Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 4, No. 23 By Krishna-kripa das (December 2008, part one) Harinama in Three Cities Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Delaware, Philadelphia (Sent from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. on 12/25/08)
Where I Am and What I Am Doing
After the wettest harinama ever in Tallahassee (click here for videos of the devotees and the crowd), Daru Brahma Prabhu served prasadam to the devotees. Some devotee children were being a little frivolous. Among them, I noticed one girl, who was a very nice singer, and her brother, Dharma, a great drummer, so I encouraged them to do kirtana instead (video), and I danced along to it with another kid (video). Thanks to a very friendly FSU student and Krishna lunch attendee, Denise Ogden, for the Tallahassee videos. I stayed for the Sunday feast, a Monday eveningprogram, and a couple days of chanting at the campus. My goal in Tallahassee is to revamp the Sunday feast program so it is at least something that all the devotees in Tallahassee want to attend. When I chanted at the campus, a Christian girl I met last time gave me a button saying, “You are loved.”, a nice sentiment.
Prema Sindhu Prabhu, Derek, and a another devotee chanted with me at University of NorthFlorida in Jacksonville, on the day of my flight to Philly. People were so nice I was thinking that is my favorite school in America for chanting at. Prema Sindhu Prabhu sold two Gitas and a few small books in just an hour and a half from a book table as the rest of us chanted. Derek brought two drums, and two students sat with us and played for half an hour each, one music major and an art education major who volunteers for the Interfaith Club on campus, a group we may participate in. Prema Sindhu kindly gave me a digital camera I can use to illustrate this journal. Thank you so much, Prema!
I spent two days in Delaware with my initiating guru, Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, going on japa walks with him. I never take japa walks in temperatures in the 30s [-1 to 4 C], but I made an exception in this case. Thanks to Baladeva Prabhu for the scarf and Tara Prabhu for the longjohns that made it possible, although I never remembered to wear both at once.
I also made walnut and cashew burfi sweets for Guru Maharaja’s lunch. He liked the cashew one better.
We had a Vyasa-puja gathering for Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami at Govinda’s Restaurant in Philly that was attended by about twenty-five devotees, including godbrothers, godsisters, disciples, and friends. At one point, he asked us to remember times we felt we benefited from our interaction with him. I said I was inspired by chanting japa with him in Mayapur and Delaware, as it was an important part of our relationship. As he was chanting to please Srila Prabhupada, I was chanting to please him. By his telling me to dance more in the kirtanas, after one guru-puja in the mid-1980s in Philly, he was the cause of my developing so much love for the congregational chanting, that I dance even in the bhajanas when everyone else is sitting, and I chanted in twenty-seven cities in Europe last spring and summer. I also appreciated that although he had difficulties in his spiritual life, he decided to recommit himself to his own spiritual practice and to deliver his disciples, instead of breaking his promises to Srila Prabhupada and to them. He was so responsible, he could not do otherwise. Satsvarupa Maharaja describes the Vyasa-puja event in his journal online.
I was planning to go to Montreal where I heard the devotees do daily harinama in the subway stations, but when my godbrother, Bhagavatananda Prabhu, heard that, he said he would do daily harinamas in Philly if I stayed here, and so I did.
Bhagavatananda Prabhu (in back), full of enthusiasm, says “Morning!” to people we met in a friendly way, even while leading. Mother Sraddha (left), despite responsibilities including personally serving her guru, the VedicTemple of the Planetarium cosmology project, and temple management, likes to take a break once or twice a week to go on harinama. Mother Anindita (right and below), a regular and a key person in the party, speaks so nicely to people she sells several books whenever we go out.
When she asked this lady if she wanted books, the lady said, “Yes. All you have.”
We went out six days a week, from one to two and a half hours.
Monday to Thursday on the streets, or at the Chinese bus station when it rained, or at Suburban Station when it was too cold. Friday nights we did South St., meeting many friendly people, some enthusiastically telling us to continue or giving a thumbs up gesture. Saturday night we did a walking harinama right on the Univ. of Penn campus for an hour, after the weekly college program. I am hoping Sraddha will schedule three people to do a harinama for at least an hour and a half each day so the newly formed party will continue when I leave.
Prabhupada Nectar
From Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu lectures:
Srila Prabhupada once told reporters he came to give people a brain. Then he explained we had a headless society, and the brahmanas are the head of the social body. The present society is all sudras, people who get pay checks, and a few vaisyas, people who give pay checks.
Prabhupada kept trying despite setback after setback. When asked why the preachers meet difficulties, Srila Prabhupada said, “If there is not a hard struggle, how could they be a glorious victory?”
Krishna is a master of timing. If Srila Prabhupada came to America in 1955 instead of 1965 the movement would not have gotten off the ground.
Soon after Srila Prabhupada took sannyasa he was gored by a cow. He accepted it was Krishna’s mercy, but he said he did not immediately understand how. He said that later he understood.
Analysis of how Krishna consciousness was spread: Srila Prabhupada took Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura’s idea that the disciple takes his guru’s order has his life’s mission, and tried in so many ways to preach: Back to Godhead magazine, translating Srimad-Bhagavatam, Jhansi, coming to America, etc. Seeing this Krishna felt, “I must reciprocate.” But Srila Prabhupada did not want anything except that the people be delivered. But Krishna said, “They are not qualified.” Srila Prabhupada replied, “But that is all I want.” And so Krishna arranged to deliver so many people.
Once Prabhupada described the brief reunion of Radha and Krishna at Kuruksetra as being too tragic to tell.
From Prabhupada’s books:
“Yoga means to concentrate the mind upon the Supreme by controlling the ever-disturbing senses.” (Bg. 2.48).
“The conclusion is that blind faith in a particular mode of nature cannot help a person become elevated to the perfectional stage. One has to consider things carefully, with intelligence, in the association of a bona fide spiritual master. Thus one can change his position to a higher mode of nature.” (Bhagavad-gita 17.2, purport)
“It is essential, therefore, that one constantly associate with pure devotees who are engaged morning and evening in chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. In this way one will get the chance to purify his heart and develop this ecstatic pure love for Krishna.” (NOD, chapter 17)
“Even by a little association with devotees, the conditioned soul can get out of this miserable material condition. This Krishna consciousness movement is therefore trying to give everyone a chance to associate with saintly people. Therefore all the members of this Krishna consciousness society must themselves be perfect sadhus in order to give a chance to fallen conditioned souls. This is the best humanitarian work.” (SB 5.14.38, purport)
Srila Prabhupada faith in the scripture is powerful, as is his ability to create faith in others. Consider this paragraph, “Revealed knowledge may in the beginning be unbelievable because of our paradoxical desire to verify everything with our tiny brains, but the speculative means of attaining knowledge is always imperfect. The perfect knowledge propounded in the revealed scriptures is confirmed by the great acaryas, who have left ample commentations upon them; none of these acaryas has disbelieved in the sastras [scriptures]. One who disbelieves in the sastras is an atheist, and we should not consult an atheist, however great he may be. A staunch believer in the sastras, with all their diversities, is the right person from whom to gather real knowledge. Such knowledge may seem inconceivable in the beginning, but when put forward by the proper authority its meaning is revealed, and then one no longer has any doubts about it.” (CC Adi 5.14, purport)
Inspiration from Lectures
Although both Purnacandra Swami and I are from America, we knew each other not from America but the Ukraine festivals. It was nice to see him in Philly.
Purnacanda Swami, at Govinda’s in South St., Philadelphia, Bg. 9.3
Bg. 8.14 is the first time Krishna mentions pure devotion. In Chapter Nine, he tells how this state can be attained. Bhakti is not based on just knowledge but on faith. “Uddhava-gita” is considered more advanced than Bhagavad-gita because it is the knowledge Krishna wants Uddhava to give to the sages meditating at Badarikasrama. Besides sruti (that which is heard from the Vedas), there is sense perception, history, and conjecture, which are needed to exist in the material world. Our ability to use pratyaksa, sense perception, in devotional service increases as we advance. This is because our senses become purified. Seeing this result increases our faith. Studying the levels of faith is not meant to prop ourselves up or criticize new people but to use as a map to chart our own progress. The previous acaryas have described the stages of devotional service in such detail, and seeing this can also increase our faith.
When Purnacandra Swami was a new devotee he took it like a yoga society and thought, “Let me try it for five years. After all, my hair will grow back.”
We need to have the humility to know that we need the help of the devotees and the Lord.
Russian saying, “It is better to have a hundred friends than a hundred rubles.”
Laksmi says in the Fifth Canto, “Don’t pray to the Lord for your material needs. He already knows them. Just serve Him and you will get what you need.”
Q by Haryasva: Although we have some faith, we tend to forget that just last week Krishna saved us, and we continue to think in a faithless way. A: Hearing the holy name and of the process of devotional service from devotees will help make our faith steady.
Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu, SB 6.17.25-27:
Vrtasura has one misfortune after another, but it turns out to be the mercy of the Lord. The same with Pariksit Maharaja and the Pandavas. We say “chant Hare Krishna and be happy,” but if a materialist sees the Bhagavatam pastimes, he may doubt it, seeing all the misfortune.
People are so proud. When the corporate automakers first came to Washington to beg for money, they each came in their own corporate jet, oblivious to the obvious hypocrisy.
If one actually wants to advance in Krishna consciousness, he desires to become humble. He understands, “If I become humble, my love of God will increase.”
