CC Adi 3.95–102 – Sri Advaita Acharya’s Appearance Day

Giriraj Swami: We welcome you on the most auspicious occasion of Sri Advaita Acharya’s appearance day. Sri Advaita Acharya is a direct expansion of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu—śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda / śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. Lord Chaitanya is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna (kṛṣṇas tu Bhagavān svayam). His first expansion as Krishna is Balarama and as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Nityananda. And then comes Maha-Vishnu and Advaita Acharya is an incarnation of Maha-Vishnu. All three are in the category of viṣṇu-tattva. They are not śakti-tattva, the energy of the Lord, and certainly not jiva-tattva, the minute living entities. 

As we sang earlier, doyā koro, sītā-pati Advaita gosāi, Narottama dasa Thakura is praying to Advaita Acharya to be merciful to him and: tava kṛpā-bale pāi caitanya-nitāi, that, “If You are kind to me then Lord Nityananda and Lord Chaitanya will certainly be merciful to me.” So what greater achievement could there be in the life of a devotee than to get the mercy of Lord Chaitanya and Nityananda and that can be achieved through the mercy of Sri Advaita Acharya Prabhu.

So we shall read some verses from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta about Sri Advaita Acharya. Please repeat after me:

jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda

jayādvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

We read from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, Chapter Three: “The External Reasons for Lord Chaitanya’s Appearance.”

TEXT 95

mādhava-īśvara-purī, śacī, jagannātha

advaita ācārya prakaṭa hailā sei sātha

TRANSLATION

Mādhavendra Purī, Īśvara Purī, Śrīmatī Śacīmātā and Śrīla Jagannātha Miśra all appeared with Śrī Advaita Ācārya.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Whenever the Supreme Personality of Godhead descends in His human form, He sends ahead all His devotees, who act as His father, teacher and associates in many roles. Such personalities appear before the descent of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Before the appearance of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu, there appeared His devotees like Śrī Mādhavendra Purī; His spiritual master, Śrī Īśvara Purī; His mother, Śrīmatī Śacī-devī; His father, Śrī Jagannātha Miśra; and Śrī Advaita Ācārya.

TEXT 96

prakaṭiyā dekhe ācārya sakala saṁsāra

kṛṣṇa-bhakti gandha-hīna viṣaya-vyavahāra

TRANSLATION

Advaita Ācārya having appeared, He found the world devoid of devotional service to Śrī Kṛṣṇa because people were engrossed in material affairs.

TEXT 97

keha pāpe, keha puṇye kare viṣaya-bhoga

bhakti-gandha nāhi, yāte yāya bhava-roga

TRANSLATION

Everyone was engaged in material enjoyment, whether sinfully or virtuously. No one was interested in the transcendental service of the Lord, which can give total relief from the repetition of birth and death.

PURPORT

Advaita Ācārya saw the entire world to be engaged in activities of material piety and impiety, without a trace of devotional service, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, anywhere. The fact is that in this material world there is no scarcity of anything except Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Material necessities are supplied by the mercy of the Supreme Lord. We sometimes feel scarcity because of our mismanagement, but the real problem is that people are out of touch with Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Everyone is engaged in material sense gratification, but people have no plan for making an ultimate solution to their real problems, namely birth, disease, old age and death. These four material miseries are called bhava-roga, or material diseases. They can be cured only by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the greatest benediction for human society.

COMMENT

The two verses that we have just read that describe what Advaita Acharya saw in the world around Him certainly describe the world around us. Advaita Acharya found the world devoid of devotional service to Sri Krishna because people were engrossed in material affairs. “Everyone was engaged in material enjoyment whether sinfully or virtuously. No one was interested in the transcendental service of the Lord which can give total relief from the repetition of birth and death.”

So here we are in the great city of Los Angeles which is populated by millions of people and how many have gathered here on this most important and auspicious occasion? In the temple established by Prabhupada who is the most empowered servant of the Pancha-tattva, just hardly a handful. Where is everyone else? They are absorbed in material enjoyment.

