20110212 Prerna Lecture: Passion to Compassion

A senior devotee introduces Gurudev to the audience in Kolkata :

Maharaj is an exalted spiritual master and guru in the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement and he has thousands of disciples all over the world.

He is fluent in Bengali language and he is preaching here in India, in South India, in Nepal, Bangladesh... In fact, it would be quicker if I just mentioned the places that Maharaj doesn’t go to, because there are hardly any!(the audience laughs).

So we are very happy… you can see that Maharaj had a crisis in his health a couple of years ago, when he suffered a brain hemorrhage and stroke. And it was such a powerful stroke that doctors were all mentioning that any usual person would have given up his/her body and definitely if he/she had survived such a stroke he/she would have been completely incapacitated.

However, we can see Maharaj’s extraordinary spiritual will power; that in spite of such a traumatic physical crisis, he is unaffected and he continues his world preaching and inspiring devotees in Krsnaconsciousness.

So we are very fortunate to have this evening His Holiness Srila Jayapataka Swami Maharaja.

The audience : Hari bol!

Gurudev begins His speech: om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah.

Kirtan

Tonight the topic is Passion to Compassion.

It is a very interesting topic.

I was thinking what to speak and different ideas came in my mind.

Of course, we see how Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada went to the Western world, and that was out of his compassion, because he could have stayed in Vrindavan in the Radha Damodara temple and got his moksha; but he took a great difficulty to go to America to carry out the order of his guru in order to give the blessing to the Westerners.

So the first time he went to the USA was in Boston. At that time he wrote a poem in Bengali – Markine Bhagavat Dharma. In that he wrote that these people are very much in the mode of passion and ignorance but they are very proud of it.

So how will I give them the message of Lord Caitanya? How will I give them the message?

So he was praying and then he said well, if we give the Bhagavatam this cuts the knot of material bondage and gives transcendental vision, and it gradually awakens one’s Krsnaconsciousness.

So quoting these verses from the first Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, Prabhupada took heart ; also tried to find a situation... Who will listen to his lessons?

He went uptown in New York and there, he found a classy yoga teacher, but he was just teaching the gymnastics and the people were not interested to do the real process of yoga.

So like that, finally he went to the Lower East Side and stayed there. In Tompkins Square Park, he didn't have a proper drum or anything. So he just used a bongo drum and he chanted and then he was able to... all the young people came and began to dance with him, dance around him. And he chanted, saying Hare Krishna.

So he told them well, it is a simple process – you should sing, dance and feast! So that sounded pretty good to them and then he told them, “You are not Americans and I am not Indian, you are not Russian, you are not Chinese, - then they said, “Oh, then what are we?”

He said we are the atma, spirit soul. So like this, he transformed these Westerners into Krsnaconscious people.

I was thinking, as I mentioned in 1968, I was also one of these Westerners, I thought I will look for some counter-culture and went to San Francisco, West Coast and I thought, “Here, I will find everything I want.”

Good music groups, Good things and all that what you want to enjoy, but soon I saw that it was the same rat-race, but just with a different nomenclature. So I saw someone shot in front of me in the streets in San Francisco. Then I thought this is not very nice ; no one stopped to help and I didn't want to do that.

I saw many things and I thought I needed some self realization.

So then I began to buy different books learn different yogas and then I searched out the authors of the books or searched out the yoga teachers. So I went to an ashram – he was an astro-projection guru. So, I went to speak to him. But he told me, “I am sorry, I have been grounded and for the past two years; I have not been able to project myself.” So, so much for him!

Then I went to see some hatha yogi and he was in a swimming pool in his swimming trunks and he would put his arm around a lady with a bikini on and it didn't seem like a spiritual environment. So like that I was going places.

At that time I met the devotees and I saw that they had compassion – Jayananda prabhu told me – we want to liberate all the people here in San Francisco!

We want to do the Ratha Yatra of Lord Jagannath.

He was the first person I met that talked about compassion – helping others. Everywhere else it was just “how to enjoy.”

So although I was studying in a good university I was going to celebrate and had gone to California to check it out what the scene was like, and there I found these devotees who were very much sincere and tried to help others.

