20160611 Meeting with BV Leaders at JW Marriots

20160611 Meeting with BV Leaders JW Marriots Minneapolis

 

Mukam karoti vacalam

Pangum langhyate girim

Yat kripa tamaham vande sri gurum dina tarinam

Paramananda madhavan

Sri Chaitanya ishvaram

So Hare Krishna. So we don’t have any loud speaker here, and since my stroke half my face is paralysed, so he will repeat what I say, can you hear him?

Yes (from audience)

So we are very glad to see all of you tonight and glad to see you too. One of the parts of bhakti vriksha is called ice breaking.  Some may tell how they came to Krishna consciousness, some nights. Some nights you may say anything a book of ice-breakers is given. Just small talk so that you can know each other better. Coming from office sometimes there is tension, hyper tension, so just to get to know each other, to relax, and then a little chanting and then some reading.

The reading it depends on how long it is, it may be one person or each person reads a little bit, then there is discussion that comes with discovery, what are the important points, then a little bit of discussion on the important points and then there is application or realization. So the Bhakti Vriksha group leader is more like a facilitator, he tries to get everybody to participate, he or see, because in bhakti Vriksha sometimes ladies are servant leaders and sometimes men, then after the discussion, before the discussion some group do one round of japa, after the discussion there is strategic session, they may discuss how to increase the number of member or they may discuss what they experienced and get some tips from others how they should behave in such situations. Then they do some deity worship, some arati or something, then they will have a little light Prasad. This compares to Namhatta where there is basically kirtan, lecture and then Prasad and questions and answers.

So when a group gets 15 enough, we like to multiply, that means that you have to train someone to be a servant leader and before multiplying you have that person or persons conduct a discussion. Some people multiply into two and some multiply even four. The idea is that we would like to get everybody learn responsibility and if there is nearby temple or there is some festival, then you may discuss what part you play in that festival.

Sometimes there is a children’s program, they have in the Damodar Des, middle east, they call it the Natkat Mela (laughter), and 1300 people, kids participate with parents that’s like almost 5000. So the program goes from morning to night. Every child does something and may do a fancy dance or a drama or recitation of the slokas, even philosophical speeches, all kinds of different programs, all the parents like to see their children perform, so this is way to get many parents involved also, but children they love it, so many other children doing with them, so there is a big feast also, we give out some big books and prizes.  To cover the cost they give something in the beginning of the course but not much may be a 100 gerunds which is around $30, then they have natkat mela and many things, free books.

So like that if the namhatta and the Bhaktivriksha is participating then the group servant leader will tell we have been asked give prasadam or greet the guest, or we are in charge of the fancy dress, and they will discuss how they will do it. In temples here like Dallas and Heuston, in Los Angeles, in San House, we can’t manage how they would manage without the Bhakti Vriksha. So the Bhakti Vrikshas take responsibility for all the different activities. Everybody gets a small bit to play of the group, of every group. So the thing is that in Bhakti Yoga we want to use our senses in the service of Krishna and one can be a grihastha or one can be a sanyasi, that doesn’t matter. Rather the grihastas, husband, wife, children they can work as a team and they can give some time every week, to participate in this Bhakti vriksha.

So usually they have pictures in the house and they offer their food to Krishna and take prasadam and they chant japa. Those who are initiated they chant 16 rounds, those who are aspiring or new may chant two or four or eight, but everybody they are doing something for their spiritual life. It’s like Prabhupada gives the example, you drive your car out to the gas station, fill it with gasoline, you don’t drink the gasoline, you eat idly, dosa, dahi vada or something, rice, chappati, pulka, one food you eat and one food the car eats. But the atma, which is you, the living force in the body, you are the atma, you have also food, that is Sri Krishna Prasad, that’s your chanting Hare Krishna, you are doing service for Krsihna, if you don’t get your regular nourishment, you take birth after birth after birth in the material world.

But this Krishna bhakti can give you a ticket back to Godhead in this one life if you are very serious. Even if you are not serious, at least you can get to heaven, but that’s not very desirable for the devotees, heaven or merging in the brahmajyoti they don’t like this, they want to be a part of the Lord’s pastimes and that’s their actual goal, but whatever your reason chant Hare Krishna and be happy.

