Preserving tradition means fulfilling the purpose of the tradition

Class at New Jersey

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. I’ll speak briefly on the topic of how the Christian consciousness movement that Srila Prabhupada started is growing in its first and second generation and how we, as second generation devotees or disciples of a particular spiritual master, can help in practising bhakti better and sharing bhakti better. In general, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that he describes the process by which the spiritual knowledge is distributed.
So he says 4.1, 4.2, 4.3. In 4.1 he says that this knowledge was given right at the start of creation. imam vivasvate yogam rottamanaham avyayam vivasvan manave praha manurikshvaka vebrave which is I give this knowledge to the sun god. And he passed it down from Vivasvan to Manurikshvaku.
And then evam paramparabhratam imam rajarishayo viduhu The saintly kings knew it in this way. sakaleneha mahata but then he says by the power of time, mahata, by the great power of time yogo nasthaparantapa the knowledge was lost. And then Krishna says saivayam mayatetya yoga proktah puratana bhakto sime sakha jyoti rahasyamye trittamam that same knowledge I am giving to you, Arjuna.
Because you are my friend, my devotee and my friend. So essentially Krishna says here that the sun is normally considered to be the source of light. But the light from the sun can only illuminate externally.
It is the light of knowledge that illuminates us internally. And that light of knowledge is what Krishna gives. So Krishna illuminates with the supreme light the person who is the source of light.
That’s why we say krishnam vande jagadguru Krishna is the ultimate spiritual master of everyone. And then he gives a process by which this knowledge passes down generation after generation. Now, when the knowledge is passed down generation after generation every generation because of time things don’t stay the same.
In the last few decades because of technological advancement we may have seen a drastic change. Say, the way our grandfathers used to live and the way we live is different. Or even the way we live and the way our children live is different.
So this difference may be very drastic in our current times but there is always a difference. The nature of time is that it changes things. So for example if we study the way culture was in India say one millennia, one thousand years ago and the way it was two hundred, three hundred years ago there is a difference after the Muslims invaded India and then the Indian culture became more conservative more closed up.
And similarly, prior to that there was Buddhism. So for example Sanskrit is considered a sacred language and it is important but when if you look at Indian history we see that between 5th century BC and 5th century AD there was Jainism and Buddhism spread extensively in India and one of the main reasons they spread was because they propagated their message in the local languages the vernaculars Pali and Prakrit whereas the Brahmins they insisted that Sanskrit is a pure language they said you speak only in Sanskrit it’s good to speak in Sanskrit but if people are not understanding and people are getting some other conceptions then things had to be presented in the language of the times. So preserving and continuing the tradition doesn’t just mean keeping everything as it is it means fulfilling the original purpose so the Brahmins may say that we are speaking in Sanskrit the way the Vedas were written they are doing that but if Sanskrit is not understandable then they have to speak in the local languages so we see from the 10th century onwards the Bhakti culture started becoming very popular Shankaracharya came in the 7th century and he he he countered Buddhism through impersonalism but that was more in terms of intellectual countering now the philosophy of Mayavad it is actually not very coherent for anyone but for people in general the idea that I am one with God that doesn’t doesn’t appeal much to the heart so it is only when the Bhakti tradition started developing then there was a rejuvenation of of the religious spirit and we see the main reasons why the Bhakti tradition flourished was because the Bhakti saints spoke in the local languages in Bengal it was Bengali in Odisha it was Doria in South India it was Tamil Kannad in Maharashtra there is Marathi North India we have Awadhi and other languages so because the saints Bhakti saints communicated the same message in the local languages using local images local examples and they built vibrant traditions that continue even today so continuing a tradition doesn’t necessarily mean keeping everything as it is the language had not been changed then the Bhakti tradition would not have become as changed would not have spread as much as it has so Srila Prabhupada himself when he says that keep things as it is don’t change anything if we look at what Srila Prabhupada taught and what Bhakti Siddhartha Sridhar Thakur taught the way they presented essentially the message is the same but if we look at it literally there is a lot of difference Bhakti Siddhartha Sridhar Thakur when he preached the main book is like we distribute Bhagavad Gita Bhakti Siddhartha Sridhar Thakur did not distribute Bhagavad Gita when his in fact he did not write any commentary on the Bhagavad Gita because his preaching was mostly in India and Indians thought that they already knew Bhagavad Gita and many of them at that time Bhakti Siddhartha Sridhar Thakur preached primarily between 1910 started Gaudiya Mata in 1919 1937 that was the time in 1937 he departed so in 20 years he preached so at that time Indians were still pious so his focus was not just on teaching Gaudiya Vaishnavism specifically Prabhupada when he teaches Bhagavad Gita he does not go into Gaudiya Vaishnavism much because his primary focus is on just teaching basic human and spiritual values to people so in the whole Bhagavad Gita Prabhupada refers to Radharani only once you know where is that in the introduction when he is offering prayers Radharani is the primary worshipable deity in Gaudiya Vaishnavism Prabhupada is speaking according to the level of the audience and they need, before they can understand Radharani’s love for Krishna they need to understand I am not the body and the soul so Prabhupada focusses on what is needed so Bhakti Siddhartha Sridhar Thakur’s central book for preaching was actually a book Sri Krishna Chaitanya that is a analytical biography of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu so and his thrust in his preaching was different so for example Bhakti