By Krishna Kripa Das
(December 2022, part two, week two)
New York City
(Sent from Brooklyn, New York, on January 7, 2023)
Kearston of Krishna House chants Hare Krishna at Fulton Street subway station and a girl dances wildly (https://youtu.be/6pHaE_ApKII):
Rama Raya Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Sunday feast program on Christmas Day at ISKCON NYC (https://youtu.be/Yf2OK9hDXXs):
Amrita chants Hare Krishna at Fulton Street, and a family plays shakers (https://youtu.be/4mhqm0Cv61k):
Here is more of Amrita’s kirtan (https://youtu.be/FFR-jqUSm3I):
I also chanted Hare Krishna at Fulton Street, and passersby played shakers and danced (https://youtube.com/shorts/55RTLat7ZNM?feature=share):
Kearston chants Hare Krishna at Fulton Street (https://youtu.be/-i63W0Sq_hk):
Devotees chant Hare Krishna at Fulton Street, and a guy dances (https://youtu.be/6TUijT8WsNg):
Ananda Bihari Prabhu chants at Fulton Street, and devotees dance (https://youtu.be/rN9_ABqGspA):
Rama Raya Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Fulton Street, and passerby dances with devotees (https://youtu.be/AFb-c4-3NxA):
Rama Raya Prabhu chants Hare Krishna to Auld Lang Syne Tune at Fulton Street, and several dance (https://youtu.be/WUrY5QYfO6E):
During an extra harinama I did for the Prabhupada Marathon at Jay Street - Metrotech on the uptown A/C/F platform, a young black lady seeing me singing when she got off the A or C train, set down her stuff and danced until the next train arrived on that track, holding the “On Chanting Hare Krishna” pamphlet I gave her. Then she entered one end of the nearest subway car but came out the other. Then she danced until the train after that came, when she finally left, still holding the pamphlet.
That same day at the same place I met three Indian friends. Puja and Rama played the shakers to my chanting of Hare Krishna, and Ravi was happy to make this video (https://youtu.be/98oxgNUmq4I):
You really cannot predict what will happen on harinama in NYC!
Jagaddhatri Devi Dasi chants Hare Krishna at Fulton Street (https://youtu.be/bfctHpxvv9g):
Divyangi Devi Dasi chants Hare Krishna at Fulton Street (https://youtu.be/RnzuL6eDp28):
Jayananda Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Fulton Street (https://youtu.be/5oHFu5egYGc):
Rama Raya Prabhu chants Hare Krishna to “Auld Lang Syne” tune at Fulton Street (https://youtu.be/9Ja50UtoCvE):
Rama Raya Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Fulton Street (https://youtu.be/X-PDr6zA6yU):
At this Tuesday program at ISKCON NYC, a guy who came for the first time last week returned. A lady who went to the Sunday feast every week till age 8 returned after 25 years, saying she wants to be more of a devotee now.
Krishna Shakti Devi Dasi chants Hare Krishna in Guru Kirtan at ISKCON NYC (https://youtu.be/grNYAbA4zrg):
On harinama that day, Narada Muni Prabhu suggested that Kaylee talk to this girl who was very inquistive and who took a book.
Jayananda Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Times Square, and a family plays shakers (https://youtu.be/VUTKOTSJ81k):
Kearston chants Hare Krishna in Times Square (https://youtu.be/Cz3L2vUQ7Zg):
Natabara Gauranga Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Guru Puja at ISKCON NYC (https://youtu.be/Apmpzk3kCRU):
Bhakta Nate chants Hare Krishna at Times Square subway station above the downtown A train, and several passersby dance and play the shakers (https://youtu.be/oJip7v4seLQ):
The most austere part of my 28½ extra hours of harinama for the Prabhupada Marathon was when a Christian yelled at me and passersby, decrying every religion other than Christianity in a loud voice for half an hour (https://youtu.be/4P6npNHFagE):
One passerby, who talked briefly with the Christian, later told his friend, “The guy is crazy.”
I didn’t want to pack up and move, and I figured he would run out of steam after a while. It just took longer than I hoped.
Jagaddhatri Devi Dasi chants Hare Krishna in Times Square (https://youtu.be/5BEhkdn-AmU):
Divyangi Devi Dasi chants Hare Krishna at Times Square, and a couple plays shakers and dances (https://youtu.be/6MqjLgrS108):
Natabara Gauranga Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Times Square (https://youtu.be/OF85QLPulhA):
Ishan Thakura Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Times Square (https://youtu.be/EPVonNsZ3Wc):
Kearston chants Hare Krishna at Times Square (https://youtu.be/dRZ7lpJBsWo):
Rama Raya Prabhu Chants Hare Krishna to “Auld Lang Syne” tune at Times Square (https://youtu.be/OGz67KiH370):
Rama Raya Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Times Square, and passersby play shakers and dance (https://youtu.be/OW8-czo_COw):
Rama Raya Prabhu chants Hare Krishna to “Auld Lang Syne” tune at Times Square, and several dance (https://youtu.be/usSFGaG5zxw):
Krishna House girls, Kaylee and Kearston, chant Hare Krishna on the F train from Second Avenue to Jay Street - Metrotech after the Thursday night kirtan at The Bhakti Center as they return to ISKCON NYC in Brooklyn (https://youtu.be/xqc0dy3ltWo):
Natabara Gauranga Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Penn Station subway station, and a family participates (https://youtu.be/7rVIPmeJCeU):
Arjunananda Prabhu also chanted Hare Krishna there (https://youtu.be/x0RknWimiE4):
Narada Muni Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Penn Station subway station (https://youtu.be/yNIRXs3VG-c):
Rama Raya Prabhu chants Hare Krishna to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne” at Penn Station subway station (https://youtu.be/-CDO63_3smU):
Later several passersby played shakers and danced to Rama Raya Prabhu’s kirtan (https://youtu.be/wQ6gbm6yv7k):
Jayananda Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Fulton Street, and a family plays shakers (https://youtu.be/I_XoH1WyKR4):
Here is more of his kirtan (https://youtu.be/FJbWlnph1eQ):
Kearston chants Hare Krishna at Fulton Street on New Year’s Eve (https://youtu.be/t325j997Cc4):
I also chanted Hare Krishna at there on that day (https://youtu.be/9vMG7H8CyJ8):
Rama Raya Prabhu chants Hare Krishna to “Auld Lang Syne” tune at Fulton Street on New Year’s Eve (https://youtu.be/zAiLhDgXskg):
Rama Raya Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Fulton Street on New Year’s Eve and devotees and passersby dance (https://youtu.be/7ThHHlEp8ZY):
I met my goal in the marathon only because my goal was to go out more hours. Because people gave me less money, I could give out fewer books. I do not know why people were less charitable this year, do you?