So we had started Namhatta in 1978, but that I found that in the cities they needed some other programs with smaller groups, so that’s why we started Bhakti Vriksha when about 1994 and it’s been growing since then. We have about 10,000 groups around the world and since we are a multi-guru society we are happy if anyone takes shelter in Prabhupada’s parampara. We want to engage everybody to spread the sankirtan movement of Lord Caitanya. So in the Brhma Vaivarta Puran the holy rivers said they want to go back with Krishna, they said that they saw that his pastimes were coming to an end and the feared the Kali Yuga, that sinful people will bathe in their waters but Krishna smiled at them. You tolerate 5000 years, then I am sending a devotee who will spread the hari nam all over the world and then people will become Vaisnavas, and they will bathe in your waters, and you know that just to hear about a Vaisnava is purifying, what to speak of touching one and you will know that they are Vaisnavas because they will be chanting the holy names in your water.

So for 10,000 years there will be a Golden age, a golden era in the age of Kali when people can get back to Godhead very easily. After that 10,000 years of Kaliyuga, will start the dark period of Kali yuga, then you can go underground like the Saraswati river. So we saw that Prabhupada came 5000 years after Kali Yuga started and he spread the sankirtan all over the world. So we need your help also to help spread this sakirtan movement.

Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur, he told Prabhupada that those who help you will also be blessed. So who here will like to help Srila Prabhupada?

Jay!

Are you raising your hands?

Lord Caitanya, He was challenged by Rukmini in Dwaraka, that he knew everything, that he was Bhagavan, he knew what Brahma was doing in Satya loka, he knew what Siva was doing in Kailash, but that was one thing he didn’t know and Rukmini knew it and Radha knows it but he doesn’t know. (laughter)

No one told him before that he didn’t know something and so then he asked, “what is that?”

And she told him, “You don’t know, how much we devotees love and what way we love you and then he tried to pacify her, then Narad Muni came and he was a little relieved. But then he saw that Narad Muni, he was agitated. He said, “What a day, my wife said that I don’t know something, my guru who is always peaceful, dhira, he is agitated. So why you are disturbed.”

He told them, “I can see the symptoms in the world, people are becoming more materialistic. That means that you are about to end your pastimes, Kali Yuga will begin, what will happen to the other people in Kali Yuga, how will they be delivered. Lord I am worried about them. How will they in Kali yuga get your lotus feet. So then he said, “Ok I promise you, I will come back in Kali Yuga but I will come as my devotee, then I experience what love my devotees have for me, how they love me, and at that same time I will expand the sankirtan movement, the chanting of Hare Krishna as the Yuga dharma. So that’s how Lord Krishna came as  Lord Caitanya and in the Bhagavatam Puran it says that those who are intelligent, they will accept this sankirtan movement.

In the Caitanya Caritamrita, Lord Caitanya said, “bharate bhumite janma hoila jar, janma sarthak karile koro para upkar.”

So most of you are born in India and in a certain sense this whole world is known as bharat varsa but if you take it as India, those who are born in India, whose parents are born in India, you have the responsibility to do the paraupakara-helping others. When Prabhupada went to Australia then the journalists they said, “Swamiji, you come from a poor country, India to Australia, we are a rich country, so what have you come to beg from us. So Prabhupada replied, “I have not come to ask anything from you. I have come to save you from a cat and dog’s life.” 

Jay Srila Prabhupada ki jay (audience devotees)

“You are saying that we are living a cat and a dog’s life.”

Then Prabhupada gave examples of how cat’s live and how humans live. Cat’s and dogs eat, mate and defend and that’s what humans do. Human beings have spirituality also but if that spirituality is not awaked, then they are basically living a sophisticated cat’s and dog’s life. So in the Age newspaper, on the front page, they put, “Swamiji has come to save us from a cat’s and dog’s life”. (laughter)

In the small heading they put, “He has come to hound us.” (laughter). That’s Aussie humour. But if they challenged him, Prabhupada would hit them back, he will take it like it was.

So we need your life, your friends, your neighbours, your work colleagues, you school mates, get them also to think about their spiritual life in a subtle way.

Prabhupada would explain, “soft sell, hard sell.” They see me, hard sell, “surrender, chant Hare Krishna”, for grishastas, “Oh come to my house, have dinner, take nice prasadam, talk, make friends. And they say, “Oh nice house, kids like I do”, but they are happy. (laughter)

“May be I should chant Hare Krishna too, may be I will be happy.”, so you can convince people in a way that we can’t. So very nice to see so many devotees here. They told me that you would fit into my room, but I think that you would have fit.

So if there are any questions.

Question: when we speak to our family members about Krishna consciousness they ignore us saying, “you were a fool previously previously and now you are trying to preach to us.” So how do we preach Krishna consciousness to our family members?

