SB 2.3.22 – The Path of Deity Worship

Host: . . .the foundation for that, and Maharaja [Giriraj Swami] was very [Unintelligible 00:00:02] at that point. He was the temple president at that time. Since then, he has seen so many different wonderful things like Bhaktivedanta ashrama; the kirtan [ashrama] for Women. But one of the biggest projects that is very dear to my mind is the hospice program which he has created where all the Vaishnavas who are leaving their body, they are there and there are assistant devotees. Maharaja has written some wonderful books that Prabhupada had always instructed to him to write some books and there are three of them, which are very beautiful, are Watering the Seed, Many Moons, and the [Unintelligible 00:00:31]. These are amazing books, basically, because I actually went to a hospice and gave to one of the persons there, and he was mesmerized how life or death can be explained to people for that point. So, I think one more book is coming which I think about Prabhupada’s association in Juhu which we are very anxiously waiting. But I won’t take too much time, because I think Maharaja [Unintelligible 00:00:51]. But before I give it to Maharaja, I would also like to welcome His Grace Jaya Krishna Prabhu who is also – [Applause]. Thank you very much.

[Kirtan and prayers]

Girirāj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotees: Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: It is a great pleasure and privilege for me to be here with you all in this beautiful new temple which has been so nicely designed and constructed by Nīla Madhava Prabhu and his team. He suggested that I speak about my association with Srila Prabhupada, which I will do, and that before that, I speak a little philosophy from the scripture. So I have selected a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two; Chapter Three, “Pure Devotional Service,” Text Twenty-two.

I will just read the Sanskrit through twice, and then I will read the synonyms and then the translation and purport. Please repeat.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

What would you do, interactively, when we have little time?

TEXT 22

barhāyite te nayane narāṇāṁ
liṅgāni viṣṇor na nirīkṣato ye
pādau nṛṇāṁ tau druma-janma-bhājau
kṣetrāṇi nānuvrajato harer yau

Any volunteers. . .to lead the chanting? [Pause] Yes.

Devotees: [Lead chanting the verse]

Giriraj Swami: Any Vaishnavas?

Vaishnavi: [Leads chanting]

Giriraj Swami:

TRANSLATION

The eyes which do not look at the symbolic representations of the Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu [His forms, name, quality, etc.] are like those printed on the plumes of the peacock, and the legs which do not move to the holy places [where the Lord is remembered] are considered to be like tree trunks.

COMMENT

How many of you are householders? [Extended Laughter] . . .Who else? [Laughter]

PURPORT by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Especially for the householder devotees the path of Deity worship is strongly recommended. As far as possible, every householder, by the direction of the spiritual master, must install the Deity of Viṣṇu, forms such as Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa, or Sītā-Rāma especially, or any other form of the Lord, such as Nṛsiṁha, Varāha, Gaura-Nitāi, Matsya, Kūrma, śālagrāma-śilā, and many other forms of the Lord, like Trivikrama, Keśava, Acyuta, Vāsudeva, Nārāyaṇa, and Dāmodara, as recommended in the Vaiṣṇava-tantras or Purāṇas, and one’s family should worship strictly following the directions and regulations of arcana-vidhi. Any member of the family who is above twelve years of age. . .

COMMENT

How many children here are above twelve and less than eighteen? [Laughter] Raise your hands. Okay. Your parents know who you are. [Laughter] Okay, now. . .

PURPORT (continued)

Any member of the family who is above twelve years of age should be initiated by a bona fide spiritual master [Laughter], and all the members of the household should be engaged in the daily service of the Lord, beginning from maṅgala-ārotika (4 a.m.) [Laughter] till night (10 p.m.) [Laughter]

COMMENT

I don’t know what to make of this laughter. [Laughter] I just don’t know what to make of it. Okay. . .

PURPORT (continued)

. . .all the members of the household should be engaged in the daily service of the Lord, beginning from morning (4 a.m.) till night (10 p.m.) by performing maṅgala-ārātrika, nirañjana, arcana, pūjā, kīrtana, śṛṅgāra, bhoga-vaikāli, sandhyā-ārātrika, pāṭha, bhoga (at night), śayana-ārātrika, etc.

COMMENT

So, let us go through this list. [Laughter] In maṅgala-ārātrika. . .You all know what maṅgala-ārātrika is [Laughter]. . .at least in theory. [Laughter] [Unintelligible 00:33:22] attended it, you know I am sitting right here. [Laughter] [Unintelligible 00:33:27].

