srila prabhupada said...!!!
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
Prabhupada is like a gem: you can view him from many different sides to see all the attractive, glittering facets. He was so strong and pure that his strong-minded disciples could not drag him into their own party spirit. Perhaps it was Prabhupada's greatest strength to resist not only the non-devotees, but the foolishness of his disciples as well, and to always set us on the right course. We tend to take it for granted that he was one leader of thousands of disciples, as if he took a figurehead position. But he was the leader not only as a figurehead, but as the direct manager, the defender, the pure mediator between ourselves and Krsna. Catching new facets of Prabhupada's beauty and strength as founder-acarya of ISKCON, we can again appreciate that there is no exaggeration in the worship and praise that we continue to offer to His Divine Grace.
* * *
February 5th 1976
Mayapur
As we came into his room, Srila Prabhupada was seated on the same floor level amid devotees.
Srila Prabhupada said first on seeing Rupanuga, we have to be Rupanugas to know Krsna. Srila Prabhupada said something to each of us in his expert manner.
He asked about the library party. I read a recent review by a professor at U. of Virginia and a librarian's statement that we never leave without an order. Did he also take an order? he asked. Yes.
He spoke of competition. Heart-breaking, Srila Prabhupada said. This heart-breaking is good. It is also there in the spiritual world between Krsna's queens and gopis also, but he indicated that it should not be a cause of strife and envy.
He spoke how he also was in competition with his Godbrothers and went to visit one locally, in his new Mercedes and with a van with loudspeakers. He referred to it, quoting the Bhagavad Gita verse how the conches of the Pandavas broke the hearts of the other party. He used each Sanskrit word and explained.
In the evening the GBC met with him again. He emphasized books in all languages and countries and inquired into sales. He heard the French Gita sold 25,000 copies of the first edition and the second edition was 50,000. Now, Srila Prabhupada said, the next edition should be twice that. Therefore, my Guru Maharaja told me to increase books, Srila Prabhupada said.
He spoke of sannyasa and Srila Prabhupada said everyone should take, although he also said we make no distinction.
On a walk
One devotee's mother is a biologist and became an atheist. I said, They say Krsna is ‘perhaps,' ‘maybe,' just as we say of them. No, we have evidence [in sastra], Srila Prabhupada said. I said, They don't accept our evidence and we don't accept theirs. You don't accept us and we don't accept you.
People (on Mayapur land, workers) are bewildered unless they have their tea early in the morning. One man has worked for us for years without changing. Srila Prabhupada said, If you wash coal with soap and water, no matter how much you wash it, it will remain black.
When we read results of our GBC meetings, Srila Prabhupada said, You each be guru. As I have five thousand disciples, or ten thousand, so you have ten thousand each. In this way, create branches and branches (of the Caitanya tree).
You have to be spiritually strong. This means chanting rounds and following the four rules. Not an artificial show. It is not a material thing. Chant, follow the four rules, and pray to Krsna for helplessness.
Enthusiasm. Utsaha. If we lose enthusiasm everything will become slack. Srila Prabhupada said, in old age I came out from Vrndavana. I had no money, nothing, but I thought, ‘Let me try.'
Bhagavan dasa: You're still enthusiastic.
Srila Prabhupada: Yes, I am enthusiastic. I do not think I am an old man.
Bhagavan: Sometimes we think we're old!
Srila Prabhupada: No one is old. Na hanyate hanyamane sarire. Sometimes in old age one is pushed down [but I am enthusiastic].
Srila Prabhupada said he was pleased at our resolutions and now he was relieved to do his translation work.
Srila Prabhupada said we have to follow strictly what we have agreed on this year for the entire year, no changes, and next year we can change again (as necessary).
Srila Prabhupada called for me during mangala-arati! As secretary GBC, I got some instructions. Then I asked a personal question. Could I worship Deities? He at once said, Oh yes, and shook his head to the side affirmatively.
I explained there was previous confusion that I wanted to worship Deities in a class, which I never said. He laughed and Srila Prabhupada said, if you have a meeting at the college, what will you do? I said that I wouldn't bring the Deities. I started to describe how I would bring them on campus when Srila Prabhupada said, You (want to or will) worship privately?
Yes, I admitted, half-afraid to let it be known I simply wanted to worship Deities.
Yes, Srila Prabhupada said. Little Deities. Private worship is very nice.
Then I mentioned that one brahmacari was agitated. He played back his dictaphone of the morning's dictation. It said a verse grhasthas are also bound by guru and rules and can only have sex on the spiritual master's order. He preached on this, grhasthas have sex only on order. Vedic culture is to make sex nil also for grhastha.
Talked of sannyasa-taking as a farce.
Women are dangerous for men and should be in separate quarters, but they can all worship together.
Chanting can solve this problem. Haridasa Thakura is an example. Chanting is powerful. It is difficult to apply the Vedic facts to our ISKCON in the West, but it is important to make sex nil. It entails suffering.
On the walk he inspected the small garage being built for his car. When Pusta Krsna didn't understand his request for a shelf, Srila Prabhupada said he had no brain.
He brought out the philosophic argument ISKCON leaders have with Siddha-svarupa, who is here. Both sides claim they are right. Srila Prabhupada said, Let me say what is right. Then you have to follow it, agreed? Yes!
Srila Prabhupada said a disciple has to obey, follow discipline, or he is no disciple. He has to voluntarily agree to follow, can't be forced. But he has to accept the rule whether he likes it or not. Like C.R. Das of Congress party who didn't want to give up his law practice, but Congress party said he had to.
Walk notes
Srila Prabhupada's Godbrother criticized that Prabhupada has a business background but he doesn't. He has always been a Vaisnava. He was implying that he's a preacher and Prabhupada is a businessman. Srila Prabhupada said yes, and described his preaching as business with four factors: place (America), organization (ISKCON), capital, and brains.
He was asked how Chota Haridasa was liberated by his suicide after his offense. Srila Prabhupada said Chota Haridasa was the personal servant of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. How could he be fallen? But he was meant to show the example that if you fall down, the only thing is to commit suicide. I asked what about Nectar of Devotion which says that devotional service is so pure that one doesn't have to do prayascitta? Srila Prabhupada said it was not prayascitta, it was an example. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is as hard as a thunderbolt, soft as a rose. One devotee said that if in ISKCON we did this. Srila Prabhupada said that to fall down is already suicide.
Prabhupada was also asked how 1/11th of a second's association with a pure devotee can give liberation. Srila Prabhupada said it depends on whether the wood is dry it can immediately flare up. The process to make it dry is following the regulative principles. But if you make it dry, then again dip it in water, what good is that?
Someone remarked how much more beautiful the land looked now that so many devotees were here. Yes, Srila Prabhupada said, that is why I built this house first. Some criticized, ‘Why not a temple?' But I thought, ‘Where will they live?' (A devotee is more important than God.) If there is only the Deity, it is like a stone idol.
He told me not to take on too much temple management. Your most important work is going to the colleges, the standing orders and reviews. He looked at his desk where I think there was a list of the standing orders. No more than four or five temples. You are going and speaking at the colleges.
Srila Prabhupada said, concerning the GBC being criticized, that it's not that a resolution should be passed that they should not be criticized but they should be above it: Caesar's wife should be above suspicion.
He deplored the grhastha-sannyasa party fighting. Sex should be made nil. That is a great victory.
Polygamy? No! No polygamy. We are trying to make sex nil.
When too many questions were asked such as, Should a brahmacari be averse or neutral toward women, etc. Srila Prabhupada said too much detail will make us lose the central thing; it is niyamagraha, too much attention to the rules and regulations.
He didn't like children howling and bowling in the Vrndavana temple. Retired men come there to get away from family.
Men, after a few children, should stop. Not that as a grhastha he should have unlimited sex. Then he can separate from his wife. If they live in a secluded place there will naturally be sex life. That is natural. (So, can they live separately in the temples? Devotees asked many questions. He seemed to approve separation in different temples, but the husband has to pay for the wife.)
Grhasthas should live independently.
March 12th 1976
Srila Prabhupada spoke of flowers and fruits growing and land producing and offering all to Krsna. That is Vrndavana: everyone is serving Krsna. The cowherd boys have already finished all austerities. They don't know about Vedanta, they just want to see Krsna smile. The gopis told Uddhava, We don't care for your instructions; just send us Krsna.
He talked of his early days, rising early, cooking, etc., and in the evening he would loiter on 5th Avenue. He studied America. I said, You once said you were happier then, maintaining yourself without thousands of disciples. Srila Prabhupada said, Yes, I had no chance to fault find then.
Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada Gita-nagari Press-ISKCON In The 1970s-Why This Party Feeling? February 5th- March 23rd 1976-Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
March 12th 1976
Srila Prabhupada spoke of flowers and fruits growing and land producing and offering all to Krsna. That is Vrndavana: everyone is serving Krsna. The cowherd boys have already finished all austerities. They don't know about Vedanta, they just want to see Krsna smile. The gopis told Uddhava, We don't care for your instructions; just send us Krsna.
He talked of his early days, rising early, cooking, etc., and in the evening he would loiter on 5th Avenue. He studied America. I said, You once said you were happier then, maintaining yourself without thousands of disciples. Srila Prabhupada said, Yes, I had no chance to fault find then.
March 14
Morning walk
Someone asked, Prabhupada, how did we become so fortunate to come to a pure devotee?
Ajnata-sukrti, Srila Prabhupada said. Then there were questions: how does Krsna dictate to one to do some accidental devotional service? Srila Prabhupada said, A sinful man gives money to a devotee. Then he was asked, What if the money he gives is misused?
Prabhupada: Then both he and the one who takes are implicated in karma.
But he gave sincerely.
Srila Prabhupada said, there is no sincerity outside Krsna consciousness.
Srila Prabhupada said the Lord will dictate to someone to do even ajnata-sukrti; ultimately it is His mercy that one comes to do service. A sinful man will perform some devotional service. The Lord's mercy is there for everyone, but Krsna can give to one person as He likes. It is not karma-kanda. Causeless mercy.
March 16
Gaura-Purnima walk notes
Prabhupada was giving examples of how we could preach in China. Srila Prabhupada said they believe in revolutions to replace leaders and improve, so if they see an even better leader, they will accept. Find some intelligent persons (what a great man does, others will follow). Like Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He picked up intelligent persons like Sanatana. Find someone like Sanatana Gosvami.
Then our argument is not religion but fact, dehino 'smin. I said the fact that we take another body after we die is not empirical. Srila Prabhupada said, but in this life it is a fact we are changing bodies. Why not after death? Do you just become nothing? Does the blue sky at night become nothing because it's gone? Don't trust what you see. You see the sun in the sky and think it is created? (Beyond what we see is real knowledge. Can't trust what we see.)
Is there any machine for breathing air again once the breath (of life) stops? Someone said that they have such machines, but Srila Prabhupada said don't be childish and make unnecessary talks (he was very serious). What machine? They admitted a machine can only prolong life.
If you think the guru is mistaken, you are mistaken.
On the way downstairs there was a girl. He asked where she was going. She said to see Hridayananda Goswami. Prabhupada became angry and called for Hridayananda Goswami. Everyone was standing there when he came. Prabhupada chastised him for calling a woman to see him. They explained it was a misunderstanding, she was coming with her husband to inquire about initiation. A sannyasi should not even talk to a woman. They said the woman did not express herself rightly in saying that she was going to see Hridayananda Maharaja. Srila Prabhupada said that that may be, but I have to respond as I understand it.
Srila Prabhupada with the GBC
We should see the superiority of a devotee (with no question of whether he is a grhastha or a sannyasi) based on whether one is serving. How one is advanced in Krsna consciousness. This principle. If we follow the standard of dress, we cannot understand who is advanced. It is by his advancement in Krsna consciousness (that we can judge).
If we make sannyasa and grhastha parties, then we'll have party politics. Now you consider this. I see the tendency of parties. That should be stopped immediately. I want dissatisfaction to go away.
Presidents: They must be sincere.
Prabhupada: If we become different parties, it will be spoiled. Why this tendency that sannyasis ask men to come join them for spiritual advancement and give up living in the temples? There should be cooperation of manpower both ways from presidents to sannyasis and vice versa. Why this propaganda?
Real attachment is not to belong to a sannyasi or brahmacari group. This is material. Real spiritual identity is I belong to Krsna, I have to work for Him and guru. A devotee is above the other attachments. This is essential.
It is superficial, the distinction between brahmacari, sannyasi, grhastha. We say prabhu to everyone. I say prabhu, you say prabhu, master. Living in the temple is also preaching, it is purifying, cleansing. Deity worship, sri vigraha.
Ramesvara: A brahmacari in the temple is following you, the greatest sannyasi. That is preaching.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Gurukrpa: But why should he have to stay against his will? They force him.
Prabhupada: In different circumstances there is different behaviour. There cannot be any fixed up situation for everyone. Brahmacaris can go with sannyasis, but not a responsible man.
Now there is a party feeling: you say don't go, they say do go. Why this party feeling? You vote for me, another party votes for me. But the temple is as good. If the sannyasis need more men, why don't they recruit men from outside? It is etiquette that if you take men from the temple, you have to ask the permission of the president.
The Six Gosvamis were worshiping in the temples. Their descendants were not seminal, by birth.
Generally the management of the temple is given to grhasthas. It is by the example of the Six Gosvamis. The facility of management is given to grhasthas. It is better they manage the temples and the sannyasis preach, and brahmacaris either stay in the temple or preach with the sannyasis.
The problem is that we are forgetting we are the servant of Krsna. He is in this department or that department, why strife of party? The basic quality is Krsna consciousness. It is not hard and fast that only grhasthas can manage. Either sannyasi or grhastha, it doesn't matter. Not that a grhastha can't preach or a sannyasi can't manage a temple, but generally if a sannyasi is free of all botheration, his preaching is very nice. Everything is common sense.
There is no distinction between grhastha or sannyasi. One should take the post suitable for him. This discussion has no meaning. Bhaktivinoda Thakura was a grhastha, but that does not mean Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati was better than he; one was guru and the other was guru.
See how he is serving, how he is eager to serve Krsna, how he is looking after Krsna's interest.
We are a worldwide organization. If there is such threatening, unusual competition, puffed-up prestige, it is not good. One should always remain as a servant.
March 19
Walk notes
So-called education is condemned; there is no knowledge to produce character. Everyone is after sex life. Even the priests are supporting contraception and abortion. (Real contraception is to avoid having sex.)
(A girl complained that women in India are slaves.) Better to be a slave of one man than to hundreds.
An educated man is defined by Canakya as one who sees all others as himself. He doesn't want his throat cut, so why cut another's?
Purusa and prakrti: the mother creates the body, but not without the father. Nature needs purusa. (A disciple said that modern education says it is not that there is authority to learn from, but one goes to school to learn for himself.) It is a contradiction. Why do you go to college? Why not stay at home? Because you accept the authority. You must accept authority. Vedic education is sarva-dharman (surrender to Krsna). Just be quiet, don't talk, but hear from the scriptures.
Everyone, all people in today's world, are rascals. What kind of education is it? All the women are open for sex. The non-devotee needs sex for enlivenment (not the brahmacari). He has sex and produces an atomic bomb. What good is this civilization and education? No good.
Prostitutes are useful so men don't corrupt women in society. Some worldly compassionate man saw a prostitute standing in the cold, no customers. He gave her two rupees and said go home and sleep, but Haridasa Thakura's method was to convert a prostitute to a devotee.
If the male is more potent, then there's male child. A brahmacari who is life-long trained and then gets married, must have a boy child. Nowadays, all are girls.
He called us in. He was blissful hearing the kirtana in the temple. Srila Prabhupada said everyone should be at Mayapur and chant twenty-four hours a day, there is so much room. The morning class is so nice. Prahlada Maharaja's instruction a million years ago, a five-year-old boy.
The chanting, Bhaktivinoda says, is the only substance, the only solace. It is nothing material, the chanting: Ajamila called the name of Narayana and was saved. Then Srila Prabhupada said batches of devotees should come to Mayapur so there are always five hundred men here. A devotee said that in America, they are trying to chant more, twelve hours a day, trying to get a twenty-four-hour kirtana schedule. Yes, everywhere, Srila Prabhupada said. This chanting should go on. Instead of meetings, resolutions, dissolutions, revolutions, and no solution, there should be chanting.
He quoted a verse and asked me if I knew it. I said, Is it Bhagavatam? He laughed and Srila Prabhupada said sannyasis should know. He told how in school they were asked to show the route from India to London using three different maps. If one didn't know the maps, he would be bewildered which to read.
Then he had me quote the verse on sannyasis who should accept torn clothing (earlier he had said a sannyasi didn't even have to wear clothes). Then the purport was read. This is Sukadeva's philosophy. (Civilization is not big roads or skyscrapers. That is craftsmanship.)
He heard of negative news articles. Srila Prabhupada said they were a good sign. It shows they are feeling pressure from us. I said, You mean we shouldn't worry about bad publicity? Why worry about news articles? Srila Prabhupada said the day will come when they will fire on you. You have to be prepared.