Devotees who are fully surrendered do not get karmic reactions, but to complete free their minds from any lingering tendency for enjoyment, Krishna sometimes allows them to suffer reverses that appear to be like karmic reactions.
Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu, weekly telephone conference call lecture [contact Sraddha at our Philly temple to participate], SB 11.4.5-6
Lord Vishnu is mentioned, but not the mode of goodness, because Vishnu does not touch the mundane mode of goodness although He controls it, but Brahma and Siva are affected by passion and ignorance respectively.
The Lord protects religion as a pastime not as a prescribed duty.
In Drumila’s description of the avataras, he spends half the time (11 of out of 22 verses) discussing Nara-narayana Rsi. Nabhi, the grandfather of the nine yogendras (one of whom, Drumila, is speaking), worshiped Nara-Narayana and attained Vaikuntha. Thus He is described in more detail than other incarnations.
Curiously Nara-narayana Rsi is often spoken of in the singular case although he consists of two persons, Nara and Narayana.
“Long ago this essential anthology of all the Puranas was spoken by the infallible Lord Nara-Narayana Rsi to Narada, who then repeated it to Krishna Dvaipayana Vedavyasa. O best of the Kurus, the same Suta Gosvami who is sitting before us will speak this Bhagavatam to the sages assembled in the great sacrifice at Naimisaranya. This he will do when questioned by the members of the assembly, headed by Saunaka.” (SB 12.4.41-42)
Nara-Narayana Rsi is the presiding deity of Bharata-varsa, and he is the ista-deva of Narada Muni, who offers Him prayers.
Q: Bhava Sindhu what does Prajapati mean? A: Sometimes Vishnu, Brahma, and those demigods who help to populate the universe are all sometimes called Prajapati.
Ravindra means literally sun god but the name also is used to refer to the Supreme Lord.
Q: What can we tell someone conditioned by superficiality and artificiality? A: Pascal said that human beings are so mad that to be free from madness is another kind of madness. Like in a battle, you see people dying at every moment, and therefore, if you are not a physical casualty, you are a psychological casualty. A battle is like normal life speeded up. Devotees can see the material world as it is because they have an alternative and so do not have a stake in the material world. Reading Bhagavad-gita as much as possible, and the first two cantos of Srimad-Bhagavatam, especially the beginning of Canto Two, will help. One scholar wrote a scholarly book on the Bhagavatam called Tales for the Dying. We should see we can die at every moment. Srila Prabhupada said, “If one is not pessimistic about the material world there is not impetus for spiritual life.”
Comment: In Ramayana we learn devotees greet each other by asking “Is everything going well on your struggle to conquer birth and death?”
The Bhagavatam tells how the devas and yogis see the universe. I think there is a greater difference between human beings and demigods than there is between ants and human beings. The last course I took in college, as I was becoming a devotee, was “Archeology in India.” I did a paper on Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. It increased my faith in the Vedic version as I saw all their theories were based on such scanty evidence. Since that time practically everything they taught about the development of Indian civilization has been shown to be wrong. There is no evidence of an Aryan invasion, and the scholars do not really know what went on.
Planets are called grahas because they grab you [from the astrological point of view].
Working with the desire to enjoy the results is the cause of future material bodies. Bg. 2.47 and 2.48 are said by Visvanatha Cakravarti to be teaching naiskarmya karma yoga.
Even if we fail on the material platform, if we endeavor for spiritual success, that will be our success. I have come to the conclusion that I do not know enough to judge why Krishna is making any particular action a success or a failure.
Vibisana Prabhu:
Q: Sometimes we go to places where it is difficult to preach. What do we say? A: Actually in all parts of the world, they are people who are ready for Krishna consciousness, and we just have to be there to remind them that they are eternal servants of Krishna. Sometimes people require very little preaching, just a reminder. Some people have practiced for many lives, but have just forgotten.
We have to become without a trace of envy to go back to the spiritual world and associate with Krishna because His associates must be very highly qualified.
Mother Anindita dd:
When I see devotees from all over the world advancing in devotional service, I see it is not just an Indian thing.
Godel’s theorem states that an arithmetic system cannot be both consistent and complete, but Krishna consciousness differs because it is consistent and complete.
Detachment is natural for devotees. We see so many devotees who are happy doing menial service in the temple, and then we later find out are very far advanced in wealth or learning, although you wouldn’t have guessed that from their behavior.
Real detachment is detachment from being the proprietor and enjoyer of things, not from the things themselves.
[Karabhajana Rsi to Maharaja Nimi]: “Those who are advanced and highly qualified and are interested in the essence of life know the good qualities of Kali-yuga. Such people worship the age of Kali because in this age, simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra [congregationally] one can advance in spiritual knowledge and attain life’s goal” (SB 11.5.36).
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 4, No. 22 By Krishna-kripa das (November 2008, part two) Orlando, Gainesville, Tallahassee (Sent from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. on 12/14/08)
Where I Am and What I Am Doing
I finished up my stay in Orlando, meditating on how each of our centers is a blessing for my devotional service in different ways. In Orlando, I benefited from the association of Trivikrama and Danavira Maharajas, offered some mangala aratis, cooked sweets for campus distribution and the Sunday Feast, learned two new tunes on the harmonium, started reading Mahanidhi Swami’s book on the holy name, attended morning and evening programs, even on the weekends, and lived in a setting better suited for brahmacari life. In Gainesville, I appreciate the many enthusiastic student devotees who attend both the temple programs as well as the bhajanas on campus, and the new Friday harinamas, which I will tell more about later. We ended the month with the best Thanksgiving program ever in Gainesville, a great harinama in Jacksonville to a very favorable crowd, two-thirds of which took the pamphlets on chanting Hare Krishna, and finally, the wettest harinama ever in Tallahassee.
Prabhupada Nectar
Trivikrama Swami recalled, "When I came to Srila Prabhupada’s quarters in Bombay the first time, after paying obeisances, I looked around and said, ‘Vaikuntha.’ Srila Prabhupada said, "What did you say?" I repeated ‘Vaikuntha.’ Srila Prabhupada smiled, accepting my words." The residence of the pure devotee is as good as the spiritual world.
Danavira Goswami recalls, "When Prabhupada gave babaji initiation to one disciple with a terminal disease in Chicago in 1975, he said ‘Because you are thinking you can die at any moment, which is the mentality of a paramahamsa, I am giving you the initiation of a paramahamsa.’"
Danavira Goswami mentioned that Srila Prabhupada once said, "If anyone understands just this one verse of Bhagavad-gita, 2.13, he will attain the transcendental platform."
Quotes from Kalakantha Prabhu:
Q to Srila Prabhupada: What sect of Hinduism are you? A by Srila Prabhupada: The one with the Absolute Truth.
Srila Prabhupada once said, "What is the use of catching a big fish that pulls you back into the water?"
Notes on a Srila Prabhupada lecture:
Why do we not see the demigods now? Can a common man see the president or the king just by demanding to see them? First qualify yourself, and you can see the demigods and God.
Still Krishna is so kind He comes as the Deity and lets us know in Bhagavad-gita how to see Him even with our present senses in water, in the sun, etc.
By being engaged in Krishna consciousness, you become purified, and Krishna will reveal Himself to you.
Sometimes people bequeath their wealth to their dog. This means they are thinking of their dog at the time of death. So when they die, their dog will get their wealth, and they will become a dog in next life. This is unknown in the modern civilization. If we approach such people and ask for money for our Krishna consciousness movement, they will say no, for they want to use all their money for their dogs. Therefore they are rascals.
We have sufficient strength to prove that any materialist is actually a rascal.
"This Krishna consciousness movement was started to engage people twenty-four hours daily in the service of the Lord and in His glorification. The students in this institution engage in the cultivation of Krishna consciousness from five in the morning to ten at night. They actually have no opportunity to waste their time unnecessarily by discussing politics, sociology and current events. These will go their own way. A devotee is concerned only with serving Krishna positively and seriously" (SB 5.12.13, purport).
"Despite a very rigid life in devotional service, Bharata Maharaja did not consult a spiritual master when he became overly attached to a deer. Consequently he became strongly attached to the deer, and, forgetting his spiritual routine, he fell down" (SB 5.12.14).
"If one concentrates on the descriptions of the bodily features of the Lord, one will never fall down" (SB 4.8.51, purport).
"As soon as one chants the Hare Krishna mantra, he sees the forms of Krishna, Rama, and Their energies, and that is the perfect stage of trance. One should not artifcially try to see the form of the Lord while chanting Hare Krishna, but when the chanting is performed offenselessly the Lord will automatically reveal Himself to the view of the chanter. The chanter, therefore, has to concentrate on hearing the vibration, and without extra endeavor on his part, the Lord will automatically appear" (SB 4.8.53, purport).
The Best Thanksgiving Ever
In Gainesville, we had what Kalakantha Prabhu later described as "the best Thanksgiving dinner he had in 36 years." I agreed.
In addition to eating the feast, it was very nice helping out with it. Mother Ali Krishna impressed me by making tofu turkey, stuffing, gravy, and pumpkin pie. Kelly made cranberry sauce and a cole slaw with fruit. Andres made incredible sweet potatoes with pecans that were so good that when I distributed the maha-prasadam, almost everyone asked for the sweet potatoes. Sveta Svarupa Prabhu made sweet rice. I made vegan walnut burfi. Others made soup, pakoras and chutney, and puris.
