19821214 Evening Darśana

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on December 14th, 1982 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Jayapatākā Swami: …now come to the West to try to get purified by participating in the marathon, actually we know that there are three things that Prabhupāda liked most of all, he said that he specifically liked… I don’t know like is not the right word. I can’t think of the proper adjective at this moment, but that he held above all other things. First thing was distributing his big books, getting his books distributed. Second was… another thing was the… his projects in India, and then one other thing was preaching in the Communist and Muslim countries: High-risk preaching, these were the very dear… very dear types of preaching to Śrīla Prabhupāda, so we’ve had some experience of the Indian projects, and with some Communist and Muslim preaching, but we hadn’t… recently, because when I was in America there were no big books, so we just had Back to Godhead and few things like that up to 1970 when I went to India so this will be nice experience trying to help the distributors.

Anyway I asked Narahari Mahārāja what I should speak on tonight. He said, “Well, we have the Pañca-Tattva, we should say something about… we haven’t heard anything about Gadādhara or Śrīvāsa very much, so of course that won’t directly be about book distribution, but I asked him whether I should talk about how Gadādhara Prabhu met his guru, Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi, said he didn’t think that he’d ever heard about that, so I could say that, because actually I just came… Probably it’s fresh in my mind because I just came from Bangladesh which is the birthplace of Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi he is the third branch of Lord Caitanya’s tree, I believe, and he is very… I forget, either the third or the seventh, but anyway he is one of the major branches and he was born near Chittagong which is the far border of Bengal and what was very nice is that the local residents of that place who were managing the temple , I brought a picture there… so Rāghava Prabhu, we have some pictures of the temple they built. They had completed their temple so they gifted the whole property over to ISKCON front organization there, and they are cooperating a lot for developing that as a very nice Kṛṣṇa conscious center. There are 2 or 3.000 people just there for a festival.

So, actually in ISKCON we are hoping that in the future there will be…. we will be able to bring many devotees over when we have the festival for some pandal, well be able to fly them over to Chittagong, because one person who had just left his body who helped to catalyze this whole thing he had the vision that people will coming from all over the world to see Puṇḍarīka dhāma, so actually would it be nice to bring in devotees in to this Muslim country. In that little corner is a very ideal situation that in spite of being a Muslim country that is the most concentrated place of Hindus and all the Hindus are basically devotees of Lord Caitanya, and 90%... but 35% Hindu population and 10% Buddhist, so the Muslim fanaticism is a little reduced in that part of Bangladesh so it is a good place and if you bring in devotees to see , it is a place of pilgrimage that even the Muslims can appreciate as tourism. So, anyway that’s not really to do with the history. History goes back of course five hundred years when Lord Caitanya was in Navadvīpa.

You know that Gadādhara was a lifelong brahmacārī, a very strict, very austere and he was a brāhmaṇa, he was a student he was a scholar, but he was engaged in different type of devotional services, so there he was engaged in Navadvīpa he was a little younger, Śrīvāsa was older, and one day at the Śrīvāsāṅgana, Lord Caitanya was dancing in kīrtana, suddenly He looked towards the East and He started to cry out, “Puṇḍarīka, Puṇḍarīka, Puṇḍarīka” and He started feeling ecstatic symptoms, and the devotees, you know, gathered around him, but then no one knew who he was talking about. Suddenly He stopped calling out and He started the kīrtana up again. Later someone asked “Who is Puṇḍarīka?”

And Lord Caitanya said: “He is a great devotee , he is coming, he is coming, you’ll be able to see him.”

So there are references in Caitanya Bhāgavata, different places, how Lord Caitanya had a great esteem for Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi. Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi himself, well actually he was a, they call it zamindar means like a kind of like a king, sub-king big landlord he was in that type of family so he had, just like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was a magistrate, he was a landlord, he was not a landlord of a little apartment building, but over a whole state, so it’s like a type of king, like maybe like in Europe they call it Duke or Earl or something like that, he was of that type of social standing, he was very high standing, but he was a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, so naturally when he was moving about to maintain certain social requirements he had to dress nicely and he carried himself in a certain way, but he always wore tilak and neckbeads and he was doing worship and he organized in such a way that even today after 500 years even in spite of the Mohammadan rule in that area all the people are very devoted to Lord Caitanya.

