Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura’s three quotes on preaching – Purpose, perspective, processsssss

[Bhagavatam class on Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura appearance day at Melbourne, Australia ]

So I speak on three quotes from Bhakti Sahasrara Thakur which the theme I speak on Bhakti Sahasrara Thakur is instructions on outreach on sharing Krishna consciousness with others so I talk about three points the purpose of outreach the perspective in outreach and the process of outreach purpose, perspective and process and one of the most instructive and inspiring aspects of the teaching of Bhakti Sahasrara Thakur for me was the address that he gave to his disciples when they were about to go abroad it was a historic moment in the history of the Gauri Amrit when in the 1930s 1934 he sent his disciples first abroad so these three quotes that I am speaking on are not directly from that lecture but these three quotes broadly reflect the mood of that time and by explaining those quotes, analysing those quotes we give some examples from Bhakti Sahasrara Thakur’s life and from our situation also and of course, ultimately preaching is not just to be done to others you have to preach to your soul inside this body so you see how these instructions apply to us in our own spiritual growth and Acharya is known much more by their words than by their opinions or by their books or anything like that so focussing in that course is a way by which we can carry on the legacy of wisdom with us Bhakti Sahasrara Thakur here in this day has probably heard most of his activities, his pastimes so let’s focus on his teaching and what we can learn from those teachings so the first quote is what is the purpose of when we are trying to share Vishnu Maharshi’s teachings so I will say this quote and you can repeat this quote after me and we can also repeat the quote because all the Acharya quotes are simple quotes but he said that the only purpose of the most merciful person is to transform the degraded taste of people repeat this the only purpose of the most merciful person is to transform the degraded taste of people so this is goes to the heart of what we are trying to do.
Sometimes you may get caught in the externals of outreach. How many books have I distributed? How many temples have I initiated? How many people are coming to the temple? How many people are getting initiated? How many people come for my classes? How many people are there in our temple? And how many are there in your temple? The externals are important. But if you get caught in the externals, sometimes you may just become competitive.
I distribute more than you. More people come to my classes than your classes. And you may feel disheartened.
You may say, okay, our temple is only a few hundred people come, but that church, that temple, thousands and thousands of people are coming there. So, are we in the right path or is there some other path? We should go somewhere where most people are going. So, like that, sometimes we get caught in the externals.
But we are not here to just increase the ranks of an organisation. We are not here to convert people to our way of thinking. Our purpose is to transform the taste of people.
Now, what does it mean by transforming the taste of people? All of us have an innate tendency to seek pleasure. And we all seek pleasure in different ways depending on the level of consciousness. So, there are three modes, sattva, prajna and tamas.
And based on these three modes, our conception of pleasure changes. Our taste changes. Say, in terms of interpersonal relationships, you would want to say, people in tamas often get pleasure in causing pain to others.
Say, I have so much power to cause this much pain to you. So, that was what Mrigali used to do. His profession was hurting.
But he was not just doing his profession. He was actually inflicting torture on animals, hurting them terribly. And he used to get joy, I can cause you so much pain.
That’s a very very horrendously degrading taste. So, in passion, in ignorance, in tamas, we get joy in hurting others. Of course, tamas has many other aspects of it.
But that’s one example of a very very distorted taste. In rajas, we may get taste in gross sensuality. Purification means to understand that the impure is impure.
If we are not pure, we don’t even understand that the impure is impure. That’s the way everybody is doing. That’s what animals do.
So, some people, they just say, go to all kinds of sensual activities and say, that’s a normal way to live. Everybody is living like that. But the consideration of purity and impurity comes when there is some sattva.
In sattva, we can perceive. Sarvabhavade Shuddhe Ke Shuddhe Prakasha Upajhavagate Jnanam Vidhata Dhamidhya Nivruttam Sattva Itthita So when our together eye opens when we can perceive what should go inside our senses and what should not go inside our senses then what should come out of our senses what should not come out of our senses that is what we should see what we should speak what we should eat when we decide we are serving this that is when we come to goodness Now here, it’s not just a matter of self-control In sattva, a person is naturally attracted to sattvic food and is naturally not attracted to say, meat or other kinds of rancid, tamasic foods So our taste is determined by our level of consciousness and the process of bhakti is meant to transform the taste of food It is meant to give people a higher taste Vybhushan Acharya Thakur says in the Bhagavad Gita Partho that there is no greater need in society than an urgent need to give people higher taste So, if people can experience higher taste then they will themselves start longing for it more and once they start longing for it more they will start moving on their spiritual journey So the last thing we can do to people is to transform their taste and I think in these terms the purpose of bhakti is to transform the taste of food But now, taste can be in terms of pleasure taste can also be in terms of shelter Everybody faces problems in life Amidst problems, how do we respond? What do we do in shelter? Some people just start drinking Some people just start watching a lot of TV Some people just go to sleep Some people just start overeating Why? If at that time we take shelter So what do we do for getting pleasure and what do we do for getting shelter? These two broad things indicate where our taste lies Our life journey at one level we consider it like a time loop a flow of time on the y-axis We look back, say I was born in 1975 or whatever, 1940, 1947, whatever and we look back We look at our past life It’s not like a flat line There are certain incidents which stand out like mountains Some things which stand out like tall peaks and others like a plateau The incidents that stand out in our life are either those incidents of great pleasure or the incidents of great pain and now what do we do in those situations defines our life trajectory quite a bit So transforming our taste is the purpose of our life Now, I will just take a couple of examples from this Namaskaram Kursi On the way of Vinamaksa Often Vinamaksa is tackled as as the uncompromising, strong speaker who presented Krishnamukti Now, in general no designation is a description in an exhaustive way Every designation, it designates something The person is actually always bigger than any designation So any kind of glorification we do of a person we take one quality and glorify it But the person has many other qualities So yes, Prakashansthakura was uncompromising but he was also much, much more So I will talk about two aspects of how he tried to give higher taste to people tried to transform people’s taste Now, when we have to transform