. The Vedas indicate that only to one who has unflinching faith in the Supreme Lord as well as in the spiritual master is the Vedic conclusion revealed.

The example of Dhruva Mahārāja is that he engaged himself in devotional service to the Lord according to the order of his spiritual master, Nārada Muni. As a result of his rendering such devotional service with great determination and austerity, the Personality of Godhead personally manifested Himself before him. Dhruva was only a child. He wanted to offer nice prayers to the Lord, but because he lacked sufficient knowledge, he hesitated; but by the mercy of the Lord, as soon as the Lord’s conchshell touched his forehead, he became completely aware of the Vedic conclusion. That conclusion is based on proper understanding of the difference between jīva and Paramātmā, the individual soul and the Supersoul. The individual soul is forever a servant of the Supersoul, and therefore his relationship with the Supersoul is to offer service. That is called bhakti-yoga, or bhakti-bhāva. Dhruva Mahārāja offered his prayers to the Lord not in the way of the impersonalist philosophers, but as a devotee. Therefore it is clearly said here, bhakti-bhāva. The only prayers worth offering are those offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose reputation is spread far and wide. Dhruva Mahārāja wanted to have the kingdom of his father, but his father refused even to allow him to get on his lap. In order to fulfil his desire, the Lord had already created a planet known as the polestar, Dhruvaloka, which was never to be annihilated even at the time of the dissolution of the universe. Dhruva Mahārāja attained this perfection not by acting hastily, but by patiently executing the order of his spiritual master, and therefore he became so successful that he saw the Lord face to face. Now he was further enabled, by the causeless mercy of the Lord, to offer fitting prayers to the Lord. To glorify or offer prayers unto the Supreme, one needs the Lord’s mercy. One cannot write to glorify the Lord unless one is endowed with His causeless mercy.

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: Dhurva Mahārāja was desirous of offering prayers to Kṛṣṇa, but being a small boy of five, he did not feel confident that he would be able to properly express himself suitably to glorify the Lord. So, when Kṛṣṇa’s manifestation touched him with his conchshell on the head, then Dhruva Mahārāja became conversant with all of the Vedic and Absolute Truth. Actually, according to the Sanskrit scholars of India, these verses composed by Dhruva Mahārāja are the most difficult and the finest composition of Sanskrit grammar in the whole Vedic literature. To show perfect composition of the most difficult type of Sanskrit vyākaraṇa or grammar, they give these prayers of Dhruva as the example, although he was only a five-year-old boy. So, the ability to perform any service, any glorification to Kṛṣṇa does not depend on one’s material capabilities or material attributes.

Rather, it depends upon the blessings, the mercy one gets from guru and Kṛṣṇa. This is the real qualification. The example of course is given that the spiritual master of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, never knew how to read or write. In other words, according to colloquial terms, he was illiterate. However, he was fully conversant with the conclusions of all the Vedic literature because he was not literate, so, he took a very humble attitude, and he simply perfected his devotional service. Some people think that he was a bhajanānandī.

Bhajanānandī means someone who simply wants to worship Kṛṣṇa for his own perfection. Actually, that is not the exact position. He had a keen desire to see the whole world Kṛṣṇa conscious. Therefore, to satisfy that keen desire because he himself, although he knew all the Vedic purports, was not so literate or so capable of expressing in his own idea he thought. Kṛṣṇa sent him, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, who he inspired to go out and preach all over to spread this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement and start the bṛhat-mṛdaṅga, the bigger mṛdaṅga of book-printing and subsequently saṅkīrtana. So of course, Gaura-kiśora dāsa Bābājī, Prabhupāda tells the story that he was a very humorous person. He was empowered by his spiritual master. He was very humorous.

