20151115 Śrīla Prabhupāda Kathā @ Lotus Rooftop

20151115 Śrīla Prabhupāda Kathā @ Lotus Rooftop

Type Of Talk:

Darshan

Location:

Sridhama Mayapur

West Bengal

Date:

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Collection:

Needs enhancement

20151115_Srila_Prabhupada_Katha_@_Lotus_Rooftop_Sri_Mayapur_Dham So this would just be a free for all. All Prabhupada’s pastimes in Mayapur. He would come here twice in a year. Once in the fall about six weeks. Could be in bhadra, aswin, kartik, month after kartik. Usually he will spend kartik in Vrindavan. Sometimes here, but either before or after kartik he would be here. He would be here for about two weeks at the time of Gaur Purnima, and then there will some travel time after Gaur Purnima where sometimes he took a group of devotees to different places, did some preaching programs, and then went to Vrindavan. So it started here right in corner of this roof. You are sitting here where Prahbhupada was. (HariBol) At that time there was a... whole family of, whole tribe of ants. There was a queen ant. She would be bigger than the other hands. There were some male ants, and there were working ants, the other females they were carrying eggs, they were moving from that side to this side, and everybody stopped and watched them to by. Prabhupada said, “Just as we are looking down at them, and we think that they are very insignificant, they are just living for a month or so. So there are creatures, there are entities on higher planets, persons who devas.... the demigods, they look down on us and by their calculation we live months or so, we will be like little rats or mice or something. They are looking down on us. How insignificant. So Prabhupada was commenting to us about this insight. Sometimes we didn’t have...all the time this road race, we didn’t have, so he would walk around the roof here. The little raised by the doorway was so that he could walk uninterrupted around the roof, and ah... he wanted to have a garden on the roof, so we have this garden on this roof and ah... so one time he was walking and it was a full moon night and he said, “they have come back from the moon. They just got some dull stones and they say this is the moon but see how the moon is shining so much light, it must be a very reflective surface not just dull stones.” So like that Prabhupada would, he would voice his questions. I remember that he was on the first floor and that was in the month of bhadra, and here in Bengal would call Pocha badra or rotten bhadra, because after the rainy season the intense part of it, then ah... all the things in the ground are water logged and they would be dried up by the hot sun. So one of the stages was that all of the insect eggs seem to hatch at the same time leaving unlimited bugs. That’s another story. We used to even give names to the different bugs but that had nothing to do with Prabhupada. So he looking up by the light bulb and there were so many flying insects going around and around the bulb and Prabhupada was looking and there were a number of devotees they were looking and Prabhupada looking. They were trying to figure out what is he looking, a light bulb with insects flying around. He turned to the devotees, he told them that ah... “you see, there are hundreds and maybe thousands of insects but there is no collisions, they don’t have radar. You have in you airports all the radars and all the facilities, but there still are crashes. They have no radar, no crashes. Why is that?” Srila Prabhupada ki. Jay. Is anybody recording this? Yes, Shyam Rasika is. I am trying to remember the things that I didn’t speak before, so that it can be included in the book. Some things might be duplicated. Here in the rainy season or after the rainy season Prabhupada would be mainly be translating every night, he would go to rest about 10, maybe 9.30 or 10, and at 12-1 he would wake up, and he had a special mosquito net which would be like cubical in shape, was over his desk and there he would translate on his Dictaphone. They had a special bhagavatam which was in Sanskrit only and had tikas from like seven or so acharyas. So he was reading the...he was translating from this. I feel like there is a ant. Then ah... Srila Prabhupada would be translating all night and around five O’ clock he would freshen up a bit and at six o clock he would go for a walk, then he would come for the diety greeting at seven. And after deity greeting there would be guru puja of His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. At that time we only had lotus building. We didn’t have the ah... V.I.P or the Conch Building or the temple rooms in between. So ah... since there was a building above the deities some people complained. Any way this would be the climate that anything that Prabhupada would do there would be criticism. So ah... he had work under that situation. At that time we didn’t have many people coming. The vision of Mayapur was more on the Varnasarama scale. Around the temple would be Brahmana’s, the ksatriyas and so on. The ah... Gauria math was expert at inviting someone like the President of India who would fly up in the helicopter and then thousands of people would gather to see a helicopter and ah... so Prabhupada was instructing the devotees that they should take nice care of the guests. Recently I got some complaints that