If You Just Do Sankirtana, All Your Problems Will Be Solved

Giriraj Swami: We are gathered here, in Sri Sri Radha-Kalachandji’s Temple to realize the perfection of human life. The living entity is wandering through so many species of life, in so many different planetary systems, but when one is fortunate, he receives the seed of devotional service by the grace of guru and Krishna. When one receives the seed, one should water it by chanting and hearing about Krishna. One should be vigilant about weeds and if one sees any weed, he must uproot it. And one should also protect it by fencing it all around. And if one protects and nourishes the seed of devotional service in that way, it will sprout and the devotional creeper will grow and grow and grow, and eventually penetrate the coverings of the universe and take shelter at the lotus feet of Radha and Krishna in the spiritual world, the spiritual sky. This metaphor was given by Lord Chaitanya to one of His principal disciples, Srila Rupa Gosvami. And it contains the whole program by which the conditioned soul can be liberated from the miseries of material existence and attain ultimate bliss and eternal life. In fact, this idea was expressed to me by Srila Prabhupada the first time I met him. And if we can appreciate the significance of this process and apply it, all of our desires will be fulfilled. And regarding chanting and hearing about Krishna, as we have been hearing and discussing for the last few days, the most essential process or the most condensed process is to chant and hear the holy names of Krishna. And the benefits of it operate on many levels. Of course, in the ultimate, it will take us beyond the dualities of material existence into the eternal realm of bliss and knowledge. But even in our ordinary life we can feel the effects. And many devotees have and certainly devotees who have been chanting for ten, twenty some of us thirty, forty years feel the effects.

When I first joined the Boston temple, ISKCON or the International Society for Krishna Consciousness was not developed as it is now. We had a small storefront and no income, except that the Temple President, Satsvarupa dasa Adhikari had a job as a social worker. And so we got his paycheck; that was the only income that the temple had. But as people joined the temple and the activities increased, the income from his government paycheck was not enough. But the devotees were all very surrendered, they were ready to do whatever was needed. And so Satsvarupa called a meeting of all the devotees. I was very new; I was just starting to come. And the devotees quoted Srila Prabhupada as saying that, “If you need to get a job and work you can.” So different devotees volunteered. One said, “I used to work in the post office before I joined. I could see if I could get a job at the post office.” And someone said, “Oh, I know the grocer down the street, maybe I can get a job in the grocery store.” And then one devotee named Nandakishore, raised his hand and quoted a letter from Srila Prabhupada saying that, “If you just do saṅkīrtana,” that means if you go out and chant the holy names of Krishna, “All of your problems will be solved materially and spiritually.” So that sounded relevant and we decided we would try it.

So the next day we went out into the street, chanting Hare Krishna. And we had maybe two baskets, straw baskets, and we would extend the basket and tell people something and ask them to contribute. And so at the end of the day we counted up and there was about seven dollars which was quite good back then. So we thought, Okay, Srila Prabhupada said if you just do saṅkīrtana, all of your problems will be solved materially and spiritually. So it seemed it might work. So we went out the next day, we did the same thing but with a little more confidence, a little more enthusiasm. We came back and counted up and there was twelve dollars. I thought, Wow, this is really good. It is getting better. Then we went out the third day, the same thing, counted the Lakshmi, the money, and there was nineteen dollars. I thought, Wow! So then we were convinced, and every day we went out and nobody had to get jobs and we could just chant Hare Krishna which was good for us and good for the people who heard the holy name.

So eventually, pretty much just by that and then by distributing Back to Godhead magazine, we purchased a house, actually quite a big house, a mansion you could say. But we were new and we were different and people, they are suspicious of things that are different, and then some people are prejudiced. So one early morning, means in the night but after midnight, maybe one or two in the morning, a gang of hoodlums broke into the building and they had knives, and they attacked the devotees. We were all just in our sleeping bags on the floor and they attacked us. It was a terrible scene. But eventually, the devotees were shouting and calling the holy name. And somehow, eventually the police came and those people scattered. And then there was a court case. And the ruffians, you could say, they had a shifty lawyer. And so, one of our witnesses was the same devotee, Nandakishore. And so the lawyer, he was very aggressive and he was trying to throw Nandakishore off balance. And he was basically trying to portray us as a weird cult. So he began, and Nandakishore was really nervous. So the lawyer began, “Who was present at the time of the alleged attack?” So then, he started going through the names of all the devotees. “Well, Satsvarupa was there, Murari was there,” and in his own way he was chanting different names of God. And by chanting the names of God that belonged to the devotees, all of his fear and anxiety went away and he felt completely emboldened to meet the challenge. So then the lawyer said, “According to the dictionary, Krishna is a Hindu God of love” and something like fertility, something strange. He wanted to make us look really weird, like cult worshipers.