There was more community spirit than I had encountered in a while.
For the lecture, I spoke about unbroken devotional service as transcending the three modes of natures, and I asked if anyone wanted to share their realizations about devotional service.
Some of the newest people made positive comments about the devotees’ friendly association. One was Angie, girl whose friend met us on harinama, and who had come with her to the Saturday dinner program. This was her first program real Hare Krishna program. She had a great time, and even helped clean up afterwards. I was impressed and surprised about the appreciation of such new people. Ali Krishna told about the first time she heard of the "three modes of material nature" after having joined New Vrindavana, and how she could really see distinct periods in her life which were dominated by each. Times of intoxication, and times of seeking sanity and health, but no apparent consistent progress in a positive direction. She felt devotional service gave her, and gives us, real hope of ultimate improvement. Govinda told how while preparing for the Los Angeles Ratha-yatra he was so absorbed in devotional service, everything went smoothly and naturally in his life.
Jonathan suggested we all tell about what we were thankful for. He began telling about the nice relationship he had with the Gainesville temple and its devotees, through the course of its changes, their changes, and his changes.
Brian said, "I appreciate I can make advancement by eating food like this."
Many appreciated the loving attitude of the devotees and the prasadam.
I said I was thankful to chant three hours a day on campus, thankful that the students at the center are so enthusiastic,
and that the first-ever vegan version of my walnut burfi came out perfect by the grace of the Lord.
For more pictures of Thanksgiving in Gainesville, click here.
Friday Harinama in Gainesville
The Halloween harinama in Gainesville was the beginning of a new era for the students living at our Gainesville asrama.
On Halloween the chanting was so festive, as you can see, they got a taste for harinama!
Consequently they went out many Fridays evenings after that, once from 9:00 to 1:00! I went out with them on Friday, November 21. They didn’t get going till 11:00 because many of the people went to a bonfire at Adi Karta Prabhu’s place. It was really cold that night, and around 12:15 I encouraged them to wind things up for the night. Mother Ali Krishna decided to make a final sweep through the area. Around 12:30 we met some people who really got into dancing with us. One couple, including a girl you can see at about 3:00 minutes into the video, had so much fun they decided to come to our Saturday dinner program, along with a friend, and later to a bhajana program that night. The enthusiasm in the kirtana was very special, and I want to share a video of it with you:
For some great pictures and videos of this and other Friday harinamas, click here.
Memories and Wise Words from Mother Mukhya
Kartamasa Prabhu has a program for many years of asking senior devotees to come and speak to a group of Vaishnava youth about why they joined the Krishna consciousness movement and why they stayed. As he was getting ready to go to India and his wife was already there, the program was at Navina Syama and Krishna-priya Prabhus’ place. Mother Mukhya, the new Alachua temple president, was the guest.
Q: How did you come to Krishna consciousness? A: I had to visit three religions for a college course and my boyfriend convinced me one must be a Hare Krishna temple. I had a wonderful time. I got a Bhagavad-gita and as I was reading it I could understand that it had an answer for all my questions. Later I was driving with my boyfriend in a Fiat to a Sunday feast, and the car in front of stopped suddenly and our car crashed into it. We were not hurt but the whole front of the car, including the engine, was smashed so we could not drive it. We called the temple, and they sent someone to get us, and in this way, we moved into the temple and never left.
Q: Why did you stay? A: I love to be in Krishna consciousness. It is the best thing I know—it is so much better than anything I else knew. I believe in the philosophy. I am committed, and commitment is important. I think initiation is very important, and young devotees should take initiation. It is just like you may have a boyfriend or girlfriend, but when you get married, you take the relationship more seriously because you have made a commitment. Commitment in general makes you a better person. If you cannot commit to initiation, then commit to chant a quota of rounds a day. Be true to yourself. Find the thing in you that you really like to do for the movement. Try to remember Krishna very day.
This is a mystic process. If you do things that you do not like at first, you will find your feelings can change.
Prabhupada taught by example. He never took anything for himself, and he gave everything to Krishna. He was incredibly kind to everybody. Anyone is trying is very dear to Krishna.
Q: What do you think you would do differently? A: Learn about marriage. Learn about parenting. Learn a little about human psychology, how to encourage others. Every decade is better. Pace yourself—take time for things that are important.
Q: What would you do the same? A: Remember this is Prabhupada’s movement. We are not here to serve each other. Prabhupada has certain principles, and these are very important. Books are the basis, preaching is the essence, and utility is the principle. In the name of helping the devotees, we must not neglect Prabhupada’s principles.
Q: What would you do if you had forty more years? A: Preach Krishna consciousness according where I am and what I have to offer. Think about the best way in each situation. You Vaishnava youths have things I never had, knowledge of Krishna from the beginning of your life and Krishna conscious parents. Be there for your kids. Treat people as you would want to be treated.
Q: Did you ever meet Srila Prabhupada? A: Prabhupada visited Detriot twice. He gave me gayatri mantra alone in the room. My attachment to Prabhupada is on a supernatural level. It always was as I only saw him twice. Therefore it was not so different when he left.
For many years, Mukhya had a very successful restaurant in Sarasota called Mims. Practically all her employees were nondevotees. One girl from her restaurant was always curious about her offerings on her small altar there, and later she came to her home program, and ultimately went to Miami and joined the temple.
Once her employees told her to take a week off because she was overworked. When she returned, she asked how it went. They said it was a little chaotic in the beginning. Then we remembered that we did not offer the incense on the altar, so we started doing that, and everything went alright after that.
Other advice: Find something you like to do, and see how you can use it to make money. Figure out what you need for a balanced life. Keep in mind that simple life and high thinking is more satisify than having more materially. I have tried both.
Alachua is a show place in that the community has lasted so long, compared to other communities of other groups.
As far as what to do with the Alachua property, we can be a religious retreat conference center if we change the zoning of 50 acres for $25,000. We can have a guest house, gift shop, a working farm, and more.
Inspiration from Lectures
Trivikrama Swami told a story he heard about from astrologer, Shyamasundara Prabhu. "I recently read about a old sadhu who had a serious disease. He continuously prayed to Lord Krishna but nothing happened and he continued to deteriorate. So the sadhu approached an astrologer for a remedy. The astrologer suggested something to him, he did it and was cured. The sadhu again prayed to Krishna. Krishna told him, ‘If you had not been cured you would have come back to me in this lifetime itself. This is why I didn’t answer your prayers because I wanted you here, but now that you have been cured it will take you three more lifetimes to come back to me.’ Shyamasundara commented, "It is not always obvious what Krishna’s plan is. But whatever it is we can rest assured that it is in our best interest even though we might not think so."
Danavira Goswami:
Some say God is formless, yet God is accepted as the father. Do you know of any cases of sons who have forms but who have fathers who are formless? Where has such an idea come from?
We remain steady when we do not take credit for success, and when we see distress as sent by God for our benefit.
In the early days of ISKCON LA, things were very organized. The first day I arrived at the temple and reported to do service, they told me to go to the parking lot and ask Ekendra how to wash the vans. I went to the parking lot and looked around. I saw a five-year-old boy there, and asked him, "Where is Ekendra?" The boy said, "I am Ekendra." I said, "I was told to ask you about washing the vans", and the boy got the paraphenalia for cleaning and demonstrated how to do it.
We have to be convinced that there is nothing else of value but devotional service, then we can convince others.
Kalakantha Prabhu:
In one temple the president had the devotees recite Queen Kunti’s prayer for calamities. The van broke and a sankirtana devotee broke her leg. Then he ended that practice.
The depth of the advanced Vaisnava’s regret that he has left Krishna is so great that it overwhelms the tendency to enjoy the material world.
My contributions:
Kunti because of humility was seeing her relationships with her pure devotee relatives as mundane.
Detachment from family does not mean neglect of duties to family members or to neglect to respect them as souls.
Feel comfortable about performing austerities.
Material things are not bad in themselves, but aspiration for unnecessary material things is bad.
Krishna takes care, as he did in my case, giving me funds to do harinama in Paris where Janananda Goswami had invited.
By looking at the prayers of pure devotees like Kunti, we can see how much advancement we still have to make.
The tendency for idle talk can be used in preaching to people who do not yet have a taste for talks about Krishna.
Joke: People used to think that married men lived longer, but later studies reveal that it just seemed longer.
One study showed that women have ten times as much white matter in the brain, but men have six and a half times as much grey matter. White matter deals with communication. Grey matter deals with logical thinking.
Women transmit the values of the culture by educating the children.
Hridayananda Dasa Goswami:
If we do not preserve the dignity of an office, we loose our culture.
Q: There is a tendency to reject the kirtanas, lectures and books, of someone who later falls down, as non bona fide. A: If they were following at the time, then I do not see why their works should not be accepted. If they had a parallel life at the same time, and their writing is later seen to have traces of this, then it would be another thing.
Q: What is Vedic culture? A: Krishna says "by all the Vedas I am to be known" (Bg.15.15), therefore, one can say Vedic culture is that culture which helps one to understand Krishna. During Krishna’s time, so many aspects of what we usually consider Vedic culture were present, but Krishna told Arjuna that He had come because the spiritual knowledge was lost.
In the Bhagavatam, are things being described or enjoined? Is the Bhagavatam telling how things were done or how things should be done? In Govardhan-lila, Krishna asks his father if the Indra-puja he was doing was according to the Vedas or according to tradition. His father did not chastise Him, saying "What do you mean, we only do things according to the Vedas!"
