19851001 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.1.3

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on October 01, 1985 at New Tālavana farm, Carriere Mississippi. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 7th canto, chapter 1, text 3.

iti naḥ sumahā-bhāga
nārāyaṇa-guṇān prati
saṁśayaḥ sumahāñ jātas
tad bhavāṁś chettum arhati
(ŚB 7.1.3)

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 Bhaktivedānta purports 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 the sense, Parīkṣit Mahārāja is addressing these questions to Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Since the Lord and previous incarnations has apparently helped Lord Indra and defeated the asuras, and naturally the doubt will come up, whether the Lord is impartial? It seems that He takes the part of His, the side of His devotees, and works against this asuras or the non-devotees. So then is God really impartial? Is He neutral? Or is it actually that He is taking sides?

So, well this can be answered from various angles, because commonly we know that 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 (Bg 4.11). 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 wanted 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 gives them His love since those devotees are giving their love to Him.

Someone would say 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 it still equal, and this has been answered today by Śrīla Prabhupāda in the purport, that because the Lord is absolute even if He kills somebody 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 you do with Kṛṣṇa you come out ahead.

Just like there are some, there are some people, that anything you do with them, everything come out to be according to the astrological science. There are some people called makundas, and anything you do with that people comes out to be a total wipeout. In fact, if you see them as the first thing you get up in the morning, the rest of the day is supposed to be a total bummer or total kind of a horrible thing There is a story about, you know this, it is kind of off the topic, but it is kind of interesting. It is the kind of 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. He is a courtier. He looked to him and the very first person he saw that morning when he got up, rubbed his eyes, opened his eyes, there is Gopal in his veranda. 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 for 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 this Makundas. [Devotees laughing] 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.” [Devotees laughing] So he called Gopal and told him, “You are going to be beheaded.” Gopal said, “Why? 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, explained that and the barber said, “I have never cut anyone even the king in the seventeen years. Just today I cut, this is an amazing thing. ” So the king explained that, “This is the thing that has happened. So I have come to the conclusion that you must be a makunda. So therefore you have to…” (it is not Mukunda, it is makunda, they are 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 shouldn’t be the only one. There is someone who is a greater makunda than me.” “Who is that?” ”So, well my Lord, the very first person that I saw today when I woke up was you (GM and devotees laugh) and I am about to be beheaded. (GM and devotees laugh). So the king thought, “Well, this is alright.”

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 nice service, then He reciprocates and gives them sārūpya, sālokya, or some appropriate liberation. So actually, the Lord is impartial. But some people are approaching Him in a particular mood, and that is 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 can He fight with His devotees very often. You see So in the material world sometimes He comes and He fights with the demons, and in this way He gets to relate on the chivalrous temporary rasa, and satisfy that particular desire.

Those demons are actually liberated for being aspiring partner with the Lord. So they actually are 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 has not been granted of real approprieve. Just instead of having to be behind the bars in the lower planets, he is able to roam around with little freely 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, who’s that? Vṛtrāsura?!

Devotees: Vṛtrāsura.

HHJPS: Vṛtrāsura,I always get confused. Vṛtrāsura. At that time, actually he was still in Kṛṣṇa conscious, even though he took appearance 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, Viṣṇu 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 them a comfortable situation. That is why it is dangerous sometimes that a devotee in the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement if they become, due to some association with fruitive workers, if they become attached with the idea of having a very comfortable situation, and if that becomes a predominating desire in their lives, then as a result, when they leave their body that hasn’t been thoroughly transformed into pure devotion, then they may get a very comfortable situation as a devotee in 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 unnecessary austerities, 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, to 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 the predominating trait, more than the desire to expand the Kṛṣṇa consciousness 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 an 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 hoped or wished that, Kṛṣṇa wouldn’t be so equal. That He would be little 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 the of Rādhārāṇī, then, since the 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 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.

namomahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāyate
kṛṣṇāya krṣṇa-caitanya- nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ
(Cc Madhya 19.53)

So although Kṛṣṇa offered every one, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (Bg 18.66), it wasn’t only meant for Arjuna, as Prabhupāda mentions here, for every living entity living within this universe. But there are so many living entities who didn’t surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Apart from Śiśupāla, Jarāsandha, and others who were fortunate enough to die in the presence of the Lord, there were so many other souls, other demons and other persons who didn’t surrender to Kṛṣṇa, although He was present. So that’s their misfortune, because they had the opportunity.

