SB 3.2.23 – Srila Prabhupada’s Disappearance Day—Where are Those Mosquitoes?

Giriraj Swami: I shall read one verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that I thought appropriate for today’s occasion. It is one of the two verses that Srila Vyasadeva’s disciples recited to Śukadeva Gosvami to attract him to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It is from the Third Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Second Chapter, “Remembrance of Lord Krsna.”

TEXT 23

aho bakī yaṁ stana-kāla-kūṭaṁ
jighāṁsayāpāyayad apy asādhvī
lebhe gatiṁ dhātry-ucitāṁ tato ‘nyaṁ
kaṁ vā dayāluṁ śaraṇaṁ vrajema

TRANSLATION

Alas, how shall I take shelter of one more merciful than He who granted the position of mother to a she-demon [Pūtanā] although she was unfaithful and she prepared deadly poison to be sucked from her breast?

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Here is an example of the extreme mercy of the Lord, even to His enemy. It is said that a noble man accepts the good qualities of a person of doubtful character, just as one accepts nectar from a stock of poison. In His babyhood, He was administered deadly poison by Pūtanā, a she-demon who tried to kill the wonderful baby. And because she was a demon, it was impossible for her to know that the Supreme Lord, even though playing the part of a baby, was no one less than the same Supreme Personality of Godhead. His value as the Supreme Lord did not diminish upon His becoming a baby to please His devotee Yaśodā. The Lord may assume the form of a baby or a shape other than that of a human being, but it doesn’t make the slightest difference; He is always the same Supreme. A living creature, however powerful he may become by dint of severe penance, can never become equal to the Supreme Lord.

Lord Kṛṣṇa accepted the motherhood of Pūtanā because she pretended to be an affectionate mother, allowing Kṛṣṇa to suck her breast. The Lord accepts the least qualification of the living entity and awards him the highest reward. That is the standard of His character. Therefore, who but the Lord can be the ultimate shelter?

COMMENT

I thought of this verse because it glorifies Srila Prabhupada’s characteristic of being merciful, of seeing the good in others even in the midst of so much other stuff. And the way we feel: how can we take shelter of anyone else, how could we find one more merciful than he? We all—at least I speak for myself—we all come with so much poison in us, and it was the mercy of Srila Prabhupada that he could suck up the poison without being affected, and at the same time purify us. Of course, the poison mentioned here is envy. Every living entity in the material world is full of envy. We are here in the material world because of envy. And only a pure devotee is free from envy. In fact, if one is free from envy he or she is liberated, because only a liberated soul can be completely free from envy. So, we act out of envy (jighmsaya), and we are unfaithful (asadvi). Unfaithful: We pretend, like Pūtanā, to be selfless servants, but in our own way we are unfaithful. We waver between our determination to serve and our desire to enjoy and exploit, between our determination to help others and our tendency to be selfish and neglect others or even harm them.

There are many similarities between Pūtanā and us, but although Pūtanā was envious and unfaithful and came to poison Krishna, Krishna did not consider the dark side. He saw the bright side, that she came to render service. “She came to suckle Me just like a mother.” So He took her as His mother and elevated her to that position in the spiritual world; she became His nurse, like a mother. (A nurse is one of the seven kinds of mothers.) In the same way, Srila Prabhupada took the good side of whatever we did and magnified it.

Srila Prabhupada explained that there are different grades of devotees. The lowest grade will find a little fault and make a big thing out of it. The next grade will see the good and the bad in a person but give more emphasis to the bad. And the next grade will see the good and the bad and give equal importance to both. But the more advanced devotee, although he sees both the good and the bad in a person, gives more emphasis to the good. And the most advanced will find a little good and make a big thing out of it. And that is the way that Srila Prabhupada was. He could see that spark of desire to serve in us, and he would fan it. He was very expert and would protect the little spark. Sometimes if a flame is weak it can be extinguished. If it is dampened it may go out. And if it is blown upon too strongly it can go out. Srila Prabhupada was very expert to preserve that little spark and fan it in just the right way to make it grow. And he promised and guaranteed that if we just give this life to Krishna, we will be successful and go back home, back to Godhead.

