SB 7.5.12 – Every One of Us Is an Eternal Servant of God

Premvilas dasa: We would like to extend a very warm welcome to His Holiness Giriraj Swami Maharaja. Thank you very much for agreeing to give a talk to our community of devotees and to the devotees who are joining us worldwide. A very warm welcome to devotees all across North America and worldwide, who have joined us for listening to this very important topic.

Regarding His Holiness Giriraj Swami, you all know him. He is one of the most dedicated servants of Srila Prabhupada, who has dedicated his life to the mission of Srila Prabhupada, to the service of Srila Prabhupada, and to the chanting of the holy names, which is the most important aspect of bhakti. Giriraj Swami is an inspiration, a mentor, a teacher to thousands all over the world; a source of spiritual advice, inspiration, and mentorship to hundreds of thousands of devotees all over the world; and a very respected leader in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

Maharaja’s books [include] Watering the Seed, my favorite, Many Moons, and Life’s Final Exam: Death and Dying from the Vedic Perspective. [They] are very unique and well written, [and] they give a very deep and profound appreciation of Krishna consciousness from many different perspectives. And he is working on a book about the temple, which he was instrumental in building in Juhu, under the direct order and guidance of Srila Prabhupada, along with many, many devotees all over the world.

So, we like to welcome him. We like to hear from him about a topic called “How to avoid judgment and fault-finding among devotees.” Our acharyas divide the anarthas or the process of anartha-nivṛtti into four major categories: asat-trsna, tattva-vibhrama, hrdaya-daurbalyam, and aparādha. Among hrdaya-daurbalyam, there is fault-finding, envy, deceit, and honor for pride, position, and prestige. So, within hrdaya-daurbalyam there is this anartha called judgmentalism or fault-finding among devotees that really clouds our mental space. So, Maharaja is going to talk about that for the next hour, followed by questions and answers. Thank you, welcome everybody, and welcome Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. So, I will begin by singing the maṅgala-ācaraṇa prayers and leading a short kirtan. Then I will read a verse from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that addresses the topic in quite a positive way.

[Prayers]

I shall read one verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Seven, Chapter Five: “Prahlāda Mahārāja, the Saintly Son of Hiraṇyakaśipu,” Text Twelve.

TEXT 12

sa yadānuvrataḥ puṁsāṁ

paśu-buddhir vibhidyate

anya eṣa tathānyo ‘ham

iti bheda-gatāsatī

TRANSLATION

When the Supreme Personality of Godhead is pleased with the living entity because of his devotional service, one becomes a paṇḍita and does not make distinctions between enemies, friends and himself. Intelligently, he then thinks, “Every one of us is an eternal servant of God, and therefore we are not different from one another.”

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

When Prahlāda Mahārāja’s teachers and demoniac father asked him how his intelligence had been polluted, Prahlāda Mahārāja said, “As far as I am concerned, my intelligence has not been polluted. Rather, by the grace of my spiritual master and by the grace of my Lord, Kṛṣṇa, I have now learned that no one is my enemy and no one is my friend.

COMMENT

So, I will stop at intervals in the purport and discuss. As you know, Prahlada’s father, Hiranyakasipu, was a great demon, and for demons or mundane people in general, the concept of friends and enemies is very prominent. Because they are in the bodily concept of life, they think that someone who is supportive of their sense gratification or egoistic desires is their friend, and anyone who they perceive as impeding their gratification is seen as an enemy. This conception of friends and enemies was very prominent in Hiranyakasipu, and unfortunately for him, he applied that conception to God. He considered God to be his enemy.

Hiranyakasipu had a brother named Hiraṇyakṣa who was killed by the Lord in His incarnation as The Boar, Varahadeva. And although Hiranyakasipu was already inimical to the Lord, when he considered that the Lord had killed his brother, he became even more inimical. Being inimical to the Lord means being inimical to the Lord’s devotees, and being favorable to the Lord means being favorable to the Lord’s devotees. So, Hiranyakasipu was training Prahlada. He had entrusted him to two teachers. Of course, they were also demons. They were sons of Sukracharya, who is the priest of the demons. They were supposed to teach Prahlada to be a good demon, but he did not turn out to be that, which caused Hiranyakasipu some concern. In this part of the purport, Srila Prabhupada is explaining Prahlada Maharaja’s thoughts.

