SB 7.9.28 – The Secret of Success in Spiritual Life

Giriraj Swami: So, we shall read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Seven, Chapter Nine, Prahlada Pacifies the Lord with Prayers, Text Twenty-Eight.

TEXT 28

evaṁ janaṁ nipatitaṁ prabhavāhi-kūpe
kāmābhikāmam anu yaḥ prapatan prasaṅgāt
kṛtvātmasāt surarṣiṇā bhagavan gṛhītaḥ
so ‘haṁ kathaṁ nu visṛje tava bhṛtya-sevām

TRANSLATION

My dear Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, because of my association with material desires, one after another, I was gradually falling into a blind well full of snakes, following the general populace. But Your servant Nārada Muni kindly accepted me as his disciple and instructed me how to achieve this transcendental position. Therefore, my first duty is to serve him. How could I leave his service?

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

As will be seen in later verses, even though Prahlāda Mahārāja was directly offered all the benedictions he might have desired, he refused to accept such offerings from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. On the contrary, he asked the Lord to engage him in the service of His servant Nārada Muni. This is the symptom of a pure devotee. One should serve the spiritual master first. It is not that one should bypass the spiritual master and desire to serve the Supreme Lord. This is not the principle for a Vaiṣṇava.

COMMENT

So, I will speak as I read the purport. But once, in Mayapur, on a morning walk, Srila Prabhupada and the disciples came to an embankment. And so, Prabhupada’s disciple, Bhavananda, climbed up on the embankment and held out his hand to Srila Prabhupada and helped him to reach the top of the embankment. And when Srila Prabhupada reached the top, he immediately withdrew his hand from Bhavananda Prabhu’s and just walked ahead completely ignoring him, and then Srila Prabhupada explained why he had done that, to give an instruction or a lesson and he said, ”This is the attitude of the Mayavadis, the impersonalists, they take help from the guru to become God presumably, and then when they become God, they have no use for the guru.” So, this is the opposite obviously of the Vaishnava principle, which is that, we are eternal servants of the guru, life after life. As Narottama dasa Thakura says, cakhu-dān dilo jei, janme janme prabhu sei, my spiritual master who gave me spiritual vision is my master birth after birth, life after life. So, this is an eternal relationship, it’s not that we have a relationship, I will speak as a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, it’s not that we have a relationship with Srila Prabhupada until we get to Krishna and then we have no use for Srila Prabhupada; but we are eternally the servant of the servant of the servant. As Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says, gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ, so even in the spiritual world there is paramparā, we don’t serve Krishna directly, I mean, the service is direct in a way but we serve Krishna under guidance, just as here. And so that principle of gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ, it begins here in the material world and it continues even in the spiritual world.

PURPORT (continued)

One should serve the spiritual master first. It is not that one should bypass the spiritual master and desire to serve the Supreme Lord. This is not the principle for a Vaiṣṇava. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says:

tāṅdera caraṇa sevi bhakta-sane vāsa

janame janame haya, ei abhilāṣa

One should not be anxious to offer direct service to the Lord. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu advised that one become a servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord (gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ).

COMMENT

So, as we have heard and as we know, the material world is an inverted reflection of the spiritual world, and everything that exists in the material world also exists in the spiritual world. So once, soon after Srila Prabhupada left, I asked Prabhupada’s Sanskrit editor Pradyumna, whom Srila Prabhupada affectionately called Panditji, I asked him that, ”Okay everything exists originally in the spiritual world, so we have pride in the material world, what is the pride in the spiritual world?” And Pradyumna Prabhu replied, ”That the pride of the devotee in the spiritual world is that he is dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ, he is the last one in the line, he is the servant of all the other servants and that is his pride, that he has the most masters because he is the lowest servant of everyone and that is his pride and he has the most masters.”