Accounting for 2022
I gave more away in charity this year because I had made money during the COVID lock down by filing for unemployment, and I felt I should spend it for good purposes rather than just leave it in the bank. The Phone/Internet category includes computer expenses. The “Wasted” category is an Amazon Prime free trial I did not cancel in time, a bus I did not take as plans changed, and a double charge on a prepaid SIM top up. I hope to recover the Amazon Prime and SIM top up charges.
Special Photos
Of course the most special photos are of Radha Govinda, who sometimes appear more beautiful than others. They never appear in my photos as beautiful as in real life. I hypothesize that is because They reciprocate the trouble you take to see them in person.
I loved Chinese food as a kid, but we do not find it in the Hare Krishna temples very often.
Karuna Sindhu Prabhu, of Chinese descent, makes chow mein and sushi on Wednesday for the devotees at the Brooklyn temple. Sushi was never part of my life, but the chow mein is for me a real treat!
Conquering clutter can be a challenge as this photo reminds us!
Insights
Srila Prabhupada:
From Bhagavad-gita 4.30, purport:
“Sense gratification is the root cause of material existence; therefore, unless and until one is situated on a platform apart from sense gratification, there is no chance of being elevated to the eternal platform of full knowledge, full bliss and full life. This platform is in the eternal atmosphere, or Brahman atmosphere.”
From Bhagavad-gita 4.34, purport:
“One has to approach a bona fide spiritual master to receive the knowledge. Such a spiritual master should be accepted in full surrender, and one should serve the spiritual master like a menial servant, without false prestige. Satisfaction of the self-realized spiritual master is the secret of advancement in spiritual life. Inquiries and submission constitute the proper combination for spiritual understanding. Unless there is submission and service, inquiries from the learned spiritual master will not be effective. One must be able to pass the test of the spiritual master, and when he sees the genuine desire of the disciple, he automatically blesses the disciple with genuine spiritual understanding.”
From Bhagavad-gita 4.35, purport:
“Liberation means to be situated in one’s constitutional position as an eternal servitor of Krishna (Krishna consciousness).”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.2, purport:
“In the lower stages of human civilization, there is always competition to lord it over the material nature or, in other words, there is a continuous rivalry to satisfy the senses. Driven by such consciousness, man turns to religion. He thus performs pious activities or religious functions in order to gain something material. But if such material gains are obtainable in other ways, then so-called religion is neglected. This is the situation in modern civilization. Man is thriving economically, so at present he is not very interested in religion. Churches, mosques or temples are now practically vacant. Men are more interested in factories, shops, and cinemas than in religious places which were erected by their forefathers. This practically proves that religion is performed for some economic gains. Economic gains are needed for sense gratification.”
From a class on Brahma-samhita 5.32 in Los Angeles on August 14, 1972:
“Realization means you should write. Every one of you. What is your realization? What for this Back To Godhead is! You write your realization—what you have realized about Krishna. That is required. It is not passive. Always you should be active. Whenever you find time, write. Never mind—two lines, four lines, but you write your realization.”
From a class on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.37 in Los Angeles on April 29, 1973:
This is the position. The devotees has no other shelter than Krishna.
We become diseased if we eat too much or too little.
Lord Caitanya objected to Sanatana Goswami’s plan of suicide because he had already dedicated his body to Krishna. “How can you destroy another’s property?”
There are six item of surrender beginning with accepting everything which is favorable for devotional service and rejecting everything which is unfavorable.
Kunti made the point to Krishna that because they had defeated so many enemies that the relatives of their enemies would attack them, and thus they were in danger, and so they needed His protection.
A devotee should see if his time is unnecessarily being spent, that is, if it is being spent in maya’s service or Krishna’s service.
To awaken this taste for Krishna consciousness takes time.
Rupa Goswami was thinking, “I have only one tongue and two ears. If I had millions of tongues and trillions of ears, then I could really taste the holy name.”
Krishna is everywhere but because we cannot see Krishna everywhere, He has come as the deity. Therefore we should live in the temple.
We should always think, “Without Krishna my life is useless.”
Although Krishna is her nephew, Kunti addresses Krishna as prabhu, master, because He is the Lord.
By taking shelter of Krishna, we should feel safe.
We should not think because Krishna is already giving protection to everyone, why should we become devotees? If we become devotees, Krishna will give us special protection as the king gives special protection to those on his personal staff.
The general tendency is to think my family, my society or my government will give me protection, and to not seek the protection of Krishna.
Although Kunti is the mother of big, big warriors like Arjuna and Bhima, she felt they were insufficient to give her protection.
“So this is a very nice verse for the surrendered soul seeking the protection of Krishna. And if we remain in that position, that our only protector is Krishna and our only duty is to serve Krishna, then our life is successful.”
Comments by Arjunananda Prabhu:
An advancing devotee is always afraid of maya.
Srila Prabhupada defined taste as whenever you have free time you chant Hare Krishna.
