SB 2.4.18 – A Real Revolutionary

Giriraj Swami: We shall read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Four: “The Process of Creation.”

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

TEXT 18

kirāta-hūṇāndhra-pulinda-pulkaśā

ābhīra-śumbhā yavanāḥ khasādayaḥ

ye ‘nye ca pāpā yad-apāśrayāśrayāḥ

śudhyanti tasmai prabhaviṣṇave namaḥ

TRANSLATION

Kirāta, Hūṇa, Āndhra, Pulinda, Pulkaśa, Ābhīra, Śumbha, Yavana, members of the Khasa races and even others addicted to sinful acts can be purified by taking shelter of the devotees of the Lord, due to His being the supreme power. I beg to offer my respectful obeisances unto Him.

COMMENT

The first part of the purport describes the different categories of people mentioned in the verse and mainly with reference to the Mahābhārata but to save time I won’t read in detail about each category, but just a sentence or two.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Kirāta: A province of old Bhārata-varṣa mentioned in the Bhīṣma-parva of Mahābhārata. Generally the Kirātas are known as the aboriginal tribes of India.

Hūṇa: The area of East Germany and part of Russia is known as the province of the Hūṇas.

Āndhra: A province in southern India mentioned in the Bhīṣma-parva of Mahābhārata. It is still extant under the same name.

Pulinda: The Greeks are known as Pulindas, and it is mentioned in the Vana-parva of Mahābhārata that the non-Vedic race of this part of the world would rule over the world.

Ābhīra: in the Mahābhārata It is mentioned that this province was situated on the River Sarasvatī in Sind. The modern Sind province formerly extended on the other side of the Arabian Sea, and all the inhabitants of that province were known as the Ābhīras. 

Śumbhas or Kaṅkas: The inhabitants of the Kaṅka province of old Bhārata, mentioned in the Mahābhārata.

Yavanas: Yavana was the name of one of the sons of Mahārāja Yayāti who was given the part of the world known as Turkey to rule. Therefore the Turks are Yavanas due to being descendants of Mahārāja Yavana. The Yavanas were therefore kṣatriyas, and later on, by giving up the brahminical culture, they became mleccha-yavanas. 

Khasa: The inhabitants of the Khasadeśa are mentioned in the Mahābhārata (Droṇa-parva). Those who have a stunted growth of hair on the upper lip are generally called Khasas. As such, the Khasa are the Mongolians, the Chinese and others who are so designated.

The above-mentioned historical names are different nations of the world. Even those who are constantly engaged in sinful acts are all corrigible to the standard of perfect human beings if….

COMMENT

Now if you were listening to the verse you would know how to complete the sentence. So I will begin the sentence again and then you tell me how the sentence is completed.

PURPORT (continued)

Even those who are constantly engaged in sinful acts are all corrigible to the standard of perfect human beings if they take shelter of the devotees of the Lord. Jesus Christ and Muhammad, two powerful devotees of the Lord, have done tremendous service on behalf of the Lord on the surface of the globe. And from the version of Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī it appears that instead of running a godless civilization in the present context of the world situation, if the leadership of world affairs is entrusted to the devotees of the Lord, for which a worldwide organization under the name and style of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness has already been started, then by the grace of the Almighty Lord there can be a thorough change of heart in human beings all over the world because the devotees of the Lord are able authorities to effect such a change by purifying the dust-worn minds of the people in general. 

COMMENT

Some years ago our god-brother Pradyumna dasa who was Srila Prabhupada’s Sanskrit editor was invited to attend the Prabhupada Festival in Los Angeles over the Memorial Day weekend and afterwards he came and spent a couple days with me in Santa Barbara. And Pradyumna Prabhu had studied so many books. In fact, Prabhupada affectionately called him panditji because he knew Sanskrit and Bengali and had read so many books, commentaries on scriptures and books by previous acharyas. And he said that what struck him about Srila Prabhupada which seemed to distinguish Srila Prabhupada from all the others whom he read—of course there are other distinguishing factors as well—but what he mentioned at the time was that Srila Prabhupada applied the principles of scripture beyond the individual practitioners’ efforts to advance spiritually and become self-realized to the affairs of state. He applied the same principles on a grand scale and we see it immediately in the purport. 

