19850110 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.1.3

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on January 10, 1985 in New Tālavana farm, in Carriere, Mississippi. The class begins with a reading from the Śrimad Bhāgavatam, 7th canto, Chapter 1, Text 3.

Translation: O greatly fortunate and learned brāhmaṇa, whether Nārāyaṇa is partial or impartial has become a subject of great doubt. Kindly dispel my doubt with positive evidence that Nārāyaṇa is always neutral and equal to everyone.

Purport (by Śrīla Prabhupāda): Since Lord Nārāyaṇa is absolute, His transcendental qualities are described as one. Thus His punishments and His offerings of favor are both of the same value. Essentially, His inimical actions are not displays of enmity toward His so-called enemies, but in the material field one thinks that Kṛṣṇa is favorable to devotees and unfavorable to nondevotees. When Kṛṣṇa finally instructs in Bhagavad-gītā, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, this is meant not only for Arjuna but for every living entity within this universe.

Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta Purport to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto 7, Chapter 1, Text 3, in the chapter entitled, “The Supreme Lord is equal to everyone.”

Jayapatākā Swami: So as is customary with many of the chapters of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they begin with various questions which are addressed. In this sense, Parīkṣit Mahārāja addressing his questions to Śukadeva Goswami. That since the Lord in previous incarnations has apparently helped Lord Indra, and defeated the asuras, and naturally a doubt would come out that whether the Lord is impartial? It’s seems that He takes the part of His...of the side of His devotees and works against this the asuras and the non-devotees. So then is God really impartial, is He neutral, or is it actually that He is taking sides? So, but this, this can be answered from various angles. Of course, commonly we know that ah... actually Kṛṣṇa is neutral, but He reciprocates according to how different persons approach Him. For instance, in Bhagavad-Gītā He describes, “ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham.” According to how people worship Him, similarly He reciprocates with them and worships them. So those who worship Him with hate, enmity, such as some of the asuras who want to kill him, then He reciprocates with them and kills them. And those devotees who worship Him with devotion and with faith, He reciprocates, and He protects them and He ah...He gives them His love, since those devotees are giving their love to Him. If someone says, “Well although He is answering the prayers of the respective people accordingly, but one person is getting slain by the Lord, and the other person is getting embraced, but then in one sense is this still equal?!” And this has been answered today by Śrīla Prabhupāda in the purport that, “Because the Lord is absolute, even if He kills someone, they achieve liberation.” So, no matter what benediction He gives to someone, even if it appears materially to be harsh, ultimately everything He does is all good, and thus no one is a loser. In fact anything to do with Kṛṣṇa you come out ahead. Just like there is some... there are some people that anything you do with them, everything comes out to be according to their astrological signs. There are some people called makundas, anything to do with those people comes out to be a total wipeout. In fact, if you see them, the first thing you get up in the morning, then the rest of the day is supposed to be a total warmer. For a total kind of a horrible thing. And there is a.... there is a story about, you know just, just kind of off the topic but, it’s a kind of interesting. It’s kind of a Gopal Bhar story that touches on this. That one time the king, he woke up, looked out of his room, and just beneath his palace there was the house of Gopal, his court courtier. He looked to him and very first person he saw that morning. He got up, rubbed his eyes, opened his eyes, there was Gopal on his verandah. And he said, you know, “Hello Gopal, how are you?” So, then Gopal said, “Maharaj, please accept my namaskāra, my obeisances to you.” So then, that day the King was being shaved, and so the first time his barber cut him. Seventeen years the barber had been shaving him, and that day he got cut. Seventeen years he had never been cut. So then the king decided that, the very first person I saw today was Gopal, actually he must be one of his makundas. (laughter) And having him in my kingdom is causing so many people misfortune, they are waking up and seeing him, and their whole days are being ruined. So I should save all the people from suffering and have him beheaded. So he called Gopal, told him that you are going to be beheaded. Gopal said, “What!? My Lord, Of course you are the King, whatever you want to do, I mean no one can argue but could you kindly tell me why? And then, the king said,” Explain that.” Then the barber said, “I never cut anyone, never the king in seventeen years, just today I cut, this is an amazing thing.” So the king explained that this is a… this thing has happened. So I have come to the conclusion that, “You must be a makunda. So therefore, you have to… [Aside: not Mukunda, it’s makunda… it’s different.] So, therefore, I am going to have you beheaded and save my kingdom from having to have your inauspicious presence.” So then, Gopal said, “Well then, there is someone else who should also get the same fate. I should not be the only one. There is someone who is a greater makunda than me.” (laughter) “Who is that?” “So, well my Lord, the very first person that I saw today when I woke up was you. *laugh* And I am about to be beheaded.” (laughter). So the king thought for… “Well, alright” (laughter) So of course, there may be people who create bad influences, but the Lord He is just the opposite. Everything that happens with Kṛṣṇa is all good. Even Pūtanā, the witch, she came to kill Kṛṣṇa by giving poison on her breast. Because Kṛṣṇa sucked her breast like a mother, although He sucked her life, He promoted her to the spiritual realm to be His own mother in the spiritual world. And like this Kṛṣṇa is so kind that even if a demon offers some light, slight service then He reciprocates and gives them sārupya, sālokya, some appropriate liberation. So actually, the Lord is impartial, but some people are approaching Him in a particular mood and that’s also one of His rasas. One of the seven temporary rasas is chivalry. So, chivalry is manifested, when you are fighting with someone. And hardly he can fight with His devotees very often. You see, So in the material world sometimes He comes, and He fights with the demons, and this way He gets to relate on that chivalrous temporary rasa, and satisfy that particular desire. Those demons are actually liberated for being aspiring partner with the Lord. So, they are actually the benefactor of the Lord's mercy. In fact, in some cases those demons get liberated, while Indra all he gets is back to the heavenly planets, after he dies, he may not get liberation. His extension as a trustee of the prison house in a very exalted position has just been extended with privileges, but still he is not been granted a real uplift free. It’s just instead of having to be behind the bars in the lower planets, he is able to roam around a little freely in, in the upper offices of the prison house. So actually we see that in the case of Citraketu, when he took rebirth as an asura according to the curse of mother Pārvatī, that time he took birth as