Are japa beads Vedic? They are not mentioned in Sri Caitanya-caritamrita. People did count their chanting. For all we know, they could have been introduced from the Catholic rosary.
When a devotee paints a picture of Krishna, Krishna is there in the picture, smiling at the way the devotee has depicted Him.
The nice thing about bhakti is that if your heart is in the right place, Krishna will fix your head. Krishna is not going to bust you on a technicality, if you are really sincere.
We have to differentiate between principles and ethnic details. What a woman wears is an ethnic detail. Chastity is a principle. Men and women should dress in such a way they do not arouse lust in each other.
Srila Prabhupada told me to present Krishna consciousness to the intelligent class. I am trying to understand it intelligently and do that.
Joke: A man always gets the last word, "Yes, dear."
Even the scholars recognize that the Bhagavatam is in a class by itself. There are more commentaries on it than other Puranas. From the literary point of view also, it is unique.
The Bhagavatam, according to Lord Caitanya in his conversation with Dhananjaya Pandit, appears and disappears like Krishna’s other incarnations.
Vyasa composed but did not write.
Laksmi Nrsimha Prabhu’s Bhagavatam class in Gainesville
"Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we resort to hide them."—French 17th century writer, Francois De La Rochefoucauld
"In pride our error lies," wrote Alexander Pope. It is all I remember from my college education. I put it on my checks, so I always remember.
Pride produces illusion, ignorance, deceit, deviousness, presence, and offensiveness according to Bhaktivinoda Thakura in his Manah-siksa.
Our chanting should never become parrotlike. Prabhupada says we should call out like a child crying for its mother.
"It is said in the sastras that by once uttering the holy name of the Lord, the sinner gets rid of a quantity of sins that he is unable to commit. Such is the power of uttering the holy name of the Lord. There is not the least exaggeration in this statement. Actually the Lord’s holy name has such powerful potency. But there is a quality to such utterances also. It depends on the quality of feeling. A helpless man can feelingly utter the holy name of the Lord, whereas a man who utters the same holy name in great material satisfaction cannot be so sincere. A materially puffed up person may utter the holy name of the Lord occasionally, but he is incapable of uttering the name in qualiy" (SB 1.8.25, purport).
Q: We may think that we are more fallen than other devotees. But then we may hear that humility is a symptom of advancement. What do we do so that we do not become proud of being advanced. A: The secret is to remember that whatever we have accomplished has been done by the mercy of our guru.
If we can gain people’s appreciation then that begins their devotional service.
Adi Karta Prabhu:
In beginning marriage life or spiritual life, we make a serious commitment by taking a vow in front of the fire, which represents Krishna. To break such a vow, Srila Prabhupada considered was a very great offense.
When the Vedic culture was practiced, the society was such that there was a lot of support for the wives who husbands took sannyasa.
Bhaktivinoda Thakura recommended take ksetra sannyasa which allows living with one wife in a holy place.
Krishna was expert. He treated His wives in such a way that each thought she was His dearmost.
Q: Why has your marriage been successful? A: I have a good wife. She is serious. We always went to mangala-arati together. I have always been satisfied with the life of a devotee. I do not want to become a materialistic enjoyer. I do not want to take birth again.
Canakya Pandita said, "The king is the ornament of the earth, knowledge is the ornament of a man, a husband is the ornament of a lady."
Krishna-nama Prabhu’s Bhagavatam class in Orlando:
When Lord Caitanya came to Advaita Acarya’s home, Advaita Acarya was just about to perform arati for the Deity. Seeing Lord Caitanya, He fainted, but when He recovered, instead, He began to perform arati for Lord Caitanya personally. Gadadhara Pandita was surprised at this, because even though he was the internal potency of the Lord Himself, he could not recognize who Lord Caitanya was.
Nanda Kumar Prabhu:
The essential meaning behind Kunti’s prayer asking for distress is that for the devotee of the Lord, the association of the Lord is the real pleasure, not a comfortable material situation.
Reading the qualities of advanced devotees can make us feel humble as we see our lack in developing them.
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 4, No. 21 By Krishna-kripa das (November 2008, part one) Gainesville, Alachua, Orlando (Sent from Gainesville, Florida, U.S.A. on 11/21/08)
Where I Am and What I Am Doing
I started off the month by going to Srila Prabhupada Disappearance Day observances in Gainesville and Alachua, and then Hridayananda Dasa Goswami’s Vyasa Puja in Gainesville. I gave the Sunday feast lecture in Alachua and tried to glorify Srila Prabhupada for his gift of the process of Krishna consciousness—especially the Hare Krishna mantra and Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam, and talked about how to increase our faith in and taste for hearing about Krishna. One bhakta told me that he attended my evening classes in Alachua years ago. He was attached to Mayavadi impersonal ideas at the time, and said I helped him get past that. I felt successful because delivering people from Mayavadi impersonalism is an important part of Srila Prabhupada’s mission. The remainder of the month I have been in Orlando in Trivikrama Swami’s temple, where I chant at the campus of University of Central Florida three hours a day.
Devotional Meditations
Bhakta Andres recalls an analogy that Adi Karta Prabhu uses to explain Krishna’s partiality. We are all Krishna’s children but most of us are sitting with our backs to Him, therefore, the few people who sit with their faces turned toward Krishna are the ones that Krishna reciprocates with.
Prayer by Bhaktin Kelly for renunciation, "Dear Lord, I think I am ready to let this go. Please help me."
Notes from Trivikrama Swami’s classes at his ISKCON temple in Orlando:
"If we just do what Srila Prabhupada wants, we will not be the loser, but rather we will be situated in the safest position."
"The coal is nothing by the sun’s energy yet it is separate from the sun and appears quite different, black and cold. In the same way, this material nature is the Lord’s own energy, but it is separated from Him and appears quite different."
"Scientists claim that life or conscious comes from matter, but they have never demonstrated that. Therefore it is not unreasonable to consider the Vedic conception of the soul."
People were afraid of Prabhupada. Even his godbrothers were afraid. And some of his disciples were afraid. They could see by Prabhupada’s example that surrender is required, but they were hesitant to surrender. People were exposed in his association.
When Trivikrama Swami met the devotees, he was attracted, but he had doubts. After he graduated from college, he decided, "for one year, I am going to live as devotee, and if I do not get some higher realization, I will go to California and get a job and raise a family like I was planning." He never left the devotees.
In Vrindavana in 1974 when Srila Prabhupada was not feeling well, Trivikrama Swami and Srutakirti Prabhu came to visit him after the evening kirtana. Srila Prabhupada said, "This kirtana is our life. Without a taste for kirtana, there is simply sex life."
Notes from Danavira Goswami’s classes in Orlando:
The material nature is so well designed it appears to be automatic. A child may foolishly think a door in a supermarket opens by magic but actually there is a complicated mechanism behind it that was designed by a person. The materialists similiarly think material nature is automatically working without a cause.
Trying to make the material world a nice place is like spraying perfume in a toilet.
You may have your opinion, and I may have my opinion, but if there is a God then God’s opinion is superior.
Srila Prabhupada commenting on Bharata Maharaja’s attainment of a deer’s body for one life due neglecting his devotional service, which had matured to the stage of bhava, writes " It is proved herein that due to the grace of the Supreme Lord, a devotee is never vanquished. Due to his willful neglect of devotional service, a devotee may be punished for a short time, but he again revives his devotional service and returns home back to Godhead" (SB 5.8.27, purport).
Srila Prabhupada’s Disappearance Day Offerings (from notes taken in Gainesville and Alachua)
"‘Love starts with obediance’, said Srila Prabhupada in Sri Isopanisad."
"Our tests will now begin," Mother Jitamitra thought, on hearing of Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance. "Previously Srila Prabhupada’s words solved all problems, but now it would be different. I am glad I did not stray away from ISKCON in those turbulant years immediately after he left."
Kalakantha Prabhu reminded us of this great purport, "When the mortal body of the spiritual master expires, his disciples should cry exactly as the queen cries when the king leaves his body. However, the disciple and spiritual master are never separated because the spiritual master always keeps company with the disciple as long as the disciple follows strictly the instructions of the spiritual master. This is called the association of vani (words). Physical presence is called vapuh. As long as the spiritual master is physically present, the disciple should serve the physical body of the spiritual master, and when the spiritual master is no longer physically existing, the disciple should serve the instructions of the spiritual master" (SB 4.28.47, purport). Kalakantha also praised Prabhupada’s wisdom in having a GBC rather than a single acarya, "When there is a committee you cannot change anything very fast."
Bhakta Hanan from Israel, who is has been main manager of the Krishna lunch program for many years, recalls Prabhupada’s letter to the Gainesville devotees: "So do something wonderful there in Gainesville. Wonderful means simply you chant loudly and distribute prasadam. That is not very difficult. It is very easy. Simply if you do it enthusiastically and sincerely, then success will be there." He commented, "It is Srila Prabhupada’s kindness that Krishna lunch is going on so nicely." The Krishna lunch is so famous that someone dressed as a Krishna lunch server for Halloween! That day also Hridayananda Goswami took prasadam with some professors. Hanan further said about Srila Prabhupada, "Srila Prabhupada demonstrated tolerance. Although he could have reacted many times, he chose to be tolerant and set an example."
