19820209 Evening Darśana

(Disclaimer: The following is a machine-generated transcript and may contain errors or inaccuracies. It will be reviewed and verified against the original audio soon.)

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on February 9, 1982 – in Murāri Sevaka Farm, USA.

Spiritual Kṛṣṇa, conscious thoughts and leading a simple life, Chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa using all the natural gifts of Kṛṣṇa with some heart sincere service to in turn be offered back to Kṛṣṇa in the form of milk and grains and various structures for housing devotees and the Deity. It’s very natural. So today of course is loyal Haridas Thakur’s disappearance again. When I was coming out, I saw the calendar. Today was Haridas Thakur disappearance. I said. If I recall correctly, last time I was in Marari, it was also Harida’s Thakur’s disappearance. And Hara Devī confirmed that it was. I always remember them. It seemed to me that I told that story sitting in Merari. Of course Jambajay couldn’t remember. Maybe it was busy. It’s actually the most important thing to really remember and observing today. Of course, today in Haridas, where there’s a big festival, about five, four or five thousand people will come and they will be chanting hari nam for 24 hours. They will start just at Mangalarti and go until the next day with sunrise, different groups coming, taking turns.

And then they will have lectures in the morning and then at noon they will distribute prasad to all the people. That’s ISKCON Food Relief. How it contributes for that program, for distributing the Prashan Prabhupāda personally went to Haridaspur twice. The villagers approached him, signed a petition, requested him to take over the development of Haridas Thakur’s only shrine in Bengal. Of course there’s one more, but I didn’t realize it at that time. So this remembering of the devotees activities and especially Haridas Thakur is something very special. Actually glorifying the devotees is more important than glorifying even Kṛṣṇa. Because someone may glorify Kṛṣṇa, his greatness and his wonderful qualities, but somehow another escape the real mood of devotion.

But when you glorify these great devotees whose whole life is completely directed and dedicated in devotion to the Lord, then you can’t help but simultaneously glorify the Lord and pick up that devotion easier. And also Kṛṣṇa himself, he prefers, he likes that his devotees are glorified and his devotees are served. So of course we worship both the Lord with his devotees, not separate. It’s not that the Lord is just alone. Prabhupāda never liked those pictures of Kṛṣṇa just in the clouds. He said Kṛṣṇa is not in the clouds. He’s in Vrindavan surrounded by his cowherd boys and cowherd girls, friends and his mother and father and children and other children, relatives and cows and cow Calves. It’s not that he’s there in the cloud alone. This is another type of impersonal idea. The Christians have picked that up.

Michelangelo shows God the Father, the old man in the clouds with a big beard. It’s not like so Kṛṣṇa is always with his devotees. Therefore, when one glorifies Kṛṣṇa, you can’t help but glorify his devotees. He’s glorified as Yasodanandana. He’s glorified as Brajajana Ranjana. The beloved of Yaśodā is the life and soul of the residents of Vrindavana. He’s glorified, you know, as Nandanandana, the son of Nanda Maharaj. He’s always glorified in relation to his devotees. Gopī Paranajana, most beloved of the Gopīs. It’s natural. So Kṛṣṇa is not alone. He’s with all of his devotees. And similarly, when we glorify Harida’s Thakur, he’s with Nitāi Gorachandra. One cannot separate it.

In fact, one of the significances of this pastime of his passing away is actually the separation that Haridas Thakur was somehow another, always connected with the Lord through chanting his holy name 300,000 times per day. While preaching with Lord Nityānanda, house to house in Avadweep, while visiting Advaita Gosai at Shantipur, while being with Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu in Avadweep and then again in Purī, where Lord Caitanya would daily come and see him. Even the Jagannath Purī temple wouldn’t allow him to go inside the temple. But Lord Caitanya Jagannath himself, Prabhupāda used to say Jagannath himself would go to see Haridas Thakur in the form of Lord Caitanya. Jagannath would go to Sihadidas Thakur every day. In fact, when Lord Caitanya would take the Darshan of Lord Jagannath, then the realized devotees would see that there’s Jagannath, Achal and Chala moving and non moving.

Jagannath in deity form is non moving. And Jagannath in moving form was there as Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. So Haridas Thakur was practically speaking, always in connection with the Lord. And as a result he was very intimately connected. And he didn’t want to actually have to experience that separation of that hopelessness type of separation when the Lord leaves ends his past time. And you know that apart from some rare, practically inconceivable mercy that you won’t be able to see the Lord anymore during this particular tag on this earth that he’s gone already. So Haridas Thakur knew that the Lord’s pastimes were coming to an end. He couldn’t bear even to think of being on this planet without the Lord being present somewhere or another on the planet, without being able to have the hope of seeing the Lord again.

Until one left the body, he couldn’t conceive of that type of situation and what the state of the devotees would be. Actually, Śrīnivasacharya’s history kind of revealed that after Lord Caitanya left the planet, all of his devotees just simply became mad. What Lord Caitanya himself had said, when people said, you are a great lover of Kṛṣṇa, you’re always crying for Kṛṣṇa, you are such a great devotee. Then he would say, how can you say this is completely wrong? I am not at all a good devotee. Rather, if I was truly a real lover of Kṛṣṇa, how could I live when Kṛṣṇa is not here? How can I live in the absence of Kṛṣṇa? I should die immediately in his separation if I had any love at all. So practically that’s what happened.

When Lord Caitanya left Kadad Har Das, Vishnu, Priya Devī, the other associates, they just went mad. Just every time their mind was thinking of Lord Caitanya. And then as soon as they wanted to say something, they would just think of how Lord Caitanya had been so kind upon them, how he had been so merciful, how they wanted to again touch his lotus feet to hear his lessons to them. And they just become choked up. And then as a result, they could never go outside their house. Practically speaking, they simply just sit the whole day and night, crying and weeping and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and chanting and thinking, meditating. They are completely absorbed in separation. Practically, many of them were just absorbed, like the Gopīs were in Vrindavana. A similar type of mood and just complete separation of Lord Caitanya.

