CC Adi 7.92 – Tasting and Distributing Krishna Consciousness

Giriraj Swami: 

jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda
jayādvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, Chapter Seven

TEXT 92

nāca, gāo, bhakta-saṅge kara saṅkīrtana

kṛṣṇa-nāma upadeśi’ tāra’ sarva-jana

COMMENT

So to give a little background before I read the translation, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who is Krishna himself, who descended in the age of Kali in the role of a devotee had received the Hare Krishna maha-mantra from his spiritual master and by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, without offence, he developed many symptoms of ecstatic love for Krishna, including [0:05:41.6 Unintelligible] dancing wildly without caring for others, and he thought that by chanting the mantra he had become mad, and so he consulted his spiritual master. And Srila Prabhupada explains that these symptoms are possible for a devotee only on the liberated platform. But even on the liberated platform Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu consulted his spiritual master. That means that even in the liberated stage one is always under the guidance of his spiritual master. And Lord Chaitanya’s spiritual master replied, “My dear child, I am very pleased with you. These are symptoms of ecstatic Godhead which is the ultimate goal of life.” And then he came to this instruction, very important instruction, which is not only should you yourself chant and dance in the association of devotees but you should instruct others and in this way deliver them as well. So I will read the translation and then Anuttama Prabhu will read the purport and speak. 

TRANSLATION

“ ‘My dear child, continue dancing, chanting and performing saṅkīrtana in association with devotees. Furthermore, go out and preach the value of chanting kṛṣṇa-nāma, for by this process You will be able to deliver all fallen souls.’

Anuttama dasa:

PURPORT by His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! 

It is another ambition of the spiritual master to see his disciples not only chant, dance and follow the regulative principles but also preach the saṅkīrtana movement to others in order to deliver them, for the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is based on the principle that one should become as perfect as possible in devotional service oneself and also preach the cult for others’ benefit. There are two classes of unalloyed devotees — namely, goṣṭhy-ānandīs and bhajanānandīs. Bhajanānandī refers to one who is satisfied to cultivate devotional service for himself, and goṣṭhy-ānandī is one who is not satisfied simply to become perfect himself but wants to see others also take advantage of the holy name of the Lord and advance in spiritual life. The outstanding example is Prahlāda Mahārāja. When he was offered a benediction by Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, Prahlāda Mahārāja said:

naivodvije para duratyaya-vaitaraṇyās

tvad-vīrya-gāyana-mahāmṛta-magna-cittaḥ

śoce tato vimukha-cetasa indriyārtha-

māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān

“My dear Lord, I have no problems and want no benediction from You because I am quite satisfied to chant Your holy name. This is sufficient for me because whenever I chant I immediately merge in an ocean of transcendental bliss. I only lament to see others bereft of Your love. They are rotting in material activities for transient material pleasure and spoiling their lives toiling all day and night simply for sense gratification, with no attachment for love of Godhead. I am simply lamenting for them and devising various plans to deliver them from the clutches of māyā.” (Bhāg. 7.9.43)

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura explains in his Anubhāṣya, “A person who has attracted the attention of the spiritual master by his sincere service likes to dance and chant with similarly developed Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees. The spiritual master authorizes such a devotee to deliver fallen souls in all parts of the world. Those who are not advanced prefer to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra in a solitary place.” Such activities constitute, in the language of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, a type of cheating process in the sense that they imitate the activities of exalted personalities like Haridāsa Ṭhākura. One should not attempt to imitate such exalted devotees. Rather, everyone should endeavor to preach the cult of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu in all parts of the world and thus become successful in spiritual life. One who is not very expert in preaching may chant in a secluded place, avoiding bad association, but for one who is actually advanced, preaching and meeting people who are not engaged in devotional service are not disadvantages. A devotee gives the nondevotees his association but is not affected by their misbehavior. Thus by the activities of a pure devotee even those who are bereft of love of Godhead get a chance to become devotees of the Lord one day. In this connection Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura advises that one discuss the verse in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam beginning naitat samācarej jātu manasāpi hy anīśvaraḥ (10.33.30), and the following verse in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.2.255):

anāsaktasya viṣayān yathārham upayuñjataḥ

nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate

One should not imitate the activities of great personalities. One should be detached from material enjoyment and should accept everything in connection with Kṛṣṇa’s service.

COMMENT

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! 

oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

śrī-caitanya-mano-’bhīṣṭaṁ sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale
svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ dadāti sva-padāntikam

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

So I am grateful to be in this beautiful temple. So many devotees here contributed in so many different ways to manifesting Prabhupada’s desire for beautiful temple here. So you all made a lot of sacrifice in terms of time and energy and certainly money, and it is much appreciated by the congregation of course but also visitors like myself and people around the country. I will just mention briefly, I mentioned this morning during Bhāgavatam class and we will talk about this more in a minute. We had a very special program in Washington DC, I will describe it later, and in the incoming venue the hallway entering this event with many VIPs etc., we had big banners about six feet by four feet high, and we wanted to really make a positive impression on everyone as they entered this special gala event. So we needed a spectacular picture of an ISKCON temple to make a spectacular impression on the minds of all these devotees and guests who were coming.

So by Krishna’s grace someone found a spectacular picture of this spectacular temple. From the top of the cultural hall looking at the temple was probably a picture that is around and people must have the same picture with the sun setting in the background, all kinds of flags running between the two buildings and tents and thousands of people, so it is really very spectacular. So we put that on the banner and then one devotee said, “You have to say that is Houston ISKCON or else people are going to think it is an ancient glorious temple in India, when actually it is the new glorious temple in Texas.” So we put that on so everyone would see that it really helped to set the mood. So on behalf of devotees in Washington DC, thank you for loaning us the picture of your temple so we can make a big impression. And please pray for the devotees in Washington because we are also in the process right now I am trying to build a beautiful temple, and we have a few more complications in terms of our land is on a big hill. We own twelve acres but we can only use two and a half acres, so we have a few additional challenges. So we need prayers. Please pray that Sri Sri Radha Nilamadhava that we can build a beautiful temple there, please. Okay, thank you.

