19860919 Devotees by Nature

 19860919 - The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā svāmī on September 19th 1986, at New Talavan firm in Carrier, Mississippi.

The devotees by nature are very meek and humble, dedicated, not desiring respect from others. Just like Lord Caitanya prays, Trinadipi sunichine, taror eve sahisnuna Amanina manadena, kirtaniya sadahari. One should be more tolerant... more humble than a straw in the street, more tolerant than the tree and devoid of all sense of false prestige, not desiring aspiration for oneself, but ready to offer to others. Lord Caitanya, He sometimes would show His six handed form known as the sadhabhuj. Remember that pastime where that brahmana was in Jagannath Mishra’s house and he was offering... trying to offer  bhoga to his deity, at that time Lord Caitanya would come every time that... that Brahman would call... He would come.

So finally in the middle of the night He revealed His form as Kṛṣṇa... He also blessed that devotee to see his sadabhuj. Now there are two sadabhuj forms of Lord Caitanya or six handed forms. One six-handed form is very common, as already was speaking Lord Caitanya’s two hands was danda and kamandalu, Kṛṣṇa’s two hand’s were flute and Rāma’s hands with ah... ah... bow and arrow. There was another six handed form that Lord Caitanya manifested, that is with the hands of Kṛṣṇa and Rām and Narasinghadeva.

In the hands of Narasimhadeva...in that form one hand is like this... one hand is down, another hand is up, what is the difference? Why does Narasimhadeva, in sadabhuja form, why one hand of Narasimhadeva is up and one hand is down, can anyone say? Yes...one is for the demons, one is heading the hand of the devotees, don’t worry, other one is for the demons. So for the devotees, Narasinghadev’s fearful form is not a great cause of anxiety, rather devotees are very ah... happy to be under the protection of Narasingha Dev.

 So though this form of Narasinghadev was very fearful for all the demigods... He was not fearful for Prahlada, the demigods were also devotees, why were they afraid? Those devotees who have got material desires, sometimes there they are afraid to meet Kṛṣṇa, especially in the fearful form, although Kṛṣṇa will not do anything, but due to their attachments they may be afraid to... give up something... that Kṛṣṇa, He may take something away from them. On the other hand the pure devotees already accepted everything as Kṛṣṇa’s, so they are not worried. It’s not always conscious but they just naturally feel attachment for the Lord.

So that is another form of Kṛṣṇa for the non-devotee, for the devotees there is nothing to fear. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and go on to the next situation, but for the non-devotees, death is very fearful. Bhaja hure mana srinanda nandana, abhaya charanaravindo re. Worship the lotus feet of abhayacharanarivindo and you are fearless. So somebody has carefully got rid of...carefully got rid of ah...carefully got rid of the material desires... there is nothing to fear, from death or from Narasinghadev, but those who have little desires sometimes they feel afraid. That’s why with the torchlight of knowledge we should cut this ignorance which makes us fearful in the material world. Instead we should learn to depend upon Lord Narasinghadev, Kṛṣṇa, Lord Caitanya, spiritual master, because by their support, by their shelter, there is no difficulty, one can easily cross over this ocean of birth and death.

The Lord has two purposes, one is to protect the devotees, the other is to annihilate the miscreants. So Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that Kṛṣṇa, He comes because if He didn’t come the devotees wouldn’t be satisfied. The devotees of Kṛṣṇa will only be satisfied when Kṛṣṇa comes. It is illustrated that, one time Kṛṣṇa was trying to hide from Rādhārāṇī and the gopis, they were looking for Him everywhere. From a distance they say, “There is Kṛṣṇa! There is Kṛṣṇa!” They all looked. “There is Kṛṣṇa, and they all ran to see Kṛṣṇa.” So then Kṛṣṇa was thinking how to hide. “They spotted me, I can’t run away now, they will just chase me.” So He took on His four handed Visnu form. When the gopi’s came closer they say, “Oh this is not Kṛṣṇa, it’s Narayana, they bowed down and offered their obeisances. “Om namo narayanaya!” Then they requested, “My dear Lord Narayana, we are very pleased to see you here in the forest. Kindly tell us where we can find Kṛṣṇa?” They simply wanted to find Kṛṣṇa.

