Sri Prahlada’s Desire to Serve His Spiritual Master

Giriraj Swami:

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam; Canto Seven, Chapter Nine: “Prahlāda Pacifies the Lord With Prayers,”

TEXT 28

evaṁ janaṁ nipatitaṁ prabhavāhi-kūpe
kāmābhikāmam anu yaḥ prapatan prasaṅgāt
kṛtvātmasāt surarṣiṇā bhagavan gṛhītaḥ
so ‘haṁ kathaṁ nu visṛje tava bhṛtya-sevām

TRANSLATION

My dear Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, because of my association with material desires, one after another, I was gradually falling into a blind well full of snakes, following the general populace. But Your servant Nārada Muni kindly accepted me as his disciple and instructed me how to achieve this transcendental position. Therefore, my first duty is to serve him. How could I leave his service?

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

As will be seen in later verses, even though Prahlāda Mahārāja was directly offered all the benedictions he might have desired, he refused to accept such offerings from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. On the contrary, he asked the Lord to engage him in the service of His servant Nārada Muni. This is the symptom of a pure devotee. One should serve the spiritual master first. It is not that one should bypass the spiritual master and desire to serve the Supreme Lord. This is not the principle for a Vaiṣṇava. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says:

tāṅdera caraṇa sevi bhakta-sane vāsa

janame janame haya, ei abhilāṣa

One should not be anxious to offer direct service to the Lord. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu advised that one become a servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord (gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ). This is the process for approaching the Supreme Lord. The first service should be rendered to the spiritual master so that by his mercy one can approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead to render service. While teaching Rūpa Gosvāmī, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja: one can achieve the seed of devotional service by the mercy of the guru, the spiritual master, and then by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. This is the secret of success. First one should try to please the spiritual master, and then one should attempt to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura also says, yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo. One should not attempt to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead by concoction. One must first be prepared to serve the spiritual master, and when one is qualified he is automatically offered the platform of direct service to the Lord. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja proposed that he engage in the service of Nārada Muni. He never proposed that he engage directly in the service of the Lord. This is the right conclusion. Therefore he said, so ‘haṁ kathaṁ nu visṛje tava bhṛtya-sevām: “How can I give up the service of my spiritual master, who has favored me in such a way that I am now able to see You face to face?” Prahlāda Mahārāja prayed to the Lord that he might continue to engage in the service of his spiritual master, Nārada Muni.

COMMENT

Well, before I begin, I must share one realization I just had as I was reciting the prayers about Vaisesika Prabhu and how powerful he is as a saṅkīrtana devotee. Although I myself was a saṅkīrtana devotee and have been trying to serve Srila Prabhupada for thirty some years, even I have been bewildered by his saṅkīrtana potency, because I came here to hear him give the class [laughter], but he changed me up. And instead of him giving the class I have ended up giving the class. So now I know how powerful he is. He can bewilder anyone [laughter] and engage them in Krishna’s service.

The first time I met Vaisesika Prabhu, I didn’t actually know who he was, but he came to the Juhu temple and he led a kirtan. And I had never seen him before, at least to my knowledge, but I was very inspired by his kirtan. And when he led the song by Bhaktivinoda Thakura, I got another impression of his kirtans, and then I remembered the first time ever, and after the kirtan in Juhu, I approached him and then he introduced himself, and then I found out who he was. I found out what his name was.

So this verse was actually quoted by Srila Prabhupada to his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, and I, in turn, quoted the same verse in one letter to Srila Prabhupada. In 1977, Srila Prabhupada had fallen ill in Mayapur, and I had actually left Mayapur a little early to come to Bombay, because we were arranging a pandal program for Srila Prabhupada. A pandal is like a big tent, and there is a stage and usually at the front – well, it can be arranged differently, but there will be an area with durries, or Indian carpets, on the ground where people can sit. And then, there will also be, to the sides or in the back, chairs where people can sit. And we were really organizing the pandal for Srila Prabhupada, but the devotees in Mayapur were concerned about his health, and they were really trying to keep him there.

