19840424 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.5.17.4

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Svāmī on April 24, 1984 in Miami, Florida. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 5th Canto, Chapter 17, Verse 4.

tato ’neka-sahasra-koṭi-vimānānīka-
saṅkula-deva-yānenāvatar-antīndu
maṇḍalam vārya brahma-sadane nipatati.
(ŚB 5.17.4)

tataḥ — after purifying the seven planets of the seven great sages; aneka — many; sahasra — thousands; koṭi — of millions; vimāna-anīka — with contingents of airplanes; saṅkula — congested; deva-yānena — by the spaceways of the demigods; avatarantī — descending; indu-maṇḍalam — the moon planet; āvārya — inundated; brahma-sadane — to the abode of Lord Brahmā atop Sumeru-parvata; nipatati — falls down.

Translation (by His Divine Grace Śrīla Abhayacaran Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda): Jay! After purifying the seven planets near Dhruvaloka [the polestar], the Ganges water is carried through the spaceways of the demigods in billions of celestial airplanes. Then it inundates the moon [Candraloka] ] and finally reaches Lord Brahmā’s abode atop Mount Meru.

Purport: We should always remember that the Ganges River comes from the Causal Ocean, beyond the covering of the universe. After the water of the Causal Ocean leaks through the hole created by Lord Vāmanadeva, it flows down to Dhruvaloka (the polestar) and then to the seven planets beneath Dhruvaloka. Then it is carried to the moon by innumerable celestial airplanes, and then it falls to the top of Mount Meru, which is known as Sumeru-parvata. In this way, the water of the Ganges finally reaches the lower planets and the peaks of the Himālayas, and from there it flows through Hardwar and throughout the plains of India, purifying the entire land. How the Ganges water reaches the various planets from the top of the universe is explained herein. Celestial airplanes carry the water from the planets of the sages to other planets. So-called advanced scientists of the modern age are trying to go to the higher planets, but at the same time they are experiencing a power shortage on earth. If they were actually capable scientists, they could personally go by airplane to other planets, but this they are unable to do. Having now given up their moon excursions, they are attempting to go to other planets, but without success.

Thus end Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Purport and Translation of Text 4, Chapter 17, Canto 5 of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Jayapatākā Swami: Because the Ganges, recently coming from the causal ocean, touching the lotus foot of Lord Vāmanadeva, therefore it is considered to be purifying throughout all of the universe. In fact, Lord Śiva himself agreed to or requested to carry first on his head. Therefore, all the different people, whether they are Śaivites, or demigod worshipers, or Viṣṇu worshipers, or everyone is respecting the Ganges as very sacred.

Recently one of our life members, who have us in, told us about a friend of his who was a Muslim, who said that, “When I am dying, don’t let anyone come in the room but secretly come in and pour Ganges water down my mouth. Put a tulasī on my chest.” So, everyone is having great respect for the Ganges. In India, you find that, when someone dies and they are cremated, they bring the ashes and put them in the Ganges.

So, this Ganges has got a certain purifying factor to take away or wash away the sinful reactions. But the inclination to perform those sinful activities, that is not so easily washed away. Just like somebody may have committed so many crimes and then if he goes to the, he gets caught by the police, and then if he makes a deal, pleads guilty on certain charges, he can get all of the charges released just by serving one sentence, and not contesting it in court. Well if one goes to the Ganges, you can get relief from so many burdens. But just like the criminal again the desire, once he gets out, again there is no guarantee that he won’t again commit further criminal activities. So even someone goes to the Ganges repeatedly, there is no guarantee that the person will still not be inclined to perform unauthorized activities.

That’s why it is described that it is more auspicious and more purifying. Vidura was praised that you are more than a holy place, you are personified holy place, by Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira. Praised Vidura like that in the Bhāgavatam. Because by the presence of the pure devotee of the Lord even the desire to perform materialistic activities is very quickly destroyed, very quickly it disappears. And instead the desire to render devotional service to the Lord is firmly established just by having association with pure devotees of the Lord.

