19820425 Love the Animals, Don't Eat Them - ŚB 7.15.40

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on April 25^th, 1982 at New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. The class begins with a reading of the Srimad Bhagavatam, 7^th Canto, Chapter 15, verse 40.

Jayapatākā Swami: 

nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine

namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

namo mahā vadānyāya kṛṣṇa prema pradāya te
kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa caitanya nāmne gaura tviṣe namaḥ

he kṛṣṇa karuṇā-sindho dīna-bandho jagat-pate
gopeśa gopikā-kānta rādhā-kānta namo 'stu te

tapta-kāñcana-gaurāṅgi rādhe vṛndāvaneśvari
vṛṣabhānu-sute devi praṇamāmi hari-priye

vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca
patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ

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

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

Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya
naraṁ caiva narottamam
devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ
tato jayam udīrayet

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghāyate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurum dīna-tāriṇam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.15.40

ātmānaṁ ced vijānīyāt
paraṁ jñāna-dhutāśayaḥ
kim icchan kasya vā hetor
dehaṁ puṣṇāti lampaṭaḥ

Translation (by His Divine Grace Śrīla AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda): The human form of body is meant for understanding the self and the Super Self, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, both of whom are transcendentally situated. If both of them can be understood when one is purified by advanced knowledge, for what reason and for whom does a foolish, greedy person maintain the body for sense gratification?

Purport (by Śrīla Prabhupāda): Of course, everyone in this material world is interested in maintaining the body for sense gratification, but by cultivating knowledge one should gradually understand that the body is not the self. Both the soul and the Supersoul are transcendental to the material world. This is to be understood in the human form of life, especially when one takes sannyāsa. A sannyāsī, one who has understood the self, should be engaged in elevating the self and associating with the Superself. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant for elevating the living being for promotion back home, back to Godhead. Seeking such elevation is one's duty in the human form of life. Unless one performs this duty, why should one maintain the body? Especially if a sannyāsī not only maintains the body by ordinary means but does everything to maintain the body, including even eating meat and other abominable things, he must be a lampaṭaḥ, a greedy person simply engaged in sense gratification. A sannyāsī must specifically remove himself from the urges of the tongue, belly and genitals, which disturb one as long as one is not fully aware that the body is separate from the soul.

Thus ends the purport by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Canto 7, Chapter 15, Verse 40.

Jayapatākā Swami: One day, Lord Caitanya and Nityānanda were walking from Navadvīpa to Śāntīpura to see Śrī Advaita Gosāñi. When They crossed the Jalāṅgī river and were heading by the side of the Ganges, one sannyāsī—someone dressed as a sannyāsī—invited Them to please come to his āśrama. So, They went to his āśrama, and he gave Them a nice seat. "Please be seated down.” In this way, They took their seats, and They were very nicely treated by that sannyāsī. The sannyāsī, of course, he may be a little bit impersonal because he started to lecture to Lord Caitanya. Being a gṛhastha, he thought He was a sannyāsī. So, he began lecturing on how one should perform various kinds of sacrifices to gain material prosperity and ultimately liberation. Lord Caitanya, He had some discussion with him and discredited that this was the actual goal of life by asking him other questions. But this person was very hard to penetrate.

Then, of course, he said, "Please accept some food from my humble āśrama." He gave Them a plate, served Them some food, and then he came out with a bottle of wine. He gave some wine. "Please take some wine, and have some other intoxicants as well."

Lord Caitanya saw that and said, "What?! This person is a bogus yogī, this person is a bogus sannyāsī." He and Nityānanda looked at each other, and they jumped up... with their clothes they jumped into the Ganges, and thinking themselves very contaminated for having accepted anything from such a sannyāsī who was taking wine and other intoxicants.

So, this is quite unusual because the scholars started to analyse this, and here Lord Caitanya, obviously as the Supersoul, He must have known. Yet, He accepted the hospitality of this yogī, while others, straight-out Māyāvādīs, would refuse absolutely. So, in this way, they could understand that it was slightly better to be a person attached to sense gratification than to be a straight-out Māyāvādī.