people’s taste how do we go about doing it? We, at one level, we work on what’s bad within us and we work with what’s good within us That means if somebody has some bad taste say some taste of sensuality something which is immoral, something which is sinful then we have to work on that but work with what’s good Say somebody has a taste for singing somebody has a taste for music somebody has a taste for decoration somebody likes and passion for speaking somebody likes to go and meet people outward, outward So that’s good So work on what’s bad within us but you have to work with what’s good within us So the transformation of taste is not just a rejection of our present taste it’s also a unification of the present taste So there are certain things which we all have to give up but there are certain things which have to be utilised So one of the things that Bhagavansthakura very strongly innovated you could say is that the use of dioramas in presenting Krishnadam If you consider the historical phase when Bhagavansthakura appeared and shared Krishnadam He started the Gaudiya Pandit in 1919 and he of course initiated his first disciple in 1905-1906 and at that time both his guru Gaudishal Babaji and his parandu of Tirthankara both of them were there on the planet and they were just across Gaudishal Babaji was in Nayapur Gaudishal Babaji was on the other side of the river and his paranguru Tirthankara was living in Kolkata at that time So he didn’t take those who were aspiring for Yudhisthira to them Why not? He had their blessings and more importantly spiritual master and disciple is a personal relationship So whoever they are inspired by you need to take care of them But his real preaching started in 1919 So 1919-1937 about 18 years that was a big preaching So before that he was preparing quite a lot in terms of he did a lot of austerities chanted million names of Krishna and fasted very in an austere way but then he relocated from Nayapur to Kolkata Kolkata is a place where people are and that is where we need to go if we want to reach people So one of the things he started using was diagrams This is the time when India was in a state of fermenting There was enormous political upheaval Indian independence struggle was slowly moving to an upper moment and religion was a very powerful force in India and the political leaders were using religion also as a galvanising force but at the same time religion was also an object of criticism in millions Oh people are so old fashioned people are so superstitious people are so unscientific So Bhagat Sahib Thakur rather than focussing on the religious aspect of devotion focused on the artistic aspect of devotion So the diagrams were of sacred images If any of you have been to Mayapur you will see even now in some of the Gaudiya Mutts there are several diagrams available and diagrams are basically of say Lord Krishna and Mahaprabhu performing various pastimes even in Jagai and Madai Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu showing his Vishwaroopa Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as a small child eating dust So like that there are various pastimes of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and pastimes of Krishna with some philosophical message So people would not So not many people would come to hear classes There are certain people who are always ready to come for direct outreach come and hear classes and learn but many people are not ready for that and how do you reach those people So the diagrams were where people could get to see something and I think there is an explanation for that and far more people started coming to the temple because the diagram was in the temple premises because of that they started coming to the temple and actually because they had some piety they would also come to the deities and take darshan If people have to come to the temple only to take darshan of the deities then not many people would come Many times certain temples are famous One thing about them is that they have beautiful architecture they have big size, something special Most people who come to the temple they come to see the temple not the deities That’s the difference Deities will take darshan for one or two minutes Even in our own lives if we have to come to the temple more often than not we come to associate with devotees We want to take darshan of the deities unless we have a special service of worship in the deities Just taking darshan is not going to be good So basically when we have to give taste to people what it means is either one thing is this is the bhakti and this is your taste your taste will come over but another way is that we expand the ambit of bhakti so that whatever is an existing taste within people that intersects with bhakti So people like to go on a sightseeing see something beautiful So then we have beautiful dioramas and he personally spent a lot of time energy and resources for making these dioramas So healing that means when you have to transform the taste of people we have to give people opportunities to experience higher taste within the taste that they are experiencing right now So within the taste if they like music then within their taste for music we give a taste of music If they like a taste for art then within their taste for art we give them the bhakti art So another dramatic thing that Bhakti Sahasrara put in was his theistic exhibitions Now the theistic exhibitions were huge arrangements, exhibitions on a big ground and on that ground there would be remarkably 50% of the exhibits we would classify today as Monday The exhibits were of scientific progress, technological achievement or some some kind of innovation that might have done some nearby village So it is all about material things which had been which were like material breakthroughs or material progress and because of that thousands and thousands of people would come even the dignitaries of Kolkata they would come for those theistic exhibitions The theistic exhibitions became like a high point in the annual calendar of Kolkata and then the remaining 50% would be devotional exhibitions and they would arrange they would arrange the like a big event or a big if you go into a fair if you go into Disneyland or something like that some fair then there is one entrance and there will be a small way out otherwise it is like a long circle you go through you go in and you come out So people would go to these theistic exhibitions and the way would be such that they would also go to all the devotional exhibits and there there would be all these dioramas and other things where the teachings of Lord Chaitanya and the grace and the message of bhakti would be presented over there So the idea is people at that time were very attracted by science and technology and scientific and technological advancements So Bhakti Sahasrara used that to get people to come to Krishna The idea is that we have to find out how we can connect people’s minds to Krishna how we can get people’s minds to focus on Krishna Bhakti Sahasrara Prabhupada at one time said I have simply repeated the words of my spiritual master I haven’t changed even one thing Another time Prabhupada said that this whole Krishna consciousness movement has been practically invented by me This whole Krishna consciousness movement Now what did he mean? He speaks this in his lectures on the matter of devotion which he gave in Vrindavan and here the point is he is explaining this yena keena prakaarena manah krishna nij somehow or the other fix the mind to Krishna and in that context he says that it is the responsibility of the spiritual master to create ways and means for the disciples to fix the mind to Krishna so rather than saying you have to fix the mind to Krishna