The verse says that anyone who is sinful can at once be purified by taking shelter of the devotees of the Lord. So that is very encouraging to us sinful souls that by taking shelter of the devotees of the Lord we can become purified up to the standard of perfect human beings. But Srila Prabhupada is taking the principle and expanding it that the whole world is suffering because people are sinful. People are suffering because they are sinful. In fact all suffering is due to sin. The reason we suffer is because we have committed sinful acts. Sin is due to ignorance. So if we become free from ignorance we will become free from sin and we will become free from suffering and that can be achieved by taking shelter of the devotees of the Lord.

Now everyone is under the protection or shelter—pretty much everyone is under the protection or shelter of some government. So if the government are devotees of the Lord then the people can be purified, the sinful people can be purified, and then all the problems will be solved. There will be no more sinful activities so there will be no more sinful reactions, there will be no more misery, people will be happy.

Prabhupada continues:

PURPORT (continued)

The politicians of the world may remain in their respective positions because the pure devotees of the Lord are not interested in political leadership or diplomatic implications. The devotees are interested only in seeing that the people in general are not misguided by political propaganda and that the valuable life of a human being is not spoiled in following a type of civilization which is ultimately doomed.

COMMENT

Devotees are not interested in occupying any political position of rulership but they are concerned that the sinful population of the world should be purified. And that can be achieved if the political rulers take guidance from the devotees. It is the same principle of being purified by taking shelter of the devotees. And the political leaders themselves need to take shelter of the devotees and if they do they’ll be purified and then they will be able to rule properly and all the prajā, all the citizens will also become purified and everyone will be happy as opposed to the present situation which is godless and full of false propaganda.

PURPORT (continued)

If the politicians, therefore, would be guided by the good counsel of the devotees, then certainly there would be a great change in the world situation by the purifying propaganda of the devotees, as shown by Lord Caitanya. As Śukadeva Gosvāmī began his prayer by discussing the word yat-kīrtanam, so also Lord Caitanya recommended that simply by glorifying the Lord’s holy name, a tremendous change of heart can take place by which the complete misunderstanding between the human nations created by politicians can at once be extinguished.

COMMENT

In the prayers of Śukadeva Gosvami which we are reading he says, yat-kīrtanaṁ, kīrtana, and Lord Chaitanya said the same thing—kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. Paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. So again one may think of the verses of the Śikṣāṣṭakam in a very personal way in terms of one’s own spiritual advancement but here Srila Prabhupada is extending the principle that if the government leaders propagate kirtan, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, then all of the benefits mentioned in the first verse of the Śikṣāṣṭakam such as bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ: extinguishing the blazing fire of material existence which, yes, it exists on the level of the individual and the family, but it also exists on the level of nations. So on every level people can be delivered from the blazing fire of material existence by. . .

Devotee (1): Taking shelter of the devotees.

Devotee (2): Saṅkīrtana.

Giriraj Swami: Saṅkīrtana. Bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ. Paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. What you said is not wrong because the devotees of the Lord will teach you to perform kirtan but in the context of the discussion of Śikṣāṣṭakam it is by saṅkīrtana.

PURPORT (continued)

As Śukadeva Gosvāmī began his prayer by discussing the word yat-kīrtanam, so also Lord Caitanya recommended that simply by glorifying the Lord’s holy name, a tremendous change of heart can take place….

COMMENT

Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam: the mirror of the mind will be cleansed.

PURPORT (continued)

…a tremendous change of heart can take place by which the complete misunderstanding between the human nations created by politicians can at once be extinguished. And after the extinction of the fire of misunderstanding, other profits will follow. 

COMMENT

As mentioned in the Śikṣāṣṭakam.

PURPORT (continued)

The destination is to go back home, back to Godhead, as we have several times discussed in these pages.

According to the cult of devotion, generally known as the Vaiṣṇava cult, there is no bar against anyone’s advancing in the matter of God realization. A Vaiṣṇava is powerful enough to turn into a Vaiṣṇava even the Kirāta, etc., as above mentioned.

COMMENT

That was certainly the case of Srila Prabhupada; he was so powerful that he could convert into Vaishnavas people of all different categories of sinful population.

PURPORT (continued)

In the Bhagavad-gītā (9.32) it is said by the Lord that there is no bar to becoming a devotee of the Lord (even for those who are lowborn, or women, śūdras or vaiśyas), and by becoming a devotee everyone is eligible to return home, back to Godhead. The only qualification is that one take shelter of a pure devotee of the Lord who has thorough knowledge in the transcendental science of Kṛṣṇa (Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam). 

