19860212 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.9.54

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on February 12^th, 1986 in New Tālavana Farm in Carriere, Mississippi. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 7^th canto, chapter 9, text 54.

Jayapātāka Swami:

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya! (3x)

nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya
naraṁ caiva narottamam
devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ
 tato jayam udīrayet

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya īśvaram

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 7.954

prīṇanti hy atha māṁ dhīrāḥ
sarva-bhāvena sādhavaḥ
śreyas-kāmā mahā-bhāga
sarvāsām āśiṣāṁ patim

SYNONYMS

prīṇanti — try to please; hi — indeed; atha — because of this; mām — Me; dhīrāḥ — those who are sober and most intelligent; sarva-bhāvena — in all respects, in different modes of devotional service; sādhavaḥ — persons who are very well-behaved (perfect in all respects); śreyas-kāmāḥ — desiring the best benefit in life; mahā-bhāga — O you who are so fortunate; sarvāsām — of all; āśiṣām — kinds of benedictions; patim — the master (Me).

Translation: My dear Prahlāda, you are very fortunate. Please know from Me that those who are very wise and highly elevated try to please Me in all different modes of mellows, for I am the only person who can fulfill all the desires of everyone.

Purport: The words dhīrāḥ sarva-bhāvena do not mean "in whichever way you like." Bhāva is the preliminary condition of love of Godhead.

athāsaktis tato bhāvas
tataḥ premābhyudañcati
sādhakānām ayaṁ premṇaḥ
prādurbhāve bhavet kramaḥ
(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.4.16)

The bhāva stage is the final division before one reaches love of Godhead. The word sarva-bhāva means that one can love the Supreme Personality of Godhead in different transcendental modes of mellows, beginning with dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya and mādhurya. In the śānta stage, one is on the border of loving service to the Lord. Pure love of Godhead begins from dāsya and develops to sakhya, vātsalya and then mādhurya. Still, in any of these five mellows one can render loving service to the Supreme Lord. Since our main business is to love the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one can render service from any of the above-mentioned platforms of love.

Thus end the Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda purport to the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam text 54, chapter 9, Canto 7, in the matter of ‘Prahlāda Pacifies the Lord with Prayers.’

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva was very angry and everyone was afraid to go to Nṛsiṁhadeva to appease Him, except for Prahlāda. When Prahlāda came forward, Nṛsiṁhadeva touched his head with his lotus feet with His lotus hand and as soon as he was touched by Nṛsiṁhadeva, touched by The Supreme Personality of Godhead, then he became totally purified. By the blessing of the Lord, he was able to speak very eloquently. After speaking, then Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva was very pacified by His devotee, Prahlāda Mahārāja.  Although the prayers of Prahlāda Mahārāja were offered on the transcendental platform. So then he gave His blessings to Prahlāda Mahārāja. He said “My dear Prahlāda most gentle one, best of the family of the asuras, all good fortune unto you, I am very much pleased with you, it is my pastime to fulfil the desires of all living beings and therefore you may ask from me any benediction that you desire to be fulfilled. My dear Prahlāda, may you live a long time, one cannot appreciate or understand me without pleasing me, but one who has seen or pleased me has nothing more for wish to lament for his own satisfaction.” Then he said today's verse. “So those tries to please me with different mellows, because I am the only one who satisfy everyone's desire.” So, Kṛṣṇa was alluring Prahlāda that, “Now you have pleased me. I am the one who satisfies everyone's desires, whatever you want, you can have. So now you just ask me what you want. Then I will give you that.” So, Prahlāda is born in the family of asuras. That means normally the asuras are very anxious for material benedictions, for material happiness. So in a sense Nṛsiṁhadeva is testing him. Kṛṣṇa when He gives His mercy to His devotees, He may offer a devotee, “You can have anything you want. If you want a have heavenly planet or you want to have a long life…”, different things He may offer. He may want to have liberation, to live on a planet with Lord Nārāyaṇa, all these different things the Lord can offer one, and anything, whatever there is, one could get. So it's a big test at that time what the person ask for, you see. Just like one couldn’t become a Brahmā but thinking of Brahmā when he left his body, he took birth on the planet of Brahmā. So people have these different desires, they develop. We have to be careful about what we desire. If we desire to please Kṛṣṇa, if we desire to please the disciplic succession, Śrīla Prabhupāda, then that desire is completely spiritual. We have other desires, Kṛṣṇa my satisfy those desires, just like He satisfied the desire of Dhruva Mahārāja, who wanted to be a great king. So he gave him a planet to be a king of, and he made him a king for 36000 years on this planet. But that time Dhruva Mahārāja felt great separation from the Lord. When he actually saw Kṛṣṇa, he didn't want those things but it was already too late. He had already prayed; he had already desired those different benedictions. So here Prahlāda is being offered, “What benediction do you want?” So in our heart we actually have to purify our consciousness from other desires, because if we don't, then as we say, bottomline - yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram (Bg. 8.6). When we leave the body, or when it's time to make that decision, we'll choose whatever we have been thinking about.