ok how can you fix the mind to Krishna let me do it and it is the responsibility of the spiritual master to create ways and means to help the disciples fix the mind to Krishna and one of the most popular we could say if you want to use the word innovations of Sri Prabhupada in outreach was the Rath Yatra Now Rath Yatra of course were done in Puri and many other places across the country especially Odisha and India but doing Rath Yatra abroad on a day that is convenient for people at that place that was a remarkable idea and that helped the devotees utilise all their passion and resourcefulness the hippie likes to do crazy things and probably one of the crazy things is dance on the streets now if earlier they had danced on the streets they would have got in trouble with the police but now they were dancing on the streets and they were escorted by the police so Sri Prabhupada when he created Rath Yatra it created a sensation among people among hippies they loved just coming in front and dancing and just going along the roads and then giving food and giving Krishna consciousness in various ways to people so by this Sri Prabhupada gave people the means by which they could fix the mind and London that he would have organised a big Rath Yatra mass and the devotees earlier had a big in San Francisco and America Rath Yatra and the devotees in London decided to make it bigger and they had a much bigger Rath but unfortunately it increased proportionally the strength of the visions so just before the Rath Yatra was about to start as it started the visions were complete and the whole Rath Yatra was a disaster a fiasco Prabhupada wasn’t because of our poor devotion that the Rath Yatra collapsed Prabhupada replied not your poor devotion but your poor intellect so what Prabhupada did was in the service of Krishna he looked at the practicals and fixed the practicals so now Prabhupada presented Krishna Consciousness in such an inclusive way that actually so many things which people would normally not have thought of as bhakti Prabhupada included that one of the things we learn if we study language especially the history of language is that words have different meanings at different times so Prabhupada expanded the semantic scope of the word Sankirtan Sankirtan traditionally meant doing kirtan in front of the law Nagar Sankirtan means going out in the streets and doing Sankirtan but Prabhupada expanded Sankirtan to include what? food distribution outreach speaking about Krishna Sankirtan bus party Sankirtan bus party is kirtan is one part of meal distribution so young people like to do some adventures go to new places then use that for serving Krishna so basically bhakti means that the most positive thing their only purpose is to transform the degraded things so when we are also trying to practise bhakti ourselves we have to see how much I can transform my taste and when we are trying to give Krishna bhakti to others how can I help this person to get taste for bhakti it is not that people do this activity A B C B D for doing this you are a devotee for not doing this you are a devotee not like that how can within what you are doing help you to get a taste for Krishna so this is one of the essence of outreaches so this was the first point can you repeat after me the only purpose of the most merciful persons is to transform the degraded taste of people so I was talking about outreach the first was the purpose of outreach the second is the perspective in outreach perspective means how do we see people and really this was the quote which I am going to speak is one of the most counter intuitive quotes and it required a lot of thought and I looked at the context and looked at other statements and then I was able to appreciate what he said he says that the pure devotee sees that everyone is the spiritual master therefore the pure devotee is the Jagad Guru can you repeat after me the pure devotee sees that everyone is the spiritual master therefore the pure devotee is the Jagad Guru But how do we see everyone as a spiritual master? And to be able to see everyone as a spiritual master makes us a Jain. We could understand the three different levels.
And if any of you would like to have some reflections, feel free to add that in your reflections. So one understanding is that we see that Krishna can speak through us to anyone. That Krishna can inspire us, Krishna can instruct us through anyone.
That is, we see Srila Prabhupada distributing back to Godhead. And a postman, he suggested that so many people throw in a heap, if you throw in a box, people will keep the box. And this is what a spiritual master is.
So, everyone as a spiritual master doesn’t mean literally everyone as a spiritual master will be offered to Krishna. It means that Krishna as the Jagadguru can speak through anyone. And one who sees the potential for Krishna to speak through anyone, that is the person who has the potential to be the Jagadguru.
So to be able to see that Krishna can speak through anyone, that is one level of understanding. That is the level of consciousness that can also help us to reach out to everyone. Incidentally, about this postman or whoever who gave this suggestion to Prabhupada, I met Satsvarupa Maharaj in upstate New York.
So, he has written this Nirandha. And he was telling that Nirandha has six volumes and one is authentic kind of volume. So he said, last five volumes were easy to teach.
The first one was easy to write, relatively speaking. The first one was very difficult to write. I said, why is that? He said, when it came to writing the first volume, when he said, everything connected with Prabhupada’s pre-Iskcon life, every good thing, there are hundreds of people who say, I did that.
So the person who suggested to Prabhupada that, I said, you should write books. So he said that, the Prabhupada has told us, somebody suggested that to me. And I saw it in a few months.
But who was that? When he came to India, he said, over a hundred people said, I told Swamiji that, I told Swamiji that, I told Swamiji that. So, actually to write a biography, often you don’t need to become an author, you actually need to become a detective. To find out who is speaking the truth and who is not speaking the truth.
But anyway, the point is, that’s one level of understanding. That Krishna can speak through anyone to us. We see that level of Krishna consciousness.
Another is that, we see that even those who are assisting us in serving Krishna, they are also represented as a spiritual master. You see that, Prabhupada would often say to his disciples, that all of you have been sent by my spiritual master. He did not just say that they are serving me.
He said that, I am serving my spiritual master and they are assisting me in my service to my spiritual master. Therefore, they have been sent by my spiritual master. So, in that sense, everyone is a spiritual master.
So, if we have that vision of service, not a vision of lordship, then we can be in Jagadguru. The more powerful, the more influential we become, the more there is a tendency to become infatuated. Somebody who has to have the maturity to become Jagadguru, they should be able to see that everyone is actually serving, my guru is serving Krishna.
Everyone is a spiritual master. But this is not what happens. He would often refer even to his disciples as my Prabhu.
And he would often, the task force would say, I am your servant. That was the mode in which he would speak and write. The third level is, what we can consider as the most important for outreach.
See, everyone is a spiritual master means, that ultimately, each person is different. And we have to find out how that person can be connected to Krishna. And for that, we need to learn from that person.
