19860216 Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi-līlā 1.19

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on Feb 16^th 1986 in Atlanta, Georgia. The class begins with a reading from Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Adi Līlā chapter 1, text 19.

ei tina ṭhākura gauḍīyāke kariyāchena ātmasāt
e tinera caraṇa vandoṅ, tine mora nātha

Translation: These three Deities of Vṛndāvana [Madana-mohana, Govinda and Gopīnātha] have absorbed the heart and soul of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas [followers of Lord Caitanya]. I worship Their lotus feet, for They are the Lords of my heart.

Jayapatākā Swami: This is a very important verse glorifying the three Deities of Vṛndāvana: Mādana-mohana, Govinda and Gopīnātha. The understanding of these three Deities properly gives one a deep realization of process of devotional service in the process of advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness back to our perfectional platform, back to the level of pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The Deity of Rādhā-Mādanamohana and the function of the dīkṣā-guru are similar. This is explained later by Śrīla Prabhupāda that:

[Excerpt from Purport to Ādi 1.47: Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī is the ideal spiritual master, for he delivers one the shelter of the lotus feet of Madana-mohana. Even though one may be unable to travel on the field of Vṛndāvana due to forgetfulness of his relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he can get an adequate opportunity to stay in Vṛndāvana and derive all spiritual benefits by the mercy of Sanātana Gosvāmī. Śrī Govindajī acts exactly like the śikṣā-guru (instructing spiritual master) by teaching Arjuna the Bhagavad-gītā. He is the original preceptor, for He gives us instructions and an opportunity to serve Him. The initiating spiritual master is a personal manifestation of Śrīla Madana-mohana vigraha, whereas the instructing spiritual master is a personal representative of Śrīla Govindadeva vigraha. Both of these Deities are worshiped at Vṛndāvana. Śrīla Gopīnātha is the ultimate attraction in spiritual realization.]

Jayapatākā Swami: So first by taking initiation, the seed of devotional service is given and one is firmly established with the concept that, ‘I am not this body I am the eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa’, jīvera ’svarūpa’ haya—kṛṣṇera ’nitya-dāsa’ (Cc. 20.108). Then the next stage is to follow is take instruction from the guru, which is the guru's function as śikṣā-guru, and then one follows these instructions of the spiritual master. By following the instructions and serving the order of the spiritual master, then one achieves the next stage which is a transcendental appreciation. As one becomes purified, then one becomes more and more attracted by Kṛṣṇa, and then the ultimate attraction in the form of Rādhā-Gopīnātha is there.
So, the objective of either taking shelter of dīkṣā-guru and following instructions; Prabhupāda said that, “For my disciples I am both the dīkṣā and śikṣā-guru.” You see sometimes it would be that in India person would take dīkṣā, and then the śikṣā-guru may assign him to go to someone else and accept him as śikṣā-guru. This was very prevalent, although sometimes the dīkṣā-guru and śikṣā-guru are one and the same. There also many examples that some of the disciples of the gosvāmīs, they personally would take instruction from their dīkṣā-guru as well. In some cases, they would send. So if they're different or the same, accordingly instruction is there. Sometimes the first it might take dīkṣā when they are twelve years old and the spiritual master may not be present. Later one may accept someone, seeing him as a transparent medium, as a śikṣā-guru. Examples like that also there. But in ISKCON, generally speaking, at least for my disciples, I also consider myself to be their dīkṣā and śikṣā-guru for my disciples. Ācāryadeva asked me to give guidance to his disciples. Giving guidance and being śikṣā-guru, no one can just say, “I am your śikṣā-guru.” And of course there are two kinds of śikṣā-gurus. One kind, anyone who gives instruction is śikṣā-guru. And then śikṣā-guru in the other sense is one whose words are non-different from the dīkṣā-guru who is actually the full representative of Kṛṣṇa. And his instructions are to be taken as not different from Kṛṣṇa's. So that type of śikṣā-guru has to be on the level of the dīkṣā-guru or more. Has to be on the same spiritual absolute platform. Has to be speaking from the absolute platform. It's not that anyone who gives relevant instructions is also śikṣā-guru. There's two kinds of śikṣā-guru mentioned in the scripture: those who give relevant instruction and those who are directly representing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So of course, we respect anyone who gives us relevant instruction. But someone who is directly representing the Supreme Personality of Godhead gets special respect from the disciples.