COMMENT

One time in Juhu, Bombay, Srila Prabhupada’s disciple Tamal Krishna Goswami had a hernia and had gone to Jaslok Hospital which was considered the best in Bombay at the time to have an operation, but when Srila Prabhupada found out, he wanted to stop the operation because he felt that Tamal Krishna Goswami could get better medical treatment in America. He didn’t have too much faith in the treatment in India. But in those days we didn’t have a phone in Juhu. India has changed a lot. I remember when we first came to India, Srila Prabhupada said that if you don’t want to wait ten years to get a telephone installed you have to bribe a minister and we were astonished by what he said but it was actually pretty true. So we didn’t have a phone but Srila Prabhupada felt so concerned that he wanted to go personally to the hospital where Tamal Krishna Goswami had been admitted to stop the operation. 

So at that time we had just gotten our own vehicle; it was a Jeep. Prabhupada got in the Jeep and a few of us drove down to the hospital which was in central Bombay. So we went to the room where Tamal Krishna Goswami was admitted but it was too late. The operation had already been performed and they were just wheeling Tamal Krishna Goswami out of the operation theatre and he was just coming to consciousness from the effects of the anesthesia. When he saw Srila Prabhupada he told him that he had just been dreaming about him. He had a dream in which Srila Prabhupada was giving a report to the previous acharyas—Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Srila Gaurakisora dasa Babaji Maharaja, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and Jagannatha dasa Babaji—and they were enquiring what is the situation on the planet earth, and Srila Prabhupada was telling them that, “The people on the planet earth now have no good qualities. They have no background in pious activities, they have no background in scriptural knowledge, they have no background in Vedic culture, they have all bad qualities, but they do have one good quality and that is that they have faith in me and whatever I tell them they do. And because of that one good quality they can be delivered.” 

So that was the dream and Srila Prabhupada smiled in agreement. And we just read the same thing.

PURPORT (continued)

The only qualification is that one take shelter of a pure devotee of the Lord who has thorough knowledge in the transcendental science of Kṛṣṇa (Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam). Anyone from any part of the world who becomes well conversant in the science of Kṛṣṇa becomes a pure devotee and a spiritual master for the general mass of people and may reclaim them by purification of heart. 

COMMENT

The whole purport, although Prabhupada is not quoting the verse explicitly, but you can see that Prabhupada is thinking in terms of verses and weaving together the verses in the purport. So now again, without making any explicit reference, to it he is referring to the verse, kibā vipra, kibā nyāsī, śūdra kene naya yei kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā, sei ‘guru’ haya: “It doesn’t matter if you are a brahman or a sudra or a grihastha—it doesn’t matter what you are—but if you are conversant with the science of Krishna you can be a guru. And since verse from Caitanya-caritāmṛta continues the theme that it doesn’t matter what background you come from even if you were addicted to sinful activities, but if you take shelter of a devotee of the Lord who is conversant with the science of Krishna and learn the science from him, you in turn can become a guru, a teacher of the transcendental science, and you can also deliver people by teaching them the transcendental science and engaging them in saṅkīrtana.

PURPORT (continued)

Though a person be even the most sinful man, he can at once be purified by systematic contact with a pure Vaiṣṇava. A Vaiṣṇava, therefore, can accept a bona fide disciple from any part of the world without any consideration of caste and creed and promote him by regulative principles to the status of a pure Vaiṣṇava, who is transcendental to brahminical culture.

COMMENT

This is a very important point, by systematic contact with a pure devotee one can himself become a pure devotee transcendental even to the position of brahman in the varnashrama culture. Now this is a very revolutionary position. Of course Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura he established the principle—it is all based on shastra—but he practically implemented the principle that anyone who is not born as a brahman can become a Vaishnava. And when one is actually a Vaishnava he surpasses the brahminical qualifications and so Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura awarded the sacred thread to devotees not born in brahman families based on the logic that if they are Vaishnavas they are already more than brahmans. Vaishnavas are more than brahmans.

There are people in India—we met them. In Madras there was one argument in particular that we had with our host. In fact our host in Madras for some time was a Mr. Balu and it turned out that years later his son moved to Berkeley and Mr. and Mrs. Balu were like really orthodox Hindus, really orthodox in a nice way. Mrs. Bali, she would always take rest after her husband; she would always get up before her husband; she would cook for him and serve him and only after serving him would she take prasāda. It is quite a cultural experience to stay with them. But he had this idea that—it could have been someone else—you cannot be a brahman unless you are born in a brahman family. He was saying, “You can be a Vaishnava and a Vaishnava is more than a brahman, but you are not a brahman. You have to take birth in a brahman family in your next life and then you can become a brahman.”

