19850307 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.27.10 - Gaura Purnima

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on March 07, 1985 at Śrī  Dhāma Māyāpur, India. The class was given on Gaura Pūrṇimā and begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 4th Canto, Chapter 27, Text 10.

Translation: These sons and grandsons were virtually plunderers of King Purañjana’s riches, including his home, treasury, servants, secretaries and all other paraphernalia. Purañjana’s attachment for these things was very deep-rooted.

Purport: In this verse the word riktha-hāreṣu, meaning “plunderers of wealth,” is very significant. One’s sons, grandsons and other descendants are ultimately plunderers of one’s accumulated wealth. There are many celebrated businessmen and industrialists who produce great wealth and are highly praised by the public, but all their money is ultimately plundered by their sons and grandsons. In India we have actually seen one industrialist who, like King Purañjana, was very much sexually inclined and had a half dozen wives. Each of these wives had a separate establishment that necessitated the expenditure of several thousands of rupees. When I was engaged in talking with him, I saw that he was very busy trying to secure money so that all his sons and daughters would get at least five hundred thousand rupees each. Thus such industrialists, businessmen or karmīs are called mūḍhas in the śāstras. They work very hard, accumulate money, and are satisfied to see that this money is plundered by their sons and grandsons. Such people do not want to return their wealth to its actual owner. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (5.29), bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram: the real proprietor of all wealth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the actual enjoyer. So-called earners of money are those who simply know tricks by which they can take away God’s money under the guise of business and industry. After accumulating this money, they enjoy seeing it plundered by their sons and grandsons. This is the materialistic way of life. In materialistic life one is encaged within the body and deluded by false egoism. Thus one thinks, “I am this body,” “I am a human being,” “I am an American,” “I am an Indian.” This bodily conception is due to false ego. Being deluded by false ego, one identifies himself with a certain family, nation or community. In this way one’s attachment for the material world grows deeper and deeper. Thus it becomes very difficult for the living entity to extricate himself from his entanglement. Such people are graphically described in the Sixteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā (16.13-15) in this way:

idam adya mayā labdham imaṁ prāpsye manoratham
idam astīdam api me bhaviṣyati punar dhanam
asau mayā hataḥ śatrur haniṣye cāparān api
īśvaro ’ham ahaṁ bhogī siddho ’haṁ balavān sukhī
āḍhyo ’bhijanavān asmi ko ’nyo ’sti sadṛśo mayā
yakṣye dāsyāmi modiṣya ity ajñāna-vimohitāḥ

“The demoniac person thinks: ‘So much wealth do I have today, and I will gain more according to my schemes. So much is mine now, and it will increase in the future, more and more. He is my enemy, and I have killed him; and my other enemy will also be killed. I am the lord of everything, I am the enjoyer, I am perfect, powerful and happy. I am the richest man, surrounded by aristocratic relatives. There is none so powerful and happy as I am. I shall perform sacrifices, I shall give some charity, and thus I shall rejoice.’ In this way, such persons are deluded by ignorance.”

In this way people engage in various laborious activities, and their attachment for body, home, family, nation and community becomes more and more deep-rooted.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Text 10, Chapter 27, Canto 4 of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam in the chapter entitled, “Attack by Canḍavega on the city of King Purañjana”.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the description of how the materialist works very hard to achieve his material prosperity, but as the simple maxim goes you cannot take it with you. So actually. what he is doing is he is working very hard to give all the wealth to his children and grandchildren. So, in effect, they are all the plunderers of the father’s wealth.

In the broad scheme, the broad overview, what does that person gain by working so hard to earn money to give to his children and grandchildren for them to squander it away? Actually, in this lifetime he is working very hard but even he is not able to enjoy his wealth fully because he is working so hard to leave wealth for his children and grandchildren. So he is always in anxiety about them.

And from the spiritual point of view, or even from the material point of view of karma-kāṇḍa, in his next life because instead of using his wealth for pious activities, he simply been gathering it to give to his children and grandchildren, he also is not gaining any results of pious activity. Rather instead of pious activity he will have to gain the results of sinful activity for so selfishly accumulating wealth and not giving it to the owner of the wealth, Kṛṣṇa Himself.