In any case first platform is to get out of the material attachment. Sometimes we find that the sahajīyā process is that people try to immediately jump ahead. In Bengal especially, there are so many different groups of sahajiyās which have come. Yesterday we were discussing, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura appearance day, how the different kind of apasampradāyas have appeared. Even the Bhāgavatam mentions that there's adharma, upadharma, para dharma, the different kinds of dharma which are all a little bit off. Apadharma, apasampradāya means that some similarity is there. But they added their own speculation and it's been changed. Adharma is blatant irreligion. So there different types. Apasampradāya means that they're claiming to be connected with the sampradaya, but actually they're off. They're not following strictly. Of course, that everybody is calling everyone else apasampradāya. Who is the real sampradāya? That's the point of discussion. So therefore, everything else ultimately comes back to the scripture. What did Lord Caitanya say? What did the previous ācārya say? So, in our line we strictly follow these teachings of Caitanya-caritāmṛta. We don't deviate from these teachings at all. There are other groups to say that these teachings that are not necessary at all. That one shouldn't be too much involved in all this study of scripture. That one's entire sentiment and feeling is more important. That if you feel devotion, if you feel very much in love of Kṛṣṇa, that's the more important thing regardless of what the scriptures say. So they learn how to imitate that feeling. So they even convince themselves, “I'm feeling love for Kṛṣṇa”, and they do all nonsense. So they may have Deities sevā where they offer bīḍīs. Bīḍīs are hand rolled cigarettes. And they do their sevā after chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. And they have made so many things which are totally speculative and completely unauthorized by the śāstra. So eventually they become exposed, that if your attraction is there for Kṛṣṇa, then why you are attached to smoking bīḍīs, and cigarettes, and things like that. So that's why Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, he stressed that rather than be someone who this puts on a show of being an advanced devotee, and actually not doing any devotional service; better to be a sincere person and admit that you are fallen and try to get purified than be a hypocritical sādhu, who's actually there for not getting purified.

Actually Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura had very strict standards. We saw one of the letters that he wrote. Put on a bulletin board for his āśrama. And he was the first sādhu to get a motor-car. In fact, he had the car before anyone but he was using it for preaching. At that time he saw that some of the svāmīs are taking the car out to go and get some medicine from the doctor and driving back, parading in the car. So he became very upset that, “These people are coming from the village and becoming devotees, becoming big sādhūs. I bought the car and should only be used for preaching. But they're going out and buying medicine.” So, he wrote an instruction – “The car cannot be used for anything but preaching. If you want to get medicine, walk. Walk to the drugstore. Don't use the car.” The car was a very big preaching asset. He didn't want it to be misused. And then he went on to say that, “Purpose of coming and living in Kṛṣṇa's temple is to completely dedicate yourself to service. Everyone should be occupied with devotional service from morning to night. So, if you don't want to do devotional service, then better to go back home and live with your family, and practice devotional service in your house.” Of course, at least in India you can practice some amount of devotional service in your house sometimes. At least in some homes, at least at that time it was somewhat possible. Of course, in this Western world you go back to your parents houses, in most cases it's very rare we can practice any kind of devotional service. So of course, it's much more drastic.

But Prabhupāda, he also was challenged many times. I remember one time a girl said “Why do we have to always engaged in devotional service? Why can't we just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa? I want to just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.”

Then Prabhupāda laughed, “You want to just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa? All right. Then you go to Māyāpur, or Vṛndāvana, and you stay there. You don't have to do any service. You chant 64 rounds in a day or more, Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. You eat once a day. One time a day. For those who don't do service they don't need to eat more, because if they eat more they'll sleep. You should eat once a day and you should sleep four hours in a day. Go to sleep by ten, get up early in the morning, you chant whole day and night. If you do that then it's alright. Otherwise you'll eat, you’ll sleep, you’ll chant few hours, what is the use? You’ll be sitting there chanting and then…”, Prabhupāda showed with his head, “…you’ll fall asleep. Therefore, I am giving you so much service. If you don't do service, you’ll fall in māyā. You won't think of Kṛṣṇa.” But Prabhupāda told, “If anybody wants to simply not do service, then they should go to Māyāpur. They can come there. We'll give them one meal a day – rice, capātīs, dāl, sabji, whatever. One meal a day. They can eat. They can sit there and chant. I can't speak for Vṛndāvana, but they should also allow the same.” That’s Prabhupāda’s instruction that if anybody in ISKCON simply wants to chant, they can go and live in the Holy-dhāma and simply chant. Eat once a day and we have twenty-four hour kīrtana in Māyāpur. We need people to chant there twenty-four hours a day. Someone stays there the whole day chanting, we will be very happy. Otherwise for the rest of the centers, the other 298 out of the 300 centres, Prabhupāda wanted everyone should be engaged in active devotional service. That was the standard that Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura wanted. He said, “If you're living off of Kṛṣṇa, you're not doing service, you're doing yourself a disservice.” We come to the temple, what are we offering to Kṛṣṇa? It's alright in the very beginning if the person is a neophyte.  Even you’ll find that the neophytes are more enthusiastic sometimes to do any kind of service. But it's actually the other thing. When Lord Caitanya did the Guṇḍicā-mārjana, He was the most enthusiastic. When they had competition who can clean more dirt, Lord Caitanya cleaned more dirt than any other devotee.

