19870111 Caitanya-caritāmṛta Madhya-līlā

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on January 11^th, 1987 in Rāḍhadeśa. The class begins with a reading from Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā.

Jayapatākā Swami: Reading from the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā. Rūpa and Sanātana Gosvāmīs, how they were doing everything to fulfil the desires of Lord Caitanya. That time we were also discussing the wonderful characteristics of Mādhavendra Purī, who although was perfect in his realization of Kṛṣṇa consciousness; when ordered by Gopāla to get sandalwood, he walked thousands of kilometres in order to procure some sandalwood. Sandalwood can be ground into a paste and placed on the head or the body to make one very cool. Since the deity of Gopāla was in the forest for a long time without any worship under the sun, the deity felt hot, so He wanted sandalwood paste to be applied on His body. This is not unusual but there are some deities in India, year around there is the sandalwood paste. There is one Narasiṁha deity in South India, supposed to be very angry mood of Narasiṁhadeva. So, to keep Him cool down they cover His entire form with sandalwood paste. And once a year ,when they take off the sandalwood paste then you can see the deity underneath. For one day. Then they again put sandalwood for the rest of the year. That's unusual. But generally I think here also all the temples they offer sandalwood. But this Gopāla deity, He was feeling very hot. He wanted to have sandalwood applied. So Mādhavendra Purī, although he didn't have anything, he had only the desire to serve The Lord, he walked thousands of miles to procure sandalwood which was very expensive. So, when he got to Jagannātha Purī and he got the sandalwood. Then he also personally carried the sandalwood on his back. In fact, sandalwood was such a rare item, that it was illegal to export it from that country. So, he had to go to the government and get a special permission to export the sandalwood, and as he was everyday carrying about 100, maybe 100 pounds of sandalwood, and he is walking 30, 40, 50 kilometres a day, just walking with his sandalwood. One day he went to a check post, a toll gate, and a customs officer, toll officer, confiscated all the sandalwood. Said, “You are a smuggler! You are not allowed to take this out of the country. Why you are transporting sandalwood? This is only meant for Jagannātha.” He is in Orissa. Although Mādhavendra Purī was such a great devotee, he had to undergo all these types of difficulties. Having his sandalwood confiscated, being falsely accused. We are just remarking how there are such striking parallel in the life of Śrīla Prabhupāda and Mādhavendra Purī, that although he didn't have anything, he had renounced the world, he was just living in Vṛndāvana, he didn't have any money; he was ordered by Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭḥākura to spread the Kṛṣṇa Conscious movement to the West. He had to go to get permission to get visa and so many things, it was very hard to procure. They said, “Why do you want to go? Why do you want passport? You are too old!” You see in India, if you want to leave the country, first you have to go to the government. Even you have passport, you can't leave. You have to have clearance. They don't want the Indian citizens to show up somewhere, they don't have any ticket, they don't have any money. Then Indian government has to pay to bring them back. So therefore, they have a clearance check. So, you have to go through all these problems, they didn't want to give him clearance to go and finally he got the clearance. Then just as Mādhavendra Purī, he was walking, he was walking back to Vṛndāvana; so to go to the West the most primitive means of going was to go by a freight ship. There’s no more primitive way of going somewhere between India and say America. The most primitive way is going by a freighter. I mean a plane would have been far more you see comfortable or even some kind of a passenger ship. This is a freight ship, an ordinary you see goods ship. So he was also going through all the struggle, and when he was in America they didn't want to extend his visa. So to go through all the difficulties. And Mādhavendra Purī, he also had to go through difficulties. But it's said that he was doing everything as a labor of love because it was the desire of Kṛṣṇa to do this service. So therefore for him, however difficult it was, he was so determined to go on because it was the desire of Kṛṣṇa. So, I have heard that today and tomorrow is all saints day, all souls day. People remember their forefathers, put flowers on them. So I thought probably we can remember the previous ācāryas. They are spiritual forefathers you see. Actually, what is Kṛṣṇa Consciousness? In India of course people have an idea that if you become a sadhu, if you become another word a saint or a devotee, some type of a monk, that means you give up all work and you just do some meditation and take it easy. This is the general idea that they have in India when someone takes to the saintly life. But devotional service is a bit different, it's not that type of yoga. Because ours is an active meditation. Ours is a meditation through dedication. We dedicate our mind, we dedicate our words, we dedicate our activities in the service of Kṛṣṇa. Ultimately, we dedicate our heart, everything, the ātmā, the soul is dedicated to Kṛṣṇa.