So, Srila Prabhupada told us to address each other as Prabhu, Prabhu means master, which means that we are the servants and that is our position, gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ. But when we address each other as Prabhu, meaning master, we should actually mean it, as Srila Prabhupada remarked we shouldn’t say, ”Oh, Prabhu, please bring me my slippers, that’s not the meaning of Prabhu. Prabhu is master and we are servant.” When I first joined the Boston temple, I was told that Srila Prabhupada said, ”If any devotee asks us to do service, we should accept; and if any devotee offers to do service to us, we should refuse, because we are the servants.” So yes, if someone asked for service, ”Yes Prabhu, I’m your servant, I will do what you want.” But if a devotee offers to do service for us, ”No Prabhu, you are my master, I can’t take service from you.” Of course, practically, we are all engaged in service to Krishna through paramparā and in that sense, not in a personal sense, but only in terms of serving the guru-paramparā and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, we may accept service but not for ourselves.

Once I asked Srila Prabhupada about, you could say breaking a regulative principle or a matter of etiquette for the service of the Lord, and Srila Prabhupada gave the example of Govinda dasa, who was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s personal servant. So, it was Govinda’s service that every day after Mahaprabhu honored prasāda at lunch, Govinda dasa would massage the Lord’s feet. So, one day it so happened that after lunch, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu laid down just at the doorway to the room, and there was no way to get in or go out, other than stepping over the body of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, which ordinarily would be considered an offense. So, Govinda dasa stepped over Mahaprabhu’s body to come in the room and give Him His massage and then, when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu woke up, He saw Govinda dasa there and He asked him, ”Oh Govinda dasa, have you had prasāda?” And Govinda said, ”No my Lord, because you were lying in the doorway and I couldn’t leave the room without stepping over you.” Now, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, ”Well, how did you get into the room? You must have stepped over me.” And Govinda dasa said, ”Yes, I could step over you for your service but I couldn’t step over you for my sense gratification.” So that’s, yes, for the sake of service we might, you could say, bend a rule but not for the sake of sense gratification. So, if you come back to the purport. . .

PURPORT (continued)

One should not be anxious to offer direct service to the Lord. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu advised that one become a servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord (gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ). This is the process for approaching the Supreme Lord.

COMMENT

This is paramparā, in other words, this is paramparā. We serve, again speaking as a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, I serve him, he serves his spiritual master Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, he serves his spiritual master Gaurakisora dasa Babaji Maharaja, he serves his spiritual master Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura; and in this way, we are the servant of the servant of the servant. That is paramparā system, we offer service through paramparā system and similarly the knowledge of the Absolute comes to us, also through the paramparā system, from Krishna to Brahma to Narada to Vyasa and so on. So, the paramparā is such an integral part of bhakti-yoga, of the process of Krishna consciousness, and we should never try to surpass the paramparā. Oh yes. . .

PURPORT (continued)

This is the process for approaching the Supreme Lord. The first service should be rendered to the spiritual master so that by his mercy one can approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead to render service. While teaching Rūpa Gosvāmī, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja: one can achieve the seed of devotional service by the mercy of the guru, the spiritual master, and then by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa.

COMMENT

Guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde, guru, Krishna.

The mercy of guru and Krishna, but the mercy of guru comes first and the mercy of Krishna follows.

PURPORT (continued)

One can achieve the seed of devotional service by the mercy of the guru, the spiritual master, and then by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. This is the secret of success. First one should try to please the spiritual master, and then one should attempt to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

COMMENT

Or in other words, by pleasing the spiritual master, one pleases the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but it is also true that by the mercy and pleasure of the spiritual master, one will eventually have the opportunity to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead directly.

PURPORT (continued)

First one should try to please the spiritual master, and then one should attempt to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura also says, yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo.

COMMENT

In other words, yeah, by the mercy of the spiritual master one gets the mercy of the Lord.

PURPORT (continued)

One should not attempt to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead by concoction.

COMMENT

In other words, one should serve according to the directions of the guru. Now this verse and purport, and specifically, this sentence was very significant for me at a certain stage of my devotional service, when somehow or other, I got a little deviated from Srila Prabhupada’s line. I mean, I thought that I was getting knowledge that would help me in Krishna consciousness but the help I was getting was a little different from Srila Prabhupada’s mood and emphasis, and the result was disastrous, the result was disastrous. So, reading this verse and purport, specifically this line, one should not attempt to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead by concoction, I realized that’s what I had done. And yeah, I regretted it and it was a chastening experience and I hope and pray that I will never do it again, I hope I won’t, I think I won’t. Yeah, we have to be very strict followers of paramparā.

