Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 17, No. 1
By Krishna Kripa Das
(January 2021, part one)
New York City and Orlando
(Sent from Orlando on January 16, 2021)
Where I Went and What I Did
I continued staying at Radha Govinda Temple in New York City and assisting Rama Raya Prabhu with his NYC Harinam party, chanting several hours of Hare Krishna in public every day once I recovered my health on January 3. Then on January 13, I traveled to Orlando, where I joined a party of Krishna House devotees, many I knew from before, who are doing outreach at University of Central Florida.
I share many amazing quotes from Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, and Sri Isopanisad. I share a quote by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. I share excerpts from the writings of Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami. I share notes on lectures at ISKCON NYC by Candrasekhara Swami, Hansarupa Prabhu, Rama Raya Prabhu, Hari Vilasa Prabhu, and Ananda Kirtan Prabhu. Thanks to Janardana Prabhu for the slogan that he shared on Facebook that has a nice Krishna conscious purport.
Thanks to Hansarupa Prabhu and his staff for facilitating my stay in ISKCON New York City. Thanks to Rama Raya Prabhu for allowing me to spend four months on his NYC Harinam party. Thanks to Lila Manjari Devi Dasi for her kind donation. Thanks to Kaliya Krishna Prabhu for taking the videos and photos in New York with me in them. Thanks to Amrita for taking the videos at UCF. Thanks to Alex for the lift to JFK and to Jeremiah for the lift from Orlando International Airport to ISKCON Orlando.
Itinerary
January 13–January 26: Orlando harinamas and college outreach
January 26–February ?: Gainesville harinama and Bhaktivedanta Institute work
February ?–April 5: Tallahassee harinamas and college outreach
Chanting Hare Krishna in New York City
I would lead the kirtan for half an hour or forty-five minutes usually, and the rest of the time I would distribute “On Chanting Hare Krishna” and often dance.
Ananta Vallabha Prabhu, visiting from Krishna House in Gainesville, chants Hare Krishna in Downtown Manhattan (https://youtu.be/KQPddGA6Kwg):
Ananda Kirtan Prabhu, visiting from Los Angeles, chants Hare Krishna in Downtown Manhattan (https://youtu.be/X1lWhTkSEqc):
Natabara Gauranga Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Midtown Manhattan, a lady dances, and another lady takes an “On Chanting Hare Krishna” pamphlet (https://youtu.be/E4uTDoPGh4s):
Ananta Vallabha Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Queens, and people play instruments, dance, and take videos (https://youtu.be/rf89_0bF7Bs):
Ananda Kirtan Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Midtown Manhattan, and two guys becoming interested in Krishna consciousness who have come around for several months joined us, sitting in back (https://youtu.be/gplYLXJA43U):
Kaliya Krishna Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Midtown Manhattan, and passersby are attracted to sit and listen and to dance (https://youtu.be/IJ22pz7RvZQ):
Later as Kaliya Krishna Prabhu continued chanting Hare Krishna, a little girl delighted in dancing and playing the shakers, and then a man did his own little dance, also inspired by the chanting. I followed that man through the turnstile to give him an “On Chanting Hare Krishna” pamphlet (https://youtu.be/q2pG-PEEbBM):
Krishna Kripa Das chants Hare Krishna in Brooklyn, and Ananda Kirtan Prabhu distributes literature. [Video by Kaliya Krishna Prabhu.] (https://youtu.be/6WR5iGIBqko):
Natabara Gauranga Prabhu chanted Hare Krishna in Brooklyn, and a man who became attracted to Krishna consciousness from the Wisdom of the Sages podcast of Raghunath Cappo and Kaustubha Das, participated along his two children, who played shakers and later distributed pamphlets. [Video by Kaliya Krishna Prabhu.] (https://youtu.be/uCHHxGpraQA):
Rama Raya Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Brooklyn, joined by ISKCON NYC Temple President Hansarupa Prabhu (https://youtu.be/a1JELQSRnA8):
Mitra Prabhu, Prabhupada disciple and musician, who is visiting for a week or so from North Carolina also joined us, increasing the ecstasy. Here he chants Hare Krishna and plays guitar in front of the University of Central Florida Student Union (https://youtu.be/U-FO1YxcZPE):
Here Joao, a Brazilian UCF student, enjoys chanting Hare Krishna with Mitra Prabhu, Jeremiah, Amrita and myself (https://youtu.be/xp0_l552MZU):
Mitra Prabhu ultimately taught him two beats on the drum. Joao also promised to come to our program for students and to help out, in addition to buying several books.