So, of course Mādhavendra Purī, although he got his sandalwood aa confiscated, he produced that paper he had got from the government and said, “Look, I have permission.” Had to go through the customs, had to go to the higher officer, had to get it released, but he got the sandalwood back. Similarly, Prabhupāda, he had to leave America first time he went to Canada, when they cancelled his visa. But then he got a new visa. Then he came to Europe and established the preaching. Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭḥākura, he was the greatest scholar. Even at the age of 11 he was such a great astronomer, that he had discovered a star that no one had discovered before. Therefore, he was a given the title 'Sarasvatī'. But when he wanted to take initiation from his guru, the guru gave him such a hard test that he didn't know if he could achieve. In the beginning he wasn’t even accepted by his guru, had to go through a lot of tests, and finally he was accepted. So, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭḥākura actually, he had a very big struggle, very big opposition, because he was preaching in India that no one has a monopoly for spiritual life, for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. Before there was caste Goswamis. They claimed that he had to come in a particular family in order to become a guru or in order to become a Kṛṣṇa Conscious, and anyone who wanted to practice Kṛṣṇa Consciousness had to come in that family. Then they were not actually qualified. Family was a good family. Family coming from the disciples of Nityānanda or Advaita. But the actual follower of these persons, they were not practicing Kṛṣṇa Consciousness according to the rules and regulations. They said, “Well if you want to follow Lord Caitanya, you have to go through us.”, these other caste Goswamis. But to go into temple you had to pay a toll, 50 cents, 50 paisa. You had to pay a certain donation, fixed. Couldn't go in free. Had to pay an admission. So, in this way everyone had to go through them and you also had to pay everyday little tax. So, it was a whole monopoly they were trying to make, was a big problem. So then when Lord Caitanya started to preach, that no matter what family you are from, even if you are from foreign countries, you can become a brāhmaṇa, you can be a Vaiṣṇava, you can preach Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, you can practice. This is a universal movement, it's not anybody's monopoly. Anyone can take part. And he also made a temple and he said anyone can come in the temple, you don't have to pay any charge. Temple is for Kṛṣṇa, it's for everyone. You don't have to pay anything. So, then he took big procession, 50,000 people on Navadvīpa Parikramā, Māyāpur, Navadvīpa-dhāma, he went around with 50,000 people. He had his own motor launchist. Motor launchist means motorized boat, but big one. They can hold 3-400 people. He had horses. He had the first motor car in India practically, of any civilian person. So many things. So, one day he was taking these 50,000 people around in a parikramā, and when he went in the town of Navadvīpa and he was giving a strong lecture, that time these caste conscious priests were hiding under the roof of the buildings and they started to throw big rocks down on Bhaktisiddhānta to kill him, and then they had hired people to go and capture him, and to kidnap him and kill him. So suddenly there was this big attack right on the big procession. So that time they had to take Bhaktisiddhānta. One disciple gave him his cloth and took Bhaktisiddhānta’s cloth, and then he ran. So, all the hired people ran after the decoy, and Bhaktisiddhānta was taken away. So, he had to go through a lot of difficulties. In fact one police chief came and told him that, “These caste priests, they have to come to me and offered me a big reward if I will murder you. But I told them that although we do these things (laughter), I won't kill a saint. It will be too big a sin for me, too bad a karma, I won't take that karma.” So, he warned him, “You be very careful, they are out to get you because of your preaching.” So actually, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, he was able to preach so widely, facing lot of obstacles.

Then Gaura Kiśora Dāsa Bābājī, of course he was very humble. He was very humble. He did not know reading or writing, so he felt himself humble. He did not feel himself qualified to go ahead & preach. But we know that he was a great preacher because the way he inspired Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭḥākura to preach. Gaura Kiśora Dāsa Bābājī was so elevated a Vaiṣṇava that by his association people would become easily inspired to practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But then in those days people would always come to him and request him for some material benediction. This is a common thing, like mostly the people when they go to church or go to mosque or temple they pray to God, “Please give me something, I want a wife or I want a husband, my son is sick, or I need to pass my examination, or my business needs some help.” They always ask for some material thing. So people were always going to him and they would say, “Swamiji can I ask you something?”

He would say, “What is that?”

Then they would say, “Please my brother is sick, so please give him good health, give some blessing.”

He got distracted you know, “I am trying to worship Kṛṣṇa and someone wants to come and ask me some Kṛṣṇa conscious question, it's alright. But they are only coming and asking these useless questions.” This happened to me one day. I was walking on a street. All of a sudden some lady, she ran up to me right on the street, in India, she paid her obeisances on the street, and she tried to grab my feet. “What is it? What is it?”