[Aside: what’s that, Vṛtrāsura?
Devotees: Vṛtrāsura
JPS: Vṛtrāsura, I always get confused.]

Vṛtrāsura. At that time, actually he was in still Kṛṣṇa conscious, even though he took appearance as a, as a demon. So actually, he was able to achieve pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness, while Indra was only able to achieve a little bit of security in his kingdom. So actually Visnu said that, admitted that it was Vṛtrāsura who was more, more blessed, more, he got the bigger benediction than Indra. So this happened because the demigods are devotees, but they are devotees with material desire. Those who have material desires, then Kṛṣṇa reciprocates, and gives some them a comfortable situation. That’s why it is dangerous sometimes that a devotee in a Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, if they become due to some association with fruitive workers, if they become attached to the idea of having a very comfortable situation, and if that becomes predominating desire in their lives, then as a result, when they leave their body, if that hasn’t been thoroughly transformed into pure devotion, then they may get a very comfortable situation as a devotee in the heavenly planets. And in fact, apparently Śrīla Prabhupāda said that, “There are many of his disciples who will take birth in heavenly planets.” So this is something we have to guard against, is to accept whatever Kṛṣṇa gives, not that we artificially take on unnecessary austerity, but to accept what comes easily, and not become over preoccupied with simply having a very comfortable situation, lest we think of that is the goal of life, rather than actually developing our pure love for Kṛṣṇa. You see, it’s hard to find the middle. You find some people are very unnecessarily engaged in dry austerities, and you find other devotees are seem to be preoccupied with having a very comfortable situation to the extent that it becomes a predominating trait, more than the desire to expand the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, or to engage in pure devotional service. So these things have to be equalized. And person learns to take basically what comes along naturally without [too] over-endeavor, and very carefully focusing the consciousness in Kṛṣṇa’s service.