 Even though they saw God Himself in His Narayana form, they only wanted to see God in His Kṛṣṇa form. They may not have thought that Kṛṣṇa was God or was... that was irrelevant, it was irrelevant. They simply wanted to be able to see Krisha. Of course Srimati Rādhārāṇī came. At that time then her separation from Kṛṣṇa was so strong, her love was so great that then Kṛṣṇa couldn’t keep His four handed Narayana form in the presence of Rādhārāṇī. The two hands kept disappearing, He was trying to keep the four but two hands kept disappearing. Then he was spotted out. “Aha! It’s Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa can hide from anyone, but he can’t conceal Himself from Rādhārāṇī because of her intense love.

” When Kṛṣṇa, had all the cowherd boys and calves stolen in Vrindavan and then out of His mystic power He expanded Himself into all of the cowherd calves and cowherd boys, that time He concealed Himself or rather He concealed the ah... Himself from the vision of the other ah... devotees, in other words the cowherd boys and ah... calves were stolen, and when he took the form all the parents thought that this is my son, they didn’t think that this is Kṛṣṇa but actually it was Kṛṣṇa but He has taken the form of the cowherd boys. Similarly the calves were stolen but Kṛṣṇa took the form of the calves. So the cow thought these are my calves.

So you know in the world parents love their own children more than anything, more than other children, but in Vrindavan it was different. Everyone loved Kṛṣṇa more than their own children, their love for Kṛṣṇa was more profound than it was for their own children but when Kṛṣṇa had expanded Himself to all of the other cowherd boys and calves forms He couldn’t visibly distinguish these boys from the original forms. Even their parents never doubted that this is my son, but spontaneously although it appeared to be their son, the same love and affection they were feeling to Kṛṣṇa they started to spontaneously give to their own child. In other words Kṛṣṇa actually became all of their children, even became a child to the calves, to the cows, He was sucking in the mouth from the cows udder in the form of a small calve. For one year He was allowing His devotee’s to serve Him, although none of them could recognize that this was actually Kṛṣṇa. When Balarāmaa noticed that all of the cows were feeling more affectionate to the calves and all of the cowherd boys and girls were also feeling more affection to their own calves rather than to Kṛṣṇa, then Balarāmaa could see that something was unusual.

So they were acting to their own offsprings just like they would act to Kṛṣṇa. How is that... that all of a sudden that it dawned on him that this must be Kṛṣṇa. Then he asked Kṛṣṇa, how is it that you are expanded into all the calves and all the cowherd boys. Where are the calves and cowherd boys gone and why are you expanded into their form? So in this way, the way the devotees are spontaneously attracted to Kṛṣṇa is revealed.

 So Prabhlad Maharaj, when he saw Narsingh Dev, externally may be in a ferocious, very fearful kind of form but Prahalada only could see Kṛṣṇa, he could only see his Lord. So he doesn’t feel afraid. This is the wonderful aspect of devotion. Even devotees when something happens, in their life... and to consider that nothing can happen without the sanction of Kṛṣṇa. So rather they get angry for external causes, the devotees see everything as...well...Kṛṣṇa has approved. They take it as a task or as a blessing, they take it in relation to Kṛṣṇa.

So Narasinghadev, He is not here to create a fearful situation for the devotees, He comes to create fear in the non-devotees or atheists who are causing harm to the devotees. Every mood that we have is originally in Kṛṣṇa. That mood to give charity, to freely give out charity that’s also there in Kṛṣṇa, that...coming originally from Kṛṣṇa. So in Kṛṣṇa all the different moods are there. You see Kṛṣṇa protecting His devotees, you see Kṛṣṇa relating love with His devotees, you see Kṛṣṇa killing the demons, you will see Kṛṣṇa doing all kinds of pastimes. Then Kṛṣṇa expands Himself in different forms, some of those forms specifically, in an intense manner demonstrate a particular...one sentiment or one emotion, or one aspect.