Siddhartha Sridhar Thakur if you have seen his photos he himself would sometimes wear a shirt pat and his disciples they would also wear a shirt pat and Bhakti Siddhartha Sridhar Thakur in that was the dress that was increasingly considered respectable at that time so he was open to that Prabhupada when he went to America he came at a time of what is called the counter culture the counter culture everyone was rebelling against the mainstream culture, the mainstream religion, the mainstream education, the mainstream government, the Vietnam war was there where the youth were feeling that the government is drafting us sending us to death just so that they can sell their weapons and so so there was a rebellion and people wanted to do things which were unconventional so when Prabhupada came in dhoti kurta it was a far out dress which people said oh you are wearing a blanket around your legs that’s what they would do so just the fact that what Prabhupada presented was culturally far out that attracted people and the hippies were largely in a mode of confrontation oh this is wrong, this is bad, this stinks this rots this sucks that was their idea and Prabhupada gave them philosophical reasons explaining what things were wrong so in one sense Prabhupada’s cutting preaching you would use words like fools and rascals that that gelled very well with the mood of the audience that he was attracting and that’s why the Krishna conscious movement spread very rapidly in America and in general in the western world but when those same devotees went to India and among Indians they started using the same language fools and rascals, it didn’t work if you study the history of our movement when Prabhupada took his disciples to India it created a sensation people were fascinated oh there are these western boys and girls wearing roti kurtas and sarees it created a sensation but not many people became committed even now if you see among Prabhupada’s disciples how many of the leading disciples are actually Indian born not many, there are many dedicated disciples are there and of course there are many dedicated Indians but the point is that confrontational approach where people started calling each other young people 25-30 years old they were calling people fools and rascals that didn’t work and gradually now being faithful to Prabhupada it doesn’t mean that we have to call people fools and rascals actually speaking if you study English I answer questions on my website so many people are of course people can be anonymous they don’t have to tell who is asking I give that option, if you want you can tell otherwise you don’t tell so people often ask candid questions so one English professor asked me this question he said why does ISKCON consider the English of the 1920s to be sacred why do people still speak in the 1920s English and then I corresponded with an intelligent person so he said that actually many of the words that you use, Prabhupada learned his English in 1920s when he went to Scottish Church College and then he used that English in his writing even by 1960s that English was a little old if you read some books 100 years ago you may say for youth they use now today if you start speaking have you come from time war have you come from the 19th century so this is a very gross expression of difference but similarly in Prabhupada’s times the word rascal did not have the strong pejorative connotation that it has today rascal simply it was an affectionate expression of disapproval what are you doing so now rascal has quite a different connotation there are some words which ISKCON has also stopped using Prabhupada used the word cult the cult of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is spreading all over the world but now the word cult has a strong negative connotation and we don’t use it although it is there in Prabhupada’s books we don’t use it similarly Indra Dinda Maharaj he had his diary which is called a diary of a travelling preacher but the word preaching itself has a very negative connotation the idea is that somebody sits on a high moral pedestal and points out the faults of everyone else so Indra Dinda Maharaj has changed the name to diary of a travelling monk the word monk is quite trendy now especially for the Dalai Lama and the Buddhists they have this conception of monks which is accepted by mainstream society so changing the words we may not change the books that is something which has to be discussed elaborately but in our own discourse we may use appropriate words we should use appropriate words so that people don’t get misunderstanding so the point I am making is that when the devotees used this confrontational approach in India but they did not know the background they were very young actually and they did not know the cultural sensitivities the connotations of words and they alienated a lot of people it was only in the 1980s when ISKCON leaders started moderating their presentation not changing the content but making it less provocative less confrontational in the presentation that ISKCON started picking up in India and now for all practical purposes India has become the powerhouse of ISKCON in terms of the number of temples, number of Buddhist devotees, number of devotees so in each time, place, circumstance the presentation of Dharma has to be adjusted and this is talked about in the Bhagavatam also so for example the Bhagavatam says first when Bhishma Pitamah is lying on a arrow bed and the great sages come over there now normally the sages come and should offer obeisances but he is on an arrow bed he is completely incapacitated so he is not able to offer obeisances so what does he do? He simply moves his head and he offers obeisances and he knows he knows according to time, place, circumstance how the same principle of Dharma can be presented and the same thing is talked also in the fourth canto when Dhruva Maharaj is instructed by Narag Muni who was a small boy, 5 year old boy with enormous determination he has gone to the forest and Narag Muni directs his determination towards the worship of the deities towards the worship of Lord so he gives him the mantra he also guides him to fashion deities using the available material that is there in the forest that may not be the standard of any deity worship that is done in the temple but according to time, place, circumstance what can a boy do in the forest? so when Srila Prabhupada would come to America, many of the early temples, you know they were simply storefronts converted into temples yesterday I was at Lower East Side, seeing the 22nd Avenue so externally it doesn’t look anything like a temple but even that