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
From “On Kirtana” in Among Friends, Volume 2 #1 (1993):
“When I heard the question [how to keep the mind from wandering during kirtana], different phrases came to mind. One was: ‘Hear the wonderful chorus and let it uplift you.’ That chorus is a dimension in kirtana that is not available to us in japa. When we are chanting among sincere devotees, we can feel the upliftment. There is such an inspiring (and demanding) welling up of voices and we can ride that wave of sound.
“Another phrase that comes to mind is, ‘Go with the emotions.’ When we chanted with Srila Prabhupada on the Lower East Side, we certainly went with our emotions and Prabhupada encouraged that. If we feel transcendental emotions in the kirtana, we can acknowledge them and allow them. We shouldn’t just struggle to fix our minds on some Krishna conscious concept. Kirtana is not an intellectual exercise.
“It also occurred to me that if we are struggling to control our minds during kirtana, then we should pray to simply stay in the kirtana and bathe in its soothing waters. Kirtana will wash us clean of everything that is hindering our attention if we remain in the holy name’s presence.
“Kirtana is a good time to pray. We tend to be more Krishna conscious during kirtana and more clear in our thinking. During kirtana we can pray to remain in devotional service throughout our lives. Lead and chorus, lead and chorus—they are like waves in the ocean. If we miss one wave, we can always dive into the next one.
“I especially feel that way during Prabhupada’s kirtana. No one sings like Prabhupada. Listening to Prabhupada sing kirtana gives me a taste of the meaning of the Hare Krishna movement. This is a chanting movement. Therefore, Prabhupada introduced the chanting at the very beginning and sang Hare Krishna everywhere he went. When he was no longer able to sing loudly, he would sit among the devotees and hear kirtana. He took spiritual pleasure in the chanting. Even near the end when he went back to Vrindavan, he wanted to be surrounded by soft kirtana twenty-four hours a day.
“The Krishna consciousness movement won’t really be successful until we spread the holy name. Sometimes it seems impossible, but it is the only way to create a Krishna conscious world. And where does this prophecy begin its fulfillment? It has to take place within the movement itself. Prabhupada wanted kirtanas in all the temples. He knew that if anyone came to a temple and heard the kirtana, it would draw him in. Kirtana is beyond sectarian designations. There is spiritual power in the devotees chanting together.
“When a neophyte devotee chants, he notices that he doesn’t have devotion for Krishna. Still the chanting keeps us within the kirtana-rasa. Other things seem unimportant in comparison. It seems that as soon as we leave the kirtana, those other concerns flood our minds, so we should keep having kirtana as much as possible. Bhaktivinoda Thakura advises us, “Just once relish the nectar of the holy name!” We are already engaging our physical senses in the chanting, mantra after mantra. Now please just once, mind, relish the chanting. “Whether you are a householder or a sannyasi, constantly chant…Do not forget this chanting, whether you are in a happy condition or a distressful one. Just fill your lips with harinama.”
“When I remember early kirtanas with Prabhupada, I remember how raw we all were. But Prabhupada transformed us. It was magical. We gave ourselves to the kirtana expecting to get ecstasy from it and we did feel ecstasy.
“I don’t like to say that kirtanas were necessarily better then, but we were different. We were naive, unselfconscious, unsophisticated. If we felt some emotion, we weren’t afraid to express it in front of the other devotees or guests. We weren’t afraid of appearing like sahajiyas. Therefore, we danced and chanted with exuberance.
“Prabhupada was so permissive in those days. He preached to us about the power of the holy name and he expected us to surrender. Because he had explained to us what to expect from full surrender, we put our hearts into the chanting. The movement was undeveloped in those days, so the only real way we had to surrender was in our chanting.”
From “By Your Anxiety” in Among Friends, Volume 2 #3 (1993):
“If I were to boil down what I want from my disciples, it would be that I am asking them to improve. That is the thrust of my own attempts in devotional service, to always try to improve and deepen my Krishna consciousness. I don’t ever want to think that I have improved enough. Inspiration for improvement comes from hearing. No matter what stage we are in in our lives, we can always hear something and then aspire to improve ourselves.”
“One time some devotees asked Prabhupada, ‘How can we please Krishna?’ Prabhupada answered, ‘By your anxiety.’ It was such an unusual and unexpected answer that the devotees laughed nervously. Prabhupada then said, ‘If you have a sense that I did something wrong, I did not serve nicely, then you can improve. But if you think, “I did everything nicely, I am already advanced,” then how can you improve?’ Krishna can enjoy everything we offer Him without our help. He is pleased by our anxiety and eagerness to improve.”
“When a disciple shows that anxiety or eagerness to improve and takes help from the spiritual master, then the guru-disciple relationship deepens to the point where the guru and disciple can discuss kṛishṇa-katha. When that happens, it’s pleasing both to the guru and the disciple. Prabhupada says in his purport to Bhag. 10.1.4: ‘For kṛishṇa-katha, topics about Krishna consciousness, there must be a speaker and a hearer, both of whom can be interested in Krishna consciousness if they are no longer interested in material topics.’”
From “Japa: Positive Thinking for Neophytes” in Among Friends, Volume 2 #4 (1994):
“Japa is everyone’s favorite topic because all of us hope that by discussing our sadhana, we have a chance to improve. Often when I talk to devotees about chanting, I say the first stage of improvement is to become aware that we need improvement. Then we can feel regret for our bad habits. Narottama dasa Thakura and Bhaktivinoda Thakura have both described this regret with intense feelings.”
“Devotees once asked Srila Prabhupada about devotees who didn’t chant their rounds. ‘What is the position of such a person?’ Prabhupada replied, ‘He is an animal.’”
“Whatever we can do to improve we should do. Any idea we have about how to improve should be acted upon. Even little things, like taking nice care of our beads, can help. For example, Prabhupada regularly changed his bead bag so he would always have a clean one. We don’t wear the same dhoti or sari day after day. Similarly, we shouldn’t leave our beads in a dirty bead bag. Beads should not be put on the floor. Although these are external things, they can help.”