Just like a governor, one time there was, you know how devotees are sometimes, kind of just being trained as brahmanas or something in ancient tradition, the brāhmaṇas were never to be regulated by the kings, sometimes the devotees think that they are not in the twentieth century, but they are brāhmaṇas living in the Dvāpara Yuga or something, and they tend to neglect certain legal legalities, or the laws of the land so on and so forth, which appeared them to be rather trivial or materialistic. Like in India, this happened when the devotees neglected to, one particular devotee, well many devotees who just kind of overstay their visas. They wouldn’t bother to going in time. They kind of took the people for granted. So there was a new officer, he decided that he was going to make a devotee an example.So the next was actually Gopāla Swami. He went down to the, about two weeks later after his visa had expired, he went down to the office, and 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 just for being over extended on a visa. So they were very vocative that it was simply as an example they didn’t want the devotees or anyone to just take these things lightly. They have to follow the letter of the law. And she was for some reason very heavy and she also just got into the whole mood and said you know, “Well we are just going to take this as a, you know, as an example or something like that, everyone has to follow the law”. She followed the prosecutors’ arguments. They don’t have juries there. Anyway, she gave the verdict. “Seven days of rigorous imprisonment. Breaking the rock!”

So she had rigorous imprisonment which meant you know, the worst standard of imprisonment because sometimes you get kind of a class of prison where they give you nice bed, nice private room and everything. In spite of being given rigorous imprisonment, in the prison house the people were very nice. They gave him “A class” room anyway and we got permission to bring 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 Aurobindo’s birthday. Aurobindo apart from being a famous yogi, he was a freedom fighter, and he was a journalist and a lawyer and so on. He got arrested by the British, and when he was in prison that’s when he became a yogi. This is how he had a talk with all the prisoners. It was a good place to practice devotional service, because there are not so many distractions. Well, actually Aurobindo’s spiritual life began in the prison. So he was in the prison for quite a bit of time. So because he was considered like kind of a martyr or great freedom fighter and so on for India’s independence, on his 100th anniversary of his birth, the Governor went to all prison, and anyone who wanted apart from serious like murders just the normal like people that had some misdemeanors, they would all get, they all got pardoned as a kind of like a benediction of Aurobindo, you know they 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, and anyone who took surrendered to Him on that occasion they could get freed. The governor came to the prison house, and anyone who wanted to, they could get free. I mean if they were stupid enough to stay there, well it is another thing. But generally speaking, everyone even if they didn't want, actually they are, even if they didn't ask something, well, they can go, because they were not major criminals or any. So in this way so many people were relieved.

So some people died in Kṛṣṇa’s presence, they got liberation, those who surrendered they could get His eternal association or sāmīpya and achieve pure love. They were able to get Kṛṣṇa. But there were so many who didn’t take advantage of that. There are so many hardened criminals, who who were too hard to take advantage of that visit of the Lord. They were too demoniac. And their hearts weren’t melted. So Lord Caitanya came, when Kṛṣṇa came in His form as Caitanya, then all there 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 their demoniac nature and he would give them the perfection of life. So therefore namo mahā-vadānyāya, there is no greater charitable person more than Lord Caitanya. He is giving the greatest gift so freely. Actually Lord Caitanya’s movement is still present on this planet, and handed down through 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 brought now 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. Even things which are not fully purified yet after having initially surrendered, but by the mercy of Lord Caitanya all these can be purified, and we can actually achieve pure devotional service. So this is very special mercy of Lord Caitanya. We should understand that Kṛṣṇa has offered this opportunity to everybody. Even today we can surrender to Him. There is a shortcut, and if for any reason we are finding that our surrender is not at the par, not at the proper level, well, we should just 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-premi, or someone who has love for Kṛṣṇa. This is Lord Caitanya’s, Lord Nityānanda’s special mercy.

By the mercy of Nitāi-Gaura we can get the mercy and the pure devotion for Rādhā-Rādhā Kānta. It is actually devotees of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, are there in Vṛndāvana. you see The devotees of Lord Caitanya are simultaneously both devotees of Radha-Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya. And they simultaneously participate in both the pastimes, the pastimes of Lord Caitanya in Śvetadvīpa, the Navadvīpa in the spiritual world, and the pastimes of Rādhā-Govinda, Rādhā Rādhākānta in Goloka Vṛndavan. This is a special benediction of being a devotee of Lord Caitanya. It become very easy to get the mercy of Lord Kṛṣṇa when we approach through Lord Caitanya and His devotees.