place what Srila Prabhupada did that place that started what has resulted in many magnificent temples all over the world so if Srila Prabhupada had not started with what was available what could be done so the future would not have manifested so many times when Indians would come to these temples and they would say, oh the deities are not pointing these two directions, there is no spire above the temple you know this, Prabhupada would say that Indians do only two things they find faults and give suggestions they don’t do anything more of course, that was the case at that time but over time but over time Indians have taken up a huge amount of responsibility but again the point is when Prabhupada is making Indians he is just talking about those who are seen externally so things have to be adjusted according to time and place circumstances the principle is yes, the deity is facing a particular direction, the spire in the temple all those add to the auspiciousness of the temple but the essence of the temple is not these things the essence is that the glories of God are being broadcast over it and that was happening in most of Prabhupada’s temples, whether they were externally structured like temples or not so the essence is that Krishna’s message be practised and Krishna’s message be propagated and that can be done in different time, place and circumstances in different ways not only can it be done, it needs to be done if the message to be continued so I will talk about after Sri Prabhupada has departed how things have been preserved and at the same time things have been adjusted in two major ways one is community development and the other is experiential outreach community development means that sometimes in every society there are disgruntled people there are people who have grievances they have grievances against the government the government doesn’t provide this facility the government doesn’t provide that facility so for example in India in some part there are Naxalites many of their grievances are genuine the government is deprived they have been discriminated against and because of the grievances they rebel against the government now rebellion in the course of the rebellion they may blow up a bridge they may do this damage that damage the government doesn’t do this, the government doesn’t do that and now blowing up things is easy but suppose eventually those same people come to power then even if they are in power for 10 years still that bridge that was blown up in 10 minutes has not yet been constructed because blowing up things is easy, constructing things requires efforts and especially not just constructing after that maintaining things it requires much much greater effort so similarly for the Krishna consciousness movement to grow on, to go on sustainably over many generations so for that there has to be not just the criticism or the rejection of the mainstream culture yes today’s culture is godless today’s culture is materialistic that is true but we need to have an alternative culture a working alternative that is demonstrable and for that what we need is a vibrant community of loving caring devotees and to the extent that community is there to that extent the people will continue to practise bhakti usually if you look at any of the world’s great religions or even not so great religions those which are existing now and those which have left so those which have become more or less extinct now you know generally when the founder comes the religion spreads very rapidly but after the founder departs there is usually a period of humility, a period of chaos sometimes some devotees become very concerned and worried if they come to know what is history and this devotee had this problem and this devotee had this problem why do such things happen so Jaydavid Maharaj gave a series of lectures he called it unity in perversity what is unity in perversity he talked about the history of Christianity, the history of Islam and the history of Gaudiya Vishnu after their founders departed after Jesus departed, after Mohammed departed after Chaitanya Mahaprabhu departed all of these, there was chaos so as compared to that after Krishna Prabhupada departed what happened was not unusual in fact among these three the most unlikely of all these religious organisations to survive is Gaudiya Vishnu’s because when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu departed normally whenever a person wants to create a legacy they do three things first is they write books which tell their will they write a specific statement of will also and if they are teachers they write their will in their books also second is they appoint successors so that you can entrust the legacy to someone and then they build an organisation to carry on their mission the normal three things write your will in books, appoint successors and establish an organisation and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did not do any of these three things so none of these three things he did he did not write any books he just wrote 26 Shastras and that also was not written actually it was just, if you look at the last chapter of Chaitanya Charita Amrit Chaitanya Mahaprabhu just speaks it in an ecstatic trance of devotion and then later on devotee is written in that, so it’s not like a written book and then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did not start any organisation and then the Gaudiya Vishnu basically after Chaitanya Mahaprabhu departed there was a Kheturi festival where the Vaishnavas from different places came, so it is described in the Chaitanya Charita Chaitanya Charita Amrit Mahakavya by Kavi Karanapur that Vaishnavas came from four places Vaishnavas came from Vrindavan where the Goswamis were there Vaishnavas came from Bengal where Advaitacharya Nityanandpura, all those are the Vaishnavas were there and Vaishnavas also came from Odisha where Pratap Rudra Sarvabhattacharya and their followers were there and fourth is, Vaishnavas came from especially Karnataka, South India but especially Karnataka so these Vaishnavas at different places were there and now if you see even at that time there was difference if you look at the literature that is produced by the Goswamis in Vrindavan all of them wrote in Sanskrit and on the other hand if you see the Vaishnavas in Bengal who wrote the books, they wrote in Bengal and that is natural because in Vrindavan who is going to understand Bengal Vrindavan is already a centre of Bhakti and that was there the line, Gaudiya Vaishnavism had to gain respectability, the devotees had to write in Sanskrit and because in Bengal, because