GBC Leadership College, Questions and Answers

Devotee: Maintain my sadhana as I assume would be perfect. It’s not the easiest thing, I can divide my sadhana into three different parts of my life: sadhana before the kids, sadhana after the kids, and sadhana when I had enough and I couldn’t bear anymore not to do the sadhana properly. And for me, the last two years were quite okay, before that, for five years, that was the after-kid period, that was terrible. Before that, it was fantastic because no kids, no family, nothing extra, so it was good. How would a grihastha be able to do sadhana perfectly, while maintaining three full-time services?

And actually, I was wondering that Radhanath Maharaja was speaking about Mother Malati and Shyamsundara Prabhu, and the two other couples who went to London to preach alone. What was their sadhana at that time? How could they maintain their spiritual strength and everything with a small baby going abroad and do all those amazing preaching? Any of you, if you could help in developing my sadhana in that regard?

Radhanath Swami: Thank you for asking this question. Just the question itself is an expression of your great sincerity, and sometimes, when things in our lives become so overwhelming, if we are feeling separation from that really good sadhana, that’s healthy. It’s unhealthy when it becomes a habit to not do our sadhana well, or when we justify it in so many ways. But to feel that separation, that yearning for that deep sadhana, is a sign of your great sincerity. So, I congratulate you. Does that answer your question? [laughter]

But I think I can say something else. Of course, we have to be sincere and try our best, and ultimately, our sadhana is to please Krishna. Whatever sadhana we have, if it’s pleasing to Krishna, that’s where the grace is going to be received. Even if we have a super excellent form of sadhana, if we are offensive to devotees or if we are arrogant or envious, then our sadhana is not going to please Krishna. So, we should try our very best. And with our intelligence, a major part of a grihastha’s spiritual progress is how you utilize the intelligence that Krishna has given you, to create a balance in your life.

We have our duties to our wife and children. If we neglect them, there is going to be a serious imbalance, and maybe serious offenses too, because we are Vaishnavas. We have certain responsibilities to our occupation, to our economic sustenance, we have certain obligations to our society, especially our spiritual society. Through sevā, through other devotees, helping them like that extended family. And we have our serious responsibilities to our Guru and Krishna, which very much include the vows we’ve taken of our sadhana, which are meant for our spiritual protection and our spiritual progress.

So, as far as humanly possible to use our intelligence to balance all of those, because if there is a serious deficiency in any one of those, all the others are going to be affected in the grihastha ashram. It’s not easy, but believe it or not, being a sannyasi isn’t so easy, or a brahmachari. Every ashram has its very specific challenges, and grihastha ashram, that’s a major challenge, and you’ll make progress by how you take the challenge to balance, so that you do not neglect any of those sacred aspects of your life.

And it may be that somehow, rather for the sake of your spiritual nourishment, you let go of certain services that you are doing, because if you are doing so many projects plus a job, if your sadhana is very, very weak, then those other aspects could be very unsustainable too to do it in proper Krishna consciousness. So, wherever possible, reduce the quantity of what you are doing so you could do everything with better quality. I would recommend you explore ways to do that.

And now, Prahladananda Swami Maharaja will give you his very paramparā explanation.

Prahladananda Swami: I don’t think I have much to add to Radhanath Maharaja, but in The Nectar of Instruction, Srila Rupa Gosvami says,

atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca
prajalpo niyamāgrahaḥ
jana-saṅgaś ca laulyaṁ ca
ṣaḍbhir bhaktir vinaśyati

So, that’s the negative side. Of course, there is the positive side,

utsāhān niścayād dhairyāt
tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt
saṅga-tyāgāt sato vṛtteḥ
ṣaḍbhir bhaktiḥ prasidhyati

But actually, Srila Rupa Gosvami starts on the negative side before he gets to the positive.

