Regional Gaura-purnima Festival

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotees: Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: It is a great honor and privilege and pleasure to be here today with all of you on the auspicious occasion of Maha Gaura-purnima. A few days ago, we celebrated Gaura-purnima, but today, we are celebrating Maha Gaura-purnima. As the younger children were reciting their verse and performing, somehow, I thought of Srila Prabhupada with a great sense of gratitude, because he brought Krishna consciousness to the western world. I shudder to think what would be our condition if he hadn’t done so, but he did. And he, of course, was following through Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his Guru Maharaja in paramparā, but he really emphasized the principle of yukta-vairāgya, appropriate renunciation.

Yukta-vairāgya is defined by Srila Rupa Gosvami in his Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. Anāsaktasya viṣayān; āsakti means attachment, so anāsaktasya means without attachment. Viṣayān, to the objects of the senses. Anāsaktasya viṣayān yathārham upayuñjataḥ, nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe. Yes, whatever is related to Krishna, in relationship to Krishna, we can use, yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate, that is said to be yukta-vairāgya or appropriate renunciation. So, we are using all sorts of things. I mean, somehow Facebook live comes to mind, but we are using so many things in Krishna consciousness.

And Srila Prabhupada was really expert, out of his intense desire to serve Guru and Gauranga, he was very expert at engaging everyone and everything in devotional service. He really left no stone unturned. And because of his efforts, we are here today. I think I was especially touched by the young children reciting the verse and performing because it showed how Srila Prabhupada’s mission is continuing through the generations. And it won’t stop, we have every hope and expectation that it will continue through the generations.

Of course, we can say much about Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His instructions, His example, His pastimes, and His instructions, His teachings, but I think of one that seems especially relevant to us. It’s an instruction that He gave three times in three successive years. As you know, or as we’ve heard, Lord Chaitanya manifests His pastimes on earth for forty-eight years. For the first twenty-four, He manifests His pastimes in Navadvipa, for the next six years, He traveled throughout India, and for the last eighteen years, He resided in Jagannatha Puri. And throughout, He was distributing love of God through the chanting of the holy names. He appeared at the time of a solar eclipse, and as was the tradition during an eclipse, the Hindus, devotees, the Hindus would take bath, and those in Navadvipa, they took bath in Ganges, and then they were chanting the holy names.

And as a baby, sometimes Nimai would cry, and the ladies soon discovered that the only thing that would make Him stop crying was if they chanted the holy names. So, even as a baby, even in His pastimes of crying, He was inspiring people, encouraging people to chant the holy name. And of course, that continued throughout His manifested pastimes until He left. So, when He was in Puri, devotees from Bengal would come at the time of Ratha-yatra to get His association. And so, the residents of Kulina-grama would also come to Puri. And their leader, Satyaraja Khan, he was actually a great devotee, but he presented himself as a materialistic householder, and he asked Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, “What is my duty? What should I do as a materialistic person?” And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu replied, “You should always chant the holy names and serve the Vaishnavas.” That’s our duty also, of course.

So then, Satyaraja Khan asked, “How do I recognize a devotee? You’ve told me to serve Vaishnavas, how do I recognize the Vaishnavas?” Lord Chaitanya replied, “Anyone who chants the holy name once is a devotee, you should serve him.” So that’s very good, we have so many masters to serve.

The next year, they came and asked the same question, and again, Lord Chaitanya replied, “You should always chant the holy names and serve the devotees.” and “Who is a devotee? How do I recognize a devotee?” This year, Lord Chaitanya replied, “Anyone who constantly chants the holy name is a devotee.”

In the third year, same thing, “What is our duty?” “Chant the holy name and serve the devotees.” and, “Who is a devotee?” “A devotee is someone whose mere presence inspires others to chant.”

So, Srila Prabhupada, following his Guru Maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, explains that each year, Lord Chaitanya gave a description of the devotee more advanced than the previous description. So, the first year, someone who has chanted the holy name even once is a devotee. That refers to the kaniṣṭhā-bhāgavata. Of course, it’s still very exalted. I mean, when I think about all the people in Laguna Beach, everywhere, who have never chanted the holy name of Krishna even once, there are many. So, someone who has chanted the holy name of Krishna once is actually quite special because they are considered the best of human beings, we should serve them. And the answer the second year, nirantara, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu used the word nirantara. Nira means not, antara means gap or separation. So, nirantara means without any gap, in other words, constantly. An advanced devotee is constantly chanting the holy name, you should serve them. And the third year, someone whose mere presence inspires others to chant refers to the uttamā-bhāgavata, mahā-bhāgavata.