So Kṛṣṇa is actually the supreme, neutral and equal, but we can take advantage of His equality by approaching Him in a mood of surrender. Unfortunately, that sometimes our mood of surrender may not be so perfect, therefore we may not actually be qualified to get the full type of reciprocation from Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, some of the great devotees, they had hopes or wish that Kṛṣṇa wouldn’t be so equal. That he would be a little bit more merciful, and out of His own initiative would actually give that mercy. But Kṛṣṇa in His form as the Supreme personality of Godhead, He is obliged to be impartial. But in His form as devotee, when He appeared as Caitanya Mahāprabhu taking on the color and the mood of Rādhārāṇī, then since a devotee is actually always glorifying Kṛṣṇa, and always telling the fallen souls, “Worship Kṛṣṇa”, surrender to Kṛṣṇa”, so as devotee the Lord had manifested that, that quality of actually trying to deliver all the fallen souls. So therefore, the devotees glorify Lord Caitanya, that He is even more merciful than Kṛṣṇa although He is Kṛṣṇa, but He is Kṛṣṇa in a more merciful form.

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

—(Cc. Madhya 19.53)

So, although Kṛṣṇa offered everyone, “sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja”, it wasn’t meant only for Arjuna, as Prabhupāda mentioned here. It’s for every living entity within this universe. But there is so many living entities who didn’t surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Apart from Śisupāla, Jarāsandha, and others who were forced enough to die in the presence of the Lord, but there were so many other souls, other demons or other persons, who didn’t surrender to Kṛṣṇa, although He was present. So that’s their misfortune, because they had the opportunity. Just like if a governor, one time there was a.., you know how devotees sometimes, just being trained as brāhmaṇas or something. In the ancient tradition, the brāhmaṇas were never to be regulated by the kings, sometimes the devotees think that they are not in the 20th century, but they are brāhmaṇas living in the Dvāpara-yuga or something, and they tend to neglect certain legal, legalities or laws of the land and so on, so forth which appeared to them to be rather trivial or materialistic. Like in India this happened that when the devotees neglected to.., one particular devotee, and many devotees were just kind of overstayed their visas, they wouldn’t bother to go in on time. They kind of took the people for granted. So there was a new officer and he decided that he was going to make the devotee an example. So the next was actually Gopāla Swami. He went down to the, about two weeks late after his visa had expired, he went down to the office and the person became so impatient with him, that he decided to make an example out of him, had him arrested for not having applied for a visa extension within the appropriate time. So this was pretty shocking, because no one had ever been arrested before, especially for being over-extended on a visa. So they are very, they were very provocative that it was simply as an example. They didn’t want the devotees or anyone to just take these things very lightly, they had to follow the letter of the law. So then he was. I was present at the courtroom and there was a lady judge and for some reason very heavy. And she also just got into the whole mood and she said you know, “Well, we are just going to take this as a you know, example or something like that, everyone had to follow the law.” Just she followed the prosecutor’s arguments, they don’t have juries there. Anyway, she gave the verdict, “Seven days of rigorous imprisonment, breaking the rocks, you know something like that...sh...,” So she had rigorous imprisonment which meant you know, the worst standard of imprisonment they got. Sometimes she can get kind of A class imprisonment where they give you nice private room and everything. In spite of being given rigorous imprisonment, in the prison house the people are very nice, they gave him a A classroom anyway. And we got permission to get him prasāda every day, at least they gave that permission. But it turned out that two days after he was in the prison, it turned out to be Arabindo’s birthday. Arabindo apart from being a famous yogi, he was a freedom fighter, and he was a journalist and a lawyer and so on. So he got arrested by the British, and when he was in the prison, that’s when he became a yogi. This is Haridāsa Ṭhākura told the prisoners, this is a good place to practice devotional service, because there is not so many distractions. Where actually Arabindo’s spiritual life began in the prison. So he was imprisoned for quite a bit of time. So on, because, he was considered kind of a martyr and great freedom fighter and so on, for India’s independence. On his 100th anniversary of his birth, the governor went to all the prison, and he anyone who wanted, he could be you know, I mean, apart from like serious like murderers, and just normal like people that are some mist miners, they would all get, they all get pardoned as kind of like a benediction of Arabindo, you know, handed down through the paramparā. So the governor came there, and naturally Gopāla Swami took advantage, and he got freed after two days. And so many other hundreds of people got freed. So when Kṛṣṇa came in this planet, anyone who took surrender to Him, on that occasion they could get freed. So the governor came to the prison house, anyone wanted to, they could get free. I mean if they are stupid enough want to stay there, well that’s another thing. But generally speaking everyone, even, even if you didn’t want, actually they, they even if they didn’t ask some people said, well they can go, it’s not major criminals or anything. So in this way so many people were relieved. So some people who died in Kṛṣṇa’s presence they got liberation. Those who surrendered they could get His eternal association, or some even achieved pure love. They were able to get Kṛṣṇa. But there are so many who didn’t take advantage of that. There were so many hardened criminals, who were too hard to take advantage of that visit of the Lord. There are, they were too demoniac, and their hearts weren’t melted. So when Lord Caitanya came, when Kṛṣṇa came in His form as Caitanya, then all of these hardened criminals instead of just killing them, He would melt their hearts, He would make them devotees and give them kṛṣṇa-prema. So in this way He killed the demoniac nature, and He would give them the perfection of life. namo mahā vadānya – He, there is no greater charitable person more than Lord Caitanya. He is giving the greatest gift so freely. So actually Lord Caitanya’s movement is still present on this planet, been handed down through the disciplic succession, and by chanting the holy name “śrī kṛṣṇa caitanya prabhu nityānanda śrī advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi gaura bhakta vṛnda”, by worshipping Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi, we can get Their mercy. This is been brought all over the West by Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy.