So, we have to check ourselves and see ati-āhāraḥ, eating too much. So, there are certain tendencies that happen, kind of, like a spiral that we get involved in where we lose our taste for hearing and chanting. So, generally, it’s not so much a question that we don’t have the time. We generally don’t have the taste. And therefore, people work hard and they come home at night, they say they don’t have the time, but to think about picking up Bhagavad-gītā and reading it, or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it’s just like picking up a ton of bricks and putting it on your head. You can’t even bear to think about having to go that way.

So therefore, we have to see if what I’m eating, how am I eating it, what am I talking about, what am I actually thinking about, we have to check ourselves and then try to do the things that will actually give us some enthusiasm for Krishna consciousness, some patience, some confidence, and then, gradually, we’ll find out there is plenty of time to do everything, there just has to be the desire to utilize the time properly.

Giriraj Swami: What I’m going to say is very simple. I recently heard this. When Srila Prabhupada was in Hawaii, he wrote on a brown paper bag, or a slit open envelope, but he wrote on a piece of paper, “1. Health, 2. Chanting, 3. Service, 4. Reading.” But, of course, we want to do all of those, but I just thought to share that.

Bhakti Charu Swami: I think Radhanath Maharaja gave the perfect, wholesome answer to your question, especially when he pointed out that the purpose of sadhana is ultimately to please Krishna. That is the most important consideration, and along with that, Prabhupada very emphatically said that devotional service should be executed happily. Susukhaṁ kartum avyayam. Devotional service shouldn’t become a burden, and the service that is most important, that is the most effective consideration. What needs to be done?

I mean, I’ll honestly admit, when I was serving Srila Prabhupada, I mean, I didn’t have any sadhana. I mean, for weeks together, I didn’t attend maṅgala-ārati because I had to serve Srila Prabhupada all the time. So, what really mattered at that time was my service.

And the ultimate consideration of our sadhana actually boils down to chanting sixteen rounds. At least that part, you should not neglect. And let’s be practical, whatever is needed, as Giriraj Maharaja pointed out, health should be the first consideration. I mean, if we become too concerned about the regulation aspect, it’ll be difficult for many people. When you are a brahmachari, twenty-five years old, it’s one thing, but when you are sixty-five years old, it’s another thing. Now, we can’t expect that a sixty-five-year-old devotee is going to follow the same kind of temple sadhana as a twenty-five-year-old brahmachari is doing. Like here, go back to your situation, as you said, you have two specific services, you have to maintain your family, you have to earn your living.

As Radhanath Maharaja pointed out, use your intelligence and create a practical situation. How are you going to balance everything without hurting your spiritual life? That should be the most important consideration. Thank you.

Devotee: Hare Krishna. I also wanted to express my deep gratitude for the day. So far, it’s been amazing, and I feel completely and thoroughly inspired just from the Bhāgavatam class. What I’ve heard until this evening, amazing. I’ve got a question specific to the temple that I serve at, which is Sri Mayapur dhāma.

So, we are building the first international devotee community, you could say, city or town, and there is no guidebook or manual for doing that, so we face many different problems. I just wanted to get some ideas. One of our main problems is social issues. How to develop a healthy Krishna conscious society with all the aspects in place that make up a society? Bearing in mind, so many grihasthas and so much need of service, and our occupation and engagement for those devotees, that's a real issue that we are facing, that practical aspect as well as the spiritual.

Radhanath Swami: By Krishna’s grace, I don’t know the details of what you are speaking about, but it would seem to me it’s probably already being done that those leaders of the various divisions of the community, grihastha community, the international community, the Bengali community, the brahmacharis, grihasthas, really come together and make plans of communication and plans of how you could combine each other’s energies to serve together.

Because getting things done is important, but the spirit of the unity of the community is what’s going to give substance to what you get done. We can build a temple, but people aren’t going to be Krishna conscious beyond a certain level from the temple. They are going to be Krishna conscious by the quality of association they get when they come to the temple.

In one purport, Srila Prabhupada writes that the purpose of developing all of these temples in ISKCON is to give people an opportunity to associate with devotees. And the quality of their association with devotees is what’s going to be important.