Nirañjana. . .What is nirañjana? [Pause] I also don’t know. [Laughter] [Unintelligible 00:33:41]

Arcana: Deity worship. Puja: Which is an element of arcana. . . puja. Kirtan: You know kirtan. And of all these items, I will dare say, that it is most important to perform kirtan along with the other items.

Śṛṅgāra: What is śṛṅgāra?

Devotees: Dressing the Deities.

Giriraj Swami: Yes. Dressing the Deity forms. Bhoga-vaikāli. . .?

Devotee: Offering bhoga.

Giriraj Swami: Offering bhoga. Sandhyā-ārātrika

Devotees: Evening ārotika.

Giriraj Swami: Pāṭha. . .?

Devotee: Reading?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, reading; discourses, like bhāgavata-tattva. Very good.

Bhoga: Bhoga means offering food. Śayana-ārātrika. . .?

Devotees: Night ārotika.

Giriraj Swami: Night ārotika. . .etcetera. [Laughter] If that is not enough, [Laughter] if Srila Prabhupada missed anything, then etcetera is there [Laughter] just to make sure there is no chance for any idleness or distraction.

PURPORT (continued)

Engagement in such worship of the Deity, under the directions of a bona fide spiritual master, will greatly help the householders to purify their very existence and make rapid progress in spiritual knowledge. Simple theoretical book knowledge is not sufficient for a neophyte devotee. Book knowledge is theoretical, whereas the arcana process is practical. Spiritual knowledge must be developed by a combination of theoretical and practical knowledge, and that is the guaranteed way for attainment of spiritual perfection.

COMMENT

Srila Prabhupada has explained that these two processes, arcanā-vidhi and bhāgavata-vidhi – arcanā-vidhi is the Deity worship and bhāgavata-vidhi is hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam; Bhagavad-gītā – they go together like two rails on a train track. If a train tries to move forward on only one rail it won’t work. It won’t go anywhere, or it will get stalled and maybe it will tip over. So, it must go forward on two tracks, and the two tracks are bhāgavata-mārga: hearing and chanting about Krishna, or reading Srila Prabhupada’s books, and arcana, Deity worship.

So here, Srila Prabhupada is speaking about the dangers of only book knowledge without practical application. So we should read the books, of course, but we should also engage in the service of the Deity, which is practical. [Pause] Yes, so spiritual knowledge must be developed by a combination of theoretical and practical knowledge. And that is the guaranteed way for attainment of spiritual perfection.

PURPORT (continued)

The training of devotional service for a neophyte devotee completely depends on the expert spiritual master who knows how to lead his disciple to make gradual progress towards the path back home, back to Godhead. One should not become a pseudo spiritual master as a matter of business to meet one’s family expenditures; one must be an expert spiritual master to deliver the disciple from the clutches of impending death.

COMMENT

Okay, there is a verse in the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: gurur na sa syāt. It continues, gurur na sa syāt sva-jano na sa syāt. But gurur na sa syāt, it means no one should become a guru unless he can deliver his dependents from the repetition of birth and death. But that also applies, according to that verse, to fathers, mothers, husbands, and any superior relative. You should not accept that position, unless you can deliver your dependent from the cycle of repeated birth and death. So, it is a very serious thing. . .well, to get married, you can live spiritually. It is a very serious thing, because the husband is responsible for delivering the wife; of course, the wife should cooperate and also help the husband. And it is the responsibility of the parents to see that the children don’t have to take birth and rebirth, and don’t have to remain in the cycle of birth and death. Otherwise, as Srila Prabhupada explains, you shouldn’t become a mother or a father, or a husband or a guru.

So, it is a very serious responsibility, and that responsibility can be fulfilled through the association of more advanced devotees and through engaging in the practices of bhakti-yoga, and especially the five most potent ones, which are nāma-kīrtana: chanting the holy name; bhagavata-śravaṇa: hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā – nāma-kīrtana; bhagavata-śravaṇa – sādhu-saṅga: associating with more advanced devotees; [Unintelligible 00:42:06]—worshiping the Deity with faith and veneration and mathurā-vāsa: which means residing in Mathurā, Vṛndāvana or any holy place – or a temple. As Srila Prabhupada said, best is if you can live in the temple. The next best is if you can live near the temple; come every day. And then next, after that, is to make your home into a temple. In this purport, Srila Prabhupada is explaining how you can really make your home into a temple. [Pause] So, yes.