“We should never think, ‘My chanting is so bad that I don’t think my chanting will help me. I’ll try to please Krishna by some other service.’ We can do other services, but we should never minimize the chanting.”
“I really did get a second birth, a second life from Srila Prabhupada. That life started off nicely and it has continued nicely. Prabhupada planted the seed that I should be a devotee. Any aspirations I had to be a monk or a saintly person instantly bloomed. Maybe there was already something there from a past life, as he said, but my taking to Krishna consciousness was all due to his being so perfect in character. He represented Krishna and Krishna consciousness. For me it was perfect. I became one of his faithful sons. He gave me the work of earning money for him. He taught me to use everything in Krishna consciousness. That was my spiritual birth and childhood, and it was auspicious and healthy.”
From “Prayer” in Among Friends, Volume 2 #5 (1994):
“We should I never be so foolish as to ask Krishna to fulfill our material desires. We should have that much mental control. We may not be able to remove all material desire from our hearts immediately, but we can control ourselves from praying to Krishna to fulfill them.”
From “Spiritual Strength” in Among Friends, Volume 2 #9 (1994):
“There are different ways we require spiritual strength in our daily lives. One occasion is when we are tempted by lust. If our senses are barraged by agitation, we need spiritual strength to conquer the agitation and not fall down. According to The Nectar of Devotion, when there is something present to agitate lust and we don’t become lusty, we are dhira, sober. Sobriety in Krishna consciousness is a strength. Especially for those of us who have had the habit and memory of sinful life, temptation can be powerful. Therefore, we need bala.”
“Another way we need strength is to encounter intellectual doubts. Western culture is filled with gross material vibrations that incite our lower natures. Similarly, we live in a faithless age. Religion is seen as superstition. Therefore, we need spiritual strength to overcome the doubts that prevail against us.”
From “Sravanam-kirtanam” in Among Friends, Volume 2 #10 (1994):
“Prabhupada approved wholeheartedly of that reading schedule [of at least three hours a day]: ‘Yes, as a sannyasi and GBC, your first duty is to read my books. Otherwise, how will you preach? We must have a sound philosophical understanding to be fixed in Krishna consciousness. Otherwise, it will become only sentiment. Whenever you find time, please read my books.’”
From “Krishna’s Mercy Is Greater Than Our Disqualification” in Among Friends, Volume 2 #11 (1994):
“Our disqualification is not as great as Krishna’s mercy. Krishna’s mercy comes in the form of service and we have to beg for that service.”
From “Krishna Recognizes the Preacher” in Among Friends, Volume 2 #12 (1994):
“A Vaishnava enters a meditation on the suffering of others, then desires to alleviate their suffering, then takes up some work to bring that alleviation about. His meditation on their suffering activates his mercy.”
“What does it mean to be recognized by the Lord? Doesn’t Krishna already know everyone? Yes, Krishna knows everyone—the devotees, the nondevotees, the souls in animal bodies. He knows everyone because He is the witness in everyone’s heart. But when a jiva turns to Krishna and says that he doesn’t want sense gratification anymore, but only to serve Him, then there is a special recognition between that jiva and Krishna. Krishna looks at him with love.”
“A crude example of this is the relationship between teacher and student. A teacher knows all his students, but when one student stands out by his sincere interest in the subject matter, the teacher recognizes him and encourages that real spark of being a good student.
“It’s like that between Krishna and the devotee. He is already recognizing everyone, but when someone stands up and applies themselves to devotional service, Krishna gives him special recognition.”
From “How We Came to Accept Krishna” in Among Friends, Volume 3 #3 (1995):
“O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me as pearls are strung on a thread.”
“One time at 26 Second Avenue, Prabhupada was explaining this verse. He said, ‘If I were to say there is nobody greater than me, you would say, “Oh, Swamiji is proud. He thinks no one is better than him.” But Krishna can make that assertion.’”
From “The Guru’s Perfection, and an Institution’s Laws” in Among Friends, Volume 3 #4 (1995):
“Once on a morning walk in Mayapur, Jayadvaita (then brahmacari) questioned Srila Prabhupada about the possibility of a pure devotee making a mistake. Indirectly, he was questioning whether Prabhupada himself could make a mistake. Srila Prabhupada replied that seeing fault in the guru is itself a fault, and he explained that the guru’s perfection is that he is always absorbed in thinking of Krishna and preaching Krishna consciousness. His perfection is not based on whether he misquotes slokas or statistics. He added that the guru is not the Supersoul. He cannot know all there is to know materially and spiritually.”
“So much misunderstanding comes if a person in a superior position tries to maintain an image of his own absolute perfection. The lie simply builds up more and more, and so many difficulties arise.”
“If someone is constantly inventing scenarios to test the compassion of the law, I wonder why. It reminds me of the questions the Pharisees put to Jesus Christ—complicated, spiritual-legal questions—meant to trip him up. They wanted to see how far his compassion went and whether it transgressed scriptural law. Jesus was a revolutionary in his day. He always favored love of God over legal concerns.”
From “Krishna Protects and Maintains the Devotee” in Among Friends, Volume 3 #6 (1995):
“Because we are foolish and illusioned, Krishna sends the spiritual master to those who desire to get out of the material world. The spiritual master’s duty is to invite, cajole, and even drag his disciples to Krishna’s lotus feet. But even the guru cannot force us to submit our tiny will. When we do submit, however, he offers us the shelter of Krishna’s protection and we are maintained by Krishna’s instructions.”
From “Chanting With Humility” in Among Friends, Volume 3 #9 (1995):
“In a personal way, Prabhupada instructs his followers: ‘We must strictly follow the principle of offering our respect to the Pañca-tattva at the beginning of every function in preaching, especially before chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, we must chant the Pañca-tattva’s names and offer our respects to them.’”
“If we are offenders and we can feel sorry about that, then we can make progress. If we are callous and unconcerned, then there is no question of praying for forgiveness or receiving the required mercy.”
