20230501 Question and Answer Session

Question: You mentioned that Śrīla Prabhupāda said that gṛhasthas should be paramahaṁsas. My question is what is a paramahaṁsa and how can we become one?

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya told Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa not to marry. In the purport he was explaining how generally gṛhasthas were usually involved in their family affairs in sense gratification, so they don’t make much advancement or very slow. But actually, if the husband wife, if they actually worship together to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, how to make the children, facilitate the children to be Kṛṣṇa conscious, how to - just like we have some gṛhasthas they head Bhakti-vṛkṣa groups. Some gṛhasthas they manage the temple, some gṛhasthas are working in maintaining the temple. The point is that if we concentrate on Kṛṣṇa, and we try to work as gṛhasthas to please Kṛṣṇa, it is not normal. Normally the gṛhasthas, they do not think much about Kṛṣṇa. That is why a Vaiṣṇava gṛhastha is much different from an ordinary gṛhastha. They are trying to do things for Kṛṣṇa, they cook for Kṛṣṇa, they offer to Kṛṣṇa, they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Just like, I saw in Chennai, some of the children, were doing a drama. Two were Yamadūtas and one was playing Yamarāja. A girl was playing Yamarāja and she had a mustache on. So the Yamadūtas were complaining that these devotee, the gṛhasthas, they are worshiping the Deities in their homes. They are offering their food to Kṛṣṇa, they are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, they are read Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they are preaching. We cannot arrest them, we cannot take them to hell! If everyone does like this, what will we do? So I thought that was a very nice drama. So I asked the gṛhastha, who would like to have mercy on the Yamadūtas? Give them some work to do! No one raised their hands! So I said, who would like to give them a vacation? So anyway, paramahaṁsa, is not very difficult, it just means that together, to keep Kṛṣṇa in the center.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!