PURPORT (continued)

One should not attempt to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead by concoction. One must first be prepared to serve the spiritual master, and when one is qualified he is automatically offered the platform of direct service to the Lord. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja proposed that he engage in the service of Nārada Muni.

COMMENT

His spiritual master.

PURPORT (continued)

He never proposed that he engage directly in the service of the Lord.

COMMENT

Now, here Prahlada Maharaja is addressing the Lord directly. He is face to face with the Lord, but still he is remembering his spiritual master by whose grace he had the opportunity to see the Lord face to face. And although the Lord offered him so many benedictions, which he refused, Prahlada prayed for this benediction that he always be engaged as the servant of the spiritual master, Narada Muni.

PURPORT (continued)

Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja proposed that he engage in the service of Nārada Muni. He never proposed that he engage directly in the service of the Lord. This is the right conclusion. Therefore he said, so ’haṁ kathaṁ nu visṛje tava bhṛtya-sevām: “How can I give up the service of my spiritual master, who has favored me in such a way that I am now able to see You face to face?” Prahlāda Mahārāja prayed to the Lord that he might continue to engage in the service of his spiritual master, Nārada Muni.

COMMENT

So yes, our relationship with our spiritual master is eternal. Of course, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura does explain a slight condition, he says that, in principle the relationship between the spiritual master and disciple is eternal, but if the disciple willfully breaks that relationship, then it is no longer eternal. But this also raises a question, what does it mean to “willfully break the relationship?” Srila Prabhupada has on numerous occasions mentioned that, the spiritual master will come back to the material world to deliver his disciples who do not make it back to Godhead in the same lifetime. This is an extraordinarily gracious and generous proposition. But it’s true that once Srila Prabhupada said that, if the disciple willfully breaks the contract with the spiritual master, then the spiritual master is not obliged to come back. But under ordinary circumstances, he will come back.

Now, this also raised some interesting questions, after Srila Prabhupada left, some disciples went across the river from Mayapur to Navadvipa to consult Srila Prabhupada’s esteemed godbrother, Srila Bhakti Rakshak Śrīdhara Goswami Maharaja, and so my good friend and older godbrother, Tamal Krishna Goswami wanted to meet him and clarify some points with him and he invited me to come with him. So I went, there was a small group, maybe four or five of us. And Tamal Krishna Goswami brought up the point of the spiritual master coming back for the disciple and Srila Śrīdhara Maharaja said, “Well it doesn’t mean that he has to come back personally, but he will make sure that his disciples get the guidance they need in order to complete their journey back home, back to Godhead.” Now, at that time, Tamal Krishna Goswami, and I would say all of us, were really attached to the idea that it should be Srila Prabhupada, and no one else. So, Tamal Krishna Goswami sort of pressed Śrīdhara Maharaja and Srila Śrīdhara Maharaja envisioned a conversation between Krishna and Srila Prabhupada in the spiritual world. And in that conversation, Srila Prabhupada says to Krishna that, ”My disciples are calling for me to help them,” and Krishna says, “Oh that’s all right, you don’t have to go personally, I will arrange for some devotee or devotees to guide them.” And then Srila Prabhupada said, “But they won’t accept anyone else, they want only me,” and then Krishna said, “All right if they want only you, and if you are prepared to go then, all right, then you go.” So, this is the, yeah, it’s a beautiful eternal relationship. But we should try, of course, to finish up our business in this lifetime so the spiritual master doesn’t have to come back again.