JPS: Someone asked me another question, which was similar, what I advise is that they use the third verse of the siksastakam, offer respect to others and don’t expect any respect for yourself. If they say, “You are a fool, why you are preaching to us?”, first of all you shouldn’t preach to them, you should talk to them, and say, “Yes I was a fool. I didn’t know but now I know, and I am worried about you because I love you, you are brother, you are my father, then talk to them. Now by chanting Hare Krishna and reading Bhagavat Gita I have understood so many things, if they are still heavy with you then listen, “did you ever have me read Bhagavat Gita?”

How many of your parents had you read Bhagavat Gita, maybe the older, very few, his parents are my disciples.

If they had you read Bhagavat Gita, they wouldn’t call you a fool.

Because you told me to read Bhagavat Gita, so finally I read it and now understand. So in a very nice way because naturally the people if they are your elders, in India you have to treat them with respect. Here in the West, nobody respects anybody but also I don’t call demigods, I call devas because people misunderstand the word demigod. They think demigod means demons or something. It doesn’t mean that, it means devas, it means sub-Gods, or like in Christanity they call it Angels, so like that.

Like Indra, there are fourteen Indras in one day of Brahma and Brahma lives a 100 years of his time and then Siva destroys the whole material world, and it’s bound up and then mahavishnu creates it again and Mahavisnu is one forms of Krishna, and the Mahavishnu creates it again, and Mahavisnu is one of the forms of Krishna, he is a partial expansion.

So you be sensitive to the people you are talking to, don’t preach down anybody, so just rather communicate. Even I tell some wives and they say their husband is very favourable, then you say, “Can you help me understand this verse? You are more intelligent.”

You may know the verse, the ladies may know the verse but she goes to the husband and the husband is…. (laughter) In this way she tricks him to read the Bhagavat Gita. (laughter). That can be done by a son by the father, a son to a mother or anybody, by any means, yena tena prakarena Krishna nivosate, by any means get someone to chant Hare Krishna, accept Krishna.

If you have to do a drama, anyway there was one devotee of Lord Caitanya, he went to a Mohammaden Magistrate, he said, “you are very handsome, you are very religious, you are very powerful, you are very rich, influential, so many things, I just want to ask you one question, can I say one thing?”

“sure”

“Please forget all these, just chant, chant Hare Krishna”

“I will chant Hare Krishna tomorrow.”

“Ah… You already chanted, don’t stop now.” (laughter)

Any other question?

Question : Radharani is more merciful than Krishna, right? Then why don’t we 43.43 get the darshan of her lotus feet of Radharani everyday except on Radhaasthami?

JPS: What is the connection?

Radharani is also the most caste. So she doesn’t show her feet to everybody, but because like to see her feet once in a year she shows. Some temples show on Radhasthami, some on Gopasthami, some on Janmasthami, see you can travel around the world and see which? (laugther)

But if you go to Goloka Vrindavana, if you become one of the Gopis, you can see her feet everyday. I don’t think even Krishna can see her feet everyday. She is very tricky.

Once she and her gopi friends were watching a peacock dance and Krishna came up, they kept watching the peacock, why you are watching the peacock, you usually watch me?

Radharani said, “The peacock is dancing , you are not dancing (laughter)”

So then Krishna went and danced with the peacocks and said, “how was that?”

“Oh you were good but the peacock was better.” (laughter)

Then he went back and danced again. This time a little better and he asked, “How is that?”

Radharani said, “Well, he did better, but still the peacock is better.”

Then he went and really danced and he danced so much that Radharani also got up and danced as a pea-hen, that’s call the Mayur-Mayuri lila. There is picture of that in Barsana like that, the two dancing Krishna and Radha, but the painting was made 400 years ago, and the amazing thing is that the artist was blind, beautiful painting.

I can’t talk too much about Barsana, it’s an amazing place.

Other questions?

I see that devotee from Orissa, Lord Jagannath goes every year on his chariot to Gundicha. Another name of Gudicha is Sundarachala, it’s not different from Vrindavana. He stays in Dwaraka, which is known as Nilachal, he goes to Sundarachal.

So sometimes they sing, “Nilachala Chandra Prabhu Jagannath, Jay Jagannath, Jay Jagannath.”, then “Sundarachala Chandra Prabhu Jagannath, Jay Jagannath, Jay Jagannath.”

(laughter)

Question: How do we live safely in the mode of goodness whereas the world around us is mainly in the mode of passion?