So it's not enough just to give lip service, “I want to have pure love for Kṛṣṇa”, but all time we are thinking of other things. We have train our mind actually think about, serving Kṛṣṇa, when other thoughts come we have to relegate them to their appropriate position in our mind that, “Oh this is a secondary thing, my first priority is love for Kṛṣṇa.” We have to train our mind continuously so that its a reflex; as soon as it comes to desiring something, we automatically desire love for Kṛṣṇa. There may be intermediate things that come in there. Just like every day when we go on saṅkīrtana, of course we desire to offer something to Kṛṣṇa, but that's also part of the offering to Kṛṣṇa. We want to see that people get Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, that we can distribute more books. In the International BBT meetings that I came for… now BBT is being reorganized in North America, in the world, basically in those places where it's not already organized like that. That very strictly the cost of the total production, cost of books will be doubled according to Prabhupāda's formula, and the doubled part of it, 25% or half of that will be used for printing more books. First 50% is just for re-printing the same book, and then printing the new volumes like the remaining Bhāgavatam in English or other languages, the books that have not yet been translated and published, or in other different language. America has given the Spanish, Portuguese and African languages to develop further books into. Then the other 25% goes for construction, the majority of which of course is for India, the samādhīs or the Māyāpur project. Of course, America has always been giving but sometimes, in retrospect, different percentages were been given where Prabhupāda wanted a bigger percentage. Usually Northern Europe has been given biggest percentage. We found that Southern Europe is only giving 7-6% where they were supposed to be giving 12-15. America has been giving 10 very regularly. 10-12. So it's now going to be a very steady remittance. So in this way every time a book is purchased that means simultaneously there will be new books being published as well as, as well as Prabhupāda’s projects in India being build. So it's a further impetus for purchasing more Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books, distributing books.

In any case Prabhupāda, his desire was that we should engage people in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Whether they have different desires or not but for the devotees who are engaged in pure preaching, they should refine their own desires. It's upto us. No one else can say what we are thinking. Of course, we can get some idea from outside, seeing a person's activities over a period of time what's their desire. But maybe somebody is really good at hiding what they are thinking, only a most expert person would be able to figure it out. But Kṛṣṇa, He knows our every thought. Just like there is a saying, ‘Don't fast underwater on a fast day.’ Like the story that sometime on a fast day, a devotee goes to the Ganges river, and although he is taking a Nirjala-ekādaśī on a nirjala fast where he doesn't take any water, but when he is going under water, taking his sacred dip, *gulping water sound*, he takes some water. So it's like taking water, underwater, on a fast day. He thinks nobody is watching so I can take water, underwater. That is why devotional service is not easy.

Why the Māyāvādīs, they say, “Oh, bhakti-yoga is very easy. It’s too easy! You have to that more difficult way.” Physically bhakti-yoga is not difficult in that sense. Although sometimes devotees take different austerities to preach, that's their glory. But it's not the type of simply unrelated austerities like the Māyāvādī or yogīs do, sitting in five fires. Glory is to voluntarily accept many austerities for preaching Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. That is their austerity. Devotees purify their mind. They constantly watch the mind that its not developing the desires other than pure Kṛṣṇa Conscious desires. Whereas the yogīs, they don't have that process. So actually for them bhakti-yoga is very difficult. So how do we purify the mind is we constantly purify the desires. When we see different desires and thoughts come up, which are every moment, then something comes up which is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, we reject it immediately. Drive it out or we try to change it in our mind that, ‘No this is not proper!’, and then we change it. So it’s a constant endeavour. That's why we chant the Gāyatrī-mantras, we chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra to purify the mind. It makes it easier to change the way we think. Actually we change the way we desire. Instead of desiring sense gratification, we desire to do things in such a way that Kṛṣṇa is pleased. Some natural desires be there, so we learn how to dovetail those desires. So in this way they become purified. Just like we have desire to eat, we can't say “No I won't eat, that’s material!”, we should only eat prasādam, that's Kṛṣṇa's mercy.