So anyway, I wrote Srila Prabhupada. I also quoted another verse from the Seventh Canto that says that unless the human society takes the dust of the lotus feet of the pure devotee they cannot become Krishna conscious. So I wrote to Srila Prabhupada that unless you come here, there is no way that the people can become Krishna conscious. So, I don’t know exactly what was going on. I just know the devotees there were trying to keep him, and I was sending letters, and Prabhupada wanted to come. He insisted on coming, and he came. But actually, he was very weak. I didn’t realize how weak he was, so we arranged for him to stay at a life member’s house in Bombay which was closer to the site of the pandal. And every night, a prominent person from a different field of activity was invited as a special guest. I don’t remember all of the special guests. I remember one, his name was Dr. K.K. Datey, who was a cardiologist. He came. But the big one was S.B. Chavan, who was the chief minister of Maharashtra.

So at the time, there was great political upheaval in India, because Indira Gandhi had withdrawn the emergency and declared elections. And she was defeated by the Janta Party. And S.B. Chavan was a member of the Congress party, which was Indira Gandhi’s party. So, when she was defeated at the polls, then his position became weak and the opposition tried to replace him. So we didn’t know whether he was going to be able to make it as the chief guest, and if he did make it, we didn’t even know if he was still going to be the chief minister [laughter]. But in the end, he came, and he was still the chief minister. And Srila Prabhupada spoke very nicely to him in his lecture. And in his lecture, he said that as long as we are in the material world there will be upheavals. He said, specifically when we are in politics there will be upheavals, but we have to tolerate them and continue with our real duty, which is Krishna consciousness. We should not forget about our real duty because of the political upheavals or other upheavals.

When Srila Prabhupada spoke at the end, I think every single devotee in the pandal had the same perception. Although he was already very weak and emaciated, at the end when he spoke, he became like a lion. We all felt he had actually become just like Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva. It was almost like Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva entered his body and animated him. It was just incredible. And also at the time, Srila Prabhupada had Bhakti Svarupa Damodara Maharaja give a scientific presentation. And there were slides and an explanation, and Srila Prabhupada was so pleased. He was just so pleased that he gave the presentation. And some of the devotees felt that the audience couldn’t understand what he was saying, but Srila Prabhupada was pleased, anyway. And of course, as Prabhupada said on other occasions, people don’t really understand what the mundane scientists are saying either [laughter]. They just make some diagrams [laughter] and formulas and use big bombastic words [laughter], and the audience, or the public in general, really cannot follow what they are saying. But because they have graphs and pictures from microscopes and telescopes [laughter] and different formulas and they use big words, so the people think, “Oh, they must know something that we don’t know.” So Srila Prabhupada felt the same way about our scientific presentation. Even if people don’t really understand what they are saying, at least they will think, “Well, they also have graphs and figures and diagrams and formulas [laughter], so they are as good as the other one [laughter]. And they are speaking in harmony with the Bhagavad-gītā, so why not accept them.

It is funny. On another occasion, one devotee said to Srila Prabhupada that we criticize the scientists for giving post-dated checks. In the future we will create life, or in the future we will populate the moon, whatever. But someone could say that we are also giving a post-dated check, because we say, in the future you will go back home, back to Godhead. And Prabhupada said, “Yes, that is true. But the difference is that we are telling the truth, and they are bluffing. [loud laughter]. So that was the first Bombay pandal.

Then later in my attempts in Krishna consciousness, the verse also took on special significance—the verse and the purport—because I started to spend time in Vrindavan. And I came in contact with the idea that one should desire to serve Radha and Krishna in a direct relationship—even to the point where the idea is that one, in a way you could say, jump over one’s spiritual master and try to serve Radha and Krishna directly. And of course, the idea was not really proper for us. And then later when I read this verse and purport, especially sentences here: “One should not attempt to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead by concoction. One must first be prepared to serve the spiritual master, and when one is qualified, he is automatically offered the platform of direct service to the Lord.” And of course, the basic idea of the verse and how could I give up the service of my spiritual master?

