SB 2.8.6 – Taking Risks for Krishna

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

ŚB 2.8.6

dhautātmā puruṣaḥ kṛṣṇa-

pāda-mūlaṁ na muñcati

mukta-sarva-parikleśaḥ

pānthaḥ sva-śaraṇaṁ yathā

COMMENT

I read slowly naturally, but after I read through once slowly then we will pause and recite responsively.

TRANSLATION

A pure devotee of the Lord whose heart has once been cleansed by the process of devotional service never relinquishes the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa, for they fully satisfy him, as a traveler is satisfied at home after a troubled journey.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

One who is not a pure devotee of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa is not completely cleansed in the heart. But a perfectly cleansed person never quits the devotional service of the Lord. In discharging such devotional service, as ordered by Brahmājī to Nārada in the preaching of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, sometimes a representative of the Lord engaged in preaching work meets various so-called difficulties. This was exhibited by Lord Nityānanda when He delivered the two fallen souls Jagāi and Mādhāi, and similarly Lord Jesus Christ was crucified by the nonbelievers. But such difficulties are very gladly suffered by the devotees in preaching because in such activities, although apparently very severe, the devotees of the Lord feel transcendental pleasure because the Lord is satisfied. Prahlāda Mahārāja suffered greatly, but still he never forgot the lotus feet of the Lord. This is because a pure devotee of the Lord is so purified in his heart that he cannot leave the shelter of Lord Kṛṣṇa in any circumstances. There is no self-interest in such service. The progress of culturing knowledge by the jñānīs or the bodily gymnastics by the yogīs are ultimately given up by the respective performers, but a devotee of the Lord cannot give up the service of the Lord, for he is ordered by his spiritual master. Pure devotees like Nārada and Nityānanda Prabhu take up the order of the spiritual master as the sustenance of life. They do not mind what becomes of the future of their lives. They take the matter very seriously, as the order comes from the higher authority, from the representative of the Lord, or from the Lord Himself.

The example set herein is very appropriate. A traveler leaves home to search for wealth in far distant places, sometimes in the forest and sometimes on the ocean and sometimes on hilltops. Certainly there are many troubles for the traveler when he is in such unknown places. But all such troubles are at once mitigated as soon as the sense of his family affection is remembered, and as soon as he returns home he forgets all such troubles on the way. 

COMMENT

This verse and purport describe the risks that devotees take for the service of the Lord. Generally, conditioned souls like to stay within their comfort zones, they don’t want to take risks. They don’t want to go beyond what is what they are comfortable with, what is easy for them, or what is familiar to them. But preachers do not cling to any position of safety but they are prepared to take all risks for the sake of pleasing the Lord. Srila Prabhupada gives examples of devotees, including Nityananda Prabhu and Jesus Christ, who risked their lives to preach the message of the Lord and reclaim the fallen souls because that is the service that pleases the Lord most. At the end of the Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna says that those who preach this message are most dear to Him and there will never be one more dear. And at the end, pure devotional service is guaranteed.

This purport was of special significance to one of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples after Prabhupada left. His name is Ravindra Svarupa dasa, and when he came to Houston we were here together some years ago, and he was in a situation where he was required in a sense, he was required to testify in court against you could say, not really against, but against the New Vrindavan community, at a time when the New Vrindavan community was engaged in a lot of illegal activities, very illegal. And he had to make it clear that the activities of New Vrindavan did not reflect the principles of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and he had to testify against them. And one of the charges, not necessarily legal charges, but it was fairly well accepted as a fact that the leader of New Vrindavan had ordered the murder of some devotees who he felt were opposing him or opposing his mission. So Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu considered that if he took the stand, which he felt was necessary for the sake of the society, he could have been the next target. So he was a married person, still is, and he asked his wife what she thought, whether she was prepared for him to take that risk. And she was a noble lady, staunch devotee, and she said, “Yes, you must, you cannot let these rascals continue as they are.” 

And so during the period of confronting this dilemma, Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu read this purport, and this line struck him and it is a very striking line.

PURPORT

“They do not mind what becomes of the future of their lives.”

COMMENT

Now, how many of us can say we don’t mind what becomes of the future of our lives? We are always thinking about the future of our lives - what will be our position financially; what will be our position socially; what will be our position medically. But this statement is very strong. “They do not mind what becomes of the future of their lives.” Pure devotees like Narada and Nityananda Prabhu take up the order of the spiritual master as the sustenance of life.