He asked me to help him and I stayed to help. And then one day he told me, “You should go and chant Hare Krishna.”

So I thought, “why not?”

“I will be here making the ratha for the Ratha Yatra, you go and chant.” (This was Jayananda Prabhu)

So somebody gave me a set of beads and I went to the park and there I was chanting for about six hours, non-stop!

I sat in my padma asana that I had learnt in the yoga school and chanted 32 rounds on the first day!(devotees laugh and chant “Hari bol!”)

No one told me how many to chant, so I just kept chanting!

By the end I started feeling my hairs standing on end and my eyes becoming watery and I was experiencing so much – I didn’t know what to call it – now I know it is ecstasy(devotees laugh) – I thought, “Wow!This is the most powerful meditation I ever experienced!” And then I went back to the temple and the same devotee that gave me the beads was waiting and said, “Oh, by mistake I gave you the beads of Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupada!

So please give them back to me. It wasn’t quite the same the next day but anyway, I went to see Bhaktivedanta Swami in Montreal.

At that time he had no visa for USA. So they were applying for a green card residency for him.

In the meantime, I went there and I thought this time I could feel him apart from hearing him and seeing him directly, I could feel his presence – he was so vibrant, so deep, so transcendental. Just felt different being in his presence. And I was convinced; this is what I was looking for, and this is what I always wanted!

I had found someone who had shown me.

I called my mother and father and thought they would be very happy to know that I had given up all my bad habits and I was a vegetarian and they would be very happy, and I called them.

My father said, “If you don’t come back immediately, I am disowning you and I am going to put your name and draft you in the army - so then I went to Prabhupada and said, “What do I do? My father has put my name for the American army and going to send me off to Vietnam!”

He said, “Well, better you serve in Krishna’s army.”

Devotees : Hari bol!

So from Canada I went to India and have been in Krishna’s army ever since! Devotees : Hari bol!

Now I went from passion to compassion.

If we associate with great souls here – His Holiness Radhanath Swami, His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami – if we associate with devotees who are compassionate we will naturally get this awakening in our hearts.

We may talk about Lord Caitanya and the Holy Names but if you associate with these great souls it is worth so much more! Hari bol!

We will be tuned up to understand Lord Caitanya’s mercy!

Of course His mercy is there and we should take it. But if we have their association then we will get this mercy very quickly of Lord Caitanya.

So I was thinking also how Lord Nityananda is so merciful that he- Jagai Madhai as you all know; they were not only passionate, they were ignorant, they were goondas... criminals.

But Lord Nityananda He went to them and He requested, you please take up a holy life, and give up your bad habits and chant Hare KrsnaHare KrsnaKrsna Krsna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

The first time He was chased by them and they wanted to beat Him.

The second time, again He asked; this time Madhai hit Him on the head with a clay pot and made Him bleed and he said: amaake merecho bole ki prem dibo na - you hit me and you think I will not give me love of Godhead?

And Jagai he said listen, you just hit Him and he is bleeding but He is talking about love, He is talking about compassion.

So He is not an ordinary person, we should surrender to Him.

So Jagai pleaded that Madhai should surrender. Meanwhile, Lord Caitanya showed up and although He is Krishna, He promised that He will not use any arms but He thought this was too much and so He called for His Sudharshan Chakraaa!(Gurudev calls out). And Sudarshan came and He was very disturbed.

And Jagai and Madhai surrendered. So Jagai went to Nityananda and said, “Please forgive him.”

And Nityananda said, “Well, I did not take any offence. You are like My little child. Mother holds the baby, if the baby kicks the mother, she doesn't take any offense. Like that I did not take any offense even though you kicked Me. Actually he had hurt him on the head - not the same little baby!(devotees laugh).

Anyway, Nityananda didn't take any offense.

Then Madhai said “ Well, I caused suffering to many dham vasis in Navadvipa Dham.”

So, then Lord Nityananda said, “Yes, that's true.” So he(Madhai)said, “What can I do to get free?”