PURPORT (continued)

. . .one must be an expert spiritual master to deliver the disciple from the clutches of impending death. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has defined the bona fide qualities of a spiritual master, and one of the verses in that description reads:

śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-
śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau
yuktasya bhaktāṁś ca niyuñjato ‘pi
vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam

Śrī-vigraha is the arcā, or suitable worshipable form of the Lord, and the disciple should be engaged in worshiping the Deity regularly by śṛṅgāra, by proper decoration and dressing, as also by mandira-mārjana, the matter of cleansing the temple. The spiritual master teaches the neophyte devotee all these kindly and personally to help him gradually in the realization of the transcendental name, quality, form, etc., of the Lord.

COMMENT

Srila Prabhupada shed some further light on this matter. In Calcutta, once he asked the devotees, “What is the duty of the spiritual master, and what is the duty of the disciple?” And then, Srila Prabhupada answered, “The duty of the spiritual master is to serve Krishna, and the duty of the disciple is to assist the spiritual master.” And he gave the example, as you read, mandira-mārjana. He gave the example that the spiritual master is responsible to keep the temple room clean, and so, in principle, if necessary, he would get down onto the floor of the temple room. And the duty of the disciple is to assist the spiritual master, so the disciple can get down and clean the floor of the temple room in the mood of assisting his or her spiritual master.

It is also mentioned – I don’t know if it will come to this purport; it may – that if one cannot personally do the Deity worship, one should see the Deity worship being done in the temple. Of course, I have chosen this verse and purport, because we now have this beautiful temple which offers so much opportunity for the devotees to engage in service in the temple. And, as I just said, even if you can’t personally do the service, for example, oh, there could be different reasons, but: You are not initiated in, could be one. But by witnessing the worship in the temple, you also get benefit; the same [Unintelligible 00:47:15].

PURPORT (continued)

Only attention engaged in the service of the Lord, especially in dressing and decorating the temple, accompanied by musical kīrtana and spiritual instructions from the scriptures. . .

COMMENT

So, this is a very important point. Of course, Srila Prabhupada introduced it in all of his temples, that along with the Deity worship, there should also be recitation and discussion of scripture.

PURPORT (continued)

Only attention engaged in the service of the Lord, especially in dressing and decorating the temple, accompanied by musical kīrtana and spiritual instructions from scriptures can save the common man from the hellish cinema attractions and rubbish sex-songs broadcast everywhere by radios.

COMMENT

Now, we could render this in a more contemporary setting by talking about – well, cinema is still there, but there is a lot of rubbish available on other platforms [Laughing] such as the internet, as we all know. And so, energy engaged in the service of the Lord, only energy engaged in the service of the Lord, can save one from being victimized from all that nonsense; rascaldom. [Pause] So, now we read this.

PURPORT (continued

Only attention engaged in the service of the Lord, especially in dressing and decorating the temple, accompanied by musical kīrtana and spiritual instructions from scriptures can save the common man from the hellish cinema attractions and rubbish sex-songs broadcast everywhere by radios. If one is unable to maintain a temple at home, he should go to another’s temple where all the above performances are regularly executed. Visiting the temple of a devotee and looking at the profusely decorated forms of the Lord well dressed in a well-decorated, sanctified temple naturally infuse the mundane mind with spiritual inspiration.

COMMENT

We experience that, here. That is why you are here. Then, the other point in this verse. Well, what is the other point? My dear devotees, there are two points in this verse. One is about seeing the symbolic forms of the Lord, and the other is. . .?

Devotee: Walking.

Giriraj Swami: Yes! That is it! Now, we know why you are here, again. [Laughter] We knew otherwise, but we confirmed.

Anuvrajataḥ. [Repeats TRANSLATION:] “The legs which do not move to the holy places where the Lord is remembered are considered to be like tree trunks.”

So, we come to this point.

PURPORT (continued)

People should visit holy places like Vṛndāvana where such temples and worship of the Deity are specifically maintained. Formerly all rich men like kings and rich merchants constructed such temples under the direction of expert devotees of the Lord, like the Six Gosvāmīs, and it is the duty of the common man to take advantage of these temples and festivals observed in the holy places of pilgrimage by following in the footsteps of great devotees (anuvraja).

COMMENT

Of course, that can be achieved by going to Vrindavan or Mayapur, and it can also be achieved by coming to the temple here, or any of Srila Prabhupada’s temples where the Deity of Vishnu is installed and the worship is conducted according to the rules and regulations of shastra, and there is regular recitation of scripture.

PURPORT (continued)

One should not visit all these sanctified pilgrimage places and temples with sightseeing in mind. . .