So this is a beautiful verse here, just a few thoughts. I am very much eager to hearing Maharaja’s insights on this. A very beautiful verse about the desire, particularly of the spiritual master. For each of us that the guru wants to see the disciples advance nicely. We just had a three-day course of what it means to be a disciple in the ISKCON movement. So here Prabhupada has particularly emphasizes that the spiritual master wants to see the devotees, the disciples, advance in their own practice of Krishna consciousness; their own hearing and their chanting and their enthusiasm to serve the Lord and practice their own bhajan and practice their own sadhana. But then in particular, that the guru also wants the disciples to carry the mission forward. We are discussing for the last few days that to make serious progress in spiritual life one should except the spiritual master. Prabhupada also said that he was asked one time, “When do you begin to get the mercy of the guru? Is it first initiation, second initiation, sannyasi, when does it start? And Prabhupada responded, “When you begin to follow his instructions, that is where the mercy starts.”

And we see that often many devotees don’t get initiated, officials take initiation for some period of time but still making tremendous spiritual progress, contributing many ways to the movement and we know Prabhupada himself didn’t get initiated until eleven years after he met spiritual master, but he described he took the instructions of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura into his heart and at that point, from then on, he began serving him and meditating how he could execute his order. So it is an important principle Vaishnava tradition or Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, that once you accept the direction, the instruction, the shelter, of the spiritual master as Prabhupada described here because it is understood that the guru is the representative of Krishna. This is the way that Krishna helps us in this world. He sends his representatives, he comes in the form of a holy name, he comes to us in the form of the deity, he comes to us as a temple, he comes to us as shastra, he comes to us as the association devotees and he also most importantly comes to us as a spiritual master, śikhā—instructor guru as well as dīkṣā—initiating guru. 

And it is very important, the instructions of the spiritual master, because the guru represents Krishna and therefore we understand that the guru’s desire is the same as Krishna’s desire. Not that the guru comes up with whatever idea he wants and that is therefore Krishna’s desire but the opposite. Krishna has His desires because the guru is giving us those same instructions his desire is not different from Krishna’s. So therefore he gives us insight how to make progress in spiritual life, how to purify ourselves from the different distractions, different temptations, allurements, misconceptions, and how to awaken our love of Krishna. So here this particular verse, Prabhupada is giving some very important insight especially as Vaishnavas, devotees of the Lord and especially as Gaudiya Vaishnavas as devotees of the Lord Chaitanya. Because we know from the shastra, Lord Chaitanya came with a specific purpose which was to make this the process of Bhakti or awakening love of God, accessible to everyone throughout the world. And we know of course Srila Prabhupada was that specially empowered devotee who took that message of Lord Chaitanya and established ISKCON communities and brought the tradition of chanting Krishna’s name and awakening their love for Krishna around the world. 

So here Prabhupada is particularly describing to all of us, that is another ambition of the spiritual master, to see the disciples not only chant, dance, and follow the regulation, but also to preach the saṅkīrtana movement to others in order to deliver them. For the Krishna conscious movement is based on the principle that one should become as perfect as possible in devotional service oneself and also preach the cause for others benefit. So this is our mission of mercy, this is the Krishna conscious movement. It is like this temple we are talking about this morning. We shouldn’t think that this temple is the end of the process. You have all worked hard for many years to plan the structure, to raise money for the structure and supervise the construction of the structure, beautiful gardens and all the restaurants opened, and so many wonderful things are here; that is the beginning. For those of you that might be thinking, “Okay the temple is done now I can sit back.” No, because Prabhupada has describe it here, the temple is not really for us. Even in terms of our worshiping deities and deities are beautifully worshipped, they are very opulent but we understand Krishna is the husband of the goddess of fortune. I don’t think those are real gold jewelry because Prabhupada told us not to do that. But even if they were, how important would that gold be to God. That is what is important.

So chances are, I don’t know but they are some type of other beads made from different items oftentimes they are plastics or resins and things like that which when we offer them in devotion Krishna is very pleased. What pleases him is the devotion not the opulence of the thing but the devotion is there. So the same way we build big beautiful temples like this, Krishna is pleased by our effort but what is the purpose of the temple? Krishna doesn’t need this temple. To [Unintelligible] City it is a big huge opulent temple; he is the Supreme Lord. The universe has come out of this plenary expansion so the whole universe is insignificant to him. 

So what to speak of whatever we can offer through our temple, or our flowers, or our little puja where we put five dollars in the box or the thousand dollars in a box or five hundred thousand dollars in the box, that is not important to him really. Of course we need to do all these things for our own benefit but what really matters to Krishna is our devotion. So in a similar way we built this temple as an expression of our devotion but what is the next step? If we say okay we are done, Krishna is glad, now we can sit back [Unintelligible] after you have built a temple everybody is delivered three generations backwards, three generations forward. That is in your biological family very nice so can you deliver a hundred people according to that verse? What about the other three hundred, some million people in America? What about the other fourteen million people who live in Houston? That is a real world so that is being described here. And sometimes an analogy is given, just like a doctor, if someone was to go to medical school. Just imagine you go to medical school and you study so many years, your undergraduate program, your graduate program, you went to medical school internship, residency, and then when you are fully qualified you say, “I feel really good about myself. I am just going to go home and think about what a wonderful job I have done accumulating my degrees.” Is that such a good idea? No, because now you are a doctor, now you are trained, now you know how to help people, so you have to go do that. Sometimes there are cases where people maybe fulfill their degrees and some other thing comes up they can’t offer that service, but generally if you have that medical knowledge then it is time to go and share with others. So in the same way if we are becoming Krishna conscious, as we are becoming Krishna conscious, and the more we will become the Krishna conscious, we also have this responsibility to try to share with others. 