PURPORT (continued)

When Prahlāda Mahārāja’s teachers and demoniac father asked him how his intelligence had been polluted, Prahlāda Mahārāja said, “As far as I am concerned, my intelligence has not been polluted. Rather, by the grace of my spiritual master and by the grace of my Lord, Kṛṣṇa, I have now learned that no one is my enemy and no one is my friend. We are all actually eternal servants of Kṛṣṇa, but under the influence of the external energy we think that we are separately situated from the Supreme Personality of Godhead as friends and enemies of one another. This mistaken idea has now been corrected, and therefore, unlike ordinary human beings, I no longer think that I am God and that others are my friends and enemies. Now I am rightly thinking that everyone is an eternal servant of God and that our duty is to serve the supreme master, for then we shall stand on the platform of oneness as servants.”

COMMENT

All of you who are with us on the Zoom call are servants of God, and therefore, you are all one with each other. You are all on the same platform as servants of Krishna.

PURPORT (continued)

Demons think of everyone as a friend or enemy, but Vaiṣṇavas say that since everyone is a servant of the Lord, everyone is on the same platform. Therefore a Vaiṣṇava treats other living entities neither as friends nor as enemies, but instead tries to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness, teaching everyone that we are all one as servants of the Supreme Lord but are uselessly wasting our valuable lives by creating nations, communities and other groups of friends and enemies. Everyone should come to the platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and thus feel oneness as a servant of the Lord. Although there are 8,400,000 species of life, a Vaiṣṇava feels this oneness. The Īśopaniṣad advises, ekatvam anupaśyataḥ. A devotee should see the Supreme Personality of Godhead to be situated in everyone’s heart and should also see every living entity as an eternal servant of the Lord. This vision is called ekatvam, oneness.

COMMENT

Lord Chaitanya teaches jīvera svarūpa haya-kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa—that the constitutional position of the living entity is an eternal servant of Krishna. And this applies not only to devotees, not only to human beings, but it applies to every living entity in every species of life. Therefore, we should try to help every living entity to come to his original position as eternal servant of Krishna.

Lord Chaitanya revealed His mind to Haridasa Thakura about His concern about how the living entities would be delivered. Haridasa Thakura replied that they can be delivered by the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. Then Lord Chaitanya asked, “Well, what about living entities in other species who are not human beings?” And Haridasa Thakura replied that even they can be delivered by the chanting of the holy names. So when we chant, that transcendental vibration penetrates the bodily coverings of the living entities and reaches the soul. When we chant audibly, and we generally should chant audibly, whatever living entities are in the vicinity will hear that transcendental sound and be benefited, eternally.

Devotees are the best well-wishers of all living entities, and they give all living entities the opportunity to hear the holy names of the Lord if they are unable to chant. Of course, with humans, we give them the holy name, we give them Srila Prabhupada’s books, and we invite them to spiritual programs. But even the living entities in other bodily forms, they can benefit by hearing the holy name, and they can also benefit by receiving kṛṣṇa-prasāda. Animals, of course, they can eat kṛṣṇa-prasāda. And even plants, the prasāda, or holy water, can be absorbed by them through their roots, and they also make spiritual advancement. Devotees are really the well-wishers of every living entity, following, of course, the mood of the Supreme Father. Today is Father’s Day, so following the mood of the Supreme Father, Lord Krishna, who loves all of His children and wants all of His children to come back home, back to Him.

PURPORT (continued)

Although there is a relationship of master and servant, both master and servant are one because of their spiritual identity. This is also ekatvam.

COMMENT

This is the beautiful philosophy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu; acintya-bhedābheda-tattva—inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference. Unless there was oneness, we could not have a relationship with the Lord. You cannot have a relationship with someone unless there is something in common between you. But because the Lord is great and we are small, our relationship is servant and master.

Srila Prabhupada describes this acintya-bhedābheda-tattva, that we are one in quality with the Lord, but different in quantity, because the Lord is infinite and we are infinite-simal. Or as we would pronounce it, infinitesimal. So, because we are one in quality, we have a relationship with the Lord, but because we are different in quantity, the relationship is defined as one of servant and master.

PURPORT (continued)

Although there is a relationship of master and servant, both master and servant are one because of their spiritual identity. This is also ekatvam. Thus the conception of ekatvam for the Vaiṣṇava is different from that of the Māyāvādī.

Hiraṇyakaśipu asked Prahlāda Mahārāja how he had become antagonistic to his family. When a family member is killed by an enemy, all the members of the family would naturally be inimical to the murderer, but Hiraṇyakaśipu saw that Prahlāda had become friendly with the murderer.

COMMENT

As I mentioned, the Lord killed Hiranyakasipu’s brother, Hiraṇyakṣa, who was Prahlada’s uncle. So one would expect that Prahlada would be inimical towards the person who killed his uncle, but instead, he was favorable to the Lord. This was very puzzling and disconcerting to Hiranyakasipu.