Śrīla Prabhupāda told us in India, “He should be the leader in the temple who can collect more money and can do more service.” That should be the criteria in any sphere. His whole point is… he said, “I am competing with my godbrothers. I came here, I begged them, ‘Please let us work together. Give me a place to bring my disciples. We will work together. I'll back you up.’ Nobody gave us so much as a pin of land, or a pin of facility to move in.” And that was like the purport. “We asked, they didn't give us any opportunity. So therefore, we have to get our own land, we have to get our own place.” Then he said, “This is the competition, that I am saying this is the way of serving Bhaktisiddhānta, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, to engage fully in devotional service and propagating the message of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and cooperating together totally. This is the way. That is Śrīla Prabhupāda’s philosophy and specific contribution. And he said that if you help me, we will show this is the proper way. There he said that, “There's a competition. I want to show this is the way of doing what Bhaktisiddhānta wanted and I'm going to prove it, because we're going to get the mercy of Bhaktisiddhānta and we will be successful.” and he was! So now people are turning around in India and they're saying, “Yes! Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda had the right idea and therefore he's successful!” He said “Let my actions speak louder. Everyone can say I got the right idea. But then alright, you implement it. Because I carried out Bhaktisiddhānta’s order, therefore this movement spread all over the world. It's not my pride. It's simply that it’s the order of Bhaktisiddhānta. If we follow the order of the previous ācārya, we will be successful. No credit to me. Credit is to them. My credit only that I'm carrying out their order.”

People ask again and again, “Śrīla Prabhupāda, what is your secret of success?”

He said “My success? I simply try to carry out the order of my spiritual master.” And Śrīla Prabhupāda, in his Bhāgavatam purports, “Actually a disciple, when the spiritual master leaves, he should simply die of separation from feeling the absence of the guru. How can you live? The only reason for living is because he's given some instruction to carry out his order. Otherwise, if we can't do the service to the spiritual, what is they use of remaining in this world? Of course Prabhupāda didn't want anyone to commit suicide. What he wanted them to do was take their devotional service very seriously. I remember one time I was having darśana in front of Śrīla Prabhupāda in Māyāpur. He was just chanting, meeting different devotees. He was alone in the room. Suddenly he became very serious. Then he started to smile. He said, “Today such-and-such devotee has become very serious about his devotional service.” It's like a momentous occasion! The devotee has become serious, “Now I have become very determined. I'm going to engage in my devotional service.” We go on in our devotional service mechanically, coasting, somehow just on some mental platform. Then somewhere along there like something happens. Just like a little-light lights up and we realize that unless we surrender to guru, previous guru, Kṛṣṇa, unless we become completely serious, we're not going to go anywhere. Somehow it just hits us that we have to. When we become serious then the devotional service really starts. Otherwise, it’s like coasting. It's like you got a car, it's on idle. Engine’s running but it you're not going, you're not accelerating. You have to put, everyone of us has to put the gas on. Then we accelerate. The gas means to become very serious about our devotional service. So, what makes this not serious is we are thinking about sense gratification, we're thinking about our body, we're thinking about our mind, we’re thinking about other people, we are thinking about everything but what is going to please guru and Kṛṣṇa?

So Mādana-mohana are so merciful that even such lame people who are not able to focus their mind on guru and Kṛṣṇa, they are so merciful that they attract us to their devotional service. Kṛṣṇa is so kind he comes down into the material world simply to attract us. Even Kṛṣṇa is so kind, he comes like that. But Lord Caitanya, he's even more merciful. He comes and points, “Look! There is Kṛṣṇa. See how attractive he is! See how wonderful Kṛṣṇa is!” Because we're so blind, we don't even look. It's like the owl, there's no sun. Everywhere you think you can see Kṛṣṇa's manifestation, you can see how He's acting but still we say there's no God. This is ignorance. Lord Caitanya comes - jīva jāgo, jīva jāgo, gauracānda bole, kota nidrā jāo māyā-piśācīra kole. So wake up! Wake up! How long you going to remain sleeping on the lap of the witch māyā. Wake up. I've come here to engage you in the service of

bhajība balīyā ese saṁsāra bhītare,
bhūliyā rahīle tūmī avidyāra bhare

That I've come here, bhajība, to engage you in the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa. Why? Because bhūliyā. Because you've forgotten how to serve Kṛṣṇa. Bhūliyā, bhūliyā means you forgot. And where are you? Rahīle avidyā, rahīle tūmī - you are in ignorance. You are in ignorance, therefore I’ve come to remind you, to wake you up and engage you in serving Kṛṣṇa.