of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s appearance there was already awareness of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and there was a lot of devotion to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu so the books that were written in Bengal were not only in Bengali but they were largely biographies of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu because devotees wanted to, people in Bengal wanted to hear what did Chaitanya Mahaprabhu do but when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had gone to Vrindavan he had created a spiritual sensation there but he had been there just for two months and then he had left so when the Goswamis were writing in Vrindavan they did not write about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu if you look at the Goswami’s books, they are books about Krishna and Krishna Kattu they start by seeking Bhagavata Amrit if we read the Yugoswami Shastra we will see that they don’t talk about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu much at all, only in the beginning they offer obeisances that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu we seek his blessings and we write the book the whole book is about Krishna Kattu why is that? because that audience will not, they don’t know about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu so much so we see that there is according to time, place, circumstances, presentation you see Chaitanya Mahaprabhu asked Rupesh and Adan Goswami to build temples in Vrindavan but he did not ask the Vaishnavas in Bengal to build temples there is no account of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu instructing or even the devotees attempting to build temples, all the temples in Bengal were simply home temples because at that time there was the tyrant Nawab Hussain Shah was ruling and all public expressions of what was considered Hindu worship they were difficult difficult to do so now on the other hand Jagannath temple was there and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would go and he would encourage the devotees to go and there would be a big Jagannath Yatra in Puri so even at the time of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and soon after that there was diversity in the way bhaktis practised according to time, place, circumstances so if you see Chaitanya Mahaprabhu even when he was there, even when he is God himself he did public Harinam Sankirtan he did the protest against Chand Kazi Chand Kazi tried to stop the people but even when he did this public protest he did not insist that let us build a temple over just Harinam Sankirtan why? because the bhakti has to be presented in a way that is not unduly difficult for people that is that is yes, for devotees to build a temple in that time was difficult but they were able to do it they were able to do it in in Vrindavan because at that time at least Akbar was ruling and Akbar was relatively moderate and also Chaitanya Mahaprabhu they had expertise in dealing with Muslim rulers so although they renounced the world, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sent them to Vrindavan and he said you deal and then they trained Jiva Goswami and Jiva Goswami also dealed with the Muslim rulers so the point is that there has to be always resourceful application of bhakti the point is not just to speak the message as it is the point is to fulfil the purpose that is there so I was talking about the development of the community so we had many devotees coming in the first generation very enthusiastically practising bhakti and then after that, after a few years the enthusiasm goes down and then the mind’s problems come up, the society’s problems come, they are there but they become more evident and then one needs motivation to go on we realised that when we came to the movement we thought that within one week we are going to become pure devotees and within two weeks we are going to take over the world that was the expectation the whole world is going to become devotees there will be no opposition we will be able to practise bhakti confidently all over and soon all our we see that this whole process is gradual so it can be discouraging and that’s why we need support systems so traditionally if you see bhakti was practised not so much as an organisation but as an organic community it was not that organic community means people in general in a community would be devoted and they would all come together and they naturally practise bhakti so now things have changed because we live in a world which is mainstream materialistic and sometimes people feel that organisation is not required of them but the point is even in the past there were organisations you know, Buddhists had their mathas, Shankaracharyas had their akhadas and before that we had sampradayas, sampradayas are nothing but one form of organisation so what does organisation do? you know if some water falls on a water drops fall on a mountain then the water is to move towards the ocean so at that time the water it starts moving down it’s a small, in a big river sometimes there are small small tributaries which come in, so tributaries are what come into the river and distributaries are what they split out the river gets split out so sometimes small trickles of water small small streams come into a river as tributaries and now if each of these small trickles has to on its own go to the ocean that is going to be very difficult it will just go along sometimes some obstacle comes it will dry up over there but if like that many tributaries they join together a big river and then they move onwards and the river will have a flow by which it can flow towards the ocean so normally the river and ocean metaphor is used by impersonals to talk about how we merge into the water but Kunti Maharani as well as Kapil Dev they use the same ocean metaphor and the point is not merging but meeting Kunti Maharani says that … … … in 1.8.42 she says that just as the Ganga flows towards the ocean let my consciousness flow towards you so now each of us is like a small trickle now some of us some devotees may have an extraordinary spiritual urge they are ready to give up everything else for the sake of God and just devote themselves to God so those those devotees are like a forceful river but most of us we are trickles and when many trickles come together and then they form a river and when that river moves there is a cumulative force which is greater than any individual tributaries force so like that when we come in the association of devotees we get the inspiration to keep moving on so essentially when we talk about a spiritual