Srila Prabhupada:
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi 1.56, purport:
“One should try to purchase a ticket to go back home, back to Godhead. The price of such a ticket is one’s intense desire for it, which is not easily awakened, even if one continuously performs pious activities for thousands of lives. All mundane relationships are sure to be broken in the course of time, but once one establishes a relationship with the Personality of Godhead in a particular rasa, it is never to be broken, even after the annihilation of the material world.
“One should understand, through the transparent medium of the spiritual master, that the Supreme Lord exists everywhere in His transcendental spiritual nature and that the living entities’ relationships with the Lord are directly and indirectly existing everywhere, even in this material world. In the spiritual world there are five kinds of relationships with the Supreme Lord — santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya and madhurya. The perverted reflections of these rasas are found in the material world. Land, home, furniture and other inert material objects are related in santa, or the neutral and silent sense, whereas servants work in the dasya relationship. The reciprocation between friends is called sakhya, the affection of a parent for a child is known as vatsalya, and the affairs of conjugal love constitute madhurya. These five relationships in the material world are distorted reflections of the original, pure sentiments, which should be understood and perfected in relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master. In the material world the perverted rasas bring frustration. If these rasas are reestablished with Lord Krishna, the result is eternal, blissful life.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 24.353:
“By reading these instructions, a pure devotee can understand love of Krishna, the mellows of devotional service and the conclusion of devotional service. Everyone can understand all these things to their ultimate end by studying these instructions.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 25.21:
“As soon as people received instructions from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, they began to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. Thus everyone laughed, chanted and danced with the Lord.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 25.30:
“In this Age of Kali, one cannot attain liberation without taking to the devotional service of the Lord. In this age, even if one chants the holy name of Krishna imperfectly, he still attains liberation very easily.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 25.36:
“‘O supreme one, the transcendental form I am now seeing is full of transcendental bliss. It is not contaminated by the external energy. It is full of effulgence. My Lord, there is no better understanding of You than this. You are the Supreme Soul and the creator of this material world, but You are not connected with this material world. You are completely different from created form and variety. I sincerely take shelter of that form of Yours which I am now seeing. This form is the original source of all living beings and their senses.’” [Brahma speaking to Krishna in Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.9.3.]
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 25.128:
“‘Hari, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who destroys everything inauspicious for His devotees, does not leave the hearts of His devotees even if they remember Him and chant about Him inattentively. This is because the rope of love always binds the Lord within the devotees’ hearts. Such devotees should be accepted as most elevated.’” [From Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.2.55]
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 25.131:
“Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu continued, ‘Thus one’s relationship with the Lord, activities in devotional service, and the attainment of the highest goal of life, love of Godhead, are the subject matters of Srimad-Bhagavatam.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 25.140:
“‘Pure devotees manifest spiritual bodily symptoms of ecstatic love simply by remembering and reminding others of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, who takes away everything inauspicious from the devotee. This position is attained by rendering devotional service according to the regulative principles and then rising to the platform of spontaneous love.’” [From Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.3.31.]
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 25.193, purport:
“From early histories it appears that the entire earth was under one culture, Vedic culture, but gradually, due to religious and cultural divisions, the rule fragmented into many subdivisions. Now the earth is divided into many countries, religions and political parties. Despite these political and religious divisions, we advocate that everyone should unite again under one culture — Krishna consciousness. People should accept one God, Krishna; one scripture, the Bhagavad-gita; and one activity, devotional service to the Lord. Thus people may live happily upon this earth and combine to produce sufficient food. In such a society, there would be no question of scarcity, famine or cultural or religious degradation. So-called caste systems and national divisions are artificial. According to our Vaishnava philosophy, these are all external bodily designations. The Krishna consciousness movement is not based upon bodily designations. It is a transcendental movement on the platform of spiritual understanding. If the people of the world understood that the basic principle of life is spiritual identification, they would understand that the business of the spirit soul is to serve the Supreme Spirit, Krishna. As Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita (15.7), mamaivamso jiva-loke jiva-bhutah sanatanah: “The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts.” All living entities in different life forms are sons of Krishna. Therefore they are all meant to serve Krishna, the original supreme father. If this philosophy is accepted, the failure of the United Nations to unite all nations will be sufficiently compensated all over the world by a great Krishna consciousness movement. Recently we had talks with Christian leaders in Australia, including the Catholic Bishop of Melbourne, and everyone there was pleased with our philosophy of oneness in religious consciousness.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 25.270, purport:
“It is very difficult to understand Krishna, but if one tries to understand Srimad-Bhagavatam through Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s bhakti cult, one will undoubtedly understand Krishna very easily. If somehow or other one understands Krishna, his life is successful.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Antya 1.2:
“My path is very difficult. I am blind, and my feet are slipping again and again. Therefore, may the saints help me by granting me the stick of their mercy as my support.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Antya 1.101:
“One has to learn about the beauty and transcendental position of the holy name of the Lord by hearing the revealed scriptures from the mouths of devotees. Nowhere else can we hear of the sweetness of the Lord’s holy name.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Antya 1.101, purport:
“As far as possible, therefore, the devotees in the Krishna consciousness movement gather to chant the holy name of Krishna in public so that both the chanters and the listeners may benefit.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Antya 1.117, purport:
“The special function of Srila Rupa Gosvami is to establish the feelings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. These feelings are His desires that His special mercy be spread throughout the world in this Kali-yuga.