JPS: By reading the Bhagavat Gita we understand that there are three modes and there are various mixes. So we are able to tell when someone is in the influence of tamas, rajas or satwa or what makes it. So accordingly we can also interact with them. If we know that someone has a passion nature then he will try deal with us in a way that he will benefit. If it is someone in the mode of ignorance we know that he may say anything, he is a crazy guy and it’s someone in the mode of goodness he is probably not business but he works for the welfare of others.

So we do the yukta Vairagya. We try to use the material energy in the service of Krishna, just like when you cut a tree down with an axe, it’s taken from a limb of  tree, it’s axe handle that cuts down the tree.

You cut down the material energy, the illusion, by taking a part of the illusion and using that in the service of Krishna. Krishna has also said that material energy is also one of his divine energy.

So normally one cannot get out of this material world but by surrendering to Krishan, He will take you back. This material world is not a place for a gentleman or a gentlelady. So knowing that you don’t expect always happiness in material life. You know that there will be sometimes happiness and sometimes sadness. In Karnataka they observe the new year as Yugadi, they gave me a sweet, a laddu, I bit into it but it had also a neem, it was sweet and bitter, they said, “that’s life!”

(laughter)

So we should not expect that, “Oh! everything will be nice in the material world. If we expect that then we want to stay here. Now we want to go back to Krishna or at least even if we want to stay here we want to be part of Krishna lila. Just like a lotus leaf it’s in the water but it is never wet, the water rolls of it, like that although you live in this world you actually stay transcendental. People will see you as a part of the material world, good actor but you keep your mind on Krishna.

Last Question:

Online Question:

Question: Patita pavan Jagannath is very merciful, and is it authorized to worship patita pavan Jagannath at home, since it is not in general practice I am just curious to understand if we can worship patita-pavan Jagannath at home.

JPS: By Paita Pavan, you mean the single Jagannath? Without Baladev and Subhadra, or you mean worshipping Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra?

Devotee: Only Jagannath.

JPS: Generally we worship with Baladev and Subhadra because at Jagannath Puri they have a single Jagannath at the doorway to give people darshan who can’t go into the temple, he is called Patit pavan, but if you can have all three why only have one? Because Subhadra is more merciful than Baladev, and Baladev is more merciful than Jagannath. So we go that way. Through is Shakti and then his expansion and then to Jagannath.

Question: Is there any specific celebration of Subhadra Mai exclusively because she is considered to be most merciful and as well why there is no celebration for appearance of Subhadra Mai’s appearance day or any of such specific occasion isn’t there?

JPS: Well we worship the appearance day of Radharani on Radhasthami, and from her all the other saktis are expanded. So by worshipping on Radhashthami that goes for all the saktis. Then for the material sakti there is someday, but for that also they worship the saligram first and then offer to the material sakti.

From Detroit any…. From Heuston ?

Question: It is very difficult for me to surrender my free will to my seniors, pleas explain on that.

JPS: I think I partially answered that, that if we take shelter from a Guru, then that’s like a dress rehearsal of initiation, and then we can experience what it’s like to be under the care of a guru and whether the guru asks us to do things which are practical or whether we feel that his nature is such that you feel comfortable to put ourselves under his care. Like in some cases one may not feel after getting to know the guru for about six months that there is a connection and they may feel that he is too hard to approach or don’t feel like revealing your mind to him. May by it’s different things. So it’s a testing period. Also when we take vows of initiation, then you should be very serious that you will follow because of course of course have every right to ask such an instruction. You can ask, “where such an instruction is mentioned in the sastras just for your understanding”, and the guru should tell you his reference from sadhu, sastra and guru.

If there is no reference, Prabhupada said that the guru is like a lawyer, the lawyer may go to court and say, “I feel that this murderer should be set free, he cooks very well (laughter)”, he has to say, “in such and such court this person was falsely arrested, he was set free because he wasn’t read his rights, you have to give some reference.”

So Prabhupada said like that, that if you say something, if you are the guru you have to back it up, if you can’t back it up then you say that.
I heard Prabhupada say once or twice, someone asked him a question, he said, “I don’t know.”, it was a pretty ridiculous question. (laughter)

Someone asked, “Krishna is God, can he make something so heavy that he can’t lift it?” (laughter)

Prabhupada said, “Yes, but after a while he will lift it. (laughter)”

There was something more but that was the main thing.

 

Transcribed by: Sadananda Krishnaprem Das

Mayapur.