Now, there is a story of a, story means history, of Bilvamangala Thakura, he was born in the aristocratic brahman family but he had a weakness, although in his previous life he was very advanced to the stage of bhāva, but he had a weakness; and he became attached to a prostitute named Cintamani. So, he was so attached to this prostitute that on the night of his father’s death, he was encouraging the priest, ”Hurry up, finish, finish,” because he wanted to be done with the rituals for his father, so he could go and meet the prostitute. So, eventually the rituals were completed, it was night, it was very stormy and to get to the prostitute’s residence he had to cross the river, a raging river in the storm, but he did, he grabbed hold of a log and with the help of the log he made it across the river, and then eventually, he came to the prostitute’s home, but the gate was locked, there was a big wall around it and, I mean, he shouted but she didn’t hear him. I don’t think they had doorbells back then. And so, he found a dead snake and he used the dead snake as a rope to climb over the wall and eventually he came, the prostitute let him in and she said, It was so late and it was storming so I thought you weren’t coming, so I locked everything.” And then she said, If you had as much attachment for Krishna as you have for me, it would be much better for you.” And those words of the prostitute Cintamani, entered Bilvamangala Thakura’s heart and he thought, “Yes, it’s true.” And at that moment, he decided to leave the prostitute and head to Vrindavan.

It’s a long story, but on the way to Vrindavan, he, because he had that weakness, so on the way to Vrindavan, he started to follow a beautiful brahman lady, brahmani, and he followed her to her home and her husband, so she told her husband, this man has been following me. So, the husband asked Bilvamangala Thakura, “What do you want to do? What is your intention? What’s your purpose?” He said, “I want to enjoy with your wife.” So, the husband was so liberal he said, “Okay, you can enjoy with my wife.” So then, they went into a room and then Bilvamangala Thakura asked the wife, can you please give me your hair pins? So, she gave him her hairpins and with those hairpins he plucked out his eyes, he said, “These eyes are my enemies, because of these eyes I am attracted to the form of women.” So, he became blind.

And on the way to Vrindavan, Krishna came, and took him by the hand, Krishna said, “Where are you going?” “So, I’m going to Vrindavan,” and he said, “Oh, I’m going to Vrindavan too. You are blind, so I’ll help you, you take my hand,” and Krishna personally escorted him to Vrindavan. And then, when they reached Vrindavan, Krishna took his hand out of Bilvamangala Thakura’s” hand and said, “I have to leave now, you’ve reached Vrindavan safely, I have to leave now.” And by then, Bilvamangala Thakura had understood that that boy was Krishna and he said, “All right, well you can take your hand out of my hand but you cannot take yourself out of my heart.” So, that’s the story of Bilvamangala Thakura, part of the story.

But coming back to the point of the spiritual master coming back, that it is said, that Bilvamangala Thakura’s spiritual master from his previous life entered the mind of the prostitute Cintamani and gave the instruction to Bilvamangala Thakura “That if you had as much attachment for Krishna, as you had for the prostitute, it would be better for you.”

And Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura has related this story and added his purport to his disciples that, “Don’t make me come back as a prostitute or don’t make me come, have to come back into a brothel to deliver you, finish up your business in this lifetime.” So, that obviously should be our effort, it should be our intention and it’s possible, I mean, that’s what Srila Prabhupada wanted.

And there is a very interesting fact that Srila Prabhupada revealed, and that is that Krishna wants us to finish up in this lifetime and go back to Godhead at the end of this lifetime. And that if Krishna sees that we are not ready to go back to Godhead, when the natural time of death comes, He can extend our lifetime, He can give us extra time so that we can finish up in this very lifetime and go back home, back to Godhead.

So, we are being helped on all sides, guru Krishna prasāde pāi by guru and Krishna, but first guru. First comes guru’s mercy, then Krishna’s mercy. First comes guru’s service, then comes Krishna’s service. And even serving Krishna, we serve under the guidance of the guru not independently, not by concoction, but always under guidance. So, this is wonderful, our relationship with Srila Prabhupada is eternal and that means, that our relationships with each other are eternal because if we all have eternal relationships with Srila Prabhupada and we are all servants of Srila Prabhupada, then we are all also eternally related.