PURPORT (continued)

When a family member is killed by an enemy, all the members of the family would naturally be inimical to the murderer, but Hiraṇyakaśipu saw that Prahlāda had become friendly with the murderer. Therefore he asked, “Who has created this kind of intelligence in you? Have you developed this consciousness by yourself? Since you are a small boy, someone must have induced you to think this way.” Prahlāda Mahārāja wanted to reply that an attitude favorable toward Viṣṇu can develop only when the Lord is favorable (sa yadānuvrataḥ). As stated in Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa is the friend of everyone (suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati). The Lord is never an enemy to any of the millions of living entities, but is always a friend to everyone. This is true understanding. If one thinks that the Lord is an enemy, his intelligence is paśu-buddhi, the intelligence of an animal. He falsely thinks, “I am different from my enemy, and my enemy is different from me. The enemy has done this, and therefore my duty is to kill him.”

COMMENT

The Lord is the friend of every living entity, and as servants of the Lord, we should also be friends of every living entity. The Lord is not an enemy of anyone, but sometimes an unfortunate soul becomes inimical towards the Lord, although the Lord is not inimical towards anyone, even a demon. And when the Lord kills a demon, He gives the demon liberation. He is always the well-wisher of everyone, even of the demoniac.

PURPORT (continued)

If one thinks that the Lord is an enemy, his intelligence is paśu-buddhi, the intelligence of an animal. He falsely thinks, “I am different from my enemy, and my enemy is different from me. The enemy has done this, and therefore my duty is to kill him.” This misconception is described in this verse as bheda-gatāsatī. The actual fact is that everyone is a servant of the Lord, as confirmed in Caitanya-caritāmṛta by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu (jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’). As servants of the Lord, we are one, and there can be no questions of enmity or friendship. If one actually understands that every one of us is a servant of the Lord, where is the question of enemy or friend?

COMMENT

Now we come to the part of the purport that really defines what our relationship with each other as devotees should be. And automatically, the defects that Premvilas Prabhu mentioned of finding fault and so on will be removed. Listen very carefully.

PURPORT (continued)

Everyone should be friendly for the service of the Lord. Everyone should praise another’s service to the Lord and not be proud of his own service. This is the way of Vaiṣṇava thinking, Vaikuṇṭha thinking. There may be rivalries and apparent competition between servants in performing service, but in the Vaikuṇṭha planets the service of another servant is appreciated, not condemned. This is Vaikuṇṭha competition.

COMMENT

Srila Prabhupada has described the difference between transcendental competition and envy, or mundane competition. In transcendental competition one acknowledges the good qualities or service of the other person, but still wants to excel it. One will think “Oh, this devotee has so many good qualities and does such nice service to please guru and Krishna. I want to do even better service so I can please Krishna even more.” That is transcendental because it acknowledges the good service of the other person.

But when there is envy, we do not acknowledge the other person’s good qualities or good service. Someone will praise another devotee and will think or might even say, “I don’t think that devotee is that great. I think I know that devotee better than you do and that devotee is not what you think he or she is. That devotee is not that good at all. In fact, I’m much better than that devotee.” That is envy. We do not acknowledge the good in the other. That is mundane competition, where I try to put myself up by pulling someone else down or putting someone else down. Whereas in transcendental competition, I see the other person as elevated [and acknowledge] their good qualities and good service, but still, to please Krishna, I want to do even better. But still, I acknowledge the goodness or the greatness of the other person.

Srila Prabhupada did encourage transcendental competition in ISKCON, especially in book distribution. At one time there was a really fierce competition between the Radha-Damodara party headed by Tamal Krishna Goswami and ISKCON Los Angeles, which was a very successful temple, and they distributed a lot of books. Once Srila Prabhupada was in his room in Juhu, and he was talking about this transcendental competition. I happened to be there and he said, “If Los Angeles defeats the Radha-Damodara party, Tamal Krishna will have a heart attack.” So yes, Srila Prabhupada encouraged that transcendental competition to please Krishna more, distribute more books, and please the paramparā more.

But if it turned sour and the relationships were affected adversely, Srila Prabhupada stopped it. That happened once in Chicago, and Srila Prabhupada said that “If you can’t compete in book distribution in a good spirit, then don’t distribute books. Just sit down in the temple and all chant Hare Krishna together.” He did not want any animosity or ill will among devotees for any reason, certainly not based on competition and book distribution or whatever.

PURPORT (continued)

There may be rivalries and apparent competition between servants in performing service, but in the Vaikuṇṭha planets the service of another servant is appreciated, not condemned. This is Vaikuṇṭha competition. There is no question of enmity between servants. Everyone should be allowed to render service to the Lord to the best of his ability.