śarīra avidyā-jāla, jaḍendriya tāhe kāla, 
jīve phele viṣaya-sāgare

In this way it's like we are now having the Christmas, the Prabhupāda marathon, for offering to Prabhupāda very intensive service. So in this kind of rigorous preaching, we have to always be very careful to keep our consciousness fixed on what is the goal, what is the objective. If we are fixed that we are doing everything for the pleasure of guru and Kṛṣṇa, we are trying to satisfy Lord Caitanya, Śrīla Prabhupāda, disciplic succession, then the devotional service becomes nectar, becomes very relishable. It’s like Prabhupāda said, “Sometimes the guru gives the Deity, installs the Deity for the disciple, and the disciple is worshiping, and then after sometime the disciple thinks, ‘Oh! The guru has given me so much of headache. We have to do the āratīs, and get up in the morning, and we have to do so many things for the Deity, it's too much’, then it becomes material. Prabhupāda explains it's a burden of love. So we take our service as an opportunity to serve Kṛṣṇa. It's not some external, like somebody is working 9 to 5, it's something external. They want the money. But it's our personal service, it's our personal offering to Kṛṣṇa, whatever service we do. Whether we offer an ārati, or service of bathing the Deities, or whether we offer our service in the fire of preaching. We may offer our thoughts, words and deeds in the fire of devotional service.

In this way we have to always see the mind, what's its thinking, what's coming up and continue to purify it. That we are doing everything for the service of Kṛṣṇa. When we are in that consciousness, then we start to feel blissful. Then that flow of nectar gets interrupted or doesn't come as easily. That's why it's so, so dangerous when we start to get absorbed in offenses, or we start to get absorbed in material talk, gossip, or things like that, because it distracts our mind from the constant desire of simply offering something to Kṛṣṇa and we start to get distracted. That's why Lord Caitanya said:

grāmya-kathā nā śunibe, grāmya-vārtā nā kahibe
bhāla nā khāibe āra bhāla nā paribe
(Cc. Antya 6.236)

Don't talk materialistic or don't engage in gossip or materialistic thought, don't don't listen to it, 'nā śunibe, nā kahibe', don't speak it. Don't desire to have luxurious clothing, don't desire to simply eat luxuriously things. Simply engage in worshiping the Lord, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, in pure devotional service. Kṛṣṇa's mercy. Deities offer nice prasādam. Sometimes we get very nice opulent prasādam and sometimes we get simple prasādam. All these things the devotees just take in stride and keeps fixing the mind on what is the actual goal. We know that. We have already experienced this material world doesn't give us complete satisfaction, so then why should we harbor in our heart the idea that maybe there is some material arrangement that I can be happy in? Ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (Bg. 8.16). Whether we go up to the Brahmaloka down to the material, most insignificant position, there is no complete happiness in this material world. Duḥkhālayam, aśāśvatam. As long as we harbour that idea that somehow, by some arrangement, I can be happy in the material world; then when māyā give us the opportunity, when we get some opportunity to enjoy, then we think that, “Oh maybe this is the chance! This will make me happy”, then we can fall down. So, this is the thing we have to beware of. Always watch our mind, purify. This is what they say pulling the weeds. Even some advanced devotees, due to committing offences or due to being overly proud, and not being careful of association which he takes, gradually these little weeds and little poisons can enter into the consciousness. But if one is an expert gardener, you see, it's not a very difficult task. It's not some huge that we have to become some great self-realized soul. It automatically happens. One become self-realized by serving the greatest. It’s not something externally that one can easily recognize. It’s just who is a very humble, careful gardener of his own spiritual creeper. Who is able to guard against the weeds and mad elephants and things that come in, and who is able to very religiously water the creeper with chanting and hearing, the nine practices of devotional service. So, we know that even in one practice we can go back to Godhead. So normally we practice so many practices, but during the marathon sometimes we only practice chanting and hearing. Chanting our japa and listening to the japa. Or we don't necessarily always have time for Deity worship other things like that. So then we have to learn how to depend even on one practice of devotion or two practices. We do service during the day and we chant and hear to purify our consciousness. We need to chant and hear always, because otherwise we may start to see our service as material if we don't purify the consciousness by chanting and hearing.