Harida’s Thaque couldn’t imagine himself present at that time. Even a momentary separation was stunning for him. So he requested that he could go before the Lord. He wasn’t able to do his service properly. It’s another significant thing that actually, unless one is able to carry out the order of the spiritual master, then there’s no use in living. The whole purpose of living is simply to carry out the order of the spiritual master. Haridas Takva was already very old. He had trouble chanting his 300,000 times Hare Kṛṣṇa. So therefore. So what’s the use of living If I won’t be able to practice properly, there’s no use in living. The Lord is also going like that. Śrīla Prabhupāda said, a disciple who is not able to maintain his vows, who can stay with the spiritual master.

Practically speaking, it’s better for him to go with the spiritual master. Otherwise he should somehow or another try to follow and carry out the desire of the spiritual master, preserve his teaching and his intention, then that will be a worthwhile cause for staying. So of course we can understand that we don’t have such an intense appreciation of the spiritual master. That’s something that can only happen by their causeless mercy. But if we did have the topmost condition, then how could we practically even function? So it’s simply by the mercy of Rla Prabhupāda that somehow or another, of course, we have some appreciation and we’re trying to carry out his instruction. But if we could actually delve deep into what is our relationship, what is the actual responsibility and indebtedness that we have, then of course that experience would be practically earth.

Rendering Rla Prabhupda personally expressed on many occasions the intense feelings that he felt for preserving Bhakti Siddhānta Saraswati hackworms teachings. With that intense determination, he came alone all the way to the west, in spite of being harassed when he arrived here, also being harassed on the way over, being harassed to get over, being discouraged all the way along. But he kept on in spite of every possible discouragement, practically speaking, until years and years later when he finally established the Kṛṣṇa Conscious movement firmly in the west after being here even more than a year end of 66. That was the first sign of encouragement all the way. It was seemingly uphill, of course. So sometimes the Lord makes it difficult for us so that we don’t stop short of what he wants.

Sometimes if it’s very easy, then one would just stop at that particular state that now this is what Kṛṣṇa wanted. It’s all completed. Then our devotional service is finished. As soon as we think that now this is enough. Just like Rla Prabhupāda opened up one or two centers, you see, he opened up a center in New York, San Francisco, Montreal, normally at that juncture. And then he had to go back to India for his health, for some reason. Went back, I believe, with Kirtananda Maharaj gave him sannyas. Normally at that type of a juncture, the ordinary run of the mill Indian preachers, they would have called it a day and just said, I have foreign Branches and here I am, the Prabhupāda. He just regained his health and came right back and proceeded to establish so many more temples of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. He never.

Even after, at the very end, when he was leaving, he said, well, half my work is finished. I couldn’t finish at all. So now you have to finish the other half. If you can’t increase, at least maintain until someone comes along who can finish off what I started. You see. So Śrīla Prabhupāda had that intense determination to carry out Bhaktisiddhānta Ṭhākura’s order. And we see that in the life of Haridāsa Ṭhākura from the very beginning he was given, he started chanting 300,000 names. Even he was threatened to be killed. Whatever, he never stopped. Even he was whipped. He didn’t stop. Even the prostitutes and other. Even Māyā Devī herself came to break his oath. Still, he didn’t stop. So even Lord Caitanya personally requested, you’re old now, you don’t have to do it. You have already done so much.

As long as I have this body, I am going to go on with my. But when he was seeing that finally the Lord was going and he was also at that time his body was giving out. And he said, all right, let me at least go. Seeing you the whole life he was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Mah Mantra. Then he wanted the end, just the last word to say Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caita. That means that he only wanted to associate in his next existence also with Caitanya Mahratta. Young, young Vapis Marang Bhavet, Tajat Ante Kalai. Whatever the last thought we have, when we leave our body, that existence we achieve. So what was his last thing that Lord Haridāsa Ṭhākura Nāmācārya said was he simply said Śrī Kṛṣṇa Chetan. He wanted to come to the existence of Chetan Mahāprabhu, his eternal association.

When the devotees would come down from Bengal and see Lord Caitanya, he would sometimes arrange sandalwood. And he wouldn’t even arrange Jagannath would arrange the Jagannath Pujaris would spontaneously come with flower garlands. And Lord Caitanya would see that personally that all the devotees coming, Advaita, Nithyananda Moradi and others were all Sivananda Sena. They were all garlanded. And he would personally, with his own hand, he would put sandalwood on their forehead. And then he would embrace them. Sometimes he would bow down to them. Even he becomes so overwhelmed that oh, these are all Vaishnavas. Prabhupāda said the purpose in the Bhāgavatam, he said, the purpose I made this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement for, she says, in the Upadeśamṛta, is to have the devotees exchange loving feelings amongst each other. We’re discussing this point at the Washington, actually.

And closer we become to Kṛṣṇa, then the closer we should become becoming to all of the devotees. So of course that happens with time. It doesn’t happen the same with everyone, but that’s our actual goal, not that each one becomes close to Kṛṣṇa and then becomes distant from the devotees. We didn’t find that in Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s pastime. They were close to Lord Caitanya, they were close to all of the other devotees. There was this type of mutual respect and love which had developed as they were developing in their love for Lord Caitanya. Their love for the other devotees increased respect for the other devotees. As Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he bowed down before his own children, practically his own disciples and devotees are coming. When they all came, he bowed down, overwhelmed that, oh, these are all the Vaiṣṇavas. And they would just.