So in this way, either in this life or the next life one does not have a good future by simply accumulating wealth and using it for material purposes. And spiritually of course such a person is bankrupt. There is no spiritual asset for leaving the wealth for one’s children.

Some… Therefore, we find in the life of Rupa Goswami and Sanatana Goswami, they were very careful to use their wealth for the purpose of which it was intended, ultimately for the service of Kṛṣṇa. That he used 25% for his family, 25% he kept for emergency and 50% he used in the service of Kṛṣṇa.

People work very hard to accumulate wealth, but if their wealth doesn’t go for Kṛṣṇa, but just goes in maintaining their material affairs, they are cheating themselves. Because you imagine in this material world, which is just a temporary life, by giving our energy, this temporary material energy in the service of Kṛṣṇa, we actually gain eternal life. What greater bargain can you get?

So Śrīla Prabhupāda has given us this mercy, here we are seated at his Samadhi. This Samadhi took a lot of Lakṣmī, money to build, it is not finished yet. But with this temporary manifestation of material nature, people will be brought closer to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So we are actually… People say, “How can you transform material energy to spiritual energy?” Actually, we have to way out of this making material money into transcendental money, of transforming material energy into spiritual by engaging it in Kṛṣṇa’s service.

So people who are little bit hesitant about money affairs thinking that this is material. Or sometimes one life member asked me here in Māyāpur that, “We see the huge contrast, we become confused. In Vṛndāvana, we see the bābājīs sitting in a little hole in Rādhā Kuṇḍa, almost like a doghouse, and they are chanting in great austerity. And here we see big buildings, and gardens, and opulence, it is a totally different situation. It is a very big contrast, which is correct?”

So then naturally I explained how Śrīla Prabhupāda indicated that for our own spiritual life we can take some simple facility, but when we want to preach the glories of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, we want to bring people back to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, and in that case we build, in this Kali-yuga, all these materialistic rajasika buildings so that the people can be brought back to home, back to Godhead. Because these developments are going on, the service of the devotees is being exchanged for Lakṣmī and that is being re-exchanged for building these preaching weapons or instruments or whatever you would like to call it, facilities, whereby people’s faith and their faith is in hands, they are being attracted, they are able to hear the transcendental vibrations. In this way, their lives are made perfect, and it is being you see catalyzed or encouraged by this transformation of material energy.

So, one time, Śrīla Prabhupāda told us that, “My big temple in Māyāpur, this is going to be built primarily through book distribution.” He said, “By distributing my literatures, my books, the percentage which would come from that will build the main temple in Māyāpur.” I mentioned before in one of the parikramās, although everyone didn’t go, Lord Nityānanda had predicted that, there would be in the future centuries, there would be He said, after 400 years, sometime after 400 years, now we are on 499, as of today, after the 400th year sometime there would come a wonderful temple for Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And this wonderful temple would expand the eternal principle of Lord Caitanya all over the world. So it is a big weight, who can get this opportunity of fulfilling Lord Nityānanda’s prediction.

Prabhupāda here sitting in Mayapur, he told us that, “The secret of success in spiritual life is to please the spiritual master and the previous spiritual masters.” Of course, directly what orders we get from the spiritual master that is non-different from the words of Kṛṣṇa. It is more important to fulfill that even than our own life. Similarly, the words of the previous ācāryas, these are also to be considered, we should try to fulfill their desires as far as possible. Then we can attract their very special mercy, we can attract their mercy, and thus we can advance very quickly in pure devotional service.

So even Kṛṣṇa is eager to please His devotees. Why shouldn’t we be very eager to try to satisfy every expressed desire given by Śrīla Prabhupāda or the previous ācāryas? Even Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to this world simply to satisfy His devotees. Advaita Gosāñī, Haridāsa Ṭhākura, they are praying to Caitanya Mahaprabhu, begging Him to come down into this material world. Because of their very intense prayer, Lord Caitanya came down. This was revealed by Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself, after He manifested His transcendental qualities of saṅkīrtana, after He returned back from Gaya, where He had performed the pinḍa-dāna for Jagannath Mishra, and He had received initiation from Īśvara Puri.