So what Srila Prabhupada says here in the purport, and what Prahlada Maharaja says in the verse are the same. And that is that by serving the spiritual master and following the instructions of the spiritual master, one is automatically offered the direct service of the Lord in due course. But one should not try to jump over the spiritual master or think that one has access to some knowledge that will make him equal to the spiritual master, or even greater than the spiritual master. And that has been a problem with some of the devotees who have learned Sanskrit. They felt that they had direct access to the scriptures, like Srila Prabhupada, and they could get knowledge from the scriptures directly and then follow what they thought the scriptures said. But that is not the process; that is not the process. We should always remain the humble servant of the spiritual master, or as Srila Prabhupada said, we should always feel ourselves to be fools before the spiritual master. And he often quoted Lord Chaitanya’s statement from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, guru more mūrkha dekhi’ karila śāsana. That my spiritual master called me a fool, and he chastised me. So Lord Chaitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, but still He accepted the position of being a fool before His spiritual master. Even otherwise, He was the most learned scholar in India. He had defeated the Vijay Kesava Kashmiri, but still, before his spiritual master He felt himself to be a fool, and he was ready to be chastised by him.

So Srila Prabhupada said that should always be the attitude of the disciple; that he is a fool before his spiritual master and therefore he is ready to be chastised by him. And if one always maintains that attitude, then he can progress. And as soon as he thinks that he is beyond being chastised by the spiritual master, that he knows as much as the spiritual master, more, then he is fallen. And there Srila Prabhupada told the story of the yogi and the mouse, which probably many of you know, but some of you don’t. So I will repeat it.

Once there was a yogi, and a mouse came to him and told him that “I want a benediction from you; a blessing from you.” So the yogi said, “Well, what do you want?” He said, “I am being harassed by a cat, so I want you to make me into a cat.” So the yogi blessed him, “You become a cat.” After some time, the cat came to the yogi and said, “I am being harassed by a dog.” “So, what do you want?” “I want to become a dog.” “Okay, become a dog.” Then after some time, the dog came to the yogi and said, “Now I am afraid of the tiger.” “So, you want to become a tiger?” “Yes.” So the yogi blessed him, “You become a tiger.” As soon as he became a tiger he started to look at the yogi as if he was going to pounce on him and devour him, and immediately the yogi said, “punar mūṣiko bhava,” (Again, you become a mouse.) And he became a mouse again.

So Srila Prabhupada told the story to suggest that the disciple, by the mercy of the spiritual master, can become more and more qualified in devotional service. You could say you can become bigger and bigger in devotional service. But if then he thinks, “Oh, I can take the place of the spiritual master, then punar mūṣiko bhava, again he becomes a mouse. He becomes what he was. So we always have to be the humble servant of the servant of the servant of Krishna, and that will keep us safe and that will be the proper position from which we can make advancement.

Now, what we were before that is also described here. We were following one material desire after the other, and as the Sanskrit suggests, kāma-abhikāmam, that one material desire leads to another. Ordinary people think, they don’t even really think they just believe, that by trying to fulfill their desire they will become satisfied. But the fact is that one desire leads to another. You never can reach the end of material desires. And probably, we all have some experience, either with ourselves or with others.

There is the other story of the other yogi [laughter]. You are all so elevated here, I am naturally thinking about yogis. But he was living very simply. He does have one kaupīna, which means just a piece of cloth. Well, two pieces of cloth that are used to cover one’s privy parts. And so at night he would just wash the cloth and the rest of the time he was basically free for his meditation. So he had a friend, and his friend suggested, “Well, why don’t you get a second pair of cloth so that while the one is drying, you can wear the other; or you don’t have to wash them every night.” He said, “Okay, well, that sounds okay.” So he got a second pair, and everything was going well. But after some time while he was wrapped in meditation, a mouse was coming and nibbling on the kaupīna. So then, the yogi consulted his friend. “Things were going better, but now there is another problem because the mouse is coming. Now what?” So the friend said, “Oh, you need a cat. [laughter] The cat will keep the mouse away, and then he will be completely free to meditate. You won’t have any disturbance.”