So Nṛsiṁhadeva was asking Prahlāda, “What do you want, what are you going to ask for?” Of course when Prahlāda was given this opportunity, he replied, “My dear Lord, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, because I was born in an atheistic family I am naturally inclined to material enjoyment, therefore kindly do not tempt me with these illusions. I am very much afraid of material conditions and I desire to be liberated from materialistic life. It is for this reason I have taken shelter of your lotus feet. O my worshipable Lord, because the seed of lusty desires which is the root cause of material existence is in the core of everyone's heart, you have sent me to this material world to exhibit the symptoms of a pure devotee, otherwise my Lord, the Supreme Instructor of the entire world, you are so kind to the devotee that you could not induce him to do something unbeneficial for him. On the other hand, one who desires some material benefit in exchange for devotional service cannot be a pure devotee, indeed he is no better than a merchant who wants profit in exchange for service.” Little Prahlāda is such a great devotee. So he was offered this benediction which included any kind of benediction, even materialistic benediction. But he rejected that. He said that in fact, “Don't tempt me Kṛṣṇa! Because I am born in an atheistic family but actually i don't want any of these things because these materialistic desires, they are the seed of our attachment to the material world. So please don’t tempt me with these illusions because I am very much afraid of material conditions.” In other worlds, even though when we preach, when we do active service, sometimes we may feel, because of Kṛṣṇa's own inspiration, we get some taste of bliss. But we shouldn't become fearless of material conditions. Become fearless in one sense, but we have to be fearless in the shelter of Kṛṣṇa. In another words not that we suddenly think, ‘Now because I got a little bliss I feel I got some result of my devotional service or i feel some kind of enthusiasm somehow by the mercy of guru and Kṛṣṇa, that now I don't have to be very careful about with the material condition.’ We always have to be careful but then comes to sensitive issues of sense gratification. We have to be careful because māyā is such that when a devotee's heart is very soft, actually that makes it a right place to plant a seed of devotion and also makes it a right place to plant the seed of material activities. Actually we have to be very careful to not allow material desires to creep in. We have to be very careful for that. Just like Prahlāda said, “I am of afraid material conditions”, we have to be fearful of material condition. Therefore, we constantly do service. We constantly remain absorbed.

So I hope that during this marathon everyone can take advantage of the additional services and try to experiment with being completely absorbed in Kṛṣṇa's service in a very intense way and be careful, see that the mind doesn't take on material bends. If you find that the mind is somehow experiencing some material changes, then you should reveal our mind to some devotees that actually you’re experiencing some material doubt or something like that. Because we don't want any casualties in the battle. Somebody sees any dangerous symptoms, then they should allow themselves to be preached to, or to analyse that from a more objective view, or try to get purified from any kind of doubts. So these are some of the points we should follow in the footsteps of Prahlāda Mahārāja, one of the mahājanas, and pray to Kṛṣṇa that you always give us His mercy to have pure devotional service.

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

When I went back to Māyāpur; in Atlanta we had a very nice Ratha-yātrā procession. We did like we do here, where we carry Prabhupāda sometimes. They carried Jagannātha-Subhadrā-Balarāma in palanquins in the park. About few hundred people came. It was a nice little procession, little festival. Then I went back to Māyāpur for the full moon rāsa-līlā festival of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the end of the Cātur-māsya, and about 200,000 people came to Māyāpur. The devotees, they did a little 3 day marathon because so many people were coming through. All the devotees from morning to night were distributing books. They distributed about roughly 20,000 pieces of literature, or Lakṣmī points in the 2-3 days! That time also a minister and justice from Supreme Court were there, some other respectable personalities. So I was preaching more to them, than to the devotees. But they were very enlivened by understanding Kṛṣṇa's pastimes from the Kṛṣṇa conscious viewpoint. Because normally in India, even though everyone knows about Kṛṣṇa and His rāsa-līlā, but they have some material idea about it. When they understood the spiritual nature, how the gopīs were giving everything to Kṛṣṇa in a totally spiritual sense, then they became very inspired.

