Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 15, No. 7
By Krishna Kripa Das
(April 2019, part one)
North Florida, Philadelphia, New York City, Washington, Albany
(Sent from Newcastle-upon-Tyne on April 19, 2019)
Where I Went and What I Did
I remained in Tallahassee the first week of April, and I chanted Hare Krishna at Florida State University (FSU) Monday through Thursday, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) and Railroad Square Art Park on Friday, and Cascades Park on Saturday. Santa Parayana Gaura Prabhu of Mayapur moved to Tallahassee to assist our program there, and he chanted with me three times. That Saturday I traveled to Jacksonville to attend the JAX Krishnas program at their Bhakti House, which was a kirtan program to benefit Amrita Keli Devi Dasi’s sister, Courtney. Madhava Prabhu and several devotees from Krishna House also attended. Sunday I gave the lecture and led the final kirtan at the Sunday Feast in Philadelphia, seeing their new temple room for the first time and having a wonderful feast cooked by Vishnugada Prabhu. Monday and Tuesday I chanted with the Yuga Dharma Ashram harinama party in New York City, visiting the Bhakti Center Tuesday night kirtan afterward. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I chanted with Sankarsana Prabhu in front of the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., continuing by myself on Friday at Union Station as we were rained out. Saturday I cooked a nice dinner in honor of Rama Navami, which was that day, and for my sister’s birthday, which was a week before. Sunday I went to the Quaker meeting in Albany, had lunch with Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami and his caretakers in Stuyvesant Falls, and there briefly visited Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu, before flying out of Newburgh to Dublin that evening.
I
share notes on a lecture by Srila Prabhupada and an excerpt from one
of his letters. I share quotes from the Free
Write Journal of
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami. I include notes on a recorded lecture by
Radhanath Swami, and notes on talks by Adikarta Prabhu in
Tallahassee, Madhava Prabhu in Jacksonville, and Manorama Krishna
Prabhu in Potomac. I share interesting points from conversations with
Haryasva and Daru Krishna Prabhus in Philadelphia and Vinay Prabhu in
Newburgh.
Thanks
to Namamrita Prabhu, son of Yogesvara Prabhu, resident of Alachua,
and pilot for
Southwest Airlines, for a standby airline ticket so I could return to
the Northeast. Many, many thanks to all those in Philadelphia who
contributed toward my travel expenses, including Viswambhara Gauranga
Prabhu, the Philly temple, Haryasva Prabhu, Caitanya Das Mahajan
Prabhu, and Vrindavanesvari Devi Dasi. Thanks also to Adikarta Prabhu
for his kind donation in Florida. Thanks to the lady from Peru and
the man in a wheelchair for their contributions in Union Station in
Washington, D.C.
Thanks
to Kaliya Krishna Prabhu for the photos of me on harinama
in Union Square. Thanks to Viswambhara Gauranga Prabhu for driving me
around Philadelphia, to Victor Anderson for driving me to Stuyvestant
Falls, to Baladeva
Prabhu from Trinidad for driving me to Hudson, and Vinay Prabhu for
driving me to Stewart Airport. Thanks to my mother for picking me up
the Megabus in Rennselaer and to my sister for purchasing my train
ticket from Hudson to Poughkeepsie. Thanks to Lila Kishor Prabhu for
getting me at the bus and dropping me at the airport. Thanks to Gopal
Campu Prabhu for booking me an Uber so I did not get drenched walking
to the subway
station in the rain.
Itinerary
April
19–24: Newcastle-upon-Tyne
April
25: Leeds harinama
and
Accrington program
April
26: Liverpool harinama
and
program
April
27: Amsterdam King’s Day harinama
April
28: Rotterdam and Antwerp Sunday Feast
April
29–30: Brussels harinama
May
1–3: London harinama
May
3: Birmingham evening program with Sacinandana Swami and/or Madhava
Prabhu
May
6–10: Newcastle area harinamas
and
Friday program
May
11–12: Edinburgh programs?
May
14: Sheffield program
May
17–19: Simhachalam Festival?
