20080513 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.10.1-7

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on May 13, 2008. The lecture begins with the reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam canto six, chapter ten, text one to seven.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.10.1

śrī-bādarāyaṇir uvāca
indram evaṁ samādiśya
bhagavān viśva-bhāvanaḥ
paśyatām animeṣāṇāṁ
tatraivāntardadhe hariḥ

Translation: Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: After instructing Indra in this way, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, the cause of the cosmic manifestation, then and there disappeared from the presence of the onlooking demigods.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.10.2

tathābhiyācito devair
ṛṣir ātharvaṇo mahān
modamāna uvācedaṁ
prahasann iva bhārata

Translation: O King Parīkṣit, following the Lord’s instructions, the demigods approached Dadhīci, the son of Atharvā. He was very liberal, and when they begged him to give them his body, he at once partially agreed. However, just to hear religious instructions from them, he smiled and jokingly spoke as follows.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.10.3

api vṛndārakā yūyaṁ
na jānītha śarīriṇām
saṁsthāyāṁ yas tv abhidroho
duḥsahaś cetanāpahaḥ

Translation: O elevated demigods, at the time of death, severe, unbearable pain takes away the consciousness of all living entities who have accepted material bodies. Don’t you know about this pain?

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.10.4

jijīviṣūṇāṁ jīvānām
ātmā preṣṭha ihepsitaḥ
ka utsaheta taṁ dātuṁ
bhikṣamāṇāya viṣṇave

Translation: In this material world, every living entity is very much addicted to his material body. Struggling to keep his body forever, everyone tries to protect it by all means, even at the sacrifice of all his possessions. Therefore, who would be prepared to deliver his body to anyone, even if it were demanded by Lord Viṣṇu?

Purport: It is said, ātmānaṁ sarvato rakṣet tato dharmaṁ tato dhanam: one must protect his body by all means; then he may protect his religious principles and thereafter his possessions. This is the natural desire of all living entities. No one wants to give up his body unless it is forcibly given away. Even though the demigods said that they were demanding Dadhīci’s body for their benefit in accordance with the order of Lord Viṣṇu, Dadhīci superficially refused to give them his body.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.10.5

śrī-devā ūcuḥ
kiṁ nu tad dustyajaṁ brahman
puṁsāṁ bhūtānukampinām
bhavad-vidhānāṁ mahatāṁ
puṇya-ślokeḍya-karmaṇām

Translation: The demigods replied: O exalted brāhmaṇa, pious persons like you, whose activities are praiseworthy, are very kind and affectionate to people in general. What can’t such pious souls give for the benefit of others? They can give everything, including their bodies.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.10.6

nūnaṁ svārtha-paro loko
na veda para-saṅkaṭam
yadi veda na yāceta
neti nāha yad īśvaraḥ

Translation: Those who are too self-interested beg something from others, not knowing of others’ pain. But if the beggar knew the difficulty of the giver, he would not ask for anything. Similarly, he who is able to give charity does not know the beggar’s difficulty, for otherwise he would not refuse to give the beggar anything he might want as charity.

Purport: This verse describes two people — one who gives charity and one who begs for it. A beggar should not ask charity from a person who is in difficulty. Similarly, one who is able to give charity should not deny a beggar. These are the moral instructions of the śāstra. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says, san-nimitte varaṁ tyāgo vināśe niyate sati: everything within this material world  will be destroyed, and therefore one should use everything for good purposes. If one is advanced in knowledge, he must always be prepared to sacrifice anything for a better cause. At the present moment the entire world is in a dangerous position under the spell of a godless civilization. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement needs many exalted, learned persons who  will sacrifice their lives to revive God consciousness throughout the world. We therefore invite all men and women advanced in knowledge to join the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and sacrifice their lives for the great cause of reviving the God consciousness of human society.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.10.7

śrī-ṛṣir uvāca
dharmaṁ vaḥ śrotu-kāmena
yūyaṁ me pratyudāhṛtāḥ
eṣa vaḥ priyam ātmānaṁ
tyajantaṁ santyajāmy aham

Translation: The great sage Dadhīci said: Just to hear from you about religious principles, I refused to offer my body at your request. Now, although my body is extremely dear to me, I must give it up for your better purposes since I know that it  will leave me today or tomorrow.