Bhaktin Kelly said, "For so long, I thought about what the devotees have done for me and what Srila Prabhupada has done for me, but now I think about what we can do for Srila Prabhupada."
A devotee who spent time in Africa remarked, "In Africa, it was so poor it was hard to imagine how Krishna consciousness could spread there, but now everything is developing wonderfully by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy."
Amarendra Prabhu recalls Srila Prabhupada’s visit to Gainesville. "Srila Prabhupada had a great time in Gainesville. From morning to evening all he did was preach. He came to the plaza and spoke there. That is why so many people are coming now [for the Krishna lunch]. Seven or eight hundred students came to hear Srila Prabhupada speak on the 6th chapter of Bhagavad-gita. I thought it would be too esoteric for them. But, all the students said things like, ‘This was the best lecture I ever heard.’ Many people who were at that lecture went to other parts of the world. I asked Srila Prabhupada, ‘How can we make people Krishna conscious?’ Srila Prabhupada replied, ‘Simply you request them to chant Hare Krishna and your business is finished.’"
Mother Visakha quoted, "Materialists are generally very attached to their present bodily comforts and to the bodily comforts they expect in the future. Therefore they are always absorbed in thoughts of their wives, children and wealth and are afraid of giving up their bodies, which are full of stool and urine. If a person engaged in Krishna consciousness, however, is also afraid of giving up his body, what is the use of his having labored to study the sastras [scriptures]? It was simply a waste of time" (SB 5.19.14). She reminded us of Prabhupada’s analogy that the jaws of the cat are death for the rat but protection for the kittens. Similarly death is painful for the materialist, but for the devotee, it is Krishna coming to bring His devotee back home.
Puskara Prabhu reminded us that Ramananda Raya says the greatest pain is separation from pure devotees. "Srila Prabhupada could have given so much veda, knowledge, but he gave the essence, the Hare Krishna mantra."
Mother Pasupati mentioned, "Visvambara Goswami of Vrindavan developed greater appreciation of Srila Prabhupada when he came to America and saw the Bowery and 26 2nd Ave., and the obstacles Prabhupada had to overcome."
Madana Mohan Prabhu made the interesting point that, "The greatest pain is separation from the pure devotees, and Krishna’s feels the separation of His pure devotees who are now covered by maya in the material world."
Mother Jaya Radhe is thirty years old and spoke with sincerity and great emotion that she wants not to waste her youth, but to do something for Srila Prabhupada.
Navina Syama Prabhu said he wants to play a part in making Srila Prabhupada the most famous person in the world because it is destined to happen.
Hridayananda Dasa Goswami began by recalling a story Giriraja Swami tells. "In the middle of the night, Srila Prabhupada asked his servant to get Giriraja Swami. Giriraja Swami came. Srila Prabhupada asked him, ‘How will movement go on?’ Giriraja Swami replied, ‘By chanting, etc.’ Srila Prabhupada said, ‘More is required: intelligence and organization.’ Srila Prabhupada cared for the material and spiritual health of his spiritual children. After that care, all his talk was of the Hare Krishna movement. Srila Prabhupada recognized what was needed to keep Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s mission alive in the 1960s and 1970s. To serve him, we have to use our intelligence to see how to keep the mission alive in the present day. Are our communities more focused on benefiting the public or benefiting ourselves? We preached to the neglect of our own needs at first, and then we paid attention to our own needs. Now is time for a recommitment to the preaching again."
Notes on Hridayananda Dasa Goswami’s (Hridayananda Goswami’s) Vyasa Puja
Mother Duhsala mentioned that Hridayananda Goswami has been sannyasi since the age of 23, and a guru since the age of 29—truly an amazing record of service to Srila Prabhupada.
Brahma Tirtha Prabhu: He is very humble, admitting his many mistakes. [This reminds me of one attender describing a Vyasa Puja as a Hare Krishna roast.] He is the unofficial philosopher for ISKCON.
Amarendra Prabhu: I asked for help in Gainesville, I was sent Hridayananda Goswami, and his enthusiasm brought life to everyone, by reciting verses, holding classes in each of Srila Prabhupada’s books as they came out, etc.
Lilananada Prabhu: Hridayananda Goswami knows Portuguese so well that he can speak with proper accent for the region of Brazil he preaches in. This really wins the hearts of the people.
Mother Nartaka Gopal: I appreciate his erudite scholarship, practical application of wisdom, dedication to increasing book distribution, and humor as well.
Hridayananda Goswami: Krishna, as time, not also destroys the world, but also glorifies the devotees.
Vedasara Prabhu: I always thought of old people as grumpy, but Hridayananda Goswami changed all that. I was worried about getting involved in ISKCON management again in Atlanta, but Hridayananda Goswami deals with his managers so nicely I felt encouraged.
Hridayananda Goswami: We should dedicate ourselves to helping others, whatever our particular situation is.
Mother Syama Priya quoted a great verse, SB 7.9.28: "My dear Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, because of my association with material desires, one after another, I was gradually falling into a blind well full of snakes, following the general populace. But Your servant Narada Muni kindly accepted me as his disciple and instructed me how to achieve this transcendental position. Therefore, my first duty is to serve him. How could I leave his service?"
Mother Mantra Murti: Great stories of Hridayananda Goswami’s inspiration in book distribution in Brazil.
Mahavira Prabhu: Recalls Hridayananda Goswami’s amazing preaching in South America opening BBTs and inspiring thousands of people.
Mother Nila Madhava: "Although you are exalted you treat me as a friend, and it makes me feel like I want to become more exalted."
Balabhadra Prabhu from Atlanta’s wife, Mother Gandharvika, liked the Krishna consciousness philosophy but had doubts about organized religion. Hridayananda Goswami was able, however, to convince her to live in the temple.
At an emergency GBC meeting, Hridayananda Goswami had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, while everyone else had thalis by the greatest ISKCON cooks. Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami looked over toward Hridayananda Goswami, saying, "Do you have any more of those?" Soon everyone, except Tamal Krishna Goswami, also got peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Hridayananda Goswami: "Raghunandini at age 4, in response to my question, ‘Should I go to Jagannatha Puri?’ said, ‘Yes, Krishna wants you to go to Jagannatha Puri.’ She spoke with such authority, I took it as coming from Krishna, and so I did."
I was intimidated by the eloquence of the speakers and their closeness to Hridayananda Goswami, and I also did not want to delay everyone’s lunch, so I chose not to speak. I would have praised his maintaining Prabhupada’s enthusiasm for defeating the misconceptions of materialism and impersonalism in his conmpletion of the Srimad-Bhagavatam commentary. I’d thank him for his prompt assistence in helping answer my Krishna.com inquires on Sanskrit and Mahabharata. And I’d tell him I like his classes because I always learn something new.
University of Central Florida, Orlando
In addition to chanting at the campus with a book table and invitations, I brought halava from the Govardhan Hill for interested students. Two students, seeing the halava sitting on my table, inquired if it was prasadam, which was quite surprising to me, as that is uncommon word. One was a Turkish lady with a Sikh husband, and the other a young Hindu lady originally from Guyana. Across from me, after an hour or so, a group of Christians appeared, one speaking loudly and attracting a crowd that grew to a hundred. He was getting on the case of the students for voting for Obama because of his position on abortion and national health care. In the course of his speech against the health care, he said that Jesus was a capitalist. Somehow I had never thought of Christ in those terms. I am sure in my youth I encountered those who considered Christ to be more socialist than capitalist. Hearing the tirade of insulting words, one young Christian lady told me she was embarrassed that her fellow Christians would publicly speak in such a way. Yet another Christian lady was hurt by the crowd’s mockery of the Christian evangelist. I suggested that perhaps it is not that they are against Christianity but against the style of presentation. However, that did not make her feel much better. I used the crowd the Christians attracted to distribute prasadam, and I also continued playing harmonium and chanting, but not so loud as to appear purposely disruptive to the Christian speaker. After the Christian finished I was able to talk to a group of five or seven people about different aspects of the philosophy of Krishna consciousness.
One day I set up near the bank of a pool that is off limits to student bathers the whole year, except the day I was there, when students are allowed to wade or swim in it for two hours. Thus hundreds of students heard the Krishna chanting. One man, probably in his thirties, asked many questions, and I helped to increase his knowledge of religion. He did not know that the main Hindu text, Bhagavad-gita, recommends against the worship of the many demigods that Hinduism is famous for, and that the saints, or pure representatives of God, are superior to the many administrative demigods, who often have their own agenda to some extent. He also learned that God has many names. Two friends of the devotees came by, and I gave them some prasadam, which they gratefully accepted. One English major from Oregon considered that Bhagavad-gita philosophy must be worth studying since such great writers as Thoreau and Emerson found it so impressive. That boy’s girlfriend was a vegetarian.
A young student named Eden, who works for food services at UCF stopped by, saying "It always makes me happy to see you people chanting." She mentioned that it was a refreshing change from the presentation of the most radical of the "hating Christians," who often frequents the same free-speech area. She described herself as a "loving Christian" as opposed to the "hating Christians" who yell at you for all the sinful activities they think you are commiting, and which are for her also, an embarrassment.
A thirty-one-year old student named Derek came by my table. He was a friend of Richard who had attended our evening temple program the previous night. He had met a Hare Krishna devotee, who referred to himself by the letter "G", at a local Rainbow gathering. When he told me the devotee’s Rainbow name was Soaring Turkey, I knew it was Garuda Prabhu from Tallahassee, who often sets up a Krishna tent at the Rainbow gatherings. Derek had gotten beads and a Bhagavad-gita from Garuda. He asked me about chanting, and I encouraged him to chant as many times around the beads as he could easily maintain, and then gradually increase. He said he will come to our evening programs.