In India, if anyone has visited, I am sure that Acyutānanda Swami can tell you. If you go to any public meeting, then everybody wants to touch your feet. When Prabhupāda first came to India in 1970, at that time I was trying to take photographs of Śrīla Prabhupāda and while I was standing in the crowd trying to take the photograph, I felt that I was being devoured by piranha fish who are grabbing my feet. One can easily become sick. All these people, they want āśīrvāda, they want the blessing. Like Dhurva Mahārāja got. They want the blessing but they want blessing that, “I can be nice and strong. That I can have a beautiful wife, that I can have lots of money to enjoy a big house, to enjoy a big car, to enjoy lots of sense gratification.” They do not want the blessing that I can perfect my pure devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, Gaura-kiśora became disgusted that, “What is the use of going with these people? They are simply begging me, ‘please, O Bābājī, bless me that my son who is got terminal cancer will get cured or whatever he had.’”

This is a continuous thing. They simply want blessing for their material. So, he became… “What is the use of this āśīrvāda?” So, he became so disgusted that not one person ever approached him for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore, he became disgusted and went aside. Not that he did not want to preach, but the people were so materialistic that he became disgusted. And so, he went and sat down right outside the Indian outhouse. Public urinal. Public urinal in India is not like the public urinal in Los Angeles International Airport. It stinks. The only sanitation are the pigs that come and clean up. So, he was sitting there, no one could stand the smell. So, no one would go by.

So, one very rich man came by, big zamindar. Zamindar is like a sub-king land collector. He came by and he begged, “My dear Gaura-kiśora dāsa Bābājī, please, we are going to have a Bhāgavatam class and a Harināma saṅkīrtana with professional groups. You please come and grace the occasion.”

So, Gaura-kiśora said, “Well, I do not go to these types of social functions. I don’t go.”

So “You... no, no, you must come. You must come.”

“No, I am Sorry, I don’t go.” “Please, you must come.”

“All right, I will go but under one condition.”

“Yes, yes, yes. Please tell me.”

“You must agree to do whatever I say.”

“Oh yes, Bābājī Mahārāja. Whatever you say, I will do.”

“All right. You promise Whatever I say, you will do?”

“Yes.”

“Right. Sit down here and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa with me.”

“No! No! No!”, He ran off. (laughter)

So, no one wanted the blessing, you see.

But Dhruva Mahārāja, although he approached Kṛṣṇa thinking that, “Well, if I have a kingdom, if I have all these things, I will be very happy”, he was thinking that. But when he saw Nārāyaṇa, when he saw the beautiful form of the Lord, then he realized, “I was desiring broken glass. Instead, I have gotten the glittering diamond, the gleaming, effulgent jewel. I do not want anything but His devotional service. Nothing else. Only I desired other things out of my ignorance and foolishness.” So then of course, he was not able to speak. But when Nārāyaṇa blessed him, then he could speak. Actually, a devotee, even if he may be a good kīrtana player or a good speaker or a good saṅkīrtana singer, book distributor or expert in any particular service, he realizes himself to be no better than a stone without the blessings of guru and Kṛṣṇa.

Without the blessings of guru and Kṛṣṇa, we would be reduced to a blabbering idiot, a sphere vegetable rolling on the floor without any consciousness. The only difference between a stone and us is Kṛṣṇa has given us the ability to speak. We take it for granted because by karma everyone is given that facility and Kṛṣṇa does not interfere. But actually, Kṛṣṇa is giving the facility even for the karmīs and for the devotees, everything is given by guru and Kṛṣṇa. They are no longer under that. When we take initiation, we are freed from the stringent laws of karma. Then we are put directly under Kṛṣṇa’s personal care. Prabhupāda used the example so many times how a rich son is under the care... the son of a rich father is under the care of the father. Like that we are under the care of Kṛṣṇa that sometimes we get put in a very dangerous position. The devotee sees that danger as Kṛṣṇa. That Kṛṣṇa has come to me in the form of danger to intensify my devotion to Him. Kṛṣṇa comes in different forms to see how fixed up the devotee is. As we read this morning or heard this morning in the excerpt from Bhāgavatam on the spiritual master that the pure devotee, spiritual master, for him being in hell or in heaven, it is the same thing. The pain of hell or the pleasure of heaven does not interrupt the natural flow of his devotion to Kṛṣṇa. If he is given the opportunity to enjoy sense gratification, apart from what is necessary to keep the body and soul together, he does not want it, he does not have any attraction.