When Prakashan, Manjula Prabhupada, came to the West, I’ll give you an example. One of my friends, a journalist, PhD in Bhagavad Gita, did a lot of research in Bengal, looking for various manuscripts and everything. So he showed me a big, you could call it like a pocket diary.
And as I was glancing through it, it was amazing. It was Bhagavad Gita’s vocabulary book. He used to, in 1910-1920, he was actually memorising many shlokas.
One thing, the challenge in India is that, if you are Indian, there are very few native English speakers. So, how the language is to be spoken, you don’t know that. You can read the language, you can write also, but how words are pronounced, how words are to be spoken.
And the British who were there also, most of the British who were there, they were for colonial purposes. Now, very few British were philosophically interested in it. So, Bhaktisaraj Dhaka spent a lot of time and energy learning English.
He was not just learning English, you could say that, by his purity, by his pure intention to glorify Krishna through English, he was purifying the English language. So, he put in effort over there to see how best he could use it. Similarly, when Prabhupada came to America, at that time, if you see, he stayed first at the house of Salya Gopal Agarwal.
They were his sponsors. And Salya Agarwal’s interview was given in Nillambal. And there they said, that Swamiji was extremely interested in everything American.
I was using a washing machine, how did it work? He was using a washing machine, how did it work? So, when I first read it, it just didn’t make any sense to me. So, she said, the way he reads, she said, he was the most non-demanding guest that I ever had. So, Prabhupada, he did not even ever push them to chant Hare Krishna at this point.
Prabhupada sent Prabhupada, they were not really interested. So, Prabhupada did not push them. So, then I was talking with N. C. K. Devotee, who has written a lot on Prabhupada.
So, who was telling that, at that time, Prabhupada was learning about the West. How do people learn about the West? How do people think about the West? He was the West. And through that learning, his first wife, he had a two-month visa, one month visa, stayed in Butler, Pennsylvania.
And he was focussing entirely on, just one or two programmes in the whole two months. Focussing on learning about the West. So, when, A, we have to teach someone something, we have to learn to help them learn.
I’ll repeat this point. We have to learn to help them learn. Because, they come from a different background, a different perspective.
So, everyone is a spiritual master, doesn’t mean that they have to give Krishna to everyone, or talk to us, quote me, they can teach us how we can teach them. If we have that learning move, we will be able to understand how we can help them understand. And that requires commitment and compassion.
For many people, their idea of teaching Krishna consciousness is, you have like, one script, and everyone will read, download the script of it. And, some people may be attracted by that, but many may not. So, we have to understand how to help people understand.
Bhakti Sansara Puranas, in another place, he says, Prabhupada also narrated the same thing, he says that, people, in their lower modes of nature, they, their minds are not functioning properly. They are almost like mad. So, a related example we could take is, say, if a child has some learning disability, the child has dyslexia.
Then, there is a normal method of teaching. But that method may not work for the child. Because our subject, we just can’t read letters.
The letters are all moving. And, you look at it, you just can’t read, it’s all floating. So then, there are special techniques which are used to teach to children.
So, the parents have to learn how to help the children. So similarly, if you want to share Krishna Bhakti, we have to learn how to help people. And that’s why, in that sense, everyone is a spiritual master.
Krishna Prabhupada, again, we often see him as a person of the ordinary kind. Fools and rascals and things like that. But, if we interact with Prabhupada’s disciples, I mean, they did their personal experiences, who had personal experience with Prabhupada.
Prabhupada, made everyone feel valued. Those who met Prabhupada, they felt Prabhupada is a pure man. So, what attracted them, they said, this man is a saint, he’s a little gentleman, clearly he’s a learned person, a spiritual person.
But, he respected us, he loved us, he understood us. So, Prabhupada, saw the spiritual spark in you. And he offered, death, to come to you.
So, this, Prabhupada also adopted this. He used, the terminology associated with drugs, because drugs were very high. Drugs were very popular.
So, people wanted to go high, and Prabhupada adopted, stay high for your life. So, Prabhupada did these things. Similarly, somebody asked Prabhupada once, Swamiji, what is the bliss of Vaikuntha? And this person, he just was stoned, coming down from drugs.
And, Prabhupada quoted, Chintamitra, Tarasatma, Shukla, Pravaloksha. Now, what would that person have understood? So, Prabhupada said, Vaikuntha, is like an ocean of majesty. An ocean of majesty.
Oh, wow. I want to go there. Now, somebody who does not have an attitude, that everyone is spiritual master.
Somebody who doesn’t have the attitude, that I can learn from others, about how to help them learn. That person said, why do you do it? No, the drug, is tamasic. Vaikuntha is pure, should be sattva.
How can you compare, the bliss of Vaikuntha, with, with whatever tamasic way, you are thinking. Well, Shukla is like this. Bliss of Vaikuntha, is like an ocean of majesty.
Now, person who asks this question, misses the point. The point of outreach, is not just to get it right. The point of outreach, is to get it across.
We may get something right entirely, but people don’t understand it. Just like a child has dyslexia, and the teacher gives a perfect class, according to all the science, the child doesn’t understand anything. The teacher got everything right, but got nothing across.
So, in Kali Yuga, people are all, mannidasa manniduta yo, mannida bhav gaya yo. So, we are all, in many ways deficient. In the capacity to learn spirituality, is deficient.
And thus, we need to learn, how to help people learn. So, what Prabhupada is doing was, presenting Krishna Bhakti, the joy of Krishna Bhakti, internally, and to make sense to people. So, for a person, whose only consumption of pleasure, is taking drugs, then, yes, there is an ocean of drugs.
Oh, to get it across, and to get it across, we need to understand, where people are at. So, in that sense, everyone is spiritual master. If you are interacting with someone, you should know.