organisation what is that essence of a spiritual organisation is a community of devotees that is trying to move onwards towards Krishna and for moving onwards towards Krishna whatever facilities are required they create that may create a temple may create a council system may create a marriage board may create a school may create a school so that devotees children can be educated in school so all these are what support systems and essentially they are meant to facilitate us in moving towards Krishna so sometimes what happens is that in the intricacies so an organisation is required so that there is a cumulative flow to our spiritual urges to our bhakti but sometimes people get so caught in the nitty-gritty of the organisation itself that they forget the purpose and so Prabhupada was very cautious that this not happen at one time the devotees the GBC they hired some devotee who has a finance degree Prabhupada personally appointed GBC members but they added this devotee to the GBC and this devotee said if you want ISKCON to run efficiently you should centralise all the finances so they decide to centralise all the finances so all the temples whatever Lakshmi they get that will go to the central board and then that board will decide how much Lakshmi to give to everyone when Prabhupada heard this he was so angry he rather than reply to the GBC he sent a letter to the temple presidents saying that I have suspended the GBC and till further intimation take instructions only for me don’t take from the GBC and the temple president the GBC was shocked we were thinking of good only what is better Prabhupada said if you centralise things everything will be lost because then again everything will be a poor struggle who has more money and then you have to you have to you know curry favour of those who have money so that you get money Prabhupada said the organisation is meant primarily to inspire devotees to practise we don’t want a centralisation business and of course there is some level of centralisation in the sense that there is an organisation board but Prabhupada kept each temple organic, independent financially independent, managerially independent so the idea is devotees bhakti will progress by individual inspiration one time some devotees told Shila Prabhupada some very good devotees they told Shila Prabhupada that you know Prabhupada we have learned some lines which we can speak by which people will take books we speak this thing, we speak that thing we move our hands like this we do these gestures people take books and we have tested that this works so can we go temple to temple to temple and then we inspire people to inspire book distributors to learn these lines and they can distribute books so they thought that Prabhupada will be very happy that book distribution will increase a lot so Prabhupada became great Prabhupada said bhakti is individual, voluntary and spontaneous when a soul feels inspired to serve Krishna then bhakti is performed Prabhupada said don’t tell people what to speak inspire them to serve Krishna and Krishna will guide them what to speak so the point is we cannot make everyone into xerox copies of someone who has been able to do a service nicely every devotee is individual and every devotee will individually practise and share bhakti individually doesn’t mean that anybody can chant any mantra not that anybody can worship any deity but individually means that within the overall process of bhakti there is room for individual expression not only there is room but a necessity for that so that’s how the individual link with Krishna will be established so we will see now in Srila Prabhupada’s movement there are different spiritual masters and they all have their individual emphasis and they are all carrying on Srila Prabhupada’s legacy in different ways and naturally when there is emphasis on one thing that will naturally lead to some extent not so much emphasis on other things that does not mean that other things are not important but if they are emphasising something the energies will get concentrated so community development was what I was talking about that for our movement to sustain itself people will come to bhakti but after they come to bhakti they need to be able to practise and feel inspired to practise lifelong and for that we need support systems there is sometimes there is a very rigid separation between spiritual and material this is spiritual we have come to Krishna for the spiritual this is material don’t talk about it but then we have to understand that we cannot become pure devotees without becoming devotees first that means suppose say if someone has a problem in their family life or in their job some financial situation some concern is there health is gone down now is it material or is it spiritual now if we start separating everything into material and spiritual we are not like the soul is here and the body is here its not like that the soul and body are as of now one unit and what happens at the material level affects our spiritual the health goes down and the financial situation goes down there is one in the first volume Prabhupada is in Allahabad and one of the persons who was interviewed was giving a report that Swamiji was a very spiritual man but at that time his main concern was how can I earn money how can I earn money because Prabhupada wanted money not just to take care of his family but he also wanted to share Krishna wanted to sponsor sharing of Krishna and Vishnu so there may be times in the devotees life when the material things are become an emergence or become a very great urgency so if we too rigidly separate this is material this is spiritual and bhakti means you talk only about the spiritual then we become very insensitive and hard hearted so of course certainly what it means we want as I said we cannot become pure devotees without becoming devotees becoming devotees means that we develop a relationship with Krishna and developing a relationship with Krishna Krishna means how does a relationship develop with someone initially we meet and we greet that is an introductory relationship but relationship primarily develops when there is an exchange of heart we talk we unburden our heart they talk among the six characteristics of priti which Rupa Goswami talks about Rupa Goswami talks about so he says giving gifts receiving gifts speaking one’s heart and hearing others speak their heart and giving food receiving food among these six actually most bonding are sharing one’s heart and hearing others share their heart and this is something These principles for relationship apply not only among devotees, it applies to Krishna also.