May
20 – July 17: Paris
July
30 – August 3: Pol’and’Rock Festival (formerly Polish Woodstock
Festival)
August
6–12: Vaishnava Summer Festival (Lithuania)
August
14–18: Vaishnava Sanga Festival (Canada)
September
1: Liverpool Ratha-yatra
September
8: Great North Run harinama
(Newcastle-upon-Tyne)
September
9–10: Dublin
September
11: New York City
September
13 – mid October: Tallahassee
mid
October – mid January 2020: NYC Yuga Dharma Harinama Party
Chanting
Hare Krishna at Florida State University in Tallahassee
Jorge
chants Hare Krishna on Landis Green at Florida State University, and
a student enjoys playing djembe
(https://youtu.be/s0cJppRIMB0):
Ramiya
Prabhu, who
has been helping with the Tallahassee temple management for years and
came to visit
a
devotee who recently moved there, chants
Hare Krishna on Landis Green,
along
with his wife, Ananta Devi Dasi, who is also a disciple of Srila
Prabhupada
(https://youtu.be/H3Xvl4SqYHM):
Santa
Parayana Gaura Prabhu, who recently arrived from Mayapur to help with
cooking and other services, chants Hare Krishna on Landis Green
(https://youtu.be/0z0qrX_ewwM):
My last week at FSU I talked to people who had enjoyed our past discussions and people who said things like, “I love hearing you sing on my way to class.” Many people liked my peanut butter and coconut sweets, and many people learned about Krishna Lunch because I was chanting at the campus every weekday. I look forward to returning for a month in mid September, hopeful that we can continue to connect some more people with Krishna.
Chanting Hare Krishna at ISKCON Tallahassee
Adikarta
Prabhu had an extra evening program in Tallahassee to encourage
Whitney, a FSU student who became vegetarian after talking with him
last year.
Here
Adikarta
Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at ISKCON Tallahassee, Jorge plays
mrdanga,
Michael plays karatalas,
Suresh plays djembe,
and Whiney listens and chants the response
(https://youtu.be/7pyOx6zQGOQ):
Chanting
Hare Krishna at FAMU
Because
FAMU is a short walk from Railroad Square Art Park where we
distribute a Krishna dinner on First Friday, I decided to make a
special flier advertising our dinner and distribute it there.
Santa
Parayana Gaura Prabhu, Jorge, and I chanted there for two hours
around lunch time that Friday. You can always count on people to play
the instruments and dance at
FAMU!
Here
Santa
Parayana Gaura Prabhu chants Hare Krishna on The Quad at FAMU, and a
student plays shakers and djembe
and takes a flier (https://youtu.be/1WtdLbCORIU):
One
girl danced to our music, but I did not get my camera ready in time
to record it.
Chanting
Hare Krishna at Cascades Park in Tallahassee
On
the weekends I am in Tallahassee I chant at Lake Ella, however, the
first Saturday in April some group had an event with amplified music
just at the
place
where we usually chant. I proposed chanting on the other side of the
lake, primarily because I did not want to waste time looking for
another venue, but the other devotees wanted to sing at Cascades
Park, said to be seven minutes away. I had only chanted there once
before, when the Martin Luther King Day march ended there, and I
stayed singing for awhile.
Here
Santa
Parayana Gaura Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Cascades Park in
Tallahassee (https://youtu.be/_VAHyb0ttqI):
One
lady came by who I had seen at Lake Ella the week before. Then I was
lamenting the lack of interest by the people in general, and she was
happy to get prasadam
and
an invitation to the temple, considering them both benedictions,
which of course they are! She said she hardly ever goes to Cascades
Park but was meeting a friend there that day. In her opinion the
people at Lake Ella are more friendly, and I think she is probably
right about that.
Chanting
Hare Krishna at Kirtan for Courtney at the Jacksonville Bhakti House
Amrita
Keli Devi Dasi organized a Saturday evening kirtan program to give
blessings to her sister, Courtney, who is challenged with cancer, and
many devotees chanted heart and soul.
As
I was waiting for her husband to pick me up at the bus station, I was
thinking how fortunate Courtney was to have a
sister like Amrita
Keli, who is so devotional, so joyful, and has such a desire to
benefit others. I am sure many of my devotee friends would be very
happy to have such a sister as Amrita Keli!
I
spoke about how the divine sound of the holy name and the
divine
words of Bhagavad-gita
have
unlimited spiritual potency.
“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.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam
6.2.14)
Beyond
becoming free
from
the
bad karma of present
and future suffering through the divine sound, we uncover our dormant
love for the Lord which is the only thing that satisfies our soul.
“Pure
love for Krishna [God] is eternally established in the hearts of the
living entities. It is not something to be gained from another
source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, this love
naturally awakens.” (Sri
Caitanya-caritamrita,
Madhya 22.107)
We
can give these two good results we achieve from chanting to another.