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

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

So, thank you very much for allowing me to visit you here 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 a reception, and although it is not required or in anyway, see actually the spiritual master is the spiritual master for Prabhupāda’s grandchildren, not for the God brothers or God sisters. In fact, the God brothers or God sisters themselves may at any time get Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy and take on responsibilities in the future for carrying on the disciplic succession. But sometimes God brother or God sister either out of respect as the representative of the parampara or a Vaiṣṇava or just to show example to other devotees sometimes they participate in most ceremonies although it is not compulsory. So it is a bit embarrassing for a peer, for a God brother. Although in Prabhupāda’s presence, there were senior god brothers, there were senior god sisters, they were always in that mood, which I’m sure should continue even in the grand disciples of Prabhupāda. But one should take advantage of any experience that an older God brother or God sister has, in how to render devotional service better. Today of course it is on a God brother-God sister reciprocation. In any case, I’m 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 have seen that, for instance in some of our bigger projects around the world, like in New Vṛndāvana, they have been able to create a spiritual community which in itself has, 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 to him about, that he had just procured some farms, and Prabhupāda wrote that time he wanted to have a kind of 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 ten or twenty thousand devotees. In India anyway we have 600 acres. So he said we can easily have 20,000 devotees. To this day we haven’t figured out exactly how, but Prabhupāda had the vision.

And here is 1600, and so then according to that acres or may they you don’t have an equal growing season, maybe 25 to 50,000 people could be (laughs) envisioned here. We will lose this rural aspect of this. In any case there is a big scope for giving shelter to so many devotees. That was Prabhupāda’s vision and I was always ah, I had a personal realization once, when seeing Prabhupāda do different projects. It wasn’t that every project was exactly the same. But that Prabhupāda had different strategies for different projects.

Like in Māyāpur, he always said, “I want here a spiritual city.” And then a little known project, I mean I don’t, little known for the people around the world, but nonetheless it was the project that Prabhupāda visited once or twice, and that was the Haridāsapur. There Prabhupāda said, “This is a very nice village. Here the people are devoted. Haridāsa Ṭhākura was here.” So he said, “Build the temple, and you make this an example a prototype of an existing village that becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious.” Like moving into a, just the opposite of what they did in Rajneeshpuram. They moved in, and kicked out all the old people, 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 burnt all their Bibles. And then he is declared that, he is not a Bhagavan, he is just an ordinary man, and that he just come to help people out. It is not a religion. And he said that the IRS is already very interested in that pronouncement. You may have to pay tax on this … something. I don’t know what that has to do.

But in any case, Prabhupāda, he had a different vision. In Haridāsapur, his vision was to -alright you come here, you set up this temple, you develop this temple as an ancient shrine, and you make a perfect ideal village from an existing village. In Māyāpur there was nothing there I mean there was the land we have is barren I mean not barren but it is an empty land, and used just for agriculture. He wanted a city to be built there. So in one place he wanted to build the city and other place he wanted to transform a village into a Kṛṣṇa conscious one. Then like in another place, like in Hyderabad farm there his vision was - here, we will make our own villages. It is a barren land, there is no one out there, he said we will build the villages, we will bring the people in in our terms and we will give them what will be there in this village , they will each have a house, they will have a - they will be able to do their own gardening, and the produce they will give to the Deities and in return there will be some areas which should be funded by a core of devotees who are dedicated or who are like the central, administration under the central administration. They all grow the grains with the big machines and everything, that are not labor intensive but more machine intensive . And then they give the vegetables which are labor intensive and they get the grains, so they get the prasāda depending on how….He didn’t give all the details, but again he had some idea of building up villages and in a different way, a kind of as a reciprocal, a barbering system almost reciprocal, reciprocation of different people doing different things.

I am sure that, of course these are these 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 for different projects, in different places, Prabhupāda had a different vision. It would be very interesting here in New Tālavana too, discuss on this topic that what was Prabhupāda’s vision here, not that we have to be a stereotype and just copy the other people’s programs, but that try to understand what was Prabhupāda’s idea for this type of project. Maybe just the same as another project, not that we have to you know for the sake, of being different you don’t have to be different but may be the same or may not be, neither here, nor there. What I mean is to actually understand what is the way that we can serve Prabhupāda here, what’s his desires are, what he has given - general scope. Then to, according to this time, place and circumstance to develop things in a way, of course I know this is what has been going on, already so, I’m just saying that this is definitely very auspicious way of doing things, and I am agreeing with that the program or developing a project like that.