Therefore we have this opportunity of getting Lord Caitanya’s mercy, even though we may be criminals in the karmic sense, we may have had so many demoniac natures before being a devotee, you see, even things which are not fully purified yet after having initially surrendered. But by the mercy of Lord Caitanya, all this can be purified, and we can actually achieve pure devotional service. So this is a very special mercy of Lord Caitanya, we should understand that Kṛṣṇa has offered this opportunity to everyone, even today we can surrender to Him, that is a shortcut. And if for any reason we are finding that our surrender is not at the par, not at the proper level, we should take more and more shelter of Lord Caitanya, because by His mercy we can actually be naturally made into a surrendered soul to Kṛṣṇa, into a kṛṣṇa-premī, or someone who has love for Kṛṣṇa. This is Lord Caitanya’s, Lord Nityananda’s special mercy. It is by the mercy of Nitāi-Gaura that we can get the mercy and pure devotion for Rādha-Radhākānta. So actually the devotees of Radha-Kṛṣṇa are there in Vṛṇdāvana, you see. The devotees of Lord Caitanya are simultaneously both devotees of Radha-Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya. And they simultaneously participated in both the pastimes, the pastimes of Lord Caitanya in Śvetadvīpa, in Navadvīpa in the spiritual world, in the pastimes of Radha-Govinda, Rādhā-Rādhakānta in Goloka Vṛṇdāvana. So this is a special benediction of being a devotee of Lord Caitanya. It’s become very easy to get the mercy of Lord Kṛṣṇa when we approach through Lord Caitanya and His devotees.

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

So thank you very much for allowing me to visit you here in New Tālavana, special pilgrimage place, where Śrīla Prabhupāda has performed his pastimes. So all the devotees here are all auspicious, so by seeing their bright faces, today my day will be all auspicious. The more than my day, of course according to Vedic tradition there was the reception and although it is not required or in any way... see the actually the spiritual master is the spiritual master for Prabhupāda’s grandchildren, not for the Godbrother s or the god sisters. In fact, God brothers or God sisters themselves may at any time by Prabhupāda’s mercy take on responsibilities in the future for carrying on the disciplic succession. But sometimes the God brother or God sister either out of respect as the representative of the paramparā or as a Vaiṣṇava or just to show example to the other devotees, sometimes they participate in those ceremonies, well although it is not all compulsory. So, it’s a bit embarrassing for a peer, for a God brother. Although in Prabhupāda’s presence, there were senior God brothers or they were senior God sisters, there always that mood which I am sure should continue, even in the grand disciples of Prabhupāda, where one should take advantage of any experience that an older God-brother or God-sister has, and how to render devotional service better. That of course is on a Godbrother or Godsister reciprocation. In any case, I am deeply moved by the unity and the family spirit here in New Tālavana project, and I hope that the family keeps on growing more and more, so that more people can take shelter. We seen that for instance in some of our bigger projects, around the world like in New Vṛndāvana, they have been able to create spiritual community which in itself performed and is performing great preaching. So this is also our objective. Prabhupāda wanted us to have a spiritual community. I know that when Prabhupāda was in India, that time Balavanta Prabhu had written him about that he had just procured some farms, and Prabhupāda wrote that time he wanted to have a kind of a very dynamic example of a varṇāśrama system, of a devotional system and that New Tālavana could be developed in that way to be to house I think he said 10 or 20,000 devotees. In India anyway we had 600 acres, he said you can easily have 20,000 devotees, to this day we haven’t figured out exactly how. But Prabhupāda had the vision, so here we have 1600, but according to that acres, or maybe they don’t have the equal growing seasons, maybe 25 to 50,000 people could be (laughter) envisioned here, we will lose this real aspect I guess so. In any case there is a big scope for giving shelter to so many devotees, that was Prabhupāda’s vision. I was always, I had a personal realization once in seeing Prabhupāda doing different projects that…, that it wasn’t that every project was exactly the same.

