Bona Fide Spiritual Master (part3)

THE BONA FIDE SPIRITUAL MASTER (part3)
…One of the important arguments presented is by our Acharyas is found in the verse of Srimad Bhagavatam, it is the verse…..sanskrit…..so that verse is describing that the Supreme Lord is manifesting as Brahman which is described in the Upanisads: He is manifesting Himself as Paratma and He is manifesting Himself as Bhagavan and it is Bhagavan who is established as the Original of all.
In the Bhagavad Gita….sanskrit….. it is said in 7.23 that the impersonal is coming from the personal feature of the Lord. So these things must be very very clear, Prabhupada said that the impersonal, it is like looking at the Lord from a great distance, we remember the analogy of the sun ; the rays of the sun, the sun disk, and the sun god and in this way it is compared to the different manifestations of the same sun. the rays of the rahma jayoti, the Paratama the disk of the sun and Bhagavan compared to the sun god so in this way at different levels we can relate to the sun. the sun shines in the window, well if it was the sun was really in the window, the window would be on fire for sure!…but the rays of the sun…yes so when we speak of Brahman we are speaking about the rays of the Supreme Lord, not the Supreme lord……….
That is further explained in the Isopanisad, the Isopanisad is establishing this very clearly and is explaining…..sanskrit…. please take away this effulgence , this Brahman effulgence, this golden effulgence and show me behind………..Your true face…so the effulgence of the Lord is covering His true face.
So a bona fide spiritual master must establish that Krishna is the origin and everything is resting from him. A bona fide spiritual master is a servant of Krishna always the servant of Krishna, still he is worshipped as good as Krishna…sanskrit…he is acting as the representative of Krishna… so I guess this was the introductory philosophy.
I had to give this to establish clearly what is the Vedic view point and I gave many verses to establish that these facts are not just ideas from ones opinion but clearly established in the sastra.
Now, alright , how do we choose a spiritual master that is the next question after knowing this philosophy after having heard it, it is all good and well, but how do we know how do we know who’s a bona fide spiritual master and how should we judge him, we can try and judge him upon the junctions of the scripture but what is our qualification to understand… how can we truly understand the qualifications of the spiritual master.
Still it is said that the disciple should test the spiritual master and the spiritual master should test the disciple…. The Padma Purana says for one year and during that one year they should sort of test each other to see if they are both qualified.
Not only the spiritual master has to be qualified, the disciple also ….it’s not that the guru has to do everything and the disciple is sort of alright we’re waiting…. NO…. the disciple has to do lot of the work actually!…..that is the case …because we may think that well the spiritual master is suppose to come and inspire us, he comes and he speaks in a very inspiring way, his devotion to Krishna is so clearly visible and we all feel our healt melting and we feel totally inspired and that is really the main thing…..No…… that is the secondary thing,….. then what is the primary thing?
The primary thing is actually the instruction of the spiritual master and us following it, that is actually the main thing…. The spiritual master may come and may give a lot of inspiration but how long does it last?
On Sunday very inspired, on Monday a little less, on Tuesday wearing out, by Wednesday forgotten, by Thursday depressed, Friday hangin in there and waiting for the weekened and thank God leave at 3 0clock and thank God ..it agains is weekend phewwwww and my spiritual master thank God he has given me email, at least I can chant my rounds today!….
In this way we have made the spiritual master in to something like the flying doctor…..the flying doctor! quick quick quick call him in…. we feel like the tyre of enthusiasm is leaking. Sometimes you have a car tyre with a slow leak and what to do , you pump it up and you keep on driving and say fix it tommorrow but today keep on driving, keep on pumping right.. so in spiritual life we sometimes feel that the duty of the spiritual master is to pump up our tyre of leaking enthusiasm,

I haven’t seen him for two months…quick..he pumps up our enthusiasm , yeah it’s all wonderful again, yes yes yes I can do it again and two months later again almost flat tyre……. Is that the role of the spiritual master to constantly revive our fleeting enthusiasm…..NO!….. that’s a bonus…. The essence is that we become what I would call spiritually self sufficient, that we are able to ourselves be spiritually strong, to ourselves be spiritually enlivened on …… the strength of his direction.
Not that we become completely.. one might say I am completely depended on my spiritual master, …yesss one must be completely dependent on the spiritual master but through his instructions, through following his instructions…one knows without his instruction I can’t do anything …………….but that doesn’t mean we need our spiritual master every step in our life so that he sort of tells us what to do, give us mental support…. “Yes you can do it, yes you must do it, yes it really is your Krishna conscious duty”…..
(Maharaja in a dopey voice): “should I really follow what it saysin Bhagavad Gita?”
yes, you should follow what it says in the Bhagavad Gita.!
(Maharaja in a dopey voice) “ oh I see, I never thought of it like that”
Obviously we should follow what’s in the Bhagavad Gita simple as that.. so the spiritual master he is giving us a vision, a vision of what we can be in this life, a vision that is greater than a vision we had ourselves…. We ourselves had a vision of what we wanted to be in our life .. and the spiritual master comes and he has a greater vision…. He wants something greater from us than what we thought we would be….that is actually the relationship….we thought well at least I’m a member of Iskcon, that’s pretty good you know… at least I’m chanting my rounds, I do my level best that’s quite good…. NO …. The spiritual master is jot at all satisfied with that…that’s sort of luke warm….is he pleased….( ina hesistant way) “ he’s pleased”
But how pleased…but how pleased?
I’ve read many times that one should try to please the spiritual master but I never thought about it until I became a spiritual master.. then I stated to think what does it mean to that: one should please the spiritual master?….. does it mean one should follow the scripture and live reasonably up to the spitirual standards, then the spiritual master should be pleased ?
Or does it mean that the spiritual master should be really pleased in his heart?....what do you think that it means….that one should please the spiritual master? ............. contd tomo

The Bona Fide Spiritual Master (part2)