In Mayapur, with the temple of Vedic planetarium coming up, there are going to be millions of people coming from all over the world to see the temple, to experience the atmosphere of Mayapur. But what’s going to really open their hearts to really receive the mercy of Prabhupada and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the association of devotees that they get when they come. And for that association to really be transforming, it’s essential that within the project, we never neglect the utmost necessity of creating community, because that’s really a testimony to the people of the world, and even a testimony to our own faith, to a large extent, that Krishna consciousness is actually effective for us, and so we can overcome all of these communication problems and unite on a higher principle.

So, I would think that it should be a very important priority to create a community alongside all of the physical projects we are working on, and all of our guest receptions and so many stresses and pressures, it’s enormous in Mayapur. And my thoughts are the leaders of the various divisions should actually really come together to work out ways that communication and united service can actually be inspired.

Prahladananda Swami: I have nothing practical to say, but, I guess, the basic principle that Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, yare dekha, tare kaha ‘krsna’-upadesa amara ajnaya guru hana tara’ ei desa, that whoever you meet, you try to help them become Krishna conscious.

So, the mood, especially of the leadership, is that I’m not really dealing with anyone else except for the devotees of Krishna. They may be in different bodies and they may be conditioned in different ways, but my only duty is to really pray to Krishna within my heart, pray to Srila Prabhupada and the Vaishnavas that I can have the intelligence how to do something positive in my service to this particular Vaishnava, which transcends my conditioned vision and my understanding of who I’m dealing with and really allow me just to become an instrument for Krishna and for Srila Prabhupada, so that I can do something to inspire the Krishna consciousness, so that although I may have some conditioned vision of this particular devotee or devotees, but Krishna can help me transcend it and actually prove myself to be wrong, and actually show me that this is actually Krishna’s eternal servant I’m dealing with, and that if I become sincerely an instrument, I can actually see a transformation before my eyes that will surprise me and even surprise them and actually reveal the actual mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, as it’s actually flowing in this movement.

Or, as Radhanath Maharaja said, or I heard from Navina Nirada Prabhu one time, he was giving a lecture on book distribution. He said, “The only real thing I’m doing when I’m going on a book distribution, I’m just trying not to stand in the way of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy.” So, if we have that vision, then we can actually see ourselves, our Krishna using us as an instrument and actually doing something, which is actually transcendental.

Giriraj Swami: I mean, what I’m going to say is, I don’t know how it could be applied, but Srila Prabhupada did give the idea that the temple should be the center of the community, and then around the temple are the brahmans, and then kshatriyas, and vaishyas. And he, sort of, gave that kind of a blueprint, but I have no idea if or how it could be applied.

Prabhupada wrote in one letter about unity and diversity, that the GBC members and other senior devotees should meet in Mayapur and discuss how to achieve unity and diversity. And the unity comes from our common purpose of serving Srila Prabhupada and the Pancha-tattva, and the diversity comes from our individuality, and both are necessary.

But again, we come to the point of the leaders coming together and discussing. It’s true that pretty much everything flows from the leadership, and so the leaders have a special responsibility. His Holiness Radhanath Swami mentioned that yes, coming to the temple will elevate people to a certain point, but it’s really the association of devotees that will affect their hearts.

And in one conversation, Srila Prabhupada asked some disciples about why we are successful, and some of the disciples replied, “Well, because of your books.” And Srila Prabhupada answered, “So many societies have books.” He said, “What makes us successful is when people see that we are leading the ideal lives that are described in the books.”

And I guess we are back to what His Holiness Prahaladananda Swami said, “Just surrendering and praying to either be instruments for Lord Chaitanya’s and Srila Prabhupada’s mercy, or at least not get in the way of the flow of their mercy.” Hare Krishna.

Bhakti Charu Swami: Hare Krishna. Well, when so much has been spoken, I was wondering what else I can add to that, but at the same time, I was thinking, the first thing is that your question is very, very pertinent, very relevant, and it’s a very loaded question also, because we are dealing with our world headquarters, and you are one of the leaders there.