We were a party of four who went to Madras initially so one of the other devotees said, “Well, one takes birth in a particular family according to his karma, according to his pious and sinful activities, so if someone is engaged in sinful activities he may not take birth in a brahman family but by chanting the holy name of the Lord you can eradicate all the reactions to past sinful activities immediately. You don’t have to wait to change your body.”

Now that was a very strong argument and he was trying to resist it but it was hard and then the devotees said, “Well, come on, what is stronger, the holy name or a person’s sinful reactions? Which is stronger?” He had to admit the holy name is stronger. So that means that by kirtan, by taking shelter of the holy name one can be free from sinful activities without changing the body, and transcend the position of even a material brahman and be more than a brahman but also a brahman.

PURPORT (continued)

A Vaiṣṇava, therefore, can accept a bona fide disciple from any part of the world without any consideration of caste and creed and promote him by regulative principles to the status of a pure Vaiṣṇava, who is transcendental to brahminical culture. The system of caste, or varṇāśrama-dharma, is no longer regular even amongst the so-called followers of the system. Nor is it now possible to reestablish the institutional function in the present context of social, political and economic revolution.

COMMENT

So yes, Prabhupada is saying two things here. One is that the following of brahminical principles is not regular even among people born in brahman families and that we know. That is very clear for the most part. And Prabhupada says that we cannot revive that culture of varnashrama-dharma in the present context of social, political, and economic revolution. People are revolting against the traditional culture. In 1977 Jayaprakash Narayana, he was one of the freedom fighters with Mahatma Gandhi—very popular figure in India—so he held a huge rally with hundreds and thousands of people—I don’t know how many—and the idea was that the caste brahmans would come forward and take off their sacred threads and put them in a pile and then they would set fire to all the sacred threads just to show that they are overthrowing the caste system. So they had it, a huge fire, and one after the other they were coming forward and putting their sacred threads in the fire. You know what Srila Prabhupada said? He said, “Good, they are admitting that they are not brahmans.” [laughter]

PURPORT (continued) 

Nor is it now possible to reestablish the institutional function in the present context of social, political and economic revolution. Without any reference to the particular custom of a country, one can be accepted to the Vaiṣṇava cult spiritually, and there is no hindrance in the transcendental process. So by the order of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the cult of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or the Bhagavad-gītā can be preached all over the world, reclaiming all persons willing to accept the transcendental cult. Such cultural propaganda by the devotees will certainly be accepted by all persons who are reasonable and inquisitive, without any particular bias for the custom of the country.

COMMENT

Prabhupada is such a revolutionary. He is basically calling upon all reasonable and intelligent people to accept the cult of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and he said anyone will do it provided they don’t have a bias for their own culture. But that is the problem because people do have a bias for their own culture. It is everywhere. People think that they are better than others. It is everywhere.

I have some relatives probably because of my involvement with Krishna consciousness now all of my cousins, sibling and cousins, one by one they have all gone to India, and depending on how biased they are, to greater or lesser degrees, they think they are superior. But that is common. Generally people think they are superior. But. . . 

PURPORT (continued)

Such cultural propaganda by the devotees will certainly be accepted by all persons who are reasonable and inquisitive, without any particular bias for the custom of the country.

The Vaiṣṇava never accepts another Vaiṣṇava on the basis of birthright, just as he never thinks of the Deity of the Lord in a temple as an idol.

COMMENT

This is another indirect reference to a verse that says that if you think of a Vaishnava as belonging to a particular caste or community, if you think the deity is made of stone, if you think Ganges water is ordinary water, if you think the spiritual master is an ordinary human being, nārakī saḥ, you have a hellish mentality. So, yes, you look at the deity, it looks like stone, but if you think it is stone and not the Lord Himself, then that is a hellish mentality. So in the same way if you think of a Vaishnava who is also transcendental, is engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, if you think of Him as belonging to a particular caste or community, it is the same thing. The deity is transcendental. It is not marble or brass or wood—it is Krishna—so similarly a Vaishnava who is reinstated in his constitutional position as eternal servant of Krishna, he is also not American or Indian or Chinese or German. He is a Vaishnava, servant of Vishnu.