And if he is put in a difficult position, he also simply thinks how to utilize his position to expand or preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Different devotees materially may be intelligent, maybe more beautiful or less beautiful, more educated or less educated. But the real thing is how surrendered they are to the guru and to Kṛṣṇa. On the tulasī plant, there are many leaves, and some of the leaves are big and some are smaller. But does anyone think that when I get my rasagullā and it is got a big tulasī on it, and then Rāmeśvara Swami got a rasagullā with a small tulasī on it, that Rāmeśvara’s rasagullā with a small tulasī is less sacred because it is got a smaller tulasī? There is no difference between bigger, small tulasī and the consideration of purity. They are all sacred.

The real evaluation is simply how much one has surrendered his life to carrying out the order of his spiritual master and how much he has implicit faith in the words of Kṛṣṇa. Once one has reached that platform, whether one person is more educated or more beautiful than the other, that consideration has no bearing. That is only a social function. If we give anyone any credit, oh, you are a PhD, you are this, you are that. That is simply social convention. The only convention considered in a Vaiṣṇava society is this surrender to guru, spiritual advancement, detachment from material sense gratification and one’s hospitality to a guest. These are the only things which are observed in Vaiṣṇava society. The other considerations are not considered to be more than a social function.

So, Dhruva Mahārāja is not greeting the Lord in a social convention that, “Today, brothers and sisters, we have present today, Nārāyaṇa, and we would like to give Him a vote of thanks for coming.” It is not his mood. He feels a deep, deep devotion to Nārāyaṇa that He has come to bless me. He is present. What can I do to glorify Him? The urge of the devotee, how to glorify Kṛṣṇa? How to broadcast his glory everywhere? That is the urge of the devotee. That is his natural inclination. It is not some ritual, some superficial formality. It is the deep desire of the heart to do something, to glorify, to broadcast the wonderful qualities of Kṛṣṇa to everyone – that we see in every pure devotee.

The same inclination Kṛṣṇa Himself, when He comes as His devotee, when He comes in the avatāra of Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu then He wants the whole world,

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma
sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma
[CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126]

to be delivered by His saṅkīrtana movement. So, He personally showed initially by His own example. For six or eight years, He traveled all over South India, North India to Vṛndāvana. As we read today, He was in Vārāṇasī. He went to Vārāṇasī to give His goods but no one wanted, so He was ready to go. But His devotees, they wanted that these people should be delivered. So, to satisfy the desire of His devotee, Lord Caitanya delivered Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī and all His Māyāvādī sannyāsī followers.

Even Kṛṣṇa may not ordinarily give His mercy but because of the intense desire of the spiritual master, of Kṛṣṇa’s devotees to give the mercy to fallen souls, Kṛṣṇa agrees to give the mercy to someone even though he is not qualified. One devotee asked Śrīla Prabhupāda that, “Śrīla Prabhupāda, you say that due to previous good karmas and previous sukṛti in our previous birth, we somehow rather come to you, but I can understand that my whole life, I have simply been addicted to sense gratification. I have absolutely no taste for devotion. How is it that I have been included into your society? How is it that I have been engaged in your devotional service? How do I have any good fortune from previous lives?” And then Śrīla Prabhupāda told him, “I have made your good fortune. I have given your good fortune.”

By the mercy of the spiritual master, one can become fortunate. Even, he has no other quality. Even he does not deserve it. This is how important is the mercy of pure devotees and Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, every preacher, he takes on the compassionate mood. He takes on a compassionate mood praying to Kṛṣṇa, “How can I spread? How can I deliver these fallen souls? How can I give them Your holy name? How can they become pure devotees?” Because of the devotee’s compassion, “When will these souls be delivered?” So, purity of course is the force. By one’s pure desire, by one’s pure understanding, by one’s pure ācaraṇa or practice of devotional service. Then one captures Kṛṣṇa in his heart.