Like in Tallahassee, in Orlando, I found I always met a few students who find the chanting, the prasadam, and the philosophy of Krishna consciousness attractive. I also found that students dislike the presentation of the Christian evangelists, and are more attracted to our program of kirtana and prasadam.
aksnoh phalam tvadrsa-darsanam hi tanoh phalam tvadrsa-gatra-sangah jihva-phalam tvadrsa-kirtanam hi sudurlabha bhagavata hi loke
"O Vaishnava! To see you is the perfection of the eyes. To touch your holy feet is the perfection of the body. To vibrate your holy qualities is the perfection of the tongue, for it is very rare to find a pure devotee within this world" (Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya 13.2).
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 4, No. 20 By Krishna-kripa das (October 2008, part two) Gainesville, Alachua, Tallahassee (Sent from Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. on 11/08/08)
Where I Am and What I Am Doing
I am chanting at the campuses in Florida, specifically in Gainesville and Tallahassee, and next week, in Orlando. I was happy to meet the Hare Krishna devotees when I was in college, and hope to give others the same opportunity. Special this month were a creation/evolution debate and a Halloween harinama.
Devotional Meditations
Notes on Kalakantha Prabhu’s class:
There is a difference between discriminating who we should associate with and making a judgment as to how advanced someone is in spiritual life. We cannot always tell how advanced someone in Krishna conscious is, and so it is offensive to verbalize judgements of devotees.
As long as the people are making spiritual advancement, they should be allowed to live in the temple.
Notes on Adi-karta Prabhu’s class:
This age is very demoniac. In England, a study showed 85% think religion does more harm than good.
Notes on Jayananda Prabhu’s class:
We should develop the vision of eternity. Our tiny ten-year plans are insignificant compared to the age of the earth what to speak of eternal time.
This is the age of Kali, the iron age. Iron has been the most profit commodity for the last ten years. Down the street they have electronic implants for your dog for $30 so you won’t loose it.
Notes on Kalakantha Prabhu’s class:
In response to material setbacks, devotees should: 1) patiently continue with their duties, 2) offer obeisances to Krishna, and 3) await Krishna’s mercy.
Q: Can we help our friends and relatives with their setbacks? A: If we try as far as it is possible then that is Krishna’s desire, but if the endeavor to do so is so great that blocks our spiritual progress, then that is not Krishna’s desire.
Florida State University at Tallahassee
I chanted at the FSU campus three days from 11:00 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. and was pleased with the response. I brought a harmonium, and a book table with prasadam, invitations to the temple and to the lunch program, and books. Some people were attracted by the harmonium. Some of these knew of the instrument but had never seen one. Other people asked, "What kind of Buddhist are you?" I had made carob coconut burfi and told the people who came by that everyone who tried them had liked them. The first day a bus of high school sophomores from Panama City came, and many of the students were interested in the instruments and the prasadam. The first FSU student who stopped by had heard of our lunch program but did not know its location. Another student had Krishna food at the First Friday art festival but didn’t know we served lunch weekdays on campus too. One girl told me her boyfriend at University of Florida went to our lunch program there. I told her that we started an all-you-can-eat dinner for $8 on Saturday nights at our place in Gainesville quite near that University. Later she said she told her boyfriend on the phone about the new dinner program, and she promised they would go together next time she was in Gainesville. Some students I told about our mantra meditation at our temple in Tallahassee. One young student named Marie offered me a small New Testament Bible. I declined because I already had one. [I heard later of one devotee who would accept them and then sell them to people who did not want the Bhagavad-gitas he was distributing.] Marie offered to help carry my table back to the van, and I let her. I wondered if she was the kind of Christian who seems really curious about what we believe but at heart just wants to convert us. Thinking in this way, I told her, "You know, so many Christians have tried to convert me to Christianity, but they have all failed, so I highly doubt you will succeed." I gave her another sweet for helping with the table. Amazing me, she came back the last day and again helped me carry my table to the van. She took two sweets that day as well.
Daru Brahman Prabhu also teaches vegetarian cooking classes occasionally in addition to his cooking five days a week for 150 students. All the participants were really friendly. One mother whose daughter goes to the Krishna lunch in Gainesville took a list of our German centers from me so her daughter could visit the Sunday feasts when she travels to Germany in the summer.
God / Science Debate
The devotees in the Gainesville temple went to see the debate between a Christian creationist, Dr. Jacobi, and an evolutionist, Dr. Schermer, of Skeptic magazine. The creationist argued that evolution was God’s way of creating and therefore you could be both a creationist and evolutionist. The evolutionist, who was formerly a born-again Christian, considered God as an unnecessary element that should not be introduced. The creationist lost my sympathy when he said that the Bible was the best scripture on earth. He must not know all the additional information about God, the soul, their relationship, and the spiritual world where they live eternally which abounds in the Vedic literature. The evolutionist did not touch the many gaps in the explanation of how a human being arises from chemicals, and I sensed that he had as much blind faith that God does not exist as the creationist did that God does exist. I think he just went from being a fanatical Christian to be a fanatical agnostic. I tried to sell some of Sadaputa Prabhu’s God and Science books to the people after the lecture. Two people said they would look it up at the college library, where I had placed it soon after publication. I talked to the evolutionist after the talk about if he heard of Forbidden Archeology. He said Michael Cremo (Drutakarma Prabhu) visited him in his office once. He did not think cases in the book were very sound. [The fact is that if one of the many cases is true, everything they have been teaching about the evolution of man from apes is completely wrong.] I asked if they seriously looked at them, and he said he would email the review of the book in Skeptic magazine. I imagine it will be incomplete. To refute all the cases in the book would take more than a years’ worth of magazines to do, if it could be done at all!
Halloween Harinama in Gainesville
Halloween weekend in Gainesville is special time when many punk rock bands play at different venues, and their admirers crowd the streets.
Mother Akuti decided to take advantage of the situation and distribute prasadam on Halloween night with the assistance Mothers Vrindavanesvari and Parijata. Although the Orlando devotees invited us to the big city that night, we worried we would be too wiped out to properly observe Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance festival, so we elected to assist with the kirtana in Gainesville.
The devotees themselves dressed in various ways:
devotee clothes, street clothes, as blue grass bhajana singers,
as Dvivida gorilla, and as a more traditional Halloween goblin.
One kirtana leader was Adi Karta Prabhu, who played accordion.
Many people in quite an array of costumes danced with us.
One high school youth (in back), dressed in the red robes of a cardinal, a cross dangling from his neck and mantra card in hand, danced with us with upraised arms for almost an hour and a half. A friend of his, decorated with palm leaves, also participated as well. The cardinal had to leave at 10:00 p.m., respecting his parents’ curfew, but must have got a lot of mercy to stay so long.
Another guy joined us for some time, playing a large drum with "The Lower 13th Street Jazz Band" written on the side of it.
I was happy to see the college students who live at our center, as a result, really developed a taste for harinama and want to continue to go out on Friday nights. We thank Ali Krishna Dasi and Bhakta Jude for the nice illustrations.
sanketyam parihasyam va stobham helanam eva va vaikuntha-nama-grahanam asesagha-haram vidhu
One who chants the holy name of the Lord is immediately freed from the reactions of unlimited sins, even if he chants indirectly [to indicate something else], jokingly, for musical entertainment, or even neglectfully. This is accepted by all the learned scholars of the scriptures (SB 6.2.14).
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 4, No. 19 By Krishna-kripa das (October 2008, part one) Alachua and Gainesville, Florida, and Albany, New York (Sent from Gainesville, Flordia, U.S.A. on 10/25/08)
Where I Am and What I Am Doing
Visiting Alachua temple. Chanting at the campus in Gainesville. Visiting my family in Albany. (Not necessarily in that order.)
Devotional Meditations
From a Srila Prabhupada lecture: "Unless you become first-class devotee there is no chance of being relieved of this material existence."
"Every family in every society can conduct sankirtana-yajna at least every evening. In this way there will be no disturbance or scarcity of rain. It is essential for the people in this age to perform the sankirtana-yajna in order to be materially happy and to advance spiritually" (SB 5.4.3).
Notes from a darshan with Hridayananda Dasa Goswami SB 5.9.13-14:
Srila Prabhupada mentions in the purport that human sacrifice is done by barbaric, low class people. Everything in the scripture is not necessarily "Vedic". The Srimad-Bhagavatam was just describing human nature as it is, and the Vedic culture was just trying to deal with realities of human nature. Whenever you get a sufficently varigated gene pool, you are bound to get some people who are into human sacrifices.
The idea of kings hunting is not necessarily "Vedic". To get someone passionate enough to be king, they are bound to have some bad qualities. The allowance for ksatriyas to hunt is not there by intent but by necessity because they will do it anyway.
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami asked Srila Prabhupada how do fire sacrifices. Srila Prabhupada said, "Shortcut."
For people’s psychological needs they want a guru is a superman or celebrity. Someone purely representing the sastra alone is does not satisfy them.
To really be a second class devotee is not easy. Can you have an international society where most of the devotees are absorbed in missionary work? In the beginning we were all youthful with recent conversion experiences so enthusiasm for preaching was natural. But can that be maintained in an institution?