I
summarized one story from the Padma
Purana that tells how a
person who heard the divine sound of chapter one of Bhagavad-gita
unknowingly,
gave that result to someone else who became free of his bad karma and
soon attained the spiritual world, along with the both reciter and
listener of that Gita
chapter.
I
said that in performing the chanting it is good to remember that the
sound is divine and not ordinary, and to chant with complete focus,
forgetting about everything else, considering the chanting the means
for all success in life.
I
mentioned that at the conclusion of our chanting, we can individually
request that whatever spiritual merit we attained be offered for the
benefit of Courtney.
Madhava
Prabhu also spoke. In particular, he stressed devotion (bhakti)
in
chanting, and he told an analogy I mention below in “Insights.”
Here
Amrita Keli chants Hare Krishna at
Kirtan for Courtney at the Jacksonville Bhakti House
(https://youtu.be/-NEt3YBhzLQ):
As
Animesh continued to chant Hare Krishna, many devotees felt inspired
to dance (https://youtu.be/2L2AZTXM3S8):
[Watch
these next two videos, those by Madhava Prabhu and Laura, in dark
room with the brightness on your display turned up for best
visibility.]
Daryl
was the last one to lead the Hare Krishna chant at “Kirtan for
Courtney,” and this video of her chanting got the highest
percentage of likes of all ones I took at that event
(https://youtu.be/1v_pVlDbGzM):
Amrita
Keli
later
wrote me, “Court and I were talking this morning. She is feeling
pretty upbeat right now. Since the gathering, which she said she had
a great time watching . . . she has been hearing the mantra in her
head constantly. She is getting a big kick out of that and says it
calms her so much. She has even heard it in her sleep! . . . Since
the kirtan she has gotten off of her anti-anxiety meds.”
Chanting
Hare Krishna in Philadelphia
I
had hoped to do harinama
in
Philadelphia and also give the Sunday feast lecture, but when I got
to Atlanta, I found all the flights to Philadelphia except one
arriving at 10 p.m. were booked up. The next fight to LaGuardia,
however, had 27 free seats, and so I decided to fly to New York City
and take the bus to Philadelphia. I hoped to take the $12 Chinese
bus, but since the F train was running local instead of express in
Queens, I just missed it. I went uptown to Port Authority and caught
the Peter Pan bus which
only
took 1:38 hours to reach Philly. I ended up at the Philly temple just
in time to give the lecture. I was fortunate because Vishnugada
Prabhu, who was the head cook in our temple on 55th
Street in New York City when I met the devotees in 1979, was cooking
the feast, which he does only once
in two months. Everything
was nice, but the
drink was most amazing. I had four cups of it. He said it’s called
“Lime Ginger Ale,” and it came from Yamuna’s cookbook. Yamuna
said she made it for Srila Prabhupada and that he liked it. It is
made with lots of ginger and lime.
During
the feast I talked to someone named Joe who was 25 years old, the
same age I was when I lived in the Philadelphia temple! He had come
the previous week with an interfaith group, and he liked it so he
came again. He was regularly attending a Buddhist temple nearby, and
he mentioned he had some interest in becoming a monk. He stayed for
the kirtan after the feast, which I got to lead, and I told him about
the two-hour kirtan the devotees have on Wednesdays at the
Philadelphia temple and the kirtan they have at Govinda’s on the
first Friday of the month.
I
had not seen the new temple room in Philadelphia, which opened in
December, and I was happy to see the larger facility with the deities
on a more exalted platform than before.
After
the feast I had to go to the airport and get my bag, which had made
it to Philadelphia without me.
I
stayed with Haryasva Prabhu, which is always a pleasure because of
his devotion to Srila Prabhupada and to our Guru Maharaja, Satsvarupa
Dasa Goswami.
The
Philadelphia devotees were so charitable that they covered the entire
cost
of my visiting Philadelphia, New York, Washington, and Albany, and I
thank them once again.
Chanting
Hare Krishna with the Yuga Dharma Ashram Harinama Party in NYC
It
is always a pleasure to have the association of the enthusiastic
devotees in the Yuga Dharma Ashram in New York City!
In
Tallahassee we had so few people, I always had to play the
instruments and sing, so it was nice to go back to my usual services
of dancing during the harinama
and
giving pamphlets to the few interested people that the book
distributors somehow miss.