‘sādhu-saṅga’, ‘sādhu-saṅga’ — sarva-śāstre kaya
lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya
(Cc Madhya 22.54)

Sarva-siddhi - all perfection is what? Of course, all perfection means to have the desire, the lālasā, the determination to render service unto the Lord.

When Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī offers his prayers to the spiritual master and he step by step, he in that prayer, he more or less illuminates some of the mercies which he attributes purely and simply to the mercy of guru.

nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ manum api śacī-putram atra svarūpaṁ
rūpaṁ tasyāgrajam uru-purīṁ māthurīṁ goṣṭhavātīm
rādhā-kuṇḍaṁ giri-varam aho rādhikā-mādhavāśāṁ
prāpto yasya prathita-kṛpayā śrī-guruṁ taṁ nato ’smi

So the very, of course it begins, by the mercy of my spiritual master I have got the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, the best of all the holy names. I have got the mantras, the Gāyatrī. He had of course the association of Lord Caitanya, of Svarūpa Dāmodara, Rūpa Gosvāmī, of his older brother Sanātana Gosvāmī, and other residents of Vṛndāvana and Mathurā, and of course Mathurā maṇḍala, Vraja maṇḍala, Giri Govardhana, Rādhā-kuṇḍa, and finally he says, Rādhā- Mādhavāśāṁ and the hope - the desire for serving the lotus feet of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.

So that is ultimate objective, that is the goal of life is to actually desire to serve Their Lordships. If you don’t desire to serve Them how can you serve Them? If you desire, if the real desire to serve the Lord is there then that is the perfection.

Normally people are desiring to serve their senses. They are desiring either gross sense gratification or subtle sense gratification. So many weeds are there in the heart. Desire for niṣiddhācāra - desire for illicit activity, kuṭīnāṭī - getting involved in politics, jīva-hiṁsana - becoming envious of others, becoming, just hurting others, ‘pūjā’, ‘pratiṣṭhādi’ lābha, yata upaśākhā-gaṇa desire for fame, adoration, profit, worship. These are different types of desires which come as weeds in the heart, little obstacles in our spiritual progress. Of course, those are shadowed by offenses to Vaiṣṇavas, which are far more serious. But, these other come in the form of weeds are little distracting desires. So, the actual desire to serve Kṛṣṇa that is the perfection. And that, Kṛṣṇa says, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham - that according to how someone surrenders to Me, I will reciprocate with him.

So if somebody actually desires to serve Kṛṣṇa, when Kṛṣṇa is fulfilling everyone’s desires why He will not fulfill such a pure desire? But how to get the desire to serve Kṛṣṇa that is the most rare thing. Because everyone is desiring something else. The pure desire to serve Their Lordships and Their pure devotees. We serve Their Lordships through Their devotee, no doubt. That is the special mercy. So that may take many bathings in the Ganges to achieve.

That’s why even the Ganges when she was requested to please come down from the heavenly planets here into the martya-loka, into the Bhūloka, into the middle planets she was very reluctant. “They are all going to come and bathe and leave all their sinful reactions upon me.” She wasn’t interested. But when Bhāgī Mahārāja, when he pointed out to her that, “So many great sages and pure devotees of the Lord they will also bathe in your waters”, to get their association even mother Ganges was attracted. Because those pure devotees of course by their presence, because they carry Kṛṣṇa in their heart, of course not only will the burden of sinful reactions in the Ganges be dissipated, but moreover the association of such devotees, increases one’s desire to serve Kṛṣṇa, which we cannot under express how important that is. That is the ultimate.

If somebody actually, completely, simply wants to serve Kṛṣṇa that person is already liberated. What anxiety or what obstacle stands in such a person’s path? It’s because we desire to do something else other than serve Kṛṣṇa, that we are placed into a difficult situation. kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga vāñchā kare [Prema-vivarta]. When we become materialistic that is described as bahirmukha, means we have turned our face away from Kṛṣṇa. We are desiring something else, bhoga vāñchā kare, we desire to enjoy on the material platform. Then what happens? Māyā, nikaṭa-stha māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare, māyā she comes up very close and as soon as we turn away from Kṛṣṇa she tackles us, jāpaṭiyā means she just jumps boom! Knocks you down. Football, rugby, she has got you, ties you up. Just like when they catch those in the rodeos, rodeo, rodeo, caught up, bound hand and foot. But before that when a person is simply desiring to serve Kṛṣṇa, Māyā she has got no ropes on that person, that person is already liberated. jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate.