So I came here for, specially we had international BBT and then we are having on the 3^rd and 4^th North American GBC meeting in Dallas. So I came for representing New Tālavana and New Orleans, Atlanta, Murāri Sevaka, the South Eastern US zone in those meetings. Today is the Ācāryadeva and Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Gosvāmīs and the other members of the North American BBT contingent could handle everything that I come in just and take the opportunity of seeing the devotees having come so far from India right after the meetings basically all the heading back because that's the whole chain of preaching programs organized for December and January in India.

On the way back I will be stopping in Tokyo, we just phoned up the disciples there. Just for a day or so. And then there is gonna a be a Ratha-yātrā in Malaysia in the 13^th in Penang, then in the 16^th in Orissa, this is a festival in a place called Sambalpur in the western part of Orissa. Then there is a whole saṅkīrtana, 3-month marathon that they are doing which started on December 1^st and going for 60 days. Going until the end of January through 3 states in India. So, I will be participating in those festivals. And then there is a Ratha-yātrā in Madras on the 14^th of January and one in Bangalore on the 23^rd. So lot of preaching programs and I’ll have to do a deity installation of Nitāi and Gaura at Vāsudeva Datta's place in Bangladesh, near Puṇḍarīka-dhāma. Then I'll be coming back here for the Mardi Gras festival in February. That's the basic itinerary now, of course anything can happen in ISKCON. (laughter) Don't be surprised!

On being safe from māyā: Chanting and hearing and remembering that keep the fever down. Then we come back to the dhāma, and we see the Deities, then that helps to purify our consciousness. Just seeing the beautiful form of Nitāi-Gauracandra, Rādhā-Rādhākāntā, this helps to take away the images of passion and ignorance that come in the mind. That's why we do Deity worship, is to help to purify. Why we in kīrtana enthusiastically chant and dance. When we are outdoor, we don't get to see the Deities, so we develop sometimes more attachment and separation for the Deities. Sometimes when ones in the temple, they take the Deities for granted and sometimes they don't come at all to programs or they don't think it's so important. But when you are out preaching, and you have to face all the time association of passion or ignorance, then you really appreciate how great a fortune it is to be able to come and to have association, to be able to worship the Deities, and take association from the arcāvatāra. In travelling around the world, people got surprised when I told them actually, I hate flying. Actually, flying is very uncomfortable for me but to be able to go at the end and see the effulgent faces of the devotees and especially to see also the different Deities established by Prabhupāda, or on behalf of Prabhupāda in ISKCON, that actually is very purifying, it's very enlivening. That's why it's important how we direct our thought. Neophyte is usually always like one foot in māyā and one foot in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. Their mind is not real clear on thinking about service to guru and Kṛṣṇa. Gets a little bit splayed out with other considerations and attachments. Little false ego attachments, attachments to the body and so on. Like feeling comfortable or just kind of absorbed in the modes. But if we can cultivate this attachment to the Deity, to the disciplic succession, to the Kṛṣṇa Conscious process, then actually that can help us. So when you are preaching, you feel separation. It's nice to have association with the Deities. That's very purifying. We should cultivate feeling separation for Kṛṣṇa, separation from the guru, separation from the spiritual pastimes. Then when we develop that greater taste, the greater appetite; it's just like Kṛṣṇa left all the gopīs in the rāsa-līlā, because by having separation from Kṛṣṇa, when He would come back in the future, they would have a greater appreciation. So, if we go around preaching and we are thinking of the Holy-dhāma; just like when I travel and preach, I am usually thinking about Māyāpur. Actually, if I had a choice, if everyone was Kṛṣṇa conscious in the world, I would prefer to stay in Māyāpur-dhāma. It's so transcendentally relishable. One immediately feels separation from Lord Caitanya, even in the dhāma. Immediately feel a connection. But Prabhupāda instructed we have to go and preach and bring the message of Lord Caitanya, the message of Māyāpur-dhāma to different parts of the world, so that the devotees feel that the Holy-dhāma is their own place. That we don't belong to the material world, we belong to the spiritual world. Then while we are in the material world preaching, that we can feel some separation from the spiritual world. That's good. If we start seeing that, “Oh this mode of passion, this looks pretty enticing, it's pretty nice. These people are really enjoying, they are having a good time. What am I missing out in?” If we start thinking like that, we are in trouble. Fortunately, usually the mode of passion and ignorance, Kṛṣṇa gives us intelligence to see that these people are actually suffering. They may think they are enjoying but we can that how their enjoyment is the other side of their suffering. I mean it's so gross that usually the devotees in the mode of goodness, they can see that these things are actually not real happiness. But if we start to get affected, start thinking, start analyzing; just like before we are put to hell, you are taken out of this body and you are put in a little training camp. Say you have to take birth as a pig, so they take you to hell and they will start forcing you to eat stool until finally you start to differentiate that, “Well that stool was a little better than the other stool” (laughter), then they put you a pig body. So the point is that when you start to see when you categorically see that how the material world is māyā, there is no enjoyment there, then you are safe. When you start to differentiate, well may be that stool was little better than this stool, maybe that material enjoyment is a little better than this one, you see that's material. So we have to train our consciousness and see from the absolute point of view. 