I
would also take videos of the different devotees leading the Hare
Krishna chant
and
the different people who interacted with our party by dancing or
playing the instruments.
Sometimes
I think that the perfection of my chanting of Hare Krishna is for
someone to stop by while I am singing and purchase a book from the
book distributors.
Ananda,
a new member of the party, is a former University of Florida student
named Edward, who Adikarta Prabhu convinced to dedicate his life to
distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books, thus proving that it is
still possible in this day and age. It is wonderful to see him
progress in Krishna consciousness.
This
is the first time I heard Prema Vilasini Devi Dasi (formerly Prema
Bhakti) sing since she got initiated by Niranjana Swami on December
31, 2018, a great fortune for her! (https://youtu.be/8xrDWSSZRcw):
Here
Krishna Prasad Prabhu, who
now regularly makes cookies for distribution on the harinamas,
chants Hare Krishna at Union Square (https://youtu.be/jCXwOIzz78o):
Once
while Rama Raya Prabhu was chanting Hare Krishna, two local guys
danced wildly (https://youtu.be/vUM1We5PG08)
Here
Pavana Nitai Chandra Prabhu of
Australia, back on the party again,
chants Hare Krishna in 34th St. / Penn Station subway station
(https://youtu.be/Ss5_nqx909U):
Here
Govind
Prabhu finishes leading the Hare Krishna chant, giving it over to Rama Raya Prabhu, who
usually leads the last kirtan (https://youtu.be/WnArG5INC04):
Later
while Rama Raya Prabhu was chanting, the devotees danced wildly
(https://youtu.be/8ku-GWZMCuI):
Chanting
Hare Krishna at The Bhakti Center in New York City
The
Thursday Kirtan at The Bhakti Center is famous, but they also have a
kirtan on the second floor from 7:15 to 8:15 p.m. on Tuesdays.
Michele, who spent a semester at Krishna House, said, “I have been
to the Tuesday night kirtan a few times and really liked the intimacy
of it.” The kirtan is
followed
by a vegan snack and some chai.
It was great to see Radha-Muralidhara, although my camera can never capture Their beauty. I loved going to Their mangala-arati for two autumns in New York City. I still visit for the Thursday Kirtan when I am in town. They are slightly closer to the Yuga Dharma Ashram and there was that Tuesday kirtan, so I visited Them rather than Radha Govinda in Brooklyn.
,
Chanting
Hare Krishna by the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Sankarsana
Prabhu chants Hare Krishna by the Museum of National History in
Washington, D.C., several times a week when he is not selling
T-shirts at Ratha-yatras, personally serving our
guru, or on pilgrimage in India. School groups from all over America
and tourists from all over the world get a spiritual boost by hearing
his chanting and learning about the meaning behind it. I join him
several days a year (https://youtu.be/Pmt4yx4Hn1Y):
While chanting Hare Krishna and distributing “On Chanting Hare Krishna” pamphlets with Sankarsana Prabhu, I had an experience I never had before, a policewoman riding on a horse reviewing our permit to perform in public!
Visiting
Albany on Rama Navami
I
promised Karen, my sister, that I would cook her whatever she wanted for her
birthday. It turned out the best day for her to have me visit
happened to be Rama Navami, which I did not realize until after I
booked my ticket. I like to be at the temples and participate in the
festivals on the holidays, so I asked the nearby devotees if they
were having a program to celebrate it but they were not. Two of them
invited me to lunch, but as I fast the whole day, that did not really
work for me.
So
somehow or other I cooked a meal to celebrate both Rama Navami and my
sister’s birthday. Actually I was just a small part of the cooking
team, Victor grated three kinds of vegetables for the koftas,
carrots,
cauliflower, and squash, and
Karen
made the salad and cooked the spaghetti. I cooked the koftas
and
made the sauce. Karen and Victor also made the ginger ale described
in Yamuna’s cookbook which I learned about at the Philly Sunday
feast, a mango lassi,
and
the famous Krishna Lunch salad dressing, which
were all
new things for them to
make and which they were happy about.
We
also had mahaprasadam
burfi from ISKCON
DC and doughnuts from the
Doughnut Plant.