Yes, you want to share Krishna Bhakti, but to share Krishna Bhakti, we have to understand, where they are coming from, what their meaning is about. And they will tell it to us, if we hear from them. When I had started, a Western outreach about, in some small way, but I started doing this in 2014, in Melbourne, was the first place I had gone.
So, I had met, His Holiness, Devangopal Maharaj here. And he told me that, if you want to connect with Western people, you have to spend time with them. Just hear them speak.
Understand, where they are coming from. To the extent we do that, so, we learn a lot. So, I try to follow up and see, but not all the time successfully.
So, on the Yathasana, I speak. Off the Yathasana, I hear. So, I try to do that.
Let people speak, understand where they are coming from. The temptation to speak is very strong. Especially, somebody who thinks of himself as a preacher, it’s a very strong temptation.
Just start speaking. But, how much of what we see is relevant, we have to hear them, understand that and speak. So, see, everyone at the spiritual master, within that, ultimately, the spiritual master connects us to Krishna.
So, they will give us, the inputs, about how we can connect with the Krishna. If you think of, I got this script, I downloaded it, I suppose, it’s also not complete. It’s a possibility.
It’s something like this, and we normally connect with everyone. So, this was the second point. Can you repeat after me, the second point? The pure devotee sees, that everyone is a spiritual master.
The pure devotee sees, that everyone is a spiritual master. Therefore, the pure devotee, is the genuine guru. Therefore, the pure devotee, is the genuine guru.
So, let me go to the last point now. This is a quote, which Prabhupada also had quoted. But in this context, I thought of, for outreach, the purpose, the perspective, and the process.
So, here, Bhagavan says that, without sharing, hundreds of gallons of hard-earned blood, we will never be able to make people understand. So, it’s a very, significant statement. Now, Prabhupada put it, put it in a different way.
He said, to get one’s own to Krishna, you have to share thousands of blood, share gallons of blood. It is essentially the same. But here, Bhagavan’s purpose, stress, is not people are less intelligent, people don’t understand.
He is saying that, we have to put this effort. It is for us to share, this much gallons of blood. That means, rather than saying that, people are uninterested, people are fallen, people are degraded.
We take the effort, where people are at, how to implement it. So, in every situation we are in, we always have a choice. Even if we are in a very, very bad situation.
Most of us, may have some expertise in this field, or that field, or that field. Some of us may be good at singing, some of us may be good at, good at speaking, good at managing. At least, we may have our particular expertise.
But, our mind, makes us all, expert in one thing. And that is, the mind makes us, expert, in blaming everything, except ourselves. In blaming, our situation, for our condition.
I am from a temple. I was in a temple, back then, there was a devotee, who used to just yell at everyone, and he was a prominent leader over there. And everybody was frightened of him.
And then, I was talking to this devotee, and he said, If people did what you told them, I would never yell at them. So, he is just taking responsibility. People are not your slaves, that they have to do what you have to tell them to do, what you tell them to do.
Even if they have the wisdom and authority, they have to communicate properly. Say, somebody is taking responsibility, why am I yelling at them? Because they are not doing what I am saying. Then, if one doesn’t take responsibility, one cannot change.
So, in today’s age, it is very easy to blame others. If you are doing outreach, people are saying, Oh, it’s Kalinga. What can we do with Kalinga? Nobody is going to come.
Now, if we have that attitude, then, we will not be able to reach people. So, it is for us, to take the initiative. It is for us, to take the responsibility.
It is for us, to take the effort, to reach people. And, now, reaching people is not just physically going to people. Reaching people is, actually, reaching people, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.
So, for that, the effort that we have to shed, the physical effort of reaching out to people is something. Yes, we may travel from distribution, we may travel for, or travel as a travelling teacher. We have to put in effort for that also.
And, both, Bhagat Sastrako and Shri Ramapada, five years in that. Bhagat Sastrako, when he had his disciples going abroad, it was, it was a very, very bold thing. So, he had no contacts.
He did not have any big contacts. So, he had his two disciples go from here abroad, from India to abroad. And, they were fully funded.
And, he had to, actually, engage many devotees in India. And, fundraising, just so that, those devotees could be funded only. Where they will stay, how they will get their Prasad, how they will travel.
Every single thing, he arranged for them. And, then he sent them to Vrindavan. And, since I was there, he was very much involved.
In fact, every programme that they had, actually, the speech, the talk that they would give over there, they would write it, they would send it to India. Vrindavan. But, the disciples would have to go through it, edit it, and send it back.
And, then they would do that. So, especially now, they have, of course, more so informal programmes. But, sometime they got, possibly to address the, address some big university, or some gathering abroad, or something like that.
And, he put in a huge amount of effort. It actually drained, the, Vishwanath Gauriyan, a lot, that whole endeavour. And, it’s not that, it’s not that they were not successful.
But, they tried to reach certain elite kind of people. And, they were successful, because they made people, appreciate it. So, since I talked about that in the end, how the legacy is continuing.
But, here the point is, putting in effort to reach, Krishna Prabhupada, so, one effort is, of course, physically we have to reach. We have to go where people are at. A devotee is tireless in outreach.
But, a devotee is not headless in outreach. Or, brainless. Now, what do you mean by tireless? Bhakti Sastra has said that, if you go for a programme, and nobody comes, what should we do? Does anyone remember? Yes.
Speak to the walls. Speak to the walls. Yes.
Be untired. Never let this happen. Speak to the walls.
If you speak to the walls, you will become tired. At the same time, when Prabhupada was, speaking in India, and people were not interested, Prabhupada was not satisfied, speaking to the walls. Prabhupada actually, took the whole effort, to go from India to America.
Almost everywhere. And that is, he found in America, So, one in spirit, a devotee is untired, is tireless. But in actual practise, a devotee is intelligent.
You see what works, and what doesn’t work. And that’s how, a devotee shares Krishna. Now, we have to follow, our spiritual guides.
We have to follow, our spiritual master. We have to follow, our spiritual Acharyas. But we have to follow them, in an intelligent way.