“prthivite ache yata nagaradi-grama
sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama
“The desire of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is that all over the world everyone, in every village and every town, know of Him and His sankirtana movement. These are the inner feelings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Antya 1.177:
“‘The moonlike Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is known as the son of mother Saci, has now appeared on earth to spread devotional love of Himself. He is the emperor of the brahmana community. He can drive away all the darkness of ignorance and control the mind of everyone in the world. May that rising moon bestow upon us all good fortune.’” [Lalita-madhava 1.3]
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Antya 1.197, purport:
“Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu bestowed His special favor upon Srila Rupa Gosvami because Rupa Gosvami wanted to serve the Lord to the best of his ability. Such is the reciprocation between the devotee and the Lord in the discharge of devotional duties.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.19:
“We never tire of hearing the transcendental pastimes of the Personality of Godhead, who is glorified by hymns and prayers. Those who have developed a taste for transcendental relationships with Him relish hearing of His pastimes at every moment.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.22, purport:
“This age is very difficult for those who want to utilize this life for self-realization. The people are so busy with sense gratification that they completely forget about self-realization. Out of madness they frankly say that there is no need for self-realization because they do not realize that this brief life is but a moment on our great journey towards self-realization.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.5, purport:
“Krishna is our most intimate master, friend, father or son and object of conjugal love.”
“Forgetting Krishna, we have created so many objects of questions and answers, but none of them are able to give us complete satisfaction. All things — but Krishna — give temporary satisfaction only, so if we are to have complete satisfaction we must take to the questions and answers about Krishna. We cannot live for a moment without being questioned or without giving answers. Because the Srimad-Bhagavatam deals with questions and answers that are related to Krishna, we can derive the highest satisfaction only by reading and hearing this transcendental literature. One should learn the Srimad-Bhagavatam and make an all-around solution to all problems pertaining to social, political or religious matters. Srimad-Bhagavatam and Krishna are the sum total of all things.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.8, purport:
“The need of the spirit soul is that he wants to get out of the limited sphere of material bondage and fulfill his desire for complete freedom. He wants to get out of the covered walls of the greater universe. He wants to see the free light and the spirit. That complete freedom is achieved when he meets the complete spirit, the Personality of Godhead. There is a dormant affection for God within everyone; spiritual existence is manifested through the gross body and mind in the form of perverted affection for gross and subtle matter. Therefore we have to engage ourselves in occupational engagements that will evoke our divine consciousness. This is possible only by hearing and chanting the divine activities of the Supreme Lord, and any occupational activity which does not help one to achieve attachment for hearing and chanting the transcendental message of Godhead is said herein to be simply a waste of time.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.10:
“Life’s desires should never be directed toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life, or self-preservation, since a human being is meant for inquiry about the Absolute Truth. Nothing else should be the goal of one’s works.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.15.19, purport:
“The most important thing about the spiritual world is that there is no envy among the devotees there. This is true even among the flowers, which are all conscious of the greatness of tulasi. In the Vaikuntha world entered by the four Kumaras, even the birds and flowers are conscious of service to the Lord.”
From Sri Isopanisad 7, purport:
“The spiritual entities are meant for enjoyment, as stated in the Vedanta-sutra (1.1.12): ananda-mayo ’bhyasat. By nature and constitution, every living being—including the Supreme Lord and each of His parts and parcels—is meant for eternal enjoyment. The living beings who are encaged in the material tabernacle are constantly seeking enjoyment, but they are seeking it on the wrong platform. Apart from the material platform is the spiritual platform, where the Supreme Being enjoys Himself with His innumerable associates. On that platform there is no trace of material qualities, and therefore that platform is called nirguna. On the nirguna platform there is never a clash over the object of enjoyment. Here in the material world there is always a clash between different individual beings because here the proper center of enjoyment is missed. The real center of enjoyment is the Supreme Lord, who is the center of the sublime and spiritual rasa dance. We are all meant to join Him and enjoy life with one transcendental interest and without any clash. That is the highest platform of spiritual interest, and as soon as one realizes this perfect form of oneness, there can be no question of illusion (moha) or lamentation (soka).”