PURPORT

“They take the matter very seriously, as the order comes from the higher authority, from the representative of the Lord, or from the Lord Himself.”

COMMENT

So Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu did take up that challenge with his wife’s support, and actually they tried to kill him and her, not in the usual blunt way as the earlier victims by guns, but by rigging up something with their automobile so that it would, I don’t know exactly, sort of fall apart and end up in a fatal mishap. But their good luck or Krishna’s protection, it didn’t work, the plot was seen but I am not sure exactly how they escaped harm but they did it. 

So the preachers take risks and because they take risks they are especially favored by the Lord. Srila Prabhupada gives the example that in the family, say the parents are walking across the street with the children, so they will be most attentive to the youngest child who is the most vulnerable. So the preachers are vulnerable, they put themselves at risk, and therefore the Lord is most mindful of them, they are like the child or youngest child.

So, now, this verse and purport discusses actually the subject of love because the nature of love is that one experiences happiness in the happiness of one’s beloved, not in one’s own happiness as such. Srila Jiva Gosvami discusses this point, and it is the same idea as in the purport, but just to give it a little bit of a personal touch we can imagine that a man, and it happened, that a man would leave his family in the village in pursuit of wealth for the sake of the family. So, in this hypothetical example the man comes to Calcutta, and he becomes a laborer, say pulls a rickshaw. I don’t know now but when I was there they use, not, I am not talking about motor rickshaws or cycle rickshaws, I am talking about a rickshaw that was pulled by the strength of a man. So, he will engage in that arduous task, that difficult task, and he himself, he might sleep in a park and eat very frugally maybe just some roasted chickpeas or something, and he will send almost all of his earnings back to the village, and his wife will use that money to buy milk for the children. And so he is working very hard, and he is living very meagerly, but he is getting news that, “Oh, with this money I bought milk for the children,” or “We are sending them to school, we are buying their school books for them.” And so he takes pleasure in hearing how his children are prospering by his sacrifices.

So this verse and especially purport are saying that a devotee is in an affectionate tie with the Lord just like a family member. And I will read it, it is such a beautiful explanation.

“A traveler leaves home to search for wealth in far distant places, sometimes in the forest and sometimes on the ocean and sometimes on hilltops. Certainly there are many troubles for the traveler when he is in such unknown places. But all such troubles are at once mitigated.”

That means reduced or relieved.

“As soon as the sense of his family affection is remembered, and as soon as he returns home he forgets all such troubles on the way.”

Now, the idea of returning home also has significance for us in the sense of returning home back to Godhead. And there was one devotee, he had been the head pujari in Los Angeles, I think his name was Rama dasa, we also have our Rama dasa, his name was Rama dasa also, and he had some sort of terminal illness, and he went to Vrindavan. And he and his wife, Krishna Kumari, they established an ashram just basically for him. I visited the place after he left, it is a very spiritual place, and a lot of holy relics came to him. But the real point I want to make is that after he left his body he appeared simultaneously to many devotees and he told them that, “Whatever inconveniences you are facing in your service in ISKCON, whatever difficulties you are undergoing, don’t worry about it because when you get to the other side it is so good that those little challenges really are nothing.” And reading this line I thought exactly what Rama dasa told these people.

And he was amazing, he had so much faith in Srila Prabhupada, he had an image of Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet printed, and I don’t think laminated, I think he actually had it put in a plastic frame with a stand. And he made a long list, I don’t know how many, I was on the list, of devotees, and after his departure, he had his wife give these Prabhupada’s lotus feet to this list of recipients. So this really described what Rama dasa was telling us all.

“All such troubles are at once mitigated as soon as the sense of his family affection is remembered, and as soon as he returns home he forgets all such troubles on the way.”

So that was Rama dasa’s message, “Don’t worry about it; when you reach the destination it is so good that whatever trouble you faced along the way it pales into insignificance.”

So, there are many examples of our previous acharyas taking these kinds of risks. Srila Prabhupada did it just getting on the boat and crossing the ocean at the age of seventy and mingling with hippies. How many have read Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta, six volumes? I recommend everyone should read Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta. 