So that definitely that tradition… because Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura preached in north Bengal, and then his followers went to as far as Manipur, but specifically Puṇḍarīka and other great devotees they were preaching in the southern Burmese border of Bengal and we have to give them the maximum credit for the fact that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is still established there amongst the followers of Vedic civilization. So Mukunda Datta and Vasudeva Datta were born within a half a mile of Puṇḍarīka Vidyanidhi’s birth place all of them in the same area. So when Puṇḍarīka actually came to Navadvīpa, Mukunda who is one of the kīrtana members in Lord Caitanya… when we sing 'kiba jaya jaya' in the ārati, there’s Mukunda Vasudeva… 'bāsu-ghoṣa ādi kari' others. So this Mukunda was one of the intimate devotees of Lord Caitanya. He was also a little older, not so much older,little older, but he was almost a contemporary with Gadādhara, so, in terms of age and otherwise.

So when Puṇḍarīka came then he told Gadādhara: “There’s a great devotee come. Why don’t you come and meet Puṇḍarīka, so there was some… because Lord Caitanya had mentioned his name, and Gadādhara was always anxious to meet the devotees and serve the Vaiṣṇavas and to get their association and hear from them, so he said, “Yes why not, of course this is a good opportunity for me.” And the… Puṇḍarīka when he would travel around, as I mentioned he was a little opulent, so when Gadādhara who was very austere brahmacārī, when he went to see Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi with Mukunda they went into the place. He had bought a house in Navadvīpa, so that he could be near Lord Caitanya, he came in and he payed his obeisances and looked around, and there he saw that there were big brass lamps very opulent brass. Golden polish. Lamp… ghee lamps, silken wall hangings and he was sitting on a big… there was a big cushion all silk and there were two people fanning him with camaras (laughs), he was decked out you know, in really fancy silks and someone was putting scented oil in his hair (laughs), and he was sitting there chanting japa (devotees laughing). So, Gadādhara looked around and saw the whole situation and thought, “You know…” Mukunda meanwhile was introducing: “That this is Gadādhara one of the devotees of Lord Caitanya. This is Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi.” They were introducing, in the meantime Gadādhara was thinking that, “Maybe he's not really that pure of a devotee, or maybe he is a little materialistically attached or something. (devotees laughing) Seems to be a little bit overboard.” He had some little doubts came to his mind, you know, when he saw the… I mean just I mean it was really opulent situation, you know… rings and everything. So I mean he started to get a little doubtful that “Maybe I wasn’t brought really to the right place (laughs) that I expected.” You see. Some doubt came in.

So Mukunda, Mukunda is very expert. The whole thing about Mukunda, why they always glorify Mukunda in the kīrtana is because he was expert at realizing the mood of the devotees. Just like someone who serves prasāda, you always see the senior devotees serve prasāda in Lord Caitanya’s group, because knowing which prasāda the devotees wanted, what time, it’s very… you have to be very sensitive. A person’s thinking about “When I’m gonna eat?” Then he’s not gonna be able to serve. You have to be thinking about how to serve the others. So in the same way Mukunda was a kīrtana singer that he would pick up the mood of Lord Caitanya, pick up the mood of the devotees, and then one day he would insert in… within the harināma certain tune, or a certain bhajana which was just tuned to the mood of Lord Caitanya which would increase His rasa, so many times and that’s why he was very, very prominent in all the kīrtana, because he was very sensitive to the mood of the different devotees.

So he could immediately pick up the mood of Gadādhara which was coming… already, you know, you could see that, it wasn’t… you know that faith wasn’t flowing, he was being bewildered by the superficial vision, so then Mukunda immediately said: “Well, Puṇḍarīka. He has a very strong attachment for Lord Kṛṣṇa .” And then he just immediately started singing a bhajana… quoting from the Sanskrit from the Bhāgavatam about the pastime of Pūtanā, how Pūtanā was delivered, and when he heard this… Before I told this?

When he started to describe that līlā — how Putana had come put the poison on her breast came and took the baby Kṛṣṇa to kill Him and then Kṛṣṇa instead said: “Oh this is My mother.” And then elevates her to the position in Vaikuṇṭha of being a mother of Kṛṣṇa and started glorifying Kṛṣṇa in this way. As soon as he started to glorify, at that time immediately, Puṇḍarīka he completely… he became so mad for Kṛṣṇa , he said: “I’m so fallen! Oh Kṛṣṇa! You are so kind that even you delivered Pūtanā, you delivered a witch and I am so rotten. I’m so en…” and then he started ripping his clothes and pounding and rolling. He completely went mad. I mean it was… it wasn’t like, we always say about sahajiyās, but it was a real thing, it was prema-bhakti. It was completely… he just went mad right on the spot, ripping and rolling around he became completely, just filled with devotion and humility and everything in relation to Kṛṣṇa so… so intensely that he was beating himself and ripping his cloth up, and knocking the things over and just… he became… because he… and Mukunda kept you know, pounding it further and further.