Then she said, “Oh Mahārāja! Kṛpā koro, have your mercy, have your mercy!”

“So what do you want?” (laughter),

She said, “Oh my husband’s got an ulcer. Please give your blessings so that the ulcer goes away.” (laughter). So like that, he got so many people because he was very famous that he did some miracles and things. So he became very famous. Finally, he moved and he sat by the latrine, by the public urinal. This is not exactly like the men's room or women's room at the airport at Brussels. This is kind of open air, not so sanitary, having some bad smell. He sat near to that, that way all the people wanting some material things, they'll think oh this is a dirty place, just stay away. So, he can chant. And if someone is really transcendental to all these things, he'll go up to him and they’ll ask spiritual questions, so like that. Actually, he was so renounced that he used to eat, he would have a bowl and he would take his prasādam from the bowl and the bowl was the inside of a human skull, it was a hollowed-out skull, he'd take from that, to remind himself that life is temporary. (laughter), he is very austere (laughter). Many other stories about Gaura Kiśora Dāsa Bābājī.

Bhakti Vinoda Ṭḥākura, he had to face the difficulties to find Lord Caitanyas birth place. That was a very big endeavour. He researched it very deeply, “Where is the birth place of Caitanya Mahāprabhu?” But most people told him it’s lost in the Ganges. But after very big search, one day he looked outside of his window, and there in the night, just opposite the Jalaṅgi river, he could see a brilliant light coming and he got inspiration. That's the birth place of Lord Caitanya. So then he took Jagannātha Dāsa Bābājī, who was about 113 years old at that time, and due to rheumatism he was all just bundled up. Couldn't sit straight. He’d just chant:

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

So he became so reduced due to old age that Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda carried him in a basket on his head. He was just like a ball. So then they came to one spot and Bhaktivinoda Ṭḥākura asked, “What is that?” He asked the local farmers.

They said, “Oh, it is a useless place. Nothing grows there. No matter what you plant, simply tulasī comes out.” (laughter). We have tried so many times but this tulasī is coming. So there he saw there is so many tulasīs in a big jungle. So, then he walked inside that tulasī-vana, tulasī forest, and just in the middle, all of a sudden, Jagannātha Dāsa Bābājī, he jumped up! “Hari Bol! Hari Bol!” Although he has never even walked, he is jumping up and chanting, “Hari Bol! Hari Bol!” This is the birthplace of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Caitanya Mahāprabhu kī… Jaya!! He is jumping in ecstasy. So, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, to build a place at birthplace of Lord Caitanya, he went to door to door requesting 1 rupee per person to give for Lord Caitanya. He collected 30,000 rupees. 30,000 people gave donation. He wouldn’t accept more than 1 rupee, because he didn't want to give the impression that he was making some commercial thing. Those days it was very sensitive. You had to be careful how you acted to keep the proper respect.

Then of course Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, he was a great ācārya. He was challenged by the other sects. Every sampradāya, every disciplic succession, had their own translation and commentary of the Vedānta-sūtra. Śaṅkācārya had, Madhvācārya, Rāmānuja, Nimbārka, Viṣṇuswami, they all had their own commentation on the Vedānta-sūtra. So, when he presented, “What's your philosophy?” It's like Śaṅkācārya is advaita, oneness. Madhvācārya is dvaita, duality, that there is two. Then Rāmānuja is viśiṣṭādvaita, that oneness with some variegatedness. Like this, each one has their own philosophy. So he said, “Well, ours is the philosophy of Lord Caitanya, acintya-bhedābheda-tattva.”

They said, “That's not a philosophy. If it is a philosophy, where is your Vedānta-sūtra commentary? There must be a Vedānta-sūtra commentary according to your philosophy. If it's not, we don't accept it as being bonafide path.”

So, he said, “No, no. We have one.” You see actually he didn't have any. He said “No no, we have one. You see I’m just bringing it out in a few days.” (laughter). So he went in to Govindajī, and he paid his obeisances, and he prayed to Govinda, “To save the name of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and his movement, I need your special mercy for having this commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra.” So, then the Deity, on his sincere praying; you can imagine how he prayed, he was very very sincerely praying, pure devotion; Lord Govinda personally dictated the commentary, and he wrote it down an entire Vedānta-sūtra commentary. That commentary therefore is known as Govinda-bhāṣya, or the commentary of Govinda, because of His dictation. So, after a very short time he had the perfect commentary. He went out and presented, “This is our commentary on Vedānta-sūtra.” They were amazed!