From Sri Isopanisad 10, purport:
“One should always remember that as long as he has a material body he must face the miseries of repeated birth, old age, disease and death. There is no use in making plans to get rid of these miseries of the material body. The best course is to find out the means by which one may regain his spiritual identity.”
“One should develop a liking for residence in a secluded place with a calm and quiet atmosphere favorable for spiritual culture.”
“One should become a scientist or philosopher and conduct research into spiritual knowledge, recognizing that spiritual knowledge is permanent whereas material knowledge ends with the death of the body.”
“More than fifty percent of a nation’s energy is devoted to defense measures and thus spoiled. No one cares for the cultivation of real knowledge, yet people are falsely proud of being advanced in both material and spiritual knowledge.”
From Sri Isopanisad 11, purport:
“From His kingdom the Personality of Godhead sends His bona fide servants to propagate this message by which one can return to Godhead, and sometimes the Lord comes Himself to do this work. Since all living beings are His beloved sons, His parts and parcels, God is more sorry than we ourselves to see the sufferings we are constantly undergoing in this material condition. The miseries of this material world serve to indirectly remind us of our incompatibility with dead matter. Intelligent living entities generally take note of these reminders and engage themselves in the culture of vidya, or transcendental knowledge. Human life is the best opportunity for the culture of spiritual knowledge, and a human being who does not take advantage of this opportunity is called a naradhama, the lowest of human beings.”
From Sri Isopanisad 13, purport:
“When one attains brahminical qualifications, he becomes happy and enthusiastic to render devotional service to the Lord. Automatically the science of God is unveiled before him. By knowing the science of God, one gradually becomes freed from material attachments, and one’s doubtful mind becomes crystal clear by the grace of the Lord. One who attains this stage is a liberated soul and can see the Lord in every step of life. This is the perfection of sambhava, as described in this mantra of Sri Isopanisad.”
From Sri Isopanisad 14, purport:
“By its so-called advancement of knowledge, human civilization has created many material things, including spaceships and atomic energy. Yet it has failed to create a situation in which people need not die, take birth again, become old or suffer from disease. Whenever an intelligent man raises the question of these miseries before a so-called scientist, the scientist very cleverly replies that material science is progressing and that ultimately it will be possible to render man deathless, ageless and diseaseless. Such answers prove the scientists’ gross ignorance of material nature. In material nature, everyone is under the stringent laws of matter and must pass through six stages of existence: birth, growth, maintenance, production of by-products, deterioration and finally death. No one in contact with material nature can be beyond these six laws of transformation; therefore no one—whether demigod, man, animal or plant—can survive forever in the material world.”
“Material scientists and politicians are trying to make this place deathless because they have no information of the deathless spiritual nature. This is due to their ignorance of the Vedic literature, which contains full knowledge confirmed by mature transcendental experience. Unfortunately, modern man is averse to receiving knowledge from the Vedas, Puranas and other scriptures.”
“We must therefore save ourselves and our fellow man in the right way. There is no question of liking or disliking the truth. It is there. If we want to be saved from repeated birth and death, we must take to the devotional service of the Lord. There can be no compromise, for this is a matter of necessity.”
From Sri Isopanisad 15, purport:
“In His village of Vrindavan He enjoyed Himself with His mother, brother and friends, and when He played the role of a naughty butter thief, all His associates enjoyed celestial bliss by His stealing. The Lord’s fame as a butter thief is not reproachable, for by stealing butter the Lord gave pleasure to His pure devotees. Everything the Lord did in Vrindavan was for the pleasure of His associates there. The Lord created these pastimes to attract the dry speculators and the acrobats of the so-called hatha-yoga system who wish to find the Absolute Truth.”
“Thus the Lord is always engaged in transcendental loving activities with His spiritual associates in the various relationships of santa (neutrality), dasya (servitorship), sakhya (friendship), vatsalya (parental affection) and madhurya (conjugal love).”
"This brahma-jyotir effulgence is described in detail in several mantras of the Mundaka Upanisad (2.2.10–12):
‘In the spiritual realm, beyond the material covering, is the unlimited Brahman effulgence, which is free from material contamination. That effulgent white light is understood by transcendentalists to be the light of all lights. In that realm there is no need of sunshine, moonshine, fire or electricity for illumination. Indeed, whatever illumination appears in the material world is only a reflection of that supreme illumination. That Brahman is in front and in back, in the north, south, east and west, and also overhead and below. In other words, that supreme Brahman effulgence spreads throughout both the material and spiritual skies.’”