He would try to put sandalwood instead. They’d grab his lotus feet and just put their head on his lotus feet and pray that just grant us this one wound, Lord Caitanya, that birth after birth, we can simply have your transcendental association, nothing more that we want. Just give us this boon that we can always be engaged in your devotional service without any cessation. So Haridas Thakur is the epitome of that. He’s the apex, top level, pure devotion for Lord Caitanya Mahakra didn’t want to be separated from him for a moment. So just like we take from one step to the next, we see where our foot is going. He wanted to be sure that the next step will also be with Lord Caitanya.

So just as he left his body looking at the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya, chanting Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, he wanted to be sure. Now I am going to go again to where Lord Caitanya will be. So this is a very great opportunity that although we miss Lord Caitanya’s pastimes, somehow or another we have not been able to participate in those pastimes. In spite of our being so fallen. Lord Caitanya has kindly sent through his disciplic succession Rla Prabhupāda to come and give us the greatest opportunity that mankind has ever seen, that is to be part of his Sankirtan movement. And in this way we can actually associate with Lord Caitanya Mahprabhu Rachandra. They have come here also to Morari, giving all the devotees the opportunity of serving them and being there also their daily companion.

So we can simply pray on this day that Haridas Thakur may bless us to actually appreciate the sweetness of Lord Nitāi Gorachandra through their pure devotional service that we can get the taste for chanting their holy name. Because if we don’t have the personal vision of the Lord, we can only associate with him through hearing, through chanting and of course through service by serving their deity form and by appearing before them so that they can see our service this way. If Harida Ash Thakur, who has unlimited taste for the holy name would give us even a drop of appreciation, then certainly that would be a flood of love which would change your whole existence in life. Śrīla Prabhu was recommending that or suggesting that we might start the evening darshan early because everyone has a lot of work in the daytime.

But if we have the evening darshan early, then it can go on later and there will be more time. I don’t know who likes to schedule. I am game for anything. Pardon? I was asking Ra to suggest a time. If you start darshan, let me pick him up. Last time I was here, this season was a little cooler than this year. Yeah, now it’s a little warmer. But even last year, somehow were able to fit in a visit to that nearby lake. There are very few representatives of the farm though. But whoever they were, we stoutly smashed them in water sports. I should take that as a challenge. It was yesterday was with yesterday, day before with Śrīlācārya Dev. They sent him a petition. 300 devotees from Los Angeles sent him his prepaid round trip ticket, first class. He couldn’t come.

So he feels completely OD on any kind of travel. He said his disciples should understand that he just can’t travel. So if he travels anywhere, it takes him like a week just to recover. As it is, it’s his sacrifice to society to go to Māyā for. But he’s not even going to Brazil. He’s not intending to go to Brazil this year. He just wants to stay in Miami and translate. And he expects that probably most of the disciples in the North America someone they get down first, we ask puzzles. But he otherwise would seem quite. We had a joint Bhagavad Gītā class together where he was speaking first. And then I said normally that when he was speaking it was just like, you know, thunderbolts. So he’s very strong, enthusiastic. He led us on kīrtana there, requested me to play my big wampers.

So I took the command as an order. Everybody was jumping up and down. I skiered down for about an hour, about 45 minutes or so. He says if he just stays one place. He’s translating of course as trying to get Florida together a little bit but then he feels alright. But as soon as he travels his wears him down completely. So he’s just trying to Sir Prabhupāda to see if he can fulfill Prabhupāda’s desire just by staying in one place for the most part of it. Of course that’s a greater austerity for his disciples at least they always have the hope of having his darshan. And he’s always there for writing letters. He’s speaking now on the chapter in the Bhāgavatam on Puranjana. So he’s giving some heavy classes because you know Paranjana goes through some various tribal relations with the senses.

So he was giving some heavy classes on materialistic association. How one has to be very careful with family life, be Kṛṣṇa conscious. And apart from that the devotees in reign through. There’s a lot of devotees. Must be about 40 devotees or more. It’s like a large temple now to be careful. Everyone that goes through he just keeps them there because he needs more people. So a few people came up from Columbia but things seem to be getting back on their feet. They’re doing a lot of. They’re starting a cookie prasadam distribution program trying to raise some more Lakshmi as well as attract the people with cookies. Prashant As I was flying here then the person next to me was very interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness wanted to. I told her about our Lynchburg. Near Lynchburg we had the Morari farm.

That person said that they would like to come out here. So I gave the address. Somehow if we have a little something to show people I think a lot of people would come out here because they come to Lynchburg like a historical place. The way they get them in France is to advertise in the newspaper by putting a quarter page ad or just a small about this big ad in the newspaper. They get 500 people to come to that Numa airport which is way out in the sticks and without the ad they weren’t getting 20 people. As soon as they put an ad in, 500 people were coming and so many people were coming. It was becoming so popular that it was drawing all the tourists there that the local representative of the legislature.

The congressman, actually he’s local, but he was of the national. He made some politics and had the papers stop accepting their ads. Because I think there must have been some lobbying that so many people were coming. That’s the only thing that I could see that maybe Lynchburg would become envious. All the people come here rather than Jack Daniels. They always want us to Hare Kṛṣṇas, you know, it’s like really, because you see the way all the big movies, I always give a little Hare Kṛṣṇa. Any big movie. They like to put a small scene with the Hare Kṛṣṇas. And in news, you know, they always flash. If they’re going to have anything about the Hare Kṛṣṇas, they put as the preview if, you know, like when they have the news. I was right in the beginning.

Give you a one second preview what we’re going to show. Just so the people don’t turn the dial before they get into the commercial. And they will always show flash a picture of the Hare Kṛṣṇas, you know, so everybody, oh, what are they up to? So I am sure that once we arrange some exhibitions and all that we could discuss the Darshan. The only danger is that so many people will come.