So he got a cat, and it was great. The cat was keeping the mouse away, and he was free to meditate. But after some time, he would hear, “Meeeooooowwww, meeeoooowww.” So he consulted his friend. “Now, what?” So he said, “Well, the cat is hungry. You have to feed the cat some milk.” So, “Okay.” So he had to go to the market to get milk. So the cat was satisfied, but the problem is he had to go to the market all the time. So he asked his friend, “It is such a botheration to go to the market.” He said, “Oh you need a cow.” So, “Okay, that sounds alright.” So, he got a cow, and that was great, because he could get milk to feed the cat to keep the mouse away. But the problem was he had to take time out of his meditation to milk the cow. So he asked his friend, “Well, now what? I have to feed the cow and milk the cow, and it is become a big botheration. Now what do I do?” He said, ‘Oh, you need a wife.” [laughter] “The wife will do everything for you. She will milk the cow; she will feed the cat. You won’t have to do anything.” [laughter]

Well, I don’t need to say any more about what happened, then, but to make a long story short, he became entangled. And then one night, he had a vision. And he saw the whole parade. It all began with one extra pair of kaupīna and it ended wife. That was great. She was feeding the cow and milking the cow, but then she wanted a house. So the whole thing; the whole thing. And he realized that he has become diverted.

So the idea is one desire after the other, like Srila Prabhupada said, you have one problem, but then to solve the one problem you create another bigger problem; and to solve the new problem you create another even bigger problem. And the problems get bigger and bigger and bigger. Like he said, in the old days, people used to travel by, well in India, by bullock cart. Well, here, they had ox carts, too, or horse-drawn carriages, and life was going on, I would say, relatively peacefully and happily. But then, people wanted to be able to travel faster, so then they got the automobile. But then, for the automobile to work they had to build roads and highways, and then that wasn’t fast enough. Then, the airplane, and then. . .and it all takes so much energy. I have noticed this, because I lived in India for about thirty years, and coming back here, there is so many conveniences. So many machines, sophisticated machines, and the cars and highways and everything are better than India. So one would think that one would have more time because there are so many time saving devices, but actually, people have less time. Practically nobody has any time. It is an illusion. It is an illusion that all the gadgets which will save time—and if you analyze each gadget in isolation it probably does save time, but the cumulative result is that no one has any time. And then, they have to shop to get the gadgets and then there is always newer versions and better versions [laughter]. And then they have to work to get the money to buy the gadgets.

So plain living and high thinking, that is the motto. Plain living and high thinking. And of course, some conveniences they actually do save time and they do facilitate service, but the facilities should be facilities for service. We should use them like the yogi. You all must be yogis; I keep coming back to the yogis. The yogis, Bhagavad-gītā says, that the yogis are like tortoises. When there is need, they extend their senses out of their shells, and when there is no need, they withdraw their senses within. So in the same way, when there is need for service we extend our senses and engage them in service. And the instruments we get, cars and computers and so on, can be extensions of our senses for service, but they should be under our control. Our senses should be under control, and the extensions of our senses should be under control. And when we don’t need to engage for the sake of service we should draw our senses within and turn our consciousness within which means specifically chanting, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Chanting and hearing about Krishna and only if there is need for service to further the mission do we extend our senses and interact with the objects of the senses.

So here, another important word is ahi-kūpe, blind well full of snakes. In one lecture, Srila Prabhupada has said that the body is the blind well that we have fallen into, and that the senses are the snakes and the snakes are always getting agitated and they want to bite. So that is a very dangerous situation to be in a blind well surrounded by snakes. But Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati says that one who has gotten the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, for him the senses become like snakes whose fangs have been removed or whose poison has been removed. And that comes obviously from devotional service.

sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ

tat-paratvena nirmalam

hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-

sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate

That when we engage the senses in the service of the proprietor of the senses, Krishna, then the senses become purified, and then, instead of demanding gratification for themselves they want to engage in service for the satisfaction of Krishna. And that is bhakti. That is the basic principle of sādhana-bhakti, but we use the present senses in the service of the proprietor of the senses, in the service of Krishna. And by such engagement, the senses become purified. And then, when they are purified, they are fit to serve the Lord directly. And the service that we engage in with the senses is directed by the spiritual master. So under the direction of the spiritual master we engage the senses beginning with the tongue in chanting the holy names and taking Krishna prasāda. And hearing; we engage the ears in hearing about Krishna, we engage the body in cleansing the temple of Krishna or distributing books, and thus under the guidance of the spiritual master, the senses are engaged in the proprietor of the senses. They are not our senses.