He manifested His devotional attitude in a very open way. But before that it was covered, when He was as Nimāi Paṇḍita. So that night Caitanya Mahāprabhu He called Rāmadāsa Paṇḍita, the brother of Śrīvāsa. Rāmadasa, you go and you tell Advaita Gosāñī that, “That Lord for whom he cried, that Lord for whose coming he had performed tapasya and austerities, that Lord for whose coming he had loudly shouted, that Lord for whom he had worshipped, so that He would come in this material world, that Lord is now here in Nadia.” You go tell him.

Rāmadasa went to the house of Advaita. He ran, ran and ran to his gorgeous house, and as he was running, he realized, he did not know where Advaita lived. [Devotees laughing] So he became bit afraid and asked someone that, “Where does Advaita Gosāñī live?” They said, “Why are you asking such a foolish question, you are standing right in front of his house!” (Devotees laughing)

So by Kṛṣṇa’s arrangement, he was able to find the house of Advaita. So then he went inside, paid his obeisances as soon as he saw Advaita. There Advaita was very busy. At that time he was running here and there, very- almost agitated or it is very animated. And without saying a word, Advaita started to just chastise him. “How is it possible that Sri Kṛṣṇa can come in this Kali-yuga? How is that possible? And if He did come, how will we know it? How can we believe it?”

Rāmadāsa was astonished, “I didn’t say anything!” (Devotees laughing) “Before I said anything, he is already knowing what is in my mind!” So, of course he knew that this Advaita Gosāñī, he is very famous for being very special, he has some unusual powers. So he just said, “I knew I had to do nothing.” Then Advaita Gosāñī, just he became quiet and sat down and he started to do some… do something and said, “What do you want? Why have you come?”

He said, “I was sent here with a message.”

“What is your message?”

Then he explained, “That Lord for whom you worshipped, you loudly shouted, you cried, that Lord for whom you did so many austerities, that Lord has now come here in Nadia.”

As soon as Advaita Gosāñī heard that, he start jumped up and said, “Haribol! Haribol!” (Devotees saying “Haribol” loudly along with Guru Mahārāja)

“My Lord is come! He is come! He is come! Hari bol!”

He was dancing. “I brought Him down.” (Devotees laughing)

He felt some transcendental ego you can say. (Devotees laughing)

“I have brought Him down. He is come, He is come! Hari…bol! Haribol”

Dancing. Rāmadāsa was astonished to see this special ecstasy, transcendental characteristics. Suddenly however Advaita became very serious and again he challenged, “How do I know? What if I am being cheated? What if He is not my Prāṇanātha? What if He is not the Lord of my soul, The Lord of my life? No, I won’t go! I am not going!” (Devotees laughing)

Rāmadāsa was you know what to do. He was finding Advaita’s sublime personality so deep that it was beyond his reach to grasp.

“The Lord is waiting for you!”

“No, I won’t go.”

Then he said, “Alright, I am not going. But I am going to hide by the side to see what happens. If He is really the Lord of my life, if He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that means He is the Supersoul, He knows what we are doing, what we are thinking better than we know. So He will call me even without my announcing myself, I will be hiding, hiding in the side. And if He is really the Lord, then He will show me His transcendental glory, and He will put His lotus feet on my head. If this happens, then I will know that in fact, He is Kṛṣṇa Himself come down otherwise I won’t believe it. How can I believe it?”

In the meantime, [Saci] Sītārānī, the consort of Advaita Gosāñī, she had already prepared the pūjā tray, just in case. [Devotees laughing] She was very expert Vaiṣṇavī. So the two of them they went off. And Rāmadāsa, he was on his own. So he had to run back again to see Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And Advaita Gosāñī went and he hid somewhere in the side. Before Rāmadāsa came and offered his obeisances to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, before he could say anything, Mahāprabhu started shouting out, “Naḍā, Naḍā, Naḍā”, which was the nickname of Advaita Gosāñī. “Advaita” like that, “Naḍā”, He is calling out. “You come out. I know you are hiding. Why are you trying to avoid me? You come out, you come here”.

So Advaita, he was already discovered, he came out followed by Sītārānī, and he paid his obeisances. When he looked up, there he could see the transcendental form of Caitanya Mahāprabhu not as Nimāi Pandit, but in full glory, manifesting more effulgence than millions of suns, so bright that the whole material world was covered by that jyoti. That brahma-jyoti emanating from the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His form as Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu. In fact, nothing was visible except for the Lord and His eternal pārṣadas, His eternal associates. Nityānanda, He was holding one umbrella, like this the other associates. Otherwise the whole material world was invisible. There demigods seeing this form of transcendental glory, they were worshipping the Lord. Seeing that form again Advaita Gosāñī offered his obeisances. And Lord Caitanya was chastising him, why you were hiding and put His lotus feet on the head of Advaita Gosāñī.