COMMENT

In other words, we should not try to keep someone down because we see them as rivals.

PURPORT (continued)

Everyone should be allowed to render service to the Lord to the best of his ability, and everyone should appreciate the service of others. Such are the activities of Vaikuṇṭha. Since everyone is a servant, everyone is on the same platform and is allowed to serve the Lord according to his ability.

COMMENT

I think of the incident involving Hanuman and the squirrel, when Lord Ramachandra wanted to cross the ocean to Lanka to ultimately kill Ravana and reclaim Sita. His assistants were throwing boulders into the ocean to make a bridge to Lanka, and Hanuman, of course, was very powerful so he was throwing huge boulders. There was a squirrel who was just flicking little grains of sand into the ocean, and Hanuman said to the squirrel, “Can’t you see what big service I’m doing? You are just in the way. Just get out of the way.”

Lord Ramachandra overheard this statement of Hanuman, and He was not pleased. He said, “You are serving me to your capacity, and the squirrel is serving me to his capacity. In my mind, in my eyes, both of your services are equal. And besides, I’m the one who’s making the boulders float, so why are you taking the credit?” So we will come back to this.

PURPORT (continued)

Since everyone is a servant, everyone is on the same platform and is allowed to serve the Lord according to his ability.

COMMENT

In that sense, Hanuman and the squirrel were on the same platform. The squirrel’s capacity was just to flick some grains of sand, and Hanuman’s capacity was to throw big boulders. Everyone should be allowed to serve according to their capacity.

PURPORT (continued)

As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (15.15), sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca: the Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, giving dictation according to the attitude of the servant.

COMMENT

We are all individual, and the Lord from within the heart gives us dictation how to serve Him. How an individual renders service will necessarily be different from how another individual renders service. But all the service should be appreciated, and we should also appreciate that the Lord is inspiring different devotees in different ways.

PURPORT (continued)

However, the Lord gives different dictation to the nondevotees and devotees. The nondevotees challenge the authority of the Supreme Lord, and therefore the Lord dictates in such a way that the nondevotees forget the Lord’s service, life after life, and are punished by the laws of nature. But when a devotee very sincerely wants to render service to the Lord, the Lord dictates in a different way. As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā (10.10):

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ

bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam

dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ

yena mām upayānti te

“To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.” Everyone is actually a servant, not an enemy or friend, and everyone is working under different directions from the Lord, who directs each living entity according to his mentality.

COMMENT

Different devotees have different desires in the service of the Lord, and the Lord from within the heart gives them dictation how to serve nicely in the way that they want. Of course sometimes, we may want to do a certain service, but the Lord may want us to do another service.

I think of one incident in Bombay with Srila Prabhupada. I was the temple president in Bombay, and one of Srila Prabhupada’s very dynamic disciples, Shyamasundara dasa, who recently has been writing his memoirs “Chasing Rhinos with the Swami.” He said to me “Giriraj, you are just wasting your time in India. You could be doing much more in the West. You have the ability to cultivate very intelligent people and important people, and there are very few devotees in the West who can do that. You are just wasting your time. You should go back to America.”

I thought about it and I was not sure, so I approached Srila Prabhupada. It just so happened he was getting his massage at the time, and he said to me that “If you are massaging Krishna’s left leg, and you think maybe you could do better service by massaging His right leg, that’s all right, that’s also service. But Krishna may want you to do more massaging of His left leg.” And I immediately understood what Prabhupada was saying, that if I wanted to go to America and do service there, it would be service, but Krishna wanted me to do more service where I was. That answered my question, and that settled it.

Sometimes we may have to temporarily set aside the service that we want to do for the sake of the guru, and then later take it up. For example, Srila Prabhupada’s disciple, Yasomatinandan dasa from Gujarat, he was with us in Bombay in Juhu, but he wanted actually to go to Gujarat and open up ISKCON there. But Srila Prabhupada wanted him in Bombay because the Juhu project was so important to him, and he wanted Yasomatinandan Prabhu’s contribution. So he kept him in Juhu for some time, but then after a while, after some time, he did give him permission to go to Gujarat and establish ISKCON there.

There are different subtleties and complexities that we as individuals may face in our devotional service, but the overriding principle is everyone should be friendly for the service of the Lord. Everyone should appreciate the service of others and not be proud of one’s own service. All right, thank you very much. Now we can open the floor or the screen for comments and questions.

Sadbhuja Caitanya dasa: Thank you Maharaja. Kalindi Mataji, want to go ahead?

Kalindi dasi: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Please accept our humble obeisances.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. Nice to see you. Nice to see all of you.