So, we have to reach them. Now, in Bapusara Thakur, the first meeting, with Srila Prabhupada. This is, Prabhupada is one young man, first came to the temple.
And it’s amazing. Prabhupada is, what did Bapusara Thakur tell him? You are educated, you are educated, a young man, why don’t you preach, in association with Prabhupada? Prabhupada, it was Abhay, that he said that. And then later on, I talked with some of, some devotees again, who had done a lot of research, in Prabhupada’s life and writings, or written about Prabhupada.
So I asked him, wasn’t this like a, one time incident, that Bapusara Thakur spoke this only to Abhay, who became Prabhupada later on? He said no. Bapusara Thakur was so eager, that Krishna consciousness spread, that he would look at everyone, as a potential, for receiving and sharing Krishna consciousness. So that, go to the western preach, which was, not just Prabhupada’s instruction for, not just Bapusara Thakur’s instruction for Prabhupada.
It was like an instruction for all his disciples. And anybody who, could do anything about it, Krishna could express their desire. Of course, the director, in the first meeting, directly speaking that, there is no record, as of now, what I have recorded was, that Bapusara Thakur, said directly, in the first meeting, somewhat like that.
But still, point was, this is not an opportunity, that should be shared. So now, Bapusara Thakur, Prabhupada himself, at one point said that, we are like, sages, who prefer Krishna consciousness. And he said, every sages person, has, their own, technique for sainthood.
The important thing, is not to follow the link. The important thing is to say the truth. So if you consider in many ways, Bapusara Thakur, and Sri Prabhupada, their sainthood technique was quite different.
Bapusara Thakur, with very little, direct, criticism, of western culture, with a criticism, of empiricism, of, he says many places, the materialistic tenor cannot stretch to the absolute. Empiricism, the teksha pramana, as a means to understand the absolute, he says, they cannot do that. They cannot understand it.
But if you read the lecture, that Bapusara Thakur gave to his disciples, when they were going abroad, one thing strikes, very significantly, is that, he says, be respectful to the people. He says that, in the west, in the UK actually, in the UK, people think that they are very progressive, because, they have got so much scientific and technological advancement. And, Bapusara Thakur doesn’t follow this and say, they are foolish.
He says, because they think they are so progressive, they expect respect. And, we need to, with humility, offer them that respect. But, then, we have to show them, that there is another kind of progress, that can be got only by the ones who have stricken them.
And, we have got to give them that. So, he says, don’t magnify, don’t criticise, don’t hate. Appreciate that.
And, also, tell them that there is more to achieve. So, now again, sometimes, we reduce Prabhupada to a person who is always a scientist of Hindu Rastas. And, if you look at Prabhupada, he was not always in India.
I was talking with Giriraj Maharaj recently. Giriraj Maharaj has written a book on Prabhupada’s battle to get the Juhu temple. It’s a magnificent book.
It’s around 800 pages. Two volumes. It’s going to come out soon.
So, he says that, he asked Prabhupada, in Prabhupada’s famous talks in Penance Beach, where, from that, the light comes from light, has come out a book. So, he asked Prabhupada, that, Prabhupada, you speak about scientists. He said, that you offer them strong words, Kundalas.
So, they were going to organise a big conference in 1976, about the light comes from light. He says, when we talk with scientists, we should speak about it. And, Giriraj Maharaj said, Prabhupada looked horrified.
He said, obviously not. He was not courteous, respectful. Be gentle with me.
Speak gently. He said, no, no, no. What is going on over there? A lot of this depends on context.
And, when you take statements out of context, it can create a lot of misrepresentation. So, Prabhupada, when speaking to his youthful disciples, he wanted to disamuse them of whatever faith they had in science as a tool to achieve accomplishment. But, Prabhupada does not abuse science at all.
Prabhupada used science. He used printing press. He used aeroplanes.
And, he used dictaphones. And, he wears those. What did Prabhupada say? Prabhupada said, we are not against science.
Science is part of human. We are against religions. So, the point which I am making over here is that we should give credit where it is due.
And, if we share gallons of blood, often that gallons of blood that we have to share is not so much in convincing others, but it is also in changing our preconceptions. We often have this, this is right, this is wrong. And, we have to change our preconceptions.
So, if we don’t do that, then we impose our preconceptions on people and categorise, label, demonise people and so on. So, from a functional perspective, after travelling across the world for several years and interacting with many different people, I have come up with a functional definition of humility. And, humility means to acknowledge the complexity of reality.
The complexity of reality. Things are not as simple as you think. If somebody is a newcomer, people are not going to be like that.
There could be many people who would be as I want to see. So, what is going to happen is that people dare to reach people. Why do you think like this? It’s just because it’s a thought.
No, but that’s what the right thought was at that time. There was an experience So, we have to be sensitive. We have to be respectful.
A lot of effort in our preach is in increasing our own sensitivity, increasing our own non-judgmentality, so that we can connect with people before we age any further. As preachers, often sometimes you will be proud. I brought this person to Krishna.
I brought this person to Krishna. I brought so many souls to Krishna. Now, we may proudly take account of that.
But, all of us have no count of how many people did not come to Krishna because of us. Because of the way we spoke, the way we judged, the way we discussed, we were critical, very sensitive, very responsible. So many people may have not come to Krishna because of us.
So, the ocean of the gallons of blood that has to be shared, has to be shared in terms of increasing our open-mindedness, increasing our sensitivity, by which we can reach people, where they are, and then help them come towards Krishna. So, Mahatma Gandhi’s whole movement is that they deserve, they think they are progressive, they expect respect, give them respect. So, Shri Krishnaji, Paramahamsa, he also says that, you meet a wealthy person, you meet a powerful person, offer obeisances to that person.
He says, you are so glorious, you are so wealthy, you are so famous. And then, he says, now take up all your nonsense and take the merciful side. So now, this is Prabhupada paraphrasing it, what I say is, if people do not feel accepted and respected where they are at, there is no confidence.
