20150202 Śrīla Prabhupāda Kathā

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ

paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande

śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam

paramananda madhavam

Sri Caitanya ishwaram

 Hari Om tat sat

Śrīla Prabhupāda letters. Are there any letters today? Any questions? Internet? 

Devotee: Guru Maharaj, I remember a few like 10 lectures ago, you were speaking about different vrats, different austerities in devotional service. So can you elaborate little bit how Śrīla Prabhupāda would observe it, with four different vaishnav vrats, like Caturmasya, or like Bhima ekadasi, Kartik Maas vrat or Purushottam Maas vrat. What do you see about Prabhupāda following these vratas?

Guru Mahārāja: Of course I was with Prabhupādā in Montreal, in Los Angeles and in Mayapur and a few other places. 

So what I saw was that during Caturmasya, he would follow the four restrictionṣ. No saak in the first month. No dahi in the second. No milk in the third. And no urad dal in the fourtḥ. He said that urad dal was the representative of high protein. But I didn’t see him doing the more strict vratas like the Bhima nirjal Ekadasi. I never saw Prabhupāda doing that. All the Ekadasis were like Ekadasi feasts. Devotees who take various items that were allowed on Ekadasi. No beans, no cereals & no grains. So they would take other roots. And in some cases, the secretaries say stop and they served Prabhupāda peas once on Ekadasi. So then rest of the day he observed Ekadasi. And on the Trayodasi he also observed Ekadasi. He said on a Dvadasi we shouldn’t fast. So we would do Ekadasi twice. The rest of the day on Ekadasi and also on theTtrayodasi. One time I think they served green beans and then Prabhupāda said,” what’s this? “What’s this on Ekadasi?” Prabhupāda would say you have broken Ekadasi. So no green beans, no green peas. So no lagoons, no beans of any kind and no cereals and no whole grains. Now they have more non grain substitutes. But he would also take spinach and bitter melon. And in Māyāpur they don’t take bitter melon. I asked one of the pandits in Māyāpur why don’t you take bitter melon and saak? He said,” it’s not mentioned. but since it’s not mentioned we don’t take it anywhere. Just to be sure.[ Guru Mahārāja laughs] In fact Prabhupāda he used saak. As an example, that we could cut the spinach and would grow back, so that vegetables that would grow back can be taken on Ekadasi. But then since we use the mustard seeds & sesame seeds for fire yajnas we don’t take on Ekadasi. Even though they are not technically a bean or a grain. They are vedically considered a bean or a grain.,because panchasashtra use them for yajnas.

 One day I was really hungry, and I transited Athens in Greece, and they served me a whole bowl of mashed potatoes. And they sent into the airport. I was not allowed inside the country. But the mashed potatoes had sesame seeds. So I couldn’t take. 

He would say that we just fast on the appearance day of Vishnu avatars till mid day. And we fast on Janmashtami and on Gaura Purnima for the whole day. And break fast with Ekadasi known as anukalpa. And Prabhupāda said because we are devotees of Kṛṣṇa, we believe that Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead and that Vishnu is his expansion. So therefore we observe two complete fasts on Kṛṣṇa’s appearance day. And Lord Caitanya being Kṛṣṇa we also observe on his appearance day. So some of the sampradayas observe anukalpa for the Vishnu avatar. But we only do that for the Kṛṣṇa avatar. So that’s what I can remember. 

You have any letters of Prabhupāda?

Tridandi goswami

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami 

Camp: Dṛ ṚP. Rao

20k Hirapuri 

Gorakhpur University 

Gorakhpur
February 23rd, 1971

71-02-23

Calcutta

My Dear Jayapataka Maharaja,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 17th February, 1971 and have noted the contents. You have asked for some men so immediately another batch of two men, Revatinandana and Durlabh Das Adhikari are going today carrying this letter. Durlabh Das has got camera films and machine and so he will be very good for your work there, and Revatinandana is very well known Sankirtana leader. Next on the 28th February, 1971 all of us are going to Calcutta, reaching on the 1st March by the 82 Down Express reaching Howrah at about 4:30 P.M. My desire is that all of you should visit Mayapur at least for one or two days during Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's birthday. If the Hamilton House is available, then I shall also go and finish the business of paying them in full as they want. When I shall go, I shall go with full, money for paying them, but in case the transaction does not mature, then I shall not go to Calcutta but go to Bombay and you all my disciples may visit Mayapur and chant Kirtana as many times as possible and return to Calcutta. Most probably Hamsaduta and his party will go to Calcutta by the 10th March.