Kalindi dasi: I have a question. Pleasing a devotee is the only way to progress in spiritual life, but sometimes it’s difficult to understand what actually the devotee wants. How can I understand what he or she wants so that I can satisfy? What is the way, should I go ask? Or sometimes, if the devotee’s upset, then indirectly you can serve, indirectly you can wash his plate, or what he don’t know, indirectly some service you do, or best to touch the feet and take the dust. But for Prabhuji, I cannot touch their feet. Mataji cannot touch Prabhu, so what we do for them, for Prabhus? Because devotee’s satisfaction is very important to please Krishna, to everybody

Giriraj Swami: Devotees—what is very important to please Krishna?

Kalindi dasi: Devotee’s satisfaction.

Giriraj Swami: Oh yes. Oh yes.

Kalindi dasi: Sometimes devotees are easy to understand, sometimes devotee is anyway merciful. But sometimes is difficult to understand—my spiritual master said touch their lotus feet and take the dust, if you feel like you did offense. Now I’m thinking, okay, Mataji I can go ahead. But for Prabhu, what we do? What do we do with Prabhus?

Giriraj Swami: Well, you can take the dust from the floor or from the grass after they have moved their lotus feet.

Kalindi dasi: And talking about the book distribution thing, that they are transcendental competitions. Sometimes, you told this also, it’s a transcendental competition, but sometimes I have to make sure that devotee’s pleasing with something like this, because it’s something negative, it’s something negative, just better stop and chant rounds, something you do.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, I mean, there might be a little tinge of envy or jealousy, but it may not be so significant that we have to stop the effort of transcendental competition and book distribution or whatever. But if it’s serious enough, it causes significant enough disruption, then it’s better to stop that and chant together. Because Krishna won’t be pleased if we fight with each other.

Kalindi dasi: Maharaja, I always have some questions. I’m really looking, somebody sometime I get help from my husband, here. So Maharaja, you have any contact? Anything so that I can write something to you if I have any questions to clear with you.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah!

Kalindi dasi: What is your email address?

Giriraj Swami: Giriraja G-I-R-I-R-A-J-A dot Swami S-W-A-M-I at pamho P-A-M-H-O dot net.

Kalindi dasi: What is this P-A-H?

Giriraj Swami: P-A-M-H-O it means Please Accept My Humble Obeisances. PAMHO please accept my humble obeisances.

Kalindi dasi: Thank you so much.

Giriraj Swami: Okay, Hare Krishna. Any other questions or comments?

Sadbhuja Caitanya dasa: Yes Maharaja, Rukmini Mataji is there. Rukmini Mataji?

Rukminidevi dasi: Hare Krishna. Maharaja, thank you so much for the wonderful class and nice to see you. My question is—thank you for highlighting this purport. It says that basically to avoid envy by considering that everyone should be allowed to render service to the Lord to the best of his ability, and everyone should appreciate the service of others. And it’s describing Vaikuntha competition. This explains to me what my attitude should be towards others, that I should not be envious of others, and I should allow everyone to do service to the best of their ability. My question is, suppose that I’m perceiving, which may be my perception or not, I’m perceiving, whether correctly or incorrectly, that someone else is envious towards me and is not allowing me to render service to the Lord to the best of my ability or not appreciating my service. What should my attitude be in such a condition if that happens? Or if I’m perceiving that that’s what’s happening?

Giriraj Swami: Well, there are two aspects to it, the internal and the external. Internally your mood can be

tṛṇād api su-nīcena
taror iva sahiṣṇunā
amāninā māna-dena
kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ

That’s okay, they are not appreciating me. But if their attitude, or especially, their behavior is getting in the way of your service, affecting Krishna’s service, then some action should be taken. It could be that you approach the person and say “Do you have a problem with my doing this? Or do you have a problem with me?” Or you could maybe call in a third party, who has a good relationship with that person, to be sort of a mediator. Or, again, depending on what it is, how serious it is, maybe approach a temple authority, higher spiritual authority. That’s unfortunate. But you did make the qualification that you are perceiving it that way?

Rukminidevi dasi: I mean, at the moment this is hypothetical, but it has happened in the past.

Giriraj Swami: I understand that. But I think whatever the case is, if it comes up in the future, you should be pretty sure that it’s not just your perception, but it’s actually there. But if it actually is there and it’s affecting your service, it’s not just a lack of appreciation for you, but it’s actually affecting your service, and it’s affecting the service significantly, and the service is important, I think you should pursue it. Again, either approach them directly if you think you could do it that way, or call in a third party, whoever has a relationship with the person or an authority.