And Srila Prabhupada had a disciple named Upendra, who asked him about our relationships with each other, with our godbrothers and godsisters, whether they continue? And Srila Prabhupada wrote back that, “Yes, they do because, cakhu-dān dilo jei, janme janme prabhu sei. So, you are all serving me life after life, so you’ll be serving with each other life after life.” So, we should like each other, we should get to like each other because we may be with each other for a very long time. So, and we will, we will like each other if we treat each other as Prabhu, as servants. I was a psychology major in the university, Brandeis in Boston, in fact, that’s where I first saw Srila Prabhupada. He came and gave a talk at Brandeis University, just outside Boston. So, that was an amazing program and after the program. . . Anyway, that would be a whole other story and I think that on Saturday, Vanamali Pandit Prabhu might have played the recording of my story of how I first met Srila Prabhupada at Brandeis and then surrendered to him. So, I don’t know exactly how I ended up where I am now or what where I was going, but maybe that’s ok, because we’ve been speaking for an hour or a little more, but yeah, it’s been a pleasure to be with all of you and to have this opportunity to speak about Srila Prabhupada and Krishna consciousness.

So, thank you very much and I would say now, if any of you have any questions or comments, we can open up the floor. I guess you can raise your hands if you want to speak or maybe send a message on the chat. I like hand raising, I’d like to see the people who are speaking. I thought, maybe he wasn’t raising his hand. Well, if there are no questions or comments then I could read a little, I have this set of books, collected lectures on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And, oh wait, Vanamali Pandit is phoning. Hare Krishna.

Devotee: [01:02:56 Inaudible].

Giriraj Swami: Oh, really?

Devotee: [01:03:07 Inaudible]

Giriraj Swami: Oh okay, can you have, is Bhakta das here? Ok, all right. I’ll have my technical expert. He says that they want to speak, they have questions but I’m not hearing them. I don’t know. Well, Prithi Radhika, you are unmuted. Do you have, do you want to sit. . . See, I’m not hearing. Oh, what do we do?

Check the audio on here, you mean, this?

Devotee: Maharaja, can you hear me?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, yes. Now, we are ok.

Devotee: Yes, I have a question if I may?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, please.

Devotee: Maharaja, please accept my humble obeisances, all glories to Srila Prabhupada. Maharaja, this morning, your godsister Malati devi dasi, she gave a Zoom class for the Boston congregation on the same verse.

Giriraj Swami: Very good. Great minds think alike.

Devotee: Yes, and Maharaja I asked Malati devi dasi a few questions in connection with the verse. And to summarize it, her answer, the answer that made me think the most was that if a human being doesn’t accept a spiritual master, then the future of his life will not be very bright.

Giriraj Swami: That’s true.

Devotee: Ok, so I need, my question to you is the following. Maybe you have a different understanding, but is it that Malati devi dasi, and I didn’t have time to ask her about this, when an advanced devotee says that if a human being doesn’t accept a spiritual master, then his future or her future will not be very bright, is it that the meaning of this sentence is that the future of this human being will be no better than animal life?

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee: Maharaja, but we have a problem here. When you say, “Yes,” when you answer my question with “Yes,” are you saying that unless a human being, it doesn’t matter what varna he is in – sudra, vaishya, kshatriya, or brahman, if a human being doesn’t accept the spiritual master. Well, let me rephrase it, if a human being unless a human being accepts a spiritual master is it that he is no better than an animal?

Giriraj Swami: Well, I was going to say yes, and I was going to cite a verse or line from Hitopadesa; Dharmeṇa hīna paśubhiḥ samānāḥ, that without dharma, dharmeṇa hīna paśubhiḥ samānāḥ, one is the same as an animal, one is on the same level as an animal. But one can, as you know, there are śikṣā-gurus and dīkṣā-gurus and although the process involves taking dīkṣā, it’s for, it’s an essential part of the process. But if one takes śikṣā and follows good instructions, one can lead a human life, it won’t be the perfection of human life but it will be a human life based on dharma. And so, I wouldn’t say that that person will necessarily fall down into animal life. As the Bhagavad-gītā says, svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. that even a little advancement on the path will save one from the most dangerous fear, and that most dangerous fear is to descend into lower species of life. So, if one makes even a little advancement on the path, which would require superior guidance, no doubt it would require someone acting as a sort of śikṣā-guru, so one can get the chance to continue in the next life, even if one is not initiated, I mean, that would be my perspective.