And there were cases with Srila Prabhupada. One that comes to mind was when he happened to stop over in Fiji. So, a wealthy man met Srila Prabhupada at the airport, and just by that brief encounter with Srila Prabhupada, he began to chant. He took up the chanting, and eventually, he became an initiated disciple of Srila Prabhupada and he build a temple, the Fiji Krishna Kāliya temple. And the reason for the Krishna Kāliya temple is that he said that after Krishna banished Kāliya from the Yamuna River, he eventually took shelter in Fiji. Did you know that? He took shelter in Fiji. And so, Srila Prabhupada said they should make a Krishna Kāliya temple.

So, we should always chant the holy names and serve devotees, all grades of devotees. We shouldn’t think I’m too holy to serve that devotee. No, we should. For example, we shouldn’t think we are holy.  [laughter] But we should feel humble, actually, we should feel humble and feel that it’s in our interest to serve all the devotees because that will please them. And if they are pleased, Krishna will be pleased.

Now, I just made the point we shouldn’t discriminate in serving devotees, and somehow, I thought of something I learned. In college, I was a psychology major. Anyway, there was an experiment done in high school, in which the students in the class were paired with other students, and the student was supposed to select that student who he or she disliked the most. And then, for one month, the student was supposed to be very nice to the student that they disliked. And at the end of the month, every student ended up liking the student that they disliked. Now, usually, we think if someone’s nice to me, I like them, but this experiment showed that if you are nice to someone, you’ll like them. Of course, in the course of being nice to them, they might end up being nice to you too, but the basic factor is to be nice to the person.

So, we are blessed to have the association of devotees, and if by chance the thought or the sentiment crosses our mind that, “I don’t like a particular devotee,” we can do this exercise and be nice to them. And well, given the parameters of the experiment, in a month, you’ll probably like that devotee. This would be good; good for you, good for the devotee, good for the movement, good for everyone. And of course, the chanting, always chant the holy name and serve the devotees, the chanting is really the essence.

I think of one occasion, I wasn’t there, but my godbrother Tejas dasa told me about it. Tejas Prabhu and Mahamsa Prabhu were sort of in charge of the Hyderabad farm for a while. Actually, there was a third person, I don’t remember the name. So, the three of them, they are all very strong personalities, very highly opinionated, and they often quarreled. In fact, once, Srila Prabhupada told them. . . This is how much importance he gave to collective management. He said, “You all meet together, you fight like cats and dogs, and when you all agree, you go ahead.”

So, on this one occasion, they were disagreeing, and each one was upset with the other, and simultaneously, they ran to Srila Prabhupada. And when they got to the room, they found that Srila Prabhupada was in a very deep mood of absorption and chanting the holy name in japa. The way Tejas Prabhu described it, it’s like he could hear his beads clacking and it was like he was tasting the nectar of the holy name, he was seeing him tasting the juice and clapping. And they were in all seeing Prabhupada in this deep state of absorption in the holy name, in japa, and they definitely didn’t want to disturb him with their petty problems. So, they just sat there, and they also started chanting. And eventually, Prabhupada opened his eyes and said, “Just chant the holy names, and everything will be all right.”

Which reminds me of other times that Srila Prabhupada gave that same basic instruction. Towards the end of Srila Prabhupada’s stay with us, he came to Juhu. And Srila Prabhupada had a very staunch devotee named Mr P. L. Sethi, Kishori Lal Sethi. And Mr. Sethi belonged to a kirtan group, which is a group in Vrindavan, from before he met Srila Prabhupada. And that group would do Akhand hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana twelve hours continuously every Sunday. And they were householders, so they would take turns having kirtan at every devotee’s home.

So, one day, Mr. Sethi said, “Why don’t we do it at the temple?” So, at that time, the temple was just sort of a shed, the new temple hadn’t opened. And Srila Prabhupada was not well, he was upstairs in his new quarters. So, they were chanting and Prabhupada really loved it. And at the end, they would sing songs from Vraja, one lady in particular. And Mr. Sethi and Tamal Krishna Goswami were with Srila Prabhupada, and when she started singing, Prabhupada had tears streaming down his cheeks.