Someone might say, “We don’t want to enjoy that much but we do have to earn a living and meet our expenses.” That of course is another phase of sense gratification. One is putting oneself in the center instead of keeping Krishna in the center. One is thinking that he is the doer instead of realizing that Krishna is the doer. Actually as Srila Prabhupada mentioned in the purport and I believe he is paraphrasing what his guru maharaja used to say, there is no scarcity in the world. The only scarcity is of Krishna consciousness. 

Srila Prabhupada often gave the example of the donkey. In India, even recently during the last decades when I was serving in India, I would see these donkeys carrying a huge burden of laundry for the washer men and at the end of the day he would get a few morsels of grass. And the rest of the time he would carry this huge burden. So, Srila Prabhupada remarks that grass is growing everywhere, the foolish creature could just wander anywhere and eat grass, but he is so illusioned that he thinks he needs to carry the big burden of the laundry so that at the end of the day he gets some morsels of grass. 

So, conditioned souls in ignorance are under the illusion that they have to work hard to get food. They are not thinking that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is supreme father, He is feeding living entities in so many other species of life who are not going to the office or the shop. They are getting fed so why would He not feed those who are engaged in His service. Srila Prabhupada said that any ordinary business if someone is making publicity for them or doing advertising for them, we will pay them, so if we are making publicity for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, broadcasting His glories, will He not maintain us?

So people are in ignorance. We are not suggesting that people remain idle and do nothing and hope that food will just drop out of the sky, what we are suggesting that instead of serving mundane masters one serves the Supreme Transcendental Master and depend on Him and He will take care of us better than anyone else. In fact He is the only one who actually can take care of us. Even the others whom we think are taking care of us are not really able to take care of us without the sanction and mercy of the Lord.

So this was the same type of situation that Advaita Acharya confronted when He appeared on earth. Now what was His response because this is very instructive for us. When we read scripture it is not just to be entertained or to get some information, but it is so that we can learn something that we can apply in our own lives. So how did Advaita Acharya respond, confronting the materialistic people around Him?

TEXT 98

loka-gati dekhi’ ācārya karuṇa-hṛdaya

vicāra karena, lokera kaiche hita haya

TRANSLATION

Seeing the activities of the world, the Ācārya felt compassion and began to ponder how He could act for the people’s benefit.

PURPORT

This sort of serious interest in the welfare of the public makes one a bona fide ācārya. An ācārya does not exploit his followers. Since the ācārya is a confidential servitor of the Lord, his heart is always full of compassion for humanity in its suffering. He knows that all suffering is due to the absence of devotional service to the Lord, and therefore he always tries to find ways to change people’s activities, making them favorable for the attainment of devotion. That is the qualification of an ācārya. Although Śrī Advaita Prabhu Himself was powerful enough to do the work, as a submissive servitor He thought that without the personal appearance of the Lord, no one could improve the fallen condition of society.

COMMENT

Compassion is a natural result of Krishna consciousness. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in his writings has explained that by offenseless chanting of the holy name and purification of the heart, one will naturally begin to feel compassion for people devoid of Krishna consciousness, and will naturally feel impelled to approach them to turn them toward Krishna consciousness. People may have the idea that devotees are selfish, they don’t care about the world, they just want to chant and be happy, which we do, we want to chant and be happy, but when one actually does feel some spiritual pleasure, one will want to share it with others. This is the natural tendency of any goodhearted person. There is another saying, “Misery loves company,” and there are people like that, they are miserable. In fact the whole material world is like that, they are miserable, and they want others to be miserable in the same way.

Srila Prabhupada gives the example that most people who are married suffer but they have children and their main concern is to get their children married, but this is a very odd situation. They have been married and they are married and they are suffering but they are very eager to get their children married. Why? I think it is something like misery loves company. But of course anyone in the material world will suffer. It is not a question of being married or unmarried. 