Devotee: Yeah Maharaja, thank you. Thank you very much.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Prabhu, may I request you that please allow other devotees also to ask questions?

Devotee: Yes, yes. Of course.

Devotee: So, we open the floor for all the devotees, please ask your questions. I know many devotees are waiting, so please go ahead and ask one by one question.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja, there are so many devotees in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam having such beautiful prayers; Gajendra, Prahlada Maharaja, Dhruva Maharaja having face-to-face interaction with the Lord. So, particularly we go in front of Lord we forget to pray and we don’t know we are just fighting prayers and actually we don’t know with all the bit of time and say we never practice praying little hard. So, I want to learn the prayers actually, how we can go with the prayers? Because we ask something and sometimes, we forget to express the gratitude towards the Lord. And how should we mature in our prayers? Actually, sometimes our plans are lac many times. So, how we should progress in our prayers in front of Lord?

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, there are two aspects to your question. The form of the prayer and the substance of the prayer. As far as the form, Srila Prabhupada said that first you should praise the qualities of the deity, then you should state your own disqualification and then you should pray for mercy. And I think of, a number of prayers, especially Narottama dasa Thakura, where in which he follows that formula, I mean, I think of one hā hā prabhu nityānanda, premānanda sukhī, Lord Nityananda, You are always full in transcendental bliss, āmi boro duḥkhī, I am very unhappy so please be merciful to me. Or patita-pāvana-hetu tava avatāra, You are known as the deliverer of the fallen, mo sama patita prabhu, I am the most fallen so please save me first. As far as the content, well it’s not, so you say that sometimes you pray for material things?

Devotee: We confuse what to pray first of all in front of Lord because we can confuse it with the casual approach, so we forget what we really have to pray for.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, I mean, devotee, a pure devotee basically prays for service, that’s his only prayer. Just like Prahlada Maharaja here he is just praying to serve his spiritual master, Narada Muni. So, we should pray for service because that will make us happy, nothing else will really make us happy outside devotional service. So, I would suggest and it looks like you have a set of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam behind you, so I would suggest you read Srila Prabhupada’s books and by reading his books you’ll get an idea of who you are and what your best interest is and then you’ll pray for what’s really in your best interest, which is devotional service.

Devotee: Thank you.

Giriraj Swami: Ok, ok. Hare Krishna. Are there other?

Devotee: I have one more question, please.

Giriraj Swami: It’s fine with me.

Devotee: Vinod Prabhu? I do not want to remove the opportunity from other devotees, please check if there is anyone else to ask.

Devotee: Oh yeah, so let us wait and see if anyone has any questions first and then you can say, you can ask your questions, is that okay Prabhu? Maharaja, can you read the chat?

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, but if Omkara is with us, he is with us. Like I said, I like to see them face to face, the people who are asking questions and yeah, yeah.

Devotee: Maharaja, my question is that in the spiritual world, the servant and the spiritual master have the same relationship with Krishna, I don’t know how to understand this, can you elaborate?

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, well, we will always serve under superior guidance, whatever our rasa is, there will be superiors in that rasa, who will be guiding us. But it is not necessarily so, that all the disciples of a spiritual master will have the same rasa with Krishna as the spiritual master, but he will be there and the spiritual master is basically teaching us and training us how to please Krishna, and that’s what bhakti is, to please Krishna. And so, when we are serving Krishna in our particular rasa, under our particular superiors, so, that’s also service to the spiritual master, because we are following his instruction and fulfilling his desire that we should please Krishna. But yeah, it doesn’t mean that if my spiritual master is a cowherd boy, that I’m a coward boy; my spiritual master is a gopī, I’m a gopī; it’s not like that.

Devotee: Thank you, thank you Maharaja.

Devotee: Anyone else?

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Thank you, Maharaja for your class, I just have one, I have one small question. So, my question is, sometimes I see in my life that I want to serve in a way that is pleasing to the other devotees and it happens for some time. But what happens, after that, is maybe again the modes take over or again there is some forgetfulness about the pleasure of other devotees, and again I may become self-centered? So, again later, there is again repentance and again trying to serve in a way which is pleasing to others and again the modes take over and again I become self-centered, so how to overcome this cycle and always be in the right position of serving others?