What
about Lord Rama? I got to lead mangala-arati on
His appearance day at the Yuga Dharma Ashram in New York City, and I
also got to give a class on Him in Potomac the day before, in His
personal presence. Srimad-Bhagavatam 9.10.51
states, “Lord Ramacandra became King during Treta-yuga, but because
of His good government, the age was like Satya-yuga. Everyone was
religious and completely happy.” Srila Prabhupada explains in the
purport, “Among the four yugas
– Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali – the Kali-yuga is the worst,
but if the process of varnasrama-dharma
is introduced, even in this age of Kali, the situation of Satya-yuga
can be invoked. The Hare Krishna movement, or Krishna consciousness
movement, is meant for this purpose.
kaler
dosa-nidhe rajann
asti
hy eko mahan gunah
kirtanad
eva krishnasya
mukta-sangah
param vrajet
‘My
dear King, although Kali-yuga is full of faults, there is still one
good quality about this age: simply by chanting the Hare Krishna
maha-mantra, one can
become free from material bondage and be promoted to the
transcendental kingdom.’ (Srimad-Bhagavatam 12.3.51) If people take to this
sankirtana movement of
chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Rama, they will certainly be freed from
the contamination of Kali-yuga, and the people of this age will be
happy, as people were in Satya-yuga, the golden age. Anyone,
anywhere, can easily take to this Hare Krishna movement; one need
only chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra,
observe the rules and regulations, and stay free from the
contamination of sinful life. Even if one is sinful and cannot give
up sinful life immediately, if he chants the Hare Krishna maha-mantra
with devotion and faith he will certainly be freed from all sinful
activities, and his life will be successful. Param vijayate
sri-krishna-sankirtanam. This is
the blessing of Lord Ramacandra, who has appeared in this age of Kali
as Lord Gaurasundara.” What a beautiful purport connecting Lord
Rama with Lord Caitanya and His sankirtana movement,
and reminding
us that the holy name of Lord is capable of creating the progressive
human society we all desire!
The next day I made pancakes for breakfast, and Victor made a wonderful blueberry sauce.
I distributed the prasadam cookies made by Krishna Prasad Prabhu to attenders of the Albany Quaker meeting. Amazing to me I met there a young guy named Garland, who is friends with Bhakta Jeff, who lived in our harinama ashram when we were based in Brooklyn. He also has some interest in Krishna consciousness, and we shared our contact information.
The Quaker meeting consists of people sitting in silence, with perhaps two or three sharing some realization in the course of an hour. I was behind on my japa so I chanted Hare Krishna in my mind, and toward the end of the hour I told the story about the Christian Fundamentalist I met at Lake Ella, which I describe in the previous journal. Just before I spoke, the clerk invited people to speak, as it was quiet for the first 55 minutes. Two people spoke after me. After the meeting, I thanked the clerk for encouraging people who thought they had something to share, but when I did the lady across from me expressed displeasure because she liked the uninterrupted silence, which was humorous to me. Perhaps as Hare Krishnas, we are so much into hearing and chanting that quiet meditation is not all I want to do. I find sometimes I learn something from the others, so I am happy to hear two or three people speak, sharing their realizations. One person reminded us we should not let politics interfere with our friendly relationships, which is certainly true.
The next day I made pancakes for breakfast, and Victor made a wonderful blueberry sauce.
I distributed the prasadam cookies made by Krishna Prasad Prabhu to attenders of the Albany Quaker meeting. Amazing to me I met there a young guy named Garland, who is friends with Bhakta Jeff, who lived in our harinama ashram when we were based in Brooklyn. He also has some interest in Krishna consciousness, and we shared our contact information.
The Quaker meeting consists of people sitting in silence, with perhaps two or three sharing some realization in the course of an hour. I was behind on my japa so I chanted Hare Krishna in my mind, and toward the end of the hour I told the story about the Christian Fundamentalist I met at Lake Ella, which I describe in the previous journal. Just before I spoke, the clerk invited people to speak, as it was quiet for the first 55 minutes. Two people spoke after me. After the meeting, I thanked the clerk for encouraging people who thought they had something to share, but when I did the lady across from me expressed displeasure because she liked the uninterrupted silence, which was humorous to me. Perhaps as Hare Krishnas, we are so much into hearing and chanting that quiet meditation is not all I want to do. I find sometimes I learn something from the others, so I am happy to hear two or three people speak, sharing their realizations. One person reminded us we should not let politics interfere with our friendly relationships, which is certainly true.