From “Five Potent Forms of Devotional Service” in Among Friends, Volume 3 #11 (1995):
“Krishna’s holy name is the best medicine for our material disease. Constant chanting is a potent method of devotional service because by practicing it, our forgetfulness of Krishna is replaced with remembrance.”
“I remember when Prabhupada was in New York, a young man told him that he was going to go to India to pursue his spiritual life. Prabhupada said, ‘Why are you going to India? India has come to you.’”
From “Listening to Krishna in Prayer” in Among Friends, Volume 4 #4 (1996):
“Just as no one can eat for us, no one can pray for us.”
“No one can cry for us either. We have to cry our own tears. In this case, Prabhupada is recommending that a devotee cry for service.”
“This is a dynamic of prayer—to pray to Krishna to please tell us what to do and then to scrutinize our lives in every way possible to understand how Krishna is conveying His will to us. If we render devotional service, everything will be revealed to us. Krishna makes that promise.”
From “Yukta-vairagya” in Among Friends, Volume 4 #5 (1996):
Our material tendencies and interests are deep-rooted. At a certain stage of Krishna consciousness, it is unnatural to give them up. Such psycho-physical designations even form our identification with a particular varna and asrama, and they are very much a part of conditioned life. To use them to impel us forward in spiritual life is brilliant.
From “Krishna Will Help Us to Attain Him” in Among Friends, Volume 4 #6 (1996):
“We should also become indebted to Krishna for His kindness in helping us to approach Him. To know the imports of all the Vedas, we have to have faith both in guru and Krishna. Krishna creates that faith, but His greater help is in helping us to maintain it. We can feel that more in our lives if we continue to cry out to Him for His mercy—if we continuously express our dependence.
“When they first came to Krishna consciousness, many devotees say that they were crying out to God for help and direction. Often, they feel that God led them to ISKCON and to Prabhupada’s shelter. If they stop crying, however, and settle into the mode of goodness, then they may lose the sharp edge of their Krishna conscious awareness. Krishna responds to earnest desire. We have to become desperate to attain Him. It’s not that now that we are members of ISKCON, we have found Krishna and attained the goal. We have to continue to be eager for His mercy. Then Krishna will bless us with further progress. The Krishna bird is sitting on the tree of our heart just waiting for us to turn to Him. We can turn to Him in our japa and in all our activities: “Krishna, please, I don’t have devotion. I need Your mercy. Please give me service.
“If we don’t cry out to Krishna regularly, then we begin to become nominal devotees. Prabhupada jokingly called such devotion ‘Churchianity,’ meaning that all we do is go to ‘church’ once a week. If we become nominal devotees, we won’t feel Krishna’s presence in our lives. We won’t notice how He is directing us. We won’t feel His strength.”
From “The Qualifications of the Disciple” in Among Friends, Volume 4 #7 (1996):
“This willingness to surrender fully to the guru’s order is the cost of discipleship and also its reward. It is what qualifies us to ourselves become teachers, although we remain forever disciples.”
“This means that it is not only one spiritual master who is to be respected, but any devotee in the chain of disciplic succession whether they are man or woman, big or little, famous or not.”
“Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura states in his Madhurya-kadambini that if we offend any devotee, our spiritual lives are in danger. Even an advanced devotee can fall down if he offends a lesser devotee.”
From “Knowing Krishna in Truth” in Among Friends, Volume 4 #8 (1996):
“We know Krishna in truth through our relationship with Him. If we actually loved Krishna, how different our lives would be. Who can say that they know Krishna in tattvata if Krishna is not existentially the most important person in his life, if all his activities do not revolve around Him? To facilitate this realization, the acaryas have established Deity worship. In this way, we can learn to center our lives around Krishna in very tangible ways throughout the day.”
“If a devotee feels he has no love but at the same time engages himself fully in service, this is a sign of Krishna’s mercy.”
“Krishna has given us the choice to serve Him or not, to know Him in truth or to not know Him at all. If we prefer not to know Krishna, then we are free to return to this world and to cultivate some other knowledge. If we want Krishna, however, and if we strive to develop our love for Him, we will go back to Godhead. At the time of death, we have to be left with nothing but Krishna and that will become our truth. How to attain it? Prabhupada says, ‘Be serious.’”
From “Inquiry and Service: Qualifications of the Disciple” in Among Friends, Volume 4 #9 (1996):
“Even if a disciple doesn’t have questions about pure philosophy, he should ask how to apply the philosophy to his personal life.”
“To follow blindly means that we don’t ask the spiritual master for clarification but follow dogmatically. The intellect should be satisfied in order to defeat our doubts. A disciple should know why his spiritual master has ordered him to perform a particular service.”
“I had this experience in serving Prabhupada especially during the early days of ISKCON when my Krishna conscious foundation was being built. When I remember those days now, I realize that only because Prabhupada allowed me to render practical services did my spiritual life get off to such a good start. He engaged me as a typist from the very beginning, and he accepted my paycheck from my Welfare Department job. In fact, even when I wanted to resign, he ordered me not to. Rather, he claimed the money I was donating as useful to his preaching.”
“My early relationship with Prabhupada was utilitarian. It was not based on flowery sentiments but on the regular service exchange between guru and disciple. Rendering such service gave me access to Prabhupada in a tangible way, and it provided me with security in spiritual life.”
“There are no impediments to devotional service. Similarly, there is no bar in who may please the spiritual master. Our qualification to please the guru is based on our sincerity of purpose, not on our material abilities.”
From “Simplify, Simplify, Simplify” in Back to Godhead, 31(5) (September 1997):
“Every devotee has the right to make spiritual life his or her priority. It is up to each of us to shift the balance of our lives so that there is more weight on the spiritual side.”
“This reminds me of a lecture Prabhupada gave in Paris. The sound of cars and trucks is clearly audible in the background, and Srila Prabhupada was in this spirit of simplification. ‘Everywhere I go, it’s the same thing—whoosh-whoosh—whoosh-the cars, back and forth, back and forth. They say, “Now this is Paris, this is New York, this is London,” but all I hear is whoosh-whoosh-whoosh.’”