So, like that Śrīnivāsa Ācārya, Narottama Dāsa Ṭḥākura, Śyāmānanda paṇḍita, they took the first book distribution party out, blessed by all the Vaiṣṇavas, given blessing by Govindajī, but enroute they got all the books stolen. It's a long story. But still, in spite of having the books stolen, he endeavoured and wouldn’t give up trying. Eventually things worked out. So, like this we can see that our previous predecessors, they had to through different difficulties, they had to go through different tests by Kṛṣṇa, but in the end Kṛṣṇa would reward them with pure devotional service, with successful missions. So, today we can remember our predecessors, you see spiritual masters. How they have spread the Kṛṣṇa Conscious movement in spite various difficulties and obstacles. So that hasn't changed. Even now in the 20^th century, people are more engrossed in illusion in most cases and they are not so eager for spiritual life. But Lord Caitanya, He could flood the whole of Nadia, with love of Godhead. The whole of India, whole of the world. Similarly, His movement today can also inundate the world with love for Kṛṣṇa. Prabhupāda actually created the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement in order to inundate the people with love of Godhead. To attract all kinds of people with the priority of developing their love of Kṛṣṇa. Actually in this regard, Prabhupāda stated in Caitanya-caritāmṛta that, sometimes in Māyāpur there is a grand flood after the rainy season and that is an indication by Lord Caitanya that from the birth place of Lord Caitanya, the saṅkīrtana movement should expand His preaching all over the world, and inundate the worlds in love of Godhead. So this year there was also a very big flood in Māyāpur. Today I showed slideshow of the flood this morning in Bhaktivedanta Manor. I don’t know if there is time tomorrow. We could show if we have a projector. The flood lasted about five weeks, and the water rose up about 2 meters inside the temple. And outside in the villages it was 3 meters and more in many places. But we distributed prasādam to 4-5000 people a day, by delivering it to the inundated villagers by motor boat, which we had purchased for the purpose. This had all happened after Sweden, when I went back. This happened in August 25^th until October 2^nd, just a recent thing. So that's a message by Lord Caitanya to flood the world with love for Kṛṣṇa. So, I am very glad to hear how the devotees here in Rāḍhadeśa are flooding Belgium with love for Kṛṣṇa, spreading the movement of Śrīla Prabhupāda, so that by your determination Kṛṣṇa will give you all mercy, Lord Caitanya, Prabhupāda will give all mercy to go on expanding the Kṛṣṇa Conscious movement.

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

On Nāmahaṭṭa: There was another program of Bhaktivinoda Ṭḥākura was the Nāmahaṭṭa. Nāmahaṭṭa is basically the program to encourage people to chant in their homes, and then to organize those spiritualized homes into associations of devotees which meet on a daily or regular basis. and associate with each other in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, chant, read scriptures and engage in different type of preaching activities. So, Bhaktivinoda Ṭḥākura had established, more or less, 500 or more Nāmahaṭṭa centres about a 100 years ago. Few of them are still running! You come across few of the original Nāmahaṭṭa centres established by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, they’ve built temples and a whole community. Hundreds of people chanting japa from 100 years. But there has been no cultivation, so only a couple are still running. Most of them they gradually stop. So, Bhaktivinoda Ṭḥākura, he had instructed that this Nāmahaṭṭa preaching is the most important. This will become the most significant form of preaching in the world in future. Predicted that among all form of preaching, this will shine out as the very dynamic form of establishing Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.

Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura also instructed to do Nāmahaṭṭa, but he established temples and printed books, and at a young age actually he left the world. Didn't really get beyond that. And Prabhupāda took up first printing books, establishing temples, but then in the end he said that we should do varṇāśrama preaching. Prabhupāda instructed that we should set up this type of congregational units by bringing people to our temples, and training them for few days or weeks, and have them return back to their homes and begin their chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa. What they learn in the temple, they can practice in their own home. 1977 we were attacked in Māyāpur when the government, communist government came in power. And at that time, the government gave misinformation to the press and made a bad publicity against us. So that time I organized some mass meetings, mass movement of the public who knew the actual fact. In Bengal there are many devotees of Lord Caitanya. So we organized the procession of 25,000 people to march to the village, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, and after that the local politicians stopped creating problems, and the government started to take different stands when they saw we are so mobilized. So at that time when the 25000 people were marching, there was something like a 160 kīrtana groups, and it was so amazing to see those kīrtana groups. Every kīrtana group was singing their own tune, their own song, and it would go from one to the next, it will be like a bee going to different flowers, tasting honey. You know one kīrtana, *Gurudeva sings different tunes*. Practically everyone uses a different tune, I mean more tunes than I know. Even the good kīrtana singers don't know, I mean so many tunes! And it left a lasting impression. Then I approached Prabhupāda that, “There is such a power there. So many people chant Hare Kṛṣṇa in Bengal, but we don't have any mobilization of them. There is no coordination, there is no unity. And I want to make an organization to unify all the kīrtana groups and the devotees of Lord Caitanya, as well as to train up new people to be devotees.”