Devotee: Guru Mahārāja you would like to elaborate on this?

 It would be nice if lilamrita was referred to see that if, whether Prabhupāda went to Māyāpur or noṭ. I have the image in my mind, that Prabhupāda was driving from the railway station to the Hamilton house to finalise the deal. By the time he reached, some other life member, beat us. They paid the cash before we reached.  So I have the image of Prabhupāda’s face. For a second he was a bit frustrated. Then he was normal. After that what happened I don’t remember. So whether he went to Mayapur then or next year that I don’t remember. But I remember that the first day he went, there was a grass hut and there was a cow shed and there was a land we purchased and there was also some pit that was cut into the earth. And Prabhupāda placed an Ananta deity inside the hole and he invited his god brothers and god nephews to attend the ceremony. And that Ananta dev was placed in the earth, at a place which the now TOVP is present at. So after that Prabhupāda requested the Gaudiya matt leaders present , to all work together. As Srila Bhakti Siddanta Saraswathi Thakur desired and there is a large picture of that ceremony somewhere in Māyāpur. So there was prasadam distribution and also a large no of local villagers who came to take prasadam. And on the next day srila Prabhupāda dropped some lime powder to show where the temple and the four guest houses would be situated.  And then they started the Lotus building guest house where I live at present and where Prabhupāda’s rooms are. So I have all these things in my mind whether this was in 72 or in 71 that’s the question?

So far as cooperating with my Godbrothers is concerned, that is not very urgent business. So far until now my Godbrothers have regularly not cooperated with me and by the grace of my Spiritual Master, things are still going ahead. So cooperation or non-cooperation, it is the desire of Bhaktivinode Thakura to preach the Caitanya cult all over the world and in 1875 he predicted that someone would come very soon who would individually preach this cult all over the world. So if his benediction is there and my Guru Maharaja's blessings are there, we can go ahead without any impediment but all of us must be very sincere and serious. 

Devotee: Guru Maharaj you would like to say something on this?

So we grew up with this person. We knew that Bhaktivinod Thakur, he had prophesized that someone would come and spread the movement all over the world. This was at the time when there was this British Raj and it was at its height. That someone would spread the message of Lord Caitanya around the world to Great Britain and to the US and all over around the world to Russia, Germany, and France. This was a really a breaking prophecy. It was something that was beyond anyone’s imagination, but Bhaktivinod Thakur, he could see it. And Bhaktisiddanta Saraswathi Prabhupāda Thakur he had blessed Prabhupāda that if you do this it will be very good for you spiritually and for all those who help you. 

So is there anyone who wants to help Śrīla Prabhupāda?  [Guru Mahārāja asks and lifts his hand too]So all those who are helping Prabhupāda, nama hatta leaders, bhakti vriksha leaders, book distribution leaders, book distributors, contributors to the TOVP etc etc. they are all helping Śrīla Prabhupāda and thus they all get blessed by the previous acharyas. 

So Prabhupāda had asked for help. He said please send me manpower. The preaching is very good here in America. But nobody sent manpower. Then he said please send me a harmonium, but nobody sent a harmonium. Then he said please send a khol or a mridanga, a drum but nobody sent one. Then he said please send some kartals. The karatalas, 60rs or less but nobody sent. So then Malathi devi she found Jagannath deity in an Indian gift shop and she walked into the temple with a Jagannath deity and said is this of any use? When Prabhupāda  saw, he immediately paid his dandavats because Jagannath had walked into the door. He said this is Lord Jagannath. There was the white one and the yellow one are they any useful? Yeah! Yeah! please get those two. So then Jagannath, Baldev and Subadhra were our first deities. Like this Prabhupāda tried to get some help. But instead of co-operation he got non-cooperation.

 But inspite of that he went out, to spread the message of Lord Caitanya. Once someone read this prediction to Śrīla Prabhupāda and he said, “maybe he is talking about me”. Then he changed the subject. It’s also there in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana there is a prediction that a bhakta would come and he would spread the bhakti yoga all over the world. In the Caitanya Mangal written about 450 years ago there is a prediction that Lord Caitanya, who was at that time in the spiritual world he would send someone who would spread his holy names all over the world to the places where he didn’t go. So like this it seems very clear that the sastras were predicting Prabhupāda’s coming. So all of you have this great opportunity to serve Śrīla Prabhuāda, to assist him in his mission and get his blessings. Blessings of the previous acharyas.

