20181030 Evening Talk

Nama Om…

Mukham karoti…

 So, yesterday I saw the doctor at the RIMS Hospital and he said I was making good progress! But it would take two or three months to normalize, but he said I could see him every two weeks. Previously it was twice a week, then once a week, and now once in two weeks. So the less I go into the hospital the better! In 1967 Prabhupad had a stroke and he was taken to a nearby hospital. Brahmananda prabhu told this pastime. That how pulled all the lines and tubes out of his body and told Brahmananda, take me to the temple. The doctor said you are going to kill yourself. But Prabhupad said, go on! Apparently Prabhupad was paralysed from the neck down. So he was in the basement of the Matchless Gifts ashram and devotees would sponge bathe him. And he couldn’t move but with his mouth he was constantly instructing them on bhakti yoga. He was so intense, he wanted to carry out the instruction of his spiritual master. So even though he was paralyzed condition, he continued to preach Krishna consciousness. So that is one of the reasons why we should be indebted to Srila Prabhupad.  he left his comfort zone of being in Vrndavan and took up the difficult service of crossing the Atlantic Ocean, arriving in the United States and in New York spreading Krishna consciousness. He asked for help but got no helper. He asked to be sent a mridanga so that he could have mridanga played during kirtan, but no one agreed to send him a mridanga. He asked for a pair of kartals. What does a kartals cost but they did not even send him a pair of kartals. So he got a broken bongo drum and  tapped away on it. By Krishna’s mercy he spread the Krishna consciousness movement all over the world. When I heard this pastime when I joined in 1968, this happened in ‘67 I was overwhelmed. In ‘68 Prabhupad was walking so fast that other devotees had difficulty keeping up with him, in 1968. So Prabhupad taught us in the Bhagavad Gita that one should take the order of the spiritual master s more dear than one’s life. So Prabhupad is the living example of that. So I am trying to fulfill some of the instructions that Prabhupad gave and I am so happy that the namahattas and bhakti vrikshas have taken it up and that the Damodar month lamp offering is increasing more and more. In this way, the Krishna consciousness movement can reach everyone all over the world. 

I think that tomorrow I will try to do the Caitanya Book again. I left off when Lord Caitanya was in Gaya and there He met Ishwara Puri. The favorite disciple of Madhavendra Puri. I just got news that in Bangladesh Iskcon had aobtained the land at Kheturi dham the place where Narottam das Thakur had his ashram. The next place they are trying for ais the birthplace of Madhavendra Puri. Although Bangladesh is a poor country somehow the associates of Lord Caitanya are inspiring them to raise funds. So our roots are very deep but the branches that have to reach all over the world are very long and were extended by Bhakti Vedanta Swami. He said that he has made the structure but his followers had to fill in the building. We see that Krishna made the varnashrama system. He neversaid by janma. He said gunaih karma vibhagasha. Generally you have the brahmanas who are into simple living and high thinking. They are more interested in knowledge and spiritual things. Then you have the Kshatriyas, they were great warriors and managers and heads of government. They should know the shaastra and also be willing to enforce it. They are called the raja rishis. These people would generally know the shaastras Krishna spoke the Bag AND the puranas are there for the rest of the society plus for the brahmanas and Kshatriyas. So he said, striyas vaishyas tatha shudras tete paapa yonaya, Ladies, the vaishyas who are business men and bankers, farmers and dairy people they protect the cows, they don’t slaughter themand eat the meat. They are not shudras.t Then there are the shudras, most of the people in the world today are shudras. Some make big salaries, some have minimum wage but anyone who is working for a salary is a shudra. So you may have rich shurdras, poor shudras all kinds. Shudras are also considered cultured people. People lower than shudras are uncultured. So they are considered born in a sinful birth. But K says that even those people can get Krishna consciousness. Tete paapa yonayaha. So Krishna gave us the Bhagavad Gita, puranas to help everybody achieve to spiritual consciousness. So in that way, Krishna came as His own devotee in the form of Sri Krishna Caitanya and He taught by His own example how to love Krishna. So it is predicted in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana that there will be a golden age in this kali yoga lasting ten thousand years where people would become Krishna conscious. That requires that we all have to be very active to spread Krishna consciousness and some people will be sakaama devotees. They will want Krishna to bless them with some material facilities and some will be nishkaama devotees, they will serve Krishna because they have developed their love, their affection for Krishna. So whether they are nishkaama or sarvakaama or whether they want impersonal liberation, everyone should be engaged in devotional service. So this Damodar month is a way to introduce people to this sublime way of life. So in addition to whatever they are doing in material life, they add Krishna. So in that way they establish their eternal relationship with Krishna. So we Indians have this natural ability to love Krishna either as Krishna or one of His avatars. Some love Him in His pastimes as Lord Rama, some as Lord Jagannath, some as Lord Nrsimhadev. So He is one Lord but He has many different forms and in each form He reciprocates with His devotees according to His mood. So we hope that (some thunder) all of will send forth your preaching abilities just like the clouds of thunder. Hare Krishna!