Visiting
Stuyvesant Falls
I
went to Stuyvesant Falls primarily to see my diksa-guru,
Satsvarupa
Dasa Goswami, before leaving for Europe in the evening. I got to be
one of those who read to him during lunch, and I honored his remnants
and washed the cooking pots as well. He is very enthusiastic to hear
Vedic literature and literature in pursuance of the Vedic version
during mealtimes for over an hour, and sometimes an hour and a half.
He has lunch with all his caretakers, and several take turns reading.
This time we finished Prabhupada-lila
and
began Prabhupada
Meditations. We
read of some sweet times at 26 Second Avenue, the original Hare
Krishna temple in New York City, which our guru was personally
present for and was writing about, so it was extra special.
Baladeva,
my guru’s longtime assistant, invited Victor, who drove me to
Stuyvesant, to lunch, but he declined. I foolishly left my bead bag
in his car, so he had to come back to deliver it, and this time he
accepted lunch, fulfilling Baladeva’s desire. Baladeva also loaded
him up with prasadam
for
later and for my sister as well, so he came out ahead.
I
gave to all present the burfi
that
my godbrother Sankarsana Prabhu made from the Gita Nagari cows’
milk for the deities in Potomac.
I
told both Baladevas that I would be happy to come and help the
caretakers out, when I am based in New York City, if they find
themselves especially shorthanded.
I
stopped to see Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu briefly before he gave his
Sunday lecture via phone call. I talked to him about his first
meeting with Sadaputa Prabhu which he briefly described at the BI
consciousness conference in Gainesville. He mentioned that he and
Sadaputa Prabhu originally planned to have a conference where
mathematicians would show that the theory of evolution was impossible
mathematically. Their plan was to do a couple of conferences with
scholars in the field before doing popular presentations for the
general public. Somehow Svarupa Damodara Prabhu, although at first
supportive, later had another idea so unfortunately it never
happened.
I
also shared the mahaprasadam
burfi with
Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu and his secretary, Sraddha Devi Dasi.
Insights
Srila
Prabhupada:
From
a class on Srimad-Bhagavatam
1.16.24 in Los Angeles on July 14, 1974:
“When
Krishna was present, so the opulence of this planet was so great that
even the demigods in higher planetary system, they were also
envious.”
So
much water is there in the ocean, but we cannot utilize it without
Krishna’s system of evaporation, clouds, and rain.
So
many scents are in the earth, but we cannot extract them. Krishna
provides different varieties of plants which extract the different
scents from the earth.
“Those
who know that Krishna is the origin of everything, so they are fixed
up in Krishna. Vyavasayatmika
buddhir ekeha. [Bg. 2.41] One. Just depend on Krishna. One who does not know this, they depend
on so many things.”
“So,
so this is our process, to depend on Krishna. ‘Depend’ does not
mean I shall remain idle. Depend means to work according to the
direction of the sastra.
Sadhu-sastra-guru-vakya,
tinete kariya aikya
[Srila Narottama dasa Thakura]. Depend does not mean, ‘Now let me
sleep, and Krishna will do everything. Depend on Krishna.’ No, not
like that. Krishna never advised Arjuna that ‘You sleep on this
chariot. [laughter] I’ll . . .’ Hare Krishna. He never said that. He
said, ‘You must have to fight.’ Yudhyasva
mam anusmara
[Bg. 8.7]. ‘Fighting you have to do. But you always think of Me.’
This is the success. Not that depend on Krishna means, ‘I have . . .
nothing to do.’”
“Everything
is there. But as soon as we forget Krishna, then the time will take
away everything. Yes. It will not allow. Time will not allow to
enjoy. Then there will be strife, there will be misunderstanding.”
“We
do not know how to use Krishna’s property. We are trying to use
everything as my own. But factually it is not. Factually it is
everything Krishna’s. So if we are Krishna conscious, every one of
us, there is no scarcity, no want. Because the things are there
already. There is no question of scarcity. But because we have
forgotten Krishna, there is scarcity. It is very clear.”
“So
the Krishna consciousness movement is so important. If people simply
learn this, that everything belongs to Krishna . . . Isavasyam
idam sarvam
[Isopanisad
mantra 1]. Sarvam
means ‘everything.’ Not that ‘This much is mine, this much is
Krishna’s.’ No. Sarvam.
Isavasyam idam sarvam yat kiñcit jagatyam jagat, tena tyaktena
bhuñjithah . . .
Simply we shall use as much He has allotted for us, then there is
peace and prosperity, without any difficulty. Otherwise, you go on
adjusting your material possession; the time will take away
everything.”