“Srila Vyasadeva never states that the Supreme Truth is a jiva, an ordinary living entity. The living entity should never be considered the all-powerful Supreme Truth. If he were the Supreme, he would not need to pray to the Lord to remove His dazzling cover so that the living entity could see His real face.”
“In summary, a philosopher is better than a laboring man, a mystic is superior to a philosopher, and of all the mystic yogis, he who follows bhakti-yoga, constantly engaging in the service of the Lord, is the highest. Sri Isopanisad directs us toward this perfection.”
From Sri Isopanisad 16, purport:
“The brahma-jyotir is described in the Brahma-samhita as the rays emanating from that supreme spiritual planet, Goloka Vrindavan, just as the sun’s rays emanate from the sun globe. Until one surpasses the glare of the brahma-jyotir, one cannot receive information of the land of the Lord. The impersonalist philosophers, blinded as they are by the dazzling brahma-jyotir, can realize neither the factual abode of the Lord nor His transcendental form. Limited by their poor fund of knowledge, such impersonalist thinkers cannot understand the all-blissful transcendental form of Lord Krishna. In this prayer, therefore, Sri Isopanisad petitions the Lord to remove the effulgent rays of the brahma-jyotir so that the pure devotee can see His all-blissful transcendental form.”
From a class on Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.1.5 in Delhi:
We are opening so many branches just to give people the chance to hear about God.
If you hear Bhagavad-gita, you will learn everything about God. And that is our only duty.
Our only business is to get out of the matter.
I am not matter. I am spirit soul, part and parcel of God.
God is always cheerful. We can also always be cheerful if we go back to God.
From a class on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.2 in London on August 15, 1971:
As soon as we enter this material world, we are conditioned. Just like as soon as I come to America I am conditioned by the immigration department.
“Why they have become conditioned? The reason is they revolted against Krishna. They wanted to imitate Krishna. That is the mentality everywhere. You know, everyone says, ‘Oh, I don’t care for God. I don’t care for anything. I am at liberty to do anything.’”
The difference between the human bodies and others bodies is that the human can ask, “Why am I conditioned?”
“So if a swan is provided with all the necessities of life, why I shall not be? I am so much developed human being. Why I am so much busy in economic development? This is called illusion. But one who is advanced in knowledge, he knows that ‘If the swan is already provided with all the necessities of life, then I shall also be provided with all the necessities of life. There is no need of endeavoring for it.’ That is a fact. That is the fact.”
“So Krishna has provided everything for you. Don’t worry. Therefore our main business should be how to develop Krishna consciousness.”
“So first thing is religion, to learn how to become God conscious. This is the first business of human society. But they have rejected religion. They have become secular. Secular..., what does it mean, ‘secular’? It means don’t care for any kind of religion; just work very hard for economic development day and night. This is the modern civilization. No. That is misleading.”
If you have heard nicely about Krishna, then naturally you will preach.
“Everyone should know what he is, what is his constitutional position, why he is under so many conditions of life, how to get liberation. These are the questions. . . . These questions are called brahma-jijñasa. That is the beginning of Vedanta. Vedanta. Veda means knowledge; anta means end.”
“People are gradually trying to understand the gravity of this movement, but at least you should know the gravity of this movement. It is not ordinary movement. It is not a sentimental. It is most scientific, authorized movement, how to make people happy in this world and in the next.”
Comment by Mitrasena Prabhu: Srila Prabhupada wrote the essay “Who Is Crazy?” Imagine a bald-headed monk comes up to you and hands you a pamphlet entitled “Who Is Crazy?”
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura:
From “108 Essential Instructions”:
“93. Just because mundane thoughts appear in the mind while we chant the holy name does not mean we should slacken our chanting. The useless thoughts will gradually disappear as the irrevocable fruits of chanting the holy names. Do not be in a hurry.”
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
All these selections are from Free Write Journal:
From “Jagannatha Bliss” in Passing Places, Eternal Truths:
“O Lord Jagannatha,
please save me,
please keep me,
take me home.
Keep me traveling.
Keep me sick.
Make me well.
Whatever You want. Keep Your name on my mind.”
From Memories:
“Without looking at our memories, how can we feel gratitude, repentance, even happiness or sadness?”
From Every Day, Just Write, Volume 2: Search for the Authentic Self:
“I want to improve. I’m desperate, or like Thoreau said, living a life of ‘quiet desperation.’ I’m quietly desperate because I don’t know by what method I’ll make radical progress during the remainder of my life. I already have an expert guru, perfect scriptures, disciples, Godbrothers, a spiritual movement, a preaching field, and God in my heart. If still I don’t cross the ocean of birth and death—I don’t know what to say. Where else can I expect help to come from? As I grow older I’m less bold, less capable of making big changes in my way of thinking. Aging makes you complacent and in want of peace and quiet to heal your wounds and nurse your aching body. They say we should grow old gracefully. Does that mean seeking a niche in ISKCON? Is that what it means?”
