Travel Journal#8.19: The North of England, Scotland, and Ireland

Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 8, No. 19
By Krishna-kripa das
(October 2012, part one)

The North of England, Scotland, and Ireland
(Sent from Stuyvesant Falls, New York, on December 8, 2012)

Where I Went and What I Did

As the World Holy Name Festival continued into October, I continued traveling with Janananda Goswami and his party around Manchester, Newcastle, and up to Edinburgh, Scotland, where devotees held an 8-hour kirtana in the hall of a church downtown, and invited their yoga friends, and the people in general. I left the two-day Scottish festival, which continued on at Karuna Bhavan, to go to Belfast and help with a program for Quaker children at our temple there. Then after three days of harinama in Belfast, we chanted in Enniskillen, near Govindadvipa (Inis Rath), our Hare Krishna island in Northern Ireland. Friday we did harinama to all three Govinda’s Restaurants in Dublin. Saturday we did our second 12-hour harinama in Dublin, and got a larger participation than before. Sunday was the Sunday feast program, and Monday we did 12-hours of kirtana at the temple. Tuesday we did harinama in Bray, a city outside of Dublin and the usual Tuesday evening kirtana program, before returning to The North of England.

I share Srila Prabhupada notes as usual, and notes from Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami’s writings, including his recently printed autobiography, The Story of My Life, which includes new Prabhupada stories and Hare Krishna history. I also have realizations from Janananda Goswami and several Prabhupada disciples from the UK and Ireland, and a few other devotees.

Itinerary

Dec. 8–9, 2012: Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami Vyasa-puja

Dec. 10–23, 2012: Serving SDG in Stuyvesant, NY

Dec. 24–25, 2012: Visiting family in Albany, NY

Dec. 26, 2012–

Jan. 7, 2013: harinama in New York City

Jan. 8–April 2013: Gainesville, FL (with visits to Tallahassee and Jacksonville)

Edinburgh 8-hour Kirtana

I was happy that my first visit to Scotland was on the occasion of an 8-hour kirtana in Edinburgh. Janananda Goswami arrived just over an hour early and organized a harinama in the streets of Edinburgh, and we distributed the remaining invitations to the interested people. The venue for the event was a church community room, and different yoga people and alternative people came, some for the first time. Diya from Sunderland led a lively kirtana, and many of her friends danced nicely in the audience. Janananda Goswami led a super lively kirtana, with almost everyone dancing, and our only lamentation was he was not given a longer slot. Some of the organizers knew me and kindly allowed me to sing for half an hour. Gaura Prabhu from South Africa, who lives in Mayapur, played the drum, and by the end a lot of people danced nicely.

Quaker Kids Program at Belfast Temple

Every four years the First Day School teacher at the Belfast Friends Meeting (Quakers) brings her students to the Hare Krishna temple to experience another religious practice. Shelina, who had done the program four years ago, led the program again, and I assisted. I mentioned some of important similarities in the two philosophies, such as life is meant for seeking spiritual truth and the Lord is within everyone’s heart. I also taught a simple mrdanga (drum) beat to any child who wanted to learn, and I dressed interested boys in cadars. I was impressed with the good behavior of the kids. One boy almost immediately picked up the drum beat.

Enniskillen and Dublin Harinamas

During the whole bus ride from Belfast to Enniskillen rain was pouring down. Earlier I had been joking with the devotees about whether praying for good weather was bona fide. When we began to chant the rain stopped, and by the end of the three-hour kirtana the sun could often be seen. One lady who was interested in yoga bought a book from our book distributor and gave us a donation beyond that. She was happy to hear we had a temple in nearby Derrylin. Thus austerity of the bus ride and inclement weather was worth it as someone was happy to come in touch with Krishna.

The next we went to Dublin and did harinama in the late afternoon. My friend, Dhruva Prabhu, who is an ISKCON tourist was happy that on our evening harinama we visited all three of our restaurants in Dublin. We had tea in a couple places in addition to spring rolls, but unfortunately the desserts had already sold out. My fingers suffered from playing instruments in the cold weather.

Dublin’s Second 12-hour Harinama and 12-hour Kirtana

Everyone who went on our 12-hour harinama back in July really liked it, so Ananta Nitai Prabhu and I organized another one for October.