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: Very interesting. There was a great sage who had done so many austerities and prayers to Nārāyaṇa, the form of Kṛṣṇa. His body had become very powerful because of penances, austerities and devotional service. Lord Viṣṇu had told the devas that if they wanted to defeat Vṛtrāsura, they had to beg the sage to donate his body. And Viśvakarmā is going to make a special weapon from it. A kind of lightning thunderbolt which is so powerful it can kill the demon. Not just an ordinary lightning bolt. It is spiritually imbibed and empowered by the sage’s body. You do not have to worry. This weapon  will never fail. So then they went to the sage and asked him to give his body first.

He was testing them. He said “Everybody is so much attached to their body who donates their body?”, and some people here now they donate a kidney or something after death they donate some parts of their body. Very hard to find anyone living who would give the whole body? Who does that? So, it is a very rare request. But this Dadhīci, he wanted to test them. He first gave them a little bit of a hard time to see what they would say. Then he admitted that, “Actually I was just testing you since we are supposed to use our body for a higher cause and our body anyway is going to perish sooner or later. So now if I can use my body for the higher cause of benefiting the entire universe and all of the humanity and all the people, then why should I hesitate?”, so this is basically what happened.

And Prabhupāda is also here mentioning that we should invite all men and women advanced in knowledge to join the Kṛṣṇa Consciousness movement and sacrifice their lives for the great cause of reviving the God consciousness of human society. We are not asking anybody to give up their life, donate their bones or anything, but to give their energy and their remainder of their life activity to focus on reviving God consciousness of the human society. These things are all quite amazing because people are so selfish nowadays that even if you just ask a donation, people hesitate quite a bit. Here also mentions that somebody who is a miser, who is suffering a lot to give a donation. Now some people are really needy and they cannot afford to give a donation. But some people are quite well off. It is no big deal for them to give a donation.

So, the beggar who has understood that if someone is in difficulty, probably would not ask a person in difficulty to give a donation but if in the same way it says that the donor, if he knew the difficulty of the person, the beggar, then he may also not hesitate to help. The brahmacārīs anyway are beggars. So, the question of them giving anything does not really arise. But gṛhasthas have various degrees of wealth. So, it is quite... ow we heard that in like Chowpatty, there was a gṛhastha or even in Māyāpur and in Bangladesh there were some cases recently where some devotee had some kind of disease or something. And in order to get there was… in order to get a medical treatment, it cost 100,000 rupees, which is I do not know how many rent that is $2,000 US that is about 14–15,000 rent.

So I do not know India that is a lot of money. I do not know here how much that is, but pretty good here too. So then. But somehow all the different gṛhasthas and the devotees, they took up a collection to raise some money for this child who had the disease. And the parents wanted to get their child cured. Some more wealthy gṛhasthas gave more, somebody less. This idea of helping people when they are in need. It is being practiced today in the Vaiṣṇava society, especially for medical treatment. I know one Vice President of a temple, his daughter had a hole in the heart. She needed open heart operation to close the hole, which is an open heart. You can imagine it is a bit expensive also like that, maybe about 16–17,000. But different devotees pitched them according to their capacity and they had operation so the girl is now quite healthy and okay.

So, this is one way that the gṛhasthas may help. In Caitanya-caritāmṛta, there is a pastime where… or I think it is in Caitanya-bhāgavata actually. That Śuklāmbara Brahmacārī, he had a practice, brahmacārī, he was not living in the āśrama, he lived in his own āśrama. He was self. I do not know what you call it, like a not self-sufficient brahmacārī, but at least an autonomous kind of brahmacārī. Not living in an āśrama, but he would survive by begging. So those days he would beg five houses a day. So, then whatever he got from the five houses, if he got nothing that day he would not eat. So, like this five houses. And whatever he got that he considered to be Kṛṣṇa’s mercy.