So the result of that is of course, if we do things which are pleasing to Prabhupāda, which are pleasing to the previous spiritual masters in the 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 sixteen-year-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 be able to do which no one else could do, that was to break the mighty phalanx of the Kurus. So although a person may be, 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 Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Of course, we shouldn’t make the mistake what Abhimanyu made, what he did, he didn’t finish his lesson. That time, I think he was in the womb of the mother, and his mother fell asleep or something, and he could not hear the last thing which was how to get out of the phalanx. So we should, so he got in but he couldn’t 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 sure 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 already we 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 just be careful to keep all relationships in a very Vaiṣṇava - Kṛṣṇa conscious level, avoid the things that happens when big communities that sometimes goes to a loss of that kind of a family spirit. If we can keep us unified just like Kṛṣṇa had a family with millions of people and they are all one big family. Similarly we can remain as one family even if we our numbers grow, if we keep that Kṛṣṇa conscious spirit and if we avoid any kind of material consciousness that comes up to interfere with that natural Kṛṣṇa conscious flow and the appreciation of the good qualities of others, and avoiding just seeing 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 can find something bad. Śiśupāla found things to complain about in Kṛṣṇa, although there was nothing wrong with Kṛṣṇa, but Śiśupāla 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 a devotee who is practicing, may actually 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 and other activities , if you rather look towards his good qualities , which is recommended then naturally we start seeing 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 still be a few qualities that we don’t want 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 material quality that may be there in a devotee will be gradually burnt 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 the parents 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 hope in a parent that may be this child will be a real putra or the putrī and be able to deliver the parents 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 a source of inspiration for us. In this way we learn to appreciate each other’s’ better qualities, then naturally our community becomes closer and closer, and all the devotees will learn to reciprocate with each other in 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’m very thankful to be here in your presence. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Devotees: Haribol!

Jayapatākā Swami: Any questions? Yes

Devotee: Śrīla Acāryapāda, is it correct understanding that if we follow the process that Prabhupāda has laid out, chanting our sixteen rounds, following four regulative principles, staying in association with devotees, then when the time comes to leave our body, even if we didn’t purify everything and so are thinking of some material desires, you mentioned that He will, He take us back anyway?

Jayapatākā Swami: What Prabhupāda said is that, if a person follows the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness then he may not have to take birth again in the material world. Now how free we are from things like offenses may dictate how I will go up in the spiritual world, whether we get a place in Vaikuṇṭha, or whether we get a place in Goloka Vṛndāvana, how I am able to go. Or I mean, if a person, I had one person who approached me in India, he had a very strange character. He said, “I have been chanting 32, 20 or 16 rounds for 26 years, but he never gave up eating fish.” In His neutral position we were discussing today, He simply reciprocates with the person so perfectly. There is someone who would do something like that because of their offenses while chanting the Holy name, that they don’t actually make advancement towards pure love for Kṛṣṇa. They are getting some benefit from chanting, but at the same time, their material desires are not 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 name for some period of time, he got some spiritual intelligence. He stopped eating fish. Even though 26 years he was on his weird practice, where he although chanting he never tried to avoid breaking that, you know, stopping breaking of regulative principle. So if a person I mean if he is determined, you know although he would have chanted the 16 rounds and followed the regulative principles, but if they take things in an attitude that I’m determined not to give up my material attachments, then that is an anachronism. From our side it should be not just externals, but it should be internal, 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 are not fully successful, Prabhupāda said that there is, that Kṛṣṇa is so merciful, Lord Caitanya is so merciful, even though we may not, at the point of death, have done it a hundred percent successful, we can still get delivered. In fact, I was, (aside - How long should I go on?) I was in Montreal, and Prabhupāda is giving a lecture. That time we had a Vyasāsana for him, it was very high. I mean very- it was like when we would stand up we would just be facing Prabhupāda eye to eye, or he will still be even a little higher than that. It was a very high Vyasāsana. You had to kind of crawl up, it had steps going up and it was more or less kind of a pulpit. So he would be up there, he would sit and he would even take prasāda there. In a feast, they would bring a big plate of prasāda and we would all be sitting down, and he would take Prasāda from there, and sometimes he would give prasāda out from there. So one day he was giving his lecture from up there actually and at this point he was just preaching very hard, we have to be a hundred percent Kṛṣṇa conscious. We have to try; we have to be a hundred percent Kṛṣṇa conscious. We have to try for that. We have to become. If we are hundred percent Kṛṣṇa conscious, then we can get pure love for Kṛṣṇa, then our life will be completely successful. He was just hammering this point. Now the devotees were thinking, a hundred percent, you know, their heads gradually started hanging down, they became very thoughtful. The hundred percent was like such an objective that it never seemed that is ever possible; even you know to get very close to a hundred percent. 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. No questions. That is it. He ended the class and said, “Become cent percent Kṛṣṇa conscious.” It was just like a death place; I mean, just like… He saw silence that he could swim through it. Now Prabhupāda was sitting there on his raised Vyāsāsana and said, “Even if you are ninety percent Kṛṣṇa conscious, Kṛṣṇa is so kind, that you may still be delivered.” Then he started to get down and when he was about half way down, just as he was getting off the Vyāsāsana he turned to the devotees and said, ”Even ninety percent, you can be delivered.” He started walking out, then he turned and his chaddar fell off, I remember it was such a dramatic, almost like you see in those movies Julius Caeser like that, his chaddar flew like that and said, “Even seventy percent.” He took his chaddar and threw it over his shoulder and raised his head and walked away.

(Devotees laughing) Śrīla Prabhupāda Ki

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: The purport is trying for a hundred percent.