One disciple of Bhakti Tirtha Swami, a lady disciple, told me that she had heard that her guru maharaja wanted all of his lady disciples to be married, but somehow she didn’t have that inclination to marry, but people kept telling her, “Guru maharaja wants all his lady disciples to be married.” So she wanted to find out for herself so she asked him directly and he replied that, “If you don’t get married you will suffer and if you do get married you will suffer. The only question is whether you want to suffer alone or with someone else.” [laughter] 

So these are our choices in the material world because there is no happiness in any material condition. The only happiness is on the spiritual platform. But to come to the spiritual platform requires some effort and if we don’t make the effort we can’t really expect the result. That is true in any field of activity whether you are a student or pursuing a career—whatever it is—if you don’t make an effort, if you don’t apply yourself you can’t expect to be successful. So the effort involved in Krishna consciousness as compared with other processes is very minimal and not only minimal but enjoyable. Like the Bhagavad-gītā says, there are three types of happiness: happiness in the mode of goodness is like poison in the beginning but nectar in the end; happiness in the mode of passion is like nectar in the beginning but poison in the end; and happiness in the mode of ignorance is miserable in the beginning and in the end. So because of material conditioning and bad habits we might find getting up early in the morning difficult, chanting sixteen rounds difficult, reading the scriptures or hearing the scriptures difficult, and eating a simple, healthy diet of kṛṣṇa-prasāda. So in the beginning it might be like poison.

When I was in high school I don’t know how I got this idea in my mind but when I was in high school I thought that I had to increase my sleeping. It just shows you how perverted our thinking can be. So during my winter holidays I actually kept a diary of how much I slept, trying to increase the number of hours and minutes that I was sleeping every night. It was just the reverse of. . . I wasn’t used to sleeping that much but it was like ten hours, ten and a half. I was really doing good on my winter break. 

So people have these different ideas that you want to eat as much as you can and sleep as much as you can. So with those bad habits then you hear sleep six or seven hours, get up at four in the morning, it is like, “Oh, how can we do that?” And then no onions or garlic what to speak of other things, “What else is there? Where is the taste going to come from?”

So this is due to the modes of nature. People are very covered by the modes of passion and ignorance and therefore their taste is perverted. But by practice—abhyāsa-yoga-yuktena—by practice we change our habit and we relish getting up early in the morning. We find this is the best time of the day. And the thought of onions or garlic what to speak of other things, it is like, “Ooh, how terrible, no, get away from it.” So this comes from purification, from the process of Krishna consciousness. So yes, it might be a little difficult in the beginning—tapo divyaṁ—but one does that austerity, makes that effort in order to experience brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam, unlimited spiritual happiness. But some tapasya—tapo divyaṁ—some tapasya is required. But that is true of anything.

People are always struggling to counteract adversity. There is so much adversity in the material world, so much stress, we could just go on listing the items of adversity in the material world, and people struggle against it. Their whole time is really engaged in struggling against adversity to counteract the misfortune that befalls them. So it is not that people are not making any endeavor, they are, but they are endeavoring in a very patchwork way, “Okay, I have a headache. What to do about that?” Or, “I have a stomach ache. Okay, now what to do about that?” Or, “I have to get money to pay the bills. Okay, what do I do about that?” And then on and on and on. But they are not getting to the root of it. 

The root of it is that they turned away from Krishna and because they turned away from Krishna they came into the material world and are undergoing the hard struggle for existence. If they just turned back to Krishna then they’d come under Krishna’s protection, under the protection of the divine energy, and they are saved from the hard struggle for existence. Then the struggle is how to bring others to Krishna consciousness—completely different—but there is struggle, there is endeavor, but the endeavor is not how to make temporary patchwork solutions, but how to make a permanent solution. And the struggle is not to exist in the material world but to bring other people along with one’s own self to the spiritual realm.

So this was the mood that Advaita Acharya exemplified to a much higher degree than we can imagine.

TEXT 99

āpani śrī-kṛṣṇa yadi karena avatāra
āpane ācari’ bhakti karena pracāra

TRANSLATION

[Advaita Ācārya thought:] “If Śrī Kṛṣṇa were to appear as an incarnation, He Himself could preach devotion by His personal example.