So Prabhupāda, to do that, he gave his blessings, gave some guidelines, he agreed. But then soon after, Prabhupāda left the planet. Things were set back a little bit. I didn't know what to call the group or organization. Then Bhakti Charu Mahārāja gave me a copy of one Gauḍīya Patrikā, one magazine, one Vaiṣṇava journal which was published from Navadvīpa, and this particular issue of that journal was edited by Śrīla Prabhupāda. He took sannyāsa from Keśava Mahārāja and so this journal was published on the Keśava Mahārāja’s temple. And for 4-5 years he was the president editor of that magazine. So it just happened that this issue was A.C. Bhaktivedanta. That time he was, he was not sannyāsī, he was a vānaprastha. He was A.C. Bhaktivedanta, Abhaya Caraṇa Bhaktivedanta, president of the paper.  So in that magazine, it gave 5 chapters from Bhaktivinoda Ṭḥākura's book on the Nāmahaṭṭa. And that's so far the only direct work we could find where Bhaktivinoda was specifically telling what a Nāmahaṭṭa was. And I read then I found that what we wanted to do, what Prabhupāda said is actually the Nāmahaṭṭa. I mean there is no difference, except that Bhaktivinoda has already thought out the whole thing and made a blueprint. So, then I thought we should call this saṅkīrtana movement a Nāmahaṭṭa movement, because that's the name Bhaktivinoda Ṭḥākura… it was his idea. And actually Bhaktivinoda's Nāmahaṭṭa was originally the Nāmahaṭṭa made by Lord Nityānanda. He reinstated it. So, it dates back 500 years ago that Lord Nityānanda was the first person to establish Nāmahaṭṭa. So, we started to enroll persons who like to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. There had to be at least 5 members who'd chant at least one day a week together, and read Prabhupāda’s books. And the first year we had 45 members, 45 groups. Next year we had 150, next year 250, next year grew to 400, then it grew to 750, almost doubling every year. Little less than doubling, then went 1200. Now there is something like 1700 in Bengal, 300 in Orissa, 100 in Assam, like this. These are groups. Each group has about 50 people. So, it became so much that even though we had staff of 20 people, it wasn't enough to supervise, almost 2000 groups, because we had maybe 6 teams. Even if 6 teams would visit 1 centre every 2 days, they could barely cover once in a whole year, just visiting. So, it wasn't good enough. So Bhaktivinoda Ṭḥākura, in his structure he had a system of senāpati, commanders, circle commanders, district commanders, state commanders. So, we made a system like that. Every 12 groups became a circle and they had a circle commander. And then just for his assistance, he had a sub circle commander, upacakra. In Sanskrit cakra-senāpati and upacakra-senāpati. And then 3 circles became a mahācakra, greater circle, but it sounds better in Sanskrit, mahācakra. So, like this, now we are tuning up this infrastructure that these senāpatīs are actually Nāmahaṭṭa members, and they have responsibility that they have to visit one Nāmahaṭṭa centre every week on the lower levels, and they have to send in reports. And so now our preachers, they go every month, there will be a greater mahā-sammelana, that means great re-union, where 4-5 Nāmahaṭṭa will come together and meet and have a big kīrtana, and once every 3 months all the 12 will get together. So in this way they generate more enthusiasm. Say 5, 10, 20, 30 people are chanting in one village, but then once a month on rotation, that means once in a year all the Nāmahaṭṭa Saṅghas in the area, they'll all come and do big Harināma and hold a festival. The local people will see hundreds of Nāmahaṭṭa devotees, not just 10 or 20 they see all the time. So then that inspires them. This is like a slight glimpse of the Nāmahaṭṭa. In Bengal you can get Nāmahaṭṭa number easier, but it’s hard to maintain high quality because there are so many sahajiyā’s and Māyāvādīs and so many different groups, that to increase the quality is difficult. We find that in Nāmahaṭṭa in Bengal, you get one per week groups fairly, easily. But to maintain them active, and to get them to come up to once a day is difficult. Where like in some other places very hard to get a group, but if you get a group; like in Bihar, another state of India, they are not followers of Lord Caitanya, they are more followers of Śaṅkārācārya. You convince them to follow Lord Caitanya then they are very fired up people. They'll go every day and have maṅgala-ārati at 4 in the morning, maṅgala-ārati and whole class, just like a little temple. So, we have different categories of Nāmahaṭṭa. We have Nāmahaṭṭa associations, then we have Nāmahaṭṭa centres and Nāmahaṭṭa  temples. So centre means every day, and a temple has a deity and actually does the worship, and association means less than once a day, maybe once a week, twice a week, three times a week but not daily. So now we are going through the whole, we are always trying to bring it up and refine and start different programs of gurukulas. Some of the villages they have started gurukulas. We have 10 gurukulas functioning, and some of the groups have started book distribution. One group last year distributed 60,000 pieces of literature. The year before they had done 20,000, and the president of Calcutta gave them a big tape recorder so that they could play Prabhupāda’s bhajanas when they were going and selling the books. And they bought a rickshaw, bicycle rickshaw with a flat back, to put all the books on it and peddle to all the villages and show the books and distribute. So, this year again they won, so they wanted a bull horn. You know bull horn? Hand mike, battery operated hand mike. So, I gave them one of my hand mikes (laughter) as a reward. So that now they go, 'Come get your Bhaktivedanta books!' you know they are calling out. The idea is that all the Nāmahaṭṭas, they also distribute books. They do festivals, they do different programs, and gradually trying to build up their standards so that eventually, it may take many years, but we will have hundreds and hundreds of temples everywhere. This year at Nityānanda appearance day will be having a Nāmahaṭṭa reunion. Last year, we had at Rāma’s appearance day, about 600 people came and one of the groups showed the drama that they had like type of castes gurus. They demand you have to cook them a fish dinner. So, using that and some other philosophy, the preacher, the way they did it was quite interesting, and they made it satirical kind of. It was funny and they had to face a lot of obstacles. There is this one group, and they actually kidnapped the leader of the group and locked him inside his house. They wouldn't let him go out. They said, “You are bringing this foreign group into our village. We don't want this.” He had to send a note out and one Nāmahaṭṭa preacher had to go there and rescue him.  He was like in house arrest. In another village, all the people were objecting. So the women there were very powerful, and the women they started to preach to the other women and get them fired up. So the women, for 6 months they practiced everything, but they didn’t reveal to their husband that they are practicing. Chanting and offering their prasādam. They simply feed prasādam to the husband every day, even though he didn't know it. (laughter). In this way after about 6 months, they became very strong and husband’s heart became softened by prasādam, then the wife would reveal it. “Now I am practicing Kṛṣṇa Consciousness here in the house, and you should give your blessings and you should also practice.” And then the husband, by then they'd be fixed and somehow the wife would get the husband also to practice. It was like an underground women's movement (laughter). In this one village, many interesting things happened.