On prasādam guidelines: In a real state of emergency the śāstra says that a person can bend certain rules. Something like cheese, maybe in a real emergency it could be bent because basically it is vegetarian. But like in America, generally speaking, they have soft cheeses, cheese spreads, cottage cheese, so many different kinds of soft cheddar, which doesn't use, basically as far as I understand, doesn't use animal rennet. The hard cheese is one that uses. So hard cheese or soft cheese, I mean if there is soft cheese of some sort or another then; cheese is such a thing then in any case it keeps for a long time. I know in Murāri Sevaka (farm) they go to a cheese factory. We have our cows so. Usually there are places that make cheese in the rural area. And if you go to them, they'll make the cheese for you without animal rennet and you can buy the big clunks of it. About 15 pounds blocks, circular. Forgot what we call them, there is a name for it. And it only cost about $1.80 or 2 per pound, or if you buy it in a store it's a little more expensive. People can get a big chunk and devotees carry half a pound of cheese in their baggage or something. Anyway, one should always take the best alternative. I mean if there is nothing else and the person is ready to collapse out fatigue, I won't think it would be sin. But we have to avoid the mentality of when there is an alternative, we always take one which is more risky, which is maybe more nebulous. Right now there are lot of companies that don't use the animal rennet. Someone can research it but it's more important if we buy things. Like we buy cooked foods, that's more dangerous. But lot of time the devotees buy cooked grains or something, pretzels, I don't know… different things. The milk products and fruits contains less karma. Fruits doesn't contain any mentality from the person you buy. When you buy cooked food and not again processed; like sometimes we buy puffed rice but normally we cook it in some kind. So grains are little bit more risky, especially if it's cooked by a person. Then the mentality of the person cooking will go into the grain a little bit. It's more dangerous. But anyway in preaching once as I said, śāstra says that we can bend the rule a little bit but we have to be careful just to take whatever the best alternative at that particular time is. Rather than just say, “I am preaching, I have a carte blanche, then I can do anything.” We should always take the best. Try to be cautious, be afraid of the material energy. Otherwise, we get into that mentality that even when we are not doing so much preaching; maybe we would be protected because we are preaching. But then if we get into that idea that, “Well, I am preaching so I can do anything!”, then when we are not so fully absorbed in preaching, we'll do the same thing then we will be in trouble. So Kṛṣṇa provides something, and if there is nothing else, alright. But we take the best, take the more cautious alternative.  Actually, in travelling saṅkīrtana we were mainly taking salads, and nuts, and things like that. Because in India, especially we don't even buy breads usually because when they cook the breads, usually the bakers are Mohammedans, and when they cook the breads, they put the animal fat. They don't use animal fat in the bread, but they use it for greasing the pans. Sometimes they put it in the bread also. So usually what they call pāv-roṭī or cooked breads in India are very risky. So unless we especially order or something, by some known baker or some devotee, we don't usually use any kind of breads in India. So Prabhaviṣṇu Mahārāja was explaining to Prabhupāda that how they are eating salads, and fruits, and nuts, and things like that. And Prabhupāda said, “Ah yes! This is very good, you can simply eat Ekādaśī always! You see there is this one nut… what you call that nut? It is like this *bent shape with fingers* bent.