Actually, here Dhruva Mahārāja is seeing Nārāyaṇa. Nārāyaṇa is standing on His carrier. He is standing, coming on His carrier Garuḍa. Nārāyaṇa, we never see Him, even actually He does not touch the ground when He comes usually speaking except for His holy dhāmas or in His exceptional līlās, He, always is touching His feet to His holy dhāma or to the lotus or to Garuḍa. That is where He stands. So, Kṛṣṇa putting His impression of His lotus feet on the holy dhāma, He walks around. So, wherever Kṛṣṇa is, that is considered the dhāma, he brings His dhāma with Him. That is the only place He stands. So, the devotee he wants to invite and to bring Kṛṣṇa to take residence in his full glory in his heart, in the heart of the devotee. So, to do that, one has to prepare his heart just like the holy dhāma.

Dhruva Mahārāja completely purified his heart by following the orders of his spiritual master, by chanting the mantras given by his spiritual master, his heart became purified and Nārāyaṇa was fully manifest in his heart and when he looked outside and saw Nārāyaṇa, it was the same person he was seeing within. It was no stranger. And so, first Kṛṣṇa reveals Himself within but we want Kṛṣṇa should come in our heart. So naturally speaking, we will want to cleanse the heart. Just like Lord Caitanya and the guṇḍicā-mārjana cleansing. I saw a very nice picture of Śrīla Rāmeśvara Swami cleaning the temple here on the guṇḍicā-mārjana festival. It was very ecstatic. Throwing buckets of water. This guṇḍicā-mārjana, their Lord Caitanya... first, they swept once, picking up all the leaves, branches, everything. Then again they swept. Then again after sweeping, they went in every little crack with little nails, little twig. And they picked out all the dust in every crack. That not one crack would even have any dust. Then hundred and eight, and more buckets of water were all brought, big containers. And completely the temple was cleansed. Spotless. Even the walls, ceilings, everything. Then it was considered to be a fit place for Lord Jagannātha to sit.

Like that our heart has to be cleansed if we want Kṛṣṇa to be in our heart. If we prepare a very nice garbage pit, will Kṛṣṇa stand on the garbage? The rotting rags, paper, stools, refuse, coffee grinds, everything. He is going to stand on that pit? Of course not. We cannot even imagine. So, if we have our heart filled with dirty things, then how Kṛṣṇa will stand there. He can... It says that the Lord, He knows the feelings and the mind of the devotee like the aroma of a flower. So, you can imagine the aroma coming from material desire. Stinks like garbage. So, Kṛṣṇa, he cannot personally like to take the smell. So, He allows Viṣṇu... has to, as Paramātmā has to undergo that experience. But Kṛṣṇa himself to come there. The heart has to be purified. Then He comes. Rādhā Kṛṣṇa, come into the heart.

So that is what the whole movement of Lord Caitanya is about. ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam – cleansing the heart, taking out all the garbage, taking out all the contamination, taking out all the material desire, leaving the heart a pure, clean place for Kṛṣṇa to come. So, Kṛṣṇa stands in His holy dhāma. He stands in the place that He loves. So, therefore one is always meditating in his heart on the holy dhāma and inviting Kṛṣṇa there through his full surrender to guru and Kṛṣṇa. His attachment to the dhāma, Vṛndāvana, Māyāpur is full and pure and his dedication to guru and Kṛṣṇa is complete and Kṛṣṇa, He resides there in the heart. Once He is there, then one becomes effulgent, he becomes empowered, and he sees Kṛṣṇa always.

So, this is what Dhruva Mahārāja did. He wanted to see Nārāyaṇa. He was looking everywhere. Under every branch, under every stone. “Are you Nārāyaṇa? Are you Nārāyaṇa? Are you Nārāyaṇa?” We had a play in Calcutta at the Ratha-yātrā where all the Gurukula boys put on this play - Dhruva Mahārāja. So, when Dhruva Mahārāja was looking, when he was banished from his kingdom, there was one boy, Śacīnandana, 12-year-old boy. He gave out his speech how he was going out. All the devotees in the crowd, all the guests, about 8,000 people were sitting. So many cried, so many were crying. When Dhruva Mahārāja took his firm determination. “I am going to go and find Nārāyaṇa. The cruel words of my stepmother I have taken. So I am going out.”