From The Wild Garden:
“‘If we ignore Vrindavan, which is flooded with the nectar of Radha’s lotus feet and filled with the bliss of love for Lord Hari’s feet, then what are the other things we will talk about?’ (Vrindavan-mahimamrta, Sataka 4.85).
“Well said, good friend and great sadhu, Prabodhananda Sarasvati. Why talk of other things? Why ever forget Vrindavan? Even these rolling choruses of bird calls and chirping and peacocks’ ‘kee-kaw’ are part of Vrindavan. And the trees dripping in the rain. Who can complain about dark morning monsoon clouds in Vrindavan? Not me. But the symptoms of inattentive japa mean I have a hard heart filled with unredeemed aparadhas. I say I live with it. Others are worse than I am, I say. I look for encouragement in that fact and find it. Then I shake that off and turn to the sadhu:
“‘Srimati Radhika’s forest is the perfect atonement of sins, the ultimate shelter from offenses to great souls, the crest jewel of all principles of religion, and the crest jewel of all goals of life’ (Vrindavan-mahimamrta, Sataka 4.88).
“Note: It is Radhika’s forest, and that is what makes it so glorious. Just by living here . . . it doesn’t mean you can misbehave here, but you can admit, ‘I am helpless to overcome my bad habits in prayer. I feel no love. Please, I don’t like this condition.’
“I sat in the darkness of my room. There was a little light from a high, barred window, but that light was really more of a lighter shade of darkness. It was similar to my mental conception of a dungeon. From my mat on the floor I chanted, and I heard the japa of my two devotee friends in the other part of the house.
“Later, I paced on the rain-soaked roof in the Vrindavan quiet—tenth round, eleventh . . . where was my heart? Where was my feeling for Hare, Krishna, and Rama? I ask why this has to be so.
“I can articulate better in writing, so here, on this page, on behalf of my japa-sadhana, I ask the Lord of Vrindavan to please help me. You make all arrangements in Vrindavan. I approach You through Your representatives, Vrnda-devi (who awards desires), Bhakti-devi, and Yogamaya. You have already given us so much mercy on this visit—this house to live in, permission to study and write, time to chant in peace. But if we cannot use it to love You, then what use is it? Please give me a clue as to how to find the essence.
“‘The fortunate bow down before a person who, always seeing the eternal and sweet spiritual forms of Vrindavan’s grass, bushes, and other living entities, and bowing down before them with great devotion, resides here in Vrindavan.’ (Vrindavan-mahimamrta, Sataka 4.90)”
From The Wild Garden:
“I remember the shock I felt when I heard Prabhupada was going to San Francisco for the first time. We never thought Krishna consciousness would go beyond the Lower East Side. Of course, that wasn’t meant to be.
“I still think fondly of Prabhupada’s days with us in New York City. I felt like we were living in a small family. We wanted to preach for him, but we had no vision beyond New York.
“In those days I had my job at the welfare department and I also had my own apartment a few blocks from the storefront. My apartment soon became an annex to the storefront. We did everything under his direction—Sundays in Tompkins Square Park, making a record, Sunday Love Feasts—at least a few devotees had joined. He began to teach us Caitanya-caritamrta in the morning, because ‘now you are a little mature.’ We were disappointed to hear that he was going to San Francisco.
“I was among those who thought it wasn’t a good idea. I remember discussing it with Raya Rama. How could we let our Swamiji go to San Francisco just because someone had arranged for a ‘mantra rock dance’? Our Swamiji shouldn’t be treated like that—it’s not respectful. And anyway, Back to Godhead magazine is in New York.
“I dared suggest to Prabhupada that he shouldn’t go, but I could tell immediately that he wasn’t even open to hearing my suggestion. He was determined to preach and to spread Krishna consciousness. But he didn’t abandon us. He left us with something special: his instructions and the mood of service in separation.
“He wrote us a letter from San Francisco explaining that serving the guru’s order was more important than serving his physical presence. I remember feeling excited to carry on in Krishna consciousness, even though his room was empty and I felt such an ache of emptiness. We knew we had something even the San Francisco devotees didn’t have: service in separation.”
From The Wild Garden:
“Srila Prabhupada, I think I saw your footprints in the sand at Juhu beach. You must have been wearing those canvas shoes this morning when you took your walk. I imagine that you were perspiring. Your strides were long, and we must have been struggling to keep up with you. You wore no kurta, so we didn’t either. We hoped to overcome any reluctance we might have been feeling in our services. The opportunity to become better disciples is ongoing.