In any case, both of them are bogus. Both of them have left the pure path of God consciousness. One of them is envious against God, and the other is centered around the body, very attached to the body.

Caitanya Mahāprabhu, His mission is to reestablish the pure principles of devotion, whereby one is not wasting his time thinking of sense gratification, not a servant of the senses, not a go-dāsa, but a go-svāmī.

Go means senses, and svāmī means master—one who is the master of the senses. What is devotional service? Devotional service has been described by Nārada Muni in his Nārada Pañcarātrika:

sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-
sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate

That one who is engaged in pure devotional service, he is sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ

Upādhi means designation. He is free from all designations.

Tat-paratvena nirmalam – and he is completely purified from material contaminations.

In this world, everyone is dwelling under certain label—either as an American, or a Chinese, a Cuban, or a South American, or an Indian. Or the label as a liberal, a conservative, a Democrat, a Republican, as a hippie, as a redneck or something. Everyone has got kind of label, and they identify themselves with these labels or designations. But pure devotional service means one has transcended all types of bodily designations—rich, poor, thin, fat, ugly, beautiful—doesn’t identify anymore as the body, but identifies as the pure spirit soul.

Therefore, sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ is free from all types of superficial, artificial and materialistic designations. But, at the same time, he is situated in purity. Therefore, tat-paratvena nirmalam. Mala means dirt, and nirmalam means no dirt, no contamination.

Tat-paratvena - paratvena means transcendental. Therefore, he’s free from all contamination. How did he become transcendental? That is also revealed in the Third Canto.

hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa- sevanaṁ - sevanam means to serve, and hṛṣīkena means the senses, hṛṣīkeśa means the master of the senses, Kṛṣṇa. With the senses one serves the master of the senses. By doing so, one is elevated to the transcendental platform. That’s what is described as devotional service. One uses the senses for serving the master of the senses. Normally, people use their senses to serve the objects of the senses.

The objects of the senses are served by the senses. The mind is coordinating the senses. The intelligence is guiding the senses, or guiding the mind, and the soul is being carried along. Everything is going from the spiritual platform down to serving the gross material objects of the senses. But spiritual life is exactly the opposite. The soul is surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. The intelligence is craving the service of the soul. The mind is controlled by the intelligence. The mind controls what it thinks about. The mind controls the senses, engaging them. And the senses take the objects of the senses and engage it in Kṛṣṇa’s service. In this way, everything is directed upward towards Kṛṣṇa. That is called gosvāmī.

When one is a servant of the senses, everything is being directed down to dead matter. So, when one is directing himself to dead matter, that means he is strictly under the stringent laws of material nature. He is forced to suffer and enjoy in so many different ways. When one is directing everything up to Hṛṣīkeśa, the master of the senses, then he immediately becomes liberated.

īhā yasya harer dāsye karmaṇā manasā girā
nikhilāsv apy avasthāsu jīvan muktaḥ sa ucyate

One who engages his mind, words, and activities in the service of Kṛṣṇa is already considered liberated. If everything is engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa—mind, words, intelligence, activities—then that person is already considered liberated. This is the meaning of tridaṇḍī-sannyāsa – to engage mind, words, and intelligence in the service of Kṛṣṇa. That is real renunciation.

Again, here Prabhupāda is mentioning the type of sannyāsī who is eating meat and other abominable things. We find that many Indian yogīs or sannyāsīs —so-called sannyāsīs—when they come to the West, they take up these bad habits. Some of them, even in India, are maintaining this type of a bad habit. But they wear the cloth of a sannyāsī. So here, Prabhupāda gives his opinion: he must be a lampaṭa, he must be a sense-satisfier, to be engaged in such abominable activities.

To be an actual sannyāsī, an actual renounced person, one would have to follow the rules and regulations given in the scriptures. Another point here is that if one is habituated to eating meat and other abominable things, then it must be very hard for him to control his mind and senses, especially his sex desire and other material desires. Because he is habituated to eating food in the mode of passion and ignorance, therefore his mind will become very uncontrollable, he will become very angry.