In Jada-yoga, you put yourself in the lowest possible state, by accepting various dualities, and thus become free from false ego. It works but it is not for this age.
We have technology far beyond what we had in the 1970s but in many ways we have less communication.
I am trying to figure out what I can do with my psychophysical nature to benefit the greatest number of people for Srila Prabhupada, and have a transforming effect on Srila Prabhupada’s movement.
Notes from class by Kripa Sindhu Prabhu:
ISKCON history: In the early days, after the morning program, they had another class, and then went on harinama for three hours, took lunch, and then went out on harinama for three more hours, and then took a shower and went to the evening program. Srila Prabhupada said if we don’t go to the evening program, we would all fall down. Every one was fully engaged and it was pretty fired up because of that. We would tell the people to surrender to Krishna now, and many did.
In Brihad Bhagavatamrita, Gopa Kumar did not know if he was in Goloka, the spiritual abode, or Gokula, its replica in this world, because the same activities are going on in both.
We can understand from the scripture, we have already been through the different bodies and had the different experiences. Acaryas compare the desire for fame to be in the same category as having sex with a low-class prostitute.
We should follow Srila Prabhupada’s program because we are not perfect pure and are subjected to the four defects of the conditioned soul. [We cannot devise a better path.]
In the questions and answers after class, one devotee lady told of an impromptu Sunday feast program at a friendly Indian’s house where she and a friend followed Srila Prabhupada whole program with kirtana, lecture, and prasadam and how it was amazingly successful. There was no prasadam left for them at the end, but they were so happy from sharing Krishna consciousness with others, they didn’t mind.
Notes from a class by Dravida Prabhu on Caitanya-caritamrita Adi 17.50-51:
We should not blame anyone else for our suffering, especially God. We must understand that the suffering we encounter is Krishna’s personal program for our purification from the tendency for sense gratification, and is thus benedictory. Practically every great devotee encountered some misery in the course of his life. Because the devotees are eager to go back to Godhead, they want to receive all the reactions that they are due before the end of life, and so are not disturbed by the miseries, but are grateful for them.
Kaviraja Goswami spoke very wonderfully and his words did not offend even those he rebuked during chastisement. Raghunatha Dasa Goswami established the superiority of the service of Srimati Radharani. Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami considered that all Vaishnavas are sincerely serving the Lord according to their realizations and should not be criticized.
Notes from a class in Gainesville by Dravida Prabhu:
The modern tendency is to depersonalize everything including our own consciousness, but the Vaisnava principle is to see the personality of Godhead everywhere and in everything.
The names that describe Krishna’s forms and pastimes are His primary names.
One of the reasons the Hare Krishna mantra is called the maha-mantra is that it not only offers obeisances to and glorifies the Lord, but directly calls out and implores the Lord to be engaged in His service.
Notes from a class by Laskmi Nrsimha Prabhu:
The Christians have the idea that Jesus and the Father are one. We can understand how that can be true because we understand the principle of the satyavesa-avatara, in which a living entity is empowered as an incarnation of Godhead with special powers.
All the ‘rights’ movements reveal intense identification with the body.
Campus Bhajanas Awaken Devotion in Students
Brian from Santa Fe Community College and Celia from University of Florida both excitedly told me how they became attracted to Krishna consciousness from the campus bhajana programs at their respective colleges. Celia said that the chanting attracts you on a deeper level than you can realize. Both now attend the daily chanting on the University of Florida campus and talked to me during an evening program at our Gainesville Krishna House. I felt so inspired to hear how the chanting attracted them since the public chanting is an important part of my life. I suggested that Celia might try coming to the morning program, which Brian is already doing, and she expressed some interest in that. The next day both of them helped carry the instruments back to our Krishna center after the campus bhajanas. The following day they came to our gourmet dinner program, and after it was over, asked the devotees if we could have a kirtana. The other devotees were tired from cooking and serving out and still needed to clean up, but I, who was also feeling a void without an evening kirtana, chanted with them for fifteen minutes. My friends from Europe speak disparagingly from what they have heard about our outreach programs in America, but I can see, as American book distributors tell me, the field in America is as good as it ever has been, if not better. When we are out in public to share Krishna with others, people there become attracted. The problem is that there are only a too few fulltime or even parttime missionary devotees in America. Otherwise it is a great place to share Krishna consciousness with others.
You Should Choose a Religion!
My sister, Karen, that her daughter, Fern, told her how her grandmother wanted her to choose a religion. To hear that was humorous for me because I had been considering advising her in the same way. Now she is sixteen. Her mom is a Buddhist, her grandmother, Quaker, and me, her uncle, am a Hare Krishna. She comes to all the different services from time to time, but doesn’t really practice any of them on her own. She is a lifetime vegetarian, however. Karen thinks that as she has taken her studies seriously like adults around her did, she will some day take up a religious practice on her own, like those around her. The Vedic idea is that children should be reminded that this human form of life is simply meant for spiritual life and be encouraged to endeavor in that way. My father and my mother were not so attached to the Anglican and Catholic religions of their births, so when Karen and I were young they looked for a path they both had faith in so we would have some idea of spirituality. Thus they joined the Quaker meeting in Albany. That consideration by the parents to promote spirituality in their children is actually the parents’ dharma. We will see what happens with Fern. I told Fern I was thinking the same thing as her grandmother (my mother), but I did not push her to choose a religion. I am so averse to people trying to push me to make decisions, I cannot do the same to others. I did, however, make the point to her that at least when she goes to the Hare Krishna services, she can count on there being vegetarian food. With the others, you never know. Even the Buddhists sometimes have preparations containing meat at their programs.
Quaker Meeting
The Sunday I was home in Albany I went to the Quaker meeting I attended as a youth. The Quakers teach complete pacifism, equality to all human beings, andthat God is in everyone’s heart. They also highly value the search for spiritual truth. In the unprogrammed meetings as we have in Albany, they sit in silence for an hour, presumably thinking of godly things, and anyone can stand up and speak briefly, if inspired, during that time. After their meetings, they serve refreshments. I was late half an hour because I miscalculated the baking time for some prasadam cookies I made to add to the refreshments. No one spoke for the first twenty minutes I was there. I decide to quote a very ecumenical verse from the Vedic literature: smartavyah satatam vishnur, vismartavyo na jatucit, sarve vidhi-nishedhah syur, etayor eva kinkarah. "One should always remember the Supreme Lord. One should not forget Him at any time. All the other scriptural injunctions and prohibitions are servants of these two principles." I spoke briefly saying that whatever our religion is, we may sometimes get caught up in the rules and rituals and forget that the important thing is to remember God. After that in the five remaining minutes at least a couple people spoke, each talking about how they saw God in their life recently in some way or other. One saw Him in the colorful autumn leaves and another in the loving responses of friends during his illness. I felt victorious because we as devotees promote the glorification of God, and so that a couple people broke the silence, and spoke in God’s favor made me smile. One elderly lady told me afterwards that now she is almost completely vegetarian now, and I encouraged her. A sociology major from Skidmore told me she liked my quote, and I sent it to her by email. Many liked the cookies. One later mentioned them in an email to my mother. I noticed the Sunday school kids playing outside and took a few cookies to them. They had studied that day the Biblical story of Jonah and the whale, and I asked them to tell it, as I did not know it. Apparently God wanted Jonah to preach, but he did not want to, and went sailing instead. He got in an accident and ended up being swallowed by whale. He realized that he made a mistake, and prayed to God who arranged his rescue. Then he went to preach to the people God had ordered him to. It reminded me of the fact that Lord Caitanya has ordered us all to preach. Perhaps if we do not do so, we will get into a jam like Jonah. Better not chance it.
[Lord Caitanya continued,] "Therefore I order every man within this universe to accept this Krishna consciousness movement and distribute it everywhere" (Cc. Adi 9.36).
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 4, No. 18 By Krishna-kripa das (September 2008, part two) Ukraine Festival, Poland, England, and Back to the USA (Sent from Gainesville, Florida, on 10/17/08)
Where I Am and What I Am Doing
The second half of September I went to a very sweet festival in Ukraine attended by four thousand devotees, and then traveled through Katowice, Wroclaw, London, and Manchester, on the way back to Alachua, Florida, U.S.A., where I attended a memorial service for Sadaputa Prabhu.
Devotional Meditations
Notes from Prabhupada Lecture:
If we see the Ford car, which was produced under the direction of Mr. Ford, and we think we have met Mr. Ford himself, that is foolishness. In the same way, everything is God, but God Himself is not every thing.
If you meet someone who has no father, that is God.
Om namah bhagavate vasudevaya, means "Krishna, I accept your invitation to surrender unto You."
By chanting Hare Krishna you can always think of Krishna and become a first-class yogi. The perfect yogi has all power from within.
Q: Sometimes there is maya in the temple. A: Show me a place where maya is not.
God is one and the path to God is one, bhakti, as Krishna says in Bg. 18.55. Others persons, who take to other paths, waste their time because it will take them longer.
One who is inquisitive about the Absolute Truth will ultimate attain it depending on how he is situated, but for a devotee who can accept immediately the Bhagavatam version, liberation is attained. Those who can accept the authority save time.
God is not dead, because we are part of God and we are not dead.