He always directed us to Krishna. He told us that a spiritual master does not say, “Surrender to me; I am God.” Rather, he says, “Surrender to Krishna. I am an insignificant servant of God.” So Srila Prabhupada was unique, at least among the swamis and yogis that came to the West before him or about the same time. He was unique in that he was always directing us to Krishna: “Do not surrender to me; surrender to Krishna.” Once, when one of our godbrothers, Pusta Krishna Prabhu, said to Srila Prabhupada, “I trust you and can surrender to you, but I do not trust anyone else. I cannot surrender to anyone else—any representative of yours—because I fear they may cheat me,” Srila Prabhupada replied, “Do not surrender to me. I will also cheat you. Just surrender to Krishna.” Because he was fully surrendered to his spiritual master and Krishna and always directed us to surrender to Krishna, he actually was a perfect servant of Krishna and a transparent medium. Therefore we had faith that we could surrender to him and that surrender to him was tantamount to surrender to Krishna.

The same quality that we read about here, the merciful quality of Krishna, was fully manifest in Srila Prabhupada. He was truly a transparent via media because he saw the good in us and addressed the good. And the good in us is in fact us, because as souls, as parts and parcels of Krishna, we are pure. It is just because we are covered by the material body and mind that there is impurity. So Srila Prabhupada would actually see our true natures as servants of Krishna, eternal servants of Krishna, and he would relate to us as eternal servants of Krishna. And that inspired us to act as servants of Krishna.

Sometimes Srila Prabhupada seemed to see the good to such an extent that he seemed to miss the other side. Once, a youngish man came to Juhu. He had a Ph.D. We were quite new in India, and very few local people were coming forward to join. It was mainly the devotees that Srila Prabhupada brought from America and Europe who were assisting him. Anyway, the young man seemed very doubtful to all of us. I was pretty naive myself, but even I had doubts about him. Srila Prabhupada, however, was very enthusiastic about him and invited him to stay upstairs near Srila Prabhupada’s quarters in the back, in Prabhupada’s own servants’ quarters. He wanted to encourage him and keep him close. One of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples (although we were all thinking it, more or less) actually went up to Srila Prabhupada and said, “Srila Prabhupada, I think you are wasting your time on this man. You should just let him go.” [laughter] And Srila Prabhupada said, “No, I want to give him a chance.” Anyway, after a few days he did leave. He just was not that serious—not that substantial. But that really is not the point. The point is that Srila Prabhupada wanted to give him a chance. He was always ready to give a person a chance, and another chance, and another chance.

And often, Srila Prabhupada’s faith in a person or mercy toward a person brought great results. There was a young man who came to the Boston temple when I was there in 1970. His name was Peter, and Peter was eccentric—to say the least. In the old Boston temple there was the front door, and then there was a hallway and a stairway up to the temple room. Basically, when a new person came all they would see was the hallway, unless someone greeted them and directed them to the stairs up to the temple room. So, Peter made his home in the front hallway. He would keep all his books and personal paraphernalia scattered on the floor of the hallway. He would rest his back against the wall and stretch his legs out, completely blocking the hallway. And sometimes he would lie down and sleep in the hallway. He did not respond to normal instructions and thus earned for himself the name “Crazy Peter.” We used to call him Crazy Peter.

Still, we all knew Srila Prabhupada’s mood. Srila Prabhupada was very merciful, and especially in the early days of the movement in America, we considered that any soul that came to the temple was sent by Krishna and was not ordinary, and we would really do everything we could to encourage the person. But with Peter things came to the stage where we thought that he was causing such a disruption that new people who came would be discouraged from Krishna consciousness. We thought that maybe for the larger interest, for the greater good, we should just ask him to go. Satsvarupa Maharaja, as the temple president, wrote to Srila Prabhupada and asked if we could ask Peter to leave. And Srila Prabhupada replied, “What’s the matter, can’t you tolerate?”

Thereafter, Srila Prabhupada returned to India, and he asked each temple to send one devotee. I was chosen from Boston, and so I went to India. For years I never heard about Crazy Peter, nor did I think much about him. Then, after being in India for many years, I came back to visit the United States. And there, at the Los Angeles temple, during guru-puja, I saw Crazy Peter. I could not believe it. So many years had passed—Srila Prabhupada had left the planet—and there was Crazy Peter right in the temple room in Los Angeles.

I asked a nearby devotee, “Who is that?” He answered, “Oh, that is Kusakratha Prabhu.” I thought, “Kusakratha Prabhu—the Sanskrit genius who is producing translation after translation of Vedic scriptures and the works of the Gosvamis and other acharyas?” We were reading them and reciting prayers from them. His translations were an essential part of our spiritual lives. I thought, “O my God, that is Kusakratha Prabhu! Crazy Peter has become Kusakratha Prabhu, the Sanskrit translator!” [laughter] And then I thought of Srila Prabhupada’s mercy. Srila Prabhupada had protected him. Somehow Srila Prabhupada wanted to give him a chance to do service, to become Krishna conscious, and he did.