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
It becomes clearer now why Prabhupada continued to travel just to maintain his disciples. For the devotees who travelled, as well as for those living in the temples, all we really needed to be able to go on with our service was to see Prabhupada and be encouraged and assured by him. In this way, Prabhupada actually inspired and mobilized the whole nation's preaching through his few, but enthusiastic, followers.
This was Prabhupada's first visit to the Fisher mansion in Detroit, which was now operating as an ISKCON centre. We drove there in our white motor-home, a rather non-luxurious vehicle with very thin walls and square corners. Its interior was custom-made as a temple, though, and that made it special. We arranged with Prabhupada's secretary that one day after his morning walk, he would stop in to see the motor-home before entering the temple. We made a temporary vyasasana for Prabhupada by covering a pillow with some elegant cloth that the temple president had given us, and then placing it atop the generator. When he entered the motor-home, as many devotees as possible squeezed in behind him. He looked around and Srila Prabhupada said the whole thing was first-class in the American style. He also said it was proper that Krsna should have the very best thing. Visakha dasi took a nice picture of Prabhupada sitting there.
Prabhupada then stepped forward and we opened the curtains to reveal our Gaura-Nitai Deities. To my surprise, Srila Prabhupada made full dandavats on the floor in front of the Deities. This seemed to me such a kind gesture on his part. He was accustomed to seeing many murtis, and it would have been sufficient for him to simply fold his hands and nod in obeisance before these small travelling murtis. That he bowed down in that way made us all aware that the murtis were actually Gaura-Nitai and that Srila Prabhupada was actually Their humble servant. He stayed on the motor-home for only three minutes or so, but it was enough to bless us and to endorse our program.
It was also during this visit that Srila Prabhupada asked me to write a book. His servant woke me at 10:00 p.m. one night and said that Srila Prabhupada wanted to see me in his room in the mansion. When I entered, the first thing Srila Prabhupada said was, You are writing a book? I explained that I had already finished the book, Readings in Vedic Literature. Srila Prabhupada said, I want you to write another book. He proceeded to describe that a book could be written about how any endeavour that is attempted without Krsna consciousness cannot succeed. We continued talking for almost an hour about this and related topics, and due to my excitement, I found it difficult to sleep that night.
In one sense, as Prabhupada's followers and projects grew worldwide, it was harder to keep in touch with him on an individual basis. Prabhupada's New York visit, for example, was his tenth anniversary visit to New York from the time when he had started there with nothing. The situation was certainly different from 1966 when one could sit with Prabhupada in his room without being told by his secretaries that you had to leave. It was unrealistic now to expect to have our Lower East Side Swamiji all to ourselves, and we had also long outgrown that. We were now travellers and preachers with our own programs authorized by Prabhupada. Prabhupada and Krsna were fulfilling our hearts' desires to be independent preachers and managers of men and money. Seeing Prabhupada in New York in these changed circumstances certainly did not diminish our devotion to him, but it was sometimes frustrating to see him always in a crowd and to be ourselves involved with many management details in our own areas of Srila Prabhupada's movement. We had to sacrifice just as Prabhupada had to sacrifice. More important even than affectionately sitting together was sacrificing everything to spread Krsna consciousness. Just as we had benefited from Prabhupada's association, now everyone else should benefit by receiving his mercy in the form of his books and instructions. To keep us going in this self-sacrificing way, we could also cherish the personal moments the few minutes Prabhupada spent on the moto-home, his special smile in New York on hearing we would go worldwide with the library party, and his asking me to come forward to sit nearer him in his New York darsana room, as if he remembered me from the old days.
* * *
April 1st 1976
Detroit
Prabhupada:
You must be expert in all departments. I can do anything (in ISKCON). You should be expert in all parts if required. We can sew Krsna's shoes if required, or decorate. Whatever service is required you must do. Not that, I am this, I can't do that. Expert doing anything. Everyone is Krsna's servant. In the material world there is discrimination (not here).
Just to push my Krsna conscious activities on I did anything. A sannyasi marrying disciples. (He is a stubborn devotee. To push on he can do whatever is required.) Not to give up rules and regulations, but first is service to Krsna. Do whatever has to be done. Niyamagraha. Marriages have produced good effects. Anyone should be expert in any capacity, but generally sannyasis are purely engaged in preaching work without any botheration.
Sannyasi preaching should not be checked. Settle up party feeling.
Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada Gita-nagari Press-ISKCON In The 1970s-Chalk Dust Preacher March 26th- September 3rd 1976-Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
July 11
En route to Madison, Wisconsin
Driving three days straight to N.Y.C. Srila Prabhupada is there, and a GBC meeting. Ghanasyama, Mahabuddhi, and I are going to present our proposal that the library party travel to Europe and India. We are determined to do it, hopeful of Srila Prabhupada's blessings for it. I am surrendered to doing the best thing required of me. (In the midst of plans, at any moment, I may have to leave my body.)
Darsanas with Srila Prabhupada in New York
Recollections:
(1) I went into the room. There were many people there. I sat in the back. Srila Prabhupada said after a while, Is that Satsvarupa? and then had me come and sit forward. He asked, When did you come? I said a few hours ago. He asked, Are you all right? And I said yes. (Very thrilling, but I immediately became puffed up.) He had Pusta Krsna preaching to two or three non-devotee guests. Mr. Manischewitz (the wine baron) was there. Srila Prabhupada sat back while Pusta Krsna spoke on eternity. When Prabhupada spoke, his voice was a little weak. He later looked at me and had me explain he gave some Sanskrit. I couldn't understand it. Pusta Krsna Swami said it was the eighth sloka of Siksastakam. (I felt a desire to know the sastra more deeply so I could concisely present the realized meaning).
After the general meeting, Mahabuddhi, Ghanasyama, and I went up close to talk to Srila Prabhupada. Ramesvara Maharaja was asking us to leave, but we stayed. Mahabuddhi was introduced as just coming from India. Prabhupada asked how he was doing and was pleased. They talked of prices. I said that just as we are travelling in America, we want to do the whole world, go to Europe. Srila Prabhupada beamed at me while I was saying this. He was satisfied to hear it and seemed to believe we would actually do something. Then the meeting broke. Mr. Kallman came in. Mahabuddhi asked Srila Prabhupada to write more. Srila Prabhupada said he would.
(2) The next day during his massage, the three of us went in again. I explained that I had a telegram from Gopala Krsna, who wanted the men back immediately, but Srila Prabhupada said no, India has already been done (somewhat). Now do the rest of the world. Srila Prabhupada referred to it as a world tour. We explained we would do the U.S. also on a schedule. He approved.
(3) This time was after we had circulated our written proposal. Srila Prabhupada had taken a copy directly from Mahabuddhi. Srila Prabhupada called in GBCs (four of us) to discuss about the fighting of GBC members in India. When we went into the room, he had his reading glasses on and our proposal on his desk before him. He was turning a page. We dealt with the India issue and then he turned to the proposal. So this world tour seems good, he said. Ramesvara Maharaja said, We will have to discuss Satsvarupa Maharaja's zone. Yes, Srila Prabhupada indicated. No more on that was said, but again it was an approval. (The next morning in the car I wasn't there Srila Prabhupada said Gurudas Swami should travel with me wherever we go around the world and give lectures.)
(4) Another darsana was on the roof. Prabhupada was taking massage. Ten GBC members came to report the results of our meeting. When we reported that Jagadisa would take management of some temples in his zone, Srila Prabhupada said no, he must devote himself to gurukula. He accepted as good the GBC decision on myself. The library party will go on a world tour, but I will keep the temples I was given at the Mayapur meeting and not go with them except I could fly out for a meeting. We also asked him to stay and rest and not to travel right away and not give classes. Srila Prabhupada said, I have no objection, but the next day he decided to travel and he also gave class again.
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
I wrote this diary while again serving for one month as Prabhupada's GBC secretary. My turn began just after Prabhupada left the Kumbha-mela and went to Bhubaneshwar. Bhubaneshwar is the capital of Orissa, the poorest state in India. Our land was really out of the way at this time. If you went down the road from town, it was all bare land. Then suddenly on the side of the road there were three tents pitched, and a small, crude, cottage-like building. Srila Prabhupada's disciple, Gaura-Govinda Maharaja, had made this cottage himself with bricks and whitewash. It consisted of just two rooms and a roof of thatched straw, which wasn't even fit firmly onto the building. Srila Prabhupada was staying in one of those rooms, and the other room was for his servants. Although Prabhupada had big temples all over the world, he chose to live in a humble way. He liked it because he was not attached to any material facility.
I regard this section of the diary as particularly potent because much of it is verbatim from Prabhupada, or directly paraphrased. This is the kind of diary I wish I had always kept when I was with Srila Prabhupada. It was a deliberate act on my part to go into the servants' room immediately after being with him, or at least whenever I had a chance, and type up what I remembered. One simply can't remember details like this weeks or years later. If only I had kept a diary like this from the beginning in 1966!