THE BONA FIDE SPIRITUAL MASTER (part2)
....Our Acharyas have established there are four bona fide sampradayas in this age of kali on the basis of the Padma Purana. In the Padma Purana it is stated that four sampradayas are considered to be bona fide sampradayas. That is the sampradaya that originates from Laksmi Devi, Sri Sampradaya ….the Sampradaya that originates from Shiva…the Rudras Sampradaya, the Sampradaya that is originating from the four Kumaras, the Nimbarka Sampradaya and the Sampradaya that is originating from Brahma, that is the Brahma Madhava Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya …so Srila Prabhupada was an Acharya of the Brahma Madhava Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya so one of the four authorised sampradayas….so sampradaya can not just be manufactures on it’s own….everyone in India claims to have some sampradaya, oh yeas we have sampradaya as we also have…No, it is not mentioned in the scriptures, It must be one of the four bona fide for the age of kali as is mentioned in the Padma Purana….so in this way we see Srila Prabhupada a bona fide Acharya in the Brahma Madhava Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya.
The Caitanya Caritamrita begins with…..bengali verse……it says before we worship anything we worship the spiritual master, there it is given in the plural form, there is not just one spiritual master, there are many. Krsnadas Kavairaja Goswami explains, that both diksha, siksha gurus are on equal platform, they equally represent the Supreme Lord…..yes this is the fact, the Spiritual master is the representative of the Supreme Lord…..sanskrit…..actually Krishna is the first one to establish religious principles, no one else can establish religious principles…no Acharya can establish religious principles, it is Krishna who establishes religious principles and those who are representing that message faithfully, they are bona fide gurus….so they must come from a bona fide disciplic succession and they must present the message of Krishna unaltered…as it is.
That’s why Prabhupada established the Bhagavad gita as it is….we see that Advaita Acharaya was enquiring from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu about the…sanskrit…the true path of the Gita or the Gita as it is so Advaita Acharya was also trying to present the Gita as it is, this is truly the way..not like so many different people have used the Gita for their own purposes……..one dentist in Bombay was saying yes Krishna is like the dentist and Arjuna is like the patient…..was he teaching Gita or was he doing business?
So so many have tried to use the Gita for their own point of view, but Krishna makes it very clear in the Gita what his purpose is…sanskrit….just bow down to me, worship me….so Krishna made it very clear what is the goal of spiritual life…..without a doubt, so a bona fide spirtual master must be establishing that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and devotional service to Krishna is the ultimate goal.
We know that in the Srimada Bhagavatam in the eleventh canto there is a narration that once the sages, from the higher regions of the universe assembled and Bhrigu was the most prominent one at that meeting …. So the sages were requesting Bhrigu to reveal to them who actually the Supreme Lord was …was it Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu and …Bhrigu of course went on a mission to find out: So Lord Brahma was happy to see Bhrigu, Bhrigu was after all his own son…but Bhrigu didn’t offer him any respect what so ever so Lord Brahma felt disturbed…quite disturbed and was clearly displeased with Bhrigu…
Then Bhrigu went to Lord Shiva , Lord Shiva also a son of Lord Brahma and in that sense a brother of Bhrigu, so Bhrigu came before Lord Shiva and Lord Shiva came up and wanted to embrace him and Bhrigu said don’t touch me !..you are covered in the ashes of the crematorium, you are contaminated…Lord Shiva almost burnt him to ashes!...phew that was close
Then Bhrigu decided to quickly retreat and then went forward to Lord Vishnu and when he saw Lord Vishnu he went up to Lord Vishnu and with a first class karate kick , kicked him in the chest!
And Lord Vishnu said “ My dear Bhrigu are you alright? I mean my chest is very hard…is your foot alright, hope you didn’t hurt yourself”
So in this way it is described in Srimad bhagavatam. How Bhrigu went on a mission to ascertain who was the Supreme Lord. So what is the conclusion after hearing these narrations, he presented his findings to the sages and the sages came to a conclusion who was the Supreme Lord….so what are the sage of Leicester to say about that?!
Devotee speaks
Maharaja: Yeah Lord Vishnu was not effected at all, He was transcendental, completely transcendental, He was not in any way affected by the modes of material nature, nothing could worry him and infact the offence increased; in the case of Brahma it was just neglect of respect, in the case of Shiva it was a verbal offence and in the case of Lord Vishnu it became a karate kick! Which goes in the realm of physical offence, punishable by law and what not.
In short he clearly stepped over the limits of what is permissible..but Lord Vishnu accept it…so Srimad Bhagavatam established that…that Lord Vishnu, Lord Krishna is the Suprme Personality of Godhead……..sanskrit…..Vasudeva is the ultimate goal of all yoga, is the ultimate goal of knowledge, the ultimate goal of all dharma, the ultimate goal of all benefits one can get in life….ultimateley Vasudeva is the ultimate goal in life….
So the bona fide Spiritual master must thoroughly establish that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead… …cont tomo

The Bona Fide Spiritual Master (part1)

THE BONA FIDE SPIRITUAL MASTER (part1)
KKS Lecture in Leicester 27th april 2008
Mahraja: Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Devotees repeat : Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

We are reading from the Bhagavad gita fourth chapter text number thirty four, 4.34
Thank You very much, the title of the chapter is transcendental knowledge, page 262….everyone there…almost.

tad viddhi pranipatena
pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam
jnaninas tattva-darsinah

tat--that knowledge of different sacrifices; viddhi--try to understand; pranipatena--by approaching a spiritual master; pariprasnena--by submissive inquiries; sevaya--by the rendering of service; upadeksyanti--initiate; te--unto you; jnanam--knowledge; jnaninah--the self-realized; tattva--truth; darsinah--the seers.

Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth.

PURPORT
The path of spiritual realization is undoubtedly difficult. The Lord therefore advises us to approach a bona fide spiritual master in the line of disciplic succession from the Lord Himself. No one can be a bona fide spiritual master without following this principle of disciplic succession. The Lord is the original spiritual master, and a person in the disciplic succession can convey the message of the Lord as it is to his disciple. No one can be spiritually realized by manufacturing his own process, as is the fashion of the foolish pretenders. The Bhagavatam says: dharmam tu saksad bhagavat-pranitam--the path of religion is directly enunciated by the Lord. Therefore, mental speculation or dry arguments cannot help one progress in spiritual life. One has to approach a bona fide spiritual master to receive the knowledge. Such a spiritual master should be accepted in full surrender, and one should serve the spiritual master like a menial servant, without false prestige. Satisfaction of the self-realized spiritual master is the secret of advancement in spiritual life. Inquiries and submission constitute the proper combination for spiritual understanding. Unless there is submission and service, inquiries from the learned spiritual master will not be effective. One must be able to pass the test of the spiritual master, and when he sees the genuine desire of the disciple, he automatically blesses the disciple with genuine spiritual understanding. In this verse, both blind following and absurd inquiries are condemned. One should not only hear submissively from the spiritual master, but one must also get a clear understanding from him, in submission and service and inquiries. A bona fide spiritual master is by nature very kind toward the disciple. Therefore when the student is submissive and is always ready to render service, the reciprocation of knowledge and inquiries becomes perfect.

Invocation:

So first we must find a bona fide spiritual master….so how to find a bona fide spiritual master, it it is difficult because so many are presenting themselves as authorities so how can we understand, Who is an authority? As I drove into Leicester I saw a temple on the right hand side with some big spear in front of the entrance some baba and something more…..and some are very convinced that this is the bona fide spiritual master others are following a certain baba in south India and are convinced that he is the bona fide spiritual master and again there are all kinds of gurus in this age. So the first question is to determine who is a bona fide spiritual master.
There are very impressive societies with large establishments, some much larger than this, very costly temples …but the question is…. Are they bona fide spiritual masters?
So Srila Prabhupada pointed out that a bona fide spiritual master must come in a disciplic succession, no one on his own can come to claim that he has seen the light and no he his ready to teach, rather one should become the servant of the servant, then one can become eleigible to be a spiritual master. So the first qualification of a spiritual master is to be a servant of a spiritual master. We see how Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, before Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared and displayed this extraordinary love of God…it is said that this love of god was already displayed by Madhevendra puri. Madhevendra puri had a disciple called Isvara Puri, the main qualification of Isvara Puri was that he was the servant of his spiritual master, that was his outstanding quality and he became the spiritual master of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So the first qualification of the spiritual master is that he is a servant. The servant of his own spiritual master who in turn is a servant of his spiritual master and in this way the disciplic succession goes all the way back to the Supreme Personality of Godhead…..contd tomo

Prabhupada's Glories

Prabhupada's Glories
How do you know it is all true, Have you seen Krishna? Who has seen Krishna? (Baby crys)
Maybe he has seen Krishna. Ok maybe children see things that adults don’t see, but maybe we have all seen Krishna once but we have forgot, so this point have you seen Krishna…. have you seen Krishna through your own eyes….anyone?....then how do you know? ….. that Krishna exists?
Devotee speaks
Maharaja: Are you sure you are in the right movement?
Devotee speaks:
Maharaja: you think He exist eh?......... What makes you think that?
Devotee speaks
Maharaja: Anyway I’ve dug a pit and I have to now climb out of it! Basically we can say Prabhupada showed such extraordinary love for Krishna that that alone is convincing, that alone is completely convincing. And he made such a sacrifice for Krishna , that alone is convincing, he lived such a life of pure devotion, that alone destroys all doubt and if you were still to have doubts after that then he gives you piles of argument, logic, reason and argument so you can read that and he hammers your head until you finally say ok I surrender.