“Here
is a picture of Hiraṇyakasipu. Such a great demon, so proud. He was
thinking that ‘I am the proprietor of everything.’ He was
chastising his son, doing everything, whatever he liked. But when
Nrsimha-deva came, within a second, everything finished. Everything
finished. But Prahlada remained the same. Prahlada is not finished;
Hiraṇyakasipu is finished. So those who are trying to be very, very
big by material possessions, they’ll be all finished. But if you
remain in the position of Prahlada, you’ll never be finished.”
From
a letter to Satsvarupa on July 9, 1971:
“Yes,
we are above all religious work. Krishna Consciousness is
post-graduate to all these religions and any religion can take lesson
from us. Therefore we are not on the mundane plane. Other religions
are trying to understand God vaguely and we are on the platform where
God is really understood and we are associating with Him directly
also.”
Satsvarupa
Dasa Goswami:
From
Free
Write Journal #33:
“When
Swamiji went to San Francisco in January 1967, leaving behind his
disciples in New York, we felt bereft. He told us to carry out all
the activities we had done together. We tried, but getting up early
in the morning, chanting our rounds, going to the temple by 7:00 A.M.
and taking turns giving short lectures was all very difficult without
Swamiji. Some of us wrote to him complaining and lamenting. He wrote
a letter back addressed to all the New York devotees. He said we
should not lament. He told us the great secret: service in
separation. He called it vani,
or associating with the spiritual master by following his
instructions. He said that serving the spiritual master in his direct
presence (vapuh)
was impermanent and ‘immaterial.’ The real thing was to follow
the guru’s instructions. When this was properly understood, you
were not apart from your spiritual master, but he was with you
always. Swamiji added that if we were feeling his absence too much we
could put photos of him on his sitting places. None of us had taken
photos of Swamiji, so we asked the devotees in San Francisco to send
us some. They did, and we put them on his sitting places and felt
solace. We posted Swamiji’s letter on the wall and talked about it.
It gave us courage. Among ourselves we said we had something that the
devotees in San Francisco didn’t have. We had service in
separation, and that was the best thing. So we clung to this message,
went on with our services and waited for the day when he would return
to New York.”
From
Free
Write Journal #34:
“Seeing
the extraordinary potency of Haridasa [who tolerated being beaten in
twenty-two marketplaces and being thrown into the Ganges], the
Moslems’ minds changed and they forgot their envy. The king folded
his hands and humbly said to Haridasa, ‘Now I know for certain that
you are a powerful saint, for you are firmly convinced that the
Supreme Lord is one.’ Haridasa was then given permission to freely
chant Hare Krishna wherever he wanted.”
“Even
more important than tolerating physical disease is tolerating the
association of devotees in a favorable mood. If one is offensive to
the devotees, this is known as the ‘mad elephant’ offense. When a
mad elephant enters a garden, he uproots all the plants and flowers
and ruins the garden. Similarly, not tolerating the anomalies of
devotees ruins one’s devotional garden. You have to see the good
side in all devotees. Appreciate their sincerity and the fact that
they are rare souls who have come under the shelter of Srila
Prabhupada and are purifying themselves in Krishna consciousness. We
should not be like the fly who goes to the sores of a person, but we
should be like the bumblebee and go to the honey.”
Radhanath
Swami:
Whatever
your duty, if you are executing the will of God, you will be
protected.
In
America motherhood is considered old-fashioned. People are ashamed to
be mothers. Women are taught to be professionals. Child care is given
to other professionals, and thus children miss out on the love of a
mother and have so many psychological difficulties. In America, 68%
of couples get divorced. Of the parents of my friends I grew up with,
my mother and father are the only couple that stayed together.
There
is a need for ideal mothers, ideal fathers, ideal brahmacaris,
ideal
sannyasis,
etc.
Devotees
like to be insulted. We feel we are getting Krishna’s special
mercy. It makes us humble.
Varnasrama
teaches
how to perform our duties in a pure spiritual consciousness that
develops our devotion for God.
Who
we consider is great in human society shows our degradation – movie
stars, musicians, athletes, TV stars. What is their consciousness?
What do they think about? Most of them are not even happy. Newspapers
tell of their scandals. We are idolizing people who always involved
in scandals.
All
people can make an impact on the world if they simply act in harmony
with the will of God because they have the power of God behind them.
Srila
Prabhupada, just one Bengali man, spread the message of
sanatana-dharma
all
over the world.