I mean once—anyway, that was different because we were—I mean, but still, I’ll tell it because it was how Srila Prabhupada dealt with the situation. I was in Calcutta at the time before I went to Juhu, and I felt that a devotee was sort of keeping me down. I don’t know if that’s the right way to put it, but somehow I couldn’t realize my full potential in the circumstances. Srila Prabhupada wrote back “Too many cooks spoil the broth,” so he sent that devotee from Calcutta to Delhi. But later that devotee was sort of upset with Prabhupada for apparently taking my side, and Prabhupada showed him my letter and explained, “This was the situation, this is how Giriraj was feeling.”

That last part was maybe not necessary to tell, but the idea, “Too many cooks spoil the broth” and maybe someone has to go into it—could be a different geographical area or just a different area of service, so there is not too much overlapping or conflicting.

Rukminidevi dasi: Thank you very much, Maharaja.

Sadbhuja Caitanya dasa: Lalita Mataji, please go ahead.

Lalitadevi dasi: Hare Krishna, Guru Maharaja. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to you. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Giriraj Swami: Can we see you?

Lalitadevi dasi: Oh, I’m not able to make it work, Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Okay.

Lalitadevi dasi: I have two questions, but you may choose to answer one, if you so desire. From the purport you read that we may not have the concept of friends and enemies. At the same time, in your other classes, you have repeatedly quoted that even a neophyte is expected to act on the level of madhyam, and you quote prema-maitrī-kṛpopekṣā, so could you please clarify that? And then, if you want, I’ll ask the second question.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, I mean, a madhyam bhakta, he distinguishes between the Lord, the devotees, the innocent, and the envious. Prema, he gives his love to the Supreme Personality of Godhead; maitrī, makes friendship with devotees; kṛpā, he shows mercy to the innocent by preaching Krishna consciousness; and upekṣāḥ, he neglects the envious. So I don’t see how there is any contradiction between that and what I said or what Srila Prabhupada wrote in the purport.

Lalitadevi dasi: We are not supposed to have the mentality of friends and enemies, and then we are supposed to be cultivating friendship with like-minded devotees, which is sometimes emphasized.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, that’s maitrī, make friends with devotees and upekṣāḥ, as Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says, that neglect is the best medicine for an envious person. Because if you try to preach to an envious person, they may become more inimical, so he says that neglect is the proper treatment for them. But he also says that, as a matter of sad-ācāra or good behavior, you can pray for them. They may be envious and consequently you should not preach to them. But still, you can pray for them.

Lalitadevi dasi: Thank you. May I ask the second question?

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Lalitadevi dasi: In your example where you quoted Prabhupada that Krishna may want one leg massaged over the other one. In neophyte condition, a person may be too attached to their own idea of service, and if I may add, unsurrendered to Krishna’s desires, to the extent that Krishna or guru may not reveal what they want, so some clarity and elaboration on that.

Giriraj Swami: Well, what’s unclear?

Lalitadevi dasi: That just by doing that generic service of massaging any part of Krishna, even if Krishna does not want that, would one come to a point of doing Krishna’s desire?

Giriraj Swami: No, what Srila Prabhupada said was that you might be massaging Krishna’s left leg, and then you may want to massage His right leg, so that’s also service. But Krishna might want you to massage more on His left leg. It’s all service, Krishna would be pleased with all of it, but He might be more pleased with one service than with another service. That would ordinarily be told to us by our authorities, our mentors. But if you are not surrendered and you don’t want to do that, then do what you want for Krishna. No one can force you to surrender. I mean, if you associate with surrendered devotees, then that’s a good process because you might pick up their mood of surrender by their association. But if someone asks you to do some service, someone who is representing Krishna in the system of authority, but you don’t want to do that service, you want to do another service, well, that’s your choice.

I mean, if you are not surrendered, who can force you to be surrendered? I’ll tell one interesting story that I just heard, I think it was last night or the night—Srila Prabhupada’s disciple Nrsimhananda came to the ashram in Carpinteria, and we did kirtan together for His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami. I had heard the story but I wanted more elaboration, so I asked him how he got the name Nrsimhananda. Basically, it came to this, that his mother wanted him to spend some time with her at her home, and she was writing a lot of letters to Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada was writing long letters back to her. It was going back and forth. And finally, Prabhupada’s secretary said to Nrsimhananda, who was not initiated then, that “This is too much of a burden on Srila Prabhupada. You should just go and spend some time with your mother.” Although he always did what his authorities told him, in this case he said, “No. I’m not. I’m not going to.”

