HH KKS: ..Anything can be done in the service of Krishna if its favourable for Krishna consciousness.…..there are no stereotype limitations….So we are seeing the Acharyas sometimes understand these things , and are going beyond what has been commonly accepted standards because the Acharayas understand what is favourable in a particular situation… just do things that shock everyone.. its comes to my mind that Ramanuja was being trained when he was younger by various teachers and one teacher one day one guru taught him a mantra and said that this mantra is a Vedic mantra and is a secret mantra you must keep this mantra to yourself and never speak it in public because there is an injunction like this, this mantra is very powerful anyone who chants this mantra will surely attain liberation ,immediately after receiving the mantra Ramanuja went to the market place and he called out people of the city of… and whatever the town was called... “Assemble, assemble on the market place - I will give you a wonderful gift, I have something extraordinary to offer today, a wealth of riches ,unmatched in this world, so we want to invite every one to assemble at the market square”
Well people thought, we are a little curious what has he got right , when all the people were there, he explained that he had received that very day that was so powerful that one who would chant it would attain liberation, then he said the mantra out loud for all the people to hear “Om Narayana Namaha , Om Narayana Namaha!” So that mantra was then widely distributed and many people happily took it and they all chanted it so they all attained liberation. When the guru heard that Ramanuja had done this he practically had a heart attack and the only reason that he didn’t die was because he was so angry that he wanted to chastise this Ramanuja, so he went before him and gave him the full blast, his lips were quivering his hands were shaking, and he just let him have it:
“You rascal do you realise that for giving this mantra to the people like that , and for breaking the injunction you will go to hell that you will suffer there for a very very very long time !! Do you realise that you wretch you sinful offender”
“Yes I realise that and that in itself what can I do I may go to hell but at least all these people will be liberated”
So then the Acharya understood that Ramanuja had a higher understanding than I have , all along I was simply from my own benefit and he’s thinking of the benefit of all, he’s a greater person than me, I’m not the guru he’s the guru, and he bowed down to him and said you are the guru and I am simply the disciple and Ramanuja of course please don’t do that get up…. you know these kind of situations right where devotees start bowing down to each other and try and touch each others feet and all that one of those situations.
Anyhow so this illustrates sometimes an Acharya may act unconventional if it’s favourable for Krishna Consciousness and he may break the standards of convention but actually it is favourable for spreading Krishna Consciousness.
So Srila Prabhupada was in many ways trying to encourage devotees and Prabhupada himself was ready for all kinds of things. There is still the famous rock dance poster with different waves those were the waves of music and smoke and that’s what it was. The dance hall with some other bands of that time….Prabhupada on stage everyone stoned out his head etc…. There was a request not to smoke while Prabhupad was there; I remember these festivals because you didn’t have to buy any dope there was enough smoke in the air to do the job! The place was saturated that’s how it was… So they were smoky festivals. And Prabhupada went there and simply went on stage and chanted Hare Krishna. Which sadhu would have done so, such a thing? I remember that before I was a devotee there was one day in the centre I worked in some kind of alternative centre with yoga and tea houses and one day there was also a sannyasi from India he came and somehow or another he needed a place to stay and he stayed with me. But he never tried to preach one word to me ….all he told me that how horrible it was that he couldn’t stay in a holy place with holy people and the next day he was going to stay in a Christian monastery and that would be better and that was it. But he forgot one of his saffron cloths which I kept ofcourse as one of you may know I was very excited about that, this strange colour saffron colour. If he had only preached to me I might have shown some interest probably more than the Christian monks where he stayed but who had that spirit, most did not have that spirit. But Prabhupad had that extraordinary spirit!