Many
thousands of people worldwide are reading Bhagavad-gita
by
his influence.
The
duties of this world are temporary, but our duties to God are
eternal.
If
you are just doing your material duties but ignoring your spiritual
duties, you are in the category of Duryodhana.
Three
things help spiritualize our lives:
Association
with sadhus,
hearing
from them, and serving them.
Leading
a moral life.
Regularly
bathing our consciousness in the sound of the holy name.
Adikarta
Prabhu:
The
Bible has 33,000 verses. The Mahabharata
has
over 100,000 verses. Jiva Gosvami wrote 400,000 verses.
All
desires are fulfilled and all knowledge is revealed by the chanting
of Hare Krishna.
It
requires great determination to attain spiritual perfection because
there are so many distractions.
Because
Krishna owns everything and Krishna controls everything, He makes
arrangements for His devotees to make their lives easier.
I
was one of the devotees who carried Srila Prabhupada up the stairs on
a palanquin at the Manor in 1977 on his last trip to the UK when his
body was very weak.
Srila
Prabhupada could see the western world was completely lost and that
India was following them.
Madhava
Prabhu:
Srila
Prabhupada would use an analogy that in our conditioned state we are
like fingers cut off from the body. When the finger is cut off and
disconnected from the body, it really wants to be reconnected, and
the body really wants the finger to be connected too. We are like
amputated fingers of Krishna that are longing to be reconnected.
Haryasva
Prabhu:
From
a conversation:
Guru
Maharaja [Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami] is so quiet, you have to be quiet
to hear him. He drops bombs all over the place.
I
like to work with people who are completely dedicated to Srila
Prabhupada’s mission, and when I do not have that at Govinda’s, I
feel like firing everybody and doing all the work myself.
Daru
Krishna Prabhu:
From
a conversation at the Philadelphia Sunday feast:
Over
the years, sometimes I have been in the association of devotees and
sometimes not, and I find whenever I return to the association of
devotees, I think, “Why did I ever leave?”
Manorama
Krishna Prabhu:
From
a morning class in Potomac:
There
is a coconut laddu
that can last for two years.
Formerly
in India, vendors would sell a single item, and they would trade that
for the other items they needed.
Raghava
Pandit and Sivananda Sena were so rich they paid for residential
quarters, food, and tolls for the entire party of devotees traveling
from Bengal to Puri during caturmasya.
The
Lord comes as the deity so the devotees can have a personal
experience with the Lord.
There
are several kinds of baths: (1) in the ocean, (2) with running water,
(3) in a pond or pool, (4) by a few drops of the holy name, (5) by
mantra, and (6) by acamana.
There
are two mantras recommended for bathing:
1.
tad
vishnoh paramam padam sada pasyanti surayah
2.
om
apavitrah pavitro va sarvavasthitam gato ’pi va yah smaret
pundarikaksam sa bahyabhyantarah suchih
Laziness
can be overcome by taking a cold shower.
Five
samskaras
we
observe as Vaishnavas:
1.
take bath
2.
apply tilaka
3.
tie sikha
4.
do acamana
5.
offer pranama
We
have to be pure to do bhagavata
viddhi as
it is on the platform of spontaneous love. By the pancaratrika
viddhi we
can attain that purity.
Vinay
(a Ayurvedic physician based in Newburgh):
From
a conversation on the way to the airport:
Western
medicine just treats the symptoms of arthritis, but Ayurvedic
medicine can actually cure the disease.
-----
This
is one of my favorite verses of Srimad-Bhagavatam. One
reason is that it is a very liberal definition of dharma that
practically any monotheistic tradition could accept. Another is that
it gives a clue why were are dissatisfied. Generally people imagine
they are dissatisfied because they do not have enough sense
gratification. Everyone is thinking if I had this money, this
property, this boy, this girl, this cat, this dog, etc., then I would
be happy. No one is thinking the cause of their dissatisfaction is
that their service to the Supreme Lord is either motivated by some
material goal or else it is
interrupted. Because we are souls, who are part of God and eternally
servants of God, we can be only completely satisfied by unmotivated,
uninterrupted service to Him. This verse reveals the cause of our
ultimate satisfaction:
sa
vai pumsam paro dharmo
yato
bhaktir adhoksaje
ahaituky
apratihata
yayatma
suprasidati
“The
supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which men can
attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such
devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to
completely satisfy the self.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.6)