COMMENT

This is a very important point, example is more important than precept. Acharya, that word, acara, that word is related to acara which means “behavior,” the acharya teaches by example. As Srila Prabhupada said, if you are smoking a cigarette and you tell someone, “Don’t smoke,” well, it is not going to have very much effect because, “If smoking is bad, why are you smoking?” So, on the highest level the example of devotion to God can be shown by God Himself. Who is better qualified to show us the example of how to serve God and worship God and love God than God Himself? And Advaita Acharya even though He was God or is God, Vishnu, but even the other expansions of Godhead considered Themselves to be servants of the original Personality of Godhead, Krishna or Sri Krishna Chaitanya, and this is also an example for us from the acharya that we should not feel proud of our own capability to preach or deliver others, but we should feel helpless and dependent on our superiors. 

Of course in the case of Advaita Acharya, He inspired Lord Chaitanya to descend in a manifest form which we may not be able to do, but in that humble mood, sincere mood of genuinely wanting to help the people and feeling incapable, we pray to our superiors, “You please come. You please inspire them. You speak through my mouth. Or you inspire them in their hearts.” That is the only way anyone can preach. If someone thinks, “I am very learned I know the scripture. I am a very good speaker,” or, “I can lead very good kirtan. I have a very good voice. I am a good musician,” that is useless. That type of pride and self-absorption will not help anyone. It won’t help us what to speak of others. But in that mood of helplessness, by feeling genuine compassion and sincerely wanting to help others, but feeling helpless to do so on one’s own, is helpful, and in that mood we pray to the Lord, to the superior acharya to help us.

There is one very nice talk that Srila Prabhupada gave in London on the Bhagavad-gītā, the beginning, and it impressed me so much that when I first heard it, and this was before computers or Folio or anything, I just listened to that tape and I paused it every so often and just wrote down the transcription of it. In the first chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, Arjuna is described on his chariot with Krishna, and the phrase is used kapi-dhvajaḥ that Arjuna’s chariot was decorated with the flag of Hanuman. And Srila Prabhupada explains in such a profound way what was Arjuna’s mood on the chariot—kapi-dhvajaḥ. He explained that Arjuna’s mood was that Hanuman also fought for his Lord Ramachandra, so in fighting for one’s Lord, Hanuman is the acharya. While sitting on his chariot, he was thinking of Hanuman that, “You also fought for your Lord and I also want to fight for my Lord. So please help me.” And Srila Prabhupada explained that in all activities the Vaishnava always feels helpless and dependent on help from the superior acharyas. And he described the author of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, that in every line of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, every word, he is praying to his superiors, Rupa Raghunatha, śrī-rūpa-raghunātha-pade yāra āśa caitanya-caritāmṛta kahe kṛṣṇadāsa, that every line, every word he is praying to the superior acharyas, “Please help me.” And that is the mood of a Vaishnava.

So Advaita Acharya is showing us that that although He is Maha-Vishnu Himself, the creator of limitless universes, but He is feeling helpless, “These people are suffering. They are so engrossed in material enjoyment and I feel sorry for them,” not in a condescending way but, “I feel compassion for them. I want to help them and bring them to Krishna consciousness but I can’t do it Myself. So You please come. You help.” 

TEXT 100

nāma vinu kali-kāle dharma nāhi āra
kali-kāle kaiche habe kṛṣṇa avatāra

TRANSLATION

“In this Age of Kali there is no religion other than the chanting of the holy name of the Lord, but how in this age will the Lord appear as an incarnation?

TEXTS 101–102

“I shall worship Kṛṣṇa in a purified state of mind. I shall constantly petition Him in humbleness.

“My name, ‘Advaita,’ will be fitting if I am able to induce Kṛṣṇa to inaugurate the movement of the chanting of the holy name.”

PURPORT

The nondualist Māyāvādī philosopher who falsely believes that he is nondifferent from the Lord is unable to call Him like Advaita Prabhu. Advaita Prabhu is nondifferent from the Lord, yet in His relationship with the Lord He does not merge with Him but eternally renders service unto Him as a plenary portion. This is inconceivable for Māyāvādīs because they think in terms of mundane sense perception and therefore think that nondualism necessitates losing one’s separate identity. It is clear from this verse, however, that Advaita Prabhu, although retaining His separate identity, is nondifferent from the Lord.