Another aspect of Srila Prabhupada’s faith in us (and in the process of devotional service) was how much responsibility he gave us. We were young boys and girls. I joined at the age of twenty-one and I was already a little older than most. Satsvarupa Maharaja was twenty-nine, and he was like an old man. He even had a job! [laughter] I hardly knew anyone of my peers who had a job. He had a job and he went to work and he got a paycheck. So, we were really young and inexperienced in the world, yet Srila Prabhupada gave us such tremendous responsibility. Practically any devotee who wanted to go to a new place and open a center, Srila Prabhupada would say, “Go. Do it.” If a householder couple wanted to preach, he would tell them, “Go together and preach. Open a center.” There were just a few temples then. The first was New York and the second was San Francisco, and in San Francisco, as he was about to leave for India, Srila Prabhupada told his young devotees, “If you want to please me, open a center in Los Angeles.” One of those devotees, Dayananda Prabhu, went to Los Angeles.

That was Srila Prabhupada’s mood. And then there were the three couples who went to England—Shyamasundara and Malati, Guru dasa and Yamuna, and Mukunda and Janaki. It was such a big thing for them to go to England, and even bigger because Srila Prabhupada’s Guru Maharaja, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, had sent one of his sannyasis to England to preach and he really could not do anything substantial. So Srila Prabhupada sent the three couples, and they lived in very austere conditions, sometimes not even all together. At one stage all three couples lived together in a warehouse. Later, sometimes one would stay in one place and another couple would stay in another place. Eventually one thing led to another and they were successful. They met George Harrison and the Beatles and they became tremendously successful. Then too, Srila Prabhupada had disciples preach in Russia, and later in China. Srila Prabhupada really gave us very big challenges. He had a lot of faith in us. He gave us a lot of responsibility. A lot of money was passing through our hands, and Srila Prabhupada let us spend it, and the movement was really expanding.

When we trust someone, it inspires the person to want to fulfill our trust, to prove that our faith was justified. Very few devotees betrayed Srila Prabhupada’s trust. One who did, however, was Gaurasundara Prabhu in Hawaii. Somehow he sold the Hawaii temple and kept the money and disappeared for a while. Even then, Srila Prabhupada wanted to get him back. Once, he was recounting Gaurasundara’s misdeeds: “He did this; he did that. He was such a rascal—such a rascal. But I like that rascal!” [laughter] He was very merciful. kaṁ vā dayāluṁ śaraṇaṁ vrajema: “Of whom should I take shelter but him, who is most merciful?” I cannot imagine anyone more merciful than him.

So we take shelter of Srila Prabhupada, and we want to take more and more shelter of him. We want to encourage more and more people to take shelter of him and to take more and more shelter of him.

It is, of course, bittersweet, thinking of his departure. But it is a sweet day, and Srila Prabhupada does bestow his mercy especially today. He bestows a special type of sweet mercy. And we can have full faith in his mercy and shelter and feel safe and secure under his lotus feet and in the company of his other devotees.

Srila Prabhupada has given shelter to so many souls that if we look at each other and see each other independent of Srila Prabhupada, we might think, “I like this one, but I don’t like that one so much. I want to be with this one but not so much with that one.” Yet if we think that we are under the shelter of Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet—and that is the main thing—then we should feel happy that others have also come to the shelter of Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet. Just like in the govardhana-līlā, all the vraja-vāsīs took shelter under Govardhana Hill. And they were happy there. That is all we hear, how happy they were just to be with Krishna under Govardhana Hill. We do not read that some devotee thought, “Oh God, it would be so nice if only Jatila was not here. Why does she have to be here? And Kutila. . . Oh God. . .” And then they forget about Krishna standing right before them. [laughter] We do not hear that. We just hear that their gaze was fixed on the beautiful transcendental form of Krishna, in ecstasy. So that should be our mood.