Here at New Pānihāṭi, Jagannātha is so kind He goes out on His Ratha-yātrā car to just engage the people in His service. Actually, Jagannātha is the first Deity that Prabhupāda worshipped in New York. So it's our primary deity, first Deity to give ISKCON His mercy. I also was very fortunate in Montreal. The first deity I had been given the service of was the Jagannātha Deity in Montreal. In ISKCON, first Jagannātha came. Then Prabhupāda brought Nitāi-Gaura. Then finally he brought Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. So we have the same order, the order that Prabhupāda introduced us to Deity worship. Actually first we understand Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme. But we need the most merciful form of Kṛṣṇa. Because without Kṛṣṇa's mercy at this stage, being in the Kali-Yuga is very difficult. But then everyone says we are devotees of Kṛṣṇa, but to really go deep into devotion to Kṛṣṇa you need the mercy of Kṛṣṇa's most merciful form that is Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And by Lord Caitanya’s mercy, then one can develop love spontaneous love which qualifies one to worship Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. So, very interesting points here in this purport. One of the points said here:

[Excerpt from Purport to Ādi 1.19] Paṅgoḥ refers to one who cannot move independently by his own strength, and manda-mateḥ is one who is less intelligent because he is too absorbed in materialistic activities. It is best for such persons not to aspire for success in fruitive activities or mental speculation, but instead simply to surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Jayapatākā Swami: A paṅgu—someone who cannot move independently by his own strength—and one who's less intelligent because he is absorbed in the materialistic activities. Actually how can someone be successful if they are paṅgu or manda-mate. Normally the materialistic people, they simply just aspire more and more for different materialistic successes. But here a different angle has been given. Best for such people who are so hopeless—the cripple, the less intelligent, those who are suffering in the material world—better for them not to aspire for our success for fruitive activity. Because what success can may have when they are paṅgu and manda-mate. Better they simply surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Just like one-time Prabhupāda was joking with one svāmī. Someone was saying that he was very renounced. He said, “No. Who would have him? Who would marry him anyway? That's why he took sannyāsa.” Just joking with this sannyāsī. That in this material world someone who is very proud, they always feel very confident, self-confident that they will all be able to enjoy, “I'm very important, very expert, very intelligent” so on. Somebody who is little frustrated, for them it's easier to engage in spiritual life. Actually everybody is paṅgu. Everybody is crippled, although some are proud. Nobody can move independently by their own strength. We're not able to move by our own strength. People are proud. Just like big athletes and runners. But sometimes just one little ligament, or tendon, or something goes, and they become disabled. Actually they are simply running under previous karma. This body, one little thing goes wrong, everything is finished. We're not independent. We may think we're independent but actually we're depending only on the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. When we're totally dependent; at any moment something can go haywire, something and go off, better for us to engage in devotional service. Similarly, those who are less intelligent, those are absorbed in the materialistic activity, they always get cheated by māyā. They get misled by māyā. They try to do something: they make a plan how to enjoy, how to be happy, and it always in the end turns sour. Never works out as planned. We have various clichés—best made plans of men and mice…—we have so many clichés. But end result doesn't work out as planned. A big president, previous POTUS, he makes a plan to save the hostages in Iran with millions and billions, the whole country. They send over the helicopters; they all break down. Big failure. Millions of dollar helicopter deserted in the Iranian desert, whole thing a flop. Big embarrassment. Big big plan, put the whole nation watching on television. First time civilian teacher going in the space shuttle. They're all watching. Two devotees were doing saṅkīrtana that time in Florida. They were driving. Then I think Bhaktisvarupa Dāmodara Swami told me he was driving to see Ācāryadeva or something. And they just happened to see some smoke. They went looking and they saw this this rocket go up. Someone said, “Maybe that's the space shuttle?”

They said, “No.”

They were watching. And they saw it *boom* blow up with their own eyes! “That must’ve been the space shuttle. It was not supposed to do that.” (laughter) We all think, ‘Now we've made it! We're infallible! We’ve got it all worked out.’ Russia maybe having tongue-in-cheek, “Well at least we're together, you see. We don't let anybody know what happens here. Even if we have a failure, no one can find out.”