 I’m trying to locate some more quotes. I think there are more,so we will have. Like recently in my visit to Chennai, the Namalvar, he predicted it in Tamil that I see the associates of the Lord descending from the spiritual world and they are chanting and dancing and the whole world is filled with the chanting of the holy names. He said, “Kandom kandom kandom, I see them, I see them. They are flooding the world. Any of you are demons or atheists you’re finished. The Lord has come down. The associates have come. I see them now. I see them. So that was a 1000 years ago.” So I have been asking few of the devotees to look for the quotes. But they tell me,” Oh! so many years have gone by, most of the quotes would have been found.” But in spite of their stubbornness not to look, the quotes are coming and hitting me. Hitting me.  But still they insist, no no they must all be there. Like that Namalwar a thousand years ago, he predicted that I see the Lord and his associates flooding the world with harinam.

 So I also heard that Jaya Goswami is the 10th descendant of advaita gosai.  May be Vijay Krishna Goswami. He had a vision and he predicted that one day soon the world will become filled with the sound of mridanga drums. Jagat habe mridanga moi. But my secretaries still don’t want to work. 

Devotee: No one is going to hell. Yamaraja asked, “No more any work? Are the effects of Kali yuga cease to exist? This is because all over the world an increase number. of Lord Vishnu’s devotees sing his names while dancing and playing musical instruments. 

You were telling that, kandom kandom kandom ………. (shloka in Tamil)  the shloka goes like this, “I have seen these vaishnavas who are worthiest to be seen with our eyes, Oh servants of Kṛṣṇa all of you come here all of you join with me to sing the glories of these servants. Let us prostrate at their feet again and again and let us shout with great joy and enjoyment the devotees of Lord Madhava are dancing and singing his glories. Kali yuga is capable of corrupting everything and everyone’s mind with fight and hypocrisy. Satya Yuga will no more exist and the mood and nature of Satya yuga is being bought by these vaishnavas. With their presence and singing and dancing of Lord’s glories even the eternal residence of vaikunta are here to witness their pure devotion. Everywhere the cult of pure devotional service is being spread. Victory victory it goes on like this.

Guru Maharaj: Get that quote and its translation. At least something I can share with the devotees on this Gaura Poornima festival. What does Andaal say? It’s said that you are the representatives of Andaal. So these Alwars, Tamil saints did 5000 years ago better. Lets subject to some recent-----[38.10-38.23]. 

So get all these quotes together. Namalwaar, Andaal . 

Questions.

Devotee: Guru Mahārāja I heard somewhere that Prabhupāda in his previous birth was also from a medical background or he was a doctor. At the same time we hear that Prabhupāda was from the spiritual world. So how do we reconcile this? 

Guru Mahārāja: Just like Lord Caitanya, when he came down he told the seniors in His leela, His mother His father, Advaita Gosai, Lord Nityananda, He told others first. So the pastimes of the Lord people take different roles. Just like you know that Narada muni is a Naisthiki brahmachari. He is a liberated soul. He travelled all over the spiritual world the material world. But he also comes down to participate in the lord’s pastimes. And then he came as a grhastha. And he had a wife and a kid. or may be more children, I don’t know. So that’s all possible.

 Radharani she said in every leela I come as a lady, there are so many restrictions on me to meet Kṛṣṇa. So next time I am going to come as a man. So she came as Gadādhara. And Lord Kṛṣṇna came as Lord Caitanya. mixed with Radharani. So those who are in the eternal pastimes of the Lord, they may come in different costumes but they are not of this world. Just as the Lord is sat cit Ananda, they are all also sat cit Ananda, but they change their parts depending on the particular leela, Lord Kṛṣṇa, He always comes in the same form either as Kṛṣna or Caitanya or Rāmā or Varaha. Kṛṣṇa is the original Kṛṣṇa. He comes as Kṛṣṇa, but as a Vishnu avatar he comes as so many different forms. Also he comes as Rāmā,,  He comes as Kurma, as Matsya, as Narasimha, so many forms. 

Any other questions?

Devotee: Guru Mahārāja this question is from Lalithangi Radha devi dasi.

 Gurumaharaj please accept my humble obeisances unto your lotus feet.

Guru Mahārāja: From North Carolina?  Is she from North Carolina

 In one of the previous classes while commenting on the pastime of Srila Prabhupad calling a glass factory owner a thief you said we don’t dare say things that he said. On these lines can you give us come instructions on how to follow the spiritual master and not imitate him in childish enthusiasm. 

Guru Maharaj: When I went to Los Angeles, the secretary of Srila Prabhupad started to criticize one of his God brothers. Then Prabhupad said you have no right to comment on my God brothers. They are not yours. Just like a father may comment something on his brothe,r but you as a niece have no right to speak it up.