Then someone said, “Oh cashew.”

He said, “Yes, you can eat that. It is very good.”

Of course Prabhaviṣṇu Mahārāja still eats grains now and then, but he told me one time Prabhupāda encouraged that, “Yes you can even eat Ekādaśī, you can eat nuts and fruits and things.” So I personally, I find that it's very nice if like when I go in these long journeys, I try to take some bread or take somethings with me. And actually if in Germany they used to have granola and cheeses and things like that. They had a special pack which apparently would last the devotees. They will buy fruits and other things which would last the devotees a week, 6 days. Then they come back on Sunday will have a Sunday feast. That's how they did saṅkīrtana for years, with different kinds of little trekking prasādam. I know the devotees in San Diego who used to go in Malaysia and do paintings sell and things. They used to carry little hotplates with them and have one of those Prabhupāda cookers from Vṛndāvana. It has like 4 stories, and the bottom story you put your rice, and then above it subjīs and things. Rice at the bottom and then vegetables come in compartments above that. So as you cook your rice, the steam coming from the rice steams your vegetables. By the time the rice is finished, the vegetables are also cooked. So while you are chanting japa, the whole thing is just happening automatically. When the water is finished in the rice, you take it off. Your vegetables are steamed. Then you take the top of the cooker, it has the handles on the side. So then your turn it over then it becomes a little wok. And on the hot plate they put little chaunce (spices), there and then put the chaunce in the subzi, the vegetable, steamed vegetables you know, like a little spice, turn it around and then they take their rice and the vegetables, because they get tired of eating out all the time in the fast-food type of thing. I have seen different devotees have developed different techniques for survival but we have just try to be as responsible as possible and the more that we can eat food that’s cooked by devotees or less we can eat you know things which are risky, the better. But you know within there is some grey areas like sugars is put through bones or some cheeses use that one billionth of a part, but it's minor part. So if there is some kind of alternative, you should take the safe alternative. But these are like borderline cases. I mean Prabhupāda, one time they told him that sugar is put through bones or something and he said sugar is definitely vegetarian, but they spoil everything. If we can try to avoid it that's better, but those things are a bit borderline. Things we should just try to avoid. If it's life or death or something, if there’s nothing else. If you’re doing the rule without really trying to please Kṛṣṇa and not maybe become whimsical that where there is a loophole, we just take the loophole, then we just actually do it because we want to do it, not actually because it's for Kṛṣṇa. We shouldn't look for the loopholes. We should try to do whatever is the best alternative at that time within the scope that we have. Lord Nityānanda used to take puffed rice, but normally we add a little ghee to it. It's one thing you said. Usually we just take a little ghee and then just sprinkle over it, so that like purifies it. Add something, then we offer that. It's cooked by machines like that. Technically in a temple, they don't like to offer the puffy and things from outside. But the secret is that Lord Nityānanda, He used to take puffed rice. He used to take this type of puffed cereals, fried rice crispies, fried puffy cīḍā and things like that. So for Lord Nityānanda, we can offer these type of cereals but generally we don't like to just offer Him something dry. We add a little ghee to it, something we spinkle just a little bit, part of this cooking arrangement and a chance to (not clear) what we do. I know in India sometimes they also offer; I don't know if Nityānanda used to take this, but sometimes they add mustard oil in Bengal, because they are so attached to mustard oil. They take mustard oil and chilies. I don't think in the West this taste has been developed. (laughter) It’s a bit passionate. They just take the cereal, sprinkle little mustard oil on it and then take green chilies and eat it, hot chilies. I don't know how bona fide that is. It's kind of a regional habit they have. Nityānanda used to take the cereals. We add a little ghee and offer. One-time Prabhupāda said just add a little ghee, it becomes alright. One time he went to a feast and they cooked everything in oil. Prabhupāda said, “Just sprinkle some ghee over it.” (laughter)