So three-four days after, all the countries in Europe are getting heavy heavy radioactive reports. “What's going on!? Fallout is coming?” Then they started looking around where is it coming from. Then they find it’s coming from Chernobyl. But Russia never tells anybody when anything goes wrong. So they didn't tell anybody. But whole countries are becoming contaminated. Their cows and meat are all becoming radioactive. Then finally Russia has to admit that we have a big nuclear accident. So the point is that no one is able to move independently by his own strength. They may say there's no God, they may say so many things. But they're not able to move properly, perfectly, independently on their own strength. So therefore, what is the real best thing they should do? They should depend on Mādana-mohana. They should surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Instead, simply to surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The perfection of life is simply to surrender to the Supreme. In the beginning of our spiritual life, we must therefore worship Mādana-mohana, so that He may attract us and nullify our attachment for material sense gratification. Just like booster rocket, Mādan-mahana, Govinda, Gopīnātha. Person takes shelter of Caitanya Mahāprabhu engaged in devotional service, Mādana-mohana give Their mercy to get us completely fixed up in devotional service. So Sanātana Gosvāmī, he was very merciful. He gave us different rules and regulations how to practice devotional service so that we can guide our mind, guide our consciousness, out of the material attachment. Just like they have to think something. So they're like if you want to heat up iron, you have to keep the iron in the fire. As soon as you take the iron out of the fire, it starts to cool down. One advanced in devotional service, we have to keep the iron inside the fire. If somebody is able, through various maneuvers, to take all pressure off himself of devotional service, he’s simply enabled himself to be in māyā. I remember Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Gosvāmī, when he was the president, GBC, BBT trustee everything in Bombay, he went to Śrīla Prabhupāda. He was frantic. He said that, “Śrīla Prabhupāda! From morning to night… the GBC, the president, the BBT, the construction... *tone of bewilderment* I don't have any time from morning to night. Every moment. There's no free time!”

Prabhupāda said, “Very good! This will keep you out of māyā. It's very good. This is what we want. No free time! Not a moment to spare.” We should have such intense pressure on us. If we're not able to have the pressure come from within, then better we have the pressure come from without. When a devotee reaches rāgānugā-bhakti, that means that if he sits idle for a moment, he starts getting agitated, “Where is the service? I have to do something for Kṛṣṇa and my guru.” That is what is known as spontaneous devotion. If the devotee, for a few minutes if he doesn't have devotional service, if he doesn't hear topics about Kṛṣṇa, he starts to get anxious. Fidgety. “What's going on?” He just starts feeling uncomfortable. He starts losing that atmosphere of devotion, he feels like a fish out of water. And before that, vidhi-mārga means that our inclination is to be in māyā. Therefore, we need very strict rules and that pressure of rules-regulations service given to us to do this so that we'll always stay in devotional service. And when we stay long enough in the fire, then it becomes spontaneous. Then we like devotional service. We don't want to do anything else but devotional service. We don't want to do anything that's not directly pleasing to guru and Kṛṣṇa. We should give our different activities certain tests. We do something, “Is this going to be pleasing to guru and Kṛṣṇa? Is this going to be displeasing to guru and Kṛṣṇa?” If it is pleasing, alright, we can accept it. If it's displeasing, we should reject it. “Is this is the wise use of my time in devotional service or is this an over-endeavor which is not ultimately going to produce something which will be of use to Kṛṣṇa? Is this a whimsical action that I am doing, which is not authorized by sadhu-śāstra-guru? Or is this now over-application of sadhu-śāstra-guru, a fanaticism which is missing the real point and sticking up on some specific rule. Because there so many rules and regulations, if you get hung up on one, you lose sight of the other. You have to take everything in perspective Lord Caitanya wanted the saṅkīrtana to go on.

So we have bhāgavata-vidhi-—the saṅkīrtana movement—and we have Deity worship—pañcarātrika-vidhi. The two don't always mix. There is areas where they conflict. Then one has to see at that twilight zone, that area where they meet, how to coordinate the two. How to make them meet. Actually, they're not in contradiction in the real sense. But to a limited view they may appear to be. Because the purpose of both is the same. But the process is slightly different. Bhāgavata process is to increase the devotees, to be preaching. So for that maybe sometimes we go places which are not clean, which are not good. But we have to go there because that’s where all the conditioned souls are stuck up, to bring them out of their illusion. In the pañcarātrika one shouldn't go into dirty places, one should remain pure and do Deity worship. So these contradictions are there. So sometimes the pūjārīs think, ‘The preachers, what are they doing? They're not as pure. They're coming back a little bit messy, and their clothes are always dirty.’ But they're going out there and they're preaching, taking so many risks. We always say, “Take a risk for Kṛṣṇa.” Why we say take a risk? Risk means when you go out and you preach to the materialistic people, you go out and try to engage them in devotional service, the risk is that you can take their subtle mentality, their subtle cynicism, their subtle criticism, their subtle negative or materialistic attitudes, their subtle or gross desires for material sense gratification, and that can become part of you. Like a disease, you can contract it again. It's a risk. Therefore, we come back to the temple to see the beautiful form of Jagannātha, Nitāi-Gauracandra, Rādhā-Mādanamohana to purify our heart so that we can again go out and try to, with that purity, attract people to take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So we need to come to the temple, to come to the spiritual place, and become purified.