So, I have personally experienced that many of the high schools—before the high school, I think probably college also—before the school sends out their team to play football, they feed them raw meat, just slightly, so that they get the blood and they go out there and fight. That’s their idea. So, a person is what he eats. If he eats like a tiger, then he won’t be like a saintly person. He will be more like a tiger or a lion.

So, today, modern society is creating men and women who are more in the tiger-lion category because of the habits of their eating and living. They naturally become very passionate. They become very angry. And at the slightest cause, they lose their temper. And how can such a situation actually bring peace in the world? So, if people have good habits, if people have a spiritual goal, then automatically people will be very peaceful. They will be very satisfied. And even in difficulties, their minds will be steady. Tigers eat meat. Cows… various other animals, they eat vegetables. So, naturally, what we eat is going to have a lot to say how we think and act. A scientist says “Love the animals, don’t eat them.” I was just seeing yesterday in the newspaper. It said how the Cruelty to Animal Society– they have a "dog shoot-on-site" order in some place, and then the Cruelty to Animals group was objecting that they didn't like that. So, of course, the way the Cruelty to Animal Society would really be serious if they themselves became all vegetarians. I don't think that's going to happen. Anyway, that is another aspect.  So here, what is the human form of the body meant for? The human form of the body is not meant simply to please the senses. It is meant for understanding the self and the Superself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

When Lord Caitanya came to Navadvīpa, He was, first of all, enjoying pastimes of what they know as Vidyā-vilāsa, pastimes of spiritual scholarship. He became the greatest scholar in Sanskrit. This was just like Kṛṣṇa enjoyed playing with the cows, He enjoyed discussing with the scholars. Even at the age of 14, He had become the greatest scholar in Navadvīpa. Of course, the other devotees, when they saw this, they were thinking, “This Nīmāi Paṇḍita is such a great scholar, but if only He had devotion to Kṛṣṇa. If only He had devotion to Kṛṣṇa.” They were praying like that. “Then he will be of some use. Otherwise, what is the use of that?” Devotees, they always have a very pragmatic view on these things. Of course, this was Lord Caitanya's pastime to disguise Himself in this way and to enjoy in this way. Lord Caitanya, at the age of 14, He was already the master. He was already the school teacher of people that were even much older than Him. And He would travel around Navadvīpa with His students following behind Him. And whenever any of the scholars saw Him, they said, "Oh no, I am gone!"

Then immediately, Lord Caitanya would say, "Oh Mr. Bhattacharya. Come here, come here, how are you?" And then He would you know act like a dragon and immediately barrage him with so many questions. “We are humble students of grammar; can you give us some instructions today?” And then He would ask a question which was so tricky that the person would immediately say, "What ? What does this mean?" Then very humbly, that person would be completely dumbfounded by the person, and Lord Caitanya would give the answer. And the person would you know bow down in defeat, and then the other people would, all the students, would be... (laughter) In this way, it was like... and there were a lot of levels of scholars; it was like a war. People would go around and then... So in this way, finally, everyone was accepting that Nimāi Paṇḍita as the master of scholarship, undefeatable. He was able to understand everything.

Of course, Mukunda, at that time, was a devotee but he was also a little bit absorbed in the scholastic side. So, he was keeping away from Lord Caitanya, as many of the Vaiṣṇavas did. They thought, “Well, Lord Caitanya is a grammar student; Mukunda, he was thinking that Lord Caitanya is a grammar student. He doesn’t know about the finer Sanskrit poetic alaṅkāras, and other kinds of alaṅkāra and poetic renditions like similes and rhymes.”

But the same thing happened—Lord Caitanya would be walking around Navadvīpa with His students. When He saw Mukunda, He would say, "Mukunda, why you are hiding from me? Why you are not coming around anymore?" So then Mukunda thought, ‘Well, now he’s cornered me but He doesn’t know about poetics’

"Well, you are only a grammar student. You are a teacher of grammar. I am more interested now in the Sanskrit poetry and the Sanskrit poetic understanding. What do you know about that?"

Lord Caitanya said, “Well, 23.52 (inaudible), You tell me, and I will see if I know. You tell me some verse, and you tell me what are the high points and what are the low points.” So then Mukunda quoted a verse and pointed out, "These are the high points, these are the low points, these are the qualities, no faults."