* * *
January [?], 1977
I recently took the antagonist's role of one who doesn't believe what he hasn't seen against Srila Prabhupada. Since then, on a number of occasions he has turned to me to add arguments to those he gave the first time. I am cast in the role of a man who doesn't believe what he doesn't see. What a foolish position it is. You don't see the thought in the mind of the man who is plotting to murder you, Srila Prabhupada said. It would be to your great advantage to know that this man about whom I am talking is actually planning all the details of my murder tonight. It is important information for me and it is going on, but I have no access to it because I cannot see it. You don't see the aroma carried by the flower.
The best argument is that one cannot know who his father is except by the authority of his mother. We insist on this method of knowing; it is our science and logic . It must be accepted that the method of sensual perception is imperfect. Hearing from the authority is perfect. God is speaking and we are hearing from Him. You may argue with us, but at least we have all information; you are in darkness.
Prabhupada took his bath in a little shack by pouring water from a bucket. Afterwards, the water was thrown on a certain plot of bare ground. After about a week of throwing the refuse water there, a little green plant came up. Prabhupada called for me one time just to point this out.
He called me and noted that on the bare ground, some green had started growing. Srila Prabhupada said it was because for only a few days, someone had thrown water there. Parjanyad anna-sambhavah: grains are coming from the water. Why doesn't the scientist produce grains? This is important water. Everywhere there could be green-producing land and everyone could have enough to eat.
This is especially relevant in this barren, impoverished Bhubaneshwar where so much land is bare because there is no water. All we need is water. Why can't man do it?
I said it is too big a job for the scientist. Srila Prabhupada said he is not against the scientists' achievements, but that they say there is no God. They claim to know everything. Their actual achievements are only childish play airplanes and cars. These are childish achievements because the real problems of life have been put aside by them, although they are making all claims to have solved them. Their achievements do not even raise them to the level of human beings. A car with four wheels is no better than a dog running on four legs. One has to know God and his self in relation to God. They do not take God's authority but imagine in their own way. We have to accept it?
Expose them. They cannot actually know. For example, all the phenomena of the sky the sky is so vast so many stars and planets are there; they cannot know what it is. What do they do? They imagine what it is. This we have to accept their imagination of something that is too much for them? Srila Prabhupada said, I'm giving you an idea, now you elaborate. He means we should try writing and realizing these examples in the direction he has indicated.
January 28
This morning in the car, a long line of Indian soldiers approached us at a run as part of some manoeuvre. Srila Prabhupada spoke about the nation's army and Srila Prabhupada said that it was Krsna's arrangement that they should build up and fight. Vinasaya ca duskrtam. After the fight, there will be benefit for Krsna consciousness. I asked how it will benefit us. Srila Prabhupada said that these people who are against us, so many demons, will be killed, and it will show the people that the material plans have failed. Srila Prabhupada said that they will take it as natural law, like Malthus' law that the nations have to fight periodically because of overpopulation. But they don't know that Krsna is behind the natural law.
A young, local scholar joined us on the walk. He asked Srila Prabhupada about some books which had different versions of the Ramayana. What different version? asked Srila Prabhupada. Valmiki's is the original. He seemed displeased with the man. Prabhupada stated that his Guru Maharaja said it is no good reading many books and carrying them around like an ass. Better to read and know thoroughly a few books. The poor scholar could not raise any decent inquiry about his own spiritual life. He only asked a few more questions about editions and texts and Sanskrit, and Srila Prabhupada appeared gruff in response. I thought, Srila Prabhupada is simply waiting for you to surrender. Why don't you ask about the meaning of life? Why don't you admit that you are lost and need a spiritual master?
Just while I was writing this down after the walk, the scholar came up to me to see what I was typing. He talked some more and now I understand that he doesn't even want to translate Prabhupada's books unless he gets paid. When he saw that it was only devotion, he got insulted and left.
Today, Sanjaya Gandhi is coming to town. They have a big banner on the road, something like Each to Teach, proclaiming that everyone should become literate. Srila Prabhupada, looking out the car window at this poor, barren land, Srila Prabhupada said, what good is literacy if they are poor and starving? Srila Prabhupada said that they come to our evening program to get a little kichari, not because it's prasadam, but because they are hungry. They will take many years of education, get a little money for their employment, and what is the benefit? Life is not meant for such education. Look, there is so much expanded land. Why don't they work it? They are hungry and poor.
Later, there was a report from Hyderabad about starting a school there and many children coming to learn English. Srila Prabhupada said, don't give this much priority. Srila Prabhupada said, in India, you can start a big English class, but they will just come, get enough education to become a clerk, and then leave the devotees and leave the farm to get some miserable job in town. Srila Prabhupada said that it is not that everyone has to learn in an educated way even to read. When he heard the gurukula boys (when they walk and chant at Mayapur) Srila Prabhupada said, even if they never become literate, just that they can do this much (they were chanting Gita verses in Bengali), they will become perfect.
Suddenly, young men exercising came running toward us. The people are hungry and poor while others are taking residence in a big house and running. They are running because they have overeaten while others are starving. Educate them and then, as the years go by, they will join the Naxalite movement and kill all the rich men. People have to be properly engaged by working the land. In our ISKCON also, unless people are properly engaged. Otherwise, they will be idle brains, fish-fish, sex, and women. (Fish-fish is Prabhupada's sound for gossip.)
When I was in Europe, I heard about a sannyasi Godbrother who was preaching to devotees that they should cultivate their inner life. He was speaking of having experiences and visitations of beings from other material worlds psychic phenomena. Then he showed up here in Bhubaneshwar. He and I went to Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada told him that his visions are like dreams; you dream of a gold mountain because you have seen gold and you have seen a mountain, and all these experiences are stored up for many lifetimes. The images come up like bubbles in the water. The sannyasi told Prabhupada that he had had a vision before ever meeting Prabhupada of a saintly person just like him. When finally he met Prabhupada, it was the same as his vision.
Srila Prabhupada said, I am a bona fide spiritual master whether you had a vision or not. It is not on the basis of your vision, but on the basis of sastra. The sannyasi also said that a devotee had gone to Egypt and stayed, and said that some beings had come out of the pyramids and talked to him. Prabhupada, he said. I was not thinking, I was awake.
No, it was all dreaming, Srila Prabhupada said.
When I first went in to Prabhupada, I said the devotees here wonder if you could talk with him because there has been some question in Europe about his preaching. Prabhupada agreed, There must be some question because he has been associating with those Radha-kunda babajis.
The sannyasi said that he knows the Radha-kunda babajis claim to be advanced, never leaving Vrndavana, but that some are Kali-cela, whose bhajana is illicit sex in the name of prakrta-sahajiya. Srila Prabhupada said, I travel all over the world and I consider myself not advanced and I am considered by them to be not advanced, but they consider themselves like Rupa Gosvami, but with illicit sex and smoking bidi.
Again we talked about the visitation. Srila Prabhupada said that many people had come to him and told him such things. One life member, a rich barrister, told him that he went to Vrndavana and met a boy there who gave him some sweets. Then when he was leaving Vrndavana, he saw that this boy was running after the train. This means (the man said) that Krsna was running after him, having become so attracted. We have to believe this? Another person, a rich man, went to Jagannatha Puri. Because he was rich, he was granted a close circumambulation around the Deity. While circumambulating, they reported that Lord Jagannatha began snatching at his wife's clothing. Jagannatha is attracted to this blackish woman and snatching her clothes. We have to believe this?
The sannyasi had also told Prabhupada that in Europe, some person had come to the temple who was a visitor from the subtle plane, and although she talked to one devotee, others didn't see her didn't know that she was there. Prabhupada fixed on that right away and Srila Prabhupada said, oh, he saw some visitation, but others who are there cannot see it? That is bogus.
Srila Prabhupada said we should tell the devotees, or anyone who claims these things: Yes, you say you are seeing these things. You must be very fortunate that the avatara, or whoever it is, is visiting you. But put it aside and do your duty. He said, Of course, these things may be happening, that is a fact, but Srila Prabhupada said as far as he was concerned, he was not so fortunate as to ever see such things. He was only trying to serve his spiritual master. Srila Prabhupada said his Guru Maharaja had thousands of disciples and only he has become a little successful although everyone claims to be the favoured, the most scholarly, the most advanced, etc. When he thinks why he has become a little successful, he thinks it is because he firmly believed in the orders of his spiritual master.
When Srila Prabhupada said that, it was like the conclusion of all he was saying on this topic or practically any other topic. It was so impressive! We could see that this was Prabhupada's actual unique position, his magic. Srila Prabhupada said, I haven't seen any avatara, but if you want to know my secret. Then we saw what a rare position Prabhupada had.