COMMENT

Now, I have seen in Juhu, of course, we don’t really know of the mentality of people, but some of them come, and they want to take selfies of themselves [Laughter] in front of the entrance of the temple, or even inside the temple room next to the altar. So, there might be an element of sightseeing. . .might.

PURPORT (continued)

One should not visit all these sanctified pilgrimage places and temples with sightseeing in mind, but one must go to such temples and sanctified places immortalized by the transcendental pastimes of the Lord and be guided by proper men who know the science.

COMMENT

So that is very important. ISKCON devotees do have that prerogative or opportunity, because all of our temples, I think Vrindavan and Mayapur, there are devotees who can take us on pilgrimage and explain things nicely, like Dīna-bandhu Prabhu in Vrindavan, and there are others, also. So they will take you; guide you to different holy places where the pastimes of the Lord were enacted and recite those pastimes. So, if you don’t know, you have someone else explain the underlying principle or philosophy that governs these pastimes.

PURPORT (continued)

This is called anuvraja. Anu means to follow.

COMMENT

Like, we are rūpānugas, followers of Rupa Gosvami.

PURPORT (continued)

It is therefore best to follow the instructions of the bona fide spiritual master, even in visiting temples and the holy places of pilgrimage. One who does not move in that way is as good as a standing tree condemned by the Lord not to move.

COMMENT

So this verse comes in a series, and the idea is that if your mind and senses are not engaged in the service of the Lord, or if you are not engaged in the service of the Lord, you might as well be dead. If you can’t see the form of the Deity, you might as well not have eyes. Your eyes are as good as the eyes on a peacock plume. If you are not going to use your legs to go to holy places of pilgrimage and temples, you might as well not have legs. You might as well just stand like a tree and not go anywhere. It is useless, unless you go to holy places of pilgrimage and temples.

PURPORT (continued)

One who does not move in that way is as good as a standing tree condemned by the Lord not to move. The moving tendency of the human being is misused by visiting places for sightseeing. The best purpose of such traveling tendencies could be fulfilled by visiting the holy places established by great ācāryas and thereby not being misled by the atheistic propaganda of moneymaking men who have no knowledge of spiritual matters. 

COMMENT

So, I will read this again and explain it a little. There are many tourist attractions, and some are tourist attractions because they are historical, and some entrepreneurs create tourist attractions, like Disneyland, or something like that, and there are so many varieties. So, our tendency to visit places should not be misused by going to those kinds of places, but rather we should go to holy places of pilgrimage and temples.

Say, recently, we had the Sādhu-saṅga Kīrtana Retreat, in North Carolina. These retreats are very important, because they really infuse us with spiritual energy and inspire us and enliven us. And at the end of the Sādhu-Saṅga Retreat, both His Holiness Sacinandana Swami and His Grace Sri Prahlada dasa were asked, “While you are going back, how do you take this with you?” You don’t want to go back and just slip into the same old mold. You want to take this back with you and try to keep your consciousness elevated and enlivened. And it comes in relation to visiting Vrindavan: You get inspired, and more so if you participate in festivals and retreats. Like every year, His Holiness Sacinandana Swami and His Grace Bhurijana Prabhu have their holy name retreat and Govardhana retreat.

So yes. We want to go, and it is interesting, because there is a saying, “God helps those who help themselves.” And Srila Prabhupada subscribed to that saying, “God helps those who help themselves.” And what does it mean to help oneself? Once, Srila Prabhupada said that to help oneself means place oneself in the presence of transcendental sound. So God helps those who help themselves. How do you help yourself? You put yourself in the presence of transcendental sound. [Pause] So. . .

PURPORT (continued)

The best purpose of such traveling tendencies could be fulfilled by visiting the holy places established by great ācāryas and thereby not being misled by the atheistic propaganda of moneymaking men. . .

COMMENT

Like these entrepreneurs that create Disneyland and other such things.

PURPORT (continued)

. . .who have no knowledge of spiritual matters.

COMMENT

Yes, please come forward. There are still people coming in and need space. [Pause]

All right. So, thank you very much.

Well, to honor Nīla Madhava’s request that I speak about my association with Srila Prabhupada. Of course, it extended from the first time I met him, in 1969. . .maybe April of 1969 or May. . .until he left in November of 1977, but I will describe a little about the first meetings, because they really set me on the track, and then everything else followed after that. So, I will start this in high school. I could go back further. [Laughter] Sometimes, I began when I was eight years old. It is all connected, actually. But for the sake of brevity, we’ll start with me in high school.