“Each devotee has to find his individual capacity in spiritual life and learn to perform both service in Prabhupada’s mission and to tend to their own spiritual life. Srila Prabhupada pushed the devotees to expand the preaching, but he also said, “Don’t purchase anxiety.” He never wanted us to sacrifice our spiritual lives in order to spread Krishna consciousness.”
From “Ultimate Duty” in Among Friends, Volume 4 #11 (1997):
“To achieve the benefits of the guru-disciple relationship, Prabhupada writes in Bg. 4.34 that a disciple must serve and inquire—both with sincerity. There can be no pretense either in his service or his inquiry, and to the degree that such pretense is there, the disciple must gradually root it out.”
From “How All Generations Can Stay With Srila Prabhupada” in Among Friends, Volume 7 #4 (2001):
“The Krishna conscious gifts Srila Prabhupada brought to the West are for everyone. Srila Prabhupada left us with a dynamic legacy in his books, through his devotees, in the development of his communities, and in his teachings, how to expertly apply Krishna consciousness. If we simply use our intelligence to claim our relationship with Prabhupada by practicing Krishna consciousness in the mood in which he taught it, we will inherit the most wonderful relationship with Krishna’s pure devotee, Srila Prabhupada.
“That was the purpose of the Srila Prabhupada-lilamṛta, and if anyone reads it and opens himself to the possibility of a deep relationship with Srila Prabhupada, he will not only become a Prabhupadanuga, but he will taste the sweetness of Prabhupada’s association. This is not true only of persons who joined ISKCON during Prabhupada’s physical presence but for those who joined after 1977.”
“I became a devotee due to my association with Srila Prabhupada. He gave us the chanting liberally. He chanted with us. In his lectures he told us many times that there was no tax on chanting. He assured us we could chant wherever we were, from whatever position in life, and that we had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Chanting Hare Krishna on Prabhupada’s order made me a personalist.”
“There is a prayer at the end of Isopanisad: ‘My dear Lord, You are covered by Your glaring effulgence. Please remove that curtain so that I can see Your personal form.’ Do we really want the fulfillment of that prayer? Krishna is already showing Himself in the Deity form and in the holy name. He is asking us whether He should open the curtain. Usually we say no. We prefer to see the curtain open in the movie house or in some other place.”
“Our movement will be rescued not by abandoning it or by changing Srila Prabhupada’s teachings but by becoming the devotees Prabhupada wanted us to be and by sharing that example and that happiness with the world.”
From Free Write Journal #226:
From Prabhupada Meditations, Volume 3:
“When Prabhupada was present, we associated with him to our hearts’ content. We never thought, ‘This may be the last night that I will ever see him.’ We climbed the steps to his apartment two at a time. Although we were dressed in karmi clothes and did not know the proper etiquette for approaching the pure devotee, still we had a spring to our step because we were going to see the Swami. It was better than any romantic notions we had about a new girlfriend. There was no letdown in our relationship with the Swami. We were learning to meet Krsna, the inconceivable Supreme Person. We were studying the Vedas and seeing the Swami. Everything was nice.”
From Free Write Journal #227:
From Shack Notes:
“Prabhupada often pointed out the absurdity of people honoring or mourning a great man after the soul had entered a dog’s body.”
Candrasekhara Swami:
The demons described in the Vedas are different from those we encountered in Christianity. Christianity speaks of a powerful demonic being, the devil, who is dedicated to causing harm to others. There is a sense that God and Satan, or the devil, are fighting for people’s souls. It is not clear why God cannot wipe out Satan once and for all.
Christianity and Islam speak of eternal damnation. Some Jewish philosophers, however, have an idea of reincarnation.
We understand demons are people who think that they know what is best themselves and what best is for everyone else.
Demons are persons committed to their material sense gratification, and in the course of pursuing that, they cause harm to others.
Zoroastrianism has an idea of a malevolent being almost on an equal footing with God, and Christianity may have gotten the idea of Satan from that.
Suhotra Swami has a lecture called the Vedic roots of Western religion which tells of people who split off from the Vedic tradition and presented an alternative philosophy.
Varuna is a demigod like Shiva who has some following among the demons.
The demonic mentality is summarized in this verse: “He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own whims attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination.” (Bg. 16.23)
We know more about heaven than the Christians, but we don’t want to go there.
Q: What is the Vedic understanding of demoniac possession?
A: We have a gross body (sthula-sarira) and a subtle body (linga-sarira), and sometimes due to certain conditions like intoxication, the connection between them is weakened, and a demoniac entity can temporarily take control of your gross body.
The demons have a plan for themselves and others. We learn in Bhagavad-gita (16.8–9) about their mentality: “They say that this world is unreal, with no foundation, no God in control. They say it is produced of sex desire and has no cause other than lust. Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world.”
Throwing away the rules of the revealed scriptures and acting independently is like deciding you do not need to follow the road anymore. Pretty soon things get very bumpy, and it just gets worse.
Even if we do not want to be Krishna conscious, we still have to follow some rules in human society.
If we follow the process of Krishna consciousness we will find we are on the smoothest road and that we ultimately get to the destination.
If we have a bad compass or a bad guide, we are in trouble.
We can compare the philosophy of Krishna consciousness with other religions and other philosophies.
I compare philosophy to intramural sports in that you have rules and gear. Some people do not realize that philosophy has rules and gear.
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that all people fixed in their original spiritual position will answer the following questions in the same way. The three questions are “Who am I? What is this world? What is my relationship with it?” Others will answer the questions according to their particular conditioning of material nature covering their spiritual selves.
Q (by me): Do you think that Bhaktivinoda Thakura was open to the idea that there may be people in traditions other than Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Vaishnavism, or Hinduism who would answer those three important questions in the proper way?