Lets take a few minutes just to meditate a little bit more on Srila Prabhupada and lets hear from you the contribution to what attracts you in Prabhupada
Few devotees speaks
Maharaja: Yeah so, the translation is that Lord Chaitanya said in every town and village, my holy name will be chanted and …Prabhupada did it
Few devotee speaks
Maharaja: Yeah he made things so simple, the complex things.. the Bing Bang…ok, where did that come from? where did the lump of matter come from? …..such good questions he would ask, like practical or complex philosophy
Devotee speaks
Maharaja: Yeah so I think that altogether we are getting a picture of Prabhupada, which is quite clear that, there’s not really another person like him, that is very clear. Who thinks that Prabhupada is completely unique?..........
Yeah, me too, I think that once in a day of Brahma, Krishna appears, scripture says, once in a day of Brahma, Lord Chaitanya appears and Lord Chaitanya He is spreading Krishna consciousness all over India ….and Prabhupada takes it from east to west…he did that and Prabhupada said that Now that it is done it will not be undone, too late now it is here to stay, too late…..they can not stop it anymore….TOO LATE!
So Prabhupada did it, Right, it is done only once where Krishna consciousness is brought from east to west, so the work Prabhupada did is only once in a day of Brahma, therefore as an Acharya he is unique in the entire day of Brahma, there is no Acharya who is doing what he is doing. That is to be understood. This is his unique task in the entire day of Brahma and as such Prabhupada’s fame and glories will increase and will be more and more known!.....contd tomo

Prabhupada - Our Basis Of Faith

OUR BASIS OF FAITH....PRABHUPADA
KKS Lecture 25th Ari 2008 , Leicester, UK

I used to teach a course on faith, and what faith in Krishna Consciousness is is very important and of course you know blind faith is really not sufficient.
If everything we do rests on blind faith where will we go? So we must investigate, we must ask the questions and Prabhupada said to his western disciples and you are proof hungry, they had endless questions and they wanted to know everything ..but what about this, what about that?. But Prabhupada was firm: They didn’t go to the moon! They didn’t go to the moon! No? It was difficult to them all, Prabhupada wouldn’t budge and like that Prabhupada was sometimes saying things that were outrageous and they didn’t go to the moon is in one sense is an outrageous thing to say, you get crucified for that and Prabhupada said they didn’t go to the moon? No they didn’t go to the moon….. so of course we can ask many questions about Krishna consciousness, about everything. But there is one thing in faith and that is this is that we have Srila Prabhupada and Srila Prabhupada is the shortcut…How do we know that Krishna is the Supreme Lord. Please tell me, how do you Know?
1st Devotee speaks : I don’t
2nd Devotee speaks : I’m not sure
3rd Devotee speaks: Bhagavada gita
Maharaja: That’s a good answer. So one of the basis of this faith is Bhagavad Gita. Accepting bhagavad Gita, that is something, that is something but then of course some nerd of a professor will come and say (in a posh arrogant voice) “ How do you know about the Bhagavada Gita, How do you know? Iit has been found that India is a very unreliable source of information, the historical data coming out of India are very difficult to verify therefore after dating the Bhgavad Gita we have approximately dated it to be about seventeen hundred years old, and we see that it heavily leans on Christianity , if i do say so myself, so I really appreciate this faith of the Hindu young man in his tradition and his scripture, that he believes that Krishna is God, but of couse No…really really young chap.. I mean there is no evidence, there is no true evidence”

Ok so why do you believe that Krishna is God?
Devotee speaks
Maharaja: Oh that’s nice, so why do you believe in Prabhupada?
Devotee speaks
Maharaja: I mean I like your answer because that is also my answer, my answer is also is Prabhupada. Although we do investigate this Krishna consciousness and although we need to take it back to Vedic scriptures and say we accept Krishna as the Supreme Lord because it is mentioned as such in the ancient scriptures such as Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavad gita, Upanisads like so many others…he is established as the Supreme Lord, so that is one fact, then beyond scriptures we see that there is tradition, for thousands of years Krishna has been worshipped, there is a huge culture of Worshipping Krishsna, it’s like an ancient tradition, many great personalities have followed the direction of Krishna and become self realised souls….we have that kind of proof and beyond all that we have our shortcut, we have a shortcut, we don’t have to read all the Vedas to collect all the proof we have a shortcut…. Prabhupada, Prabhupada there is one thing there for sure… Prabhupada was not an ordinary Jo Blo, he was not an ordinary man, he is definatley not an ordinary man, Prabhupada was by all means a perfect example of what he taught, he lived this, never was there a moment he was caught and he was caught out of his role, you know usually some one is caught with his pants down, pyjamas they say, this is what they said of a head of state, head of state usually there is a scandal, usually there is a scandal…. Nothing was ever found not just, what to speak of no scandal, not even the slightest contradiction in his behaviour and the prescribed behaviour in the scriptures, no contradiction in anything that he taught, with the scriptures, totally consistent until the very last moment so even at the last moment…. So even at the last ultimate moment , the moment of truth one might say, the moment of death, then you can no longer keep up a show, through out life it may be there…. There’s no business like showbusiness! But you know at the end of life it’s over, then if you have a fear of death, it will show, but Prabhupada, that was not an issue, Prabhupada is not worrying about death, Prabhupada just continued to teach and he was in his last moments, he was just translating the Srimad Bhagavatam as he had been doing in his life, he didn’t stop, he went on with his service, to Krishna, till the very end,……………….. so Prabhupada is the living proof, to us, he is the living proof that to it is all true. ……contd tomo

Just give up suffering, that's all...

Just like my spiritual master was in New York dressed like this, like a monk; so one policeman said, “You are a monk, so what is it that you have to give up?” and the answer was, “suffering!” that’s it! Sometimes they ask us, “What do you have to give up?” and all you have to give up is suffering! Nothing more! Very simple actually; because if you become Krsna conscious, you become free from suffering. It may take a little time but eventually you may become free from suffering. Thus this Krsna consciousness is very important and valuable. This is an amazing movement- amazing movement- and it doesn’t matter who you are; this movement gives you a chance, this movement offers you an opportunity to go to the spiritual world, and we can take it…

Neither angels nor devils...

In this world we are no angels, we don’t have wings! We are also not devils, we don’t have horns! So we don’t have wings and we don’t have horns, but we’re sort of in between! And we’re not sure which way we’re going- up or down- it’s one of the two. But that is our path- we are in between. That’s very clear- we are not angels nor are we devils. So what to achieve? It’s up to you what you want to do!

(Excerpt from Lenasia Ratha Yatra, September '08, HH KKSwami)

Lord Caitanya's movement- simply amazing!

We give books to anyone and everyone! We give books to devout people, we give books to butchers, we give books to soldiers in Iraq…we give books anywhere! One of our book distributors in Holland was distributing books in offices and they didn’t like it, so they called the police. So he ran away with his books into the streets and he had the box of books in front of his belly and he was running and running. And then he went into a corner of a street and they were following him and it was a dead-end street! And he didn’t know what to do! And then he saw in the wall, it was just some back ally- just walls, no windows- and in the wall there was a door! and he felt if the door was open, and it was open! And he went inside! And there was a corridor, and he walked along this corridor and there was a light in the end of the corridor and he walked towards the light, and as he came to the light, he walked straight onto the stage and there was a big applause! And the man with the microphone said, “Ah! Here is the man with the prizes! Welcome! We were waiting for you!” and he took the books and they distributed them to everyone who was there! Everyone got one! And at the end, the man said, “uh, all right, what is the bill?” the devotee wrote a good, fat bill and then do you know what kind of program this was? It was a conference with butchers!!! Just see, Lord Caitanya’s movement! When Lord Caitanya takes control, anything can happen! And when devotees go out and distribute books, then the books themselves find people! These are spiritual books and they find people! And it’s amazing if you get into that mood, ‘Let the book find someone!’ then what kind of people this book will find- you never know! This story proves it…

(Excerpt from Lenasia Ratha Yatra, September '08, HH KKSwami)