So sometimes, usually when someone goes begging, a lot of people, they give out the lousy things. Like if you go to the supermarket and say you want to get some vegetables. They say, “Well, there is a pile outside and going a little bit off, you know, cut out the bad parts.” I used to go to the wholesale fruit market and vegetable market and beg some boxes for food for life. Obviously they are going to give you the ones that are going to go bad. That is okay. They are not bad yet. And you can still cut them when they are ready. But they are all really ripe. It is like use it or lose it. But we used to pick up a whole pickup truck of pile of half a ton of fruits and vegetables. I used to cook eight kinds of fruit chutney and flavored halvā and things for the Sunday feast from what we take.

But they tend to give, you know, that is just so Śuklāmbara Brahmacārī, he went to the one house and then the wife said, “There is a beggar here asking for some alms.” So the householder said, eating his big pile of prasāda and said, “Well, give him the ashes from our stove.” (laughter) What do you think of that? (laughter) What are you going to do with ashes? Use as a fertilizer for your banana plant. They figure, you know, somebody take the ash. Okay, forget it. You know, But Śuklāmbara Brahmacārī thought, “Anyway this guy is such a miser. At least if I take his ashes, he  will benefit something by giving.” So he said, “Okay, give me your ashes. Just stop talking about it and do it. I want to see you actually do it.” You know, just to give mercy to the gṛhastha, “Okay, I  will take your ashes.” One time he had begged from the five houses. And then sometimes they give the chipped flat rice. Or if it is a flat rice, you can get nice one. But sometimes they get old, it is broken or broken rice. So they gave away the lousy stuff, “Just okay, it is not very useful for us, you know, he is a beggar”. Lord Caitanya came the other way. And he saw that Śuklāmbara Brahmacārī had his bags. “What did you get today?” He knew everything about him. “No, no, it was all right.” “Let me see. Oh, my favorite. Flat rice.”

Just like Sudāmā Vipra, the classmate of Kṛṣṇa in Ujjain when they were studying together, Kṛṣṇa took his flat rice. So, this time Lord Caitanya reached in the bag to eat some flat rice. But then when Śuklāmbara Brahmacārī realized he is going to eat that flat rice, he said, “No! No, for You I  will beg some good stuff.” For himself, he accepted whatever they gave. But if he is going to give to Lord Caitanya, he  will go and beg some really good, chastise the gṛhastha to give something good, something for Lord Caitanya. But Lord Caitanya said, “No! No, whatever is good for My devotee, is good for Me.” They are having a tug of war over the bag. So, Śuklāmbara Brahmacārī put behind him, the bag but Lord Caitanya is so tall. He is like 7ft tall. Hands go down to His knees and He is standing. So, He reached over, grabbed the bag. “Oh, so good.” (laughter)

So this begging, different pastimes about begging, even in the Vedic culture, the brāhmaṇas and the brahmacārīs, they would beg but Prabhupāda did not want us to beg because now in modern society begging is not considered so nicely. Unless you are like in Thailand, the Sri Lanka and the Buddhist monks go at the begging bowl. They accepted those, everybody. They put a little table outside. And then as the monks come, they put something in their begging bowl. It is like accepted still today. But in India, even India, the begging is not well received. So, Prabhupāda said, “Better we give them something. When we give them a book, they give us some donation. We are not giving them, not just taking from them, we are giving them something. So somehow we do some exchange.” So that is generally how we do. We give something and give prasāda or give a book or whatever. Then if people like, they can give some donations. Like that, they benefit in two ways - By giving the donation as well as by getting the prasāda.

So, these are... we were talking that once you give a donation, there are many types you can give. Like somebody may have donated the fruit or the vegetables or the grains. If you put a basket in front of the Deities and people are invited to donate some food, some fresh milk, some grains, so in case they do not like to give money, they can give fruits or some food. In front of the Chicago temple, they have a big basket. Different temples, I have seen that. And people come and give donations every time we come to the temple. In here, there is even a donation box, but I can see maybe there is. You push a button, it comes out. That is okay for nighttime, so nobody runs off of it. But India, the huṇḍī boxes are so heavy, nobody can walk off of it. So you see big, massive stealers.

Once someone tried to steal the Jagannātha huṇḍī. And then Jagannātha did something with him. He got caught. It is good to empty it out every day. I have seen huṇḍī boxes filled with donations. And sometimes they do this. But it is part of our culture that when we come to see the Lord, we should give him a donation. Just like it is His culture. If He reveals Himself to you, He  will give you a boon. So, it is mentioned in Nectar of Devotion. Going to Bangladesh, some places, they are more in this giving mood. Bangladesh is maybe one of the poorest countries in the world but everybody there is in the mood of sādhu or devotee or so they like to give a donation.