PURPORT (continued)

And to remove all doubts in this connection, Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī has invoked the blessings of the Lord, who is all-powerful (prabhaviṣṇave namaḥ). 

COMMENT

He is all-powerful. He can turn matter into spirit. He can turn the stone into a deity and He can also turn an ordinary person into a Vaishnava because He is all-powerful.

PURPORT (continued)

As the all-powerful Lord accepts the humble service of His devotee in devotional activities of the arcana, His form as the worshipable Deity in the temple, similarly the body of a pure Vaiṣṇava changes transcendentally at once when he gives himself up to the service of the Lord and is trained by a qualified Vaiṣṇava. 

COMMENT

This was spoken by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to Sanatana Gosvami. Dīkṣā-kāle. At the time of initiation, when one gives oneself up fully to the service of the Lord and is accepted by a Vaishnava, he is accepted as good as the Lord—not in quantity of course but in quality. It is the same principle. It also comes in the Padma-Purana that just as ordinary bell metal can be turned into gold by some alchemical process similarly an ordinary person can be changed into a brahman or a Vaishnava by spiritual initiation.

PURPORT (continued)

The injunction of Vaiṣṇava regulation in this connection runs as follows: arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhīr guruṣu nara-matir vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ śrī-viṣṇor nāmni śabda-sāmānya-buddhiḥ, etc. “One should not consider the Deity of the Lord as worshiped in the temple to be an idol, nor should one consider the authorized spiritual master an ordinary man. Nor should one consider a pure Vaiṣṇava to belong to a particular caste, etc.” (Padma Purāṇa)

The conclusion is that the Lord, being all-powerful, can, under any and every circumstance, accept anyone from any part of the world, either personally or through His bona fide manifestation as the spiritual master. Lord Caitanya accepted many devotees from communities other than the varṇāśramites…

COMMENT

Who is an example of a devotee that Lord Chaitanya accepted?

Devotee: Haridasa Thakura.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, nāmācārya Haridasa Thakura.

PURPORT (concluded)

Lord Caitanya accepted many devotees from communities other than the varṇāśramites, and He Himself declared, to teach us, that He does not belong to any caste or social order of life, but that He is the eternal servant of the servant of the Lord who maintains the damsels of Vṛndāvana (Lord Kṛṣṇa). That is the way of self-realization.

COMMENT 

Lord Chaitanya, to show the example, said, “I am not a brahman; I am not a kshatriya; I am not a vaishya; I am not a sudra; I am not a brahmachari; I am not a grihastha; I am not a vanaprastha; I am not a sannyasi.” Then what are you? Gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ: “I am the servant of the servant of the servant of Krishna, the maintainer of the damsels of Vrindavan.” That is the way of self-realization.

Now to conclude I thought to read a few verses from Caitanya-caritāmṛta that give an indication of the stature or the value or the significance of someone who can actually do this. Yes, it was there in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but until Srila Prabhupada left India and travelled all over the world it was not done outside of India. I will read some very interesting verses about the Chaitanya tree. I hope you all are reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. He hardly slept at night staying up to translate the books for us. We should read them. This is shastra. So in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta there is a description of the Chaitanya tree. How many of you have read some of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta? Raise your hand if you have read some. How many of you have read the entire book? Room for improvement. A good beginning but room for improvement. This comes in the Ādi-līlā and it is a very interesting metaphor because the tree is Lord Chaitanya and the gardener who is tending the tree is also Lord Chaitanya. This tree, like any tree, there are roots and then a trunk and then limbs, branches, twigs, leaves, and so on. So Srila Krishnadasa Kavirāja Gosvami, the author of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta describes the different branches of the Chaitanya tree and I am going to read what branch he describes as sarvottama, the best of all. Did anyone take note which branch is sarvottama, the best of all? Rupa and Sanatana Gosvami.

So, this is Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, Chapter Ten: “The Branches of the Chaitanya Tree.”

TEXT 84

anupama-vallabha, śrī-rūpa, sanātana

ei tina śākhā vṛkṣera paścime sarvottama

TRANSLATION

On the western side were the forty-third, forty-fourth and forty-fifth branches — Śrī Sanātana, Śrī Rūpa and Anupama. They were the best of all.