Srila Prabhupada said, I firmly believed in the words of my spiritual master. I believed one hundred percent in the words of my spiritual master and I did not care for some other thing [implying seeing a visitor from another planet or being a great scholar]. I never cared for some other thing besides the order of my spiritual master. Those who claim they are seeing visitors, they claim an advanced status for themselves.
The sannyasi had said that one benefit of this psychic phenomena is that they had been preaching to devotees who were feeling discouraged in devotional service. They would feel stimulated to feel that actually something was immediately at hand, which was exciting and relishable. When we explained that to Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada said, i spiritual life is slow and you do not feel progress, you should not demand visitors from another plane or such things, but carry on your duty as assigned to you by your spiritual master.
Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada Gita-nagari Press-ISKCON In The 1970s- If You Want to Know My Secret.-January-February 8th 1977-Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
In India, ISKCON published a book listing all the names of every Indian scholar who supported us and his address. It was suggested that we do the same thing in America for the Americans. I suggested that this might be dangerous in America because our enemies have already taken the names of whatever professors we have published and written to them. They have slandered and blasphemed our movement to try to turn them away from us and it hasn't been good. When Prabhupada heard that, he immediately agreed that it would not be a good tactic to publish a book like that in America. Srila Prabhupada said, they will damage us by counter-propaganda. Yes, Canakya Pandita has said don't disclose your secrets. The enemy will take advantage. I asked Prabhupada, But what about the injunction that a devotee should treat his enemy so openly that he should be willing to reveal everything to him? Srila Prabhupada said that the days are different now in Kali-yuga. If the other party are cheaters, I shall cheat; otherwise, they take advantage.
Another morning, we were riding in the car and a devotee came from Mayapur and reported that where they were building the new building (right at the edge of the wall on the other side) was land that belonged to a Muslim man. Sometimes the bricks would fall on his land and he was such a demon that he wouldn't let us touch his land. It was practically impossible to build there without touching his land in some way. He was actually getting bunches of men to come and throw rocks and harass our workers. This was reported to Prabhupada in the car. When he heard this Srila Prabhupada said, kill them immediately!
Everyone was taken aback at the instruction. The devotee from Mayapur reported a little more about what it was and said, But really we cannot do anything, Prabhupada, because this man is such a big demon. Srila Prabhupada said we should call the police and let them see what he is doing how he is obstructing the work.
Another time, Srila Prabhupada asked, What are some arguments of the opposition party? I said, They claim that we take away a person's free will when he joins. Srila Prabhupada said, If he has free will and he joined us, why do you interfere with his free will? I repeated, But they claim he had free will, but we took it away. Prabhupada insisted that if he has free will and has joined us, then their taking him away interferes with his free will. Srila Prabhupada said, then apart from that, what do they say about our movement that is bad?
I said that one thing they claim is that we make a person renounce his connection with his mother and father. He replied, That is not bad to split up the family if it is already a divorced family teaching a bad example, broken home. I said not all families were like that. Srila Prabhupada said, but that is the general life, isn't it? Then we both agreed that we do not teach that a devotee must give up his relationship with his family. It is a false charge. But his point was, What is wrong if it is a bad family?
Another thing they say is that the new devotee gives up his career and education when he joins. Srila Prabhupada said, if it is a bad career and he gives it up, then that is good. If his career was illicit sex, intoxication, and he gives it up. I said that another claim is that one has saved thousands of dollars and on joining we take it. Srila Prabhupada said he had no such experience of receiving money like that from disciples. I then said, They claim that we convert them by staring into their eyes. He was surprised. They say like that? Yes, I said, Adi-kesava Swami is being charged with mind control. Then let me look in your eyes, let me look in the judge's eyes, Srila Prabhupada said.
Srila Prabhupada? I asked. When I came here, Ramesvara Swami said you had been speaking about how Krsna consciousness will rise to power in the United States. I find it hard to have that vision since now it is just the opposite. Srila Prabhupada said it was true, but now it has only taken its roots. You have to water and protect it, then you will get fruit. You have to give it protection. People must hear about us through our books and we have to talk about the books. I understood better and said, oh, so it is not that it will happen overnight? No, Srila Prabhupada said, gradually it will grow. The seed is there. Now protect it by introducing more and more books in every house.
He asked how much fifty books cost. He was told $250. Is that much for an American? Make a policy and organization, whereby you introduce the books in every home a full set in every home. Everyone can afford $250. The GBC should make such a plan. Print the full sets in every language. You have to use your intelligence. You have to find how to remove $250 from their pockets and give them fifty books. They won't be cheated. They will gain the greater value for their lives. Don't think your business is finished. There is much work ahead. This is the water of the seed which has already taken root. Distribute more and more books and go on opening more centres. People should hear about us. In this way, you have to protect the seed that is already planted there.
Srila Prabhupada doesn't like that the visiting devotees here are travelling an hour a day to go to Jagannatha Puri instead of working locally to help support the temple by kirtana in town. Srila Prabhupada said their going to Jagannatha Puri is not preaching but sense gratification they are going to the sea to swim. I told him that the leaders were not enthusiastic about this outpost in Bhubaneshwar. Srila Prabhupada said, why not? This is the capital of Orissa. People are coming here. We have to have centres in every town, and even if it is not a big centre, some have to work and stay here. Even if the people are coming every night only to eat kichari, that is also preaching.
Then Srila Prabhupada said that our program for everywhere is kirtana and prasadam distribution. We distribute books and the collection is to support these things, kirtana and prasadam distribution. I mentioned that in America over the years, the devotees are not seen in streets shaven-headed, holding kirtana. Srila Prabhupada said it is not necessary to stress chanting in the streets. Distribute books and invite them to come for the love feast. They will see us by coming to the temple and joining in the kirtana.
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
January 29
Odds and ends from Bhubaneshwar
Srila Prabhupada said that when you look at the sky even with a big telescope, you cannot see much. Therefore, they imagine the rest. They imagine so many things. They cannot see the planets or the living beings, so they imagine. We have to accept this?
He was asked how long the people will accept this kind of authority from the scientists. Srila Prabhupada said that they will stay in power until this demoniac society accepts the Vedic authority. Krsna's whole business was to put the Pandavas in power and Rama put Vibhisana in power not that we are interested in politics, but it is for others who are being exploited. If we become powerful, we can take over the government. If you want to be dear to Krsna, then you should take to this fighting-preaching. Arjuna tried to avoid Krsna's order and Krsna chastised him. For others' sake you have to take botheration. People have forgotten God.
Gurukrpa Swami told Srila Prabhupada that the hippies have a slogan why we should not preach to them. The hippie says, It's my death, so let me live my own life. Srila Prabhupada said, but when it is time to die, why do you fly? Srila Prabhupada said to ask them to take that as a slogan. You say that it is your death, but when it is time to die, why do you fly (meaning, why do you become frightened)?
Prabhupada was talking about a devotee who became crazy and left our movement. Srila Prabhupada said he has become like an un-ripened jackfruit. Sometimes jackfruit ripens, but it is still tiny, so it is ruined. It is like a grown-up dwarf. He's become like that. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati said that if our men become sahajiyas, they will be more dangerous than anyone else.
He spoke how Ramakrishna claimed that he was even having a menstrual period in his experiment of being a gopi. Ramakrishna's process of religion was to try every kind of religion. Once in a Hindu temple he said, Now I'm practicing the Muslim religion. Bring me some cow flesh. The proprietors said, No, you have to leave this temple. Ramakrishna said, but I am being a Muslim now. In this way he tried to be everything.
The sahajiyas dress up as gopis. I am in ecstasy, I am attracting Krsna, I am a gopi. Srila Prabhupada said, is Krsna such a foolish person that He thinks, ‘Oh, here is a gopi,' and it is some man?
Idea for door-to-door distribution and putting sets of books in every home. Srila Prabhupada said to send some reviews to a home first, stating that we are enclosing this literature about Srimad-Bhagavatam and Bhagavad Gita. If you permit, we can send our local representative to show the books. You can keep the books for one week. Send to individual homes wherever we have centers or representatives.
He also said that scientists claim that in the future, they will do wonders, but no sane man accepts it. I said, But we also say Krsna promises that in the future we will go back to Godhead. Srila Prabhupada said, but His authority is reliable. Each party takes its own authority, each believes in some authority. Srila Prabhupada said, therefore, I asked Professor Kotovsky, ‘What is the difference between you and us? You accept Lenin and Stalin we accept Krsna.'