You see, the leadership can be of two types. One is the individual personality; everyone looks up to him, and the other is the collective form of management. When you have one leader who everyone abides by, everyone looks up to, it’s easy, but the real challenge is when you don’t have that kind of leader. And Prabhupada has given us actually the formula, and that formula is that of collective management through the GBC.

And we saw, at the beginning also, Srila Prabhupada created a different kind of management in Mayapur, whereas all other temples had the temple presidents. Prabhupada had co-directors in Mayapur. We can see that Prabhupada could see that Mayapur being the world headquarters had to have this collective form of management.

And it’s a big challenge for you all, because devotees are coming from all different parts of the world, and it’s in the heart of Bengal, so the Bengali influence is very prominent. And to overcome that, we have to transcend the bodily platform and what is needed, the most important consideration is to create that spiritual environment where everyone is motivated to achieve their spiritual goal.

Another consideration, another challenge in Mayapur is that living is easy. It costs less money, you can get servants, maid servants. So, another temptation is there, to settle down in Mayapur and have an easy life. And it is a challenge and you have to see that Mayapur doesn’t become a seat of that kind of a culture, where everyone is coming to have an easy life, work in the West for one month and live in Mayapur for the rest of the year.

And so, how do we face that challenge and how do you overcome that problem? The only way is a very solid injection of Krishna consciousness, meaning preaching. The leaders have to remind all the residents of Mayapur why they are here in Krishna consciousness, why they are here in the world headquarters. And the goal should be very, very clear. Our goal is to become Krishna consciousness and serve Srila Prabhupada’s mission to the best of our ability, to spread Krishna consciousness all over the world.

Devotee: Who likes to ask the next question? We actually have a little change in the program. We are supposed to go up to seven o’clock, but we will go up to midnight. [laughter] If it’s okay with everybody else. We can go a little over, right? No problem. The cows are waiting for us, so as soon as we finish here, we go and visit the cows. How many of you like to ask questions? Just so I have an idea. So, we have Revati Raman Prabhu. How many of you? So, we also have a frame of reference for the time. Well, let’s start with Revati Raman Prabhu, then if there are more. . .

Devotee: Hare Krishna. Thank you, Maharajas, especially Radhanath Swami. The whole day it was like a festival, so nice. Morning class on leadership through Bhāgavatam, and then on sadhana, then a question answers, now again the question answers. What a wonderful experience.

Now, my question is, Srila Prabhupada says again and again, “Purity is the force. Without purity, you cannot achieve things.” So, in one place, Prabhupada says, śuci-sadma, uncontaminated purity. So, I would like to hear from you people, from you Maharajas, what is this uncontaminated purity compared to purity?

Radhanath Swami: In our tradition, we are meant to follow in the footsteps of the residents of Vrindavan. Their love is unmotivated by egoism, by selfishness, uninterrupted by any situation that may come. Their goal is simply to please Krishna. To please Krishna, to love Krishna, that’s the sādhya of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo

yato bhaktir adhokṣaje

ahaituky apratihatā

yayātmā suprasīdati

Supreme dharma is that which brings unconditional, unmotivated loving devotional service to Lord Krishna, to inspire each other and keep that goal as always the factor that we orchestrate all our decisions around. Srila Prabhupada made it simple. It’s not so simple to apply, but it’s simple in principle. When he was reading the commentary of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura to

vyavasāyātmikā buddhir

ekeha kuru-nandana

bahu-śākhā hy anantāś ca

buddhayo ‘vyavasāyinām

That those who are on this path Krishna says are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one., The intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched.

And Srila Prabhupada explained from Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, it means to make the order of the spiritual master our life and soul. So, Srila Prabhupada’s ultimate order to all of us is to love Krishna with unconditional, unmotivated love, to give our lives for the pleasure of Krishna. And individually, collectively, we should make all of our decisions and all of our plan making and everything else in such a way that it’s favorable for us to make progress toward that unmotivated, uninterrupted, no selfishness, no egoism, for the pleasure of Krishna.