TEXTS 85–86

Among these branches, Rūpa and Sanātana were principal. Anupama, Jīva Gosvāmī and others, headed by Rājendra, were their subbranches.

By the will of the supreme gardener…

COMMENT

Now the parallel is quite clear but just keep that in mind that the resemblance between what Krishnadasa Kavirāja Gosvami says about Rupa and Sanatana and what we know to have been true of Srila Prabhupada.

TEXT 86

By the will of the supreme gardener, the branches of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī grew many times over, expanding throughout the western countries and covering the entire region.

COMMENT

Western countries are paścima deśa. Now in the context western countries would mean Maharashtra, Sind, those western countries. So it was significant that Rupa and Sanatana were able to spread Krishna consciousness in the paścima deśa, in the western countries and the number of devotees multiplied. Because it is said that as you go west from Bengal, from Mayapur, people become more and more degraded. So Rupa and Sanatana are glorified because they spread Krishna consciousness in the western countries of Bharata but what to speak of west and west and west—Europe, America, across the ocean, China.

TEXTS 87–88

Extending to the borders of the river Sindhu and the Himalayan Mountain valleys, these two branches expanded throughout India, including all the places of pilgrimage, such as Vṛndāvana, Mathurā and Haridvāra.

The fruits of love of Godhead which fructified on these two branches were distributed in abundance. Tasting these fruits, everyone became mad after them.

TEXT 89

paścimera loka saba mūḍha anācāra

tāhāṅ pracārila doṅhe bhakti-sadācāra

TRANSLATION

The people in general on the western side of India were neither intelligent nor well behaved…

COMMENT

That is the western side of India what to speak of the western hemisphere.

TRANSLATION (continued)

….but by the influence of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī they were trained in devotional service and good behavior.

COMMENT

When Srila Prabhupada first returned to India and came to Bombay there was a big Sadhu Samelan, a gathering of sadhus on Chowpatty Beach, and so many Mayavadis were assembled on the stage, so many chairs, and then thousands of people in the audience. There were a lot of longwinded impersonal dry, speculative discourses, and then finally Srila Prabhupada was asked to speak. He only spoke for a few minutes and basically he said that, “By the chanting of the holy name these young men and women had completely changed their habits.” He used the same word that is used in this verse—sad-ācāra—good behavior. He said they had completely changed their habits. They used to be meat-eaters, drinkers, womanizers, and gamblers and what not, but by the influenced of the holy names of the Lord they had given up eating meat, fish, or eggs, even onions and garlic, taking all kinds of intoxicants including coffee and tea, and illicit sex and gambling which Prabhupada said was very rare even in India. Very rare even in India but by the influence of the holy name they had done it. So that is mentioned here: “. . . by the influence of Srila Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami they were trained in devotional service and good behavior,” sad-ācāra.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Although it is not only in western India that people were contaminated by association with Muslims, it is a fact that the farther west one goes in India the more he will find the people to be fallen from the Vedic culture.

COMMENT

And then he mentions them. 

PURPORT (continued)

….people were influenced by non-Vedic culture, and they lost sight of how to behave in connection with devotional service. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī very kindly preached the bhakti cult in western India, and following in their footsteps the propagators of the Caitanya cult in the Western countries are spreading the saṅkīrtana movement and inculcating the principles of Vaiṣṇava behavior, thus purifying and reforming many persons who were previously accustomed to the culture of mlecchas and yavanas. All of our devotees in the Western countries give up their old habits of illicit sex, intoxication, meat-eating and gambling. Of course, five hundred years ago these practices were unknown in India — at least in eastern India — but unfortunately at present all of India has been victimized by these non-Vedic principles, which are sometimes even supported by the government.

COMMENT

We come back. If the government were in the hands of devotees the situation would be different.

Now it may strike us that Srila Prabhupada is stating very boldly that his disciples have given up all these sinful activities which is true but they were able to do so because they had taken shelter of a pure devotee and engaged in chanting the holy name of the Lord. So if we maintain that position of following the instructions of the pure devotee and chanting the holy names, we will have the strength to resist the force of bad habits or resist the false propaganda of false leaders. It is not automatic. But if we make a conscious, deliberate effort to maintain that shelter of the pure devotee and the holy name then maya will not be able to touch us. Kṛṣṇa—sūrya-sama; māyā haya andhakāra: Krishna is like light; maya is like darkness. Where is the sun of Krishna, there can be no darkness of maya. And so we should always chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.