So, I had the idea to help others, and at that time, I thought the best way to help them would be to become a doctor. My uncle, father’s brother, was a doctor, and I very much admired him. So, I was the president of the Future Doctors Association in high school. But when I got to college, I saw that there were students who were physically all right, but who were tortured mentally. But I didn’t have any categories or vocabulary that, now, in retrospect, I might say, suffering from depression or even other diagnoses. So then, I saw that they could be suffering more intensely than people with physical ailments. So then, I thought, I won’t be a doctor. I will become a psychologist.

I was studying at Brandeis University, and the chairman of the Department of Psychology was named Abraham Maslow, who was a leader in psychology, then. Up until then, there were two major forces in psychology. So one was psychoanalysis, which was founded by Sigmund Freud, and which, in simple terms, he studied diseased persons. And the other branch was called behaviorism. And that was based on stimulus and response, like there is [the] famous Pavlov’s dog. And so at that time, the leading proponent in that field was B.F. Skinner. It was stimulus and response. It was very mechanistic, you could say. That people are conditioned by stimulus and response and that determines their psychology and their behavior.

So Abraham Maslow developed, and there were others who, you could say, moved with him in that effort, in what he called “the third force.” So instead of studying, as he put it, instead of studying diseased persons or rats, he wanted to study healthy persons. He developed a theory of self-actualization, and he catalogued characteristics of healthy people. And they had one thing, he noted. They had basically called “peak experiences,” which was like an experience in one which one feels oneness with other living entities of creation. So that was my thought: to become a psychologist. Then, I started to notice that the psychologists had as many problems as ordinary people. [Laughter] And within the department, they were like bickering and jockeying for position and then funds for their field of psychology as opposed to other types of studies.

Abraham Maslow, who was actually a very nice person, but he related to us—and it is to his credit; he was so candid—he related to us an incident in which he had various symptoms. And he was really disturbed by those symptoms. So he consulted one of his colleagues, and his colleague told him that you are having an anxiety attack. And he told us, his students in his class, that he had written chapters in books about anxiety attacks. But when he had one, he didn’t recognize it. It was sort of like the difference between theoretical knowledge and realized knowledge. But it was a very progressive department under Maslow, and one of our professors was James Klee. And in one of my classes with him, he made a table; columns and rows. And that was the first time I saw, I don’t remember exactly how he correlated the Vedic terms with the psychological terms. But I saw that there were dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa put that in the table.

So, okay. One thread was helping people, then the other was I wanted perfect happiness. And eventually, I understood that one could not have perfect happiness by material means. It could only be by spiritual. And then by further reading and exploration, I concluded that I couldn’t do that on my own, but I needed a guru. So then, my quest became to find my guru; my perfect master. And any time I heard of a guru, anywhere even within a thousand miles, I would go to see if this is my guru; my perfect master. And at Brandeis, they invited many. I won’t mention all of them, but Swami Sachidananda came there, and J. Krishnamurti came there. I mean, I was not satisfied with any of them. I mean, since I mentioned those two, I will just give a little. example of why I couldn’t accept them. So, J. Krishnamurti came, invited by Professor Klee. And I asked the professor that I want to meet Mr. Krishnamurti. So, he asked me why I wanted to meet him. I said, “Well, I want to see if maybe he is my guru.” And then, Professor Klee said, “Well, he doesn’t accept disciples. He doesn’t even touch money.” And I thought to myself, If he can actually help people, then why, just for the sake of being renounced, should he refuse? So, he is not my perfect master.”

Then, Swami Sachidananda gave a presentation in the auditorium of the psychology department. And the only thing I really remember from his talk was he said that, by yoga, you can attain mastery over your involuntary muscle functions, and you can actually command your intestines. As he said it, you say: “Ascending colon advance. . .Transverse colon advance [Laughter]. . .Descending colon advance. . .Rectum pass.” [Laughter] So, I thought it was interesting, but it didn’t seem to address the higher purposes of life. But still, I didn’t want to discount anyone, because I really wanted to find my perfect master. So, after the lecture, because the Swami is going straight to the airport to go to New York, where he is based, I said I wanted to ride in the car with him to the airport so I could speak to him. So, my professor said, “Well, his car is full, but you can ride with some of his students who are going to the airport.” So, okay, I got in the car with his students, and the main topic of discussion was all the different types of food they missed since they had joined the ashram. And I thought, This is odd. They just had met their guru, and all their thinking about and talking about is all the different types of food that they are missing since they joined the ashram. And they mentioned pizza. I saw pizza at the Potomac Temple, so [Laughter], even if that is your level, you can get it in Krishna consciousness. [Laughter] But I was thinking, they had just been with their guru, and this is what they are talking about? But, anyway, they are just the students, we can’t really judge from them. So, we got to the airport, and there was the Swami. He had long, flowing hair and a beard; he was like the picture of Indian spirituality. He had a twinkle in his eyes. [Phone ringing] And there at the airport, I saw him very warmly embracing a lady, I suppose, disciple. . .way. . . So anyway, [Unintelligible 01:17:00] my perfect master.