For instance Narasimhadev showed how He protects His devotees, a very fearful form. Lord Caitanya as a child showed Brahminical qualities. Balarāma showed the importance of dairy, cow protection, agriculture. Vyasadev showed literary abilities. Naradamuni shows devotion, like that. Each of the different forms shows a different aspect of the Lord’s personality but all of the aspects are within Kṛṣṇa, that is why Kṛṣṇa is considered the original personality of Godhead, krsnas tu bhagavan svayam. Although many qualities are within Rām, there is more in Kṛṣṇa. Therefore great sages who studied the entire Vedas, some other quotes, then came to the conclusion that Kṛṣṇa is the original personality of Godhead.

So Prahlada requests Narasinghadev to stop being angry because already his father is taken care of.Prabhupāda explains that Kṛṣṇa comes, they mention that because devotees only want Kṛṣṇa. When Rāmcandra was present, the sages of Dandakaranya requested that he would come again in Your next avatar as Kṛṣṇa. Kindly allow us to come and be... serve you as maid-servants. So those who become attached to Kṛṣṇa, they are not distracted by any of the other forms of Kṛṣṇa. All those forms are included within Kṛṣṇa, therefore we recommend that people take initiation in a Kṛṣṇa mantra and serving Kṛṣṇa, because that would be completely perfect and complete. Hard to find a devotee like Prahlada, who was so fearless. Even he was tortured, even was threatened, he so... he didn’t give up his faith in Kṛṣṇa, you see.

So we think this is really something unusual, something that happened millions of years ago couldn’t happen today, how a devotee could be captured like that and tortured by demons and told to give up his faith in Kṛṣṇa, otherwise he will be punished,

something that happened a long time ago couldn’t happen today! Of course it is happening right now in Russia, with our disciples that are there. Our devotees who are there are being told that ah..., “you have to give up your practice of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and because they are not they are subjecting unto to all kinds of sufferings. Actually there was a comment that in Russia, sometimes those devotees are so fixed up, because constantly Maya is attacking them, they have to take full shelter of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa gives them mercy, they are able to maintain. Sometimes when they come to the West, they get relief, then they start to take things casually, “allright, emergency is over and then things start to become a little bit easy and they may even fall in Maya.

” Sometimes if you find in India when you preach, people say why we cannot become devotees unless we become very wealthy, unless all our suffering is over, we can’t become devotees until we solve our economic problems but actually sometime  in distress it forces us to take more shelter of Kṛṣṇa because we tend to be fair-weather friends or in the opposite we tend to look to SriKṛṣṇa only when we are in distress. When it is fair-weather then we don’t look to Kṛṣṇa, only when it is danger then we look to Kṛṣṇa, so for that reason when the devotees who are surrendered, Kṛṣṇa use them when the start to become careless, they start to develop material qualities, then some of the accumulated Karmas they have are allowed to act on them in a token form. That way the karma’s is ah... destroyed and the devotees are reminded that, “don’t... don’t lose enough until you finish the race.

” You know the story about the proverbial tortoise and the hare. Although the rabbit was running and running, he was very puffed up, so he would sometimes stop and eat grass, he would eat this and eat that and eventually the tortoise won the race because the rabbit was too proud, didn’t continue running even though the rabbit is much faster than the tortoise, so we have to be careful not to become proud and thus become careless about our devotional practises, about our devotional attitudes. It is actually better, it’s Kṛṣṇa’s mercy sometimes that we are under a little bit of pressure. Sometimes the devotees say, I just like to have no pressure, why all this pressure but the pressure actually is good for us because our mind tends to automatically go to the material world because of long association with maya. Under a little bit of pressure we can advance faster.Prabhupāda gave the example that under pressure coal becomes a diamond. It’s under the pressure of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, a conditioned soul can become a liberated soul. That’s why those devotees who have spontaneous devotional service, they voluntarily accept so many pressures, so many risks to spread the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, that way one is actually better equipped to face maya at every step.

For instance, Kunti devi, she prayed to Kṛṣṇa, when Kṛṣṇa was leaving Hastinapur back to Dwaraka, “that now the battle is over, we are victorious, everything is there but now You are leaving us, so better You stay here, don’t leave us. In fact just because our danger is over, now you are leaving. It’s better to always keep giving us trouble, so that we always keep getting your association. If that is the price  it’s better to take trouble with You, than have the material comfort without You. That’s the mood of the devotee. Devotees only want Kṛṣṇa.