Sometimes, elderly, we call them buḍimās, they are like old, elderly ladies, grandmother or something, she comes with her. She has the end of her sārī tied inside there. There is a little bit of money. She maybe has three rupees, gives out one rupee or one ṭaṅkā and gives it but something they give. It is like this time on the Safari, we got something like in this donation, 80,000 ṭaṅkās, all little coins but everybody gives something. It is like maybe one rupee or what they call ṭaṅkās. Some people who are more wealthy, maybe 100 or 500. So there is like one or 10 ṭaṅkās is like one, more or less, maybe a little more than a rupee. But everybody is in that mood. So that is something very awesome. West Bengal, they are not as generous as Bangladesh. It is part of the culture to give something to brāhmaṇa, to the Deities. But generally that is where people just give whatever they feel like giving.

It is a pretty rare thing that somebody goes up and asks, “Please give me your body.” (laughter) And the Dadhīci is so powerful that he can actually leave his body and give him the body and go on. It is not an ordinary feat to reincarnate at  will. “Instead, I refuse to offer my body at your request. Now, although my body is extremely dear to me, I must give it up for your better purposes, since I know it  will leave me today or tomorrow.” The idea that in our life we should try to do something to help the world. Most people, they are just thinking how I can enjoy sense gratification, but actually to do something that benefits the whole world that is not. I mean, some people are doing that, but let is consider that it is for some material purpose and it is in the mode of goodness.

I mean, just like there is people who are very much concerned about the environment. Sometimes they do demonstrations and they make some appeal that the government to stop doing things which are environmentally destructive to the world. So that even giving some demonstration or something like that is also a kind of donation of their time and energy. There are people who are for some better cause. This is what they consider to be a better cause. Maybe in some cases, it is not always really a better cause. Like (not clear) did some demonstrations when he was out of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is questionable whether all those demonstrations are really beneficial. His intention was good. (laughter) So this is something, we try to use our body to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In fact, Lord Caitanya, He does not seem like necessarily give up everything, but even people could be gṛhasthas or married householders. But they do yukta-vairāgya. They do their activities in such a way that Kṛṣṇa is pleased and Kṛṣṇa consciousness is spread.

We saw last night many different gṛhasthas were doing Nāma-haṭṭas, some programs in the slideshow which was able to help many people. Some people they become some of our brahmacārīs here. They dedicated their life for helping people, helping humanity by awakening them in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. People appreciate in India, people appreciate that Sometimes they say, especially like a Westerner that comes to India for preaching, they appreciate you coming from maybe a more materially developed country and you are taking all these austerities in order to spread our cultures or spread the Vedic culture, some of them they appreciate, “You are doing… I could not do it.”

One-time Prabhupāda was talking, he got a letter from a couple and they are arriving, they are in the West somewhere, maybe in America, I am not sure. They said, “We want to be your disciples. We are aspiring to be your disciples. And we are trying to chant sixteen rounds. But sometimes we fail some of the workload or different problems. We try to make it up. We want to follow the four principles but sometimes some of our friends, they somehow by their association we break some principle and we feel really bad about it. And we are trying to really get a better association and practice”, like it was a really graphic letter. I mean graphic all the different ways they were having spiritual problems, these gṛhasthas.

So, when Prabhupāda got this letter, you might think, well, what would Prabhupāda think in a letter like this? “These people are fallen”, No! But Prabhupāda actually was so moved that they are trying to be Kṛṣṇa conscious in spite of so much bad association, bad environment, different bad habits, that he started to cry how these people are making such a sacrifice to be Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is so difficult in the West because the environment is like. They are so materialistic. And some the whole day was talking about this letter.

In the evening and late afternoon there was some really rich, aristocratic industrialist Indians, some class of Indians from Rajasthan, they call Mārvāṛīs or sometimes Gujarātīs. They tend to be vegetarian. They had be pious. Many of them are donors. They are very nice people. But not all of them take up Kṛṣṇa consciousness sādhana. So he read, “Look at how these people are struggling to be Kṛṣṇa conscious. They are coming from a meat eating environment. They are coming from an environment where people take intoxication and they are going through all these austerities. For them it is a big sacrifice to try to be Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then he turned around, said, “What are you doing? What are you doing? What sacrifice are you making to practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness, to practice bhakti, you know like… shocked. They did not expect to have a turn around on them.