So there were many, but I won’t go into all of them, because there were too many. But, then I heard of a Psychology professor at another university who was supposed to be enlightened. So, let me try him. He was at Antioch College, in Ohio. I went there. It was Friday afternoon. With great eagerness and high expectations, I went to his office, and his secretary told me, “He is out playing golf.” And I didn’t say anything, but from the look on my face, she must have understood that I was disappointed, so to try to mitigate my thoughts and feelings about the professor, she said, “That is his Zen.” [Laughter] But, anyway, he is not my perfect master. But, I traveled all that way, so I went to the student union, meeting the students, and there I found that a Swami had visited the campus, and that he had said that God was a person, and yet, He is in your heart, and you can factually converse with Him. But that was the first time I ever heard of God as a person, and I was very attracted by that idea. And I thought, “I would like to meet that Person in my heart. So, anyway, yes, so I went back to Brandeis.

On the subject of Zen, one of the persons I had gone to was Philip Kapleau who wrote a book called Three Pillars of Zen, and he had an ashram in Rochester, New York. So I want there, and I won’t describe it all in detail, but it is in my Vyasa-puja offering to Srila Prabhupada, this year. But anyway, he didn’t seem right, but a little after that, he came to Boston, and he gave a talk at MIT, and I went to the talk just to make sure that he wasn’t the one, or to see if he was.  So, someone asked him about Vedanta, because the thing about Zen masters is they are supposed to appear ordinary, even though they are not. So he did appear ordinary. . .for sure. [Laughter] So, I thought, Oh, maybe that is part of it. Maybe he is inwardly enlightened, but just acting like an ordinary person.

When he came to MIT, someone asked him about Vedanta. And he replied, I have enough trouble keeping up with Zen, so don’t ask me about Vedanta. And then, I thought, He is not my perfect master. So there were many. There were many like that. So finally, I became almost hopeless. I thought I am never going to find my perfect master. And on top of that, I had a vague impression of what he looked like. He didn’t have hair, and all the other Swamis and yogis had long hair. So that made it even more remote.

In May of 1969, there was a poster on campus: Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta; Bhagavad-gītā, As It Is; Schwartz Auditorium – It was the auditorium of the Psychology Department – 7:00 p.m. So, I saw it, but by then, I was so disgusted with all the wrong people I had met, so I didn’t have any interest. So, I was planning to go to the movies, that night. [Laughter] Don’t laugh. In those days, they had what they called art films, or art theaters. So, it wasn’t like a – It was actually a very deep movie by a Japanese director, named Akira Kurosawa. The name of the film was Ikiru. It was actually quite a deep film. We were going to go to that, so I had some friends over. I was already a vegetarian, so we had pasta and salad, and then, we would go to see this movie. But that poster came into my mind. Even though I had no intention to go to that lecture, something in my heart was saying, “You have to go to this.” So I told my friends, “I think I want to go to this lecture on campus, and we can catch the later show.”

[Unintelligible 01:23:13] [Laughter] and I was sort of an obliging type. I didn’t want to upset anyone. So, I said, “Okay, [Laughter] I will go. Alright, if you want to go.” But then, in my heart was this force; this voice was saying, “You must go.” So I brought it up again, and again there was a lot of resistance. So, “Alright. Okay,” to let it go.” But that voice inside of me was just – it was like shouting to me, it was impelling me, “You must go.” So, I brought it up, and my sort of girlfriend said, “Why can’t you be like normal people? [Laughter] Why do you always have to be running after these swamis and yogis?” And she was getting upset, and she was raising her voice. And then, I raised my voice to sort of pacify her. I said, “Okay! This will be the last one I ever go to!” [Laughter] And I kept my word. [Laughter] After I met Srila Prabhupada, I didn’t go to any others. [Laughter]

So we got to the auditorium, but because of the big arguments, we were late, and Prabhupada had finished speaking. I guess Satsvarupa was leading the kirtan, and [in] the auditorium, they had bare brick walls. It was sort of, I guess, artistic in its own way of stylish. It had bare brick walls, and the sound of that kirtan was reverberating off the walls; it was just so powerful. And the students were so inspired that, one by one, the students were getting up from their chairs in the auditorium and going on stage and joining in the kirtan with the devotees and Srila Prabhupada. So I had my friends on either side of me. I stood up in place, but I thought – I felt like going on stage, too, but I felt if I do this, that would be too much for them. I mean, you have already pushed them to the limit, and then it’d be too much. So, I stood in place and was swaying back and forth.