So every year we have the reunion, we have all the preachers, tell the pastimes of their preaching. One told about how he went to all the school teachers in his district and he gave them Prabhupāda’s books and said, “You have to buy these for your school, you have to read it and then I want you to give me a certificate, how you like it.” And he produced a huge book of certificates. He said, “Everyone likes it!” And he started reading some other glories of Prabhupāda books that they wrote, and he told how he went to some communist teachers from the communist party but even they said this that but in end he defeated them and they read Prabhupāda books, and they also gave good recommendation. (laughter). So it’s very interesting. This year we’ll have at Nityānanda’s appearance day, a month before Gaura Pūrṇimā. If any of you are in India, you can come and participate in the Nāmahaṭṭa reunion. There will probably be more than a 1000 Nāmahaṭṭa preachers from all over Bengal coming. Sometimes it’s bigger than Gaura Pūrṇimā, Sometimes you get a thousand. It’s all the villagers and people from the cities, they are doing the Nāmahaṭṭa preaching. This last year Harikeśa Maharājā happened to be there, he was amazed, he was completely amazed. He got very enthusiastic about it. Here in Belgium you have Nāmahaṭṭa  programs? Like now in Germany they're having, in England they have, in Belgium and Benelux they have Nāmahaṭṭa yet? Because every country has to adapt according to their own, situation, even every state in India is different, we have to adapt. I see there's future for the varṇāśrama that Prabhupāda wanted. He says how can you have varṇāśrama unless you are human beings. Real human civilization, real varṇāśrama begins when people are Vaiṣṇavas, at least on the kaniṣṭha level. Then you can organize and live in the varṇāśrama.