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

So for association with such devotees, mother Ganges was even eager, “Alright let me come down, there are pure devotees on the Bhūloka, for their association”.

So when she came down in Navadvīpa dhāma, there is one of the nine islands which is known as Jahnudvīpa. Because there is the āśrama of Jahnu Muni. One of the names of the Ganges is also called Jāhnavī. How did she get that name? According to the great, according to the ācāryas in the explanation of the Navadvīpa dhāma, when the Ganges came down, she mysteriously started to flood the āśrama of Jahnu muni. And his āśrama being severely disturbed by the Ganges flooding. He decided to relieve himself of this disturbance, in the sense, he punished the Ganges. He just swallowed up the whole Ganges. (laughter)

So Mahārāja Bhāgī he was going down making the river course, excavating. As he is going and the Ganges is furiously coming, and he is excavating with his just immediately with his big chariot. Suddenly he looks behind. There is no Ganges. (laughter) It’s not something you misplace. It’s gone, just a dry river bed. So, it took him quite some time to find where did the Ganges go? What happened, just disappeared? So finally, he came to the āśrama of Jahnu Muni, and he got information that, Jahnu Muni had actually swallowed the entire Ganges.

So he requested him that, “My forefathers ashes are lying, they are burned up by the glance of Kapila Muni. Their souls are at no peace. I am bringing the Ganges there so that the Ganges water will touch their ashes, and so many countless living entities they are going to benefit by bathing in the Ganges, and you swallowed the Ganges. So, I can only, please, humbly fall at your feet and beg you, kindly again cough up the Ganges and I will take it away from your āśrama.”

He said, “I am sorry I have already digested.” (laughter)

He said, “Well anyone who can swallow the Ganges he can certainly… who has that potency he can certainly again make the Ganges reappear. We have full faith in your ability.” So somehow or another Jahnu Muni was, he was agreed, he was convinced. So, he produced the Ganges again out of his knee, which is also known as a Jahnu, Jāhnavī. So this way Mahārāja Bhāgī continued taking the Ganges from Navadvīpa dhāma down to sagar (Gangasagar), to the island where his forefather’s ashes were there. So, there are so many pastimes.

It’s amazing in Māyāpur you see, there is a specific day when all the karma-kāṇḍīs, they have in their calendar, just like here they have Valentine’s day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, they have their calendar filled with pūjās. Even our ISKCON almanac only possesses a few of our Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava. But every day there is one pūjā or another practically, (chuckles) about every third day in the Indian. But many of them are more like karma-kāṇḍa. Things like putting bhāi-phoṭa, the sister will put a dot on the brother’s hair and give a blessing to the brother, rākhi-bandhana. So many different just unlimited kinds of festivals and things. Some of in India that they were doing, one of them is of course is very special in Māyāpur because we have the Ganges coming there. Ganges pūjā.

I don’t know the history behind Ganges pūjā in Navadvīpa dhāma. But there are literally hundreds of fire sacrifices going on, and kīrtanas, and pūjās being performed all up and down on the side of the Ganges. Of course, it is worshiping the Ganges, I don’t want to put it down on the same level as the karma-kāṇḍa worship, but many of them do worship maybe in that mood. Of course, worshiping the Ganges, itself is not a karma-kāṇḍa. It doesn’t have to be. It depends on the mood of the worshiper. Ganges is a pure devotee. But there so many people worship the Ganges. And of course, several times we have observed the solar or lunar eclipse. But we would all go down and would stand waist deep or chest deep in the Ganges for several hours. One time on Gaura Pūrṇimā, there was a lunar eclipse one year. And we all went down for several hours and stood in the Ganges, very nice, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

So Prabhupāda he used to complain that, “Here you are living right next to the Ganges, but you don’t go there bathing. Those people who come from thousands of miles away they always immediately go and bathe in the Ganges.” There is a Bengali saying that, “Those who live near the Ganges they don’t go. It’s those who come from far away they come.” And the local villagers they say, “Well just like if you have a lamp, just around the lamp there is a shadow far away the light goes, we are in the shadow. (laughter) You have to uplift us.”