And also I mentioned this morning an example came to mind, the first child born in that Hare Krishna movement was Sarasvati who was Malati’s daughter, and when she was just a little girl of two or three years old she would go up to people and say Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And Prabhupada was very pleased with that because even with her very limited capacity she was sharing this knowledge on Krishna consciousness. So here this verse is pointing this out that the spiritual master, our founder acharya, Lord Chaitanya himself as Krishna, they want to see us advance in our Krishna consciousness. But equally and perhaps more importantly, they want to see us share with others. That doesn’t mean we become proud or pushy or condescending or aggressive, that means we become compassionate, we become merciful, we become humble, we understand, we see ourselves as the servants of others, because anyone that that we approach or anyone we talk to whether it is in our office or it is on the bus or it is the policeman or it is the person we are paying the parking fee or the office or whatever it is, they are also devotees of Krishna. 

I agree much as we are devotees of Krishna, they are also devotees of Krishna because they are just a little more forgetful than we are. And we don’t know how long they have been here. They might have forgotten Krishna for one lifetime and maybe they are going to take up the process very quickly, we don’t know. Consequently, we may have been here for five hundred creations of the universes, billions and trillions of years and we finally took up Krishna consciousness, and I am thinking, I am so much more advanced than they are. We see sometimes in our temples some new devotee comes off the street or whatever, comes for the first time to the temple and sometimes we see people that very quickly advance in Krishna consciousness, and others of us maybe we don’t advance so quickly so we can’t be taken in some bodily concept of life. “Well I am more senior to this person.” Seniority is there we have our [Unintelligible] but sometimes that new person just catapults in terms of their Krishna consciousness, takes on so much responsibility, so much hard work, so many sacrifices, and sometimes we are just thinking, Wow how do they do that? 

I have been working hard for so many years and I am still held back, I still don’t feel myself so sincerely. So of course we don’t become discouraged by that, we should become a little humble. So the same way we should think because Prabhupada came from the most exalted place which is Vrindavan. He came to practically one of the most degraded places in the whole world. He went to the boundary towards the New York City lower east side, and not just the lower east side, and then he went to the [Unintelligible] to get into his place. Sometimes people would literally die in the streets in front of where he was staying, very degrading place, but he went there because Krishna led him there to spread Krishna consciousness. And he was so humble and so faithful a person, believing that these people are also devotees of Krishna and I can wake them up. Lord Chaitanya wanted to wake them up. So that is our founder acharya, that is Srila Prabhupada, that was his mercy and that is why we are all devotees today. 

Maharaja has some of the wonderful stories and pastimes when he was with Prabhupada, saw Prabhupada preaching so many wonderful amazing ways, and we are coming in Prabhupada’s line, direct disciples, and grand disciples; in the future there will be disciples and disciples and disciples but the mission remains the same. And one thing that is so wonderful about Krishna consciousness is described in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, the more you give the more you get. In material consciousness if there is a job opening at the office, there is an executive president office opens, there is one position; that means either you get it or she gets it or he gets it. You can’t all get it. And that leads sometimes to a very kind of aggressive competition, sometimes often office politics. Do we take [Unintelligible] to the president the next time you see what a bum this other person is. Is that true or do we [Unintelligible] “Remember that favor you owe me, well tell him that I did that project instead of [Unintelligible] of life limited amounts of rewards sometimes lead to some kind of selfish and harmful competition but spiritual life is not like that. Krishna consciousness, the love of God is not like that. The more we give love on Krishna the more we can love of Krishna even though we may be unqualified in so many ways. So that is being described here and also particularly as disciples and followers of Srila Prabhupada we can see how Prabhupada has tried so many things. Prabhupada tried a few things, it didn’t work; we shouldn’t think that everything Prabhupada tried worked. 

There is a famous story where Prabhupada was in the west, initially he was encouraging all his disciples to go out of the streets and chant and then when they first went back to India Prabhupada said continue the same tradition, go on the streets and chant. That is the yuga-dharma, chanting Hare Krishna. So devotees went on the streets and they came back, and Prabhupada asked how did it go? And they said it was great they loved us they all threw money at us. Then Prabhupada said stop them immediately because in India, who do you throw money to? Beggars, so he said, they think you are beggars so stop; it worked in the west but it is not working here. So he modified things, he adjusted things. He didn’t change the essential core principles but he modified it; time, place, and circumstance. So then he started the life membership programs, go to respectable people’s homes or businesses, present my books and this is when he adjusted the strategy a little bit. And of course later re-established chanting; you go to India there are some wonderful hari-nāma parties, people are more aware of it, they appreciate it, they have joined the center but time, place; he had to change it. 

So in a similar way we should all be asking Krishna, praying to Krishna, praying to our guru Maharaja, praying to Srila Prabhupada, please help me understand what are the unique gifts that you have given to me because each and every one of us, we are unique individual spiritual beings, we have a unique individual relationship with our guru and with Krishna and with every other living being, and we have unique ways to spread the Krishna conscious movement. None are better, none are worse, all are important because they come from our heart and when Krishna sees we are endeavoring to please Him with our heart, we may think it is small not so important but some of those small so-called not so important actions have a huge effect upon people. Would you just keep in mind how much people are suffering in the world and even we may think, Okay I am not big, I can’t go out and sell so many books. Prabhupada said sell books; maybe I am not supposed to sell the books but you are good at smiling at your co-worker and telling them good morning, that is also an expression of Krishna consciousness. 

One time Prabhupada was on a morning walk he was walking down the street. There was a man sitting in his car with the window rolled up looking kind of glum. Prabhupada walked over knocked down the door. I think the first day he walked by, the second day he walked over knocked on the window. The man rolled down his window, and Prabhupada said, “Good morning.” The man said good morning and Prabhupada continued on his morning walk. There is a wonderful story in Philadelphia. They were living in a duplex house, with this little temple on the side. They went out on the morning walk with Prabhupada, he walked down the walk, turned left on the sidewalk and then U turned right back up to the joining house. There was a little old lady was living there, I think by herself, (we are going to shoot Prabhu who tells the story) and to all the boys who were entering, what is Prabhupada going to tell her? You are old, you are going to die soon, you have got to chant Hare Krishna, you have to get up and go for maṅgala-ārati next door; what is he going to say to her? He is going to preach to her and in the words of her business using the terminology of the era he said, “It blew our minds.” Prabhupada just proceeded to have old people talk with her, like how many children do you have? How many teeth do you have? Whatever, I don’t know the specific count but he reached out to her and made friends with her and it is hard for us to understand what were Prabhupada’s thoughts at that time. 