One more śloka. One more thing of glorifying Kṛṣṇa’s mercy, thinking, “I have no appreciation for Kṛṣṇa! I have no devotion for Kṛṣṇa ! Kṛ…” and he was just you know, getting out of it. Finally, Mukunda then let it cool down. (laughs) You know, before it was… once… as soon as he heard about Kṛṣṇa , he could see, immediately Puṇḍarīka was locked in. There was not another thought. There was not… he just became completely absorbed in that, and then Gadādhara was (inaudible), “Did I make a mistake! I mean, I completely miss.. misunderstood this person, he was… this person is… you could see that he was completely absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness that the external thing had nothing to do with his real… where his mind was was completely in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.”

So in this way Gadādhara was feeling that “I committed a vaiṣṇava-aparādha, I came in here without even, just seeing the superficial, without knowing who he was, without knowing, I just immediately judged him on the basis of his superficial situation. Now I am guilty of a vaiṣṇava-aparādha. I’m not gonna get Kṛṣṇa-prema, I’m not going to get devotion, I am going to be able to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness how to rectify this?”

He was thinking like that, he told Mukunda that, “I made this offense, actually I was doubting Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi but I could see that he was actually…” of course, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we don’t stress these… what happened was that in the pure devotees of Lord Caitanya, this type of manifestations of Kṛṣṇa-prema where quite evident then what happened, unscrupulous people later on, they would imitate those real symptoms.

Without real symptoms, they would imitate these symptoms to get cheap followers and therefore Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura or Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura and Śrīla Prabhupāda, they had to stress, that… to not look at these symptoms anymore, because of this tendency. Now it’s… Kali-yuga is advanced, they try to imitate them. To look rather at anubhāvas sym… other symptoms mentioned in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, which are like always being engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, always being enthusiastic to serve Kṛṣṇa, being completely absorbed in preaching, in serving things, things… other anubhavas not wasting any time, not being attached when you lose something materially or becoming over elated when gain something materially, things like… there are certain different symptoms that are there called anubhāvas which are recommended we should be more conscious of. Nonetheless, these other symptoms, Gadādhara was a very advanced devotee he could tell if someone was putting on something, so this was a completely spontaneous reaction, so he was telling Mukunda that, “I committed some offense. I was doubting Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi. Actually I see he is very attached to Kṛṣṇa , and I mean… he’s a pure devotee but I was seeing the material situation. For some reason Kṛṣṇa has given him this opulence and he is using it in the service of Kṛṣṇa , but I doubted him. Now how to get out of this offense? I’m thinking that maybe the only way to get out of this offense is if he accepts me as a disciple, because a guru never takes offense from a disciple very easily. Easily forgives the disciple, so maybe if I, how I’m gonna get out of this, maybe this is one way I can get out of the offense is if I accept initiation from him, then that offense will be negated. That’ll be a way of establishing my relationship in such a way.”

So Mukunda… actually maybe I don’t if he said it at that moment, or that was the first, but somewhere, he first told Mukunda that he made the offense and somewhere he got the idea that “Maybe I should take initiation as one way of getting out of the offense.” and then Mukunda mentioned to him, to Puṇḍarīka that “He was doubting, or something, but that please you forgive him and maybe you should give with him your shelter.” Puṇḍarīka wasn’t particularly very interested, but you know, he didn’t take any offense. So then later, Mukunda approached Lord Caitanya. Actually Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi came and Lord Caitanya embraced him and was... welcoming him and introduced him to all of the devotees and brought him right into the saṅkīrtana party at Śrīvāsa’s house.

At that time Mukunda told about this little pastime and how Gadādhara was having some doubt and then how he committed this mental offense and he was thinking maybe he should accept Puṇḍarīka as his guru. What did Lord Caitanya think?