Gargamuni said that sometimes they criticize Krsna's character. You can also criticize your mother and father, but he is rascal who does that. You should respect your mother and father. You should respect Krsna. If you say, oh, my mother and father had sex indulgence and they brought me to life, so I have no respect for them. Sex is there. Otherwise, there is no progeny. Why shouldn't Krsna have sex? He has unlimited sex power. Sex is from Him, if we have to accept Vedanta-sutra, janmadyasyatah. You make God impotent, we don't. God is not controlled by our ‘good or bad' concept of how we think He should behave. We don't care for fools who say that. Avajananti mam mudha.
I said, But shouldn't God act in an exemplary way? Srila Prabhupada said, no, God is not exemplary. He is not required to be.
He was telling us not to expect a smooth path; be tolerant. He was saying that the demons make us more enthusiastic to fight them on Krsna's behalf. Apratihatah. The devotee makes progress in spite of being checked. That is a pure devotee. He spoke of three heart attacks two were on consecutive nights on the way over to America in 1965 on the boat. The third was in New York. He spoke of the doctors' treatment in the hospital, how eager they were to experiment on his brain. Whatever happens to me, he said, don't call a doctor. Then he quoted matra-sparsas tu kaunteya. There are impediments in the body, there are impediments in the form of our enemies; we cannot expect smooth, happy-going life. Krsna never said I will play magic and there will be no trouble. He never gave Arjuna a tablet.
Krsna didn't give as modern gurus do, a magic ash, but He said, Tolerate. Nor did Arjuna say, Why do You make me fight, Krsna? Give a magic ash. We have to face things as they are and go on with our duty. Do not expect any ash, any miracle or magic tablet.
In Puri there are many broken houses on the beach. Let them give them to us, Srila Prabhupada said. we will maintain them. Anyone can stay with us for three days. We will give him lodging and food. If he stays, he has to attend mangala-arati and the evening program. After three days, he can stay permanently and be shaven-headed and work as we desire. Organize like this.
Sleeping is maya's influence, Prabhupada told us. Devi has captured everyone. The more one sleeps, the more he is under the control of maya. The less he sleeps, the less nidra. As in the Gosvami's verse, sleeping, eating, and sex are reduced to nil by them. The more we conquer these, the more we are free from maya. Rise early and attend mangala-arati; this is necessary. Eat less and you won't feel sleepy. Therefore, we have Ekadasi. We should practice ourselves and teach others. If one thinks he is all right in material life, he is doomed. These rascals think if a man and a woman have sex, a form comes out and they can also eat it. But take a chicken she makes an egg and then a chick. You take some yellow and white substance and try to make a chicken, you cannot. Therefore, the chicken is better than the scientist. We must be sadhus; if we are also dogs and hogs, how can we preach?
Srila Prabhupada was invited by a big pandita to speak at an evening program, but when the time drew near, we saw the invitations and it appeared that he was just using Srila Prabhupada's name. The actual cause of the event was not Srila Prabhupada's appearing there, but it was a meeting to inaugurate some book that was published. The book was announced in big letters, and then it said, . and present will be His Divine Grace, who will introduce the book. We disciples didn't like this so much; we saw this invitation for what it was. Anyway, we all went there and it was a big meeting with a lot of people in the audience and strung lights on the beach. There was a big dais built and many different panditas were up there.
As soon as Srila Prabhupada started to speak, some people began to protest that he was speaking in English, but Srila Prabhupada said he had to speak in English because he had so many disciples. Prabhupada talked about Lord Jagannatha, and then we could realize that he is in Jagannatha Puri; he is the most qualified, expert devotee of Lord Jagannatha.
We may not always think like that about Srila Prabhupada, but because he has introduced Ratha-yatra, or Lord Jagannatha all over the world, we could understand that he is the most knowledgeable, intimate devotee of Lord Jagannatha more than any of them. He was speaking about the different Ratha-yatras, as Prabhupada loves to do. He told them about the Ratha-yatra in England where the cart was announced in the papers as a rival to Nelson's Column because it was as tall as Nelson's Column in Piccadilly. Then he told about Ratha-yatra in San Francisco. Srila Prabhupada said that last year, the mayor of San Francisco declared Ratha-yatra a public holiday, Ratha-yatra Day. In this way, he was telling about all the places we have Ratha-yatra Chicago, Philadelphia, Japan.
Then Srila Prabhupada said, but they will not let my disciples enter the temple here. This should be stopped. The Bhagavad Gita says ye 'pi syuh papa-yonayah, they are sinfully born, but Krsna accepts them. The narakis do not, but Krsna does. Therefore, they are awaiting their punishment.
He was speaking strongly to them (as influential persons) how, in different ways, they should do something about this. Srila Prabhupada said that those who are directly stopping it will soon be punished and they will go to hellish conditions, not on his opinion but that is the verse. It says that those who think that a Vaisnava is of a particular nationality are already in a hellish state. Prabhupada spoke as they did not expect him to speak, all about this Lord Jagannatha prejudice. When he was finished, this Sada Shiva got the book that was the highlight of the evening, gave it to Srila Prabhupada, and said, Now this is such and such book; please speak about it. Prabhupada picked up the book and looked at it. Then he gave the book's name and Srila Prabhupada said that it was being inaugurated tonight, and he handed the book back. Then he looked at some of us and Srila Prabhupada said, I can go now? He started a big kirtana and got up. The meeting wasn't over, but we had a big kirtana, got up, and left. Although they had planned to use Prabhupada, he took advantage of their meeting instead.
In Jagannatha Puri, there are two different Gaudiya temples Gaudiya Math and Purusottama Math. After the meeting that same night, Prabhupada and the devotees went to the temples and saw that the Deities were very nice. But, as Prabhupada commented later, the places were nasty. Srila Prabhupada said they cannot even whitewash the places and nobody was there for kirtana. It is hard to imagine a big temple lit only with one tiny bulb, nobody there, and the Deities not being taken care of. Prabhupada's disciples had a big kirtana at both temples.
It was pretty late then and we started driving back to Bhubaneshwar from Puri. It was about 8 o'clock and we were halfway back when we came to where the Saksi-Gopala Deity is and got out. It was a bad atmosphere there. All the people are really aggressive beggars. We went in to see the Deity very beautiful, very black. Later in the car, the only thing Srila Prabhupada said was that Gopala was not dressed properly.
In his room in Bhubaneshwar, Srila Prabhupada said he has been reading that the creation is a mercy of Krsna. Even if there is no creation, still there is suffering. Isn't sleeping a million years a kind of suffering? Therefore, we say that the creation is mercy; it is a chance. The real mercy of the creation is that you can meet a spiritual master. (That is, someone who is fortunate can meet a spiritual master.)
Srila Prabhupada said that when, by his disciple Syamasundara's mistake, he was quarantined for three days for yellow fever, he suffered due to not being able to go out. Srila Prabhupada said, I don't go out anyway from this room, that is my practice; but if I am not permitted to go out, that thought is suffering. So, creation is better. At least, Srila Prabhupada said, it lets the fools become active. Rather than having to be restricted to sleep for a million years or confined, at least it is mercy that they can do their nonsense become active. In that sense, also, it is mercy.
I said, The philosophers agree that accepting knowledge as we do from authority is sometimes a good method. All the time, Srila Prabhupada said. For things inconceivable, you have to hear. Who is your father? You have to hear from your mother. The two main things scientists don't know: how life comes into existence, and how the planetary system is existing. We accept because Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He cannot cheat me. He is perfect, whatever He says. But they accept another authority: Dr Frog.
This morning, Srila Prabhupada's car broke down and we couldn't go out. Srila Prabhupada said the car is like the story of the tortoise and the hare: we are sitting here crying, but a dog could have gone a hundred miles his car is not broken down. Therefore, Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that the more you become involved in material progress, the more you are a rascal. The scientist is saying that in a million years he will do what he will never actually be able to do. That is like the logic of the duck seeing the testicles hanging from the bull and following the bull, thinking it is a fish that is going to fall at any minute. But it will never fall. Or it is like the nipples on the neck of a goat that can never give milk.
Gurukrpa Swami mentioned that nowadays, parents sometimes take their boy to the homosexual dance and pick him up afterwards. Srila Prabhupada said it is horrible to even hear these things, and these same parents are against us. This should be brought up in court. Then he delivered his instruction to make the presentation of our books our legal defence in court. A famous barrister in India, Mr. Ghosh, once brought into court many, many books, and the judge said, Mr. Ghosh, you have brought the whole library?
Yes, my lord. Just to teach you law.
Srila Prabhupada said, So we should make a presentation like that. Bring in all our books and make them hear our books. Gurukrpa Swami said, They will say you are brainwashing us by making us read these books. Yes, Srila Prabhupada said, that is my duty. You are trying to brainwash me, and I you. It is wrestling; you are trying your strength and I am trying my strength. Let us settle up.