So, after this event, Srila Prabhupada called for me and he said, “That kirtan was wonderful. We should invite that group, we will accommodate all of them, and all they have to do is twelve hours of kirtan.” So, with my rational mind, I said, “Srila Prabhupada, I don’t know how this will work. They are married, they have jobs, they have children, their children have to go to school. I don’t know how this will work.” So then, he said, “All right, then our men should do twelve hours continuous kirtan every day.” So then, I said, “Well, I mean, Srila Prabhupada, we have so much service to do. We are trying to open the temple and I don’t know how we can do that.” So then, he said, “All right, then once a day on Sunday, twelve hours.” So then, immediately, I agreed.

And afterwards, Tamal Krishna Goswami said that Srila Prabhupada had done transcendental bargaining with me. He said if he had started with twelve hours a day once a week, it may be three hours a day. But because he started with twelve hours a day seven days a week, by the time he got to twelve hours a day once a week, we feel relieved, “Oh, well, we’ll do that, we’ll do that.”

And Srila Prabhupada had said, “If you just chant Hare Krishna, all of your problems will be solved materially and spiritually.” He wrote that in a letter when I was in Boston, and that came to mind in Juhu, and it worked like a charm. I was a temple president, so I had a lot of problems to deal with or challenges to deal with. So, Monday, Tuesday, maybe Wednesday, I would try to deal with them, but starting Thursday, I knew, this was my practical experience, just by kirtan, all the problems were solved, either Krishna helped or the devotee who thought he had a problem realized he didn’t really have a problem after all. So, on Thursday, I’d start saying, “All right, well, give me a few days to think about it, and check with me on Monday.” But it happened, all those problems, they just disappeared like something caused this mercy.

So yeah, Srila Prabhupada had that faith, and we, to some extent, do as well, and we should have that faith because it really is true. That’s why Vaisheshika Prabhu said, “When all else fails, chant.” And everything else will fail, so chant.

So, in the old Boston temple. . . I was thinking of the press, it was a very big thing. We got this house, it was quite a big house, it was actually the first property that ISKCON owned. And in our own way, Satsvarupa Maharaja was the temple president, he was a grihastha then, and I was the saṅkīrtana leader and temple commander and treasurer. So, we had our plans how we were going to use the estate, and then Prabhupada said he wants to establish a press in Boston. So, the press ended up occupying the whole basement, but it was really great, so many wonderful devotees who were connected with the press came, and Prabhupada was so pleased. And after he left, I think I found a handwritten note he had left on his table. He didn’t say anything or give it to us, but he probably figured we’d find it. So, I found it, and he said, “I’m much obliged to,” and then he mentioned four names, including mine. Vaisesika Prabhu said we should be free from false ego and false prestige; I have to work on that.

Vaisesika Prabhu: Maharaja, I was going to ask, if you didn’t say it, I was going to ask you right now, so you have no choice.

Giriraj Swami: Okay. It was Brahmananda, Advaita, I forget who the third was, and I was the fourth. He said, “I’m very much obliged to you for establishing our own press in our own property, which was my dream.” So, we had the press. The press was called bṛhad-mṛdaṅga. And that is also kirtan, that’s exactly what bṛhad-mṛdaṅga means. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura said that the regular kirtan and mṛdaṅga, maybe you can hear it for two or three blocks, but the printing press, the sound of the bṛhad-mṛdaṅga can be heard all over this world. And it happens, I have experience.

I went to West Africa, I think I was the first ISKCON devotee to go to West Africa, and I was walking down the street, and some black Africans approached me and said, “Hare Krishna.” I was one of the first devotees to go there. So, I said, “How do you know Hare Krishna?” So, he said that he had been to London, and while he was in London, he had gotten some books from some devotees on the street, and he read the books, and that’s how he knew Hare Krishna, knew of Radha and Krishna. So, we should try to go everywhere, but the books can either go to places that we don’t go or can precede us to places where we go later. So yeah, this is yukta-vairāgya, it’s wonderful. And Srila Prabhupada is really a master at that.

So, here we are, having firstly inherited this legacy, and we should serve the mission, as Vaisesika Prabhu gave us various ideas by which we can serve the mission. And I think of one quotation by Srila Prabhupada, it’s a favorite of mine, and it’s very much in line with our philosophy of his brilliance. And so, Srila Prabhupada said that to approach Radha and Krishna, you need the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and to get the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, you need the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, and to get the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, you have to approach people like Jagai and Madhai. And there is no of dearth Jagai and Madhai of them, there are plenty of them. If we knock on every door at Laguna Beach, we might find some semblance at every one of those doors. But yeah, that’s how we get that mercy. And yeah, it’s humbling and that’s good for us.