Prahladananda Swami: I don’t know if it’s completely on the topic, but I guess it couldn’t be completely off the topic, but in Bhagavad-gītā, there are four essential verses beginning with

ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo

mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate

iti matvā bhajante māṁ

budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ

So, Krishna talks about bhāva, which is an advanced stage of Krishna consciousness, and He says that bhāva comes when we realize how everything is coming from Krishna, and that Krishna is the source of everything attractive. In order to learn that, we hear from the devotees who are realized about their experience, we could say bhāva, or their realization of how wonderful Krishna is. And when we become inspired by their words, we either become satisfied that this is really the goal of my life when we make advancement, or we become ecstatic, if we are actually already on a higher platform of devotional service.

But in any case, by hearing from such advanced devotees, then we become inspired to render undeviated, prītipūrvaka enthusiastic devotional service to Krishna, and as soon as Krishna sees that, that’s what we want. We want to remain steadily on the path of devotional service, give up some of our unwanted habits, we want to increase our enthusiasm.

As Prahlada Maharaja said, I actually don’t want anything, I just want to remain ever more steadily and enthusiastically fixed in devotional service. Then Krishna, He reciprocates, just like He is reciprocating with every living entity, but He especially likes to reciprocate with those desires, and He gives us the intelligence how to render evermore fixed and enthusiastic service.

And when we accept that intelligence, then Krishna gives us supreme mercy by purifying our heart of any tendency other than those things, He simplifies our life so we become fixed on unalloyed, enthusiastic, uninterrupted devotional service, and then, gradually, Krishna has revealed the whole philosophy that we are hearing theoretically. It becomes our life, and therefore, unalloyed, uninterrupted service to Krishna, we simply wake up again and find out that is our life, it’s not some novel, unique, unattainable goal of life, but that is everyone’s natural life, that’s what life means. And besides that, we are just more or less asleep.

Giriraj Swami: Well, there are those six factors, utsāhān niścayād dhairyāt. And Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that dhairyāt, patience, is necessary. Without patience, one cannot do any internal work.

And karmis have their goals, they want to enjoy sense gratification. Jnanis have their goals, they want to merge into impersonal Brahman. And devotees also have their goal, and their goal is to please Krishna. And how do we know when Krishna is pleased? Generally, Srila Prabhupada gave two answers. On a number of occasions, he gave two answers. One is, you’ll know that Krishna is pleased when you see Him. When He is pleased, He will reveal Himself to you. And the other way is if the spiritual master is pleased. And to please the spiritual master, we have to try to follow his instructions.

I grew up in Krishna consciousness with the understanding that our success is to follow the instructions of the spiritual master, but then I heard Srila Prabhupada say, “Your success is that I give an instruction and you try to follow it.” We can’t even be sure we’ll be able to follow it, but our success is if we try to follow it.

And in that context, we don’t really discriminate in terms of what I like personally or what I don’t like personally, but we just see everything as an opportunity to serve Guru and Krishna and please them. And to illustrate this point, once, His Holiness Bhakti Svarupa Damodara Swami said to Srila Prabhupada, “I have just one department and there are so many problems. I can’t even imagine how many problems you must have, managing a whole worldwide society with so many departments.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Problems? I don’t see any problems. I see only service to my Guru Maharaja.” Hare Krishna.

Bhakti Charu Swami: It’s wonderful. So many beautiful points are coming out, and this is actually how we should spend all our time. Kṛṣṇa-kathā, to enhance our spiritual life and motivate each other, inspire each other, encourage each other, help each other. So, again. It’s a wonderful question that you asked. Again, that shows your sincerity that what is that absolute purity that Prabhupada is speaking about. Did you use the expression unalloyed purity, or uncontaminated? Uncontaminated purity.

So, I was actually reflecting on what is actually our impurity, to understand what is that absolute purity, that unalloyed, uncontaminated purity, pure purity? So, the impurity is the covering of the heart, soul. And that is the desire to exploit this material nature. Our involvement is matter is the impurity, and the purity is the soul’s inherent desire to serve Krishna.