So Nandakishore said, “Your Honor, can I cite my authority? He said, “Yes.”

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ

sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ

He quoted the first verse of Brahma-saṁhitā, Fifth Chapter. Krishna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual form. He is the origin of everything but He Himself has no origin, and He is the prime cause of all causes. And it was very successful, it was very successful. And it was important for us to win the case so that people would have some fear of attacking us. So, like this, life went on in Krishna consciousness.

And now I will skip ahead to the end, towards the end of Srila Prabhupada’s time with us on earth; to 1977. We were at Juhu. There is actually a picture of the project on the wall there between the two columns. And there are two round towers, and the one that is closest to us was the tower where Srila Prabhupada was staying on the top floor. But at that time the building wasn’t finished but still Prabhupada was staying there. And Srila Prabhupada had a very staunch householder devotee named Mr. P.L. Sethi. And Mr. Sethi belonged to a saṅkīrtana group from before he met Srila Prabhupada. Actually, I could just tell you very briefly about his first meeting with Srila Prabhupada. He read in the newspaper that Srila Prabhupada had come to Bombay with some American sadhus; sadhu means it is like an Indian holy man but they were American. And they were performing saṅkīrtana. So, Mr. Sethi thought, Let me meet this person. Let me see who he is and what they do. So he made his way to the place and he met Srila Prabhupada. And Srila Prabhupada asked him, “What is your daily schedule?” He said, “I get up about six in the morning, I brush my teeth, I have a cup of tea and a piece of toast. I read the newspaper and then I go to work.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “And what is the difference between you and a pig?”

So, Prabhupada, he could judge the person he was speaking to. And Mr. Sethi thought about it. He said, “Yes, what is the difference? I am just living like an animal.” So he asked Srila Prabhupada, “What should I do?” So Srila Prabhupada said, “Every Sunday morning you should invite the devotees to your place.” It was in the suburbs. We were in downtown Bombay then and Mr. Sethi was in the northern suburb of Goregaon. “And you do hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana through the streets and then you give a big feast to the devotees.” And then this became a regular practice. So over the years, Mr. Sethi remained close to Srila Prabhupada and the devotees and he did a lot of service. He was a building contractor and he did work at Hare Krishna land in Juhu. So, he was a member from before he met Srila Prabhupada of the Radha-Madhav Prem Sudha Sankirtan Mandali, which was connected with a saintly person from Vrindavan. And at least in Bombay they were all householders and they would meet, I think every Sunday, and do a Akhand hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, which means continuous chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra from six in the morning until six in the evening. And then from six till eight they would sing songs from Vrindavan.

So one day, Mr Sethi came to the temple and he said, “We do this every Sunday in different householders homes. I was thinking, why don’t we do it at the temple?” And the big temple wasn’t at all ready, it was still a construction site. But the small temple where the deities were housed was there. And so I said, yes. So they began at six and it was really nice. They were very devotional and our devotees joined with them, although at one stage I think Mr. Sethi complained to Srila Prabhupada that our devotees weren’t participating as fully as he would have liked. But it was very nice, very very nice. And then maybe in the afternoon, these devotees, they wanted some personal reciprocation from Srila Prabhupada. But it was very difficult because Prabhupada was very ill, he was on the top floor of the tower and the lift, the elevator was not working. And so he couldn’t come down and it wasn’t practical for them to go up. And he didn’t really have the energy to meet them anyway. But at a certain stage they just came out of the little temple and started chanting very very enthusiastically under Srila Prabhupada’s balcony. And eventually, Tamal Krishna Goswami assisted Srila Prabhupada in walking out to the balcony. And he came out on the balcony and they went wild. They were just singing and dancing, jumping, and offering obeisances. And Prabhupada nodded and cast his merciful glance upon them and stood there for a few minutes by the railing and then he went back inside. So it was wonderful. And then at six, the Braj songs began. And the highlight, the traditional highlight is when one lady would sing a song; it was usually the last song of the whole day’s program.

Jaya Rādhe, Jaya Rādhe Rādhe, Jaya Rādhe, Jaya Śrī Rādhe,
Jaya Kṛṣṇa, Jaya Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Jaya Kṛṣṇa, Jaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa 

We have a Braj resident here. Do you want to sing one or two stanzas? We will have a little. . .