And then they were sincere people they thought about it and said, “Actually were born vegetarian. So, it is no big vegetarian family, no big deal for us. That is how we grew up. The idea of eating meat or fish never came even in our minds. But I take tea, which is a mild intoxicant and I never even tried to stop taking tea. I have not done any sacrifice.

So they started appreciating how this westerners, they are doing a sacrifice to be spiritually conscious. They are controlling their senses. So like this sometimes that incident, there are many things. How compassionate Prabhupāda was, how much he appreciated the sacrifice that anyone did. How he turned around, used it even to enliven these very aristocratic vegetarians, sāttvic Indians, to go a little step forward and be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Try to make some, do some japa or something.

I remember one time he was telling one of these businessmen who had a big Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa temple in the house. But he hired some priests, I do not know, maybe a thousand rupees a month. Take a few tulasīs to offer and raise the ārati. And he said, “Why do not you do the worship?” “Me? But, I am a businessman?” He said, “No, but you should be. I  will teach you how to do it. I will give you the mantras and everything. You should, whenever possible, you should do the worship.” And he was like shocked, you know the idea, never thought, you know, just like most of. I think most of our gṛhasthas, they do not hire priests, they all do the pūjā themselves. And here is some wealthy guy, millionaire, he just hires some priests to do the pūjā. He comes in and maybe does a two-minute prayer and leaves. And, Prabhupāda said, “No, you should spend, you know, half an hour and do some pūjā.” And there was, we would just see how Prabhupāda was trying to get these people to be more God conscious, to go up a little, whatever level were at, come up a step or two or whatever, gradually go up and that way Prabhupāda was appreciating when people were trying to come up.

This Dadhīci is like already at super level, super advanced personality. So then Viṣṇu knew that he was so renounced that he could even give his whole body when they convinced him it was for the benefit of the universe. It is a demon that could destroy the universe. And his body could be used, his bones could be used for defeating this demon. He said, “Okay, my body can be used.” Pretty amazing, profound kind of donation, you know, amazing history. So in compared to that, Lord Caitanya is not asking people to give their bones, give their bodies and this, and that is but you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa-prasāda, read the Bhagavad-gītā. Lord Caitanya’s basic instruction was bala-kṛṣṇa, bhaja-kṛṣṇa, kara-kṛṣṇa-śikṣā, that is chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, study Kṛṣṇa’s teachings and worship Kṛṣṇa. By doing those activities, then you will be able to go back to Kṛṣṇa and you  will be able to help the universe.

Just like nowadays we do not ask students to leave their university. We ask them to continue. While you are there, try to make some other students Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Try to help us organize the ‘Bhakti-yoga Club’. This is what for many reasons. One is for the better use of their time to help make the student devotees. Part of it is that if we do not have them finish and they come out, then the parents complain to the university and everybody complains that university  will block us from teaching there. Then also most people get married and later on, if they do not finish their education, they complain that, “I left my education because, it is all your fault.”

In fact, in Chowpatty, Rādhānātha Swami has done something that if someone wants… they have to finish their education. He says, “You work for six months, see how you like it, and then come back. So that way there is less chance of falling out. They have already experienced what a lousy thing it is to work because usually your boss gives you all the crazies in the office. It is not so easy. But later on if they find some personality clashes in the āśrama, it will not be any way better than that. That is pretty rare. I do not know if anyone else does that so much in need of manpower. They have a very reserved. What is amazing also is Vṛtrāsura, he is a devotee. He is a demon devotee. He was cursed by Durgā to become a demon because he kind of inappropriately offered some suggestion to Śiva. It was not bad intention, but it was not considered appropriate by Durgā or by Pārvatī. So she cursed him, he apologized and accepted the curse.