Then it was a little relief that when he was looking, then one other gurukula boy came up dressed like a lion, came out. Naturally everyone laughed. But Dhruva Mahārāja, He went to the lion. “Are you Nārāyaṇa?” That is what he was doing, “Are you Nārāyaṇa? Are you the lotus-eyed Nārāyaṇa?” Everywhere he went, fearlessly looking because he could not find. When Kṛṣṇa sent Nārada Muni, the guru gave him the instruction, “Worship tulasī, sit down on the bank of the holy river, chant this mantra in this way, worship, bathing, following these principles and regulations. Then you will get Nārāyaṇa very quickly.” Then Dhruva Mahārāja got so in the same way what the order of the spiritual master is to the disciple. There is general and specific orders. These have to be followed and then one can be assured of reaching success. Thank you.

Are there any questions? Time is up. I think, yes.

Question: (inaudible)

Jayapatākā Swami:  Well, the Soviet Union wishes it could cause more trouble. But the party which is in power in Calcutta today is more loyal to our big brother of India, China, the Marxist party. They believe more in the fanatical takeover by violence. But they compromised because they were not allowed to do that in democratic… So now they are trying to do it through the constitution. They say that once we get enough popular support then we will just take over. But right now, we have to follow the rules. And so long as we find the rules, no one can touch us. So now we are simply building up our organization. The Soviet Union is publishing in every major language in India, books and periodicals at throwaway places. They published a 96-page magazine called the Soviet in English, Soviet Nation or something like that and Bengali, Soviet-deśa. They have one Soviet woman, Soviet-nārī. Then they have one fortnightly on political issues. They have about nine to 10 different periodicals, one for kids.

And of course, they show the pictures of the big hefty guys running the Caterpillar trucks and the in the factory and then the ballerinas and swimmers in the gymnastics. And simply a 10% pure everybody smiling halfway – the complete propaganda. They sell this Soviet magazine by subscription. They get all the young college students go out. It is the most popular thing to be a book distributor for Soviet publications. They give a 50. They give 100% commission. 100% commission for distribution. The one copy is a rupee each – 96 page, big as life. It costs at least four or five rupees to print it in India. And one year is 10 rupees and three years is 20 rupees. And with three years to get a three-year calendar with favorite Christmas scenes of Soviet Union.

And on top of that I think they give you some other little trinket like a keychain if you take a three-year subscription. So, the three-year subscription 20 rupees. The guy that sells it gets 10 rupees. And the distributor who runs all these sales, they get another 25%. So, they get two and a half rupees, seven and a half rupees is sent to Delhi. And I think that is simply used in India for their bureaucracy and the advertising. They advertise in all the major newspapers and billboards all over the cities. “Please subscribe to the Soviet periodicals.” So, when the boys go door to sell these periodicals then they try to can the people say, “Well, we do not want to read about Soviet Union. So, what about something about our country? What about our culture?”

Finally, if they after all else fails, they will listen, “For 20 rupees for three years. You are going to get 36 issues. These 36 issues, if you sell them to the garbage man as useless paper. You will get 35 rupees back. So, it is a good investment. You should take this and anyway it will be something to read or have around the house, and we are a poor kid, I need, you know, I am a jobless kid. I am going to go, you know, if you do not get by the paper I am going to get into politics or something. You know, jobless, unemployed.” So, finally out of some sentiment. Everyone you see in all gets it. Everyone gets this. It is just everywhere flooded. Hundreds of thousands of subscriptions they make, very big propaganda.

After they did the constitution of the Soviet Union about two years ago, they did a new constitution. Then they had guys selling the copies of the constitution about a medium-sized book which cost at least 3 rupees to print. They were selling them for 40 paisa which must have been just the guy’s commission. 40 paisa. On the train from Sealdah to Krishnanagar the guy, he came up, he had English, Hindi, Bengali, any language you want. First class, foreign white paper. 40 paisa. Nice book. Big medium book. And he had his choice. You could have a kid’s book. They sell special children’s book on Lenin and Marx with fold out. You open the book up and some of the pages that jump out, you know, teddy bears and things.