So, Bhagat Singh has to go out of his way to accept and respect people. When, there was a prominent official in the Indian government, was going to come, they had their vice roy, and then they had like, governor general or something, each of the principalities. So, when he was going to come, there is an audience of that, the Bengal principalities was going to come to, come to Mayankpur, where Bhaktisnath Thakur had his centre.
At that, the body of the centre, at that time, Bhaktisnath Thakur announced everything for him in his personal fashion. But Bhaktisnath Thakur had all his Sanyasi disciples dressed in Shiva’s attire. He himself was dressed in Shiva’s attire.
And, he had taken them around everywhere and showed them all the places. So, he made, if somebody is coming to us, he tried to make them as comfortable as possible, so that they could come to his preach. So, that is where we have to stay in India.
Then we had this beautiful, we got a big place in LA, that time a big place. So, there was actually a church, and they had views over there. And, we got the church, and Rupa had told the devotees that, keep the views.
And Prabhupada said, let people come in with their shoes. Go to other devotees, come in their shoes, and let them hear talks about Krishna Consciousness. And, I just have the details also.
Of course, later on, in our movement, couldn’t continue at that pace. So, we didn’t have any other place for the little man, because we needed a big place, and devotees needed the views from there. But Prabhupada wanted to make Krishna Conscious as comfortable as possible for people.
And, Bhagavad Gita also had that meaning. So, unless people feel accepted, respected, people feel that coming to Krishna Consciousness is comfortable, we are not going to come to it. And, creating that facility is our responsibility.
That is where we have to stay. So, that’s Prabhupada was in Mayapur, and then he went there to construct a building, a large building with a long building. Then, when the long building was constructed in Mayapur, if you go to Mayapur, there is this building, long, it’s called a long building also.
At that time, it was one of the longest buildings in Bengal. Now, of course, it’s a much bigger building. But, to try to construct that at that time was very difficult.
So, but then Prabhupada said, as far as we are concerned, we can simply eat some kichadi and chai and go to sleep. But, that is what we do. People do not come.
They need facilities. They need to have a comfortable place to stay so that they can have a watch. It is for them, we are building these buildings.
We are building non-democratic, that also, we are building guest houses. So, Prabhupada said, that actually, it is we who have to take the effort to make Krishna consciousness as easy and accessible, as comfortable as possible. Sometimes, we think, preaching in an uncompromising way means make people as uncomfortable as possible.
Everything about you is wrong. Religious or religious. If we do that, it is very, very difficult.
So, I conclude with one example of discomfort. What does it mean? Share it with us. So, suppose, somebody is found to be cold.
When there is cold, they are changing. And they are not, they are poor. And they just want one tattered cloth.
It is thin and tattered. And they can barely offer any protection for cold. And then, we go to them, and we tell them, actually, this cloth is so cold and tattered.
Give it up. I will give you a very warm woollen cosy robe. You put that, and you will be comfortable.
Now, our intention may be very good. But, for that person, that cloth is the only thing that is protecting them. Even if it is protecting them, very little, but it is protecting us.
If we tell them, give up that cloth, they may oppose it. Now, this is a tattered cloth. It is not helping you or something.
They won’t give it. But, if where they are at, just take this cloth. Take this, put it on.
How do you feel? This is good. And they start feeling the warmth. And they start feeling the comfort.
Then, after a period of time, they become so thick. Now, this cloth inside, I am giving. I am giving it.
I am giving it. It is not protecting. You can take it yourself, cast it aside.
So, if we ask them to cast it aside first, and then take our cloth, they instantly do it. But, if we give them our cloth, and let them experience the warmth, then they can still throw that on their daughter, throw on her daughter. So, this cloth, I have been saying, it applies to our conceptions.
Our conception of what is comfortable, our conception of what is spiritual. So, now, sometimes, somebody says, everything is one. And we have to say, that is Mayavadi.
They are Mayavadi. No, actually, to call people Mayavadi, is to give them too much credit. Why too much credit? Because, most Mayavadis, it is always quite a complicated philosophy.
And most people, they just heard someone say, everything is one. And today, in the age of conflict and war and violence, everything is one. Most people, who we call as Mayavadi, they have no idea what is Mayavadi.
So, actually, they have done something, maybe they did some meditation, did some, something, and they experienced something. So, what happens is, because they experienced something, if people go to H.S. Thomas, if anything gives them a little experience of support, for them, that is so special. So, for them, that, whatever conception they have, whatever practise they have done, whatever, it is like their blanket.
It is like their cloth, which is protected. Even that cloth is torn and tattered. You ask them, how does this philosophy make sense? How does this experience make sense? You say, actually, nothing will make sense for them.
So, philosophically, logically, but still, they fall away because they experienced something already. Some relief from life still comes. So, if you tell them this is nonsense, give it up.
Then, it is like telling them to give up the only cloth that is protected in their home. Just let them, give them the, the warm, cosy, classical Krishna consciousness. Just let them experience Krishna consciousness in a non-threatening, non-imposing, non-judgemental way.
Just let them come to Krishna. Let them experience Krishna. As they experience Krishna, oh, this is so wonderful.
Why do we need anything else? So, how to experience this more? They themselves give up their previous conceptions. Most people are not philosophers. And most people, even when they come to spirituality, it is not because of philosophy.
There are four kinds of people who come to Krishna. Those who are distressed, those who are distressed, those who are distressed and those who are distressed. So, for most people, philosophy is not what is bringing them.
They have a philosophy conception, but there is one small part of their life. And it is not even a major part of their life. But when we criticise it, how dare they call me wrong? And then, they become very defensive in their opinions.
So, philosophy is not an important part of their life. It is not an important part of why they are exploring spirituality. And we also don’t have to make pointing out the wrongness or error in their philosophy a major part of our conviction.