And then Lord Caitanya would take the verse and further dissect it in so many different ways that Mukunda never understood, and then give various references from all types of scriptures. And Mukunda said, "How does this person know every scripture in the world, which He didn’t even study?"  He knew that Lord Caitanya had grown up in Navadvīpa because He was there with Him at that point. And he knew that He never studied the Purāṇas, He never studied the Upaniṣads. How did He know by heart every śloka of every scripture that was ever written? How was that humanly possible? And so then he was completely defeated by Lord Caitanya.

“But you listen and think about it. (laughter) And you come back to tomorrow and we will discuss the verse.”

So, in the same way, He saw that Gadādhara was avoiding Him. And in this way, Lord Caitanya was enjoying His scholarly pastimes. Sometimes, only Vaiṣṇavas would come up to Him and say, "What is the use of all your education if you don’t engage in Kṛṣṇa’s service?" Lord Caitanya would smile at them, and they would chastise Him, “Without Kṛṣṇa-bhakti there is no use to this scholarship, you see.”

“I must tell you the truth that I want to engage in devotional service, and I am just waiting until I meet that pure Vaiṣṇava who can inspire me with the teachings. And just for a little time longer, I will be enjoying the scholastic pursuits.” In this way he would encourage them.

In this way, Lord Caitanya, He was enjoying with all these scholars. And sometimes, Lord Caitanya would actually be absorbed in intense ecstasy, which would manifest completely—manifesting ecstatic symptoms. But people, at that time, He would explain it… when suddenly, uncontrollably, when He was describing a verse of Kṛṣṇa… He would speak Sanskrit through Kṛṣṇa. He was also teaching all His Sanskrit grammar by the names of Kṛṣṇa even then. And He was always arguing. He had a discussion with Gadādhara, where Gadādhara said... He asked him, "What is the meaning of mukti?"

Gadādhara said, "The meaning of mukti according to one of the Upaniṣads means that situation in which all types of miseries are destroyed."

And then Lord Caitanya would say, “That is not actually the highest level of liberation.” And then He quoted so many Vaiṣṇavas to prove the highest standard of liberation—that is Kṛṣṇa-bhakti, pure devotion to Kṛṣṇa. Even though at that time Lord Caitanya was establishing pure devotional service, but superficially that was not His only preoccupation. At that time, He was also engaged in so many scholastic things. In this way, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, He was enjoying Navadvīpa as the king of all the paṇḍitas.

So, at that time, I think I told you about Keśava Kāśmīrī coming? I already did?

How Nimbārka… the Catur-kumāras…. And then how they would predict He would come back.

So, when Keśava Kāśmīrī was known for defeating scholars all over India, when he came to Navadvīpa, of course, all the Navadvīpa scholars were very worried that now they were going to lose their good name by being defeated by someone from somewhere else. So, then they decided that they would send…. that the best person to meet Keśava Kāśmīrī was Nīmāi. By accident, they met in a private place. So, they introduced each other, but Caitanya Mahāprabhu presented Himself very humbly, as a student of grammar who knew a few things, and that Keśava Kāśmīrī was a great poet. At that time, there was no formal grammar as the basis for poetry, yet these poets were able to compose Sanskrit verses and poetry at a very advanced stage. In those days sannyāsīs were very strict, the scholars were very strict, only the worshippers of certain demigods would actually ever take any meat. All these people were very strict, very strict vegetarians, very strict in their behaviour. So, the differences were always in the philosophical level.

Here in Navadvīpa, when Keśava Kāśmīrī and Lord Caitanya met, then Lord Caitanya asked Keśava Kāśmīrī to… He would like to hear something from him. He requested him to chant a hundred verses and compose verses in praise of the Ganges.

And Keśava Kaśmīrī just like the wind, he composed one hundred verses on the Ganges, and those verses were just like that composed, original verses of poetry. One after another just like the wind, it’s very difficult. Even in English, how can one… to make a poetry it usually takes a little bit of time, but he was able to compose just one, two, three, four, five, six, verse after verse, one hundred. He was the worshipper of mother Sarasvatī – the goddess of learning, who is one of the consorts of… servitors of Lord Kṛṣṇa.  So, he was able to grab those verses so quickly that he was feeling very proud of him. And he asked Lord Caitanya what He thought. Lord Caitanya very discreetly said that, “Well! I have found many praiseworthy points, but only a few feedback. Could you kindly tell me what were the high points and what were the defects in your poetry?”