Then, after the kirtan, Satsvarupa announced, because the devotees didn’t own any motor vehicles, then, so Satsvarupa dasa Adhikārī, then, announced that if anyone is driving to Cambridge or Boston, they should meet the devotees in the lobby, because the devotees needed a lift. And I was going to be driving to Cambridge, to Harvard Square, to see the foreign film. So, I went out to the lobby, and the first devotee I spoke to, the first devotee I ever spoke to personally, was Baradraja. He is the father of Gauravani. All these other students I met, they were so down. But he was so high. He was totally high on Krishna consciousness. And, apparently out of nowhere. he just started saying that in the Eleventh Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna showed Arjuna His universal form, and it was more dazzling than thousands of suns. And then, Arjuna asked to see His four-handed form of Vishnu, and then, His original two-handed form of Krishna. He was just going on like this. It was very intriguing. So I said, “They announced that if someone is driving to Cambridge, they’d welcome to use a lift.”

So, I am driving. I had a red Rambler station wagon; Nash Rambler, that my father gave me as a graduation present from high school. So, they all piled in, and I was in the front seat with a lady devotee, named Jāhnavā, and the girlfriend. And then, in the very back, I remember the place from [Unintelligible 01:28:42], but in the very back was Satsvarupa and my best friend, Gary. And from the front, I overheard them discussing; arguing philosophy. I heard Gary say, “Everything is void.” Then afterwards, I heard Satsvarupa say, “There is no void in the creation of God.” And there was arguing, and I was overhearing it from the front. So I quoted something I read in a Zen book that, “It is not void, and it is not not void, [Laughter] but to give it a name, we call it the void.” I thought that would solve everything. [Laughter] But that brilliant pronouncement had no effect, [Laughter] whatsoever. So, I thought, All right. Let them discuss it.

So then, I started speaking with Jāhnavā, and I brought up Yogananda, because I read a book called, Autobiography of a Yogi, by Yogananda, and I was quite attracted. She said, “Oh, Yogananda. He is just a shopkeeper. If you have ever been to his ashrama in California, he is just a shopkeeper. Whatever you want, he keeps it in stock. You want Krishna, easy, he will give you Keishna. If you want Śiva, he will give you Shiva. If you want Ganesa, he will – If you want jnana-yoga, he will give you. If you want karma-yoga, he will give it. And then, she said, “At his ashrama, Self-Realization Fellowship, he has a statue or some shrine to Mahatma Gandhi, describing him as a worker for world peace. But, Mahatma Gandhi wasn’t working for world peace. He was working for India’s independence. He doesn’t even know who Gandhi is.“ [Laughter] So, I thought, Wow. It is pretty strong; and it was accurate.

So then, I brought up about Zen, and she said, “It is like this phenomenal world; it is like you are seeing images on a movie screen, but actually they have no real reality. It means they are temporal. But if you draw your consciousness back from the screen, you will see there is a light. And if you follow the light further back, you will find there is a light bulb and a movie projector and a person projections behind the whole thing.” And I thought, Wow. This is the best explanation of Zen I have ever heard. Better than what I heard in the Zen ashrama or books. But it goes further, it goes beyond Zen. I go, “This is amazing.” And then, I thought, Well, she is just a young girl. This couldn’t all be coming from her. She must be getting this from her teacher. So then, I resolved that I must meet the teacher. I had seen him on stage, but I must meet the teacher.

So, we got to Harvard Square, and I let all the devotees out. And then, I realized I didn’t know how to get in touch with them, so I really got worried. So I jumped out of the car, and the first devotee I got to was Patita-pāvana, who is in the San Francisco Bay area now; very humble devotee. So I got to him, and he also was like – He said, “You see all these people? They are just like sleepwalkers. They don’t know who they are or where they are going.” It was like, everything the devotees said was to captivating. So, I was listening to him, and then I suddenly heard loud honking of horns, because I left my car in the roundabout of Harvard Square, and the traffic was backed up [Laughter]. So it finally entered my conscience life, so I said, “I want to meet the Swami. How can I meet the Swami?” So he gave me the address, and I got in the car.