We need to always analyze our mind soon. As soon as we think that what we're thinking is correct, then we know that we're in danger. Our thoughts have to always be analyzed. You can never rely on your thoughts. We take intelligence from the śāstra, intelligence from the guru, intelligence from the lives of previous devotees—example they gave. Apart from that, whatever the mind comes up, at face value we don't accept anything. That's why the principle of preaching is always to give a reference for anything that's said. So, whatever we may think—this is wrong, this is right—but we should be able to give a direct reference to it, and then we should always refine our realization by spiritual discussion, by spiritual iṣṭagoṣṭhī, Hari-kathā. We should become so absorbed in trying to improve our devotional understanding and realization, how to improve our service to Kṛṣṇa, that we don't have time for materialistic thoughts and materialistic desires. This is the secret. How did Prabhupāda tell us to be enthusiastic? He said that, “You should become so absorbed in your devotional service that your heart is flooded with spiritual ecstasy.” So just like a seed, if it's kept flooded; just like in India we have rice paddies. When I was first in Māyāpur we had to do cultivation. Actually we're only given 35 rupees a day. Excuse me, not a day. A week. For our maintenance. Thirty-five rupees a week for seven to twelve devotees. 35 rupees at that time, seven and a half rupees a dollar, I would say roughly less than five dollars a week for six-seven devotees. And then later it went to twelve. That was the only allowance that we were given. Thirty-five rupees was worked out. I think they've increased it. Anyway, it's impossible to live on that much money. You cannot live. So, I went to Prabhupāda and said that, “Can I grow agricultural crops on our land?”, and then my GBC said that, “How can these Western people grow in agricultural land in India? It is totally impossible! Forget it.”  

I Said, “Prabhupāda, I'm sure that we can do it. Otherwise, we're getting very little money to be able to maintain. We have the land and I don't like to see it idle.”

So Prabhupāda said, “Alright, do it!”

I always like it if the presidents tell a GBC that, “I want to do more devotional service than you think I can do.” That's very encouraging to me, if they prove that they can do more than I expect. I always liked to do more than whatever my GBC would allow me to do. Whenever they always say, “You're never going to be able to do that.” So, then that was like a real special impetus for me that, “Alright. Prabhupāda said I can do it; you say I can't. Let us see by Kṛṣṇa's mercy what we can do.” So I got the award in the district for the highest yield of rice there in Māyāpur. The thing is we had to work day and night. We’re going in the in the rice fields, we'd walk over the rice fields and we found there were cobra snakes and so many things. But the example I wanted to give wasn't that. That was all by Prabhupāda mercy. Because otherwise, We couldn't have done it. The example is, when growing the rice we found, from practical experience from ploughing and growing, that we had to keep the rice paddy field filled with water. As soon as you let the rice paddy water drain out, the mud would dry up and there'd be so many cracks in the field. Just like you see in that that (?) pond, you know how the mud is just completely cracked. Then if it rains, all the water goes down into the soaked soil and it doesn't stay with the rice. The whole thing is you create a mud puddle: you get all the soil very muddy, and it creates a kind of a water barrier. The water stays there longer, and you have to keep giving little irrigation. Takes very little water. Once the soil dries up and cracks, then you're finished. In fact it's so important that sometimes you have to go there and give a massage to the earth, and just work out all those cracks so that the water will stay. Otherwise, you won't get any rice. Because what happens, if your water dries up, the weeds take over rice. Rice can’t compete against the weeds. The weeds don't sprout as long as there's water. Rice will grow in the water, but weeds don't grow in water. At least as long as they're in the seed form, the seeds can't sprout. So you already sprout the rice seeds, and make little saplings, and you plant them by hand, transplant them in the water in bunches. So, there's no grass in there. It's completely without grass. So as long as you keep the water, practically there's no weeding to do. You get a full rice crop. But as soon as the water dries up, the little weed seeds start to sprout. And before you know it you've got a field filled with weeds, and then you'll get no rice. Complete failure. So Prabhupāda used this is an example. This is a very ancient example right from the original Vedas. You keep your heart filled. If you let the water dry out of your heart, it will sprout. So, if you keep your heart filled with devotional enthusiasm, you're always active and trying to do something to serve your spiritual master, then those weeds don't sprout. As soon as you allow that enthusiasm, that level of devotional service to go down, the water drains out, then you get compounded problems. Material desires start coming the s start sprouting and the more s come the less than energy you get the more material just it's just there like a syndrome Therefore Lord Caitanya says in Caitanya-caritāmṛta: the only thing to do with the weeds is, what you have to do when that happens in your field is cut them down. Pull them out from the root. When you get weeds, you got to go in there and you have to pull them out. You have got to distinguish, what's the weed and what’s the rice? Sometime it's very hard to distinguish between the two. They are very similar sometimes. I mean they're all grass. So the farmer is there. They get so expert. They showed me, “Look at it. You see this? You've seen this one and that one? This one's rice and that one’s weed.”