A devotee is not interested in any type of material commits that the materialists have. Of course if we get a peaceful time to render devotional service, rather than allow ourselves to be left to take it easy, we should think the other way  now on  “make hay while the sun shines”, now it’s a pure look into more devotional service, not take it easy. Make hay while the sun shines of course has a different connotation in ……......American.... Literally, when you can’t hay you have to dry it before you put it in the barn, you put wet hay in the barn, more than one. So when the sun is shining everyone goes and cuts their hay, same  in India. They live their lives...2.26-28... if it’s raining because if you cut it, one should cut the rice from the plant than it will start to sprout, and even if it is standing, sometimes if it is too long, until you get a sunny day, than they will cut the grains and bring it in, unless of course it’s going to be a storm. If there is a storm it cannot ....25.50... the grains off the plant, then how can you get it off the ground in the field.

So in Kṛṣṇa consciousness one shouldn’t be attached to serving Kṛṣṇa only when it’s easy. If Kṛṣṇa gives us an easy time to serve Him, then we should rather take advantage, just like when there is a... people chase race, of course the section where you can just run flat, they will run faster, not that they will continue jumping even though there is no hurdle, they will in a single way as fast as they can, so we should consider that if Kṛṣṇa gives us an opportunity we take more than 26.40. Just like if someone is doing some kirtan, there is a quota of 25 lasmi points, but they are able to achieve that very quickly and there is more people to preach to, and actually the devotees try to do more, so that since Kṛṣṇa has given the opportunity- do as much as possible within the time, minimum quota may be there to remind us of our goal.

So if we adjust our... our mentality, the idea of serving Kṛṣṇa even under the most difficult situations, then it is not difficult, it is very easy, but if we are just ourselves we can only serve Kṛṣṇa under very perfect conditions, then as soon as those conditions are disturbed by the material nature we become disoriented and the material nature’s nature is to always be changing, to always be shifting, to be always be causing sometimes pain and sometimes pleasure, sometimes favourable conditions, sometimes unfavourable conditions. So normally the materialists, they are always being tossed around by the material nature, sometimes they feel depression and fear and sometimes they feel great hope and enthusiasm, but the devotee, seeing that I have only one business, ir-regardless of what the situation is that is to serve Kṛṣṇa, serve the spiritual master. So the devotee... doesn’t matter, whether it’s a rainy day or sunny day, of course doesn’t matter whether there is a good time or bad time, the devotee’s only work is to serve Kṛṣṇa. If there is a better time, they will take more advantage of it, just like in a... what we call a karmi job ....in a normal business if the boss is away, all the workers start to laxen up, take it easy... the boss is out, “the cat's away the mice will play.” Because the boss is the responsible... he has got some interest, he makes sure everybody works, but the workers they are interested... I will do my nine to five, I will get my... get my pay cheque, they may not take up their work with that kind of personal initiative but devotee... nobody is working simply that from nine to five, let me somehow or another stand there and get my ah... get my salary.

Devotees working for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa, actually .29.45... in my last tour to South America, I will see that some books are being printed, and one of our printers in Quenka, Equador. So I happened to go there, after the program we did it was 9’ O'clock at night.... I went to the printers at eight. So the second shift gets over at nine, so we are looking at all the things, the printing, and how the things are really going on, all of a sudden 9 o'clock the bell rings. Da da da da... I was just standing at our table which is near the 30.18. All of a sudden, there was a stampede, all the workers ran to the 30.24... knocked me over, I can’t just hold on, they are running, punching out and running out of there, I never saw, they were just running to get out of that place. One second they were working very diligently, doing their work, as soon as the bell rang, they dropped their work and they ran. (laughter) They are so eager to get out of that place. You see, for the devotee rather the... he has to make so many rules. Now we have to go to the bed at this time. If we don’t... we stay up the whole night talking about Kṛṣṇa, chanting, we have to tell them, we have to get up this time, get this thing, otherwise if we don’t make this rule, they will go on, if there is any service to do.