So what do we mean we share our heart with Krishna? Actually if something is burdening our heart, we can pray to Krishna. Even if it is about our material life, it’s not that we cannot pray to Krishna. It’s not that our material life is untouchable for Krishna.
It’s not like that. So what is important when we say that we should aspire for pure devotion is not that we not pray about our material life, but rather that we don’t make our practise of bhakti dependent on whether our material life is going on right or not. That means Krishna if you don’t protect me in my material life, if you don’t make sure that I have a good job, I get good marks in my exam, my health stays good, then I will not practise bhakti.
When we are practising bhakti only for material things, that is undesirable. That is also not undesirable in a bad sense, but that is not a very high level of bhakti. When we are aspiring for pure devotion, what we do is when Shri Prabhupada was sick in 1968, at that time it seemed as if he was about to leave his body.
Then he wrote a prayer. He told the devotees to pray that our master has not yet completed his work, so if you so desire, please let him live. So if you so desire, so when we offer some prayer about our material life, we can submit to Krishna if you so desire.
This is my concern and this is what I feel is the solution. Please let it work this way, if you so desire. So we should share our heart with Krishna.
While sharing our heart with Krishna, we don’t make our bhakti dependent on that particular thing working out in a particular way. But still we share our heart and that’s how we become devotees. And gradually as we practise bhakti more and more, we will realise that material things, I don’t have to get so worked up about it.
Material life, some problems come, they stay, they go. Another problem comes, stays, goes. So I don’t have to get so agitated about it.
But that is a realisation that will come gradually as we keep practising bhakti. But if we rigidly separate material and spiritual, then we will not practise bhakti only. Thinking that, we will think that, oh, I have to deal with my material problems first.
First let me deal with the material problems, then afterwards material life becomes peaceful, then I will practise bhakti. Such a situation will never come. Material life will always be ups and downs.
So what happens is, by the practise of bhakti, we start, the more seriously we take bhakti, the more we don’t get seriously disturbed by material ups and downs. Because we get an inner shelter. Just like, if I have only one dollar, and then one dollar falls out of my pocket, I will get anxious, where is that one dollar gone? But if I have a million dollars with me, and then one dollar falls out, I am concerned.
But still I am not disturbed that one dollar has fallen out. So like that when we practise bhakti, we start experiencing shelter and security within, in the remembrance of Krishna, in the shelter of Krishna, and that becomes like a one million dollar. And then whatever material problems are coming, then they are like a one dollar loss.
We will try to rectify it, but even if it doesn’t get rectified immediately, it’s not such a big deal. But that realisation, see right now, it is initially when we come to bhakti, we see only that one dollar. We don’t even know that there is one million dollar inside.
So till we realise that there is one dollar, and till we get the shelter and security that comes from remembering Krishna, till that time, that one dollar is also a matter of concern. So when we talk about developing a community, what it essentially means is, that there are, even in practising lives of devotees, there are these one dollar concerns. I am not saying, minimising them, but relatively speaking, there are concerns about career, about job, about marriage, about taking care of children, and there are so many others, about health.
So as our community develops, devotees, these needs should also be taken care of gradually. Not that we can take care of it entirely, but as much as possible, some support systems are there. And those support systems are there, then just for taking, because of these material needs, devotees don’t have to go out of the devotee community.
We can have those needs fulfilled within the devotee community. So the counsellor system, the healthcare system, whatever are there, these systems are primarily to help devotees focus on bhakti by having their various needs fulfilled within the bhakti, broad bhakti community. And they don’t have to go out of that.
So this is what will be required for the sustainable practise of bhakti. And that’s what is being done. Now when Srila Prabhupada was present, even at that time, he was not directly interacting with all devotees.
He had his senior disciples, and they interacted with most of the devotees, they trained most of the devotees. So what is this? This is something like a counsellor system. The senior disciples were acting like counsellors.
It was informal. Now it might be formalised in some places. And the whole point is that devotees get help when they need it.
Now to what extent help can be provided, to what extent help can be asked, all that will vary according to time and place. But the principle is that we shouldn’t reduce the expression of love to only spiritual expressions of love. Like suppose there’s a joke in the class, and somebody thinks, if I laugh, am I laughing for my sense gratification, or am I laughing for Krishna’s pleasure? When you start analysing like that, you know, the speaker will say, I make a joke, nobody laughs.
We don’t have to go into such a paralysis by analysis. We focus primarily on how best I can serve Krishna. So it’s not that when we have to practise bhakti, that means we have to be miserable for practising.