Ananta Nitai was so enthusiastic he also organized a 12-hour kirtana at the temple two days later. Having a positive experience, he decided to try to do a 12-hour harinama the first Saturday of each month, and follow it by a 12-hour kirtana on the following Monday. This time a traveling party of brahmacari book distributors mostly from Poland joined forces with us for the 12-hour harinama and increased our ecstasy.

 One man who had seen us chanting for 12-hours on Saturday was surprised to see us chanting on Sunday morning. Nanda Kumar Prabhu and Bhaktin Anet distributed many books during the course of the harinama, which spend most of its time at the big intersection near the temple. In the evening, instead of doing the usual sit-down harinama, since the sidewalk was wet, we did harinama to a crowded area called Temple Bar, which is frequented more for its bars than its temples. One Indian girl looked with interest at our chanting party, and I talked with her and she followed us. She explained that because it was Saturday the train schedule was different, and she missed her last train home and thus had the opportunity to meet our harinama party. That was Krishna’s mercy on her. She expressed an interest in coming to our events, and I hope she remembers this desire of hers at the opportune time to act on it.

Devotees joined our 12-hour kirtana throughout the day on Monday, and there were always just enough people to keep in going. 

Manu Prabhu, one of Dublin ISKCON’s celebrated kirtana leaders, was one of the singers.

I danced a lot of the time.

Caitanya-candrodaya Prabhu took pictures of the devotees during the kirtana, and they are all so meditative. I share a couple. Thanks for all of your pictures of the harinama and kirtana in Dublin, Caitanya!

If you are on Facebook, you can see them all here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.508082672537289.122015.100000066812012&type=3

On Tuesday we traveled with the brahmacari book distributors to Bray, about half an hour from Dublin, and we chanted as they distributed books. Because we had chanted for twelve hours the previous Saturday and Monday, we found two and three-quarters hours went by like no time at all.

Insights

Srila Prabhupada:

from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.14.26, purport:

“The scientists are cheaters because they present so many bogus things in the name of science. They propose going to the moon, but actually they end up cheating the entire public of large sums of money for their experiments. They cannot do anything useful. Unless one can find a person transcendental to the four basic defects, one should not accept advice and become a victim of the material condition. The best process is to take the advice and instructions of Sri Krishna or His bona fide representative. In this way one can be happy in this life and the next.”

Janananda Goswami:

If we had as much enthusiasm for Krishna as we do for our computers and mobiles, we could make rapid advancement.

There are some things we do every day, eat, sleep, use the toilet, and brush our teeth. Similarly we should read Srila Prabhupada’s books every day.

Krishna consciousness is not just to make our material life or our present existence more comfortable. It is to go to the spiritual world and to become released from birth and death and redevelop our relationship with Krishna.

Four things given by Srila Prabhupada to make your house a temple.

1. have an altar
2. offer your food to Krishna
3. chant the holy name, the Hare Krishna maha-mantra
4. read the scriptures

Another important activity for householders is taking care of guests.

Srila Prabhupada told his GBC members their first duty is to make sure everyone in the temple is chanting 16 rounds of Hare Krishna and following the four rules prohibiting intoxication, meat-eating, illicit sex, and gambling.

Haridasa Thakura was chanting 300,000 names of the Lord before Lord Caitanya’s appearance.

Sometimes it is described that some devotee of the Lord is an incarnation of two intimate associates of the Lord. This is not so strange as in the material world sometimes someone is haunted by a ghost and two souls are inhabiting the same body and vying for control. Of course, in the Lord’s pastimes, the two devotees are cooperating to serve the Lord’s mission.

Q: How to measure spiritual strength?
A: Enthusiasm for chanting and hearing and association with devotees, enthusiasm to render service, being less affected by our material situation, taking shelter of guru and Krishna, all these are symptoms of spiritual strength. When the body ages, you may not be able to do so much physical activity, but you still have enthusiasm for them.

One devotee who was 93 years old was explaining he could not remember anything but Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, but in one sense, that is a good thing.

Story of Mother Isa who Niranjana Swami visited in a nursing home: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=10841&paged=2

If we are not feeling increasing spiritual strength, perhaps we are being tested by Krishna or else we have done something unfavorable.

When we carry on our spiritual practice beyond our slip ups, we can become stronger than before.