I would think perhaps in part he is thinking this elderly person’s next to this little half house full of twenty year old recent converts to Hare Krishna movement that jumped and danced and played drums at four o’clock, and maybe this old lady should meet at least one reasonable person among the Hare Krishna movement. He might have been thinking something like that but either way we are going to display that there was the whole conversation. Because Prabhupada was reaching out according to time and place. So the same way here it is described, the spiritual master wants us to spread devotional service, spread Krishna consciousness.

So we know we have been asked to distribute Prabhupada’s literatures, to go on hari-nāma, to build beautiful temples, to invite people to temple, but also in terms of our daily activities people should see, they should ask, “This Hare Krishna person seems a little different. How come when there is office politics this Krishna person doesn’t get so involved. Why is it when there are sometimes cut-throat activities in terms of who is going to get the promotion they seem to be rather content to let things happen the way they happen? Why is it when everybody is struggling to try to get credit and play King of the Hill and drag the other person down, they actually share credit? Why is it they actually seem a little satisfied inside and not so aggressive in terms of their relationships with other people? Because after a while when you live like that in the neighborhood and in the family and in the community, in the office, people start asking. They pull you aside at lunch they say, “Hey Rajiv, Paul or whatever it is, what is with you? What is your secret?” 

You say, “What do you mean?” “You never get angry. So and so just took credit for the whole project in front of the boss and you didn’t get angry. What is going on?” “Well, I just think of Krishna. I am offering it to Krishna the results also go through and they start inquiring. “I noticed you when you bought some lunch you kind of like. . . What are those beads you are carrying around with you? Is that part of your secret?” “Yes it is.” “Can you teach me?” “I am not sure; you really want to know?” “Yes, I want to know. Does it work?” That is also preaching. There is a wonderful expression, I will stop with this, beautiful expression from St Francis, a very famous, historical, and important Christian Saint who said “You should preach all day long and when necessary also say a few words.” Very wise. So in the same spirit let us preach all day long and when necessary say a few words, not that we talk all day long and our actions say something else. They say our actions are louder than words so we preach with our voices, we preach with our bodies, we preach with our hearts, try to really attract people to Krishna in any way and everywhere we can. 

Giriraj Swami:

oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

śrī-caitanya-mano-’bhīṣṭaṁ sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale
svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ dadāti sva-padāntikam

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

It is a great honor and pleasure and privilege to be with His Grace Anuttama Prabhu and all of you here, thinking of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada. I recently listened to talk by Srila Prabhupada in which he spoke about the six Gosvamis of Vrindavan. It was an amusingly long talk about an hour and twenty minutes, and he spoke about one verse of the Sad-Gosvami-Astakam, the eighth verses glorifying the six Gosvamis. The first verse, krishnotkirtana-gana-nartana-parau nirmatsarau pujitau; krishnotkirtana means loud kirtan. And he made the point that what we are doing today in the Krishna consciousness movement is exactly what the six Gosvamis did, which in turn is exactly what Lord Caitanya did. And he made that point again and again in different ways, that we are doing the same things, nothing different and so, krishnotkirtana gana-nartana-parau, chanting and dancing, nirmatsarau pujitau, nirmatsarau means they are free from envy, and therefore they were worshipable.

Srila Prabhupada says one can be free from envy only if he is Krishna conscious and therefore he is worshipable. Dhiradhira-jana-priyau, dhira means sober, gental and adhira means ruffian. Dhiradhira-jana-priyau, and they would dare those with the gentle and the ruffians, because they were not envious of anyone. And Srila Prabhupada also demonstrated that in his dealings with all sorts of people. One very nice devotee in Mumbai named Krishna Chandra dasa, he sometimes says that everyone should see the old footage of Srila Prabhupada in America in 1966 and 1967 because you cannot imagine the type of people that Srila Prabhupada was ministering to. They are so beyond the experience of people of his culture or generation and pretty much you have the experience of anyone, that unless you see it you can’t imagine what they were like. But Prabhupada he was very much with them, dhiradhira-jana-priyau. Of course that came later but not only human beings but even animals. He was on the morning walk in Laguna beach and a dog approached the group of devotees who were walking down the street, and the devotees shooed the dog away. And Srila Prabhupada said that Krishna is in the heart of that dog. Anuttama Prabhu was making the point that everyone is a devotee of Krishna, so Krishna is in the heart of that dog. That dog who cares some devotees I can take shelter and Prabhupada was saying we should appreciate that and not just shoo the creature away. 

So Prabhupada was so compassionate. Another time when Srila Prabhupada was in Bhubaneshwar, some of the devotees wanted to go to the zoo with him and Prabhupada, he was very serious and very strict but he also did things just to please people. So he went to the zoo and one of those more rambunctious disciples, they came to the cage with a lion and so that disciple started to rattle the bars of the cage, and Prabhupada was very upset. He said, “Don’t do that; after all he is lion, he is a king.” So Prabhupada saw the best in everyone, he saw the spark in everyone. Now, this point, nirmatsarau, means fee from envy and this was something that Prabhupada spoke about in different ways on different occasions, but there was one time when I felt that I was being plagued by it. It was in Surat India in 1970 and I was really thinking about it, that there is absolutely no benefit, I don’t know about benefit, there is no reason to begin because Krishna is unlimited and therefore Krishna’s service is unlimited, the opportunities to serve Krishna are unlimited. 

So if someone has a particular service why should I be envious because Krishna’s service is unlimited. And on the other hand I could see that envy was disturbing my consciousness, disturbing my relationships, of course I didn’t act on the envy but I would have to struggle with it. So one late morning when Srila Prabhupada was getting his massage, I took the opportunity to ask him about envy and his first response was, “Can you think of any reasons not to be envious?” And I had been thinking about all the reasons not to be envious so I said yes. Then he said, “All right, being envious means you don’t like someone.” So that not liking someone should not be directed towards devotees. That not liking should be directed towards demons who are always causing trouble for devotees in the world. Now this answer makes sense but I think that we should discuss a little what that could mean, because seeing that everyone is ultimately a servant of Krishna, and that the best service to them and to Krishna is to bring them back to Krishna, so we don’t want to deal with them in such a way as to push them away. But that not liking It is said that Jesus Christ said, “Hate the sin and not the sinner,” so that not liking should not be directed against the person per se, but against the behavior or the quality that is detrimental to that person spiritual and detrimental to the world. 