But actually, Prabhupāda he said, he requested us that, “You build me a road right to the Ganges and I will go there bathing every day.” He said, “This will increase my longevity to go bathing in the Ganges every day.” We tried many different ways to get a land that went right to the Ganges, but we should have paid any price. At the same time Prabhupāda did not want us to pay more than the market price. So, at market price somehow, we could never, just slipped our fingers several times to get that path.

One-time Śrīla Prabhupāda of course several times he walked down to the Ganges. He was walking with his clothes on and suddenly he said, “Well let’s take a…” looked around, “… it’s all brahmacārīs, sannyāsīs, so let’s take a bath.” “Prabhupāda, there is no ah towel or anything like that.”

“That’s all right, this is India.” (laughter) So he just took off his clothing, wearing his kaupīna and Brahmānanda wearing kaupīna, he put one top piece on the bottom and then he went into the Ganges. I think there is a film or picture of that I saw one day, fifteen twenty were there to the Ganges, because that year… Because it was very clear in the winter, so you could see right to the bottom which is rare. Normally the Ganges a little bit muddy, little bit saffron color.

So, like this spiritual master by his own example he is also teaching us too. And before going in the Ganges you take Ganges water put it on his head. Before touching the feet, the water should touch your head. This is the system. So, like this Prabhupāda was so kind to make an āśrama in Vṛndāvana, and Māyāpur just on the bank of the Ganges so devotees can go there and take bath. Similarly, even though the Ganges is not, is limited by at least our ability to bathe in it physically. Of course, mentally one could bath in it by mantra, that we have to go that location but the pure devotees who actually carry Kṛṣṇa in their heart they are so kind that they are going all over the world to spread the devotional service to give this association. So, they should be, that association should be given even more importance you see. Just as we give so much importance to bathing in the sacred Ganges river, we should give equal and more importance to bathing in the association of devotees, pure devotees who are simply dedicated for spreading the holy name and fame of the Lord all over the world.

So of course, we personally saw that even though the Ganges water didn’t flow here in America, but where Prabhupāda went in America or other parts of the world he was able to inspire. Still today so many people are being inspired by Śrīla Prabhupāda’s representatives. We know that the spiritual inspiration shouldn’t take it to be something ordinary. It is actually a type of like Ganges water coming down, it’s a type of mercy of Lord Caitanya coming down when He said that He wanted to disseminate this saṅkīrtana movement, and He wanted so many people to assist Him. And in this way His mercy is descending. And is simply being handed like one, from one airplane. It is simply being handed, and if someone is fortunate enough to take that water, that mercy, then their life is also perfect. Anyone who gets this mercy of Lord Caitanya they should hand it on it, it shouldn’t stop there. The flow should continue. Not that one tries to drink up the whole water and then just. No, we take as, we take our full, but we let it, the flow go on, and then again we give it for others.

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

Is there any question? Yes?

Devotee: I wonder if you could talk a little bit about how the Samādhi is coming, and Nāmahaṭṭa preaching.

Jayapatākā Swami: Now we have expanded the working group on the Samādhi. We are still lacking a few technical people who know architecture or engineering, or art to work. They have a department of artists who are making dioramas and reliefs. They have the local artisans working with them. And there they have a big, they have a foundry where they were casting brass, or different bronzes or something deities, and murals, and reliefs, and so on. So, they are progressing.