Just connect them with them and make them comfortable. But Krishna’s travel went to such an extreme that he said that if some very good people are ready to come to the temple, if we have to cook meat for them, we cook meat for them. Not that meat, not that we will eat meat.
I am not saying this by any means. We will cook meat. Now, of course, we don’t want to do that.
That’s not the point. But we say that it is our responsibility to make people be comfortable with their conviction. That is where we need to set challenges in life.
And when we do that, there are legacy steps. So, Bhaktsan Thakur, at one level, he would say his most glorious mission actually the right time has come, the right path has been required. Now, if we sit at the stage where at where at stage we to sit at the stage where we have to sit at we have to sit at the stage where we have to sit at the sit the where we to sit at the stage where we have to sit at the stage where we to sit at to stage where we have to sit at By that time, the centre of influence of the Second World War had shifted.
Before, UK was ruling the whole world. So, they said that from UK, the sun never sets. That was a trial in the British Empire.
But within a few years, things changed and the sun never rises there. It’s so dark all the time over there. Hardly ever.
It didn’t change. So, America had become the main centre of power. And so, Prabhupada said, do it on my request.
What do you mean, do it on his request? The other day, Prabhupada resolved this doubt with humility. He said that, if my spiritual masters, my spiritual masters, if they don’t succeed, my chances of succeeding are very less. If I have to fail, let me fail trying in some other place.
Maybe there is a better chance of success. Where was his humility? Prabhupada went to New York. When? Because of the counter-culture.
Of course, Prabhupada had great challenges. They were receptive spiritually. In terms of going spiritually.
But culturally, they were so far away, that Prabhupada had to cross an ocean to reach them. But still, Prabhupada didn’t have to do anything. So, once Prabhupada was asked that, Bhaktiswarna Thakur preached in New York.
Bhaktiswarna Thakur preached in England. You preached all over the world. Therefore, you are better now.
Prabhupada preached in England. He said, never think of this. He said, it is the joy of the father when the son does better than the father.
And it is by their mercy that I have been able to do what I have done. So, this is the groundwork. Prabhupada said that, Bhaktiswarna Thakur was the founder of the war against the Bolshevik movement.
And Bhaktiswarna Thakur was the founder of the institutional structures for that movement. And Prabhupada carried both of them in the institution and moved it across the world. So, Prabhupada, from Bhaktiswarna Thakur, became really like a slave.
One time, some of his forefathers were criticising Prabhupada for not having done for him nothing different from what Bhaktiswarna Thakur was doing. And Prabhupada said, that, ask them, who has written more texts of sin? Who has written more books of sin? Who has brought more disciples? And Prabhupada said, to great deal, I have inherited the legacy of my spiritual master. It is very interesting, because in terms of legacy, Prabhupada got nothing from his spiritual master.
There is not a single assistant for his teaching, not a single rupee from the Gauri Amrit, not even an institutional letter, saying that he is coming to this organisation. Prabhupada got nothing at all. What do you mean by legacy? The greatest legacy of a spiritual master is not in terms of means, resources.
The greatest legacy of a spiritual master is the desire to glorify Krishna. The desire, you get emblem of the Lord Krishna. Bhaktiswara Thakur, he had that desire to glorify.
And from that desire, books manifested, disciples manifested, temples manifested. So that is the legacy that is coming down from the spiritual master. We can all pray to Prabhupada, that he entrenched us in this legacy.
The legacy of the desire to glorify Krishna. If we have a desire to glorify Krishna, how will that be entrenched? And through us, the lives of men and others will also be entrenched. So what did I say? I spoke on the theme of Bhaktiswara Thakur’s three instructions on outreach.
The purpose, the perspective, and the process. And the purpose, as I said, the only purpose of the most merciful person is to transform the degraded person. So our purpose is, how can we help people get the highest taste of Krishna? So we work with the taste that they have at present.
And that includes the taste of Krishna. Expand the amount of Krishna practise where you improve some of the Krishna tastes. I give the examples of Mahasastra Thakur, Vijaya Dayarana, and the Vinci’s instructions.
So, don’t take people’s visual and technological tastes. And then I talked about Prabhupada using pathyatra as a means to don’t take young people’s tendency to do far out things like dancing on the streets. So, the other thing people have noticed, we try to expand the ambit of Krishna practise.
The second instruction was that the pure devotees see everyone as spiritual master. Therefore, pure devotees can be pure archana devotees. So what this means is, there are three levels.
First is that you have already seen that Krishna can speak through anyone. Just like Prabhupada saw his Guru speaking through the person who said five books. Another is, those who are assisting others are Krishna.
Prabhupada saw his disciples also as being sent by his spiritual master. And thirdly, the spiritual master connects us with Krishna. So, how to connect people with Krishna, people themselves will tell us.
We have to understand how to make them understand. Like a child is learning disabilities, a parent has to learn how to help the child. Rather than simply judging people and condemning them for not being understood.
We have to spend time understanding where they are coming from. Then we will be able to help them. And the last point was, without shedding gallons of hard-earned blood, we cannot help people, we cannot make people understand.
So that gallons of blood is in terms of not just imposing ourselves on people, but taking the effort to reach them where they are. Reaching them physically, emotionally, culturally, intellectually. So, Krishna has to be made as accessible and comfortable for people as possible.
So, Prabhupada himself is ready to dress in western clothes so that the head of state of Bengal when he came, will feel comfortable. So, Prabhupada is ready to have views so that people could come and shoot him. Similarly, if people had any preconceptions, see, we see that this is the tattered, torn, thin cloth that is sheltered them from the cold of Rajas and Tamas.
So, tell them, give it up. Just take this. Give them the experience of Krishna and then they will then put up their own cloths.
So, contrary to his preconceptions, just give them the experience of Krishna. And the legacy that Prabhupada got in his childhood is the desire to learn by Krishna.