One devotee had a late night program and so his sadhana was quite irregular and the devotees were concerned and asked Srila Prabhupada whether he should be asked to leave the temple. Srila Prabhupada replied that if he at least goes to mangala-arati, our early morning service, then he can stay.

We had five classes a day in our first temple in London on Bury Place—two in the morning, The Nectar of Devotion or Sri Isopanisad before greeting of the deities, Bhagavatam class after, The Nectar of Devotion or Sri Isopanisad (whichever was not done in the morning) before the evening arati, Bhagavad-gita after, then a song class and Krishna book reading after the evening arati.

comments by Saksi Gopal Prabhu:

In the early days one new devotee was sent by the treasurer, with a half-shaved head to go out and collect for a razor blade to finish the job.

One time in the early days the pujari came through temple room to bring the breakfast offering to the deities and found that not only had everyone hearing the morning class fallen asleep but the speaker had also fallen asleep.

Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami (mostly from his web site, www.sdgonline.org):

from Narada-bhakti-sutra, text 67, purport:

“Being single-pointed in devotional service does not mean shutting out reality. Exclusivity can become sectarian if one focuses on relative truths or dedicates oneself to an ordinary person. But when the object of appreciation is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one attains the broadest vision, the vision of a mahatma.”

from Viraha Bhavan, October 3, 2012, poem:

They say if you prematurely
think yourself a sakhi you
will come back next life
as a material woman.

from Viraha Bhavan, October 15, 2012, poem:

Prabhupada said if we
follow him he has a key
to enter the back door of
Goloka Vrndavana. I am
counting on that, although I am

completely unfit.

from The Story of My Life, his autobiography:

“[At Ananda Ashram] We had a wild kirtana in the big yoga studio. Swamiji let a black man play a big double bass, swinging it in rhythm like a jazz beat. We danced around in a big circle. The ISKCON people mixed with the Ananda Ashram people. Round and round we danced in ecstasy for an hour.”

“Himavati made him [Srila Prabhupada] a set of clothes for Them [his Radha-Krishna deities]. Radharani’s skirt was a little short. “That is all right,” he wrote, “It affords us a look at Her lotus feet.”

A boy had raised his hand for a question. “What happens when you go inside and you look further and further and further and Further!?” He was crazy. Prabhupada replied, “That I do not know. You know.” That boy chanted Hare Krishna and became an initiated disciple in time, Kusakratha. He became a great Sanskrit scholar.

ISKCON is like the Ganges, sometimes it is flowing thin and somewhere it is roaring wide, but it is always flowing.

Srila Prabhupada asked us why we closed the temple and came to New York. What did we leave Jagannath, Baladeva, and Subhadra locked up? “If you left me locked up in a room how would I eat?” he asked. He told us not to do that again.

Once I was preparing eggplant and small peanuts at his request and he [Srila Prabhupada] came into the kitchen to see how I was doing. He said, “I don’t ask for this because I want it. I just want to train you in how to cook it.”

He [Srila Prabhupada] liked a cup of warm milk with sugar in the evening also.

I took part in an all-night schedule of single men going inside Prabhupada’s mosquito net and sitting on his bed and rubbing his body. I would take the ten to midnight or the midnight to 2 a.m. time. That was very intimate, and you had to use all your strength to keep rubbing him and stay awake. I managed to do this, and it was a great thrill of loving exchange towards him. It was hard to keep awake, and I did it by thinking who Prabhupada was, siksa-guru for anyone who had the sense to come to him, and diksa-guru for anyone who had vowed to be his eternal servant. “I am so fallen, Prabhupada,” I thought, “I want to fall asleep. I must stay awake and massage you for your comfort.” I managed to say awake, and when my shift was over I looked forward to doing it again.

from Passing Places, Eternal Truths:

“Walking for japa at 6:00 A.M. by Raman Reti:

A mangy dog approached me with gruff barking. I thought, ‘If you come any closer, you’ll get the end of this danda,’ and he went away. Madhu and I then circumambulated the Krishna-Balarama Tree. At the same spot there were two old Indian matajis bowing down in the sand. They smiled slightly to us. Then the same aggressive dog went up to one old lady. She was so small and had no stick. To my surprise, she began speaking softly to the dog in low tones. He sat down before her, making gruff sounds. She then disentangled her hand from her bead bag, reached into another bag, pulled out a piece of food and threw it on the ground for the dog. By now we had passed her, and I saw this by looking back. Once again I saw that I had misunderstood the meaning of Vrndavana.”