Another thing that Srila Prabhupada said about envy is very relevant to today’s verse and purport, and that is that if you have knowledge and you don’t share it with others you become envious. Just taking the example of the doctor, if he has knowledge that can help cure someone and he doesn’t do it, it is like a type of envy, it is a type of violence. So Srila Prabhupada says, “If you have knowledge and you don’t share it with others you become envious,” And how does that work? Well, everyone has the right to serve Krishna, jivera svarupa hoi krishnera nitya dasa, and to please Krishna to help others we should bring them to Krishna. And if we have that knowledge and we keep it to ourselves, or any knowledge related to that, we become envious. It means we want to be better than others, we want to have something that they don’t have. Whereas the mood of devotee is that whatever he has he wants to share; the more we give the more we get.

So Srila Prabhupada told a story of a famous religious or so-called religious figure in India who, he touched his disciple, his main disciple to transmit to him all of his spiritual knowledge. So that disciple closed his eyes, the guru touched him and then when the disciple opened his eyes the guru was weeping. So the disciple asked, “Why are you weeping?” And the guru said, “Because now I have given all my knowledge to you and I don’t have any left.” So Srila Prabhupada said this is the material conception of spiritual knowledge, the more you give spiritual knowledge the more you get. So that should be our mood somehow or other, and referring to the quotation of St Francis quoted by Anuttama Prabhu, that is actually a very important point that every moment we should be preaching by our example. And Srila Prabhupada said, and it is in Bhāgavatam, that just by appreciating a devotee even if someone doesn’t know that the devotee is a devotee, doesn’t even know what a devotee is, but just by appreciating the devotee they make advance.

Srila Prabhupada says, if someone looks out the window and they see some devotees walking down the street and the person just thinks, They look like very nice people, they make advancement just by appreciating them. And so if we do things that will make people appreciate us, even as simple as smiling at someone and they appreciate that then they make advancement and that can also apply to family members. Dealing with family members who are not devotees can be quite challenging, depending and it can be quite taxing also. But in general, if we act in such a way that they are pleased with us without compromising our principles, they will make advancement even if we don’t preach with words.

There is one incident, it is a little personal but good family here, so I have one sibling who is a sister, and she is quite a dynamic person which could be, anyway she is quite a determined person (she can be very determined) and so she lives in Santa Barbara and one evening, this was before I was going to go back to India after having been away for a long time. So she arranged a dinner for me and maybe one or two devotees and my cousin who also lives in Santa Barbara. It was a big thing and she made everything that I liked; dal, rice, broccoli, I did see a little cartoon on the refrigerator that showed a caveman and his wife, and the caveman says, “I have discovered fire so that you could make broccoli.” But broccoli, it was like a whole spread but the problem was that it was Ekādaśī and I had assumed that the devotee with me, who also had a relationship with my sister would have [Unintelligible].

So there we were, she had put all her heart and soul into and I was really thinking and then maybe my brother yes what is the big thing munching but I was thinking, No; I looked into the future, if I eat this how I am going to feel. And I can say I am going to feel terrible. So my cousin he is a family therapist, he started into Buddhism and now this is related to Buddhism and not being a family therapist, and so I started praising the color, the texture, the presentation, and just showing my appreciation for what she did without eating any of the grains. And my cousin said, “Wow! This is mindfulness, this is what you should try to do, this is what every meal should look like.” So I had what I could, and I forget exactly what happened at the end. Something fortunate happened a little later and my cousin commented that this happened because you stuck to your principles, you did not compromise your principles. 

So you we should be at the mercy of everyone but at the same time there are principles that we cannot compromise. And as His Holiness Radhanath Swami said once, that controllers, they don’t like it if they can’t control you. But if they can control you, they lose respect for you. So he said, don’t do anything because the controller wants you to do it and don’t do anything because the controller doesn’t want you to do it, just do what you want to do or in other words what would please Krishna. Don’t worry about the controller. So yes, we were with Srila Prabhupada, so many circumstances, some awkward, but of course with Prabhupada nothing is rally awkward because he always seems to know what to do. But it is really recently I read a posting from His Holiness Romapada Swami, a few weeks ago, about onions and garlic. Did anyone see that? Yes, well it is a whole story from something Prabhupada said, and then in addition to that His Holiness Romapada Swami quoted some verses from shastra like the terrible results of eating onions and garlic. 

So after the first Delhi pandal, the lady who was the main organizer, one of the main organizers, invited Srila Prabhupada and the devotees to her house. There was a program, a lecture, we had Prabhupada’s books on display. I asked [Unintelligible] presentation of live membership and then after that we went into the house. This was outdoors in the garden, on the lawn, and so it turned out that there were onions in one of the preparations. And mother Malati detected the onions and said, “Oh Srila Prabhupada, you can’t eat this, this has onions.” And Prabhupada smiled and said, “No, there are no onions in this.” She pulled out some and she said, “No Srila Prabhupada, there are.” And he said, “There are no onions in this.” Because she had done a lot of service and he didn’t want to hurt her feelings by rejecting, her offering.

There is so much to learn from the whole paramparā; Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the six Gosvamis and especially Srila Prabhupada, who is our immediate founder acharya. And it is really gratifying that after fifty years of Srila Prabhupada’s arrival in America and the founding of ISKCON, that so many people are recognizing Srila Prabhupada in very profound ways. So now I would like to request Anuttama Prabhu to maybe tell us more about the gala event held in Washington DC in appreciation of Srila Prabhupada and fifty years of ISKCON.

Hare Krishna.