“In my mind, I can hear the prayers your disciples made, silently, fervently, as they walked with you this morning. Please allow us to get close to you. Please call us to serve you. Please help us be sincere, serious, dedicated, honest. Please forgive us for praying without enough sincerity. We are trying to improve.”
From Passing Places, Eternal Truths:
“ . . . I said that last night’s meeting fulfilled the purpose of our travel to Italy, but tonight’s meeting was even better. I spoke my old memories of coming to Srila Prabhupada in 1966. I worried beforehand that it would be too much the same old thing and that I wouldn’t be able to speak from my heart. But I did. Having to pause for the translator helped. The audience laughed at the humor of the stories. As I told each story—the time I gave 600 dollars and then Prabhupada looked at me as if to say, ‘You haven’t surrendered yet,’ the time I didn’t get initiated and Swamiji said, ‘If you love me, then I’ll love you’—I recreated them and lived in them as I spoke them. Although the devotees may have had fun tonight, I was the one who benefited the most because I was able to feel those happy days again and my simple love for and surrender to Prabhupada. And to be able to joke about my own foolish self and to tell how he dragged me to his lotus feet was relishable.
“Afterwards, someone asked, ‘What is it that brings out the love of the disciple for the spiritual master?’ It is the loving force of the guru pulling the disciple forward.
“I had a bit of a headache at the beginning of the meeting, but I sailed through and the headache left during the ecstasy of talking. Now I’m back on the ground with less than an hour before I have to take rest. We leave in the morning. This is the reason to travel: to find new audiences and to tell the same old stories of Prabhupada’s saving me and my coming to love him in 1966.”
From Karttika Flame and Shadow:
“Krishna science will save us, I hope. It can as long you hold on through the worst things that start happening. Krishna won’t abandon you as long as you don’t abandon Him.”
From Remembering Srila Prabhupada: A Free-Verse Rendition of the Life and Teachings of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada:
“COLLEGE DAYS”
“Why should a nitya-siddha go to school?
Why not?
Must he walk without touching the ground?
‘By the order of the Supreme
he remains within the material world
like an ordinary man, but his only business
is to broadcast the glories of the Lord.’
Throughout his life he sometimes told
how at Scottish Church College
he learned worldly knowledge:
Shakespeare. Dickens, economist Marshall,
psychology, chemistry, history.
It neither baffled nor appealed to his soul.
Though the college was Christian,
he remained pure Vaishnava.
They gave him a new Bible and collegiate academics.
‘What are you thinking?’ asked a friend
‘I don’t like these things,’ Abhay replied.
When a professor disparaged
transmigration of the soul—
‘How could a person be judged without a witness?’—
Abhay rejected the flimsy logic:
This is their Christian philosophy?
Don’t they know there is a witness?
Don’t they know the Lord is in the heart?
As a lily on water remains dry,
you remained unaffected.
“ . . . . Traveling alone to Puri
to see Lord Jagannath,
reading Srimad-Bhagavatam —he had no other plans.
Yet just to live in Calcutta was the greatest preparation:
his eternal spiritual master
was waiting there,
and the time drew near
for them to meet.
“Krishna took over
after Gour Mohan De
had brought him as far as he could.
Marriage and a job
at Dr. Bose’s lab—a grhastha’s way.
Minimizing but retaining worldly duties,
he focused on Krishna as Supreme.
But when Krishna took over,
Abhay was ready.
He remained uncaught
by the national passion,
surging like a tide
behind the figure of Gandhi.
Abhay wore protestor’s khadi,
but his heart was not in it.
And Krishna took over.”
From Why Not Fiction?:
“And I thought about my own way of seeing. How do we gain access to that? Does it make a good enough story? Is it the truest story or just the same old thing? I answered that for myself. It’s not the same old thing. It’s new and fresh and changing. We have to see it clearly and stand up for it, our own little life, our life attached to Krishna. We who have nothing to do with this town, we have to see things in our own Krishna conscious way as we walk through it.”
From Progresso: A Ten-Day Book Seeking Krishna Consciousness:
“Those who seek relief from the vices of this age will take shelter in this Bhagavata Purana. What I write is not Purana, but I can still give the bhagavata on this page. I’m an authorized receiver and distributor of the philosophy of bhakti.”
Candrasekhara Swami:
One thing we can actually give Krishna is our attention, and to do to that we have to remove our attention from other things. That is not just a one time thing. We have to keep doing it. We have to always try to be connected with Krishna.
Hansarupa Prabhu:
At the gosala in Vrindavan, Srila Prabhupada allowed grhasthas to live together. At the guesthouse and other places on the temple compound they had to live separately.
We see with purified mind and intelligence, not these eyes.