So in this way the Supreme Lord was called into this material world by His devotees - Advaita Gosāñī, Haridāsa Ṭhākura. He came to please His devotees. That Kṛṣṇa says, “paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ, vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām - I come to deliver My devotees and to destroy the demons (Bg 4.8)”. But Prabhupāda explained that demons can be destroyed by other means. This is not the primary reason. The primary reason is paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ, to please His devotees. So if even Kṛṣṇa Himself is dedicated to pleasing His devotees, so much so that He comes in the material world, He manifest His pastimes, then how much, to what extent, how much we , how much should we be dedicated to pleasing the transcendental desires of the pure devotee,Śrīla Prabhupāda and the previous ācāryas? Kṛṣṇa Himself is wanting to satisfy their desires, then that means that practically speaking if we try to fulfill their desires then automatically our success is assured very easily, because we will have the full backing of Kṛṣṇa. If we try to do our own independent program, we may get some temporary effect, but spiritually there won’t be the real energy or force there. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement therefore is based on this principle of serving the servant of the servant of the servant of Kṛṣṇa, gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ.

So because the Supreme Personality of Godhead’s expansion as devotee, Sri Nityānanda Prabhu wanted a huge temple in Māyāpur dhāma, because this was revealed by the other great devotees, especially Prabhupāda who himself laid the foundation stone, we are racing to complete this within our lifetimes, within the shortest possible time. Because we would like to get their mercy of being able to please the devotees, the desires of the pure devotees of the Lord. Similarly, so many other desires have been expressed and devotees we are dedicated to, you all dedicated to satisfying those all over the world. It is like Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, he wanted that there should be book distribution. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that, he had made this International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness to fulfill the desires of Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākura. We don’t have to look back further. Nobody knows better than Śrīla Prabhupāda what were the desires of Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākura. And when he told us that he made Iskcon to satisfy those desires, we should note that Iskcon is the embodiment, the principle, most effective for satisfying the desires of our previous ācāryas.

(Devotees saying jaya & clapping)

So, by that simple people, I remember Prabhupāda preaching here in India, they asked where does all your money come from? (laughs) And of course, he would, he wouldn’t be shy, he would tell them, look at we are distributing these many books every minute. Worked out, he worked it out, Rs. 60,000 a minute or six lakhs of rupees a minute, he worked it out to the minute, and the people would say, “That is astonishing”. I forget the figure, six lakhs I think per minute, something like that or 60,000. He said, somewhere, that one disciple had calculated that, somewhere all over the world every so many seconds one of the literatures of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is being distributed or maybe more than one a second.

(Devotees laughing)

Devotees: Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jai!

Jayapataka Swami: Actually the Hussain Shah, he was asked, he asked his minister one time, “What do you think of this Caitanya Mahāprabhu?” And of course the minister was a Hindu so he was afraid that if I say what I feel then maybe he will do something against Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So he said, “He is a fakir, you see like a wandering mendicant, he doesn’t have any money or anything, He is just doing some chanting and things and it is nothing important and you don’t need to worry about Him”. He kept pressing, “No, He is having so many thousands and thousands of people following Him”. They tried to play it down. (laughs)

Because he was a ferocious Mohammedan ruler and he was known even to break down temples when he was going around attacking other countries, other princely states. They were trying to protect Caitanya Mahāprabhu. When he was very serious, Hussain Shah said, “No, you want to know my opinion? I think that this Śrī Caitanya, He is non-different from Khudā, from Allah.” He was astonished. This is coming from the Mohammedan ruler; he is saying that Caitanya Mahāprabhu is not different from Allah. How could this be? They were, they didn’t, they dare not tread in that area, they were just spellbound, they couldn’t say anything. Hussain Shah continued, he said, “Yes, He must be non-different from Allah, Īśvara”. Like saying God, Allah ho Akbar.