Bhagavatasraya Prabhu:

Last semester students at Bath got 25 signatures for a club on Krishna consciousness, and this year they got 100 signatures.

If you ask people what they want most in life, they invariably say that they want to be happy. Then if you ask them how long they want to be happy for, they will tell you they want to be happy forever. It is not surprising that everyone wants a condition of eternal happiness because that is the nature of the soul.

We are so conditioned, we think this body is alive and that we need a material body to be alive.

Srila Prabhupada’s greatest challenge to create life out of matter which has never been done because it can never be done.

When you come into this world, you become so conditioned that you cannot get out. You do not even know which direction out is.

The nectar for which we are always anxious is the nectar of our relationship with Krishna.

Only through the intervention of the Lord in human society, as in his instructions in Bhagavad-gita can we know of spiritual world and how we can get there.

Krishna gives you the ticket to get out of the material world, but we have to take the ride.

Previous misconceptions of God are very difficult to remove from the mind.

It is not difficult to have faith in Krishna because we immediately begin to feel happy by following His instructions.

Arjuna surrenders to Krishna twice in Bhagavad-gita, to be instructed in Bg. 2.7 and in Bg. 18.73 when he agrees to follow Krishna’s instructions.

We are brought up with the idea that evil is separate from God, but nothing is separate from God.

We have to give up the idea that we are the victim of something beside our own actions.

Dhrtarastra asked Krishna why he was born blind, and Krishna showed him his past 100 births. For 99 births he was an ideal king, but in the previous birth he had a skin disease, and the only cure was to prepare an ointment from the bodies of 100 swans. Instead of worrying about the protection of the swans residing in his kingdom as an ideal king, he ordered the 100 swans killed and the ointment prepared, and his disease was cured and for the rest of his life, he was an ideal king. For his blindness in not protecting the swans for his own sensual pleasure 100 births ago, he was born blind and the 100 swans took birth as his sons, his sons were all killed, and he lost his kingdom. [The speaker said he heard this from Krishna Das Swami.]

In our material conditional life we cannot see Krishna because our desire to forget Krishna blinds us. 

We see Krishna first by hearing from the scripture.

In our conditioned state our love for Krishna is in a dormant state like a tree in the winter which appears leafless and lifeless.

We need to learn that Krishna exists, our relationship with Krishna exists, and to act in relationship with Krishna is our constitutional position.

Perfection in Krishna consciousness does not come quickly, just as walnut trees take 50 years to mature or olive trees take 100 years to produce the best olives.

Remaining in the association of devotees and developing a strong practice of hearing can protect us from maya.

We are making rapid progress back to Godhead, but our experience is one of gradual development.

Srila Prabhupada gave excellent lectures on Narada’s instructions to Vyasa, and I think they should make it into book.

Few people are interested in Krishna consciousness because it takes a long time being kicked by maya before one asks if there is something else.

\Bhakti Charu Swami argues that the whole development of modern civilization over the last several hundred years which started about the time of Lord Caitanya was meant to facilitate the spread of Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana movement.

We should deepen our conviction to do what we are doing for the simply for pleasure of Krishna.

Gopal Kumara’s guru told him that your fix your intention and then chant the mantra and your will get that result. So make your intention to do just what you are doing for the pleasure of Krishna.

When asked at Bhaktivedanta Manor by a journalist about the purpose of life, Srila Prabhupada explained that the purpose of life is to enjoy. Then he explained that we have forgotten the real platform of enjoyment.

If we stop serving the Lord favorably we will have to serve the Lord unfavorably and indirectly, and that will not be satisfying to ourselves or to anybody else.

Krishna knows that the living entity cannot be happy without being engaged in the Lord’s service because that is his constitutional position.

One time there was complication regarding a preaching program, and a devotee expressed concern that Prabupada be inconvenienced. Srila Prabhupada replied, “Preaching means inconvenience.”

Sometimes devotees complain, “I gave the best years of my life to ISKCON, and what did ISKCON do for me?” Praghosa Prabhu has offered this response which I like, “Actually ISKCON has given you the best years of your life, and you should really try to understand what ISKCON did give you.”