Giriraj Swami: Well, when you are in the right consciousness of wanting to serve and please the devotees, what brings you to that consciousness and why can’t you keep it?

Devotee: Probably, when I hear my spiritual master’s lecture or when I read Prabhupada’s books that time it opens my eyes to how I should be behaving with other devotees, but gradually over time, I don’t know what happens.

Giriraj Swami: No, but that suggests that you stopped listening and reading. So, if you don’t stop listening and reading and we should never stop listening and reading because we always need to be reminded, we always need to be convinced. So yeah, you shouldn’t allow yourself to drift away from hearing and reading because as you, yourself have said, the consequences are not good, the consequences are bad. So, that’s what I would say. So, when you chant, excuse me, when you hear lectures or read, I mean, do you have a fixed quantity of time that you spend hearing or reading, do you have a fixed time in your schedule when you do it?

Devotee: Yes, Maharaja. It’s fixed, every day I read maybe one or two hours, or hear for a couple of hours.

Giriraj Swami: That’s pretty good. So, where’s the question of the modes taking over?

Devotee: Well, the only thing is it so happens that sometimes I don’t behave in a way that is pleasing to devotees and then later, I repent and again I try and again I forget after that and so on.

Giriraj Swami: So, when you say not pleasing, you mean its displeasing, it’s displeasing to them?

Devotee: Yes.

Giriraj Swami: And then after you realize you’ve displeased them, do you apologize?

Devotee: Yes.

Giriraj Swami: And you still do it? I don’t know what to say, I really don’t know what to say. I mean, I used to have a habit, a sort of a bad habit, but whenever I would act according to that bad habit, I would apologize and then eventually, I thought, this is ridiculous, I just keep doing the same thing, apologizing, doing the same thing apologizing. So, then I just stopped it, so I think you should just stop it. There is, I don’t want to bring this down to a mundane platform but there is a little skit that involves Bob Newhart, who’s an American comedian and he plays a psychiatrist, and so a lady comes in to see him and she basically tells him all her problems and his answer to everything is stop it, just stop it. So, that’s my only advice, to you just stop it, stop displeasing devotees, just stop it.

Devotee: Thank you, Maharaja.

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotee: My name is Kalindi Singh and I’m in the Boston temple. And, thank you very much for the wonderful class today and actually in the temple these days we are reading a book by Satsvarupa Maharaja and reading the part of these letters written by Satsvarupa Maharaja to Srila Prabhupada about you. It just happened today, three days ago, and so it was very, I guess, fortunate for us to be coming face to face with you this way. I have a very basic question and please forgive me for actually being stuck on something so basic and so maybe silly to most people, I’m trying to understand, why Prahlada Maharaja said, I’d rather serve my guru and, because in my mind the spiritual master is serving the Lord Himself, and so I don’t see a distinction between serving the guru or a devotee and the Lord, because in my mind, everybody is serving the Lord. So, that’s where I’m confused about what this whole verse is about. So, please, forgive me if this is really dumb question.

Giriraj Swami: No, it’s a good question. I think the point is that if, that one never gives up the service of the guru even if one is face to face with the Lord. And Prahlada was taking service to his guru as a blessing, he wasn’t taking it for granted. So, he wanted that benediction that he can always serve his guru. So, we should also, devotional service is a privilege, we should never take it for granted, and service to the guru is, it’s a privilege. So, I think that’s the idea, that he always remained grateful to his guru. Not that he wasn’t serving Krishna, of course, he was serving Krishna but he was always grateful to his guru for enabling him to come to that position.

Devotee: So, gratitude, we just have to remember gratitude in our hearts and approaching the Lord with gratitude to guru, always?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, yes.

Devotee: Thank you, thank you Maharaja. Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Anyone else?

Devotee: Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Please accept my humble obeisances. I have a simple question, can I ask?

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee: So, any devotional service that we do, chanting, reading, listening to class, is that all service to guru?