R.A. Today you could read from Bhakti Siddhānta Saraswatakur’s dushtamon tumiki vaishnav 6th verse śrīla prabhupāda referred to this poem by Bhakti Siddhānta often where the poem is addressing the mind, asking the mind what type of transcendental list, what type of Bhakti yogī devotee is divine. And through this poem the mind is successfully trained in what to avoid some of the dangers in the path of advancing Transcendentalists. So wrote it in Bengali, saying that in pure devotees of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa there is a desire for gaining eternal position in the service of the Lord. But that desire for position is completely opposite from the material desire. Where one is ambitious and wants to get some material prestige, your power. Because that position is simply in relationship to serving Kṛṣṇa and it’s got no material tinge to it. He uses the word Sunyamaya Gandha.

Gandha means scent, aroma. Sometimes if you have some smelly thing and you just leave it for a place for a while, even you remove it, still this aroma is there, the stink or whatever. So he’s saying that there’s not even a scent of Māyā, not even the aroma, not even the slightest trace of illusion, of materialistic connection. And especially saying that the cheating propensity of the material world which is so prominent in materialistic competitive pursuits where one is trying to always become top of the ladder, that cheating propensity is completely absent in trying to obtain the favor of the Lord to achieve his position in his eternal service. Then he further goes on to describe that there are two hellish existences, two hellish materialistic existences which can stand in the way of our spiritual progress. One is the desire for material fame. Prestige, position. And the other is to go off near Janata, to go off alone, to become independent, to disassociate oneself with the devotees. He describes that the desire for ambition is a chandali or a. That we call a dog eating witch. And the desire to disassociate oneself with the society of devotees and their. And to try to just engage in solitary practice of devotional service. He describes that as a fisherman’s net. We grow this or try. As big as a jackfruit. You seen this big. He has not seen this big before. Of course, there are even some big. A lot of things you have Messi, his first time from India, really first time he flew on a plane, was going from Calcutta, Bombay across over to London. Didn’t even have a warm up on a short.

So back to the coin here. So we should watch out for the witch of material ambition and for the maze or the web solution, the net which you can just capture us of disassociating with the devotees. So that’s a translation of. Running translation of this verse. So of course these particular problems don’t usually attack the neophytes right at the very beginning they can no doubt. But generally in the beginning of one’s progress to spiritual advancement, the problem is more in identifying grossly with the body or the mind subtly or intelligence, rather than understanding one’s spiritual position, one’s spiritual identity. So the dictates of the senses, which are so strong, which are always liable to just drag us away rather than leading our life towards the actual objective of becoming spiritually perfect, of becoming closer to the origin of everything, the cause of all causes.

Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The senses are rather just trying to engage one in serving the senses. And in this serving of the senses this poses a lot of problem for just the beginner. So generally just trying to regulate the senses, trying to become steady in the practice of devotional service. Are these windows open? Open, I guess in there. We are advised that we should realize that we’re not this body, that the body is actually a machine, that we should take care of our body, we should keep it healthy, but we shouldn’t mis direct our energies to the extent that we put all of our energy in maintaining our body. And neglect actually seeing that we achieved liberation from the body, achieve liberation from the material contamination. And actually achieve our eternal position in relation with Kṛṣṇa.

So as one is getting over the habits which generally just bind us to material life. One is able to regulate his material enjoyments to an extent where his mind actually becomes clear. One is actually able to lead in a good life in the mode of goodness. And then by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, he starts to or she starts to make progress. So while progressing along this path, there are other subtle pitfalls which can come. One of them is that a person generally has an estimation of oneself. Now Lord Caitanya advises that to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One should actually think of oneself as just as low as a piece of straw or grass in the street. One should think of oneself as most insignificant in relationship with God. And even in relationship with everyone else. One should just consider oneself very insignificant.

And one should be very tolerant. In fact, more tolerant than a tree. Keeping that mood, one should, rather than desiring we for oneself. One should offer all respect unto others. And by keeping this humble state of mind. Then one can continuously chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. And actually become Kṛṣṇa conscious in this life very quickly. But what happens is that due to a little carelessness and because the mind is very powerful. That even if one controls the senses, the mind will be pushing one. That you are very important. You should have this position or you should have this type of respect. You should have this type of reciprocation from certain people. Otherwise the mind just won’t give peace. So all these subtle decisions, desires for fame, adoration, distinction or some kind of position. They can drive one, you see, batty. They can drive one.

Actually man haunt one. So like that, just like a witch is haunting, alluring, never giving one any. Especially this candali. You can say witch. You can also say type of very immoral woman. Someone who is always trying to seduce.

One could also be a Chandali. So that type of seductive mentality where one is always being attracted, that you’re more important, you deserve more, you should have more, you should.

(B-Side)

That type of respect in devotional service, generally speaking, people are not given that much respect. If they are, it’s usually uncalled for. It just comes spontaneously. But no one can plan out that I should get so much respect and it just comes. If it comes by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. In fact, even sometimes one may think, well, I have done a very good job at that time. Maybe nobody remembered to recognize it, but Kṛṣṇa does recognize it. But if the mind starts to start. They didn’t appreciate, they’re not encouraging, you should be having more position. Then what happens is one can start. To fall into a type of dissatisfied mentality. That dissatisfaction can lead one various directions. It can lead one to becoming envious of other devotees, thinking I am better than they are, I deserve more respect than. They do, or something like that.

And then in this way, one although on the spiritual path, he starts to imitate a materialist, but because already on the spiritual path, if he gets frustrated enough, then they think, well, these devotees are no good devotees. I don’t need the devotees. Actually, since I am a better devotee, actually, I will go alone, I will leave the devotees. Sometimes a devotee actually just to driven by the senses. With the devotees, a person can sneak. So many sense gratifications. Life is possibly a bit regulated. So then sometimes the senses also are motivating. One leave the devotees. You can practice on your own, you don’t need the devotees. You can have a better situation if.