Lord Caitanya said that, “Very good. This has My complete blessing.” and immediately on the spot Lord Caitanya arranged initiation yajña ceremony and Puṇḍarīka Vidyanidhi initiated Gadādhara Prabhu and actually Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi is Vrṣabhānu-rājā in Kṛṣṇa-līlā, the father of Rādhārāṇī. So the father of Rādhārāṇī in Kṛṣṇa-līlā became guru-pitā or guru father. Prabhupāda when he wrote in his Passport, and when he wrote in the land deeds in Māyāpur we purchased, he would write “Father” He would put “Guru-pitā.” Pitā, of course everyone knows means father, he put “Guru-pitā, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura” So in that sense, then you’d also… would say that your spiritual… I’m your spiritual father, you’re my spiritual sons and daughters.

So in this way Lord Caitanya we see that in his pastime… Lord Caitanya, how the relationship of either father and Rādhārāṇī or guru-pitā and the disciple that the same relationship is being maintained in a different pastime. So of course Gadādhara Prabhu is so exalted that… of course, as an example he’s accepting a spiritual master. Everyone needs a spiritual master just like Kṛṣṇa Himself gave the example, Lord Caitanya gave the example but you know that Gadādhara Prabhu is actually nitya-siddha, nitya-pārṣada, he is an eternal associate, so this is more of a formality he was already a perfected soul completely fixed in his svarūpa-siddhi or in the realization of his eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa , but for the sake of example he’s accepting a spiritual master and that spiritual master in Lord Caitanya līlā is the same as Vrṣabhānu was in Kṛṣṇa līlā.

All the main associates of Lord Kṛṣṇa again have come in the pastimes of Lord Caitanya. This is a wonderful… that Prabhupāda explains to us that the devotees of Lord Caitanya they are able to simultaneously find the place in Lord Caitanya’s pastimes and Lord Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes, so by engaging in the saṅkīrtana movement of Lord Caitanya — by distributing books, by preaching, we are actually establishing ourselves also in the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa automatically by being established in the pastimes of Lord Caitanya. You don’t have to independently endeavor, in fact when someone artificially tries to by some meditation or by some other type of concocted way some false imitation of the six gosvāmīs thinking “I’ll just go out and just by some reading or some meditation I’ll establish myself as one of the associates of Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana or as a gopī-bhāva or something like that…” One time, Śrīla Rāmeśvara Swami had to be very strong to stop some kind of type of sahajiyā movement like that, and we heard, he got special blessings from Śrīla Prabhupāda for rooting out different kinds of poison that can creep in. So, these type of tendencies are completely unauthorized, actually the authorized method was given to us by Śrīla Prabhupāda as the preaching, in fact Prabhupāda quoted this one poem of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, My naughty mind, materialistic mind what kind of Vaiṣṇava are you? Envious mind, what kind of Vaiṣṇava are you? And in the end of that Bhaktisiddhānta describes that the prāṇa ache yāra, se hetu pracāra. That the reason why devotee preaches is because he has got real life, real spiritual life and that that is the symptom of being an eternal resident of Vṛndāvana, Vrajavāsī-gaṇa pracāra pradhāna, that the wealth of eternal associates of Lord Caitanya, of Kṛṣṇa is that they are anxious to increase Kṛṣṇa’s devotees.

Their preaching mood is to increase the number of devotees, increasing the number of fallen souls who are restated in Kṛṣṇa’s eternal relationship, in their original consciousness, that’s to please Kṛṣṇa. It’s not for some material name, fame, position. It’s purely simply to increase the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa and increasing the devotees and as compassion to help the fallen souls who are suffering because of their forgetfulness. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā, Prabhupāda describes that anyone, you see, any pious person can come to understand Kṛṣṇa, but there are four kind of demons, four kind of people who can´t surrender to Kṛṣṇa: those who are the mūḍha, foolish like an ass, the narādhama, lowest of mankind, māyayāpahṛta-jñāna, those who have lost their intelligence to māyā and the āsura-bhāva-āśrita, those who are in the mood of the demons, who are the atheistic mood, so that is a special pastime of Lord Caitanya that he was able even to deliver such narādhamas, such asura-bhāva-āśritas as Jagāi-Mādhāi, that even though Kṛṣṇa said “These, unable…” “These four type of people are not able to surrender to Me.” Somehow there is a hope for even those four classes of people by the mercy of Lord Caitanya. There’s a hope for them, even though mainly they can’t surrender but, by getting the special mercy of Lord Caitanya’s devotees, by getting a book on Kṛṣṇa conscious… if somehow or other they are able to at least accept it from… some way or another to hold the book, “Oh, their spiritual life has begun.” You see, if they are able to contribute something, they get… any of this is called sukṛti and what does it say? Who can surrender? Su… That person who has got sukṛti, that person who has got some asset, you see. So the devotees are making the good fortune, making the good fortune.