“Lord, how can you say that? “

“There is no other answer to it. Look at my ministers who went and joined Him. So many big people, they are going and joining Him. They are working, they are going out, seeing Him dancing, forgetting everything. They, they are surrendering their everything to Him and He doesn’t pay them even one cent!”

(Devotees laughing)

“Look at me, I am the emperor of the entire Bengal Gauḍa. But if I didn’t pay my generals, my colonels, my princess, my governors, my tax collectors, my peons, if I didn’t pay my big donations and gifts to my wives, would there be one person who would stay with me? Nobody!”

(Devotees laughing, clapping and chanting “Haribol”)

“Therefore, Caitanya Mahāprabhu must be, He must be God Himself. Otherwise no one can get so many people to work, intelligent people, sincere people, to give everything up and simply work.”

So Bhavānanda mahāshaya, he has expressed to us how another example, how Śrīla Prabhupāda had that same potency of Caitanya Mahāprabhu in him to get thousands and hundreds of thousands of people all over the world to take up this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement without any material incentive,but for pure devotion. So just as Śrīla Prabhupāda, in conclusion, he told us that in preaching there were progressions, distribute books, just by distributing books, bṛhad-mṛdanga, people are made devotees. Just last night, who was lecturing last night? You mahārāja have said. Yes, it was Bhakti Prabhava Swami Mahārāja. (Devotees clapping)

He told us that like how he was a librarian for a library in Vṛndāvana , in one of the Vaiṣṇava libraries, and there the Back to Godhead magazine would come, and he would wait for the magazine with rapt desire. (Mahārāja: I agree with that. Devotees laughing) when it would come, he would read the Back to Godhead that you were sending them.

Devotee: Prabhupāda gave me addresses of libraries in Vṛdāvana to send Back to Godhead.

(Devotees: Haribol!)

Of course he was already practicing but, through that preaching later, he decided that he should surrender to Śrīla Prabhupāda, and serve Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s most intimate desire to help this movement spread. So just as these books they go so many different places, you can’t, I mean, I was interviewing some devotees even here in India, “How did you become a devotee?” And one person he owns a tea stall, his uncle owns a paan shop. So the devotees came and distributed him one Back to Godhead, Bhagavad Darśana or one book in his paan shop which is there right on the street, but he was busy all day selling paan, so he didn’t read the book. He took it home and left it at home. And then one of the children took it, and went to the other house nearby, the other relative’s house, and that was where this devotee saw the book, read it. He gone through, I mean it went through four different hands. He read the book and he said, what am I doing here? Immediately came and surrendered in the temple.

(Devotees clapping)

Śrīla Prabhupāda's books ki!

(Devotees: Jaya !)

And in South America and all over the world we hear these transcendental stories. Sometimes people say, well we distribute the books, sometimes they sit on the shelves. That also one gentleman said that how he was visiting a relative and there he saw the book on the shelf, he picked it up and started reading. He said, “My goodness, this is what I have been looking for my whole life!” So even if the books are sitting on the shelves of all the multimillionaires in India, if they are too busy making money to read the books but then their children or other guests they may come and read the book.

Or sometimes something happens, one millionaire - he was working like this and in the slake of making all his money for his only son. And his son met with a car accident and died. So he was totally shocked. His whole value, his whole thing he was working hard day and night just to give the best to his son. All of a sudden, in one flash the whole reason for his living, it ended. He and his wife were already old and had only one son, they didn’t know what to do. Then they grabbed Prabhupāda’s books and started to read and they realized that actually the purpose of life is to serve Kṛṣṇa, not to work and simply give everything for the son or the daughter. They should get something, you see, they can be given something so that they can continue, but the actual purpose is not simply to save for descendants or for one’s own sense gratification. Now in the modern world people don’t even give their sons in many places. They just want to… They don’t let their son plunder, they plunder themselves. (devotees laughing) Disown the son, especially if they become a devotee!

So books were the basic principle, they are the principle and they will continue to be the principle. But as people are becoming devotees, then Prabhupāda, his vision was not that just there would be a few devotees practicing, he wanted that Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s movement would be the worldwide movement, that in every town and village it would be practiced, that it would become the world culture. And to do that with various types of people is necessary to bring them to the standards of being Vaiṣṇavas and for those who are on the road to being vaishnavas to engage them in the varṇāśrama system.