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
January 30
On the morning walk, we saw a violet and white flower and Srila Prabhupada scoffed at the idea that things happen by chance. He talked of philosophers who say that life has no meaning. Srila Prabhupada said that they say there is no authority, but they are asking us to follow them. That is a contradiction and therefore, rascaldom. It is like selling something, although you say, Don't buy it. We told Prabhupada that they say, Well, you should at least not follow any authority blindly. Srila Prabhupada said no, if the authority is good, you can follow. Then one boy said that their response is that they will not take all information and all authority from one person, but different information from different authorities. Srila Prabhupada said, but if you can find the perfect authority in one place, just like when you go to the supermarket, you can get all your products in one place, why not follow that authority? Krsna is perfect and we follow Him.
I asked, If we came to power, could a person live in the Krsna conscious state if he didn't believe in Krsna? Srila Prabhupada said, no, just as if a boy doesn't want education, he is forced. But, Srila Prabhupada said, it is not a matter of Hindu or Christian. We asked if a person said he had some other religion, does that mean he would be punished in the Krsna conscious state? Srila Prabhupada said it is not a matter of Hindu or Christian. The state has to enforce the standard of God. If one doesn't know the law of God, then he will have to submit to the state and be educated. On questioning further, Srila Prabhupada said that if one gave up meat-eating and sinful life, he could still follow the Bible, but the state would insist that he actually follow his religion. No bad leader would be allowed to be followed.
We tried to understand how Krsna consciousness is the absolute perfect authority; we kept bringing up democratic objections to absolute authority. Srila Prabhupada said, why do you praise this democracy? Democracy means democracy. Then later Srila Prabhupada said it means demon-crazy. We asked further about how we could enforce Krsna consciousness without much bloodshed and coercion among those who didn't want to take it. Sometimes that is also necessary, Srila Prabhupada said, since Krsna comes to save the devotee and punish the miscreant.
I said, There are so many relative parties and the tendency of philosophers is to recognize no one as right or perfect. It seems that the best thing is not to force one way on the people. Srila Prabhupada said, but if Krsna consciousness is actually perfect and the way for everyone to live for peace and prosperity, why not move to enforce it for everyone's betterment? Those who oppose it are demons because what do we say that is wrong or that should not be instituted? You have to come gradually to power and punish the miscreants; that is also a part of the Krsna consciousness program.
Last night, Svarupa Damodara dasa arrived and Srila Prabhupada was pleased to see a demonstration of the scientific lectures he has been giving. Today Srila Prabhupada said the scientist cannot make his own brain, but someone has made his brain. Why not take shelter of He who made this brain? The true scientist has to recognize the Great Scientist. The present scientists cannot stop their own deaths.
He compared the example of the disciple of Durga to the scientists who say they are doing many, many wonderful things they are doing this and they are doing that but they have to admit that they are not able to stop their own deaths. Therefore, they are like the disciple of Durga. Durga appeared and asked, Are you happy? The devotee said, Oh yes, Mother. Durga said, You have no complaints? The devotee said, Only two: there is no food and there is no cloth. Otherwise, we are very happy. So what is this happiness? So long as they cannot stop death, old age, disease, and rebirth, what have they done?
The charge was made that we don't feed people who are starving. Srila Prabhupada said, we are giving out what little prasadam we can. What are you doing? He counter-challenged any person who would say that. Why don't you stop death? We are not so anxious for daridra-narayana-seva.
Their idea is that the economically poor should especially be taken care of and that this is real God consciousness. Why worship God in the temple with so much opulence? God is in the street as a poor man; go and feed Him. That's real religion. This sentiment is used, but Srila Prabhupada said, why this attachment only to the poor man? Krsna never says like that. He says that the rich man is also very much diseased and really poor and in need of Krsna consciousness. He is so contaminated that he is suffering and going to hell. Why just this daridra-narayana? We say that it is good to serve the poor when serving everyone is the real point. Everyone should get prasadam because of the spiritual benefit. To call the poor man God is a great offense to Narayana, who is never a poor man. We don't go for this propaganda that our main business should be to supply food to the poor. We want to supply prasadam to everyone and we want to glorify Krsna.
He gave some practical underlying reasons why we are not interested in feeding the poor. We are not so anxious. They are being punished by past karma to starve. If in a hospital a patient is being made to starve, what can you do? If you go to him and feed the hungry person in the hospital who is under orders to starve, you will be beaten with shoes. The question was then asked: Why be so callous?
Prabhupada's answer: I must be callous. We can give the treatment, but we cannot be protected against the doctor. A good patient is grateful, although he is starving.
Those who claim, Oh, we have helped the starving man, are rascals. They are poking their noses in the hospital where the patients are made to starve. Krsna didn't tell Arjuna to be agitated by suffering, but to tolerate it. Krsna is teaching: Don't be over-intelligent; submit to God and you will be happy. You will never have to suffer again. All attempts at betterment are pretending to be beyond God's knowledge this is rascaldom. There can be no change in your position, you cannot change the laws of nature. Whoever thinks that I know something, I can do something, is a useless person. The laws of nature are working; they are tightly binding me. What can I do? All miseries are summarized in these four words, janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi. Do something with these miseries and then talk of having done something.
My position at present means my karma. If I am seated in the plush Bhaktivedanta Manor, I have the same suffering as I do in this hut. (Prabhupada was speaking in Bhubaneshwar where he was staying in a hut.) But if I think, Now I am in the Manor, I am happy, that is foolishness. But that they do. Why are you dying? Stop that. Can you, my disciples, help me in my old age? There are so many disciples and I am suffering from disease in my old age. You may try your best, but you should admit that it is beyond your power. As soon as you go back to Godhead, then everything is solved.
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
February [?], 1977
Today we had the cornerstone-laying ceremony here. Early in the morning, we also looked at a large temple under construction whose owners may turn the temple over to ISKCON. Tomorrow night at 1:00 a.m., we leave by train on a twelve-hour trip to Calcutta. Then, after a day or two, according to Srila Prabhupada, Back to home, back to Godhead, Mayapur.
Srila Prabhupada said it is not good to make religious comparisons, but sometimes we have to. Buddha and Christ wanted their followers to stop sinful activities. Christ's Thou shalt not kill and Buddha's ahimsa philosophy are practically the same, but their so-called followers could not follow. I therefore call this society the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. If you don't want to understand Krsna, if you want to make some comparison, then you have your own understanding; but we are studying Krsna, the Supreme Truth.
He was telling Svarupa Damodara that there is para and apara also in the subtle situation. If the subtle situation, which is the via medium between para and apara, is spiritualized, the soul is carried to the spiritual world. They see only the gross situation and think that when it is finished, life is finished. If a man is a high court judge but goes mad, he has no value anymore. Anyone, whether he is Ph.D. or whatever, if he has no knowledge of the soul, he is not credited as a scholar. Srila Prabhupada said he knew a great scholar who became so mad that in his craziness he was running naked in the streets. Who cared for him any longer, although he had been a scholar? The scientists who reject the soul are like that. Srila Prabhupada is very keen that Svarupa Damodara, with other devotee-scientists, write and preach in a scientific way to defeat the life comes from matter theory. If we can get the scientists to admit there is God, that will be our great success.
February 3
A man came today, our last day in Bhubaneshwar, and saw Srila Prabhupada about publishing his article. I was called in and then later I read the article and discussed it with the man, who says he has published twenty-five books. The article had many discrepancies, and after discussing it with the man, I went in to Srila Prabhupada during his massage and discussed it. I said this man was a devotee of Sri Aurobindo. Srila Prabhupada asked, What is Aurobindo's philosophy? You should diagnose, if he has a philosophy. Since the man indulged in a comparison of Buddha, Christ, and Krsna, I asked if we should involve ourselves in that. Srila Prabhupada said, No, only in that Buddha and Christ partially manifest Krsna.
Before that, I mentioned that the man had said Vyasadeva failed to capture Krsna completely. Srila Prabhupada said yes, but whatever Vyasa did should be followed. We accept that Krsna is infinite, but whatever Vyasa said, you should follow. I said that the man also wrote that Caitanya was only a partial manifestation of the Absolute. Yes, Srila Prabhupada said, He was a devotee, but follow Him. Then Srila Prabhupada said that Buddha showed ahimsa, so follow that. Any avatara or religious personality, we can discuss him, but it should be in the sense of how he partially manifested Krsna consciousness, or in relation to what Krsna manifested fully.
We discussed Christ. Srila Prabhupada said that Christ's followers were so low-class that they killed him. He had no opportunity to preach to the higher class. He taught, Thou shalt not kill, but they could not be saved. The real situation of Christ is that he wanted to save them, but they could not be saved. I said, the Christians say that Christ's divine mission was to be crucified.