Anuttama dasa : Maharaja was speaking about how people may convince appreciating devotees especially when that appreciation is there for Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada’s mood. So let us just take a few minutes and discuss about this event that we had in Washington DC. Just last Tuesday the 13th, I think it is appropriate to talk about it here in Houston because Houston is probably one of the few temples in North America that could be doing similar things or perhaps things on an even bigger scale in large part, because the Houston temple that is here, I understood today we are doing some kind of food for life program with one of the other organizations, one of the schools in the area. So many ways we are reaching out and people appreciating the movement. So in Washington we were thinking all along that ISKCON is formulated in New York City and hopefully New York will do a big event. For various reasons, New York, they have three months to go but as of now they haven’t done a big event so we thought, well, then we have to do something Washington DC. This is our fifteenth anniversary. You may have heard that in the [Unintelligible] you might have seen the video, they brought the Prime Minister of England to come and do the groundbreaking ceremony for the new temple. Now I am not going to discuss if there was any correlation between his doing service for Krishna or his losing the election in his office a week later; that is not a good thing to remind political leaders as they come to visit our temples. 

It is described when you worship Krishna He gives you special favor, sometimes He takes everything away so we don’t talk about that too much, but apparently it works. So the Prime Minister came and of course we have heard it in Calcutta where they launched the big event. Prabhupada’s leaving India they filled up the stadium, they actually had so many people that filled it twice. So many ministers came, so many VIPs, it was a big event there, there was a big event in London, there is a big event coming up in Belgium, the heart of Europe, and so many other places. So we thought we need to do something special in North America. So we organized the event, it took several months to do and I just described the outcome last Tuesday. We knew we wanted to have some government leaders and some other important people so I was in Boston last year with Maharishi Prabhu at the Welfare department and [01:06:03.9 Unintelligible] coming to America. We had a beautiful festival there; went in a boat, went out into the ocean. Anybody there for the Boston unit? Fortunate souls that we are, it was a beautiful event, very inspiring and Ambarish Prabhu was there so I said, “Prabhu, I am thinking how we can organize a big thing in our braces of wonderful devotee and the fact that he is Alfred Ford carries some weight, it carries momentum, people want to meet Alfred Ford, they want to be in a place with Alfred Ford. 

So Ambarish Prabhu, Alfred Ford agreed to come to Washington DC, agreed to keep the whole month of that time October open. So then we went back, and we started looking for banners in this event and sparing all the details but the net result was last Tuesday we held an event. We worked without this bit because hotels generally they don’t let you as a temple bring outside cook but there is a devotee in the Washington DC community that owns a vegetarian restaurant, vegetarian catering, we worked with him closely and he had a connection with the hotel. He was one of the official caters to that hotel so we thought that is Krishna’s arrangement. And then another devotee had had some relationship with this hotel and said they gave us good opportunities so it was very expensive in terms of our expense. There was a hotel just three blocks from the White House. You walked up to the door of the hotel there is the White House, right there. And every President in the United States Harry Truman has attended events in that hotel. In fact the day we went to look at the venue there was about thirty people putting up lights on the individual and it was just like ants crawling over the [Unintelligible] because the next day was a big event and they listed out some of the people that are coming. Obama wasn’t coming but one of the Bushes was coming, former Secretary of State, all these big big people. We thought, Wow this is a powerful room, this would be a nice place to have our event. 

So as it worked out Krishna allowed us to do that. So last Tuesday we invited three hundred people and about two hundred of them, two hundred and twenty-five were members of our congregation; out of their generosity, their hearts, purchased tickets that allow us to pay for the rest of it. We had about seventy-five VIPs, religious leaders, advocates of religious liberty around the country, and Jewish leaders, catholic leaders, protestant leaders, government leaders; we had three embassies were represented, the Poland ambassador came, the deputy ambassador from Mongol came, the third person minister from Indian Embassy came and we had a series of speakers. So one of the people that came was Tulsi Gabbard. Raise your hand if you have heard of Tulsi Gabbard. So Tulsi Gabbard is the first Hindu woman congress person in history and she also happens to be a Prabhupadanuga. She is a follower, have you seen any of her videos about Diwali or Janmashtami? If you haven’t you should google Tulsi Gabbard Janmashtami. She talks of Gītā, talks about Lord Krishna, she talks about love of Krishna is the goal of life. Se we knew it was important and her country lined up for participation. And sometimes with congress people they show up for five minutes and they say hi and they leave or maybe twenty minutes, so we contacted her office and said, “We really appreciate that you could come and stay a long time.” We start at 6:00, we go till 10:00, is there any chance she can come for the whole thing?” We are her extended family, this is a whole event glorifying Srila Prabhupada, she loves Prabhupada, she is a follower of Prabhupada, and they wrote back about a week ahead of time said, “We have been able to arrange the schedule, she is there the whole time but there is just this one favor she would like to ask.” So what is that? She wants to know after she speaks is it okay if she sings Hare Krishna in her ukulele.

[1:10:03.9 Unintelligible] since you are a congresswoman, just this one time. Practicality I was jumping out the window, she wants to the chant Hare Krishna. So that was nice. And then we got a message from the Joseph Kennedy’s office. He said, “I would also like to come.” We almost had [Unintelligible] your congresswoman here we were talking to our office and talking to many other congress persons. So some very important people came. So we had a reception for an hour and devotees were milling around talking to VIPs, offering prasāda, and it was it was black tie, do you know what black tie means? Black Tie, actually we had to look it up. Black Tie means tuxedo or dark suit. It was kind of funny because as we were selling tickets to the event I had a couple of members of our extended congregation who apparently, like me, hadn’t gone to a lot of black tie events. And one or two of them came up and said, Prabhuji I have a problem. I said, “What is that?” He said, “Well I have a suit but I don’t own a black tie.” So we had to clarify, no you don’t have to wear black tie, any color tie is fine, it is okay. 