Notes on Srila Prabhupada lecture (SB 1.5.15, New Vrndavana, June 15, 1969):
If we do not come to the spiritual platform, just some regulative principles on the material platform will not help us. Neither will going to the temple, while maintaining desires for sense enjoyment, bring the ultimate benefit.
Just as you can get a position in the government and be better situated than an ordinary man, you can become a demigod and be better situated than a human being.
Direct people to Krishna. Do not misguide them by leading them to some demigod.
The impersonalists claim the impersonal feature of God is supreme, and think that temporarily one can worship any demigod to elevate himself to that point. The Vaishnavas accept the Bhagavatam version that the personal form of Krishna is Supreme.
Krishna and maya are side by side. As soon as you are a little slack in Krishna consciousness, maya is there waiting for you.
We give brahminical initiation as recognition that the disciple is pure in habits, learned in the scripture, and engaged in devotional service.
The born brahmanas without brahminical qualities have destroyed the India’s spiritual culture.
I foolishly left my notebook in Poland, but I remember one class at the Ukraine festival by Gopiparanadhana Prabhu on the prayers of Queen Kunti. He was making the point that the devotees of the Lord do not actually suffer although they may appear to. One devotee raised a doubt, "Didn’t Devaki suffer when her six children were killed?" Gopiparanadhana was firm in his reply, "No." He explained that when actors put on a play, so many calamaties may happen in the course of the drama, but no one actually gets hurt. Rather the actors are happy to see that the audience enjoys the play. In the same way, the pure devotees of the Lord do not actually suffer in the course of playing their parts in the Lord’s pastimes. It was such a powerful analogy, it remains fresh in my mind.
Ukraine Festival—Better Than Ever
Many people I talked to said that the Ukraine festival was better than ever this year. Many reasons combined to make it so. There were no festival or prasadam fees. There were an estimated 4,000 devotees, more than ever and 500 more than last year. B.B. Govinda Swami and his harmonium player and saxophonist/backup singer were there to lead bhajanas every night, along with Niranjana Swami, Indradyumna Swami, and Bhaktivaibhava Swami and others. One very special reason for the swell of devotional emotions is that Niranjana Swami, who has been a GBC in Ukraine for many years and is a main inspiration behind the festival, returned after a two-year absence because of health. He fully participated and the devotees were grateful. Moreover, some wonderful presenters made their first appearance this year, Bhanu Swami, and Deena Bandhu and Gopiparadhana Prabhus. The three hours of kirtana every evening was taken very seriously both by the presenters and the attenders, perhaps even more so than usual, and there was much chanting and dancing and great joy. The organizers planned for no seminars, prasadam serve outs, or vendors of devotional items during the scheduled evening kirtana, to encourage participation. Those evening kirtanas are what I miss the most as I recollect the festival, sitting crosslegged on my gray cadar at Pzremysl Glowny, the train station just over the Poland-Ukraine border, grateful to the Polish railroad company, PKP, for the free power. Unfortunately, they leave the train station doors open, and the coldness of late September creeps in. Thinking of the festival, I feel the saddest of separation from the devotees, their devotion, and their kirtana. Of course, there is always next year, and one can always get the DVD with all the lectures and kirtanas, and relive it through hearing.
The devotees in Ukraine are sweet. One young male devotee came up to me the first day of the festival and gave me a bag saying, "Some matajis wanted me to give you this." I thanked him, and later looked in the bag. It was some very thick woolen socks. During the next mangala arati, feeling the unexpected cold of the floor, I realized what a great gift they were. Indradyumna Swami once told me, "The best gift is not the most valuable thing, but that which is most needed."
Devotees are such charitable people, I asked one for change for ten euros, and he gave me six more euros and told me to keep the ten. The next day, I asked another to change ten euros into grivnas, the Ukrainian currency, he gave me a hundred grivnas (over sixteen euros) and also would not accept the ten. When will I become charitable by their good association? Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita 18.5, "Sacrifice, charity, and penances purify even the great souls." What to speak of me.
As I took the bus from the Ukraine’s Lvov airport to Shegyni on the border of Poland, I saw about fifteen cows coming down a rural highway closely followed by a middle-aged woman with a stick. It reminded me of India. There, of course, it would have been a man with the stick. Many houses have vegetable gardens and squash is in season. The crowded condition of the bus also reminded me of India as do the simplicity of the people and their paraphenalia. That the prices are less is also like India, although not that quite that much less. Of course, Ukraine is much greener than India.
On the train from Przemysl to Katowice, I met a Polish young man who has lived in Munich for four years, and I gave him a invitation to the Munich temple I obtained during my visit there. Another, who kindly lent me his phone, told me he had friends who enjoy going to the Hare Krishna camp at the Polish Woodstock. He recalled, "I think they call it Krishna’s Village of Peace." I smiled and replied with its Polish translation, "Pokojova Wioska Kryszny!" And he smiled back. By the grace of Indradyumna Swami and his followers, Krishna is popular in Poland.
Krishna Consciousness in Katowice
Although I visited Bhakta Adam and his very devotional wife three times last year, I always missed their Sunday nama-hatta program. This time I stayed for it, although it was austere as the city failed to begin heating his apartment building in time for the cool autumn season. I recall the seven or eight guests who came were all very attentive in the kirtana and played the instruments and chanted nicely. It is so much more fun when the people respond with a degree of enthusiasm. Adam and his wife will get some mercy from Lord Caitanya for faithfully maintaining that weekly program.
A Couple I Met in Wroclaw
While waiting for the bus to the Wroclaw airport, I passed out Polish Hare Krishna mantra cards to the others at the bus stop. One middle-aged couple enroute to London on the same flight as me I found out was vegetarian—a rarity in Poland. I invited them to our Sunday program there in Wroclaw as it was their home. The man had a African djembe drum, and I told him he could bring it to play at our program. I wrote down the address of our Govinda’s Restaurant on Soho St. so they could come there during their two-week London visit. I also told them about our summer festivals on the Baltic Sea and at the Polish Woodstock and gave them invitations for each, saying that next year’s schedule will be posted on the web site. I hope they take advantage of some of these many opportunities.
Painting by Jagannath Krishna Das, now Gopi Vallabha Das.
Sadaputa Prabhu Memorial at London’s Matchless Gifts
Amazingly enough, the day after I arrived in London, I saw Jagannatha Krishna Prabhu, now reinitiated as Gopi Vallabha Prabhu, who did some illustrations for Sadaputa Prabhu in San Diego. I had not seen him since that time, and it was comforting to see a fellow associate of Sadaputa Prabhu, soon after hearing he left his body. Gopi Vallabha and Rama Nrsimha Prabhus were planning a memorial service at the King’s Cross store front’s, Matchless Gifts’, Friday evening program, and they invited me to participate. I showed some clips from Sadaputa Prabhu’s videos, including those showing cheating in archeology, the complete improbability of evolution by natural selection, and empirical evidence for the difference between the mind and the brain. Gopi Vallabha told of how Sadaputa Prabhu patiently answered his scientific doubts for two or three hours when he was becoming a devotee, and how that helped him greatly in his Krishna consciousness. We felt happy that Parasurama Prabhu, the president of the center, and several individual devotees said they liked the program very much.
Manchester Ratha-yatra 2008
I went to a great harinama on Saturday in Manchester to advertise the next day’s Ratha-yatra and found the city to be a great venue for doing harinama, with many pedestrians walking in areas intentionally offlimits to cars. I was also inspired to see a group of enthusiastic congregational devotees eager to participate. Indeed, to witness the cooperative spirit among those planning and executing the Ratha-yatra was uplifting. Most amazing was that Manchester, reputed to be the rainiest city in England, had a mostly sunny day in honor of Lord Jagannatha. A busload of devotees came from London for the event.
Maha-Vishnu Swami, seen here with his accordion, played a key role in the life the kirtanas.
Memorial Service for Sadaputa Prabhu in Alachua, Florida
It was a little bewildering after sleeping one hour the night before, to take an hour and a half of buses, eleven hours of flights, from London to Orlando, and then two hours of traveling by car to Alachua for a memorial service for Sadaputa Prabhu that evening. I had been gone for fifteen months, and experienced the mixture of the happiness to see old friends and sadness that Sadaputa Prabhu was no longer with us, and the frustration at not being able to reciprocate with all the people I saw there that I knew. From the memorial service, I learned about other aspects of Sadaputa’s life, both as a new devotee and as a family man, that I had not known before, and I found that beneficial. For my part, I played an excerpt of his "Mind and Brain" video where he talks about empirical evidence that the soul is different from the body, near-death experiences and past life memories. I prefaced it by saying that we are so much affected by materialistic ideas we have learned in school, that hearing of this empirical evidence confirming scriptural injunctions about the eternality of the soul is valuable.
Birthday Party
Three devotees at Gainesville ISKCON had birthdays on September 30. We were 22, 32, and 49 years old. The two eldest of us, Saranga Prabhu and I, did presentations for the evening class. He discussed his silas and worshiping Them, and I showed some clips from Sadaputa Prabhu’s videos and shared some of the material I did not have time to present the previous night at the memorial service. Barbara and Brian, Sadaputa Prabhu’s wife and son from his first marriage, appreciated hearing more about him. We all had cake and ice cream. A nice way to end the month.
"Advanced people are eager to understand the Absolute Truth through the medium of science, and therefore a great scientist should endeavor to prove the existence of the Lord on a scientific basis" (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.22, purport). All glories to Sadaputa Prabhu, who endeavored his best in that connection.