So there was one incident when Srila Prabhupada was in New York City, in the Bowery, just soon after he arrived in New York. And he was sharing a loft with I guess something like a hippie, and that person maybe took an overdose of some drug and he became like a madman, and it looked like he was going to attack Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada just left everything and bolted down the stairway out onto the street in the Bowery which was a really bad neighborhood, like skid row, and he didn’t know where to go or what to do. And then he ended up living. . .there was a boy who was coming to Prabhupada’s meetings, Carl Yeargens, I think he was a black-bodied devotee, Rama dasa was black bodied. And so that boy had a loft where he was living with his girlfriend, but he liked Prabhupada, he was learning some Sanskrit from Prabhupada, and he invited him in. It was a little awkward, they strung maybe like a sheet like a curtain, so there was Carl Yeargens and his girlfriend on one side and then Prabhupada on the other side. And the girlfriend didn’t really like having the Swami around. 

So, I could go on and on, there is a lot, and that is why I recommend everyone reads Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta. But it says an idea of the risks that Srila Prabhupada took. And Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, he was posted in Jagannatha Puri’s magistrate, which was a very big position, district magistrate, and especially during the time of the British, it was practically the highest position an Indian could hold. So there were complaints that a person in one of the villages in Orissa was having rāsa-līlā, dancing with wives and daughters of gentlemen. And so they sent this complaint to the British government, and the British government thought, Well, we can send Kedarnath Datta. That was Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s name, “Because he is Hindu and he is the magistrate and he will know how to deal with it.” So he went with some constables in plain clothes, and that false Vishnu, he had some mystic powers, and he said, “Oh, Kedarnath Datta, you have come to see me, don’t take any action against me, I will make you the king of India.”

So, I will call him Bhaktivinoda Thakura, he said, “Why are you wasting your time in this remote area? Why don’t you come to Jagannatha Puri? You can see Lord Jagannatha and live very happily.” He said, “Oh, Jagannatha is just a piece of wood.” So when he made that offense when he spoke that blasphemy, so Bhaktivinoda Thakura became like fire, and it is also a duty of a devotee to respond when there is a blasphemy of the Lord or another devotee. So he ordered the constables to arrest him, and so they took him to Puri.

Now, by the yogi’s influence, Bhaktivinoda Thakura and his entire family became very sick with high fever, and it seems that the yogi was trying to kill them but it was running as a high fever, and they were close to death. And Kedarnath Datta’s wife, she was also a great devotee, mother of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, she said, “You should let him go, it is not worth it that we all died just because of him.” And Kedarnath Datta said, “Come on, I am not going to let him go.” 

So, the date came for the yogi to come to trial, and although Bhaktivinoda Thakura was sick; he went to the courtroom, and he ordered that the yogi’s hair be cut. And this is also a fact, that yogis they have powers in their hair, even in the bible there is the story of Samson and Delilah. Yes, he was a very strong man but when his hair was cut he lost his strength. Nobody would do it, nobody in the courtroom would do it because they were afraid that he could kill them with his. . . So, Kedarnath Datta himself took the shears, the scissors, and he cut his hair, and he was sentenced to serve a term in jail, in prison, and then while in prison that so-called Vishnu committed suicide. He admitted he wasn’t Vishnu, and he committed suicide. 

But the point I am making is the risk that Bhaktivinoda Thakura took, it is just like this line which I have read again and I will read again.

“They do not mind what becomes of the future of their lives.”

So, this is our paramparā. Of course, it doesn’t mean that we should take risks unnecessarily. Srila Prabhupada said that becoming a devotee doesn’t mean a challenge to the laws of nature, it doesn’t mean that, “Oh, I am a devotee so I will put my head in the mouth of the tiger.” But as required a devotee takes risk, and in that work, he feels pleasure. This is also very mysterious, that in spite of all these hardships the devotee takes pleasure because in such activities the Lord is pleased. 

One example from my own experience, real experience; so I was in Calcutta and I had gone far north in Calcutta and we didn’t have much money and our main income was from life membership, and Srila Prabhupada wouldn’t let us spend the life membership money for our expenses, he wanted 50 percent to go to the book fund and 50 percent for the building fund. So I was far north in Calcutta and it was raining, it was stormy, and I don’t know now but in those days they didn’t have much drainage on the streets in Calcutta so the water was rising, and I was, I don’t know, knee deep, but it was getting to be like that, and there were no cars on the road because it was like so rainy and nobody was going anywhere. I was thinking, “How am I going to get back?” So I was walking slowly in all that rainwater, but I felt blissful and I think the reason I felt blissful is I felt that Prabhupada was pleased. 