But that Prabhupāda had different strategies for different projects. Like in Mayapur he always said, “I want here a spiritual city.” And then a little known project, I mean I don’t, little known for people around the world, but nonetheless it was a project that Prabhupāda visited once or twice and that was Haridaspur. There Prabhupāda said, “This is a very nice village, here the people are devoted, Haridas Thakur was here.” So he said, “Built a temple here and you make this an example, a prototype of an existent village that becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious”. Like moving into right, just the opposite of what they did in Rajnishpuram. They moved in and kicked out all the old people, and they didn’t make them you know, followers as such. In fact it just came as we just drove in here, it came on the radio, that they just burned all their Bibles. And that he is declared that he is not a Bhagavān, he is just an ordinary man, and that he has just come to help people out, and it’s not a religion. And he said the IRS is already very interested in that pronouncement. You may have to pay tax on this 90% or something, I don’t know what that has to do but, in any case Prabhupāda, he had a different vision, and Haridaspur vision was to, “Alright you come here, you set up the, you develop this temple, the ancient shrine and you make a perfect, ideal village from an existing village.” In Mayapur, there was nothing there, I mean there is land we have is barren, I mean not barren, but it’s an empty land and you just use it for agriculture and he wanted a city built there, he wanted the city to be built there. So in one place he wanted to built the city and in other place he wanted to transform the village into a Kṛṣṇa conscious one. Then like in another place, in Hyderabad farm, there his vision was, “Here we will make our own villages.” It is a barren land, there was no one on it. We will build the villages, we will bring the people in on our terms and we will give them what will be their in this village, they will each have a house, they will have a, they will have a, they will be able to do their own truck gardening, and the produce they will give to the Deities, and in return there will be some areas which will be formed by a core of devotees who are so dedicated or who are like the central administrators, under the central administration. They all grow the grains with the big machines, and everything that are not labor intensive and more machine intensive. And then they give the vegetables which are labor intensive and they get the grains, and so they get the prasadam, depending on how…?” He didn’t give all the details. But, like that he had some idea about building up villages in a different in a different way, in a kind of a reciprocal barbaric system almost or reciprocal reciprocation of different people doing different things. I am sure that of course these are just two, three examples that I have experienced, and I know that other devotees they must surely have, be able to add other examples, that how different projects in different places, Prabhupāda had different vision. It will be very interesting here in New Tālavana to discuss on this topic that what was Prabhupāda’s vision here, not that we have to be stereotype and just copy others people’s programs, but that try to understand what was Prabhupāda’s idea for this type of project. May be the same as another project. Not tent, but it may the same and may not be, that’s neither here nor there. What I mhat we have to just for, you know for the sake of being different, you know have to be differean is to actually understand what is the way that we can serve Prabhupāda here, or what was his desires or where he is given a general scope. According to this time, place and circumstance to develop things in that way. Of course, I know that this is what being going on already, so I am just saying that this is definitely very auspicious way of doing things. And I am agreeing with that the program of developing a project like that. So the result of that of course, if we do things which are pleasing to Prabhupāda, which are pleasing to the previous spiritual masters, and disciplic succession, then naturally things start to develop in a very favorable way. The more that we satisfy the previous ācāryas, the more that Kṛṣṇa’s mercy and empowerment comes down.