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, yes if it’s according to his instructions then it is service to guru. In fact, Srila Prabhupada had a disciple named, Vishnujana Swami and Vishnujana Swami had a picture of Srila Prabhupada’s ear and he would chant to the picture of Srila Prabhupada’s ear, because he was in that mood of chanting for the pleasure of the spiritual master.

Devotee: Ok. So how do you. . . sorry, can I ask another question?

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee: So, how do you know if you are serving the guru or serving Krishna when chanting? Because I know, it pleases you when we chant or when we read, so does that mean that I am serving you or am I serving Krishna?

Giriraj Swami: Both.

Devotee: Ok.

Giriraj Swami: It’s not either-or, yeah, it’s both.

Devotee: Ok, thank you. Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. I just wanted to add a comment based on Arjun Prabhu’s question that, some time ago, I had read the Spiritual Warrior series of Bhakti Tirtha Swami and he had mentioned in that that our feelings with the devotees should be, we should always remember whenever we are dealing with devotees is that eternally we are going to be all serving together, so in the spiritual world we will interact with them or see them. So, do you want to have hard feelings or anything getting on over there? Not really, so always think of that. And so, I meditated upon that for a while and then I was, in my interactions with the devotees, even if I felt something or I felt, oh, either that person is maybe annoyed with me or I’m annoyed with them, then I would think of eternity and I would see that problem or that difference, will feel so little from point of eternity. So, that always helps me.

Giriraj Swami: Nice. Where’s Arjun?

Devotee: My son’s name is Arjun too.

Devotee: Thank you Mataji and I’m benefiting from your reading.

Giriraj Swami: Arjun, come back. You better follow what Mataji says otherwise, when you meet her in the spiritual world, she is going to be upset with you.

Devotee: Ok, thank you.

Devotee: Anyone else? Maharaja, I’m going to ask my question.

Giriraj Swami: Okay.

Devotee: Maharaja, in accordance with the verse you chose for today and in accordance with your lecture, I have it in my mind, two situations. The first one is chanting, dancing, and feasting, the easy process of Krishna consciousness. And then, side by side, with the easy process we have the verse and the purport you chose for today. So many rules, so many regulations, how to deal if we want to serve Krishna, we need to consider the position of the spiritual master. So, my question is, if a neophyte devotee or a materialistic person, an atheist, comes to you to confront you with these two aspects of the Krishna conscious process, what would you respond? People may come to you with indignation, what are the Hare Krishnas doing? First, they present themselves with the easy process, and, but behind the easy process, so much difficulty. What would you respond in order to convince this person that everything in Krishna consciousness is joyful?

Giriraj Swami: Well, it’s true that someone may come with bad habits but if they chant and dance and take prasāda, they’ll be purified. And then, it won’t be hard to give up those bad habits. I mean, most of us as I think, even in India, but definitely in the West had bad habits when we came. But by chanting and dancing and taking prasāda we were able to give up the bad habits, it wasn’t that hard, getting up early in the morning, that might take a little practice, but once you are used to it, then you like it, you wouldn’t want to sleep late. And even from the medical point of view or Ayurvedic point of view and a very excellent ayurvedic doctor, Vaidya, Ramakant Mishra, he went completely by the shastra and he said, it’s very bad to sleep through the morning sandhya, that means sunrise and say twenty-four minutes before sunrise and twenty-four minutes after sunrise, and the evening sandhya. So, when he told me that, of course, that’s we avoid that, but when he told me that, I asked him, well what’s the effect if you do? And he said, the effect is that you become affected by tamo-guṇa. And although he did say that by chanting you can dispel the influence of the tamo-guṇa, but the effect of sleeping through sunrise is you become affected by tamo-guṇa. So, yeah, but other than getting up early in the morning, I don’t really see any of the principles to be very difficult, and if you chant and dance and take prasāda they become easy. But, is there something you have in mind in particular?

Devotee: No, Maharaja. Your answer pleased me the most. Thank you very much.

Giriraj Swami: Oh, good, good. I pleased a Vaishnava, my path to success is open.

Devotee: Mine, too. I hope.