And other examples from that era, so this is something devotees experience, I think book distributors experience it, it could be any service actually, that in spite of external hardships one feels internal pleasure because Krishna is pleased. 

PURPORT

“This was exhibited by Lord Nityānanda when He delivered the two fallen souls Jagāi and Mādhāi, and similarly Lord Jesus Christ was crucified by the nonbelievers. But such difficulties are very gladly suffered.”

COMMENT

Quite unusual, very gladly suffered by the devotees means it was very gladly endured by the devotees.

PURPORT

“In preaching because in such activities, although apparently very severe, the devotees of the Lord feel transcendental pleasure because the Lord is satisfied.”

COMMENT

So this habitual attempt by conditioned souls to arrange a comfortable situation so they can be happy is not the real way to happiness, the real way to happiness is to please the Lord. A devotee has no way, I mean ultimately it is true of every living entity, a devotee has no way of experiencing pleasure outside of the Lord’s pleasure.

I have a godbrother named Bhavananda, so the word bhava means the material world, it comes from the root bhava, it comes into existence and exists for some time, and then it disappears, not bhāva which means ecstasy, but bhava. So Srila Prabhupada gave him the name Bhavananda, the bliss of the material world. So Bhavananda was very concerned, why Prabhupada gave him that name. What was Prabhupada indicating? And Srila Prabhupada explained that the bliss of the material world is preaching, and preaching gives the greatest pleasure to Krishna. So Bhavananda, the bliss of the material world, the bliss of preaching, that gives the greatest pleasure to Krishna and allows the devotee to experience the greatest pleasure through Krishna’s pleasure. 

There was just maybe Bhavananda Prabhu. So we had a big pandal program for Srila Prabhupada in Bombay, very successful, and Srila Prabhupada wanted us to do one in Calcutta. So he sent Tamal Krishna Goswami and me to Calcutta and we did one there. That was very successful, Tamal Krishna Goswami said, “You make the money and I will spend it.” So okay, if that is how it worked, we were a good team. And then there was a third pandal after those two successful ones in New Delhi, all in very central locations, New Delhi was a [Unintelligible 00:47:45]. So after the Delhi pandal, Srila Prabhupada was going to go to Vrindavan for the first time after returning to India with his disciples, and so pretty much all the devotees wanted to go to Vrindavan with him. But meanwhile, Srila Prabhupada had received an invitation to Madras from Dr. Bali and Vijayanthi Mala, she was a Bharata-nāṭyaṁ dancer. And so he wanted some devotees to go in his place, or at least to go ahead of him to Madras. So most of the devotees they definitely wanted to go with Prabhupada to Vrindavan, but I and Achyutananda and Bhavananda and one bhakta, we agreed to go to Madras. 

So one Ekādaśī, Bhavananda and I, well, we were there to preach, we thought we should go out and preach. So Achyutananda said, “No, it is a Ekādaśī, it is auspicious, we shouldn’t go out.” So Bhavananda and I thought, Oh, we are going to go out. So we went out and we were walking some distance, and after maybe five or ten minutes it started to rain very severely, and again the water was just rising. You couldn’t tell the difference; there were fields, we were in a slightly suburban area, but there was vacant land around, and the water was rising up and we couldn’t really tell the difference in the highland and the lowland. So they did have drainage but the drain, it was like a canal along the side of the road and so we couldn’t see anything but water, we couldn’t tell what was what. So Bhavananda, he fell into that drainage canal and he was in water above his knees. 

So, later when I met Srila Prabhupada I told him, eventually he came, he had very nice programs. So I told Srila Prabhupada about this incident, and I made a little quip at Bhavananda; it was like, paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ, that means he saw everything with equal vision, he didn’t distinguish between high and low. And Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes, your knowledge was only theoretical but his was realized.” But Prabhupada’s jokes, everything had meaning. So these are all like really happy times, of course, I guess when you are young it is easier not to worry about the future, but yes.