Sometimes the devotee for preaching, they forget about eating even. Sometimes it happens, there is so much active preaching they can’t stop to eat ah..., they can’t stop for the break, different things may be there. Devotees actually learn to like doing this devotional service, and actually get a taste from the service. In the initial stage the devotee also just follows, alright from this time... this time I do this... this... this , he does it as a regulation and gradually one develops a taste for the service, develops an attachment for whatever necessary for Kṛṣṇa, so it is totally different. Actually the devotees who are responsible, they should hardly need to be supervised. Of course sometimes, neophyte devotees are not able to control their own mind,

so if there is not a senior devotee, they are to give some positive association, sometimes they get misled and start misusing time. So therefore voluntarily request that please give me some senior devotee to just give me a positive association so that I don’t get off into gossip or prajalpa or wasting time or something. In devotional service everything is voluntary. Even a beginning devotee voluntarily wants to be guided, wants to be ah... trained, wants to be helped. The goal should be, we should be more and more responsible and take up our service as our personal, our personal offering to Kṛṣṇa, so when that happens, that’s a great joy to the spiritual master, to the vaishnavas to see that when someone takes up his service to Kṛṣṇa as his personal initiative, this was something that Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted to be developed amongst his devotees very much, known as anurag or raganuga devotion, where devotee takes up the service with personal enthusiasm and dedication, not simply like a material job, I will do it, but actually... this is my service to Kṛṣṇa, this is what I am able to offer to Kṛṣṇa, this is like the Gurukul children, they... they made the personal writing on Haridas Thakur or Dhruva, the picture, it’s their personal... even the artwork may be 34.04 but ah... somehow they are offering some personal offering to Kṛṣṇa or His devotee. So in this way that's good training, that they personally do something.

So whether we are sweeping the floor, washing the pots, cooking, planting, ploughing, preaching, office working or whatever, if you are training the children it’s actually a personal service, which we are doing for Rādhā-Rādhā-Kanta, for Gaurā-Nitāi, for Śrīla Prabhupāda, for spiritual master... and with this consciousness  we should become more and more and more responsible so that we require less reminder what our duty is. We should gradually become spontaneous(automatic), in our devotional service. Of course we don’t want something whimsical, therefore we take the permission of the senior vaisnava, of the authority to make sure that what we are doing, what we feel spontaneously desired to do is in fact correct.

Sometimes the devotees in Māyāpur go to Śrīla Prabhupāda and ask his permission to do something, sometimes he says that this desire has been inspired by Kṛṣṇa, sometimes he ...35.31.... the idea, he says that this idea is totally ah... strange, it’s not proper. So eventually one is supposed to try to understand the mind of the spiritual master to anticipate what actually he wants, but in doing so sometimes one makes mistakes. So what happens, one takes up training patiently and in the proper attitude, likePrabhupāda said that he was sitting everyday listening to Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati thakur's classes, when they...someone came and tapped him on the shoulder in the middle of the class. So he tried to ignore, yet tapping and tapping, so he looked around to see what he was saying, no sooner did he looked that Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati thakur interrupted his class and said you don’t have to listen? And he told me that from that time very special mercy that the spiritual notice me, although he was chastised, he took it as a kind of mercy. So we consider that, if the guru gives chastisement it’s mercy, if the guru gives praise it’s mercy. Sometimes it’s is even more mercy to be chastised. I noticed one time that there were a number of devotees who were bowing down toPrabhupāda, but they were...Prabhupāda was coming on the back door, the deity was on the other side, so they bowed down with their feet to the deities. Of course one should bow down to the guru....even if the deity is present one bows down to the spiritual master because he only approached Lord Kṛṣṇa through the guru but nonetheless, when bowing down to guru one doesn’t put his feet to Kṛṣṇa, one bows down at some other angle so that the feet are not directed towards Kṛṣṇa. So there are so many devotees and several who made this mistake, but then Prbhupada picked out Brahmananda who was senior and he took his cane and he whacked him on his behind, “don’t bow down this way, don’t put your feet to Kṛṣṇa.