Here it is described how a person whose body, mind, and words, are fully engaged in devotional service is liberated. I experienced this traveling with Vaisesika Prabhu in England. Our itinerary was ill-conceived and we drove two and a half hours from Leicester to Manchester for an evening program, returning at 1 a.m. Then we had to drive to London for a program at 6:30 a.m. in the morning. Vaisesika cheerfully participated as he was expected to and would absorb himself in reading during the journey, not disturbed by his surroundings.

Prabhupada observed that in the West the people have all material facility but they are suffering greatly mentally.

One woman wrote a book called The Secret, which speaks about the universe as reciprocating your desire. This conception is expressed by Srila Prabhupada: “Such materialists cannot even imagine that there is a transcendental body which is imperishable, full of knowledge and eternally blissful. . . . For such materialistic men, the form of the gigantic material manifestation is supreme.” (Bhagavad-gita 4.10, purport)

Lord Caitanya would sit on the floor and his intimates associates would describe Lord Krishna’s pastimes and He would cry. Srila Prabhupada explained that is our practice: sit down, hear about Krishna, and cry.

When I was young I had the opportunity to read a copy of Krishna book that was in a house I was sharing with someone. I read it for awhile, and I could not deny anything that was written there, but at a certain point, I decided I was not ready for this, and I put it aside. Then Krishna put me through the wringer, and two years later I was ready for this.

When the Bible or Koran says “You cannot see the face of God and live,” it is my conviction that it means that you cannot engage in an ordinary materialistic life once you have seen God and not that you literally die.

We are all here because our love for Krishna has been reawakened. Ecstasy means to go beyond the static.

The question is, “How close do you want to sit to the fire of sankirtana?”

The degree that this knowledge is revealed to you and the degree that you apply it determine how soon you become Krishna consciousness.

You can become Krishna conscious in a minute, but that minute may take millions of births to reach.

Srila Bhaktivinoda in explaining Bhagavad-gita 9.30 says that eventually the devotional service will displace all the materialistic tendencies.

He, referring to a godbrother who remembered the Lord at death, was liberated, but he was not famous. You do not have to be famous to be liberated.

Duryodhana Guru Prabhu [one of Srila Prabhupada’s Sanskrit editors]:

Religion is often a relationship with dogma while spirituality is a relationship with God.

Some people are very uncomfortable with the term God because they have had a bad experience with a particular religion and thus they have negative feelings toward God.

In Kali-yuga the degradation progresses, but there is within it, an age of enlightenment, and we see evidence of the both progressive degradation and the enlightenment.

I was in Nashville, Tennessee, and we stopped at one traffic light, and on each of the four corners there was a church.

Hinduism has no founder and no founding date, unlike the other major religions which all appeared in the age of Kali, the age of degradation.

Dharma is duty, obligation, honesty, integrity, and acting according to our own nature.

Yoga is the union of the soul with God.

Bhakti-yoga the yoga of love and devotion.

We are all attracted to bhakti-yoga, whether we know it or not, because we are all looking for love.

What does God wear? What does he like to eat? Most religions cannot answer these questions.

Who did the Indian people invade? Nobody. The Indian people invaded no one for the last ten thousand years. Neither the Hindus invaded others, nor the Buddhists. The Jews also were not interested in invasion. But the religions that arose later in Kali-yuga, the age of degradation, Christianity and Islam, are always invading others.

If you are thinking you are God, you will find it difficult to have a loving relationship with God, because love requires two people.

We can become free from material limitations by serving God.

Once you choose a spiritual path, stick with it until you attain success

In the spiritual world, everything is conscious. When Radha cooks rice for Krishna, she asks the rice, “Are you done yet?” And the rice says, “No. It will be a couple more minutes.”

Q: Is astrology useful in bhakti-yoga?

A: Of course, that is what I do, and I have been doing that for thirty-five years. Astrology is a tool. As long as you understand it is tool, you can use it.

Q: What is the price to become as free as Narada Muni?

A: Complete surrender..

As deep as your love goes, that is the level Krishna will reciprocate at.

Pundarika Vidyanidhi Prabhu:

In 1973 Srila Prabhupada began speaking about varnasrama. Prior to that he spoke about chanting Hare Krishna and becoming purified in that way. This is because he saw people leaving his society because of not being engaged properly.