Three Modes Of Material Nature

KKS LECTURE
We tend to experience the world which is governed by the three modes of material nature as reality because we have been covered over by the three modes of nature since time immemorial, therefore we are responding to them in so many situations and are always calculating our advantages and disadvantages and we are trying to fulfil so many desires which are born from this interaction of the material nature. But the soul is not meant at all to be influenced by the three modes of material nature. The soul is of the same nature of the Supreme Lord and the Supreme Lord is …Sanskrit… satisfied within the self. So the devotee also becomes satisfied within , he’s no longer dependent on the three modes of material nature. Therefore it is said – there are two types of people who are happy in this world, one is in total illusion , who is thinking he is happy, he is simply pushed about by the three modes of material nature and therefore the scriptures consider his intelligence immature or childish and the other person is the self realised soul who is beyond the three modes of material nature. When one is beyond the three modes of material nature then one can actually focus on Krishna – the very purpose. The very purpose of life is to focus on Krishna whether one is beyond the modes of material nature or whether one is influenced by the modes of material nature. It doesn’t matter. Ultimately devotional service to Krishna is the only activity, so in our movement mostly we are not free from the influence of the modes of material nature but nonetheless we have the good fortune of very strong transcendental knowledge. So we know a lot but there is a very big gap from what we know and what we practise, sometimes they say that this is the movement with the highest philosophy and it is amazing how little the members of this movement are following of what they know , and it’s like the greatest gap between knowledge and an actual practice , or between practice and precept. Sometimes it is said there is no movement with a greatest distance between the two. And it may be true because there is no movement which has such high goals therefore it is amazing how we can have such high goals and not become discouraged , not become disheartened and not become somehow or other compromised and not to give up trying for the ultimate goal in life , pure unalloyed devotional service to the Supreme lord. It is a gradual process; we see that there is process within the system of bhakti yoga increasing our commitment in various ways, we have many many guidelines on the path of devotional service and one is always meant to progress to a next stage. There is no such thing that one should not look forward of how I can increase my commitment, that’s what it is – my commitment to serve Krishna, in terms of time and in terms of quality , how can I increase it and if one is not increasing then one is actually no longer on the spiritual path , because the spiritual path is always increasing , at least one is not on the path of spiritual progress I assume. To be stagnated in spiritual life means one becomes temporarily bound up again in the material energy, and one has to stay in the material world for some reason or other. So little by little we take steps, like for example it begins that we have some faith then one comes near the association of devotees, and there comes a point where one surrenders to the devotees and when one begins to place himself under the directions of the devotees – that’s a very difficult stage, that stage is a big step generally we call it joining, one joins or is almost about to join , where he places himself under the direction of the devotees , a very difficult thing to achieve , of course it takes allot of practise for one to do so , but if one person accepts another as more advanced and as being able to guide us , that is the principal. Then one can become situated in bhajana-kriya , then eventually one can be brought to the lotus feet of a spiritual master , and once one tries to take shelter there , then one has to accept the order , first before initiation one has to already obey the order of the spiritual master , only after one has for some time followed the orders of the spiritual master and in that way has passed certain tests then one becomes an eligible candidate and then commitment still increases more and more and it continues more and more and it comes to the point that we have to fully give everything for Krishna so in every discussion the underlying aim of the discussion is to give us insight in how to increase our commitment to Krishna if that’s not the aim of our Krishna-katha ,then we have not actually understand the purpose of Krsna-katha .
If you think that it is merely to relish ,then we should understand that still there is more , whatever internal experiences we may have in Krishna consciousness in terms of ecstasies or deep inspiration and so on , have to translate in to renewed service.
If the consequence of our renewed service is that we are experiencing great deep ecstasy or inspiration that ecstasy is only measured in how much one is then inspired to render service and that is the actual on going process and each time our commitment should increase in that way. It should not just increase in terms of placing ourselves below authority , in terms of taking vows, it should come from experiencing great inspiration for the service and then showing to be very enthusiastic. Just as in one prayer there is a prayer, where it is saying, I am praying to be very enthusiastic just like my spiritual master who is always enthused, that is the quality, always enthused to do devotional service. Not burdened by devotional service, of course in the material world we have material bodies and material minds and these material bodies they have limited capacity, they get exhausted, how long can we work , how much head ache can we take , how much can we take on our shoulders before we become crushed , but we see the pure devotee is always enthusiastic just as I recall how Lokanath maharaja somewhere in the 80’s. At one point he came to me and asked me to help organise certain things for the Pada Yatra during the festival, and I said Maharaja why are you coming to me I am so busy, I have so much service already, I don’t even have time to do what I’m supposed to do. He said No no no, in our village we have a tradition if you want something done you must go to a busy man, I replied what logic is this you go to a busy man, he replied yes you go to a busy man not one who is not busy.
He said the busy man by nature is active, so at least he’ll to do something, whereas the man who is not busy by nature is lazy, will get nothing done at all. I could see here is some old village logic, different, I found it endearing, so he got me with this village logic. If we use this example of this busy man to the pure devotee, may take so much devotional service because the pure devotee just does not take responsibility for worshipping the deity and for making sure that the temple of the Lord is properly cleaned and maintained but he is also taking responsibility for bringing all the conditioned souls to lotus feet of the deity, therefore he is taking responsibility for the conditioned souls wherever he can wherever he can , wherever there is a conditioned soul in need… how can he turn that person away … he cannot … therefore he must also give his energy and this way there is no limit

Prabhupada's Movement

PRABHUPADA AND THE MOVEMENT Part 2
Lecture April 25th 2008 House programme in Leicester

…in one sense Prabhupada’s mission goes way past our imagination, who can understand his vision, Prabhupada went to New York, stayed at the lower east side and at the lower east side the devotees thought that that was it, that Swamiji was going to stay at the lower east side forever and that that was as far as it would go.. a far out Swami in a far out storefront in like the village in New York, which is a far out place, lower east side and the whole thing was just amazing and come and see what an amazing swami we have here and then, then he suddenly wanted to go to Sanfrancisco. Sanfrancisco 7.37“ Err, Swamiji we can not go to Sanfrancisco”
But he was terribly detached, terribly detached. He just didn’t seem to care at all, although everyone said “ Howww will we carryon! “
He said “ Well just do what I did” He said “One of you will read and then you will comment something, then read something more, hold Kirtana and just carry on.” He even said they could put his picture on the Vyasasana and that was it and off he went to Sanfrancisco, Where before arriving he was greeted by a hundred hippies all in different outfits…a Merlin the magician, Japanease kimonos all kinds of far out outfits were present there and it is said that Syamasundara was dressed in sheep skin and he even smelt like a sheep! And they all bowed down to Prabhupada and chanting Hare Krishna and so Prabhupada was very happy. It was very promising, but no one could understand or no one could believe the extent of the Prabhupada’s desires and vision and Prabhupada pushed ….all into a big international movement.
He would just send, he would send devotees all over the world, devotees to Japan, devotees to Hong Kong… Bhurijana Prabhu describes how he was sent to Hong Kong and all by himself….. lots of Chinese and which if you are from America, you sort of walk around “ I’m the only American ..amongst all the Chinese, where am I !?”
There were a few Indians who supported him but not that many, they were not supporting that much and it was very lonely…he wrote to Prabhupada “ I’m too alone………. it’s too difficult I can not carry on”
Prabhupada wrote him a letter back “ Alright, no problem I will send you a wife”
And two week later she arrived… not in the mail! but by plane, by plane and introduced her self, please to meet you I’m your wife!
And they are still married and stay together so that’s actually very respectable but Prabhupada did things like that, Prabhupada was not just what to say creating a few temples, Prabhupada was really taking over the world and each time everyone was amazed at how big his plans were and not only amazed , worried also!.. such plans are just inconceivable, Prabhupada was such a preacher that in the Caitanya Caritamrita there is that verse….Bengali…..who ever you meet, that person you speak about Krishna. Until Prabhupada appeared that verse really didn’t have no meaning, no one did it, it was there in the Caitanya Caritamrita..but no one did it, But Prabhupada just lived that verse, he just whoever he met just spoke about Krishna, anywhere, all of us. And he was so convinced, he told Mukunda when they were in Chicago in the Ohare airport to go to the management and ask them to call it OHare Krishna airport….. Good joke… That’s a good one Prabhupada ……..but… Prabhupada was serious! And Mukunda was shocked and he didn’t do it. Prabhupada had great faith in Krishna and simply he was convinced Krishna will help. He told that also to Syamsundara who had a connection with the Beatles, here in England and that he should go and ask him for a donation of printing the Krishna book and Syamsundara “ohh, this ain’t good… George is very sensitive about money, everyone asks him a about money but me , I don’t have that type of relationship with him, I’ve never asked him for money because everyone has asked him for money and I am afraid that if I ask him for money it will break the friendship.”
Prabhupada said don’t worry, just ask him and Krishna will help you….so what to do with?...So that night there was a private gathering in some house and George Harrision was also going to be there so Syamsundara went there and Syamsundara was next to George and it was already getting to dessert and he still had not asked the question, oh no, I can not ask him, I can not ask him but if I don’t ask him I am disobeying the order of the spiritual master and then my spiritual life is finished, now what will I do. So he plucked up the courage and said “ George?” “Yes?” “ You know George, Prabhupada has translated a new book”
“ Oh really”
“ Yes, it is all about Krishna” “ oh very nice” “ Yeah, it is called the KRSNA book, but you know you see yeah errrmm wellll err a matter of the fact that it really is the case that there is not enough fund for the printing”
George’s face got tight, it became pale and white and a very serious look and Syamsundara was sinking into the ground and thinking everything ..finished.
Just then a terrible thunderclap and lightning and all the lights went out in the house and after about thirty seconds the lights came back on.
And george was smiling and said “ How can I refuse after this!” and he gave him the cheque and….Prabhupada said, “See I told you Krishna would help”
Prabhupada had this, not only had he great faith but Prabhupada was so close to Krishna, Prabhupada did not just believe Krishna would help, Prabhupada knew that Krishna would help! After all he was Krishna’s instrument,.. once he came down the staircase and as he came to the bottom of the staircase he made a little pirruoette, and everyone’s looking like what is this, coming down the stairs and making this little pirrouette and said my spiritual master made me into a diamond.
Yes a diamond he had explained many times, a diamond is transparent, a diamond is not obstructing the light in any way, rather whatever light comes in distributes that light in all directions , that is a diamond….Yeah so just a few memories of Prabhupada like this to sketch, a little sketch of Prabhupada I have given….cont’d tomo