So somebody made a comment that ah... “why did he pick him, there were so many devotees.” Because he knew that he could take it, he criticized him... he is not going to ......you know.... he will take the instruction in a good consciousness, so sometimes in the beginning the spiritual master may be shy to chastise the disciple or a new devotee because may be the devotee is not so free with the false ego to take that type of pressure. So some are just chastised by the spiritual master to be taken as a kind of special mercy. Now I am considered to be strong enough to be able to take the song, the nectar of instruction. So whether the mercy is praise... normally we don’t offer praise in the presence of someone. Sometimes praise is offered to others, to say, “Oh, that devotee is doing very well but like that sometimesPrabhupāda he was ah... tell us such and such devotee is doing nice service but he doesn’t normally talk to that person in his presence. Someone told me when I first joined the movement, this sets an example, that ah... if you want to ah... pleasePrabhupāda you should listen to the class very carefully and pick out some relevant points and ask a question which will benefit all the listeners and allow some deeper understanding. So during the class whenPrabhupāda would speak in the end I would always ask questions, but I try to ask the question which was appropriate.

 So sometimes when I raise my hand... one time I had some question about Rādhārāṇī, thinking that this was a good thing to ask and thenPrabhupāda said, you know like, “What do you know about Rādhārāṇī... don’t ask something about....” So then I was... I was... or sometimes he would answer the question but he at the same time chastised me for the question saying that it was a foolish question but then he gave a long answer. Sometimes he was... just answered the question at face value.

So I was going to take the advice of that devotee, but sometimes I was getting smashed, sometimes I was being answered, I didn’t really know if that was the right thing or not but I kept on doing it. So at that time in Montreal there was no sankirtan, there was no books yet in ISKCON, in 1968Prabhupāda needed money for this... he didn’t need but we had to pay his rent... the temple needed to pay his rent and things, so I went out ... in the night I was doing an evening shift job, soPrabhupāda was coming to the temple in the evening and giving class, so I couldn’t hear his class, so I would hear the next morning the tape. So the end of one day...on day of class Prabhuda asked if there were any questions and then I heard on the tape, “Where is that Jayapatākā?” (laughter) “He asks good questions.” (laughter) Then I felt 42.10 that well 42.11-15 But generally only to my ah... Prabhpada comes to Māyāpur.... 24 hours he would praise every day, “Oh your floor is clean, this is nice, that is nice, everything is nice.” He would be watching our clock, 24 hours, 25 hours, it was like 10,9,8,7,6,5.... NASA, launch ...pad. Somewhere between 24 and 48 hours,Prabhupāda was completely shifted and after that he would simply point out every defect that we had. His mercy was.... you would say mercilessly... that was his mercy to do it completely ah... anything... everything was right he would find out, he would look and find out one thing that was wrong. Walking he saw there was tin can somewhere 50 feet somewhere in the grass, he points it, “What is that?” Everyone was looking and couldn't see.what he was.... he passed the buck and he said, Jayapatākā svāmī, Bhavananda, thanks a lot (laughter) So we used to... take all the responsibilities,Prabhupāda was... finally he liked it.... He said that, “No everything here should be under someone’s responsibility, not the President, President should be over, not that President is always responsible for picking up paper, his responsibility is to see that someone else has picked up the paper, not that the President should be responsible to turn off the 44.15 but someone else should be there who is responsible, that process are ........and he should see that he has done it. His duty is to supervise, he should delegate, delegate authority, that everyone is doing some service, responsibly, spontaneously and then you see that they do it, if you don’t do it then you have to correct.

 So like that, so then sometimes, I know most of the senior devotees knew thatPrabhupāda, especially in the months of November, when he came and there were no outsiders then he would do this lila where would just tear us apart. He said that he wanted to make a showpiece, so he was training us. We heard although we didn’t know, because I was in India at that time. Then whenPrabhupāda came to the West he didn’t involve himself so personally in the management of the temple. He would go and see, just encourage but he wouldn’t usually get so much involved in the details, and thus something was blatantly wrong like putting salt in the charanamrit or something like that, but ah... in Māyāpur he would go through... in Vrindavan... he would go there, it was the same pastime. He would always be served in Vrindavan if they didn’t ring the bell in time. He would listen, at the hour he would watch his clock, then if there was no bell he would ring his buzzer, “that why there is no bell ringing?” So they had... in this way to train them up every hour ringing a bell.... bong... bong... bong, like the old bells in the church, he wanted the bell rang how many hours was turning out... eight bells for eight hours, nine bells for nine O'clock like that. One day he was going around, in the 46.12 there he used to say, “everything is Ok, everything is ok.”