Someone asked me to speak about Juhu. So we had this hut that we were living in, in Juhu, and it was infested with rats, and these are not the rats you get here, these are Bombay rats, they are huge, they are huge and they bite, and yes, you can’t feel it, but then you wake up and you see the blood. And there were mosquitoes, all sorts of things. And so one year, I think it was 2003 here in Houston, I spoke on Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance day, and I was remembering those days, and I was feeling separation from all those mosquitoes and rats because with them we were serving Srila Prabhupada and pleasing him and also getting his association. It is like Queen Kunti prays that let the calamities come, in this very unusual prayer, let the calamities come when Krishna was leaving Hastinapura to return to Dvaraka. So He was on His chariot about to leave and she came out and was appealing to Him not to go, and she recited these beautiful prayers, so she said, “Let the calamities come. Now that we are (we means her sons the Pandavas) now that we are established on the throne You are leaving us. I would rather have all those calamities because with those calamities we could see You, and by seeing You we don’t have to see the repetition of birth and death. Let the calamities come.” 

So yes, this is the mood of the preacher, and this is our line, and yes, we should do whatever we can and not be held back by fear, desires for comfort. And that is the mystery, that in spite of the externally difficult circumstances, internally one feels pleasure because the Lord and the Lord’s representatives are pleased. 

Hare Krishna.

So, are there any questions or comments on what we read and discussed? 

Devotee: So, how we can overcome that fear that we have to go out and experience the unknown and the suffering that it represents to go out and preach?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, that is a very important question. Well, the basis is to understand that you are not the body. Of course, theoretically, you all know we are not the body, to actually believe that we are not the body and not respond on the basis of the body. So one of the risks when you go out to preach, distribute books, is that people will reject you. They might even insult you. In the early days in Boston, we would go out and chant and distribute magazines, and yes people would say, “Well, why don’t you get a job?” So, by knowing you are not the body there is a certain detachment, and then by feeling you are doing it for Krishna, that Krishna is pleased, then there is a pleasure to it. But that is one of the risks, that you will be rejected, you will be insulted, but because the preacher faces those risks, therefore, he is most dear to Krishna.

Any other questions or comments? Yes,

Devotee: I didn’t have a question, but you had so many rain pastimes [Unintelligible 00:58:43].

Giriraj Swami: Sure.

Devotee: Jayananda was leading the kirtan party every day.

Giriraj Swami: Can everyone hear this or we pass the microphone?

Devotee: Hare Krishna. Jayananda Prabhu was leading the kirtan party out every day in San Francisco and I was going out on it, and so sometimes it would rain and it would rain pretty hard. But Jayananda was not one to be deterred, he was determined to take this kirtan party out whatever. So he first started with garbage bags; you would punch a hole in the sides of the garbage bag and another hole for your head and you would put that on. And then he eventually got us these orange raincoats, kind of bright orange raincoats, and we would be out there in the pouring rain chanting and dancing, we had a plastic bag around the mridanga because they didn’t have Balarama mridanga in those days. And Jayananda was just always blissful. The more challenges that came the more bliss he seemed to exhibit. So even in the rain, we would be up and down the street chanting. I feel like you say people thought we were crazy but we were in an ecstasy. And it seemed to be even more so when the rain was hardest.

Giriraj Swami: In my book, Many Moons: Reflections on Departed Vaishnavas, there is a section on Jayananda Prabhu, and Gunagrahi Maharaja contributed about Jayananda Prabhu. He said so much in that same vein, but whenever a devotee wouldn’t come to do his service, Jayananda Prabhu would say, with utter sincerity not sarcastically at all, he would say, “Haribol Prabhu, great news. So-and-so is not going to be coming to do his service, more service for us.” 

Any other questions or comments?

Devotee: Should I ask questions?

Giriraj Swami: Oh, on the subject?

Devotee: I can ask a question afterwards [Unintelligible 01:02:03].

Giriraj Swami: Okay, I will be here.

Devotee: Okay.

Giriraj Swami: For your questions.

Devotee: In conversation with Prabhupada, some devotee said, “Prabhupada, those days were very difficult, you are struggling alone, and so many difficulties, you must have felt so inconvenienced.” Prabhupada said, “No, actually those were my most ecstatic moments of my life.” 

Devotee 2: [Unintelligible 01:03:18] on a flight to the Muslim countries there was a layover airport, and they chanted [Unintelligible 01:03:33].