There was one disciple of Srila Prabhupada’s, Tusta Krishna Prabhu, who got into a different mood. To give some historical context, there was a devotee named Sai who had his own following in Hawaii. Then he joined and brought all of his followers with him, and he took initiation from Srila Prabhupada and became Siddha-svarupa dasa. One of Siddha-svarupa’s followers was Tusta Krishna. He and Sai’s other followers all became members of ISKCON, but Tusta Krishna Prabhu in particular was very nice, and he had a very affectionate relationship with Srila Prabhupada. Somehow he developed the idea that Siddha-svarupa was a pure devotee and that others were not and that devotees should follow Siddha-svarupa and not others. Srila Prabhupada wrote back that Siddha-svarupa was a good soul but that anyone who is surrendered to the spiritual master is a pure devotee, and that we should not discriminate that this is a pure devotee and that is a non-pure devotee and thus make factions. Then Srila Prabhupada wrote, “Siddha-svarupa will go to the spiritual sky, you will go,” and then he mentioned Shyamasundara Prabhu, perhaps because he was the GBC. So, Srila Prabhupada wrote, “Siddha-svarupa will go to the spiritual sky, you will go, Shyamasundara will go, all others will go. We will have another ISKCON there. Of course, Mr. Nair [the man who had tried to cheat Srila Prabhupada in Juhu] must stay.” [laughter] This devotee, Tusta Krishna Prabhu, was actually the first one to meet Mr. Nair.

More recently, our dear godbrother Bhurijana Prabhu, with his wry sense of humor, remarked sometime after Tamal Krishna Goswami Maharaja’s departure, “I used to think of the idea of another ISKCON in the spiritual sky, and I did not know how I felt about it, but now that Goswami Maharaja is there, the idea is becoming more and more attractive.” [laughter]

Of course, our appreciation of Srila Prabhupada is the basis of everything. It is the basis of our spiritual lives. It is the basis of our association. It is the basis of our movement. But Srila Prabhupada is also pleased when he sees that we appreciate each other and see the good in each other, as he did, and when we help and encourage each other, as he did. Then our love for him and our service to him is more complete; it includes appreciation for his other servants and service to his other servants. And ultimately, it is all service to His Divine Grace. Our service to the other devotees is service to him. Our appreciation of the other devotees is actually appreciation for him. So it all comes together by his grace.

Hare Krishna.

Are there any questions or comments?

Amrit Gupta: Maharaja, you decided to serve Prabhupada in such a difficult time. You had all the resources at your home and were the only son of your parents. Yesterday you said that one can use all material or monetary facilities to serve God. What made you decide to take such a difficult path and leave everything to serve Srila Prabhupada?

Giriraj Swami: I was looking for a spiritual master, and when I met Srila Prabhupada I understood, “He is my perfect spiritual master.” So I joined the temple. There was never any consideration of staying with my family. I was happy in the temple, and I was happy in India. Within two or three days of my arrival, I felt at home in India. In fact, I felt more at home there than in America.

Srila Prabhupada wanted us to help him. He wanted our service. He was not that interested in the money. And now, so many years later, some of it is coming anyway. Without having compromised to get something then, I have gotten it now anyway.

I did not find my path difficult then. Maybe if I had to do it again now I would find it difficult, but at the time I did not find it difficult. It was natural.

To be with Srila Prabhupada in Juhu was incomparable. Remembering that spirit and mood of service. . . Just like we pray, kaha mora svarūpa rūpa kaha sanatan.*

I would now pray, “Where are those mosquitoes? Where have they all gone? Where are those rats? Where have they gone? Where are those leaks in the ceiling? Where are they all now?” Because they were all part of the ecstasy of serving Srila Prabhupada, I would not have traded them for anything—not for all the wealth in the world. And I would welcome them again—even now.

Thank you. Hare Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

* The complete verse and two subsequent verses from the “Song of Separation” that we sing on the disappearance days of Gaudiya Vaishnava acharyas read:

kāhā mora swarūp rūpa kāhā sanātan
kāhā dāsa raghunātha patita-pāvan

kāhā mora bhaṭṭa-juga kāhā kavirāj
eka-kāle kothā gelā gorā naṭa-rāj

se-saba saṅgīra saṅge je koilo bilās
se-saṅga nā pāiyā kānde narottama dās

“Where are my Svarupa Damodara and Sri Rupa Gosvami? Where is Sanatana? Where is dasa Raghunatha, the deliverer of the fallen? Where are my Raghunatha Bhatta and Gopala Bhatta, and where is Krishnadasa Kaviraja? Where did Gauranga Mahaprabhu, the king of dancers, suddenly go? Being separated from their loving association and the blissful pastimes of Mahaprabhu, Narottama dasa can only cry.”