Prabhupada: Then why didn't he say, You crucify me! Rather he said, Thou shalt not kill, but they killed him.
I said, People say he didn't resist when the soldiers came.
Oh, Srila Prabhupada said, does that mean you should kill him? What rascals.
I said that Christ is described like Vasudeva Datta, as so compassionate that he wanted to take everyone's sins.
Christ is compassionate, Srila Prabhupada said. Everyone knows that undoubtedly, but you are such a rascal that you sin they are mostly like that.
I said, Christ is so compassionate that even if one insists on being a sinner, Christ wants to save him. Prabhupada repeated, Yes, Christ is compassionate, but you are a rascal.
Then this man talked about Krsna and suffering. Srila Prabhupada said, as for Krsna and suffering, He is God. That means He does not suffer. Paritranaya sadhunam. He comes, He says, Why are you suffering? and He gives the proper medicine.
Then I pointed out that this man said in his essay that although all these different teachers have come and Krsna has come, Aurobindo is the first one to transcend death. Srila Prabhupada said, Then why did he die? When he died, they thought, ‘Oh, he is in samadhi,'and then after a couple of days when he decomposed, they decided that he had actually died.
Some questions and answers from an evening lecture
Prabhupada gave in Bhubaneshwar:
Somebody said, If one without a guru chants the name with devotion.
Prabhupada: There is no devotion without guru. That is the defect in modern society they imagine you can manufacture their own way. Rupa Gosvami said that the first thing is to approach the guru.
Question: Then all is fruitless without the guru? But it is rare to get a genuine guru.
Prabhupada: Lord Caitanya said in answer to this, brahmanda brahmite kona bhagyavan jiva. If you are actually hankering within, He will give you a guru, if you are fortunate. Even Lord Caitanya accepted a guru. Why manufacture that you do not need a guru? Do not do this.
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
February [?]
The Last Night In Bhubaneshwar
I mentioned to Srila Prabhupada that the devotees were planning to put his name on a sign over the door where he was staying, saying that on such-and-such a day, at 2:50 a.m., he began the Tenth Canto. Srila Prabhupada was pleasantly surprised, You heard me? We explained how we heard him beginning from the next room. Then Srila Prabhupada said, Yes, the Tenth Canto chapters 29 34 are the smiling face of Krsna. Krsna's flute can be heard in the Tenth Canto.
He then told about Subhash Candra Bose. His was the real movement that gained Indian independence not Gandhi's nonviolent movement. Only the clerks and some teachers took part with Gandhi, and the British saw it going on for thirty years. They thought, Let the old man go on with his philosophizing, but when Subhash Candra Bose organized the Indian National Army and his Gurkhas and Sikhs were joining against the British, then the British knew it was all over. Gandhi differed with Subhash and removed him as president of India. Then Subhash Candra Bose went outside India. He tried to induce Tojo of Japan to help enter India. Tojo thought he would enter India, but then kill Bose. Then at one point, Subhash Candra was interned at home, but he disguised himself as a Muslim and escaped to Germany. He made a deal with Hitler and thus organized the INA. Indian soldiers would surrender to Hitler (this was World War II and the Indian soldiers were fighting as part of the British army) and be allowed to join the INA. Gandhi's non-cooperation movement was a good trick, but it did not succeed.
The granddaughter of this Nethaji (as he is called), Subhash Candra Bose, comes to visit Prabhupada infrequently. She made a remark that Srila Prabhupada is like Nethaji in that he has gone outside India to organize a movement of Vaisnavas. Srila Prabhupada liked that. Srila Prabhupada said, Yes.
Srila Prabhupada said that we have organized an army now and it is in the right hands. You Americans are resourceful, you can do it. The frame is there, now organize. This mission is para-upakara. We don't want to exploit anyone. Today's so-called civilization keeps people in the clutches of maya. They are being misled, they are lusty, and they are demons. Our movement is against this. It is really para-upakara, to help the people, and you will be recognized by Krsna. Simply go on working for this movement. Take all strategic points for fighting. There is a declaration of war by us against maya. No, not actually maya, (she is a servant of Krsna). She would relinquish her grip on everyone, but because they remain demons she cannot. That's her duty. Actually, we are fighting not with maya, but with the demons.
Now in this American opposition, the demons are feeling our presence. It is a fight and we have to defend. A fight is a fight. My Guru Maharaja used to say, A fight is a fight, so some of our soldiers will die. Still, then we should fight much more. Fight like brave soldiers. Krsna will help. Do not make a truce with the demons. The Hare Krsna mantra is our weapon. They are afraid of this astra weapon. Go on fighting. We are not like Vrndavana babajis who claim, Oh, I am so advanced, I never go out of Vrndavana, and at the same time keep three dozen widows.
The train ride from Bhubaneshwar to Calcutta took ten hours. Three of us myself, Hari Sauri and Srila Prabhupada were in the first-class cabin. The train left after 11:30 p.m. Srila Prabhupada took rest at 12 and got up around 3 a.m. Then after a while, he took a little more rest until 5:30 a.m. Then we all got up. As Srila Prabhupada got up, the first thing Srila Prabhupada said was that Ayurvedic medicine should be taken by us on our farms. That is also a basic part of maintenance, along with shelter and cloth.
The train we were on was an express train, and as it was going past all the stops, Prabhupada asked me to call out the names of the towns. He was remembering them, because he is from the area.
February [?]
Calcutta
A newspaper article arrived from the United States. I showed Prabhupada a January 23rd article from the Boston Globe entitled, The Hare Krsna Puzzle. I said it had pros and cons. He asked to hear the cons. I began one statement which described the devotees as parasites. We are not parasites, Srila Prabhupada said, we are giving the best literature in the world. Does this literature come from illiterate hippies? We are accepted by scholars. Are we parasites? Then the high court judge is a parasite. They do not know what is a parasite. An intelligent person is not supposed to work like a dog or an ass. They work with their brains. Only a rascal sees the judge sitting, and because he is talking a little and getting a high salary, someone may say he is a parasite because he is not working like a common labourer. They do not know the value of using the brain.
I said, They call us parasites. They are referring to the begging in the streets. It is not begging, Srila Prabhupada said, it is humility. If a father begs from his child, My dear boy, please give me back that ten dollar note that you have foolishly taken and do not know how to use if I see this and say that the father is begging, that is childish. If I sell a book, is it begging? I said, Sometimes we don't give books, but only flowers. Srila Prabhupada said that is also humility. Mostly we give books, so don't bring that in about the flowers. But that is also not restricted, that is humility. In India, highly scholarly persons beg. They are even given the title, Biksus Tridandi Swami, which means begging. The sannyasis beg to learn pridelessness and humility. In Vedic culture it is allowed. The brahmacaris, sannyasis, and brahmanas are allowed to beg alms. But what if the culture is entirely different? I asked. Yes, your culture is different, he said. Therefore, there are hippies and murderers in the name of religion. Because there is no culture, you have killing bombing making the whole atmosphere abominable.
A brahmacari begs just to learn humility; even if he is from a big family, he does so in order to become meek. And Christ said, to the meek, God is available. You don't know this culture. You have a culture to kill a child, so how will you understand this higher culture? Srila Prabhupada said we should learn to defend ourselves like this.
I mentioned to him that the opposition is claiming that it is not a matter of freedom of religion, but that we are guilty of mind control. Srila Prabhupada said that one whose mind is already in Krsna consciousness they want to control his mind. They are guilty of mind control, not us. They take him, kidnap him, and force him. He asked if the article mentioned Krsna. I said, Yes, many times. Then it is all right, Srila Prabhupada said. I said, The article is called, ‘The Hare Krsna Puzzle'; they say it is a great puzzle whether the Hare Krsna movement is good or bad. At least, Srila Prabhupada said, they are now considering. Formerly they said it was bad. Now we have come to the marginal point, whether Hare Krsna is good or bad. Finally they will come to the point, yes, it is good.
We should take these instructions to heart and mind. Sometimes someone may say to us about our dress or something, Well, that may be all right in India. What you are doing is following some entirely different culture. Then we can say yes, it certainly is a different culture. This culture is a culture of cats and dogs. This culture is a culture where you kill children in the womb. Yes, it is a very different culture, but we are trying to give you a brain so that you can understand real culture. In this way, we do not have to fall into that relative bag of, Oh well, that may be all right in India to beg, but this is America. We can just say yes, this is America and therefore it is so degraded. We want you to learn what real culture is. This is Prabhupada's example. He never descends into someone else's estimation of us and then tries to defend us on that level: Please like us. Rather, he says, You are rascal, and we stay on our Krsna conscious platform.