You’re not with the devotees. And then one due to various motivations, either due to a frustrated desire for prestige, due to some frustration, for some subtle enjoyment or gross enjoyment, one is driven away from the society devotees. So that is described something like jumping out of the kettle into the fire. You go out of the safe. Actually, it’s not the fire at all, just the fire. Because the person is not able to control the mind, not taking proper remedy in the appropriate ways, by association with the devotees, by consulting with senior Vaiṣṇavas, by actually trying to control the mind. Actually, the whole purport of this verse is to control mind. That the mind is not a very wise mechanism. The mind is basically very treacherous.

The mind is simply a type of index of all the experience we have had in this life, and even impressions from previous lives. Those are coming up as subtle desires, attachments and illusions. And rather with the good intelligence, with the words of the spiritual master, with the words of real wisdom that we find in the Vedic literatures, Bhagavad Gītā, we have to judge whether the mind is actually misleading us at every point. And if it is, we have to just like an unfaithful dog, you just have to chain it down and beat it, heal. Don’t get disobedient. Mind is not to be the molder of our life. Rather it is simply a machine. We want to remember what to do, we want to do something, then we address our thoughts in a particular way. Intelligence is far more subtle and experienced machine.

So we take the intelligence that we get from the guru, from the scriptures and we take that intelligence and we control the thoughts of the mind. The mind will come up with so many thoughts. Some of them may be very good, some of them may be very bad. So whether to accept or reject any thought, that is the work of the intelligence. So whatever is favorable for our devotional service, we must accept that if we want to progress and whatever is going to be obstacle, we have to reject it. So when the mind comes to take that decision, let me leave the devotees. Let me leave the association of devotees that is described.

Just like one’s going into a maze, one’s falling into a type of spider’s web where one will be entangled in so many mental adjustments and mental fantasies to substantiate one’s actually false position. That one just gets more and more implicit in this type of cheating mentality. Rather than being straightforward, one has to make so many excuses why I am leaving.

This is not right, that is not right.

None of them are essential to our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But one will try to create a situation in the mind so that one has an easy way out.

So just to keep the prestige, in.

Case one is already quite proud of being a devotee, then of course one won’t like to just go out into the material world. We want to show all the peers that he has made in his devotional career that also I am a devotee, I am chanting, I am doing everything. Don’t think that I am in Māyā, it’s alright, I am Kṛṣṇa conscious. The same thing was there india, is still there india today.

That so called very apparently senior people.

Sometimes they leave the preaching field, they.

Leave the field and they go to some holy place and just sit down and they say, now I am retiring for postgraduate worship of Kṛṣṇa. But actually their motive is that it.

Wasn’T time for them to already retire.

Into so called postgraduate. They were not at that state, not.

That stage of development. But just for all these various reasons, one or more they decided to leave the active preaching field, the active association.

Of devotees, and just to maintain the.

So called prestigious show, a greater show of renunciation. See, I am now more renounced. I will just eat once a day. I will not associate with any women at all.

I will just beg from door to door or something. They do some extreme, but that some.

Extreme austerities that’s described here, that’s also a type of cheating. That’s a type of cheating that.

The.

Actual austerity is to remain in the preaching field and try to help the.

Innocent people come back to their original pure spiritual consciousness.

That is the actual austerity. Because that’s what Kṛṣṇa wants. He wants that people lost in this.

Material world who are suffering reincarnation are suffering the stringent laws of karma, that.

They can be freed from this misery. And in preaching there are definitely many obstacles, there are many difficulties. So one should learn tolerate those. If one can learn tolerate them, then Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad Gītā.

That there’s no devotee who is more dear to him than one who explains.

The spiritual science, the Bhagavad Gītā to his devotees.

So one should try to be a dear most devotee to the Lord by.

Disseminating this wonderful knowledge of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness as was handed down through the disciplic succession through Bhakti Siddhānta, Saraswati Thakur, to his divine grace Śrī Lasi Bhaktivedanta, Swami Prabhupda and spread all over the world by the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. So that will be the greatest welfare.

Work one can do.

And that itself is the greatest austerity.

Even though the austerity may be to distribute big feasts to so many people and to attract people by doing even festivals and wonderful geyas, wonderful demonstrations or arrangements.

That’s the austerity. And that austerity one becomes happy. The other is type of wara fight. It’s actually a retreat, it’s actually a fleeing from the battlefield. Simply one is covering up instead of running out with a back away.

They’re backing off, just trying to keep their face forward as if they are still in the battle, but they’re just backing off. It’s a way of retreating out the back door rather than the front door. Any questions? We’re reading Prabhupāda’s book. Vrindavani Bhajan is very parallel type of dealing with slightly different dimensions of the same topic. You can see how Sheila Prophyde was.

Bacteria sedantas.

Disciple, perfectly understood the teachings and then further extended those to suit their time and place.

Yes, sir.

Property is teaching pursuit to turn places out of me.

And I mean, they could keep expanding, you know, keep suiting time and place.

But folk is not something that Prabhupāda didn’t discuss about. I personally ask śrīla prabhupāda about three program in 1977. At that time he told me, yes, this is what those are for. You bring the people to stay with us for some time, a few days or weeks, then send them back to their home, and they will make their people Kṛṣṇa conscious, the village Kṛṣṇa conscious for the Indian villagers. I asked. And before I went to India in 1970, in Los Angeles, I was on a morning walk with Śrīla Prabhupāda. One day he just suddenly stopped. And then he turned to us and said that don’t think that everyone will live in the temple. There are many people who will not be able to live in the temple. They will lead their lives outside, but they will be closely associated with the temple.

And they will be coming on Sundays, on festive days, but they will be worshipping in their. He said, similar to the Christian church, we will have big congregations for all of our temples. So the thing that I realized in doing this Namhata folk tight program is that it would not have been possible to do that. First you have to have the nucleuses, you have to have the temples. They’re like the heartbeat, the nerve center. And from there you can maintain so many people in a region, in a state, in an area. Because just in the material world, especially I have seen in the west, the environment is very much problematic for advancing in spiritual life. There are so many distractions, so many bad associations. So one needs a place where one can have an intense, pure association.