25/10/2008 KKS Daily Ten Minute Nectar

WORKING FOR KRISHNA (Last Part) Part7
PRABHUPADA AND THE MOVEMENT Part1

…………..you might fix each other and that’s one way but it’s not meant to be dealt with like that.
So how do we deal with things?..................with humility…By first of all not presenting yourself as such a great authority, if you see something like a devotee doing something wrong that needs to be corrected if you think the general standard of Krishna consciousness is not being followed, but privately peacefully telling him and if you feel the response is not good or if you know that person is really senior to you then you should not personally deal with it, then you should deal with it by approaching a senior devotee and let him deal with it, then it is easy to accept and another thing also is that: for example it says pay obeisances with both hand and knees on the floor, properly, not one hand so if you see someone who is doing it with one hand and if you can see it you can immediately jump off the little railing and go “wrong! wrong ! wrong ! you are doing it wrong! Yes You’re hand also supposed to be on the ground”
You are right, that the hand should be on the ground, but obviously if you jump on somebody while he is doing something wrong which isn’t immediately causing a crisis but still it’s wrong, if you jump on him he really can’t accept it in the moment itself that he is doing it wrong so therefore the wrong doings of people, if we can let them get away it for the moment itself and if we can discuss it later in the mode of goodness instead of trying to deal with all the problems in the mode of passion, but if we can do it in the mode of goodness and nicely sit down and discuss it, well actually it would be nice if we improve the standards in the temple this that and have a peaceful talk about it, then you might find the results of encouraging people to follow standards are lot better and another question to ask is…..are you following all the standards?
Soon as you see someone doesn’t follow all the standards ….. are you following all the standards….I’m not…it’s not so easy, trying to come up to the standards but……it’s a struggle
Surrender, one definition of surrender means to follow all the rules and regulations ….so are you surrendered ? am I surrendered ? who is surrendered ? so who who is the first one to speak, to correct all the others….ok last question because it’s getting late
Devotee speaks
Maharaja: You can find them in the Nectar of Devotion and you can find them again in the Caitanya Caritamrita, in the Madhya lila chapter nineteen till twenty five, in the explanation of Chaitanya mahaprabhu to Sanatana Goswami. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gives a detailed explanation of 64 qualities to Sanatana Goswami.


PRABHUPADA AND THE MOVEMENT Part1
When Prabhupada was in New vrndavana it was a milestone. It was the first big big event that ever took place, everyone came and although New Vrndavana was completely not ready, so many devotees, somehow or other they arranged it, I mean … they were cooking outside, in an improvised field kitchen, devotees were sleeping everywhere, in cars in tents and some were in sleeping bags whatever, under the stars ……. and everyone was in good spirits because Prabhupada was there and wherever Prabhupada that was a major major thing ……. where Prabhupada was, that was the centre of the universe, wherever he was, was the most important place on the entire planet…. And then… and then…there was an internal road on the farm, and this road was winding and curving over rocks and hills and there were just full of pot holes, it wasn’t what you would really call a road, it was a track, right, and the devotees used to call it the Aghasura road. ……. So they took Prabhupada down the Aghasura road, but because it was difficult for him, they thought less have a palanquin, so they arranged a palanquin and carried Prabhupada on a palanquin and it was just about getting dark, so the devotees were carrying torches and it looked like something definatley not from this world, definatley not from this age, here was this group of people walking with torches and carrying Prabhupada and it was such an ecstatic event, one devotee had this great desire to come closer to Prabhupada and pushed through the crowd and came right next to Prabhupada only to realise that you can not come closer to Prabhupada by being right next to Prabhupada, that still they were worlds apart.
So it is a fact,…..sanskrit…..w e have discussed on the way here …one can not just simply understand who is Prabhupada. So many devotees had the good fortune of associating with Srila Prabhupada and they will tell us stories about Srila Prabhupada, but did they understand Srila Prabhupada? to what extent? so what to speak of nowadays, nowadays it is like Prabhupada said is always a good one, but who knows what he really said, we have to really know more about him.
There are many things we can know about Srila Prabhupada because Srila Prabhupada did not just display extraordinary transcendental activities, he did not just show, by his behaviour that he was completely full of love for Krishna, that he showed ….but can we know understand what love for Krishna really means.
But Prabhupada also showed us, showed us what to do and told us what to do and those things are very clear. Prabhupada began to introduce spiritual standards. Prabhupada never never made it out to be that he was an independent teacher, that was not his agenda. Prabhupada clearly was very faithfully, faithfully repeating, just repeating whatever he had heard from the previous Acharyas. He was not in any way making any changes or alterations, that was his unique quality: no changes, no personal additions and that’s what makes Prabhupada relaiable… Very reliable, that makes him reliable beyond a doubt. Never was he pointing at himself, never did he advertise my opinion, he said as soon as someone says my opinion… rubbish…rascal!....mental speculation!...he would reject that…my opinion..my idea….No…Prabhuupada said whatever you say you must be ablt to support it from quotes from the scriptures……So who is Srila Prabhhupada? in one sense we can not understand, in one sense Prabhupada’s mission goes way past our imagination, who can understand his vision……..contd tomo

Lazzzzzzy mind...

We have to always be strict with our lazy mind,

because our mind says, “Well, you know…” and

says, “well, you can’t be fanatic!” which translates in, “oh well, let’s just be lazy” actually. So the tendency to be a little lazy about standards and rules is very strong in all of us, and we should never think that that will not happen; that will happen in spiritual life, that laziness comes out.

(Excerpt from Lenasia Ratha yatra class, SA, September '08, HH KKSwami)

Hey, I look just like my car!

“Everyone has personality, but God- no, He doesn’t!” they say, “God has no personality; He’s only an energy.” But if He only is an energy and if everything is His creation, and if there’s personality in His creation then how could it be that it’s not in Him? It’s His creation, so it’s obviously in Him also. Whatever you make reflects your nature. Just look at human beings; they made a car…and it looks just like a human being! Doesn’t it? It has a nose, it has an inlet, it has a tank…and it has an exhaust pipe! And old cars, they make more noise! Isn’t it just the same? What’s the difference? I mean, cars look a lot like human beings if you think of them; they have lights, they have a nose- yes, they do- sometimes they go on all fours- we also do, they have a whole intricate nerve system of wires inside…just look, cars and human beings- very close, because we made them. Thus the car tells something about us- quite a bit actually! If you’ve never seen a human being but you’ve seen a car, you can start to understand a lot about human beings. You may not understand everything- but something. Thus through the creation we can understand something about God.