So, there are two considerations, actually. Material and spiritual. What is material? Prabhupada is saying, where we put ourselves in the center, that is material. And where Krishna is the center, that is spiritual. So, where we do not have any desire to gratify our senses or fulfill our desires for sense gratification? When there is no tinge of that desire, but complete desire, perfect desire to serve Krishna. And that is the ultimate consideration of purity.

And that actually takes us back to Rupa Gosvami’s instruction, “Always remember Krishna, never forget Him.” So, that is the state of absolute purity, where our entire existence is simply meant to serve Krishna, and there is no consideration of our own selfish interest, selfish desire to exploit the material nature. Thank you very much, Hare Krishna.

Devotee: On the topic of sadhana, since the topic is sadhana for leaders, I just wanted to hear from all of you, any specific periods where you felt that it was extremely challenging to perform the sadhana? And what could be those kinds of situations, which any person in leadership positions may face?

Radhanath Swami: I found that when there are serious reversals in life, that’s usually the best time for sadhana, because you really understand the urgent need to take shelter of a power beyond your own. And when things go really well, sometimes we do our sadhana, but it’s quite complacent. And we learn from Srila Prabhupada in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that we should perform our sadhana with a real sense of urgency, with a real sense of need, and find the joy of really, deeply connecting with Krishna in a helpless state of mind.

Challenges come when I’m really ill sometimes, it’s very difficult when there are emergency crises going on in other people’s lives and we are trying to help to resolve that, like Bhakti Charu Maharaja was saying. Of course, that was the highest service he was doing. But there are endless reasons to be distracted, and it’s essential for each and every one of us to have the association of strong devotees who can refocus us on what is really, really our connection with Prabhupada and Krishna.

Prahaladananda Swami: Probably the greatest time I had, a challenge in sadhana was when I first joined the movement, because we had no sadhana. At that time, our sadhana was to try to get up at five o’clock in the morning, and then we had a ceremony called bells, because that was the only ceremony we knew, which was just to ring a bell and offer some incense to the Deities.

As soon as I joined the movement, they made me the head pūjārī, as soon as I moved in. The only problem was, I didn’t know who the Deities were. [laughter] I moved to the temple in January, 1969. So, I asked Bhurijana, who was the previous head pūjārī, who the Deities were, and I think maybe he was kidding with me, but he said he didn’t know either. [laughter]

It was until Prabhupada came in, I think it was April, 1969, I got a chance to ask Prabhupada who the Deities were. [laughter] So, he told me, “Oh, Lord Jagannatha, He is Krishna.” “Oh, that’s good, I’m worshiping Krishna.” And then, when I was a head pūjārī, but we didn’t know how to do an ārati until Brahmananda spoke to our temple president, Rupanuga, and he described ārati to him for the first time. But he didn’t tell us how long it would take. So, I offered the first ārati and it took two hours. [laughter] I think it was a half an hour offering the incense. So, I thought, If we are going to do ārati, it’s going to be a real challenge for sadhana.

But, of course, later on, I mean, I find that every day is actually a challenge for sadhana. I mean, I could have externally, it seems to be a fairly regulated sadhana, but how much interest I actually take in the sadhana I’m performing really, greatly varies from day to day.

Sometimes I’m actually even remembering some of the lines of the Gurv-aṣṭaka prayers that we are singing, what it actually means rather than just sing it, waiting for it to get over with, or listening to the sound of the person who’s singing and judging whether it sounds sweet or not or palatable to my ears, rather than actually entering to the meaning of the verses and remembering that tulasi is actually the greatest devotee of Krishna rather than some plant I’m dancing around. Actually, this is an opportunity to chant sixteen rounds rather than struggle with my mind for two hours.

So, I mean, I find every day is actually a challenge. Sometimes it’s more of a challenge and sometimes less of a challenge. But I’m just happy that I can have that challenge every day. Whether or not, how well I meet it is another thing.