He was astonished, “Defects in my poetry? What do you mean by defects in my poetry?”

Lord Caitanya said, “I can tell you the guṇa and doṣa, the qualities and the high points if you order me. There are many good points and there are defects.”

So, Keśava Kaśmīrī was little bit stunned; a young person was already saying that there were defects in his poetry. So, he said, "Alright, you tell me what are the high points. I don’t find any defects in my poetry."

So, then Lord Caitanya picked out a verse right from the middle, probably the 100^th showing that He had completely memorized upon hearing, all the hundred verses, which itself astounded Keśava Kaśmīrī, because there is one thing which is harder than composing the hundred verses is that to memorizing them just if you hear them like that. It is very difficult. So, Lord Caitanya had completely memorized all of the verses as soon as He said them, and then He picked out one, and he had already taken it apart, and pointed out …. So, of course that is detailed in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Anyway, He picked what were the six or eight good points first, and then He told what were the bad points. He showed the good and the bad points. Keśava Kaśmīrī was stunned that this scholar was able to defeat him in that way, because even when he took out the verses there weren’t any bad points. He took out the bad points. And then Lord Caitanya showed these are the bad points, and these are the good points.

So, Keśava Kaśmīrī, he went back to his place where he was staying. That night he was praying and praying to mother Sarasvatī that, “Why you have allowed me to be defeated by this young person? Why did my intelligence get covered that I could not see the defects in my poetry? I was so illusioned by false pride that I was embarrassed in this way by just a young man.”

Then when he went to sleep at night, mother Sarasvatī appeared to him in his dream, and told him, “You should know that Person is my eternal husband, my eternal Master, and therefore you should surrender unto Him.”

Then Keśava Kaśmīrī, he couldn’t understand how a person could have such ability to memorize the slokas. When mother Saraswati told him that, “No this is Kṛṣṇa himself, He is my Master, surrender to Him.” Then he could understand who Lord Caitanya was. Then it made sense to him, how someone could have such extraordinary ability that he never experienced or knew. Then he went and surrendered to Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya revealed His original form in the spiritual world as Kṛṣṇa and others. In this way, there are so many devotees, who have gotten some mercy from the spiritual master just like Nimbārka Goswami got the mercy when he came back as Keśava Kaśmīrī.

Similarly, there was a king called Suvarṇa, and that king, he also worshiped Lord Caitanya thousands ofyears ago. I don’t know if actually he took the… I am not sure from where the ideas go, I don’t know whether they actually took the party to that place, there were the ruins from thousand and thousands of years, from the 900 years, 980 B.C. the arches and other ruins of the ancient kingdom of Suvarṇa. The King Suvarṇa, he was a very materialistic person, but he somehow or other was instructed to worship Lord Caitanya, and he had the darśana of Lord Caitanya at Māyāpur. Thousands of years ago Lord Caitanya appeared, and he was told that he would come back as Buddhimanta Khan in Lord Caitanya’s pastime.

This is the basic principle that someone who engages in devotional service, after he leaves the body, then he will be transferred to that universe, that place, or the same universe where the Lord is coming, where he will able to take part in the Lord’s pastimes, and from there then one is transferred back to the spiritual sky. This is the basic program. By engaging our mind in the service of Kṛṣṇa, then we go back to Kṛṣṇa.

If we engage our mind and the senses, then we are gone to the senses. If you put ten dogs in room and you ask them to be quiet, will they be quiet? Will they take the food, line up and divide it up? Now the whole human society is based on a very strong competition, and this competitive nature is not to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but who can please the senses at the highest way, and in this way by pleasing their senses, trying to satisfy their senses, it is simply becoming more and more degraded to animalistic plane.

So, therefore, we find Argentina and England fighting over a piece of rock. (laughter) I mean it doesn’t even grow anything but just shrubs. We find India and China fighting over a piece of the Himalayas. We find America and Vietnam fighting over a piece of swamp. Because no one knows exactly why…. because they can’t back down because of this and that consideration, because they are all simply engaged in sense gratification.