(Excerpt from lenasia Ratha Yatra class, SA, September '08, HH KKSwami)

Alone!

We are walking through this world, boom, boom, boom, as if we are asleep! We are walking around and we don’t see, we don’t see how everything is connected with Krsna- we have no idea! We see stones, we see plastic chairs, we feel cold, we see a tent, we see some light bulbs, a few people- that’s what we see. We think of the news, we think of ‘home’, we think of eating, we think of things and we forget Krsna, and we don’t see that everything is connected with Krsna, and thus we feel alone, we feel alone. It is amazing when you forget Krsna, how you feel alone…even when you’re married! Even when you’re with 100 people, you still feel alone, that’s what happens. Alone because…sometimes we feel no one understands us; you work hard, you try and achieve something, but who’s there to share it with? Who’s there to appreciate? Alone! So loneliness is there in everyone who doesn’t have Krsna!

(Excerpt from Lenasia Ratha Yatra class, SA, September '08, HH KKswami)

Krsna! Krsna!

This movement is so nice because again and again we’re saying, “Krsna! Krsna!” and “Krsna!” and “Krsna!” until one day you start thinking, it’s all about Krsna actually. Actually, it’s not all about these other things; “Krsna! Krsna!” We are running around, trying to keep head above water; we are struggling in material existence and it’s so overwhelming to just make it- it takes up all your energy. And then you just say, “Krsna!” and again, “Krsna!” and suddenly you realise that it’s all about Krsna. This is truly what this movement is about; it begins with casually chanting the Name but eventually we begin to realize, through the name, that really we’re talking about the all-blissful, Supreme Personality of Godhead!

(Excerpt from Lenasia Ratha Yatra, South Africa, September '08, HH KKswami)

24/10/08 KKS Daily Ten Minute Nectar

WORKING FOR KRISHNA Part6
…..spiritual life….. No we are not fruitive so we become submissive and flexible to all the vaishnavas but we don’t expect that they become submissive and flexible to us, that is all spontaneous so therefore you can not say it doesn’t work, it only doesn’t work if you are not flexible, do you understand what I am saying?
This remark “it doesn’t work” is taking it from a mundane platform where it is an exchange, I bend you bend I give you give, you know, equal giving and that business that is material, in spiritual life we are ready to give and bend and give up our own fixed opinions, our own fixed ideas and just bend to the will of the devotees, that is our spiritual life because we can …alright it doesn’t matter, this isn’t so important he has such a strong desire, alright let me just go along with it, as long as his desire is connected to the mission for spreading Krishna consciousness.
You may see for example someone may have a desire to go and distribute prasadam, late in the evening in the city… ok, well that’s a bit late, we are suppose to sleep at that time, this that but if someone has so much enthusiasm you say go ahead, go ahead do it because it is part of the mission, then we support and we are flexible and we say yes yes yes, because of the desire the person has connected himself to the mission and anytime we see that the person has connected himself with the mission, then we become supportive of him, this is our mood. This is where we encourage people and we go along with people, so we must develop this mood to encourage others when they have the desire to do something in mission of Krishna consciousness, whatever it is we encourage them, that is the vaishnava principle.
Ok you also said karma yoga although you also disqualified it, so you also compare it -bhakti yoga and karma yoga in your question? You are sort of indicating….
Devotee speaks
Maharaja: You are going on this concept that there is a yoga ladder, that you begin at various levels of yoga, karma yoga, jnana yoga and then you finally come to bhakti yoga, right?
Well, Srila Prabhupada once, if you search in the folio, finds only one mention of a yoga ladder and was not generally in the forefront of Prabhupada’s preaching, Prabhupada didn’t see that we were really doing karma yoga, Prabhupada was always calling our activities bhakti yoga. It’s been like a more recent line of preaching, for a number of preachers who emphasise this karma yoga aspect of, and preaching we are not really doing bhakti yoga, we are doing karma yoga as long as you are not completely free and pure in the service of Krishna….But Prabhupada generally his explanation was whatever you do in devotional service for Krishna is bhakti and we can speak ofcourse of karma misra bhakti, that there is still some desire, some personal desire mixed in your devotional service but still we are engaged in this movement in devotional service, bhakti yoga, that is the way Prabhupada was teaching and I think we should stick to that and it is not yet ……sanskrit….. uninterrupted and unmotivated so………I gave the example already, the desire to crack jokes sometimes or… to interrupt devotional service a little bit and we may also have some personal motive in our devotional service, we want some recognition, we want some position, that we want…Why is it that devotees get fried with a particular service and enthused to do another service? It’s like you have the person is very lively and enthusiastic and you can say we have got a nice service for you, you can become the book keeper. And he goes( in very negative mood) “ The book keeper! Errr the book keeper…err well”
And you go to the book keeper and you say, “I’ve got a great service for you, you can go on the street and distribute books”
He goes ( in a very hesitant mood) “ Err ehh err ttt talk to people!”
right, so, of course I am making bit of dramatic performance, don’t want to offend any book keeper, nor any book distributors or anything like that…..but, you know, the principle is there different natures, if a person is engaged in a service which is not according to his nature then he goes completely sour. So this proves we are not on the spiritual platform at all, we are completely mundane because it is not like we like devotional service, No, it’s I like this and I don’t like that, I like cooking but I hate book keeping or I like book keeping but I hate going into that kitchen where I am all sweaty and greasy and stand over the stove all day, and so forth, according to your nature, you have your likings, so that proves we are not on the transcendental platform yet, the activity itself is perfectly transcendental.
Prabhupada said we are situated in the boat of transcendence but the boat is being rocked by the three modes of material nature, sometimes we are affected by that, but gradually by staying in the boat it gets more and more stable in it’s course, until it won’t rock any more.
Devotee speaks
Maharaja: Well it’s like this there are sometimes, let us say there are certain standards that have to be followed, like you are supposed to bow down when we come in to the temple. Let us just say this that one devotee, he doesn’t bow down all the time and you notice it, you know, and you may feel that you have to say something so you say “ ah Prabhu I saw you, you forgot to bow down, just thought I’ll remind you, yeah, would be very good if you bow down”
and the guy just turns round and says ( in very angry voice) “ WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME ANYTHING?!!!!”
“ Oh err sorry”….he almost bit your nose off, right, so what to do …so you can just respond immediately “LOOK, DON’T YOU BAD MOUTH ME!!! OK?!!! I’m not just a nobody. DO YOU REALISE WHO I AM. LOOK MATE DON’T PUT A TRIP ON ME!!! I’M THE HEAD PUJARI HERE AND IF YOU DON’T BOW DOWN IN FRONT OF THE DEITIES , I’M NOT GOING TO LET YOU IN THE TEMPLE ANYMORE, YOU GET IT?!!!!”
“ If you are not going to let me in the temple I’m not going to let you out of the temple anymore,…Right!!! You try step out that door and I’ll fix you nose ok!!!”

So of course you can have an interaction like that and he might fix your nose or you might fix his and all kinds of varieties are there,.. you might fix each other and that’s one way but it’s not meant to be dealt with like that.
So how do we deal with things?..................with humility…contd tomo

23/10/08 KKS Daily Ten Minute Nectar

WORKING FOR KRISHNA Part5
So there are different levels given, if you can’t do this, then do that, then do that but we should understand that if you are in connection with the temple then we should help the mission somehow or other …..We can see that devotees have a mission, like this afternoon, boy I was tired because of a late night programme last night , not much sleep last night so I had thought of taking a little rest this afternoon and in the evening there is a programme right but Paraveeta said “Are we going to the park?” in his usual intense nature and I just knew that there is no way that I am not going to go to the park or Paraveeta is going to be upset with me “Well, you know I guess” I got used to it instead of going like” Raaaah Paraveeta raahhherrahh.!”