 So it became... This word OK was used so much that Prabhupāda used to say this Ok... Ok and so on and so forth. So whenever I was visiting there, thenPrabhupāda said, “this room is not clear.” “no, no, everything is ok.”Prabhupāda was standing there. A piece of grass fell on his nose. Prabhupāda looked up, on the top of the fan, rotating the ceiling fan there was a big bird there... the bird had flown in and out and dropped there. ThenPrabhupāda said, “everything is ok.” (laughter) So in this way he was treating the devotees, showing... so sometimes other leaders would come, mostly they took it that this isPrabhupāda showing us how we have to train up the devotees from our zones or temple zones or departments or whatever. We have to always strive... strive for higher standards, sometimes they didn’t understand this pastime of Prabhupāda.

 I remember on time in the Māyāpur festival,Prabhupāda was giving the heavy, soft or something, I forget what it was, and all the devotees knew that they could go anywhere, anytime, so they were looking very serious. One new person had just come from some other country, some leader and he started... whenPrabhupāda was chastising he started to smile and laugh, he saw that it was humorous.Prabhupāda looked at him and bh.... there was a laser beam over there, otherwise it was a lesson... that night the person got a huge fever... 106 fever... i don't know why but all of a sudden the person got sick. Don’t know if it is related or not but ah... like a special pastimePrabhupāda was ah... One time he wanted to get the work finished before the festival, also the G.B.C. 's came early, he told them away, he had to finish that work, you get out... all the G.B.C’s are carrying cement bags on their heads, putting the sand on their heads and going and because the foolish were on strike, they said, “you all go up there and do the work.” The foolish would not work, you go up and do the work. I was running the cement the next day, I was the only one who knew how to do it. Tamal Kṛṣṇa...and different... They were putting, they were like kulis, doing their work, it was a very interesting pastime,Prabhupāda was standing on the verandah where they came watching. (laughter)

 So you see, of course Prabhupāda took up personally the order of Bhaktisiddhānta, the order of Caitanya to spread the movement all over the world. He took it up so seriously, if he hadn’t taken it up where we would be today. We owe that... our opportunity to serve his lotus feet in the disciplic succession, simply due to his mercy of taking up that instruction of the previous acharyas, similarly every devotee is going out and distributing books, and making a beautiful temple for people to come to, whose ah... is engaging in different kinds of fundraising programs, different kinds of development programs and maintenance programmes. They are helping to bring other people. If they don’t take... if they didn’t take up Kṛṣṇa conscious seriously in a personal committed way, then so many left people would have the opportunity to come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It’s due to different devotees personally taking up the order of Guru and Kṛṣṇa as a personal commitment, that the movement is spread on.

So it’s this devotion, this commitment, this spontaneous obligation one feels in the heart for Guru and Kṛṣṇa that perpetuates the sankirtan movement. We cannot hire people to go out and preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You will not be able to give that inner, deep, committed feeling. Someone who has taken that in the heart, that commitment to serve Guru and Kṛṣṇa, they can give that to others. So that is what they need, more than anything, it’s devotees who actually take up very responsibly this service to carry out the orders of the spiritual master. A Guru may order people different people different things, not that he orders everyone the same thing. It’s like ah.... in Māyāpur you go and he told us, “ don’t leave any field unploughed, practically utilize all your agricultural land.” But when he is in the city he doesn’t tell that, in the city he would say that try to send all your devotees out on book distribution, try to get distribute more books, on each place there is different dharma, different obligation, different goals.Prabhupāda had various plans for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness, just like in a symphony, the director is there, he just waves on this side and the piano player...da da da, does the one thing, he looks on the other side and ah... of the player or the flutist they do something else, the violinist do something else, everything is going on. If everyone did the same thing at the same time...e e ee... it would just be...everyone played their own card... and it’s all synchronised by the director, what do you call the director... or conductor...