Of course, in every department a little bit undermanned. We need some more manpower for the different departments. And at the present time the cash flow seems to be adequate if we get some more in the middle of the year. We’re a little tied up with the contractor trying to do some program to get the work done faster. So now we are trying to somehow or another motivate the contractors to increase their pace of work. But our objective is, try to finish it by the 1986, 500th anniversary festival.

Since now the construction of the Samādhi had been, the direct responsibility for the construction had been handed back to the Māyāpur management from Surabhi Mahārāja who is going to be the architect responsible as compared to just like directly, so we are just still trying to get a handle on what’s actually required. The tiles we are going to have marble on the roof, so we are ordering marble now for this roof of the Samādhi. Things are going on. We just kind of regrouping our forces so we can put a big marathon drive in. A few key people are short. Looks hopeful although we haven’t had a full feasibility study exactly time chart, time flow chart, how much time is actually needed. So that we are preparing now.

Regarding, what’s the other question Nāmahaṭṭa? Recently Māyāpur was attacked by some armed bandits, a gang of forty people with rifles, guns, and hand percussion bombs. And Rādhārāṇī was stolen. When She was returned, but in the fight, in the defense, the head of our Nāmahaṭṭa preaching Rāghava Paṇḍita he got hit by a percussion bomb on his leg which was blown off. But he is now in good spirits. We are trying to see if we can in future arrange for him a false leg, but he is still fired up. He is, and Nāmahaṭṭa preaching is now over a thousand centers, it’s expanding very rapidly. So, he is determined not to have any of his preaching dampened even though he lost a leg. It’s a big sacrifice.

When he was hit, he never stopped chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, he never felt panic or fear that maybe someone else would feel in that way. But he was just chanting and depending on Kṛṣṇa. In fact, even while he was being taken from one operation table to the next, he would call his people and tell them please go out and don’t forget to do this Nāmahaṭṭa preaching, don’t stop the preaching. “As soon as I get out, I want to do books fairs. Book fairs are important, we can set up so many Nāmahaṭṭa exhibitions in book fairs.” While he is being taken in the ambulance he is advising. He admitted if he was in karmī life, you lose a leg, it would be the biggest thing you know, pretty shook up. Anyways he still had one leg so, he could still alive, he still wanted to go on with his preaching.

Very big example for all the devotees to so see someone so fixed in his conviction in devotional service. In the very few Indian devotees, in nuts, very few devotees we have that are kṣatriya orientated. But we have tried to mobilize as best we can the defense. The government is giving us a police camp there, and from their side they are going to put maximum security, and from our side we are trying to mobilize a defense. It’s a limitation how many guns or shotguns you are allowed to keep there. They are very, they are licensed with great restraint. They have given us several licenses though, so doesn’t seem we are going to get too many more. It should be very limited.

The public opinion went very much in our favor after this happened. Sometimes they say, “Why do sādhus have guns, why do they, you know, religious, why would monks have to have guns and things like this? But what can you do? It’s like the wild west some places, so many crazy people. If they come and want to attack you with arms, you have to have means of defending. And they called the police there and the local police said, “Just let it cool down a little bit. We don’t want to risk our lives you know. We have kids and wife.” The police don’t want. Forty people coming in, they are firing and shooting you know, then the police, they don’t want to, three four police they don’t want to just run in. So, the devotees have to be prepared to defend.

So that’s the basic policy we are making is that in case of any emergency at least every devotee, according some are more passive kind, so we have given passive type thing like call the police or take care of wounded or something like that. And they are more aggressive type, they can take more forward positions of defense. I think that you know it won’t happen again, but we can never say that, we can’t take that idea. It could always happen again in the future. So, we have to take every precaution. You never know when something like that could happen, so within our humble means. If there is anyone that wants to go to India for a month or two, that know something about these types of defense operation we are very happy if they can come and give us some advice, even some training or something. Because the devotees there, they are not very well, nobody is trained in anything related with this type of defense. But now there is a desire created amongst, we asked for volunteers, 60% of the men volunteered for training, so. There is not anyone to train them really but try and organize. We are getting a lot of spotlights, and sound systems, and things like that to be as preventive measures. As there is a lot of spotlights and things people would be dissuaded from coming.