Only then our bhakti is pure. It’s not like that. This is the circle of bhakti.
And this is the circle of what inspires us, what attracts us, what we like. It is not that these two circles are non-intersecting. The whole principle of Varanashram is find out the intersection of this.
Brahmanas like to study. Then yes, they like to study, study, but study scriptures. Vaishyas, their joy comes in earning money.
So now if a Brahmana is told, we want to build a new temple, and you have to raise $10 million for it. Brahmana will say, why bother? Just come and study. We’ll study Bhagavad Gita.
Don’t bother what people say. And if a Vaishya is told, let’s come and we’ll study how this verse links with this verse. Why this verse comes after this verse? Come on, we have to build a temple.
What is the point of this? So there will be different definitions of success for different devotees. And material world means there will be problems. Always for everyone.
But the expertise of Varanashram is that Varanashram allocates to people the problems they like to face. If a Brahmana is told, find out where is this verse in the Bhagavatam. Let me see.
I’ll research this and find out. And if a Vaishya is told, find out the verse in the Bhagavatam. What matters? Speak without understanding the verse.
Don’t bother. Who will search thousands of verses to find out where the verse is? So we all have certain problems which we like to face. And certain problems we just fill them with a burden.
So that’s just individual nature. And the bhakti culture is inclusive enough that people can be given vocations, services, which stimulate them, which inspire them so that they can practise bhakti throughout their life. So here I’m talking about slightly different thing.
One was about the material needs of devotees. Now I’m talking about the services within bhakti also. So in the early stages of a project, it may be that whatever service is required, everyone has to do that service.
This is what we need to do to set the project moving. And that’s what is required. But as the project stabilises, then devotees can find out what is it that interests them, what is it that inspires them.
And once they start doing that, then they will do it without needing too much pushing. Sometimes you tell someone to do it, and then you tell them, will you do this? Yes, I’ll do it. You call, have you done it? No, no, I’ll just do it.
Have you done it? Yes, I’ll just do it. And then sometimes you think that, you know, more the time is spent in calling and asking, then I would have done it myself. So why this happens is because people do not internally inspire.
So we can try to inspire them as much as possible. So Prabhupada, sometimes it is asked, how much can we push people? We all have to push to some extent. We all need to push, and we all need to push.
Prabhupada once asked, now should we push ourselves? Prabhupada said, yes. He said, ours is a pushing parampara. My spiritual master pushed me, and I am pushing all of you.
So everyone needs a little bit of push. But how much can we push? So, you know, sometimes in India, if a car doesn’t work, person is trying to drive the car, the car doesn’t work, then some people come along. And then they push the car.
I think in America you just get a tow car. A tow to pull the car. So they push the car.
Now the person is inside trying to turn on the car, trying to move the ignition, trying to move the steering wheel, from outside people are pushing. And together they get the car moving. But suppose people from outside are pushing the car, and inside the driver goes to sleep.
Right. Then the outside people say, why should we push if you don’t want? Or worse still, if the person from outside, person inside the car is putting the brake, now outside people are pushing, and inside is putting the brake. Then the other people stop pushing.
So like that, we can inspire devotees, we can push people, but they also need to have some interest, some inspiration. If they are not at all interested, then better stop pushing them and find someone else who is interested. So we cannot push people too much.
People have to take up bhakti on their own. And sometimes there are other concerns, they want to take up bhakti, but other concerns are there which prevent them from taking up. And we can try to address those concerns.
And by that, as we develop a community, then devotees can practise, inspire in a somewhat self-motivated way. Self-motivated means they don’t need others to push them. Now Prabhupada said, my spiritual master pushed me, but it was not like Bhaktsarjunakar was sending constant letters to Prabhupada, you know, why are you not going to the west, why are you not preaching in English language? Prabhupada felt the weight of the instruction.
Actually, the number of interactions that Prabhupada had with Bhaktsarjunakar was few, but whatever interactions there were, Prabhupada felt the weight. And that’s what he meant, he says, my spiritual master also pushed me. Prabhupada was largely self-motivated.
Self-motivated in the sense that even when his god-brothers, who had mathas, who had disciples, who had money, they were not ready to take up preaching vigorously. Prabhupada took it up. So that self-motivation was remarkable.
And when Srila Prabhupada, he departed, he was asked, normally when a mathadhipati departs, traditionally, he appoints a successor. He would be the successor. So Prabhupada was asked several times, who will be your successor? And Prabhupada gave different answers.
One time he said, whoever wants to be. Now whoever wants to be, what does it mean? It means that, and Prabhupada another time, he explains in a sense that, he said that, I inherited the legacy of my spiritual master. Now if you see, Prabhupada did not get anything from the spiritual master.
He matures. Now he did not get any movement, he did not get any funds, he did not get any resources. They were all, there is a conflict between many of the Gaudiya Math devotees.