Śyāmā Gaurī, Nitya Kiśorī, Prītama Jorī, Śrī Rādhe,
Rasika Rasīlo, Chaila Chabīlo, Guṇa Garabīlo, Śrī Kṛṣṇa,  

Rasa Bihāriṇī, Rasa Vistāriṇī, Piya Ura Dhāriṇī, Śrī Rādhe
Nava Nava Raṅgī, Navala Tribhaṅgī, Śyāma Su Aṅgī, Śrī Kṛṣṇa  

Jaya Rādhe, Jaya Rādhe Rādhe, Jaya Rādhe, Jaya Śrī Rādhe,
Jaya Kṛṣṇa, Jaya Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Jaya Kṛṣṇa, Jaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa  

Devotees: Singing.

Giriraj Swami: Mr. Sethi was upstairs with Srila Prabhupada when the lady was singing that song. And he said that while she was singing, tears were streaming down Srila Prabhupada’s cheeks. So in those days Srila Prabhupada was so sick that no one could see him. He wasn’t coming down and he wasn’t meeting devotees. He had his personal staff with him, and otherwise no one could see him. And that was very hard for us because we were used to, every morning he would come down at six o’clock, go for a walk on Juhu beach, then greet the deities at 7:00, give Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class and then often he would give the evening Bhagavad-gītā class, and have darshan in the afternoon. It was very hard. But the next morning he called for me. So I was happy to get the opportunity. And Srila Prabhupada said that the kirtan was wonderful and that I should invite them all to move on to Hare Krishna land, and tell them that we will maintain them, and all they have to do is a Akhand hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, just like they did on Sunday from six in the morning to six in the evening. And then they can do the two hours of Braj songs. So I was quickly calculating in my mind, how it would work to approach them. And I thought, They have houses and apartments, they have jobs or businesses, they have children who are going to school. And I was just thinking, How is this going to work? So I was silent. And then I started to say, “I can do that but I am just not sure how it will work.”

So then Srila Prabhupada said, “All right, then our men, they should do twelve hours continuous kirtan every day.” So I thought about that and we were in the midst of trying to get the Juhu Project ready to open, and the Juhu Project was so important to Srila Prabhupada. So I said, “We could do that but we have so much service to get the temple open. How will it work if all the devotees do kirtan for twelve hours every day?” So then Srila Prabhupada said, “All right, then just Sunday.” So by then, I was so relieved having gone from where Prabhupada began. I said, “Oh yes, we can do that, we can do that. So, okay.” So afterwards I related the exchange to Tamal Krishna Goswami and Tamal Krishna Goswami gave the opinion that Srila Prabhupada had engaged in transcendental bargaining with me. That if he had begun with twelve hours a day on Sunday, I would have had my calculation and twelve hours well, maybe three hours. But he started like we invite the whole group of sixty grihasthas and maintain them. And then we devotees in the temple, every day twelve hours. So when it was once a week on Sunday, just twelve hours, that seemed easy. So I agreed. And those were really glorious days, I must say those were glorious days. And what Srila Prabhupada had written, that “If you just do saṅkīrtana, all of your problems will be solved,” was proved true again. Because I was the temple president and it was a big project. There was construction and there were so many different programs. And there were always problems; problems with devotees’ health, problems with devotees’ minds, problems with devotees’ relationships, problems with the government, problems with the contractors, problems with the suppliers, just so many types of problems. But something miraculous would happen. And that is, after every Sunday of doing the twelve-hour Akhanda hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, all the problems went away, really. Either the devotee who thought it was a problem, realized it wasn’t really a problem, or Krishna did something and the problem got solved, or Krishna gave me the insight how to deal with the problem.

So Monday was easy. I just gave all the solutions that came from the kirtan. Then Tuesday, Wednesday I had to sort of make some effort. Then by Thursday, I would start to say, “Well let me think about it,” knowing that it would just be a few more days and we would have Akhanda hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana and it would get solved. So like that, Friday, “Just let me think about it, I will get back to you on Monday.” And then, practically without fail all the problems really would be solved. So these were just a few examples of the practical effects. I would say it is two elements combined here: one is faith in the holy name and the other is faith in the instructions of the spiritual master. Of course, Srila Prabhupada would say different things in different situations and the scriptures also say different things in different situations. But there is one incident in which Srila Prabhupada asked one devotee, Guru Kripa Prabhu, “What is the most important verse in the scriptures?” And Guru Kripa Prabhu said,

harer nāma harer nāma

harer nāmaiva kevalam

kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva

nāsty eva gatir anyathā

Which means chant the holy names, chant the holy names, chant the holy names of Hari or Krishna. There is no other way, no other way, no other way for success in Kali-yuga. But Srila Prabhupada, he came back with his choice of a verse, and his choice was

yasya deve parā bhaktir

yathā deve tathā gurau

Which means that one who has implicit faith in Krishna and similar faith in the spiritual master, to that person all the imports of the Vedas are revealed. So that was really Srila Prabhupada’s motto. It was his guidance in life. He exemplified it, his faith in guru and Krishna.