Prabhupada’s secretary informed Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada called for David, his name was David, called for David and he said, “Your mother wants you to spend some time with her. Do you have any problem with that?” And David said, “I don’t feel my connection with you is strong enough to enable me to withstand that association at my mother’s house. If I was connected with you officially, then I would be able to do it.” So Srila Prabhupada said, “Okay. What are the four principles?” He said the four principles. “And how many rounds?” He said, “Sixteen rounds minimum.” And then Prabhupada said, “Okay, your name is Nrsimhananda dasa, and that name, Nrsimhananda will protect you even when you are with your family.” Lalitadevi dasi?

Lalitadevi dasi: Yes, Guru Maharaja?

Giriraj Swami: Is there more? Do you want to ask more?

Lalitadevi dasi: I mean, it has not been suggested by authorities, and I’m not trying to be willfully unsurrendered. But just checking my heart, if there is this conditioned behavior, which may be keeping authorities from giving more clear instructions, given my neophyte conditionings.

Giriraj Swami: Well, I don’t know about the other authorities, but I will not hold back on giving you any instruction for fear that you won’t be surrendered enough to accept it.

Lalitadevi dasi: Thank you, Guru Maharaja.

Sadbhuja Caitanya dasa: Maharaja, there is another question from Srivasa Pandita Prabhu.

Pandit Srivasa dasa: Should I go ahead?

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Pandit Srivasa dasa: Hare Krishna, dear Guru Maharaja. Please accept my loving and respectful obeisances onto the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and to yourself, and a very, very happy Father’s Day. My question, Guru Maharaja, is about the act of giving feedback, which can sometimes also be construed as constructive criticism. Does such an act of providing such feedback come under the purview of fault finding? Isn’t the very act of giving constructive criticism preceded by a necessity to find fault with a situation, process, or action, even if the intent is that it can be improved upon? And if this is indeed the case, then is there a more sattvic or acceptable way to exercise constructive criticism without resorting to fault finding? Thank you.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, I mean, in fault finding you are looking for faults for no positive constructive reason, but it’s just your nature to find faults or your desire to find faults. But if you see that something can be done in a better way and if you can express that to the concerned person, and there is the chance that the person will take it in a positive way, then you should do it because it’s for Krishna’s service. I mean, we should—of course, you could ask first, I think that would be essential, I mean, depending on the relationship. But if there is any doubt, you should ask first and say, “I think you might be able to do this better. Would you like me to tell you or are you satisfied with the way you are doing it?” If he says, “I’m satisfied with the way I’m doing it,” well, then that’s the end of it. And if he says, “No, please tell me,” then you can tell him.

Pandit Srivasa dasa: Thank you, Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Any other questions or comments?

Sadbhuja Caitanya dasa: There are four more people on the queue. I don’t know how your timing will be. Are you able to take up those things?

Giriraj Swami: I don’t know how long they’ll take, but I have another. I’m doing the Sunday program in Orlando next at eleven my time. That’s in a half hour. I could go for another ten minutes at least.

Sadbhuja Caitanya dasa: Okay, Maharaja. There is an online question from a devotee. They are asking, “How do we unlearn any of the anarthas that we struggle with?”

Giriraj Swami: Yes, that’s a very good question. There are two approaches, and they both work hand in hand. One is purifying the heart with attentive, careful chanting ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam. The other is to make a conscious effort to improve in a particular area. Once someone asked His Holiness Radhanath Swami how he became so humble, and Maharaja replied that at first he had to practice, and then eventually it became natural. Practice makes perfect. So both, the internal purification from chanting, hearing, and serving, and the conscious effort to improve in a certain area.

Sadbhuja Caitanya dasa: Okay, Maharaja, thank you very much. Manish Shete Prabhu, you want to go next?

Manish Shete: Yes. Hare Krishna Maharaja, please accept my humble obeisances. Maharaja, can you hear and see me?

Giriraj Swami: I can.

Manish Shete: Okay. Maharaja, I just wanted to know that at times there are some anarthas, which are very difficult in spite of trying very hard, the anarthas are very difficult to go, but a devotee tries a lot to work on those things. So I just wanted to understand, are these anarthas coming from our past life impressions? Obviously, they are created in this life as well, but then the impact is strong. Is it because of past life or how is it?

Giriraj Swami: Well, that sort of reminds me of the question, “How did we come into the material world?” That’s not very important, Srila Prabhupada said “You are drowning in the ocean, someone comes in a boat to save you, and you say ‘Well, first I want to know how I got here.’” Well, that’s not very important. What’s important is you get on the boat, and you get saved. How these strong anarthas came—I don’t think that’s a very important question. The real question is how to overcome them, and that’s what we’ve been discussing: the internal purification from chanting, hearing, and serving, and the conscious effort to behave better.

Manish Shete: Yes, Maharaja, thank you, thanks a lot. And wish you a happy Father’s Day.

Giriraj Swami: Thank you, you made it happier.