It is just they have a huge budget in Calcutta alone there is a cultural center, drama center, information center, book center. Then there is the consulate. Then there is the industrial center, the trade relations. They have at least 12 to 15 buildings all over the city. Their publishing center is unlimited. How many buildings, they have in Calcutta? Everywhere you go they have a couple of buildings. But it is not only in Calcutta actually they are spread all, they are all over India. The party called the Communist Party of India, one of their members sits on the Politburo in Russia, but he does not. That party was together with Indira last time. They are not very prominent in India as much as the party in power in Bengal which is the CPM which has got greater leanings to China but pride themselves to be basically an Indian version of communism. So, they are complete atheists.

On their party policy they have to swear that they do not believe in any. Of course, the local MLA of Navadvīpa when he was going for election he went to all the temples and you know, Durgā, Gaurāṅga and he was praying to be re-elected. But once they get reelected then they are officially atheist. But on the… that is public but Private. They have to do some. The Chief Minister of Bengal, Jyoti Basu, his wife came and took prasāda at our temple in Calcutta. She loved the prasāda. She said, she got tṛptī, she got complete satisfaction. And she is a devotee of a sort. So, when it came time to do Lakṣmī-pūjā, to worship Lakṣmī, to get some wealth, then the chief minister had to leave his office early to go and everyone said, “Why are you leaving?”

He says, “Well you know, my wife said I have to do Lakṣmī-pūjā day so I got to go home.” So, I mean there definitely is on some of these people there is a little dual standard, but officially they are atheists. Some are actually downright demons and some of them are a little bit superficial in their real following of communism. But they are very expert at exploiting as are all politicians in the world today, apart from the Soviet’s propaganda. The Christians have got very big propaganda. The Roman Catholic Church alone has a yearly budget of $112 million to convert the heathen Hindus into theistic Christianity. Anyone who becomes a Christian gets a pig and a chicken.

A pig and a chicken in a house, gets a medical insurance policy that he can get free treatment in the Christian hospital and he can send his kid to the Christian schools. But even in spite of that, they are not getting so much headway amongst the civilized, more educated type of caste Hindus. But they are getting very rapid progress in the poverty-stricken tribal areas. We have opened our village preaching in the tribal areas of Orissa where there is a very big Christian preaching. And in fact, in some of the villages the Christians are in the majority. We did one program which was so successful that the Christians threatened the lives of the Hindus that if you do not stop this program, these Hare Kṛṣṇa were going to kill you, burn your houses down.

50 people came forward and said we want to do a transfer back to Hinduism from Christianity. They do a massive over there. They convert, say a man has got some enteral gastritis, he is vomiting blood, he is got an ulcer, he is going to die if he does not get treatment. He does not have the money for an operation. They take him to the hospital. The doctor said, “I am sorry, you are going to die anyway. There is no room in the hospital, it is only for Christians.” Then the man said, “I am a Hindu.” “Well, I am sorry, if you want to become a Christian, of course we do have the facility. Then we can immediately let you in and treat you. You will probably definitely live. If you do not of course convert, then we cannot allow you. But of course, you will certainly die. But do not feel that we are pressuring you or anything. It is completely voluntary. There is no other hospital within 50 miles. You got three hours to live. Take your decision.”

So, then he takes the man in the next room there they got a little cross, set up everything, throw a little water on him, change his name from Gopāla dāsa to John Richard Philip or something and then take him in and then give him a sugar pill. He just had a bellyache. And the thing is going on all the time. Then when they get this majority, then the... I mean, they are so enthusiastic. One has to give them credit. Ofcourse, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura hit the nail on the head. All of them are paid. I wondered why these people are so fanatic. They go out there and they really go and they all for many hours. They preach and they do.