This jail of the material world has no bars, but it is impossible to escape from without higher knowledge.
For Srila Prabhupada to translate the books or to travel around the world giving lectures was not difficult. What was difficult was to get an immature bunch of young Westerners to cooperate.
Some people think the GBC is irrelevant, but actually those people are irrelevant.
Without humility it is not possible to understand God.
The more we are in touch with the pure knowledge the more we become free from illusion.
Man is not inherently evil. All evil results from forgetfulness of God.
The greatest evil is to keep people from getting knowledge of the Absolute Truth.
Rama Raya Prabhu:
One disciple wanted to study astrology and make charts for the devotees. Srila Prabhupada said his guru, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, was the greatest astrologer of all times, but he gave it up to preach pure devotional service. Then he explained the pure devotee’s thoughts about the future: “Whatever will be will be. We will simply chant Hare Krishna.”
Radhanath Swami recalls when he first met Srila Prabhupada at the Bombay pandal program. Srila Prabhupada sent Brahmananda up into the seats to invite him to sit on the stage with Srila Prabhupada. While he was sitting on the stage, Sarasvati, the daughter of Malati and Shyamasundar, who was only a child, said to him, “Guess what? Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” Srila Prabhupada liked Sarasvati doing this very much.
During Vedic times, because there were competent government leaders there was no need for all this mundane charity because people were properly taken care of it.
Harinama-sankirtana is like a rainfall that causes everything to flourish.
Hari Vilasa Prabhu:
Many animals are ready to go, to move around, and to eat the day after they are born, while a human child is practically helpless. Yet by education a human can be completely transformed, much more so than an animal.
Chhatrapati Shivaji was famous for keeping the Moguls out of Mumbai. How did he learn how to rule? His mother read Mahabharata to him every day as a kid.
Bharata Muni makes the point that if a playwright portrays sinful people as successful he will suffer a sinful reaction for that because of misleading people.
People cannot make the connection that the content of what they watch is the cause of their miserable lives.
The Bhagavatam uses very strong language to deprecate the hearing of mundane subject matter because it is so detrimental to one’s spiritual life.
The Lord incarnates in this world and enacts dramas to give human society some spiritually positive content to absorb their minds in to elevate them.
If you lapse into absorbing your mind in the mundane, bring it back to the Bhagavatam as soon as you can, and purify your mind.
We need big devotional production companies to produce devotional material to purify people’s minds.
We follow the four principles because if we do not then our lives will become so chaotic from the sinful reactions that we will not be able to endeavor for transcendence.
Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says that the association of devotees is that pious activity referred to in Bhagavad-gita 7.28 as being required to be fixed in devotional service.
Ananda Kirtan Prabhu:
“Radhanath Maharaja was invited to a pandal program with Sri Vaishnavas. Maharaja sat on the end of the assembly somewhere in the crowd, while one of the head leaders of the sampradaya was speaking. Many sannyasis were in the front row, there must have been a hundred or more dandas. The speaker was glorifying the Sri Vaishnava sannyasis, explaining how austere, learned and strict they were. He explained how for many, many generations not one sannyasi has fallen from his vows. Then he said if you take all the sannyasis present in this assembly and all of them many generations back and put them together, they don’t equal one grain of dust on the lotus feet of one of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami’s disciples who are traveling the world preaching the glories and teachings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. [Please note I am paraphrasing. I may be missing a detail or two, but this is what I can remember from Siddhanta Prabhus videos of Prabhupada Memories. I’ve seen this particular video two or three times a few years ago. I’m not sure what volume of Prabhupada Memories the video clip is on, but Siddhanta Prabhu knows off the top of his head because he told me one time the exact volume to find it on but I forgot.”
Janardana Prabhu:
From a Facebook post:
“Teamwork makes the dream work.” [This reminds me that Srila Prabhupada told his followers that their love for him would be shown by their working together to maintain his mission after his disappearance.]
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This verse makes an important point. We should not endeavor for material happiness but for spiritual gain. The argument is that we obtain distress without endeavoring, and we can achieve happiness in the same way. Thus we should endeavor spiritually for then our benefit will be eternal rather than endeavoring for material gain, which is always coming and going, and thus will never satisfy us.
tasyaiva hetoh prayateta kovido
tal labhyate duhkhavad anyatah sukham
kalena sarvatra gabhira-ramhasa
“Persons who are actually intelligent and philosophically inclined should endeavor only for that purposeful end which is not obtainable even by wandering from the topmost planet [Brahmaloka] down to the lowest planet [Patala]. As far as happiness derived from sense enjoyment is concerned, it can be obtained automatically in course of time, just as in course of time we obtain miseries even though we do not desire them.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.18)