He(Nityananda) said, “You should do something to facilitate them in their Krsna (consciousness)...spiritual life. So, build a ghat at the Ganges, and when people use the ghat, they will be facilitated in their Krsnaconsciousness.

So on the driest day, hottest day in Jaista masa in Bengal, he dug with his own hands... with bricks and stones, he made a ghat – this ghat became famous as Madhai Ghat.

He built it for the use of all the Navadvipa vasis. So then Jagai Madhai... we find their samadhis in Khatwa; it is a city about 40 km north of Navadvip.

We heard that they chanted and danced all the way to the Ganges (everyday).They had been transformed from passion to compassion – they had been transformed into lovers of Krsnaand they chanted, crying in bliss, Hare Krsnawhile they went to the Ganges everyday. So this transformation can be done by good association.

Now, I heard that if you are very much eager to go ahead in passion, the result is - this world is full of cut throats, everybody is trying to get ahead.

I have some disciples who are in the corporate world; so, someone is like what you call Quality Control Manager, someone else is Operations Manager and the Operations Manager wants to become the General Manager. So he tries to screw up the Quality Control Manager to make him look bad. And he looks good, so he gets the promotion! Now, who suffers? The company. But they don’t care, they have that passion, that attachment, they want a higher raise, a higher position, - and this is always going on in the corporate world.

So they were asking me what to do? So I advised him, because he said he did not really care to be the general manager.

I said, “Well if it comes, take it; but if you tell the guy you are not trying to be the general manager and see what he says, and he told that to the guy and knowing that he was in the mode of passion and said, “Oh, really?!You don’t want to be the general manager? Thank you! Then we are the best of friends!(Gurudev laughs). So the point is, if you read the Bhagavad Gita, you will find this tamo gun, rajo gun and satva gun. So the rajo gun is the passion, tamo gun is ignorance and satva gun is goodness, loving others and compassion, helping others and shuddha satva is the transcendental mode. So Lord Krishna,advised Arjuna to be in a shuddha satva or the satva. This is better for your spiritual advancement.

If one has this – say as a grihastha someone most people opt to get married and some may opt to be in the ashram, but very few. So if they get married, they need to work and then get better. No matter how people are by reading the Bhagavad Gita you can understand the principles and try to figure out. What we try to do is people use this work in order to be a counselor or a bhakti vriksha or namahatta leader; how to use their position in society to help others in their spiritual life. Lord Caitanya taught grihe thako boney thakho sada Hari bole dhako, “Whether you are grihastha or in the renounced orders, everybody should chant Hare KrsnaHare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Our life is very short and in Kali Yuga we will lie, cheat – this is the yuga of the iron age and hypocrisy. But … Sukadev Goswami in the 12th Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, he said: kalau dosher nidhe raajan,- it is an ocean of defects , asti hai eka mahan guna – but has one good quality – kirtanaad eva Krishnasya – that chanting the Holy Name of Krsna– mukta sangha param vrajet – by that we get freed from the association of pitfalls and reach the supreme destination.

So why should we give up this opportunity? We can achieve that – we don’t ask very much, just to chant a little bit – there is plenty of time to work -chanting only takes up to two hours a day. So chanting and helping others. So that way, side by side we think of helping others.

When we think everyone has the divine spark, everyone has the paramatma in them and they are all pure eternal souls then you will feel like you want to help them. Why should they suffer? Why should they go through all this again and again and again?

In the West I saw one Walmart sticker which said: Born again and again and again! So they have a certain kind of a... called 'Born Again Christians' but the actual fact is we are born again and again and again.

Everyone who dies is born and everyone who is born dies.

So we can make the best use of this Kali yuga if we chant Hare Krishna. Eka maha guna – one good quality, one! And that's chanting the Holy Name! Harer naama Harer naama Harer naamaiva kevalam Kalau naastyaiva naastyaiva, naastyaiva gathir anyatha

And by that chanting, by associating with the pure devotees and by following the basic instructions of Lord Caitanya, you will get compassion; you will be purified from passion and you can use whatever your education(you have) to help others also. So we thank you all for being here. And I think my time is up.

So Hare Krishna!

Devotees : Hari bol!