That’s why also our temples have to remain at a very high state of purity so that anyone coming into them will feel the purity, will feel the spiritual atmosphere. Then they can take that with them. And they can also improve their own spiritual life, even if they live outside.

But they have to be able to.

Come back and to recharge and to get strength from those temples. This is also described by Bhakti Vinotak, where when he described his Namhatta, he said that the places that the major temples and major holy places, these are like wholesale centers. Big, big wholesale markets, commercial areas where one can come and purchase the holy name of Kṛṣṇa with the price of giving, the money of faith. And then one can either be a traveling salesman and go around and distribute that commodity, that pure faith in Kṛṣṇa, the chanting of the holy name. Or one can establish a small retail shop.

And in one’s house invite people. And from that place one can preach God consciousness and practice God consciousness. But one has to keep in touch with the wholesale to keep getting the commodity from the wholesaler. The other people are all the agents or the. It says some, they may also be brokers. The difference between a broker and a retailer, the retailer will buy the goods either on credit or by giving cash, and then he will sell it. But a broker, he won’t personally buy it. All he will do is he will find the customer and connect the customer with the wholesaler or with the retailer. And then when there’s a sale, he gets also a share of the, he gets a commission. So someone may also not actually know.

Very much about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, may not be very advanced, but he may say, oh, here’s someone who, just like these.

People were there, someone was a friend of theirs, they met, said, I am connected with an Uber in Aben, but there’s a nice community in Marari, you can go there. So even that person may not or may have, of course, I don’t know. But say even as an example, that person didn’t know much about spirit, very much about Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, but had knew something. So he directed these people to come here. So by whatever amount they practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then that person, he gets a direct commission from Kṛṣṇa. But then they come and then they can get directly from those who have the commodity the name of Kṛṣṇa. And then they can like this, it goes on. So everyone, some people are described as sweepers of the Naamas. Sweeper is actually one of the most exalted positions.

Job of the sweeper is to keep the market clean. That means that in spiritual life there’s so many motawats, so many speculations, so many theories, so many false type of teachings that creep in. And those can actually confuse one in one’s spiritual progress. So the sweeper keeps all misleading understandings out of the market. He keeps the swipe clean. Bhakti didn’t took the position of the sweeper. He wouldn’t let any bogus ideas get in. They have a saying, Jato Matatopat. As many speculations, as many ways to God. It doesn’t exactly work like that. There are many paths to God, but ultimately they all combine in the mainstream sooner or later. So that finally one has to come around to the real path the other ways. There may be so many ways. But ultimately they’re all heading towards the same direction.

They have to finally come to the final path. That final path is actually pure devotion. One cannot approach Kṛṣṇa. He said so many times that no one can know me except for my pure devotee.

Bhakta Maami Jaanathi.

An ordinary person won’t tell anything. If you go up to just a stranger and say that excuse me, where do you keep your money? Where’s your bank? How much? You know anything like the person, probably, you know, become very offended or angry that who are you? Why are you asking? These are my personal affairs.

You don’t have any.

I am not going to tell you. You’re a stranger. So similarly, why was God going to reveal all the mysteries of his existence to someone if he’s not a devotee? If the person is an immicol or doesn’t actually have any faith? Therefore there are many people even they are devotees of God in one form another. But because they are not very pure, therefore they don’t actually go deep into the mysteries, they are kept a secret. Unless one actually becomes a devotee of the Lord, it’s not possible to know all the mysteries of him or of his creation.

And as soon as one, even if one just tries to study from the.

Viewpoint of the devotee, from the viewpoint that whatever Kṛṣṇa is saying in Gītā, he is saying as the supreme God.

If one just looks from that point.

Of view, then one can see how everything makes sense. Do you have a question, Dave Rich? Did I answer your question in reference.

To what you were just reading about the contamination of the fisherman’s net, wanting to go outside so one could actually sort of, you know, in studying Prabhupāda, I’d like to say that to be offensive, I mean just for philosophical discussion, that Prabhupāda went outside the association of his God religious. So how is it then that you know. Because intelligence province is to know the difference between material and spiritual. So how is it that in that case going outside of the association of his God brothers was not a material thing or contamination when it was actually.

The right thing to do? The answer is quite self evident from one actually goes into Shiroba’s life. One can see that he practically speaking didn’t leave any stones unturned in cooperating, that at every step he tried. In fact, for most of the time he was with various of his godbrothers until rather he didn’t ask to leave, but they asked him to leave. His preaching was so dynamic that for some Reason they were feeling some inconvenience. They asked him to maybe he should go somewhere else. He wanted that there should be more books printed, that there should be more of an attempt to actually follow Bhakti Siddhānta’s instruction to work cooperatively. Śrīla Prabhupāda was a champion of the cause of getting everyone to work together about 80, 50 years ago. 50 years ago. But no one was interested in working together.

So then also Bhakti Siddhānta gave him so many dreams. And at first he requested him to go abroad. And so he came into the west and brought this Kṛṣṇa consciousness here. And then also he wrote to the principal missions of his spiritual master that were still remaining, requesting that he would act simply as their agent. They didn’t want to be independent, but they refused because of God knows what consideration. But they didn’t want. In fact it’s quite unfortunate that they didn’t give him any support whatsoever in spite of the great success. So practically. And I personally saw even when he came to Māyāpur and established the temple in 1972, he called all of his godbrothers to Mayapoorchandradaya Mandir. And he requested that they all merge together and form a joint preaching force. But they didn’t accept the idea.