I couldn’t see any difference. “They're both green, so how do you tell?”

“Hahaha! This is the secret. You see here? This one's got a little fuzz on it. That's the weed. Rice doesn't have any fuzz.”

“Ah!”

So they’re so expert. Fuzz means it was like a slight little hair. Not even a millimeter. Not even you know 32nd of an inch. It's a little bit of hairs on the weed. But on the rice, there's nothing. So you just have to be able to see some little symptom, “Aha! This is a weed, pull it out.” Then if you don't, somehow the weeds are expert. They're able take all the fertilizer, all the manure, all the strength from the land. And your rice gives you like three grains! Warped little grain. You can't even eat anything. There's nothing. Like a total loss! So, when the weeds are smaller, then it's easier to pull them out. The bigger they get, the harder it is. The more we let our weeds grow, the more we let them take root, the harder and harder it is in the future to pull them out. I've had devotees tell me that, “I got this attachment in my heart, I know it's a weed, but I'm afraid to pull it out. It hurts! I'm attached.” Those are sincere devotees. Most devotees know in a minute when they have a weed. When a weed’s been there for a while, we get attached to some subtle, some subtle identity, some subtle or even gross attachment, we want to do things in our way, or this way or that, or whatever it is.

These weeds are so many, this kuṭi-nāṭi. Some weeds are there to just criticize others, to be negative attitude, always everything we find fault. That's kuṭi-nāṭi. No matter what we always see our own interpretation of it. And so by doing that, we don't engage in pure devotional service. Jīva-hiṁsā - to dislike others, to want to put others down, to one to cause pain to others, that’s jīva-hiṁsā. Then niṣiddhācāra - to break the principles. Some devotees, they say, “Oh I am a good gṛhastha. I chant 8 rounds a day and I only have sex once a day, but I chant Hare Kṛṣṇa beforehand. And I only take marijuana once a week. I'm not like other people that take it every day. I'm a good gṛhastha.” People wrote letters like that to the GBC! “I'm not that bad. There are others that are much worse.” But the rule is there that we're supposed to only have sex life or procreation; we're not to take any intoxication. “But once a week is alright because others are taking daily, I'm only taking once a week.” But through various illusions they've been able to compromise and they become very attached to this niṣiddhācāra. So they think that it's alright. These things are not important. I mean after all I am a devotee! Prabhupāda said, “The problem is that in India everyone's a devotee. Have you ever met an Indian who is not a devotee? Everyone's a devotee.” And in fact, they are! To some extent, they believe in Kṛṣṇa. They're Hindus. So we don't want people to be just that type of devotee, that they only believe. That's all right, we respect them in our heart, that they believe in Kṛṣṇa. Thank you. But we want people to come up to a little higher level of devotion. Therefore I'd only known preaching in India. This is a new experience to me, coming to the West. But I tell you that I don't find anything new in the West in terms of māyā. Māyā is more glamorous here, but the māyās are already there in India, with more variety. There's no new varieties here, just simply different colorings. But the types are all the same.  You know just like weeds might be a little bigger, different, but the basic weeds are the same. Then you get people who have created whole sampradāyas based on these types of compromise. You say here it’s just the beginning sprouts. They have whole sampradāyas based upon their compromise on following their orders over guru’s order. They create their own disciplic succession, so-called, based upon some form of compromise to the guru's order. Some may say, “Everybody wants to eat fish, fish is not that bad, it's after all simply swimming in the ocean, and eggs after all they're all unfertilized.” So they have a sampradāya, they can eat unfertilized eggs and fish. Because after all fish is a water-fruit. Fish is fruit of the water. So like that. There are some, they say, “Well after all sex isn't bad.” So they create a philosophy how to accommodate. They say, “Well the body after all is a microcosm of Kṛṣṇa's macrocosm. And since everything is ultimately the energy of Kṛṣṇa, so the body is pure, therefore anything the body does is pure. Therefore sex is also pure. So we can have pure sex, simply because we have a body which is part of Kṛṣṇa's energy.” These are the different forms of sahajiyā-ism. And it goes on and on and on. But there the differences is that they have created philosophy to substantiate it, and to legitimize it, where in the West they're just developing this art of creating philosophies for substantiating their illicit activities. You know they haven't so become expert yet. This is the problem. No matter how you try to legitimize sense gratification, the same thing is sense gratification. That's why they're apasampradāya: they've deviated from the real path.