The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement doesn’t mean that there might not be fighting, but if there is fighting, it’s meant for defending the principles of Kṛṣṇa, not just for defending simply some sense gratification. It is meant for actually defending the Principles of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. The people are maintaining their body to such an extent, with such endeavor, but they don’t have any understanding what is the perfection.

Lord Caitanya, by showing these pastimes, illustrates that even if one is the greatest scholar, it is not complete unless he acts in devotion to Kṛṣṇa. Even when they know… and then you will get people who will know the scriptures, but they know it in a theoretical way, they don’t actually practice it, they don’t actually engage in devotional service. That type of knowledge of the scriptures is also not desirable. One must actually become a devotee. This is described by Kṛṣṇa Himself in the śloka

na me ’bhaktaś catur-vedī
mad-bhaktaḥ śva-pacaḥ priyaḥ

That if someone knows all the four Vedas by heart, but he is not My devotee, he is not as dear to me as my devotee even if he is born in an ignorant family, even if he is born in a family of dog eaters.

na me ’bhaktaś catur-vedī
mad-bhaktaḥ śva-pacaḥ priyaḥ
tasmai deyaṁ tato grāhyaṁ
sa ca pūjyo yathā hy aham

Whatever he offers that we should accept. He is as worshipable as I am.

It is Kṛṣṇa’s verdict that a pure devotee, he maybe from any background or any family, but he is the most purified person because he is worshipping Me. He has become one with me in spiritual quality. Therefore, whatever he gives you should accept.

This verse, I was invited to this… one of the temples which is called the Tirumala temple of Viṣṇu, it is a temple dating back from the Satya-yuga in Madurai, and there the Rāmānuja Sampradāya arranged a special phūla-giving for me as the ācārya of the Madhva-Gauḍīya Sampradāya, and one of the Rāmānuja ācāryas also was present. So, they had the elephant give a garland over my head, and the elephant bowed down, took the garland with the trunk, put it over the head, and then the elephant gave a trumpet, then they had a shehnai, and drum players went to the temple, and they gave the phūla, tulasī-abhiṣeka, deity ārati, take the shoes of the Deity and put them on our head. Take garments from the Deity’s body and put them around our head, and so many ceremonies were done for an hour and a half. People were prostrating when they saw us and everything, and wherever we went there was the van going in front. Full pūrṇa-kumbha, installed kumbha with coconut going in front, people with big cāmaras, with big umbrellas over their head. The whole… we circumambulated the deity. Their philosophy is that the servant of Viṣṇu is almost at the same level as Viṣṇu. Therefore, the servants all wear diamond earrings and so many things. So, they are giving a full reception ceremony, must be equivalent of the 21 guns salute and afterwards the Rāmānujācārya was lecturing to a crowd of about 2000 there, and he quoted the same verse.

na me ’bhaktaś catur-vedī
mad-bhaktaḥ śva-pacaḥ priyaḥ

That the real qualification of who is dear to Viṣṇu, who is worshipable, and who is a devotee. In the temple he was explaining to the South Indians who are very much deep in Caste-brahminism and so many other conceptions, that we should worship and respect the pure devotees of the Lord, and not see them with kind of bodily consciousness.

So, this is one of the purposes of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s movement, was to actually establish a real standard, not based upon any designation, simply based upon pure devotional service, transcendental activities, transcendental realizations. As long as the world is full of artificial, superficial designations, on the material platform, then there will always be different kinds of envy, different kinds of fighting, simply for sense gratification, because everyone would misplace their energy, misplace their attachments, and thus waste the valuable human life. Human life is meant to get above all the artificial designations, above all the sense gratificatory activities, and actually engage oneself in the real pursuit of human life, which is described very nicely in this verse. The human form of body is meant for understanding the self and the Superself – the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Both of them are transcendentally situated. If both of them can be understood when one is purified by advanced knowledge, for what reason and for whom does a foolish greedy person maintain the body for sense gratification?

Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda kī….

Devotees: Jaya!