He didn’t ask to be the head of it. So basically speaking, and then every year he would continue to ask. And even one time, I remember one temple came by, one of the other small temples that was struggling. That was an offshoot of his spiritual man original mission. And even they just didn’t. No one wanted to really work in that particular spirit for various considerations. There’s a big difference. He would have been willing to accept conditions that they offered. They wouldn’t even offer any conditions. Just like the GBC they offered. I can’t think of anyone that they ever asked to leave the movement. Rather they always offer various opportunities for people that want to leave or have left to come back. But usually they just choose not to.

Yes.

Could you tell us about some of the ways to go?

Well right now Māyāpur we just had a 24 hour kīrtana before George Jagannath bathing ceremony. And about 17 village groups came chanted from six in the morning till next day. Six by relay. You know how they do these 24 hour kirtans? It’s like a yagya. They all like contract that they’re going to keep the kīrtana going non stop. So say one group while they start the kīrtana, they will only be chanting hare Kṛṣṇa in front of the deities. So outside before they go in, they will be chanting Śrī Guru Chana Padma or their Guru Pranams and Śrī Kṛṣṇa Chaitanya, Mahāprabhu, Śrīshta Panchatava mantras. They will be warming up while the kīrtana is going. Then they will come in and those two groups will do a joint kīrtana together around usually a tulsi manda.

And then that way that after doing one joint round, then the old group will go off, the new group, they will continue chanting for say about hour and a half, two hours. Then meanwhile another group will be coming up, warming up. So that way they just keep the kīrtana going non stop so that we had all the villagers came out. They felt it was their own festival. They all came and they started to chant. Is that Virginia out there or someone else?

Virginia’s out.

There’s a baby crying. Give her a cookie. Then the Prabhupāda samadhi, which is costing of course about a million and a half dollars. 180ft high, a huge building. So the four up to fifth story is already completed. Auditoriums downstairs are completed. And now they put up big steel trusses going up about 80ft. This big dome, which is about 90ft I believe in diameter and 80ft high, sheer dome. It’s one of the biggest domes in Asia. And I am not sure if it’s as big as the Taj Mahal stone, but it’s one of the highest stones. And so they have already finished the steel trusses for them. Now they’re putting in the trusses. Eight huge trusses that come. The trusses alone are there, used to hold up the concrete which is going to be poured over. Those trusses alone cost about 400,000 rupees.

It’s like a big gas. It’s like building a whole bridge. Those will all be removed. That that’s just for support. After it’s cash money back. You kidding? They can use them again and they have a building so they want to make. They cast the whole thing at once. That way it’s more solid. They dealing in a very big scale. Of course that’s nothing compared to the main temple we’re going to build. It’s just a smaller temple. But already we can see that on any good day, like a clear day, two, three thousand people will just come from the neighboring cities. And on the big holidays you will get 20,000, 30,000 people coming to the temple. Actually they don’t have to go Anywhere for preaching. So many people are coming there. This is even without the Samadhi temple.

When the Samadhi temple is there, it’s going to be unbelievable. Even Tamal Kṛṣṇa Goswami was saying that he can see already that the Māyāpur Samadhi is going to have a lot more effect on India than the Vrindavan Samadhi. In terms of the immediate preaching, of course in the long run we don’t know. But in terms of the immediate preaching, he can see that it’s going to be a big effect. But of course the big temple. Why is that? Well, Prabhupāda was a Bengali in terms of material consideration and the Bengalis Māyāpur itself has just attracted. Māyāpur iskcon. There are a thousand temples there. But everyone has come to know about Māyāpur as the Hare Kṛṣṇa temple. While in Vrindavana there are many temples and we are one of the important temples or maybe even the first or second most important temple.

But still the other temples are still very prominent. So no one just thinks that. When I think of Vrindavan they think of many things. But for some reason when they think of Māyāpur they just think of Hare Kṛṣṇa. This content. So now that’s even. We don’t have a very. We have just a complex. We have a lot of buildings, we have our agriculture, we have our guru called schools, we have our hand rooms, we have the board preaching and the band preaching and the courteous windmills and all the things. But we don’t actually have even a proper big temple. We have our temple room but you know, it’s in that square structure, not in the dorm structure. So when actually this big temple. This is going to be the biggest temple in the whole Māyā.

The biggest temple I think in the whole of Bengal. The tallest temple. So it’s going even though it’s a Prabhupāda. So it’s going to also. They already have a habit of worshiping Ramakṛṣṇa. He has a very big temple in Bellow which was made by one American woman who was given the name Sister Nivedita Annie Baker or something. I don’t know, whatever. I forget her original name. So the fact that this is being contributed, donated by especially the American BBT and by the devotees from around the world. It also has a special meaning to it that the international devotees have such a great love and respect for Śrīla Prabhupāda that they’re constructing this temple.

I am trying to stir up some enthusiasm for taking Śrīla Prabhupāda on A yātrā along the path of Lord Chaitanya going from Māyāpur to Jagannath Purī, from Purī to Tirupati through Madras, Śrīrangam, Cape Comorin, up Kerala to Udepi, then from Udepi going up to Dwarka back to Purī, doing like that section by section each year for two months to January, February. So that also some Sankhya time devotees in the west might be able to come for a short time. But that would require. The idea is not just to go with a small group of people, but to go with say 100 devotees and then to every night have an advance party, go ahead and set up a whole pandal camp and prashad kitchen and everything. And then every day prepare mass Khichri Prashadam food feeding.

So we can feed anywhere up to 5, 10,000 people with the help of the local people. And this way, go on in the procession, just build up as many people as come, feed every person that comes and then just gradually move along that way, going ahead about 20 miles a day, doing a festival every night. Most people, when I tell them about it, they. They’re a little frightened of the dimension, actually. Although it would be quite a. You’d have to wob only a. About 10,000 kilometers, but we’d only do it in about 800 miles. 800 kilometer segments wouldn’t be that difficult. The difficulty is in the logistics that we need to have a truck to go ahead with the things and set up the camp. We have the basic manpower just.