And basically Prabhupada, Prabhupada is not a part of that. Prabhupada is an observer from the side. So, Prabhupada said, I got the legacy of my spiritual master.
What he is referring to is, the desire to share Krishna. That was what Prabhupada got. And from that desire to share Krishna, so many books manifested, so many temples manifested, so many devotees manifested.
The whole international society manifested through that. So the essential legacy that we get from our spiritual master, that Srila Prabhupada got from his spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada’s disciples got from him, and that we can get from various Vaishnavas, especially our spiritual masters, that desire to share Krishna with others. And, that is the current that will, as I said, the river moves towards the ocean, that is the current that will keep us moving towards the ocean and inspire others also to move towards the ocean.
So we don’t worry, focus too much on material assets, material positions, material things. They are important. But most important is the desire to serve Krishna.
If we maintain that desire to serve Krishna strong, then other things will sooner or later fall in place. Because in this world there will always be conflicts. Because, even when we are practising Bhakti, the spiritual world is unlimited.
But, when we are practising Bhakti in the material world, material resources are limited. And because material resources are limited, there can be sometimes some conflicts, some differences of, should we do it this way, should we do it that way. So, we need to focus on the point that, if I have a desire to serve Krishna, we just focus on that.
Even the specifics don’t work out in the way we want. If we keep serving Krishna, eventually, we will find, Krishna will guide us, the Dhamma, Buddhi, Yoga and Tantra, how best we can serve Krishna. And, that way, we can, according to time, place, circumstances, that was the theme of the class, we can find out, how best we can practise Bhakti, how best we can share Bhakti with others.
And we can move onwards towards Krishna. So, I will summarise. I started by talking about how, time, place, circumstances, is always important in sharing of, in sharing of Bhakti.
So, Srila Prabhupada used Bhagavad Gita whereas his spiritual master, was focussing on Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s teachings. In the past, Sanskrit was used, but in the Bhakti poets, Bhakti saints, they spread Bhakti because, they use the local languages. So, preserving things as it is, doesn’t mean not changing anything.
It means, making sure that the original purpose is fulfilled. And, for fulfilling that purpose, sometimes, certain adjustments, are not only needed, but they are indispensable. Without them, things will not move forward.
So, I will talk about, you know, community development. And, in that, I give the example that, Prabhupada used a particular language, like he used the word, the word, rascal, the word, kinds. Those we can’t use nowadays, because they have different meanings.
So, there was the, approach of rebellion, you know, saying this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. That is good. But, okay, all that is wrong, show what is right.
So, we need to demonstrate what is right. And, that requires, that again requires community development. And, in community development, I talk about how, we cannot rigidly separate material and spiritual.
We cannot become pure devotees, without first becoming devotees. Means, we, even if something is related with our material life, we can pray to Krishna. But, we don’t, make our bhakti conditional, the fulfilment of that prayer.
Okay, if you so desire, we leave it at that. And, as the bhakti community develops, even the, what I call as material needs, the bhakti community should, gradually, create, facilities, by which those material needs can, at least, be at some level, taken care of, within the devotee community itself. So, an organisation is not just a structure, with positions, and powers.
An organisation is basically, a facility, by which those, who are spiritually minded, can together, move towards Krishna. Just as the, many tributaries, they come together, to make a river. And, then the river can, with its cumulative force, move towards the ocean.
Similarly, many, spiritually minded people, they come together, and they create a facility, by which they can all, move towards Krishna. And, while, practising bhakti, as far as, our sadhana is concerned, we can have time. Okay, this is time for my sadhana, this is spiritual, this is my time for my job, this is material.
So, we should have, some level of differentiation, so that, we give some time, for direct devotional activities. But, beyond that, we should know that, the material and spiritual, are interconnected. The body and soul, are together, as one unit, right now.
And, caring for a person, means, caring for both, together. So, we discussed about, how Varanashram’s expertise is, not rejecting everything material as bad, but, using, our material, in the service of the spiritual. So, Prabhupada did not want, everything to be centralised, nor did he want everything, everyone to be, Xerox copies of everyone else.
He said, just inspire devotion, and then individually learn, how to practise bhakti. And, individually practise bhakti. So, the legacy, that Srila Prabhupada got was, not in terms of material assets, but, it was the spiritual desire, to share Krishna’s message.
And, from that spiritual desire, various material resources manifested. Similarly, if we focus on material things, in the practise of bhakti, then there can be conflicts. Oh, this is done like this, why this is not done like this, why this person has this pose, why this person has that.
But, if we focus on the spiritual principles, let me serve Krishna. And, if we try to serve Krishna enthusiastically, gradually, whatever material resources are there, they will fall into place, and we will be able to, move onwards in our service to Krishna. Thank you very much.
Great. Thank you.