On true purpose: We have to engage in elevating oneself, and associate with the Superself. When you have understood I am not the body, then you act like that. You eat, but you eat only Kṛṣṇa-prasādam, you speak but you only speak words which are suitable for the service of Kṛṣṇa, and you think, but you don’t think how to make nice arrangements for my body, but you think how to make nice arrangements for the service of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is giving food for maintaining the body to serve Kṛṣṇa, not to enjoy sense-gratification. That person is already considered liberated. It doesn’t mean that one has to see the soul in realizations to engage in this type of elevation, that one can thoroughly understand that he is the spirit soul and act accordingly, and by acting in that consciousness automatically he becomes elevated to the liberated realization of Kṛṣṇa consciousness; naturally develops.

Even a person who is a householder and who can thoroughly understand these principles, is also considered to be a tri-daṇḍī sannyāsī. How can you compare so called sannyāsī who is maintaining his body eating meat and other abominable things, they are the bogus people who claim to be sannyāsī or swami. How can you compare them with the person in pure Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, who is a gṛhastha, brahmacārī, following the principles of Kṛṣṇa consciousness? He is unlimitedly times more advanced and on the transcendental platform than the materialists in the garb as transcendentalists.  

Accordingly, he maintains the body what for? If we simply maintain the body for sense gratification, we may simply be more and more implicated into miserable conditions. So, even if we have the human form of life, one should not simply maintain it to enjoy material happiness which is available in the animal species, simply maintaining the body for sense gratification. It is like simply maintaining a car so that it can burn gas. So, you don’t use it to drive anymore. You just can drive it around and around, filling in some gas. Using the body just so that we can use it. Just that you can have the time, but there is no use for it. You may get a little sense gratification; at the same time you are going to be constantly repairing it and suffering various kinds of miseries from it. So, you are simply wasting your time. So, you got a brand-new car, you are driving it… just like I heard that in Arabia they don’t have any place to go. It is a small country, Abu Dhabi and all these places. So, sometimes they build a big four lane highway, eight lane highway out into the desert, goes out about 10 miles out of the country, doesn’t know where they are going to stop. They drive out, they turn around and then they drive back. You need somewhere to drive. They got these big cars so they build these highways simply to drive and come back. Nobody knows we don’t need any of them, because they don’t have a country as big as an empire. (laughter)

Anyway, maintaining the body just for maintaining it without any other purpose, just to make the body feel comfortable – what is the use? The best thing – what is the use when you can realize, the real spiritual realization that you can actually go somewhere, you can get out of this. Then why waste the time simply driving around like that, there is something better to do. If you have nothing better to do, alright. But when there is something better to do, you can become Kṛṣṇa conscious, when you can realize the self and the Superself, then why waste time running around like a little kid running around in circles, simply running after the senses?

People work so hard in making big, big factories, but the ultimate purpose is so that they can get a bigger house, so that they can have more powers, so that they can have…. if not to really help the people, although they may be a side… but materially speaking, they are simply involved in sense gratification, for themselves or even for others. The point is that since there is a higher purpose of life, which they can achieve, why should they waste their time for something which is going to be finished at any moment. So, just so that it means that they lack common sense and they become foolish indeed. 

On Gauḍīya-maṭha: Prabhupada’s godbrothers are next to invisible. I was at three world Hindu conferences, and three Kumbha melas. And at the world Hindu conference, they have the main dais with the Dalāi Llama, with the Rāmānujācārya Sampradāya, Madhvā Sampradāya, and Śaṅkarācārya Sampradāya, and then in the main dais I am sitting, and then the Gauḍīya-maṭha, they are off in the peanut-gallery. Most of the time they don’t even show up. They are way off and they don’t do any preaching, it is amazing. They don’t go to Kumbha-melā, they don’t put a camp in the Kumbha-melā, they don’t attend any of the big conferences, they don’t fit hardly anywhere, doing anything. If they meet some donor who gives for the temple somewhere, they go there and they build the temple, they ring the bell, they go out in the morning house to house, collect rice, cook it up, offer to the Deity, eat and sleep, that’s it. They don’t print any book; they don’t distribute any book. If somehow or another they beg and get a temple built, then they just have brahmacārīs there do the pūjā, do the ārati, and go around and beg, and maintain the temple by any means. 