And then there was some ṛṣi that wanted to finish off Indra. So he tried to create an enemy that would kill Indra. But he slightly slurred one of his Sanskrit verses. And therefore instead of coming as an enemy of Indra, became as Indra as his enemy. Slightly different in slight pronunciation. So that means Indra will kill him. But he gives him a hard fight. So Vṛtrāsura got born as this demon had to fight Indra. But he was at the same time always preaching the Indra. Telling him, you know about Kṛṣṇa. It was very unusual, very interesting how rich asura. Although somehow he was made into antagonistic demon, but somehow he always remained Kṛṣṇa conscious. In spite of that, he had to fight Indra. That works like the reason he was created.

Sometimes Indra got so frustrated, did not know what to do. It was just like, he is such a tough demon. So, you should not lose heart, winning or losing, you have to go do our dharma. It is a nice teaching. Many are not able to come to the class every day. Sneak a peek at the chapter. Any questions here? How many are determined to utilize their thoughts, words and deeds in Kṛṣṇa’s service, help uplift humanity. Wow. He is still thinking about it. But we appreciate because of the sacrifice of the devotees. That is how other people come awakened. Michael, before I leave, you got a question? We make it but Prabhupāda made it very easy. Use whatever skills you have for Kṛṣṇa. If you are a musician, do music for Kṛṣṇa. If you are a lawyer. I met a lawyer last night. Use your legal understanding for Kṛṣṇa. Whatever your abilities. Somehow if you are a cook for Kṛṣṇa. You do not have to do something like completely against the grain. This is pretty rare situation. Like giving our bones and body. But we do not ask people to commit suicide or do anything like that. We are not one of those dangerous Christian sects that have everybody do mass suicides and things like that. We are actually against suicide. But to dedicate your body, your mind, your deeds in Kṛṣṇa’s service. When you take sannyāsa, you are given a three stick pole and that is supposed to represent the thoughts, words and deeds. And the little curve in the top is the intelligence guided by higher spiritual intelligence. Use our thoughts, words and deeds in Kṛṣṇa’s service. To some extent, gṛhasthas and others can also do the same thing within the parameters of their āśrama. Any questions?

You see, when we go out collecting, we have a photo album or something. We show what we are doing with the money. How they show the basic pie chart or something of the expenses in the previous year. They understand this. Whatever activity, you need land, you need manpower, you need organization, you need capital. So, you want them to be able to identify that they want to do this thing. They want Ratha-yātrā or they want to feed the guests, whatever is find out what is inspiring them and then you present it in that way someone is in the education. See how this educating the masses to. And this way most people, most reasonable people, they can appreciate if you are being transparent.

I also met one guy. I went into his office in the 1970s on a life membership campaign. 1100 rupees in those days was a life member. So this guy, I tried to show my photo album, but he did not look. He just started blasting me. He started shouting at me and saying that, “You people are cheaters.” Everything possibly you could think of to try to blow me away. I do not know what happened. I decided to weather out the storm. After the guy, for about 10 minutes he was saying, “I do not believe in this, I do not know did you are cheaters.” Then after he finished, he said, “My dear son, it is not correct what you are saying. We are not cheating anybody. We are actually going to start.” Then I showed all my pictures. He thought that with all the shouting and heavy dealing, he just blew me off. But as soon as I just went on undefaced and showed him all the nice things were doing, he was amazed.

Then he said, “You know, I was just testing you.” What a crazy guy, “I was just testing you. How much you got to pay? Tell me.” So, he gave a donation, became a life member. Somebody asked me the same thing in England recently, a few days ago at the retreat. And that is really… I do not know why it took me a little bit by surprise because I never had that thought. But Prabhupāda was giving us so much all the time. How he made this sacrifice to go to the West to bring Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Like when I heard from... I joined in 68. So in 66, 67. I missed those years in 26 Second Avenue in New York. I came in when Prabhupāda was in Montreal. He lost his visa for America.

And then Brahmānanda was telling us that in 67 he had a stroke and that he was basically more or less paralyzed from the neck down. So, he could not. He had to be sponge-bathed and he had to help him to nature’s call. Everything that the devotees had to do for him. But his head was still working, he was not paralyzed on the head. So, while he was nonstop preaching to them while being paralyzed. I think most people, if you get paralyzed, you are pretty much bedridden for a while. But he had the head working. It was like Vṛtrāsura, he gets his limbs of his body cut off and he is still fighting. But Prabhupāda was still giving, even though he was. When I heard that, I just could not help but cry. I have seen so many things like that. Prabhupāda gave so much.