Once Srila Prabhupada said that a pure devotee will take the permission of Krishna before he engages any of his senses, because the senses don’t belong to him. He didn’t create them. The senses belong to Krishna, so he really has no right to use the senses without Krishna’s permission. So the pure devotee will always take Krishna’s permission first, and if Krishna doesn’t give permission then he won’t engage the senses in any activity. But because, in the beginning, we do not have a direct perception of Krishna so we are guided how to engage our senses in Krishna’s service by the spiritual master. And then, when we are purified by the process of sādhana-bhakti and by the grace of the spiritual master and Krishna, come to the stage of bhāva-bhakti. Then our senses are purified, and our minds are purified to the stage where we actually can see Krishna. And when bhāva-bhakti becomes more mature and condensed, then it becomes prema-bhakti. And when we come to the stage of prema-bhakti, we can actually enter into the pastimes of Krishna. But even then we still remain the servant of the servant of the servant, gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ. Because even in the spiritual world there is a hierarchy of servants, and even in the spiritual world we serve under the guidance and direction of the more intimate servants of Krishna. So the principle being the servant of the servant continues even after liberation.

And here, too, Srila Prabhupada gives the example of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that his spiritual master—it is the same pastime in essence—guru more mūrkha dekhi’ karila śāsana. He said, “You are a fool, and he chastised Me. And he told Me,” this is Isvara Puri speaking to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, “that You are not fit to discuss Vedanta. You are just fit to chant the holy name. So you just chant the holy name, and don’t worry about Vedanta.” So He followed the instructions of the spiritual master and chanted the holy name. And after some time, He found that sometimes he was laughing, sometimes he was crying, sometimes he was rolling on the floor, sometimes his hairs were standing on end, sometimes his voice was faltering. He was manifesting so many symptoms. So again, He went to His spiritual master and inquired that, “Guru Maharaja, you told me to chant the holy name, and I have done as you said, but now I think I am becoming mad, because I am laughing, I am crying, I am dancing, I am falling on the floor. I don’t know what is happening. I think I have become mad.”

And then, his spiritual master said, “My dear child, I am very pleased. You are manifesting symptoms of love of Godhead which is the fruit of pure chanting.” And Srila Prabhupada comments that such symptoms are not possible in a conditioned soul. Such symptoms are only manifest in the body of the liberated soul. So he says even though Lord Chaitanya was liberated, still He consulted His spiritual master. He didn’t think that He was beyond consulting His spiritual master even in the liberated condition. So that, Prabhupada said, that is liberated. That when you feel yourself to be a fool before your spiritual master and are always ready to be chastised by him, that is liberated. And as soon as you think you are liberated, “I am beyond being controlled by my spiritual master, beyond being chastised,” then you are fallen, punar mūṣiko bhava.

So this is the goal, to always be tava bhṛtya-sevām, the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord. And we always remain the servant of the servant eternally. That is Vaishnava conclusion. So here, well, we are all servants of Srila Prabhupada, but not just servants of Srila Prabhupada’s, going up, we are servants of his predecessors. So, we are servant of the servant of the servant, because he is the servant of Bhaktisiddhanta. But we are servant of the servant of the servant of the servant, because Bhaktisiddhanta is the servant of Gaura Kishore, and Gaura Kishore is the servant of Bhaktivinoda Thakura all the way back to Krishna. But we are also the servants of the servant in the sense that we are the servants of Srila Prabhupada’s servants and that is our great fortune to be associated with so many devotees of Srila Prabhupada and to be able to serve them.

So I am glad that I got to serve Vaisesika Prabhu, even though he changed me out. [laughing; laughter] But still, I am glad to be able to serve. Not that I really did any service, but try to serve you in the sense of sharing with you some of what I have heard from Srila Prabhupada.

Hare Krishna.

Devotees: Jaya! Haribol!

Giriraj Swami: Are there any questions or comments?