some of our special guests, they felt like neglected that devotees didn’t like to make eye contact and they looked away like they weren’t there. But Prabhupada said that you have treat the guests very nicely, make them feel very special. At that the commissioner of the Presidency commission came. Each district has a district magistrate. Some places he is known as the District Collector. In the British time there would judge and admistrative both. At the present time you have a special Chief Justise and have a district magistrate who is just administration. Now over four of the districts there is a commissioner, around Bengal at that time there were three commissioners for the whole state and one of them was coming here. Prabhupada was telling us, “Watch out what we should. You should learn this.” So he sat on the chair and oversaw the serving of the commissioner, and ah... saw they gave rice and the bitter sabzi and the spinach sabzi and all, and Prabhupada was cracking jokes. I only saw a few times Prabhupada was cracking jokes but he said that during dinner you need light talk to help digestion and after the dinner then you can be a bit more happy. So ah... then although there was some water, maybe a few sips, and Prabhupada was saying, “bring water, bring water, water, water.” Like that... he was showing that the person how the swamiji was taking so much care of me, but actually there was enough water but this is part of the technique, “Salt, Salt, Salt.”, make the person feel that we care and for some people maybe you do care but people should at least feel that you care. Like that, Prabhupada had us serve him Nabadwip Misthi Dai. Have you ever had misthi dai? Mataji from Crowd: today we had. Gurumaharaj: today you had, wow (laughter) Gurumaharaj: It’s Very good? I will tell swaha, you like that This is the speciality of our Nabadwip. Each city in Bengal they have some special sweet preparation. In Chandan Nagar it’s hard sandesh. Looks like he never had a Chandan Nagar sandesh. (laughter) It’s the made in the shape of a tal fruit. You had a tal fruit? Yes (laughter) So tal fruit is like jelly on the outside, and a little liquid inside. In order to achieve that in a sandesh, the sandesh is hard but it has a secret inside. When you bite it the secret inside is a liquid, it rolls on your chin, and all people generally laugh and laugh, that’s the big enjoyment, like that. In Bardwan what is called as Sitabal. It’s a type of a sandesh with like noodles. In Krishnanagar, in every city they have a speciality. I will let you discover it for yourself. (laughter) But Nabadwip is misthi dai. So this commissioner he liked the misthi dai. And Prabhupada would have us see him regularly, bring him pot of misthi dai, after the meal was over the commissioner said, “Is there anything Swamiji, anything I can do, anything I can do? “Let me think. We would use the 350 acres of land.” (laughter) So starting our Mayapur city. So Prabhupada was training us that we should treat all the guests very nicely, and ah... here we are sitting in the holy dham, financially this is considered a poor district, that’s why when you go to ah... like Kalyani which is the southern tip of this district, you find all kinds of industries, because from the government if you develop some industries in undeveloped districts you get some perks. So close to Calcutta just two feet over they established a factory. (laughter) This district doesn’t have much industry. The next district over Bardhwan has many industries, especially Durgapur, Asansol, anyway... Tourism could be a very big asset for this district and ah... now we have... in one year we have millions of people who come to this place. So...I am sure that Prabhupada and the previous acharyas were very happy with this. Because when you first came there were a few temples, we stayed in the grass hut and Prabhupada dug a 12 feet deep hole... he didn’t dig it but told to have it dug and there is a picture of him entering into it with the Ananta sesh nag and he established the foundation for the whole Mayapur city, and what’s interesting is that the present TOVP happens to be on the top of that place. So Prabhupada then invited all the other Gauria math leaders and he told them, “let’s all work together, I will give each of you some foreign devotees to go with you out for preaching and it will help you in preaching a lot. I can give you some financial help like he told the Goswami Math that you are trying to finish a guest house for so many decades. Let’s all work together. At that time there was no ah... Nath Mandir in the Yog Pith. He said, “I can donate a nat mandir.” But amazing enough nobody stood forward. They all stayed quite and they took their prasadam and they left. Although Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur had told them that “Mile mishe prachar koro, that you cooperate with each other and combinedly you preach the message of Lord Caitanya and Prabhupada said that his spiritual master had not told specifically that this one would be guru, that would be guru. One time Prabhupada was either sitting in the park or walking I forget and ah... Akinchan Maharaj, at that time they had the... his name was Akinchan or Niskinchan I forget his name, he was the head of the goswami math, he asked Prabhupada to come to ah... to be the chief guest at