I mean, what some places, what they do. They go into a region where the people are simply living in the forest, and they only do not wear even only either a kaupīna or no clothes at all. Just the jungle people. What we know is the ādī-vāsīs or Aborigines. They have a spoken language. There is no written language. It is incoherent language. And then just a complete. There is only maybe 5,000 of them. They will go in there; they will first of all teach the people how to wear a little choli, and then put a skirt around them. Then they will take the language and if it does not have any written language, they will make a grammar for it, put it in English script, make a language, make the language practically for them.

Make a grammar, put the script in it, put it in a script, start a school, teach all the people the script. Then print the Bible in that language and give them all Bibles and make them Christians. And this way they have so many languages. Every tribal language in India practically they have already translated the Bible. I was going to say Bhagavad-gītā. I mean a hopeful thing, I wish. We have now the Bible, some of our books are being translated into these languages. Kasai, Galai, Tibetan and Nepali of course is a much bigger language with about 60 million people speaking it. But apart from that they are very, they are very. Their propaganda is very much expanded in certain areas and the communists and certain others.

In Orissa, there is a trouble that what happens is that say there is a majority of Christians in an area, they will take a tribal who has not yet committed himself and say. And then take him and they will dump him in the river. They will dunk his head down like a dunking stool. He starts to drown, to pull his head up. “Have you seen Jesus?” “No, I did not see.” Down again. “Have you seen Jesus?” “No, I did not see Jesus yet. I did not.” Down again. Finally, you see, “I saw Jesus. I saw Jesus.” “All right, now you are Christian. You have seen Jesus.” This is why there was this bill introduced in the Parliament. No forceful conversion, no coercion, no bribes, no this. And then all the Christians were making marches. This is nowhere. Did it mention any particular religion.

It just said no, by force, by a coercion, by bribe, by this, by that, no conversion. And so they did a big march and said, “No. This is going against us.” I mean, they are doing all these things. And the main thing they do is that they profusely spend their money and they get very cheap. They even admit these are rice converts. They are not serious converts, but they have the big schools and the next generation. They put their hope in those that this is our real Christian. These are. And all the. I was on the airplane with one man from Kerala. They gave his wife and family a nice three-bedroom apartment, refrigerator. He has got his private car. He gets 2,000 rupees a month, which is India, the same salary that a deputy secretary of the government of India gets.

It is a secretary that a junior executive would get if he was the professional executive in a company there apart. And if he was not a partner or director, of course, apart from the under the table, what they get. So, I mean, they all get very big salaries and they go around and they have a quota. They have to make so many converts per month, that is that they go everywhere. They go into colleges; they give free books out. They got all free literature. So, when we go out and sell books, “Why are you giving out? The communists give out free literature. The Christians are giving out free literature. Gītā Press gives out the free literature. Why you want to sell the literature?” Everywhere we go we hear the same thing. Of course, then we do not listen. We still. So, the thing we will take the book but why we have to pay for. Everyone else is giving out free.

So, there is a tremendous propaganda because everyone is reading the literature is there. Therefore, people should. The whole country. Gradually the whole state becomes communist. The thing is that, yeah, they are paid 2,000 a month, 5,000 depending. Yeah, they are paid. If you get a good salary, then you become dedicated to your, you know, for the salary. Look at the guys working for American Airlines, right? They are paid. And so they want to always go and smash the devotees who distributing books because they are śūdras. Like śūdra works for his boss and the boss says, sigmo, Fago, Fido. Then he goes and wants to smash him.

So, these people are all, they do not have any higher spiritual values. They do not have any understanding or any deep love for Jesus like that. They are just fanatics. They are paid, go out and make converts. Kṛṣṇa is debauchee. You tell all the people all these blasphemous things. They just go and say the worst thing about Kṛṣṇa.

Question: We had a program. So one of the questions was this father, this… one of the questions passed up, this father, he says that “Kṛṣṇa is a debauchee and a proclivity. So, what do you have to say about that?”