On Congregational Development: The teachings of Rūpa Gosvāmī state, “yena tena prakāreṇa kṛṣṇe manaḥ niveśayet.” Someone should be brought to the standard of developing love and attachment for Kṛṣṇa. Now if someone hasn't developed love and attachment for Kṛṣṇa, and you tell them to surrender everything to Kṛṣṇa, then they run away (laughter). So, on the other hand if someone has developed love and attachment for Kṛṣṇa to some degree, then proportionately they should surrender. And Prabhupāda’s situation was, he was coming to the West, he required brāhmaṇas on urgent basis to carry on the movement. He didn't need a congregation, he needed brāhmaṇas to take on the responsibility of continuing the movement because he was very physically old, and he was felt that he was going to leave any moment. So, he wanted brāhmaṇas to take up the movement. He wanted preachers, he wanted disciples that could carry on the message. But then in the end he said, “I did half the work. The other half is to have a big congregation, to have varṇāśrama in a society, amongst the people in general.” So he sacrificed because congregation is slow. I don't know in this country but I am visiting America and the America today is very conservative. People there don't like to just change their lifestyle, give up their jobs, move in a temple. Not like in the 60s or 70s, more people easily joined. Now the people are very conservative about any kind of sudden change. So, there we found that preaching to the people on the Nāmahaṭṭa type of approach, that they should practice in their home, continue their job, by that type of public preaching lot of people come to other programs in my zone and we are getting a good response. People aren't afraid to come. We’ve forbidden anyone to preach to anyone to join the temple, except if the President or Vice President authorize it. In other words unless they see if this that this person is really that advanced, that they are ready to move in a temple, they are actually material to be like a full time brāhmaṇa. Because we see devotees in the temple are like priests, they are like monks. Because sometimes people come to the temple, and some devotee would just come up to them, “You have to shave off your hair! You have to move in the temple, you are in māyā, prabhu!” (laughter) And one man was there, a 60 year old man in downtown New Orleans, and he is like a musician or something, he shows some magical tricks because that's a very cultural city, lot of tourist come. So, the devotees kept inviting him to come for this Sunday feast. So, the first Sunday feast that he comes, he has got big hair, he is old, I mean he is like a hard, very long-term kind of. He just came because for the feast, they told him to come, as a friend. That very day someone came up to him and said, “You should shave off all you hair, move in.” (laughter) So last time they ever saw him. So there definitely has to be a balance. We don't want people to move in prematurely, and it's not that we expect every person.  Like in India, what inspired me also for Nāmahaṭṭa preaching was… in India you have a different situation, we go out distribute books and sometimes we have a book table and people come and buy the books. Someone would buy a book and sit there and read the whole book, right there at the table. Just sitting in a side, read the book. One saṅkīrtana devotee came and told me that one man came up, he read the book, he said, “I agree with your book, I accept, I want to be a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. I want to surrender, now tell me what should I do?”

Now they said, “Alright so you come and move in the temple, try in the temple.”

He said, “Alright. I am working 35 years in the railway. I got 5 years before my pension. I got 14 kids, wife, I got my dependent, unmarried two sisters, my grandmother, my mother, the other uncle and I got 4 cows and the land with 20 acres, 5 hectares. So then should I bring all of them?” (laughter)

“Uhhh, well let me think about this one for a while.” (laughter)

“What can I want to do now, I agree, I agree, I accept, I accept your book, I accept the philosophy, I surrender. Now tell me what I should do?”

“You can become a life member, you know.”

“OK, tell me about it.” Then, “I don't have that much money to become a life member, 1000 dollars. I can give something every week, 50 rupees or something. So, what else can I do?”