Compared to that, what am I doing? It is insignificant. There was so much embedded to so many of our Prabhupāda, maybe other spiritual masters. So that to do something to give Kṛṣṇa. Because Prabhupāda said, the way you can repay me is by being Kṛṣṇa conscious and helping others to be Kṛṣṇa conscious. I have a sense of indebtedness so great that not that even that is adequate, I am not breaking. I do not think it is adequate. But at least that had not ever been an issue with me that I am just thinking how I still have so much in debt, I cannot pay it back. But that is what inspires me. Just remembering how much Prabhupāda sacrificed and gave us to him and we try to do the same.

On one hand, of course, also from 1996, when we had the Prabhupāda Centennial. Then after that, I started thinking that devotees also, they are also sacrificing a lot and they are struggling with these. But somehow we had to take better care of the devotees in ISKCON. That was also kind of another. Then you see people. Just like one lady came up to me and she told me that, “I want to thank you so much. I live in a far corner of the city, away from the ISKCON temple. And my husband takes the car to go to work. And I cannot, you know, take me two hours to go there by bus. I have three kids. I really cannot get to the temple much. Just on some festival days. It is very difficult living alone, you know, with your family, far away from any temple association. But you started this Bhakti-vṛkṣa groups. And just down the street from my house, I have one. I am able to go there now. I am chanting sixteen rounds. I am doing my daily devotional service. I get a lot of guidance and inspiration from that. I just want to thank you so much for doing this program. Those things help too. (laughter) Maybe to be selfless, but if somebody appreciates and actually you see that it is helping them, it is kind of a combination of compassion, gratitude, inspiration, indebtedness to Prabhupāda and others, compassion on the fallen souls.

Apart from that, I get a real taste from talking about Kṛṣṇa. Maybe there is a little selfishness in it. It is very blissful to talk about Kṛṣṇa. Some people ask me, “How do you travel? How do you get the energy?” But I get the energy sometimes someone mentioned that they saw me, I was falling asleep and then when I started giving class and it suddenly got all filled with energy. Preaching, talking about Kṛṣṇa, not preaching down to anybody but just talking. Explaining glories of Kṛṣṇa gives you a lot of energy. So even if you just like to do it for the bliss, why should you be deprived? That is where my secretary see they are doing all the I am sitting and doing the blissful work of preaching. They had to organize, you know, get the clothes washed, get the visas made, have a booking, inform the next temple, do the packing, unpacking. So, some of these are very capable preachers but they are not preaching, they are helping me preach. It gets a bit dry after a while as I release them so they can do some direct preaching.

Sītārāma! Oh, I did not see you. You were snuck in there. You were there all along?

Sītārāma: Yes, Mahārāja

Jayapātaka Swami: Behind Mahindra.

Sītārāma: When one enter Kṛṣṇa consciousness and the situation and the status quo in the temple is not really enlivened or it is going to be very damaging to young people. Responsibilities taken up the coil being of a remaining continually infused not to maintain that level. I am reflecting everything which your life is presenting. So I have to be conscientious conscious of what I am doing does not reflect others even though I may be limited, actively behave in such a way.

Jayapātaka Swami: Well general devotees, they should try to associate with positive association people by which are enlivened and blissful in their service. There are some people that tend to be over critical, complain about things all the time that can. That can, it is called fault finding. It is one of the things we are supposed to avoid doing, it is mentioned in Nectar of Devotion should be a very constructive criticism. Very constructive because just pointing out people’s deficiencies does not necessarily mean they are going to get inspired to improve. It could also even discourage them but rather to try to point out the good things in other people and then when they are in line. We had an exercise once in the GBC everybody had to make a constructive criticism to another GBC. But before we did that we had to say two appreciations about them. And that was interesting because you know they are going to come and tell you something that, “I do not like about what you are doing.” But they first told you two things that they liked.