We have experienced here in India, that sometimes, one story was there, where a man he came and purchased a book they were selling in a book table. He didn’t go away, he just sat there next to the book table, he read the whole book, small book cover to cover. Took him three four hours. He just glued reading the book. He finished the book and asked the point. Said, “I am convinced.” (Devotees laughing) Śrīla Prabhupāda ki!

(Devotees: Jaya!!!)

“I am convinced, I want to become a devotee, tell me what can I do?”

So pretty amazing, right there he read the book and he is convinced!

“Alright I am convinced, this is the Absolute Truth, there is nothing clearer than this, all my questions are answered. Now I want to engage in devotional service. How can I engage in devotional service?”

He said, “Well, you can come and live in our temple.”

He said, “Alright, Well I am working for the railway here, which is in the railway station. I am working in the railway for 25 years, and 5 more years I will get my 30 years pension. I have got my grandmother, and my seven girls and five boys, and my house, and my cows and everything. And will they all be taken in the āśrama?!”  (Devotees laughing)

So knowing the residential crisis, “So, actually, well, you could become a life member.” (Devotees laughing)

So he said, “Alright. I would like to become a life member, then what?”

“Buy another book!” (Devotees laughing)

“Give me all the books. Now what else can I do? I didn’t have any other alternative, what else could be done?”

So I saw this dilemma that we are getting people coming saying engage me. We couldn’t engage them. But Prabhupāda said, “The whole world can be engaged by Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” How to do it? I came to Śrīla Prabhupāda, we have this problem. He said, “Bring them to the temple, train them up and send them back to their place and let them make their family, make their village, make their community Kṛṣṇa conscious”.

Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu told so many to do when He travelled throughout India. So that was the beginning of our Namahatta movement. Today here we have several hundred Nāmahaṭṭa representatives from all over India come here for the All India Nāmahaṭṭa Conference. After our initiation ceremony in the afternoon, we are beginning our conference with the Nāmahaṭṭa awards ceremony and although here, maybe in India, because this is, people are very - have a lot of sukṛti, may have performed much devotional service in their previous lives or something many of them.

But I am sure that around the world more and more as people read Prabhupāda’s books, become purified, hear kīrtana, there going to be more and more and more and more people who are better suited to be engaged in some varṇāśrama context, and can do practical devotional service, preaching in their community. Everyone is not going to be able to live in our temples. This Prabhupāda told me personally in 1970 when he called me to Los Angeles to send me to India.

We were going in a morning walk, all of a sudden just out of the sky blue,he stopped, and he just, there was no any lead on. We were just chanting japa, and just we were all walking, he just stopped, and he just spoke this phrase and said, “Don’t think everybody is going to live in our temples”. He said, “Just like there are so many churches and communities, there will be so many Hare Kṛṣṇa Iskcon temples. And there will be many people who are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. And they come to the temple for Sunday, or some weekend, or some function, but they are practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness in their home.” Then he didn’t say any more. He continued the japa and kept on walking.

And that practically was just in the back of my head, but it never, I mean it never really fitted exactly what that instruction meant, until this whole situation happened, where I could see that, if you distribute enough books people become pious, and more and more interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, eventually they want to engage in devotional service. But some of them are more suited towards living this type of brahminical life in a temple and becoming preachers, and others are more suited towards some vaiśya type of activity where they make money or they do some grow some crops, and they should give the crops to the Kṛṣṇa conscious preachers.

So of course, we can see that now in Europe, America, South America, Africa, in different places this is happening more and more. Brahmānanda mahārāja also mentioned, how one gentleman came in from Nigeria was the richest man of Nigeria, he just was there in our guest house. Actually people like that, we need them to continue to make money, and give it for distributing more books, for building nice temples. There is nothing wrong with that, that is proper yukta-vairagya.

Prabhupāda used to criticize sometimes the wealthy people in India, they decide to renounce the world, they give all their money to their children and grandchildren and they come empty handed to Kṛṣṇa. Why should they work their whole life and give all that away to their relatives and then come to Kṛṣṇa, here I am, I am detached, I have nothing?! (Devotees laughing) They should come and give something to Kṛṣṇa, He is the owner. They could do something with that money to uplift other people. Why just give it for the sense gratification of their relatives? So, As Rupa and Sanatana did.