So devotees came, they milled around, congressman Kennedy came there, we had a chance to introduce him to so many different people, devotees and other people. And then at seven o’clock, the doors, it is like the meeting room was here and then the doors opened, electronically the doors opened, and as everybody walked into the room, (in this room we were playing sit down background type of music) when they we talked into the big room loudly playing, they had George Harrison singing My Sweet Lord before we chant Hare Krishna. The first time the Hare Krishna mantra was really introduced in a big way to the rest of the world. Then we sat down and we had our different speakers and the first speaker was Dr. Graham Schweig, Harvard educated. We talked about the authenticity of the Hare Krishna tradition. And this is in a room full of people many of whom have not visited our temple. They know little bit about our community, their respects from the workforce they haven’t necessarily visited town. So Dr. Schweig starts out introducing the forms of our tradition and then after he spoke for about five or ten minutes then Ambarish Prabhu stood up. And all this is going to be online. There is a nice story ISKCON news, you can look up for more details. But then Ambarish Prabhu stood up in his tuxedo and he said, “The reason I became a Hare Krishna was I would never have to wear one of these things.” He looked very handsome. There are some stunning photos of him.

It was a beautiful room. One devotee stayed up all my night long to create these beautiful flower arrangements. We had huge flower arrangements in front of the two stands, big fancy room, big chandelier, beautiful room. And then I am reaching out to talk about how most people don’t know it but his father is famous for his innovation, his great grandfather, but that Henry Ford attributed that to reincarnation. He believed in reincarnation because he said it. Ambarish Prabhu mentions that at the age of nine his great grandfather could take apart a watch and put it back together again. So he has some sense. And he said he used to actually, when people would visit his factories he would give them a brochure about reincarnation. So Ambarish Prabhu said, “My great grandfather was the original book distributor about reincarnation.” So he spoke, everyone appreciated, he is a wonderful down to earth devotee, a very magnanimous, wonderful soul. 

Then we had a woman named Christina Arriaga who was the head of the organization called the Becket Fund, which is a non-profit entity, corporation, of attorneys whose sole purpose is to fight for religious freedom for mostly Catholic and Protestants, Muslim, Jews etc. We have been very active with them. We have signed on to a lot of cases. They have won five cases in front of the supreme court in a recent year or two and many times the Christian movement has come forward and said, “If it is about religious freedom, you call us; if it is about Catholic rights, call us; Muslim rights, call us. We want to be there because this is an essential principle for us practicing and protecting other people’s religious freedoms.” So she spoke about all the wonderful work that ISKCON is doing in promoting religious freedom. She even said, “When you first started in America people were so ignorant they accused you of brainwashing.” Like what you said Maharaja. She said, “But you stuck with your principles.” And she said, “Fifty years later, look where you are and look at the appreciation that is been given to your movement tonight.” And she is a what is called a commissioner on the United States Commission of International Religious Freedom, that is the same organization that fought for us. 

So we had trouble with Kazakhstan. It is a quasi-government organization. She was appointed by the Speaker of the House, directly appointed, and she is there talking about ISKCON, talking about Prabhupada’s contributions and then Shashik Prabhu spoke about the next fifty years of ISKCON and the contributions of the principles of Bhagavad-gītā and sama-darśinaḥ, seeing everyone equally, humility, the different principles, both very wonderfully. Then we had a beautiful performance of Bharatanatyam dance by Kumari, her sister who came in from New York. And then even going deep in the heart we had a professor who was a Muslim scholar, his name is Dr. Kirmani and he stood up and talked about his personal gratitude for ISKCON and particularly Prabhupada. Maharaja knows about his story. In fact Maharaja and he met years ago but I don’t even know if he would remember him to express the story. He was a graduate student at the Harvard center for the study of world religions. When Prabhupada went there to speak at Harvard, driven, Maharaja was the driver, he can talk later. But this one young Muslim, he was walking by the room, he said he had a meeting with his professor, a private meeting. It was a big deal; you are a Harvard student, you have a private meeting with your professor, that is important. He looked in the room he happened to go walking by this very room and he saw a man sitting in saffron who caught his eyes and he stopped and he thought this is something special. So he just forgot his meeting with his professor, he just didn’t go. No texting those days, “I am sorry I am late; I got a stomachache.” He just didn’t show up and he stayed to here Prabhupada speak. And he is an elderly man now, in the seventies, he is up during his tuxedo, talking to this group of three hundred people about how Prabhupada changed his life. And he told us several times, he said, “When I heard Swami Prabhupada speak, he said that he became convinced at that moment that there is truth in every religion. 

I was so moved by him. And at the end of his little talk he wrote a poem in Bengali, he doesn’t speak Bengali but he wrote a poem, (he must speak it but it is not his main tongue) he wrote a poem in Bengali in glorification of Prabhupada. And his poem was something along the lines of, “I was standing at the door and you offered me a flower, and it is still blooming till today.” And he told us in a separate meeting one time, he said, “It is very strange that I am Muslim, but when I get in trouble I think of him.” He said, “You think I would think of something in my own tradition but I think of him.” So he was sharing some of these stories. Then we had a catholic scholar, professor from Georgetown University who stood up and talked about how 1965, a very famous pivotal point in history; the Catholic church, they did something in the doctrine called [Unintelligible]) which was in the catholic church; for the first time officially recognized that there is truth in other religious traditions, the same year Prabhupada landed in North America. So the Catholic scholar was appreciating Vaishnavas and Prabhupada’s contributions, and knowing how significant it is that these two events occurred at the same time. Then the Minister from the Indian embassy stood up, talked for a few minutes about how much ISKCON is doing in India. How Prabhupada was such a great adversary of Indian culture, spreading the tradition all around the world, how ISKCON is feeding over one million children every day. 