Giriraj Swami: Well, he is referring to the first group of devotees who came to India, and so we met in Belgium, and our godbrother, Gurudasa Prabhu knew the owner or someone who was connected to an airline called Moscow, and they had one airplane. It was a left over propeller plane from World War II, and it was basically a cargo carrier. But he arranged for us to go on that airline, and yes, I think they, I don’t know, they put in some sort of chairs, and it was really different. So the airplane stopped in Cairo for refueling, and it was shortly after Gamal Abdel Nasser’s death so there was very high security, and you could see some wrecked airplanes at the airport, it was a very tense time. But I was pretty oblivious, I was chanting and my style was; to focus more I would like jump up and down while I was chanting. So we came out of the door to the aircraft and there were the stairs going down, and so there were all these military men on the tarmac with automatic machine guns or whatever they were. And I didn’t notice this, but afterward devotees told me that they had their guns aimed on me, and as I was jumping up and down, the guns were going up and down.

I don’t know, I was oblivious or naive or something. So our method was whenever we had a chance we would chant the holy name, we let people hear and try to get them to chant. So, I started to do kirtan, and Nanda Kumar, he was Prabhupada’s servant on many occasions, so Nanda Kumar, he said, “I am getting out of here, this is too dangerous.” So he took a walk somewhere in the airport area and he said that when he came back he saw that the armed guards had joined our circle of devotees, and they were holding hands with us, and dancing in a circle, and they put all their automatic firearms, laid them up against the wall. So, that was good.

Devotee: Did Prabhupada ever chastised you? 

Giriraj Swami: Did Prabhupada ever chastised me? Of course. This is taking it a step, but Srila Prabhupada explained that Lord Chaitanya was always respecting Advaita Acharya as a senior, and Advaita Acharya didn’t like that. So he began to speak impersonal philosophy so that Lord Chaitanya would chastise him, so Lord Chaitanya heard all these speaking this so He came and He chastised him. And then Advaita Acharya was very blissful because he didn’t like all that formal respect from Lord Chaitanya. So after Prabhupada told this story, one devotee asked him, “Did your guru Maharaja ever chastise you?” And he said, yes, once guru Maharaja was giving a lecture and a devotee sitting next to Prabhupada leaned over to speak to him, to Prabhupada, and Prabhupada was engaging with that devotee. And Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura (that devotee was a donor) so he chastised him that, “So and so, Babu, you think you purchased me with your donations.” And so Prabhupada said that his guru Maharaja did chastise him but he chastised the other fellow more. 

Yes, well, as far as my being chastised, I answered your question. Yes, he did. But once, it was very early, I have just been maybe a few months at most, and he chastised me by letter. I took it to be a very heavy letter, and I wrote back basically appreciating what he said and saying, “I am struggling to maintain my enthusiasm after your letter.” And then Prabhupada wrote back that, “It is the duty of the spiritual master to find faults with the disciple, not that he should always be praising.” And he quoted Chanakya Pandit, “One should chastise one’s sons or disciples, otherwise, they will be spoiled.” And then he concluded that, “My only interest is that you along with all my other disciples should become Krishna conscious.” So yes, it was a very nice letter, after the letter chastising me, putting the chastisement in perspective. 

All right, oh well, I will tell another story about being chastised by Tamal Krishna Goswami. It is also constructive. So we were a team going out to raise funds, and he would want me to make phone calls to set up appointments early in the morning. That was the best time to reach people, then they would go to the office and it would be really hard to get through to them because you would have to go through the secretary and they would be busy and they could give excuses. But I just liked to chant my rounds early in the morning, I felt I needed to chant my rounds early in the morning to be able to function. So one morning he was expecting me to make phone calls but I felt I really needed to chant so I did. And then when he asked me, “Did you make an appointment with so and so? Did you get an appointment with such and such?” I said, “No, I tried but then I couldn’t.” So then later he ended up speaking to one of the men who I had falsely said that I had tried to get an appointment with. So he said, “Giriraj, I spoke to Mr. Asnani, and he says you never phoned him. You told me you did.” And then he said, “You pretend to be very innocent but you are not innocent at all.” And I thought, like with Srila Prabhupada, yes, I took it seriously, I thought I had to learn from it.

But I am sure there are many here who have experiences of being chastised by Tamal Krishna Goswami. 

Would Padadhuli like to share? [laughter]

Devotee: Too many to recall.