It’d be nice to have a few more foreign devotees come just to kind of sing and dance along. And the weather is so nice india during the winter months that many people would just start coming along. You know, there’s nothing else like of that dimension happening anyway. The real crucial issue would be if our ISKCON Food relief that contributes money for a lot of temples have been, you know, negligent and contributing because not only all their fault, but partly because when there was some relocation office in New York, so a lot of checks were returned and things those are being straightened out. All the temples actually did the marathons they were supposed to do. And if we actually got about a 10, $20,000 surplus, then I think that there would be enough of a reserve.

I would hate to go out there and have all those people coming and then run out of. He’s able to pick up a lot of donations along the way of grain. But usually people give rice. If you have the Dal you can get maybe 2/3 of the rice you need and 1/3 you have to give and then others all the dal you need to shrink out. This is our experience. But in South India we may get even more than what we can give out. We’re a little bit more solvent in South India and more generous. And if we do it in a big way, it will actually impress them to support the whole program. This way we would try to revitalize Lord Caitanya’s movement amongst all of the Mansa people. Of course there’s no trouble for that in East India. They’re all habituated.

But still it would be a warm up for Lord Caitanya’s 500th annivers which is coming in 1986.

So if I am not able to get.

It up together this year, but then I will definitely going to make an all effort for next year. But I am going to try for this year, see what happens. May write a few newsletters or something. Whatever Kṛṣṇa wants. India is amazing. Although it’s a very poor country. But There was just one man who donated 22 million, 2 million rupees for purchasing land at one of our temples there. So sometimes you get A person doesn’t appear to be very rich. He just decides to give his whole life savings to serving Kṛṣṇa. Of course they’re very rare, but because it’s their religion and because some of them have developed some relationship or faith, suddenly someone gets some inspiration. One person, Prabhupāda came to in a dream and told him, you should use your wealth to serve Kṛṣṇa. So he’s just voluntarily coming forward.

I haven’t met anyone like that. Exactly. For this program we just depend on Kṛṣṇa. It requires a lot of planning. To do it properly takes a lot of planning. But it’s nice to have big plans. Also Prabhupāda said, I have given you the Māyāpur project. You told so many. This is so that I will have so many big devotees. That way they will have something to do.

People, I would also say you should try to shoot the rhinoceros. So that way if you don’t shoot it, everyone, no one, you know, no one will care so much because you can’t. It’s very difficult. No one can shoot a rhinoceros anyway. And if you do it, oh, it’s doing such a wonderful thing. Shot the rhinoceros.

I can’t lose on telling this program. It’s definitely my nonsense.

There’s another program I ran around the BTVs India are urban development. I can’t remember the exact name but like the villages there’s different areas of land and ISCOT trying to get villagers together and planned out.

That’s our Nav Hunter program. We have almost 800 to 900 branches in both urban and rural settings where the St. Village you will get 5, 10 up to even of 25 families who will be interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and they will form together as an association, as a branch of the approved branch of the iskcon. Not ISKCON branch, it’s Naamhatta branch. That means that they’re not ISKCON but they’re working under the shelter of iskcon. ISKCON is not responsible for what they do financially or any other legal way. At the same time, morally there’s a type of responsibility. So they can only use the Naumhata name as long as they’re approved specifically for that by Israel. If they get into some type of unauthorized activity they could have their franchise removed.

So this article said like for example it didn’t say anything about NAOM Hatter that sort of grew up of it or it was like under develop urban development.

Urban development. Apart from that coming together and chanting I don’t exactly clearly understand what. There was one article one be how long was that? Oh they the rule developed. That’s also a rule.

They just got a tax exemption for.

The government as an official project. We have the same thing in Hyderabad at a farm they had to. They built a school and some other things for the local villagers and their project type of nucleus for the other villages they got so many services from them. Once I had a really bad cough like that and the doctor Chris that fear that the mother found that he doctor told me this Akaviraj to take 50 grams of mustard oil and then squeeze ginger root and get 50 grams of ginger root and put the two together on a very slow heat. Shouldn’t be boiling. Slow heat evaporate all of the water from that mixture down again to 50 grams about 2 ounces. And then you take that and put it on in the nighttime put a sweatshirt over it and it’s masjidol.

But the whole heat of the ginger is within that. And so then the whole night one sweats like anything. It’s much more penetrating than Vicks or anything. Vicks kind of tends to dry up the mucus and then again it comes out this. They said that it draws the mucus into the bloodstream and it puts it into the stool when it passes then you can See that within the stool, all the mucus is going out. It worked for me too, because I had a bad bronchitis. After four or five days of doing that, I went away. Might suggest it doesn’t feel, you know. It doesn’t feel hot when you put. It on, but it starts to generate a heat. 50 grams mustard and 50 grams. Take 2 ounces of mustard oil and 2 ounces of ginger juice fresh. You squeeze and get the juice out.

Then simmer it down again to just the 2 ounces. Another equal amount, you know, whatever. But I did this. And then when you apply it, you have to warm up that mushroom again. It shouldn’t be hot. Just warm it up again. When you put it on, massage it in gently. You have been to any of our centers before. Be staying for a couple days, perhaps kind of looking around and taking it off. You look as if you have some. You’re Indian? Almost, I am Indian, but American. You come. I am from Mexico. American in me. Okay, that would be American Indian from the United States. So that’s also. What type of Indian tribe is that? Well, that would be the Aztecs. Aztecs for Cortez at. I have many disciples in Peru. They are from the Inca. They find that in Aztec and Inca history that a lot of the deities and things they have were directly the same as what you find Indian architecture and Indian culture. Ancient India. The way they always come up with some theory that there was the Atlantis and that the culture crossed over from Atlantis. They’re trying to figure out how the culture came over.