On Service: There is two aspects. One of course is the kind of gross result that who is Kṛṣṇa empowering more for preaching, for collecting, or for whatever particular service. That certainly is recognized. Like Hanuman. He is lifting mountain tops, certainly that wasn't thought to be insignificant. He was doing a very big service for Rāma building a bridge going to Lanka. But the little spider was throwing the dust into the ocean. It is also a consideration that Kṛṣṇa considers a person's own personal capacity. You know it's like two people; we put some weights here and different devotees try to lift weights. Depending on how big their muscles are, they may be able to life different size of weights. But with practice a person can gradually increase. So like that certain person might have natural kind of level in a particular service, but by Kṛṣṇa's mercy that can go unlimited, no limit to it. It's not that we have think that I am only limited by some characteristic, but it is unlimited. It can go unlimited. Kṛṣṇa is seeing that well, how much energy a person is giving and He is also recognizing that service. Just as when Hanumān wanted to brush aside the spider, then Rāma said, “No. He is also serving to his capacity.” So Lord Caitanya advises we should be humble.

tṛṇād api su-nīcena
taror iva sahiṣṇunā
amāninā māna-dena
kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ

Amāninā, we shouldn't desire any kind of honor for ourself. Actually if we get some result, we always give credit in any case to guru and Vaiṣṇava, to Kṛṣṇa. The competition who can please Kṛṣṇa little more, competition is actually to please Kṛṣṇa. What is transcendental competition? That devotee is done so nicely, so Kṛṣṇa is more pleased by that devotee’s service. So that's very nice. The goal is to please Kṛṣṇa, so may Kṛṣṇa also bless me that I can do more service. In other words, the goal is that Kṛṣṇa should be pleased. Everyone is trying to please Kṛṣṇa, so in any particular day one person may somehow appear to be more empowered for pleasing Kṛṣṇa in a particular service. That doesn't mean we also won’t to our capacity try to please Kṛṣṇa to the maximum. We are all very pleased that someone does more, because objective is that everyone should do more. There is no loss. So in that sense we are not attached to the results in the material sense, but we want to offer something more to Kṛṣṇa. But since our only objective is to offer to Kṛṣṇa, therefore we don't think ‘Well I can't offer more to Kṛṣṇa therefore then I should not offer anything to Kṛṣṇa’. That's material. Objective is only to offer more and more to Kṛṣṇa, to give more devotion. So someone else is doing more, we are also happy, because it's for Kṛṣṇa's service. So we have to keep our consciousness transcendental, then it is transcendental competition. Like when have these bicycle races in things, when they are going around the corners and nobody is looking, then they kick the other person's bike. It's not transcendental, it's mean, it's dirty sometimes. Recently in one of these football games, I saw newspaper front page or something had a headline, ‘Purposeful injury’, where they just send out some big mobber who comes out and he just picks up some million dollar quarterback or something and just picks him up and just smashes him on the ground and breaks bones or something. So then he gets kicked off the game and fined ten thousand dollars, but they ruin the opponent, million dollar, whatever they pay those people so much. So it's like the competition in the material world is dirty business. Just like they found out recently that in Wall Street, people been cheating the government, cheating other people from hundreds of millions of dollars. So of course, they got caught. So they have to spent time in jail and pay a hundred million dollar fine. Pretty big fine. So that is material. Not transcendental. Transcendental competition, we feel happy if we hear that someone has done a really good score. It makes us feel blissful, “Oh that's wonderful!”, but then it also inspires us that, “Well if that person can do, then Kṛṣṇa can also empower me to do!” It's just like before people like never thought that you could break a four-minute mile, but now everybody breaks four-minute miles. So, when the first person did it, then there was a new goal. I remember that we used to do Harināma in Toronto and we used to collect. The whole temple would go out on Saturdays and do Harināma and collect. And we used to collect 400 dollars a day, 450 dollars, Canadian, a day, for the whole temple and that was the best collection in the whole North America, around 20 temples in North America. So you know but then somebody developed new ways of book distribution and things like that and then gradually, new heights were achieved. So we don't know what capacity a person has to do a particular kind of service, except under very intense situation. Then we can see what are the limits. Then that can help us to assign new goals in our mind, that helps to build our own faith, “You know I can do more then I am doing now. If other persons can do, then I can also do.” Usually in our mind we relegate ourselves to a particular level of service. Then if somebody does more, “Oh! How that person is doing more? He must be cheating.” That attitude shouldn't be there.

Is that all right? Everyone is all right?

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Śrīla Ācāryapāda kī…!

Devotees: Jaya!

Verified by your humble ever Servant 
Vinoda Gopīkeśa Dāsa 
23-01-2025
Māyāpur India