Devotee: Maharaja, devotees feel fortunate when they are being chastised by another advanced or senior devotee when it is appropriate, or they should anyway. But how should a devotee feel if they get chastised by somebody who isn’t in a position to chastise or who wrongly chastises? How should a devotee take that?

Giriraj Swami: Well, I think the critical question is whether the person is being chastised wrongly or not. Because even someone who is a more junior devotee, even someone who is not a devotee at all can chastise us rightly. And if he is chastising us rightly, we should take it that our spiritual master is chastising us through the person, or Krishna’s chastising us through the person.

There was one devotee who was a saṅkīrtana devotee in France, and he said that he found that the people that he met on saṅkīrtana would actually mirror him when he was on saṅkīrtana. For example, someone might say, “All you care about is money. You just want money.” And when someone would say that, he would look within himself, and he would find that, “Yes, there was some contamination there. I was starting to think of the money more than the benefit of the person.” And he took it that Krishna was correcting him through the person on saṅkīrtana who was just, from our point of view, an ordinary person. So that way, we should be open to being corrected by the spiritual master through other people. But sometimes it may happen that they criticize us; that someone might criticize us not because we are really doing something wrong, but because they have some problem with what we are doing. But we are not really doing anything wrong. So, we do have to be intelligent enough to distinguish.

When I first went to Madras, I was preaching the way I heard Prabhupada preach, and Madras was really full of Mayavadis. It was really full of Mayavadis, and many of them were intellectual types, because there had always been so much fighting between the Vaisnavites and Shaivites. So they took the position, “Oh, what is this petty quarreling? One group is saying Shiva is Supreme, and the other group is saying that Vishnu is Supreme. They are all the same. God is One. He has no name. He has no form.” And so they thought they were above the squabbles of the Vaisnavites and the Shaivites. So after some time, I heard that there was an undercurrent of protest about the way I was preaching, saying that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and we are His eternal servants, and that the only way to achieve Him is through pure devotional service. So there was criticism, and even many of our good friends were sort of saying, “Don’t criticize others. Just say in a positive way what you want about your mission and about your practices, but don’t criticize others.” And so I started to get influenced, I started to think, “Maybe Krishna is trying to tell me something,” because everyone was saying it. Even our friends were saying it.

So one day—I have told this story before, but anyway—So one day, I finally decided, “Okay, I am not going to criticize. I am just going to do what they say. I am just going to speak positively about Krishna consciousness. I am not going to criticize. I am not going to get into any arguments.” So I had an appointment with a big businessman, and I went to his office which was in the same compound as his residence. And I showed him the pictures of our activities, put the books on his table – Prabhupada said, “If you just put the books on their table they will become life members.” And everything was going smoothly. And as I took out the form, and I thought, “Okay, so far. so good.” And then he said, “What about Shankaracharya? He was one of the great acharyas of India. Why haven’t you said anything about him?” I said, “Yes, yes. He was one of the great acharyas.” I didn’t want to say anything that would offend anybody, but he kept insisting, “Why are you not mentioning him? You should mention him.” I couldn’t avoid it, and so finally I just had to bring out the whole thing that Shankaracharya was actually an incarnation of Shiva, and that he appeared to bring the Buddhists to accept the Vedic authority, again, but because the Buddhists were atheists, he preached a veiled form of atheism, in impersonal philosophy. And I even opened up Teachings of Lord Chaitanya. We didn’t have Caitanya-caritāmṛta yet, and I showed him quotations from the Padma-Purana. And he was really adamant. He said, “Oh, now you are offending Shankaracharya. You are saying he is teaching atheism,” and it is getting worse and worse. [laughter]

So I thought, “Well, there is no use continuing [laughter], because whatever I say is just making him more agitated. So I just put the books back in the briefcase, put the pictures back in the briefcase, put the form back in the briefcase, close the briefcase, and I said, “Well, it was nice meeting you. I think I will go now.” So he started to walk me towards the door, and as we were getting towards the door he said, “Before you go, I want to show you my Deities.” And, “Oh no, he is going to have a shiva-lingam and if I don’t bow down he is going to get offended, and if he offers me prasāda and if I don’t accept the prasāda, he is going to be offended.” So I thought how to avoid it, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t. And I said, “Okay.”