The people in the same city, they don’t even know where the temple is. We were in Madras, the name of the road is called Gauḍiyā-matḥa street, or Gauḍiyā-matḥa road, we were asking people on the road, that where is the Gauḍiyā-matḥa. People had lived there for thirty years, that we know that this road is Gauḍiyā-matḥa but we don’t know what Gauḍiyā-matḥa means, we don’t know where it is. We couldn’t find people that could tell us where the temple was. Even the name of the street, the Hare Kṛṣṇa road. We asked where the Hare Kṛṣṇa road is, everybody knows where it is, but if we ask Gauḍiyā-matḥa road, nobody knows where it is. Then our devotees went there and they asked them, “How is the preaching going?” and they became offended. They said, “Preaching? We don’t preach. We practice.” Some of them think that preaching is māyā or something. But they think that you should practice, you should just do your sādhana-bhakti, you should do your arcanam, and then if anybody comes into the door, then we can also engage them in that. I don’t see how that how they are the followers of Bhaktisiddhānta in the real sense, I don’t see. I don’t see that they are doing anything that Bhaktisiddhānta asked them to do. They are our god-brothers, and therefore I don’t see, only one or two of them are doing something right, little bit of preaching at a very basic level, but most of them are into maintaining themselves, and that they can’t repair the temples that are falling apart.  Prabhupāda used to cry when he saw this. He said, “One thing I am requesting you, don’t let my temples fall apart. At least maintain.” You see, I took in a trip and some temples were not taking care of the Deities, some temples were falling down, and even the main temple can’t afford the color on the dome. Prabhupada said “Please, they have never built a kīrtana hall in 50 years, in 35 years, or 40 years. Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura wanted a kīrtana hall built in the birthplace for Lord Caitanya. We go there and we have to stand in the rain, and maybe you can get under a tree, but otherwise there is nothing there. Now it is our plan to have a kīrtana hall. So, Prabhupada gave me money and said, “Personally go there and request them to build the kīrtana hall. You just put my name Bhaktivedanta Swami kīrtana hall, and then, apart from that, it theirs, it is a complete gift. You don’t have any claim over it, it is completely theirs, and they can do you know what they like. And I have been approaching them for four or five years now, this one said go to that one, that one says go to this one. They’d rather not have Lord Caitanya’s place developed. So they’re not able to do, but then they don’t want the one who’s able to do either. So it says not to talk or think about the Gauḍiya-maṭha. One time, Prabhupada told us that, “Dead or alive, you should not be involved.” We have to carry on the mission of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, of Bhaktisiddhānta, of ISKCON. We can convince any of them to join ISKCON and accept Prabhupāda’s śikṣā, Bhaktisiddhānta’s śikṣā as it is, then there is scope, otherwise there is no other scope for preaching. Prabhupāda always requested them to come and to join ISKCON, but that they don’t like to do. When they realize, I am sure they will be able to do so. In the meantime, we have to carry out very carefully Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, simultaneously book distribution, preaching all over the world. Cooperating together, so that is simple.

On Lord Caitanya’s sannyāsa-līlā: Keśava Bhārati, he took initiation from Īśvara Purī. He took sannyāsa from Keśava Bhāratī. Keśava Bhāratī was a devotee. In those days, the sannyāsī meant Śaṅkarācārya. Lord Caitanya had a purpose, he wanted to win over the Śaṅkarācārya sannyāsī. So, he took initiation in that sampradāya of sannyāsa. Actually, he didn’t really take initiation, he gave initiation. When he went the Keśava Bhāratī, and stayed back, and said, “Keśava Bhāratī, do you know the Vaiṣṇava-sannyāsa mantra?” Then he told Keśava Bhāratī to answer, and then Lord Caitanya told it in his ear. That mantra Keśava Bhāratī gave back to Lord Caitanya. But for the purpose of preaching, by that he was able to preach to Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī and other Māyāvādī sannyāsīs. The purpose of Lord Caitanya is to combine all the different sampradāyas to pure Sanātana-dharma.