Just look at Abhimanyu. Abhimanyu was a 16 years old child. From one point of view, he was hardly of age to fight with such stalwart warriors like grandfather Bhīṣma, Duryodhana and Droṇācārya and others. But because he was empowered by various blessings of great devotees and brāhmaṇas, and because he had already studied under a great teacher, although he wasn’t fully complete, he was nonetheless able to do something which no one else could do, that was to break the might phalanx of the kurus. So although a person may be in the, in some aspects may not be on the same fully developed, in terms of being a completely God realized soul or something, but just by carrying out very correctly what is the desire of the previous ācāryas, the same power is handed down and miracles can be achieved in expanding Ksnna consciousness, you see. Of course you shouldn’t make the mistake, Abhimanyu made, Well he didn’t finish his lessons. That time I think he was in the womb of the mother and his mother fell asleep or something, and he couldn’t hear the last thing which was how to get out of the phalanx. So we should… So he got in, but he could get out, that’s another point. We should be very clear about what Prabhupāda wants, what the previous ācāryas want, when we are clear, when we are mature, then we should go ahead without any, without any doubt, we should go ahead with full enthusiasm, knowing that their mercy is there behind us. So, I think, already you can see that Kṛṣṇa’s mercy is coming down. The evidence is there to that effect, and that things are starting to gradually expand, nice devotees are coming, and the community is blossoming. So we should be very careful to keep all relationships on a very Vaiṣṇava, Kṛṣṇa conscious level, avoid the thing that happens when there are big communities, sometimes goes into a loss of that kind of family spirit, if we can keep as an unified, just like Kṛṣṇa had a family with millions of people, and they were all one big family. So similarly we can remain one family, even if our numbers grow, if we keep that Kṛṣṇa conscious spirit, and if we avoid you know, any kind of material consciousness that comes up to interfere with that natural Kṛṣṇa conscious flow and appreciation of the good qualities of others, and avoiding just seeing the bad qualities. There will always be some bad qualities, no one is hundred percent perfect. Even those who are perfect, if you look hard enough, you will find something bad. Śisupāla found things to complain about in Kṛṣṇa, although there was nothing wrong with Kṛṣṇa, but Śisupāla was looking hard enough that he thought that he saw something wrong. So there are certainly, Kṛṣṇa is absolute and pure. The conditioned soul or even the devotee who is practicing, may naturally could have so many things that one could point out. But if we actually see how a person is dedicated, how they are serving, how they are engaged in preaching,or their activities, if we rather look at the good qualities which is recommended, then we actually we start seeing that we are in a very fortunate situation to be in a society, in a community, with so many wonderful devotees, who have got so many wonderful qualities. Alright there may be a few qualities we don’t to talk about, but there are so many qualities we can talk about, and we enjoy talking about, and those are the qualities we should focus on. And the other things, Prabhupāda has said, “They would disappear, they are superficial.” Any residual material quality that may be there in a devotee will gradually be burned away by the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So rather we like to focus on all the good qualities we see in various devotees. Just like a parent, in their children they like to see the good qualities. They are looking, “Will my child become a devotee? Is my child a devotee?” So naturally when they see those qualities, they feel very happy. Naturally children will be children in other moments, but those moments of showing some special quality, those are high points, points of pride or a hope, in a parent that may this child would be a real putra or a putrī and be able to deliver the parent, if not more. So, in this way we should also be very proud when we see, different devotees rendering their nice devotional service, and that should be our source of inspiration for us. In this way we learn to appreciate each other’s better qualities, then naturally our community becomes closer and close and all the devotees start to learn to reciprocate with each other on a much higher, more Kṛṣṇa conscious level. And that actually encourages one to develop more of these good qualities and naturally due to neglect, any kind of bad qualities that are still there, they start to disappear more and more. So, I am very thankful to be here in your presence, Hare Kṛṣṇa!!

Any questions? Yes!