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu preached the philosophy of inconceivable, simultaneous oneness with the Lord and difference from Him. Conceivable dualism and monism are conceptions of the imperfect senses, which are unable to reach the Transcendence because the Transcendence is beyond the conception of limited potency. The actions of Śrī Advaita Prabhu, however, give tangible proof of inconceivable nondualism. One who therefore surrenders unto Śrī Advaita Prabhu can easily follow the philosophy of inconceivable simultaneous dualism and monism.

COMMENT

Advaita. There is a whole school of thought, Advaita Vadis. Dvaita means “two” and advaita means “not two” or “nondual.” So the Advaita Vadis think that the living entity and the Supreme Lord ultimately are one, that in conditioned existence we imagine that we are individual, but when we are liberated we realize that we are not individual, and like a drop of water merges and becomes one with the ocean, the individual soul merges and becomes one with the Supreme Soul.

That thinking does not allow us to call on the Lord with feeling like Advaita Acharya but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s philosophy of inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference is perfect. There has to be oneness. If there is no oneness, there can’t be a relationship. Unless we have something in common with someone how can we have a relationship? So there has to be some oneness in quality but there is a difference in quality in that God is very great and we are very small. And because of that difference in quantity, we are naturally the servants and the Lord is naturally the master. It is a perfect philosophy. So we are simultaneously one in quality but different in quantity and that oneness allows us to have a relationship, but the difference defines the relationship that we are the servant and He is master, or we are part and He is whole and it is the natural function of the part to serve the whole.

In philosophical circles, religious circles, yoga circles, people are preoccupied with this idea of oneness. Just last week I met someone with the same idea, oneness. And there is oneness but there is also difference. We are all spirit—ahaṁ brahmāsmi—we are one in the sense that we are all spirit, but we are brahma but He is Para brahma, He is the Supreme Brahman.

So we are in very hard times. Advaita Acharya was powerful, He was Vishnu, He could not be affected by the material atmosphere, but we insignificant jivas can be. And it is very hard to stay strong in Krishna consciousness and such an environment. Consequently how can we see people like Advaita Acharya saw them because we get affected. It is Kali-yuga and maya is very strong and then we actually think, “Maybe if I was more like them or maybe if I had more money or maybe if I had a nicer place to live or maybe if I had a better car, maybe I’d be happier.” And of course that type of thinking will really spell doom for us spiritually. So to protect ourselves you could say from that type of thinking that is so prevalent everywhere we need to hear from scriptures, we need to hear from saintly persons, we need to associate with devotees.

The materialists, they are so clever, they are always attacking us, always, in gross and subtle ways, “What’s wrong with you people, you always stick to yourselves, you lead a cloistered life, you don’t read other things, you just have blinders on your eyes, shutters.” They are just constantly attacking. And to be able to withstand those attacks we need strong association of devotees, association based on chanting and hearing about Krishna and remembering Him. And then we can actually do good for others.

When we fly they usually have a film now with safety measures and they always say that in case of loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks will fall from the ceiling and if you have a dependent child you should fix your own oxygen mask first and then take care of the dependent child. The idea is that the child is depending on you so if you are not able to take care of yourself, you won’t be able to take care of the child. So you have to take care of yourself first and then you will be able to take care of your child. It is sort of like that, the cabin pressure outside is so low, the supply of spiritual oxygen is so low, you could suffocate very easily and then how could you help anyone else. So we have to keep that supply of oxygen coming into our system so that we are strong and healthy and then we can help others. And that supply of oxygen, spiritual oxygen is Krishna specifically manifest in the form of His holy name, His topics, the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, His devotees, His Deity, and the temple itself or any holy place, these are all manifestations of the Lord. And by remaining in contact with the Lord, we get our oxygen, spiritual oxygen, and we can remain alive in Krishna consciousness and actually help others.

There is more but I think we will end now and maybe we will continue this tomorrow or maybe we will have Bhāgavatam class. But we will end now and as Saci [Tanai?] Prabhu mentioned before the class, it is a fast day, fasting until noon, so we have a little extra time. So if anyone wants to make any comments or ask any questions you can do that.