Jayapatākā Swami:  They say all these things, of course, we defeat them very easily. But that is if they do not even know we exist. They are told that, “The whole world is Christian, look at America, big cars, big jets. If you want to be successful in life, you must become a Christian. India is a poor country, it has nothing. Why are you staying Hindu? You become Christian and become happy. And just to help you along, take a pig, take a chicken, take a house. They get a job in our machine shop.” (laughter)

They have whole communities. They are building a big community in Krishnanagar that you can go as you are driving to my airport. This whole community, so many houses they are building and machine shops there. They have a very big farm. I visited their farm. They have tractors and everything. The brother Jacob took me around to their pig farm and I told that, you know, these animals are very dirty. He says, “No, who said that pigs are dirty? This is a misconception. This is a dirty lie. Pigs are the cleanest animal in the world. I have proof.” And he showed me. He had his huge pigs, which were reserved for the bishop.

And inside they have a little hut, little 4 feet high dog house, where they go inside. And outside they had a little porch and they go out snorting and doing their natural thing. So, he pointed out to me, look at this hut. Not one stool. They are so pure that they go outside their house and pass stool. They never pass in where they sleep, therefore they are the cleanest. Look at cows, horses, wherever they stand, they drop it. But these animals so clean, they go outside and drop. Therefore, they are the cleanest animals. This was the guy’s video. He is worshiping the pig.

So anyway, the point is that Prabhupāda saw. That is why he said that start ISKCON Food relief in different places. He said that if we distribute prasāda every 10-kilometer square, if we have a prasāda distribution center all over India, the whole India will be so grateful to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They will all become Kṛṣṇa conscious, fully dedicated devotees. And how he said that a broad propaganda of distribution of literatures should be done. Actually, it is very necessary in all the languages to have very inexpensive. Apart from… there is a 5, 10% very wealthy class. They need first class books. But the 90% under the poverty line. They cannot afford more than a ripped shirt to wear on the back. They require inexpensive literature and then there can be a very big revival, very big. The thing is that what we do.

I have a program, when I get whenever I have any personal money and I go into villages, and where I see that they are very eager. I like in one village they wanted to chant. But the thing was no one was coming. There were three devotees who were chanting morning and no one would come. They said if we could just have a microphone then we could attract so many people in the village. So, I purchased them an amplifier and a microphone. Said they had to go and collect the money and get the speaker. So, they went and they collected a few paisa from all the villages and added up they had got 100 rupees together and purchased a loudspeaker horn. And I gave them an amp and a mic. So then when they sat down with the microphone. In India nobody has a microphone but a Radio of India star or a professional rental. It is very rare. So, everyone in the whole village all coming around.

They had time for kīrtana in front of the mic and they are all chanting every day. And then they are doing that week after week, month after. Finally, even the thing breaks down. They go on, they get into it. But in the initial it is a great impetus and the whole village is blasted out. They love to, you know, 4:00 in the morning mike over the whole village. They love it. So anyway, there is a demand. The people want Kṛṣṇa consciousness much more than they want these things. Just that nobody is giving them Kṛṣṇa consciousness everyone is giving these things. And we are going around with our small saṅkīrtana party selling 1 rupee books at 75 cost. We sell 100 in a day each man, the people are so stingy. They look at the paper, they practically bite the paper to see what is the quality.

They read half the book first, see whether it is good enough for them. I mean, we have to stand there, give 10 books out. The people read half the book, feel the paper, then think whether it is really worth it. Is it really easy? Is it the proper price? And then, you know, after he goes through the whole thing, then he pulls out his rupee, kind of hesitates for a moment, feels it, gives the book back, walks away, comes back, takes the book back, gives the rupee, takes it home, rolls it up. I mean it is like a whole thing like that. For one rupee each distributor would say three for rupee printed in London special. Get it hot off the last time, get it? People just pack up. Wow. 3–4 rupee. It was just… hand over fast, they are just coming up.

So, each distribute 300–400 rupees a day. That is why, you know, that is why we are doing 60,000 points. But now we have a 200,000 BBT debt. Our collectors did not collect enough money. But so anyway, I mean we had. I mean each distributor was doing 900,000 books a day. It was, it was fun while it lasted. Did it answer your question? (laughter) Saṅkīrtana General kī Jaya!