A: I think so, but they would be rare. Bhaktivinoda Thakura, unlike many of our acaryas, was not born in a Vaishnava family but a shakta family. In his life, he investigated many paths, including Islam and Christianity, before discovering a Caitanya-caritamrita and deciding that Gaudiya Vaishnavism was the best.
Sophists learned and taught how to win arguments to gain political power using logic. They were not concerned with the truth but just victory in argument.
Hansarupa Prabhu:
When there was that federal court case against the movement for brainwashing, Srila Prabhupada saw it as an opportunity for preaching.
I had to drive all Srila Prabhupada’s books to the federal court for them to be entered as evidence as Srila Prabhupada had wanted. Then people could understand that this was a real religion going back thousands of years.
Every temple sent $15 a month to Srila Prabhupada for his travel and maintenance. Then they were about one hundred temples, so that was about $1500 month.
Srila Prabhupada said the disease of the Westerners is that they like to change things.
Srila Prabhupada said that if you cannot expand, then at least maintain.
Maya’s job is to see that serious people are facilitated and others do not disturb Krishna.
Every time you do not stop a negative train of thought, that is a score for Maya.
When you can honestly say, “from this moment on I am Yours” to Krishna, then you are successful.
We won the court case four times regarding the selling of the Brooklyn temple because Srila Prabhupada put in his last will and testament that the GBC is the ultimate managing authority for ISKCON.
Srila Prabhupada took Lord Caitanya’s mission, which wasn’t going anywhere, and organized it in such a way that it can be a powerful force to bring peace to the whole world.
Sincerity and following all the little rules and regulations are two clues that Srila Prabhupada gave for success in Krishna consciousness.
We do not have the Vaikuntha Players or harinamas with two hundred devotees that we formerly had in New York City.
Srila Prabhupada saved an entire generation of people.
Our work is as much needed as during Srila Prabhupada’s time.
We can achieve the same success as Srila Prabhupada if we do what he did and do not change anything.
Krishna is in your heart, and He is giving you opportunities, and you are looking at them and choosing this one and rejecting that one. The more you do not reject them, the more you are sincere.
I was temple commander in New York. As temple commander you do not have any real friends. You just have people hiding from you. I knew all the hiding spots.
In fifteen months, Srila Prabhupada was successful in New York City, and then he went to San Francisco and replicated his success there.
Srila Prabhupada made it clear the only reason you have a temple is to make devotees.
Rama Raya Prabhu:
It is interesting that demons are not defined by their own attributes, rather they are called asura, or not godly.
Seeing the Lord before him with His ultimate weapon, does Hiranyaksa surrender to Him? No, he just becomes more angry and attacks Him.
We become advanced by becoming the servant of the servant of the servant of lover of the gopis.
The devotee is always steady, and it is in that steadiness he finds his happiness.
The Radha Damodara temple was not destroyed by Aurangzeb because it appears as a common residence from the outside.
Srila Prabhupada wanted people to associate with devotees to learn that there is another way to live and act that they might be attracted to.
Material contamination becomes more subtle as we progress.
We have to be careful that we do not accept different kinds of mixed devotional service as being pure devotional service.
Q: How do you differentiate between realization and convincing mental speculation?
A: Your realizations have to be supported by guru, sadhu, and sastra.
We do not have to make the yogis and jnanis happy by our presentations. We just promote bhakti.
Those in the disciplic succession want us to become responsible devotees as soon as possible.
Natabara Gauranga Prabhu:
If lust is satisfied it leads to greed, and if it is not satisfied it leads to anger.
Since I became a devotee I did not experience: depression, inactivity, moroseness, sadness, boredom, or insecurity.
Comment by me: I like what you said about boredom. Since I became a Hare Krishna devotee, I have not really experienced boredom, loneliness, or depression. And if they appear on the horizon, I just absorb myself in a spiritual activity and they disappear.
Q (By Phil): It must be hard if you have a relationship that started based on lust to change it to love.
A (by Natabara Gauranga Prabhu): There is an excellent video by Bhakti Tirtha Swami on converting lust to love. He shows how attaining love of God actually improves all the relationships in your life.
A (by me): There were devotees who were married before they became devotees and who had nice marriages as devotees.
The first appearance of Jaya and Vijaya as the demons Hiranyaksa and Hiranyakasipu were the most epic. They had taken over large portions of the entire universe whereas comparitively speaking Ravana, Kumbhakarna, Sisupala, and Dantavakra were much less influential.
The time called abhijit, beginning at midday, is auspicious for success in all kinds of transactions.
Visvanatha Cakravarti says that Lord Varaha was having such a good time fighting Hiranyaksa that He lost track of the time.
The spiritual world is never stale because there is a spirit of increasing enjoyment. The devotee wants to increase the Lord’s enjoyment, and the Lord wants to increase the devotees’ enjoyment.
The word daksina (remuneration) is related to daksa (expert). In the Vedic culture, when the student becomes expert he asks the teacher what he wants as remuneration or daksina.
Matanga Prabhu:
From this pastime of Lord Varaha killing Hiranyaksa, we learn that even devotees are happy when a demon is killed. This is because the demons are always giving trouble to others. This is especially true of a demon like Hiranyaksa, who had been causing trouble to innocent people throughout the universe.
In this age, the demonic influence is within ourselves in the form of envy, lust, and anger.
This demonic influence is very powerful thus we have a whole system to overcome it, such as chanting the holy name, associating with spiritually minded people, rising early, worshiping the deities, eating food offered to Krishna, etc.
We do not have demonic tendencies from just this birth but from so many lifetimes.
Bhakti is so powerful that just in thirty or forty years of practice we can counteract many lives of demonic association.
We may not notice how these demonic tendencies are reducing just as a child does not see how he is growing.
There is no demon who can stand up to the power of the holy name.
Pure devotees are not afraid of the demons because they have taken complete shelter of the Lord.
On our harinama at Rockefeller Plaza we saw the emptiness, the anxiety, and the fear on the people’s faces.