Sadbhuja Caitanya dasa: Naveen Krishna Prabhu, you want to go ahead, Prabhu?

Naveen Krishna dasa: Sure. Thank you, Maharaja, Giriraj Swami, very happy to see you again. Happy Father’s Day, I’ll start with that, thank you very much. My question is when you talk about Hiranyakasipu and Hiraṇyakṣa you also talked about Sukracharya, so a thought came into my mind. In Tenth Chapter Krishna is saying that “Out of all great thinkers, I am Sukracharya” from Bali Maharaja pastimes and many other things, where his thought process is not conducive for devotional service to please Krishna. How do we understand this?

Giriraj Swami: Oh. What does Krishna say in the Bhagavad-gītā exactly?

Naveen Krishna dasa: 10.37. He says “Out of all great thinkers, I’m Sukracharya.” He said, “I’m the power in man.” In that series, 10.37, He said “Out of all great thinkers, I’m Sukracharya.” I checked the purport, Prabhupada did not explain it. He said the same word and then he moved on to the next one. How do you understand?

Giriraj Swami: Well, I guess someone could be a great thinker sometimes and be a bad thinker other times. When Krishna makes that statement in the Bhagavad-gītā, He is referring to when He is a great thinker, not when He is a wrong thinker.

Naveen Krishna dasa: I think I got the spirit of it, it’s not literal. Thank youm Maharaja.

Pariksit: Happy Father’s Day, Maharaja!

Giriraj Swami: Thank you!

Naveen Krishna dasa: It’s Pariksit.

Giriraj Swami: I know Pariksit. In fact, I was going to ask about him. Such a good boy, are you a good boy? How old are you now?

Pariksit: I’m eight, Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: You are eight. How does it feel to be eight? When Krishna was seven, He lifted Govardhana Hill! That’s the difference between us and Krishna. All right, nice to see you, Pariksit Prabhu.

Sadbhuja Caitanya dasa: Hare Krishna Maharaja, thank you very much for your patience in answering all the questions. Should we stop here, Maharaja?

Giriraj Swami: Is there more?

Sadbhuja Caitanya dasa: Just one devotee raised the hand, if you want to take him.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, I have five minutes.

Sadbhuja Caitanya dasa: Prananatha Prabhu, if you want to go ahead.

Prananatha dasa: Hare Krishna, Guru Maharaja. Happy Father’s Day, Maharaja. I have two short questions. One is, if someone has offended you in the past, and I know that this person has offended you, so from my mind I can’t appreciate that person, even if I know that, okay, he is normal—he has become better. How to overcome that?

Giriraj Swami: Offended you? You mean offended yourself?

Prananatha dasa: You, Guru Maharaja, yes. Long back some incident which I don’t know much, but if I see that person, I am not happy. I am keeping grudge in my mind. So I can only ask you how I should face it. It’s the past, whatever.

Giriraj Swami: I think we should discuss this in particular, but not now. You can write to me or something. It sounds like a very specific case.

Prananatha dasa: One more question was actually I recollected long back I had heard once in your lecture that someone was pestering you long back consistently, and then I didn’t recollect how you reacted to it. It was you were doing the best, but the person was just persistently offending you, but I don’t remember how you counteracted it.

Giriraj Swami: I don’t know what you are referring to.

Prananatha dasa: In Mumbai there was one lecture, which I heard that you said, “I was trying my best, but the person was still offending me, but I still—” But I didn’t recollect the answer.

Giriraj Swami: I don’t think he was offending me.

Prananatha dasa: Okay.

Giriraj Swami: But anyway, was it—it’s a little too vague for me to respond.

Prananatha dasa: Can you answer if someone is persistently offending me and I am trying to do my best, so still the person is not able to forgive me for whatever reason. How should I react?

Giriraj Swami: Well, if you are in a position to speak to the person, you could say, “I think I’m doing my best, but if you think I could do better, you can tell me how you think I can do better, and I’ll see if I can improve.” We can always do better, usually. Although it does remind me of a joke that His Holiness Ṛtadhvaja Swami made. He said, “I only made one mistake in my whole life. Once I thought I was wrong, and I was actually right.”

Prananatha dasa: Thank you, Maharaja.

Sadbhuja Caitanya dasa: Thank you so much, Maharaja. Premvilas Prabhu, you want to take it from here?

Premvilas dasa: Sadbhuja Caitanya Prabhu, you just want me to thank everybody?

Sadbhuja Caitanya dasa: Yes Prabhu. Say thanks to Maharaja.

Premvilas dasa: Okay. Thank you everybody, thank you Maharaja, thank you for your time, happy Father’s Day, thank you everybody.