So he led me into the residential area, and he took me—the Deity room was actually quite big. It was maybe almost as big as the next room here. It was very big, and it had a big raised marble platform, and on the platform were big Deities of Radha and Krishna. And Radha and Krishna are very rare in Madras. Most of the Vaishnava temples are Vishnu. And, wow! I offered obeisances. What a relief to see Radha and Krishna! [laughter] Really! So then, I looked at him and he said, “Actually, my family and so many generations of my family have been devotees of Radha and Krishna.” And then he said, “Actually, I was just testing you and you have passed the test. So I will be very pleased to become your life member.” [laughter] So then, we went back to his table, I opened the briefcase, took out the form and he filled it up, paid the whole amount in one check. And it was great.

So then, when I left, I was thinking, “Well, maybe I wasn’t doing the wrong thing, but I still wasn’t quite sure, because so many people were saying the same thing. I thought maybe Krishna was telling me something. And then when I got back to the place where I was staying there was a letter from Srila Prabhupada. And in the letter Srila Prabhupada wrote, because I explained the whole situation in my letter to him, so Srila Prabhupada wrote back that, “My guru Maharaja never compromised, and similarly I shall never compromise, and similarly none of my disciples should ever compromise. But we must declare it boldly that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and all others are His servants. And people should not foolishly dream of peace or prosperity unless they are ready to surrender to Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” Oh yes, and he said, “The fact is that I am the only person in India who is openly criticizing, not only impersonalism and demigod worship, but anything that falls short of complete surrender to Krishna.” So then, I knew that what I was doing was confirmed by Srila Prabhupada, and I could appreciate his position. He was the only one in India who was preaching so boldly without compromise. So we do have to be able to distinguish whether Krishna is actually trying to correct us through someone or whether maya is testing us.

Now, as far as our relations with each other, we may do something that will upset another devotee, and the devotee may chastise us. It may not be that what we did was wrong in an absolute sense, but at the same time, we don’t want the other devotee to be upset. There are many intricacies and subtleties, so depending on who the devotee is and what the situation was, even though the devotee is wrongly chastising us, we can try to tolerate and appease the devotee. When some of the residents of Navadvipa put the paraphernalia of Durga puja outside the door of Srivasa Thakura to make the false case that he was pretending to be a Vaishnava, but actually, he was a Shakta. And he said, “Yes, you have caught me; now you punish me as you think fit.”

So, depending on the situation, we may just accept it just for the sake of pacifying the other person, if it is a matter of some interaction. But if it is a matter of a basic principle—but even then, the way things are now, devotees are not as respectful of authorities as they used to be, and therefore, we have to be more maybe congenial or collegial the way we deal with them if they don’t have faith. We can try to help them develop faith, and then when they develop more faith, we can instruct them more directly. But otherwise, we may, depending on the situation, pacify them or just sit down and just talk it out as if without considering—well yes, he will know that you are more senior and you will know that he is more junior, but it is sort of unspoken, but you just sort of talk as equals and try to figure it out.

Once I happened to pass by Srila Prabhupada’s room, and I just overheard—and there was a real argument going on. Srila Prabhupada was on one side of the table and Tamal Krishna Goswami and Gargamuni Swami were on the other side, and they were really fed up with India. I heard Gargamuni telling Srila Prabhupada, “Prabhupada, you are just wasting your time here. You should just pack up and go.” And it was really heavy, but never once did Prabhupada invoke his position as spiritual master, founder acharya, and he just argued with them. And they knew he was their spiritual master and they were his disciples, but sometimes qualified people, intelligent people have their opinions, and if we try to make everyone sort of yes men or yes women, it may be smoother, but then people aren’t able to do much, because. . .So yes, that struck me. That Prabhupada never invoked his position to subdue them or defeat them. He just argued. They came, they gave their arguments, and he gave his arguments. But everyone knew he was the final authority. [laughter]

Okay, so.

Devotee: Okay? Now we can have kirtan.

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee: Jaya. Thank you very much, Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Srila Prabhupada, ki jaya!

Devotees: Jaya!

Giriraj Swami: Gaura premānande!

Devotees: Hari Haribol!