So like that! the spiritual master he takes all the different devotees, different projects, different and then...Prabhupāda as the founder acharya, he gave us an overall blueprint. Now we have to try to understand, it’s an overview, specially senior devotees, they have to come to realize Prabhpada’s master plan, and then see how different projects and how different programs were within that. If we take up one aspect of the master plan and fanatically try to apply it to all the other aspects, then we are not going to have the symphony anymore, everything will become like one... like walking on one foot.Prabhupāda had an overall scheme and he had different plans and instructions... different plans, different schemes, wasn’t a stereotype that at every place everything would be exactly the same. And so sometimes one person...in one place we see the instructions in one way, then they think that everywhere else it should be exactly the same. That was alright so long we remain the project leader of that particular place, but when... if we are asked to oversee the border area, or to give the strategy for the world preaching then we have to try to understand whatPrabhupāda advised for all the different places and to preserve his instructions in each place, that’s why when I was asked...when I was asked to come here to New Talavan.... I wanted to see that! what did,Prabhupāda advised or ordered for this place. He may have given us some advice for Māyāpur or I may have heard what he had advised in Los Angeles or in Mayami or ah... London or other places but what specifically did he envision for this project? Because our duty would be to try to implement that vision more than what vision he might have envisioned for another place, and we start a new project than we should see, the project we are doing, is it... which kind of project is it more like, what category does it fit in to in thePrabhupāda master plan.

Of course in the future, may be after some decades and centuries things might change and plans may become more evolved, but in the present time, after Prabhpada had been here...given us so many instructions, obviously the safest thing for us to do... proper thing for us to do is to implement his desires. Once you implement it... those desires, we may find out that there are many other horizons that would develop the project further, just like in Māyāpur I was askingPrabhupāda something, what about this, what about that ....Prabhupāda suddenly became impatient, he said, “don’t think immediately, fall on your vision, fall on your vision.” So then ah... he is there of course to build the spiritual city, you have to have a broad vision, you don’t know which way... how, now we are seeing that so much spontaneous attraction to Māyāpur is coming, so many thousands of people that...that ah... to develop it on a... as a pilgrimage place, the easiest way to develop the city... that is spontaneous.... it’s a pilgrimage place and spontaneously more and more people are coming, but that doesn’t mean that every place... may be the same, each place will have it’s unique characteristic, but the basic principles are the same, the basic principles you read in the Bhagavad-gītā, we read in the Caitanya Caritamrta, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Nectar of Devotion, principles are the same, everyone has to accept a guru, to surrender to the order of the guru, take initiation, this are the common principles. What order will be given, that's specific. Common principle is there, general principle, general principle, preaching is the basis.. ah... essence, books are the basis, utility is the principle and purity is the force, chant these programmes everyday, chant your 16 rounds, these are general principles... and specific principles... New Talavan do this, and New Vrindavan builds seven temples on seven hills, in Māyāpur make a spiritual city, in Hyderabad make ah.... make a perfect spiritual community, and somewhere else you get some other instructions.

In Haridaspur he said, you make this village Kṛṣṇa conscious, I want Kṛṣṇa conscious, I want one place where we convert a village and make it Kṛṣṇa conscious, an existing village. We made a village, we are making a village, we have a built,it’s our... it’s our expression of love to try to put that green, that vision of ecstasy into form, into reality or... it’s already real but we want to put into the visible reality of this world, just like someone has a idea of a symphony when they put a musical score and then he gets the band... the orchestra together, and he puts it into and audible form.

So like that!Prabhupāda, he would see something and he would get an idea, this is how we could spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness here, this is how we could further Lord Caitanya’s movement and then he would express that. Now we take it the next day, we put it into action and by doing that we get the blessings of Lord Caitanya and Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Transcribed by: Sadananda Kṛṣṇaprem Das Date: 15-03-2016, Māyāpur.

Proofread by Rajeshwari, 20/10/2020, Bangalore.