their appearance celebration. Why do you bother to invite me. I am going to say the same thing. Why don’t we work together. Why don’t you agree, and than this whole discussion was in Bengali. At that time I knew Bengali and ah... Maharaj he said, “You see, you are a big fish, I am a small fish, I have a small pond, in my pond I am big, if you come I am very small, it’s my false, it’s my weakness but... I am very afraid to work with you because standing next to you I would be insignificant. Prabhupada just shook his head. Prabhupada wanted that... he didn’t want to be only guru, he just said let’s work together but this person what can I say. So this was the situation that Prabhupada was working on. I will tell a few stories and then open for a few questions and then close. A little over where the Samadhi gardens are we had a round health facility. Ladies could use the inside and men outside. Some of the rooms were toilets and some of the rooms were showers. So this is one of my brainchilds. (laughter) Prabhupada was walking around. With this cane he opened the door. Clean, Clean, some has not flushed, the night soil was still there. Prabhupada turned, “ What is this? You call yourself Brahmans, where there is a Brahman there is cleanliness, this is dirty, what type of Brahmins are you? Of course the person who used it should have cleaned it and who knows who was... anyway Prabhupada was making a point that we should all be very clean. So when Prabhupada would make some point like this we knew that he was instructing all of us. Just at that time one of the gurus from England drove up by Taxi and saw Prabhupada talking to us. He ran over and saw that Prabhupada was giving us.... toasted.........and he walked up and he started smiling, “Let’s see how everybody is getting toasted alive.” Prabhupada turned on him, “You call yourself a Brahman. Brahmin means cleanliness”, and he opened the door of the toilet. It’s dirty. What kind of Brahmin are you?” “I did..I did.... We knew that when Prabhupada was instructing it was for everybody, and we had to be taking it that he is instructing and ah... so this devotee he was thinking that he just drove up, somehow he was insulated, as soon he had a wrong mood he was the one who got blasted. Any questions? This is Shyam Madhusudhan, that is Achintya Caitanya Das. Devotee: This is Shyam Madhusudhan, that is Achintya Caitanya Das. (laughter) Any questions raise your hand. Lady Devotee: Gurumaharaj, thank you for sharing the wonderful pastime with Prabhupada. My question is when we are in the dham we are very charged up, go to the mangala arati, how do we maintain this charged up mentality when we go back to our place, how do we retain this charge until we come for the next year yatra? Gurumaharaj: How long does your charge last? (laughter) Lady Devotee: Gurumaharaj when I go back to Mumbai the charge is only one Sundays. (laughter) Gurumaharaj: When you go back from here how long does it last? Lady Devotee: I hope that it lasts for at least for a month gurumaharaj. (laughter) Gurumaharaj: And when you go to the temple for the Sunday program. Lady Devotee: It lasts for the day. Gurumaharaj: You need new batteries. (laughter) That’s why sastra advises us we should always be living in the dham. If we can’t live in the dham at least live in separation from the dham. But your house, your whole environment should be like the dham. You should always be thinking of Lord Caianya or Krishna or Guru, Param Guru, in this way live in the holy place. So ah... so here in Nabadwip dham, it’s is the Audarya dham, it’s the land of mercy, one get’s easily...and one doesn’t make offenses by chanting the panchatatva mantra and by doing devotional service here. So you should try take this environment with you, so that you can always keep your charge and ah... after the ah... on the upcoming ekadasi starts the Bhisma panchak which is said to be unlimited in it’s spiritual potency or the Radhasthami festival, it’s a special festival here because this place Nabadwip dham was made by Radharani for the pleasure of Krishna. So If you avoid committing offenses and you avoid breaking any principles and you chant panchatatva mantra and then Hare Krishna mantra, then ah... you should be able to keep charge longer. Who is first? Devotee: Acharyapad, since I know you, you have told us how to love Srila Prabhupada, and sometimes I have been called a Hritwik because I love Prabhupada a lot. A person who is not a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, if he loves Srila Prabhupada is he considered to be a Hritwik? Gurumaharaj: No. Hritwik is specifically doesn’t accept other gurus, like the parampara ends with Prabhupada and that they accept initiation from Prabhupada by some speculated method through Hritwiks. Now... otherwise, we should love Prabhupada and all our acharyas, especially how Srila Prabhupada has endured so many troubles to give us Krishna consciousness, but Prabhuada said you will be disciples of my disciples. Prabupada wanted that the parampara system continues. The Sikhs, after the 10 gurus, Guru Govind Singh, he said I am the last guru, Prabhupada never said that.

Devotee: Do we call ourselves as Prabhupada anugas? Gurumaharaj: Your had your quota of one question. (laughter) So I have to take rest early.

Transcribed by: Sadananda Krishnaprem Das.