In Bombay, Srila Prabhupada, he would send us out to collect. So, he had one friend, Dr Indira Sethi, very pious lady, very pure, never married, lived with her brothers, and she said, “Srila Prabhupada, I have ways that your disciples can make money, and then they won’t have to go out and beg anymore.” And Srila Prabhupada said, “I want them to go out and beg so they learn humility.” So, when we go out and beg people to chant the holy name, to worship Krishna, follow Krishna’s instructions, they benefit by receiving those instructions, and we benefit because we are serving Srila Prabhupada and the Pancha-tattva, paramparā, and we also benefit because it’s humbling, it teaches us to be free from false ego and just to hang on guru and Krishna.

So, until Tukurama comes and tells us what to do, I’ll see if any of you would like to add anything or have any questions or comments. Yes?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:55:55].

Host: She says, “Can you be humble at all times?” And then she switched her question and she said, “Are you allowed to express your opinion sometimes, creating a false dichotomy, and if you express your opinion, somehow, you are not being humble?”

Giriraj Swami: That’s a very good question, that’s a very good question. Well, we should be humble all the time, but we can also express humbly our opinion in the line of service. Srila Prabhupada was very emphatic that we should follow our authorities, the temple president. And once, a devotee asked him, “So, okay, we have to follow. . .” This doesn’t necessarily apply to you, it probably doesn’t apply to you. “We have to follow the temple president, but does that mean that he is always right?” And Srila Prabhupada gave the example that if you are a passenger in a car, you can tell the driver that you think there is a better way to go, but the driver, because he is in the driver’s seat, he will decide which way to go. And if he doesn’t go the way that you suggested, within yourself, you can still harbor the thought that your way was better, that’s not wrong. But still, you have to follow the authority.

And then, one last thought I had, it may or may not be relevant. Narada Muni made a snake into a disciple, and he told the snake not to bite anyone. So, the snake came back a while later and said, “People are taking advantage of me, they throw stones at me, they keep dust on me, my life is miserable.” Then, Narada said, “All right, well, you can show your fangs, but don’t bite.” So, it may be that under certain circumstances, if we are too humble externally. . . I’ve heard devotees raising this question about the workplace, that if they are too humble, people take advantage of that. So, I guess you could show your fangs, but don’t actually bite.

Yes?

Devotee: Thank you for your class. You were talking about having strong faith in the holy name and what about those that don’t have that kind of faith. . . I don’t have that yet. . . [Unintelligible 00:59:56]. 

Giriraj Swami: She is saying that we need faith in the holy name, but her faith is weak. So, what can we do to strengthen our faith?

Well, faith, there is a very nice verse in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, bhaktya jataya bhaktya, that means bhakti comes from bhakti, bhakti cannot come from anywhere else besides bhakti. We get bhakti generally, by the mercy of the devotee who has bhakti in his heart, and that giving of mercy of the devotee is a function of his bhakti. So, we want to associate with people who have faith, and the more faith they have, the better. We want to associate with devotees who have taste, and the more taste, the better.

And I’ve heard there are phone conferences or things you can get on, and you can chant japa with other devotees. Of course, if you are able, you can to come to the temple early in the morning and chant with devotees in the temple. And also, it is better to get up early. In general, our spiritual practices have more value when we do them in the early morning, beginning before sunrise, brāhma-muhūrta, an hour and a half before sunrise.

And this is known in other traditions as well. When I was in Juhu, I made some friends who were Muslims, and interestingly enough, they would come to the Juhu temple very early in the morning to pray. We were all awake and we were also praying in our way. And they said that according to their tradition, Allah hears your prayers more if you offer your prayers before sunrise. So yeah, as we were discussing earlier, we want to organize our lives in such a way that it’s most favorable for Krishna consciousness. I don’t know if that will help.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:03:34].

Giriraj Swami: Well, sounds like you need a support group, I don’t know who that would be. I think we are all like that, we all need support and encouragement to make the adjustments that we know will be beneficial for us. Because habits are hard to change, and to change any habit, especially a bad habit into a good one. I forget the figures, but for the first month or whatever it is, you have to make a real effort to change your habit, then gradually, it becomes easier, and then you form a new habit, which is a good habit. So, I’ll pray for you. [applause] Thank you very much.