Yes?

Devotee: I was just wondering that how does the soul may actually… (inaudible)

Jayapatākā Swami: How does it help? Well, the, that’s just like a special mercy given. The whatever connection is there between the subtle body and the soul and the previous body, remains of the previous body that it was in, when it was put into the Ganges so that any, its freed from so many karmas. It’s just a special facility given. Just like the son offers worship to the deceased father by offering prasāda of Viṣṇu. In case the father or mother are in some hellish condition due to their mistakes, but because the child is offering them viṣṇu-prasāda, say they are stuck somewhere as a ghost, they get kṛṣṇa-prasāda, then that elevates them out of that hellish condition.

So putting their ashes in the Ganges also has an effect like that. Person may not have been able to die in the holy dhāma, but then somehow it’s like that. After the fact, that type of effect is brought in. That the person, individual person concerned himself can’t do. That means that the off spring or some well-wisher has to do that. So that gives an opportunity for a loved one to try to do something to spiritually help a deceased person after they are already gone from that body. It’s too late for that person to do anything. They are already on to the next position. Yes?

Devotee: How did the police… (inaudible)

Jayapatākā Swami: Called the police. They did an extensive search after they heard that came out in London and New York Times, they took it up like a prestige thing. They have so many police falling over that place. We also put up a reward. We offered 10,000 rupees and then Bhavānanda Mahārāja phoned up from New York and said, “offer 50,000” without asking us actually. Later on, when he heard we offered 10 then he said, “Oh don’t publish”, but it was too late. Somehow, they had already gone out, the paper. Everyone is coming 50 or 10 or 60.” (laughter)

So there was, everybody and their brother was informing piles of mail coming in. Somehow anyway police somehow fished it out and got. This is the one thing in India, recovery percentage in India is very high. I lost a briefcase, and I announced to all the people around – I am giving right now cash 100 rupees if I get my briefcase back. Within 5 minutes I had it back. (laughter) Somebody dropped it. (laughter) So many people, there police are very expert in this type of thing. They have informers on every level. And thieves also have informers in the police. And the police have informers in the thieves, you see. (laughter)

But the a… the real… Of course, the reason why we got is because we caught some of the thieves alive. In India they don’t have any restriction on police interrogating prisoners. So we, you see two of them gave dying statements. We have on tape. Because when they are very afraid, the normal thing is that when these armed gangs come, they take all their wounded with them because if the one wounded is left by, and he is, tells to the other members then that gives them opportunity to… it’s not really vyāsāsana kind of discussion, but more like for a darśana.

Because Prabhupāda once told us that if somebody attacks the temple, they shouldn’t leave the temple. They should remain there. So, two of them, one of them, a number of people were injured as they were leaving. Devotees fired on them with shotguns. So then one of them was wounded. He told his friend, “Take me, help me.” And he saw that this person is wounded, it’s too much trouble to take him. He took a bomb and threw it on him. It blew off right next to his head but somehow, he didn’t die but his face was completely just like nothing left. But he was a little disturbed by that. (laughter)

So he did a lot of talking. He didn’t have any love lost for these other people. But they are expert. One person organizes it, they bring other thieves in. One thief doesn’t know the other thief. They just go and say there is a job, where the job is, “You are going to get this much.” They meet at one place and this is it. We are going to do it. So this one person only knows two three others. It’s not like everybody knows everybody else. One man is the kingpin and he brings. But somehow because we got a total of four people, they were able to find the rest. They found about eight already, they have a list of all the people involved. All the local villagers came and said, “If you had not got any of these dacoits, any of these bandits, then it would have been impossible for us to live in this area. They would have just tortured everybody.”

Those two they died right on the in the temple verandah. One devotee said that, “In the name of Allah we will forgive you. You just tell us who the other people were.” They told. They knew they were dying. They told a lot of names, whatever names they knew. And they died. We have it on tape. So then from there the police they already had a few names, they searched them out. This way gradually they got leads, did raids every night, arrested few of them. They did, you know, police investigation. They are still investigating.