What you are doing so by doing that, it actually, even when they told you the negative thing, it was more digestible because it was like you could appreciate, they had an objective view. But it was not just like being holier than thou and I am right and you are always wrong. And so it is my duty to tell you how wrong you are. But you could appreciate, “Okay, they seem to be a lot more of a balanced view.” But sometimes it is very important. If we are going to make constructive criticism, it should be very constructive. It should be very appreciative of the good things they are doing. It is not a black and white thing, I mean Māyā is black and Kṛṣṇa is white. So, Kṛṣṇa is like the sun and Māyā is like the darkness.

So even there maybe areas that we could improve in a temple, in an āśrama, there may be so many areas we can improve. But it does not mean that some of the worshiping Kṛṣṇa, they are having āratis, they are having tulasī-pūjā, they are eating prasāda, they are doing outreach programs. There may be many things. So, there may be one or two things. Maybe the bathrooms are not clean as they should be, or the dealings between devotees are not as positive. So, there is always going to be some kind of area where we can improve and that is part of devotional service. But we want to present such a way that people are enthused to try to improve, that they realize, “Okay, we are doing something right by being here and by performing our devotional service but we can do better. Maybe if we did better”, and even offering our criticism or suggestion, we can also do that in a better way. Sometimes I remember Prabhupāda, there was this devotee and he was always creating a little bit of trouble.

At the same time. He was a very good musician. So, then he was singing some, playing some music, and then Prabhupāda just took that. He said, “You know, you are a very good singer and you do good music. Why do not you travel around the world and just sing Kṛṣṇa’s glories and attract people by your music?” And he got so inspired. “Really? Oh, yeah.” He went off, you know, playing on his guitar. He was like totally blissed out. And everyone else like this sigh of relief. Wow, this guy is causing us so much trouble.

Prabhupāda got up, enthused, you know, he did not say a negative thing and just found out, you know, okay. Engaged him in a better way. And here he was just getting on our case all the time and pointing out this fault and that fault and such a way that you actually start getting discouraged that maybe I do not do nothing right. This guy only sees bad things in me. So sometimes we want to do things in such a way that we can enliven the devotees also. So, these are techniques and they have a leadership training course and I did not take it, but it has things like this, where this was from the… Where you learn how to listen to people, hear their point of view and how to give them advice in such a way that they actually become enthused to implement it.

And it is usually as you said, maybe that in some āśramas it is usually one or two people who tend to be a little more critical, more negative. And there is some others who are better and very enlightening. And sometimes if you see that the critical one is like bending the ear of the new devotee, you might warn them, you know, that this devotee tends to be a little bit over critical, but it is really well-intentioned and everything. Maybe you should associate with this other devotee more. He is got more of a positive outlook and can help you. There is different ways of dealing with it. We want to present things in such a way that people get enlivened by it. We have an iṣṭa-goṣṭhī, we have maybe some kind of a community, senior devotees. And we have brainstorming and discuss strategic management, strategic planning.

Then you have to see what are your strengths, what are your weaknesses, what are your, what is the other things? Your opportunities and your challenges, your obstacles. Go through all these exercises and you find it is not like a black and white thing, but you do have so many positive things, so many strengths. There are books, our prasāda, our Deities. Like here in Cape Town, you have these college programs and prasāda distribution. It is a very cosmopolitan city with many different, you know, like in Chatsworth is mainly Indian. So here you see people from different kind of backgrounds. So it is our strengths, we have our weaknesses. Also, maybe there is about senior devotees and go through and find out. So, then you make plans like invites senior devotees to come. Or we get our senior devotees that are in the community to come and give classes sometimes, whatever they can do to help. You make your plans, you make your goals, how to build on your strengths and how to get over the weaknesses. We are doing this now in India with Bhakti Cāru Mahārāja and everybody, we have this professional, he is a college professor on strategic planning and strategic management. So, he is giving us. We have been through it a few times with Vraja Bihārī and others, but now it is a new wave. Slightly new, more or less the same stuff, but similarly, everything slightly different perspective. It is good to do things like that and try to find out where you can improve and what you can do. And just be when people do something right, then appreciate it. And if it is delaying and slow, then, you know, come up with some strategy how to… how to fix it... right around them. Looks very meditative. Our new manager. I go on the japa walk last night, but then they said, “Do not walk after dark.” And it gets early morning walk. It does not get light here until quite late. (audio abruptly ends)