I was like “Sure sure Paraveeta, sure sure whatever you say , you know”
So in that mood I went to the park and of course when we went to the park we had the perfect spot, but Paraveeta as soon as we were sitting nicely Paraveeta then appeared “Here’s another spot”
“Alright , Paraveeta sure sit in your spot no problem whatever you say”

Eventually we get in this mood, yes, whatever you say we will do, tell me and we see how Vaishnavas amongst each other are acting like that, …. “Is it alright if I with your permission if I now eat something?”
“yes yes yes yes”
Not like “Got to eat something now got to eat something NOW, MOVE OUT MY WAY! RAHHHHHH where IS IT!?! I’m Hungry!!”
No, Vaishnavas are asking for permission “With your permission can I eat something now?”
And they depend so much on other devotees, tomorrow we will remember Jayananda prabhu. And Jayananda prabhu very much had this spirit that. Jayananda prabhu was depending on everyone, he was depending on the new bhaktas, he was asking the new bhaktas who were in the temple for three days if they thought it was alright if he took a little rest, do a little this, little that because he was working with them and he would sleep less then them and he was working all night on the ratha cart and other things and he was up after them and up before them and sometimes a little tired but he was very submissive to other people so Jayananda from the beginning became a very advanced devotee, so tomorrow we will really speak on Jayananda and……. That is very nice…but a little preview of what to come: Jayananda was a special devotee, he was such a nice person, such a nice person , everybody loved him, even the people outside loved him and Prabhupada liked him so much and he worked so hard that one time Jayananada during class was…..snoring sitting in the back, leaning against the wall “ZZZZZZZZ ZZZZ”……………………. Prabhupada was giving Class!
Jayananda was sleeping. And Prabhupada said, “ HEY what is that?” basically, but someone said oh it is Jayananda and Prabhupada said “OH! Let him sleep let him sleep, he is very tired he works very hard”
Prabhupada didn’t mind that he slept, he worked so hard he had so much appreciation for him. So Jayananda cared so much for the mission, he cared so much for the mission he had so much enthusiasm for the mission to spread Krishna consciousness he was ready to do anything, to do anything with all his might and energy up to the very last moment, so that is the spirit that we should cultivate, that is the trick, that we should get into this.
We should get into spreading this Krishna consciousness, being part of it, being part of the movement and therefore cooperate with each other. Like I was giving an example, right now I was going to America and going to come back on the 30th of June, and someone came all the way from the Haque to please ask me personally to come to the ratha yatra and then what can I say, guess I’ll have to squeeze my America tour and come back a little earlier, how can you deny.
We have to be sensitive to the devotees, that is one of the essential codes to spiritual life, you see it in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and we should give up this rigid mood which we brought with us from material life. “ Can you do this? “
“ No no no no no no no! Not possible, sorry I have to wash my clothes, I really have to wash my clothes”
Something you were planning, you were planning all along, between 3 and 4 I am going to wash my clothes and then something else happens…” NO NO NO”
But then gradually as years go by we let devotees take control of our life and the devotees begin to control our movements, our whereabouts and we became flexible and this way relationships become very nice because the devotees begin to deal with each other like that instead of everyone being rigid with his own opinions, so many ideas because this rigidity , this being very fixed, your own opinions and your own idea, that is the problem, that is the problem where sparks are flying, this stone like mood, like this is me, this is me, where friction causes sparks, sometimes flings and sometimes burning fire, this happens and there is crisis and a big conflict.
We have seen when devotees have tried to strangle other devotees, we are remembering…… there have been fist fights…in front of Prabhupada!


So things have been wild and Prabhupada of course just shook his head “ Far from the Vaishnava platform”
But this is due to two different people are fixed in opposing ideas and are going to clash so we should become flexible in our Krishna consciousness then we can altogether in spite of different natures, different ideas work together in this mission. And sometimes one gets his way and sometimes another, that is natural, everyone gets his way sometimes…..any questions or comments?
Devotees speaks
Maharaja: It doesn’t work? What doesn’t work?
Devotees speaks
Maharaja: That’s because you are fruitive then, it doesn’t work means you are fruitive. You are only flexible because you actually want the other one to bend toward you but that is not what I am proposing. I am not saying that the vaishnavas ought to be fruitive in his flexiblility and he should bend thinking now I am bending now the other person will also bend, I will be very very bending, I will not even measure if the other person is bending as much as I am bending! I bend a little bit and now are you bending as much I did, oh you bent a little inch less, that’s alright but I am writing it down, but if you do this too often I will not bend to you anymore, I will have nothing to do with you anymore……..
That is mundane, that is just mundane flexibility, people have that, that is just social behaviour where one person bends to another, each time he bends he measures very carefully, the other one will also bend just as much now or otherwise he rejects the person … but spiritual life….. No we are not fruitive so we become submissive and flexible to all the vaishnavas but we don’t expect that they become submissive and flexible to us…..contd tomo

Radha-kunda

*To view full transcript, go to: http://www.kkswami.com/texts/KKS_lecture_08-09-2008.php If we see how Radha kunda came about then we know that Krsna first made Syama kunda after Aristasura had been killed. Srimati Radharani complained and said that, “You are the killer of a bull! You are contaminated! You must take bath in all the holy rivers!” Krsna said, “No problem, I’ll arrange it.” Made a hole on the ground with His heel, called for all the holy waters and they all appeared, offered obeisances, entered into the kunda, Krsna jumped in the water- job done! And said, “So, and now that I’ve fulfilled all Your demands, now I must say that actually Aristasura was not a bull at all- he was a demon disguised as a bull and You are protecting a demon and thus You have become contaminated and now You will have to bath in all the holy waters otherwise I cannot associate with You anymore! Go ahead and have a dip in My kunda!” She said, “Oh no no; I could not do that. I think You are completely right; I am contaminated so I will make a kunda- I make My own kunda and I will bring My own water!” Okay, She broke the bangles and She told all Her gopi friends to break bangles and they started digging in the ground. So Krsna is standing there and saying, “This is taking a long time!” anyway, they made a hole and then they formed a human chain (we know human chains in Bengal!) and they were going to bring water from all holy places by buckets! So Krsna was thinking, “This is going to take forever! For how long again will I associate with Srimati Radharani?” so Krsna interfered; He inspired all the Deities of the waters to come before Srimati Radharani and to pray, “Please, allow us to enter into Your kunda,” which She then could not refuse. Then She took bath there.
So Radharani, She had that mood of compassion. But from the Radha kunda story we can see that when Radharani does it, She must do it with just surrender in service. She is not like Krsna- omnipotent- Krsna can do anything; He’s the Supreme Lord, so easily. And She has to do a lot of work and service in comparison to Krsna. Thus the compassion of Srimati Radharani combined with the omnipotence of Krsna is what we see in Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and thus we see now the magnanimity of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu- this mahavadanya avatara- we see this now! It’s just absolutely amazing! Nothing, no such compassion has ever been seen before! And thus this is just amazing! We call it Kali yuga but actually to tell you the truth…it’s Caitanya Yuga!!! It’s touched by Him!