So the director general who is over the inspector general of police, he came out, number of big officials have come out, they are very favorable. They want to put a permanent police camp. They want to make it very safe for pilgrims to go there. There is much less likelihood of anything like this happening again for a long time. Still we are going to take every precaution. We are now going to design the temples now with a security mind. If you go to Māyāpur and you see in every staircase you know, steel gates and different things, you’ll know why.

After all the devotees left, everyone was in Vṛndāvana. That’s when they see it as an easy prey. When everybody is there you know they fear. But when everybody is gone that is when they on a dark moon night after the, 15 days after Gaura Pūrṇimā, 10 days after Gaura Pūrṇimā, that’s the dangerous time. They didn’t lose the air so they are sorry. (inaudible)

Actually, we know Rādhārāṇī came back because of Prabhupāda’s mercy of course superficially the police did this to the… but actually just Rādhārāṇī’s mercy. Prabhupāda had predicted in 1972, when there was some various robberies all around us, he said that, “We are also going to be attacked by armed robbers and we should have, every devotee should be sleeping with some form of defense in the night.” And I have been single handedly reminding everyone of that instruction but frankly I got very little response. Whatever attempts I tried to do, gradually people just became very, they just thought we have such big buildings. Even three days before I was in Māyāpur, I had done extensive security arrangements. But people thought I was just a fanatic or something. Now they are saying we didn’t follow the instructions of guru, so these things have happened.

You can ask Dr. Mahesh. Three days before when I was there, we were up till 3 in the morning, guarding different because we saw lights in the fields. Might have been the same group casing the area. I had many dreams that they were coming, trying to take the Deity. On several occasions and I told them, I gave money, I said build steel gates in front of the door. They didn’t build steel gates, had wooden gates so they chopped the wooden gates down to come in 2 minutes with the axe. Because they had axe.

Kṛṣṇa gave us so many warnings, but. That’s the point. Kṛṣṇa gives you warning because you can't stop. The demons are hitting every temple, they hit every temple there twice, they hit every household at least once. So, there’s only a matter of time that any robber, they made, we have been attacked several times, because it’s completely in a very remote area. So, it’s nothing very unusual. Prabhupāda said that, “This is going to happen. We should be prepared.” We weren’t that prepared. If we were prepared there is no way they could take our Deities. Now everybody should be prepared that this Kali-yuga these things can happen.

The reason why they took Rādhārāṇī was because they thought She was solid gold. She is so well worshiped, She is so shiny, they thought She was 6 kilos of solid gold. They thought She was worth hundreds and thousands of dollars. They didn’t think that this same Rādhārāṇī was in the grass hut. That time we didn’t have any elaborate security arrangements, and now the same Rādhā we brought to our temple. They thought, because She looks so nice, people who came in “Oh! She is gold!” She is more than gold. She is effulgent so that’s why they think at least She is gold. When they took Her, of course they can't take Her, She is still standing. Just like Rāvaṇa thought he took Sītā but actually that was the Māyā Sītā. Then of course materially they found that She was not made out of gold. They felt very disappointed.

I take it that whatever happens in the holy dhāma that has significance over the entire world, so the fact that we have got attacked at the holy dhāma, this was an indication that our movement was under attack. That they were trying to and therefore they were trying to take Lakṣmī. When our movement is under attack and the demons are trying to steal the Lakṣmī from this movement, and we should take every precaution to protect Lakṣmī. That’s exactly what’s the anti-cult is, that they have got this opulence we are going to hit them where it just most in their pocket book, by litigation, drain off Lakṣmī different places. The demons become envious, so they want to attack Lakṣmī. And this is just Prabhupāda telling us that we have to take every precaution so that Lakṣmī, this is the way to protect the Deity so that She is not accessible. Similarly, somehow the Lakṣmī or the wealth of the movement in terms of material assets should be protected from the demons who want to steal that, so that they can’t be used for serving the public, serving Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees: Jaya!

Devotee: Śrīla Ācāryapāda kī...

Devotees: Jaya!