Question: Śrīla Ācāryapāda, is this the correct understanding that, the path of process which you and Prabhupāda have given us, chanting our 16 rounds, following four regulative principles, trying in full fledge that we can go there? When the time comes to leave the body, even if we didn't purify everything like strong material desires, he will take us back any way?

Jayapatākā Swami: Prabhupāda said, if a person follows the process of Kṛṣṇa conscious then they can. If one wants to take birth again in the material world, no. How free you are from things like offences, may dictate how high you can go in spiritual world. Whether we get place in Vaikuntha? Whether we get a place in Goloka Vṛndāvana? How I am will able to go? Or, I mean if a person, I had one person, approached me in India, he was a real strange character. He said that, “I have been chanting 32 or 20 or 16 rounds for 26 years. But never gave up eating fish.” Neutral position that we were discussing today, he reciprocates with the person so perfectly, that if someone would do something like that because of their offences to chanting, while chanting the holy name, but they don’t actually make advancement, towards pure love for Kṛṣṇa. They are getting some benefit from chanting, but at the same time they are material heart, their material desires aren’t going due to being absorbed in sense gratification like that. So I advised him that, you should chant the names of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and by His mercy you may be able to overcome this desire of eating fish. And sure enough after chanting Lord Caitanya’s names for some period of time, he got some spiritual intelligence, and he could stop eating fish. Even though for 26 years he was on his weird practice, where although chanting he never tried to avoid breaking that, you know, stopping breaking that regulative principle. So if a person, I mean if he is determined, you know, alright, I am going to chant 16 rounds and I am going to follow the four principles, but if they take things in an attitude that I’m determined not to give up my material attachments, then that’s anachronism, you know. From our side it should be not just externals, but it should be internal, that we are trying to follow the process. We are trying from our part to give up our attachments. If we have the proper attitude, we are trying to give up our attachments, we are trying to avoid, even if we arenot fully successful. Prabhupāda said, “There is… That Kṛṣṇa is so merciful, that Lord Caitanya is so merciful, even though we may not at the point of death have been a hundred percent successful. We can still get delivered.” [Aside: How long I should go on ?] I was in Montreal, and Prabhupāda was giving a lecture, that time we had a vyasāsana for him was very high. I mean, very, it was like, when we would stand up, we would be facing Prabhupāda eye to eye, or he would still be even higher than that. It was a very high vyasāsana, and you have to kind of crawl up, steps going up. [Aside: It was more like a kind of a culpit. Culpit or something? Devotee: Pulpit] Pulpit, Pulpit. So he would be up there, he would have a seat there and would even have prasādathere. On a feast they would bring him a big plate of prasāda, we will all be sitting down, and he would take Prasad from there and sometimes he would give prasāda out from there. So one day he was giving his lecture from up there naturally, and on this point he was just preaching very hard, we have to be a 100% Kṛṣṇa conscious, we have to try, we have to be 100% Kṛṣṇa conscious, we have to try for that, we have to become, if we are 100% Kṛṣṇa conscious, then we can get pure love for Kṛṣṇa, then our lives will be completely successful. He was hammering this point. The devotees you know thinking, 100%! Their heads gradually started to hanging down and they became very thoughtful, that 100% was like such an objective that never seem that this ever possible, even you know, to get real close to a 100%. But Prabhupāda was very emphatic on this point. The devotees were very thoughtful at that time. Then Prabhupāda, he ended the class, there was just a heavy silence, there was no question, he ended the class, said become cent percent Kṛṣṇa conscious. There was just like a death. I mean there was a silence so thick you could swim through it. And Prabhupāda was just sitting there on this, that raised vyasāsana and said that, even if you are 90% Kṛṣṇa conscious, Kṛṣṇa is so kind that you may still be delivered. Then he started to get down, and he was about halfway down, just as he was getting off that vyasāsana, he turned to the devotees, said, “Even 90% you can be delivered.” He started walking off, then he turned and then his cādara fell off. I remember that it was such a dramatic, almost like you know what you see in those movies; Julies Caesar his chaddar just blew like that you know. “Even 70%”, he took his cādara and threw it over his shoulders, raised his head and walked off… (laughter) Śrīla Prabhupāda Ki!

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapataka Swami: But the purport is that try for the 100%.