(Excerpt frpm Cape Town lectures, SA, September '08, HH KKSwami)

22/10/08 KKS Daily Ten Minute Nectar

WORKING FOR KRISHNA Part4
We have people with complete opposite natures who may not immediately develop the most close relationships of friendship but still appreciate each other because they see we are working together for the same thing and therefore they are tolerant of each other instead of allowing the hairs in the neck to take over, the natural irritation to take over. Some people just irritate you, just the way they are like I mean the way they…. This guy, I mean shall we just tie his hands to his back or something , can’t he keep his hands still all the time, I get nervous just looking at him you know or you have some one who chants Hare Krishna and ( whistling sound), Hare Krishna Hare Krishna (whistling sound), Hare Krishna Hare Krishna ( whistling sound) Rama Rama Hare Hare ( whistling sound) Krishna Krishna ( whistling sound)…… and you are chanting your rounds with that person and after a while you just go (after he makes another whistling sound) you go nuts, “AGHHHHH, stop this! Stop this whistling I can’t chant, just stop it! Stop it, it drives me nuts!”
So these stupid little things,right? These stupid little things can become really big, you know, the way someone whistles, there are so many things….the window, you know, the window can be a big thing right, ….some people are fanatic, fanatic fresh air people, as soon as they come across a window they open it up, freezing cold, wind blowing, whushhh, storm and flapping clothes, you know, so then there’s the other one the people who hate the cold who start sniffling and start sneezing when this happens like just freak out, “ We are going to die of neumonia, close the windows help! And many many great vendettas have started in temples, where the person who hates cold has screwed the window up permanantley. Screwed it so it just doesn’t open and the other guy breaks it, you know….superglue on the thermostat so you can’t turn it off, all kinds of varieties of activities are there just about temperature, because it is about communal living, communal living is really something else than private living is, my house, my house is exactly the way I want and ofcourse often times you are not alone and you have a partner but now you are suddenly having like twenty partners living in a house, and you are sharing everything with them so it can be very….anoying
“ where’s my gumsha, where’my gumsha , who took my gumsha, that blue gumsha,” “You don’t have a blue gumsha” “No that’s my blue gumsha” “ No I don’t believe it , it looks exactly as mine”
all kinds of varieties of war are taking place, so strange relationships are very easily there, but amongst devotees we are seeing, this general principle that we are all dedicated to the mission and because we appreciate the mission so much because we see the importance of the mission and then we tolerate the annoying features in a person’s character because it is true…it is the most difficult to live in the association of the devotees….Why?....because everyone bring their false ego with them and are not yet a pure devotee so it is most difficult to deal with everyone’s false ego, you have yours and everyone has there’s, and these false egos are clashing and because you are constantly studying this philosophy you become expert in recognising false ego…. “ THIS is FALSE EGO! Hey Hey Hey this is not Krishna consciousness, this is false ego, we reject this”,
But nobody can just give up his false ego, so although we know it’s false, complete nonsense we have to be tolerant, we have to tolerate false ego in devotees because yes everyone is in the process of being purified, this is very difficult, this makes it so difficult… because if you just live with paramhamsas it is not difficult at all, that’s one reason why I became a sanyassi because I always thought the sanyassis are far out people, I thought the sanyassis are really nice ( I’m the exception, to make that point),
but other sanyassis I thought are far out people so I thought I want to associate with them and I got some association but then I thought that I wanted more so then I thought well the best way to get more is to become one of them, so that was one of the things that enthused me.. so because you see that they are little more serious, they don’t like to speak prajalpa, like they don’t like to waste time, they want to do something Krishna Coscniousness, so that’s very nice. So we are looking for devotees like that, who want to do something Krishna consciousness and that is very inspiring and very nice but we see that not everybody everytime wants to do something Krishna conscious, there are people they really want a little prajalpa, they need a little prajalpa…
“.Wohhhh, it’s getting too Krishna Conscious, quick tell some jokes, do you know some jokes, some Yugoslavian jokes someone else can tell some Nepali jokes and we can see if the Nepali jokes and the Yugoslvain jokes are different or the same, maybe far out, have you ever heard some nepali jokes” … I hope I have not just started a whole new thing, anyway you get the point…..
It’s like it can’t get too Krishna conscious all at once, so there are different levels of association of the different devotees, but we have to develop that broader vision that we appreciate everyone’s connection with the mission and we ourselves have to get behind the mission and we have to do something, and we see here very clearly that it is recommended to follow the regulative principles of spiritual life perfectly that means one should chant a minimum of 16rounds everyday, that one should follow four regulative priciples, that one should learn all the other regulative principles and it says if you can do that then you should work for Krishna…so in order to work for Krishna you need to cooperate with those who are following the regulative principles, what can we say, that is Krishna’s recommendation, not my recommendation, not my idea because I also have this false ego like everybody else and find it difficult to be submissive to people and also I’m like Raaahhhh! Can you surrender? “raahhhhh errr errrrr rahhhh ( ina hesitanting voice) yess” I also have this nature so in that regard it is not so easy but somehow or other we must do so, of course some people they can not work in Krishna consciousness, they can’t so the next verse goes on..

If, however, you are unable to work in this consciousness of me, then try to act giving up all results of your work and try to be self-situated.

So then give something in charity, you don’t work but be charitable, give up the result of your labour for Krishna, next verse.

If you cannot take to this practice, then engage yourself in the cultivation of knowledge. Better than knowledge, however, is meditation, and better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action, for by such renunciation one can attain peace of mind.

So there are different levels given, if you can’t do this, then do that, then do that but we should understand that if you are in connection with the temple that we should help the mission somehow or other …contd tomo

21/10/08 KKS Daily Ten Minute Nectar

WORKING FOR KRISHNA Part3
You have to be submissive in spiritual life , you have to understand the principle of mercy and how you can receive the mercy of devotees of Krishna, even if these devotees are not perfect….phewww! This is a very heavy principle, which in the beginning when the movement began to take off became a problem for many devotees, that they had to follow the….(in a disgusted voice)…the Temple President! Errghhhrr, that was something that, was like too much. Right, Ok they were ready, they were ready to surrender unto Srila Prabhupada….

“Yes Prabhupada, Yes Prabhupada, we will give our life to you, Gladly..whatever you say, we will do, even if we find it difficult, Prabhupada we will do for you, because you are wonderful we will do………………..But not for the temple president, Never! No way! This guy is telling me this, telling me that , who does he think he is and he is not pure, he is not pure, he is not a spiritual authority, he’s just some guy, some manager, who sits in the seat right now, but he doesn’t have anything spiritual to offer me so why would I be submissive to such a person, it doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t make sense at all. I can surrender to people with genuine spiritual qualities but I will not surrender, no way, to one who is not qualified. Before I surrender to a person, that person first must have some qualifications, we can not just surrender to anybody, where will that take us?! No no no no no , we must be selective, in our surrender and only those who have spiritual qualification, we will listen to them, but not to some ordinary guy, he just has a post, a post doesn’t really transform a person, it’s personal qualification”

So this point came out so many times, this line of reasoning came out so many times, but spiritual reasoning is not at all like that, spiritual reasoning is to see that even the president who may be a person who has individual shortfalls, I’m not necessarily talking about the Amsterdam Temple president but in general, please don’t take it wrong… I’m just talking about a principle that generally speaking most temple presidents in ISKCON are not paramahamsas to tell you the truth, they’re not, they’re simply sadhikas, they’re sincere devotees who are trying to become purified. So speaking on that platform without diminishing the temple…. So we may consider that, that they are not perfect, but we should understand that they have dedicated their lives to work for the perfect mission and that we should assist them in that because by assisting them, in that mission we are also part of the mission.

Being part of this movement is not that simple because it’s not a movement where we are together with a bunch of friends that you’re finding out pretty soon, initially you think and you thought that the devotees would be all like a big family and a group of like very close friends, and you thought that when you are going to live with the devotees you are going to have relationships of like intimacy and friendship, like you had never had before, because these relationships are going to be free from envy and selfish desire, everyone is selflessly living without desire, it’s beautiful, it’s beautiful …. But it’s not entirely like that you may live in the temple and you may see that person with that pudgy face who you always thought looked horrible, right, just at first sight, the hairs on your head just stood on end seeing this person and you just thought that oh god, oh no…errrghh, errgggh .. even when you didn’t speak to him and that guy who you thought definately belonged with the demons walks in the temple with a dhoti and you think oh no now I’ve got to live with him and you may find that you’re nature is completely the opposite of him.
That each time you get enthusiastic about something that guy gets not at all enthusiastic, just the opposite, discouraged and when you think boy..this is heavy this is difficult , then he suddenly feels enthusiastic, right.. so you may see that this person .. how can I count him among my friends, but within our movement we are not considering that, we are not looking like that, we are not looking for similarities in nature, not looking for that kind of a connection. Our connection is that somehow or other we are already to give our energy for the mission of Krishna consciousness and in this way you can even begin to develop some appreciation for that guy, right…. Well at least he is also working for Krishna, he’s doing things for Krishna, that is nice…and in this way, we have people with complete opposite natures who may not immediately develop the most close relationships of friendship but still appreciate each other because they see we are working together for the same thing and therefore they are tolerant of each other…… contd tomo