Then we have one of our local Maryland delegates, the majority leader in the house of delegates in Maryland, he stood up and talked about his own grandfather who was an immigrant to America and all the challenges he faced and all the prejudices, and he was saying, “Just like my grandfather, Prabhupada the same way underwent so many difficulties as you see today, all the successes over there. And then we ended with Tulsi Gabbard and if you go to ISKCON News.org, you can see the video of [Unintelligible]. But she talked about how the whole world today is being affected by sectarianism and how there is so much violence in the name of religion. This US congresswoman speaking in Washington DC in front of three hundred people; to Jewish people, Jewish leaders, Muslim leaders, Sikh leaders, etc., and she is saying Lord Chaitanya’s movement came to teach against this sectarianism. And she quoted Bhaktivinoda Thakura who taught the principles of Krishna consciousness and tolerance and working and appreciating other religious traditions. And then she glorified Srila Prabhupada and all the wondrous things that Srila Prabhupada has done for about seven or eight minutes, very enthusiastically. And when she was done, she picked up what she called was her, (it is a mixture of the guitar and the ukulele) her guitulele. What does it possibly can get ukulele or something like that. It is a miniature guitar, and began strumming and chanting Hare Krishna which she did for about four or five minutes and then one of the advanced Jagannathas started playing bass while she is finishing her kirtan. And and she told everybody stand up. US congresswoman, “Stand up, chant with me.” And everybody stood up, applauding and swaying back side to side, room full of people and adobes and tuxedos and it was absolutely wonderful. It was just hard to describe what an experience it was. 

And then we ended up at the end of the big kirtan. And I mentioned in the middle point there was a wonderful catered prasādam, people just walking around in so much appreciation. And Yogeshwar Prabhu, he wrote me a letter afterwards. Prabhupada’s disciple recently published the book Swami in a Strange Land, the most recent biography of Prabhupada. He worked with many many professional firms in New York city for years. He wrote it and he said be a friend of this game because a lot of devotees brought friends. This couple, doctors, brought the president of their hospital, some people brought their business associates, some people brought other VIPs, a chance to expose them to Krishna consciousness in this way, appreciation. And Yogeshwar Prabhu had one friend that he brought who he wrote, he has attended hundreds of black tie events in Washington DC and he said he is never been to such an inspiring event with a more interesting group of speakers. So it really was a wonderful event. We have never really done anything like this before and I would probably request that devotees of Houston think that you have similar opportunities. You have a beautiful temple, you are involved in the larger community, you have a very wonderful and broad congregation, and people are looking for leadership. There is a lot of problems out there but they recognize, they don’t know what to do about the environment.

I was speaking with a devotee earlier today, it is like they know we are doing things to destroy the environment, how do we stop. They don’t want to stop, they don’t have a spiritual process to help control the greed and the envy, the lust, they don’t have things like that. So many people come to an understanding, we need to get rid of sectarianism but their traditions and all don’t teach the depth that we do, that we are all children of God, we all are spiritual beings, it is that some people are connected to God, some people have chosen, some people are saved; no. As Maharaja was saying, everybody is connected to Krishna, Krishna wants to engage everyone in service, so there are wonderful opportunities for us to take Krishna consciousness. This is our fiftieth anniversary here. We are celebrating fifty years but now we have to think what is the next fifty years. And in large part as described in the verse, it means being creative, being willing. And as Maharaja said, Prabhupada was willing to associate with such different types of people, dealing with the bums of the bowery and then so much impersonalism and craziness. So much craziness was there, Prabhupada put up with that to try to spread the Krishna conscious movement and he transformed it; so that was the first fifty years. 

So now the next fifty years Prabhupada wants to work with each of you. So we should think about that; what can I do and not hold back and think. We saw that in Washington DC, we had a few people leaving. They told us what do we need a hotel for. Why spend the money on a hotel? Because like Prabhupada said in Mayapur, “Why are we building this big building?” He said we have this perfect grass hut, it is the perfect environment for practicing Krishna consciousness and he pointed to the big building they were building in Mayapur. He said, “This building is the mode of passion, why don’t we just stay in our grass huts, because who will come? People won’t come to these grass huts but if we build buildings like this they will come, we build temples like this they will come. We go to places three blocks of the White House and Tulsi Gabbard, he said congresswoman will come, Joseph Kennedy congressman from Massachusetts will come, the heads of the United States Conference of International Religious Freedom will come etc. etc.

So we have to think creatively. How are we going to help people understand Prabhupada’s contributions? It appears [Unintelligible] would not be limited. Don’t just think that whatever we did the last fifty years that is the box we can’t go outside that. We have to think creatively. We stay within the principles Prabhupada gave us but we have to be creative, we don’t hold back and just like our safety members in the Washington DC temple, because it takes us for two hundred and dollars. You don’t go to a lot of these Hare Krishna events, and building a temple you don’t put a lot of events in two hundred and fifty dollars. Some people think, “Why should I give this money?” We need to give a lot more money than that. It was a relatively expensive event. 

But the impact on people’s minds; people were saying they never went to an event like that. It was such a beautiful experience people say we had no idea the contributions of your spiritual master. We had no idea five hundred and sixteen million; when in the reception we had a beautiful display of Prabhupada’s books and a beautiful display by the artist, Ken Walters, who have just done this beautiful book called The Little Spaces of Margarita. So people are floating around, networking, looking at Prabhupada. We had twenty-five languages of Bhagavad-gītā displayed and beautiful science. So people walking around, “Oh my gosh, five hundred and sixteen million books in fifty years.” Eighty-seven languages, twenty-five translations right there in front of us and all this beautiful artwork, you are preserving the art and you are transforming, make it available. You are preserving the dance and you are making it available around the world. You are preserving the literature making it available around the world. You are preserving the kirtan, making them available. They were really impressed. We have wonderful amazing things and we can’t keep it inside the buildings; we are going to take it outside. That is what Prabhupada wanted us to do and that is what this verse is all about.

So we had a wonderful first fifty years, now it is up to all of you, all of us, to think about what is the next fifty years and how are we going to spread the movement even further. We have a good foothold. How many people come here in Janmashtami? No sorry, how many; what is the number? Five thousand, how many people live in Houston? Okay, so you have thirteen million nine hundred and ninety-five thousand to go. You had a very good start. How many? Five hundred million. Oh that is easy. Okay I thought you had a big challenge. You only have four million nine hundred and ninety-five thousand to go. How old are you guys? Sixteen and you are fourteen. Okay, so the next fifty years you are only going to be sixty-six and sixty-four. How old are you Maharaja? Maharaja is sixty-nine and I am sixty-two okay so the next fifty years four million to go. Okay, thank you very much.