Saci Tanai dasa: Thank you very much Maharaja. You mentioned almost at the last part one quote about Advaita Acharya saying that the highest religious principle of this age is the chanting of the holy name of the Lord. So about five hundred years ago in India at that time most of the people were familiar with chanting, some of them familiar to some extent because they grew up in the very culture. Most of the propagation of the dharma was just on chanting the holy name. Lord Nityananda would go and just knock on the door and He would say, “Please can you say ‘Krishna’ at least once.’” That was His hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana with Haridasa Thakura. Book distribution at that time was not prominent because the people were familiar. 

Now the point I am making is that when you also joined here at the beginning, the movement started just by hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana. We didn’t have many books too. But it appears when we mention hari-nāma that was the topmost service that you had in those times when we heard Visnujana Maharaja, Tamal Krishna Maharaja, and everybody would have mass saṅkīrtana in Hollywood. Everybody appeared to be joining and were joyfully happy. 

As the time went, of course Prabhupada’s urgency was to distribute these books because without that knowledge you wouldn’t be able to chant Hare Krishna too. So the point I am making is that sometimes it appears that we have minimized a little bit the hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana and it is almost lost in some places, a little bit. It is not as it should be. Like hundreds of devotees going on the streets and chanting. That is actually the point of the religious principle of this age, chanting the holy name, the whole temple will be there. 

Is it the nature of the institution that when it grows we get caught up in so much management and so much apparent distractions that we neglect the ABC thing? Is something missing there or something that you think that can be adjusted? Because all the reasons I might not be able to understand. So it is a comment and a question. Of course deity worship is very important along with any other thing we wouldn’t be able to perform devotional service but sometimes it can be too much neglected on the main topics of going on hari-nāma. And this is not to say that in this temple, we are fortunate we have many yatras going on like Ratha-yatras and the Martin Luther parade. We do go. We are exposing but not as much as it should be.

Giriraj Swami: This word kirtan, related to the word kirti means “glorification” and saṅkīrtana means “complete glorification.” Complete glorification can mean in association like a large number of devotees engaging in kirtan and saṅkīrtana. Complete glorification can also mean glorification of the name, form, qualities, pastimes, paraphernalia, and so on. So the books also contain kīrtanam glorification of Krishna, saṅkīrtana, full glorification. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura emphasized the production and distribution of literature as saṅkīrtana, bhrat-kirtana, beating on the bṛhat-mṛdaṅga. So we want to do everything. We want to do hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana but we also want to do brhat-kirtana. 

It could be that we become distracted, that we become too involved in institutional affairs and lose sight of the essence or the goal, it is possible, or it could be a matter of time, place, and circumstance. When I was in Boston we would do hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana eight hours a day and sometimes more. In other temples they did the same. So when we came to India we thought we will just do hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, but Srila Prabhupada surprised us and said that, “In India many beggars take to the streets with karatalas and sing to get money and we don’t want people to think that we are beggars.” So he stopped us from doing daily hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana and he introduced the life membership program as a way of distributing his books, but a very dignified way of distributing books. You would go into someone’s office or home, you explain the philosophy, show them the books, and ask them to support the mission.

So we have to see what works. Phalena paricīyate, you have to judge by the result. But that result is not just external, it is also internal, like I believe that regular hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana definitely encourages both the devotees and the people on the street. And some temples are increasing their efforts to have regular hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, every Friday night throughout the temple, or Saturday night, the whole temple. Because the atmosphere is so polluted and the holy name can purify the atmosphere. Srila Prabhupada said it knocks on the doors of the hearts of the people. We used to distribute books with the hari-nāma party which was very potent. 

Krishna consciousness is like that, you do as much as you can, and in as many different ways as you can, and depend on Krishna. Certainly the more we do hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana the better. It would be good for us and good for the people. So often we meet people and they say, “Oh, you guys are still around? We haven’t seen you guys in a long time. Where you’ve been?” So yes, we want people to know that we are still around and we want new people to know that we exist. I think we have to be careful of becoming too bureaucratic. Prabhupada said that bureaucracy will kill the whole thing. We have to be careful about that. You do need organization, there is no doubt about it, we have to be organized, but the goal should always be Krishna consciousness, the substance. We require form but that form is to give shape to the substance so we can deliver the substance. And the substance is Krishna, Krishna consciousness, chanting and hearing. So yes, we have to be vigilant and determined.