Question: Hare Krishna guru maharaj. PAMHO. It so happens that sometimes when trying to connect with devotees in a deeper personal level, or develop a meaningful friendship with them by trying to serve them, we don’t often get reciprocation from their side. My question to you is should we look for some faults on our side and try harder or rather take it as our karma, take it and be patient about it?  Your spiritual son,  Gauranga Sindhu das, Bulgaria.

Guru maharaj: I thank you for your question. It seems like you are expecting something in return for your service. Krishna says in the Shikshashtakam, that we should offer our respect and not expect anything in return. And it is not that everybody can reciprocate like Krishna or His representative, the spiritual master Some people they frankly don’t know what to say or what to do. And if you are expecting something from them they may not give it. So then you feel frustrated. But in the Shikshashtakam Krishna says that we should just give and not expect anything in return. Once you develop a personal relationship, then He reciprocates. And He says in the Bhagavatam how He mirrors the mood of the worshipper and reciprocates. If someone gives himsely fully to Krishna then He gives Himself fully that devotee.We may like to find that kind of reciprocation in the material world but it is very rare to find it. And if we found it we will feel that this material world is a nice place to stay rather than go to Krishna. It may be also you are approaching the person in a way in which they cannot reciprocate. They may think you have some motive because in the material world people don’t give themselves unless they get something in return. People sometimes doubt why is this person so friendly, what does he want? There is a saying in Bengali, athi bhakti chorer lakkhan.  If the person shows too much devotion or affection, it is a sign of a thief. Usually this type of affection is developed over a period of time. If someone immediately shows submission and appreciation, it could be they want to cheat you somehow. So how does a person know you are honest even though you say you are not a cheater? So time will tell. I have many experiences when people cheated me.  I was a new devotee and I just came to stay at the Gaudiya matth and was waiting for an order from P what to do. So on the tram a man saw me and said, I see you are a saint and I think I want to take diksha from you.  At that point I was not on the diksha path. So I forget the details but somehow he was  in my room and I was sharing it with Acyutananda and he said, oh gurudev can I have a flower from the deities? I want to keep it to remember you always. So I was on the fourth floor and it takes some time to go down the stairs get a flower and go up the stairs.  So I was coming up with the flower. He said oh gurudev, being with you I lost all   consciousness of time, I am late for some other program, so he took the flower and said thank you so much!  And then he went. I went back to the room thinking what a nice devotee and in the room everything was turned upside down. He stole my money, papers everything. So this athi bhakti chorrer lakkhan. Too much devotion, too quick is the sign of a thief.  I can tell you half a dozen examples but you get the idea. So like that how you approach the people, you do not expect anything in return. You are there to please guru and Krishna, and if you can help a person in their Krishna consciousness that will be pleasing to Krishna. That is the only thing we are worried about. That is the only reward we want. To please guru, to please Krishna. Hare Krishna!