Giriraj Swami: The situation of having little time for sadhana and going deeply into one’s sadhana, it can happen. I mean, sometimes when we were under the attack in Juhu, we had to deal with so many crises that sometimes, we couldn’t have the full quota of time that we would usually take, but because we were so dependent on mercy to meet the challenge, the time we spent chanting rounds, which sometimes was basically all we had time to do. I mean, we were chanting very intensely to get guidance on how to deal with the situation.

And as Queen Kunti prayed to Lord Krishna, welcoming the calamities. Because actually, the calamities can help us see Krishna, and seeing Krishna means we no longer have to see repeated birth and death. And in one purport, Srila Prabhupada comments that the scriptures say that even by once chanting the holy name of the Lord, one can destroy the reactions to more sins than one can commit.

There is not the least exaggeration in such statements, but there is a quality to the chanting, and if someone is materially satisfied, he can’t really chant with feeling. But one who feels helpless and dependent can chant with feeling. So, whatever situation we are in, we may be in the illusion that we are alright, but actually, we are never alright. We are always in a very precarious situation, and we always need more mercy. And if we take the orders of the spiritual master seriously and really try to help people through Krishna consciousness, we need immense mercy to empower us. And therefore, we have to take very earnest shelter in the holy name and Krishna. Hare Krishna.

Bhakti Charu Swami: Thank you for such a nice question.

Actually, this word sadhana means the means to achieve siddhi. Siddhi is perfection, and sadhana is the means to achieve perfection. And in our devotional life, we have two specific phases. One is the initial phase when you are practicing to become fixed up in your devotional service, and then comes a stage when we spontaneously do things out of our love for Krishna. Because the siddhi actually, the perfection, is to develop that unalloyed love for Krishna. So, the purpose of all our sadhana is actually to develop that love for Krishna, and when we develop our love for Krishna, then all that we do becomes spontaneous out of that love.

For example, initially, I was reflecting on the fact that one of my biggest problems when I joined the movement was to get up at four o’clock. And my roommate at that time, one of my godbrothers, [Unintelligible 00:53:52] Prabhu, used to get up at 3:30, and he used to go take a bath, and then he used to come. When he was going, he used to wake me up, and I used to still laze around. Then he would come back after taking his bath, and then still, I was lying in bed. So, he used to, practically, drag me out of my bed. And, of course, those were wonderful days, the memories of those days were very, very sweet.

But that was a phase it was a struggle to, kind of, do those things, get up in the morning, attend maṅgala-ārati. And then, gradually, we come to a stage when we. . . I generally get up at 2:00, 2:30 every morning. I mean, now it’s not a problem at all. So, initially, you do things out of compulsion mixed with some sort of fear, “If I don’t go, then what will everybody think? I probably won’t get prasāda.” Because that was one of the considerations in Mayapur in those days. If you didn’t attend maṅgala-ārati, you won’t get breakfast. But then it comes to a stage when we learn to spontaneously do things, as you are saying, what is a leader’s, kind of, approach towards this sadhana.

And so, the point is whatever we are practicing at the perfected stage, we continue to do that. It’s not that when you become advanced, you give up. We may not do the same things, say a twenty-five-year-old brahmachari, the way he is looking at his sadhana, a very senior devotee, at a, kind of, mature age won’t be performing the same thing. But his activities will be so exemplary.

I know many devotees, I mean, at least some of our leaders, they get up very early in the morning, they don’t really attend the maṅgala-ārati, but they write. Anyway, there is no need to mention names. So, he may not be going to maṅgala-ārati, but he is doing things, which is, actually his service to Krishna. So, the leaders will deal with these situations in a spontaneous way, and the other devotees also look up to that with proper understanding and appreciation.

To give an example, I mean, I’ve never seen Prabhupada attending maṅgala-ārati. I mean, when I joined, Prabhupada was not well. So, devotees will come to a stage when they are old and they won’t be able to do things like a regular young brahmachari would do. So, you shouldn’t expect also that a leader must also, kind of, behave like a twenty-five-year-old brahmachari when he is sixty-five or seventy-five years old, but at the same time, their activity should be so exemplary that the followers will look up to them with absolute appreciation for what they are doing.