That way the birthplace of Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu temple, there was one Sakhicarana Rai, one devotee. And he wanted to surrender to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākura. He said, “What is the best thing I can do?” “I want to build this temple for Mahāprabhu at His birthplace.” So, he came, and he gave his entire wealth to the last paisa, to the last pence, paisa, cent, he gave everything and the whole thing, that’s what built that temple. There was some other donations, but primarily his donation. And then he just renounced in that way and he took up his devotional service and chanting. That was his deity is there at the gateway. He was given, he was one of the only disciples given bābājī.

He said, “I can’t preach, I am a businessman, I am in the last few years of my life, here I have this wealth, I would like to use it for the upliftment of humanity, what to do?” Alright, build this temple. He did that, and he sat there, and chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa. So we all going there, bowing down and appreciate his service. So some people may not take bābājī, they may continue to earn money, that is possible in vaṛnāśrama, someone may do so many other services.

So I just wanted to bring up that point in conclusion that as we expand our book distribution and our preaching, then naturally the whole vaṛnāśrama preaching, the whole congregational preaching, which me what congregation those people can be engaged according to their quality and their work in Kṛṣṇa’s service. They are not all going to have spontaneous devotional service. It may take some time. But they will chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and will be able to engage in devotional service. If they are engaged according to their nature, according to their abilities, they will be happy, and they will be purified and more and more, they will be able to come up to the transcendental position. So that is the actual purpose.

We should rather than serving our children and grandchildren, we should serve our spiritual fathers, grandfathers, great grandfathers in the disciplic succession. And that is why Prabhupāda said that, “I am just like a child. Sannyāsī is like a child in the hand you see the disciples are like parents, they take care.” So here Prabhupāda has put himself in our hands in this Samadhi temple so that the whole world in Vṛndāvana, whole world can worship him, take care of him. And he is continuing to put everyday himself in our hands, in his vāṇī form, in his books, and then we can serve his books by giving those books to people all over the world, so that they can read, become purified and engage themselves in devotional service under the shelter of this wonderful International Society for Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

(Devotees: Haribol and Clapping)

Any question?

Yes!

Question: His divine grace Prabhupāda was saying that, we must serve the spiritual master that to his exact desire. So how can we stick to completely serving spiritual master and coming to the mood that service to spiritual master is everything, and everything in the service of spiritual master that at the end of life, at the last breath to serve spiritual master?

Jayapatākā Swami: Yes. (Devotees laughing) By doing that. Another one of those thousand questions. You try do that and by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, always praying to the spiritual master, previous ācāryas, Kṛṣṇa, to be able to do that, that is the principal desire in one’s life, well by their mercy the impossible can be possible. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Question: Did Caitanya Mahāprabhu ever agree to do deity worship by a lady?

Jayapatākā Swami: Did Caitanya Mahāprabhu ever agree to do deity worship by ladies? His mother did deity worship in her house, Mother Saci, to Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. His mother did worship in the house and offered prasāda. In the big formal temples, generally male pujārīs are there, but sometimes if they fall sick their wife may also come in, somehow they have to keep their worship going.

Question: Caitanya Mahāprabhu…. But did they all know that He is the Supreme personality of Godhead?

Jayapatākā Swami: Well if they accept Him with respect at least they will be not guilty of the greatest offences,then they will be able to advance something. From that the point is of course Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s mood was always as a devotee. Sometimes He fell into this kind of, entered into His Kṛṣṇa mood, at that time in His own humor, He would have these unusual pastimes. But that didn’t happen very often, it was very rare. But just like they are singing out the thousand names of Viṣṇu, when He heard the name of Nṛsinghadeva, He just got into the mood of Nṛsingha at that moment and He forgot His devotional mood. Sometimes He was worshipped by Advaita Gosāñī. When Advaita could see that He was in that mood, other times when Advaita tried to touch His feet, He ran, He said, “No no, you are the senior brāhmaṇa”. So actually, I get absorbed. There was a resolution that we should start this year reading from the Caitanya Caritāmṛta for some time every day. Actually, I just wanted to start to hear. So that thing as the great one point that Lord Caitanya, He never would allow Himself to be glorified like that. But on two or three occasions, due to falling in some transcendental ecstasy in that particular mood, the devotees could actually see that aspect of Lord Caitanya revealed.