“So well, would you like to buy some more books here?” (laughter)

You know, there is no program. We had people that were convinced about Kṛṣṇa Consciousness but we didn't have the infrastructure, wasn't realistic to ask to move with the whole family into a to a temple. Even Māyāpur, we need to build up. Not every family can move in like that. There is some adjustment. We didn't just have the infrastructure actually. We’re getting so many people. So that was like a necessity to be able to preach, to have a program to cultivate them. I had a disciple in America, they were working, getting 50,000$ a year each. Each had a job, but one go fired from the job because they wouldn’t eat hamburgers with the boss, he is vegetarian. And other one also had difficulty at work. So naturally, even though I encouraged them, just keep your job. They come every day in maṅgala-ārati, they did their work but just kind of naturally,they worked out that it wasn't very practical for them. So now they are going to open a new centre somewhere. We have a little temple was donated to us. They are going to be the head that once they going to get trained up enough. So sometimes it works like that. Actually through Nāmahaṭṭa, congregational preaching, you end up with more bhaktas because less people are afraid to come you know. Actually, people say, “O the Hare Kṛṣṇas are going to press me to be a member of their commune.” So, people stay away, they get afraid. If they know that you are not going to press them, they show a little interest. If they start asking the right questions, this is really nice. I mean most stay over for a weekend and then you know, we just do a little more naturally. That's the system we have used. So there is a kind of balance. And the president or the authority, maybe they call the person and talk to him to see their situation. If they think, “Yes, actually maybe this person could be a devotee”, then they preach to him like that. But they don't just like without discrimination just ask anybody and everybody, and then you know, either you get people that are really ready to be devotees or you get people that scare people away. That could, but just have to come along more gradually. So, we want people to be Kṛṣṇa Conscious. So you have to become more expert. Well at what level is this person? How can this person best practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Sometimes you can't just be liked by everyone. Actually we need people to live in temple and be full time brāhmaṇa preachers. We need that, but we also need a congregation. If we get some as full time brāhmaṇa, he can make 10 other families, he can 100 other people, he can make 1000 devotees. Someone just practicing on their own, they may make 1 or 2 devotees from their own friends. But we need brāhmaṇas to go and cultivate them and keep them. So naturally if we see that someone can surrender, and they have the ability, they have a chance to do it, we preach like that. But if we see that maybe it's not ideal for that person right now. Sometimes we get older person, if they just move in the āśrama they are not going to make it, it will not be appropriate for them. They have to become little more accustomed to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This means you have to be more personal in your approach instead of everyone that comes in, try to enlist them in the army type of thing. It'll be… just see how what will help, so the bhakti program leader work together. How he can help this person better with a president and other spiritual preachers there. What's the best engagement for this person? So someone comes in Māyāpur, immediately they talk to him, “Alright send this one to the bhakti program leaders, and this one to the Nāmahaṭṭa. Send this one to the life member maker.” According to what you think they can do, they get sent off. And they talk to someone, interviews them. Because of having a strong Nāmahaṭṭa program, we don't have hardly any bloop devotees as such. No one bloops. Either they are actively in the preaching force, that's preaching from the temples, or they go and join the Nāmahaṭṭa. They continue practicing. Nobody stops practicing, Kṛṣṇa. They take life time vow. If for some reason someone can’t practice in the temple, they still continue practicing outside, they don't stop. Hardly out of 100 devotees, I think one or two ever bloop and completely stop practicing Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. And a lot times we get this thing that we get a Kṛṣṇa conscious family, they send their son to be a devotee. One time the son went back, and then the parents, they said “You are in māyā! Why did you leave the temple?” He said, well this that problem. They preached to their son, sent him back to the temple. (laughter). Of course, you get the other kind too that try to kidnap their children. But from Nāmahaṭṭa you get parents like that, they actually want their child to make it. “Two years you try it strongly, we want you to be Kṛṣṇa conscious.” That's the real, unique ideal situation.

On general state of affairs of the movement: In general, the stability of the movement has increased like anything. By having a broad base, our problems with the government; the communist government in Bengal's been there, it’s the 3rd term now. And although they were initially very negative but because they we have such a wide base, they have a hand off policy, they don't interfere with us at all anymore and rather they come to us sometimes for votes and things like that.  In general, there is a type of spiritual revival that we can see. We take it as the mercy of Prabhupāda. And in the individual villages that do chant, they say that they can realize a lot of change, individually, collectively, as families, as well as in the villages as a whole. But one can't discount that possibility. I think we should stop the preaching for preparing, but could be a consideration that there’s every likelihood that in the future there could be war. This type of real project is supposed to be situation where person can take shelter in a war situation. But if they say its nuclear war, it's like one big flash and then whole society gets turned upside down. So those communities which are self-sufficient, then after the fallout is over, couple of weeks i think it lasts? Then they have the best chance for surviving. But I don't know what priority to put it on. Can't discount it.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Jaya!!!! (Devotees)

Verified by your humble ever Servant 
Vinoda Gopīkeśa Dāsa 
31-12-2024
Māyāpur India