There is some injunction that says if you follow varnasrama for seventy lives you will attain liberation.

Krishna tells Arjuna not to follow the Vedas (Bg. 2.45) because they deal with the three models of material nature, and yet He also says He is goal of the Vedas (Bg. 15.15). Thus there is transcendental aspect to the Vedas that is valuable for us.

A mature devotee is willing to do whatever is required in the service of the Lord, but if we engage a new person in doing whatever needs to be done, disregarding the person’s natural propensity, he may not stick around long enough to become a mature devotee, being dissatisfied at working contrary to his own nature.

Saksi Gopal Prabhu:

According to the Vedas, you can offer rice wine to Varuna on a certain day of the moon, but that is not for those on the highest level of religious practice.

Every tradition has mystics that can access other realms.

Many ancient traditions are being lost. Who would have thought that India, which has a cultural of cow protection, would become the world’s second largest exporter of beef.

It is rare in yoga that the means and end are the same, but in bhakti-yoga, because it is our eternal activity, both the means and end are the same.

Srila Prabhupada once said, “Do not think that I am not also making advancement.”

Once Srila Prabhupada said at Bhaktivedanta Manor, “Don’t take birth again in Kali-yuga [this present age of degradation].” At the time, I was thinking it was not so bad, but now that over 30 years have passed, I see how things have degraded and how we have had so many problems, even in the Hare Krishna movement.

We have a spiritual cleaning service.

Bhakti-yoga is a process for constantly purifying our intentions.

comment by Janananda Goswami:

Eight years ago I was talking to someone from the Sioux Indian tribe who was a scholar who taught their history in the university. I asked him about their origins, and he said they came from India about 25,000 years ago. He also said that their totem pole derived from the Garuda stambha.

Dayananda Swami:

From sraddha to bhava two symptoms are prominent, klesa-ghni, freedom from miseries, and subha-da, the beginning of all of auspiciousness. Then at bhava, moksa-laghu-krt, the minimization of liberation, and sudurlabham, the rareness of attainment is experienced.

I used to think it would be nice if I had a service where I could just chant, but then later I realized that the quality of my chanting was not so great that that would be best for me.

A devotee asked Srila Prabhupada how one could attain perfection in a moment. Prabhupada replied with an analogy. Dry wood placed in a hot fire can immediately burst into flames, while wet wood takes awhile to come to the point of burning. So if one is advanced from a previous practice, very quickly one can attain perfection.

At nistha one realizes there is no difference between the holy name and Krishna.

Everything is already Krishna’s, we just have to agree to it, and then engage everything in Krishna’s service.

Ananta Nitai Prabhu:

I was distributing books on Grafton Street in Dublin early in the morning. People were going to work. I tried to stop one young man. He said he could not stop, he was in a rush. So I said to him, ““Are you in a rush to die?”” He stopped dead in his tracks and asked me what I meant by that statement.I said, ““Well, you are in a rush today, you will be in a rush tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, so ultimately you’re in a rush to die.”” He was struck by what I said and took Science of Self-Realization and gave a donation.

Nanda Kumar IDS Prabhu:

All yoga traditions stress the importance of the spiritual teacher.

Once a bhajana leader in Radha-Ramana temple one evening chanted Guruvastakam, and I could participate and felt Srila Prabupada had the gave the essence of Vrajavasi life.

Jesu [from a conversation on an Irish ferry]:

Mahavishnu Swami and I went to see George Harrison and ask him about his interest in reincarnation as we had heard about it but wanted to know the truth of it. We went to his house in the morning and saw him sitting in his garden chanting Hare Krishna japa, and we offered obeisances and chanted pranamas to Srila Prabhupada in George’s presence so he would know we were followers of Srila Prabhupada. When we arose, he said something that made us all crack up laughing, “What are you? Dropouts from the Hare Krishna temple?” In fact, Mahavishnu Swami was so absorbed in laughing that I ended up talking to George myself.

------

sa hanis tan mahac chidram

sa mohah sa ca vibhramah

yan-muhurtam ksanam vapi

vasudevam na cintayet

“If even for a moment remembrance of Vasudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is missed, that is the greatest loss, that is the greatest illusion, and that is the greatest anomaly.” (Vishnu Purana, quoted in Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.9.36, purport)