So then, I went the next night. I heard Srila Prabhupada speak, and I couldn’t understand everything because of his accent, and also it was a new subject. But I did hear him say: manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye. That out of many thousands of men, one will seek perfection. So when I heard that, I thought, That is me. They are talking about me. [Laughter]

So, he completed his lecture, and then he asked for questions. And Ānanda Vṛndāvaneśvarī Mataji briefly eluded to this when she introduced me in Potomac. So, I asked the question that was burning within me. “There are so many swamis and yogis, and each one recommends a different process of self-realization, and each one says his is best. So how do I know which is actually best? And Srila Prabhupada replied very intelligently. Because I was asking what is the best means. . .but the best means to what goal? So, Srila Prabhupada replied, “What is your goal? Do you want to become a God, or do you want to serve God?” And then, he said, “If you want to become God, that means you are not God now. [Laughter] So how can not God become God? Krishna is God. He is substantially God. He is God when He is playing on the lap of Mother Yasoda. He is God when He is speaking the Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna. He is always God. He doesn’t have to become God by yoga or meditation.” And then, he said, “If you want to serve God, and you sow the seed of service to God, and water it by chanting, God will provide all the favorable conditions to make it grow. But He will help you. But if you want to become God, you are only cheating yourself. Why should God help the competition?” [Laughter] So he said, “You can become godly, but you cannot become God.”

So, while he was speaking to me, I had this distinct impression that he was seeing straight through me, through the walls to the temple, through the roads beyond, into my apartment, into my bathroom, where I had inscribed in my own hand in different colors in ornate lettering: You Are God. [Laughter] And I knew I found my perfect master. So he said, “So what? What do” – and he knew everything. Then he said, “So what do you think? Do you want to serve God, or do you want to become God?” So by then, I understood. But I said, “I want to serve God, but actually I realized,” well, I know I couldn’t cheat him, right? I said, “but actually I realized I wanted to become God.” And he said, “Yes.” So then I bowed down, in obeisances, as I had seen the other devotees do, and I kept my head down for a long time – largely in surrender. I had found my perfect master. But I was also a little afraid to come up, because I thought all the other people in the audience would look at me and glare at me and, “Oh, he wanted to become God.” [Laughter] And I didn’t want to be – I guess I was too afraid to come up.

But then, I heard sounds that indicated they were distributing food; feast. [Laughter] So, after doing that for a while, I thought, Well, I think I can come up, now. So I came up, everyone was smiling and happy; even the ones that looked at me, they were smiling and happy. And then, I had the feast. It was like every item was this explosion of divine tastes that I had never experienced before. And, so I was thinking everything about Krishna consciousness is perfect. The spiritual master, that was the main thing, and then, the process, the chanting, the philosophy, the prasādam: It is got everything. Everything was perfect.

But then, after about a week, the devotees told me that Srila Prabhupada was leaving; that he is going to his next destination, which was Columbus, Ohio. And it just never occurred to me that he would leave. I thought he would always be there. [Laughter] So, the devotees invited me to go to the airport with them, so I went. So many of the devotees were weeping. There is one lady devotee that I would sometimes ask my questions to, named Arundhati. She is in upstate New York, now. And I said, “Why is everyone crying.” And she quoted Srila Prabhupada as saying that in the spiritual world, everything is absolute. Meeting and separation are the same. And philosophically, that sounded just right. Both are occasions of ecstasy. Even in separation, both are occasions of ecstasy. I thought, That sounds perfect. It sounded just right. But still, I wasn’t completely sure that it was practical. But still, it did seem that everything was perfect. I thought maybe this was the one defect: that the spiritual master has to leave.

So one day, soon after that, we were doing hari-nāma saṅkīrtana. Suddenly, I felt Srila Prabhupada’s presence descend on me. It was very dramatic and vivid. It was like he was there; I could feel it. He was there, and I started to believe. And then, I thought, “It is true. Everything about Krishna consciousness is perfect, and that there is no difference between meeting and separation, because in separation, there can also be meeting. But then, it is completely condensed. But from then on, my purpose was to introduce people to Srila Prabhupada. That was in Boston, and in India, in Juhu. And then, when Srila Prabhupada left, I thought, Well, what will I do now, because my whole mission was to bring people to Srila Prabhupada. But then, I realized I could still do that, even though he wasn’t physically present, but they could associate with him through his books, his instructions, in a way, everything he left us, his ISKCON, his disciples. Because I was and still am convinced that if anyone comes in touch with Srila Prabhupada, his life, or her life will become successful.

So, Hare Krishna.

Devotees: Jaya!