In the lounge upstairs, Tamal Krishna Goswami has a beautiful large photograph of Srila Prabhupada standing all alone at Tompkins Square Park, under the tree. And the background to that photograph is Srila Prabhupada went to Tompkins Square Park, he had already come to America all alone without any support or money or anything really. And he just chanted the holy name of Krishna and everything followed. So he had that faith in both, Krishna (the holy name of Krishna) and his spiritual master (the order of his spiritual master). And if we take up the process of devotional service, as given in the scriptures and received through disciplic succession in the same spirit, we will also experience wonderful results that keep on increasing and improving. So every one of us here is very fortunate to be here. It is not an accident that we are here and we should appreciate, try to appreciate, begin to appreciate the value of what the Vedic literatures and the guru-paramparā specifically for us through Srila Prabhupada has given us, and apply it. And it will be good, really good.

I am reminded of a cartoon, I have mentioned it before, but I guess some devotees showed Srila Prabhupada the cartoon from a magazine in New York. And there was an old woman sitting across from an old man. And the lady, the wife was saying to the husband, “Chant, chant, chant.” And the old man was replying, “Can’t, can’t, can’t.” And Srila Prabhupada quoted that cartoon to illustrate the fact that people have a causeless aversion to chanting the holy name of Krishna. The irony is of course with the same effort that it took to say, “Can’t, can’t, can’t,” he could have just said Hare Krishna. But he would rather, “can’t, can’t, can’t.” Like a stubborn child, who won’t do what is good for him. Just, no, no, no.

So that is our misfortune, we are given everything but we don’t take it. I don’t say you, not you but people. But that is our challenge, that is our assignment to somehow induce them to chant. Somehow or other, yena tena prakāreṇa, somehow or other get them to chant Hare Krishna. And that will please Krishna and Srila Prabhupada very much, more than just our own chanting. Of course, they are pleased when we chant, there is no doubt and our purpose is to please them. But they are more pleased when we induce others also to chant. And actually after giving this course I feel we should just, not course but class, shall just take up our mridanga and kartals and go out the front door. But also organization, intelligence and organization. But yes, that should be the mood: just go out, chant the holy names, induce others to chant, bring them back, take prasāda give them prasāda and be happy, and go back home back to Godhead.

Hare Krishna.

So any questions or comments Maharaja? Yes?

Devotee: So many years ago you were in Bombay and it was a budding project, just beginning. And they tried to get the people, these grihasthas outside maintained. But here in the Dallas temple, there is already a community of grihasthas that are maintained. So why don’t they have Akhanda kirtan here for twelve hours every Sunday?

Devotee: It seems like it is such an easy thing to do because so many people want service and that is a service that everyone can do. I saw in New York, this devotee Ram Roy, by himself went out every day. It is now gone on for one year by himself with just faith in the holy name. And a whole community of people now are going out and participating. And I see people in New York, it is not that they walk across the street, they have to take the train from Queens, and I see that people want service and this is the most blissful service. So it seems to me that it wouldn’t be a very difficult thing to manage at all with all these sincere devotees here. And you just need a couple of groups to do kirtan even if everyone is not there together.

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee: Anyway, just when you were saying that it just seemed so obvious that this would be so simple.

Giriraj Swami: Excellent idea. Tamal Krishna Goswami in his last weeks, he established that three-hour kirtan in Mayapur. And I do remember that after he left, there was some sentiment that we should do that here. And then it is in the Bhāgavatam, about ideal family life; Prabhupada writes that for three hours every evening, gather together. And then it came to that I think one day a week, I forget which day a week and I don’t know. But yes we need to revive that. Yes. Thank you, Maharaja.

Devotee: Our saṅkīrtana leader Rupa Prabhu is there, so he is also here. Rupa Prabhu, you have say something now.

Devotee: I was just thinking at least we could start maybe doing it once a month, I don’t know just somewhere to start.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Advaita Jaya Prabhu mentioned, the result of the program will be happy Mondays. So if we do it then. Yes.

Giriraj Swami: Once a month is too little, you have to come up a bit. But no force, no pressure. All right, we will. . .

Devotee: There is a suggestion, we could do every Ekādaśī.

Giriraj Swami: That sounds good. Something yes, it should be a real. . . I mean you will feel it. You will feel the benefit. It is just we just need that little reminder, that little push. All right, thank you very much Sri Rupa Prabhu. We will all be behind you.