Most people thought, “Well he’s devotee, but maybe like a little materialistic devotee.” That’s why, you know, someone… Just like we have, I mean… Peter Burwash is a tennis, you know, expert, whatever tennis pro, famous person, so Prabhupāda didn’t tell him, didn’t tell George Harrison that they should give up their profession to become devotees but told rather that they should become Kṛṣṇa conscious and then try to utilize their influence or their position or their profession, so in the same way Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi could’ve just gave it all up being a king but if you gonna be a king you can’t go around in rags. No one will understand. If you’re going to be a king or a big, like that type, Duke or Earl, whatever, that type Zamindar, then you have to also have with you certain, you know, clout, a certain you know… otherwise people just don’t pay any attention, you know. You just… You’re just, part of the game. But what that most people are into it, they are really into… they’re identifying with that name, fame, with that… with but the fact is that Puṇḍarīka Vidyā… didn’t identify with it at all.

It wasn’t that he was attached to it in any real level. It was just that this was part of like the… the game he had to play, the part of the role he had to play in that social position , but his whole heart, soul was simply how to utilize everything for the service of Kṛṣṇa and the whole thing was… just like Mahārāja Ambarīṣa. Mahārāja Ambarīṣa was the king he didn’t have to… he had to accept so many kingly opulences and things. So I’m just trying to first, you know… just to get the point clear on him, you know. So, your point was that if somebody comes here and maybe opulent or something like that but they maybe be a devotee but we don’t know it?

Devotee: Well, maybe that. And (inaudible) we can make a mistake, you know, “Materialistic completely.” Not offend him in so many ways.

Jayapatākā Swami: No, because I mean, Puṇḍarīka was chanting, he was following the principles and was… you have to see if a person is sincerely engaging in… otherwise in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you see. It wasn’t that… Puṇḍarīka didn’t have any other attachments, he had some opulence, you see, but he didn’t work for that opulence. He didn’t go out of his way to get it. It wasn’t like people say “I’m gonna go get rich and then give money to Kṛṣṇa ” It wasn’t like he had the idea that “I’m gonna just stop my devotional service for ten years, get rich and then when I’ll get rich I’ll give all the money to Kṛṣṇa .” In the mean time they get completely enwrapped in fruitive activities and they lose the taste for devotional service. They get… develop bad habits and they go under… under the influence of illusion. Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi was born with the gold… with the silver… with like the… born with a silver spoon. He was born into it. He was already rich he didn’t have to work, you know, a day in his life for it. It just happened, so why give it up?

If somebody hands a million dollars and like Mahārāja, just like Ambarīṣa… our own Ambarīṣa, he gave us this temple. Prabhupāda never said that “You renounce everything and became a sannyāsi.” You see. That’s not our philosophy, so Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi, he didn’t work for it. I mean, he just had it, so he didn’t give it up, but even in an ordinary Vaiṣṇava, they have the idea that “Well, this person because he has this opulence maybe he is a little attached.” You see, that’s a superficial… that’s… in India they think that way. If you are not really wearing your ripped cloth, maybe you are not a real sādhu. They don’t know about yukta-vairāgya. They are impressed by phalgu-vairāgya by superficial renunciation.

So opulence maybe there but then we have to see, that whether… where the main flow is going. If the main thing is all being used for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, if the person is not having other, you know,not using the money for some other purpose, or not just uh, neglecting the others principles of devotional service, that should be seen. A person himself should… see, sometimes people doing business and, by regularly giving to Kṛṣṇa there is… even there might be… there might be less. 

It might be, “Alright, in the future you might make money. You want to give a lot of money.” But, one should continuously be in the habit of giving to Kṛṣṇa otherwise you get out of the habit and then you just start getting involved in material fruitive desire. This is mentioned very clearly in the purport on the Gundīcā Mārjanam, where Bhaktisiddhānta mentions in the purport about just getting involved in fruitive… even a devotee for good intention wants to engage himself in some business or some material activity, but their habit of working fruitivetly is so strong for millions of births that we can immediately just fall in to a kind of fruitive attitude.