Therefore Prabhupāda, he stressed very straight path of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It's very profound, the way that Prabhupāda balanced all of these things. Balanced preaching, balanced the rules and regulations. It’s the perfect balance for this modern age. This much service, this much chanting, this much temple activity, this much preaching. The main thing is remain enthusiastic to propagate the message of Lord Caitanya. Because if you try to do everything perfectly by the rules and regulations alone, we are not expert enough to do that. We're going to make mistakes. And then if you just are trying to do it mechanically, you make a mistake, then you have to take the penalty. Then you don't progress. But by spreading and propagating this message, by giving it to others, you get special mercy. You get special points. So that covers any little mistake you make. Although you should not use that as an excuse to make mistakes, but we're bound to sometime make some error, even unwillingly. It should be unwilling. We shouldn't be willing to make error. We should not want to make error. But sometimes it may happen. So by being absorbed in this preaching-propagation attitude of saṅkīrtana, then even if there's some defect, knowing or unknowingly if we make some offense, that can get purified very easily.

So Mādana-Mohana is especially merciful to attract us, to get us into that fire of serving Kṛṣṇa, and when we're in the fire that's Rādhā-Govinda, and then finally by that fire when we become completely purified and completely attracted to Kṛṣṇa, the perfection of life is Rādhā-Gopīnātha. We shouldn't compromise. Prabhupāda, one thing, he never compromised. He never called something that was bad, good, or something that was good, bad, to please anybody. What was absolute, he would say absolute. He may have been merciful, and in different situations he may have been patient, but his standard has to be focused upon. We may tell people, “Alright, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa”, and we may see they're not going to follow these principles. We don't tell them that they shouldn't follow. But we say, “Alright, first chant and come and associate.” Because we know if we start pressing on the principles, they'll get scared and go away. They can't follow right away. But by coming, and associating, and chanting gradually, they become more strong. Then we start to one after another see which type of anarthas we can encourage them to relieve themselves of, so they'll get more strength. So by having less weeds, they'll get more of the direct fertilization, the direct energy from the chanting. To be successful one should try to absorb oneself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The only reason that we're not able to maintain, fixed in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is because we don't remain absorbed. Absorption is like keeping the heart flooded, keeping the rice field flooded. When you let their water drain out, weeds come. You stop becoming absorbed in your devotional service, you start thinking about this one and that one. You start thinking about this sense gratification that sense gratification. You start thinking about everything and anything but how to carry out your personal instruction to guru and Kṛṣṇa. The one purport we can get from Śrīla Prabhupāda’s life—after all all of us are his children, and grandchildren, and followers—was that he took up the instruction of his spiritual master even though there was no other godbrother or godsister, any one of his, who was there to assist him. Rather they all discouraged him. Historically, every one that he requested for encouragement, either ignored him or discouraged him. It's historical. When he said that Lord Caitanya predicted this message was spread all over the world, they said, “No no. How can that be? World means India. It will spread over India eventually.”

He said, “No! ‘Pṛthivīte’ means the whole world.”

“No no. How the whole world? In America they’re going to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa?? *cynical tone*”

One preacher came back from America and Canada to India, and he said that one thing I have very difficult in answering. When their people say, “You are coming from poor country. We have got all technology and material advancement, what do you have to give us?” I don't know how to answer that question. And that was the first question they asked Prabhupāda in Australia. He wrote us, he sent us the news clipping. They said, “Swamiji why you're coming? We are advanced nation. Why you're coming from a poor country? What do you have to give us? You're coming here to beg?”

He said, “No. I’ve come here to save you from a dog's life. You are simply living a cats’ and dogs’ life. So I have come to save you.”

“How do we lead a cats’ and’ dogs life? What do you mean!?”

“Yeah, a cat and dog are only eating, sleeping, mating and defending. Don't you eat? Cat is eating, you're eating. Cat is sleeping, you're sleeping. You may sleep on bed, he's sleeping on floor. He's eating out of dish you're eating off of table. You're having sex in a hotel room and cat is having on the street. You're fighting with nuclear weapons, cat and dog are fighting with teeth, and fangs, and claws. So what is the difference?”

“Yes, you're right!”

“So I'm coming to save you from that existence.” Prabhupāda didn't back off from them. Prabhupāda would have loved to have done it with his godbrothers. He never left the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, he never left the Gauḍīya-maṭha. He didn't leave it. He was preaching in it, he was trying to work with his Godbrothers. They asked him to please go out. Because he was preaching, people were becoming attracted, whatever reason. They said, “Listen, you have your great ideas. You're very progressive. But you're too progressive for us. Better you go and do your own center. You can have so many other devotees and things like that, this is the best thing.”

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

Verified by your humble ever Servant 
Vinoda Gopīkeśa Dāsa
23-01-2025
Māyāpur India