Standing still, or just doing your own thing, and not participating in the Lord’s mission is violence.
Just like you cannot become a millionaire in one or two weeks, you cannot expect to become advanced in devotional service very quickly.
We are attempting something that even Olympic champions do not attain.
Srila Prabhupada writes, “A Vaishnava is always unhappy to see the conditioned souls unhappy. Otherwise he would have no business teaching them how to become happy.”
Bhakti Vatsala Prabhu:
Srila Prabhupada’s purports shows us how we can practically spiritualize our lives.
Srila Prabhupada’s purports are needed to protect us from the purports of nondevotees who explain the words of Krishna in a way that leads people away from Krishna.
Krishna is not going to cheat us. Krishna only cheats people who lead people away from Krishna.
If we meditate on Krishna’s face, as Lord Kapila describes, we become free from anxiety, but if we meditate our own face, we will see evidence of aging and become full of anxiety!
Srila Prabhupada did not exploit anyone or anything because he engaged everyone and everything in relationship with Krishna.
After three days the prostitute realized she could not degrade Haridasa Thakura but rather she found herself to be transformed. In Bangladesh there is a temple next to a temple of Haridasa Thakura where they worship that prostitute who became a great devotee by his influence. By the association of a devotee, Haridasa Thakura, the prostitute was transformed from lust to love, and by Narada Muni’s association, Valmiki, was transformed from cruelty to love.
Srila Prabhupada has given us everything we need to go back to Godhead. We just have to accept it, to understand it, and to repeat it.
After hearing Srila Prabhupada’s advice and following it, I realize the value.
Comment by Candrasekhara Swami:
By teaching you realize what you don’t know; you realize the weak points of your own comprehension.
In the field of education, they know that if a person teaches something they are learning, they learn it a lot better.
Comment by me:
“You mentioned how Krishna deceives cheaters. This verse reminds me of that:
‘Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the all-pervading Supreme Personality of Godhead, who possesses unlimited transcendental qualities. Acting from within the cores of the hearts of all philosophers, who propagate various views, He causes them to forget their own souls while sometimes agreeing and sometimes disagreeing among themselves. Thus He creates within this material world a situation in which they are unable to come to a conclusion. I offer my obeisances unto Him.’ (Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.4.31)”
Arjunananda Prabhu:
Demons are people who are dedicated to opposing the desires of the Supreme Lord.
Sometimes people come to the Krishna consciousness movment for peace. When we give them service instead of peace they are not satisfied.
We want to be here when the curtain opens at mangala-arati to catch the first glance of the Lord.
People who materially motivated cannot stick in the society of devotees because they are always looking for some material opportunity.
Srila Prabhupada explains that people who are looking for something short of devotional service get cheated.
A reporter asked Srila Prabhupada why he did not do something about all the cheating gurus. He said that was not his business. His business was to simply give people pure devotional service. He also mentioned that the cheating gurus exist to facilitate the people who want something less than pure devotional service.
GOD is sometimes thought of as the Generator, Operator, and Destroyer.
Some people worship God out of fear. Better than that is to worship God for material gain. Better than that is to worship God out of duty, feeling gratitude to Him for all He is providing. Better than that is to serve God out of love. The Bhagavatam tells us how to elevate ourselves from serving God out of fear to serving God out of love.
We do not have to become dependent on God. We have to realize we are dependent on God.
People who are proud of their abilities are prime candidates for being affected by maya.
The people who die from drowning are people who are the better swimmers not those aware of their inability to swim.
Comments by me:
What to speak of today, even in Krishna’s time people took the Vedas for getting ahead materially as He mentions in Bhagavad-gita 2.42–43: “Men of small knowledge are very much attached to the flowery words of the Vedas, which recommend various fruitive activities for elevation to heavenly planets, resultant good birth, power, and so forth. Being desirous of sense gratification and opulent life, they say that there is nothing more than this.”.
You mentioned how demons have sinful purposes. Vrikasura had the ultimate sinful purpose, wanting the benediction that whosever head he touched would explode.
The pure devotion you are promoting is nicely described in Lord Caitanya’s Siksastaka, verse 8: “I know no one but Krishna as my Lord, and He shall remain so even if He handles me roughly in His embrace or makes me brokenhearted by not being present before me. He is completely free to do anything and everything, for He is always my worshipful Lord unconditionally.”
You were saying how by following the guru, all our desires would be satisfied. That reminded me this couplet from “Guru Vandana,” or “Prayers to the Guru” which we sing every morning:
“sri guru carane rati ei sei uttama gai,
ye prasade pure sarva asa” –
“Attachment to his lotus feet is the perfection
that fulfills all desires.”
Gopal Campu Prabhu:
Sadhus carry sraddha (faith) which is an invaluable asset.
In Kali-yuga, although temples are there, people do not come to them. Thus the devotees have to go out.
Everyone has time to read one verse. Even if you spend just five or ten minutes reading Srimad-Bhagavatam every day, your heart will become purified and you’ll attain love of God. Is it worth it? How many times do we waste five or ten minutes?
If you spend five or ten minutes on social media, your mind will become crazy, but if spend the same time hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam your mind will become peaceful.
Every time you come to the temple, bring a gift for the deity. That will help develop your relationship.
Giving people books is like giving them tickets back to the spiritual world.
You can go on harinama or book distribution. You can sponsor books. You can arrange programs at your place, and we can come and talk to the people.
Larry Shinn:
From “Reflections on Spiritual Leadership: The Legacy of Srila Prabhupada”:
“As I reminisced about my interactions with Krishna gurus and devotees, which began in 1974 and intensified through the 1980s, I was struck by this realization that the traditional roles and scriptural erudition could be transmitted by teaching, but that the personal piety and deep faith that attracted devotees to Prabhupada could not.”
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How important is it to always remember the Supreme Lord? This favorite verse of mine gives an indication:
hanis tan mahac chidram
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 purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.9.36)