You see so many people, even they make money a lot of them don’t give the money to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and then they start… they just get into trouble eventually by misinvesting. You know… well, for instance… like Hari-vilāsa, who has made a very successful business in France, he is regularly contributing to printing all the Eastern European books and to so many projects. He has even given us a contribution for printing Bengali Bhagavad-gītā, and there he is regularly giving, just right off the top from his… but then you see even Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees,they make some business but then for some reason they don’t like to give to Kṛṣṇa consciousness more than tokens. Then what’s the use?

Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi was not that type of devotee, that was a devotee who was putting out… that’s the type of devotee that he thought he was, that he was such a devotee. He was you know a little half devotee… had the opulence, wasn’t really doing anything for Kṛṣṇa , just I mean… because that’s the way… just they assumed it was something like that, that he was like a kind of like a fringie, in our terms. That he was a devotee but not of the A class level. That was the offense that Gadādhara was making in his mind, you see.

So that offense we should be… beware of. You’re correct we shouldn’t make offenses just because someone may have some opulence, you see. We shouldn’t be envious of that, but we should see the where… if the person’s main devotion and attachment is for serving Prabhupāda, then we should uh, consider that, you see. Like that you can find blemishes in the moon. Everyone you can find… if you wanna find something to complain about, you can find something always to complain about, you see. For some people, little opulence is a good preaching, you see… I may be one of the more simple people, someone else maybe more opulent, someone else be, you know. It’s all relative. That’s not a… The real standard is what energy you’re giving to Kṛṣṇa .

Somewhere you attachment is. If it’s to Kṛṣṇa, to preaching Prabhupāda's movement, you’re giving all your energy, all your time that’s the thing we should judge. Or if a person, is able to use the position, all right, but if he’s, instead of that is being tied down by the position, is not attached to Kṛṣṇa then that person himself should consider, and preachers should be very careful, because it is a more dangerous position, no doubt about it. Our tendency, when we have some opulence is to become attached. It’s a very natural tendency, and one has to be very advanced. Just like we can’t imitate Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi, we can’t imitate Rāmānanda Rāya. We can’t imitate different devotees like that, that have these special qualities. We can’t even imitate the austerity of Dāsa Raghunātha. We can’t imitate the opulence of Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi, we can’t imitate the ability of Rāmānanda Rāya to train the dāsīs in how to dance, you know. (laughs) You can’t imitate this. These are like special opulence that different devotees have, but we can understand from them that “Yes. Kṛṣṇa consciousness can accommodate all kinds of situations, of all kinds of people.”

The main thing is whether you are attached to Kṛṣṇa and whether the attachment is taking the form of devotional service, chanting and a… and uh, appreciation of other devotees, is that all right?

Hare Kṛṣṇa .

Any else? Yes? Is he?

Devotee: I was wondering what happens if there’s a saṅkīrtana devotee took… took from the collection and not give it to Kṛṣṇa, just used it for himself.

Jayapatākā Swami: Prabhupāda said that’s drinking the blood of the guru. That’s the blood of the guru.

Devotee: Is that good or bad?

Jayapatākā Swami: What do you think? (laughter) Pretty obvious, you see. Whatever… everyone’s taking from Kṛṣṇa, so we do devotional service to give to Kṛṣṇa. That’s the special… special facility of devotional service, that we… now we can give to Kṛṣṇa. The people give us money to go to Kṛṣṇa, we should see that it gets to Kṛṣṇa. After that Kṛṣṇa , giving us our cloth, give us our prasāda, give us what we need. Prabhupāda, he stressed in this point that a person gives us a donation in good faith; whether or not we give it to Kṛṣṇa he gets the credit. If he gives with that consciousness, now of course a person doesn’t give it with that consciousness then, if you give it to Kṛṣṇa , he’ll get an ajñāta-sukṛti which is there, but if a person gives it with the con… that, “I’m giving to Kṛṣṇa .” and then you don’t give it to Kṛṣṇa , it’s your offense. Then you’re the break in the link, that person will benefit, but then you’ll be responsible that you don’t use it for Kṛṣṇa, so we have to be careful to get everything to Kṛṣṇa, and then once you get it to Kṛṣṇa then we have to manage carefully. That’s what Rāghava Prabhu is doing it managing, that nothing gets wasted once it gets to Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Rāmeśvara Swami seeing it all gets to Prabhupāda in the form of BBT, and printing up so many wonderful books, helping Māyāpur project, Indian projects, Prabhupāda’s samādhīs.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.